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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38985-8.txt b/38985-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c440754 --- /dev/null +++ b/38985-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15329 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lady Rotha, by Stanley J. Weyman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Lady Rotha + A Romance + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 26, 2012 [EBook #38985] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LADY ROTHA *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=Wd09AAAAYAAJ + + 2. [=n] designates an "n" with macron above; the diphthong oe is + designated by [oe] + + + + + +[Illustration: Death of Tzerclas.--p. 368] + + + + + + + MY LADY ROTHA + + + + + A Romance + + + + + BY + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + AUTHOR OF + + "A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "UNDER THE RED ROBE," + "THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF," ETC. + + + + + + NEW YORK + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + + 1894 + + + + + + + Copyright, 1894, + By STANLEY J. WEYMAN. + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + + I. Heritzburg. + + II. The Countess Rotha. + + III. The Burgomaster's Demand. + + IV. The Fire Alight. + + V. Marie Wort. + + VI. Rupert the Great. + + VII. The Pride of Youth. + + VIII. A Catastrophe. + + IX. Walnuts of Gold. + + X. The Camp in the Forest. + + XI. Stolen. + + XII. Near The Edge. + + XIII. Our Quarters. + + XIV. The Opening of a Duel. + + XV. The Duel Continued. + + XVI. The General's Banquet. + + XVII. Stalhanske's Finns. + + XVIII. A Sudden Expedition. + + XIX. In a Green Valley. + + XX. More Haste, Less Speed. + + XXI. Among the Wounded. + + XXII. Greek and Greek. + + XXIII. The Flight. + + XXIV. Missing. + + XXV. Nuremberg. + + XXVI. The Face at the Window. + + XXVII. The House in the Churchyard. + + XXVIII. Under the Tiles. + + XXIX. In the House by St. Austin's. + + XXX. The End of the Day. + + XXXI. The Trial. + + XXXII. A Poor Guerdon. + + XXXIII. Two Men. + + XXXIV. Suspense. + + XXXV. St. Bartholomew's Day. + + XXXVI. A Wingless Cupid. + + + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Death Of Tzerclas. _Frontispiece_ + + ... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in her hands and + a timid smile on her lips. + + ... with her own hands she drove the nail.... Then she turned. + + ... Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued to + stamp and scream. + + The general waited on her with the utmost attention, riding by + her bridle-rein. + + We were alone.... I whispered in her ear. + + Before I could recover myself a pair of strong arms closed round + mine and bound them to my sides. + + But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly from her + seat. + + + + + + + MY LADY ROTHA. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + HERITZBURG. + + +I never saw anything more remarkable than the change which the death +of my lady's uncle, Count Tilly, in the spring of 1632, worked at +Heritzburg. Until the day when that news reached us, we went on in our +quiet corner as if there were no war. We heard, and some of us +believed, that the Palatine Elector, a good Calvinist like ourselves, +had made himself King of Bohemia in the Emperor's teeth; and shortly +afterwards--which we were much more ready to believe--that he was +footing it among the Dutchmen. We heard that the King of Denmark had +taken up his cause, but taken little by the motion; and then that the +King of Sweden had made it his own. But these things affected us +little: they were like the pattering of the storm to a man hugging +himself by the fireside. Through all we lay snug and warm, and kept +Christmas and drank the Emperor's health. Even the great sack of +Magdeburg, which was such an event as the world, I believe, will never +see again, moved us less to fear than to pity; though the city lies +something less than fifty leagues northeast of us. The reason of this +I am going to tell you. + +Our town stands, as all men know, in a nook of the Thuringian Forest, +facing south and west towards Hesse, of which my Lady Rotha, Countess +of Heritzburg, holds it, though all the land about is Saxon, belonging +either to Coburg, or Weimar, or Altenburg, or the upper Duchy. On the +north and east the forest rises in rolling black ridges, with a grey +crag shooting up spire-like here and there; so that from this quarter +it was not wonderful that no sound of war reached us. Toward the south +and west, where is the mouth of the valley, and whither our people +point when they talk of the world, a spur of the mountain runs down on +either side to the Werra, which used to be crossed at this point by a +wooden bridge. But this bridge was swept away by floods in the winter +of 1624, and never repaired as long as the war lasted. Henceforth to +come to Heritzburg travellers had to cross in old Joachim's boat, or +if the river was very low, tuck up and take the chances. Unless they +came by forest paths over the mountains. + +Such a position favoured peace. Our friends could not easily trouble +us; our allies were under no temptation to quarter troops upon us. For +our enemies, we feared them even less. Against them we had a rampart +higher than the mountains and wider than the Werra, in the name of +Tilly. In those days the name of the great Walloon, victor in thirty +fights, was a word to conjure with from the Tyrol to the Elbe. Mothers +used it to scare their children, priests to blast their foes. His +courage, his cruelty, and his zeal for the Roman Catholic Church +combined to make him the terror of the Protestants, while his strange +personality and mis-shapen form gave rise to a thousand legends, which +men still tell by the fireside. + +I think I see him now--as I did see him thrice in his lifetime--a +meagre dwarfish man with a long face like a horse's face, and large +whiskers. He dressed always in green satin, and wore a small +high-peaked hat on his huge wrinkled forehead. A red feather drooped +from it, and reached to his waist. At first sight one took him for a +natural; for one of those strange monstrosities which princes keep to +make them sport; but a single glance from his eyes sent simple men to +their prayers, and cowed alike plain burgher and wild Croat. Few loved +him, all feared him. I have heard it said that he had no shadow, but I +can testify of my own knowledge and not merely for the honour of the +family that this was false. + +He was brother to my lady's mother, the Countess Juliana. At the time +of the match my late lord was thought to have disparaged his blood by +mating with a Flemish lady of no more than gentle family. But as Count +Tilly rose in the world first to be commander of the Bavarian armies +and later to be Generalissimo of the forces of the Empire and a knight +of the Golden Fleece, we heard less and less of this. The sneer lost +its force until we became glad, Calvinists though we were, to lie +secure under his shadow; and even felt a shamed pride in his prowess. + +When my lord died, early in the war, leaving the county of Heritzburg +to his only child, the protection we derived in this way grew more and +more valuable. We of Heritzburg, and we only, lost nothing by the war, +except a parcel of idle fellows, of whom more hereafter. Our cows came +lowing to their stalls, our corn full weight to the granary. We slept +more safely under the distaff than others under the sword; and all +because my lady had the right to wear among her sixteen quarterings +the coat of Tilly. + +Some I know, but only since his death, have cried shame on us for +accepting his protection. They profess to think that we should have +shut our gates on the Butcher of Magdeburg, and bidden him do his +worst. They say that the spirit of the old Protestants is dead within +us, and that it is no wonder the cause lies languishing and Swedes +alone fight single-eyed. But those who say these things have seldom, I +notice, corn or cows: and moreover, as I have hinted, they kept a very +still tongue while Tilly lived. + +There is our late Burgomaster, Hofman, for instance, he is given to +talking after that fashion; and, it is true, he has plenty, though not +so much since my lady fined him. But I well remember the last time +Tilly visited us. It was after the fall of Magdeburg, and there was a +shadow on his grim countenance, which men said never left it again +until the day when the cannon-shot struck him in the ford of the Lech, +and they carried him to Ingolstadt to die. As he rode under the arch +by the Red Hart people looked strangely at him--for it was difficult +to forget what he had done--as if, but for the Croats in the camp +across the river, they would have torn him from his horse. But who, I +pray you, so polite that day as Master Hofman? Who but he was first to +hold the stirrup and cry, Hail? It was 'My Lord Count' this, and 'My +Lord Count' that, until the door closed on the crooked little figure +and the great gold spurs. And then it was the same with the captain of +the escort. Faugh! I grow sick when I think of such men, and know that +they were the first to turn round and make trouble when the time came, +and the old grey wolf was dead. For my part I have always been my +lady's man since I came out of the forest to serve her. It was enough +for me that the Count was her guest and of her kin. But for flattering +him and putting myself forward to do him honour, I left that to the +Hofmans. + +However, the gloom we saw on Tilly's face proved truly to be the +shadow of coming misfortune; for three weeks after he left us, was +fought the great battle of Breitenfeld. Men say that the energy and +decision he had shown all his life forsook him there; that he +hesitated and suffered himself to be led by others; and that so it was +from the day of Magdeburg to his death. This may be true, I think, for +he had the blood of women and children on his head; or it may be that +at last he met a foeman worthy of his steel. But in either case the +news of the Swede's victory rang through North Germany like a trumpet +call. It broke with startling abruptness the spell of victory which +had hitherto--for thirteen long years--graced the Emperor's flag and +the Roman Church. In Hesse, to the west of us, where the Landgrave +William had been the first of all German Princes to throw in his lot +with the Swedes and defy the Emperor, it awoke such a shout of +jubilation and vengeance as crossed even the Werra; while from the +Saxon lands to the east of us, which this victory saved from +spoliation, and punishment, came an answering cry of thankfulness and +joy. Even in Heritzburg it stirred our blood. It roused new thoughts +and new ambitions. We were Protestants; we were of the north. Those +who had fought and won were our brethren. + +And this was right. Nor for a time did I see anything wrong or any +sign of mischief brewing; though tongues in the town wagged more +freely, as the cloud of war rolled ever southward and away from us. +But six months later the news of Count Tilly's death reached us. Then, +or it might be a fortnight afterwards--so long I think respect for my +lady's loss and the new hatchment restrained the good-for-naughts--the +trouble began. How it arose, and what shape it took, and how I came +athwart it, I am going to tell you without further preface. + +It was about the third Monday in May of that year, 1632. A broken lock +in one of the rooms at the castle had baffled the skill of our smith, +and about nightfall, thinking to take a cup of beer at the Red Hart on +my way back, I went down to Peter the locksmith's in the town. His +forge stands in the winding lane, which joins the High Street at the +Red Hart, after running half round the town inside the wall; so that +one errand was a fair excuse for the other. When I had given him his +order and come out again, I found that what with the darkness of the +lane and the blaze of his fire which had got into my eyes, I could not +see a yard before me. A little fine rain was falling with a chilly +east wind, and the town seemed dead. The pavement felt greasy under +foot, and gave out a rank smell. However, I thought of the cheery +kitchen at the Red Hart and stumbled along as fast as I could, until +turning a corner I came in sight of the lanthorn which hangs over the +entrance to the lane. + +I saw it, but short of it, something took and held my eye: a warm +stream of light, which shone across the path, and fell brightly on the +rough surface of the town-wall. It came from a small window on my +left. I had to pass close beside this window, and out of curiosity I +looked in. What I saw was so surprising that I stopped to look again. + +The room inside was low and small and bare, with an earthen floor and +no fireplace. On a ragged pallet in one corner lay an elderly man, to +whose wasted face and pallid cheeks a long white moustache, which +strayed over the coverlet, gave an air of incongruous fierceness. His +bright eyes were fixed on the door as if he listened. A child, three +or four years old, sat on the floor beside him, playing with a yellow +cat. + +It was neither of these figures, however, which held my gaze, but that +of a young girl who knelt on the floor near the head of the bed. A +little crucifix stood propped against the wall before her, and she had +a string of beads in her hands. Her face was turned from me, but I +felt that her lips moved. I had never seen a Romanist at prayer +before, and I lingered a moment, thinking in the first place that she +would have done better had she swung the shutter against the window; +and in the next, that with her dark hair hanging about her neck and +her head bent devoutly, she looked so weak and fragile that the +stoutest Protestant could not have found it in his heart to harm her. + +Suddenly a noise, which dully reached me where I stood outside the +casement, caused her to start in alarm, and turn her head. At the same +moment the cat sprang away affrighted, and the man on the bed stirred +and tried to rise. This breaking the spell, I stole quietly away and +went round the corner to the door of the inn. + +Though I had never considered the girl closely before, I knew who she +was. Some eight months earlier, while Tilly, hard pressed by the King +of Sweden, still stood at bay, keeping down Saxony with one hand, and +Hesse with the other, the man on the pallet, Stephen Wort, a sergeant +of jagers, had been wounded in a skirmish beyond the river. Why Tilly, +who was used to seeing men die round him like flies in winter, gave a +second thought to this man more than to others, I cannot say. But for +some reason, when he visited us before Breitenfeld, he brought the +wounded sergeant in his train, and when he went left him at the inn. +Some said that the man had saved his life, others that the two were +born on the same day and shared the same horoscope. More probably +Tilly knew nothing of the man, and the captain of the escort was the +active party. I imagine he had a kindness for Wort, and knowing that +outside our little valley a wounded man of Tilly's army would find as +short shrift as a hamstrung wolf, took occasion to leave him with us. + +I thought of all this as I stood fumbling about the door for the great +bell. The times were such that even inns shut their doors at night, +and I had to wait and blow on my fingers--for no wind is colder than a +May wind--until I was admitted. Inside, however, the blazing fire and +cheerful kitchen with its show of gleaming pewter, and its great +polished settles winking solemnly in the heat, made amends for all. I +forgot the wounded man and his daughter and the fog outside. There +were eight or nine men present, among them Hofman, who was then +Burgomaster, Dietz, the town minister, and Klink our host. + +They were people I met every day, and sometimes more than once a day, +and they greeted me with a silent nod. The lad who waited brought me a +cup of beer, and I said that the night was cold for the time of year. +Some one assented, but the company in general sat silent, sagely +sucking their lips, or exchanging glances which seemed to indicate a +secret understanding. + +I was not slow to see that this had to do with me and that my entrance +had cut short some jest or story. I waited patiently to learn what it +was, and presently I was enlightened. After a few minutes Klink the +host rose from his seat. First looking from one to another of his +neighbours, as if to assure himself of their sympathy, he stole +quietly across the kitchen to a door which stood in one corner. Here +he paused a moment listening, and then on a sudden struck the door a +couple of blows, which made the pewters ring again. + +'Hi! Within there!' he cried in his great voice. Are you packing? Are +you packing, wench? Because out you go to-morrow, pack or no pack! Out +you go, do you hear?' + +He stood a moment waiting for an answer, but seemed to get none; on +which he came back to his seat, and chuckling fatly to himself, looked +round on his neighbours for applause. One winked and another rubbed +his calves. The greater number eyed the fire with a sly smile. For my +part I was slow of apprehension. I did not understand but waited to +hear more. + +For five minutes we all sat silent, sucking our lips. Then Klink rose +again with a knowing look, and crossed the kitchen on tiptoe with the +same parade of caution as before. Bang!' He struck the door until it +rattled on its hinges. + +'Hi! You there!' he thundered. 'Do you hear, you jade? Are you +packing? Are you packing, I say? Because pack or no pack, to-morrow +you go! I am a man of my word.' + +He did not wait this time for an answer, but came back to us with a +self-satisfied grin on his face. He drank some beer--he was a big +ponderous man with a red face and small pig's eyes--and pointed over +his shoulders with the cup. 'Eh?' he said, raising his eye-brows. + +'Good!' a man growled who sat opposite to him. + +'Quite right!' said a second in the same tone. 'Popish baggage!' + +Hofman said nothing, but nodded, with a sly glance at me. Dietz the +Minister nodded curtly also, and looked hard at the fire. The rest +laughed. + +For my part I felt very little like laughing. When I considered that +this clumsy jest was being played at the expense of the poor girl, +whom I had seen at her prayers, and that likely enough it was being +played for the tenth time--when I reflected that these heavy fellows +were sitting at their ease by this great fire watching the logs blaze +and the ruddy light flicker up the chimney, while she sat in cold and +discomfort, fearing every sound and trembling at every whisper, I +could have found it in my heart to get up and say what I thought of +it. And my speech would have astonished them. But I remembered, in +time, that least said is soonest mended, and that after all words +break no bones, and I did no more than sniff and shrug my shoulders. + +Klink, however, chose to take offence in his stupid fashion. 'Eh?' he +said. 'You are of another mind, Master Schwartz?' + +'What is the good of talking like that,' I said, 'when you do not mean +it?' + +He puffed himself out, and after staring at me for a time, answered +slowly: 'But what if I do mean it, Master Steward? What if I do mean +it?' + +'You don't,' I said. 'The man pays his way.' + +I thought to end the matter with that. I soon found that it was not to +be shelved so easily. For a moment indeed no one answered me. We are a +slow speaking race, and love to have time to think. A minute had not +elapsed, however, before one of the men who had spoken earlier took up +the cudgels. 'Ay, he pays his way,' he said, thrusting his head +forward. 'He pays his way, master; but how? Tell me that.' + +I did not answer him. + +'Out of the peasant's pocket!' the fellow replied slowly. 'Out of the +plunder and booty of Magdeburg. With blood-money, master.' + +'I ask no more than to meet one of his kind in the fields,' the man +sitting next him, who had also spoken before, chimed in. 'With no one +looking on, master. There would be one less wolf in the world then, I +will answer for that. He pays his way? Oh, yes, he pays it here.' + +I thought a shrug of the shoulders a sufficient answer. These two +belonged to the company my lady had raised in the preceding year to +serve with the Landgrave according to her tenure. They had come back +to the town a week before this with money to spend; some people saying +that they had deserted, and some that they had returned to raise +volunteers. Either way I was not surprised to find them a little bit +above themselves; for foreign service spoils the best, and these had +never been anything but loiterers and vagrants, whom it angered me to +see on a bench cheek by jowl with the Burgomaster. I thought to treat +them with silent contempt, but I soon found that they did not stand +alone. + +The Minister was the first to come to their support. 'You forget that +these people are Papists, Master Schwartz. Rank Roman Papists,' he +said. + +'So was Tilly!' I retorted, stung to anger. 'Yet you managed to do +with him.' + +'That was different,' he answered sourly; but he winced. + +Then Hofman began on me. 'You see, Master Steward,' he said slowly, +'we are a Protestant town--we are a Protestant town. And it ill +beseems us--it ill beseems us to harbour Papists. I have thought over +that a long while. And now I think it is time to rid ourselves of +them--to abate the nuisance in fact. You see we are a Protestant town, +Master Schwartz. You forget that.' + +'Then were we not a Protestant town,' I cried, jumping up in a rage, +and forgetting all my discretion, 'when we entertained Count Tilly? +When you held his stirrup, Burgomaster? and you, Master Dietz, +uncovered to him? Were not these people Papists when they came here, +and when you received them? But I will tell you what it is,' I +continued, looking round scornfully, and giving my anger vent, for +such meanness disgusted me. 'When there was a Bavarian army across the +river, and you could get anything out of Tilly, you were ready to +oblige him, and clean his boots. You could take in Romanists then, but +now that he is dead and your side is uppermost, you grow scrupulous, +Pah! I am ashamed of you! You are only fit to bully children and +girls, and such like!' and I turned away to take up my iron-shod +staff. + +They were all very red in the face by this time, and the two soldiers +were on their feet. But the Burgomaster restrained them. 'Fine words!' +he said, puffing out his cheeks--'fine words! Dare say the girl can +hear him. But let him be, let him be--let him have his say!' + +'There is some else will have a say in the matter, Master Hofman!' I +retorted warmly, as I turned to the door, 'and that is my lady. I +would advise you to think twice before you act. That is all!' + +'Hoop-de-doo-dem-doo!' cried one in derision, and others echoed it. +But I did not stay to hear; I turned a deaf ear to the uproar, wherein +all seemed to be crying after me at once, and shrugging my shoulders I +opened the door and went out. + +The sudden change from the warm noisy kitchen to the cold night air +sobered me in a moment. As I climbed the dark slippery street which +rises to the foot of the castle steps, I began to wish that I had let +the matter be. After all, what call had I to interfere, and make bad +blood between myself and my neighbours? It was no business of mine. +The three were Romanists. Doubtless the man had robbed and hectored in +his time, and while his hand was strong; and now he suffered as others +had suffered. + +It was ten chances to one the Burgomaster would carry the matter to my +lady in some shape or other, and the minister would back him up, and I +should be reprimanded; or if the Countess saw with my eyes, and sent +them off with a flea in their ears, then we should have all the rabble +of the town who were at Klink's beck and call, going up and down +making mischief, and crying, 'No Popery!' Either way I foresaw +trouble, and wished that I had let the matter be, or better still had +kept away that night from the Red Hart. + +But then on a sudden there rose before me, as plainly as if I had +still been looking through the window, a vision of the half-lit room +looking on the lane, with the sick man on the pallet, and the slender +figure kneeling beside the bed. I saw the cat leap, saw again the +girl's frightened gesture as she turned towards the door, and I +grew almost as hot as I had been in the kitchen. 'The cowards!' I +muttered--'the cowards! But I will be beforehand with them. I will go +to my lady early and tell her all.' + +You see I had my misgivings, but I little thought what that evening +was really to bring forth, or that I had done that in the Red Hart +kitchen which would alter all my life, and all my lady's life; and +spreading still, as a little crack in ice will spread from bank to +bank, would leave scarce a man in Heritzburg unchanged, and scarce a +woman's fate untouched. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE COUNTESS ROTHA. + + +My Lady Rotha, Countess of Heritzburg in her own right, was at this +time twenty-five years old and unmarried. Her maiden state, which +seems to call for explanation, I attribute to two things. Partly to +the influence of her friend and companion Fraulein Anna Max of +Utrecht, who was reputed in the castle to know seven languages, and to +consider marriage a sacrifice; and partly to the Countess's own +disposition, which led her to set a high value on the power and +possessions that had descended to her from her father. Count Tilly's +protection, which had exempted Heritzburg from the evils of the war, +had rendered the support of a husband less necessary; and so she had +been left to follow her own will in the matter, and was now little +likely to surrender her independence unless her heart went with the +gift. + +Not that suitors were lacking, for my lady, besides her wealth, was +possessed of the handsomest figure in the world, with beautiful +features, and the most gracious and winning address ever known. I +remember as if it were yesterday Prince Albert of Rammingen, a great +match but an old man. He came in his chariot with a numerous retinue, +and stayed long, taking it very hardly that my lady was not to be won; +but after a while he went. His place was taken by Count Frederick, a +brother of the Margrave of Anspach, a young gentleman who had received +his education in France, and was full of airs and graces, going sober +to bed every night, and speaking German with a French accent. Him my +lady soon sent about his business. The next was a more famous man, +Count Thurn of Bohemia, he who began the war by throwing Slawata and +Martinitz out of window in Prague, in '19, and paid for it by fifteen +years of exile. He wore such an air of mystery, and had such tales to +tell of flight and battle and hairbreadth escapes, that he was +scarcely less an object of curiosity in the town than Tilly himself; +but he knelt in vain. And in fine so it was with them all. My lady +would have none of them, but kept her maiden state and governed +Heritzburg and saw the years go by, content to all appearance with +Fraulein Anna and her talk, which was all of Voetius and Beza and +scores of other learned men, whose names I could never remember from +one hour to another. + +It was my duty to wait upon her every day after morning service, and +receive her orders, and inform her of anything which I thought she +ought to know. At that hour she was to be found in her parlour, a +long room on the first floor of the castle, lighted by three +deeply-recessed windows and hung with old tapestry worked by her +great-grandmother in the dark days of the Emperor Charles, when the +Count of Heritzburg shared the imprisonment of the good Landgrave of +Hesse. A screen stood a little way within the door, and behind this it +was my business to wait, until I was called. + +On this morning, however, I had no patience to wait, and I made myself +so objectionable by my constant coughing that at last she cried, with +a cheerful laugh, 'What is it, Martin? Come and tell me. Has there +been a fire in the forest? But it is not the right time of year for +that.' + +'No, my lady,' I said, going forward. Then out of shyness or sheer +contradictoriness I found myself giving her the usual report of this +and that and the other, but never a word of what was in my mind. She +sat, according to her custom in summer, in the recess of the farthest +window, while Fraulein Anna occupied a stool placed before a +reading-desk. Behind the two the great window gave upon the valley. By +merely turning the head either of them could look over the red roofs +of Heritzburg to the green plain, which here was tolerably wide, and +beyond that again to the dark line of forest, which in spring and +autumn showed as blue to the eye as thick wood smoke. + +While I spoke my lady toyed with a book she had been reading, and +Fraulein Anna turned over the pages on the desk with an impatient +hand, sometimes looking at my lady and sometimes tapping with her foot +on the floor. She was plump and fair and short, dressing plainly, and +always looking into the distance; whether because she thought much and +on deep matters, or because, as the Countess's woman once told me, she +could see nothing beyond the length of her arm, I cannot say. When I +had finished my report, and paused, she looked up at my lady and said, +'Now, Rotha, are you ready?' + +'Not quite, Anna,' my lady answered, smiling. 'Martin has not done +yet.' + +'He tells in ten minutes what another would in five,' Fraulein said +crossly. 'But to finish?' + +'Yes, Martin, what is it?' my lady assented. 'We have eaten all the +pastry. The meat I am sure is yet to come.' + +I saw that there was nothing else for it, and after all it was what I +had come to do. 'Your excellency knows the Bavarian soldier and his +daughter, who have been lodging these six months past at the Red +Hart?' I said. + +'To be sure.' + +'Klink talks of turning them out,' I continued, feeling my face grow +red I scarcely knew why. + +'Is their money at an end?' the Countess asked shrewdly. She was a +great woman of business. + +'No,' I answered, 'but I dare say it is low.' + +'Then what is the matter?' my lady continued, looking at me somewhat +curiously. + +'He says that they are Papists,' I answered. 'And it is true, as your +excellency knows, but it is not for him to say it. The man will not be +safe for an hour outside the walls, nor the girl much longer. And +there is a small child besides. And they have no where else to go.' + +My lady's face grew grave while I spoke. When I stopped she rose and +stood fronting me, tapping on the reading-desk with her fingers. 'This +must not be allowed, Martin,' she said firmly. 'You were right to tell +me.' + +'Master Hofman and the Minister----' + +'Yes,' she interposed, nodding quickly. 'Go to them. They will see +Klink, and----' + +'They are just pushing him on,' I said, with a groan. + +'What!' she cried; and I remember to this day how her grey eyes +flashed and how she threw back her head in generous amazement. 'Do you +mean to say that this is being done in spite, Martin? That after +escaping all the perils of this wretched war these men are so +thankless as to turn on the first scape-goat that falls into their +hands? It is not possible!' + +'It looks like it, my lady,' I muttered, wondering whether I had not +perhaps carried the matter too far. + +'No, no,' she said, shaking her head, 'you must have made a mistake; +but go to Klink. Go to Klink and tell him from me to keep the man for +a week at least. I will be answerable for the cost, and we can +consider in the meantime what to do. My cousin the Waldgrave Rupert +visits me in a day or two, and I will consult him.' + +Still I did not like to go without giving her a hint that she might +meet with opposition, and I hesitated, considering how I might warn +her without causing needless alarm or seeming to presume. Fraulein +Anna, who had listened throughout with the greatest impatience, took +advantage of the pause to interfere. 'Come, Rotha,' she said. 'Enough +trifling. Let us go back to Voetius and our day's work.' + +'My dear,' the Countess answered somewhat coldly, 'this is my day's +work. I am trying to do it.' + +'Your work is to improve and store your mind,' Fraulein Anna retorted +with peevishness. + +'True,' my lady said quietly; 'but for a purpose.' + +'There can be no purpose higher than the acquirement of +philosophy--and, religion,' Fraulein Anna said. Her last words sounded +like an afterthought. + +My lady shook her head. 'The duty of a Princess is to govern,' she +said. + +'How can she govern unless she has prepared her mind by study and +thought?' Fraulein Anna asked triumphantly. + +'I agree within limits,' my lady answered. 'But----' + +'There is no _but!_ Nor are there any limits that I see!' the other +rejoined eagerly. 'Let me read to you out of Voetius himself. In his +maxims----' + +'Not this minute,' the Countess answered firmly. And thereby she +interrupted not Fraulein Anna alone but a calculation on which, +without any light from Voetius, I was engaged; namely, how long it +would take a man to mow an acre of ground if he spent all his time in +sharpening his scythe! Low matters of that kind however have nothing +in common with philosophy I suppose; and my lady's voice soon brought +me back to the point. 'What is it you want to say, Martin?' she asked. +'I see that you have something still on your mind.' + +'I wish your excellency to be aware that there may be a good deal of +feeling in the town on this matter,' I said. + +'You mean that I may make myself unpopular,' she answered. + +That was what I did mean--that at the least. And I bowed. + +My lady shook her head with a grave smile. 'I might give you an answer +from Voetius, Martin,' she said; 'that they who govern are created to +protect the weak against the strong. And if not, _cui bono?_ But that, +you may not understand. Shall I say then instead that I, and not +Hofman or Dietz, am Countess of Heritzburg.' + +'My lady,' I cried--and I could have knelt before her--'that is answer +enough for me!' + +'Then go,' she said, her face bright, 'and do as I told you.' + +She turned away, and I made my reverence and went out and down the +stairs and through the great court with my head high and my heart high +also. I might not understand Voetius; but I understood that my lady +was one, who in face of all and in spite of all, come Hofman or Dietz, +come peace or war, would not blench, but stand by the right! And it +did me good. He is a bad horse that will not jump when his rider's +heart is right, and a bad servant that will not follow when his master +goes before! I hummed a tune, I rattled my staff on the stones. I said +to myself it was a thousand pities so gallant a spirit should be +wasted on a woman: and then again I fancied that I could not have +served a man as I knew I could and would serve her should time and the +call ever put me to the test. + +The castle at Heritzburg, rising abruptly above the roofs of the +houses, is accessible from the town by a flight of steps cut in the +rock. On the other three sides the knob on which it stands is +separated from the wooded hills to which it belongs by a narrow +ravine, crossed in one place by a light horse-bridge made in modern +days. This forms the chief entrance to the castle, but the road which +leads to it from the town goes so far round that it is seldom used, +the flight of steps I have mentioned leading at once and more +conveniently from the end of the High Street. Half way down the High +Street on the right hand side is the Market-place, a small paved +square, shaded by tall wooden houses, and having a carved stone pump +in the middle. A hundred paces beyond this on the same side is the Red +Hart, standing just within the West Gate. + +From one end of the town to the other is scarcely a step, and I was at +the inn before the Countess's voice had ceased to sound in my ears. +The door stood open, and I went in, expecting to find the kitchen +empty or nearly so at that hour of the day. To my surprise, I found at +least a dozen people in it, with as much noise and excitement going +forward as if the yearly fair had been in progress. For a moment I was +not observed. I had time to see who were present--Klink, the two +soldiers who had put themselves forward the evening before, and half a +score of idlers. Then the landlord's eye fell on me and he passed the +word. A sudden silence followed and a dozen faces turned my way; so +that the room, which was low in the roof with wide beetle-browed +windows, seemed to lighten. + +'Just in time, Master Schwartz!' cried one fellow. 'You, can write, +and we are about a petition! Perhaps you will draw it up for us.' + +'A petition,' I said shortly, eyeing the fellow with contempt. 'What +petition?' + +'Against Papists!' he answered boldly. + +'And favourers, aiders, and abettors!' exclaimed another in the +background. + +'Master Klink, Master Klink,' I said, trying to frown down the crowd, +'you would do well to have a care. These ragamuffins----' + +'Have a care yourself, Master Jackanapes!' the same voice cried. 'This +is a town meeting.' + +'Town meeting!' I said, looking round contemptuously. 'Gaol-meeting, +you mean, and likely to be a gaol-filling. But I do not speak to you; +I leave that to the constable. For Master Klink, if he will take a +word of advice, I will speak with him alone.' + +They cried out to him not to speak to me. But Klink had still sense +enough to know that he might be going too fast, and though they hooted +and laughed at him--being for the most part people who had nothing to +lose--he came out of the house with me and crossed the street that we +might talk unheard. As civilly as I could I delivered my message; and +as exactly, for I saw that the issue might be serious. + +I was not surprised when he groaned, and in a kind of a tremor shook +his hands. 'I am not my own master, Schwartz,' he said. 'And that is +the truth.' + +'You were your own master last night,' I retorted. + +'These fellows are all for "No Popery."' + +'Ay, and who gave them the cue?' I said sharply. 'It is not the first +time that the fat burgher has raised the lean kine and been eaten by +them. Nor will it be the last. It serves you right.' + +'I am willing enough to do what my lady wishes,' he whimpered; +'but----' + +'But you are not master of your own house, do you mean?' I exclaimed. +'Then fetch the constable. That is simple. Or the Burgomaster.' + +'Hush!' he said, 'he is hotter than any one.' + +'Then,' I answered flatly, 'he had better cool, and you too. That is +all I have to say. And mark me, Klink,' I continued sternly, 'see that +no harm happens to that girl or her father. They are in your house, +and you have heard what my lady says. Let those ruffians interfere +with them and you will be held to answer for it.' + +'That is easy talking,' he muttered peevishly; 'but if I cannot help +it?' + +'You will have to help it!' I rejoined, losing my temper a little. +'You were fool enough, or I am much mistaken, to set a light to this +stack, and now you will have to smother the flame, or pay for it. That +is all, my friend. You have had fair warning. The rest is in your own +hands.' + +And with that I left him. He was a stupid man but a sly one too, and I +doubted his sincerity, or I might have taken another way with him. In +the end, doubtless, it would have been the same. + +As I turned on my heel to go, the troop round the door raised a kind +of hoot; and this pursued me as I went up the street, bringing the +blood to my cheeks and almost provoking me to return. I checked the +impulse however, and strode on as if I did not hear; and by the time I +reached the market-place the cry had ceased. Here however it began +afresh; a number of loose fellows and lads who were loafing about the +stalls crying 'No Popery!' and 'Popish Schwartz!' as I passed, in a +way which showed that the thing was premeditated and that they had +been lying in wait for me. I stopped and scowled at them, and for a +moment they ceased. But the instant my back was turned the hooting +began again--with an ugly savage note in it--and I had not got quite +clear of the place when some one flung a bundle of carrots, which hit +me sharply on the back. I swung round in a rage at that, and dashed +hot foot into the middle of the stalls in the hope of catching the +fellow. But I was too late; an old woman over whom I fell was the only +sufferer. The rascals had fled down an alley, and, contenting myself +with crying after them that they were a set of cowards, I set the old +lady on her legs, and went on my way. + +But I had my thoughts. Such an insult had not been offered to me since +I first came to the town to serve my lady, and it filled me with +indignation. It seemed, besides, not a thing to be sneezed at. I took +it for a sign of change, of bad times coming. Moreover--and this +troubled me as much as anything--I had recognised among the fellows in +the square two more of the fifty men my lady had sent to serve with +Hesse. There seemed ground for fearing that they had deserted in a +body and come back and were in hiding. If this were so, and the +Burgomaster, instead of repressing them, encouraged their excesses, +they were likely to prove a source of trouble and danger--real danger. + +I paused on the steps leading up to the castle, in two minds whether I +should not go to the Burgomaster and tell him plainly what I thought; +for I felt the responsibility. My lady had no male protector, no +higher servant than myself, and we had not a dozen capable men in the +castle. The Landgrave of Hesse, our over-lord, was away with the King +of Sweden, and we could expect no immediate support from him. In the +event of a riot in the town therefore--and I knew that, in the great +Peasants' War of a century before, our town had been rebellious +enough--we should be practically helpless. An hour and a little +ill-fortune might place my lady in the hands of her mutinous subjects; +and though the Landgrave would be certain sooner or later to chastise +them, many things might happen in the interval. + +In the end I went on up the steps, thinking that I had better leave +Hofman alone, since I could not trust him, and should only by applying +to him disclose our weakness. There was a way indeed which occurred to +me as I reached the head of the stairs, but I had not taken two steps +across the terrace, as we call that part of the court which overlooks +the town, before it was immediately driven out again. Fraulein Max was +walking up and down with a book, sunning herself. I think that she had +been watching for me, for the moment I appeared she called to me. + +I went up to her reluctantly. I was anxious, and in no mood to listen +to one of those learned disquisitions with which she would sometimes +favour us, without any thought whether we understood her or no. But +this I soon found was not what I had to fear. Her face wore a frown +and her tone was peevish; but she closed her book, keeping her place +in it with her finger. + +'Master Martin,' she said, peering at me with her shortsighted eyes, +'you are a very foolish man, I think.' + +'Fraulein!' I muttered in surprise. What did she mean? + +'A very foolish one!' she repeated. 'Why are you disturbing your lady? +Why do you not leave her to her studies and her peace instead of +distracting her mind with these stories of a man and a girl? A man and +a girl, and Papists! Piff! What are they to us? Don't you understand +that your lady has higher work and something else to do? Go you and +look after your man and girl.' + +'But my lady's subjects, Fraulein----' + +'Her subjects?' she replied, almost violently. 'Papists are no +subjects. Or to what purpose the _Cujus Regio?_ But what do you know +of government? You have heard and you repeat.' + +'But, Fraulein,' I said humbly, for her way of talking made me seem +altogether in the wrong, and a monster of indiscretion, 'if my lady +does not interfere, the man and the girl you speak of will suffer. +That is clear.' + +She snapped her fingers. + +'Piff!' she cried, screwing up her eyes still more. 'What has that to +do with us? Is there not suffering going on from one end of Germany to +the other? Do not scores die every day, every hour? Can we prevent it? +No. Then why trouble us for this one little, little matter? It is +theirs to suffer, and ours to think and read, and learn and write. We +were at peace to do all this, and then you come with your man and +girl, and the peace is gone!' + +'But, Fraulein----' + +'You do no good by saying Fraulein, Fraulein!' she replied. 'Look at +things in the light of reason. Trouble us no more. That is what you +have to do. What are this man and girl to you that you should endanger +your mistress for their sakes?' + +'They are nothing to me,' I answered. + +'Then let them go!' she replied with suppressed passion. 'And undo +your folly the best way you can, and the sooner the better! Chut! That +when the mind is set on higher things it should be distracted by such +mean and miserable objects! If they are nothing to you, why in +heaven's name obtrude them on us?' + +After that she would not hear another word, but dismissed me with a +wave of her hand as if the thing were fully settled and over; burying +herself in her book and turning away, while I went into the house with +my tail between my legs and all my doubts and misgivings increased a +hundredfold. For this which she had put into words was the very +thought, the very way out of it, which had occurred to me! I had only +to let the matter drop, I had only to leave these people to their +fate, and the danger and difficulty were at once at an end. For a time +my lady's authority might suffer perhaps; but at the proper season, +when the Landgrave was at home and could help us, we might cheaply +assert and confirm it. + +All that day I went about in doubt what I should do; and night came +without resolving my perplexities. At one moment I thought of my duty +to my lady, and the calamities in which I might involve her. At +another I pictured the girl I had seen praying by her father's +bed--pictured her alone and defenceless, hourly insulted by Klink, and +with terror and uncertainty looming each day larger before her eyes: +or, worse still, abandoned to all the dangers which awaited her, in +the event of the town refusing to give her shelter. Considering that I +had seen her once only--to notice her--it was wonderful how clearly I +remembered her. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE BURGOMASTER'S DEMAND. + + +As it turned out, the other party took the burden of decision from my +shoulders. When I came out of chapel next morning, I found Hofman on +the terrace waiting for me, and with him Master Dietz wearing his +Geneva gown and a sour face. They wished to see my lady. I said it +was early yet, and tried to hold them in talk if only that I might +learn what they would be at. But they repulsed my advances, said +that they knew her excellency always transacted her business at this +hour--which was perfectly true--and at last sent me to the parlour +whether I would or no. + +Under such circumstances I did not linger behind the screen, but +advanced at once, and interrupting Fraulein Max, who had just begun to +read aloud, while my lady worked, said that the Burgomaster desired +the honour of an interview with the Countess. + +The latter passed her needle once through the stuff, and then looked +up. 'Do you know what he wants, Martin?' she said in a quiet tone. + +I said I did not. + +She bent her head and worked for a moment in silence. Then she sighed +gently, and without looking up, nodded to me. 'Very well, I will see +him here,' she said. 'But first send Grissel and Gretchen to wait on +me. Let Franz bring two stools and place them, and bid him and Ernst +keep the door. My footstool also. And let the two Jacobs wait in the +hall.' + +I gave the orders and took on myself to place two extra lackeys in the +hall that we might not seem to be short of men. Then I went to the +Burgomaster, and attended him and Master Dietz to the parlour. + +They bowed three times according to custom as they advanced, and my +lady, taking one step forward, gave her hand to the Burgomaster to +kiss. Then she stepped back and sat down, looking with a pleasant face +at the Minister. 'I would fain apologise for troubling your +excellency,' the Mayor began slowly and heavily. 'But the times are +trying.' + +'Your presence needs no apology, Master Hofman,' my lady answered, +smiling frankly. 'It is your right to see me on behalf of the town at +all times. It would grieve me much, if you did not sometimes exercise +the privilege. And for Master Dietz, who may be able to assist us, I +am glad to see him also.' + +The Minister bowed low. The Burgomaster only puffed out his cheeks. +Doubtless he felt that courage at the Red Hart and courage in my +lady's parlour were two different things. But it was too late to +retreat, for the Minister was there to report what passed; and after a +glance at Dietz's face he proceeded. 'I am not here in a private +capacity, if it please your excellency,' he said. 'And I beg your +excellency to bear this in mind. I am here as Burgomaster, having on +my mind the peace of the town; which at present is endangered--very +greatly, endangered,' he repeated pompously. + +'I am sorry to hear that,' my lady answered. + +'Nevertheless it is so,' he replied with a kind of obstinacy. +'Endangered by the presence of certain persons in the town, whose +manners are not conformable. These persons are Papists, and the town, +your excellency remembers, is a Protestant town.' + +'Certainly I remember that,' my lady said gravely. + +'Hence of this combination, your excellency will understand, comes a +likelihood of evil,' he continued. 'On which, hearing you took an +interest in these persons, however little deserved, it seemed to be my +duty to lay the matter before you.' + +'You have done very rightly,' the Countess answered quietly. 'Do I +understand then, Master Hofman, that the Papists you complain of are +conspiring to break the peace of the town?' + +The Burgomaster gasped. He was too obtuse to see at once that my lady +was playing with him. He only wondered how he had managed to convey so +strange a notion to her mind. He hastened to set her right. 'No--oh, +no,' he said. 'There is no fear of that. There are but three of them.' + +'Are they presuming to perform their rites in public then?' my lady +rejoined. 'If so, of course it cannot be permitted. It is against the +law of the town.' + +'No,' he answered, more slowly and more reluctantly as the drift of +her questions began to dawn upon him. 'I do not know that that is so. +I have not heard that it is so. But they are Papists.' + +'Well, but with their consciences we have nothing to do!' she said +more sharply. 'I confess, I fail as yet to see, Master Hofman, how +they threaten the peace of the town.' + +The Burgomaster stared. 'I do not know that they threaten it +themselves,' he said slowly. 'But their presence stirs up the people, +if your excellency understands; and may lead, if the matter goes on, +to a riot or worse.' + +'Ha! Now I comprehend!' my lady cried in a hearty tone. 'You fear your +constables may fail to cope with the rabble?' + +He admitted that that was so. + +'And you desire such assistance as I can offer towards maintaining the +law and protecting these persons; who have of course a right to +protection?' + +Master Hofman began to see whither he had been led, and glared at the +Countess with his mouth wide open. But for the moment he could not +find a word to say. Never did I see a man look more at a loss. + +'Well, I must consider,' my lady resumed, her finger to her cheek. +'Rest assured, you shall be supported. Martin,' she continued, turning +to me, 'let word be sent to the four foresters at Gatz to come down to +the castle this evening. And send also to the charcoal-burners' camp. +How many men should there be in it?' + +'Some half-score, my lady,' I answered, adding two-thirds to the +truth. + +'Ah? And let the huntsman come down and bring a couple of feeders. +Doubtless with our own men, we shall be able to place a score or +thirty at your disposal, Master Hofman, and stout fellows. These, with +your constables and such of the peaceful burghers as you see fit to +call to your assistance, should be sufficient to quell the +disorderly.' + +I could have laughed aloud, Master Hofman looked so confounded. Never +man had an air of being more completely taken aback. By offering her +help to put down any mob, the Countess had deprived him of the plea he +had come to prefer; that he was afraid he could not answer for the +safety of the Papists, and that therefore they must withdraw or be +expelled. This he could no longer put forward, and consequently he was +driven either to adopt my lady's line, or side openly with the party +of disorder. I saw his heavy face turn a deep red, and his jaw fall, +as he grasped the situation. His wits worked slowly; and had he been +left to himself, I do not doubt that he would have allowed things to +remain as they were, and taken the part assigned to him. + +But Master Dietz, who had listened with a lengthening face, at this +moment interposed. 'Will your excellency permit me to say a few +words?' he said. + +'I think the Burgomaster has made the matter clear,' my lady answered. + +'Not in one respect,' the Minister rejoined. 'He has not informed your +excellency that in the opinion of the majority of the burghers and +inhabitants of this town the presence of these people is an offence +and an eyesore.' + +'It is legal,' my lady answered icily. 'I do not know what opinion has +to do with it.' + +'The opinion of the majority.' + +'Sir!' my lady said, speaking abruptly and with heightened colour, 'in +Heritzburg I am the majority, by your leave.' + +He frowned and set his face hard, but his eyes sank before hers. +'Nevertheless your excellency will allow,' he said in a lower tone, +'that the opinion of grave and orderly men deserves consideration?' + +'When it is on the side of law, every consideration,' the Countess +answered, her eyes sparkling. 'But when it is ranged against three +defenceless people in violation of the law, none. And more, Master +Dietz,' she continued, her voice ringing with indignation, 'it is to +check such opinion, and defend against it those who otherwise would +have no defence, that I conceive I sit here. And by my faith I will do +it!' + +She uttered the last words with so much fire and with her beautiful +face so full of feeling, that I started forward where I stood; and for +a farthing would have flung Dietz through the window. The little +Minister was of a stern and hard nature, however. The nobility of my +lady's position was lost upon him. He feared her less than he would +have feared a man under the same circumstances; and though he stood +cowed, and silenced for the moment, he presently returned to the +attack. + +'Your excellency perhaps forgets,' he said with a dry cough, 'that the +times are full of bloodshed and strife, though we at Heritzburg have +hitherto enjoyed peace. I suggest with respect therefore, is it +prudent to run the risk of bringing these evils into the town for the +sake of one or two Papists, whom it is only proposed to send +elsewhere?' + +My lady rose suddenly from her chair, and pointed with a finger, which +trembled slightly, to the great window beside her. 'Step up here!' she +said curtly. + +Master Dietz, wondering greatly, stepped on to the daïs. Thence the +red roofs of the town, some new and smart, and some stained and grey +with lichens, and all the green valley stretching away to the dark +line of wood, were visible, bathed in sunshine. The day was fine, the +air clear, the smoke from the chimneys rose straight upward. + +'Do you see?' she said. + +The Minister bowed. + +'Then take this for answer,' she replied. 'All that you see is mine to +rule. It came to me by inheritance, and I prize the possession of it, +though I am a woman, more highly than my life; for it came to me from +Heaven and my fathers. But were it a hundred times as large, Master +Dietz--were there a house for every brick that now stands there, and +an acre for every furrow, and sheep as many as birds in the air, even +then I would risk all, and double and treble all, rather than desert +those whom my law defends, be they three, or thirty, or three hundred! +Let that be your answer! And for the peace you speak of,' she +continued, turning on a sudden and confronting us, her face aglow with +anger, 'the peace, I mean, which you have hitherto enjoyed, it should +shame you to hear it mentioned! Have the Papists harried you? Have you +suffered in life or limb, or property? No. And why? Because of my +honoured uncle, a Papist! For shame!--for shame, I say! As it has been +dealt out to you, go and do to others!' + +But for the respect which held me in her presence, I could have cried +'Huzza!' to her speech; and I can tell you, it made Master Minister +look as small as a mouse. He stepped down from the daïs with his face +dark and his head trembling; and after that I never doubted that he +was at the bottom of the movement against the Worts, though the +ruffianly deserters I have mentioned supplied him with the tools, +wanting which he might not have taken up the work. He stood a moment +on the floor looking very black and grim, and with not a word to say, +but I doubted he was not beaten. What line he would have taken, +however, I cannot tell, for he had scarcely descended--my lady had not +resumed her seat--when there rose from the court below a sudden babel +of noise, the trampling of hoofs and feet on the pavement, and a +confused murmur of voices. For a moment I looked at my lady and she at +me. It struck me that that at which the Burgomaster had hinted was +come to pass: that some of the town ragamuffins had dared to invade +the castle. The same idea doubtless occurred to her, for she stepped, +though without any appearance of alarm, to the window, which commanded +a side view of the terrace. She looked out. + +I, a little to her right, saw her smile: then in a moment she turned. +'This could not be better,' she said, resuming in an instant her +ordinary manner. I think she was a little ashamed, as people of +quality are wont to be, of the feeling she had betrayed. 'I see some +one below who will advise me, and who, if I am doing wrong, as you +seem to fear, Master Burgomaster, will tell me of it. My cousin, the +Waldgrave Rupert, whom I expected to-morrow, has arrived to-day. Be +good enough to wait while I receive him, and I will then return to +you.' + +Bidding me have the two served with some refreshment, she stepped down +from the daïs, and withdrew with Fraulein Max and her women, leaving +the townsmen to discuss the new arrival with what appetite they might. + +They liked it little, I fancy. In a moment their importance was gone, +their consequence at an end. The name of the Waldgrave Rupert made +them feel how small they were, despite their boasting, beside the +youngest member of the family. The very swish of my lady's robe as she +swept through the doorway flouted them, her departure was an offence; +and this, following on the scolding they had received, produced a +soreness and irritation in their minds, which ill-prepared them, I +think, for the sequel. + +I have sometimes thought that had I remained with them, and paid them +some attentions, the end might have been different; but my duties +called me elsewhere. The house was in a ferment; I was wanted here and +there, both to give orders and to see them carried out. It was some +time before I was at liberty even to go to the hall whither my lady +had descended to receive her guest, and where I found the two standing +together on the hearth, under the great Red Hart which is the +cognizance of the family. + +I had not seen the Waldgrave Rupert--a cadet of the noble house of +Weimar and my lady's cousin once removed--since his boyhood. I found +him grown into a splendid man, as tall and almost as wide as myself; +who used to be called in the old forest days before I entered my +lady's service 'the strong man of Pippel.' As he stood on the hearth, +fair-haired and ruddy-faced, with a noble carriage and a frank boyish +smile, I had seldom looked on a handsomer youth. He fell short of my +lady's age by two years; but as I looked from one to the other, they +seemed so fitting a pair, the disparity went for nothing. He was young +and strong, full of spirit and energy and fire. Surely, I thought, the +right man has come at last! + +In this belief I was more than confirmed when he came forward and +greeted me pleasantly, vowing that he remembered me well. His voice +and laugh seemed to fill the room; the very ring of his spurs on the +stones gave assurance of power. I saw my lady look at him with an air +of affectionate pride--she had seen him more lately than I had--as if +his youth, and strength, and beauty already belonged to her. As for +his smile, it was infectious. We grew in a moment brighter, younger, +and more cheerful. The house which yesterday had seemed quiet and +lonesome--we were a small family for so great a dwelling--took on a +new air. The servants went about their tasks more quickly, the maids +laughed behind doors. The place seemed in an hour transformed, as I +have seen a valley in the mountains changed on a sudden by the rising +of the sun. + +As a fact, when I had been in his presence five minutes, the +Burgomaster and the Minister upstairs seemed as common and mean and +insignificant a pair of fellows as any in Germany. I wondered that I +could ever have feared them. The Countess had told him the story, and +he asked me one or two questions about them, his tone high, and his +head in the air. I answered him, and was for accompanying him +upstairs, when he went to see them, with my lady by his side, and his +whip slapping his great thigh boots until the staircase rang again. +But my lady had an errand and sent me on it, and so I was not present +at the end of this interview which I had myself brought about. + +But I suppose that the scolding my lady had given them was no more +than a flea-bite beside the rating the young Waldgrave inflicted! It +was notorious for a score of leagues round, and he told them so in +good round terms, that the Heritzburg land had been spared by friend +and foe for Count Tilly's sake; for his sake and his alone--a Papist. +How, then, he asked them, had they the face to do this dirty trick, +and threaten my lady besides? With much more of the same kind, and +hard words, not to say menaces; sparing neither Mayor nor Minister, so +that they went off at last like whipped dogs or thieves that have seen +the gallows. + +Afterwards something was said; but at the time no one missed them. +Except by myself, scarce a thought was given to them after they went +out of the door. The house was all agog about the new-comer; the +still-room full of work and the chimneys smoking. The young lord was +everywhere, and the maids were mad about him. I had my hands full, and +every one in the house seemed to be in the same case. No one had time +to look abroad. + +Except Fraulein Anna Max, my lady's companion. I found her about four +o'clock in the afternoon sitting alone in the hall. She had a book +before her as usual, but on my entrance she pushed it away from her, +and looked up at me, screwing up her eyes in the odd way peculiar to +her. + +'Well, Master Steward,' she said--and her voice sounded ill-natured, +'so the fire has been lit--but not by you.' + +'The fire?' I answered, utterly at a loss for the moment. + +'Ay,' she rejoined, with a bitter smile, 'the fire. Don't you hear it +burning?' + +'I hear nothing,' I said coldly. + +'Go to the terrace, and perhaps you will!' she answered. + +Her words filled me with a vague uneasiness, but I was too proud to go +then or seem to heed them. An hour or two later, however, when the sun +was half down, and the shadows of the chimneys lay far over the roofs, +and the eastern woods were aglow, I went to the wall which bounds the +terrace and looked down. The hum of the town came up to my ears as it +has come up to that wall any time these hundred years. But was I +mistaken, or did there mingle with it this evening a harsher note than +usual, a rancorous murmur, as of angry voices; and something sterner, +lower, and more menacing, the clamour of a great crowd? + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE FIRE ALIGHT. + + +I laughed at my own fears when the morning came, and showed no change +except that cheerful one, which our guest's presence had worked inside +the castle. Below, today was as yesterday. The sun shone as brightly +on the roofs, the smoke of the chimneys rose as peacefully in the air; +the swallows circling round the eaves swung this way and that as +swiftly and noiselessly as of old. The common sounds of everyday life, +the clank of the pump in the market-place as the old crones drew +water, and the cry of the wood-cutter hawking his stuff, alone broke +the stillness. I sniffed the air, and smiling at Fraulein Anna's +warning, went back into the house, where any fears which yet lingered +in my mind took instant flight at sound of the Waldgrave's voice, so +cheerful was it, so full of life and strength and confidence. + +I do not know what it was in him, but something there was which +carried us all the way he wished us to go. Did he laugh at the thought +of danger; straightway we laughed too, and this though I knew +Heritzburg and he did not. Did he speak scornfully of the burghers; +forthwith they seemed to us a petty lot. When he strode up and down +the terrace, showing us how a single gun placed here or there, or in +the corner, would in an hour reduce the town; on the instant we deemed +him a Tilly. When he dubbed Hofman and Dietz, 'Old Fat and Lean,' the +groom-boys, who could not be kept from his heels, sniggered, and had +to be whipped back to the stables. In a word, he won us all. His +youth, his gaiety, his confidence, were irresistible. + +He dared even to scold my lady, saying that she had cosseted the +townsfolk and brought this trouble on herself by pleasuring them; and +she, who seemed to us the proudest of the proud, took it meekly, +laughing in his face. It required no conjuror to perceive that he +admired her, and would fain shine in her presence. That was to be +expected. But about my mistress I was less certain, until after +breakfast nothing would suit her but an immediate excursion to the +White Maiden--the great grey spire which stands on the summit of the +Oberwald. Then I knew that she had it in her mind to make the best +figure she could; for though she talked of showing him game in that +direction, and there was a grand parade of taking dogs, all the world +knows that the other side of the valley is the better hunting-ground. +I was left to guess that the White Maiden was chosen because all the +wide Heritzburg land can be seen from its foot, and not corn and +woodland, pasture and meadow only, but the gem of all--the town +nestling babelike in the lap of the valley, with the grey towers +rising like the face of some harsh nurse above it. + +My lord jumped at the plan. Doubtless he liked the prospect of a ride +through the forest by her side. When she raised some little demur, +stepping in the way of her own proposal, as I have noticed women will, +and said something about the safety of the castle, if so many left it, +he cried out eagerly that she need not fear. + +'I will leave my people,' he said. 'Then you will feel quite sure that +the place is safe. I will answer for them that they will hold your +castle against Wallenstein himself.' + +'But how many are with you?' my lady asked curiously; a little in +mischief too, perhaps, for I think she knew. + +His handsome face reddened and he looked rather foolish for a moment. +'Well, only four, as a fact,' he said. 'But they are perfect paladins, +and as good as forty. In your defence, cousin, I would pit them +against a score of the hardiest Swedes that ever followed the King.' + +My lady laughed gaily. + +'Well, for this day, I will trust them,' she said. 'Martin, order the +grooms to saddle Pushka for me. And you, cousin, shall have the honour +of mounting me. It is an age since I have had a frolic.' + +Sometimes I doubt if my lady ever had such a frolic again. Happier +days she saw, I think, and many and many of them, I hope; but such a +day of careless sunny gaiety, spent in the May greenwood, with joy and +youth riding by her, with old servants at her heels, and all the +beauties of her inheritance spread before her in light and shadow, she +never again enjoyed. We went by forest paths, which winding round the +valley, passed through woodlands, where the horses sank fetlock-deep +in moss, and the laughing voices of the riders died away among the +distant trunks. Here were fairy rings deep-plunged in bracken, and +chalky bottoms whence springs rose bright as crystal, and dim aisles +of beeches narrowing into darkness, where last year's leaves rustled +ghostlike under foot, and the shadow of a squirrel startled the +boldest. Once, emerging on the open down where the sun lay hot and +bright, my lady gave her horse the rein, and for a mile or more we +sped across the turf, with hoofs thundering on either hand, and bits +jingling, and horses pulling, only to fall into a walk again with +flushed cheeks and brighter eyes, on the edge of the farther wood. +Thence another mile, athwart the steep hillside through dwarf oaks and +huge blackthorn trees, brought us to the foot of the Maiden, and we +drew rein and dismounted, and stood looking down on the vale of +Heritzburg, while the grooms unpacked the dinner. + +There is a niche in the great pillar, a man's height from the ground, +in which one person may conveniently sit. The young Waldgrave spied +it. + +'Up to the throne, cousin!' he cried, and he helped her to it, sitting +himself on the ledge at her feet, with his legs dangling. 'Why, there +is the Werra!' he continued. + +A large quantity of rain had fallen that spring, and the river which +commonly runs low between its banks, was plainly visible, a silver +streak crossing the distant mouth of the valley. + +'Yes,' my lady answered. 'That is the Werra, and beyond it is, I +suppose, the world.' + +'Whither I must go back this day week,' he said, between sighing and +smiling. 'Then, hey for the south and Nuremberg, the good cause and +the great King.' + +'You have seen him?' + +'Once only.' + +'And is he so great a fighter?' my lady asked curiously. + +'How can he fail to be when he and his men fight and pray +alternately,' the Waldgrave answered; 'when there is no license in the +camp, and a Swede thinks death the same as victory?' + +'Where is he now?' + +'At Munich, in Bavaria.' + +'How it would have grieved my uncle,' my lady said, with a sigh. + +'He died as he would have wished to die,' the Waldgrave answered +gently. 'He believed in his cause, as the King of Sweden believes in +his; and he died for it. What more can a man ask? But here is Franz +with all sorts of good things. And I am afraid a feast of beauty, +however perfect, does not prevent a man getting hungry.' + +'That is a very pretty compliment to Heritzburg,' my lady said, +laughing. + +'Or its chatelaine!' I heard him murmur, with a tender look. But my +lady only laughed again and called to me to come and name the hills, +and tell my lord what land went with each of the three hamlets between +which the lower valley is divided. + +Doubtless that was but one of a hundred gallant things he said to her, +and whereat she laughed, during the pleasant hour they whiled away at +the foot of the pillar, basking in the warm sunshine, and telling the +valley farm by farm. For the day was perfect, the season spring. I lay +on my side and dreamed my own dream under the trees, with the hum of +insects in my ears. No one was in a hurry to rise, or set a term to +such a time. + +Still we had plenty of daylight before us when my lady mounted and +turned her face homewards, thinking to reach the castle a little after +five. But a hare got up as we crossed the open down, and showing good +sport, as these long-legged mountain hares will, led us far out of our +way, and caused us to spend nearly an hour in the chase. Then my lady +spied a rare flower on the cliffside; and the young Waldgrave must +needs get it for her. And so it wanted little of sunset when we came +at last in sight of the bridge which spans the ravine at the back of +the castle. I saw in the distance a lad seated on the parapet, +apparently looking out for us, but I thought nothing of it. The +descent was steep and we rode down slowly, my lady and the Waldgrave +laughing and talking, and the rest of us sitting at our ease. Nor did +the least thought of ill occur to my mind until I saw that the lad had +jumped down from the wall and was running towards us waving his cap. + +My lady, too, saw him. + +'What is it, Martin?' she said, turning her head to speak to me. + +I told her I would see, and trotted forward along the side of the path +until I came within call. Then I cried sharply to the lad to know what +it was. I saw something in his face which frightened me; and being +frightened and blaming myself, I was ready to fall on the first I met. + +'The town!' he answered, panting up to my stirrup. 'There is fighting +going on, Master Martin. They are pulling down Klink's house.' + +'So, so,' I answered, for at the first sight of his face I had feared +worse. 'Have you closed the gate at the head of the steps?' + +'Yes,' he said, 'and my lord's men are guarding it.' + +'Right!' I answered. And then my lady came up, and I had to break the +news to her. Of course the young Waldgrave heard also, and I saw his +eyes sparkle with pleasure. + +'Ha! the rascals!' he cried. 'Now we will trounce them! Trust me, +cousin, we will teach these boors such a lesson as they shall long +remember. But what is it?' he continued, turning to my lady who had +not spoken. 'The Queen of Heritzburg is not afraid of her rebellious +subjects?' + +My lady's eyes flashed. 'No, I am not afraid,' she said, with +contempt. 'But Klink's house? Do you mean the Red Hart, Martin?' + +I said I did. + +She plucked her horse by the head, and stopped short under the arch of +the gateway. I think I see her now bending from her saddle with the +light on the woods behind her, and her face in shadow. 'Then those +people are in danger!' she said, her voice quivering with excitement. +'Martin, take what men you have and go down into the town. Bring them +off at all risks! See to it yourself. If harm come to them, I shall +not forgive you easily.' + +The Waldgrave sprang from his horse, and cried out that he would go. +But my lady called to him to stay with her. + +'Martin knows the streets, and you do not,' she said, sliding +unassisted to the ground. 'But he shall take your men, if you do not +object.' + +We dismounted, in a confused medley of men and horses, in the stable +court, which is small, and being surrounded by high buildings, was +almost dark. The grooms left at home had gone to the front of the +house to see the sight, and there was no one to receive us. I bade the +five men who had ridden with us get their arms, and leaving the horses +loose to be caught and cared for by the lad who had met us, I hastened +after my lady and the Waldgrave, who had already disappeared under the +arch which leads to the Terrace Court. + +To pass through this was to pass from night to day, so startling was +the change. From one end to the other the terrace was aglow with red +light. The last level beams of the sun shone straight in our eyes as +we emerged, and so blinded us, that I advanced, seeing nothing before +me but a row of dark figures leaning over the parapet. If we could not +see, however, we could hear. A hoarse murmur, unlike anything I had +heard before, came up from the town, and rising and falling in waves +of sound, now a mere whisper, and now a dull savage roar, caused the +boldest to tremble. I heard my lady cry, 'Those poor people! Those +poor people!' and saw her clench her hands in impotent anger; and that +sight, or the sound--which seemed the more weirdly menacing as the +town lay in twilight below us, and we could make out no more than a +few knots of women standing in the market-place--or it may be some +memory of the helpless girl I had seen at Klink's, so worked upon me +that I had got the gate unbarred and was standing at the head of the +steps outside before I knew that I had stirred or given an order. + +Some one thrust a half pike into my hand, and mechanically I counted +out the men--four of the Waldgrave's and five, six, seven of our own. +A strange voice--but it may have been my own--cried, 'Not by the High +Street. Through the lane by the wall!' and the next moment we were +down out of the sunlight and taking the rough steps three at a time. +The High Street reached, we swung round in a body to the right, and +plunging into Shoe Wynd, came to the locksmith's, and thence went on +by the way I had gone that other evening. + +The noise was less down in the streets. The houses intervened and +deadened it. At some of the doors women were standing, listening and +looking out with grey faces, but one and all fled in at our approach, +which seemed to be the signal, wherever we came, for barring doors and +shooting bolts; once a man took to his heels before us, and again near +the locksmith's we encountered a woman bare-headed and carrying +something in her arms. She almost ran into the midst of us, and at the +last moment only avoided us by darting up the side-alley by the forge. +Whether these people knew us for what we were, and so fled from us, or +took us for a party of the rioters, it was impossible to say. The +narrow lanes were growing dark, night was falling on the town; only +the over-hanging eaves showed clear and black against a pale sky. The +way we had to go was short, but it seemed long to me; for a dozen +times between the castle steps and Klink's house I thought of the poor +girl at her prayers, and pictured what might be happening. + +Yet we could not have been more than five minutes going from the steps +to the corner beyond the forge, whence we could see Klink's side +window. A red glare shone though it, and cleaving the dark mist which +filled the alley fell ruddily on the town wall. It seemed to say that +we were too late; and my heart sank at the sight. Nor at the sight +only, for as we turned the corner, the hoarse murmur we had heard on +the Terrace, and which even there had sounded ominous, swelled to an +angry roar, made up of cries and cursing, with bursts of reckless +cheering, and now and again a yell of pain. The street away before us, +where the lane ran into it, was full of smoky light and upturned +faces; but I took no heed of it, my business was with the window. I +cried to the men behind me and hurried on till I stood before it, and +clutching the bars--the glass was broken long ago--looked in. + +The room was full of men. For a moment I could see nothing but heads +and shoulders and grim faces, all crowded together, and all alike +distorted by the lurid light shed by a couple of torches held close to +the ceiling. Some of the men standing in such groups as the constant +jostling permitted, were talking, or rather shouting to one another. +Others were savagely forcing back their fellows who wished to enter; +while a full third were gathered with their faces all one way round +the corner where I had seen the sick man. Here the light was +strongest, and in this direction I gazed most anxiously. But the +crowded figures intercepted all view; neither there nor anywhere else +could I detect any sign of the girl or child. The men in that corner +seemed to be gazing at something low down on the floor, something I +could not see. A few were silent, more were shouting and +gesticulating. + +I stretched my hands through the bars, and grasping a man by the +shoulders, dragged him to me. 'What is it?' I cried in his ear, +heedless whether he knew me, or took me for one of the ruffians who +were everywhere battling to get into the house--at the window we had +anticipated some by a second only. 'What is it?' I repeated fiercely, +resisting all his efforts to get free. + +'Nothing!' he answered, glaring at me. 'The man is dead; cannot you +see?' + +'I can see nothing!' I retorted. 'Dead is he?' + +'Ay, dead, and a good job too!' the rascal answered, making a fresh +attempt to get away. 'Dead when we came in.' + +'And the girl?' + +'Gone, the Papist witch, on a broomstick!' he answered. 'Through the +wall or the ceiling or the keyhole, or through this window; but only +on a broomstick. The bars would skin a cat!' + +I let him go and looked at the bars. They were an inch thick, and a +very few inches apart. It seemed impossible that a child, much more a +grown woman, could pass between them. As the fellow said, there was +barely room for a cat to pass. + +Yet my mind clung to the bars. Klink might have hidden the girl, for +without doubt he had neither foreseen nor meant anything like this. +But something told me that she had gone by the window, and I turned +from it with renewed hope. + +It was time I did turn. The crowd had got wind of our presence and +resented it. All who could not get into the house to slake their +curiosity or anger, had pressed into the narrow alley where we stood, +while the air rang with cries of 'No Popery! Down with the Papists!' +When I turned I found my fellows hard put to it to keep their +position. To retreat, close pressed as we were, seemed as difficult as +to stand; but by making a resolute movement all together, we charged +to the front for a moment, and then taking advantage of the interval, +fell back as quickly as we could, facing round whenever it seemed that +our followers were coming on too boldly for safety. + +In this way, the knaves with me being stout and some of them used to +the work, we retreated in good order and without hurt as far as the +end of Shoe Wynd. Then I discovered to my dismay that a portion of the +mob had made along the High Street and were waiting for us on the +steep ascent where the wynd runs into the street. + +Hitherto no harm had been done on either side, but we now found +ourselves beset front and back, and to add to the confusion of the +scene night had set in. The narrow wynd was as dark as pitch, save +where the light of a chance torch showed crowded forms and snarling +faces, while the din and tumult were enough to daunt the boldest. + +That moment, I confess, was one of the worst I have known. I felt my +men waver; a little more and they might break and the mob deal with us +as it would. On the other hand? I knew that to plunge, exposed to +attack as we were from behind, into the mass of men who blocked the +way to the steps, would be madness. We should be surrounded and +trodden down. There were not perhaps fifty really dangerous fellows in +the town; but a mob I have noticed is a strange thing. Men who join +it, intending merely to look on, are carried away by excitement, and +soon find themselves cursing and fighting, burning and raiding with +the foremost. + +A brief pause and I gave the word to face about again. As I expected, +the gang in the alley gave way before us, and the pursued became the +pursuers. My men's blood was up now, their patience exhausted; and for +a few moments pike and staff played a merry tune. But quickly the mob +behind closed up on our heels. Stones began to be thrown, and +presently one, dropped I think from a window, struck a man beside me +and felled him to the ground. + +That was our first loss. Drunken Steve, a great gross fellow, always +in trouble, but a giant in strength, picked him up--we could not leave +the man to be murdered--and plunged on with us bearing him under his +arm. + +'Good man!' I cried between my teeth. And I swore it should save the +drunkard from many a scrape. But the next moment another was down, and +him I had to pick up myself. Then I saw that we were as good as +doomed. Against the stones we had no shield. + +The men saw it too, and cried out, beside themselves with rage. We +were as rats, set in a pit to be worried--in the dark with a hundred +foes tearing at us. And the town seemed to have gone mad--mad! Above +the screams and wicked laughter, and all the din about us, I heard the +great church bell begin to ring, and hurling its notes, now sharp, now +dull, down upon the seething streets, swell and swell the tumult until +the very sky seemed one in the league against us! + +Blind with fury--for what had we done?--we turned on the mob which +followed us and hurled it back--back almost to the High Street. But +that way was no exit for us; the crowd stood so close that they could +not even fly. Round we whirled again, wild and desperate now, and +charged down the alley towards the West Gate, thinking possibly +to win through and out by that way. We had almost reached the +locksmith's--then another man fell. He was of the Waldgrave's +following, and his comrade stooped to raise him; but only to fall over +him, wounded in his turn. + +What happened after that I only knew in part, for from that moment all +was a medley of random blows and stragglings in the dark. The crowd +seeing half of us down, and the rest entangled, took heart of grace to +finish us. I remember a man dashing a torch in my face, and the blow +blinding me. Nevertheless I staggered forward to close with him. Then +something tripped me up, something or some one struck me from behind +as I fell. I went down like an ox, and for me the fight was over. + +Drunken Steve and two of the Waldgrave's men fought across me, I am +told, for a minute or more. Then Steve fell and an odd thing happened. +The mob took fright at nothing--took fright at their own work, and +coming suddenly to their senses, poured pell-mell out of the alley +faster than they had come into it. The two strangers, knowing nothing +of the way or the town, knocked at the nearest door and were taken in, +and sheltered till morning. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + MARIE WORT. + + +There never was one of my forefathers could read, or knew so much as a +horn-book when he saw it; and therefore I, though a clerk, have a +brain pan that will stand as much as any scholar's and more than many +a simple man's. Otherwise the blow I got that night must have done me +some great mischief, instead of merely throwing me into a swoon, in +which I lay until the morning was well advanced. + +When I came to myself with an aching head and a dry mouth, I was hard +put to it for a time to think what had happened to me. The place in +which I lay was dark, with spots of red lights like flaming eyes here +and there. An odour of fire and leather and iron filled my nostrils. A +hoarse soughing as of a winded horse came and went regularly, with a +dull rumbling and creaking that seemed to shake the place. Dizzy as I +was, I rose on my elbow with an effort, and looked round. But my eyes +swam, I could see nothing which enlightened me, and with a groan I +fell back. Then I found that I was lying on a straw-bed, with bandages +round my head, and gradually the events of the night came back to me. +My mind grew clearer. Yet it still failed to tell me where I was, or +whence came the hoarse choking sound, like the sighing of some giant +of the Harz, which I heard. + +At last, while I lay wondering and fearing, a door opened and let into +the dark place a flood of ruddy light. Framed in this light a young +girl appeared, standing on the threshold. She held a tray in her hand, +and paused to close the door behind her. The bright glow which shone +round her, gave her a strange unearthly air, picking out gold in her +black locks and warming her pale cheeks; but for all that I recognised +her, and never was I more astonished. She was no other than the +daughter of the Papist Wort--the girl to rescue whom we had gone down +to the Red Hart. + +I could not restrain an exclamation of surprise, and the girl started +and stopped, peering into the corner in which I lay. + +'Master Martin,' she said in a low tone, 'was that you?' + +I had never heard her speak before, and I found, perhaps by reason of +my low state, and a softness which pain induces in the roughest, a +peculiar sweetness in her voice. I would not answer for a moment. I +made her speak again. + +'Master Martin,' she said, advancing timidly, 'are you yourself +again?' + +'I don't know,' I muttered. In very fact I was so much puzzled that +this was nearly the truth. 'If you will tell me where I am, I may be +able to say,' I added, turning my head with an effort. + +'You are in the kitchen behind the locksmith's forge,' she answered +plainly. 'He is a good man, and you are in no danger. The window is +shuttered to keep the light from your eyes.' + +'And the noise I hear is the bellows at work?' + +'Yes,' she answered, coming near. 'It is almost noon. If you will +drink this broth you will get your strength again.' + +I seized the bowl and drank greedily. When I set it down, my eyes +seemed clearer and my mind stronger. + +'You escaped?' I said. The more I grew able to think, the more +remarkable it seemed to me that the girl should be here--here in the +same house in which I lay. + +'Through the window,' she answered, in a faint voice. + +As she spoke she turned from me, and I knew that she was thinking of +her father and would fain hide her face. + +'But the bars?' I said. + +'I am very small,' she answered in the same low tone. + +I do not know why, but perhaps because of the weakness and softness I +have mentioned, I found something very pitiful in the answer. It +stirred a sudden rush of anger in my heart. I pictured this, helpless +girl chased through the streets by the howling pack of cravens we had +encountered, and for a few seconds, bruised and battered as I was, I +felt the fighting spirit again. I half rose, then turned giddy, and +sank back again. It was a minute or more before I could ask another +question. At last I murmured-- + +'You have not told me how you came here?' + +'I was coming up the alley,' she answered, shuddering, 'when at the +corner by this house I met men coming to meet me. I fled into the +passage to escape them, and finding no outlet, and seeing a light +here, I knocked. I thought that some woman might pity me and take me +in.' + +'And Peter did?' + +'Yes,' she answered simply. 'May Our Lady reward him.' + +'We were the men you met,' I said drowsily. 'I remember now. You were +carrying your brother.' + +'My brother?' + +'Yes, the child.' + +'Oh, yes,' she answered, in rather a strange fashion; but I was too +dull to do more than notice it. 'The child of course.' + +I could ask no more, for my head was already splitting with pain. I +lay back, and I suppose went off into a swoon again, sleeping all that +day and until the morning of the next was far advanced. + +Then I awoke to find the place in which I lay changed from a cave of +mystery to a low-roofed dingy room; the shutter of the window standing +half-open, admitted a ray of sunshine and a breath of pure air. A +small fire burned on the hearth, a black pot bubbled beside it. +For the room itself, a litter of old iron stood in every corner; +bunches of keys and rows of rusty locks--padlocks, fetter-locks, and +door-locks--hung on all the walls. One or two chests, worm-eaten and +rickety, but prized by their present possessor for the antiquity of +their fastenings, stood here and there; with a great open press full +of gun-locks, matchlocks, wheel-locks, spring-locks and the like. Half +a dozen arquebuses and pistols decorated the mantel-piece, giving the +room something of the air of an armoury. + +In the midst of all this litter sat old Peter himself, working away, +with a pair of horn glasses on his forehead, at a small lock; which +seemed to be giving him a vast amount of trouble. A dozen times at +least I watched him fit a number of tiny parts together, only to +scatter them again in his leather apron, and begin to pare one or +other of them with a little file. At length he laid the work down, as +if he were tired, and looking up found my eyes fixed upon him. + +He nodded cheerfully. 'Good,' he said. 'Now you look yourself, Martin. +No more need of febrifuges. Another night's sleep, and you may go +abroad.' + +'What day is it?' I said, striving to collect my thoughts. + +'Friday,' he answered, looking at me with his shrewd, pleasant eyes. +He was an old man, over sixty, a widower with two young children, and +clever at his trade. I never knew a better man. 'Wednesday night you +came here,' he continued, showing in his countenance the pleasure it +gave him to see me recovering. + +'I must go to the castle,' I exclaimed, rising abruptly and sitting +up. 'Do you hear? I must go.' + +'I do not see the necessity,' he answered, looking at me coolly, and +without budging an inch. + +'My lady will need me.' + +'Not at all,' he answered, in the same quiet tone. 'You may make your +mind easy about that. The Countess is safe and well. She is in the +castle, and the gates are shut.' + +'But she has not----' Then I stopped. I was going to say too much. + +'She has not half a dozen men with her, you would say,' he replied. +'Well, no. But one is a man, it seems. The young lord has turned a +couple of cannon on the town, and all our valiant scoundrels are +shaking in their shoes.' + +'A couple of cannon! But there are no cannon in the castle!' + +'You are mistaken,' Peter answered drily. He had a very dry way with +him at times. 'I have seen the muzzles of them, myself, and you can +see them, if you please, from the attic window. One is trained on the +market-place, and one to fire down the High Street. To-morrow morning +our Burgomaster and the Minister are to go up and make their peace. +And I can tell you some of our brisk boys feel the rope already round +their necks.' + +'Is this true?' I said, hardly able to believe the tale. + +'As true as you please,' he answered. 'If you will take my advice you +will lie quietly here until to-morrow morning, and then go up to the +castle. No one will molest you. The townsfolk will be only too glad to +find you alive, and that they have so much the less to pay for. I +should not wonder if you saved half a dozen necks,' Peter added +regretfully. 'For I hear the Countess is finely mad about you.' + +At this mention of my lady's regard my eyes filled so that I had much +ado to hide my feelings. Affecting to find the light too strong I +turned my back on Peter, and then for the first time became aware that +I had a companion in misfortune. On a heap of straw behind me lay +another man, so bandaged about the head that I could see nothing of +his features. + +'Hallo!' I exclaimed, raising myself that I might have a better view +of him. 'Who is this?' + +'Your man Steve,' Peter said briefly. 'But for him and another, Master +Martin, I do not think that you would be here.' + +'You do well to remind me,' I answered, feeling shame that I had not +yet thanked him, or asked how I came to be in safety. 'How was it?' + +'Well,' he said, 'it began with the girl. The doings on Wednesday +night were not much to my mind, as you may suppose, and I shut up +early and kept myself close. About seven, when the racket had not yet +risen to its height, there came a knocking at my door. For a while I +took no notice of it, but presently, as it continued, I went to +listen, and heard such a sobbing on the step as the heart of man could +not resist. So I opened and found the Papist girl there with a child. +I do not know,' Peter continued, pushing forward his greasy old cap +and rubbing his head, 'that I should have opened it if I had been sure +who it was. But as the door was open, the girl had to come in.' + +'I do not think you will repent it!' I said. + +'I don't know that I shall,' he answered thoughtfully. 'However, she +had not been long inside and the bolts shot on us, when there began a +most tremendous skirmish in the lane, which lasted off and on for half +an hour. Then followed a sudden silence. I had given the girl some +food, and told her she might sleep with the children upstairs, and we +were sitting before the fire while she cried a bit--she was all over +of a shake, you understand--when on a sudden she stood up, and +listened. + +'"What is it?" I said. + +'She did not answer for a while, but still stood listening, looking +now at me and now towards the forge in a queer eager kind of way. I +told her to sit down, but she did not seem to hear, and presently she +cried, "There is some one there!" + +'"Well," said I, "they will stop there then. I don't open that door +again to-night." + +'She looked at me pitifully, but sat down for all the world as if I +had struck her. Not for long, however. In a minute she was up again, +and began to go to and fro between the kitchen and the forge door like +nothing else but a cat looking for her kittens. "Sit down, wench," I +said. But this time she took no heed, and at last the sight of her +going up and down like a dumb creature in pain was too much for me, +and I got up and undid the door. She was out in a minute, seeming not +a bit afraid for herself, and sure enough, there were you and Steve +lying one on the top of the other on the step, and so still that I +thought you gone. Heaven only knows how she heard you.' + +'Peter,' I said abruptly, 'have you any water handy?' + +'To be sure,' he replied, starting up. 'Are you thirsty?' + +I nodded, and he went to get it, blaming himself for his +thoughtlessness. He need not have reproached himself, however. I was +not thirsty; but I could not bear that he should sit and look at me at +that moment. The story he had told had touched me--and I was still +weak; and I could not answer for it, I should not burst into tears +like a woman. The thought of this girl's persistence, who in +everything else was so weak, of her boldness who in her own defence +was a hare, of her strange instinct on our behalf who seemed made only +to be herself protected--the thought of these things touched me to the +heart and filled me with an odd mixture of pity and gratitude! I had +gone to save her, and she had saved me! I had gone to shield her from +harm, and heaven had led me to her door, not in strength but in +weakness. She had fled from me who came to help her; that when I +needed help, she might be at hand to give it! + +'Where is she?' I muttered, when he came back and I had drunk. + +'Who? Marie?' he asked. + +'Yes, if that is her name,' I said, drinking again. + +'She is lying down upstairs,' he answered. 'She is worn out, poor +child. Not that in one sense, Master Martin,' he continued, dropping +his voice and nodding with a mysterious air, 'she _is_ poor. Though +you might think it.' + +'How do you mean?' I said, raising my head and meeting his eyes. He +nodded. + +'It is between ourselves,' he said; 'but I am afraid there is a good +deal in what our rascals here say. I am afraid, to be plain, Master +Martin, that the father was like all his kind: plundered many an +honest citizen, and roasted many a poor farmer before his own fire. It +is the way of soldiers in that army; and God help the country they +march in, be it friend's or foe's!' + +'Well?' I said impatiently; 'but what of that now?' The mention of +these things fretted me. I wanted to hear nothing about the father. +'The man is dead,' I said. + +'Ay, he is,' Peter answered slowly and impressively. 'But the +daughter? She has got a necklace round her neck now, worth--worth I +dare say two hundred men at arms.' + +'What, ducats?' + +'Ay, ducats! Gold ducats. It is worth all that.' + +'How do you know?' I said, staring at him. 'I have never seen such a +thing on her. And I have seen the girl two or three times.' + +'Well, I will tell you,' he answered, glancing first at the window and +then at Steve to be sure that we were not overheard. 'I'll tell you. +When we had carried you into the house the other night she took off +her kerchief, to tear a piece from it to bind up your head. That +uncovered the necklace. She was quick to cover it up, when she +remembered herself, but not quick enough.' + +'Is it of gold?' I asked. + +He nodded. 'Fifteen or sixteen links I should say, and each as big as +a small walnut. Carved and shaped like a walnut too.' + +'It may be silver-gilt.' + +He laughed. 'I am a smith, though only a locksmith,' he said. 'Trust +me for knowing gold. I doubt it came from Magdeburg; I doubt it did. +Magdeburg, or Halle, which my Lord Tilly ravaged about that time. And +if so there is blood upon it. It will bring the girl no luck, depend +upon it.' + +'If we talk about it, I'll be sworn it will not!' I answered savagely. +'There are plenty here who would twist her neck for so much as a link +of it.' + +'You are right, Master Martin,' he answered meekly. 'Perhaps I should +not have mentioned it; but I know that you are safe. And after all the +girl has done nothing.' + +That was true, but it did not content me. I wished he had not seen +what he had, or that he had not told me the tale. A minute before I +had been able to think of the girl with pure satisfaction; to picture +with a pleasant warmth about my heart her gentleness, her courage, her +dark mild beauty that belonged as much to childhood as womanhood, the +thought for others that made her flight a perpetual saving. But this +spoiled all. The mere possession of this necklace, much more the use +of it, seemed to sully her in my eyes, to taint her freshness, to +steal the perfume from her youth. + + +[Illustration: ... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in +her hands and a timid smile on her lips....] + + +For I am peasant born, of those on whom the free-companions have +battened from the beginning; and spoil won in such a way seemed to me +to be accursed. Whether I would or no, horrid tales of the storming of +Magdeburg came into my mind: tales of streets awash with blood, of +churches blocked with slain, of women lying dead with living babes in +their arms. And I shuddered. I felt the necklace a blot on all. I +shrank from one, who, with the face of a saint, wore under her +kerchief gold dyed in such a fashion! + +That was while I lay alone, tossing from side to side, and troubling +myself unreasonably about the matter; since the girl was nothing to +me, and a Papist. But when she came presently to me with a bowl of +broth in her hands and a timid smile on her lips--a smile which gave +the lie to the sadness of her eyes and the red rims that surrounded +them--I forgot all, necklace and creed. I took the bowl silently, as +she gave it. I gave it back with only one 'Thank you,' which sounded +hoarse and rustic in my ears; but I suppose my eyes were more +eloquent, for she blushed and trembled. And in the evening she did not +come. Instead one of the children brought my supper, and sitting down +on the straw beside me, twittered of Marie and 'Go' and other things. + +'Who is Go?' I said. + +'Go is Marie's brother,' the child answered, open-eyed at my +ignorance. 'You not know Go?' + +'It is a strange name,' I said, striving to excuse myself. + +'_He_ is a strange man,' the little one retorted, pointing to Steve. +'He does not speak. Now you speak. Marie says--' + +'What does Marie say?' I asked. + +'Marie says you saved his life.' + +'Well, you can tell her it was the other way,' I exclaimed roughly. + +Twice that night when I awoke I heard a light footstep, and turned to +see the girl, moving to and fro among the rusty locks and ancient +chests in attendance on Steve. He mended but slowly. She did not come +near me at these times, and after a glance I pretended to fall asleep +that I might listen unnoticed to her movements, and she be more free +to do her will. But whenever I heard her and opened my eyes to see her +slender figure moving in that dingy place, I felt the warmth about my +heart again. I forgot the gold necklace; I thought no more of the +rosary, only of the girl. For what is there which so well becomes a +woman as tending the sick; an office which in a lover's eyes should +set off his mistress beyond velvet and Flanders lace. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + RUPERT THE GREAT. + + +I have known a man very strong and very confident, whom the muzzle of +a loaded pistol, set fairly against his head, has reduced to reason +marvellously. So it fared with Heritzburg on this occasion. My lady's +cannon, which I went up to the roof at daybreak to see--and did see, +to my great astonishment, trained one on the Market Square, and one +down the High Street--formed the pistol, under the cooling influence +of which the town had so far come to its senses, that the game was now +in my lady's hands. Peter assured me that the place was in a panic, +that the Countess could hardly ask any amends that would not be made, +and that as a preliminary the Burgomaster and Minister were to go to +the castle before noon to sue for pardon. He suggested that I and the +girl should accompany them. + +'But does Hofman know that we are here?' I asked. + +'Since yesterday morning,' the locksmith answered, with a grin. 'And +no one more pleased to hear it! If he had not you to present as a +peace-offering, I doubt he would have fled the town before he +would have gone up. As it is, they had fine work with him at the +town-council yesterday.' + +'He is in a panic? Serve him right!' I said. + +'I am told that his cheeks shake like jelly,' Peter answered. + +'Two of the Waldgrave's men are dead, you know, and some say that the +Countess will hang him out of hand. But you will go up with him?' + +'Yes,' I said. 'I see no objection.' + +Some one else objected, however. When the plan was broached to the +girl, she looked troubled. For a moment she did not speak, but stood +before us silent and confused. Then she pointed to Steve. + +'When is he going, if you please?' she asked, in a troubled voice. + +'He must go in a litter by the road,' I answered. 'Peter here will see +to it this morning.' + +'Could I not go with him?' she said. + +I looked at Peter, and he at me. He nodded. + +'I see no reason why you should not, if you prefer it,' I said. +'Either way you will be safe.' + +'I should prefer it,' she muttered, in a low tone. And then she went +out to get something for Steve, and we saw her no more. + +'Drunken Steve is in luck,' Peter said, looking after her with a +smile. 'She is wonderfully taken with him. She is a--she is a good +girl, Papist or no Papist,' he added thoughtfully. + +I am not sure that he would have indorsed that later in the day. At +the last moment, when I was about to leave the house to go up to the +castle my way, and Steve and his party were on the point of starting +by the West Gate and the road, something happened which gave both of +us a kind of shock, though neither said a word to the other. Marie had +brought down the little boy, a brave-eyed, fair-haired child about +three years old, and she was standing with us in the forge waiting +with the child clinging to her skirt, when on a sudden she turned to +Peter and began to thank him. A word and she broke down. + +'Pooh, child!' Peter said kindly, patting her on the shoulder. 'It was +little enough, and I am glad I did it. No thank's.' + +She answered between her sobs that it was beyond thanks, and called on +Heaven to reward him. + +'If I had anything,' she continued, looking at him timidly, 'if I had +anything I could give you to prove my gratitude, I would so gladly +give it. But I am alone, and I have nothing worth your acceptance. I +have nothing in the world, unless,' she added with an effort, 'you +would like my rosary.' + +'No,' Peter said almost roughly. I noticed that he avoided my eye. 'I +do not want it. It is not a thing I use.' + +She said she had nothing; and we knew she had that chain! Yet Heaven +knows her face as she said it was fair enough to convert a Beza! She +said she had nothing; we knew she had. Yet if ever genuine gratitude +and thankfulness seemed to shine out of wet human eyes, they shone out +of hers then. + +What I could not stomach was the ingratitude. The fraud was too gross, +too gratuitous, since she need have offered nothing. I turned away and +went out of the forge without waiting for her to recover herself. I +dreaded lest she should thank me in the same way. + +I knew Peter, and knew he could have no motive for traducing her. He +was old enough to be her grandfather, and a quiet good man. Therefore +I was sure that she had the chain, three or four links of which should +be worth his shop of old iron. + +But besides I had the evidence of my own eyes. There was a crinkle, a +crease in her kerchief, for which the presence of the necklace would +account; it was such a crease as a necklace of that size would cause. +I had marked it when she brought the child into the room in her arms. +The boy's right arm had been round her neck, and I had seen him relax +his hold of her hair and steady himself by placing his little palm on +that wrinkle, as on a sure and certain and familiar stay. So I knew +that she had the necklace, and that she had lied about it. + +But after all it was nothing to me. The girl was a Papist, a Bavarian, +the daughter of a roistering freebooting rider, versed in camp life. +If with a fair outside she proved to be at heart what every reasonable +man would expect to find her, what then? I had no need to trouble my +head. I had affairs enough of my own on my hands. + +Yet the affair did trouble me. The false innocence of the child's face +haunted and perplexed me, and would not leave me, though I tried to +think of other things and had other things to think of. I was to meet +the Burgomaster in the market-place, and go thence with him, and I had +promised myself that I would make good use of my opportunities; that I +would lose no point of the town's behaviour, that not a lowering face +should escape me, nor a quarter whence danger might arise in the +future. But the girl's eyes made havoc of all my resolutions, and I +had fairly reached the market-place before I remembered what I was +doing. + +There indeed a sight, which in a moment swept the cobwebs from my +brain, awaited me. The square was full of people, not closely packed, +but standing in loose groups, and all talking in voices so low as to +produce a dull sullen sound more striking than silence. The Mayor and +four or five Councillors occupied the steps of the market-house. +Raised a head and shoulders above the throng, and glancing at it +askance from time to time with scarcely disguised apprehension, they +wore an air of irresolution it was impossible to mistake. Hofman in +particular looked like a man with the rope already round his neck. His +face was pale, his fat cheeks hung pendulous, his eyes never rested on +anything for more than a second. They presently lit on me, and then if +farther proof of the state of his mind was needed, I found it in the +relief with which he hailed my appearance; relief, not the less +genuine because he hastened to veil it from the jealous eyes that from +every part of the square watched his proceedings. + +The crowd made way for me silently. One in every two, perhaps, greeted +me, and some who did not greet me, smiled at me fatuously. On the +other hand, I was struck by the air of gloomy expectation which +prevailed. I discerned that a very little would turn it into +desperation, and saw, or thought I saw, that cannon, or no cannon, +this was a case for delicate and skilful handling. The town was +panic-stricken, partly at the thought of what it had done, partly +at the sight of the danger which threatened it. But panic is a +double-edged weapon. It takes little to turn it into fury. + +I made for the opening into the High Street, and the Burgomaster, +coming down the steps, passed through the crowd and met me there. + +'This is a bad business, Master Martin,' he said, facing me with an +odd mixture of shamefacedness and bravado. 'We must do our best to +patch it up.' + +'You had your warning,' I answered coldly, turning with him up the +street, every window and doorway in which had its occupant. Dietz and +two or three Councillors followed us, the Minister's face looking +flushed and angry, and as spiteful as a cat's. 'Two lives have been +lost,' I continued, 'and some one must pay for them.' + +Hofman mopped his face. 'Surely,' he said, 'the three lead on our +side, Master Martin----' + +'I do not see what they have to do with it,' I answered, maintaining a +cold and uninterested air, which was torture to him. 'It is your +affair, however, not mine.' + +'But, my dear friend--Martin,' he stammered, plucking my sleeve, 'you +are not revengeful. You will not make it worse? You won't do that?' + +'Worse?' I retorted. 'It is bad enough already. And I am afraid you +will find it so.' + +He winced and looked at me askance, his eyes rolling in a fever of +apprehension. For a moment I really thought that he would turn and go +back. But the crowd was behind; he was on the horns of a dilemma, and +with a groan of misery he moved on, looking from time to time at the +terrace above us. 'Those cursed cannon,' I heard him mutter, as he +wiped his brow. + +'Ay,' I said, sharply, 'if it had not been for the cannon you would +have seen our throats cut before you would have moved. I quite +understand that. But you see it is our turn now.' + +We were on the steps and he did not answer. I looked up, expecting to +see the wall by the wicket-gate well-manned; but I was mistaken. No +row of faces looked down from it. All was silent. A single man, on +guard at the wicket, alone appeared. He bade us stand, and passed the +word to another. He in his turn disappeared and presently old Jacob, +with a half-pike on his shoulder, and a couple of men at his back, +came stiffly out to receive us with all the formality and discipline +of a garrison in time of war. He acknowledged my presence by a wink, +but saluted my companions in the coldest manner possible, proceeding +at once to march us without a word spoken to the door of the house, +where we were again bidden to stand. + +All this filled me with satisfaction. I knew what effect it would have +on Hofman, and how it would send his soul into his shoes. At the same +time my satisfaction was not unmixed. I felt a degree of strangeness +myself. The place seemed changed, the men, moving stiffly, had an +unfamiliar air. I missed the respect I had enjoyed in the house. For +the moment I was nobody; a prisoner, an alien person admitted +grudgingly, and on sufferance. + +I comforted myself with the reflection that all would be well when I +reached the presence. But I was mistaken. I saw indeed my lady's +colour come and go when I entered, and her eyes fell. But she kept +her seat, she looked no more at me than at my companions, she uttered +no greeting or word of acknowledgment. It was the Waldgrave who +spoke--the Waldgrave who acted. In a second there came over me a +bitter feeling that all was changed; that the old state of things at +Heritzburg was past, and a rule to which I was a stranger set in its +place. + +Three or four of my lady's women were grouped behind her, while Franz +and Ernst stood like statues at the farther door. Fraulein Anna sat on +a stool in the window-bay, and my lady's own presence was, as at all +times, marked by a stateliness and dignity which seemed to render it +impossible that she should pass for second in any company. But for all +that the Waldgrave, standing up straight and tall behind her, with his +comeliness, his youth, and his manhood and the red light from the coat +of arms in the stained window just touching his fair hair, did seem to +me to efface her. It was he who stood there to pardon or punish, +praise or blame, and not my lady. And I resented it. + +Not that his first words to me were not words of kindness. + +'Ha, Martin,' he cried, his face lighting up, 'I hear you fought like +an ancient Trojan, and broke as many heads as Hector. And that your +own proved too hard for them! Welcome back. In a moment I may want a +word with you; but you must wait.' + +I stood aside, obeying his gesture; and he apologised, but with a very +stern aspect, to Hofman and his companions for addressing me first. + +'The Countess Rotha, however, Master Burgomaster,' he continued, with +grim suavity, 'much as she desires to treat your office with respect, +cannot but discern between the innocent and the guilty.' + +'The guilty, my lord?' Hofman cried, in such a hurry and trepidation, +I could have laughed. 'I trust that there are none here.' + +'At any rate you represent them,' the Waldgrave retorted. + +'I, my lord?' The Mayor's hair almost stood on end at the thought. + +'Ay, you; or why are you here?' the Waldgrave answered. 'I understood +that you came to offer such amends as the town can make, and your lady +accept.' + +Poor Hofman's jaw fell at this statement of his position, and he stood +the picture of dismay and misery. The Waldgrave's peremptory manner, +which shook him out of the rut of his slow wits, and upset his +balanced periods, left him prostrate without a word to say. He +gasped and remained silent. He was one of those people whose dull +self-importance is always thrusting them into positions which they are +not intended to fill. + +'Well?' the Waldgrave said, after a pause, 'as you seem to have +nothing to say, and judgment must ultimately come from your lady, I +will proceed at once to declare it. And firstly, it is her will, +Master Burgomaster, that within forty-eight hours you present to her +on behalf of the town a humble petition and apology, acknowledging +your fault; and that the same be entered on the town records.' + +'It shall be done,' Master Hofman cried. His eagerness to assent was +laughable. + +'Secondly, that you pay a fine of a hundred gold ducats for the +benefit of the children of the men wantonly killed in the riot.' + +'It shall be done,' Master Hofman said,--but this time not so readily. + +'And lastly,' the Waldgrave continued in a very clear voice,' that you +deliver up for execution two in the marketplace, one at the foot of +the castle steps, and one at the West Gate, for a warning to all who +may be disposed to offend again--four of the principal offenders in +the late riot.' + +'My lord!' the Mayor cried, aghast. + +'My lord, if you please,' the Waldgrave answered coldly. 'But do you +consent?' + +Hofman looked blanker than ever. 'Four?' he stammered. + +'Precisely; four,' the young lord answered. + +'But who? I do not know them,' the Mayor faltered. + +The Waldgrave shook his head gently. 'That is your concern, +Burgomaster,' he said, with a smile. 'In forty-eight hours much may be +done.' + +Hofman's hair stood fairly on end. Craven as he was, the thought of +the crowd in the market-place, the thought of the reception he would +have, if he assented to such terms, gave him courage. + +'I will consult with my colleagues,' he said with a great gulp. + +'I am afraid that you will not have the opportunity,' the Waldgrave +rejoined, in a peculiarly suave tone. 'Until the four are given up to +us, we prefer to take care of you and the learned Minister. I see that +you have brought two or three friends with you; they will serve to +convey what has passed to the town. And I doubt not that within a few +hours we shall be able to release you.' + +Master Hofman fell a trembling. + +'My lord,' he cried, between tears and rage, 'my privileges!' + +'Master Mayor,' the Waldgrave answered, with a sudden snap and snarl, +which showed his strong white teeth, '_my dead servants_.' + +After that there was no more to be said. The Burgomaster shrank back +with a white face, and though Dietz, with rage burning in his sallow +cheeks, cried 'woe to him' who separated the shepherd from the sheep, +and would have added half-a-dozen like texts, old Jacob cut him short +by dropping his halberd on his toes and promptly removed him and the +quavering Burgomaster to strong quarters in the tower. Meanwhile the +other members of the party were marched nothing loth to the steps, and +despatched through the gate with the same formality which had +surprised us on our arrival. + +Then for a few moments I was happy, in spite of doubts and +forebodings; for the moment the room was cleared of servants, my lady +came down from her place, and with tears in her eyes, laid her hand on +my rough shoulder, and thanked me, saying such things to me, and so +sweetly, that though many a silken fool has laughed at me, as a clown +knowing no knee service, I knelt there and then before her, and rose +tenfold more her servant than before. For of this I am sure, that if +the great knew their power, we should hear no more of peasants' wars +and Rainbow banners. A smile buys for them what gold will not for +another. A word from their lips stands guerdon for a life, and a look +for the service of the heart. + +However, few die of happiness, and almost before I was off my knees I +found a little bitter in the cup. + +'Well, well,' the Waldgrave said, with a comical laugh, and I saw my +lady blush, 'these are fine doings. But next time you go to battle, +Martin, remember, more haste less speed. Where would you have been +now, I should like to know, without my cannon?' + +'Perhaps still in Peter's forge,' I answered bluntly. 'But that +puzzles me less, my lord,' I continued, 'than where you found your +cannon.' + +He laughed in high good humour. 'So you are bit, are you?' he said. 'I +warrant you thought we could do nothing without you. But the cannon, +where do you think we did find them? You should know your own house.' + +'I know of none here,' I answered slowly, 'except the old cracked +pieces the Landgrave Philip left.' + +'Well?' he retorted, smiling. 'And what if these be they?' + +'But they are cracked and foundered!' I cried warmly. 'You could no +more fire powder in them, my lord, than in the Countess's comfit-box!' + +'But if you do not want to burn powder?' he replied. 'If the sight of +the muzzles be enough? What then, Master Wiseacre?' + +'Why, then, my lord,' I answered, drily, after a pause of +astonishment,' I think that the game is a risky one.' + +'Chut, you are jealous!' he said, laughing. + +'And should be played very moderately.' + +'Chut,' he said again, 'you are jealous! Is he not, Rotha? He is +jealous.' + +My lady looked at me laughing. + +'I think he is a little,' she said. 'You must acknowledge, Martin,' +she continued, pleasantly, 'that the Waldgrave has managed very well?' + +I must have assented, however loth; but he saved me the trouble. He +did not want to hear my opinion. + +'Very well?' he exclaimed, with a laugh of pleasure; 'I should think I +have. Why, I have so brightened up your old serving-men that they make +quite a tolerable garrison--mount guard, relieve, give the word and +all, like so many Swedes. Oh, I can tell you a little briskness and a +few new fashions do no harm. But now,' he continued, complacently, +'since you are so clever, my friend, where is the risk?' + +'If it becomes known in the town,' I said, 'that the cannon are +dummies----' + +'It is not known,' he answered peremptorily. + +'Still, under the circumstances,' I persisted, 'I should with +submission have imposed terms less stringent. Especially I should not +have detained Master Hofman, my lord, who is a timid man, making for +peace. He has influence. Shut up here he cannot use it.' + +'But our terms will show that we are not afraid,' the Waldgrave +answered. 'And that is everything.' + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +'Chut!' he said, half in annoyance and half in good humour. 'Depend +upon it, there is nothing like putting a bold face on things. That is +my policy. But the truth is you are jealous, my friend--jealous of my +excellent generalship; but for which I verily believe you would be +decorating a gallows in the market-place at this moment. Come, fair +cousin,' he added, gleefully, turning from me and snatching up my +lady's gloves and handing them to her, 'let us out. Let us go and look +down at our conquest, and leave this green-eyed fellow to rub his +bruises.' + +My lady looked at me kindly and laughed. Still she assented, and my +chance was gone. It was my place now to hold the door with lowered +head, not to argue. And I did so. After all I had been well treated; I +had spoken boldly and been heard. + +For a time after the sound of their voices had died away on the +stairs, I stood still. The room was quiet and I felt blank and +purposeless. In the first moments of return every-day duties had an +air of dulness and staleness. I thought of one after another, but had +not yet brought myself to the point of moving, when a hand, raising +the latch of one of the inner doors, effectually roused me. I turned +and saw Fraulein Anna gliding in. She did not speak at once, but came +towards me as she had a way of coming--close up before she spoke. It +had more than once disturbed me. It did so now. + +'Well, Master Martin,' she said at last, in her mild spiteful tone, 'I +hope you are satisfied with your work; I hope my lord's service may +suit you as well as my lady's.' + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE PRIDE OF YOUTH. + + +But I am not going to relate the talk we had on that, Fraulein Anna +and I. I learned one thing, and one only, and that I can put very +shortly. I saw my face as it were in a glass, and I was not pleased +with the reflection. Listening to Fraulein Anna's biting hints and +sidelong speeches--she did not spare them--I recognized that I was +jealous; that the ascendency the young lord had gained with my lady +and in the castle did not please me; and that if I would not make a +fool of myself and step out of my place, I must take myself roundly to +task. Much might be forgiven to Fraulein Anna, who saw the quiet realm +wherein she reigned invaded, and the friend she had gained won from +her in an hour. But her case differed from mine. I was a servant, and +woe to me if I forgot my place! + +Perhaps, also, it gave me pleasure to find my uneasiness shared. At +any rate, I felt better afterwards, and a message from my lady, +bidding me rest my head and do nothing for the day, comforted me still +further. I went out, and finding the terrace quiet, and deserted by +all except the sentry at the wicket, I sat down on one of the stone +seats which overlook the town and there began to think. The sun was +behind a cloud and the air was fresh and cool, and I presently fell +asleep with my head on my arms. + +While I slept my lady and the Waldgrave came and began to walk up and +down the terrace, and gradually little bits of their talk slid into my +dreams, until I found myself listening to them between sleeping and +waking. The Waldgrave was doing most of the speaking, in the boyish, +confident tone which became him so well. Presently I heard him say-- + +'The whole art of war is changed, fair cousin. I had it from one who +knows, Bernard of Weimar. The heavy battalions, the great masses, the +slow movements, the system invented by the great Captain of Cordova +are gone. Breitenfeld was their death-blow.' + +'Yet my uncle was a great commander,' my lady said, with a little +touch of impatience in her tone. + +'Of the old school.' + +I heard her laugh. 'You speak as if you had been a soldier for a score +of years, Rupert,' she said. + +'Age is not experience,' he answered hardily. 'That is the mistake. +How old was Alexander when he conquered Egypt? Twenty-three, cousin, +and I am twenty-three. How old was the Emperor Augustus when he became +Consul of Rome? Nineteen. How old was Henry of England when he +conquered France? Twenty-seven. And Charles the Fifth, at Pavia? +Twenty-five.' + +'Sceptres are easy leading-staves,' my lady answered deftly. 'All +these were kings, or the like.' + +'Then take Don John at Lepanto. He, too, was twenty-five.' + +'A king's son,' my lady replied quickly. + +'Then I will give you one to whom you can make no objection,' he +answered in a tone of triumph: 'Gaston de Foix, the Thunderbolt of +Italy. He who conquered at Como, at Milan, at Ravenna. How old was +he when he died, leaving a name never to be forgotten in arms? +Twenty-three, fair cousin. And I am twenty-three.' + +'But then you are not Gaston de Foix,' my lady retorted, laughter +bubbling to her lips; 'nor a king's nephew.' + +'But I may be.' + +'What? A king's nephew?' the Countess answered, laughing outright. +'Pray where is the king's niece?' + +'King's niece?' he exclaimed reproachfully--and I doubt not with a +kind look at her, and a movement as if he would have paid her for her +sauciness. 'You know I want no king's niece. There is no king's niece +in the world so sweet to my taste, so fair, or so gracious as the +cousin I have been fortunate enough to serve during the last few days; +and that I will maintain against the world.' + +'So here is my glove!' my lady answered gaily, finishing the speech +for him. 'Very prettily said, Rupert. I make you a thousand curtsies. +But a truce to compliments. Tell me more.' + +He needed no second bidding; though I think that she would have +listened without displeasure to another pretty speech, and an older +man would certainly have made one. But he was full of the future and +fame--and himself. He had never had such a listener before, and he +poured forth his hopes and aspirations, as he strode up and down, so +gallant of figure and frank of face that it was impossible not to feel +with him. He was going to do this; he was going to do that. He would +make the name of Rupert of Weimar stand with that of Bernard. Never +was such a time for enterprise. Gustavus Adolphus, with Sweden and +North Germany at his back, was at Munich; Bavaria, Franconia, and the +Rhine Bishoprics were at his feet. The hereditary dominions of the +Empire, Austria, Silesia, Moravia, with Bohemia, Hungary, and the +Tyrol, must soon be his; their conquest was certain. Then would come +the division of the spoil. The House of Weimar, which had suffered +more in the Protestant cause than any other princely house of Germany, +which had resigned for its sake the Electoral throne and the rights of +primogeniture, must stand foremost for reward. + +'And which kingdom shall you choose?' my lady asked, with a twinkle in +her eye which belied her gravity. 'Bohemia or Hungary? or Bavaria? +Munich I am told is a pleasant capital.' + +'You are laughing at me!' he said, a little hurt. + +'Forgive me,' she said, changing her tone so prettily that he was +appeased on the instant. 'But, speaking soberly, are you not curing +the skin before the bear is dead? The great Wallenstein is said to be +collecting an army in Bohemia, and if the latest rumour is to be +believed, he has already driven out the Saxons and retaken Prague. The +tide of conquest seems already to be turning.' + +'We shall see,' the Waldgrave answered. + +'Very well,' my lady replied. 'But, besides, is there not a proverb +about the lion's share? Will the Lion of the North forego his?' + +'We shall make him,' the young lord answered. 'He goes as far as we +wish and no farther. Without German allies he could not maintain his +footing for a month.' + +'Germany should blush to need his help,' my lady said warmly. + +'Never mind. Better times are coming,' he answered. 'And soon, I +hope.' + +With that they moved out of hearing, crossing to the other side of the +court and beginning to walk up and down there; and I heard no more. +But I had heard enough to enable me to arrive at two or three +conclusions. For one thing, I felt jealous no longer. My lady's tone +when she spoke to the Waldgrave convinced me that whatever the future +might bring forth, she regarded him in the present with liking, and +some pride perhaps, but with no love worthy of the name. A woman, she +took pleasure in his handsome looks and gallant bearing; she was fond +of listening to his aspirations. But the former pleased her eye +without touching her heart, and the latter never for a moment carried +her away. + +I was glad to be sure of this, because I discerned something lacking +on his side also. It was 'Rotha,' 'sweet cousin,' 'fair cousin,' too +soon with him. He felt no reverence, suffered no pangs, trembled under +no misgivings, sank under no sense of unworthiness. He thought that +all was to be had for pleasant words and the asking. Heritzburg seemed +a rustic place to him, and my lady's life so dull and uneventful, my +lady herself so little of a goddess, that he deemed himself above all +risk of refusal. A little difficulty, a little doubt, the appearance +of a rival, might awaken real love. But it was not in him now. He felt +only a passing fancy, the light offspring of propinquity and youth. + +But how, it may be asked, was I so wise that, from a few sentences +heard between sleeping and waking, I could gather all this, and draw +as many inferences from a laugh as Fraulein Anna Max from a page of +crabbed Latin? The question put to me then, as I sat day-dreaming over +Heritzburg, might have posed me. I am clear enough about it now. I +could answer it if I chose. But a nod is as good as a wink to a blind +horse, and a horse with eyes needs neither one nor the other. + +Presently I saw Fraulein Anna come out and go sliding along one side +of the court to gain another door. She had a great book under her arm +and blinked like an owl in the sunshine, and would have run against my +lady if the Waldgrave had not called out good-humouredly. She shot +away at that with a show of excessive haste, and was in the act of +disappearing like a near-sighted rabbit, when my lady called to her +pleasantly to come back. + +She came slowly, hugging the great book, and with her lips pursed +tightly. I fancy she had been sitting at a window watching my lady and +her companion, and that every laugh which rose to her ears, every +merry word, nay the very sunshine in which they walked, while she sat +in the dull room with her unread book before her, wounded her. + +'What have you been doing, Anna?' my lady asked kindly. + +'I have been reading the "Praise of Folly,"' Fraulein Max answered +primly. 'I am going to my Voetius now.' + +'It is such a fine day,' my lady pleaded. + +'I never miss my Voetius,' Fraulein answered. + +The Waldgrave looked at her quizzically, with scarcely veiled +contempt. 'Voetius?' he said. 'What is that? You excite my curiosity.' + +Perhaps it was the contrast between them, between his strength and +comeliness and her weak figure and pale frowning face, that moved me; +but I know that as he said that, I felt a sudden pity for her. And +she, I think, for herself. She reddened and looked down and seemed to +go smaller. Scholarship is a fine thing; I have heard Fraulein Anna +herself say that knowledge is power. But I never yet saw a bookworm +that did not pale his fires before a soldier of fortune, nor a scholar +that did not follow the courtier and the ruffler with eyes of envy. + +Perhaps my lady felt as I did, for she came to the rescue. 'You are +too bad,' she said. 'Anna is my friend, and I will not have her +teased. As for Voetius, he is a writer of learning, and you would know +more about many things, if you could read his works, sir.' + +'Do you read them?' he asked. + +'I do!' she answered. + +'Good heavens!' he exclaimed, staring at her freely and affecting to +be astonished. 'Well, all I can say is that you do not look like it!' + +My lady fired up at that. I think she felt for her friend. 'I do not +thank you,' she said sharply. 'A truce to such compliments, if you +please. Anna,' she continued, 'have you been to see this poor girl +from the town?' + +'No,' Fraulein Max answered. + +'She has come, has she not?' + +'And gone--to the stables!' And Fraulein Anna laughed spitefully. 'She +is used to camp life, I suppose, and prefers them.' + +'But that is not right,' my lady said, with a look of annoyance. +She turned and called to me. 'Martin,' she said, 'come here. This +girl--the papist from the town--why has she not been brought to the +women's quarters in the house?' + +I answered that I did not know; that she should have been. + +'We will go and see,' my lady answered, nodding her head in a way that +premised trouble should any one be found in fault. And without a +moment's hesitation she led the way to the inner court, the Waldgrave +walking beside her, and Fraulein Anna following a pace or two behind. +The latter still hugged her book, and her face wore a look of secret +anticipation. I took on myself to go too, and followed at a respectful +distance, my mind in a ferment. + +The stable court at Heritzburg is small. The rays of the sun even at +noon scarcely warm it, and a shadow seemed to fall on our party as we +entered. Two grooms, not on guard, were going about their ordinary +duties. They started on seeing my lady, who seldom entered that part +without notice; and hastened to do reverence to her. + +'Where is the girl who was brought here from the town?' she said, in a +peremptory tone. + +The men looked at one another, scared by her presence, yet not knowing +what was amiss. Then one said, 'Please your excellency, she is in the +room over the granary.' + +'She should be in the house, not here,' my lady answered harshly. +'Take me to her.' + +The man stared, and the Waldgrave, seeing his look of astonishment, +interposed, murmuring that perhaps the place was scarcely fit. + +'For me?' my lady said, cutting him short, with a high look which +reminded me of her uncle, Count Tilly. 'You forget, sir cousin, that I +am not a woman only, but mistress here. Ignorance, which may be seemly +in a woman, does not become me. Lead on, my man.' + +The fellow led the way up a flight of outside steps which gave access +to the upper granary floor; and my lady followed, rejecting the +Waldgrave's hand and gazing with an unmoved eye at the unfenced edge +on her left; for the stairs had no rail. At the top the groom opened +the door and squeezed himself aside, and my lady entered. The +Waldgrave had given place to Fraulein Anna--whom desire to see what +would happen had blinded to the risks of the stairs--and she was not +slow to follow. The young lord and I pressed in a pace behind. + +'This is not a fit place for a maiden!' I heard my lady say severely; +and then she stopped. That was before I could see inside, the sudden +pause coming as I entered. The loft was dark, the unglazed windows +being shuttered; but my eyes are good, and I knew the place, and saw +at once--what my lady had seen, I think, at a second glance only--that +the man beside whom the girl was kneeling--or had been kneeling, for +as I entered she rose to her feet with a word of alarm--was bandaged +from his chin to his crown, was helpless and maundering, talking +strange nonsense, and rolling his head restlessly from side to side. + +'Why, you are a child!' my lady said; and this time her voice was soft +and low and full of surprise. 'Who is this?' she continued, pointing +to the man; who never ceased to babble and move. + +'It is Steve, my lady,' I said. 'He was hurt below, in the town, and +the girl has been nursing him. I suppose she--I think no one told her +to go elsewhere,' I added by way of apology for her. + +'Where could she be better?' my lady said in a low voice. 'Child,' she +continued gently,' come here. Do not be afraid.' + +The girl had shrunk back at the sound of my lady's first words, or at +sight of so large a company, and had taken her stand on the farther +side of Steve, where she crouched trembling and looking at us with a +terrified face. Hearing herself summoned, she came slowly and timidly +forward, the little boy who had run to her holding her hand, and +hiding his face in her skirts. + +'I am the countess,' my lady said, looking at her closely, but with +kindness, 'and I have come to see how you fare.' + +It was a hard moment for the girl, but she did the very best thing she +could have done, and one that commended her to my lady's heart for +ever. For, bursting into tears--I doubt not the sound of a woman's +voice speaking mildly to her touched her heart--she dropped on her +knees before the countess and kissed her hand, sobbing piteous words +of thankfulness and appeal. + +'Chut! chut!' my lady said, a little tremor in her own voice. 'You are +safe now. Be comforted. You shall be protected here, whatever betide. +But you have lost your father? Yes, I remember, child. Well, it is +over now. You are quite safe. See, this gentleman shall be your +champion. And Martin there. He is a match for any two. Tell me your +name.' + +'Marie--Marie Wort.' The girl answered suppressing her tears with an +effort. + +'How old are you?' + +'Seventeen, please your excellency.' + +'And where were you born, Marie?' + +'At Munich, in Bavaria.' + +'You are a Romanist, I hear?' + +'If it please your excellency.' + +'It does not please me at all,' my lady answered promptly; but she +said it with so much mildness that Marie's eyes filled again. 'I warn +you, we shall, try to convert you--by kindness. So you are nursing +this poor fellow?' And my lady went up to Steve, and touched his hand +and spoke to him. But he did not know her, and she stepped back, +looking grave. + +'The fever is on him now,' Marie said timidly. 'He is at his worst; +but he will be better by-and-by, if your excellency pleases.' + +'He is fortunate in his nurse,' my lady answered, gazing searchingly +at the other's pale face. 'Will you stay with him, child, or would you +rather come into the house, where my women could take care of you, and +you would be more comfortable?' + +A look of distress flickered in the girl's eyes. She hesitated and +looked down, colouring painfully. I dare say that with feminine tact +she knew that my lady even now thought it scarcely proper for her to +be there--in a house where only the men about the stable lived. But +she found her answer. + +'He was hurt trying to protect me,' she murmured, in a low voice. + +My lady nodded. 'Very well,' she said; and I saw that she was not +displeased. 'You shall stay with him. I will see that you are taken +care of. Come, Rupert, I think we have seen enough.' + +She signed to us to go before her, and we all went out, and she closed +the door. At the head of the steps, when the Waldgrave offered her his +hand, she waved it away, and stood. + +'Bring me a hammer and a nail,' she cried. + +Three or four men, nearly half our garrison, had collected below, +hearing where we were. One of these ran and fetched what she called +for; while we all waited and wondered what she meant. I took the +hammer and nail from the man and went up again with them. + + +[Illustration: ... with her own hands she drove the nail.... Then she +turned ...] + + +'Give me my glove,' she said, turning abruptly to the Waldgrave. + +He had possessed himself of one in the course of the conversation I +have partly detailed; and no doubt he did not give it up very +willingly. But there was no refusing her under the circumstances. + +'Hold it against the door!' she said. + +He obeyed, and with her own hands she drove the nail through the +glove, pinning it to the middle of the door. Then she turned with a +little colour in her face. + +'That is my room!' she said, with a ring of menace in her tone. 'Let +no one presume to enter it. And have a care, men! Whatever is wanted +inside, place at the threshold and begone.' + +Then she came down, followed by the Waldgrave, and walked through the +middle of us and went back to the terrace, with Fraulein Anna at her +heels. The Waldgrave lingered a moment to look at a sick horse, and I +to give an order. When we reached the terrace court a few minutes +later, we found my lady walking up and down alone in the sunshine. + +'Why, where is the learned Anna?' the Waldgrave said. + +'She is gone to amuse herself,' my lady answered, laughing. 'Voetius +is put aside for the moment in favour of Master Dietz!' + +'No?' the young lord exclaimed, in a tone of surprise. 'That +yellow-faced atomy? She is not in love with him?' + +'No, sir, certainly not.' + +'Then what is it?' + +'Well, I think she is a little jealous,' my lady answered with a +smile. 'We have been so long colloguing with a papist, Anna thinks +some amends are due to the Church. And she is gone to make them. At +any rate, she asked me a few minutes ago if she might pay a visit to +Dietz. "For what purpose?" I said. "To discuss a point with him," she +answered. So I told her to go, if she liked, and by this time I don't +doubt that they are hard at it.' + +'Over Voetius?' + +'No, sir,' my lady answered gaily. 'Beza more probably, or Calvin. You +know little of either, I expect. I do not wonder that Anna is driven +to seek more improving company.' + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + A CATASTROPHE. + + +All that day the town remained quiet, and all day the Waldgrave and my +lady walked to and fro in the sunshine; or my lady sat working on one +of the stone seats, while he built castles in the air, which she +knocked down with a sly word or a merry glance. Fraulein Anna, always +with the big book, flitted from door to door, like an unquiet spirit. +The sentries dozed at their posts, old Jacob in his chair in the +guard-room, the cannons under their breech-clouts. If this could be +said to be a state of siege, it was the most gentle and joyous one +paladin ever shared or mistress imagined. + +But no message reached us from the town, and that disturbed me. Half a +dozen times I went to the wall and, leaning over it, listened. Each +time I came away satisfied. All seemed quiet; the market-place rather +fuller perhaps than on common days, the hum of life more steady and +persistent; but neither to any great extent. Despite this I could not +shake off a feeling of uneasiness. I remembered certain faces I had +seen in the town, grim faces lurking in corners, seen over men's +shoulders or through half-open doors; and a dog barking startled me, +the shadow of a crow flying over the court made me jump a yard. + +Night only added to my nervousness. I doubled all the guards, +stationing two men at the town-wicket and two at the stable-gate, +which leads to the bridge. And not content with these precautions, +though the Waldgrave laughed at them and me, I got out of bed three +times in the night, and went the round to assure myself that the men +were at their posts. + +When morning came without mishap, but also without bringing any +overture from the town, the Waldgrave laughed still more loudly. +But my lady looked grave. I did not dare to interfere or give +advice--having been once admitted to say my say--but I felt that it +would be a serious thing if the forty-eight hours elapsed and the town +refused to make amends. My lady felt this too, I think; and by-and-by +she held a council with the Waldgrave; and about midday my lord came +to me, and with a somewhat wry face bade me have the prisoners +conducted to the parlour. + +He sent 'me at the same time on an errand to another part of the +castle, and so I cannot say what passed. I believe my lady dealt with +the two very firmly; reiterating her judgment of the day before, and +only adding that in clemency she had thought better of imprisoning +them, and would now suffer them to go to their homes, in the hope that +they would use their influence to save the town from worse trouble. + +I met the two crossing the terrace on their way to the gate and was +struck by something peculiar in their aspect. Master Hofman was all of +a tremble with excitement and eagerness to be gone. His fat, half-moon +of a face shone with anxiety. He stuttered when he tried to give me +good day as I passed; and he seemed to have eyes only for the gate, +dragging his smaller companion along by the arm, and more than once +whispering in his ear as if to adjure him not to waste a moment. + +The little Minister, on the other hand, hung back and marched slowly, +his face wearing a look of triumph which showed very plainly--or so I +construed it--that he regarded his release in the light of a victory. +His sallow cheeks were flushed, and his eyes gleamed spitefully as he +looked from side to side. He held himself bolt upright, with a square +Bible clasped to his breast, and as he passed me he could not refrain +from a characteristic outbreak. Doubtless to bridle himself before my +lady had almost choked him. He laughed in my face. 'Dry bones!' he +cackled. 'And mouths that speak not!' + +'Speak plainly yourself, Master Dietz,' I answered, for I have never +thought ministers more than other men. 'Then perhaps I shall be able +to understand you.' + +'Sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal!' he replied, cracking his +fingers in my face and laughing triumphantly. + +He would have said more, I imagine; but at that moment the Burgomaster +fell bodily upon him, and drove him by main force through the gate +which had been opened. Outside even, he made some attempts to return +and defy us, crying out 'Whited sepulchres!' and the like. But the +steps were narrow and steep, and Hofman stood like a feather bed in +the way, and presently he desisted. The two stumbled down together and +we saw no more of them. + +The men about me laughed; but I had reason for thinking it far from a +laughing matter, and I hastened into the house that I might tell my +lady. When I entered the parlour, however, where I found her with the +Waldgrave and Fraulein Anna, she held up her hand to check me. She and +the Waldgrave were laughing, and Fraulein Anna, half shy and half +sullen, was leaning against the table looking at the floor, with her +cheeks red. + +'Come,' my lady was saying, 'you were with him half an hour, Anna. You +can surely tell us what you talked about. Don't be afraid of Martin. +He knows all our secrets.' + +'Or perhaps we are indiscreet,' the Waldgrave said gravely, but with a +twinkle in his eye. 'When a young lady visits a gentleman in +captivity, the conversation should be of a tender nature.' + +'Which shows, sir, that you know little about it,' Fraulein Anna +answered indignantly. 'We talked of Voetius.' + +'Dear me!' my lord said. 'Then Master Dietz knows Voetius?' + +'He does not. He said he considered such pagan learning useless,' +Fraulein Anna answered, warming with her subject. 'That it tended to +pride, and puffed up instead of giving grace. I said that he only saw +one side of the matter.' + +'In that resembling me,' my lord murmured. + +My lady repressed him with a look. 'Yes,' she said pleasantly. 'And +what then, Anna?' + +'And that he might be wrong in this, as in other matters. He asked me +what other matters,' Fraulein Max continued, growing voluble, and +almost confident, as she reviewed the scene. 'I said, the inferiority +of women to men. He said, yes, he maintained that, following Peter +Martyr. Well, I said he was wrong, and so was Peter Martyr. "But you +do not convince me," he answered. "You say that I am wrong on this as +on other points. Cite a point, then, on which I am wrong." "You know +no Greek, you know no Oriental tongue, you know no Hebrew!" I +retorted. "All pagan learning," he said. "Cite a point on which I am +wrong. I am not often wrong. Cite a point on which I am confessedly +wrong." So'--Fraulein Anna laughed a little, excited laugh of +pleasure--'I thought I would take him at his word, and I said, "Will +you abide by that? If I show you that you have been wrong, that you +have been deceived only to-day, will you acknowledge that Peter Martyr +was wrong?" He said, oh yes, he would, if I could convince him. I +said, "Exemplum! You came here because you were afraid of our cannon. +Granted? Yes. Well, our cannon are cracked. They are _brutum +fulmen_--an empty threat. We could not fire them, if we would. So +there, you see, you were wrong." Well, on that----' + +But what Master Dietz said on that, and what she answered, we never +knew, for the Waldgrave, bounding from the table, with a crash which +shook the room, swore a very pagan oath. + +'Himmel!' he cried in a voice of passion. 'The woman has ruined us! Do +you understand, Countess? She has told them! And they have taken the +news to the town!' + +'I do understand,' my lady said softly, but with a paling face. 'By +this time it is known.' + +'Known! Yes; and our shutting up that poisonous little snake will only +make him the more bitter!' my lord answered, striking the table a +great blow in his wrath. 'We are undone! Oh, you idiot, you idiot!' +and breaking off suddenly he turned to Fraulein Max, who stood weeping +and trembling by the table. 'Why did you do it?' + +'Hush!' my lady said nobly; and she put her arm round Fraulein Anna. +'She is so absent. It was my fault. I should not have let her see +them. Besides, she did not know that they were going to be released. +And it is done now, and cannot be undone. The question is, what ought +we to do?' + +'Yes, what?' my lord cried bitterly, with a glance at the culprit, +which showed that he was very far from forgiving her. 'I am sure I do +not know, any more than the dog there!' + +My lady looked at me anxiously. + +'Well, Martin,' she said, 'what do you say?' + +But I had nothing to say, I felt myself at a loss. I knew, better than +any of them, the Minister's sour nature, and I had seen with my own +eyes the state of resentment and rage in which he had left us. His +news would fall like a spark dropped on powder. The town, brooding in +gloom, foreboding, and terror, would in a moment blaze into fierce +wrath. Every ruffian who had felt his neck endangered by the +Countess's sentence, every family that had lost a member in the late +riot, every one who had an old grievance to avenge, or a new object to +gain, would in an hour be in arms; while those whose advantage lay +commonly on the side of order might stand aloof now--some at the +instance of Dietz, and others through timidity and that fear of a mob +which exists in the mind of every burgher. What, then, had we to +expect? My lady must look to have her authority flouted--that for +certain; but would the matter end with that? Would the disorder stop +at the foot of the steps? + +'I think we are safe enough here, if your excellency asks me,' I said, +after a moment's thought. 'A dozen men could hold the wicket-gate +against a thousand.' + +'Safe!' my lady cried in a tone of surprise. 'Yes, Martin, safe! But +what of those who look to me for protection? Am I to stand by and see +the law defied? Am I to----' She paused. 'What is that?' she said in a +different tone, raising her hand for silence. + +She listened, and we listened, looking at one another with meaning +eyes; and in a moment she had her answer. Through the open windows, +with the air and sunshine, came a sound which rose and fell at +intervals. It was the noise of distant cheering. Full and deep, +leaping up again and again, in insolent mockery and defiance, it +reached us where we stood in the quiet room, and told us that all was +known. While we still listened, another sound, nearer at hand, broke +the inner stillness of the house--the tramp of a hurrying foot on the +stairs. Old Jacob thrust in his head and looked at me. + +'You can speak,' I said. + +'There is something wrong below,' he muttered, abashed at finding +himself in the presence. + +'We know it, Jacob,' my lady said bravely. 'We are considering how to +right it. In the mean time, do you go to the gates, my friend, and see +that they are well guarded.' + +'We could send to Hesse-Cassel,' the Waldgrave suggested, when we were +again alone. + +'It would be useless,' my lady answered. 'The Landgrave is at Munich +with the King of Sweden; so is Leuchtenstein.' + +'If Leuchtenstein were only at home----' + +'Ah!' the Countess answered with a touch of impatience; 'but then he +is not. If he were--well, even he could scarcely make troops where +there are none.' + +'There are generally some to be hired,' the Waldgrave answered. 'What +if we send to Halle, or Weimar, and inquire? A couple of hundred pikes +would settle the matter.' + +'God forbid!' my lady answered with a shudder. 'I have heard enough of +the doings of such soldiers. The town has not deserved that.' + +The Waldgrave looked at me, and slightly shrugged his shoulders; as +much as to say that my lady was impracticable. But I, agreeing with +every word she said, only loved her the more, and could make him no +answer, even if my duty had permitted it. I hastened to suggest that, +the castle being safe, the better plan was to wait, keeping on our +guard, and see what happened; which, indeed, seemed also to be the +only course open to us. + +My lady saw this and agreed; I withdrew, to spend the rest of the day +in a feverish march between the one gate and the other. We could +muster no more than twelve effective men, including the Waldgrave; and +though these might suffice for the bare defence of the place, which +had only two assailable points, the paucity of our numbers kept me in +perpetual fear. I knew my lady's proud nature so well that I dreaded +humiliation for her as I might have feared death for another; with a +terror which made the possibility of her capture by the malcontents a +misery to me, a nightmare which would neither let me rest nor sleep. + +My lord soon recovered his spirits. In an hour or two he was as +buoyant and cheerful as before, dividing the blame of the +_contretemps_ between Fraulein Anna and myself, and hinting that if he +had been left to manage the matter, the guilty would have suffered, +and Dietz not gone scot-free. But I trembled. I did not see how we +could be surprised; I thought it improbable that the townsfolk would +try to effect anything against us; impossible that they should +succeed. Yet, when the stern swell of one of Luther's hymns rose from +the town at sunset, and I remembered how easily men's hearts were +inflamed by those strains; and again, when a huge bonfire in the +market-place dispelled the night, and for hours kept the town restless +and waking, I shuddered, fearing I knew not what. I will answer for +it, my lady, who never ceased to wear a cheerful countenance, did not +sleep that night one half so ill as I. + +And yet I was caught napping. A little before daybreak, when all was +quiet, I went to take an hour's rest. I had lain down, and, as far as +I could judge later, had just fallen into a doze, when a tremendous +shock, which made the very walls round me tremble, drew me to my feet +as if a giant hand had plucked me from the bed. A crashing sound, +mingled with the shiver of falling glass, filled the air. For a few +seconds I stood trembling and bewildered in the middle of the room--in +the state of disorder natural to a man rudely awakened. I could not on +the instant collect myself or comprehend what had happened. Then, in a +flash, the fears of the day returned to my mind, and springing to the +door, half-dressed as I was, I ran down to the courtyard. + +Some of the servants were already there, a white-cheeked, +panic-stricken group of men and women intermixed; but, for a +moment, I could get no answer to my questions. All spoke at once, none +knew. Then--it was just growing light--from the direction of the +stable-gate a man came running out of the dusk with a half-pike on his +shoulder. + +'Quick!' he cried. 'This way, give me a musket.' + +'What is it?' I answered, seizing him by the arm. + +'They have blown up the bridge--the bridge over the ravine!' he +replied, panting. 'Quick, a gun! A part is left, and they are hacking +it down!' + +In a moment I saw all. 'To your posts!' I shouted. 'And the women into +the house! See to the wicket-gate, Jacob, and do not leave it!' Then I +sprang into the guardhouse and snatched down a carbine, three or four +of which hung loaded in the loops. The sentry who had brought the news +seized another, and we ran together through the stable court and to +the gate, four or five of the servants following us. + +Elsewhere it was growing light. Here a thick cloud of smoke and dust +still hung in the air, with a stifling reek of powder. But looking +through one of the loopholes in the gate, I was able to discern that +the farther end of the bridge which spanned the ravine was gone--or +gone in part. The right-hand wall, with three or four feet of the +roadway, still hung in air, but half a dozen men, whose figures loomed +indistinctly through a haze of dust and gloom, were working at it +furiously, demolishing it with bars and pickaxes. + +At that sight I fell into a rage. I saw in a flash what would happen +if the bridge sank and we were cut off from all exit except through +the town-gate. The dastardly nature of the surprise, too, and the +fiendish energy of the men combined to madden me. I gave no warning +and cried out no word, but thrusting my weapon through the loophole +aimed at the nearest worker, and fired. + +The man dropped his tool and threw up his arms, staggered forward a +couple of paces, and fell sheer over the broken edge into the gulf. +His fellows stood a moment in terror, looking after him, but the +sentry who had warned me fired through the other loophole, and that +started them. They flung down their tools and bolted like so many +rabbits. The smoke of the carbine was scarce out of the muzzle, before +the bridge, or what remained of it, was clear. + +I turned round and found the Waldgrave at my elbow. 'Well done!' he +said heartily. 'That will teach the rascals a lesson!' + +I was trembling in every limb with excitement, but before I answered +him, I handed my gun to one of the men who had followed me. 'Load,' I +said,' and if a man comes near the bridge, shoot him down. Keep your +eye on the bridge, and do nothing else until I come back.' + +Then I walked away through the stable-court with the Waldgrave; who +looked at me curiously. 'You were only just in time,' he said. + +'Only just,' I muttered. + +'There is enough left for a horse to cross.' + +'Yes,' I answered, 'to-day.' + +'Why to-day?' he asked, still looking at me. I think he was surprised +to see me so much moved. + +'Because the rest will be blown up to-night,' I answered bluntly. 'Or +may be. How can we guard it in the dark? It is fifty paces from the +gate. We cannot risk men there--with our numbers.' + +'Still it may not be,' he said. 'We must keep a sharp look-out.' + +'But if it _is?_' I answered, halting suddenly, and looking him full +in the face. 'If it is, my lord?' I continued. 'We are provisioned for +a week only. It is not autumn, you see. Then the pickle tubs would be +full, the larder stocked, the rafters groaning, the still-room +supplied. But it is May, and there is little left. The last three days +we have been thinking of other things than provisions; and we have +thirty mouths to feed.' + +The Waldgrave's face fell. 'I had not thought of that,' he said. 'The +bridge gone, they may starve us, you mean?' + +'Into submission to whatever terms they please,' I answered. 'We are +too few to cut our way through the town, and there would be no other +way of escape.' + +'What do you advise, then?' he asked, drawing me aside with a +flustered air. 'Flight?' + +'A horse might cross the bridge to-day,' I said. + +'But any terms would be better than that!' he replied with vehemence. + +'What if they demand the expulsion of the Catholic girl, my lord, whom +the Countess has taken under her protection?' + +'They will not!' he said. + +'They may,' I persisted. + +'Then we will not give her up.' + +'But the alternative--starvation?' + +'Pooh! It will not come to that!' he answered lightly. 'You leap +before you reach the stile.' + +'Because, my lord, there will be no leaping if we do reach it.' + +'Nonsense!' he cried masterfully. 'Something must be risked. To give +up a strong place like this to a parcel of clodhoppers--it is absurd! +At the worst we could parley.' + +'I do not think my lady would consent to parley.' + +'I shall say nothing to her about it,' he answered. 'She is no judge +of such things.' + +I had been thinking all the while that he had that in his mind, and on +the spot I answered him squarely that I would not consent. 'My lady +must know all,' I said, 'and decide for herself.' + +He started, looking at me with his face very red. 'Why, man,' he said, +'would you browbeat me?' + +'No, my lord,' I said firmly, 'but my lady must know.' + +'You are insolent!' he cried, in a passion. 'You forget yourself, man, +and that your mistress has placed me in command here!' + +'I forget nothing, my lord,' I answered, waxing firmer. 'What I +remember is that she is my mistress.' + +He glared at me a moment, his face dark with anger, and then with a +contemptuous gesture he left me and walked twice or thrice across the +court. Doubtless the air did him good, for presently he came back to +me. 'You are an ill-bred meddler!' he said with his head high, 'and I +shall remember it. But for the present have your way. I will tell the +Countess and take her opinion.' + +He went into the house to do it, and I waited patiently in the +courtyard, watching the sun rise and all the roofs grow red; listening +to the twittering of the birds, and wondering what the answer would +be. I had not set myself against him without misgiving, for in a +little while all might be in his hands. But fear for my mistress +outweighed fears on my own account; and in the thought of her shame, +should she awake some morning and find herself trapped, I lost thought +of my own interest and advancement. I have heard it said that he +builds best for himself who builds for another. It was so on this +occasion. + +He came back presently, looking thoughtful, as if my lady had talked +to him very freely, and shown him a side of her character that had +escaped him. The anger was clean gone from his face, and he spoke to +me without embarrassment; in apparent forgetfulness that there had +been any difference between us. Nor did I ever find him bear malice +long. + +'The Countess decides to go,' he said, 'either to Cassel or Frankfort, +according to the state of the roads. She will take with her Fraulein +Max, her two women, and the Catholic girl, and as many men as you can +horse. She thinks she may safely leave the castle in charge of old +Jacob and Franz, with a letter directed to the Burgomaster and +council, throwing the responsibility for its custody on them. When do +you think we should start?' + +'Soon after dark this evening,' I answered, 'if my lady pleases.' + +'Then that decides it,' he replied carelessly, the dawn of a new plan +and new prospects lighting up his handsome face. 'See to it, will +you?' + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + WALNUTS OF GOLD. + + +Night is like a lady's riding-mask, which gives to the most +familiar features a strange and uncanny aspect. When to night +are added silence and alarm, and that worst burden of all, +responsibility--responsibility where a broken twig may mean a shot, +and a rolling stone capture, where in a moment the evil is done--then +you have a scene and a time to try the stoutest. + +To walk boldly into a wall of darkness, relying on daylight knowledge, +which says there is no wall; to step over the precipice on the faith +of its depth being shadow--this demands nerve in those who are not +used to the vagaries of night. But when the darkness may at any +instant belch forth a sheet of flame; when every bush may hide a +cowardly foe and every turn a pitfall, and there are women in company +and helpless children, then a man had need to be an old soldier or +forest-born, if he would keep his head cool, and tell one horse from +another by the sound of its hoofs. + +We started about eight, and started well. The Waldgrave and half a +dozen men crossed first on foot, and took post to protect the farther +end of the bridge. Then I led over the horses, beginning with the four +sumpter beasts. Satisfied after this that the arch remained uninjured, +and that there was room and to spare, I told my lady, and she rode +over by herself on Pushka. Marie Wort tripped after her with the child +in her arms. Fraulein Max I carried. My lady's women crossed hand in +hand. Then the rest. So like a troop of ghosts or shadows, with hardly +a word spoken or an order given, we flitted into the darkness, and met +under the trees, where those who had not yet mounted got to horse. Led +by young Jacob, who knew every path in the valley and could find his +way blindfold, we struck away from the road without delay, and taking +lanes and tracks which ran beside it, presently hit it again a league +or more beyond the town and far on the way. + +That was a ride not to be forgotten. The night was dark. At a distance +the dim lights of the town did not show. The valley in which we rode, +and which grows straighter as it approaches the mouth and the river, +seemed like a black box without a lid. The wind, laden with mysterious +rustlings and the thousand sad noises of the night, blew in our faces. +Now and then an owl hooted, or a branch creaked, or a horse stumbled +and its rider railed at it. But for the most part we rode in silence, +the women trembling and crossing themselves--as most of our people do +to this day, when they are frightened--and the men riding warily, with +straining eyes and ears on the stretch. + +Before we reached the ford, which lies nearly eight miles from the +castle, the Waldgrave, who had his place beside my lady, began to +talk; and then, if not before, I knew that _his_ love for her was +a poor thing. For, being in high spirits at the success of our +plan--which he had come to consider _his_ plan--and delighted to find +himself again in the saddle with an adventure before him, he forgot +that the matter must wear a different aspect in her eyes. She was +leaving her home--the old rooms, the old books, and presses and +stores, the duties, stately or simple, in which her life had been +passed. And leaving them, not in the daylight, and with a safe and +assured future before her, but by stealth and under cover of night, +with a mind full of anxious questionings! + +To my lord it seemed a fine thing to have the world before him; to +know that all Germany beyond the Werra was convulsed by war, and a +theatre wherein a bold man might look to play his part. But to a +woman, however high-spirited, the knowledge was not reassuring. To one +who was exchanging her own demesne and peace and plenty for a +wandering life and dependence on the protection of men, it was the +reverse. + +So, while my lord talked gaily, my lady, I think, wept; doing that +under cover of darkness and her mask, which she would never have done +in the light. He talked on, planning and proposing; and where a true +lover would have been quick to divine the woman's weakness, he felt no +misgiving, thrilled with no sympathy. Then I knew that he lacked the +subtle instinct which real love creates; which teaches the strong what +it is the feeble dread, and gives a woman the daring of a man. + +As we drew near the ford, I dropped back to see that all crossed +safely. Pushka, I knew, would carry my lady over, but some of the +others were worse mounted. This brought me abreast of the Catholic +girl, though the darkness was such that I recognized her only by the +dark mass before her, which I knew to be the child. We had had some +difficulty in separating her from Steve, and persuading her that the +man ran no risk where he lay; otherwise she had behaved admirably. I +did not speak to her, but when I saw the gleam of water before us, and +heard the horses of the leaders begin to splash through the shallows, +I leant over and took hold of the boy. + +'You had better give him to me,' I said gruffly. 'You will have both +hands free then. Keep your feet high, and hold by the pommel. If your +horse begins to swim leave its head loose.' + +I expected her to make a to-do about giving up the child; but she did +not, and I lifted it to the withers of my horse. She muttered +something in a tone which sounded grateful, and then we splashed on in +silence, the horses putting one foot gingerly before the other; some +sniffing the air with loud snorts and outstretched necks, and some +stopping outright. + +I rode on the upstream side of the girl, to break the force of the +water. Not that the ford is dangerous in the daytime (it has been +bridged these five years), but at night, and with so many horses, it +was possible one or another might stray from the track; for the ford +is not straight, but slants across the stream. However, we all passed +safely; and yet the crossing remains in my memory. + +As I held the child before me--it was a gallant little thing, and +clung to me without cry or word--I felt something rough round its +neck. At the moment I was deep in the water, and I had no hand to +spare. But by-and-by, as we rode out and began to clamber up the +farther bank, I laid my hand on its neck, suspecting already what I +should find. + +I was not mistaken. Under my fingers lay the very necklace which Peter +had described to me with so much care! I could trace the shape and +roughness of the walnuts. I could almost count them. Even of the +length of the chain I could fairly judge. It was long enough to go +twice round the child's neck. + +As soon as I had made certain, I let it be, lest the child should cry +out; and I rode on, thinking hard. What, I wondered, had induced the +girl to put the chain round its neck at that juncture? She had hidden +it so carefully hitherto, that no eye but Peter's, so far as I could +judge, had seen it. Why this carelessness now, then? Certainly it was +dark, and, as far as eyes went, the chain was safe. But round her own +neck, under her kerchief, where it had lain before, it was still +safer. Why had she removed it? + +We had topped the farther bank by this time, and were riding slowly +along the right-hand side of the river; but I was still turning this +over in my mind, when I heard her on a sudden give a little gasp. I +knew in a moment what it was. She had bethought her where the necklace +was. I was not a whit surprised when she asked me in a tremulous tone +to give her back the child. + +'It is very well here,' I said, to try her. + +'It will trouble you,' she muttered faintly. + +'I will say when it does,' I answered. + +She did not answer anything to that, but I heard her breathing hard, +and knew that she was racking her brains for some excuse to get the +child from me. For what if daylight came and I still rode with it, the +necklace in full view? Or what if we stopped at some house and lights +were brought? Or what, again, if I perceived the necklace and took +possession of it! + +This last idea so charmed me--I was in a grim humour--that my hand was +on the necklace, and almost before I knew what I was doing, I was +feeling for the clasp which fastened it. Some fiend brought the thing +under my fingers in a twinkling. The necklace seemed to fall loose of +its own accord. In a moment it was swinging and swaying in my hand. In +another I had gathered it up and slid it into my pouch. + +The trick was done so easily and so quickly that I think some devil +must have helped me; the child neither moving nor crying out, though +it was old enough to take notice, and could even speak, as children of +that age can speak--intelligibly to those who know them, gibberish to +strangers. + +I need not say that I never meant to steal a link of the thing. The +temptation which moved me was the temptation to tease the girl. I +thought this a good way of punishing her. I thought, first to torment +her by making her think the necklace gone; and then to shame her by +producing it, and giving it back to her with a dry word that should +show her I understood her deceit. + +So, even when the thing was done, and the chain snug in my pocket, I +did not for a while repent, but hugged myself on the jest and smiled +under cover of the darkness. I carried the child a mile farther, and +then handed it down to Marie, with an appearance of unconsciousness +which it was not very hard to assume, since she could not see my face. +But doubtless every yard of that mile had been a torture to her. I +heard her sigh with relief as her arms closed round the boy. Then, the +next moment I knew that she had discovered her loss. She uttered a +sobbing cry, and I heard her passing her hands through the child's +clothing, while her breath came and went in gasps. + +She plucked at her bridle so suddenly that those who rode behind ran +into us. I made way for them to pass. + +'What is it?' I said roughly. 'What is the matter?' + +She muttered under her breath, with her hands still searching the +child, that she had lost something. + +'If you have, it is gone,' I said bluntly. 'You would hardly find a +hayrick to-night. You must have dropped it coming through the ford?' + +She did not answer, but I heard her begin to sob, and then for the +first time I felt uncomfortable. I repented of what I had done, and +wished with all my heart that the chain was round the child's neck +again. 'Come, come,' I said awkwardly, 'it was not of much value, I +suppose. At any rate, it is no good crying over it.' + +She did not answer; she was still searching. I could hear what she was +doing, though I could not see; there were trees overhead, and it was +as much as I could do to make out her figure. At last I grew angry, +partly with myself, partly with her. 'Come,' I said roughly, 'we +cannot stay here all night. We must be moving.' + +She assented meekly, and we rode on. But still I heard her crying; and +she seemed to be hugging the child to her, as if, now the necklace was +gone, she had nothing but the boy left. I tried to see the humour in +the joke as I had seen it a few minutes before, but the sparkle had +gone out of it, I felt that I had been a brute. I began to reflect +that this girl, a stranger and helpless, in a strange land, had +nothing upon which she could depend but these few links of gold. What +wonder, then, if she valued them; if, like all other women, she hid +them away and fibbed about them; if she wept over them now they were +gone? + +Of course it was in my power in a moment to bring them back again; and +nothing had seemed easier, a few minutes before, than to hand them +back--with a little speech which should cover her with confusion and +leave me unmoved. Now, though I wished them round her neck again with +all the good-will in life, and though to effect my wish I had only to +do what I had planned--only to stretch out my hand with that word or +two--I sat in my saddle hot and tongue-tied, my fingers sticking to +the chain. + +Her grief had somehow put a new face on the matter. I could not bear +to confess that I had caused it wantonly and for a jest. The right +words would not come, while every moment which prolonged the silence +between us made the attempt seem more hopeless, the task more +difficult; till, like the short-sighted craven I was, I thrust back +the chain into my pocket, and, determining to take some secret way of +restoring it, put off the crisis. + +In a degree I was hurried to this decision by our arrival at the place +where we were to rest. This was an outlying farm belonging to +Heritzburg and long used by the family, when journeying to Cassel. +Alas! when we came to it, cold, shivering, and hungry, we found it +ruined and tenantless, with war's grim brand so deeply stamped upon +the face of everything that even the darkness of night failed to hide +the scars. I had not expected this, and for a while I forgot the +necklace in anxiety for my lady's comfort. I had to get lights and see +fires kindled, to order the disposal of the horses, to unpack the +food: for we found no scrap, even of fodder for the beasts, in the +grimy, smoke-stained barn, which I had known so well stored. Nor was +the house in better case. Bed and board were gone, and half the roof. +The door lay shattered on the threshold, the window-frames, smashed in +wanton fury, covered the floor. The wind moaned through the empty +rooms; here and there water stood in puddles. Round the hearth lay +broken flasks, and rotting _débris_, and pewter plates bent double-- +the relics of the ravager's debauch. + +We walked about, with lights held above our heads, and looked at all +this miserably enough. It was our first glimpse of war, and it +silenced even the Waldgrave. As for my mistress, I well remember the +look her face wore, when I left her standing with her women, who were +already in tears, in the middle of the small chamber assigned to her. +I had known her long enough to be able to read the look, and to be +sure that she was wondering whether it would always be so now. Had she +exchanged Heritzburg, its peace and comfort, for such nights as these, +divided between secret flittings and lodgings fit only for the +homeless and wretched? + +But neither by word nor sign did she betray her fears; and in the +morning she showed a face that vied with the Waldgrave's in +cheerfulness. Our horses had had little exercise of late and were +in poor condition for travelling. We gave them, therefore, until +noon to rest, and a little after that hour got away; one and all, I +think--with the exception perhaps of Marie Wort--in better spirits. +The sun was high, the weather fine, the country on either side of us +woodland, with fine wild prospects. Hence we saw few signs of the +ravages which were sure to thrust themselves on the attention wherever +man's hand appeared. We could forget for the moment war, and even our +own troubles. + +We proposed to reach the little village of Erbe by sunset, but +darkness overtook us on the road. The track, overgrown and narrowed by +spring shoots, was hard to follow in daylight; to attempt to pursue it +after nightfall seemed hopeless. We had halted, therefore, and the +Waldgrave and my lady were considering whether we should camp where we +were, or pick our way to a more sheltered spot, when young Jacob, who +was leading, cried out that he saw the glimmer of a camp-fire some way +off among the trees. The news threw our party into the greatest doubt. +My lady was for stopping where we were, the Waldgrave for going on. In +the end the latter had his way, and it was agreed that we should join +the company before us, or at any rate parley with them and learn their +intentions. Accordingly we shook up our tired horses and moved +cautiously forward. + +The distant gleam which had first caught Jacob's eye soon widened into +a warm and ruddy glow, in which the polished beech-trunks stood up +like the pillars of some great building. Still drawing nearer, we saw +that there were two fires built a score of paces apart, in a slight +hollow. Round the one a number of men were moving, whose black figures +sometimes intervened between us and the blaze. Two or three dogs +sprang up and barked at us, and a horse neighed out of the darkness +beyond. The other fire seemed at first sight to be deserted; but as +the dogs ran towards us, still barking, first one man, then another, +rose beside it, and stood looking at us. The arrival of a second party +in such a spot was no doubt unexpected. + +Judging that these two were the leaders of the party, I went forward +to announce my lady's rank. One of the men, the shorter and younger, a +man of middle height and middle age and dark, stern complexion, came a +few paces to meet me. + +'Who are you?' he said bluntly, looking beyond me at those who +followed. + +'The Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, travelling this way to Cassel,' I +answered; 'and with her, her excellency's kinsman, the noble Rupert, +Waldgrave of Weimar.' + +The stranger's face lightened strangely, and he laughed. 'Take me to +her,' he said. + +Properly I should have first asked him his name and condition; but he +had the air, beyond all things, of a man not to be trifled with, and I +turned with him. + +My lady had halted with her company a score of paces from the fire. I +led him to her bridle. + +'This,' I said, wondering much who he was, 'is her excellency the +Countess of Heritzburg.' + +My lady looked at him. He had uncovered and stood before her, a smile +that was almost a laugh in his eyes. 'And I,' he said, 'have the +honour to be her excellency's humble and distant cousin, General John +Tzerclas, sometimes called, of Tilly.' + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + THE CAMP IN THE FOREST. + + +As the stranger made his announcement, I chanced to turn my eyes on +the Waldgrave's face; and if there was one thing more noteworthy at +the moment than the speaker's air of perfect and assured composure, it +was my lord's look of chagrin. I could imagine that this sudden and +unexpected discovery of a kinsman was little to his mind; while the +stranger's manner was as little calculated to reconcile him to it. But +there was something more than this. I fancy that from the moment he +heard Tzerclas' name he scented a rival. + +My lady, on the other hand, did not disguise her satisfaction. 'I am +pleased to make your acquaintance,' she exclaimed, looking at the +stranger with frank surprise. 'Your name, General Tzerclas, has long +been known to me. But I was under the impression that you were at +present in command of a body of Saxon troops in Bohemia.' + +'My troops, such as they are, lie a little nearer,' he answered, +smiling; 'so near that they and their leader are equally at your +service, Countess.' + +'For the present I shall be content to claim your hospitality only,' +my lady answered lightly. 'This is my cousin, the Waldgrave Rupert.' + +'Of Weimar?' the general said, bowing. + +'Of Weimar, sir,' the young lord answered. + +The stranger said no more, but saluting him with a kind of careless +punctilio, took hold of my lady's rein and led her horse forward into +the firelight. + +While he assisted her to dismount I had time to glance round; and the +cheerful glow of the fire, which disclosed arms and accoutrements and +camp equipments flung here and there in splendid profusion, did not +blind me to other appearances less pleasant. Indeed, that very +profusion did something to open my eyes to those appearances, and +thereby to the nature of the men amongst whom we had come. The +glittering hilts and battered plate, the gaudy cloaks and velvet +housings which I saw lying about the roots of the trees, seemed to +smack less of a travellers' camp than a robbers' bivouac; while the +fierce, swarthy faces which clustered round the farther fire, reminded +me of nothing so much as of the swash-buckling escort which had more +than once accompanied Count Tilly to Heritzburg. Then, indeed, under +the old tiger's paw Tilly's riders had been as lambs. But we were not +now at Heritzburg, nor was Count Tilly here. And whether these knaves +would be as amenable in the greenwood, whether the Waldgrave had not +done us all an ill service when he voted for moving on, were questions +I had a difficulty in answering to my satisfaction; the more as, even +before we were off our horses, the rude stare the men fixed on my lady +raised my choler. + +On the other hand their leader's bearing left nothing to be desired. +He welcomed my mistress to the camp with perfect good breeding, the +Waldgrave with civility. He hastened the preparation of supper, and in +every way seemed bent on making us comfortable; sending his knaves to +and fro with a hearty good-will, which showed that whoever stood in +awe of them, he did not. + +Meanwhile, I had a third fire kindled a score of paces away, where a +small thicket held out the hope of privacy, and here I placed our +women, bidding three or four of the steadier men remain with them. The +injunction was scarcely needed however. Our servants were simple +fellows born in Heritzburg. They eyed with shyness and awe the +swaggering airs and warlike demeanour of Tzerclas' followers, and +would not for a year's wages have intruded on their circle without +invitation. + +The moment I had seen to this I returned to my lady, and then for the +first time I had an opportunity of examining our host. A man of middle +height, sinewy and well-formed, with an upright carriage, he looked +from head to foot the model of a soldier of fortune, and moved with a +careless grace, which spoke of years of manly exercise. His face was +handsome, cold, dark, stern; the nose prominent, the forehead high and +narrow. Trimly pointed moustachios and a small pointed beard, both +perfectly black, gave him a peculiar and somewhat cynical aspect; and +nothing I ever witnessed of his dealings with his troops led me to +suppose that this belied the man. He could be, as he was now, +courteous, polished, almost genial. I judged that he could be also the +reverse. He was richly, even splendidly, dressed, and seemed to be +about forty years of age. + +My lady sent me for Fraulein Max, who had been overlooked, and was +found cowering beside the newly kindled fire in company with Marie +Wort and the women. Though I think she had only herself to thank for +her effacement, she was inclined to be offended. But I had no time to +waste on words, and disregarding her ill temper I brought her, feebly +sniffing, to my lady, who introduced her to her new-found kinsman. + +'Pardon me,' he said, looking negligently round him. 'That reminds me. +I, too, have a presentation to make. Where is--oh yes, here is friend +Von Werder. I thought, my friend,' he continued, addressing the other +and older man whom we had seen by his fire, 'that you had disappeared +as mysteriously as you came. Herr von Werder, Countess, was my first +chance guest to-night. You are the second.' + +He spoke in a tone of easy patronage, with his back half turned to the +person he mentioned. I looked at the man. He seemed to be over fifty +years old, tall, strong, and grey-moustachioed. And that was almost +all I could see, for, as if acknowledging an inferiority, and +admitting that the terms on which he had been with his host were now +altered, he had withdrawn himself a pace from the fire. Sitting on the +opposite side of it near the outer edge of light and wearing a heavy +cloak, he disclosed little of his appearance, even when he rose in +acknowledgment of my lady's salute. + +'Herr von Werder is not travelling with you, then?' my lady said; +chiefly, I think, for the sake of saying something that should include +the man. + +'No, he is not of my persuasion,' the general answered in the same +tone of good-natured contempt. 'Whither are you bound, my friend?' he +continued, glancing over his shoulder and throwing a note of command +into his voice. 'I did not ask you, and you did not tell me.' + +'I am going north,' the stranger answered in a husky tone. 'It may be +as far as Magdeburg, general.' + +'And you come from?' + +'Last, sir? Frankfort.' + +'Well, as you say last, whence before that?' + +'The Rhine Bishoprics.' + +'Ah! Then you have seen something of the war? If you were there before +it swept into Bavaria, that is. But a truce to this,' he continued. +'Here is supper. I beg you not to judge of my hospitality by this +night's performance, Countess. I hope to entertain you more fittingly +before we part.' + +Though he made this apology, the supper needed none. Indeed, it was +such as made me stare--there in the forest--and was served in a style +and with accompaniments I little expected to find in a soldiers' camp. +Silver dishes and chased and curious flagons, flasks of old Rhenish +and Burgundy, glass from Nuremberg, a dozen things which made my +lady's road equipage seem poor and trifling, appeared on the board. +And the cooking was equal to the serving. The wine had not gone round +many times before the Waldgrave lost his air of reserve. He +complimented our host, expressed his surprise at the excellence of the +entertainment, asked with a laugh how it was done, and completely +resumed his usual manner. Perhaps he talked a little too freely, a +little too fast, and viewed by the other's side, he grew younger. + +What my lady saw or thought as she sat between the two men it was +impossible to say, but she seemed in high spirits. She too talked +gaily and laughed often; and doubtless the novelty of the scene, the +great fires, the dark background, the burnished trunks of the beeches, +the bizarre splendour of the feast, the laughter and snatches of song +which came from the other fire, were well calculated to excite and +amuse her. + +'These are not all your troops?' I heard her ask. + +'Not quite,' the general answered drily. 'My men lie six hours south +of us. I hope that you will do me the honour of reviewing them +to-morrow.' + +'You are marching south, then?' + +'Yes. Everything and every one goes south this year.' + +'To join the King of Sweden?' + +'Yes,' the general answered, holding out his silver cup to be filled, +and for that reason perhaps speaking very deliberately, 'to join the +King of Sweden--at Nuremberg. But you have not yet told me, countess,' +he continued, 'why you are afield. This part is not in a very settled +state, and I should have thought that the present time was----' + +'A bad one for travelling?' my lady answered. 'Yes. But, I regret to +say, Heritzburg is not in a very settled state either.' And thereon, +without dwelling much on the cause of her troubles, she told him the +main facts which had led to her departure. + +I saw his lip curl and his eyes flicker with scorn. 'But had you no +gunpowder?' he said, turning to the Waldgrave. + +'We had, but no cannon,' he answered confidently. + +'What of that?' the general retorted icily. 'I would have made a bomb, +no matter of what, and fired it out of a leather boot hooped with +cask-irons! I would have had half a dozen of their houses burning +about their ears before they knew where they were, the insolents!' + +The Waldgrave looked ashamed of himself. 'I did not think of that,' he +said; and he hastened to hide his confusion in his glass. + +'Well, it is not too late,' General Tzerclas rejoined, showing his +teeth in a smile. 'If the Countess pleases, we will soon teach her +subjects a lesson. I am not pushed for time. I will detach four troops +of horse and return with you to-morrow, and settle the matter in a +trice.' + +But my lady said that she would not have that, and persisted so firmly +in her refusal that though he pressed the offer upon her, and I could +see was keenly interested in its acceptance, he had to give way. The +reasons she put forward were the loss of his time and the injury to +his cause; the real one consisted, I knew, in her merciful reluctance +to give over the town to his troops, a reluctance for which I honoured +her. To appease him, however, for he seemed inclined to take her +refusal in bad part, she consented to go out of her way to visit his +camp. + +At this point my lady sent me on an errand to her women, which caused +me to be away some minutes. When I came back I found that a change had +taken place. The Waldgrave was speaking, and, from his heated face and +the tone of his voice, it was evident that the old wine which had +begun by opening his heart had ended by rousing his pugnacity. + +'Pooh! I protest _in toto!_' he said as I came up. 'I deny it +altogether. You will tell me next that the Germans are worse soldiers +than the Swedes!' + +'Pardon me, I did not say so,' General Tzerclas answered. The wine had +taken no effect on him, or perhaps he had drunk less. He was as suave +and cold as ever. + +'But you meant it!' the younger man retorted. + +'No, I did not mean it,' the general answered, still unmoved. 'What I +said was that Germany had produced no great commander in this war, +which has now lasted thirteen years.' + +'Prince Bernard of Weimar, my kinsman!' the Waldgrave cried. + +'Pardon me,' Tzerclas replied politely. 'Pardon me again if I say that +I do not think he has earned that title. He is a soldier of merit. No +more.' + +'Wallenstein, then?' + +'You forget. He is a Bohemian.' + +'Count Tilly, then?' + +'A Walloon,' the general answered with a shrug. 'The King of Sweden? A +Swede, of course.' + +'A German by the mother's side,' my lady said with a smile. + +'As you, Countess, are a Walloon,' Tzerclas answered with a low bow. +'Yet doubtless you count yourself a German?' + +'Yes,' she said, blushing. 'I am proud to do so.' + +What courteous answer he would have made to this I do not know. She +had scarcely spoken before a deep voice on the farther side of the +fire was heard to ask 'What of Count Pappenheim?' + +The speaker was Von Werder, who had long sat so modestly silent that I +had forgotten his presence. He seemed scarcely to belong to the party; +though Fraulein Max, who sat on the Waldgrave's left hand, formed a +sort of link stretched out towards him. Tzerclas had forgotten him +too, I think, for he started at the sound of his voice and gave him +but a curt answer. + +'He is no general,' he said sharply. 'A great leader of horse he is; +great at fighting, great at burning, greatest at plundering. No more.' + +'It seems that you allow no merit in a German!' the Waldgrave cried +with a sneer. He had drunk too much. + +But Tzerclas was not to be moved. There was something fine in the +toleration he extended to the younger man. 'Not at all,' he said +quietly. 'Yet I am of opinion that, even apart from arms, Germany has +shown since the beginning of this war few men of merit.' + +'The Duke of Bavaria,' the same deep voice beyond the fire suggested. + +'Maximilian?' Tzerclas answered. This time he did not seem to resent +the stranger's interference. 'Yes, he is something of a statesman. +You are right, my friend. He and Leuchtenstein, the Landgrave's +minister--he too is a man. I will give you those two. But even they +play second parts. The fate of Germany lies in no German hands. It +lies in the hands of Gustavus Adolphus and Oxenstierna, Swedes; of +Wallenstein, a Bohemian; of--I know not who will be the next +foreigner.' + +'That is all very well; but you are a foreigner yourself,' the +Waldgrave cried. + +'Yes, I am a Walloon,' Tzerclas said, still quietly, though this time +I saw his eyes flicker. 'It is true; why should I deny it? You +represent the native, and I the foreign element. The Countess stands +between us, representing both.' + +The Waldgrave rose with an oath and a flushed face, and for a moment I +thought that we were going to have trouble. But he remembered himself +in time, and sitting down again in silence, gazed sulkily at the fire. + +The movement, however, was enough for my lady. She rose to her feet to +break up the party; and turning her shoulder to the offender, began to +thank General Tzerclas for his entertainment. This made the Waldgrave, +who was compelled to stand by and listen, look more sulky than ever; +but she continued to take no notice of him, and though he remained +awkwardly regarding her and waiting for a word, as long as she stood, +she went away without once turning her eyes on him. The general +snatched a torch from me and lighted her with his own hand to our part +of the camp, where he took a respectful leave of her; adding, as he +withdrew, that he would march at any hour in the morning that might +suit her, and that in all things she might command his servants and +himself. + +He had sent over for her use a small tent, provided originally, no +doubt, for his own sleeping quarters; and we found that in a hundred +other ways he had shown himself thoughtful for her comfort. She stood +a moment looking about her with satisfaction; and when she turned to +dismiss me, there was, or I was mistaken, a gleam of amusement in her +eye. After all, she was a woman. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + STOLEN! + + +The night was still young, and when I had seen my mistress and her +women comfortably settled, I sauntered back towards the middle of the +camp. The three fires stood here, and there, and there, among the +trees, like the feet of a three-legged stool; while between them lay a +middle space which partook of the light of all, and yet remained +shadowy and ill-defined. A single beech which stood in this space, and +served in some degree to screen our fire from observation, added to +the darkness of the borderland. At times the flames blazed up, +disclosing trunk and branches; again they waned, and only a shadowy +mass filled the middle space. + +I went and stood under this tree and looked about me. The Waldgrave +had disappeared, probably to his couch. So had Von Werder. Only +General Tzerclas remained beside the fire at which we had supped, and +he no longer sat erect. Covered with a great cloak he lay at his ease +on a pile of furs, reading by the light of the fire in a small fat +book, which even at that distance I could see was thumbed and +dog's-eared. Such an employment in such a man--in huge contrast with +the noisy brawling and laughter of his following--struck me as +remarkable. I felt a great curiosity to know what he was studying, and +in particular whether it was the Bible. But the distance between us +was too great and the light too uncertain; and after straining my eyes +awhile I gave up the attempt, consoling myself with the thought that +had I been nearer I had perhaps been no wiser. + +I was about to withdraw, tolerably satisfied, to seek my own rest, +when a stick snapped sharply behind me. Unwilling to be caught spying, +I turned quickly and found myself face to face with a tall figure, +which had come up noiselessly behind me. The unknown was so close to +me, I recoiled in alarm; but the next moment he lowered his cloak from +his face, and I saw that it was Von Werder. + +'Hush, man!' he said, raising his hand to enforce caution. 'A word +with you. Come this way.' + +He gave me no time to demur or ask questions, but taking obedience for +granted, turned and led the way down a narrow path, proceeding +steadily onwards until the glare of the fire sank into a distant gleam +behind us. Then he stopped suddenly and faced me, but the darkness in +which we stood among the tree-trunks still prevented me seeing his +features, and gave to the whole interview an air of mystery. + +'You are the Countess of Heritzburg's steward?' he said abruptly. + +'I am,' I answered, wondering at the change in his tone, which, deep +before, had become on a sudden imperative. By the fire and in +Tzerclas' company he had spoken with a kind of diffidence, an air of +acknowledged inferiority. Not a trace of that remained. + +'The Waldgrave Rupert,' he continued--'he is a new acquaintance?' + +'He is not an old friend,' I replied. I could not think what he would +be at with his questions. All my instincts were on the side of +refusing to answer them. But his manner imposed upon me, though his +figure and face were hidden; and though I wondered, I answered. + +'He is young,' he said, as if to himself. + +'Yes, he is young,' I answered dryly. 'He will grow older.' + +He remained silent a moment, apparently in thought. Then he spoke +suddenly and bluntly. 'You are an honest man, I believe,' he said. 'I +watched you at supper, and I think I can trust you. I will be plain +with you. Your mistress had better have stayed at Heritzburg, +steward.' + +'It is possible,' I said. I was more than half inclined to think so +myself. + +'She has come abroad, however. That being so, the sooner she is in +Cassel, the better.' + +'We are going thither,' I answered. + +'You were!' he replied; and the meaning in his voice gave me a start. +'You were, I say?' he continued strenuously. 'Whither you are going +now will depend, unless you exert yourself and are careful, on General +John Tzerclas of the Saxon service. You visit his camp to-morrow. Take +a hint. Get your mistress out of it and inside the walls of Cassel as +soon as you can.' + +'Why?' I said stubbornly. 'Why?' For it seemed to me that I was being +asked all and told nothing. The man's vague warnings chimed in with my +own fears, and yet I resented them coming from a stranger. I tried to +pierce the darkness, to read his face, to solve the mystery of his +altered tone. But the night baffled me; I could see nothing save a +tall, dark form, and I fell back upon words and obstruction. 'Why?' I +asked jealously. 'He is my lady's cousin.' + +'After a fashion,' the stranger rejoined coldly and slowly, and not at +all as if he meant to argue with me. 'I should be better content, man, +if he were her uncle. However, I have said enough. Do you bear it in +mind, and as you are faithful, be wary. So much for that. And now,' he +continued, in a different tone, a tone in which a note of anxiety +lurked whether he would or no, 'I have a question to ask on my own +account, friend. Have you heard at any time within the last twelve +months of a lost child being picked up to the north of this, in +Heritzburg or the neighbourhood?' + +'A lost child?' I repeated in astonishment. + +'Yes!' he retorted impatiently. And I felt, though I could not see, +that he was peering at me as I had lately peered at him. 'Isn't that +plain German? A lost child, man? There is nothing hard to understand +in it. Such a thing has been heard of before--and found, I suppose. A +little boy, two years old.' + +'No,' I said, 'I have heard nothing of one. A child two years old? +Why, it could not go alone; it could not walk!' + +In the darkness, which is a wonderful sharpener of ears, I heard the +man move hastily. 'No,' he said with a stern note in his voice, 'I +suppose not; I suppose it could not. At any rate, you have not heard +of it?' + +'No,' I said, 'certainly not.' + +'If it had been found Heritzburg way,' he continued jealously, 'you +would have, I suppose?' + +'I should have--if any one,' I answered. + +'Thank you,' he said curtly. 'That is all now. Good night.' + +And suddenly, with that only, and no warning or further farewell, he +turned and strode off. I heard him go plunging through the last year's +leaves, and the noise told me that he trod them sternly and heavily, +with the foot of a man disappointed, and not for the first time. + +'It must be his child,' I thought, looking after him. + +I waited until the last sound of his retreat had died away, and then I +made my own way back to the camp. As chance would have it, I hit it +close to the servants' fire, and before I could turn was espied by +some of those who sat at it. One, a stout, swarthy fellow, with bright +black eyes, and a small feather in his cap, sprang up and came towards +me. + +'Why so shy, comrade?' he cried, with a hiccough in his voice. +'Himmel! There are a pair of us!' And he raised his hand and laid it +on my head--with an effort, for I am six feet and two inches. 'Peace!' +and he touched me on the breast. 'War!' and he touched himself. 'And a +good broad piece you are, and a big piece, and a heavy piece, I'll +warrant!' he continued. + +'I might say the same for you!' I retorted, suffering him to lead me +to the fire. + +'Oh, I?' he cried with a drunken swagger. 'I am a double gold ducat, +true metal, stamped with the Emperor's man-at-arms! Melted in the Low +Countries under Spinola--that is, these thirteen years back--minted by +Wallenstein, tried by the noble general! + + + "Clink! Clink! Clink! + Sword and stirrup and spur. + Ride! Ride! Ride! + Fast as feather or fur!" + + +That is my sort! But come, welcome! Will you drink? Will you play? +Will you 'list? Come, the night is young, + + + "For the night-sky is red, + And the burgher's abed, + And bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!" + + +Which shall it be, friend?' + +'I will drink with you or play with you, captain,' I answered, seeing +nothing else for it, 'so far as a poor man may; but as for enlisting, +I am satisfied with my present service.' + +'Ha! ha! I can quite understand that!' he answered, winking tipsily. +'Woman, lovely woman! Here's to her! Here's to her! Here's to her, +lads of the free company! + + + "Drink, lads, drink! + Firkin and flagon and flask. + Hands, lads, hands! + A round to the maid in the mask!" + + +Why, man, you look like a death's head! You are too sober! Shame on +you, and you a German!' + +'An Italian were as good a toper!' one of the men beside him growled. + +'Or a whey-fed Switzer!' + +'Perhaps you are better with the dice!' the captain, intendant, or +what he was, continued. 'You will throw a main? Come, for the honour +of your mistress!' + +I had nearly a score of ducats of my own in my pouch, and so far I +could pay if I lost. I thought that I might get some clue to Tzerclas' +nature and plans by humouring the man, and I assented. + +'The dice, lads, the dice!' he cried. Ludwig, the others called him. + + + '"Ho, the roof shall be red + O'er the heretic's head, + For bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!" + + +The dice, the dice!' + +'Your guest looks scared,' one said, looking at me grimly. 'Perhaps he +is a heretic!' + +'Chut! we are all heretics for the present!' Ludwig answered +recklessly. 'A fig for a credo and a fig for a psalm! Give me a good +horse and a good sword and fat farmhouses. I ask no more. Shall it be +a short life and a merry one? The highest to have it?' + +'Content,' I said, trying to fall into his humour. + +'A ducat a throw?' he asked, posing the caster. A man, as he spoke, +placed a saddle between us, while half a dozen others pressed round to +watch us. The flame leaping up shone on their dark, lean faces and +gleaming eyes, or picked out here and there the haft of a knife or the +butt of a pistol. Some wore steel caps, some caps of fur, some gaudy +handkerchiefs twisted round their heads. There were Spaniards, +Bohemians, Walloons among them; a Croat or two; a few Saxons. 'Come,' +cried the captain, rattling the dice-box. 'A ducat a throw, Master +Peace? Between gentlemen?' + +'Content,' I said, though my heart beat fast. I had never even seen +men play so high. + +'So!' growled a German who crouched beside me--a one-eyed man, fat and +fair, the one fair-faced man in the company; ''tis a cock of a fine +hackle!' + +'See me strip him!' Captain Ludwig rejoined gleefully. And he threw +and I threw, and I won; while the flame, leaping and sinking, flung +its ruddy light on the walls of our huge, leafy chamber. Then he won. +Then I won. I won again, again, again! + +'He has the fiend's own luck!' a Pole cried with a curse. + +'Steady, Ludwig!' quoth another. 'Will you be beaten by a clod-pate?' + +'Fill his cup!' my opponent cried hardily. 'He has the knack of it! +But I will strip him! Beat up the fire there! I can't see the spots. +That is nine ducats you have won, good broad-piece! Throw away!' + +I threw, and at it we went again, but now luck began to run against +me, though slowly. The hollow rattle of the dice, the voices calling +the numbers, the oath and the cry of triumph want on monotonously: +went on--and I think the spirit of play had fairly got hold of +me--when a stern voice suddenly broke in on our game. + +'Put up, there, you rascals!' Tzerclas cried from his fire. 'Have +done, do you hear, or it will be the worse for you! Kennel, I say!' + +Captain Ludwig swore under his breath. 'Ugh!' he muttered, 'just as I +was getting my hand in! What is the score? Seven ducats to me; and +little enough for the trouble. Hand over, comrade. You know the +proverb.' + +In haste to be gone after the warning we had received, I plunged my +hand into my pouch, and drew out in a hurry, not a fistful of ducats +as I intended, but a score of links of gold chain, which for a moment +glittered in the firelight. As quickly as I could I thrust the +chain--it was Marie Wort's, of course--back into my pocket, but not +before the German sitting beside me had seen it. I looked at him +guiltily while I fumbled for the money, and he tried to look as if he +had seen nothing. But his one eye sparkled evilly, and I saw his lips +tremble with greed. He made no remark, however, and in a moment I +found the money and paid my debt. + +Most of the men had already laid themselves down and were snoring, +with their feet to the fire. I muttered good night, and seizing my cap +went off. To gain my quarters, I had to walk across the open under the +beech-tree. I had just reached this tree, and was passing through the +shadow under the branches, when the sound of a light footstep at my +heels startled me, and turning in my tracks I surprised the one-eyed +German. + +'Well,' I said wrathfully--I was not in the best of tempers at +losing--'what do you want?' + +The action and the challenge took him aback. 'Want?' he grumbled, +recoiling a step. 'Nothing. Is this your private property?' + +He had _thief_ written all over his fat, pale face, and I knew very +well what private property he wanted. If I ever saw a sneaking, +hang-dog visage it was his! The more I looked at him the more I +loathed him. + +'Go!' I said; 'get home, you cur! or I will break every bone in your +body.' + +He glared at me with a curse in his one eye, but he saw that I was too +big for him. Besides, General Tzerclas lay reading by his fire thirty +paces away. Baffled and furious, the rascal slunk off with a muttered +word, and went back the way he had come. + +I found Ernst on guard, and after seeing to the fire and hearing that +all was well, I lay down beside him in my cloak. But I found it less +easy to sleep. The firelight, playing among the leaves and branches +overhead, formed likenesses of the men I had left, now grotesque +masks, and now scowling faces, fierce-eyed and grim. Von Werder's +warning, too, recurred to me with added weight and would not leave me +at peace. I wondered what he meant; I wondered what he suspected, +still more, what he knew. + +And yet had I need to wonder, or do more than look round and use my +wits? What was our position? How were we situate? In the camp and in +the hands of a soldier of fortune; a man cold and polite, probably +cruel and possibly brutal, lacking enthusiasm, lacking, or I was +mistaken, religion, without any check save such as his ambition or +fears imposed upon him. And for his power, I saw him surrounded by +desperadoes, soldiers in name, banditti in fact, savage, reckless, and +unscrupulous; the men, or the twin-brothers of the men, who under +another banner had sacked Magdeburg and ravaged Halle. + +What was to prevent such a man making his advantage out of us? What +was to prevent him marching back to Heritzburg and seizing town and +castle under cover of my lady's name, or detaining us as long as he +saw fit, or as suited his purpose? The Landgrave and his Minister were +far away, plunged in the turmoil of a great war. The Emperor's +authority was at an end. The Saxon circle to which we belonged was +disorganized. All law, all order, all administration outside the walls +of the cities were in abeyance. In his own camp and as far beyond it +as his sword could reach the soldier of fortune was lord, absolute and +uncontrolled. + +This trouble kept me turning and tossing for a good hour. At one +moment, I made up my mind to rouse my lady before it was light and be +gone with the dawn, if I could persuade her; at another, I judged it +better to wait until the camp was struck and the horses were saddled, +and then to bid Tzerclas, while our numbers were something like equal, +go his way and let us go ours--to Frankfort or Cassel, or wherever +strong walls and honest citizens, with wives and daughters of their +own, held out a prospect of safety. + +The mind once roused to activity works, whether a man will or no. When +I had thought that matter threadbare, I fell, in my own despite and to +my great torment, on another; the gold necklace. Through the day, and +pending some opportunity of restoring the chain by stealth, I had +shunned its owner. Her dejection, her silence, the way in which she +drooped in the saddle, all had reproached me. To avoid that reproach, +still more to avoid the meekness of her eyes, I had ridden at a +distance from her, sometimes at the head of our company, sometimes at +the tail, but never where she rode. And all day I had had a dozen +things to consider. + +Yet, in spite of this care and preoccupation, I had not succeeded in +keeping her out of my mind. At fords and broken bits of the road, or +at steep places where the track wound above the Werra, the thought, +'How will she cross this?' had occurred to me, so that I had found it +hard to hold off from her at such places. And, then, there was the +necklace. It burned in my pocket. It made me feel, whenever my hand +lighted on it, like a thief, and as mean as the meanest. For a time, +it is true, after our meeting with Tzerclas, I had managed to forget +it; but now, in the watches of the night, I was consumed with longing +to be rid of the thing, to see it back in her possession, to close the +matter before some inconceivable trick of spiteful fortune put it out +of my power to do so. For, what if an accident happened to me and the +chain were found in my pocket? What would she think of me then? Or if +the last accident of all befell me, and she never got her own? + +These imaginations, working in a mind already fevered, spurred me so +painfully that I felt I could hardly wait till morning. Two or three +times in the night I rose on my elbow and looked round the sleeping +camp, and wished that I could return the chain to her then and there. + +I could not. And at last, not long before daybreak, I fell asleep. But +even then the chain did not leave me at peace. It haunted my dreams. +It slid through my fingers and fell away into unfathomable depths. Or +a man with his face hidden dangled it before my eyes, and went away, +away, away, while I stood unable to move hand or foot. Or I was +digging in a pit for it, digging with nails and bleeding fingers, +believing it to be another inch, always another inch below, yet never +able to reach it however hard I worked. + +I awoke at last, bathed in perspiration and unrefreshed, to find the +sun an hour up and the camp beginning to stir itself. Here and there a +man was renewing the fires, while his fellows sat up yawning, or, +crouching chin and knees together, looked on drowsily. The chill +morning air, the curling smoke, the song of the lark as it soared into +the blue heaven, the snort and neigh of the tethered horses, the +sounds of waking life and reality seemed to bless me. I thanked Heaven +it was a dream. + +Young Jacob was tending our fire, and I sat awhile, watching him +sleepily. 'It will be a fine day,' I said at last, preparing to get to +my feet. + +'For certain,' he answered. Then he looked at me shyly. 'You were in +the wars, last night, Master Martin?' he said. + +'In the wars?' I exclaimed. 'What do you mean?' And I stared at him; +waiting, with one knee and one foot on the ground for his answer. + +He pointed to my cloak. I looked down, and saw to my surprise a great +slit in it--a clean cut in the stuff, a foot long. For a moment I +looked at the slit, wondering stupidly and trying to remember how I +could have done it. Then a sudden flash, of intelligence entered my +mind, and with a dreadful pang of terror, I thrust my hand into my +pouch. The chain was gone! + +I sprang to my feet. I tore off the pouch and peered into it. I shook +my clothes like one possessed. I stooped and searched the ground where +I had lain. But all fruitlessly. The chain was gone! + +As soon as I knew this for certain, I turned on Jacob, and seizing him +by the throat, shook him to and fro. 'Wretch!' I said. 'You have +slept! You have slept and let us be robbed! You have ruined me!' + +He gurgled out a startled denial, and the others came round us and got +him from me. But my outcry had roused all our part of the camp; even +my lady put her head out of the tent and asked what was the matter. +Some one told her. + +'That is bad,' she said kindly. 'What is it you have lost, Martin?' + +Over her shoulder I saw a pale face peer out--Marie Wort's; and on the +instant I felt my rage die down into a miserable chill, the chill of +despair. + +'Seven ducats,' I said sullenly, looking down at the ground, for the +truth, at sight of her, crushed me. I was a thief! This had made me +one. Who was I to cry out that I was robbed? + +'It must be one of the strangers,' my lady said in a low voice and +with an air of disturbance. 'Do you----' + +I sprang away without waiting to hear more--they must have thought me +mad. I tore to the spot where I had diced the night before. Three or +four men sat round the fire, swearing and grumbling, as is the manner +of their kind in the morning; but the man I wanted was not among them. + +'Where is Ludwig?' I panted. 'Where is he?' + +A form, wrapped head and all in a cloak, struggled for a moment with +its coverings, and freeing itself at last, rose to a sitting posture. +It was Captain Ludwig. + +'Who wants me?' he muttered sleepily. + +'I!' I cried, stooping and seizing him by the shoulder. I was +trembling with excitement. 'I have been robbed! Do you hear, man? I +have been robbed! In the night!' + +He shook me off impatiently. 'Well, what is that to me?' he grunted. +And he turned to warm himself. + +'Where is the Saxon who sat by me last night?' I demanded, almost +beside myself with fury. + +'How do I know?' he answered, shrugging his shoulders peevishly. +'Robbed? Well, you are not the first person that has been robbed. You +need not make such an outcry about it. There is more than one thief +about, eh, Taddeo?' And he winked cunningly at his comrade. + +The man's indifference maddened me. I could scarcely keep my hands off +him. Fortunately, Taddeo's answer put an end to my doubts. + + +[Illustration: . . . Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, +continued to stamp and scream . . .] + + +'There is one less, at any rate, captain,' he said carelessly, +stooping forward to stir the embers. 'The Saxon is gone.' + +'Himmel! He has, has he? Without leave?' Ludwig answered. 'The worse +for him if we catch him, that is all!' + +'He went off with the German and his servants an hour before sunrise,' +Taddeo said with a yawn. + +'He had better not let our noble general overtake him!' Ludwig +answered grimly, while I stood still, stricken dumb by the news. 'But +enough of that. Where is my cap?' + +Taddeo pushed it towards him with his foot, and he took it up and put +it on. He had no sooner done so, however, than a thought seemed to +strike him. He snatched the cap off again, and, plunging his hand into +it, groped in the lining. The next instant he sprang to his feet with +a howl of rage. + +Taddeo looked at him in astonishment. 'What is it?' he asked. + +For answer, Ludwig ran at him and dealt him a tremendous kick. 'There, +pig, that is for you!' he cried vengefully, his eyes almost starting +from his head. 'You will not ask what it is next time! That Saxon +hound has robbed me--that is what it is. But he shall pay for it. He +shall hang before night! Every ducat I had he has taken, pig, dog, +vermin that he is! But I'll be even with him. I'll lash----' + +And Master Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued +to stamp and scream so loudly that in the end Tzerclas overheard him, +and appeared. + +'What is this?' the general said harshly. 'Is that man mad?' + +Ludwig grew a little calmer at sight of him. 'The Saxon, Heller,' he +answered, scowling. 'He has deserted with fifty ducats of mine, +general; good honest money!' + +'The worse for you,' Tzerclas answered cynically. 'And the worse for +him, if I catch him. He will hang.' + +'He has taken a gold chain of mine also,' I said, thrusting myself +forward. + +The general looked hard at me. 'Umph!' he said. 'Which way has he +gone?' + +'He left with the German gentleman and his two servants at daybreak,' +Taddeo answered, rubbing himself. 'I thought that he had orders to go +with them.' + +'He has gone north, then?' + +'North they started,' Taddeo whimpered. + +The general turned to Ludwig. 'Take two men,' he said curtly, 'and +follow him. But, whether you catch him or not, see that you are back +two hours before noon. And let me have no more noise.' + +Ludwig saluted hastily, and, it will be believed, lost no time in +obeying his orders. In two minutes he was in the saddle, and dashed +out of camp, followed by two of his men and one of my lady's, whom I +took leave to add to the party for the better care of my property, +should it be recovered. I looked after them with longing eyes, and +listened to the last beat of the hoofs as they passed through the +forest. And then for three hours I had to wait in a dreadful state of +suspense and inaction. At the end of that time the party rode in +again, the horses bloody with spurring, the riders gloomy and +chapfallen. They had galloped four leagues without coming on the +slightest trace of the fugitive or his companions. + +'The German never went north,' Ludwig said, looking darkly at his +chief. + +Tzerclas smoothed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. 'Are you +sure of that?' he asked. + +'Quite, general. They have all gone south together,' Ludwig answered, +'and are far enough away by this time.' + +'Umph! Well, we start in an hour.' + +And that was all! I wandered away and stood staring at the ground. I +remembered that Peter the locksmith had valued the chain at two +hundred ducats, a sum exceeding any I could pay. But that was not the +worst. What was I to say to the girl? How was I to explain a piece of +folly, mischief, call it what you will, that had turned out so badly? +If I told her the truth, would she believe me? + +At that thought I started. Why tell her the truth at all? Why not +leave her in ignorance? She would be none the worse, for the chain was +gone. And I, who had never meant to steal it, should be the better, +seeing that I should escape the humiliation of confessing what I had +done. Confession could do no good to her. And in what a position it +would place me! + +Leaning against a tree and driving my heel moodily into the soil, I +was still battling with this temptation--for a temptation I knew it +was, even then--when a light touch fell on my sleeve. I turned, and +there was the girl herself, waiting to speak to me! + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + NEAR THE EDGE. + + +'Will you give me back my--my chain, if you please?' she said timidly. + +And she stood with clasped hands and blushing cheeks, as if she were +the culprit. Her eyes looked anywhere to avoid mine. Her voice +trembled, and she seemed ready to sink into the earth with shame. She +was small, weak, helpless. But her words! Had they come from the judge +sitting on his bench, with axe and branding-iron by his side, they +could not have cowed me more completely, or deprived me more quickly +of wit and courage. + +'Your chain?' I stammered, stricken almost voiceless. 'What do you +mean?' + +'If you please,' she whispered, her face flushing more and more, her +eyes filling. 'My chain.' + +'But how--what makes you think that I have got it?' I muttered +hoarsely. 'What makes you come to me?' + +To confess, of my own motive and unsuspected, had been bad enough and +shameful enough; but to be accused, unmasked, convicted--and by her! +This was too much. My face burned, my eyes were hot as fire. + +She twisted the fingers of one hand tightly round the other, but she +did not look up. 'You took it from the child's neck as we passed +through the ford,' she said in a low voice, 'that night I lost it.' + +'I did!' I exclaimed. 'I did, girl?' + +She nodded firmly, her lip trembling. But she never looked up; nor +into my face! + +Yet her insistence angered me. How did she know, how could she know? I +put the question into words. 'How do you know?' I said harshly. 'Who +told you so? Who told you this--this lie, woman?' + +'The child,' she answered, shivering under my words. + +I opened my mouth and drew in my breath. I had never thought of that. +I had never thought, save once for a brief moment, of the child +talking, and, on the instant, I stood speechless; convicted and +confounded! Then I found my voice again. + +'The child told you!' I muttered incredulously. 'The child? Why, it +cannot talk!' + +'It can,' she said, her voice breaking. 'It can talk to me, and I can +understand it. Oh, I am so sorry!' And with that she broke down. She +turned away and, covering her face with her hands, began to sob +bitterly. Her shoulders heaved, and her slender frame shook with the +storm. + +A thief, and a liar! That was what I had made myself. I stood glaring +at her, my breast full of sullen passion. I hated her and her +necklace. I wished that it had been buried a thousand fathoms deep in +the sea! That moment in the ford, one moment only, a moment of folly, +had wrecked me. I raged against her and against myself. I could have +struck her. If she had only left me alone, if she had not come to +question me and accuse me, I should not have lied; and then, perhaps, +I might have recovered the necklace, somehow and some day, and, giving +it back to her, told her the story and kept my honesty. Now I had +lied, and she knew it. And I hated her. I hated her, sobbing and +shaking and shivering before me. + +And then a ray of sunlight, passing through the branches, fell on her +bowed head. A hundred paces away, little more, they were striking the +camp. The men's voices, their harsh jests and rude laughter, reached +us. I heard one man called, and another, and orders given, and the +jingle of the bits and bridles. All was unchanged, everything was +proceeding in its usual course. One thing only in the world was +altered--Martin Schwartz, the steward. + +I found no words to lie to her farther, to deny or protest; and when +we had stood thus for a short time, she turned. She began to move +slowly away from me, though the passion of her tears seemed to +increase rather than slacken as she went, and shook her frame with +such vehemence that she could scarcely walk. + +For a time I stood looking after her in sullen shame, doing and saying +nothing to stay her. Then, suddenly, a change came over me. She looked +so friendless, so frail, and gentle and helpless, that, in the middle +of my selfish shame, my heart smote me. I felt a sudden welling up of +pity and repentance, which worked so quickly and wonderfully in me, +that before she had gone a score of paces from me, my hand was on her +shoulder. + +'Stop! Stay a moment!' I muttered hoarsely. 'I have been lying to you. +I took the necklace--from the child's neck. It is all true.' + +She ceased crying, but she did not turn or look at me. She seemed to +be struggling for composure, and presently, with her face still +averted, she murmured-- + +'Why did you take it? Will you please to tell me?' + +As well as I could, I did tell her; how and why I had taken it, what I +had done with it, and how I had lost it. She listened, but she made no +sign, she said nothing; and her silence hurt me at last so keenly that +I added with bitterness-- + +'I lied before, and you need not believe what I say now. Still, it is +true.' + +She turned her face quickly to me, and I saw that her cheeks were hot +and her eyes shining. 'I believe it--every word,' she said. + +'I will not lie to you again.' + +'You never did,' she answered. And she stole a glance at me, a faint +smile flickering about her lips. 'Your face never did, Master Martin.' + +'Yet you wept sore enough for your chain,' I said. + +She looked at me for a moment with something like anger in her gentle +eyes, so that for that instant she seemed transformed. And she drew +away from me. + +'Did you think that I wept for that?' she said in a tone of offence. +'I did not.' + +'Then for what?' I asked clumsily. + +She looked two or three ways before she answered, and in the distance +some one called me. + +'There! you are wanted,' she said hurriedly. + +'But you have not answered my question,' I said. + +She took a step from me and paused, with her head half turned. 'I +wept--I wept because I thought that I had lost a friend,' she said in +a low voice. 'And I have few, Master Martin.' + +She was gone, before I could answer, through the trees and back to the +camp. And I had to follow. Half a dozen voices in half a dozen places +were calling my name. The general's trumpet was sounding. I slipped +aside and joined the camp from another quarter, and in a moment was in +the middle of the hubbub, beset by restive horses and swaying poles, +clanging kettles and swearing riders, and all the hurry and confusion +of the start. My lady called to me sharply to know where I had been, +and why I was late. The Waldgrave wanted this, Fraulein Max that. The +general frowned at me from afar. It would have been no great wonder if +I had lost my temper. + +But I did not; I was in no risk of doing so. I had gone near the edge +and had been plucked back. Late, and when all seemed over, I had been +given a place for repentance; and gratitude and relief so filled my +breast that I had a smile for every one. The sun seemed to shine more +brightly, the wind to blow more softly--the wind which blew from Marie +Wort to me. Thank God! + +As I fell in behind my lady--the general riding alone some way in the +rear--the Waldgrave came up and took his place at her side; greeting +her with an awkward air which seemed to prove that this was his first +appearance in her neighbourhood. He made a show of hiding his +uneasiness under a face of careless gaiety, such as was his natural +wear; and for awhile he rattled on gallantly. But my lady's cool tone +and short answers soon stripped him, and left him with no other +resource but to take offence. He took it, and for a mile or so rode on +in gloomy silence, brooding over his wrongs. Then, anger giving way to +self-reproach, he grew tired of this. + +With a sudden gesture he leaned over and laid his hand on the withers +of my lady's horse. 'Tell me, what is the matter, fair cousin?' he +said in a softened tone. 'What have I done?' + +'You should know,' she answered, giving him one keen glance, but +speaking more gently than before. + +'I know?' he replied hardily. 'I am sure I don't.' + +My lady shook her head. 'I think you do,' she said. + +'I suppose you are angry with me for--for standing up for Germany last +night?' he muttered, withdrawing his hand and speaking coldly in his +turn. + +'No, not for that,' my lady rejoined. 'Certainly not for that. But for +being too German in one of your habits, Rupert. Which do you think +made the better figure last night--you who were flushed with wine, or +General Tzerclas who kept his head cool? You who bragged like a boy, +or General Tzerclas who said less than he meant? You who were rude to +your host; or he who made every allowance for his guest?' + +'Allowance!' my lord cried, firing up at the word. And I could see +that he reddened to the nape of his neck with anger. 'There was no +need!' + +'Yes, allowance,' my lady answered firmly. 'There was every need.' + +'You would have me drink nothing, I suppose?' he said fretting and +fuming. + +'I would rather you drank nothing than too much,' she replied. +'Because a German and a drunkard have come to mean the same thing, is +that a reason for deepening the reproach? For shame, Rupert!' + +'You treat me like a boy!' he cried bitterly. And I thought that she +was hard on him. + +'Well, you have only yourself to thank,' she retorted cruelly, 'if I +do. You behave like a boy. And I do not like to have to blush for my +friends.' + +That cut him deeply. He uttered a half-stifled cry of anger and reined +in his horse. 'You have said enough,' he said, speaking thickly. 'You +shall have no farther cause to blush in my case. I will relieve you.' +And on the instant, with a low bow, he turned his horse's head and +rode down the column towards the rear, leaving my lady to go on alone. + +I confess I thought that she had been hard on him; perhaps she thought +so too, now he was gone. And here were the beginnings of a pretty +quarrel. But I did not guess the direction it was likely to take, +until a horseman spurred quickly by me, and in a moment General +Tzerclas, his velvet cloak hanging at his shoulder, had taken the +Waldgrave's place, and with his head bent low over his horse's neck +was talking to my lady. I saw him indicate this and that quarter with +his gauntleted hand. I could fancy that this was Cassel, and that +Frankfort, and another his camp, and that he was proposing plans and +routes. But what he said I could not hear. He had a low, quiet way of +talking, very characteristic of him, which flattered those to whom he +addressed himself and baffled others. + +And this, I suppose, it was that made me suspicious. For the longer I +rode behind him and the more I considered him, the less I liked both +him and the prospect. He was in the prime of his age and strength, +inferior to the Waldgrave in height and the air of youth, but superior +in that which the other lacked--the bearing of a man of the world, +tried by good and evil fortune, and versed in many perils. Cool and +resolute, handsome in a hard-bitten fashion, gifted, as I guessed, +with infinite address, he possessed much to take the fancy of a woman; +particularly of such a one as my lady, long used to comfort, and now +learning in ill-fortune the value of a strong arm. + +The possibility of such an alliance, thus suddenly thrust on my +notice, chilled me. Anything, I said, rather than that. The Waldgrave +had not left his post five minutes before I began to think of him with +longing, before I began to invest him with all manner of virtues. At +least, he was a German, of a great and noble family, tied to the soil, +and fettered in his dealings by a hundred traditions; while this man +riding before me possessed not one of these qualities! + +Von Werder's warning, which the loss of Marie Wort's necklace had +driven from my mind for a time, recurred with double force now, and +did not tend to reassure me. I listened with all my might, trying to +learn whether my lady was pledging herself to any course, for I knew +that if she once promised I should find it hard to move her. But I +could not catch a syllable, and presently there came an interruption +which diverted my thoughts. + +One of the two men who rode in front, and served for the advanced +guard of our party, came galloping back with his hand raised and a +grin on his dark face. He pulled up his horse a few paces short of +General Tzerclas and my lady, and reported that he had found the +Saxon. + +'What! Heller?' the general exclaimed. 'Here, Ludwig! Where are you?' + +Ludwig, and I, and two or three more, spurred forward, and passing by +my lady, who reined in her horse, came a hundred paces farther on upon +the other trooper. He had dismounted and was stooping over a man's +body, which lay under a great tree that stood a few yards from the +track. + +'So, so? He is dead, is he?' the captain cried, leaping from his +saddle. + +'Ay, this hour or more,' the trooper answered with a grunt. 'And +robbed!' + +'Robbed?' Ludwig shrieked. 'Then you have done it, you scoundrel.' + +'Not I!' the fellow said coolly. 'Who ever it was killed him, robbed +him. You can see for yourself that he has been dead an hour or more.' + +The sudden hope which had dawned in my breast sank again. The man lay +on his back, with his one eye staring, and his mean, livid face turned +up to the tree and the sunshine. His cap had fallen off, and a shock +of hay-coloured hair added to the horror of his appearance. I tried in +vain to hide a qualm as I watched the soldiers passing their practised +hands over his clothes; but I was alone in this. No one else seemed to +feel any emotion. The dead man lay and his comrades searched him, and +I heard a hundred ribald and loose things said, but not one that +smacked of pity or regret. So the man had lived, without love or +mercy, and so he died. + +Ludwig stood up at last. 'He has not the worth of his boots upon him!' +he said, with a savage snarl. And he kicked the body. + +'Look in his cap!' I said. + +A man took it up, but only to hold it out to me. Some one had already +ripped it up with a knife. + +'His boots!' I suggested desperately. + +In a moment they were drawn off, turned up, and shaken. But nothing +fell out. The dead man had been stripped clean. There was not so much +as a silver piece upon him. + +We got to horse gloomily, one man the richer by his belt, another by +his boots. His arms were gone already. And so we left him lying under +the tree for the next traveller to bury, if he pleased. I know it has +an ill sound now, but we were in an evil mood, and the times were +rough. + +'The dog is dead, let the dog lie!' one growled. And that was his +epitaph. + +With him disappeared, as it seemed to me, my last chance of recovering +the necklace. Whoever had robbed him, that was gone. A week might see +it pass through a score of hands, a day might see it broken up, and +spent, a link here and a link there. It was gone, and I had to face +the fact and make up my mind to its consequences. + +I am bound to say that the reflection gave me less pain than I could +have believed possible a few hours before. Then it would almost have +maddened me. Now it troubled me, but not beyond endurance, leading me +to go over with a jealous eye all the particulars of my interview with +Marie, but renewing none of the shame which had attended the first +discovery of my loss. By turning my head I could see the girl plodding +patiently on, a little behind me in the ranks; and I turned often. It +no longer pained me to meet her eyes. + +An hour before sunset we crossed the brow of a low, furze-covered +hill, and saw before us a shallow green valley or basin, through which +the river wound in a hundred zigzags. The hovels of a small village, +with one or two houses of a better size, stood dotted about the banks +of the stream. Over the largest of the buildings a banner hung idly on +a pole, and from this as from the centre of a circle ran out long rows +of wattled huts, which in the distance looked like bee-hives. Endless +ranks of horses stood hobbled in another place, with a forest of carts +and sledges, and here a drove of oxen, and there a monstrous flock of +sheep. One of the men with us blew a few notes on a trumpet; and the +sound, being taken up at once and repeated, in a moment filled the +mimic streets with a hurrying, buzzing crowd, that lent the scene all +the animation possible. + +'So, this is your camp?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. + +'This is my camp,' General Tzerclas answered quietly. 'And it and I +are equally at your service. Presently we will bid you welcome after a +more fitting fashion, Countess.' + +'And how many men have you here?' she asked quickly. + +'Two thousand,' he answered, with a faint smile. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + OUR QUARTERS. + + +At this time I had never seen a camp, nor viewed any large number of +armed men together, and my curiosity, as we dropped gently down the +hill, while the sun set and the shadows of evening fell upon the busy +scene, was mingled with some uneasiness. The babble of voices, of +traders crying their wares, of men quarrelling at play, of women +screaming and scolding, rose up continually, as from a fair; and the +nearer we approached the more like a fair, the less like my +anticipations, seemed the place we were entering. I looked to see +something gay and splendid, the glitter of weapons and the gleam of +flags, some reflection of the rich surroundings the general allowed +himself. I saw nothing of the kind; no show of ordered lines, no +battalia drilling, no picquets, outposts, or sentinels. On the +contrary, all before us seemed squalid, noisy, turbulent; so that as I +descended into the midst of it, and left the quiet uplands and the +evening behind us, I felt my gorge rise, and shivered as with cold. + +A furlong short of the camp a troop of officers on horseback came to +meet us, and saluting their general--some with hiccoughs--fell in +tumultuously behind us; and their feathered hats and haphazard armour +took the eye finely. But the next to meet us were of a different +kind--beggars; troops of whom, men, women, and children, assailed us +with loud cries, and, wailing and imploring aid, ran beside our +horses, until Tzerclas' men rode out at them and beat them off. To +these succeeded a second horde, this time of gaudy, slatternly women, +who hung about the entrance to the camp, with hucksters, peddlers, +thieves, and the like, without number; so that our way seemed to lie +through the lowest haunts of a great city. Not one in four of all I +saw had the air of a soldier or counted himself one. + +And this was the case inside the camp as well as outside. Everywhere +booths and stalls stood among the huts, and sutlers plied their trade. +Everywhere men wrangled, and women screamed, and naked children +scuttered up and down. While we passed, the general's presence +procured momentary respect and silence. The moment we were gone, the +stream of ribaldry poured across our path, and the tide of riot set +in. I saw plenty of bearded ruffians, dark men with scowling faces, +chaffering, gaming or sleeping; but little that was soldierly, little +that was orderly, nothing to proclaim that this was the lager of a +military force, until we had left the camp itself behind us and +entered the village. + +Here in a few scattered houses were the quarters of the principal +officers; and here a degree of quiet and decency and some show met the +eye. A watch was set in the street, which was ankle-deep in filth. A +few pennons fluttered from the eaves, or before the doors. In front of +the largest house a dozen cannon, the wheels locked together with +chains, were drawn up, and behind the buildings were groups of +tethered horses. Two trumpeters, who seemed to be waiting for us, blew +a blast as we appeared, and a dozen officers on foot, some with pikes +and some with partisans, came up to greet the general. But even here +ugly looks and insolent faces were plentiful. The splendour was faded, +the rich garments were set on awry. Hard by the cannon, in the shadow +of the house, a corpse hung and dangled from the branch of an oak. The +man had kicked off his shoes before he died, or some one had taken +them, and the naked feet, shining in the dusk, brushed the shoulders +of the passers-by. + +Some might have taken it for an evil omen; I found it a good one, yet +wished more than ever that we had not met General Tzerclas. But my +lady, riding beside him and listening to his low-voiced talk, seemed +not a whit disappointed by what she saw, by the lack of discipline, or +the sordid crowd. Either she had known better than I what to expect in +a camp, or she had eyes only for such brightness as existed. Possibly +Von Werder's warning had so coloured my vision that I saw everything +in sombre tints. + +We found quarters prepared for us, not in the general's house, the +large one by the cannon, but in a house of four rooms, a little +farther down the street. It was convenient, it had been cleaned for +us, and we found a meal awaiting us; and so far I was bound to confess +that we had no ground for complaint. The general accompanied my lady +to the door, and there left her with many bows, requesting permission +to wait on her next day, and begging her in the mean time to send to +him for anything that was lacking to her comfort. + +When he was gone, and my lady had surveyed the place, she let her +satisfaction be seen. The main room had been made habitable enough. +She stood in her redingote, tapping the table with her whip. + +'Well, Martin, this is better than the forest,' she said. + +'Yes, your excellency,' I answered reluctantly. + +'I think we have done very well,' she continued; and she smiled to +herself. + +'We are safe from the rain, at any rate,' I said bluntly. My tongue +itched to tell her Von Werder's warning, but Fraulein Anna and Marie +Wort were in the room, and I did not think it safe to speak. + +I could not stay and not tell, however, and I jumped at the first +excuse for retiring. There was a kind of wooden platform in front of +the houses, and running their whole length; a walk, raised out of the +mud of the street and sheltered overhead by the low, wide eaves. A +woman and some children had climbed on to it, and begging with their +palms through the windows almost deafened us. I ran out and drove them +off, and set a man in front to keep the place free. But the wretched +creatures' entreaties haunted me, and when I returned I was in a worse +temper than before. + +The Waldgrave met me at the door, and to my surprise laid his hand on +my shoulder. 'This way, Martin,' he said in a low voice. 'I want a +word with you.' + +I went with him across the road, and leaned against the fallen trunk +of a tree, which was just visible in the darkness. Through the +unglazed windows of the house we could see the lighted rooms, the +Countess and her attendants moving about, Fraulein Anna sitting with +her feet tucked up in a corner, the servants bringing in the meal. All +in a frame of blackness, with the hoarse sounds of the camp in our +ears, and the pitiful wailing of the beggars dying away in the +distance. It was a dark night, and still. + +The Waldgrave laughed. 'Dilly, dilly, dilly! Come and be killed,' he +muttered. 'Two thousand soldiers? Two thousand cut-throats, Martin. +Pappenheim's black riders were gentlemen beside these fellows!' + +'Things may look more cheerful by daylight,' I said. + +'Or worse!' he answered. + +I told him frankly that I thought the sooner we were out of the camp +the better. + +'If we can get out! Of course, it is better for the mouse when it is +out of the trap!' he answered with a sneer. 'But there is the rub.' + +'He would not dare to detain us,' I said. I did not believe my words, +however. + +'He will dare one of two things,' the Waldgrave answered firmly, 'you +may be sure of that: either he will march your lady back to +Heritzburg, and take possession in her name, with this tail at his +heels--in which case, Heaven help her and the town. Or he will keep +her here.' + +I tried to think that he was prejudiced in the matter, and that his +jealousy of General Tzerclas led him to see evil where none was meant. +But his fears agreed so exactly with my own, that I found it difficult +to treat his suggestions lightly. What the camp was, I had seen; how +helpless we were in the midst of it, I knew; what advantage might be +taken of us, I could imagine. + +Presently I found an argument. 'You forget one thing, my lord,' I +said. 'General Tzerclas is on his way to the south. In a week we shall +be with the main army at Nuremberg, and able to appeal to the King of +Sweden or the Landgrave or a hundred friends, ready and willing to +help us.' + +The Waldgrave laid his hand on my arm. 'He does not intend to go +south,' he said. + +I could not believe that; and I was about to state my objections when +the noisy march of a body of men approaching along the road disturbed +us. The Waldgrave raised his hand and listened. + +'Another time!' he muttered--already we began to fear and be +secret--'Go now!' + +In a trice he disappeared in the darkness, while I went more slowly +into the house, where I found my lady inquiring anxiously after him. I +thought that the young lord would follow me in, and I said I had seen +him. But he did not come, and presently wild strains of music, rising +on the air outside, took us all by surprise and effectually diverted +my lady's thoughts. + +The players proved to be the general's band, sent to serenade us. +As the weird, strange sweetness of the air, with its southern turns +and melancholy cadences, stole into the room and held the women +entranced--while moths fluttered round the lights and the servants +pressed to the door to listen, and now and then a harsh scream or a +distant oath betrayed the surrounding savagery--I felt my eyes drawn +to my lady's face. She sat listening with a rapt expression. Her eyes +were downcast, her lashes drooped and veiled them; but some pleasant +thought, some playful remembrance curved her full lips and dimpled her +chin. What was the thought, I wondered? was it gratification, +pleasure, complacency, or only amusement? I longed to know. + +On one point I was resolved. My lady should not sleep that night until +she had heard the warning I had received from Von Werder. To that end +I did all I could to catch her alone, but in the result I had to +content myself with an occasion when only Fraulein Anna was with her. +Time pressed, and perhaps the Dutch girl's presence confused me, or +the delicacy of the position occurred to me _in mediis rebus_, as I +think the Fraulein called it. At any rate, I blurted out the story a +little too roughly, and found myself called sharply to order. + +'Stay!' my lady said, and I saw too late that her colour was high. +'Not so fast, man! I think, Martin, that since we left Heritzburg you +have lost some of your manners! See to it, you recover them. Who told +you this tale?' + +'Herr von Werder,' I answered with humility; and I was going on with +my story. But she raised her hand. + +'Herr von Werder!' she said haughtily. 'Who is he?' + +'The gentleman who supped with us last night,' I reminded her. + +She stamped the floor impatiently. 'Fool!' she cried, 'I know that! +But who is he? Who is he? He should be some great man to prate of my +affairs so lightly.' + +I stuttered and stammered, and felt my cheek redden with shame. _I did +not know_. And the man was not here, and I could not reproduce for her +the air of authority, the tone and look which had imposed on me: which +had given weight to words I might otherwise have slighted, and +importance to a warning that I now remembered was a stranger's. I +stood, looking foolish. + +My lady saw her advantage. 'Well,' she said harshly, 'who is he? Out +with it, man! Do not keep us waiting.' + +I muttered that I knew no more of him than his name. + +'Perhaps not that,' she retorted scornfully. + +I admitted that it might be so. + +My lady's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flamed. 'Before Heaven, you are +a fool!' she cried. 'How dare you come to me with such a story? How +dare you traduce a man without proof or warranty! And my cousin! Why, +it passes belief. On the word of a nameless wanderer admitted to our +table on sufferance you accuse an honourable gentleman, our kinsman +and our host, of--Heaven knows of what, I don't! I tell you, you shame +me!' she continued vehemently. 'You abuse my kindness. You abuse the +shelter given to us. You must be mad, stark mad, to think such things. +Or----' + +She stopped on a sudden and looked down frowning. When she looked up +again her face was changed. 'Tell me,' she said in a constrained +voice, 'did any one--did the Waldgrave Rupert suggest this to you?' + +'God forbid!' I said. + +The answer seemed to embarrass her. 'Where is he?' she asked, looking +at me suspiciously. + +I told her that I did not know. + +'Why did he not come to supper?' she persisted. + +Again I said I did not know. + +'You are a fool!' she replied sharply. But I saw that her anger had +died down, and I was not surprised when she continued in a changed +tone, 'Tell me; what has General Tzerclas done to you that you dislike +him so? What is your grudge against him, Martin?' + +'I have no grudge against him, your excellency,' I answered. + +'You dislike him?' + +I looked down and kept silence. + +'I see you do,' my lady continued. 'Why? Tell me why, Martin.' + +But I felt so certain that every word I said against him would in her +present mood only set him higher in her favour that I was resolved not +to answer. At last, being pressed, I told her that I distrusted him as +a soldier of fortune--a class the country folk everywhere hold in +abhorrence; and that nothing I had seen in his camp had tended to +lessen the feeling. + +'A soldier of fortune!' she replied, with a slight tinge of wonder and +scorn. 'What of that? My uncle was one. Lord Craven, the Englishman, +the truest knight-errant that ever followed banished queen--if all I +hear be true--he is one; and his comrade, the Lord Horace Vere. And +Count Leslie, the Scotchman, who commands in Stralsund for the Swede, +I never heard aught but good of him. And Count Thurn of Bohemia--him I +know. He is a brave man and honourable. A soldier of fortune!' she +continued thoughtfully, tapping the table with her fingers. 'And why +not? Why not?' + +My choler rose at her words. 'He has the sweepings of Germany in his +train,' I muttered. 'Look at his camp, my lady.' + +She shrugged her shoulders. 'A camp is not a nunnery,' she said. 'And +at any rate, he is on the right side.' + +'His own!' I exclaimed. + +I could have bitten my tongue the next moment, but it was too late. My +lady looked at me sternly. 'You grow too quick-witted,' she said. 'I +have talked too much to you, I see. I am no longer in Heritzburg, but +I will be respected, Martin. Go! go at once, and to-morrow be more +careful.' + +Result--that I had offended her and done no good. I wondered what the +Waldgrave would say, and I went to bed with a heart full of fancies +and forebodings, that, battening on themselves, grew stronger and more +formidable the longer I lay awake. The night was well advanced and the +immediate neighbourhood of our quarters was quiet. The sentry's +footsteps echoed monotonously as he tramped up and down the wooden +platform before them. I could almost hear the breathing of the +sleepers in the other rooms, the creak of the floor as one rose or +another turned. There was nothing to keep me from sleep. + +But my thoughts would not be confined to the four walls or the +neighbourhood; my ears lent themselves to every sound that came from +the encircling camp, the coarse song chanted by drunken revellers, the +oath of anger, the shrill taunt, the cry of surprise. And once, a +little before midnight, I heard something more than these: a sudden +roar of voices that swelled up and up, louder and fiercer, and then +died in a moment into silence--to be followed an instant later by +fierce screams of pain--shriek upon shriek of such mortal agony and +writhing that I sat up on my pallet, trembling all over and bathed in +perspiration; and even the sleepers turned and moaned in their dreams. +The cries grew fainter. Then, thank Heaven! silence. + +But the incident left me in no better mood for sleep, and with every +nerve on the stretch I was turning on the other side for the twentieth +time when I fancied I heard whispering outside; a faint muttering as +of some one talking to the sentinel. The sentry's step still kept +time, however, and I was beginning to think that my imagination had +played me a trick, when the creak of a door in the house, followed by +a rustling sound, confirmed my suspicions. I rose to my feet. The next +instant a low scream and the harsh voice of the watchman told me that +something had happened. + +I passed out of the house, without alarming any one, and was not +surprised to find Jacob pinning a captive against the wall with one +hand, while he threatened him with his pike. There was just light +enough to see this, and no more, the wide eaves casting a black shadow +on the prisoner's face. + +'What is it, Jacob?' I said, going to his assistance. 'Whom have you +got?' + +'I do not know,' he answered sturdily, 'but I'll keep him. He was +trying to get in or out. Steady now,' he added gruffly to his captive, +'or I will spoil your beauty for you!' + +'In or out?' I said. + +'Ay, I think he was coming out.' + +There was a fire burning in the road a score of paces away. I ran to +it and fetched a brand, and blowing the smouldering wood into a blaze, +threw the light on the fellow's face. Jacob dropped his hand with a +cry of surprise, and I recoiled. His prisoner was a woman--Marie Wort. + +She hung down her head, trembling violently. Jacob had thrust back the +hood from her face, and her loosened hair covered her shoulders. + +'What does it mean?' I cried, struggling with my bewilderment. 'Why +are you here, girl?' + +Instead of answering she cowered nearer the wall, and I saw that she +was trying to hide something behind her under cover of her cloak. + +'What have you got there?' I said quickly, laying my hand on her +wrist. + +She flashed a look at me, her small teeth showing, a mutinous glare on +her little pale face. 'Not my chain!' she snapped. + +I dropped her arm and recoiled as if she had struck me; though the +words did not so much hurt as surprise me. And I was quick to recover +myself. 'What is it, then?' I said, returning to the attack. 'I must +know, Marie, and what you are doing here at this time of night.' + +As she did not answer I put her cloak aside, and discovered, to my +great astonishment, that she was holding a platter full of food. It +shook in her hand. She began to cry. + +'Heavens, girl!' I exclaimed in my wonder, 'have you not had enough to +eat?' + +She lifted her head and looked at me through her tears, her eyes +sparkling with indignation. 'I have!' she said almost fiercely. 'But +what of these?'--and she flung her disengaged hand abroad, with a +gesture I did not at once comprehend. 'Can you sleep in their beds, +and lie in their houses, and eat from their meal-tubs, and think of +them starving, and not get up and help them? Can you hear them whining +for food like dogs, and starve them as you would not starve a dog? I +cannot. I cannot!' she repeated wildly. 'But you, you others, you of +the north, you have no hearts! You lie soft and care nothing!' + +'But what--who are starving?' I said in amazement. Her words outran my +wits. 'And where is the man in whose bed I am lying?' + +'Under the sky! In the ditch!' she answered passionately. 'Are you +blind?' she continued, speaking more quietly and drawing nearer. 'Do +you think your general built this village? If not, where are the +people who lived in it a month ago? Whining for a crust at the camp +gate. Living on offal, or starving. Fighting with the dogs for bones. +I heard a man outside this house cry that it was all his, and that he +was starving. You drove him off. I heard his wife and babes wailing +outside a while ago, and I came out. I could not bear it.' + +I looked at Jacob. He nodded gravely. 'There was a woman here, with a +child,' he said. + +'Heaven forgive us!' I cried. Then--'Go in, girl,' I continued. 'I +will see the food put where they will get it; but do you go to bed.' + +She obeyed meekly, leaving me wondering at the strange mixture of +courage and fearfulness which makes up some women, and those the best; +who fly from a rat, yet face every extremity of pain without +flinching. A Romanist? And what of that? It seemed to me a small +thing, as I watched her gliding in. If she knew little and that awry, +she loved much. + +I looked at Jacob and he at me. 'Is it true, do you think?' I said. + +'I doubt it is,' he answered stolidly, dropping the smouldering brand +on the ground and treading, it out with his heel. 'I have seen +soldiers and sutlers and women since I came into camp; and beggars. +But peasants not one. I doubt we have eaten them out, Master Martin. +But soldiers must live.' + +The little heap of red embers glowed dully in the road and gave no +light. The darkness shut us in on every side, even as the camp shut us +in. I looked out into it and shuddered. It seemed to my eyes peopled +with horrors: with gaping mouths that cursed us as they set in death, +with lean hands that threatened us, and tortured faces of maids and +children; with the despair of the poor. Ghosts of starving men and +women glared at us out of spectral eyes. And the night seemed full of +omens. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE OPENING OF A DUEL. + + +I never knew where the Waldgrave spent that night, but I think it must +have been with the fairies. For when he showed himself early next +morning, before my lady appeared, I noticed at once a change in him; +and though at first I was at a loss to explain it, I presently saw +that that had happened which might have been expected. The appearance +of a rival had laid the spark to his heart, and while the love-light +was in his eyes, a new gravity, a new gentleness added grace to his +bearing. The temper and pettiness of yesterday were gone. Other +things, too, I saw--that his face flushed when my lady's voice was +heard at the door, that his eyes shone when she entered. He had a +nosegay of flowers for her--wild flowers he had gathered in the early +morning, with the dew upon them--which he offered her with a little +touch of humility. + +Doubtless the fret and passion of yesterday had not been thrown away +on him. He had learned in the night both that he loved, and the +lowliness that comes of love. It wanted but that, it seemed to me, to +make him perfect in a woman's eyes; and I saw my lady's dwell very +kindly on him as he turned away. A little, I think, she wondered; his +tone was so different, his desire to please so transparent, his +avoidance of everything that might offend so ready. But such service +wins its way; and my lady's own kindness and gaiety disposing her to +meet his advances, she seemed in a few moments to have forgotten +whatever cause of complaint he had given her. + +The general's band came early, to play while she ate, but I noticed +with satisfaction that the music moved her little this morning, either +because she was taken up with talking to her companion, or because the +romantic circumstances of the evening, darkness and vague +surroundings, and the lassitude of fatigue, were lacking. With the +sunshine and fresh air pouring in through the open windows, the +strains which yesterday awoke a hundred associations and stirred +mysterious impulses fell almost flat. + +The Waldgrave made no attempt to resume the conversation he had held +with me by the fallen tree. Either love, or respect for his mistress, +made him reticent, or he was practising self-control. And I said +nothing. But I understood, and set myself keenly to watch this duel +between the two men. If I read the general's intentions aright, the +young lord's influence with the Countess could scarcely grow except at +the general's expense; his suit, if successful, must oust that which +the elder man, I was sure, meditated. And this being so, all my wishes +were on one side. My fear of the general had so grown in the night, +that I suspected him of a hundred things; and could only think of him +as an antagonist to be defeated--a foe from whom we must expect the +worst that force or fraud could effect. + +He came soon after breakfast to pay his respects to my lady, and +alighted at the door with great attendance and endless jingling of +bits and spurs. He brought with him several of his officers, and these +he presented to the Countess with so much respect and politeness that +even I could find no fault with the action. One or two of the men, +rough Silesians, were uncouth enough; but he covered their mistakes so +cleverly that they served only to set off his own good breeding. + +He had not been in the room five minutes, however, before I saw that +he remarked the change which had come over the Waldgrave, and perhaps +some corresponding change in my lady's manner; and I saw that it +chafed him. He did not lose his air of composure, but he grew less +talkative and more watchful. Presently he let drop something aimed at +the young man; a light word, inoffensive, yet likely to draw the other +into a debate. But the Waldgrave refrained, and the general soon +afterwards rose to take leave. + +He had come, it seemed, to invite my lady's presence at a +shooting-match which was to take place outside the camp at noon. He +spoke of the match as a thing arranged before our arrival, but I have +no doubt that the plan had its origin in a desire to please my lady +and fill the day. He spoke, besides, of a hunting-party to take place +next morning, with a banquet at his quarters to follow; of a review +fixed for the day after that; and, in the still remoter distance, of +races and a trip to a neighboring waterfall, with other diversions. + +I heard the arrangements made, and my lady's frank acceptance, with a +sinking heart; for under the perfect courtesy of his manner, behind +the frank desire to give her pleasure which he professed, I felt his +power. While he spoke, though I could find no fault with him, I felt +the steel hand inside the silk glove. And these plans? Even my lady, +though her eyes sparkled with anticipation--she loved pleasure with a +healthy, honest love--looked a little startled. + +'But I thought that you were marching southwards, General Tzerclas,' +she said. 'At once I mean?' + +'I am,' he answered, bowing easily--he had already risen. 'But an +army, Countess, marches more slowly than a travelling party. And I am +expecting despatches which may vary my route.' + +'From the King of Sweden?' + +'Yes,' he answered. 'The King has arrived at Nuremberg, and expects +shortly to be attacked by Wallenstein, who is on the march from Egra.' + +'But shall you be in time for the battle?' she asked, her eyes +shining. + +'I hope so,' he replied, smiling. 'Or my part may be less glorious--to +cut off the enemy's convoys.' + +'I should not like that!' she exclaimed. + +'Nevertheless, it is a very necessary function,' he said. 'As the +Waldgrave Rupert will tell your excellency.' + +The young lord agreed, and a moment later the general with his +jingling attendants took his leave and clattered out and mounted +before the door. My lady went to the window and waved adieu to him, +and he lowered his great plumed hat to his stirrup. + +'At noon?' he cried, making his horse curvet in the roadway. + +'Without fail!' my lady answered gaily, and she stood at the window +looking out until the last gleam of steel sank in a cloud of dust and +the beggars closed in before the door. + +The Waldgrave leaned against the wall behind her with his lips set and +a grave face. But he said nothing, and when she turned he had a smile +for her. It seemed to me that these two had changed places; the +Waldgrave had grown older and my lady younger. + +A few minutes before noon, Captain Ludwig and a sub-officer of the +same rank, a Pole with long hair, came to conduct my lady to the scene +of the match. They were arrayed in all their finery, and made a show +of such etiquette as they knew. For our part we did not keep them +waiting; five minutes saw us mounted and riding through the camp. This +wore, to-day, a more martial and less disorderly appearance. The part +we traversed was clear of women and gamesters, while sentries +stationed at the gate, and a guard of honour which fell in behind us +at the same spot, proved that the eye of the master could even here +turn chaos into order. I do not know that the change pleased me much, +for if it lessened my dread of the cutthroats by whom we were +surrounded, it increased the awe in which I held their chief. + +The shooting was fixed to take place in a narrow valley diverging +from the river, a mile or more from the camp. It was a green, +gently-sloping place, such as sheep love; but the sheep had long ago +been driven into quarters, and the shepherd to the listing-sergeant or +the pike. A few ruined huts told the tale; the hills which rose on +either side were silent and untrodden. + +Not so the valley itself, which lay bathed in sunshine. It roared with +the babel of a great multitude. A straight course, two hundred yards +in length, had been roped off for the shooting, and round this the +crowd thronged and pushed, or, breaking here or there into fragments, +wandered up and down outside the lines, talking and gesticulating, so +that the place seemed to swarm with life and movement and colour. + +I had seen such a spectacle and as large a crowd at Heritzburg--once a +year, it may be. But there the gathering had not the wild and savage +elements which here caught the eye; the hairy, swarthy faces and +black, gleaming eyes, the wild garb, and brandished weapons and fierce +gestures, that made this crowd at once curious and formidable. The +babel of unknown tongues rose on every side. Poland and Lithuania, +Scotland and the Rhine, equally with Hungary, Italy, and Bohemia, had +their representatives in this strange army. + +General Tzerclas and his staff occupied a mound near the lower end of +the valley. On seeing our party approach, he rode down to meet us, +followed by thirty or forty officers, whose dress and equipments, even +more than those of their men, fixed the attention; for while some +wore steel caps and clumsy cuirasses, with silk sashes and greasy +trunk-hose, others, better acquainted with the mode, affected huge +flapped hats and velvet doublets, with falling collars of lace, and +untanned boots reaching to the middle of the thigh. One or two wore +almost complete armour; others, gay silks, stained with wine and +weather. Their horses, too, were of all sizes, from tall Flemings to +small, wiry Hungarians, and their arms were as various. One huge fat +man, whose flesh swayed as he moved, carried a steel mace at his +saddle-bow. Another swept along with a lance, raking the sky behind +him. Great horse-pistols were common, and swords with blades so long +that they ploughed the ground. + +Varying in everything else, in one thing these warlike gentry agreed. +As they came prancing towards us, I did not see a face among them that +did not repel me, nor one that I could look at with respect or liking. +Where dissipation had not set its seal so plainly as to oust all +others, or some old wound did not disfigure, cruelty, greed, and +recklessness were written large. The glare of the bully shone alike +under flapped hat and iron cap. One might show a swollen visage, +flushed with excess, and another a thin, white, cruel face; but that +was all the odds. + +The sight of such a crew should have opened my lady's eyes and +enlightened her as to the position in which we stood. But women see +differently from men. Too often they take swagger for courage, and +recklessness for manhood. And, besides, the very defects of these men, +their swashbuckling manners and banditti guise, only set off the more +the perfect dress and quiet bearing of their leader, who, riding in +their midst, seemed, with his cold, calm face and air of pride, like +nothing so much as the fairy prince among the swine. + +He wore a suit of black velvet, with a falling collar of Utrecht lace, +and a white sash. A feather adorned his hat, and his furniture and +sword-hilt were of steel. This, I afterwards learned, was a favourite +costume with him. At odd times he relapsed into finery, but commonly +he affected a simplicity which suited his air and features, and lost +nothing by comparison with the tawdriness of his attendants. + +He sprang from his horse at the foot of the slope, and, resigning it +to a groom, took my lady's rein and, bareheaded, led her to the summit +of the mound. The Waldgrave with Fraulein Anna followed, and the rest +of us as closely as we could. The officers crowded thick upon us and +would have edged us out, but I had primed my men, and though they +quailed before the others' scowls and curses, they kept together, so +that we not only had the advantage of watching the sport from a +position immediately behind the Countess, but heard all that passed. + +At the end of the open space I have mentioned stood three targets in a +line. These were peculiar, for they consisted of dummies cased in +leather, shaped so exactly to the form of men, that, at a distance of +two hundred yards, it was only by the face I could tell that they were +not men. Where the features should have been was a whitened circle, +and on, the breast of each a heart in chalk. They were so life-like +that they gave an air of savagery to the sport, and made me shudder. +When I had scanned them, I turned and found Captain Ludwig at my +elbow. + +'What is it?' he said, grinning. 'Our targets? Fine practice, comrade. +They are the general's own invention, and I have known them put to +good use.' + +'How?' I asked. He spoke under his breath. I adopted the same tone. + +'You will know by, and by,' he answered, with a wink. 'Sometimes we +find a traitor in the camp; or we catch a spy. Then--but you need not +fear. Drawing-room practice to-day. There is no one in them.' + +'In them?' I muttered, unable to take my eyes from his face. + +He nodded. 'Ay, in them,' he answered, smiling at my look of +consternation. 'Time has been I have known one in each, and cross-bow +practice. That makes them squeal! With powder and a flint-lock--pouf! +It is all over. Unless you put the butter-fingers first; then there is +sport, perhaps.' + +Little wonder that after that I paid no attention to the shooting, +which had begun; nor to the brawling and disagreement which from the +first accompanied it, and which it needed all the general's authority +to quell. I thought only of our position among these wretches. If I +had felt any doubt of General Tzerclas' character before, the doubt +troubled me no more. + +But it did occur to me that Ludwig might be practising on me, and I +turned to him sharply. 'I see!' I said, pretending that I had found +him out. 'A good joke, captain!' + +He grinned again. 'You would not call it one,' he said dryly, 'if you +were once in the leather. But have it your own way. Come, there is a +good shot, now. He is a Swiss, that fellow.' + +But I could take no interest in the shooting, with that ghastly tale +in my head. I felt for the moment the veriest coward. We were ten in +the midst of two thousand--ten men and four helpless women! Our own +strength could not avail us, and we had nothing else under heaven to +depend upon, except the scruples, or interest, or fears of a mercenary +captain; a man whose hardness the thin veil of politeness barely hid, +who might be scrupulous, gentle, merciful--might be, in a word, all +that was honourable. But whence, then, this story? Why this tale of +cruelty, passing the bounds of discipline? + +It so disheartened me that for some time I scarcely noticed what was +passing before me; and I might have continued longer in this dull +state if the Waldgrave's voice, civilly declining some proposition, +had not caught my ear. + +I gathered then what the offer was. Among the matches was one for +officers, and in this the general was politely inviting his guest to +compete. But the Waldgrave continued firm. 'You are very good,' he +answered with perfect frankness and good temper. 'But I think I will +not expose myself. I shoot badly with a strange gun.' + +It was so unlike him to miss a chance of distinction, or underrate his +merits, that I stared. He was changed, indeed, to-day; or he thought +the position very critical, the need of caution very great. + +The general continued to urge him; and so strongly that I began to +think that our host had his own interests to serve. + +'Oh, come,' he said, in a light, gibing tone which just stopped +short of the offensive. 'You must not decline. There are five +competitors--two Bohemians, a Scot, a Pole, and a Walloon; but no +German. You cannot refuse to shoot for Germany, Waldgrave?' + +The Waldgrave shook his head, however. 'I should do Germany small +honour, I am afraid,' he said. + +The general smiled unpleasantly. 'You are too modest,' he said. + +'It is not a national failing,' the Waldgrave answered, smiling also. + +'I fancy it must be,' the general retorted. 'And that is the reason we +see so little of Germans in the war!' + +The words were almost an insult, though a dull man, deceived by the +civility of the speaker's tone, might have overlooked it. The +Waldgrave understood, however. I saw him redden and his brow grow +dark. But he restrained himself, and even found a good answer. + +'Germany will find her champions,' he said, 'when she seriously needs +them.' + +'Abroad!' the general replied, speaking in a flash, as it were. The +instant the word was said, I saw that he repented it. He had gone +farther than he intended, and changed his tone. 'Well, if you will +not, you will not,' he continued smoothly. 'Unless our fair cousin can +succeed where I have failed, and persuade you.' + +'I?' my lady said--she had not been attending very closely. 'I will do +what I can. Why will you not enter, Rupert? You are a good shot.' + +'You wish me to shoot?' the Waldgrave said slowly. + +'Of course!' she answered. 'I think it is a shame General Tzerclas has +so few German officers. If I could shoot, I would shoot for the honour +of Germany myself.' + +The Waldgrave bowed. 'I will shoot,' he said coldly. + +'Good!' General Tzerclas answered, with a show of _bonhomie_. 'That is +excellent. Will you descend with me? Each competitor is to fire two +shots at the figure at eighty paces. Those who lodge both shots in the +target, to fire one shot at the head only.' + +The young lord bowed and prepared to follow him. + +'Comrade,' Ludwig said in my ear, as I watched them go, 'your master +had better have stood by his first word.' + +'Why?' + +'He will do no good.' + +'Why not?' I asked. + +'The Bohemian yonder--the fat man--will shoot round him. His little +pig's eyes see farther than others. Besides, the devil has blessed his +gun. He cannot miss.' + +'What! That tun of flesh?' I cried, for he was pointing to the gross, +unwieldy man, at whose saddle-bow I had marked the iron mace. 'Is he a +Bohemian?' + +Ludwig nodded. 'Count Waska, they call him. There is no man in the +camp can shoot with him or drink with him.' + +'We shall see,' I said grimly. + +I had little hope, however. The Waldgrave was a good shot; but a man +was not likely to have a reputation for shooting in such a camp as +this, where every one handled pistol or petronel, unless his aim was +something out of the common. And listening to the talk round me, I +found that Count Waska's comrades took his victory for granted. + +Their confidence explained General Tzerclas' anxiety to trap the +Waldgrave into shooting. The jealous feeling which had been all on the +Waldgrave's side yesterday, had spread to him to-day. He wished to see +his rival beaten in my lady's presence. + +I longed to disappoint him; I felt sore besides for the honour of +Germany. I could not leave my lady, or I would have gone down to see +that the Waldgrave had fair play, and a clean pan, and silence when he +fired. But I watched with as much excitement as any in the field, all +that passed; I doubt if I ever took part in a match myself with +greater keenness and interest than I felt as a spectator of this one. + +From our elevated position we could see everything, and the sight was +a curious one. The rabble of spectators--soldiers and women, sutlers +and horse-boys--stretched away in two dark lines, ten deep, being kept +off the range by a dozen men armed with whips. The clamour of their +hoarse shouting went up continuously, and sometimes almost deafened +us. Immediately below us, at the foot of the mound, the champions and +their friends were gathered, settling rests, keying up the wheels of +their locks, and trying the flints. Owing to the Waldgrave's presence, +which somewhat imposed upon the other officers both by reason of his +rank and strangeness, the contest seemed likely to be conducted more +decently than those which had preceded it. He was invited to shoot +first, and when he excused himself on the ground that he was not yet +familiar with his gun, Count Waska good-humouredly consented to open +the match. + +His weapon, I remarked--and I treasured up the knowledge and have +since made use of it--was smaller in the bore than the others. He came +forward and fired very carelessly, scarcely stooping to the rest; but +he hit the figure fairly in the breast with both bullets and retired, +a stolid smile on his large countenance. + +The Waldgrave was the next to advance, and if he felt one half of the +anxiety I felt myself, it was a wonder he let off his gun at all. +General Tzerclas had returned to the Countess's side, and was speaking +to her; but he paused at the critical moment, and both stood gazing, +my lady with her lips parted and her eyes bright. The desire to see +the stranger shoot was so general that something like silence +prevailed while he aimed. I had time to conjure up half a dozen +miseries--the gun might not be true, the powder weak; and then, bang! +I saw the figure rock. He had hit it fairly in the breast, and I +breathed again. + +My lady cried, 'Vivat! good shot!' and he looked up at her before he +primed his pan for a second trial. This time I felt less fear, the +crowd less interest. The babel began afresh. His second bullet struck +somewhat lower, but struck; and he stood back, his face flushed with +pleasure. Honour, at any rate, was safe. + +The Scot hit with both balls, the Pole with one only. Last of all the +Walloon, a grim dark officer in a stained buff coat, who seemed to be +unpopular with the soldiery, fired in the midst of such a storm of +gibes and hisses that I wondered he could aim at all. He did, however, +and hit with his second bullet. Even so he and the Pole stood out, +leaving the Waldgrave, Count Waska, and the Scot to fire at the head. + +Huge was the clamour which followed on this, half the company +bellowing out offers to stake all that they had on the Count--money, +chains, armour. Meanwhile I looked at the general to see how he took +it. He had fallen silent, and my lady also. They stood gazing down on +the competitors and their preparations, as if they were aware that +more hung on the issue than a simple match at arms. + +Count Waska advanced for the final shot, and this time he made ample +use of the rest, aiming long and carefully over it. He fired, and I +looked eagerly at the target. A roar of applause greeted the shot. The +bullet had pierced the whitened face a little to the left, high up. + +It was the Waldgrave's turn now. He came forward, with an air of quiet +confidence, and set his weapon on the crutch. This time two or three +voice's were raised, gibing him; the crowd was growing jealous of its +champion's reputation. I longed to be down among them, and I saw my +lady's eyes flash and her colour rise. She looked indignantly at +Tzerclas. But the general's face was set. He did not seem to hear. + +Flash! Plop! In a moment I was shouting with the rest, shouting +lustily for the honour of the house! The Waldgrave had lodged his ball +in the upper part of the face towards the right-hand side. If Waska +had put in the one eye, he had put in the other. + +We shouted. But the camp hung silent, gloomily wondering whether this +were luck or skill. And the general stood silent too. It was not until +my lady had cried, 'Vivat! Vivat Weimar!' in her frank, brave voice, +that he spoke and echoed the compliment. + +When he had spoken, sullen silence fell upon the crowd again. I saw +men look at us--not pleasantly; until the Scot by taking his place at +the crutch diverted their attention. It seemed to me that he was an +hour arranging the rest and his weapon, scraping his priming this way +and that, and putting in a fresh flint at the last moment. At length +he fired. A roar of laughter followed. He had missed the target +altogether. + +How it was arranged I do not know, but we saw at once that Waska and +the Waldgrave were about to take another shot. The Bohemian, as he +levelled his weapon with care, looked up at us. + +'We have put in his eyes,' he said in his guttural tones. 'I propose +to put in his nose. If his excellency can better that, I give him the +bone.' + +He aimed very diligently, amid such a silence you could have heard a +feather drop, and fired. He did as he had promised. His ball pierced +the very middle of the face, a little below and between the two shots. + +A wild roar of applause greeted the achievement. Even we who felt our +honour at stake shouted with the rest and threw up our caps; while my +lady took off in her admiration a slender gold chain which she wore +round her neck and flung it to the champion, crying 'Vivat Bohemia! +Vivat Waska!' + +He bowed with grotesque gallantry, and one of the bystanders picked up +the chain and gave it to him. We smiled; for, too fat to kneel or +stoop, he could no more have recovered the gift himself than he could +have taken wings and flown. Fraulein Anna muttered something about +Tantalus and water, but I did not understand her, and in a moment the +Waldgrave gave me something else to think about. + +He stepped forward when the noise and cheering had somewhat subsided, +and like his antagonist he looked up also. + +'I do not see what there is left for me to do,' he said, with a +gallant air. 'I could give him a mouth, but I fear I may set it on +awry.' + +Thrice he took aim, and, dissatisfied, forbore to fire. The crowd, +silent at first, and confident of their champion's victory, began to +jeer. At length he pulled. Plop! The smoke cleared away. An inch below +Waska's last shot appeared another orifice. The Waldgrave had put in +the mouth. + +We waved our caps and shouted until we were hoarse; and the crowd +shouted. But it soon became evident, amid the universal clamour and +uproar, that there were two parties: one acclaiming the Waldgrave's +success, and another and larger one crying fiercely that he was +beaten--that he was beaten! that his shot was not so near the centre +of the target as Count Waska's. The Waldgrave's promise to make the +mouth had been heard by a few only, mainly his friends; and while +these, headed by the Bohemian, who showed that his clumsy carcase +still contained some sparks of chivalry, tried to explain the matter +to others, the camp with one voice bellowed against him, the more +excited brandishing fists and weapons in the air, while the less +moved kept up a stubborn and monotonous chant of 'Waska! Waska! +Waska!' + +The only person unaffected by the tumult appeared to be the Waldgrave +himself; who stood looking up at us in silence, a smile on his face. +Presently, the noise still continuing, I saw him clap Count Waska on +the shoulder, and the two shook hands. The Count seemed by his +gestures--for the uproar and tumult were so great that all was done in +dumb show--to be deprecating his retreat. But the younger man +persisted, and by-and-by, after saluting the other competitors, he +turned away, and began to force his way up the mound. It was time he +did; the crowd had burst its bounds and flooded the range. The scene +below was now a sea of wild confusion. + +Such an ending seemed stupid in the extreme; in any place where +ordinary discipline prevailed, it would have been easy to procure +silence and restore order. And my lady, her face flushed with +indignation, turned impatiently to the general, to see if he would not +interfere. But he was, or he affected to be, powerless. He shrugged +his shoulders with an indulgent smile, and a moment later, seeing the +Waldgrave on his way to join us and the crowd still persistent, he +gave the word to retire. The officers, who in the last hour had +pressed on us inconveniently, fell back, and waiting only for the +Waldgrave to reach his horse, we rode down the mound, and turned our +faces towards the camp. + +For a space, and while the uproar still rang in my ears, I could +scarcely speak for indignation. Then came a reaction. I saw my lady's +face as she rode alongside the Waldgrave and talked to him. And my +spirits rose. General Tzerclas had the place on her other hand, but +she had not a word for him. It was not so much that the young lord had +distinguished himself and done well, but that in an awkward position +he had borne himself with dignity and self-control. That pleased her. + +I saw her eyes shine as she looked at him, and her mouth grow tender; +and I told myself with exultation that the Waldgrave had done +something more than rival Waska--he had scored the first hit in the +fight, and that no light one. The general would be wise, if he looked +to his guard; fortunate, if he did not look too late. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + THE DUEL CONTINUED. + + +I fell to wondering, as we rode home, whether we should find all safe; +for we had left Marie Wort and my lady's woman to keep house with two +only of the men. From that, again, I strayed into thoughts of the +chain, and of Marie herself, so that the very head of what happened +when we reached the house escaped me. The first I knew of it, Fraulein +Anna's horse backed suddenly into mine, and brought us all up short +with a deal of jostling and plunging. When I looked forward to learn +what was amiss, I saw a man lying on his face under my lady's horse, +and so near it that the beast's feet were touching his head. The man +was crying out something in a pitiful tone, and two or three of the +general's officers who were riding abreast of me were swearing +roundly, and there was great confusion. + +General Tzerclas said something, but my lady overbore him. 'What is +it?' I heard her cry. 'Get up, man, and speak. Don't lie there. What +is it?' + +The man rose to his knees, and cried out, 'Justice, justice, lady!' in +a wild sort of way, adding something--which I could not understand, +for he spoke in a vile _patois_--about a house. He was in a miserable +plight, and looked scarcely human. His face was sallow, his eyes shone +with famine, his shrunken limbs peered through mud-stained rags that +only half covered him. + +'Which is your house?' my lady asked gently. And when one of the +officers who had ridden up abreast of her would have intervened, she +raised her hand with a gesture there was no mistaking. 'Which is your +house?' she repeated. + +The man pointed to the one in which we had our quarters. + +'What! That one?' my lady cried incredulously. 'Then what has brought +you to this?' For the creature looked the veriest scarecrow that ever +hung about a church-porch. His head and feet had no covering, his hair +was foully matted. He was filthy, hideous, famine-stricken. + +And desperate. For, half-cringing, half-defiant, he pointed his +accusing finger at the general. 'He has! He and his army!; he cried. +'That house was mine. Those fields were mine. I had cattle, they have +eaten them. I had wood, they have burned it. I had meat, they have +taken it. I was rich, and I am _this!_ I had, and I have not--only a +wife and babes, and they are dying in a ditch. May the curse of +God----' + +'Hush!' my lady cried, in an unsteady voice. And, without adding a +word, she turned to General Tzerclas and looked at him; as if this +were Heritzburg, and she the judge, he the criminal. + +Doubtless the position was an awkward one. But he showed himself equal +to it. 'There has been foul play here,' he said firmly. 'I think I +remember the man's face.' Then he turned and raised his hand. 'Let all +stand back,' he said in a stern, curt tone. + +We fell back out of hearing, leaving him and my lady with the man. For +some time the general seemed to be putting questions to the fellow, +speaking to my mistress between whiles. Presently he called sharply +for Ludwig. The captain went forward to them, and then it was very +plain what was going on, for the general raised his voice, and made +the rating he administered to his subaltern audible even by us. Back +Ludwig came by-and-by, with a dark sneer on his face, and we saw the +general hand money to the man. + +'Teufel!' one of the fellows who rode beside me muttered, surprise in +his voice. 'When the general gives, look to your necks. It will cost +some one dear, this! I would not be in that clod's shoes for his booty +ten times told!' + +Possibly. But I was not so much interested on the clown's account as +on my lady's; and one needed only half an eye to see what the +general's liberality had effected with her. She was all smiles again, +speaking to him with the utmost animation, leaning towards him as she +rode. She forgot the Waldgrave, who had fallen back with the rest of +us; she forgot all but the general. He went with her to the door of +the house, gave his hand to help her to dismount, lingered talking to +her on the threshold. And my heart sank. I could have gnashed my teeth +with anger as I stood aside uncovered, waiting for him to go. + +For how could we combat the man? Such an episode as this, which should +have opened my lady's eyes to his true character, served only to +restore him to favour and blind her more effectually. It had undone +all the good of the afternoon; it had effaced alike the Waldgrave's +success and the general's remissness; it had given Tzerclas, who all +day had been losing slowly, the upper hand once more. I felt the +disappointment keenly. + +I suppose it was that which made me think of consulting Fraulein Anna, +and begging her to use her influence with my lady to get out of the +camp. At any rate, the idea occurred to me. I could not catch her +then; but later in the evening, when some acrobats, whom the general +had sent for the Countess's diversion, were performing outside, and my +lady had gone out to the fallen tree to see them the better, I found +the Fraulein alone in the outer room. She looked up at my entrance. + +'Who is it?' she said sharply, peering at me with her white, +short-sighted face. 'Oh, it is you, Mr. Thickhead, is it? I know whom +you have sneaked in to see!' she added spitefully. + +'That is well,' I answered civilly. 'For I came in to see you, +Fraulein.' + +'Oh!' she retorted, nodding her head in a very unpleasant manner. +'Then you want something. I can guess what it is. But go on.' + +'If I want something,' I answered, 'and I do, it is in your own +behalf, Fraulein. You heard what I said to my lady last night? I did +not persuade her. Can you persuade her--to leave the camp and its +commander?' + +Fraulein Max shook her head. 'Why should I?' she said, smoothing out +her skirt with her hands, and looking at me with a cunning smile. +'What have I to gain by persuading her, Master Schwartz?' + +'Safety,' I said. + +'Oh!' she cried ironically. 'Then let me remind you of something. +When we were all safe and comfortable at Heritzburg--safe, mind +you--who was it disturbed us? Who was it stirred up my lady to make +trouble--_more improbi anseris_--and though I warned him what would +come of it, persisted in it until we had all to flee at night like so +many vagrants? Ay, and have never had a quiet night since! Who was +that, Master Martin?' + +'Fraulein,' I answered patiently, forbearing to remind her how much +she had been herself in fault, 'I may have been wrong then. It does +not alter the situation now.' + +'Does it not?' she replied. 'But I think it does. You had your way at +Heritzburg, and what came of it? Trouble and misery. You want your way +now, but I shall not help you to it. I have had enough of your way, +and I do not like it.' + +She laughed triumphantly, seeing me silenced; and I stood looking at +her, wondering what argument I could use. Doubtless she had had a +comfortless time on the journey from Heritzburg, jogging through fords +and over ruts, and along steep places, wet, tired, and scared, +deprived of her books and all her home pleasures. She had had time and +to spare to lay up many a grudge against me. Now it was her turn, and +I read in her face her determination to make the most of it. + +I might frighten her; and that seemed my only chance. 'Well, +Fraulein,' I said after a pause, 'you may have been right then, and +you may be right now. But I hope you have counted the cost. If my lady +shows herself determined to leave, to-morrow and perhaps the next day +the power of going will remain in her hands. Later it will have passed +from her. Familiarity breeds contempt, and even the Countess of +Heritzburg cannot stay long in such a camp as this, where nothing is +respected, without losing that respect which for the moment protects +her. In a day or two, in a few days, the hedge will fall. And then, +Fraulein, we may all look to ourselves.' + +But Fraulein Anna laughed shrilly. '_O tu anser!_' she cried +contemptuously. 'Open your eyes! Cannot you see that the general is +knee-deep in love with her? In a week he will be head over ears, and +her slave!' + +I stared at her. Doubtless she knew; she was a woman. I drew a deep +breath. 'Well,' I said, 'and what of that?' + +She looked at me spitefully. 'Ask my lady!' she said. 'How should I +know?' + +I returned her gaze, and thought awhile. Then I said coldly, 'I think +it is you who are the fool, Fraulein. Take it for granted that what +you tell me is true. Have you considered what will happen should my +lady repulse him? What will happen to her and to us?' + +'She will not,' Fraulein Max answered. + +But I saw that the shaft had gone home. She fidgeted on her seat. And +I persisted. 'Still, if she does?' I said. 'What then?' + +'She will not!' she answered. 'She must not!' + +'By Heaven!' I cried, 'you are on his side!' + +She blinked at me with her short-sighted eyes. 'And why not?' she said +slowly. 'On whose side should I be? My Lord Waldgrave's? He never +gives me a word, and seldom recognises my existence. On yours? If you +want help, go to the black-eyed puling girl you have brought in, who +is always creeping and crawling round us, and would oust me if she and +you could manage it and she had the breeding. Chut! don't talk to me,' +she continued maliciously, the colour rising to her pale cheeks. 'I +wonder that you dare to come to me with such proposals! Is my lady to +be ruled by her servants? Has she no judgment of her own? Why, you +fool, I have but to tell her, and you are disgraced!' + +'As you please, Fraulein,' I said sullenly, stung to anger by one part +of her harangue. 'But as to Marie Wort----' + +'Marie Wort?' she cried, catching me up and mocking my tone. 'Who said +anything about her, I should like to know? Though for my part, had I +my way, the popish chit should be whipped!' + +'Fraulein!' I cried. + +She laughed bitterly. 'Oh, you are fools, you men!' she said. 'But I +have made you angry, and that is enough. Go! Yes, go. I have supped on +folly. Go, before your mistress comes in; or I must out with all, and +lose a power over you.' + +I went sullenly. While we had been talking the room had been growing +dark. Then it had grown light again with a smoky, dancing glare that +played fantastically on the walls and seemed to rise and sink with +the murmur of applause outside. They had brought torches made of +pine-knots that my lady might see the longer, and in the yellow circle +of light which these shed, the mountebanks, monstrously dressed and +casting weird shadows, were wrestling and leaping and writhing. The +light reached, but fitfully and by flashes, the log on which my lady +sat enthroned, with General Tzerclas and the Waldgrave at her side. +Still farther away the crowd surged and laughed and gibed in the +darkness. + +I looked at my lady and found one look enough. I read the utter +hopelessness of the attempt I had just made. She was enjoying herself. +Fear was not natural to her, and she saw nothing to fear either in the +man beside her or the crowd beyond. Suspicion was no part of her +character, and she saw nothing to suspect. Had I won Fraulein Max over +to my side, as I felt sure that the general had bought her to his, I +should equally have had my trouble for my pains, and no more. + +My only hope lay in the Waldgrave. He alone, could he once warm into +flower the love that hung trembling in the bud, might move her as I +would have her moved. But, then, the time? Every hour we remained +where we were, every day that rose and found us in the camp, rendered +retreat more difficult, the general's plans more definite. He might +not yet have made up his mind; he might not yet have hardened his +heart to the point of employing force; _his_ passion might be still in +the bud, his ambition unshaped. But how long dared I give him? + +Assured that here lay the stress, I watched the young lord's progress +with an anxiety scarcely less than his own. And the longer I watched +the higher rose my hopes. It seemed to me that he went steadily +forward in favour, while the general stood still. More than once +during the next two days the latter showed himself irritable or +capricious. The iron hand began to push through the silken glove. And +though, on every one of these occasions, Tzerclas covered his mistake +with the dexterity of a man of the world, and my lady's eyes could +scarcely be said to be opened, a little coolness resulted, of which +the Waldgrave had the benefit. + +He, on his part, seemed imperturbable. Love had to all appearance +changed his nature. A dozen times in the two days the impulse to fly +at his rival's throat must have been strong upon him, yet through all +he remained calm, pleasant, and courteous, and carried an old head on +young shoulders. + +I wondered at last why he did not speak, for I marked the cloud on the +general's brow growing darker and darker, and I found the forced +inaction and suspense intolerable. Then I gathered, I cannot say why, +that the Waldgrave would not speak until after the great banquet to +which the general had bidden my lady. It had been deferred a day or +two, but on the third day after the shooting-match it took place. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + THE GENERAL'S BANQUET. + + +I suppose it was not love only that enabled the Waldgrave to carry +himself so prudently at this time; but with it a sense of the peril in +which we all stood. He was so far from betraying this, however, that +no one could have worn an air more gallant or seemed in every way more +free from care. General Tzerclas had supplied us with a couple of +tailors, and there were rich stuffs to be bought in the camp; and the +young lord did not neglect these opportunities. When he came on the +morning of the great day to attend my lady to the banquet, he wore a +suit of dark-blue velvet with a falling collar of white lace, and sash +and points of lighter blue--the latter setting off his fair complexion +to advantage. His hair, which had grown somewhat, flowed from under a +broad-leafed hat decked with an ostrich feather, and he wore golden +spurs, and high boots with the tops turned down. As he caracoled up +and down before the house, with the sun shining on his fair head, he +looked to my eyes as beautiful as Apollo. What the women thought of +him, I do not know, but I saw my lady gazing at him from a window when +his back was turned, and then, again, when he looked towards the +house, she was gone. And I thought I knew what that meant. + +She wore, herself, a grey riding-coat with a little silver braid about +it, and a silver belt; and we all made what show we could; so that +when we started to the general's quarters we were something to look +at. The camp itself nothing could cleanse, but the village had been +swept and the street watered. Pennons and cornets waved here and there +in the sunshine, and green boughs garnished the fronts of the houses. +Two tall poles, painted after the Venetian fashion and hung with +streamers, stood before the general's quarters, the windows of which +were almost hidden by a large trophy formed of glittering pikes and +flags of many colours. The road here was strewn with green rushes, and +opposite the house were ranked twelve trumpeters, who proclaimed my +lady's arrival with a blare which shook the village. + +On either side of the door a guard of honour was drawn up. I was not +disposed to admire anything much, but it must be confessed that the +sun shining on pike and corselet and steel cap, and on all the gay and +gaudy colours and green leaves, produced a lively and striking effect. +The moment my lady's horse stopped, four officers stepped from the +doorway and stood at attention; after whom the general himself +appeared bare-headed, and held my lady's stirrup while she dismounted. +The Waldgrave performed a like service for Fraulein Anna, and I and +Jacob for Marie Wort and the women. + +Our host first conducted my lady into a withdrawing-room, where were +only Count Waska and three colonels. This room, which was small, was +fitted with a rich carpet and chairs covered with Spanish leather, as +good as any my lady had in the castle at Heritzburg; and the walls +were hidden behind Cordovan hangings. Here among other things were a +large cage of larks and a strange, misshapen dwarf that stood hardly +as high as my waist-belt, but was rumoured to be forty years old. He +said several witty things to my lady, and one or two that I fancy the +general had taught him, for they brought the blood to her cheeks. On a +table stood another very rare and curious thing--a gold or silver-gilt +fountain that threw up distilled waters, and continually cooled and +sweetened the air. There were besides, gold cups and plates and +jewelled arms and Venice glass, which fairly dazzled me; so that as I +stood at the door with Jacob and the two maids I wondered at the +richness and splendour of everything, and yet could not get out of my +head the squalor of the hot, seething camp outside, and the poverty of +the country round, which the army had eaten as bare as my hand. + +After a short interval spent in listening to the dwarfs quips and +cranks, General Tzerclas conducted my lady with much ceremony to the +next room, where the banquet was laid. The floor of this larger room +was strewn with scented rushes, the walls being adorned with trophies +of arms and heads of deer and wolves, peering from ambushes of green +leaves. At the upper end, where was the private door of entrance, was +a dais table laid for eight persons; below were tables for forty or +more. On the dais the general sat in the middle, having my lady on the +right, and next to her Count Waska; on his left he had the Waldgrave, +and beyond him Fraulein Anna. The two women stood behind my lady, +holding her fan and vinaigrette. At the lower end of the room the +general's band, placed in a kind of cage, played soft airs, while +between the courses a gipsy girl danced very prettily, and a juggler +diverted the company with his tricks. + +As for the diversity of meats and fishes, and especially of birds, +which was set on, it surprised me beyond measure; nor can I understand +whence, in the wasted condition of the country, it was procured. For +wines, Burgundy, Frontignac, and Tokay were served at the high table, +and Rhine wines below. The courses continued to succeed one another +for nearly three hours, but such was the skill of the musicians that +the time seemed short. One man in particular won my lady's +approbation. He played on a new instrument, shaped somewhat like a +viol, but smaller and more roundly framed. Though it had three strings +only and was a trifle shrill, it had a wonderful power of touching the +heart, arousing the memory and producing a sweet melancholy. The +general would have had my lady accept it, and said that he could +easily procure another from the Milanese; but she declined gracefully, +on the ground that without the player it would be a dumb boon. + +There was so much gaiety in all this--and decent observance too, for +the general's presence kept good order--that I did not wonder that my +lady's eyes sparkled and betrayed the gratification she felt. All was +for her, all in her honour. Even I, who looked at the scene through +green glasses and could not hear a word the general said without +striving to place some ill construction on it--even I felt myself +somewhat carried away, when the first toast, that of the Emperor, was +given in the midst of cheering, partly serious, partly ironical. It +was followed by that of the Elector of Saxony. The King of Sweden came +next, and was received in an equally equivocal manner. Not so, +however, the fourth, which was given by General Tzerclas standing, +with his plumed hat in his hand. + +'All in Tokay!' he cried in his deep voice. 'The most noble and +high-born, the Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, who honours us with her +presence! Hoch! Hoch! Hoch!' + +And draining his goblet, which was of green Nuremberg glass, and of no +mean value, he dashed it to the floor, an example which was +immediately followed by all present, so that the crash of glass and +clang of sword-hilts filled the room with high-pitched sounds that +seemed to intoxicate the ear. + +My lady rose and bowed thrice, with her cheek crimson and her eyes +soft. Then she turned to retire, while all remained standing. The +general accompanied her as far as the door of the withdrawing-room, +the Waldgrave following with Fraulein Anna; while the dwarf marched +side by side with me, keeping step with an absurd gravity which filled +the room with laughter. On the threshold the general and his +companions left us with low bows; but in a trice Tzerclas came back to +say a word in my ear. + +'See to the other door,' he muttered, flashing a grim look at me. +'There may be deep drinking. If any offer so much as a word of +rudeness here, he shall hang, drunk or sober. Have a care, therefore, +that no one has the chance.' + +Then my heart sank, for I knew, hearing his tone and seeing his face, +as he said that, that Fraulein Anna was right. He loved my mistress. +He loved her! I went away to my place by the door, feeling as if he +had struck me in the face. For if she loved him in return that were +bad enough; and if she did not, what then, seeing that we were in his +power? + +Certainly he had omitted nothing on this occasion that might charm +her. I thought the feast over; but in the withdrawing-room a fresh +collation of dainty sweets and syrups awaited my lady, with a great +gold bowl of rosewater. The man, too, who had played on the Italian +viol brought it in, that she might see and examine it more closely. +From my post at the door, I saw Fraulein Anna flitting about, bringing +her short-sighted eyes down to everything, thrusting her face into the +rose-water, and peering at the weapons and stuffs as if she would eat +them. All the while, too, I could hear her prattling ceaseless praise +of everything--the general's taste, the general's wealth, his +generosity, his skill in Latin, his love for Cæsar--the fat book I had +seen him studying by the fire--above all, his appreciation of Voetius, +of whom I shrewdly believe he had never heard before. + +My lady sat almost silent under the steady shower of words, listening +and thinking, and now and then touching the strings of the viol which +lay forgotten on her lap. Perhaps she was dreaming of her two +admirers, perhaps only giving ear to the growing tumult in the room we +had left, where the revellers were still at their wine. By-and-by we +heard them break into song, and then in thunder the chorus came +rolling out-- + + + 'Hoch! Who rides with old Pappenheim knee to knee + The sword is his title, the world is his fee! + He knows nor Monarch, nor Sire, nor clime + Who follows the banner of bold Pappenheim!' + + +My lady's lip curled. 'Is there no one on our side they can sing?' she +muttered, tapping the viol impatiently with her fingers. 'Have we no +heroes? Has Count Bernard never headed a charge or won a fight? +Pappenheim? I am tired of the man.' + +The note jarred on her, as it had on me when I first heard these men, +paid by the north, singing the praises of the great southern raider. +But a moment later she turned her head to hear better, and her face +grew thoughtful. A great shout of 'Waska! Waska!' rang above the +jingling of glasses and snatches of song; and then, 'The Waldgrave! +The Waldgrave!' This time the cry was less boisterous, the voices were +fewer. + +My lady turned to me. 'What is it?' she said, a note of anxiety in her +voice. + +I was unable to tell her and I listened. By-and-by a roar of laughter +made itself heard, and was followed by a cry of 'Waska!' as before. +And then, 'The Thuringian Code! The Thuringian Code! It is his turn!' + +'They are drinking, your excellency,' I said reluctantly. 'It is a +drinking match, I think!' + +She rose with a grand gesture, and set the little viol back on the +table. 'I am going,' she said, almost fiercely. 'Let the horses be +called.' + +Fraulein Max looked scared, but my lady's face forbade argument or +reply; and for my part I was not a whit unwilling. I turned and gave +the order to Jacob. While he was away the Countess remained standing, +tapping the floor with her foot. + +'On this day--on this day they might have abstained!' she muttered +wrathfully, as the chorus of riot and laughter grew each moment louder +and wilder. + +I thought so too, and was glad besides of anything which might work a +breach between her and the general. But I little knew what was going +to happen. It came upon us while we waited, with no more warning than +I have described. The door by which we had left the banqueting chamber +flew suddenly open, and three men, borne in on a wave of cheering and +uproar, staggered in upon us, the leader reeling under the blows which +his applauding followers rained upon his shoulders. + +'There! Said I not so?' he cried thickly, lurching to one side to +escape them, and almost falling. 'Where ish your Waska. Your Waska now +I'd like to know! Waska is great, but I am--greater--greater, you see. +I can shoot, drink, fight, and make love better than any man here! Eh! +Who shays I can't? Eh? Itsh the Countesh! My cousin the Countesh! Ah!' + +Alas, it was the Waldgrave! And yet not the Waldgrave. This man's face +was pale and swollen and covered with perspiration. His eyes were +heavy and sodden, and his hair strayed over them. His collar and his +coat were open at the neck, and his sash and the front of his dress +were stained and reeking with wine. His hands trembled, his legs +reeled, his tongue was too large for his mouth. He smiled fatuously at +us. Yet it _was_ the Waldgrave--drunk! + +My lady's face froze as she looked at him. She raised her hand, and +the men behind him fell back abashed and left him standing there, +propping himself uncertainly against the wall. + +'Well, your excellenshy,' he stuttered with a hiccough--the sudden +silence surprised him--'you don't congratulatsh me! Waska is under +table. Under table, I shay!' + +My lady looked at him, her eyes blazing with scorn. But she said +nothing; only her fingers opened and closed convulsively. I turned to +see if Jacob had come back. He entered at that moment and General +Tzerclas with him. + +'Your excellency's horses are coming,' the general said in his usual +tone. Then he saw the Waldgrave and the open door, and he started with +surprise. 'What is this?' he said. His face was flushed and his eyes +were bright. But he was sober. + +The drunken man tried to straighten himself. 'Ashk Waska!' he said. +Alas! his good looks were gone. I regarded him with horror, I knew +what he had done. + +'The horses?' the general muttered. + +My lady drew a deep breath, as a person recovering consciousness does, +and turned slowly towards him. 'Yes,' she said, shuddering from head +to foot, 'if you please. I wish to go.' + +The young lord heard the horses come to the door, and staggered +forward. 'Yesh, letsh go. I'll go too,' he stuttered with a foolish +laugh. 'Letsh all go. Except Waska! He is under the table. Letsh all +go, I say! Eh? Whatsh thish?' + +I pushed him back and held him against the wall while the general led +my lady out. But, oh the pity of it, the wrath, the disappointment +that filled my breast as I did so! This was the end of my duel! This +was the stay to which I had trusted! The Waldgrave's influence with my +lady? It was gone--gone as if it had never been. A spider's web, a +rope of sand, a straw were after this a stronger thing to depend upon, +a more sure safeguard, a stouter holdfast for a man in peril! + + + * * * * * + + +He came to my lady next morning about two hours after sunrise, when +the dew was still on the grass and the birds--such as had lost their +first broods or were mating late--were in full song. The camp was +sleeping off its debauch, and the village street was bright and empty, +with a dog here and there gnawing a bone, or sneaking round the corner +of a building. My lady had gone out early to the fallen tree with her +psalm book; and was sitting there in the freshness of the morning, +with her back to the house and the street, when his shadow fell across +the page and she looked up and saw him. + +She said 'good morning' very coldly, and he for a moment said nothing, +but stood, sullenly making a hole in the dust with his toe and looking +down at it. His face was pale, where it was not red with shame, and +his eyes were heavy and dull; but otherwise the wine he had taken had +left no mark on his vigorous youth. + +My lady after speaking looked down at her book again, and he continued +to stand before her like a whipped schoolboy, stealing every now and +then a furtive look at her. At length she looked up again. + +'Do you want anything?' she said. + +This time he returned her gaze, with his face on fire, trying to melt +her. And I think that there were not many more unhappy men at that +moment than he. His fancy, liking, love were centred in the woman +before him; in a mad freak he had outraged, insulted, estranged her. +He did not know what to do, how to begin, what plan to put forward. He +could for the moment only look, with shame and misery in his face. + +It was a plea that would have melted many, but my lady only grew +harder. 'Did you hear me?' she said proudly. 'Do you want anything?' + +'You know!' he cried impetuously, and his voice broke out fiercely and +seemed to beat against her impassiveness as a bird against the bars of +its cage. 'I was a beast last night. But, oh, Rotha, forgive me.' + +'I think that we had better not talk about it,' my lady answered him +stonily. 'It is past, and we need not quarrel over it. I shall be +wiser next time,' she added. 'That is all.' + +'Wiser?' he muttered. + +'Yes; wiser than to trust myself to your protection,' she replied +ruthlessly. + +He shrank back as if she had struck him, and for a moment pain and +rage brought the blood surging to his cheeks. He even took a step as +if to leave her; but when love and pride struggle in a young man, love +commonly has it, and he turned again and stood hesitating, the picture +of misery. + +'Is that all you will say to me?' he muttered, his voice unsteady. + +My lady moved her feet uneasily. Then she shut her book, and looked +round as if she would have willingly escaped. But she was not stone; +and when at length she turned to him, her face was changed. + +'What do you want me to say?' she asked gently. + +'That some day you will forgive me.' + +'I forgive you now,' she rejoined firmly. 'But I cannot forget. I do +not think I ever can,' she went on. 'Last night I was in your charge +among strangers. If danger had arisen, whose arm was to shield me, if +not yours? If any had insulted me, to whom was I to look, if not to +you? Yes, you may well hide your face,' my lady continued, waxing +bitter, despite herself. 'I am not at Heritzburg now, and you should +have remembered that. I am here with scanty protection, with few means +to exact respect, a refugee, if you like, a mark for scandal, and your +kinswoman. And you? for shame, Rupert!' + +He fell on his knees and seized her hand. 'You are killing me!' he +cried in a choking voice, his face pale, his breath coming quickly. +'For I love you, Rotha, I love you! And every word of reproach you +utter is death to me.' + +'Hush, Rupert!' she said quickly. And she tried to withdraw her hand. +He had taken her by surprise. + +But he was not to be silenced; he kept her hand, though he rose to his +feet. 'It is true,' he answered. 'I have waited long enough. I must +speak now, or it may be too late. I tell you, I love you!' + +The Countess's face was crimson, her brow dark with vexation. 'Hush!' +she said again, and more imperatively. 'I have heard enough. It is +useless.' + +'You have not heard me!' he answered. 'Don't say so until you have +heard me.' And he sat down suddenly on the tree beside her, and looked +into her face with pleading eyes. 'You are letting last night weigh +against me,' he went on. 'If that be all, I will never drink more than +three cups of wine at a time as long as I live. I swear it.' + +She shook her head rather sadly. 'That is not all, Rupert,' she said. + +'Then what will you have?' he answered eagerly. He saw the change in +her, and his eyes began to burn with hope as he looked. Her milder +tone, her downcast head, her altered aspect, all encouraged him. 'I +love you, Rotha!' he cried, raising her hand to his lips. 'What more +will you have? Tell me. All I have, and all I ever shall have--and I +am young and may do great things--are yours. I have been riding behind +you day by day, until I know every turn of your head, and every note +of your voice. I know your step when you walk, and the rustle of your +skirt among a hundred! And there is no other woman in the world for +me! What if I am the youngest cadet of my house?' he continued, +leaning towards her; 'this war will last many a year yet, and I will +carve you a second county with my sword. Wallenstein did. Who was he? +A simple gentleman. Now he is Duke of Friedland. And that Englishman +who married a king's sister? They succeeded, why should not I? Only +give me your love, Rotha! Trust me; trust me once more and always, and +I will not fail you.' + +He tried to draw her nearer to him, but the Countess shook her head, +and looked at him with tears in her eyes. 'Poor boy,' she said slowly. +'Poor boy! I am sorry, but it cannot be. It can never be.' + +'Why?' he cried, starting as if she had stung him. + +'Because I do not love you,' she said. + +He dropped her hand and sat glaring at her. 'You are thinking of last +night!' he muttered. + +She shook her head. 'I am not,' she said simply. 'I suppose that if I +loved you, that and worse would go for nothing. But I do not.' + +Her calmness, her even tone went to his heart and chilled it. He +winced, and uttering a low cry turned from her and hid his face in his +hands. + +'Why not?' he said thickly, after an interval. 'Why can you not love +me?' + +'Why does the swallow nest here and not there?' the Countess answered +gently. 'I do not know. Why did my father love a foreigner and not one +of his own people? I do not know. Neither do I know why I do not love +you. Unless,' she added, with rising colour, 'it is that you are +young, younger than I am; and a woman turns naturally to one older +than herself.' + +Her words seemed to point so surely to General Tzerclas that the young +man ground his teeth together. But he had not spirit to turn and +reproach her then; and after remaining silent for some minutes, he +rose. + +'Good-bye,' he said in a broken voice. And he lifted her hand to his +lips and kissed it. + +The Countess started. The words, the action impressed her +disagreeably. 'You are not going--away I mean?' she said. + +'No,' he answered slowly. 'But things are--changed. When we meet again +it will be as----' + +'Friends!' she cried, her voice tender almost to yearning. 'Say it +shall be so. Let it be so always. You will not leave me alone here?' + +'No,' he said simply, and with dignity. 'I shall not.' + +Then he went away, quite quietly; and if the beginning of the +interview had shown him to small advantage, the same could not be said +of the end. He went down the street and through the camp with his head +on his breast and a mist before his eyes. The light was gone out of +the sunshine, the greenness from the trees. The day was grey and +dreary and miserable. The blight was on all he saw. So it is with men. +When they cannot have that which seems to them the best and fairest +and most desirable thing in the world, nothing is good or pleasant or +to be desired any longer. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + STALHANSKE'S FINNS. + + +It was my ill luck, on that day which began so inauspiciously, to see +two shadows: one on a man's face, the Waldgrave's, and of that I need +say no more; the other, the shadow of a man's body, an odd, sinister +outline, crooked and strange and tremulous, that I came upon in a +remote corner of the camp, to which I had wandered in my perplexity; a +place where a few stunted trees ran down a steep bank to the river. I +had never been to this place before, and, after a glance which showed +me that it was the common sink and rubbish-bed of the camp, I was +turning moodily away, when first this shadow and then the body which +cast it caught my eye. The latter hung from the branch of an old +gnarled thorn, the feet a few inches from the ground. A shuddering +kind of curiosity led me to go up and look at the dead man's face, +which was doubled up on his breast; and then the desire to test the +nerves, which is common to most men, induced me to stand staring at +him. + +The time was two hours after noon, and there were few persons +moving. The camp was half asleep. Heat, and flies, and dust were +everywhere--and this gruesome thing. The body was stripped, and the +features were swollen and disfigured; but, after a moment's thought, I +recognized them, and saw that I had before me the poor wretch who had +appealed to my lady's compassion after the shooting-match, and to whom +the general had opened his hand so freely. The grim remarks I had then +heard recurred now, and set me shuddering. If any doubt still remained +in my mind, it was dissipated a moment later by a placard which had +once hung round the dead man's neck, but now lay in the dust at his +feet. I turned it over. Chalked on it in large letters were the words +'Beggars, beware!' + +I felt at first, on making the discovery, only horror and indignation, +and a violent loathing of the camp. But these feelings soon passed, +and left me free to consider how the deed touched us. Could I prove +it? Could I bring it home to the general to my lady's satisfaction, +beyond denial or escape, and so open her eyes? And if I could, would +it be wise, by doing so, to rouse his anger while she remained in the +camp and in General Tzerclas' power? I might only hasten the +catastrophe. + +I found this a hard nut to crack, and was still puzzling over it, with +my eyes on the senseless form which was already so far out of my +thoughts, when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder and a harsh voice +grated on my ear. + +'Well, Master Steward, a penny for your thoughts! They should be worth +having, to judge by the way you rub your chin.' + +I started and looked round. The speaker was Captain Ludwig, who, with +two of his fellows, had come up behind me while I mused. Something in +his tone rather than his words--a note of menace--warned me to be +careful; while the glum looks of his companions, as they glanced from +me to the dead man, added point to the hint, and filled my mind with a +sudden sense of danger. I had learned more than I had been intended to +learn; I had found out something I had not been intended to find out. +The very quietness and sunshine and the solitude of the place added +horror to the moment. It was all I could do to hide my discomfiture +and face them without flinching. + +'My thoughts?' I said, forcing a grin. 'They were not very difficult +to guess. A sharp shrift, and a short rope? What else should a man +think here?' + +'Ay?' Ludwig said, watching me closely with his eyes half closed and +his lips parted. + +He would say no more, and I was forced to go on. 'It is not the first +time I have seen a man dancing on nothing!' I said recklessly; 'but it +gave me a turn.' + +He kicked the placard. 'You are a scholar,' he said. 'What is this?' + +My face grew hot. I dared not deny my learning, for I did not know how +much he knew; but, for the nonce, I wished heartily that I had never +been taught to read. + +'That?' I said, affecting a jovial tone to cover my momentary +hesitation. 'A seasonable warning. They are as thick here as nuts in +autumn. We could spare a few more, for the matter of that.' + +'Ay, but this one?' he retorted, coolly tapping the dead man with a +little stick he carried, and then turning to look me in the face. 'You +have seen him before.' + +I made a great show of staring at the body, but I suppose I played my +part ill, for before I could speak Ludwig broke in with a brutal +laugh. + +'Chut, man!' he said, with a sneer of contempt; 'you know him; I see +you do. And knew him all along. Well, if fools will poke their noses +into things that do not concern them, it is not my affair. I must +trouble you for your company awhile.' + +'Whither?' I said, setting my teeth together and frowning at him. + +'To my master,' he replied, with a curt nod. 'Don't say you won't,' he +continued with meaning, 'for he is not one to be denied.' + +I looked from one to another of the three men, and for a moment the +desperate clinging to liberty, which makes even the craven bold, set +my hands tingling and sent the blood surging to my head. But reason +spoke in time. I saw that the contest was too unequal, the advantage +of a few minutes' freedom too trivial, since the general must sooner +or later lay his hand on me; and I crushed down the impulse to resist. + +'What scares you, comrades?' I said, laughing savagely. They had +recoiled a foot. 'Do you see a ghost or a Swede, that you look so +pale? Your general wants me? Then let him have me. Lead on! I won't +run away, I warrant you.' + +Ludwig nodded as he placed himself by my side. 'That is the right way +to take it,' he said. 'I thought that you might be going to be a fool, +comrade.' + +'Like our friend there,' I said dryly, pointing to the senseless form +we were leaving. 'He made a fuss, I suppose?' + +Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'No,' he answered, 'not he so much; but +his wife. Donner! I think I hear her screams now. And she cursed us! +Ah!' + +I shuddered, and after that was silent. But more than once before we +reached the general's quarters the frantic desire to escape seized me, +and had to be repressed. I felt that this was the beginning of the +end, the first proof of the strong grasp which held us all helpless. I +thought of my lady, I thought of Marie Wort, and I could have shrieked +like a woman; for I was powerless like a woman--gripped in a hand I +could not resist. + +The camp grilling and festering in the sunshine--how I hated it! It +seemed an age I had lived in its dusty brightness, an age of vague +fears and anxieties. I passed through it now in a feverish dream, +until an exclamation, uttered by my companion as we turned into the +street, aroused me. The street was full of loiterers, all standing in +groups, and all staring at a little band of horsemen who sat +motionless in their saddles in front of the general's quarters. For a +moment I took these to be the general's staff. Then I saw that they +were dressed all alike, that their broad, ruddy faces were alike, that +they held themselves with the same unbending precision, and seemed, in +a word, to be ten copies of one stalwart man. Near them, a servant on +foot was leading two horses up and down, and they and he had the air +of being on show. + +Captain Ludwig, holding me fast by the arm, stopped at the first group +of starers we came to. 'Who are these?' he asked gruffly. + +The man he addressed turned round, eager to impart his knowledge. +'Finns!' he said; 'from head-quarters--Stalhanske's Finns. No less, +captain.' + +My companion whistled. 'What are they doing here?' he asked. + +The other shook his head. 'I don't know,' he said. 'Their leader is +with the general. What do you think of them, Master Ludwig?' + +But Ludwig only grunted, looking with disparaging eyes at the +motionless riders, whose air betrayed a certain consciousness of their +fame and the notice which they were exciting. From steel cap to +spurred boot, they showed all metal and leather. Nothing gay, nothing +gaudy; not a chain or a sash differenced one from another. Grim, +stern, and silent, they stared before them. Had no one named the King +of Sweden's great regiment, I had known that I was looking no longer +on brigands, but on soldiers--on part of the iron line that at +Breitenfeld broke the long repute of years, and swept Pappenheim from +the hillside like chaff before the storm. + +After hesitating a moment, Ludwig went forward a few paces, as if to +enter the house, taking me with him. Then he paused. At the same +instant the man who was leading the two horses turned. His eye lit on +me, and I saw an extraordinary change come over the fellow's face. He +stopped short and, pulling up his horses, stared at me. It seemed to +me, too, that I had seen him before, and I returned his look; but +while I was trying to remember where, the door of the general's +quarters opened. Two or three men who were loitering before it, +stepped quickly aside, and a tall, stalwart man came out, followed by +General Tzerclas himself. + +I looked at the foremost, and in a twinkling recognized him. It was +Von Werder. But an extraordinary change had come over the traveller. +He was still plainly dressed, in a buff coat, with untanned boots, a +leather sword-belt, and a grey hat with a red feather; and in all of +these there was nothing to catch the eye. But his air and manner as he +spoke to his companion were no longer those of an inferior, while his +stern eye, as it travelled over the crowd in the street, expressed +cold and steady contempt. + +As the servant brought up his horse, he spoke to his companion. 'You +are sure that you can do it--with these?' he said, flicking his +riding-whip towards the silent throng. + +'You may consider it done,' the general answered rather grimly. + +'Good! I am glad. Well, man, what is it?' + +He spoke the last words to his servant. The man pointed to me and said +something. Von Werder looked at me. In a moment every one looked at +me. Then Von Werder swung himself into his saddle, and turned to +General Tzerclas. + +'That is the man, I am told,' he said, pointing suddenly to me with +his whip. + +'He is at your service,' the general answered with a shrug of +indifference.' + +In an instant Von Werder's horse was at my side. 'A word with you, my +man,' he said sharply. 'Come with me.' + +Ludwig had hold of my arm still. He had not loosed me, and at this he +interposed. 'My lord,' he cried to the general, 'this man--I have +something to----' + +'Silence, fool!' Tzerclas growled. 'And stand aside, if you value your +skin!' + +Ludwig let me go; immediately, as if an angel had descended to speak +for me, the crowd parted, and I was free--free and walking away down +the street by the side of the stranger, who continued to look at me +from time to time, but still kept silence. When we had gone in this +fashion a couple of hundred paces or more, and were clear of the +crowd, he seemed no longer able to control himself, though he looked +like a man apt at self-command. He waved his escort back and reined in +his horse. + +'You are the man to whom I talked the other night,' he said, fixing me +with his eyes--'the Countess of Heritzburg's steward?' + +I replied that I was. His face as he looked down at me, with his back +to his following, betrayed so much agitation that I wondered more and +more. Was he going to save us? Could he save us? Who was he? What did +it all mean? Then his next question scattered all these thoughts and +doubled my surprise. + +'You had a chain stolen from you,' he said harshly, 'the night I lay +in your camp?' + +I stared at him with my mouth open. 'A chain?' I stammered. + +'Ay, fool, a chain!' he replied, his eyes glaring, his cheeks swelling +with impatience. 'A gold chain--with links like walnuts.' + +'It is true,' I said stupidly. 'I had. But----' + +'Where did you get it?' + +I looked away. To answer was easy; to refrain from answering, with his +eye upon me, hard. But I thought of Marie Wort. I did not know how the +chain had come into her hands, and I asked him a question in return. + +'Have you the chain?' I said. + +'I have!' he snarled. And then in a sudden outburst of wrath he cried, +'Listen, fool! And then perhaps you will answer me more quickly. I am +Hugo of Leuchtenstein, Governor of Cassel and Marburg, and President +of the Landgrave's Council. The chain was mine and came back to me. +The rogue who stole it from you, and joined himself to my company, +blabbed of it, and where he got it. He let my men see it. He would not +give it up, and they killed him. Will that satisfy you?' he continued, +his face on fire with impatience. 'Then tell me all--all, man, or it +will be the worse for you! My time is precious, and I cannot stay!' + +I uncovered myself. 'Your excellency,' I stammered, 'the chain was +entrusted to me by a--a woman.' + +'A woman?' he exclaimed, his eyes lightening. 'Man, you are wringing +my heart. A woman with a child?' + +I nodded. + +'A child three years old?' + +'About that, your excellency.' On which, to my astonishment, he +covered his face with both his hands, and I saw the strong man's frame +heave with ill-suppressed emotion. 'My God, I thank thee!' I heard him +whisper; and if ever words came from the heart, those did. It was a +minute or more before he dared to uncover his face, and then his eyes +were moist and his features worked with emotion. + +'You shall be rewarded!' he said unsteadily. 'Do not fear. And now +take me to him--to her.' + +I was in a maze of astonishment, but I had sense enough to understand +the order. We had halted scarcely more than a hundred yards from my +lady's quarters, and I led the way thither, comprehending little more +than that something advantageous had happened to us. At the door he +sprang from his horse, and taking me by the arm, as if he were afraid +to suffer me out of his reach, he entered, pushing me before him. + +The principal room was empty, and I judged my lady was out. I cried +'Marie! Marie!' softly; and then he and I stood listening. The +sunshine poured in through the windows; the house was still with the +stillness of afternoon. A bird in a cage in the corner pecked at the +bars. Outside the bits jingled, and a horse pawed the road +impatiently. + +'Marie!' I cried. 'Marie!' + +She came in at last through a door which led to the back of the house, +and I stepped forward to speak to her. But the moment I saw her +clearly, the words died on my lips. The pallor of her face, the +disorder of her hair struck me dumb. I forgot our business, my +companion, all. 'What is it?' was all I could say. 'What is the +matter?' + +'The child!' she cried, her dark eyes wild with anxiety. 'The child! +It is lost! It is lost and gone. I cannot find it!' + +'The child? Gone?' I answered, my voice rising almost to a shout, in +my surprise. 'It is missing? Now?' + +'I cannot find it,' she answered monotonously. 'I left it for a moment +at the back there. It was playing on the grass. Now it is gone.' + +I looked at. Count Leuchtenstein. He was staring at the girl, +listening and watching, his brow contracted, his face pale. But I +suppose that this sudden alarm, this momentary disappearance did not +affect him, from whom the child had been so long absent, as it +affected us; for his first words referred to the past. + +'This child, woman?' he said in his deep voice, which shook despite +all his efforts. 'When you found it, it had a chain round its neck?' + +But Marie was so wrapped up in her sudden loss that she answered him +without thought, listening the while. 'Yes,' she said mechanically, +'it had.' + +'Where did you find it, then--the child?' he asked eagerly. + +'In the forest by Vach,' she replied, in the same indifferent tone. + +'Was it alone?' + +'It was with a dead woman,' she answered. She was listening still, +with a strained face--listening for the pattering of the little feet, +the shrill music of the piping voice. Only half of her mind was with +us. Her hands opened and closed continually with anxiety; she held her +head on one side, her ear to the door. When the Count went to put +another question, she turned upon him so fiercely, I hardly knew her. +'Hush!' she said, 'will you? They are here, but they have not found +him. They have not found him!' And she was right; though I, whose ears +were not sharpened by love, did not discern this until two men, who +had been left at home with her, and who had been out to search, came +in empty-handed and with scared looks. They had hunted on all sides +and found no trace of the child, and, certain that it could not have +strayed far itself, pronounced positively that it had been kidnapped. + +Marie at that burst into weeping so pitiful, that I was glad to send +the men out, bidding them make a larger circuit and inquire in the +camp. When they were gone, I turned to Count Leuchtenstein to see how +he took it. I found him leaning against the wall, his face grave, +dark, and thoughtful. + +'There seems a fatality in it!' he muttered, meeting my eyes, but +speaking to himself. 'That it should be lost again--at this moment! +Yet, God's will be done. He who sent the chain to my hands can still +take care of the child.' + +He paused a moment in deep thought, and then, advancing to Marie Wort, +who had thrown herself into a chair and was sobbing passionately with +her face on the table, he touched her on the shoulder. + +'Good girl!' he said kindly. 'Good girl! But doubtless the child is +safe. Before night it will be found.' + +She sprang up and faced him, her cheeks flaming with anger. I suppose +the questions he had put to her had made no distinct impression on her +mind. + +'Oh,' she cried, in the voice of a shrew, 'how you prate! By night it +will be found, will it? How do you know? But the child is nothing to +you--nothing!' + +'Girl,' he said solemnly, yet gently, 'the child is my child--my only +child, and the hope of my house.' + +She looked at him wildly. 'Who are you, then?' she said, her voice +sinking almost to a whisper. + +'I am his father,' he answered; when I looked to hear him state his +name and titles. 'And as his father, I thank and bless you for all +that you have done for him.' + +'His mother?' she whispered, open-eyed with awe. + +'His mother is dead. She died three years ago,' he answered gravely. +'And now tell me your name, for I must go.' + +'You must go!' she exclaimed. 'You will go--you can go--and your child +lost and wandering?' + +'Yes,' he replied, with a dignity which silenced her, 'I can, for I +have other and greater interests to guard than those of my house, and +I dare not be negligent. He may be found to-morrow, but what I have to +do to-day cannot be done to-morrow. See, take that,' he continued more +gently, laying a heavy purse on the table before her. 'It is for you, +for your own use--for your dowry, if you have a lover. And remember +always that, in the house of Hugo of Leuchtenstein, at Cassel, or +Marburg, or at the Schloss by Leuchtenstein, you will find a home and +shelter, and stout friends whenever you need them. Now give me your +name.' + +She stared at him dumfounded and was silent. I told him Marie Wort of +Munich, at present in attendance on the Countess of Heritzburg; and he +set it down in his tablets. + +'Good,' he said. And then in his stern, grave fashion he turned to me. +'Master Steward,' he said, in a measured tone which nevertheless +stirred my blood, 'are you an ambitious man? If so, search for my +child, and bring him to Cassel or Marburg, or my house, and I will +fulfil your ambition. Would you have a command, I will see to it; or a +farm, it shall be yours. You can do for me, my friend' he continued +strenuously, laying his hand on my arm, 'what in this stress of war +and statecraft I cannot do for myself. I have a hundred at my call, +but they are not here; and by to-night I must be ten leagues hence, by +to-morrow night beyond the Main. Yet God, I believe,' he went on, +uncovering himself and speaking with reverent earnestness, 'who +brought me to this place, and permitted me to hear again of my son, +will not let His purpose fail because He calls me elsewhere.' + +And he maintained this grave composure to the last. A man more worthy +of his high repute, not in Hesse only, but in the Swedish camp, at +Dresden, and Vienna, I thought that I had never seen. Yet still under +the mask I discerned the workings of a human heart. His eye, as he +turned to go, wandered round the room; I knew that it was seeking some +trace of his boy's presence. On the threshold he halted suddenly; I +knew that he was listening. But no sound rewarded him. He nodded +sternly to me and went out. + +I followed to hold his stirrup. The Finland riders, sitting upright in +their saddles, looked as if they had not moved an eyelash in our +absence. As I had left them so I found them. He gave a short, sharp +word of command; a sudden jingling of bridles followed; the troop +walked forward, broke into a trot, and in a twinkling disappeared down +the road in a cloud of dust. + +Then, and not till then, I remembered that I had not said a word to +him about my lady's position. His personality and the loss of the +child had driven it from my mind. Now it recurred to me; but it was +too late, and after stamping up and down in vexation for a while, I +turned and went into the house. + +Marie Wort had fallen back into the old position at the table, and was +sitting with her face on her arms, sobbing bitterly. I went up to her +and saw the purse lying by her side. + +'Come,' I said, trying awkwardly to cheer her, 'the child will be +found, never fear. When my lady returns she will send to the general, +and he will have it cried through the camp. It is sure to be found. +And you have made a powerful friend.' + +But she took no heed of me. She continued to weep; and her sobs hurt +me. She seemed so small and lonely and helpless that I had not the +heart to leave her by herself in the house and go out into the +sunshine to search. And so--I scarcely know how it came about--in a +moment she was sobbing out her grief on my shoulder and I was +whispering in her ear. + +Of love? of our love? No, for to have spoken of that while she wept +for the child, would have seemed to me no better than sacrilege. And, +besides, I think that we took it for granted. For when her sobs +presently ceased, and she lay quiet, listening, and I found her soft +dark hair on my shoulder, I kissed it a hundred times; and still she +lay silent, her cheek against my rough coat. Our eyes had spoken +morning and evening, at dawn when we met, and at night when we parted; +and now that this matter of the chain was settled, it seemed fitting +that she should come to me for comfort--without words. + +At length she drew herself away from me, her cheek dark and her eyes +downcast. 'Not now,' she said, gently stopping me--for then I think I +should have spoken. 'Will you please to go out and search? No, I will +not grieve.' + +'But your purse!' I reminded her. She was leaving it on the table, and +it was not safe there. 'You should put it in a place of safety, +Marie.' + +She took it up and very simply placed it in my hands. 'He said it was +for my--dowry,' she whispered, blushing. And then she fled away +shamefaced to her room. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + A SUDDEN EXPEDITION. + + +I did not after that suffer the grass to grow under my feet. I went +out, and with my own eyes searched the fields at the back, and every +ditch and water-hole. I had the loss cried in the camp, my lady on her +return offered a reward, we sent even to the nearer villages, we +patrolled the roads, we omitted nothing that could by any chance avail +us. Yet evening fell, and night, and found us still searching; and no +nearer, as far as we could see, to success. The child was gone +mysteriously. Left to play alone for two minutes in the stillness of +the afternoon, he had vanished as completely as if the earth had +opened and swallowed him. + +Baffled, we began to ask, while Marie sat pale and brooding in a +corner, or now and again stole to the door to listen, who could have +taken him and with what motive? There were men and women in the camp +capable of anything. It seemed probable to some that these had stolen +the child for the sake of his clothes. Others suggested witchcraft. +But in my own mind, I leaned to neither of these theories. I +suspected, though I dared not utter the thought, that the general had +done it. Without knowing how much of the story Count Hugo had confided +to him, I took it as certain that the father had said enough to +apprise him of the boy's value. And this being so, what more probable +than that the general, whom I was prepared to credit with any +atrocity, had taken instant steps to possess himself of the child? + +My lady said and did all that was kind on the occasion, and for a few +hours it occupied all our thoughts. At the end of that time, however, +about sunset, General Tzerclas rode to the door, and with him, to my +surprise, the Waldgrave. They would see her, and detained her so long +that when she sent for me on their departure, I was sore on Marie's, +account, and inclined to blame her as indifferent to our loss. But a +single glance at her face put another colour on the matter. I saw that +something had occurred to excite and disturb her. + +'Martin,' she said earnestly, 'I am going to employ you on an errand +of importance. Listen to me and do not interrupt me. General Tzerclas +starts to-morrow with the larger part of his forces to intercept one +of Wallenstein's convoys, which is expected to pass twelve leagues to +the south of this. There will be sharp fighting, I am told, and my +cousin, the Waldgrave Rupert, is going. He is not at present--I mean, +I am afraid he may do something rash. He is young,' my lady continued +with dignity and a heightened colour, 'and I wish he would stay here. +But he will not.' + +I guessed at once that this affair of the convoy was the business +which had brought Count Hugo to the camp. And I was beginning to +consider what advantage we might make of it, and whether the general's +absence might not afford us both a pretext for departure and the +opportunity, when my lady's next words dispelled my visions. + +'I want you,' she said slowly, 'to go with him. He has a high opinion +of you, and will listen to you.' + +'The general?' I cried in amazement. + +'Who spoke of him?' she exclaimed angrily. 'I said the Waldgrave +Rupert. I wish you to go with him to see that he does not run any +unnecessary risk.' + +I coughed dryly, and stood silent. + +'Well?' my lady said with a frown. 'Do you understand?' + +'I understand, my lady,' I answered firmly; 'but I cannot go.' + +'_You cannot go!_ when I send you!' she murmured, unable, I think, to +believe her ears. 'Why not, sirrah? Why not, if you please?' + +'Because my first duty is to your excellency,' I stammered. 'And as +long as you are here, I dare not--and will not leave you!' + +'As long as I am here!' she retorted, red with anger and surprise. +'You have still that maggot in your head, then? By my soul, Master +Martin, if we were at home I would find means to drive it out! But I +know what it is! What you really want is to stay by the side of that +puling girl! Oh, I am not blind,' my lady continued viciously, seeing +that she had found at last the way to hurt me. 'I know what has been +going on.' + +'But Count Leuchtenstein----' I muttered. + +'Don't bring him in!' my lady cried, in such a voice that I dared go +no farther. 'General Tzerclas has told me of him. I understand what is +between them, and you do not. Presumptuous booby!' she continued, +flashing at me a glance of scorn, which made me tremble. 'But I will +thwart you! Since you will not leave me, I will go myself. I will go, +but Mistress Marie shall stay here till we return.' + +'But if there is to be fighting?' I said humbly. + +'Ah! So you have changed your note, have you!' she cried triumphantly. +I had seldom seen her more moved. 'If there is to be fighting'--she +mocked my tone. 'Well, there is to be, but I shall go. And now do you +go, and have all ready for a start at daybreak, or it will be the +worse for you! One of my women will accompany me. Fraulein Anna will +stay here with your--other mistress!' + +She pointed to the door as she spoke, and once more charged me to be +ready; and I went away dazed. Everything seemed on a sudden to be +turned upside down--the child lost, my lady offended, the Waldgrave +desperate, the general in favour. It was hard to see which way my duty +lay. I would fain have stayed in the camp a day to make farther search +for the child, but I must go. I would gladly have got clear of the +camp, but we were to travel in the general's company. As to leaving +Marie, my lady wronged me. I knew of no special danger which +threatened the girl, nor any reason why she should not be safe where +she was. If the child were found she would be here to receive it. + +On the other hand, there was my discovery of the beggar's fate, from +the immediate consequences of which Count Hugo's arrival had saved me. +This sudden expedition should favour me there; the general would have +his hands full of other things, and Ludwig be hard put to it to gain +his ear. I might now, if I pleased, discover the matter to my lady, +and open her eyes. But I had no proof; even if time permitted, and I +could take the Countess to that part of the camp, I could not be sure +that the body was still there. And to accuse General Tzerclas of such +a thing without proof would be to court my own ruin. + +While I was puzzling over this, I saw the Waldgrave outside, and, +thinking to profit by his advice, I went to meet him. But I found him +in a peculiar mood, talking, laughing, and breaking into snatches of +song; all with a wildness and _abandon_ that frightened while they +puzzled me. He laughed at my doubts, and walking up and down, while +his servants scoured his breast-piece and cleaned his harness by the +light of a lantern, he persisted in talking of nothing but the +expedition before us and the pleasure of striking a blow or two. + +'We are rusting, man!' he cried feverishly, clapping me on the back. +'You have the rust on you yet, Martin But-- + + + "Clink, clink, clink! + Sword and stirrup and spur! + Ride, ride, ride, + Fast as feather or fur!" + + +To-morrow or the next day we will have it off.' + +'You have heard about the child, my lord,' I said gravely, trying to +bring him back to the present. + +'I have heard that Von Werder, the dullest man at a board I ever met, +turns out to be Hugo of Leuchtenstein, whom God preserve!' he answered +recklessly. 'And that your girl's brat of a brother turns out to be +his brat! And no sooner is the father found than the son is lost; and +that both have gone as mysteriously as they came. But Himmel! man, +what's the odds when we are going to fight to-morrow! What compares +with that? Ça! ça! steady and the point!' + +I thought of Marie; and it seemed to me that there were other things +in the world besides fighting. For love makes a man both brave and a +coward. But the argument would scarcely have been to the Waldgrave's +mind, and, seeing that he would neither talk nor hear reason, I left +him and went away to make my preparations. + +But on the road next day I noticed that though now and then he flashed +into the same wild merriment, he was on the whole as dull as he had +been gay. Our party rode at the head of the column, that we might +escape the dust and have the best of the road, the general and his +principal officers accompanying us and leaving the guidance of the +march to inferiors. Our force consisted of about six hundred horse and +four hundred foot; and as we were to return to the camp, we took with +us neither sutlers nor ordinary baggage, while camp followers were +interdicted under pain of death. Yet the amount of our impedimenta +astonished me. Half a dozen sumpter horses were needed to carry the +general's tent and equipage; his officers required a score more. The +ammunition for the foot soldiers, who were sufficiently burdened with +their heavy matchlocks, provided farther loads; and in fine, while +supposed to be marching in light fighting order, we had something like +a hundred packhorses in our train. Then there were men to lead them, +and cooks and pages and foot-boys and the general's band, and but that +our way lay through woodland tracks and by-routes, I verily believe +that we should have had his coach and dwarf also. + +The sight of all these men and horses in motion was so novel and +exhilarating, and the morning air so brisk, that I soon recovered from +my parting with Marie, and began to take a more cheerful view of the +position. I came near to sympathizing with my lady, whose pleasure and +delight knew no bounds. The long lines of horsemen winding through the +wood, the trailing pikes and waving pennons, gratified her youthful +fancy for war; while as our march lay through the forest, she was +shocked by none of those traces of its ravages which had appalled us +on first leaving Heritzburg. The general waited on her with the utmost +attention, riding by her bridle-rein and talking with her by the hour +together. Whenever I looked at them I noticed that her eye was bright +and her colour high, and I guessed that he was unfolding the plan of +ambition which I was sure he masked under a cold and reserved +demeanour. Alas! I could think of nothing more likely to take my +lady's fancy, no course more sure to enlist her sympathy and interest. +But I was helpless; I could do nothing. And for the Waldgrave, if he +still had any power he would not use it. + +My lady gave him opportunities. Several times I saw her try to draw +him into conversation, and whenever General Tzerclas left her for a +while she turned to the younger man and would have talked to him. But +he seemed unable to respond. When he was not noisily gay, he rode like +a mute. He seemed half sullen, half afraid; and she presently gave him +up, but not before her efforts had caught Tzerclas' eye. The general +had been called for some purpose to the rear of the column, and on his +return found the two talking, my lady's attitude such that it was very +evident she was the provocant. He did not try to resume his place, but +fell in behind them; and riding there, almost, if not quite, within +earshot, cast such ugly glances at them as more than confirmed me in +the belief that in his own secret way he loved my mistress; and that, +after a more dangerous fashion than the Waldgrave. + + +[Illustration: The general waited on her with the utmost attention, +riding by her bridle-rein ...] + + +This was late in the afternoon, and another hour brought us who +marched at the head of the column to our camping-ground for the night. +We lay in a rugged, wooded valley, not very commodious, but chosen +because only one high ridge divided it from a second valley, through +which the main road and the river had their course. Our instructions +were that the convoy, which was bound for Wallenstein's army then +marching on Nuremberg, would pass through this second valley some time +during the following day; but until the hour came for making the +proper dispositions, all persons in our force were forbidden to mount +the intervening ridge under pain of death. We had even to do without +fires--lest the smoke should betray our presence--and for this one +night lay under something like the strict discipline which I had +expected to find prevailing in a military camp. The only fire that was +permitted cooked the general's meal, which he shared with my lady and +the Waldgrave and the principal officers. + +Even so the order caused trouble. The pikemen and musketeers did not +come in till an hour before midnight, when they trudged into camp +dusty and footsore and murmuring at their leaders. When, in this +state, they learned that fires were not to be lighted, disgust grew +rapidly into open disobedience. On a sudden, in half a dozen quarters +at once, flames flickered up, and the camp, dark before, became +peopled in a moment with strange forms, whose eighteen-foot weapons +and cumbrous headpieces flung long shadows across the valley. + +We had lain down to rest, but at the sound of the altercation and the +various cries of 'Pikes! Pikes!' and 'Mutiny!' which broke out, we +came out of our lairs in the bracken to learn what was happening. +Calling young Jacob and three or four of the Heritzburg men to my +side, I ran to my lady to see that nothing befell her in the +confusion. The noise had roused her, and we found her at the door of +her tent looking out. The newly-kindled fires, flaming and crackling +on the sloping sides of the valley, lit up a strange scene of +disorder--of hurrying men and plunging horses, for the alarm had +extended to the horse lines--and for a moment I thought that the +mutiny might spread and cut the knot of our difficulties, or whelm us +all in the same ruin. + +I had scarcely conceived the thought, when the general passed near us +on his way from his tent, whence he had just been called; and at the +sight my new-born hopes vanished. He was bare-headed; he carried no +arms, and had nothing in his hand but a riding-switch. But the stern, +grim aspect of his face, in which was no mercy and no quailing, was +worth a thousand pikes. The firelight shone on his pale, olive cheek +and brooding eyes, as he went by us, not seeing us; and after that I +did not doubt what would happen, although for a moment the tumult of +oaths and cries seemed to swell rather than sink, and I saw more than +one pale-lipped officer climbing into his saddle that he might be able +to fly, if necessary. + +The issue agreed with my expectations. The heart of the disorder lay +in a part of the camp separated from our quarters by a brook, but near +enough in point of distance; so that we saw, my lady and all, pretty +clearly what followed. For a moment, for a few seconds, during which +you could hear a pin drop through the camp, the general stood, his +life in the balance, unarmed in the midst of armed men. But he had +that set courage which seems to daunt the common sort and paralyse the +finger on the trigger; and he prevailed. The knaves lowered their +weapons and shrank back cowering before him. In a twinkling the fires +were beaten out by a hundred eager feet, and the general strode back +to us through the silent, obsequious camp. + +He distinguished my lady standing at the door of her tent, and stepped +aside. 'I am sorry that you have been disturbed, Countess,' he said +politely. 'It shall not occur again. I will hang up a dozen of those +hounds to-morrow, and we shall have less barking.' + +'You are not hurt?' my lady asked, in a voice unlike her own. + +He laughed, deigning no answer in words. Then he said, 'You have no +fire? Camp rules are not for you. Pray have one lit.' And he went on +to his tent. + +I had the curiosity to pass near it when my lady retired. I found a +dozen men, cuirassiers of his privileged troop, peeping and squinting +under the canvas which had been hung round the fire. I joined them and +looked; and saw him lying at length, wrapped in his cloak, reading +'Cæsar's Campaigns' by the light of the blaze, as if nothing had +happened. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + IN A GREEN VALLEY. + + +He was as good as his word. Before the sun had been up an hour six of +the mutineers, chosen by lot from a hundred of the more guilty, +dangled from a great tree which overhung the brook, and were already +forgotten--so short are soldiers' memories--in the hurry and bustle of +a new undertaking. The slope of the ridge which divided us from the +neighbouring valley was quickly dotted with parties of men making +their way up it, through bracken and furze which reached nearly to the +waist; while the horse under Count Waska rode slowly off to make the +circuit of the hill and enter the next valley by an easier road. + +My lady chose to climb the hill on foot, in the track of the pikemen, +though the heavy dew, which the sun had not yet drunk up, soon +drenched her skirts, and she might, had she willed it, have been +carried to the top on men's shoulders. The fern and long grass delayed +her and made our progress slow, so that the general's dispositions +were in great part made when we reached the summit. Busy as he still +was, however, he had eyes for us. He came at once and placed us in a +small coppice of fir trees that crowned one of the knobs of the ridge. +From this point, where he took up his own position, we could command, +ourselves unseen, the whole valley, the road, and river--the scene of +the coming surprise--and see clearly, what no one below could discern, +where our footmen lay in ambush in parties of fifty; the pikemen among +some black thorns, close to the north end of the valley, the musketmen +a little farther within and almost immediately below us. The latter, +prone in the fern, looked, viewed from above, like lines of sheep +feeding, until the light gleamed on a gun-barrel or sword-hilt and +dispelled the peaceful illusion. + +The sun had not yet risen above the hill on which we stood, and the +valley below us lay cool and green and very pleasant to the eye. About +a league in length, it was nowhere, except at its southern extremity, +where it widened into a small plain, more than half a mile across. At +its northern end, below us, and a little to the right, it diminished +to a mere wooded defile, through which the river ran over rocks and +boulders, with a dull roar that came plainly to our ears. A solitary +house of some size, with two or three hovels clustered about it, stood +near the middle of the valley; but no smoke rose from the chimney, no +cock crowed, no dog barked. And, looking more closely, I saw that the +place was deserted. + +So quiet it seemed in this peaceful Thuringian valley, I shuddered +when I thought of the purpose which brought us hither; and I saw my +lady's face grow sad with a like reflection. But General Tzerclas +viewed all with another mind. The stillness, the sunshine, the very +song of the lark, as it rose up and up and up above us, and, still +unwearied, sang its song of praise, touched no chord in his breast. +The quietude pleased him, but only because it favoured his plans; the +lark's hymn, because it covered with a fair mask his lurking ambush; +the sunshine, because it seemed a good augury. His keen and vigilant +eye, the smile which curled his lip, the set expression of his face, +showed that he saw before him a battle-field and no more; a step +upwards--a triumph, a victory, and that was all. + +I blamed him then. I confess now, I misjudged him. He who leads on +such occasions risks more than his life, and bears a weight of +responsibility that may well crush from his mind all moods or thoughts +of weather. At least, I did him, I had to do him, this justice: that +he betrayed no anxiety, uttered no word of doubt or misgiving. +Standing with his back against a tree and his eyes on the northern +pass, he remained placidly silent, or talked at his ease. In this he +contrasted well with the Waldgrave, who continually paced up and down +in the background, as if the fir-grove were a prison and he a captive +waiting to be freed. + +'At what hour should they be here?' my lady asked presently, breaking +a long silence. + +She tried to speak in her ordinary tone, but her voice sounded +uncertain. A woman, however brave, is a woman still. It began to dawn +upon her that things were going to happen which it might be unpleasant +to see, and scarcely more pleasant to remember. + +'I am afraid I cannot say,' the general answered lightly. 'I have done +my part; I am here. Between this and night they should be here too.' + +'Unless they have been warned.' + +'Precisely,' he answered,' unless they have been warned.' + +After that my lady composed herself anew, and the day wore on, in +desultory conversation and a grim kind of picnic. Noon came, and +afternoon, and the Countess grew nervous and irritable. But General +Tzerclas, though the hours, as they passed without event, without +bringing that for which he waited, must have tried him severely, +showed to advantage throughout. He was ready to talk, satisfied to be +silent. Late in the day, when my lady, drowsy with the heat, dozed a +little, he brought out his Cæsar, and read, in it, as if nothing +depended on the day, and he were the most indifferent of spectators. +She awoke and found him reading, and, for a time, sat staring at him, +wondering where she was. At last she remembered. She sat up with a +start, and gazed at him. + +'Are we still waiting?' she said. + +'We are still waiting,' he answered, closing his book with a smile. +'But,' he continued, a moment later, 'I think I hear something now. +Keep back a little, if you please, Countess.' + +We all stood up among the trees, listening, and presently, though the +murmuring of the river in the pass prevented us hearing duller sounds, +a sharp noise, often repeated, came to our ears. It resembled the +snapping of sticks under foot. + +'Whips!' General Tzerclas muttered. 'Stand back, if you please.' + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth before a handful of horsemen +appeared on a sudden in the road below us. They came on like tired +men, some with their feet dangling, some sitting sideways on their +horses. Many had kerchiefs wound round their heads, and carried their +steel caps at the saddle-bow; others nodded in their seats, as if +asleep. They were abreast of our pikemen when we first saw them, and +we watched them advance, until a couple of hundred yards brought them +into line with the musketmen. These, too, they passed without +suspicion, and so went jolting and clinking down the valley, every man +with a bundle at his crupper, and strange odds and ends banging and +swinging against his horse's sides. + +Two hundred paces behind them the first waggon appeared, dragged +slowly on by four labouring horses, and guarded by a dozen foot +soldiers--heavy-browed fellows, lounging along beside the wheels, with +their hands in their breeches pockets. Their long, trailing weapons +they had tied at the tail of the waggon. Close on their heels came +another waggon creaking and groaning, and another, and another, with a +drowsy, stumbling train of teamsters and horse-boys, and here and +there an officer or a knot of men-at-arms. But the foot soldiers had +mostly climbed up into the waggons, and lay sprawling on the loads, +with arms thrown wide, and heads rolling from side to side with each +movement of the straining team. + +We watched eighty of these waggons go by; the first must have been a +mile and more in front of the last. After them followed a disorderly +band of stragglers, among whom were some women. Then a thick, solid +cloud of dust, far exceeding all that had gone before, came down the +pass. It advanced by fits and starts, now plunging forward, now +halting, while the heart of it gave forth a dull roaring sound that +rose above the murmur of the river. + +'Cattle!' General Tzerclas muttered. 'Five hundred head, I should say. +There can be nothing behind that dust. Be ready, trumpeter.' + +The man he addressed stood a few paces behind us; and at intervals +along the ridge others lay hidden, ready to pass the signal to an +officer stationed on the farthest knob, who as soon as he heard the +call would spring up, and with a flag pass the order to the cavalry +below him. + +The suspense of the moment was such, it seemed an age before the +general gave the word. He stood and appeared to calculate, now looking +keenly towards the head of the convoy, which was fast disappearing in +a haze of dust, now gazing down at the bellowing, struggling, wavering +mass below us. At length, when the cattle had all but cleared the +pass, he raised his hand and cried sharply-- + +'Now!' + +The harsh blare of the trumpet pierced the upper stillness in which we +stood. It was repeated--repeated again; then it died away shrilly in +the distance. In its place, hoarse clamour filled the valley below us. +We pressed forward to see what was happening. + +The surprise was complete; and yet it was a sorry sight we saw down in +the bottom, where the sunshine was dying, and guns were flashing, and +men were chasing one another in the grey evening light. Our musketmen, +springing out of ambush, had shot down the horses of the last +half-dozen waggons, and, when we looked, were falling pell-mell upon +the unlucky troop of stragglers who followed. These, flying all ways, +filled the air with horrid screams. Farther to the rear, our pikemen +had seized the pass, and penning the cattle into it rendered escape by +that road hopeless. Forward, however, despite the confusion and +dismay, things were different. Our cavalry did not appear--the dust +prevented us seeing what they were doing. And here the enemy had a +moment's respite, a moment in which to think, to fly, to stand on +their defence. + +And soon, while we looked on breathless, it was evident that they were +taking advantage of it. Possibly the general had not counted on the +dust or the lateness of the hour. He began to gaze forward towards the +head of the column, and to mutter savagely at the footmen below us, +who seemed more eager to overtake the fugitives and strip the dead, +than to press forward and break down opposition. He sent down Ludwig +with orders; then another. + +But the mischief was done already, and still the cavalry did not +appear; being delayed, as we afterwards learned, by an unforeseen +brook. Some one with a head on his shoulders had quickly drawn +together all those among the enemy who could fight, or had a mind to +fight. We saw two waggons driven out of the line, and in a moment +overturned; in a twinkling the panic-stricken troopers and teamsters +had a haven in which they could stand at bay. + +Its value was soon proved. A company of our musketeers, pursuing some +stragglers through the medley of flying horses and maddened cattle +which covered the ground near the pass, came upon this rude fortress, +and charged against it, recklessly, or in ignorance. In a moment a +volley from the waggons laid half a dozen on the ground. The rest fell +back, and scattered hither and thither. They were scarcely dispersed +before a handful of the enemy's officers and mounted men came riding +back from the front. Stabbing their horses in the intervals between +the waggons, they took post inside. Every moment others, some with +arms and some without, came straggling up. When our cavalry at last +arrived on the scene, there were full three hundred men in the waggon +work, and these the flower of the enemy. All except one had +dismounted. This one, a man on a white charger, seemed to be the soul +of the defence. + +Our horse, flushed with triumph and yelling loudly, came down the line +like a torrent, sabreing all who fell in their way. Half rode on one +side of the convoy and half on the other. They had met with no +resistance hitherto, and expected none, and, like the musketmen, were +on the barricade before they knew of its existence. In the open, the +stoutest hedgehog of pikes could scarcely have resisted a charge +driven home with such blind recklessness; but behind the waggons it +was different. Every interstice bristled with pike-heads, while the +musketmen poured in a deadly fire from the waggon-tops. For a few +seconds the place belched flame and smoke. Two or three score of the +foremost assailants went down horse and man. The rest, saving +themselves as best they could, swerved off to either side amid a roar +of execrations and shouts of triumph. + +My lady, trembling with horror, had long ago retired. She would no +longer look. The Waldgrave, too, was gone; with her, I supposed. Half +the general's attendants had been sent down the hill, some with one +order, some with another. In this crisis--for I saw clearly that it +was a crisis, and that if the defenders could hold out until darkness +fell, the issue must be doubtful--I turned to look at our commander. +He was still cool, but his brow was dark with passion. At one moment +he stepped forward as if to go down into the _mêlée_; the next he +repressed the impulse. The level rays of the sun which just caught the +top of the hill shone in our eyes, while dust and smoke began to veil +the field. We could still make out that the cavalry were sweeping +round and round the barricade, pouring in now and then a volley of +pistol shots; but they appeared to be suffering more loss than they +caused. + +Given a ring of waggons in the open, stoutly defended by resolute men, +and I know nothing more difficult to reduce. Gazing in a kind of +fascination into the depths where the smoke whirled and eddied, as the +steam rolls this way and that on a caldron, I was wondering what I +should do were I in command, when I saw on a sudden what some one was +doing; and I heard General Tzerclas utter an oath of relief. Back from +the front of the convoy came three waggons, surrounded and urged on by +a mob of footmen; jolting and bumping over the uneven ground, and +often nearly overturned, still they came on, and behind them a larger +troop of men. Finally they came almost abreast of the enemy's +position, and some thirty paces to one side of it. There perforce they +stayed, for the leading horses fell shot; but it was near enough. In +an instant our men swarmed up behind them and began to fire volleys +into the enemy's fortress, while the horse moving to and fro at a +little distance forbade any attempt at a sally. + +'That man has a head on his shoulders!' General Tzerclas muttered +between his teeth. 'That is Ludwig! Now we have them!' + +But I saw that it was not Ludwig; and presently the general saw it +too. I read it in his face. The man who had brought up the waggons, +and who could still be seen exposing himself, mounted and bare-headed +in the hottest of the fire, ordering, threatening, inciting, leading, +so that we could almost hear his voice where we stood, was the +Waldgrave! His blue velvet cloak and bright fair head were +unmistakable, though darkness was fast closing over the fight, and it +was only at intervals that we could see anything through the pall of +smoke. + +'Vivat Weimar!' I cried involuntarily, a glow of warmth and pride +coursing through my veins. In that moment I loved the young man as if +he had been my son. + +The next I fell from the clouds. What would my lady say if anything +happened to him? What should I say if I stood by and saw him fall? +And he with no headpiece, breast or back! It was madness of him to +expose himself! I started forward, stung by the thought, and before I +knew what I was doing--for, in fact, I could have done no good--I was +on the slope and descending the hill. Almost at the same moment the +general gave the word to those who remained with him, and began to +descend also. The hill was steep there, and it took us five minutes to +reach the scene of action. + +If I had foolishly thought that I could do anything, I was +disappointed. By this time the battle was over. Manning every waggon +within range, and pouring in a steady fire, our sharp-shooters had +thinned the ranks behind the barricade. The enemy's fire had first +slackened, and then ceased. A little later, one wing, unable to bear +the shower of shot, had broken and tried to fly, and in a moment our +pikemen had gained the work. + +We heard the flight and pursuit go wailing up the valley, but the +disorder, and darkness, and noise at the foot of the hill where we +found ourselves, were such that I stood scared and bewildered, +uncertain which way to turn or whither to go. On every side of me men +were stripping the dead, the wounded were crying for water, and cattle +and horses, wounded or maddened, were rushing up and down among broken +waggons and prostrate loads. Such eyes of cruelty and greed glared at +me out of the gloom, such shouts cursed me across dead men that I drew +my sword and carried it drawn. But the scene robbed me of half my +faculties; I did not know which way to turn; I did not know what to +do; and until I came upon Ludwig, I wandered aimlessly about, looking +for the Waldgrave without plan or system. It was my first experience +of the darker side of war, and it surpassed in horror anything I had +imagined or thought possible. + +Ludwig, badly wounded in the leg, I found under a waggon. I had stood +beside him some time without seeing him, and he had not spoken. But +when I moved away I suppose he recognized my figure or step, for when +I had gone a few paces I heard a hoarse voice calling my name. I went +cautiously back to the waggon, and after a moment's search detected +him peering from under it with a white, fierce face, which reminded me +of a savage creature at bay. + +'Hallo!' I said. 'Why did you not speak before, man?' + +'Get me some water,' he whispered painfully. 'Water, for the love of +Heaven!' + +I told him that I had no flask or bottle, or I should before this have +fetched some for others'. He gave me his, and I was starting off when +I remembered that he might know how the Waldgrave had fared. I asked +him. + +'He led the pursuit,' he muttered. 'He is all right.' Then, as I was +again turning away, he clutched my arm and continued, 'Have you a +pistol?' + +'Yes,' I said. + +'Lend it to me until you come back,' he gasped. 'If these vultures +find me they will finish me. I know them. That is better. I shall win +through yet.' + +I marked where his waggon stood, and left him. The river was distant +less than a quarter of a mile, but it lay low, and the banks were +steep; and in the darkness it was not easy to find a way down to the +water. Succeeding at last--and how still and peaceful it seemed as I +bent over the gently flowing surface and heard the plash and gurgle of +the willows in the stream!--I filled my bottle and climbed back to +the plain level. Here I found a change in progress. At intervals up +and down the valley great fires had been kindled. Some of these, +burning high already, lit up the wrecked convoy and the dark groups +that moved round it, and even threw a red, uncertain glare far up the +slopes of the hills. Aided by the light, I hastened back, and finding +Ludwig without much difficulty, held the bottle to his lips. He seemed +nearly gone, but the draught revived him marvellously. + +When he had drunk I asked him if I could do anything else for him. He +looked already more like himself. + +'Yes,' he said, propping his back against the wheel and speaking with +his usual hardihood. 'Tell our little general where I am. That is all. +I shall do now we have light. I am not afraid of these skulkers any +longer. But here, friend Martin. You asked about your Waldgrave just +now?' + +'Yes,' I said. 'Has he returned?' + +'He never went,' he replied coolly. 'But if I had told you when you +first asked me, you would not have gone for water for me. He is down. +He fell, as nearly as I can remember, on the farther side of the +second fire from here.' + +With a curse I ran from him, raging, and searched round that fire and +the next, like one beside himself. Many of the dead lay stripped to +the skin, so that it was necessary to examine faces. And this ghastly +task, performed with trembling fingers and by an uncertain light, took +a long time. There were men prowling about with knives and bundles, +whom I more than once interrupted in their work; but the sight of my +pistol, and my face--for I was full of fierce loathing and would have +shot them like rats--drove them off wherever I came. Not once but many +times the wounded and dying begged me to stay by them and protect +them; but my water was at an end and my time was not my own. I left +them, and ran from place to place in a fever of dread, which allowed +of no rest or relaxation. At last, when I had well-nigh given up hope, +I found him lying half-stripped among a heap of dead and wounded, at +the farthest corner of the barricade. + +All his finery was gone, and his handsome face and fair hair were +stained and bedabbled with dust and blood. But he was not dead. I +could feel his heart beating faintly in his breast; and though he lay +senseless and showed no other signs of life, I was thankful to find +hope remained. I bore him out tenderly, and laid him down by himself +and moistened his lips with the drainings of my flask. But what next? +I could not leave him; the plunderers who had already robbed him might +return at any moment. And yet, without cordials, and coverings, and +many things I had not, the feeble spark of life left in him must go +out. I stood up and looked round in despair. A lurid glare, a pitiful +wailing, a passing of dark figures filled the valley. A hundred round +us needed help; a hundred were beyond help. There were none to give +it. + +I was about to raise him in my arms and carry him in search of +it--though I feared the effect of the motion on his wounds--when, to +my joy and relief, the measured tramp of footsteps broke on my ears, +and I distinguished with delight a party of men approaching with +torches. A few mounted officers followed them, and two waggons creaked +slowly behind. They were collecting the wounded. + +I ran to meet them. 'Quick!' I cried breathlessly. 'This way!' + +'Not so fast!' a harsh voice interposed; and, looking up, I saw that +the general himself was directing the party. 'Not so fast, my friend,' +he repeated. 'Who is it?' and leaning forward in his saddle, he looked +down at me. + +'The Waldgrave Rupert,' I answered impatiently. 'He is hurt almost to +death. But he is alive, and may live, your excellency. Only direct +them to come quickly.' + +Sitting on his horse in the full glare of the torches, he gazed down +at me, his face wearing a strange expression of hesitation. 'He is +alive?' he said at last. + +'Yes, at present. But he will soon be dead if we do not go to him,' I +retorted. 'This way! He lies yonder.' + +'Lead on!' the general said. + +I obeyed, and a moment brought our party to the spot, where the +Waldgrave still lay insensible, his face pale and drawn, his eyes half +open and disclosing the whites. Under the glare of the torches he +looked so like a corpse and so far beyond aid, that it was not until I +had again thrust my hand into his breast, and felt the movement of his +heart that I was reassured. + +As for the general, after looking down at him for awhile, he said +quietly, 'He is dead.' + +'Not so, your excellency,' I answered, rising briskly from my knees. +'He is stunned. That is all.' + +'He is dead,' the general replied coldly. 'Leave him. We must help +those first who need help.' + +They were actually turning away. They had moved a couple of paces +before I could believe it. Then I sprang to the general's rein. + +'You mistake, your excellency!' I cried, my voice shrill with +excitement. 'In Heaven's name, stop! He is alive! I can feel his +breathing. I swear that he is alive!' I was trembling with emotion and +terror. + +'He is dead!' he said harshly. 'Stand back!' + +Then I understood. In a flash his wicked purpose lay bared before me, +and I knew that he was playing with me; I read in the cold, derisive +menace of his eye that he knew the Waldgrave lived, that he knew he +might live, might survive, might see the dawn, and that he was +resolved that he should not. The perspiration sprang out on my brow. I +choked with indignation. + +'Mein Gott!' I cried breathless, 'and but for him you would have been +beaten.' + +'Stand back!' he muttered through his closed teeth; and his eyes +flickered with rage. 'Are you tired of your life, man?' + +'Ay, if you live!' I roared; and I shook his rein so that his horse +reared and almost unseated him. But still I clung to it. 'Come back! +Come back!' I cried, mad with passion, wild with indignation at +treachery so vile, so cold-blooded, 'or I will heave you from your +horse, you villain! I will----' + +I stumbled as I spoke over a broken shaft of a waggon, and in a moment +half a dozen strong arms closed round me. I was down and up again and +again down. I fought savagely, passionately, at the last desperately, +having that cold, sneering face before me, and knowing that it was for +my life. But they were many to one. They crushed me down and knelt on +me, and presently I lay panting and quiet. One of the men who held me +had unsheathed his dagger and stood looking to the general for a +signal. I closed my eyes expecting the blow, and involuntarily drew in +my breast, as if that poor effort might avert the stroke. + +But the general did not give the signal. He sat gazing down at me with +a ruthless smile on his face. 'Tie him up,' he said slowly, when he +had enjoyed his triumph to the full. 'Tie him up tightly. When we get +back to the camp we will have a shooting-match, and he shall find us +sport. You knave!' he continued, riding up to me in a paroxysm of +anger, and slashing me across the face with his riding-whip so cruelly +that the flesh rose in great wheals, and I fell back into the men's +arms blind and shuddering with pain, 'I have had my eye on you! But +you will work me no more mischief. Throw him into the waggon there,' +he continued. 'Tie up his mouth if he makes a noise. Has any one seen +Ludwig?' + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED. + + +The dawn came slowly. Night, loth to unveil what the valley had to +show, hung there long after the wooded knobs that rose along the ridge +had begun to appear, looking like grey and misty islands in a sea of +vapour. Many cried for the light--what night passes that some do +not?--but none more impatiently than a woman, whose unquiet figure +began with the first glimmer to pace the top of the hill. Sometimes +she walked to and fro with her face to the sky; sometimes she stood +and peered into the depths where the fires still glowed fitfully; or +again listened with shrinking ears to the wailing that rose out of the +darkness. + +It was the Countess. She had lain down, because they had bidden her do +so, and told her that nothing could be done while night lasted. But +with the first dawn she was on foot, so impatient that her own people +dared not come near her, so imperious that the general's troopers +crept away abashed. + +The fight in the valley and the dreadful things she had seen and heard +at nightfall had shaken her nerves. The absence of her friends had +finished the work. She was almost distraught this morning. If this was +war--this merciless butchery, this infliction of horrible pain on man +and beast--their screams still rang in her ears--she had seen enough. +Only let her get her friends back, and escape to some place where +these things would not happen, and she asked no more. + +The light, as it grew stronger, the sun, as it rose, filling the sky +with glory, failed to comfort her; for the one disclosed the dead, +lying white and stripped in the valley below, like a flock of sheep +grazing, the other seemed by its very cheerfulness to mock her. She +was raging like a lioness, when the general at last appeared, and came +towards her, his hat in his hand. + +His eye had still the brightness, his cheek the flush of victory. He +had lain much of the night, thinking his own thoughts, until he had +become so wrapped in himself and his plans that his shrewdness was for +once at fault, and he failed to read the signs in her face which his +own soldiers had interpreted. He was all fire and triumph; she, sick +of bloodshed and ambition. For the first time since they had come +together, she was likely to see him as he was. + +'Countess,' he said, as he stopped before her, 'you will do yourself +harm, I fear. You were on foot, I am told, before it was light.' + +'It is true,' she said, shuddering and restraining herself by an +effort. + +'It was foolish,' he replied. 'You may be sure that as soon as +anything is heard the news will be brought to you. And to be missing +is not to be dead--necessarily.' + +'Thank you,' she answered, her lip quivering. She flashed a look of +scorn at him, but he did not see it. Her hands opened and closed +convulsively. + +'He was last seen in the pursuit,' the general continued smoothly, +flattering himself that in suppressing his own triumphant thoughts and +purposes and talking her talk he was doing much. 'A score or more, of +them got away together. It is quite possible that they carried him off +a prisoner.' + +'And Martin?' she said in a choking voice. She could not stand still, +and had begun already to pace up and down again. He walked beside her. + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'I know nothing about him,' he said, +scarcely concealing a sneer. 'The man went where he was not sent. I +hope for the best, but----' He spread out his hands and shook his +head. + +'Oh!' she said. She was bursting with indignation. The sight of the +dead lying below had stirred her nature to its depths. She felt +intuitively the shallowness of his sympathy, the selfishness of his +thoughts. She knew that he had it on his lips to talk to her of his +triumph, and hated him for it. The horror which the day-old +battlefield sometimes inspires in the veteran was on her. She was +trembling all over, and only by a great effort kept herself from tears +and fainting. + +'The man is useful to you?' he said after a pause. He felt that he had +gone wrong. + +She bowed in silence. + +'Almost necessary, I suppose?' + +She bowed again. She could not speak. It was wonderful. Yesterday she +had liked this man, to-day she almost hated him. + +But he knew nothing of that, as he looked round with pride. Below, in +the valley, parties of men were going to and fro with a sparkle and +sheen of pikes. Now and again a trumpet spoke, giving an order. On the +hill, not far from where they walked, a group of officers who had +ascended with him sat round a fire watching the preparation of +breakfast. And of all he was the lord. He had only to raise a finger +to be obeyed. He saw before him a vista of such battles and victories, +ending--God knows in what. The Emperor's throne was not above the +dreams of such a man. And it moved him to speak. + +The flush on his cheek was deeper when he turned to her again. 'Yes, I +suppose he was necessary to you,' he said, 'but it should not be so. +The Countess of Heritzburg should look elsewhere for help than to a +servant. Let me speak plainly, Countess,' he continued earnestly. 'It +is becoming I should so speak, for I am a plain man. I am neither +Baron, Count, nor Prince, Margrave, nor Waldgrave. I have no title but +my sword, and no heritage save these who follow me. Yet, if I cannot +with the help of the one and the other carve out a principality as +long and as wide as Heritzburg, I am not John Tzerclas!' + +'Poor Germany!' the Countess said with a faint smile. + +He interpreted the words in his own favour, and shrugged his +shoulders. '_V[oe] victis!_' he said proudly. 'There was a time when +your ancestors took Heritzburg with the strong hand. Such another time +is coming. The future is for those who dare, for those who can raise +themselves above an old and sinking system, and on its ruins build +their fortunes. Of these men I intend to be one.' + +The Countess was an ambitious woman. At another time she might have +heard his tale with sympathy. But at this moment her heart was full of +anxiety for others, and she saw with perfect clearness the +selfishness, the narrowness, the hardness of his aims. She was angry, +too, that he should speak to her now--with the dead lying unburied, +and the lost unfound, and strewn all round them the ghastly relics of +the fight. She looked at him hardly, but she did not say a word; and +he, following the exultant march of his own thoughts, went on. + +'Albert of Wallenstein, starting from far less than I stand here, +has become the first man in Germany,' he said, heedless of her +silence--'Emperor in all but the name. Your uncle and mine, from a +country squire, became Marshal and Count of the Empire, and saw the +greatest quail before him. Ernest of Mansfeld, he was base-born and +crook-backed too, but he lay softly and ruled men all his days, and +left a name to tremble at. Countess,' the general continued, speaking +more hurriedly, and addressing himself, though he did not know it, to +the feeling which was uppermost in her mind, 'you may think that in +saying what I am going to say, I am choosing an untimely moment; that +with this round us, and the air scarce free from powder, I am a fool +to talk of love. But'--he hesitated, yet waved his hand abroad with a +proud gesture, as if to show that the pause was intentional--'I think +I am right. For I offer you no palace, no bed of down, but only myself +and my sword. I ask you to share a soldier's fortunes, and be the wife +and follow the fate of John Tzerclas. May it be?' + +His form seemed to swell as he spoke. He had an air half savage, half +triumphant as he turned to her with that question. The joy of battle +was still in his veins; he seemed but half sober, though he had drunk +nothing. A timid woman might have succumbed to him, one of lesser soul +might have shrunk before him; but the Countess faced him with a pride +as great as his own. + +'You have spoken plainly,' she said, undaunted. 'Perhaps you will +pardon me if I speak plainly too.' + +'I ask no more, sweet cousin,' he answered. + +'Then let me remind you,' she replied, 'that you have said much about +John Tzerclas, and little about the Countess of Heritzburg. You have +given excellent reasons why you should speak here, but none why I +should answer. For shame, sir,' the Countess continued tremulously, +letting her indignation appear. 'I lost last night my nearest relative +and my old servant. I am still distracted with anxiety on their +account. Yet, because I stand alone, unprotected, and with none of my +kin by my side, you choose this time to press your suit. For shame, +General Tzerclas!' + +'Himmel!' he exclaimed, forgetting himself in his annoyance--the fever +of excitement was still in his blood--'do you think the presence of +that dandified silken scarf would have kept me silent? No, my lady!' + +She looked at him for a moment, astonished. The contemptuous reference +to the Waldgrave, the change of tone, opened her eyes still wider. + +'I think you do not understand me,' she said coldly. + +'I do more; I love you,' he answered hotly. And his eyes burned as he +looked at her. 'You are fit to be a queen, my queen! And if I live, +sweet cousin, I will make you one!' + +'Let that go by,' she said contemptuously, bearing up against his look +of admiration as well as she could and continuing to move, so that he +had to walk also. 'What you do not understand is my nature--which is, +not to desert my friends when they are in trouble, nor to play when +those who have served me faithfully are missing.' + +'I can help neither the one nor the other,' he answered. But his brow +began to darken, and he stood silent a moment. Then he broke out in a +different tone. 'By Heaven!' he said, 'I am in no mood for play. And I +think that you are playing with me!' + +'I do not understand you!' she said. Her tone should have frozen him. + +'I have asked a question. Will you answer me yes or no,' he persisted. +'Will you be my wife, or will you not?' + +She did not blench. 'This is rather rough wooing, is it not?' she said +with fine scorn. + +'This is a camp, and I am a soldier.' + +She shrugged her shoulders. 'I do not think I like rough ways,' she +said. + +He controlled himself by a mighty effort. 'Pardon me,' he said with a +sickly smile, which sat ill on his flushed and angry face. 'Perhaps I +am somewhat spoiled, and forget myself. But, like the man in the +Bible, I am accustomed to say to some, "Go," and they go, and to +others, "Do it," and it is done. And woe to those who disobey me. +Possibly this makes me a rough wooer. But, Countess, the ways of the +world are rough; the times are rough. We do not know what to-morrow +will bring forth, and whatever we want we want quickly. More, +sweetheart,' he continued, drawing a step nearer to her and speaking +in a voice he vainly strove to modulate, 'a little roughness before +marriage is better than ill-treatment afterwards. I have known men who +wooed on their knees bring their wives to theirs very quickly after +the knot was tied. I am not of that kind.' + +My lady's heart sickened. Despite the assurance of his last words, she +saw the man as he was; she read his will in his eyes; and though his +sudden frankness was in reality the result of overmastering +excitement, she had the added horror of supposing it to be dictated by +her friendless position and the absence of the last men who might have +protected her. She knew that her only hope lay in her courage, and, +though her heart leapt under her bodice, she faced him boldly. + +'You wish for an answer?' she asked. + +'I have said so,' he answered. + +'Then I shall not give you one now,' she replied with a quiet smile. +'You see, general, I am not one of those to whom you can say "Go," and +they go, and "Do," and it is done. I must choose my own time for +saying yes or no. And this time'--she continued, looking round, and +suffering a little shudder to escape her, as she pointed to the valley +below--'I do not like. I am no coward, but I do not love the smell of +blood. I will take time to consider your offer, if you please; and, +meanwhile, I think you gallant gentleman enough not to press me +against my will.' + +She had a fan in her hand, and she began to walk again; she held it +up, between her face and the sun, which was still low. He walked by +her side, his brow as black as thunder. He read her thoughts so far +correctly that he felt the evasion boded him no good; but the +influence of her courage and pride was such that he shrank from +throwing down the mask altogether, or using words which only force +could make good. True, it wanted only a little to urge him over the +edge, but her lucky star and bold demeanour prevailed for the time, +and perhaps the cool, fresh air had sobered him. + +'I suppose a lady's wish must be law,' he muttered, though still he +scowled. 'But I hope that you will not make a long demand on my +patience.' + +'That, too, you must leave to me,' she replied with a flash of +coquetry, which it cost her much to assume. 'This morning I am so full +of anxiety, that I scarcely know what I am saying. Surely your people +must know by this time if they--they are among the dead?' + +'They are not,' he answered sulkily. + +'Then they must have been captured?' she said, a tremor in her voice. + +He nodded. At that moment a man came up to say that breakfast was +ready. The general repeated the message to her. + +'With your leave I will take it with my women,' she answered with +presence of mind. 'I slept ill, and I am poor company this morning,' +she added, smiling faintly. + +The ordeal over, she could scarcely keep her feet. She longed to weep. +She felt herself within an inch of swooning. + +He saw that she had turned pale, and he assented with a tolerable +grace. 'Let me give you my hand to your fire,' he said anxiously. + +'Willingly,' she answered. + +It was the last effort of her diplomacy, and she hated herself for it. +Still, it won her what she wanted--peace, a respite, a little time to +think. + +Yet as she sat and shivered in the sunshine, and made believe to eat, +and tried to hide her thoughts, even from her women, a crushing sense +of her loneliness took possession of her. She had read often and +often, with scarce a quickening of the pulse, of men and women in +tragic straits--of men and women brought face to face with death, nay, +choosing it. But she had never pictured their feelings till now--their +despair, their shrinkings, their bitter lookings back, as the iron +doors closed upon them. She had never considered that such facts might +enter into her own life. + +Now, on a sudden, she found herself face to face with inexorable +things, with the grim realities that have closed, like the narrowing +walls of the Inquisition dungeons, on many a gay life. In the valley +below they were burying men like rotten sheep. The Waldgrave was gone, +captured or killed. Martin was gone. She was alone. Life seemed a +cheap and uncertain thing, death very near. Pleasure--folly--a dancing +on the grave. + +Of her own free will she had placed herself in the power of a man who +loved her, and whom she now hated with an untimely hatred, that was +half fear and half loathing. In his power! Her heart stood still, and +then beat faster, as she framed the thought. The sunshine, though it +was summer, seemed to fall grey and pale on the hill sward; the +morning air, though the day was warm, made her shiver. The trumpet +call, the sharp command, the glitter of weapons, that had so often +charmed her imagination, startled her now. The food was like ashes in +her mouth; she could not swallow it. She had been blind, and now she +must pay for her folly. + +She bad passed the night in the lee of one of the wooded knolls that +studded the ridge, and her fire had been kindled there. The nearest +group of soldiers--Tzerclas' staff, whose harsh voices and reckless +laughter came to her ears at intervals--had their fire full a hundred +paces away. For a moment she entertained the desperate idea that she +might slip away, alone, or with her women, and, passing from clump to +clump, might gain the valley from which she had ascended, and, hiding +in the woods, get somehow to Cassel. The smallest reflection showed +her that the plan was not possible, and it was rejected as soon as +formed. But a moment later she was tempted to wish that she had put it +into effect. An officer made his appearance, with his hat in his hand +and an air of haste, and wished to know, with the general's service, +whether she could be ready in an hour. + +'For what?' she asked, rising. She had been sitting on the grass. + +'To start, your excellency,' he replied politely. + +'To start!' she exclaimed, taken by surprise. 'Whither, sir?' + +'On the return journey. To the camp.' + +The blood rushed to her face. 'To the camp?' she repeated. 'But is the +general going to start this morning? Now?' + +'In an hour, madam.' + +'And leave the Waldgrave Rupert--and my servant?' she cried, in a +voice of burning indignation. 'Are they to be abandoned? It is +impossible! I will see the general. Where is he?' she continued +impetuously. + +'He is in the valley,' the man answered. + +'Then take me to him,' she said, stepping forward. 'I will speak to +him. He cannot know. He has not thought.' + +But the officer stood silent, without offering to move. The Countess's +eyes flashed. 'Do you hear, sir?' she cried. 'Lead on, if you please. +I asked you to take me to him.' + +'I heard, madam,' he replied in a low voice, 'and I crave your pardon. +But this is an army, and I am part of it. I can take orders only from +General Tzerclas. I have received them, and I cannot go beyond them.' + +For a moment the Countess stood glaring at him, her face on fire with +wrath and indignation. She had been so long used to command, she was +of a nature so frank and imperious, that she trembled on the verge of +an outburst that could only have destroyed the little dignity it was +still possible for her to retain. Fortunately in the nick of time her +eyes met those of a group of officers who stood at a distance, +watching her. She thought that she read amusement in their gaze, and a +pride greater than that which had impelled her to anger came to her +aid. She controlled herself by a mighty effort. The colour left her +cheeks as quickly as it had flown to them. She looked at the man +coldly and disdainfully. + +'True,' she said, 'you do well to remind me. It is not easy to +remember that in war many things must give way. You may go, sir. I +shall be ready.' + +But as she stood and saw her horses saddled, her heart sank like lead. +All the misery of her false position came home to her. She felt that +now she was alone indeed, and powerless. She was leaving behind her +the only chance that remained of regaining her friends. She was going +back to put herself more completely, if that were possible, in the +general's hands. Yet she dared not resist! She dared not court defeat! +As her only hope and reserve lay in her wits and in the prestige of +her rank and beauty, to lower that prestige by an unavailing struggle, +by an unwomanly display, would be to destroy at a blow half her +defences. + +The Countess saw this; and though her heart ached for her friends, and +her eyes often turned back in unavailing hope, she mounted with a +serene brow. Her horses had been brought to the top of the hill, and +she rode down by a path which had been discovered. When she had gone a +league on the backward road she came upon the foremost part of the +captured convoy; which, was immediately halted and drawn aside, that +she might pass more conveniently and escape the noise and dust it +occasioned. + +Among the rest were three waggons laden with wounded. Awnings had been +spread to veil them from the sun, and she was spared the sight of +their sufferings. But their meanings and cries, as the waggons jolted +and creaked over the rough road, drove the blood from her cheeks. She +passed them quickly--they were many and she was one, and she could do +nothing--and rode on, little thinking who lay under the awnings, or +whose eyes followed her as she went. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + AMONG THE WOUNDED. + + +When a man lies fettered at the bottom of a jolting waggon, and, +unable to help himself, is made a pillow for wounded wretches, whose +feverish struggles go near to stifling him; and when to these miseries +are added the heat of a sultry night, thirst, and the near prospect of +death, passion soon dies down. Anger gives place to pain and the chill +of apprehension. The man begins to know himself again--forgets his +enemies, thinks of his friends. + +It was so with me. The general's back was not turned before I ceased +to cry out; and that gained me the one alleviation I had--that I was +not gagged. They piled the waggon with bleeding, groaning men,--of our +side, of course, for no quarter was given to the other,--and I +shuddered as each mangled wretch came in. Still, I had my mouth free. +If I could not move, I could breathe, and hear what passed round me. I +could see the dark night sky lit up by the glare of the fires, or, +later, watch the stars shining coldly and indifferently down on this +scene of pain and misery. + +When the waggon was full they drove us, jolting and wailing, to an +appointed place, and took out some, leaving only enough to cover the +floor thickly. And then, ah me! the night began. That which at first +had been an inconvenience, became in time intolerable pain. The ropes +cut into my flesh, the boards burned my back; we were so closely +packed, and I was so tightly bound that I could not move a limb. Every +moment the wounded cried for water, and those in pain wailed and +lamented, while all night the wolves howled round the camp. In one +corner, a man whose eyes were injured babbled unceasingly of his +mother and his home. Hour by hour, for the frenzy held him all night, +he rolled his head, and chattered, and laughed! In the morning he +died, and we thanked God for it. + +The peasant and the soldier sup the real miseries of war; the noble +and the officer, whose it is to dare death in the field, but rarely, +very rarely to lie wounded under the burning sun or through the +freezing night, only taste them. A place of arms falls; there is +quarter for my lord and a pass and courtesy for my lady, but edge and +point for the common herd. To risk all and get nothing--or a penny a +day, unpaid--is the lot of most. + +When morning at last dawned, I was half dead. My head seemed bursting; +my hands were purple with the tightness of my bonds. Deep groans broke +from me. I moved my eyes--the only things I could move--in an agony. +Round me I heard the sick thanking God as the light grew stronger, and +muttering words of hope. But the light helped me little. Where I lay, +trussed like a fowl, I could see nothing except the sky--whence the +sun would soon add to my miseries--and the heads of the two men who +sat propped against the waggon boards next to me. + +I took one of these to be dead, for he had slipped to one side, and +the arm with which he had stayed himself against the floor of the +waggon stood out stiff and stark. The other man had the comfort of the +corner; there was a cloak under him and a pad behind him. But his head +was sunk on his breast, and for a while I thought him dead too, and +had a horrible dread that he would slide over on to my face and stifle +me. But he did not, and by-and-by, when the sun had risen, and I felt +that I could bear it no longer, he woke up and raised his fierce, +white face and groaned. + +It was Ludwig. He stared at me for a minute or more in a dazed, stupid +fashion. Then he moved his leg and cried out with pain. After that he +looked at me more sensibly, and by-and-by spoke. + +'Donner, man!' he said. 'What is it? You look like a ripe mulberry.' + +I tried to answer him, but my lips and throat were so parched and +swollen I could only murmur. He saw my lips move, however, and guessed +how it was with me. + +'They have tied you up with a vengeance!' he said with a grim smile. +'Here, Franz! Willibrod! Who is there? Come, some one. Do you hear, +you lazy knaves?' he continued in a hoarse croak. 'When I am about +again I will find some of you quicker heels!' + +A man just risen came grumbling to the side of the waggon. Ludwig bade +him climb in and loosen my bonds, and set me up against the side. + +'And take away that carrion!' he added brutally. 'Dead men pay no +fares. That is better. Ay, give him some water. He will come round.' + +I did presently, though for a time the blood flowing where it had been +before restrained, caused me horrible pain, and my tongue, when I +tried to thank him, seemed to be too large for my mouth. But I could +now sit up, and stretch my limbs, and even raise my hands to my mouth. +Hope returned. My thoughts flew back to Marie Wort. Her pale face and +large eyes rose before my eyes, and filled them with tears. Then there +was my lady. And the Waldgrave. Doubtless he, poor fellow, was dead. +But the rest lived--lived, and would soon look to me, look to any one +for help. On that I became myself again. I shook off the pain and +lethargy and despair of the night, and took up the burden of life. If +my wits could save us, or, failing them, some happy accident, I would +not be wanting. I had still a day or two, and all the chances of a +journey. + +Ludwig gave me food and a drink from his flask. I thanked him again. + +'You are a man!' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'It was a pity you +would knot your own rope. As for these chicken-hearted tremblers,' he +continued, squinting askance at our companions, 'a fico for them! To +call themselves soldiers and pule like women! Faugh! I am sick of +them!' + +For my part, the sights I saw from the waggon seemed more depressing. +In every direction parties were moving, burying our dead, putting +wounded horses out of their misery, collecting plunder. One division +was at work driving the poor lowing cattle, already over-driven, back +the way they had come, through the pass and up the river bank. Another +was righting such of the waggons as had been overturned, or dragging +them out of the nether part of the valley. Everywhere men were +working, shouting, swearing, spurning the dead. All showed that the +general did not mean to linger, but would secure his booty by a timely +retreat to his camp. + +They came by-and-by and horsed our waggon and turned us round, and +presently we took our place in the slow, creaking procession, and +began to move up the pass. I looked everywhere for my lady, but could +see nothing of her. The noise was prodigious, the dust terrible, the +glare intolerable. I was thankful when some kind heart brought a +waggon cloth and stretched it over us. After that things were better; +and between the heat and the monotony of the motion I fell asleep, and +slept until the afternoon was well advanced. + +Then a singular thing occurred. The waggon which followed ours was +drawn by four horses abreast, whose heads as they plodded wearily +along at the tail of our waggon were so close to us that we could see +easily into the vehicle, which was full of wounded men, and covered +with an awning. We could see easily, I say; but the steady cloud of +dust through which we moved and the white glare of the sunlight gave +to everything so phantom-like an appearance that it was hard to say +whether we were looking on real things. + +Be that as it may, the first thing I saw when I awoke and rubbed my +eyes, was the Waldgrave's face! He lay in the front part of the +waggon, his head on the side-board. Thinking I dreamed, or that the +dust deceived me, I rubbed my eyes again and looked. Still it was he. +His eyes were closed. He was pale, where the dust did not hide all +colour; his head moved with the motion of the wheels. But he seemed to +be alive, for even while I looked, a man who sat by him leaned forward +and moistened his forehead with water. + +Trembling with excitement, I touched Ludwig on the shoulder. 'Look!' I +said. 'The Waldgrave!' + +He looked and nodded. 'Yes,' he said, chuckling. 'Now you see what you +have done for yourself. And all for nothing!' + +'But who took him up?' I persisted. + +'The general,' he answered sententiously. 'Who else?' + +'Why?' I cried in a fever. 'Why did he do it?' + +Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'He knows his own business,' he said. +'I suppose that he found he had life in him.' + +'Did he take him up at once? After I was seized?' + +'Of course. Whether he will live or no is another matter.' + +The helpless way in which the dusty, bedraggled head rolled as the +waggon jolted, warned me of that. Still, he was alive. He might live; +and I longed to be beside him, to tend and nurse him, to make the most +of the least hope. But my eyes fell on my fettered hands; and when I +looked again he had disappeared. He had sunk down in the cart, and was +out of sight. I was left to wonder whether he was dead, or had only +changed his posture for another more comfortable. And the dust growing +ever thicker, and the sun-glare less as the day advanced, I presently +lost sight even of the waggon. + +We lay that night in a coppice on the left bank of the river. Each +waggon halted where it stood at sunset, so that there was no common +camp, but all along the road a line of bivouacs. But for the cloud of +anxiety which darkened my mind, and the cords which bound my hands and +constantly reminded me of my troubles, I might have enjoyed the +comparative quietness of that night, the evening coolness, the soft +green light, the freshness of leaf and bough, which lapped us round +and seemed so much the more refreshing, as we had passed the day in a +fever of heat and dust. But the unexpected sight of the Waldgrave had +excited me; and I confess that as we came nearer to the camp, the +tremors I felt on my own account grew more violent. I recalled with a +shudder the shooting-match at which I had been present, and the +leather targets. I drew vivid pictures of another shooting-match in +the same valley--of my lady looking on in ignorance, of minutes of +suspense, of a sudden pang, a gagged scream, of hours of lingering +torture. + +Against such dreams the silence and beauty of the night were +powerless, and the morning found me wakeful and unrefreshed, divided +between reluctance to desert my lady and the instinct which bade me +make an attempt at escape by the way, and while the chances of the +journey were still mine. How I might have acted had a favourable +opportunity presented itself, I cannot say; but as things went, I did +nothing, and a little before sunset on the third day we gained the +camp. + +Then, I confess, I wished with all my heart that I had taken any +chance, however slight. At sight of the familiar lines, the dusty, +littered roads, the squalid crowds that came out to meet us, my gorge +rose. The very smell of the place which I had so hated gave me qualms. +I turned hot and cold as we rumbled slowly through the throng and one +pointed me out to another, and I saw round me again the dark, lowering +faces, the unsexed women, the horde of vile sutlers and footboys. They +surged round the waggon, jeering and staring; and if I had shrunk from +them when my hands were free, I loathed them still more now that I lay +a prisoner and any moment might place me at their mercy. + +I had seen nothing of the Waldgrave or the waggon which carried him +for nearly two days, but as we passed through the gates I caught sight +of the latter moving slowly on, a little way in front of us. Both +waggons halted inside the camp while the wounded were taken out. I +prepared to follow, but was bidden to stay. Then I began to realize my +position. When the waggon bore me on alone--alone, though two or three +pikemen and a rabble of gibing, grinning horse-boys marched beside +me--I felt my blood run cold, and found my only consolation in the +fact that the other waggon still went in front, and seemed to be bound +for the same goal. + +'What are you going to do with me?' I asked one of the ruffians who +guarded me. + +'Prison,' he answered laconically. + +And a strange prison it was. On the verge of the camp, near the river, +where a snug farmhouse had once stood, rose four gaunt walls, +blackened with smoke. The roof was gone--burned off; but the rooftree, +charred and soot-begrimed, still ran from gable to gable. A strong, +high gate filled the room of the door; the windows had been bricked +up. When I saw the waggon which preceded me halt before this +melancholy place, I looked out between hope and fear--fearing some act +of treachery, hoping to see the Waldgrave. But the blackguard crowd +which surrounded the doorway was so great that it hid everything; and +I had to curb my impatience until in turn my waggon stopped in the +midst of them. + +A mocking voice called to me to descend, and though I liked the look +of the place little, and the aspect of the gang still less, I had no +choice but to obey. I scrambled down, and passed as quickly as I could +down the lane opened for me. A row of more villainous faces it has +seldom been my fate to see, but the last on the right by the gate was +so much the worst, that it caught my eye instantly. It was seamed with +scars and bloated with drink, and it wore a ferocious grin. I was not +surprised when the knave, a huge pikeman, dealt me, as I passed, a +brutal shove with his knee, which sent me staggering into the +enclosure, where I fell all at length on my face. + +The blow hurt my hip cruelly, and yet the sight of that drunken, +ugly giant filled me with a rush of joy and hope that effaced all +other feelings. I forgot my fellow-prisoners, I forgot even the +Waldgrave--who to be sure was there, sitting doubled up against the +wall, and looking very white and sick. For the man with the seamed +face was Drunken Steve of Heritzburg, whom we had left behind us in +the castle, to be cured of his wounds. I had punished him a dozen +times; almost as often my lady had threatened to drive him from the +place and her service. Always he had had the name of a sullen, wilful +fellow. But I had found him staunch as any tyke in time of need. For +dogged fidelity and a ferocious courage, proof against the utmost +danger, I knew that I could depend on him against the world; while the +prompt line of conduct he had adopted at sight of me led me to hope +something from wits which drink had not yet deadened. + +It was well I had this spark of hope, for I found the Waldgrave so +ill as to be beyond comfort or counsel, and without it I should have +been in a parlous state. The place of our confinement was roofless, +ill-smelling, strewn with refuse and filth, a mere dog-yard. A little +straw alone protected us from the soil. Everything we did was watched +through the open bars of the gate; and bad as this place was, we +shared it with two soldiers, who lay, heavily shackled, in one corner, +and sullenly eyed my movements. + +I did what I could for the Waldgrave, and then, as darkness +fell, I sat down with my back to the wall and thought over our +position--miserably enough. Half an hour passed, and I was beginning +to nod, when a slight noise as of a rat gnawing a board caught my ear. +I raised my head and listened; the sound came from the gate. I stood +up and crept towards it. As I expected, I found Steve on guard +outside. Even in the darkness it was impossible to mistake his huge +figure. + +'Hush!' he muttered. 'Is it you, master?' + +'Yes,' I replied in the same tone. 'Are you alone?' + +'For the moment,' he answered hoarsely. 'Not for long. So speak +quickly. What is to be done?' + +Alas! that was more than I could say. 'What of my lady?' I replied +vaguely. 'Is she here? In the camp?' + +'To be sure.' + +'And Marie Wort? The Papist girl?' + +'Yes, yes.' + +'Then you must see Marie,' I answered. 'She will know my lady's mind. +Until we know that, we can do nothing. Do not tell her where I am--it +may hurt the girl; or of the Waldgrave, but learn how they are. If +things are bad with my lady, bid them gain time. You understand?' + +'Yes, yes,' he grunted. 'And that is to be all, is it? You will have +nothing done to-night?' + +'What, here?' + +'To be sure.' + +'No, no,' I replied, trembling for the man's rashness. 'We can do +nothing here until horses are got and placed for us, and the pass-word +learned, and provisions gathered, and half a dozen other things.' + +'Donner! I don't know how all that is to be done,' he muttered +despondently. + +'Nor I,' I said with a shiver. 'You have not heard anything of a--a +shooting-match, have you?' + +'It is for Sunday,' he answered. + +'And to-day is Tuesday,' I said. 'Steve! you will not lose time?' + +'No, no.' + +'You will see her in the morning? In the morning, lad,' I continued +feverishly, clinging to the bars and peering out at him. 'I must get +out of this before Sunday! And this is Tuesday! Steve!' + +'Hush!' he answered. 'They are coming back.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + GREEK AND GREEK. + + +What my lady's thoughts were during her long ride back to the camp, I +do not know. But I have heard her say that when she rode into the +village, a day and a half in advance of the dusty, lumbering convoy, +she could scarcely believe that it was the place she had left, the +place in which she had lived for a fortnight. And this, though all +remained the same. So much does the point from which we look at things +alter their aspect. + +The general had sent on the news of the Waldgrave's loss by messenger, +that she might be spared the pain of telling it; and Fraulein Max and +Marie Wort were waiting on the wooden platform before the house when +she rode wearily in. The sight of those two gave her a certain sense +of relief and home coming, merely because they were women and wore +petticoats. But that was all. The village, the reeking camp, the +squalid soldiery, the whining beggars filled her--now that her eyes +were opened and she saw this ugly face of war stripped of the glamour +with which her fancy had invested it--with fear and repulsion. She +wondered that she could ever have liked the place and been gay in it, +or drawn pleasure from the amusements which now seemed poor and +tawdry. + +Fraulein Max ran down into the road to meet her, and when she had +dismounted, covered her with tearful caresses. But the Countess, after +receiving her greetings, still looked round wistfully as if she missed +some one; and then in a moment moved from her, and mounting the steps +went swiftly to the dark corner by the porch whither Marie Wort had +run, and where she now stood leaning against the house with her face +to the wall. + +My lady, whom few had ever seen unbend, took the girl in her arms, and +laid her head on her shoulder and stroked her hair pitifully. + +'Hush, hush, child!' she murmured, her eyes wet with tears. 'Poor +child, poor child! Is it so very bad?' + +But Marie could only sob. + +They went into the house in a moment after that, those three, with the +waiting-women. And then a change came over the Countess. Fraulein Max +blinked to see it. My lady who, outside, had been so tender, began, +before her riding cloak was off, to walk up and down like a caged +wolf, with hard eyes and cheeks burning with indignation. Fraulein Max +spoke to her timidly--said that the meal was ready, that my lady's +woman was waiting, that my lady must be tired. But the Countess put +her by almost with an oath. For hours she had been playing a part, a +thing her proud soul loathed. For hours she had hidden, not her sorrow +only and her anger, but her anxieties, her fears, her terrors. Now she +must be herself or die. + +Besides, the thing pressed! She had her woman's wits, and might stave +off the general's offer for a few days, for a week. But a week--what +was that? No wonder that she looked on the four helpless women round +her, and realised that these were her only helpers now, her only +protection; no wonder that she cried out. + +'I have been a fool!' she said, looking at them with burning eyes. 'A +fool! When Martin warned me, I would not listen; when the Waldgrave +hinted, I laughed at him. I was bewitched, like a silly fool in her +teens! Don't contradict me!' And she stamped her foot impatiently. +Fraulein Max had raised her hand. + +'I don't,' the Fraulein answered. 'I don't understand you.' + +'Do you understand that empty, chair?' my lady answered bitterly. 'Or +that empty stool?' + +Fraulein Anna blinked more and more. 'But war,' she said mildly--'a +necessary evil, Voetius calls it--war, Countess----' + +'Oh!' my lady cried in a fury. 'As carried on by these, it is a +horror, a fiendish thing! I did not know before. Now I have seen it. +Wait, wait, girl, until it takes those you love, and threatens your +own safety, and then talk to me of war!' + +But Fraulein Anna set her face mutinously. 'Still, I do not +understand,' she said slowly, winking her short-sighted eyes like +an owl in the daylight. 'You talk as if we had cause not only to +grieve--as we have, indeed--but to fear. Are we not safe here? General +Tzerclas----' + +'Bah!' the Countess cried, trembling with emotion. 'Don't let me hear +his name! I hate him. He is false. False, girl. I do not trust him; I +do not believe him; and I would to Heaven we were out of his hands!' + +Even Marie Wort, sitting white and quiet in a corner, looked up at +that. As for Fraulein Max, she passed her tongue slowly over her lips, +but did not answer; and for a moment there was silence in the room. +Then Marie said very softly, 'Thank God!' + +My lady turned to her roughly. 'Why do you say that?' she said. + +'Because of what I have learned since you left us,' the girl answered, +in a frightened whisper. 'There was a man who lived in this house, my +lady.' + +'Yes, yes,' the Countess muttered eagerly. 'I remember he begged of +me, and General Tzerclas gave him money. That was one of the things +that blinded me.' + +'He hung him afterwards,' the girl whispered in a shaking voice. 'By +the river, in the south-east corner of the camp.' + +The Countess stared at her incredulously, rage and horror in her face. +'That man whom I saw?' she cried. 'It is not possible! You have been +deceived.' + +But Marie Wort shook her head. 'It is true,' she said simply. + +'Then Heaven help us all!' the Countess whispered in a thrilling tone. +'For we are in that man's power!' + +There was a stricken silence after that, which lasted some minutes. +The room seemed to grow darker, the house more silent, the road on +which they looked through the unglazed window more dusty, squalid, +dreary--dreary with the summer dreariness of drought. One of the +waiting-women began to cry. The other stood bolt upright, looking out +with startled eyes, and lips half open. + +'Yes, all,' the Countess presently went on, her voice hard and +composed. 'He has asked me to be his wife. He has honoured me so far.' +She laughed a thin, mirthless laugh. 'If I am willing, therefore, +well. If I am not--still he will wed me. After that he will keep us +here in the midst of these horrors. Or he will march to Heritzburg, +and then God help Heritzburg and my people!' + +Fraulein Anna passed her tongue over her lips again, and shifted her +hands in her lap. She was paler than usual. But she did not speak. + +'The child?' the Countess said presently, in a different tone. 'Has it +been recovered?' + +Marie shook her head; and a moment later threw her kerchief over her +face and went out. They heard her sobs as she went along the passage. + +My lady frowned. 'If we could get a message to Count Leuchtenstein,' +she murmured thoughtfully. 'But I do not know where he is. He may +return to seek the child, however; and that is our best chance, I +think.' + +They brought food in after that, and the council broke up. It is to be +feared that the Countess found herself little the better for its +advice. + +In the evening the general called to learn whether she was much +fatigued; and she fancied she detected in his manner a masterfulness +and a familiarity from which it had been free. But her suspicions +rendered her so prone to read between the lines, that it is possible +that she saw some things that were not there. Her own feelings she +succeeded in masking, except in one matter. He brought Count Waska +with him; and it occurred to her, in her fear and helplessness, that +she might enlist the Bohemian on her side. Such schemes come to women, +even to proud women; and though Waska, half sportsman and half sot, +and in body a mountain of flesh, was an unlikely knight-errant, she +plied him so craftily, that when the two were gone she sat for an hour +in a state of exaltation, believing that here a new and unexpected way +to safety might open. The Bohemian was second in command, though at a +great interval. He was popular, and in some points a gentleman. Could +she excite in him jealousy, discontent, even passion, her position was +such that she was in no mood to stand on scruples. + +But when the general came next day, _he did not bring Waska_; nor the +day after. And he showed so plainly that he saw through the design, +and suspected her, that he left her white and furious. Indeed it was a +question who was left by this interview the more excited, my lady, who +saw the circle growing ever narrower round her, and read with growing +clearness the man's determination to win her at all costs and by all +means; or the general, whose passion every day augmented, who saw in +her both the woman he desired and the heiress, and would fain, if he +could, have won her heart as well as her person. + +The possession of power tempts to the use of it, and he began to lose +patience. He had a screw in readiness, he fancied, that would bend +even that proud neck and humble those knees. A day or two more he +would give her, and then he would turn it. Hate itself is not more +cruel than love despised! + +But he did not count on her influence over him. The day or two passed, +and another day or two, and still she kept him amused and kept him at +bay. Sometimes he saw through her wiles, and came near to vowing that +he would not give her another hour. Will she, nill she, she should wed +him. But then the glamour of her presence and her beauty blinded him +again. And so a week went slowly by; each day won, at what a cost of +pride, of courage, of self-respect! + +At the end of that time my lady's face had grown so white and drawn +under the strain, that when she sat alone she looked years older than +her age. The light still flashed in her eyes; they had grown only the +larger. But her cheeks and her lips had lost their colour, her hair +its gloss. When no one was watching her, she glanced round her like a +hunted animal. When anything crossed her, she flew into fearful rages +with her women. They were so useless, so helpless! She was like a +scorpion I have heard of, that, ringed round with fire, stings all +within its reach. + +How many nights she tossed, sleepless; how often she went over the +odds against her; grasped at this idea or that; thought of horses and +roads, ways and means, the distance to Cassel, or the chances of +Leuchtenstein's return, I cannot say; but I can guess. At last, during +one of these night vigils, something happened. She was lying, +torturing herself with the thought that to this constant putting off +there could only be one end, when she heard sneaking footsteps moving +in the passage. The wall which divided it from her room ran beside her +bed, and, lying still, she heard the rustling of garments against the +boards. + +Something like this she had feared in her worst moments; and on the +instant she sat up and listened, her heart beating wildly. Since her +return the two waiting-women had lain in her room. She could hear them +breathing now. But beside and above that, she could hear the stealthy +rustling sound she had heard before. Then it ceased. + +She rose trembling. The windows were shuttered, and the lamp which +commonly burned in a basin had gone out. The room, therefore, was +quite dark. Without awaking the women she stole across the floor to +the door, and there set her ear to the panels and listened. But she +heard nothing except the distant shout of a reveller, and the mournful +howling of one of the pack of curs that infested the camp; all was +still. + +Still she crouched there listening, and presently her patience was +rewarded. Some one entered by the outer door, and went quickly along +the passage, the boards creaking so loudly that it was a wonder the +women were not aroused. The footsteps went straight to the room where +Fraulein Max and Marie Wort slept. Some one had been out and returned! + +There was a hint of treachery here, and my lady stood up, her face +growing hard. Which of the two was it? In a moment she had her answer. +A dozen times in the last week Marie had puzzled her; a dozen times +the Papist girl's easy resignation had angered her. She had caught her +more than once smiling--smiling childish smiles that would not be +repressed. This was the secret, then! + +The Countess grew hot, and in a moment was out of her room and at the +door of that other room. A taper still burned there; its light showed +through the cracks. Without hesitation she thrust the door open, and +entering surprised Marie Wort in the very act. The girl was standing +in the middle of the floor taking off a cloak. Guilt and fear were +written on her face. + +'You wicked girl!' the Countess cried, her eyes blazing. + +Then she stopped. For Marie, instead of retreating before her, pointed +with a warning finger to a second empty pallet; and my lady looking +round saw with astonishment that Fraulein Max was missing. + +'What does this mean?' the Countess muttered in a different tone. + +Marie, trembling and listening, put her finger to her lips. 'Hush, +hush, my lady,' she whispered. 'She must not find you here! She must +not, indeed. I heard her go out, and I followed. I have heard all.' + +'All?' the Countess stammered, and she began to tremble. + +'Yes,' the girl answered. Then 'Go, go! my lady,' she cried. She was +shaking with agitation, and looked round as if for a way of escape. +But there was no second door to the room. 'If she finds you here we +are lost. Go back, and in the morning----' + +She stopped abruptly, and her eyes grew wide. The Countess listening +too, and catching the infection of her fear, heard a board creak +below. + +For a moment the two stood in the middle of the floor, gazing into one +another's eyes. Then Marie, with a sudden movement, thrust my lady +down on her pallet, and with the other hand put out the light. + +They lay, scarcely daring to breathe, and heard Fraulein Anna grope +her way in, and stand awhile, silent and listening, as if she found +something suspicious in the extinction of the light. But the taper--it +was a mere rushlight--had done this before, and Marie stirred so +naturally, that Fraulein Max's doubts passed away. She put off her +cloak quickly, and presently--but not, as it seemed to the Countess, +until an hour had elapsed--they heard her begin to breathe regularly. +A few minutes more and they had no doubt she slept. Then Marie touched +my lady's arm, and the latter, rising softly, stole out of the room. + +The adventure left the Countess's thoughts in a whirl. She hated +double-dealing as much as any one, and she could scarcely contain +herself before Fraulein Max. It was as much as she could do to wear a +smooth face for an hour, until a chance occasion, which fortunately +came early in the day, left her alone with Marie. Then she turned, +almost fiercely, on the girl. + +'What is this?' she said. 'What does it all mean? Himmel! Tell me! +Tell me quickly!' + +Marie Wort looked at her with tears in her eyes. 'You should be able +to guess, my lady,' she said sadly. 'There is a traitor among us.' + +'Fraulein Anna?' + +Marie nodded. 'She is in his pay,' she said simply. + +'His? The general's?' + +'Yes,' Marie answered, speaking quickly, with her eyes on the door. +'She met him last night, and told him what you feel about him.' + +The Countess drew a deep breath. Her face turned a shade paler. She +sat up straight in her chair. 'All?' she said huskily. + +Marie nodded. + +'And he?' + +'He said he would have an answer to-day. Then I left. I did not hear +any more.' + +The Countess sat for a minute as if turned to stone. Here was an end +of putting off--of smiles, and pleasant words, and the little +craftinesses which had hitherto served her. Stern necessity, hard fate +were before her. She was of a high courage, but terror was fast +mastering her, when Marie touched her on the arm. + +'If you can put him off, until this evening,' the girl muttered, 'I +think something may be done.' + +'What?' + +'Something. I do not know what,' the girl answered in a troubled tone. + +The Countess rose suddenly. 'Ah! I would like to choke her!' she cried +hoarsely. She stretched out her arms. + +'Hush, hush, my lady!' Marie whispered. The Countess's violence +frightened her. 'I think, if you can put him off until to-night, we +may contrive something.' + +'We? You and I?' my lady said in scorn. But as she looked at the +other's pale, earnest face, her own softened, her tone changed. 'Well, +it shall be as you wish,' she said, letting her arms drop. 'You are a +better plotter than I am. But I fear Fraulein Cat, Fraulein Snake, +Fraulein Fox will prove the best of all!' + +Marie's frightened face showed that she thought this possible, but she +said no more, and would give my lady no explanation, though the +Countess pressed for it. It was decided in the end that the Countess +should plead sudden illness, and use that pretext both to avoid +Fraulein Max, and postpone her interview with the general until the +evening. + +He came at noon, and the Countess heard his horses pawing and fretting +in the road, and she sat up in her darkened room with a white face. +What if he would not accept the excuse? If he would see her? What if +the moment had come in which his will and hers must decide the +struggle? She rose and stood listening, as fierce in her beauty as any +trapped savage creature. Her heartbeat wildly, her bosom heaved. But +in a moment she heard the horses move away, and presently Marie came +in to tell her that he would wait till evening. + +'No longer?' the Countess asked, hiding her face in the pillow. + +'Not an hour, he said,' Marie answered, indicating by a gesture +that the door was open, and that Fraulein Max was listening. 'He +was--different,' she whispered. + +'How?' my lady muttered. + +'He swore at me,' Marie answered in the same tone. 'And he spoke of +you--somehow differently.' + +The Countess laughed, but far from joyously. 'I suppose to-night--I +must see him?' she said. She tried as she spoke to press herself more +deeply into the pillows, as if she might escape that way. Her flesh +crept, and she shivered though she was as hot as fire. + +Once or twice in the hours which followed she was almost beside +herself. Sometimes she prayed. More often she walked up and down the +room like one in a fever. She did not know on what she was trusting, +and she could have struck Marie when the girl, appealed to again and +again, would explain nothing, and name no quarter from which help +might come. All the afternoon the camp lay grilling in the sunshine, +and in the shuttered room in the middle of it my lady suffered. Had +the house lain by the river she might have tried to escape; but the +camp girdled it on three sides, and on the fourth, where a swampy +inlet guarded one flank of the village, a deep ditch as well as the +morass forbade all passage. + +She remained in her room until she heard the unwelcome sounds which +told of the general's return. Then she came into the outer room, her +eyes glittering, a red spot on either cheek, all pretence at an end. +Her glance withered Fraulein Max, who sat blinking in a corner with a +very evil conscience. And to Marie Wort, when the girl came near her +on the pretence of adjusting her lace sleeves, she had only one word +to say. + +'You slut!' she hissed, her breath hot on the girl's cheek. 'If you +fail me I will kill you. Begone out of my sight!' + +The child, excited before, broke down at that, and, bursting into a +fit of weeping, ran out. Her sobs were still in the air when General +Tzerclas entered. + +The Countess's face was flushed, and her bearing, full of passion and +defiance, must have warned him what to expect, if he felt any doubt +before. The sun was just setting, the room growing dusk. He stood +awhile, after saluting her, in doubt how he should come to the point, +or in admiration; for her scorn and anger only increased her beauty +and his feeling for her. At length he pointed lightly to the women, +who kept their places by the door. + +'Is it your wish, fair cousin,' he said slowly, 'that I should speak +before these, or will you see me alone?' + +'Your spy, that cat there,' my lady answered, carried away by her +temper, 'may go! The women will stay.' + +Fraulein Max, singled out by that merciless finger, sprang forward, +her face mottled with surprise and terror. For a second she hesitated. +Then she rushed towards her friend, as if she would embrace her. + +'Countess!' she cried. 'Rotha! Surely you are mad! You cannot think +that I would----' + +My lady turned, and in a flash struck her fiercely on the cheek with +her open hand. 'Liar!' she cried; 'go to your master, you whipped +hound!' + +The Dutch woman recoiled with a cry of pain, and sobbing wildly went +back to her place. The general laughed harshly. + +'You hold with me, sweetheart,' he said. 'Discipline before +everything. But you have not my patience.' + +She looked at him--angry with him, angry with herself, her hand to her +bosom--but she did not answer. + +'For you must allow,' he continued--his tone and his eyes still +bantered her--'that I have been patient. I have been like a man +athirst in the desert; but I have waited day after day, until now I +can wait no longer, sweetheart.' + +'So you tamper with my--with that woman!' she said scornfully. + +The general shrugged his shoulders and laughed grimly. 'Why not?' he +said. 'What are waiting-women and the like made for, if not to be +bribed--or slapped?' + +She hated him for that sly hit--if never before; but she controlled +herself. She would throw the burden on him. + +He read the thought, and it led him to change his tone. There was a +gloomy fire in his eyes, and smouldering passion in his voice, when he +spoke again. + +'Well, Countess,' he said, 'I am here for your answer.' + +'To what?' + +'To the question I asked you some time ago,' he rejoined, dwelling on +her with sullen eyes. 'I asked you to be my wife. Your answer?' + +'Prythee!' she said proudly, 'this is a strange way of wooing.' + +'It is not of my choice that I woo in company,' he answered, shrugging +his shoulders. 'My answer; that is all I want--and you.' + +'Then you shall have the first, and not the last,' she exclaimed on a +sudden impulse. 'No, no--a hundred times no! If you do not see that by +pressing me now,' she continued impetuously, 'when I am alone, +friendless, and unprotected, you insult me, you should see it, and I +do.' + +For a moment there was silence. Then he laughed; but his voice, +notwithstanding his mastery over it and in spite of that laugh, shook +with rage and resentment. 'As I expected,' he said. 'I knew last night +that you hated me. You have been playing a part throughout. You loathe +me. Yes, madam, you may wince,' he continued bitterly, 'for you shall +still be my wife; and when you are my wife we will talk of that.' + +'Never!' she said, with a brave face; but her heart beat wildly, and a +mist rose before her eyes. + +He laughed. 'My legions are round me,' he said. 'Where are yours?' + +'You are a gentleman,' she answered with an effort. 'You will let me +go.' + +'If I do not?' + +'There are those who will know how to avenge me.' + +He laughed again. 'I do not know them, Countess,' he said +contemptuously. 'For Hesse Cassel, he has his hands full at Nuremberg, +and will be likely, when Wallenstein has done with him, to need help +himself. The King of Sweden--the brightest morning ends soonest in +rain--and he will end at Nuremberg. Bernhard of Weimar, Leuchtenstein, +all the fanatics fall with him. Only the banner of the Free Companies +stands and waves ever the wider. Be advised,' he continued grimly. +'Bend, Countess, or I have the means to break you.' + +'Never!' she said. + +'So you say now,' he answered slowly. 'You will not say so in five +minutes. If you care nothing for yourself, have a care for your +friends.' + +'You said I had none,' she retorted hoarsely. + +'None that can help you,' he replied; 'some that you can help.' + +She started and looked at him wildly, her lips apart, her eyes wide +with hope, fear, expectation. What did he mean? What could he mean by +this new turn? Ha! + +She had her face towards the window, and dark as the room was +growing--outside the light was failing fast--he read the thought in +her eyes, and nodded. + +'The Waldgrave?' he said lightly. 'Yes, he is alive, Countess, at +present; and your steward also.' + +'They are prisoners?' she whispered, her cheeks grown white. + +'Prisoners; and under sentence of death.' + +'Where?' + +'In my camp.' + +'Why?' she muttered. But alas! she knew; she knew already. + +'They are hostages for your good behaviour,' he answered in his cold, +mocking tone. 'If their principal satisfies me, good; they will go +free. If not, they die--to-morrow.' + +'To-morrow?' she gasped. + +'To-morrow,' he answered ruthlessly. 'Now I think we understand one +another.' + +She threw up her hand suddenly, as if she were about to vent on him +all the passions which consumed her--the terror, rage, and shame which +swelled in her breast. But something in his gibing tone, something in +the set lines of his figure--she could not see his face--checked her. +She let her hand fall in a gesture of despair, and shrank into +herself, shuddering. She looked at him as at a serpent--that +fascinated her. At last she murmured-- + +'You will not dare. What have they done to you?' + +'Nothing,' he answered. 'It is not their affair; it is yours.' + +For a moment after that they stood confronting one another while the +sound of the women sobbing in a corner, and the occasional jingle of a +bridle outside, alone broke the silence. Behind her the room was dark; +behind him, through the open windows, lay the road, glimmering pale +through the dusk. Suddenly the door at her back opened, and a bright +light flashed on his face. It was Marie Wort bringing in a lamp. No +one spoke, and she set the lamp on the table, and going by him began +to close the shutters. Still the Countess stood as if turned to stone, +and he stood watching her. + +'Where are they?' she moaned at last, though he had already told her. + +'In the camp,' he said. + +'Can I--can I see them?' she panted. + +'Afterwards,' he answered, with the smile of a fiend; 'when you are my +wife.' + +That added the last straw. She took two steps to the table, and +sitting down blindly, covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders +began to tremble, her head sank lower and lower on the table. Her +pride was gone. + +'Heaven help us!' she whispered in a passion of grief. 'Heaven help +us, for there is no help here!' + +'That is better,' he said, eyeing her coldly. 'We shall soon come to +terms now.' + +In his exultation he went a step nearer to her. He was about to touch +her--to lay his hand on her hair, believing his evil victory won, when +suddenly two dark figures rose like shadows behind her chair. He +recoiled, dropping his hand. In a moment a pistol barrel was thrust +into his face. He fell back another step. + +'One word and you are a dead man!' a stern voice hissed in his ear. +Then he saw another barrel gleam in the lamplight, and he stood still. + +'What is this?' he said, looking from one to the other, his voice +trembling with rage. + +'Justice!' the same speaker answered harshly. 'But stand still and be +silent, and you shall have your life. Give the alarm, and you die, +general, though we die the next minute. Sit down in that chair.' + +He hesitated. But the two shining barrels converging on his head, the +two grim faces behind them, were convincing; in a moment he obeyed. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + THE FLIGHT. + + +One of the men--it was I--muttered something to Marie, and she snuffed +the wick, and blew up the light. In a moment it filled the room, +disclosing a strange medley of levelled weapons, startled faces, and +flashing eyes. In one corner Fraulein Max and the two women cowered +behind one another, trembling and staring. At the table sat my lady, +with dull, dazed eyes, looking on, yet scarcely understanding what was +happening. On either side of her stood Steve and I, covering the +general with our pistols, while the Waldgrave, who was still too weak +for much exertion, kept guard at the door. + +Tzerclas was the first to speak. 'What is this foolery?' he said, +scowling unutterable curses at us. 'What does this mean?' + +'This!' I said, producing a piece of hide rope. 'We are going to tie +you up. If you struggle, general, you die. If you submit, you live. +That is all. Go to work, Steve.' + +There was a gleam in Tzerclas' eye, which warned me to stand back and +crook my finger. His face was black with fury, and for an instant I +thought that he would spring upon us and dare all. But prudence and +the pistols prevailed. With an evil look he sat still, and in a trice +Steve had a loop round his arms and was binding him to the heavy +chair. + +I knew then that as far as he was concerned we were safe; and I turned +to bid the women get cloaks and food, adjuring them to be quick, since +every moment was precious. + +'Bring nothing but cloaks and food and wine,' I said. 'We have to go a +league on foot and can carry little.' + +The Countess heard my words, and looked at me with growing +comprehension. 'The Waldgrave?' she muttered. 'Is he here?' + +He came forward from the door to speak to her; but when she saw him, +and how pale and thin he was, with great hollows in his cheeks and his +eyes grown too large for his face, she began to cry weakly, as any +other woman might have cried, being overwrought. I bade Marie, who +alone kept her wits, to bring her wine and make her take it; and in a +minute she smiled at us, and would have thanked us. + +'Wait!' I said bluntly, feeling a great horror upon me whenever I +looked towards the general or caught his eye. 'You may have small +cause to thank us. If we fail, Heaven and you forgive us, my lady, for +this man will not. If we are retaken----' + +'We will not be retaken!' she cried hardily. 'You have horses?' + +'Five only,' I answered. 'They are all Steve could get, and they are a +league away. We must go to them on foot. There are eight of us here, +and young Jacob and Ernst are watching outside. Are all ready?' + +My lady looked round; her eye fell on Fraulein Max, who with a little +bundle in her arms had just re-entered and stood shivering by the +door. The Dutch girl winced under her glance, and dropping her bundle, +stooped hurriedly to pick it up. + +'That woman does not go!' the Countess said suddenly. + +I answered in a low tone that I thought she must. + +'No!' my lady cried harshly--she could be cruel sometimes--'not with +us. She does not belong to our party. Let her stay with her paymaster, +and to-morrow he will doubtless reward her.' + +What reward she was likely to get Fraulein Max knew well. She flung +herself at my lady's feet in an agony of fear, and clutching her +skirts, cried abjectly for mercy; she would carry, she would help, she +would do anything, if she might go! Knowing that we dared not leave +her since she would be certain to release the general as soon as our +backs were turned, I was glad when Marie, whose heart was touched, +joined her prayers to the culprit's and won a reluctant consent. + +It has taken long to tell these things. They passed very quickly. I +suppose not more than a quarter of an hour elapsed between our first +appearance and this juncture, which saw us all standing in the +lamplight, laden and ready to be gone; while the general glowered at +us in sullen rage, and my lady, with a new thought in her mind, looked +round in dismay. + +She drew me aside. 'Martin,' she said, 'his orderly is waiting in the +road with his horse. The moment we are gone he will shout to him.' + +'We have provided for that,' I answered, nodding. Then assuring myself +by a last look round that all were ready, I gave the word. 'Now, +Steve!' I said sharply. + +In a twinkling he flung over the general's head a small sack doubled +inwards. We heard a stifled oath and a cry of rage. The bars of the +strong chair creaked as our prisoner struggled, and for a moment it +seemed as if the knots would barely hold. But the work had been well +done, and in less than half a minute Steve had secured the sack to the +chair-back. It was as good as a gag, and safer. Then we took up the +chair between us, and lifting it into the back room, put it down and +locked the door upon our captive. + +As we turned from it Steve looked at me. 'If he catches us after this, +Master Martin,' he said, 'it won't be an easy death we shall die!' + +'Heaven forbid!' I muttered. 'Let us be off!' + +He gave the word and we stole out into the darkness at the back of the +house, Steve, who had surveyed the ground, going first. My lady +followed him; then came the Waldgrave; after him the two women and +Fraulein Max, with Jacob and Ernst; last of all, Marie and I. It was +no time for love-making, but as we all stood a minute in the night, +while Steve listened, I drew Marie's little figure to me and kissed +her pale face again and again; and she clung to me, trembling, her +eyes shining into mine. Then she put me away bravely; but I took her +bundle, and with full hearts we followed the others across the field +at the back and through the ditch. + +That passed, we found ourselves on the edge of the village, with the +lights of the camp forming five-sixths of a circle round us. In one +direction only, where the swamp and creek fringed the place, a dark +gap broke the ring of twinkling fires. Towards this gap Steve led the +way, and we, a silent line of gliding figures, followed him. The moon +had not yet risen. The gloom was such that I could barely make out the +third figure before me; and though all manner of noises--the chorus of +a song, the voice of a scolding hag, even the rattle of dice on a +drumhead--came clearly to my ears, and we seemed to be enclosed on all +sides, the darkness proved an effectual shield. We met no one, and +five minutes after leaving the house, reached the bank of the little +creek I have mentioned. + +Here we paused and waited, a group of huddled figures, while Steve +groped about for a plank he had hidden. Before us lay the stream, +behind us the camp. At any moment the alarm might be raised. I +pictured the outcry, the sudden flickering of lights, the galloping +this way and that, the discovery. And then, thank Heaven! Steve found +his plank, and in the work of passing the women over I forgot my +fears. The darkness, the peril--for the water on the nearer side was +deep--the nervous haste of some, and the terror of others, made the +task no easy one. I was hot as fire and wet to the waist before it was +over, and we all stood ankle-deep in the ooze which formed the farther +bank. + +Alas! our troubles were only beginning. Through this ooze we had to +wade for a mile or more, sometimes in doubt, always in darkness; now +plashing into pools, now stumbling over a submerged log, often up to +our knees in mud and water. The frogs croaked round us, the bog moaned +and gurgled; in the depth of the marsh the bitterns boomed mournfully. +If we stood a moment we sank. It was a horrible time; and the more +horrible, as through it all we had only to turn to see the camp lights +behind us, a poor half-mile or so away. + +None but desperate men could have exposed women to such a labour; nor +could any but women without hope and at their wit's end have +accomplished it. As it was, Fraulein Max, who never ceased to whimper, +twice sank down and would go no farther, and we had to pluck her up +roughly and force her on. My lady's women, who wept in their misery, +were little better. Wet to the waist, draggled, and worn out by the +clinging slime and the reek of the marsh, they were kept moving only +with difficulty; so that, but for Steve's giant strength and my lady's +courage, I think we should have stayed there till daylight, and been +caught like birds limed on a bough. + +As it was, we plunged and strove for more than an hour in that place, +the dark sky above us, the quaking bog below, the women's weeping in +our ears. Then, at last, when I had almost given up hope, we struggled +out one by one upon the road, and stood panting and shaking, +astonished to find solid ground under our feet. We had still two miles +to walk, but on dry soil; and though at another time the task might +have seemed to the women full of adventure and arduous, it failed to +frighten them after what we had gone through. Steve took Fraulein +Anna, and I one of the women. My lady and the Waldgrave went hand in +hand; the one giving, I fancy, as much help as the other. For Marie, +her small, white face was a beacon of hope in the darkness. In the +marsh she had never failed or fainted. On the road the tears came into +my eyes for pity and love and admiration. + +At length Steve bade us stand, and leaving us in the way, plunged into +the denser blackness of a thicket, which lay between it and the river. +I heard him parting the branches before him, and stumbling and +swearing, until presently the sounds died away in the distance, and we +remained shivering and waiting. What if the horses were gone? What if +they had strayed from the place where he had tethered them early in +the day, or some one had found and removed them? The thought threw me +into a cold sweat. + +Then I heard him coming back, and I caught the ring of iron hoofs. He +had them! I breathed again. In a moment he emerged, and behind him a +string of shadows--five horses tied head and tail. + +'Quick!' he muttered. He had been long enough alone to grow nervous. +'We are two hours gone, and if they have not yet discovered him they +must soon! It is a short start, and half of us on foot!' + +No one answered, but in a moment we had the Waldgrave, my lady, +Fraulein, and one of the women mounted. Then we put up Marie, who was +no heavier than a feather, and the lighter of the women on the +remaining horse; and Steve hurrying beside the leader, and I, Ernst, +and Jacob bringing up the rear, we were well on the road within two +minutes of the appearance of the horses. Those who rode had only +sacking for saddles and loops of rope for stirrups; but no one +complained. Even Fraulein Max began to recover herself, and to dwell +more upon the peril of capture than on aching legs and chafed knees. + +The road was good, and we made, as far as I could judge, about six +miles in the first hour. This placed us nine miles from the camp; the +time, a little after midnight. At this point the clouds, which had +aided us so far by increasing the darkness of the night, fell in a +great storm of rain, that, hissing on the road and among the trees, in +a few minutes drenched us to the skin. But no one complained. Steve +muttered that it would make it the more difficult to track us; and for +another hour we plodded on gallantly. Then our leader called a halt, +and we stood listening. + +The rain had left the sky lighter. A waning moon, floating in a wrack +of watery clouds to westward, shed a faint gleam on the landscape. To +the right of us it disclosed a bare plain, rising gradually as it +receded, and offering no cover. On our left, between us and the river, +it was different. Here a wilderness of osiers--a grey willow swamp +that in the moonlight shimmered like the best Utrecht--stretched as +far as we could see. The road where we stood rose a few feet above it, +so that our eyes were on a level with the highest shoots; but a +hundred yards farther on the road sank a little. We could see the +water standing on the track in pools, and glimmering palely. + +'This is the place,' Steve muttered. 'It will be dawn in another hour. +What do you think, Master Martin?' + +'That we had better get off the road,' I answered. 'Take it they found +him at midnight; the orderly's patience would scarcely last longer. +Then, if they started after us a quarter of an hour later, they should +be here in another twenty minutes.' + +'It is an aguey place,' he said doubtfully. + +'It will suit us better than the camp,' I answered. + +No one else expressed an opinion, and Steve, taking my lady's rein, +led her horse on until he came to the hollow part of the road. Here +the moonlight disclosed a kind of water-lane, running away between the +osiers, at right angles from the road. Steve turned into it, leading +my lady's horse, and in a moment was wading a foot deep in water. The +Waldgrave followed, then the women. I came last, with Marie's rein in +my hand. We kept down the lane about one hundred and fifty paces, the +horses snorting and moving unwillingly, and the water growing ever +deeper. Then Steve turned out of it, and began to advance, but more +cautiously, parallel with the road. + +We had waded about as far in this direction, sidling between the +stumps and stools as well as we could, when he came again to a stand +and passed back the word for me. I waded on, and joined him. The +osiers, which were interspersed here and there with great willows, +rose above our heads and shut out the moonlight. The water gurgled +black about our knees. Each step might lead us into a hole, or we +might trip over the roots of the osiers. It was impossible to see a +foot before us, or anything above us save the still, black rods and +the grey sky. + +'It should be in this direction,' Steve said, with an accent of doubt. +'But I cannot see. We shall have the horses down.' + +'Let me go first,' I said. + +'We must not separate,' he answered hastily. + +'No, no,' I said, my teeth beginning to chatter. 'But are you sure +that there is an eyot here?' + +'I did not go to it,' he answered, scratching his head. 'But I saw a +clump of willows rising well above the level, and they looked to me as +if they grew on dry land.' + +He stood a moment irresolutely, first one and then another of the +horses shaking itself till the women could scarcely keep their seats. + +'Why do we not go on?' my lady asked in a low voice. + +'Because Steve is not sure of the place, my lady,' I said. 'And it is +almost impossible to move, it is so dark, and the osiers grow so +closely. I doubt we should have waited until daylight.' + +'Then we should have run the risk of being intercepted,' she answered +feverishly. 'Are you very wet?' + +'No,' I said, though my feet were growing numb, 'not very. I see what +we must do. One of us must climb into a willow and look out.' + +We had passed a small one not long before. I plashed my way back to +it, along the line of shivering women, and, pulling myself heavily +into the branches, managed to scramble up a few feet. The tree swayed +under my weight, but it bore me. + +The first dawn was whitening the sky and casting a faint, reflected +light on the glistening sea of osiers, that seemed to my eyes--for I +was not high enough to look beyond it--to stretch far and away on +every side. Here and there a large willow, rising in a round, dark +clump, stood out above the level; and in one place, about a hundred +paces away on the riverside of us, a group of these formed a shadowy +mound. I marked the spot, and dropped gently into the water. + +'I have found it,' I said. 'I will go first, and do you bring my lady, +Steve. And mind the stumps. It will be rough work.' + +It was rough work. We had to wind in and out, leading and coaxing the +frightened horses, that again and again stumbled to their knees. Every +minute I feared that we should find the way impassable or meet with a +mishap. But in time, going very patiently, we made out the willows in +front of us. Then the water grew more shallow, and this gave the +animals courage. Twenty steps farther, and we passed into the shadow +of the trees. A last struggle, and, plunging one by one up the muddy +bank, we stood panting on the eyot. + +It was such a place as only despair could choose for a refuge. In +shape like the back of some large submerged beast, it lay in length +about forty paces, in breadth half as many. The highest point was a +poor foot above the water. Seven great willows took up half the space; +it was as much as our horses, sinking in the moist mud to the fetlock, +could do to find standing-room on the remainder. Coarse grass and +reeds covered it; and the flotsam of the last flood whitened the +trunks of the willows, and hung in squalid wisps from their lower +branches. + +For the first time we saw one another's faces, and how pale and +woe-begone, mudstained and draggled we were! The cold, grey light, +which so mercilessly unmasked our refuge, did not spare us. It helped +even my lady to look her worst. Fraulein Anna sat a mere lifeless lump +in her saddle. The waiting-women cried softly; they had cried all +night. The Waldgrave looked dazed, as if he barely understood where he +was or why he was there. + +To think over-much in such a place was to weep. Instead, I hastened to +get them all off their horses, and with Steve's help and a great +bundle of osiers and branches which we cut, I made nests for them in +the lower boughs of the willows, well out of reach of the water. When +they had all taken their places, I served out food and a dram of +Dantzic waters, which some of us needed; for a white mist, drawn up +from the swamp by the rising sun, began to enshroud us, and, hanging +among the osiers for more than an hour, prolonged the misery of the +night. + +Still, even that rolled away at last--about six o'clock--and let us +see the sun shining overhead in a heaven of blue distance and golden +clouds. Larks rose up and sang, and all the birds of the marsh began +to twitter and tweet. In a trice our mud island was changed to a +bower--a place of warmth and life and refreshment--where light and +shade lay on the dappled floor, and the sunshine fell through green +leaves. + +Then I took the cloaks, and the saddles, and everything that was wet, +and spread them out on branches to dry; and leaving the women to make +themselves comfortable in their own way and shift themselves as they +pleased, we two, with the Waldgrave and the two servants, went away to +the other end of the eyot. + +'I shall sleep,' Steve said drowsily. + +The insects were beginning to hum. The horses stood huddled together, +swishing their long tails. + +'You think they won't track us?' I asked. + +'Certain,' he said. 'There are six hundred yards of mud and water, +eel-holes, and willow shoots between us and the road.' + +The Waldgrave assented mechanically; it seemed so to me too. And +by-and-by, worn out with the night's work, I fell asleep, and slept, I +suppose, for a good many hours, with the sun and shade passing slowly +across my face, and the bees droning in my ears, and the mellow warmth +of the summer day soaking into my bones. When I awoke I lay for a time +revelling in lazy enjoyment. The oily plop of a water-rat, as it dived +from a stump, or the scream of a distant jay, alone broke the laden +silence. I looked at the sun. It lay south-west. It was three o'clock +then. + + +[Illustration: We were alone.... I whispered in her ear ...] + + +A light touch fell on my knee. I started, looked down, and for a +moment stared in sleepy wonder. A tiny bunch of blue flowers, such as +I could see growing in a dozen places on the edge of the island, lay +on it, tied up with a thread of purple silk. I started up on my elbow, +and--there, close beside me, with her cheeks full of colour, and the +sunshine finding golden threads in her dark hair, sat Marie, toying +with more flowers. + +'Ha!' I said foolishly. 'What is it?' + +'My lady sent me to you,' she answered. + +'Yes,' I asked eagerly. 'Does she want me?' + +But Marie hung her head, and played with the flowers. 'I don't think +so,' she whispered. 'She only sent me to you.' + +Then I understood. The Waldgrave had gone to the farther end. Steve +and the men were tending the horses half a dozen paces beyond the +screen of willow-leaves. We were alone. A rat plashed into the water, +and drove Marie nearer to me; and she laid her head on my shoulder, +and I whispered in her ear, till the lashes sank down over her eyes +and her lips trembled. If I had loved her from the first, what was the +length and height and breadth of my love now, when I had seen her in +darkness and peril, sunshine and storm, strong when others failed, +brave when others flinched, always helpful, ready, tireless! And she +so small! So frail, I almost feared to press her to me; so pale, the +blood that leapt to her cheeks at my touch seemed a mere reflection of +the sunlight. + +I told her how Steve had made the guards at the prison drunk with wine +bought with her dowry; how the horses he had purchased and taken out +of the camp by twos and threes had been paid for from the same source; +and how many ducats had gone for meats and messes to keep the life, +that still ran sluggishly, in the Waldgrave's veins. She listened and +lay still. + +'So you have no dowry now, little one,' I said, when I had told her +all. 'And your gold chain is gone. I believe you have nothing but the +frock you stand up in. Why, then, should I marry you?' + +I felt her heart give a great leap under my hand, and a shiver ran +through her. But she did not raise her head, and I, who had thought to +tease her into looking at me, had to put back her little face till it +gazed into mine. + +'Why?' I said; 'why?'--drawing her closer and closer to me. + +Then the colour came into her face like the sunlight itself. 'Because +you love me,' she whispered, shutting her eyes. + +And I did not gainsay her. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + MISSING! + + +We lay in the osier bed two whole days and a night, during which time +two at least of us were not unhappy, in spite of peril and hardship. +We left it at last, only because our meagre provision gave out, and we +must move or starve. We felt far from sure that the danger was over, +for Steve, who spent the second day in a thick bush near the road, saw +two troops of horse go by; and others, we believed, passed in the +night. But we had no choice. The neighbourhood was bleak and bare. +Such small homesteads as existed had been eaten up, and lay abandoned. +If we had felt inclined to venture out for food, none was to be had. +And, in fine, though we trembled at the thought of the open road, and +my heart for one grew sick as I looked from Marie to my lady, and +reckoned the long tale of leagues which lay between us and Cassel, the +risk had to be run. + +Steve had discovered a more easy though longer way out of the +willow-bed, and two hours before midnight on the second night, he and +I mounted the women and prepared to set out. He arranged that we +should go in the same order in which we had come: that he should lead +the march, and I bring up the rear, while the Waldgrave, who was still +far from well, and whose continued lack of vigour troubled us the more +as we said little about it, should ride with my lady. + +The night seemed likely to be fine, but the darkness, the sough of the +wind as it swept over the plain, and the melancholy plashing of the +water as our horses plodded through it, were not things of a kind to +allay our fears. When we at last left our covert, and reaching the +road stood to listen, the fall of a leaf made us start. Though no +sounds but those of the night came to our ears--and some of these were +of a kind to reassure us--we said 'Hush!' again and again, and only +moved on after a hundred alarums and assurances. + +I walked by Marie, with my hand on the withers of her horse, but we +did not talk. The two waiting-women riding double were before us, and +their muttered fears alone broke the silence which prevailed at the +end of the train. We went at the rate of about two leagues an hour, +Steve and I and the men running where the roads were good, and +everywhere and at all times urging the horses to do their best. The +haste of our movements, the darkness, our constant alarm, and the +occasional confusion when the rear pressed on the van at an awkward +place, had the effect of upsetting the balance of our minds; so +that the most common impulse of flight--to press forward with +ever-increasing recklessness--began presently to possess us. Once or +twice I had to check the foremost, or they would have outrun the rear; +and this kind of race brought us gradually into such a state of alarm, +that by-and-by, when the line came to a sudden stop on the brow of a +gentle descent, I could hardly restrain my impatience. + +'What is it?' I asked eagerly. 'Why are we stopping?' Surely the road +is good enough here.' + +No one answered, but it was significant that on the instant one of the +women began to cry. + +'Stop that folly!' I said. 'What is in front there? Cannot some one +speak?' + +'The Waldgrave thinks that he hears horsemen before us,' Fraulein Max +answered. + +In another moment the Waldgrave's figure loomed out of the darkness. +'Martin,' he said--I noticed that his voice shook--'go forward. They +are in front. Man alive, be quick!' he continued fiercely. 'Do you +want to have them into us?' + +I left my girl's rein, and pushing past the women and Fraulein, joined +Steve, who was standing by my lady's rein. 'What is it?' I said. + +'Nothing, I think,' he answered in an uncertain tone. + +I stood a moment listening, but I too could hear nothing. I began to +argue with him. 'Who heard it?' I asked impatiently. + +'The Waldgrave,' he answered. + +I did not like to say before my lady what I thought--that the +Waldgrave was not quite himself, nor to be depended upon; and instead +I proposed to go forward on foot and learn if anything was amiss. The +road ran straight down the hill, and the party could scarcely pass me, +even in the gloom. If I found all well, I would whistle, and they +could come on. + +My lady agreed, and, leaving them halted, I started cautiously down +the hill. The darkness was not extreme; the cloud drift was broken +here and there, and showed light patches of sky between; I could make +out the shapes of things, and more than once took a clump of bushes +for a lurking ambush. But halfway down, a line of poplars began to +shadow the road on our side, and from that point I might have walked +into a regiment and never seen a man. This, the being suddenly alone, +and the constant rustling of the leaves overhead, which moved with the +slightest air, shook my nerves, and I went very warily, with my heart +in my mouth and a cry trembling on my lips. + +Still I had reached the hillfoot before anything happened. Then I +stopped abruptly, hearing quite distinctly in front of me the sound of +footsteps. It was impossible that this could be the sound that the +Waldgrave had heard, for only one man seemed to be stirring, and he +moved stealthily; but I crouched down and listened, and in a moment I +was rewarded. A dark figure came out of the densest of the shadow and +stood in the middle of the road. I sank lower, noiselessly. The man +seemed to be listening. + +It flashed into my head that he was a sentry; and I thought how +fortunate it was that I had come on alone. + +Presently he moved again. He stole along the track towards me, +stooping, as I fancied, and more than once standing to listen, as if +he were not satisfied. I sank down still lower, and he passed me +without notice, and went on, and I heard his footsteps slowly +retreating until they quite died away. + +But in a moment, before I had risen to my full height, I heard them +again. He came back, and passed me, breathing quickly and loudly. I +wondered if he had detected our party and was going to give the alarm; +and I stood up, anxious and uncertain, at a loss whether I should +follow him or run back. + +At that instant a fierce yell broke the silence, and rent the darkness +as a flash of lightning might rend it. It came from behind me, from +the brow of the hill; and I started as if I had been struck. Hard on +it a volley of shouts and screams flared up in the same direction, and +while my heart stood still with terror and fear of what had happened, +I heard the thunder of hoofs come down the road, with a clatter of +blows and whips. They were coming headlong--my lady and the rest. The +danger was behind them, then. I had just time to turn and get to the +side of the road before they were on me at a gallop. + +I could not see who was who in the darkness, but I caught at the +nearest stirrup, and, narrowly escaping being ridden down, ran on +beside the rider. The horses, spurred down the slope, had gained such +an impetus that it was all I could do to keep up. I had no breath to +ask questions, nor state my fear that there was danger ahead also. I +had to stride like a giant to keep my legs and run. + +Some one else was less lucky. We had not swept fifty yards from where +I joined them, when a dark figure showed for a moment in the road +before us. I saw it; it seemed to hang and hesitate. The next instant +it was among us. I heard a shrill scream, a heavy fall, and we were +over it, and charging on and on and on through the darkness. + +To the foot of the hill and across the bottom, and up the opposite +slope. I do not know how far we had sped, when Steve's voice was +heard, calling on us to halt. + +'Pull up! pull up!' he cried, with an angry oath. 'It is a false +alarm! What fool set it going? There is no one behind us. Donner und +Blitzen! where is Martin?' + +The horses were beginning to flag, and gladly came to a trot, and then +to a walk. + +'Here! I panted. + +'Himmel! I thought we had ridden you down!' he said, leaving my lady's +side. His voice shook with passion and loss of breath. 'Who was it? We +might all have broken our necks, and for nothing!' + +The Waldgrave--it was his stirrup I had caught--turned his horse +round. 'I heard them--close behind us!' he panted. There was a note of +wildness in his voice. My elbow was against his knee, and I felt him +tremble. + +'A bird in the hedge,' Steve said rudely. 'It has cost some one dear. +Whose horse was it struck him?' + +No one answered. I left the Waldgrave's side and went back a few +paces. The women were sobbing. Ernst and Jacob stood by them, +breathing hard after their run. I thought the men's silence strange. I +looked again. There was a figure missing; a horse missing. + +'Where is Marie?' I cried. + +She did not answer. No one answered; and I knew. Steve swore again. I +think he had known from the beginning. I began to tremble. On a sudden +my lady lifted up her voice and cried shrilly-- + +'Marie! Marie!' + +Again no answer. But this time I did not wait to listen. I ran from +them into the darkness the way we had come, my legs quivering under +me, and my mouth full of broken prayers. I remembered a certain +solitary tree fronting the poplars, on the other side of the way, +which I had marked mechanically at the moment of the fall--an ash, +whose light upper boughs had come for an instant between my eyes and +the sky. It stood on a little mound, where the moorland began to rise +on that side. I came to it now, and stopped and looked. At first I +could see nothing, and I trod forward fearfully. Then, a couple of +paces on, I made out a dark figure, lying head and feet across the +road. I sprang to it, and kneeling, passed my hands over it. Alas! it +was a woman's. + +I raised the light form in my arms, crying passionately on her name, +while the wind swayed the boughs overhead, and, besides that and my +voice, all the countryside was still. She did not answer. She hung +limp in my arms. Kneeling in the dust beside her, I felt blindly for a +pulse, a heart-beat. I found neither--neither; the woman was dead. + +And yet it was not that which made me lay the body down so quickly and +stand up peering round me. No; something else. The blood drummed in my +ears, my heart beat wildly. The woman was dead; but she was not Marie. + +She was an old woman, sixty years old. When I stooped again, after +assuring myself that there was no other body near, and peered into her +face, I saw that it was seamed and wrinkled. She was barefoot, and her +clothes were foul and mean. She had the reek of one who slept in +ditches and washed seldom. Her toothless gums grinned at me. She was a +horrible mockery of all that men love in women. + +When I had marked so much, I stood up again, my head reeling. Where +was the man I had seen scouting up and down? Where was Marie? For a +moment the wild idea that she had become this thing, that death or +magic had transformed the fair young girl into this toothless hag, was +not too wild for me. An owl hooted in the distance, and I started and +shivered and stood looking round me fearfully. Such things were; and +Marie was gone. In her place this woman, grim and dead and unsightly, +lay at my feet. What was I to think? + +I got no answer. I raised my voice and called, trembling, on Marie. I +ran to one side of the road and the other and called, and still got no +answer. I climbed the mound on which the ash-tree stood, and sent my +voice thrilling through the darkness of the bottom. But only the owl +answered. Then, knowing nothing else I could do, I went down wringing +my hands, and found my lady standing over the body in the road. She +had come back with Steve and the others. + +I had to listen to their amazement, and a hundred guesses and fancies, +which, God help me! had nothing certain in them, and gave me no help. +The men searched both sides of the road, and beat the moor for a +distance, and tried to track the horse--for that was missing too, and +there lay my only hope--but to no purpose. At last my lady came to me +and said sorrowfully that nothing more could be done. + +'In the morning!' I cried jealously. + +No one spoke, and I looked from one to another. The men had returned +from the search, and stood in a dark group round the body, which they +had drawn to the side of the road. It wanted an hour of daylight yet, +and I could not see their faces, but I read in their silence the +answer that no one liked to put into words. + +'Be a man!' Steve muttered, after a long pause. 'God help the girl. +But God help us too if we are found here!' + +Still my lady did not speak, and I knew her brave heart too well to +doubt her, though she had been the first to talk of going. 'Get to +horse,' I said roughly. + +'No, no,' my lady cried at last. 'We will all stay, Martin.' + +'Ay, all stay or all go!' Steve muttered. + +'Then all go!' I said, choking down the sobs that would rise. And I +turned first from the place. + +I will not try to state what that cost me. I saw my girl's face +everywhere--everywhere in the darkness, and the eyes reproached me. +That she of all should suffer, who had never fainted, never faltered, +whose patience and courage had been the women's stay from the +first--that she should suffer! I thought of the tender, weak body, and +of all the things that might happen to her, and I seemed, as I went +away from her, the vilest thing that lived. + +But reason was against me. If I stayed there and waited on the road +by the old crone's body until morning, what could I do? Whither could +I turn? Marie was gone and already might be half a dozen miles away. +So the bonds of custom and duty held me. Dazed and bewildered, I +lacked the strength that was needed to run counter to all. I was no +knight-errant, but a plain man, and I reeled on through the last hour +of the night and the first grey streaks of dawn, with my head on my +breast and sobs of despair in my throat. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + NUREMBERG. + + +If it had been our fate after that to continue our flight in the same +weary fashion we had before devised, lying in woods by day, and all +night riding jaded horses, until we passed the gates of some free +city, I do not think that I could have gone through with it. Doubtless +it was my duty to go with my lady. But the long hours of daylight +inaction, the slow brooding tramp, must have proved intolerable. And +at some time or other, in some way or other, I must have snapped the +ties that bound me. + +But, as if the loss of my heart had rid us of some spell cast over us, +by noon of that day we stood safe. For, an hour before noon, while we +lay in a fir-wood not far from Weimar, and Jacob kept watch on the +road below, and the rest slept as we pleased, a party of horse came +along the way, and made as if to pass below us. They numbered more +than a hundred, and Jacob's heart failed him, lest some ring or buckle +of our accoutrements should sparkle and catch their eyes. To shift the +burden he called us, and we went to watch them. + +'Do they go north or south?' I asked him as I rose. + +'North,' he whispered. + +After that they were nothing to me, but I went with the rest. Our lair +was in some rocks overhanging the road. By the time we looked over, +the horsemen were below us, and we could see nothing of them; though +the sullen tramp of their horses, and the jingle of bit and spur, +reached us clearly. Presently they came into sight again on the road +beyond, riding steadily away with their backs to us. + +'That is not General Tzerclas?' my lady muttered anxiously. + +'Nor any of his people!' Steve said with an oath. + +That led me to look more closely, and I saw in a moment something that +lifted me out of my moodiness. I sprang on the rock against which I +was leaning and shouted long and loudly. + +'Himmel!' Steve cried, seizing me by the ankle. 'Are you mad, man?' + +But I only shouted again, and waved my cap frantically. Then I slipped +down, sobered. 'They see us,' I cried. 'They are Leuchtenstein's +riders. And Count Hugo is with them. You are safe, my lady.' + +She turned white and red, and I saw her clutch at the rock to keep +herself on her feet. 'Are you sure?' she said. The troop had halted +and were wheeling slowly and in perfect order. + +'Quite sure, my lady,' I answered, with a touch of bitterness in my +tone. Why had not this happened yesterday or the day before? Then my +girl would have been saved. Now it came too late! Too late! No wonder +I felt bitterly about it. + +We went down into the road on foot, a little party of nine--four women +and five men. The horsemen, as they came up, looked at us in wonder. +Our clothes, even my lady's, were dyed with mud and torn in a score of +places. We had not washed for days, and our faces were lean with +famine. Some of the women were shoeless and had their hair about their +ears, while Steve was bare-headed and bare-armed, and looked so huge a +ruffian the stocks must have yawned for him anywhere. They drew up and +gazed at us, and then Count Hugo came riding down the column and saw +us. + +My lady went forward a step. 'Count Leuchtenstein,' she said, her +voice breaking; she had only seen him once, and then under the mask of +a plain name. But he was safety, honour, life now, and I think that +she could have kissed him. I think for a little she could have fallen +into his arms. + +'Countess!' he said, as he sprang from his horse in wonder. 'Is it +really you? Gott im Himmel! These are strange times. Waldgrave! Your +pardon. Ach! Have you come on foot?' + +'Not I. But these brave men have,' my lady answered, tears in her +voice. + +He looked at Steve and grunted. Then he looked at me and his eyes +lightened. 'Are these all your party?' he said hurriedly. + +'All,' my lady answered in a low voice. He did not ask farther, but he +sighed, and I knew that he had looked for his child. 'I came north +upon a reconnaissance, and was about to turn,' he said. 'I am thankful +that I did not turn before. Is Tzerclas in pursuit of you?' + +'I do not know,' my lady answered, and told him shortly of our flight, +and how we had lain two days and a night in the osier-bed. + +'It was a good thought,' he said. 'But I fear that you are half +famished.' And he called for food and wine, and served my lady with +his own hands, while he saw that we did not go without. 'Campaigner's +fare,' he said. 'But you come of a fighting stock, Countess, and can +put up with it.' + +'Shame on me if I could not,' she answered. + +There was a quaver in her voice, which showed how the rencontre moved +her, how full her heart was of unspoken gratitude. + +'When you have finished, we will get to horse,' he said. 'I must take +you with me to Nuremberg, for I am not strong enough to detach a +party. But this evening we will make a long halt at Hesel, and secure +you a good night's rest.' + +'I am sorry to be so burdensome,' my lady said timidly. + +He shrugged his shoulders without compliment, but I did not hear what +he answered. For I could bear no more. Marie seemed so forgotten in +this crowd, so much a thing of the past, that my gorge rose. No word +of her, no thought of her, no talk of a search party! I pictured her +forlorn, helpless little figure, her pale, uncomplaining face--I and +no one else; and I had to go away into the bushes to hide myself. She +was forgotten already. She had done all for them, I said to myself, +and they forgot her. + +Then, in the thicket screened from the party, I had a thought--to go +back and look for her, myself. Now my lady was safe, there was nothing +to prevent me. I had only to lie close among the rocks until Count +Hugo left, and then I might plod back on foot and search as I pleased. +In a flash I saw the poplars, and the road running beneath the +ash-tree, and the woman's body lying stiff and stark on the sward. And +I burned to be there. + +Left to myself I should have gone too. But the plan was no sooner +formed than shattered. While I stood, hotfoot to be about it, and +pausing only to consider which way I could steal off most safely, a +rustling warned me that some one was coming, and before I could stir, +a burly trooper broke through the bushes and confronted me. He saluted +me stolidly. + +'Sergeant,' he said, 'the general is waiting for you.' + +'The general?' I said. + +'The Count, if you like it better,' he answered. 'Come, if you +please.' + +I followed him, full of vexation. It was but a step into the road. The +moment I appeared, some one gave the word 'Mount!' A horse was thrust +in front of me, two or three troopers who still remained afoot swung +themselves into the saddle; and I followed their example. In a trice +we were moving down the valley at a dull, steady pace--southwards, +southwards. I looked back, and saw the fir trees and rocks where we +had lain hidden, and then we turned a corner, and they were gone. +Gone, and all round me I heard the measured tramp of the troop-horses, +the swinging tones of the men, and the clink and jingle of sword and +spur. I called myself a cur, but I went on, swept away by the force of +numbers, as the straw by the current. Once I caught Count Hugo's eye +fixed on me, and I fancied he had a message for me, but I failed to +interpret it. + +Steve rode by me, and his face too was moody. I suppose that we should +all of us have thanked God the peril was past. But my lady rode in +another part with Count Leuchtenstein and the Waldgrave; and Steve +yearned, I fancy, for the old days of trouble and equality, when there +was no one to come between us. + +I saw Count Hugo that night. He sent for me to his quarters at Hesel, +and told me frankly that he would have let me go back had he thought +good could come of it. + +'But it would have been looking for a needle in a bundle of hay, my +friend,' he continued. 'Tzerclas' men would have picked you up, or the +peasants killed you for a soldier, and in a month perhaps the girl +would have returned safe and sound, to find you dead.' + +'My lord!' I cried passionately, 'she saved your child. It was to her +as her own!' + +'I know it,' he answered with gravity, which of itself rebuked me. +'And where is my child?' + +I shook my head. + +'Yet I do not give up my work and the task God and the times have +given me, and go out looking for it!' he answered severely. 'Leaving +Scot, and Swede, and Pole, and Switzer to divide my country. For +shame! You have your work too, and it lies by your lady's side. See to +it that you do it. For the rest I have scouts out, who know the +country; if I learn anything through them you shall hear it. And now +of another matter. How long has the Waldgrave been like this, my +friend?' + +'Like this, my lord?' I muttered stupidly. + +He nodded. 'Yes, like this,' he repeated. 'I have heard him called a +brave man. Coming of his stock, he should be; and when I saw him in +Tzerclas' camp he had the air of one. Now he starts at a shadow, is in +a trance half his time, and a tremor the other half. What ails him?' + +I told him how he had been wounded, fighting bravely, and that since +that he had not been himself. + +Count Hugo rubbed his chin gravely. 'It is a pity,' he said. 'We want +all--every German arm and every German head. We want you. Man alive!' +he continued, roused to anger, I suppose, by my dull face, 'do you +know what is in front of you?' + +'No, my lord,' I said in apathy. + +He opened his mouth as if to hurl a volley of words at me. But he +thought better of it and shut his lips tight. 'Very well,' he said +grimly. 'Wait three days and you will see.' + +But in truth, I had not to wait three days. Before sunset of the next +I began to see, and, downcast as I was, to prick up my ears in wonder. +Beyond Romhild and between that town and Bamberg, the great road which +runs through the valley of the Pegnitz, was such a sight as I had +never seen. For many miles together a column of dust marked its +course, and under this went on endless marching. We were but a link in +a long chain, dragging slowly southwards. Now it was a herd of +oxen that passed along, moving tediously and painfully, driven by +half-naked cattle-men and guarded by a troop of grimy horse. Now it +was a reinforcement of foot from Fulda, rank upon rank of shambling +men trailing long pikes, and footsore, and parched as they were, +getting over the ground in a wonderful fashion. After them would come +a long string of waggons, bearing corn, and hay, and malt, and wines; +all lurching slowly forward, slowly southward; often delayed, for +every quarter of a mile a horse fell or an axle broke, yet getting +forward. + +And then the most wonderful sight of all, a regiment of Swedish horse +passed us, marching from Erfurt. All their horses were grey, and all +their head-pieces, backs and breasts of black metal, matched one +another. As they came on through the dust with a tramp which shook the +ground, they sang, company by company, to the music of drums and +trumpets, a hymn, 'Versage nicht, du Häuflein klein!' Behind them a +line of light waggons carried their wives and children, also singing. +And so they went by us, eight hundred swords, and I thought it a +marvel I should never see beaten. + +When they were gone out of sight, there were still droves of horses +and mighty flocks of sheep to come, and cargoes of pork, and more foot +and horse and guns. Some companies wore buff coats and small steel +caps, and carried arquebuses; and some marched smothered in huge +headpieces with backs and breasts to match. And besides all the +things I have mentioned and the crowds of sutlers and horse-boys that +went with them, there were munition waggons closely guarded, and +pack-horses laden with powder, and always and always waggons of corn +and hay. + +And all hurrying, jostling, crawling southwards. It seemed to me that +the world was marching southwards; that if we went on we must fall in +at the end of this with every one we knew. And the thought comforted +me. + +Steve put it into words after his fashion. 'It must be a big place we +are going to,' he said, about noon of the second day, 'or who is to +eat all this? And do you mark, Master Martin? We meet no one coming +back. All go south. This place Nuremberg that they talk of must be +worth seeing.' + +'It should be,' I said. + +And after that the excitement of the march began to take hold of me. I +began to think and wonder, and look forward, with an eagerness I did +not understand, to the issues of this. + +We lay a night at Bamberg, where the crowd and confusion and the +stress of people were so great that Steve would have it we had come to +Nuremberg. And certainly I had never known such a hurly-burly, nor +heard of it except at the great fair at Dantzic. The night after we +lay at Erlangen, which we found fortified, trenched, and guarded, with +troops lying in the square, and the streets turned into stables. From +that place to Nuremberg was a matter of ten miles only; but the press +was so great on the road that it took us a good part of the day to +ride from one to the other. In the open country on either side of the +way strong bodies of horse and foot were disposed. It seemed to me +that here was already an army and a camp. + +But when late in the afternoon we entered Nuremberg itself, and viewed +the traffic in the streets, and the endless lines of gabled houses, +the splendid mansions and bridges, the climbing roofs and turrets and +spires of this, the greatest city in Germany, then we thought little +of all we had seen before. Here thousands upon thousands rubbed +shoulders in the streets; here continuous boats turned the river into +solid land. Here we were told were baked every day a hundred thousand +loaves of bread; and I saw with my own eyes a list of a hundred and +thirty-eight bakehouses. The roar of the ways, choked with soldiers +and citizens, the babel of strange tongues, the clamour of bells and +trumpets, deafened us. The constant crowding and pushing and halting +turned our heads. I forgot my grief and my hope too. Who but a madman +would look to find a single face where thousands gazed from the +windows? or could deem himself important with this swarming, teeming +hive before him? Steve stared stupidly about him; I rode dazed and +perplexed. The troopers laughed at us, or promised us greater things +when we should see the Swedish Lager outside the town, and +Wallenstein's great camp arrayed against it. But I noticed that even +they, as we drew nearer to the heart of the city, fell silent at +times, and looked at one another, surprised at the great influx of +people and the shifting scenes which the streets presented. + +For myself and Steve and the men, we were as good as nought. A house +in the Ritter-Strasse was assigned to my lady for her quarters--no one +could lodge in the city without the leave of the magistrates; and we +were glad to get into it and cool our dizzy heads, and look at one +another. Count Hugo stayed awhile, standing with my lady and the +Waldgrave in one of the great oriels that overlooked the street. But a +mounted messenger, sent on from the Town House, summoned him, and he +took horse again for the camp. I do not know what we should have done +without him at entering. The soldiers, who crowded the streets, showed +scant respect for names, and would as soon have jostled my lady as a +citizen's wife; but wherever he came hats were doffed and voices +lowered, and in the greatest press a way was made for him as by magic. + +For that night we had seen enough. I thought we had seen all, or that +nothing in my life would ever surprise me again. But next day my lady +went up to the Burg on the hill in the middle of the city to look +abroad, and took Steve and myself with her. And then I found that I +had not seen the half. The city, all roofs and spires and bridges, +girt with a wall of seventy towers, roared beneath us; and that I had +expected. But outside the wall I now saw a second city of huts and +tents, with a great earthwork about it, and bastions and demilunes and +picquets posted. + +This was the Swedish Lager. It lay principally to the south of the +city proper, though on all sides it encircled it more or less. They +told me that there lay in it about forty thousand soldiers and twenty +thousand horses, and twenty thousand camp followers; but the number +was constantly increasing, death and disease notwithstanding, so that +it presently stood as high as sixty thousand fighting men and half as +many followers, to say nothing of the garrison that lay in the city, +or the troops posted to guard the approaches. It seemed to me, gazing +over that mighty multitude from the top of the hill, that nothing +could resist such a force; and I looked abroad with curiosity for the +enemy. + +I expected to view his army cheek by jowl with us; and I was +disappointed when I saw beyond our camp to southward, where I was told +he lay, only a clear plain with the little river Rednitz flowing +through it. This plain was a league and more in width, and it was +empty of men. Beyond it rose a black wooded ridge, very steep and +hairy. + +My lady explained that Wallenstein's army lay along this +ridge--seventy thousand men, and forty thousand horses, and +Wallenstein himself. His camp we heard was eight miles round, the +front guarded by a line of cannon, and taking in whole villages and +castles. And now I looked again I saw the smoke hang among the trees. +They whispered in Nuremberg that no man in that army took pay; that +all served for booty; and that the troopers that sacked Magdeburg and +followed Tilly were, beside these, gentle and kindly men. + +'God help us!' my lady cried fervently. 'God help this great city! God +help the North! Never was such a battle fought as must be fought +here!' + +We went down very much sobered, filled with awe and wonder and +great thoughts, the dullest of us feeling the air heavy with portents, +the more clerkly considering of Armageddon and the Last Fight. +Briefly--for thirteen years the Emperor and the Papists had hustled +and harried the Protestants; had dragooned Donauwörth, and held down +Bohemia, and plundered the Palatinate, and crushed the King of +Denmark, and wherever there was a weak Protestant state had pressed +sorely on it. Then one short year before I stood on the Burg above the +Pegnitz, the Protestant king had come out of the North like a +thunderbolt, had shattered in a month the Papist armies, had run like +a devouring fire down the Priests' Lane, rushed over Bohemia, shaken +the Emperor on his throne! + +But could he maintain himself? That was now to be seen. To the +Emperor's help had come all who loved the old system, and would have +it that the south was Germany; all who wished to chain men's minds and +saw their profit in the shadow of the imperial throne; all who lived +by license and plunder, and reckoned a mass to-day against a murder +to-morrow. All these had come, from the great Duke of Friedland +grasping at empire, to the meanest freebooter with peasant's blood on +his hands and in his veins; and there they lay opposite us, +impregnably placed on the Burgstall, waiting patiently until famine +and the sword should weaken the fair city, and enable them to plunge +their vulture's talons into its vitals. + +No wonder that in Nuremberg the citizens could be distinguished from +the soldiers by their careworn faces; or that many a man stood morning +and evening to gaze at the carved and lofty front of his house--by St. +Sebald's or behind the new Cathedral--and wondered how long the fire +would spare it. The magistrates who had staked all--their own and the +city's--on this cast, went about with stern, grave faces and feared +almost to meet the public eye. With a doubled population, with a huge +army to feed, with order to keep, with houses and wives and daughters +of their own to protect, with sack and storm looming luridly in the +future, who had cares like theirs? + +One man only, and him I saw as we went home from the Burg. It was near +the foot of the Burg hill, where the strasse meets three other ways. +At that time Count Tilly's crooked, dwarfish figure and pale horse's +face, and the great hat and boots which seemed to swallow him up, were +fresh in my mind; and sometimes I had wondered whether this other +great commander were like him. Well, I was to know; for through the +crowd at the junction of these four roads, while we stood waiting to +pass, there came a man on a white horse, followed by half a score of +others on horseback; and in a moment I knew from the shouting and the +way women thrust papers into his hands that we saw the King of Sweden. + +He wore a plain buff coat and a grey flapped hat with a feather; a +tall man and rather bulky, his face massive and fleshy, with a close +moustache trimmed to a point and a small tuft on his chin. His aspect +was grave; he looked about him with a calm eye, and the shouting did +not seem to move him. They told me that it was Ba[=n]er, the Swedish +General, who rode with him, and our Bernard of Weimar who followed. +But my eye fell more quickly on Count Leuchtenstein, who rode after, +with the great Chancellor Oxenstierna; in him, in his steady gaze and +serene brow and wholesome strength, I traced the nearest likeness to +the king. + +And so I first saw the great Gustavus Adolphus. It was said that he +would at times fall into fits of Berserk rage, and that in the field +he was another man, keen as his sword, swift as fire, pitiless to +those who flinched, among the foremost in the charge, a very +thunderbolt of war. But as I saw him taking papers from women's hands +at the end of the Burg Strasse, he had rather the air of a quiet, +worthy prince--of Coburg or Darmstadt, it might be,--no dresser and no +brawler; nor would any one, to see him then, have thought that this +was the lion of the north who had dashed the pride of Pappenheim and +flung aside the firebrands of the south. Or that even now he had on +his shoulders the burden of two great nations and the fate of a +million of men. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + THE FACE AT THE WINDOW. + + +After this it fared with us as it fares at last with the driftwood +that chance or the woodman's axe has given to a forest stream in +Heritzburg. After rippling over the shallows and shooting giddily down +slopes--or perchance lying cooped for days in some dark bend, until +the splash of the otter or the spring freshet has sent it dancing on +in sunshine and shadow--it reaches at last the Werra. It floats out on +the bosom of the great stream, and no longer tossed and chafed by each +tiny pebble, feels the force of wind and stream--the great forces of +the world. The banks recede from sight, and one of a million atoms, it +is borne on gently and irresistibly, whither it does not know. So it +was with us. From the day we fell in with Count Leuchtenstein and set +our faces towards Nuremberg, and in a greater degree after we reached +that city, we embarked on a wider current of adventure, a fuller and +less selfish life. If we had still our own cares and griefs, hopes and +perils--as must be the case, I suppose, until we die--we had other +common ones which we shared with tens of thousands, rich and poor, +gentle and simple. We had to dread sack and storm; we prayed for +relief and safety in company with all who rose and lay down within the +walls. When a hundred waggons of corn slipped through the Croats and +came in, or Duke Bernard of Weimar beat up a corner of the Burgstall +and gave Wallenstein a bad night, we ran out into the streets to tell +and hear the news. Similarly, when tidings came that Tzerclas with his +two thousand ruffians had burned the King of Sweden's colours, put on +green sashes, and marched into the enemy's camp, we were not alone in +our gloomy anticipations. We still had our private adventures, and I +am going to tell them. But besides these, it should be remembered that +we ran the risks, and rose every morning fresh to the fears, of +Nuremberg. When bread rose to ten, to fifteen, to twenty times its +normal price; when the city, where many died every day of famine, +plague, and wounds, began to groan and heave in its misery; when +through all the country round the peasants crawled and died among the +dead; when Wallenstein, that dark man, heedless of the fearful +mortality in his own camp, still sat implacable on the heights and +refused all the king's invitations to battle, we grew pale and gloomy, +stern-eyed and thin-cheeked with the rest. We dreamed of Magdeburg as +they did; and as the hot August days passed slowly over the starving +city and still no end appeared, but only with each day some addition +of misery, we felt our hearts sink in unison with theirs. + +And we had to share, not their lot only, but their labours. We had not +been in the town twenty-four hours before Steve, Jacob, and Ernst were +enrolled in the town militia; to me, either out of respect to my lady, +or on account of my stature, a commission as lieutenant was granted. +We drilled every morning from six o'clock until eight in the fields +outside the New Gate; the others went again at sunset to practise +their weapons, but I was exempt from this drill, that the women might +not be left alone. At all times we had our appointed rendezvous in +case of alarm or assault. The Swedish veterans strolled out of the +camp and stood to laugh at our clumsiness. But the excellent order +which prevailed among them made them favourites, and we let them +laugh, and laughed again. + +The Waldgrave, who had long had Duke Bernard's promise, received a +regiment of horse, so that he lay in the camp and should have been a +contented man, since his strength had come back to him. But to my +surprise he showed signs of lukewarmness. He seemed little interested +in the service, and was often at my lady's house in the Ritter +Strasse, when he would have been better at his post. At first I set +this down to his passion for my lady, and it seemed excusable; but +within a week I stood convinced that this no longer troubled him. He +paid scant attention to her, but would sit for hours looking moodily +into the street. And I--and not I alone--began to watch him closely. + +I soon found that Count Hugo was right. The once gallant and splendid +young fellow was a changed man. He was still comely and a brave +figure, but the spirit in him was quenched. He was nervous, absent, +irritable. His eyes had a wild look; on strangers he made an +unfavourable impression. Doubtless, though his wounds had healed, +there remained some subtle injury that spoiled the man; and often I +caught my lady looking at him sadly, and knew that I was not the only +one with cause for mourning. + +But how strange he was we did not know until a certain day, when my +lady and I were engaged together over some accounts. It was evening, +and the three men were away drilling. The house was very quiet. +Suddenly he flung in upon us with a great noise, his colour high, his +eyes glittering. His first action was to throw his feathered hat on +one chair, and himself into another. + +'I've seen him!' he said. 'Himmel! he is a clever fellow. He will +worst you, cousin, yet--see if he does not. Oh, he is a clever one!' + +'Who?' my lady said, looking at him in some displeasure. + +'Who? Tzerclas, to be sure!' he answered, chuckling. + +'You have seen him!' she exclaimed, rising. + +'Of course I have!' he answered. 'And you will see him too, one of +these days.' + +My lady looked at me, frowning. But I shook my head. He was not drunk. + +'Where?' she asked, after a pause. 'Where did you see him, Rupert?' + +'In the street--where you see other men,' he answered, chuckling +again. 'He should not be there, but who is to keep him out? He is too +clever. He will get his way in the end, see if he does not!' + +'Rupert!' my lady cried in wrathful amazement, 'to hear you, one would +suppose you admired him.' + +'So I do,' he replied coolly. 'Why not? He has all the wits of the +family. He is as cunning as the devil. Take a hint, cousin; put +yourself on the right side. He will win in the end!' And the Waldgrave +rose restlessly from his chair, and, going to the window, began to +whistle. + +My lady came swiftly to me, and it grieved me to see the pain and woe +in her face. + +'Is he mad?' she muttered. + +I shook my head. + +'Do you think he has really seen him?' she whispered. We both stood +with our eyes on him. + +'I fear so, my lady,' I said with reluctance. + +'But it would cost _him_ his life,' she muttered eagerly, 'if he were +found here!' + +'He is a bold man,' I answered. + +'Ah! so was he--once,' she replied in a peculiar tone, and she pointed +stealthily to the unconscious man in the window. 'A month ago he would +have taken him by the throat anywhere. What has come to him?' + +'God knows,' I answered reverently. 'Grant only he may do us no harm!' + +He turned round at that, humming gaily, and went out, seeming almost +unconscious of our presence; and I made as light of the matter to my +lady as I could. But Tzerclas in the city, the Waldgrave mad, or at +any rate not sane, and last, but not least, the strange light in which +the latter chose to regard the former, were circumstances I could not +easily digest. They filled me with uneasy fears and surmises. I began +to perambulate the crowd, seeking furtively for a face; and was +entirely determined what I would do if I found it. The town was full, +as all besieged cities are, of rumours of spies and treachery, and of +reported overtures made now to the city behind the back of the army, +and now to the army to betray the city. A single word of denunciation, +and Tzerclas' life would not be worth three minutes' purchase--a rope +and the nearest butcher's hook would end it. My mind was made up to +say the word. + +I suppose I had been going about in this state of vigilance three days +or more, when something, but not the thing I sought, rewarded it. At +the time I was on my way back from morning drill. It was a little +after eight, and the streets and the people wore an air bright, yet +haggard. Night, with its perils, was over; day, with its privations, +lay before us. My mind was on the common fortunes, but I suppose my +eyes were mechanically doing their work, for on a sudden I saw +something at a window, took perhaps half a step, and stopped as if I +had been shot. + +I had seen Marie's face! Nay, I still saw it, while a man might count +two. Then it was gone. And I stood gasping. + +I suppose I stood so for half a minute, waiting, with the blood racing +from my heart to my head, and every pulse in my body beating. But she +did not reappear. The door of the house did not open. Nothing +happened. + +Yet I had certainly seen her; for I remembered particulars--the +expression of her face, the surprise that had leapt into her eyes as +they met mine, the opening of the lips in an exclamation. + +And still I stood gazing at the window and nothing happened. + +At last I came to myself, and I scanned the house. It was a large +house of four stories, three gables in width. The upper stories jutted +out; the beams on which they rested were finely carved, the gables +were finished off with rich, wooden pinnacles. In each story, the +lowest excepted, were three long, low windows of the common Nuremberg +type, and the whole had a substantial and reputable air. + +The window at which I had seen Marie was farthest from the door, on +the first floor. To go to the door I had to lose sight of it, and +perhaps for that reason I stood the longer. At last I went and +knocked, and waited in a fever for some one to come. The street was a +thoroughfare. There were a number of people passing. I thought that +all the town would go by before a dragging foot at last sounded +inside, and the great nail-studded door was opened on the chain. A +stout, red-faced woman showed herself in the aperture. + +'What is it?' she asked. + +'You have a girl in this house, named Marie Wort,' I answered +breathlessly. 'I saw her a moment ago at the window. I know her, and I +wish to speak to her.' + +The woman's little eyes dwelt on me stolidly for a space. Then she +made as if she would shut the door. 'For shame!' she said spitefully. +'We have no girls here. Begone with you!' + +But I put my foot against the door. 'Whose house is this?' I said. + +'Herr Krapp's,' she answered crustily. + +'Is he at home?' + +'No, he is not,' she retorted; 'and if he were, we have no baggages +here.' And again she tried to shut the door, but I prevented her. + +'Where is he?' I asked sternly. + +'He is at morning drill, if you must know,' she snapped; 'and his two +sons. Now, will you let me shut my door? Or must I cry out?' + +'Nonsense, mother!' I said. 'Who is in the house besides yourself?' + +'What is that to you?' she replied, breathing short. + +'I have told you,' I said, trying to control my anger. 'I----' + +But, quick as lightning, the door slammed to and cut me short. I had +thoughtlessly moved my foot. I heard the woman chuckle and go slipshod +down the passage, and though I knocked again in a rage, the door +remained closed. + +I fell back and looked at the house. An elderly man in a grave, sober +dress was passing, among others, and I caught his eye. + +'Whose house is that?' I asked him. + +'Herr Krapp's,' he answered. + +'I am a stranger,' I said. 'Is he a man of substance?' + +The person I addressed smiled. 'He is a member of the Council of +Safety,' he said dryly. 'His brother is prefect of this ward. But here +is Herr Krapp. Doubtless he has been at St. Sebald's drilling.' + +I thanked him, and made but two steps to Herr Krapp's side. He was the +other's twin--elderly, soberly dressed, his only distinction a sword +and pistol in his girdle and a white shoulder sash. + +'Herr Krapp?' I said. + +'The same,' he answered, eying me gravely. + +'I am the Countess of Heritzburg's steward,' I said. I began to see +the need of explanation. 'Doubtless you have heard that she is in the +city?' + +'Certainly,' he answered. 'In the Ritter Strasse.' + +'Yes,' I replied. 'A fortnight ago she missed a young woman, one of +her attendants. She was lost in a night adventure,' I continued, my +throat dry and husky. 'A few minutes ago I saw her looking from one of +your windows.' + +'From one of my windows?' he exclaimed in a tone of surprise. + +'Yes,' I said stiffly. + +He opened his eyes wide. 'Here?' he said. He pointed to his house. + +I nodded. + +'Impossible!' he replied, shutting his lips suddenly. 'Quite +impossible, my friend. My household consists of my two sons and +myself. We have a housekeeper only, and two lads. I have no young +women in the house.' + +'Yet I saw her face, Herr Krapp, at your window,' I answered +obstinately. + +'Wait,' he said; 'I will ask.' + +But when the old housekeeper came she had only the same tale to tell. +She was alone. No young woman had crossed the threshold for a week +past. There was no other woman there, young or old. + +'You will have it that I have a young man in the house next!' she +grumbled, shooting scorn at me. + +'I can assure you that there is no one here,' Herr Krapp said civilly. +'Dorcas has been with me many years, and I can trust her. Still if you +like you can walk through the rooms.' + +But I hesitated to do that. The man's manner evidenced his sincerity, +and in face of it my belief wavered. Fancy, I began to think, had +played me a trick. It was no great wonder if the features which were +often before me in my dreams, and sometimes painted themselves on the +darkness while I lay wakeful, had for once taken shape in the +daylight, and so vividly as to deceive me. I apologised. I said what +was proper, and, with a heavy sigh, went from the door. + +Ay, and with bent head. The passing crowd and the sunshine and the +distant music of drum and trumpet grated on me. For there was yet +another explanation. And I feared that Marie was dead. + +I was still brooding sadly over the matter when I reached home. Steve +met me at the door, but, feeling in no mood for small talk just then, +I would have passed him by and gone in, if he had not stopped me. + +'I have a message for you, lieutenant,' he said. + +'What is it?' I asked without curiosity. + +'A little boy gave it to me at the door,' he answered. 'I was to ask +you to be in the street opposite Herr Krapp's half an hour after +sunset this evening.' + +I gasped. 'Herr Krapp's!' I exclaimed. + +Steve nodded, looking at me queerly. 'Yes; do you know him?' he said. + +'I do now,' I muttered, gulping down my amazement. But my face was as +red as fire, the blood drummed in my ears. I had to turn away to hide +my emotion. 'What was the boy like?' I asked. + +But it seemed that the lad had made off the moment he had done his +errand, and Steve had not noticed him particularly. 'I called after +him to know who sent him,' he added, 'but he had gone too far.' + +I nodded and mumbled something, and went on into the house. Perhaps I +was still a little sore on my girl's account, and resented the easy +way in which she had dropped out of others' lives. At any rate, my +instinct was to keep the thing to myself. The face at the window, and +then this strange assignation, could have only one meaning; but, good +or bad, it was for me. And I hugged myself on it, and said nothing +even to my lady. + +The day seemed long, but at length the evening came, and when the +men had gone to drill and the house was quiet, I slipped out. The +streets were full at this hour of men passing to and fro to their +drill-stations, and of women who had been out to see the camp, and +were returning before the gates closed. The bells of many of the +churches were ringing; some had services. I had to push my way to +reach Herr Krapp's house in time; but once there the crowd of passers +served my purpose by screening me, as I loitered, from farther remark; +while I took care, by posting myself in a doorway opposite the window, +to make it easy for any one who expected me to find me. + +And then I waited with my heart beating. The clocks were striking a +half after seven when I took my place, and for a time I stood in a +ferment of excitement, now staring with bated breath at the casement, +where I had seen Marie, now scanning all the neighbouring doorways, +and then again letting my eyes rove from window to window both of +Krapp's house and the next one on either side. As the latter were +built with many quaint oriels, and tiny dormers, and had lattices in +side-nooks, where one least looked to find them, I was kept expecting +and employed. I was never quite sure, look where I would, what eyes +were upon me. + +But little by little, as time passed and nothing happened, and the +strollers all went by without accosting me, and no faces save strange +ones showed at the windows, the heat of expectation left me. The chill +of disappointment took its place. I began to doubt and fear. The +clocks struck eight. The sun had been down an hour. Half that time I +had been waiting. + +To remain passive was no longer bearable, and sick of caution, I +stepped out and began to walk up and down the street, courting rather +than avoiding notice. The traffic was beginning to slacken. I could +see farther and mark people at a distance; but still no one spoke to +me, no one came to me. Here and there lights began to shine in the +houses, on gleaming oak ceilings and carved mantels. The roofs were +growing black against the paling sky. In nooks and corners it was +dark. The half-hour sounded, and still I walked, fighting down doubt, +clinging to hope. + +But when another quarter had gone by, doubt became conviction. I had +been fooled! Either some one who had seen me loitering at Krapp's in +the morning and heard my tale had gone straight off, and played me +this trick; or--Gott im Himmel!--or I had been lured here that I might +be out of the way at home. + +That thought, which should have entered my thick head an hour before, +sped me from the street, as if it had been a very catapult. Before I +reached the corner I was running; and I ran through street after +street, sweating with fear. But quickly as I went, my thoughts +outpaced me. My lady was alone save for her women. The men were +drilling, the Waldgrave was in the camp. The crowded state of the +streets at sunset, and the number of strangers who thronged the city +favoured certain kinds of crime; in a great crowd, as in a great +solitude, everything is possible. + +I had this in my mind. Judge, then, of my horror, when, as I +approached the Ritter Strasse, I became aware of a dull, roaring +sound; and hastening to turn the corner, saw a large mob gathered in +front of our house, and filling the street from wall to wall. The +glare of torches shone on a thousand upturned faces, and flamed from a +hundred casements. At the windows, on the roofs, peering over +balconies and coping-stones and gables, and looking out of doorways +were more faces, all red in the torchlight. And all the time as the +smoking light rose and fell, the yelling, as it seemed to me, rose and +fell with it--now swelling into a stern roar of exultation, now +sinking into an ugly, snarling noise, above which a man might hear his +neighbour speak. + +I seized the first I came to--a man standing on the skirts of the mob, +and rather looking on than taking part. 'What is it?' I said, shaking +him roughly by the arm. 'What is the matter here?' + +'Hallo!' he answered, starting as he turned to me. 'Is it you again, +my friend?' + +I had hit on Herr Krapp!' Yes!' I cried breathlessly. 'What is it? +what is amiss?' + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'They are hanging a spy,' he answered. +'Nothing more. Irregular, but wholesome.' + +I drew a deep breath. 'Is that all?' I said. + +He eyed me curiously. 'To be sure,' he said. 'What did you think it +was?' + +'I feared that there might be something wrong at my lady's,' I said, +beginning to get my breath again. 'I left her alone at sunset. And +when I saw this crowd before the house I--I could almost have cut off +my hand. Thank God, I was mistaken!' + +He looked at me again and seemed to reflect a moment. Then he said, +'You have not found the young woman you were seeking?' + +I shook my head. + +'Well, it occurred to me afterwards--but at which window did you see +her?' + +'At a window on the first floor; the farthest from the door,' I +answered. + +'The second from the door end of the house?' he asked. + +'No, the third.' + +He nodded with an air of quiet triumph. 'Just so!' he said. 'I thought +so afterwards. But the fact is, my friend, my house ends with the +second gable. The third gable-end does not belong to it, though +doubtless it once did.' + +'No?' I exclaimed. And for a moment I stood taken aback, cursing my +carelessness. Then I stammered, 'But this third gable--I saw no door +in it, Herr Krapp.' + +'No, the door is in another street,' he answered. 'Or rather it opens +on the churchyard at the back of St. Austin's. So you may have seen +her after all. Well, I wish you well,' he continued. 'I must be +going.' + +The crowd was beginning to separate, moving away by twos and threes, +talking loudly. The lights were dying down. He nodded and was gone; +while I still stood gaping. For how did the matter stand? If I had +really seen Marie at the window--as seemed possible now--and if +nothing turned out to be amiss at home, then I had not been tricked +after all, and the message was genuine. True she had not kept her +appointment. But she might be in durance, or one of a hundred things +might have frustrated her intention. + +Still I could do nothing now except go home, and cutting short my +speculations, I forced myself through the press, and with some labour +managed to reach the door. As I did so I turned to look back, and the +sight, though the people were moving away fast, was sufficiently +striking. Almost opposite us in a beetling archway, the bowed head and +shoulders of a man stood up above the common level. There was a little +space round him, whence men held back; and the red glow of the +smouldering links which the executioners had cast on the ground at his +feet, shone upwards on his swollen lips and starting eyeballs. As I +looked, the body seemed to writhe in its bonds; but it was only the +wind swayed it. I went in shuddering. + +On the stairs I met Count Hugo coming down, and knew the moment I saw +him that there was something wrong. He stopped me, his eyes full of +wrath. + +'My man,' he said sternly, 'I thought that you were to be trusted! +Where have you been? What have you been doing? _Donner!_ Is your lady +to be left at dark with no one to man this door?' + +Conscience-stricken, I muttered that I hoped nothing had gone amiss. + +'No, but something easily might!' he answered grimly. 'When I came +here I found three as ugly looking rogues whispering and peering in +your doorway as man could wish to see! Yes, Master Martin, and if I +had not ridden up at that moment I will not answer for it, that they +would not have been in! It is a pity a few more knaves are not where +that one is,' he continued sourly, pointing through the open door. 'We +could spare them. But do you see and have more care for the future. +Or, mein Gott, I will take other measures, my friend!' + +So it had been a ruse after all! I went up sick at heart. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + THE HOUSE IN THE CHURCHYARD. + + +The heat which Count Leuchtenstein had thrown into the matter +surprised me somewhat when I came to think of it, but I was soon to be +more surprised. I did not go to my lady at once on coming in, for on +the landing the sound of voices and laughter met me, and I learned +that there were still two or three young officers sitting with her who +had outstayed Count Hugo. I waited until they were gone--clanking and +jingling down the stairs; and then, about the hour at which I usually +went to take orders before retiring, I knocked at the door. + +Commonly one of the women opened to me. To-night the door remained +closed. I waited, knocked again, and then went in. I could see no one, +but the lamps were flickering, and I saw that the window was open. + +At that moment, while I stood uncertain, she came in through it; and +blinded, I suppose, by the lights, did not see me. For at the first +chair she reached just within the window, she sat down suddenly and +burst into tears! + +'Mein Gott!' I cried clumsily. I should have known better; but the +laughter of the young fellows as they trooped down the stairs was +still in my ears, and I was dumfounded. + +She sprang up on the instant, and glared at me through her tears. 'Who +are--how dare you? How dare you come into the room without knocking?' +she cried violently. + +'I did knock, my lady,' I stammered, 'asking your pardon.' + +'Then now go! Go out, do you hear?' she cried, stamping her foot with +passion. 'I want nothing. Go!' + +I turned and crept towards the door like a beaten hound. But I was not +to go; when my hand was on the latch, her mood changed. + +'No, stay,' she said in a different tone. 'You may come back. After +all, Martin, I had rather it was you than any one else.' + +She dried her tears as she spoke, standing up very straight and proud, +and hiding nothing. I felt a pang as I looked at her. I had neglected +her of late. I had been thinking more of others. + +'It is nothing, Martin,' she said after a pause, and when she had +quite composed her face. 'You need not be frightened. All women cry a +little sometimes, as men swear,' she added, smiling. + +'You have been looking at that thing outside,' I said, grumbling. + +'Perhaps it did upset me,' she replied. 'But I think it was that I +felt--a little lonely.' + +That sounded so strange a complaint on her lips, seeing that the echo +of the young sparks' laughter was barely dead in the room, that I +stared. But I took it, on second thoughts, to refer to Fraulein Max, +whom she had kept at a distance since our escape, never sitting down +with her, or speaking to her except on formal occasions; and I said +bluntly-- + +'You need a woman friend, my lady.' + +She looked at me keenly, and I fancied her colour rose. But she only +answered, 'Yes, Martin. But you see I have not one. I am alone.' + +'And lonely, my lady?' + +'Sometimes,' she answered, smiling sadly. + +'But this evening?' I replied, feeling that there was still something +I did not understand. 'I should not have thought you would be feeling +that way. I have not been here, but when I came in, my lady----' + +'Pshaw!' she answered with a laugh of disdain. 'Those boys, Martin? +They can laugh, fight, and ride; but for the rest, pouf! They are not +company. However, it is bedtime, and you must go. I think you have +done me good. Good night. I wish--I wish I could do you good,' she +added kindly, almost timidly. + +To some extent she had. I went away feeling that mine was not the only +trouble in the world, nor my loneliness the only loneliness. She was a +stranger in a besieged city, a woman among men, exposed, despite her +rank, to many of a woman's perils; and doubtless she had felt Fraulein +Max's defection and the Waldgrave's strange conduct more deeply than +any one watching her daily bearing would have supposed. So much the +greater reason was there that I should do my duty loyally, and putting +her first to whom I owed so much, let no sorrow of my own taint my +service. + +But God knows there is one passion that defies argument. The house +next Herr Krapp's had a fascination for me which I could not resist; +and though I did not again leave my lady unguarded, but arranged that +Steve should stop at home and watch the door, four o'clock the next +afternoon saw me sneaking away in search of St. Austin's. Of course I +soon found it; but there I came to a check. Round the churchyard stood +a number of quiet family houses, many-gabled and shaded by limes, and +doubtless once occupied by reverend canons and prebendaries. But no +one of these held such a position that it could shoulder Herr Krapp's, +or be by any possibility the house I wanted. The churchyard lay too +far from the street for that. + +I walked up the row twice before I would admit this; but at last I +made it certain. Still Herr Krapp must know his own premises, and not +much cast down, I was going to knock at a chance door and put the +question, when my eyes fell on a man who sat at work in the +churchyard. He wore a mason's apron, and was busily deepening the +inscription on a tablet let into the church wall. He seemed to be the +very man to know, and I went to him. + +'I want a house which looks into the Neu Strasse,' I said. 'It is the +next house to Herr Krapp's. Can you direct me to the door?' + +He looked at me for a moment, his hammer suspended. Then he pointed to +the farther end of the row. 'There is an alley,' he said in a hoarse, +croaking voice. 'The door is at the end.' + +I thought his occupation an odd one, considering the state of the +city; but I had other things to dwell on, and hastened off to the +place he indicated. Here, sure enough, I found the mouth of a very +narrow passage which, starting between the last house and a blind +wall, ran in the required direction. It was a queer place, scarcely +wider than my shoulders, and with two turns so sharp that I remember +wondering how they brought their dead out. In one part it wound under +the timbers of a house; it was dark and somewhat foul, and altogether +so ill-favoured a path that I was glad I had brought my arms. + +In the end it ran into a small, paved court, damp but clean, and by +comparison light. Here I saw the door I wanted facing me. Above it the +house, with its narrow front of one window on each floor, and every +floor jutting out a little, gave a strange impression of gloomy +height. The windows were barred and dusty, the plaster was mildewed, +the beams were dark with age. Whatever secrets, innocent or the +reverse, lay within, one thing was plain--this front gave the lie to +the other. + +I liked the aspect of things so little that it was with a secret +tremor I knocked, and heard the hollow sound go echoing through the +house. So certain did I feel that something was wrong, that I wondered +what the inmates would do, and whether they would lie quiet and refuse +to answer, or show force and baffle me that way. No foreign windows +looked into the little court in which I stood; three of the walls were +blind. The longer I gazed about me, the more I misdoubted the place. + +Yet I turned to knock again; but did not, being anticipated. The door +slid open under my hand, slowly wide open, and brought me face to face +with an old toothless hag, whose bleared eyes winked at me like a +bat's in sunshine. I was so surprised both by her appearance and the +opening of the door, that I stood tongue-tied, staring at her and at +the bare, dusty, unswept hall behind her. + +'Who lives here?' I blurted out at last. + +If I had stopped to choose my words I had done no better. She shook +her head and pointed first to her ears, and then to her lips. The +woman was deaf and dumb! + +I would not believe it at the first blush. I tried her again. 'Who +lives here, mother?' I cried more loudly. + +She smiled vacuously, showing her toothless gums. And that was all. + +Still I tried again, shouting and making signs to her to fetch whoever +was in the house. The sign she seemed to understand, for she shook her +head violently. But that helped me no farther. + +All the time the door stood wide open. I could see the hall, and that +it contained no furniture or traces of habitation. The woman was +alone, therefore a mere caretaker. Why should I not enter and satisfy +myself? + +I made as if I would do so. But the moment I set my foot across the +threshold the old crone began to mow and gibber so horribly, putting +herself in my way, that I fell back cowed. I had not the heart to use +force to her, alone as she was, and in her duty. Besides, what right +had I to thrust myself in? I should be putting myself in the wrong if +I did. I retired. + +She did not at once shut the door, but continued to tremble and make +faces at me awhile as if she were cursing me. Then with her old hand +pressed to her side, she slowly but with evident passion clanged the +door home. + +I stood a moment outside, and then I retreated. I had been driven to +believe Herr Krapp. Why should I not believe this old creature? Here +was an empty house, and so an end. And yet--and yet I was puzzled. + +As I went through the churchyard, I passed my friend the mason, and +saw he had a companion. If he had looked up I should have asked him a +question or two. But he did not, and the other's back was towards me. +I walked on. + +In the silent street, however, three minutes later, a sudden thought +brought me to a stand. An empty house? Was there not something odd in +this empty house, when quarters were so scarce in Nuremberg, and even +my lady had got lodgings assigned to her as a favour and at a price? +The town swarmed with people who had taken refuge behind its walls. +Where one had lain two lay now. Yet here was an empty house! + +In a twinkling I was walking briskly towards the Neu Strasse, +determined to look farther into the matter. It was again the hour of +evening drill; the ways were crowded, the bells of the churches were +ringing. Using some little care as I approached Herr Krapp's, I +slipped into a doorway, which commanded it from a distance, and thence +began to watch the fatal window. + +If the old hag had not lied with her dumb lips I should see no one; or +at best should only see her. + +Half an hour passed; an hour passed. Hundreds of people passed, among +them the man I had seen talking with the mason in the churchyard. I +noticed him, because he went by twice. But the window remained blank. +Then on a sudden, as the light began to fail, I saw the Waldgrave at +it. + +The Waldgrave? + +'Gott im Himmel!' I muttered, the blood rushing to my face. What was +the meaning of this? What was the magic of this cursed window? First I +had seen my love at it. Then the Waldgrave. + +While I stood thunderstruck, he was gone again, leaving the window +blank and black. The crowd passed below, chattering thoughtlessly. +Groups of men with pikes and muskets went by. All seemed unchanged. +But my mind was in a whirl. Rage, jealousy, and wonder played with it. +What did it all mean? First Marie, then the Waldgrave! Marie, whom we +had left thirty leagues away in the forest; the Waldgrave, whom I had +seen that morning. + +I stood gaping at the window, as if it could speak, and gradually my +mind regained its balance. My jealousy died out, hope took its place. +I did not think so ill of the Waldgrave as to believe that knowing of +Marie's existence he would hide it from me, and for that reason I +could not explain or understand how he came to be in the same house +with her. But it was undeniable that his presence there encouraged me. +There must be some middle link between them; perhaps some one +controlling both. And then I thought of Tzerclas. + +The Waldgrave had seen him in the town, and had even spoken to him. +What if it were he who occupied this house close by the New Gate, with +a convenient secretive entrance, and used it for his machinations? +Marie might well have fallen into his hands. She might be in his power +now, behind the very walls on which I gazed. + +From that moment I breathed and lived only to see the inside of that +house. Nothing else would satisfy me. I scanned it with greedy eyes, +its steep gable, its four windows one above another, its carved +weather-boards. I might attack it on this side; or by way of the alley +and door. But I quickly discarded the latter idea. Though I had seen +only the old woman, I judged that there were defenders in the +background, and in the solitude of the alley I might be easily +despatched. It remained to enter from the front, or by way of the +roof. I pondered a moment, and then I went across to Herr Krapp's and +knocked. + +He opened the door himself. I almost pushed my way in. 'What do you +want, my friend?' he said, recoiling before me, and looking somewhat +astonished. + +'To get into your neighbour's house,' I answered bluntly. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + UNDER THE TILES. + + +He had a light in his hand, and he held it up to my face. 'So?' he +said. 'Is that what you would be at? But you go fast. It takes two to +that, Master Steward.' + +'Yes,' I answered. 'I am the one, and you are the other, Herr Krapp.' + +He turned from me and closed the door, and, coming back, held the +light again to my face. 'So you still think that it was your lady's +woman you saw at the window?' + +'I am sure of it,' I answered. + +He set down his light on a chair and, leaning against the wall, seemed +to consider me. After a pause, 'And you have been to the house?' + +'I have been to the house--fruitlessly.' + +'You learned nothing?' + +'Nothing.' + +'Then what do you want to do now?' he asked, softly rubbing his chin. + +'To see the inside of it.' + +'And you propose----?' + +'To enter it from yours,' I answered. 'Surely you have some dormer, +some trap-door, some roof-way, by which a bold man may get from this +house to the next one.' + +He shook his head. 'I know of none,' he said. 'But that is not all. +You are asking a strange thing. I am a peaceful man, and, I hope, a +good neighbour; and this which you ask me to do cannot be called +neighbourly. However, I need say the less about it, because the thing +cannot be done.' + +'Will you let me try?' I cried. + +He seemed to reflect. In the end he made a strange answer. 'What time +did you call at the house?' he said. + +'Perhaps an hour ago--perhaps more.' + +'Did you see any one in the churchyard as you passed?' + +'Yes,' I said, thinking; 'there was a man at work there. I asked him +the way.' + +Herr Krapp nodded, and seemed to reflect again. 'Well,' he said at +last,' it is a strong thing you ask, my friend. But I have my own +reasons for suspecting that all is not right next door, and therefore +you shall have your way as far as looking round goes. But I do not +think that you will be able to do anything.' + +'I ask no more than that,' I said, trembling with eagerness. + +He looked at me again as he took up the light. 'You are a big man,' he +said, 'but are you armed? Strength is of little avail against a +bullet.' + +I showed him that I had a brace of pistols, and he turned towards the +stairs. 'Dorcas is in the kitchen,' he said. 'My sons are out, and so +are the lads. Nevertheless, I am not very proud of our errand; so step +softly, my friend, and do not grumble if you have your labour for your +pains.' + +He led the way up the stairs with that, and I followed him. The house +was very silent, and the higher we ascended the more the silence grew +upon us, until, in the empty upper part, every footfall seemed to make +a hollow echo, and every board that creaked under our tread to whisper +that we were about a work of danger. When we reached the uppermost +landing of all, Herr Krapp stopped, and, raising his light, pointed to +the unceiled rafters. + +'See, there is no way out,' he said. 'And if you could get out, you +could not get in.' + +I nodded as I looked round. Clearly, this floor was not much used. In +a corner a room had been at some period roughly partitioned off; +otherwise the place was a huge garret, the boards covered with scraps +of mortar, the corners full of shadows and old lumber and dense +cobwebs. In the sloping roof were two dormer windows, unglazed but +shuttered; and, beside the great yawning well of the staircase by +which we had ascended, lay a packing-box and some straw, and two or +three old rotting pallets tied together with ropes. I shivered as I +looked round. The place, viewed by the light of our one candle, had a +forlorn, depressing aspect. The air under the tiles was hot and close; +the straw gave out a musty smell. + +I was glad when Herr Krapp went to one of the windows and, letting +down the bar, opened the shutters. On the instant a draught, which all +but extinguished his candle, poured in, and with it a dull, persistent +noise unheard before--the murmur of the city, of the streets, the +voice of Nuremberg. I thrust my head out into the cool night air, and +rejoiced to see the lights flickering in the streets below, and the +shadowy figures moving this way and that. Above the opposite houses +the low sky was red; but the chimneys stood out black against it, and +in the streets it was dark night. + +I took all this in, and then I turned to the right and looked at the +next house. I saw as much as I expected; more, enough to set my heart +beating. The dormer window next to that from which I leaned, and on a +level with it, was open; if I might judge from the stream of light +which poured through it, and was every now and then cut off as if by a +moving figure that passed at intervals between the casement and the +candle. Who or what this was I could not say. It might be Marie; it +might not. But at the mere thought I leaned out farther, and greedily +measured the distance between us. + +Alas! between the dormer-gable in which I stood and the one in the +next house lay twelve feet of steep roof, on which a cat would have +been puzzled to stand. Its edge towards the street was guarded by no +gutter, ledge, or coping-stone, but ended smoothly in a frail, wooden +waterpipe, four inches square. Below that, yawned a sheer, giddy drop, +sixty feet to the pavement of the street. I drew in my head with a +shiver, and found Herr Krapp at my elbow. + +'Well,' he said, 'what do you see?' + +'The next window is open,' I answered. 'How can I get to it?' + +'Ah!' he replied dryly, 'I did not undertake that you should.' He took +my place at the window and leaned out in his turn. He had set the +candle in a corner where it was sheltered from the draught. I strode +to it, and moved it a little in sheer impatience--I was burning to be +at the window again. As I came back, crunching the scraps of mortar +underfoot, my eyes fell on a bit of old dusty rope lying coiled on the +floor, and in a second I saw a way. When Herr Krapp turned from the +window he missed me. + +'Hallo!' he cried. 'Where are you, my friend?' + +'Here,' I answered, from the head of the stairs. + +As he advanced, I came out of the darkness to meet him, staggering +under the bundle of pallets which I had seen lying by the stair-head. +He whistled. + +'What are you going to do with those?' he said. + +'By your leave, I want this rope,' I answered. + +'What will you do with it?' he asked soberly. He was one of those +even-tempered men to whom excitement, irritation, fear, are all +foreign. + +'Make a loop and throw it over the little pinnacle on the top of +yonder dormer,' I answered briefly, 'and use it for a hand-rail.' + +'Can you throw it over?' + +'I think so.' + +'The pinnacle will hold?' + +'I hope so.' + +He shrugged his shoulders, and stood for a moment staring at me as I +unwound the rope and formed a noose. At length: 'But the noise, my +friend?' he said. 'If you miss the first time, and the second, the +rope falling and sliding over the tiles will give the alarm.' + +'Two cats ran along the ridge a while ago,' I answered. 'Once, and, +perhaps, twice, the noise will be set down to them. The third time I +must succeed.' + +I thought it likely that he would forbid the attempt; but he did not. +On the contrary, he silently took hold of my belt, that I might lean +out the farther and use my hands with greater freedom. Against the +window I placed the bundle of pallets; setting one foot on them and +the other heel on the pipe outside, I found I could whirl the loop +with some chance of success. + +Still, it was an anxious moment. As I craned over the dark street and, +poising myself, fixed my eyes on the black, slender spirelet which +surmounted the neighbouring window, I felt a shudder more than once +run through me. I shrank from looking down. At last I threw: the rope +fell short. Luckily it dropped clear of the window, and came home +again against the wall below me, and so made no noise. The second time +I threw with better heart; but I had the same fortune, except that I +nearly overbalanced myself, and, for a moment, shut my eyes in terror. +The third time, letting out a little more rope, I struck the pinnacle, +but below the knob. The rope fell on the tiles, and slid down them +with some noise, and for a full minute I stood motionless, half inside +the room and half outside, expecting each instant to see a head thrust +out of the other window. But no one appeared, no one spoke, though the +light was still obscured at intervals; and presently I took courage to +make a fourth attempt. I flung, and this time the rope fell with a +dull thud on the tiles, and stopped there: the noose was round the +pinnacle. + +Gently I drew it tight, and then, letting it hang, I slipped back into +the room, where we had before taken the precaution to put out the +light. Herr Krapp asked me in a whisper if the rope was fast. + +'Yes,' I said. 'I must secure this end to something.' + +He passed it round the hinge of the left-hand shutter and made it +safe. Then for a moment we stood together in the darkness. + +'All right?' he said. + +'All right,' I answered hoarsely. + +The next moment the thing was done. I was outside, the rope in my +hands, my feet on the bending pipe, the cool night air round my +temples--below me, sheer giddiness, dancing lights, and blackness. For +the moment I tottered. I balanced myself where I stood, and clung to +the rope, shutting my eyes. If the pinnacle had given way then, I must +have fallen like a plummet and been killed. One crash against the wall +below, one grip at the rope as it tore its way through my fingers--and +an end! + +But the pinnacle held, and in a few seconds I gained wit and courage. +One step, then another, and then a third, taken warily, along the +pipe, as I have seen rope-walkers take them at Heritzburg fair, and I +was almost within reach of my goal. Two more, and, stooping, I could +touch, with my right hand, the tiles of the little gable, while my +left, raised above my head, still clutched the rope. + +Then came an anxious moment. I had to pass under the rope, which was +between me and the street, and between me and the window also--the +window, my goal. I did it; but in my new position I found a new +difficulty, and a grim one, confronting me. Standing outside the rope +now, with my right hand clinging to it, I could not, with all my +stretching, reach with my other hand any part of the window, or +anything of which I could get a firm grip. The smooth tiles and +crumbling mortar of the little gable gave no hold, while the rope, my +grip on which I dared not for my life relax, prevented me stooping +sufficiently to reach the sill or the window-case. + +It was a horrible position. I stood still, sweating, trembling, and +felt the wooden pipe bend and yield under me. Behind me, the depth, +the street, yawned for me; before me, the black roof, shutting off the +sky. My head reeled, my fingers closed on the ropes like claws; for a +second I shut my eyes, and thought I was falling. In that moment I +forgot Marie--I forgot everything, except the pavement below, the +cruel stones, the depth; I would have given all, coward that I was, to +be back in Herr Krapp's room. + +Then the fit passed, and I stood, thinking. To take my hand from the +rope would be to fall--to die. But could I lower the rope so that, +still holding it, I could reach the sill, or the hinges, or some part +of the window-case that would furnish a grip? I could think of only +one way, and that a dangerous one; but I had no choice, nor any time +to lose, if I would keep my head. I drew out my knife, and, leaning +forward on the rope, with one knee on the tiles, I began to sever the +cord as far away to my right as I could reach. This was to cut off my +retreat--my connection with the window I had left; but I dared not let +myself think much of that or of anything. I hacked away in a frenzy, +and in a twinkling the rope flew apart, and I slipped forward on the +tiles, clutching the piece that remained to me in a grasp of iron. + +So far, good! I was trembling all over, but I was safe, and I lost not +a moment in passing the loose end twice round the fingers of my right +hand. This done, only one thing remained to be done--only one thing: +to lean over the abyss, trusting all my weight to the frail cord, and +to grope for the sill. Only that! Well, I did it. My hair stood up +straight as the pinnacle groaned and bent under my weight; my eyes +must have been astare with terror; all my flesh crept. I clung to the +face of the gable like a fly, but I did it! I reached the sill, +clutched it, loosed the rope, and in a moment was lying on my breast, +half in and half out of the window--safe!' + +I do not know how long I hung there, recovering my breath and +strength, but I suppose only a minute or two, though it seemed to me +an hour. A while before I should have thought such a position, without +foothold, above the dizzy street, perilous enough. Now it seemed to be +safety. Nevertheless, as I grew cooler I began to think of getting in, +of whom I should find there, of the issue of the attempt. And +presently, lifting one leg over the sill, I stretched out a hand and +drew aside a scanty curtain which hid the room from view. It was this +curtain that, rising and falling with the draught, had led me to +picture a figure moving to and fro. + +There was no one to be seen, and for a moment I fancied that the room +was empty. The light was on the other side, and my act disclosed +nothing but a dusky corner under a sloping roof. The next instant, +however, a harsh voice, which shook the rafters, cried, with an oath-- + +'What is that?' + +I let the curtain fall and, as softly as I could, scrambled over the +sill. My courage came back in face of a danger more familiar; my hand +grew steady. As I sat on the sill, I drew out a pistol; but I dared +not cock it. + +'Speak, or I shoot!' cried the same voice. 'One, two! Was it the +wind--Himmel--or one of those cats?' + +I remained motionless. The speaker, whose voice I seemed to know, was +clearly uncertain and a little sleepy. I hoped that he would not rouse +the house and waste a shot on no better evidence; and I sat still in +the smallest compass into which I could draw myself. I could see the +light through the curtain, a makeshift thing of thin stuff, +unbleached--and I tried to discern his figure, but in vain. At last I +heard him sink back, grumbling uneasily. + +I waited a few minutes, until his breathing became more regular, and +then, with a cautious hand, I once more drew the curtain aside. As I +had judged, the light stood on the floor, by the end of the pallet. On +the pallet, his head uneasily pillowed on his arm, while the other +hand almost touched the butt of a pistol which lay beside the candle, +sprawled the man who had spoken--a swarthy, reckless-looking fellow, +still in his boots and dressed. His attitude as he slept, alone in +this quiet room, no less than the presence of the light and pistol, +spoke of danger and suspicion. But I did not need the one sign or the +other to warn me that my hopes and fears were alike realized. The man +was Ludwig! + +I dropped the curtain again, and sat thinking. I could not hope to +overcome such a man without a struggle and noise that must alarm the +house; and yet I must pass him, if I would do any good. My only course +seemed to be to slip by him by stealth, open the door in the same +manner, and gain the stairs. After that the house would be open to me, +and it would go hard with any one who came between me and Marie. I did +not doubt now that she was there. + +I waited until his more regular breathing seemed to show that he +slept, and then, after softly cocking my pistol, I set my feet to the +floor, and began to cross it. Unluckily my nerves were still ajar with +my roof-work. At the third step a board creaked under me; at the same +moment I caught a glimpse of a huge, dark figure at my elbow, and +though this was only my shadow, cast on the sloping roof by the +candle, I sprang aside in a fright. The noise was enough to awaken the +sleeper. As my eyes came back to him he opened his and saw me, and, +raising himself, in a trice groped for his pistol. He could not on the +instant find it, however, and I had time to cover him with mine. + +'Have done!' I hissed. 'Be still, or you are a dead man!' + +'Martin Schwartz!' he cried, with a frightful oath. + +'Yes,' I rejoined; 'and mark me, if you raise a finger, I fire.' + +He glared at me, and so we stood a moment. Then I said, 'Push that +pistol to me with your foot. Don't put out your hand, or it will be +the worse for you.' + +He looked at me for a moment, his face distorted with rage, as if he +were minded to disobey at all risks; then he drew up his foot sullenly +and set it against the pistol. I stepped back a pace and for an +instant took my eyes from his--intending to snatch up the firearm as +soon as it was out of his reach. In that instant he dashed out the +light with his foot; I heard him spring up--and we were in darkness. + +The surprise was complete, and I did not fire; but I had the presence +of mind, believing that he had secured his pistol, to change my +position--almost as quickly as he changed his. However, he did not +fire; and so there we were in the pitchy darkness of the room, both +armed, and neither knowing where the other stood. + +I felt every nerve in my body tingle; but with rage, not fear. I dared +not change my position again, lest a creaking board should betray me, +now all was silent; but I crouched low in the darkness with the pistol +in one hand and my knife drawn in the other, and listened for his +breathing. The same consideration--we were both heavy men--kept him +motionless also; and I remember to this day, that as we waited, +scarcely daring to breathe--and for my part each moment expecting the +flash and roar of a shot--one of the city clocks struck slowly and +solemnly ten. + +The strokes ceased. In the room I could not hear a sound, and I felt +nervously round me with my knife; but without avail. I crouched still +lower, lower, with a beating heart. The curtain obscured the window, +there was no moon, no light showed under the door. The darkness was so +complete that, but for a kind of fainter blackness that outlined the +window, I could not have said in what part of the room I stood. + +Suddenly a sharp loud 'thud' broke the silence. It seemed to come from +a point so close to me that I almost fired on that side before I could +control my fingers. The next moment I knew that it was well I had not. +It was Ludwig's knife flung at a venture--and now buried, as I +guessed, an inch deep in the door--which had made the noise. Still, +the action gave me a sort of inkling where he was, and, noiselessly +facing round a trifle, I raised my pistol, and waited for some +movement that might direct my aim. + +I feared that he had a second knife; I hoped that in drawing it from +its sheath he would make some noise. But all was still. Sharpen my +ears as I might, I could hear nothing; strain my eyes as I might, I +could see no shadow, no bulk in the darkness. A silence as of death +prevailed. I could scarcely believe that he was still in the room. My +courage, hot and fierce at first, began to wane under the trial. I +felt the point of his knife already in my back; I winced and longed to +be sheltered by the wall, yet dared not move to go to it. In another +minute I think I should have fired at a sheer venture, rather than +bear the strain longer; but at last a sound broke on my ear. The sound +was not in the room, but in the house below. Some one was coming up +the stairs. + +The step reached a landing, and I heard it pause; a stumble, and it +came on again up the next flight. Another pause, this time a longer +one. Then it mounted again, and gradually a faint line of light shone +under the door. I felt my breath come quickly. One glance at the door, +which was near me on the right hand, and I peered away again, +balancing the pistol in my hand. If Ludwig cried out or spoke, I would +fire in the direction of the voice. Between two foes I was growing +desperate. + + +[Illustration: Before I could recover myself a pair of strong arms +closed round mine and bound them to my sides.] + + +The step came on and stopped at the door; still Ludwig held his peace. +The new-comer rapped; not loudly, or I think I should have started and +betrayed myself--to such a point were my feelings wound up--but softly +and timidly. I set my teeth together and grasped my knife. Ludwig on +his part kept silence; the person outside, getting no answer, knocked +again, and yet again, each time more loudly. Still no answer. Then I +heard a hand touch the latch. It grated. A moment of suspense, and a +flood of light burst in--close to me on my right hand--dazzling me. I +looked round quickly, in fear; and there, in the doorway, holding a +taper in her hand, I saw Marie--Marie Wort! + +While I stood open-mouthed, gazing, she saw me, the light falling on +me. Her lips opened, her breast heaved, I think she must have seen my +danger; but if so the shriek she uttered came too late to save me. I +heard it, but even as I heard it a sudden blow in the back hurled me +gasping to my knees at her feet. Before I could recover myself a pair +of strong arms closed round mine and bound them to my sides. +Breathless and taken at advantage I made a struggle to rise; but I +heaved and strained without avail. In a moment my hands were tied, and +I lay helpless and a prisoner. + +After that I was conscious only of a tumult round me; of a woman +shrieking, of loud trampling, and lights and faces, among these +Tzerclas' dark countenance, with a look of fiendish pleasure on it. +Even these things I only noted dully. In the middle of all I was +wool-gathering. I suppose I was taken downstairs, but I remember +nothing of it; and in effect I took little note of anything until, my +breath coming back to me, I found myself being borne through a +doorway--on the ground floor, I think--into a lighted room. A man held +me by either arm, and there were three other men in the room. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + IN THE HOUSE BY ST. AUSTIN'S. + + +Two of these men sat facing one another at a great table covered with +papers. As I entered they turned their faces to me, and on the instant +one sprang to his feet with an exclamation of rage that made the roof +ring. + +'General!' he cried passionately, 'what--what devil's trick is this? +Why have you brought that man here?' + +'Why?' Tzerclas answered easily, insolently. 'Does he know you?' He +had come in just before us. He smiled; the man's excitement seemed to +amuse him. + +'By ----, he does!' the other exclaimed through his teeth. 'Are you +mad?' + +'I think not,' the general answered, still smiling. 'You will +understand in a minute. But his business can wait. First'--he took up +a paper and scanned it carefully--'let us complete this list of----' + +'No!' the stranger replied impetuously. And he dashed the paper back +on the table and looked from one to another like a wild beast in a +trap. He was a tall, very thin, hawk-nosed man, whom I had seen once +at my lady's--the commander of a Saxon regiment in the city's service, +with the name of a reckless soldier. 'No!' he repeated, scowling, +until his brows nearly met his moustachios. 'Not another gun, not +another measurement will I give, until I know where I stand! And +whether you are the man I think you, general, or the blackest +double-dyed liar that ever did Satan's work!' + +The general laughed grimly--the laugh that always chilled my blood. +'Gently, gently,' he said. 'If you must know, I have brought him into +this room, in the first place, because it is convenient, and in the +second, because----' + +'Well?' Neumann snarled, with an ugly gleam in his eyes. + +'Because dead men tell no tales,' Tzerclas continued quietly. 'And our +friend here is a dead man. Now, do you see? I answer for it, you run +no risk.' + +'Himmel!' the other exclaimed; in a different tone, however. 'But in +that case, why bring him here at all? Why not despatch him upstairs?' + +'Because he knows one or two things which I wish to know,' the general +answered, looking at me curiously. 'And he is going to make us as wise +as himself. He has been drilling in the south-east bastion by the +orchard, you see, and knows what guns are mounted there.' + +'Cannot you get them from the fool in the other room?' Neumann +grunted. + +'He will tell nothing.' + +'Then why do you have him hanging about here day after day, risking +everything? The man is mad.' + +'Because, my dear colonel, I have a use for _him_ too,' Tzerclas +replied. Then he turned to me. 'Listen, knave,' he said harshly. 'Do +you understand what I have been saying?' + +I did, and I was desperate. I remembered what I had done to him, how +we had outwitted, tricked, and bound him; and now that I was in his +power I knew what I had to expect; that nothing I could say would +avail me. I looked him in the face. 'Yes,' I said. + +'You had the laugh on your side the last time we met,' he smiled. 'Now +it is my turn.' + +'So it seems,' I answered stolidly. + +I think it annoyed him to see me so little moved. But he hid the +feeling. 'What guns are in the orchard bastion?' he asked. + +I laughed. 'You should have asked me that,' I said, 'before you told +me what you were going to do with me. The dead tell no tales, +general.' + +'You fool!' he replied. 'Do you think that death is the worst you have +to fear? Look round you! Do you see these windows? They are boarded +up. Do you see the door? It is guarded. The house? The walls are +thick, and we have gags. Answer me, then, and quickly, or I will find +the way to make you. What guns are in the orchard bastion?' + +He took up a paper with the last word and looked at me over it, +waiting for my answer. For a moment not a sound broke the silence of +the room. The other men stood all at gaze, watching me, Neumann with a +scowl on his face. The lights in the room burned high, but the +frowning masks of boards that hid the windows, the litter of papers on +the table, the grimy floor, the cloaks and arms cast down on it in a +medley--all these marks of haste and secrecy gave a strange and +lowering look to the chamber, despite its brightness. My heart beat +wildly like a bird in a man's hand. I feared horribly. But I hid my +fear; and suddenly I had a thought. + +'You have forgotten one thing,' I said. + +They started. It was not the answer they expected. + +'What?' Tzerclas asked curtly, in a tone that boded ill for me--if +worse were possible. + +'To ask how I came into the house.' + +The general looked death at Ludwig. 'What is this, knave?' he +thundered. 'You told me that he came in by the window?' + +'He did, general,' Ludwig answered, shrugging his shoulders. + +'Yes, from the next house,' I said coolly. 'Where my friends are now +waiting for me.' + +'Which house?' Tzerclas demanded. + +'Herr Krapp's.' + +I was completely in their hands. But they knew, and I knew, that their +lives were scarcely more secure than mine; that, given a word, a sign, +a traitor among them--and they were all traitors, more or less--all +their boarded windows and locked doors would avail them not ten +minutes against the frenzied mob. That thought blanched more than one +cheek while I spoke; made more than one listen fearfully and cast eyes +at the door; so that I wondered no longer, seeing their grisly faces, +why the room, in spite of its brightness, had that strange and sombre +look. Treachery, fear, suspicion, all lurked under the lights. + +Tzerclas alone was unmoved; perhaps because he had something less to +fear than the faithless Neumann. 'Herr Krapp's?' he said scornfully. +'Is that all? I will answer for that house myself. I have a man +watching it, and if danger threatens from that direction, we shall +know it in good time. He marks all who go in or out.' + +'You can trust him?' Neumann muttered, wiping his brow. + +'I am trusting him,' the general answered dryly. 'And I am not often +deceived. This man and the puling girl upstairs tricked me once; but +they will not do so again. Now, sirrah!' and he turned to me afresh, a +cruel gleam in his eyes. 'That bird will not fly. To business. Will +you tell me how many guns are in the orchard bastion?' + +'No!' I cried. I was desperate now. + +'You will not?' + +'No!' + +'You talk bravely,' he answered. 'But I have known men talk as +bravely, and whimper and tremble like flogged children five minutes +later. Ludwig--ah, there is no fire. Get a bit of thin whip-cord, and +twist it round his head with your knife-handle. But first,' he +continued, devouring me with his hard, smiling eyes, 'call in Taddeo. +You will need another man to handle him neatly.' + +At the word my blood ran cold with horror, and then burning hot. My +gorge rose; I set my teeth and felt all my limbs swell. There was a +mist of blood before my eyes, as if the cord were already tight and my +brain bursting. I heaved in my bonds and heard them crack and crack. +But, alas! they held. + +'Try again!' he said, sneering at me. + +'You fiend!' I burst out in a fury. 'But I defy you. Do your worst, I +will balk you yet!' + +He looked at me hard. Then he smiled. 'Ah!' he said. 'So you think you +will beat me. Well, you are an obstinate knave, I know; and I have not +much time to spare. Yet I shall beat you. Ludwig,' he continued, +raising his voice, though his smiling eyes did not leave me. 'Is +Taddeo there?' + +'He is coming, general.' + +'Then bid him fetch the girl down! Yes, Master Martin,' he continued +with a ruthless look, 'we will see. I have a little account against +her too. Do not think that I have kept her all this time for nothing. +We will put the cord not round your head--you are a stubborn fool, I +know--but round hers, my friend. Round her pretty little brow. We will +see if that will loosen your tongue.' + +The room reeled before my eyes, the lights danced, the men's faces, +some agrin, some darkly watchful, seemed to be looking at me through a +mist that dimmed everything. I cried out wild oaths, scarcely knowing +what I said, that he would not, that he dared not. + +He laughed. 'You think not, Master Martin?' he said. 'Wait until the +slut comes. Ludwig has a way of singeing their hands with a lamp--that +will afford you, I think, the last amusement you will ever enjoy!' + +I knew that he spoke truly, and that he and his like had done things +as horrible, as barbarous, a hundred times in the course of this +cursed war! I knew that I had nothing to expect from their pity or +their scruples. And the frenzy of passion, which for a moment had +almost choked me, died down on a sudden, leaving me cold as the +coldest there and possessed by one thought only, one hope, one aim--to +get my hands free for a moment and kill this man. The boarded windows, +the guarded doors, the stern faces round me, the silence of the gloomy +house all forbade hope; but revenge remained. Rather than Marie should +suffer, rather than that childish frame should be racked by their +cruel arts, I would tell all, everything they wanted. But if by any +trick or chance I went afterwards free for so much as a second, I +would choke him with my naked hands! + +I waited, looking at the door, my mind made up. The moments passed +like lead. So apparently thought some one else, for suddenly on the +silence came an interruption. 'Is this business going to last all +night?' Neumann burst out impatiently. 'Hang the man out of hand, if +he is to be hanged!' + +'My good friend, revenge is sweet,' Tzerclas answered, with an ugly +smile. 'These two fooled me a while ago; and I have no mind to be +fooled with impunity. But it will not take long. We will singe her a +little for his pleasure--he will like to hear her sing--and then we +will hang him for her pleasure. After which----' + +'Do what you like!' Neumann burst out, interrupting him wrathfully. +'Only be quick about it. If the girl is here----' + +'She is coming. She is coming, now,' Tzerclas answered. + +I had gone through so much that my feelings were blunted. I could no +longer suffer keenly, and I waited for her appearance with a composure +that now surprises me. The door opened, Taddeo came in! looked beyond +him, but saw no one else; then I looked at him. The ruffian was +trembling. His face was pale. He stammered something. + +Tzerclas made but one stride to him. 'Dolt!' he cried, 'what is it?' + +'She is gone!' the man stuttered. + +'Gone?' + +'Yes, your excellency.' + +For an instant Tzerclas stood glaring at him. Then like lightning his +hand went lip and his pistol-butt crashed down on the man's temple. +The wretch threw up his arms and fell as if a thunderbolt had struck +him--senseless, or lifeless; no one asked which, for his assailant, +like a beast half-sated, stood glaring round for a second victim. But +Ludwig, who had come down with Taddeo, knew his master, and kept his +distance by the door. The other two men shrank behind me. + +'Well?' Tzerclas cried, as soon as passion allowed him to speak. 'Are +you dumb? Have you lost your tongue? What is it that liar meant?' + +'The girl is away,' Ludwig muttered. 'She got out through a window.' + +'Through what window?' + +'The window of my room, under the roof,' the man answered sullenly. +'The one--through which that fool came in,' he continued, nodding +towards me. + +'Ah!' the general cried, his voice hissing with rage. 'Well, we have +still got him. How did she go?' + +'Heaven knows, unless she had wings,' Ludwig answered. 'The window is +at the top of the house, and there is neither rope nor ladder there, +nor foothold for anything but a bird. She is gone, however.' + +The general ground his teeth together. 'There is some cursed treachery +here!' he said. + +The Saxon colonel laughed in scorn. 'Maybe!' he retorted in a mocking +tone, 'but I will answer for it, that there is something else, and +that is cursed mismanagement! I tell you what it is, General +Tzerclas,' he continued fiercely. 'With your private revenges, and +your public plots, and your tame cats who are mad, and your wild cats +who have wings--you think yourself a very clever man. But Heaven help +those who trust you!' + +The general's eyes sparkled. 'And those who cross me?' he cried in a +voice that made his men tremble. 'But there, sir, what ground of +complaint have you? The girl never saw you.' + +'No, but that man has seen me!' Neumann retorted, pointing to me. 'And +who knows how soon she may be back with a regiment at her heels? Then +it will be "Save yourselves!" and he will be left to hang me.' + +The general laughed without mirth. 'Have no fear!' he said. 'We will +hang him out of hand. Ludwig, while we collect these papers, take the +other two men and string him up in the hall. When they break in they +shall find some one to receive them!' + +I had thought that the agony of death was passed; but I suppose that +the news of Marie's escape had awakened my hopes as well as rekindled +my love of life; for at these words, I felt my courage run from me +like water. I shrank back against the wall, my limbs trembling under +me, my heart leaping as if it would burst from my breast. I felt the +rope already round my neck, and when the men laid hold on me, I cried +out, almost in spite of myself, that I would tell what guns there were +in the orchard bastion, that I knew other things, that---- + +'Away with him!' Tzerclas snarled, stamping his foot passionately. He +was already hurrying papers together, and did not give me a glance. +'String him up, knaves, and see this time that you obey orders. We +must be gone, so pull his legs.' + +I would have said something more; I would have tried again. Even a +minute, a minute's delay meant hope. But my voice failed me, and they +hustled me out. I am no coward, and I had thought myself past fear; +but the flesh is weak. At this pinch, when their hands were on me, +and I looked round desperately and found no one to whom I could +appeal--while hope and rescue might be so near and yet come too +late--I shrank. Death in this vile den seemed horrible. My knees +trembled; I could scarcely stand. + +The hall into which they dragged me was the same dusty, desolate place +into which, little foreseeing what would happen there, I had looked +over the deaf hag's shoulder. Ludwig's candle only half dispersed the +darkness which reigned in it. Two of the men held me while he went to +and fro with the light raised high above his head. + +'Ha! here it is!' he said at last. 'I thought that there was a hook. +Bring him here, lads.' + +They forced me, resisting feebly, to the place. The candle stood +beside him; he was forming a noose. The light, which left all behind +them dark, lit up the men's harsh faces; but I read no pity there, no +hope, no relenting; and after a hoarse attempt to bribe them with +promises of what my lady would give for my life, I stood waiting. I +tried to pray, to think of Marie, of my soul and the future; but my +mind was taken up with rage and dread, with the wild revolt against +death, and the rush of indignation that would have had me scream like +a woman! + +On a sudden, out of the darkness grew a fourth face that looked at me, +smiling. It was no more softened by ruth or pity than the others were; +the laughing eyes mocked me, the lip curled as with a jest. And yet, +at sight of it, I gasped. Hope awoke. I tried to speak, I tried to +implore his help, I tried But my voice failed me, no words came. The +face was the Waldgrave's. + +Yet he nodded as if I had spoken. 'Yes,' he said, smiling more +broadly, 'I see, Martin, that you are in trouble. You should have +taken my advice in better time. I told you that he would get the +better of you.' + +Ludwig, who had not seen him before he spoke, dropped the rope, and +stood, stupefied, gazing at him. I cried out hoarsely that they were +going to hang me. + +'No, no, not as bad as that!' he said lightly, between jest and +earnest. 'But I gave you fair warning, you know, Martin. Oh, +he is----' + +Waldgrave, Waldgrave!' I panted, trying to get to him; but the men +held me back. 'They will hang me! They will! It is no joke. In God's +name, save me, save me! I saved you once, and----' + +'Chut, chut!' he replied easily. 'Of course I will save you. I will go +to the general and arrange it now. Don't be afraid. My sweet cousin +must not lose her steward. Why, you are shaking like an aspen, man. +But I told you, did I not? Oh, he is the---- Wait, fellow,' he +continued to Ludwig, 'until I come back. Where is your master?' + +'Upstairs,' Ludwig answered sullenly, an ugly gleam in his eyes. + +The Waldgrave turned from me carelessly, and went towards the stairs, +which were at the end of the hall. Ludwig, as he did so, picked up the +rope with a stealthy gesture. I read his mind, and called pitifully to +the Waldgrave to stop. + +'They will hang me while you are away,' I cried. 'And he is not +upstairs! They are lying to you. He is in the room on the left.' + +The Waldgrave halted and came back, his handsome face troubled. +Ludwig, looking as if he would strike me, swore under his breath. + +'Upstairs, your excellency, upstairs!' he cried. 'You will find him +there. Why should I----' + +'Hush!' one of the other men said, and I felt his grasp on my arm +relax. 'What is that, captain--that noise?' + +But Ludwig was intent on the Waldgrave. 'Upstairs!' he continued to +cry, waving his hand in that direction. 'I assure you, my lord----' + +'Steady!' the man who had cut him short before exclaimed. 'They are at +the door, Ludwig. Listen, man, listen, or we shall be taken like +wolves in a trap!' + +This time Ludwig condescended to listen, scowling. A noise like that +made by a rat gnawing at wood could be heard. My heart beat fast and +faster. The man who had given the alarm had released my arm +altogether. The other held me carelessly. + +With a yell which startled all, I burst suddenly from him and sprang +past the Waldgrave. Bound as I was, I had the start and should have +been on the stairs in another second, when, with a crash and a +blinding glare, a shock, which loosened the very foundations of the +house, flung me on my face. + +I lay a moment, gasping for breath, wondering where I was hurt. Out of +the darkness round me came a medley of groans and shrieks. The air was +full of choking smoke, through which a red glare presently shone, and +grew gradually brighter. I could see little, understand less of what +was happening; but I heard shots and oaths, and once a rush of +charging feet passed over me. + +After that, growing more sensible, I tried to rise, but a weight lay +on my legs--my arms were still tied--and I sank again. I took the +fancy then that the house was on fire and that I should be burned +alive; but before I had more than tasted the horror of the thought, a +crowd of men came round me, and rough hands plucked me up. + +'Here is another of them!' a voice cried. 'Have him out! To the +churchyard with him! The trees will have a fine crop!' + +'Halloa! he is tied up already!' a second chimed in. + +I gazed round stupidly, meeting everywhere vengeful looks and savage +faces. + +A butcher, with his axe on his shoulder, hauled at me. 'Bring him +along!' he shouted. 'This way, friends! Hurry him. To the churchyard!' + +My wits were still wool-gathering, and I should have gone quietly; but +a man pushed his way to the front and looked at me. 'Stop! stop!' he +cried in a voice of authority. 'This is a friend. This is the man who +got in by the roof. Cut the ropes, will you? See how his hands are +swollen. That is better. Bring him out into the air. He will revive.' + +The speaker was Herr Krapp. In a moment a dozen friendly arms lifted +me up and carried me through the crowd, and set me down in the little +court. The cool night air swept my brow. I looked up and saw the stars +shining in the quiet heaven, and I leant against the wall, sobbing +like a woman. + + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + THE END OF THE DAY. + + +Ludwig was found dead in the hall, slain on the spot by the explosion +of the petard which had driven in the door. His two comrades, less +fortunate, were taken alive, and, with the hag who kept the house, +were hanged within the hour on the elms in St. Austin's churchyard. +The Waldgrave and Neumann, both wounded, the former by the explosion +and the latter in his desperate resistance, were captured and held for +trial. But Tzerclas, the chief of all, arch-tempter and arch-traitor, +vanished in the confusion of the assault, and made his escape, no one +knew how. Some said that he went by way of a secret passage known only +to himself; some, that he had a compact with the devil, and vanished +by his aid; some, that he had friends in the crowd who sheltered him. +For my part, I set down his disappearance to his own cool wits and +iron nerves, and asked no further explanation. + +For an hour the little dark court behind the ill-omened house seethed +with a furious mob. No sooner were one party satisfied than another +swept in with links and torches and ransacked the house, tore down the +panels, groped through the cellars, and probed the chimneys; all with +so much rage, and with gestures so wild and extravagant, that an +indifferent spectator might have thought them mad. Nor were those who +did these things of the lowest class; on the contrary, they were +mostly burghers and traders, solid townsfolk and their apprentices, +men who, with wives and daughters and sweethearts, could not sleep at +night for thoughts of storm and sack, and in whom the bare idea that +they had amongst them wretches ready to open the gates, was enough to +kindle every fierce and cruel passion. + +I stood for a time unnoticed, gazing at the scene in a kind of stupor, +which the noise and tumult aggravated. Little by little, however, the +cool air did its work; memory and reason began to return, and, with +anxiety awaking in my breast, I looked round for Herr Krapp. Presently +I saw him coming towards me with a leather flask in his hand. + +'Drink some of this,' he said, looking at me keenly. 'Why so wild, +man?' + +'The girl?' I stammered. I had not spoken before since my release, and +my voice sounded strange and unnatural. + +'She is safe,' he answered, nodding kindly. 'I was at my window when +she swung herself on to the roof by the rope which you left hanging. +Donner! you may be proud of her! But she was distraught, or she would +not have tried such a feat. She must inevitably have fallen if I had +not seen her. I called out to her to stand still and hold fast; and my +son, who had come upstairs, ran down for a twelve-foot pike. We thrust +that out to her, and, holding it, she tottered along the pike to my +window, where I caught her skirts, and we dragged her in in a moment.' + +I shuddered, remembering how I had suffered, hanging above the yawning +street. 'I suppose that it was she who warned you and sent you here?' +I said. + +'No,' he answered. 'This house had been watched for two days, though I +did not tell you so. We had been suspicious of it for a week or more, +or I should not have helped you into a neighbour's house as I did. +However, all is well that ends well; and though we have not got that +bloodthirsty villain to hang, we have stopped his plans for this +time.' + +He was just proposing that, if I now felt able, I should return to my +lady's, when a rush of people from the house almost carried me off my +feet. In a moment we were pushed aside and squeezed against the wall. +A hoarse yell, like the cry of a wild beast, rose from the crowd, a +hundred hands were brandished in the air, weapons appeared as if by +magic. The glare of torches, falling on the raging sea of men, picked +out here and there a scared face, a wandering eye; but for the most +part the mob seemed to feel only one passion--the thirst for blood. + +'What is it?' I shouted in Herr Krapp's ear. + +'The prisoners,' he answered. 'They are bringing them out. Your friend +the Waldgrave, and the other. They will need a guard.' + +And truly it was a grim thing to see men make at them, striking over +the shoulders of the guard, leaping at them wolf-like, with burning +eyes and gnashing teeth, striving to tear them with naked hands. Down +the narrow passage to the churchyard the soldiers had an easy task; +but in the open graveyard, whither Herr Krapp and I followed slowly, +the party were flung this way and that, and tossed to and fro--though +they were strong men, armed, and numbered three or four score--like a +cork floating on rapids. Their way lay through the Ritter Strasse, and +I went with them so far. Though it was midnight, the town, easily +roused from its feverish sleep, was up and waking. Scared faces looked +from windows, from eaves, from the very roofs. Men who had snatched up +their arms and left their clothes peered from doorways. The roar of +the mob, as it swayed through narrow ways, rose and fell by turns, now +loud as the booming of cavern-waves, now so low that it left the air +quivering. + +When it died away at last towards the Burg, I took leave of Herr +Krapp, and hurried to my lady's, passing the threshold in a tumult of +memories, of emotions, and thankfulness. I could fancy that I had +lived an age since I last crossed it--eight hours before. The house, +like every other house, was up. Herr Krapp had sent the news of my +escape before me, and I looked forward with a tremulous, foolish +expectation that was not far from tears to the first words two women +would say to me. + +But though men and women met me with hearty greetings on the +threshold, on the stairs, on the landing, and Steve clapped me on the +back until I coughed again, _they_ did not appear. It was after +midnight, but the house was still lighted as if the sun had just set, +and I went up to the long parlour that looked on the street. My heart +beat, and my face grew hot as I entered; but I might have spared +myself. There was only Fraulein Max in the room. + +She came towards me, blinking. 'So Sancho Panza has turned +knight-errant,' she said with a sneer, 'as well as Governor?' + +I did not understand her, and I asked gently where my lady was. + +She laughed in her gibing way. 'You beg for a stone and expect bread,' +she said. 'You care no more where my lady is than where I am! You +mean, where is your Romanist chit, with her white face and wheedling +ways.' + +I saw that she was bursting with spite; that Marie's return and the +stir made about it had been too much for her small, jealous nature, +and I was not for answering her. She was out of favour; let her spit, +her venom would be gone the sooner. But she had not done yet. + +'Of course she has had some wonderful adventures!' she continued, her +face working with malice and ill-nature. 'And we are all to admire +her. But to a lover does she not seem somewhat _blandula, vagula?_ +Here to-day and gone to-morrow. _Dolus latet in generalibus_, the +Countess says'--and here the Dutch girl mimicked my lady, her eyes +gleaming with scorn. 'But _dolus latet in virginibus_, too, Master +Martin, as you will find some day! Oh, a great escape, a heroic +escape,--but from her friends!' + +'If you mean to infer, Fraulein----' I said hotly. + +'Oh, I infer nothing. I leave you to do that!' she replied, smirking. +'But pigs go back to the dirt, I read. You know where you found her +and the brat!' + +'I know where we should all be to-day,' I cried, trembling with +indignation, 'if it had not been for her!' + +'Perhaps not worse off than we are now,' she snapped. 'However, keep +your eyes shut, if it pleases you.' + +My raised voice had reached the Countess's chamber, and as Fraulein +Max, giggling spitefully, went out through one door the other opened +and stood open. My anger melted away. I stood trembling, and looking, +and waiting. + +They came in together, my lady with her arm round Marie, the two women +I loved best in the world. I have heard it said that evil runs to evil +as drops of water to one another. But the saying is equally true of +good. Little had I thought, a few weeks back, that my lady would come +to treat the outcast girl from Klink's as a friend; nor I believe were +there ever two people less alike, and yet both good, than these two. +But that one quality--which is so quick to see its face mirrored in +another's heart--had brought them close together, and made each to +recognise the other; so that, as they came in to me, there was not a +line of my lady's figure, not a curve of her head, not a glance of +her proud eyes, that was not in sympathy with the girl who clung to +her--Romanist stranger, low born as she was. I looked and worshipped, +and would have changed nothing. I found the dignity of the one as +beautiful as the dependence of the other. + +Not a word was spoken. I had wondered what they would say to me--and +they said nothing. But my lady put her into my arms, and she clung to +me, hiding her face. + +The Countess laughed, yet there were tears in her voice. 'Be happy,' +she said. 'Child, from the day you were lost he never forgave me. +Martin, see where the rope has cut her wrist. She did it to save you.' + +'And myself!' Marie whispered on my breast. + +'No!' my lady said. 'I will not have it so! You will spoil both him +and my love-story. _Per tecta, per terram_, you have sought one +another. You have gone down _sub orco_. You have bought one another +back from death, as Alcestis bought her husband Admetus. At the first +it was a gold chain that linked you together, soon----' + +I felt Marie start in my arms. She freed herself gently, and looked at +my lady with trouble in her eyes. 'Oh,' she said, 'I had forgotten!' + +'What?' the Countess said. 'What have you forgotten?' + +'The child!' Marie replied, clasping her hands. 'I should have told +you before!' + +'You have had no time to tell us much!' my lady answered smiling. 'And +you are trembling like an aspen now. Sit down, girl. Sit down at +once!' she continued imperatively. 'Or, no! You shall go to your bed, +and we will hear it in the morning.' + +But Marie seemed so much distressed by this that my lady did not +insist; and in a few minutes the girl had told us a tale so remarkable +that consideration of her fatigue was swallowed up in wonder. + +'It was the night I was lost,' she said; 'the night when the alarm was +given on the hill, and we rode down it. I clung to my saddle--it was +all I could do--and remember only a dreadful shock, from which I +recovered to find myself lying in the road, shaken and bruised. Fear +of those whom I believed to be behind us was still in my mind, and I +rose, giddy and confused, my one thought to get off the road. As I +staggered towards the bank, however, I stumbled over something. To my +horror I found that it was a woman. She was dead or senseless, but she +had a child in her arms; it cried as I felt her face. I dared not +stay, but, on the impulse of the moment--I could not move the woman, +and I expected our pursuers to ride down the hill each instant--I +snatched the child up and ran into the brushwood. After that I only +remember stumbling blindly on through bog and fern, often falling in +my haste, but always rising and pushing on. I heard cries behind me, +but they only spurred me to greater exertions. At last I reached a +little wood, and there, unable to go farther, I sank down, exhausted, +and, I suppose, lost my senses, for I awoke, chilled and aching, in +the first grey dawn. The leaves were black overhead, but the white +birch trunks round me glimmered like pale ghosts. Something stirred in +my arms. I looked down, and saw the face of my child--the child I +found in the wood by Vach.' + +'What!' the Countess cried, rising and staring at her. 'Impossible! +Your wits were straying, girl. It was some other child.' + +But Marie shook her head gently. 'No, my lady,' she said. 'It was my +child.' + +'Count Leuchtenstein's?' + +'Yes, if the child I found was his.' + +'But how--did it come where you found it?' the Countess asked. + +'I think that the woman whom I left in the road was the poor creature +who used to beg at our house in the camp,' Marie answered, hesitating +somewhat--'the wife of the man whom General Tzerclas hung, my lady. I +saw her face by a glimmer of light only, and, at the moment, I thought +nothing. Afterwards it flashed across me that she was that woman. If +so, I think that she stole the child to avenge herself. She thought +that we were General Tzerclas' friends.' + +'But then where is the child?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes shining. I +was excited myself; but the delight, the pleasure which I saw in her +face took me by surprise. I stared at her, thinking that I had never +seen her look so beautiful. + +Then, as Marie answered, her face fell. 'I do not know,' my girl said. +'After a time I found my way back to the road, but I had scarcely set +foot on it when General Tzerclas' troopers surprised me. I gave myself +up for lost; I thought that he would kill me. But he only gibed at me, +until I almost died of fear, and then he bade one of his men take me +up behind him. They carried me with them to the camp outside this +city, and three days ago brought me in and shut me up in that house.' + +'But the child?' my lady cried. 'What of it?' + +'He took it from me,' Marie said. 'I have never seen it since, but I +think that he has it in the camp.' + +'Does he know whose child it is?' + +'I told him,' Marie replied. 'Otherwise they might have let it die on +the road. It was a burden to them.' + +The Countess shuddered, but in a moment recovered herself. '"While +there is life there is hope,"' she said. 'Martin, here is more work +for you. We will leave no stone unturned. Count Leuchtenstein must +know, of course, but I will tell him myself. If we could get the child +back and hand it safe and sound to its father, it would be---- Perhaps +the Waldgrave may be able to help us?' + +'I think that he will need all his wits to help himself,' I said +bluntly. + +'Why?' my lady questioned, looking at me in wonder. + +'Why?' I cried in astonishment. 'Have you heard nothing about him, my +lady?' + +'Nothing,' she said. + +'Not that he was taken to-night, in Tzerclas' company,' I answered, +'and is a prisoner at this moment at the Burg, charged, along with the +villain Neumann, with a plot to admit the enemy into the city?' + +My lady sat down, her face pale, her aspect changed, as the +countryside changes when the sun goes down. 'He was there' she +muttered--'with Tzerclas?' + +I nodded. + +'The Waldgrave Rupert--my cousin?' she murmured, as if the thing +passed the bounds of reason. + +'Yes, my lady,' I said, as gently as I could. 'But he is mad. I am +assured that he is mad. He has been mad for weeks past. We know it. We +have known it. Besides, he knew nothing, I am sure, of Tzerclas' +plans.' + +'But--he was _there!_' she cried. 'He was one of those two men they +carried by? One of those!' + +'Yes,' I said. + +She sat for a moment stricken and silent, the ghost of herself. Then, +in a voice little above a whisper, she asked what they would do to +him. + +I shrugged my shoulders. To be candid, I had not given the Waldgrave +much thought, though in a way he had saved my life. Now, the longer I +considered the matter, the less room for comfort I found. Certainly he +was mad. We knew him to be mad. But how were we to persuade others? +For weeks his bodily health had been good; he had carried himself +indoors and out-of-doors like a sane man; he had done duty in the +trenches, and mixed, though grudgingly, with his fellows, and gone +about the ordinary business of life. How, in the face of all this, +could we prove him mad, or make his judges, stern men, fighting with +their backs to the wall, see the man as we saw him? + +'I suppose that there will be a trial?' my lady said at last, breaking +the silence. + +I told her yes--at once. 'The town is in a frenzy of rage,' I +continued. 'The guards had a hard task to save them to-night. Perhaps +Prince Bernard of Weimar----' + +'Don't count on him,' my lady answered. 'He is as hard as he is +gallant. He would hang his brother if he thought him guilty of such a +thing as this. No; our only hope is in'--she hesitated an instant, and +then ended the sentence abruptly--'Count Leuchtenstein. You must go to +him, Martin, at seven, or as soon after as you can catch him. He is a +just man, and he has watched the Waldgrave and noticed him to be odd. +The court will hear him. If not, I know no better plan.' + +Nor did I, and I said I would go; and shortly afterwards I took my +leave. But as I crept to my bed at last, the clocks striking two, and +my head athrob with excitement and gratitude, I wondered what was in +my lady's mind. Remembering the Waldgrave's gallant presence and manly +grace, recalling his hopes, his courage, and his overweening +confidence, as displayed in those last days at Heritzburg, I could +feel no surprise that so sad a downfall touched her heart. But--was +that all? Once I had deemed him the man to win her. Then I had seen +good cause to think otherwise. Now again I began to fancy that his +mishaps might be crowned with a happiness which fortune had denied to +him in his days of success. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + THE TRIAL. + + +Late as it was when I fell asleep--for these thoughts long kept me +waking--I was up and on my way to Count Leuchtenstein's before the +bells rang seven. It was the 17th of August, and the sun, already +high, flashed light from a hundred oriels and casements. Below, in the +streets, it sparkled on pikeheads and steel caps; above, it glittered +on vane and weather-cock; it burnished old bells hung high in air, and +decked the waking city with a hundred points of splendour. Everywhere +the cool brightness of early morning met the eye, and spoke of things +I could not see--the dew on forest leaves, the Werra where it shoals +among the stones. + +But as I went I saw things that belied the sunshine, things to which I +could not shut my eyes. I met men whose meagre forms and shrunken +cheeks made a shadow round them; and others, whose hungry vulture +eyes, as they prowled in the kennel for garbage, seemed to belong to +belated night-birds rather than to creatures of the day. Wan, pinched +women, with white-faced children, signs of the deeper distress that +lay hidden away in courts and alleys, shuffled along beside the +houses; while the common crowd, on whose features famine had not yet +laid its hand, wore a stern pre-occupied look, as if the gaunt spectre +stood always before their eyes--visible, and no long way off. + +In the excitement of the last few days I had failed to note these +things or their increase; I had gone about my business thinking of +little else, seeing nothing beyond it. Now my eyes were rudely opened, +and I recognised with a kind of shock the progress which dearth and +disease were making, and had made, in the city. North and south and +east and west of me, in endless multitude, the roofs and spires of +Nuremberg rose splendid and sparkling in the sunshine. North and +south, and east and west, in city and lager lay scores of thousands of +armed men, tens of thousands of horses--a host that might fitly be +called invincible; and all come together in its defence. But, in +corners, as I went along I heard men whisper that Duke Bernard's +convoy had been cut off, that the Saxon forage had not come in, that +the Croats were gripping the Bamberg road, that a thousand waggons of +corn had reached the imperial army. And perforce I remembered that an +army must not only fight but eat. The soldiers must be fed, the city +must be fed. I began to see that if Wallenstein, secure in his +impregnable position on the hills, declined still to move or fight, +the time would come when the Swedish King must choose between two +courses, and either attack the enemy on the Alta Veste against all +odds of position, or march away and leave the city to its fate. I +ceased to wonder that care sat on men's faces, and seemed to be a +feature of the streets. The passion which the mob had displayed in the +night, no longer surprised me. The hungry man is no better than a +brute. + +Opposite Count Leuchtenstein's lodgings they were quelling a riot at a +bakehouse, and the wolfish cries and screams rang in my ears long +after I had turned into the house. The Count had been on night +service, and was newly risen, and not yet dressed, but his servant +consented to admit me. I passed on the stairs a grey-haired sergeant, +scarred, stiff, and belted, who was waiting with a bundle of lists and +reports. In the ante-chamber two or three gentlemen in buff coats, who +talked in low, earnest voices and eyed me curiously as I passed, sat +at breakfast. I noted the order and stillness which prevailed +everywhere in the house, and nowhere more than in the Count's chamber; +where I found him dressing before a plain table, on which a small, fat +Bible had the place of a pouncet-box, and a pair of silver-mounted +pistols figured instead of a scent-case. Not that the appointments of +the room were mean. On a little stand beside the Bible was the chain +of gold walnuts which I had good cause to remember; and this was +balanced on the other side by a miniature of a beautiful woman, set in +gold and surmounted by a coat-of-arms. + +He was vigorously brushing his grey hair and moustachios when I +entered, and the air, which the open window freely admitted, lent a +brightness to his eyes and a freshness to his complexion that took off +ten of his years. He betrayed some surprise at seeing me so early; but +he received me with good nature, congratulated me on my adventure, the +main facts of which had reached him, and in the same breath lamented +Tzerclas' escape. + +'But we shall have the fox one of these days,' he continued. 'He is a +clever scoundrel, and thinks to be a Wallenstein. But the world has +only space for one monster at a time, friend Steward. And to be +anything lower than Wallenstein, whom I take to be unique,--to be a +Pappenheim, for instance,--a man must have a heart as well as a head, +or men will not follow him. However, you did not come to me to discuss +Tzerclas,' he continued genially. 'What is your errand, my friend?' + +'To ask your excellency's influence on behalf of the Waldgrave +Rupert.' + +He paused with his brushes suspended. 'On your own account?' he asked; +and he looked at me with sudden keenness. + +'No, my lord,' I answered. 'My lady sent me. She would have come +herself, but the hour was early; and she feared to let the matter +stand, lest summary measures should be taken against him.' + +'It is likely very summary measures will be taken!' he answered dryly, +and with a sensible change in his manner; his voice seemed to grow +harsher, his features more rigid. 'But why,' he continued, looking at +me again, 'does not the Countess leave him in Prince Bernard's hands? +He is his near kinsman.' + +'She fears, my lord, that Prince Bernard may not----' + +'Be inclined to help him?' the Count said. 'Well, and I think that +that is very likely, and I am not surprised. See you how the matter +stands? This young gallant should have been, since his arrival here, +foremost in every skirmish; he should have spent his days in the +saddle, and his nights in his cloak, and been the first to mount and +the last to leave the works. Instead of that, he has shown himself +lukewarm throughout, Master Steward. He has done no credit to his +friends or his commission; he has done everything to lend colour to +this charge; and, by my faith, I do not know what can be done for +him--nor that it behoves us to do anything.' + +'But he is not guilty of this, if your excellency pleases,' I said +boldly. The Count's manner of speaking of him was hard and so nearly +hostile that my choler rose a little. + +'He has not done his duty!' + +'Because he has not been himself,' I replied. + +'Well, we have enough to do in these evil days to protect those who +are!' he answered sharply. 'Besides, this matter is a city matter. It +is in the citizens' hands, and I do not know what we have to do with +it. Look now,' he continued, almost querulously, 'it is an invidious +thing to meddle with them. We of the army are risking our lives and no +more, but our hosts are risking all--wives and daughters, sweethearts, +and children, and homes! And I say it is an awkward thing meddling +with them. For Neumann the sooner they hang the dog the better; and +for this young spark I can think of nothing that he has done that +binds us to go out of our way to save him. Marienbad! What brought him +into that den of thieves?' + +'My lord,' I said, taken aback by his severity--'since he received a +wound some months back he has not been himself.' + +'He has been sufficiently himself to hang about a woman's +apron-strings,' the Count answered with a flash of querulous contempt, +'instead of doing his duty. However, what you say is true. I have seen +it myself. But, again, why does not your lady leave Prince Bernard to +settle the matter?' + +'She fears that he may not be sufficiently interested.' + +He turned away abruptly; unless I was mistaken, he winced. And in a +moment a light broke in upon me. The peevishness and irritability with +which he had received the first mention of the Waldgrave's name had +puzzled me. I had not expected such a display in a man of his grave, +equable nature, of his high station, his great name. I had given him +credit for a less churlish spirit and a judgment more evenly balanced. +And I had felt surprised and disappointed. + +Now, on a sudden, I saw light--in an unexpected quarter. For a moment +I could have laughed both at myself and at him. The man was jealous; +jealous, at his age and with his grey hairs! At the first blush of the +thing I could have laughed, the feeling and the passion it implied +seemed alike so preposterous. There on the table before me stood the +miniature of his first wife, and his child's necklace. And the man +himself was old enough to be my lady's father. What if he was tall and +strong; and still vigorous though grey-haired; and a man of great +name. When I thought of the Waldgrave--of his splendid youth and +gallant presence, his gracious head and sunny smile, and pictured this +staid, sober man beside him, I could have found it in my heart to +laugh. + +While I stood, busy with these thoughts, the Count walked the length +of the room more than once with his head bent and his shoulder turned +to me. At length he stopped and spoke; nor could my sharpened ear now +detect anything unusual in his voice. + +'Very well,' he said, his tone one of half-peevish resignation, 'you +have done your errand. I think I understand, and you may tell your +mistress--I will do what I can. The King of Sweden will doubtless +remit the matter to the citizens, and there will be some sort of a +hearing to-day. I will be at it. But there is a stiff spirit abroad, +and men are in an ugly mood--and I promise nothing. But I will do my +best. Now go, my friend. I have business.' + +With that he dismissed me in a manner so much like his usual manner +that I wondered whether I had deceived myself. And I finally left the +room in a haze of uncertainty. However, I had succeeded in the object +of my visit; that was something. He had taken care to guard his +promise, but I did not doubt that he would perform it. For there are +men whose lightest word is weightier than another's bond; and I took +it, I scarcely know why, that the Count belonged to these. + +Nevertheless, I saw things, as I went through the streets, that fed my +doubts. While famine menaced the poorer people, the richer held a +sack, with all the horrors which Magdeburg had suffered, in equal +dread. The discovery of Neumann's plot had taught them how small a +matter might expose them to that extremity; and as I went along I saw +scarcely, a burgher whose face was not sternly set, no magistrate +whose brow was not dark with purpose. + +Consequently, when I attended my lady to the Rath-haus at two o'clock, +the hour fixed for the inquiry, I was not surprised to find these +signs even more conspicuous. The streets were thronged, and ugly looks +and suspicious glances met us on all sides, merely because it was +known that the Waldgrave had been much at my lady's house. We were +made to feel that Nuremberg was a free city, and that we were no more +than its guests. It is true, no one insulted us; but the crowd which +filled the open space before the Town-house eyed us with so little +favour that I was glad to think that the magistrates with all their +independence must still be guided by the sword, and that the sword was +the King of Sweden's. + +My lady, I saw, shared my apprehensions. But she came of a stock not +easily daunted, and would as soon have dreamed of putting out one of +her eyes because it displeased a chance acquaintance, as of deserting +a friend because the Nurembergers frowned upon him. Her eyes sparkled +and her colour rose as we proceeded; the ominous silence which greeted +us only stiffened her carriage. By the time we reached the Rath-haus I +knew not whether to fear more from her indiscretion, or hope more from +her courage. + +The Court sat in private, but orders that we should be admitted had +been given; and after a brief delay we were ushered into the hall of +audience--a lofty, panelled chamber, carved and fretted, having six +deep bays, and in each a window of stained glass. A number of +scutcheons and banners depended from the roof; at one end a huge +double eagle wearing the imperial crown pranced in all the pomp of +gold and tinctures; and behind the court, which consisted of the Chief +Magistrate and four colleagues, the sword of Justice was displayed. +But that which struck me far more than these things, was the stillness +that prevailed; which was such that, though there were a dozen persons +present when we entered, the creaking of our boots as we walked up the +floor, and the booming of distant cannon, seemed to be equally +audible. + +The Chief Magistrate rose and received my lady with due ceremony, +ordering a chair to be placed for her, and requesting her to be seated +at the end of the dais-table, behind which he sat. I took my stand at +a respectful distance behind her; and so far we had nothing to +complain of; but I felt my spirits sensibly dashed both by the +stillness and the sombre and almost forbidding faces of the five +judges. Two or three attendants stood by the doors, but neither the +King of Sweden nor any of his officers were present. I looked in vain +for Count Leuchtenstein; I could see nothing of him or of the +prisoners. The solemn air of the room, the silence, and the privacy of +the proceedings, all contributed to chill me. I could fancy myself +before a court of inquisitors, a Vehm-Gericht, or that famous Council +of Ten which sits, I have heard, at Venice; but for any of the common +circumstances of such tribunals as are usual in Germany, I could not +find them. + +I think that my lady was somewhat taken aback too; but she did not +betray it. After courteously thanking the Council for granting her an +audience, she explained that her object in seeking it was to state +certain facts on behalf of the Waldgrave Rupert of Weimar, her +kinsman, and to offer the evidence of her steward, a person of +respectability. + +'We are quite willing to hear your excellency,' the Chief Magistrate +answered in a grave, dry voice. 'But perhaps you will first inform us +to what these facts tend? It may shorten the inquiry.' + +'Some weeks ago,' my lady answered with dignity, 'the Waldgrave Rupert +was wounded in the head. From that time he has not been himself.' + +'Does your excellency mean that he is not aware of his actions?' + +'No,' my lady answered quietly. 'I do not go as far as that.'' + +'Or that he is not aware in what company he is?' the magistrate +persisted. + +'Oh no.' + +'Or that he is ignorant at any time where he is?' + +'No, but----' + +'One moment!' the Chief Magistrate stopped her with a courteous +gesture. 'Pardon me. In an instant, your excellency--to whom I +assure you that the Court are obliged, since we desire only to do +justice--will see to what my questions lead. I crave leave to put one +more, and then to put the same question to your steward. It is this: +Do you admit, Countess, that the Waldgrave Rupert was last night in +the house with Tzerclas, Neumann, and the other persons inculpated?' + +'Certainly,' my lady answered. 'I am so informed. I did not know that +that was in question,' she added, looking round with a puzzled air. + +'And you, my friend?' The Chief Magistrate fixed me with his small, +keen eyes. 'But first, what is your name?' + +'Martin Schwartz.' + +'Yes, I remember. The man who was saved from the villains. We could +have no better evidence. What do you say, then? 'Was the Waldgrave +Rupert last night in this house--the house in question?' + +'I saw him in the house,' I answered warily. 'In the hall. But he was +not in the room with Tzerclas and Neumann--the room in which I saw the +maps and plans.' + +'A fair answer,' the Burgomaster replied, nodding his head, 'and your +evidence might avail the accused. But the fact is--it is to this point +we desire to call your excellency's attention,' he continued, turning +with a dusty smile to my lady--'the Waldgrave steadily denies that he +was in the house at all.' + +'He denies that he was there?' my lady said. 'But was he not arrested +in the house?' + +'Yes,' the Chief Magistrate answered dryly, 'he was.' And he looked at +us in silence. + +'But--what does he say?' my lady asked faintly. + +'He affects to be ignorant of everything that has occurred in +connection with the house. He pretends that he does not know how he +comes to be in custody, that he does not know many things that have +lately occurred. For instance, three days ago,' the Burgomaster +continued with a chill smile,' I had the honour of meeting him at the +King of Sweden's quarters and talking with him. He says to-day that I +am a stranger to him, that we did not meet, that we did not talk, and +that he does not know where the King of Sweden's quarters are.' + +'Then,' my lady said sorrowfully, 'he is worse than he was. He is now +quite mad.' + +'I am afraid not,' the magistrate replied, shaking his head gravely. +'He is sane enough on other points. Only he will answer no questions +that relate to this conspiracy, or to his guilt.' + +'He is not guilty,' the Countess cried impetuously. 'Believe me, +however strangely he talks, he is incapable of such treachery!' + +'Your excellency forgets--that he was in this house!' + +'But with no evil intentions!' + +'Yet denies that he was there!' the Burgomaster concluded gravely. + +That silenced my lady, and she sat rolling her kerchief in her hands. +Against the five impassive faces that confronted her, the ten +inscrutable eyes that watched her; above all, against this strange, +this inexplicable denial, she could do nothing! At last-- + +'Will you hear my steward?' she asked--in despair, I think. + +'Certainly,' the Burgomaster answered. 'We wish to do so.' + +On that I told them all I knew; in what terms I had heard Neumann and +General Tzerclas refer to the Waldgrave; how unexpected had been his +appearance in the hall; how this interference had saved my life; and, +finally, my own conviction that he was not privy to Tzerclas' designs. + +The Court heard me with attention; the Burgomaster put a few +questions, and I answered them. Then, afraid to stop--for their faces +showed no relenting--I began to repeat what I had said before. But now +the Court remained silent; I stumbled, stammered, finally sank into +silence myself. The air of the place froze me; I seemed to be talking +to statues. + +The Countess was the first to break the spell. 'Well?' she cried, her +voice tremulous, yet defiant. + +The Burgomaster consulted his colleagues, and for the first time +something of animation appeared in their faces. But it lasted an +instant only. Then the others sat back in their chairs, and he turned +to my lady. + +'We are obliged to your excellency,' he said gravely and formally. +'And to your servant. But the Court sees no reason to change its +decision.' + +'And that is?' The Countess's voice was husky. She knew what was +coming. + +'That both prisoners suffer together.' + +For an instant I feared that my lady would do something unbecoming her +dignity, and either break into womanish sobs and lamentations, or +stoop to threats and insistence that must be equally unavailing. But +she had learned in command the man's lesson of control; and never had +I seen her more equal to herself. I knew that her heart was bounding +wildly; that her breast was heaving with indignation, pity, horror; +that she saw, as I saw, the fair head for which she pleaded, rolling +in the dust. But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly +from her seat. + +'I am obliged to you for your patience, sir,' she said, trembling but +composed. 'I had expected one to aid me in my prayer, who is not here. +And I can say no more. On his head be it. Only--I trust that you may +never plead with as good a cause--and be refused.' + +They rose and stood while she turned from them; and the two court +ushers with their wands went before her as she walked down the hall. +The silence, the formality, the creaking shoes, the very gules and +purpure that lay in pools on the floor--I think that they stifled her +as they stifled me; for when she reached the open air at last and I +saw her face, I saw that she was white to the lips. + +But she bore herself bravely; the surly crowd, that filled the Market +Square and hailed our appearance with a harsh murmur, grew silent +under her scornful eye, and partly out of respect, partly out of +complaisance, because they now felt sure of their victim, doffed their +caps to her and made room for us to pass. Every moment I expected her +to break down: to weep or cover her face. But she passed through all +proudly, and walked, unfaltering, back to our lodging. + +There on the threshold she did pause at last, just when I wished her +to go on. She stood and turned her head, listening. + + +[Illustration: But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly +from her seat.] + + +'What is that?' she said. + +'Cannon,' I answered hastily. 'In the trenches, my lady.' + +'No,' she said quietly. 'It is shouting. They have read the sentence.' + +She said no more, not another word; and went in quietly and upstairs +to her room. But I wondered and feared. Such composure as this seemed +to be unnatural, almost cruel. I could not think of the Waldgrave +myself without a lump coming in my throat. I could not face the +sunshine. And Steve and the men, when they heard, were no better. We +stood inside the doorway in a little knot, and looked at one another +mournfully. A man who passed--and did not know the house or who we +were--stopped to tell us that the sentence would be carried out at +sunset; and, pleased to have given us the news, went whistling down +the stale, sunny street. + +Steve growled out an oath. 'Who are these people,' he said savagely, +'that they should say my lady nay? When the Countess stoops to ask a +life--Himmel!--is she not to have it?' + +'Not here,' I said, shaking my head. + +'And why not?' + +'Because we are not at Heritzburg now,' I answered sadly. + +'But--are we nobody here?' he growled in a rage. 'Are we going to sit +still and let them kill my lady's own cousin?' + +I shrugged my shoulders. 'We have done all we can,' I said. + +'But there is some one can say nay to these curs!' he cried. And he +spat contemptuously into the street. He had a countryman's scorn of +townsfolk. 'Why don't we take the law into our own hands, Master +Martin?' + +'It is likely,' I said. 'One against ten thousand! And for the matter +of that, if the people are angry, it is not without cause. Did you see +the man under the archway?' + +Steve nodded. 'Dead,' he muttered. + +'Starved,' I said. 'He was a cripple. First the cripples. Then the +sound men. Life is cheap here.' + +Steve swore another oath. 'Those are curs. But our man--why don't we +go to the King of Sweden? I suppose he is a sort of cousin to my +lady?' + +'We have as good as gone to him,' I answered. At another time I might +have smiled at Steve's notion of my lady's importance. 'We have been +to one equally able to help us. And he has done us no good. And for +the matter of that, there is not time to go to the camp and back.' + +Steve began to fume and fret. The minutes went like lead. We were all +miserable together. Outside, the kennel simmered in the sun, the low +rumble of the cannon filled the air. I hated Nuremberg, the streets, +the people, the heat. I wished that I had never seen a stone of it. + +Presently one of the women came down stairs to us. 'Do you know if +there has been any fighting in the trenches to-day?' she asked. + +'Nothing to speak of,' I answered. 'As far as I have heard. Why?' + +'The Countess wishes to know,' she said. 'You have not heard of any +one being killed?' + +'No.' + +'Nor wounded?' + +'No.' + +She nodded and turned away. I called after her to know the reason of +her questions, but she flitted upstairs without giving me an answer, +and left us looking at one another. In a second, however, she was down +again. + +'My lady will see no one,' she said, with a face of mystery. 'You +understand, Master Martin? But--if any come of importance, you can +take her will.' + +I nodded. The woman cast a lingering look into the street and went +upstairs again. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + A POOR GUERDON. + + +I had slept scantily the night before, and the excitement of the last +twenty-four hours had worn me out. I was grieved for the gallant life +so swiftly ebbing, and miserable on my lady's account; but sorrow of +this kind is a sleepy thing, and the day was hot. I did not feel about +the Waldgrave as I had about Marie; and gradually my head nodded, and +nodded again, until I fell fast asleep, on the seat within the door. + +A man's voice, clear and penetrating, awoke me. 'Let him be,' it said. +'Hark you, fellow, let him be. He was up last night; I will announce +myself.' + +I was drowsy and understood only half of what I heard; and I should +have taken the speaker at his word, and turning over dropped off +again, if Steve had not kicked me and brought me to my feet with a cry +of pain. I stood an instant, bewildered, dazzled by the sunlight, +nursing my ankle in my hand. Then I made out where I was, and saw +through the arch of the entrance Count Leuchtenstein dismounting in +the street. As I looked, he threw the reins to a trooper who +accompanied him, and turned to come in. + +'Ah, my friend,' he said, nodding pleasantly, 'you are awake. I will +see your mistress.' + +I was not quite myself, and his presence took me aback. I stood +looking at him awkwardly. 'If your excellency will wait a moment,' I +faltered at last, 'I will take her pleasure.' + +He glanced at me a moment, as if surprised. Then he laughed. 'Go,' he +said. 'I am not often kept waiting.' + +I was glad to get away, and I ran upstairs; and knocking hurriedly at +the parlour door, went in. My lady, pale and frowning, with a little +book in her hand, got up hastily--from her knees, I thought. Marie +Wort, with tears on her cheeks, and Fraulein Max, looking scared, +stood behind her. + +The Countess looked at me, her eyes flashing. 'What is it?' she asked +sharply. + +'Count Leuchtenstein is below,' I said. + +'Well?' + +'He wishes to see your excellency.' + +'Did I not say that I would see no one?' + +'But Count Leuchtenstein?' + +She laughed a shrill laugh full of pain--a laugh that had something +hysterical in it. 'You thought that I would see _him?_' she cried. +'Him, I suppose, of all people? Go down, fool, and tell him that even +here, in this poor house, my doors are open to my friends and to them +only! Not to those who profess much and do nothing! Or to those who +bark and do not bite! Count Leuchtenstein? Pah, tell him---- Silence, +woman!' This to Marie, who would have interrupted her. 'Tell him what +I have told you, man, word for word. Or no'--and she caught herself up +with a mocking smile, such as I had never seen on her face before. +'Tell him this instead--that the Countess Rotha is engaged with the +Waldgrave Rupert, and wants no other company! Yes, tell him that--it +will bite home, if he has a conscience! He might have saved him, and +he would not! Now, when I would pray, which is all women can do, he +comes here! Oh, I am sick! I am sick!' + +I saw that she was almost beside herself with grief; and I stood +irresolute, my heart aching for her. What I dared not do, Marie did. +She sprang forward, and seizing the Countess's hand, knelt beside her, +covering it with kisses. + +'Oh, my lady!' she cried through her tears. 'Don't be so hard. See +him. See him. Even at this last moment.' + +With an inarticulate cry the Countess flung her off so forcibly that +the girl fell to the ground. 'Be silent!' my lady cried, her eyes on +fire. 'Or go to your prayers, wench. To your prayers! And do you +begone! Begone, and on your peril give my message, word for word!' + +I saw nothing for it but to obey; and I went down full of dismay. I +could understand my lady's grief, and that I had come upon her at an +inopportune moment. But the self-control which she had exhibited +before the Court rendered the violence of her rage now the more +surprising. I had never seen her in this mood, and her hardness +shocked me. I felt myself equally bewildered and grieved. + +I found Count Leuchtenstein waiting on the step, with his face to the +street. He turned as I descended. 'Well?' he said, smiling. 'Am I to +go up, my friend?' + +I saw that he had not the slightest doubt of my answer, and his +cheerfulness kindled a sort of resentment in my breast. He seemed to +be so well content, so certain of his reception, so calm and +strong--and, at this very moment--for the sunshine had left the street +and was creeping up the tiles--they might be leading out the +Waldgrave! I had liked my lady's message very little when she gave it +to me; now I rejoiced that I could sting him with it. + +'My lady is not very well,' I said. 'The sentence on the Waldgrave has +upset her.' + +He smiled. 'But she will receive me?' he said. + +'Craving your excellency's indulgence, I do not think that she will +receive any one.' + +'You told her that I was here?' + +'Yes, your excellency. And she said----' + +His face fell. 'Tut! tut!' he exclaimed. 'But I come on purpose +to---- What did she say, man?' + +The smile was gone from his lips, but I caught it lurking in his eyes; +and it hardened me to do her bidding. 'I was to tell your excellency +that she could not receive you,' I said, 'that she was engaged with +the Waldgrave.' + +He started and stared at me, his expression slowly passing from +amazement to anger. 'What!' he exclaimed at last, in a cutting tone. +'Already?' And his lip curled with a kind of disgust. 'You have given +me the message exactly, have you?' + +'Yes, your excellency,' I said, quailing a little. But servants know +when to be stupid, and I affected stupidity, fixing my eyes on his +breast and pretending to see nothing. He turned, and for a moment I +thought that he was going without a word. Then on the steps he turned +again. 'You have heard the news, then?' he said sourly. He had already +regained his self-control. + +'Yes, my lord.' + +'Ah! Well, you lose no time in your house,' he replied grimly. 'Call +my horse!' + +I called the man, who had wandered a little way up the street, and he +brought it. As I held the Count's stirrup for him to mount, I noticed +how heavily he climbed to his saddle, and that he settled himself into +it with a sigh; but the next moment he laughed, as at himself. I stood +back expecting him to say something more, or to leave some message, +but he did not even look at me again; he touched his horse with the +spur, and walked away steadily. I stood and watched him until he +reached the end of the street--until he turned the corner and +disappeared. + +Even then I still stood looking after him, partly sorry and partly +puzzled, for quite a long time. It was only when I turned to go in +that I missed Steve and the men, and began to wonder what had become +of them. I had left them with the Count at the door--they were gone +now. I looked up and down, I could see them nowhere. I went in and +asked the women; but they were not with them. The sunset gun had just +gone off, and one of the girls was crying hysterically, while the +others sat round her, white and frightened. This did not cheer me, nor +enliven the house. I came out again, vowing vengeance on the truants; +and there in the entrance, facing me, standing where the Count had +stood a few minutes before, I saw the last man I looked to see! + +I gasped and gave back a step. The sun was gone, the evening light was +behind the man, and his face was in the shadow. His figure showed dark +against the street. 'Ach Gott!' I cried, and stood still, stricken. It +was the Waldgrave! + +'Martin!' he said. + +I gave back another step. The street was quiet, the house like the +grave. For a moment the figure did not move, but stood there gazing at +me. Then-- + +'Why, Martin!' he cried. 'Don't you know me?' + +Then, not until then, I did--for a man and not a ghost; and I caught +his hand with a cry of joy. 'Welcome, my lord, welcome!' I said, grown +hot all over. 'Thank God that you have escaped!' + +'Yes,' he said, and his tone was his own old tone, 'thank God; Him +first, and then my friends. Steve and Ernst I have seen already; they +heard the news from the Count's man, and came to meet me, and I have +sent them on an errand, by your leave. And now, where is my cousin?' + +'Above,' I answered. 'But----' + +'But what?' he said quickly. + +'I think that I had better prepare her.' + +'She does not know?' + +'No, your excellency. Nor did I, until I saw you.' + +'But Count Leuchtenstein has been here. Did he not tell you?' he asked +in surprise. + +'Not a word!' I answered. And then I stopped, conscience-stricken. +'Himmel! I remember now,' I said. 'He asked me if we had heard the +news; and I, like a dullard, dreaming that he meant other news, and +the worst, said yes!' + +The Waldgrave shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, go to her now, and tell +her,' he said. 'I want to see her; I want to thank her. I have a +hundred things to say to her. Quick, Martin, for I am laden with +debts, and I choke to pay some of them.' + +I ran upstairs, marvelling. On the lobby I met Fraulein Max coming +down. 'What is it?' she asked impatiently. + +'The Waldgrave! He has been released! He is here!' I cried in a +breath. + +She stared at me while a man might count ten. Then to my astonishment +she laughed aloud. 'Who released him?' she asked. + +'The magistrates,' I said. 'I suppose so. I don't know.' I had not +given the matter a thought. + +'Not Count Leuchtenstein?' + +I started. 'So!' I muttered, staring at her in my turn. 'It must have +been he. The Waldgrave said something about him. And he must have come +here to tell us.' + +'And you gave him my lady's message?' + +'Alas! yes.' + +Fraulein Max laughed again, and kept on laughing, until I grew hot all +over, and could have struck her for her malice. She saw at last that I +was angry, and she stopped. 'Tut! tut!' she said, 'it is nothing. But +that disposes of the old man. Now for the young one. He is here?' + +'Yes.' + +'Then why do you not show him up?' + +'She must be prepared,' I muttered. + +She laughed again; this time after a different fashion. 'Oh you fools +of men!' she said. 'She must be prepared? Do you think that women are +made of glass and that a shock breaks them? That she will die of joy? +Or would have died of grief? Send him up, gaby, and I will prepare +her! Send him up.' + +I supposed that she knew women's ways, and I gave in to her, and sent +him up; and I do not know that any harm was done. But, as a result of +this, I was not present when my lady and the Waldgrave met, and I only +learned by hearsay what happened. + + + * * * * * + + +An hour or two later, when the bustle of shrieks and questions had +subsided, and the excitement caused by his return had somewhat worn +itself out, Marie slipped out to me on the stairs, and sat with me in +the darkness, talking. The gate of curious ironwork which guarded the +house entrance was closed for the night; but the moon was up, and its +light, falling through the scrollwork, lay like a pale, reedy pool at +our feet. The men were at supper, the house was quiet, the city was +for a little while still. Not a foot sounded on the roadway; only +sometimes a skulking dog came ghost-like to the bars and sniffed, and +sneaked noiselessly away. + +I have said that we talked, but in truth we sat long silent, as lovers +have sat these thousand years, I suppose, in such intervals of calm. +The peace of the night lapped us round; after the perils and hurry, +the storm and stress of many days, we were together and at rest, and +content to be silent. All round us, under the covert of darkness, +under the moonlight, the city lay quaking; dreading the future, torn +by pangs in the present; sleepless, or dreaming of death and outrage, +ridden by the nightmare of Wallenstein. But for the moment we recked +nothing of this, nothing of the great camp round us, nothing of the +crash of nations. We were of none of these. We had one another, and it +was enough; loved one another, and the rest went by. For the moment we +tasted perfect peace; and in the midst of the besieged city, were as +much alone, as if the moonlight at our feet had been, indeed, a forest +pool high in the hills over Heritzburg. + +Does some old man smile? Do I smile myself now, though sadly? A brief +madness, was it? Nay; but what if then only we were sane, and for a +moment saw things as they are--lost sight of the unreal and awoke to +the real? I once heard a wise man from Basle say something like that +at my lady's table. The men, I remember, stared; the women looked +thoughtful. + +For all that, it was Marie who on this occasion broke the trance. The +town clock struck ten, and at the sound hundreds, I dare swear, turned +on their pillows, thinking of the husbands and sons and lovers whom +the next light must imperil. My girl stirred. + +'Ah!' she murmured, 'the poor Countess! Can we do nothing?' + +'Do?' I said. 'What should, we do? The Waldgrave is back, and in his +right mind; which of all the things I have ever known, is the oddest. +That a man should lose his senses under one blow, and recover them +under another, and remember nothing that has happened in the +interval--it almost passes belief.' + +'Yet it is true.' + +'I suppose so,' I answered. 'The Waldgrave was mad--I can bear witness +to it--and now he is sane. There is no more to be said.' + +'But the Countess, Martin?' + +'Well, I do not know that she is the worse,' I answered stupidly. 'She +sent off the Count with a flea in his ear, and a poor return it was. +But she can explain it to him, and after all, she has got the +Waldgrave back, safe and sound. That is the main thing.' + +Marie sighed, and moved restlessly. 'Is it?' she said. 'I wish I +knew.' + +'What?' I asked, drawing her little head on to my shoulder. + +'What my lady wishes?' + +'Eh?' + +'Which?' + +My jaw fell. I stared into the darkness open-mouthed. 'Why,' I +exclaimed at last, 'he is sixty--or fifty-five at least, girl!' + +Marie laughed softly, with her face on my breast. 'If she loves him,' +she murmured. 'If she loves him.' And she hung on me. + +I sat amazed, confounded, thinking no more of Marie, though my arm was +round her, than of a doll. 'But he is fifty five,' I said. + +'And if you were fifty-five, do you think that I should not love you?' +she whispered. 'When you are fifty-five, do you think that I shall not +love you? Besides, he is strong, brave, famous--a man; and she is not +a girl, but a woman. If the Count be too old, is not the Waldgrave too +young?' + +'Yes,' I said cunningly. 'But why either?' + +'Because love is in the air,' Marie answered; and I knew that she +smiled, though the gloom hid her face. 'Because there is a change in +her. Because she knows things and sees things and feels things of +which she was ignorant before. And because--because it is so, my +lord.' + +I whistled. This was beyond me. 'And yet you don't know which?' I +said. + +'No; I suspect.' + +'Well--but the Waldgrave?' I exclaimed. 'Why, mädchen, he is one of +the handsomest men I have ever seen. An Apollo! A Fairy Prince! It is +not possible that she should prefer the other.' + +Marie laughed. 'Ah!' she said, 'if men chose all the husbands, there +would be few wives.' + + + * * * * * + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + TWO MEN. + + +The Waldgrave's return to his old self, and to the frankness and +gaiety that, when we first knew him at Heritzburg, had surrounded him +with a halo of youth, was perhaps the most noteworthy event of all +within my experience. For the return proved permanent, the +transformation was perfect. The moodiness, the crookedness, the crafty +humours that for weeks had darkened and distorted the man's nature--so +that another and a worse man seemed to look out of his eyes and speak +with his mouth--were gone, leaving no cloud or remembrance. He had +been mad; he was now as sane as the best. Only one peculiarity +remained--and for a few days a little pallor and weakness--of all the +things that had befallen him between his first wound and his second, +he could remember nothing, not a jot or tittle; nor could any amount +of allusion or questioning bring these things back to him. After many +attempts we desisted; but there were always some who, from this date, +regarded him with a certain degree of awe--as a man who had been for a +time in the flesh, and yet not of it. + +With sanity returned also all the wholesome ambitions and desires that +had formerly moved the man; and amongst these his passion for my lady. +He lay at our house that night, and spent the next two days there, +recovering his strength; and I had more than one opportunity of +marking the assiduity with which he followed all the Countess's +movements with his eyes, the change which his voice underwent when he +spoke to her, and his manner when he came into her presence. In a +word, he seemed to take up his love where he had dropped it--at the +point it had reached when he rode down into the green valley and +secured his rival's victory at so great a cost; at the point at which +Tzerclas' admiration and my lady's rebuff had at once strengthened and +purified it. + +Now Tzerclas was gone from the field--magically, as it seemed +to the Waldgrave. And, magically also--for he knew nothing of its +flight--time had passed; days and weeks running into months--a +sufficiency of time, he hoped, to remove unfavourable impressions from +her mind, to obliterate the memory of that unhappy banquet, and +replace him on the pinnacle he had occupied at Heritzburg. + +But he soon found that, though Tzerclas was gone and the field seemed +open, all was not to be had for the asking. My lady was kind; she had +a smile for him, and pleasant words, and a ready ear. But before he +had been in the house twenty-four hours, he came and confided to me +that something was wrong. The Countess was changed; was pettish as +he had never seen her before; absent and thoughtful, traits equally +new; restless--and placid dignity had been one of her chief +characteristics. + +'What is it, Martin?' he said, knitting his brows and striding to and +fro in frank perplexity. 'It cannot be that, after all that has +passed, she is fretting for that villain Tzerclas?' + +'After risking her life to escape from him?' I answered dryly. 'No, I +think not, my lord.' + +'If I ever set eyes on him again I will end him!' the Waldgrave cried, +still clinging, I think, to his idea, and exasperated by it. He strode +up and down a time or two, and did not grow cooler. 'If it is not +that, what is it?' he said at last. + +'There are not many light hearts in Nuremberg,' I suggested. 'And of +those, few are women's. There must be an end of this soon.' + +'You think it is that?' he said. + +'Why not?' I answered. 'I am told that the horses are dying by +hundreds in the camp. The men will die next. In the end the King will +have to march away, or see his army perish piecemeal. In either case +the city will pay for all. Wallenstein will swoop down on it, and make +of it another and greater Magdeburg. That is a poor prospect for the +weak and helpless.' + +'It is those rascally Croats!' the Waldgrave groaned. 'They cover the +country like flies--are here and there and nowhere all in the same +minute, and burn and harry and leave us nothing. We have no troops of +that kind.' + +'There was plundering in the Wert suburb last night,' I said. 'The +King blames the Germans.' + +'Soldiers are bad to starve,' the Waldgrave answered. + +'Yes; they will see the townsfolk suffer first,' I rejoined, with a +touch of bitterness. 'But look whichever way you please, it is a +gloomy outlook, my lord, and I do not wonder that my lady is +down-hearted.' + +He nodded, but presently he said something that showed that he was not +satisfied. 'The Countess used to be of a bolder spirit,' he muttered. +'I don't understand it.' + +I did not know how to answer him, and fortunately, at that moment, +Marie came down to say that my lady proposed to visit Count +Leuchtenstein, and that I was to go to her. The Waldgrave heard, and +raced up before me, crying out that he would go too. I followed. When +I reached the parlour I found them confronting one another, my lady +standing in the oriel with her back to the street. + +'But would it not be more seemly?' the Waldgrave was saying as I +entered. 'As your cousin, and----' + +'I would rather go alone,' the Countess replied curtly. + +'To the camp?' he exclaimed. 'He is not in his city quarters.' + +'Yes, to the camp,' my lady answered, with, a spark of anger in her +eyes. + +On that he stood, fidgety and discomfited, and the Countess gave me +her orders. But he could not believe that she did not need him, and +the moment she was silent, he began again. + +'You do not want me; but you do not object to my company, I suppose?' +he said airily. 'I have to thank the Count, cousin, and I must go +to-day or to-morrow. There is no time like the present, and if you are +going now----' + +'I should prefer to go alone,' my lady said stiffly. + +His face fell; he stood looking foolish. 'Oh, I did not know,' he +stammered at last; 'I thought----' + +'What?' the Countess said. + +'That you liked me well enough--to--to be glad of my company,' he +answered, half offended, half in deprecation. + +'I liked you well enough to abase myself for you!' my lady retorted +cruelly. And I dare say that she said more, but I did not hear it. I +had to go down and prepare for her visit. + +When I next saw him, he was much subdued. He seemed to be turning +something over in his mind, and by-and-by he asked me a question about +Count Leuchtenstein. I saw which way his thoughts were tending, or +fancied that I did; but it was not my business to interfere one way or +the other, and I answered him and made no comment. The horses were at +the door then, and in a moment my lady came down, looking pale and +depressed. The Waldgrave went humbly to her, and put her into her +saddle, touching her foot as if it had been glass; and I mounted +Marie, who was to attend her. I expected that my lady--who had a very +tender heart under her queenly manner--would say something to him +before we started; but she seemed to be quite taken up with her +thoughts, and to be barely conscious, if conscious at all, of his +presence. She said 'Thank you,' but it was mechanically. And the next +moment we were moving, Ernst making up the escort. + +My eyes soon furnished me with other matter for thought than the +Waldgrave. Throughout the city the summer drought had dried up the +foliage of the trees; and the grass, where it had not been plucked by +the poor and boiled for food, had been eaten to the roots by starving +cattle. The whole city under the blaze of sunshine wore an arid, +dusty, parched appearance, and seemed to reflect on its face the look +of dreary endurance which was worn by too many of the countenances we +observed in the streets. Pain creeps by instinct to some dark and +solitary place; but here was a whole city in pain, gasping and +suffering under the pitiless sunshine; and the contrast between the +blue sky above and the scene below added indescribably to the gloom +and dreariness of the latter. I know that I got a horror of sunshine +there that lasted for many a month after. + +Either twenty-four hours had aggravated the pinch of famine, which was +possible, or I had a more open mind to perceive it. I marked more +hollow cheeks than ever, more hungry eyes, more faces with the +glare of brutes. And in the bearing of the crowd that filled the +streets--though no business was done, no trade carried on--I thought +that I saw a change. Wherever it was thickest, I noticed that men +walked in one of two ways, either hurrying along feverishly and in +haste, as if time were of the utmost value, or moving listlessly, with +dragging feet and lacklustre eyes, as if nothing had any longer power +to stir them. I even noticed that the same men went in both ways +within the space of a minute, passing in a second and apparently +without intention from feverish activity to the moodiness of despair. + +And no wonder. Not only famine, but pestilence had tightened its grasp +on the city; and from this the rich had as much to fear as the poor. +As we drew near the walls the smell of carrion, which had hitherto but +spoiled the air, filled the nostrils and sickened the whole man. In +some places scores of horses lay unburied, while it was whispered that +in obscure corners death had so far outstripped the grave-diggers that +corpses lay in the houses and the living slept with the dead. There +was fighting in front of the bakers' shops in more than one place--my +lady had to throw money before we could pass; in the kennels women +screamed and fought for offal; from the open doors of churches prayers +and wailing poured forth; at the gates, where gibbets, laden with +corpses, rose for a warning, multitudes stood waiting and listening +for news. And on all, dead and living, the sun shone hotly, steadily, +ruthlessly, so that men asked with one voice, 'How long? How long?' + +In the camp, which had just received huge reinforcements of men and +horses, we found order and discipline at least. Rows of kettles and +piles of arms proclaimed it, and lines of pennons that stretched +almost as far as the eye could reach. But here, too, were knitted +brows, and gloomy looks, and loud murmurings, that grew and swelled as +we passed. Count Leuchtenstein's quarters were on the border of the +Swedish camp, near the Finland regiments, and not far from the King's. +A knot of officers, who stood talking in front of them and knew my +lady, came to place themselves at her service. But the offer proved to +be abortive, for the first thing she learned was that the Count was +absent. He had gone at dawn in the direction of Altdorf to cover the +entrance of a convoy. + +I felt that she was grievously disappointed, for whether she loved him +or not, I could understand the humiliation under which she smarted, +and would smart until she had set herself right with him. But she +veiled her chagrin admirably, and, lightly refusing the offer of +refreshment, turned her horse's head at once, so that in a twinkling +we were on our road home again. + +By the way, I saw only what I had seen before. But the Countess, whose +figure began to droop, saw, I think, with other eyes than those +through which she had looked on the outward journey. Her thoughts no +longer occupied, she saw in their fulness the ravages which famine and +plague were making in the town, once so prosperous. When she reached +her lodgings her first act was to send money, of which we had no great +store, to the magistrates, that a free meal in addition to the +starvation rations might be given to the poor; and her next, to +declare that henceforth she would keep the house. + +Accordingly, instead of going again to the Count's, she sent me next +day with a letter. I found the camp in an uproar, which was fast +spreading to the city. A rumour had just got wind that the King was +about to break up his camp and give battle to the enemy at all +hazards; and so many were riding and running into the city with the +news that I could scarcely make head against the current. + +Arriving at last, however, I was fortunate enough to find the Count in +his quarters and alone. My lady had charged me--with a blushing cheek +but stern eyes--to deliver the letter with my own hands, and I +dismounted. I thought that I had nothing to do but deliver it; I +foresaw no trouble. But at the last moment, as a trooper led me +through the antechamber, who should appear at my side but the +Waldgrave! + +'You did not expect to see me?' he said, nodding grimly. + +'No, my lord,' I answered. + +'So I thought,' he rejoined. 'But before you give the Count that +letter, I have a word to say to him.' + +I looked at him in astonishment. What had the letter to do with him? +My first idea was that he had been drinking, for his colour was high +and his eye bright. But a second glance showed that he was sober, +though excited. And while I hesitated the trooper held up the curtain, +and perforce I marched in. + +Count Leuchtenstein, wearing his plain buff suit, sat writing at a +table. His corselet, steel cap, and gauntlets lay beside him, and +seemed to show that he had just come in from the field. He looked up +and nodded to me; I had been announced before. Then he saw the +Waldgrave and rose; reluctantly, I fancied. I thought, too, that a +shade of gloom fell on his face; but as the table was laden with +papers and despatches and maps and lists, and the sight reminded me +that he bore on his shoulders all the affairs of Hesse, and the +responsibility for the boldest course taken by any German prince in +these troubles, I reflected that this might arise from a hundred +causes. + +He greeted the Waldgrave civilly nevertheless; then he turned to me. +'You have a letter for me, have you not, my friend?' he said. + +'Yes, my lord,' I answered. + +'But,' the Waldgrave interposed, 'before you read it, I have a word to +say, by your leave, Count Leuchtenstein.' + +I think I never saw a man more astonished than the Count. 'To me?' he +said. + +'By your leave, yes.' + +'In regard to--this letter?' + +'Yes.' + +'But what do you know about this letter?' + +'Too much, I am afraid,' the Waldgrave answered; and I am bound to say +that, putting aside the extraordinary character of his interference, +he bore himself well. I could detect nothing of wildness or delusion +in his manner. His face glowed, and he threw back his head with a hint +of defiance; but he seemed sane. 'Too much,' he continued rapidly, +before the Count could stop him; 'and, before the matter goes farther, +I will have my say.' + +The Count stared at him. 'By what right?' he said at last. + +'As the Countess Rotha's nearest kinsman,' the Waldgrave answered. + +'Indeed?' I could see that the Count was hard put to it to keep his +temper; that the old lion in him was stirring, and would soon have +way. But for the moment he controlled himself. 'Say on,' he cried. + +'I will, in a few words,' the Waldgrave answered. 'And what I have to +say amounts to this: I have become aware--no matter how--of the +bargain you have made, Count Leuchtenstein, and I will not have it.' + +'The bargain!' the Count ejaculated; 'you will not have it!' + +'The bargain; and I will not have it!' the Waldgrave rejoined. + +Count Leuchtenstein drew a deep breath, and stared at him like a man +demented. 'I think that you must be mad,' he said at last. 'If not, +tell me what you mean.' + +'What I say,' the Waldgrave answered stubbornly. 'I forbid the bargain +to which I have no doubt that that letter relates.' + +'In Heaven's name, what bargain?' the Count cried. + +'You think that I do not know,' the Waldgrave replied, with a touch of +bitterness; 'it did not require a Solomon to read the riddle. I found +my cousin distrait, absent, moody, sad, preoccupied, unlike herself. +She had moved heaven and earth, I was told, to save me; in the last +resort, had come to you, and you saved me. Yet when she saw me safe, +she met me as much in sorrow as in joy. The mere mention of your name +clouded her face; and she must see you, and she must write to you, and +all in a fever. I say, it does not require a Solomon to read this +riddle, Count Leuchtenstein.' + +'You think?' said the Count, bluntly. 'I do not yet know what you +think.' + +'I think that she sold herself to you to win my pardon,' the Waldgrave +answered. + +For a moment I did not know how Count Leuchtenstein would take it. He +stood gazing at the Waldgrave, his hand on a chair, his face purple, +his eyes starting. At length, to my relief and the Waldgrave's utter +dismay and shame, he sank into the chair and broke into a hoarse shout +of laughter--laughter that was not all merriment, but rolled, in its +depths something stern and sardonic. + +The Waldgrave changed colour, glared and fumed; but the Count was +pitiless, and laughed on. At last: 'Thanks, Waldgrave, thanks,' he +said. 'I am glad I let you go on to the end. But pardon me if I say +that you seem to do the Lady Rotha something less than justice, and +yourself something more.' + +'How?' the Waldgrave stammered. He was quite out of countenance. + +'By flattering yourself that she could rate you so highly,' Count +Leuchtenstein retorted, 'or fall herself so low. Nay, do not threaten +me,' he continued with grim severity. 'It was not I who brought her +name into question. I never dreamed of, never heard of, never +conceived such a bargain as you have described; nor, I may add, ever +thought of the Lady Rotha except with reverence and chivalrous regard. +Have I said enough?' he continued, rising, and speaking with growing +indignation, with eyes that seemed to search the culprit; 'or must I +say too, Waldgrave, that I do not traffic in men's lives, nor buy +women's favours, nor sell pardons? That such power as God and my +master have given me I use to their honour and not for my own +pleasure? And, finally, that this, of which you accuse me, I would not +do, though to do it were to prolong my race through a dozen centuries? +For shame, boy, for shame!' he continued more calmly. 'If my mind has +gone the way you trace it, I call it back to-day. I have done with +love; I am too old for aught but duty, if love can lead even a young +man's mind so far astray.' + +The Waldgrave shivered; but the position was beyond words, and he +essayed none. With a slight movement of his hand, as if he would have +shielded himself, or deprecated the other's wrath, he turned towards +the door. I saw his face for an instant; it was pale, despairing--and +with reason. He had exposed my lady. He had exposed himself. He had +invited such a chastisement as must for ever bring the blood to his +cheeks. And his cousin: what would she say? He had lost her. She would +never forgive him--never! He groped blindly for the opening in the +curtain. + +His hand was on it--and I think that, for all his manhood, the tears +were very near his eyes--when the other called after him in an altered +tone. + +'Stay!' Count Leuchtenstein said. 'We will not part thus. I can see +that you are sorry. Do not be so hasty another time, and do not be too +quick to think evil. For the rest, our friend here will be silent, and +I will be silent.' + +The Waldgrave gazed at him, his lips quivering, his eyes full. At +last: 'You will not tell--the Countess Rotha?' he said almost in a +whisper. + +The Count looked down at his table, and pettishly pushed some +papers together. For an instant he did not answer. Then he said +gruffly,--'No. Why should she know? If she chooses you, well and good; +if not, why trouble her with tales?' + +'Then!' the Waldgrave cried with a sob in his voice, 'you are a better +man than I am!' + +The Count shrugged his shoulders rather sadly. 'No,' he said, 'only an +older one.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + SUSPENSE. + + +For a little while after the Waldgrave had retired, Count +Leuchtenstein stood turning my lady's letter over in his hands, his +thoughts apparently busy. I had leisure during this time to compare +the plainness of his dress with the greatness of his part, to which +his conduct a moment before had called my attention; and the man with +his reputation. No German had at this time so much influence with the +King of Sweden as he; nor did the world ever doubt that it was at his +instance that the Landgrave, first of all German princes, flung his +sword into the Swedish scale. Yet no man could be more unlike the dark +Wallenstein, the crafty Arnim, the imperious Oxenstierna, or the +sleepless French cardinal, whose star has since risen--as I have heard +these men described; for Leuchtenstein carried his credentials in his +face. An honest, massive downrightness and a plain sagacity seemed to +mark him, and commend him to all who loved the German blood. + +My eyes presently wandered from him, and detected among the papers on +the table the two stands I had seen in his town quarters--the one +bearing his child's necklace, the other his wife's portrait. Doubtless +they lay on the table wherever he went--among assessments and imposts, +regimental tallies and state papers. I confess that my heart warmed at +the sight; that I found something pleasing in it; greatness had not +choked the man. And then my thoughts were diverted: he broke open my +lady's letter, and turning his back on me began to read. + +I waited, somewhat impatiently. He seemed to be a long time over it, +and still he read, his eyes glued to the page. I heard the paper +rustle in his hands. At last he turned, and I saw with a kind of shock +that his face was dark and flushed. There was a strange gleam in his +eyes as he looked at me. He struck the paper twice with his hand. + +'Why was this kept from me?' he exclaimed. 'Why? Why?' + +'My lord!' I said in astonishment. 'It was delivered to me only an +hour ago.' + +'Fool!' he answered harshly, bending his bushy eyebrows. 'When did +that girl get free?' + +'That girl?' + +'Ay, that girl! Girl, I said. What is her name? Marie Wort?' + +'This is Saturday. Wednesday night,' I said. + +'Wednesday night? And she told you of the child then; of my +child--that this villain has it yonder! And you kept it from me all +Thursday and Friday--Thursday and Friday,' he repeated with a fierce +gesture, 'when I might have done something, when I might have acted! +Now you tell me of it, when we march out to-morrow, and it is too +late. Ah! It was ungenerous of her--it was not like her!' + +'The Countess came yesterday in person,' I muttered. + +'Ay, but the day before!' he retorted. 'You saw me in the morning! You +said nothing. In the evening I called at the Countess's lodgings; she +would not see me. A mistake was it? Yes, but grant the mistake; was it +kind, was it generous to withhold _this?_ If I had been as remiss as +she thought me, as slack a friend--was it just, was it womanly? In +Heaven's name, no! No!' he repeated fiercely. + +'We were taken up with the Waldgrave's peril,' I muttered, +conscience-stricken. 'And yesterday, my lady----' + +'Ay, yesterday!' he retorted bitterly. 'She would have told me +yesterday. But why not the day before? The truth is, you thought +much of your own concerns and your lady's kin, but of mine and my +child--nothing! Nothing!' he repeated sternly. + +And I could not but feel that his anger was justified. For myself, I +had clean forgotten the child; hence my silence at my former +interview. For my lady, I think that at first the Waldgrave's danger +and later, when she knew of his safety, remorse for the part she had +played, occupied her wholly, yet, every allowance made, I felt that +the thing had an evil appearance; and I did not know what to say to +him. + +He sighed, staring absently before him. At last, after a prolonged +silence, 'Well, it is too late now,' he said. 'Too late. The King +moves out to-morrow, and my hands are full, and God only knows the +issue, or who of us will be living three days hence. So there is an +end.' + +'My lord!' I cried impulsively. 'God forgive me, I forgot.' + +He shrugged his shoulders with a grand kind of patience. 'Just so,' he +said. 'And now, go back to your mistress. If I live I will answer her +letter. If not--it matters not.' + +I was terribly afraid of him, but my love for Marie had taught me some +things; and though he waved me to the door, I stood my ground a +moment. + +'To you, my lord, no,' I said. 'Nothing. But to her, if you fall +without answering her letter----' + +'What?'he said. + +'You can best judge from the letter, my lord.' + +'You think that she would suffer?' he answered harshly, his +face growing red again. 'Well, what say you, man? Does she not +deserve to suffer? Do you know what this delay may cost me? What it +may mean for my child? Mein Gott,' he continued, raising his voice and +striking his hand heavily on the table, 'you try me too far! Your +mistress was angry. Have I no right to be angry? Have I no right to +punish? Go! I have no more to say.' + +And I had to go, then and there, enraged with myself, and fearful that +I had said too much in my lady's behalf. I had invited this last +rebuff, and I did not see how I should dare to tell her of it, or that +I had exposed her to it. I had made things worse instead of better, +and perhaps, after all, the message he had framed might not have hurt +her much, or fallen far short of her expectations. + +I should have troubled myself longer about this, but for the +increasing bustle and stir of preparation that had spread by this time +from the camp to the city; and filling the way with a throng of people +whom the news affected in the most different ways, soon diverted my +attention. While some, ready to welcome any change, shouted with joy, +others wept and wrung their hands, crying out that the city was +betrayed, and that the King was abandoning it. Others again +anticipated an easy victory, looked on the frowning heights of the +Alta Veste as already conquered, and divided Wallenstein's spoils. +Everywhere I saw men laughing, wailing, or shaking hands; some eating +of their private hoards, others buying and selling horses, others +again whooping like lunatics. + +In the city the shops, long shut, were being opened, orderlies were +riding to and fro, crowds were hurrying to the churches to pray for +the King's success; a general stir of relief and expectancy was +abroad. The sunshine still fell hot on the streets, but under it life +moved and throbbed. The apathy of suffering was gone, and with it the +savage gloom that had darkened innumerable brows. From window and +dormer, from low door-ways, from carven eaves and gables, gaunt faces +looked down on the stir, and pale lips prayed, and dull eyes glowed +with hope. + +While I was still a long way off I saw my lady at the oriel watching +for me. I saw her face light up when she caught sight of me; and if, +after that, I could have found any excuse for loitering in the street, +or putting off my report, I should have been thankful. But there was +no escape. In a moment the animation of the street was behind me, the +silence of the house 'fell round me, and I stood before her. She was +alone. I think that Marie had been with her; if so, she had sent her +away. + +'Well?' she said, looking keenly at me, and doubtless drawing her +conclusions from my face. 'The Count was away?' + +'No, my lady.' + +'Then--you saw him?' with surprise. + +'Yes.' + +'And gave him the letter?' + +'Yes, my lady.' + +'Well'--this with impatience, and her foot began to tap the +floor--'did he give you no answer?' + +'No, my lady.' + +She looked astonished, offended, then troubled. 'Neither in writing +nor by word of mouth?' she said faintly. + +'Only--that the King was about to give battle,' I stammered; 'and +that if he survived, he would answer your excellency.' + +She started, and looked at me searchingly, her colour fading +gradually. 'That was all!' she said at last, a quaver in her voice. +'Tell me all, Martin. Count Leuchtenstein was offended, was he not?' + +'I think that he was hurt, your excellency,' I confessed. 'He thought +that the news about his child--should have been sent to him sooner. +That was all.' + +'All!' she ejaculated; and for a moment she said no more, but with +that word, which thrilled me, she began to pace the floor. 'All!' she +repeated presently. 'But I--yes, I am justly punished. I cannot +confess to him; I will confess to you. Your girl would have had me +tell him this, or let her tell him this. She pressed me; she went on +her knees to me that evening. But I hardened my heart, and now I am +punished. I am justly punished.' + +I was astonished. Not that she took it lightly, for there was that in +her tone as well as in her face that forbade the thought; but that she +took it with so little passion, without tears or anger, and having +been schooled so seldom in her life bore this schooling so patiently. +She stood for a time after she had spoken, looking from the window +with a wistful air, and her head drooping; and I fancied that she had +forgotten my presence. But by-and-by she began to ask questions about +the camp, and the preparations, and what men thought of the issue, and +whether Wallenstein would come down from his heights or the King be +driven to the desperate task of assaulting them. I told her all that I +had heard. Then she said quietly that she would go to church; and she +sent me to call Fraulein Max to go with her. + +I found the Dutch girl sitting in a corner with her back to the +windows, through which Marie and the women were gazing at the bustle +and uproar and growing excitement of the street. She was reading in a +great dusty book, and did not look up when I entered. Seeing her so +engrossed, I had the curiosity to ask her, before I gave her my lady's +message, what the book was. + +'"The Siege of Leyden,"' she said, lifting her pale face for an +instant, and then returning to her reading. 'By Bor.' + +I could not refrain from smiling. It seemed to me so whimsical that +she could find interest in the printed page, in this second-hand +account of a siege, and none in the actual thing, though she had only +to go to the window to see it passing before her eyes. Doubtless she +read in Bor how men and women thronged the streets of Leyden to hear +each new rumour; how at every crisis the bells summoned the unarmed to +church; how through long days and nights the citizens waited for +relief--and she found these things of interest. But here were the same +portents passing before her eyes, and she read Bor! + +'You are busy, I am afraid,' I said. + +'I am using my time,' she answered primly. + +'I am sorry,' I rejoined; 'for my lady wants you to go to church with +her.' + +She shut up her book with peevish violence, and looked at me with her +weak eyes. 'Why does not your Papist go with her?' she said +spitefully. 'And then you could do without me. As you do without me +when you have secrets to tell! But I suppose you have brought things +to such a pass now that there is nothing for it but church. And so I +am called in!' + +'I have given my lady's message,' I said patiently. + +'Oh, I know that you are a faithful messenger!' she replied mockingly. +'Who writes love letters grows thin; who carries them, fat. You are +growing a big man, Master Martin.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. + + +That was a night that saw few in Nuremberg sleep soundly. Under the +moon the great city lay waiting; watching and fasting through the +short summer night. Hour by hour the solemn voices of sentinels, +tramping the walls and towers, told the tale of time; to men, who, +hearing it, muttered a prayer, and, turning on the other side, slept +again; to women, who lay, trembling and sleepless, their every breath +a prayer. For who would see the next night? Who that went out would +come in? How many, parting at dawn, would meet again? The howling of +the dogs that, wild as wolves, roved round the camp and scratched in +the shallow graveyards, made dreary answer. Many there were, even then +I remember, who thought the King foolhardy, and preached patience; and +would have had him still sit quiet and play the game of starvation +against his enemy, even to the bitter end. But these were of the +harder sort--men who, with brain, might have been Wallensteins. And +few of them knew the real state of things. I say nothing of the city. +Who died there in those months, in holes and corners and dark places, +the magistrates may have known, no others. But in the camp, for many +days before the King marched out, a hundred men died of plague and +want every day; so that in the sum, twenty thousand men entered his +lines who never left them. Moderate men set the loss of the city at +ten thousand more. Add to these items that the plague was increasing, +that all stores of food were nearly exhausted, that if the issue were +longer delayed the cavalry would have no horses on which to advance or +retreat, and it will be clear, I think, that the King, whose judgment +had never yet deceived him, was right in this also. Or, if he erred, +it was on the side of mercy. + +At dawn all the northern walls and battlements were covered with +white-faced women, come together to see the army leave the camp, in +which it had lain so many weeks. I went up with my lady to the Burg, +whence we could command, not only the city with its necklace of walls +and towers, but the camp encircling it like another and greater city, +encompassed in its turn with gates and ramparts and bastions. And, +beyond this, we had an incomparable view of the country; of our own +stream, the Pegnitz, gliding away through the level plain, to fall +presently into the Rednitz; of the Rednitz, a low line of willows, +running athwart the western meadows; and beyond this, a league and a +half away, of the frowning heights of the Alta Veste, where +Wallenstein hung, vulture-like, waiting to pounce on the city. + +As the sun rose behind us, the shadow of the Burg on which we stood +fell almost to the foot of the distant heights, and covered, as with a +pall, the departing army, which was beginning to pass out of the camp +by the northern and western gates. At the same time the level beams +shone on the dark brow of the Alta Veste, and caught there the flash +of lurking steel. I think that the hearts of many among us sank at the +omen. + +If so, it was not for long, for the sun rose swiftly in the summer sky +and, as it overtopped our little eminence, showed us an innumerable +host pressing out of the camp in long lines, like ants from a hill. +While we gazed, they began to swarm on the plain between the city and +the Rednitz. The colours of a thousand waving pennons, the sheen of a +forest of lances, the duller gleam of cannon crawling slowly along the +roads, caught the sun and the eye; but between them moved other and +darker masses--the regiments of East and West Gothland, the Smäland +horse, Stalhanske's Finns, the Yellow and Blue regiments, the sombre, +steady veterans of the Swedish force, marching with a neatness and +wheeling with a precision, noticeable even at that distance. + +Doubtless it was a grand and splendid sight, this marching out of a +hundred thousand men--for the army fell little short of that +prodigious number--under the first captain of the age, to fight before +the walls of the richest city in the world. And I have often taken +blame to myself and regretted that I did not regard it with closer +attention, and imprint it more carefully on my memory. But at the time +I was anxious. Somewhere in that great host rode the Waldgrave and +Count Leuchtenstein; and I looked for them, though I had no hope of +finding them. Then little things continually diverted the mind. A +single waggon, which broke down at the gate below us, and could not +for a time be removed, swelled into a matter that obstructed my view +of the whole army; an officer, whose horse ran away in an orchard at +our feet, became, for a moment, more important than a hundred banners. +When I had done with these trifles, the sun had climbed halfway up the +sky, and the foremost troops were already crossing the Rednitz by +Furth, with a sound of trumpets and the flashing of corselets. + +A cannon shot, and then another, and then long rolling thunder from +the heights, over which a pillar of smoke began to gather. My lady +sighed. Below us, in the streets, on the walls, on the towers, women +and men fell on their knees and prayed aloud. Across the plain +horsemen galloped this way or that, hurrying the laggards through the +dust. The great battle was beginning. + +And then on a sudden the firing ceased; the pillar of smoke on the +heights melted away; the rear-guard and the cloud of dust in which it +moved, rolled farther and farther towards the Rednitz and Furth--and +still the guns remained silent. It was noon by this time; soon it was +afternoon. But the suspense was so great that no one went away to eat; +and still the silence prevailed. + +Towards two o'clock I persuaded the Countess to go to her lodgings to +eat; but within the hour she was back again. An officer on the Burg, +who had a perspective glass, reported that Wallenstein was moving; +that cannon and troops could be seen passing through the trees on the +Alta Veste, as if he were descending to meet the King; and for a time +our excitement rose to the highest pitch. But before sunset, news came +that he was quiet; that the King was forming a new camp beyond the +Rednitz, and almost under the enemy's guns; and that the battle would +take place on the morrow. + +The morrow! It seemed to some of us, it was always the morrow. Yet I +think that we slept better that night. Earliest dawn saw us again on +the Burg, staring and straining our eyes westwards. But minutes +passed, hours passed, the sun rose and declined, and still no sound of +battle reached us. Women, with pinched faces, clutched babies to their +breasts; men, pale and stern, gazed into the distance. Those who had +murmured that the King was too hasty, murmured now that he dallied; +for every day the grip of famine grew tighter, its signs more marked. +This evening all my lady's horses were requisitioned and carried off, +to mount the King's staff, it was said, of whom some were going afoot. + +A third day rose on the anxious city, and yet a fourth, and still the +armies stood inactive. Communication with the new camp was easy, but +as each day, and all day, a battle was expected, such news as we heard +rather heightened than relieved our fears. On this fourth morning, I +received a message from the Waldgrave, asking me to come to him in the +camp; that he had something to say to me, and could not leave. + +I was not unwilling to see for myself how things stood there; and I +determined to go. I did not tell the Countess, however, nor Marie, +thinking it useless to alarm them; but I left Steve in charge, and, +bidding him be on his guard, promised to be back by noon at the +latest. As I had no horse, I had to do the journey on foot, and soon +was down in the plain myself, threading the orchards and plodding +along the trampled roads, where so many thousands had preceded me. The +ground in some spots was actually ploughed up; dust covered +everything; the trees were bruised, the fences broken down. Old +boots and shattered pike-staves marked the route, and here and +there--saddest sight of all--dead horses, fast breeding the plague. +The sky, for the first time for days, was clouded, and making the most +of the coolness I gained the river bank by nine o'clock, and crossing +found myself close to the new camp. + +The army had just marched out, yet the lines seemed full. The King had +strictly forbidden all women and camp-followers to cross the Rednitz; +but an army in these days needs so many drivers and sutlers that I +found myself one among thousands. I asked for the Waldgrave, and got +as many answers as there were men within hearing. One said that he was +with his regiment of horse on the left flank; another, that he was +with Duke Bernard's staff; a third, that he was not with the army at +all. Despairing of hearing anything in the confusion, I was in two +minds about turning back; but in the end I took heart of grace and +determined to seek him in the field. + +Fortunately, the last regiments had barely cleared the lines, and a +few minutes' rapid walking set me abreast of the rearmost, which +was hastening into position. Here also at the first glance I saw +nothing but confusion; but a second resolved the mass into two +parts, and then I saw that the King's army lay in two long lines +facing the heights. An interval of about three hundred paces +divided the lines, but behind each was a small reserve. In the +first were most of the German regiments, the second being composed +of Finns, Swedes, and Northerners. The cavalry were grouped on the +flanks, and seemed stronger on the left flank. In the rear of all, +as well as in gaps left between the pikes and musketmen, were the +King's ordnance--drakes, serpents, falcons, and cartows, with the +light two- and four-pounders for which he was famous. + +Such an array--so many thousand men, gay with steel, and a thousand +pennons--seemed to the eye to be invincible; and I looked for the +enemy. He was not to be seen, but fronting the lines at a distance of +three or four hundred paces rose the Alta Veste--a steep, rugged hill, +scarred and seamed, and planted thickly with pines and jagged stumps +and undergrowth. Here and there among the trees great rocks peeped +out, or dark holes yawned. The dry beds of two torrents furrowed this +natural glacis; and opposite these I noticed that our strongest +regiments were placed. But of the enemy I could see nothing, except +here and there a sparkle of steel among the trees; I could hear +nothing, except now and then the fall of a stone, that, slipping under +an unseen foot, fell from ledge to ledge until it reached the plain. + +Everywhere the hush of expectation stirred the heart; for in the +presence of that great host silence seemed a thing supernatural. As +the regiment I had joined, the last to arrive, wheeled into position +in the middle of the right wing, I asked one of the officers, who +stood near me, if the enemy had retired. + +'Wait!' he said grimly--he spoke with a foreign accent--'and you will +see. But to what regiment do you belong, comrade?' + +'To none here,' I said. + +He looked astonished, and asked me what I was doing there, then. + +I had my lips apart to answer him, when a trumpet sounded, and in an +instant, all along the line, the Swedish cannon began to fire, shaking +the earth and filling the air round us with smoke, that in a twinkling +hid everything. This lasted for two or three minutes with a deafening +noise; but as far as I could hear, the enemy were still silent. I was +wondering what would happen next, and hoping that they had given up +the position, when my new friend touched my arm and pointed to the +front. I peered through the smoke, and saw dimly that the regiment +before us, a German brigade about eight hundred strong, was moving on +at a run and making for the hill. A minute elapsed, the smoke rolled +between. I listened, trembling. Afterwards I learned that at the same +moment two other parties sprang forward and dashed to the assault. + +Then, at last, with an ear-splitting roar that seemed to silence our +guns, the enemy spoke. The hill in front, hidden the second before by +smoke, became in a moment visible, lit up by a thousand darting +flames. Dark masses seemed to topple down, rocks hung midway in air, +and involuntarily I stepped back and uttered a cry of horror. Out of +that hell of fire came an answering wail of shrieks and curses--the +feeble voice of man! + +'Ach Gott!' I said, trembling. My hair stood on end. + +'Steady, comrade, steady!' muttered the man who had before spoken to +me. 'Presently it will be our turn.' + +He had scarcely spoken, when a man came riding along the front with +his hat in his hand. He rode a white horse, and wore no back or +breast, nor, as far as I could see, any armour. + +'Steady, Swedes, steady!' he cried in a loud voice--he was a big, +stout man with a fine presence. 'Your time will come by-and-by. Then +remember Breitenfeld!' + +It was the King of Sweden. In a moment he was gone, passing along the +lines; and I drew breath again, wondering what would happen next. I +had not long to wait. Men came straggling back across our front, some +wounded, some helping their comrades along, all with faces ghastly +under the powder-stains. And then like magic a new regiment stood +before us, where the other had stood. Again the King's guns pealed +along the line, again I heard the hoarse cry 'Vorwärts!' waited a +minute, and once more the hill seemed to be rent by the explosion. +From every cave and ledge guns flashed forth, lighting up the smoke. +The roar died away again--slowly, from west to east--in cries and +shrieks; and presently a few men, scores where there had been +hundreds, came wandering back like ghosts through the reek. + +'This looks ill!' I muttered. I was no longer scared. The gunpowder +was getting into my head. + +'Pooh!' my friend answered. 'This is only the beginning. It will take +men to fill that gap. Wait till our turn comes.' + +By this time the Waldgrave and my errand were forgotten, and I thought +only of the battle. I watched two more assaults, saw two more +regiments hurl themselves vainly against the fiery breast of the hill; +then came a diversion. As the scattered fragments of the last came +reeling back, a sudden roar of many voices startled me. The ground +seemed to shake, and right across our front came a charge of +horse--out of the smoke and into the smoke! In an instant our +stragglers were trodden down, cut up, and swept away, before our eyes +and within shot of us. + +The men round me uttered shouts of rage. The line swayed, there was an +instant's confusion. Then a harsh voice cried above the tumult, +'Steady, Gothlanders, steady! Pikes forward! Blow your matches! +Steady! steady!' and in a twinkling, with a crash, such as the ninth +wave makes when it falls on a pebbly beach, the horse were on us. I +had a glimpse through the smoke of rearing breasts, and floating +manes, and grinning teeth, and of men's faces grim and white, held low +behind the steel; and I struck out blindly with my half-pike. Still +they came on, and something hit me on the chest and I fell: but +instantly a clash of long pikes met over my body, and I scrambled to +my feet unhurt! Then a dozen spurts of flame leapt out round me, and +the horsemen seemed to melt away. + +Into the smoke; but before I had time to know that they were gone, +they had wheeled and were back again like the wind, led by a man on a +black horse, who came on so gallantly to the very pike-points, that I +thought it must be Pappenheim himself. He wore the black breastplate +and helmet of Pappenheim's cuirassiers; and it was only when his horse +reared up on end within a pike's length of me, and he fired his pistol +among us, wounding two men, that I espied under the helmet the stern +face and flashing eyes of Tzerclas. He recognised me at the same +moment, and hurling his empty pistol in my face, tried to spur his +horse over me. But the long pikes meeting before me kept him off, his +men vanished, some falling, some flying, and in a moment he stood +almost alone. + +Even then his courage did not fail him. Scornfully eyeing our line +from end to end, he hurled a bitter taunt at us, and wheeling his +horse coolly, prepared to ride off. I think that we should have let +him go, in pure admiration of his courage. But a wounded man on whom +he trod houghed the horse with his sword. In a moment he was down, and +two men running out of the line, fixed him to the earth with their +pikes. + +I confess, for myself, I would have spared him for his courage; and I +ran to him to see if he was dead. He was not quite gone. He recognised +me, and tried to speak. Forgetting the dangers round me, the uproar +and tumult, the dim figures of men and horses flying through the +smoke, I knelt down by him. + +'What is it?' I said. After all, he was my lady's cousin. + +'Tell him--tell him--the child! He will never get it!' he breathed. +With each word the blood-stained froth rose to his lips, and he +clutched my hand in a cold grip. + +He strove to say something more, and raised himself with a last effort +on his elbow. 'Tell her,' he gasped, his dark face distorted--'tell +her--I--I----' + +No more. His eyes turned, his head fell back. He was dead. What he +would have said of my lady, whether he would have sent her a message +or what, no man will know here. But I fancied it like the man, who +might have been great had he ever given a thought to others, that his +last word was--"I." + +His head was scarcely down before I had to run back within the pikes. +A fresh charge of horse swept over him, we received them with a +volley; they broke, and a Swedish regiment, the West Gothland horse, +rode them down. Meanwhile our man[oe]uvres had brought us insensibly +into the first line. I found that we were close under the hill, and I +was not surprised when a handful of horse whirled up to us out of the +_mêlée_, and one, disengaging himself from the others, rode along our +front. It was the King. His face was stained with powder, his horse +was bleeding, a ball had ripped up his boot; it was said that he had +been placing and pointing cannon with his own hands. But as the +regiment greeted him with a hoarse cheer, he smiled as if he had been +in a ball-room. + +He raised his hand for silence; such silence as could be obtained +where every moment men shot off a cannon, and at no great distance a +mortal combat was in progress. + +'Men of Gothland!' he cried, in a clear, ringing voice, 'it is your +turn now! You are My children. Take me this hill! Be steady, strike +home, flinch not! Show these Germans what you can do! The word is, God +with us. Remember St. Bartholomew's, and Forward! Forward! Forward!' + +My heart beat furiously; but there was no retreat. Rather than be left +standing on the ground, I would have died there. In a moment we were +moving on elbow to elbow, with a stern, heavy step. Some one struck up +a Swedish psalm, and to the thunder of its rhythm we strode on--on to +the very foot of the hill; on, until we reached the rough shale, and +the rugged steep stood above us. With a gallant shout an officer flung +his hat on to the slope, a score of Ritt-Meisters sprang forward +together; and then for a moment we and all things seemed to stand +still. The wood above us belched fire, the eyes were blinded, the ears +stunned, rocks and stones rolled down, all creation seemed to be +falling on us in fearful ruin. Men were hurled this way and that, or +fell in their places, or, reeling to and fro, clutched one another. +For an instant, I say, we stood still. + +But for an instant only. Then with a shout of rage the Swedes +sprang forward, and grasping boughs, stumps, rocks, swung themselves +up, doing such things in their fury as no cool man could do. +A row of jagged stakes barred the way; men set their naked breasts +against them, and others climbed over on their shoulders. Bleeding, +wounded, singed, torn by splinters, all who lived climbed. To get +up--up--up--higher, in face of the storm of shot and iron; up, over +the bursting mines and through the smoke; up, to where they stood and +butchered us, was the only instinct left. + +And we did get up--to a bastion, jutting from the hillside, where a +company of picked men with pikes and three cannons waited for us +behind a breastwork. They thought to stop us, and stood firm; our men +were mad. Flinging themselves against the mouths of the cannon, they +scaled the work in a moment, and left not one defender alive! + +God with us! + +Stern and high the shout rang out; but breath was everything, and the +scarp still rose above us and the shot still tore our ranks! On! Up a +torrent bed now, round one corner and another, to where we were a +little out of the line of fire, and an overhanging shoulder covered +us. Here we had room to take breath; and for the first time, some +hope of life, of ultimate escape, entered my breast. The officer +who led us--I learned afterwards that he was the great General +Torstensohn--cried, 'Well done, Swedes!' and with the confidence of +giants we were once more breasting the ascent, when a withering +volley, poured in at short range, checked the head of the column. +Before we could recover way, a body of pikes rushed to meet us, and in +an instant, having the vantage of the ground, rolled us, still +fighting desperately, down the steep. The general was swept away, the +Ritt-Meisters were down. Once we rallied, but ineffectually. The enemy +were reinforced, and in a moment the rout was complete. + +At the moment the tide turned and our men fell back, I happened to be +against the rock-wall, in something of a niche; and the stream passed +me by. I had two slight wounds, and I stood an instant, giddy and +confused, taking breath. The instant showed me my comrades in the act +of being slaughtered one by one, and a great horror seized me. I found +no hope anywhere. Below were the cruel pikes, in a moment their savage +bearers would be reascending; above were the enemy. But above, if I +climbed on, I might live a little while; and in that desperate hope I +scrambled out of the torrent bed and up the sheer hill on the right. +Two or three saw me from the torrent bed, and fired at me; and others +shouted, and began to follow. But I only pressed on, right up the +scarp, which was there like the side of a house. + +A dozen times I all but fell back; still in a fever of dread I kept +on. The sweat poured down me; I had no hope or aim, I thought only of +the pikes behind. Presently I came to a jutting shoulder that all but +overhung me; to pass it seemed to be impossible. But in my frenzy I +did the impossible. I swung myself from root to root; where one stone +gave, I clutched another, and yet another; I hung on with tooth and +nail. I flattened myself against the rock. I heard the pursuers rail +and curse, heard the bullets strike the earth round me, and then in a +moment I was up. + +Up; but only to come instantly on a wall crossing the steep and +barring my way, and to find a dozen pikes levelled at my breast. +Desperate, giving up hope at last--I had long dropped my weapon--I +cried mechanically, 'God with us!' and threw up my arms. + +I nearly fell backwards--for what did it matter? But the men were +quick. In a moment one had me by the collar. 'And God! They were +friends! They were friends, and I was saved. + +One of the first faces that I saw, as I leaned breathless against the +wall, unable for the time to answer the questions that poured upon me, +was the Waldgrave's--the Waldgrave's, with the light of battle in his +eyes, a laugh of triumph on his lips. He was wounded, bandaged, +blackened, his fair hair singed; but he was happy. Presently I +understood why; and why I was safe and among friends. + +'A little earlier,' he said--he seemed in his exaltation not a whit +surprised to see me--'and you would have had a different reception, +Martin. We only turned them out of this an hour ago!' + +All his superior officers had fallen, and his had been the voice that +had cheered on the forlorn, to which he was attached--acting from the +right flank--and heartened them, just when all seemed lost, to make +one more effort, ending in the capture of this sconce. Joined to the +mass of the hill only by a narrow neck, it commanded the enemy's +position. + +'We only want cannon!' he said, and in a moment I was as one of the +garrison. 'Three guns, and the day is ours. When will they come? When +will they come?' + +'You have sent for them?' + +'I have sent a dozen times.' + +And he sent as many times more; while we, a mere handful, tired and +worn and famished, but every man with a hero's thoughts, leaned +against the breastwork, and gazed down into the plain, where, under +the smoke, pigmy troops rushed to and fro, and Nuremberg's fate hung +in the balance. In an hour it would be night. And still no +reinforcements came, no cannon. + +Thrice the enemy tried to drive us out. But the neck was narrow, +and, pressed along their front by three assaults, they came on +half-heartedly and fell back lightly; and we held it. In the mean +time, it became more and more clear that elsewhere the day was going +against us. Until night fell, and through long hours of darkness, +forlorn after forlorn was flung against the heights--in vain. Regiment +after regiment, the core of the Swedish army, came on undaunted, only +to be repulsed with awful loss; with the single exception of the +Waldgrave's little sconce not a foot of the hill was captured. + +About nine o'clock reinforcements reached us, and some food, but no +guns. Two hours later the King drew sullenly back into his lines, and +the attack ceased. Even then we looked to see the fight resumed with +the dawn; we looked still for victory and revenge. We could not +believe that all was over. But towards three o'clock in the morning +rain fell, rendering the slopes slippery and impassable; and with the +first flush of sunrise came an order from Prince Bernard directing us +to withdraw. + +Perhaps the defeat fell as lightly on the Waldgrave as on any man, +though to him it was a huge disappointment. For he alone of all had +made his footing good. I thought that it was that which made him look +so cheerful; but while the rank and file were falling in, he came to +me. + +'Well, Martin,' he said. 'We are both veterans now.' + +I laughed. The rain had ceased. The sun was getting up, and the air +was fresh. Far off in the plain the city sparkled with a thousand +gems. I thought of Marie, I thought of life, and I thanked God that I +was alive. + +'I have an errand for you,' he continued, a laugh in his eyes. 'Come +and see what we took yesterday, besides this sconce.' + +At the back of the work were two low huts, that had perhaps been +guardrooms or officers' quarters. He led the way into one, bending his +head as he passed under the low lintel. + +'An odd place,' he said. + +'Yes, my lord.' + +'Yes, but I mean--an odd place for what I found here,' he rejoined. +'Look, man.' + +There were two low bunks in the hut, and on these and on the floor lay +a medley of soldiers' cloaks, pouches, weapons, and ammunition. There +was blood on the one wall and the door was shattered, and in a corner, +thrown one on another, were two corpses. The Waldgrave took no heed of +these, but stepped to the corner bunk and drew away a cloak that lay +on it. Something--the sound in that place scared me as a cannon-shot +would not have--began to wail. On the bed, staring at us between tears +and wonder, lay a child. + +'So!' I said, and stared at it. + +'Do you know it?' the Waldgrave asked. + +'Know it? No,' I answered. + +'Are you sure?' he replied, smiling. 'Look again.' + +'Not I!' I said. 'How did it come here? A child! A baby! It is +horrible.' + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'We found it in this hut; in that bed. A +man to whom we gave quarter said it was----' + +'No!' I shouted. + +'Yes,' he answered, nodding. + +'Tzerclas' child! Count Leuchtenstein's child! Do you mean it?' I +cried. + +He nodded. 'Tzerclas' child, the man said. The other's child, I guess. +Nay, I am certain. It knows your girl's name.' + +'Marie's?' + +The Waldgrave nodded. 'Take it up,' he said. 'And take charge of it.' + +But I only stared at it. The thing seemed too wonderful to be true. I +told the Waldgrave of Tzerclas' death, and of what he had muttered +about the child. + +'Yes, he was a clever man,' the Waldgrave answered. 'But, you see, God +has proved too clever for him. Come, take it, man.' + +I took it. 'I had better carry it straight to the Count's quarters?' I +said. + +The Waldgrave paused, looked away, then looked at me. 'No,' he said at +last, and slowly, 'take it to Lady Rotha. Let her give it to him.' + +I understood him, I guessed all he meant; but I made no answer, and we +went out together. The rain was still in the air, but the sky was +blue, the distance clear. The spire of the distant city shone like my +lady's amethysts. Below us the dead lay in thousands. But we were +alive. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + A WINGLESS CUPID. + + +That was a dreary procession that a little before noon on the 25th of +August wound its way back into Nuremberg. The King, repulsed but not +defeated, remained in his camp beyond the Rednitz, and with trumpets +sounding and banners displayed, strove vainly to tempt his wily +antagonist into the plain. Those who returned on this day, therefore, +carrying with them the certain news of ill-fortune, were the wounded +and the useless, a few prisoners, two or three envoys, half a dozen +horse-dealers, and a train of waggons bearing crippled and dying men +to the hospital. + +Of this company I made one, and I doubt if there were six others who +bore in their breasts hearts as light, or who could look on the sunny +roofs and peaked gables of the city with eyes as cheerful. Prince +Bernard had spoken kindly to me; the King had sent for me to inquire +where I last saw General Torstensohn; I had stood up a man amongst +men; and I deemed these things cheaply bought at the cost of a little +blood. On the other hand, the horrors of the day were still so fresh +in my mind that my heart overflowed with thankfulness and the love of +life; feelings which welled up anew whenever I looked abroad and saw +the Rednitz flowing gently between the willows, or looked within and +pictured the Werra rippling swiftly down the shallows under cool shade +of oak and birch and alder. + +Add to all these things one more. I had just learned that Count +Leuchtenstein lived and was unhurt, and on the saddle before me under +a cloak I bore his son. More than one asked me what booty I had taken, +where others had found only lead or steel, that I hugged my treasure +so closely and smiled to myself. But I gave them no answer. I only +held the child the tighter, and pushing on more quickly, reached the +city a little after twelve. + +I say nothing of the gloomy looks and sad faces that I encountered at +the gate, of the sullen press that would hardly give way, or of the +thousand questions I had to parry. I hardened my heart, and, +disengaging myself as quickly as I could, I rode straight to my lady's +lodgings; and it was fortunate that I did so. For I was only just in +time. As I dismounted at the door--receiving such a welcome from Steve +and the other men as almost discovered my treasure, whether I would or +no--I saw Count Leuchtenstein turn into the street by the other end +and ride slowly towards me, a trooper behind him. + +The men would have detained me. They wanted to hear the news and the +details of the battle, and where I had been. But I thrust my way +through them and darted in. + +Quick as I was, one was still quicker, and as I went out of the light +into the cool darkness of the entrance, flew down the stairs to meet +me, and, before I could see, was in my arms, covering me with tears +and laughter and little cries of thanksgiving. How the child fared +between us I do not know, for for a minute I forgot it, my lady, the +Count, everything, in the sweetness of that greeting; in the clinging +of those slender arms round my neck, and the joy of the little face +given up to my kisses. + +But in a moment, the child, being, I suppose, half choked between us, +uttered a feeble cry; and Marie sprang back, startled and scared, and +perhaps something more. + +'What is it?' she cried, beginning to tremble. 'What have you got?' + +I did not know how to tell her on the instant, and I had no time to +prepare her, and I stood stammering. + +Suddenly,'Give it to me!' she cried in a strange voice. + +But I thought that in the fulness of her joy and surprise she might +swoon or something, and I held back. 'You won't drop it,' I said +feebly, 'when you know what it is?' + +Her eyes flashed in the half light. 'Fool!' she cried--yes, though I +could scarcely believe my ears. 'Give it to me.' + +I was so taken aback that I gave it up meekly on the spot. She flew +off with it into a corner, and jealously turned her back on me before +she uncovered the child; then all in a moment she fell to crying, and +laughing, crooning over it and making strange noises. I heard the +Count's horse at the door, and I stepped to her. + +'You are sure that it _is_ your child?' I said. + +'_Sure?_' she cried; and she darted a glance at me that for scorn +outdid all my lady's. + +After that I had no doubt left. 'Then bring it to the Countess, my +girl,' I said. 'He is here. And it is she who should give it to him.' + +'Who is here?' she cried sharply. + +'Count Leuchtenstein.' + +She stared at me for a moment, and then suddenly quailed and broke +down, as it were. She blushed crimson; her eyes looked at me +piteously, like those of a beaten dog. + +'Oh,' she said, 'I forgot that it was you!' + +'Never mind that,' I said. 'Take the child to my lady.' + +She nodded, in quick comprehension. As the Count crossed the threshold +below, she sped up the stairs, and I after her. My lady was in the +parlour, walking the length of it impatiently, with a set face; but +whether the impatience was on my account, because I had delayed below +so long, or on the Count's, whose arrival she had probably seen from +the window, I will not say, for as I entered and before she could +speak, Marie ran to her with the child and placed it in her arms. + +My lady turned for a moment quite pale. 'What is it?' she said +faintly, holding it from her awkwardly. + +Marie cried out between laughing and crying, 'The child! The child, my +lady.' + +'And Count Leuchtenstein is on the stairs,' I said. + +The colour swept back into the Countess's face in a flood and covered +it from brow to neck. For a moment, taken by surprise, she forgot her +pride and looked at us shyly, timidly. 'Where--where did you recover +it?' she murmured. + +'The Waldgrave recovered it,' I answered hurriedly, 'and sent it to +your excellency, that you might give it to Count Leuchtenstein.' + +'The Waldgrave!' she cried. + +'Yes, my lady, with that message,' I answered strenuously. + +The Countess looked to Marie for help. I could hear steps on the +stairs--at the door; and I suppose that the two women settled it with +their eyes. For no words passed, but in a twinkling Marie snatched the +child, which was just beginning to cry, from the Countess and ran away +with it through an inner door. As that door fell to, the other opened, +and Ernst announced Count Leuchtenstein. + +He came in, looking embarrassed, and a little stiff. His buff coat +showed marks of the corselet--he had not changed it--and his boots +were dusty. It seemed to me that he brought in a faint reek of powder +with him, but I forgot this the next moment in the look of melancholy +kindness I espied in his eyes--a look that enabled me for the first +time to see him as my lady saw him. + +She met him very quietly, with a heightened colour, but the most +perfect self-possession. I marvelled to see how in a moment she was +herself again. + +'I rejoice to see you safe, Count Leuchtenstein,' she said. 'I heard +early this morning that you were unhurt.' + +'Yes,' he answered. 'I have not a scratch, where so many younger men +have fallen.' + +'Alas! there will be tears on many hearths,' my lady said. + +'Yes. Poor Germany!' he answered. 'Poor Germany! It is a fearful +thing. God forgive us who have to do with the making of war. Yet we +may hope, as long as our young men show such valour and courage as +some showed yesterday; and none more conspicuously than the Waldgrave +Rupert.' + +'I am glad,' my lady said, colouring, 'that he justified your +interference on his behalf, Count Leuchtenstein. It was right that he +should; and right that I should do more--ask your pardon for the +miserable ingratitude of which my passion made me guilty a while ago.' + +'Countess!' he cried. + +'No,' she said, stopping him with a gesture full of dignity. 'You must +hear me out, for now that I have confessed, we are quits. I behaved +ill--so ill that I deserved a heavy punishment. You thought so--and +inflicted it!' + +Her voice dropped with the last words. He turned very red, and looked +at her wistfully; but I suppose that he dared not draw conclusions. +For he remained silent, and she resumed, more lightly. + +'So Rupert did well yesterday?' she said. 'I am glad, for he will be +pleased.' + +'He did more than well!' Count Leuchtenstein answered, with awkward +warmth. 'He distinguished himself in the face of the whole army. His +courage and coolness were above praise. As we have----' The Count +paused, then blundered on hastily--'quarrelled, dare I say, Countess, +over him, I am anxious to make him the ground of our reconciliation +also. I have formed the highest opinion of him; and I hope to advance +his interests in every way.' + +My lady raised her eyebrows. 'With me?' she said quaintly. + +The Count fidgeted, and looked very ill at ease. 'May I speak quite +plainly?' he said at last. + +'Surely,' the Countess answered. + +'Then it can be no secret to you that he has--formed an attachment to +you. It would be strange if he had not,' the Count added gallantly. + +'And he has asked you to speak for him?' my lady exclaimed, in an odd +tone. + +'No, not exactly. But----' + +'You think that it--it would be a good match for me,' she said, her +voice trembling, but whether with tears or laughter, I could not tell. +'You think that, being a woman, and for the present houseless, and +almost friendless, I should do well to marry him?' + +'He is a brave and honest man,' the Count muttered, looking all +ways--and looking very miserable. 'And he loves you!' he added with an +effort. + +'And you think that I should marry him?' my lady persisted +mercilessly. 'Answer me, if you please, Count Leuchtenstein, or you +are a poor ambassador.' + +'I am not an ambassador,' he replied, thus goaded. 'But I +thought----' + +'That I ought to marry him?' + +'If you love him,' the Count muttered. + +My lady took a turn to the window, looked out, and came back. When she +spoke at last, I could not tell whether the harshness in her voice was +real or assumed. + +'I see how it is,' she said, 'very clearly, Count Leuchtenstein. I +have confessed, and I have been punished; but I am not forgiven. I +must do something more, it seems. Wait!' + +He was going to protest, to remonstrate, to deny; but she was gone, +out through the door, to return on the instant with something in her +arms. She took it to the Count and held it out to him. + +'See!' she said, her voice broken by sobs; 'it is your child. God has +given it back again. God has given it to you, because you trusted in +Him. It is your child.' + +He stood as if turned to stone. 'Is it?' he said at last, in a low, +strained voice. 'Is it? Then thank God for His mercy to my house. But +how--shall I know it?' + +'The girl knows it. Marie knows it,' my lady cried; 'and the child +knows her. And Martin--Martin will tell you how it was found--how the +Waldgrave found it.' + +'The Waldgrave?' the Count cried. + +'Yes, the Waldgrave,' she answered; 'and he sent it to me to give to +you.' + +Then I went to him and told him all I knew; and Marie, who, like my +lady, was laughing through her tears, took the child, and showed him +how it knew her, and remembered my name and my lady's, and had this +mark and that mark, and so forth, until he was convinced; and while in +that hour all Nuremberg outside our house mourned and lamented, +within, I think, there were as thankful hearts as anywhere in the +world, so that even Steve, when he came peeping through the door to +see what was the matter, went blubbering down again. + +Presently Count Leuchtenstein said something handsome to Marie about +her care of the child, and slipping off a gold chain that he was +wearing, threw it round her neck, with a pleasant word to me. Marie, +covered with blushes, took this as a signal to go, and would have left +the child with his father; but the boy objected strongly, and the +Count, with a laugh, bade her take him. + +'If he were a little older!' he said. 'But I have not much +accommodation for a child in my quarters. Next week I am going to +Cassel, and then----' + +'You will take him with you?' my lady said. + +The Count looked at the closing door, as it fell to behind Marie, and +when the latch dropped, he spoke. 'Countess,' he said bluntly, 'have I +misunderstood you?' + +My lady's eyes fell. 'I do not know,' she said softly. 'I should think +not. I have spoken very plainly.' + +'I am almost an old man,' he said, looking at her kindly, 'and you are +a young woman. Have you been amusing yourself at my expense?' + +The Countess shook her head. 'No,' she said, with a gleam of laughter +in her eyes; 'I have done with that. I began to amuse myself with +General Tzerclas, and I found it so perilous a pleasure that I +determined to forswear it. Though,' she added, looking down and +playing with her bracelet, 'why I should tell you this, I do not +know.' + +'Because--henceforth I hope that you will tell me everything,' the +Count said suddenly. + +'Very well,' my lady answered, colouring deeply. + +'And will be my wife?' + +'I will--if you desire it.' + +The Count walked to the window and returned. 'That is not enough,' he +said, looking at her with a smile of infinite tenderness. 'It must not +be unless _you_ desire it; for I have all to gain, you little or +nothing. Consider, child,' he went on, laying his hand gently on her +shoulder as she sat, but not now looking at her. 'Consider; I am a man +past middle age. I have been married already, and the portrait of my +child's mother stands always on my table. Even of the life left to +me--a soldier's life--I can offer you only a part; the rest I owe to +my country, to the poor and the peasant who cry for peace, to my +master, than whom God has given no State a better ruler, to God +Himself, who places power in my hands. All these I cannot and will not +desert. Countess, I love you, and men can still love when youth is +past. But I would far rather never feel the touch of your hand or of +your lips than I would give up these things. Do you understand?' + +'Perfectly,' my lady said, looking steadfastly before her, though her +heaving breast betrayed her emotion. 'And I desire to be your wife, +and to help you in these things as the greatest happiness God can give +me.' + +The Count stooped gently and kissed her forehead. 'Thank you,' he +said. + + + * * * * * + + +I have very little to add. All the world knows that the King of +Sweden, unable to entice Wallenstein from his lines, remained in his +camp before Nuremberg for fifteen days longer, during which period the +city and the army suffered all the extremities of famine and plague. +After that, satisfied that he had so far reduced the Duke of +Friedland's strength that it no longer menaced the city, he marched +away with his army into Thuringia; and there, two months later, on the +immortal field of Lutzen, defeated his enemy, and fell, some say by a +traitor's hand, in the moment of victory; leaving to all who ever +looked upon his face the memory of a sovereign and soldier without a +rival, modest in sunshine and undaunted in storm. I saw him seven +times and I say this. + +And all the world knows in what a welter of war and battles and sieges +and famines we have since lain, so that no man foresees the end, and +many suppose that happiness has quite fled from the earth, or at least +from German soil. Yet this is not so. It is true in comparison with +the old days, when my lady kept her maiden Court at Heritzburg, and +our greatest excitement was a visit from Count Tilly, we lead a +troubled life. My lady's eyes are often grave, and the days when she +goes with her two brave boys to the summit of the Schloss and looks +southward with a wistful face, are many; many, for the Count, though +he verges on seventy, still keeps the field and is a tower in the +councils of the north. But with all that, the life is a full one--full +of worthy things and help given to others, and a great example greatly +set, and peace honestly if vainly pursued. And for this and for other +reasons, I believe that my lady, doing her duty, hoping and praying +and training her children, is happy; perhaps as happy as in the old +days when Fraulein Anna prosed of virtue and felicity and Voetius. + +The Waldgrave Rupert, still the handsomest of men, but sobered by +the stress of war, comes to see us in the intervals of battles and +sieges. On these occasions the children flock round him, and he tells +tales--of Nordlingen, and Leipzig, and the leaguer of Breysach; and +blue eyes grow stern, and chubby faces grim, and shell-white teeth are +ground together, while Marie sits pale and quaking, devouring her boys +with hungry mother's eyes. But they do not laugh at her now; they have +not since the day when the Waldgrave bade them guess who was the +bravest person he had ever known. + +'Father!' my lady's sons cried. And Marie's, not to be outdone, cried +the same. + +But the Waldgrave shook his head. 'No,' he said, 'try again.' + +My youngest guessed the King of Sweden. + +'No,' the Waldgrave answered him. 'Your mother.' + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lady Rotha, by Stanley J. Weyman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LADY ROTHA *** + +***** This file should be named 38985-8.txt or 38985-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/9/8/38985/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Weyman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Lady Rotha + A Romance + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 26, 2012 [EBook #38985] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LADY ROTHA *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://books.google.com/books?id=Wd09AAAAYAAJ</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><a name="div3_01"><img src="images/front.png" alt="death of Tzerclas"></a><br> +Death of Tzerclas.--p. 368</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>MY LADY ROTHA</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>A Romance</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>STANLEY J. WEYMAN</h2> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF<br> + +"A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "UNDER THE RED ROBE,"<br> +"THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF," ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>NEW YORK<br> +<span style="font-size:125%">LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</span><br> + +1894</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1894,<br> +By</span> STANLEY J. WEYMAN.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br> + +<table cellpadding="10" style="width:60%; margin-left:20%; font-weight:bold"> +<colgroup><col style="width:10%; text-align:right"><col style="width:90%"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td><span class="sc2">CHAPTER</span></td> +<td> </td> +</tr><tr> +<td>I.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01"><span class="sc">Heritzburg.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>II.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02"><span class="sc">The Countess Rotha.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>III.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03"><span class="sc">The Burgomaster's Demand.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>IV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04"><span class="sc">The Fire Alight.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>V.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05"><span class="sc">Marie Wort.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06"><span class="sc">Rupert the Great.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07"><span class="sc">The Pride of Youth.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08"><span class="sc">A Catastrophe.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>IX.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09"><span class="sc">Walnuts of Gold.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>X.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10"><span class="sc">The Camp in the Forest.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11"><span class="sc">Stolen.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12"><span class="sc">Near The Edge.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_13" href="#div1_13"><span class="sc">Our Quarters.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XIV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_14" href="#div1_14"><span class="sc">The Opening of a Duel.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_15" href="#div1_15"><span class="sc">The Duel Continued.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XVI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_16" href="#div1_16"><span class="sc">The General's Banquet.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XVII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_17" href="#div1_17"><span class="sc">Stalhanske's Finns.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XVIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_18" href="#div1_18"><span class="sc">A Sudden Expedition.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XIX.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_19" href="#div1_19"><span class="sc">In a Green Valley.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XX.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_20" href="#div1_20"><span class="sc">More Haste, Less Speed.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_21" href="#div1_21"><span class="sc">Among the Wounded.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_22" href="#div1_22"><span class="sc">Greek and Greek.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_23" href="#div1_23"><span class="sc">The Flight.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXIV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_24" href="#div1_24"><span class="sc">Missing.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_25" href="#div1_25"><span class="sc">Nuremberg.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXVI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_26" href="#div1_26"><span class="sc">The Face at the Window.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXVII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_27" href="#div1_27"><span class="sc">The House in the Churchyard.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXVIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_28" href="#div1_28"><span class="sc">Under the Tiles.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXIX.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_29" href="#div1_29"><span class="sc">In the House by St. Austin's.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXX.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_30" href="#div1_30"><span class="sc">The End of the Day.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXXI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_31" href="#div1_31"><span class="sc">The Trial.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXXII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_32" href="#div1_32"><span class="sc">A Poor Guerdon.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXXIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_33" href="#div1_33"><span class="sc">Two Men.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXXIV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_34" href="#div1_34"><span class="sc">Suspense.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXXV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_35" href="#div1_35"><span class="sc">St. Bartholomew's Day.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XXXVI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_36" href="#div1_36"><span class="sc">A Wingless Cupid.</span></a></td> +</tr></table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<br> + +<p class="hang1"><a href="#div3_01"><span class="sc">Death Of Tzerclas</span></a>. <i>Frontispiece</i></p> + +<p class="hang1">. . . <a href="#div3_53"><span class="sc">she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in her hands and +a timid smile on her lips.</span></a></p> + +<p class="hang1">. . . <a href="#div3_75"><span class="sc">with her own hands she +drove the nail.... Then she turned.</span></a></p> + +<p class="hang1">. . . <a href="#div3_117"><span class="sc">Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued to +stamp and scream.</span></a></p> + +<p class="hang1"><a href="#div3_190"><span class="sc">The general waited on her with the utmost attention, riding by +her bridle-rein.</span></a></p> + +<p class="hang1"><a href="#div3_251"><span class="sc">We were alone. . . . I whispered in her ear.</span></a></p> + +<p class="hang1"><a href="#div3_301"><span class="sc">Before I could recover myself a pair of strong arms closed round +mine and bound them to my sides.</span></a></p> + +<p class="hang1"><a href="#div3_332"><span class="sc">But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly from her +seat.</span></a></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>MY LADY ROTHA.</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">HERITZBURG.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I never saw anything more remarkable than the change which the death +of my lady's uncle, Count Tilly, in the spring of 1632, worked at +Heritzburg. Until the day when that news reached us, we went on in our +quiet corner as if there were no war. We heard, and some of us +believed, that the Palatine Elector, a good Calvinist like ourselves, +had made himself King of Bohemia in the Emperor's teeth; and shortly +afterwards--which we were much more ready to believe--that he was +footing it among the Dutchmen. We heard that the King of Denmark had +taken up his cause, but taken little by the motion; and then that the +King of Sweden had made it his own. But these things affected us +little: they were like the pattering of the storm to a man hugging +himself by the fireside. Through all we lay snug and warm, and kept +Christmas and drank the Emperor's health. Even the great sack of +Magdeburg, which was such an event as the world, I believe, will never +see again, moved us less to fear than to pity; though the city lies +something less than fifty leagues northeast of us. The reason of this +I am going to tell you.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our town stands, as all men know, in a nook of the Thuringian Forest, +facing south and west towards Hesse, of which my Lady Rotha, Countess +of Heritzburg, holds it, though all the land about is Saxon, belonging +either to Coburg, or Weimar, or Altenburg, or the upper Duchy. On the +north and east the forest rises in rolling black ridges, with a grey +crag shooting up spire-like here and there; so that from this quarter +it was not wonderful that no sound of war reached us. Toward the south +and west, where is the mouth of the valley, and whither our people +point when they talk of the world, a spur of the mountain runs down on +either side to the Werra, which used to be crossed at this point by a +wooden bridge. But this bridge was swept away by floods in the winter +of 1624, and never repaired as long as the war lasted. Henceforth to +come to Heritzburg travellers had to cross in old Joachim's boat, or +if the river was very low, tuck up and take the chances. Unless they +came by forest paths over the mountains.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such a position favoured peace. Our friends could not easily trouble +us; our allies were under no temptation to quarter troops upon us. For +our enemies, we feared them even less. Against them we had a rampart +higher than the mountains and wider than the Werra, in the name of +Tilly. In those days the name of the great Walloon, victor in thirty +fights, was a word to conjure with from the Tyrol to the Elbe. Mothers +used it to scare their children, priests to blast their foes. His +courage, his cruelty, and his zeal for the Roman Catholic Church +combined to make him the terror of the Protestants, while his strange +personality and mis-shapen form gave rise to a thousand legends, which +men still tell by the fireside.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think I see him now--as I did see him thrice in his lifetime--a +meagre dwarfish man with a long face like a horse's face, and large +whiskers. He dressed always in green satin, and wore a small +high-peaked hat on his huge wrinkled forehead. A red feather drooped +from it, and reached to his waist. At first sight one took him for a +natural; for one of those strange monstrosities which princes keep to +make them sport; but a single glance from his eyes sent simple men to +their prayers, and cowed alike plain burgher and wild Croat. Few loved +him, all feared him. I have heard it said that he had no shadow, but I +can testify of my own knowledge and not merely for the honour of the +family that this was false.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was brother to my lady's mother, the Countess Juliana. At the time +of the match my late lord was thought to have disparaged his blood by +mating with a Flemish lady of no more than gentle family. But as Count +Tilly rose in the world first to be commander of the Bavarian armies +and later to be Generalissimo of the forces of the Empire and a knight +of the Golden Fleece, we heard less and less of this. The sneer lost +its force until we became glad, Calvinists though we were, to lie +secure under his shadow; and even felt a shamed pride in his prowess.</p> + +<p class="normal">When my lord died, early in the war, leaving the county of Heritzburg +to his only child, the protection we derived in this way grew more and +more valuable. We of Heritzburg, and we only, lost nothing by the war, +except a parcel of idle fellows, of whom more hereafter. Our cows came +lowing to their stalls, our corn full weight to the granary. We slept +more safely under the distaff than others under the sword; and all +because my lady had the right to wear among her sixteen quarterings +the coat of Tilly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some I know, but only since his death, have cried shame on us for +accepting his protection. They profess to think that we should have +shut our gates on the Butcher of Magdeburg, and bidden him do his +worst. They say that the spirit of the old Protestants is dead within +us, and that it is no wonder the cause lies languishing and Swedes +alone fight single-eyed. But those who say these things have seldom, I +notice, corn or cows: and moreover, as I have hinted, they kept a very +still tongue while Tilly lived.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is our late Burgomaster, Hofman, for instance, he is given to +talking after that fashion; and, it is true, he has plenty, though not +so much since my lady fined him. But I well remember the last time +Tilly visited us. It was after the fall of Magdeburg, and there was a +shadow on his grim countenance, which men said never left it again +until the day when the cannon-shot struck him in the ford of the Lech, +and they carried him to Ingolstadt to die. As he rode under the arch +by the Red Hart people looked strangely at him--for it was difficult +to forget what he had done--as if, but for the Croats in the camp +across the river, they would have torn him from his horse. But who, I +pray you, so polite that day as Master Hofman? Who but he was first to +hold the stirrup and cry, Hail? It was 'My Lord Count' this, and 'My +Lord Count' that, until the door closed on the crooked little figure +and the great gold spurs. And then it was the same with the captain of +the escort. Faugh! I grow sick when I think of such men, and know that +they were the first to turn round and make trouble when the time came, +and the old grey wolf was dead. For my part I have always been my +lady's man since I came out of the forest to serve her. It was enough +for me that the Count was her guest and of her kin. But for flattering +him and putting myself forward to do him honour, I left that to the +Hofmans.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, the gloom we saw on Tilly's face proved truly to be the +shadow of coming misfortune; for three weeks after he left us, was +fought the great battle of Breitenfeld. Men say that the energy and +decision he had shown all his life forsook him there; that he +hesitated and suffered himself to be led by others; and that so it was +from the day of Magdeburg to his death. This may be true, I think, for +he had the blood of women and children on his head; or it may be that +at last he met a foeman worthy of his steel. But in either case the +news of the Swede's victory rang through North Germany like a trumpet +call. It broke with startling abruptness the spell of victory which +had hitherto--for thirteen long years--graced the Emperor's flag and +the Roman Church. In Hesse, to the west of us, where the Landgrave +William had been the first of all German Princes to throw in his lot +with the Swedes and defy the Emperor, it awoke such a shout of +jubilation and vengeance as crossed even the Werra; while from the +Saxon lands to the east of us, which this victory saved from +spoliation, and punishment, came an answering cry of thankfulness and +joy. Even in Heritzburg it stirred our blood. It roused new thoughts +and new ambitions. We were Protestants; we were of the north. Those +who had fought and won were our brethren.</p> + +<p class="normal">And this was right. Nor for a time did I see anything wrong or any +sign of mischief brewing; though tongues in the town wagged more +freely, as the cloud of war rolled ever southward and away from us. +But six months later the news of Count Tilly's death reached us. Then, +or it might be a fortnight afterwards--so long I think respect for my +lady's loss and the new hatchment restrained the good-for-naughts--the +trouble began. How it arose, and what shape it took, and how I came +athwart it, I am going to tell you without further preface.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was about the third Monday in May of that year, 1632. A broken lock +in one of the rooms at the castle had baffled the skill of our smith, +and about nightfall, thinking to take a cup of beer at the Red Hart on +my way back, I went down to Peter the locksmith's in the town. His +forge stands in the winding lane, which joins the High Street at the +Red Hart, after running half round the town inside the wall; so that +one errand was a fair excuse for the other. When I had given him his +order and come out again, I found that what with the darkness of the +lane and the blaze of his fire which had got into my eyes, I could not +see a yard before me. A little fine rain was falling with a chilly +east wind, and the town seemed dead. The pavement felt greasy under +foot, and gave out a rank smell. However, I thought of the cheery +kitchen at the Red Hart and stumbled along as fast as I could, until +turning a corner I came in sight of the lanthorn which hangs over the +entrance to the lane.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw it, but short of it, something took and held my eye: a warm +stream of light, which shone across the path, and fell brightly on the +rough surface of the town-wall. It came from a small window on my +left. I had to pass close beside this window, and out of curiosity I +looked in. What I saw was so surprising that I stopped to look again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The room inside was low and small and bare, with an earthen floor and +no fireplace. On a ragged pallet in one corner lay an elderly man, to +whose wasted face and pallid cheeks a long white moustache, which +strayed over the coverlet, gave an air of incongruous fierceness. His +bright eyes were fixed on the door as if he listened. A child, three +or four years old, sat on the floor beside him, playing with a yellow +cat.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was neither of these figures, however, which held my gaze, but that +of a young girl who knelt on the floor near the head of the bed. A +little crucifix stood propped against the wall before her, and she had +a string of beads in her hands. Her face was turned from me, but I +felt that her lips moved. I had never seen a Romanist at prayer +before, and I lingered a moment, thinking in the first place that she +would have done better had she swung the shutter against the window; +and in the next, that with her dark hair hanging about her neck and +her head bent devoutly, she looked so weak and fragile that the +stoutest Protestant could not have found it in his heart to harm her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly a noise, which dully reached me where I stood outside the +casement, caused her to start in alarm, and turn her head. At the same +moment the cat sprang away affrighted, and the man on the bed stirred +and tried to rise. This breaking the spell, I stole quietly away and +went round the corner to the door of the inn.</p> + +<p class="normal">Though I had never considered the girl closely before, I knew who she +was. Some eight months earlier, while Tilly, hard pressed by the King +of Sweden, still stood at bay, keeping down Saxony with one hand, and +Hesse with the other, the man on the pallet, Stephen Wort, a sergeant +of jagers, had been wounded in a skirmish beyond the river. Why Tilly, +who was used to seeing men die round him like flies in winter, gave a +second thought to this man more than to others, I cannot say. But for +some reason, when he visited us before Breitenfeld, he brought the +wounded sergeant in his train, and when he went left him at the inn. +Some said that the man had saved his life, others that the two were +born on the same day and shared the same horoscope. More probably +Tilly knew nothing of the man, and the captain of the escort was the +active party. I imagine he had a kindness for Wort, and knowing that +outside our little valley a wounded man of Tilly's army would find as +short shrift as a hamstrung wolf, took occasion to leave him with us.</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought of all this as I stood fumbling about the door for the great +bell. The times were such that even inns shut their doors at night, +and I had to wait and blow on my fingers--for no wind is colder than a +May wind--until I was admitted. Inside, however, the blazing fire and +cheerful kitchen with its show of gleaming pewter, and its great +polished settles winking solemnly in the heat, made amends for all. I +forgot the wounded man and his daughter and the fog outside. There +were eight or nine men present, among them Hofman, who was then +Burgomaster, Dietz, the town minister, and Klink our host.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were people I met every day, and sometimes more than once a day, +and they greeted me with a silent nod. The lad who waited brought me a +cup of beer, and I said that the night was cold for the time of year. +Some one assented, but the company in general sat silent, sagely +sucking their lips, or exchanging glances which seemed to indicate a +secret understanding.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was not slow to see that this had to do with me and that my entrance +had cut short some jest or story. I waited patiently to learn what it +was, and presently I was enlightened. After a few minutes Klink the +host rose from his seat. First looking from one to another of his +neighbours, as if to assure himself of their sympathy, he stole +quietly across the kitchen to a door which stood in one corner. Here +he paused a moment listening, and then on a sudden struck the door a +couple of blows, which made the pewters ring again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hi! Within there!' he cried in his great voice. Are you packing? Are +you packing, wench? Because out you go to-morrow, pack or no pack! Out +you go, do you hear?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood a moment waiting for an answer, but seemed to get none; on +which he came back to his seat, and chuckling fatly to himself, looked +round on his neighbours for applause. One winked and another rubbed +his calves. The greater number eyed the fire with a sly smile. For my +part I was slow of apprehension. I did not understand but waited to +hear more.</p> + +<p class="normal">For five minutes we all sat silent, sucking our lips. Then Klink rose +again with a knowing look, and crossed the kitchen on tiptoe with the +same parade of caution as before. Bang!' He struck the door until it +rattled on its hinges.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hi! You there!' he thundered. 'Do you hear, you jade? Are you +packing? Are you packing, I say? Because pack or no pack, to-morrow +you go! I am a man of my word.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not wait this time for an answer, but came back to us with a +self-satisfied grin on his face. He drank some beer--he was a big +ponderous man with a red face and small pig's eyes--and pointed over +his shoulders with the cup. 'Eh?' he said, raising his eye-brows.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good!' a man growled who sat opposite to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Quite right!' said a second in the same tone. 'Popish baggage!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Hofman said nothing, but nodded, with a sly glance at me. Dietz the +Minister nodded curtly also, and looked hard at the fire. The rest +laughed.</p> + +<p class="normal">For my part I felt very little like laughing. When I considered that +this clumsy jest was being played at the expense of the poor girl, +whom I had seen at her prayers, and that likely enough it was being +played for the tenth time--when I reflected that these heavy fellows +were sitting at their ease by this great fire watching the logs blaze +and the ruddy light flicker up the chimney, while she sat in cold and +discomfort, fearing every sound and trembling at every whisper, I +could have found it in my heart to get up and say what I thought of +it. And my speech would have astonished them. But I remembered, in +time, that least said is soonest mended, and that after all words +break no bones, and I did no more than sniff and shrug my shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">Klink, however, chose to take offence in his stupid fashion. 'Eh?' he +said. 'You are of another mind, Master Schwartz?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is the good of talking like that,' I said, 'when you do not mean +it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He puffed himself out, and after staring at me for a time, answered +slowly: 'But what if I do mean it, Master Steward? What if I do mean +it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You don't,' I said. 'The man pays his way.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought to end the matter with that. I soon found that it was not to +be shelved so easily. For a moment indeed no one answered me. We are a +slow speaking race, and love to have time to think. A minute had not +elapsed, however, before one of the men who had spoken earlier took up +the cudgels. 'Ay, he pays his way,' he said, thrusting his head +forward. 'He pays his way, master; but how? Tell me that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not answer him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Out of the peasant's pocket!' the fellow replied slowly. 'Out of the +plunder and booty of Magdeburg. With blood-money, master.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I ask no more than to meet one of his kind in the fields,' the man +sitting next him, who had also spoken before, chimed in. 'With no one +looking on, master. There would be one less wolf in the world then, I +will answer for that. He pays his way? Oh, yes, he pays it here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought a shrug of the shoulders a sufficient answer. These two +belonged to the company my lady had raised in the preceding year to +serve with the Landgrave according to her tenure. They had come back +to the town a week before this with money to spend; some people saying +that they had deserted, and some that they had returned to raise +volunteers. Either way I was not surprised to find them a little bit +above themselves; for foreign service spoils the best, and these had +never been anything but loiterers and vagrants, whom it angered me to +see on a bench cheek by jowl with the Burgomaster. I thought to treat +them with silent contempt, but I soon found that they did not stand +alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Minister was the first to come to their support. 'You forget that +these people are Papists, Master Schwartz. Rank Roman Papists,' he +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So was Tilly!' I retorted, stung to anger. 'Yet you managed to do +with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That was different,' he answered sourly; but he winced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Hofman began on me. 'You see, Master Steward,' he said slowly, +'we are a Protestant town--we are a Protestant town. And it ill +beseems us--it ill beseems us to harbour Papists. I have thought over +that a long while. And now I think it is time to rid ourselves of +them--to abate the nuisance in fact. You see we are a Protestant town, +Master Schwartz. You forget that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then were we not a Protestant town,' I cried, jumping up in a rage, +and forgetting all my discretion, 'when we entertained Count Tilly? +When you held his stirrup, Burgomaster? and you, Master Dietz, +uncovered to him? Were not these people Papists when they came here, +and when you received them? But I will tell you what it is,' I +continued, looking round scornfully, and giving my anger vent, for +such meanness disgusted me. 'When there was a Bavarian army across the +river, and you could get anything out of Tilly, you were ready to +oblige him, and clean his boots. You could take in Romanists then, but +now that he is dead and your side is uppermost, you grow scrupulous, +Pah! I am ashamed of you! You are only fit to bully children and +girls, and such like!' and I turned away to take up my iron-shod +staff.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were all very red in the face by this time, and the two soldiers +were on their feet. But the Burgomaster restrained them. 'Fine words!' +he said, puffing out his cheeks--'fine words! Dare say the girl can +hear him. But let him be, let him be--let him have his say!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There is some else will have a say in the matter, Master Hofman!' I +retorted warmly, as I turned to the door, 'and that is my lady. I +would advise you to think twice before you act. That is all!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hoop-de-doo-dem-doo!' cried one in derision, and others echoed it. +But I did not stay to hear; I turned a deaf ear to the uproar, wherein +all seemed to be crying after me at once, and shrugging my shoulders I +opened the door and went out.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sudden change from the warm noisy kitchen to the cold night air +sobered me in a moment. As I climbed the dark slippery street which +rises to the foot of the castle steps, I began to wish that I had let +the matter be. After all, what call had I to interfere, and make bad +blood between myself and my neighbours? It was no business of mine. +The three were Romanists. Doubtless the man had robbed and hectored in +his time, and while his hand was strong; and now he suffered as others +had suffered.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was ten chances to one the Burgomaster would carry the matter to my +lady in some shape or other, and the minister would back him up, and I +should be reprimanded; or if the Countess saw with my eyes, and sent +them off with a flea in their ears, then we should have all the rabble +of the town who were at Klink's beck and call, going up and down +making mischief, and crying, 'No Popery!' Either way I foresaw +trouble, and wished that I had let the matter be, or better still had +kept away that night from the Red Hart.</p> + +<p class="normal">But then on a sudden there rose before me, as plainly as if I had +still been looking through the window, a vision of the half-lit room +looking on the lane, with the sick man on the pallet, and the slender +figure kneeling beside the bed. I saw the cat leap, saw again the +girl's frightened gesture as she turned towards the door, and I +grew almost as hot as I had been in the kitchen. 'The cowards!' I +muttered--'the cowards! But I will be beforehand with them. I will go +to my lady early and tell her all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">You see I had my misgivings, but I little thought what that evening +was really to bring forth, or that I had done that in the Red Hart +kitchen which would alter all my life, and all my lady's life; and +spreading still, as a little crack in ice will spread from bank to +bank, would leave scarce a man in Heritzburg unchanged, and scarce a +woman's fate untouched.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">THE COUNTESS ROTHA.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">My Lady Rotha, Countess of Heritzburg in her own right, was at this +time twenty-five years old and unmarried. Her maiden state, which +seems to call for explanation, I attribute to two things. Partly to +the influence of her friend and companion Fraulein Anna Max of +Utrecht, who was reputed in the castle to know seven languages, and to +consider marriage a sacrifice; and partly to the Countess's own +disposition, which led her to set a high value on the power and +possessions that had descended to her from her father. Count Tilly's +protection, which had exempted Heritzburg from the evils of the war, +had rendered the support of a husband less necessary; and so she had +been left to follow her own will in the matter, and was now little +likely to surrender her independence unless her heart went with the +gift.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not that suitors were lacking, for my lady, besides her wealth, was +possessed of the handsomest figure in the world, with beautiful +features, and the most gracious and winning address ever known. I +remember as if it were yesterday Prince Albert of Rammingen, a great +match but an old man. He came in his chariot with a numerous retinue, +and stayed long, taking it very hardly that my lady was not to be won; +but after a while he went. His place was taken by Count Frederick, a +brother of the Margrave of Anspach, a young gentleman who had received +his education in France, and was full of airs and graces, going sober +to bed every night, and speaking German with a French accent. Him my +lady soon sent about his business. The next was a more famous man, +Count Thurn of Bohemia, he who began the war by throwing Slawata and +Martinitz out of window in Prague, in '19, and paid for it by fifteen +years of exile. He wore such an air of mystery, and had such tales to +tell of flight and battle and hairbreadth escapes, that he was +scarcely less an object of curiosity in the town than Tilly himself; +but he knelt in vain. And in fine so it was with them all. My lady +would have none of them, but kept her maiden state and governed +Heritzburg and saw the years go by, content to all appearance with +Fraulein Anna and her talk, which was all of Voetius and Beza and +scores of other learned men, whose names I could never remember from +one hour to another.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was my duty to wait upon her every day after morning service, and +receive her orders, and inform her of anything which I thought she +ought to know. At that hour she was to be found in her parlour, a +long room on the first floor of the castle, lighted by three +deeply-recessed windows and hung with old tapestry worked by her +great-grandmother in the dark days of the Emperor Charles, when the +Count of Heritzburg shared the imprisonment of the good Landgrave of +Hesse. A screen stood a little way within the door, and behind this it +was my business to wait, until I was called.</p> + +<p class="normal">On this morning, however, I had no patience to wait, and I made myself +so objectionable by my constant coughing that at last she cried, with +a cheerful laugh, 'What is it, Martin? Come and tell me. Has there +been a fire in the forest? But it is not the right time of year for +that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lady,' I said, going forward. Then out of shyness or sheer +contradictoriness I found myself giving her the usual report of this +and that and the other, but never a word of what was in my mind. She +sat, according to her custom in summer, in the recess of the farthest +window, while Fraulein Anna occupied a stool placed before a +reading-desk. Behind the two the great window gave upon the valley. By +merely turning the head either of them could look over the red roofs +of Heritzburg to the green plain, which here was tolerably wide, and +beyond that again to the dark line of forest, which in spring and +autumn showed as blue to the eye as thick wood smoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">While I spoke my lady toyed with a book she had been reading, and +Fraulein Anna turned over the pages on the desk with an impatient +hand, sometimes looking at my lady and sometimes tapping with her foot +on the floor. She was plump and fair and short, dressing plainly, and +always looking into the distance; whether because she thought much and +on deep matters, or because, as the Countess's woman once told me, she +could see nothing beyond the length of her arm, I cannot say. When I +had finished my report, and paused, she looked up at my lady and said, +'Now, Rotha, are you ready?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not quite, Anna,' my lady answered, smiling. 'Martin has not done +yet.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He tells in ten minutes what another would in five,' Fraulein said +crossly. 'But to finish?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, Martin, what is it?' my lady assented. 'We have eaten all the +pastry. The meat I am sure is yet to come.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw that there was nothing else for it, and after all it was what I +had come to do. 'Your excellency knows the Bavarian soldier and his +daughter, who have been lodging these six months past at the Red +Hart?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To be sure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Klink talks of turning them out,' I continued, feeling my face grow +red I scarcely knew why.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is their money at an end?' the Countess asked shrewdly. She was a +great woman of business.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' I answered, 'but I dare say it is low.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then what is the matter?' my lady continued, looking at me somewhat +curiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He says that they are Papists,' I answered. 'And it is true, as your +excellency knows, but it is not for him to say it. The man will not be +safe for an hour outside the walls, nor the girl much longer. And +there is a small child besides. And they have no where else to go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady's face grew grave while I spoke. When I stopped she rose and +stood fronting me, tapping on the reading-desk with her fingers. 'This +must not be allowed, Martin,' she said firmly. 'You were right to tell +me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Master Hofman and the Minister----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' she interposed, nodding quickly. 'Go to them. They will see +Klink, and----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are just pushing him on,' I said, with a groan.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What!' she cried; and I remember to this day how her grey eyes +flashed and how she threw back her head in generous amazement. 'Do you +mean to say that this is being done in spite, Martin? That after +escaping all the perils of this wretched war these men are so +thankless as to turn on the first scape-goat that falls into their +hands? It is not possible!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It looks like it, my lady,' I muttered, wondering whether I had not +perhaps carried the matter too far.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, no,' she said, shaking her head, 'you must have made a mistake; +but go to Klink. Go to Klink and tell him from me to keep the man for +a week at least. I will be answerable for the cost, and we can +consider in the meantime what to do. My cousin the Waldgrave Rupert +visits me in a day or two, and I will consult him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Still I did not like to go without giving her a hint that she might +meet with opposition, and I hesitated, considering how I might warn +her without causing needless alarm or seeming to presume. Fraulein +Anna, who had listened throughout with the greatest impatience, took +advantage of the pause to interfere. 'Come, Rotha,' she said. 'Enough +trifling. Let us go back to Voetius and our day's work.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My dear,' the Countess answered somewhat coldly, 'this is my day's +work. I am trying to do it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your work is to improve and store your mind,' Fraulein Anna retorted +with peevishness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'True,' my lady said quietly; 'but for a purpose.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There can be no purpose higher than the acquirement of +philosophy--and, religion,' Fraulein Anna said. Her last words sounded +like an afterthought.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady shook her head. 'The duty of a Princess is to govern,' she +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How can she govern unless she has prepared her mind by study and +thought?' Fraulein Anna asked triumphantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I agree within limits,' my lady answered. 'But----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There is no <i>but!</i> Nor are there any limits that I see!' the other +rejoined eagerly. 'Let me read to you out of Voetius himself. In his +maxims----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not this minute,' the Countess answered firmly. And thereby she +interrupted not Fraulein Anna alone but a calculation on which, +without any light from Voetius, I was engaged; namely, how long it +would take a man to mow an acre of ground if he spent all his time in +sharpening his scythe! Low matters of that kind however have nothing +in common with philosophy I suppose; and my lady's voice soon brought +me back to the point. 'What is it you want to say, Martin?' she asked. +'I see that you have something still on your mind.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I wish your excellency to be aware that there may be a good deal of +feeling in the town on this matter,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You mean that I may make myself unpopular,' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was what I did mean--that at the least. And I bowed.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady shook her head with a grave smile. 'I might give you an answer +from Voetius, Martin,' she said; 'that they who govern are created to +protect the weak against the strong. And if not, <i>cui bono?</i> But that, +you may not understand. Shall I say then instead that I, and not +Hofman or Dietz, am Countess of Heritzburg.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lady,' I cried--and I could have knelt before her--'that is answer +enough for me!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then go,' she said, her face bright, 'and do as I told you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned away, and I made my reverence and went out and down the +stairs and through the great court with my head high and my heart high +also. I might not understand Voetius; but I understood that my lady +was one, who in face of all and in spite of all, come Hofman or Dietz, +come peace or war, would not blench, but stand by the right! And it +did me good. He is a bad horse that will not jump when his rider's +heart is right, and a bad servant that will not follow when his master +goes before! I hummed a tune, I rattled my staff on the stones. I said +to myself it was a thousand pities so gallant a spirit should be +wasted on a woman: and then again I fancied that I could not have +served a man as I knew I could and would serve her should time and the +call ever put me to the test.</p> + +<p class="normal">The castle at Heritzburg, rising abruptly above the roofs of the +houses, is accessible from the town by a flight of steps cut in the +rock. On the other three sides the knob on which it stands is +separated from the wooded hills to which it belongs by a narrow +ravine, crossed in one place by a light horse-bridge made in modern +days. This forms the chief entrance to the castle, but the road which +leads to it from the town goes so far round that it is seldom used, +the flight of steps I have mentioned leading at once and more +conveniently from the end of the High Street. Half way down the High +Street on the right hand side is the Market-place, a small paved +square, shaded by tall wooden houses, and having a carved stone pump +in the middle. A hundred paces beyond this on the same side is the Red +Hart, standing just within the West Gate.</p> + +<p class="normal">From one end of the town to the other is scarcely a step, and I was at +the inn before the Countess's voice had ceased to sound in my ears. +The door stood open, and I went in, expecting to find the kitchen +empty or nearly so at that hour of the day. To my surprise, I found at +least a dozen people in it, with as much noise and excitement going +forward as if the yearly fair had been in progress. For a moment I was +not observed. I had time to see who were present--Klink, the two +soldiers who had put themselves forward the evening before, and half a +score of idlers. Then the landlord's eye fell on me and he passed the +word. A sudden silence followed and a dozen faces turned my way; so +that the room, which was low in the roof with wide beetle-browed +windows, seemed to lighten.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Just in time, Master Schwartz!' cried one fellow. 'You, can write, +and we are about a petition! Perhaps you will draw it up for us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A petition,' I said shortly, eyeing the fellow with contempt. 'What +petition?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Against Papists!' he answered boldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And favourers, aiders, and abettors!' exclaimed another in the +background.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Master Klink, Master Klink,' I said, trying to frown down the crowd, +'you would do well to have a care. These ragamuffins----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have a care yourself, Master Jackanapes!' the same voice cried. 'This +is a town meeting.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Town meeting!' I said, looking round contemptuously. 'Gaol-meeting, +you mean, and likely to be a gaol-filling. But I do not speak to you; +I leave that to the constable. For Master Klink, if he will take a +word of advice, I will speak with him alone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They cried out to him not to speak to me. But Klink had still sense +enough to know that he might be going too fast, and though they hooted +and laughed at him--being for the most part people who had nothing to +lose--he came out of the house with me and crossed the street that we +might talk unheard. As civilly as I could I delivered my message; and +as exactly, for I saw that the issue might be serious.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was not surprised when he groaned, and in a kind of a tremor shook +his hands. 'I am not my own master, Schwartz,' he said. 'And that is +the truth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You were your own master last night,' I retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'These fellows are all for "No Popery."'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, and who gave them the cue?' I said sharply. 'It is not the first +time that the fat burgher has raised the lean kine and been eaten by +them. Nor will it be the last. It serves you right.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am willing enough to do what my lady wishes,' he whimpered; +'but----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But you are not master of your own house, do you mean?' I exclaimed. +'Then fetch the constable. That is simple. Or the Burgomaster.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush!' he said, 'he is hotter than any one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then,' I answered flatly, 'he had better cool, and you too. That is +all I have to say. And mark me, Klink,' I continued sternly, 'see that +no harm happens to that girl or her father. They are in your house, +and you have heard what my lady says. Let those ruffians interfere +with them and you will be held to answer for it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is easy talking,' he muttered peevishly; 'but if I cannot help +it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will have to help it!' I rejoined, losing my temper a little. +'You were fool enough, or I am much mistaken, to set a light to this +stack, and now you will have to smother the flame, or pay for it. That +is all, my friend. You have had fair warning. The rest is in your own +hands.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And with that I left him. He was a stupid man but a sly one too, and I +doubted his sincerity, or I might have taken another way with him. In +the end, doubtless, it would have been the same.</p> + +<p class="normal">As I turned on my heel to go, the troop round the door raised a kind +of hoot; and this pursued me as I went up the street, bringing the +blood to my cheeks and almost provoking me to return. I checked the +impulse however, and strode on as if I did not hear; and by the time I +reached the market-place the cry had ceased. Here however it began +afresh; a number of loose fellows and lads who were loafing about the +stalls crying 'No Popery!' and 'Popish Schwartz!' as I passed, in a +way which showed that the thing was premeditated and that they had +been lying in wait for me. I stopped and scowled at them, and for a +moment they ceased. But the instant my back was turned the hooting +began again--with an ugly savage note in it--and I had not got quite +clear of the place when some one flung a bundle of carrots, which hit +me sharply on the back. I swung round in a rage at that, and dashed +hot foot into the middle of the stalls in the hope of catching the +fellow. But I was too late; an old woman over whom I fell was the only +sufferer. The rascals had fled down an alley, and, contenting myself +with crying after them that they were a set of cowards, I set the old +lady on her legs, and went on my way.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I had my thoughts. Such an insult had not been offered to me since +I first came to the town to serve my lady, and it filled me with +indignation. It seemed, besides, not a thing to be sneezed at. I took +it for a sign of change, of bad times coming. Moreover--and this +troubled me as much as anything--I had recognised among the fellows in +the square two more of the fifty men my lady had sent to serve with +Hesse. There seemed ground for fearing that they had deserted in a +body and come back and were in hiding. If this were so, and the +Burgomaster, instead of repressing them, encouraged their excesses, +they were likely to prove a source of trouble and danger--real danger.</p> + +<p class="normal">I paused on the steps leading up to the castle, in two minds whether I +should not go to the Burgomaster and tell him plainly what I thought; +for I felt the responsibility. My lady had no male protector, no +higher servant than myself, and we had not a dozen capable men in the +castle. The Landgrave of Hesse, our over-lord, was away with the King +of Sweden, and we could expect no immediate support from him. In the +event of a riot in the town therefore--and I knew that, in the great +Peasants' War of a century before, our town had been rebellious +enough--we should be practically helpless. An hour and a little +ill-fortune might place my lady in the hands of her mutinous subjects; +and though the Landgrave would be certain sooner or later to chastise +them, many things might happen in the interval.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the end I went on up the steps, thinking that I had better leave +Hofman alone, since I could not trust him, and should only by applying +to him disclose our weakness. There was a way indeed which occurred to +me as I reached the head of the stairs, but I had not taken two steps +across the terrace, as we call that part of the court which overlooks +the town, before it was immediately driven out again. Fraulein Max was +walking up and down with a book, sunning herself. I think that she had +been watching for me, for the moment I appeared she called to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I went up to her reluctantly. I was anxious, and in no mood to listen +to one of those learned disquisitions with which she would sometimes +favour us, without any thought whether we understood her or no. But +this I soon found was not what I had to fear. Her face wore a frown +and her tone was peevish; but she closed her book, keeping her place +in it with her finger.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Master Martin,' she said, peering at me with her shortsighted eyes, +'you are a very foolish man, I think.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fraulein!' I muttered in surprise. What did she mean?</p> + +<p class="normal">'A very foolish one!' she repeated. 'Why are you disturbing your lady? +Why do you not leave her to her studies and her peace instead of +distracting her mind with these stories of a man and a girl? A man and +a girl, and Papists! Piff! What are they to us? Don't you understand +that your lady has higher work and something else to do? Go you and +look after your man and girl.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But my lady's subjects, Fraulein----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Her subjects?' she replied, almost violently. 'Papists are no +subjects. Or to what purpose the <i>Cujus Regio?</i> But what do you know +of government? You have heard and you repeat.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But, Fraulein,' I said humbly, for her way of talking made me seem +altogether in the wrong, and a monster of indiscretion, 'if my lady +does not interfere, the man and the girl you speak of will suffer. +That is clear.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She snapped her fingers.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Piff!' she cried, screwing up her eyes still more. 'What has that to +do with us? Is there not suffering going on from one end of Germany to +the other? Do not scores die every day, every hour? Can we prevent it? +No. Then why trouble us for this one little, little matter? It is +theirs to suffer, and ours to think and read, and learn and write. We +were at peace to do all this, and then you come with your man and +girl, and the peace is gone!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But, Fraulein----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You do no good by saying Fraulein, Fraulein!' she replied. 'Look at +things in the light of reason. Trouble us no more. That is what you +have to do. What are this man and girl to you that you should endanger +your mistress for their sakes?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are nothing to me,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then let them go!' she replied with suppressed passion. 'And undo +your folly the best way you can, and the sooner the better! Chut! That +when the mind is set on higher things it should be distracted by such +mean and miserable objects! If they are nothing to you, why in +heaven's name obtrude them on us?'</p> + +<p class="normal">After that she would not hear another word, but dismissed me with a +wave of her hand as if the thing were fully settled and over; burying +herself in her book and turning away, while I went into the house with +my tail between my legs and all my doubts and misgivings increased a +hundredfold. For this which she had put into words was the very +thought, the very way out of it, which had occurred to me! I had only +to let the matter drop, I had only to leave these people to their +fate, and the danger and difficulty were at once at an end. For a time +my lady's authority might suffer perhaps; but at the proper season, +when the Landgrave was at home and could help us, we might cheaply +assert and confirm it.</p> + +<p class="normal">All that day I went about in doubt what I should do; and night came +without resolving my perplexities. At one moment I thought of my duty +to my lady, and the calamities in which I might involve her. At +another I pictured the girl I had seen praying by her father's +bed--pictured her alone and defenceless, hourly insulted by Klink, and +with terror and uncertainty looming each day larger before her eyes: +or, worse still, abandoned to all the dangers which awaited her, in +the event of the town refusing to give her shelter. Considering that I +had seen her once only--to notice her--it was wonderful how clearly I +remembered her.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">THE BURGOMASTER'S DEMAND.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">As it turned out, the other party took the burden of decision from my +shoulders. When I came out of chapel next morning, I found Hofman on +the terrace waiting for me, and with him Master Dietz wearing his +Geneva gown and a sour face. They wished to see my lady. I said it +was early yet, and tried to hold them in talk if only that I might +learn what they would be at. But they repulsed my advances, said +that they knew her excellency always transacted her business at this +hour--which was perfectly true--and at last sent me to the parlour +whether I would or no.</p> + +<p class="normal">Under such circumstances I did not linger behind the screen, but +advanced at once, and interrupting Fraulein Max, who had just begun to +read aloud, while my lady worked, said that the Burgomaster desired +the honour of an interview with the Countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter passed her needle once through the stuff, and then looked +up. 'Do you know what he wants, Martin?' she said in a quiet tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">I said I did not.</p> + +<p class="normal">She bent her head and worked for a moment in silence. Then she sighed +gently, and without looking up, nodded to me. 'Very well, I will see +him here,' she said. 'But first send Grissel and Gretchen to wait on +me. Let Franz bring two stools and place them, and bid him and Ernst +keep the door. My footstool also. And let the two Jacobs wait in the +hall.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I gave the orders and took on myself to place two extra lackeys in the +hall that we might not seem to be short of men. Then I went to the +Burgomaster, and attended him and Master Dietz to the parlour.</p> + +<p class="normal">They bowed three times according to custom as they advanced, and my +lady, taking one step forward, gave her hand to the Burgomaster to +kiss. Then she stepped back and sat down, looking with a pleasant face +at the Minister. 'I would fain apologise for troubling your +excellency,' the Mayor began slowly and heavily. 'But the times are +trying.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your presence needs no apology, Master Hofman,' my lady answered, +smiling frankly. 'It is your right to see me on behalf of the town at +all times. It would grieve me much, if you did not sometimes exercise +the privilege. And for Master Dietz, who may be able to assist us, I +am glad to see him also.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Minister bowed low. The Burgomaster only puffed out his cheeks. +Doubtless he felt that courage at the Red Hart and courage in my +lady's parlour were two different things. But it was too late to +retreat, for the Minister was there to report what passed; and after a +glance at Dietz's face he proceeded. 'I am not here in a private +capacity, if it please your excellency,' he said. 'And I beg your +excellency to bear this in mind. I am here as Burgomaster, having on +my mind the peace of the town; which at present is endangered--very +greatly, endangered,' he repeated pompously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am sorry to hear that,' my lady answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nevertheless it is so,' he replied with a kind of obstinacy. +'Endangered by the presence of certain persons in the town, whose +manners are not conformable. These persons are Papists, and the town, +your excellency remembers, is a Protestant town.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly I remember that,' my lady said gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hence of this combination, your excellency will understand, comes a +likelihood of evil,' he continued. 'On which, hearing you took an +interest in these persons, however little deserved, it seemed to be my +duty to lay the matter before you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have done very rightly,' the Countess answered quietly. 'Do I +understand then, Master Hofman, that the Papists you complain of are +conspiring to break the peace of the town?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Burgomaster gasped. He was too obtuse to see at once that my lady +was playing with him. He only wondered how he had managed to convey so +strange a notion to her mind. He hastened to set her right. 'No--oh, +no,' he said. 'There is no fear of that. There are but three of them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Are they presuming to perform their rites in public then?' my lady +rejoined. 'If so, of course it cannot be permitted. It is against the +law of the town.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' he answered, more slowly and more reluctantly as the drift of +her questions began to dawn upon him. 'I do not know that that is so. +I have not heard that it is so. But they are Papists.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, but with their consciences we have nothing to do!' she said +more sharply. 'I confess, I fail as yet to see, Master Hofman, how +they threaten the peace of the town.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Burgomaster stared. 'I do not know that they threaten it +themselves,' he said slowly. 'But their presence stirs up the people, +if your excellency understands; and may lead, if the matter goes on, +to a riot or worse.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha! Now I comprehend!' my lady cried in a hearty tone. 'You fear your +constables may fail to cope with the rabble?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He admitted that that was so.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you desire such assistance as I can offer towards maintaining the +law and protecting these persons; who have of course a right to +protection?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Master Hofman began to see whither he had been led, and glared at the +Countess with his mouth wide open. But for the moment he could not +find a word to say. Never did I see a man look more at a loss.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, I must consider,' my lady resumed, her finger to her cheek. +'Rest assured, you shall be supported. Martin,' she continued, turning +to me, 'let word be sent to the four foresters at Gatz to come down to +the castle this evening. And send also to the charcoal-burners' camp. +How many men should there be in it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Some half-score, my lady,' I answered, adding two-thirds to the +truth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah? And let the huntsman come down and bring a couple of feeders. +Doubtless with our own men, we shall be able to place a score or +thirty at your disposal, Master Hofman, and stout fellows. These, with +your constables and such of the peaceful burghers as you see fit to +call to your assistance, should be sufficient to quell the +disorderly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I could have laughed aloud, Master Hofman looked so confounded. Never +man had an air of being more completely taken aback. By offering her +help to put down any mob, the Countess had deprived him of the plea he +had come to prefer; that he was afraid he could not answer for the +safety of the Papists, and that therefore they must withdraw or be +expelled. This he could no longer put forward, and consequently he was +driven either to adopt my lady's line, or side openly with the party +of disorder. I saw his heavy face turn a deep red, and his jaw fall, +as he grasped the situation. His wits worked slowly; and had he been +left to himself, I do not doubt that he would have allowed things to +remain as they were, and taken the part assigned to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Master Dietz, who had listened with a lengthening face, at this +moment interposed. 'Will your excellency permit me to say a few +words?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think the Burgomaster has made the matter clear,' my lady answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not in one respect,' the Minister rejoined. 'He has not informed your +excellency that in the opinion of the majority of the burghers and +inhabitants of this town the presence of these people is an offence +and an eyesore.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is legal,' my lady answered icily. 'I do not know what opinion has +to do with it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The opinion of the majority.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sir!' my lady said, speaking abruptly and with heightened colour, 'in +Heritzburg I am the majority, by your leave.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He frowned and set his face hard, but his eyes sank before hers. +'Nevertheless your excellency will allow,' he said in a lower tone, +'that the opinion of grave and orderly men deserves consideration?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'When it is on the side of law, every consideration,' the Countess +answered, her eyes sparkling. 'But when it is ranged against three +defenceless people in violation of the law, none. And more, Master +Dietz,' she continued, her voice ringing with indignation, 'it is to +check such opinion, and defend against it those who otherwise would +have no defence, that I conceive I sit here. And by my faith I will do +it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She uttered the last words with so much fire and with her beautiful +face so full of feeling, that I started forward where I stood; and for +a farthing would have flung Dietz through the window. The little +Minister was of a stern and hard nature, however. The nobility of my +lady's position was lost upon him. He feared her less than he would +have feared a man under the same circumstances; and though he stood +cowed, and silenced for the moment, he presently returned to the +attack.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your excellency perhaps forgets,' he said with a dry cough, 'that the +times are full of bloodshed and strife, though we at Heritzburg have +hitherto enjoyed peace. I suggest with respect therefore, is it +prudent to run the risk of bringing these evils into the town for the +sake of one or two Papists, whom it is only proposed to send +elsewhere?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady rose suddenly from her chair, and pointed with a finger, which +trembled slightly, to the great window beside her. 'Step up here!' she +said curtly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Master Dietz, wondering greatly, stepped on to the daïs. Thence the +red roofs of the town, some new and smart, and some stained and grey +with lichens, and all the green valley stretching away to the dark +line of wood, were visible, bathed in sunshine. The day was fine, the +air clear, the smoke from the chimneys rose straight upward.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you see?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Minister bowed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then take this for answer,' she replied. 'All that you see is mine to +rule. It came to me by inheritance, and I prize the possession of it, +though I am a woman, more highly than my life; for it came to me from +Heaven and my fathers. But were it a hundred times as large, Master +Dietz--were there a house for every brick that now stands there, and +an acre for every furrow, and sheep as many as birds in the air, even +then I would risk all, and double and treble all, rather than desert +those whom my law defends, be they three, or thirty, or three hundred! +Let that be your answer! And for the peace you speak of,' she +continued, turning on a sudden and confronting us, her face aglow with +anger, 'the peace, I mean, which you have hitherto enjoyed, it should +shame you to hear it mentioned! Have the Papists harried you? Have you +suffered in life or limb, or property? No. And why? Because of my +honoured uncle, a Papist! For shame!--for shame, I say! As it has been +dealt out to you, go and do to others!'</p> + +<p class="normal">But for the respect which held me in her presence, I could have cried +'Huzza!' to her speech; and I can tell you, it made Master Minister +look as small as a mouse. He stepped down from the daïs with his face +dark and his head trembling; and after that I never doubted that he +was at the bottom of the movement against the Worts, though the +ruffianly deserters I have mentioned supplied him with the tools, +wanting which he might not have taken up the work. He stood a moment +on the floor looking very black and grim, and with not a word to say, +but I doubted he was not beaten. What line he would have taken, +however, I cannot tell, for he had scarcely descended--my lady had not +resumed her seat--when there rose from the court below a sudden babel +of noise, the trampling of hoofs and feet on the pavement, and a +confused murmur of voices. For a moment I looked at my lady and she at +me. It struck me that that at which the Burgomaster had hinted was +come to pass: that some of the town ragamuffins had dared to invade +the castle. The same idea doubtless occurred to her, for she stepped, +though without any appearance of alarm, to the window, which commanded +a side view of the terrace. She looked out.</p> + +<p class="normal">I, a little to her right, saw her smile: then in a moment she turned. +'This could not be better,' she said, resuming in an instant her +ordinary manner. I think she was a little ashamed, as people of +quality are wont to be, of the feeling she had betrayed. 'I see some +one below who will advise me, and who, if I am doing wrong, as you +seem to fear, Master Burgomaster, will tell me of it. My cousin, the +Waldgrave Rupert, whom I expected to-morrow, has arrived to-day. Be +good enough to wait while I receive him, and I will then return to +you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Bidding me have the two served with some refreshment, she stepped down +from the daïs, and withdrew with Fraulein Max and her women, leaving +the townsmen to discuss the new arrival with what appetite they might.</p> + +<p class="normal">They liked it little, I fancy. In a moment their importance was gone, +their consequence at an end. The name of the Waldgrave Rupert made +them feel how small they were, despite their boasting, beside the +youngest member of the family. The very swish of my lady's robe as she +swept through the doorway flouted them, her departure was an offence; +and this, following on the scolding they had received, produced a +soreness and irritation in their minds, which ill-prepared them, I +think, for the sequel.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have sometimes thought that had I remained with them, and paid them +some attentions, the end might have been different; but my duties +called me elsewhere. The house was in a ferment; I was wanted here and +there, both to give orders and to see them carried out. It was some +time before I was at liberty even to go to the hall whither my lady +had descended to receive her guest, and where I found the two standing +together on the hearth, under the great Red Hart which is the +cognizance of the family.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had not seen the Waldgrave Rupert--a cadet of the noble house of +Weimar and my lady's cousin once removed--since his boyhood. I found +him grown into a splendid man, as tall and almost as wide as myself; +who used to be called in the old forest days before I entered my +lady's service 'the strong man of Pippel.' As he stood on the hearth, +fair-haired and ruddy-faced, with a noble carriage and a frank boyish +smile, I had seldom looked on a handsomer youth. He fell short of my +lady's age by two years; but as I looked from one to the other, they +seemed so fitting a pair, the disparity went for nothing. He was young +and strong, full of spirit and energy and fire. Surely, I thought, the +right man has come at last!</p> + +<p class="normal">In this belief I was more than confirmed when he came forward and +greeted me pleasantly, vowing that he remembered me well. His voice +and laugh seemed to fill the room; the very ring of his spurs on the +stones gave assurance of power. I saw my lady look at him with an air +of affectionate pride--she had seen him more lately than I had--as if +his youth, and strength, and beauty already belonged to her. As for +his smile, it was infectious. We grew in a moment brighter, younger, +and more cheerful. The house which yesterday had seemed quiet and +lonesome--we were a small family for so great a dwelling--took on a +new air. The servants went about their tasks more quickly, the maids +laughed behind doors. The place seemed in an hour transformed, as I +have seen a valley in the mountains changed on a sudden by the rising +of the sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">As a fact, when I had been in his presence five minutes, the +Burgomaster and the Minister upstairs seemed as common and mean and +insignificant a pair of fellows as any in Germany. I wondered that I +could ever have feared them. The Countess had told him the story, and +he asked me one or two questions about them, his tone high, and his +head in the air. I answered him, and was for accompanying him +upstairs, when he went to see them, with my lady by his side, and his +whip slapping his great thigh boots until the staircase rang again. +But my lady had an errand and sent me on it, and so I was not present +at the end of this interview which I had myself brought about.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I suppose that the scolding my lady had given them was no more +than a flea-bite beside the rating the young Waldgrave inflicted! It +was notorious for a score of leagues round, and he told them so in +good round terms, that the Heritzburg land had been spared by friend +and foe for Count Tilly's sake; for his sake and his alone--a Papist. +How, then, he asked them, had they the face to do this dirty trick, +and threaten my lady besides? With much more of the same kind, and +hard words, not to say menaces; sparing neither Mayor nor Minister, so +that they went off at last like whipped dogs or thieves that have seen +the gallows.</p> + +<p class="normal">Afterwards something was said; but at the time no one missed them. +Except by myself, scarce a thought was given to them after they went +out of the door. The house was all agog about the new-comer; the +still-room full of work and the chimneys smoking. The young lord was +everywhere, and the maids were mad about him. I had my hands full, and +every one in the house seemed to be in the same case. No one had time +to look abroad.</p> + +<p class="normal">Except Fraulein Anna Max, my lady's companion. I found her about four +o'clock in the afternoon sitting alone in the hall. She had a book +before her as usual, but on my entrance she pushed it away from her, +and looked up at me, screwing up her eyes in the odd way peculiar to +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Master Steward,' she said--and her voice sounded ill-natured, +'so the fire has been lit--but not by you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The fire?' I answered, utterly at a loss for the moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay,' she rejoined, with a bitter smile, 'the fire. Don't you hear it +burning?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I hear nothing,' I said coldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Go to the terrace, and perhaps you will!' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her words filled me with a vague uneasiness, but I was too proud to go +then or seem to heed them. An hour or two later, however, when the sun +was half down, and the shadows of the chimneys lay far over the roofs, +and the eastern woods were aglow, I went to the wall which bounds the +terrace and looked down. The hum of the town came up to my ears as it +has come up to that wall any time these hundred years. But was I +mistaken, or did there mingle with it this evening a harsher note than +usual, a rancorous murmur, as of angry voices; and something sterner, +lower, and more menacing, the clamour of a great crowd?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">THE FIRE ALIGHT.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I laughed at my own fears when the morning came, and showed no change +except that cheerful one, which our guest's presence had worked inside +the castle. Below, today was as yesterday. The sun shone as brightly +on the roofs, the smoke of the chimneys rose as peacefully in the air; +the swallows circling round the eaves swung this way and that as +swiftly and noiselessly as of old. The common sounds of everyday life, +the clank of the pump in the market-place as the old crones drew +water, and the cry of the wood-cutter hawking his stuff, alone broke +the stillness. I sniffed the air, and smiling at Fraulein Anna's +warning, went back into the house, where any fears which yet lingered +in my mind took instant flight at sound of the Waldgrave's voice, so +cheerful was it, so full of life and strength and confidence.</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not know what it was in him, but something there was which +carried us all the way he wished us to go. Did he laugh at the thought +of danger; straightway we laughed too, and this though I knew +Heritzburg and he did not. Did he speak scornfully of the burghers; +forthwith they seemed to us a petty lot. When he strode up and down +the terrace, showing us how a single gun placed here or there, or in +the corner, would in an hour reduce the town; on the instant we deemed +him a Tilly. When he dubbed Hofman and Dietz, 'Old Fat and Lean,' the +groom-boys, who could not be kept from his heels, sniggered, and had +to be whipped back to the stables. In a word, he won us all. His +youth, his gaiety, his confidence, were irresistible.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dared even to scold my lady, saying that she had cosseted the +townsfolk and brought this trouble on herself by pleasuring them; and +she, who seemed to us the proudest of the proud, took it meekly, +laughing in his face. It required no conjuror to perceive that he +admired her, and would fain shine in her presence. That was to be +expected. But about my mistress I was less certain, until after +breakfast nothing would suit her but an immediate excursion to the +White Maiden--the great grey spire which stands on the summit of the +Oberwald. Then I knew that she had it in her mind to make the best +figure she could; for though she talked of showing him game in that +direction, and there was a grand parade of taking dogs, all the world +knows that the other side of the valley is the better hunting-ground. +I was left to guess that the White Maiden was chosen because all the +wide Heritzburg land can be seen from its foot, and not corn and +woodland, pasture and meadow only, but the gem of all--the town +nestling babelike in the lap of the valley, with the grey towers +rising like the face of some harsh nurse above it.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lord jumped at the plan. Doubtless he liked the prospect of a ride +through the forest by her side. When she raised some little demur, +stepping in the way of her own proposal, as I have noticed women will, +and said something about the safety of the castle, if so many left it, +he cried out eagerly that she need not fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will leave my people,' he said. 'Then you will feel quite sure that +the place is safe. I will answer for them that they will hold your +castle against Wallenstein himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But how many are with you?' my lady asked curiously; a little in +mischief too, perhaps, for I think she knew.</p> + +<p class="normal">His handsome face reddened and he looked rather foolish for a moment. +'Well, only four, as a fact,' he said. 'But they are perfect paladins, +and as good as forty. In your defence, cousin, I would pit them +against a score of the hardiest Swedes that ever followed the King.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady laughed gaily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, for this day, I will trust them,' she said. 'Martin, order the +grooms to saddle Pushka for me. And you, cousin, shall have the honour +of mounting me. It is an age since I have had a frolic.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Sometimes I doubt if my lady ever had such a frolic again. Happier +days she saw, I think, and many and many of them, I hope; but such a +day of careless sunny gaiety, spent in the May greenwood, with joy and +youth riding by her, with old servants at her heels, and all the +beauties of her inheritance spread before her in light and shadow, she +never again enjoyed. We went by forest paths, which winding round the +valley, passed through woodlands, where the horses sank fetlock-deep +in moss, and the laughing voices of the riders died away among the +distant trunks. Here were fairy rings deep-plunged in bracken, and +chalky bottoms whence springs rose bright as crystal, and dim aisles +of beeches narrowing into darkness, where last year's leaves rustled +ghostlike under foot, and the shadow of a squirrel startled the +boldest. Once, emerging on the open down where the sun lay hot and +bright, my lady gave her horse the rein, and for a mile or more we +sped across the turf, with hoofs thundering on either hand, and bits +jingling, and horses pulling, only to fall into a walk again with +flushed cheeks and brighter eyes, on the edge of the farther wood. +Thence another mile, athwart the steep hillside through dwarf oaks and +huge blackthorn trees, brought us to the foot of the Maiden, and we +drew rein and dismounted, and stood looking down on the vale of +Heritzburg, while the grooms unpacked the dinner.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is a niche in the great pillar, a man's height from the ground, +in which one person may conveniently sit. The young Waldgrave spied +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Up to the throne, cousin!' he cried, and he helped her to it, sitting +himself on the ledge at her feet, with his legs dangling. 'Why, there +is the Werra!' he continued.</p> + +<p class="normal">A large quantity of rain had fallen that spring, and the river which +commonly runs low between its banks, was plainly visible, a silver +streak crossing the distant mouth of the valley.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' my lady answered. 'That is the Werra, and beyond it is, I +suppose, the world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whither I must go back this day week,' he said, between sighing and +smiling. 'Then, hey for the south and Nuremberg, the good cause and +the great King.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have seen him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Once only.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And is he so great a fighter?' my lady asked curiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How can he fail to be when he and his men fight and pray +alternately,' the Waldgrave answered; 'when there is no license in the +camp, and a Swede thinks death the same as victory?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is he now?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'At Munich, in Bavaria.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How it would have grieved my uncle,' my lady said, with a sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He died as he would have wished to die,' the Waldgrave answered +gently. 'He believed in his cause, as the King of Sweden believes in +his; and he died for it. What more can a man ask? But here is Franz +with all sorts of good things. And I am afraid a feast of beauty, +however perfect, does not prevent a man getting hungry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is a very pretty compliment to Heritzburg,' my lady said, +laughing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or its chatelaine!' I heard him murmur, with a tender look. But my +lady only laughed again and called to me to come and name the hills, +and tell my lord what land went with each of the three hamlets between +which the lower valley is divided.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless that was but one of a hundred gallant things he said to her, +and whereat she laughed, during the pleasant hour they whiled away at +the foot of the pillar, basking in the warm sunshine, and telling the +valley farm by farm. For the day was perfect, the season spring. I lay +on my side and dreamed my own dream under the trees, with the hum of +insects in my ears. No one was in a hurry to rise, or set a term to +such a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still we had plenty of daylight before us when my lady mounted and +turned her face homewards, thinking to reach the castle a little after +five. But a hare got up as we crossed the open down, and showing good +sport, as these long-legged mountain hares will, led us far out of our +way, and caused us to spend nearly an hour in the chase. Then my lady +spied a rare flower on the cliffside; and the young Waldgrave must +needs get it for her. And so it wanted little of sunset when we came +at last in sight of the bridge which spans the ravine at the back of +the castle. I saw in the distance a lad seated on the parapet, +apparently looking out for us, but I thought nothing of it. The +descent was steep and we rode down slowly, my lady and the Waldgrave +laughing and talking, and the rest of us sitting at our ease. Nor did +the least thought of ill occur to my mind until I saw that the lad had +jumped down from the wall and was running towards us waving his cap.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady, too, saw him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it, Martin?' she said, turning her head to speak to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I told her I would see, and trotted forward along the side of the path +until I came within call. Then I cried sharply to the lad to know what +it was. I saw something in his face which frightened me; and being +frightened and blaming myself, I was ready to fall on the first I met.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The town!' he answered, panting up to my stirrup. 'There is fighting +going on, Master Martin. They are pulling down Klink's house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, so,' I answered, for at the first sight of his face I had feared +worse. 'Have you closed the gate at the head of the steps?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he said, 'and my lord's men are guarding it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Right!' I answered. And then my lady came up, and I had to break the +news to her. Of course the young Waldgrave heard also, and I saw his +eyes sparkle with pleasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha! the rascals!' he cried. 'Now we will trounce them! Trust me, +cousin, we will teach these boors such a lesson as they shall long +remember. But what is it?' he continued, turning to my lady who had +not spoken. 'The Queen of Heritzburg is not afraid of her rebellious +subjects?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady's eyes flashed. 'No, I am not afraid,' she said, with +contempt. 'But Klink's house? Do you mean the Red Hart, Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I said I did.</p> + +<p class="normal">She plucked her horse by the head, and stopped short under the arch of +the gateway. I think I see her now bending from her saddle with the +light on the woods behind her, and her face in shadow. 'Then those +people are in danger!' she said, her voice quivering with excitement. +'Martin, take what men you have and go down into the town. Bring them +off at all risks! See to it yourself. If harm come to them, I shall +not forgive you easily.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave sprang from his horse, and cried out that he would go. +But my lady called to him to stay with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Martin knows the streets, and you do not,' she said, sliding +unassisted to the ground. 'But he shall take your men, if you do not +object.'</p> + +<p class="normal">We dismounted, in a confused medley of men and horses, in the stable +court, which is small, and being surrounded by high buildings, was +almost dark. The grooms left at home had gone to the front of the +house to see the sight, and there was no one to receive us. I bade the +five men who had ridden with us get their arms, and leaving the horses +loose to be caught and cared for by the lad who had met us, I hastened +after my lady and the Waldgrave, who had already disappeared under the +arch which leads to the Terrace Court.</p> + +<p class="normal">To pass through this was to pass from night to day, so startling was +the change. From one end to the other the terrace was aglow with red +light. The last level beams of the sun shone straight in our eyes as +we emerged, and so blinded us, that I advanced, seeing nothing before +me but a row of dark figures leaning over the parapet. If we could not +see, however, we could hear. A hoarse murmur, unlike anything I had +heard before, came up from the town, and rising and falling in waves +of sound, now a mere whisper, and now a dull savage roar, caused the +boldest to tremble. I heard my lady cry, 'Those poor people! Those +poor people!' and saw her clench her hands in impotent anger; and that +sight, or the sound--which seemed the more weirdly menacing as the +town lay in twilight below us, and we could make out no more than a +few knots of women standing in the market-place--or it may be some +memory of the helpless girl I had seen at Klink's, so worked upon me +that I had got the gate unbarred and was standing at the head of the +steps outside before I knew that I had stirred or given an order.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one thrust a half pike into my hand, and mechanically I counted +out the men--four of the Waldgrave's and five, six, seven of our own. +A strange voice--but it may have been my own--cried, 'Not by the High +Street. Through the lane by the wall!' and the next moment we were +down out of the sunlight and taking the rough steps three at a time. +The High Street reached, we swung round in a body to the right, and +plunging into Shoe Wynd, came to the locksmith's, and thence went on +by the way I had gone that other evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">The noise was less down in the streets. The houses intervened and +deadened it. At some of the doors women were standing, listening and +looking out with grey faces, but one and all fled in at our approach, +which seemed to be the signal, wherever we came, for barring doors and +shooting bolts; once a man took to his heels before us, and again near +the locksmith's we encountered a woman bare-headed and carrying +something in her arms. She almost ran into the midst of us, and at the +last moment only avoided us by darting up the side-alley by the forge. +Whether these people knew us for what we were, and so fled from us, or +took us for a party of the rioters, it was impossible to say. The +narrow lanes were growing dark, night was falling on the town; only +the over-hanging eaves showed clear and black against a pale sky. The +way we had to go was short, but it seemed long to me; for a dozen +times between the castle steps and Klink's house I thought of the poor +girl at her prayers, and pictured what might be happening.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet we could not have been more than five minutes going from the steps +to the corner beyond the forge, whence we could see Klink's side +window. A red glare shone though it, and cleaving the dark mist which +filled the alley fell ruddily on the town wall. It seemed to say that +we were too late; and my heart sank at the sight. Nor at the sight +only, for as we turned the corner, the hoarse murmur we had heard on +the Terrace, and which even there had sounded ominous, swelled to an +angry roar, made up of cries and cursing, with bursts of reckless +cheering, and now and again a yell of pain. The street away before us, +where the lane ran into it, was full of smoky light and upturned +faces; but I took no heed of it, my business was with the window. I +cried to the men behind me and hurried on till I stood before it, and +clutching the bars--the glass was broken long ago--looked in.</p> + +<p class="normal">The room was full of men. For a moment I could see nothing but heads +and shoulders and grim faces, all crowded together, and all alike +distorted by the lurid light shed by a couple of torches held close to +the ceiling. Some of the men standing in such groups as the constant +jostling permitted, were talking, or rather shouting to one another. +Others were savagely forcing back their fellows who wished to enter; +while a full third were gathered with their faces all one way round +the corner where I had seen the sick man. Here the light was +strongest, and in this direction I gazed most anxiously. But the +crowded figures intercepted all view; neither there nor anywhere else +could I detect any sign of the girl or child. The men in that corner +seemed to be gazing at something low down on the floor, something I +could not see. A few were silent, more were shouting and +gesticulating.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stretched my hands through the bars, and grasping a man by the +shoulders, dragged him to me. 'What is it?' I cried in his ear, +heedless whether he knew me, or took me for one of the ruffians who +were everywhere battling to get into the house--at the window we had +anticipated some by a second only. 'What is it?' I repeated fiercely, +resisting all his efforts to get free.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing!' he answered, glaring at me. 'The man is dead; cannot you +see?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I can see nothing!' I retorted. 'Dead is he?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, dead, and a good job too!' the rascal answered, making a fresh +attempt to get away. 'Dead when we came in.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And the girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gone, the Papist witch, on a broomstick!' he answered. 'Through the +wall or the ceiling or the keyhole, or through this window; but only +on a broomstick. The bars would skin a cat!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I let him go and looked at the bars. They were an inch thick, and a +very few inches apart. It seemed impossible that a child, much more a +grown woman, could pass between them. As the fellow said, there was +barely room for a cat to pass.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet my mind clung to the bars. Klink might have hidden the girl, for +without doubt he had neither foreseen nor meant anything like this. +But something told me that she had gone by the window, and I turned +from it with renewed hope.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was time I did turn. The crowd had got wind of our presence and +resented it. All who could not get into the house to slake their +curiosity or anger, had pressed into the narrow alley where we stood, +while the air rang with cries of 'No Popery! Down with the Papists!' +When I turned I found my fellows hard put to it to keep their +position. To retreat, close pressed as we were, seemed as difficult as +to stand; but by making a resolute movement all together, we charged +to the front for a moment, and then taking advantage of the interval, +fell back as quickly as we could, facing round whenever it seemed that +our followers were coming on too boldly for safety.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this way, the knaves with me being stout and some of them used to +the work, we retreated in good order and without hurt as far as the +end of Shoe Wynd. Then I discovered to my dismay that a portion of the +mob had made along the High Street and were waiting for us on the +steep ascent where the wynd runs into the street.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hitherto no harm had been done on either side, but we now found +ourselves beset front and back, and to add to the confusion of the +scene night had set in. The narrow wynd was as dark as pitch, save +where the light of a chance torch showed crowded forms and snarling +faces, while the din and tumult were enough to daunt the boldest.</p> + +<p class="normal">That moment, I confess, was one of the worst I have known. I felt my +men waver; a little more and they might break and the mob deal with us +as it would. On the other hand? I knew that to plunge, exposed to +attack as we were from behind, into the mass of men who blocked the +way to the steps, would be madness. We should be surrounded and +trodden down. There were not perhaps fifty really dangerous fellows in +the town; but a mob I have noticed is a strange thing. Men who join +it, intending merely to look on, are carried away by excitement, and +soon find themselves cursing and fighting, burning and raiding with +the foremost.</p> + +<p class="normal">A brief pause and I gave the word to face about again. As I expected, +the gang in the alley gave way before us, and the pursued became the +pursuers. My men's blood was up now, their patience exhausted; and for +a few moments pike and staff played a merry tune. But quickly the mob +behind closed up on our heels. Stones began to be thrown, and +presently one, dropped I think from a window, struck a man beside me +and felled him to the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was our first loss. Drunken Steve, a great gross fellow, always +in trouble, but a giant in strength, picked him up--we could not leave +the man to be murdered--and plunged on with us bearing him under his +arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good man!' I cried between my teeth. And I swore it should save the +drunkard from many a scrape. But the next moment another was down, and +him I had to pick up myself. Then I saw that we were as good as +doomed. Against the stones we had no shield.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men saw it too, and cried out, beside themselves with rage. We +were as rats, set in a pit to be worried--in the dark with a hundred +foes tearing at us. And the town seemed to have gone mad--mad! Above +the screams and wicked laughter, and all the din about us, I heard the +great church bell begin to ring, and hurling its notes, now sharp, now +dull, down upon the seething streets, swell and swell the tumult until +the very sky seemed one in the league against us!</p> + +<p class="normal">Blind with fury--for what had we done?--we turned on the mob which +followed us and hurled it back--back almost to the High Street. But +that way was no exit for us; the crowd stood so close that they could +not even fly. Round we whirled again, wild and desperate now, and +charged down the alley towards the West Gate, thinking possibly +to win through and out by that way. We had almost reached the +locksmith's--then another man fell. He was of the Waldgrave's +following, and his comrade stooped to raise him; but only to fall over +him, wounded in his turn.</p> + +<p class="normal">What happened after that I only knew in part, for from that moment all +was a medley of random blows and stragglings in the dark. The crowd +seeing half of us down, and the rest entangled, took heart of grace to +finish us. I remember a man dashing a torch in my face, and the blow +blinding me. Nevertheless I staggered forward to close with him. Then +something tripped me up, something or some one struck me from behind +as I fell. I went down like an ox, and for me the fight was over.</p> + +<p class="normal">Drunken Steve and two of the Waldgrave's men fought across me, I am +told, for a minute or more. Then Steve fell and an odd thing happened. +The mob took fright at nothing--took fright at their own work, and +coming suddenly to their senses, poured pell-mell out of the alley +faster than they had come into it. The two strangers, knowing nothing +of the way or the town, knocked at the nearest door and were taken in, +and sheltered till morning.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">MARIE WORT.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">There never was one of my forefathers could read, or knew so much as a +horn-book when he saw it; and therefore I, though a clerk, have a +brain pan that will stand as much as any scholar's and more than many +a simple man's. Otherwise the blow I got that night must have done me +some great mischief, instead of merely throwing me into a swoon, in +which I lay until the morning was well advanced.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I came to myself with an aching head and a dry mouth, I was hard +put to it for a time to think what had happened to me. The place in +which I lay was dark, with spots of red lights like flaming eyes here +and there. An odour of fire and leather and iron filled my nostrils. A +hoarse soughing as of a winded horse came and went regularly, with a +dull rumbling and creaking that seemed to shake the place. Dizzy as I +was, I rose on my elbow with an effort, and looked round. But my eyes +swam, I could see nothing which enlightened me, and with a groan I +fell back. Then I found that I was lying on a straw-bed, with bandages +round my head, and gradually the events of the night came back to me. +My mind grew clearer. Yet it still failed to tell me where I was, or +whence came the hoarse choking sound, like the sighing of some giant +of the Harz, which I heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last, while I lay wondering and fearing, a door opened and let into +the dark place a flood of ruddy light. Framed in this light a young +girl appeared, standing on the threshold. She held a tray in her hand, +and paused to close the door behind her. The bright glow which shone +round her, gave her a strange unearthly air, picking out gold in her +black locks and warming her pale cheeks; but for all that I recognised +her, and never was I more astonished. She was no other than the +daughter of the Papist Wort--the girl to rescue whom we had gone down +to the Red Hart.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not restrain an exclamation of surprise, and the girl started +and stopped, peering into the corner in which I lay.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Master Martin,' she said in a low tone, 'was that you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I had never heard her speak before, and I found, perhaps by reason of +my low state, and a softness which pain induces in the roughest, a +peculiar sweetness in her voice. I would not answer for a moment. I +made her speak again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Master Martin,' she said, advancing timidly, 'are you yourself +again?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I don't know,' I muttered. In very fact I was so much puzzled that +this was nearly the truth. 'If you will tell me where I am, I may be +able to say,' I added, turning my head with an effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are in the kitchen behind the locksmith's forge,' she answered +plainly. 'He is a good man, and you are in no danger. The window is +shuttered to keep the light from your eyes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And the noise I hear is the bellows at work?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' she answered, coming near. 'It is almost noon. If you will +drink this broth you will get your strength again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I seized the bowl and drank greedily. When I set it down, my eyes +seemed clearer and my mind stronger.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You escaped?' I said. The more I grew able to think, the more +remarkable it seemed to me that the girl should be here--here in the +same house in which I lay.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Through the window,' she answered, in a faint voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">As she spoke she turned from me, and I knew that she was thinking of +her father and would fain hide her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But the bars?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am very small,' she answered in the same low tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not know why, but perhaps because of the weakness and softness I +have mentioned, I found something very pitiful in the answer. It +stirred a sudden rush of anger in my heart. I pictured this, helpless +girl chased through the streets by the howling pack of cravens we had +encountered, and for a few seconds, bruised and battered as I was, I +felt the fighting spirit again. I half rose, then turned giddy, and +sank back again. It was a minute or more before I could ask another +question. At last I murmured--</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have not told me how you came here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I was coming up the alley,' she answered, shuddering, 'when at the +corner by this house I met men coming to meet me. I fled into the +passage to escape them, and finding no outlet, and seeing a light +here, I knocked. I thought that some woman might pity me and take me +in.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And Peter did?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' she answered simply. 'May Our Lady reward him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We were the men you met,' I said drowsily. 'I remember now. You were +carrying your brother.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My brother?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, the child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, yes,' she answered, in rather a strange fashion; but I was too +dull to do more than notice it. 'The child of course.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I could ask no more, for my head was already splitting with pain. I +lay back, and I suppose went off into a swoon again, sleeping all that +day and until the morning of the next was far advanced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I awoke to find the place in which I lay changed from a cave of +mystery to a low-roofed dingy room; the shutter of the window standing +half-open, admitted a ray of sunshine and a breath of pure air. A +small fire burned on the hearth, a black pot bubbled beside it. +For the room itself, a litter of old iron stood in every corner; +bunches of keys and rows of rusty locks--padlocks, fetter-locks, and +door-locks--hung on all the walls. One or two chests, worm-eaten and +rickety, but prized by their present possessor for the antiquity of +their fastenings, stood here and there; with a great open press full +of gun-locks, matchlocks, wheel-locks, spring-locks and the like. Half +a dozen arquebuses and pistols decorated the mantel-piece, giving the +room something of the air of an armoury.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of all this litter sat old Peter himself, working away, +with a pair of horn glasses on his forehead, at a small lock; which +seemed to be giving him a vast amount of trouble. A dozen times at +least I watched him fit a number of tiny parts together, only to +scatter them again in his leather apron, and begin to pare one or +other of them with a little file. At length he laid the work down, as +if he were tired, and looking up found my eyes fixed upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded cheerfully. 'Good,' he said. 'Now you look yourself, Martin. +No more need of febrifuges. Another night's sleep, and you may go +abroad.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What day is it?' I said, striving to collect my thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Friday,' he answered, looking at me with his shrewd, pleasant eyes. +He was an old man, over sixty, a widower with two young children, and +clever at his trade. I never knew a better man. 'Wednesday night you +came here,' he continued, showing in his countenance the pleasure it +gave him to see me recovering.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I must go to the castle,' I exclaimed, rising abruptly and sitting +up. 'Do you hear? I must go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not see the necessity,' he answered, looking at me coolly, and +without budging an inch.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lady will need me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not at all,' he answered, in the same quiet tone. 'You may make your +mind easy about that. The Countess is safe and well. She is in the +castle, and the gates are shut.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But she has not----' Then I stopped. I was going to say too much.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She has not half a dozen men with her, you would say,' he replied. +'Well, no. But one is a man, it seems. The young lord has turned a +couple of cannon on the town, and all our valiant scoundrels are +shaking in their shoes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A couple of cannon! But there are no cannon in the castle!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are mistaken,' Peter answered drily. He had a very dry way with +him at times. 'I have seen the muzzles of them, myself, and you can +see them, if you please, from the attic window. One is trained on the +market-place, and one to fire down the High Street. To-morrow morning +our Burgomaster and the Minister are to go up and make their peace. +And I can tell you some of our brisk boys feel the rope already round +their necks.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is this true?' I said, hardly able to believe the tale.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As true as you please,' he answered. 'If you will take my advice you +will lie quietly here until to-morrow morning, and then go up to the +castle. No one will molest you. The townsfolk will be only too glad to +find you alive, and that they have so much the less to pay for. I +should not wonder if you saved half a dozen necks,' Peter added +regretfully. 'For I hear the Countess is finely mad about you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this mention of my lady's regard my eyes filled so that I had much +ado to hide my feelings. Affecting to find the light too strong I +turned my back on Peter, and then for the first time became aware that +I had a companion in misfortune. On a heap of straw behind me lay +another man, so bandaged about the head that I could see nothing of +his features.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hallo!' I exclaimed, raising myself that I might have a better view +of him. 'Who is this?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your man Steve,' Peter said briefly. 'But for him and another, Master +Martin, I do not think that you would be here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You do well to remind me,' I answered, feeling shame that I had not +yet thanked him, or asked how I came to be in safety. 'How was it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well,' he said, 'it began with the girl. The doings on Wednesday +night were not much to my mind, as you may suppose, and I shut up +early and kept myself close. About seven, when the racket had not yet +risen to its height, there came a knocking at my door. For a while I +took no notice of it, but presently, as it continued, I went to +listen, and heard such a sobbing on the step as the heart of man could +not resist. So I opened and found the Papist girl there with a child. +I do not know,' Peter continued, pushing forward his greasy old cap +and rubbing his head, 'that I should have opened it if I had been sure +who it was. But as the door was open, the girl had to come in.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not think you will repent it!' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I don't know that I shall,' he answered thoughtfully. 'However, she +had not been long inside and the bolts shot on us, when there began a +most tremendous skirmish in the lane, which lasted off and on for half +an hour. Then followed a sudden silence. I had given the girl some +food, and told her she might sleep with the children upstairs, and we +were sitting before the fire while she cried a bit--she was all over +of a shake, you understand--when on a sudden she stood up, and +listened.</p> + +<p class="normal">'"What is it?" I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She did not answer for a while, but still stood listening, looking +now at me and now towards the forge in a queer eager kind of way. I +told her to sit down, but she did not seem to hear, and presently she +cried, "There is some one there!"</p> + +<p class="normal">'"Well," said I, "they will stop there then. I don't open that door +again to-night."</p> + +<p class="normal">'She looked at me pitifully, but sat down for all the world as if I +had struck her. Not for long, however. In a minute she was up again, +and began to go to and fro between the kitchen and the forge door like +nothing else but a cat looking for her kittens. "Sit down, wench," I +said. But this time she took no heed, and at last the sight of her +going up and down like a dumb creature in pain was too much for me, +and I got up and undid the door. She was out in a minute, seeming not +a bit afraid for herself, and sure enough, there were you and Steve +lying one on the top of the other on the step, and so still that I +thought you gone. Heaven only knows how she heard you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Peter,' I said abruptly, 'have you any water handy?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To be sure,' he replied, starting up. 'Are you thirsty?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded, and he went to get it, blaming himself for his +thoughtlessness. He need not have reproached himself, however. I was +not thirsty; but I could not bear that he should sit and look at me at +that moment. The story he had told had touched me--and I was still +weak; and I could not answer for it, I should not burst into tears +like a woman. The thought of this girl's persistence, who in +everything else was so weak, of her boldness who in her own defence +was a hare, of her strange instinct on our behalf who seemed made only +to be herself protected--the thought of these things touched me to the +heart and filled me with an odd mixture of pity and gratitude! I had +gone to save her, and she had saved me! I had gone to shield her from +harm, and heaven had led me to her door, not in strength but in +weakness. She had fled from me who came to help her; that when I +needed help, she might be at hand to give it!</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is she?' I muttered, when he came back and I had drunk.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who? Marie?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, if that is her name,' I said, drinking again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is lying down upstairs,' he answered. 'She is worn out, poor +child. Not that in one sense, Master Martin,' he continued, dropping +his voice and nodding with a mysterious air, 'she <i>is</i> poor. Though +you might think it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How do you mean?' I said, raising my head and meeting his eyes. He +nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is between ourselves,' he said; 'but I am afraid there is a good +deal in what our rascals here say. I am afraid, to be plain, Master +Martin, that the father was like all his kind: plundered many an +honest citizen, and roasted many a poor farmer before his own fire. It +is the way of soldiers in that army; and God help the country they +march in, be it friend's or foe's!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' I said impatiently; 'but what of that now?' The mention of +these things fretted me. I wanted to hear nothing about the father. +'The man is dead,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, he is,' Peter answered slowly and impressively. 'But the +daughter? She has got a necklace round her neck now, worth--worth I +dare say two hundred men at arms.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What, ducats?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, ducats! Gold ducats. It is worth all that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How do you know?' I said, staring at him. 'I have never seen such a +thing on her. And I have seen the girl two or three times.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, I will tell you,' he answered, glancing first at the window and +then at Steve to be sure that we were not overheard. 'I'll tell you. +When we had carried you into the house the other night she took off +her kerchief, to tear a piece from it to bind up your head. That +uncovered the necklace. She was quick to cover it up, when she +remembered herself, but not quick enough.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it of gold?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. 'Fifteen or sixteen links I should say, and each as big as +a small walnut. Carved and shaped like a walnut too.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It may be silver-gilt.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed. 'I am a smith, though only a locksmith,' he said. 'Trust +me for knowing gold. I doubt it came from Magdeburg; I doubt it did. +Magdeburg, or Halle, which my Lord Tilly ravaged about that time. And +if so there is blood upon it. It will bring the girl no luck, depend +upon it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If we talk about it, I'll be sworn it will not!' I answered savagely. +'There are plenty here who would twist her neck for so much as a link +of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are right, Master Martin,' he answered meekly. 'Perhaps I should +not have mentioned it; but I know that you are safe. And after all the +girl has done nothing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">That was true, but it did not content me. I wished he had not seen +what he had, or that he had not told me the tale. A minute before I +had been able to think of the girl with pure satisfaction; to picture +with a pleasant warmth about my heart her gentleness, her courage, her +dark mild beauty that belonged as much to childhood as womanhood, the +thought for others that made her flight a perpetual saving. But this +spoiled all. The mere possession of this necklace, much more the use +of it, seemed to sully her in my eyes, to taint her freshness, to +steal the perfume from her youth.</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_53"><img src="images/pg53.png" alt="pg 53"></a><br> +... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in +her hands and a timid smile on her lips....</p> + + +<p class="normal">For I am peasant born, of those on whom the free-companions have +battened from the beginning; and spoil won in such a way seemed to me +to be accursed. Whether I would or no, horrid tales of the storming of +Magdeburg came into my mind: tales of streets awash with blood, of +churches blocked with slain, of women lying dead with living babes in +their arms. And I shuddered. I felt the necklace a blot on all. I +shrank from one, who, with the face of a saint, wore under her +kerchief gold dyed in such a fashion!</p> + +<p class="normal">That was while I lay alone, tossing from side to side, and troubling +myself unreasonably about the matter; since the girl was nothing to +me, and a Papist. But when she came presently to me with a bowl of +broth in her hands and a timid smile on her lips--a smile which gave +the lie to the sadness of her eyes and the red rims that surrounded +them--I forgot all, necklace and creed. I took the bowl silently, as +she gave it. I gave it back with only one 'Thank you,' which sounded +hoarse and rustic in my ears; but I suppose my eyes were more +eloquent, for she blushed and trembled. And in the evening she did not +come. Instead one of the children brought my supper, and sitting down +on the straw beside me, twittered of Marie and 'Go' and other things.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who is Go?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Go is Marie's brother,' the child answered, open-eyed at my +ignorance. 'You not know Go?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is a strange name,' I said, striving to excuse myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>He</i> is a strange man,' the little one retorted, pointing to Steve. +'He does not speak. Now you speak. Marie says--'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What does Marie say?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Marie says you saved his life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, you can tell her it was the other way,' I exclaimed roughly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Twice that night when I awoke I heard a light footstep, and turned to +see the girl, moving to and fro among the rusty locks and ancient +chests in attendance on Steve. He mended but slowly. She did not come +near me at these times, and after a glance I pretended to fall asleep +that I might listen unnoticed to her movements, and she be more free +to do her will. But whenever I heard her and opened my eyes to see her +slender figure moving in that dingy place, I felt the warmth about my +heart again. I forgot the gold necklace; I thought no more of the +rosary, only of the girl. For what is there which so well becomes a +woman as tending the sick; an office which in a lover's eyes should +set off his mistress beyond velvet and Flanders lace.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">RUPERT THE GREAT.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I have known a man very strong and very confident, whom the muzzle of +a loaded pistol, set fairly against his head, has reduced to reason +marvellously. So it fared with Heritzburg on this occasion. My lady's +cannon, which I went up to the roof at daybreak to see--and did see, +to my great astonishment, trained one on the Market Square, and one +down the High Street--formed the pistol, under the cooling influence +of which the town had so far come to its senses, that the game was now +in my lady's hands. Peter assured me that the place was in a panic, +that the Countess could hardly ask any amends that would not be made, +and that as a preliminary the Burgomaster and Minister were to go to +the castle before noon to sue for pardon. He suggested that I and the +girl should accompany them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But does Hofman know that we are here?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Since yesterday morning,' the locksmith answered, with a grin. 'And +no one more pleased to hear it! If he had not you to present as a +peace-offering, I doubt he would have fled the town before he +would have gone up. As it is, they had fine work with him at the +town-council yesterday.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is in a panic? Serve him right!' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am told that his cheeks shake like jelly,' Peter answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Two of the Waldgrave's men are dead, you know, and some say that the +Countess will hang him out of hand. But you will go up with him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said. 'I see no objection.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one else objected, however. When the plan was broached to the +girl, she looked troubled. For a moment she did not speak, but stood +before us silent and confused. Then she pointed to Steve.</p> + +<p class="normal">'When is he going, if you please?' she asked, in a troubled voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He must go in a litter by the road,' I answered. 'Peter here will see +to it this morning.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Could I not go with him?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at Peter, and he at me. He nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I see no reason why you should not, if you prefer it,' I said. +'Either way you will be safe.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I should prefer it,' she muttered, in a low tone. And then she went +out to get something for Steve, and we saw her no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Drunken Steve is in luck,' Peter said, looking after her with a +smile. 'She is wonderfully taken with him. She is a--she is a good +girl, Papist or no Papist,' he added thoughtfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am not sure that he would have indorsed that later in the day. At +the last moment, when I was about to leave the house to go up to the +castle my way, and Steve and his party were on the point of starting +by the West Gate and the road, something happened which gave both of +us a kind of shock, though neither said a word to the other. Marie had +brought down the little boy, a brave-eyed, fair-haired child about +three years old, and she was standing with us in the forge waiting +with the child clinging to her skirt, when on a sudden she turned to +Peter and began to thank him. A word and she broke down.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pooh, child!' Peter said kindly, patting her on the shoulder. 'It was +little enough, and I am glad I did it. No thank's.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She answered between her sobs that it was beyond thanks, and called on +Heaven to reward him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If I had anything,' she continued, looking at him timidly, 'if I had +anything I could give you to prove my gratitude, I would so gladly +give it. But I am alone, and I have nothing worth your acceptance. I +have nothing in the world, unless,' she added with an effort, 'you +would like my rosary.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' Peter said almost roughly. I noticed that he avoided my eye. 'I +do not want it. It is not a thing I use.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She said she had nothing; and we knew she had that chain! Yet Heaven +knows her face as she said it was fair enough to convert a Beza! She +said she had nothing; we knew she had. Yet if ever genuine gratitude +and thankfulness seemed to shine out of wet human eyes, they shone out +of hers then.</p> + +<p class="normal">What I could not stomach was the ingratitude. The fraud was too gross, +too gratuitous, since she need have offered nothing. I turned away and +went out of the forge without waiting for her to recover herself. I +dreaded lest she should thank me in the same way.</p> + +<p class="normal">I knew Peter, and knew he could have no motive for traducing her. He +was old enough to be her grandfather, and a quiet good man. Therefore +I was sure that she had the chain, three or four links of which should +be worth his shop of old iron.</p> + +<p class="normal">But besides I had the evidence of my own eyes. There was a crinkle, a +crease in her kerchief, for which the presence of the necklace would +account; it was such a crease as a necklace of that size would cause. +I had marked it when she brought the child into the room in her arms. +The boy's right arm had been round her neck, and I had seen him relax +his hold of her hair and steady himself by placing his little palm on +that wrinkle, as on a sure and certain and familiar stay. So I knew +that she had the necklace, and that she had lied about it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But after all it was nothing to me. The girl was a Papist, a Bavarian, +the daughter of a roistering freebooting rider, versed in camp life. +If with a fair outside she proved to be at heart what every reasonable +man would expect to find her, what then? I had no need to trouble my +head. I had affairs enough of my own on my hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet the affair did trouble me. The false innocence of the child's face +haunted and perplexed me, and would not leave me, though I tried to +think of other things and had other things to think of. I was to meet +the Burgomaster in the market-place, and go thence with him, and I had +promised myself that I would make good use of my opportunities; that I +would lose no point of the town's behaviour, that not a lowering face +should escape me, nor a quarter whence danger might arise in the +future. But the girl's eyes made havoc of all my resolutions, and I +had fairly reached the market-place before I remembered what I was +doing.</p> + +<p class="normal">There indeed a sight, which in a moment swept the cobwebs from my +brain, awaited me. The square was full of people, not closely packed, +but standing in loose groups, and all talking in voices so low as to +produce a dull sullen sound more striking than silence. The Mayor and +four or five Councillors occupied the steps of the market-house. +Raised a head and shoulders above the throng, and glancing at it +askance from time to time with scarcely disguised apprehension, they +wore an air of irresolution it was impossible to mistake. Hofman in +particular looked like a man with the rope already round his neck. His +face was pale, his fat cheeks hung pendulous, his eyes never rested on +anything for more than a second. They presently lit on me, and then if +farther proof of the state of his mind was needed, I found it in the +relief with which he hailed my appearance; relief, not the less +genuine because he hastened to veil it from the jealous eyes that from +every part of the square watched his proceedings.</p> + +<p class="normal">The crowd made way for me silently. One in every two, perhaps, greeted +me, and some who did not greet me, smiled at me fatuously. On the +other hand, I was struck by the air of gloomy expectation which +prevailed. I discerned that a very little would turn it into +desperation, and saw, or thought I saw, that cannon, or no cannon, +this was a case for delicate and skilful handling. The town was +panic-stricken, partly at the thought of what it had done, partly +at the sight of the danger which threatened it. But panic is a +double-edged weapon. It takes little to turn it into fury.</p> + +<p class="normal">I made for the opening into the High Street, and the Burgomaster, +coming down the steps, passed through the crowd and met me there.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is a bad business, Master Martin,' he said, facing me with an +odd mixture of shamefacedness and bravado. 'We must do our best to +patch it up.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You had your warning,' I answered coldly, turning with him up the +street, every window and doorway in which had its occupant. Dietz and +two or three Councillors followed us, the Minister's face looking +flushed and angry, and as spiteful as a cat's. 'Two lives have been +lost,' I continued, 'and some one must pay for them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Hofman mopped his face. 'Surely,' he said, 'the three lead on our +side, Master Martin----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not see what they have to do with it,' I answered, maintaining a +cold and uninterested air, which was torture to him. 'It is your +affair, however, not mine.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But, my dear friend--Martin,' he stammered, plucking my sleeve, 'you +are not revengeful. You will not make it worse? You won't do that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Worse?' I retorted. 'It is bad enough already. And I am afraid you +will find it so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He winced and looked at me askance, his eyes rolling in a fever of +apprehension. For a moment I really thought that he would turn and go +back. But the crowd was behind; he was on the horns of a dilemma, and +with a groan of misery he moved on, looking from time to time at the +terrace above us. 'Those cursed cannon,' I heard him mutter, as he +wiped his brow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay,' I said, sharply, 'if it had not been for the cannon you would +have seen our throats cut before you would have moved. I quite +understand that. But you see it is our turn now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">We were on the steps and he did not answer. I looked up, expecting to +see the wall by the wicket-gate well-manned; but I was mistaken. No +row of faces looked down from it. All was silent. A single man, on +guard at the wicket, alone appeared. He bade us stand, and passed the +word to another. He in his turn disappeared and presently old Jacob, +with a half-pike on his shoulder, and a couple of men at his back, +came stiffly out to receive us with all the formality and discipline +of a garrison in time of war. He acknowledged my presence by a wink, +but saluted my companions in the coldest manner possible, proceeding +at once to march us without a word spoken to the door of the house, +where we were again bidden to stand.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this filled me with satisfaction. I knew what effect it would have +on Hofman, and how it would send his soul into his shoes. At the same +time my satisfaction was not unmixed. I felt a degree of strangeness +myself. The place seemed changed, the men, moving stiffly, had an +unfamiliar air. I missed the respect I had enjoyed in the house. For +the moment I was nobody; a prisoner, an alien person admitted +grudgingly, and on sufferance.</p> + +<p class="normal">I comforted myself with the reflection that all would be well when I +reached the presence. But I was mistaken. I saw indeed my lady's +colour come and go when I entered, and her eyes fell. But she kept +her seat, she looked no more at me than at my companions, she uttered +no greeting or word of acknowledgment. It was the Waldgrave who +spoke--the Waldgrave who acted. In a second there came over me a +bitter feeling that all was changed; that the old state of things at +Heritzburg was past, and a rule to which I was a stranger set in its +place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three or four of my lady's women were grouped behind her, while Franz +and Ernst stood like statues at the farther door. Fraulein Anna sat on +a stool in the window-bay, and my lady's own presence was, as at all +times, marked by a stateliness and dignity which seemed to render it +impossible that she should pass for second in any company. But for all +that the Waldgrave, standing up straight and tall behind her, with his +comeliness, his youth, and his manhood and the red light from the coat +of arms in the stained window just touching his fair hair, did seem to +me to efface her. It was he who stood there to pardon or punish, +praise or blame, and not my lady. And I resented it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not that his first words to me were not words of kindness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha, Martin,' he cried, his face lighting up, 'I hear you fought like +an ancient Trojan, and broke as many heads as Hector. And that your +own proved too hard for them! Welcome back. In a moment I may want a +word with you; but you must wait.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I stood aside, obeying his gesture; and he apologised, but with a very +stern aspect, to Hofman and his companions for addressing me first.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Countess Rotha, however, Master Burgomaster,' he continued, with +grim suavity, 'much as she desires to treat your office with respect, +cannot but discern between the innocent and the guilty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The guilty, my lord?' Hofman cried, in such a hurry and trepidation, +I could have laughed. 'I trust that there are none here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'At any rate you represent them,' the Waldgrave retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I, my lord?' The Mayor's hair almost stood on end at the thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, you; or why are you here?' the Waldgrave answered. 'I understood +that you came to offer such amends as the town can make, and your lady +accept.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Hofman's jaw fell at this statement of his position, and he stood +the picture of dismay and misery. The Waldgrave's peremptory manner, +which shook him out of the rut of his slow wits, and upset his +balanced periods, left him prostrate without a word to say. He +gasped and remained silent. He was one of those people whose dull +self-importance is always thrusting them into positions which they are +not intended to fill.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' the Waldgrave said, after a pause, 'as you seem to have +nothing to say, and judgment must ultimately come from your lady, I +will proceed at once to declare it. And firstly, it is her will, +Master Burgomaster, that within forty-eight hours you present to her +on behalf of the town a humble petition and apology, acknowledging +your fault; and that the same be entered on the town records.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It shall be done,' Master Hofman cried. His eagerness to assent was +laughable.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Secondly, that you pay a fine of a hundred gold ducats for the +benefit of the children of the men wantonly killed in the riot.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It shall be done,' Master Hofman said,--but this time not so readily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And lastly,' the Waldgrave continued in a very clear voice,' that you +deliver up for execution two in the marketplace, one at the foot of +the castle steps, and one at the West Gate, for a warning to all who +may be disposed to offend again--four of the principal offenders in +the late riot.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord!' the Mayor cried, aghast.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord, if you please,' the Waldgrave answered coldly. 'But do you +consent?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Hofman looked blanker than ever. 'Four?' he stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Precisely; four,' the young lord answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But who? I do not know them,' the Mayor faltered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave shook his head gently. 'That is your concern, +Burgomaster,' he said, with a smile. 'In forty-eight hours much may be +done.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Hofman's hair stood fairly on end. Craven as he was, the thought of +the crowd in the market-place, the thought of the reception he would +have, if he assented to such terms, gave him courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will consult with my colleagues,' he said with a great gulp.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am afraid that you will not have the opportunity,' the Waldgrave +rejoined, in a peculiarly suave tone. 'Until the four are given up to +us, we prefer to take care of you and the learned Minister. I see that +you have brought two or three friends with you; they will serve to +convey what has passed to the town. And I doubt not that within a few +hours we shall be able to release you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Master Hofman fell a trembling.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord,' he cried, between tears and rage, 'my privileges!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Master Mayor,' the Waldgrave answered, with a sudden snap and snarl, +which showed his strong white teeth, '<i>my dead servants</i>.'</p> + +<p class="normal">After that there was no more to be said. The Burgomaster shrank back +with a white face, and though Dietz, with rage burning in his sallow +cheeks, cried 'woe to him' who separated the shepherd from the sheep, +and would have added half-a-dozen like texts, old Jacob cut him short +by dropping his halberd on his toes and promptly removed him and the +quavering Burgomaster to strong quarters in the tower. Meanwhile the +other members of the party were marched nothing loth to the steps, and +despatched through the gate with the same formality which had +surprised us on our arrival.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then for a few moments I was happy, in spite of doubts and +forebodings; for the moment the room was cleared of servants, my lady +came down from her place, and with tears in her eyes, laid her hand on +my rough shoulder, and thanked me, saying such things to me, and so +sweetly, that though many a silken fool has laughed at me, as a clown +knowing no knee service, I knelt there and then before her, and rose +tenfold more her servant than before. For of this I am sure, that if +the great knew their power, we should hear no more of peasants' wars +and Rainbow banners. A smile buys for them what gold will not for +another. A word from their lips stands guerdon for a life, and a look +for the service of the heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, few die of happiness, and almost before I was off my knees I +found a little bitter in the cup.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, well,' the Waldgrave said, with a comical laugh, and I saw my +lady blush, 'these are fine doings. But next time you go to battle, +Martin, remember, more haste less speed. Where would you have been +now, I should like to know, without my cannon?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps still in Peter's forge,' I answered bluntly. 'But that +puzzles me less, my lord,' I continued, 'than where you found your +cannon.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed in high good humour. 'So you are bit, are you?' he said. 'I +warrant you thought we could do nothing without you. But the cannon, +where do you think we did find them? You should know your own house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know of none here,' I answered slowly, 'except the old cracked +pieces the Landgrave Philip left.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' he retorted, smiling. 'And what if these be they?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But they are cracked and foundered!' I cried warmly. 'You could no +more fire powder in them, my lord, than in the Countess's comfit-box!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But if you do not want to burn powder?' he replied. 'If the sight of +the muzzles be enough? What then, Master Wiseacre?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why, then, my lord,' I answered, drily, after a pause of +astonishment,' I think that the game is a risky one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut, you are jealous!' he said, laughing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And should be played very moderately.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut,' he said again, 'you are jealous! Is he not, Rotha? He is +jealous.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked at me laughing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think he is a little,' she said. 'You must acknowledge, Martin,' +she continued, pleasantly, 'that the Waldgrave has managed very well?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I must have assented, however loth; but he saved me the trouble. He +did not want to hear my opinion.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very well?' he exclaimed, with a laugh of pleasure; 'I should think I +have. Why, I have so brightened up your old serving-men that they make +quite a tolerable garrison--mount guard, relieve, give the word and +all, like so many Swedes. Oh, I can tell you a little briskness and a +few new fashions do no harm. But now,' he continued, complacently, +'since you are so clever, my friend, where is the risk?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If it becomes known in the town,' I said, 'that the cannon are +dummies----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is not known,' he answered peremptorily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Still, under the circumstances,' I persisted, 'I should with +submission have imposed terms less stringent. Especially I should not +have detained Master Hofman, my lord, who is a timid man, making for +peace. He has influence. Shut up here he cannot use it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But our terms will show that we are not afraid,' the Waldgrave +answered. 'And that is everything.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I shrugged my shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut!' he said, half in annoyance and half in good humour. 'Depend +upon it, there is nothing like putting a bold face on things. That is +my policy. But the truth is you are jealous, my friend--jealous of my +excellent generalship; but for which I verily believe you would be +decorating a gallows in the market-place at this moment. Come, fair +cousin,' he added, gleefully, turning from me and snatching up my +lady's gloves and handing them to her, 'let us out. Let us go and look +down at our conquest, and leave this green-eyed fellow to rub his +bruises.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked at me kindly and laughed. Still she assented, and my +chance was gone. It was my place now to hold the door with lowered +head, not to argue. And I did so. After all I had been well treated; I +had spoken boldly and been heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a time after the sound of their voices had died away on the +stairs, I stood still. The room was quiet and I felt blank and +purposeless. In the first moments of return every-day duties had an +air of dulness and staleness. I thought of one after another, but had +not yet brought myself to the point of moving, when a hand, raising +the latch of one of the inner doors, effectually roused me. I turned +and saw Fraulein Anna gliding in. She did not speak at once, but came +towards me as she had a way of coming--close up before she spoke. It +had more than once disturbed me. It did so now.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Master Martin,' she said at last, in her mild spiteful tone, 'I +hope you are satisfied with your work; I hope my lord's service may +suit you as well as my lady's.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">THE PRIDE OF YOUTH.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">But I am not going to relate the talk we had on that, Fraulein Anna +and I. I learned one thing, and one only, and that I can put very +shortly. I saw my face as it were in a glass, and I was not pleased +with the reflection. Listening to Fraulein Anna's biting hints and +sidelong speeches--she did not spare them--I recognized that I was +jealous; that the ascendency the young lord had gained with my lady +and in the castle did not please me; and that if I would not make a +fool of myself and step out of my place, I must take myself roundly to +task. Much might be forgiven to Fraulein Anna, who saw the quiet realm +wherein she reigned invaded, and the friend she had gained won from +her in an hour. But her case differed from mine. I was a servant, and +woe to me if I forgot my place!</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps, also, it gave me pleasure to find my uneasiness shared. At +any rate, I felt better afterwards, and a message from my lady, +bidding me rest my head and do nothing for the day, comforted me still +further. I went out, and finding the terrace quiet, and deserted by +all except the sentry at the wicket, I sat down on one of the stone +seats which overlook the town and there began to think. The sun was +behind a cloud and the air was fresh and cool, and I presently fell +asleep with my head on my arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">While I slept my lady and the Waldgrave came and began to walk up and +down the terrace, and gradually little bits of their talk slid into my +dreams, until I found myself listening to them between sleeping and +waking. The Waldgrave was doing most of the speaking, in the boyish, +confident tone which became him so well. Presently I heard him say--</p> + +<p class="normal">'The whole art of war is changed, fair cousin. I had it from one who +knows, Bernard of Weimar. The heavy battalions, the great masses, the +slow movements, the system invented by the great Captain of Cordova +are gone. Breitenfeld was their death-blow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet my uncle was a great commander,' my lady said, with a little +touch of impatience in her tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of the old school.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I heard her laugh. 'You speak as if you had been a soldier for a score +of years, Rupert,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Age is not experience,' he answered hardily. 'That is the mistake. +How old was Alexander when he conquered Egypt? Twenty-three, cousin, +and I am twenty-three. How old was the Emperor Augustus when he became +Consul of Rome? Nineteen. How old was Henry of England when he +conquered France? Twenty-seven. And Charles the Fifth, at Pavia? +Twenty-five.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sceptres are easy leading-staves,' my lady answered deftly. 'All +these were kings, or the like.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then take Don John at Lepanto. He, too, was twenty-five.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A king's son,' my lady replied quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then I will give you one to whom you can make no objection,' he +answered in a tone of triumph: 'Gaston de Foix, the Thunderbolt of +Italy. He who conquered at Como, at Milan, at Ravenna. How old was +he when he died, leaving a name never to be forgotten in arms? +Twenty-three, fair cousin. And I am twenty-three.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But then you are not Gaston de Foix,' my lady retorted, laughter +bubbling to her lips; 'nor a king's nephew.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But I may be.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What? A king's nephew?' the Countess answered, laughing outright. +'Pray where is the king's niece?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'King's niece?' he exclaimed reproachfully--and I doubt not with a +kind look at her, and a movement as if he would have paid her for her +sauciness. 'You know I want no king's niece. There is no king's niece +in the world so sweet to my taste, so fair, or so gracious as the +cousin I have been fortunate enough to serve during the last few days; +and that I will maintain against the world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So here is my glove!' my lady answered gaily, finishing the speech +for him. 'Very prettily said, Rupert. I make you a thousand curtsies. +But a truce to compliments. Tell me more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He needed no second bidding; though I think that she would have +listened without displeasure to another pretty speech, and an older +man would certainly have made one. But he was full of the future and +fame--and himself. He had never had such a listener before, and he +poured forth his hopes and aspirations, as he strode up and down, so +gallant of figure and frank of face that it was impossible not to feel +with him. He was going to do this; he was going to do that. He would +make the name of Rupert of Weimar stand with that of Bernard. Never +was such a time for enterprise. Gustavus Adolphus, with Sweden and +North Germany at his back, was at Munich; Bavaria, Franconia, and the +Rhine Bishoprics were at his feet. The hereditary dominions of the +Empire, Austria, Silesia, Moravia, with Bohemia, Hungary, and the +Tyrol, must soon be his; their conquest was certain. Then would come +the division of the spoil. The House of Weimar, which had suffered +more in the Protestant cause than any other princely house of Germany, +which had resigned for its sake the Electoral throne and the rights of +primogeniture, must stand foremost for reward.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And which kingdom shall you choose?' my lady asked, with a twinkle in +her eye which belied her gravity. 'Bohemia or Hungary? or Bavaria? +Munich I am told is a pleasant capital.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are laughing at me!' he said, a little hurt.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Forgive me,' she said, changing her tone so prettily that he was +appeased on the instant. 'But, speaking soberly, are you not curing +the skin before the bear is dead? The great Wallenstein is said to be +collecting an army in Bohemia, and if the latest rumour is to be +believed, he has already driven out the Saxons and retaken Prague. The +tide of conquest seems already to be turning.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall see,' the Waldgrave answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very well,' my lady replied. 'But, besides, is there not a proverb +about the lion's share? Will the Lion of the North forego his?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall make him,' the young lord answered. 'He goes as far as we +wish and no farther. Without German allies he could not maintain his +footing for a month.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Germany should blush to need his help,' my lady said warmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never mind. Better times are coming,' he answered. 'And soon, I +hope.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With that they moved out of hearing, crossing to the other side of the +court and beginning to walk up and down there; and I heard no more. +But I had heard enough to enable me to arrive at two or three +conclusions. For one thing, I felt jealous no longer. My lady's tone +when she spoke to the Waldgrave convinced me that whatever the future +might bring forth, she regarded him in the present with liking, and +some pride perhaps, but with no love worthy of the name. A woman, she +took pleasure in his handsome looks and gallant bearing; she was fond +of listening to his aspirations. But the former pleased her eye +without touching her heart, and the latter never for a moment carried +her away.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was glad to be sure of this, because I discerned something lacking +on his side also. It was 'Rotha,' 'sweet cousin,' 'fair cousin,' too +soon with him. He felt no reverence, suffered no pangs, trembled under +no misgivings, sank under no sense of unworthiness. He thought that +all was to be had for pleasant words and the asking. Heritzburg seemed +a rustic place to him, and my lady's life so dull and uneventful, my +lady herself so little of a goddess, that he deemed himself above all +risk of refusal. A little difficulty, a little doubt, the appearance +of a rival, might awaken real love. But it was not in him now. He felt +only a passing fancy, the light offspring of propinquity and youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">But how, it may be asked, was I so wise that, from a few sentences +heard between sleeping and waking, I could gather all this, and draw +as many inferences from a laugh as Fraulein Anna Max from a page of +crabbed Latin? The question put to me then, as I sat day-dreaming over +Heritzburg, might have posed me. I am clear enough about it now. I +could answer it if I chose. But a nod is as good as a wink to a blind +horse, and a horse with eyes needs neither one nor the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently I saw Fraulein Anna come out and go sliding along one side +of the court to gain another door. She had a great book under her arm +and blinked like an owl in the sunshine, and would have run against my +lady if the Waldgrave had not called out good-humouredly. She shot +away at that with a show of excessive haste, and was in the act of +disappearing like a near-sighted rabbit, when my lady called to her +pleasantly to come back.</p> + +<p class="normal">She came slowly, hugging the great book, and with her lips pursed +tightly. I fancy she had been sitting at a window watching my lady and +her companion, and that every laugh which rose to her ears, every +merry word, nay the very sunshine in which they walked, while she sat +in the dull room with her unread book before her, wounded her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What have you been doing, Anna?' my lady asked kindly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have been reading the "Praise of Folly,"' Fraulein Max answered +primly. 'I am going to my Voetius now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is such a fine day,' my lady pleaded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I never miss my Voetius,' Fraulein answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave looked at her quizzically, with scarcely veiled +contempt. 'Voetius?' he said. 'What is that? You excite my curiosity.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps it was the contrast between them, between his strength and +comeliness and her weak figure and pale frowning face, that moved me; +but I know that as he said that, I felt a sudden pity for her. And +she, I think, for herself. She reddened and looked down and seemed to +go smaller. Scholarship is a fine thing; I have heard Fraulein Anna +herself say that knowledge is power. But I never yet saw a bookworm +that did not pale his fires before a soldier of fortune, nor a scholar +that did not follow the courtier and the ruffler with eyes of envy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps my lady felt as I did, for she came to the rescue. 'You are +too bad,' she said. 'Anna is my friend, and I will not have her +teased. As for Voetius, he is a writer of learning, and you would know +more about many things, if you could read his works, sir.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you read them?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do!' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good heavens!' he exclaimed, staring at her freely and affecting to +be astonished. 'Well, all I can say is that you do not look like it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady fired up at that. I think she felt for her friend. 'I do not +thank you,' she said sharply. 'A truce to such compliments, if you +please. Anna,' she continued, 'have you been to see this poor girl +from the town?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' Fraulein Max answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She has come, has she not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And gone--to the stables!' And Fraulein Anna laughed spitefully. 'She +is used to camp life, I suppose, and prefers them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But that is not right,' my lady said, with a look of annoyance. +She turned and called to me. 'Martin,' she said, 'come here. This +girl--the papist from the town--why has she not been brought to the +women's quarters in the house?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I answered that I did not know; that she should have been.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We will go and see,' my lady answered, nodding her head in a way that +premised trouble should any one be found in fault. And without a +moment's hesitation she led the way to the inner court, the Waldgrave +walking beside her, and Fraulein Anna following a pace or two behind. +The latter still hugged her book, and her face wore a look of secret +anticipation. I took on myself to go too, and followed at a respectful +distance, my mind in a ferment.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stable court at Heritzburg is small. The rays of the sun even at +noon scarcely warm it, and a shadow seemed to fall on our party as we +entered. Two grooms, not on guard, were going about their ordinary +duties. They started on seeing my lady, who seldom entered that part +without notice; and hastened to do reverence to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is the girl who was brought here from the town?' she said, in a +peremptory tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men looked at one another, scared by her presence, yet not knowing +what was amiss. Then one said, 'Please your excellency, she is in the +room over the granary.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She should be in the house, not here,' my lady answered harshly. +'Take me to her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The man stared, and the Waldgrave, seeing his look of astonishment, +interposed, murmuring that perhaps the place was scarcely fit.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For me?' my lady said, cutting him short, with a high look which +reminded me of her uncle, Count Tilly. 'You forget, sir cousin, that I +am not a woman only, but mistress here. Ignorance, which may be seemly +in a woman, does not become me. Lead on, my man.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The fellow led the way up a flight of outside steps which gave access +to the upper granary floor; and my lady followed, rejecting the +Waldgrave's hand and gazing with an unmoved eye at the unfenced edge +on her left; for the stairs had no rail. At the top the groom opened +the door and squeezed himself aside, and my lady entered. The +Waldgrave had given place to Fraulein Anna--whom desire to see what +would happen had blinded to the risks of the stairs--and she was not +slow to follow. The young lord and I pressed in a pace behind.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is not a fit place for a maiden!' I heard my lady say severely; +and then she stopped. That was before I could see inside, the sudden +pause coming as I entered. The loft was dark, the unglazed windows +being shuttered; but my eyes are good, and I knew the place, and saw +at once--what my lady had seen, I think, at a second glance only--that +the man beside whom the girl was kneeling--or had been kneeling, for +as I entered she rose to her feet with a word of alarm--was bandaged +from his chin to his crown, was helpless and maundering, talking +strange nonsense, and rolling his head restlessly from side to side.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why, you are a child!' my lady said; and this time her voice was soft +and low and full of surprise. 'Who is this?' she continued, pointing +to the man; who never ceased to babble and move.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is Steve, my lady,' I said. 'He was hurt below, in the town, and +the girl has been nursing him. I suppose she--I think no one told her +to go elsewhere,' I added by way of apology for her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where could she be better?' my lady said in a low voice. 'Child,' she +continued gently,' come here. Do not be afraid.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl had shrunk back at the sound of my lady's first words, or at +sight of so large a company, and had taken her stand on the farther +side of Steve, where she crouched trembling and looking at us with a +terrified face. Hearing herself summoned, she came slowly and timidly +forward, the little boy who had run to her holding her hand, and +hiding his face in her skirts.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am the countess,' my lady said, looking at her closely, but with +kindness, 'and I have come to see how you fare.'</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a hard moment for the girl, but she did the very best thing she +could have done, and one that commended her to my lady's heart for +ever. For, bursting into tears--I doubt not the sound of a woman's +voice speaking mildly to her touched her heart--she dropped on her +knees before the countess and kissed her hand, sobbing piteous words +of thankfulness and appeal.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut! chut!' my lady said, a little tremor in her own voice. 'You are +safe now. Be comforted. You shall be protected here, whatever betide. +But you have lost your father? Yes, I remember, child. Well, it is +over now. You are quite safe. See, this gentleman shall be your +champion. And Martin there. He is a match for any two. Tell me your +name.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Marie--Marie Wort.' The girl answered suppressing her tears with an +effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How old are you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Seventeen, please your excellency.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And where were you born, Marie?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'At Munich, in Bavaria.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are a Romanist, I hear?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If it please your excellency.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It does not please me at all,' my lady answered promptly; but she +said it with so much mildness that Marie's eyes filled again. 'I warn +you, we shall, try to convert you--by kindness. So you are nursing +this poor fellow?' And my lady went up to Steve, and touched his hand +and spoke to him. But he did not know her, and she stepped back, +looking grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The fever is on him now,' Marie said timidly. 'He is at his worst; +but he will be better by-and-by, if your excellency pleases.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is fortunate in his nurse,' my lady answered, gazing searchingly +at the other's pale face. 'Will you stay with him, child, or would you +rather come into the house, where my women could take care of you, and +you would be more comfortable?'</p> + +<p class="normal">A look of distress flickered in the girl's eyes. She hesitated and +looked down, colouring painfully. I dare say that with feminine tact +she knew that my lady even now thought it scarcely proper for her to +be there--in a house where only the men about the stable lived. But +she found her answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He was hurt trying to protect me,' she murmured, in a low voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady nodded. 'Very well,' she said; and I saw that she was not +displeased. 'You shall stay with him. I will see that you are taken +care of. Come, Rupert, I think we have seen enough.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She signed to us to go before her, and we all went out, and she closed +the door. At the head of the steps, when the Waldgrave offered her his +hand, she waved it away, and stood.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Bring me a hammer and a nail,' she cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three or four men, nearly half our garrison, had collected below, +hearing where we were. One of these ran and fetched what she called +for; while we all waited and wondered what she meant. I took the +hammer and nail from the man and went up again with them.</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_75"><img src="images/pg75.png" alt="pg 75"></a><br> +... with her own hands she drove the nail.... Then she +turned ...</p> + + +<p class="normal">'Give me my glove,' she said, turning abruptly to the Waldgrave.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had possessed himself of one in the course of the conversation I +have partly detailed; and no doubt he did not give it up very +willingly. But there was no refusing her under the circumstances.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hold it against the door!' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">He obeyed, and with her own hands she drove the nail through the +glove, pinning it to the middle of the door. Then she turned with a +little colour in her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is my room!' she said, with a ring of menace in her tone. 'Let +no one presume to enter it. And have a care, men! Whatever is wanted +inside, place at the threshold and begone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she came down, followed by the Waldgrave, and walked through the +middle of us and went back to the terrace, with Fraulein Anna at her +heels. The Waldgrave lingered a moment to look at a sick horse, and I +to give an order. When we reached the terrace court a few minutes +later, we found my lady walking up and down alone in the sunshine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why, where is the learned Anna?' the Waldgrave said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is gone to amuse herself,' my lady answered, laughing. 'Voetius +is put aside for the moment in favour of Master Dietz!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No?' the young lord exclaimed, in a tone of surprise. 'That +yellow-faced atomy? She is not in love with him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, sir, certainly not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then what is it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, I think she is a little jealous,' my lady answered with a +smile. 'We have been so long colloguing with a papist, Anna thinks +some amends are due to the Church. And she is gone to make them. At +any rate, she asked me a few minutes ago if she might pay a visit to +Dietz. "For what purpose?" I said. "To discuss a point with him," she +answered. So I told her to go, if she liked, and by this time I don't +doubt that they are hard at it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Over Voetius?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, sir,' my lady answered gaily. 'Beza more probably, or Calvin. You +know little of either, I expect. I do not wonder that Anna is driven +to seek more improving company.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">A CATASTROPHE.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">All that day the town remained quiet, and all day the Waldgrave and my +lady walked to and fro in the sunshine; or my lady sat working on one +of the stone seats, while he built castles in the air, which she +knocked down with a sly word or a merry glance. Fraulein Anna, always +with the big book, flitted from door to door, like an unquiet spirit. +The sentries dozed at their posts, old Jacob in his chair in the +guard-room, the cannons under their breech-clouts. If this could be +said to be a state of siege, it was the most gentle and joyous one +paladin ever shared or mistress imagined.</p> + +<p class="normal">But no message reached us from the town, and that disturbed me. Half a +dozen times I went to the wall and, leaning over it, listened. Each +time I came away satisfied. All seemed quiet; the market-place rather +fuller perhaps than on common days, the hum of life more steady and +persistent; but neither to any great extent. Despite this I could not +shake off a feeling of uneasiness. I remembered certain faces I had +seen in the town, grim faces lurking in corners, seen over men's +shoulders or through half-open doors; and a dog barking startled me, +the shadow of a crow flying over the court made me jump a yard.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night only added to my nervousness. I doubled all the guards, +stationing two men at the town-wicket and two at the stable-gate, +which leads to the bridge. And not content with these precautions, +though the Waldgrave laughed at them and me, I got out of bed three +times in the night, and went the round to assure myself that the men +were at their posts.</p> + +<p class="normal">When morning came without mishap, but also without bringing any +overture from the town, the Waldgrave laughed still more loudly. +But my lady looked grave. I did not dare to interfere or give +advice--having been once admitted to say my say--but I felt that it +would be a serious thing if the forty-eight hours elapsed and the town +refused to make amends. My lady felt this too, I think; and by-and-by +she held a council with the Waldgrave; and about midday my lord came +to me, and with a somewhat wry face bade me have the prisoners +conducted to the parlour.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sent 'me at the same time on an errand to another part of the +castle, and so I cannot say what passed. I believe my lady dealt with +the two very firmly; reiterating her judgment of the day before, and +only adding that in clemency she had thought better of imprisoning +them, and would now suffer them to go to their homes, in the hope that +they would use their influence to save the town from worse trouble.</p> + +<p class="normal">I met the two crossing the terrace on their way to the gate and was +struck by something peculiar in their aspect. Master Hofman was all of +a tremble with excitement and eagerness to be gone. His fat, half-moon +of a face shone with anxiety. He stuttered when he tried to give me +good day as I passed; and he seemed to have eyes only for the gate, +dragging his smaller companion along by the arm, and more than once +whispering in his ear as if to adjure him not to waste a moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little Minister, on the other hand, hung back and marched slowly, +his face wearing a look of triumph which showed very plainly--or so I +construed it--that he regarded his release in the light of a victory. +His sallow cheeks were flushed, and his eyes gleamed spitefully as he +looked from side to side. He held himself bolt upright, with a square +Bible clasped to his breast, and as he passed me he could not refrain +from a characteristic outbreak. Doubtless to bridle himself before my +lady had almost choked him. He laughed in my face. 'Dry bones!' he +cackled. 'And mouths that speak not!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Speak plainly yourself, Master Dietz,' I answered, for I have never +thought ministers more than other men. 'Then perhaps I shall be able +to understand you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal!' he replied, cracking his +fingers in my face and laughing triumphantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He would have said more, I imagine; but at that moment the Burgomaster +fell bodily upon him, and drove him by main force through the gate +which had been opened. Outside even, he made some attempts to return +and defy us, crying out 'Whited sepulchres!' and the like. But the +steps were narrow and steep, and Hofman stood like a feather bed in +the way, and presently he desisted. The two stumbled down together and +we saw no more of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men about me laughed; but I had reason for thinking it far from a +laughing matter, and I hastened into the house that I might tell my +lady. When I entered the parlour, however, where I found her with the +Waldgrave and Fraulein Anna, she held up her hand to check me. She and +the Waldgrave were laughing, and Fraulein Anna, half shy and half +sullen, was leaning against the table looking at the floor, with her +cheeks red.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Come,' my lady was saying, 'you were with him half an hour, Anna. You +can surely tell us what you talked about. Don't be afraid of Martin. +He knows all our secrets.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or perhaps we are indiscreet,' the Waldgrave said gravely, but with a +twinkle in his eye. 'When a young lady visits a gentleman in +captivity, the conversation should be of a tender nature.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Which shows, sir, that you know little about it,' Fraulein Anna +answered indignantly. 'We talked of Voetius.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dear me!' my lord said. 'Then Master Dietz knows Voetius?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He does not. He said he considered such pagan learning useless,' +Fraulein Anna answered, warming with her subject. 'That it tended to +pride, and puffed up instead of giving grace. I said that he only saw +one side of the matter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In that resembling me,' my lord murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady repressed him with a look. 'Yes,' she said pleasantly. 'And +what then, Anna?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And that he might be wrong in this, as in other matters. He asked me +what other matters,' Fraulein Max continued, growing voluble, and +almost confident, as she reviewed the scene. 'I said, the inferiority +of women to men. He said, yes, he maintained that, following Peter +Martyr. Well, I said he was wrong, and so was Peter Martyr. "But you +do not convince me," he answered. "You say that I am wrong on this as +on other points. Cite a point, then, on which I am wrong." "You know +no Greek, you know no Oriental tongue, you know no Hebrew!" I +retorted. "All pagan learning," he said. "Cite a point on which I am +wrong. I am not often wrong. Cite a point on which I am confessedly +wrong." So'--Fraulein Anna laughed a little, excited laugh of +pleasure--'I thought I would take him at his word, and I said, "Will +you abide by that? If I show you that you have been wrong, that you +have been deceived only to-day, will you acknowledge that Peter Martyr +was wrong?" He said, oh yes, he would, if I could convince him. I +said, "Exemplum! You came here because you were afraid of our cannon. +Granted? Yes. Well, our cannon are cracked. They are <i>brutum +fulmen</i>--an empty threat. We could not fire them, if we would. So +there, you see, you were wrong." Well, on that----'</p> + +<p class="normal">But what Master Dietz said on that, and what she answered, we never +knew, for the Waldgrave, bounding from the table, with a crash which +shook the room, swore a very pagan oath.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Himmel!' he cried in a voice of passion. 'The woman has ruined us! Do +you understand, Countess? She has told them! And they have taken the +news to the town!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do understand,' my lady said softly, but with a paling face. 'By +this time it is known.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Known! Yes; and our shutting up that poisonous little snake will only +make him the more bitter!' my lord answered, striking the table a +great blow in his wrath. 'We are undone! Oh, you idiot, you idiot!' +and breaking off suddenly he turned to Fraulein Max, who stood weeping +and trembling by the table. 'Why did you do it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush!' my lady said nobly; and she put her arm round Fraulein Anna. +'She is so absent. It was my fault. I should not have let her see +them. Besides, she did not know that they were going to be released. +And it is done now, and cannot be undone. The question is, what ought +we to do?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, what?' my lord cried bitterly, with a glance at the culprit, +which showed that he was very far from forgiving her. 'I am sure I do +not know, any more than the dog there!'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked at me anxiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Martin,' she said, 'what do you say?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I had nothing to say, I felt myself at a loss. I knew, better than +any of them, the Minister's sour nature, and I had seen with my own +eyes the state of resentment and rage in which he had left us. His +news would fall like a spark dropped on powder. The town, brooding in +gloom, foreboding, and terror, would in a moment blaze into fierce +wrath. Every ruffian who had felt his neck endangered by the +Countess's sentence, every family that had lost a member in the late +riot, every one who had an old grievance to avenge, or a new object to +gain, would in an hour be in arms; while those whose advantage lay +commonly on the side of order might stand aloof now--some at the +instance of Dietz, and others through timidity and that fear of a mob +which exists in the mind of every burgher. What, then, had we to +expect? My lady must look to have her authority flouted--that for +certain; but would the matter end with that? Would the disorder stop +at the foot of the steps?</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think we are safe enough here, if your excellency asks me,' I said, +after a moment's thought. 'A dozen men could hold the wicket-gate +against a thousand.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Safe!' my lady cried in a tone of surprise. 'Yes, Martin, safe! But +what of those who look to me for protection? Am I to stand by and see +the law defied? Am I to----' She paused. 'What is that?' she said in a +different tone, raising her hand for silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">She listened, and we listened, looking at one another with meaning +eyes; and in a moment she had her answer. Through the open windows, +with the air and sunshine, came a sound which rose and fell at +intervals. It was the noise of distant cheering. Full and deep, +leaping up again and again, in insolent mockery and defiance, it +reached us where we stood in the quiet room, and told us that all was +known. While we still listened, another sound, nearer at hand, broke +the inner stillness of the house--the tramp of a hurrying foot on the +stairs. Old Jacob thrust in his head and looked at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You can speak,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There is something wrong below,' he muttered, abashed at finding +himself in the presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We know it, Jacob,' my lady said bravely. 'We are considering how to +right it. In the mean time, do you go to the gates, my friend, and see +that they are well guarded.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We could send to Hesse-Cassel,' the Waldgrave suggested, when we were +again alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It would be useless,' my lady answered. 'The Landgrave is at Munich +with the King of Sweden; so is Leuchtenstein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If Leuchtenstein were only at home----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah!' the Countess answered with a touch of impatience; 'but then he +is not. If he were--well, even he could scarcely make troops where +there are none.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There are generally some to be hired,' the Waldgrave answered. 'What +if we send to Halle, or Weimar, and inquire? A couple of hundred pikes +would settle the matter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God forbid!' my lady answered with a shudder. 'I have heard enough of +the doings of such soldiers. The town has not deserved that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave looked at me, and slightly shrugged his shoulders; as +much as to say that my lady was impracticable. But I, agreeing with +every word she said, only loved her the more, and could make him no +answer, even if my duty had permitted it. I hastened to suggest that, +the castle being safe, the better plan was to wait, keeping on our +guard, and see what happened; which, indeed, seemed also to be the +only course open to us.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady saw this and agreed; I withdrew, to spend the rest of the day +in a feverish march between the one gate and the other. We could +muster no more than twelve effective men, including the Waldgrave; and +though these might suffice for the bare defence of the place, which +had only two assailable points, the paucity of our numbers kept me in +perpetual fear. I knew my lady's proud nature so well that I dreaded +humiliation for her as I might have feared death for another; with a +terror which made the possibility of her capture by the malcontents a +misery to me, a nightmare which would neither let me rest nor sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lord soon recovered his spirits. In an hour or two he was as +buoyant and cheerful as before, dividing the blame of the +<i>contretemps</i> between Fraulein Anna and myself, and hinting that if he +had been left to manage the matter, the guilty would have suffered, +and Dietz not gone scot-free. But I trembled. I did not see how we +could be surprised; I thought it improbable that the townsfolk would +try to effect anything against us; impossible that they should +succeed. Yet, when the stern swell of one of Luther's hymns rose from +the town at sunset, and I remembered how easily men's hearts were +inflamed by those strains; and again, when a huge bonfire in the +market-place dispelled the night, and for hours kept the town restless +and waking, I shuddered, fearing I knew not what. I will answer for +it, my lady, who never ceased to wear a cheerful countenance, did not +sleep that night one half so ill as I.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet I was caught napping. A little before daybreak, when all was +quiet, I went to take an hour's rest. I had lain down, and, as far as +I could judge later, had just fallen into a doze, when a tremendous +shock, which made the very walls round me tremble, drew me to my feet +as if a giant hand had plucked me from the bed. A crashing sound, +mingled with the shiver of falling glass, filled the air. For a few +seconds I stood trembling and bewildered in the middle of the room--in +the state of disorder natural to a man rudely awakened. I could not on +the instant collect myself or comprehend what had happened. Then, in a +flash, the fears of the day returned to my mind, and springing to the +door, half-dressed as I was, I ran down to the courtyard.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some of the servants were already there, a white-cheeked, +panic-stricken group of men and women intermixed; but, for a +moment, I could get no answer to my questions. All spoke at once, none +knew. Then--it was just growing light--from the direction of the +stable-gate a man came running out of the dusk with a half-pike on his +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Quick!' he cried. 'This way, give me a musket.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' I answered, seizing him by the arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They have blown up the bridge--the bridge over the ravine!' he +replied, panting. 'Quick, a gun! A part is left, and they are hacking +it down!'</p> + +<p class="normal">In a moment I saw all. 'To your posts!' I shouted. 'And the women into +the house! See to the wicket-gate, Jacob, and do not leave it!' Then I +sprang into the guardhouse and snatched down a carbine, three or four +of which hung loaded in the loops. The sentry who had brought the news +seized another, and we ran together through the stable court and to +the gate, four or five of the servants following us.</p> + +<p class="normal">Elsewhere it was growing light. Here a thick cloud of smoke and dust +still hung in the air, with a stifling reek of powder. But looking +through one of the loopholes in the gate, I was able to discern that +the farther end of the bridge which spanned the ravine was gone--or +gone in part. The right-hand wall, with three or four feet of the +roadway, still hung in air, but half a dozen men, whose figures loomed +indistinctly through a haze of dust and gloom, were working at it +furiously, demolishing it with bars and pickaxes.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that sight I fell into a rage. I saw in a flash what would happen +if the bridge sank and we were cut off from all exit except through +the town-gate. The dastardly nature of the surprise, too, and the +fiendish energy of the men combined to madden me. I gave no warning +and cried out no word, but thrusting my weapon through the loophole +aimed at the nearest worker, and fired.</p> + +<p class="normal">The man dropped his tool and threw up his arms, staggered forward a +couple of paces, and fell sheer over the broken edge into the gulf. +His fellows stood a moment in terror, looking after him, but the +sentry who had warned me fired through the other loophole, and that +started them. They flung down their tools and bolted like so many +rabbits. The smoke of the carbine was scarce out of the muzzle, before +the bridge, or what remained of it, was clear.</p> + +<p class="normal">I turned round and found the Waldgrave at my elbow. 'Well done!' he +said heartily. 'That will teach the rascals a lesson!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was trembling in every limb with excitement, but before I answered +him, I handed my gun to one of the men who had followed me. 'Load,' I +said,' and if a man comes near the bridge, shoot him down. Keep your +eye on the bridge, and do nothing else until I come back.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I walked away through the stable-court with the Waldgrave; who +looked at me curiously. 'You were only just in time,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Only just,' I muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There is enough left for a horse to cross.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I answered, 'to-day.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why to-day?' he asked, still looking at me. I think he was surprised +to see me so much moved.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because the rest will be blown up to-night,' I answered bluntly. 'Or +may be. How can we guard it in the dark? It is fifty paces from the +gate. We cannot risk men there--with our numbers.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Still it may not be,' he said. 'We must keep a sharp look-out.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But if it <i>is?</i>' I answered, halting suddenly, and looking him full +in the face. 'If it is, my lord?' I continued. 'We are provisioned for +a week only. It is not autumn, you see. Then the pickle tubs would be +full, the larder stocked, the rafters groaning, the still-room +supplied. But it is May, and there is little left. The last three days +we have been thinking of other things than provisions; and we have +thirty mouths to feed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave's face fell. 'I had not thought of that,' he said. 'The +bridge gone, they may starve us, you mean?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Into submission to whatever terms they please,' I answered. 'We are +too few to cut our way through the town, and there would be no other +way of escape.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What do you advise, then?' he asked, drawing me aside with a +flustered air. 'Flight?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A horse might cross the bridge to-day,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But any terms would be better than that!' he replied with vehemence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What if they demand the expulsion of the Catholic girl, my lord, whom +the Countess has taken under her protection?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They will not!' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They may,' I persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then we will not give her up.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But the alternative--starvation?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pooh! It will not come to that!' he answered lightly. 'You leap +before you reach the stile.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because, my lord, there will be no leaping if we do reach it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nonsense!' he cried masterfully. 'Something must be risked. To give +up a strong place like this to a parcel of clodhoppers--it is absurd! +At the worst we could parley.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not think my lady would consent to parley.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I shall say nothing to her about it,' he answered. 'She is no judge +of such things.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I had been thinking all the while that he had that in his mind, and on +the spot I answered him squarely that I would not consent. 'My lady +must know all,' I said, 'and decide for herself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He started, looking at me with his face very red. 'Why, man,' he said, +'would you browbeat me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lord,' I said firmly, 'but my lady must know.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are insolent!' he cried, in a passion. 'You forget yourself, man, +and that your mistress has placed me in command here!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I forget nothing, my lord,' I answered, waxing firmer. 'What I +remember is that she is my mistress.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He glared at me a moment, his face dark with anger, and then with a +contemptuous gesture he left me and walked twice or thrice across the +court. Doubtless the air did him good, for presently he came back to +me. 'You are an ill-bred meddler!' he said with his head high, 'and I +shall remember it. But for the present have your way. I will tell the +Countess and take her opinion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He went into the house to do it, and I waited patiently in the +courtyard, watching the sun rise and all the roofs grow red; listening +to the twittering of the birds, and wondering what the answer would +be. I had not set myself against him without misgiving, for in a +little while all might be in his hands. But fear for my mistress +outweighed fears on my own account; and in the thought of her shame, +should she awake some morning and find herself trapped, I lost thought +of my own interest and advancement. I have heard it said that he +builds best for himself who builds for another. It was so on this +occasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came back presently, looking thoughtful, as if my lady had talked +to him very freely, and shown him a side of her character that had +escaped him. The anger was clean gone from his face, and he spoke to +me without embarrassment; in apparent forgetfulness that there had +been any difference between us. Nor did I ever find him bear malice +long.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Countess decides to go,' he said, 'either to Cassel or Frankfort, +according to the state of the roads. She will take with her Fraulein +Max, her two women, and the Catholic girl, and as many men as you can +horse. She thinks she may safely leave the castle in charge of old +Jacob and Franz, with a letter directed to the Burgomaster and +council, throwing the responsibility for its custody on them. When do +you think we should start?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Soon after dark this evening,' I answered, 'if my lady pleases.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then that decides it,' he replied carelessly, the dawn of a new plan +and new prospects lighting up his handsome face. 'See to it, will +you?'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">WALNUTS OF GOLD.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Night is like a lady's riding-mask, which gives to the most +familiar features a strange and uncanny aspect. When to night +are added silence and alarm, and that worst burden of all, +responsibility--responsibility where a broken twig may mean a shot, +and a rolling stone capture, where in a moment the evil is done--then +you have a scene and a time to try the stoutest.</p> + +<p class="normal">To walk boldly into a wall of darkness, relying on daylight knowledge, +which says there is no wall; to step over the precipice on the faith +of its depth being shadow--this demands nerve in those who are not +used to the vagaries of night. But when the darkness may at any +instant belch forth a sheet of flame; when every bush may hide a +cowardly foe and every turn a pitfall, and there are women in company +and helpless children, then a man had need to be an old soldier or +forest-born, if he would keep his head cool, and tell one horse from +another by the sound of its hoofs.</p> + +<p class="normal">We started about eight, and started well. The Waldgrave and half a +dozen men crossed first on foot, and took post to protect the farther +end of the bridge. Then I led over the horses, beginning with the four +sumpter beasts. Satisfied after this that the arch remained uninjured, +and that there was room and to spare, I told my lady, and she rode +over by herself on Pushka. Marie Wort tripped after her with the child +in her arms. Fraulein Max I carried. My lady's women crossed hand in +hand. Then the rest. So like a troop of ghosts or shadows, with hardly +a word spoken or an order given, we flitted into the darkness, and met +under the trees, where those who had not yet mounted got to horse. Led +by young Jacob, who knew every path in the valley and could find his +way blindfold, we struck away from the road without delay, and taking +lanes and tracks which ran beside it, presently hit it again a league +or more beyond the town and far on the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was a ride not to be forgotten. The night was dark. At a distance +the dim lights of the town did not show. The valley in which we rode, +and which grows straighter as it approaches the mouth and the river, +seemed like a black box without a lid. The wind, laden with mysterious +rustlings and the thousand sad noises of the night, blew in our faces. +Now and then an owl hooted, or a branch creaked, or a horse stumbled +and its rider railed at it. But for the most part we rode in silence, +the women trembling and crossing themselves--as most of our people do +to this day, when they are frightened--and the men riding warily, with +straining eyes and ears on the stretch.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before we reached the ford, which lies nearly eight miles from the +castle, the Waldgrave, who had his place beside my lady, began to +talk; and then, if not before, I knew that <i>his</i> love for her was +a poor thing. For, being in high spirits at the success of our +plan--which he had come to consider <i>his</i> plan--and delighted to find +himself again in the saddle with an adventure before him, he forgot +that the matter must wear a different aspect in her eyes. She was +leaving her home--the old rooms, the old books, and presses and +stores, the duties, stately or simple, in which her life had been +passed. And leaving them, not in the daylight, and with a safe and +assured future before her, but by stealth and under cover of night, +with a mind full of anxious questionings!</p> + +<p class="normal">To my lord it seemed a fine thing to have the world before him; to +know that all Germany beyond the Werra was convulsed by war, and a +theatre wherein a bold man might look to play his part. But to a +woman, however high-spirited, the knowledge was not reassuring. To one +who was exchanging her own demesne and peace and plenty for a +wandering life and dependence on the protection of men, it was the +reverse.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, while my lord talked gaily, my lady, I think, wept; doing that +under cover of darkness and her mask, which she would never have done +in the light. He talked on, planning and proposing; and where a true +lover would have been quick to divine the woman's weakness, he felt no +misgiving, thrilled with no sympathy. Then I knew that he lacked the +subtle instinct which real love creates; which teaches the strong what +it is the feeble dread, and gives a woman the daring of a man.</p> + +<p class="normal">As we drew near the ford, I dropped back to see that all crossed +safely. Pushka, I knew, would carry my lady over, but some of the +others were worse mounted. This brought me abreast of the Catholic +girl, though the darkness was such that I recognized her only by the +dark mass before her, which I knew to be the child. We had had some +difficulty in separating her from Steve, and persuading her that the +man ran no risk where he lay; otherwise she had behaved admirably. I +did not speak to her, but when I saw the gleam of water before us, and +heard the horses of the leaders begin to splash through the shallows, +I leant over and took hold of the boy.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You had better give him to me,' I said gruffly. 'You will have both +hands free then. Keep your feet high, and hold by the pommel. If your +horse begins to swim leave its head loose.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I expected her to make a to-do about giving up the child; but she did +not, and I lifted it to the withers of my horse. She muttered +something in a tone which sounded grateful, and then we splashed on in +silence, the horses putting one foot gingerly before the other; some +sniffing the air with loud snorts and outstretched necks, and some +stopping outright.</p> + +<p class="normal">I rode on the upstream side of the girl, to break the force of the +water. Not that the ford is dangerous in the daytime (it has been +bridged these five years), but at night, and with so many horses, it +was possible one or another might stray from the track; for the ford +is not straight, but slants across the stream. However, we all passed +safely; and yet the crossing remains in my memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">As I held the child before me--it was a gallant little thing, and +clung to me without cry or word--I felt something rough round its +neck. At the moment I was deep in the water, and I had no hand to +spare. But by-and-by, as we rode out and began to clamber up the +farther bank, I laid my hand on its neck, suspecting already what I +should find.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was not mistaken. Under my fingers lay the very necklace which Peter +had described to me with so much care! I could trace the shape and +roughness of the walnuts. I could almost count them. Even of the +length of the chain I could fairly judge. It was long enough to go +twice round the child's neck.</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as I had made certain, I let it be, lest the child should cry +out; and I rode on, thinking hard. What, I wondered, had induced the +girl to put the chain round its neck at that juncture? She had hidden +it so carefully hitherto, that no eye but Peter's, so far as I could +judge, had seen it. Why this carelessness now, then? Certainly it was +dark, and, as far as eyes went, the chain was safe. But round her own +neck, under her kerchief, where it had lain before, it was still +safer. Why had she removed it?</p> + +<p class="normal">We had topped the farther bank by this time, and were riding slowly +along the right-hand side of the river; but I was still turning this +over in my mind, when I heard her on a sudden give a little gasp. I +knew in a moment what it was. She had bethought her where the necklace +was. I was not a whit surprised when she asked me in a tremulous tone +to give her back the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is very well here,' I said, to try her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It will trouble you,' she muttered faintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will say when it does,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not answer anything to that, but I heard her breathing hard, +and knew that she was racking her brains for some excuse to get the +child from me. For what if daylight came and I still rode with it, the +necklace in full view? Or what if we stopped at some house and lights +were brought? Or what, again, if I perceived the necklace and took +possession of it!</p> + +<p class="normal">This last idea so charmed me--I was in a grim humour--that my hand was +on the necklace, and almost before I knew what I was doing, I was +feeling for the clasp which fastened it. Some fiend brought the thing +under my fingers in a twinkling. The necklace seemed to fall loose of +its own accord. In a moment it was swinging and swaying in my hand. In +another I had gathered it up and slid it into my pouch.</p> + +<p class="normal">The trick was done so easily and so quickly that I think some devil +must have helped me; the child neither moving nor crying out, though +it was old enough to take notice, and could even speak, as children of +that age can speak--intelligibly to those who know them, gibberish to +strangers.</p> + +<p class="normal">I need not say that I never meant to steal a link of the thing. The +temptation which moved me was the temptation to tease the girl. I +thought this a good way of punishing her. I thought, first to torment +her by making her think the necklace gone; and then to shame her by +producing it, and giving it back to her with a dry word that should +show her I understood her deceit.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, even when the thing was done, and the chain snug in my pocket, I +did not for a while repent, but hugged myself on the jest and smiled +under cover of the darkness. I carried the child a mile farther, and +then handed it down to Marie, with an appearance of unconsciousness +which it was not very hard to assume, since she could not see my face. +But doubtless every yard of that mile had been a torture to her. I +heard her sigh with relief as her arms closed round the boy. Then, the +next moment I knew that she had discovered her loss. She uttered a +sobbing cry, and I heard her passing her hands through the child's +clothing, while her breath came and went in gasps.</p> + +<p class="normal">She plucked at her bridle so suddenly that those who rode behind ran +into us. I made way for them to pass.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' I said roughly. 'What is the matter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She muttered under her breath, with her hands still searching the +child, that she had lost something.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you have, it is gone,' I said bluntly. 'You would hardly find a +hayrick to-night. You must have dropped it coming through the ford?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not answer, but I heard her begin to sob, and then for the +first time I felt uncomfortable. I repented of what I had done, and +wished with all my heart that the chain was round the child's neck +again. 'Come, come,' I said awkwardly, 'it was not of much value, I +suppose. At any rate, it is no good crying over it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not answer; she was still searching. I could hear what she was +doing, though I could not see; there were trees overhead, and it was +as much as I could do to make out her figure. At last I grew angry, +partly with myself, partly with her. 'Come,' I said roughly, 'we +cannot stay here all night. We must be moving.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She assented meekly, and we rode on. But still I heard her crying; and +she seemed to be hugging the child to her, as if, now the necklace was +gone, she had nothing but the boy left. I tried to see the humour in +the joke as I had seen it a few minutes before, but the sparkle had +gone out of it, I felt that I had been a brute. I began to reflect +that this girl, a stranger and helpless, in a strange land, had +nothing upon which she could depend but these few links of gold. What +wonder, then, if she valued them; if, like all other women, she hid +them away and fibbed about them; if she wept over them now they were +gone?</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course it was in my power in a moment to bring them back again; and +nothing had seemed easier, a few minutes before, than to hand them +back--with a little speech which should cover her with confusion and +leave me unmoved. Now, though I wished them round her neck again with +all the good-will in life, and though to effect my wish I had only to +do what I had planned--only to stretch out my hand with that word or +two--I sat in my saddle hot and tongue-tied, my fingers sticking to +the chain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her grief had somehow put a new face on the matter. I could not bear +to confess that I had caused it wantonly and for a jest. The right +words would not come, while every moment which prolonged the silence +between us made the attempt seem more hopeless, the task more +difficult; till, like the short-sighted craven I was, I thrust back +the chain into my pocket, and, determining to take some secret way of +restoring it, put off the crisis.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a degree I was hurried to this decision by our arrival at the place +where we were to rest. This was an outlying farm belonging to +Heritzburg and long used by the family, when journeying to Cassel. +Alas! when we came to it, cold, shivering, and hungry, we found it +ruined and tenantless, with war's grim brand so deeply stamped upon +the face of everything that even the darkness of night failed to hide +the scars. I had not expected this, and for a while I forgot the +necklace in anxiety for my lady's comfort. I had to get lights and see +fires kindled, to order the disposal of the horses, to unpack the +food: for we found no scrap, even of fodder for the beasts, in the +grimy, smoke-stained barn, which I had known so well stored. Nor was +the house in better case. Bed and board were gone, and half the roof. +The door lay shattered on the threshold, the window-frames, smashed in +wanton fury, covered the floor. The wind moaned through the empty +rooms; here and there water stood in puddles. Round the hearth lay +broken flasks, and rotting <i>débris</i>, and pewter plates bent double-- +the relics of the ravager's debauch.</p> + +<p class="normal">We walked about, with lights held above our heads, and looked at all +this miserably enough. It was our first glimpse of war, and it +silenced even the Waldgrave. As for my mistress, I well remember the +look her face wore, when I left her standing with her women, who were +already in tears, in the middle of the small chamber assigned to her. +I had known her long enough to be able to read the look, and to be +sure that she was wondering whether it would always be so now. Had she +exchanged Heritzburg, its peace and comfort, for such nights as these, +divided between secret flittings and lodgings fit only for the +homeless and wretched?</p> + +<p class="normal">But neither by word nor sign did she betray her fears; and in the +morning she showed a face that vied with the Waldgrave's in +cheerfulness. Our horses had had little exercise of late and were +in poor condition for travelling. We gave them, therefore, until +noon to rest, and a little after that hour got away; one and all, I +think--with the exception perhaps of Marie Wort--in better spirits. +The sun was high, the weather fine, the country on either side of us +woodland, with fine wild prospects. Hence we saw few signs of the +ravages which were sure to thrust themselves on the attention wherever +man's hand appeared. We could forget for the moment war, and even our +own troubles.</p> + +<p class="normal">We proposed to reach the little village of Erbe by sunset, but +darkness overtook us on the road. The track, overgrown and narrowed by +spring shoots, was hard to follow in daylight; to attempt to pursue it +after nightfall seemed hopeless. We had halted, therefore, and the +Waldgrave and my lady were considering whether we should camp where we +were, or pick our way to a more sheltered spot, when young Jacob, who +was leading, cried out that he saw the glimmer of a camp-fire some way +off among the trees. The news threw our party into the greatest doubt. +My lady was for stopping where we were, the Waldgrave for going on. In +the end the latter had his way, and it was agreed that we should join +the company before us, or at any rate parley with them and learn their +intentions. Accordingly we shook up our tired horses and moved +cautiously forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">The distant gleam which had first caught Jacob's eye soon widened into +a warm and ruddy glow, in which the polished beech-trunks stood up +like the pillars of some great building. Still drawing nearer, we saw +that there were two fires built a score of paces apart, in a slight +hollow. Round the one a number of men were moving, whose black figures +sometimes intervened between us and the blaze. Two or three dogs +sprang up and barked at us, and a horse neighed out of the darkness +beyond. The other fire seemed at first sight to be deserted; but as +the dogs ran towards us, still barking, first one man, then another, +rose beside it, and stood looking at us. The arrival of a second party +in such a spot was no doubt unexpected.</p> + +<p class="normal">Judging that these two were the leaders of the party, I went forward +to announce my lady's rank. One of the men, the shorter and younger, a +man of middle height and middle age and dark, stern complexion, came a +few paces to meet me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who are you?' he said bluntly, looking beyond me at those who +followed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, travelling this way to Cassel,' I +answered; 'and with her, her excellency's kinsman, the noble Rupert, +Waldgrave of Weimar.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The stranger's face lightened strangely, and he laughed. 'Take me to +her,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">Properly I should have first asked him his name and condition; but he +had the air, beyond all things, of a man not to be trifled with, and I +turned with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady had halted with her company a score of paces from the fire. I +led him to her bridle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This,' I said, wondering much who he was, 'is her excellency the +Countess of Heritzburg.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked at him. He had uncovered and stood before her, a smile +that was almost a laugh in his eyes. 'And I,' he said, 'have the +honour to be her excellency's humble and distant cousin, General John +Tzerclas, sometimes called, of Tilly.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">THE CAMP IN THE FOREST.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">As the stranger made his announcement, I chanced to turn my eyes on +the Waldgrave's face; and if there was one thing more noteworthy at +the moment than the speaker's air of perfect and assured composure, it +was my lord's look of chagrin. I could imagine that this sudden and +unexpected discovery of a kinsman was little to his mind; while the +stranger's manner was as little calculated to reconcile him to it. But +there was something more than this. I fancy that from the moment he +heard Tzerclas' name he scented a rival.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady, on the other hand, did not disguise her satisfaction. 'I am +pleased to make your acquaintance,' she exclaimed, looking at the +stranger with frank surprise. 'Your name, General Tzerclas, has long +been known to me. But I was under the impression that you were at +present in command of a body of Saxon troops in Bohemia.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My troops, such as they are, lie a little nearer,' he answered, +smiling; 'so near that they and their leader are equally at your +service, Countess.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For the present I shall be content to claim your hospitality only,' +my lady answered lightly. 'This is my cousin, the Waldgrave Rupert.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of Weimar?' the general said, bowing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of Weimar, sir,' the young lord answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stranger said no more, but saluting him with a kind of careless +punctilio, took hold of my lady's rein and led her horse forward into +the firelight.</p> + +<p class="normal">While he assisted her to dismount I had time to glance round; and the +cheerful glow of the fire, which disclosed arms and accoutrements and +camp equipments flung here and there in splendid profusion, did not +blind me to other appearances less pleasant. Indeed, that very +profusion did something to open my eyes to those appearances, and +thereby to the nature of the men amongst whom we had come. The +glittering hilts and battered plate, the gaudy cloaks and velvet +housings which I saw lying about the roots of the trees, seemed to +smack less of a travellers' camp than a robbers' bivouac; while the +fierce, swarthy faces which clustered round the farther fire, reminded +me of nothing so much as of the swash-buckling escort which had more +than once accompanied Count Tilly to Heritzburg. Then, indeed, under +the old tiger's paw Tilly's riders had been as lambs. But we were not +now at Heritzburg, nor was Count Tilly here. And whether these knaves +would be as amenable in the greenwood, whether the Waldgrave had not +done us all an ill service when he voted for moving on, were questions +I had a difficulty in answering to my satisfaction; the more as, even +before we were off our horses, the rude stare the men fixed on my lady +raised my choler.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand their leader's bearing left nothing to be desired. +He welcomed my mistress to the camp with perfect good breeding, the +Waldgrave with civility. He hastened the preparation of supper, and in +every way seemed bent on making us comfortable; sending his knaves to +and fro with a hearty good-will, which showed that whoever stood in +awe of them, he did not.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, I had a third fire kindled a score of paces away, where a +small thicket held out the hope of privacy, and here I placed our +women, bidding three or four of the steadier men remain with them. The +injunction was scarcely needed however. Our servants were simple +fellows born in Heritzburg. They eyed with shyness and awe the +swaggering airs and warlike demeanour of Tzerclas' followers, and +would not for a year's wages have intruded on their circle without +invitation.</p> + +<p class="normal">The moment I had seen to this I returned to my lady, and then for the +first time I had an opportunity of examining our host. A man of middle +height, sinewy and well-formed, with an upright carriage, he looked +from head to foot the model of a soldier of fortune, and moved with a +careless grace, which spoke of years of manly exercise. His face was +handsome, cold, dark, stern; the nose prominent, the forehead high and +narrow. Trimly pointed moustachios and a small pointed beard, both +perfectly black, gave him a peculiar and somewhat cynical aspect; and +nothing I ever witnessed of his dealings with his troops led me to +suppose that this belied the man. He could be, as he was now, +courteous, polished, almost genial. I judged that he could be also the +reverse. He was richly, even splendidly, dressed, and seemed to be +about forty years of age.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady sent me for Fraulein Max, who had been overlooked, and was +found cowering beside the newly kindled fire in company with Marie +Wort and the women. Though I think she had only herself to thank for +her effacement, she was inclined to be offended. But I had no time to +waste on words, and disregarding her ill temper I brought her, feebly +sniffing, to my lady, who introduced her to her new-found kinsman.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pardon me,' he said, looking negligently round him. 'That reminds me. +I, too, have a presentation to make. Where is--oh yes, here is friend +Von Werder. I thought, my friend,' he continued, addressing the other +and older man whom we had seen by his fire, 'that you had disappeared +as mysteriously as you came. Herr von Werder, Countess, was my first +chance guest to-night. You are the second.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke in a tone of easy patronage, with his back half turned to the +person he mentioned. I looked at the man. He seemed to be over fifty +years old, tall, strong, and grey-moustachioed. And that was almost +all I could see, for, as if acknowledging an inferiority, and +admitting that the terms on which he had been with his host were now +altered, he had withdrawn himself a pace from the fire. Sitting on the +opposite side of it near the outer edge of light and wearing a heavy +cloak, he disclosed little of his appearance, even when he rose in +acknowledgment of my lady's salute.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr von Werder is not travelling with you, then?' my lady said; +chiefly, I think, for the sake of saying something that should include +the man.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, he is not of my persuasion,' the general answered in the same +tone of good-natured contempt. 'Whither are you bound, my friend?' he +continued, glancing over his shoulder and throwing a note of command +into his voice. 'I did not ask you, and you did not tell me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am going north,' the stranger answered in a husky tone. 'It may be +as far as Magdeburg, general.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you come from?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Last, sir? Frankfort.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, as you say last, whence before that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Rhine Bishoprics.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah! Then you have seen something of the war? If you were there before +it swept into Bavaria, that is. But a truce to this,' he continued. +'Here is supper. I beg you not to judge of my hospitality by this +night's performance, Countess. I hope to entertain you more fittingly +before we part.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Though he made this apology, the supper needed none. Indeed, it was +such as made me stare--there in the forest--and was served in a style +and with accompaniments I little expected to find in a soldiers' camp. +Silver dishes and chased and curious flagons, flasks of old Rhenish +and Burgundy, glass from Nuremberg, a dozen things which made my +lady's road equipage seem poor and trifling, appeared on the board. +And the cooking was equal to the serving. The wine had not gone round +many times before the Waldgrave lost his air of reserve. He +complimented our host, expressed his surprise at the excellence of the +entertainment, asked with a laugh how it was done, and completely +resumed his usual manner. Perhaps he talked a little too freely, a +little too fast, and viewed by the other's side, he grew younger.</p> + +<p class="normal">What my lady saw or thought as she sat between the two men it was +impossible to say, but she seemed in high spirits. She too talked +gaily and laughed often; and doubtless the novelty of the scene, the +great fires, the dark background, the burnished trunks of the beeches, +the bizarre splendour of the feast, the laughter and snatches of song +which came from the other fire, were well calculated to excite and +amuse her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'These are not all your troops?' I heard her ask.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not quite,' the general answered drily. 'My men lie six hours south +of us. I hope that you will do me the honour of reviewing them +to-morrow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are marching south, then?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes. Everything and every one goes south this year.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To join the King of Sweden?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' the general answered, holding out his silver cup to be filled, +and for that reason perhaps speaking very deliberately, 'to join the +King of Sweden--at Nuremberg. But you have not yet told me, countess,' +he continued, 'why you are afield. This part is not in a very settled +state, and I should have thought that the present time was----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A bad one for travelling?' my lady answered. 'Yes. But, I regret to +say, Heritzburg is not in a very settled state either.' And thereon, +without dwelling much on the cause of her troubles, she told him the +main facts which had led to her departure.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw his lip curl and his eyes flicker with scorn. 'But had you no +gunpowder?' he said, turning to the Waldgrave.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We had, but no cannon,' he answered confidently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What of that?' the general retorted icily. 'I would have made a bomb, +no matter of what, and fired it out of a leather boot hooped with +cask-irons! I would have had half a dozen of their houses burning +about their ears before they knew where they were, the insolents!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave looked ashamed of himself. 'I did not think of that,' he +said; and he hastened to hide his confusion in his glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, it is not too late,' General Tzerclas rejoined, showing his +teeth in a smile. 'If the Countess pleases, we will soon teach her +subjects a lesson. I am not pushed for time. I will detach four troops +of horse and return with you to-morrow, and settle the matter in a +trice.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But my lady said that she would not have that, and persisted so firmly +in her refusal that though he pressed the offer upon her, and I could +see was keenly interested in its acceptance, he had to give way. The +reasons she put forward were the loss of his time and the injury to +his cause; the real one consisted, I knew, in her merciful reluctance +to give over the town to his troops, a reluctance for which I honoured +her. To appease him, however, for he seemed inclined to take her +refusal in bad part, she consented to go out of her way to visit his +camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">At this point my lady sent me on an errand to her women, which caused +me to be away some minutes. When I came back I found that a change had +taken place. The Waldgrave was speaking, and, from his heated face and +the tone of his voice, it was evident that the old wine which had +begun by opening his heart had ended by rousing his pugnacity.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pooh! I protest <i>in toto!</i>' he said as I came up. 'I deny it +altogether. You will tell me next that the Germans are worse soldiers +than the Swedes!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pardon me, I did not say so,' General Tzerclas answered. The wine had +taken no effect on him, or perhaps he had drunk less. He was as suave +and cold as ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But you meant it!' the younger man retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, I did not mean it,' the general answered, still unmoved. 'What I +said was that Germany had produced no great commander in this war, +which has now lasted thirteen years.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Prince Bernard of Weimar, my kinsman!' the Waldgrave cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pardon me,' Tzerclas replied politely. 'Pardon me again if I say that +I do not think he has earned that title. He is a soldier of merit. No +more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wallenstein, then?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You forget. He is a Bohemian.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Count Tilly, then?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A Walloon,' the general answered with a shrug. 'The King of Sweden? A +Swede, of course.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A German by the mother's side,' my lady said with a smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As you, Countess, are a Walloon,' Tzerclas answered with a low bow. +'Yet doubtless you count yourself a German?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' she said, blushing. 'I am proud to do so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">What courteous answer he would have made to this I do not know. She +had scarcely spoken before a deep voice on the farther side of the +fire was heard to ask 'What of Count Pappenheim?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The speaker was Von Werder, who had long sat so modestly silent that I +had forgotten his presence. He seemed scarcely to belong to the party; +though Fraulein Max, who sat on the Waldgrave's left hand, formed a +sort of link stretched out towards him. Tzerclas had forgotten him +too, I think, for he started at the sound of his voice and gave him +but a curt answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is no general,' he said sharply. 'A great leader of horse he is; +great at fighting, great at burning, greatest at plundering. No more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It seems that you allow no merit in a German!' the Waldgrave cried +with a sneer. He had drunk too much.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Tzerclas was not to be moved. There was something fine in the +toleration he extended to the younger man. 'Not at all,' he said +quietly. 'Yet I am of opinion that, even apart from arms, Germany has +shown since the beginning of this war few men of merit.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Duke of Bavaria,' the same deep voice beyond the fire suggested.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Maximilian?' Tzerclas answered. This time he did not seem to resent +the stranger's interference. 'Yes, he is something of a statesman. +You are right, my friend. He and Leuchtenstein, the Landgrave's +minister--he too is a man. I will give you those two. But even they +play second parts. The fate of Germany lies in no German hands. It +lies in the hands of Gustavus Adolphus and Oxenstierna, Swedes; of +Wallenstein, a Bohemian; of--I know not who will be the next +foreigner.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is all very well; but you are a foreigner yourself,' the +Waldgrave cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, I am a Walloon,' Tzerclas said, still quietly, though this time +I saw his eyes flicker. 'It is true; why should I deny it? You +represent the native, and I the foreign element. The Countess stands +between us, representing both.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave rose with an oath and a flushed face, and for a moment I +thought that we were going to have trouble. But he remembered himself +in time, and sitting down again in silence, gazed sulkily at the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">The movement, however, was enough for my lady. She rose to her feet to +break up the party; and turning her shoulder to the offender, began to +thank General Tzerclas for his entertainment. This made the Waldgrave, +who was compelled to stand by and listen, look more sulky than ever; +but she continued to take no notice of him, and though he remained +awkwardly regarding her and waiting for a word, as long as she stood, +she went away without once turning her eyes on him. The general +snatched a torch from me and lighted her with his own hand to our part +of the camp, where he took a respectful leave of her; adding, as he +withdrew, that he would march at any hour in the morning that might +suit her, and that in all things she might command his servants and +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had sent over for her use a small tent, provided originally, no +doubt, for his own sleeping quarters; and we found that in a hundred +other ways he had shown himself thoughtful for her comfort. She stood +a moment looking about her with satisfaction; and when she turned to +dismiss me, there was, or I was mistaken, a gleam of amusement in her +eye. After all, she was a woman.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">STOLEN!</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The night was still young, and when I had seen my mistress and her +women comfortably settled, I sauntered back towards the middle of the +camp. The three fires stood here, and there, and there, among the +trees, like the feet of a three-legged stool; while between them lay a +middle space which partook of the light of all, and yet remained +shadowy and ill-defined. A single beech which stood in this space, and +served in some degree to screen our fire from observation, added to +the darkness of the borderland. At times the flames blazed up, +disclosing trunk and branches; again they waned, and only a shadowy +mass filled the middle space.</p> + +<p class="normal">I went and stood under this tree and looked about me. The Waldgrave +had disappeared, probably to his couch. So had Von Werder. Only +General Tzerclas remained beside the fire at which we had supped, and +he no longer sat erect. Covered with a great cloak he lay at his ease +on a pile of furs, reading by the light of the fire in a small fat +book, which even at that distance I could see was thumbed and +dog's-eared. Such an employment in such a man--in huge contrast with +the noisy brawling and laughter of his following--struck me as +remarkable. I felt a great curiosity to know what he was studying, and +in particular whether it was the Bible. But the distance between us +was too great and the light too uncertain; and after straining my eyes +awhile I gave up the attempt, consoling myself with the thought that +had I been nearer I had perhaps been no wiser.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was about to withdraw, tolerably satisfied, to seek my own rest, +when a stick snapped sharply behind me. Unwilling to be caught spying, +I turned quickly and found myself face to face with a tall figure, +which had come up noiselessly behind me. The unknown was so close to +me, I recoiled in alarm; but the next moment he lowered his cloak from +his face, and I saw that it was Von Werder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush, man!' he said, raising his hand to enforce caution. 'A word +with you. Come this way.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave me no time to demur or ask questions, but taking obedience for +granted, turned and led the way down a narrow path, proceeding +steadily onwards until the glare of the fire sank into a distant gleam +behind us. Then he stopped suddenly and faced me, but the darkness in +which we stood among the tree-trunks still prevented me seeing his +features, and gave to the whole interview an air of mystery.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are the Countess of Heritzburg's steward?' he said abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am,' I answered, wondering at the change in his tone, which, deep +before, had become on a sudden imperative. By the fire and in +Tzerclas' company he had spoken with a kind of diffidence, an air of +acknowledged inferiority. Not a trace of that remained.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave Rupert,' he continued--'he is a new acquaintance?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is not an old friend,' I replied. I could not think what he would +be at with his questions. All my instincts were on the side of +refusing to answer them. But his manner imposed upon me, though his +figure and face were hidden; and though I wondered, I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is young,' he said, as if to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, he is young,' I answered dryly. 'He will grow older.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He remained silent a moment, apparently in thought. Then he spoke +suddenly and bluntly. 'You are an honest man, I believe,' he said. 'I +watched you at supper, and I think I can trust you. I will be plain +with you. Your mistress had better have stayed at Heritzburg, +steward.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is possible,' I said. I was more than half inclined to think so +myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She has come abroad, however. That being so, the sooner she is in +Cassel, the better.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are going thither,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You were!' he replied; and the meaning in his voice gave me a start. +'You were, I say?' he continued strenuously. 'Whither you are going +now will depend, unless you exert yourself and are careful, on General +John Tzerclas of the Saxon service. You visit his camp to-morrow. Take +a hint. Get your mistress out of it and inside the walls of Cassel as +soon as you can.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' I said stubbornly. 'Why?' For it seemed to me that I was being +asked all and told nothing. The man's vague warnings chimed in with my +own fears, and yet I resented them coming from a stranger. I tried to +pierce the darkness, to read his face, to solve the mystery of his +altered tone. But the night baffled me; I could see nothing save a +tall, dark form, and I fell back upon words and obstruction. 'Why?' I +asked jealously. 'He is my lady's cousin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'After a fashion,' the stranger rejoined coldly and slowly, and not at +all as if he meant to argue with me. 'I should be better content, man, +if he were her uncle. However, I have said enough. Do you bear it in +mind, and as you are faithful, be wary. So much for that. And now,' he +continued, in a different tone, a tone in which a note of anxiety +lurked whether he would or no, 'I have a question to ask on my own +account, friend. Have you heard at any time within the last twelve +months of a lost child being picked up to the north of this, in +Heritzburg or the neighbourhood?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A lost child?' I repeated in astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes!' he retorted impatiently. And I felt, though I could not see, +that he was peering at me as I had lately peered at him. 'Isn't that +plain German? A lost child, man? There is nothing hard to understand +in it. Such a thing has been heard of before--and found, I suppose. A +little boy, two years old.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' I said, 'I have heard nothing of one. A child two years old? +Why, it could not go alone; it could not walk!'</p> + +<p class="normal">In the darkness, which is a wonderful sharpener of ears, I heard the +man move hastily. 'No,' he said with a stern note in his voice, 'I +suppose not; I suppose it could not. At any rate, you have not heard +of it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' I said, 'certainly not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If it had been found Heritzburg way,' he continued jealously, 'you +would have, I suppose?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I should have--if any one,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank you,' he said curtly. 'That is all now. Good night.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And suddenly, with that only, and no warning or further farewell, he +turned and strode off. I heard him go plunging through the last year's +leaves, and the noise told me that he trod them sternly and heavily, +with the foot of a man disappointed, and not for the first time.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It must be his child,' I thought, looking after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited until the last sound of his retreat had died away, and then I +made my own way back to the camp. As chance would have it, I hit it +close to the servants' fire, and before I could turn was espied by +some of those who sat at it. One, a stout, swarthy fellow, with bright +black eyes, and a small feather in his cap, sprang up and came towards +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why so shy, comrade?' he cried, with a hiccough in his voice. +'Himmel! There are a pair of us!' And he raised his hand and laid it +on my head--with an effort, for I am six feet and two inches. 'Peace!' +and he touched me on the breast. 'War!' and he touched himself. 'And a +good broad piece you are, and a big piece, and a heavy piece, I'll +warrant!' he continued.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I might say the same for you!' I retorted, suffering him to lead me +to the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, I?' he cried with a drunken swagger. 'I am a double gold ducat, +true metal, stamped with the Emperor's man-at-arms! Melted in the Low +Countries under Spinola--that is, these thirteen years back--minted by +Wallenstein, tried by the noble general!</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-6pt">"Clink! Clink! Clink! +<p class="t1">Sword and stirrup and spur.</p> +<p class="t0">Ride! Ride! Ride!</p> +<p class="t1">Fast as feather or fur!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">That is my sort! But come, welcome! Will you drink? Will you play? +Will you 'list? Come, the night is young,</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-6pt">"For the night-sky is red,<br> +And the burgher's abed,<br> +And bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">Which shall it be, friend?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will drink with you or play with you, captain,' I answered, seeing +nothing else for it, 'so far as a poor man may; but as for enlisting, +I am satisfied with my present service.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha! ha! I can quite understand that!' he answered, winking tipsily. +'Woman, lovely woman! Here's to her! Here's to her! Here's to her, +lads of the free company!</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-6pt">"Drink, lads, drink!</p> +<p class="t1">Firkin and flagon and flask.</p> +<p class="t0">Hands, lads, hands!</p> +<p class="t1">A round to the maid in the mask!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">Why, man, you look like a death's head! You are too sober! Shame on +you, and you a German!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'An Italian were as good a toper!' one of the men beside him growled.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or a whey-fed Switzer!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps you are better with the dice!' the captain, intendant, or +what he was, continued. 'You will throw a main? Come, for the honour +of your mistress!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I had nearly a score of ducats of my own in my pouch, and so far I +could pay if I lost. I thought that I might get some clue to Tzerclas' +nature and plans by humouring the man, and I assented.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The dice, lads, the dice!' he cried. Ludwig, the others called him.</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-12pt">'"Ho, the roof shall be red<br> +O'er the heretic's head,<br> +For bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">The dice, the dice!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your guest looks scared,' one said, looking at me grimly. 'Perhaps he +is a heretic!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut! we are all heretics for the present!' Ludwig answered +recklessly. 'A fig for a credo and a fig for a psalm! Give me a good +horse and a good sword and fat farmhouses. I ask no more. Shall it be +a short life and a merry one? The highest to have it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Content,' I said, trying to fall into his humour.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A ducat a throw?' he asked, posing the caster. A man, as he spoke, +placed a saddle between us, while half a dozen others pressed round to +watch us. The flame leaping up shone on their dark, lean faces and +gleaming eyes, or picked out here and there the haft of a knife or the +butt of a pistol. Some wore steel caps, some caps of fur, some gaudy +handkerchiefs twisted round their heads. There were Spaniards, +Bohemians, Walloons among them; a Croat or two; a few Saxons. 'Come,' +cried the captain, rattling the dice-box. 'A ducat a throw, Master +Peace? Between gentlemen?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Content,' I said, though my heart beat fast. I had never even seen +men play so high.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So!' growled a German who crouched beside me--a one-eyed man, fat and +fair, the one fair-faced man in the company; ''tis a cock of a fine +hackle!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'See me strip him!' Captain Ludwig rejoined gleefully. And he threw +and I threw, and I won; while the flame, leaping and sinking, flung +its ruddy light on the walls of our huge, leafy chamber. Then he won. +Then I won. I won again, again, again!</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has the fiend's own luck!' a Pole cried with a curse.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Steady, Ludwig!' quoth another. 'Will you be beaten by a clod-pate?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fill his cup!' my opponent cried hardily. 'He has the knack of it! +But I will strip him! Beat up the fire there! I can't see the spots. +That is nine ducats you have won, good broad-piece! Throw away!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I threw, and at it we went again, but now luck began to run against +me, though slowly. The hollow rattle of the dice, the voices calling +the numbers, the oath and the cry of triumph want on monotonously: +went on--and I think the spirit of play had fairly got hold of +me--when a stern voice suddenly broke in on our game.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Put up, there, you rascals!' Tzerclas cried from his fire. 'Have +done, do you hear, or it will be the worse for you! Kennel, I say!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Captain Ludwig swore under his breath. 'Ugh!' he muttered, 'just as I +was getting my hand in! What is the score? Seven ducats to me; and +little enough for the trouble. Hand over, comrade. You know the +proverb.'</p> + +<p class="normal">In haste to be gone after the warning we had received, I plunged my +hand into my pouch, and drew out in a hurry, not a fistful of ducats +as I intended, but a score of links of gold chain, which for a moment +glittered in the firelight. As quickly as I could I thrust the +chain--it was Marie Wort's, of course--back into my pocket, but not +before the German sitting beside me had seen it. I looked at him +guiltily while I fumbled for the money, and he tried to look as if he +had seen nothing. But his one eye sparkled evilly, and I saw his lips +tremble with greed. He made no remark, however, and in a moment I +found the money and paid my debt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Most of the men had already laid themselves down and were snoring, +with their feet to the fire. I muttered good night, and seizing my cap +went off. To gain my quarters, I had to walk across the open under the +beech-tree. I had just reached this tree, and was passing through the +shadow under the branches, when the sound of a light footstep at my +heels startled me, and turning in my tracks I surprised the one-eyed +German.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well,' I said wrathfully--I was not in the best of tempers at +losing--'what do you want?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The action and the challenge took him aback. 'Want?' he grumbled, +recoiling a step. 'Nothing. Is this your private property?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He had <i>thief</i> written all over his fat, pale face, and I knew very +well what private property he wanted. If I ever saw a sneaking, +hang-dog visage it was his! The more I looked at him the more I +loathed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Go!' I said; 'get home, you cur! or I will break every bone in your +body.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He glared at me with a curse in his one eye, but he saw that I was too +big for him. Besides, General Tzerclas lay reading by his fire thirty +paces away. Baffled and furious, the rascal slunk off with a muttered +word, and went back the way he had come.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found Ernst on guard, and after seeing to the fire and hearing that +all was well, I lay down beside him in my cloak. But I found it less +easy to sleep. The firelight, playing among the leaves and branches +overhead, formed likenesses of the men I had left, now grotesque +masks, and now scowling faces, fierce-eyed and grim. Von Werder's +warning, too, recurred to me with added weight and would not leave me +at peace. I wondered what he meant; I wondered what he suspected, +still more, what he knew.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet had I need to wonder, or do more than look round and use my +wits? What was our position? How were we situate? In the camp and in +the hands of a soldier of fortune; a man cold and polite, probably +cruel and possibly brutal, lacking enthusiasm, lacking, or I was +mistaken, religion, without any check save such as his ambition or +fears imposed upon him. And for his power, I saw him surrounded by +desperadoes, soldiers in name, banditti in fact, savage, reckless, and +unscrupulous; the men, or the twin-brothers of the men, who under +another banner had sacked Magdeburg and ravaged Halle.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was to prevent such a man making his advantage out of us? What +was to prevent him marching back to Heritzburg and seizing town and +castle under cover of my lady's name, or detaining us as long as he +saw fit, or as suited his purpose? The Landgrave and his Minister were +far away, plunged in the turmoil of a great war. The Emperor's +authority was at an end. The Saxon circle to which we belonged was +disorganized. All law, all order, all administration outside the walls +of the cities were in abeyance. In his own camp and as far beyond it +as his sword could reach the soldier of fortune was lord, absolute and +uncontrolled.</p> + +<p class="normal">This trouble kept me turning and tossing for a good hour. At one +moment, I made up my mind to rouse my lady before it was light and be +gone with the dawn, if I could persuade her; at another, I judged it +better to wait until the camp was struck and the horses were saddled, +and then to bid Tzerclas, while our numbers were something like equal, +go his way and let us go ours--to Frankfort or Cassel, or wherever +strong walls and honest citizens, with wives and daughters of their +own, held out a prospect of safety.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mind once roused to activity works, whether a man will or no. When +I had thought that matter threadbare, I fell, in my own despite and to +my great torment, on another; the gold necklace. Through the day, and +pending some opportunity of restoring the chain by stealth, I had +shunned its owner. Her dejection, her silence, the way in which she +drooped in the saddle, all had reproached me. To avoid that reproach, +still more to avoid the meekness of her eyes, I had ridden at a +distance from her, sometimes at the head of our company, sometimes at +the tail, but never where she rode. And all day I had had a dozen +things to consider.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet, in spite of this care and preoccupation, I had not succeeded in +keeping her out of my mind. At fords and broken bits of the road, or +at steep places where the track wound above the Werra, the thought, +'How will she cross this?' had occurred to me, so that I had found it +hard to hold off from her at such places. And, then, there was the +necklace. It burned in my pocket. It made me feel, whenever my hand +lighted on it, like a thief, and as mean as the meanest. For a time, +it is true, after our meeting with Tzerclas, I had managed to forget +it; but now, in the watches of the night, I was consumed with longing +to be rid of the thing, to see it back in her possession, to close the +matter before some inconceivable trick of spiteful fortune put it out +of my power to do so. For, what if an accident happened to me and the +chain were found in my pocket? What would she think of me then? Or if +the last accident of all befell me, and she never got her own?</p> + +<p class="normal">These imaginations, working in a mind already fevered, spurred me so +painfully that I felt I could hardly wait till morning. Two or three +times in the night I rose on my elbow and looked round the sleeping +camp, and wished that I could return the chain to her then and there.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not. And at last, not long before daybreak, I fell asleep. But +even then the chain did not leave me at peace. It haunted my dreams. +It slid through my fingers and fell away into unfathomable depths. Or +a man with his face hidden dangled it before my eyes, and went away, +away, away, while I stood unable to move hand or foot. Or I was +digging in a pit for it, digging with nails and bleeding fingers, +believing it to be another inch, always another inch below, yet never +able to reach it however hard I worked.</p> + +<p class="normal">I awoke at last, bathed in perspiration and unrefreshed, to find the +sun an hour up and the camp beginning to stir itself. Here and there a +man was renewing the fires, while his fellows sat up yawning, or, +crouching chin and knees together, looked on drowsily. The chill +morning air, the curling smoke, the song of the lark as it soared into +the blue heaven, the snort and neigh of the tethered horses, the +sounds of waking life and reality seemed to bless me. I thanked Heaven +it was a dream.</p> + +<p class="normal">Young Jacob was tending our fire, and I sat awhile, watching him +sleepily. 'It will be a fine day,' I said at last, preparing to get to +my feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For certain,' he answered. Then he looked at me shyly. 'You were in +the wars, last night, Master Martin?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the wars?' I exclaimed. 'What do you mean?' And I stared at him; +waiting, with one knee and one foot on the ground for his answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed to my cloak. I looked down, and saw to my surprise a great +slit in it--a clean cut in the stuff, a foot long. For a moment I +looked at the slit, wondering stupidly and trying to remember how I +could have done it. Then a sudden flash, of intelligence entered my +mind, and with a dreadful pang of terror, I thrust my hand into my +pouch. The chain was gone!</p> + +<p class="normal">I sprang to my feet. I tore off the pouch and peered into it. I shook +my clothes like one possessed. I stooped and searched the ground where +I had lain. But all fruitlessly. The chain was gone!</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as I knew this for certain, I turned on Jacob, and seizing him +by the throat, shook him to and fro. 'Wretch!' I said. 'You have +slept! You have slept and let us be robbed! You have ruined me!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He gurgled out a startled denial, and the others came round us and got +him from me. But my outcry had roused all our part of the camp; even +my lady put her head out of the tent and asked what was the matter. +Some one told her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is bad,' she said kindly. 'What is it you have lost, Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Over her shoulder I saw a pale face peer out--Marie Wort's; and on the +instant I felt my rage die down into a miserable chill, the chill of +despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Seven ducats,' I said sullenly, looking down at the ground, for the +truth, at sight of her, crushed me. I was a thief! This had made me +one. Who was I to cry out that I was robbed?</p> + +<p class="normal">'It must be one of the strangers,' my lady said in a low voice and +with an air of disturbance. 'Do you----'</p> + +<p class="normal">I sprang away without waiting to hear more--they must have thought me +mad. I tore to the spot where I had diced the night before. Three or +four men sat round the fire, swearing and grumbling, as is the manner +of their kind in the morning; but the man I wanted was not among them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is Ludwig?' I panted. 'Where is he?'</p> + +<p class="normal">A form, wrapped head and all in a cloak, struggled for a moment with +its coverings, and freeing itself at last, rose to a sitting posture. +It was Captain Ludwig.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who wants me?' he muttered sleepily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I!' I cried, stooping and seizing him by the shoulder. I was +trembling with excitement. 'I have been robbed! Do you hear, man? I +have been robbed! In the night!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook me off impatiently. 'Well, what is that to me?' he grunted. +And he turned to warm himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is the Saxon who sat by me last night?' I demanded, almost +beside myself with fury.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How do I know?' he answered, shrugging his shoulders peevishly. +'Robbed? Well, you are not the first person that has been robbed. You +need not make such an outcry about it. There is more than one thief +about, eh, Taddeo?' And he winked cunningly at his comrade.</p> + +<p class="normal">The man's indifference maddened me. I could scarcely keep my hands off +him. Fortunately, Taddeo's answer put an end to my doubts.</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_117"><img src="images/pg117.png" alt="pg 117"></a><br> +. . . Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, +continued to stamp and scream . . .</p> + + +<p class="normal">'There is one less, at any rate, captain,' he said carelessly, +stooping forward to stir the embers. 'The Saxon is gone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Himmel! He has, has he? Without leave?' Ludwig answered. 'The worse +for him if we catch him, that is all!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He went off with the German and his servants an hour before sunrise,' +Taddeo said with a yawn.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He had better not let our noble general overtake him!' Ludwig +answered grimly, while I stood still, stricken dumb by the news. 'But +enough of that. Where is my cap?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Taddeo pushed it towards him with his foot, and he took it up and put +it on. He had no sooner done so, however, than a thought seemed to +strike him. He snatched the cap off again, and, plunging his hand into +it, groped in the lining. The next instant he sprang to his feet with +a howl of rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Taddeo looked at him in astonishment. 'What is it?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">For answer, Ludwig ran at him and dealt him a tremendous kick. 'There, +pig, that is for you!' he cried vengefully, his eyes almost starting +from his head. 'You will not ask what it is next time! That Saxon +hound has robbed me--that is what it is. But he shall pay for it. He +shall hang before night! Every ducat I had he has taken, pig, dog, +vermin that he is! But I'll be even with him. I'll lash----'</p> + +<p class="normal">And Master Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued +to stamp and scream so loudly that in the end Tzerclas overheard him, +and appeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is this?' the general said harshly. 'Is that man mad?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig grew a little calmer at sight of him. 'The Saxon, Heller,' he +answered, scowling. 'He has deserted with fifty ducats of mine, +general; good honest money!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The worse for you,' Tzerclas answered cynically. 'And the worse for +him, if I catch him. He will hang.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has taken a gold chain of mine also,' I said, thrusting myself +forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general looked hard at me. 'Umph!' he said. 'Which way has he +gone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He left with the German gentleman and his two servants at daybreak,' +Taddeo answered, rubbing himself. 'I thought that he had orders to go +with them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has gone north, then?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'North they started,' Taddeo whimpered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general turned to Ludwig. 'Take two men,' he said curtly, 'and +follow him. But, whether you catch him or not, see that you are back +two hours before noon. And let me have no more noise.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig saluted hastily, and, it will be believed, lost no time in +obeying his orders. In two minutes he was in the saddle, and dashed +out of camp, followed by two of his men and one of my lady's, whom I +took leave to add to the party for the better care of my property, +should it be recovered. I looked after them with longing eyes, and +listened to the last beat of the hoofs as they passed through the +forest. And then for three hours I had to wait in a dreadful state of +suspense and inaction. At the end of that time the party rode in +again, the horses bloody with spurring, the riders gloomy and +chapfallen. They had galloped four leagues without coming on the +slightest trace of the fugitive or his companions.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The German never went north,' Ludwig said, looking darkly at his +chief.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tzerclas smoothed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. 'Are you +sure of that?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Quite, general. They have all gone south together,' Ludwig answered, +'and are far enough away by this time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Umph! Well, we start in an hour.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And that was all! I wandered away and stood staring at the ground. I +remembered that Peter the locksmith had valued the chain at two +hundred ducats, a sum exceeding any I could pay. But that was not the +worst. What was I to say to the girl? How was I to explain a piece of +folly, mischief, call it what you will, that had turned out so badly? +If I told her the truth, would she believe me?</p> + +<p class="normal">At that thought I started. Why tell her the truth at all? Why not +leave her in ignorance? She would be none the worse, for the chain was +gone. And I, who had never meant to steal it, should be the better, +seeing that I should escape the humiliation of confessing what I had +done. Confession could do no good to her. And in what a position it +would place me!</p> + +<p class="normal">Leaning against a tree and driving my heel moodily into the soil, I +was still battling with this temptation--for a temptation I knew it +was, even then--when a light touch fell on my sleeve. I turned, and +there was the girl herself, waiting to speak to me!</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">NEAR THE EDGE.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">'Will you give me back my--my chain, if you please?' she said timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">And she stood with clasped hands and blushing cheeks, as if she were +the culprit. Her eyes looked anywhere to avoid mine. Her voice +trembled, and she seemed ready to sink into the earth with shame. She +was small, weak, helpless. But her words! Had they come from the judge +sitting on his bench, with axe and branding-iron by his side, they +could not have cowed me more completely, or deprived me more quickly +of wit and courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your chain?' I stammered, stricken almost voiceless. 'What do you +mean?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you please,' she whispered, her face flushing more and more, her +eyes filling. 'My chain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But how--what makes you think that I have got it?' I muttered +hoarsely. 'What makes you come to me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">To confess, of my own motive and unsuspected, had been bad enough and +shameful enough; but to be accused, unmasked, convicted--and by her! +This was too much. My face burned, my eyes were hot as fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">She twisted the fingers of one hand tightly round the other, but she +did not look up. 'You took it from the child's neck as we passed +through the ford,' she said in a low voice, 'that night I lost it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I did!' I exclaimed. 'I did, girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded firmly, her lip trembling. But she never looked up; nor +into my face!</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet her insistence angered me. How did she know, how could she know? I +put the question into words. 'How do you know?' I said harshly. 'Who +told you so? Who told you this--this lie, woman?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The child,' she answered, shivering under my words.</p> + +<p class="normal">I opened my mouth and drew in my breath. I had never thought of that. +I had never thought, save once for a brief moment, of the child +talking, and, on the instant, I stood speechless; convicted and +confounded! Then I found my voice again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The child told you!' I muttered incredulously. 'The child? Why, it +cannot talk!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It can,' she said, her voice breaking. 'It can talk to me, and I can +understand it. Oh, I am so sorry!' And with that she broke down. She +turned away and, covering her face with her hands, began to sob +bitterly. Her shoulders heaved, and her slender frame shook with the +storm.</p> + +<p class="normal">A thief, and a liar! That was what I had made myself. I stood glaring +at her, my breast full of sullen passion. I hated her and her +necklace. I wished that it had been buried a thousand fathoms deep in +the sea! That moment in the ford, one moment only, a moment of folly, +had wrecked me. I raged against her and against myself. I could have +struck her. If she had only left me alone, if she had not come to +question me and accuse me, I should not have lied; and then, perhaps, +I might have recovered the necklace, somehow and some day, and, giving +it back to her, told her the story and kept my honesty. Now I had +lied, and she knew it. And I hated her. I hated her, sobbing and +shaking and shivering before me.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then a ray of sunlight, passing through the branches, fell on her +bowed head. A hundred paces away, little more, they were striking the +camp. The men's voices, their harsh jests and rude laughter, reached +us. I heard one man called, and another, and orders given, and the +jingle of the bits and bridles. All was unchanged, everything was +proceeding in its usual course. One thing only in the world was +altered--Martin Schwartz, the steward.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found no words to lie to her farther, to deny or protest; and when +we had stood thus for a short time, she turned. She began to move +slowly away from me, though the passion of her tears seemed to +increase rather than slacken as she went, and shook her frame with +such vehemence that she could scarcely walk.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a time I stood looking after her in sullen shame, doing and saying +nothing to stay her. Then, suddenly, a change came over me. She looked +so friendless, so frail, and gentle and helpless, that, in the middle +of my selfish shame, my heart smote me. I felt a sudden welling up of +pity and repentance, which worked so quickly and wonderfully in me, +that before she had gone a score of paces from me, my hand was on her +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stop! Stay a moment!' I muttered hoarsely. 'I have been lying to you. +I took the necklace--from the child's neck. It is all true.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She ceased crying, but she did not turn or look at me. She seemed to +be struggling for composure, and presently, with her face still +averted, she murmured--</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why did you take it? Will you please to tell me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">As well as I could, I did tell her; how and why I had taken it, what I +had done with it, and how I had lost it. She listened, but she made no +sign, she said nothing; and her silence hurt me at last so keenly that +I added with bitterness--</p> + +<p class="normal">'I lied before, and you need not believe what I say now. Still, it is +true.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned her face quickly to me, and I saw that her cheeks were hot +and her eyes shining. 'I believe it--every word,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will not lie to you again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You never did,' she answered. And she stole a glance at me, a faint +smile flickering about her lips. 'Your face never did, Master Martin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet you wept sore enough for your chain,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at me for a moment with something like anger in her gentle +eyes, so that for that instant she seemed transformed. And she drew +away from me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did you think that I wept for that?' she said in a tone of offence. +'I did not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then for what?' I asked clumsily.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked two or three ways before she answered, and in the distance +some one called me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There! you are wanted,' she said hurriedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But you have not answered my question,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She took a step from me and paused, with her head half turned. 'I +wept--I wept because I thought that I had lost a friend,' she said in +a low voice. 'And I have few, Master Martin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She was gone, before I could answer, through the trees and back to the +camp. And I had to follow. Half a dozen voices in half a dozen places +were calling my name. The general's trumpet was sounding. I slipped +aside and joined the camp from another quarter, and in a moment was in +the middle of the hubbub, beset by restive horses and swaying poles, +clanging kettles and swearing riders, and all the hurry and confusion +of the start. My lady called to me sharply to know where I had been, +and why I was late. The Waldgrave wanted this, Fraulein Max that. The +general frowned at me from afar. It would have been no great wonder if +I had lost my temper.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I did not; I was in no risk of doing so. I had gone near the edge +and had been plucked back. Late, and when all seemed over, I had been +given a place for repentance; and gratitude and relief so filled my +breast that I had a smile for every one. The sun seemed to shine more +brightly, the wind to blow more softly--the wind which blew from Marie +Wort to me. Thank God!</p> + +<p class="normal">As I fell in behind my lady--the general riding alone some way in the +rear--the Waldgrave came up and took his place at her side; greeting +her with an awkward air which seemed to prove that this was his first +appearance in her neighbourhood. He made a show of hiding his +uneasiness under a face of careless gaiety, such as was his natural +wear; and for awhile he rattled on gallantly. But my lady's cool tone +and short answers soon stripped him, and left him with no other +resource but to take offence. He took it, and for a mile or so rode on +in gloomy silence, brooding over his wrongs. Then, anger giving way to +self-reproach, he grew tired of this.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a sudden gesture he leaned over and laid his hand on the withers +of my lady's horse. 'Tell me, what is the matter, fair cousin?' he +said in a softened tone. 'What have I done?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You should know,' she answered, giving him one keen glance, but +speaking more gently than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know?' he replied hardily. 'I am sure I don't.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady shook her head. 'I think you do,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I suppose you are angry with me for--for standing up for Germany last +night?' he muttered, withdrawing his hand and speaking coldly in his +turn.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, not for that,' my lady rejoined. 'Certainly not for that. But for +being too German in one of your habits, Rupert. Which do you think +made the better figure last night--you who were flushed with wine, or +General Tzerclas who kept his head cool? You who bragged like a boy, +or General Tzerclas who said less than he meant? You who were rude to +your host; or he who made every allowance for his guest?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Allowance!' my lord cried, firing up at the word. And I could see +that he reddened to the nape of his neck with anger. 'There was no +need!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, allowance,' my lady answered firmly. 'There was every need.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You would have me drink nothing, I suppose?' he said fretting and +fuming.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I would rather you drank nothing than too much,' she replied. +'Because a German and a drunkard have come to mean the same thing, is +that a reason for deepening the reproach? For shame, Rupert!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You treat me like a boy!' he cried bitterly. And I thought that she +was hard on him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, you have only yourself to thank,' she retorted cruelly, 'if I +do. You behave like a boy. And I do not like to have to blush for my +friends.'</p> + +<p class="normal">That cut him deeply. He uttered a half-stifled cry of anger and reined +in his horse. 'You have said enough,' he said, speaking thickly. 'You +shall have no farther cause to blush in my case. I will relieve you.' +And on the instant, with a low bow, he turned his horse's head and +rode down the column towards the rear, leaving my lady to go on alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">I confess I thought that she had been hard on him; perhaps she thought +so too, now he was gone. And here were the beginnings of a pretty +quarrel. But I did not guess the direction it was likely to take, +until a horseman spurred quickly by me, and in a moment General +Tzerclas, his velvet cloak hanging at his shoulder, had taken the +Waldgrave's place, and with his head bent low over his horse's neck +was talking to my lady. I saw him indicate this and that quarter with +his gauntleted hand. I could fancy that this was Cassel, and that +Frankfort, and another his camp, and that he was proposing plans and +routes. But what he said I could not hear. He had a low, quiet way of +talking, very characteristic of him, which flattered those to whom he +addressed himself and baffled others.</p> + +<p class="normal">And this, I suppose, it was that made me suspicious. For the longer I +rode behind him and the more I considered him, the less I liked both +him and the prospect. He was in the prime of his age and strength, +inferior to the Waldgrave in height and the air of youth, but superior +in that which the other lacked--the bearing of a man of the world, +tried by good and evil fortune, and versed in many perils. Cool and +resolute, handsome in a hard-bitten fashion, gifted, as I guessed, +with infinite address, he possessed much to take the fancy of a woman; +particularly of such a one as my lady, long used to comfort, and now +learning in ill-fortune the value of a strong arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">The possibility of such an alliance, thus suddenly thrust on my +notice, chilled me. Anything, I said, rather than that. The Waldgrave +had not left his post five minutes before I began to think of him with +longing, before I began to invest him with all manner of virtues. At +least, he was a German, of a great and noble family, tied to the soil, +and fettered in his dealings by a hundred traditions; while this man +riding before me possessed not one of these qualities!</p> + +<p class="normal">Von Werder's warning, which the loss of Marie Wort's necklace had +driven from my mind for a time, recurred with double force now, and +did not tend to reassure me. I listened with all my might, trying to +learn whether my lady was pledging herself to any course, for I knew +that if she once promised I should find it hard to move her. But I +could not catch a syllable, and presently there came an interruption +which diverted my thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the two men who rode in front, and served for the advanced +guard of our party, came galloping back with his hand raised and a +grin on his dark face. He pulled up his horse a few paces short of +General Tzerclas and my lady, and reported that he had found the +Saxon.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What! Heller?' the general exclaimed. 'Here, Ludwig! Where are you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig, and I, and two or three more, spurred forward, and passing by +my lady, who reined in her horse, came a hundred paces farther on upon +the other trooper. He had dismounted and was stooping over a man's +body, which lay under a great tree that stood a few yards from the +track.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, so? He is dead, is he?' the captain cried, leaping from his +saddle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, this hour or more,' the trooper answered with a grunt. 'And +robbed!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Robbed?' Ludwig shrieked. 'Then you have done it, you scoundrel.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not I!' the fellow said coolly. 'Who ever it was killed him, robbed +him. You can see for yourself that he has been dead an hour or more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The sudden hope which had dawned in my breast sank again. The man lay +on his back, with his one eye staring, and his mean, livid face turned +up to the tree and the sunshine. His cap had fallen off, and a shock +of hay-coloured hair added to the horror of his appearance. I tried in +vain to hide a qualm as I watched the soldiers passing their practised +hands over his clothes; but I was alone in this. No one else seemed to +feel any emotion. The dead man lay and his comrades searched him, and +I heard a hundred ribald and loose things said, but not one that +smacked of pity or regret. So the man had lived, without love or +mercy, and so he died.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig stood up at last. 'He has not the worth of his boots upon him!' +he said, with a savage snarl. And he kicked the body.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Look in his cap!' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">A man took it up, but only to hold it out to me. Some one had already +ripped it up with a knife.</p> + +<p class="normal">'His boots!' I suggested desperately.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a moment they were drawn off, turned up, and shaken. But nothing +fell out. The dead man had been stripped clean. There was not so much +as a silver piece upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">We got to horse gloomily, one man the richer by his belt, another by +his boots. His arms were gone already. And so we left him lying under +the tree for the next traveller to bury, if he pleased. I know it has +an ill sound now, but we were in an evil mood, and the times were +rough.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The dog is dead, let the dog lie!' one growled. And that was his +epitaph.</p> + +<p class="normal">With him disappeared, as it seemed to me, my last chance of recovering +the necklace. Whoever had robbed him, that was gone. A week might see +it pass through a score of hands, a day might see it broken up, and +spent, a link here and a link there. It was gone, and I had to face +the fact and make up my mind to its consequences.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am bound to say that the reflection gave me less pain than I could +have believed possible a few hours before. Then it would almost have +maddened me. Now it troubled me, but not beyond endurance, leading me +to go over with a jealous eye all the particulars of my interview with +Marie, but renewing none of the shame which had attended the first +discovery of my loss. By turning my head I could see the girl plodding +patiently on, a little behind me in the ranks; and I turned often. It +no longer pained me to meet her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">An hour before sunset we crossed the brow of a low, furze-covered +hill, and saw before us a shallow green valley or basin, through which +the river wound in a hundred zigzags. The hovels of a small village, +with one or two houses of a better size, stood dotted about the banks +of the stream. Over the largest of the buildings a banner hung idly on +a pole, and from this as from the centre of a circle ran out long rows +of wattled huts, which in the distance looked like bee-hives. Endless +ranks of horses stood hobbled in another place, with a forest of carts +and sledges, and here a drove of oxen, and there a monstrous flock of +sheep. One of the men with us blew a few notes on a trumpet; and the +sound, being taken up at once and repeated, in a moment filled the +mimic streets with a hurrying, buzzing crowd, that lent the scene all +the animation possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, this is your camp?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes sparkling.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is my camp,' General Tzerclas answered quietly. 'And it and I +are equally at your service. Presently we will bid you welcome after a +more fitting fashion, Countess.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And how many men have you here?' she asked quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Two thousand,' he answered, with a faint smile.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_13" href="#div1Ref_13">OUR QUARTERS.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">At this time I had never seen a camp, nor viewed any large number of +armed men together, and my curiosity, as we dropped gently down the +hill, while the sun set and the shadows of evening fell upon the busy +scene, was mingled with some uneasiness. The babble of voices, of +traders crying their wares, of men quarrelling at play, of women +screaming and scolding, rose up continually, as from a fair; and the +nearer we approached the more like a fair, the less like my +anticipations, seemed the place we were entering. I looked to see +something gay and splendid, the glitter of weapons and the gleam of +flags, some reflection of the rich surroundings the general allowed +himself. I saw nothing of the kind; no show of ordered lines, no +battalia drilling, no picquets, outposts, or sentinels. On the +contrary, all before us seemed squalid, noisy, turbulent; so that as I +descended into the midst of it, and left the quiet uplands and the +evening behind us, I felt my gorge rise, and shivered as with cold.</p> + +<p class="normal">A furlong short of the camp a troop of officers on horseback came to +meet us, and saluting their general--some with hiccoughs--fell in +tumultuously behind us; and their feathered hats and haphazard armour +took the eye finely. But the next to meet us were of a different +kind--beggars; troops of whom, men, women, and children, assailed us +with loud cries, and, wailing and imploring aid, ran beside our +horses, until Tzerclas' men rode out at them and beat them off. To +these succeeded a second horde, this time of gaudy, slatternly women, +who hung about the entrance to the camp, with hucksters, peddlers, +thieves, and the like, without number; so that our way seemed to lie +through the lowest haunts of a great city. Not one in four of all I +saw had the air of a soldier or counted himself one.</p> + +<p class="normal">And this was the case inside the camp as well as outside. Everywhere +booths and stalls stood among the huts, and sutlers plied their trade. +Everywhere men wrangled, and women screamed, and naked children +scuttered up and down. While we passed, the general's presence +procured momentary respect and silence. The moment we were gone, the +stream of ribaldry poured across our path, and the tide of riot set +in. I saw plenty of bearded ruffians, dark men with scowling faces, +chaffering, gaming or sleeping; but little that was soldierly, little +that was orderly, nothing to proclaim that this was the lager of a +military force, until we had left the camp itself behind us and +entered the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here in a few scattered houses were the quarters of the principal +officers; and here a degree of quiet and decency and some show met the +eye. A watch was set in the street, which was ankle-deep in filth. A +few pennons fluttered from the eaves, or before the doors. In front of +the largest house a dozen cannon, the wheels locked together with +chains, were drawn up, and behind the buildings were groups of +tethered horses. Two trumpeters, who seemed to be waiting for us, blew +a blast as we appeared, and a dozen officers on foot, some with pikes +and some with partisans, came up to greet the general. But even here +ugly looks and insolent faces were plentiful. The splendour was faded, +the rich garments were set on awry. Hard by the cannon, in the shadow +of the house, a corpse hung and dangled from the branch of an oak. The +man had kicked off his shoes before he died, or some one had taken +them, and the naked feet, shining in the dusk, brushed the shoulders +of the passers-by.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some might have taken it for an evil omen; I found it a good one, yet +wished more than ever that we had not met General Tzerclas. But my +lady, riding beside him and listening to his low-voiced talk, seemed +not a whit disappointed by what she saw, by the lack of discipline, or +the sordid crowd. Either she had known better than I what to expect in +a camp, or she had eyes only for such brightness as existed. Possibly +Von Werder's warning had so coloured my vision that I saw everything +in sombre tints.</p> + +<p class="normal">We found quarters prepared for us, not in the general's house, the +large one by the cannon, but in a house of four rooms, a little +farther down the street. It was convenient, it had been cleaned for +us, and we found a meal awaiting us; and so far I was bound to confess +that we had no ground for complaint. The general accompanied my lady +to the door, and there left her with many bows, requesting permission +to wait on her next day, and begging her in the mean time to send to +him for anything that was lacking to her comfort.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he was gone, and my lady had surveyed the place, she let her +satisfaction be seen. The main room had been made habitable enough. +She stood in her redingote, tapping the table with her whip.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Martin, this is better than the forest,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, your excellency,' I answered reluctantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think we have done very well,' she continued; and she smiled to +herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are safe from the rain, at any rate,' I said bluntly. My tongue +itched to tell her Von Werder's warning, but Fraulein Anna and Marie +Wort were in the room, and I did not think it safe to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not stay and not tell, however, and I jumped at the first +excuse for retiring. There was a kind of wooden platform in front of +the houses, and running their whole length; a walk, raised out of the +mud of the street and sheltered overhead by the low, wide eaves. A +woman and some children had climbed on to it, and begging with their +palms through the windows almost deafened us. I ran out and drove them +off, and set a man in front to keep the place free. But the wretched +creatures' entreaties haunted me, and when I returned I was in a worse +temper than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave met me at the door, and to my surprise laid his hand on +my shoulder. 'This way, Martin,' he said in a low voice. 'I want a +word with you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I went with him across the road, and leaned against the fallen trunk +of a tree, which was just visible in the darkness. Through the +unglazed windows of the house we could see the lighted rooms, the +Countess and her attendants moving about, Fraulein Anna sitting with +her feet tucked up in a corner, the servants bringing in the meal. All +in a frame of blackness, with the hoarse sounds of the camp in our +ears, and the pitiful wailing of the beggars dying away in the +distance. It was a dark night, and still.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave laughed. 'Dilly, dilly, dilly! Come and be killed,' he +muttered. 'Two thousand soldiers? Two thousand cut-throats, Martin. +Pappenheim's black riders were gentlemen beside these fellows!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Things may look more cheerful by daylight,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or worse!' he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">I told him frankly that I thought the sooner we were out of the camp +the better.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If we can get out! Of course, it is better for the mouse when it is +out of the trap!' he answered with a sneer. 'But there is the rub.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He would not dare to detain us,' I said. I did not believe my words, +however.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He will dare one of two things,' the Waldgrave answered firmly, 'you +may be sure of that: either he will march your lady back to +Heritzburg, and take possession in her name, with this tail at his +heels--in which case, Heaven help her and the town. Or he will keep +her here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I tried to think that he was prejudiced in the matter, and that his +jealousy of General Tzerclas led him to see evil where none was meant. +But his fears agreed so exactly with my own, that I found it difficult +to treat his suggestions lightly. What the camp was, I had seen; how +helpless we were in the midst of it, I knew; what advantage might be +taken of us, I could imagine.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently I found an argument. 'You forget one thing, my lord,' I +said. 'General Tzerclas is on his way to the south. In a week we shall +be with the main army at Nuremberg, and able to appeal to the King of +Sweden or the Landgrave or a hundred friends, ready and willing to +help us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave laid his hand on my arm. 'He does not intend to go +south,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not believe that; and I was about to state my objections when +the noisy march of a body of men approaching along the road disturbed +us. The Waldgrave raised his hand and listened.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Another time!' he muttered--already we began to fear and be +secret--'Go now!'</p> + +<p class="normal">In a trice he disappeared in the darkness, while I went more slowly +into the house, where I found my lady inquiring anxiously after him. I +thought that the young lord would follow me in, and I said I had seen +him. But he did not come, and presently wild strains of music, rising +on the air outside, took us all by surprise and effectually diverted +my lady's thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">The players proved to be the general's band, sent to serenade us. +As the weird, strange sweetness of the air, with its southern turns +and melancholy cadences, stole into the room and held the women +entranced--while moths fluttered round the lights and the servants +pressed to the door to listen, and now and then a harsh scream or a +distant oath betrayed the surrounding savagery--I felt my eyes drawn +to my lady's face. She sat listening with a rapt expression. Her eyes +were downcast, her lashes drooped and veiled them; but some pleasant +thought, some playful remembrance curved her full lips and dimpled her +chin. What was the thought, I wondered? was it gratification, +pleasure, complacency, or only amusement? I longed to know.</p> + +<p class="normal">On one point I was resolved. My lady should not sleep that night until +she had heard the warning I had received from Von Werder. To that end +I did all I could to catch her alone, but in the result I had to +content myself with an occasion when only Fraulein Anna was with her. +Time pressed, and perhaps the Dutch girl's presence confused me, or +the delicacy of the position occurred to me <i>in mediis rebus</i>, as I +think the Fraulein called it. At any rate, I blurted out the story a +little too roughly, and found myself called sharply to order.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stay!' my lady said, and I saw too late that her colour was high. +'Not so fast, man! I think, Martin, that since we left Heritzburg you +have lost some of your manners! See to it, you recover them. Who told +you this tale?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr von Werder,' I answered with humility; and I was going on with +my story. But she raised her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr von Werder!' she said haughtily. 'Who is he?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The gentleman who supped with us last night,' I reminded her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stamped the floor impatiently. 'Fool!' she cried, 'I know that! +But who is he? Who is he? He should be some great man to prate of my +affairs so lightly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I stuttered and stammered, and felt my cheek redden with shame. <i>I did +not know</i>. And the man was not here, and I could not reproduce for her +the air of authority, the tone and look which had imposed on me: which +had given weight to words I might otherwise have slighted, and +importance to a warning that I now remembered was a stranger's. I +stood, looking foolish.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady saw her advantage. 'Well,' she said harshly, 'who is he? Out +with it, man! Do not keep us waiting.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I muttered that I knew no more of him than his name.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps not that,' she retorted scornfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">I admitted that it might be so.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flamed. 'Before Heaven, you are +a fool!' she cried. 'How dare you come to me with such a story? How +dare you traduce a man without proof or warranty! And my cousin! Why, +it passes belief. On the word of a nameless wanderer admitted to our +table on sufferance you accuse an honourable gentleman, our kinsman +and our host, of--Heaven knows of what, I don't! I tell you, you shame +me!' she continued vehemently. 'You abuse my kindness. You abuse the +shelter given to us. You must be mad, stark mad, to think such things. +Or----'</p> + +<p class="normal">She stopped on a sudden and looked down frowning. When she looked up +again her face was changed. 'Tell me,' she said in a constrained +voice, 'did any one--did the Waldgrave Rupert suggest this to you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God forbid!' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The answer seemed to embarrass her. 'Where is he?' she asked, looking +at me suspiciously.</p> + +<p class="normal">I told her that I did not know.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why did he not come to supper?' she persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Again I said I did not know.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are a fool!' she replied sharply. But I saw that her anger had +died down, and I was not surprised when she continued in a changed +tone, 'Tell me; what has General Tzerclas done to you that you dislike +him so? What is your grudge against him, Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have no grudge against him, your excellency,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You dislike him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked down and kept silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I see you do,' my lady continued. 'Why? Tell me why, Martin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I felt so certain that every word I said against him would in her +present mood only set him higher in her favour that I was resolved not +to answer. At last, being pressed, I told her that I distrusted him as +a soldier of fortune--a class the country folk everywhere hold in +abhorrence; and that nothing I had seen in his camp had tended to +lessen the feeling.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A soldier of fortune!' she replied, with a slight tinge of wonder and +scorn. 'What of that? My uncle was one. Lord Craven, the Englishman, +the truest knight-errant that ever followed banished queen--if all I +hear be true--he is one; and his comrade, the Lord Horace Vere. And +Count Leslie, the Scotchman, who commands in Stralsund for the Swede, +I never heard aught but good of him. And Count Thurn of Bohemia--him I +know. He is a brave man and honourable. A soldier of fortune!' she +continued thoughtfully, tapping the table with her fingers. 'And why +not? Why not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My choler rose at her words. 'He has the sweepings of Germany in his +train,' I muttered. 'Look at his camp, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She shrugged her shoulders. 'A camp is not a nunnery,' she said. 'And +at any rate, he is on the right side.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'His own!' I exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could have bitten my tongue the next moment, but it was too late. My +lady looked at me sternly. 'You grow too quick-witted,' she said. 'I +have talked too much to you, I see. I am no longer in Heritzburg, but +I will be respected, Martin. Go! go at once, and to-morrow be more +careful.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Result--that I had offended her and done no good. I wondered what the +Waldgrave would say, and I went to bed with a heart full of fancies +and forebodings, that, battening on themselves, grew stronger and more +formidable the longer I lay awake. The night was well advanced and the +immediate neighbourhood of our quarters was quiet. The sentry's +footsteps echoed monotonously as he tramped up and down the wooden +platform before them. I could almost hear the breathing of the +sleepers in the other rooms, the creak of the floor as one rose or +another turned. There was nothing to keep me from sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">But my thoughts would not be confined to the four walls or the +neighbourhood; my ears lent themselves to every sound that came from +the encircling camp, the coarse song chanted by drunken revellers, the +oath of anger, the shrill taunt, the cry of surprise. And once, a +little before midnight, I heard something more than these: a sudden +roar of voices that swelled up and up, louder and fiercer, and then +died in a moment into silence--to be followed an instant later by +fierce screams of pain--shriek upon shriek of such mortal agony and +writhing that I sat up on my pallet, trembling all over and bathed in +perspiration; and even the sleepers turned and moaned in their dreams. +The cries grew fainter. Then, thank Heaven! silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the incident left me in no better mood for sleep, and with every +nerve on the stretch I was turning on the other side for the twentieth +time when I fancied I heard whispering outside; a faint muttering as +of some one talking to the sentinel. The sentry's step still kept +time, however, and I was beginning to think that my imagination had +played me a trick, when the creak of a door in the house, followed by +a rustling sound, confirmed my suspicions. I rose to my feet. The next +instant a low scream and the harsh voice of the watchman told me that +something had happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">I passed out of the house, without alarming any one, and was not +surprised to find Jacob pinning a captive against the wall with one +hand, while he threatened him with his pike. There was just light +enough to see this, and no more, the wide eaves casting a black shadow +on the prisoner's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it, Jacob?' I said, going to his assistance. 'Whom have you +got?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not know,' he answered sturdily, 'but I'll keep him. He was +trying to get in or out. Steady now,' he added gruffly to his captive, +'or I will spoil your beauty for you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In or out?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, I think he was coming out.'</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a fire burning in the road a score of paces away. I ran to +it and fetched a brand, and blowing the smouldering wood into a blaze, +threw the light on the fellow's face. Jacob dropped his hand with a +cry of surprise, and I recoiled. His prisoner was a woman--Marie Wort.</p> + +<p class="normal">She hung down her head, trembling violently. Jacob had thrust back the +hood from her face, and her loosened hair covered her shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What does it mean?' I cried, struggling with my bewilderment. 'Why +are you here, girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Instead of answering she cowered nearer the wall, and I saw that she +was trying to hide something behind her under cover of her cloak.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What have you got there?' I said quickly, laying my hand on her +wrist.</p> + +<p class="normal">She flashed a look at me, her small teeth showing, a mutinous glare on +her little pale face. 'Not my chain!' she snapped.</p> + +<p class="normal">I dropped her arm and recoiled as if she had struck me; though the +words did not so much hurt as surprise me. And I was quick to recover +myself. 'What is it, then?' I said, returning to the attack. 'I must +know, Marie, and what you are doing here at this time of night.'</p> + +<p class="normal">As she did not answer I put her cloak aside, and discovered, to my +great astonishment, that she was holding a platter full of food. It +shook in her hand. She began to cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heavens, girl!' I exclaimed in my wonder, 'have you not had enough to +eat?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She lifted her head and looked at me through her tears, her eyes +sparkling with indignation. 'I have!' she said almost fiercely. 'But +what of these?'--and she flung her disengaged hand abroad, with a +gesture I did not at once comprehend. 'Can you sleep in their beds, +and lie in their houses, and eat from their meal-tubs, and think of +them starving, and not get up and help them? Can you hear them whining +for food like dogs, and starve them as you would not starve a dog? I +cannot. I cannot!' she repeated wildly. 'But you, you others, you of +the north, you have no hearts! You lie soft and care nothing!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But what--who are starving?' I said in amazement. Her words outran my +wits. 'And where is the man in whose bed I am lying?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Under the sky! In the ditch!' she answered passionately. 'Are you +blind?' she continued, speaking more quietly and drawing nearer. 'Do +you think your general built this village? If not, where are the +people who lived in it a month ago? Whining for a crust at the camp +gate. Living on offal, or starving. Fighting with the dogs for bones. +I heard a man outside this house cry that it was all his, and that he +was starving. You drove him off. I heard his wife and babes wailing +outside a while ago, and I came out. I could not bear it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at Jacob. He nodded gravely. 'There was a woman here, with a +child,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heaven forgive us!' I cried. Then--'Go in, girl,' I continued. 'I +will see the food put where they will get it; but do you go to bed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She obeyed meekly, leaving me wondering at the strange mixture of +courage and fearfulness which makes up some women, and those the best; +who fly from a rat, yet face every extremity of pain without +flinching. A Romanist? And what of that? It seemed to me a small +thing, as I watched her gliding in. If she knew little and that awry, +she loved much.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at Jacob and he at me. 'Is it true, do you think?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I doubt it is,' he answered stolidly, dropping the smouldering brand +on the ground and treading, it out with his heel. 'I have seen +soldiers and sutlers and women since I came into camp; and beggars. +But peasants not one. I doubt we have eaten them out, Master Martin. +But soldiers must live.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The little heap of red embers glowed dully in the road and gave no +light. The darkness shut us in on every side, even as the camp shut us +in. I looked out into it and shuddered. It seemed to my eyes peopled +with horrors: with gaping mouths that cursed us as they set in death, +with lean hands that threatened us, and tortured faces of maids and +children; with the despair of the poor. Ghosts of starving men and +women glared at us out of spectral eyes. And the night seemed full of +omens.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_14" href="#div1Ref_14">THE OPENING OF A DUEL.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I never knew where the Waldgrave spent that night, but I think it must +have been with the fairies. For when he showed himself early next +morning, before my lady appeared, I noticed at once a change in him; +and though at first I was at a loss to explain it, I presently saw +that that had happened which might have been expected. The appearance +of a rival had laid the spark to his heart, and while the love-light +was in his eyes, a new gravity, a new gentleness added grace to his +bearing. The temper and pettiness of yesterday were gone. Other +things, too, I saw--that his face flushed when my lady's voice was +heard at the door, that his eyes shone when she entered. He had a +nosegay of flowers for her--wild flowers he had gathered in the early +morning, with the dew upon them--which he offered her with a little +touch of humility.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless the fret and passion of yesterday had not been thrown away +on him. He had learned in the night both that he loved, and the +lowliness that comes of love. It wanted but that, it seemed to me, to +make him perfect in a woman's eyes; and I saw my lady's dwell very +kindly on him as he turned away. A little, I think, she wondered; his +tone was so different, his desire to please so transparent, his +avoidance of everything that might offend so ready. But such service +wins its way; and my lady's own kindness and gaiety disposing her to +meet his advances, she seemed in a few moments to have forgotten +whatever cause of complaint he had given her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general's band came early, to play while she ate, but I noticed +with satisfaction that the music moved her little this morning, either +because she was taken up with talking to her companion, or because the +romantic circumstances of the evening, darkness and vague +surroundings, and the lassitude of fatigue, were lacking. With the +sunshine and fresh air pouring in through the open windows, the +strains which yesterday awoke a hundred associations and stirred +mysterious impulses fell almost flat.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave made no attempt to resume the conversation he had held +with me by the fallen tree. Either love, or respect for his mistress, +made him reticent, or he was practising self-control. And I said +nothing. But I understood, and set myself keenly to watch this duel +between the two men. If I read the general's intentions aright, the +young lord's influence with the Countess could scarcely grow except at +the general's expense; his suit, if successful, must oust that which +the elder man, I was sure, meditated. And this being so, all my wishes +were on one side. My fear of the general had so grown in the night, +that I suspected him of a hundred things; and could only think of him +as an antagonist to be defeated--a foe from whom we must expect the +worst that force or fraud could effect.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came soon after breakfast to pay his respects to my lady, and +alighted at the door with great attendance and endless jingling of +bits and spurs. He brought with him several of his officers, and these +he presented to the Countess with so much respect and politeness that +even I could find no fault with the action. One or two of the men, +rough Silesians, were uncouth enough; but he covered their mistakes so +cleverly that they served only to set off his own good breeding.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had not been in the room five minutes, however, before I saw that +he remarked the change which had come over the Waldgrave, and perhaps +some corresponding change in my lady's manner; and I saw that it +chafed him. He did not lose his air of composure, but he grew less +talkative and more watchful. Presently he let drop something aimed at +the young man; a light word, inoffensive, yet likely to draw the other +into a debate. But the Waldgrave refrained, and the general soon +afterwards rose to take leave.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had come, it seemed, to invite my lady's presence at a +shooting-match which was to take place outside the camp at noon. He +spoke of the match as a thing arranged before our arrival, but I have +no doubt that the plan had its origin in a desire to please my lady +and fill the day. He spoke, besides, of a hunting-party to take place +next morning, with a banquet at his quarters to follow; of a review +fixed for the day after that; and, in the still remoter distance, of +races and a trip to a neighboring waterfall, with other diversions.</p> + +<p class="normal">I heard the arrangements made, and my lady's frank acceptance, with a +sinking heart; for under the perfect courtesy of his manner, behind +the frank desire to give her pleasure which he professed, I felt his +power. While he spoke, though I could find no fault with him, I felt +the steel hand inside the silk glove. And these plans? Even my lady, +though her eyes sparkled with anticipation--she loved pleasure with a +healthy, honest love--looked a little startled.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But I thought that you were marching southwards, General Tzerclas,' +she said. 'At once I mean?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am,' he answered, bowing easily--he had already risen. 'But an +army, Countess, marches more slowly than a travelling party. And I am +expecting despatches which may vary my route.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'From the King of Sweden?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered. 'The King has arrived at Nuremberg, and expects +shortly to be attacked by Wallenstein, who is on the march from Egra.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But shall you be in time for the battle?' she asked, her eyes +shining.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I hope so,' he replied, smiling. 'Or my part may be less glorious--to +cut off the enemy's convoys.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I should not like that!' she exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nevertheless, it is a very necessary function,' he said. 'As the +Waldgrave Rupert will tell your excellency.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The young lord agreed, and a moment later the general with his +jingling attendants took his leave and clattered out and mounted +before the door. My lady went to the window and waved adieu to him, +and he lowered his great plumed hat to his stirrup.</p> + +<p class="normal">'At noon?' he cried, making his horse curvet in the roadway.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Without fail!' my lady answered gaily, and she stood at the window +looking out until the last gleam of steel sank in a cloud of dust and +the beggars closed in before the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave leaned against the wall behind her with his lips set and +a grave face. But he said nothing, and when she turned he had a smile +for her. It seemed to me that these two had changed places; the +Waldgrave had grown older and my lady younger.</p> + +<p class="normal">A few minutes before noon, Captain Ludwig and a sub-officer of the +same rank, a Pole with long hair, came to conduct my lady to the scene +of the match. They were arrayed in all their finery, and made a show +of such etiquette as they knew. For our part we did not keep them +waiting; five minutes saw us mounted and riding through the camp. This +wore, to-day, a more martial and less disorderly appearance. The part +we traversed was clear of women and gamesters, while sentries +stationed at the gate, and a guard of honour which fell in behind us +at the same spot, proved that the eye of the master could even here +turn chaos into order. I do not know that the change pleased me much, +for if it lessened my dread of the cutthroats by whom we were +surrounded, it increased the awe in which I held their chief.</p> + +<p class="normal">The shooting was fixed to take place in a narrow valley diverging +from the river, a mile or more from the camp. It was a green, +gently-sloping place, such as sheep love; but the sheep had long ago +been driven into quarters, and the shepherd to the listing-sergeant or +the pike. A few ruined huts told the tale; the hills which rose on +either side were silent and untrodden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not so the valley itself, which lay bathed in sunshine. It roared with +the babel of a great multitude. A straight course, two hundred yards +in length, had been roped off for the shooting, and round this the +crowd thronged and pushed, or, breaking here or there into fragments, +wandered up and down outside the lines, talking and gesticulating, so +that the place seemed to swarm with life and movement and colour.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had seen such a spectacle and as large a crowd at Heritzburg--once a +year, it may be. But there the gathering had not the wild and savage +elements which here caught the eye; the hairy, swarthy faces and +black, gleaming eyes, the wild garb, and brandished weapons and fierce +gestures, that made this crowd at once curious and formidable. The +babel of unknown tongues rose on every side. Poland and Lithuania, +Scotland and the Rhine, equally with Hungary, Italy, and Bohemia, had +their representatives in this strange army.</p> + +<p class="normal">General Tzerclas and his staff occupied a mound near the lower end of +the valley. On seeing our party approach, he rode down to meet us, +followed by thirty or forty officers, whose dress and equipments, even +more than those of their men, fixed the attention; for while some +wore steel caps and clumsy cuirasses, with silk sashes and greasy +trunk-hose, others, better acquainted with the mode, affected huge +flapped hats and velvet doublets, with falling collars of lace, and +untanned boots reaching to the middle of the thigh. One or two wore +almost complete armour; others, gay silks, stained with wine and +weather. Their horses, too, were of all sizes, from tall Flemings to +small, wiry Hungarians, and their arms were as various. One huge fat +man, whose flesh swayed as he moved, carried a steel mace at his +saddle-bow. Another swept along with a lance, raking the sky behind +him. Great horse-pistols were common, and swords with blades so long +that they ploughed the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">Varying in everything else, in one thing these warlike gentry agreed. +As they came prancing towards us, I did not see a face among them that +did not repel me, nor one that I could look at with respect or liking. +Where dissipation had not set its seal so plainly as to oust all +others, or some old wound did not disfigure, cruelty, greed, and +recklessness were written large. The glare of the bully shone alike +under flapped hat and iron cap. One might show a swollen visage, +flushed with excess, and another a thin, white, cruel face; but that +was all the odds.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sight of such a crew should have opened my lady's eyes and +enlightened her as to the position in which we stood. But women see +differently from men. Too often they take swagger for courage, and +recklessness for manhood. And, besides, the very defects of these men, +their swashbuckling manners and banditti guise, only set off the more +the perfect dress and quiet bearing of their leader, who, riding in +their midst, seemed, with his cold, calm face and air of pride, like +nothing so much as the fairy prince among the swine.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wore a suit of black velvet, with a falling collar of Utrecht lace, +and a white sash. A feather adorned his hat, and his furniture and +sword-hilt were of steel. This, I afterwards learned, was a favourite +costume with him. At odd times he relapsed into finery, but commonly +he affected a simplicity which suited his air and features, and lost +nothing by comparison with the tawdriness of his attendants.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sprang from his horse at the foot of the slope, and, resigning it +to a groom, took my lady's rein and, bareheaded, led her to the summit +of the mound. The Waldgrave with Fraulein Anna followed, and the rest +of us as closely as we could. The officers crowded thick upon us and +would have edged us out, but I had primed my men, and though they +quailed before the others' scowls and curses, they kept together, so +that we not only had the advantage of watching the sport from a +position immediately behind the Countess, but heard all that passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the end of the open space I have mentioned stood three targets in a +line. These were peculiar, for they consisted of dummies cased in +leather, shaped so exactly to the form of men, that, at a distance of +two hundred yards, it was only by the face I could tell that they were +not men. Where the features should have been was a whitened circle, +and on, the breast of each a heart in chalk. They were so life-like +that they gave an air of savagery to the sport, and made me shudder. +When I had scanned them, I turned and found Captain Ludwig at my +elbow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' he said, grinning. 'Our targets? Fine practice, comrade. +They are the general's own invention, and I have known them put to +good use.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How?' I asked. He spoke under his breath. I adopted the same tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will know by, and by,' he answered, with a wink. 'Sometimes we +find a traitor in the camp; or we catch a spy. Then--but you need not +fear. Drawing-room practice to-day. There is no one in them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In them?' I muttered, unable to take my eyes from his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. 'Ay, in them,' he answered, smiling at my look of +consternation. 'Time has been I have known one in each, and cross-bow +practice. That makes them squeal! With powder and a flint-lock--pouf! +It is all over. Unless you put the butter-fingers first; then there is +sport, perhaps.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Little wonder that after that I paid no attention to the shooting, +which had begun; nor to the brawling and disagreement which from the +first accompanied it, and which it needed all the general's authority +to quell. I thought only of our position among these wretches. If I +had felt any doubt of General Tzerclas' character before, the doubt +troubled me no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it did occur to me that Ludwig might be practising on me, and I +turned to him sharply. 'I see!' I said, pretending that I had found +him out. 'A good joke, captain!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He grinned again. 'You would not call it one,' he said dryly, 'if you +were once in the leather. But have it your own way. Come, there is a +good shot, now. He is a Swiss, that fellow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I could take no interest in the shooting, with that ghastly tale +in my head. I felt for the moment the veriest coward. We were ten in +the midst of two thousand--ten men and four helpless women! Our own +strength could not avail us, and we had nothing else under heaven to +depend upon, except the scruples, or interest, or fears of a mercenary +captain; a man whose hardness the thin veil of politeness barely hid, +who might be scrupulous, gentle, merciful--might be, in a word, all +that was honourable. But whence, then, this story? Why this tale of +cruelty, passing the bounds of discipline?</p> + +<p class="normal">It so disheartened me that for some time I scarcely noticed what was +passing before me; and I might have continued longer in this dull +state if the Waldgrave's voice, civilly declining some proposition, +had not caught my ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">I gathered then what the offer was. Among the matches was one for +officers, and in this the general was politely inviting his guest to +compete. But the Waldgrave continued firm. 'You are very good,' he +answered with perfect frankness and good temper. 'But I think I will +not expose myself. I shoot badly with a strange gun.'</p> + +<p class="normal">It was so unlike him to miss a chance of distinction, or underrate his +merits, that I stared. He was changed, indeed, to-day; or he thought +the position very critical, the need of caution very great.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general continued to urge him; and so strongly that I began to +think that our host had his own interests to serve.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, come,' he said, in a light, gibing tone which just stopped +short of the offensive. 'You must not decline. There are five +competitors--two Bohemians, a Scot, a Pole, and a Walloon; but no +German. You cannot refuse to shoot for Germany, Waldgrave?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave shook his head, however. 'I should do Germany small +honour, I am afraid,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general smiled unpleasantly. 'You are too modest,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is not a national failing,' the Waldgrave answered, smiling also.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I fancy it must be,' the general retorted. 'And that is the reason we +see so little of Germans in the war!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The words were almost an insult, though a dull man, deceived by the +civility of the speaker's tone, might have overlooked it. The +Waldgrave understood, however. I saw him redden and his brow grow +dark. But he restrained himself, and even found a good answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Germany will find her champions,' he said, 'when she seriously needs +them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Abroad!' the general replied, speaking in a flash, as it were. The +instant the word was said, I saw that he repented it. He had gone +farther than he intended, and changed his tone. 'Well, if you will +not, you will not,' he continued smoothly. 'Unless our fair cousin can +succeed where I have failed, and persuade you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I?' my lady said--she had not been attending very closely. 'I will do +what I can. Why will you not enter, Rupert? You are a good shot.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You wish me to shoot?' the Waldgrave said slowly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of course!' she answered. 'I think it is a shame General Tzerclas has +so few German officers. If I could shoot, I would shoot for the honour +of Germany myself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave bowed. 'I will shoot,' he said coldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good!' General Tzerclas answered, with a show of <i>bonhomie</i>. 'That is +excellent. Will you descend with me? Each competitor is to fire two +shots at the figure at eighty paces. Those who lodge both shots in the +target, to fire one shot at the head only.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The young lord bowed and prepared to follow him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Comrade,' Ludwig said in my ear, as I watched them go, 'your master +had better have stood by his first word.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He will do no good.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why not?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Bohemian yonder--the fat man--will shoot round him. His little +pig's eyes see farther than others. Besides, the devil has blessed his +gun. He cannot miss.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What! That tun of flesh?' I cried, for he was pointing to the gross, +unwieldy man, at whose saddle-bow I had marked the iron mace. 'Is he a +Bohemian?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig nodded. 'Count Waska, they call him. There is no man in the +camp can shoot with him or drink with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall see,' I said grimly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had little hope, however. The Waldgrave was a good shot; but a man +was not likely to have a reputation for shooting in such a camp as +this, where every one handled pistol or petronel, unless his aim was +something out of the common. And listening to the talk round me, I +found that Count Waska's comrades took his victory for granted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their confidence explained General Tzerclas' anxiety to trap the +Waldgrave into shooting. The jealous feeling which had been all on the +Waldgrave's side yesterday, had spread to him to-day. He wished to see +his rival beaten in my lady's presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">I longed to disappoint him; I felt sore besides for the honour of +Germany. I could not leave my lady, or I would have gone down to see +that the Waldgrave had fair play, and a clean pan, and silence when he +fired. But I watched with as much excitement as any in the field, all +that passed; I doubt if I ever took part in a match myself with +greater keenness and interest than I felt as a spectator of this one.</p> + +<p class="normal">From our elevated position we could see everything, and the sight was +a curious one. The rabble of spectators--soldiers and women, sutlers +and horse-boys--stretched away in two dark lines, ten deep, being kept +off the range by a dozen men armed with whips. The clamour of their +hoarse shouting went up continuously, and sometimes almost deafened +us. Immediately below us, at the foot of the mound, the champions and +their friends were gathered, settling rests, keying up the wheels of +their locks, and trying the flints. Owing to the Waldgrave's presence, +which somewhat imposed upon the other officers both by reason of his +rank and strangeness, the contest seemed likely to be conducted more +decently than those which had preceded it. He was invited to shoot +first, and when he excused himself on the ground that he was not yet +familiar with his gun, Count Waska good-humouredly consented to open +the match.</p> + +<p class="normal">His weapon, I remarked--and I treasured up the knowledge and have +since made use of it--was smaller in the bore than the others. He came +forward and fired very carelessly, scarcely stooping to the rest; but +he hit the figure fairly in the breast with both bullets and retired, +a stolid smile on his large countenance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave was the next to advance, and if he felt one half of the +anxiety I felt myself, it was a wonder he let off his gun at all. +General Tzerclas had returned to the Countess's side, and was speaking +to her; but he paused at the critical moment, and both stood gazing, +my lady with her lips parted and her eyes bright. The desire to see +the stranger shoot was so general that something like silence +prevailed while he aimed. I had time to conjure up half a dozen +miseries--the gun might not be true, the powder weak; and then, bang! +I saw the figure rock. He had hit it fairly in the breast, and I +breathed again.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady cried, 'Vivat! good shot!' and he looked up at her before he +primed his pan for a second trial. This time I felt less fear, the +crowd less interest. The babel began afresh. His second bullet struck +somewhat lower, but struck; and he stood back, his face flushed with +pleasure. Honour, at any rate, was safe.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Scot hit with both balls, the Pole with one only. Last of all the +Walloon, a grim dark officer in a stained buff coat, who seemed to be +unpopular with the soldiery, fired in the midst of such a storm of +gibes and hisses that I wondered he could aim at all. He did, however, +and hit with his second bullet. Even so he and the Pole stood out, +leaving the Waldgrave, Count Waska, and the Scot to fire at the head.</p> + +<p class="normal">Huge was the clamour which followed on this, half the company +bellowing out offers to stake all that they had on the Count--money, +chains, armour. Meanwhile I looked at the general to see how he took +it. He had fallen silent, and my lady also. They stood gazing down on +the competitors and their preparations, as if they were aware that +more hung on the issue than a simple match at arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">Count Waska advanced for the final shot, and this time he made ample +use of the rest, aiming long and carefully over it. He fired, and I +looked eagerly at the target. A roar of applause greeted the shot. The +bullet had pierced the whitened face a little to the left, high up.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the Waldgrave's turn now. He came forward, with an air of quiet +confidence, and set his weapon on the crutch. This time two or three +voice's were raised, gibing him; the crowd was growing jealous of its +champion's reputation. I longed to be down among them, and I saw my +lady's eyes flash and her colour rise. She looked indignantly at +Tzerclas. But the general's face was set. He did not seem to hear.</p> + +<p class="normal">Flash! Plop! In a moment I was shouting with the rest, shouting +lustily for the honour of the house! The Waldgrave had lodged his ball +in the upper part of the face towards the right-hand side. If Waska +had put in the one eye, he had put in the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">We shouted. But the camp hung silent, gloomily wondering whether this +were luck or skill. And the general stood silent too. It was not until +my lady had cried, 'Vivat! Vivat Weimar!' in her frank, brave voice, +that he spoke and echoed the compliment.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he had spoken, sullen silence fell upon the crowd again. I saw +men look at us--not pleasantly; until the Scot by taking his place at +the crutch diverted their attention. It seemed to me that he was an +hour arranging the rest and his weapon, scraping his priming this way +and that, and putting in a fresh flint at the last moment. At length +he fired. A roar of laughter followed. He had missed the target +altogether.</p> + +<p class="normal">How it was arranged I do not know, but we saw at once that Waska and +the Waldgrave were about to take another shot. The Bohemian, as he +levelled his weapon with care, looked up at us.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have put in his eyes,' he said in his guttural tones. 'I propose +to put in his nose. If his excellency can better that, I give him the +bone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He aimed very diligently, amid such a silence you could have heard a +feather drop, and fired. He did as he had promised. His ball pierced +the very middle of the face, a little below and between the two shots.</p> + +<p class="normal">A wild roar of applause greeted the achievement. Even we who felt our +honour at stake shouted with the rest and threw up our caps; while my +lady took off in her admiration a slender gold chain which she wore +round her neck and flung it to the champion, crying 'Vivat Bohemia! +Vivat Waska!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He bowed with grotesque gallantry, and one of the bystanders picked up +the chain and gave it to him. We smiled; for, too fat to kneel or +stoop, he could no more have recovered the gift himself than he could +have taken wings and flown. Fraulein Anna muttered something about +Tantalus and water, but I did not understand her, and in a moment the +Waldgrave gave me something else to think about.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped forward when the noise and cheering had somewhat subsided, +and like his antagonist he looked up also.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not see what there is left for me to do,' he said, with a +gallant air. 'I could give him a mouth, but I fear I may set it on +awry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Thrice he took aim, and, dissatisfied, forbore to fire. The crowd, +silent at first, and confident of their champion's victory, began to +jeer. At length he pulled. Plop! The smoke cleared away. An inch below +Waska's last shot appeared another orifice. The Waldgrave had put in +the mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">We waved our caps and shouted until we were hoarse; and the crowd +shouted. But it soon became evident, amid the universal clamour and +uproar, that there were two parties: one acclaiming the Waldgrave's +success, and another and larger one crying fiercely that he was +beaten--that he was beaten! that his shot was not so near the centre +of the target as Count Waska's. The Waldgrave's promise to make the +mouth had been heard by a few only, mainly his friends; and while +these, headed by the Bohemian, who showed that his clumsy carcase +still contained some sparks of chivalry, tried to explain the matter +to others, the camp with one voice bellowed against him, the more +excited brandishing fists and weapons in the air, while the less +moved kept up a stubborn and monotonous chant of 'Waska! Waska! +Waska!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The only person unaffected by the tumult appeared to be the Waldgrave +himself; who stood looking up at us in silence, a smile on his face. +Presently, the noise still continuing, I saw him clap Count Waska on +the shoulder, and the two shook hands. The Count seemed by his +gestures--for the uproar and tumult were so great that all was done in +dumb show--to be deprecating his retreat. But the younger man +persisted, and by-and-by, after saluting the other competitors, he +turned away, and began to force his way up the mound. It was time he +did; the crowd had burst its bounds and flooded the range. The scene +below was now a sea of wild confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such an ending seemed stupid in the extreme; in any place where +ordinary discipline prevailed, it would have been easy to procure +silence and restore order. And my lady, her face flushed with +indignation, turned impatiently to the general, to see if he would not +interfere. But he was, or he affected to be, powerless. He shrugged +his shoulders with an indulgent smile, and a moment later, seeing the +Waldgrave on his way to join us and the crowd still persistent, he +gave the word to retire. The officers, who in the last hour had +pressed on us inconveniently, fell back, and waiting only for the +Waldgrave to reach his horse, we rode down the mound, and turned our +faces towards the camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a space, and while the uproar still rang in my ears, I could +scarcely speak for indignation. Then came a reaction. I saw my lady's +face as she rode alongside the Waldgrave and talked to him. And my +spirits rose. General Tzerclas had the place on her other hand, but +she had not a word for him. It was not so much that the young lord had +distinguished himself and done well, but that in an awkward position +he had borne himself with dignity and self-control. That pleased her.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw her eyes shine as she looked at him, and her mouth grow tender; +and I told myself with exultation that the Waldgrave had done +something more than rival Waska--he had scored the first hit in the +fight, and that no light one. The general would be wise, if he looked +to his guard; fortunate, if he did not look too late.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_15" href="#div1Ref_15">THE DUEL CONTINUED.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I fell to wondering, as we rode home, whether we should find all safe; +for we had left Marie Wort and my lady's woman to keep house with two +only of the men. From that, again, I strayed into thoughts of the +chain, and of Marie herself, so that the very head of what happened +when we reached the house escaped me. The first I knew of it, Fraulein +Anna's horse backed suddenly into mine, and brought us all up short +with a deal of jostling and plunging. When I looked forward to learn +what was amiss, I saw a man lying on his face under my lady's horse, +and so near it that the beast's feet were touching his head. The man +was crying out something in a pitiful tone, and two or three of the +general's officers who were riding abreast of me were swearing +roundly, and there was great confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">General Tzerclas said something, but my lady overbore him. 'What is +it?' I heard her cry. 'Get up, man, and speak. Don't lie there. What +is it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The man rose to his knees, and cried out, 'Justice, justice, lady!' in +a wild sort of way, adding something--which I could not understand, +for he spoke in a vile <i>patois</i>--about a house. He was in a miserable +plight, and looked scarcely human. His face was sallow, his eyes shone +with famine, his shrunken limbs peered through mud-stained rags that +only half covered him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Which is your house?' my lady asked gently. And when one of the +officers who had ridden up abreast of her would have intervened, she +raised her hand with a gesture there was no mistaking. 'Which is your +house?' she repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">The man pointed to the one in which we had our quarters.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What! That one?' my lady cried incredulously. 'Then what has brought +you to this?' For the creature looked the veriest scarecrow that ever +hung about a church-porch. His head and feet had no covering, his hair +was foully matted. He was filthy, hideous, famine-stricken.</p> + +<p class="normal">And desperate. For, half-cringing, half-defiant, he pointed his +accusing finger at the general. 'He has! He and his army!; he cried. +'That house was mine. Those fields were mine. I had cattle, they have +eaten them. I had wood, they have burned it. I had meat, they have +taken it. I was rich, and I am <i>this!</i> I had, and I have not--only a +wife and babes, and they are dying in a ditch. May the curse of +God----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush!' my lady cried, in an unsteady voice. And, without adding a +word, she turned to General Tzerclas and looked at him; as if this +were Heritzburg, and she the judge, he the criminal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless the position was an awkward one. But he showed himself equal +to it. 'There has been foul play here,' he said firmly. 'I think I +remember the man's face.' Then he turned and raised his hand. 'Let all +stand back,' he said in a stern, curt tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">We fell back out of hearing, leaving him and my lady with the man. For +some time the general seemed to be putting questions to the fellow, +speaking to my mistress between whiles. Presently he called sharply +for Ludwig. The captain went forward to them, and then it was very +plain what was going on, for the general raised his voice, and made +the rating he administered to his subaltern audible even by us. Back +Ludwig came by-and-by, with a dark sneer on his face, and we saw the +general hand money to the man.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Teufel!' one of the fellows who rode beside me muttered, surprise in +his voice. 'When the general gives, look to your necks. It will cost +some one dear, this! I would not be in that clod's shoes for his booty +ten times told!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Possibly. But I was not so much interested on the clown's account as +on my lady's; and one needed only half an eye to see what the +general's liberality had effected with her. She was all smiles again, +speaking to him with the utmost animation, leaning towards him as she +rode. She forgot the Waldgrave, who had fallen back with the rest of +us; she forgot all but the general. He went with her to the door of +the house, gave his hand to help her to dismount, lingered talking to +her on the threshold. And my heart sank. I could have gnashed my teeth +with anger as I stood aside uncovered, waiting for him to go.</p> + +<p class="normal">For how could we combat the man? Such an episode as this, which should +have opened my lady's eyes to his true character, served only to +restore him to favour and blind her more effectually. It had undone +all the good of the afternoon; it had effaced alike the Waldgrave's +success and the general's remissness; it had given Tzerclas, who all +day had been losing slowly, the upper hand once more. I felt the +disappointment keenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I suppose it was that which made me think of consulting Fraulein Anna, +and begging her to use her influence with my lady to get out of the +camp. At any rate, the idea occurred to me. I could not catch her +then; but later in the evening, when some acrobats, whom the general +had sent for the Countess's diversion, were performing outside, and my +lady had gone out to the fallen tree to see them the better, I found +the Fraulein alone in the outer room. She looked up at my entrance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who is it?' she said sharply, peering at me with her white, +short-sighted face. 'Oh, it is you, Mr. Thickhead, is it? I know whom +you have sneaked in to see!' she added spitefully.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is well,' I answered civilly. 'For I came in to see you, +Fraulein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh!' she retorted, nodding her head in a very unpleasant manner. +'Then you want something. I can guess what it is. But go on.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If I want something,' I answered, 'and I do, it is in your own +behalf, Fraulein. You heard what I said to my lady last night? I did +not persuade her. Can you persuade her--to leave the camp and its +commander?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Max shook her head. 'Why should I?' she said, smoothing out +her skirt with her hands, and looking at me with a cunning smile. +'What have I to gain by persuading her, Master Schwartz?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Safety,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh!' she cried ironically. 'Then let me remind you of something. +When we were all safe and comfortable at Heritzburg--safe, mind +you--who was it disturbed us? Who was it stirred up my lady to make +trouble--<i>more improbi anseris</i>--and though I warned him what would +come of it, persisted in it until we had all to flee at night like so +many vagrants? Ay, and have never had a quiet night since! Who was +that, Master Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fraulein,' I answered patiently, forbearing to remind her how much +she had been herself in fault, 'I may have been wrong then. It does +not alter the situation now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Does it not?' she replied. 'But I think it does. You had your way at +Heritzburg, and what came of it? Trouble and misery. You want your way +now, but I shall not help you to it. I have had enough of your way, +and I do not like it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed triumphantly, seeing me silenced; and I stood looking at +her, wondering what argument I could use. Doubtless she had had a +comfortless time on the journey from Heritzburg, jogging through fords +and over ruts, and along steep places, wet, tired, and scared, +deprived of her books and all her home pleasures. She had had time and +to spare to lay up many a grudge against me. Now it was her turn, and +I read in her face her determination to make the most of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">I might frighten her; and that seemed my only chance. 'Well, +Fraulein,' I said after a pause, 'you may have been right then, and +you may be right now. But I hope you have counted the cost. If my lady +shows herself determined to leave, to-morrow and perhaps the next day +the power of going will remain in her hands. Later it will have passed +from her. Familiarity breeds contempt, and even the Countess of +Heritzburg cannot stay long in such a camp as this, where nothing is +respected, without losing that respect which for the moment protects +her. In a day or two, in a few days, the hedge will fall. And then, +Fraulein, we may all look to ourselves.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Fraulein Anna laughed shrilly. '<i>O tu anser!</i>' she cried +contemptuously. 'Open your eyes! Cannot you see that the general is +knee-deep in love with her? In a week he will be head over ears, and +her slave!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I stared at her. Doubtless she knew; she was a woman. I drew a deep +breath. 'Well,' I said, 'and what of that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at me spitefully. 'Ask my lady!' she said. 'How should I +know?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I returned her gaze, and thought awhile. Then I said coldly, 'I think +it is you who are the fool, Fraulein. Take it for granted that what +you tell me is true. Have you considered what will happen should my +lady repulse him? What will happen to her and to us?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She will not,' Fraulein Max answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I saw that the shaft had gone home. She fidgeted on her seat. And +I persisted. 'Still, if she does?' I said. 'What then?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She will not!' she answered. 'She must not!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By Heaven!' I cried, 'you are on his side!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She blinked at me with her short-sighted eyes. 'And why not?' she said +slowly. 'On whose side should I be? My Lord Waldgrave's? He never +gives me a word, and seldom recognises my existence. On yours? If you +want help, go to the black-eyed puling girl you have brought in, who +is always creeping and crawling round us, and would oust me if she and +you could manage it and she had the breeding. Chut! don't talk to me,' +she continued maliciously, the colour rising to her pale cheeks. 'I +wonder that you dare to come to me with such proposals! Is my lady to +be ruled by her servants? Has she no judgment of her own? Why, you +fool, I have but to tell her, and you are disgraced!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'As you please, Fraulein,' I said sullenly, stung to anger by one part +of her harangue. 'But as to Marie Wort----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Marie Wort?' she cried, catching me up and mocking my tone. 'Who said +anything about her, I should like to know? Though for my part, had I +my way, the popish chit should be whipped!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fraulein!' I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed bitterly. 'Oh, you are fools, you men!' she said. 'But I +have made you angry, and that is enough. Go! Yes, go. I have supped on +folly. Go, before your mistress comes in; or I must out with all, and +lose a power over you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I went sullenly. While we had been talking the room had been growing +dark. Then it had grown light again with a smoky, dancing glare that +played fantastically on the walls and seemed to rise and sink with +the murmur of applause outside. They had brought torches made of +pine-knots that my lady might see the longer, and in the yellow circle +of light which these shed, the mountebanks, monstrously dressed and +casting weird shadows, were wrestling and leaping and writhing. The +light reached, but fitfully and by flashes, the log on which my lady +sat enthroned, with General Tzerclas and the Waldgrave at her side. +Still farther away the crowd surged and laughed and gibed in the +darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at my lady and found one look enough. I read the utter +hopelessness of the attempt I had just made. She was enjoying herself. +Fear was not natural to her, and she saw nothing to fear either in the +man beside her or the crowd beyond. Suspicion was no part of her +character, and she saw nothing to suspect. Had I won Fraulein Max over +to my side, as I felt sure that the general had bought her to his, I +should equally have had my trouble for my pains, and no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">My only hope lay in the Waldgrave. He alone, could he once warm into +flower the love that hung trembling in the bud, might move her as I +would have her moved. But, then, the time? Every hour we remained +where we were, every day that rose and found us in the camp, rendered +retreat more difficult, the general's plans more definite. He might +not yet have made up his mind; he might not yet have hardened his +heart to the point of employing force; <i>his</i> passion might be still in +the bud, his ambition unshaped. But how long dared I give him?</p> + +<p class="normal">Assured that here lay the stress, I watched the young lord's progress +with an anxiety scarcely less than his own. And the longer I watched +the higher rose my hopes. It seemed to me that he went steadily +forward in favour, while the general stood still. More than once +during the next two days the latter showed himself irritable or +capricious. The iron hand began to push through the silken glove. And +though, on every one of these occasions, Tzerclas covered his mistake +with the dexterity of a man of the world, and my lady's eyes could +scarcely be said to be opened, a little coolness resulted, of which +the Waldgrave had the benefit.</p> + +<p class="normal">He, on his part, seemed imperturbable. Love had to all appearance +changed his nature. A dozen times in the two days the impulse to fly +at his rival's throat must have been strong upon him, yet through all +he remained calm, pleasant, and courteous, and carried an old head on +young shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">I wondered at last why he did not speak, for I marked the cloud on the +general's brow growing darker and darker, and I found the forced +inaction and suspense intolerable. Then I gathered, I cannot say why, +that the Waldgrave would not speak until after the great banquet to +which the general had bidden my lady. It had been deferred a day or +two, but on the third day after the shooting-match it took place.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_16" href="#div1Ref_16">THE GENERAL'S BANQUET.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I suppose it was not love only that enabled the Waldgrave to carry +himself so prudently at this time; but with it a sense of the peril in +which we all stood. He was so far from betraying this, however, that +no one could have worn an air more gallant or seemed in every way more +free from care. General Tzerclas had supplied us with a couple of +tailors, and there were rich stuffs to be bought in the camp; and the +young lord did not neglect these opportunities. When he came on the +morning of the great day to attend my lady to the banquet, he wore a +suit of dark-blue velvet with a falling collar of white lace, and sash +and points of lighter blue--the latter setting off his fair complexion +to advantage. His hair, which had grown somewhat, flowed from under a +broad-leafed hat decked with an ostrich feather, and he wore golden +spurs, and high boots with the tops turned down. As he caracoled up +and down before the house, with the sun shining on his fair head, he +looked to my eyes as beautiful as Apollo. What the women thought of +him, I do not know, but I saw my lady gazing at him from a window when +his back was turned, and then, again, when he looked towards the +house, she was gone. And I thought I knew what that meant.</p> + +<p class="normal">She wore, herself, a grey riding-coat with a little silver braid about +it, and a silver belt; and we all made what show we could; so that +when we started to the general's quarters we were something to look +at. The camp itself nothing could cleanse, but the village had been +swept and the street watered. Pennons and cornets waved here and there +in the sunshine, and green boughs garnished the fronts of the houses. +Two tall poles, painted after the Venetian fashion and hung with +streamers, stood before the general's quarters, the windows of which +were almost hidden by a large trophy formed of glittering pikes and +flags of many colours. The road here was strewn with green rushes, and +opposite the house were ranked twelve trumpeters, who proclaimed my +lady's arrival with a blare which shook the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">On either side of the door a guard of honour was drawn up. I was not +disposed to admire anything much, but it must be confessed that the +sun shining on pike and corselet and steel cap, and on all the gay and +gaudy colours and green leaves, produced a lively and striking effect. +The moment my lady's horse stopped, four officers stepped from the +doorway and stood at attention; after whom the general himself +appeared bare-headed, and held my lady's stirrup while she dismounted. +The Waldgrave performed a like service for Fraulein Anna, and I and +Jacob for Marie Wort and the women.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our host first conducted my lady into a withdrawing-room, where were +only Count Waska and three colonels. This room, which was small, was +fitted with a rich carpet and chairs covered with Spanish leather, as +good as any my lady had in the castle at Heritzburg; and the walls +were hidden behind Cordovan hangings. Here among other things were a +large cage of larks and a strange, misshapen dwarf that stood hardly +as high as my waist-belt, but was rumoured to be forty years old. He +said several witty things to my lady, and one or two that I fancy the +general had taught him, for they brought the blood to her cheeks. On a +table stood another very rare and curious thing--a gold or silver-gilt +fountain that threw up distilled waters, and continually cooled and +sweetened the air. There were besides, gold cups and plates and +jewelled arms and Venice glass, which fairly dazzled me; so that as I +stood at the door with Jacob and the two maids I wondered at the +richness and splendour of everything, and yet could not get out of my +head the squalor of the hot, seething camp outside, and the poverty of +the country round, which the army had eaten as bare as my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">After a short interval spent in listening to the dwarfs quips and +cranks, General Tzerclas conducted my lady with much ceremony to the +next room, where the banquet was laid. The floor of this larger room +was strewn with scented rushes, the walls being adorned with trophies +of arms and heads of deer and wolves, peering from ambushes of green +leaves. At the upper end, where was the private door of entrance, was +a dais table laid for eight persons; below were tables for forty or +more. On the dais the general sat in the middle, having my lady on the +right, and next to her Count Waska; on his left he had the Waldgrave, +and beyond him Fraulein Anna. The two women stood behind my lady, +holding her fan and vinaigrette. At the lower end of the room the +general's band, placed in a kind of cage, played soft airs, while +between the courses a gipsy girl danced very prettily, and a juggler +diverted the company with his tricks.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for the diversity of meats and fishes, and especially of birds, +which was set on, it surprised me beyond measure; nor can I understand +whence, in the wasted condition of the country, it was procured. For +wines, Burgundy, Frontignac, and Tokay were served at the high table, +and Rhine wines below. The courses continued to succeed one another +for nearly three hours, but such was the skill of the musicians that +the time seemed short. One man in particular won my lady's +approbation. He played on a new instrument, shaped somewhat like a +viol, but smaller and more roundly framed. Though it had three strings +only and was a trifle shrill, it had a wonderful power of touching the +heart, arousing the memory and producing a sweet melancholy. The +general would have had my lady accept it, and said that he could +easily procure another from the Milanese; but she declined gracefully, +on the ground that without the player it would be a dumb boon.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was so much gaiety in all this--and decent observance too, for +the general's presence kept good order--that I did not wonder that my +lady's eyes sparkled and betrayed the gratification she felt. All was +for her, all in her honour. Even I, who looked at the scene through +green glasses and could not hear a word the general said without +striving to place some ill construction on it--even I felt myself +somewhat carried away, when the first toast, that of the Emperor, was +given in the midst of cheering, partly serious, partly ironical. It +was followed by that of the Elector of Saxony. The King of Sweden came +next, and was received in an equally equivocal manner. Not so, +however, the fourth, which was given by General Tzerclas standing, +with his plumed hat in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All in Tokay!' he cried in his deep voice. 'The most noble and +high-born, the Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, who honours us with her +presence! Hoch! Hoch! Hoch!'</p> + +<p class="normal">And draining his goblet, which was of green Nuremberg glass, and of no +mean value, he dashed it to the floor, an example which was +immediately followed by all present, so that the crash of glass and +clang of sword-hilts filled the room with high-pitched sounds that +seemed to intoxicate the ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady rose and bowed thrice, with her cheek crimson and her eyes +soft. Then she turned to retire, while all remained standing. The +general accompanied her as far as the door of the withdrawing-room, +the Waldgrave following with Fraulein Anna; while the dwarf marched +side by side with me, keeping step with an absurd gravity which filled +the room with laughter. On the threshold the general and his +companions left us with low bows; but in a trice Tzerclas came back to +say a word in my ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">'See to the other door,' he muttered, flashing a grim look at me. +'There may be deep drinking. If any offer so much as a word of +rudeness here, he shall hang, drunk or sober. Have a care, therefore, +that no one has the chance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then my heart sank, for I knew, hearing his tone and seeing his face, +as he said that, that Fraulein Anna was right. He loved my mistress. +He loved her! I went away to my place by the door, feeling as if he +had struck me in the face. For if she loved him in return that were +bad enough; and if she did not, what then, seeing that we were in his +power?</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly he had omitted nothing on this occasion that might charm +her. I thought the feast over; but in the withdrawing-room a fresh +collation of dainty sweets and syrups awaited my lady, with a great +gold bowl of rosewater. The man, too, who had played on the Italian +viol brought it in, that she might see and examine it more closely. +From my post at the door, I saw Fraulein Anna flitting about, bringing +her short-sighted eyes down to everything, thrusting her face into the +rose-water, and peering at the weapons and stuffs as if she would eat +them. All the while, too, I could hear her prattling ceaseless praise +of everything--the general's taste, the general's wealth, his +generosity, his skill in Latin, his love for Cæsar--the fat book I had +seen him studying by the fire--above all, his appreciation of Voetius, +of whom I shrewdly believe he had never heard before.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady sat almost silent under the steady shower of words, listening +and thinking, and now and then touching the strings of the viol which +lay forgotten on her lap. Perhaps she was dreaming of her two +admirers, perhaps only giving ear to the growing tumult in the room we +had left, where the revellers were still at their wine. By-and-by we +heard them break into song, and then in thunder the chorus came +rolling out--</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-6pt">'Hoch! Who rides with old Pappenheim knee to knee<br> +The sword is his title, the world is his fee!<br> +He knows nor Monarch, nor Sire, nor clime<br> +Who follows the banner of bold Pappenheim!'</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">My lady's lip curled. 'Is there no one on our side they can sing?' she +muttered, tapping the viol impatiently with her fingers. 'Have we no +heroes? Has Count Bernard never headed a charge or won a fight? +Pappenheim? I am tired of the man.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The note jarred on her, as it had on me when I first heard these men, +paid by the north, singing the praises of the great southern raider. +But a moment later she turned her head to hear better, and her face +grew thoughtful. A great shout of 'Waska! Waska!' rang above the +jingling of glasses and snatches of song; and then, 'The Waldgrave! +The Waldgrave!' This time the cry was less boisterous, the voices were +fewer.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady turned to me. 'What is it?' she said, a note of anxiety in her +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was unable to tell her and I listened. By-and-by a roar of laughter +made itself heard, and was followed by a cry of 'Waska!' as before. +And then, 'The Thuringian Code! The Thuringian Code! It is his turn!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are drinking, your excellency,' I said reluctantly. 'It is a +drinking match, I think!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose with a grand gesture, and set the little viol back on the +table. 'I am going,' she said, almost fiercely. 'Let the horses be +called.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Max looked scared, but my lady's face forbade argument or +reply; and for my part I was not a whit unwilling. I turned and gave +the order to Jacob. While he was away the Countess remained standing, +tapping the floor with her foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">'On this day--on this day they might have abstained!' she muttered +wrathfully, as the chorus of riot and laughter grew each moment louder +and wilder.</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought so too, and was glad besides of anything which might work a +breach between her and the general. But I little knew what was going +to happen. It came upon us while we waited, with no more warning than +I have described. The door by which we had left the banqueting chamber +flew suddenly open, and three men, borne in on a wave of cheering and +uproar, staggered in upon us, the leader reeling under the blows which +his applauding followers rained upon his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There! Said I not so?' he cried thickly, lurching to one side to +escape them, and almost falling. 'Where ish your Waska. Your Waska now +I'd like to know! Waska is great, but I am--greater--greater, you see. +I can shoot, drink, fight, and make love better than any man here! Eh! +Who shays I can't? Eh? Itsh the Countesh! My cousin the Countesh! Ah!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Alas, it was the Waldgrave! And yet not the Waldgrave. This man's face +was pale and swollen and covered with perspiration. His eyes were +heavy and sodden, and his hair strayed over them. His collar and his +coat were open at the neck, and his sash and the front of his dress +were stained and reeking with wine. His hands trembled, his legs +reeled, his tongue was too large for his mouth. He smiled fatuously at +us. Yet it <i>was</i> the Waldgrave--drunk!</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady's face froze as she looked at him. She raised her hand, and +the men behind him fell back abashed and left him standing there, +propping himself uncertainly against the wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, your excellenshy,' he stuttered with a hiccough--the sudden +silence surprised him--'you don't congratulatsh me! Waska is under +table. Under table, I shay!'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked at him, her eyes blazing with scorn. But she said +nothing; only her fingers opened and closed convulsively. I turned to +see if Jacob had come back. He entered at that moment and General +Tzerclas with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your excellency's horses are coming,' the general said in his usual +tone. Then he saw the Waldgrave and the open door, and he started with +surprise. 'What is this?' he said. His face was flushed and his eyes +were bright. But he was sober.</p> + +<p class="normal">The drunken man tried to straighten himself. 'Ashk Waska!' he said. +Alas! his good looks were gone. I regarded him with horror, I knew +what he had done.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The horses?' the general muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady drew a deep breath, as a person recovering consciousness does, +and turned slowly towards him. 'Yes,' she said, shuddering from head +to foot, 'if you please. I wish to go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The young lord heard the horses come to the door, and staggered +forward. 'Yesh, letsh go. I'll go too,' he stuttered with a foolish +laugh. 'Letsh all go. Except Waska! He is under the table. Letsh all +go, I say! Eh? Whatsh thish?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I pushed him back and held him against the wall while the general led +my lady out. But, oh the pity of it, the wrath, the disappointment +that filled my breast as I did so! This was the end of my duel! This +was the stay to which I had trusted! The Waldgrave's influence with my +lady? It was gone--gone as if it had never been. A spider's web, a +rope of sand, a straw were after this a stronger thing to depend upon, +a more sure safeguard, a stouter holdfast for a man in peril!</p> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + + +<p class="normal">He came to my lady next morning about two hours after sunrise, when +the dew was still on the grass and the birds--such as had lost their +first broods or were mating late--were in full song. The camp was +sleeping off its debauch, and the village street was bright and empty, +with a dog here and there gnawing a bone, or sneaking round the corner +of a building. My lady had gone out early to the fallen tree with her +psalm book; and was sitting there in the freshness of the morning, +with her back to the house and the street, when his shadow fell across +the page and she looked up and saw him.</p> + +<p class="normal">She said 'good morning' very coldly, and he for a moment said nothing, +but stood, sullenly making a hole in the dust with his toe and looking +down at it. His face was pale, where it was not red with shame, and +his eyes were heavy and dull; but otherwise the wine he had taken had +left no mark on his vigorous youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady after speaking looked down at her book again, and he continued +to stand before her like a whipped schoolboy, stealing every now and +then a furtive look at her. At length she looked up again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you want anything?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">This time he returned her gaze, with his face on fire, trying to melt +her. And I think that there were not many more unhappy men at that +moment than he. His fancy, liking, love were centred in the woman +before him; in a mad freak he had outraged, insulted, estranged her. +He did not know what to do, how to begin, what plan to put forward. He +could for the moment only look, with shame and misery in his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a plea that would have melted many, but my lady only grew +harder. 'Did you hear me?' she said proudly. 'Do you want anything?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know!' he cried impetuously, and his voice broke out fiercely and +seemed to beat against her impassiveness as a bird against the bars of +its cage. 'I was a beast last night. But, oh, Rotha, forgive me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think that we had better not talk about it,' my lady answered him +stonily. 'It is past, and we need not quarrel over it. I shall be +wiser next time,' she added. 'That is all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wiser?' he muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes; wiser than to trust myself to your protection,' she replied +ruthlessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrank back as if she had struck him, and for a moment pain and +rage brought the blood surging to his cheeks. He even took a step as +if to leave her; but when love and pride struggle in a young man, love +commonly has it, and he turned again and stood hesitating, the picture +of misery.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is that all you will say to me?' he muttered, his voice unsteady.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady moved her feet uneasily. Then she shut her book, and looked +round as if she would have willingly escaped. But she was not stone; +and when at length she turned to him, her face was changed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What do you want me to say?' she asked gently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That some day you will forgive me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I forgive you now,' she rejoined firmly. 'But I cannot forget. I do +not think I ever can,' she went on. 'Last night I was in your charge +among strangers. If danger had arisen, whose arm was to shield me, if +not yours? If any had insulted me, to whom was I to look, if not to +you? Yes, you may well hide your face,' my lady continued, waxing +bitter, despite herself. 'I am not at Heritzburg now, and you should +have remembered that. I am here with scanty protection, with few means +to exact respect, a refugee, if you like, a mark for scandal, and your +kinswoman. And you? for shame, Rupert!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He fell on his knees and seized her hand. 'You are killing me!' he +cried in a choking voice, his face pale, his breath coming quickly. +'For I love you, Rotha, I love you! And every word of reproach you +utter is death to me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush, Rupert!' she said quickly. And she tried to withdraw her hand. +He had taken her by surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he was not to be silenced; he kept her hand, though he rose to his +feet. 'It is true,' he answered. 'I have waited long enough. I must +speak now, or it may be too late. I tell you, I love you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess's face was crimson, her brow dark with vexation. 'Hush!' +she said again, and more imperatively. 'I have heard enough. It is +useless.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have not heard me!' he answered. 'Don't say so until you have +heard me.' And he sat down suddenly on the tree beside her, and looked +into her face with pleading eyes. 'You are letting last night weigh +against me,' he went on. 'If that be all, I will never drink more than +three cups of wine at a time as long as I live. I swear it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head rather sadly. 'That is not all, Rupert,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then what will you have?' he answered eagerly. He saw the change in +her, and his eyes began to burn with hope as he looked. Her milder +tone, her downcast head, her altered aspect, all encouraged him. 'I +love you, Rotha!' he cried, raising her hand to his lips. 'What more +will you have? Tell me. All I have, and all I ever shall have--and I +am young and may do great things--are yours. I have been riding behind +you day by day, until I know every turn of your head, and every note +of your voice. I know your step when you walk, and the rustle of your +skirt among a hundred! And there is no other woman in the world for +me! What if I am the youngest cadet of my house?' he continued, +leaning towards her; 'this war will last many a year yet, and I will +carve you a second county with my sword. Wallenstein did. Who was he? +A simple gentleman. Now he is Duke of Friedland. And that Englishman +who married a king's sister? They succeeded, why should not I? Only +give me your love, Rotha! Trust me; trust me once more and always, and +I will not fail you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He tried to draw her nearer to him, but the Countess shook her head, +and looked at him with tears in her eyes. 'Poor boy,' she said slowly. +'Poor boy! I am sorry, but it cannot be. It can never be.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' he cried, starting as if she had stung him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because I do not love you,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dropped her hand and sat glaring at her. 'You are thinking of last +night!' he muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head. 'I am not,' she said simply. 'I suppose that if I +loved you, that and worse would go for nothing. But I do not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Her calmness, her even tone went to his heart and chilled it. He +winced, and uttering a low cry turned from her and hid his face in his +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why not?' he said thickly, after an interval. 'Why can you not love +me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why does the swallow nest here and not there?' the Countess answered +gently. 'I do not know. Why did my father love a foreigner and not one +of his own people? I do not know. Neither do I know why I do not love +you. Unless,' she added, with rising colour, 'it is that you are +young, younger than I am; and a woman turns naturally to one older +than herself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Her words seemed to point so surely to General Tzerclas that the young +man ground his teeth together. But he had not spirit to turn and +reproach her then; and after remaining silent for some minutes, he +rose.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good-bye,' he said in a broken voice. And he lifted her hand to his +lips and kissed it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess started. The words, the action impressed her +disagreeably. 'You are not going--away I mean?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' he answered slowly. 'But things are--changed. When we meet again +it will be as----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Friends!' she cried, her voice tender almost to yearning. 'Say it +shall be so. Let it be so always. You will not leave me alone here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' he said simply, and with dignity. 'I shall not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he went away, quite quietly; and if the beginning of the +interview had shown him to small advantage, the same could not be said +of the end. He went down the street and through the camp with his head +on his breast and a mist before his eyes. The light was gone out of +the sunshine, the greenness from the trees. The day was grey and +dreary and miserable. The blight was on all he saw. So it is with men. +When they cannot have that which seems to them the best and fairest +and most desirable thing in the world, nothing is good or pleasant or +to be desired any longer.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_17" href="#div1Ref_17">STALHANSKE'S FINNS.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was my ill luck, on that day which began so inauspiciously, to see +two shadows: one on a man's face, the Waldgrave's, and of that I need +say no more; the other, the shadow of a man's body, an odd, sinister +outline, crooked and strange and tremulous, that I came upon in a +remote corner of the camp, to which I had wandered in my perplexity; a +place where a few stunted trees ran down a steep bank to the river. I +had never been to this place before, and, after a glance which showed +me that it was the common sink and rubbish-bed of the camp, I was +turning moodily away, when first this shadow and then the body which +cast it caught my eye. The latter hung from the branch of an old +gnarled thorn, the feet a few inches from the ground. A shuddering +kind of curiosity led me to go up and look at the dead man's face, +which was doubled up on his breast; and then the desire to test the +nerves, which is common to most men, induced me to stand staring at +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The time was two hours after noon, and there were few persons +moving. The camp was half asleep. Heat, and flies, and dust were +everywhere--and this gruesome thing. The body was stripped, and the +features were swollen and disfigured; but, after a moment's thought, I +recognized them, and saw that I had before me the poor wretch who had +appealed to my lady's compassion after the shooting-match, and to whom +the general had opened his hand so freely. The grim remarks I had then +heard recurred now, and set me shuddering. If any doubt still remained +in my mind, it was dissipated a moment later by a placard which had +once hung round the dead man's neck, but now lay in the dust at his +feet. I turned it over. Chalked on it in large letters were the words +'Beggars, beware!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt at first, on making the discovery, only horror and indignation, +and a violent loathing of the camp. But these feelings soon passed, +and left me free to consider how the deed touched us. Could I prove +it? Could I bring it home to the general to my lady's satisfaction, +beyond denial or escape, and so open her eyes? And if I could, would +it be wise, by doing so, to rouse his anger while she remained in the +camp and in General Tzerclas' power? I might only hasten the +catastrophe.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found this a hard nut to crack, and was still puzzling over it, with +my eyes on the senseless form which was already so far out of my +thoughts, when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder and a harsh voice +grated on my ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Master Steward, a penny for your thoughts! They should be worth +having, to judge by the way you rub your chin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I started and looked round. The speaker was Captain Ludwig, who, with +two of his fellows, had come up behind me while I mused. Something in +his tone rather than his words--a note of menace--warned me to be +careful; while the glum looks of his companions, as they glanced from +me to the dead man, added point to the hint, and filled my mind with a +sudden sense of danger. I had learned more than I had been intended to +learn; I had found out something I had not been intended to find out. +The very quietness and sunshine and the solitude of the place added +horror to the moment. It was all I could do to hide my discomfiture +and face them without flinching.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My thoughts?' I said, forcing a grin. 'They were not very difficult +to guess. A sharp shrift, and a short rope? What else should a man +think here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay?' Ludwig said, watching me closely with his eyes half closed and +his lips parted.</p> + +<p class="normal">He would say no more, and I was forced to go on. 'It is not the first +time I have seen a man dancing on nothing!' I said recklessly; 'but it +gave me a turn.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He kicked the placard. 'You are a scholar,' he said. 'What is this?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My face grew hot. I dared not deny my learning, for I did not know how +much he knew; but, for the nonce, I wished heartily that I had never +been taught to read.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That?' I said, affecting a jovial tone to cover my momentary +hesitation. 'A seasonable warning. They are as thick here as nuts in +autumn. We could spare a few more, for the matter of that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, but this one?' he retorted, coolly tapping the dead man with a +little stick he carried, and then turning to look me in the face. 'You +have seen him before.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I made a great show of staring at the body, but I suppose I played my +part ill, for before I could speak Ludwig broke in with a brutal +laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut, man!' he said, with a sneer of contempt; 'you know him; I see +you do. And knew him all along. Well, if fools will poke their noses +into things that do not concern them, it is not my affair. I must +trouble you for your company awhile.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whither?' I said, setting my teeth together and frowning at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To my master,' he replied, with a curt nod. 'Don't say you won't,' he +continued with meaning, 'for he is not one to be denied.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked from one to another of the three men, and for a moment the +desperate clinging to liberty, which makes even the craven bold, set +my hands tingling and sent the blood surging to my head. But reason +spoke in time. I saw that the contest was too unequal, the advantage +of a few minutes' freedom too trivial, since the general must sooner +or later lay his hand on me; and I crushed down the impulse to resist.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What scares you, comrades?' I said, laughing savagely. They had +recoiled a foot. 'Do you see a ghost or a Swede, that you look so +pale? Your general wants me? Then let him have me. Lead on! I won't +run away, I warrant you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig nodded as he placed himself by my side. 'That is the right way +to take it,' he said. 'I thought that you might be going to be a fool, +comrade.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Like our friend there,' I said dryly, pointing to the senseless form +we were leaving. 'He made a fuss, I suppose?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'No,' he answered, 'not he so much; but +his wife. Donner! I think I hear her screams now. And she cursed us! +Ah!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I shuddered, and after that was silent. But more than once before we +reached the general's quarters the frantic desire to escape seized me, +and had to be repressed. I felt that this was the beginning of the +end, the first proof of the strong grasp which held us all helpless. I +thought of my lady, I thought of Marie Wort, and I could have shrieked +like a woman; for I was powerless like a woman--gripped in a hand I +could not resist.</p> + +<p class="normal">The camp grilling and festering in the sunshine--how I hated it! It +seemed an age I had lived in its dusty brightness, an age of vague +fears and anxieties. I passed through it now in a feverish dream, +until an exclamation, uttered by my companion as we turned into the +street, aroused me. The street was full of loiterers, all standing in +groups, and all staring at a little band of horsemen who sat +motionless in their saddles in front of the general's quarters. For a +moment I took these to be the general's staff. Then I saw that they +were dressed all alike, that their broad, ruddy faces were alike, that +they held themselves with the same unbending precision, and seemed, in +a word, to be ten copies of one stalwart man. Near them, a servant on +foot was leading two horses up and down, and they and he had the air +of being on show.</p> + +<p class="normal">Captain Ludwig, holding me fast by the arm, stopped at the first group +of starers we came to. 'Who are these?' he asked gruffly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The man he addressed turned round, eager to impart his knowledge. +'Finns!' he said; 'from head-quarters--Stalhanske's Finns. No less, +captain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My companion whistled. 'What are they doing here?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">The other shook his head. 'I don't know,' he said. 'Their leader is +with the general. What do you think of them, Master Ludwig?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Ludwig only grunted, looking with disparaging eyes at the +motionless riders, whose air betrayed a certain consciousness of their +fame and the notice which they were exciting. From steel cap to +spurred boot, they showed all metal and leather. Nothing gay, nothing +gaudy; not a chain or a sash differenced one from another. Grim, +stern, and silent, they stared before them. Had no one named the King +of Sweden's great regiment, I had known that I was looking no longer +on brigands, but on soldiers--on part of the iron line that at +Breitenfeld broke the long repute of years, and swept Pappenheim from +the hillside like chaff before the storm.</p> + +<p class="normal">After hesitating a moment, Ludwig went forward a few paces, as if to +enter the house, taking me with him. Then he paused. At the same +instant the man who was leading the two horses turned. His eye lit on +me, and I saw an extraordinary change come over the fellow's face. He +stopped short and, pulling up his horses, stared at me. It seemed to +me, too, that I had seen him before, and I returned his look; but +while I was trying to remember where, the door of the general's +quarters opened. Two or three men who were loitering before it, +stepped quickly aside, and a tall, stalwart man came out, followed by +General Tzerclas himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at the foremost, and in a twinkling recognized him. It was +Von Werder. But an extraordinary change had come over the traveller. +He was still plainly dressed, in a buff coat, with untanned boots, a +leather sword-belt, and a grey hat with a red feather; and in all of +these there was nothing to catch the eye. But his air and manner as he +spoke to his companion were no longer those of an inferior, while his +stern eye, as it travelled over the crowd in the street, expressed +cold and steady contempt.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the servant brought up his horse, he spoke to his companion. 'You +are sure that you can do it--with these?' he said, flicking his +riding-whip towards the silent throng.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You may consider it done,' the general answered rather grimly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good! I am glad. Well, man, what is it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke the last words to his servant. The man pointed to me and said +something. Von Werder looked at me. In a moment every one looked at +me. Then Von Werder swung himself into his saddle, and turned to +General Tzerclas.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is the man, I am told,' he said, pointing suddenly to me with +his whip.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is at your service,' the general answered with a shrug of +indifference.'</p> + +<p class="normal">In an instant Von Werder's horse was at my side. 'A word with you, my +man,' he said sharply. 'Come with me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig had hold of my arm still. He had not loosed me, and at this he +interposed. 'My lord,' he cried to the general, 'this man--I have +something to----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Silence, fool!' Tzerclas growled. 'And stand aside, if you value your +skin!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig let me go; immediately, as if an angel had descended to speak +for me, the crowd parted, and I was free--free and walking away down +the street by the side of the stranger, who continued to look at me +from time to time, but still kept silence. When we had gone in this +fashion a couple of hundred paces or more, and were clear of the +crowd, he seemed no longer able to control himself, though he looked +like a man apt at self-command. He waved his escort back and reined in +his horse.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are the man to whom I talked the other night,' he said, fixing me +with his eyes--'the Countess of Heritzburg's steward?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I replied that I was. His face as he looked down at me, with his back +to his following, betrayed so much agitation that I wondered more and +more. Was he going to save us? Could he save us? Who was he? What did +it all mean? Then his next question scattered all these thoughts and +doubled my surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You had a chain stolen from you,' he said harshly, 'the night I lay +in your camp?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I stared at him with my mouth open. 'A chain?' I stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, fool, a chain!' he replied, his eyes glaring, his cheeks swelling +with impatience. 'A gold chain--with links like walnuts.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is true,' I said stupidly. 'I had. But----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where did you get it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked away. To answer was easy; to refrain from answering, with his +eye upon me, hard. But I thought of Marie Wort. I did not know how the +chain had come into her hands, and I asked him a question in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have you the chain?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have!' he snarled. And then in a sudden outburst of wrath he cried, +'Listen, fool! And then perhaps you will answer me more quickly. I am +Hugo of Leuchtenstein, Governor of Cassel and Marburg, and President +of the Landgrave's Council. The chain was mine and came back to me. +The rogue who stole it from you, and joined himself to my company, +blabbed of it, and where he got it. He let my men see it. He would not +give it up, and they killed him. Will that satisfy you?' he continued, +his face on fire with impatience. 'Then tell me all--all, man, or it +will be the worse for you! My time is precious, and I cannot stay!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I uncovered myself. 'Your excellency,' I stammered, 'the chain was +entrusted to me by a--a woman.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A woman?' he exclaimed, his eyes lightening. 'Man, you are wringing +my heart. A woman with a child?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A child three years old?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'About that, your excellency.' On which, to my astonishment, he +covered his face with both his hands, and I saw the strong man's frame +heave with ill-suppressed emotion. 'My God, I thank thee!' I heard him +whisper; and if ever words came from the heart, those did. It was a +minute or more before he dared to uncover his face, and then his eyes +were moist and his features worked with emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You shall be rewarded!' he said unsteadily. 'Do not fear. And now +take me to him--to her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was in a maze of astonishment, but I had sense enough to understand +the order. We had halted scarcely more than a hundred yards from my +lady's quarters, and I led the way thither, comprehending little more +than that something advantageous had happened to us. At the door he +sprang from his horse, and taking me by the arm, as if he were afraid +to suffer me out of his reach, he entered, pushing me before him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The principal room was empty, and I judged my lady was out. I cried +'Marie! Marie!' softly; and then he and I stood listening. The +sunshine poured in through the windows; the house was still with the +stillness of afternoon. A bird in a cage in the corner pecked at the +bars. Outside the bits jingled, and a horse pawed the road +impatiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Marie!' I cried. 'Marie!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She came in at last through a door which led to the back of the house, +and I stepped forward to speak to her. But the moment I saw her +clearly, the words died on my lips. The pallor of her face, the +disorder of her hair struck me dumb. I forgot our business, my +companion, all. 'What is it?' was all I could say. 'What is the +matter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The child!' she cried, her dark eyes wild with anxiety. 'The child! +It is lost! It is lost and gone. I cannot find it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The child? Gone?' I answered, my voice rising almost to a shout, in +my surprise. 'It is missing? Now?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I cannot find it,' she answered monotonously. 'I left it for a moment +at the back there. It was playing on the grass. Now it is gone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at. Count Leuchtenstein. He was staring at the girl, +listening and watching, his brow contracted, his face pale. But I +suppose that this sudden alarm, this momentary disappearance did not +affect him, from whom the child had been so long absent, as it +affected us; for his first words referred to the past.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This child, woman?' he said in his deep voice, which shook despite +all his efforts. 'When you found it, it had a chain round its neck?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marie was so wrapped up in her sudden loss that she answered him +without thought, listening the while. 'Yes,' she said mechanically, +'it had.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where did you find it, then--the child?' he asked eagerly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the forest by Vach,' she replied, in the same indifferent tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Was it alone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was with a dead woman,' she answered. She was listening still, +with a strained face--listening for the pattering of the little feet, +the shrill music of the piping voice. Only half of her mind was with +us. Her hands opened and closed continually with anxiety; she held her +head on one side, her ear to the door. When the Count went to put +another question, she turned upon him so fiercely, I hardly knew her. +'Hush!' she said, 'will you? They are here, but they have not found +him. They have not found him!' And she was right; though I, whose ears +were not sharpened by love, did not discern this until two men, who +had been left at home with her, and who had been out to search, came +in empty-handed and with scared looks. They had hunted on all sides +and found no trace of the child, and, certain that it could not have +strayed far itself, pronounced positively that it had been kidnapped.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie at that burst into weeping so pitiful, that I was glad to send +the men out, bidding them make a larger circuit and inquire in the +camp. When they were gone, I turned to Count Leuchtenstein to see how +he took it. I found him leaning against the wall, his face grave, +dark, and thoughtful.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There seems a fatality in it!' he muttered, meeting my eyes, but +speaking to himself. 'That it should be lost again--at this moment! +Yet, God's will be done. He who sent the chain to my hands can still +take care of the child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused a moment in deep thought, and then, advancing to Marie Wort, +who had thrown herself into a chair and was sobbing passionately with +her face on the table, he touched her on the shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good girl!' he said kindly. 'Good girl! But doubtless the child is +safe. Before night it will be found.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She sprang up and faced him, her cheeks flaming with anger. I suppose +the questions he had put to her had made no distinct impression on her +mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh,' she cried, in the voice of a shrew, 'how you prate! By night it +will be found, will it? How do you know? But the child is nothing to +you--nothing!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Girl,' he said solemnly, yet gently, 'the child is my child--my only +child, and the hope of my house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him wildly. 'Who are you, then?' she said, her voice +sinking almost to a whisper.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am his father,' he answered; when I looked to hear him state his +name and titles. 'And as his father, I thank and bless you for all +that you have done for him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'His mother?' she whispered, open-eyed with awe.</p> + +<p class="normal">'His mother is dead. She died three years ago,' he answered gravely. +'And now tell me your name, for I must go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must go!' she exclaimed. 'You will go--you can go--and your child +lost and wandering?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he replied, with a dignity which silenced her, 'I can, for I +have other and greater interests to guard than those of my house, and +I dare not be negligent. He may be found to-morrow, but what I have to +do to-day cannot be done to-morrow. See, take that,' he continued more +gently, laying a heavy purse on the table before her. 'It is for you, +for your own use--for your dowry, if you have a lover. And remember +always that, in the house of Hugo of Leuchtenstein, at Cassel, or +Marburg, or at the Schloss by Leuchtenstein, you will find a home and +shelter, and stout friends whenever you need them. Now give me your +name.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She stared at him dumfounded and was silent. I told him Marie Wort of +Munich, at present in attendance on the Countess of Heritzburg; and he +set it down in his tablets.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good,' he said. And then in his stern, grave fashion he turned to me. +'Master Steward,' he said, in a measured tone which nevertheless +stirred my blood, 'are you an ambitious man? If so, search for my +child, and bring him to Cassel or Marburg, or my house, and I will +fulfil your ambition. Would you have a command, I will see to it; or a +farm, it shall be yours. You can do for me, my friend' he continued +strenuously, laying his hand on my arm, 'what in this stress of war +and statecraft I cannot do for myself. I have a hundred at my call, +but they are not here; and by to-night I must be ten leagues hence, by +to-morrow night beyond the Main. Yet God, I believe,' he went on, +uncovering himself and speaking with reverent earnestness, 'who +brought me to this place, and permitted me to hear again of my son, +will not let His purpose fail because He calls me elsewhere.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And he maintained this grave composure to the last. A man more worthy +of his high repute, not in Hesse only, but in the Swedish camp, at +Dresden, and Vienna, I thought that I had never seen. Yet still under +the mask I discerned the workings of a human heart. His eye, as he +turned to go, wandered round the room; I knew that it was seeking some +trace of his boy's presence. On the threshold he halted suddenly; I +knew that he was listening. But no sound rewarded him. He nodded +sternly to me and went out.</p> + +<p class="normal">I followed to hold his stirrup. The Finland riders, sitting upright in +their saddles, looked as if they had not moved an eyelash in our +absence. As I had left them so I found them. He gave a short, sharp +word of command; a sudden jingling of bridles followed; the troop +walked forward, broke into a trot, and in a twinkling disappeared down +the road in a cloud of dust.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, and not till then, I remembered that I had not said a word to +him about my lady's position. His personality and the loss of the +child had driven it from my mind. Now it recurred to me; but it was +too late, and after stamping up and down in vexation for a while, I +turned and went into the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie Wort had fallen back into the old position at the table, and was +sitting with her face on her arms, sobbing bitterly. I went up to her +and saw the purse lying by her side.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Come,' I said, trying awkwardly to cheer her, 'the child will be +found, never fear. When my lady returns she will send to the general, +and he will have it cried through the camp. It is sure to be found. +And you have made a powerful friend.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But she took no heed of me. She continued to weep; and her sobs hurt +me. She seemed so small and lonely and helpless that I had not the +heart to leave her by herself in the house and go out into the +sunshine to search. And so--I scarcely know how it came about--in a +moment she was sobbing out her grief on my shoulder and I was +whispering in her ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of love? of our love? No, for to have spoken of that while she wept +for the child, would have seemed to me no better than sacrilege. And, +besides, I think that we took it for granted. For when her sobs +presently ceased, and she lay quiet, listening, and I found her soft +dark hair on my shoulder, I kissed it a hundred times; and still she +lay silent, her cheek against my rough coat. Our eyes had spoken +morning and evening, at dawn when we met, and at night when we parted; +and now that this matter of the chain was settled, it seemed fitting +that she should come to me for comfort--without words.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length she drew herself away from me, her cheek dark and her eyes +downcast. 'Not now,' she said, gently stopping me--for then I think I +should have spoken. 'Will you please to go out and search? No, I will +not grieve.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But your purse!' I reminded her. She was leaving it on the table, and +it was not safe there. 'You should put it in a place of safety, +Marie.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She took it up and very simply placed it in my hands. 'He said it was +for my--dowry,' she whispered, blushing. And then she fled away +shamefaced to her room.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_18" href="#div1Ref_18">A SUDDEN EXPEDITION.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I did not after that suffer the grass to grow under my feet. I went +out, and with my own eyes searched the fields at the back, and every +ditch and water-hole. I had the loss cried in the camp, my lady on her +return offered a reward, we sent even to the nearer villages, we +patrolled the roads, we omitted nothing that could by any chance avail +us. Yet evening fell, and night, and found us still searching; and no +nearer, as far as we could see, to success. The child was gone +mysteriously. Left to play alone for two minutes in the stillness of +the afternoon, he had vanished as completely as if the earth had +opened and swallowed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baffled, we began to ask, while Marie sat pale and brooding in a +corner, or now and again stole to the door to listen, who could have +taken him and with what motive? There were men and women in the camp +capable of anything. It seemed probable to some that these had stolen +the child for the sake of his clothes. Others suggested witchcraft. +But in my own mind, I leaned to neither of these theories. I +suspected, though I dared not utter the thought, that the general had +done it. Without knowing how much of the story Count Hugo had confided +to him, I took it as certain that the father had said enough to +apprise him of the boy's value. And this being so, what more probable +than that the general, whom I was prepared to credit with any +atrocity, had taken instant steps to possess himself of the child?</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady said and did all that was kind on the occasion, and for a few +hours it occupied all our thoughts. At the end of that time, however, +about sunset, General Tzerclas rode to the door, and with him, to my +surprise, the Waldgrave. They would see her, and detained her so long +that when she sent for me on their departure, I was sore on Marie's, +account, and inclined to blame her as indifferent to our loss. But a +single glance at her face put another colour on the matter. I saw that +something had occurred to excite and disturb her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Martin,' she said earnestly, 'I am going to employ you on an errand +of importance. Listen to me and do not interrupt me. General Tzerclas +starts to-morrow with the larger part of his forces to intercept one +of Wallenstein's convoys, which is expected to pass twelve leagues to +the south of this. There will be sharp fighting, I am told, and my +cousin, the Waldgrave Rupert, is going. He is not at present--I mean, +I am afraid he may do something rash. He is young,' my lady continued +with dignity and a heightened colour, 'and I wish he would stay here. +But he will not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I guessed at once that this affair of the convoy was the business +which had brought Count Hugo to the camp. And I was beginning to +consider what advantage we might make of it, and whether the general's +absence might not afford us both a pretext for departure and the +opportunity, when my lady's next words dispelled my visions.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I want you,' she said slowly, 'to go with him. He has a high opinion +of you, and will listen to you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The general?' I cried in amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who spoke of him?' she exclaimed angrily. 'I said the Waldgrave +Rupert. I wish you to go with him to see that he does not run any +unnecessary risk.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I coughed dryly, and stood silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' my lady said with a frown. 'Do you understand?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I understand, my lady,' I answered firmly; 'but I cannot go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>You cannot go!</i> when I send you!' she murmured, unable, I think, to +believe her ears. 'Why not, sirrah? Why not, if you please?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because my first duty is to your excellency,' I stammered. 'And as +long as you are here, I dare not--and will not leave you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'As long as I am here!' she retorted, red with anger and surprise. +'You have still that maggot in your head, then? By my soul, Master +Martin, if we were at home I would find means to drive it out! But I +know what it is! What you really want is to stay by the side of that +puling girl! Oh, I am not blind,' my lady continued viciously, seeing +that she had found at last the way to hurt me. 'I know what has been +going on.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But Count Leuchtenstein----' I muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Don't bring him in!' my lady cried, in such a voice that I dared go +no farther. 'General Tzerclas has told me of him. I understand what is +between them, and you do not. Presumptuous booby!' she continued, +flashing at me a glance of scorn, which made me tremble. 'But I will +thwart you! Since you will not leave me, I will go myself. I will go, +but Mistress Marie shall stay here till we return.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But if there is to be fighting?' I said humbly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah! So you have changed your note, have you!' she cried triumphantly. +I had seldom seen her more moved. 'If there is to be fighting'--she +mocked my tone. 'Well, there is to be, but I shall go. And now do you +go, and have all ready for a start at daybreak, or it will be the +worse for you! One of my women will accompany me. Fraulein Anna will +stay here with your--other mistress!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She pointed to the door as she spoke, and once more charged me to be +ready; and I went away dazed. Everything seemed on a sudden to be +turned upside down--the child lost, my lady offended, the Waldgrave +desperate, the general in favour. It was hard to see which way my duty +lay. I would fain have stayed in the camp a day to make farther search +for the child, but I must go. I would gladly have got clear of the +camp, but we were to travel in the general's company. As to leaving +Marie, my lady wronged me. I knew of no special danger which +threatened the girl, nor any reason why she should not be safe where +she was. If the child were found she would be here to receive it.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, there was my discovery of the beggar's fate, from +the immediate consequences of which Count Hugo's arrival had saved me. +This sudden expedition should favour me there; the general would have +his hands full of other things, and Ludwig be hard put to it to gain +his ear. I might now, if I pleased, discover the matter to my lady, +and open her eyes. But I had no proof; even if time permitted, and I +could take the Countess to that part of the camp, I could not be sure +that the body was still there. And to accuse General Tzerclas of such +a thing without proof would be to court my own ruin.</p> + +<p class="normal">While I was puzzling over this, I saw the Waldgrave outside, and, +thinking to profit by his advice, I went to meet him. But I found him +in a peculiar mood, talking, laughing, and breaking into snatches of +song; all with a wildness and <i>abandon</i> that frightened while they +puzzled me. He laughed at my doubts, and walking up and down, while +his servants scoured his breast-piece and cleaned his harness by the +light of a lantern, he persisted in talking of nothing but the +expedition before us and the pleasure of striking a blow or two.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are rusting, man!' he cried feverishly, clapping me on the back. +'You have the rust on you yet, Martin But--</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-6pt">"Clink, clink, clink!</p> +<p class="t1">Sword and stirrup and spur!</p> +<p class="t0">Ride, ride, ride,</p> +<p class="t1">Fast as feather or fur!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">To-morrow or the next day we will have it off.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have heard about the child, my lord,' I said gravely, trying to +bring him back to the present.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have heard that Von Werder, the dullest man at a board I ever met, +turns out to be Hugo of Leuchtenstein, whom God preserve!' he answered +recklessly. 'And that your girl's brat of a brother turns out to be +his brat! And no sooner is the father found than the son is lost; and +that both have gone as mysteriously as they came. But Himmel! man, +what's the odds when we are going to fight to-morrow! What compares +with that? Ça! ça! steady and the point!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought of Marie; and it seemed to me that there were other things +in the world besides fighting. For love makes a man both brave and a +coward. But the argument would scarcely have been to the Waldgrave's +mind, and, seeing that he would neither talk nor hear reason, I left +him and went away to make my preparations.</p> + +<p class="normal">But on the road next day I noticed that though now and then he flashed +into the same wild merriment, he was on the whole as dull as he had +been gay. Our party rode at the head of the column, that we might +escape the dust and have the best of the road, the general and his +principal officers accompanying us and leaving the guidance of the +march to inferiors. Our force consisted of about six hundred horse and +four hundred foot; and as we were to return to the camp, we took with +us neither sutlers nor ordinary baggage, while camp followers were +interdicted under pain of death. Yet the amount of our impedimenta +astonished me. Half a dozen sumpter horses were needed to carry the +general's tent and equipage; his officers required a score more. The +ammunition for the foot soldiers, who were sufficiently burdened with +their heavy matchlocks, provided farther loads; and in fine, while +supposed to be marching in light fighting order, we had something like +a hundred packhorses in our train. Then there were men to lead them, +and cooks and pages and foot-boys and the general's band, and but that +our way lay through woodland tracks and by-routes, I verily believe +that we should have had his coach and dwarf also.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sight of all these men and horses in motion was so novel and +exhilarating, and the morning air so brisk, that I soon recovered from +my parting with Marie, and began to take a more cheerful view of the +position. I came near to sympathizing with my lady, whose pleasure and +delight knew no bounds. The long lines of horsemen winding through the +wood, the trailing pikes and waving pennons, gratified her youthful +fancy for war; while as our march lay through the forest, she was +shocked by none of those traces of its ravages which had appalled us +on first leaving Heritzburg. The general waited on her with the utmost +attention, riding by her bridle-rein and talking with her by the hour +together. Whenever I looked at them I noticed that her eye was bright +and her colour high, and I guessed that he was unfolding the plan of +ambition which I was sure he masked under a cold and reserved +demeanour. Alas! I could think of nothing more likely to take my +lady's fancy, no course more sure to enlist her sympathy and interest. +But I was helpless; I could do nothing. And for the Waldgrave, if he +still had any power he would not use it.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady gave him opportunities. Several times I saw her try to draw +him into conversation, and whenever General Tzerclas left her for a +while she turned to the younger man and would have talked to him. But +he seemed unable to respond. When he was not noisily gay, he rode like +a mute. He seemed half sullen, half afraid; and she presently gave him +up, but not before her efforts had caught Tzerclas' eye. The general +had been called for some purpose to the rear of the column, and on his +return found the two talking, my lady's attitude such that it was very +evident she was the provocant. He did not try to resume his place, but +fell in behind them; and riding there, almost, if not quite, within +earshot, cast such ugly glances at them as more than confirmed me in +the belief that in his own secret way he loved my mistress; and that, +after a more dangerous fashion than the Waldgrave.<p> + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_190"><img src="images/pg190.png" alt="pg 190"></a><br> +The general waited on her with the utmost attention, +riding by her bridle-rein ...</p> + + +<p class="normal">This was late in the afternoon, and another hour brought us who +marched at the head of the column to our camping-ground for the night. +We lay in a rugged, wooded valley, not very commodious, but chosen +because only one high ridge divided it from a second valley, through +which the main road and the river had their course. Our instructions +were that the convoy, which was bound for Wallenstein's army then +marching on Nuremberg, would pass through this second valley some time +during the following day; but until the hour came for making the +proper dispositions, all persons in our force were forbidden to mount +the intervening ridge under pain of death. We had even to do without +fires--lest the smoke should betray our presence--and for this one +night lay under something like the strict discipline which I had +expected to find prevailing in a military camp. The only fire that was +permitted cooked the general's meal, which he shared with my lady and +the Waldgrave and the principal officers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even so the order caused trouble. The pikemen and musketeers did not +come in till an hour before midnight, when they trudged into camp +dusty and footsore and murmuring at their leaders. When, in this +state, they learned that fires were not to be lighted, disgust grew +rapidly into open disobedience. On a sudden, in half a dozen quarters +at once, flames flickered up, and the camp, dark before, became +peopled in a moment with strange forms, whose eighteen-foot weapons +and cumbrous headpieces flung long shadows across the valley.</p> + +<p class="normal">We had lain down to rest, but at the sound of the altercation and the +various cries of 'Pikes! Pikes!' and 'Mutiny!' which broke out, we +came out of our lairs in the bracken to learn what was happening. +Calling young Jacob and three or four of the Heritzburg men to my +side, I ran to my lady to see that nothing befell her in the +confusion. The noise had roused her, and we found her at the door of +her tent looking out. The newly-kindled fires, flaming and crackling +on the sloping sides of the valley, lit up a strange scene of +disorder--of hurrying men and plunging horses, for the alarm had +extended to the horse lines--and for a moment I thought that the +mutiny might spread and cut the knot of our difficulties, or whelm us +all in the same ruin.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had scarcely conceived the thought, when the general passed near us +on his way from his tent, whence he had just been called; and at the +sight my new-born hopes vanished. He was bare-headed; he carried no +arms, and had nothing in his hand but a riding-switch. But the stern, +grim aspect of his face, in which was no mercy and no quailing, was +worth a thousand pikes. The firelight shone on his pale, olive cheek +and brooding eyes, as he went by us, not seeing us; and after that I +did not doubt what would happen, although for a moment the tumult of +oaths and cries seemed to swell rather than sink, and I saw more than +one pale-lipped officer climbing into his saddle that he might be able +to fly, if necessary.</p> + +<p class="normal">The issue agreed with my expectations. The heart of the disorder lay +in a part of the camp separated from our quarters by a brook, but near +enough in point of distance; so that we saw, my lady and all, pretty +clearly what followed. For a moment, for a few seconds, during which +you could hear a pin drop through the camp, the general stood, his +life in the balance, unarmed in the midst of armed men. But he had +that set courage which seems to daunt the common sort and paralyse the +finger on the trigger; and he prevailed. The knaves lowered their +weapons and shrank back cowering before him. In a twinkling the fires +were beaten out by a hundred eager feet, and the general strode back +to us through the silent, obsequious camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">He distinguished my lady standing at the door of her tent, and stepped +aside. 'I am sorry that you have been disturbed, Countess,' he said +politely. 'It shall not occur again. I will hang up a dozen of those +hounds to-morrow, and we shall have less barking.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are not hurt?' my lady asked, in a voice unlike her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed, deigning no answer in words. Then he said, 'You have no +fire? Camp rules are not for you. Pray have one lit.' And he went on +to his tent.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had the curiosity to pass near it when my lady retired. I found a +dozen men, cuirassiers of his privileged troop, peeping and squinting +under the canvas which had been hung round the fire. I joined them and +looked; and saw him lying at length, wrapped in his cloak, reading +'Cæsar's Campaigns' by the light of the blaze, as if nothing had +happened.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_19" href="#div1Ref_19">IN A GREEN VALLEY.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He was as good as his word. Before the sun had been up an hour six of +the mutineers, chosen by lot from a hundred of the more guilty, +dangled from a great tree which overhung the brook, and were already +forgotten--so short are soldiers' memories--in the hurry and bustle of +a new undertaking. The slope of the ridge which divided us from the +neighbouring valley was quickly dotted with parties of men making +their way up it, through bracken and furze which reached nearly to the +waist; while the horse under Count Waska rode slowly off to make the +circuit of the hill and enter the next valley by an easier road.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady chose to climb the hill on foot, in the track of the pikemen, +though the heavy dew, which the sun had not yet drunk up, soon +drenched her skirts, and she might, had she willed it, have been +carried to the top on men's shoulders. The fern and long grass delayed +her and made our progress slow, so that the general's dispositions +were in great part made when we reached the summit. Busy as he still +was, however, he had eyes for us. He came at once and placed us in a +small coppice of fir trees that crowned one of the knobs of the ridge. +From this point, where he took up his own position, we could command, +ourselves unseen, the whole valley, the road, and river--the scene of +the coming surprise--and see clearly, what no one below could discern, +where our footmen lay in ambush in parties of fifty; the pikemen among +some black thorns, close to the north end of the valley, the musketmen +a little farther within and almost immediately below us. The latter, +prone in the fern, looked, viewed from above, like lines of sheep +feeding, until the light gleamed on a gun-barrel or sword-hilt and +dispelled the peaceful illusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun had not yet risen above the hill on which we stood, and the +valley below us lay cool and green and very pleasant to the eye. About +a league in length, it was nowhere, except at its southern extremity, +where it widened into a small plain, more than half a mile across. At +its northern end, below us, and a little to the right, it diminished +to a mere wooded defile, through which the river ran over rocks and +boulders, with a dull roar that came plainly to our ears. A solitary +house of some size, with two or three hovels clustered about it, stood +near the middle of the valley; but no smoke rose from the chimney, no +cock crowed, no dog barked. And, looking more closely, I saw that the +place was deserted.</p> + +<p class="normal">So quiet it seemed in this peaceful Thuringian valley, I shuddered +when I thought of the purpose which brought us hither; and I saw my +lady's face grow sad with a like reflection. But General Tzerclas +viewed all with another mind. The stillness, the sunshine, the very +song of the lark, as it rose up and up and up above us, and, still +unwearied, sang its song of praise, touched no chord in his breast. +The quietude pleased him, but only because it favoured his plans; the +lark's hymn, because it covered with a fair mask his lurking ambush; +the sunshine, because it seemed a good augury. His keen and vigilant +eye, the smile which curled his lip, the set expression of his face, +showed that he saw before him a battle-field and no more; a step +upwards--a triumph, a victory, and that was all.</p> + +<p class="normal">I blamed him then. I confess now, I misjudged him. He who leads on +such occasions risks more than his life, and bears a weight of +responsibility that may well crush from his mind all moods or thoughts +of weather. At least, I did him, I had to do him, this justice: that +he betrayed no anxiety, uttered no word of doubt or misgiving. +Standing with his back against a tree and his eyes on the northern +pass, he remained placidly silent, or talked at his ease. In this he +contrasted well with the Waldgrave, who continually paced up and down +in the background, as if the fir-grove were a prison and he a captive +waiting to be freed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'At what hour should they be here?' my lady asked presently, breaking +a long silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">She tried to speak in her ordinary tone, but her voice sounded +uncertain. A woman, however brave, is a woman still. It began to dawn +upon her that things were going to happen which it might be unpleasant +to see, and scarcely more pleasant to remember.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am afraid I cannot say,' the general answered lightly. 'I have done +my part; I am here. Between this and night they should be here too.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Unless they have been warned.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Precisely,' he answered,' unless they have been warned.'</p> + +<p class="normal">After that my lady composed herself anew, and the day wore on, in +desultory conversation and a grim kind of picnic. Noon came, and +afternoon, and the Countess grew nervous and irritable. But General +Tzerclas, though the hours, as they passed without event, without +bringing that for which he waited, must have tried him severely, +showed to advantage throughout. He was ready to talk, satisfied to be +silent. Late in the day, when my lady, drowsy with the heat, dozed a +little, he brought out his Cæsar, and read, in it, as if nothing +depended on the day, and he were the most indifferent of spectators. +She awoke and found him reading, and, for a time, sat staring at him, +wondering where she was. At last she remembered. She sat up with a +start, and gazed at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Are we still waiting?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are still waiting,' he answered, closing his book with a smile. +'But,' he continued, a moment later, 'I think I hear something now. +Keep back a little, if you please, Countess.'</p> + +<p class="normal">We all stood up among the trees, listening, and presently, though the +murmuring of the river in the pass prevented us hearing duller sounds, +a sharp noise, often repeated, came to our ears. It resembled the +snapping of sticks under foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whips!' General Tzerclas muttered. 'Stand back, if you please.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The words were scarcely out of his mouth before a handful of horsemen +appeared on a sudden in the road below us. They came on like tired +men, some with their feet dangling, some sitting sideways on their +horses. Many had kerchiefs wound round their heads, and carried their +steel caps at the saddle-bow; others nodded in their seats, as if +asleep. They were abreast of our pikemen when we first saw them, and +we watched them advance, until a couple of hundred yards brought them +into line with the musketmen. These, too, they passed without +suspicion, and so went jolting and clinking down the valley, every man +with a bundle at his crupper, and strange odds and ends banging and +swinging against his horse's sides.</p> + +<p class="normal">Two hundred paces behind them the first waggon appeared, dragged +slowly on by four labouring horses, and guarded by a dozen foot +soldiers--heavy-browed fellows, lounging along beside the wheels, with +their hands in their breeches pockets. Their long, trailing weapons +they had tied at the tail of the waggon. Close on their heels came +another waggon creaking and groaning, and another, and another, with a +drowsy, stumbling train of teamsters and horse-boys, and here and +there an officer or a knot of men-at-arms. But the foot soldiers had +mostly climbed up into the waggons, and lay sprawling on the loads, +with arms thrown wide, and heads rolling from side to side with each +movement of the straining team.</p> + +<p class="normal">We watched eighty of these waggons go by; the first must have been a +mile and more in front of the last. After them followed a disorderly +band of stragglers, among whom were some women. Then a thick, solid +cloud of dust, far exceeding all that had gone before, came down the +pass. It advanced by fits and starts, now plunging forward, now +halting, while the heart of it gave forth a dull roaring sound that +rose above the murmur of the river.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Cattle!' General Tzerclas muttered. 'Five hundred head, I should say. +There can be nothing behind that dust. Be ready, trumpeter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The man he addressed stood a few paces behind us; and at intervals +along the ridge others lay hidden, ready to pass the signal to an +officer stationed on the farthest knob, who as soon as he heard the +call would spring up, and with a flag pass the order to the cavalry +below him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The suspense of the moment was such, it seemed an age before the +general gave the word. He stood and appeared to calculate, now looking +keenly towards the head of the convoy, which was fast disappearing in +a haze of dust, now gazing down at the bellowing, struggling, wavering +mass below us. At length, when the cattle had all but cleared the +pass, he raised his hand and cried sharply--</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The harsh blare of the trumpet pierced the upper stillness in which we +stood. It was repeated--repeated again; then it died away shrilly in +the distance. In its place, hoarse clamour filled the valley below us. +We pressed forward to see what was happening.</p> + +<p class="normal">The surprise was complete; and yet it was a sorry sight we saw down in +the bottom, where the sunshine was dying, and guns were flashing, and +men were chasing one another in the grey evening light. Our musketmen, +springing out of ambush, had shot down the horses of the last +half-dozen waggons, and, when we looked, were falling pell-mell upon +the unlucky troop of stragglers who followed. These, flying all ways, +filled the air with horrid screams. Farther to the rear, our pikemen +had seized the pass, and penning the cattle into it rendered escape by +that road hopeless. Forward, however, despite the confusion and +dismay, things were different. Our cavalry did not appear--the dust +prevented us seeing what they were doing. And here the enemy had a +moment's respite, a moment in which to think, to fly, to stand on +their defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">And soon, while we looked on breathless, it was evident that they were +taking advantage of it. Possibly the general had not counted on the +dust or the lateness of the hour. He began to gaze forward towards the +head of the column, and to mutter savagely at the footmen below us, +who seemed more eager to overtake the fugitives and strip the dead, +than to press forward and break down opposition. He sent down Ludwig +with orders; then another.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the mischief was done already, and still the cavalry did not +appear; being delayed, as we afterwards learned, by an unforeseen +brook. Some one with a head on his shoulders had quickly drawn +together all those among the enemy who could fight, or had a mind to +fight. We saw two waggons driven out of the line, and in a moment +overturned; in a twinkling the panic-stricken troopers and teamsters +had a haven in which they could stand at bay.</p> + +<p class="normal">Its value was soon proved. A company of our musketeers, pursuing some +stragglers through the medley of flying horses and maddened cattle +which covered the ground near the pass, came upon this rude fortress, +and charged against it, recklessly, or in ignorance. In a moment a +volley from the waggons laid half a dozen on the ground. The rest fell +back, and scattered hither and thither. They were scarcely dispersed +before a handful of the enemy's officers and mounted men came riding +back from the front. Stabbing their horses in the intervals between +the waggons, they took post inside. Every moment others, some with +arms and some without, came straggling up. When our cavalry at last +arrived on the scene, there were full three hundred men in the waggon +work, and these the flower of the enemy. All except one had +dismounted. This one, a man on a white charger, seemed to be the soul +of the defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our horse, flushed with triumph and yelling loudly, came down the line +like a torrent, sabreing all who fell in their way. Half rode on one +side of the convoy and half on the other. They had met with no +resistance hitherto, and expected none, and, like the musketmen, were +on the barricade before they knew of its existence. In the open, the +stoutest hedgehog of pikes could scarcely have resisted a charge +driven home with such blind recklessness; but behind the waggons it +was different. Every interstice bristled with pike-heads, while the +musketmen poured in a deadly fire from the waggon-tops. For a few +seconds the place belched flame and smoke. Two or three score of the +foremost assailants went down horse and man. The rest, saving +themselves as best they could, swerved off to either side amid a roar +of execrations and shouts of triumph.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady, trembling with horror, had long ago retired. She would no +longer look. The Waldgrave, too, was gone; with her, I supposed. Half +the general's attendants had been sent down the hill, some with one +order, some with another. In this crisis--for I saw clearly that it +was a crisis, and that if the defenders could hold out until darkness +fell, the issue must be doubtful--I turned to look at our commander. +He was still cool, but his brow was dark with passion. At one moment +he stepped forward as if to go down into the <i>mêlée</i>; the next he +repressed the impulse. The level rays of the sun which just caught the +top of the hill shone in our eyes, while dust and smoke began to veil +the field. We could still make out that the cavalry were sweeping +round and round the barricade, pouring in now and then a volley of +pistol shots; but they appeared to be suffering more loss than they +caused.</p> + +<p class="normal">Given a ring of waggons in the open, stoutly defended by resolute men, +and I know nothing more difficult to reduce. Gazing in a kind of +fascination into the depths where the smoke whirled and eddied, as the +steam rolls this way and that on a caldron, I was wondering what I +should do were I in command, when I saw on a sudden what some one was +doing; and I heard General Tzerclas utter an oath of relief. Back from +the front of the convoy came three waggons, surrounded and urged on by +a mob of footmen; jolting and bumping over the uneven ground, and +often nearly overturned, still they came on, and behind them a larger +troop of men. Finally they came almost abreast of the enemy's +position, and some thirty paces to one side of it. There perforce they +stayed, for the leading horses fell shot; but it was near enough. In +an instant our men swarmed up behind them and began to fire volleys +into the enemy's fortress, while the horse moving to and fro at a +little distance forbade any attempt at a sally.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That man has a head on his shoulders!' General Tzerclas muttered +between his teeth. 'That is Ludwig! Now we have them!'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I saw that it was not Ludwig; and presently the general saw it +too. I read it in his face. The man who had brought up the waggons, +and who could still be seen exposing himself, mounted and bare-headed +in the hottest of the fire, ordering, threatening, inciting, leading, +so that we could almost hear his voice where we stood, was the +Waldgrave! His blue velvet cloak and bright fair head were +unmistakable, though darkness was fast closing over the fight, and it +was only at intervals that we could see anything through the pall of +smoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Vivat Weimar!' I cried involuntarily, a glow of warmth and pride +coursing through my veins. In that moment I loved the young man as if +he had been my son.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next I fell from the clouds. What would my lady say if anything +happened to him? What should I say if I stood by and saw him fall? +And he with no headpiece, breast or back! It was madness of him to +expose himself! I started forward, stung by the thought, and before I +knew what I was doing--for, in fact, I could have done no good--I was +on the slope and descending the hill. Almost at the same moment the +general gave the word to those who remained with him, and began to +descend also. The hill was steep there, and it took us five minutes to +reach the scene of action.</p> + +<p class="normal">If I had foolishly thought that I could do anything, I was +disappointed. By this time the battle was over. Manning every waggon +within range, and pouring in a steady fire, our sharp-shooters had +thinned the ranks behind the barricade. The enemy's fire had first +slackened, and then ceased. A little later, one wing, unable to bear +the shower of shot, had broken and tried to fly, and in a moment our +pikemen had gained the work.</p> + +<p class="normal">We heard the flight and pursuit go wailing up the valley, but the +disorder, and darkness, and noise at the foot of the hill where we +found ourselves, were such that I stood scared and bewildered, +uncertain which way to turn or whither to go. On every side of me men +were stripping the dead, the wounded were crying for water, and cattle +and horses, wounded or maddened, were rushing up and down among broken +waggons and prostrate loads. Such eyes of cruelty and greed glared at +me out of the gloom, such shouts cursed me across dead men that I drew +my sword and carried it drawn. But the scene robbed me of half my +faculties; I did not know which way to turn; I did not know what to +do; and until I came upon Ludwig, I wandered aimlessly about, looking +for the Waldgrave without plan or system. It was my first experience +of the darker side of war, and it surpassed in horror anything I had +imagined or thought possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig, badly wounded in the leg, I found under a waggon. I had stood +beside him some time without seeing him, and he had not spoken. But +when I moved away I suppose he recognized my figure or step, for when +I had gone a few paces I heard a hoarse voice calling my name. I went +cautiously back to the waggon, and after a moment's search detected +him peering from under it with a white, fierce face, which reminded me +of a savage creature at bay.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hallo!' I said. 'Why did you not speak before, man?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Get me some water,' he whispered painfully. 'Water, for the love of +Heaven!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I told him that I had no flask or bottle, or I should before this have +fetched some for others'. He gave me his, and I was starting off when +I remembered that he might know how the Waldgrave had fared. I asked +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He led the pursuit,' he muttered. 'He is all right.' Then, as I was +again turning away, he clutched my arm and continued, 'Have you a +pistol?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Lend it to me until you come back,' he gasped. 'If these vultures +find me they will finish me. I know them. That is better. I shall win +through yet.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I marked where his waggon stood, and left him. The river was distant +less than a quarter of a mile, but it lay low, and the banks were +steep; and in the darkness it was not easy to find a way down to the +water. Succeeding at last--and how still and peaceful it seemed as I +bent over the gently flowing surface and heard the plash and gurgle of +the willows in the stream!--I filled my bottle and climbed back to +the plain level. Here I found a change in progress. At intervals up +and down the valley great fires had been kindled. Some of these, +burning high already, lit up the wrecked convoy and the dark groups +that moved round it, and even threw a red, uncertain glare far up the +slopes of the hills. Aided by the light, I hastened back, and finding +Ludwig without much difficulty, held the bottle to his lips. He seemed +nearly gone, but the draught revived him marvellously.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he had drunk I asked him if I could do anything else for him. He +looked already more like himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he said, propping his back against the wheel and speaking with +his usual hardihood. 'Tell our little general where I am. That is all. +I shall do now we have light. I am not afraid of these skulkers any +longer. But here, friend Martin. You asked about your Waldgrave just +now?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said. 'Has he returned?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He never went,' he replied coolly. 'But if I had told you when you +first asked me, you would not have gone for water for me. He is down. +He fell, as nearly as I can remember, on the farther side of the +second fire from here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With a curse I ran from him, raging, and searched round that fire and +the next, like one beside himself. Many of the dead lay stripped to +the skin, so that it was necessary to examine faces. And this ghastly +task, performed with trembling fingers and by an uncertain light, took +a long time. There were men prowling about with knives and bundles, +whom I more than once interrupted in their work; but the sight of my +pistol, and my face--for I was full of fierce loathing and would have +shot them like rats--drove them off wherever I came. Not once but many +times the wounded and dying begged me to stay by them and protect +them; but my water was at an end and my time was not my own. I left +them, and ran from place to place in a fever of dread, which allowed +of no rest or relaxation. At last, when I had well-nigh given up hope, +I found him lying half-stripped among a heap of dead and wounded, at +the farthest corner of the barricade.</p> + +<p class="normal">All his finery was gone, and his handsome face and fair hair were +stained and bedabbled with dust and blood. But he was not dead. I +could feel his heart beating faintly in his breast; and though he lay +senseless and showed no other signs of life, I was thankful to find +hope remained. I bore him out tenderly, and laid him down by himself +and moistened his lips with the drainings of my flask. But what next? +I could not leave him; the plunderers who had already robbed him might +return at any moment. And yet, without cordials, and coverings, and +many things I had not, the feeble spark of life left in him must go +out. I stood up and looked round in despair. A lurid glare, a pitiful +wailing, a passing of dark figures filled the valley. A hundred round +us needed help; a hundred were beyond help. There were none to give +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was about to raise him in my arms and carry him in search of +it--though I feared the effect of the motion on his wounds--when, to +my joy and relief, the measured tramp of footsteps broke on my ears, +and I distinguished with delight a party of men approaching with +torches. A few mounted officers followed them, and two waggons creaked +slowly behind. They were collecting the wounded.</p> + +<p class="normal">I ran to meet them. 'Quick!' I cried breathlessly. 'This way!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not so fast!' a harsh voice interposed; and, looking up, I saw that +the general himself was directing the party. 'Not so fast, my friend,' +he repeated. 'Who is it?' and leaning forward in his saddle, he looked +down at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave Rupert,' I answered impatiently. 'He is hurt almost to +death. But he is alive, and may live, your excellency. Only direct +them to come quickly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Sitting on his horse in the full glare of the torches, he gazed down +at me, his face wearing a strange expression of hesitation. 'He is +alive?' he said at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, at present. But he will soon be dead if we do not go to him,' I +retorted. 'This way! He lies yonder.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Lead on!' the general said.</p> + +<p class="normal">I obeyed, and a moment brought our party to the spot, where the +Waldgrave still lay insensible, his face pale and drawn, his eyes half +open and disclosing the whites. Under the glare of the torches he +looked so like a corpse and so far beyond aid, that it was not until I +had again thrust my hand into his breast, and felt the movement of his +heart that I was reassured.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for the general, after looking down at him for awhile, he said +quietly, 'He is dead.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not so, your excellency,' I answered, rising briskly from my knees. +'He is stunned. That is all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is dead,' the general replied coldly. 'Leave him. We must help +those first who need help.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They were actually turning away. They had moved a couple of paces +before I could believe it. Then I sprang to the general's rein.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You mistake, your excellency!' I cried, my voice shrill with +excitement. 'In Heaven's name, stop! He is alive! I can feel his +breathing. I swear that he is alive!' I was trembling with emotion and +terror.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is dead!' he said harshly. 'Stand back!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I understood. In a flash his wicked purpose lay bared before me, +and I knew that he was playing with me; I read in the cold, derisive +menace of his eye that he knew the Waldgrave lived, that he knew he +might live, might survive, might see the dawn, and that he was +resolved that he should not. The perspiration sprang out on my brow. I +choked with indignation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mein Gott!' I cried breathless, 'and but for him you would have been +beaten.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stand back!' he muttered through his closed teeth; and his eyes +flickered with rage. 'Are you tired of your life, man?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, if you live!' I roared; and I shook his rein so that his horse +reared and almost unseated him. But still I clung to it. 'Come back! +Come back!' I cried, mad with passion, wild with indignation at +treachery so vile, so cold-blooded, 'or I will heave you from your +horse, you villain! I will----'</p> + +<p class="normal">I stumbled as I spoke over a broken shaft of a waggon, and in a moment +half a dozen strong arms closed round me. I was down and up again and +again down. I fought savagely, passionately, at the last desperately, +having that cold, sneering face before me, and knowing that it was for +my life. But they were many to one. They crushed me down and knelt on +me, and presently I lay panting and quiet. One of the men who held me +had unsheathed his dagger and stood looking to the general for a +signal. I closed my eyes expecting the blow, and involuntarily drew in +my breast, as if that poor effort might avert the stroke.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the general did not give the signal. He sat gazing down at me with +a ruthless smile on his face. 'Tie him up,' he said slowly, when he +had enjoyed his triumph to the full. 'Tie him up tightly. When we get +back to the camp we will have a shooting-match, and he shall find us +sport. You knave!' he continued, riding up to me in a paroxysm of +anger, and slashing me across the face with his riding-whip so cruelly +that the flesh rose in great wheals, and I fell back into the men's +arms blind and shuddering with pain, 'I have had my eye on you! But +you will work me no more mischief. Throw him into the waggon there,' +he continued. 'Tie up his mouth if he makes a noise. Has any one seen +Ludwig?'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_20" href="#div1Ref_20">MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The dawn came slowly. Night, loth to unveil what the valley had to +show, hung there long after the wooded knobs that rose along the ridge +had begun to appear, looking like grey and misty islands in a sea of +vapour. Many cried for the light--what night passes that some do +not?--but none more impatiently than a woman, whose unquiet figure +began with the first glimmer to pace the top of the hill. Sometimes +she walked to and fro with her face to the sky; sometimes she stood +and peered into the depths where the fires still glowed fitfully; or +again listened with shrinking ears to the wailing that rose out of the +darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the Countess. She had lain down, because they had bidden her do +so, and told her that nothing could be done while night lasted. But +with the first dawn she was on foot, so impatient that her own people +dared not come near her, so imperious that the general's troopers +crept away abashed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fight in the valley and the dreadful things she had seen and heard +at nightfall had shaken her nerves. The absence of her friends had +finished the work. She was almost distraught this morning. If this was +war--this merciless butchery, this infliction of horrible pain on man +and beast--their screams still rang in her ears--she had seen enough. +Only let her get her friends back, and escape to some place where +these things would not happen, and she asked no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">The light, as it grew stronger, the sun, as it rose, filling the sky +with glory, failed to comfort her; for the one disclosed the dead, +lying white and stripped in the valley below, like a flock of sheep +grazing, the other seemed by its very cheerfulness to mock her. She +was raging like a lioness, when the general at last appeared, and came +towards her, his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">His eye had still the brightness, his cheek the flush of victory. He +had lain much of the night, thinking his own thoughts, until he had +become so wrapped in himself and his plans that his shrewdness was for +once at fault, and he failed to read the signs in her face which his +own soldiers had interpreted. He was all fire and triumph; she, sick +of bloodshed and ambition. For the first time since they had come +together, she was likely to see him as he was.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Countess,' he said, as he stopped before her, 'you will do yourself +harm, I fear. You were on foot, I am told, before it was light.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is true,' she said, shuddering and restraining herself by an +effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was foolish,' he replied. 'You may be sure that as soon as +anything is heard the news will be brought to you. And to be missing +is not to be dead--necessarily.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank you,' she answered, her lip quivering. She flashed a look of +scorn at him, but he did not see it. Her hands opened and closed +convulsively.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He was last seen in the pursuit,' the general continued smoothly, +flattering himself that in suppressing his own triumphant thoughts and +purposes and talking her talk he was doing much. 'A score or more, of +them got away together. It is quite possible that they carried him off +a prisoner.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And Martin?' she said in a choking voice. She could not stand still, +and had begun already to pace up and down again. He walked beside her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders. 'I know nothing about him,' he said, +scarcely concealing a sneer. 'The man went where he was not sent. I +hope for the best, but----' He spread out his hands and shook his +head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh!' she said. She was bursting with indignation. The sight of the +dead lying below had stirred her nature to its depths. She felt +intuitively the shallowness of his sympathy, the selfishness of his +thoughts. She knew that he had it on his lips to talk to her of his +triumph, and hated him for it. The horror which the day-old +battlefield sometimes inspires in the veteran was on her. She was +trembling all over, and only by a great effort kept herself from tears +and fainting.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The man is useful to you?' he said after a pause. He felt that he had +gone wrong.</p> + +<p class="normal">She bowed in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Almost necessary, I suppose?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She bowed again. She could not speak. It was wonderful. Yesterday she +had liked this man, to-day she almost hated him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he knew nothing of that, as he looked round with pride. Below, in +the valley, parties of men were going to and fro with a sparkle and +sheen of pikes. Now and again a trumpet spoke, giving an order. On the +hill, not far from where they walked, a group of officers who had +ascended with him sat round a fire watching the preparation of +breakfast. And of all he was the lord. He had only to raise a finger +to be obeyed. He saw before him a vista of such battles and victories, +ending--God knows in what. The Emperor's throne was not above the +dreams of such a man. And it moved him to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">The flush on his cheek was deeper when he turned to her again. 'Yes, I +suppose he was necessary to you,' he said, 'but it should not be so. +The Countess of Heritzburg should look elsewhere for help than to a +servant. Let me speak plainly, Countess,' he continued earnestly. 'It +is becoming I should so speak, for I am a plain man. I am neither +Baron, Count, nor Prince, Margrave, nor Waldgrave. I have no title but +my sword, and no heritage save these who follow me. Yet, if I cannot +with the help of the one and the other carve out a principality as +long and as wide as Heritzburg, I am not John Tzerclas!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Poor Germany!' the Countess said with a faint smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">He interpreted the words in his own favour, and shrugged his +shoulders. '<i>Vœ victis!</i>' he said proudly. 'There was a time when +your ancestors took Heritzburg with the strong hand. Such another time +is coming. The future is for those who dare, for those who can raise +themselves above an old and sinking system, and on its ruins build +their fortunes. Of these men I intend to be one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess was an ambitious woman. At another time she might have +heard his tale with sympathy. But at this moment her heart was full of +anxiety for others, and she saw with perfect clearness the +selfishness, the narrowness, the hardness of his aims. She was angry, +too, that he should speak to her now--with the dead lying unburied, +and the lost unfound, and strewn all round them the ghastly relics of +the fight. She looked at him hardly, but she did not say a word; and +he, following the exultant march of his own thoughts, went on.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Albert of Wallenstein, starting from far less than I stand here, +has become the first man in Germany,' he said, heedless of her +silence--'Emperor in all but the name. Your uncle and mine, from a +country squire, became Marshal and Count of the Empire, and saw the +greatest quail before him. Ernest of Mansfeld, he was base-born and +crook-backed too, but he lay softly and ruled men all his days, and +left a name to tremble at. Countess,' the general continued, speaking +more hurriedly, and addressing himself, though he did not know it, to +the feeling which was uppermost in her mind, 'you may think that in +saying what I am going to say, I am choosing an untimely moment; that +with this round us, and the air scarce free from powder, I am a fool +to talk of love. But'--he hesitated, yet waved his hand abroad with a +proud gesture, as if to show that the pause was intentional--'I think +I am right. For I offer you no palace, no bed of down, but only myself +and my sword. I ask you to share a soldier's fortunes, and be the wife +and follow the fate of John Tzerclas. May it be?'</p> + +<p class="normal">His form seemed to swell as he spoke. He had an air half savage, half +triumphant as he turned to her with that question. The joy of battle +was still in his veins; he seemed but half sober, though he had drunk +nothing. A timid woman might have succumbed to him, one of lesser soul +might have shrunk before him; but the Countess faced him with a pride +as great as his own.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have spoken plainly,' she said, undaunted. 'Perhaps you will +pardon me if I speak plainly too.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I ask no more, sweet cousin,' he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then let me remind you,' she replied, 'that you have said much about +John Tzerclas, and little about the Countess of Heritzburg. You have +given excellent reasons why you should speak here, but none why I +should answer. For shame, sir,' the Countess continued tremulously, +letting her indignation appear. 'I lost last night my nearest relative +and my old servant. I am still distracted with anxiety on their +account. Yet, because I stand alone, unprotected, and with none of my +kin by my side, you choose this time to press your suit. For shame, +General Tzerclas!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Himmel!' he exclaimed, forgetting himself in his annoyance--the fever +of excitement was still in his blood--'do you think the presence of +that dandified silken scarf would have kept me silent? No, my lady!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him for a moment, astonished. The contemptuous reference +to the Waldgrave, the change of tone, opened her eyes still wider.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think you do not understand me,' she said coldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do more; I love you,' he answered hotly. And his eyes burned as he +looked at her. 'You are fit to be a queen, my queen! And if I live, +sweet cousin, I will make you one!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let that go by,' she said contemptuously, bearing up against his look +of admiration as well as she could and continuing to move, so that he +had to walk also. 'What you do not understand is my nature--which is, +not to desert my friends when they are in trouble, nor to play when +those who have served me faithfully are missing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I can help neither the one nor the other,' he answered. But his brow +began to darken, and he stood silent a moment. Then he broke out in a +different tone. 'By Heaven!' he said, 'I am in no mood for play. And I +think that you are playing with me!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not understand you!' she said. Her tone should have frozen him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have asked a question. Will you answer me yes or no,' he persisted. +'Will you be my wife, or will you not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not blench. 'This is rather rough wooing, is it not?' she said +with fine scorn.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is a camp, and I am a soldier.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She shrugged her shoulders. 'I do not think I like rough ways,' she +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">He controlled himself by a mighty effort. 'Pardon me,' he said with a +sickly smile, which sat ill on his flushed and angry face. 'Perhaps I +am somewhat spoiled, and forget myself. But, like the man in the +Bible, I am accustomed to say to some, "Go," and they go, and to +others, "Do it," and it is done. And woe to those who disobey me. +Possibly this makes me a rough wooer. But, Countess, the ways of the +world are rough; the times are rough. We do not know what to-morrow +will bring forth, and whatever we want we want quickly. More, +sweetheart,' he continued, drawing a step nearer to her and speaking +in a voice he vainly strove to modulate, 'a little roughness before +marriage is better than ill-treatment afterwards. I have known men who +wooed on their knees bring their wives to theirs very quickly after +the knot was tied. I am not of that kind.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady's heart sickened. Despite the assurance of his last words, she +saw the man as he was; she read his will in his eyes; and though his +sudden frankness was in reality the result of overmastering +excitement, she had the added horror of supposing it to be dictated by +her friendless position and the absence of the last men who might have +protected her. She knew that her only hope lay in her courage, and, +though her heart leapt under her bodice, she faced him boldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You wish for an answer?' she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have said so,' he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then I shall not give you one now,' she replied with a quiet smile. +'You see, general, I am not one of those to whom you can say "Go," and +they go, and "Do," and it is done. I must choose my own time for +saying yes or no. And this time'--she continued, looking round, and +suffering a little shudder to escape her, as she pointed to the valley +below--'I do not like. I am no coward, but I do not love the smell of +blood. I will take time to consider your offer, if you please; and, +meanwhile, I think you gallant gentleman enough not to press me +against my will.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She had a fan in her hand, and she began to walk again; she held it +up, between her face and the sun, which was still low. He walked by +her side, his brow as black as thunder. He read her thoughts so far +correctly that he felt the evasion boded him no good; but the +influence of her courage and pride was such that he shrank from +throwing down the mask altogether, or using words which only force +could make good. True, it wanted only a little to urge him over the +edge, but her lucky star and bold demeanour prevailed for the time, +and perhaps the cool, fresh air had sobered him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I suppose a lady's wish must be law,' he muttered, though still he +scowled. 'But I hope that you will not make a long demand on my +patience.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That, too, you must leave to me,' she replied with a flash of +coquetry, which it cost her much to assume. 'This morning I am so full +of anxiety, that I scarcely know what I am saying. Surely your people +must know by this time if they--they are among the dead?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are not,' he answered sulkily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then they must have been captured?' she said, a tremor in her voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. At that moment a man came up to say that breakfast was +ready. The general repeated the message to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'With your leave I will take it with my women,' she answered with +presence of mind. 'I slept ill, and I am poor company this morning,' +she added, smiling faintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ordeal over, she could scarcely keep her feet. She longed to weep. +She felt herself within an inch of swooning.</p> + +<p class="normal">He saw that she had turned pale, and he assented with a tolerable +grace. 'Let me give you my hand to your fire,' he said anxiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Willingly,' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the last effort of her diplomacy, and she hated herself for it. +Still, it won her what she wanted--peace, a respite, a little time to +think.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet as she sat and shivered in the sunshine, and made believe to eat, +and tried to hide her thoughts, even from her women, a crushing sense +of her loneliness took possession of her. She had read often and +often, with scarce a quickening of the pulse, of men and women in +tragic straits--of men and women brought face to face with death, nay, +choosing it. But she had never pictured their feelings till now--their +despair, their shrinkings, their bitter lookings back, as the iron +doors closed upon them. She had never considered that such facts might +enter into her own life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, on a sudden, she found herself face to face with inexorable +things, with the grim realities that have closed, like the narrowing +walls of the Inquisition dungeons, on many a gay life. In the valley +below they were burying men like rotten sheep. The Waldgrave was gone, +captured or killed. Martin was gone. She was alone. Life seemed a +cheap and uncertain thing, death very near. Pleasure--folly--a dancing +on the grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of her own free will she had placed herself in the power of a man who +loved her, and whom she now hated with an untimely hatred, that was +half fear and half loathing. In his power! Her heart stood still, and +then beat faster, as she framed the thought. The sunshine, though it +was summer, seemed to fall grey and pale on the hill sward; the +morning air, though the day was warm, made her shiver. The trumpet +call, the sharp command, the glitter of weapons, that had so often +charmed her imagination, startled her now. The food was like ashes in +her mouth; she could not swallow it. She had been blind, and now she +must pay for her folly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She bad passed the night in the lee of one of the wooded knolls that +studded the ridge, and her fire had been kindled there. The nearest +group of soldiers--Tzerclas' staff, whose harsh voices and reckless +laughter came to her ears at intervals--had their fire full a hundred +paces away. For a moment she entertained the desperate idea that she +might slip away, alone, or with her women, and, passing from clump to +clump, might gain the valley from which she had ascended, and, hiding +in the woods, get somehow to Cassel. The smallest reflection showed +her that the plan was not possible, and it was rejected as soon as +formed. But a moment later she was tempted to wish that she had put it +into effect. An officer made his appearance, with his hat in his hand +and an air of haste, and wished to know, with the general's service, +whether she could be ready in an hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For what?' she asked, rising. She had been sitting on the grass.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To start, your excellency,' he replied politely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To start!' she exclaimed, taken by surprise. 'Whither, sir?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'On the return journey. To the camp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The blood rushed to her face. 'To the camp?' she repeated. 'But is the +general going to start this morning? Now?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In an hour, madam.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And leave the Waldgrave Rupert--and my servant?' she cried, in a +voice of burning indignation. 'Are they to be abandoned? It is +impossible! I will see the general. Where is he?' she continued +impetuously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is in the valley,' the man answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then take me to him,' she said, stepping forward. 'I will speak to +him. He cannot know. He has not thought.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But the officer stood silent, without offering to move. The Countess's +eyes flashed. 'Do you hear, sir?' she cried. 'Lead on, if you please. +I asked you to take me to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I heard, madam,' he replied in a low voice, 'and I crave your pardon. +But this is an army, and I am part of it. I can take orders only from +General Tzerclas. I have received them, and I cannot go beyond them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the Countess stood glaring at him, her face on fire with +wrath and indignation. She had been so long used to command, she was +of a nature so frank and imperious, that she trembled on the verge of +an outburst that could only have destroyed the little dignity it was +still possible for her to retain. Fortunately in the nick of time her +eyes met those of a group of officers who stood at a distance, +watching her. She thought that she read amusement in their gaze, and a +pride greater than that which had impelled her to anger came to her +aid. She controlled herself by a mighty effort. The colour left her +cheeks as quickly as it had flown to them. She looked at the man +coldly and disdainfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">'True,' she said, 'you do well to remind me. It is not easy to +remember that in war many things must give way. You may go, sir. I +shall be ready.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But as she stood and saw her horses saddled, her heart sank like lead. +All the misery of her false position came home to her. She felt that +now she was alone indeed, and powerless. She was leaving behind her +the only chance that remained of regaining her friends. She was going +back to put herself more completely, if that were possible, in the +general's hands. Yet she dared not resist! She dared not court defeat! +As her only hope and reserve lay in her wits and in the prestige of +her rank and beauty, to lower that prestige by an unavailing struggle, +by an unwomanly display, would be to destroy at a blow half her +defences.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess saw this; and though her heart ached for her friends, and +her eyes often turned back in unavailing hope, she mounted with a +serene brow. Her horses had been brought to the top of the hill, and +she rode down by a path which had been discovered. When she had gone a +league on the backward road she came upon the foremost part of the +captured convoy; which, was immediately halted and drawn aside, that +she might pass more conveniently and escape the noise and dust it +occasioned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the rest were three waggons laden with wounded. Awnings had been +spread to veil them from the sun, and she was spared the sight of +their sufferings. But their meanings and cries, as the waggons jolted +and creaked over the rough road, drove the blood from her cheeks. She +passed them quickly--they were many and she was one, and she could do +nothing--and rode on, little thinking who lay under the awnings, or +whose eyes followed her as she went.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_21" href="#div1Ref_21">AMONG THE WOUNDED.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When a man lies fettered at the bottom of a jolting waggon, and, +unable to help himself, is made a pillow for wounded wretches, whose +feverish struggles go near to stifling him; and when to these miseries +are added the heat of a sultry night, thirst, and the near prospect of +death, passion soon dies down. Anger gives place to pain and the chill +of apprehension. The man begins to know himself again--forgets his +enemies, thinks of his friends.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was so with me. The general's back was not turned before I ceased +to cry out; and that gained me the one alleviation I had--that I was +not gagged. They piled the waggon with bleeding, groaning men,--of our +side, of course, for no quarter was given to the other,--and I +shuddered as each mangled wretch came in. Still, I had my mouth free. +If I could not move, I could breathe, and hear what passed round me. I +could see the dark night sky lit up by the glare of the fires, or, +later, watch the stars shining coldly and indifferently down on this +scene of pain and misery.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the waggon was full they drove us, jolting and wailing, to an +appointed place, and took out some, leaving only enough to cover the +floor thickly. And then, ah me! the night began. That which at first +had been an inconvenience, became in time intolerable pain. The ropes +cut into my flesh, the boards burned my back; we were so closely +packed, and I was so tightly bound that I could not move a limb. Every +moment the wounded cried for water, and those in pain wailed and +lamented, while all night the wolves howled round the camp. In one +corner, a man whose eyes were injured babbled unceasingly of his +mother and his home. Hour by hour, for the frenzy held him all night, +he rolled his head, and chattered, and laughed! In the morning he +died, and we thanked God for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The peasant and the soldier sup the real miseries of war; the noble +and the officer, whose it is to dare death in the field, but rarely, +very rarely to lie wounded under the burning sun or through the +freezing night, only taste them. A place of arms falls; there is +quarter for my lord and a pass and courtesy for my lady, but edge and +point for the common herd. To risk all and get nothing--or a penny a +day, unpaid--is the lot of most.</p> + +<p class="normal">When morning at last dawned, I was half dead. My head seemed bursting; +my hands were purple with the tightness of my bonds. Deep groans broke +from me. I moved my eyes--the only things I could move--in an agony. +Round me I heard the sick thanking God as the light grew stronger, and +muttering words of hope. But the light helped me little. Where I lay, +trussed like a fowl, I could see nothing except the sky--whence the +sun would soon add to my miseries--and the heads of the two men who +sat propped against the waggon boards next to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I took one of these to be dead, for he had slipped to one side, and +the arm with which he had stayed himself against the floor of the +waggon stood out stiff and stark. The other man had the comfort of the +corner; there was a cloak under him and a pad behind him. But his head +was sunk on his breast, and for a while I thought him dead too, and +had a horrible dread that he would slide over on to my face and stifle +me. But he did not, and by-and-by, when the sun had risen, and I felt +that I could bear it no longer, he woke up and raised his fierce, +white face and groaned.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Ludwig. He stared at me for a minute or more in a dazed, stupid +fashion. Then he moved his leg and cried out with pain. After that he +looked at me more sensibly, and by-and-by spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Donner, man!' he said. 'What is it? You look like a ripe mulberry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I tried to answer him, but my lips and throat were so parched and +swollen I could only murmur. He saw my lips move, however, and guessed +how it was with me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They have tied you up with a vengeance!' he said with a grim smile. +'Here, Franz! Willibrod! Who is there? Come, some one. Do you hear, +you lazy knaves?' he continued in a hoarse croak. 'When I am about +again I will find some of you quicker heels!'</p> + +<p class="normal">A man just risen came grumbling to the side of the waggon. Ludwig bade +him climb in and loosen my bonds, and set me up against the side.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And take away that carrion!' he added brutally. 'Dead men pay no +fares. That is better. Ay, give him some water. He will come round.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I did presently, though for a time the blood flowing where it had been +before restrained, caused me horrible pain, and my tongue, when I +tried to thank him, seemed to be too large for my mouth. But I could +now sit up, and stretch my limbs, and even raise my hands to my mouth. +Hope returned. My thoughts flew back to Marie Wort. Her pale face and +large eyes rose before my eyes, and filled them with tears. Then there +was my lady. And the Waldgrave. Doubtless he, poor fellow, was dead. +But the rest lived--lived, and would soon look to me, look to any one +for help. On that I became myself again. I shook off the pain and +lethargy and despair of the night, and took up the burden of life. If +my wits could save us, or, failing them, some happy accident, I would +not be wanting. I had still a day or two, and all the chances of a +journey.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig gave me food and a drink from his flask. I thanked him again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are a man!' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'It was a pity you +would knot your own rope. As for these chicken-hearted tremblers,' he +continued, squinting askance at our companions, 'a fico for them! To +call themselves soldiers and pule like women! Faugh! I am sick of +them!'</p> + +<p class="normal">For my part, the sights I saw from the waggon seemed more depressing. +In every direction parties were moving, burying our dead, putting +wounded horses out of their misery, collecting plunder. One division +was at work driving the poor lowing cattle, already over-driven, back +the way they had come, through the pass and up the river bank. Another +was righting such of the waggons as had been overturned, or dragging +them out of the nether part of the valley. Everywhere men were +working, shouting, swearing, spurning the dead. All showed that the +general did not mean to linger, but would secure his booty by a timely +retreat to his camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">They came by-and-by and horsed our waggon and turned us round, and +presently we took our place in the slow, creaking procession, and +began to move up the pass. I looked everywhere for my lady, but could +see nothing of her. The noise was prodigious, the dust terrible, the +glare intolerable. I was thankful when some kind heart brought a +waggon cloth and stretched it over us. After that things were better; +and between the heat and the monotony of the motion I fell asleep, and +slept until the afternoon was well advanced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a singular thing occurred. The waggon which followed ours was +drawn by four horses abreast, whose heads as they plodded wearily +along at the tail of our waggon were so close to us that we could see +easily into the vehicle, which was full of wounded men, and covered +with an awning. We could see easily, I say; but the steady cloud of +dust through which we moved and the white glare of the sunlight gave +to everything so phantom-like an appearance that it was hard to say +whether we were looking on real things.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, the first thing I saw when I awoke and rubbed my +eyes, was the Waldgrave's face! He lay in the front part of the +waggon, his head on the side-board. Thinking I dreamed, or that the +dust deceived me, I rubbed my eyes again and looked. Still it was he. +His eyes were closed. He was pale, where the dust did not hide all +colour; his head moved with the motion of the wheels. But he seemed to +be alive, for even while I looked, a man who sat by him leaned forward +and moistened his forehead with water.</p> + +<p class="normal">Trembling with excitement, I touched Ludwig on the shoulder. 'Look!' I +said. 'The Waldgrave!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked and nodded. 'Yes,' he said, chuckling. 'Now you see what you +have done for yourself. And all for nothing!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But who took him up?' I persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The general,' he answered sententiously. 'Who else?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' I cried in a fever. 'Why did he do it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'He knows his own business,' he said. +'I suppose that he found he had life in him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did he take him up at once? After I was seized?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of course. Whether he will live or no is another matter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The helpless way in which the dusty, bedraggled head rolled as the +waggon jolted, warned me of that. Still, he was alive. He might live; +and I longed to be beside him, to tend and nurse him, to make the most +of the least hope. But my eyes fell on my fettered hands; and when I +looked again he had disappeared. He had sunk down in the cart, and was +out of sight. I was left to wonder whether he was dead, or had only +changed his posture for another more comfortable. And the dust growing +ever thicker, and the sun-glare less as the day advanced, I presently +lost sight even of the waggon.</p> + +<p class="normal">We lay that night in a coppice on the left bank of the river. Each +waggon halted where it stood at sunset, so that there was no common +camp, but all along the road a line of bivouacs. But for the cloud of +anxiety which darkened my mind, and the cords which bound my hands and +constantly reminded me of my troubles, I might have enjoyed the +comparative quietness of that night, the evening coolness, the soft +green light, the freshness of leaf and bough, which lapped us round +and seemed so much the more refreshing, as we had passed the day in a +fever of heat and dust. But the unexpected sight of the Waldgrave had +excited me; and I confess that as we came nearer to the camp, the +tremors I felt on my own account grew more violent. I recalled with a +shudder the shooting-match at which I had been present, and the +leather targets. I drew vivid pictures of another shooting-match in +the same valley--of my lady looking on in ignorance, of minutes of +suspense, of a sudden pang, a gagged scream, of hours of lingering +torture.</p> + +<p class="normal">Against such dreams the silence and beauty of the night were +powerless, and the morning found me wakeful and unrefreshed, divided +between reluctance to desert my lady and the instinct which bade me +make an attempt at escape by the way, and while the chances of the +journey were still mine. How I might have acted had a favourable +opportunity presented itself, I cannot say; but as things went, I did +nothing, and a little before sunset on the third day we gained the +camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, I confess, I wished with all my heart that I had taken any +chance, however slight. At sight of the familiar lines, the dusty, +littered roads, the squalid crowds that came out to meet us, my gorge +rose. The very smell of the place which I had so hated gave me qualms. +I turned hot and cold as we rumbled slowly through the throng and one +pointed me out to another, and I saw round me again the dark, lowering +faces, the unsexed women, the horde of vile sutlers and footboys. They +surged round the waggon, jeering and staring; and if I had shrunk from +them when my hands were free, I loathed them still more now that I lay +a prisoner and any moment might place me at their mercy.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had seen nothing of the Waldgrave or the waggon which carried him +for nearly two days, but as we passed through the gates I caught sight +of the latter moving slowly on, a little way in front of us. Both +waggons halted inside the camp while the wounded were taken out. I +prepared to follow, but was bidden to stay. Then I began to realize my +position. When the waggon bore me on alone--alone, though two or three +pikemen and a rabble of gibing, grinning horse-boys marched beside +me--I felt my blood run cold, and found my only consolation in the +fact that the other waggon still went in front, and seemed to be bound +for the same goal.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What are you going to do with me?' I asked one of the ruffians who +guarded me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Prison,' he answered laconically.</p> + +<p class="normal">And a strange prison it was. On the verge of the camp, near the river, +where a snug farmhouse had once stood, rose four gaunt walls, +blackened with smoke. The roof was gone--burned off; but the rooftree, +charred and soot-begrimed, still ran from gable to gable. A strong, +high gate filled the room of the door; the windows had been bricked +up. When I saw the waggon which preceded me halt before this +melancholy place, I looked out between hope and fear--fearing some act +of treachery, hoping to see the Waldgrave. But the blackguard crowd +which surrounded the doorway was so great that it hid everything; and +I had to curb my impatience until in turn my waggon stopped in the +midst of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">A mocking voice called to me to descend, and though I liked the look +of the place little, and the aspect of the gang still less, I had no +choice but to obey. I scrambled down, and passed as quickly as I could +down the lane opened for me. A row of more villainous faces it has +seldom been my fate to see, but the last on the right by the gate was +so much the worst, that it caught my eye instantly. It was seamed with +scars and bloated with drink, and it wore a ferocious grin. I was not +surprised when the knave, a huge pikeman, dealt me, as I passed, a +brutal shove with his knee, which sent me staggering into the +enclosure, where I fell all at length on my face.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blow hurt my hip cruelly, and yet the sight of that drunken, +ugly giant filled me with a rush of joy and hope that effaced all +other feelings. I forgot my fellow-prisoners, I forgot even the +Waldgrave--who to be sure was there, sitting doubled up against the +wall, and looking very white and sick. For the man with the seamed +face was Drunken Steve of Heritzburg, whom we had left behind us in +the castle, to be cured of his wounds. I had punished him a dozen +times; almost as often my lady had threatened to drive him from the +place and her service. Always he had had the name of a sullen, wilful +fellow. But I had found him staunch as any tyke in time of need. For +dogged fidelity and a ferocious courage, proof against the utmost +danger, I knew that I could depend on him against the world; while the +prompt line of conduct he had adopted at sight of me led me to hope +something from wits which drink had not yet deadened.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was well I had this spark of hope, for I found the Waldgrave so +ill as to be beyond comfort or counsel, and without it I should have +been in a parlous state. The place of our confinement was roofless, +ill-smelling, strewn with refuse and filth, a mere dog-yard. A little +straw alone protected us from the soil. Everything we did was watched +through the open bars of the gate; and bad as this place was, we +shared it with two soldiers, who lay, heavily shackled, in one corner, +and sullenly eyed my movements.</p> + +<p class="normal">I did what I could for the Waldgrave, and then, as darkness +fell, I sat down with my back to the wall and thought over our +position--miserably enough. Half an hour passed, and I was beginning +to nod, when a slight noise as of a rat gnawing a board caught my ear. +I raised my head and listened; the sound came from the gate. I stood +up and crept towards it. As I expected, I found Steve on guard +outside. Even in the darkness it was impossible to mistake his huge +figure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush!' he muttered. 'Is it you, master?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I replied in the same tone. 'Are you alone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For the moment,' he answered hoarsely. 'Not for long. So speak +quickly. What is to be done?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Alas! that was more than I could say. 'What of my lady?' I replied +vaguely. 'Is she here? In the camp?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To be sure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And Marie Wort? The Papist girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, yes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then you must see Marie,' I answered. 'She will know my lady's mind. +Until we know that, we can do nothing. Do not tell her where I am--it +may hurt the girl; or of the Waldgrave, but learn how they are. If +things are bad with my lady, bid them gain time. You understand?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, yes,' he grunted. 'And that is to be all, is it? You will have +nothing done to-night?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What, here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To be sure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, no,' I replied, trembling for the man's rashness. 'We can do +nothing here until horses are got and placed for us, and the pass-word +learned, and provisions gathered, and half a dozen other things.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Donner! I don't know how all that is to be done,' he muttered +despondently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nor I,' I said with a shiver. 'You have not heard anything of a--a +shooting-match, have you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is for Sunday,' he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And to-day is Tuesday,' I said. 'Steve! you will not lose time?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, no.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will see her in the morning? In the morning, lad,' I continued +feverishly, clinging to the bars and peering out at him. 'I must get +out of this before Sunday! And this is Tuesday! Steve!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush!' he answered. 'They are coming back.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_22" href="#div1Ref_22">GREEK AND GREEK.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">What my lady's thoughts were during her long ride back to the camp, I +do not know. But I have heard her say that when she rode into the +village, a day and a half in advance of the dusty, lumbering convoy, +she could scarcely believe that it was the place she had left, the +place in which she had lived for a fortnight. And this, though all +remained the same. So much does the point from which we look at things +alter their aspect.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general had sent on the news of the Waldgrave's loss by messenger, +that she might be spared the pain of telling it; and Fraulein Max and +Marie Wort were waiting on the wooden platform before the house when +she rode wearily in. The sight of those two gave her a certain sense +of relief and home coming, merely because they were women and wore +petticoats. But that was all. The village, the reeking camp, the +squalid soldiery, the whining beggars filled her--now that her eyes +were opened and she saw this ugly face of war stripped of the glamour +with which her fancy had invested it--with fear and repulsion. She +wondered that she could ever have liked the place and been gay in it, +or drawn pleasure from the amusements which now seemed poor and +tawdry.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Max ran down into the road to meet her, and when she had +dismounted, covered her with tearful caresses. But the Countess, after +receiving her greetings, still looked round wistfully as if she missed +some one; and then in a moment moved from her, and mounting the steps +went swiftly to the dark corner by the porch whither Marie Wort had +run, and where she now stood leaning against the house with her face +to the wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady, whom few had ever seen unbend, took the girl in her arms, and +laid her head on her shoulder and stroked her hair pitifully.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush, hush, child!' she murmured, her eyes wet with tears. 'Poor +child, poor child! Is it so very bad?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marie could only sob.</p> + +<p class="normal">They went into the house in a moment after that, those three, with the +waiting-women. And then a change came over the Countess. Fraulein Max +blinked to see it. My lady who, outside, had been so tender, began, +before her riding cloak was off, to walk up and down like a caged +wolf, with hard eyes and cheeks burning with indignation. Fraulein Max +spoke to her timidly--said that the meal was ready, that my lady's +woman was waiting, that my lady must be tired. But the Countess put +her by almost with an oath. For hours she had been playing a part, a +thing her proud soul loathed. For hours she had hidden, not her sorrow +only and her anger, but her anxieties, her fears, her terrors. Now she +must be herself or die.</p> + +<p class="normal">Besides, the thing pressed! She had her woman's wits, and might stave +off the general's offer for a few days, for a week. But a week--what +was that? No wonder that she looked on the four helpless women round +her, and realised that these were her only helpers now, her only +protection; no wonder that she cried out.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have been a fool!' she said, looking at them with burning eyes. 'A +fool! When Martin warned me, I would not listen; when the Waldgrave +hinted, I laughed at him. I was bewitched, like a silly fool in her +teens! Don't contradict me!' And she stamped her foot impatiently. +Fraulein Max had raised her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I don't,' the Fraulein answered. 'I don't understand you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you understand that empty, chair?' my lady answered bitterly. 'Or +that empty stool?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Anna blinked more and more. 'But war,' she said mildly--'a +necessary evil, Voetius calls it--war, Countess----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh!' my lady cried in a fury. 'As carried on by these, it is a +horror, a fiendish thing! I did not know before. Now I have seen it. +Wait, wait, girl, until it takes those you love, and threatens your +own safety, and then talk to me of war!'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Fraulein Anna set her face mutinously. 'Still, I do not +understand,' she said slowly, winking her short-sighted eyes like +an owl in the daylight. 'You talk as if we had cause not only to +grieve--as we have, indeed--but to fear. Are we not safe here? General +Tzerclas----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Bah!' the Countess cried, trembling with emotion. 'Don't let me hear +his name! I hate him. He is false. False, girl. I do not trust him; I +do not believe him; and I would to Heaven we were out of his hands!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Even Marie Wort, sitting white and quiet in a corner, looked up at +that. As for Fraulein Max, she passed her tongue slowly over her lips, +but did not answer; and for a moment there was silence in the room. +Then Marie said very softly, 'Thank God!'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady turned to her roughly. 'Why do you say that?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because of what I have learned since you left us,' the girl answered, +in a frightened whisper. 'There was a man who lived in this house, my +lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, yes,' the Countess muttered eagerly. 'I remember he begged of +me, and General Tzerclas gave him money. That was one of the things +that blinded me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He hung him afterwards,' the girl whispered in a shaking voice. 'By +the river, in the south-east corner of the camp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess stared at her incredulously, rage and horror in her face. +'That man whom I saw?' she cried. 'It is not possible! You have been +deceived.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marie Wort shook her head. 'It is true,' she said simply.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then Heaven help us all!' the Countess whispered in a thrilling tone. +'For we are in that man's power!'</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a stricken silence after that, which lasted some minutes. +The room seemed to grow darker, the house more silent, the road on +which they looked through the unglazed window more dusty, squalid, +dreary--dreary with the summer dreariness of drought. One of the +waiting-women began to cry. The other stood bolt upright, looking out +with startled eyes, and lips half open.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, all,' the Countess presently went on, her voice hard and +composed. 'He has asked me to be his wife. He has honoured me so far.' +She laughed a thin, mirthless laugh. 'If I am willing, therefore, +well. If I am not--still he will wed me. After that he will keep us +here in the midst of these horrors. Or he will march to Heritzburg, +and then God help Heritzburg and my people!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Anna passed her tongue over her lips again, and shifted her +hands in her lap. She was paler than usual. But she did not speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The child?' the Countess said presently, in a different tone. 'Has it +been recovered?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie shook her head; and a moment later threw her kerchief over her +face and went out. They heard her sobs as she went along the passage.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady frowned. 'If we could get a message to Count Leuchtenstein,' +she murmured thoughtfully. 'But I do not know where he is. He may +return to seek the child, however; and that is our best chance, I +think.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They brought food in after that, and the council broke up. It is to be +feared that the Countess found herself little the better for its +advice.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the evening the general called to learn whether she was much +fatigued; and she fancied she detected in his manner a masterfulness +and a familiarity from which it had been free. But her suspicions +rendered her so prone to read between the lines, that it is possible +that she saw some things that were not there. Her own feelings she +succeeded in masking, except in one matter. He brought Count Waska +with him; and it occurred to her, in her fear and helplessness, that +she might enlist the Bohemian on her side. Such schemes come to women, +even to proud women; and though Waska, half sportsman and half sot, +and in body a mountain of flesh, was an unlikely knight-errant, she +plied him so craftily, that when the two were gone she sat for an hour +in a state of exaltation, believing that here a new and unexpected way +to safety might open. The Bohemian was second in command, though at a +great interval. He was popular, and in some points a gentleman. Could +she excite in him jealousy, discontent, even passion, her position was +such that she was in no mood to stand on scruples.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when the general came next day, <i>he did not bring Waska</i>; nor the +day after. And he showed so plainly that he saw through the design, +and suspected her, that he left her white and furious. Indeed it was a +question who was left by this interview the more excited, my lady, who +saw the circle growing ever narrower round her, and read with growing +clearness the man's determination to win her at all costs and by all +means; or the general, whose passion every day augmented, who saw in +her both the woman he desired and the heiress, and would fain, if he +could, have won her heart as well as her person.</p> + +<p class="normal">The possession of power tempts to the use of it, and he began to lose +patience. He had a screw in readiness, he fancied, that would bend +even that proud neck and humble those knees. A day or two more he +would give her, and then he would turn it. Hate itself is not more +cruel than love despised!</p> + +<p class="normal">But he did not count on her influence over him. The day or two passed, +and another day or two, and still she kept him amused and kept him at +bay. Sometimes he saw through her wiles, and came near to vowing that +he would not give her another hour. Will she, nill she, she should wed +him. But then the glamour of her presence and her beauty blinded him +again. And so a week went slowly by; each day won, at what a cost of +pride, of courage, of self-respect!</p> + +<p class="normal">At the end of that time my lady's face had grown so white and drawn +under the strain, that when she sat alone she looked years older than +her age. The light still flashed in her eyes; they had grown only the +larger. But her cheeks and her lips had lost their colour, her hair +its gloss. When no one was watching her, she glanced round her like a +hunted animal. When anything crossed her, she flew into fearful rages +with her women. They were so useless, so helpless! She was like a +scorpion I have heard of, that, ringed round with fire, stings all +within its reach.</p> + +<p class="normal">How many nights she tossed, sleepless; how often she went over the +odds against her; grasped at this idea or that; thought of horses and +roads, ways and means, the distance to Cassel, or the chances of +Leuchtenstein's return, I cannot say; but I can guess. At last, during +one of these night vigils, something happened. She was lying, +torturing herself with the thought that to this constant putting off +there could only be one end, when she heard sneaking footsteps moving +in the passage. The wall which divided it from her room ran beside her +bed, and, lying still, she heard the rustling of garments against the +boards.</p> + +<p class="normal">Something like this she had feared in her worst moments; and on the +instant she sat up and listened, her heart beating wildly. Since her +return the two waiting-women had lain in her room. She could hear them +breathing now. But beside and above that, she could hear the stealthy +rustling sound she had heard before. Then it ceased.</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose trembling. The windows were shuttered, and the lamp which +commonly burned in a basin had gone out. The room, therefore, was +quite dark. Without awaking the women she stole across the floor to +the door, and there set her ear to the panels and listened. But she +heard nothing except the distant shout of a reveller, and the mournful +howling of one of the pack of curs that infested the camp; all was +still.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still she crouched there listening, and presently her patience was +rewarded. Some one entered by the outer door, and went quickly along +the passage, the boards creaking so loudly that it was a wonder the +women were not aroused. The footsteps went straight to the room where +Fraulein Max and Marie Wort slept. Some one had been out and returned!</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a hint of treachery here, and my lady stood up, her face +growing hard. Which of the two was it? In a moment she had her answer. +A dozen times in the last week Marie had puzzled her; a dozen times +the Papist girl's easy resignation had angered her. She had caught her +more than once smiling--smiling childish smiles that would not be +repressed. This was the secret, then!</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess grew hot, and in a moment was out of her room and at the +door of that other room. A taper still burned there; its light showed +through the cracks. Without hesitation she thrust the door open, and +entering surprised Marie Wort in the very act. The girl was standing +in the middle of the floor taking off a cloak. Guilt and fear were +written on her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You wicked girl!' the Countess cried, her eyes blazing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she stopped. For Marie, instead of retreating before her, pointed +with a warning finger to a second empty pallet; and my lady looking +round saw with astonishment that Fraulein Max was missing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What does this mean?' the Countess muttered in a different tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie, trembling and listening, put her finger to her lips. 'Hush, +hush, my lady,' she whispered. 'She must not find you here! She must +not, indeed. I heard her go out, and I followed. I have heard all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'All?' the Countess stammered, and she began to tremble.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' the girl answered. Then 'Go, go! my lady,' she cried. She was +shaking with agitation, and looked round as if for a way of escape. +But there was no second door to the room. 'If she finds you here we +are lost. Go back, and in the morning----'</p> + +<p class="normal">She stopped abruptly, and her eyes grew wide. The Countess listening +too, and catching the infection of her fear, heard a board creak +below.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the two stood in the middle of the floor, gazing into one +another's eyes. Then Marie, with a sudden movement, thrust my lady +down on her pallet, and with the other hand put out the light.</p> + +<p class="normal">They lay, scarcely daring to breathe, and heard Fraulein Anna grope +her way in, and stand awhile, silent and listening, as if she found +something suspicious in the extinction of the light. But the taper--it +was a mere rushlight--had done this before, and Marie stirred so +naturally, that Fraulein Max's doubts passed away. She put off her +cloak quickly, and presently--but not, as it seemed to the Countess, +until an hour had elapsed--they heard her begin to breathe regularly. +A few minutes more and they had no doubt she slept. Then Marie touched +my lady's arm, and the latter, rising softly, stole out of the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">The adventure left the Countess's thoughts in a whirl. She hated +double-dealing as much as any one, and she could scarcely contain +herself before Fraulein Max. It was as much as she could do to wear a +smooth face for an hour, until a chance occasion, which fortunately +came early in the day, left her alone with Marie. Then she turned, +almost fiercely, on the girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is this?' she said. 'What does it all mean? Himmel! Tell me! +Tell me quickly!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie Wort looked at her with tears in her eyes. 'You should be able +to guess, my lady,' she said sadly. 'There is a traitor among us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fraulein Anna?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie nodded. 'She is in his pay,' she said simply.</p> + +<p class="normal">'His? The general's?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' Marie answered, speaking quickly, with her eyes on the door. +'She met him last night, and told him what you feel about him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess drew a deep breath. Her face turned a shade paler. She +sat up straight in her chair. 'All?' she said huskily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And he?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He said he would have an answer to-day. Then I left. I did not hear +any more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess sat for a minute as if turned to stone. Here was an end +of putting off--of smiles, and pleasant words, and the little +craftinesses which had hitherto served her. Stern necessity, hard fate +were before her. She was of a high courage, but terror was fast +mastering her, when Marie touched her on the arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you can put him off, until this evening,' the girl muttered, 'I +think something may be done.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Something. I do not know what,' the girl answered in a troubled tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess rose suddenly. 'Ah! I would like to choke her!' she cried +hoarsely. She stretched out her arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush, hush, my lady!' Marie whispered. The Countess's violence +frightened her. 'I think, if you can put him off until to-night, we +may contrive something.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We? You and I?' my lady said in scorn. But as she looked at the +other's pale, earnest face, her own softened, her tone changed. 'Well, +it shall be as you wish,' she said, letting her arms drop. 'You are a +better plotter than I am. But I fear Fraulein Cat, Fraulein Snake, +Fraulein Fox will prove the best of all!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie's frightened face showed that she thought this possible, but she +said no more, and would give my lady no explanation, though the +Countess pressed for it. It was decided in the end that the Countess +should plead sudden illness, and use that pretext both to avoid +Fraulein Max, and postpone her interview with the general until the +evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came at noon, and the Countess heard his horses pawing and fretting +in the road, and she sat up in her darkened room with a white face. +What if he would not accept the excuse? If he would see her? What if +the moment had come in which his will and hers must decide the +struggle? She rose and stood listening, as fierce in her beauty as any +trapped savage creature. Her heartbeat wildly, her bosom heaved. But +in a moment she heard the horses move away, and presently Marie came +in to tell her that he would wait till evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No longer?' the Countess asked, hiding her face in the pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not an hour, he said,' Marie answered, indicating by a gesture +that the door was open, and that Fraulein Max was listening. 'He +was--different,' she whispered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How?' my lady muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He swore at me,' Marie answered in the same tone. 'And he spoke of +you--somehow differently.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess laughed, but far from joyously. 'I suppose to-night--I +must see him?' she said. She tried as she spoke to press herself more +deeply into the pillows, as if she might escape that way. Her flesh +crept, and she shivered though she was as hot as fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once or twice in the hours which followed she was almost beside +herself. Sometimes she prayed. More often she walked up and down the +room like one in a fever. She did not know on what she was trusting, +and she could have struck Marie when the girl, appealed to again and +again, would explain nothing, and name no quarter from which help +might come. All the afternoon the camp lay grilling in the sunshine, +and in the shuttered room in the middle of it my lady suffered. Had +the house lain by the river she might have tried to escape; but the +camp girdled it on three sides, and on the fourth, where a swampy +inlet guarded one flank of the village, a deep ditch as well as the +morass forbade all passage.</p> + +<p class="normal">She remained in her room until she heard the unwelcome sounds which +told of the general's return. Then she came into the outer room, her +eyes glittering, a red spot on either cheek, all pretence at an end. +Her glance withered Fraulein Max, who sat blinking in a corner with a +very evil conscience. And to Marie Wort, when the girl came near her +on the pretence of adjusting her lace sleeves, she had only one word +to say.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You slut!' she hissed, her breath hot on the girl's cheek. 'If you +fail me I will kill you. Begone out of my sight!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The child, excited before, broke down at that, and, bursting into a +fit of weeping, ran out. Her sobs were still in the air when General +Tzerclas entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess's face was flushed, and her bearing, full of passion and +defiance, must have warned him what to expect, if he felt any doubt +before. The sun was just setting, the room growing dusk. He stood +awhile, after saluting her, in doubt how he should come to the point, +or in admiration; for her scorn and anger only increased her beauty +and his feeling for her. At length he pointed lightly to the women, +who kept their places by the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it your wish, fair cousin,' he said slowly, 'that I should speak +before these, or will you see me alone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your spy, that cat there,' my lady answered, carried away by her +temper, 'may go! The women will stay.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Max, singled out by that merciless finger, sprang forward, +her face mottled with surprise and terror. For a second she hesitated. +Then she rushed towards her friend, as if she would embrace her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Countess!' she cried. 'Rotha! Surely you are mad! You cannot think +that I would----'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady turned, and in a flash struck her fiercely on the cheek with +her open hand. 'Liar!' she cried; 'go to your master, you whipped +hound!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dutch woman recoiled with a cry of pain, and sobbing wildly went +back to her place. The general laughed harshly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You hold with me, sweetheart,' he said. 'Discipline before +everything. But you have not my patience.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him--angry with him, angry with herself, her hand to her +bosom--but she did not answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For you must allow,' he continued--his tone and his eyes still +bantered her--'that I have been patient. I have been like a man +athirst in the desert; but I have waited day after day, until now I +can wait no longer, sweetheart.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So you tamper with my--with that woman!' she said scornfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">The general shrugged his shoulders and laughed grimly. 'Why not?' he +said. 'What are waiting-women and the like made for, if not to be +bribed--or slapped?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She hated him for that sly hit--if never before; but she controlled +herself. She would throw the burden on him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He read the thought, and it led him to change his tone. There was a +gloomy fire in his eyes, and smouldering passion in his voice, when he +spoke again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Countess,' he said, 'I am here for your answer.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To what?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To the question I asked you some time ago,' he rejoined, dwelling on +her with sullen eyes. 'I asked you to be my wife. Your answer?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Prythee!' she said proudly, 'this is a strange way of wooing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is not of my choice that I woo in company,' he answered, shrugging +his shoulders. 'My answer; that is all I want--and you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then you shall have the first, and not the last,' she exclaimed on a +sudden impulse. 'No, no--a hundred times no! If you do not see that by +pressing me now,' she continued impetuously, 'when I am alone, +friendless, and unprotected, you insult me, you should see it, and I +do.'</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment there was silence. Then he laughed; but his voice, +notwithstanding his mastery over it and in spite of that laugh, shook +with rage and resentment. 'As I expected,' he said. 'I knew last night +that you hated me. You have been playing a part throughout. You loathe +me. Yes, madam, you may wince,' he continued bitterly, 'for you shall +still be my wife; and when you are my wife we will talk of that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never!' she said, with a brave face; but her heart beat wildly, and a +mist rose before her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed. 'My legions are round me,' he said. 'Where are yours?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are a gentleman,' she answered with an effort. 'You will let me +go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If I do not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There are those who will know how to avenge me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed again. 'I do not know them, Countess,' he said +contemptuously. 'For Hesse Cassel, he has his hands full at Nuremberg, +and will be likely, when Wallenstein has done with him, to need help +himself. The King of Sweden--the brightest morning ends soonest in +rain--and he will end at Nuremberg. Bernhard of Weimar, Leuchtenstein, +all the fanatics fall with him. Only the banner of the Free Companies +stands and waves ever the wider. Be advised,' he continued grimly. +'Bend, Countess, or I have the means to break you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never!' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So you say now,' he answered slowly. 'You will not say so in five +minutes. If you care nothing for yourself, have a care for your +friends.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You said I had none,' she retorted hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'None that can help you,' he replied; 'some that you can help.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She started and looked at him wildly, her lips apart, her eyes wide +with hope, fear, expectation. What did he mean? What could he mean by +this new turn? Ha!</p> + +<p class="normal">She had her face towards the window, and dark as the room was +growing--outside the light was failing fast--he read the thought in +her eyes, and nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave?' he said lightly. 'Yes, he is alive, Countess, at +present; and your steward also.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are prisoners?' she whispered, her cheeks grown white.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Prisoners; and under sentence of death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In my camp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' she muttered. But alas! she knew; she knew already.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are hostages for your good behaviour,' he answered in his cold, +mocking tone. 'If their principal satisfies me, good; they will go +free. If not, they die--to-morrow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To-morrow?' she gasped.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To-morrow,' he answered ruthlessly. 'Now I think we understand one +another.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She threw up her hand suddenly, as if she were about to vent on him +all the passions which consumed her--the terror, rage, and shame which +swelled in her breast. But something in his gibing tone, something in +the set lines of his figure--she could not see his face--checked her. +She let her hand fall in a gesture of despair, and shrank into +herself, shuddering. She looked at him as at a serpent--that +fascinated her. At last she murmured--</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will not dare. What have they done to you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing,' he answered. 'It is not their affair; it is yours.'</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment after that they stood confronting one another while the +sound of the women sobbing in a corner, and the occasional jingle of a +bridle outside, alone broke the silence. Behind her the room was dark; +behind him, through the open windows, lay the road, glimmering pale +through the dusk. Suddenly the door at her back opened, and a bright +light flashed on his face. It was Marie Wort bringing in a lamp. No +one spoke, and she set the lamp on the table, and going by him began +to close the shutters. Still the Countess stood as if turned to stone, +and he stood watching her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where are they?' she moaned at last, though he had already told her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the camp,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Can I--can I see them?' she panted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Afterwards,' he answered, with the smile of a fiend; 'when you are my +wife.'</p> + +<p class="normal">That added the last straw. She took two steps to the table, and +sitting down blindly, covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders +began to tremble, her head sank lower and lower on the table. Her +pride was gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heaven help us!' she whispered in a passion of grief. 'Heaven help +us, for there is no help here!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is better,' he said, eyeing her coldly. 'We shall soon come to +terms now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">In his exultation he went a step nearer to her. He was about to touch +her--to lay his hand on her hair, believing his evil victory won, when +suddenly two dark figures rose like shadows behind her chair. He +recoiled, dropping his hand. In a moment a pistol barrel was thrust +into his face. He fell back another step.</p> + +<p class="normal">'One word and you are a dead man!' a stern voice hissed in his ear. +Then he saw another barrel gleam in the lamplight, and he stood still.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is this?' he said, looking from one to the other, his voice +trembling with rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Justice!' the same speaker answered harshly. 'But stand still and be +silent, and you shall have your life. Give the alarm, and you die, +general, though we die the next minute. Sit down in that chair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He hesitated. But the two shining barrels converging on his head, the +two grim faces behind them, were convincing; in a moment he obeyed.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_23" href="#div1Ref_23">THE FLIGHT.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">One of the men--it was I--muttered something to Marie, and she snuffed +the wick, and blew up the light. In a moment it filled the room, +disclosing a strange medley of levelled weapons, startled faces, and +flashing eyes. In one corner Fraulein Max and the two women cowered +behind one another, trembling and staring. At the table sat my lady, +with dull, dazed eyes, looking on, yet scarcely understanding what was +happening. On either side of her stood Steve and I, covering the +general with our pistols, while the Waldgrave, who was still too weak +for much exertion, kept guard at the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tzerclas was the first to speak. 'What is this foolery?' he said, +scowling unutterable curses at us. 'What does this mean?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This!' I said, producing a piece of hide rope. 'We are going to tie +you up. If you struggle, general, you die. If you submit, you live. +That is all. Go to work, Steve.'</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a gleam in Tzerclas' eye, which warned me to stand back and +crook my finger. His face was black with fury, and for an instant I +thought that he would spring upon us and dare all. But prudence and +the pistols prevailed. With an evil look he sat still, and in a trice +Steve had a loop round his arms and was binding him to the heavy +chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">I knew then that as far as he was concerned we were safe; and I turned +to bid the women get cloaks and food, adjuring them to be quick, since +every moment was precious.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Bring nothing but cloaks and food and wine,' I said. 'We have to go a +league on foot and can carry little.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess heard my words, and looked at me with growing +comprehension. 'The Waldgrave?' she muttered. 'Is he here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He came forward from the door to speak to her; but when she saw him, +and how pale and thin he was, with great hollows in his cheeks and his +eyes grown too large for his face, she began to cry weakly, as any +other woman might have cried, being overwrought. I bade Marie, who +alone kept her wits, to bring her wine and make her take it; and in a +minute she smiled at us, and would have thanked us.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wait!' I said bluntly, feeling a great horror upon me whenever I +looked towards the general or caught his eye. 'You may have small +cause to thank us. If we fail, Heaven and you forgive us, my lady, for +this man will not. If we are retaken----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We will not be retaken!' she cried hardily. 'You have horses?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Five only,' I answered. 'They are all Steve could get, and they are a +league away. We must go to them on foot. There are eight of us here, +and young Jacob and Ernst are watching outside. Are all ready?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked round; her eye fell on Fraulein Max, who with a little +bundle in her arms had just re-entered and stood shivering by the +door. The Dutch girl winced under her glance, and dropping her bundle, +stooped hurriedly to pick it up.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That woman does not go!' the Countess said suddenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I answered in a low tone that I thought she must.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' my lady cried harshly--she could be cruel sometimes--'not with +us. She does not belong to our party. Let her stay with her paymaster, +and to-morrow he will doubtless reward her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">What reward she was likely to get Fraulein Max knew well. She flung +herself at my lady's feet in an agony of fear, and clutching her +skirts, cried abjectly for mercy; she would carry, she would help, she +would do anything, if she might go! Knowing that we dared not leave +her since she would be certain to release the general as soon as our +backs were turned, I was glad when Marie, whose heart was touched, +joined her prayers to the culprit's and won a reluctant consent.</p> + +<p class="normal">It has taken long to tell these things. They passed very quickly. I +suppose not more than a quarter of an hour elapsed between our first +appearance and this juncture, which saw us all standing in the +lamplight, laden and ready to be gone; while the general glowered at +us in sullen rage, and my lady, with a new thought in her mind, looked +round in dismay.</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew me aside. 'Martin,' she said, 'his orderly is waiting in the +road with his horse. The moment we are gone he will shout to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have provided for that,' I answered, nodding. Then assuring myself +by a last look round that all were ready, I gave the word. 'Now, +Steve!' I said sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a twinkling he flung over the general's head a small sack doubled +inwards. We heard a stifled oath and a cry of rage. The bars of the +strong chair creaked as our prisoner struggled, and for a moment it +seemed as if the knots would barely hold. But the work had been well +done, and in less than half a minute Steve had secured the sack to the +chair-back. It was as good as a gag, and safer. Then we took up the +chair between us, and lifting it into the back room, put it down and +locked the door upon our captive.</p> + +<p class="normal">As we turned from it Steve looked at me. 'If he catches us after this, +Master Martin,' he said, 'it won't be an easy death we shall die!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heaven forbid!' I muttered. 'Let us be off!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave the word and we stole out into the darkness at the back of the +house, Steve, who had surveyed the ground, going first. My lady +followed him; then came the Waldgrave; after him the two women and +Fraulein Max, with Jacob and Ernst; last of all, Marie and I. It was +no time for love-making, but as we all stood a minute in the night, +while Steve listened, I drew Marie's little figure to me and kissed +her pale face again and again; and she clung to me, trembling, her +eyes shining into mine. Then she put me away bravely; but I took her +bundle, and with full hearts we followed the others across the field +at the back and through the ditch.</p> + +<p class="normal">That passed, we found ourselves on the edge of the village, with the +lights of the camp forming five-sixths of a circle round us. In one +direction only, where the swamp and creek fringed the place, a dark +gap broke the ring of twinkling fires. Towards this gap Steve led the +way, and we, a silent line of gliding figures, followed him. The moon +had not yet risen. The gloom was such that I could barely make out the +third figure before me; and though all manner of noises--the chorus of +a song, the voice of a scolding hag, even the rattle of dice on a +drumhead--came clearly to my ears, and we seemed to be enclosed on all +sides, the darkness proved an effectual shield. We met no one, and +five minutes after leaving the house, reached the bank of the little +creek I have mentioned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here we paused and waited, a group of huddled figures, while Steve +groped about for a plank he had hidden. Before us lay the stream, +behind us the camp. At any moment the alarm might be raised. I +pictured the outcry, the sudden flickering of lights, the galloping +this way and that, the discovery. And then, thank Heaven! Steve found +his plank, and in the work of passing the women over I forgot my +fears. The darkness, the peril--for the water on the nearer side was +deep--the nervous haste of some, and the terror of others, made the +task no easy one. I was hot as fire and wet to the waist before it was +over, and we all stood ankle-deep in the ooze which formed the farther +bank.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alas! our troubles were only beginning. Through this ooze we had to +wade for a mile or more, sometimes in doubt, always in darkness; now +plashing into pools, now stumbling over a submerged log, often up to +our knees in mud and water. The frogs croaked round us, the bog moaned +and gurgled; in the depth of the marsh the bitterns boomed mournfully. +If we stood a moment we sank. It was a horrible time; and the more +horrible, as through it all we had only to turn to see the camp lights +behind us, a poor half-mile or so away.</p> + +<p class="normal">None but desperate men could have exposed women to such a labour; nor +could any but women without hope and at their wit's end have +accomplished it. As it was, Fraulein Max, who never ceased to whimper, +twice sank down and would go no farther, and we had to pluck her up +roughly and force her on. My lady's women, who wept in their misery, +were little better. Wet to the waist, draggled, and worn out by the +clinging slime and the reek of the marsh, they were kept moving only +with difficulty; so that, but for Steve's giant strength and my lady's +courage, I think we should have stayed there till daylight, and been +caught like birds limed on a bough.</p> + +<p class="normal">As it was, we plunged and strove for more than an hour in that place, +the dark sky above us, the quaking bog below, the women's weeping in +our ears. Then, at last, when I had almost given up hope, we struggled +out one by one upon the road, and stood panting and shaking, +astonished to find solid ground under our feet. We had still two miles +to walk, but on dry soil; and though at another time the task might +have seemed to the women full of adventure and arduous, it failed to +frighten them after what we had gone through. Steve took Fraulein +Anna, and I one of the women. My lady and the Waldgrave went hand in +hand; the one giving, I fancy, as much help as the other. For Marie, +her small, white face was a beacon of hope in the darkness. In the +marsh she had never failed or fainted. On the road the tears came into +my eyes for pity and love and admiration.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length Steve bade us stand, and leaving us in the way, plunged into +the denser blackness of a thicket, which lay between it and the river. +I heard him parting the branches before him, and stumbling and +swearing, until presently the sounds died away in the distance, and we +remained shivering and waiting. What if the horses were gone? What if +they had strayed from the place where he had tethered them early in +the day, or some one had found and removed them? The thought threw me +into a cold sweat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I heard him coming back, and I caught the ring of iron hoofs. He +had them! I breathed again. In a moment he emerged, and behind him a +string of shadows--five horses tied head and tail.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Quick!' he muttered. He had been long enough alone to grow nervous. +'We are two hours gone, and if they have not yet discovered him they +must soon! It is a short start, and half of us on foot!'</p> + +<p class="normal">No one answered, but in a moment we had the Waldgrave, my lady, +Fraulein, and one of the women mounted. Then we put up Marie, who was +no heavier than a feather, and the lighter of the women on the +remaining horse; and Steve hurrying beside the leader, and I, Ernst, +and Jacob bringing up the rear, we were well on the road within two +minutes of the appearance of the horses. Those who rode had only +sacking for saddles and loops of rope for stirrups; but no one +complained. Even Fraulein Max began to recover herself, and to dwell +more upon the peril of capture than on aching legs and chafed knees.</p> + +<p class="normal">The road was good, and we made, as far as I could judge, about six +miles in the first hour. This placed us nine miles from the camp; the +time, a little after midnight. At this point the clouds, which had +aided us so far by increasing the darkness of the night, fell in a +great storm of rain, that, hissing on the road and among the trees, in +a few minutes drenched us to the skin. But no one complained. Steve +muttered that it would make it the more difficult to track us; and for +another hour we plodded on gallantly. Then our leader called a halt, +and we stood listening.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rain had left the sky lighter. A waning moon, floating in a wrack +of watery clouds to westward, shed a faint gleam on the landscape. To +the right of us it disclosed a bare plain, rising gradually as it +receded, and offering no cover. On our left, between us and the river, +it was different. Here a wilderness of osiers--a grey willow swamp +that in the moonlight shimmered like the best Utrecht--stretched as +far as we could see. The road where we stood rose a few feet above it, +so that our eyes were on a level with the highest shoots; but a +hundred yards farther on the road sank a little. We could see the +water standing on the track in pools, and glimmering palely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is the place,' Steve muttered. 'It will be dawn in another hour. +What do you think, Master Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That we had better get off the road,' I answered. 'Take it they found +him at midnight; the orderly's patience would scarcely last longer. +Then, if they started after us a quarter of an hour later, they should +be here in another twenty minutes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is an aguey place,' he said doubtfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It will suit us better than the camp,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one else expressed an opinion, and Steve, taking my lady's rein, +led her horse on until he came to the hollow part of the road. Here +the moonlight disclosed a kind of water-lane, running away between the +osiers, at right angles from the road. Steve turned into it, leading +my lady's horse, and in a moment was wading a foot deep in water. The +Waldgrave followed, then the women. I came last, with Marie's rein in +my hand. We kept down the lane about one hundred and fifty paces, the +horses snorting and moving unwillingly, and the water growing ever +deeper. Then Steve turned out of it, and began to advance, but more +cautiously, parallel with the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">We had waded about as far in this direction, sidling between the +stumps and stools as well as we could, when he came again to a stand +and passed back the word for me. I waded on, and joined him. The +osiers, which were interspersed here and there with great willows, +rose above our heads and shut out the moonlight. The water gurgled +black about our knees. Each step might lead us into a hole, or we +might trip over the roots of the osiers. It was impossible to see a +foot before us, or anything above us save the still, black rods and +the grey sky.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It should be in this direction,' Steve said, with an accent of doubt. +'But I cannot see. We shall have the horses down.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let me go first,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We must not separate,' he answered hastily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, no,' I said, my teeth beginning to chatter. 'But are you sure +that there is an eyot here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I did not go to it,' he answered, scratching his head. 'But I saw a +clump of willows rising well above the level, and they looked to me as +if they grew on dry land.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood a moment irresolutely, first one and then another of the +horses shaking itself till the women could scarcely keep their seats.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why do we not go on?' my lady asked in a low voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because Steve is not sure of the place, my lady,' I said. 'And it is +almost impossible to move, it is so dark, and the osiers grow so +closely. I doubt we should have waited until daylight.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then we should have run the risk of being intercepted,' she answered +feverishly. 'Are you very wet?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' I said, though my feet were growing numb, 'not very. I see what +we must do. One of us must climb into a willow and look out.'</p> + +<p class="normal">We had passed a small one not long before. I plashed my way back to +it, along the line of shivering women, and, pulling myself heavily +into the branches, managed to scramble up a few feet. The tree swayed +under my weight, but it bore me.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first dawn was whitening the sky and casting a faint, reflected +light on the glistening sea of osiers, that seemed to my eyes--for I +was not high enough to look beyond it--to stretch far and away on +every side. Here and there a large willow, rising in a round, dark +clump, stood out above the level; and in one place, about a hundred +paces away on the riverside of us, a group of these formed a shadowy +mound. I marked the spot, and dropped gently into the water.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have found it,' I said. 'I will go first, and do you bring my lady, +Steve. And mind the stumps. It will be rough work.'</p> + +<p class="normal">It was rough work. We had to wind in and out, leading and coaxing the +frightened horses, that again and again stumbled to their knees. Every +minute I feared that we should find the way impassable or meet with a +mishap. But in time, going very patiently, we made out the willows in +front of us. Then the water grew more shallow, and this gave the +animals courage. Twenty steps farther, and we passed into the shadow +of the trees. A last struggle, and, plunging one by one up the muddy +bank, we stood panting on the eyot.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was such a place as only despair could choose for a refuge. In +shape like the back of some large submerged beast, it lay in length +about forty paces, in breadth half as many. The highest point was a +poor foot above the water. Seven great willows took up half the space; +it was as much as our horses, sinking in the moist mud to the fetlock, +could do to find standing-room on the remainder. Coarse grass and +reeds covered it; and the flotsam of the last flood whitened the +trunks of the willows, and hung in squalid wisps from their lower +branches.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first time we saw one another's faces, and how pale and +woe-begone, mudstained and draggled we were! The cold, grey light, +which so mercilessly unmasked our refuge, did not spare us. It helped +even my lady to look her worst. Fraulein Anna sat a mere lifeless lump +in her saddle. The waiting-women cried softly; they had cried all +night. The Waldgrave looked dazed, as if he barely understood where he +was or why he was there.</p> + +<p class="normal">To think over-much in such a place was to weep. Instead, I hastened to +get them all off their horses, and with Steve's help and a great +bundle of osiers and branches which we cut, I made nests for them in +the lower boughs of the willows, well out of reach of the water. When +they had all taken their places, I served out food and a dram of +Dantzic waters, which some of us needed; for a white mist, drawn up +from the swamp by the rising sun, began to enshroud us, and, hanging +among the osiers for more than an hour, prolonged the misery of the +night.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, even that rolled away at last--about six o'clock--and let us +see the sun shining overhead in a heaven of blue distance and golden +clouds. Larks rose up and sang, and all the birds of the marsh began +to twitter and tweet. In a trice our mud island was changed to a +bower--a place of warmth and life and refreshment--where light and +shade lay on the dappled floor, and the sunshine fell through green +leaves.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I took the cloaks, and the saddles, and everything that was wet, +and spread them out on branches to dry; and leaving the women to make +themselves comfortable in their own way and shift themselves as they +pleased, we two, with the Waldgrave and the two servants, went away to +the other end of the eyot.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I shall sleep,' Steve said drowsily.</p> + +<p class="normal">The insects were beginning to hum. The horses stood huddled together, +swishing their long tails.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You think they won't track us?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certain,' he said. 'There are six hundred yards of mud and water, +eel-holes, and willow shoots between us and the road.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave assented mechanically; it seemed so to me too. And +by-and-by, worn out with the night's work, I fell asleep, and slept, I +suppose, for a good many hours, with the sun and shade passing slowly +across my face, and the bees droning in my ears, and the mellow warmth +of the summer day soaking into my bones. When I awoke I lay for a time +revelling in lazy enjoyment. The oily plop of a water-rat, as it dived +from a stump, or the scream of a distant jay, alone broke the laden +silence. I looked at the sun. It lay south-west. It was three o'clock +then.</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_251"><img src="images/pg251.png" alt="pg 251"></a><br> +We were alone.... I whispered in her ear ...</p> + + +<p class="normal">A light touch fell on my knee. I started, looked down, and for a +moment stared in sleepy wonder. A tiny bunch of blue flowers, such as +I could see growing in a dozen places on the edge of the island, lay +on it, tied up with a thread of purple silk. I started up on my elbow, +and--there, close beside me, with her cheeks full of colour, and the +sunshine finding golden threads in her dark hair, sat Marie, toying +with more flowers.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha!' I said foolishly. 'What is it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lady sent me to you,' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I asked eagerly. 'Does she want me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marie hung her head, and played with the flowers. 'I don't think +so,' she whispered. 'She only sent me to you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I understood. The Waldgrave had gone to the farther end. Steve +and the men were tending the horses half a dozen paces beyond the +screen of willow-leaves. We were alone. A rat plashed into the water, +and drove Marie nearer to me; and she laid her head on my shoulder, +and I whispered in her ear, till the lashes sank down over her eyes +and her lips trembled. If I had loved her from the first, what was the +length and height and breadth of my love now, when I had seen her in +darkness and peril, sunshine and storm, strong when others failed, +brave when others flinched, always helpful, ready, tireless! And she +so small! So frail, I almost feared to press her to me; so pale, the +blood that leapt to her cheeks at my touch seemed a mere reflection of +the sunlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">I told her how Steve had made the guards at the prison drunk with wine +bought with her dowry; how the horses he had purchased and taken out +of the camp by twos and threes had been paid for from the same source; +and how many ducats had gone for meats and messes to keep the life, +that still ran sluggishly, in the Waldgrave's veins. She listened and +lay still.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So you have no dowry now, little one,' I said, when I had told her +all. 'And your gold chain is gone. I believe you have nothing but the +frock you stand up in. Why, then, should I marry you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt her heart give a great leap under my hand, and a shiver ran +through her. But she did not raise her head, and I, who had thought to +tease her into looking at me, had to put back her little face till it +gazed into mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' I said; 'why?'--drawing her closer and closer to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the colour came into her face like the sunlight itself. 'Because +you love me,' she whispered, shutting her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">And I did not gainsay her.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_24" href="#div1Ref_24">MISSING!</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">We lay in the osier bed two whole days and a night, during which time +two at least of us were not unhappy, in spite of peril and hardship. +We left it at last, only because our meagre provision gave out, and we +must move or starve. We felt far from sure that the danger was over, +for Steve, who spent the second day in a thick bush near the road, saw +two troops of horse go by; and others, we believed, passed in the +night. But we had no choice. The neighbourhood was bleak and bare. +Such small homesteads as existed had been eaten up, and lay abandoned. +If we had felt inclined to venture out for food, none was to be had. +And, in fine, though we trembled at the thought of the open road, and +my heart for one grew sick as I looked from Marie to my lady, and +reckoned the long tale of leagues which lay between us and Cassel, the +risk had to be run.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve had discovered a more easy though longer way out of the +willow-bed, and two hours before midnight on the second night, he and +I mounted the women and prepared to set out. He arranged that we +should go in the same order in which we had come: that he should lead +the march, and I bring up the rear, while the Waldgrave, who was still +far from well, and whose continued lack of vigour troubled us the more +as we said little about it, should ride with my lady.</p> + +<p class="normal">The night seemed likely to be fine, but the darkness, the sough of the +wind as it swept over the plain, and the melancholy plashing of the +water as our horses plodded through it, were not things of a kind to +allay our fears. When we at last left our covert, and reaching the +road stood to listen, the fall of a leaf made us start. Though no +sounds but those of the night came to our ears--and some of these were +of a kind to reassure us--we said 'Hush!' again and again, and only +moved on after a hundred alarums and assurances.</p> + +<p class="normal">I walked by Marie, with my hand on the withers of her horse, but we +did not talk. The two waiting-women riding double were before us, and +their muttered fears alone broke the silence which prevailed at the +end of the train. We went at the rate of about two leagues an hour, +Steve and I and the men running where the roads were good, and +everywhere and at all times urging the horses to do their best. The +haste of our movements, the darkness, our constant alarm, and the +occasional confusion when the rear pressed on the van at an awkward +place, had the effect of upsetting the balance of our minds; so +that the most common impulse of flight--to press forward with +ever-increasing recklessness--began presently to possess us. Once or +twice I had to check the foremost, or they would have outrun the rear; +and this kind of race brought us gradually into such a state of alarm, +that by-and-by, when the line came to a sudden stop on the brow of a +gentle descent, I could hardly restrain my impatience.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' I asked eagerly. 'Why are we stopping?' Surely the road +is good enough here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">No one answered, but it was significant that on the instant one of the +women began to cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stop that folly!' I said. 'What is in front there? Cannot some one +speak?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave thinks that he hears horsemen before us,' Fraulein Max +answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">In another moment the Waldgrave's figure loomed out of the darkness. +'Martin,' he said--I noticed that his voice shook--'go forward. They +are in front. Man alive, be quick!' he continued fiercely. 'Do you +want to have them into us?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I left my girl's rein, and pushing past the women and Fraulein, joined +Steve, who was standing by my lady's rein. 'What is it?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing, I think,' he answered in an uncertain tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stood a moment listening, but I too could hear nothing. I began to +argue with him. 'Who heard it?' I asked impatiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave,' he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not like to say before my lady what I thought--that the +Waldgrave was not quite himself, nor to be depended upon; and instead +I proposed to go forward on foot and learn if anything was amiss. The +road ran straight down the hill, and the party could scarcely pass me, +even in the gloom. If I found all well, I would whistle, and they +could come on.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady agreed, and, leaving them halted, I started cautiously down +the hill. The darkness was not extreme; the cloud drift was broken +here and there, and showed light patches of sky between; I could make +out the shapes of things, and more than once took a clump of bushes +for a lurking ambush. But halfway down, a line of poplars began to +shadow the road on our side, and from that point I might have walked +into a regiment and never seen a man. This, the being suddenly alone, +and the constant rustling of the leaves overhead, which moved with the +slightest air, shook my nerves, and I went very warily, with my heart +in my mouth and a cry trembling on my lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still I had reached the hillfoot before anything happened. Then I +stopped abruptly, hearing quite distinctly in front of me the sound of +footsteps. It was impossible that this could be the sound that the +Waldgrave had heard, for only one man seemed to be stirring, and he +moved stealthily; but I crouched down and listened, and in a moment I +was rewarded. A dark figure came out of the densest of the shadow and +stood in the middle of the road. I sank lower, noiselessly. The man +seemed to be listening.</p> + +<p class="normal">It flashed into my head that he was a sentry; and I thought how +fortunate it was that I had come on alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently he moved again. He stole along the track towards me, +stooping, as I fancied, and more than once standing to listen, as if +he were not satisfied. I sank down still lower, and he passed me +without notice, and went on, and I heard his footsteps slowly +retreating until they quite died away.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in a moment, before I had risen to my full height, I heard them +again. He came back, and passed me, breathing quickly and loudly. I +wondered if he had detected our party and was going to give the alarm; +and I stood up, anxious and uncertain, at a loss whether I should +follow him or run back.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that instant a fierce yell broke the silence, and rent the darkness +as a flash of lightning might rend it. It came from behind me, from +the brow of the hill; and I started as if I had been struck. Hard on +it a volley of shouts and screams flared up in the same direction, and +while my heart stood still with terror and fear of what had happened, +I heard the thunder of hoofs come down the road, with a clatter of +blows and whips. They were coming headlong--my lady and the rest. The +danger was behind them, then. I had just time to turn and get to the +side of the road before they were on me at a gallop.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not see who was who in the darkness, but I caught at the +nearest stirrup, and, narrowly escaping being ridden down, ran on +beside the rider. The horses, spurred down the slope, had gained such +an impetus that it was all I could do to keep up. I had no breath to +ask questions, nor state my fear that there was danger ahead also. I +had to stride like a giant to keep my legs and run.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one else was less lucky. We had not swept fifty yards from where +I joined them, when a dark figure showed for a moment in the road +before us. I saw it; it seemed to hang and hesitate. The next instant +it was among us. I heard a shrill scream, a heavy fall, and we were +over it, and charging on and on and on through the darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">To the foot of the hill and across the bottom, and up the opposite +slope. I do not know how far we had sped, when Steve's voice was +heard, calling on us to halt.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pull up! pull up!' he cried, with an angry oath. 'It is a false +alarm! What fool set it going? There is no one behind us. Donner und +Blitzen! where is Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The horses were beginning to flag, and gladly came to a trot, and then +to a walk.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here! I panted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Himmel! I thought we had ridden you down!' he said, leaving my lady's +side. His voice shook with passion and loss of breath. 'Who was it? We +might all have broken our necks, and for nothing!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave--it was his stirrup I had caught--turned his horse +round. 'I heard them--close behind us!' he panted. There was a note of +wildness in his voice. My elbow was against his knee, and I felt him +tremble.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A bird in the hedge,' Steve said rudely. 'It has cost some one dear. +Whose horse was it struck him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">No one answered. I left the Waldgrave's side and went back a few +paces. The women were sobbing. Ernst and Jacob stood by them, +breathing hard after their run. I thought the men's silence strange. I +looked again. There was a figure missing; a horse missing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is Marie?' I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not answer. No one answered; and I knew. Steve swore again. I +think he had known from the beginning. I began to tremble. On a sudden +my lady lifted up her voice and cried shrilly--</p> + +<p class="normal">'Marie! Marie!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Again no answer. But this time I did not wait to listen. I ran from +them into the darkness the way we had come, my legs quivering under +me, and my mouth full of broken prayers. I remembered a certain +solitary tree fronting the poplars, on the other side of the way, +which I had marked mechanically at the moment of the fall--an ash, +whose light upper boughs had come for an instant between my eyes and +the sky. It stood on a little mound, where the moorland began to rise +on that side. I came to it now, and stopped and looked. At first I +could see nothing, and I trod forward fearfully. Then, a couple of +paces on, I made out a dark figure, lying head and feet across the +road. I sprang to it, and kneeling, passed my hands over it. Alas! it +was a woman's.</p> + +<p class="normal">I raised the light form in my arms, crying passionately on her name, +while the wind swayed the boughs overhead, and, besides that and my +voice, all the countryside was still. She did not answer. She hung +limp in my arms. Kneeling in the dust beside her, I felt blindly for a +pulse, a heart-beat. I found neither--neither; the woman was dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet it was not that which made me lay the body down so quickly and +stand up peering round me. No; something else. The blood drummed in my +ears, my heart beat wildly. The woman was dead; but she was not Marie.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was an old woman, sixty years old. When I stooped again, after +assuring myself that there was no other body near, and peered into her +face, I saw that it was seamed and wrinkled. She was barefoot, and her +clothes were foul and mean. She had the reek of one who slept in +ditches and washed seldom. Her toothless gums grinned at me. She was a +horrible mockery of all that men love in women.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I had marked so much, I stood up again, my head reeling. Where +was the man I had seen scouting up and down? Where was Marie? For a +moment the wild idea that she had become this thing, that death or +magic had transformed the fair young girl into this toothless hag, was +not too wild for me. An owl hooted in the distance, and I started and +shivered and stood looking round me fearfully. Such things were; and +Marie was gone. In her place this woman, grim and dead and unsightly, +lay at my feet. What was I to think?</p> + +<p class="normal">I got no answer. I raised my voice and called, trembling, on Marie. I +ran to one side of the road and the other and called, and still got no +answer. I climbed the mound on which the ash-tree stood, and sent my +voice thrilling through the darkness of the bottom. But only the owl +answered. Then, knowing nothing else I could do, I went down wringing +my hands, and found my lady standing over the body in the road. She +had come back with Steve and the others.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had to listen to their amazement, and a hundred guesses and fancies, +which, God help me! had nothing certain in them, and gave me no help. +The men searched both sides of the road, and beat the moor for a +distance, and tried to track the horse--for that was missing too, and +there lay my only hope--but to no purpose. At last my lady came to me +and said sorrowfully that nothing more could be done.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the morning!' I cried jealously.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one spoke, and I looked from one to another. The men had returned +from the search, and stood in a dark group round the body, which they +had drawn to the side of the road. It wanted an hour of daylight yet, +and I could not see their faces, but I read in their silence the +answer that no one liked to put into words.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Be a man!' Steve muttered, after a long pause. 'God help the girl. +But God help us too if we are found here!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Still my lady did not speak, and I knew her brave heart too well to +doubt her, though she had been the first to talk of going. 'Get to +horse,' I said roughly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, no,' my lady cried at last. 'We will all stay, Martin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, all stay or all go!' Steve muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then all go!' I said, choking down the sobs that would rise. And I +turned first from the place.</p> + +<p class="normal">I will not try to state what that cost me. I saw my girl's face +everywhere--everywhere in the darkness, and the eyes reproached me. +That she of all should suffer, who had never fainted, never faltered, +whose patience and courage had been the women's stay from the +first--that she should suffer! I thought of the tender, weak body, and +of all the things that might happen to her, and I seemed, as I went +away from her, the vilest thing that lived.</p> + +<p class="normal">But reason was against me. If I stayed there and waited on the road +by the old crone's body until morning, what could I do? Whither could +I turn? Marie was gone and already might be half a dozen miles away. +So the bonds of custom and duty held me. Dazed and bewildered, I +lacked the strength that was needed to run counter to all. I was no +knight-errant, but a plain man, and I reeled on through the last hour +of the night and the first grey streaks of dawn, with my head on my +breast and sobs of despair in my throat.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_25" href="#div1Ref_25">NUREMBERG.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">If it had been our fate after that to continue our flight in the same +weary fashion we had before devised, lying in woods by day, and all +night riding jaded horses, until we passed the gates of some free +city, I do not think that I could have gone through with it. Doubtless +it was my duty to go with my lady. But the long hours of daylight +inaction, the slow brooding tramp, must have proved intolerable. And +at some time or other, in some way or other, I must have snapped the +ties that bound me.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, as if the loss of my heart had rid us of some spell cast over us, +by noon of that day we stood safe. For, an hour before noon, while we +lay in a fir-wood not far from Weimar, and Jacob kept watch on the +road below, and the rest slept as we pleased, a party of horse came +along the way, and made as if to pass below us. They numbered more +than a hundred, and Jacob's heart failed him, lest some ring or buckle +of our accoutrements should sparkle and catch their eyes. To shift the +burden he called us, and we went to watch them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do they go north or south?' I asked him as I rose.</p> + +<p class="normal">'North,' he whispered.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that they were nothing to me, but I went with the rest. Our lair +was in some rocks overhanging the road. By the time we looked over, +the horsemen were below us, and we could see nothing of them; though +the sullen tramp of their horses, and the jingle of bit and spur, +reached us clearly. Presently they came into sight again on the road +beyond, riding steadily away with their backs to us.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is not General Tzerclas?' my lady muttered anxiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nor any of his people!' Steve said with an oath.</p> + +<p class="normal">That led me to look more closely, and I saw in a moment something that +lifted me out of my moodiness. I sprang on the rock against which I +was leaning and shouted long and loudly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Himmel!' Steve cried, seizing me by the ankle. 'Are you mad, man?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I only shouted again, and waved my cap frantically. Then I slipped +down, sobered. 'They see us,' I cried. 'They are Leuchtenstein's +riders. And Count Hugo is with them. You are safe, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned white and red, and I saw her clutch at the rock to keep +herself on her feet. 'Are you sure?' she said. The troop had halted +and were wheeling slowly and in perfect order.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Quite sure, my lady,' I answered, with a touch of bitterness in my +tone. Why had not this happened yesterday or the day before? Then my +girl would have been saved. Now it came too late! Too late! No wonder +I felt bitterly about it.</p> + +<p class="normal">We went down into the road on foot, a little party of nine--four women +and five men. The horsemen, as they came up, looked at us in wonder. +Our clothes, even my lady's, were dyed with mud and torn in a score of +places. We had not washed for days, and our faces were lean with +famine. Some of the women were shoeless and had their hair about their +ears, while Steve was bare-headed and bare-armed, and looked so huge a +ruffian the stocks must have yawned for him anywhere. They drew up and +gazed at us, and then Count Hugo came riding down the column and saw +us.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady went forward a step. 'Count Leuchtenstein,' she said, her +voice breaking; she had only seen him once, and then under the mask of +a plain name. But he was safety, honour, life now, and I think that +she could have kissed him. I think for a little she could have fallen +into his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Countess!' he said, as he sprang from his horse in wonder. 'Is it +really you? Gott im Himmel! These are strange times. Waldgrave! Your +pardon. Ach! Have you come on foot?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not I. But these brave men have,' my lady answered, tears in her +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at Steve and grunted. Then he looked at me and his eyes +lightened. 'Are these all your party?' he said hurriedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All,' my lady answered in a low voice. He did not ask farther, but he +sighed, and I knew that he had looked for his child. 'I came north +upon a reconnaissance, and was about to turn,' he said. 'I am thankful +that I did not turn before. Is Tzerclas in pursuit of you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not know,' my lady answered, and told him shortly of our flight, +and how we had lain two days and a night in the osier-bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was a good thought,' he said. 'But I fear that you are half +famished.' And he called for food and wine, and served my lady with +his own hands, while he saw that we did not go without. 'Campaigner's +fare,' he said. 'But you come of a fighting stock, Countess, and can +put up with it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Shame on me if I could not,' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a quaver in her voice, which showed how the rencontre moved +her, how full her heart was of unspoken gratitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">'When you have finished, we will get to horse,' he said. 'I must take +you with me to Nuremberg, for I am not strong enough to detach a +party. But this evening we will make a long halt at Hesel, and secure +you a good night's rest.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am sorry to be so burdensome,' my lady said timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders without compliment, but I did not hear what +he answered. For I could bear no more. Marie seemed so forgotten in +this crowd, so much a thing of the past, that my gorge rose. No word +of her, no thought of her, no talk of a search party! I pictured her +forlorn, helpless little figure, her pale, uncomplaining face--I and +no one else; and I had to go away into the bushes to hide myself. She +was forgotten already. She had done all for them, I said to myself, +and they forgot her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, in the thicket screened from the party, I had a thought--to go +back and look for her, myself. Now my lady was safe, there was nothing +to prevent me. I had only to lie close among the rocks until Count +Hugo left, and then I might plod back on foot and search as I pleased. +In a flash I saw the poplars, and the road running beneath the +ash-tree, and the woman's body lying stiff and stark on the sward. And +I burned to be there.</p> + +<p class="normal">Left to myself I should have gone too. But the plan was no sooner +formed than shattered. While I stood, hotfoot to be about it, and +pausing only to consider which way I could steal off most safely, a +rustling warned me that some one was coming, and before I could stir, +a burly trooper broke through the bushes and confronted me. He saluted +me stolidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sergeant,' he said, 'the general is waiting for you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The general?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Count, if you like it better,' he answered. 'Come, if you +please.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I followed him, full of vexation. It was but a step into the road. The +moment I appeared, some one gave the word 'Mount!' A horse was thrust +in front of me, two or three troopers who still remained afoot swung +themselves into the saddle; and I followed their example. In a trice +we were moving down the valley at a dull, steady pace--southwards, +southwards. I looked back, and saw the fir trees and rocks where we +had lain hidden, and then we turned a corner, and they were gone. +Gone, and all round me I heard the measured tramp of the troop-horses, +the swinging tones of the men, and the clink and jingle of sword and +spur. I called myself a cur, but I went on, swept away by the force of +numbers, as the straw by the current. Once I caught Count Hugo's eye +fixed on me, and I fancied he had a message for me, but I failed to +interpret it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve rode by me, and his face too was moody. I suppose that we should +all of us have thanked God the peril was past. But my lady rode in +another part with Count Leuchtenstein and the Waldgrave; and Steve +yearned, I fancy, for the old days of trouble and equality, when there +was no one to come between us.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw Count Hugo that night. He sent for me to his quarters at Hesel, +and told me frankly that he would have let me go back had he thought +good could come of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But it would have been looking for a needle in a bundle of hay, my +friend,' he continued. 'Tzerclas' men would have picked you up, or the +peasants killed you for a soldier, and in a month perhaps the girl +would have returned safe and sound, to find you dead.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord!' I cried passionately, 'she saved your child. It was to her +as her own!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know it,' he answered with gravity, which of itself rebuked me. +'And where is my child?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I shook my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet I do not give up my work and the task God and the times have +given me, and go out looking for it!' he answered severely. 'Leaving +Scot, and Swede, and Pole, and Switzer to divide my country. For +shame! You have your work too, and it lies by your lady's side. See to +it that you do it. For the rest I have scouts out, who know the +country; if I learn anything through them you shall hear it. And now +of another matter. How long has the Waldgrave been like this, my +friend?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Like this, my lord?' I muttered stupidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. 'Yes, like this,' he repeated. 'I have heard him called a +brave man. Coming of his stock, he should be; and when I saw him in +Tzerclas' camp he had the air of one. Now he starts at a shadow, is in +a trance half his time, and a tremor the other half. What ails him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I told him how he had been wounded, fighting bravely, and that since +that he had not been himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Count Hugo rubbed his chin gravely. 'It is a pity,' he said. 'We want +all--every German arm and every German head. We want you. Man alive!' +he continued, roused to anger, I suppose, by my dull face, 'do you +know what is in front of you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lord,' I said in apathy.</p> + +<p class="normal">He opened his mouth as if to hurl a volley of words at me. But he +thought better of it and shut his lips tight. 'Very well,' he said +grimly. 'Wait three days and you will see.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But in truth, I had not to wait three days. Before sunset of the next +I began to see, and, downcast as I was, to prick up my ears in wonder. +Beyond Romhild and between that town and Bamberg, the great road which +runs through the valley of the Pegnitz, was such a sight as I had +never seen. For many miles together a column of dust marked its +course, and under this went on endless marching. We were but a link in +a long chain, dragging slowly southwards. Now it was a herd of +oxen that passed along, moving tediously and painfully, driven by +half-naked cattle-men and guarded by a troop of grimy horse. Now it +was a reinforcement of foot from Fulda, rank upon rank of shambling +men trailing long pikes, and footsore, and parched as they were, +getting over the ground in a wonderful fashion. After them would come +a long string of waggons, bearing corn, and hay, and malt, and wines; +all lurching slowly forward, slowly southward; often delayed, for +every quarter of a mile a horse fell or an axle broke, yet getting +forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then the most wonderful sight of all, a regiment of Swedish horse +passed us, marching from Erfurt. All their horses were grey, and all +their head-pieces, backs and breasts of black metal, matched one +another. As they came on through the dust with a tramp which shook the +ground, they sang, company by company, to the music of drums and +trumpets, a hymn, 'Versage nicht, du Häuflein klein!' Behind them a +line of light waggons carried their wives and children, also singing. +And so they went by us, eight hundred swords, and I thought it a +marvel I should never see beaten.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they were gone out of sight, there were still droves of horses +and mighty flocks of sheep to come, and cargoes of pork, and more foot +and horse and guns. Some companies wore buff coats and small steel +caps, and carried arquebuses; and some marched smothered in huge +headpieces with backs and breasts to match. And besides all the +things I have mentioned and the crowds of sutlers and horse-boys that +went with them, there were munition waggons closely guarded, and +pack-horses laden with powder, and always and always waggons of corn +and hay.</p> + +<p class="normal">And all hurrying, jostling, crawling southwards. It seemed to me that +the world was marching southwards; that if we went on we must fall in +at the end of this with every one we knew. And the thought comforted +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve put it into words after his fashion. 'It must be a big place we +are going to,' he said, about noon of the second day, 'or who is to +eat all this? And do you mark, Master Martin? We meet no one coming +back. All go south. This place Nuremberg that they talk of must be +worth seeing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It should be,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">And after that the excitement of the march began to take hold of me. I +began to think and wonder, and look forward, with an eagerness I did +not understand, to the issues of this.</p> + +<p class="normal">We lay a night at Bamberg, where the crowd and confusion and the +stress of people were so great that Steve would have it we had come to +Nuremberg. And certainly I had never known such a hurly-burly, nor +heard of it except at the great fair at Dantzic. The night after we +lay at Erlangen, which we found fortified, trenched, and guarded, with +troops lying in the square, and the streets turned into stables. From +that place to Nuremberg was a matter of ten miles only; but the press +was so great on the road that it took us a good part of the day to +ride from one to the other. In the open country on either side of the +way strong bodies of horse and foot were disposed. It seemed to me +that here was already an army and a camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when late in the afternoon we entered Nuremberg itself, and viewed +the traffic in the streets, and the endless lines of gabled houses, +the splendid mansions and bridges, the climbing roofs and turrets and +spires of this, the greatest city in Germany, then we thought little +of all we had seen before. Here thousands upon thousands rubbed +shoulders in the streets; here continuous boats turned the river into +solid land. Here we were told were baked every day a hundred thousand +loaves of bread; and I saw with my own eyes a list of a hundred and +thirty-eight bakehouses. The roar of the ways, choked with soldiers +and citizens, the babel of strange tongues, the clamour of bells and +trumpets, deafened us. The constant crowding and pushing and halting +turned our heads. I forgot my grief and my hope too. Who but a madman +would look to find a single face where thousands gazed from the +windows? or could deem himself important with this swarming, teeming +hive before him? Steve stared stupidly about him; I rode dazed and +perplexed. The troopers laughed at us, or promised us greater things +when we should see the Swedish Lager outside the town, and +Wallenstein's great camp arrayed against it. But I noticed that even +they, as we drew nearer to the heart of the city, fell silent at +times, and looked at one another, surprised at the great influx of +people and the shifting scenes which the streets presented.</p> + +<p class="normal">For myself and Steve and the men, we were as good as nought. A house +in the Ritter-Strasse was assigned to my lady for her quarters--no one +could lodge in the city without the leave of the magistrates; and we +were glad to get into it and cool our dizzy heads, and look at one +another. Count Hugo stayed awhile, standing with my lady and the +Waldgrave in one of the great oriels that overlooked the street. But a +mounted messenger, sent on from the Town House, summoned him, and he +took horse again for the camp. I do not know what we should have done +without him at entering. The soldiers, who crowded the streets, showed +scant respect for names, and would as soon have jostled my lady as a +citizen's wife; but wherever he came hats were doffed and voices +lowered, and in the greatest press a way was made for him as by magic.</p> + +<p class="normal">For that night we had seen enough. I thought we had seen all, or that +nothing in my life would ever surprise me again. But next day my lady +went up to the Burg on the hill in the middle of the city to look +abroad, and took Steve and myself with her. And then I found that I +had not seen the half. The city, all roofs and spires and bridges, +girt with a wall of seventy towers, roared beneath us; and that I had +expected. But outside the wall I now saw a second city of huts and +tents, with a great earthwork about it, and bastions and demilunes and +picquets posted.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the Swedish Lager. It lay principally to the south of the +city proper, though on all sides it encircled it more or less. They +told me that there lay in it about forty thousand soldiers and twenty +thousand horses, and twenty thousand camp followers; but the number +was constantly increasing, death and disease notwithstanding, so that +it presently stood as high as sixty thousand fighting men and half as +many followers, to say nothing of the garrison that lay in the city, +or the troops posted to guard the approaches. It seemed to me, gazing +over that mighty multitude from the top of the hill, that nothing +could resist such a force; and I looked abroad with curiosity for the +enemy.</p> + +<p class="normal">I expected to view his army cheek by jowl with us; and I was +disappointed when I saw beyond our camp to southward, where I was told +he lay, only a clear plain with the little river Rednitz flowing +through it. This plain was a league and more in width, and it was +empty of men. Beyond it rose a black wooded ridge, very steep and +hairy.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady explained that Wallenstein's army lay along this +ridge--seventy thousand men, and forty thousand horses, and +Wallenstein himself. His camp we heard was eight miles round, the +front guarded by a line of cannon, and taking in whole villages and +castles. And now I looked again I saw the smoke hang among the trees. +They whispered in Nuremberg that no man in that army took pay; that +all served for booty; and that the troopers that sacked Magdeburg and +followed Tilly were, beside these, gentle and kindly men.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God help us!' my lady cried fervently. 'God help this great city! God +help the North! Never was such a battle fought as must be fought +here!'</p> + +<p class="normal">We went down very much sobered, filled with awe and wonder and +great thoughts, the dullest of us feeling the air heavy with portents, +the more clerkly considering of Armageddon and the Last Fight. +Briefly--for thirteen years the Emperor and the Papists had hustled +and harried the Protestants; had dragooned Donauwörth, and held down +Bohemia, and plundered the Palatinate, and crushed the King of +Denmark, and wherever there was a weak Protestant state had pressed +sorely on it. Then one short year before I stood on the Burg above the +Pegnitz, the Protestant king had come out of the North like a +thunderbolt, had shattered in a month the Papist armies, had run like +a devouring fire down the Priests' Lane, rushed over Bohemia, shaken +the Emperor on his throne!</p> + +<p class="normal">But could he maintain himself? That was now to be seen. To the +Emperor's help had come all who loved the old system, and would have +it that the south was Germany; all who wished to chain men's minds and +saw their profit in the shadow of the imperial throne; all who lived +by license and plunder, and reckoned a mass to-day against a murder +to-morrow. All these had come, from the great Duke of Friedland +grasping at empire, to the meanest freebooter with peasant's blood on +his hands and in his veins; and there they lay opposite us, +impregnably placed on the Burgstall, waiting patiently until famine +and the sword should weaken the fair city, and enable them to plunge +their vulture's talons into its vitals.</p> + +<p class="normal">No wonder that in Nuremberg the citizens could be distinguished from +the soldiers by their careworn faces; or that many a man stood morning +and evening to gaze at the carved and lofty front of his house--by St. +Sebald's or behind the new Cathedral--and wondered how long the fire +would spare it. The magistrates who had staked all--their own and the +city's--on this cast, went about with stern, grave faces and feared +almost to meet the public eye. With a doubled population, with a huge +army to feed, with order to keep, with houses and wives and daughters +of their own to protect, with sack and storm looming luridly in the +future, who had cares like theirs?</p> + +<p class="normal">One man only, and him I saw as we went home from the Burg. It was near +the foot of the Burg hill, where the strasse meets three other ways. +At that time Count Tilly's crooked, dwarfish figure and pale horse's +face, and the great hat and boots which seemed to swallow him up, were +fresh in my mind; and sometimes I had wondered whether this other +great commander were like him. Well, I was to know; for through the +crowd at the junction of these four roads, while we stood waiting to +pass, there came a man on a white horse, followed by half a score of +others on horseback; and in a moment I knew from the shouting and the +way women thrust papers into his hands that we saw the King of Sweden.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wore a plain buff coat and a grey flapped hat with a feather; a +tall man and rather bulky, his face massive and fleshy, with a close +moustache trimmed to a point and a small tuft on his chin. His aspect +was grave; he looked about him with a calm eye, and the shouting did +not seem to move him. They told me that it was Baner, the Swedish +General, who rode with him, and our Bernard of Weimar who followed. +But my eye fell more quickly on Count Leuchtenstein, who rode after, +with the great Chancellor Oxenstierna; in him, in his steady gaze and +serene brow and wholesome strength, I traced the nearest likeness to +the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so I first saw the great Gustavus Adolphus. It was said that he +would at times fall into fits of Berserk rage, and that in the field +he was another man, keen as his sword, swift as fire, pitiless to +those who flinched, among the foremost in the charge, a very +thunderbolt of war. But as I saw him taking papers from women's hands +at the end of the Burg Strasse, he had rather the air of a quiet, +worthy prince--of Coburg or Darmstadt, it might be,--no dresser and no +brawler; nor would any one, to see him then, have thought that this +was the lion of the north who had dashed the pride of Pappenheim and +flung aside the firebrands of the south. Or that even now he had on +his shoulders the burden of two great nations and the fate of a +million of men.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_26" href="#div1Ref_26">THE FACE AT THE WINDOW.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">After this it fared with us as it fares at last with the driftwood +that chance or the woodman's axe has given to a forest stream in +Heritzburg. After rippling over the shallows and shooting giddily down +slopes--or perchance lying cooped for days in some dark bend, until +the splash of the otter or the spring freshet has sent it dancing on +in sunshine and shadow--it reaches at last the Werra. It floats out on +the bosom of the great stream, and no longer tossed and chafed by each +tiny pebble, feels the force of wind and stream--the great forces of +the world. The banks recede from sight, and one of a million atoms, it +is borne on gently and irresistibly, whither it does not know. So it +was with us. From the day we fell in with Count Leuchtenstein and set +our faces towards Nuremberg, and in a greater degree after we reached +that city, we embarked on a wider current of adventure, a fuller and +less selfish life. If we had still our own cares and griefs, hopes and +perils--as must be the case, I suppose, until we die--we had other +common ones which we shared with tens of thousands, rich and poor, +gentle and simple. We had to dread sack and storm; we prayed for +relief and safety in company with all who rose and lay down within the +walls. When a hundred waggons of corn slipped through the Croats and +came in, or Duke Bernard of Weimar beat up a corner of the Burgstall +and gave Wallenstein a bad night, we ran out into the streets to tell +and hear the news. Similarly, when tidings came that Tzerclas with his +two thousand ruffians had burned the King of Sweden's colours, put on +green sashes, and marched into the enemy's camp, we were not alone in +our gloomy anticipations. We still had our private adventures, and I +am going to tell them. But besides these, it should be remembered that +we ran the risks, and rose every morning fresh to the fears, of +Nuremberg. When bread rose to ten, to fifteen, to twenty times its +normal price; when the city, where many died every day of famine, +plague, and wounds, began to groan and heave in its misery; when +through all the country round the peasants crawled and died among the +dead; when Wallenstein, that dark man, heedless of the fearful +mortality in his own camp, still sat implacable on the heights and +refused all the king's invitations to battle, we grew pale and gloomy, +stern-eyed and thin-cheeked with the rest. We dreamed of Magdeburg as +they did; and as the hot August days passed slowly over the starving +city and still no end appeared, but only with each day some addition +of misery, we felt our hearts sink in unison with theirs.</p> + +<p class="normal">And we had to share, not their lot only, but their labours. We had not +been in the town twenty-four hours before Steve, Jacob, and Ernst were +enrolled in the town militia; to me, either out of respect to my lady, +or on account of my stature, a commission as lieutenant was granted. +We drilled every morning from six o'clock until eight in the fields +outside the New Gate; the others went again at sunset to practise +their weapons, but I was exempt from this drill, that the women might +not be left alone. At all times we had our appointed rendezvous in +case of alarm or assault. The Swedish veterans strolled out of the +camp and stood to laugh at our clumsiness. But the excellent order +which prevailed among them made them favourites, and we let them +laugh, and laughed again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave, who had long had Duke Bernard's promise, received a +regiment of horse, so that he lay in the camp and should have been a +contented man, since his strength had come back to him. But to my +surprise he showed signs of lukewarmness. He seemed little interested +in the service, and was often at my lady's house in the Ritter +Strasse, when he would have been better at his post. At first I set +this down to his passion for my lady, and it seemed excusable; but +within a week I stood convinced that this no longer troubled him. He +paid scant attention to her, but would sit for hours looking moodily +into the street. And I--and not I alone--began to watch him closely.</p> + +<p class="normal">I soon found that Count Hugo was right. The once gallant and splendid +young fellow was a changed man. He was still comely and a brave +figure, but the spirit in him was quenched. He was nervous, absent, +irritable. His eyes had a wild look; on strangers he made an +unfavourable impression. Doubtless, though his wounds had healed, +there remained some subtle injury that spoiled the man; and often I +caught my lady looking at him sadly, and knew that I was not the only +one with cause for mourning.</p> + +<p class="normal">But how strange he was we did not know until a certain day, when my +lady and I were engaged together over some accounts. It was evening, +and the three men were away drilling. The house was very quiet. +Suddenly he flung in upon us with a great noise, his colour high, his +eyes glittering. His first action was to throw his feathered hat on +one chair, and himself into another.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I've seen him!' he said. 'Himmel! he is a clever fellow. He will +worst you, cousin, yet--see if he does not. Oh, he is a clever one!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who?' my lady said, looking at him in some displeasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who? Tzerclas, to be sure!' he answered, chuckling.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have seen him!' she exclaimed, rising.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of course I have!' he answered. 'And you will see him too, one of +these days.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady looked at me, frowning. But I shook my head. He was not drunk.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where?' she asked, after a pause. 'Where did you see him, Rupert?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the street--where you see other men,' he answered, chuckling +again. 'He should not be there, but who is to keep him out? He is too +clever. He will get his way in the end, see if he does not!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Rupert!' my lady cried in wrathful amazement, 'to hear you, one would +suppose you admired him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So I do,' he replied coolly. 'Why not? He has all the wits of the +family. He is as cunning as the devil. Take a hint, cousin; put +yourself on the right side. He will win in the end!' And the Waldgrave +rose restlessly from his chair, and, going to the window, began to +whistle.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady came swiftly to me, and it grieved me to see the pain and woe +in her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is he mad?' she muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shook my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you think he has really seen him?' she whispered. We both stood +with our eyes on him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I fear so, my lady,' I said with reluctance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But it would cost <i>him</i> his life,' she muttered eagerly, 'if he were +found here!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is a bold man,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah! so was he--once,' she replied in a peculiar tone, and she pointed +stealthily to the unconscious man in the window. 'A month ago he would +have taken him by the throat anywhere. What has come to him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God knows,' I answered reverently. 'Grant only he may do us no harm!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned round at that, humming gaily, and went out, seeming almost +unconscious of our presence; and I made as light of the matter to my +lady as I could. But Tzerclas in the city, the Waldgrave mad, or at +any rate not sane, and last, but not least, the strange light in which +the latter chose to regard the former, were circumstances I could not +easily digest. They filled me with uneasy fears and surmises. I began +to perambulate the crowd, seeking furtively for a face; and was +entirely determined what I would do if I found it. The town was full, +as all besieged cities are, of rumours of spies and treachery, and of +reported overtures made now to the city behind the back of the army, +and now to the army to betray the city. A single word of denunciation, +and Tzerclas' life would not be worth three minutes' purchase--a rope +and the nearest butcher's hook would end it. My mind was made up to +say the word.</p> + +<p class="normal">I suppose I had been going about in this state of vigilance three days +or more, when something, but not the thing I sought, rewarded it. At +the time I was on my way back from morning drill. It was a little +after eight, and the streets and the people wore an air bright, yet +haggard. Night, with its perils, was over; day, with its privations, +lay before us. My mind was on the common fortunes, but I suppose my +eyes were mechanically doing their work, for on a sudden I saw +something at a window, took perhaps half a step, and stopped as if I +had been shot.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had seen Marie's face! Nay, I still saw it, while a man might count +two. Then it was gone. And I stood gasping.</p> + +<p class="normal">I suppose I stood so for half a minute, waiting, with the blood racing +from my heart to my head, and every pulse in my body beating. But she +did not reappear. The door of the house did not open. Nothing +happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet I had certainly seen her; for I remembered particulars--the +expression of her face, the surprise that had leapt into her eyes as +they met mine, the opening of the lips in an exclamation.</p> + +<p class="normal">And still I stood gazing at the window and nothing happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last I came to myself, and I scanned the house. It was a large +house of four stories, three gables in width. The upper stories jutted +out; the beams on which they rested were finely carved, the gables +were finished off with rich, wooden pinnacles. In each story, the +lowest excepted, were three long, low windows of the common Nuremberg +type, and the whole had a substantial and reputable air.</p> + +<p class="normal">The window at which I had seen Marie was farthest from the door, on +the first floor. To go to the door I had to lose sight of it, and +perhaps for that reason I stood the longer. At last I went and +knocked, and waited in a fever for some one to come. The street was a +thoroughfare. There were a number of people passing. I thought that +all the town would go by before a dragging foot at last sounded +inside, and the great nail-studded door was opened on the chain. A +stout, red-faced woman showed herself in the aperture.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have a girl in this house, named Marie Wort,' I answered +breathlessly. 'I saw her a moment ago at the window. I know her, and I +wish to speak to her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The woman's little eyes dwelt on me stolidly for a space. Then she +made as if she would shut the door. 'For shame!' she said spitefully. +'We have no girls here. Begone with you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I put my foot against the door. 'Whose house is this?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr Krapp's,' she answered crustily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is he at home?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, he is not,' she retorted; 'and if he were, we have no baggages +here.' And again she tried to shut the door, but I prevented her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is he?' I asked sternly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is at morning drill, if you must know,' she snapped; 'and his two +sons. Now, will you let me shut my door? Or must I cry out?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nonsense, mother!' I said. 'Who is in the house besides yourself?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is that to you?' she replied, breathing short.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have told you,' I said, trying to control my anger. 'I----'</p> + +<p class="normal">But, quick as lightning, the door slammed to and cut me short. I had +thoughtlessly moved my foot. I heard the woman chuckle and go slipshod +down the passage, and though I knocked again in a rage, the door +remained closed.</p> + +<p class="normal">I fell back and looked at the house. An elderly man in a grave, sober +dress was passing, among others, and I caught his eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whose house is that?' I asked him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr Krapp's,' he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am a stranger,' I said. 'Is he a man of substance?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The person I addressed smiled. 'He is a member of the Council of +Safety,' he said dryly. 'His brother is prefect of this ward. But here +is Herr Krapp. Doubtless he has been at St. Sebald's drilling.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I thanked him, and made but two steps to Herr Krapp's side. He was the +other's twin--elderly, soberly dressed, his only distinction a sword +and pistol in his girdle and a white shoulder sash.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr Krapp?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The same,' he answered, eying me gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am the Countess of Heritzburg's steward,' I said. I began to see +the need of explanation. 'Doubtless you have heard that she is in the +city?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly,' he answered. 'In the Ritter Strasse.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I replied. 'A fortnight ago she missed a young woman, one of +her attendants. She was lost in a night adventure,' I continued, my +throat dry and husky. 'A few minutes ago I saw her looking from one of +your windows.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'From one of my windows?' he exclaimed in a tone of surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said stiffly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He opened his eyes wide. 'Here?' he said. He pointed to his house.</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Impossible!' he replied, shutting his lips suddenly. 'Quite +impossible, my friend. My household consists of my two sons and +myself. We have a housekeeper only, and two lads. I have no young +women in the house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet I saw her face, Herr Krapp, at your window,' I answered +obstinately.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wait,' he said; 'I will ask.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But when the old housekeeper came she had only the same tale to tell. +She was alone. No young woman had crossed the threshold for a week +past. There was no other woman there, young or old.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will have it that I have a young man in the house next!' she +grumbled, shooting scorn at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I can assure you that there is no one here,' Herr Krapp said civilly. +'Dorcas has been with me many years, and I can trust her. Still if you +like you can walk through the rooms.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I hesitated to do that. The man's manner evidenced his sincerity, +and in face of it my belief wavered. Fancy, I began to think, had +played me a trick. It was no great wonder if the features which were +often before me in my dreams, and sometimes painted themselves on the +darkness while I lay wakeful, had for once taken shape in the +daylight, and so vividly as to deceive me. I apologised. I said what +was proper, and, with a heavy sigh, went from the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ay, and with bent head. The passing crowd and the sunshine and the +distant music of drum and trumpet grated on me. For there was yet +another explanation. And I feared that Marie was dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was still brooding sadly over the matter when I reached home. Steve +met me at the door, but, feeling in no mood for small talk just then, +I would have passed him by and gone in, if he had not stopped me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have a message for you, lieutenant,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' I asked without curiosity.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A little boy gave it to me at the door,' he answered. 'I was to ask +you to be in the street opposite Herr Krapp's half an hour after +sunset this evening.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I gasped. 'Herr Krapp's!' I exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve nodded, looking at me queerly. 'Yes; do you know him?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do now,' I muttered, gulping down my amazement. But my face was as +red as fire, the blood drummed in my ears. I had to turn away to hide +my emotion. 'What was the boy like?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it seemed that the lad had made off the moment he had done his +errand, and Steve had not noticed him particularly. 'I called after +him to know who sent him,' he added, 'but he had gone too far.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded and mumbled something, and went on into the house. Perhaps I +was still a little sore on my girl's account, and resented the easy +way in which she had dropped out of others' lives. At any rate, my +instinct was to keep the thing to myself. The face at the window, and +then this strange assignation, could have only one meaning; but, good +or bad, it was for me. And I hugged myself on it, and said nothing +even to my lady.</p> + +<p class="normal">The day seemed long, but at length the evening came, and when the +men had gone to drill and the house was quiet, I slipped out. The +streets were full at this hour of men passing to and fro to their +drill-stations, and of women who had been out to see the camp, and +were returning before the gates closed. The bells of many of the +churches were ringing; some had services. I had to push my way to +reach Herr Krapp's house in time; but once there the crowd of passers +served my purpose by screening me, as I loitered, from farther remark; +while I took care, by posting myself in a doorway opposite the window, +to make it easy for any one who expected me to find me.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then I waited with my heart beating. The clocks were striking a +half after seven when I took my place, and for a time I stood in a +ferment of excitement, now staring with bated breath at the casement, +where I had seen Marie, now scanning all the neighbouring doorways, +and then again letting my eyes rove from window to window both of +Krapp's house and the next one on either side. As the latter were +built with many quaint oriels, and tiny dormers, and had lattices in +side-nooks, where one least looked to find them, I was kept expecting +and employed. I was never quite sure, look where I would, what eyes +were upon me.</p> + +<p class="normal">But little by little, as time passed and nothing happened, and the +strollers all went by without accosting me, and no faces save strange +ones showed at the windows, the heat of expectation left me. The chill +of disappointment took its place. I began to doubt and fear. The +clocks struck eight. The sun had been down an hour. Half that time I +had been waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">To remain passive was no longer bearable, and sick of caution, I +stepped out and began to walk up and down the street, courting rather +than avoiding notice. The traffic was beginning to slacken. I could +see farther and mark people at a distance; but still no one spoke to +me, no one came to me. Here and there lights began to shine in the +houses, on gleaming oak ceilings and carved mantels. The roofs were +growing black against the paling sky. In nooks and corners it was +dark. The half-hour sounded, and still I walked, fighting down doubt, +clinging to hope.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when another quarter had gone by, doubt became conviction. I had +been fooled! Either some one who had seen me loitering at Krapp's in +the morning and heard my tale had gone straight off, and played me +this trick; or--Gott im Himmel!--or I had been lured here that I might +be out of the way at home.</p> + +<p class="normal">That thought, which should have entered my thick head an hour before, +sped me from the street, as if it had been a very catapult. Before I +reached the corner I was running; and I ran through street after +street, sweating with fear. But quickly as I went, my thoughts +outpaced me. My lady was alone save for her women. The men were +drilling, the Waldgrave was in the camp. The crowded state of the +streets at sunset, and the number of strangers who thronged the city +favoured certain kinds of crime; in a great crowd, as in a great +solitude, everything is possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had this in my mind. Judge, then, of my horror, when, as I +approached the Ritter Strasse, I became aware of a dull, roaring +sound; and hastening to turn the corner, saw a large mob gathered in +front of our house, and filling the street from wall to wall. The +glare of torches shone on a thousand upturned faces, and flamed from a +hundred casements. At the windows, on the roofs, peering over +balconies and coping-stones and gables, and looking out of doorways +were more faces, all red in the torchlight. And all the time as the +smoking light rose and fell, the yelling, as it seemed to me, rose and +fell with it--now swelling into a stern roar of exultation, now +sinking into an ugly, snarling noise, above which a man might hear his +neighbour speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">I seized the first I came to--a man standing on the skirts of the mob, +and rather looking on than taking part. 'What is it?' I said, shaking +him roughly by the arm. 'What is the matter here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hallo!' he answered, starting as he turned to me. 'Is it you again, +my friend?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I had hit on Herr Krapp!' Yes!' I cried breathlessly. 'What is it? +what is amiss?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders. 'They are hanging a spy,' he answered. +'Nothing more. Irregular, but wholesome.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I drew a deep breath. 'Is that all?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">He eyed me curiously. 'To be sure,' he said. 'What did you think it +was?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I feared that there might be something wrong at my lady's,' I said, +beginning to get my breath again. 'I left her alone at sunset. And +when I saw this crowd before the house I--I could almost have cut off +my hand. Thank God, I was mistaken!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me again and seemed to reflect a moment. Then he said, +'You have not found the young woman you were seeking?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I shook my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, it occurred to me afterwards--but at which window did you see +her?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'At a window on the first floor; the farthest from the door,' I +answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The second from the door end of the house?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, the third.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded with an air of quiet triumph. 'Just so!' he said. 'I thought +so afterwards. But the fact is, my friend, my house ends with the +second gable. The third gable-end does not belong to it, though +doubtless it once did.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No?' I exclaimed. And for a moment I stood taken aback, cursing my +carelessness. Then I stammered, 'But this third gable--I saw no door +in it, Herr Krapp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, the door is in another street,' he answered. 'Or rather it opens +on the churchyard at the back of St. Austin's. So you may have seen +her after all. Well, I wish you well,' he continued. 'I must be +going.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The crowd was beginning to separate, moving away by twos and threes, +talking loudly. The lights were dying down. He nodded and was gone; +while I still stood gaping. For how did the matter stand? If I had +really seen Marie at the window--as seemed possible now--and if +nothing turned out to be amiss at home, then I had not been tricked +after all, and the message was genuine. True she had not kept her +appointment. But she might be in durance, or one of a hundred things +might have frustrated her intention.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still I could do nothing now except go home, and cutting short my +speculations, I forced myself through the press, and with some labour +managed to reach the door. As I did so I turned to look back, and the +sight, though the people were moving away fast, was sufficiently +striking. Almost opposite us in a beetling archway, the bowed head and +shoulders of a man stood up above the common level. There was a little +space round him, whence men held back; and the red glow of the +smouldering links which the executioners had cast on the ground at his +feet, shone upwards on his swollen lips and starting eyeballs. As I +looked, the body seemed to writhe in its bonds; but it was only the +wind swayed it. I went in shuddering.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the stairs I met Count Hugo coming down, and knew the moment I saw +him that there was something wrong. He stopped me, his eyes full of +wrath.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My man,' he said sternly, 'I thought that you were to be trusted! +Where have you been? What have you been doing? <i>Donner!</i> Is your lady +to be left at dark with no one to man this door?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Conscience-stricken, I muttered that I hoped nothing had gone amiss.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, but something easily might!' he answered grimly. 'When I came +here I found three as ugly looking rogues whispering and peering in +your doorway as man could wish to see! Yes, Master Martin, and if I +had not ridden up at that moment I will not answer for it, that they +would not have been in! It is a pity a few more knaves are not where +that one is,' he continued sourly, pointing through the open door. 'We +could spare them. But do you see and have more care for the future. +Or, mein Gott, I will take other measures, my friend!'</p> + +<p class="normal">So it had been a ruse after all! I went up sick at heart.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_27" href="#div1Ref_27">THE HOUSE IN THE CHURCHYARD.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The heat which Count Leuchtenstein had thrown into the matter +surprised me somewhat when I came to think of it, but I was soon to be +more surprised. I did not go to my lady at once on coming in, for on +the landing the sound of voices and laughter met me, and I learned +that there were still two or three young officers sitting with her who +had outstayed Count Hugo. I waited until they were gone--clanking and +jingling down the stairs; and then, about the hour at which I usually +went to take orders before retiring, I knocked at the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">Commonly one of the women opened to me. To-night the door remained +closed. I waited, knocked again, and then went in. I could see no one, +but the lamps were flickering, and I saw that the window was open.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment, while I stood uncertain, she came in through it; and +blinded, I suppose, by the lights, did not see me. For at the first +chair she reached just within the window, she sat down suddenly and +burst into tears!</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mein Gott!' I cried clumsily. I should have known better; but the +laughter of the young fellows as they trooped down the stairs was +still in my ears, and I was dumfounded.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sprang up on the instant, and glared at me through her tears. 'Who +are--how dare you? How dare you come into the room without knocking?' +she cried violently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I did knock, my lady,' I stammered, 'asking your pardon.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then now go! Go out, do you hear?' she cried, stamping her foot with +passion. 'I want nothing. Go!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I turned and crept towards the door like a beaten hound. But I was not +to go; when my hand was on the latch, her mood changed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, stay,' she said in a different tone. 'You may come back. After +all, Martin, I had rather it was you than any one else.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She dried her tears as she spoke, standing up very straight and proud, +and hiding nothing. I felt a pang as I looked at her. I had neglected +her of late. I had been thinking more of others.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is nothing, Martin,' she said after a pause, and when she had +quite composed her face. 'You need not be frightened. All women cry a +little sometimes, as men swear,' she added, smiling.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have been looking at that thing outside,' I said, grumbling.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps it did upset me,' she replied. 'But I think it was that I +felt--a little lonely.'</p> + +<p class="normal">That sounded so strange a complaint on her lips, seeing that the echo +of the young sparks' laughter was barely dead in the room, that I +stared. But I took it, on second thoughts, to refer to Fraulein Max, +whom she had kept at a distance since our escape, never sitting down +with her, or speaking to her except on formal occasions; and I said +bluntly--</p> + +<p class="normal">'You need a woman friend, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at me keenly, and I fancied her colour rose. But she only +answered, 'Yes, Martin. But you see I have not one. I am alone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And lonely, my lady?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sometimes,' she answered, smiling sadly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But this evening?' I replied, feeling that there was still something +I did not understand. 'I should not have thought you would be feeling +that way. I have not been here, but when I came in, my lady----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pshaw!' she answered with a laugh of disdain. 'Those boys, Martin? +They can laugh, fight, and ride; but for the rest, pouf! They are not +company. However, it is bedtime, and you must go. I think you have +done me good. Good night. I wish--I wish I could do you good,' she +added kindly, almost timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">To some extent she had. I went away feeling that mine was not the only +trouble in the world, nor my loneliness the only loneliness. She was a +stranger in a besieged city, a woman among men, exposed, despite her +rank, to many of a woman's perils; and doubtless she had felt Fraulein +Max's defection and the Waldgrave's strange conduct more deeply than +any one watching her daily bearing would have supposed. So much the +greater reason was there that I should do my duty loyally, and putting +her first to whom I owed so much, let no sorrow of my own taint my +service.</p> + +<p class="normal">But God knows there is one passion that defies argument. The house +next Herr Krapp's had a fascination for me which I could not resist; +and though I did not again leave my lady unguarded, but arranged that +Steve should stop at home and watch the door, four o'clock the next +afternoon saw me sneaking away in search of St. Austin's. Of course I +soon found it; but there I came to a check. Round the churchyard stood +a number of quiet family houses, many-gabled and shaded by limes, and +doubtless once occupied by reverend canons and prebendaries. But no +one of these held such a position that it could shoulder Herr Krapp's, +or be by any possibility the house I wanted. The churchyard lay too +far from the street for that.</p> + +<p class="normal">I walked up the row twice before I would admit this; but at last I +made it certain. Still Herr Krapp must know his own premises, and not +much cast down, I was going to knock at a chance door and put the +question, when my eyes fell on a man who sat at work in the +churchyard. He wore a mason's apron, and was busily deepening the +inscription on a tablet let into the church wall. He seemed to be the +very man to know, and I went to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I want a house which looks into the Neu Strasse,' I said. 'It is the +next house to Herr Krapp's. Can you direct me to the door?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me for a moment, his hammer suspended. Then he pointed to +the farther end of the row. 'There is an alley,' he said in a hoarse, +croaking voice. 'The door is at the end.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought his occupation an odd one, considering the state of the +city; but I had other things to dwell on, and hastened off to the +place he indicated. Here, sure enough, I found the mouth of a very +narrow passage which, starting between the last house and a blind +wall, ran in the required direction. It was a queer place, scarcely +wider than my shoulders, and with two turns so sharp that I remember +wondering how they brought their dead out. In one part it wound under +the timbers of a house; it was dark and somewhat foul, and altogether +so ill-favoured a path that I was glad I had brought my arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the end it ran into a small, paved court, damp but clean, and by +comparison light. Here I saw the door I wanted facing me. Above it the +house, with its narrow front of one window on each floor, and every +floor jutting out a little, gave a strange impression of gloomy +height. The windows were barred and dusty, the plaster was mildewed, +the beams were dark with age. Whatever secrets, innocent or the +reverse, lay within, one thing was plain--this front gave the lie to +the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">I liked the aspect of things so little that it was with a secret +tremor I knocked, and heard the hollow sound go echoing through the +house. So certain did I feel that something was wrong, that I wondered +what the inmates would do, and whether they would lie quiet and refuse +to answer, or show force and baffle me that way. No foreign windows +looked into the little court in which I stood; three of the walls were +blind. The longer I gazed about me, the more I misdoubted the place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet I turned to knock again; but did not, being anticipated. The door +slid open under my hand, slowly wide open, and brought me face to face +with an old toothless hag, whose bleared eyes winked at me like a +bat's in sunshine. I was so surprised both by her appearance and the +opening of the door, that I stood tongue-tied, staring at her and at +the bare, dusty, unswept hall behind her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who lives here?' I blurted out at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">If I had stopped to choose my words I had done no better. She shook +her head and pointed first to her ears, and then to her lips. The +woman was deaf and dumb!</p> + +<p class="normal">I would not believe it at the first blush. I tried her again. 'Who +lives here, mother?' I cried more loudly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She smiled vacuously, showing her toothless gums. And that was all.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still I tried again, shouting and making signs to her to fetch whoever +was in the house. The sign she seemed to understand, for she shook her +head violently. But that helped me no farther.</p> + +<p class="normal">All the time the door stood wide open. I could see the hall, and that +it contained no furniture or traces of habitation. The woman was +alone, therefore a mere caretaker. Why should I not enter and satisfy +myself?</p> + +<p class="normal">I made as if I would do so. But the moment I set my foot across the +threshold the old crone began to mow and gibber so horribly, putting +herself in my way, that I fell back cowed. I had not the heart to use +force to her, alone as she was, and in her duty. Besides, what right +had I to thrust myself in? I should be putting myself in the wrong if +I did. I retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not at once shut the door, but continued to tremble and make +faces at me awhile as if she were cursing me. Then with her old hand +pressed to her side, she slowly but with evident passion clanged the +door home.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stood a moment outside, and then I retreated. I had been driven to +believe Herr Krapp. Why should I not believe this old creature? Here +was an empty house, and so an end. And yet--and yet I was puzzled.</p> + +<p class="normal">As I went through the churchyard, I passed my friend the mason, and +saw he had a companion. If he had looked up I should have asked him a +question or two. But he did not, and the other's back was towards me. +I walked on.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the silent street, however, three minutes later, a sudden thought +brought me to a stand. An empty house? Was there not something odd in +this empty house, when quarters were so scarce in Nuremberg, and even +my lady had got lodgings assigned to her as a favour and at a price? +The town swarmed with people who had taken refuge behind its walls. +Where one had lain two lay now. Yet here was an empty house!</p> + +<p class="normal">In a twinkling I was walking briskly towards the Neu Strasse, +determined to look farther into the matter. It was again the hour of +evening drill; the ways were crowded, the bells of the churches were +ringing. Using some little care as I approached Herr Krapp's, I +slipped into a doorway, which commanded it from a distance, and thence +began to watch the fatal window.</p> + +<p class="normal">If the old hag had not lied with her dumb lips I should see no one; or +at best should only see her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Half an hour passed; an hour passed. Hundreds of people passed, among +them the man I had seen talking with the mason in the churchyard. I +noticed him, because he went by twice. But the window remained blank. +Then on a sudden, as the light began to fail, I saw the Waldgrave at +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave?</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gott im Himmel!' I muttered, the blood rushing to my face. What was +the meaning of this? What was the magic of this cursed window? First I +had seen my love at it. Then the Waldgrave.</p> + +<p class="normal">While I stood thunderstruck, he was gone again, leaving the window +blank and black. The crowd passed below, chattering thoughtlessly. +Groups of men with pikes and muskets went by. All seemed unchanged. +But my mind was in a whirl. Rage, jealousy, and wonder played with it. +What did it all mean? First Marie, then the Waldgrave! Marie, whom we +had left thirty leagues away in the forest; the Waldgrave, whom I had +seen that morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stood gaping at the window, as if it could speak, and gradually my +mind regained its balance. My jealousy died out, hope took its place. +I did not think so ill of the Waldgrave as to believe that knowing of +Marie's existence he would hide it from me, and for that reason I +could not explain or understand how he came to be in the same house +with her. But it was undeniable that his presence there encouraged me. +There must be some middle link between them; perhaps some one +controlling both. And then I thought of Tzerclas.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave had seen him in the town, and had even spoken to him. +What if it were he who occupied this house close by the New Gate, with +a convenient secretive entrance, and used it for his machinations? +Marie might well have fallen into his hands. She might be in his power +now, behind the very walls on which I gazed.</p> + +<p class="normal">From that moment I breathed and lived only to see the inside of that +house. Nothing else would satisfy me. I scanned it with greedy eyes, +its steep gable, its four windows one above another, its carved +weather-boards. I might attack it on this side; or by way of the alley +and door. But I quickly discarded the latter idea. Though I had seen +only the old woman, I judged that there were defenders in the +background, and in the solitude of the alley I might be easily +despatched. It remained to enter from the front, or by way of the +roof. I pondered a moment, and then I went across to Herr Krapp's and +knocked.</p> + +<p class="normal">He opened the door himself. I almost pushed my way in. 'What do you +want, my friend?' he said, recoiling before me, and looking somewhat +astonished.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To get into your neighbour's house,' I answered bluntly.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_28" href="#div1Ref_28">UNDER THE TILES.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He had a light in his hand, and he held it up to my face. 'So?' he +said. 'Is that what you would be at? But you go fast. It takes two to +that, Master Steward.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I answered. 'I am the one, and you are the other, Herr Krapp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned from me and closed the door, and, coming back, held the +light again to my face. 'So you still think that it was your lady's +woman you saw at the window?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am sure of it,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">He set down his light on a chair and, leaning against the wall, seemed +to consider me. After a pause, 'And you have been to the house?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have been to the house--fruitlessly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You learned nothing?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then what do you want to do now?' he asked, softly rubbing his chin.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To see the inside of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you propose----?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To enter it from yours,' I answered. 'Surely you have some dormer, +some trap-door, some roof-way, by which a bold man may get from this +house to the next one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head. 'I know of none,' he said. 'But that is not all. +You are asking a strange thing. I am a peaceful man, and, I hope, a +good neighbour; and this which you ask me to do cannot be called +neighbourly. However, I need say the less about it, because the thing +cannot be done.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will you let me try?' I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">He seemed to reflect. In the end he made a strange answer. 'What time +did you call at the house?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps an hour ago--perhaps more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did you see any one in the churchyard as you passed?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said, thinking; 'there was a man at work there. I asked him +the way.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Krapp nodded, and seemed to reflect again. 'Well,' he said at +last,' it is a strong thing you ask, my friend. But I have my own +reasons for suspecting that all is not right next door, and therefore +you shall have your way as far as looking round goes. But I do not +think that you will be able to do anything.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I ask no more than that,' I said, trembling with eagerness.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me again as he took up the light. 'You are a big man,' he +said, 'but are you armed? Strength is of little avail against a +bullet.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I showed him that I had a brace of pistols, and he turned towards the +stairs. 'Dorcas is in the kitchen,' he said. 'My sons are out, and so +are the lads. Nevertheless, I am not very proud of our errand; so step +softly, my friend, and do not grumble if you have your labour for your +pains.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He led the way up the stairs with that, and I followed him. The house +was very silent, and the higher we ascended the more the silence grew +upon us, until, in the empty upper part, every footfall seemed to make +a hollow echo, and every board that creaked under our tread to whisper +that we were about a work of danger. When we reached the uppermost +landing of all, Herr Krapp stopped, and, raising his light, pointed to +the unceiled rafters.</p> + +<p class="normal">'See, there is no way out,' he said. 'And if you could get out, you +could not get in.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded as I looked round. Clearly, this floor was not much used. In +a corner a room had been at some period roughly partitioned off; +otherwise the place was a huge garret, the boards covered with scraps +of mortar, the corners full of shadows and old lumber and dense +cobwebs. In the sloping roof were two dormer windows, unglazed but +shuttered; and, beside the great yawning well of the staircase by +which we had ascended, lay a packing-box and some straw, and two or +three old rotting pallets tied together with ropes. I shivered as I +looked round. The place, viewed by the light of our one candle, had a +forlorn, depressing aspect. The air under the tiles was hot and close; +the straw gave out a musty smell.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was glad when Herr Krapp went to one of the windows and, letting +down the bar, opened the shutters. On the instant a draught, which all +but extinguished his candle, poured in, and with it a dull, persistent +noise unheard before--the murmur of the city, of the streets, the +voice of Nuremberg. I thrust my head out into the cool night air, and +rejoiced to see the lights flickering in the streets below, and the +shadowy figures moving this way and that. Above the opposite houses +the low sky was red; but the chimneys stood out black against it, and +in the streets it was dark night.</p> + +<p class="normal">I took all this in, and then I turned to the right and looked at the +next house. I saw as much as I expected; more, enough to set my heart +beating. The dormer window next to that from which I leaned, and on a +level with it, was open; if I might judge from the stream of light +which poured through it, and was every now and then cut off as if by a +moving figure that passed at intervals between the casement and the +candle. Who or what this was I could not say. It might be Marie; it +might not. But at the mere thought I leaned out farther, and greedily +measured the distance between us.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alas! between the dormer-gable in which I stood and the one in the +next house lay twelve feet of steep roof, on which a cat would have +been puzzled to stand. Its edge towards the street was guarded by no +gutter, ledge, or coping-stone, but ended smoothly in a frail, wooden +waterpipe, four inches square. Below that, yawned a sheer, giddy drop, +sixty feet to the pavement of the street. I drew in my head with a +shiver, and found Herr Krapp at my elbow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well,' he said, 'what do you see?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The next window is open,' I answered. 'How can I get to it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah!' he replied dryly, 'I did not undertake that you should.' He took +my place at the window and leaned out in his turn. He had set the +candle in a corner where it was sheltered from the draught. I strode +to it, and moved it a little in sheer impatience--I was burning to be +at the window again. As I came back, crunching the scraps of mortar +underfoot, my eyes fell on a bit of old dusty rope lying coiled on the +floor, and in a second I saw a way. When Herr Krapp turned from the +window he missed me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hallo!' he cried. 'Where are you, my friend?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here,' I answered, from the head of the stairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he advanced, I came out of the darkness to meet him, staggering +under the bundle of pallets which I had seen lying by the stair-head. +He whistled.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What are you going to do with those?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'By your leave, I want this rope,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What will you do with it?' he asked soberly. He was one of those +even-tempered men to whom excitement, irritation, fear, are all +foreign.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Make a loop and throw it over the little pinnacle on the top of +yonder dormer,' I answered briefly, 'and use it for a hand-rail.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Can you throw it over?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The pinnacle will hold?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I hope so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders, and stood for a moment staring at me as I +unwound the rope and formed a noose. At length: 'But the noise, my +friend?' he said. 'If you miss the first time, and the second, the +rope falling and sliding over the tiles will give the alarm.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Two cats ran along the ridge a while ago,' I answered. 'Once, and, +perhaps, twice, the noise will be set down to them. The third time I +must succeed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought it likely that he would forbid the attempt; but he did not. +On the contrary, he silently took hold of my belt, that I might lean +out the farther and use my hands with greater freedom. Against the +window I placed the bundle of pallets; setting one foot on them and +the other heel on the pipe outside, I found I could whirl the loop +with some chance of success.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, it was an anxious moment. As I craned over the dark street and, +poising myself, fixed my eyes on the black, slender spirelet which +surmounted the neighbouring window, I felt a shudder more than once +run through me. I shrank from looking down. At last I threw: the rope +fell short. Luckily it dropped clear of the window, and came home +again against the wall below me, and so made no noise. The second time +I threw with better heart; but I had the same fortune, except that I +nearly overbalanced myself, and, for a moment, shut my eyes in terror. +The third time, letting out a little more rope, I struck the pinnacle, +but below the knob. The rope fell on the tiles, and slid down them +with some noise, and for a full minute I stood motionless, half inside +the room and half outside, expecting each instant to see a head thrust +out of the other window. But no one appeared, no one spoke, though the +light was still obscured at intervals; and presently I took courage to +make a fourth attempt. I flung, and this time the rope fell with a +dull thud on the tiles, and stopped there: the noose was round the +pinnacle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gently I drew it tight, and then, letting it hang, I slipped back into +the room, where we had before taken the precaution to put out the +light. Herr Krapp asked me in a whisper if the rope was fast.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said. 'I must secure this end to something.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He passed it round the hinge of the left-hand shutter and made it +safe. Then for a moment we stood together in the darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All right?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All right,' I answered hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next moment the thing was done. I was outside, the rope in my +hands, my feet on the bending pipe, the cool night air round my +temples--below me, sheer giddiness, dancing lights, and blackness. For +the moment I tottered. I balanced myself where I stood, and clung to +the rope, shutting my eyes. If the pinnacle had given way then, I must +have fallen like a plummet and been killed. One crash against the wall +below, one grip at the rope as it tore its way through my fingers--and +an end!</p> + +<p class="normal">But the pinnacle held, and in a few seconds I gained wit and courage. +One step, then another, and then a third, taken warily, along the +pipe, as I have seen rope-walkers take them at Heritzburg fair, and I +was almost within reach of my goal. Two more, and, stooping, I could +touch, with my right hand, the tiles of the little gable, while my +left, raised above my head, still clutched the rope.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then came an anxious moment. I had to pass under the rope, which was +between me and the street, and between me and the window also--the +window, my goal. I did it; but in my new position I found a new +difficulty, and a grim one, confronting me. Standing outside the rope +now, with my right hand clinging to it, I could not, with all my +stretching, reach with my other hand any part of the window, or +anything of which I could get a firm grip. The smooth tiles and +crumbling mortar of the little gable gave no hold, while the rope, my +grip on which I dared not for my life relax, prevented me stooping +sufficiently to reach the sill or the window-case.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a horrible position. I stood still, sweating, trembling, and +felt the wooden pipe bend and yield under me. Behind me, the depth, +the street, yawned for me; before me, the black roof, shutting off the +sky. My head reeled, my fingers closed on the ropes like claws; for a +second I shut my eyes, and thought I was falling. In that moment I +forgot Marie--I forgot everything, except the pavement below, the +cruel stones, the depth; I would have given all, coward that I was, to +be back in Herr Krapp's room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the fit passed, and I stood, thinking. To take my hand from the +rope would be to fall--to die. But could I lower the rope so that, +still holding it, I could reach the sill, or the hinges, or some part +of the window-case that would furnish a grip? I could think of only +one way, and that a dangerous one; but I had no choice, nor any time +to lose, if I would keep my head. I drew out my knife, and, leaning +forward on the rope, with one knee on the tiles, I began to sever the +cord as far away to my right as I could reach. This was to cut off my +retreat--my connection with the window I had left; but I dared not let +myself think much of that or of anything. I hacked away in a frenzy, +and in a twinkling the rope flew apart, and I slipped forward on the +tiles, clutching the piece that remained to me in a grasp of iron.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far, good! I was trembling all over, but I was safe, and I lost not +a moment in passing the loose end twice round the fingers of my right +hand. This done, only one thing remained to be done--only one thing: +to lean over the abyss, trusting all my weight to the frail cord, and +to grope for the sill. Only that! Well, I did it. My hair stood up +straight as the pinnacle groaned and bent under my weight; my eyes +must have been astare with terror; all my flesh crept. I clung to the +face of the gable like a fly, but I did it! I reached the sill, +clutched it, loosed the rope, and in a moment was lying on my breast, +half in and half out of the window--safe!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not know how long I hung there, recovering my breath and +strength, but I suppose only a minute or two, though it seemed to me +an hour. A while before I should have thought such a position, without +foothold, above the dizzy street, perilous enough. Now it seemed to be +safety. Nevertheless, as I grew cooler I began to think of getting in, +of whom I should find there, of the issue of the attempt. And +presently, lifting one leg over the sill, I stretched out a hand and +drew aside a scanty curtain which hid the room from view. It was this +curtain that, rising and falling with the draught, had led me to +picture a figure moving to and fro.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no one to be seen, and for a moment I fancied that the room +was empty. The light was on the other side, and my act disclosed +nothing but a dusky corner under a sloping roof. The next instant, +however, a harsh voice, which shook the rafters, cried, with an oath--</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I let the curtain fall and, as softly as I could, scrambled over the +sill. My courage came back in face of a danger more familiar; my hand +grew steady. As I sat on the sill, I drew out a pistol; but I dared +not cock it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Speak, or I shoot!' cried the same voice. 'One, two! Was it the +wind--Himmel--or one of those cats?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I remained motionless. The speaker, whose voice I seemed to know, was +clearly uncertain and a little sleepy. I hoped that he would not rouse +the house and waste a shot on no better evidence; and I sat still in +the smallest compass into which I could draw myself. I could see the +light through the curtain, a makeshift thing of thin stuff, +unbleached--and I tried to discern his figure, but in vain. At last I +heard him sink back, grumbling uneasily.</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited a few minutes, until his breathing became more regular, and +then, with a cautious hand, I once more drew the curtain aside. As I +had judged, the light stood on the floor, by the end of the pallet. On +the pallet, his head uneasily pillowed on his arm, while the other +hand almost touched the butt of a pistol which lay beside the candle, +sprawled the man who had spoken--a swarthy, reckless-looking fellow, +still in his boots and dressed. His attitude as he slept, alone in +this quiet room, no less than the presence of the light and pistol, +spoke of danger and suspicion. But I did not need the one sign or the +other to warn me that my hopes and fears were alike realized. The man +was Ludwig!</p> + +<p class="normal">I dropped the curtain again, and sat thinking. I could not hope to +overcome such a man without a struggle and noise that must alarm the +house; and yet I must pass him, if I would do any good. My only course +seemed to be to slip by him by stealth, open the door in the same +manner, and gain the stairs. After that the house would be open to me, +and it would go hard with any one who came between me and Marie. I did +not doubt now that she was there.</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited until his more regular breathing seemed to show that he +slept, and then, after softly cocking my pistol, I set my feet to the +floor, and began to cross it. Unluckily my nerves were still ajar with +my roof-work. At the third step a board creaked under me; at the same +moment I caught a glimpse of a huge, dark figure at my elbow, and +though this was only my shadow, cast on the sloping roof by the +candle, I sprang aside in a fright. The noise was enough to awaken the +sleeper. As my eyes came back to him he opened his and saw me, and, +raising himself, in a trice groped for his pistol. He could not on the +instant find it, however, and I had time to cover him with mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have done!' I hissed. 'Be still, or you are a dead man!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Martin Schwartz!' he cried, with a frightful oath.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I rejoined; 'and mark me, if you raise a finger, I fire.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He glared at me, and so we stood a moment. Then I said, 'Push that +pistol to me with your foot. Don't put out your hand, or it will be +the worse for you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me for a moment, his face distorted with rage, as if he +were minded to disobey at all risks; then he drew up his foot sullenly +and set it against the pistol. I stepped back a pace and for an +instant took my eyes from his--intending to snatch up the firearm as +soon as it was out of his reach. In that instant he dashed out the +light with his foot; I heard him spring up--and we were in darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">The surprise was complete, and I did not fire; but I had the presence +of mind, believing that he had secured his pistol, to change my +position--almost as quickly as he changed his. However, he did not +fire; and so there we were in the pitchy darkness of the room, both +armed, and neither knowing where the other stood.</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt every nerve in my body tingle; but with rage, not fear. I dared +not change my position again, lest a creaking board should betray me, +now all was silent; but I crouched low in the darkness with the pistol +in one hand and my knife drawn in the other, and listened for his +breathing. The same consideration--we were both heavy men--kept him +motionless also; and I remember to this day, that as we waited, +scarcely daring to breathe--and for my part each moment expecting the +flash and roar of a shot--one of the city clocks struck slowly and +solemnly ten.</p> + +<p class="normal">The strokes ceased. In the room I could not hear a sound, and I felt +nervously round me with my knife; but without avail. I crouched still +lower, lower, with a beating heart. The curtain obscured the window, +there was no moon, no light showed under the door. The darkness was so +complete that, but for a kind of fainter blackness that outlined the +window, I could not have said in what part of the room I stood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly a sharp loud 'thud' broke the silence. It seemed to come from +a point so close to me that I almost fired on that side before I could +control my fingers. The next moment I knew that it was well I had not. +It was Ludwig's knife flung at a venture--and now buried, as I +guessed, an inch deep in the door--which had made the noise. Still, +the action gave me a sort of inkling where he was, and, noiselessly +facing round a trifle, I raised my pistol, and waited for some +movement that might direct my aim.</p> + +<p class="normal">I feared that he had a second knife; I hoped that in drawing it from +its sheath he would make some noise. But all was still. Sharpen my +ears as I might, I could hear nothing; strain my eyes as I might, I +could see no shadow, no bulk in the darkness. A silence as of death +prevailed. I could scarcely believe that he was still in the room. My +courage, hot and fierce at first, began to wane under the trial. I +felt the point of his knife already in my back; I winced and longed to +be sheltered by the wall, yet dared not move to go to it. In another +minute I think I should have fired at a sheer venture, rather than +bear the strain longer; but at last a sound broke on my ear. The sound +was not in the room, but in the house below. Some one was coming up +the stairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">The step reached a landing, and I heard it pause; a stumble, and it +came on again up the next flight. Another pause, this time a longer +one. Then it mounted again, and gradually a faint line of light shone +under the door. I felt my breath come quickly. One glance at the door, +which was near me on the right hand, and I peered away again, +balancing the pistol in my hand. If Ludwig cried out or spoke, I would +fire in the direction of the voice. Between two foes I was growing +desperate.</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_301"><img src="images/pg301.png" alt=" pg 301"></a><br> +Before I could recover myself a pair of strong arms +closed round mine and bound them to my sides.</p> + + +<p class="normal">The step came on and stopped at the door; still Ludwig held his peace. +The new-comer rapped; not loudly, or I think I should have started and +betrayed myself--to such a point were my feelings wound up--but softly +and timidly. I set my teeth together and grasped my knife. Ludwig on +his part kept silence; the person outside, getting no answer, knocked +again, and yet again, each time more loudly. Still no answer. Then I +heard a hand touch the latch. It grated. A moment of suspense, and a +flood of light burst in--close to me on my right hand--dazzling me. I +looked round quickly, in fear; and there, in the doorway, holding a +taper in her hand, I saw Marie--Marie Wort!</p> + +<p class="normal">While I stood open-mouthed, gazing, she saw me, the light falling on +me. Her lips opened, her breast heaved, I think she must have seen my +danger; but if so the shriek she uttered came too late to save me. I +heard it, but even as I heard it a sudden blow in the back hurled me +gasping to my knees at her feet. Before I could recover myself a pair +of strong arms closed round mine and bound them to my sides. +Breathless and taken at advantage I made a struggle to rise; but I +heaved and strained without avail. In a moment my hands were tied, and +I lay helpless and a prisoner.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that I was conscious only of a tumult round me; of a woman +shrieking, of loud trampling, and lights and faces, among these +Tzerclas' dark countenance, with a look of fiendish pleasure on it. +Even these things I only noted dully. In the middle of all I was +wool-gathering. I suppose I was taken downstairs, but I remember +nothing of it; and in effect I took little note of anything until, my +breath coming back to me, I found myself being borne through a +doorway--on the ground floor, I think--into a lighted room. A man held +me by either arm, and there were three other men in the room.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_29" href="#div1Ref_29">IN THE HOUSE BY ST. AUSTIN'S.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Two of these men sat facing one another at a great table covered with +papers. As I entered they turned their faces to me, and on the instant +one sprang to his feet with an exclamation of rage that made the roof +ring.</p> + +<p class="normal">'General!' he cried passionately, 'what--what devil's trick is this? +Why have you brought that man here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' Tzerclas answered easily, insolently. 'Does he know you?' He +had come in just before us. He smiled; the man's excitement seemed to +amuse him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'By ----, he does!' the other exclaimed through his teeth. 'Are you +mad?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think not,' the general answered, still smiling. 'You will +understand in a minute. But his business can wait. First'--he took up +a paper and scanned it carefully--'let us complete this list of----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' the stranger replied impetuously. And he dashed the paper back +on the table and looked from one to another like a wild beast in a +trap. He was a tall, very thin, hawk-nosed man, whom I had seen once +at my lady's--the commander of a Saxon regiment in the city's service, +with the name of a reckless soldier. 'No!' he repeated, scowling, +until his brows nearly met his moustachios. 'Not another gun, not +another measurement will I give, until I know where I stand! And +whether you are the man I think you, general, or the blackest +double-dyed liar that ever did Satan's work!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The general laughed grimly--the laugh that always chilled my blood. +'Gently, gently,' he said. 'If you must know, I have brought him into +this room, in the first place, because it is convenient, and in the +second, because----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' Neumann snarled, with an ugly gleam in his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because dead men tell no tales,' Tzerclas continued quietly. 'And our +friend here is a dead man. Now, do you see? I answer for it, you run +no risk.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Himmel!' the other exclaimed; in a different tone, however. 'But in +that case, why bring him here at all? Why not despatch him upstairs?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because he knows one or two things which I wish to know,' the general +answered, looking at me curiously. 'And he is going to make us as wise +as himself. He has been drilling in the south-east bastion by the +orchard, you see, and knows what guns are mounted there.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Cannot you get them from the fool in the other room?' Neumann +grunted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He will tell nothing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then why do you have him hanging about here day after day, risking +everything? The man is mad.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because, my dear colonel, I have a use for <i>him</i> too,' Tzerclas +replied. Then he turned to me. 'Listen, knave,' he said harshly. 'Do +you understand what I have been saying?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I did, and I was desperate. I remembered what I had done to him, how +we had outwitted, tricked, and bound him; and now that I was in his +power I knew what I had to expect; that nothing I could say would +avail me. I looked him in the face. 'Yes,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You had the laugh on your side the last time we met,' he smiled. 'Now +it is my turn.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So it seems,' I answered stolidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think it annoyed him to see me so little moved. But he hid the +feeling. 'What guns are in the orchard bastion?' he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">I laughed. 'You should have asked me that,' I said, 'before you told +me what you were going to do with me. The dead tell no tales, +general.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You fool!' he replied. 'Do you think that death is the worst you have +to fear? Look round you! Do you see these windows? They are boarded +up. Do you see the door? It is guarded. The house? The walls are +thick, and we have gags. Answer me, then, and quickly, or I will find +the way to make you. What guns are in the orchard bastion?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He took up a paper with the last word and looked at me over it, +waiting for my answer. For a moment not a sound broke the silence of +the room. The other men stood all at gaze, watching me, Neumann with a +scowl on his face. The lights in the room burned high, but the +frowning masks of boards that hid the windows, the litter of papers on +the table, the grimy floor, the cloaks and arms cast down on it in a +medley--all these marks of haste and secrecy gave a strange and +lowering look to the chamber, despite its brightness. My heart beat +wildly like a bird in a man's hand. I feared horribly. But I hid my +fear; and suddenly I had a thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have forgotten one thing,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">They started. It was not the answer they expected.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What?' Tzerclas asked curtly, in a tone that boded ill for me--if +worse were possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To ask how I came into the house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The general looked death at Ludwig. 'What is this, knave?' he +thundered. 'You told me that he came in by the window?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He did, general,' Ludwig answered, shrugging his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, from the next house,' I said coolly. 'Where my friends are now +waiting for me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Which house?' Tzerclas demanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Herr Krapp's.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was completely in their hands. But they knew, and I knew, that their +lives were scarcely more secure than mine; that, given a word, a sign, +a traitor among them--and they were all traitors, more or less--all +their boarded windows and locked doors would avail them not ten +minutes against the frenzied mob. That thought blanched more than one +cheek while I spoke; made more than one listen fearfully and cast eyes +at the door; so that I wondered no longer, seeing their grisly faces, +why the room, in spite of its brightness, had that strange and sombre +look. Treachery, fear, suspicion, all lurked under the lights.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tzerclas alone was unmoved; perhaps because he had something less to +fear than the faithless Neumann. 'Herr Krapp's?' he said scornfully. +'Is that all? I will answer for that house myself. I have a man +watching it, and if danger threatens from that direction, we shall +know it in good time. He marks all who go in or out.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You can trust him?' Neumann muttered, wiping his brow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am trusting him,' the general answered dryly. 'And I am not often +deceived. This man and the puling girl upstairs tricked me once; but +they will not do so again. Now, sirrah!' and he turned to me afresh, a +cruel gleam in his eyes. 'That bird will not fly. To business. Will +you tell me how many guns are in the orchard bastion?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' I cried. I was desperate now.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You talk bravely,' he answered. 'But I have known men talk as +bravely, and whimper and tremble like flogged children five minutes +later. Ludwig--ah, there is no fire. Get a bit of thin whip-cord, and +twist it round his head with your knife-handle. But first,' he +continued, devouring me with his hard, smiling eyes, 'call in Taddeo. +You will need another man to handle him neatly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At the word my blood ran cold with horror, and then burning hot. My +gorge rose; I set my teeth and felt all my limbs swell. There was a +mist of blood before my eyes, as if the cord were already tight and my +brain bursting. I heaved in my bonds and heard them crack and crack. +But, alas! they held.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Try again!' he said, sneering at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You fiend!' I burst out in a fury. 'But I defy you. Do your worst, I +will balk you yet!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me hard. Then he smiled. 'Ah!' he said. 'So you think you +will beat me. Well, you are an obstinate knave, I know; and I have not +much time to spare. Yet I shall beat you. Ludwig,' he continued, +raising his voice, though his smiling eyes did not leave me. 'Is +Taddeo there?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is coming, general.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then bid him fetch the girl down! Yes, Master Martin,' he continued +with a ruthless look, 'we will see. I have a little account against +her too. Do not think that I have kept her all this time for nothing. +We will put the cord not round your head--you are a stubborn fool, I +know--but round hers, my friend. Round her pretty little brow. We will +see if that will loosen your tongue.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The room reeled before my eyes, the lights danced, the men's faces, +some agrin, some darkly watchful, seemed to be looking at me through a +mist that dimmed everything. I cried out wild oaths, scarcely knowing +what I said, that he would not, that he dared not.</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed. 'You think not, Master Martin?' he said. 'Wait until the +slut comes. Ludwig has a way of singeing their hands with a lamp--that +will afford you, I think, the last amusement you will ever enjoy!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I knew that he spoke truly, and that he and his like had done things +as horrible, as barbarous, a hundred times in the course of this +cursed war! I knew that I had nothing to expect from their pity or +their scruples. And the frenzy of passion, which for a moment had +almost choked me, died down on a sudden, leaving me cold as the +coldest there and possessed by one thought only, one hope, one aim--to +get my hands free for a moment and kill this man. The boarded windows, +the guarded doors, the stern faces round me, the silence of the gloomy +house all forbade hope; but revenge remained. Rather than Marie should +suffer, rather than that childish frame should be racked by their +cruel arts, I would tell all, everything they wanted. But if by any +trick or chance I went afterwards free for so much as a second, I +would choke him with my naked hands!</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited, looking at the door, my mind made up. The moments passed +like lead. So apparently thought some one else, for suddenly on the +silence came an interruption. 'Is this business going to last all +night?' Neumann burst out impatiently. 'Hang the man out of hand, if +he is to be hanged!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My good friend, revenge is sweet,' Tzerclas answered, with an ugly +smile. 'These two fooled me a while ago; and I have no mind to be +fooled with impunity. But it will not take long. We will singe her a +little for his pleasure--he will like to hear her sing--and then we +will hang him for her pleasure. After which----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do what you like!' Neumann burst out, interrupting him wrathfully. +'Only be quick about it. If the girl is here----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is coming. She is coming, now,' Tzerclas answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had gone through so much that my feelings were blunted. I could no +longer suffer keenly, and I waited for her appearance with a composure +that now surprises me. The door opened, Taddeo came in! looked beyond +him, but saw no one else; then I looked at him. The ruffian was +trembling. His face was pale. He stammered something.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tzerclas made but one stride to him. 'Dolt!' he cried, 'what is it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is gone!' the man stuttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, your excellency.'</p> + +<p class="normal">For an instant Tzerclas stood glaring at him. Then like lightning his +hand went lip and his pistol-butt crashed down on the man's temple. +The wretch threw up his arms and fell as if a thunderbolt had struck +him--senseless, or lifeless; no one asked which, for his assailant, +like a beast half-sated, stood glaring round for a second victim. But +Ludwig, who had come down with Taddeo, knew his master, and kept his +distance by the door. The other two men shrank behind me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' Tzerclas cried, as soon as passion allowed him to speak. 'Are +you dumb? Have you lost your tongue? What is it that liar meant?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The girl is away,' Ludwig muttered. 'She got out through a window.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Through what window?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The window of my room, under the roof,' the man answered sullenly. +'The one--through which that fool came in,' he continued, nodding +towards me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah!' the general cried, his voice hissing with rage. 'Well, we have +still got him. How did she go?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heaven knows, unless she had wings,' Ludwig answered. 'The window is +at the top of the house, and there is neither rope nor ladder there, +nor foothold for anything but a bird. She is gone, however.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The general ground his teeth together. 'There is some cursed treachery +here!' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Saxon colonel laughed in scorn. 'Maybe!' he retorted in a mocking +tone, 'but I will answer for it, that there is something else, and +that is cursed mismanagement! I tell you what it is, General +Tzerclas,' he continued fiercely. 'With your private revenges, and +your public plots, and your tame cats who are mad, and your wild cats +who have wings--you think yourself a very clever man. But Heaven help +those who trust you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The general's eyes sparkled. 'And those who cross me?' he cried in a +voice that made his men tremble. 'But there, sir, what ground of +complaint have you? The girl never saw you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, but that man has seen me!' Neumann retorted, pointing to me. 'And +who knows how soon she may be back with a regiment at her heels? Then +it will be "Save yourselves!" and he will be left to hang me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The general laughed without mirth. 'Have no fear!' he said. 'We will +hang him out of hand. Ludwig, while we collect these papers, take the +other two men and string him up in the hall. When they break in they +shall find some one to receive them!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I had thought that the agony of death was passed; but I suppose that +the news of Marie's escape had awakened my hopes as well as rekindled +my love of life; for at these words, I felt my courage run from me +like water. I shrank back against the wall, my limbs trembling under +me, my heart leaping as if it would burst from my breast. I felt the +rope already round my neck, and when the men laid hold on me, I cried +out, almost in spite of myself, that I would tell what guns there were +in the orchard bastion, that I knew other things, that----</p> + +<p class="normal">'Away with him!' Tzerclas snarled, stamping his foot passionately. He +was already hurrying papers together, and did not give me a glance. +'String him up, knaves, and see this time that you obey orders. We +must be gone, so pull his legs.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I would have said something more; I would have tried again. Even a +minute, a minute's delay meant hope. But my voice failed me, and they +hustled me out. I am no coward, and I had thought myself past fear; +but the flesh is weak. At this pinch, when their hands were on me, +and I looked round desperately and found no one to whom I could +appeal--while hope and rescue might be so near and yet come too +late--I shrank. Death in this vile den seemed horrible. My knees +trembled; I could scarcely stand.</p> + +<p class="normal">The hall into which they dragged me was the same dusty, desolate place +into which, little foreseeing what would happen there, I had looked +over the deaf hag's shoulder. Ludwig's candle only half dispersed the +darkness which reigned in it. Two of the men held me while he went to +and fro with the light raised high above his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha! here it is!' he said at last. 'I thought that there was a hook. +Bring him here, lads.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They forced me, resisting feebly, to the place. The candle stood +beside him; he was forming a noose. The light, which left all behind +them dark, lit up the men's harsh faces; but I read no pity there, no +hope, no relenting; and after a hoarse attempt to bribe them with +promises of what my lady would give for my life, I stood waiting. I +tried to pray, to think of Marie, of my soul and the future; but my +mind was taken up with rage and dread, with the wild revolt against +death, and the rush of indignation that would have had me scream like +a woman!</p> + +<p class="normal">On a sudden, out of the darkness grew a fourth face that looked at me, +smiling. It was no more softened by ruth or pity than the others were; +the laughing eyes mocked me, the lip curled as with a jest. And yet, +at sight of it, I gasped. Hope awoke. I tried to speak, I tried to +implore his help, I tried But my voice failed me, no words came. The +face was the Waldgrave's.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet he nodded as if I had spoken. 'Yes,' he said, smiling more +broadly, 'I see, Martin, that you are in trouble. You should have +taken my advice in better time. I told you that he would get the +better of you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig, who had not seen him before he spoke, dropped the rope, and +stood, stupefied, gazing at him. I cried out hoarsely that they were +going to hang me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, no, not as bad as that!' he said lightly, between jest and +earnest. 'But I gave you fair warning, you know, Martin. Oh, +he is----'</p> + +<p class="normal">Waldgrave, Waldgrave!' I panted, trying to get to him; but the men +held me back. 'They will hang me! They will! It is no joke. In God's +name, save me, save me! I saved you once, and----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Chut, chut!' he replied easily. 'Of course I will save you. I will go +to the general and arrange it now. Don't be afraid. My sweet cousin +must not lose her steward. Why, you are shaking like an aspen, man. +But I told you, did I not? Oh, he is the---- Wait, fellow,' he +continued to Ludwig, 'until I come back. Where is your master?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Upstairs,' Ludwig answered sullenly, an ugly gleam in his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave turned from me carelessly, and went towards the stairs, +which were at the end of the hall. Ludwig, as he did so, picked up the +rope with a stealthy gesture. I read his mind, and called pitifully to +the Waldgrave to stop.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They will hang me while you are away,' I cried. 'And he is not +upstairs! They are lying to you. He is in the room on the left.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave halted and came back, his handsome face troubled. +Ludwig, looking as if he would strike me, swore under his breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Upstairs, your excellency, upstairs!' he cried. 'You will find him +there. Why should I----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hush!' one of the other men said, and I felt his grasp on my arm +relax. 'What is that, captain--that noise?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Ludwig was intent on the Waldgrave. 'Upstairs!' he continued to +cry, waving his hand in that direction. 'I assure you, my lord----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Steady!' the man who had cut him short before exclaimed. 'They are at +the door, Ludwig. Listen, man, listen, or we shall be taken like +wolves in a trap!'</p> + +<p class="normal">This time Ludwig condescended to listen, scowling. A noise like that +made by a rat gnawing at wood could be heard. My heart beat fast and +faster. The man who had given the alarm had released my arm +altogether. The other held me carelessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a yell which startled all, I burst suddenly from him and sprang +past the Waldgrave. Bound as I was, I had the start and should have +been on the stairs in another second, when, with a crash and a +blinding glare, a shock, which loosened the very foundations of the +house, flung me on my face.</p> + +<p class="normal">I lay a moment, gasping for breath, wondering where I was hurt. Out of +the darkness round me came a medley of groans and shrieks. The air was +full of choking smoke, through which a red glare presently shone, and +grew gradually brighter. I could see little, understand less of what +was happening; but I heard shots and oaths, and once a rush of +charging feet passed over me.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that, growing more sensible, I tried to rise, but a weight lay +on my legs--my arms were still tied--and I sank again. I took the +fancy then that the house was on fire and that I should be burned +alive; but before I had more than tasted the horror of the thought, a +crowd of men came round me, and rough hands plucked me up.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here is another of them!' a voice cried. 'Have him out! To the +churchyard with him! The trees will have a fine crop!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Halloa! he is tied up already!' a second chimed in.</p> + +<p class="normal">I gazed round stupidly, meeting everywhere vengeful looks and savage +faces.</p> + +<p class="normal">A butcher, with his axe on his shoulder, hauled at me. 'Bring him +along!' he shouted. 'This way, friends! Hurry him. To the churchyard!'</p> + +<p class="normal">My wits were still wool-gathering, and I should have gone quietly; but +a man pushed his way to the front and looked at me. 'Stop! stop!' he +cried in a voice of authority. 'This is a friend. This is the man who +got in by the roof. Cut the ropes, will you? See how his hands are +swollen. That is better. Bring him out into the air. He will revive.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The speaker was Herr Krapp. In a moment a dozen friendly arms lifted +me up and carried me through the crowd, and set me down in the little +court. The cool night air swept my brow. I looked up and saw the stars +shining in the quiet heaven, and I leant against the wall, sobbing +like a woman.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_30" href="#div1Ref_30">THE END OF THE DAY.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Ludwig was found dead in the hall, slain on the spot by the explosion +of the petard which had driven in the door. His two comrades, less +fortunate, were taken alive, and, with the hag who kept the house, +were hanged within the hour on the elms in St. Austin's churchyard. +The Waldgrave and Neumann, both wounded, the former by the explosion +and the latter in his desperate resistance, were captured and held for +trial. But Tzerclas, the chief of all, arch-tempter and arch-traitor, +vanished in the confusion of the assault, and made his escape, no one +knew how. Some said that he went by way of a secret passage known only +to himself; some, that he had a compact with the devil, and vanished +by his aid; some, that he had friends in the crowd who sheltered him. +For my part, I set down his disappearance to his own cool wits and +iron nerves, and asked no further explanation.</p> + +<p class="normal">For an hour the little dark court behind the ill-omened house seethed +with a furious mob. No sooner were one party satisfied than another +swept in with links and torches and ransacked the house, tore down the +panels, groped through the cellars, and probed the chimneys; all with +so much rage, and with gestures so wild and extravagant, that an +indifferent spectator might have thought them mad. Nor were those who +did these things of the lowest class; on the contrary, they were +mostly burghers and traders, solid townsfolk and their apprentices, +men who, with wives and daughters and sweethearts, could not sleep at +night for thoughts of storm and sack, and in whom the bare idea that +they had amongst them wretches ready to open the gates, was enough to +kindle every fierce and cruel passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stood for a time unnoticed, gazing at the scene in a kind of stupor, +which the noise and tumult aggravated. Little by little, however, the +cool air did its work; memory and reason began to return, and, with +anxiety awaking in my breast, I looked round for Herr Krapp. Presently +I saw him coming towards me with a leather flask in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Drink some of this,' he said, looking at me keenly. 'Why so wild, +man?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The girl?' I stammered. I had not spoken before since my release, and +my voice sounded strange and unnatural.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is safe,' he answered, nodding kindly. 'I was at my window when +she swung herself on to the roof by the rope which you left hanging. +Donner! you may be proud of her! But she was distraught, or she would +not have tried such a feat. She must inevitably have fallen if I had +not seen her. I called out to her to stand still and hold fast; and my +son, who had come upstairs, ran down for a twelve-foot pike. We thrust +that out to her, and, holding it, she tottered along the pike to my +window, where I caught her skirts, and we dragged her in in a moment.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I shuddered, remembering how I had suffered, hanging above the yawning +street. 'I suppose that it was she who warned you and sent you here?' +I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' he answered. 'This house had been watched for two days, though I +did not tell you so. We had been suspicious of it for a week or more, +or I should not have helped you into a neighbour's house as I did. +However, all is well that ends well; and though we have not got that +bloodthirsty villain to hang, we have stopped his plans for this +time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He was just proposing that, if I now felt able, I should return to my +lady's, when a rush of people from the house almost carried me off my +feet. In a moment we were pushed aside and squeezed against the wall. +A hoarse yell, like the cry of a wild beast, rose from the crowd, a +hundred hands were brandished in the air, weapons appeared as if by +magic. The glare of torches, falling on the raging sea of men, picked +out here and there a scared face, a wandering eye; but for the most +part the mob seemed to feel only one passion--the thirst for blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' I shouted in Herr Krapp's ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The prisoners,' he answered. 'They are bringing them out. Your friend +the Waldgrave, and the other. They will need a guard.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And truly it was a grim thing to see men make at them, striking over +the shoulders of the guard, leaping at them wolf-like, with burning +eyes and gnashing teeth, striving to tear them with naked hands. Down +the narrow passage to the churchyard the soldiers had an easy task; +but in the open graveyard, whither Herr Krapp and I followed slowly, +the party were flung this way and that, and tossed to and fro--though +they were strong men, armed, and numbered three or four score--like a +cork floating on rapids. Their way lay through the Ritter Strasse, and +I went with them so far. Though it was midnight, the town, easily +roused from its feverish sleep, was up and waking. Scared faces looked +from windows, from eaves, from the very roofs. Men who had snatched up +their arms and left their clothes peered from doorways. The roar of +the mob, as it swayed through narrow ways, rose and fell by turns, now +loud as the booming of cavern-waves, now so low that it left the air +quivering.</p> + +<p class="normal">When it died away at last towards the Burg, I took leave of Herr +Krapp, and hurried to my lady's, passing the threshold in a tumult of +memories, of emotions, and thankfulness. I could fancy that I had +lived an age since I last crossed it--eight hours before. The house, +like every other house, was up. Herr Krapp had sent the news of my +escape before me, and I looked forward with a tremulous, foolish +expectation that was not far from tears to the first words two women +would say to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">But though men and women met me with hearty greetings on the +threshold, on the stairs, on the landing, and Steve clapped me on the +back until I coughed again, <i>they</i> did not appear. It was after +midnight, but the house was still lighted as if the sun had just set, +and I went up to the long parlour that looked on the street. My heart +beat, and my face grew hot as I entered; but I might have spared +myself. There was only Fraulein Max in the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">She came towards me, blinking. 'So Sancho Panza has turned +knight-errant,' she said with a sneer, 'as well as Governor?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not understand her, and I asked gently where my lady was.</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed in her gibing way. 'You beg for a stone and expect bread,' +she said. 'You care no more where my lady is than where I am! You +mean, where is your Romanist chit, with her white face and wheedling +ways.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw that she was bursting with spite; that Marie's return and the +stir made about it had been too much for her small, jealous nature, +and I was not for answering her. She was out of favour; let her spit, +her venom would be gone the sooner. But she had not done yet.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of course she has had some wonderful adventures!' she continued, her +face working with malice and ill-nature. 'And we are all to admire +her. But to a lover does she not seem somewhat <i>blandula, vagula?</i> +Here to-day and gone to-morrow. <i>Dolus latet in generalibus</i>, the +Countess says'--and here the Dutch girl mimicked my lady, her eyes +gleaming with scorn. 'But <i>dolus latet in virginibus</i>, too, Master +Martin, as you will find some day! Oh, a great escape, a heroic +escape,--but from her friends!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you mean to infer, Fraulein----' I said hotly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, I infer nothing. I leave you to do that!' she replied, smirking. +'But pigs go back to the dirt, I read. You know where you found her +and the brat!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know where we should all be to-day,' I cried, trembling with +indignation, 'if it had not been for her!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps not worse off than we are now,' she snapped. 'However, keep +your eyes shut, if it pleases you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My raised voice had reached the Countess's chamber, and as Fraulein +Max, giggling spitefully, went out through one door the other opened +and stood open. My anger melted away. I stood trembling, and looking, +and waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">They came in together, my lady with her arm round Marie, the two women +I loved best in the world. I have heard it said that evil runs to evil +as drops of water to one another. But the saying is equally true of +good. Little had I thought, a few weeks back, that my lady would come +to treat the outcast girl from Klink's as a friend; nor I believe were +there ever two people less alike, and yet both good, than these two. +But that one quality--which is so quick to see its face mirrored in +another's heart--had brought them close together, and made each to +recognise the other; so that, as they came in to me, there was not a +line of my lady's figure, not a curve of her head, not a glance of +her proud eyes, that was not in sympathy with the girl who clung to +her--Romanist stranger, low born as she was. I looked and worshipped, +and would have changed nothing. I found the dignity of the one as +beautiful as the dependence of the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not a word was spoken. I had wondered what they would say to me--and +they said nothing. But my lady put her into my arms, and she clung to +me, hiding her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess laughed, yet there were tears in her voice. 'Be happy,' +she said. 'Child, from the day you were lost he never forgave me. +Martin, see where the rope has cut her wrist. She did it to save you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And myself!' Marie whispered on my breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' my lady said. 'I will not have it so! You will spoil both him +and my love-story. <i>Per tecta, per terram</i>, you have sought one +another. You have gone down <i>sub orco</i>. You have bought one another +back from death, as Alcestis bought her husband Admetus. At the first +it was a gold chain that linked you together, soon----'</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt Marie start in my arms. She freed herself gently, and looked at +my lady with trouble in her eyes. 'Oh,' she said, 'I had forgotten!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What?' the Countess said. 'What have you forgotten?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The child!' Marie replied, clasping her hands. 'I should have told +you before!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have had no time to tell us much!' my lady answered smiling. 'And +you are trembling like an aspen now. Sit down, girl. Sit down at +once!' she continued imperatively. 'Or, no! You shall go to your bed, +and we will hear it in the morning.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marie seemed so much distressed by this that my lady did not +insist; and in a few minutes the girl had told us a tale so remarkable +that consideration of her fatigue was swallowed up in wonder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was the night I was lost,' she said; 'the night when the alarm was +given on the hill, and we rode down it. I clung to my saddle--it was +all I could do--and remember only a dreadful shock, from which I +recovered to find myself lying in the road, shaken and bruised. Fear +of those whom I believed to be behind us was still in my mind, and I +rose, giddy and confused, my one thought to get off the road. As I +staggered towards the bank, however, I stumbled over something. To my +horror I found that it was a woman. She was dead or senseless, but she +had a child in her arms; it cried as I felt her face. I dared not +stay, but, on the impulse of the moment--I could not move the woman, +and I expected our pursuers to ride down the hill each instant--I +snatched the child up and ran into the brushwood. After that I only +remember stumbling blindly on through bog and fern, often falling in +my haste, but always rising and pushing on. I heard cries behind me, +but they only spurred me to greater exertions. At last I reached a +little wood, and there, unable to go farther, I sank down, exhausted, +and, I suppose, lost my senses, for I awoke, chilled and aching, in +the first grey dawn. The leaves were black overhead, but the white +birch trunks round me glimmered like pale ghosts. Something stirred in +my arms. I looked down, and saw the face of my child--the child I +found in the wood by Vach.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What!' the Countess cried, rising and staring at her. 'Impossible! +Your wits were straying, girl. It was some other child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marie shook her head gently. 'No, my lady,' she said. 'It was my +child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Count Leuchtenstein's?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, if the child I found was his.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But how--did it come where you found it?' the Countess asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think that the woman whom I left in the road was the poor creature +who used to beg at our house in the camp,' Marie answered, hesitating +somewhat--'the wife of the man whom General Tzerclas hung, my lady. I +saw her face by a glimmer of light only, and, at the moment, I thought +nothing. Afterwards it flashed across me that she was that woman. If +so, I think that she stole the child to avenge herself. She thought +that we were General Tzerclas' friends.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But then where is the child?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes shining. I +was excited myself; but the delight, the pleasure which I saw in her +face took me by surprise. I stared at her, thinking that I had never +seen her look so beautiful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, as Marie answered, her face fell. 'I do not know,' my girl said. +'After a time I found my way back to the road, but I had scarcely set +foot on it when General Tzerclas' troopers surprised me. I gave myself +up for lost; I thought that he would kill me. But he only gibed at me, +until I almost died of fear, and then he bade one of his men take me +up behind him. They carried me with them to the camp outside this +city, and three days ago brought me in and shut me up in that house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But the child?' my lady cried. 'What of it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He took it from me,' Marie said. 'I have never seen it since, but I +think that he has it in the camp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Does he know whose child it is?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I told him,' Marie replied. 'Otherwise they might have let it die on +the road. It was a burden to them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess shuddered, but in a moment recovered herself. '"While +there is life there is hope,"' she said. 'Martin, here is more work +for you. We will leave no stone unturned. Count Leuchtenstein must +know, of course, but I will tell him myself. If we could get the child +back and hand it safe and sound to its father, it would be---- Perhaps +the Waldgrave may be able to help us?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think that he will need all his wits to help himself,' I said +bluntly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' my lady questioned, looking at me in wonder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why?' I cried in astonishment. 'Have you heard nothing about him, my +lady?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing,' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not that he was taken to-night, in Tzerclas' company,' I answered, +'and is a prisoner at this moment at the Burg, charged, along with the +villain Neumann, with a plot to admit the enemy into the city?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady sat down, her face pale, her aspect changed, as the +countryside changes when the sun goes down. 'He was there' she +muttered--'with Tzerclas?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave Rupert--my cousin?' she murmured, as if the thing +passed the bounds of reason.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, my lady,' I said, as gently as I could. 'But he is mad. I am +assured that he is mad. He has been mad for weeks past. We know it. We +have known it. Besides, he knew nothing, I am sure, of Tzerclas' +plans.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But--he was <i>there!</i>' she cried. 'He was one of those two men they +carried by? One of those!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sat for a moment stricken and silent, the ghost of herself. Then, +in a voice little above a whisper, she asked what they would do to +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shrugged my shoulders. To be candid, I had not given the Waldgrave +much thought, though in a way he had saved my life. Now, the longer I +considered the matter, the less room for comfort I found. Certainly he +was mad. We knew him to be mad. But how were we to persuade others? +For weeks his bodily health had been good; he had carried himself +indoors and out-of-doors like a sane man; he had done duty in the +trenches, and mixed, though grudgingly, with his fellows, and gone +about the ordinary business of life. How, in the face of all this, +could we prove him mad, or make his judges, stern men, fighting with +their backs to the wall, see the man as we saw him?</p> + +<p class="normal">'I suppose that there will be a trial?' my lady said at last, breaking +the silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">I told her yes--at once. 'The town is in a frenzy of rage,' I +continued. 'The guards had a hard task to save them to-night. Perhaps +Prince Bernard of Weimar----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Don't count on him,' my lady answered. 'He is as hard as he is +gallant. He would hang his brother if he thought him guilty of such a +thing as this. No; our only hope is in'--she hesitated an instant, and +then ended the sentence abruptly--'Count Leuchtenstein. You must go to +him, Martin, at seven, or as soon after as you can catch him. He is a +just man, and he has watched the Waldgrave and noticed him to be odd. +The court will hear him. If not, I know no better plan.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor did I, and I said I would go; and shortly afterwards I took my +leave. But as I crept to my bed at last, the clocks striking two, and +my head athrob with excitement and gratitude, I wondered what was in +my lady's mind. Remembering the Waldgrave's gallant presence and manly +grace, recalling his hopes, his courage, and his overweening +confidence, as displayed in those last days at Heritzburg, I could +feel no surprise that so sad a downfall touched her heart. But--was +that all? Once I had deemed him the man to win her. Then I had seen +good cause to think otherwise. Now again I began to fancy that his +mishaps might be crowned with a happiness which fortune had denied to +him in his days of success.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_31" href="#div1Ref_31">THE TRIAL.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Late as it was when I fell asleep--for these thoughts long kept me +waking--I was up and on my way to Count Leuchtenstein's before the +bells rang seven. It was the 17th of August, and the sun, already +high, flashed light from a hundred oriels and casements. Below, in the +streets, it sparkled on pikeheads and steel caps; above, it glittered +on vane and weather-cock; it burnished old bells hung high in air, and +decked the waking city with a hundred points of splendour. Everywhere +the cool brightness of early morning met the eye, and spoke of things +I could not see--the dew on forest leaves, the Werra where it shoals +among the stones.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as I went I saw things that belied the sunshine, things to which I +could not shut my eyes. I met men whose meagre forms and shrunken +cheeks made a shadow round them; and others, whose hungry vulture +eyes, as they prowled in the kennel for garbage, seemed to belong to +belated night-birds rather than to creatures of the day. Wan, pinched +women, with white-faced children, signs of the deeper distress that +lay hidden away in courts and alleys, shuffled along beside the +houses; while the common crowd, on whose features famine had not yet +laid its hand, wore a stern pre-occupied look, as if the gaunt spectre +stood always before their eyes--visible, and no long way off.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the excitement of the last few days I had failed to note these +things or their increase; I had gone about my business thinking of +little else, seeing nothing beyond it. Now my eyes were rudely opened, +and I recognised with a kind of shock the progress which dearth and +disease were making, and had made, in the city. North and south and +east and west of me, in endless multitude, the roofs and spires of +Nuremberg rose splendid and sparkling in the sunshine. North and +south, and east and west, in city and lager lay scores of thousands of +armed men, tens of thousands of horses--a host that might fitly be +called invincible; and all come together in its defence. But, in +corners, as I went along I heard men whisper that Duke Bernard's +convoy had been cut off, that the Saxon forage had not come in, that +the Croats were gripping the Bamberg road, that a thousand waggons of +corn had reached the imperial army. And perforce I remembered that an +army must not only fight but eat. The soldiers must be fed, the city +must be fed. I began to see that if Wallenstein, secure in his +impregnable position on the hills, declined still to move or fight, +the time would come when the Swedish King must choose between two +courses, and either attack the enemy on the Alta Veste against all +odds of position, or march away and leave the city to its fate. I +ceased to wonder that care sat on men's faces, and seemed to be a +feature of the streets. The passion which the mob had displayed in the +night, no longer surprised me. The hungry man is no better than a +brute.</p> + +<p class="normal">Opposite Count Leuchtenstein's lodgings they were quelling a riot at a +bakehouse, and the wolfish cries and screams rang in my ears long +after I had turned into the house. The Count had been on night +service, and was newly risen, and not yet dressed, but his servant +consented to admit me. I passed on the stairs a grey-haired sergeant, +scarred, stiff, and belted, who was waiting with a bundle of lists and +reports. In the ante-chamber two or three gentlemen in buff coats, who +talked in low, earnest voices and eyed me curiously as I passed, sat +at breakfast. I noted the order and stillness which prevailed +everywhere in the house, and nowhere more than in the Count's chamber; +where I found him dressing before a plain table, on which a small, fat +Bible had the place of a pouncet-box, and a pair of silver-mounted +pistols figured instead of a scent-case. Not that the appointments of +the room were mean. On a little stand beside the Bible was the chain +of gold walnuts which I had good cause to remember; and this was +balanced on the other side by a miniature of a beautiful woman, set in +gold and surmounted by a coat-of-arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was vigorously brushing his grey hair and moustachios when I +entered, and the air, which the open window freely admitted, lent a +brightness to his eyes and a freshness to his complexion that took off +ten of his years. He betrayed some surprise at seeing me so early; but +he received me with good nature, congratulated me on my adventure, the +main facts of which had reached him, and in the same breath lamented +Tzerclas' escape.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But we shall have the fox one of these days,' he continued. 'He is a +clever scoundrel, and thinks to be a Wallenstein. But the world has +only space for one monster at a time, friend Steward. And to be +anything lower than Wallenstein, whom I take to be unique,--to be a +Pappenheim, for instance,--a man must have a heart as well as a head, +or men will not follow him. However, you did not come to me to discuss +Tzerclas,' he continued genially. 'What is your errand, my friend?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To ask your excellency's influence on behalf of the Waldgrave +Rupert.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused with his brushes suspended. 'On your own account?' he asked; +and he looked at me with sudden keenness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lord,' I answered. 'My lady sent me. She would have come +herself, but the hour was early; and she feared to let the matter +stand, lest summary measures should be taken against him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is likely very summary measures will be taken!' he answered dryly, +and with a sensible change in his manner; his voice seemed to grow +harsher, his features more rigid. 'But why,' he continued, looking at +me again, 'does not the Countess leave him in Prince Bernard's hands? +He is his near kinsman.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She fears, my lord, that Prince Bernard may not----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Be inclined to help him?' the Count said. 'Well, and I think that +that is very likely, and I am not surprised. See you how the matter +stands? This young gallant should have been, since his arrival here, +foremost in every skirmish; he should have spent his days in the +saddle, and his nights in his cloak, and been the first to mount and +the last to leave the works. Instead of that, he has shown himself +lukewarm throughout, Master Steward. He has done no credit to his +friends or his commission; he has done everything to lend colour to +this charge; and, by my faith, I do not know what can be done for +him--nor that it behoves us to do anything.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But he is not guilty of this, if your excellency pleases,' I said +boldly. The Count's manner of speaking of him was hard and so nearly +hostile that my choler rose a little.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has not done his duty!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because he has not been himself,' I replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, we have enough to do in these evil days to protect those who +are!' he answered sharply. 'Besides, this matter is a city matter. It +is in the citizens' hands, and I do not know what we have to do with +it. Look now,' he continued, almost querulously, 'it is an invidious +thing to meddle with them. We of the army are risking our lives and no +more, but our hosts are risking all--wives and daughters, sweethearts, +and children, and homes! And I say it is an awkward thing meddling +with them. For Neumann the sooner they hang the dog the better; and +for this young spark I can think of nothing that he has done that +binds us to go out of our way to save him. Marienbad! What brought him +into that den of thieves?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord,' I said, taken aback by his severity--'since he received a +wound some months back he has not been himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has been sufficiently himself to hang about a woman's +apron-strings,' the Count answered with a flash of querulous contempt, +'instead of doing his duty. However, what you say is true. I have seen +it myself. But, again, why does not your lady leave Prince Bernard to +settle the matter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She fears that he may not be sufficiently interested.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned away abruptly; unless I was mistaken, he winced. And in a +moment a light broke in upon me. The peevishness and irritability with +which he had received the first mention of the Waldgrave's name had +puzzled me. I had not expected such a display in a man of his grave, +equable nature, of his high station, his great name. I had given him +credit for a less churlish spirit and a judgment more evenly balanced. +And I had felt surprised and disappointed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, on a sudden, I saw light--in an unexpected quarter. For a moment +I could have laughed both at myself and at him. The man was jealous; +jealous, at his age and with his grey hairs! At the first blush of the +thing I could have laughed, the feeling and the passion it implied +seemed alike so preposterous. There on the table before me stood the +miniature of his first wife, and his child's necklace. And the man +himself was old enough to be my lady's father. What if he was tall and +strong; and still vigorous though grey-haired; and a man of great +name. When I thought of the Waldgrave--of his splendid youth and +gallant presence, his gracious head and sunny smile, and pictured this +staid, sober man beside him, I could have found it in my heart to +laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">While I stood, busy with these thoughts, the Count walked the length +of the room more than once with his head bent and his shoulder turned +to me. At length he stopped and spoke; nor could my sharpened ear now +detect anything unusual in his voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very well,' he said, his tone one of half-peevish resignation, 'you +have done your errand. I think I understand, and you may tell your +mistress--I will do what I can. The King of Sweden will doubtless +remit the matter to the citizens, and there will be some sort of a +hearing to-day. I will be at it. But there is a stiff spirit abroad, +and men are in an ugly mood--and I promise nothing. But I will do my +best. Now go, my friend. I have business.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With that he dismissed me in a manner so much like his usual manner +that I wondered whether I had deceived myself. And I finally left the +room in a haze of uncertainty. However, I had succeeded in the object +of my visit; that was something. He had taken care to guard his +promise, but I did not doubt that he would perform it. For there are +men whose lightest word is weightier than another's bond; and I took +it, I scarcely know why, that the Count belonged to these.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless, I saw things, as I went through the streets, that fed my +doubts. While famine menaced the poorer people, the richer held a +sack, with all the horrors which Magdeburg had suffered, in equal +dread. The discovery of Neumann's plot had taught them how small a +matter might expose them to that extremity; and as I went along I saw +scarcely, a burgher whose face was not sternly set, no magistrate +whose brow was not dark with purpose.</p> + +<p class="normal">Consequently, when I attended my lady to the Rath-haus at two o'clock, +the hour fixed for the inquiry, I was not surprised to find these +signs even more conspicuous. The streets were thronged, and ugly looks +and suspicious glances met us on all sides, merely because it was +known that the Waldgrave had been much at my lady's house. We were +made to feel that Nuremberg was a free city, and that we were no more +than its guests. It is true, no one insulted us; but the crowd which +filled the open space before the Town-house eyed us with so little +favour that I was glad to think that the magistrates with all their +independence must still be guided by the sword, and that the sword was +the King of Sweden's.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady, I saw, shared my apprehensions. But she came of a stock not +easily daunted, and would as soon have dreamed of putting out one of +her eyes because it displeased a chance acquaintance, as of deserting +a friend because the Nurembergers frowned upon him. Her eyes sparkled +and her colour rose as we proceeded; the ominous silence which greeted +us only stiffened her carriage. By the time we reached the Rath-haus I +knew not whether to fear more from her indiscretion, or hope more from +her courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Court sat in private, but orders that we should be admitted had +been given; and after a brief delay we were ushered into the hall of +audience--a lofty, panelled chamber, carved and fretted, having six +deep bays, and in each a window of stained glass. A number of +scutcheons and banners depended from the roof; at one end a huge +double eagle wearing the imperial crown pranced in all the pomp of +gold and tinctures; and behind the court, which consisted of the Chief +Magistrate and four colleagues, the sword of Justice was displayed. +But that which struck me far more than these things, was the stillness +that prevailed; which was such that, though there were a dozen persons +present when we entered, the creaking of our boots as we walked up the +floor, and the booming of distant cannon, seemed to be equally +audible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Chief Magistrate rose and received my lady with due ceremony, +ordering a chair to be placed for her, and requesting her to be seated +at the end of the dais-table, behind which he sat. I took my stand at +a respectful distance behind her; and so far we had nothing to +complain of; but I felt my spirits sensibly dashed both by the +stillness and the sombre and almost forbidding faces of the five +judges. Two or three attendants stood by the doors, but neither the +King of Sweden nor any of his officers were present. I looked in vain +for Count Leuchtenstein; I could see nothing of him or of the +prisoners. The solemn air of the room, the silence, and the privacy of +the proceedings, all contributed to chill me. I could fancy myself +before a court of inquisitors, a Vehm-Gericht, or that famous Council +of Ten which sits, I have heard, at Venice; but for any of the common +circumstances of such tribunals as are usual in Germany, I could not +find them.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think that my lady was somewhat taken aback too; but she did not +betray it. After courteously thanking the Council for granting her an +audience, she explained that her object in seeking it was to state +certain facts on behalf of the Waldgrave Rupert of Weimar, her +kinsman, and to offer the evidence of her steward, a person of +respectability.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are quite willing to hear your excellency,' the Chief Magistrate +answered in a grave, dry voice. 'But perhaps you will first inform us +to what these facts tend? It may shorten the inquiry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Some weeks ago,' my lady answered with dignity, 'the Waldgrave Rupert +was wounded in the head. From that time he has not been himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Does your excellency mean that he is not aware of his actions?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' my lady answered quietly. 'I do not go as far as that.''</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or that he is not aware in what company he is?' the magistrate +persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh no.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or that he is ignorant at any time where he is?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, but----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'One moment!' the Chief Magistrate stopped her with a courteous +gesture. 'Pardon me. In an instant, your excellency--to whom I +assure you that the Court are obliged, since we desire only to do +justice--will see to what my questions lead. I crave leave to put one +more, and then to put the same question to your steward. It is this: +Do you admit, Countess, that the Waldgrave Rupert was last night in +the house with Tzerclas, Neumann, and the other persons inculpated?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly,' my lady answered. 'I am so informed. I did not know that +that was in question,' she added, looking round with a puzzled air.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you, my friend?' The Chief Magistrate fixed me with his small, +keen eyes. 'But first, what is your name?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Martin Schwartz.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, I remember. The man who was saved from the villains. We could +have no better evidence. What do you say, then? 'Was the Waldgrave +Rupert last night in this house--the house in question?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I saw him in the house,' I answered warily. 'In the hall. But he was +not in the room with Tzerclas and Neumann--the room in which I saw the +maps and plans.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A fair answer,' the Burgomaster replied, nodding his head, 'and your +evidence might avail the accused. But the fact is--it is to this point +we desire to call your excellency's attention,' he continued, turning +with a dusty smile to my lady--'the Waldgrave steadily denies that he +was in the house at all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He denies that he was there?' my lady said. 'But was he not arrested +in the house?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' the Chief Magistrate answered dryly, 'he was.' And he looked at +us in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But--what does he say?' my lady asked faintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He affects to be ignorant of everything that has occurred in +connection with the house. He pretends that he does not know how he +comes to be in custody, that he does not know many things that have +lately occurred. For instance, three days ago,' the Burgomaster +continued with a chill smile,' I had the honour of meeting him at the +King of Sweden's quarters and talking with him. He says to-day that I +am a stranger to him, that we did not meet, that we did not talk, and +that he does not know where the King of Sweden's quarters are.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then,' my lady said sorrowfully, 'he is worse than he was. He is now +quite mad.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am afraid not,' the magistrate replied, shaking his head gravely. +'He is sane enough on other points. Only he will answer no questions +that relate to this conspiracy, or to his guilt.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is not guilty,' the Countess cried impetuously. 'Believe me, +however strangely he talks, he is incapable of such treachery!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your excellency forgets--that he was in this house!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But with no evil intentions!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet denies that he was there!' the Burgomaster concluded gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">That silenced my lady, and she sat rolling her kerchief in her hands. +Against the five impassive faces that confronted her, the ten +inscrutable eyes that watched her; above all, against this strange, +this inexplicable denial, she could do nothing! At last--</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will you hear my steward?' she asked--in despair, I think.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly,' the Burgomaster answered. 'We wish to do so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">On that I told them all I knew; in what terms I had heard Neumann and +General Tzerclas refer to the Waldgrave; how unexpected had been his +appearance in the hall; how this interference had saved my life; and, +finally, my own conviction that he was not privy to Tzerclas' designs.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Court heard me with attention; the Burgomaster put a few +questions, and I answered them. Then, afraid to stop--for their faces +showed no relenting--I began to repeat what I had said before. But now +the Court remained silent; I stumbled, stammered, finally sank into +silence myself. The air of the place froze me; I seemed to be talking +to statues.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess was the first to break the spell. 'Well?' she cried, her +voice tremulous, yet defiant.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Burgomaster consulted his colleagues, and for the first time +something of animation appeared in their faces. But it lasted an +instant only. Then the others sat back in their chairs, and he turned +to my lady.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are obliged to your excellency,' he said gravely and formally. +'And to your servant. But the Court sees no reason to change its +decision.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And that is?' The Countess's voice was husky. She knew what was +coming.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That both prisoners suffer together.'</p> + +<p class="normal">For an instant I feared that my lady would do something unbecoming her +dignity, and either break into womanish sobs and lamentations, or +stoop to threats and insistence that must be equally unavailing. But +she had learned in command the man's lesson of control; and never had +I seen her more equal to herself. I knew that her heart was bounding +wildly; that her breast was heaving with indignation, pity, horror; +that she saw, as I saw, the fair head for which she pleaded, rolling +in the dust. But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly +from her seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am obliged to you for your patience, sir,' she said, trembling but +composed. 'I had expected one to aid me in my prayer, who is not here. +And I can say no more. On his head be it. Only--I trust that you may +never plead with as good a cause--and be refused.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They rose and stood while she turned from them; and the two court +ushers with their wands went before her as she walked down the hall. +The silence, the formality, the creaking shoes, the very gules and +purpure that lay in pools on the floor--I think that they stifled her +as they stifled me; for when she reached the open air at last and I +saw her face, I saw that she was white to the lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she bore herself bravely; the surly crowd, that filled the Market +Square and hailed our appearance with a harsh murmur, grew silent +under her scornful eye, and partly out of respect, partly out of +complaisance, because they now felt sure of their victim, doffed their +caps to her and made room for us to pass. Every moment I expected her +to break down: to weep or cover her face. But she passed through all +proudly, and walked, unfaltering, back to our lodging.</p> + +<p class="normal">There on the threshold she did pause at last, just when I wished her +to go on. She stood and turned her head, listening.</p> + + +<p class="center"><a name="div3_332"><img src="images/pg332.png" alt="pg 332"></a><br> +But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly +from her seat.</p> + + +<p class="normal">'What is that?' she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Cannon,' I answered hastily. 'In the trenches, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' she said quietly. 'It is shouting. They have read the sentence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She said no more, not another word; and went in quietly and upstairs +to her room. But I wondered and feared. Such composure as this seemed +to be unnatural, almost cruel. I could not think of the Waldgrave +myself without a lump coming in my throat. I could not face the +sunshine. And Steve and the men, when they heard, were no better. We +stood inside the doorway in a little knot, and looked at one another +mournfully. A man who passed--and did not know the house or who we +were--stopped to tell us that the sentence would be carried out at +sunset; and, pleased to have given us the news, went whistling down +the stale, sunny street.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve growled out an oath. 'Who are these people,' he said savagely, +'that they should say my lady nay? When the Countess stoops to ask a +life--Himmel!--is she not to have it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not here,' I said, shaking my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And why not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because we are not at Heritzburg now,' I answered sadly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But--are we nobody here?' he growled in a rage. 'Are we going to sit +still and let them kill my lady's own cousin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I shrugged my shoulders. 'We have done all we can,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But there is some one can say nay to these curs!' he cried. And he +spat contemptuously into the street. He had a countryman's scorn of +townsfolk. 'Why don't we take the law into our own hands, Master +Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is likely,' I said. 'One against ten thousand! And for the matter +of that, if the people are angry, it is not without cause. Did you see +the man under the archway?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve nodded. 'Dead,' he muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Starved,' I said. 'He was a cripple. First the cripples. Then the +sound men. Life is cheap here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve swore another oath. 'Those are curs. But our man--why don't we +go to the King of Sweden? I suppose he is a sort of cousin to my +lady?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have as good as gone to him,' I answered. At another time I might +have smiled at Steve's notion of my lady's importance. 'We have been +to one equally able to help us. And he has done us no good. And for +the matter of that, there is not time to go to the camp and back.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Steve began to fume and fret. The minutes went like lead. We were all +miserable together. Outside, the kennel simmered in the sun, the low +rumble of the cannon filled the air. I hated Nuremberg, the streets, +the people, the heat. I wished that I had never seen a stone of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently one of the women came down stairs to us. 'Do you know if +there has been any fighting in the trenches to-day?' she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing to speak of,' I answered. 'As far as I have heard. Why?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Countess wishes to know,' she said. 'You have not heard of any +one being killed?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nor wounded?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded and turned away. I called after her to know the reason of +her questions, but she flitted upstairs without giving me an answer, +and left us looking at one another. In a second, however, she was down +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lady will see no one,' she said, with a face of mystery. 'You +understand, Master Martin? But--if any come of importance, you can +take her will.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded. The woman cast a lingering look into the street and went +upstairs again.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_32" href="#div1Ref_32">A POOR GUERDON.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I had slept scantily the night before, and the excitement of the last +twenty-four hours had worn me out. I was grieved for the gallant life +so swiftly ebbing, and miserable on my lady's account; but sorrow of +this kind is a sleepy thing, and the day was hot. I did not feel about +the Waldgrave as I had about Marie; and gradually my head nodded, and +nodded again, until I fell fast asleep, on the seat within the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">A man's voice, clear and penetrating, awoke me. 'Let him be,' it said. +'Hark you, fellow, let him be. He was up last night; I will announce +myself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was drowsy and understood only half of what I heard; and I should +have taken the speaker at his word, and turning over dropped off +again, if Steve had not kicked me and brought me to my feet with a cry +of pain. I stood an instant, bewildered, dazzled by the sunlight, +nursing my ankle in my hand. Then I made out where I was, and saw +through the arch of the entrance Count Leuchtenstein dismounting in +the street. As I looked, he threw the reins to a trooper who +accompanied him, and turned to come in.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, my friend,' he said, nodding pleasantly, 'you are awake. I will +see your mistress.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was not quite myself, and his presence took me aback. I stood +looking at him awkwardly. 'If your excellency will wait a moment,' I +faltered at last, 'I will take her pleasure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He glanced at me a moment, as if surprised. Then he laughed. 'Go,' he +said. 'I am not often kept waiting.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was glad to get away, and I ran upstairs; and knocking hurriedly at +the parlour door, went in. My lady, pale and frowning, with a little +book in her hand, got up hastily--from her knees, I thought. Marie +Wort, with tears on her cheeks, and Fraulein Max, looking scared, +stood behind her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess looked at me, her eyes flashing. 'What is it?' she asked +sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Count Leuchtenstein is below,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He wishes to see your excellency.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did I not say that I would see no one?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But Count Leuchtenstein?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed a shrill laugh full of pain--a laugh that had something +hysterical in it. 'You thought that I would see <i>him?</i>' she cried. +'Him, I suppose, of all people? Go down, fool, and tell him that even +here, in this poor house, my doors are open to my friends and to them +only! Not to those who profess much and do nothing! Or to those who +bark and do not bite! Count Leuchtenstein? Pah, tell him---- Silence, +woman!' This to Marie, who would have interrupted her. 'Tell him what +I have told you, man, word for word. Or no'--and she caught herself up +with a mocking smile, such as I had never seen on her face before. +'Tell him this instead--that the Countess Rotha is engaged with the +Waldgrave Rupert, and wants no other company! Yes, tell him that--it +will bite home, if he has a conscience! He might have saved him, and +he would not! Now, when I would pray, which is all women can do, he +comes here! Oh, I am sick! I am sick!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw that she was almost beside herself with grief; and I stood +irresolute, my heart aching for her. What I dared not do, Marie did. +She sprang forward, and seizing the Countess's hand, knelt beside her, +covering it with kisses.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, my lady!' she cried through her tears. 'Don't be so hard. See +him. See him. Even at this last moment.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With an inarticulate cry the Countess flung her off so forcibly that +the girl fell to the ground. 'Be silent!' my lady cried, her eyes on +fire. 'Or go to your prayers, wench. To your prayers! And do you +begone! Begone, and on your peril give my message, word for word!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw nothing for it but to obey; and I went down full of dismay. I +could understand my lady's grief, and that I had come upon her at an +inopportune moment. But the self-control which she had exhibited +before the Court rendered the violence of her rage now the more +surprising. I had never seen her in this mood, and her hardness +shocked me. I felt myself equally bewildered and grieved.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found Count Leuchtenstein waiting on the step, with his face to the +street. He turned as I descended. 'Well?' he said, smiling. 'Am I to +go up, my friend?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw that he had not the slightest doubt of my answer, and his +cheerfulness kindled a sort of resentment in my breast. He seemed to +be so well content, so certain of his reception, so calm and +strong--and, at this very moment--for the sunshine had left the street +and was creeping up the tiles--they might be leading out the +Waldgrave! I had liked my lady's message very little when she gave it +to me; now I rejoiced that I could sting him with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lady is not very well,' I said. 'The sentence on the Waldgrave has +upset her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He smiled. 'But she will receive me?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Craving your excellency's indulgence, I do not think that she will +receive any one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You told her that I was here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, your excellency. And she said----'</p> + +<p class="normal">His face fell. 'Tut! tut!' he exclaimed. 'But I come on purpose +to---- What did she say, man?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The smile was gone from his lips, but I caught it lurking in his eyes; +and it hardened me to do her bidding. 'I was to tell your excellency +that she could not receive you,' I said, 'that she was engaged with +the Waldgrave.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He started and stared at me, his expression slowly passing from +amazement to anger. 'What!' he exclaimed at last, in a cutting tone. +'Already?' And his lip curled with a kind of disgust. 'You have given +me the message exactly, have you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, your excellency,' I said, quailing a little. But servants know +when to be stupid, and I affected stupidity, fixing my eyes on his +breast and pretending to see nothing. He turned, and for a moment I +thought that he was going without a word. Then on the steps he turned +again. 'You have heard the news, then?' he said sourly. He had already +regained his self-control.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, my lord.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah! Well, you lose no time in your house,' he replied grimly. 'Call +my horse!'</p> + +<p class="normal">I called the man, who had wandered a little way up the street, and he +brought it. As I held the Count's stirrup for him to mount, I noticed +how heavily he climbed to his saddle, and that he settled himself into +it with a sigh; but the next moment he laughed, as at himself. I stood +back expecting him to say something more, or to leave some message, +but he did not even look at me again; he touched his horse with the +spur, and walked away steadily. I stood and watched him until he +reached the end of the street--until he turned the corner and +disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even then I still stood looking after him, partly sorry and partly +puzzled, for quite a long time. It was only when I turned to go in +that I missed Steve and the men, and began to wonder what had become +of them. I had left them with the Count at the door--they were gone +now. I looked up and down, I could see them nowhere. I went in and +asked the women; but they were not with them. The sunset gun had just +gone off, and one of the girls was crying hysterically, while the +others sat round her, white and frightened. This did not cheer me, nor +enliven the house. I came out again, vowing vengeance on the truants; +and there in the entrance, facing me, standing where the Count had +stood a few minutes before, I saw the last man I looked to see!</p> + +<p class="normal">I gasped and gave back a step. The sun was gone, the evening light was +behind the man, and his face was in the shadow. His figure showed dark +against the street. 'Ach Gott!' I cried, and stood still, stricken. It +was the Waldgrave!</p> + +<p class="normal">'Martin!' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">I gave back another step. The street was quiet, the house like the +grave. For a moment the figure did not move, but stood there gazing at +me. Then--</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why, Martin!' he cried. 'Don't you know me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, not until then, I did--for a man and not a ghost; and I caught +his hand with a cry of joy. 'Welcome, my lord, welcome!' I said, grown +hot all over. 'Thank God that you have escaped!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he said, and his tone was his own old tone, 'thank God; Him +first, and then my friends. Steve and Ernst I have seen already; they +heard the news from the Count's man, and came to meet me, and I have +sent them on an errand, by your leave. And now, where is my cousin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Above,' I answered. 'But----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But what?' he said quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think that I had better prepare her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She does not know?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, your excellency. Nor did I, until I saw you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But Count Leuchtenstein has been here. Did he not tell you?' he asked +in surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not a word!' I answered. And then I stopped, conscience-stricken. +'Himmel! I remember now,' I said. 'He asked me if we had heard the +news; and I, like a dullard, dreaming that he meant other news, and +the worst, said yes!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, go to her now, and tell +her,' he said. 'I want to see her; I want to thank her. I have a +hundred things to say to her. Quick, Martin, for I am laden with +debts, and I choke to pay some of them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I ran upstairs, marvelling. On the lobby I met Fraulein Max coming +down. 'What is it?' she asked impatiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave! He has been released! He is here!' I cried in a +breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stared at me while a man might count ten. Then to my astonishment +she laughed aloud. 'Who released him?' she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The magistrates,' I said. 'I suppose so. I don't know.' I had not +given the matter a thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not Count Leuchtenstein?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I started. 'So!' I muttered, staring at her in my turn. 'It must have +been he. The Waldgrave said something about him. And he must have come +here to tell us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you gave him my lady's message?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas! yes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraulein Max laughed again, and kept on laughing, until I grew hot all +over, and could have struck her for her malice. She saw at last that I +was angry, and she stopped. 'Tut! tut!' she said, 'it is nothing. But +that disposes of the old man. Now for the young one. He is here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then why do you not show him up?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She must be prepared,' I muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed again; this time after a different fashion. 'Oh you fools +of men!' she said. 'She must be prepared? Do you think that women are +made of glass and that a shock breaks them? That she will die of joy? +Or would have died of grief? Send him up, gaby, and I will prepare +her! Send him up.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I supposed that she knew women's ways, and I gave in to her, and sent +him up; and I do not know that any harm was done. But, as a result of +this, I was not present when my lady and the Waldgrave met, and I only +learned by hearsay what happened.</p> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + + +<p class="normal">An hour or two later, when the bustle of shrieks and questions had +subsided, and the excitement caused by his return had somewhat worn +itself out, Marie slipped out to me on the stairs, and sat with me in +the darkness, talking. The gate of curious ironwork which guarded the +house entrance was closed for the night; but the moon was up, and its +light, falling through the scrollwork, lay like a pale, reedy pool at +our feet. The men were at supper, the house was quiet, the city was +for a little while still. Not a foot sounded on the roadway; only +sometimes a skulking dog came ghost-like to the bars and sniffed, and +sneaked noiselessly away.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have said that we talked, but in truth we sat long silent, as lovers +have sat these thousand years, I suppose, in such intervals of calm. +The peace of the night lapped us round; after the perils and hurry, +the storm and stress of many days, we were together and at rest, and +content to be silent. All round us, under the covert of darkness, +under the moonlight, the city lay quaking; dreading the future, torn +by pangs in the present; sleepless, or dreaming of death and outrage, +ridden by the nightmare of Wallenstein. But for the moment we recked +nothing of this, nothing of the great camp round us, nothing of the +crash of nations. We were of none of these. We had one another, and it +was enough; loved one another, and the rest went by. For the moment we +tasted perfect peace; and in the midst of the besieged city, were as +much alone, as if the moonlight at our feet had been, indeed, a forest +pool high in the hills over Heritzburg.</p> + +<p class="normal">Does some old man smile? Do I smile myself now, though sadly? A brief +madness, was it? Nay; but what if then only we were sane, and for a +moment saw things as they are--lost sight of the unreal and awoke to +the real? I once heard a wise man from Basle say something like that +at my lady's table. The men, I remember, stared; the women looked +thoughtful.</p> + +<p class="normal">For all that, it was Marie who on this occasion broke the trance. The +town clock struck ten, and at the sound hundreds, I dare swear, turned +on their pillows, thinking of the husbands and sons and lovers whom +the next light must imperil. My girl stirred.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah!' she murmured, 'the poor Countess! Can we do nothing?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do?' I said. 'What should, we do? The Waldgrave is back, and in his +right mind; which of all the things I have ever known, is the oddest. +That a man should lose his senses under one blow, and recover them +under another, and remember nothing that has happened in the +interval--it almost passes belief.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet it is true.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I suppose so,' I answered. 'The Waldgrave was mad--I can bear witness +to it--and now he is sane. There is no more to be said.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But the Countess, Martin?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, I do not know that she is the worse,' I answered stupidly. 'She +sent off the Count with a flea in his ear, and a poor return it was. +But she can explain it to him, and after all, she has got the +Waldgrave back, safe and sound. That is the main thing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie sighed, and moved restlessly. 'Is it?' she said. 'I wish I +knew.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What?' I asked, drawing her little head on to my shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What my lady wishes?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Eh?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Which?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My jaw fell. I stared into the darkness open-mouthed. 'Why,' I +exclaimed at last, 'he is sixty--or fifty-five at least, girl!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie laughed softly, with her face on my breast. 'If she loves him,' +she murmured. 'If she loves him.' And she hung on me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sat amazed, confounded, thinking no more of Marie, though my arm was +round her, than of a doll. 'But he is fifty five,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And if you were fifty-five, do you think that I should not love you?' +she whispered. 'When you are fifty-five, do you think that I shall not +love you? Besides, he is strong, brave, famous--a man; and she is not +a girl, but a woman. If the Count be too old, is not the Waldgrave too +young?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' I said cunningly. 'But why either?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because love is in the air,' Marie answered; and I knew that she +smiled, though the gloom hid her face. 'Because there is a change in +her. Because she knows things and sees things and feels things of +which she was ignorant before. And because--because it is so, my +lord.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I whistled. This was beyond me. 'And yet you don't know which?' I +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No; I suspect.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well--but the Waldgrave?' I exclaimed. 'Why, mädchen, he is one of +the handsomest men I have ever seen. An Apollo! A Fairy Prince! It is +not possible that she should prefer the other.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie laughed. 'Ah!' she said, 'if men chose all the husbands, there +would be few wives.'</p> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_33" href="#div1Ref_33">TWO MEN.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave's return to his old self, and to the frankness and +gaiety that, when we first knew him at Heritzburg, had surrounded him +with a halo of youth, was perhaps the most noteworthy event of all +within my experience. For the return proved permanent, the +transformation was perfect. The moodiness, the crookedness, the crafty +humours that for weeks had darkened and distorted the man's nature--so +that another and a worse man seemed to look out of his eyes and speak +with his mouth--were gone, leaving no cloud or remembrance. He had +been mad; he was now as sane as the best. Only one peculiarity +remained--and for a few days a little pallor and weakness--of all the +things that had befallen him between his first wound and his second, +he could remember nothing, not a jot or tittle; nor could any amount +of allusion or questioning bring these things back to him. After many +attempts we desisted; but there were always some who, from this date, +regarded him with a certain degree of awe--as a man who had been for a +time in the flesh, and yet not of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">With sanity returned also all the wholesome ambitions and desires that +had formerly moved the man; and amongst these his passion for my lady. +He lay at our house that night, and spent the next two days there, +recovering his strength; and I had more than one opportunity of +marking the assiduity with which he followed all the Countess's +movements with his eyes, the change which his voice underwent when he +spoke to her, and his manner when he came into her presence. In a +word, he seemed to take up his love where he had dropped it--at the +point it had reached when he rode down into the green valley and +secured his rival's victory at so great a cost; at the point at which +Tzerclas' admiration and my lady's rebuff had at once strengthened and +purified it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now Tzerclas was gone from the field--magically, as it seemed +to the Waldgrave. And, magically also--for he knew nothing of its +flight--time had passed; days and weeks running into months--a +sufficiency of time, he hoped, to remove unfavourable impressions from +her mind, to obliterate the memory of that unhappy banquet, and +replace him on the pinnacle he had occupied at Heritzburg.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he soon found that, though Tzerclas was gone and the field seemed +open, all was not to be had for the asking. My lady was kind; she had +a smile for him, and pleasant words, and a ready ear. But before he +had been in the house twenty-four hours, he came and confided to me +that something was wrong. The Countess was changed; was pettish as +he had never seen her before; absent and thoughtful, traits equally +new; restless--and placid dignity had been one of her chief +characteristics.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it, Martin?' he said, knitting his brows and striding to and +fro in frank perplexity. 'It cannot be that, after all that has +passed, she is fretting for that villain Tzerclas?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'After risking her life to escape from him?' I answered dryly. 'No, I +think not, my lord.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If I ever set eyes on him again I will end him!' the Waldgrave cried, +still clinging, I think, to his idea, and exasperated by it. He strode +up and down a time or two, and did not grow cooler. 'If it is not +that, what is it?' he said at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There are not many light hearts in Nuremberg,' I suggested. 'And of +those, few are women's. There must be an end of this soon.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You think it is that?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why not?' I answered. 'I am told that the horses are dying by +hundreds in the camp. The men will die next. In the end the King will +have to march away, or see his army perish piecemeal. In either case +the city will pay for all. Wallenstein will swoop down on it, and make +of it another and greater Magdeburg. That is a poor prospect for the +weak and helpless.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is those rascally Croats!' the Waldgrave groaned. 'They cover the +country like flies--are here and there and nowhere all in the same +minute, and burn and harry and leave us nothing. We have no troops of +that kind.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There was plundering in the Wert suburb last night,' I said. 'The +King blames the Germans.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Soldiers are bad to starve,' the Waldgrave answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes; they will see the townsfolk suffer first,' I rejoined, with a +touch of bitterness. 'But look whichever way you please, it is a +gloomy outlook, my lord, and I do not wonder that my lady is +down-hearted.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded, but presently he said something that showed that he was not +satisfied. 'The Countess used to be of a bolder spirit,' he muttered. +'I don't understand it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not know how to answer him, and fortunately, at that moment, +Marie came down to say that my lady proposed to visit Count +Leuchtenstein, and that I was to go to her. The Waldgrave heard, and +raced up before me, crying out that he would go too. I followed. When +I reached the parlour I found them confronting one another, my lady +standing in the oriel with her back to the street.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But would it not be more seemly?' the Waldgrave was saying as I +entered. 'As your cousin, and----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I would rather go alone,' the Countess replied curtly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To the camp?' he exclaimed. 'He is not in his city quarters.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, to the camp,' my lady answered, with, a spark of anger in her +eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">On that he stood, fidgety and discomfited, and the Countess gave me +her orders. But he could not believe that she did not need him, and +the moment she was silent, he began again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You do not want me; but you do not object to my company, I suppose?' +he said airily. 'I have to thank the Count, cousin, and I must go +to-day or to-morrow. There is no time like the present, and if you are +going now----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I should prefer to go alone,' my lady said stiffly.</p> + +<p class="normal">His face fell; he stood looking foolish. 'Oh, I did not know,' he +stammered at last; 'I thought----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What?' the Countess said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That you liked me well enough--to--to be glad of my company,' he +answered, half offended, half in deprecation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I liked you well enough to abase myself for you!' my lady retorted +cruelly. And I dare say that she said more, but I did not hear it. I +had to go down and prepare for her visit.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I next saw him, he was much subdued. He seemed to be turning +something over in his mind, and by-and-by he asked me a question about +Count Leuchtenstein. I saw which way his thoughts were tending, or +fancied that I did; but it was not my business to interfere one way or +the other, and I answered him and made no comment. The horses were at +the door then, and in a moment my lady came down, looking pale and +depressed. The Waldgrave went humbly to her, and put her into her +saddle, touching her foot as if it had been glass; and I mounted +Marie, who was to attend her. I expected that my lady--who had a very +tender heart under her queenly manner--would say something to him +before we started; but she seemed to be quite taken up with her +thoughts, and to be barely conscious, if conscious at all, of his +presence. She said 'Thank you,' but it was mechanically. And the next +moment we were moving, Ernst making up the escort.</p> + +<p class="normal">My eyes soon furnished me with other matter for thought than the +Waldgrave. Throughout the city the summer drought had dried up the +foliage of the trees; and the grass, where it had not been plucked by +the poor and boiled for food, had been eaten to the roots by starving +cattle. The whole city under the blaze of sunshine wore an arid, +dusty, parched appearance, and seemed to reflect on its face the look +of dreary endurance which was worn by too many of the countenances we +observed in the streets. Pain creeps by instinct to some dark and +solitary place; but here was a whole city in pain, gasping and +suffering under the pitiless sunshine; and the contrast between the +blue sky above and the scene below added indescribably to the gloom +and dreariness of the latter. I know that I got a horror of sunshine +there that lasted for many a month after.</p> + +<p class="normal">Either twenty-four hours had aggravated the pinch of famine, which was +possible, or I had a more open mind to perceive it. I marked more +hollow cheeks than ever, more hungry eyes, more faces with the +glare of brutes. And in the bearing of the crowd that filled the +streets--though no business was done, no trade carried on--I thought +that I saw a change. Wherever it was thickest, I noticed that men +walked in one of two ways, either hurrying along feverishly and in +haste, as if time were of the utmost value, or moving listlessly, with +dragging feet and lacklustre eyes, as if nothing had any longer power +to stir them. I even noticed that the same men went in both ways +within the space of a minute, passing in a second and apparently +without intention from feverish activity to the moodiness of despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">And no wonder. Not only famine, but pestilence had tightened its grasp +on the city; and from this the rich had as much to fear as the poor. +As we drew near the walls the smell of carrion, which had hitherto but +spoiled the air, filled the nostrils and sickened the whole man. In +some places scores of horses lay unburied, while it was whispered that +in obscure corners death had so far outstripped the grave-diggers that +corpses lay in the houses and the living slept with the dead. There +was fighting in front of the bakers' shops in more than one place--my +lady had to throw money before we could pass; in the kennels women +screamed and fought for offal; from the open doors of churches prayers +and wailing poured forth; at the gates, where gibbets, laden with +corpses, rose for a warning, multitudes stood waiting and listening +for news. And on all, dead and living, the sun shone hotly, steadily, +ruthlessly, so that men asked with one voice, 'How long? How long?'</p> + +<p class="normal">In the camp, which had just received huge reinforcements of men and +horses, we found order and discipline at least. Rows of kettles and +piles of arms proclaimed it, and lines of pennons that stretched +almost as far as the eye could reach. But here, too, were knitted +brows, and gloomy looks, and loud murmurings, that grew and swelled as +we passed. Count Leuchtenstein's quarters were on the border of the +Swedish camp, near the Finland regiments, and not far from the King's. +A knot of officers, who stood talking in front of them and knew my +lady, came to place themselves at her service. But the offer proved to +be abortive, for the first thing she learned was that the Count was +absent. He had gone at dawn in the direction of Altdorf to cover the +entrance of a convoy.</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt that she was grievously disappointed, for whether she loved him +or not, I could understand the humiliation under which she smarted, +and would smart until she had set herself right with him. But she +veiled her chagrin admirably, and, lightly refusing the offer of +refreshment, turned her horse's head at once, so that in a twinkling +we were on our road home again.</p> + +<p class="normal">By the way, I saw only what I had seen before. But the Countess, whose +figure began to droop, saw, I think, with other eyes than those +through which she had looked on the outward journey. Her thoughts no +longer occupied, she saw in their fulness the ravages which famine and +plague were making in the town, once so prosperous. When she reached +her lodgings her first act was to send money, of which we had no great +store, to the magistrates, that a free meal in addition to the +starvation rations might be given to the poor; and her next, to +declare that henceforth she would keep the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Accordingly, instead of going again to the Count's, she sent me next +day with a letter. I found the camp in an uproar, which was fast +spreading to the city. A rumour had just got wind that the King was +about to break up his camp and give battle to the enemy at all +hazards; and so many were riding and running into the city with the +news that I could scarcely make head against the current.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arriving at last, however, I was fortunate enough to find the Count in +his quarters and alone. My lady had charged me--with a blushing cheek +but stern eyes--to deliver the letter with my own hands, and I +dismounted. I thought that I had nothing to do but deliver it; I +foresaw no trouble. But at the last moment, as a trooper led me +through the antechamber, who should appear at my side but the +Waldgrave!</p> + +<p class="normal">'You did not expect to see me?' he said, nodding grimly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lord,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So I thought,' he rejoined. 'But before you give the Count that +letter, I have a word to say to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at him in astonishment. What had the letter to do with him? +My first idea was that he had been drinking, for his colour was high +and his eye bright. But a second glance showed that he was sober, +though excited. And while I hesitated the trooper held up the curtain, +and perforce I marched in.</p> + +<p class="normal">Count Leuchtenstein, wearing his plain buff suit, sat writing at a +table. His corselet, steel cap, and gauntlets lay beside him, and +seemed to show that he had just come in from the field. He looked up +and nodded to me; I had been announced before. Then he saw the +Waldgrave and rose; reluctantly, I fancied. I thought, too, that a +shade of gloom fell on his face; but as the table was laden with +papers and despatches and maps and lists, and the sight reminded me +that he bore on his shoulders all the affairs of Hesse, and the +responsibility for the boldest course taken by any German prince in +these troubles, I reflected that this might arise from a hundred +causes.</p> + +<p class="normal">He greeted the Waldgrave civilly nevertheless; then he turned to me. +'You have a letter for me, have you not, my friend?' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, my lord,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But,' the Waldgrave interposed, 'before you read it, I have a word to +say, by your leave, Count Leuchtenstein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I think I never saw a man more astonished than the Count. 'To me?' he +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'By your leave, yes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In regard to--this letter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But what do you know about this letter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Too much, I am afraid,' the Waldgrave answered; and I am bound to say +that, putting aside the extraordinary character of his interference, +he bore himself well. I could detect nothing of wildness or delusion +in his manner. His face glowed, and he threw back his head with a hint +of defiance; but he seemed sane. 'Too much,' he continued rapidly, +before the Count could stop him; 'and, before the matter goes farther, +I will have my say.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count stared at him. 'By what right?' he said at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As the Countess Rotha's nearest kinsman,' the Waldgrave answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Indeed?' I could see that the Count was hard put to it to keep his +temper; that the old lion in him was stirring, and would soon have +way. But for the moment he controlled himself. 'Say on,' he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will, in a few words,' the Waldgrave answered. 'And what I have to +say amounts to this: I have become aware--no matter how--of the +bargain you have made, Count Leuchtenstein, and I will not have it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The bargain!' the Count ejaculated; 'you will not have it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The bargain; and I will not have it!' the Waldgrave rejoined.</p> + +<p class="normal">Count Leuchtenstein drew a deep breath, and stared at him like a man +demented. 'I think that you must be mad,' he said at last. 'If not, +tell me what you mean.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What I say,' the Waldgrave answered stubbornly. 'I forbid the bargain +to which I have no doubt that that letter relates.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In Heaven's name, what bargain?' the Count cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You think that I do not know,' the Waldgrave replied, with a touch of +bitterness; 'it did not require a Solomon to read the riddle. I found +my cousin distrait, absent, moody, sad, preoccupied, unlike herself. +She had moved heaven and earth, I was told, to save me; in the last +resort, had come to you, and you saved me. Yet when she saw me safe, +she met me as much in sorrow as in joy. The mere mention of your name +clouded her face; and she must see you, and she must write to you, and +all in a fever. I say, it does not require a Solomon to read this +riddle, Count Leuchtenstein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You think?' said the Count, bluntly. 'I do not yet know what you +think.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think that she sold herself to you to win my pardon,' the Waldgrave +answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment I did not know how Count Leuchtenstein would take it. He +stood gazing at the Waldgrave, his hand on a chair, his face purple, +his eyes starting. At length, to my relief and the Waldgrave's utter +dismay and shame, he sank into the chair and broke into a hoarse shout +of laughter--laughter that was not all merriment, but rolled, in its +depths something stern and sardonic.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave changed colour, glared and fumed; but the Count was +pitiless, and laughed on. At last: 'Thanks, Waldgrave, thanks,' he +said. 'I am glad I let you go on to the end. But pardon me if I say +that you seem to do the Lady Rotha something less than justice, and +yourself something more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How?' the Waldgrave stammered. He was quite out of countenance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'By flattering yourself that she could rate you so highly,' Count +Leuchtenstein retorted, 'or fall herself so low. Nay, do not threaten +me,' he continued with grim severity. 'It was not I who brought her +name into question. I never dreamed of, never heard of, never +conceived such a bargain as you have described; nor, I may add, ever +thought of the Lady Rotha except with reverence and chivalrous regard. +Have I said enough?' he continued, rising, and speaking with growing +indignation, with eyes that seemed to search the culprit; 'or must I +say too, Waldgrave, that I do not traffic in men's lives, nor buy +women's favours, nor sell pardons? That such power as God and my +master have given me I use to their honour and not for my own +pleasure? And, finally, that this, of which you accuse me, I would not +do, though to do it were to prolong my race through a dozen centuries? +For shame, boy, for shame!' he continued more calmly. 'If my mind has +gone the way you trace it, I call it back to-day. I have done with +love; I am too old for aught but duty, if love can lead even a young +man's mind so far astray.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave shivered; but the position was beyond words, and he +essayed none. With a slight movement of his hand, as if he would have +shielded himself, or deprecated the other's wrath, he turned towards +the door. I saw his face for an instant; it was pale, despairing--and +with reason. He had exposed my lady. He had exposed himself. He had +invited such a chastisement as must for ever bring the blood to his +cheeks. And his cousin: what would she say? He had lost her. She would +never forgive him--never! He groped blindly for the opening in the +curtain.</p> + +<p class="normal">His hand was on it--and I think that, for all his manhood, the tears +were very near his eyes--when the other called after him in an altered +tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stay!' Count Leuchtenstein said. 'We will not part thus. I can see +that you are sorry. Do not be so hasty another time, and do not be too +quick to think evil. For the rest, our friend here will be silent, and +I will be silent.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave gazed at him, his lips quivering, his eyes full. At +last: 'You will not tell--the Countess Rotha?' he said almost in a +whisper.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count looked down at his table, and pettishly pushed some +papers together. For an instant he did not answer. Then he said +gruffly,--'No. Why should she know? If she chooses you, well and good; +if not, why trouble her with tales?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then!' the Waldgrave cried with a sob in his voice, 'you are a better +man than I am!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count shrugged his shoulders rather sadly. 'No,' he said, 'only an +older one.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_34" href="#div1Ref_34">SUSPENSE.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">For a little while after the Waldgrave had retired, Count +Leuchtenstein stood turning my lady's letter over in his hands, his +thoughts apparently busy. I had leisure during this time to compare +the plainness of his dress with the greatness of his part, to which +his conduct a moment before had called my attention; and the man with +his reputation. No German had at this time so much influence with the +King of Sweden as he; nor did the world ever doubt that it was at his +instance that the Landgrave, first of all German princes, flung his +sword into the Swedish scale. Yet no man could be more unlike the dark +Wallenstein, the crafty Arnim, the imperious Oxenstierna, or the +sleepless French cardinal, whose star has since risen--as I have heard +these men described; for Leuchtenstein carried his credentials in his +face. An honest, massive downrightness and a plain sagacity seemed to +mark him, and commend him to all who loved the German blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">My eyes presently wandered from him, and detected among the papers on +the table the two stands I had seen in his town quarters--the one +bearing his child's necklace, the other his wife's portrait. Doubtless +they lay on the table wherever he went--among assessments and imposts, +regimental tallies and state papers. I confess that my heart warmed at +the sight; that I found something pleasing in it; greatness had not +choked the man. And then my thoughts were diverted: he broke open my +lady's letter, and turning his back on me began to read.</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited, somewhat impatiently. He seemed to be a long time over it, +and still he read, his eyes glued to the page. I heard the paper +rustle in his hands. At last he turned, and I saw with a kind of shock +that his face was dark and flushed. There was a strange gleam in his +eyes as he looked at me. He struck the paper twice with his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why was this kept from me?' he exclaimed. 'Why? Why?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord!' I said in astonishment. 'It was delivered to me only an +hour ago.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fool!' he answered harshly, bending his bushy eyebrows. 'When did +that girl get free?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, that girl! Girl, I said. What is her name? Marie Wort?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is Saturday. Wednesday night,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wednesday night? And she told you of the child then; of my +child--that this villain has it yonder! And you kept it from me all +Thursday and Friday--Thursday and Friday,' he repeated with a fierce +gesture, 'when I might have done something, when I might have acted! +Now you tell me of it, when we march out to-morrow, and it is too +late. Ah! It was ungenerous of her--it was not like her!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Countess came yesterday in person,' I muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, but the day before!' he retorted. 'You saw me in the morning! You +said nothing. In the evening I called at the Countess's lodgings; she +would not see me. A mistake was it? Yes, but grant the mistake; was it +kind, was it generous to withhold <i>this?</i> If I had been as remiss as +she thought me, as slack a friend--was it just, was it womanly? In +Heaven's name, no! No!' he repeated fiercely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We were taken up with the Waldgrave's peril,' I muttered, +conscience-stricken. 'And yesterday, my lady----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ay, yesterday!' he retorted bitterly. 'She would have told me +yesterday. But why not the day before? The truth is, you thought +much of your own concerns and your lady's kin, but of mine and my +child--nothing! Nothing!' he repeated sternly.</p> + +<p class="normal">And I could not but feel that his anger was justified. For myself, I +had clean forgotten the child; hence my silence at my former +interview. For my lady, I think that at first the Waldgrave's danger +and later, when she knew of his safety, remorse for the part she had +played, occupied her wholly, yet, every allowance made, I felt that +the thing had an evil appearance; and I did not know what to say to +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sighed, staring absently before him. At last, after a prolonged +silence, 'Well, it is too late now,' he said. 'Too late. The King +moves out to-morrow, and my hands are full, and God only knows the +issue, or who of us will be living three days hence. So there is an +end.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My lord!' I cried impulsively. 'God forgive me, I forgot.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders with a grand kind of patience. 'Just so,' he +said. 'And now, go back to your mistress. If I live I will answer her +letter. If not--it matters not.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was terribly afraid of him, but my love for Marie had taught me some +things; and though he waved me to the door, I stood my ground a +moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To you, my lord, no,' I said. 'Nothing. But to her, if you fall +without answering her letter----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What?'he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You can best judge from the letter, my lord.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You think that she would suffer?' he answered harshly, his +face growing red again. 'Well, what say you, man? Does she not +deserve to suffer? Do you know what this delay may cost me? What it +may mean for my child? Mein Gott,' he continued, raising his voice and +striking his hand heavily on the table, 'you try me too far! Your +mistress was angry. Have I no right to be angry? Have I no right to +punish? Go! I have no more to say.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And I had to go, then and there, enraged with myself, and fearful that +I had said too much in my lady's behalf. I had invited this last +rebuff, and I did not see how I should dare to tell her of it, or that +I had exposed her to it. I had made things worse instead of better, +and perhaps, after all, the message he had framed might not have hurt +her much, or fallen far short of her expectations.</p> + +<p class="normal">I should have troubled myself longer about this, but for the +increasing bustle and stir of preparation that had spread by this time +from the camp to the city; and filling the way with a throng of people +whom the news affected in the most different ways, soon diverted my +attention. While some, ready to welcome any change, shouted with joy, +others wept and wrung their hands, crying out that the city was +betrayed, and that the King was abandoning it. Others again +anticipated an easy victory, looked on the frowning heights of the +Alta Veste as already conquered, and divided Wallenstein's spoils. +Everywhere I saw men laughing, wailing, or shaking hands; some eating +of their private hoards, others buying and selling horses, others +again whooping like lunatics.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the city the shops, long shut, were being opened, orderlies were +riding to and fro, crowds were hurrying to the churches to pray for +the King's success; a general stir of relief and expectancy was +abroad. The sunshine still fell hot on the streets, but under it life +moved and throbbed. The apathy of suffering was gone, and with it the +savage gloom that had darkened innumerable brows. From window and +dormer, from low door-ways, from carven eaves and gables, gaunt faces +looked down on the stir, and pale lips prayed, and dull eyes glowed +with hope.</p> + +<p class="normal">While I was still a long way off I saw my lady at the oriel watching +for me. I saw her face light up when she caught sight of me; and if, +after that, I could have found any excuse for loitering in the street, +or putting off my report, I should have been thankful. But there was +no escape. In a moment the animation of the street was behind me, the +silence of the house 'fell round me, and I stood before her. She was +alone. I think that Marie had been with her; if so, she had sent her +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well?' she said, looking keenly at me, and doubtless drawing her +conclusions from my face. 'The Count was away?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then--you saw him?' with surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And gave him the letter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well'--this with impatience, and her foot began to tap the +floor--'did he give you no answer?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked astonished, offended, then troubled. 'Neither in writing +nor by word of mouth?' she said faintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Only--that the King was about to give battle,' I stammered; 'and +that if he survived, he would answer your excellency.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She started, and looked at me searchingly, her colour fading +gradually. 'That was all!' she said at last, a quaver in her voice. +'Tell me all, Martin. Count Leuchtenstein was offended, was he not?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think that he was hurt, your excellency,' I confessed. 'He thought +that the news about his child--should have been sent to him sooner. +That was all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'All!' she ejaculated; and for a moment she said no more, but with +that word, which thrilled me, she began to pace the floor. 'All!' she +repeated presently. 'But I--yes, I am justly punished. I cannot +confess to him; I will confess to you. Your girl would have had me +tell him this, or let her tell him this. She pressed me; she went on +her knees to me that evening. But I hardened my heart, and now I am +punished. I am justly punished.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was astonished. Not that she took it lightly, for there was that in +her tone as well as in her face that forbade the thought; but that she +took it with so little passion, without tears or anger, and having +been schooled so seldom in her life bore this schooling so patiently. +She stood for a time after she had spoken, looking from the window +with a wistful air, and her head drooping; and I fancied that she had +forgotten my presence. But by-and-by she began to ask questions about +the camp, and the preparations, and what men thought of the issue, and +whether Wallenstein would come down from his heights or the King be +driven to the desperate task of assaulting them. I told her all that I +had heard. Then she said quietly that she would go to church; and she +sent me to call Fraulein Max to go with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found the Dutch girl sitting in a corner with her back to the +windows, through which Marie and the women were gazing at the bustle +and uproar and growing excitement of the street. She was reading in a +great dusty book, and did not look up when I entered. Seeing her so +engrossed, I had the curiosity to ask her, before I gave her my lady's +message, what the book was.</p> + +<p class="normal">'"The Siege of Leyden,"' she said, lifting her pale face for an +instant, and then returning to her reading. 'By Bor.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not refrain from smiling. It seemed to me so whimsical that +she could find interest in the printed page, in this second-hand +account of a siege, and none in the actual thing, though she had only +to go to the window to see it passing before her eyes. Doubtless she +read in Bor how men and women thronged the streets of Leyden to hear +each new rumour; how at every crisis the bells summoned the unarmed to +church; how through long days and nights the citizens waited for +relief--and she found these things of interest. But here were the same +portents passing before her eyes, and she read Bor!</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are busy, I am afraid,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am using my time,' she answered primly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am sorry,' I rejoined; 'for my lady wants you to go to church with +her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She shut up her book with peevish violence, and looked at me with her +weak eyes. 'Why does not your Papist go with her?' she said +spitefully. 'And then you could do without me. As you do without me +when you have secrets to tell! But I suppose you have brought things +to such a pass now that there is nothing for it but church. And so I +am called in!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have given my lady's message,' I said patiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, I know that you are a faithful messenger!' she replied mockingly. +'Who writes love letters grows thin; who carries them, fat. You are +growing a big man, Master Martin.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_35" href="#div1Ref_35">ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">That was a night that saw few in Nuremberg sleep soundly. Under the +moon the great city lay waiting; watching and fasting through the +short summer night. Hour by hour the solemn voices of sentinels, +tramping the walls and towers, told the tale of time; to men, who, +hearing it, muttered a prayer, and, turning on the other side, slept +again; to women, who lay, trembling and sleepless, their every breath +a prayer. For who would see the next night? Who that went out would +come in? How many, parting at dawn, would meet again? The howling of +the dogs that, wild as wolves, roved round the camp and scratched in +the shallow graveyards, made dreary answer. Many there were, even then +I remember, who thought the King foolhardy, and preached patience; and +would have had him still sit quiet and play the game of starvation +against his enemy, even to the bitter end. But these were of the +harder sort--men who, with brain, might have been Wallensteins. And +few of them knew the real state of things. I say nothing of the city. +Who died there in those months, in holes and corners and dark places, +the magistrates may have known, no others. But in the camp, for many +days before the King marched out, a hundred men died of plague and +want every day; so that in the sum, twenty thousand men entered his +lines who never left them. Moderate men set the loss of the city at +ten thousand more. Add to these items that the plague was increasing, +that all stores of food were nearly exhausted, that if the issue were +longer delayed the cavalry would have no horses on which to advance or +retreat, and it will be clear, I think, that the King, whose judgment +had never yet deceived him, was right in this also. Or, if he erred, +it was on the side of mercy.</p> + +<p class="normal">At dawn all the northern walls and battlements were covered with +white-faced women, come together to see the army leave the camp, in +which it had lain so many weeks. I went up with my lady to the Burg, +whence we could command, not only the city with its necklace of walls +and towers, but the camp encircling it like another and greater city, +encompassed in its turn with gates and ramparts and bastions. And, +beyond this, we had an incomparable view of the country; of our own +stream, the Pegnitz, gliding away through the level plain, to fall +presently into the Rednitz; of the Rednitz, a low line of willows, +running athwart the western meadows; and beyond this, a league and a +half away, of the frowning heights of the Alta Veste, where +Wallenstein hung, vulture-like, waiting to pounce on the city.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the sun rose behind us, the shadow of the Burg on which we stood +fell almost to the foot of the distant heights, and covered, as with a +pall, the departing army, which was beginning to pass out of the camp +by the northern and western gates. At the same time the level beams +shone on the dark brow of the Alta Veste, and caught there the flash +of lurking steel. I think that the hearts of many among us sank at the +omen.</p> + +<p class="normal">If so, it was not for long, for the sun rose swiftly in the summer sky +and, as it overtopped our little eminence, showed us an innumerable +host pressing out of the camp in long lines, like ants from a hill. +While we gazed, they began to swarm on the plain between the city and +the Rednitz. The colours of a thousand waving pennons, the sheen of a +forest of lances, the duller gleam of cannon crawling slowly along the +roads, caught the sun and the eye; but between them moved other and +darker masses--the regiments of East and West Gothland, the Smäland +horse, Stalhanske's Finns, the Yellow and Blue regiments, the sombre, +steady veterans of the Swedish force, marching with a neatness and +wheeling with a precision, noticeable even at that distance.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless it was a grand and splendid sight, this marching out of a +hundred thousand men--for the army fell little short of that +prodigious number--under the first captain of the age, to fight before +the walls of the richest city in the world. And I have often taken +blame to myself and regretted that I did not regard it with closer +attention, and imprint it more carefully on my memory. But at the time +I was anxious. Somewhere in that great host rode the Waldgrave and +Count Leuchtenstein; and I looked for them, though I had no hope of +finding them. Then little things continually diverted the mind. A +single waggon, which broke down at the gate below us, and could not +for a time be removed, swelled into a matter that obstructed my view +of the whole army; an officer, whose horse ran away in an orchard at +our feet, became, for a moment, more important than a hundred banners. +When I had done with these trifles, the sun had climbed halfway up the +sky, and the foremost troops were already crossing the Rednitz by +Furth, with a sound of trumpets and the flashing of corselets.</p> + +<p class="normal">A cannon shot, and then another, and then long rolling thunder from +the heights, over which a pillar of smoke began to gather. My lady +sighed. Below us, in the streets, on the walls, on the towers, women +and men fell on their knees and prayed aloud. Across the plain +horsemen galloped this way or that, hurrying the laggards through the +dust. The great battle was beginning.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then on a sudden the firing ceased; the pillar of smoke on the +heights melted away; the rear-guard and the cloud of dust in which it +moved, rolled farther and farther towards the Rednitz and Furth--and +still the guns remained silent. It was noon by this time; soon it was +afternoon. But the suspense was so great that no one went away to eat; +and still the silence prevailed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Towards two o'clock I persuaded the Countess to go to her lodgings to +eat; but within the hour she was back again. An officer on the Burg, +who had a perspective glass, reported that Wallenstein was moving; +that cannon and troops could be seen passing through the trees on the +Alta Veste, as if he were descending to meet the King; and for a time +our excitement rose to the highest pitch. But before sunset, news came +that he was quiet; that the King was forming a new camp beyond the +Rednitz, and almost under the enemy's guns; and that the battle would +take place on the morrow.</p> + +<p class="normal">The morrow! It seemed to some of us, it was always the morrow. Yet I +think that we slept better that night. Earliest dawn saw us again on +the Burg, staring and straining our eyes westwards. But minutes +passed, hours passed, the sun rose and declined, and still no sound of +battle reached us. Women, with pinched faces, clutched babies to their +breasts; men, pale and stern, gazed into the distance. Those who had +murmured that the King was too hasty, murmured now that he dallied; +for every day the grip of famine grew tighter, its signs more marked. +This evening all my lady's horses were requisitioned and carried off, +to mount the King's staff, it was said, of whom some were going afoot.</p> + +<p class="normal">A third day rose on the anxious city, and yet a fourth, and still the +armies stood inactive. Communication with the new camp was easy, but +as each day, and all day, a battle was expected, such news as we heard +rather heightened than relieved our fears. On this fourth morning, I +received a message from the Waldgrave, asking me to come to him in the +camp; that he had something to say to me, and could not leave.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was not unwilling to see for myself how things stood there; and I +determined to go. I did not tell the Countess, however, nor Marie, +thinking it useless to alarm them; but I left Steve in charge, and, +bidding him be on his guard, promised to be back by noon at the +latest. As I had no horse, I had to do the journey on foot, and soon +was down in the plain myself, threading the orchards and plodding +along the trampled roads, where so many thousands had preceded me. The +ground in some spots was actually ploughed up; dust covered +everything; the trees were bruised, the fences broken down. Old +boots and shattered pike-staves marked the route, and here and +there--saddest sight of all--dead horses, fast breeding the plague. +The sky, for the first time for days, was clouded, and making the most +of the coolness I gained the river bank by nine o'clock, and crossing +found myself close to the new camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">The army had just marched out, yet the lines seemed full. The King had +strictly forbidden all women and camp-followers to cross the Rednitz; +but an army in these days needs so many drivers and sutlers that I +found myself one among thousands. I asked for the Waldgrave, and got +as many answers as there were men within hearing. One said that he was +with his regiment of horse on the left flank; another, that he was +with Duke Bernard's staff; a third, that he was not with the army at +all. Despairing of hearing anything in the confusion, I was in two +minds about turning back; but in the end I took heart of grace and +determined to seek him in the field.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortunately, the last regiments had barely cleared the lines, and a +few minutes' rapid walking set me abreast of the rearmost, which +was hastening into position. Here also at the first glance I saw +nothing but confusion; but a second resolved the mass into two +parts, and then I saw that the King's army lay in two long lines +facing the heights. An interval of about three hundred paces +divided the lines, but behind each was a small reserve. In the +first were most of the German regiments, the second being composed +of Finns, Swedes, and Northerners. The cavalry were grouped on the +flanks, and seemed stronger on the left flank. In the rear of all, +as well as in gaps left between the pikes and musketmen, were the +King's ordnance--drakes, serpents, falcons, and cartows, with the +light two- and four-pounders for which he was famous.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such an array--so many thousand men, gay with steel, and a thousand +pennons--seemed to the eye to be invincible; and I looked for the +enemy. He was not to be seen, but fronting the lines at a distance of +three or four hundred paces rose the Alta Veste--a steep, rugged hill, +scarred and seamed, and planted thickly with pines and jagged stumps +and undergrowth. Here and there among the trees great rocks peeped +out, or dark holes yawned. The dry beds of two torrents furrowed this +natural glacis; and opposite these I noticed that our strongest +regiments were placed. But of the enemy I could see nothing, except +here and there a sparkle of steel among the trees; I could hear +nothing, except now and then the fall of a stone, that, slipping under +an unseen foot, fell from ledge to ledge until it reached the plain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Everywhere the hush of expectation stirred the heart; for in the +presence of that great host silence seemed a thing supernatural. As +the regiment I had joined, the last to arrive, wheeled into position +in the middle of the right wing, I asked one of the officers, who +stood near me, if the enemy had retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wait!' he said grimly--he spoke with a foreign accent--'and you will +see. But to what regiment do you belong, comrade?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To none here,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked astonished, and asked me what I was doing there, then.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had my lips apart to answer him, when a trumpet sounded, and in an +instant, all along the line, the Swedish cannon began to fire, shaking +the earth and filling the air round us with smoke, that in a twinkling +hid everything. This lasted for two or three minutes with a deafening +noise; but as far as I could hear, the enemy were still silent. I was +wondering what would happen next, and hoping that they had given up +the position, when my new friend touched my arm and pointed to the +front. I peered through the smoke, and saw dimly that the regiment +before us, a German brigade about eight hundred strong, was moving on +at a run and making for the hill. A minute elapsed, the smoke rolled +between. I listened, trembling. Afterwards I learned that at the same +moment two other parties sprang forward and dashed to the assault.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, at last, with an ear-splitting roar that seemed to silence our +guns, the enemy spoke. The hill in front, hidden the second before by +smoke, became in a moment visible, lit up by a thousand darting +flames. Dark masses seemed to topple down, rocks hung midway in air, +and involuntarily I stepped back and uttered a cry of horror. Out of +that hell of fire came an answering wail of shrieks and curses--the +feeble voice of man!</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ach Gott!' I said, trembling. My hair stood on end.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Steady, comrade, steady!' muttered the man who had before spoken to +me. 'Presently it will be our turn.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He had scarcely spoken, when a man came riding along the front with +his hat in his hand. He rode a white horse, and wore no back or +breast, nor, as far as I could see, any armour.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Steady, Swedes, steady!' he cried in a loud voice--he was a big, +stout man with a fine presence. 'Your time will come by-and-by. Then +remember Breitenfeld!'</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the King of Sweden. In a moment he was gone, passing along the +lines; and I drew breath again, wondering what would happen next. I +had not long to wait. Men came straggling back across our front, some +wounded, some helping their comrades along, all with faces ghastly +under the powder-stains. And then like magic a new regiment stood +before us, where the other had stood. Again the King's guns pealed +along the line, again I heard the hoarse cry 'Vorwärts!' waited a +minute, and once more the hill seemed to be rent by the explosion. +From every cave and ledge guns flashed forth, lighting up the smoke. +The roar died away again--slowly, from west to east--in cries and +shrieks; and presently a few men, scores where there had been +hundreds, came wandering back like ghosts through the reek.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This looks ill!' I muttered. I was no longer scared. The gunpowder +was getting into my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pooh!' my friend answered. 'This is only the beginning. It will take +men to fill that gap. Wait till our turn comes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time the Waldgrave and my errand were forgotten, and I thought +only of the battle. I watched two more assaults, saw two more +regiments hurl themselves vainly against the fiery breast of the hill; +then came a diversion. As the scattered fragments of the last came +reeling back, a sudden roar of many voices startled me. The ground +seemed to shake, and right across our front came a charge of +horse--out of the smoke and into the smoke! In an instant our +stragglers were trodden down, cut up, and swept away, before our eyes +and within shot of us.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men round me uttered shouts of rage. The line swayed, there was an +instant's confusion. Then a harsh voice cried above the tumult, +'Steady, Gothlanders, steady! Pikes forward! Blow your matches! +Steady! steady!' and in a twinkling, with a crash, such as the ninth +wave makes when it falls on a pebbly beach, the horse were on us. I +had a glimpse through the smoke of rearing breasts, and floating +manes, and grinning teeth, and of men's faces grim and white, held low +behind the steel; and I struck out blindly with my half-pike. Still +they came on, and something hit me on the chest and I fell: but +instantly a clash of long pikes met over my body, and I scrambled to +my feet unhurt! Then a dozen spurts of flame leapt out round me, and +the horsemen seemed to melt away.</p> + +<p class="normal">Into the smoke; but before I had time to know that they were gone, +they had wheeled and were back again like the wind, led by a man on a +black horse, who came on so gallantly to the very pike-points, that I +thought it must be Pappenheim himself. He wore the black breastplate +and helmet of Pappenheim's cuirassiers; and it was only when his horse +reared up on end within a pike's length of me, and he fired his pistol +among us, wounding two men, that I espied under the helmet the stern +face and flashing eyes of Tzerclas. He recognised me at the same +moment, and hurling his empty pistol in my face, tried to spur his +horse over me. But the long pikes meeting before me kept him off, his +men vanished, some falling, some flying, and in a moment he stood +almost alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even then his courage did not fail him. Scornfully eyeing our line +from end to end, he hurled a bitter taunt at us, and wheeling his +horse coolly, prepared to ride off. I think that we should have let +him go, in pure admiration of his courage. But a wounded man on whom +he trod houghed the horse with his sword. In a moment he was down, and +two men running out of the line, fixed him to the earth with their +pikes.</p> + +<p class="normal">I confess, for myself, I would have spared him for his courage; and I +ran to him to see if he was dead. He was not quite gone. He recognised +me, and tried to speak. Forgetting the dangers round me, the uproar +and tumult, the dim figures of men and horses flying through the +smoke, I knelt down by him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' I said. After all, he was my lady's cousin.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Tell him--tell him--the child! He will never get it!' he breathed. +With each word the blood-stained froth rose to his lips, and he +clutched my hand in a cold grip.</p> + +<p class="normal">He strove to say something more, and raised himself with a last effort +on his elbow. 'Tell her,' he gasped, his dark face distorted--'tell +her--I--I----'</p> + +<p class="normal">No more. His eyes turned, his head fell back. He was dead. What he +would have said of my lady, whether he would have sent her a message +or what, no man will know here. But I fancied it like the man, who +might have been great had he ever given a thought to others, that his +last word was--"I."</p> + +<p class="normal">His head was scarcely down before I had to run back within the pikes. +A fresh charge of horse swept over him, we received them with a +volley; they broke, and a Swedish regiment, the West Gothland horse, +rode them down. Meanwhile our manœuvres had brought us insensibly +into the first line. I found that we were close under the hill, and I +was not surprised when a handful of horse whirled up to us out of the +<i>mêlée</i>, and one, disengaging himself from the others, rode along our +front. It was the King. His face was stained with powder, his horse +was bleeding, a ball had ripped up his boot; it was said that he had +been placing and pointing cannon with his own hands. But as the +regiment greeted him with a hoarse cheer, he smiled as if he had been +in a ball-room.</p> + +<p class="normal">He raised his hand for silence; such silence as could be obtained +where every moment men shot off a cannon, and at no great distance a +mortal combat was in progress.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Men of Gothland!' he cried, in a clear, ringing voice, 'it is your +turn now! You are My children. Take me this hill! Be steady, strike +home, flinch not! Show these Germans what you can do! The word is, God +with us. Remember St. Bartholomew's, and Forward! Forward! Forward!'</p> + +<p class="normal">My heart beat furiously; but there was no retreat. Rather than be left +standing on the ground, I would have died there. In a moment we were +moving on elbow to elbow, with a stern, heavy step. Some one struck up +a Swedish psalm, and to the thunder of its rhythm we strode on--on to +the very foot of the hill; on, until we reached the rough shale, and +the rugged steep stood above us. With a gallant shout an officer flung +his hat on to the slope, a score of Ritt-Meisters sprang forward +together; and then for a moment we and all things seemed to stand +still. The wood above us belched fire, the eyes were blinded, the ears +stunned, rocks and stones rolled down, all creation seemed to be +falling on us in fearful ruin. Men were hurled this way and that, or +fell in their places, or, reeling to and fro, clutched one another. +For an instant, I say, we stood still.</p> + +<p class="normal">But for an instant only. Then with a shout of rage the Swedes +sprang forward, and grasping boughs, stumps, rocks, swung themselves +up, doing such things in their fury as no cool man could do. +A row of jagged stakes barred the way; men set their naked breasts +against them, and others climbed over on their shoulders. Bleeding, +wounded, singed, torn by splinters, all who lived climbed. To get +up--up--up--higher, in face of the storm of shot and iron; up, over +the bursting mines and through the smoke; up, to where they stood and +butchered us, was the only instinct left.</p> + +<p class="normal">And we did get up--to a bastion, jutting from the hillside, where a +company of picked men with pikes and three cannons waited for us +behind a breastwork. They thought to stop us, and stood firm; our men +were mad. Flinging themselves against the mouths of the cannon, they +scaled the work in a moment, and left not one defender alive!</p> + +<p class="normal">God with us!</p> + +<p class="normal">Stern and high the shout rang out; but breath was everything, and the +scarp still rose above us and the shot still tore our ranks! On! Up a +torrent bed now, round one corner and another, to where we were a +little out of the line of fire, and an overhanging shoulder covered +us. Here we had room to take breath; and for the first time, some +hope of life, of ultimate escape, entered my breast. The officer +who led us--I learned afterwards that he was the great General +Torstensohn--cried, 'Well done, Swedes!' and with the confidence of +giants we were once more breasting the ascent, when a withering +volley, poured in at short range, checked the head of the column. +Before we could recover way, a body of pikes rushed to meet us, and in +an instant, having the vantage of the ground, rolled us, still +fighting desperately, down the steep. The general was swept away, the +Ritt-Meisters were down. Once we rallied, but ineffectually. The enemy +were reinforced, and in a moment the rout was complete.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the moment the tide turned and our men fell back, I happened to be +against the rock-wall, in something of a niche; and the stream passed +me by. I had two slight wounds, and I stood an instant, giddy and +confused, taking breath. The instant showed me my comrades in the act +of being slaughtered one by one, and a great horror seized me. I found +no hope anywhere. Below were the cruel pikes, in a moment their savage +bearers would be reascending; above were the enemy. But above, if I +climbed on, I might live a little while; and in that desperate hope I +scrambled out of the torrent bed and up the sheer hill on the right. +Two or three saw me from the torrent bed, and fired at me; and others +shouted, and began to follow. But I only pressed on, right up the +scarp, which was there like the side of a house.</p> + +<p class="normal">A dozen times I all but fell back; still in a fever of dread I kept +on. The sweat poured down me; I had no hope or aim, I thought only of +the pikes behind. Presently I came to a jutting shoulder that all but +overhung me; to pass it seemed to be impossible. But in my frenzy I +did the impossible. I swung myself from root to root; where one stone +gave, I clutched another, and yet another; I hung on with tooth and +nail. I flattened myself against the rock. I heard the pursuers rail +and curse, heard the bullets strike the earth round me, and then in a +moment I was up.</p> + +<p class="normal">Up; but only to come instantly on a wall crossing the steep and +barring my way, and to find a dozen pikes levelled at my breast. +Desperate, giving up hope at last--I had long dropped my weapon--I +cried mechanically, 'God with us!' and threw up my arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">I nearly fell backwards--for what did it matter? But the men were +quick. In a moment one had me by the collar. 'And God! They were +friends! They were friends, and I was saved.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the first faces that I saw, as I leaned breathless against the +wall, unable for the time to answer the questions that poured upon me, +was the Waldgrave's--the Waldgrave's, with the light of battle in his +eyes, a laugh of triumph on his lips. He was wounded, bandaged, +blackened, his fair hair singed; but he was happy. Presently I +understood why; and why I was safe and among friends.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A little earlier,' he said--he seemed in his exaltation not a whit +surprised to see me--'and you would have had a different reception, +Martin. We only turned them out of this an hour ago!'</p> + +<p class="normal">All his superior officers had fallen, and his had been the voice that +had cheered on the forlorn, to which he was attached--acting from the +right flank--and heartened them, just when all seemed lost, to make +one more effort, ending in the capture of this sconce. Joined to the +mass of the hill only by a narrow neck, it commanded the enemy's +position.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We only want cannon!' he said, and in a moment I was as one of the +garrison. 'Three guns, and the day is ours. When will they come? When +will they come?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have sent for them?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have sent a dozen times.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And he sent as many times more; while we, a mere handful, tired and +worn and famished, but every man with a hero's thoughts, leaned +against the breastwork, and gazed down into the plain, where, under +the smoke, pigmy troops rushed to and fro, and Nuremberg's fate hung +in the balance. In an hour it would be night. And still no +reinforcements came, no cannon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thrice the enemy tried to drive us out. But the neck was narrow, +and, pressed along their front by three assaults, they came on +half-heartedly and fell back lightly; and we held it. In the mean +time, it became more and more clear that elsewhere the day was going +against us. Until night fell, and through long hours of darkness, +forlorn after forlorn was flung against the heights--in vain. Regiment +after regiment, the core of the Swedish army, came on undaunted, only +to be repulsed with awful loss; with the single exception of the +Waldgrave's little sconce not a foot of the hill was captured.</p> + +<p class="normal">About nine o'clock reinforcements reached us, and some food, but no +guns. Two hours later the King drew sullenly back into his lines, and +the attack ceased. Even then we looked to see the fight resumed with +the dawn; we looked still for victory and revenge. We could not +believe that all was over. But towards three o'clock in the morning +rain fell, rendering the slopes slippery and impassable; and with the +first flush of sunrise came an order from Prince Bernard directing us +to withdraw.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps the defeat fell as lightly on the Waldgrave as on any man, +though to him it was a huge disappointment. For he alone of all had +made his footing good. I thought that it was that which made him look +so cheerful; but while the rank and file were falling in, he came to +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, Martin,' he said. 'We are both veterans now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I laughed. The rain had ceased. The sun was getting up, and the air +was fresh. Far off in the plain the city sparkled with a thousand +gems. I thought of Marie, I thought of life, and I thanked God that I +was alive.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have an errand for you,' he continued, a laugh in his eyes. 'Come +and see what we took yesterday, besides this sconce.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At the back of the work were two low huts, that had perhaps been +guardrooms or officers' quarters. He led the way into one, bending his +head as he passed under the low lintel.</p> + +<p class="normal">'An odd place,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, my lord.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, but I mean--an odd place for what I found here,' he rejoined. +'Look, man.'</p> + +<p class="normal">There were two low bunks in the hut, and on these and on the floor lay +a medley of soldiers' cloaks, pouches, weapons, and ammunition. There +was blood on the one wall and the door was shattered, and in a corner, +thrown one on another, were two corpses. The Waldgrave took no heed of +these, but stepped to the corner bunk and drew away a cloak that lay +on it. Something--the sound in that place scared me as a cannon-shot +would not have--began to wail. On the bed, staring at us between tears +and wonder, lay a child.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So!' I said, and stared at it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you know it?' the Waldgrave asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Know it? No,' I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Are you sure?' he replied, smiling. 'Look again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not I!' I said. 'How did it come here? A child! A baby! It is +horrible.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders. 'We found it in this hut; in that bed. A +man to whom we gave quarter said it was----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' I shouted.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered, nodding.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Tzerclas' child! Count Leuchtenstein's child! Do you mean it?' I +cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. 'Tzerclas' child, the man said. The other's child, I guess. +Nay, I am certain. It knows your girl's name.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Marie's?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave nodded. 'Take it up,' he said. 'And take charge of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">But I only stared at it. The thing seemed too wonderful to be true. I +told the Waldgrave of Tzerclas' death, and of what he had muttered +about the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, he was a clever man,' the Waldgrave answered. 'But, you see, God +has proved too clever for him. Come, take it, man.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I took it. 'I had better carry it straight to the Count's quarters?' I +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave paused, looked away, then looked at me. 'No,' he said at +last, and slowly, 'take it to Lady Rotha. Let her give it to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I understood him, I guessed all he meant; but I made no answer, and we +went out together. The rain was still in the air, but the sky was +blue, the distance clear. The spire of the distant city shone like my +lady's amethysts. Below us the dead lay in thousands. But we were +alive.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_36" href="#div1Ref_36">A WINGLESS CUPID.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">That was a dreary procession that a little before noon on the 25th of +August wound its way back into Nuremberg. The King, repulsed but not +defeated, remained in his camp beyond the Rednitz, and with trumpets +sounding and banners displayed, strove vainly to tempt his wily +antagonist into the plain. Those who returned on this day, therefore, +carrying with them the certain news of ill-fortune, were the wounded +and the useless, a few prisoners, two or three envoys, half a dozen +horse-dealers, and a train of waggons bearing crippled and dying men +to the hospital.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of this company I made one, and I doubt if there were six others who +bore in their breasts hearts as light, or who could look on the sunny +roofs and peaked gables of the city with eyes as cheerful. Prince +Bernard had spoken kindly to me; the King had sent for me to inquire +where I last saw General Torstensohn; I had stood up a man amongst +men; and I deemed these things cheaply bought at the cost of a little +blood. On the other hand, the horrors of the day were still so fresh +in my mind that my heart overflowed with thankfulness and the love of +life; feelings which welled up anew whenever I looked abroad and saw +the Rednitz flowing gently between the willows, or looked within and +pictured the Werra rippling swiftly down the shallows under cool shade +of oak and birch and alder.</p> + +<p class="normal">Add to all these things one more. I had just learned that Count +Leuchtenstein lived and was unhurt, and on the saddle before me under +a cloak I bore his son. More than one asked me what booty I had taken, +where others had found only lead or steel, that I hugged my treasure +so closely and smiled to myself. But I gave them no answer. I only +held the child the tighter, and pushing on more quickly, reached the +city a little after twelve.</p> + +<p class="normal">I say nothing of the gloomy looks and sad faces that I encountered at +the gate, of the sullen press that would hardly give way, or of the +thousand questions I had to parry. I hardened my heart, and, +disengaging myself as quickly as I could, I rode straight to my lady's +lodgings; and it was fortunate that I did so. For I was only just in +time. As I dismounted at the door--receiving such a welcome from Steve +and the other men as almost discovered my treasure, whether I would or +no--I saw Count Leuchtenstein turn into the street by the other end +and ride slowly towards me, a trooper behind him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men would have detained me. They wanted to hear the news and the +details of the battle, and where I had been. But I thrust my way +through them and darted in.</p> + +<p class="normal">Quick as I was, one was still quicker, and as I went out of the light +into the cool darkness of the entrance, flew down the stairs to meet +me, and, before I could see, was in my arms, covering me with tears +and laughter and little cries of thanksgiving. How the child fared +between us I do not know, for for a minute I forgot it, my lady, the +Count, everything, in the sweetness of that greeting; in the clinging +of those slender arms round my neck, and the joy of the little face +given up to my kisses.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in a moment, the child, being, I suppose, half choked between us, +uttered a feeble cry; and Marie sprang back, startled and scared, and +perhaps something more.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it?' she cried, beginning to tremble. 'What have you got?'</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not know how to tell her on the instant, and I had no time to +prepare her, and I stood stammering.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly,'Give it to me!' she cried in a strange voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I thought that in the fulness of her joy and surprise she might +swoon or something, and I held back. 'You won't drop it,' I said +feebly, 'when you know what it is?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes flashed in the half light. 'Fool!' she cried--yes, though I +could scarcely believe my ears. 'Give it to me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">I was so taken aback that I gave it up meekly on the spot. She flew +off with it into a corner, and jealously turned her back on me before +she uncovered the child; then all in a moment she fell to crying, and +laughing, crooning over it and making strange noises. I heard the +Count's horse at the door, and I stepped to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are sure that it <i>is</i> your child?' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>Sure?</i>' she cried; and she darted a glance at me that for scorn +outdid all my lady's.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that I had no doubt left. 'Then bring it to the Countess, my +girl,' I said. 'He is here. And it is she who should give it to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who is here?' she cried sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Count Leuchtenstein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She stared at me for a moment, and then suddenly quailed and broke +down, as it were. She blushed crimson; her eyes looked at me +piteously, like those of a beaten dog.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh,' she said, 'I forgot that it was you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never mind that,' I said. 'Take the child to my lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded, in quick comprehension. As the Count crossed the threshold +below, she sped up the stairs, and I after her. My lady was in the +parlour, walking the length of it impatiently, with a set face; but +whether the impatience was on my account, because I had delayed below +so long, or on the Count's, whose arrival she had probably seen from +the window, I will not say, for as I entered and before she could +speak, Marie ran to her with the child and placed it in her arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady turned for a moment quite pale. 'What is it?' she said +faintly, holding it from her awkwardly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marie cried out between laughing and crying, 'The child! The child, my +lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And Count Leuchtenstein is on the stairs,' I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The colour swept back into the Countess's face in a flood and covered +it from brow to neck. For a moment, taken by surprise, she forgot her +pride and looked at us shyly, timidly. 'Where--where did you recover +it?' she murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave recovered it,' I answered hurriedly, 'and sent it to +your excellency, that you might give it to Count Leuchtenstein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave!' she cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, my lady, with that message,' I answered strenuously.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess looked to Marie for help. I could hear steps on the +stairs--at the door; and I suppose that the two women settled it with +their eyes. For no words passed, but in a twinkling Marie snatched the +child, which was just beginning to cry, from the Countess and ran away +with it through an inner door. As that door fell to, the other opened, +and Ernst announced Count Leuchtenstein.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came in, looking embarrassed, and a little stiff. His buff coat +showed marks of the corselet--he had not changed it--and his boots +were dusty. It seemed to me that he brought in a faint reek of powder +with him, but I forgot this the next moment in the look of melancholy +kindness I espied in his eyes--a look that enabled me for the first +time to see him as my lady saw him.</p> + +<p class="normal">She met him very quietly, with a heightened colour, but the most +perfect self-possession. I marvelled to see how in a moment she was +herself again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I rejoice to see you safe, Count Leuchtenstein,' she said. 'I heard +early this morning that you were unhurt.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered. 'I have not a scratch, where so many younger men +have fallen.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas! there will be tears on many hearths,' my lady said.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes. Poor Germany!' he answered. 'Poor Germany! It is a fearful +thing. God forgive us who have to do with the making of war. Yet we +may hope, as long as our young men show such valour and courage as +some showed yesterday; and none more conspicuously than the Waldgrave +Rupert.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am glad,' my lady said, colouring, 'that he justified your +interference on his behalf, Count Leuchtenstein. It was right that he +should; and right that I should do more--ask your pardon for the +miserable ingratitude of which my passion made me guilty a while ago.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Countess!' he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' she said, stopping him with a gesture full of dignity. 'You must +hear me out, for now that I have confessed, we are quits. I behaved +ill--so ill that I deserved a heavy punishment. You thought so--and +inflicted it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Her voice dropped with the last words. He turned very red, and looked +at her wistfully; but I suppose that he dared not draw conclusions. +For he remained silent, and she resumed, more lightly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So Rupert did well yesterday?' she said. 'I am glad, for he will be +pleased.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He did more than well!' Count Leuchtenstein answered, with awkward +warmth. 'He distinguished himself in the face of the whole army. His +courage and coolness were above praise. As we have----' The Count +paused, then blundered on hastily--'quarrelled, dare I say, Countess, +over him, I am anxious to make him the ground of our reconciliation +also. I have formed the highest opinion of him; and I hope to advance +his interests in every way.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady raised her eyebrows. 'With me?' she said quaintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count fidgeted, and looked very ill at ease. 'May I speak quite +plainly?' he said at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Surely,' the Countess answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then it can be no secret to you that he has--formed an attachment to +you. It would be strange if he had not,' the Count added gallantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And he has asked you to speak for him?' my lady exclaimed, in an odd +tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, not exactly. But----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You think that it--it would be a good match for me,' she said, her +voice trembling, but whether with tears or laughter, I could not tell. +'You think that, being a woman, and for the present houseless, and +almost friendless, I should do well to marry him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is a brave and honest man,' the Count muttered, looking all +ways--and looking very miserable. 'And he loves you!' he added with an +effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you think that I should marry him?' my lady persisted +mercilessly. 'Answer me, if you please, Count Leuchtenstein, or you +are a poor ambassador.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am not an ambassador,' he replied, thus goaded. 'But I +thought----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That I ought to marry him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you love him,' the Count muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady took a turn to the window, looked out, and came back. When she +spoke at last, I could not tell whether the harshness in her voice was +real or assumed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I see how it is,' she said, 'very clearly, Count Leuchtenstein. I +have confessed, and I have been punished; but I am not forgiven. I +must do something more, it seems. Wait!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He was going to protest, to remonstrate, to deny; but she was gone, +out through the door, to return on the instant with something in her +arms. She took it to the Count and held it out to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'See!' she said, her voice broken by sobs; 'it is your child. God has +given it back again. God has given it to you, because you trusted in +Him. It is your child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood as if turned to stone. 'Is it?' he said at last, in a low, +strained voice. 'Is it? Then thank God for His mercy to my house. But +how--shall I know it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The girl knows it. Marie knows it,' my lady cried; 'and the child +knows her. And Martin--Martin will tell you how it was found--how the +Waldgrave found it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Waldgrave?' the Count cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, the Waldgrave,' she answered; 'and he sent it to me to give to +you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I went to him and told him all I knew; and Marie, who, like my +lady, was laughing through her tears, took the child, and showed him +how it knew her, and remembered my name and my lady's, and had this +mark and that mark, and so forth, until he was convinced; and while in +that hour all Nuremberg outside our house mourned and lamented, +within, I think, there were as thankful hearts as anywhere in the +world, so that even Steve, when he came peeping through the door to +see what was the matter, went blubbering down again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently Count Leuchtenstein said something handsome to Marie about +her care of the child, and slipping off a gold chain that he was +wearing, threw it round her neck, with a pleasant word to me. Marie, +covered with blushes, took this as a signal to go, and would have left +the child with his father; but the boy objected strongly, and the +Count, with a laugh, bade her take him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If he were a little older!' he said. 'But I have not much +accommodation for a child in my quarters. Next week I am going to +Cassel, and then----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will take him with you?' my lady said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count looked at the closing door, as it fell to behind Marie, and +when the latch dropped, he spoke. 'Countess,' he said bluntly, 'have I +misunderstood you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">My lady's eyes fell. 'I do not know,' she said softly. 'I should think +not. I have spoken very plainly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am almost an old man,' he said, looking at her kindly, 'and you are +a young woman. Have you been amusing yourself at my expense?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Countess shook her head. 'No,' she said, with a gleam of laughter +in her eyes; 'I have done with that. I began to amuse myself with +General Tzerclas, and I found it so perilous a pleasure that I +determined to forswear it. Though,' she added, looking down and +playing with her bracelet, 'why I should tell you this, I do not +know.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because--henceforth I hope that you will tell me everything,' the +Count said suddenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very well,' my lady answered, colouring deeply.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And will be my wife?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will--if you desire it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count walked to the window and returned. 'That is not enough,' he +said, looking at her with a smile of infinite tenderness. 'It must not +be unless <i>you</i> desire it; for I have all to gain, you little or +nothing. Consider, child,' he went on, laying his hand gently on her +shoulder as she sat, but not now looking at her. 'Consider; I am a man +past middle age. I have been married already, and the portrait of my +child's mother stands always on my table. Even of the life left to +me--a soldier's life--I can offer you only a part; the rest I owe to +my country, to the poor and the peasant who cry for peace, to my +master, than whom God has given no State a better ruler, to God +Himself, who places power in my hands. All these I cannot and will not +desert. Countess, I love you, and men can still love when youth is +past. But I would far rather never feel the touch of your hand or of +your lips than I would give up these things. Do you understand?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perfectly,' my lady said, looking steadfastly before her, though her +heaving breast betrayed her emotion. 'And I desire to be your wife, +and to help you in these things as the greatest happiness God can give +me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Count stooped gently and kissed her forehead. 'Thank you,' he +said.</p> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + + +<p class="normal">I have very little to add. All the world knows that the King of +Sweden, unable to entice Wallenstein from his lines, remained in his +camp before Nuremberg for fifteen days longer, during which period the +city and the army suffered all the extremities of famine and plague. +After that, satisfied that he had so far reduced the Duke of +Friedland's strength that it no longer menaced the city, he marched +away with his army into Thuringia; and there, two months later, on the +immortal field of Lutzen, defeated his enemy, and fell, some say by a +traitor's hand, in the moment of victory; leaving to all who ever +looked upon his face the memory of a sovereign and soldier without a +rival, modest in sunshine and undaunted in storm. I saw him seven +times and I say this.</p> + +<p class="normal">And all the world knows in what a welter of war and battles and sieges +and famines we have since lain, so that no man foresees the end, and +many suppose that happiness has quite fled from the earth, or at least +from German soil. Yet this is not so. It is true in comparison with +the old days, when my lady kept her maiden Court at Heritzburg, and +our greatest excitement was a visit from Count Tilly, we lead a +troubled life. My lady's eyes are often grave, and the days when she +goes with her two brave boys to the summit of the Schloss and looks +southward with a wistful face, are many; many, for the Count, though +he verges on seventy, still keeps the field and is a tower in the +councils of the north. But with all that, the life is a full one--full +of worthy things and help given to others, and a great example greatly +set, and peace honestly if vainly pursued. And for this and for other +reasons, I believe that my lady, doing her duty, hoping and praying +and training her children, is happy; perhaps as happy as in the old +days when Fraulein Anna prosed of virtue and felicity and Voetius.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Waldgrave Rupert, still the handsomest of men, but sobered by +the stress of war, comes to see us in the intervals of battles and +sieges. On these occasions the children flock round him, and he tells +tales--of Nordlingen, and Leipzig, and the leaguer of Breysach; and +blue eyes grow stern, and chubby faces grim, and shell-white teeth are +ground together, while Marie sits pale and quaking, devouring her boys +with hungry mother's eyes. But they do not laugh at her now; they have +not since the day when the Waldgrave bade them guess who was the +bravest person he had ever known.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Father!' my lady's sons cried. And Marie's, not to be outdone, cried +the same.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Waldgrave shook his head. 'No,' he said, 'try again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">My youngest guessed the King of Sweden.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' the Waldgrave answered him. 'Your mother.'</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lady Rotha, by Stanley J. 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Weyman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Lady Rotha + A Romance + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 26, 2012 [EBook #38985] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LADY ROTHA *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=Wd09AAAAYAAJ + + 2. [=n] designates an "n" with macron above; the diphthong oe is + designated by [oe] + + + + + +[Illustration: Death of Tzerclas.--p. 368] + + + + + + + MY LADY ROTHA + + + + + A Romance + + + + + BY + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + AUTHOR OF + + "A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "UNDER THE RED ROBE," + "THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF," ETC. + + + + + + NEW YORK + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + + 1894 + + + + + + + Copyright, 1894, + By STANLEY J. WEYMAN. + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + + I. Heritzburg. + + II. The Countess Rotha. + + III. The Burgomaster's Demand. + + IV. The Fire Alight. + + V. Marie Wort. + + VI. Rupert the Great. + + VII. The Pride of Youth. + + VIII. A Catastrophe. + + IX. Walnuts of Gold. + + X. The Camp in the Forest. + + XI. Stolen. + + XII. Near The Edge. + + XIII. Our Quarters. + + XIV. The Opening of a Duel. + + XV. The Duel Continued. + + XVI. The General's Banquet. + + XVII. Stalhanske's Finns. + + XVIII. A Sudden Expedition. + + XIX. In a Green Valley. + + XX. More Haste, Less Speed. + + XXI. Among the Wounded. + + XXII. Greek and Greek. + + XXIII. The Flight. + + XXIV. Missing. + + XXV. Nuremberg. + + XXVI. The Face at the Window. + + XXVII. The House in the Churchyard. + + XXVIII. Under the Tiles. + + XXIX. In the House by St. Austin's. + + XXX. The End of the Day. + + XXXI. The Trial. + + XXXII. A Poor Guerdon. + + XXXIII. Two Men. + + XXXIV. Suspense. + + XXXV. St. Bartholomew's Day. + + XXXVI. A Wingless Cupid. + + + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Death Of Tzerclas. _Frontispiece_ + + ... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in her hands and + a timid smile on her lips. + + ... with her own hands she drove the nail.... Then she turned. + + ... Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued to + stamp and scream. + + The general waited on her with the utmost attention, riding by + her bridle-rein. + + We were alone.... I whispered in her ear. + + Before I could recover myself a pair of strong arms closed round + mine and bound them to my sides. + + But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly from her + seat. + + + + + + + MY LADY ROTHA. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + HERITZBURG. + + +I never saw anything more remarkable than the change which the death +of my lady's uncle, Count Tilly, in the spring of 1632, worked at +Heritzburg. Until the day when that news reached us, we went on in our +quiet corner as if there were no war. We heard, and some of us +believed, that the Palatine Elector, a good Calvinist like ourselves, +had made himself King of Bohemia in the Emperor's teeth; and shortly +afterwards--which we were much more ready to believe--that he was +footing it among the Dutchmen. We heard that the King of Denmark had +taken up his cause, but taken little by the motion; and then that the +King of Sweden had made it his own. But these things affected us +little: they were like the pattering of the storm to a man hugging +himself by the fireside. Through all we lay snug and warm, and kept +Christmas and drank the Emperor's health. Even the great sack of +Magdeburg, which was such an event as the world, I believe, will never +see again, moved us less to fear than to pity; though the city lies +something less than fifty leagues northeast of us. The reason of this +I am going to tell you. + +Our town stands, as all men know, in a nook of the Thuringian Forest, +facing south and west towards Hesse, of which my Lady Rotha, Countess +of Heritzburg, holds it, though all the land about is Saxon, belonging +either to Coburg, or Weimar, or Altenburg, or the upper Duchy. On the +north and east the forest rises in rolling black ridges, with a grey +crag shooting up spire-like here and there; so that from this quarter +it was not wonderful that no sound of war reached us. Toward the south +and west, where is the mouth of the valley, and whither our people +point when they talk of the world, a spur of the mountain runs down on +either side to the Werra, which used to be crossed at this point by a +wooden bridge. But this bridge was swept away by floods in the winter +of 1624, and never repaired as long as the war lasted. Henceforth to +come to Heritzburg travellers had to cross in old Joachim's boat, or +if the river was very low, tuck up and take the chances. Unless they +came by forest paths over the mountains. + +Such a position favoured peace. Our friends could not easily trouble +us; our allies were under no temptation to quarter troops upon us. For +our enemies, we feared them even less. Against them we had a rampart +higher than the mountains and wider than the Werra, in the name of +Tilly. In those days the name of the great Walloon, victor in thirty +fights, was a word to conjure with from the Tyrol to the Elbe. Mothers +used it to scare their children, priests to blast their foes. His +courage, his cruelty, and his zeal for the Roman Catholic Church +combined to make him the terror of the Protestants, while his strange +personality and mis-shapen form gave rise to a thousand legends, which +men still tell by the fireside. + +I think I see him now--as I did see him thrice in his lifetime--a +meagre dwarfish man with a long face like a horse's face, and large +whiskers. He dressed always in green satin, and wore a small +high-peaked hat on his huge wrinkled forehead. A red feather drooped +from it, and reached to his waist. At first sight one took him for a +natural; for one of those strange monstrosities which princes keep to +make them sport; but a single glance from his eyes sent simple men to +their prayers, and cowed alike plain burgher and wild Croat. Few loved +him, all feared him. I have heard it said that he had no shadow, but I +can testify of my own knowledge and not merely for the honour of the +family that this was false. + +He was brother to my lady's mother, the Countess Juliana. At the time +of the match my late lord was thought to have disparaged his blood by +mating with a Flemish lady of no more than gentle family. But as Count +Tilly rose in the world first to be commander of the Bavarian armies +and later to be Generalissimo of the forces of the Empire and a knight +of the Golden Fleece, we heard less and less of this. The sneer lost +its force until we became glad, Calvinists though we were, to lie +secure under his shadow; and even felt a shamed pride in his prowess. + +When my lord died, early in the war, leaving the county of Heritzburg +to his only child, the protection we derived in this way grew more and +more valuable. We of Heritzburg, and we only, lost nothing by the war, +except a parcel of idle fellows, of whom more hereafter. Our cows came +lowing to their stalls, our corn full weight to the granary. We slept +more safely under the distaff than others under the sword; and all +because my lady had the right to wear among her sixteen quarterings +the coat of Tilly. + +Some I know, but only since his death, have cried shame on us for +accepting his protection. They profess to think that we should have +shut our gates on the Butcher of Magdeburg, and bidden him do his +worst. They say that the spirit of the old Protestants is dead within +us, and that it is no wonder the cause lies languishing and Swedes +alone fight single-eyed. But those who say these things have seldom, I +notice, corn or cows: and moreover, as I have hinted, they kept a very +still tongue while Tilly lived. + +There is our late Burgomaster, Hofman, for instance, he is given to +talking after that fashion; and, it is true, he has plenty, though not +so much since my lady fined him. But I well remember the last time +Tilly visited us. It was after the fall of Magdeburg, and there was a +shadow on his grim countenance, which men said never left it again +until the day when the cannon-shot struck him in the ford of the Lech, +and they carried him to Ingolstadt to die. As he rode under the arch +by the Red Hart people looked strangely at him--for it was difficult +to forget what he had done--as if, but for the Croats in the camp +across the river, they would have torn him from his horse. But who, I +pray you, so polite that day as Master Hofman? Who but he was first to +hold the stirrup and cry, Hail? It was 'My Lord Count' this, and 'My +Lord Count' that, until the door closed on the crooked little figure +and the great gold spurs. And then it was the same with the captain of +the escort. Faugh! I grow sick when I think of such men, and know that +they were the first to turn round and make trouble when the time came, +and the old grey wolf was dead. For my part I have always been my +lady's man since I came out of the forest to serve her. It was enough +for me that the Count was her guest and of her kin. But for flattering +him and putting myself forward to do him honour, I left that to the +Hofmans. + +However, the gloom we saw on Tilly's face proved truly to be the +shadow of coming misfortune; for three weeks after he left us, was +fought the great battle of Breitenfeld. Men say that the energy and +decision he had shown all his life forsook him there; that he +hesitated and suffered himself to be led by others; and that so it was +from the day of Magdeburg to his death. This may be true, I think, for +he had the blood of women and children on his head; or it may be that +at last he met a foeman worthy of his steel. But in either case the +news of the Swede's victory rang through North Germany like a trumpet +call. It broke with startling abruptness the spell of victory which +had hitherto--for thirteen long years--graced the Emperor's flag and +the Roman Church. In Hesse, to the west of us, where the Landgrave +William had been the first of all German Princes to throw in his lot +with the Swedes and defy the Emperor, it awoke such a shout of +jubilation and vengeance as crossed even the Werra; while from the +Saxon lands to the east of us, which this victory saved from +spoliation, and punishment, came an answering cry of thankfulness and +joy. Even in Heritzburg it stirred our blood. It roused new thoughts +and new ambitions. We were Protestants; we were of the north. Those +who had fought and won were our brethren. + +And this was right. Nor for a time did I see anything wrong or any +sign of mischief brewing; though tongues in the town wagged more +freely, as the cloud of war rolled ever southward and away from us. +But six months later the news of Count Tilly's death reached us. Then, +or it might be a fortnight afterwards--so long I think respect for my +lady's loss and the new hatchment restrained the good-for-naughts--the +trouble began. How it arose, and what shape it took, and how I came +athwart it, I am going to tell you without further preface. + +It was about the third Monday in May of that year, 1632. A broken lock +in one of the rooms at the castle had baffled the skill of our smith, +and about nightfall, thinking to take a cup of beer at the Red Hart on +my way back, I went down to Peter the locksmith's in the town. His +forge stands in the winding lane, which joins the High Street at the +Red Hart, after running half round the town inside the wall; so that +one errand was a fair excuse for the other. When I had given him his +order and come out again, I found that what with the darkness of the +lane and the blaze of his fire which had got into my eyes, I could not +see a yard before me. A little fine rain was falling with a chilly +east wind, and the town seemed dead. The pavement felt greasy under +foot, and gave out a rank smell. However, I thought of the cheery +kitchen at the Red Hart and stumbled along as fast as I could, until +turning a corner I came in sight of the lanthorn which hangs over the +entrance to the lane. + +I saw it, but short of it, something took and held my eye: a warm +stream of light, which shone across the path, and fell brightly on the +rough surface of the town-wall. It came from a small window on my +left. I had to pass close beside this window, and out of curiosity I +looked in. What I saw was so surprising that I stopped to look again. + +The room inside was low and small and bare, with an earthen floor and +no fireplace. On a ragged pallet in one corner lay an elderly man, to +whose wasted face and pallid cheeks a long white moustache, which +strayed over the coverlet, gave an air of incongruous fierceness. His +bright eyes were fixed on the door as if he listened. A child, three +or four years old, sat on the floor beside him, playing with a yellow +cat. + +It was neither of these figures, however, which held my gaze, but that +of a young girl who knelt on the floor near the head of the bed. A +little crucifix stood propped against the wall before her, and she had +a string of beads in her hands. Her face was turned from me, but I +felt that her lips moved. I had never seen a Romanist at prayer +before, and I lingered a moment, thinking in the first place that she +would have done better had she swung the shutter against the window; +and in the next, that with her dark hair hanging about her neck and +her head bent devoutly, she looked so weak and fragile that the +stoutest Protestant could not have found it in his heart to harm her. + +Suddenly a noise, which dully reached me where I stood outside the +casement, caused her to start in alarm, and turn her head. At the same +moment the cat sprang away affrighted, and the man on the bed stirred +and tried to rise. This breaking the spell, I stole quietly away and +went round the corner to the door of the inn. + +Though I had never considered the girl closely before, I knew who she +was. Some eight months earlier, while Tilly, hard pressed by the King +of Sweden, still stood at bay, keeping down Saxony with one hand, and +Hesse with the other, the man on the pallet, Stephen Wort, a sergeant +of jagers, had been wounded in a skirmish beyond the river. Why Tilly, +who was used to seeing men die round him like flies in winter, gave a +second thought to this man more than to others, I cannot say. But for +some reason, when he visited us before Breitenfeld, he brought the +wounded sergeant in his train, and when he went left him at the inn. +Some said that the man had saved his life, others that the two were +born on the same day and shared the same horoscope. More probably +Tilly knew nothing of the man, and the captain of the escort was the +active party. I imagine he had a kindness for Wort, and knowing that +outside our little valley a wounded man of Tilly's army would find as +short shrift as a hamstrung wolf, took occasion to leave him with us. + +I thought of all this as I stood fumbling about the door for the great +bell. The times were such that even inns shut their doors at night, +and I had to wait and blow on my fingers--for no wind is colder than a +May wind--until I was admitted. Inside, however, the blazing fire and +cheerful kitchen with its show of gleaming pewter, and its great +polished settles winking solemnly in the heat, made amends for all. I +forgot the wounded man and his daughter and the fog outside. There +were eight or nine men present, among them Hofman, who was then +Burgomaster, Dietz, the town minister, and Klink our host. + +They were people I met every day, and sometimes more than once a day, +and they greeted me with a silent nod. The lad who waited brought me a +cup of beer, and I said that the night was cold for the time of year. +Some one assented, but the company in general sat silent, sagely +sucking their lips, or exchanging glances which seemed to indicate a +secret understanding. + +I was not slow to see that this had to do with me and that my entrance +had cut short some jest or story. I waited patiently to learn what it +was, and presently I was enlightened. After a few minutes Klink the +host rose from his seat. First looking from one to another of his +neighbours, as if to assure himself of their sympathy, he stole +quietly across the kitchen to a door which stood in one corner. Here +he paused a moment listening, and then on a sudden struck the door a +couple of blows, which made the pewters ring again. + +'Hi! Within there!' he cried in his great voice. Are you packing? Are +you packing, wench? Because out you go to-morrow, pack or no pack! Out +you go, do you hear?' + +He stood a moment waiting for an answer, but seemed to get none; on +which he came back to his seat, and chuckling fatly to himself, looked +round on his neighbours for applause. One winked and another rubbed +his calves. The greater number eyed the fire with a sly smile. For my +part I was slow of apprehension. I did not understand but waited to +hear more. + +For five minutes we all sat silent, sucking our lips. Then Klink rose +again with a knowing look, and crossed the kitchen on tiptoe with the +same parade of caution as before. Bang!' He struck the door until it +rattled on its hinges. + +'Hi! You there!' he thundered. 'Do you hear, you jade? Are you +packing? Are you packing, I say? Because pack or no pack, to-morrow +you go! I am a man of my word.' + +He did not wait this time for an answer, but came back to us with a +self-satisfied grin on his face. He drank some beer--he was a big +ponderous man with a red face and small pig's eyes--and pointed over +his shoulders with the cup. 'Eh?' he said, raising his eye-brows. + +'Good!' a man growled who sat opposite to him. + +'Quite right!' said a second in the same tone. 'Popish baggage!' + +Hofman said nothing, but nodded, with a sly glance at me. Dietz the +Minister nodded curtly also, and looked hard at the fire. The rest +laughed. + +For my part I felt very little like laughing. When I considered that +this clumsy jest was being played at the expense of the poor girl, +whom I had seen at her prayers, and that likely enough it was being +played for the tenth time--when I reflected that these heavy fellows +were sitting at their ease by this great fire watching the logs blaze +and the ruddy light flicker up the chimney, while she sat in cold and +discomfort, fearing every sound and trembling at every whisper, I +could have found it in my heart to get up and say what I thought of +it. And my speech would have astonished them. But I remembered, in +time, that least said is soonest mended, and that after all words +break no bones, and I did no more than sniff and shrug my shoulders. + +Klink, however, chose to take offence in his stupid fashion. 'Eh?' he +said. 'You are of another mind, Master Schwartz?' + +'What is the good of talking like that,' I said, 'when you do not mean +it?' + +He puffed himself out, and after staring at me for a time, answered +slowly: 'But what if I do mean it, Master Steward? What if I do mean +it?' + +'You don't,' I said. 'The man pays his way.' + +I thought to end the matter with that. I soon found that it was not to +be shelved so easily. For a moment indeed no one answered me. We are a +slow speaking race, and love to have time to think. A minute had not +elapsed, however, before one of the men who had spoken earlier took up +the cudgels. 'Ay, he pays his way,' he said, thrusting his head +forward. 'He pays his way, master; but how? Tell me that.' + +I did not answer him. + +'Out of the peasant's pocket!' the fellow replied slowly. 'Out of the +plunder and booty of Magdeburg. With blood-money, master.' + +'I ask no more than to meet one of his kind in the fields,' the man +sitting next him, who had also spoken before, chimed in. 'With no one +looking on, master. There would be one less wolf in the world then, I +will answer for that. He pays his way? Oh, yes, he pays it here.' + +I thought a shrug of the shoulders a sufficient answer. These two +belonged to the company my lady had raised in the preceding year to +serve with the Landgrave according to her tenure. They had come back +to the town a week before this with money to spend; some people saying +that they had deserted, and some that they had returned to raise +volunteers. Either way I was not surprised to find them a little bit +above themselves; for foreign service spoils the best, and these had +never been anything but loiterers and vagrants, whom it angered me to +see on a bench cheek by jowl with the Burgomaster. I thought to treat +them with silent contempt, but I soon found that they did not stand +alone. + +The Minister was the first to come to their support. 'You forget that +these people are Papists, Master Schwartz. Rank Roman Papists,' he +said. + +'So was Tilly!' I retorted, stung to anger. 'Yet you managed to do +with him.' + +'That was different,' he answered sourly; but he winced. + +Then Hofman began on me. 'You see, Master Steward,' he said slowly, +'we are a Protestant town--we are a Protestant town. And it ill +beseems us--it ill beseems us to harbour Papists. I have thought over +that a long while. And now I think it is time to rid ourselves of +them--to abate the nuisance in fact. You see we are a Protestant town, +Master Schwartz. You forget that.' + +'Then were we not a Protestant town,' I cried, jumping up in a rage, +and forgetting all my discretion, 'when we entertained Count Tilly? +When you held his stirrup, Burgomaster? and you, Master Dietz, +uncovered to him? Were not these people Papists when they came here, +and when you received them? But I will tell you what it is,' I +continued, looking round scornfully, and giving my anger vent, for +such meanness disgusted me. 'When there was a Bavarian army across the +river, and you could get anything out of Tilly, you were ready to +oblige him, and clean his boots. You could take in Romanists then, but +now that he is dead and your side is uppermost, you grow scrupulous, +Pah! I am ashamed of you! You are only fit to bully children and +girls, and such like!' and I turned away to take up my iron-shod +staff. + +They were all very red in the face by this time, and the two soldiers +were on their feet. But the Burgomaster restrained them. 'Fine words!' +he said, puffing out his cheeks--'fine words! Dare say the girl can +hear him. But let him be, let him be--let him have his say!' + +'There is some else will have a say in the matter, Master Hofman!' I +retorted warmly, as I turned to the door, 'and that is my lady. I +would advise you to think twice before you act. That is all!' + +'Hoop-de-doo-dem-doo!' cried one in derision, and others echoed it. +But I did not stay to hear; I turned a deaf ear to the uproar, wherein +all seemed to be crying after me at once, and shrugging my shoulders I +opened the door and went out. + +The sudden change from the warm noisy kitchen to the cold night air +sobered me in a moment. As I climbed the dark slippery street which +rises to the foot of the castle steps, I began to wish that I had let +the matter be. After all, what call had I to interfere, and make bad +blood between myself and my neighbours? It was no business of mine. +The three were Romanists. Doubtless the man had robbed and hectored in +his time, and while his hand was strong; and now he suffered as others +had suffered. + +It was ten chances to one the Burgomaster would carry the matter to my +lady in some shape or other, and the minister would back him up, and I +should be reprimanded; or if the Countess saw with my eyes, and sent +them off with a flea in their ears, then we should have all the rabble +of the town who were at Klink's beck and call, going up and down +making mischief, and crying, 'No Popery!' Either way I foresaw +trouble, and wished that I had let the matter be, or better still had +kept away that night from the Red Hart. + +But then on a sudden there rose before me, as plainly as if I had +still been looking through the window, a vision of the half-lit room +looking on the lane, with the sick man on the pallet, and the slender +figure kneeling beside the bed. I saw the cat leap, saw again the +girl's frightened gesture as she turned towards the door, and I +grew almost as hot as I had been in the kitchen. 'The cowards!' I +muttered--'the cowards! But I will be beforehand with them. I will go +to my lady early and tell her all.' + +You see I had my misgivings, but I little thought what that evening +was really to bring forth, or that I had done that in the Red Hart +kitchen which would alter all my life, and all my lady's life; and +spreading still, as a little crack in ice will spread from bank to +bank, would leave scarce a man in Heritzburg unchanged, and scarce a +woman's fate untouched. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE COUNTESS ROTHA. + + +My Lady Rotha, Countess of Heritzburg in her own right, was at this +time twenty-five years old and unmarried. Her maiden state, which +seems to call for explanation, I attribute to two things. Partly to +the influence of her friend and companion Fraulein Anna Max of +Utrecht, who was reputed in the castle to know seven languages, and to +consider marriage a sacrifice; and partly to the Countess's own +disposition, which led her to set a high value on the power and +possessions that had descended to her from her father. Count Tilly's +protection, which had exempted Heritzburg from the evils of the war, +had rendered the support of a husband less necessary; and so she had +been left to follow her own will in the matter, and was now little +likely to surrender her independence unless her heart went with the +gift. + +Not that suitors were lacking, for my lady, besides her wealth, was +possessed of the handsomest figure in the world, with beautiful +features, and the most gracious and winning address ever known. I +remember as if it were yesterday Prince Albert of Rammingen, a great +match but an old man. He came in his chariot with a numerous retinue, +and stayed long, taking it very hardly that my lady was not to be won; +but after a while he went. His place was taken by Count Frederick, a +brother of the Margrave of Anspach, a young gentleman who had received +his education in France, and was full of airs and graces, going sober +to bed every night, and speaking German with a French accent. Him my +lady soon sent about his business. The next was a more famous man, +Count Thurn of Bohemia, he who began the war by throwing Slawata and +Martinitz out of window in Prague, in '19, and paid for it by fifteen +years of exile. He wore such an air of mystery, and had such tales to +tell of flight and battle and hairbreadth escapes, that he was +scarcely less an object of curiosity in the town than Tilly himself; +but he knelt in vain. And in fine so it was with them all. My lady +would have none of them, but kept her maiden state and governed +Heritzburg and saw the years go by, content to all appearance with +Fraulein Anna and her talk, which was all of Voetius and Beza and +scores of other learned men, whose names I could never remember from +one hour to another. + +It was my duty to wait upon her every day after morning service, and +receive her orders, and inform her of anything which I thought she +ought to know. At that hour she was to be found in her parlour, a +long room on the first floor of the castle, lighted by three +deeply-recessed windows and hung with old tapestry worked by her +great-grandmother in the dark days of the Emperor Charles, when the +Count of Heritzburg shared the imprisonment of the good Landgrave of +Hesse. A screen stood a little way within the door, and behind this it +was my business to wait, until I was called. + +On this morning, however, I had no patience to wait, and I made myself +so objectionable by my constant coughing that at last she cried, with +a cheerful laugh, 'What is it, Martin? Come and tell me. Has there +been a fire in the forest? But it is not the right time of year for +that.' + +'No, my lady,' I said, going forward. Then out of shyness or sheer +contradictoriness I found myself giving her the usual report of this +and that and the other, but never a word of what was in my mind. She +sat, according to her custom in summer, in the recess of the farthest +window, while Fraulein Anna occupied a stool placed before a +reading-desk. Behind the two the great window gave upon the valley. By +merely turning the head either of them could look over the red roofs +of Heritzburg to the green plain, which here was tolerably wide, and +beyond that again to the dark line of forest, which in spring and +autumn showed as blue to the eye as thick wood smoke. + +While I spoke my lady toyed with a book she had been reading, and +Fraulein Anna turned over the pages on the desk with an impatient +hand, sometimes looking at my lady and sometimes tapping with her foot +on the floor. She was plump and fair and short, dressing plainly, and +always looking into the distance; whether because she thought much and +on deep matters, or because, as the Countess's woman once told me, she +could see nothing beyond the length of her arm, I cannot say. When I +had finished my report, and paused, she looked up at my lady and said, +'Now, Rotha, are you ready?' + +'Not quite, Anna,' my lady answered, smiling. 'Martin has not done +yet.' + +'He tells in ten minutes what another would in five,' Fraulein said +crossly. 'But to finish?' + +'Yes, Martin, what is it?' my lady assented. 'We have eaten all the +pastry. The meat I am sure is yet to come.' + +I saw that there was nothing else for it, and after all it was what I +had come to do. 'Your excellency knows the Bavarian soldier and his +daughter, who have been lodging these six months past at the Red +Hart?' I said. + +'To be sure.' + +'Klink talks of turning them out,' I continued, feeling my face grow +red I scarcely knew why. + +'Is their money at an end?' the Countess asked shrewdly. She was a +great woman of business. + +'No,' I answered, 'but I dare say it is low.' + +'Then what is the matter?' my lady continued, looking at me somewhat +curiously. + +'He says that they are Papists,' I answered. 'And it is true, as your +excellency knows, but it is not for him to say it. The man will not be +safe for an hour outside the walls, nor the girl much longer. And +there is a small child besides. And they have no where else to go.' + +My lady's face grew grave while I spoke. When I stopped she rose and +stood fronting me, tapping on the reading-desk with her fingers. 'This +must not be allowed, Martin,' she said firmly. 'You were right to tell +me.' + +'Master Hofman and the Minister----' + +'Yes,' she interposed, nodding quickly. 'Go to them. They will see +Klink, and----' + +'They are just pushing him on,' I said, with a groan. + +'What!' she cried; and I remember to this day how her grey eyes +flashed and how she threw back her head in generous amazement. 'Do you +mean to say that this is being done in spite, Martin? That after +escaping all the perils of this wretched war these men are so +thankless as to turn on the first scape-goat that falls into their +hands? It is not possible!' + +'It looks like it, my lady,' I muttered, wondering whether I had not +perhaps carried the matter too far. + +'No, no,' she said, shaking her head, 'you must have made a mistake; +but go to Klink. Go to Klink and tell him from me to keep the man for +a week at least. I will be answerable for the cost, and we can +consider in the meantime what to do. My cousin the Waldgrave Rupert +visits me in a day or two, and I will consult him.' + +Still I did not like to go without giving her a hint that she might +meet with opposition, and I hesitated, considering how I might warn +her without causing needless alarm or seeming to presume. Fraulein +Anna, who had listened throughout with the greatest impatience, took +advantage of the pause to interfere. 'Come, Rotha,' she said. 'Enough +trifling. Let us go back to Voetius and our day's work.' + +'My dear,' the Countess answered somewhat coldly, 'this is my day's +work. I am trying to do it.' + +'Your work is to improve and store your mind,' Fraulein Anna retorted +with peevishness. + +'True,' my lady said quietly; 'but for a purpose.' + +'There can be no purpose higher than the acquirement of +philosophy--and, religion,' Fraulein Anna said. Her last words sounded +like an afterthought. + +My lady shook her head. 'The duty of a Princess is to govern,' she +said. + +'How can she govern unless she has prepared her mind by study and +thought?' Fraulein Anna asked triumphantly. + +'I agree within limits,' my lady answered. 'But----' + +'There is no _but!_ Nor are there any limits that I see!' the other +rejoined eagerly. 'Let me read to you out of Voetius himself. In his +maxims----' + +'Not this minute,' the Countess answered firmly. And thereby she +interrupted not Fraulein Anna alone but a calculation on which, +without any light from Voetius, I was engaged; namely, how long it +would take a man to mow an acre of ground if he spent all his time in +sharpening his scythe! Low matters of that kind however have nothing +in common with philosophy I suppose; and my lady's voice soon brought +me back to the point. 'What is it you want to say, Martin?' she asked. +'I see that you have something still on your mind.' + +'I wish your excellency to be aware that there may be a good deal of +feeling in the town on this matter,' I said. + +'You mean that I may make myself unpopular,' she answered. + +That was what I did mean--that at the least. And I bowed. + +My lady shook her head with a grave smile. 'I might give you an answer +from Voetius, Martin,' she said; 'that they who govern are created to +protect the weak against the strong. And if not, _cui bono?_ But that, +you may not understand. Shall I say then instead that I, and not +Hofman or Dietz, am Countess of Heritzburg.' + +'My lady,' I cried--and I could have knelt before her--'that is answer +enough for me!' + +'Then go,' she said, her face bright, 'and do as I told you.' + +She turned away, and I made my reverence and went out and down the +stairs and through the great court with my head high and my heart high +also. I might not understand Voetius; but I understood that my lady +was one, who in face of all and in spite of all, come Hofman or Dietz, +come peace or war, would not blench, but stand by the right! And it +did me good. He is a bad horse that will not jump when his rider's +heart is right, and a bad servant that will not follow when his master +goes before! I hummed a tune, I rattled my staff on the stones. I said +to myself it was a thousand pities so gallant a spirit should be +wasted on a woman: and then again I fancied that I could not have +served a man as I knew I could and would serve her should time and the +call ever put me to the test. + +The castle at Heritzburg, rising abruptly above the roofs of the +houses, is accessible from the town by a flight of steps cut in the +rock. On the other three sides the knob on which it stands is +separated from the wooded hills to which it belongs by a narrow +ravine, crossed in one place by a light horse-bridge made in modern +days. This forms the chief entrance to the castle, but the road which +leads to it from the town goes so far round that it is seldom used, +the flight of steps I have mentioned leading at once and more +conveniently from the end of the High Street. Half way down the High +Street on the right hand side is the Market-place, a small paved +square, shaded by tall wooden houses, and having a carved stone pump +in the middle. A hundred paces beyond this on the same side is the Red +Hart, standing just within the West Gate. + +From one end of the town to the other is scarcely a step, and I was at +the inn before the Countess's voice had ceased to sound in my ears. +The door stood open, and I went in, expecting to find the kitchen +empty or nearly so at that hour of the day. To my surprise, I found at +least a dozen people in it, with as much noise and excitement going +forward as if the yearly fair had been in progress. For a moment I was +not observed. I had time to see who were present--Klink, the two +soldiers who had put themselves forward the evening before, and half a +score of idlers. Then the landlord's eye fell on me and he passed the +word. A sudden silence followed and a dozen faces turned my way; so +that the room, which was low in the roof with wide beetle-browed +windows, seemed to lighten. + +'Just in time, Master Schwartz!' cried one fellow. 'You, can write, +and we are about a petition! Perhaps you will draw it up for us.' + +'A petition,' I said shortly, eyeing the fellow with contempt. 'What +petition?' + +'Against Papists!' he answered boldly. + +'And favourers, aiders, and abettors!' exclaimed another in the +background. + +'Master Klink, Master Klink,' I said, trying to frown down the crowd, +'you would do well to have a care. These ragamuffins----' + +'Have a care yourself, Master Jackanapes!' the same voice cried. 'This +is a town meeting.' + +'Town meeting!' I said, looking round contemptuously. 'Gaol-meeting, +you mean, and likely to be a gaol-filling. But I do not speak to you; +I leave that to the constable. For Master Klink, if he will take a +word of advice, I will speak with him alone.' + +They cried out to him not to speak to me. But Klink had still sense +enough to know that he might be going too fast, and though they hooted +and laughed at him--being for the most part people who had nothing to +lose--he came out of the house with me and crossed the street that we +might talk unheard. As civilly as I could I delivered my message; and +as exactly, for I saw that the issue might be serious. + +I was not surprised when he groaned, and in a kind of a tremor shook +his hands. 'I am not my own master, Schwartz,' he said. 'And that is +the truth.' + +'You were your own master last night,' I retorted. + +'These fellows are all for "No Popery."' + +'Ay, and who gave them the cue?' I said sharply. 'It is not the first +time that the fat burgher has raised the lean kine and been eaten by +them. Nor will it be the last. It serves you right.' + +'I am willing enough to do what my lady wishes,' he whimpered; +'but----' + +'But you are not master of your own house, do you mean?' I exclaimed. +'Then fetch the constable. That is simple. Or the Burgomaster.' + +'Hush!' he said, 'he is hotter than any one.' + +'Then,' I answered flatly, 'he had better cool, and you too. That is +all I have to say. And mark me, Klink,' I continued sternly, 'see that +no harm happens to that girl or her father. They are in your house, +and you have heard what my lady says. Let those ruffians interfere +with them and you will be held to answer for it.' + +'That is easy talking,' he muttered peevishly; 'but if I cannot help +it?' + +'You will have to help it!' I rejoined, losing my temper a little. +'You were fool enough, or I am much mistaken, to set a light to this +stack, and now you will have to smother the flame, or pay for it. That +is all, my friend. You have had fair warning. The rest is in your own +hands.' + +And with that I left him. He was a stupid man but a sly one too, and I +doubted his sincerity, or I might have taken another way with him. In +the end, doubtless, it would have been the same. + +As I turned on my heel to go, the troop round the door raised a kind +of hoot; and this pursued me as I went up the street, bringing the +blood to my cheeks and almost provoking me to return. I checked the +impulse however, and strode on as if I did not hear; and by the time I +reached the market-place the cry had ceased. Here however it began +afresh; a number of loose fellows and lads who were loafing about the +stalls crying 'No Popery!' and 'Popish Schwartz!' as I passed, in a +way which showed that the thing was premeditated and that they had +been lying in wait for me. I stopped and scowled at them, and for a +moment they ceased. But the instant my back was turned the hooting +began again--with an ugly savage note in it--and I had not got quite +clear of the place when some one flung a bundle of carrots, which hit +me sharply on the back. I swung round in a rage at that, and dashed +hot foot into the middle of the stalls in the hope of catching the +fellow. But I was too late; an old woman over whom I fell was the only +sufferer. The rascals had fled down an alley, and, contenting myself +with crying after them that they were a set of cowards, I set the old +lady on her legs, and went on my way. + +But I had my thoughts. Such an insult had not been offered to me since +I first came to the town to serve my lady, and it filled me with +indignation. It seemed, besides, not a thing to be sneezed at. I took +it for a sign of change, of bad times coming. Moreover--and this +troubled me as much as anything--I had recognised among the fellows in +the square two more of the fifty men my lady had sent to serve with +Hesse. There seemed ground for fearing that they had deserted in a +body and come back and were in hiding. If this were so, and the +Burgomaster, instead of repressing them, encouraged their excesses, +they were likely to prove a source of trouble and danger--real danger. + +I paused on the steps leading up to the castle, in two minds whether I +should not go to the Burgomaster and tell him plainly what I thought; +for I felt the responsibility. My lady had no male protector, no +higher servant than myself, and we had not a dozen capable men in the +castle. The Landgrave of Hesse, our over-lord, was away with the King +of Sweden, and we could expect no immediate support from him. In the +event of a riot in the town therefore--and I knew that, in the great +Peasants' War of a century before, our town had been rebellious +enough--we should be practically helpless. An hour and a little +ill-fortune might place my lady in the hands of her mutinous subjects; +and though the Landgrave would be certain sooner or later to chastise +them, many things might happen in the interval. + +In the end I went on up the steps, thinking that I had better leave +Hofman alone, since I could not trust him, and should only by applying +to him disclose our weakness. There was a way indeed which occurred to +me as I reached the head of the stairs, but I had not taken two steps +across the terrace, as we call that part of the court which overlooks +the town, before it was immediately driven out again. Fraulein Max was +walking up and down with a book, sunning herself. I think that she had +been watching for me, for the moment I appeared she called to me. + +I went up to her reluctantly. I was anxious, and in no mood to listen +to one of those learned disquisitions with which she would sometimes +favour us, without any thought whether we understood her or no. But +this I soon found was not what I had to fear. Her face wore a frown +and her tone was peevish; but she closed her book, keeping her place +in it with her finger. + +'Master Martin,' she said, peering at me with her shortsighted eyes, +'you are a very foolish man, I think.' + +'Fraulein!' I muttered in surprise. What did she mean? + +'A very foolish one!' she repeated. 'Why are you disturbing your lady? +Why do you not leave her to her studies and her peace instead of +distracting her mind with these stories of a man and a girl? A man and +a girl, and Papists! Piff! What are they to us? Don't you understand +that your lady has higher work and something else to do? Go you and +look after your man and girl.' + +'But my lady's subjects, Fraulein----' + +'Her subjects?' she replied, almost violently. 'Papists are no +subjects. Or to what purpose the _Cujus Regio?_ But what do you know +of government? You have heard and you repeat.' + +'But, Fraulein,' I said humbly, for her way of talking made me seem +altogether in the wrong, and a monster of indiscretion, 'if my lady +does not interfere, the man and the girl you speak of will suffer. +That is clear.' + +She snapped her fingers. + +'Piff!' she cried, screwing up her eyes still more. 'What has that to +do with us? Is there not suffering going on from one end of Germany to +the other? Do not scores die every day, every hour? Can we prevent it? +No. Then why trouble us for this one little, little matter? It is +theirs to suffer, and ours to think and read, and learn and write. We +were at peace to do all this, and then you come with your man and +girl, and the peace is gone!' + +'But, Fraulein----' + +'You do no good by saying Fraulein, Fraulein!' she replied. 'Look at +things in the light of reason. Trouble us no more. That is what you +have to do. What are this man and girl to you that you should endanger +your mistress for their sakes?' + +'They are nothing to me,' I answered. + +'Then let them go!' she replied with suppressed passion. 'And undo +your folly the best way you can, and the sooner the better! Chut! That +when the mind is set on higher things it should be distracted by such +mean and miserable objects! If they are nothing to you, why in +heaven's name obtrude them on us?' + +After that she would not hear another word, but dismissed me with a +wave of her hand as if the thing were fully settled and over; burying +herself in her book and turning away, while I went into the house with +my tail between my legs and all my doubts and misgivings increased a +hundredfold. For this which she had put into words was the very +thought, the very way out of it, which had occurred to me! I had only +to let the matter drop, I had only to leave these people to their +fate, and the danger and difficulty were at once at an end. For a time +my lady's authority might suffer perhaps; but at the proper season, +when the Landgrave was at home and could help us, we might cheaply +assert and confirm it. + +All that day I went about in doubt what I should do; and night came +without resolving my perplexities. At one moment I thought of my duty +to my lady, and the calamities in which I might involve her. At +another I pictured the girl I had seen praying by her father's +bed--pictured her alone and defenceless, hourly insulted by Klink, and +with terror and uncertainty looming each day larger before her eyes: +or, worse still, abandoned to all the dangers which awaited her, in +the event of the town refusing to give her shelter. Considering that I +had seen her once only--to notice her--it was wonderful how clearly I +remembered her. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE BURGOMASTER'S DEMAND. + + +As it turned out, the other party took the burden of decision from my +shoulders. When I came out of chapel next morning, I found Hofman on +the terrace waiting for me, and with him Master Dietz wearing his +Geneva gown and a sour face. They wished to see my lady. I said it +was early yet, and tried to hold them in talk if only that I might +learn what they would be at. But they repulsed my advances, said +that they knew her excellency always transacted her business at this +hour--which was perfectly true--and at last sent me to the parlour +whether I would or no. + +Under such circumstances I did not linger behind the screen, but +advanced at once, and interrupting Fraulein Max, who had just begun to +read aloud, while my lady worked, said that the Burgomaster desired +the honour of an interview with the Countess. + +The latter passed her needle once through the stuff, and then looked +up. 'Do you know what he wants, Martin?' she said in a quiet tone. + +I said I did not. + +She bent her head and worked for a moment in silence. Then she sighed +gently, and without looking up, nodded to me. 'Very well, I will see +him here,' she said. 'But first send Grissel and Gretchen to wait on +me. Let Franz bring two stools and place them, and bid him and Ernst +keep the door. My footstool also. And let the two Jacobs wait in the +hall.' + +I gave the orders and took on myself to place two extra lackeys in the +hall that we might not seem to be short of men. Then I went to the +Burgomaster, and attended him and Master Dietz to the parlour. + +They bowed three times according to custom as they advanced, and my +lady, taking one step forward, gave her hand to the Burgomaster to +kiss. Then she stepped back and sat down, looking with a pleasant face +at the Minister. 'I would fain apologise for troubling your +excellency,' the Mayor began slowly and heavily. 'But the times are +trying.' + +'Your presence needs no apology, Master Hofman,' my lady answered, +smiling frankly. 'It is your right to see me on behalf of the town at +all times. It would grieve me much, if you did not sometimes exercise +the privilege. And for Master Dietz, who may be able to assist us, I +am glad to see him also.' + +The Minister bowed low. The Burgomaster only puffed out his cheeks. +Doubtless he felt that courage at the Red Hart and courage in my +lady's parlour were two different things. But it was too late to +retreat, for the Minister was there to report what passed; and after a +glance at Dietz's face he proceeded. 'I am not here in a private +capacity, if it please your excellency,' he said. 'And I beg your +excellency to bear this in mind. I am here as Burgomaster, having on +my mind the peace of the town; which at present is endangered--very +greatly, endangered,' he repeated pompously. + +'I am sorry to hear that,' my lady answered. + +'Nevertheless it is so,' he replied with a kind of obstinacy. +'Endangered by the presence of certain persons in the town, whose +manners are not conformable. These persons are Papists, and the town, +your excellency remembers, is a Protestant town.' + +'Certainly I remember that,' my lady said gravely. + +'Hence of this combination, your excellency will understand, comes a +likelihood of evil,' he continued. 'On which, hearing you took an +interest in these persons, however little deserved, it seemed to be my +duty to lay the matter before you.' + +'You have done very rightly,' the Countess answered quietly. 'Do I +understand then, Master Hofman, that the Papists you complain of are +conspiring to break the peace of the town?' + +The Burgomaster gasped. He was too obtuse to see at once that my lady +was playing with him. He only wondered how he had managed to convey so +strange a notion to her mind. He hastened to set her right. 'No--oh, +no,' he said. 'There is no fear of that. There are but three of them.' + +'Are they presuming to perform their rites in public then?' my lady +rejoined. 'If so, of course it cannot be permitted. It is against the +law of the town.' + +'No,' he answered, more slowly and more reluctantly as the drift of +her questions began to dawn upon him. 'I do not know that that is so. +I have not heard that it is so. But they are Papists.' + +'Well, but with their consciences we have nothing to do!' she said +more sharply. 'I confess, I fail as yet to see, Master Hofman, how +they threaten the peace of the town.' + +The Burgomaster stared. 'I do not know that they threaten it +themselves,' he said slowly. 'But their presence stirs up the people, +if your excellency understands; and may lead, if the matter goes on, +to a riot or worse.' + +'Ha! Now I comprehend!' my lady cried in a hearty tone. 'You fear your +constables may fail to cope with the rabble?' + +He admitted that that was so. + +'And you desire such assistance as I can offer towards maintaining the +law and protecting these persons; who have of course a right to +protection?' + +Master Hofman began to see whither he had been led, and glared at the +Countess with his mouth wide open. But for the moment he could not +find a word to say. Never did I see a man look more at a loss. + +'Well, I must consider,' my lady resumed, her finger to her cheek. +'Rest assured, you shall be supported. Martin,' she continued, turning +to me, 'let word be sent to the four foresters at Gatz to come down to +the castle this evening. And send also to the charcoal-burners' camp. +How many men should there be in it?' + +'Some half-score, my lady,' I answered, adding two-thirds to the +truth. + +'Ah? And let the huntsman come down and bring a couple of feeders. +Doubtless with our own men, we shall be able to place a score or +thirty at your disposal, Master Hofman, and stout fellows. These, with +your constables and such of the peaceful burghers as you see fit to +call to your assistance, should be sufficient to quell the +disorderly.' + +I could have laughed aloud, Master Hofman looked so confounded. Never +man had an air of being more completely taken aback. By offering her +help to put down any mob, the Countess had deprived him of the plea he +had come to prefer; that he was afraid he could not answer for the +safety of the Papists, and that therefore they must withdraw or be +expelled. This he could no longer put forward, and consequently he was +driven either to adopt my lady's line, or side openly with the party +of disorder. I saw his heavy face turn a deep red, and his jaw fall, +as he grasped the situation. His wits worked slowly; and had he been +left to himself, I do not doubt that he would have allowed things to +remain as they were, and taken the part assigned to him. + +But Master Dietz, who had listened with a lengthening face, at this +moment interposed. 'Will your excellency permit me to say a few +words?' he said. + +'I think the Burgomaster has made the matter clear,' my lady answered. + +'Not in one respect,' the Minister rejoined. 'He has not informed your +excellency that in the opinion of the majority of the burghers and +inhabitants of this town the presence of these people is an offence +and an eyesore.' + +'It is legal,' my lady answered icily. 'I do not know what opinion has +to do with it.' + +'The opinion of the majority.' + +'Sir!' my lady said, speaking abruptly and with heightened colour, 'in +Heritzburg I am the majority, by your leave.' + +He frowned and set his face hard, but his eyes sank before hers. +'Nevertheless your excellency will allow,' he said in a lower tone, +'that the opinion of grave and orderly men deserves consideration?' + +'When it is on the side of law, every consideration,' the Countess +answered, her eyes sparkling. 'But when it is ranged against three +defenceless people in violation of the law, none. And more, Master +Dietz,' she continued, her voice ringing with indignation, 'it is to +check such opinion, and defend against it those who otherwise would +have no defence, that I conceive I sit here. And by my faith I will do +it!' + +She uttered the last words with so much fire and with her beautiful +face so full of feeling, that I started forward where I stood; and for +a farthing would have flung Dietz through the window. The little +Minister was of a stern and hard nature, however. The nobility of my +lady's position was lost upon him. He feared her less than he would +have feared a man under the same circumstances; and though he stood +cowed, and silenced for the moment, he presently returned to the +attack. + +'Your excellency perhaps forgets,' he said with a dry cough, 'that the +times are full of bloodshed and strife, though we at Heritzburg have +hitherto enjoyed peace. I suggest with respect therefore, is it +prudent to run the risk of bringing these evils into the town for the +sake of one or two Papists, whom it is only proposed to send +elsewhere?' + +My lady rose suddenly from her chair, and pointed with a finger, which +trembled slightly, to the great window beside her. 'Step up here!' she +said curtly. + +Master Dietz, wondering greatly, stepped on to the dais. Thence the +red roofs of the town, some new and smart, and some stained and grey +with lichens, and all the green valley stretching away to the dark +line of wood, were visible, bathed in sunshine. The day was fine, the +air clear, the smoke from the chimneys rose straight upward. + +'Do you see?' she said. + +The Minister bowed. + +'Then take this for answer,' she replied. 'All that you see is mine to +rule. It came to me by inheritance, and I prize the possession of it, +though I am a woman, more highly than my life; for it came to me from +Heaven and my fathers. But were it a hundred times as large, Master +Dietz--were there a house for every brick that now stands there, and +an acre for every furrow, and sheep as many as birds in the air, even +then I would risk all, and double and treble all, rather than desert +those whom my law defends, be they three, or thirty, or three hundred! +Let that be your answer! And for the peace you speak of,' she +continued, turning on a sudden and confronting us, her face aglow with +anger, 'the peace, I mean, which you have hitherto enjoyed, it should +shame you to hear it mentioned! Have the Papists harried you? Have you +suffered in life or limb, or property? No. And why? Because of my +honoured uncle, a Papist! For shame!--for shame, I say! As it has been +dealt out to you, go and do to others!' + +But for the respect which held me in her presence, I could have cried +'Huzza!' to her speech; and I can tell you, it made Master Minister +look as small as a mouse. He stepped down from the dais with his face +dark and his head trembling; and after that I never doubted that he +was at the bottom of the movement against the Worts, though the +ruffianly deserters I have mentioned supplied him with the tools, +wanting which he might not have taken up the work. He stood a moment +on the floor looking very black and grim, and with not a word to say, +but I doubted he was not beaten. What line he would have taken, +however, I cannot tell, for he had scarcely descended--my lady had not +resumed her seat--when there rose from the court below a sudden babel +of noise, the trampling of hoofs and feet on the pavement, and a +confused murmur of voices. For a moment I looked at my lady and she at +me. It struck me that that at which the Burgomaster had hinted was +come to pass: that some of the town ragamuffins had dared to invade +the castle. The same idea doubtless occurred to her, for she stepped, +though without any appearance of alarm, to the window, which commanded +a side view of the terrace. She looked out. + +I, a little to her right, saw her smile: then in a moment she turned. +'This could not be better,' she said, resuming in an instant her +ordinary manner. I think she was a little ashamed, as people of +quality are wont to be, of the feeling she had betrayed. 'I see some +one below who will advise me, and who, if I am doing wrong, as you +seem to fear, Master Burgomaster, will tell me of it. My cousin, the +Waldgrave Rupert, whom I expected to-morrow, has arrived to-day. Be +good enough to wait while I receive him, and I will then return to +you.' + +Bidding me have the two served with some refreshment, she stepped down +from the dais, and withdrew with Fraulein Max and her women, leaving +the townsmen to discuss the new arrival with what appetite they might. + +They liked it little, I fancy. In a moment their importance was gone, +their consequence at an end. The name of the Waldgrave Rupert made +them feel how small they were, despite their boasting, beside the +youngest member of the family. The very swish of my lady's robe as she +swept through the doorway flouted them, her departure was an offence; +and this, following on the scolding they had received, produced a +soreness and irritation in their minds, which ill-prepared them, I +think, for the sequel. + +I have sometimes thought that had I remained with them, and paid them +some attentions, the end might have been different; but my duties +called me elsewhere. The house was in a ferment; I was wanted here and +there, both to give orders and to see them carried out. It was some +time before I was at liberty even to go to the hall whither my lady +had descended to receive her guest, and where I found the two standing +together on the hearth, under the great Red Hart which is the +cognizance of the family. + +I had not seen the Waldgrave Rupert--a cadet of the noble house of +Weimar and my lady's cousin once removed--since his boyhood. I found +him grown into a splendid man, as tall and almost as wide as myself; +who used to be called in the old forest days before I entered my +lady's service 'the strong man of Pippel.' As he stood on the hearth, +fair-haired and ruddy-faced, with a noble carriage and a frank boyish +smile, I had seldom looked on a handsomer youth. He fell short of my +lady's age by two years; but as I looked from one to the other, they +seemed so fitting a pair, the disparity went for nothing. He was young +and strong, full of spirit and energy and fire. Surely, I thought, the +right man has come at last! + +In this belief I was more than confirmed when he came forward and +greeted me pleasantly, vowing that he remembered me well. His voice +and laugh seemed to fill the room; the very ring of his spurs on the +stones gave assurance of power. I saw my lady look at him with an air +of affectionate pride--she had seen him more lately than I had--as if +his youth, and strength, and beauty already belonged to her. As for +his smile, it was infectious. We grew in a moment brighter, younger, +and more cheerful. The house which yesterday had seemed quiet and +lonesome--we were a small family for so great a dwelling--took on a +new air. The servants went about their tasks more quickly, the maids +laughed behind doors. The place seemed in an hour transformed, as I +have seen a valley in the mountains changed on a sudden by the rising +of the sun. + +As a fact, when I had been in his presence five minutes, the +Burgomaster and the Minister upstairs seemed as common and mean and +insignificant a pair of fellows as any in Germany. I wondered that I +could ever have feared them. The Countess had told him the story, and +he asked me one or two questions about them, his tone high, and his +head in the air. I answered him, and was for accompanying him +upstairs, when he went to see them, with my lady by his side, and his +whip slapping his great thigh boots until the staircase rang again. +But my lady had an errand and sent me on it, and so I was not present +at the end of this interview which I had myself brought about. + +But I suppose that the scolding my lady had given them was no more +than a flea-bite beside the rating the young Waldgrave inflicted! It +was notorious for a score of leagues round, and he told them so in +good round terms, that the Heritzburg land had been spared by friend +and foe for Count Tilly's sake; for his sake and his alone--a Papist. +How, then, he asked them, had they the face to do this dirty trick, +and threaten my lady besides? With much more of the same kind, and +hard words, not to say menaces; sparing neither Mayor nor Minister, so +that they went off at last like whipped dogs or thieves that have seen +the gallows. + +Afterwards something was said; but at the time no one missed them. +Except by myself, scarce a thought was given to them after they went +out of the door. The house was all agog about the new-comer; the +still-room full of work and the chimneys smoking. The young lord was +everywhere, and the maids were mad about him. I had my hands full, and +every one in the house seemed to be in the same case. No one had time +to look abroad. + +Except Fraulein Anna Max, my lady's companion. I found her about four +o'clock in the afternoon sitting alone in the hall. She had a book +before her as usual, but on my entrance she pushed it away from her, +and looked up at me, screwing up her eyes in the odd way peculiar to +her. + +'Well, Master Steward,' she said--and her voice sounded ill-natured, +'so the fire has been lit--but not by you.' + +'The fire?' I answered, utterly at a loss for the moment. + +'Ay,' she rejoined, with a bitter smile, 'the fire. Don't you hear it +burning?' + +'I hear nothing,' I said coldly. + +'Go to the terrace, and perhaps you will!' she answered. + +Her words filled me with a vague uneasiness, but I was too proud to go +then or seem to heed them. An hour or two later, however, when the sun +was half down, and the shadows of the chimneys lay far over the roofs, +and the eastern woods were aglow, I went to the wall which bounds the +terrace and looked down. The hum of the town came up to my ears as it +has come up to that wall any time these hundred years. But was I +mistaken, or did there mingle with it this evening a harsher note than +usual, a rancorous murmur, as of angry voices; and something sterner, +lower, and more menacing, the clamour of a great crowd? + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE FIRE ALIGHT. + + +I laughed at my own fears when the morning came, and showed no change +except that cheerful one, which our guest's presence had worked inside +the castle. Below, today was as yesterday. The sun shone as brightly +on the roofs, the smoke of the chimneys rose as peacefully in the air; +the swallows circling round the eaves swung this way and that as +swiftly and noiselessly as of old. The common sounds of everyday life, +the clank of the pump in the market-place as the old crones drew +water, and the cry of the wood-cutter hawking his stuff, alone broke +the stillness. I sniffed the air, and smiling at Fraulein Anna's +warning, went back into the house, where any fears which yet lingered +in my mind took instant flight at sound of the Waldgrave's voice, so +cheerful was it, so full of life and strength and confidence. + +I do not know what it was in him, but something there was which +carried us all the way he wished us to go. Did he laugh at the thought +of danger; straightway we laughed too, and this though I knew +Heritzburg and he did not. Did he speak scornfully of the burghers; +forthwith they seemed to us a petty lot. When he strode up and down +the terrace, showing us how a single gun placed here or there, or in +the corner, would in an hour reduce the town; on the instant we deemed +him a Tilly. When he dubbed Hofman and Dietz, 'Old Fat and Lean,' the +groom-boys, who could not be kept from his heels, sniggered, and had +to be whipped back to the stables. In a word, he won us all. His +youth, his gaiety, his confidence, were irresistible. + +He dared even to scold my lady, saying that she had cosseted the +townsfolk and brought this trouble on herself by pleasuring them; and +she, who seemed to us the proudest of the proud, took it meekly, +laughing in his face. It required no conjuror to perceive that he +admired her, and would fain shine in her presence. That was to be +expected. But about my mistress I was less certain, until after +breakfast nothing would suit her but an immediate excursion to the +White Maiden--the great grey spire which stands on the summit of the +Oberwald. Then I knew that she had it in her mind to make the best +figure she could; for though she talked of showing him game in that +direction, and there was a grand parade of taking dogs, all the world +knows that the other side of the valley is the better hunting-ground. +I was left to guess that the White Maiden was chosen because all the +wide Heritzburg land can be seen from its foot, and not corn and +woodland, pasture and meadow only, but the gem of all--the town +nestling babelike in the lap of the valley, with the grey towers +rising like the face of some harsh nurse above it. + +My lord jumped at the plan. Doubtless he liked the prospect of a ride +through the forest by her side. When she raised some little demur, +stepping in the way of her own proposal, as I have noticed women will, +and said something about the safety of the castle, if so many left it, +he cried out eagerly that she need not fear. + +'I will leave my people,' he said. 'Then you will feel quite sure that +the place is safe. I will answer for them that they will hold your +castle against Wallenstein himself.' + +'But how many are with you?' my lady asked curiously; a little in +mischief too, perhaps, for I think she knew. + +His handsome face reddened and he looked rather foolish for a moment. +'Well, only four, as a fact,' he said. 'But they are perfect paladins, +and as good as forty. In your defence, cousin, I would pit them +against a score of the hardiest Swedes that ever followed the King.' + +My lady laughed gaily. + +'Well, for this day, I will trust them,' she said. 'Martin, order the +grooms to saddle Pushka for me. And you, cousin, shall have the honour +of mounting me. It is an age since I have had a frolic.' + +Sometimes I doubt if my lady ever had such a frolic again. Happier +days she saw, I think, and many and many of them, I hope; but such a +day of careless sunny gaiety, spent in the May greenwood, with joy and +youth riding by her, with old servants at her heels, and all the +beauties of her inheritance spread before her in light and shadow, she +never again enjoyed. We went by forest paths, which winding round the +valley, passed through woodlands, where the horses sank fetlock-deep +in moss, and the laughing voices of the riders died away among the +distant trunks. Here were fairy rings deep-plunged in bracken, and +chalky bottoms whence springs rose bright as crystal, and dim aisles +of beeches narrowing into darkness, where last year's leaves rustled +ghostlike under foot, and the shadow of a squirrel startled the +boldest. Once, emerging on the open down where the sun lay hot and +bright, my lady gave her horse the rein, and for a mile or more we +sped across the turf, with hoofs thundering on either hand, and bits +jingling, and horses pulling, only to fall into a walk again with +flushed cheeks and brighter eyes, on the edge of the farther wood. +Thence another mile, athwart the steep hillside through dwarf oaks and +huge blackthorn trees, brought us to the foot of the Maiden, and we +drew rein and dismounted, and stood looking down on the vale of +Heritzburg, while the grooms unpacked the dinner. + +There is a niche in the great pillar, a man's height from the ground, +in which one person may conveniently sit. The young Waldgrave spied +it. + +'Up to the throne, cousin!' he cried, and he helped her to it, sitting +himself on the ledge at her feet, with his legs dangling. 'Why, there +is the Werra!' he continued. + +A large quantity of rain had fallen that spring, and the river which +commonly runs low between its banks, was plainly visible, a silver +streak crossing the distant mouth of the valley. + +'Yes,' my lady answered. 'That is the Werra, and beyond it is, I +suppose, the world.' + +'Whither I must go back this day week,' he said, between sighing and +smiling. 'Then, hey for the south and Nuremberg, the good cause and +the great King.' + +'You have seen him?' + +'Once only.' + +'And is he so great a fighter?' my lady asked curiously. + +'How can he fail to be when he and his men fight and pray +alternately,' the Waldgrave answered; 'when there is no license in the +camp, and a Swede thinks death the same as victory?' + +'Where is he now?' + +'At Munich, in Bavaria.' + +'How it would have grieved my uncle,' my lady said, with a sigh. + +'He died as he would have wished to die,' the Waldgrave answered +gently. 'He believed in his cause, as the King of Sweden believes in +his; and he died for it. What more can a man ask? But here is Franz +with all sorts of good things. And I am afraid a feast of beauty, +however perfect, does not prevent a man getting hungry.' + +'That is a very pretty compliment to Heritzburg,' my lady said, +laughing. + +'Or its chatelaine!' I heard him murmur, with a tender look. But my +lady only laughed again and called to me to come and name the hills, +and tell my lord what land went with each of the three hamlets between +which the lower valley is divided. + +Doubtless that was but one of a hundred gallant things he said to her, +and whereat she laughed, during the pleasant hour they whiled away at +the foot of the pillar, basking in the warm sunshine, and telling the +valley farm by farm. For the day was perfect, the season spring. I lay +on my side and dreamed my own dream under the trees, with the hum of +insects in my ears. No one was in a hurry to rise, or set a term to +such a time. + +Still we had plenty of daylight before us when my lady mounted and +turned her face homewards, thinking to reach the castle a little after +five. But a hare got up as we crossed the open down, and showing good +sport, as these long-legged mountain hares will, led us far out of our +way, and caused us to spend nearly an hour in the chase. Then my lady +spied a rare flower on the cliffside; and the young Waldgrave must +needs get it for her. And so it wanted little of sunset when we came +at last in sight of the bridge which spans the ravine at the back of +the castle. I saw in the distance a lad seated on the parapet, +apparently looking out for us, but I thought nothing of it. The +descent was steep and we rode down slowly, my lady and the Waldgrave +laughing and talking, and the rest of us sitting at our ease. Nor did +the least thought of ill occur to my mind until I saw that the lad had +jumped down from the wall and was running towards us waving his cap. + +My lady, too, saw him. + +'What is it, Martin?' she said, turning her head to speak to me. + +I told her I would see, and trotted forward along the side of the path +until I came within call. Then I cried sharply to the lad to know what +it was. I saw something in his face which frightened me; and being +frightened and blaming myself, I was ready to fall on the first I met. + +'The town!' he answered, panting up to my stirrup. 'There is fighting +going on, Master Martin. They are pulling down Klink's house.' + +'So, so,' I answered, for at the first sight of his face I had feared +worse. 'Have you closed the gate at the head of the steps?' + +'Yes,' he said, 'and my lord's men are guarding it.' + +'Right!' I answered. And then my lady came up, and I had to break the +news to her. Of course the young Waldgrave heard also, and I saw his +eyes sparkle with pleasure. + +'Ha! the rascals!' he cried. 'Now we will trounce them! Trust me, +cousin, we will teach these boors such a lesson as they shall long +remember. But what is it?' he continued, turning to my lady who had +not spoken. 'The Queen of Heritzburg is not afraid of her rebellious +subjects?' + +My lady's eyes flashed. 'No, I am not afraid,' she said, with +contempt. 'But Klink's house? Do you mean the Red Hart, Martin?' + +I said I did. + +She plucked her horse by the head, and stopped short under the arch of +the gateway. I think I see her now bending from her saddle with the +light on the woods behind her, and her face in shadow. 'Then those +people are in danger!' she said, her voice quivering with excitement. +'Martin, take what men you have and go down into the town. Bring them +off at all risks! See to it yourself. If harm come to them, I shall +not forgive you easily.' + +The Waldgrave sprang from his horse, and cried out that he would go. +But my lady called to him to stay with her. + +'Martin knows the streets, and you do not,' she said, sliding +unassisted to the ground. 'But he shall take your men, if you do not +object.' + +We dismounted, in a confused medley of men and horses, in the stable +court, which is small, and being surrounded by high buildings, was +almost dark. The grooms left at home had gone to the front of the +house to see the sight, and there was no one to receive us. I bade the +five men who had ridden with us get their arms, and leaving the horses +loose to be caught and cared for by the lad who had met us, I hastened +after my lady and the Waldgrave, who had already disappeared under the +arch which leads to the Terrace Court. + +To pass through this was to pass from night to day, so startling was +the change. From one end to the other the terrace was aglow with red +light. The last level beams of the sun shone straight in our eyes as +we emerged, and so blinded us, that I advanced, seeing nothing before +me but a row of dark figures leaning over the parapet. If we could not +see, however, we could hear. A hoarse murmur, unlike anything I had +heard before, came up from the town, and rising and falling in waves +of sound, now a mere whisper, and now a dull savage roar, caused the +boldest to tremble. I heard my lady cry, 'Those poor people! Those +poor people!' and saw her clench her hands in impotent anger; and that +sight, or the sound--which seemed the more weirdly menacing as the +town lay in twilight below us, and we could make out no more than a +few knots of women standing in the market-place--or it may be some +memory of the helpless girl I had seen at Klink's, so worked upon me +that I had got the gate unbarred and was standing at the head of the +steps outside before I knew that I had stirred or given an order. + +Some one thrust a half pike into my hand, and mechanically I counted +out the men--four of the Waldgrave's and five, six, seven of our own. +A strange voice--but it may have been my own--cried, 'Not by the High +Street. Through the lane by the wall!' and the next moment we were +down out of the sunlight and taking the rough steps three at a time. +The High Street reached, we swung round in a body to the right, and +plunging into Shoe Wynd, came to the locksmith's, and thence went on +by the way I had gone that other evening. + +The noise was less down in the streets. The houses intervened and +deadened it. At some of the doors women were standing, listening and +looking out with grey faces, but one and all fled in at our approach, +which seemed to be the signal, wherever we came, for barring doors and +shooting bolts; once a man took to his heels before us, and again near +the locksmith's we encountered a woman bare-headed and carrying +something in her arms. She almost ran into the midst of us, and at the +last moment only avoided us by darting up the side-alley by the forge. +Whether these people knew us for what we were, and so fled from us, or +took us for a party of the rioters, it was impossible to say. The +narrow lanes were growing dark, night was falling on the town; only +the over-hanging eaves showed clear and black against a pale sky. The +way we had to go was short, but it seemed long to me; for a dozen +times between the castle steps and Klink's house I thought of the poor +girl at her prayers, and pictured what might be happening. + +Yet we could not have been more than five minutes going from the steps +to the corner beyond the forge, whence we could see Klink's side +window. A red glare shone though it, and cleaving the dark mist which +filled the alley fell ruddily on the town wall. It seemed to say that +we were too late; and my heart sank at the sight. Nor at the sight +only, for as we turned the corner, the hoarse murmur we had heard on +the Terrace, and which even there had sounded ominous, swelled to an +angry roar, made up of cries and cursing, with bursts of reckless +cheering, and now and again a yell of pain. The street away before us, +where the lane ran into it, was full of smoky light and upturned +faces; but I took no heed of it, my business was with the window. I +cried to the men behind me and hurried on till I stood before it, and +clutching the bars--the glass was broken long ago--looked in. + +The room was full of men. For a moment I could see nothing but heads +and shoulders and grim faces, all crowded together, and all alike +distorted by the lurid light shed by a couple of torches held close to +the ceiling. Some of the men standing in such groups as the constant +jostling permitted, were talking, or rather shouting to one another. +Others were savagely forcing back their fellows who wished to enter; +while a full third were gathered with their faces all one way round +the corner where I had seen the sick man. Here the light was +strongest, and in this direction I gazed most anxiously. But the +crowded figures intercepted all view; neither there nor anywhere else +could I detect any sign of the girl or child. The men in that corner +seemed to be gazing at something low down on the floor, something I +could not see. A few were silent, more were shouting and +gesticulating. + +I stretched my hands through the bars, and grasping a man by the +shoulders, dragged him to me. 'What is it?' I cried in his ear, +heedless whether he knew me, or took me for one of the ruffians who +were everywhere battling to get into the house--at the window we had +anticipated some by a second only. 'What is it?' I repeated fiercely, +resisting all his efforts to get free. + +'Nothing!' he answered, glaring at me. 'The man is dead; cannot you +see?' + +'I can see nothing!' I retorted. 'Dead is he?' + +'Ay, dead, and a good job too!' the rascal answered, making a fresh +attempt to get away. 'Dead when we came in.' + +'And the girl?' + +'Gone, the Papist witch, on a broomstick!' he answered. 'Through the +wall or the ceiling or the keyhole, or through this window; but only +on a broomstick. The bars would skin a cat!' + +I let him go and looked at the bars. They were an inch thick, and a +very few inches apart. It seemed impossible that a child, much more a +grown woman, could pass between them. As the fellow said, there was +barely room for a cat to pass. + +Yet my mind clung to the bars. Klink might have hidden the girl, for +without doubt he had neither foreseen nor meant anything like this. +But something told me that she had gone by the window, and I turned +from it with renewed hope. + +It was time I did turn. The crowd had got wind of our presence and +resented it. All who could not get into the house to slake their +curiosity or anger, had pressed into the narrow alley where we stood, +while the air rang with cries of 'No Popery! Down with the Papists!' +When I turned I found my fellows hard put to it to keep their +position. To retreat, close pressed as we were, seemed as difficult as +to stand; but by making a resolute movement all together, we charged +to the front for a moment, and then taking advantage of the interval, +fell back as quickly as we could, facing round whenever it seemed that +our followers were coming on too boldly for safety. + +In this way, the knaves with me being stout and some of them used to +the work, we retreated in good order and without hurt as far as the +end of Shoe Wynd. Then I discovered to my dismay that a portion of the +mob had made along the High Street and were waiting for us on the +steep ascent where the wynd runs into the street. + +Hitherto no harm had been done on either side, but we now found +ourselves beset front and back, and to add to the confusion of the +scene night had set in. The narrow wynd was as dark as pitch, save +where the light of a chance torch showed crowded forms and snarling +faces, while the din and tumult were enough to daunt the boldest. + +That moment, I confess, was one of the worst I have known. I felt my +men waver; a little more and they might break and the mob deal with us +as it would. On the other hand? I knew that to plunge, exposed to +attack as we were from behind, into the mass of men who blocked the +way to the steps, would be madness. We should be surrounded and +trodden down. There were not perhaps fifty really dangerous fellows in +the town; but a mob I have noticed is a strange thing. Men who join +it, intending merely to look on, are carried away by excitement, and +soon find themselves cursing and fighting, burning and raiding with +the foremost. + +A brief pause and I gave the word to face about again. As I expected, +the gang in the alley gave way before us, and the pursued became the +pursuers. My men's blood was up now, their patience exhausted; and for +a few moments pike and staff played a merry tune. But quickly the mob +behind closed up on our heels. Stones began to be thrown, and +presently one, dropped I think from a window, struck a man beside me +and felled him to the ground. + +That was our first loss. Drunken Steve, a great gross fellow, always +in trouble, but a giant in strength, picked him up--we could not leave +the man to be murdered--and plunged on with us bearing him under his +arm. + +'Good man!' I cried between my teeth. And I swore it should save the +drunkard from many a scrape. But the next moment another was down, and +him I had to pick up myself. Then I saw that we were as good as +doomed. Against the stones we had no shield. + +The men saw it too, and cried out, beside themselves with rage. We +were as rats, set in a pit to be worried--in the dark with a hundred +foes tearing at us. And the town seemed to have gone mad--mad! Above +the screams and wicked laughter, and all the din about us, I heard the +great church bell begin to ring, and hurling its notes, now sharp, now +dull, down upon the seething streets, swell and swell the tumult until +the very sky seemed one in the league against us! + +Blind with fury--for what had we done?--we turned on the mob which +followed us and hurled it back--back almost to the High Street. But +that way was no exit for us; the crowd stood so close that they could +not even fly. Round we whirled again, wild and desperate now, and +charged down the alley towards the West Gate, thinking possibly +to win through and out by that way. We had almost reached the +locksmith's--then another man fell. He was of the Waldgrave's +following, and his comrade stooped to raise him; but only to fall over +him, wounded in his turn. + +What happened after that I only knew in part, for from that moment all +was a medley of random blows and stragglings in the dark. The crowd +seeing half of us down, and the rest entangled, took heart of grace to +finish us. I remember a man dashing a torch in my face, and the blow +blinding me. Nevertheless I staggered forward to close with him. Then +something tripped me up, something or some one struck me from behind +as I fell. I went down like an ox, and for me the fight was over. + +Drunken Steve and two of the Waldgrave's men fought across me, I am +told, for a minute or more. Then Steve fell and an odd thing happened. +The mob took fright at nothing--took fright at their own work, and +coming suddenly to their senses, poured pell-mell out of the alley +faster than they had come into it. The two strangers, knowing nothing +of the way or the town, knocked at the nearest door and were taken in, +and sheltered till morning. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + MARIE WORT. + + +There never was one of my forefathers could read, or knew so much as a +horn-book when he saw it; and therefore I, though a clerk, have a +brain pan that will stand as much as any scholar's and more than many +a simple man's. Otherwise the blow I got that night must have done me +some great mischief, instead of merely throwing me into a swoon, in +which I lay until the morning was well advanced. + +When I came to myself with an aching head and a dry mouth, I was hard +put to it for a time to think what had happened to me. The place in +which I lay was dark, with spots of red lights like flaming eyes here +and there. An odour of fire and leather and iron filled my nostrils. A +hoarse soughing as of a winded horse came and went regularly, with a +dull rumbling and creaking that seemed to shake the place. Dizzy as I +was, I rose on my elbow with an effort, and looked round. But my eyes +swam, I could see nothing which enlightened me, and with a groan I +fell back. Then I found that I was lying on a straw-bed, with bandages +round my head, and gradually the events of the night came back to me. +My mind grew clearer. Yet it still failed to tell me where I was, or +whence came the hoarse choking sound, like the sighing of some giant +of the Harz, which I heard. + +At last, while I lay wondering and fearing, a door opened and let into +the dark place a flood of ruddy light. Framed in this light a young +girl appeared, standing on the threshold. She held a tray in her hand, +and paused to close the door behind her. The bright glow which shone +round her, gave her a strange unearthly air, picking out gold in her +black locks and warming her pale cheeks; but for all that I recognised +her, and never was I more astonished. She was no other than the +daughter of the Papist Wort--the girl to rescue whom we had gone down +to the Red Hart. + +I could not restrain an exclamation of surprise, and the girl started +and stopped, peering into the corner in which I lay. + +'Master Martin,' she said in a low tone, 'was that you?' + +I had never heard her speak before, and I found, perhaps by reason of +my low state, and a softness which pain induces in the roughest, a +peculiar sweetness in her voice. I would not answer for a moment. I +made her speak again. + +'Master Martin,' she said, advancing timidly, 'are you yourself +again?' + +'I don't know,' I muttered. In very fact I was so much puzzled that +this was nearly the truth. 'If you will tell me where I am, I may be +able to say,' I added, turning my head with an effort. + +'You are in the kitchen behind the locksmith's forge,' she answered +plainly. 'He is a good man, and you are in no danger. The window is +shuttered to keep the light from your eyes.' + +'And the noise I hear is the bellows at work?' + +'Yes,' she answered, coming near. 'It is almost noon. If you will +drink this broth you will get your strength again.' + +I seized the bowl and drank greedily. When I set it down, my eyes +seemed clearer and my mind stronger. + +'You escaped?' I said. The more I grew able to think, the more +remarkable it seemed to me that the girl should be here--here in the +same house in which I lay. + +'Through the window,' she answered, in a faint voice. + +As she spoke she turned from me, and I knew that she was thinking of +her father and would fain hide her face. + +'But the bars?' I said. + +'I am very small,' she answered in the same low tone. + +I do not know why, but perhaps because of the weakness and softness I +have mentioned, I found something very pitiful in the answer. It +stirred a sudden rush of anger in my heart. I pictured this, helpless +girl chased through the streets by the howling pack of cravens we had +encountered, and for a few seconds, bruised and battered as I was, I +felt the fighting spirit again. I half rose, then turned giddy, and +sank back again. It was a minute or more before I could ask another +question. At last I murmured-- + +'You have not told me how you came here?' + +'I was coming up the alley,' she answered, shuddering, 'when at the +corner by this house I met men coming to meet me. I fled into the +passage to escape them, and finding no outlet, and seeing a light +here, I knocked. I thought that some woman might pity me and take me +in.' + +'And Peter did?' + +'Yes,' she answered simply. 'May Our Lady reward him.' + +'We were the men you met,' I said drowsily. 'I remember now. You were +carrying your brother.' + +'My brother?' + +'Yes, the child.' + +'Oh, yes,' she answered, in rather a strange fashion; but I was too +dull to do more than notice it. 'The child of course.' + +I could ask no more, for my head was already splitting with pain. I +lay back, and I suppose went off into a swoon again, sleeping all that +day and until the morning of the next was far advanced. + +Then I awoke to find the place in which I lay changed from a cave of +mystery to a low-roofed dingy room; the shutter of the window standing +half-open, admitted a ray of sunshine and a breath of pure air. A +small fire burned on the hearth, a black pot bubbled beside it. +For the room itself, a litter of old iron stood in every corner; +bunches of keys and rows of rusty locks--padlocks, fetter-locks, and +door-locks--hung on all the walls. One or two chests, worm-eaten and +rickety, but prized by their present possessor for the antiquity of +their fastenings, stood here and there; with a great open press full +of gun-locks, matchlocks, wheel-locks, spring-locks and the like. Half +a dozen arquebuses and pistols decorated the mantel-piece, giving the +room something of the air of an armoury. + +In the midst of all this litter sat old Peter himself, working away, +with a pair of horn glasses on his forehead, at a small lock; which +seemed to be giving him a vast amount of trouble. A dozen times at +least I watched him fit a number of tiny parts together, only to +scatter them again in his leather apron, and begin to pare one or +other of them with a little file. At length he laid the work down, as +if he were tired, and looking up found my eyes fixed upon him. + +He nodded cheerfully. 'Good,' he said. 'Now you look yourself, Martin. +No more need of febrifuges. Another night's sleep, and you may go +abroad.' + +'What day is it?' I said, striving to collect my thoughts. + +'Friday,' he answered, looking at me with his shrewd, pleasant eyes. +He was an old man, over sixty, a widower with two young children, and +clever at his trade. I never knew a better man. 'Wednesday night you +came here,' he continued, showing in his countenance the pleasure it +gave him to see me recovering. + +'I must go to the castle,' I exclaimed, rising abruptly and sitting +up. 'Do you hear? I must go.' + +'I do not see the necessity,' he answered, looking at me coolly, and +without budging an inch. + +'My lady will need me.' + +'Not at all,' he answered, in the same quiet tone. 'You may make your +mind easy about that. The Countess is safe and well. She is in the +castle, and the gates are shut.' + +'But she has not----' Then I stopped. I was going to say too much. + +'She has not half a dozen men with her, you would say,' he replied. +'Well, no. But one is a man, it seems. The young lord has turned a +couple of cannon on the town, and all our valiant scoundrels are +shaking in their shoes.' + +'A couple of cannon! But there are no cannon in the castle!' + +'You are mistaken,' Peter answered drily. He had a very dry way with +him at times. 'I have seen the muzzles of them, myself, and you can +see them, if you please, from the attic window. One is trained on the +market-place, and one to fire down the High Street. To-morrow morning +our Burgomaster and the Minister are to go up and make their peace. +And I can tell you some of our brisk boys feel the rope already round +their necks.' + +'Is this true?' I said, hardly able to believe the tale. + +'As true as you please,' he answered. 'If you will take my advice you +will lie quietly here until to-morrow morning, and then go up to the +castle. No one will molest you. The townsfolk will be only too glad to +find you alive, and that they have so much the less to pay for. I +should not wonder if you saved half a dozen necks,' Peter added +regretfully. 'For I hear the Countess is finely mad about you.' + +At this mention of my lady's regard my eyes filled so that I had much +ado to hide my feelings. Affecting to find the light too strong I +turned my back on Peter, and then for the first time became aware that +I had a companion in misfortune. On a heap of straw behind me lay +another man, so bandaged about the head that I could see nothing of +his features. + +'Hallo!' I exclaimed, raising myself that I might have a better view +of him. 'Who is this?' + +'Your man Steve,' Peter said briefly. 'But for him and another, Master +Martin, I do not think that you would be here.' + +'You do well to remind me,' I answered, feeling shame that I had not +yet thanked him, or asked how I came to be in safety. 'How was it?' + +'Well,' he said, 'it began with the girl. The doings on Wednesday +night were not much to my mind, as you may suppose, and I shut up +early and kept myself close. About seven, when the racket had not yet +risen to its height, there came a knocking at my door. For a while I +took no notice of it, but presently, as it continued, I went to +listen, and heard such a sobbing on the step as the heart of man could +not resist. So I opened and found the Papist girl there with a child. +I do not know,' Peter continued, pushing forward his greasy old cap +and rubbing his head, 'that I should have opened it if I had been sure +who it was. But as the door was open, the girl had to come in.' + +'I do not think you will repent it!' I said. + +'I don't know that I shall,' he answered thoughtfully. 'However, she +had not been long inside and the bolts shot on us, when there began a +most tremendous skirmish in the lane, which lasted off and on for half +an hour. Then followed a sudden silence. I had given the girl some +food, and told her she might sleep with the children upstairs, and we +were sitting before the fire while she cried a bit--she was all over +of a shake, you understand--when on a sudden she stood up, and +listened. + +'"What is it?" I said. + +'She did not answer for a while, but still stood listening, looking +now at me and now towards the forge in a queer eager kind of way. I +told her to sit down, but she did not seem to hear, and presently she +cried, "There is some one there!" + +'"Well," said I, "they will stop there then. I don't open that door +again to-night." + +'She looked at me pitifully, but sat down for all the world as if I +had struck her. Not for long, however. In a minute she was up again, +and began to go to and fro between the kitchen and the forge door like +nothing else but a cat looking for her kittens. "Sit down, wench," I +said. But this time she took no heed, and at last the sight of her +going up and down like a dumb creature in pain was too much for me, +and I got up and undid the door. She was out in a minute, seeming not +a bit afraid for herself, and sure enough, there were you and Steve +lying one on the top of the other on the step, and so still that I +thought you gone. Heaven only knows how she heard you.' + +'Peter,' I said abruptly, 'have you any water handy?' + +'To be sure,' he replied, starting up. 'Are you thirsty?' + +I nodded, and he went to get it, blaming himself for his +thoughtlessness. He need not have reproached himself, however. I was +not thirsty; but I could not bear that he should sit and look at me at +that moment. The story he had told had touched me--and I was still +weak; and I could not answer for it, I should not burst into tears +like a woman. The thought of this girl's persistence, who in +everything else was so weak, of her boldness who in her own defence +was a hare, of her strange instinct on our behalf who seemed made only +to be herself protected--the thought of these things touched me to the +heart and filled me with an odd mixture of pity and gratitude! I had +gone to save her, and she had saved me! I had gone to shield her from +harm, and heaven had led me to her door, not in strength but in +weakness. She had fled from me who came to help her; that when I +needed help, she might be at hand to give it! + +'Where is she?' I muttered, when he came back and I had drunk. + +'Who? Marie?' he asked. + +'Yes, if that is her name,' I said, drinking again. + +'She is lying down upstairs,' he answered. 'She is worn out, poor +child. Not that in one sense, Master Martin,' he continued, dropping +his voice and nodding with a mysterious air, 'she _is_ poor. Though +you might think it.' + +'How do you mean?' I said, raising my head and meeting his eyes. He +nodded. + +'It is between ourselves,' he said; 'but I am afraid there is a good +deal in what our rascals here say. I am afraid, to be plain, Master +Martin, that the father was like all his kind: plundered many an +honest citizen, and roasted many a poor farmer before his own fire. It +is the way of soldiers in that army; and God help the country they +march in, be it friend's or foe's!' + +'Well?' I said impatiently; 'but what of that now?' The mention of +these things fretted me. I wanted to hear nothing about the father. +'The man is dead,' I said. + +'Ay, he is,' Peter answered slowly and impressively. 'But the +daughter? She has got a necklace round her neck now, worth--worth I +dare say two hundred men at arms.' + +'What, ducats?' + +'Ay, ducats! Gold ducats. It is worth all that.' + +'How do you know?' I said, staring at him. 'I have never seen such a +thing on her. And I have seen the girl two or three times.' + +'Well, I will tell you,' he answered, glancing first at the window and +then at Steve to be sure that we were not overheard. 'I'll tell you. +When we had carried you into the house the other night she took off +her kerchief, to tear a piece from it to bind up your head. That +uncovered the necklace. She was quick to cover it up, when she +remembered herself, but not quick enough.' + +'Is it of gold?' I asked. + +He nodded. 'Fifteen or sixteen links I should say, and each as big as +a small walnut. Carved and shaped like a walnut too.' + +'It may be silver-gilt.' + +He laughed. 'I am a smith, though only a locksmith,' he said. 'Trust +me for knowing gold. I doubt it came from Magdeburg; I doubt it did. +Magdeburg, or Halle, which my Lord Tilly ravaged about that time. And +if so there is blood upon it. It will bring the girl no luck, depend +upon it.' + +'If we talk about it, I'll be sworn it will not!' I answered savagely. +'There are plenty here who would twist her neck for so much as a link +of it.' + +'You are right, Master Martin,' he answered meekly. 'Perhaps I should +not have mentioned it; but I know that you are safe. And after all the +girl has done nothing.' + +That was true, but it did not content me. I wished he had not seen +what he had, or that he had not told me the tale. A minute before I +had been able to think of the girl with pure satisfaction; to picture +with a pleasant warmth about my heart her gentleness, her courage, her +dark mild beauty that belonged as much to childhood as womanhood, the +thought for others that made her flight a perpetual saving. But this +spoiled all. The mere possession of this necklace, much more the use +of it, seemed to sully her in my eyes, to taint her freshness, to +steal the perfume from her youth. + + +[Illustration: ... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in +her hands and a timid smile on her lips....] + + +For I am peasant born, of those on whom the free-companions have +battened from the beginning; and spoil won in such a way seemed to me +to be accursed. Whether I would or no, horrid tales of the storming of +Magdeburg came into my mind: tales of streets awash with blood, of +churches blocked with slain, of women lying dead with living babes in +their arms. And I shuddered. I felt the necklace a blot on all. I +shrank from one, who, with the face of a saint, wore under her +kerchief gold dyed in such a fashion! + +That was while I lay alone, tossing from side to side, and troubling +myself unreasonably about the matter; since the girl was nothing to +me, and a Papist. But when she came presently to me with a bowl of +broth in her hands and a timid smile on her lips--a smile which gave +the lie to the sadness of her eyes and the red rims that surrounded +them--I forgot all, necklace and creed. I took the bowl silently, as +she gave it. I gave it back with only one 'Thank you,' which sounded +hoarse and rustic in my ears; but I suppose my eyes were more +eloquent, for she blushed and trembled. And in the evening she did not +come. Instead one of the children brought my supper, and sitting down +on the straw beside me, twittered of Marie and 'Go' and other things. + +'Who is Go?' I said. + +'Go is Marie's brother,' the child answered, open-eyed at my +ignorance. 'You not know Go?' + +'It is a strange name,' I said, striving to excuse myself. + +'_He_ is a strange man,' the little one retorted, pointing to Steve. +'He does not speak. Now you speak. Marie says--' + +'What does Marie say?' I asked. + +'Marie says you saved his life.' + +'Well, you can tell her it was the other way,' I exclaimed roughly. + +Twice that night when I awoke I heard a light footstep, and turned to +see the girl, moving to and fro among the rusty locks and ancient +chests in attendance on Steve. He mended but slowly. She did not come +near me at these times, and after a glance I pretended to fall asleep +that I might listen unnoticed to her movements, and she be more free +to do her will. But whenever I heard her and opened my eyes to see her +slender figure moving in that dingy place, I felt the warmth about my +heart again. I forgot the gold necklace; I thought no more of the +rosary, only of the girl. For what is there which so well becomes a +woman as tending the sick; an office which in a lover's eyes should +set off his mistress beyond velvet and Flanders lace. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + RUPERT THE GREAT. + + +I have known a man very strong and very confident, whom the muzzle of +a loaded pistol, set fairly against his head, has reduced to reason +marvellously. So it fared with Heritzburg on this occasion. My lady's +cannon, which I went up to the roof at daybreak to see--and did see, +to my great astonishment, trained one on the Market Square, and one +down the High Street--formed the pistol, under the cooling influence +of which the town had so far come to its senses, that the game was now +in my lady's hands. Peter assured me that the place was in a panic, +that the Countess could hardly ask any amends that would not be made, +and that as a preliminary the Burgomaster and Minister were to go to +the castle before noon to sue for pardon. He suggested that I and the +girl should accompany them. + +'But does Hofman know that we are here?' I asked. + +'Since yesterday morning,' the locksmith answered, with a grin. 'And +no one more pleased to hear it! If he had not you to present as a +peace-offering, I doubt he would have fled the town before he +would have gone up. As it is, they had fine work with him at the +town-council yesterday.' + +'He is in a panic? Serve him right!' I said. + +'I am told that his cheeks shake like jelly,' Peter answered. + +'Two of the Waldgrave's men are dead, you know, and some say that the +Countess will hang him out of hand. But you will go up with him?' + +'Yes,' I said. 'I see no objection.' + +Some one else objected, however. When the plan was broached to the +girl, she looked troubled. For a moment she did not speak, but stood +before us silent and confused. Then she pointed to Steve. + +'When is he going, if you please?' she asked, in a troubled voice. + +'He must go in a litter by the road,' I answered. 'Peter here will see +to it this morning.' + +'Could I not go with him?' she said. + +I looked at Peter, and he at me. He nodded. + +'I see no reason why you should not, if you prefer it,' I said. +'Either way you will be safe.' + +'I should prefer it,' she muttered, in a low tone. And then she went +out to get something for Steve, and we saw her no more. + +'Drunken Steve is in luck,' Peter said, looking after her with a +smile. 'She is wonderfully taken with him. She is a--she is a good +girl, Papist or no Papist,' he added thoughtfully. + +I am not sure that he would have indorsed that later in the day. At +the last moment, when I was about to leave the house to go up to the +castle my way, and Steve and his party were on the point of starting +by the West Gate and the road, something happened which gave both of +us a kind of shock, though neither said a word to the other. Marie had +brought down the little boy, a brave-eyed, fair-haired child about +three years old, and she was standing with us in the forge waiting +with the child clinging to her skirt, when on a sudden she turned to +Peter and began to thank him. A word and she broke down. + +'Pooh, child!' Peter said kindly, patting her on the shoulder. 'It was +little enough, and I am glad I did it. No thank's.' + +She answered between her sobs that it was beyond thanks, and called on +Heaven to reward him. + +'If I had anything,' she continued, looking at him timidly, 'if I had +anything I could give you to prove my gratitude, I would so gladly +give it. But I am alone, and I have nothing worth your acceptance. I +have nothing in the world, unless,' she added with an effort, 'you +would like my rosary.' + +'No,' Peter said almost roughly. I noticed that he avoided my eye. 'I +do not want it. It is not a thing I use.' + +She said she had nothing; and we knew she had that chain! Yet Heaven +knows her face as she said it was fair enough to convert a Beza! She +said she had nothing; we knew she had. Yet if ever genuine gratitude +and thankfulness seemed to shine out of wet human eyes, they shone out +of hers then. + +What I could not stomach was the ingratitude. The fraud was too gross, +too gratuitous, since she need have offered nothing. I turned away and +went out of the forge without waiting for her to recover herself. I +dreaded lest she should thank me in the same way. + +I knew Peter, and knew he could have no motive for traducing her. He +was old enough to be her grandfather, and a quiet good man. Therefore +I was sure that she had the chain, three or four links of which should +be worth his shop of old iron. + +But besides I had the evidence of my own eyes. There was a crinkle, a +crease in her kerchief, for which the presence of the necklace would +account; it was such a crease as a necklace of that size would cause. +I had marked it when she brought the child into the room in her arms. +The boy's right arm had been round her neck, and I had seen him relax +his hold of her hair and steady himself by placing his little palm on +that wrinkle, as on a sure and certain and familiar stay. So I knew +that she had the necklace, and that she had lied about it. + +But after all it was nothing to me. The girl was a Papist, a Bavarian, +the daughter of a roistering freebooting rider, versed in camp life. +If with a fair outside she proved to be at heart what every reasonable +man would expect to find her, what then? I had no need to trouble my +head. I had affairs enough of my own on my hands. + +Yet the affair did trouble me. The false innocence of the child's face +haunted and perplexed me, and would not leave me, though I tried to +think of other things and had other things to think of. I was to meet +the Burgomaster in the market-place, and go thence with him, and I had +promised myself that I would make good use of my opportunities; that I +would lose no point of the town's behaviour, that not a lowering face +should escape me, nor a quarter whence danger might arise in the +future. But the girl's eyes made havoc of all my resolutions, and I +had fairly reached the market-place before I remembered what I was +doing. + +There indeed a sight, which in a moment swept the cobwebs from my +brain, awaited me. The square was full of people, not closely packed, +but standing in loose groups, and all talking in voices so low as to +produce a dull sullen sound more striking than silence. The Mayor and +four or five Councillors occupied the steps of the market-house. +Raised a head and shoulders above the throng, and glancing at it +askance from time to time with scarcely disguised apprehension, they +wore an air of irresolution it was impossible to mistake. Hofman in +particular looked like a man with the rope already round his neck. His +face was pale, his fat cheeks hung pendulous, his eyes never rested on +anything for more than a second. They presently lit on me, and then if +farther proof of the state of his mind was needed, I found it in the +relief with which he hailed my appearance; relief, not the less +genuine because he hastened to veil it from the jealous eyes that from +every part of the square watched his proceedings. + +The crowd made way for me silently. One in every two, perhaps, greeted +me, and some who did not greet me, smiled at me fatuously. On the +other hand, I was struck by the air of gloomy expectation which +prevailed. I discerned that a very little would turn it into +desperation, and saw, or thought I saw, that cannon, or no cannon, +this was a case for delicate and skilful handling. The town was +panic-stricken, partly at the thought of what it had done, partly +at the sight of the danger which threatened it. But panic is a +double-edged weapon. It takes little to turn it into fury. + +I made for the opening into the High Street, and the Burgomaster, +coming down the steps, passed through the crowd and met me there. + +'This is a bad business, Master Martin,' he said, facing me with an +odd mixture of shamefacedness and bravado. 'We must do our best to +patch it up.' + +'You had your warning,' I answered coldly, turning with him up the +street, every window and doorway in which had its occupant. Dietz and +two or three Councillors followed us, the Minister's face looking +flushed and angry, and as spiteful as a cat's. 'Two lives have been +lost,' I continued, 'and some one must pay for them.' + +Hofman mopped his face. 'Surely,' he said, 'the three lead on our +side, Master Martin----' + +'I do not see what they have to do with it,' I answered, maintaining a +cold and uninterested air, which was torture to him. 'It is your +affair, however, not mine.' + +'But, my dear friend--Martin,' he stammered, plucking my sleeve, 'you +are not revengeful. You will not make it worse? You won't do that?' + +'Worse?' I retorted. 'It is bad enough already. And I am afraid you +will find it so.' + +He winced and looked at me askance, his eyes rolling in a fever of +apprehension. For a moment I really thought that he would turn and go +back. But the crowd was behind; he was on the horns of a dilemma, and +with a groan of misery he moved on, looking from time to time at the +terrace above us. 'Those cursed cannon,' I heard him mutter, as he +wiped his brow. + +'Ay,' I said, sharply, 'if it had not been for the cannon you would +have seen our throats cut before you would have moved. I quite +understand that. But you see it is our turn now.' + +We were on the steps and he did not answer. I looked up, expecting to +see the wall by the wicket-gate well-manned; but I was mistaken. No +row of faces looked down from it. All was silent. A single man, on +guard at the wicket, alone appeared. He bade us stand, and passed the +word to another. He in his turn disappeared and presently old Jacob, +with a half-pike on his shoulder, and a couple of men at his back, +came stiffly out to receive us with all the formality and discipline +of a garrison in time of war. He acknowledged my presence by a wink, +but saluted my companions in the coldest manner possible, proceeding +at once to march us without a word spoken to the door of the house, +where we were again bidden to stand. + +All this filled me with satisfaction. I knew what effect it would have +on Hofman, and how it would send his soul into his shoes. At the same +time my satisfaction was not unmixed. I felt a degree of strangeness +myself. The place seemed changed, the men, moving stiffly, had an +unfamiliar air. I missed the respect I had enjoyed in the house. For +the moment I was nobody; a prisoner, an alien person admitted +grudgingly, and on sufferance. + +I comforted myself with the reflection that all would be well when I +reached the presence. But I was mistaken. I saw indeed my lady's +colour come and go when I entered, and her eyes fell. But she kept +her seat, she looked no more at me than at my companions, she uttered +no greeting or word of acknowledgment. It was the Waldgrave who +spoke--the Waldgrave who acted. In a second there came over me a +bitter feeling that all was changed; that the old state of things at +Heritzburg was past, and a rule to which I was a stranger set in its +place. + +Three or four of my lady's women were grouped behind her, while Franz +and Ernst stood like statues at the farther door. Fraulein Anna sat on +a stool in the window-bay, and my lady's own presence was, as at all +times, marked by a stateliness and dignity which seemed to render it +impossible that she should pass for second in any company. But for all +that the Waldgrave, standing up straight and tall behind her, with his +comeliness, his youth, and his manhood and the red light from the coat +of arms in the stained window just touching his fair hair, did seem to +me to efface her. It was he who stood there to pardon or punish, +praise or blame, and not my lady. And I resented it. + +Not that his first words to me were not words of kindness. + +'Ha, Martin,' he cried, his face lighting up, 'I hear you fought like +an ancient Trojan, and broke as many heads as Hector. And that your +own proved too hard for them! Welcome back. In a moment I may want a +word with you; but you must wait.' + +I stood aside, obeying his gesture; and he apologised, but with a very +stern aspect, to Hofman and his companions for addressing me first. + +'The Countess Rotha, however, Master Burgomaster,' he continued, with +grim suavity, 'much as she desires to treat your office with respect, +cannot but discern between the innocent and the guilty.' + +'The guilty, my lord?' Hofman cried, in such a hurry and trepidation, +I could have laughed. 'I trust that there are none here.' + +'At any rate you represent them,' the Waldgrave retorted. + +'I, my lord?' The Mayor's hair almost stood on end at the thought. + +'Ay, you; or why are you here?' the Waldgrave answered. 'I understood +that you came to offer such amends as the town can make, and your lady +accept.' + +Poor Hofman's jaw fell at this statement of his position, and he stood +the picture of dismay and misery. The Waldgrave's peremptory manner, +which shook him out of the rut of his slow wits, and upset his +balanced periods, left him prostrate without a word to say. He +gasped and remained silent. He was one of those people whose dull +self-importance is always thrusting them into positions which they are +not intended to fill. + +'Well?' the Waldgrave said, after a pause, 'as you seem to have +nothing to say, and judgment must ultimately come from your lady, I +will proceed at once to declare it. And firstly, it is her will, +Master Burgomaster, that within forty-eight hours you present to her +on behalf of the town a humble petition and apology, acknowledging +your fault; and that the same be entered on the town records.' + +'It shall be done,' Master Hofman cried. His eagerness to assent was +laughable. + +'Secondly, that you pay a fine of a hundred gold ducats for the +benefit of the children of the men wantonly killed in the riot.' + +'It shall be done,' Master Hofman said,--but this time not so readily. + +'And lastly,' the Waldgrave continued in a very clear voice,' that you +deliver up for execution two in the marketplace, one at the foot of +the castle steps, and one at the West Gate, for a warning to all who +may be disposed to offend again--four of the principal offenders in +the late riot.' + +'My lord!' the Mayor cried, aghast. + +'My lord, if you please,' the Waldgrave answered coldly. 'But do you +consent?' + +Hofman looked blanker than ever. 'Four?' he stammered. + +'Precisely; four,' the young lord answered. + +'But who? I do not know them,' the Mayor faltered. + +The Waldgrave shook his head gently. 'That is your concern, +Burgomaster,' he said, with a smile. 'In forty-eight hours much may be +done.' + +Hofman's hair stood fairly on end. Craven as he was, the thought of +the crowd in the market-place, the thought of the reception he would +have, if he assented to such terms, gave him courage. + +'I will consult with my colleagues,' he said with a great gulp. + +'I am afraid that you will not have the opportunity,' the Waldgrave +rejoined, in a peculiarly suave tone. 'Until the four are given up to +us, we prefer to take care of you and the learned Minister. I see that +you have brought two or three friends with you; they will serve to +convey what has passed to the town. And I doubt not that within a few +hours we shall be able to release you.' + +Master Hofman fell a trembling. + +'My lord,' he cried, between tears and rage, 'my privileges!' + +'Master Mayor,' the Waldgrave answered, with a sudden snap and snarl, +which showed his strong white teeth, '_my dead servants_.' + +After that there was no more to be said. The Burgomaster shrank back +with a white face, and though Dietz, with rage burning in his sallow +cheeks, cried 'woe to him' who separated the shepherd from the sheep, +and would have added half-a-dozen like texts, old Jacob cut him short +by dropping his halberd on his toes and promptly removed him and the +quavering Burgomaster to strong quarters in the tower. Meanwhile the +other members of the party were marched nothing loth to the steps, and +despatched through the gate with the same formality which had +surprised us on our arrival. + +Then for a few moments I was happy, in spite of doubts and +forebodings; for the moment the room was cleared of servants, my lady +came down from her place, and with tears in her eyes, laid her hand on +my rough shoulder, and thanked me, saying such things to me, and so +sweetly, that though many a silken fool has laughed at me, as a clown +knowing no knee service, I knelt there and then before her, and rose +tenfold more her servant than before. For of this I am sure, that if +the great knew their power, we should hear no more of peasants' wars +and Rainbow banners. A smile buys for them what gold will not for +another. A word from their lips stands guerdon for a life, and a look +for the service of the heart. + +However, few die of happiness, and almost before I was off my knees I +found a little bitter in the cup. + +'Well, well,' the Waldgrave said, with a comical laugh, and I saw my +lady blush, 'these are fine doings. But next time you go to battle, +Martin, remember, more haste less speed. Where would you have been +now, I should like to know, without my cannon?' + +'Perhaps still in Peter's forge,' I answered bluntly. 'But that +puzzles me less, my lord,' I continued, 'than where you found your +cannon.' + +He laughed in high good humour. 'So you are bit, are you?' he said. 'I +warrant you thought we could do nothing without you. But the cannon, +where do you think we did find them? You should know your own house.' + +'I know of none here,' I answered slowly, 'except the old cracked +pieces the Landgrave Philip left.' + +'Well?' he retorted, smiling. 'And what if these be they?' + +'But they are cracked and foundered!' I cried warmly. 'You could no +more fire powder in them, my lord, than in the Countess's comfit-box!' + +'But if you do not want to burn powder?' he replied. 'If the sight of +the muzzles be enough? What then, Master Wiseacre?' + +'Why, then, my lord,' I answered, drily, after a pause of +astonishment,' I think that the game is a risky one.' + +'Chut, you are jealous!' he said, laughing. + +'And should be played very moderately.' + +'Chut,' he said again, 'you are jealous! Is he not, Rotha? He is +jealous.' + +My lady looked at me laughing. + +'I think he is a little,' she said. 'You must acknowledge, Martin,' +she continued, pleasantly, 'that the Waldgrave has managed very well?' + +I must have assented, however loth; but he saved me the trouble. He +did not want to hear my opinion. + +'Very well?' he exclaimed, with a laugh of pleasure; 'I should think I +have. Why, I have so brightened up your old serving-men that they make +quite a tolerable garrison--mount guard, relieve, give the word and +all, like so many Swedes. Oh, I can tell you a little briskness and a +few new fashions do no harm. But now,' he continued, complacently, +'since you are so clever, my friend, where is the risk?' + +'If it becomes known in the town,' I said, 'that the cannon are +dummies----' + +'It is not known,' he answered peremptorily. + +'Still, under the circumstances,' I persisted, 'I should with +submission have imposed terms less stringent. Especially I should not +have detained Master Hofman, my lord, who is a timid man, making for +peace. He has influence. Shut up here he cannot use it.' + +'But our terms will show that we are not afraid,' the Waldgrave +answered. 'And that is everything.' + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +'Chut!' he said, half in annoyance and half in good humour. 'Depend +upon it, there is nothing like putting a bold face on things. That is +my policy. But the truth is you are jealous, my friend--jealous of my +excellent generalship; but for which I verily believe you would be +decorating a gallows in the market-place at this moment. Come, fair +cousin,' he added, gleefully, turning from me and snatching up my +lady's gloves and handing them to her, 'let us out. Let us go and look +down at our conquest, and leave this green-eyed fellow to rub his +bruises.' + +My lady looked at me kindly and laughed. Still she assented, and my +chance was gone. It was my place now to hold the door with lowered +head, not to argue. And I did so. After all I had been well treated; I +had spoken boldly and been heard. + +For a time after the sound of their voices had died away on the +stairs, I stood still. The room was quiet and I felt blank and +purposeless. In the first moments of return every-day duties had an +air of dulness and staleness. I thought of one after another, but had +not yet brought myself to the point of moving, when a hand, raising +the latch of one of the inner doors, effectually roused me. I turned +and saw Fraulein Anna gliding in. She did not speak at once, but came +towards me as she had a way of coming--close up before she spoke. It +had more than once disturbed me. It did so now. + +'Well, Master Martin,' she said at last, in her mild spiteful tone, 'I +hope you are satisfied with your work; I hope my lord's service may +suit you as well as my lady's.' + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE PRIDE OF YOUTH. + + +But I am not going to relate the talk we had on that, Fraulein Anna +and I. I learned one thing, and one only, and that I can put very +shortly. I saw my face as it were in a glass, and I was not pleased +with the reflection. Listening to Fraulein Anna's biting hints and +sidelong speeches--she did not spare them--I recognized that I was +jealous; that the ascendency the young lord had gained with my lady +and in the castle did not please me; and that if I would not make a +fool of myself and step out of my place, I must take myself roundly to +task. Much might be forgiven to Fraulein Anna, who saw the quiet realm +wherein she reigned invaded, and the friend she had gained won from +her in an hour. But her case differed from mine. I was a servant, and +woe to me if I forgot my place! + +Perhaps, also, it gave me pleasure to find my uneasiness shared. At +any rate, I felt better afterwards, and a message from my lady, +bidding me rest my head and do nothing for the day, comforted me still +further. I went out, and finding the terrace quiet, and deserted by +all except the sentry at the wicket, I sat down on one of the stone +seats which overlook the town and there began to think. The sun was +behind a cloud and the air was fresh and cool, and I presently fell +asleep with my head on my arms. + +While I slept my lady and the Waldgrave came and began to walk up and +down the terrace, and gradually little bits of their talk slid into my +dreams, until I found myself listening to them between sleeping and +waking. The Waldgrave was doing most of the speaking, in the boyish, +confident tone which became him so well. Presently I heard him say-- + +'The whole art of war is changed, fair cousin. I had it from one who +knows, Bernard of Weimar. The heavy battalions, the great masses, the +slow movements, the system invented by the great Captain of Cordova +are gone. Breitenfeld was their death-blow.' + +'Yet my uncle was a great commander,' my lady said, with a little +touch of impatience in her tone. + +'Of the old school.' + +I heard her laugh. 'You speak as if you had been a soldier for a score +of years, Rupert,' she said. + +'Age is not experience,' he answered hardily. 'That is the mistake. +How old was Alexander when he conquered Egypt? Twenty-three, cousin, +and I am twenty-three. How old was the Emperor Augustus when he became +Consul of Rome? Nineteen. How old was Henry of England when he +conquered France? Twenty-seven. And Charles the Fifth, at Pavia? +Twenty-five.' + +'Sceptres are easy leading-staves,' my lady answered deftly. 'All +these were kings, or the like.' + +'Then take Don John at Lepanto. He, too, was twenty-five.' + +'A king's son,' my lady replied quickly. + +'Then I will give you one to whom you can make no objection,' he +answered in a tone of triumph: 'Gaston de Foix, the Thunderbolt of +Italy. He who conquered at Como, at Milan, at Ravenna. How old was +he when he died, leaving a name never to be forgotten in arms? +Twenty-three, fair cousin. And I am twenty-three.' + +'But then you are not Gaston de Foix,' my lady retorted, laughter +bubbling to her lips; 'nor a king's nephew.' + +'But I may be.' + +'What? A king's nephew?' the Countess answered, laughing outright. +'Pray where is the king's niece?' + +'King's niece?' he exclaimed reproachfully--and I doubt not with a +kind look at her, and a movement as if he would have paid her for her +sauciness. 'You know I want no king's niece. There is no king's niece +in the world so sweet to my taste, so fair, or so gracious as the +cousin I have been fortunate enough to serve during the last few days; +and that I will maintain against the world.' + +'So here is my glove!' my lady answered gaily, finishing the speech +for him. 'Very prettily said, Rupert. I make you a thousand curtsies. +But a truce to compliments. Tell me more.' + +He needed no second bidding; though I think that she would have +listened without displeasure to another pretty speech, and an older +man would certainly have made one. But he was full of the future and +fame--and himself. He had never had such a listener before, and he +poured forth his hopes and aspirations, as he strode up and down, so +gallant of figure and frank of face that it was impossible not to feel +with him. He was going to do this; he was going to do that. He would +make the name of Rupert of Weimar stand with that of Bernard. Never +was such a time for enterprise. Gustavus Adolphus, with Sweden and +North Germany at his back, was at Munich; Bavaria, Franconia, and the +Rhine Bishoprics were at his feet. The hereditary dominions of the +Empire, Austria, Silesia, Moravia, with Bohemia, Hungary, and the +Tyrol, must soon be his; their conquest was certain. Then would come +the division of the spoil. The House of Weimar, which had suffered +more in the Protestant cause than any other princely house of Germany, +which had resigned for its sake the Electoral throne and the rights of +primogeniture, must stand foremost for reward. + +'And which kingdom shall you choose?' my lady asked, with a twinkle in +her eye which belied her gravity. 'Bohemia or Hungary? or Bavaria? +Munich I am told is a pleasant capital.' + +'You are laughing at me!' he said, a little hurt. + +'Forgive me,' she said, changing her tone so prettily that he was +appeased on the instant. 'But, speaking soberly, are you not curing +the skin before the bear is dead? The great Wallenstein is said to be +collecting an army in Bohemia, and if the latest rumour is to be +believed, he has already driven out the Saxons and retaken Prague. The +tide of conquest seems already to be turning.' + +'We shall see,' the Waldgrave answered. + +'Very well,' my lady replied. 'But, besides, is there not a proverb +about the lion's share? Will the Lion of the North forego his?' + +'We shall make him,' the young lord answered. 'He goes as far as we +wish and no farther. Without German allies he could not maintain his +footing for a month.' + +'Germany should blush to need his help,' my lady said warmly. + +'Never mind. Better times are coming,' he answered. 'And soon, I +hope.' + +With that they moved out of hearing, crossing to the other side of the +court and beginning to walk up and down there; and I heard no more. +But I had heard enough to enable me to arrive at two or three +conclusions. For one thing, I felt jealous no longer. My lady's tone +when she spoke to the Waldgrave convinced me that whatever the future +might bring forth, she regarded him in the present with liking, and +some pride perhaps, but with no love worthy of the name. A woman, she +took pleasure in his handsome looks and gallant bearing; she was fond +of listening to his aspirations. But the former pleased her eye +without touching her heart, and the latter never for a moment carried +her away. + +I was glad to be sure of this, because I discerned something lacking +on his side also. It was 'Rotha,' 'sweet cousin,' 'fair cousin,' too +soon with him. He felt no reverence, suffered no pangs, trembled under +no misgivings, sank under no sense of unworthiness. He thought that +all was to be had for pleasant words and the asking. Heritzburg seemed +a rustic place to him, and my lady's life so dull and uneventful, my +lady herself so little of a goddess, that he deemed himself above all +risk of refusal. A little difficulty, a little doubt, the appearance +of a rival, might awaken real love. But it was not in him now. He felt +only a passing fancy, the light offspring of propinquity and youth. + +But how, it may be asked, was I so wise that, from a few sentences +heard between sleeping and waking, I could gather all this, and draw +as many inferences from a laugh as Fraulein Anna Max from a page of +crabbed Latin? The question put to me then, as I sat day-dreaming over +Heritzburg, might have posed me. I am clear enough about it now. I +could answer it if I chose. But a nod is as good as a wink to a blind +horse, and a horse with eyes needs neither one nor the other. + +Presently I saw Fraulein Anna come out and go sliding along one side +of the court to gain another door. She had a great book under her arm +and blinked like an owl in the sunshine, and would have run against my +lady if the Waldgrave had not called out good-humouredly. She shot +away at that with a show of excessive haste, and was in the act of +disappearing like a near-sighted rabbit, when my lady called to her +pleasantly to come back. + +She came slowly, hugging the great book, and with her lips pursed +tightly. I fancy she had been sitting at a window watching my lady and +her companion, and that every laugh which rose to her ears, every +merry word, nay the very sunshine in which they walked, while she sat +in the dull room with her unread book before her, wounded her. + +'What have you been doing, Anna?' my lady asked kindly. + +'I have been reading the "Praise of Folly,"' Fraulein Max answered +primly. 'I am going to my Voetius now.' + +'It is such a fine day,' my lady pleaded. + +'I never miss my Voetius,' Fraulein answered. + +The Waldgrave looked at her quizzically, with scarcely veiled +contempt. 'Voetius?' he said. 'What is that? You excite my curiosity.' + +Perhaps it was the contrast between them, between his strength and +comeliness and her weak figure and pale frowning face, that moved me; +but I know that as he said that, I felt a sudden pity for her. And +she, I think, for herself. She reddened and looked down and seemed to +go smaller. Scholarship is a fine thing; I have heard Fraulein Anna +herself say that knowledge is power. But I never yet saw a bookworm +that did not pale his fires before a soldier of fortune, nor a scholar +that did not follow the courtier and the ruffler with eyes of envy. + +Perhaps my lady felt as I did, for she came to the rescue. 'You are +too bad,' she said. 'Anna is my friend, and I will not have her +teased. As for Voetius, he is a writer of learning, and you would know +more about many things, if you could read his works, sir.' + +'Do you read them?' he asked. + +'I do!' she answered. + +'Good heavens!' he exclaimed, staring at her freely and affecting to +be astonished. 'Well, all I can say is that you do not look like it!' + +My lady fired up at that. I think she felt for her friend. 'I do not +thank you,' she said sharply. 'A truce to such compliments, if you +please. Anna,' she continued, 'have you been to see this poor girl +from the town?' + +'No,' Fraulein Max answered. + +'She has come, has she not?' + +'And gone--to the stables!' And Fraulein Anna laughed spitefully. 'She +is used to camp life, I suppose, and prefers them.' + +'But that is not right,' my lady said, with a look of annoyance. +She turned and called to me. 'Martin,' she said, 'come here. This +girl--the papist from the town--why has she not been brought to the +women's quarters in the house?' + +I answered that I did not know; that she should have been. + +'We will go and see,' my lady answered, nodding her head in a way that +premised trouble should any one be found in fault. And without a +moment's hesitation she led the way to the inner court, the Waldgrave +walking beside her, and Fraulein Anna following a pace or two behind. +The latter still hugged her book, and her face wore a look of secret +anticipation. I took on myself to go too, and followed at a respectful +distance, my mind in a ferment. + +The stable court at Heritzburg is small. The rays of the sun even at +noon scarcely warm it, and a shadow seemed to fall on our party as we +entered. Two grooms, not on guard, were going about their ordinary +duties. They started on seeing my lady, who seldom entered that part +without notice; and hastened to do reverence to her. + +'Where is the girl who was brought here from the town?' she said, in a +peremptory tone. + +The men looked at one another, scared by her presence, yet not knowing +what was amiss. Then one said, 'Please your excellency, she is in the +room over the granary.' + +'She should be in the house, not here,' my lady answered harshly. +'Take me to her.' + +The man stared, and the Waldgrave, seeing his look of astonishment, +interposed, murmuring that perhaps the place was scarcely fit. + +'For me?' my lady said, cutting him short, with a high look which +reminded me of her uncle, Count Tilly. 'You forget, sir cousin, that I +am not a woman only, but mistress here. Ignorance, which may be seemly +in a woman, does not become me. Lead on, my man.' + +The fellow led the way up a flight of outside steps which gave access +to the upper granary floor; and my lady followed, rejecting the +Waldgrave's hand and gazing with an unmoved eye at the unfenced edge +on her left; for the stairs had no rail. At the top the groom opened +the door and squeezed himself aside, and my lady entered. The +Waldgrave had given place to Fraulein Anna--whom desire to see what +would happen had blinded to the risks of the stairs--and she was not +slow to follow. The young lord and I pressed in a pace behind. + +'This is not a fit place for a maiden!' I heard my lady say severely; +and then she stopped. That was before I could see inside, the sudden +pause coming as I entered. The loft was dark, the unglazed windows +being shuttered; but my eyes are good, and I knew the place, and saw +at once--what my lady had seen, I think, at a second glance only--that +the man beside whom the girl was kneeling--or had been kneeling, for +as I entered she rose to her feet with a word of alarm--was bandaged +from his chin to his crown, was helpless and maundering, talking +strange nonsense, and rolling his head restlessly from side to side. + +'Why, you are a child!' my lady said; and this time her voice was soft +and low and full of surprise. 'Who is this?' she continued, pointing +to the man; who never ceased to babble and move. + +'It is Steve, my lady,' I said. 'He was hurt below, in the town, and +the girl has been nursing him. I suppose she--I think no one told her +to go elsewhere,' I added by way of apology for her. + +'Where could she be better?' my lady said in a low voice. 'Child,' she +continued gently,' come here. Do not be afraid.' + +The girl had shrunk back at the sound of my lady's first words, or at +sight of so large a company, and had taken her stand on the farther +side of Steve, where she crouched trembling and looking at us with a +terrified face. Hearing herself summoned, she came slowly and timidly +forward, the little boy who had run to her holding her hand, and +hiding his face in her skirts. + +'I am the countess,' my lady said, looking at her closely, but with +kindness, 'and I have come to see how you fare.' + +It was a hard moment for the girl, but she did the very best thing she +could have done, and one that commended her to my lady's heart for +ever. For, bursting into tears--I doubt not the sound of a woman's +voice speaking mildly to her touched her heart--she dropped on her +knees before the countess and kissed her hand, sobbing piteous words +of thankfulness and appeal. + +'Chut! chut!' my lady said, a little tremor in her own voice. 'You are +safe now. Be comforted. You shall be protected here, whatever betide. +But you have lost your father? Yes, I remember, child. Well, it is +over now. You are quite safe. See, this gentleman shall be your +champion. And Martin there. He is a match for any two. Tell me your +name.' + +'Marie--Marie Wort.' The girl answered suppressing her tears with an +effort. + +'How old are you?' + +'Seventeen, please your excellency.' + +'And where were you born, Marie?' + +'At Munich, in Bavaria.' + +'You are a Romanist, I hear?' + +'If it please your excellency.' + +'It does not please me at all,' my lady answered promptly; but she +said it with so much mildness that Marie's eyes filled again. 'I warn +you, we shall, try to convert you--by kindness. So you are nursing +this poor fellow?' And my lady went up to Steve, and touched his hand +and spoke to him. But he did not know her, and she stepped back, +looking grave. + +'The fever is on him now,' Marie said timidly. 'He is at his worst; +but he will be better by-and-by, if your excellency pleases.' + +'He is fortunate in his nurse,' my lady answered, gazing searchingly +at the other's pale face. 'Will you stay with him, child, or would you +rather come into the house, where my women could take care of you, and +you would be more comfortable?' + +A look of distress flickered in the girl's eyes. She hesitated and +looked down, colouring painfully. I dare say that with feminine tact +she knew that my lady even now thought it scarcely proper for her to +be there--in a house where only the men about the stable lived. But +she found her answer. + +'He was hurt trying to protect me,' she murmured, in a low voice. + +My lady nodded. 'Very well,' she said; and I saw that she was not +displeased. 'You shall stay with him. I will see that you are taken +care of. Come, Rupert, I think we have seen enough.' + +She signed to us to go before her, and we all went out, and she closed +the door. At the head of the steps, when the Waldgrave offered her his +hand, she waved it away, and stood. + +'Bring me a hammer and a nail,' she cried. + +Three or four men, nearly half our garrison, had collected below, +hearing where we were. One of these ran and fetched what she called +for; while we all waited and wondered what she meant. I took the +hammer and nail from the man and went up again with them. + + +[Illustration: ... with her own hands she drove the nail.... Then she +turned ...] + + +'Give me my glove,' she said, turning abruptly to the Waldgrave. + +He had possessed himself of one in the course of the conversation I +have partly detailed; and no doubt he did not give it up very +willingly. But there was no refusing her under the circumstances. + +'Hold it against the door!' she said. + +He obeyed, and with her own hands she drove the nail through the +glove, pinning it to the middle of the door. Then she turned with a +little colour in her face. + +'That is my room!' she said, with a ring of menace in her tone. 'Let +no one presume to enter it. And have a care, men! Whatever is wanted +inside, place at the threshold and begone.' + +Then she came down, followed by the Waldgrave, and walked through the +middle of us and went back to the terrace, with Fraulein Anna at her +heels. The Waldgrave lingered a moment to look at a sick horse, and I +to give an order. When we reached the terrace court a few minutes +later, we found my lady walking up and down alone in the sunshine. + +'Why, where is the learned Anna?' the Waldgrave said. + +'She is gone to amuse herself,' my lady answered, laughing. 'Voetius +is put aside for the moment in favour of Master Dietz!' + +'No?' the young lord exclaimed, in a tone of surprise. 'That +yellow-faced atomy? She is not in love with him?' + +'No, sir, certainly not.' + +'Then what is it?' + +'Well, I think she is a little jealous,' my lady answered with a +smile. 'We have been so long colloguing with a papist, Anna thinks +some amends are due to the Church. And she is gone to make them. At +any rate, she asked me a few minutes ago if she might pay a visit to +Dietz. "For what purpose?" I said. "To discuss a point with him," she +answered. So I told her to go, if she liked, and by this time I don't +doubt that they are hard at it.' + +'Over Voetius?' + +'No, sir,' my lady answered gaily. 'Beza more probably, or Calvin. You +know little of either, I expect. I do not wonder that Anna is driven +to seek more improving company.' + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + A CATASTROPHE. + + +All that day the town remained quiet, and all day the Waldgrave and my +lady walked to and fro in the sunshine; or my lady sat working on one +of the stone seats, while he built castles in the air, which she +knocked down with a sly word or a merry glance. Fraulein Anna, always +with the big book, flitted from door to door, like an unquiet spirit. +The sentries dozed at their posts, old Jacob in his chair in the +guard-room, the cannons under their breech-clouts. If this could be +said to be a state of siege, it was the most gentle and joyous one +paladin ever shared or mistress imagined. + +But no message reached us from the town, and that disturbed me. Half a +dozen times I went to the wall and, leaning over it, listened. Each +time I came away satisfied. All seemed quiet; the market-place rather +fuller perhaps than on common days, the hum of life more steady and +persistent; but neither to any great extent. Despite this I could not +shake off a feeling of uneasiness. I remembered certain faces I had +seen in the town, grim faces lurking in corners, seen over men's +shoulders or through half-open doors; and a dog barking startled me, +the shadow of a crow flying over the court made me jump a yard. + +Night only added to my nervousness. I doubled all the guards, +stationing two men at the town-wicket and two at the stable-gate, +which leads to the bridge. And not content with these precautions, +though the Waldgrave laughed at them and me, I got out of bed three +times in the night, and went the round to assure myself that the men +were at their posts. + +When morning came without mishap, but also without bringing any +overture from the town, the Waldgrave laughed still more loudly. +But my lady looked grave. I did not dare to interfere or give +advice--having been once admitted to say my say--but I felt that it +would be a serious thing if the forty-eight hours elapsed and the town +refused to make amends. My lady felt this too, I think; and by-and-by +she held a council with the Waldgrave; and about midday my lord came +to me, and with a somewhat wry face bade me have the prisoners +conducted to the parlour. + +He sent 'me at the same time on an errand to another part of the +castle, and so I cannot say what passed. I believe my lady dealt with +the two very firmly; reiterating her judgment of the day before, and +only adding that in clemency she had thought better of imprisoning +them, and would now suffer them to go to their homes, in the hope that +they would use their influence to save the town from worse trouble. + +I met the two crossing the terrace on their way to the gate and was +struck by something peculiar in their aspect. Master Hofman was all of +a tremble with excitement and eagerness to be gone. His fat, half-moon +of a face shone with anxiety. He stuttered when he tried to give me +good day as I passed; and he seemed to have eyes only for the gate, +dragging his smaller companion along by the arm, and more than once +whispering in his ear as if to adjure him not to waste a moment. + +The little Minister, on the other hand, hung back and marched slowly, +his face wearing a look of triumph which showed very plainly--or so I +construed it--that he regarded his release in the light of a victory. +His sallow cheeks were flushed, and his eyes gleamed spitefully as he +looked from side to side. He held himself bolt upright, with a square +Bible clasped to his breast, and as he passed me he could not refrain +from a characteristic outbreak. Doubtless to bridle himself before my +lady had almost choked him. He laughed in my face. 'Dry bones!' he +cackled. 'And mouths that speak not!' + +'Speak plainly yourself, Master Dietz,' I answered, for I have never +thought ministers more than other men. 'Then perhaps I shall be able +to understand you.' + +'Sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal!' he replied, cracking his +fingers in my face and laughing triumphantly. + +He would have said more, I imagine; but at that moment the Burgomaster +fell bodily upon him, and drove him by main force through the gate +which had been opened. Outside even, he made some attempts to return +and defy us, crying out 'Whited sepulchres!' and the like. But the +steps were narrow and steep, and Hofman stood like a feather bed in +the way, and presently he desisted. The two stumbled down together and +we saw no more of them. + +The men about me laughed; but I had reason for thinking it far from a +laughing matter, and I hastened into the house that I might tell my +lady. When I entered the parlour, however, where I found her with the +Waldgrave and Fraulein Anna, she held up her hand to check me. She and +the Waldgrave were laughing, and Fraulein Anna, half shy and half +sullen, was leaning against the table looking at the floor, with her +cheeks red. + +'Come,' my lady was saying, 'you were with him half an hour, Anna. You +can surely tell us what you talked about. Don't be afraid of Martin. +He knows all our secrets.' + +'Or perhaps we are indiscreet,' the Waldgrave said gravely, but with a +twinkle in his eye. 'When a young lady visits a gentleman in +captivity, the conversation should be of a tender nature.' + +'Which shows, sir, that you know little about it,' Fraulein Anna +answered indignantly. 'We talked of Voetius.' + +'Dear me!' my lord said. 'Then Master Dietz knows Voetius?' + +'He does not. He said he considered such pagan learning useless,' +Fraulein Anna answered, warming with her subject. 'That it tended to +pride, and puffed up instead of giving grace. I said that he only saw +one side of the matter.' + +'In that resembling me,' my lord murmured. + +My lady repressed him with a look. 'Yes,' she said pleasantly. 'And +what then, Anna?' + +'And that he might be wrong in this, as in other matters. He asked me +what other matters,' Fraulein Max continued, growing voluble, and +almost confident, as she reviewed the scene. 'I said, the inferiority +of women to men. He said, yes, he maintained that, following Peter +Martyr. Well, I said he was wrong, and so was Peter Martyr. "But you +do not convince me," he answered. "You say that I am wrong on this as +on other points. Cite a point, then, on which I am wrong." "You know +no Greek, you know no Oriental tongue, you know no Hebrew!" I +retorted. "All pagan learning," he said. "Cite a point on which I am +wrong. I am not often wrong. Cite a point on which I am confessedly +wrong." So'--Fraulein Anna laughed a little, excited laugh of +pleasure--'I thought I would take him at his word, and I said, "Will +you abide by that? If I show you that you have been wrong, that you +have been deceived only to-day, will you acknowledge that Peter Martyr +was wrong?" He said, oh yes, he would, if I could convince him. I +said, "Exemplum! You came here because you were afraid of our cannon. +Granted? Yes. Well, our cannon are cracked. They are _brutum +fulmen_--an empty threat. We could not fire them, if we would. So +there, you see, you were wrong." Well, on that----' + +But what Master Dietz said on that, and what she answered, we never +knew, for the Waldgrave, bounding from the table, with a crash which +shook the room, swore a very pagan oath. + +'Himmel!' he cried in a voice of passion. 'The woman has ruined us! Do +you understand, Countess? She has told them! And they have taken the +news to the town!' + +'I do understand,' my lady said softly, but with a paling face. 'By +this time it is known.' + +'Known! Yes; and our shutting up that poisonous little snake will only +make him the more bitter!' my lord answered, striking the table a +great blow in his wrath. 'We are undone! Oh, you idiot, you idiot!' +and breaking off suddenly he turned to Fraulein Max, who stood weeping +and trembling by the table. 'Why did you do it?' + +'Hush!' my lady said nobly; and she put her arm round Fraulein Anna. +'She is so absent. It was my fault. I should not have let her see +them. Besides, she did not know that they were going to be released. +And it is done now, and cannot be undone. The question is, what ought +we to do?' + +'Yes, what?' my lord cried bitterly, with a glance at the culprit, +which showed that he was very far from forgiving her. 'I am sure I do +not know, any more than the dog there!' + +My lady looked at me anxiously. + +'Well, Martin,' she said, 'what do you say?' + +But I had nothing to say, I felt myself at a loss. I knew, better than +any of them, the Minister's sour nature, and I had seen with my own +eyes the state of resentment and rage in which he had left us. His +news would fall like a spark dropped on powder. The town, brooding in +gloom, foreboding, and terror, would in a moment blaze into fierce +wrath. Every ruffian who had felt his neck endangered by the +Countess's sentence, every family that had lost a member in the late +riot, every one who had an old grievance to avenge, or a new object to +gain, would in an hour be in arms; while those whose advantage lay +commonly on the side of order might stand aloof now--some at the +instance of Dietz, and others through timidity and that fear of a mob +which exists in the mind of every burgher. What, then, had we to +expect? My lady must look to have her authority flouted--that for +certain; but would the matter end with that? Would the disorder stop +at the foot of the steps? + +'I think we are safe enough here, if your excellency asks me,' I said, +after a moment's thought. 'A dozen men could hold the wicket-gate +against a thousand.' + +'Safe!' my lady cried in a tone of surprise. 'Yes, Martin, safe! But +what of those who look to me for protection? Am I to stand by and see +the law defied? Am I to----' She paused. 'What is that?' she said in a +different tone, raising her hand for silence. + +She listened, and we listened, looking at one another with meaning +eyes; and in a moment she had her answer. Through the open windows, +with the air and sunshine, came a sound which rose and fell at +intervals. It was the noise of distant cheering. Full and deep, +leaping up again and again, in insolent mockery and defiance, it +reached us where we stood in the quiet room, and told us that all was +known. While we still listened, another sound, nearer at hand, broke +the inner stillness of the house--the tramp of a hurrying foot on the +stairs. Old Jacob thrust in his head and looked at me. + +'You can speak,' I said. + +'There is something wrong below,' he muttered, abashed at finding +himself in the presence. + +'We know it, Jacob,' my lady said bravely. 'We are considering how to +right it. In the mean time, do you go to the gates, my friend, and see +that they are well guarded.' + +'We could send to Hesse-Cassel,' the Waldgrave suggested, when we were +again alone. + +'It would be useless,' my lady answered. 'The Landgrave is at Munich +with the King of Sweden; so is Leuchtenstein.' + +'If Leuchtenstein were only at home----' + +'Ah!' the Countess answered with a touch of impatience; 'but then he +is not. If he were--well, even he could scarcely make troops where +there are none.' + +'There are generally some to be hired,' the Waldgrave answered. 'What +if we send to Halle, or Weimar, and inquire? A couple of hundred pikes +would settle the matter.' + +'God forbid!' my lady answered with a shudder. 'I have heard enough of +the doings of such soldiers. The town has not deserved that.' + +The Waldgrave looked at me, and slightly shrugged his shoulders; as +much as to say that my lady was impracticable. But I, agreeing with +every word she said, only loved her the more, and could make him no +answer, even if my duty had permitted it. I hastened to suggest that, +the castle being safe, the better plan was to wait, keeping on our +guard, and see what happened; which, indeed, seemed also to be the +only course open to us. + +My lady saw this and agreed; I withdrew, to spend the rest of the day +in a feverish march between the one gate and the other. We could +muster no more than twelve effective men, including the Waldgrave; and +though these might suffice for the bare defence of the place, which +had only two assailable points, the paucity of our numbers kept me in +perpetual fear. I knew my lady's proud nature so well that I dreaded +humiliation for her as I might have feared death for another; with a +terror which made the possibility of her capture by the malcontents a +misery to me, a nightmare which would neither let me rest nor sleep. + +My lord soon recovered his spirits. In an hour or two he was as +buoyant and cheerful as before, dividing the blame of the +_contretemps_ between Fraulein Anna and myself, and hinting that if he +had been left to manage the matter, the guilty would have suffered, +and Dietz not gone scot-free. But I trembled. I did not see how we +could be surprised; I thought it improbable that the townsfolk would +try to effect anything against us; impossible that they should +succeed. Yet, when the stern swell of one of Luther's hymns rose from +the town at sunset, and I remembered how easily men's hearts were +inflamed by those strains; and again, when a huge bonfire in the +market-place dispelled the night, and for hours kept the town restless +and waking, I shuddered, fearing I knew not what. I will answer for +it, my lady, who never ceased to wear a cheerful countenance, did not +sleep that night one half so ill as I. + +And yet I was caught napping. A little before daybreak, when all was +quiet, I went to take an hour's rest. I had lain down, and, as far as +I could judge later, had just fallen into a doze, when a tremendous +shock, which made the very walls round me tremble, drew me to my feet +as if a giant hand had plucked me from the bed. A crashing sound, +mingled with the shiver of falling glass, filled the air. For a few +seconds I stood trembling and bewildered in the middle of the room--in +the state of disorder natural to a man rudely awakened. I could not on +the instant collect myself or comprehend what had happened. Then, in a +flash, the fears of the day returned to my mind, and springing to the +door, half-dressed as I was, I ran down to the courtyard. + +Some of the servants were already there, a white-cheeked, +panic-stricken group of men and women intermixed; but, for a +moment, I could get no answer to my questions. All spoke at once, none +knew. Then--it was just growing light--from the direction of the +stable-gate a man came running out of the dusk with a half-pike on his +shoulder. + +'Quick!' he cried. 'This way, give me a musket.' + +'What is it?' I answered, seizing him by the arm. + +'They have blown up the bridge--the bridge over the ravine!' he +replied, panting. 'Quick, a gun! A part is left, and they are hacking +it down!' + +In a moment I saw all. 'To your posts!' I shouted. 'And the women into +the house! See to the wicket-gate, Jacob, and do not leave it!' Then I +sprang into the guardhouse and snatched down a carbine, three or four +of which hung loaded in the loops. The sentry who had brought the news +seized another, and we ran together through the stable court and to +the gate, four or five of the servants following us. + +Elsewhere it was growing light. Here a thick cloud of smoke and dust +still hung in the air, with a stifling reek of powder. But looking +through one of the loopholes in the gate, I was able to discern that +the farther end of the bridge which spanned the ravine was gone--or +gone in part. The right-hand wall, with three or four feet of the +roadway, still hung in air, but half a dozen men, whose figures loomed +indistinctly through a haze of dust and gloom, were working at it +furiously, demolishing it with bars and pickaxes. + +At that sight I fell into a rage. I saw in a flash what would happen +if the bridge sank and we were cut off from all exit except through +the town-gate. The dastardly nature of the surprise, too, and the +fiendish energy of the men combined to madden me. I gave no warning +and cried out no word, but thrusting my weapon through the loophole +aimed at the nearest worker, and fired. + +The man dropped his tool and threw up his arms, staggered forward a +couple of paces, and fell sheer over the broken edge into the gulf. +His fellows stood a moment in terror, looking after him, but the +sentry who had warned me fired through the other loophole, and that +started them. They flung down their tools and bolted like so many +rabbits. The smoke of the carbine was scarce out of the muzzle, before +the bridge, or what remained of it, was clear. + +I turned round and found the Waldgrave at my elbow. 'Well done!' he +said heartily. 'That will teach the rascals a lesson!' + +I was trembling in every limb with excitement, but before I answered +him, I handed my gun to one of the men who had followed me. 'Load,' I +said,' and if a man comes near the bridge, shoot him down. Keep your +eye on the bridge, and do nothing else until I come back.' + +Then I walked away through the stable-court with the Waldgrave; who +looked at me curiously. 'You were only just in time,' he said. + +'Only just,' I muttered. + +'There is enough left for a horse to cross.' + +'Yes,' I answered, 'to-day.' + +'Why to-day?' he asked, still looking at me. I think he was surprised +to see me so much moved. + +'Because the rest will be blown up to-night,' I answered bluntly. 'Or +may be. How can we guard it in the dark? It is fifty paces from the +gate. We cannot risk men there--with our numbers.' + +'Still it may not be,' he said. 'We must keep a sharp look-out.' + +'But if it _is?_' I answered, halting suddenly, and looking him full +in the face. 'If it is, my lord?' I continued. 'We are provisioned for +a week only. It is not autumn, you see. Then the pickle tubs would be +full, the larder stocked, the rafters groaning, the still-room +supplied. But it is May, and there is little left. The last three days +we have been thinking of other things than provisions; and we have +thirty mouths to feed.' + +The Waldgrave's face fell. 'I had not thought of that,' he said. 'The +bridge gone, they may starve us, you mean?' + +'Into submission to whatever terms they please,' I answered. 'We are +too few to cut our way through the town, and there would be no other +way of escape.' + +'What do you advise, then?' he asked, drawing me aside with a +flustered air. 'Flight?' + +'A horse might cross the bridge to-day,' I said. + +'But any terms would be better than that!' he replied with vehemence. + +'What if they demand the expulsion of the Catholic girl, my lord, whom +the Countess has taken under her protection?' + +'They will not!' he said. + +'They may,' I persisted. + +'Then we will not give her up.' + +'But the alternative--starvation?' + +'Pooh! It will not come to that!' he answered lightly. 'You leap +before you reach the stile.' + +'Because, my lord, there will be no leaping if we do reach it.' + +'Nonsense!' he cried masterfully. 'Something must be risked. To give +up a strong place like this to a parcel of clodhoppers--it is absurd! +At the worst we could parley.' + +'I do not think my lady would consent to parley.' + +'I shall say nothing to her about it,' he answered. 'She is no judge +of such things.' + +I had been thinking all the while that he had that in his mind, and on +the spot I answered him squarely that I would not consent. 'My lady +must know all,' I said, 'and decide for herself.' + +He started, looking at me with his face very red. 'Why, man,' he said, +'would you browbeat me?' + +'No, my lord,' I said firmly, 'but my lady must know.' + +'You are insolent!' he cried, in a passion. 'You forget yourself, man, +and that your mistress has placed me in command here!' + +'I forget nothing, my lord,' I answered, waxing firmer. 'What I +remember is that she is my mistress.' + +He glared at me a moment, his face dark with anger, and then with a +contemptuous gesture he left me and walked twice or thrice across the +court. Doubtless the air did him good, for presently he came back to +me. 'You are an ill-bred meddler!' he said with his head high, 'and I +shall remember it. But for the present have your way. I will tell the +Countess and take her opinion.' + +He went into the house to do it, and I waited patiently in the +courtyard, watching the sun rise and all the roofs grow red; listening +to the twittering of the birds, and wondering what the answer would +be. I had not set myself against him without misgiving, for in a +little while all might be in his hands. But fear for my mistress +outweighed fears on my own account; and in the thought of her shame, +should she awake some morning and find herself trapped, I lost thought +of my own interest and advancement. I have heard it said that he +builds best for himself who builds for another. It was so on this +occasion. + +He came back presently, looking thoughtful, as if my lady had talked +to him very freely, and shown him a side of her character that had +escaped him. The anger was clean gone from his face, and he spoke to +me without embarrassment; in apparent forgetfulness that there had +been any difference between us. Nor did I ever find him bear malice +long. + +'The Countess decides to go,' he said, 'either to Cassel or Frankfort, +according to the state of the roads. She will take with her Fraulein +Max, her two women, and the Catholic girl, and as many men as you can +horse. She thinks she may safely leave the castle in charge of old +Jacob and Franz, with a letter directed to the Burgomaster and +council, throwing the responsibility for its custody on them. When do +you think we should start?' + +'Soon after dark this evening,' I answered, 'if my lady pleases.' + +'Then that decides it,' he replied carelessly, the dawn of a new plan +and new prospects lighting up his handsome face. 'See to it, will +you?' + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + WALNUTS OF GOLD. + + +Night is like a lady's riding-mask, which gives to the most +familiar features a strange and uncanny aspect. When to night +are added silence and alarm, and that worst burden of all, +responsibility--responsibility where a broken twig may mean a shot, +and a rolling stone capture, where in a moment the evil is done--then +you have a scene and a time to try the stoutest. + +To walk boldly into a wall of darkness, relying on daylight knowledge, +which says there is no wall; to step over the precipice on the faith +of its depth being shadow--this demands nerve in those who are not +used to the vagaries of night. But when the darkness may at any +instant belch forth a sheet of flame; when every bush may hide a +cowardly foe and every turn a pitfall, and there are women in company +and helpless children, then a man had need to be an old soldier or +forest-born, if he would keep his head cool, and tell one horse from +another by the sound of its hoofs. + +We started about eight, and started well. The Waldgrave and half a +dozen men crossed first on foot, and took post to protect the farther +end of the bridge. Then I led over the horses, beginning with the four +sumpter beasts. Satisfied after this that the arch remained uninjured, +and that there was room and to spare, I told my lady, and she rode +over by herself on Pushka. Marie Wort tripped after her with the child +in her arms. Fraulein Max I carried. My lady's women crossed hand in +hand. Then the rest. So like a troop of ghosts or shadows, with hardly +a word spoken or an order given, we flitted into the darkness, and met +under the trees, where those who had not yet mounted got to horse. Led +by young Jacob, who knew every path in the valley and could find his +way blindfold, we struck away from the road without delay, and taking +lanes and tracks which ran beside it, presently hit it again a league +or more beyond the town and far on the way. + +That was a ride not to be forgotten. The night was dark. At a distance +the dim lights of the town did not show. The valley in which we rode, +and which grows straighter as it approaches the mouth and the river, +seemed like a black box without a lid. The wind, laden with mysterious +rustlings and the thousand sad noises of the night, blew in our faces. +Now and then an owl hooted, or a branch creaked, or a horse stumbled +and its rider railed at it. But for the most part we rode in silence, +the women trembling and crossing themselves--as most of our people do +to this day, when they are frightened--and the men riding warily, with +straining eyes and ears on the stretch. + +Before we reached the ford, which lies nearly eight miles from the +castle, the Waldgrave, who had his place beside my lady, began to +talk; and then, if not before, I knew that _his_ love for her was +a poor thing. For, being in high spirits at the success of our +plan--which he had come to consider _his_ plan--and delighted to find +himself again in the saddle with an adventure before him, he forgot +that the matter must wear a different aspect in her eyes. She was +leaving her home--the old rooms, the old books, and presses and +stores, the duties, stately or simple, in which her life had been +passed. And leaving them, not in the daylight, and with a safe and +assured future before her, but by stealth and under cover of night, +with a mind full of anxious questionings! + +To my lord it seemed a fine thing to have the world before him; to +know that all Germany beyond the Werra was convulsed by war, and a +theatre wherein a bold man might look to play his part. But to a +woman, however high-spirited, the knowledge was not reassuring. To one +who was exchanging her own demesne and peace and plenty for a +wandering life and dependence on the protection of men, it was the +reverse. + +So, while my lord talked gaily, my lady, I think, wept; doing that +under cover of darkness and her mask, which she would never have done +in the light. He talked on, planning and proposing; and where a true +lover would have been quick to divine the woman's weakness, he felt no +misgiving, thrilled with no sympathy. Then I knew that he lacked the +subtle instinct which real love creates; which teaches the strong what +it is the feeble dread, and gives a woman the daring of a man. + +As we drew near the ford, I dropped back to see that all crossed +safely. Pushka, I knew, would carry my lady over, but some of the +others were worse mounted. This brought me abreast of the Catholic +girl, though the darkness was such that I recognized her only by the +dark mass before her, which I knew to be the child. We had had some +difficulty in separating her from Steve, and persuading her that the +man ran no risk where he lay; otherwise she had behaved admirably. I +did not speak to her, but when I saw the gleam of water before us, and +heard the horses of the leaders begin to splash through the shallows, +I leant over and took hold of the boy. + +'You had better give him to me,' I said gruffly. 'You will have both +hands free then. Keep your feet high, and hold by the pommel. If your +horse begins to swim leave its head loose.' + +I expected her to make a to-do about giving up the child; but she did +not, and I lifted it to the withers of my horse. She muttered +something in a tone which sounded grateful, and then we splashed on in +silence, the horses putting one foot gingerly before the other; some +sniffing the air with loud snorts and outstretched necks, and some +stopping outright. + +I rode on the upstream side of the girl, to break the force of the +water. Not that the ford is dangerous in the daytime (it has been +bridged these five years), but at night, and with so many horses, it +was possible one or another might stray from the track; for the ford +is not straight, but slants across the stream. However, we all passed +safely; and yet the crossing remains in my memory. + +As I held the child before me--it was a gallant little thing, and +clung to me without cry or word--I felt something rough round its +neck. At the moment I was deep in the water, and I had no hand to +spare. But by-and-by, as we rode out and began to clamber up the +farther bank, I laid my hand on its neck, suspecting already what I +should find. + +I was not mistaken. Under my fingers lay the very necklace which Peter +had described to me with so much care! I could trace the shape and +roughness of the walnuts. I could almost count them. Even of the +length of the chain I could fairly judge. It was long enough to go +twice round the child's neck. + +As soon as I had made certain, I let it be, lest the child should cry +out; and I rode on, thinking hard. What, I wondered, had induced the +girl to put the chain round its neck at that juncture? She had hidden +it so carefully hitherto, that no eye but Peter's, so far as I could +judge, had seen it. Why this carelessness now, then? Certainly it was +dark, and, as far as eyes went, the chain was safe. But round her own +neck, under her kerchief, where it had lain before, it was still +safer. Why had she removed it? + +We had topped the farther bank by this time, and were riding slowly +along the right-hand side of the river; but I was still turning this +over in my mind, when I heard her on a sudden give a little gasp. I +knew in a moment what it was. She had bethought her where the necklace +was. I was not a whit surprised when she asked me in a tremulous tone +to give her back the child. + +'It is very well here,' I said, to try her. + +'It will trouble you,' she muttered faintly. + +'I will say when it does,' I answered. + +She did not answer anything to that, but I heard her breathing hard, +and knew that she was racking her brains for some excuse to get the +child from me. For what if daylight came and I still rode with it, the +necklace in full view? Or what if we stopped at some house and lights +were brought? Or what, again, if I perceived the necklace and took +possession of it! + +This last idea so charmed me--I was in a grim humour--that my hand was +on the necklace, and almost before I knew what I was doing, I was +feeling for the clasp which fastened it. Some fiend brought the thing +under my fingers in a twinkling. The necklace seemed to fall loose of +its own accord. In a moment it was swinging and swaying in my hand. In +another I had gathered it up and slid it into my pouch. + +The trick was done so easily and so quickly that I think some devil +must have helped me; the child neither moving nor crying out, though +it was old enough to take notice, and could even speak, as children of +that age can speak--intelligibly to those who know them, gibberish to +strangers. + +I need not say that I never meant to steal a link of the thing. The +temptation which moved me was the temptation to tease the girl. I +thought this a good way of punishing her. I thought, first to torment +her by making her think the necklace gone; and then to shame her by +producing it, and giving it back to her with a dry word that should +show her I understood her deceit. + +So, even when the thing was done, and the chain snug in my pocket, I +did not for a while repent, but hugged myself on the jest and smiled +under cover of the darkness. I carried the child a mile farther, and +then handed it down to Marie, with an appearance of unconsciousness +which it was not very hard to assume, since she could not see my face. +But doubtless every yard of that mile had been a torture to her. I +heard her sigh with relief as her arms closed round the boy. Then, the +next moment I knew that she had discovered her loss. She uttered a +sobbing cry, and I heard her passing her hands through the child's +clothing, while her breath came and went in gasps. + +She plucked at her bridle so suddenly that those who rode behind ran +into us. I made way for them to pass. + +'What is it?' I said roughly. 'What is the matter?' + +She muttered under her breath, with her hands still searching the +child, that she had lost something. + +'If you have, it is gone,' I said bluntly. 'You would hardly find a +hayrick to-night. You must have dropped it coming through the ford?' + +She did not answer, but I heard her begin to sob, and then for the +first time I felt uncomfortable. I repented of what I had done, and +wished with all my heart that the chain was round the child's neck +again. 'Come, come,' I said awkwardly, 'it was not of much value, I +suppose. At any rate, it is no good crying over it.' + +She did not answer; she was still searching. I could hear what she was +doing, though I could not see; there were trees overhead, and it was +as much as I could do to make out her figure. At last I grew angry, +partly with myself, partly with her. 'Come,' I said roughly, 'we +cannot stay here all night. We must be moving.' + +She assented meekly, and we rode on. But still I heard her crying; and +she seemed to be hugging the child to her, as if, now the necklace was +gone, she had nothing but the boy left. I tried to see the humour in +the joke as I had seen it a few minutes before, but the sparkle had +gone out of it, I felt that I had been a brute. I began to reflect +that this girl, a stranger and helpless, in a strange land, had +nothing upon which she could depend but these few links of gold. What +wonder, then, if she valued them; if, like all other women, she hid +them away and fibbed about them; if she wept over them now they were +gone? + +Of course it was in my power in a moment to bring them back again; and +nothing had seemed easier, a few minutes before, than to hand them +back--with a little speech which should cover her with confusion and +leave me unmoved. Now, though I wished them round her neck again with +all the good-will in life, and though to effect my wish I had only to +do what I had planned--only to stretch out my hand with that word or +two--I sat in my saddle hot and tongue-tied, my fingers sticking to +the chain. + +Her grief had somehow put a new face on the matter. I could not bear +to confess that I had caused it wantonly and for a jest. The right +words would not come, while every moment which prolonged the silence +between us made the attempt seem more hopeless, the task more +difficult; till, like the short-sighted craven I was, I thrust back +the chain into my pocket, and, determining to take some secret way of +restoring it, put off the crisis. + +In a degree I was hurried to this decision by our arrival at the place +where we were to rest. This was an outlying farm belonging to +Heritzburg and long used by the family, when journeying to Cassel. +Alas! when we came to it, cold, shivering, and hungry, we found it +ruined and tenantless, with war's grim brand so deeply stamped upon +the face of everything that even the darkness of night failed to hide +the scars. I had not expected this, and for a while I forgot the +necklace in anxiety for my lady's comfort. I had to get lights and see +fires kindled, to order the disposal of the horses, to unpack the +food: for we found no scrap, even of fodder for the beasts, in the +grimy, smoke-stained barn, which I had known so well stored. Nor was +the house in better case. Bed and board were gone, and half the roof. +The door lay shattered on the threshold, the window-frames, smashed in +wanton fury, covered the floor. The wind moaned through the empty +rooms; here and there water stood in puddles. Round the hearth lay +broken flasks, and rotting _debris_, and pewter plates bent double-- +the relics of the ravager's debauch. + +We walked about, with lights held above our heads, and looked at all +this miserably enough. It was our first glimpse of war, and it +silenced even the Waldgrave. As for my mistress, I well remember the +look her face wore, when I left her standing with her women, who were +already in tears, in the middle of the small chamber assigned to her. +I had known her long enough to be able to read the look, and to be +sure that she was wondering whether it would always be so now. Had she +exchanged Heritzburg, its peace and comfort, for such nights as these, +divided between secret flittings and lodgings fit only for the +homeless and wretched? + +But neither by word nor sign did she betray her fears; and in the +morning she showed a face that vied with the Waldgrave's in +cheerfulness. Our horses had had little exercise of late and were +in poor condition for travelling. We gave them, therefore, until +noon to rest, and a little after that hour got away; one and all, I +think--with the exception perhaps of Marie Wort--in better spirits. +The sun was high, the weather fine, the country on either side of us +woodland, with fine wild prospects. Hence we saw few signs of the +ravages which were sure to thrust themselves on the attention wherever +man's hand appeared. We could forget for the moment war, and even our +own troubles. + +We proposed to reach the little village of Erbe by sunset, but +darkness overtook us on the road. The track, overgrown and narrowed by +spring shoots, was hard to follow in daylight; to attempt to pursue it +after nightfall seemed hopeless. We had halted, therefore, and the +Waldgrave and my lady were considering whether we should camp where we +were, or pick our way to a more sheltered spot, when young Jacob, who +was leading, cried out that he saw the glimmer of a camp-fire some way +off among the trees. The news threw our party into the greatest doubt. +My lady was for stopping where we were, the Waldgrave for going on. In +the end the latter had his way, and it was agreed that we should join +the company before us, or at any rate parley with them and learn their +intentions. Accordingly we shook up our tired horses and moved +cautiously forward. + +The distant gleam which had first caught Jacob's eye soon widened into +a warm and ruddy glow, in which the polished beech-trunks stood up +like the pillars of some great building. Still drawing nearer, we saw +that there were two fires built a score of paces apart, in a slight +hollow. Round the one a number of men were moving, whose black figures +sometimes intervened between us and the blaze. Two or three dogs +sprang up and barked at us, and a horse neighed out of the darkness +beyond. The other fire seemed at first sight to be deserted; but as +the dogs ran towards us, still barking, first one man, then another, +rose beside it, and stood looking at us. The arrival of a second party +in such a spot was no doubt unexpected. + +Judging that these two were the leaders of the party, I went forward +to announce my lady's rank. One of the men, the shorter and younger, a +man of middle height and middle age and dark, stern complexion, came a +few paces to meet me. + +'Who are you?' he said bluntly, looking beyond me at those who +followed. + +'The Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, travelling this way to Cassel,' I +answered; 'and with her, her excellency's kinsman, the noble Rupert, +Waldgrave of Weimar.' + +The stranger's face lightened strangely, and he laughed. 'Take me to +her,' he said. + +Properly I should have first asked him his name and condition; but he +had the air, beyond all things, of a man not to be trifled with, and I +turned with him. + +My lady had halted with her company a score of paces from the fire. I +led him to her bridle. + +'This,' I said, wondering much who he was, 'is her excellency the +Countess of Heritzburg.' + +My lady looked at him. He had uncovered and stood before her, a smile +that was almost a laugh in his eyes. 'And I,' he said, 'have the +honour to be her excellency's humble and distant cousin, General John +Tzerclas, sometimes called, of Tilly.' + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + THE CAMP IN THE FOREST. + + +As the stranger made his announcement, I chanced to turn my eyes on +the Waldgrave's face; and if there was one thing more noteworthy at +the moment than the speaker's air of perfect and assured composure, it +was my lord's look of chagrin. I could imagine that this sudden and +unexpected discovery of a kinsman was little to his mind; while the +stranger's manner was as little calculated to reconcile him to it. But +there was something more than this. I fancy that from the moment he +heard Tzerclas' name he scented a rival. + +My lady, on the other hand, did not disguise her satisfaction. 'I am +pleased to make your acquaintance,' she exclaimed, looking at the +stranger with frank surprise. 'Your name, General Tzerclas, has long +been known to me. But I was under the impression that you were at +present in command of a body of Saxon troops in Bohemia.' + +'My troops, such as they are, lie a little nearer,' he answered, +smiling; 'so near that they and their leader are equally at your +service, Countess.' + +'For the present I shall be content to claim your hospitality only,' +my lady answered lightly. 'This is my cousin, the Waldgrave Rupert.' + +'Of Weimar?' the general said, bowing. + +'Of Weimar, sir,' the young lord answered. + +The stranger said no more, but saluting him with a kind of careless +punctilio, took hold of my lady's rein and led her horse forward into +the firelight. + +While he assisted her to dismount I had time to glance round; and the +cheerful glow of the fire, which disclosed arms and accoutrements and +camp equipments flung here and there in splendid profusion, did not +blind me to other appearances less pleasant. Indeed, that very +profusion did something to open my eyes to those appearances, and +thereby to the nature of the men amongst whom we had come. The +glittering hilts and battered plate, the gaudy cloaks and velvet +housings which I saw lying about the roots of the trees, seemed to +smack less of a travellers' camp than a robbers' bivouac; while the +fierce, swarthy faces which clustered round the farther fire, reminded +me of nothing so much as of the swash-buckling escort which had more +than once accompanied Count Tilly to Heritzburg. Then, indeed, under +the old tiger's paw Tilly's riders had been as lambs. But we were not +now at Heritzburg, nor was Count Tilly here. And whether these knaves +would be as amenable in the greenwood, whether the Waldgrave had not +done us all an ill service when he voted for moving on, were questions +I had a difficulty in answering to my satisfaction; the more as, even +before we were off our horses, the rude stare the men fixed on my lady +raised my choler. + +On the other hand their leader's bearing left nothing to be desired. +He welcomed my mistress to the camp with perfect good breeding, the +Waldgrave with civility. He hastened the preparation of supper, and in +every way seemed bent on making us comfortable; sending his knaves to +and fro with a hearty good-will, which showed that whoever stood in +awe of them, he did not. + +Meanwhile, I had a third fire kindled a score of paces away, where a +small thicket held out the hope of privacy, and here I placed our +women, bidding three or four of the steadier men remain with them. The +injunction was scarcely needed however. Our servants were simple +fellows born in Heritzburg. They eyed with shyness and awe the +swaggering airs and warlike demeanour of Tzerclas' followers, and +would not for a year's wages have intruded on their circle without +invitation. + +The moment I had seen to this I returned to my lady, and then for the +first time I had an opportunity of examining our host. A man of middle +height, sinewy and well-formed, with an upright carriage, he looked +from head to foot the model of a soldier of fortune, and moved with a +careless grace, which spoke of years of manly exercise. His face was +handsome, cold, dark, stern; the nose prominent, the forehead high and +narrow. Trimly pointed moustachios and a small pointed beard, both +perfectly black, gave him a peculiar and somewhat cynical aspect; and +nothing I ever witnessed of his dealings with his troops led me to +suppose that this belied the man. He could be, as he was now, +courteous, polished, almost genial. I judged that he could be also the +reverse. He was richly, even splendidly, dressed, and seemed to be +about forty years of age. + +My lady sent me for Fraulein Max, who had been overlooked, and was +found cowering beside the newly kindled fire in company with Marie +Wort and the women. Though I think she had only herself to thank for +her effacement, she was inclined to be offended. But I had no time to +waste on words, and disregarding her ill temper I brought her, feebly +sniffing, to my lady, who introduced her to her new-found kinsman. + +'Pardon me,' he said, looking negligently round him. 'That reminds me. +I, too, have a presentation to make. Where is--oh yes, here is friend +Von Werder. I thought, my friend,' he continued, addressing the other +and older man whom we had seen by his fire, 'that you had disappeared +as mysteriously as you came. Herr von Werder, Countess, was my first +chance guest to-night. You are the second.' + +He spoke in a tone of easy patronage, with his back half turned to the +person he mentioned. I looked at the man. He seemed to be over fifty +years old, tall, strong, and grey-moustachioed. And that was almost +all I could see, for, as if acknowledging an inferiority, and +admitting that the terms on which he had been with his host were now +altered, he had withdrawn himself a pace from the fire. Sitting on the +opposite side of it near the outer edge of light and wearing a heavy +cloak, he disclosed little of his appearance, even when he rose in +acknowledgment of my lady's salute. + +'Herr von Werder is not travelling with you, then?' my lady said; +chiefly, I think, for the sake of saying something that should include +the man. + +'No, he is not of my persuasion,' the general answered in the same +tone of good-natured contempt. 'Whither are you bound, my friend?' he +continued, glancing over his shoulder and throwing a note of command +into his voice. 'I did not ask you, and you did not tell me.' + +'I am going north,' the stranger answered in a husky tone. 'It may be +as far as Magdeburg, general.' + +'And you come from?' + +'Last, sir? Frankfort.' + +'Well, as you say last, whence before that?' + +'The Rhine Bishoprics.' + +'Ah! Then you have seen something of the war? If you were there before +it swept into Bavaria, that is. But a truce to this,' he continued. +'Here is supper. I beg you not to judge of my hospitality by this +night's performance, Countess. I hope to entertain you more fittingly +before we part.' + +Though he made this apology, the supper needed none. Indeed, it was +such as made me stare--there in the forest--and was served in a style +and with accompaniments I little expected to find in a soldiers' camp. +Silver dishes and chased and curious flagons, flasks of old Rhenish +and Burgundy, glass from Nuremberg, a dozen things which made my +lady's road equipage seem poor and trifling, appeared on the board. +And the cooking was equal to the serving. The wine had not gone round +many times before the Waldgrave lost his air of reserve. He +complimented our host, expressed his surprise at the excellence of the +entertainment, asked with a laugh how it was done, and completely +resumed his usual manner. Perhaps he talked a little too freely, a +little too fast, and viewed by the other's side, he grew younger. + +What my lady saw or thought as she sat between the two men it was +impossible to say, but she seemed in high spirits. She too talked +gaily and laughed often; and doubtless the novelty of the scene, the +great fires, the dark background, the burnished trunks of the beeches, +the bizarre splendour of the feast, the laughter and snatches of song +which came from the other fire, were well calculated to excite and +amuse her. + +'These are not all your troops?' I heard her ask. + +'Not quite,' the general answered drily. 'My men lie six hours south +of us. I hope that you will do me the honour of reviewing them +to-morrow.' + +'You are marching south, then?' + +'Yes. Everything and every one goes south this year.' + +'To join the King of Sweden?' + +'Yes,' the general answered, holding out his silver cup to be filled, +and for that reason perhaps speaking very deliberately, 'to join the +King of Sweden--at Nuremberg. But you have not yet told me, countess,' +he continued, 'why you are afield. This part is not in a very settled +state, and I should have thought that the present time was----' + +'A bad one for travelling?' my lady answered. 'Yes. But, I regret to +say, Heritzburg is not in a very settled state either.' And thereon, +without dwelling much on the cause of her troubles, she told him the +main facts which had led to her departure. + +I saw his lip curl and his eyes flicker with scorn. 'But had you no +gunpowder?' he said, turning to the Waldgrave. + +'We had, but no cannon,' he answered confidently. + +'What of that?' the general retorted icily. 'I would have made a bomb, +no matter of what, and fired it out of a leather boot hooped with +cask-irons! I would have had half a dozen of their houses burning +about their ears before they knew where they were, the insolents!' + +The Waldgrave looked ashamed of himself. 'I did not think of that,' he +said; and he hastened to hide his confusion in his glass. + +'Well, it is not too late,' General Tzerclas rejoined, showing his +teeth in a smile. 'If the Countess pleases, we will soon teach her +subjects a lesson. I am not pushed for time. I will detach four troops +of horse and return with you to-morrow, and settle the matter in a +trice.' + +But my lady said that she would not have that, and persisted so firmly +in her refusal that though he pressed the offer upon her, and I could +see was keenly interested in its acceptance, he had to give way. The +reasons she put forward were the loss of his time and the injury to +his cause; the real one consisted, I knew, in her merciful reluctance +to give over the town to his troops, a reluctance for which I honoured +her. To appease him, however, for he seemed inclined to take her +refusal in bad part, she consented to go out of her way to visit his +camp. + +At this point my lady sent me on an errand to her women, which caused +me to be away some minutes. When I came back I found that a change had +taken place. The Waldgrave was speaking, and, from his heated face and +the tone of his voice, it was evident that the old wine which had +begun by opening his heart had ended by rousing his pugnacity. + +'Pooh! I protest _in toto!_' he said as I came up. 'I deny it +altogether. You will tell me next that the Germans are worse soldiers +than the Swedes!' + +'Pardon me, I did not say so,' General Tzerclas answered. The wine had +taken no effect on him, or perhaps he had drunk less. He was as suave +and cold as ever. + +'But you meant it!' the younger man retorted. + +'No, I did not mean it,' the general answered, still unmoved. 'What I +said was that Germany had produced no great commander in this war, +which has now lasted thirteen years.' + +'Prince Bernard of Weimar, my kinsman!' the Waldgrave cried. + +'Pardon me,' Tzerclas replied politely. 'Pardon me again if I say that +I do not think he has earned that title. He is a soldier of merit. No +more.' + +'Wallenstein, then?' + +'You forget. He is a Bohemian.' + +'Count Tilly, then?' + +'A Walloon,' the general answered with a shrug. 'The King of Sweden? A +Swede, of course.' + +'A German by the mother's side,' my lady said with a smile. + +'As you, Countess, are a Walloon,' Tzerclas answered with a low bow. +'Yet doubtless you count yourself a German?' + +'Yes,' she said, blushing. 'I am proud to do so.' + +What courteous answer he would have made to this I do not know. She +had scarcely spoken before a deep voice on the farther side of the +fire was heard to ask 'What of Count Pappenheim?' + +The speaker was Von Werder, who had long sat so modestly silent that I +had forgotten his presence. He seemed scarcely to belong to the party; +though Fraulein Max, who sat on the Waldgrave's left hand, formed a +sort of link stretched out towards him. Tzerclas had forgotten him +too, I think, for he started at the sound of his voice and gave him +but a curt answer. + +'He is no general,' he said sharply. 'A great leader of horse he is; +great at fighting, great at burning, greatest at plundering. No more.' + +'It seems that you allow no merit in a German!' the Waldgrave cried +with a sneer. He had drunk too much. + +But Tzerclas was not to be moved. There was something fine in the +toleration he extended to the younger man. 'Not at all,' he said +quietly. 'Yet I am of opinion that, even apart from arms, Germany has +shown since the beginning of this war few men of merit.' + +'The Duke of Bavaria,' the same deep voice beyond the fire suggested. + +'Maximilian?' Tzerclas answered. This time he did not seem to resent +the stranger's interference. 'Yes, he is something of a statesman. +You are right, my friend. He and Leuchtenstein, the Landgrave's +minister--he too is a man. I will give you those two. But even they +play second parts. The fate of Germany lies in no German hands. It +lies in the hands of Gustavus Adolphus and Oxenstierna, Swedes; of +Wallenstein, a Bohemian; of--I know not who will be the next +foreigner.' + +'That is all very well; but you are a foreigner yourself,' the +Waldgrave cried. + +'Yes, I am a Walloon,' Tzerclas said, still quietly, though this time +I saw his eyes flicker. 'It is true; why should I deny it? You +represent the native, and I the foreign element. The Countess stands +between us, representing both.' + +The Waldgrave rose with an oath and a flushed face, and for a moment I +thought that we were going to have trouble. But he remembered himself +in time, and sitting down again in silence, gazed sulkily at the fire. + +The movement, however, was enough for my lady. She rose to her feet to +break up the party; and turning her shoulder to the offender, began to +thank General Tzerclas for his entertainment. This made the Waldgrave, +who was compelled to stand by and listen, look more sulky than ever; +but she continued to take no notice of him, and though he remained +awkwardly regarding her and waiting for a word, as long as she stood, +she went away without once turning her eyes on him. The general +snatched a torch from me and lighted her with his own hand to our part +of the camp, where he took a respectful leave of her; adding, as he +withdrew, that he would march at any hour in the morning that might +suit her, and that in all things she might command his servants and +himself. + +He had sent over for her use a small tent, provided originally, no +doubt, for his own sleeping quarters; and we found that in a hundred +other ways he had shown himself thoughtful for her comfort. She stood +a moment looking about her with satisfaction; and when she turned to +dismiss me, there was, or I was mistaken, a gleam of amusement in her +eye. After all, she was a woman. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + STOLEN! + + +The night was still young, and when I had seen my mistress and her +women comfortably settled, I sauntered back towards the middle of the +camp. The three fires stood here, and there, and there, among the +trees, like the feet of a three-legged stool; while between them lay a +middle space which partook of the light of all, and yet remained +shadowy and ill-defined. A single beech which stood in this space, and +served in some degree to screen our fire from observation, added to +the darkness of the borderland. At times the flames blazed up, +disclosing trunk and branches; again they waned, and only a shadowy +mass filled the middle space. + +I went and stood under this tree and looked about me. The Waldgrave +had disappeared, probably to his couch. So had Von Werder. Only +General Tzerclas remained beside the fire at which we had supped, and +he no longer sat erect. Covered with a great cloak he lay at his ease +on a pile of furs, reading by the light of the fire in a small fat +book, which even at that distance I could see was thumbed and +dog's-eared. Such an employment in such a man--in huge contrast with +the noisy brawling and laughter of his following--struck me as +remarkable. I felt a great curiosity to know what he was studying, and +in particular whether it was the Bible. But the distance between us +was too great and the light too uncertain; and after straining my eyes +awhile I gave up the attempt, consoling myself with the thought that +had I been nearer I had perhaps been no wiser. + +I was about to withdraw, tolerably satisfied, to seek my own rest, +when a stick snapped sharply behind me. Unwilling to be caught spying, +I turned quickly and found myself face to face with a tall figure, +which had come up noiselessly behind me. The unknown was so close to +me, I recoiled in alarm; but the next moment he lowered his cloak from +his face, and I saw that it was Von Werder. + +'Hush, man!' he said, raising his hand to enforce caution. 'A word +with you. Come this way.' + +He gave me no time to demur or ask questions, but taking obedience for +granted, turned and led the way down a narrow path, proceeding +steadily onwards until the glare of the fire sank into a distant gleam +behind us. Then he stopped suddenly and faced me, but the darkness in +which we stood among the tree-trunks still prevented me seeing his +features, and gave to the whole interview an air of mystery. + +'You are the Countess of Heritzburg's steward?' he said abruptly. + +'I am,' I answered, wondering at the change in his tone, which, deep +before, had become on a sudden imperative. By the fire and in +Tzerclas' company he had spoken with a kind of diffidence, an air of +acknowledged inferiority. Not a trace of that remained. + +'The Waldgrave Rupert,' he continued--'he is a new acquaintance?' + +'He is not an old friend,' I replied. I could not think what he would +be at with his questions. All my instincts were on the side of +refusing to answer them. But his manner imposed upon me, though his +figure and face were hidden; and though I wondered, I answered. + +'He is young,' he said, as if to himself. + +'Yes, he is young,' I answered dryly. 'He will grow older.' + +He remained silent a moment, apparently in thought. Then he spoke +suddenly and bluntly. 'You are an honest man, I believe,' he said. 'I +watched you at supper, and I think I can trust you. I will be plain +with you. Your mistress had better have stayed at Heritzburg, +steward.' + +'It is possible,' I said. I was more than half inclined to think so +myself. + +'She has come abroad, however. That being so, the sooner she is in +Cassel, the better.' + +'We are going thither,' I answered. + +'You were!' he replied; and the meaning in his voice gave me a start. +'You were, I say?' he continued strenuously. 'Whither you are going +now will depend, unless you exert yourself and are careful, on General +John Tzerclas of the Saxon service. You visit his camp to-morrow. Take +a hint. Get your mistress out of it and inside the walls of Cassel as +soon as you can.' + +'Why?' I said stubbornly. 'Why?' For it seemed to me that I was being +asked all and told nothing. The man's vague warnings chimed in with my +own fears, and yet I resented them coming from a stranger. I tried to +pierce the darkness, to read his face, to solve the mystery of his +altered tone. But the night baffled me; I could see nothing save a +tall, dark form, and I fell back upon words and obstruction. 'Why?' I +asked jealously. 'He is my lady's cousin.' + +'After a fashion,' the stranger rejoined coldly and slowly, and not at +all as if he meant to argue with me. 'I should be better content, man, +if he were her uncle. However, I have said enough. Do you bear it in +mind, and as you are faithful, be wary. So much for that. And now,' he +continued, in a different tone, a tone in which a note of anxiety +lurked whether he would or no, 'I have a question to ask on my own +account, friend. Have you heard at any time within the last twelve +months of a lost child being picked up to the north of this, in +Heritzburg or the neighbourhood?' + +'A lost child?' I repeated in astonishment. + +'Yes!' he retorted impatiently. And I felt, though I could not see, +that he was peering at me as I had lately peered at him. 'Isn't that +plain German? A lost child, man? There is nothing hard to understand +in it. Such a thing has been heard of before--and found, I suppose. A +little boy, two years old.' + +'No,' I said, 'I have heard nothing of one. A child two years old? +Why, it could not go alone; it could not walk!' + +In the darkness, which is a wonderful sharpener of ears, I heard the +man move hastily. 'No,' he said with a stern note in his voice, 'I +suppose not; I suppose it could not. At any rate, you have not heard +of it?' + +'No,' I said, 'certainly not.' + +'If it had been found Heritzburg way,' he continued jealously, 'you +would have, I suppose?' + +'I should have--if any one,' I answered. + +'Thank you,' he said curtly. 'That is all now. Good night.' + +And suddenly, with that only, and no warning or further farewell, he +turned and strode off. I heard him go plunging through the last year's +leaves, and the noise told me that he trod them sternly and heavily, +with the foot of a man disappointed, and not for the first time. + +'It must be his child,' I thought, looking after him. + +I waited until the last sound of his retreat had died away, and then I +made my own way back to the camp. As chance would have it, I hit it +close to the servants' fire, and before I could turn was espied by +some of those who sat at it. One, a stout, swarthy fellow, with bright +black eyes, and a small feather in his cap, sprang up and came towards +me. + +'Why so shy, comrade?' he cried, with a hiccough in his voice. +'Himmel! There are a pair of us!' And he raised his hand and laid it +on my head--with an effort, for I am six feet and two inches. 'Peace!' +and he touched me on the breast. 'War!' and he touched himself. 'And a +good broad piece you are, and a big piece, and a heavy piece, I'll +warrant!' he continued. + +'I might say the same for you!' I retorted, suffering him to lead me +to the fire. + +'Oh, I?' he cried with a drunken swagger. 'I am a double gold ducat, +true metal, stamped with the Emperor's man-at-arms! Melted in the Low +Countries under Spinola--that is, these thirteen years back--minted by +Wallenstein, tried by the noble general! + + + "Clink! Clink! Clink! + Sword and stirrup and spur. + Ride! Ride! Ride! + Fast as feather or fur!" + + +That is my sort! But come, welcome! Will you drink? Will you play? +Will you 'list? Come, the night is young, + + + "For the night-sky is red, + And the burgher's abed, + And bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!" + + +Which shall it be, friend?' + +'I will drink with you or play with you, captain,' I answered, seeing +nothing else for it, 'so far as a poor man may; but as for enlisting, +I am satisfied with my present service.' + +'Ha! ha! I can quite understand that!' he answered, winking tipsily. +'Woman, lovely woman! Here's to her! Here's to her! Here's to her, +lads of the free company! + + + "Drink, lads, drink! + Firkin and flagon and flask. + Hands, lads, hands! + A round to the maid in the mask!" + + +Why, man, you look like a death's head! You are too sober! Shame on +you, and you a German!' + +'An Italian were as good a toper!' one of the men beside him growled. + +'Or a whey-fed Switzer!' + +'Perhaps you are better with the dice!' the captain, intendant, or +what he was, continued. 'You will throw a main? Come, for the honour +of your mistress!' + +I had nearly a score of ducats of my own in my pouch, and so far I +could pay if I lost. I thought that I might get some clue to Tzerclas' +nature and plans by humouring the man, and I assented. + +'The dice, lads, the dice!' he cried. Ludwig, the others called him. + + + '"Ho, the roof shall be red + O'er the heretic's head, + For bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!" + + +The dice, the dice!' + +'Your guest looks scared,' one said, looking at me grimly. 'Perhaps he +is a heretic!' + +'Chut! we are all heretics for the present!' Ludwig answered +recklessly. 'A fig for a credo and a fig for a psalm! Give me a good +horse and a good sword and fat farmhouses. I ask no more. Shall it be +a short life and a merry one? The highest to have it?' + +'Content,' I said, trying to fall into his humour. + +'A ducat a throw?' he asked, posing the caster. A man, as he spoke, +placed a saddle between us, while half a dozen others pressed round to +watch us. The flame leaping up shone on their dark, lean faces and +gleaming eyes, or picked out here and there the haft of a knife or the +butt of a pistol. Some wore steel caps, some caps of fur, some gaudy +handkerchiefs twisted round their heads. There were Spaniards, +Bohemians, Walloons among them; a Croat or two; a few Saxons. 'Come,' +cried the captain, rattling the dice-box. 'A ducat a throw, Master +Peace? Between gentlemen?' + +'Content,' I said, though my heart beat fast. I had never even seen +men play so high. + +'So!' growled a German who crouched beside me--a one-eyed man, fat and +fair, the one fair-faced man in the company; ''tis a cock of a fine +hackle!' + +'See me strip him!' Captain Ludwig rejoined gleefully. And he threw +and I threw, and I won; while the flame, leaping and sinking, flung +its ruddy light on the walls of our huge, leafy chamber. Then he won. +Then I won. I won again, again, again! + +'He has the fiend's own luck!' a Pole cried with a curse. + +'Steady, Ludwig!' quoth another. 'Will you be beaten by a clod-pate?' + +'Fill his cup!' my opponent cried hardily. 'He has the knack of it! +But I will strip him! Beat up the fire there! I can't see the spots. +That is nine ducats you have won, good broad-piece! Throw away!' + +I threw, and at it we went again, but now luck began to run against +me, though slowly. The hollow rattle of the dice, the voices calling +the numbers, the oath and the cry of triumph want on monotonously: +went on--and I think the spirit of play had fairly got hold of +me--when a stern voice suddenly broke in on our game. + +'Put up, there, you rascals!' Tzerclas cried from his fire. 'Have +done, do you hear, or it will be the worse for you! Kennel, I say!' + +Captain Ludwig swore under his breath. 'Ugh!' he muttered, 'just as I +was getting my hand in! What is the score? Seven ducats to me; and +little enough for the trouble. Hand over, comrade. You know the +proverb.' + +In haste to be gone after the warning we had received, I plunged my +hand into my pouch, and drew out in a hurry, not a fistful of ducats +as I intended, but a score of links of gold chain, which for a moment +glittered in the firelight. As quickly as I could I thrust the +chain--it was Marie Wort's, of course--back into my pocket, but not +before the German sitting beside me had seen it. I looked at him +guiltily while I fumbled for the money, and he tried to look as if he +had seen nothing. But his one eye sparkled evilly, and I saw his lips +tremble with greed. He made no remark, however, and in a moment I +found the money and paid my debt. + +Most of the men had already laid themselves down and were snoring, +with their feet to the fire. I muttered good night, and seizing my cap +went off. To gain my quarters, I had to walk across the open under the +beech-tree. I had just reached this tree, and was passing through the +shadow under the branches, when the sound of a light footstep at my +heels startled me, and turning in my tracks I surprised the one-eyed +German. + +'Well,' I said wrathfully--I was not in the best of tempers at +losing--'what do you want?' + +The action and the challenge took him aback. 'Want?' he grumbled, +recoiling a step. 'Nothing. Is this your private property?' + +He had _thief_ written all over his fat, pale face, and I knew very +well what private property he wanted. If I ever saw a sneaking, +hang-dog visage it was his! The more I looked at him the more I +loathed him. + +'Go!' I said; 'get home, you cur! or I will break every bone in your +body.' + +He glared at me with a curse in his one eye, but he saw that I was too +big for him. Besides, General Tzerclas lay reading by his fire thirty +paces away. Baffled and furious, the rascal slunk off with a muttered +word, and went back the way he had come. + +I found Ernst on guard, and after seeing to the fire and hearing that +all was well, I lay down beside him in my cloak. But I found it less +easy to sleep. The firelight, playing among the leaves and branches +overhead, formed likenesses of the men I had left, now grotesque +masks, and now scowling faces, fierce-eyed and grim. Von Werder's +warning, too, recurred to me with added weight and would not leave me +at peace. I wondered what he meant; I wondered what he suspected, +still more, what he knew. + +And yet had I need to wonder, or do more than look round and use my +wits? What was our position? How were we situate? In the camp and in +the hands of a soldier of fortune; a man cold and polite, probably +cruel and possibly brutal, lacking enthusiasm, lacking, or I was +mistaken, religion, without any check save such as his ambition or +fears imposed upon him. And for his power, I saw him surrounded by +desperadoes, soldiers in name, banditti in fact, savage, reckless, and +unscrupulous; the men, or the twin-brothers of the men, who under +another banner had sacked Magdeburg and ravaged Halle. + +What was to prevent such a man making his advantage out of us? What +was to prevent him marching back to Heritzburg and seizing town and +castle under cover of my lady's name, or detaining us as long as he +saw fit, or as suited his purpose? The Landgrave and his Minister were +far away, plunged in the turmoil of a great war. The Emperor's +authority was at an end. The Saxon circle to which we belonged was +disorganized. All law, all order, all administration outside the walls +of the cities were in abeyance. In his own camp and as far beyond it +as his sword could reach the soldier of fortune was lord, absolute and +uncontrolled. + +This trouble kept me turning and tossing for a good hour. At one +moment, I made up my mind to rouse my lady before it was light and be +gone with the dawn, if I could persuade her; at another, I judged it +better to wait until the camp was struck and the horses were saddled, +and then to bid Tzerclas, while our numbers were something like equal, +go his way and let us go ours--to Frankfort or Cassel, or wherever +strong walls and honest citizens, with wives and daughters of their +own, held out a prospect of safety. + +The mind once roused to activity works, whether a man will or no. When +I had thought that matter threadbare, I fell, in my own despite and to +my great torment, on another; the gold necklace. Through the day, and +pending some opportunity of restoring the chain by stealth, I had +shunned its owner. Her dejection, her silence, the way in which she +drooped in the saddle, all had reproached me. To avoid that reproach, +still more to avoid the meekness of her eyes, I had ridden at a +distance from her, sometimes at the head of our company, sometimes at +the tail, but never where she rode. And all day I had had a dozen +things to consider. + +Yet, in spite of this care and preoccupation, I had not succeeded in +keeping her out of my mind. At fords and broken bits of the road, or +at steep places where the track wound above the Werra, the thought, +'How will she cross this?' had occurred to me, so that I had found it +hard to hold off from her at such places. And, then, there was the +necklace. It burned in my pocket. It made me feel, whenever my hand +lighted on it, like a thief, and as mean as the meanest. For a time, +it is true, after our meeting with Tzerclas, I had managed to forget +it; but now, in the watches of the night, I was consumed with longing +to be rid of the thing, to see it back in her possession, to close the +matter before some inconceivable trick of spiteful fortune put it out +of my power to do so. For, what if an accident happened to me and the +chain were found in my pocket? What would she think of me then? Or if +the last accident of all befell me, and she never got her own? + +These imaginations, working in a mind already fevered, spurred me so +painfully that I felt I could hardly wait till morning. Two or three +times in the night I rose on my elbow and looked round the sleeping +camp, and wished that I could return the chain to her then and there. + +I could not. And at last, not long before daybreak, I fell asleep. But +even then the chain did not leave me at peace. It haunted my dreams. +It slid through my fingers and fell away into unfathomable depths. Or +a man with his face hidden dangled it before my eyes, and went away, +away, away, while I stood unable to move hand or foot. Or I was +digging in a pit for it, digging with nails and bleeding fingers, +believing it to be another inch, always another inch below, yet never +able to reach it however hard I worked. + +I awoke at last, bathed in perspiration and unrefreshed, to find the +sun an hour up and the camp beginning to stir itself. Here and there a +man was renewing the fires, while his fellows sat up yawning, or, +crouching chin and knees together, looked on drowsily. The chill +morning air, the curling smoke, the song of the lark as it soared into +the blue heaven, the snort and neigh of the tethered horses, the +sounds of waking life and reality seemed to bless me. I thanked Heaven +it was a dream. + +Young Jacob was tending our fire, and I sat awhile, watching him +sleepily. 'It will be a fine day,' I said at last, preparing to get to +my feet. + +'For certain,' he answered. Then he looked at me shyly. 'You were in +the wars, last night, Master Martin?' he said. + +'In the wars?' I exclaimed. 'What do you mean?' And I stared at him; +waiting, with one knee and one foot on the ground for his answer. + +He pointed to my cloak. I looked down, and saw to my surprise a great +slit in it--a clean cut in the stuff, a foot long. For a moment I +looked at the slit, wondering stupidly and trying to remember how I +could have done it. Then a sudden flash, of intelligence entered my +mind, and with a dreadful pang of terror, I thrust my hand into my +pouch. The chain was gone! + +I sprang to my feet. I tore off the pouch and peered into it. I shook +my clothes like one possessed. I stooped and searched the ground where +I had lain. But all fruitlessly. The chain was gone! + +As soon as I knew this for certain, I turned on Jacob, and seizing him +by the throat, shook him to and fro. 'Wretch!' I said. 'You have +slept! You have slept and let us be robbed! You have ruined me!' + +He gurgled out a startled denial, and the others came round us and got +him from me. But my outcry had roused all our part of the camp; even +my lady put her head out of the tent and asked what was the matter. +Some one told her. + +'That is bad,' she said kindly. 'What is it you have lost, Martin?' + +Over her shoulder I saw a pale face peer out--Marie Wort's; and on the +instant I felt my rage die down into a miserable chill, the chill of +despair. + +'Seven ducats,' I said sullenly, looking down at the ground, for the +truth, at sight of her, crushed me. I was a thief! This had made me +one. Who was I to cry out that I was robbed? + +'It must be one of the strangers,' my lady said in a low voice and +with an air of disturbance. 'Do you----' + +I sprang away without waiting to hear more--they must have thought me +mad. I tore to the spot where I had diced the night before. Three or +four men sat round the fire, swearing and grumbling, as is the manner +of their kind in the morning; but the man I wanted was not among them. + +'Where is Ludwig?' I panted. 'Where is he?' + +A form, wrapped head and all in a cloak, struggled for a moment with +its coverings, and freeing itself at last, rose to a sitting posture. +It was Captain Ludwig. + +'Who wants me?' he muttered sleepily. + +'I!' I cried, stooping and seizing him by the shoulder. I was +trembling with excitement. 'I have been robbed! Do you hear, man? I +have been robbed! In the night!' + +He shook me off impatiently. 'Well, what is that to me?' he grunted. +And he turned to warm himself. + +'Where is the Saxon who sat by me last night?' I demanded, almost +beside myself with fury. + +'How do I know?' he answered, shrugging his shoulders peevishly. +'Robbed? Well, you are not the first person that has been robbed. You +need not make such an outcry about it. There is more than one thief +about, eh, Taddeo?' And he winked cunningly at his comrade. + +The man's indifference maddened me. I could scarcely keep my hands off +him. Fortunately, Taddeo's answer put an end to my doubts. + + +[Illustration: . . . Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, +continued to stamp and scream . . .] + + +'There is one less, at any rate, captain,' he said carelessly, +stooping forward to stir the embers. 'The Saxon is gone.' + +'Himmel! He has, has he? Without leave?' Ludwig answered. 'The worse +for him if we catch him, that is all!' + +'He went off with the German and his servants an hour before sunrise,' +Taddeo said with a yawn. + +'He had better not let our noble general overtake him!' Ludwig +answered grimly, while I stood still, stricken dumb by the news. 'But +enough of that. Where is my cap?' + +Taddeo pushed it towards him with his foot, and he took it up and put +it on. He had no sooner done so, however, than a thought seemed to +strike him. He snatched the cap off again, and, plunging his hand into +it, groped in the lining. The next instant he sprang to his feet with +a howl of rage. + +Taddeo looked at him in astonishment. 'What is it?' he asked. + +For answer, Ludwig ran at him and dealt him a tremendous kick. 'There, +pig, that is for you!' he cried vengefully, his eyes almost starting +from his head. 'You will not ask what it is next time! That Saxon +hound has robbed me--that is what it is. But he shall pay for it. He +shall hang before night! Every ducat I had he has taken, pig, dog, +vermin that he is! But I'll be even with him. I'll lash----' + +And Master Ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued +to stamp and scream so loudly that in the end Tzerclas overheard him, +and appeared. + +'What is this?' the general said harshly. 'Is that man mad?' + +Ludwig grew a little calmer at sight of him. 'The Saxon, Heller,' he +answered, scowling. 'He has deserted with fifty ducats of mine, +general; good honest money!' + +'The worse for you,' Tzerclas answered cynically. 'And the worse for +him, if I catch him. He will hang.' + +'He has taken a gold chain of mine also,' I said, thrusting myself +forward. + +The general looked hard at me. 'Umph!' he said. 'Which way has he +gone?' + +'He left with the German gentleman and his two servants at daybreak,' +Taddeo answered, rubbing himself. 'I thought that he had orders to go +with them.' + +'He has gone north, then?' + +'North they started,' Taddeo whimpered. + +The general turned to Ludwig. 'Take two men,' he said curtly, 'and +follow him. But, whether you catch him or not, see that you are back +two hours before noon. And let me have no more noise.' + +Ludwig saluted hastily, and, it will be believed, lost no time in +obeying his orders. In two minutes he was in the saddle, and dashed +out of camp, followed by two of his men and one of my lady's, whom I +took leave to add to the party for the better care of my property, +should it be recovered. I looked after them with longing eyes, and +listened to the last beat of the hoofs as they passed through the +forest. And then for three hours I had to wait in a dreadful state of +suspense and inaction. At the end of that time the party rode in +again, the horses bloody with spurring, the riders gloomy and +chapfallen. They had galloped four leagues without coming on the +slightest trace of the fugitive or his companions. + +'The German never went north,' Ludwig said, looking darkly at his +chief. + +Tzerclas smoothed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. 'Are you +sure of that?' he asked. + +'Quite, general. They have all gone south together,' Ludwig answered, +'and are far enough away by this time.' + +'Umph! Well, we start in an hour.' + +And that was all! I wandered away and stood staring at the ground. I +remembered that Peter the locksmith had valued the chain at two +hundred ducats, a sum exceeding any I could pay. But that was not the +worst. What was I to say to the girl? How was I to explain a piece of +folly, mischief, call it what you will, that had turned out so badly? +If I told her the truth, would she believe me? + +At that thought I started. Why tell her the truth at all? Why not +leave her in ignorance? She would be none the worse, for the chain was +gone. And I, who had never meant to steal it, should be the better, +seeing that I should escape the humiliation of confessing what I had +done. Confession could do no good to her. And in what a position it +would place me! + +Leaning against a tree and driving my heel moodily into the soil, I +was still battling with this temptation--for a temptation I knew it +was, even then--when a light touch fell on my sleeve. I turned, and +there was the girl herself, waiting to speak to me! + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + NEAR THE EDGE. + + +'Will you give me back my--my chain, if you please?' she said timidly. + +And she stood with clasped hands and blushing cheeks, as if she were +the culprit. Her eyes looked anywhere to avoid mine. Her voice +trembled, and she seemed ready to sink into the earth with shame. She +was small, weak, helpless. But her words! Had they come from the judge +sitting on his bench, with axe and branding-iron by his side, they +could not have cowed me more completely, or deprived me more quickly +of wit and courage. + +'Your chain?' I stammered, stricken almost voiceless. 'What do you +mean?' + +'If you please,' she whispered, her face flushing more and more, her +eyes filling. 'My chain.' + +'But how--what makes you think that I have got it?' I muttered +hoarsely. 'What makes you come to me?' + +To confess, of my own motive and unsuspected, had been bad enough and +shameful enough; but to be accused, unmasked, convicted--and by her! +This was too much. My face burned, my eyes were hot as fire. + +She twisted the fingers of one hand tightly round the other, but she +did not look up. 'You took it from the child's neck as we passed +through the ford,' she said in a low voice, 'that night I lost it.' + +'I did!' I exclaimed. 'I did, girl?' + +She nodded firmly, her lip trembling. But she never looked up; nor +into my face! + +Yet her insistence angered me. How did she know, how could she know? I +put the question into words. 'How do you know?' I said harshly. 'Who +told you so? Who told you this--this lie, woman?' + +'The child,' she answered, shivering under my words. + +I opened my mouth and drew in my breath. I had never thought of that. +I had never thought, save once for a brief moment, of the child +talking, and, on the instant, I stood speechless; convicted and +confounded! Then I found my voice again. + +'The child told you!' I muttered incredulously. 'The child? Why, it +cannot talk!' + +'It can,' she said, her voice breaking. 'It can talk to me, and I can +understand it. Oh, I am so sorry!' And with that she broke down. She +turned away and, covering her face with her hands, began to sob +bitterly. Her shoulders heaved, and her slender frame shook with the +storm. + +A thief, and a liar! That was what I had made myself. I stood glaring +at her, my breast full of sullen passion. I hated her and her +necklace. I wished that it had been buried a thousand fathoms deep in +the sea! That moment in the ford, one moment only, a moment of folly, +had wrecked me. I raged against her and against myself. I could have +struck her. If she had only left me alone, if she had not come to +question me and accuse me, I should not have lied; and then, perhaps, +I might have recovered the necklace, somehow and some day, and, giving +it back to her, told her the story and kept my honesty. Now I had +lied, and she knew it. And I hated her. I hated her, sobbing and +shaking and shivering before me. + +And then a ray of sunlight, passing through the branches, fell on her +bowed head. A hundred paces away, little more, they were striking the +camp. The men's voices, their harsh jests and rude laughter, reached +us. I heard one man called, and another, and orders given, and the +jingle of the bits and bridles. All was unchanged, everything was +proceeding in its usual course. One thing only in the world was +altered--Martin Schwartz, the steward. + +I found no words to lie to her farther, to deny or protest; and when +we had stood thus for a short time, she turned. She began to move +slowly away from me, though the passion of her tears seemed to +increase rather than slacken as she went, and shook her frame with +such vehemence that she could scarcely walk. + +For a time I stood looking after her in sullen shame, doing and saying +nothing to stay her. Then, suddenly, a change came over me. She looked +so friendless, so frail, and gentle and helpless, that, in the middle +of my selfish shame, my heart smote me. I felt a sudden welling up of +pity and repentance, which worked so quickly and wonderfully in me, +that before she had gone a score of paces from me, my hand was on her +shoulder. + +'Stop! Stay a moment!' I muttered hoarsely. 'I have been lying to you. +I took the necklace--from the child's neck. It is all true.' + +She ceased crying, but she did not turn or look at me. She seemed to +be struggling for composure, and presently, with her face still +averted, she murmured-- + +'Why did you take it? Will you please to tell me?' + +As well as I could, I did tell her; how and why I had taken it, what I +had done with it, and how I had lost it. She listened, but she made no +sign, she said nothing; and her silence hurt me at last so keenly that +I added with bitterness-- + +'I lied before, and you need not believe what I say now. Still, it is +true.' + +She turned her face quickly to me, and I saw that her cheeks were hot +and her eyes shining. 'I believe it--every word,' she said. + +'I will not lie to you again.' + +'You never did,' she answered. And she stole a glance at me, a faint +smile flickering about her lips. 'Your face never did, Master Martin.' + +'Yet you wept sore enough for your chain,' I said. + +She looked at me for a moment with something like anger in her gentle +eyes, so that for that instant she seemed transformed. And she drew +away from me. + +'Did you think that I wept for that?' she said in a tone of offence. +'I did not.' + +'Then for what?' I asked clumsily. + +She looked two or three ways before she answered, and in the distance +some one called me. + +'There! you are wanted,' she said hurriedly. + +'But you have not answered my question,' I said. + +She took a step from me and paused, with her head half turned. 'I +wept--I wept because I thought that I had lost a friend,' she said in +a low voice. 'And I have few, Master Martin.' + +She was gone, before I could answer, through the trees and back to the +camp. And I had to follow. Half a dozen voices in half a dozen places +were calling my name. The general's trumpet was sounding. I slipped +aside and joined the camp from another quarter, and in a moment was in +the middle of the hubbub, beset by restive horses and swaying poles, +clanging kettles and swearing riders, and all the hurry and confusion +of the start. My lady called to me sharply to know where I had been, +and why I was late. The Waldgrave wanted this, Fraulein Max that. The +general frowned at me from afar. It would have been no great wonder if +I had lost my temper. + +But I did not; I was in no risk of doing so. I had gone near the edge +and had been plucked back. Late, and when all seemed over, I had been +given a place for repentance; and gratitude and relief so filled my +breast that I had a smile for every one. The sun seemed to shine more +brightly, the wind to blow more softly--the wind which blew from Marie +Wort to me. Thank God! + +As I fell in behind my lady--the general riding alone some way in the +rear--the Waldgrave came up and took his place at her side; greeting +her with an awkward air which seemed to prove that this was his first +appearance in her neighbourhood. He made a show of hiding his +uneasiness under a face of careless gaiety, such as was his natural +wear; and for awhile he rattled on gallantly. But my lady's cool tone +and short answers soon stripped him, and left him with no other +resource but to take offence. He took it, and for a mile or so rode on +in gloomy silence, brooding over his wrongs. Then, anger giving way to +self-reproach, he grew tired of this. + +With a sudden gesture he leaned over and laid his hand on the withers +of my lady's horse. 'Tell me, what is the matter, fair cousin?' he +said in a softened tone. 'What have I done?' + +'You should know,' she answered, giving him one keen glance, but +speaking more gently than before. + +'I know?' he replied hardily. 'I am sure I don't.' + +My lady shook her head. 'I think you do,' she said. + +'I suppose you are angry with me for--for standing up for Germany last +night?' he muttered, withdrawing his hand and speaking coldly in his +turn. + +'No, not for that,' my lady rejoined. 'Certainly not for that. But for +being too German in one of your habits, Rupert. Which do you think +made the better figure last night--you who were flushed with wine, or +General Tzerclas who kept his head cool? You who bragged like a boy, +or General Tzerclas who said less than he meant? You who were rude to +your host; or he who made every allowance for his guest?' + +'Allowance!' my lord cried, firing up at the word. And I could see +that he reddened to the nape of his neck with anger. 'There was no +need!' + +'Yes, allowance,' my lady answered firmly. 'There was every need.' + +'You would have me drink nothing, I suppose?' he said fretting and +fuming. + +'I would rather you drank nothing than too much,' she replied. +'Because a German and a drunkard have come to mean the same thing, is +that a reason for deepening the reproach? For shame, Rupert!' + +'You treat me like a boy!' he cried bitterly. And I thought that she +was hard on him. + +'Well, you have only yourself to thank,' she retorted cruelly, 'if I +do. You behave like a boy. And I do not like to have to blush for my +friends.' + +That cut him deeply. He uttered a half-stifled cry of anger and reined +in his horse. 'You have said enough,' he said, speaking thickly. 'You +shall have no farther cause to blush in my case. I will relieve you.' +And on the instant, with a low bow, he turned his horse's head and +rode down the column towards the rear, leaving my lady to go on alone. + +I confess I thought that she had been hard on him; perhaps she thought +so too, now he was gone. And here were the beginnings of a pretty +quarrel. But I did not guess the direction it was likely to take, +until a horseman spurred quickly by me, and in a moment General +Tzerclas, his velvet cloak hanging at his shoulder, had taken the +Waldgrave's place, and with his head bent low over his horse's neck +was talking to my lady. I saw him indicate this and that quarter with +his gauntleted hand. I could fancy that this was Cassel, and that +Frankfort, and another his camp, and that he was proposing plans and +routes. But what he said I could not hear. He had a low, quiet way of +talking, very characteristic of him, which flattered those to whom he +addressed himself and baffled others. + +And this, I suppose, it was that made me suspicious. For the longer I +rode behind him and the more I considered him, the less I liked both +him and the prospect. He was in the prime of his age and strength, +inferior to the Waldgrave in height and the air of youth, but superior +in that which the other lacked--the bearing of a man of the world, +tried by good and evil fortune, and versed in many perils. Cool and +resolute, handsome in a hard-bitten fashion, gifted, as I guessed, +with infinite address, he possessed much to take the fancy of a woman; +particularly of such a one as my lady, long used to comfort, and now +learning in ill-fortune the value of a strong arm. + +The possibility of such an alliance, thus suddenly thrust on my +notice, chilled me. Anything, I said, rather than that. The Waldgrave +had not left his post five minutes before I began to think of him with +longing, before I began to invest him with all manner of virtues. At +least, he was a German, of a great and noble family, tied to the soil, +and fettered in his dealings by a hundred traditions; while this man +riding before me possessed not one of these qualities! + +Von Werder's warning, which the loss of Marie Wort's necklace had +driven from my mind for a time, recurred with double force now, and +did not tend to reassure me. I listened with all my might, trying to +learn whether my lady was pledging herself to any course, for I knew +that if she once promised I should find it hard to move her. But I +could not catch a syllable, and presently there came an interruption +which diverted my thoughts. + +One of the two men who rode in front, and served for the advanced +guard of our party, came galloping back with his hand raised and a +grin on his dark face. He pulled up his horse a few paces short of +General Tzerclas and my lady, and reported that he had found the +Saxon. + +'What! Heller?' the general exclaimed. 'Here, Ludwig! Where are you?' + +Ludwig, and I, and two or three more, spurred forward, and passing by +my lady, who reined in her horse, came a hundred paces farther on upon +the other trooper. He had dismounted and was stooping over a man's +body, which lay under a great tree that stood a few yards from the +track. + +'So, so? He is dead, is he?' the captain cried, leaping from his +saddle. + +'Ay, this hour or more,' the trooper answered with a grunt. 'And +robbed!' + +'Robbed?' Ludwig shrieked. 'Then you have done it, you scoundrel.' + +'Not I!' the fellow said coolly. 'Who ever it was killed him, robbed +him. You can see for yourself that he has been dead an hour or more.' + +The sudden hope which had dawned in my breast sank again. The man lay +on his back, with his one eye staring, and his mean, livid face turned +up to the tree and the sunshine. His cap had fallen off, and a shock +of hay-coloured hair added to the horror of his appearance. I tried in +vain to hide a qualm as I watched the soldiers passing their practised +hands over his clothes; but I was alone in this. No one else seemed to +feel any emotion. The dead man lay and his comrades searched him, and +I heard a hundred ribald and loose things said, but not one that +smacked of pity or regret. So the man had lived, without love or +mercy, and so he died. + +Ludwig stood up at last. 'He has not the worth of his boots upon him!' +he said, with a savage snarl. And he kicked the body. + +'Look in his cap!' I said. + +A man took it up, but only to hold it out to me. Some one had already +ripped it up with a knife. + +'His boots!' I suggested desperately. + +In a moment they were drawn off, turned up, and shaken. But nothing +fell out. The dead man had been stripped clean. There was not so much +as a silver piece upon him. + +We got to horse gloomily, one man the richer by his belt, another by +his boots. His arms were gone already. And so we left him lying under +the tree for the next traveller to bury, if he pleased. I know it has +an ill sound now, but we were in an evil mood, and the times were +rough. + +'The dog is dead, let the dog lie!' one growled. And that was his +epitaph. + +With him disappeared, as it seemed to me, my last chance of recovering +the necklace. Whoever had robbed him, that was gone. A week might see +it pass through a score of hands, a day might see it broken up, and +spent, a link here and a link there. It was gone, and I had to face +the fact and make up my mind to its consequences. + +I am bound to say that the reflection gave me less pain than I could +have believed possible a few hours before. Then it would almost have +maddened me. Now it troubled me, but not beyond endurance, leading me +to go over with a jealous eye all the particulars of my interview with +Marie, but renewing none of the shame which had attended the first +discovery of my loss. By turning my head I could see the girl plodding +patiently on, a little behind me in the ranks; and I turned often. It +no longer pained me to meet her eyes. + +An hour before sunset we crossed the brow of a low, furze-covered +hill, and saw before us a shallow green valley or basin, through which +the river wound in a hundred zigzags. The hovels of a small village, +with one or two houses of a better size, stood dotted about the banks +of the stream. Over the largest of the buildings a banner hung idly on +a pole, and from this as from the centre of a circle ran out long rows +of wattled huts, which in the distance looked like bee-hives. Endless +ranks of horses stood hobbled in another place, with a forest of carts +and sledges, and here a drove of oxen, and there a monstrous flock of +sheep. One of the men with us blew a few notes on a trumpet; and the +sound, being taken up at once and repeated, in a moment filled the +mimic streets with a hurrying, buzzing crowd, that lent the scene all +the animation possible. + +'So, this is your camp?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. + +'This is my camp,' General Tzerclas answered quietly. 'And it and I +are equally at your service. Presently we will bid you welcome after a +more fitting fashion, Countess.' + +'And how many men have you here?' she asked quickly. + +'Two thousand,' he answered, with a faint smile. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + OUR QUARTERS. + + +At this time I had never seen a camp, nor viewed any large number of +armed men together, and my curiosity, as we dropped gently down the +hill, while the sun set and the shadows of evening fell upon the busy +scene, was mingled with some uneasiness. The babble of voices, of +traders crying their wares, of men quarrelling at play, of women +screaming and scolding, rose up continually, as from a fair; and the +nearer we approached the more like a fair, the less like my +anticipations, seemed the place we were entering. I looked to see +something gay and splendid, the glitter of weapons and the gleam of +flags, some reflection of the rich surroundings the general allowed +himself. I saw nothing of the kind; no show of ordered lines, no +battalia drilling, no picquets, outposts, or sentinels. On the +contrary, all before us seemed squalid, noisy, turbulent; so that as I +descended into the midst of it, and left the quiet uplands and the +evening behind us, I felt my gorge rise, and shivered as with cold. + +A furlong short of the camp a troop of officers on horseback came to +meet us, and saluting their general--some with hiccoughs--fell in +tumultuously behind us; and their feathered hats and haphazard armour +took the eye finely. But the next to meet us were of a different +kind--beggars; troops of whom, men, women, and children, assailed us +with loud cries, and, wailing and imploring aid, ran beside our +horses, until Tzerclas' men rode out at them and beat them off. To +these succeeded a second horde, this time of gaudy, slatternly women, +who hung about the entrance to the camp, with hucksters, peddlers, +thieves, and the like, without number; so that our way seemed to lie +through the lowest haunts of a great city. Not one in four of all I +saw had the air of a soldier or counted himself one. + +And this was the case inside the camp as well as outside. Everywhere +booths and stalls stood among the huts, and sutlers plied their trade. +Everywhere men wrangled, and women screamed, and naked children +scuttered up and down. While we passed, the general's presence +procured momentary respect and silence. The moment we were gone, the +stream of ribaldry poured across our path, and the tide of riot set +in. I saw plenty of bearded ruffians, dark men with scowling faces, +chaffering, gaming or sleeping; but little that was soldierly, little +that was orderly, nothing to proclaim that this was the lager of a +military force, until we had left the camp itself behind us and +entered the village. + +Here in a few scattered houses were the quarters of the principal +officers; and here a degree of quiet and decency and some show met the +eye. A watch was set in the street, which was ankle-deep in filth. A +few pennons fluttered from the eaves, or before the doors. In front of +the largest house a dozen cannon, the wheels locked together with +chains, were drawn up, and behind the buildings were groups of +tethered horses. Two trumpeters, who seemed to be waiting for us, blew +a blast as we appeared, and a dozen officers on foot, some with pikes +and some with partisans, came up to greet the general. But even here +ugly looks and insolent faces were plentiful. The splendour was faded, +the rich garments were set on awry. Hard by the cannon, in the shadow +of the house, a corpse hung and dangled from the branch of an oak. The +man had kicked off his shoes before he died, or some one had taken +them, and the naked feet, shining in the dusk, brushed the shoulders +of the passers-by. + +Some might have taken it for an evil omen; I found it a good one, yet +wished more than ever that we had not met General Tzerclas. But my +lady, riding beside him and listening to his low-voiced talk, seemed +not a whit disappointed by what she saw, by the lack of discipline, or +the sordid crowd. Either she had known better than I what to expect in +a camp, or she had eyes only for such brightness as existed. Possibly +Von Werder's warning had so coloured my vision that I saw everything +in sombre tints. + +We found quarters prepared for us, not in the general's house, the +large one by the cannon, but in a house of four rooms, a little +farther down the street. It was convenient, it had been cleaned for +us, and we found a meal awaiting us; and so far I was bound to confess +that we had no ground for complaint. The general accompanied my lady +to the door, and there left her with many bows, requesting permission +to wait on her next day, and begging her in the mean time to send to +him for anything that was lacking to her comfort. + +When he was gone, and my lady had surveyed the place, she let her +satisfaction be seen. The main room had been made habitable enough. +She stood in her redingote, tapping the table with her whip. + +'Well, Martin, this is better than the forest,' she said. + +'Yes, your excellency,' I answered reluctantly. + +'I think we have done very well,' she continued; and she smiled to +herself. + +'We are safe from the rain, at any rate,' I said bluntly. My tongue +itched to tell her Von Werder's warning, but Fraulein Anna and Marie +Wort were in the room, and I did not think it safe to speak. + +I could not stay and not tell, however, and I jumped at the first +excuse for retiring. There was a kind of wooden platform in front of +the houses, and running their whole length; a walk, raised out of the +mud of the street and sheltered overhead by the low, wide eaves. A +woman and some children had climbed on to it, and begging with their +palms through the windows almost deafened us. I ran out and drove them +off, and set a man in front to keep the place free. But the wretched +creatures' entreaties haunted me, and when I returned I was in a worse +temper than before. + +The Waldgrave met me at the door, and to my surprise laid his hand on +my shoulder. 'This way, Martin,' he said in a low voice. 'I want a +word with you.' + +I went with him across the road, and leaned against the fallen trunk +of a tree, which was just visible in the darkness. Through the +unglazed windows of the house we could see the lighted rooms, the +Countess and her attendants moving about, Fraulein Anna sitting with +her feet tucked up in a corner, the servants bringing in the meal. All +in a frame of blackness, with the hoarse sounds of the camp in our +ears, and the pitiful wailing of the beggars dying away in the +distance. It was a dark night, and still. + +The Waldgrave laughed. 'Dilly, dilly, dilly! Come and be killed,' he +muttered. 'Two thousand soldiers? Two thousand cut-throats, Martin. +Pappenheim's black riders were gentlemen beside these fellows!' + +'Things may look more cheerful by daylight,' I said. + +'Or worse!' he answered. + +I told him frankly that I thought the sooner we were out of the camp +the better. + +'If we can get out! Of course, it is better for the mouse when it is +out of the trap!' he answered with a sneer. 'But there is the rub.' + +'He would not dare to detain us,' I said. I did not believe my words, +however. + +'He will dare one of two things,' the Waldgrave answered firmly, 'you +may be sure of that: either he will march your lady back to +Heritzburg, and take possession in her name, with this tail at his +heels--in which case, Heaven help her and the town. Or he will keep +her here.' + +I tried to think that he was prejudiced in the matter, and that his +jealousy of General Tzerclas led him to see evil where none was meant. +But his fears agreed so exactly with my own, that I found it difficult +to treat his suggestions lightly. What the camp was, I had seen; how +helpless we were in the midst of it, I knew; what advantage might be +taken of us, I could imagine. + +Presently I found an argument. 'You forget one thing, my lord,' I +said. 'General Tzerclas is on his way to the south. In a week we shall +be with the main army at Nuremberg, and able to appeal to the King of +Sweden or the Landgrave or a hundred friends, ready and willing to +help us.' + +The Waldgrave laid his hand on my arm. 'He does not intend to go +south,' he said. + +I could not believe that; and I was about to state my objections when +the noisy march of a body of men approaching along the road disturbed +us. The Waldgrave raised his hand and listened. + +'Another time!' he muttered--already we began to fear and be +secret--'Go now!' + +In a trice he disappeared in the darkness, while I went more slowly +into the house, where I found my lady inquiring anxiously after him. I +thought that the young lord would follow me in, and I said I had seen +him. But he did not come, and presently wild strains of music, rising +on the air outside, took us all by surprise and effectually diverted +my lady's thoughts. + +The players proved to be the general's band, sent to serenade us. +As the weird, strange sweetness of the air, with its southern turns +and melancholy cadences, stole into the room and held the women +entranced--while moths fluttered round the lights and the servants +pressed to the door to listen, and now and then a harsh scream or a +distant oath betrayed the surrounding savagery--I felt my eyes drawn +to my lady's face. She sat listening with a rapt expression. Her eyes +were downcast, her lashes drooped and veiled them; but some pleasant +thought, some playful remembrance curved her full lips and dimpled her +chin. What was the thought, I wondered? was it gratification, +pleasure, complacency, or only amusement? I longed to know. + +On one point I was resolved. My lady should not sleep that night until +she had heard the warning I had received from Von Werder. To that end +I did all I could to catch her alone, but in the result I had to +content myself with an occasion when only Fraulein Anna was with her. +Time pressed, and perhaps the Dutch girl's presence confused me, or +the delicacy of the position occurred to me _in mediis rebus_, as I +think the Fraulein called it. At any rate, I blurted out the story a +little too roughly, and found myself called sharply to order. + +'Stay!' my lady said, and I saw too late that her colour was high. +'Not so fast, man! I think, Martin, that since we left Heritzburg you +have lost some of your manners! See to it, you recover them. Who told +you this tale?' + +'Herr von Werder,' I answered with humility; and I was going on with +my story. But she raised her hand. + +'Herr von Werder!' she said haughtily. 'Who is he?' + +'The gentleman who supped with us last night,' I reminded her. + +She stamped the floor impatiently. 'Fool!' she cried, 'I know that! +But who is he? Who is he? He should be some great man to prate of my +affairs so lightly.' + +I stuttered and stammered, and felt my cheek redden with shame. _I did +not know_. And the man was not here, and I could not reproduce for her +the air of authority, the tone and look which had imposed on me: which +had given weight to words I might otherwise have slighted, and +importance to a warning that I now remembered was a stranger's. I +stood, looking foolish. + +My lady saw her advantage. 'Well,' she said harshly, 'who is he? Out +with it, man! Do not keep us waiting.' + +I muttered that I knew no more of him than his name. + +'Perhaps not that,' she retorted scornfully. + +I admitted that it might be so. + +My lady's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flamed. 'Before Heaven, you are +a fool!' she cried. 'How dare you come to me with such a story? How +dare you traduce a man without proof or warranty! And my cousin! Why, +it passes belief. On the word of a nameless wanderer admitted to our +table on sufferance you accuse an honourable gentleman, our kinsman +and our host, of--Heaven knows of what, I don't! I tell you, you shame +me!' she continued vehemently. 'You abuse my kindness. You abuse the +shelter given to us. You must be mad, stark mad, to think such things. +Or----' + +She stopped on a sudden and looked down frowning. When she looked up +again her face was changed. 'Tell me,' she said in a constrained +voice, 'did any one--did the Waldgrave Rupert suggest this to you?' + +'God forbid!' I said. + +The answer seemed to embarrass her. 'Where is he?' she asked, looking +at me suspiciously. + +I told her that I did not know. + +'Why did he not come to supper?' she persisted. + +Again I said I did not know. + +'You are a fool!' she replied sharply. But I saw that her anger had +died down, and I was not surprised when she continued in a changed +tone, 'Tell me; what has General Tzerclas done to you that you dislike +him so? What is your grudge against him, Martin?' + +'I have no grudge against him, your excellency,' I answered. + +'You dislike him?' + +I looked down and kept silence. + +'I see you do,' my lady continued. 'Why? Tell me why, Martin.' + +But I felt so certain that every word I said against him would in her +present mood only set him higher in her favour that I was resolved not +to answer. At last, being pressed, I told her that I distrusted him as +a soldier of fortune--a class the country folk everywhere hold in +abhorrence; and that nothing I had seen in his camp had tended to +lessen the feeling. + +'A soldier of fortune!' she replied, with a slight tinge of wonder and +scorn. 'What of that? My uncle was one. Lord Craven, the Englishman, +the truest knight-errant that ever followed banished queen--if all I +hear be true--he is one; and his comrade, the Lord Horace Vere. And +Count Leslie, the Scotchman, who commands in Stralsund for the Swede, +I never heard aught but good of him. And Count Thurn of Bohemia--him I +know. He is a brave man and honourable. A soldier of fortune!' she +continued thoughtfully, tapping the table with her fingers. 'And why +not? Why not?' + +My choler rose at her words. 'He has the sweepings of Germany in his +train,' I muttered. 'Look at his camp, my lady.' + +She shrugged her shoulders. 'A camp is not a nunnery,' she said. 'And +at any rate, he is on the right side.' + +'His own!' I exclaimed. + +I could have bitten my tongue the next moment, but it was too late. My +lady looked at me sternly. 'You grow too quick-witted,' she said. 'I +have talked too much to you, I see. I am no longer in Heritzburg, but +I will be respected, Martin. Go! go at once, and to-morrow be more +careful.' + +Result--that I had offended her and done no good. I wondered what the +Waldgrave would say, and I went to bed with a heart full of fancies +and forebodings, that, battening on themselves, grew stronger and more +formidable the longer I lay awake. The night was well advanced and the +immediate neighbourhood of our quarters was quiet. The sentry's +footsteps echoed monotonously as he tramped up and down the wooden +platform before them. I could almost hear the breathing of the +sleepers in the other rooms, the creak of the floor as one rose or +another turned. There was nothing to keep me from sleep. + +But my thoughts would not be confined to the four walls or the +neighbourhood; my ears lent themselves to every sound that came from +the encircling camp, the coarse song chanted by drunken revellers, the +oath of anger, the shrill taunt, the cry of surprise. And once, a +little before midnight, I heard something more than these: a sudden +roar of voices that swelled up and up, louder and fiercer, and then +died in a moment into silence--to be followed an instant later by +fierce screams of pain--shriek upon shriek of such mortal agony and +writhing that I sat up on my pallet, trembling all over and bathed in +perspiration; and even the sleepers turned and moaned in their dreams. +The cries grew fainter. Then, thank Heaven! silence. + +But the incident left me in no better mood for sleep, and with every +nerve on the stretch I was turning on the other side for the twentieth +time when I fancied I heard whispering outside; a faint muttering as +of some one talking to the sentinel. The sentry's step still kept +time, however, and I was beginning to think that my imagination had +played me a trick, when the creak of a door in the house, followed by +a rustling sound, confirmed my suspicions. I rose to my feet. The next +instant a low scream and the harsh voice of the watchman told me that +something had happened. + +I passed out of the house, without alarming any one, and was not +surprised to find Jacob pinning a captive against the wall with one +hand, while he threatened him with his pike. There was just light +enough to see this, and no more, the wide eaves casting a black shadow +on the prisoner's face. + +'What is it, Jacob?' I said, going to his assistance. 'Whom have you +got?' + +'I do not know,' he answered sturdily, 'but I'll keep him. He was +trying to get in or out. Steady now,' he added gruffly to his captive, +'or I will spoil your beauty for you!' + +'In or out?' I said. + +'Ay, I think he was coming out.' + +There was a fire burning in the road a score of paces away. I ran to +it and fetched a brand, and blowing the smouldering wood into a blaze, +threw the light on the fellow's face. Jacob dropped his hand with a +cry of surprise, and I recoiled. His prisoner was a woman--Marie Wort. + +She hung down her head, trembling violently. Jacob had thrust back the +hood from her face, and her loosened hair covered her shoulders. + +'What does it mean?' I cried, struggling with my bewilderment. 'Why +are you here, girl?' + +Instead of answering she cowered nearer the wall, and I saw that she +was trying to hide something behind her under cover of her cloak. + +'What have you got there?' I said quickly, laying my hand on her +wrist. + +She flashed a look at me, her small teeth showing, a mutinous glare on +her little pale face. 'Not my chain!' she snapped. + +I dropped her arm and recoiled as if she had struck me; though the +words did not so much hurt as surprise me. And I was quick to recover +myself. 'What is it, then?' I said, returning to the attack. 'I must +know, Marie, and what you are doing here at this time of night.' + +As she did not answer I put her cloak aside, and discovered, to my +great astonishment, that she was holding a platter full of food. It +shook in her hand. She began to cry. + +'Heavens, girl!' I exclaimed in my wonder, 'have you not had enough to +eat?' + +She lifted her head and looked at me through her tears, her eyes +sparkling with indignation. 'I have!' she said almost fiercely. 'But +what of these?'--and she flung her disengaged hand abroad, with a +gesture I did not at once comprehend. 'Can you sleep in their beds, +and lie in their houses, and eat from their meal-tubs, and think of +them starving, and not get up and help them? Can you hear them whining +for food like dogs, and starve them as you would not starve a dog? I +cannot. I cannot!' she repeated wildly. 'But you, you others, you of +the north, you have no hearts! You lie soft and care nothing!' + +'But what--who are starving?' I said in amazement. Her words outran my +wits. 'And where is the man in whose bed I am lying?' + +'Under the sky! In the ditch!' she answered passionately. 'Are you +blind?' she continued, speaking more quietly and drawing nearer. 'Do +you think your general built this village? If not, where are the +people who lived in it a month ago? Whining for a crust at the camp +gate. Living on offal, or starving. Fighting with the dogs for bones. +I heard a man outside this house cry that it was all his, and that he +was starving. You drove him off. I heard his wife and babes wailing +outside a while ago, and I came out. I could not bear it.' + +I looked at Jacob. He nodded gravely. 'There was a woman here, with a +child,' he said. + +'Heaven forgive us!' I cried. Then--'Go in, girl,' I continued. 'I +will see the food put where they will get it; but do you go to bed.' + +She obeyed meekly, leaving me wondering at the strange mixture of +courage and fearfulness which makes up some women, and those the best; +who fly from a rat, yet face every extremity of pain without +flinching. A Romanist? And what of that? It seemed to me a small +thing, as I watched her gliding in. If she knew little and that awry, +she loved much. + +I looked at Jacob and he at me. 'Is it true, do you think?' I said. + +'I doubt it is,' he answered stolidly, dropping the smouldering brand +on the ground and treading, it out with his heel. 'I have seen +soldiers and sutlers and women since I came into camp; and beggars. +But peasants not one. I doubt we have eaten them out, Master Martin. +But soldiers must live.' + +The little heap of red embers glowed dully in the road and gave no +light. The darkness shut us in on every side, even as the camp shut us +in. I looked out into it and shuddered. It seemed to my eyes peopled +with horrors: with gaping mouths that cursed us as they set in death, +with lean hands that threatened us, and tortured faces of maids and +children; with the despair of the poor. Ghosts of starving men and +women glared at us out of spectral eyes. And the night seemed full of +omens. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE OPENING OF A DUEL. + + +I never knew where the Waldgrave spent that night, but I think it must +have been with the fairies. For when he showed himself early next +morning, before my lady appeared, I noticed at once a change in him; +and though at first I was at a loss to explain it, I presently saw +that that had happened which might have been expected. The appearance +of a rival had laid the spark to his heart, and while the love-light +was in his eyes, a new gravity, a new gentleness added grace to his +bearing. The temper and pettiness of yesterday were gone. Other +things, too, I saw--that his face flushed when my lady's voice was +heard at the door, that his eyes shone when she entered. He had a +nosegay of flowers for her--wild flowers he had gathered in the early +morning, with the dew upon them--which he offered her with a little +touch of humility. + +Doubtless the fret and passion of yesterday had not been thrown away +on him. He had learned in the night both that he loved, and the +lowliness that comes of love. It wanted but that, it seemed to me, to +make him perfect in a woman's eyes; and I saw my lady's dwell very +kindly on him as he turned away. A little, I think, she wondered; his +tone was so different, his desire to please so transparent, his +avoidance of everything that might offend so ready. But such service +wins its way; and my lady's own kindness and gaiety disposing her to +meet his advances, she seemed in a few moments to have forgotten +whatever cause of complaint he had given her. + +The general's band came early, to play while she ate, but I noticed +with satisfaction that the music moved her little this morning, either +because she was taken up with talking to her companion, or because the +romantic circumstances of the evening, darkness and vague +surroundings, and the lassitude of fatigue, were lacking. With the +sunshine and fresh air pouring in through the open windows, the +strains which yesterday awoke a hundred associations and stirred +mysterious impulses fell almost flat. + +The Waldgrave made no attempt to resume the conversation he had held +with me by the fallen tree. Either love, or respect for his mistress, +made him reticent, or he was practising self-control. And I said +nothing. But I understood, and set myself keenly to watch this duel +between the two men. If I read the general's intentions aright, the +young lord's influence with the Countess could scarcely grow except at +the general's expense; his suit, if successful, must oust that which +the elder man, I was sure, meditated. And this being so, all my wishes +were on one side. My fear of the general had so grown in the night, +that I suspected him of a hundred things; and could only think of him +as an antagonist to be defeated--a foe from whom we must expect the +worst that force or fraud could effect. + +He came soon after breakfast to pay his respects to my lady, and +alighted at the door with great attendance and endless jingling of +bits and spurs. He brought with him several of his officers, and these +he presented to the Countess with so much respect and politeness that +even I could find no fault with the action. One or two of the men, +rough Silesians, were uncouth enough; but he covered their mistakes so +cleverly that they served only to set off his own good breeding. + +He had not been in the room five minutes, however, before I saw that +he remarked the change which had come over the Waldgrave, and perhaps +some corresponding change in my lady's manner; and I saw that it +chafed him. He did not lose his air of composure, but he grew less +talkative and more watchful. Presently he let drop something aimed at +the young man; a light word, inoffensive, yet likely to draw the other +into a debate. But the Waldgrave refrained, and the general soon +afterwards rose to take leave. + +He had come, it seemed, to invite my lady's presence at a +shooting-match which was to take place outside the camp at noon. He +spoke of the match as a thing arranged before our arrival, but I have +no doubt that the plan had its origin in a desire to please my lady +and fill the day. He spoke, besides, of a hunting-party to take place +next morning, with a banquet at his quarters to follow; of a review +fixed for the day after that; and, in the still remoter distance, of +races and a trip to a neighboring waterfall, with other diversions. + +I heard the arrangements made, and my lady's frank acceptance, with a +sinking heart; for under the perfect courtesy of his manner, behind +the frank desire to give her pleasure which he professed, I felt his +power. While he spoke, though I could find no fault with him, I felt +the steel hand inside the silk glove. And these plans? Even my lady, +though her eyes sparkled with anticipation--she loved pleasure with a +healthy, honest love--looked a little startled. + +'But I thought that you were marching southwards, General Tzerclas,' +she said. 'At once I mean?' + +'I am,' he answered, bowing easily--he had already risen. 'But an +army, Countess, marches more slowly than a travelling party. And I am +expecting despatches which may vary my route.' + +'From the King of Sweden?' + +'Yes,' he answered. 'The King has arrived at Nuremberg, and expects +shortly to be attacked by Wallenstein, who is on the march from Egra.' + +'But shall you be in time for the battle?' she asked, her eyes +shining. + +'I hope so,' he replied, smiling. 'Or my part may be less glorious--to +cut off the enemy's convoys.' + +'I should not like that!' she exclaimed. + +'Nevertheless, it is a very necessary function,' he said. 'As the +Waldgrave Rupert will tell your excellency.' + +The young lord agreed, and a moment later the general with his +jingling attendants took his leave and clattered out and mounted +before the door. My lady went to the window and waved adieu to him, +and he lowered his great plumed hat to his stirrup. + +'At noon?' he cried, making his horse curvet in the roadway. + +'Without fail!' my lady answered gaily, and she stood at the window +looking out until the last gleam of steel sank in a cloud of dust and +the beggars closed in before the door. + +The Waldgrave leaned against the wall behind her with his lips set and +a grave face. But he said nothing, and when she turned he had a smile +for her. It seemed to me that these two had changed places; the +Waldgrave had grown older and my lady younger. + +A few minutes before noon, Captain Ludwig and a sub-officer of the +same rank, a Pole with long hair, came to conduct my lady to the scene +of the match. They were arrayed in all their finery, and made a show +of such etiquette as they knew. For our part we did not keep them +waiting; five minutes saw us mounted and riding through the camp. This +wore, to-day, a more martial and less disorderly appearance. The part +we traversed was clear of women and gamesters, while sentries +stationed at the gate, and a guard of honour which fell in behind us +at the same spot, proved that the eye of the master could even here +turn chaos into order. I do not know that the change pleased me much, +for if it lessened my dread of the cutthroats by whom we were +surrounded, it increased the awe in which I held their chief. + +The shooting was fixed to take place in a narrow valley diverging +from the river, a mile or more from the camp. It was a green, +gently-sloping place, such as sheep love; but the sheep had long ago +been driven into quarters, and the shepherd to the listing-sergeant or +the pike. A few ruined huts told the tale; the hills which rose on +either side were silent and untrodden. + +Not so the valley itself, which lay bathed in sunshine. It roared with +the babel of a great multitude. A straight course, two hundred yards +in length, had been roped off for the shooting, and round this the +crowd thronged and pushed, or, breaking here or there into fragments, +wandered up and down outside the lines, talking and gesticulating, so +that the place seemed to swarm with life and movement and colour. + +I had seen such a spectacle and as large a crowd at Heritzburg--once a +year, it may be. But there the gathering had not the wild and savage +elements which here caught the eye; the hairy, swarthy faces and +black, gleaming eyes, the wild garb, and brandished weapons and fierce +gestures, that made this crowd at once curious and formidable. The +babel of unknown tongues rose on every side. Poland and Lithuania, +Scotland and the Rhine, equally with Hungary, Italy, and Bohemia, had +their representatives in this strange army. + +General Tzerclas and his staff occupied a mound near the lower end of +the valley. On seeing our party approach, he rode down to meet us, +followed by thirty or forty officers, whose dress and equipments, even +more than those of their men, fixed the attention; for while some +wore steel caps and clumsy cuirasses, with silk sashes and greasy +trunk-hose, others, better acquainted with the mode, affected huge +flapped hats and velvet doublets, with falling collars of lace, and +untanned boots reaching to the middle of the thigh. One or two wore +almost complete armour; others, gay silks, stained with wine and +weather. Their horses, too, were of all sizes, from tall Flemings to +small, wiry Hungarians, and their arms were as various. One huge fat +man, whose flesh swayed as he moved, carried a steel mace at his +saddle-bow. Another swept along with a lance, raking the sky behind +him. Great horse-pistols were common, and swords with blades so long +that they ploughed the ground. + +Varying in everything else, in one thing these warlike gentry agreed. +As they came prancing towards us, I did not see a face among them that +did not repel me, nor one that I could look at with respect or liking. +Where dissipation had not set its seal so plainly as to oust all +others, or some old wound did not disfigure, cruelty, greed, and +recklessness were written large. The glare of the bully shone alike +under flapped hat and iron cap. One might show a swollen visage, +flushed with excess, and another a thin, white, cruel face; but that +was all the odds. + +The sight of such a crew should have opened my lady's eyes and +enlightened her as to the position in which we stood. But women see +differently from men. Too often they take swagger for courage, and +recklessness for manhood. And, besides, the very defects of these men, +their swashbuckling manners and banditti guise, only set off the more +the perfect dress and quiet bearing of their leader, who, riding in +their midst, seemed, with his cold, calm face and air of pride, like +nothing so much as the fairy prince among the swine. + +He wore a suit of black velvet, with a falling collar of Utrecht lace, +and a white sash. A feather adorned his hat, and his furniture and +sword-hilt were of steel. This, I afterwards learned, was a favourite +costume with him. At odd times he relapsed into finery, but commonly +he affected a simplicity which suited his air and features, and lost +nothing by comparison with the tawdriness of his attendants. + +He sprang from his horse at the foot of the slope, and, resigning it +to a groom, took my lady's rein and, bareheaded, led her to the summit +of the mound. The Waldgrave with Fraulein Anna followed, and the rest +of us as closely as we could. The officers crowded thick upon us and +would have edged us out, but I had primed my men, and though they +quailed before the others' scowls and curses, they kept together, so +that we not only had the advantage of watching the sport from a +position immediately behind the Countess, but heard all that passed. + +At the end of the open space I have mentioned stood three targets in a +line. These were peculiar, for they consisted of dummies cased in +leather, shaped so exactly to the form of men, that, at a distance of +two hundred yards, it was only by the face I could tell that they were +not men. Where the features should have been was a whitened circle, +and on, the breast of each a heart in chalk. They were so life-like +that they gave an air of savagery to the sport, and made me shudder. +When I had scanned them, I turned and found Captain Ludwig at my +elbow. + +'What is it?' he said, grinning. 'Our targets? Fine practice, comrade. +They are the general's own invention, and I have known them put to +good use.' + +'How?' I asked. He spoke under his breath. I adopted the same tone. + +'You will know by, and by,' he answered, with a wink. 'Sometimes we +find a traitor in the camp; or we catch a spy. Then--but you need not +fear. Drawing-room practice to-day. There is no one in them.' + +'In them?' I muttered, unable to take my eyes from his face. + +He nodded. 'Ay, in them,' he answered, smiling at my look of +consternation. 'Time has been I have known one in each, and cross-bow +practice. That makes them squeal! With powder and a flint-lock--pouf! +It is all over. Unless you put the butter-fingers first; then there is +sport, perhaps.' + +Little wonder that after that I paid no attention to the shooting, +which had begun; nor to the brawling and disagreement which from the +first accompanied it, and which it needed all the general's authority +to quell. I thought only of our position among these wretches. If I +had felt any doubt of General Tzerclas' character before, the doubt +troubled me no more. + +But it did occur to me that Ludwig might be practising on me, and I +turned to him sharply. 'I see!' I said, pretending that I had found +him out. 'A good joke, captain!' + +He grinned again. 'You would not call it one,' he said dryly, 'if you +were once in the leather. But have it your own way. Come, there is a +good shot, now. He is a Swiss, that fellow.' + +But I could take no interest in the shooting, with that ghastly tale +in my head. I felt for the moment the veriest coward. We were ten in +the midst of two thousand--ten men and four helpless women! Our own +strength could not avail us, and we had nothing else under heaven to +depend upon, except the scruples, or interest, or fears of a mercenary +captain; a man whose hardness the thin veil of politeness barely hid, +who might be scrupulous, gentle, merciful--might be, in a word, all +that was honourable. But whence, then, this story? Why this tale of +cruelty, passing the bounds of discipline? + +It so disheartened me that for some time I scarcely noticed what was +passing before me; and I might have continued longer in this dull +state if the Waldgrave's voice, civilly declining some proposition, +had not caught my ear. + +I gathered then what the offer was. Among the matches was one for +officers, and in this the general was politely inviting his guest to +compete. But the Waldgrave continued firm. 'You are very good,' he +answered with perfect frankness and good temper. 'But I think I will +not expose myself. I shoot badly with a strange gun.' + +It was so unlike him to miss a chance of distinction, or underrate his +merits, that I stared. He was changed, indeed, to-day; or he thought +the position very critical, the need of caution very great. + +The general continued to urge him; and so strongly that I began to +think that our host had his own interests to serve. + +'Oh, come,' he said, in a light, gibing tone which just stopped +short of the offensive. 'You must not decline. There are five +competitors--two Bohemians, a Scot, a Pole, and a Walloon; but no +German. You cannot refuse to shoot for Germany, Waldgrave?' + +The Waldgrave shook his head, however. 'I should do Germany small +honour, I am afraid,' he said. + +The general smiled unpleasantly. 'You are too modest,' he said. + +'It is not a national failing,' the Waldgrave answered, smiling also. + +'I fancy it must be,' the general retorted. 'And that is the reason we +see so little of Germans in the war!' + +The words were almost an insult, though a dull man, deceived by the +civility of the speaker's tone, might have overlooked it. The +Waldgrave understood, however. I saw him redden and his brow grow +dark. But he restrained himself, and even found a good answer. + +'Germany will find her champions,' he said, 'when she seriously needs +them.' + +'Abroad!' the general replied, speaking in a flash, as it were. The +instant the word was said, I saw that he repented it. He had gone +farther than he intended, and changed his tone. 'Well, if you will +not, you will not,' he continued smoothly. 'Unless our fair cousin can +succeed where I have failed, and persuade you.' + +'I?' my lady said--she had not been attending very closely. 'I will do +what I can. Why will you not enter, Rupert? You are a good shot.' + +'You wish me to shoot?' the Waldgrave said slowly. + +'Of course!' she answered. 'I think it is a shame General Tzerclas has +so few German officers. If I could shoot, I would shoot for the honour +of Germany myself.' + +The Waldgrave bowed. 'I will shoot,' he said coldly. + +'Good!' General Tzerclas answered, with a show of _bonhomie_. 'That is +excellent. Will you descend with me? Each competitor is to fire two +shots at the figure at eighty paces. Those who lodge both shots in the +target, to fire one shot at the head only.' + +The young lord bowed and prepared to follow him. + +'Comrade,' Ludwig said in my ear, as I watched them go, 'your master +had better have stood by his first word.' + +'Why?' + +'He will do no good.' + +'Why not?' I asked. + +'The Bohemian yonder--the fat man--will shoot round him. His little +pig's eyes see farther than others. Besides, the devil has blessed his +gun. He cannot miss.' + +'What! That tun of flesh?' I cried, for he was pointing to the gross, +unwieldy man, at whose saddle-bow I had marked the iron mace. 'Is he a +Bohemian?' + +Ludwig nodded. 'Count Waska, they call him. There is no man in the +camp can shoot with him or drink with him.' + +'We shall see,' I said grimly. + +I had little hope, however. The Waldgrave was a good shot; but a man +was not likely to have a reputation for shooting in such a camp as +this, where every one handled pistol or petronel, unless his aim was +something out of the common. And listening to the talk round me, I +found that Count Waska's comrades took his victory for granted. + +Their confidence explained General Tzerclas' anxiety to trap the +Waldgrave into shooting. The jealous feeling which had been all on the +Waldgrave's side yesterday, had spread to him to-day. He wished to see +his rival beaten in my lady's presence. + +I longed to disappoint him; I felt sore besides for the honour of +Germany. I could not leave my lady, or I would have gone down to see +that the Waldgrave had fair play, and a clean pan, and silence when he +fired. But I watched with as much excitement as any in the field, all +that passed; I doubt if I ever took part in a match myself with +greater keenness and interest than I felt as a spectator of this one. + +From our elevated position we could see everything, and the sight was +a curious one. The rabble of spectators--soldiers and women, sutlers +and horse-boys--stretched away in two dark lines, ten deep, being kept +off the range by a dozen men armed with whips. The clamour of their +hoarse shouting went up continuously, and sometimes almost deafened +us. Immediately below us, at the foot of the mound, the champions and +their friends were gathered, settling rests, keying up the wheels of +their locks, and trying the flints. Owing to the Waldgrave's presence, +which somewhat imposed upon the other officers both by reason of his +rank and strangeness, the contest seemed likely to be conducted more +decently than those which had preceded it. He was invited to shoot +first, and when he excused himself on the ground that he was not yet +familiar with his gun, Count Waska good-humouredly consented to open +the match. + +His weapon, I remarked--and I treasured up the knowledge and have +since made use of it--was smaller in the bore than the others. He came +forward and fired very carelessly, scarcely stooping to the rest; but +he hit the figure fairly in the breast with both bullets and retired, +a stolid smile on his large countenance. + +The Waldgrave was the next to advance, and if he felt one half of the +anxiety I felt myself, it was a wonder he let off his gun at all. +General Tzerclas had returned to the Countess's side, and was speaking +to her; but he paused at the critical moment, and both stood gazing, +my lady with her lips parted and her eyes bright. The desire to see +the stranger shoot was so general that something like silence +prevailed while he aimed. I had time to conjure up half a dozen +miseries--the gun might not be true, the powder weak; and then, bang! +I saw the figure rock. He had hit it fairly in the breast, and I +breathed again. + +My lady cried, 'Vivat! good shot!' and he looked up at her before he +primed his pan for a second trial. This time I felt less fear, the +crowd less interest. The babel began afresh. His second bullet struck +somewhat lower, but struck; and he stood back, his face flushed with +pleasure. Honour, at any rate, was safe. + +The Scot hit with both balls, the Pole with one only. Last of all the +Walloon, a grim dark officer in a stained buff coat, who seemed to be +unpopular with the soldiery, fired in the midst of such a storm of +gibes and hisses that I wondered he could aim at all. He did, however, +and hit with his second bullet. Even so he and the Pole stood out, +leaving the Waldgrave, Count Waska, and the Scot to fire at the head. + +Huge was the clamour which followed on this, half the company +bellowing out offers to stake all that they had on the Count--money, +chains, armour. Meanwhile I looked at the general to see how he took +it. He had fallen silent, and my lady also. They stood gazing down on +the competitors and their preparations, as if they were aware that +more hung on the issue than a simple match at arms. + +Count Waska advanced for the final shot, and this time he made ample +use of the rest, aiming long and carefully over it. He fired, and I +looked eagerly at the target. A roar of applause greeted the shot. The +bullet had pierced the whitened face a little to the left, high up. + +It was the Waldgrave's turn now. He came forward, with an air of quiet +confidence, and set his weapon on the crutch. This time two or three +voice's were raised, gibing him; the crowd was growing jealous of its +champion's reputation. I longed to be down among them, and I saw my +lady's eyes flash and her colour rise. She looked indignantly at +Tzerclas. But the general's face was set. He did not seem to hear. + +Flash! Plop! In a moment I was shouting with the rest, shouting +lustily for the honour of the house! The Waldgrave had lodged his ball +in the upper part of the face towards the right-hand side. If Waska +had put in the one eye, he had put in the other. + +We shouted. But the camp hung silent, gloomily wondering whether this +were luck or skill. And the general stood silent too. It was not until +my lady had cried, 'Vivat! Vivat Weimar!' in her frank, brave voice, +that he spoke and echoed the compliment. + +When he had spoken, sullen silence fell upon the crowd again. I saw +men look at us--not pleasantly; until the Scot by taking his place at +the crutch diverted their attention. It seemed to me that he was an +hour arranging the rest and his weapon, scraping his priming this way +and that, and putting in a fresh flint at the last moment. At length +he fired. A roar of laughter followed. He had missed the target +altogether. + +How it was arranged I do not know, but we saw at once that Waska and +the Waldgrave were about to take another shot. The Bohemian, as he +levelled his weapon with care, looked up at us. + +'We have put in his eyes,' he said in his guttural tones. 'I propose +to put in his nose. If his excellency can better that, I give him the +bone.' + +He aimed very diligently, amid such a silence you could have heard a +feather drop, and fired. He did as he had promised. His ball pierced +the very middle of the face, a little below and between the two shots. + +A wild roar of applause greeted the achievement. Even we who felt our +honour at stake shouted with the rest and threw up our caps; while my +lady took off in her admiration a slender gold chain which she wore +round her neck and flung it to the champion, crying 'Vivat Bohemia! +Vivat Waska!' + +He bowed with grotesque gallantry, and one of the bystanders picked up +the chain and gave it to him. We smiled; for, too fat to kneel or +stoop, he could no more have recovered the gift himself than he could +have taken wings and flown. Fraulein Anna muttered something about +Tantalus and water, but I did not understand her, and in a moment the +Waldgrave gave me something else to think about. + +He stepped forward when the noise and cheering had somewhat subsided, +and like his antagonist he looked up also. + +'I do not see what there is left for me to do,' he said, with a +gallant air. 'I could give him a mouth, but I fear I may set it on +awry.' + +Thrice he took aim, and, dissatisfied, forbore to fire. The crowd, +silent at first, and confident of their champion's victory, began to +jeer. At length he pulled. Plop! The smoke cleared away. An inch below +Waska's last shot appeared another orifice. The Waldgrave had put in +the mouth. + +We waved our caps and shouted until we were hoarse; and the crowd +shouted. But it soon became evident, amid the universal clamour and +uproar, that there were two parties: one acclaiming the Waldgrave's +success, and another and larger one crying fiercely that he was +beaten--that he was beaten! that his shot was not so near the centre +of the target as Count Waska's. The Waldgrave's promise to make the +mouth had been heard by a few only, mainly his friends; and while +these, headed by the Bohemian, who showed that his clumsy carcase +still contained some sparks of chivalry, tried to explain the matter +to others, the camp with one voice bellowed against him, the more +excited brandishing fists and weapons in the air, while the less +moved kept up a stubborn and monotonous chant of 'Waska! Waska! +Waska!' + +The only person unaffected by the tumult appeared to be the Waldgrave +himself; who stood looking up at us in silence, a smile on his face. +Presently, the noise still continuing, I saw him clap Count Waska on +the shoulder, and the two shook hands. The Count seemed by his +gestures--for the uproar and tumult were so great that all was done in +dumb show--to be deprecating his retreat. But the younger man +persisted, and by-and-by, after saluting the other competitors, he +turned away, and began to force his way up the mound. It was time he +did; the crowd had burst its bounds and flooded the range. The scene +below was now a sea of wild confusion. + +Such an ending seemed stupid in the extreme; in any place where +ordinary discipline prevailed, it would have been easy to procure +silence and restore order. And my lady, her face flushed with +indignation, turned impatiently to the general, to see if he would not +interfere. But he was, or he affected to be, powerless. He shrugged +his shoulders with an indulgent smile, and a moment later, seeing the +Waldgrave on his way to join us and the crowd still persistent, he +gave the word to retire. The officers, who in the last hour had +pressed on us inconveniently, fell back, and waiting only for the +Waldgrave to reach his horse, we rode down the mound, and turned our +faces towards the camp. + +For a space, and while the uproar still rang in my ears, I could +scarcely speak for indignation. Then came a reaction. I saw my lady's +face as she rode alongside the Waldgrave and talked to him. And my +spirits rose. General Tzerclas had the place on her other hand, but +she had not a word for him. It was not so much that the young lord had +distinguished himself and done well, but that in an awkward position +he had borne himself with dignity and self-control. That pleased her. + +I saw her eyes shine as she looked at him, and her mouth grow tender; +and I told myself with exultation that the Waldgrave had done +something more than rival Waska--he had scored the first hit in the +fight, and that no light one. The general would be wise, if he looked +to his guard; fortunate, if he did not look too late. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + THE DUEL CONTINUED. + + +I fell to wondering, as we rode home, whether we should find all safe; +for we had left Marie Wort and my lady's woman to keep house with two +only of the men. From that, again, I strayed into thoughts of the +chain, and of Marie herself, so that the very head of what happened +when we reached the house escaped me. The first I knew of it, Fraulein +Anna's horse backed suddenly into mine, and brought us all up short +with a deal of jostling and plunging. When I looked forward to learn +what was amiss, I saw a man lying on his face under my lady's horse, +and so near it that the beast's feet were touching his head. The man +was crying out something in a pitiful tone, and two or three of the +general's officers who were riding abreast of me were swearing +roundly, and there was great confusion. + +General Tzerclas said something, but my lady overbore him. 'What is +it?' I heard her cry. 'Get up, man, and speak. Don't lie there. What +is it?' + +The man rose to his knees, and cried out, 'Justice, justice, lady!' in +a wild sort of way, adding something--which I could not understand, +for he spoke in a vile _patois_--about a house. He was in a miserable +plight, and looked scarcely human. His face was sallow, his eyes shone +with famine, his shrunken limbs peered through mud-stained rags that +only half covered him. + +'Which is your house?' my lady asked gently. And when one of the +officers who had ridden up abreast of her would have intervened, she +raised her hand with a gesture there was no mistaking. 'Which is your +house?' she repeated. + +The man pointed to the one in which we had our quarters. + +'What! That one?' my lady cried incredulously. 'Then what has brought +you to this?' For the creature looked the veriest scarecrow that ever +hung about a church-porch. His head and feet had no covering, his hair +was foully matted. He was filthy, hideous, famine-stricken. + +And desperate. For, half-cringing, half-defiant, he pointed his +accusing finger at the general. 'He has! He and his army!; he cried. +'That house was mine. Those fields were mine. I had cattle, they have +eaten them. I had wood, they have burned it. I had meat, they have +taken it. I was rich, and I am _this!_ I had, and I have not--only a +wife and babes, and they are dying in a ditch. May the curse of +God----' + +'Hush!' my lady cried, in an unsteady voice. And, without adding a +word, she turned to General Tzerclas and looked at him; as if this +were Heritzburg, and she the judge, he the criminal. + +Doubtless the position was an awkward one. But he showed himself equal +to it. 'There has been foul play here,' he said firmly. 'I think I +remember the man's face.' Then he turned and raised his hand. 'Let all +stand back,' he said in a stern, curt tone. + +We fell back out of hearing, leaving him and my lady with the man. For +some time the general seemed to be putting questions to the fellow, +speaking to my mistress between whiles. Presently he called sharply +for Ludwig. The captain went forward to them, and then it was very +plain what was going on, for the general raised his voice, and made +the rating he administered to his subaltern audible even by us. Back +Ludwig came by-and-by, with a dark sneer on his face, and we saw the +general hand money to the man. + +'Teufel!' one of the fellows who rode beside me muttered, surprise in +his voice. 'When the general gives, look to your necks. It will cost +some one dear, this! I would not be in that clod's shoes for his booty +ten times told!' + +Possibly. But I was not so much interested on the clown's account as +on my lady's; and one needed only half an eye to see what the +general's liberality had effected with her. She was all smiles again, +speaking to him with the utmost animation, leaning towards him as she +rode. She forgot the Waldgrave, who had fallen back with the rest of +us; she forgot all but the general. He went with her to the door of +the house, gave his hand to help her to dismount, lingered talking to +her on the threshold. And my heart sank. I could have gnashed my teeth +with anger as I stood aside uncovered, waiting for him to go. + +For how could we combat the man? Such an episode as this, which should +have opened my lady's eyes to his true character, served only to +restore him to favour and blind her more effectually. It had undone +all the good of the afternoon; it had effaced alike the Waldgrave's +success and the general's remissness; it had given Tzerclas, who all +day had been losing slowly, the upper hand once more. I felt the +disappointment keenly. + +I suppose it was that which made me think of consulting Fraulein Anna, +and begging her to use her influence with my lady to get out of the +camp. At any rate, the idea occurred to me. I could not catch her +then; but later in the evening, when some acrobats, whom the general +had sent for the Countess's diversion, were performing outside, and my +lady had gone out to the fallen tree to see them the better, I found +the Fraulein alone in the outer room. She looked up at my entrance. + +'Who is it?' she said sharply, peering at me with her white, +short-sighted face. 'Oh, it is you, Mr. Thickhead, is it? I know whom +you have sneaked in to see!' she added spitefully. + +'That is well,' I answered civilly. 'For I came in to see you, +Fraulein.' + +'Oh!' she retorted, nodding her head in a very unpleasant manner. +'Then you want something. I can guess what it is. But go on.' + +'If I want something,' I answered, 'and I do, it is in your own +behalf, Fraulein. You heard what I said to my lady last night? I did +not persuade her. Can you persuade her--to leave the camp and its +commander?' + +Fraulein Max shook her head. 'Why should I?' she said, smoothing out +her skirt with her hands, and looking at me with a cunning smile. +'What have I to gain by persuading her, Master Schwartz?' + +'Safety,' I said. + +'Oh!' she cried ironically. 'Then let me remind you of something. +When we were all safe and comfortable at Heritzburg--safe, mind +you--who was it disturbed us? Who was it stirred up my lady to make +trouble--_more improbi anseris_--and though I warned him what would +come of it, persisted in it until we had all to flee at night like so +many vagrants? Ay, and have never had a quiet night since! Who was +that, Master Martin?' + +'Fraulein,' I answered patiently, forbearing to remind her how much +she had been herself in fault, 'I may have been wrong then. It does +not alter the situation now.' + +'Does it not?' she replied. 'But I think it does. You had your way at +Heritzburg, and what came of it? Trouble and misery. You want your way +now, but I shall not help you to it. I have had enough of your way, +and I do not like it.' + +She laughed triumphantly, seeing me silenced; and I stood looking at +her, wondering what argument I could use. Doubtless she had had a +comfortless time on the journey from Heritzburg, jogging through fords +and over ruts, and along steep places, wet, tired, and scared, +deprived of her books and all her home pleasures. She had had time and +to spare to lay up many a grudge against me. Now it was her turn, and +I read in her face her determination to make the most of it. + +I might frighten her; and that seemed my only chance. 'Well, +Fraulein,' I said after a pause, 'you may have been right then, and +you may be right now. But I hope you have counted the cost. If my lady +shows herself determined to leave, to-morrow and perhaps the next day +the power of going will remain in her hands. Later it will have passed +from her. Familiarity breeds contempt, and even the Countess of +Heritzburg cannot stay long in such a camp as this, where nothing is +respected, without losing that respect which for the moment protects +her. In a day or two, in a few days, the hedge will fall. And then, +Fraulein, we may all look to ourselves.' + +But Fraulein Anna laughed shrilly. '_O tu anser!_' she cried +contemptuously. 'Open your eyes! Cannot you see that the general is +knee-deep in love with her? In a week he will be head over ears, and +her slave!' + +I stared at her. Doubtless she knew; she was a woman. I drew a deep +breath. 'Well,' I said, 'and what of that?' + +She looked at me spitefully. 'Ask my lady!' she said. 'How should I +know?' + +I returned her gaze, and thought awhile. Then I said coldly, 'I think +it is you who are the fool, Fraulein. Take it for granted that what +you tell me is true. Have you considered what will happen should my +lady repulse him? What will happen to her and to us?' + +'She will not,' Fraulein Max answered. + +But I saw that the shaft had gone home. She fidgeted on her seat. And +I persisted. 'Still, if she does?' I said. 'What then?' + +'She will not!' she answered. 'She must not!' + +'By Heaven!' I cried, 'you are on his side!' + +She blinked at me with her short-sighted eyes. 'And why not?' she said +slowly. 'On whose side should I be? My Lord Waldgrave's? He never +gives me a word, and seldom recognises my existence. On yours? If you +want help, go to the black-eyed puling girl you have brought in, who +is always creeping and crawling round us, and would oust me if she and +you could manage it and she had the breeding. Chut! don't talk to me,' +she continued maliciously, the colour rising to her pale cheeks. 'I +wonder that you dare to come to me with such proposals! Is my lady to +be ruled by her servants? Has she no judgment of her own? Why, you +fool, I have but to tell her, and you are disgraced!' + +'As you please, Fraulein,' I said sullenly, stung to anger by one part +of her harangue. 'But as to Marie Wort----' + +'Marie Wort?' she cried, catching me up and mocking my tone. 'Who said +anything about her, I should like to know? Though for my part, had I +my way, the popish chit should be whipped!' + +'Fraulein!' I cried. + +She laughed bitterly. 'Oh, you are fools, you men!' she said. 'But I +have made you angry, and that is enough. Go! Yes, go. I have supped on +folly. Go, before your mistress comes in; or I must out with all, and +lose a power over you.' + +I went sullenly. While we had been talking the room had been growing +dark. Then it had grown light again with a smoky, dancing glare that +played fantastically on the walls and seemed to rise and sink with +the murmur of applause outside. They had brought torches made of +pine-knots that my lady might see the longer, and in the yellow circle +of light which these shed, the mountebanks, monstrously dressed and +casting weird shadows, were wrestling and leaping and writhing. The +light reached, but fitfully and by flashes, the log on which my lady +sat enthroned, with General Tzerclas and the Waldgrave at her side. +Still farther away the crowd surged and laughed and gibed in the +darkness. + +I looked at my lady and found one look enough. I read the utter +hopelessness of the attempt I had just made. She was enjoying herself. +Fear was not natural to her, and she saw nothing to fear either in the +man beside her or the crowd beyond. Suspicion was no part of her +character, and she saw nothing to suspect. Had I won Fraulein Max over +to my side, as I felt sure that the general had bought her to his, I +should equally have had my trouble for my pains, and no more. + +My only hope lay in the Waldgrave. He alone, could he once warm into +flower the love that hung trembling in the bud, might move her as I +would have her moved. But, then, the time? Every hour we remained +where we were, every day that rose and found us in the camp, rendered +retreat more difficult, the general's plans more definite. He might +not yet have made up his mind; he might not yet have hardened his +heart to the point of employing force; _his_ passion might be still in +the bud, his ambition unshaped. But how long dared I give him? + +Assured that here lay the stress, I watched the young lord's progress +with an anxiety scarcely less than his own. And the longer I watched +the higher rose my hopes. It seemed to me that he went steadily +forward in favour, while the general stood still. More than once +during the next two days the latter showed himself irritable or +capricious. The iron hand began to push through the silken glove. And +though, on every one of these occasions, Tzerclas covered his mistake +with the dexterity of a man of the world, and my lady's eyes could +scarcely be said to be opened, a little coolness resulted, of which +the Waldgrave had the benefit. + +He, on his part, seemed imperturbable. Love had to all appearance +changed his nature. A dozen times in the two days the impulse to fly +at his rival's throat must have been strong upon him, yet through all +he remained calm, pleasant, and courteous, and carried an old head on +young shoulders. + +I wondered at last why he did not speak, for I marked the cloud on the +general's brow growing darker and darker, and I found the forced +inaction and suspense intolerable. Then I gathered, I cannot say why, +that the Waldgrave would not speak until after the great banquet to +which the general had bidden my lady. It had been deferred a day or +two, but on the third day after the shooting-match it took place. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + THE GENERAL'S BANQUET. + + +I suppose it was not love only that enabled the Waldgrave to carry +himself so prudently at this time; but with it a sense of the peril in +which we all stood. He was so far from betraying this, however, that +no one could have worn an air more gallant or seemed in every way more +free from care. General Tzerclas had supplied us with a couple of +tailors, and there were rich stuffs to be bought in the camp; and the +young lord did not neglect these opportunities. When he came on the +morning of the great day to attend my lady to the banquet, he wore a +suit of dark-blue velvet with a falling collar of white lace, and sash +and points of lighter blue--the latter setting off his fair complexion +to advantage. His hair, which had grown somewhat, flowed from under a +broad-leafed hat decked with an ostrich feather, and he wore golden +spurs, and high boots with the tops turned down. As he caracoled up +and down before the house, with the sun shining on his fair head, he +looked to my eyes as beautiful as Apollo. What the women thought of +him, I do not know, but I saw my lady gazing at him from a window when +his back was turned, and then, again, when he looked towards the +house, she was gone. And I thought I knew what that meant. + +She wore, herself, a grey riding-coat with a little silver braid about +it, and a silver belt; and we all made what show we could; so that +when we started to the general's quarters we were something to look +at. The camp itself nothing could cleanse, but the village had been +swept and the street watered. Pennons and cornets waved here and there +in the sunshine, and green boughs garnished the fronts of the houses. +Two tall poles, painted after the Venetian fashion and hung with +streamers, stood before the general's quarters, the windows of which +were almost hidden by a large trophy formed of glittering pikes and +flags of many colours. The road here was strewn with green rushes, and +opposite the house were ranked twelve trumpeters, who proclaimed my +lady's arrival with a blare which shook the village. + +On either side of the door a guard of honour was drawn up. I was not +disposed to admire anything much, but it must be confessed that the +sun shining on pike and corselet and steel cap, and on all the gay and +gaudy colours and green leaves, produced a lively and striking effect. +The moment my lady's horse stopped, four officers stepped from the +doorway and stood at attention; after whom the general himself +appeared bare-headed, and held my lady's stirrup while she dismounted. +The Waldgrave performed a like service for Fraulein Anna, and I and +Jacob for Marie Wort and the women. + +Our host first conducted my lady into a withdrawing-room, where were +only Count Waska and three colonels. This room, which was small, was +fitted with a rich carpet and chairs covered with Spanish leather, as +good as any my lady had in the castle at Heritzburg; and the walls +were hidden behind Cordovan hangings. Here among other things were a +large cage of larks and a strange, misshapen dwarf that stood hardly +as high as my waist-belt, but was rumoured to be forty years old. He +said several witty things to my lady, and one or two that I fancy the +general had taught him, for they brought the blood to her cheeks. On a +table stood another very rare and curious thing--a gold or silver-gilt +fountain that threw up distilled waters, and continually cooled and +sweetened the air. There were besides, gold cups and plates and +jewelled arms and Venice glass, which fairly dazzled me; so that as I +stood at the door with Jacob and the two maids I wondered at the +richness and splendour of everything, and yet could not get out of my +head the squalor of the hot, seething camp outside, and the poverty of +the country round, which the army had eaten as bare as my hand. + +After a short interval spent in listening to the dwarfs quips and +cranks, General Tzerclas conducted my lady with much ceremony to the +next room, where the banquet was laid. The floor of this larger room +was strewn with scented rushes, the walls being adorned with trophies +of arms and heads of deer and wolves, peering from ambushes of green +leaves. At the upper end, where was the private door of entrance, was +a dais table laid for eight persons; below were tables for forty or +more. On the dais the general sat in the middle, having my lady on the +right, and next to her Count Waska; on his left he had the Waldgrave, +and beyond him Fraulein Anna. The two women stood behind my lady, +holding her fan and vinaigrette. At the lower end of the room the +general's band, placed in a kind of cage, played soft airs, while +between the courses a gipsy girl danced very prettily, and a juggler +diverted the company with his tricks. + +As for the diversity of meats and fishes, and especially of birds, +which was set on, it surprised me beyond measure; nor can I understand +whence, in the wasted condition of the country, it was procured. For +wines, Burgundy, Frontignac, and Tokay were served at the high table, +and Rhine wines below. The courses continued to succeed one another +for nearly three hours, but such was the skill of the musicians that +the time seemed short. One man in particular won my lady's +approbation. He played on a new instrument, shaped somewhat like a +viol, but smaller and more roundly framed. Though it had three strings +only and was a trifle shrill, it had a wonderful power of touching the +heart, arousing the memory and producing a sweet melancholy. The +general would have had my lady accept it, and said that he could +easily procure another from the Milanese; but she declined gracefully, +on the ground that without the player it would be a dumb boon. + +There was so much gaiety in all this--and decent observance too, for +the general's presence kept good order--that I did not wonder that my +lady's eyes sparkled and betrayed the gratification she felt. All was +for her, all in her honour. Even I, who looked at the scene through +green glasses and could not hear a word the general said without +striving to place some ill construction on it--even I felt myself +somewhat carried away, when the first toast, that of the Emperor, was +given in the midst of cheering, partly serious, partly ironical. It +was followed by that of the Elector of Saxony. The King of Sweden came +next, and was received in an equally equivocal manner. Not so, +however, the fourth, which was given by General Tzerclas standing, +with his plumed hat in his hand. + +'All in Tokay!' he cried in his deep voice. 'The most noble and +high-born, the Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, who honours us with her +presence! Hoch! Hoch! Hoch!' + +And draining his goblet, which was of green Nuremberg glass, and of no +mean value, he dashed it to the floor, an example which was +immediately followed by all present, so that the crash of glass and +clang of sword-hilts filled the room with high-pitched sounds that +seemed to intoxicate the ear. + +My lady rose and bowed thrice, with her cheek crimson and her eyes +soft. Then she turned to retire, while all remained standing. The +general accompanied her as far as the door of the withdrawing-room, +the Waldgrave following with Fraulein Anna; while the dwarf marched +side by side with me, keeping step with an absurd gravity which filled +the room with laughter. On the threshold the general and his +companions left us with low bows; but in a trice Tzerclas came back to +say a word in my ear. + +'See to the other door,' he muttered, flashing a grim look at me. +'There may be deep drinking. If any offer so much as a word of +rudeness here, he shall hang, drunk or sober. Have a care, therefore, +that no one has the chance.' + +Then my heart sank, for I knew, hearing his tone and seeing his face, +as he said that, that Fraulein Anna was right. He loved my mistress. +He loved her! I went away to my place by the door, feeling as if he +had struck me in the face. For if she loved him in return that were +bad enough; and if she did not, what then, seeing that we were in his +power? + +Certainly he had omitted nothing on this occasion that might charm +her. I thought the feast over; but in the withdrawing-room a fresh +collation of dainty sweets and syrups awaited my lady, with a great +gold bowl of rosewater. The man, too, who had played on the Italian +viol brought it in, that she might see and examine it more closely. +From my post at the door, I saw Fraulein Anna flitting about, bringing +her short-sighted eyes down to everything, thrusting her face into the +rose-water, and peering at the weapons and stuffs as if she would eat +them. All the while, too, I could hear her prattling ceaseless praise +of everything--the general's taste, the general's wealth, his +generosity, his skill in Latin, his love for Caesar--the fat book I had +seen him studying by the fire--above all, his appreciation of Voetius, +of whom I shrewdly believe he had never heard before. + +My lady sat almost silent under the steady shower of words, listening +and thinking, and now and then touching the strings of the viol which +lay forgotten on her lap. Perhaps she was dreaming of her two +admirers, perhaps only giving ear to the growing tumult in the room we +had left, where the revellers were still at their wine. By-and-by we +heard them break into song, and then in thunder the chorus came +rolling out-- + + + 'Hoch! Who rides with old Pappenheim knee to knee + The sword is his title, the world is his fee! + He knows nor Monarch, nor Sire, nor clime + Who follows the banner of bold Pappenheim!' + + +My lady's lip curled. 'Is there no one on our side they can sing?' she +muttered, tapping the viol impatiently with her fingers. 'Have we no +heroes? Has Count Bernard never headed a charge or won a fight? +Pappenheim? I am tired of the man.' + +The note jarred on her, as it had on me when I first heard these men, +paid by the north, singing the praises of the great southern raider. +But a moment later she turned her head to hear better, and her face +grew thoughtful. A great shout of 'Waska! Waska!' rang above the +jingling of glasses and snatches of song; and then, 'The Waldgrave! +The Waldgrave!' This time the cry was less boisterous, the voices were +fewer. + +My lady turned to me. 'What is it?' she said, a note of anxiety in her +voice. + +I was unable to tell her and I listened. By-and-by a roar of laughter +made itself heard, and was followed by a cry of 'Waska!' as before. +And then, 'The Thuringian Code! The Thuringian Code! It is his turn!' + +'They are drinking, your excellency,' I said reluctantly. 'It is a +drinking match, I think!' + +She rose with a grand gesture, and set the little viol back on the +table. 'I am going,' she said, almost fiercely. 'Let the horses be +called.' + +Fraulein Max looked scared, but my lady's face forbade argument or +reply; and for my part I was not a whit unwilling. I turned and gave +the order to Jacob. While he was away the Countess remained standing, +tapping the floor with her foot. + +'On this day--on this day they might have abstained!' she muttered +wrathfully, as the chorus of riot and laughter grew each moment louder +and wilder. + +I thought so too, and was glad besides of anything which might work a +breach between her and the general. But I little knew what was going +to happen. It came upon us while we waited, with no more warning than +I have described. The door by which we had left the banqueting chamber +flew suddenly open, and three men, borne in on a wave of cheering and +uproar, staggered in upon us, the leader reeling under the blows which +his applauding followers rained upon his shoulders. + +'There! Said I not so?' he cried thickly, lurching to one side to +escape them, and almost falling. 'Where ish your Waska. Your Waska now +I'd like to know! Waska is great, but I am--greater--greater, you see. +I can shoot, drink, fight, and make love better than any man here! Eh! +Who shays I can't? Eh? Itsh the Countesh! My cousin the Countesh! Ah!' + +Alas, it was the Waldgrave! And yet not the Waldgrave. This man's face +was pale and swollen and covered with perspiration. His eyes were +heavy and sodden, and his hair strayed over them. His collar and his +coat were open at the neck, and his sash and the front of his dress +were stained and reeking with wine. His hands trembled, his legs +reeled, his tongue was too large for his mouth. He smiled fatuously at +us. Yet it _was_ the Waldgrave--drunk! + +My lady's face froze as she looked at him. She raised her hand, and +the men behind him fell back abashed and left him standing there, +propping himself uncertainly against the wall. + +'Well, your excellenshy,' he stuttered with a hiccough--the sudden +silence surprised him--'you don't congratulatsh me! Waska is under +table. Under table, I shay!' + +My lady looked at him, her eyes blazing with scorn. But she said +nothing; only her fingers opened and closed convulsively. I turned to +see if Jacob had come back. He entered at that moment and General +Tzerclas with him. + +'Your excellency's horses are coming,' the general said in his usual +tone. Then he saw the Waldgrave and the open door, and he started with +surprise. 'What is this?' he said. His face was flushed and his eyes +were bright. But he was sober. + +The drunken man tried to straighten himself. 'Ashk Waska!' he said. +Alas! his good looks were gone. I regarded him with horror, I knew +what he had done. + +'The horses?' the general muttered. + +My lady drew a deep breath, as a person recovering consciousness does, +and turned slowly towards him. 'Yes,' she said, shuddering from head +to foot, 'if you please. I wish to go.' + +The young lord heard the horses come to the door, and staggered +forward. 'Yesh, letsh go. I'll go too,' he stuttered with a foolish +laugh. 'Letsh all go. Except Waska! He is under the table. Letsh all +go, I say! Eh? Whatsh thish?' + +I pushed him back and held him against the wall while the general led +my lady out. But, oh the pity of it, the wrath, the disappointment +that filled my breast as I did so! This was the end of my duel! This +was the stay to which I had trusted! The Waldgrave's influence with my +lady? It was gone--gone as if it had never been. A spider's web, a +rope of sand, a straw were after this a stronger thing to depend upon, +a more sure safeguard, a stouter holdfast for a man in peril! + + + * * * * * + + +He came to my lady next morning about two hours after sunrise, when +the dew was still on the grass and the birds--such as had lost their +first broods or were mating late--were in full song. The camp was +sleeping off its debauch, and the village street was bright and empty, +with a dog here and there gnawing a bone, or sneaking round the corner +of a building. My lady had gone out early to the fallen tree with her +psalm book; and was sitting there in the freshness of the morning, +with her back to the house and the street, when his shadow fell across +the page and she looked up and saw him. + +She said 'good morning' very coldly, and he for a moment said nothing, +but stood, sullenly making a hole in the dust with his toe and looking +down at it. His face was pale, where it was not red with shame, and +his eyes were heavy and dull; but otherwise the wine he had taken had +left no mark on his vigorous youth. + +My lady after speaking looked down at her book again, and he continued +to stand before her like a whipped schoolboy, stealing every now and +then a furtive look at her. At length she looked up again. + +'Do you want anything?' she said. + +This time he returned her gaze, with his face on fire, trying to melt +her. And I think that there were not many more unhappy men at that +moment than he. His fancy, liking, love were centred in the woman +before him; in a mad freak he had outraged, insulted, estranged her. +He did not know what to do, how to begin, what plan to put forward. He +could for the moment only look, with shame and misery in his face. + +It was a plea that would have melted many, but my lady only grew +harder. 'Did you hear me?' she said proudly. 'Do you want anything?' + +'You know!' he cried impetuously, and his voice broke out fiercely and +seemed to beat against her impassiveness as a bird against the bars of +its cage. 'I was a beast last night. But, oh, Rotha, forgive me.' + +'I think that we had better not talk about it,' my lady answered him +stonily. 'It is past, and we need not quarrel over it. I shall be +wiser next time,' she added. 'That is all.' + +'Wiser?' he muttered. + +'Yes; wiser than to trust myself to your protection,' she replied +ruthlessly. + +He shrank back as if she had struck him, and for a moment pain and +rage brought the blood surging to his cheeks. He even took a step as +if to leave her; but when love and pride struggle in a young man, love +commonly has it, and he turned again and stood hesitating, the picture +of misery. + +'Is that all you will say to me?' he muttered, his voice unsteady. + +My lady moved her feet uneasily. Then she shut her book, and looked +round as if she would have willingly escaped. But she was not stone; +and when at length she turned to him, her face was changed. + +'What do you want me to say?' she asked gently. + +'That some day you will forgive me.' + +'I forgive you now,' she rejoined firmly. 'But I cannot forget. I do +not think I ever can,' she went on. 'Last night I was in your charge +among strangers. If danger had arisen, whose arm was to shield me, if +not yours? If any had insulted me, to whom was I to look, if not to +you? Yes, you may well hide your face,' my lady continued, waxing +bitter, despite herself. 'I am not at Heritzburg now, and you should +have remembered that. I am here with scanty protection, with few means +to exact respect, a refugee, if you like, a mark for scandal, and your +kinswoman. And you? for shame, Rupert!' + +He fell on his knees and seized her hand. 'You are killing me!' he +cried in a choking voice, his face pale, his breath coming quickly. +'For I love you, Rotha, I love you! And every word of reproach you +utter is death to me.' + +'Hush, Rupert!' she said quickly. And she tried to withdraw her hand. +He had taken her by surprise. + +But he was not to be silenced; he kept her hand, though he rose to his +feet. 'It is true,' he answered. 'I have waited long enough. I must +speak now, or it may be too late. I tell you, I love you!' + +The Countess's face was crimson, her brow dark with vexation. 'Hush!' +she said again, and more imperatively. 'I have heard enough. It is +useless.' + +'You have not heard me!' he answered. 'Don't say so until you have +heard me.' And he sat down suddenly on the tree beside her, and looked +into her face with pleading eyes. 'You are letting last night weigh +against me,' he went on. 'If that be all, I will never drink more than +three cups of wine at a time as long as I live. I swear it.' + +She shook her head rather sadly. 'That is not all, Rupert,' she said. + +'Then what will you have?' he answered eagerly. He saw the change in +her, and his eyes began to burn with hope as he looked. Her milder +tone, her downcast head, her altered aspect, all encouraged him. 'I +love you, Rotha!' he cried, raising her hand to his lips. 'What more +will you have? Tell me. All I have, and all I ever shall have--and I +am young and may do great things--are yours. I have been riding behind +you day by day, until I know every turn of your head, and every note +of your voice. I know your step when you walk, and the rustle of your +skirt among a hundred! And there is no other woman in the world for +me! What if I am the youngest cadet of my house?' he continued, +leaning towards her; 'this war will last many a year yet, and I will +carve you a second county with my sword. Wallenstein did. Who was he? +A simple gentleman. Now he is Duke of Friedland. And that Englishman +who married a king's sister? They succeeded, why should not I? Only +give me your love, Rotha! Trust me; trust me once more and always, and +I will not fail you.' + +He tried to draw her nearer to him, but the Countess shook her head, +and looked at him with tears in her eyes. 'Poor boy,' she said slowly. +'Poor boy! I am sorry, but it cannot be. It can never be.' + +'Why?' he cried, starting as if she had stung him. + +'Because I do not love you,' she said. + +He dropped her hand and sat glaring at her. 'You are thinking of last +night!' he muttered. + +She shook her head. 'I am not,' she said simply. 'I suppose that if I +loved you, that and worse would go for nothing. But I do not.' + +Her calmness, her even tone went to his heart and chilled it. He +winced, and uttering a low cry turned from her and hid his face in his +hands. + +'Why not?' he said thickly, after an interval. 'Why can you not love +me?' + +'Why does the swallow nest here and not there?' the Countess answered +gently. 'I do not know. Why did my father love a foreigner and not one +of his own people? I do not know. Neither do I know why I do not love +you. Unless,' she added, with rising colour, 'it is that you are +young, younger than I am; and a woman turns naturally to one older +than herself.' + +Her words seemed to point so surely to General Tzerclas that the young +man ground his teeth together. But he had not spirit to turn and +reproach her then; and after remaining silent for some minutes, he +rose. + +'Good-bye,' he said in a broken voice. And he lifted her hand to his +lips and kissed it. + +The Countess started. The words, the action impressed her +disagreeably. 'You are not going--away I mean?' she said. + +'No,' he answered slowly. 'But things are--changed. When we meet again +it will be as----' + +'Friends!' she cried, her voice tender almost to yearning. 'Say it +shall be so. Let it be so always. You will not leave me alone here?' + +'No,' he said simply, and with dignity. 'I shall not.' + +Then he went away, quite quietly; and if the beginning of the +interview had shown him to small advantage, the same could not be said +of the end. He went down the street and through the camp with his head +on his breast and a mist before his eyes. The light was gone out of +the sunshine, the greenness from the trees. The day was grey and +dreary and miserable. The blight was on all he saw. So it is with men. +When they cannot have that which seems to them the best and fairest +and most desirable thing in the world, nothing is good or pleasant or +to be desired any longer. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + STALHANSKE'S FINNS. + + +It was my ill luck, on that day which began so inauspiciously, to see +two shadows: one on a man's face, the Waldgrave's, and of that I need +say no more; the other, the shadow of a man's body, an odd, sinister +outline, crooked and strange and tremulous, that I came upon in a +remote corner of the camp, to which I had wandered in my perplexity; a +place where a few stunted trees ran down a steep bank to the river. I +had never been to this place before, and, after a glance which showed +me that it was the common sink and rubbish-bed of the camp, I was +turning moodily away, when first this shadow and then the body which +cast it caught my eye. The latter hung from the branch of an old +gnarled thorn, the feet a few inches from the ground. A shuddering +kind of curiosity led me to go up and look at the dead man's face, +which was doubled up on his breast; and then the desire to test the +nerves, which is common to most men, induced me to stand staring at +him. + +The time was two hours after noon, and there were few persons +moving. The camp was half asleep. Heat, and flies, and dust were +everywhere--and this gruesome thing. The body was stripped, and the +features were swollen and disfigured; but, after a moment's thought, I +recognized them, and saw that I had before me the poor wretch who had +appealed to my lady's compassion after the shooting-match, and to whom +the general had opened his hand so freely. The grim remarks I had then +heard recurred now, and set me shuddering. If any doubt still remained +in my mind, it was dissipated a moment later by a placard which had +once hung round the dead man's neck, but now lay in the dust at his +feet. I turned it over. Chalked on it in large letters were the words +'Beggars, beware!' + +I felt at first, on making the discovery, only horror and indignation, +and a violent loathing of the camp. But these feelings soon passed, +and left me free to consider how the deed touched us. Could I prove +it? Could I bring it home to the general to my lady's satisfaction, +beyond denial or escape, and so open her eyes? And if I could, would +it be wise, by doing so, to rouse his anger while she remained in the +camp and in General Tzerclas' power? I might only hasten the +catastrophe. + +I found this a hard nut to crack, and was still puzzling over it, with +my eyes on the senseless form which was already so far out of my +thoughts, when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder and a harsh voice +grated on my ear. + +'Well, Master Steward, a penny for your thoughts! They should be worth +having, to judge by the way you rub your chin.' + +I started and looked round. The speaker was Captain Ludwig, who, with +two of his fellows, had come up behind me while I mused. Something in +his tone rather than his words--a note of menace--warned me to be +careful; while the glum looks of his companions, as they glanced from +me to the dead man, added point to the hint, and filled my mind with a +sudden sense of danger. I had learned more than I had been intended to +learn; I had found out something I had not been intended to find out. +The very quietness and sunshine and the solitude of the place added +horror to the moment. It was all I could do to hide my discomfiture +and face them without flinching. + +'My thoughts?' I said, forcing a grin. 'They were not very difficult +to guess. A sharp shrift, and a short rope? What else should a man +think here?' + +'Ay?' Ludwig said, watching me closely with his eyes half closed and +his lips parted. + +He would say no more, and I was forced to go on. 'It is not the first +time I have seen a man dancing on nothing!' I said recklessly; 'but it +gave me a turn.' + +He kicked the placard. 'You are a scholar,' he said. 'What is this?' + +My face grew hot. I dared not deny my learning, for I did not know how +much he knew; but, for the nonce, I wished heartily that I had never +been taught to read. + +'That?' I said, affecting a jovial tone to cover my momentary +hesitation. 'A seasonable warning. They are as thick here as nuts in +autumn. We could spare a few more, for the matter of that.' + +'Ay, but this one?' he retorted, coolly tapping the dead man with a +little stick he carried, and then turning to look me in the face. 'You +have seen him before.' + +I made a great show of staring at the body, but I suppose I played my +part ill, for before I could speak Ludwig broke in with a brutal +laugh. + +'Chut, man!' he said, with a sneer of contempt; 'you know him; I see +you do. And knew him all along. Well, if fools will poke their noses +into things that do not concern them, it is not my affair. I must +trouble you for your company awhile.' + +'Whither?' I said, setting my teeth together and frowning at him. + +'To my master,' he replied, with a curt nod. 'Don't say you won't,' he +continued with meaning, 'for he is not one to be denied.' + +I looked from one to another of the three men, and for a moment the +desperate clinging to liberty, which makes even the craven bold, set +my hands tingling and sent the blood surging to my head. But reason +spoke in time. I saw that the contest was too unequal, the advantage +of a few minutes' freedom too trivial, since the general must sooner +or later lay his hand on me; and I crushed down the impulse to resist. + +'What scares you, comrades?' I said, laughing savagely. They had +recoiled a foot. 'Do you see a ghost or a Swede, that you look so +pale? Your general wants me? Then let him have me. Lead on! I won't +run away, I warrant you.' + +Ludwig nodded as he placed himself by my side. 'That is the right way +to take it,' he said. 'I thought that you might be going to be a fool, +comrade.' + +'Like our friend there,' I said dryly, pointing to the senseless form +we were leaving. 'He made a fuss, I suppose?' + +Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'No,' he answered, 'not he so much; but +his wife. Donner! I think I hear her screams now. And she cursed us! +Ah!' + +I shuddered, and after that was silent. But more than once before we +reached the general's quarters the frantic desire to escape seized me, +and had to be repressed. I felt that this was the beginning of the +end, the first proof of the strong grasp which held us all helpless. I +thought of my lady, I thought of Marie Wort, and I could have shrieked +like a woman; for I was powerless like a woman--gripped in a hand I +could not resist. + +The camp grilling and festering in the sunshine--how I hated it! It +seemed an age I had lived in its dusty brightness, an age of vague +fears and anxieties. I passed through it now in a feverish dream, +until an exclamation, uttered by my companion as we turned into the +street, aroused me. The street was full of loiterers, all standing in +groups, and all staring at a little band of horsemen who sat +motionless in their saddles in front of the general's quarters. For a +moment I took these to be the general's staff. Then I saw that they +were dressed all alike, that their broad, ruddy faces were alike, that +they held themselves with the same unbending precision, and seemed, in +a word, to be ten copies of one stalwart man. Near them, a servant on +foot was leading two horses up and down, and they and he had the air +of being on show. + +Captain Ludwig, holding me fast by the arm, stopped at the first group +of starers we came to. 'Who are these?' he asked gruffly. + +The man he addressed turned round, eager to impart his knowledge. +'Finns!' he said; 'from head-quarters--Stalhanske's Finns. No less, +captain.' + +My companion whistled. 'What are they doing here?' he asked. + +The other shook his head. 'I don't know,' he said. 'Their leader is +with the general. What do you think of them, Master Ludwig?' + +But Ludwig only grunted, looking with disparaging eyes at the +motionless riders, whose air betrayed a certain consciousness of their +fame and the notice which they were exciting. From steel cap to +spurred boot, they showed all metal and leather. Nothing gay, nothing +gaudy; not a chain or a sash differenced one from another. Grim, +stern, and silent, they stared before them. Had no one named the King +of Sweden's great regiment, I had known that I was looking no longer +on brigands, but on soldiers--on part of the iron line that at +Breitenfeld broke the long repute of years, and swept Pappenheim from +the hillside like chaff before the storm. + +After hesitating a moment, Ludwig went forward a few paces, as if to +enter the house, taking me with him. Then he paused. At the same +instant the man who was leading the two horses turned. His eye lit on +me, and I saw an extraordinary change come over the fellow's face. He +stopped short and, pulling up his horses, stared at me. It seemed to +me, too, that I had seen him before, and I returned his look; but +while I was trying to remember where, the door of the general's +quarters opened. Two or three men who were loitering before it, +stepped quickly aside, and a tall, stalwart man came out, followed by +General Tzerclas himself. + +I looked at the foremost, and in a twinkling recognized him. It was +Von Werder. But an extraordinary change had come over the traveller. +He was still plainly dressed, in a buff coat, with untanned boots, a +leather sword-belt, and a grey hat with a red feather; and in all of +these there was nothing to catch the eye. But his air and manner as he +spoke to his companion were no longer those of an inferior, while his +stern eye, as it travelled over the crowd in the street, expressed +cold and steady contempt. + +As the servant brought up his horse, he spoke to his companion. 'You +are sure that you can do it--with these?' he said, flicking his +riding-whip towards the silent throng. + +'You may consider it done,' the general answered rather grimly. + +'Good! I am glad. Well, man, what is it?' + +He spoke the last words to his servant. The man pointed to me and said +something. Von Werder looked at me. In a moment every one looked at +me. Then Von Werder swung himself into his saddle, and turned to +General Tzerclas. + +'That is the man, I am told,' he said, pointing suddenly to me with +his whip. + +'He is at your service,' the general answered with a shrug of +indifference.' + +In an instant Von Werder's horse was at my side. 'A word with you, my +man,' he said sharply. 'Come with me.' + +Ludwig had hold of my arm still. He had not loosed me, and at this he +interposed. 'My lord,' he cried to the general, 'this man--I have +something to----' + +'Silence, fool!' Tzerclas growled. 'And stand aside, if you value your +skin!' + +Ludwig let me go; immediately, as if an angel had descended to speak +for me, the crowd parted, and I was free--free and walking away down +the street by the side of the stranger, who continued to look at me +from time to time, but still kept silence. When we had gone in this +fashion a couple of hundred paces or more, and were clear of the +crowd, he seemed no longer able to control himself, though he looked +like a man apt at self-command. He waved his escort back and reined in +his horse. + +'You are the man to whom I talked the other night,' he said, fixing me +with his eyes--'the Countess of Heritzburg's steward?' + +I replied that I was. His face as he looked down at me, with his back +to his following, betrayed so much agitation that I wondered more and +more. Was he going to save us? Could he save us? Who was he? What did +it all mean? Then his next question scattered all these thoughts and +doubled my surprise. + +'You had a chain stolen from you,' he said harshly, 'the night I lay +in your camp?' + +I stared at him with my mouth open. 'A chain?' I stammered. + +'Ay, fool, a chain!' he replied, his eyes glaring, his cheeks swelling +with impatience. 'A gold chain--with links like walnuts.' + +'It is true,' I said stupidly. 'I had. But----' + +'Where did you get it?' + +I looked away. To answer was easy; to refrain from answering, with his +eye upon me, hard. But I thought of Marie Wort. I did not know how the +chain had come into her hands, and I asked him a question in return. + +'Have you the chain?' I said. + +'I have!' he snarled. And then in a sudden outburst of wrath he cried, +'Listen, fool! And then perhaps you will answer me more quickly. I am +Hugo of Leuchtenstein, Governor of Cassel and Marburg, and President +of the Landgrave's Council. The chain was mine and came back to me. +The rogue who stole it from you, and joined himself to my company, +blabbed of it, and where he got it. He let my men see it. He would not +give it up, and they killed him. Will that satisfy you?' he continued, +his face on fire with impatience. 'Then tell me all--all, man, or it +will be the worse for you! My time is precious, and I cannot stay!' + +I uncovered myself. 'Your excellency,' I stammered, 'the chain was +entrusted to me by a--a woman.' + +'A woman?' he exclaimed, his eyes lightening. 'Man, you are wringing +my heart. A woman with a child?' + +I nodded. + +'A child three years old?' + +'About that, your excellency.' On which, to my astonishment, he +covered his face with both his hands, and I saw the strong man's frame +heave with ill-suppressed emotion. 'My God, I thank thee!' I heard him +whisper; and if ever words came from the heart, those did. It was a +minute or more before he dared to uncover his face, and then his eyes +were moist and his features worked with emotion. + +'You shall be rewarded!' he said unsteadily. 'Do not fear. And now +take me to him--to her.' + +I was in a maze of astonishment, but I had sense enough to understand +the order. We had halted scarcely more than a hundred yards from my +lady's quarters, and I led the way thither, comprehending little more +than that something advantageous had happened to us. At the door he +sprang from his horse, and taking me by the arm, as if he were afraid +to suffer me out of his reach, he entered, pushing me before him. + +The principal room was empty, and I judged my lady was out. I cried +'Marie! Marie!' softly; and then he and I stood listening. The +sunshine poured in through the windows; the house was still with the +stillness of afternoon. A bird in a cage in the corner pecked at the +bars. Outside the bits jingled, and a horse pawed the road +impatiently. + +'Marie!' I cried. 'Marie!' + +She came in at last through a door which led to the back of the house, +and I stepped forward to speak to her. But the moment I saw her +clearly, the words died on my lips. The pallor of her face, the +disorder of her hair struck me dumb. I forgot our business, my +companion, all. 'What is it?' was all I could say. 'What is the +matter?' + +'The child!' she cried, her dark eyes wild with anxiety. 'The child! +It is lost! It is lost and gone. I cannot find it!' + +'The child? Gone?' I answered, my voice rising almost to a shout, in +my surprise. 'It is missing? Now?' + +'I cannot find it,' she answered monotonously. 'I left it for a moment +at the back there. It was playing on the grass. Now it is gone.' + +I looked at. Count Leuchtenstein. He was staring at the girl, +listening and watching, his brow contracted, his face pale. But I +suppose that this sudden alarm, this momentary disappearance did not +affect him, from whom the child had been so long absent, as it +affected us; for his first words referred to the past. + +'This child, woman?' he said in his deep voice, which shook despite +all his efforts. 'When you found it, it had a chain round its neck?' + +But Marie was so wrapped up in her sudden loss that she answered him +without thought, listening the while. 'Yes,' she said mechanically, +'it had.' + +'Where did you find it, then--the child?' he asked eagerly. + +'In the forest by Vach,' she replied, in the same indifferent tone. + +'Was it alone?' + +'It was with a dead woman,' she answered. She was listening still, +with a strained face--listening for the pattering of the little feet, +the shrill music of the piping voice. Only half of her mind was with +us. Her hands opened and closed continually with anxiety; she held her +head on one side, her ear to the door. When the Count went to put +another question, she turned upon him so fiercely, I hardly knew her. +'Hush!' she said, 'will you? They are here, but they have not found +him. They have not found him!' And she was right; though I, whose ears +were not sharpened by love, did not discern this until two men, who +had been left at home with her, and who had been out to search, came +in empty-handed and with scared looks. They had hunted on all sides +and found no trace of the child, and, certain that it could not have +strayed far itself, pronounced positively that it had been kidnapped. + +Marie at that burst into weeping so pitiful, that I was glad to send +the men out, bidding them make a larger circuit and inquire in the +camp. When they were gone, I turned to Count Leuchtenstein to see how +he took it. I found him leaning against the wall, his face grave, +dark, and thoughtful. + +'There seems a fatality in it!' he muttered, meeting my eyes, but +speaking to himself. 'That it should be lost again--at this moment! +Yet, God's will be done. He who sent the chain to my hands can still +take care of the child.' + +He paused a moment in deep thought, and then, advancing to Marie Wort, +who had thrown herself into a chair and was sobbing passionately with +her face on the table, he touched her on the shoulder. + +'Good girl!' he said kindly. 'Good girl! But doubtless the child is +safe. Before night it will be found.' + +She sprang up and faced him, her cheeks flaming with anger. I suppose +the questions he had put to her had made no distinct impression on her +mind. + +'Oh,' she cried, in the voice of a shrew, 'how you prate! By night it +will be found, will it? How do you know? But the child is nothing to +you--nothing!' + +'Girl,' he said solemnly, yet gently, 'the child is my child--my only +child, and the hope of my house.' + +She looked at him wildly. 'Who are you, then?' she said, her voice +sinking almost to a whisper. + +'I am his father,' he answered; when I looked to hear him state his +name and titles. 'And as his father, I thank and bless you for all +that you have done for him.' + +'His mother?' she whispered, open-eyed with awe. + +'His mother is dead. She died three years ago,' he answered gravely. +'And now tell me your name, for I must go.' + +'You must go!' she exclaimed. 'You will go--you can go--and your child +lost and wandering?' + +'Yes,' he replied, with a dignity which silenced her, 'I can, for I +have other and greater interests to guard than those of my house, and +I dare not be negligent. He may be found to-morrow, but what I have to +do to-day cannot be done to-morrow. See, take that,' he continued more +gently, laying a heavy purse on the table before her. 'It is for you, +for your own use--for your dowry, if you have a lover. And remember +always that, in the house of Hugo of Leuchtenstein, at Cassel, or +Marburg, or at the Schloss by Leuchtenstein, you will find a home and +shelter, and stout friends whenever you need them. Now give me your +name.' + +She stared at him dumfounded and was silent. I told him Marie Wort of +Munich, at present in attendance on the Countess of Heritzburg; and he +set it down in his tablets. + +'Good,' he said. And then in his stern, grave fashion he turned to me. +'Master Steward,' he said, in a measured tone which nevertheless +stirred my blood, 'are you an ambitious man? If so, search for my +child, and bring him to Cassel or Marburg, or my house, and I will +fulfil your ambition. Would you have a command, I will see to it; or a +farm, it shall be yours. You can do for me, my friend' he continued +strenuously, laying his hand on my arm, 'what in this stress of war +and statecraft I cannot do for myself. I have a hundred at my call, +but they are not here; and by to-night I must be ten leagues hence, by +to-morrow night beyond the Main. Yet God, I believe,' he went on, +uncovering himself and speaking with reverent earnestness, 'who +brought me to this place, and permitted me to hear again of my son, +will not let His purpose fail because He calls me elsewhere.' + +And he maintained this grave composure to the last. A man more worthy +of his high repute, not in Hesse only, but in the Swedish camp, at +Dresden, and Vienna, I thought that I had never seen. Yet still under +the mask I discerned the workings of a human heart. His eye, as he +turned to go, wandered round the room; I knew that it was seeking some +trace of his boy's presence. On the threshold he halted suddenly; I +knew that he was listening. But no sound rewarded him. He nodded +sternly to me and went out. + +I followed to hold his stirrup. The Finland riders, sitting upright in +their saddles, looked as if they had not moved an eyelash in our +absence. As I had left them so I found them. He gave a short, sharp +word of command; a sudden jingling of bridles followed; the troop +walked forward, broke into a trot, and in a twinkling disappeared down +the road in a cloud of dust. + +Then, and not till then, I remembered that I had not said a word to +him about my lady's position. His personality and the loss of the +child had driven it from my mind. Now it recurred to me; but it was +too late, and after stamping up and down in vexation for a while, I +turned and went into the house. + +Marie Wort had fallen back into the old position at the table, and was +sitting with her face on her arms, sobbing bitterly. I went up to her +and saw the purse lying by her side. + +'Come,' I said, trying awkwardly to cheer her, 'the child will be +found, never fear. When my lady returns she will send to the general, +and he will have it cried through the camp. It is sure to be found. +And you have made a powerful friend.' + +But she took no heed of me. She continued to weep; and her sobs hurt +me. She seemed so small and lonely and helpless that I had not the +heart to leave her by herself in the house and go out into the +sunshine to search. And so--I scarcely know how it came about--in a +moment she was sobbing out her grief on my shoulder and I was +whispering in her ear. + +Of love? of our love? No, for to have spoken of that while she wept +for the child, would have seemed to me no better than sacrilege. And, +besides, I think that we took it for granted. For when her sobs +presently ceased, and she lay quiet, listening, and I found her soft +dark hair on my shoulder, I kissed it a hundred times; and still she +lay silent, her cheek against my rough coat. Our eyes had spoken +morning and evening, at dawn when we met, and at night when we parted; +and now that this matter of the chain was settled, it seemed fitting +that she should come to me for comfort--without words. + +At length she drew herself away from me, her cheek dark and her eyes +downcast. 'Not now,' she said, gently stopping me--for then I think I +should have spoken. 'Will you please to go out and search? No, I will +not grieve.' + +'But your purse!' I reminded her. She was leaving it on the table, and +it was not safe there. 'You should put it in a place of safety, +Marie.' + +She took it up and very simply placed it in my hands. 'He said it was +for my--dowry,' she whispered, blushing. And then she fled away +shamefaced to her room. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + A SUDDEN EXPEDITION. + + +I did not after that suffer the grass to grow under my feet. I went +out, and with my own eyes searched the fields at the back, and every +ditch and water-hole. I had the loss cried in the camp, my lady on her +return offered a reward, we sent even to the nearer villages, we +patrolled the roads, we omitted nothing that could by any chance avail +us. Yet evening fell, and night, and found us still searching; and no +nearer, as far as we could see, to success. The child was gone +mysteriously. Left to play alone for two minutes in the stillness of +the afternoon, he had vanished as completely as if the earth had +opened and swallowed him. + +Baffled, we began to ask, while Marie sat pale and brooding in a +corner, or now and again stole to the door to listen, who could have +taken him and with what motive? There were men and women in the camp +capable of anything. It seemed probable to some that these had stolen +the child for the sake of his clothes. Others suggested witchcraft. +But in my own mind, I leaned to neither of these theories. I +suspected, though I dared not utter the thought, that the general had +done it. Without knowing how much of the story Count Hugo had confided +to him, I took it as certain that the father had said enough to +apprise him of the boy's value. And this being so, what more probable +than that the general, whom I was prepared to credit with any +atrocity, had taken instant steps to possess himself of the child? + +My lady said and did all that was kind on the occasion, and for a few +hours it occupied all our thoughts. At the end of that time, however, +about sunset, General Tzerclas rode to the door, and with him, to my +surprise, the Waldgrave. They would see her, and detained her so long +that when she sent for me on their departure, I was sore on Marie's, +account, and inclined to blame her as indifferent to our loss. But a +single glance at her face put another colour on the matter. I saw that +something had occurred to excite and disturb her. + +'Martin,' she said earnestly, 'I am going to employ you on an errand +of importance. Listen to me and do not interrupt me. General Tzerclas +starts to-morrow with the larger part of his forces to intercept one +of Wallenstein's convoys, which is expected to pass twelve leagues to +the south of this. There will be sharp fighting, I am told, and my +cousin, the Waldgrave Rupert, is going. He is not at present--I mean, +I am afraid he may do something rash. He is young,' my lady continued +with dignity and a heightened colour, 'and I wish he would stay here. +But he will not.' + +I guessed at once that this affair of the convoy was the business +which had brought Count Hugo to the camp. And I was beginning to +consider what advantage we might make of it, and whether the general's +absence might not afford us both a pretext for departure and the +opportunity, when my lady's next words dispelled my visions. + +'I want you,' she said slowly, 'to go with him. He has a high opinion +of you, and will listen to you.' + +'The general?' I cried in amazement. + +'Who spoke of him?' she exclaimed angrily. 'I said the Waldgrave +Rupert. I wish you to go with him to see that he does not run any +unnecessary risk.' + +I coughed dryly, and stood silent. + +'Well?' my lady said with a frown. 'Do you understand?' + +'I understand, my lady,' I answered firmly; 'but I cannot go.' + +'_You cannot go!_ when I send you!' she murmured, unable, I think, to +believe her ears. 'Why not, sirrah? Why not, if you please?' + +'Because my first duty is to your excellency,' I stammered. 'And as +long as you are here, I dare not--and will not leave you!' + +'As long as I am here!' she retorted, red with anger and surprise. +'You have still that maggot in your head, then? By my soul, Master +Martin, if we were at home I would find means to drive it out! But I +know what it is! What you really want is to stay by the side of that +puling girl! Oh, I am not blind,' my lady continued viciously, seeing +that she had found at last the way to hurt me. 'I know what has been +going on.' + +'But Count Leuchtenstein----' I muttered. + +'Don't bring him in!' my lady cried, in such a voice that I dared go +no farther. 'General Tzerclas has told me of him. I understand what is +between them, and you do not. Presumptuous booby!' she continued, +flashing at me a glance of scorn, which made me tremble. 'But I will +thwart you! Since you will not leave me, I will go myself. I will go, +but Mistress Marie shall stay here till we return.' + +'But if there is to be fighting?' I said humbly. + +'Ah! So you have changed your note, have you!' she cried triumphantly. +I had seldom seen her more moved. 'If there is to be fighting'--she +mocked my tone. 'Well, there is to be, but I shall go. And now do you +go, and have all ready for a start at daybreak, or it will be the +worse for you! One of my women will accompany me. Fraulein Anna will +stay here with your--other mistress!' + +She pointed to the door as she spoke, and once more charged me to be +ready; and I went away dazed. Everything seemed on a sudden to be +turned upside down--the child lost, my lady offended, the Waldgrave +desperate, the general in favour. It was hard to see which way my duty +lay. I would fain have stayed in the camp a day to make farther search +for the child, but I must go. I would gladly have got clear of the +camp, but we were to travel in the general's company. As to leaving +Marie, my lady wronged me. I knew of no special danger which +threatened the girl, nor any reason why she should not be safe where +she was. If the child were found she would be here to receive it. + +On the other hand, there was my discovery of the beggar's fate, from +the immediate consequences of which Count Hugo's arrival had saved me. +This sudden expedition should favour me there; the general would have +his hands full of other things, and Ludwig be hard put to it to gain +his ear. I might now, if I pleased, discover the matter to my lady, +and open her eyes. But I had no proof; even if time permitted, and I +could take the Countess to that part of the camp, I could not be sure +that the body was still there. And to accuse General Tzerclas of such +a thing without proof would be to court my own ruin. + +While I was puzzling over this, I saw the Waldgrave outside, and, +thinking to profit by his advice, I went to meet him. But I found him +in a peculiar mood, talking, laughing, and breaking into snatches of +song; all with a wildness and _abandon_ that frightened while they +puzzled me. He laughed at my doubts, and walking up and down, while +his servants scoured his breast-piece and cleaned his harness by the +light of a lantern, he persisted in talking of nothing but the +expedition before us and the pleasure of striking a blow or two. + +'We are rusting, man!' he cried feverishly, clapping me on the back. +'You have the rust on you yet, Martin But-- + + + "Clink, clink, clink! + Sword and stirrup and spur! + Ride, ride, ride, + Fast as feather or fur!" + + +To-morrow or the next day we will have it off.' + +'You have heard about the child, my lord,' I said gravely, trying to +bring him back to the present. + +'I have heard that Von Werder, the dullest man at a board I ever met, +turns out to be Hugo of Leuchtenstein, whom God preserve!' he answered +recklessly. 'And that your girl's brat of a brother turns out to be +his brat! And no sooner is the father found than the son is lost; and +that both have gone as mysteriously as they came. But Himmel! man, +what's the odds when we are going to fight to-morrow! What compares +with that? Ca! ca! steady and the point!' + +I thought of Marie; and it seemed to me that there were other things +in the world besides fighting. For love makes a man both brave and a +coward. But the argument would scarcely have been to the Waldgrave's +mind, and, seeing that he would neither talk nor hear reason, I left +him and went away to make my preparations. + +But on the road next day I noticed that though now and then he flashed +into the same wild merriment, he was on the whole as dull as he had +been gay. Our party rode at the head of the column, that we might +escape the dust and have the best of the road, the general and his +principal officers accompanying us and leaving the guidance of the +march to inferiors. Our force consisted of about six hundred horse and +four hundred foot; and as we were to return to the camp, we took with +us neither sutlers nor ordinary baggage, while camp followers were +interdicted under pain of death. Yet the amount of our impedimenta +astonished me. Half a dozen sumpter horses were needed to carry the +general's tent and equipage; his officers required a score more. The +ammunition for the foot soldiers, who were sufficiently burdened with +their heavy matchlocks, provided farther loads; and in fine, while +supposed to be marching in light fighting order, we had something like +a hundred packhorses in our train. Then there were men to lead them, +and cooks and pages and foot-boys and the general's band, and but that +our way lay through woodland tracks and by-routes, I verily believe +that we should have had his coach and dwarf also. + +The sight of all these men and horses in motion was so novel and +exhilarating, and the morning air so brisk, that I soon recovered from +my parting with Marie, and began to take a more cheerful view of the +position. I came near to sympathizing with my lady, whose pleasure and +delight knew no bounds. The long lines of horsemen winding through the +wood, the trailing pikes and waving pennons, gratified her youthful +fancy for war; while as our march lay through the forest, she was +shocked by none of those traces of its ravages which had appalled us +on first leaving Heritzburg. The general waited on her with the utmost +attention, riding by her bridle-rein and talking with her by the hour +together. Whenever I looked at them I noticed that her eye was bright +and her colour high, and I guessed that he was unfolding the plan of +ambition which I was sure he masked under a cold and reserved +demeanour. Alas! I could think of nothing more likely to take my +lady's fancy, no course more sure to enlist her sympathy and interest. +But I was helpless; I could do nothing. And for the Waldgrave, if he +still had any power he would not use it. + +My lady gave him opportunities. Several times I saw her try to draw +him into conversation, and whenever General Tzerclas left her for a +while she turned to the younger man and would have talked to him. But +he seemed unable to respond. When he was not noisily gay, he rode like +a mute. He seemed half sullen, half afraid; and she presently gave him +up, but not before her efforts had caught Tzerclas' eye. The general +had been called for some purpose to the rear of the column, and on his +return found the two talking, my lady's attitude such that it was very +evident she was the provocant. He did not try to resume his place, but +fell in behind them; and riding there, almost, if not quite, within +earshot, cast such ugly glances at them as more than confirmed me in +the belief that in his own secret way he loved my mistress; and that, +after a more dangerous fashion than the Waldgrave. + + +[Illustration: The general waited on her with the utmost attention, +riding by her bridle-rein ...] + + +This was late in the afternoon, and another hour brought us who +marched at the head of the column to our camping-ground for the night. +We lay in a rugged, wooded valley, not very commodious, but chosen +because only one high ridge divided it from a second valley, through +which the main road and the river had their course. Our instructions +were that the convoy, which was bound for Wallenstein's army then +marching on Nuremberg, would pass through this second valley some time +during the following day; but until the hour came for making the +proper dispositions, all persons in our force were forbidden to mount +the intervening ridge under pain of death. We had even to do without +fires--lest the smoke should betray our presence--and for this one +night lay under something like the strict discipline which I had +expected to find prevailing in a military camp. The only fire that was +permitted cooked the general's meal, which he shared with my lady and +the Waldgrave and the principal officers. + +Even so the order caused trouble. The pikemen and musketeers did not +come in till an hour before midnight, when they trudged into camp +dusty and footsore and murmuring at their leaders. When, in this +state, they learned that fires were not to be lighted, disgust grew +rapidly into open disobedience. On a sudden, in half a dozen quarters +at once, flames flickered up, and the camp, dark before, became +peopled in a moment with strange forms, whose eighteen-foot weapons +and cumbrous headpieces flung long shadows across the valley. + +We had lain down to rest, but at the sound of the altercation and the +various cries of 'Pikes! Pikes!' and 'Mutiny!' which broke out, we +came out of our lairs in the bracken to learn what was happening. +Calling young Jacob and three or four of the Heritzburg men to my +side, I ran to my lady to see that nothing befell her in the +confusion. The noise had roused her, and we found her at the door of +her tent looking out. The newly-kindled fires, flaming and crackling +on the sloping sides of the valley, lit up a strange scene of +disorder--of hurrying men and plunging horses, for the alarm had +extended to the horse lines--and for a moment I thought that the +mutiny might spread and cut the knot of our difficulties, or whelm us +all in the same ruin. + +I had scarcely conceived the thought, when the general passed near us +on his way from his tent, whence he had just been called; and at the +sight my new-born hopes vanished. He was bare-headed; he carried no +arms, and had nothing in his hand but a riding-switch. But the stern, +grim aspect of his face, in which was no mercy and no quailing, was +worth a thousand pikes. The firelight shone on his pale, olive cheek +and brooding eyes, as he went by us, not seeing us; and after that I +did not doubt what would happen, although for a moment the tumult of +oaths and cries seemed to swell rather than sink, and I saw more than +one pale-lipped officer climbing into his saddle that he might be able +to fly, if necessary. + +The issue agreed with my expectations. The heart of the disorder lay +in a part of the camp separated from our quarters by a brook, but near +enough in point of distance; so that we saw, my lady and all, pretty +clearly what followed. For a moment, for a few seconds, during which +you could hear a pin drop through the camp, the general stood, his +life in the balance, unarmed in the midst of armed men. But he had +that set courage which seems to daunt the common sort and paralyse the +finger on the trigger; and he prevailed. The knaves lowered their +weapons and shrank back cowering before him. In a twinkling the fires +were beaten out by a hundred eager feet, and the general strode back +to us through the silent, obsequious camp. + +He distinguished my lady standing at the door of her tent, and stepped +aside. 'I am sorry that you have been disturbed, Countess,' he said +politely. 'It shall not occur again. I will hang up a dozen of those +hounds to-morrow, and we shall have less barking.' + +'You are not hurt?' my lady asked, in a voice unlike her own. + +He laughed, deigning no answer in words. Then he said, 'You have no +fire? Camp rules are not for you. Pray have one lit.' And he went on +to his tent. + +I had the curiosity to pass near it when my lady retired. I found a +dozen men, cuirassiers of his privileged troop, peeping and squinting +under the canvas which had been hung round the fire. I joined them and +looked; and saw him lying at length, wrapped in his cloak, reading +'Caesar's Campaigns' by the light of the blaze, as if nothing had +happened. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + IN A GREEN VALLEY. + + +He was as good as his word. Before the sun had been up an hour six of +the mutineers, chosen by lot from a hundred of the more guilty, +dangled from a great tree which overhung the brook, and were already +forgotten--so short are soldiers' memories--in the hurry and bustle of +a new undertaking. The slope of the ridge which divided us from the +neighbouring valley was quickly dotted with parties of men making +their way up it, through bracken and furze which reached nearly to the +waist; while the horse under Count Waska rode slowly off to make the +circuit of the hill and enter the next valley by an easier road. + +My lady chose to climb the hill on foot, in the track of the pikemen, +though the heavy dew, which the sun had not yet drunk up, soon +drenched her skirts, and she might, had she willed it, have been +carried to the top on men's shoulders. The fern and long grass delayed +her and made our progress slow, so that the general's dispositions +were in great part made when we reached the summit. Busy as he still +was, however, he had eyes for us. He came at once and placed us in a +small coppice of fir trees that crowned one of the knobs of the ridge. +From this point, where he took up his own position, we could command, +ourselves unseen, the whole valley, the road, and river--the scene of +the coming surprise--and see clearly, what no one below could discern, +where our footmen lay in ambush in parties of fifty; the pikemen among +some black thorns, close to the north end of the valley, the musketmen +a little farther within and almost immediately below us. The latter, +prone in the fern, looked, viewed from above, like lines of sheep +feeding, until the light gleamed on a gun-barrel or sword-hilt and +dispelled the peaceful illusion. + +The sun had not yet risen above the hill on which we stood, and the +valley below us lay cool and green and very pleasant to the eye. About +a league in length, it was nowhere, except at its southern extremity, +where it widened into a small plain, more than half a mile across. At +its northern end, below us, and a little to the right, it diminished +to a mere wooded defile, through which the river ran over rocks and +boulders, with a dull roar that came plainly to our ears. A solitary +house of some size, with two or three hovels clustered about it, stood +near the middle of the valley; but no smoke rose from the chimney, no +cock crowed, no dog barked. And, looking more closely, I saw that the +place was deserted. + +So quiet it seemed in this peaceful Thuringian valley, I shuddered +when I thought of the purpose which brought us hither; and I saw my +lady's face grow sad with a like reflection. But General Tzerclas +viewed all with another mind. The stillness, the sunshine, the very +song of the lark, as it rose up and up and up above us, and, still +unwearied, sang its song of praise, touched no chord in his breast. +The quietude pleased him, but only because it favoured his plans; the +lark's hymn, because it covered with a fair mask his lurking ambush; +the sunshine, because it seemed a good augury. His keen and vigilant +eye, the smile which curled his lip, the set expression of his face, +showed that he saw before him a battle-field and no more; a step +upwards--a triumph, a victory, and that was all. + +I blamed him then. I confess now, I misjudged him. He who leads on +such occasions risks more than his life, and bears a weight of +responsibility that may well crush from his mind all moods or thoughts +of weather. At least, I did him, I had to do him, this justice: that +he betrayed no anxiety, uttered no word of doubt or misgiving. +Standing with his back against a tree and his eyes on the northern +pass, he remained placidly silent, or talked at his ease. In this he +contrasted well with the Waldgrave, who continually paced up and down +in the background, as if the fir-grove were a prison and he a captive +waiting to be freed. + +'At what hour should they be here?' my lady asked presently, breaking +a long silence. + +She tried to speak in her ordinary tone, but her voice sounded +uncertain. A woman, however brave, is a woman still. It began to dawn +upon her that things were going to happen which it might be unpleasant +to see, and scarcely more pleasant to remember. + +'I am afraid I cannot say,' the general answered lightly. 'I have done +my part; I am here. Between this and night they should be here too.' + +'Unless they have been warned.' + +'Precisely,' he answered,' unless they have been warned.' + +After that my lady composed herself anew, and the day wore on, in +desultory conversation and a grim kind of picnic. Noon came, and +afternoon, and the Countess grew nervous and irritable. But General +Tzerclas, though the hours, as they passed without event, without +bringing that for which he waited, must have tried him severely, +showed to advantage throughout. He was ready to talk, satisfied to be +silent. Late in the day, when my lady, drowsy with the heat, dozed a +little, he brought out his Caesar, and read, in it, as if nothing +depended on the day, and he were the most indifferent of spectators. +She awoke and found him reading, and, for a time, sat staring at him, +wondering where she was. At last she remembered. She sat up with a +start, and gazed at him. + +'Are we still waiting?' she said. + +'We are still waiting,' he answered, closing his book with a smile. +'But,' he continued, a moment later, 'I think I hear something now. +Keep back a little, if you please, Countess.' + +We all stood up among the trees, listening, and presently, though the +murmuring of the river in the pass prevented us hearing duller sounds, +a sharp noise, often repeated, came to our ears. It resembled the +snapping of sticks under foot. + +'Whips!' General Tzerclas muttered. 'Stand back, if you please.' + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth before a handful of horsemen +appeared on a sudden in the road below us. They came on like tired +men, some with their feet dangling, some sitting sideways on their +horses. Many had kerchiefs wound round their heads, and carried their +steel caps at the saddle-bow; others nodded in their seats, as if +asleep. They were abreast of our pikemen when we first saw them, and +we watched them advance, until a couple of hundred yards brought them +into line with the musketmen. These, too, they passed without +suspicion, and so went jolting and clinking down the valley, every man +with a bundle at his crupper, and strange odds and ends banging and +swinging against his horse's sides. + +Two hundred paces behind them the first waggon appeared, dragged +slowly on by four labouring horses, and guarded by a dozen foot +soldiers--heavy-browed fellows, lounging along beside the wheels, with +their hands in their breeches pockets. Their long, trailing weapons +they had tied at the tail of the waggon. Close on their heels came +another waggon creaking and groaning, and another, and another, with a +drowsy, stumbling train of teamsters and horse-boys, and here and +there an officer or a knot of men-at-arms. But the foot soldiers had +mostly climbed up into the waggons, and lay sprawling on the loads, +with arms thrown wide, and heads rolling from side to side with each +movement of the straining team. + +We watched eighty of these waggons go by; the first must have been a +mile and more in front of the last. After them followed a disorderly +band of stragglers, among whom were some women. Then a thick, solid +cloud of dust, far exceeding all that had gone before, came down the +pass. It advanced by fits and starts, now plunging forward, now +halting, while the heart of it gave forth a dull roaring sound that +rose above the murmur of the river. + +'Cattle!' General Tzerclas muttered. 'Five hundred head, I should say. +There can be nothing behind that dust. Be ready, trumpeter.' + +The man he addressed stood a few paces behind us; and at intervals +along the ridge others lay hidden, ready to pass the signal to an +officer stationed on the farthest knob, who as soon as he heard the +call would spring up, and with a flag pass the order to the cavalry +below him. + +The suspense of the moment was such, it seemed an age before the +general gave the word. He stood and appeared to calculate, now looking +keenly towards the head of the convoy, which was fast disappearing in +a haze of dust, now gazing down at the bellowing, struggling, wavering +mass below us. At length, when the cattle had all but cleared the +pass, he raised his hand and cried sharply-- + +'Now!' + +The harsh blare of the trumpet pierced the upper stillness in which we +stood. It was repeated--repeated again; then it died away shrilly in +the distance. In its place, hoarse clamour filled the valley below us. +We pressed forward to see what was happening. + +The surprise was complete; and yet it was a sorry sight we saw down in +the bottom, where the sunshine was dying, and guns were flashing, and +men were chasing one another in the grey evening light. Our musketmen, +springing out of ambush, had shot down the horses of the last +half-dozen waggons, and, when we looked, were falling pell-mell upon +the unlucky troop of stragglers who followed. These, flying all ways, +filled the air with horrid screams. Farther to the rear, our pikemen +had seized the pass, and penning the cattle into it rendered escape by +that road hopeless. Forward, however, despite the confusion and +dismay, things were different. Our cavalry did not appear--the dust +prevented us seeing what they were doing. And here the enemy had a +moment's respite, a moment in which to think, to fly, to stand on +their defence. + +And soon, while we looked on breathless, it was evident that they were +taking advantage of it. Possibly the general had not counted on the +dust or the lateness of the hour. He began to gaze forward towards the +head of the column, and to mutter savagely at the footmen below us, +who seemed more eager to overtake the fugitives and strip the dead, +than to press forward and break down opposition. He sent down Ludwig +with orders; then another. + +But the mischief was done already, and still the cavalry did not +appear; being delayed, as we afterwards learned, by an unforeseen +brook. Some one with a head on his shoulders had quickly drawn +together all those among the enemy who could fight, or had a mind to +fight. We saw two waggons driven out of the line, and in a moment +overturned; in a twinkling the panic-stricken troopers and teamsters +had a haven in which they could stand at bay. + +Its value was soon proved. A company of our musketeers, pursuing some +stragglers through the medley of flying horses and maddened cattle +which covered the ground near the pass, came upon this rude fortress, +and charged against it, recklessly, or in ignorance. In a moment a +volley from the waggons laid half a dozen on the ground. The rest fell +back, and scattered hither and thither. They were scarcely dispersed +before a handful of the enemy's officers and mounted men came riding +back from the front. Stabbing their horses in the intervals between +the waggons, they took post inside. Every moment others, some with +arms and some without, came straggling up. When our cavalry at last +arrived on the scene, there were full three hundred men in the waggon +work, and these the flower of the enemy. All except one had +dismounted. This one, a man on a white charger, seemed to be the soul +of the defence. + +Our horse, flushed with triumph and yelling loudly, came down the line +like a torrent, sabreing all who fell in their way. Half rode on one +side of the convoy and half on the other. They had met with no +resistance hitherto, and expected none, and, like the musketmen, were +on the barricade before they knew of its existence. In the open, the +stoutest hedgehog of pikes could scarcely have resisted a charge +driven home with such blind recklessness; but behind the waggons it +was different. Every interstice bristled with pike-heads, while the +musketmen poured in a deadly fire from the waggon-tops. For a few +seconds the place belched flame and smoke. Two or three score of the +foremost assailants went down horse and man. The rest, saving +themselves as best they could, swerved off to either side amid a roar +of execrations and shouts of triumph. + +My lady, trembling with horror, had long ago retired. She would no +longer look. The Waldgrave, too, was gone; with her, I supposed. Half +the general's attendants had been sent down the hill, some with one +order, some with another. In this crisis--for I saw clearly that it +was a crisis, and that if the defenders could hold out until darkness +fell, the issue must be doubtful--I turned to look at our commander. +He was still cool, but his brow was dark with passion. At one moment +he stepped forward as if to go down into the _melee_; the next he +repressed the impulse. The level rays of the sun which just caught the +top of the hill shone in our eyes, while dust and smoke began to veil +the field. We could still make out that the cavalry were sweeping +round and round the barricade, pouring in now and then a volley of +pistol shots; but they appeared to be suffering more loss than they +caused. + +Given a ring of waggons in the open, stoutly defended by resolute men, +and I know nothing more difficult to reduce. Gazing in a kind of +fascination into the depths where the smoke whirled and eddied, as the +steam rolls this way and that on a caldron, I was wondering what I +should do were I in command, when I saw on a sudden what some one was +doing; and I heard General Tzerclas utter an oath of relief. Back from +the front of the convoy came three waggons, surrounded and urged on by +a mob of footmen; jolting and bumping over the uneven ground, and +often nearly overturned, still they came on, and behind them a larger +troop of men. Finally they came almost abreast of the enemy's +position, and some thirty paces to one side of it. There perforce they +stayed, for the leading horses fell shot; but it was near enough. In +an instant our men swarmed up behind them and began to fire volleys +into the enemy's fortress, while the horse moving to and fro at a +little distance forbade any attempt at a sally. + +'That man has a head on his shoulders!' General Tzerclas muttered +between his teeth. 'That is Ludwig! Now we have them!' + +But I saw that it was not Ludwig; and presently the general saw it +too. I read it in his face. The man who had brought up the waggons, +and who could still be seen exposing himself, mounted and bare-headed +in the hottest of the fire, ordering, threatening, inciting, leading, +so that we could almost hear his voice where we stood, was the +Waldgrave! His blue velvet cloak and bright fair head were +unmistakable, though darkness was fast closing over the fight, and it +was only at intervals that we could see anything through the pall of +smoke. + +'Vivat Weimar!' I cried involuntarily, a glow of warmth and pride +coursing through my veins. In that moment I loved the young man as if +he had been my son. + +The next I fell from the clouds. What would my lady say if anything +happened to him? What should I say if I stood by and saw him fall? +And he with no headpiece, breast or back! It was madness of him to +expose himself! I started forward, stung by the thought, and before I +knew what I was doing--for, in fact, I could have done no good--I was +on the slope and descending the hill. Almost at the same moment the +general gave the word to those who remained with him, and began to +descend also. The hill was steep there, and it took us five minutes to +reach the scene of action. + +If I had foolishly thought that I could do anything, I was +disappointed. By this time the battle was over. Manning every waggon +within range, and pouring in a steady fire, our sharp-shooters had +thinned the ranks behind the barricade. The enemy's fire had first +slackened, and then ceased. A little later, one wing, unable to bear +the shower of shot, had broken and tried to fly, and in a moment our +pikemen had gained the work. + +We heard the flight and pursuit go wailing up the valley, but the +disorder, and darkness, and noise at the foot of the hill where we +found ourselves, were such that I stood scared and bewildered, +uncertain which way to turn or whither to go. On every side of me men +were stripping the dead, the wounded were crying for water, and cattle +and horses, wounded or maddened, were rushing up and down among broken +waggons and prostrate loads. Such eyes of cruelty and greed glared at +me out of the gloom, such shouts cursed me across dead men that I drew +my sword and carried it drawn. But the scene robbed me of half my +faculties; I did not know which way to turn; I did not know what to +do; and until I came upon Ludwig, I wandered aimlessly about, looking +for the Waldgrave without plan or system. It was my first experience +of the darker side of war, and it surpassed in horror anything I had +imagined or thought possible. + +Ludwig, badly wounded in the leg, I found under a waggon. I had stood +beside him some time without seeing him, and he had not spoken. But +when I moved away I suppose he recognized my figure or step, for when +I had gone a few paces I heard a hoarse voice calling my name. I went +cautiously back to the waggon, and after a moment's search detected +him peering from under it with a white, fierce face, which reminded me +of a savage creature at bay. + +'Hallo!' I said. 'Why did you not speak before, man?' + +'Get me some water,' he whispered painfully. 'Water, for the love of +Heaven!' + +I told him that I had no flask or bottle, or I should before this have +fetched some for others'. He gave me his, and I was starting off when +I remembered that he might know how the Waldgrave had fared. I asked +him. + +'He led the pursuit,' he muttered. 'He is all right.' Then, as I was +again turning away, he clutched my arm and continued, 'Have you a +pistol?' + +'Yes,' I said. + +'Lend it to me until you come back,' he gasped. 'If these vultures +find me they will finish me. I know them. That is better. I shall win +through yet.' + +I marked where his waggon stood, and left him. The river was distant +less than a quarter of a mile, but it lay low, and the banks were +steep; and in the darkness it was not easy to find a way down to the +water. Succeeding at last--and how still and peaceful it seemed as I +bent over the gently flowing surface and heard the plash and gurgle of +the willows in the stream!--I filled my bottle and climbed back to +the plain level. Here I found a change in progress. At intervals up +and down the valley great fires had been kindled. Some of these, +burning high already, lit up the wrecked convoy and the dark groups +that moved round it, and even threw a red, uncertain glare far up the +slopes of the hills. Aided by the light, I hastened back, and finding +Ludwig without much difficulty, held the bottle to his lips. He seemed +nearly gone, but the draught revived him marvellously. + +When he had drunk I asked him if I could do anything else for him. He +looked already more like himself. + +'Yes,' he said, propping his back against the wheel and speaking with +his usual hardihood. 'Tell our little general where I am. That is all. +I shall do now we have light. I am not afraid of these skulkers any +longer. But here, friend Martin. You asked about your Waldgrave just +now?' + +'Yes,' I said. 'Has he returned?' + +'He never went,' he replied coolly. 'But if I had told you when you +first asked me, you would not have gone for water for me. He is down. +He fell, as nearly as I can remember, on the farther side of the +second fire from here.' + +With a curse I ran from him, raging, and searched round that fire and +the next, like one beside himself. Many of the dead lay stripped to +the skin, so that it was necessary to examine faces. And this ghastly +task, performed with trembling fingers and by an uncertain light, took +a long time. There were men prowling about with knives and bundles, +whom I more than once interrupted in their work; but the sight of my +pistol, and my face--for I was full of fierce loathing and would have +shot them like rats--drove them off wherever I came. Not once but many +times the wounded and dying begged me to stay by them and protect +them; but my water was at an end and my time was not my own. I left +them, and ran from place to place in a fever of dread, which allowed +of no rest or relaxation. At last, when I had well-nigh given up hope, +I found him lying half-stripped among a heap of dead and wounded, at +the farthest corner of the barricade. + +All his finery was gone, and his handsome face and fair hair were +stained and bedabbled with dust and blood. But he was not dead. I +could feel his heart beating faintly in his breast; and though he lay +senseless and showed no other signs of life, I was thankful to find +hope remained. I bore him out tenderly, and laid him down by himself +and moistened his lips with the drainings of my flask. But what next? +I could not leave him; the plunderers who had already robbed him might +return at any moment. And yet, without cordials, and coverings, and +many things I had not, the feeble spark of life left in him must go +out. I stood up and looked round in despair. A lurid glare, a pitiful +wailing, a passing of dark figures filled the valley. A hundred round +us needed help; a hundred were beyond help. There were none to give +it. + +I was about to raise him in my arms and carry him in search of +it--though I feared the effect of the motion on his wounds--when, to +my joy and relief, the measured tramp of footsteps broke on my ears, +and I distinguished with delight a party of men approaching with +torches. A few mounted officers followed them, and two waggons creaked +slowly behind. They were collecting the wounded. + +I ran to meet them. 'Quick!' I cried breathlessly. 'This way!' + +'Not so fast!' a harsh voice interposed; and, looking up, I saw that +the general himself was directing the party. 'Not so fast, my friend,' +he repeated. 'Who is it?' and leaning forward in his saddle, he looked +down at me. + +'The Waldgrave Rupert,' I answered impatiently. 'He is hurt almost to +death. But he is alive, and may live, your excellency. Only direct +them to come quickly.' + +Sitting on his horse in the full glare of the torches, he gazed down +at me, his face wearing a strange expression of hesitation. 'He is +alive?' he said at last. + +'Yes, at present. But he will soon be dead if we do not go to him,' I +retorted. 'This way! He lies yonder.' + +'Lead on!' the general said. + +I obeyed, and a moment brought our party to the spot, where the +Waldgrave still lay insensible, his face pale and drawn, his eyes half +open and disclosing the whites. Under the glare of the torches he +looked so like a corpse and so far beyond aid, that it was not until I +had again thrust my hand into his breast, and felt the movement of his +heart that I was reassured. + +As for the general, after looking down at him for awhile, he said +quietly, 'He is dead.' + +'Not so, your excellency,' I answered, rising briskly from my knees. +'He is stunned. That is all.' + +'He is dead,' the general replied coldly. 'Leave him. We must help +those first who need help.' + +They were actually turning away. They had moved a couple of paces +before I could believe it. Then I sprang to the general's rein. + +'You mistake, your excellency!' I cried, my voice shrill with +excitement. 'In Heaven's name, stop! He is alive! I can feel his +breathing. I swear that he is alive!' I was trembling with emotion and +terror. + +'He is dead!' he said harshly. 'Stand back!' + +Then I understood. In a flash his wicked purpose lay bared before me, +and I knew that he was playing with me; I read in the cold, derisive +menace of his eye that he knew the Waldgrave lived, that he knew he +might live, might survive, might see the dawn, and that he was +resolved that he should not. The perspiration sprang out on my brow. I +choked with indignation. + +'Mein Gott!' I cried breathless, 'and but for him you would have been +beaten.' + +'Stand back!' he muttered through his closed teeth; and his eyes +flickered with rage. 'Are you tired of your life, man?' + +'Ay, if you live!' I roared; and I shook his rein so that his horse +reared and almost unseated him. But still I clung to it. 'Come back! +Come back!' I cried, mad with passion, wild with indignation at +treachery so vile, so cold-blooded, 'or I will heave you from your +horse, you villain! I will----' + +I stumbled as I spoke over a broken shaft of a waggon, and in a moment +half a dozen strong arms closed round me. I was down and up again and +again down. I fought savagely, passionately, at the last desperately, +having that cold, sneering face before me, and knowing that it was for +my life. But they were many to one. They crushed me down and knelt on +me, and presently I lay panting and quiet. One of the men who held me +had unsheathed his dagger and stood looking to the general for a +signal. I closed my eyes expecting the blow, and involuntarily drew in +my breast, as if that poor effort might avert the stroke. + +But the general did not give the signal. He sat gazing down at me with +a ruthless smile on his face. 'Tie him up,' he said slowly, when he +had enjoyed his triumph to the full. 'Tie him up tightly. When we get +back to the camp we will have a shooting-match, and he shall find us +sport. You knave!' he continued, riding up to me in a paroxysm of +anger, and slashing me across the face with his riding-whip so cruelly +that the flesh rose in great wheals, and I fell back into the men's +arms blind and shuddering with pain, 'I have had my eye on you! But +you will work me no more mischief. Throw him into the waggon there,' +he continued. 'Tie up his mouth if he makes a noise. Has any one seen +Ludwig?' + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED. + + +The dawn came slowly. Night, loth to unveil what the valley had to +show, hung there long after the wooded knobs that rose along the ridge +had begun to appear, looking like grey and misty islands in a sea of +vapour. Many cried for the light--what night passes that some do +not?--but none more impatiently than a woman, whose unquiet figure +began with the first glimmer to pace the top of the hill. Sometimes +she walked to and fro with her face to the sky; sometimes she stood +and peered into the depths where the fires still glowed fitfully; or +again listened with shrinking ears to the wailing that rose out of the +darkness. + +It was the Countess. She had lain down, because they had bidden her do +so, and told her that nothing could be done while night lasted. But +with the first dawn she was on foot, so impatient that her own people +dared not come near her, so imperious that the general's troopers +crept away abashed. + +The fight in the valley and the dreadful things she had seen and heard +at nightfall had shaken her nerves. The absence of her friends had +finished the work. She was almost distraught this morning. If this was +war--this merciless butchery, this infliction of horrible pain on man +and beast--their screams still rang in her ears--she had seen enough. +Only let her get her friends back, and escape to some place where +these things would not happen, and she asked no more. + +The light, as it grew stronger, the sun, as it rose, filling the sky +with glory, failed to comfort her; for the one disclosed the dead, +lying white and stripped in the valley below, like a flock of sheep +grazing, the other seemed by its very cheerfulness to mock her. She +was raging like a lioness, when the general at last appeared, and came +towards her, his hat in his hand. + +His eye had still the brightness, his cheek the flush of victory. He +had lain much of the night, thinking his own thoughts, until he had +become so wrapped in himself and his plans that his shrewdness was for +once at fault, and he failed to read the signs in her face which his +own soldiers had interpreted. He was all fire and triumph; she, sick +of bloodshed and ambition. For the first time since they had come +together, she was likely to see him as he was. + +'Countess,' he said, as he stopped before her, 'you will do yourself +harm, I fear. You were on foot, I am told, before it was light.' + +'It is true,' she said, shuddering and restraining herself by an +effort. + +'It was foolish,' he replied. 'You may be sure that as soon as +anything is heard the news will be brought to you. And to be missing +is not to be dead--necessarily.' + +'Thank you,' she answered, her lip quivering. She flashed a look of +scorn at him, but he did not see it. Her hands opened and closed +convulsively. + +'He was last seen in the pursuit,' the general continued smoothly, +flattering himself that in suppressing his own triumphant thoughts and +purposes and talking her talk he was doing much. 'A score or more, of +them got away together. It is quite possible that they carried him off +a prisoner.' + +'And Martin?' she said in a choking voice. She could not stand still, +and had begun already to pace up and down again. He walked beside her. + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'I know nothing about him,' he said, +scarcely concealing a sneer. 'The man went where he was not sent. I +hope for the best, but----' He spread out his hands and shook his +head. + +'Oh!' she said. She was bursting with indignation. The sight of the +dead lying below had stirred her nature to its depths. She felt +intuitively the shallowness of his sympathy, the selfishness of his +thoughts. She knew that he had it on his lips to talk to her of his +triumph, and hated him for it. The horror which the day-old +battlefield sometimes inspires in the veteran was on her. She was +trembling all over, and only by a great effort kept herself from tears +and fainting. + +'The man is useful to you?' he said after a pause. He felt that he had +gone wrong. + +She bowed in silence. + +'Almost necessary, I suppose?' + +She bowed again. She could not speak. It was wonderful. Yesterday she +had liked this man, to-day she almost hated him. + +But he knew nothing of that, as he looked round with pride. Below, in +the valley, parties of men were going to and fro with a sparkle and +sheen of pikes. Now and again a trumpet spoke, giving an order. On the +hill, not far from where they walked, a group of officers who had +ascended with him sat round a fire watching the preparation of +breakfast. And of all he was the lord. He had only to raise a finger +to be obeyed. He saw before him a vista of such battles and victories, +ending--God knows in what. The Emperor's throne was not above the +dreams of such a man. And it moved him to speak. + +The flush on his cheek was deeper when he turned to her again. 'Yes, I +suppose he was necessary to you,' he said, 'but it should not be so. +The Countess of Heritzburg should look elsewhere for help than to a +servant. Let me speak plainly, Countess,' he continued earnestly. 'It +is becoming I should so speak, for I am a plain man. I am neither +Baron, Count, nor Prince, Margrave, nor Waldgrave. I have no title but +my sword, and no heritage save these who follow me. Yet, if I cannot +with the help of the one and the other carve out a principality as +long and as wide as Heritzburg, I am not John Tzerclas!' + +'Poor Germany!' the Countess said with a faint smile. + +He interpreted the words in his own favour, and shrugged his +shoulders. '_V[oe] victis!_' he said proudly. 'There was a time when +your ancestors took Heritzburg with the strong hand. Such another time +is coming. The future is for those who dare, for those who can raise +themselves above an old and sinking system, and on its ruins build +their fortunes. Of these men I intend to be one.' + +The Countess was an ambitious woman. At another time she might have +heard his tale with sympathy. But at this moment her heart was full of +anxiety for others, and she saw with perfect clearness the +selfishness, the narrowness, the hardness of his aims. She was angry, +too, that he should speak to her now--with the dead lying unburied, +and the lost unfound, and strewn all round them the ghastly relics of +the fight. She looked at him hardly, but she did not say a word; and +he, following the exultant march of his own thoughts, went on. + +'Albert of Wallenstein, starting from far less than I stand here, +has become the first man in Germany,' he said, heedless of her +silence--'Emperor in all but the name. Your uncle and mine, from a +country squire, became Marshal and Count of the Empire, and saw the +greatest quail before him. Ernest of Mansfeld, he was base-born and +crook-backed too, but he lay softly and ruled men all his days, and +left a name to tremble at. Countess,' the general continued, speaking +more hurriedly, and addressing himself, though he did not know it, to +the feeling which was uppermost in her mind, 'you may think that in +saying what I am going to say, I am choosing an untimely moment; that +with this round us, and the air scarce free from powder, I am a fool +to talk of love. But'--he hesitated, yet waved his hand abroad with a +proud gesture, as if to show that the pause was intentional--'I think +I am right. For I offer you no palace, no bed of down, but only myself +and my sword. I ask you to share a soldier's fortunes, and be the wife +and follow the fate of John Tzerclas. May it be?' + +His form seemed to swell as he spoke. He had an air half savage, half +triumphant as he turned to her with that question. The joy of battle +was still in his veins; he seemed but half sober, though he had drunk +nothing. A timid woman might have succumbed to him, one of lesser soul +might have shrunk before him; but the Countess faced him with a pride +as great as his own. + +'You have spoken plainly,' she said, undaunted. 'Perhaps you will +pardon me if I speak plainly too.' + +'I ask no more, sweet cousin,' he answered. + +'Then let me remind you,' she replied, 'that you have said much about +John Tzerclas, and little about the Countess of Heritzburg. You have +given excellent reasons why you should speak here, but none why I +should answer. For shame, sir,' the Countess continued tremulously, +letting her indignation appear. 'I lost last night my nearest relative +and my old servant. I am still distracted with anxiety on their +account. Yet, because I stand alone, unprotected, and with none of my +kin by my side, you choose this time to press your suit. For shame, +General Tzerclas!' + +'Himmel!' he exclaimed, forgetting himself in his annoyance--the fever +of excitement was still in his blood--'do you think the presence of +that dandified silken scarf would have kept me silent? No, my lady!' + +She looked at him for a moment, astonished. The contemptuous reference +to the Waldgrave, the change of tone, opened her eyes still wider. + +'I think you do not understand me,' she said coldly. + +'I do more; I love you,' he answered hotly. And his eyes burned as he +looked at her. 'You are fit to be a queen, my queen! And if I live, +sweet cousin, I will make you one!' + +'Let that go by,' she said contemptuously, bearing up against his look +of admiration as well as she could and continuing to move, so that he +had to walk also. 'What you do not understand is my nature--which is, +not to desert my friends when they are in trouble, nor to play when +those who have served me faithfully are missing.' + +'I can help neither the one nor the other,' he answered. But his brow +began to darken, and he stood silent a moment. Then he broke out in a +different tone. 'By Heaven!' he said, 'I am in no mood for play. And I +think that you are playing with me!' + +'I do not understand you!' she said. Her tone should have frozen him. + +'I have asked a question. Will you answer me yes or no,' he persisted. +'Will you be my wife, or will you not?' + +She did not blench. 'This is rather rough wooing, is it not?' she said +with fine scorn. + +'This is a camp, and I am a soldier.' + +She shrugged her shoulders. 'I do not think I like rough ways,' she +said. + +He controlled himself by a mighty effort. 'Pardon me,' he said with a +sickly smile, which sat ill on his flushed and angry face. 'Perhaps I +am somewhat spoiled, and forget myself. But, like the man in the +Bible, I am accustomed to say to some, "Go," and they go, and to +others, "Do it," and it is done. And woe to those who disobey me. +Possibly this makes me a rough wooer. But, Countess, the ways of the +world are rough; the times are rough. We do not know what to-morrow +will bring forth, and whatever we want we want quickly. More, +sweetheart,' he continued, drawing a step nearer to her and speaking +in a voice he vainly strove to modulate, 'a little roughness before +marriage is better than ill-treatment afterwards. I have known men who +wooed on their knees bring their wives to theirs very quickly after +the knot was tied. I am not of that kind.' + +My lady's heart sickened. Despite the assurance of his last words, she +saw the man as he was; she read his will in his eyes; and though his +sudden frankness was in reality the result of overmastering +excitement, she had the added horror of supposing it to be dictated by +her friendless position and the absence of the last men who might have +protected her. She knew that her only hope lay in her courage, and, +though her heart leapt under her bodice, she faced him boldly. + +'You wish for an answer?' she asked. + +'I have said so,' he answered. + +'Then I shall not give you one now,' she replied with a quiet smile. +'You see, general, I am not one of those to whom you can say "Go," and +they go, and "Do," and it is done. I must choose my own time for +saying yes or no. And this time'--she continued, looking round, and +suffering a little shudder to escape her, as she pointed to the valley +below--'I do not like. I am no coward, but I do not love the smell of +blood. I will take time to consider your offer, if you please; and, +meanwhile, I think you gallant gentleman enough not to press me +against my will.' + +She had a fan in her hand, and she began to walk again; she held it +up, between her face and the sun, which was still low. He walked by +her side, his brow as black as thunder. He read her thoughts so far +correctly that he felt the evasion boded him no good; but the +influence of her courage and pride was such that he shrank from +throwing down the mask altogether, or using words which only force +could make good. True, it wanted only a little to urge him over the +edge, but her lucky star and bold demeanour prevailed for the time, +and perhaps the cool, fresh air had sobered him. + +'I suppose a lady's wish must be law,' he muttered, though still he +scowled. 'But I hope that you will not make a long demand on my +patience.' + +'That, too, you must leave to me,' she replied with a flash of +coquetry, which it cost her much to assume. 'This morning I am so full +of anxiety, that I scarcely know what I am saying. Surely your people +must know by this time if they--they are among the dead?' + +'They are not,' he answered sulkily. + +'Then they must have been captured?' she said, a tremor in her voice. + +He nodded. At that moment a man came up to say that breakfast was +ready. The general repeated the message to her. + +'With your leave I will take it with my women,' she answered with +presence of mind. 'I slept ill, and I am poor company this morning,' +she added, smiling faintly. + +The ordeal over, she could scarcely keep her feet. She longed to weep. +She felt herself within an inch of swooning. + +He saw that she had turned pale, and he assented with a tolerable +grace. 'Let me give you my hand to your fire,' he said anxiously. + +'Willingly,' she answered. + +It was the last effort of her diplomacy, and she hated herself for it. +Still, it won her what she wanted--peace, a respite, a little time to +think. + +Yet as she sat and shivered in the sunshine, and made believe to eat, +and tried to hide her thoughts, even from her women, a crushing sense +of her loneliness took possession of her. She had read often and +often, with scarce a quickening of the pulse, of men and women in +tragic straits--of men and women brought face to face with death, nay, +choosing it. But she had never pictured their feelings till now--their +despair, their shrinkings, their bitter lookings back, as the iron +doors closed upon them. She had never considered that such facts might +enter into her own life. + +Now, on a sudden, she found herself face to face with inexorable +things, with the grim realities that have closed, like the narrowing +walls of the Inquisition dungeons, on many a gay life. In the valley +below they were burying men like rotten sheep. The Waldgrave was gone, +captured or killed. Martin was gone. She was alone. Life seemed a +cheap and uncertain thing, death very near. Pleasure--folly--a dancing +on the grave. + +Of her own free will she had placed herself in the power of a man who +loved her, and whom she now hated with an untimely hatred, that was +half fear and half loathing. In his power! Her heart stood still, and +then beat faster, as she framed the thought. The sunshine, though it +was summer, seemed to fall grey and pale on the hill sward; the +morning air, though the day was warm, made her shiver. The trumpet +call, the sharp command, the glitter of weapons, that had so often +charmed her imagination, startled her now. The food was like ashes in +her mouth; she could not swallow it. She had been blind, and now she +must pay for her folly. + +She bad passed the night in the lee of one of the wooded knolls that +studded the ridge, and her fire had been kindled there. The nearest +group of soldiers--Tzerclas' staff, whose harsh voices and reckless +laughter came to her ears at intervals--had their fire full a hundred +paces away. For a moment she entertained the desperate idea that she +might slip away, alone, or with her women, and, passing from clump to +clump, might gain the valley from which she had ascended, and, hiding +in the woods, get somehow to Cassel. The smallest reflection showed +her that the plan was not possible, and it was rejected as soon as +formed. But a moment later she was tempted to wish that she had put it +into effect. An officer made his appearance, with his hat in his hand +and an air of haste, and wished to know, with the general's service, +whether she could be ready in an hour. + +'For what?' she asked, rising. She had been sitting on the grass. + +'To start, your excellency,' he replied politely. + +'To start!' she exclaimed, taken by surprise. 'Whither, sir?' + +'On the return journey. To the camp.' + +The blood rushed to her face. 'To the camp?' she repeated. 'But is the +general going to start this morning? Now?' + +'In an hour, madam.' + +'And leave the Waldgrave Rupert--and my servant?' she cried, in a +voice of burning indignation. 'Are they to be abandoned? It is +impossible! I will see the general. Where is he?' she continued +impetuously. + +'He is in the valley,' the man answered. + +'Then take me to him,' she said, stepping forward. 'I will speak to +him. He cannot know. He has not thought.' + +But the officer stood silent, without offering to move. The Countess's +eyes flashed. 'Do you hear, sir?' she cried. 'Lead on, if you please. +I asked you to take me to him.' + +'I heard, madam,' he replied in a low voice, 'and I crave your pardon. +But this is an army, and I am part of it. I can take orders only from +General Tzerclas. I have received them, and I cannot go beyond them.' + +For a moment the Countess stood glaring at him, her face on fire with +wrath and indignation. She had been so long used to command, she was +of a nature so frank and imperious, that she trembled on the verge of +an outburst that could only have destroyed the little dignity it was +still possible for her to retain. Fortunately in the nick of time her +eyes met those of a group of officers who stood at a distance, +watching her. She thought that she read amusement in their gaze, and a +pride greater than that which had impelled her to anger came to her +aid. She controlled herself by a mighty effort. The colour left her +cheeks as quickly as it had flown to them. She looked at the man +coldly and disdainfully. + +'True,' she said, 'you do well to remind me. It is not easy to +remember that in war many things must give way. You may go, sir. I +shall be ready.' + +But as she stood and saw her horses saddled, her heart sank like lead. +All the misery of her false position came home to her. She felt that +now she was alone indeed, and powerless. She was leaving behind her +the only chance that remained of regaining her friends. She was going +back to put herself more completely, if that were possible, in the +general's hands. Yet she dared not resist! She dared not court defeat! +As her only hope and reserve lay in her wits and in the prestige of +her rank and beauty, to lower that prestige by an unavailing struggle, +by an unwomanly display, would be to destroy at a blow half her +defences. + +The Countess saw this; and though her heart ached for her friends, and +her eyes often turned back in unavailing hope, she mounted with a +serene brow. Her horses had been brought to the top of the hill, and +she rode down by a path which had been discovered. When she had gone a +league on the backward road she came upon the foremost part of the +captured convoy; which, was immediately halted and drawn aside, that +she might pass more conveniently and escape the noise and dust it +occasioned. + +Among the rest were three waggons laden with wounded. Awnings had been +spread to veil them from the sun, and she was spared the sight of +their sufferings. But their meanings and cries, as the waggons jolted +and creaked over the rough road, drove the blood from her cheeks. She +passed them quickly--they were many and she was one, and she could do +nothing--and rode on, little thinking who lay under the awnings, or +whose eyes followed her as she went. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + AMONG THE WOUNDED. + + +When a man lies fettered at the bottom of a jolting waggon, and, +unable to help himself, is made a pillow for wounded wretches, whose +feverish struggles go near to stifling him; and when to these miseries +are added the heat of a sultry night, thirst, and the near prospect of +death, passion soon dies down. Anger gives place to pain and the chill +of apprehension. The man begins to know himself again--forgets his +enemies, thinks of his friends. + +It was so with me. The general's back was not turned before I ceased +to cry out; and that gained me the one alleviation I had--that I was +not gagged. They piled the waggon with bleeding, groaning men,--of our +side, of course, for no quarter was given to the other,--and I +shuddered as each mangled wretch came in. Still, I had my mouth free. +If I could not move, I could breathe, and hear what passed round me. I +could see the dark night sky lit up by the glare of the fires, or, +later, watch the stars shining coldly and indifferently down on this +scene of pain and misery. + +When the waggon was full they drove us, jolting and wailing, to an +appointed place, and took out some, leaving only enough to cover the +floor thickly. And then, ah me! the night began. That which at first +had been an inconvenience, became in time intolerable pain. The ropes +cut into my flesh, the boards burned my back; we were so closely +packed, and I was so tightly bound that I could not move a limb. Every +moment the wounded cried for water, and those in pain wailed and +lamented, while all night the wolves howled round the camp. In one +corner, a man whose eyes were injured babbled unceasingly of his +mother and his home. Hour by hour, for the frenzy held him all night, +he rolled his head, and chattered, and laughed! In the morning he +died, and we thanked God for it. + +The peasant and the soldier sup the real miseries of war; the noble +and the officer, whose it is to dare death in the field, but rarely, +very rarely to lie wounded under the burning sun or through the +freezing night, only taste them. A place of arms falls; there is +quarter for my lord and a pass and courtesy for my lady, but edge and +point for the common herd. To risk all and get nothing--or a penny a +day, unpaid--is the lot of most. + +When morning at last dawned, I was half dead. My head seemed bursting; +my hands were purple with the tightness of my bonds. Deep groans broke +from me. I moved my eyes--the only things I could move--in an agony. +Round me I heard the sick thanking God as the light grew stronger, and +muttering words of hope. But the light helped me little. Where I lay, +trussed like a fowl, I could see nothing except the sky--whence the +sun would soon add to my miseries--and the heads of the two men who +sat propped against the waggon boards next to me. + +I took one of these to be dead, for he had slipped to one side, and +the arm with which he had stayed himself against the floor of the +waggon stood out stiff and stark. The other man had the comfort of the +corner; there was a cloak under him and a pad behind him. But his head +was sunk on his breast, and for a while I thought him dead too, and +had a horrible dread that he would slide over on to my face and stifle +me. But he did not, and by-and-by, when the sun had risen, and I felt +that I could bear it no longer, he woke up and raised his fierce, +white face and groaned. + +It was Ludwig. He stared at me for a minute or more in a dazed, stupid +fashion. Then he moved his leg and cried out with pain. After that he +looked at me more sensibly, and by-and-by spoke. + +'Donner, man!' he said. 'What is it? You look like a ripe mulberry.' + +I tried to answer him, but my lips and throat were so parched and +swollen I could only murmur. He saw my lips move, however, and guessed +how it was with me. + +'They have tied you up with a vengeance!' he said with a grim smile. +'Here, Franz! Willibrod! Who is there? Come, some one. Do you hear, +you lazy knaves?' he continued in a hoarse croak. 'When I am about +again I will find some of you quicker heels!' + +A man just risen came grumbling to the side of the waggon. Ludwig bade +him climb in and loosen my bonds, and set me up against the side. + +'And take away that carrion!' he added brutally. 'Dead men pay no +fares. That is better. Ay, give him some water. He will come round.' + +I did presently, though for a time the blood flowing where it had been +before restrained, caused me horrible pain, and my tongue, when I +tried to thank him, seemed to be too large for my mouth. But I could +now sit up, and stretch my limbs, and even raise my hands to my mouth. +Hope returned. My thoughts flew back to Marie Wort. Her pale face and +large eyes rose before my eyes, and filled them with tears. Then there +was my lady. And the Waldgrave. Doubtless he, poor fellow, was dead. +But the rest lived--lived, and would soon look to me, look to any one +for help. On that I became myself again. I shook off the pain and +lethargy and despair of the night, and took up the burden of life. If +my wits could save us, or, failing them, some happy accident, I would +not be wanting. I had still a day or two, and all the chances of a +journey. + +Ludwig gave me food and a drink from his flask. I thanked him again. + +'You are a man!' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'It was a pity you +would knot your own rope. As for these chicken-hearted tremblers,' he +continued, squinting askance at our companions, 'a fico for them! To +call themselves soldiers and pule like women! Faugh! I am sick of +them!' + +For my part, the sights I saw from the waggon seemed more depressing. +In every direction parties were moving, burying our dead, putting +wounded horses out of their misery, collecting plunder. One division +was at work driving the poor lowing cattle, already over-driven, back +the way they had come, through the pass and up the river bank. Another +was righting such of the waggons as had been overturned, or dragging +them out of the nether part of the valley. Everywhere men were +working, shouting, swearing, spurning the dead. All showed that the +general did not mean to linger, but would secure his booty by a timely +retreat to his camp. + +They came by-and-by and horsed our waggon and turned us round, and +presently we took our place in the slow, creaking procession, and +began to move up the pass. I looked everywhere for my lady, but could +see nothing of her. The noise was prodigious, the dust terrible, the +glare intolerable. I was thankful when some kind heart brought a +waggon cloth and stretched it over us. After that things were better; +and between the heat and the monotony of the motion I fell asleep, and +slept until the afternoon was well advanced. + +Then a singular thing occurred. The waggon which followed ours was +drawn by four horses abreast, whose heads as they plodded wearily +along at the tail of our waggon were so close to us that we could see +easily into the vehicle, which was full of wounded men, and covered +with an awning. We could see easily, I say; but the steady cloud of +dust through which we moved and the white glare of the sunlight gave +to everything so phantom-like an appearance that it was hard to say +whether we were looking on real things. + +Be that as it may, the first thing I saw when I awoke and rubbed my +eyes, was the Waldgrave's face! He lay in the front part of the +waggon, his head on the side-board. Thinking I dreamed, or that the +dust deceived me, I rubbed my eyes again and looked. Still it was he. +His eyes were closed. He was pale, where the dust did not hide all +colour; his head moved with the motion of the wheels. But he seemed to +be alive, for even while I looked, a man who sat by him leaned forward +and moistened his forehead with water. + +Trembling with excitement, I touched Ludwig on the shoulder. 'Look!' I +said. 'The Waldgrave!' + +He looked and nodded. 'Yes,' he said, chuckling. 'Now you see what you +have done for yourself. And all for nothing!' + +'But who took him up?' I persisted. + +'The general,' he answered sententiously. 'Who else?' + +'Why?' I cried in a fever. 'Why did he do it?' + +Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'He knows his own business,' he said. +'I suppose that he found he had life in him.' + +'Did he take him up at once? After I was seized?' + +'Of course. Whether he will live or no is another matter.' + +The helpless way in which the dusty, bedraggled head rolled as the +waggon jolted, warned me of that. Still, he was alive. He might live; +and I longed to be beside him, to tend and nurse him, to make the most +of the least hope. But my eyes fell on my fettered hands; and when I +looked again he had disappeared. He had sunk down in the cart, and was +out of sight. I was left to wonder whether he was dead, or had only +changed his posture for another more comfortable. And the dust growing +ever thicker, and the sun-glare less as the day advanced, I presently +lost sight even of the waggon. + +We lay that night in a coppice on the left bank of the river. Each +waggon halted where it stood at sunset, so that there was no common +camp, but all along the road a line of bivouacs. But for the cloud of +anxiety which darkened my mind, and the cords which bound my hands and +constantly reminded me of my troubles, I might have enjoyed the +comparative quietness of that night, the evening coolness, the soft +green light, the freshness of leaf and bough, which lapped us round +and seemed so much the more refreshing, as we had passed the day in a +fever of heat and dust. But the unexpected sight of the Waldgrave had +excited me; and I confess that as we came nearer to the camp, the +tremors I felt on my own account grew more violent. I recalled with a +shudder the shooting-match at which I had been present, and the +leather targets. I drew vivid pictures of another shooting-match in +the same valley--of my lady looking on in ignorance, of minutes of +suspense, of a sudden pang, a gagged scream, of hours of lingering +torture. + +Against such dreams the silence and beauty of the night were +powerless, and the morning found me wakeful and unrefreshed, divided +between reluctance to desert my lady and the instinct which bade me +make an attempt at escape by the way, and while the chances of the +journey were still mine. How I might have acted had a favourable +opportunity presented itself, I cannot say; but as things went, I did +nothing, and a little before sunset on the third day we gained the +camp. + +Then, I confess, I wished with all my heart that I had taken any +chance, however slight. At sight of the familiar lines, the dusty, +littered roads, the squalid crowds that came out to meet us, my gorge +rose. The very smell of the place which I had so hated gave me qualms. +I turned hot and cold as we rumbled slowly through the throng and one +pointed me out to another, and I saw round me again the dark, lowering +faces, the unsexed women, the horde of vile sutlers and footboys. They +surged round the waggon, jeering and staring; and if I had shrunk from +them when my hands were free, I loathed them still more now that I lay +a prisoner and any moment might place me at their mercy. + +I had seen nothing of the Waldgrave or the waggon which carried him +for nearly two days, but as we passed through the gates I caught sight +of the latter moving slowly on, a little way in front of us. Both +waggons halted inside the camp while the wounded were taken out. I +prepared to follow, but was bidden to stay. Then I began to realize my +position. When the waggon bore me on alone--alone, though two or three +pikemen and a rabble of gibing, grinning horse-boys marched beside +me--I felt my blood run cold, and found my only consolation in the +fact that the other waggon still went in front, and seemed to be bound +for the same goal. + +'What are you going to do with me?' I asked one of the ruffians who +guarded me. + +'Prison,' he answered laconically. + +And a strange prison it was. On the verge of the camp, near the river, +where a snug farmhouse had once stood, rose four gaunt walls, +blackened with smoke. The roof was gone--burned off; but the rooftree, +charred and soot-begrimed, still ran from gable to gable. A strong, +high gate filled the room of the door; the windows had been bricked +up. When I saw the waggon which preceded me halt before this +melancholy place, I looked out between hope and fear--fearing some act +of treachery, hoping to see the Waldgrave. But the blackguard crowd +which surrounded the doorway was so great that it hid everything; and +I had to curb my impatience until in turn my waggon stopped in the +midst of them. + +A mocking voice called to me to descend, and though I liked the look +of the place little, and the aspect of the gang still less, I had no +choice but to obey. I scrambled down, and passed as quickly as I could +down the lane opened for me. A row of more villainous faces it has +seldom been my fate to see, but the last on the right by the gate was +so much the worst, that it caught my eye instantly. It was seamed with +scars and bloated with drink, and it wore a ferocious grin. I was not +surprised when the knave, a huge pikeman, dealt me, as I passed, a +brutal shove with his knee, which sent me staggering into the +enclosure, where I fell all at length on my face. + +The blow hurt my hip cruelly, and yet the sight of that drunken, +ugly giant filled me with a rush of joy and hope that effaced all +other feelings. I forgot my fellow-prisoners, I forgot even the +Waldgrave--who to be sure was there, sitting doubled up against the +wall, and looking very white and sick. For the man with the seamed +face was Drunken Steve of Heritzburg, whom we had left behind us in +the castle, to be cured of his wounds. I had punished him a dozen +times; almost as often my lady had threatened to drive him from the +place and her service. Always he had had the name of a sullen, wilful +fellow. But I had found him staunch as any tyke in time of need. For +dogged fidelity and a ferocious courage, proof against the utmost +danger, I knew that I could depend on him against the world; while the +prompt line of conduct he had adopted at sight of me led me to hope +something from wits which drink had not yet deadened. + +It was well I had this spark of hope, for I found the Waldgrave so +ill as to be beyond comfort or counsel, and without it I should have +been in a parlous state. The place of our confinement was roofless, +ill-smelling, strewn with refuse and filth, a mere dog-yard. A little +straw alone protected us from the soil. Everything we did was watched +through the open bars of the gate; and bad as this place was, we +shared it with two soldiers, who lay, heavily shackled, in one corner, +and sullenly eyed my movements. + +I did what I could for the Waldgrave, and then, as darkness +fell, I sat down with my back to the wall and thought over our +position--miserably enough. Half an hour passed, and I was beginning +to nod, when a slight noise as of a rat gnawing a board caught my ear. +I raised my head and listened; the sound came from the gate. I stood +up and crept towards it. As I expected, I found Steve on guard +outside. Even in the darkness it was impossible to mistake his huge +figure. + +'Hush!' he muttered. 'Is it you, master?' + +'Yes,' I replied in the same tone. 'Are you alone?' + +'For the moment,' he answered hoarsely. 'Not for long. So speak +quickly. What is to be done?' + +Alas! that was more than I could say. 'What of my lady?' I replied +vaguely. 'Is she here? In the camp?' + +'To be sure.' + +'And Marie Wort? The Papist girl?' + +'Yes, yes.' + +'Then you must see Marie,' I answered. 'She will know my lady's mind. +Until we know that, we can do nothing. Do not tell her where I am--it +may hurt the girl; or of the Waldgrave, but learn how they are. If +things are bad with my lady, bid them gain time. You understand?' + +'Yes, yes,' he grunted. 'And that is to be all, is it? You will have +nothing done to-night?' + +'What, here?' + +'To be sure.' + +'No, no,' I replied, trembling for the man's rashness. 'We can do +nothing here until horses are got and placed for us, and the pass-word +learned, and provisions gathered, and half a dozen other things.' + +'Donner! I don't know how all that is to be done,' he muttered +despondently. + +'Nor I,' I said with a shiver. 'You have not heard anything of a--a +shooting-match, have you?' + +'It is for Sunday,' he answered. + +'And to-day is Tuesday,' I said. 'Steve! you will not lose time?' + +'No, no.' + +'You will see her in the morning? In the morning, lad,' I continued +feverishly, clinging to the bars and peering out at him. 'I must get +out of this before Sunday! And this is Tuesday! Steve!' + +'Hush!' he answered. 'They are coming back.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + GREEK AND GREEK. + + +What my lady's thoughts were during her long ride back to the camp, I +do not know. But I have heard her say that when she rode into the +village, a day and a half in advance of the dusty, lumbering convoy, +she could scarcely believe that it was the place she had left, the +place in which she had lived for a fortnight. And this, though all +remained the same. So much does the point from which we look at things +alter their aspect. + +The general had sent on the news of the Waldgrave's loss by messenger, +that she might be spared the pain of telling it; and Fraulein Max and +Marie Wort were waiting on the wooden platform before the house when +she rode wearily in. The sight of those two gave her a certain sense +of relief and home coming, merely because they were women and wore +petticoats. But that was all. The village, the reeking camp, the +squalid soldiery, the whining beggars filled her--now that her eyes +were opened and she saw this ugly face of war stripped of the glamour +with which her fancy had invested it--with fear and repulsion. She +wondered that she could ever have liked the place and been gay in it, +or drawn pleasure from the amusements which now seemed poor and +tawdry. + +Fraulein Max ran down into the road to meet her, and when she had +dismounted, covered her with tearful caresses. But the Countess, after +receiving her greetings, still looked round wistfully as if she missed +some one; and then in a moment moved from her, and mounting the steps +went swiftly to the dark corner by the porch whither Marie Wort had +run, and where she now stood leaning against the house with her face +to the wall. + +My lady, whom few had ever seen unbend, took the girl in her arms, and +laid her head on her shoulder and stroked her hair pitifully. + +'Hush, hush, child!' she murmured, her eyes wet with tears. 'Poor +child, poor child! Is it so very bad?' + +But Marie could only sob. + +They went into the house in a moment after that, those three, with the +waiting-women. And then a change came over the Countess. Fraulein Max +blinked to see it. My lady who, outside, had been so tender, began, +before her riding cloak was off, to walk up and down like a caged +wolf, with hard eyes and cheeks burning with indignation. Fraulein Max +spoke to her timidly--said that the meal was ready, that my lady's +woman was waiting, that my lady must be tired. But the Countess put +her by almost with an oath. For hours she had been playing a part, a +thing her proud soul loathed. For hours she had hidden, not her sorrow +only and her anger, but her anxieties, her fears, her terrors. Now she +must be herself or die. + +Besides, the thing pressed! She had her woman's wits, and might stave +off the general's offer for a few days, for a week. But a week--what +was that? No wonder that she looked on the four helpless women round +her, and realised that these were her only helpers now, her only +protection; no wonder that she cried out. + +'I have been a fool!' she said, looking at them with burning eyes. 'A +fool! When Martin warned me, I would not listen; when the Waldgrave +hinted, I laughed at him. I was bewitched, like a silly fool in her +teens! Don't contradict me!' And she stamped her foot impatiently. +Fraulein Max had raised her hand. + +'I don't,' the Fraulein answered. 'I don't understand you.' + +'Do you understand that empty, chair?' my lady answered bitterly. 'Or +that empty stool?' + +Fraulein Anna blinked more and more. 'But war,' she said mildly--'a +necessary evil, Voetius calls it--war, Countess----' + +'Oh!' my lady cried in a fury. 'As carried on by these, it is a +horror, a fiendish thing! I did not know before. Now I have seen it. +Wait, wait, girl, until it takes those you love, and threatens your +own safety, and then talk to me of war!' + +But Fraulein Anna set her face mutinously. 'Still, I do not +understand,' she said slowly, winking her short-sighted eyes like +an owl in the daylight. 'You talk as if we had cause not only to +grieve--as we have, indeed--but to fear. Are we not safe here? General +Tzerclas----' + +'Bah!' the Countess cried, trembling with emotion. 'Don't let me hear +his name! I hate him. He is false. False, girl. I do not trust him; I +do not believe him; and I would to Heaven we were out of his hands!' + +Even Marie Wort, sitting white and quiet in a corner, looked up at +that. As for Fraulein Max, she passed her tongue slowly over her lips, +but did not answer; and for a moment there was silence in the room. +Then Marie said very softly, 'Thank God!' + +My lady turned to her roughly. 'Why do you say that?' she said. + +'Because of what I have learned since you left us,' the girl answered, +in a frightened whisper. 'There was a man who lived in this house, my +lady.' + +'Yes, yes,' the Countess muttered eagerly. 'I remember he begged of +me, and General Tzerclas gave him money. That was one of the things +that blinded me.' + +'He hung him afterwards,' the girl whispered in a shaking voice. 'By +the river, in the south-east corner of the camp.' + +The Countess stared at her incredulously, rage and horror in her face. +'That man whom I saw?' she cried. 'It is not possible! You have been +deceived.' + +But Marie Wort shook her head. 'It is true,' she said simply. + +'Then Heaven help us all!' the Countess whispered in a thrilling tone. +'For we are in that man's power!' + +There was a stricken silence after that, which lasted some minutes. +The room seemed to grow darker, the house more silent, the road on +which they looked through the unglazed window more dusty, squalid, +dreary--dreary with the summer dreariness of drought. One of the +waiting-women began to cry. The other stood bolt upright, looking out +with startled eyes, and lips half open. + +'Yes, all,' the Countess presently went on, her voice hard and +composed. 'He has asked me to be his wife. He has honoured me so far.' +She laughed a thin, mirthless laugh. 'If I am willing, therefore, +well. If I am not--still he will wed me. After that he will keep us +here in the midst of these horrors. Or he will march to Heritzburg, +and then God help Heritzburg and my people!' + +Fraulein Anna passed her tongue over her lips again, and shifted her +hands in her lap. She was paler than usual. But she did not speak. + +'The child?' the Countess said presently, in a different tone. 'Has it +been recovered?' + +Marie shook her head; and a moment later threw her kerchief over her +face and went out. They heard her sobs as she went along the passage. + +My lady frowned. 'If we could get a message to Count Leuchtenstein,' +she murmured thoughtfully. 'But I do not know where he is. He may +return to seek the child, however; and that is our best chance, I +think.' + +They brought food in after that, and the council broke up. It is to be +feared that the Countess found herself little the better for its +advice. + +In the evening the general called to learn whether she was much +fatigued; and she fancied she detected in his manner a masterfulness +and a familiarity from which it had been free. But her suspicions +rendered her so prone to read between the lines, that it is possible +that she saw some things that were not there. Her own feelings she +succeeded in masking, except in one matter. He brought Count Waska +with him; and it occurred to her, in her fear and helplessness, that +she might enlist the Bohemian on her side. Such schemes come to women, +even to proud women; and though Waska, half sportsman and half sot, +and in body a mountain of flesh, was an unlikely knight-errant, she +plied him so craftily, that when the two were gone she sat for an hour +in a state of exaltation, believing that here a new and unexpected way +to safety might open. The Bohemian was second in command, though at a +great interval. He was popular, and in some points a gentleman. Could +she excite in him jealousy, discontent, even passion, her position was +such that she was in no mood to stand on scruples. + +But when the general came next day, _he did not bring Waska_; nor the +day after. And he showed so plainly that he saw through the design, +and suspected her, that he left her white and furious. Indeed it was a +question who was left by this interview the more excited, my lady, who +saw the circle growing ever narrower round her, and read with growing +clearness the man's determination to win her at all costs and by all +means; or the general, whose passion every day augmented, who saw in +her both the woman he desired and the heiress, and would fain, if he +could, have won her heart as well as her person. + +The possession of power tempts to the use of it, and he began to lose +patience. He had a screw in readiness, he fancied, that would bend +even that proud neck and humble those knees. A day or two more he +would give her, and then he would turn it. Hate itself is not more +cruel than love despised! + +But he did not count on her influence over him. The day or two passed, +and another day or two, and still she kept him amused and kept him at +bay. Sometimes he saw through her wiles, and came near to vowing that +he would not give her another hour. Will she, nill she, she should wed +him. But then the glamour of her presence and her beauty blinded him +again. And so a week went slowly by; each day won, at what a cost of +pride, of courage, of self-respect! + +At the end of that time my lady's face had grown so white and drawn +under the strain, that when she sat alone she looked years older than +her age. The light still flashed in her eyes; they had grown only the +larger. But her cheeks and her lips had lost their colour, her hair +its gloss. When no one was watching her, she glanced round her like a +hunted animal. When anything crossed her, she flew into fearful rages +with her women. They were so useless, so helpless! She was like a +scorpion I have heard of, that, ringed round with fire, stings all +within its reach. + +How many nights she tossed, sleepless; how often she went over the +odds against her; grasped at this idea or that; thought of horses and +roads, ways and means, the distance to Cassel, or the chances of +Leuchtenstein's return, I cannot say; but I can guess. At last, during +one of these night vigils, something happened. She was lying, +torturing herself with the thought that to this constant putting off +there could only be one end, when she heard sneaking footsteps moving +in the passage. The wall which divided it from her room ran beside her +bed, and, lying still, she heard the rustling of garments against the +boards. + +Something like this she had feared in her worst moments; and on the +instant she sat up and listened, her heart beating wildly. Since her +return the two waiting-women had lain in her room. She could hear them +breathing now. But beside and above that, she could hear the stealthy +rustling sound she had heard before. Then it ceased. + +She rose trembling. The windows were shuttered, and the lamp which +commonly burned in a basin had gone out. The room, therefore, was +quite dark. Without awaking the women she stole across the floor to +the door, and there set her ear to the panels and listened. But she +heard nothing except the distant shout of a reveller, and the mournful +howling of one of the pack of curs that infested the camp; all was +still. + +Still she crouched there listening, and presently her patience was +rewarded. Some one entered by the outer door, and went quickly along +the passage, the boards creaking so loudly that it was a wonder the +women were not aroused. The footsteps went straight to the room where +Fraulein Max and Marie Wort slept. Some one had been out and returned! + +There was a hint of treachery here, and my lady stood up, her face +growing hard. Which of the two was it? In a moment she had her answer. +A dozen times in the last week Marie had puzzled her; a dozen times +the Papist girl's easy resignation had angered her. She had caught her +more than once smiling--smiling childish smiles that would not be +repressed. This was the secret, then! + +The Countess grew hot, and in a moment was out of her room and at the +door of that other room. A taper still burned there; its light showed +through the cracks. Without hesitation she thrust the door open, and +entering surprised Marie Wort in the very act. The girl was standing +in the middle of the floor taking off a cloak. Guilt and fear were +written on her face. + +'You wicked girl!' the Countess cried, her eyes blazing. + +Then she stopped. For Marie, instead of retreating before her, pointed +with a warning finger to a second empty pallet; and my lady looking +round saw with astonishment that Fraulein Max was missing. + +'What does this mean?' the Countess muttered in a different tone. + +Marie, trembling and listening, put her finger to her lips. 'Hush, +hush, my lady,' she whispered. 'She must not find you here! She must +not, indeed. I heard her go out, and I followed. I have heard all.' + +'All?' the Countess stammered, and she began to tremble. + +'Yes,' the girl answered. Then 'Go, go! my lady,' she cried. She was +shaking with agitation, and looked round as if for a way of escape. +But there was no second door to the room. 'If she finds you here we +are lost. Go back, and in the morning----' + +She stopped abruptly, and her eyes grew wide. The Countess listening +too, and catching the infection of her fear, heard a board creak +below. + +For a moment the two stood in the middle of the floor, gazing into one +another's eyes. Then Marie, with a sudden movement, thrust my lady +down on her pallet, and with the other hand put out the light. + +They lay, scarcely daring to breathe, and heard Fraulein Anna grope +her way in, and stand awhile, silent and listening, as if she found +something suspicious in the extinction of the light. But the taper--it +was a mere rushlight--had done this before, and Marie stirred so +naturally, that Fraulein Max's doubts passed away. She put off her +cloak quickly, and presently--but not, as it seemed to the Countess, +until an hour had elapsed--they heard her begin to breathe regularly. +A few minutes more and they had no doubt she slept. Then Marie touched +my lady's arm, and the latter, rising softly, stole out of the room. + +The adventure left the Countess's thoughts in a whirl. She hated +double-dealing as much as any one, and she could scarcely contain +herself before Fraulein Max. It was as much as she could do to wear a +smooth face for an hour, until a chance occasion, which fortunately +came early in the day, left her alone with Marie. Then she turned, +almost fiercely, on the girl. + +'What is this?' she said. 'What does it all mean? Himmel! Tell me! +Tell me quickly!' + +Marie Wort looked at her with tears in her eyes. 'You should be able +to guess, my lady,' she said sadly. 'There is a traitor among us.' + +'Fraulein Anna?' + +Marie nodded. 'She is in his pay,' she said simply. + +'His? The general's?' + +'Yes,' Marie answered, speaking quickly, with her eyes on the door. +'She met him last night, and told him what you feel about him.' + +The Countess drew a deep breath. Her face turned a shade paler. She +sat up straight in her chair. 'All?' she said huskily. + +Marie nodded. + +'And he?' + +'He said he would have an answer to-day. Then I left. I did not hear +any more.' + +The Countess sat for a minute as if turned to stone. Here was an end +of putting off--of smiles, and pleasant words, and the little +craftinesses which had hitherto served her. Stern necessity, hard fate +were before her. She was of a high courage, but terror was fast +mastering her, when Marie touched her on the arm. + +'If you can put him off, until this evening,' the girl muttered, 'I +think something may be done.' + +'What?' + +'Something. I do not know what,' the girl answered in a troubled tone. + +The Countess rose suddenly. 'Ah! I would like to choke her!' she cried +hoarsely. She stretched out her arms. + +'Hush, hush, my lady!' Marie whispered. The Countess's violence +frightened her. 'I think, if you can put him off until to-night, we +may contrive something.' + +'We? You and I?' my lady said in scorn. But as she looked at the +other's pale, earnest face, her own softened, her tone changed. 'Well, +it shall be as you wish,' she said, letting her arms drop. 'You are a +better plotter than I am. But I fear Fraulein Cat, Fraulein Snake, +Fraulein Fox will prove the best of all!' + +Marie's frightened face showed that she thought this possible, but she +said no more, and would give my lady no explanation, though the +Countess pressed for it. It was decided in the end that the Countess +should plead sudden illness, and use that pretext both to avoid +Fraulein Max, and postpone her interview with the general until the +evening. + +He came at noon, and the Countess heard his horses pawing and fretting +in the road, and she sat up in her darkened room with a white face. +What if he would not accept the excuse? If he would see her? What if +the moment had come in which his will and hers must decide the +struggle? She rose and stood listening, as fierce in her beauty as any +trapped savage creature. Her heartbeat wildly, her bosom heaved. But +in a moment she heard the horses move away, and presently Marie came +in to tell her that he would wait till evening. + +'No longer?' the Countess asked, hiding her face in the pillow. + +'Not an hour, he said,' Marie answered, indicating by a gesture +that the door was open, and that Fraulein Max was listening. 'He +was--different,' she whispered. + +'How?' my lady muttered. + +'He swore at me,' Marie answered in the same tone. 'And he spoke of +you--somehow differently.' + +The Countess laughed, but far from joyously. 'I suppose to-night--I +must see him?' she said. She tried as she spoke to press herself more +deeply into the pillows, as if she might escape that way. Her flesh +crept, and she shivered though she was as hot as fire. + +Once or twice in the hours which followed she was almost beside +herself. Sometimes she prayed. More often she walked up and down the +room like one in a fever. She did not know on what she was trusting, +and she could have struck Marie when the girl, appealed to again and +again, would explain nothing, and name no quarter from which help +might come. All the afternoon the camp lay grilling in the sunshine, +and in the shuttered room in the middle of it my lady suffered. Had +the house lain by the river she might have tried to escape; but the +camp girdled it on three sides, and on the fourth, where a swampy +inlet guarded one flank of the village, a deep ditch as well as the +morass forbade all passage. + +She remained in her room until she heard the unwelcome sounds which +told of the general's return. Then she came into the outer room, her +eyes glittering, a red spot on either cheek, all pretence at an end. +Her glance withered Fraulein Max, who sat blinking in a corner with a +very evil conscience. And to Marie Wort, when the girl came near her +on the pretence of adjusting her lace sleeves, she had only one word +to say. + +'You slut!' she hissed, her breath hot on the girl's cheek. 'If you +fail me I will kill you. Begone out of my sight!' + +The child, excited before, broke down at that, and, bursting into a +fit of weeping, ran out. Her sobs were still in the air when General +Tzerclas entered. + +The Countess's face was flushed, and her bearing, full of passion and +defiance, must have warned him what to expect, if he felt any doubt +before. The sun was just setting, the room growing dusk. He stood +awhile, after saluting her, in doubt how he should come to the point, +or in admiration; for her scorn and anger only increased her beauty +and his feeling for her. At length he pointed lightly to the women, +who kept their places by the door. + +'Is it your wish, fair cousin,' he said slowly, 'that I should speak +before these, or will you see me alone?' + +'Your spy, that cat there,' my lady answered, carried away by her +temper, 'may go! The women will stay.' + +Fraulein Max, singled out by that merciless finger, sprang forward, +her face mottled with surprise and terror. For a second she hesitated. +Then she rushed towards her friend, as if she would embrace her. + +'Countess!' she cried. 'Rotha! Surely you are mad! You cannot think +that I would----' + +My lady turned, and in a flash struck her fiercely on the cheek with +her open hand. 'Liar!' she cried; 'go to your master, you whipped +hound!' + +The Dutch woman recoiled with a cry of pain, and sobbing wildly went +back to her place. The general laughed harshly. + +'You hold with me, sweetheart,' he said. 'Discipline before +everything. But you have not my patience.' + +She looked at him--angry with him, angry with herself, her hand to her +bosom--but she did not answer. + +'For you must allow,' he continued--his tone and his eyes still +bantered her--'that I have been patient. I have been like a man +athirst in the desert; but I have waited day after day, until now I +can wait no longer, sweetheart.' + +'So you tamper with my--with that woman!' she said scornfully. + +The general shrugged his shoulders and laughed grimly. 'Why not?' he +said. 'What are waiting-women and the like made for, if not to be +bribed--or slapped?' + +She hated him for that sly hit--if never before; but she controlled +herself. She would throw the burden on him. + +He read the thought, and it led him to change his tone. There was a +gloomy fire in his eyes, and smouldering passion in his voice, when he +spoke again. + +'Well, Countess,' he said, 'I am here for your answer.' + +'To what?' + +'To the question I asked you some time ago,' he rejoined, dwelling on +her with sullen eyes. 'I asked you to be my wife. Your answer?' + +'Prythee!' she said proudly, 'this is a strange way of wooing.' + +'It is not of my choice that I woo in company,' he answered, shrugging +his shoulders. 'My answer; that is all I want--and you.' + +'Then you shall have the first, and not the last,' she exclaimed on a +sudden impulse. 'No, no--a hundred times no! If you do not see that by +pressing me now,' she continued impetuously, 'when I am alone, +friendless, and unprotected, you insult me, you should see it, and I +do.' + +For a moment there was silence. Then he laughed; but his voice, +notwithstanding his mastery over it and in spite of that laugh, shook +with rage and resentment. 'As I expected,' he said. 'I knew last night +that you hated me. You have been playing a part throughout. You loathe +me. Yes, madam, you may wince,' he continued bitterly, 'for you shall +still be my wife; and when you are my wife we will talk of that.' + +'Never!' she said, with a brave face; but her heart beat wildly, and a +mist rose before her eyes. + +He laughed. 'My legions are round me,' he said. 'Where are yours?' + +'You are a gentleman,' she answered with an effort. 'You will let me +go.' + +'If I do not?' + +'There are those who will know how to avenge me.' + +He laughed again. 'I do not know them, Countess,' he said +contemptuously. 'For Hesse Cassel, he has his hands full at Nuremberg, +and will be likely, when Wallenstein has done with him, to need help +himself. The King of Sweden--the brightest morning ends soonest in +rain--and he will end at Nuremberg. Bernhard of Weimar, Leuchtenstein, +all the fanatics fall with him. Only the banner of the Free Companies +stands and waves ever the wider. Be advised,' he continued grimly. +'Bend, Countess, or I have the means to break you.' + +'Never!' she said. + +'So you say now,' he answered slowly. 'You will not say so in five +minutes. If you care nothing for yourself, have a care for your +friends.' + +'You said I had none,' she retorted hoarsely. + +'None that can help you,' he replied; 'some that you can help.' + +She started and looked at him wildly, her lips apart, her eyes wide +with hope, fear, expectation. What did he mean? What could he mean by +this new turn? Ha! + +She had her face towards the window, and dark as the room was +growing--outside the light was failing fast--he read the thought in +her eyes, and nodded. + +'The Waldgrave?' he said lightly. 'Yes, he is alive, Countess, at +present; and your steward also.' + +'They are prisoners?' she whispered, her cheeks grown white. + +'Prisoners; and under sentence of death.' + +'Where?' + +'In my camp.' + +'Why?' she muttered. But alas! she knew; she knew already. + +'They are hostages for your good behaviour,' he answered in his cold, +mocking tone. 'If their principal satisfies me, good; they will go +free. If not, they die--to-morrow.' + +'To-morrow?' she gasped. + +'To-morrow,' he answered ruthlessly. 'Now I think we understand one +another.' + +She threw up her hand suddenly, as if she were about to vent on him +all the passions which consumed her--the terror, rage, and shame which +swelled in her breast. But something in his gibing tone, something in +the set lines of his figure--she could not see his face--checked her. +She let her hand fall in a gesture of despair, and shrank into +herself, shuddering. She looked at him as at a serpent--that +fascinated her. At last she murmured-- + +'You will not dare. What have they done to you?' + +'Nothing,' he answered. 'It is not their affair; it is yours.' + +For a moment after that they stood confronting one another while the +sound of the women sobbing in a corner, and the occasional jingle of a +bridle outside, alone broke the silence. Behind her the room was dark; +behind him, through the open windows, lay the road, glimmering pale +through the dusk. Suddenly the door at her back opened, and a bright +light flashed on his face. It was Marie Wort bringing in a lamp. No +one spoke, and she set the lamp on the table, and going by him began +to close the shutters. Still the Countess stood as if turned to stone, +and he stood watching her. + +'Where are they?' she moaned at last, though he had already told her. + +'In the camp,' he said. + +'Can I--can I see them?' she panted. + +'Afterwards,' he answered, with the smile of a fiend; 'when you are my +wife.' + +That added the last straw. She took two steps to the table, and +sitting down blindly, covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders +began to tremble, her head sank lower and lower on the table. Her +pride was gone. + +'Heaven help us!' she whispered in a passion of grief. 'Heaven help +us, for there is no help here!' + +'That is better,' he said, eyeing her coldly. 'We shall soon come to +terms now.' + +In his exultation he went a step nearer to her. He was about to touch +her--to lay his hand on her hair, believing his evil victory won, when +suddenly two dark figures rose like shadows behind her chair. He +recoiled, dropping his hand. In a moment a pistol barrel was thrust +into his face. He fell back another step. + +'One word and you are a dead man!' a stern voice hissed in his ear. +Then he saw another barrel gleam in the lamplight, and he stood still. + +'What is this?' he said, looking from one to the other, his voice +trembling with rage. + +'Justice!' the same speaker answered harshly. 'But stand still and be +silent, and you shall have your life. Give the alarm, and you die, +general, though we die the next minute. Sit down in that chair.' + +He hesitated. But the two shining barrels converging on his head, the +two grim faces behind them, were convincing; in a moment he obeyed. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + THE FLIGHT. + + +One of the men--it was I--muttered something to Marie, and she snuffed +the wick, and blew up the light. In a moment it filled the room, +disclosing a strange medley of levelled weapons, startled faces, and +flashing eyes. In one corner Fraulein Max and the two women cowered +behind one another, trembling and staring. At the table sat my lady, +with dull, dazed eyes, looking on, yet scarcely understanding what was +happening. On either side of her stood Steve and I, covering the +general with our pistols, while the Waldgrave, who was still too weak +for much exertion, kept guard at the door. + +Tzerclas was the first to speak. 'What is this foolery?' he said, +scowling unutterable curses at us. 'What does this mean?' + +'This!' I said, producing a piece of hide rope. 'We are going to tie +you up. If you struggle, general, you die. If you submit, you live. +That is all. Go to work, Steve.' + +There was a gleam in Tzerclas' eye, which warned me to stand back and +crook my finger. His face was black with fury, and for an instant I +thought that he would spring upon us and dare all. But prudence and +the pistols prevailed. With an evil look he sat still, and in a trice +Steve had a loop round his arms and was binding him to the heavy +chair. + +I knew then that as far as he was concerned we were safe; and I turned +to bid the women get cloaks and food, adjuring them to be quick, since +every moment was precious. + +'Bring nothing but cloaks and food and wine,' I said. 'We have to go a +league on foot and can carry little.' + +The Countess heard my words, and looked at me with growing +comprehension. 'The Waldgrave?' she muttered. 'Is he here?' + +He came forward from the door to speak to her; but when she saw him, +and how pale and thin he was, with great hollows in his cheeks and his +eyes grown too large for his face, she began to cry weakly, as any +other woman might have cried, being overwrought. I bade Marie, who +alone kept her wits, to bring her wine and make her take it; and in a +minute she smiled at us, and would have thanked us. + +'Wait!' I said bluntly, feeling a great horror upon me whenever I +looked towards the general or caught his eye. 'You may have small +cause to thank us. If we fail, Heaven and you forgive us, my lady, for +this man will not. If we are retaken----' + +'We will not be retaken!' she cried hardily. 'You have horses?' + +'Five only,' I answered. 'They are all Steve could get, and they are a +league away. We must go to them on foot. There are eight of us here, +and young Jacob and Ernst are watching outside. Are all ready?' + +My lady looked round; her eye fell on Fraulein Max, who with a little +bundle in her arms had just re-entered and stood shivering by the +door. The Dutch girl winced under her glance, and dropping her bundle, +stooped hurriedly to pick it up. + +'That woman does not go!' the Countess said suddenly. + +I answered in a low tone that I thought she must. + +'No!' my lady cried harshly--she could be cruel sometimes--'not with +us. She does not belong to our party. Let her stay with her paymaster, +and to-morrow he will doubtless reward her.' + +What reward she was likely to get Fraulein Max knew well. She flung +herself at my lady's feet in an agony of fear, and clutching her +skirts, cried abjectly for mercy; she would carry, she would help, she +would do anything, if she might go! Knowing that we dared not leave +her since she would be certain to release the general as soon as our +backs were turned, I was glad when Marie, whose heart was touched, +joined her prayers to the culprit's and won a reluctant consent. + +It has taken long to tell these things. They passed very quickly. I +suppose not more than a quarter of an hour elapsed between our first +appearance and this juncture, which saw us all standing in the +lamplight, laden and ready to be gone; while the general glowered at +us in sullen rage, and my lady, with a new thought in her mind, looked +round in dismay. + +She drew me aside. 'Martin,' she said, 'his orderly is waiting in the +road with his horse. The moment we are gone he will shout to him.' + +'We have provided for that,' I answered, nodding. Then assuring myself +by a last look round that all were ready, I gave the word. 'Now, +Steve!' I said sharply. + +In a twinkling he flung over the general's head a small sack doubled +inwards. We heard a stifled oath and a cry of rage. The bars of the +strong chair creaked as our prisoner struggled, and for a moment it +seemed as if the knots would barely hold. But the work had been well +done, and in less than half a minute Steve had secured the sack to the +chair-back. It was as good as a gag, and safer. Then we took up the +chair between us, and lifting it into the back room, put it down and +locked the door upon our captive. + +As we turned from it Steve looked at me. 'If he catches us after this, +Master Martin,' he said, 'it won't be an easy death we shall die!' + +'Heaven forbid!' I muttered. 'Let us be off!' + +He gave the word and we stole out into the darkness at the back of the +house, Steve, who had surveyed the ground, going first. My lady +followed him; then came the Waldgrave; after him the two women and +Fraulein Max, with Jacob and Ernst; last of all, Marie and I. It was +no time for love-making, but as we all stood a minute in the night, +while Steve listened, I drew Marie's little figure to me and kissed +her pale face again and again; and she clung to me, trembling, her +eyes shining into mine. Then she put me away bravely; but I took her +bundle, and with full hearts we followed the others across the field +at the back and through the ditch. + +That passed, we found ourselves on the edge of the village, with the +lights of the camp forming five-sixths of a circle round us. In one +direction only, where the swamp and creek fringed the place, a dark +gap broke the ring of twinkling fires. Towards this gap Steve led the +way, and we, a silent line of gliding figures, followed him. The moon +had not yet risen. The gloom was such that I could barely make out the +third figure before me; and though all manner of noises--the chorus of +a song, the voice of a scolding hag, even the rattle of dice on a +drumhead--came clearly to my ears, and we seemed to be enclosed on all +sides, the darkness proved an effectual shield. We met no one, and +five minutes after leaving the house, reached the bank of the little +creek I have mentioned. + +Here we paused and waited, a group of huddled figures, while Steve +groped about for a plank he had hidden. Before us lay the stream, +behind us the camp. At any moment the alarm might be raised. I +pictured the outcry, the sudden flickering of lights, the galloping +this way and that, the discovery. And then, thank Heaven! Steve found +his plank, and in the work of passing the women over I forgot my +fears. The darkness, the peril--for the water on the nearer side was +deep--the nervous haste of some, and the terror of others, made the +task no easy one. I was hot as fire and wet to the waist before it was +over, and we all stood ankle-deep in the ooze which formed the farther +bank. + +Alas! our troubles were only beginning. Through this ooze we had to +wade for a mile or more, sometimes in doubt, always in darkness; now +plashing into pools, now stumbling over a submerged log, often up to +our knees in mud and water. The frogs croaked round us, the bog moaned +and gurgled; in the depth of the marsh the bitterns boomed mournfully. +If we stood a moment we sank. It was a horrible time; and the more +horrible, as through it all we had only to turn to see the camp lights +behind us, a poor half-mile or so away. + +None but desperate men could have exposed women to such a labour; nor +could any but women without hope and at their wit's end have +accomplished it. As it was, Fraulein Max, who never ceased to whimper, +twice sank down and would go no farther, and we had to pluck her up +roughly and force her on. My lady's women, who wept in their misery, +were little better. Wet to the waist, draggled, and worn out by the +clinging slime and the reek of the marsh, they were kept moving only +with difficulty; so that, but for Steve's giant strength and my lady's +courage, I think we should have stayed there till daylight, and been +caught like birds limed on a bough. + +As it was, we plunged and strove for more than an hour in that place, +the dark sky above us, the quaking bog below, the women's weeping in +our ears. Then, at last, when I had almost given up hope, we struggled +out one by one upon the road, and stood panting and shaking, +astonished to find solid ground under our feet. We had still two miles +to walk, but on dry soil; and though at another time the task might +have seemed to the women full of adventure and arduous, it failed to +frighten them after what we had gone through. Steve took Fraulein +Anna, and I one of the women. My lady and the Waldgrave went hand in +hand; the one giving, I fancy, as much help as the other. For Marie, +her small, white face was a beacon of hope in the darkness. In the +marsh she had never failed or fainted. On the road the tears came into +my eyes for pity and love and admiration. + +At length Steve bade us stand, and leaving us in the way, plunged into +the denser blackness of a thicket, which lay between it and the river. +I heard him parting the branches before him, and stumbling and +swearing, until presently the sounds died away in the distance, and we +remained shivering and waiting. What if the horses were gone? What if +they had strayed from the place where he had tethered them early in +the day, or some one had found and removed them? The thought threw me +into a cold sweat. + +Then I heard him coming back, and I caught the ring of iron hoofs. He +had them! I breathed again. In a moment he emerged, and behind him a +string of shadows--five horses tied head and tail. + +'Quick!' he muttered. He had been long enough alone to grow nervous. +'We are two hours gone, and if they have not yet discovered him they +must soon! It is a short start, and half of us on foot!' + +No one answered, but in a moment we had the Waldgrave, my lady, +Fraulein, and one of the women mounted. Then we put up Marie, who was +no heavier than a feather, and the lighter of the women on the +remaining horse; and Steve hurrying beside the leader, and I, Ernst, +and Jacob bringing up the rear, we were well on the road within two +minutes of the appearance of the horses. Those who rode had only +sacking for saddles and loops of rope for stirrups; but no one +complained. Even Fraulein Max began to recover herself, and to dwell +more upon the peril of capture than on aching legs and chafed knees. + +The road was good, and we made, as far as I could judge, about six +miles in the first hour. This placed us nine miles from the camp; the +time, a little after midnight. At this point the clouds, which had +aided us so far by increasing the darkness of the night, fell in a +great storm of rain, that, hissing on the road and among the trees, in +a few minutes drenched us to the skin. But no one complained. Steve +muttered that it would make it the more difficult to track us; and for +another hour we plodded on gallantly. Then our leader called a halt, +and we stood listening. + +The rain had left the sky lighter. A waning moon, floating in a wrack +of watery clouds to westward, shed a faint gleam on the landscape. To +the right of us it disclosed a bare plain, rising gradually as it +receded, and offering no cover. On our left, between us and the river, +it was different. Here a wilderness of osiers--a grey willow swamp +that in the moonlight shimmered like the best Utrecht--stretched as +far as we could see. The road where we stood rose a few feet above it, +so that our eyes were on a level with the highest shoots; but a +hundred yards farther on the road sank a little. We could see the +water standing on the track in pools, and glimmering palely. + +'This is the place,' Steve muttered. 'It will be dawn in another hour. +What do you think, Master Martin?' + +'That we had better get off the road,' I answered. 'Take it they found +him at midnight; the orderly's patience would scarcely last longer. +Then, if they started after us a quarter of an hour later, they should +be here in another twenty minutes.' + +'It is an aguey place,' he said doubtfully. + +'It will suit us better than the camp,' I answered. + +No one else expressed an opinion, and Steve, taking my lady's rein, +led her horse on until he came to the hollow part of the road. Here +the moonlight disclosed a kind of water-lane, running away between the +osiers, at right angles from the road. Steve turned into it, leading +my lady's horse, and in a moment was wading a foot deep in water. The +Waldgrave followed, then the women. I came last, with Marie's rein in +my hand. We kept down the lane about one hundred and fifty paces, the +horses snorting and moving unwillingly, and the water growing ever +deeper. Then Steve turned out of it, and began to advance, but more +cautiously, parallel with the road. + +We had waded about as far in this direction, sidling between the +stumps and stools as well as we could, when he came again to a stand +and passed back the word for me. I waded on, and joined him. The +osiers, which were interspersed here and there with great willows, +rose above our heads and shut out the moonlight. The water gurgled +black about our knees. Each step might lead us into a hole, or we +might trip over the roots of the osiers. It was impossible to see a +foot before us, or anything above us save the still, black rods and +the grey sky. + +'It should be in this direction,' Steve said, with an accent of doubt. +'But I cannot see. We shall have the horses down.' + +'Let me go first,' I said. + +'We must not separate,' he answered hastily. + +'No, no,' I said, my teeth beginning to chatter. 'But are you sure +that there is an eyot here?' + +'I did not go to it,' he answered, scratching his head. 'But I saw a +clump of willows rising well above the level, and they looked to me as +if they grew on dry land.' + +He stood a moment irresolutely, first one and then another of the +horses shaking itself till the women could scarcely keep their seats. + +'Why do we not go on?' my lady asked in a low voice. + +'Because Steve is not sure of the place, my lady,' I said. 'And it is +almost impossible to move, it is so dark, and the osiers grow so +closely. I doubt we should have waited until daylight.' + +'Then we should have run the risk of being intercepted,' she answered +feverishly. 'Are you very wet?' + +'No,' I said, though my feet were growing numb, 'not very. I see what +we must do. One of us must climb into a willow and look out.' + +We had passed a small one not long before. I plashed my way back to +it, along the line of shivering women, and, pulling myself heavily +into the branches, managed to scramble up a few feet. The tree swayed +under my weight, but it bore me. + +The first dawn was whitening the sky and casting a faint, reflected +light on the glistening sea of osiers, that seemed to my eyes--for I +was not high enough to look beyond it--to stretch far and away on +every side. Here and there a large willow, rising in a round, dark +clump, stood out above the level; and in one place, about a hundred +paces away on the riverside of us, a group of these formed a shadowy +mound. I marked the spot, and dropped gently into the water. + +'I have found it,' I said. 'I will go first, and do you bring my lady, +Steve. And mind the stumps. It will be rough work.' + +It was rough work. We had to wind in and out, leading and coaxing the +frightened horses, that again and again stumbled to their knees. Every +minute I feared that we should find the way impassable or meet with a +mishap. But in time, going very patiently, we made out the willows in +front of us. Then the water grew more shallow, and this gave the +animals courage. Twenty steps farther, and we passed into the shadow +of the trees. A last struggle, and, plunging one by one up the muddy +bank, we stood panting on the eyot. + +It was such a place as only despair could choose for a refuge. In +shape like the back of some large submerged beast, it lay in length +about forty paces, in breadth half as many. The highest point was a +poor foot above the water. Seven great willows took up half the space; +it was as much as our horses, sinking in the moist mud to the fetlock, +could do to find standing-room on the remainder. Coarse grass and +reeds covered it; and the flotsam of the last flood whitened the +trunks of the willows, and hung in squalid wisps from their lower +branches. + +For the first time we saw one another's faces, and how pale and +woe-begone, mudstained and draggled we were! The cold, grey light, +which so mercilessly unmasked our refuge, did not spare us. It helped +even my lady to look her worst. Fraulein Anna sat a mere lifeless lump +in her saddle. The waiting-women cried softly; they had cried all +night. The Waldgrave looked dazed, as if he barely understood where he +was or why he was there. + +To think over-much in such a place was to weep. Instead, I hastened to +get them all off their horses, and with Steve's help and a great +bundle of osiers and branches which we cut, I made nests for them in +the lower boughs of the willows, well out of reach of the water. When +they had all taken their places, I served out food and a dram of +Dantzic waters, which some of us needed; for a white mist, drawn up +from the swamp by the rising sun, began to enshroud us, and, hanging +among the osiers for more than an hour, prolonged the misery of the +night. + +Still, even that rolled away at last--about six o'clock--and let us +see the sun shining overhead in a heaven of blue distance and golden +clouds. Larks rose up and sang, and all the birds of the marsh began +to twitter and tweet. In a trice our mud island was changed to a +bower--a place of warmth and life and refreshment--where light and +shade lay on the dappled floor, and the sunshine fell through green +leaves. + +Then I took the cloaks, and the saddles, and everything that was wet, +and spread them out on branches to dry; and leaving the women to make +themselves comfortable in their own way and shift themselves as they +pleased, we two, with the Waldgrave and the two servants, went away to +the other end of the eyot. + +'I shall sleep,' Steve said drowsily. + +The insects were beginning to hum. The horses stood huddled together, +swishing their long tails. + +'You think they won't track us?' I asked. + +'Certain,' he said. 'There are six hundred yards of mud and water, +eel-holes, and willow shoots between us and the road.' + +The Waldgrave assented mechanically; it seemed so to me too. And +by-and-by, worn out with the night's work, I fell asleep, and slept, I +suppose, for a good many hours, with the sun and shade passing slowly +across my face, and the bees droning in my ears, and the mellow warmth +of the summer day soaking into my bones. When I awoke I lay for a time +revelling in lazy enjoyment. The oily plop of a water-rat, as it dived +from a stump, or the scream of a distant jay, alone broke the laden +silence. I looked at the sun. It lay south-west. It was three o'clock +then. + + +[Illustration: We were alone.... I whispered in her ear ...] + + +A light touch fell on my knee. I started, looked down, and for a +moment stared in sleepy wonder. A tiny bunch of blue flowers, such as +I could see growing in a dozen places on the edge of the island, lay +on it, tied up with a thread of purple silk. I started up on my elbow, +and--there, close beside me, with her cheeks full of colour, and the +sunshine finding golden threads in her dark hair, sat Marie, toying +with more flowers. + +'Ha!' I said foolishly. 'What is it?' + +'My lady sent me to you,' she answered. + +'Yes,' I asked eagerly. 'Does she want me?' + +But Marie hung her head, and played with the flowers. 'I don't think +so,' she whispered. 'She only sent me to you.' + +Then I understood. The Waldgrave had gone to the farther end. Steve +and the men were tending the horses half a dozen paces beyond the +screen of willow-leaves. We were alone. A rat plashed into the water, +and drove Marie nearer to me; and she laid her head on my shoulder, +and I whispered in her ear, till the lashes sank down over her eyes +and her lips trembled. If I had loved her from the first, what was the +length and height and breadth of my love now, when I had seen her in +darkness and peril, sunshine and storm, strong when others failed, +brave when others flinched, always helpful, ready, tireless! And she +so small! So frail, I almost feared to press her to me; so pale, the +blood that leapt to her cheeks at my touch seemed a mere reflection of +the sunlight. + +I told her how Steve had made the guards at the prison drunk with wine +bought with her dowry; how the horses he had purchased and taken out +of the camp by twos and threes had been paid for from the same source; +and how many ducats had gone for meats and messes to keep the life, +that still ran sluggishly, in the Waldgrave's veins. She listened and +lay still. + +'So you have no dowry now, little one,' I said, when I had told her +all. 'And your gold chain is gone. I believe you have nothing but the +frock you stand up in. Why, then, should I marry you?' + +I felt her heart give a great leap under my hand, and a shiver ran +through her. But she did not raise her head, and I, who had thought to +tease her into looking at me, had to put back her little face till it +gazed into mine. + +'Why?' I said; 'why?'--drawing her closer and closer to me. + +Then the colour came into her face like the sunlight itself. 'Because +you love me,' she whispered, shutting her eyes. + +And I did not gainsay her. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + MISSING! + + +We lay in the osier bed two whole days and a night, during which time +two at least of us were not unhappy, in spite of peril and hardship. +We left it at last, only because our meagre provision gave out, and we +must move or starve. We felt far from sure that the danger was over, +for Steve, who spent the second day in a thick bush near the road, saw +two troops of horse go by; and others, we believed, passed in the +night. But we had no choice. The neighbourhood was bleak and bare. +Such small homesteads as existed had been eaten up, and lay abandoned. +If we had felt inclined to venture out for food, none was to be had. +And, in fine, though we trembled at the thought of the open road, and +my heart for one grew sick as I looked from Marie to my lady, and +reckoned the long tale of leagues which lay between us and Cassel, the +risk had to be run. + +Steve had discovered a more easy though longer way out of the +willow-bed, and two hours before midnight on the second night, he and +I mounted the women and prepared to set out. He arranged that we +should go in the same order in which we had come: that he should lead +the march, and I bring up the rear, while the Waldgrave, who was still +far from well, and whose continued lack of vigour troubled us the more +as we said little about it, should ride with my lady. + +The night seemed likely to be fine, but the darkness, the sough of the +wind as it swept over the plain, and the melancholy plashing of the +water as our horses plodded through it, were not things of a kind to +allay our fears. When we at last left our covert, and reaching the +road stood to listen, the fall of a leaf made us start. Though no +sounds but those of the night came to our ears--and some of these were +of a kind to reassure us--we said 'Hush!' again and again, and only +moved on after a hundred alarums and assurances. + +I walked by Marie, with my hand on the withers of her horse, but we +did not talk. The two waiting-women riding double were before us, and +their muttered fears alone broke the silence which prevailed at the +end of the train. We went at the rate of about two leagues an hour, +Steve and I and the men running where the roads were good, and +everywhere and at all times urging the horses to do their best. The +haste of our movements, the darkness, our constant alarm, and the +occasional confusion when the rear pressed on the van at an awkward +place, had the effect of upsetting the balance of our minds; so +that the most common impulse of flight--to press forward with +ever-increasing recklessness--began presently to possess us. Once or +twice I had to check the foremost, or they would have outrun the rear; +and this kind of race brought us gradually into such a state of alarm, +that by-and-by, when the line came to a sudden stop on the brow of a +gentle descent, I could hardly restrain my impatience. + +'What is it?' I asked eagerly. 'Why are we stopping?' Surely the road +is good enough here.' + +No one answered, but it was significant that on the instant one of the +women began to cry. + +'Stop that folly!' I said. 'What is in front there? Cannot some one +speak?' + +'The Waldgrave thinks that he hears horsemen before us,' Fraulein Max +answered. + +In another moment the Waldgrave's figure loomed out of the darkness. +'Martin,' he said--I noticed that his voice shook--'go forward. They +are in front. Man alive, be quick!' he continued fiercely. 'Do you +want to have them into us?' + +I left my girl's rein, and pushing past the women and Fraulein, joined +Steve, who was standing by my lady's rein. 'What is it?' I said. + +'Nothing, I think,' he answered in an uncertain tone. + +I stood a moment listening, but I too could hear nothing. I began to +argue with him. 'Who heard it?' I asked impatiently. + +'The Waldgrave,' he answered. + +I did not like to say before my lady what I thought--that the +Waldgrave was not quite himself, nor to be depended upon; and instead +I proposed to go forward on foot and learn if anything was amiss. The +road ran straight down the hill, and the party could scarcely pass me, +even in the gloom. If I found all well, I would whistle, and they +could come on. + +My lady agreed, and, leaving them halted, I started cautiously down +the hill. The darkness was not extreme; the cloud drift was broken +here and there, and showed light patches of sky between; I could make +out the shapes of things, and more than once took a clump of bushes +for a lurking ambush. But halfway down, a line of poplars began to +shadow the road on our side, and from that point I might have walked +into a regiment and never seen a man. This, the being suddenly alone, +and the constant rustling of the leaves overhead, which moved with the +slightest air, shook my nerves, and I went very warily, with my heart +in my mouth and a cry trembling on my lips. + +Still I had reached the hillfoot before anything happened. Then I +stopped abruptly, hearing quite distinctly in front of me the sound of +footsteps. It was impossible that this could be the sound that the +Waldgrave had heard, for only one man seemed to be stirring, and he +moved stealthily; but I crouched down and listened, and in a moment I +was rewarded. A dark figure came out of the densest of the shadow and +stood in the middle of the road. I sank lower, noiselessly. The man +seemed to be listening. + +It flashed into my head that he was a sentry; and I thought how +fortunate it was that I had come on alone. + +Presently he moved again. He stole along the track towards me, +stooping, as I fancied, and more than once standing to listen, as if +he were not satisfied. I sank down still lower, and he passed me +without notice, and went on, and I heard his footsteps slowly +retreating until they quite died away. + +But in a moment, before I had risen to my full height, I heard them +again. He came back, and passed me, breathing quickly and loudly. I +wondered if he had detected our party and was going to give the alarm; +and I stood up, anxious and uncertain, at a loss whether I should +follow him or run back. + +At that instant a fierce yell broke the silence, and rent the darkness +as a flash of lightning might rend it. It came from behind me, from +the brow of the hill; and I started as if I had been struck. Hard on +it a volley of shouts and screams flared up in the same direction, and +while my heart stood still with terror and fear of what had happened, +I heard the thunder of hoofs come down the road, with a clatter of +blows and whips. They were coming headlong--my lady and the rest. The +danger was behind them, then. I had just time to turn and get to the +side of the road before they were on me at a gallop. + +I could not see who was who in the darkness, but I caught at the +nearest stirrup, and, narrowly escaping being ridden down, ran on +beside the rider. The horses, spurred down the slope, had gained such +an impetus that it was all I could do to keep up. I had no breath to +ask questions, nor state my fear that there was danger ahead also. I +had to stride like a giant to keep my legs and run. + +Some one else was less lucky. We had not swept fifty yards from where +I joined them, when a dark figure showed for a moment in the road +before us. I saw it; it seemed to hang and hesitate. The next instant +it was among us. I heard a shrill scream, a heavy fall, and we were +over it, and charging on and on and on through the darkness. + +To the foot of the hill and across the bottom, and up the opposite +slope. I do not know how far we had sped, when Steve's voice was +heard, calling on us to halt. + +'Pull up! pull up!' he cried, with an angry oath. 'It is a false +alarm! What fool set it going? There is no one behind us. Donner und +Blitzen! where is Martin?' + +The horses were beginning to flag, and gladly came to a trot, and then +to a walk. + +'Here! I panted. + +'Himmel! I thought we had ridden you down!' he said, leaving my lady's +side. His voice shook with passion and loss of breath. 'Who was it? We +might all have broken our necks, and for nothing!' + +The Waldgrave--it was his stirrup I had caught--turned his horse +round. 'I heard them--close behind us!' he panted. There was a note of +wildness in his voice. My elbow was against his knee, and I felt him +tremble. + +'A bird in the hedge,' Steve said rudely. 'It has cost some one dear. +Whose horse was it struck him?' + +No one answered. I left the Waldgrave's side and went back a few +paces. The women were sobbing. Ernst and Jacob stood by them, +breathing hard after their run. I thought the men's silence strange. I +looked again. There was a figure missing; a horse missing. + +'Where is Marie?' I cried. + +She did not answer. No one answered; and I knew. Steve swore again. I +think he had known from the beginning. I began to tremble. On a sudden +my lady lifted up her voice and cried shrilly-- + +'Marie! Marie!' + +Again no answer. But this time I did not wait to listen. I ran from +them into the darkness the way we had come, my legs quivering under +me, and my mouth full of broken prayers. I remembered a certain +solitary tree fronting the poplars, on the other side of the way, +which I had marked mechanically at the moment of the fall--an ash, +whose light upper boughs had come for an instant between my eyes and +the sky. It stood on a little mound, where the moorland began to rise +on that side. I came to it now, and stopped and looked. At first I +could see nothing, and I trod forward fearfully. Then, a couple of +paces on, I made out a dark figure, lying head and feet across the +road. I sprang to it, and kneeling, passed my hands over it. Alas! it +was a woman's. + +I raised the light form in my arms, crying passionately on her name, +while the wind swayed the boughs overhead, and, besides that and my +voice, all the countryside was still. She did not answer. She hung +limp in my arms. Kneeling in the dust beside her, I felt blindly for a +pulse, a heart-beat. I found neither--neither; the woman was dead. + +And yet it was not that which made me lay the body down so quickly and +stand up peering round me. No; something else. The blood drummed in my +ears, my heart beat wildly. The woman was dead; but she was not Marie. + +She was an old woman, sixty years old. When I stooped again, after +assuring myself that there was no other body near, and peered into her +face, I saw that it was seamed and wrinkled. She was barefoot, and her +clothes were foul and mean. She had the reek of one who slept in +ditches and washed seldom. Her toothless gums grinned at me. She was a +horrible mockery of all that men love in women. + +When I had marked so much, I stood up again, my head reeling. Where +was the man I had seen scouting up and down? Where was Marie? For a +moment the wild idea that she had become this thing, that death or +magic had transformed the fair young girl into this toothless hag, was +not too wild for me. An owl hooted in the distance, and I started and +shivered and stood looking round me fearfully. Such things were; and +Marie was gone. In her place this woman, grim and dead and unsightly, +lay at my feet. What was I to think? + +I got no answer. I raised my voice and called, trembling, on Marie. I +ran to one side of the road and the other and called, and still got no +answer. I climbed the mound on which the ash-tree stood, and sent my +voice thrilling through the darkness of the bottom. But only the owl +answered. Then, knowing nothing else I could do, I went down wringing +my hands, and found my lady standing over the body in the road. She +had come back with Steve and the others. + +I had to listen to their amazement, and a hundred guesses and fancies, +which, God help me! had nothing certain in them, and gave me no help. +The men searched both sides of the road, and beat the moor for a +distance, and tried to track the horse--for that was missing too, and +there lay my only hope--but to no purpose. At last my lady came to me +and said sorrowfully that nothing more could be done. + +'In the morning!' I cried jealously. + +No one spoke, and I looked from one to another. The men had returned +from the search, and stood in a dark group round the body, which they +had drawn to the side of the road. It wanted an hour of daylight yet, +and I could not see their faces, but I read in their silence the +answer that no one liked to put into words. + +'Be a man!' Steve muttered, after a long pause. 'God help the girl. +But God help us too if we are found here!' + +Still my lady did not speak, and I knew her brave heart too well to +doubt her, though she had been the first to talk of going. 'Get to +horse,' I said roughly. + +'No, no,' my lady cried at last. 'We will all stay, Martin.' + +'Ay, all stay or all go!' Steve muttered. + +'Then all go!' I said, choking down the sobs that would rise. And I +turned first from the place. + +I will not try to state what that cost me. I saw my girl's face +everywhere--everywhere in the darkness, and the eyes reproached me. +That she of all should suffer, who had never fainted, never faltered, +whose patience and courage had been the women's stay from the +first--that she should suffer! I thought of the tender, weak body, and +of all the things that might happen to her, and I seemed, as I went +away from her, the vilest thing that lived. + +But reason was against me. If I stayed there and waited on the road +by the old crone's body until morning, what could I do? Whither could +I turn? Marie was gone and already might be half a dozen miles away. +So the bonds of custom and duty held me. Dazed and bewildered, I +lacked the strength that was needed to run counter to all. I was no +knight-errant, but a plain man, and I reeled on through the last hour +of the night and the first grey streaks of dawn, with my head on my +breast and sobs of despair in my throat. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + NUREMBERG. + + +If it had been our fate after that to continue our flight in the same +weary fashion we had before devised, lying in woods by day, and all +night riding jaded horses, until we passed the gates of some free +city, I do not think that I could have gone through with it. Doubtless +it was my duty to go with my lady. But the long hours of daylight +inaction, the slow brooding tramp, must have proved intolerable. And +at some time or other, in some way or other, I must have snapped the +ties that bound me. + +But, as if the loss of my heart had rid us of some spell cast over us, +by noon of that day we stood safe. For, an hour before noon, while we +lay in a fir-wood not far from Weimar, and Jacob kept watch on the +road below, and the rest slept as we pleased, a party of horse came +along the way, and made as if to pass below us. They numbered more +than a hundred, and Jacob's heart failed him, lest some ring or buckle +of our accoutrements should sparkle and catch their eyes. To shift the +burden he called us, and we went to watch them. + +'Do they go north or south?' I asked him as I rose. + +'North,' he whispered. + +After that they were nothing to me, but I went with the rest. Our lair +was in some rocks overhanging the road. By the time we looked over, +the horsemen were below us, and we could see nothing of them; though +the sullen tramp of their horses, and the jingle of bit and spur, +reached us clearly. Presently they came into sight again on the road +beyond, riding steadily away with their backs to us. + +'That is not General Tzerclas?' my lady muttered anxiously. + +'Nor any of his people!' Steve said with an oath. + +That led me to look more closely, and I saw in a moment something that +lifted me out of my moodiness. I sprang on the rock against which I +was leaning and shouted long and loudly. + +'Himmel!' Steve cried, seizing me by the ankle. 'Are you mad, man?' + +But I only shouted again, and waved my cap frantically. Then I slipped +down, sobered. 'They see us,' I cried. 'They are Leuchtenstein's +riders. And Count Hugo is with them. You are safe, my lady.' + +She turned white and red, and I saw her clutch at the rock to keep +herself on her feet. 'Are you sure?' she said. The troop had halted +and were wheeling slowly and in perfect order. + +'Quite sure, my lady,' I answered, with a touch of bitterness in my +tone. Why had not this happened yesterday or the day before? Then my +girl would have been saved. Now it came too late! Too late! No wonder +I felt bitterly about it. + +We went down into the road on foot, a little party of nine--four women +and five men. The horsemen, as they came up, looked at us in wonder. +Our clothes, even my lady's, were dyed with mud and torn in a score of +places. We had not washed for days, and our faces were lean with +famine. Some of the women were shoeless and had their hair about their +ears, while Steve was bare-headed and bare-armed, and looked so huge a +ruffian the stocks must have yawned for him anywhere. They drew up and +gazed at us, and then Count Hugo came riding down the column and saw +us. + +My lady went forward a step. 'Count Leuchtenstein,' she said, her +voice breaking; she had only seen him once, and then under the mask of +a plain name. But he was safety, honour, life now, and I think that +she could have kissed him. I think for a little she could have fallen +into his arms. + +'Countess!' he said, as he sprang from his horse in wonder. 'Is it +really you? Gott im Himmel! These are strange times. Waldgrave! Your +pardon. Ach! Have you come on foot?' + +'Not I. But these brave men have,' my lady answered, tears in her +voice. + +He looked at Steve and grunted. Then he looked at me and his eyes +lightened. 'Are these all your party?' he said hurriedly. + +'All,' my lady answered in a low voice. He did not ask farther, but he +sighed, and I knew that he had looked for his child. 'I came north +upon a reconnaissance, and was about to turn,' he said. 'I am thankful +that I did not turn before. Is Tzerclas in pursuit of you?' + +'I do not know,' my lady answered, and told him shortly of our flight, +and how we had lain two days and a night in the osier-bed. + +'It was a good thought,' he said. 'But I fear that you are half +famished.' And he called for food and wine, and served my lady with +his own hands, while he saw that we did not go without. 'Campaigner's +fare,' he said. 'But you come of a fighting stock, Countess, and can +put up with it.' + +'Shame on me if I could not,' she answered. + +There was a quaver in her voice, which showed how the rencontre moved +her, how full her heart was of unspoken gratitude. + +'When you have finished, we will get to horse,' he said. 'I must take +you with me to Nuremberg, for I am not strong enough to detach a +party. But this evening we will make a long halt at Hesel, and secure +you a good night's rest.' + +'I am sorry to be so burdensome,' my lady said timidly. + +He shrugged his shoulders without compliment, but I did not hear what +he answered. For I could bear no more. Marie seemed so forgotten in +this crowd, so much a thing of the past, that my gorge rose. No word +of her, no thought of her, no talk of a search party! I pictured her +forlorn, helpless little figure, her pale, uncomplaining face--I and +no one else; and I had to go away into the bushes to hide myself. She +was forgotten already. She had done all for them, I said to myself, +and they forgot her. + +Then, in the thicket screened from the party, I had a thought--to go +back and look for her, myself. Now my lady was safe, there was nothing +to prevent me. I had only to lie close among the rocks until Count +Hugo left, and then I might plod back on foot and search as I pleased. +In a flash I saw the poplars, and the road running beneath the +ash-tree, and the woman's body lying stiff and stark on the sward. And +I burned to be there. + +Left to myself I should have gone too. But the plan was no sooner +formed than shattered. While I stood, hotfoot to be about it, and +pausing only to consider which way I could steal off most safely, a +rustling warned me that some one was coming, and before I could stir, +a burly trooper broke through the bushes and confronted me. He saluted +me stolidly. + +'Sergeant,' he said, 'the general is waiting for you.' + +'The general?' I said. + +'The Count, if you like it better,' he answered. 'Come, if you +please.' + +I followed him, full of vexation. It was but a step into the road. The +moment I appeared, some one gave the word 'Mount!' A horse was thrust +in front of me, two or three troopers who still remained afoot swung +themselves into the saddle; and I followed their example. In a trice +we were moving down the valley at a dull, steady pace--southwards, +southwards. I looked back, and saw the fir trees and rocks where we +had lain hidden, and then we turned a corner, and they were gone. +Gone, and all round me I heard the measured tramp of the troop-horses, +the swinging tones of the men, and the clink and jingle of sword and +spur. I called myself a cur, but I went on, swept away by the force of +numbers, as the straw by the current. Once I caught Count Hugo's eye +fixed on me, and I fancied he had a message for me, but I failed to +interpret it. + +Steve rode by me, and his face too was moody. I suppose that we should +all of us have thanked God the peril was past. But my lady rode in +another part with Count Leuchtenstein and the Waldgrave; and Steve +yearned, I fancy, for the old days of trouble and equality, when there +was no one to come between us. + +I saw Count Hugo that night. He sent for me to his quarters at Hesel, +and told me frankly that he would have let me go back had he thought +good could come of it. + +'But it would have been looking for a needle in a bundle of hay, my +friend,' he continued. 'Tzerclas' men would have picked you up, or the +peasants killed you for a soldier, and in a month perhaps the girl +would have returned safe and sound, to find you dead.' + +'My lord!' I cried passionately, 'she saved your child. It was to her +as her own!' + +'I know it,' he answered with gravity, which of itself rebuked me. +'And where is my child?' + +I shook my head. + +'Yet I do not give up my work and the task God and the times have +given me, and go out looking for it!' he answered severely. 'Leaving +Scot, and Swede, and Pole, and Switzer to divide my country. For +shame! You have your work too, and it lies by your lady's side. See to +it that you do it. For the rest I have scouts out, who know the +country; if I learn anything through them you shall hear it. And now +of another matter. How long has the Waldgrave been like this, my +friend?' + +'Like this, my lord?' I muttered stupidly. + +He nodded. 'Yes, like this,' he repeated. 'I have heard him called a +brave man. Coming of his stock, he should be; and when I saw him in +Tzerclas' camp he had the air of one. Now he starts at a shadow, is in +a trance half his time, and a tremor the other half. What ails him?' + +I told him how he had been wounded, fighting bravely, and that since +that he had not been himself. + +Count Hugo rubbed his chin gravely. 'It is a pity,' he said. 'We want +all--every German arm and every German head. We want you. Man alive!' +he continued, roused to anger, I suppose, by my dull face, 'do you +know what is in front of you?' + +'No, my lord,' I said in apathy. + +He opened his mouth as if to hurl a volley of words at me. But he +thought better of it and shut his lips tight. 'Very well,' he said +grimly. 'Wait three days and you will see.' + +But in truth, I had not to wait three days. Before sunset of the next +I began to see, and, downcast as I was, to prick up my ears in wonder. +Beyond Romhild and between that town and Bamberg, the great road which +runs through the valley of the Pegnitz, was such a sight as I had +never seen. For many miles together a column of dust marked its +course, and under this went on endless marching. We were but a link in +a long chain, dragging slowly southwards. Now it was a herd of +oxen that passed along, moving tediously and painfully, driven by +half-naked cattle-men and guarded by a troop of grimy horse. Now it +was a reinforcement of foot from Fulda, rank upon rank of shambling +men trailing long pikes, and footsore, and parched as they were, +getting over the ground in a wonderful fashion. After them would come +a long string of waggons, bearing corn, and hay, and malt, and wines; +all lurching slowly forward, slowly southward; often delayed, for +every quarter of a mile a horse fell or an axle broke, yet getting +forward. + +And then the most wonderful sight of all, a regiment of Swedish horse +passed us, marching from Erfurt. All their horses were grey, and all +their head-pieces, backs and breasts of black metal, matched one +another. As they came on through the dust with a tramp which shook the +ground, they sang, company by company, to the music of drums and +trumpets, a hymn, 'Versage nicht, du Haeuflein klein!' Behind them a +line of light waggons carried their wives and children, also singing. +And so they went by us, eight hundred swords, and I thought it a +marvel I should never see beaten. + +When they were gone out of sight, there were still droves of horses +and mighty flocks of sheep to come, and cargoes of pork, and more foot +and horse and guns. Some companies wore buff coats and small steel +caps, and carried arquebuses; and some marched smothered in huge +headpieces with backs and breasts to match. And besides all the +things I have mentioned and the crowds of sutlers and horse-boys that +went with them, there were munition waggons closely guarded, and +pack-horses laden with powder, and always and always waggons of corn +and hay. + +And all hurrying, jostling, crawling southwards. It seemed to me that +the world was marching southwards; that if we went on we must fall in +at the end of this with every one we knew. And the thought comforted +me. + +Steve put it into words after his fashion. 'It must be a big place we +are going to,' he said, about noon of the second day, 'or who is to +eat all this? And do you mark, Master Martin? We meet no one coming +back. All go south. This place Nuremberg that they talk of must be +worth seeing.' + +'It should be,' I said. + +And after that the excitement of the march began to take hold of me. I +began to think and wonder, and look forward, with an eagerness I did +not understand, to the issues of this. + +We lay a night at Bamberg, where the crowd and confusion and the +stress of people were so great that Steve would have it we had come to +Nuremberg. And certainly I had never known such a hurly-burly, nor +heard of it except at the great fair at Dantzic. The night after we +lay at Erlangen, which we found fortified, trenched, and guarded, with +troops lying in the square, and the streets turned into stables. From +that place to Nuremberg was a matter of ten miles only; but the press +was so great on the road that it took us a good part of the day to +ride from one to the other. In the open country on either side of the +way strong bodies of horse and foot were disposed. It seemed to me +that here was already an army and a camp. + +But when late in the afternoon we entered Nuremberg itself, and viewed +the traffic in the streets, and the endless lines of gabled houses, +the splendid mansions and bridges, the climbing roofs and turrets and +spires of this, the greatest city in Germany, then we thought little +of all we had seen before. Here thousands upon thousands rubbed +shoulders in the streets; here continuous boats turned the river into +solid land. Here we were told were baked every day a hundred thousand +loaves of bread; and I saw with my own eyes a list of a hundred and +thirty-eight bakehouses. The roar of the ways, choked with soldiers +and citizens, the babel of strange tongues, the clamour of bells and +trumpets, deafened us. The constant crowding and pushing and halting +turned our heads. I forgot my grief and my hope too. Who but a madman +would look to find a single face where thousands gazed from the +windows? or could deem himself important with this swarming, teeming +hive before him? Steve stared stupidly about him; I rode dazed and +perplexed. The troopers laughed at us, or promised us greater things +when we should see the Swedish Lager outside the town, and +Wallenstein's great camp arrayed against it. But I noticed that even +they, as we drew nearer to the heart of the city, fell silent at +times, and looked at one another, surprised at the great influx of +people and the shifting scenes which the streets presented. + +For myself and Steve and the men, we were as good as nought. A house +in the Ritter-Strasse was assigned to my lady for her quarters--no one +could lodge in the city without the leave of the magistrates; and we +were glad to get into it and cool our dizzy heads, and look at one +another. Count Hugo stayed awhile, standing with my lady and the +Waldgrave in one of the great oriels that overlooked the street. But a +mounted messenger, sent on from the Town House, summoned him, and he +took horse again for the camp. I do not know what we should have done +without him at entering. The soldiers, who crowded the streets, showed +scant respect for names, and would as soon have jostled my lady as a +citizen's wife; but wherever he came hats were doffed and voices +lowered, and in the greatest press a way was made for him as by magic. + +For that night we had seen enough. I thought we had seen all, or that +nothing in my life would ever surprise me again. But next day my lady +went up to the Burg on the hill in the middle of the city to look +abroad, and took Steve and myself with her. And then I found that I +had not seen the half. The city, all roofs and spires and bridges, +girt with a wall of seventy towers, roared beneath us; and that I had +expected. But outside the wall I now saw a second city of huts and +tents, with a great earthwork about it, and bastions and demilunes and +picquets posted. + +This was the Swedish Lager. It lay principally to the south of the +city proper, though on all sides it encircled it more or less. They +told me that there lay in it about forty thousand soldiers and twenty +thousand horses, and twenty thousand camp followers; but the number +was constantly increasing, death and disease notwithstanding, so that +it presently stood as high as sixty thousand fighting men and half as +many followers, to say nothing of the garrison that lay in the city, +or the troops posted to guard the approaches. It seemed to me, gazing +over that mighty multitude from the top of the hill, that nothing +could resist such a force; and I looked abroad with curiosity for the +enemy. + +I expected to view his army cheek by jowl with us; and I was +disappointed when I saw beyond our camp to southward, where I was told +he lay, only a clear plain with the little river Rednitz flowing +through it. This plain was a league and more in width, and it was +empty of men. Beyond it rose a black wooded ridge, very steep and +hairy. + +My lady explained that Wallenstein's army lay along this +ridge--seventy thousand men, and forty thousand horses, and +Wallenstein himself. His camp we heard was eight miles round, the +front guarded by a line of cannon, and taking in whole villages and +castles. And now I looked again I saw the smoke hang among the trees. +They whispered in Nuremberg that no man in that army took pay; that +all served for booty; and that the troopers that sacked Magdeburg and +followed Tilly were, beside these, gentle and kindly men. + +'God help us!' my lady cried fervently. 'God help this great city! God +help the North! Never was such a battle fought as must be fought +here!' + +We went down very much sobered, filled with awe and wonder and +great thoughts, the dullest of us feeling the air heavy with portents, +the more clerkly considering of Armageddon and the Last Fight. +Briefly--for thirteen years the Emperor and the Papists had hustled +and harried the Protestants; had dragooned Donauwoerth, and held down +Bohemia, and plundered the Palatinate, and crushed the King of +Denmark, and wherever there was a weak Protestant state had pressed +sorely on it. Then one short year before I stood on the Burg above the +Pegnitz, the Protestant king had come out of the North like a +thunderbolt, had shattered in a month the Papist armies, had run like +a devouring fire down the Priests' Lane, rushed over Bohemia, shaken +the Emperor on his throne! + +But could he maintain himself? That was now to be seen. To the +Emperor's help had come all who loved the old system, and would have +it that the south was Germany; all who wished to chain men's minds and +saw their profit in the shadow of the imperial throne; all who lived +by license and plunder, and reckoned a mass to-day against a murder +to-morrow. All these had come, from the great Duke of Friedland +grasping at empire, to the meanest freebooter with peasant's blood on +his hands and in his veins; and there they lay opposite us, +impregnably placed on the Burgstall, waiting patiently until famine +and the sword should weaken the fair city, and enable them to plunge +their vulture's talons into its vitals. + +No wonder that in Nuremberg the citizens could be distinguished from +the soldiers by their careworn faces; or that many a man stood morning +and evening to gaze at the carved and lofty front of his house--by St. +Sebald's or behind the new Cathedral--and wondered how long the fire +would spare it. The magistrates who had staked all--their own and the +city's--on this cast, went about with stern, grave faces and feared +almost to meet the public eye. With a doubled population, with a huge +army to feed, with order to keep, with houses and wives and daughters +of their own to protect, with sack and storm looming luridly in the +future, who had cares like theirs? + +One man only, and him I saw as we went home from the Burg. It was near +the foot of the Burg hill, where the strasse meets three other ways. +At that time Count Tilly's crooked, dwarfish figure and pale horse's +face, and the great hat and boots which seemed to swallow him up, were +fresh in my mind; and sometimes I had wondered whether this other +great commander were like him. Well, I was to know; for through the +crowd at the junction of these four roads, while we stood waiting to +pass, there came a man on a white horse, followed by half a score of +others on horseback; and in a moment I knew from the shouting and the +way women thrust papers into his hands that we saw the King of Sweden. + +He wore a plain buff coat and a grey flapped hat with a feather; a +tall man and rather bulky, his face massive and fleshy, with a close +moustache trimmed to a point and a small tuft on his chin. His aspect +was grave; he looked about him with a calm eye, and the shouting did +not seem to move him. They told me that it was Ba[=n]er, the Swedish +General, who rode with him, and our Bernard of Weimar who followed. +But my eye fell more quickly on Count Leuchtenstein, who rode after, +with the great Chancellor Oxenstierna; in him, in his steady gaze and +serene brow and wholesome strength, I traced the nearest likeness to +the king. + +And so I first saw the great Gustavus Adolphus. It was said that he +would at times fall into fits of Berserk rage, and that in the field +he was another man, keen as his sword, swift as fire, pitiless to +those who flinched, among the foremost in the charge, a very +thunderbolt of war. But as I saw him taking papers from women's hands +at the end of the Burg Strasse, he had rather the air of a quiet, +worthy prince--of Coburg or Darmstadt, it might be,--no dresser and no +brawler; nor would any one, to see him then, have thought that this +was the lion of the north who had dashed the pride of Pappenheim and +flung aside the firebrands of the south. Or that even now he had on +his shoulders the burden of two great nations and the fate of a +million of men. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + THE FACE AT THE WINDOW. + + +After this it fared with us as it fares at last with the driftwood +that chance or the woodman's axe has given to a forest stream in +Heritzburg. After rippling over the shallows and shooting giddily down +slopes--or perchance lying cooped for days in some dark bend, until +the splash of the otter or the spring freshet has sent it dancing on +in sunshine and shadow--it reaches at last the Werra. It floats out on +the bosom of the great stream, and no longer tossed and chafed by each +tiny pebble, feels the force of wind and stream--the great forces of +the world. The banks recede from sight, and one of a million atoms, it +is borne on gently and irresistibly, whither it does not know. So it +was with us. From the day we fell in with Count Leuchtenstein and set +our faces towards Nuremberg, and in a greater degree after we reached +that city, we embarked on a wider current of adventure, a fuller and +less selfish life. If we had still our own cares and griefs, hopes and +perils--as must be the case, I suppose, until we die--we had other +common ones which we shared with tens of thousands, rich and poor, +gentle and simple. We had to dread sack and storm; we prayed for +relief and safety in company with all who rose and lay down within the +walls. When a hundred waggons of corn slipped through the Croats and +came in, or Duke Bernard of Weimar beat up a corner of the Burgstall +and gave Wallenstein a bad night, we ran out into the streets to tell +and hear the news. Similarly, when tidings came that Tzerclas with his +two thousand ruffians had burned the King of Sweden's colours, put on +green sashes, and marched into the enemy's camp, we were not alone in +our gloomy anticipations. We still had our private adventures, and I +am going to tell them. But besides these, it should be remembered that +we ran the risks, and rose every morning fresh to the fears, of +Nuremberg. When bread rose to ten, to fifteen, to twenty times its +normal price; when the city, where many died every day of famine, +plague, and wounds, began to groan and heave in its misery; when +through all the country round the peasants crawled and died among the +dead; when Wallenstein, that dark man, heedless of the fearful +mortality in his own camp, still sat implacable on the heights and +refused all the king's invitations to battle, we grew pale and gloomy, +stern-eyed and thin-cheeked with the rest. We dreamed of Magdeburg as +they did; and as the hot August days passed slowly over the starving +city and still no end appeared, but only with each day some addition +of misery, we felt our hearts sink in unison with theirs. + +And we had to share, not their lot only, but their labours. We had not +been in the town twenty-four hours before Steve, Jacob, and Ernst were +enrolled in the town militia; to me, either out of respect to my lady, +or on account of my stature, a commission as lieutenant was granted. +We drilled every morning from six o'clock until eight in the fields +outside the New Gate; the others went again at sunset to practise +their weapons, but I was exempt from this drill, that the women might +not be left alone. At all times we had our appointed rendezvous in +case of alarm or assault. The Swedish veterans strolled out of the +camp and stood to laugh at our clumsiness. But the excellent order +which prevailed among them made them favourites, and we let them +laugh, and laughed again. + +The Waldgrave, who had long had Duke Bernard's promise, received a +regiment of horse, so that he lay in the camp and should have been a +contented man, since his strength had come back to him. But to my +surprise he showed signs of lukewarmness. He seemed little interested +in the service, and was often at my lady's house in the Ritter +Strasse, when he would have been better at his post. At first I set +this down to his passion for my lady, and it seemed excusable; but +within a week I stood convinced that this no longer troubled him. He +paid scant attention to her, but would sit for hours looking moodily +into the street. And I--and not I alone--began to watch him closely. + +I soon found that Count Hugo was right. The once gallant and splendid +young fellow was a changed man. He was still comely and a brave +figure, but the spirit in him was quenched. He was nervous, absent, +irritable. His eyes had a wild look; on strangers he made an +unfavourable impression. Doubtless, though his wounds had healed, +there remained some subtle injury that spoiled the man; and often I +caught my lady looking at him sadly, and knew that I was not the only +one with cause for mourning. + +But how strange he was we did not know until a certain day, when my +lady and I were engaged together over some accounts. It was evening, +and the three men were away drilling. The house was very quiet. +Suddenly he flung in upon us with a great noise, his colour high, his +eyes glittering. His first action was to throw his feathered hat on +one chair, and himself into another. + +'I've seen him!' he said. 'Himmel! he is a clever fellow. He will +worst you, cousin, yet--see if he does not. Oh, he is a clever one!' + +'Who?' my lady said, looking at him in some displeasure. + +'Who? Tzerclas, to be sure!' he answered, chuckling. + +'You have seen him!' she exclaimed, rising. + +'Of course I have!' he answered. 'And you will see him too, one of +these days.' + +My lady looked at me, frowning. But I shook my head. He was not drunk. + +'Where?' she asked, after a pause. 'Where did you see him, Rupert?' + +'In the street--where you see other men,' he answered, chuckling +again. 'He should not be there, but who is to keep him out? He is too +clever. He will get his way in the end, see if he does not!' + +'Rupert!' my lady cried in wrathful amazement, 'to hear you, one would +suppose you admired him.' + +'So I do,' he replied coolly. 'Why not? He has all the wits of the +family. He is as cunning as the devil. Take a hint, cousin; put +yourself on the right side. He will win in the end!' And the Waldgrave +rose restlessly from his chair, and, going to the window, began to +whistle. + +My lady came swiftly to me, and it grieved me to see the pain and woe +in her face. + +'Is he mad?' she muttered. + +I shook my head. + +'Do you think he has really seen him?' she whispered. We both stood +with our eyes on him. + +'I fear so, my lady,' I said with reluctance. + +'But it would cost _him_ his life,' she muttered eagerly, 'if he were +found here!' + +'He is a bold man,' I answered. + +'Ah! so was he--once,' she replied in a peculiar tone, and she pointed +stealthily to the unconscious man in the window. 'A month ago he would +have taken him by the throat anywhere. What has come to him?' + +'God knows,' I answered reverently. 'Grant only he may do us no harm!' + +He turned round at that, humming gaily, and went out, seeming almost +unconscious of our presence; and I made as light of the matter to my +lady as I could. But Tzerclas in the city, the Waldgrave mad, or at +any rate not sane, and last, but not least, the strange light in which +the latter chose to regard the former, were circumstances I could not +easily digest. They filled me with uneasy fears and surmises. I began +to perambulate the crowd, seeking furtively for a face; and was +entirely determined what I would do if I found it. The town was full, +as all besieged cities are, of rumours of spies and treachery, and of +reported overtures made now to the city behind the back of the army, +and now to the army to betray the city. A single word of denunciation, +and Tzerclas' life would not be worth three minutes' purchase--a rope +and the nearest butcher's hook would end it. My mind was made up to +say the word. + +I suppose I had been going about in this state of vigilance three days +or more, when something, but not the thing I sought, rewarded it. At +the time I was on my way back from morning drill. It was a little +after eight, and the streets and the people wore an air bright, yet +haggard. Night, with its perils, was over; day, with its privations, +lay before us. My mind was on the common fortunes, but I suppose my +eyes were mechanically doing their work, for on a sudden I saw +something at a window, took perhaps half a step, and stopped as if I +had been shot. + +I had seen Marie's face! Nay, I still saw it, while a man might count +two. Then it was gone. And I stood gasping. + +I suppose I stood so for half a minute, waiting, with the blood racing +from my heart to my head, and every pulse in my body beating. But she +did not reappear. The door of the house did not open. Nothing +happened. + +Yet I had certainly seen her; for I remembered particulars--the +expression of her face, the surprise that had leapt into her eyes as +they met mine, the opening of the lips in an exclamation. + +And still I stood gazing at the window and nothing happened. + +At last I came to myself, and I scanned the house. It was a large +house of four stories, three gables in width. The upper stories jutted +out; the beams on which they rested were finely carved, the gables +were finished off with rich, wooden pinnacles. In each story, the +lowest excepted, were three long, low windows of the common Nuremberg +type, and the whole had a substantial and reputable air. + +The window at which I had seen Marie was farthest from the door, on +the first floor. To go to the door I had to lose sight of it, and +perhaps for that reason I stood the longer. At last I went and +knocked, and waited in a fever for some one to come. The street was a +thoroughfare. There were a number of people passing. I thought that +all the town would go by before a dragging foot at last sounded +inside, and the great nail-studded door was opened on the chain. A +stout, red-faced woman showed herself in the aperture. + +'What is it?' she asked. + +'You have a girl in this house, named Marie Wort,' I answered +breathlessly. 'I saw her a moment ago at the window. I know her, and I +wish to speak to her.' + +The woman's little eyes dwelt on me stolidly for a space. Then she +made as if she would shut the door. 'For shame!' she said spitefully. +'We have no girls here. Begone with you!' + +But I put my foot against the door. 'Whose house is this?' I said. + +'Herr Krapp's,' she answered crustily. + +'Is he at home?' + +'No, he is not,' she retorted; 'and if he were, we have no baggages +here.' And again she tried to shut the door, but I prevented her. + +'Where is he?' I asked sternly. + +'He is at morning drill, if you must know,' she snapped; 'and his two +sons. Now, will you let me shut my door? Or must I cry out?' + +'Nonsense, mother!' I said. 'Who is in the house besides yourself?' + +'What is that to you?' she replied, breathing short. + +'I have told you,' I said, trying to control my anger. 'I----' + +But, quick as lightning, the door slammed to and cut me short. I had +thoughtlessly moved my foot. I heard the woman chuckle and go slipshod +down the passage, and though I knocked again in a rage, the door +remained closed. + +I fell back and looked at the house. An elderly man in a grave, sober +dress was passing, among others, and I caught his eye. + +'Whose house is that?' I asked him. + +'Herr Krapp's,' he answered. + +'I am a stranger,' I said. 'Is he a man of substance?' + +The person I addressed smiled. 'He is a member of the Council of +Safety,' he said dryly. 'His brother is prefect of this ward. But here +is Herr Krapp. Doubtless he has been at St. Sebald's drilling.' + +I thanked him, and made but two steps to Herr Krapp's side. He was the +other's twin--elderly, soberly dressed, his only distinction a sword +and pistol in his girdle and a white shoulder sash. + +'Herr Krapp?' I said. + +'The same,' he answered, eying me gravely. + +'I am the Countess of Heritzburg's steward,' I said. I began to see +the need of explanation. 'Doubtless you have heard that she is in the +city?' + +'Certainly,' he answered. 'In the Ritter Strasse.' + +'Yes,' I replied. 'A fortnight ago she missed a young woman, one of +her attendants. She was lost in a night adventure,' I continued, my +throat dry and husky. 'A few minutes ago I saw her looking from one of +your windows.' + +'From one of my windows?' he exclaimed in a tone of surprise. + +'Yes,' I said stiffly. + +He opened his eyes wide. 'Here?' he said. He pointed to his house. + +I nodded. + +'Impossible!' he replied, shutting his lips suddenly. 'Quite +impossible, my friend. My household consists of my two sons and +myself. We have a housekeeper only, and two lads. I have no young +women in the house.' + +'Yet I saw her face, Herr Krapp, at your window,' I answered +obstinately. + +'Wait,' he said; 'I will ask.' + +But when the old housekeeper came she had only the same tale to tell. +She was alone. No young woman had crossed the threshold for a week +past. There was no other woman there, young or old. + +'You will have it that I have a young man in the house next!' she +grumbled, shooting scorn at me. + +'I can assure you that there is no one here,' Herr Krapp said civilly. +'Dorcas has been with me many years, and I can trust her. Still if you +like you can walk through the rooms.' + +But I hesitated to do that. The man's manner evidenced his sincerity, +and in face of it my belief wavered. Fancy, I began to think, had +played me a trick. It was no great wonder if the features which were +often before me in my dreams, and sometimes painted themselves on the +darkness while I lay wakeful, had for once taken shape in the +daylight, and so vividly as to deceive me. I apologised. I said what +was proper, and, with a heavy sigh, went from the door. + +Ay, and with bent head. The passing crowd and the sunshine and the +distant music of drum and trumpet grated on me. For there was yet +another explanation. And I feared that Marie was dead. + +I was still brooding sadly over the matter when I reached home. Steve +met me at the door, but, feeling in no mood for small talk just then, +I would have passed him by and gone in, if he had not stopped me. + +'I have a message for you, lieutenant,' he said. + +'What is it?' I asked without curiosity. + +'A little boy gave it to me at the door,' he answered. 'I was to ask +you to be in the street opposite Herr Krapp's half an hour after +sunset this evening.' + +I gasped. 'Herr Krapp's!' I exclaimed. + +Steve nodded, looking at me queerly. 'Yes; do you know him?' he said. + +'I do now,' I muttered, gulping down my amazement. But my face was as +red as fire, the blood drummed in my ears. I had to turn away to hide +my emotion. 'What was the boy like?' I asked. + +But it seemed that the lad had made off the moment he had done his +errand, and Steve had not noticed him particularly. 'I called after +him to know who sent him,' he added, 'but he had gone too far.' + +I nodded and mumbled something, and went on into the house. Perhaps I +was still a little sore on my girl's account, and resented the easy +way in which she had dropped out of others' lives. At any rate, my +instinct was to keep the thing to myself. The face at the window, and +then this strange assignation, could have only one meaning; but, good +or bad, it was for me. And I hugged myself on it, and said nothing +even to my lady. + +The day seemed long, but at length the evening came, and when the +men had gone to drill and the house was quiet, I slipped out. The +streets were full at this hour of men passing to and fro to their +drill-stations, and of women who had been out to see the camp, and +were returning before the gates closed. The bells of many of the +churches were ringing; some had services. I had to push my way to +reach Herr Krapp's house in time; but once there the crowd of passers +served my purpose by screening me, as I loitered, from farther remark; +while I took care, by posting myself in a doorway opposite the window, +to make it easy for any one who expected me to find me. + +And then I waited with my heart beating. The clocks were striking a +half after seven when I took my place, and for a time I stood in a +ferment of excitement, now staring with bated breath at the casement, +where I had seen Marie, now scanning all the neighbouring doorways, +and then again letting my eyes rove from window to window both of +Krapp's house and the next one on either side. As the latter were +built with many quaint oriels, and tiny dormers, and had lattices in +side-nooks, where one least looked to find them, I was kept expecting +and employed. I was never quite sure, look where I would, what eyes +were upon me. + +But little by little, as time passed and nothing happened, and the +strollers all went by without accosting me, and no faces save strange +ones showed at the windows, the heat of expectation left me. The chill +of disappointment took its place. I began to doubt and fear. The +clocks struck eight. The sun had been down an hour. Half that time I +had been waiting. + +To remain passive was no longer bearable, and sick of caution, I +stepped out and began to walk up and down the street, courting rather +than avoiding notice. The traffic was beginning to slacken. I could +see farther and mark people at a distance; but still no one spoke to +me, no one came to me. Here and there lights began to shine in the +houses, on gleaming oak ceilings and carved mantels. The roofs were +growing black against the paling sky. In nooks and corners it was +dark. The half-hour sounded, and still I walked, fighting down doubt, +clinging to hope. + +But when another quarter had gone by, doubt became conviction. I had +been fooled! Either some one who had seen me loitering at Krapp's in +the morning and heard my tale had gone straight off, and played me +this trick; or--Gott im Himmel!--or I had been lured here that I might +be out of the way at home. + +That thought, which should have entered my thick head an hour before, +sped me from the street, as if it had been a very catapult. Before I +reached the corner I was running; and I ran through street after +street, sweating with fear. But quickly as I went, my thoughts +outpaced me. My lady was alone save for her women. The men were +drilling, the Waldgrave was in the camp. The crowded state of the +streets at sunset, and the number of strangers who thronged the city +favoured certain kinds of crime; in a great crowd, as in a great +solitude, everything is possible. + +I had this in my mind. Judge, then, of my horror, when, as I +approached the Ritter Strasse, I became aware of a dull, roaring +sound; and hastening to turn the corner, saw a large mob gathered in +front of our house, and filling the street from wall to wall. The +glare of torches shone on a thousand upturned faces, and flamed from a +hundred casements. At the windows, on the roofs, peering over +balconies and coping-stones and gables, and looking out of doorways +were more faces, all red in the torchlight. And all the time as the +smoking light rose and fell, the yelling, as it seemed to me, rose and +fell with it--now swelling into a stern roar of exultation, now +sinking into an ugly, snarling noise, above which a man might hear his +neighbour speak. + +I seized the first I came to--a man standing on the skirts of the mob, +and rather looking on than taking part. 'What is it?' I said, shaking +him roughly by the arm. 'What is the matter here?' + +'Hallo!' he answered, starting as he turned to me. 'Is it you again, +my friend?' + +I had hit on Herr Krapp!' Yes!' I cried breathlessly. 'What is it? +what is amiss?' + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'They are hanging a spy,' he answered. +'Nothing more. Irregular, but wholesome.' + +I drew a deep breath. 'Is that all?' I said. + +He eyed me curiously. 'To be sure,' he said. 'What did you think it +was?' + +'I feared that there might be something wrong at my lady's,' I said, +beginning to get my breath again. 'I left her alone at sunset. And +when I saw this crowd before the house I--I could almost have cut off +my hand. Thank God, I was mistaken!' + +He looked at me again and seemed to reflect a moment. Then he said, +'You have not found the young woman you were seeking?' + +I shook my head. + +'Well, it occurred to me afterwards--but at which window did you see +her?' + +'At a window on the first floor; the farthest from the door,' I +answered. + +'The second from the door end of the house?' he asked. + +'No, the third.' + +He nodded with an air of quiet triumph. 'Just so!' he said. 'I thought +so afterwards. But the fact is, my friend, my house ends with the +second gable. The third gable-end does not belong to it, though +doubtless it once did.' + +'No?' I exclaimed. And for a moment I stood taken aback, cursing my +carelessness. Then I stammered, 'But this third gable--I saw no door +in it, Herr Krapp.' + +'No, the door is in another street,' he answered. 'Or rather it opens +on the churchyard at the back of St. Austin's. So you may have seen +her after all. Well, I wish you well,' he continued. 'I must be +going.' + +The crowd was beginning to separate, moving away by twos and threes, +talking loudly. The lights were dying down. He nodded and was gone; +while I still stood gaping. For how did the matter stand? If I had +really seen Marie at the window--as seemed possible now--and if +nothing turned out to be amiss at home, then I had not been tricked +after all, and the message was genuine. True she had not kept her +appointment. But she might be in durance, or one of a hundred things +might have frustrated her intention. + +Still I could do nothing now except go home, and cutting short my +speculations, I forced myself through the press, and with some labour +managed to reach the door. As I did so I turned to look back, and the +sight, though the people were moving away fast, was sufficiently +striking. Almost opposite us in a beetling archway, the bowed head and +shoulders of a man stood up above the common level. There was a little +space round him, whence men held back; and the red glow of the +smouldering links which the executioners had cast on the ground at his +feet, shone upwards on his swollen lips and starting eyeballs. As I +looked, the body seemed to writhe in its bonds; but it was only the +wind swayed it. I went in shuddering. + +On the stairs I met Count Hugo coming down, and knew the moment I saw +him that there was something wrong. He stopped me, his eyes full of +wrath. + +'My man,' he said sternly, 'I thought that you were to be trusted! +Where have you been? What have you been doing? _Donner!_ Is your lady +to be left at dark with no one to man this door?' + +Conscience-stricken, I muttered that I hoped nothing had gone amiss. + +'No, but something easily might!' he answered grimly. 'When I came +here I found three as ugly looking rogues whispering and peering in +your doorway as man could wish to see! Yes, Master Martin, and if I +had not ridden up at that moment I will not answer for it, that they +would not have been in! It is a pity a few more knaves are not where +that one is,' he continued sourly, pointing through the open door. 'We +could spare them. But do you see and have more care for the future. +Or, mein Gott, I will take other measures, my friend!' + +So it had been a ruse after all! I went up sick at heart. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + THE HOUSE IN THE CHURCHYARD. + + +The heat which Count Leuchtenstein had thrown into the matter +surprised me somewhat when I came to think of it, but I was soon to be +more surprised. I did not go to my lady at once on coming in, for on +the landing the sound of voices and laughter met me, and I learned +that there were still two or three young officers sitting with her who +had outstayed Count Hugo. I waited until they were gone--clanking and +jingling down the stairs; and then, about the hour at which I usually +went to take orders before retiring, I knocked at the door. + +Commonly one of the women opened to me. To-night the door remained +closed. I waited, knocked again, and then went in. I could see no one, +but the lamps were flickering, and I saw that the window was open. + +At that moment, while I stood uncertain, she came in through it; and +blinded, I suppose, by the lights, did not see me. For at the first +chair she reached just within the window, she sat down suddenly and +burst into tears! + +'Mein Gott!' I cried clumsily. I should have known better; but the +laughter of the young fellows as they trooped down the stairs was +still in my ears, and I was dumfounded. + +She sprang up on the instant, and glared at me through her tears. 'Who +are--how dare you? How dare you come into the room without knocking?' +she cried violently. + +'I did knock, my lady,' I stammered, 'asking your pardon.' + +'Then now go! Go out, do you hear?' she cried, stamping her foot with +passion. 'I want nothing. Go!' + +I turned and crept towards the door like a beaten hound. But I was not +to go; when my hand was on the latch, her mood changed. + +'No, stay,' she said in a different tone. 'You may come back. After +all, Martin, I had rather it was you than any one else.' + +She dried her tears as she spoke, standing up very straight and proud, +and hiding nothing. I felt a pang as I looked at her. I had neglected +her of late. I had been thinking more of others. + +'It is nothing, Martin,' she said after a pause, and when she had +quite composed her face. 'You need not be frightened. All women cry a +little sometimes, as men swear,' she added, smiling. + +'You have been looking at that thing outside,' I said, grumbling. + +'Perhaps it did upset me,' she replied. 'But I think it was that I +felt--a little lonely.' + +That sounded so strange a complaint on her lips, seeing that the echo +of the young sparks' laughter was barely dead in the room, that I +stared. But I took it, on second thoughts, to refer to Fraulein Max, +whom she had kept at a distance since our escape, never sitting down +with her, or speaking to her except on formal occasions; and I said +bluntly-- + +'You need a woman friend, my lady.' + +She looked at me keenly, and I fancied her colour rose. But she only +answered, 'Yes, Martin. But you see I have not one. I am alone.' + +'And lonely, my lady?' + +'Sometimes,' she answered, smiling sadly. + +'But this evening?' I replied, feeling that there was still something +I did not understand. 'I should not have thought you would be feeling +that way. I have not been here, but when I came in, my lady----' + +'Pshaw!' she answered with a laugh of disdain. 'Those boys, Martin? +They can laugh, fight, and ride; but for the rest, pouf! They are not +company. However, it is bedtime, and you must go. I think you have +done me good. Good night. I wish--I wish I could do you good,' she +added kindly, almost timidly. + +To some extent she had. I went away feeling that mine was not the only +trouble in the world, nor my loneliness the only loneliness. She was a +stranger in a besieged city, a woman among men, exposed, despite her +rank, to many of a woman's perils; and doubtless she had felt Fraulein +Max's defection and the Waldgrave's strange conduct more deeply than +any one watching her daily bearing would have supposed. So much the +greater reason was there that I should do my duty loyally, and putting +her first to whom I owed so much, let no sorrow of my own taint my +service. + +But God knows there is one passion that defies argument. The house +next Herr Krapp's had a fascination for me which I could not resist; +and though I did not again leave my lady unguarded, but arranged that +Steve should stop at home and watch the door, four o'clock the next +afternoon saw me sneaking away in search of St. Austin's. Of course I +soon found it; but there I came to a check. Round the churchyard stood +a number of quiet family houses, many-gabled and shaded by limes, and +doubtless once occupied by reverend canons and prebendaries. But no +one of these held such a position that it could shoulder Herr Krapp's, +or be by any possibility the house I wanted. The churchyard lay too +far from the street for that. + +I walked up the row twice before I would admit this; but at last I +made it certain. Still Herr Krapp must know his own premises, and not +much cast down, I was going to knock at a chance door and put the +question, when my eyes fell on a man who sat at work in the +churchyard. He wore a mason's apron, and was busily deepening the +inscription on a tablet let into the church wall. He seemed to be the +very man to know, and I went to him. + +'I want a house which looks into the Neu Strasse,' I said. 'It is the +next house to Herr Krapp's. Can you direct me to the door?' + +He looked at me for a moment, his hammer suspended. Then he pointed to +the farther end of the row. 'There is an alley,' he said in a hoarse, +croaking voice. 'The door is at the end.' + +I thought his occupation an odd one, considering the state of the +city; but I had other things to dwell on, and hastened off to the +place he indicated. Here, sure enough, I found the mouth of a very +narrow passage which, starting between the last house and a blind +wall, ran in the required direction. It was a queer place, scarcely +wider than my shoulders, and with two turns so sharp that I remember +wondering how they brought their dead out. In one part it wound under +the timbers of a house; it was dark and somewhat foul, and altogether +so ill-favoured a path that I was glad I had brought my arms. + +In the end it ran into a small, paved court, damp but clean, and by +comparison light. Here I saw the door I wanted facing me. Above it the +house, with its narrow front of one window on each floor, and every +floor jutting out a little, gave a strange impression of gloomy +height. The windows were barred and dusty, the plaster was mildewed, +the beams were dark with age. Whatever secrets, innocent or the +reverse, lay within, one thing was plain--this front gave the lie to +the other. + +I liked the aspect of things so little that it was with a secret +tremor I knocked, and heard the hollow sound go echoing through the +house. So certain did I feel that something was wrong, that I wondered +what the inmates would do, and whether they would lie quiet and refuse +to answer, or show force and baffle me that way. No foreign windows +looked into the little court in which I stood; three of the walls were +blind. The longer I gazed about me, the more I misdoubted the place. + +Yet I turned to knock again; but did not, being anticipated. The door +slid open under my hand, slowly wide open, and brought me face to face +with an old toothless hag, whose bleared eyes winked at me like a +bat's in sunshine. I was so surprised both by her appearance and the +opening of the door, that I stood tongue-tied, staring at her and at +the bare, dusty, unswept hall behind her. + +'Who lives here?' I blurted out at last. + +If I had stopped to choose my words I had done no better. She shook +her head and pointed first to her ears, and then to her lips. The +woman was deaf and dumb! + +I would not believe it at the first blush. I tried her again. 'Who +lives here, mother?' I cried more loudly. + +She smiled vacuously, showing her toothless gums. And that was all. + +Still I tried again, shouting and making signs to her to fetch whoever +was in the house. The sign she seemed to understand, for she shook her +head violently. But that helped me no farther. + +All the time the door stood wide open. I could see the hall, and that +it contained no furniture or traces of habitation. The woman was +alone, therefore a mere caretaker. Why should I not enter and satisfy +myself? + +I made as if I would do so. But the moment I set my foot across the +threshold the old crone began to mow and gibber so horribly, putting +herself in my way, that I fell back cowed. I had not the heart to use +force to her, alone as she was, and in her duty. Besides, what right +had I to thrust myself in? I should be putting myself in the wrong if +I did. I retired. + +She did not at once shut the door, but continued to tremble and make +faces at me awhile as if she were cursing me. Then with her old hand +pressed to her side, she slowly but with evident passion clanged the +door home. + +I stood a moment outside, and then I retreated. I had been driven to +believe Herr Krapp. Why should I not believe this old creature? Here +was an empty house, and so an end. And yet--and yet I was puzzled. + +As I went through the churchyard, I passed my friend the mason, and +saw he had a companion. If he had looked up I should have asked him a +question or two. But he did not, and the other's back was towards me. +I walked on. + +In the silent street, however, three minutes later, a sudden thought +brought me to a stand. An empty house? Was there not something odd in +this empty house, when quarters were so scarce in Nuremberg, and even +my lady had got lodgings assigned to her as a favour and at a price? +The town swarmed with people who had taken refuge behind its walls. +Where one had lain two lay now. Yet here was an empty house! + +In a twinkling I was walking briskly towards the Neu Strasse, +determined to look farther into the matter. It was again the hour of +evening drill; the ways were crowded, the bells of the churches were +ringing. Using some little care as I approached Herr Krapp's, I +slipped into a doorway, which commanded it from a distance, and thence +began to watch the fatal window. + +If the old hag had not lied with her dumb lips I should see no one; or +at best should only see her. + +Half an hour passed; an hour passed. Hundreds of people passed, among +them the man I had seen talking with the mason in the churchyard. I +noticed him, because he went by twice. But the window remained blank. +Then on a sudden, as the light began to fail, I saw the Waldgrave at +it. + +The Waldgrave? + +'Gott im Himmel!' I muttered, the blood rushing to my face. What was +the meaning of this? What was the magic of this cursed window? First I +had seen my love at it. Then the Waldgrave. + +While I stood thunderstruck, he was gone again, leaving the window +blank and black. The crowd passed below, chattering thoughtlessly. +Groups of men with pikes and muskets went by. All seemed unchanged. +But my mind was in a whirl. Rage, jealousy, and wonder played with it. +What did it all mean? First Marie, then the Waldgrave! Marie, whom we +had left thirty leagues away in the forest; the Waldgrave, whom I had +seen that morning. + +I stood gaping at the window, as if it could speak, and gradually my +mind regained its balance. My jealousy died out, hope took its place. +I did not think so ill of the Waldgrave as to believe that knowing of +Marie's existence he would hide it from me, and for that reason I +could not explain or understand how he came to be in the same house +with her. But it was undeniable that his presence there encouraged me. +There must be some middle link between them; perhaps some one +controlling both. And then I thought of Tzerclas. + +The Waldgrave had seen him in the town, and had even spoken to him. +What if it were he who occupied this house close by the New Gate, with +a convenient secretive entrance, and used it for his machinations? +Marie might well have fallen into his hands. She might be in his power +now, behind the very walls on which I gazed. + +From that moment I breathed and lived only to see the inside of that +house. Nothing else would satisfy me. I scanned it with greedy eyes, +its steep gable, its four windows one above another, its carved +weather-boards. I might attack it on this side; or by way of the alley +and door. But I quickly discarded the latter idea. Though I had seen +only the old woman, I judged that there were defenders in the +background, and in the solitude of the alley I might be easily +despatched. It remained to enter from the front, or by way of the +roof. I pondered a moment, and then I went across to Herr Krapp's and +knocked. + +He opened the door himself. I almost pushed my way in. 'What do you +want, my friend?' he said, recoiling before me, and looking somewhat +astonished. + +'To get into your neighbour's house,' I answered bluntly. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + UNDER THE TILES. + + +He had a light in his hand, and he held it up to my face. 'So?' he +said. 'Is that what you would be at? But you go fast. It takes two to +that, Master Steward.' + +'Yes,' I answered. 'I am the one, and you are the other, Herr Krapp.' + +He turned from me and closed the door, and, coming back, held the +light again to my face. 'So you still think that it was your lady's +woman you saw at the window?' + +'I am sure of it,' I answered. + +He set down his light on a chair and, leaning against the wall, seemed +to consider me. After a pause, 'And you have been to the house?' + +'I have been to the house--fruitlessly.' + +'You learned nothing?' + +'Nothing.' + +'Then what do you want to do now?' he asked, softly rubbing his chin. + +'To see the inside of it.' + +'And you propose----?' + +'To enter it from yours,' I answered. 'Surely you have some dormer, +some trap-door, some roof-way, by which a bold man may get from this +house to the next one.' + +He shook his head. 'I know of none,' he said. 'But that is not all. +You are asking a strange thing. I am a peaceful man, and, I hope, a +good neighbour; and this which you ask me to do cannot be called +neighbourly. However, I need say the less about it, because the thing +cannot be done.' + +'Will you let me try?' I cried. + +He seemed to reflect. In the end he made a strange answer. 'What time +did you call at the house?' he said. + +'Perhaps an hour ago--perhaps more.' + +'Did you see any one in the churchyard as you passed?' + +'Yes,' I said, thinking; 'there was a man at work there. I asked him +the way.' + +Herr Krapp nodded, and seemed to reflect again. 'Well,' he said at +last,' it is a strong thing you ask, my friend. But I have my own +reasons for suspecting that all is not right next door, and therefore +you shall have your way as far as looking round goes. But I do not +think that you will be able to do anything.' + +'I ask no more than that,' I said, trembling with eagerness. + +He looked at me again as he took up the light. 'You are a big man,' he +said, 'but are you armed? Strength is of little avail against a +bullet.' + +I showed him that I had a brace of pistols, and he turned towards the +stairs. 'Dorcas is in the kitchen,' he said. 'My sons are out, and so +are the lads. Nevertheless, I am not very proud of our errand; so step +softly, my friend, and do not grumble if you have your labour for your +pains.' + +He led the way up the stairs with that, and I followed him. The house +was very silent, and the higher we ascended the more the silence grew +upon us, until, in the empty upper part, every footfall seemed to make +a hollow echo, and every board that creaked under our tread to whisper +that we were about a work of danger. When we reached the uppermost +landing of all, Herr Krapp stopped, and, raising his light, pointed to +the unceiled rafters. + +'See, there is no way out,' he said. 'And if you could get out, you +could not get in.' + +I nodded as I looked round. Clearly, this floor was not much used. In +a corner a room had been at some period roughly partitioned off; +otherwise the place was a huge garret, the boards covered with scraps +of mortar, the corners full of shadows and old lumber and dense +cobwebs. In the sloping roof were two dormer windows, unglazed but +shuttered; and, beside the great yawning well of the staircase by +which we had ascended, lay a packing-box and some straw, and two or +three old rotting pallets tied together with ropes. I shivered as I +looked round. The place, viewed by the light of our one candle, had a +forlorn, depressing aspect. The air under the tiles was hot and close; +the straw gave out a musty smell. + +I was glad when Herr Krapp went to one of the windows and, letting +down the bar, opened the shutters. On the instant a draught, which all +but extinguished his candle, poured in, and with it a dull, persistent +noise unheard before--the murmur of the city, of the streets, the +voice of Nuremberg. I thrust my head out into the cool night air, and +rejoiced to see the lights flickering in the streets below, and the +shadowy figures moving this way and that. Above the opposite houses +the low sky was red; but the chimneys stood out black against it, and +in the streets it was dark night. + +I took all this in, and then I turned to the right and looked at the +next house. I saw as much as I expected; more, enough to set my heart +beating. The dormer window next to that from which I leaned, and on a +level with it, was open; if I might judge from the stream of light +which poured through it, and was every now and then cut off as if by a +moving figure that passed at intervals between the casement and the +candle. Who or what this was I could not say. It might be Marie; it +might not. But at the mere thought I leaned out farther, and greedily +measured the distance between us. + +Alas! between the dormer-gable in which I stood and the one in the +next house lay twelve feet of steep roof, on which a cat would have +been puzzled to stand. Its edge towards the street was guarded by no +gutter, ledge, or coping-stone, but ended smoothly in a frail, wooden +waterpipe, four inches square. Below that, yawned a sheer, giddy drop, +sixty feet to the pavement of the street. I drew in my head with a +shiver, and found Herr Krapp at my elbow. + +'Well,' he said, 'what do you see?' + +'The next window is open,' I answered. 'How can I get to it?' + +'Ah!' he replied dryly, 'I did not undertake that you should.' He took +my place at the window and leaned out in his turn. He had set the +candle in a corner where it was sheltered from the draught. I strode +to it, and moved it a little in sheer impatience--I was burning to be +at the window again. As I came back, crunching the scraps of mortar +underfoot, my eyes fell on a bit of old dusty rope lying coiled on the +floor, and in a second I saw a way. When Herr Krapp turned from the +window he missed me. + +'Hallo!' he cried. 'Where are you, my friend?' + +'Here,' I answered, from the head of the stairs. + +As he advanced, I came out of the darkness to meet him, staggering +under the bundle of pallets which I had seen lying by the stair-head. +He whistled. + +'What are you going to do with those?' he said. + +'By your leave, I want this rope,' I answered. + +'What will you do with it?' he asked soberly. He was one of those +even-tempered men to whom excitement, irritation, fear, are all +foreign. + +'Make a loop and throw it over the little pinnacle on the top of +yonder dormer,' I answered briefly, 'and use it for a hand-rail.' + +'Can you throw it over?' + +'I think so.' + +'The pinnacle will hold?' + +'I hope so.' + +He shrugged his shoulders, and stood for a moment staring at me as I +unwound the rope and formed a noose. At length: 'But the noise, my +friend?' he said. 'If you miss the first time, and the second, the +rope falling and sliding over the tiles will give the alarm.' + +'Two cats ran along the ridge a while ago,' I answered. 'Once, and, +perhaps, twice, the noise will be set down to them. The third time I +must succeed.' + +I thought it likely that he would forbid the attempt; but he did not. +On the contrary, he silently took hold of my belt, that I might lean +out the farther and use my hands with greater freedom. Against the +window I placed the bundle of pallets; setting one foot on them and +the other heel on the pipe outside, I found I could whirl the loop +with some chance of success. + +Still, it was an anxious moment. As I craned over the dark street and, +poising myself, fixed my eyes on the black, slender spirelet which +surmounted the neighbouring window, I felt a shudder more than once +run through me. I shrank from looking down. At last I threw: the rope +fell short. Luckily it dropped clear of the window, and came home +again against the wall below me, and so made no noise. The second time +I threw with better heart; but I had the same fortune, except that I +nearly overbalanced myself, and, for a moment, shut my eyes in terror. +The third time, letting out a little more rope, I struck the pinnacle, +but below the knob. The rope fell on the tiles, and slid down them +with some noise, and for a full minute I stood motionless, half inside +the room and half outside, expecting each instant to see a head thrust +out of the other window. But no one appeared, no one spoke, though the +light was still obscured at intervals; and presently I took courage to +make a fourth attempt. I flung, and this time the rope fell with a +dull thud on the tiles, and stopped there: the noose was round the +pinnacle. + +Gently I drew it tight, and then, letting it hang, I slipped back into +the room, where we had before taken the precaution to put out the +light. Herr Krapp asked me in a whisper if the rope was fast. + +'Yes,' I said. 'I must secure this end to something.' + +He passed it round the hinge of the left-hand shutter and made it +safe. Then for a moment we stood together in the darkness. + +'All right?' he said. + +'All right,' I answered hoarsely. + +The next moment the thing was done. I was outside, the rope in my +hands, my feet on the bending pipe, the cool night air round my +temples--below me, sheer giddiness, dancing lights, and blackness. For +the moment I tottered. I balanced myself where I stood, and clung to +the rope, shutting my eyes. If the pinnacle had given way then, I must +have fallen like a plummet and been killed. One crash against the wall +below, one grip at the rope as it tore its way through my fingers--and +an end! + +But the pinnacle held, and in a few seconds I gained wit and courage. +One step, then another, and then a third, taken warily, along the +pipe, as I have seen rope-walkers take them at Heritzburg fair, and I +was almost within reach of my goal. Two more, and, stooping, I could +touch, with my right hand, the tiles of the little gable, while my +left, raised above my head, still clutched the rope. + +Then came an anxious moment. I had to pass under the rope, which was +between me and the street, and between me and the window also--the +window, my goal. I did it; but in my new position I found a new +difficulty, and a grim one, confronting me. Standing outside the rope +now, with my right hand clinging to it, I could not, with all my +stretching, reach with my other hand any part of the window, or +anything of which I could get a firm grip. The smooth tiles and +crumbling mortar of the little gable gave no hold, while the rope, my +grip on which I dared not for my life relax, prevented me stooping +sufficiently to reach the sill or the window-case. + +It was a horrible position. I stood still, sweating, trembling, and +felt the wooden pipe bend and yield under me. Behind me, the depth, +the street, yawned for me; before me, the black roof, shutting off the +sky. My head reeled, my fingers closed on the ropes like claws; for a +second I shut my eyes, and thought I was falling. In that moment I +forgot Marie--I forgot everything, except the pavement below, the +cruel stones, the depth; I would have given all, coward that I was, to +be back in Herr Krapp's room. + +Then the fit passed, and I stood, thinking. To take my hand from the +rope would be to fall--to die. But could I lower the rope so that, +still holding it, I could reach the sill, or the hinges, or some part +of the window-case that would furnish a grip? I could think of only +one way, and that a dangerous one; but I had no choice, nor any time +to lose, if I would keep my head. I drew out my knife, and, leaning +forward on the rope, with one knee on the tiles, I began to sever the +cord as far away to my right as I could reach. This was to cut off my +retreat--my connection with the window I had left; but I dared not let +myself think much of that or of anything. I hacked away in a frenzy, +and in a twinkling the rope flew apart, and I slipped forward on the +tiles, clutching the piece that remained to me in a grasp of iron. + +So far, good! I was trembling all over, but I was safe, and I lost not +a moment in passing the loose end twice round the fingers of my right +hand. This done, only one thing remained to be done--only one thing: +to lean over the abyss, trusting all my weight to the frail cord, and +to grope for the sill. Only that! Well, I did it. My hair stood up +straight as the pinnacle groaned and bent under my weight; my eyes +must have been astare with terror; all my flesh crept. I clung to the +face of the gable like a fly, but I did it! I reached the sill, +clutched it, loosed the rope, and in a moment was lying on my breast, +half in and half out of the window--safe!' + +I do not know how long I hung there, recovering my breath and +strength, but I suppose only a minute or two, though it seemed to me +an hour. A while before I should have thought such a position, without +foothold, above the dizzy street, perilous enough. Now it seemed to be +safety. Nevertheless, as I grew cooler I began to think of getting in, +of whom I should find there, of the issue of the attempt. And +presently, lifting one leg over the sill, I stretched out a hand and +drew aside a scanty curtain which hid the room from view. It was this +curtain that, rising and falling with the draught, had led me to +picture a figure moving to and fro. + +There was no one to be seen, and for a moment I fancied that the room +was empty. The light was on the other side, and my act disclosed +nothing but a dusky corner under a sloping roof. The next instant, +however, a harsh voice, which shook the rafters, cried, with an oath-- + +'What is that?' + +I let the curtain fall and, as softly as I could, scrambled over the +sill. My courage came back in face of a danger more familiar; my hand +grew steady. As I sat on the sill, I drew out a pistol; but I dared +not cock it. + +'Speak, or I shoot!' cried the same voice. 'One, two! Was it the +wind--Himmel--or one of those cats?' + +I remained motionless. The speaker, whose voice I seemed to know, was +clearly uncertain and a little sleepy. I hoped that he would not rouse +the house and waste a shot on no better evidence; and I sat still in +the smallest compass into which I could draw myself. I could see the +light through the curtain, a makeshift thing of thin stuff, +unbleached--and I tried to discern his figure, but in vain. At last I +heard him sink back, grumbling uneasily. + +I waited a few minutes, until his breathing became more regular, and +then, with a cautious hand, I once more drew the curtain aside. As I +had judged, the light stood on the floor, by the end of the pallet. On +the pallet, his head uneasily pillowed on his arm, while the other +hand almost touched the butt of a pistol which lay beside the candle, +sprawled the man who had spoken--a swarthy, reckless-looking fellow, +still in his boots and dressed. His attitude as he slept, alone in +this quiet room, no less than the presence of the light and pistol, +spoke of danger and suspicion. But I did not need the one sign or the +other to warn me that my hopes and fears were alike realized. The man +was Ludwig! + +I dropped the curtain again, and sat thinking. I could not hope to +overcome such a man without a struggle and noise that must alarm the +house; and yet I must pass him, if I would do any good. My only course +seemed to be to slip by him by stealth, open the door in the same +manner, and gain the stairs. After that the house would be open to me, +and it would go hard with any one who came between me and Marie. I did +not doubt now that she was there. + +I waited until his more regular breathing seemed to show that he +slept, and then, after softly cocking my pistol, I set my feet to the +floor, and began to cross it. Unluckily my nerves were still ajar with +my roof-work. At the third step a board creaked under me; at the same +moment I caught a glimpse of a huge, dark figure at my elbow, and +though this was only my shadow, cast on the sloping roof by the +candle, I sprang aside in a fright. The noise was enough to awaken the +sleeper. As my eyes came back to him he opened his and saw me, and, +raising himself, in a trice groped for his pistol. He could not on the +instant find it, however, and I had time to cover him with mine. + +'Have done!' I hissed. 'Be still, or you are a dead man!' + +'Martin Schwartz!' he cried, with a frightful oath. + +'Yes,' I rejoined; 'and mark me, if you raise a finger, I fire.' + +He glared at me, and so we stood a moment. Then I said, 'Push that +pistol to me with your foot. Don't put out your hand, or it will be +the worse for you.' + +He looked at me for a moment, his face distorted with rage, as if he +were minded to disobey at all risks; then he drew up his foot sullenly +and set it against the pistol. I stepped back a pace and for an +instant took my eyes from his--intending to snatch up the firearm as +soon as it was out of his reach. In that instant he dashed out the +light with his foot; I heard him spring up--and we were in darkness. + +The surprise was complete, and I did not fire; but I had the presence +of mind, believing that he had secured his pistol, to change my +position--almost as quickly as he changed his. However, he did not +fire; and so there we were in the pitchy darkness of the room, both +armed, and neither knowing where the other stood. + +I felt every nerve in my body tingle; but with rage, not fear. I dared +not change my position again, lest a creaking board should betray me, +now all was silent; but I crouched low in the darkness with the pistol +in one hand and my knife drawn in the other, and listened for his +breathing. The same consideration--we were both heavy men--kept him +motionless also; and I remember to this day, that as we waited, +scarcely daring to breathe--and for my part each moment expecting the +flash and roar of a shot--one of the city clocks struck slowly and +solemnly ten. + +The strokes ceased. In the room I could not hear a sound, and I felt +nervously round me with my knife; but without avail. I crouched still +lower, lower, with a beating heart. The curtain obscured the window, +there was no moon, no light showed under the door. The darkness was so +complete that, but for a kind of fainter blackness that outlined the +window, I could not have said in what part of the room I stood. + +Suddenly a sharp loud 'thud' broke the silence. It seemed to come from +a point so close to me that I almost fired on that side before I could +control my fingers. The next moment I knew that it was well I had not. +It was Ludwig's knife flung at a venture--and now buried, as I +guessed, an inch deep in the door--which had made the noise. Still, +the action gave me a sort of inkling where he was, and, noiselessly +facing round a trifle, I raised my pistol, and waited for some +movement that might direct my aim. + +I feared that he had a second knife; I hoped that in drawing it from +its sheath he would make some noise. But all was still. Sharpen my +ears as I might, I could hear nothing; strain my eyes as I might, I +could see no shadow, no bulk in the darkness. A silence as of death +prevailed. I could scarcely believe that he was still in the room. My +courage, hot and fierce at first, began to wane under the trial. I +felt the point of his knife already in my back; I winced and longed to +be sheltered by the wall, yet dared not move to go to it. In another +minute I think I should have fired at a sheer venture, rather than +bear the strain longer; but at last a sound broke on my ear. The sound +was not in the room, but in the house below. Some one was coming up +the stairs. + +The step reached a landing, and I heard it pause; a stumble, and it +came on again up the next flight. Another pause, this time a longer +one. Then it mounted again, and gradually a faint line of light shone +under the door. I felt my breath come quickly. One glance at the door, +which was near me on the right hand, and I peered away again, +balancing the pistol in my hand. If Ludwig cried out or spoke, I would +fire in the direction of the voice. Between two foes I was growing +desperate. + + +[Illustration: Before I could recover myself a pair of strong arms +closed round mine and bound them to my sides.] + + +The step came on and stopped at the door; still Ludwig held his peace. +The new-comer rapped; not loudly, or I think I should have started and +betrayed myself--to such a point were my feelings wound up--but softly +and timidly. I set my teeth together and grasped my knife. Ludwig on +his part kept silence; the person outside, getting no answer, knocked +again, and yet again, each time more loudly. Still no answer. Then I +heard a hand touch the latch. It grated. A moment of suspense, and a +flood of light burst in--close to me on my right hand--dazzling me. I +looked round quickly, in fear; and there, in the doorway, holding a +taper in her hand, I saw Marie--Marie Wort! + +While I stood open-mouthed, gazing, she saw me, the light falling on +me. Her lips opened, her breast heaved, I think she must have seen my +danger; but if so the shriek she uttered came too late to save me. I +heard it, but even as I heard it a sudden blow in the back hurled me +gasping to my knees at her feet. Before I could recover myself a pair +of strong arms closed round mine and bound them to my sides. +Breathless and taken at advantage I made a struggle to rise; but I +heaved and strained without avail. In a moment my hands were tied, and +I lay helpless and a prisoner. + +After that I was conscious only of a tumult round me; of a woman +shrieking, of loud trampling, and lights and faces, among these +Tzerclas' dark countenance, with a look of fiendish pleasure on it. +Even these things I only noted dully. In the middle of all I was +wool-gathering. I suppose I was taken downstairs, but I remember +nothing of it; and in effect I took little note of anything until, my +breath coming back to me, I found myself being borne through a +doorway--on the ground floor, I think--into a lighted room. A man held +me by either arm, and there were three other men in the room. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + IN THE HOUSE BY ST. AUSTIN'S. + + +Two of these men sat facing one another at a great table covered with +papers. As I entered they turned their faces to me, and on the instant +one sprang to his feet with an exclamation of rage that made the roof +ring. + +'General!' he cried passionately, 'what--what devil's trick is this? +Why have you brought that man here?' + +'Why?' Tzerclas answered easily, insolently. 'Does he know you?' He +had come in just before us. He smiled; the man's excitement seemed to +amuse him. + +'By ----, he does!' the other exclaimed through his teeth. 'Are you +mad?' + +'I think not,' the general answered, still smiling. 'You will +understand in a minute. But his business can wait. First'--he took up +a paper and scanned it carefully--'let us complete this list of----' + +'No!' the stranger replied impetuously. And he dashed the paper back +on the table and looked from one to another like a wild beast in a +trap. He was a tall, very thin, hawk-nosed man, whom I had seen once +at my lady's--the commander of a Saxon regiment in the city's service, +with the name of a reckless soldier. 'No!' he repeated, scowling, +until his brows nearly met his moustachios. 'Not another gun, not +another measurement will I give, until I know where I stand! And +whether you are the man I think you, general, or the blackest +double-dyed liar that ever did Satan's work!' + +The general laughed grimly--the laugh that always chilled my blood. +'Gently, gently,' he said. 'If you must know, I have brought him into +this room, in the first place, because it is convenient, and in the +second, because----' + +'Well?' Neumann snarled, with an ugly gleam in his eyes. + +'Because dead men tell no tales,' Tzerclas continued quietly. 'And our +friend here is a dead man. Now, do you see? I answer for it, you run +no risk.' + +'Himmel!' the other exclaimed; in a different tone, however. 'But in +that case, why bring him here at all? Why not despatch him upstairs?' + +'Because he knows one or two things which I wish to know,' the general +answered, looking at me curiously. 'And he is going to make us as wise +as himself. He has been drilling in the south-east bastion by the +orchard, you see, and knows what guns are mounted there.' + +'Cannot you get them from the fool in the other room?' Neumann +grunted. + +'He will tell nothing.' + +'Then why do you have him hanging about here day after day, risking +everything? The man is mad.' + +'Because, my dear colonel, I have a use for _him_ too,' Tzerclas +replied. Then he turned to me. 'Listen, knave,' he said harshly. 'Do +you understand what I have been saying?' + +I did, and I was desperate. I remembered what I had done to him, how +we had outwitted, tricked, and bound him; and now that I was in his +power I knew what I had to expect; that nothing I could say would +avail me. I looked him in the face. 'Yes,' I said. + +'You had the laugh on your side the last time we met,' he smiled. 'Now +it is my turn.' + +'So it seems,' I answered stolidly. + +I think it annoyed him to see me so little moved. But he hid the +feeling. 'What guns are in the orchard bastion?' he asked. + +I laughed. 'You should have asked me that,' I said, 'before you told +me what you were going to do with me. The dead tell no tales, +general.' + +'You fool!' he replied. 'Do you think that death is the worst you have +to fear? Look round you! Do you see these windows? They are boarded +up. Do you see the door? It is guarded. The house? The walls are +thick, and we have gags. Answer me, then, and quickly, or I will find +the way to make you. What guns are in the orchard bastion?' + +He took up a paper with the last word and looked at me over it, +waiting for my answer. For a moment not a sound broke the silence of +the room. The other men stood all at gaze, watching me, Neumann with a +scowl on his face. The lights in the room burned high, but the +frowning masks of boards that hid the windows, the litter of papers on +the table, the grimy floor, the cloaks and arms cast down on it in a +medley--all these marks of haste and secrecy gave a strange and +lowering look to the chamber, despite its brightness. My heart beat +wildly like a bird in a man's hand. I feared horribly. But I hid my +fear; and suddenly I had a thought. + +'You have forgotten one thing,' I said. + +They started. It was not the answer they expected. + +'What?' Tzerclas asked curtly, in a tone that boded ill for me--if +worse were possible. + +'To ask how I came into the house.' + +The general looked death at Ludwig. 'What is this, knave?' he +thundered. 'You told me that he came in by the window?' + +'He did, general,' Ludwig answered, shrugging his shoulders. + +'Yes, from the next house,' I said coolly. 'Where my friends are now +waiting for me.' + +'Which house?' Tzerclas demanded. + +'Herr Krapp's.' + +I was completely in their hands. But they knew, and I knew, that their +lives were scarcely more secure than mine; that, given a word, a sign, +a traitor among them--and they were all traitors, more or less--all +their boarded windows and locked doors would avail them not ten +minutes against the frenzied mob. That thought blanched more than one +cheek while I spoke; made more than one listen fearfully and cast eyes +at the door; so that I wondered no longer, seeing their grisly faces, +why the room, in spite of its brightness, had that strange and sombre +look. Treachery, fear, suspicion, all lurked under the lights. + +Tzerclas alone was unmoved; perhaps because he had something less to +fear than the faithless Neumann. 'Herr Krapp's?' he said scornfully. +'Is that all? I will answer for that house myself. I have a man +watching it, and if danger threatens from that direction, we shall +know it in good time. He marks all who go in or out.' + +'You can trust him?' Neumann muttered, wiping his brow. + +'I am trusting him,' the general answered dryly. 'And I am not often +deceived. This man and the puling girl upstairs tricked me once; but +they will not do so again. Now, sirrah!' and he turned to me afresh, a +cruel gleam in his eyes. 'That bird will not fly. To business. Will +you tell me how many guns are in the orchard bastion?' + +'No!' I cried. I was desperate now. + +'You will not?' + +'No!' + +'You talk bravely,' he answered. 'But I have known men talk as +bravely, and whimper and tremble like flogged children five minutes +later. Ludwig--ah, there is no fire. Get a bit of thin whip-cord, and +twist it round his head with your knife-handle. But first,' he +continued, devouring me with his hard, smiling eyes, 'call in Taddeo. +You will need another man to handle him neatly.' + +At the word my blood ran cold with horror, and then burning hot. My +gorge rose; I set my teeth and felt all my limbs swell. There was a +mist of blood before my eyes, as if the cord were already tight and my +brain bursting. I heaved in my bonds and heard them crack and crack. +But, alas! they held. + +'Try again!' he said, sneering at me. + +'You fiend!' I burst out in a fury. 'But I defy you. Do your worst, I +will balk you yet!' + +He looked at me hard. Then he smiled. 'Ah!' he said. 'So you think you +will beat me. Well, you are an obstinate knave, I know; and I have not +much time to spare. Yet I shall beat you. Ludwig,' he continued, +raising his voice, though his smiling eyes did not leave me. 'Is +Taddeo there?' + +'He is coming, general.' + +'Then bid him fetch the girl down! Yes, Master Martin,' he continued +with a ruthless look, 'we will see. I have a little account against +her too. Do not think that I have kept her all this time for nothing. +We will put the cord not round your head--you are a stubborn fool, I +know--but round hers, my friend. Round her pretty little brow. We will +see if that will loosen your tongue.' + +The room reeled before my eyes, the lights danced, the men's faces, +some agrin, some darkly watchful, seemed to be looking at me through a +mist that dimmed everything. I cried out wild oaths, scarcely knowing +what I said, that he would not, that he dared not. + +He laughed. 'You think not, Master Martin?' he said. 'Wait until the +slut comes. Ludwig has a way of singeing their hands with a lamp--that +will afford you, I think, the last amusement you will ever enjoy!' + +I knew that he spoke truly, and that he and his like had done things +as horrible, as barbarous, a hundred times in the course of this +cursed war! I knew that I had nothing to expect from their pity or +their scruples. And the frenzy of passion, which for a moment had +almost choked me, died down on a sudden, leaving me cold as the +coldest there and possessed by one thought only, one hope, one aim--to +get my hands free for a moment and kill this man. The boarded windows, +the guarded doors, the stern faces round me, the silence of the gloomy +house all forbade hope; but revenge remained. Rather than Marie should +suffer, rather than that childish frame should be racked by their +cruel arts, I would tell all, everything they wanted. But if by any +trick or chance I went afterwards free for so much as a second, I +would choke him with my naked hands! + +I waited, looking at the door, my mind made up. The moments passed +like lead. So apparently thought some one else, for suddenly on the +silence came an interruption. 'Is this business going to last all +night?' Neumann burst out impatiently. 'Hang the man out of hand, if +he is to be hanged!' + +'My good friend, revenge is sweet,' Tzerclas answered, with an ugly +smile. 'These two fooled me a while ago; and I have no mind to be +fooled with impunity. But it will not take long. We will singe her a +little for his pleasure--he will like to hear her sing--and then we +will hang him for her pleasure. After which----' + +'Do what you like!' Neumann burst out, interrupting him wrathfully. +'Only be quick about it. If the girl is here----' + +'She is coming. She is coming, now,' Tzerclas answered. + +I had gone through so much that my feelings were blunted. I could no +longer suffer keenly, and I waited for her appearance with a composure +that now surprises me. The door opened, Taddeo came in! looked beyond +him, but saw no one else; then I looked at him. The ruffian was +trembling. His face was pale. He stammered something. + +Tzerclas made but one stride to him. 'Dolt!' he cried, 'what is it?' + +'She is gone!' the man stuttered. + +'Gone?' + +'Yes, your excellency.' + +For an instant Tzerclas stood glaring at him. Then like lightning his +hand went lip and his pistol-butt crashed down on the man's temple. +The wretch threw up his arms and fell as if a thunderbolt had struck +him--senseless, or lifeless; no one asked which, for his assailant, +like a beast half-sated, stood glaring round for a second victim. But +Ludwig, who had come down with Taddeo, knew his master, and kept his +distance by the door. The other two men shrank behind me. + +'Well?' Tzerclas cried, as soon as passion allowed him to speak. 'Are +you dumb? Have you lost your tongue? What is it that liar meant?' + +'The girl is away,' Ludwig muttered. 'She got out through a window.' + +'Through what window?' + +'The window of my room, under the roof,' the man answered sullenly. +'The one--through which that fool came in,' he continued, nodding +towards me. + +'Ah!' the general cried, his voice hissing with rage. 'Well, we have +still got him. How did she go?' + +'Heaven knows, unless she had wings,' Ludwig answered. 'The window is +at the top of the house, and there is neither rope nor ladder there, +nor foothold for anything but a bird. She is gone, however.' + +The general ground his teeth together. 'There is some cursed treachery +here!' he said. + +The Saxon colonel laughed in scorn. 'Maybe!' he retorted in a mocking +tone, 'but I will answer for it, that there is something else, and +that is cursed mismanagement! I tell you what it is, General +Tzerclas,' he continued fiercely. 'With your private revenges, and +your public plots, and your tame cats who are mad, and your wild cats +who have wings--you think yourself a very clever man. But Heaven help +those who trust you!' + +The general's eyes sparkled. 'And those who cross me?' he cried in a +voice that made his men tremble. 'But there, sir, what ground of +complaint have you? The girl never saw you.' + +'No, but that man has seen me!' Neumann retorted, pointing to me. 'And +who knows how soon she may be back with a regiment at her heels? Then +it will be "Save yourselves!" and he will be left to hang me.' + +The general laughed without mirth. 'Have no fear!' he said. 'We will +hang him out of hand. Ludwig, while we collect these papers, take the +other two men and string him up in the hall. When they break in they +shall find some one to receive them!' + +I had thought that the agony of death was passed; but I suppose that +the news of Marie's escape had awakened my hopes as well as rekindled +my love of life; for at these words, I felt my courage run from me +like water. I shrank back against the wall, my limbs trembling under +me, my heart leaping as if it would burst from my breast. I felt the +rope already round my neck, and when the men laid hold on me, I cried +out, almost in spite of myself, that I would tell what guns there were +in the orchard bastion, that I knew other things, that---- + +'Away with him!' Tzerclas snarled, stamping his foot passionately. He +was already hurrying papers together, and did not give me a glance. +'String him up, knaves, and see this time that you obey orders. We +must be gone, so pull his legs.' + +I would have said something more; I would have tried again. Even a +minute, a minute's delay meant hope. But my voice failed me, and they +hustled me out. I am no coward, and I had thought myself past fear; +but the flesh is weak. At this pinch, when their hands were on me, +and I looked round desperately and found no one to whom I could +appeal--while hope and rescue might be so near and yet come too +late--I shrank. Death in this vile den seemed horrible. My knees +trembled; I could scarcely stand. + +The hall into which they dragged me was the same dusty, desolate place +into which, little foreseeing what would happen there, I had looked +over the deaf hag's shoulder. Ludwig's candle only half dispersed the +darkness which reigned in it. Two of the men held me while he went to +and fro with the light raised high above his head. + +'Ha! here it is!' he said at last. 'I thought that there was a hook. +Bring him here, lads.' + +They forced me, resisting feebly, to the place. The candle stood +beside him; he was forming a noose. The light, which left all behind +them dark, lit up the men's harsh faces; but I read no pity there, no +hope, no relenting; and after a hoarse attempt to bribe them with +promises of what my lady would give for my life, I stood waiting. I +tried to pray, to think of Marie, of my soul and the future; but my +mind was taken up with rage and dread, with the wild revolt against +death, and the rush of indignation that would have had me scream like +a woman! + +On a sudden, out of the darkness grew a fourth face that looked at me, +smiling. It was no more softened by ruth or pity than the others were; +the laughing eyes mocked me, the lip curled as with a jest. And yet, +at sight of it, I gasped. Hope awoke. I tried to speak, I tried to +implore his help, I tried But my voice failed me, no words came. The +face was the Waldgrave's. + +Yet he nodded as if I had spoken. 'Yes,' he said, smiling more +broadly, 'I see, Martin, that you are in trouble. You should have +taken my advice in better time. I told you that he would get the +better of you.' + +Ludwig, who had not seen him before he spoke, dropped the rope, and +stood, stupefied, gazing at him. I cried out hoarsely that they were +going to hang me. + +'No, no, not as bad as that!' he said lightly, between jest and +earnest. 'But I gave you fair warning, you know, Martin. Oh, +he is----' + +Waldgrave, Waldgrave!' I panted, trying to get to him; but the men +held me back. 'They will hang me! They will! It is no joke. In God's +name, save me, save me! I saved you once, and----' + +'Chut, chut!' he replied easily. 'Of course I will save you. I will go +to the general and arrange it now. Don't be afraid. My sweet cousin +must not lose her steward. Why, you are shaking like an aspen, man. +But I told you, did I not? Oh, he is the---- Wait, fellow,' he +continued to Ludwig, 'until I come back. Where is your master?' + +'Upstairs,' Ludwig answered sullenly, an ugly gleam in his eyes. + +The Waldgrave turned from me carelessly, and went towards the stairs, +which were at the end of the hall. Ludwig, as he did so, picked up the +rope with a stealthy gesture. I read his mind, and called pitifully to +the Waldgrave to stop. + +'They will hang me while you are away,' I cried. 'And he is not +upstairs! They are lying to you. He is in the room on the left.' + +The Waldgrave halted and came back, his handsome face troubled. +Ludwig, looking as if he would strike me, swore under his breath. + +'Upstairs, your excellency, upstairs!' he cried. 'You will find him +there. Why should I----' + +'Hush!' one of the other men said, and I felt his grasp on my arm +relax. 'What is that, captain--that noise?' + +But Ludwig was intent on the Waldgrave. 'Upstairs!' he continued to +cry, waving his hand in that direction. 'I assure you, my lord----' + +'Steady!' the man who had cut him short before exclaimed. 'They are at +the door, Ludwig. Listen, man, listen, or we shall be taken like +wolves in a trap!' + +This time Ludwig condescended to listen, scowling. A noise like that +made by a rat gnawing at wood could be heard. My heart beat fast and +faster. The man who had given the alarm had released my arm +altogether. The other held me carelessly. + +With a yell which startled all, I burst suddenly from him and sprang +past the Waldgrave. Bound as I was, I had the start and should have +been on the stairs in another second, when, with a crash and a +blinding glare, a shock, which loosened the very foundations of the +house, flung me on my face. + +I lay a moment, gasping for breath, wondering where I was hurt. Out of +the darkness round me came a medley of groans and shrieks. The air was +full of choking smoke, through which a red glare presently shone, and +grew gradually brighter. I could see little, understand less of what +was happening; but I heard shots and oaths, and once a rush of +charging feet passed over me. + +After that, growing more sensible, I tried to rise, but a weight lay +on my legs--my arms were still tied--and I sank again. I took the +fancy then that the house was on fire and that I should be burned +alive; but before I had more than tasted the horror of the thought, a +crowd of men came round me, and rough hands plucked me up. + +'Here is another of them!' a voice cried. 'Have him out! To the +churchyard with him! The trees will have a fine crop!' + +'Halloa! he is tied up already!' a second chimed in. + +I gazed round stupidly, meeting everywhere vengeful looks and savage +faces. + +A butcher, with his axe on his shoulder, hauled at me. 'Bring him +along!' he shouted. 'This way, friends! Hurry him. To the churchyard!' + +My wits were still wool-gathering, and I should have gone quietly; but +a man pushed his way to the front and looked at me. 'Stop! stop!' he +cried in a voice of authority. 'This is a friend. This is the man who +got in by the roof. Cut the ropes, will you? See how his hands are +swollen. That is better. Bring him out into the air. He will revive.' + +The speaker was Herr Krapp. In a moment a dozen friendly arms lifted +me up and carried me through the crowd, and set me down in the little +court. The cool night air swept my brow. I looked up and saw the stars +shining in the quiet heaven, and I leant against the wall, sobbing +like a woman. + + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + THE END OF THE DAY. + + +Ludwig was found dead in the hall, slain on the spot by the explosion +of the petard which had driven in the door. His two comrades, less +fortunate, were taken alive, and, with the hag who kept the house, +were hanged within the hour on the elms in St. Austin's churchyard. +The Waldgrave and Neumann, both wounded, the former by the explosion +and the latter in his desperate resistance, were captured and held for +trial. But Tzerclas, the chief of all, arch-tempter and arch-traitor, +vanished in the confusion of the assault, and made his escape, no one +knew how. Some said that he went by way of a secret passage known only +to himself; some, that he had a compact with the devil, and vanished +by his aid; some, that he had friends in the crowd who sheltered him. +For my part, I set down his disappearance to his own cool wits and +iron nerves, and asked no further explanation. + +For an hour the little dark court behind the ill-omened house seethed +with a furious mob. No sooner were one party satisfied than another +swept in with links and torches and ransacked the house, tore down the +panels, groped through the cellars, and probed the chimneys; all with +so much rage, and with gestures so wild and extravagant, that an +indifferent spectator might have thought them mad. Nor were those who +did these things of the lowest class; on the contrary, they were +mostly burghers and traders, solid townsfolk and their apprentices, +men who, with wives and daughters and sweethearts, could not sleep at +night for thoughts of storm and sack, and in whom the bare idea that +they had amongst them wretches ready to open the gates, was enough to +kindle every fierce and cruel passion. + +I stood for a time unnoticed, gazing at the scene in a kind of stupor, +which the noise and tumult aggravated. Little by little, however, the +cool air did its work; memory and reason began to return, and, with +anxiety awaking in my breast, I looked round for Herr Krapp. Presently +I saw him coming towards me with a leather flask in his hand. + +'Drink some of this,' he said, looking at me keenly. 'Why so wild, +man?' + +'The girl?' I stammered. I had not spoken before since my release, and +my voice sounded strange and unnatural. + +'She is safe,' he answered, nodding kindly. 'I was at my window when +she swung herself on to the roof by the rope which you left hanging. +Donner! you may be proud of her! But she was distraught, or she would +not have tried such a feat. She must inevitably have fallen if I had +not seen her. I called out to her to stand still and hold fast; and my +son, who had come upstairs, ran down for a twelve-foot pike. We thrust +that out to her, and, holding it, she tottered along the pike to my +window, where I caught her skirts, and we dragged her in in a moment.' + +I shuddered, remembering how I had suffered, hanging above the yawning +street. 'I suppose that it was she who warned you and sent you here?' +I said. + +'No,' he answered. 'This house had been watched for two days, though I +did not tell you so. We had been suspicious of it for a week or more, +or I should not have helped you into a neighbour's house as I did. +However, all is well that ends well; and though we have not got that +bloodthirsty villain to hang, we have stopped his plans for this +time.' + +He was just proposing that, if I now felt able, I should return to my +lady's, when a rush of people from the house almost carried me off my +feet. In a moment we were pushed aside and squeezed against the wall. +A hoarse yell, like the cry of a wild beast, rose from the crowd, a +hundred hands were brandished in the air, weapons appeared as if by +magic. The glare of torches, falling on the raging sea of men, picked +out here and there a scared face, a wandering eye; but for the most +part the mob seemed to feel only one passion--the thirst for blood. + +'What is it?' I shouted in Herr Krapp's ear. + +'The prisoners,' he answered. 'They are bringing them out. Your friend +the Waldgrave, and the other. They will need a guard.' + +And truly it was a grim thing to see men make at them, striking over +the shoulders of the guard, leaping at them wolf-like, with burning +eyes and gnashing teeth, striving to tear them with naked hands. Down +the narrow passage to the churchyard the soldiers had an easy task; +but in the open graveyard, whither Herr Krapp and I followed slowly, +the party were flung this way and that, and tossed to and fro--though +they were strong men, armed, and numbered three or four score--like a +cork floating on rapids. Their way lay through the Ritter Strasse, and +I went with them so far. Though it was midnight, the town, easily +roused from its feverish sleep, was up and waking. Scared faces looked +from windows, from eaves, from the very roofs. Men who had snatched up +their arms and left their clothes peered from doorways. The roar of +the mob, as it swayed through narrow ways, rose and fell by turns, now +loud as the booming of cavern-waves, now so low that it left the air +quivering. + +When it died away at last towards the Burg, I took leave of Herr +Krapp, and hurried to my lady's, passing the threshold in a tumult of +memories, of emotions, and thankfulness. I could fancy that I had +lived an age since I last crossed it--eight hours before. The house, +like every other house, was up. Herr Krapp had sent the news of my +escape before me, and I looked forward with a tremulous, foolish +expectation that was not far from tears to the first words two women +would say to me. + +But though men and women met me with hearty greetings on the +threshold, on the stairs, on the landing, and Steve clapped me on the +back until I coughed again, _they_ did not appear. It was after +midnight, but the house was still lighted as if the sun had just set, +and I went up to the long parlour that looked on the street. My heart +beat, and my face grew hot as I entered; but I might have spared +myself. There was only Fraulein Max in the room. + +She came towards me, blinking. 'So Sancho Panza has turned +knight-errant,' she said with a sneer, 'as well as Governor?' + +I did not understand her, and I asked gently where my lady was. + +She laughed in her gibing way. 'You beg for a stone and expect bread,' +she said. 'You care no more where my lady is than where I am! You +mean, where is your Romanist chit, with her white face and wheedling +ways.' + +I saw that she was bursting with spite; that Marie's return and the +stir made about it had been too much for her small, jealous nature, +and I was not for answering her. She was out of favour; let her spit, +her venom would be gone the sooner. But she had not done yet. + +'Of course she has had some wonderful adventures!' she continued, her +face working with malice and ill-nature. 'And we are all to admire +her. But to a lover does she not seem somewhat _blandula, vagula?_ +Here to-day and gone to-morrow. _Dolus latet in generalibus_, the +Countess says'--and here the Dutch girl mimicked my lady, her eyes +gleaming with scorn. 'But _dolus latet in virginibus_, too, Master +Martin, as you will find some day! Oh, a great escape, a heroic +escape,--but from her friends!' + +'If you mean to infer, Fraulein----' I said hotly. + +'Oh, I infer nothing. I leave you to do that!' she replied, smirking. +'But pigs go back to the dirt, I read. You know where you found her +and the brat!' + +'I know where we should all be to-day,' I cried, trembling with +indignation, 'if it had not been for her!' + +'Perhaps not worse off than we are now,' she snapped. 'However, keep +your eyes shut, if it pleases you.' + +My raised voice had reached the Countess's chamber, and as Fraulein +Max, giggling spitefully, went out through one door the other opened +and stood open. My anger melted away. I stood trembling, and looking, +and waiting. + +They came in together, my lady with her arm round Marie, the two women +I loved best in the world. I have heard it said that evil runs to evil +as drops of water to one another. But the saying is equally true of +good. Little had I thought, a few weeks back, that my lady would come +to treat the outcast girl from Klink's as a friend; nor I believe were +there ever two people less alike, and yet both good, than these two. +But that one quality--which is so quick to see its face mirrored in +another's heart--had brought them close together, and made each to +recognise the other; so that, as they came in to me, there was not a +line of my lady's figure, not a curve of her head, not a glance of +her proud eyes, that was not in sympathy with the girl who clung to +her--Romanist stranger, low born as she was. I looked and worshipped, +and would have changed nothing. I found the dignity of the one as +beautiful as the dependence of the other. + +Not a word was spoken. I had wondered what they would say to me--and +they said nothing. But my lady put her into my arms, and she clung to +me, hiding her face. + +The Countess laughed, yet there were tears in her voice. 'Be happy,' +she said. 'Child, from the day you were lost he never forgave me. +Martin, see where the rope has cut her wrist. She did it to save you.' + +'And myself!' Marie whispered on my breast. + +'No!' my lady said. 'I will not have it so! You will spoil both him +and my love-story. _Per tecta, per terram_, you have sought one +another. You have gone down _sub orco_. You have bought one another +back from death, as Alcestis bought her husband Admetus. At the first +it was a gold chain that linked you together, soon----' + +I felt Marie start in my arms. She freed herself gently, and looked at +my lady with trouble in her eyes. 'Oh,' she said, 'I had forgotten!' + +'What?' the Countess said. 'What have you forgotten?' + +'The child!' Marie replied, clasping her hands. 'I should have told +you before!' + +'You have had no time to tell us much!' my lady answered smiling. 'And +you are trembling like an aspen now. Sit down, girl. Sit down at +once!' she continued imperatively. 'Or, no! You shall go to your bed, +and we will hear it in the morning.' + +But Marie seemed so much distressed by this that my lady did not +insist; and in a few minutes the girl had told us a tale so remarkable +that consideration of her fatigue was swallowed up in wonder. + +'It was the night I was lost,' she said; 'the night when the alarm was +given on the hill, and we rode down it. I clung to my saddle--it was +all I could do--and remember only a dreadful shock, from which I +recovered to find myself lying in the road, shaken and bruised. Fear +of those whom I believed to be behind us was still in my mind, and I +rose, giddy and confused, my one thought to get off the road. As I +staggered towards the bank, however, I stumbled over something. To my +horror I found that it was a woman. She was dead or senseless, but she +had a child in her arms; it cried as I felt her face. I dared not +stay, but, on the impulse of the moment--I could not move the woman, +and I expected our pursuers to ride down the hill each instant--I +snatched the child up and ran into the brushwood. After that I only +remember stumbling blindly on through bog and fern, often falling in +my haste, but always rising and pushing on. I heard cries behind me, +but they only spurred me to greater exertions. At last I reached a +little wood, and there, unable to go farther, I sank down, exhausted, +and, I suppose, lost my senses, for I awoke, chilled and aching, in +the first grey dawn. The leaves were black overhead, but the white +birch trunks round me glimmered like pale ghosts. Something stirred in +my arms. I looked down, and saw the face of my child--the child I +found in the wood by Vach.' + +'What!' the Countess cried, rising and staring at her. 'Impossible! +Your wits were straying, girl. It was some other child.' + +But Marie shook her head gently. 'No, my lady,' she said. 'It was my +child.' + +'Count Leuchtenstein's?' + +'Yes, if the child I found was his.' + +'But how--did it come where you found it?' the Countess asked. + +'I think that the woman whom I left in the road was the poor creature +who used to beg at our house in the camp,' Marie answered, hesitating +somewhat--'the wife of the man whom General Tzerclas hung, my lady. I +saw her face by a glimmer of light only, and, at the moment, I thought +nothing. Afterwards it flashed across me that she was that woman. If +so, I think that she stole the child to avenge herself. She thought +that we were General Tzerclas' friends.' + +'But then where is the child?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes shining. I +was excited myself; but the delight, the pleasure which I saw in her +face took me by surprise. I stared at her, thinking that I had never +seen her look so beautiful. + +Then, as Marie answered, her face fell. 'I do not know,' my girl said. +'After a time I found my way back to the road, but I had scarcely set +foot on it when General Tzerclas' troopers surprised me. I gave myself +up for lost; I thought that he would kill me. But he only gibed at me, +until I almost died of fear, and then he bade one of his men take me +up behind him. They carried me with them to the camp outside this +city, and three days ago brought me in and shut me up in that house.' + +'But the child?' my lady cried. 'What of it?' + +'He took it from me,' Marie said. 'I have never seen it since, but I +think that he has it in the camp.' + +'Does he know whose child it is?' + +'I told him,' Marie replied. 'Otherwise they might have let it die on +the road. It was a burden to them.' + +The Countess shuddered, but in a moment recovered herself. '"While +there is life there is hope,"' she said. 'Martin, here is more work +for you. We will leave no stone unturned. Count Leuchtenstein must +know, of course, but I will tell him myself. If we could get the child +back and hand it safe and sound to its father, it would be---- Perhaps +the Waldgrave may be able to help us?' + +'I think that he will need all his wits to help himself,' I said +bluntly. + +'Why?' my lady questioned, looking at me in wonder. + +'Why?' I cried in astonishment. 'Have you heard nothing about him, my +lady?' + +'Nothing,' she said. + +'Not that he was taken to-night, in Tzerclas' company,' I answered, +'and is a prisoner at this moment at the Burg, charged, along with the +villain Neumann, with a plot to admit the enemy into the city?' + +My lady sat down, her face pale, her aspect changed, as the +countryside changes when the sun goes down. 'He was there' she +muttered--'with Tzerclas?' + +I nodded. + +'The Waldgrave Rupert--my cousin?' she murmured, as if the thing +passed the bounds of reason. + +'Yes, my lady,' I said, as gently as I could. 'But he is mad. I am +assured that he is mad. He has been mad for weeks past. We know it. We +have known it. Besides, he knew nothing, I am sure, of Tzerclas' +plans.' + +'But--he was _there!_' she cried. 'He was one of those two men they +carried by? One of those!' + +'Yes,' I said. + +She sat for a moment stricken and silent, the ghost of herself. Then, +in a voice little above a whisper, she asked what they would do to +him. + +I shrugged my shoulders. To be candid, I had not given the Waldgrave +much thought, though in a way he had saved my life. Now, the longer I +considered the matter, the less room for comfort I found. Certainly he +was mad. We knew him to be mad. But how were we to persuade others? +For weeks his bodily health had been good; he had carried himself +indoors and out-of-doors like a sane man; he had done duty in the +trenches, and mixed, though grudgingly, with his fellows, and gone +about the ordinary business of life. How, in the face of all this, +could we prove him mad, or make his judges, stern men, fighting with +their backs to the wall, see the man as we saw him? + +'I suppose that there will be a trial?' my lady said at last, breaking +the silence. + +I told her yes--at once. 'The town is in a frenzy of rage,' I +continued. 'The guards had a hard task to save them to-night. Perhaps +Prince Bernard of Weimar----' + +'Don't count on him,' my lady answered. 'He is as hard as he is +gallant. He would hang his brother if he thought him guilty of such a +thing as this. No; our only hope is in'--she hesitated an instant, and +then ended the sentence abruptly--'Count Leuchtenstein. You must go to +him, Martin, at seven, or as soon after as you can catch him. He is a +just man, and he has watched the Waldgrave and noticed him to be odd. +The court will hear him. If not, I know no better plan.' + +Nor did I, and I said I would go; and shortly afterwards I took my +leave. But as I crept to my bed at last, the clocks striking two, and +my head athrob with excitement and gratitude, I wondered what was in +my lady's mind. Remembering the Waldgrave's gallant presence and manly +grace, recalling his hopes, his courage, and his overweening +confidence, as displayed in those last days at Heritzburg, I could +feel no surprise that so sad a downfall touched her heart. But--was +that all? Once I had deemed him the man to win her. Then I had seen +good cause to think otherwise. Now again I began to fancy that his +mishaps might be crowned with a happiness which fortune had denied to +him in his days of success. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + THE TRIAL. + + +Late as it was when I fell asleep--for these thoughts long kept me +waking--I was up and on my way to Count Leuchtenstein's before the +bells rang seven. It was the 17th of August, and the sun, already +high, flashed light from a hundred oriels and casements. Below, in the +streets, it sparkled on pikeheads and steel caps; above, it glittered +on vane and weather-cock; it burnished old bells hung high in air, and +decked the waking city with a hundred points of splendour. Everywhere +the cool brightness of early morning met the eye, and spoke of things +I could not see--the dew on forest leaves, the Werra where it shoals +among the stones. + +But as I went I saw things that belied the sunshine, things to which I +could not shut my eyes. I met men whose meagre forms and shrunken +cheeks made a shadow round them; and others, whose hungry vulture +eyes, as they prowled in the kennel for garbage, seemed to belong to +belated night-birds rather than to creatures of the day. Wan, pinched +women, with white-faced children, signs of the deeper distress that +lay hidden away in courts and alleys, shuffled along beside the +houses; while the common crowd, on whose features famine had not yet +laid its hand, wore a stern pre-occupied look, as if the gaunt spectre +stood always before their eyes--visible, and no long way off. + +In the excitement of the last few days I had failed to note these +things or their increase; I had gone about my business thinking of +little else, seeing nothing beyond it. Now my eyes were rudely opened, +and I recognised with a kind of shock the progress which dearth and +disease were making, and had made, in the city. North and south and +east and west of me, in endless multitude, the roofs and spires of +Nuremberg rose splendid and sparkling in the sunshine. North and +south, and east and west, in city and lager lay scores of thousands of +armed men, tens of thousands of horses--a host that might fitly be +called invincible; and all come together in its defence. But, in +corners, as I went along I heard men whisper that Duke Bernard's +convoy had been cut off, that the Saxon forage had not come in, that +the Croats were gripping the Bamberg road, that a thousand waggons of +corn had reached the imperial army. And perforce I remembered that an +army must not only fight but eat. The soldiers must be fed, the city +must be fed. I began to see that if Wallenstein, secure in his +impregnable position on the hills, declined still to move or fight, +the time would come when the Swedish King must choose between two +courses, and either attack the enemy on the Alta Veste against all +odds of position, or march away and leave the city to its fate. I +ceased to wonder that care sat on men's faces, and seemed to be a +feature of the streets. The passion which the mob had displayed in the +night, no longer surprised me. The hungry man is no better than a +brute. + +Opposite Count Leuchtenstein's lodgings they were quelling a riot at a +bakehouse, and the wolfish cries and screams rang in my ears long +after I had turned into the house. The Count had been on night +service, and was newly risen, and not yet dressed, but his servant +consented to admit me. I passed on the stairs a grey-haired sergeant, +scarred, stiff, and belted, who was waiting with a bundle of lists and +reports. In the ante-chamber two or three gentlemen in buff coats, who +talked in low, earnest voices and eyed me curiously as I passed, sat +at breakfast. I noted the order and stillness which prevailed +everywhere in the house, and nowhere more than in the Count's chamber; +where I found him dressing before a plain table, on which a small, fat +Bible had the place of a pouncet-box, and a pair of silver-mounted +pistols figured instead of a scent-case. Not that the appointments of +the room were mean. On a little stand beside the Bible was the chain +of gold walnuts which I had good cause to remember; and this was +balanced on the other side by a miniature of a beautiful woman, set in +gold and surmounted by a coat-of-arms. + +He was vigorously brushing his grey hair and moustachios when I +entered, and the air, which the open window freely admitted, lent a +brightness to his eyes and a freshness to his complexion that took off +ten of his years. He betrayed some surprise at seeing me so early; but +he received me with good nature, congratulated me on my adventure, the +main facts of which had reached him, and in the same breath lamented +Tzerclas' escape. + +'But we shall have the fox one of these days,' he continued. 'He is a +clever scoundrel, and thinks to be a Wallenstein. But the world has +only space for one monster at a time, friend Steward. And to be +anything lower than Wallenstein, whom I take to be unique,--to be a +Pappenheim, for instance,--a man must have a heart as well as a head, +or men will not follow him. However, you did not come to me to discuss +Tzerclas,' he continued genially. 'What is your errand, my friend?' + +'To ask your excellency's influence on behalf of the Waldgrave +Rupert.' + +He paused with his brushes suspended. 'On your own account?' he asked; +and he looked at me with sudden keenness. + +'No, my lord,' I answered. 'My lady sent me. She would have come +herself, but the hour was early; and she feared to let the matter +stand, lest summary measures should be taken against him.' + +'It is likely very summary measures will be taken!' he answered dryly, +and with a sensible change in his manner; his voice seemed to grow +harsher, his features more rigid. 'But why,' he continued, looking at +me again, 'does not the Countess leave him in Prince Bernard's hands? +He is his near kinsman.' + +'She fears, my lord, that Prince Bernard may not----' + +'Be inclined to help him?' the Count said. 'Well, and I think that +that is very likely, and I am not surprised. See you how the matter +stands? This young gallant should have been, since his arrival here, +foremost in every skirmish; he should have spent his days in the +saddle, and his nights in his cloak, and been the first to mount and +the last to leave the works. Instead of that, he has shown himself +lukewarm throughout, Master Steward. He has done no credit to his +friends or his commission; he has done everything to lend colour to +this charge; and, by my faith, I do not know what can be done for +him--nor that it behoves us to do anything.' + +'But he is not guilty of this, if your excellency pleases,' I said +boldly. The Count's manner of speaking of him was hard and so nearly +hostile that my choler rose a little. + +'He has not done his duty!' + +'Because he has not been himself,' I replied. + +'Well, we have enough to do in these evil days to protect those who +are!' he answered sharply. 'Besides, this matter is a city matter. It +is in the citizens' hands, and I do not know what we have to do with +it. Look now,' he continued, almost querulously, 'it is an invidious +thing to meddle with them. We of the army are risking our lives and no +more, but our hosts are risking all--wives and daughters, sweethearts, +and children, and homes! And I say it is an awkward thing meddling +with them. For Neumann the sooner they hang the dog the better; and +for this young spark I can think of nothing that he has done that +binds us to go out of our way to save him. Marienbad! What brought him +into that den of thieves?' + +'My lord,' I said, taken aback by his severity--'since he received a +wound some months back he has not been himself.' + +'He has been sufficiently himself to hang about a woman's +apron-strings,' the Count answered with a flash of querulous contempt, +'instead of doing his duty. However, what you say is true. I have seen +it myself. But, again, why does not your lady leave Prince Bernard to +settle the matter?' + +'She fears that he may not be sufficiently interested.' + +He turned away abruptly; unless I was mistaken, he winced. And in a +moment a light broke in upon me. The peevishness and irritability with +which he had received the first mention of the Waldgrave's name had +puzzled me. I had not expected such a display in a man of his grave, +equable nature, of his high station, his great name. I had given him +credit for a less churlish spirit and a judgment more evenly balanced. +And I had felt surprised and disappointed. + +Now, on a sudden, I saw light--in an unexpected quarter. For a moment +I could have laughed both at myself and at him. The man was jealous; +jealous, at his age and with his grey hairs! At the first blush of the +thing I could have laughed, the feeling and the passion it implied +seemed alike so preposterous. There on the table before me stood the +miniature of his first wife, and his child's necklace. And the man +himself was old enough to be my lady's father. What if he was tall and +strong; and still vigorous though grey-haired; and a man of great +name. When I thought of the Waldgrave--of his splendid youth and +gallant presence, his gracious head and sunny smile, and pictured this +staid, sober man beside him, I could have found it in my heart to +laugh. + +While I stood, busy with these thoughts, the Count walked the length +of the room more than once with his head bent and his shoulder turned +to me. At length he stopped and spoke; nor could my sharpened ear now +detect anything unusual in his voice. + +'Very well,' he said, his tone one of half-peevish resignation, 'you +have done your errand. I think I understand, and you may tell your +mistress--I will do what I can. The King of Sweden will doubtless +remit the matter to the citizens, and there will be some sort of a +hearing to-day. I will be at it. But there is a stiff spirit abroad, +and men are in an ugly mood--and I promise nothing. But I will do my +best. Now go, my friend. I have business.' + +With that he dismissed me in a manner so much like his usual manner +that I wondered whether I had deceived myself. And I finally left the +room in a haze of uncertainty. However, I had succeeded in the object +of my visit; that was something. He had taken care to guard his +promise, but I did not doubt that he would perform it. For there are +men whose lightest word is weightier than another's bond; and I took +it, I scarcely know why, that the Count belonged to these. + +Nevertheless, I saw things, as I went through the streets, that fed my +doubts. While famine menaced the poorer people, the richer held a +sack, with all the horrors which Magdeburg had suffered, in equal +dread. The discovery of Neumann's plot had taught them how small a +matter might expose them to that extremity; and as I went along I saw +scarcely, a burgher whose face was not sternly set, no magistrate +whose brow was not dark with purpose. + +Consequently, when I attended my lady to the Rath-haus at two o'clock, +the hour fixed for the inquiry, I was not surprised to find these +signs even more conspicuous. The streets were thronged, and ugly looks +and suspicious glances met us on all sides, merely because it was +known that the Waldgrave had been much at my lady's house. We were +made to feel that Nuremberg was a free city, and that we were no more +than its guests. It is true, no one insulted us; but the crowd which +filled the open space before the Town-house eyed us with so little +favour that I was glad to think that the magistrates with all their +independence must still be guided by the sword, and that the sword was +the King of Sweden's. + +My lady, I saw, shared my apprehensions. But she came of a stock not +easily daunted, and would as soon have dreamed of putting out one of +her eyes because it displeased a chance acquaintance, as of deserting +a friend because the Nurembergers frowned upon him. Her eyes sparkled +and her colour rose as we proceeded; the ominous silence which greeted +us only stiffened her carriage. By the time we reached the Rath-haus I +knew not whether to fear more from her indiscretion, or hope more from +her courage. + +The Court sat in private, but orders that we should be admitted had +been given; and after a brief delay we were ushered into the hall of +audience--a lofty, panelled chamber, carved and fretted, having six +deep bays, and in each a window of stained glass. A number of +scutcheons and banners depended from the roof; at one end a huge +double eagle wearing the imperial crown pranced in all the pomp of +gold and tinctures; and behind the court, which consisted of the Chief +Magistrate and four colleagues, the sword of Justice was displayed. +But that which struck me far more than these things, was the stillness +that prevailed; which was such that, though there were a dozen persons +present when we entered, the creaking of our boots as we walked up the +floor, and the booming of distant cannon, seemed to be equally +audible. + +The Chief Magistrate rose and received my lady with due ceremony, +ordering a chair to be placed for her, and requesting her to be seated +at the end of the dais-table, behind which he sat. I took my stand at +a respectful distance behind her; and so far we had nothing to +complain of; but I felt my spirits sensibly dashed both by the +stillness and the sombre and almost forbidding faces of the five +judges. Two or three attendants stood by the doors, but neither the +King of Sweden nor any of his officers were present. I looked in vain +for Count Leuchtenstein; I could see nothing of him or of the +prisoners. The solemn air of the room, the silence, and the privacy of +the proceedings, all contributed to chill me. I could fancy myself +before a court of inquisitors, a Vehm-Gericht, or that famous Council +of Ten which sits, I have heard, at Venice; but for any of the common +circumstances of such tribunals as are usual in Germany, I could not +find them. + +I think that my lady was somewhat taken aback too; but she did not +betray it. After courteously thanking the Council for granting her an +audience, she explained that her object in seeking it was to state +certain facts on behalf of the Waldgrave Rupert of Weimar, her +kinsman, and to offer the evidence of her steward, a person of +respectability. + +'We are quite willing to hear your excellency,' the Chief Magistrate +answered in a grave, dry voice. 'But perhaps you will first inform us +to what these facts tend? It may shorten the inquiry.' + +'Some weeks ago,' my lady answered with dignity, 'the Waldgrave Rupert +was wounded in the head. From that time he has not been himself.' + +'Does your excellency mean that he is not aware of his actions?' + +'No,' my lady answered quietly. 'I do not go as far as that.'' + +'Or that he is not aware in what company he is?' the magistrate +persisted. + +'Oh no.' + +'Or that he is ignorant at any time where he is?' + +'No, but----' + +'One moment!' the Chief Magistrate stopped her with a courteous +gesture. 'Pardon me. In an instant, your excellency--to whom I +assure you that the Court are obliged, since we desire only to do +justice--will see to what my questions lead. I crave leave to put one +more, and then to put the same question to your steward. It is this: +Do you admit, Countess, that the Waldgrave Rupert was last night in +the house with Tzerclas, Neumann, and the other persons inculpated?' + +'Certainly,' my lady answered. 'I am so informed. I did not know that +that was in question,' she added, looking round with a puzzled air. + +'And you, my friend?' The Chief Magistrate fixed me with his small, +keen eyes. 'But first, what is your name?' + +'Martin Schwartz.' + +'Yes, I remember. The man who was saved from the villains. We could +have no better evidence. What do you say, then? 'Was the Waldgrave +Rupert last night in this house--the house in question?' + +'I saw him in the house,' I answered warily. 'In the hall. But he was +not in the room with Tzerclas and Neumann--the room in which I saw the +maps and plans.' + +'A fair answer,' the Burgomaster replied, nodding his head, 'and your +evidence might avail the accused. But the fact is--it is to this point +we desire to call your excellency's attention,' he continued, turning +with a dusty smile to my lady--'the Waldgrave steadily denies that he +was in the house at all.' + +'He denies that he was there?' my lady said. 'But was he not arrested +in the house?' + +'Yes,' the Chief Magistrate answered dryly, 'he was.' And he looked at +us in silence. + +'But--what does he say?' my lady asked faintly. + +'He affects to be ignorant of everything that has occurred in +connection with the house. He pretends that he does not know how he +comes to be in custody, that he does not know many things that have +lately occurred. For instance, three days ago,' the Burgomaster +continued with a chill smile,' I had the honour of meeting him at the +King of Sweden's quarters and talking with him. He says to-day that I +am a stranger to him, that we did not meet, that we did not talk, and +that he does not know where the King of Sweden's quarters are.' + +'Then,' my lady said sorrowfully, 'he is worse than he was. He is now +quite mad.' + +'I am afraid not,' the magistrate replied, shaking his head gravely. +'He is sane enough on other points. Only he will answer no questions +that relate to this conspiracy, or to his guilt.' + +'He is not guilty,' the Countess cried impetuously. 'Believe me, +however strangely he talks, he is incapable of such treachery!' + +'Your excellency forgets--that he was in this house!' + +'But with no evil intentions!' + +'Yet denies that he was there!' the Burgomaster concluded gravely. + +That silenced my lady, and she sat rolling her kerchief in her hands. +Against the five impassive faces that confronted her, the ten +inscrutable eyes that watched her; above all, against this strange, +this inexplicable denial, she could do nothing! At last-- + +'Will you hear my steward?' she asked--in despair, I think. + +'Certainly,' the Burgomaster answered. 'We wish to do so.' + +On that I told them all I knew; in what terms I had heard Neumann and +General Tzerclas refer to the Waldgrave; how unexpected had been his +appearance in the hall; how this interference had saved my life; and, +finally, my own conviction that he was not privy to Tzerclas' designs. + +The Court heard me with attention; the Burgomaster put a few +questions, and I answered them. Then, afraid to stop--for their faces +showed no relenting--I began to repeat what I had said before. But now +the Court remained silent; I stumbled, stammered, finally sank into +silence myself. The air of the place froze me; I seemed to be talking +to statues. + +The Countess was the first to break the spell. 'Well?' she cried, her +voice tremulous, yet defiant. + +The Burgomaster consulted his colleagues, and for the first time +something of animation appeared in their faces. But it lasted an +instant only. Then the others sat back in their chairs, and he turned +to my lady. + +'We are obliged to your excellency,' he said gravely and formally. +'And to your servant. But the Court sees no reason to change its +decision.' + +'And that is?' The Countess's voice was husky. She knew what was +coming. + +'That both prisoners suffer together.' + +For an instant I feared that my lady would do something unbecoming her +dignity, and either break into womanish sobs and lamentations, or +stoop to threats and insistence that must be equally unavailing. But +she had learned in command the man's lesson of control; and never had +I seen her more equal to herself. I knew that her heart was bounding +wildly; that her breast was heaving with indignation, pity, horror; +that she saw, as I saw, the fair head for which she pleaded, rolling +in the dust. But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly +from her seat. + +'I am obliged to you for your patience, sir,' she said, trembling but +composed. 'I had expected one to aid me in my prayer, who is not here. +And I can say no more. On his head be it. Only--I trust that you may +never plead with as good a cause--and be refused.' + +They rose and stood while she turned from them; and the two court +ushers with their wands went before her as she walked down the hall. +The silence, the formality, the creaking shoes, the very gules and +purpure that lay in pools on the floor--I think that they stifled her +as they stifled me; for when she reached the open air at last and I +saw her face, I saw that she was white to the lips. + +But she bore herself bravely; the surly crowd, that filled the Market +Square and hailed our appearance with a harsh murmur, grew silent +under her scornful eye, and partly out of respect, partly out of +complaisance, because they now felt sure of their victim, doffed their +caps to her and made room for us to pass. Every moment I expected her +to break down: to weep or cover her face. But she passed through all +proudly, and walked, unfaltering, back to our lodging. + +There on the threshold she did pause at last, just when I wished her +to go on. She stood and turned her head, listening. + + +[Illustration: But with all--she controlled herself. She rose stiffly +from her seat.] + + +'What is that?' she said. + +'Cannon,' I answered hastily. 'In the trenches, my lady.' + +'No,' she said quietly. 'It is shouting. They have read the sentence.' + +She said no more, not another word; and went in quietly and upstairs +to her room. But I wondered and feared. Such composure as this seemed +to be unnatural, almost cruel. I could not think of the Waldgrave +myself without a lump coming in my throat. I could not face the +sunshine. And Steve and the men, when they heard, were no better. We +stood inside the doorway in a little knot, and looked at one another +mournfully. A man who passed--and did not know the house or who we +were--stopped to tell us that the sentence would be carried out at +sunset; and, pleased to have given us the news, went whistling down +the stale, sunny street. + +Steve growled out an oath. 'Who are these people,' he said savagely, +'that they should say my lady nay? When the Countess stoops to ask a +life--Himmel!--is she not to have it?' + +'Not here,' I said, shaking my head. + +'And why not?' + +'Because we are not at Heritzburg now,' I answered sadly. + +'But--are we nobody here?' he growled in a rage. 'Are we going to sit +still and let them kill my lady's own cousin?' + +I shrugged my shoulders. 'We have done all we can,' I said. + +'But there is some one can say nay to these curs!' he cried. And he +spat contemptuously into the street. He had a countryman's scorn of +townsfolk. 'Why don't we take the law into our own hands, Master +Martin?' + +'It is likely,' I said. 'One against ten thousand! And for the matter +of that, if the people are angry, it is not without cause. Did you see +the man under the archway?' + +Steve nodded. 'Dead,' he muttered. + +'Starved,' I said. 'He was a cripple. First the cripples. Then the +sound men. Life is cheap here.' + +Steve swore another oath. 'Those are curs. But our man--why don't we +go to the King of Sweden? I suppose he is a sort of cousin to my +lady?' + +'We have as good as gone to him,' I answered. At another time I might +have smiled at Steve's notion of my lady's importance. 'We have been +to one equally able to help us. And he has done us no good. And for +the matter of that, there is not time to go to the camp and back.' + +Steve began to fume and fret. The minutes went like lead. We were all +miserable together. Outside, the kennel simmered in the sun, the low +rumble of the cannon filled the air. I hated Nuremberg, the streets, +the people, the heat. I wished that I had never seen a stone of it. + +Presently one of the women came down stairs to us. 'Do you know if +there has been any fighting in the trenches to-day?' she asked. + +'Nothing to speak of,' I answered. 'As far as I have heard. Why?' + +'The Countess wishes to know,' she said. 'You have not heard of any +one being killed?' + +'No.' + +'Nor wounded?' + +'No.' + +She nodded and turned away. I called after her to know the reason of +her questions, but she flitted upstairs without giving me an answer, +and left us looking at one another. In a second, however, she was down +again. + +'My lady will see no one,' she said, with a face of mystery. 'You +understand, Master Martin? But--if any come of importance, you can +take her will.' + +I nodded. The woman cast a lingering look into the street and went +upstairs again. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + A POOR GUERDON. + + +I had slept scantily the night before, and the excitement of the last +twenty-four hours had worn me out. I was grieved for the gallant life +so swiftly ebbing, and miserable on my lady's account; but sorrow of +this kind is a sleepy thing, and the day was hot. I did not feel about +the Waldgrave as I had about Marie; and gradually my head nodded, and +nodded again, until I fell fast asleep, on the seat within the door. + +A man's voice, clear and penetrating, awoke me. 'Let him be,' it said. +'Hark you, fellow, let him be. He was up last night; I will announce +myself.' + +I was drowsy and understood only half of what I heard; and I should +have taken the speaker at his word, and turning over dropped off +again, if Steve had not kicked me and brought me to my feet with a cry +of pain. I stood an instant, bewildered, dazzled by the sunlight, +nursing my ankle in my hand. Then I made out where I was, and saw +through the arch of the entrance Count Leuchtenstein dismounting in +the street. As I looked, he threw the reins to a trooper who +accompanied him, and turned to come in. + +'Ah, my friend,' he said, nodding pleasantly, 'you are awake. I will +see your mistress.' + +I was not quite myself, and his presence took me aback. I stood +looking at him awkwardly. 'If your excellency will wait a moment,' I +faltered at last, 'I will take her pleasure.' + +He glanced at me a moment, as if surprised. Then he laughed. 'Go,' he +said. 'I am not often kept waiting.' + +I was glad to get away, and I ran upstairs; and knocking hurriedly at +the parlour door, went in. My lady, pale and frowning, with a little +book in her hand, got up hastily--from her knees, I thought. Marie +Wort, with tears on her cheeks, and Fraulein Max, looking scared, +stood behind her. + +The Countess looked at me, her eyes flashing. 'What is it?' she asked +sharply. + +'Count Leuchtenstein is below,' I said. + +'Well?' + +'He wishes to see your excellency.' + +'Did I not say that I would see no one?' + +'But Count Leuchtenstein?' + +She laughed a shrill laugh full of pain--a laugh that had something +hysterical in it. 'You thought that I would see _him?_' she cried. +'Him, I suppose, of all people? Go down, fool, and tell him that even +here, in this poor house, my doors are open to my friends and to them +only! Not to those who profess much and do nothing! Or to those who +bark and do not bite! Count Leuchtenstein? Pah, tell him---- Silence, +woman!' This to Marie, who would have interrupted her. 'Tell him what +I have told you, man, word for word. Or no'--and she caught herself up +with a mocking smile, such as I had never seen on her face before. +'Tell him this instead--that the Countess Rotha is engaged with the +Waldgrave Rupert, and wants no other company! Yes, tell him that--it +will bite home, if he has a conscience! He might have saved him, and +he would not! Now, when I would pray, which is all women can do, he +comes here! Oh, I am sick! I am sick!' + +I saw that she was almost beside herself with grief; and I stood +irresolute, my heart aching for her. What I dared not do, Marie did. +She sprang forward, and seizing the Countess's hand, knelt beside her, +covering it with kisses. + +'Oh, my lady!' she cried through her tears. 'Don't be so hard. See +him. See him. Even at this last moment.' + +With an inarticulate cry the Countess flung her off so forcibly that +the girl fell to the ground. 'Be silent!' my lady cried, her eyes on +fire. 'Or go to your prayers, wench. To your prayers! And do you +begone! Begone, and on your peril give my message, word for word!' + +I saw nothing for it but to obey; and I went down full of dismay. I +could understand my lady's grief, and that I had come upon her at an +inopportune moment. But the self-control which she had exhibited +before the Court rendered the violence of her rage now the more +surprising. I had never seen her in this mood, and her hardness +shocked me. I felt myself equally bewildered and grieved. + +I found Count Leuchtenstein waiting on the step, with his face to the +street. He turned as I descended. 'Well?' he said, smiling. 'Am I to +go up, my friend?' + +I saw that he had not the slightest doubt of my answer, and his +cheerfulness kindled a sort of resentment in my breast. He seemed to +be so well content, so certain of his reception, so calm and +strong--and, at this very moment--for the sunshine had left the street +and was creeping up the tiles--they might be leading out the +Waldgrave! I had liked my lady's message very little when she gave it +to me; now I rejoiced that I could sting him with it. + +'My lady is not very well,' I said. 'The sentence on the Waldgrave has +upset her.' + +He smiled. 'But she will receive me?' he said. + +'Craving your excellency's indulgence, I do not think that she will +receive any one.' + +'You told her that I was here?' + +'Yes, your excellency. And she said----' + +His face fell. 'Tut! tut!' he exclaimed. 'But I come on purpose +to---- What did she say, man?' + +The smile was gone from his lips, but I caught it lurking in his eyes; +and it hardened me to do her bidding. 'I was to tell your excellency +that she could not receive you,' I said, 'that she was engaged with +the Waldgrave.' + +He started and stared at me, his expression slowly passing from +amazement to anger. 'What!' he exclaimed at last, in a cutting tone. +'Already?' And his lip curled with a kind of disgust. 'You have given +me the message exactly, have you?' + +'Yes, your excellency,' I said, quailing a little. But servants know +when to be stupid, and I affected stupidity, fixing my eyes on his +breast and pretending to see nothing. He turned, and for a moment I +thought that he was going without a word. Then on the steps he turned +again. 'You have heard the news, then?' he said sourly. He had already +regained his self-control. + +'Yes, my lord.' + +'Ah! Well, you lose no time in your house,' he replied grimly. 'Call +my horse!' + +I called the man, who had wandered a little way up the street, and he +brought it. As I held the Count's stirrup for him to mount, I noticed +how heavily he climbed to his saddle, and that he settled himself into +it with a sigh; but the next moment he laughed, as at himself. I stood +back expecting him to say something more, or to leave some message, +but he did not even look at me again; he touched his horse with the +spur, and walked away steadily. I stood and watched him until he +reached the end of the street--until he turned the corner and +disappeared. + +Even then I still stood looking after him, partly sorry and partly +puzzled, for quite a long time. It was only when I turned to go in +that I missed Steve and the men, and began to wonder what had become +of them. I had left them with the Count at the door--they were gone +now. I looked up and down, I could see them nowhere. I went in and +asked the women; but they were not with them. The sunset gun had just +gone off, and one of the girls was crying hysterically, while the +others sat round her, white and frightened. This did not cheer me, nor +enliven the house. I came out again, vowing vengeance on the truants; +and there in the entrance, facing me, standing where the Count had +stood a few minutes before, I saw the last man I looked to see! + +I gasped and gave back a step. The sun was gone, the evening light was +behind the man, and his face was in the shadow. His figure showed dark +against the street. 'Ach Gott!' I cried, and stood still, stricken. It +was the Waldgrave! + +'Martin!' he said. + +I gave back another step. The street was quiet, the house like the +grave. For a moment the figure did not move, but stood there gazing at +me. Then-- + +'Why, Martin!' he cried. 'Don't you know me?' + +Then, not until then, I did--for a man and not a ghost; and I caught +his hand with a cry of joy. 'Welcome, my lord, welcome!' I said, grown +hot all over. 'Thank God that you have escaped!' + +'Yes,' he said, and his tone was his own old tone, 'thank God; Him +first, and then my friends. Steve and Ernst I have seen already; they +heard the news from the Count's man, and came to meet me, and I have +sent them on an errand, by your leave. And now, where is my cousin?' + +'Above,' I answered. 'But----' + +'But what?' he said quickly. + +'I think that I had better prepare her.' + +'She does not know?' + +'No, your excellency. Nor did I, until I saw you.' + +'But Count Leuchtenstein has been here. Did he not tell you?' he asked +in surprise. + +'Not a word!' I answered. And then I stopped, conscience-stricken. +'Himmel! I remember now,' I said. 'He asked me if we had heard the +news; and I, like a dullard, dreaming that he meant other news, and +the worst, said yes!' + +The Waldgrave shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, go to her now, and tell +her,' he said. 'I want to see her; I want to thank her. I have a +hundred things to say to her. Quick, Martin, for I am laden with +debts, and I choke to pay some of them.' + +I ran upstairs, marvelling. On the lobby I met Fraulein Max coming +down. 'What is it?' she asked impatiently. + +'The Waldgrave! He has been released! He is here!' I cried in a +breath. + +She stared at me while a man might count ten. Then to my astonishment +she laughed aloud. 'Who released him?' she asked. + +'The magistrates,' I said. 'I suppose so. I don't know.' I had not +given the matter a thought. + +'Not Count Leuchtenstein?' + +I started. 'So!' I muttered, staring at her in my turn. 'It must have +been he. The Waldgrave said something about him. And he must have come +here to tell us.' + +'And you gave him my lady's message?' + +'Alas! yes.' + +Fraulein Max laughed again, and kept on laughing, until I grew hot all +over, and could have struck her for her malice. She saw at last that I +was angry, and she stopped. 'Tut! tut!' she said, 'it is nothing. But +that disposes of the old man. Now for the young one. He is here?' + +'Yes.' + +'Then why do you not show him up?' + +'She must be prepared,' I muttered. + +She laughed again; this time after a different fashion. 'Oh you fools +of men!' she said. 'She must be prepared? Do you think that women are +made of glass and that a shock breaks them? That she will die of joy? +Or would have died of grief? Send him up, gaby, and I will prepare +her! Send him up.' + +I supposed that she knew women's ways, and I gave in to her, and sent +him up; and I do not know that any harm was done. But, as a result of +this, I was not present when my lady and the Waldgrave met, and I only +learned by hearsay what happened. + + + * * * * * + + +An hour or two later, when the bustle of shrieks and questions had +subsided, and the excitement caused by his return had somewhat worn +itself out, Marie slipped out to me on the stairs, and sat with me in +the darkness, talking. The gate of curious ironwork which guarded the +house entrance was closed for the night; but the moon was up, and its +light, falling through the scrollwork, lay like a pale, reedy pool at +our feet. The men were at supper, the house was quiet, the city was +for a little while still. Not a foot sounded on the roadway; only +sometimes a skulking dog came ghost-like to the bars and sniffed, and +sneaked noiselessly away. + +I have said that we talked, but in truth we sat long silent, as lovers +have sat these thousand years, I suppose, in such intervals of calm. +The peace of the night lapped us round; after the perils and hurry, +the storm and stress of many days, we were together and at rest, and +content to be silent. All round us, under the covert of darkness, +under the moonlight, the city lay quaking; dreading the future, torn +by pangs in the present; sleepless, or dreaming of death and outrage, +ridden by the nightmare of Wallenstein. But for the moment we recked +nothing of this, nothing of the great camp round us, nothing of the +crash of nations. We were of none of these. We had one another, and it +was enough; loved one another, and the rest went by. For the moment we +tasted perfect peace; and in the midst of the besieged city, were as +much alone, as if the moonlight at our feet had been, indeed, a forest +pool high in the hills over Heritzburg. + +Does some old man smile? Do I smile myself now, though sadly? A brief +madness, was it? Nay; but what if then only we were sane, and for a +moment saw things as they are--lost sight of the unreal and awoke to +the real? I once heard a wise man from Basle say something like that +at my lady's table. The men, I remember, stared; the women looked +thoughtful. + +For all that, it was Marie who on this occasion broke the trance. The +town clock struck ten, and at the sound hundreds, I dare swear, turned +on their pillows, thinking of the husbands and sons and lovers whom +the next light must imperil. My girl stirred. + +'Ah!' she murmured, 'the poor Countess! Can we do nothing?' + +'Do?' I said. 'What should, we do? The Waldgrave is back, and in his +right mind; which of all the things I have ever known, is the oddest. +That a man should lose his senses under one blow, and recover them +under another, and remember nothing that has happened in the +interval--it almost passes belief.' + +'Yet it is true.' + +'I suppose so,' I answered. 'The Waldgrave was mad--I can bear witness +to it--and now he is sane. There is no more to be said.' + +'But the Countess, Martin?' + +'Well, I do not know that she is the worse,' I answered stupidly. 'She +sent off the Count with a flea in his ear, and a poor return it was. +But she can explain it to him, and after all, she has got the +Waldgrave back, safe and sound. That is the main thing.' + +Marie sighed, and moved restlessly. 'Is it?' she said. 'I wish I +knew.' + +'What?' I asked, drawing her little head on to my shoulder. + +'What my lady wishes?' + +'Eh?' + +'Which?' + +My jaw fell. I stared into the darkness open-mouthed. 'Why,' I +exclaimed at last, 'he is sixty--or fifty-five at least, girl!' + +Marie laughed softly, with her face on my breast. 'If she loves him,' +she murmured. 'If she loves him.' And she hung on me. + +I sat amazed, confounded, thinking no more of Marie, though my arm was +round her, than of a doll. 'But he is fifty five,' I said. + +'And if you were fifty-five, do you think that I should not love you?' +she whispered. 'When you are fifty-five, do you think that I shall not +love you? Besides, he is strong, brave, famous--a man; and she is not +a girl, but a woman. If the Count be too old, is not the Waldgrave too +young?' + +'Yes,' I said cunningly. 'But why either?' + +'Because love is in the air,' Marie answered; and I knew that she +smiled, though the gloom hid her face. 'Because there is a change in +her. Because she knows things and sees things and feels things of +which she was ignorant before. And because--because it is so, my +lord.' + +I whistled. This was beyond me. 'And yet you don't know which?' I +said. + +'No; I suspect.' + +'Well--but the Waldgrave?' I exclaimed. 'Why, maedchen, he is one of +the handsomest men I have ever seen. An Apollo! A Fairy Prince! It is +not possible that she should prefer the other.' + +Marie laughed. 'Ah!' she said, 'if men chose all the husbands, there +would be few wives.' + + + * * * * * + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + TWO MEN. + + +The Waldgrave's return to his old self, and to the frankness and +gaiety that, when we first knew him at Heritzburg, had surrounded him +with a halo of youth, was perhaps the most noteworthy event of all +within my experience. For the return proved permanent, the +transformation was perfect. The moodiness, the crookedness, the crafty +humours that for weeks had darkened and distorted the man's nature--so +that another and a worse man seemed to look out of his eyes and speak +with his mouth--were gone, leaving no cloud or remembrance. He had +been mad; he was now as sane as the best. Only one peculiarity +remained--and for a few days a little pallor and weakness--of all the +things that had befallen him between his first wound and his second, +he could remember nothing, not a jot or tittle; nor could any amount +of allusion or questioning bring these things back to him. After many +attempts we desisted; but there were always some who, from this date, +regarded him with a certain degree of awe--as a man who had been for a +time in the flesh, and yet not of it. + +With sanity returned also all the wholesome ambitions and desires that +had formerly moved the man; and amongst these his passion for my lady. +He lay at our house that night, and spent the next two days there, +recovering his strength; and I had more than one opportunity of +marking the assiduity with which he followed all the Countess's +movements with his eyes, the change which his voice underwent when he +spoke to her, and his manner when he came into her presence. In a +word, he seemed to take up his love where he had dropped it--at the +point it had reached when he rode down into the green valley and +secured his rival's victory at so great a cost; at the point at which +Tzerclas' admiration and my lady's rebuff had at once strengthened and +purified it. + +Now Tzerclas was gone from the field--magically, as it seemed +to the Waldgrave. And, magically also--for he knew nothing of its +flight--time had passed; days and weeks running into months--a +sufficiency of time, he hoped, to remove unfavourable impressions from +her mind, to obliterate the memory of that unhappy banquet, and +replace him on the pinnacle he had occupied at Heritzburg. + +But he soon found that, though Tzerclas was gone and the field seemed +open, all was not to be had for the asking. My lady was kind; she had +a smile for him, and pleasant words, and a ready ear. But before he +had been in the house twenty-four hours, he came and confided to me +that something was wrong. The Countess was changed; was pettish as +he had never seen her before; absent and thoughtful, traits equally +new; restless--and placid dignity had been one of her chief +characteristics. + +'What is it, Martin?' he said, knitting his brows and striding to and +fro in frank perplexity. 'It cannot be that, after all that has +passed, she is fretting for that villain Tzerclas?' + +'After risking her life to escape from him?' I answered dryly. 'No, I +think not, my lord.' + +'If I ever set eyes on him again I will end him!' the Waldgrave cried, +still clinging, I think, to his idea, and exasperated by it. He strode +up and down a time or two, and did not grow cooler. 'If it is not +that, what is it?' he said at last. + +'There are not many light hearts in Nuremberg,' I suggested. 'And of +those, few are women's. There must be an end of this soon.' + +'You think it is that?' he said. + +'Why not?' I answered. 'I am told that the horses are dying by +hundreds in the camp. The men will die next. In the end the King will +have to march away, or see his army perish piecemeal. In either case +the city will pay for all. Wallenstein will swoop down on it, and make +of it another and greater Magdeburg. That is a poor prospect for the +weak and helpless.' + +'It is those rascally Croats!' the Waldgrave groaned. 'They cover the +country like flies--are here and there and nowhere all in the same +minute, and burn and harry and leave us nothing. We have no troops of +that kind.' + +'There was plundering in the Wert suburb last night,' I said. 'The +King blames the Germans.' + +'Soldiers are bad to starve,' the Waldgrave answered. + +'Yes; they will see the townsfolk suffer first,' I rejoined, with a +touch of bitterness. 'But look whichever way you please, it is a +gloomy outlook, my lord, and I do not wonder that my lady is +down-hearted.' + +He nodded, but presently he said something that showed that he was not +satisfied. 'The Countess used to be of a bolder spirit,' he muttered. +'I don't understand it.' + +I did not know how to answer him, and fortunately, at that moment, +Marie came down to say that my lady proposed to visit Count +Leuchtenstein, and that I was to go to her. The Waldgrave heard, and +raced up before me, crying out that he would go too. I followed. When +I reached the parlour I found them confronting one another, my lady +standing in the oriel with her back to the street. + +'But would it not be more seemly?' the Waldgrave was saying as I +entered. 'As your cousin, and----' + +'I would rather go alone,' the Countess replied curtly. + +'To the camp?' he exclaimed. 'He is not in his city quarters.' + +'Yes, to the camp,' my lady answered, with, a spark of anger in her +eyes. + +On that he stood, fidgety and discomfited, and the Countess gave me +her orders. But he could not believe that she did not need him, and +the moment she was silent, he began again. + +'You do not want me; but you do not object to my company, I suppose?' +he said airily. 'I have to thank the Count, cousin, and I must go +to-day or to-morrow. There is no time like the present, and if you are +going now----' + +'I should prefer to go alone,' my lady said stiffly. + +His face fell; he stood looking foolish. 'Oh, I did not know,' he +stammered at last; 'I thought----' + +'What?' the Countess said. + +'That you liked me well enough--to--to be glad of my company,' he +answered, half offended, half in deprecation. + +'I liked you well enough to abase myself for you!' my lady retorted +cruelly. And I dare say that she said more, but I did not hear it. I +had to go down and prepare for her visit. + +When I next saw him, he was much subdued. He seemed to be turning +something over in his mind, and by-and-by he asked me a question about +Count Leuchtenstein. I saw which way his thoughts were tending, or +fancied that I did; but it was not my business to interfere one way or +the other, and I answered him and made no comment. The horses were at +the door then, and in a moment my lady came down, looking pale and +depressed. The Waldgrave went humbly to her, and put her into her +saddle, touching her foot as if it had been glass; and I mounted +Marie, who was to attend her. I expected that my lady--who had a very +tender heart under her queenly manner--would say something to him +before we started; but she seemed to be quite taken up with her +thoughts, and to be barely conscious, if conscious at all, of his +presence. She said 'Thank you,' but it was mechanically. And the next +moment we were moving, Ernst making up the escort. + +My eyes soon furnished me with other matter for thought than the +Waldgrave. Throughout the city the summer drought had dried up the +foliage of the trees; and the grass, where it had not been plucked by +the poor and boiled for food, had been eaten to the roots by starving +cattle. The whole city under the blaze of sunshine wore an arid, +dusty, parched appearance, and seemed to reflect on its face the look +of dreary endurance which was worn by too many of the countenances we +observed in the streets. Pain creeps by instinct to some dark and +solitary place; but here was a whole city in pain, gasping and +suffering under the pitiless sunshine; and the contrast between the +blue sky above and the scene below added indescribably to the gloom +and dreariness of the latter. I know that I got a horror of sunshine +there that lasted for many a month after. + +Either twenty-four hours had aggravated the pinch of famine, which was +possible, or I had a more open mind to perceive it. I marked more +hollow cheeks than ever, more hungry eyes, more faces with the +glare of brutes. And in the bearing of the crowd that filled the +streets--though no business was done, no trade carried on--I thought +that I saw a change. Wherever it was thickest, I noticed that men +walked in one of two ways, either hurrying along feverishly and in +haste, as if time were of the utmost value, or moving listlessly, with +dragging feet and lacklustre eyes, as if nothing had any longer power +to stir them. I even noticed that the same men went in both ways +within the space of a minute, passing in a second and apparently +without intention from feverish activity to the moodiness of despair. + +And no wonder. Not only famine, but pestilence had tightened its grasp +on the city; and from this the rich had as much to fear as the poor. +As we drew near the walls the smell of carrion, which had hitherto but +spoiled the air, filled the nostrils and sickened the whole man. In +some places scores of horses lay unburied, while it was whispered that +in obscure corners death had so far outstripped the grave-diggers that +corpses lay in the houses and the living slept with the dead. There +was fighting in front of the bakers' shops in more than one place--my +lady had to throw money before we could pass; in the kennels women +screamed and fought for offal; from the open doors of churches prayers +and wailing poured forth; at the gates, where gibbets, laden with +corpses, rose for a warning, multitudes stood waiting and listening +for news. And on all, dead and living, the sun shone hotly, steadily, +ruthlessly, so that men asked with one voice, 'How long? How long?' + +In the camp, which had just received huge reinforcements of men and +horses, we found order and discipline at least. Rows of kettles and +piles of arms proclaimed it, and lines of pennons that stretched +almost as far as the eye could reach. But here, too, were knitted +brows, and gloomy looks, and loud murmurings, that grew and swelled as +we passed. Count Leuchtenstein's quarters were on the border of the +Swedish camp, near the Finland regiments, and not far from the King's. +A knot of officers, who stood talking in front of them and knew my +lady, came to place themselves at her service. But the offer proved to +be abortive, for the first thing she learned was that the Count was +absent. He had gone at dawn in the direction of Altdorf to cover the +entrance of a convoy. + +I felt that she was grievously disappointed, for whether she loved him +or not, I could understand the humiliation under which she smarted, +and would smart until she had set herself right with him. But she +veiled her chagrin admirably, and, lightly refusing the offer of +refreshment, turned her horse's head at once, so that in a twinkling +we were on our road home again. + +By the way, I saw only what I had seen before. But the Countess, whose +figure began to droop, saw, I think, with other eyes than those +through which she had looked on the outward journey. Her thoughts no +longer occupied, she saw in their fulness the ravages which famine and +plague were making in the town, once so prosperous. When she reached +her lodgings her first act was to send money, of which we had no great +store, to the magistrates, that a free meal in addition to the +starvation rations might be given to the poor; and her next, to +declare that henceforth she would keep the house. + +Accordingly, instead of going again to the Count's, she sent me next +day with a letter. I found the camp in an uproar, which was fast +spreading to the city. A rumour had just got wind that the King was +about to break up his camp and give battle to the enemy at all +hazards; and so many were riding and running into the city with the +news that I could scarcely make head against the current. + +Arriving at last, however, I was fortunate enough to find the Count in +his quarters and alone. My lady had charged me--with a blushing cheek +but stern eyes--to deliver the letter with my own hands, and I +dismounted. I thought that I had nothing to do but deliver it; I +foresaw no trouble. But at the last moment, as a trooper led me +through the antechamber, who should appear at my side but the +Waldgrave! + +'You did not expect to see me?' he said, nodding grimly. + +'No, my lord,' I answered. + +'So I thought,' he rejoined. 'But before you give the Count that +letter, I have a word to say to him.' + +I looked at him in astonishment. What had the letter to do with him? +My first idea was that he had been drinking, for his colour was high +and his eye bright. But a second glance showed that he was sober, +though excited. And while I hesitated the trooper held up the curtain, +and perforce I marched in. + +Count Leuchtenstein, wearing his plain buff suit, sat writing at a +table. His corselet, steel cap, and gauntlets lay beside him, and +seemed to show that he had just come in from the field. He looked up +and nodded to me; I had been announced before. Then he saw the +Waldgrave and rose; reluctantly, I fancied. I thought, too, that a +shade of gloom fell on his face; but as the table was laden with +papers and despatches and maps and lists, and the sight reminded me +that he bore on his shoulders all the affairs of Hesse, and the +responsibility for the boldest course taken by any German prince in +these troubles, I reflected that this might arise from a hundred +causes. + +He greeted the Waldgrave civilly nevertheless; then he turned to me. +'You have a letter for me, have you not, my friend?' he said. + +'Yes, my lord,' I answered. + +'But,' the Waldgrave interposed, 'before you read it, I have a word to +say, by your leave, Count Leuchtenstein.' + +I think I never saw a man more astonished than the Count. 'To me?' he +said. + +'By your leave, yes.' + +'In regard to--this letter?' + +'Yes.' + +'But what do you know about this letter?' + +'Too much, I am afraid,' the Waldgrave answered; and I am bound to say +that, putting aside the extraordinary character of his interference, +he bore himself well. I could detect nothing of wildness or delusion +in his manner. His face glowed, and he threw back his head with a hint +of defiance; but he seemed sane. 'Too much,' he continued rapidly, +before the Count could stop him; 'and, before the matter goes farther, +I will have my say.' + +The Count stared at him. 'By what right?' he said at last. + +'As the Countess Rotha's nearest kinsman,' the Waldgrave answered. + +'Indeed?' I could see that the Count was hard put to it to keep his +temper; that the old lion in him was stirring, and would soon have +way. But for the moment he controlled himself. 'Say on,' he cried. + +'I will, in a few words,' the Waldgrave answered. 'And what I have to +say amounts to this: I have become aware--no matter how--of the +bargain you have made, Count Leuchtenstein, and I will not have it.' + +'The bargain!' the Count ejaculated; 'you will not have it!' + +'The bargain; and I will not have it!' the Waldgrave rejoined. + +Count Leuchtenstein drew a deep breath, and stared at him like a man +demented. 'I think that you must be mad,' he said at last. 'If not, +tell me what you mean.' + +'What I say,' the Waldgrave answered stubbornly. 'I forbid the bargain +to which I have no doubt that that letter relates.' + +'In Heaven's name, what bargain?' the Count cried. + +'You think that I do not know,' the Waldgrave replied, with a touch of +bitterness; 'it did not require a Solomon to read the riddle. I found +my cousin distrait, absent, moody, sad, preoccupied, unlike herself. +She had moved heaven and earth, I was told, to save me; in the last +resort, had come to you, and you saved me. Yet when she saw me safe, +she met me as much in sorrow as in joy. The mere mention of your name +clouded her face; and she must see you, and she must write to you, and +all in a fever. I say, it does not require a Solomon to read this +riddle, Count Leuchtenstein.' + +'You think?' said the Count, bluntly. 'I do not yet know what you +think.' + +'I think that she sold herself to you to win my pardon,' the Waldgrave +answered. + +For a moment I did not know how Count Leuchtenstein would take it. He +stood gazing at the Waldgrave, his hand on a chair, his face purple, +his eyes starting. At length, to my relief and the Waldgrave's utter +dismay and shame, he sank into the chair and broke into a hoarse shout +of laughter--laughter that was not all merriment, but rolled, in its +depths something stern and sardonic. + +The Waldgrave changed colour, glared and fumed; but the Count was +pitiless, and laughed on. At last: 'Thanks, Waldgrave, thanks,' he +said. 'I am glad I let you go on to the end. But pardon me if I say +that you seem to do the Lady Rotha something less than justice, and +yourself something more.' + +'How?' the Waldgrave stammered. He was quite out of countenance. + +'By flattering yourself that she could rate you so highly,' Count +Leuchtenstein retorted, 'or fall herself so low. Nay, do not threaten +me,' he continued with grim severity. 'It was not I who brought her +name into question. I never dreamed of, never heard of, never +conceived such a bargain as you have described; nor, I may add, ever +thought of the Lady Rotha except with reverence and chivalrous regard. +Have I said enough?' he continued, rising, and speaking with growing +indignation, with eyes that seemed to search the culprit; 'or must I +say too, Waldgrave, that I do not traffic in men's lives, nor buy +women's favours, nor sell pardons? That such power as God and my +master have given me I use to their honour and not for my own +pleasure? And, finally, that this, of which you accuse me, I would not +do, though to do it were to prolong my race through a dozen centuries? +For shame, boy, for shame!' he continued more calmly. 'If my mind has +gone the way you trace it, I call it back to-day. I have done with +love; I am too old for aught but duty, if love can lead even a young +man's mind so far astray.' + +The Waldgrave shivered; but the position was beyond words, and he +essayed none. With a slight movement of his hand, as if he would have +shielded himself, or deprecated the other's wrath, he turned towards +the door. I saw his face for an instant; it was pale, despairing--and +with reason. He had exposed my lady. He had exposed himself. He had +invited such a chastisement as must for ever bring the blood to his +cheeks. And his cousin: what would she say? He had lost her. She would +never forgive him--never! He groped blindly for the opening in the +curtain. + +His hand was on it--and I think that, for all his manhood, the tears +were very near his eyes--when the other called after him in an altered +tone. + +'Stay!' Count Leuchtenstein said. 'We will not part thus. I can see +that you are sorry. Do not be so hasty another time, and do not be too +quick to think evil. For the rest, our friend here will be silent, and +I will be silent.' + +The Waldgrave gazed at him, his lips quivering, his eyes full. At +last: 'You will not tell--the Countess Rotha?' he said almost in a +whisper. + +The Count looked down at his table, and pettishly pushed some +papers together. For an instant he did not answer. Then he said +gruffly,--'No. Why should she know? If she chooses you, well and good; +if not, why trouble her with tales?' + +'Then!' the Waldgrave cried with a sob in his voice, 'you are a better +man than I am!' + +The Count shrugged his shoulders rather sadly. 'No,' he said, 'only an +older one.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + SUSPENSE. + + +For a little while after the Waldgrave had retired, Count +Leuchtenstein stood turning my lady's letter over in his hands, his +thoughts apparently busy. I had leisure during this time to compare +the plainness of his dress with the greatness of his part, to which +his conduct a moment before had called my attention; and the man with +his reputation. No German had at this time so much influence with the +King of Sweden as he; nor did the world ever doubt that it was at his +instance that the Landgrave, first of all German princes, flung his +sword into the Swedish scale. Yet no man could be more unlike the dark +Wallenstein, the crafty Arnim, the imperious Oxenstierna, or the +sleepless French cardinal, whose star has since risen--as I have heard +these men described; for Leuchtenstein carried his credentials in his +face. An honest, massive downrightness and a plain sagacity seemed to +mark him, and commend him to all who loved the German blood. + +My eyes presently wandered from him, and detected among the papers on +the table the two stands I had seen in his town quarters--the one +bearing his child's necklace, the other his wife's portrait. Doubtless +they lay on the table wherever he went--among assessments and imposts, +regimental tallies and state papers. I confess that my heart warmed at +the sight; that I found something pleasing in it; greatness had not +choked the man. And then my thoughts were diverted: he broke open my +lady's letter, and turning his back on me began to read. + +I waited, somewhat impatiently. He seemed to be a long time over it, +and still he read, his eyes glued to the page. I heard the paper +rustle in his hands. At last he turned, and I saw with a kind of shock +that his face was dark and flushed. There was a strange gleam in his +eyes as he looked at me. He struck the paper twice with his hand. + +'Why was this kept from me?' he exclaimed. 'Why? Why?' + +'My lord!' I said in astonishment. 'It was delivered to me only an +hour ago.' + +'Fool!' he answered harshly, bending his bushy eyebrows. 'When did +that girl get free?' + +'That girl?' + +'Ay, that girl! Girl, I said. What is her name? Marie Wort?' + +'This is Saturday. Wednesday night,' I said. + +'Wednesday night? And she told you of the child then; of my +child--that this villain has it yonder! And you kept it from me all +Thursday and Friday--Thursday and Friday,' he repeated with a fierce +gesture, 'when I might have done something, when I might have acted! +Now you tell me of it, when we march out to-morrow, and it is too +late. Ah! It was ungenerous of her--it was not like her!' + +'The Countess came yesterday in person,' I muttered. + +'Ay, but the day before!' he retorted. 'You saw me in the morning! You +said nothing. In the evening I called at the Countess's lodgings; she +would not see me. A mistake was it? Yes, but grant the mistake; was it +kind, was it generous to withhold _this?_ If I had been as remiss as +she thought me, as slack a friend--was it just, was it womanly? In +Heaven's name, no! No!' he repeated fiercely. + +'We were taken up with the Waldgrave's peril,' I muttered, +conscience-stricken. 'And yesterday, my lady----' + +'Ay, yesterday!' he retorted bitterly. 'She would have told me +yesterday. But why not the day before? The truth is, you thought +much of your own concerns and your lady's kin, but of mine and my +child--nothing! Nothing!' he repeated sternly. + +And I could not but feel that his anger was justified. For myself, I +had clean forgotten the child; hence my silence at my former +interview. For my lady, I think that at first the Waldgrave's danger +and later, when she knew of his safety, remorse for the part she had +played, occupied her wholly, yet, every allowance made, I felt that +the thing had an evil appearance; and I did not know what to say to +him. + +He sighed, staring absently before him. At last, after a prolonged +silence, 'Well, it is too late now,' he said. 'Too late. The King +moves out to-morrow, and my hands are full, and God only knows the +issue, or who of us will be living three days hence. So there is an +end.' + +'My lord!' I cried impulsively. 'God forgive me, I forgot.' + +He shrugged his shoulders with a grand kind of patience. 'Just so,' he +said. 'And now, go back to your mistress. If I live I will answer her +letter. If not--it matters not.' + +I was terribly afraid of him, but my love for Marie had taught me some +things; and though he waved me to the door, I stood my ground a +moment. + +'To you, my lord, no,' I said. 'Nothing. But to her, if you fall +without answering her letter----' + +'What?'he said. + +'You can best judge from the letter, my lord.' + +'You think that she would suffer?' he answered harshly, his +face growing red again. 'Well, what say you, man? Does she not +deserve to suffer? Do you know what this delay may cost me? What it +may mean for my child? Mein Gott,' he continued, raising his voice and +striking his hand heavily on the table, 'you try me too far! Your +mistress was angry. Have I no right to be angry? Have I no right to +punish? Go! I have no more to say.' + +And I had to go, then and there, enraged with myself, and fearful that +I had said too much in my lady's behalf. I had invited this last +rebuff, and I did not see how I should dare to tell her of it, or that +I had exposed her to it. I had made things worse instead of better, +and perhaps, after all, the message he had framed might not have hurt +her much, or fallen far short of her expectations. + +I should have troubled myself longer about this, but for the +increasing bustle and stir of preparation that had spread by this time +from the camp to the city; and filling the way with a throng of people +whom the news affected in the most different ways, soon diverted my +attention. While some, ready to welcome any change, shouted with joy, +others wept and wrung their hands, crying out that the city was +betrayed, and that the King was abandoning it. Others again +anticipated an easy victory, looked on the frowning heights of the +Alta Veste as already conquered, and divided Wallenstein's spoils. +Everywhere I saw men laughing, wailing, or shaking hands; some eating +of their private hoards, others buying and selling horses, others +again whooping like lunatics. + +In the city the shops, long shut, were being opened, orderlies were +riding to and fro, crowds were hurrying to the churches to pray for +the King's success; a general stir of relief and expectancy was +abroad. The sunshine still fell hot on the streets, but under it life +moved and throbbed. The apathy of suffering was gone, and with it the +savage gloom that had darkened innumerable brows. From window and +dormer, from low door-ways, from carven eaves and gables, gaunt faces +looked down on the stir, and pale lips prayed, and dull eyes glowed +with hope. + +While I was still a long way off I saw my lady at the oriel watching +for me. I saw her face light up when she caught sight of me; and if, +after that, I could have found any excuse for loitering in the street, +or putting off my report, I should have been thankful. But there was +no escape. In a moment the animation of the street was behind me, the +silence of the house 'fell round me, and I stood before her. She was +alone. I think that Marie had been with her; if so, she had sent her +away. + +'Well?' she said, looking keenly at me, and doubtless drawing her +conclusions from my face. 'The Count was away?' + +'No, my lady.' + +'Then--you saw him?' with surprise. + +'Yes.' + +'And gave him the letter?' + +'Yes, my lady.' + +'Well'--this with impatience, and her foot began to tap the +floor--'did he give you no answer?' + +'No, my lady.' + +She looked astonished, offended, then troubled. 'Neither in writing +nor by word of mouth?' she said faintly. + +'Only--that the King was about to give battle,' I stammered; 'and +that if he survived, he would answer your excellency.' + +She started, and looked at me searchingly, her colour fading +gradually. 'That was all!' she said at last, a quaver in her voice. +'Tell me all, Martin. Count Leuchtenstein was offended, was he not?' + +'I think that he was hurt, your excellency,' I confessed. 'He thought +that the news about his child--should have been sent to him sooner. +That was all.' + +'All!' she ejaculated; and for a moment she said no more, but with +that word, which thrilled me, she began to pace the floor. 'All!' she +repeated presently. 'But I--yes, I am justly punished. I cannot +confess to him; I will confess to you. Your girl would have had me +tell him this, or let her tell him this. She pressed me; she went on +her knees to me that evening. But I hardened my heart, and now I am +punished. I am justly punished.' + +I was astonished. Not that she took it lightly, for there was that in +her tone as well as in her face that forbade the thought; but that she +took it with so little passion, without tears or anger, and having +been schooled so seldom in her life bore this schooling so patiently. +She stood for a time after she had spoken, looking from the window +with a wistful air, and her head drooping; and I fancied that she had +forgotten my presence. But by-and-by she began to ask questions about +the camp, and the preparations, and what men thought of the issue, and +whether Wallenstein would come down from his heights or the King be +driven to the desperate task of assaulting them. I told her all that I +had heard. Then she said quietly that she would go to church; and she +sent me to call Fraulein Max to go with her. + +I found the Dutch girl sitting in a corner with her back to the +windows, through which Marie and the women were gazing at the bustle +and uproar and growing excitement of the street. She was reading in a +great dusty book, and did not look up when I entered. Seeing her so +engrossed, I had the curiosity to ask her, before I gave her my lady's +message, what the book was. + +'"The Siege of Leyden,"' she said, lifting her pale face for an +instant, and then returning to her reading. 'By Bor.' + +I could not refrain from smiling. It seemed to me so whimsical that +she could find interest in the printed page, in this second-hand +account of a siege, and none in the actual thing, though she had only +to go to the window to see it passing before her eyes. Doubtless she +read in Bor how men and women thronged the streets of Leyden to hear +each new rumour; how at every crisis the bells summoned the unarmed to +church; how through long days and nights the citizens waited for +relief--and she found these things of interest. But here were the same +portents passing before her eyes, and she read Bor! + +'You are busy, I am afraid,' I said. + +'I am using my time,' she answered primly. + +'I am sorry,' I rejoined; 'for my lady wants you to go to church with +her.' + +She shut up her book with peevish violence, and looked at me with her +weak eyes. 'Why does not your Papist go with her?' she said +spitefully. 'And then you could do without me. As you do without me +when you have secrets to tell! But I suppose you have brought things +to such a pass now that there is nothing for it but church. And so I +am called in!' + +'I have given my lady's message,' I said patiently. + +'Oh, I know that you are a faithful messenger!' she replied mockingly. +'Who writes love letters grows thin; who carries them, fat. You are +growing a big man, Master Martin.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. + + +That was a night that saw few in Nuremberg sleep soundly. Under the +moon the great city lay waiting; watching and fasting through the +short summer night. Hour by hour the solemn voices of sentinels, +tramping the walls and towers, told the tale of time; to men, who, +hearing it, muttered a prayer, and, turning on the other side, slept +again; to women, who lay, trembling and sleepless, their every breath +a prayer. For who would see the next night? Who that went out would +come in? How many, parting at dawn, would meet again? The howling of +the dogs that, wild as wolves, roved round the camp and scratched in +the shallow graveyards, made dreary answer. Many there were, even then +I remember, who thought the King foolhardy, and preached patience; and +would have had him still sit quiet and play the game of starvation +against his enemy, even to the bitter end. But these were of the +harder sort--men who, with brain, might have been Wallensteins. And +few of them knew the real state of things. I say nothing of the city. +Who died there in those months, in holes and corners and dark places, +the magistrates may have known, no others. But in the camp, for many +days before the King marched out, a hundred men died of plague and +want every day; so that in the sum, twenty thousand men entered his +lines who never left them. Moderate men set the loss of the city at +ten thousand more. Add to these items that the plague was increasing, +that all stores of food were nearly exhausted, that if the issue were +longer delayed the cavalry would have no horses on which to advance or +retreat, and it will be clear, I think, that the King, whose judgment +had never yet deceived him, was right in this also. Or, if he erred, +it was on the side of mercy. + +At dawn all the northern walls and battlements were covered with +white-faced women, come together to see the army leave the camp, in +which it had lain so many weeks. I went up with my lady to the Burg, +whence we could command, not only the city with its necklace of walls +and towers, but the camp encircling it like another and greater city, +encompassed in its turn with gates and ramparts and bastions. And, +beyond this, we had an incomparable view of the country; of our own +stream, the Pegnitz, gliding away through the level plain, to fall +presently into the Rednitz; of the Rednitz, a low line of willows, +running athwart the western meadows; and beyond this, a league and a +half away, of the frowning heights of the Alta Veste, where +Wallenstein hung, vulture-like, waiting to pounce on the city. + +As the sun rose behind us, the shadow of the Burg on which we stood +fell almost to the foot of the distant heights, and covered, as with a +pall, the departing army, which was beginning to pass out of the camp +by the northern and western gates. At the same time the level beams +shone on the dark brow of the Alta Veste, and caught there the flash +of lurking steel. I think that the hearts of many among us sank at the +omen. + +If so, it was not for long, for the sun rose swiftly in the summer sky +and, as it overtopped our little eminence, showed us an innumerable +host pressing out of the camp in long lines, like ants from a hill. +While we gazed, they began to swarm on the plain between the city and +the Rednitz. The colours of a thousand waving pennons, the sheen of a +forest of lances, the duller gleam of cannon crawling slowly along the +roads, caught the sun and the eye; but between them moved other and +darker masses--the regiments of East and West Gothland, the Smaeland +horse, Stalhanske's Finns, the Yellow and Blue regiments, the sombre, +steady veterans of the Swedish force, marching with a neatness and +wheeling with a precision, noticeable even at that distance. + +Doubtless it was a grand and splendid sight, this marching out of a +hundred thousand men--for the army fell little short of that +prodigious number--under the first captain of the age, to fight before +the walls of the richest city in the world. And I have often taken +blame to myself and regretted that I did not regard it with closer +attention, and imprint it more carefully on my memory. But at the time +I was anxious. Somewhere in that great host rode the Waldgrave and +Count Leuchtenstein; and I looked for them, though I had no hope of +finding them. Then little things continually diverted the mind. A +single waggon, which broke down at the gate below us, and could not +for a time be removed, swelled into a matter that obstructed my view +of the whole army; an officer, whose horse ran away in an orchard at +our feet, became, for a moment, more important than a hundred banners. +When I had done with these trifles, the sun had climbed halfway up the +sky, and the foremost troops were already crossing the Rednitz by +Furth, with a sound of trumpets and the flashing of corselets. + +A cannon shot, and then another, and then long rolling thunder from +the heights, over which a pillar of smoke began to gather. My lady +sighed. Below us, in the streets, on the walls, on the towers, women +and men fell on their knees and prayed aloud. Across the plain +horsemen galloped this way or that, hurrying the laggards through the +dust. The great battle was beginning. + +And then on a sudden the firing ceased; the pillar of smoke on the +heights melted away; the rear-guard and the cloud of dust in which it +moved, rolled farther and farther towards the Rednitz and Furth--and +still the guns remained silent. It was noon by this time; soon it was +afternoon. But the suspense was so great that no one went away to eat; +and still the silence prevailed. + +Towards two o'clock I persuaded the Countess to go to her lodgings to +eat; but within the hour she was back again. An officer on the Burg, +who had a perspective glass, reported that Wallenstein was moving; +that cannon and troops could be seen passing through the trees on the +Alta Veste, as if he were descending to meet the King; and for a time +our excitement rose to the highest pitch. But before sunset, news came +that he was quiet; that the King was forming a new camp beyond the +Rednitz, and almost under the enemy's guns; and that the battle would +take place on the morrow. + +The morrow! It seemed to some of us, it was always the morrow. Yet I +think that we slept better that night. Earliest dawn saw us again on +the Burg, staring and straining our eyes westwards. But minutes +passed, hours passed, the sun rose and declined, and still no sound of +battle reached us. Women, with pinched faces, clutched babies to their +breasts; men, pale and stern, gazed into the distance. Those who had +murmured that the King was too hasty, murmured now that he dallied; +for every day the grip of famine grew tighter, its signs more marked. +This evening all my lady's horses were requisitioned and carried off, +to mount the King's staff, it was said, of whom some were going afoot. + +A third day rose on the anxious city, and yet a fourth, and still the +armies stood inactive. Communication with the new camp was easy, but +as each day, and all day, a battle was expected, such news as we heard +rather heightened than relieved our fears. On this fourth morning, I +received a message from the Waldgrave, asking me to come to him in the +camp; that he had something to say to me, and could not leave. + +I was not unwilling to see for myself how things stood there; and I +determined to go. I did not tell the Countess, however, nor Marie, +thinking it useless to alarm them; but I left Steve in charge, and, +bidding him be on his guard, promised to be back by noon at the +latest. As I had no horse, I had to do the journey on foot, and soon +was down in the plain myself, threading the orchards and plodding +along the trampled roads, where so many thousands had preceded me. The +ground in some spots was actually ploughed up; dust covered +everything; the trees were bruised, the fences broken down. Old +boots and shattered pike-staves marked the route, and here and +there--saddest sight of all--dead horses, fast breeding the plague. +The sky, for the first time for days, was clouded, and making the most +of the coolness I gained the river bank by nine o'clock, and crossing +found myself close to the new camp. + +The army had just marched out, yet the lines seemed full. The King had +strictly forbidden all women and camp-followers to cross the Rednitz; +but an army in these days needs so many drivers and sutlers that I +found myself one among thousands. I asked for the Waldgrave, and got +as many answers as there were men within hearing. One said that he was +with his regiment of horse on the left flank; another, that he was +with Duke Bernard's staff; a third, that he was not with the army at +all. Despairing of hearing anything in the confusion, I was in two +minds about turning back; but in the end I took heart of grace and +determined to seek him in the field. + +Fortunately, the last regiments had barely cleared the lines, and a +few minutes' rapid walking set me abreast of the rearmost, which +was hastening into position. Here also at the first glance I saw +nothing but confusion; but a second resolved the mass into two +parts, and then I saw that the King's army lay in two long lines +facing the heights. An interval of about three hundred paces +divided the lines, but behind each was a small reserve. In the +first were most of the German regiments, the second being composed +of Finns, Swedes, and Northerners. The cavalry were grouped on the +flanks, and seemed stronger on the left flank. In the rear of all, +as well as in gaps left between the pikes and musketmen, were the +King's ordnance--drakes, serpents, falcons, and cartows, with the +light two- and four-pounders for which he was famous. + +Such an array--so many thousand men, gay with steel, and a thousand +pennons--seemed to the eye to be invincible; and I looked for the +enemy. He was not to be seen, but fronting the lines at a distance of +three or four hundred paces rose the Alta Veste--a steep, rugged hill, +scarred and seamed, and planted thickly with pines and jagged stumps +and undergrowth. Here and there among the trees great rocks peeped +out, or dark holes yawned. The dry beds of two torrents furrowed this +natural glacis; and opposite these I noticed that our strongest +regiments were placed. But of the enemy I could see nothing, except +here and there a sparkle of steel among the trees; I could hear +nothing, except now and then the fall of a stone, that, slipping under +an unseen foot, fell from ledge to ledge until it reached the plain. + +Everywhere the hush of expectation stirred the heart; for in the +presence of that great host silence seemed a thing supernatural. As +the regiment I had joined, the last to arrive, wheeled into position +in the middle of the right wing, I asked one of the officers, who +stood near me, if the enemy had retired. + +'Wait!' he said grimly--he spoke with a foreign accent--'and you will +see. But to what regiment do you belong, comrade?' + +'To none here,' I said. + +He looked astonished, and asked me what I was doing there, then. + +I had my lips apart to answer him, when a trumpet sounded, and in an +instant, all along the line, the Swedish cannon began to fire, shaking +the earth and filling the air round us with smoke, that in a twinkling +hid everything. This lasted for two or three minutes with a deafening +noise; but as far as I could hear, the enemy were still silent. I was +wondering what would happen next, and hoping that they had given up +the position, when my new friend touched my arm and pointed to the +front. I peered through the smoke, and saw dimly that the regiment +before us, a German brigade about eight hundred strong, was moving on +at a run and making for the hill. A minute elapsed, the smoke rolled +between. I listened, trembling. Afterwards I learned that at the same +moment two other parties sprang forward and dashed to the assault. + +Then, at last, with an ear-splitting roar that seemed to silence our +guns, the enemy spoke. The hill in front, hidden the second before by +smoke, became in a moment visible, lit up by a thousand darting +flames. Dark masses seemed to topple down, rocks hung midway in air, +and involuntarily I stepped back and uttered a cry of horror. Out of +that hell of fire came an answering wail of shrieks and curses--the +feeble voice of man! + +'Ach Gott!' I said, trembling. My hair stood on end. + +'Steady, comrade, steady!' muttered the man who had before spoken to +me. 'Presently it will be our turn.' + +He had scarcely spoken, when a man came riding along the front with +his hat in his hand. He rode a white horse, and wore no back or +breast, nor, as far as I could see, any armour. + +'Steady, Swedes, steady!' he cried in a loud voice--he was a big, +stout man with a fine presence. 'Your time will come by-and-by. Then +remember Breitenfeld!' + +It was the King of Sweden. In a moment he was gone, passing along the +lines; and I drew breath again, wondering what would happen next. I +had not long to wait. Men came straggling back across our front, some +wounded, some helping their comrades along, all with faces ghastly +under the powder-stains. And then like magic a new regiment stood +before us, where the other had stood. Again the King's guns pealed +along the line, again I heard the hoarse cry 'Vorwaerts!' waited a +minute, and once more the hill seemed to be rent by the explosion. +From every cave and ledge guns flashed forth, lighting up the smoke. +The roar died away again--slowly, from west to east--in cries and +shrieks; and presently a few men, scores where there had been +hundreds, came wandering back like ghosts through the reek. + +'This looks ill!' I muttered. I was no longer scared. The gunpowder +was getting into my head. + +'Pooh!' my friend answered. 'This is only the beginning. It will take +men to fill that gap. Wait till our turn comes.' + +By this time the Waldgrave and my errand were forgotten, and I thought +only of the battle. I watched two more assaults, saw two more +regiments hurl themselves vainly against the fiery breast of the hill; +then came a diversion. As the scattered fragments of the last came +reeling back, a sudden roar of many voices startled me. The ground +seemed to shake, and right across our front came a charge of +horse--out of the smoke and into the smoke! In an instant our +stragglers were trodden down, cut up, and swept away, before our eyes +and within shot of us. + +The men round me uttered shouts of rage. The line swayed, there was an +instant's confusion. Then a harsh voice cried above the tumult, +'Steady, Gothlanders, steady! Pikes forward! Blow your matches! +Steady! steady!' and in a twinkling, with a crash, such as the ninth +wave makes when it falls on a pebbly beach, the horse were on us. I +had a glimpse through the smoke of rearing breasts, and floating +manes, and grinning teeth, and of men's faces grim and white, held low +behind the steel; and I struck out blindly with my half-pike. Still +they came on, and something hit me on the chest and I fell: but +instantly a clash of long pikes met over my body, and I scrambled to +my feet unhurt! Then a dozen spurts of flame leapt out round me, and +the horsemen seemed to melt away. + +Into the smoke; but before I had time to know that they were gone, +they had wheeled and were back again like the wind, led by a man on a +black horse, who came on so gallantly to the very pike-points, that I +thought it must be Pappenheim himself. He wore the black breastplate +and helmet of Pappenheim's cuirassiers; and it was only when his horse +reared up on end within a pike's length of me, and he fired his pistol +among us, wounding two men, that I espied under the helmet the stern +face and flashing eyes of Tzerclas. He recognised me at the same +moment, and hurling his empty pistol in my face, tried to spur his +horse over me. But the long pikes meeting before me kept him off, his +men vanished, some falling, some flying, and in a moment he stood +almost alone. + +Even then his courage did not fail him. Scornfully eyeing our line +from end to end, he hurled a bitter taunt at us, and wheeling his +horse coolly, prepared to ride off. I think that we should have let +him go, in pure admiration of his courage. But a wounded man on whom +he trod houghed the horse with his sword. In a moment he was down, and +two men running out of the line, fixed him to the earth with their +pikes. + +I confess, for myself, I would have spared him for his courage; and I +ran to him to see if he was dead. He was not quite gone. He recognised +me, and tried to speak. Forgetting the dangers round me, the uproar +and tumult, the dim figures of men and horses flying through the +smoke, I knelt down by him. + +'What is it?' I said. After all, he was my lady's cousin. + +'Tell him--tell him--the child! He will never get it!' he breathed. +With each word the blood-stained froth rose to his lips, and he +clutched my hand in a cold grip. + +He strove to say something more, and raised himself with a last effort +on his elbow. 'Tell her,' he gasped, his dark face distorted--'tell +her--I--I----' + +No more. His eyes turned, his head fell back. He was dead. What he +would have said of my lady, whether he would have sent her a message +or what, no man will know here. But I fancied it like the man, who +might have been great had he ever given a thought to others, that his +last word was--"I." + +His head was scarcely down before I had to run back within the pikes. +A fresh charge of horse swept over him, we received them with a +volley; they broke, and a Swedish regiment, the West Gothland horse, +rode them down. Meanwhile our man[oe]uvres had brought us insensibly +into the first line. I found that we were close under the hill, and I +was not surprised when a handful of horse whirled up to us out of the +_melee_, and one, disengaging himself from the others, rode along our +front. It was the King. His face was stained with powder, his horse +was bleeding, a ball had ripped up his boot; it was said that he had +been placing and pointing cannon with his own hands. But as the +regiment greeted him with a hoarse cheer, he smiled as if he had been +in a ball-room. + +He raised his hand for silence; such silence as could be obtained +where every moment men shot off a cannon, and at no great distance a +mortal combat was in progress. + +'Men of Gothland!' he cried, in a clear, ringing voice, 'it is your +turn now! You are My children. Take me this hill! Be steady, strike +home, flinch not! Show these Germans what you can do! The word is, God +with us. Remember St. Bartholomew's, and Forward! Forward! Forward!' + +My heart beat furiously; but there was no retreat. Rather than be left +standing on the ground, I would have died there. In a moment we were +moving on elbow to elbow, with a stern, heavy step. Some one struck up +a Swedish psalm, and to the thunder of its rhythm we strode on--on to +the very foot of the hill; on, until we reached the rough shale, and +the rugged steep stood above us. With a gallant shout an officer flung +his hat on to the slope, a score of Ritt-Meisters sprang forward +together; and then for a moment we and all things seemed to stand +still. The wood above us belched fire, the eyes were blinded, the ears +stunned, rocks and stones rolled down, all creation seemed to be +falling on us in fearful ruin. Men were hurled this way and that, or +fell in their places, or, reeling to and fro, clutched one another. +For an instant, I say, we stood still. + +But for an instant only. Then with a shout of rage the Swedes +sprang forward, and grasping boughs, stumps, rocks, swung themselves +up, doing such things in their fury as no cool man could do. +A row of jagged stakes barred the way; men set their naked breasts +against them, and others climbed over on their shoulders. Bleeding, +wounded, singed, torn by splinters, all who lived climbed. To get +up--up--up--higher, in face of the storm of shot and iron; up, over +the bursting mines and through the smoke; up, to where they stood and +butchered us, was the only instinct left. + +And we did get up--to a bastion, jutting from the hillside, where a +company of picked men with pikes and three cannons waited for us +behind a breastwork. They thought to stop us, and stood firm; our men +were mad. Flinging themselves against the mouths of the cannon, they +scaled the work in a moment, and left not one defender alive! + +God with us! + +Stern and high the shout rang out; but breath was everything, and the +scarp still rose above us and the shot still tore our ranks! On! Up a +torrent bed now, round one corner and another, to where we were a +little out of the line of fire, and an overhanging shoulder covered +us. Here we had room to take breath; and for the first time, some +hope of life, of ultimate escape, entered my breast. The officer +who led us--I learned afterwards that he was the great General +Torstensohn--cried, 'Well done, Swedes!' and with the confidence of +giants we were once more breasting the ascent, when a withering +volley, poured in at short range, checked the head of the column. +Before we could recover way, a body of pikes rushed to meet us, and in +an instant, having the vantage of the ground, rolled us, still +fighting desperately, down the steep. The general was swept away, the +Ritt-Meisters were down. Once we rallied, but ineffectually. The enemy +were reinforced, and in a moment the rout was complete. + +At the moment the tide turned and our men fell back, I happened to be +against the rock-wall, in something of a niche; and the stream passed +me by. I had two slight wounds, and I stood an instant, giddy and +confused, taking breath. The instant showed me my comrades in the act +of being slaughtered one by one, and a great horror seized me. I found +no hope anywhere. Below were the cruel pikes, in a moment their savage +bearers would be reascending; above were the enemy. But above, if I +climbed on, I might live a little while; and in that desperate hope I +scrambled out of the torrent bed and up the sheer hill on the right. +Two or three saw me from the torrent bed, and fired at me; and others +shouted, and began to follow. But I only pressed on, right up the +scarp, which was there like the side of a house. + +A dozen times I all but fell back; still in a fever of dread I kept +on. The sweat poured down me; I had no hope or aim, I thought only of +the pikes behind. Presently I came to a jutting shoulder that all but +overhung me; to pass it seemed to be impossible. But in my frenzy I +did the impossible. I swung myself from root to root; where one stone +gave, I clutched another, and yet another; I hung on with tooth and +nail. I flattened myself against the rock. I heard the pursuers rail +and curse, heard the bullets strike the earth round me, and then in a +moment I was up. + +Up; but only to come instantly on a wall crossing the steep and +barring my way, and to find a dozen pikes levelled at my breast. +Desperate, giving up hope at last--I had long dropped my weapon--I +cried mechanically, 'God with us!' and threw up my arms. + +I nearly fell backwards--for what did it matter? But the men were +quick. In a moment one had me by the collar. 'And God! They were +friends! They were friends, and I was saved. + +One of the first faces that I saw, as I leaned breathless against the +wall, unable for the time to answer the questions that poured upon me, +was the Waldgrave's--the Waldgrave's, with the light of battle in his +eyes, a laugh of triumph on his lips. He was wounded, bandaged, +blackened, his fair hair singed; but he was happy. Presently I +understood why; and why I was safe and among friends. + +'A little earlier,' he said--he seemed in his exaltation not a whit +surprised to see me--'and you would have had a different reception, +Martin. We only turned them out of this an hour ago!' + +All his superior officers had fallen, and his had been the voice that +had cheered on the forlorn, to which he was attached--acting from the +right flank--and heartened them, just when all seemed lost, to make +one more effort, ending in the capture of this sconce. Joined to the +mass of the hill only by a narrow neck, it commanded the enemy's +position. + +'We only want cannon!' he said, and in a moment I was as one of the +garrison. 'Three guns, and the day is ours. When will they come? When +will they come?' + +'You have sent for them?' + +'I have sent a dozen times.' + +And he sent as many times more; while we, a mere handful, tired and +worn and famished, but every man with a hero's thoughts, leaned +against the breastwork, and gazed down into the plain, where, under +the smoke, pigmy troops rushed to and fro, and Nuremberg's fate hung +in the balance. In an hour it would be night. And still no +reinforcements came, no cannon. + +Thrice the enemy tried to drive us out. But the neck was narrow, +and, pressed along their front by three assaults, they came on +half-heartedly and fell back lightly; and we held it. In the mean +time, it became more and more clear that elsewhere the day was going +against us. Until night fell, and through long hours of darkness, +forlorn after forlorn was flung against the heights--in vain. Regiment +after regiment, the core of the Swedish army, came on undaunted, only +to be repulsed with awful loss; with the single exception of the +Waldgrave's little sconce not a foot of the hill was captured. + +About nine o'clock reinforcements reached us, and some food, but no +guns. Two hours later the King drew sullenly back into his lines, and +the attack ceased. Even then we looked to see the fight resumed with +the dawn; we looked still for victory and revenge. We could not +believe that all was over. But towards three o'clock in the morning +rain fell, rendering the slopes slippery and impassable; and with the +first flush of sunrise came an order from Prince Bernard directing us +to withdraw. + +Perhaps the defeat fell as lightly on the Waldgrave as on any man, +though to him it was a huge disappointment. For he alone of all had +made his footing good. I thought that it was that which made him look +so cheerful; but while the rank and file were falling in, he came to +me. + +'Well, Martin,' he said. 'We are both veterans now.' + +I laughed. The rain had ceased. The sun was getting up, and the air +was fresh. Far off in the plain the city sparkled with a thousand +gems. I thought of Marie, I thought of life, and I thanked God that I +was alive. + +'I have an errand for you,' he continued, a laugh in his eyes. 'Come +and see what we took yesterday, besides this sconce.' + +At the back of the work were two low huts, that had perhaps been +guardrooms or officers' quarters. He led the way into one, bending his +head as he passed under the low lintel. + +'An odd place,' he said. + +'Yes, my lord.' + +'Yes, but I mean--an odd place for what I found here,' he rejoined. +'Look, man.' + +There were two low bunks in the hut, and on these and on the floor lay +a medley of soldiers' cloaks, pouches, weapons, and ammunition. There +was blood on the one wall and the door was shattered, and in a corner, +thrown one on another, were two corpses. The Waldgrave took no heed of +these, but stepped to the corner bunk and drew away a cloak that lay +on it. Something--the sound in that place scared me as a cannon-shot +would not have--began to wail. On the bed, staring at us between tears +and wonder, lay a child. + +'So!' I said, and stared at it. + +'Do you know it?' the Waldgrave asked. + +'Know it? No,' I answered. + +'Are you sure?' he replied, smiling. 'Look again.' + +'Not I!' I said. 'How did it come here? A child! A baby! It is +horrible.' + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'We found it in this hut; in that bed. A +man to whom we gave quarter said it was----' + +'No!' I shouted. + +'Yes,' he answered, nodding. + +'Tzerclas' child! Count Leuchtenstein's child! Do you mean it?' I +cried. + +He nodded. 'Tzerclas' child, the man said. The other's child, I guess. +Nay, I am certain. It knows your girl's name.' + +'Marie's?' + +The Waldgrave nodded. 'Take it up,' he said. 'And take charge of it.' + +But I only stared at it. The thing seemed too wonderful to be true. I +told the Waldgrave of Tzerclas' death, and of what he had muttered +about the child. + +'Yes, he was a clever man,' the Waldgrave answered. 'But, you see, God +has proved too clever for him. Come, take it, man.' + +I took it. 'I had better carry it straight to the Count's quarters?' I +said. + +The Waldgrave paused, looked away, then looked at me. 'No,' he said at +last, and slowly, 'take it to Lady Rotha. Let her give it to him.' + +I understood him, I guessed all he meant; but I made no answer, and we +went out together. The rain was still in the air, but the sky was +blue, the distance clear. The spire of the distant city shone like my +lady's amethysts. Below us the dead lay in thousands. But we were +alive. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + A WINGLESS CUPID. + + +That was a dreary procession that a little before noon on the 25th of +August wound its way back into Nuremberg. The King, repulsed but not +defeated, remained in his camp beyond the Rednitz, and with trumpets +sounding and banners displayed, strove vainly to tempt his wily +antagonist into the plain. Those who returned on this day, therefore, +carrying with them the certain news of ill-fortune, were the wounded +and the useless, a few prisoners, two or three envoys, half a dozen +horse-dealers, and a train of waggons bearing crippled and dying men +to the hospital. + +Of this company I made one, and I doubt if there were six others who +bore in their breasts hearts as light, or who could look on the sunny +roofs and peaked gables of the city with eyes as cheerful. Prince +Bernard had spoken kindly to me; the King had sent for me to inquire +where I last saw General Torstensohn; I had stood up a man amongst +men; and I deemed these things cheaply bought at the cost of a little +blood. On the other hand, the horrors of the day were still so fresh +in my mind that my heart overflowed with thankfulness and the love of +life; feelings which welled up anew whenever I looked abroad and saw +the Rednitz flowing gently between the willows, or looked within and +pictured the Werra rippling swiftly down the shallows under cool shade +of oak and birch and alder. + +Add to all these things one more. I had just learned that Count +Leuchtenstein lived and was unhurt, and on the saddle before me under +a cloak I bore his son. More than one asked me what booty I had taken, +where others had found only lead or steel, that I hugged my treasure +so closely and smiled to myself. But I gave them no answer. I only +held the child the tighter, and pushing on more quickly, reached the +city a little after twelve. + +I say nothing of the gloomy looks and sad faces that I encountered at +the gate, of the sullen press that would hardly give way, or of the +thousand questions I had to parry. I hardened my heart, and, +disengaging myself as quickly as I could, I rode straight to my lady's +lodgings; and it was fortunate that I did so. For I was only just in +time. As I dismounted at the door--receiving such a welcome from Steve +and the other men as almost discovered my treasure, whether I would or +no--I saw Count Leuchtenstein turn into the street by the other end +and ride slowly towards me, a trooper behind him. + +The men would have detained me. They wanted to hear the news and the +details of the battle, and where I had been. But I thrust my way +through them and darted in. + +Quick as I was, one was still quicker, and as I went out of the light +into the cool darkness of the entrance, flew down the stairs to meet +me, and, before I could see, was in my arms, covering me with tears +and laughter and little cries of thanksgiving. How the child fared +between us I do not know, for for a minute I forgot it, my lady, the +Count, everything, in the sweetness of that greeting; in the clinging +of those slender arms round my neck, and the joy of the little face +given up to my kisses. + +But in a moment, the child, being, I suppose, half choked between us, +uttered a feeble cry; and Marie sprang back, startled and scared, and +perhaps something more. + +'What is it?' she cried, beginning to tremble. 'What have you got?' + +I did not know how to tell her on the instant, and I had no time to +prepare her, and I stood stammering. + +Suddenly,'Give it to me!' she cried in a strange voice. + +But I thought that in the fulness of her joy and surprise she might +swoon or something, and I held back. 'You won't drop it,' I said +feebly, 'when you know what it is?' + +Her eyes flashed in the half light. 'Fool!' she cried--yes, though I +could scarcely believe my ears. 'Give it to me.' + +I was so taken aback that I gave it up meekly on the spot. She flew +off with it into a corner, and jealously turned her back on me before +she uncovered the child; then all in a moment she fell to crying, and +laughing, crooning over it and making strange noises. I heard the +Count's horse at the door, and I stepped to her. + +'You are sure that it _is_ your child?' I said. + +'_Sure?_' she cried; and she darted a glance at me that for scorn +outdid all my lady's. + +After that I had no doubt left. 'Then bring it to the Countess, my +girl,' I said. 'He is here. And it is she who should give it to him.' + +'Who is here?' she cried sharply. + +'Count Leuchtenstein.' + +She stared at me for a moment, and then suddenly quailed and broke +down, as it were. She blushed crimson; her eyes looked at me +piteously, like those of a beaten dog. + +'Oh,' she said, 'I forgot that it was you!' + +'Never mind that,' I said. 'Take the child to my lady.' + +She nodded, in quick comprehension. As the Count crossed the threshold +below, she sped up the stairs, and I after her. My lady was in the +parlour, walking the length of it impatiently, with a set face; but +whether the impatience was on my account, because I had delayed below +so long, or on the Count's, whose arrival she had probably seen from +the window, I will not say, for as I entered and before she could +speak, Marie ran to her with the child and placed it in her arms. + +My lady turned for a moment quite pale. 'What is it?' she said +faintly, holding it from her awkwardly. + +Marie cried out between laughing and crying, 'The child! The child, my +lady.' + +'And Count Leuchtenstein is on the stairs,' I said. + +The colour swept back into the Countess's face in a flood and covered +it from brow to neck. For a moment, taken by surprise, she forgot her +pride and looked at us shyly, timidly. 'Where--where did you recover +it?' she murmured. + +'The Waldgrave recovered it,' I answered hurriedly, 'and sent it to +your excellency, that you might give it to Count Leuchtenstein.' + +'The Waldgrave!' she cried. + +'Yes, my lady, with that message,' I answered strenuously. + +The Countess looked to Marie for help. I could hear steps on the +stairs--at the door; and I suppose that the two women settled it with +their eyes. For no words passed, but in a twinkling Marie snatched the +child, which was just beginning to cry, from the Countess and ran away +with it through an inner door. As that door fell to, the other opened, +and Ernst announced Count Leuchtenstein. + +He came in, looking embarrassed, and a little stiff. His buff coat +showed marks of the corselet--he had not changed it--and his boots +were dusty. It seemed to me that he brought in a faint reek of powder +with him, but I forgot this the next moment in the look of melancholy +kindness I espied in his eyes--a look that enabled me for the first +time to see him as my lady saw him. + +She met him very quietly, with a heightened colour, but the most +perfect self-possession. I marvelled to see how in a moment she was +herself again. + +'I rejoice to see you safe, Count Leuchtenstein,' she said. 'I heard +early this morning that you were unhurt.' + +'Yes,' he answered. 'I have not a scratch, where so many younger men +have fallen.' + +'Alas! there will be tears on many hearths,' my lady said. + +'Yes. Poor Germany!' he answered. 'Poor Germany! It is a fearful +thing. God forgive us who have to do with the making of war. Yet we +may hope, as long as our young men show such valour and courage as +some showed yesterday; and none more conspicuously than the Waldgrave +Rupert.' + +'I am glad,' my lady said, colouring, 'that he justified your +interference on his behalf, Count Leuchtenstein. It was right that he +should; and right that I should do more--ask your pardon for the +miserable ingratitude of which my passion made me guilty a while ago.' + +'Countess!' he cried. + +'No,' she said, stopping him with a gesture full of dignity. 'You must +hear me out, for now that I have confessed, we are quits. I behaved +ill--so ill that I deserved a heavy punishment. You thought so--and +inflicted it!' + +Her voice dropped with the last words. He turned very red, and looked +at her wistfully; but I suppose that he dared not draw conclusions. +For he remained silent, and she resumed, more lightly. + +'So Rupert did well yesterday?' she said. 'I am glad, for he will be +pleased.' + +'He did more than well!' Count Leuchtenstein answered, with awkward +warmth. 'He distinguished himself in the face of the whole army. His +courage and coolness were above praise. As we have----' The Count +paused, then blundered on hastily--'quarrelled, dare I say, Countess, +over him, I am anxious to make him the ground of our reconciliation +also. I have formed the highest opinion of him; and I hope to advance +his interests in every way.' + +My lady raised her eyebrows. 'With me?' she said quaintly. + +The Count fidgeted, and looked very ill at ease. 'May I speak quite +plainly?' he said at last. + +'Surely,' the Countess answered. + +'Then it can be no secret to you that he has--formed an attachment to +you. It would be strange if he had not,' the Count added gallantly. + +'And he has asked you to speak for him?' my lady exclaimed, in an odd +tone. + +'No, not exactly. But----' + +'You think that it--it would be a good match for me,' she said, her +voice trembling, but whether with tears or laughter, I could not tell. +'You think that, being a woman, and for the present houseless, and +almost friendless, I should do well to marry him?' + +'He is a brave and honest man,' the Count muttered, looking all +ways--and looking very miserable. 'And he loves you!' he added with an +effort. + +'And you think that I should marry him?' my lady persisted +mercilessly. 'Answer me, if you please, Count Leuchtenstein, or you +are a poor ambassador.' + +'I am not an ambassador,' he replied, thus goaded. 'But I +thought----' + +'That I ought to marry him?' + +'If you love him,' the Count muttered. + +My lady took a turn to the window, looked out, and came back. When she +spoke at last, I could not tell whether the harshness in her voice was +real or assumed. + +'I see how it is,' she said, 'very clearly, Count Leuchtenstein. I +have confessed, and I have been punished; but I am not forgiven. I +must do something more, it seems. Wait!' + +He was going to protest, to remonstrate, to deny; but she was gone, +out through the door, to return on the instant with something in her +arms. She took it to the Count and held it out to him. + +'See!' she said, her voice broken by sobs; 'it is your child. God has +given it back again. God has given it to you, because you trusted in +Him. It is your child.' + +He stood as if turned to stone. 'Is it?' he said at last, in a low, +strained voice. 'Is it? Then thank God for His mercy to my house. But +how--shall I know it?' + +'The girl knows it. Marie knows it,' my lady cried; 'and the child +knows her. And Martin--Martin will tell you how it was found--how the +Waldgrave found it.' + +'The Waldgrave?' the Count cried. + +'Yes, the Waldgrave,' she answered; 'and he sent it to me to give to +you.' + +Then I went to him and told him all I knew; and Marie, who, like my +lady, was laughing through her tears, took the child, and showed him +how it knew her, and remembered my name and my lady's, and had this +mark and that mark, and so forth, until he was convinced; and while in +that hour all Nuremberg outside our house mourned and lamented, +within, I think, there were as thankful hearts as anywhere in the +world, so that even Steve, when he came peeping through the door to +see what was the matter, went blubbering down again. + +Presently Count Leuchtenstein said something handsome to Marie about +her care of the child, and slipping off a gold chain that he was +wearing, threw it round her neck, with a pleasant word to me. Marie, +covered with blushes, took this as a signal to go, and would have left +the child with his father; but the boy objected strongly, and the +Count, with a laugh, bade her take him. + +'If he were a little older!' he said. 'But I have not much +accommodation for a child in my quarters. Next week I am going to +Cassel, and then----' + +'You will take him with you?' my lady said. + +The Count looked at the closing door, as it fell to behind Marie, and +when the latch dropped, he spoke. 'Countess,' he said bluntly, 'have I +misunderstood you?' + +My lady's eyes fell. 'I do not know,' she said softly. 'I should think +not. I have spoken very plainly.' + +'I am almost an old man,' he said, looking at her kindly, 'and you are +a young woman. Have you been amusing yourself at my expense?' + +The Countess shook her head. 'No,' she said, with a gleam of laughter +in her eyes; 'I have done with that. I began to amuse myself with +General Tzerclas, and I found it so perilous a pleasure that I +determined to forswear it. Though,' she added, looking down and +playing with her bracelet, 'why I should tell you this, I do not +know.' + +'Because--henceforth I hope that you will tell me everything,' the +Count said suddenly. + +'Very well,' my lady answered, colouring deeply. + +'And will be my wife?' + +'I will--if you desire it.' + +The Count walked to the window and returned. 'That is not enough,' he +said, looking at her with a smile of infinite tenderness. 'It must not +be unless _you_ desire it; for I have all to gain, you little or +nothing. Consider, child,' he went on, laying his hand gently on her +shoulder as she sat, but not now looking at her. 'Consider; I am a man +past middle age. I have been married already, and the portrait of my +child's mother stands always on my table. Even of the life left to +me--a soldier's life--I can offer you only a part; the rest I owe to +my country, to the poor and the peasant who cry for peace, to my +master, than whom God has given no State a better ruler, to God +Himself, who places power in my hands. All these I cannot and will not +desert. Countess, I love you, and men can still love when youth is +past. But I would far rather never feel the touch of your hand or of +your lips than I would give up these things. Do you understand?' + +'Perfectly,' my lady said, looking steadfastly before her, though her +heaving breast betrayed her emotion. 'And I desire to be your wife, +and to help you in these things as the greatest happiness God can give +me.' + +The Count stooped gently and kissed her forehead. 'Thank you,' he +said. + + + * * * * * + + +I have very little to add. All the world knows that the King of +Sweden, unable to entice Wallenstein from his lines, remained in his +camp before Nuremberg for fifteen days longer, during which period the +city and the army suffered all the extremities of famine and plague. +After that, satisfied that he had so far reduced the Duke of +Friedland's strength that it no longer menaced the city, he marched +away with his army into Thuringia; and there, two months later, on the +immortal field of Lutzen, defeated his enemy, and fell, some say by a +traitor's hand, in the moment of victory; leaving to all who ever +looked upon his face the memory of a sovereign and soldier without a +rival, modest in sunshine and undaunted in storm. I saw him seven +times and I say this. + +And all the world knows in what a welter of war and battles and sieges +and famines we have since lain, so that no man foresees the end, and +many suppose that happiness has quite fled from the earth, or at least +from German soil. Yet this is not so. It is true in comparison with +the old days, when my lady kept her maiden Court at Heritzburg, and +our greatest excitement was a visit from Count Tilly, we lead a +troubled life. My lady's eyes are often grave, and the days when she +goes with her two brave boys to the summit of the Schloss and looks +southward with a wistful face, are many; many, for the Count, though +he verges on seventy, still keeps the field and is a tower in the +councils of the north. But with all that, the life is a full one--full +of worthy things and help given to others, and a great example greatly +set, and peace honestly if vainly pursued. And for this and for other +reasons, I believe that my lady, doing her duty, hoping and praying +and training her children, is happy; perhaps as happy as in the old +days when Fraulein Anna prosed of virtue and felicity and Voetius. + +The Waldgrave Rupert, still the handsomest of men, but sobered by +the stress of war, comes to see us in the intervals of battles and +sieges. On these occasions the children flock round him, and he tells +tales--of Nordlingen, and Leipzig, and the leaguer of Breysach; and +blue eyes grow stern, and chubby faces grim, and shell-white teeth are +ground together, while Marie sits pale and quaking, devouring her boys +with hungry mother's eyes. But they do not laugh at her now; they have +not since the day when the Waldgrave bade them guess who was the +bravest person he had ever known. + +'Father!' my lady's sons cried. And Marie's, not to be outdone, cried +the same. + +But the Waldgrave shook his head. 'No,' he said, 'try again.' + +My youngest guessed the King of Sweden. + +'No,' the Waldgrave answered him. 'Your mother.' + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lady Rotha, by Stanley J. Weyman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LADY ROTHA *** + +***** This file should be named 38985.txt or 38985.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/9/8/38985/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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