Part 12

"They are innocent! by the Lord above, they are innocent!" exclaimed Aage, impetuously. "I must to the king; it is high time." He tore the sling from his left arm, and moved it somewhat stiffly. "It _shall_ do," he continued; "my right arm hath no one lamed. I must speed to Kallundborg to the king. If the castle is to be stormed--if the traitorous junker is to be chastised, leave that to me--against his own brother my king shall not himself bear sword and shield. Matters must have been carried far; his forbearance can hold out no longer."

"Still, however," interrupted Master Petrus, "he expressly enjoins you to spare the junker, wherever you meet him.--You are to blockade Holbek with as little alarm as possible.--If you could even yet make peace between the brothers, noble Drost! you would perhaps save state and kingdom."

The door of the ladies' apartment now opened, and the commandant returned. "Your morning repast will be cold, my honoured guests," he said, courteously; "but what see I, Sir Drost? Your arm is not in the sling?"

"It can and must be dispensed with," answered Aage. "You have spoilt me here; you have been much too prudent and watchful. I have now to thank you and your noble captives for your kindly care. The king needs strong arms and swords. Can you instantly furnish me with two hundred men from the garrison here?"

"Two hundred men shall stand fully armed and in the court-yard here within an hour, if you, as Drost, command it in the king's name," answered Sir Ribolt. "Dare I ask their destination?"

"I march to Holbek and Kallundborg. There is the king's name and seal for it."--He gave him the king's letter. "It is for you also--but it is to go no farther than ourselves."

"Against the junker? merciful Heaven! Sir Drost, is it possible?" exclaimed the commandant, clasping his hands in the greatest astonishment.

"The junker hath taken a fancy to add new fortifications, and shut the gates against the king's men, as you know. It is probably only an unfortunate jest, or a misunderstanding; but you see yourself such gates must be forced betimes, when the king is on the road, and would enter therein. Two hundred men, then, within an hour, but with as little stir as possible, of course!"

"You shall find all ready ere it rings to high mass," answered the commandant, with calm determination. "But your wound, Sir Drost! Can you yourself ride forth without danger? Otherwise the task is mine?"

"With or without danger I must--I will onward," answered Aage. "When it rings for high mass, then; and secrecy is expedient--Let it concern a hunt after the outlaws--Understand you?"

"Right! that shall be the belief in the castle here within the half hour." So saying, Sir Ribolt hasted into the castle-yard, and Drost Aage went with Master Petrus into the ladies' apartment.

CHAP. XI.

The state of feverish anxiety into which Aage had been thrown, had called the colour into his cheek, and restored the appearance of health to his countenance. In the spacious apartment appropriated to the female inmates of the castle, where strangers were received, and where the household assembled on holidays before divine service, Aage and Master Petrus were received by the aged mistress of the castle, who herself presented the guests their warm morning drink in cups of polished silver. At a large round table in the middle of the apartment, which was covered with a white fringed woollen table-cloth, sat the two German minstrels, with the smoking cups before them, in pleasant converse with the ladies. Ulrica questioned them, with curiosity, of their visits to foreign princes, in whose praise and exaltation Master Rumelant was as inexhaustible as he was unwearied in reckoning up all the honour he had gained by his lays with these "excellent lords, his august and most gracious patrons."

Margaretha also took part in the conversation with the strangers; but she was more modest in her queries. She was much more interested in their art than in the good fortune they had sought and obtained by it from the great. The solemn Master Poppe favoured her with a detailed account of the genius and lays of the famous Minnesingers, whose most flourishing period Master Poppe asserted could only be supposed by the ignorant to have passed away. He affirmed, on the contrary, that the noble art of minstrelsy had only now for the first time fully developed itself on higher themes,--in the praise of moral truth and seraphic beauty. Minstrels no longer repeated the monotonous praises of verdant May, or of the beauty of earthly females and vain loves, but now in the same, or even in a more regular measure, sang moral or religious themes and important theological dogmas. He could not, however, deny that the ancient love songs possessed a degree of pathos and animation which even his good friends Master Henrick Frauenlob and a certain Master Regenbogen, as well as the famous schoolmaster of Esslingen, with all their learning, vainly strove to attain. Meanwhile he deemed it very fortunate that, as princes and emperors no longer, as in former times, devoted themselves to the noble art of minstrelsy, now cultivated chiefly by the honest burgher class, there still were lords and princes, like the King of Denmark, to honour and encourage the art, and that the minstrel's lay yet resounded in knightly halls and in the apartments of noble ladies. He lauded the poetic spirit of the chivalrous poetry of Denmark, but still considered it, as well as the love songs, too vain and worldly; a charge which Margaretha took much to heart, although she readily admitted to the learned minstrel, that all the Danish ballads she knew and admired treated of love adventures; not a single one on scriptural or theological subjects.

When Drost Aage entered the ladies' apartment, Margaretha rose to return his greeting, and observed, with some uneasiness, that he had thrown aside his sling. Her attention to Master Poppe's discourse was at an end, and she entreated him to excuse, that she, as an attendant on a wounded patient, had an occupation which could not be postponed. "Pardon me, Sir Drost!" she said to Aage, and pointed to his unswathed arm. "This is not according to agreement; yet you seem to have the use of your arm," she added, when she perceived how easily he moved it. "The wound is healed in some sort. With caution you may use it, in moderation. But the stiff neck bandage----"

"That I shall wear in remembrance of you, until we meet again, noble maiden!" answered Aage; "although I almost think it might be dispensed with. Within an hour I must leave the castle. That I am able to do so I owe to your skill and unwearied care. I think soon to see my noble master the king," he added, in a low voice, as he drew her to a recess in the window fronting the castle garden; "but the suitable time for effecting any thing towards your liberation is, alas! hardly come as yet."

"We ask no clemency from our earthly judges, but only that which is just and reasonable," answered Margaretha, with calm seriousness. "I should have thought all times were equally convenient to a good sovereign for hearing the justification of the innocent."

"It would grieve me deeply, noble Lady Margaretha!" said Aage, "if my just-intentioned sovereign were for a moment to seem unjust in your eyes; but your case now appears dark and intricate to those who are not, as I am, acquainted with your pious sentiments and admirable conduct. It is known that the traitorous squire Kagge was in your company--your unfortunate confidence in that miscreant brought suspicion on your innocence, and places you under a cloud; but, by the living Lord! I will justify you. If earthly justice is blind, the judgment of Heaven and my knightly sword shall surely open her eyes!"

"No, dear Drost!" exclaimed Margaretha, half alarmed; "if you will peril your precious life in any cause, let it be in that higher and more important one to which you have dedicated it, but not for the fate of two insignificant captives. To suffer injustice is, besides, surely not the greatest misfortune," she added, with a look of mildness and love, as she raised her long-fringed eyelids, and gazed through the window panes up to the clear heavens. "Do not hasten rashly for our sake; we will willingly wait for the Lord and for his appointed hour. When we think but on the injustice our Lord suffered for our sakes, we may surely bear our little cross throughout a short life for his sake. The blessing of Heaven be with you, noble Drost Aage!" she continued; "heartfelt thanks for the kindness with which you have rendered our captivity imperceptible. We shall miss you very much. I shall, no doubt, forget how to play at chess; but what we have spoken together at the chessboard I can never forget. The sweet ballads you taught me I shall also remember; and when we maidens talk of Florez and Blantseflor, we will remember you also, and the quiet evenings by the hearth here, and all the beautiful tales of chivalry you told us. If the king comes hither in the spring, as they say, you will surely come with him?"

"Perhaps," answered Aage; "at any rate I will please myself with that hope. But where the king or his true knights will be in the spring it hardly lies in his power to determine, noble maiden. It is a dangerous and troublous time. May the Lord order all things for us for the best!"

"He will do so assuredly, and always, dear Drost!" said Margaretha, in a confiding and friendly tone, as she laid her hand on his right arm, which rested on the casement of the large window. "Even that which seems worst and most unfortunate to us turns out at last to be the best, if no sin be in it. This captivity, which a few weeks back appeared so terrible to me, hath notwithstanding been the happiest time I have passed since my father and mother died."

"Sweet Margaretha!" whispered Aage, with subdued fervour, laying his left hand on hers, which still rested upon his right arm; "dare I hope I have the smallest share in that heavenly peace and joy which I daily see beaming from your meek and loving eyes? Your hope and peace are doubtless drawn from the fountain of Eternal Life; such joys come not to you from any human source."

"In every noble and pious heart assuredly there shines a ray from yon source of Eternal Life!" answered Margaretha; "though its deepest source be hid in the heart of the Redeemer, which bled for our sakes, that it might include every soul in its unfathomable depths of grace and commiserating love."

"Most precious of beings!" exclaimed Aage, with overflowing emotion; "dare I hope that which I dare not utter?" He paused; then added, in a calmer tone, "Will you, then, really miss me at times, and sing the songs I taught you?"

"Indeed, indeed I will--but the stranger guest would talk with you, Sir Drost!" interrupted Margaretha, hastily, and blushing as she withdrew her hand. "As I told you," she added aloud, as she stepped forward with Aage out of the recess, and vainly sought to hide her bashfulness and confusion; "the bandage round your neck you must keep on, and the sling to support your arm."

"If it is convenient to you. Sir Drost!" said Master Petrus, who had modestly approached, without interrupting his conversation with the fair maiden, "we might now perhaps conclude our affairs in your private chamber."

"I will attend you instantly, venerable Sir! Permit me but a parting word to the noble and hospitable hostess."

"And to me also, surely, Sir Drost! although we have never been exactly able to agree?" interrupted Ulrica, rising from the table, where Master Rumelant's panegyrics on his excellent lords and Mecaenases already began to weary her.

After many reciprocal expressions of courtesy, which, however, were not wanting in sincerity and heartfelt goodwill, the Drost left the ladies' apartment with Master Petrus; but the object on which his eye lingered the longest was the fair Lady Margaretha. As it rang for mass in Vordingborg town, Drost Aage, clad in complete armour, rode out of the castle gate at the head of two thirds of the garrison of the fortress. At the same time the lady of the castle drove to church with the two captive maidens. At the cross-road before the fortress Drost Aage once more turned round and saluted the ladies in the car. He observed with pleasure a white veil waving from the car in the meek Margaretha's hand. The car was followed to church by Sir Ribolt, accompanied by the three strangers on horseback.

"Whither goes the Drost, with all those men-at-arms, Sir Ribolt?" asked Ulrica, inquisitively, as she put her head out of the car; "there is surely neither war nor rebellion here?"

"They go but to rid the land of the outlaws and other vagabonds," answered Sir Ribolt. "The assassin who attacked the Drost it seems hath been taken already," he added, in a careless tone, without recollecting the connection of the captive maidens with these turbulent and hated characters, and without remarking that the lively querist turned pale.

"What ails thee, sweet child? Canst thou not endure to sit backward?" asked the watchful mistress of the castle. "Come, change places with me; I can bear it."

"Ah, let me sit quiet!" sighed Ulrica, drawing her veil over her face. "Margaretha! Margaretha!" she whispered, clinging to her sister; "my dream! my dream! He is taken! His life is in peril!"

"Hush! hush! dearest sister!" whispered Margaretha; "it is but a rumour. We will now pray for him and for all sinful souls. See,--the blessed Lord still permits his mild sun to shine upon us all."

The car rolled past a troop of richly attired burghers on their way to church, who greeted the ladies with courtesy. Ulrica recovered herself, and nodded to them with a consequential air. They whispered together, and she conjectured that their talk was, doubtless, of her beauty and supposed high birth.

CHAP. XII.

It was past midnight when Drost Aage, with his troop of horsemen, drew near the Issefiord near Holbek. The weather was calm and frosty, the snow sparkled in the starlight winter night, the marshes and all the pools by the road side were frozen, but the ford was still open and passable. Holbek rather resembled a ruin than a town; instead of houses, there were now chiefly to be seen single walls and solitary hearths. Five years before the town had been plundered and nearly burnt down by the Norwegian fleet, in the feud with Marsk Stig and the outlaws. Some small houses, however, had been rebuilt. The church and the monastery of the Gray Friars stood unscathed, as well as the castle, which had been lately put in good repair by Junker Christopher, and which, it appeared, he now intended, despite the king's prohibition, to make as strong a fortress as Kallundborg.

By Aage's side rode an elderly captain of horse, Sir Ribolt's brother, a silent, serious personage, whom the Drost informed by the way of what was here to be attempted. When they approached the town they halted, and had their horses rubbed down, while each horseman received his separate directions. They then rode slowly, and as quietly as possible, through the snow-covered streets of the town, and past the monastery, where all lay in profound slumber. At the castle also the inmates seemed to be reposing in the greatest calmness and security; even the warders on the battlements were asleep. They examined the castle narrowly on every side. There was not a light to be seen in the whole of the upper story; it was only from the knights' hall, opposite the ford, that a faint light gleamed from a window; and at the quay behind the castle lay a boat with a red sail, from which glimmered the light of a horn lantern. On the quay a fat knight, wrapped in a fox-skin pelisse, paced up and down, apparently waiting for some one; he often yawned, and rubbed his hands, while he looked up impatiently at the window from whence gleamed the solitary light. A rough-looking, one-eyed fellow, with a hideous and bloated visage, lay half asleep on the rampart.

"If thou fallest asleep, and drop'st into the ford, Kyste! thou wilt cheat the rope-maker of an hempen cord," said the fat knight, and laughed at his own wit.

"Ha, indeed! think ye the halter is so sure of me. Sir Palle?" muttered the fellow; "_you_ may well crack your jests, you are neither made to be drowned nor hanged; with your round carcass, you would swim like an ale barrel, and he who would hang you must risk his own neck."

"Well," answered Palle, yawning, "mine is a very politic shape; thou and thy daring masters might need such an one. But what the devil has become of them? They are wrangling and consulting a confounded time together."

"It concerns high play, though, Sir Palle," muttered the man, flapping his arms around his body to keep himself warm. "Had I but a good can of German ale at my side, of a surety I would keep my eyes open."

"If thou canst keep one eye open it deserves all honour, since thou hast not more by thee," jested the knight. "But what the devil is the junker about?" he continued, "to set me to watch here in frost and cold while he consults on weighty matters in his warm private chamber! Me, his right hand, and let into all his secrets! But tell me, Kyste, what means this secret nightly visit? The proud Niels Brock and Johan Pape I well know; they are two limbs of Satan, and I can easily divine what they would be at; but who was the third stranger thou broughtest hither,--yon little fellow, with the hump and the red mantle?"

"It is the Evil One himself, I almost believe," answered the deserter, and crossed himself; "a wizard at the least. I will be hanged if he understands not the black art. They call him wise Master Thrand; he has been condemned to fire and stake by the pope, and banished both by kings and emperors; but he snaps his fingers at them all--he laughs at the world's governors and rulers, and cares not for our Lord or our Lady, either, when he is on the seas. If he is right, then are we all fools together in Christendom, and should obey none other than _him_ our master, who is within us and in all things; but that passes my understanding. He can be pious too when it serves his turn. I saw that when he kissed the archbishop's hand at parting, and took the letter of absolution, which truly he afterwards cast overboard--he is a good friend of Niels Brock, and can make gold, they say."

"Then would he might teach us and the junker that art!" said Palle; "then it were sin should he be burned for a little touch of heresy--for that he will one day burn in the other world. But tell me, Kyste, if thou and thy masters come from Hammershuus, from the archbishop, how darest thou appear before the junker? The archbishop hath given him over, as well as the king, to the devil; and I must needs admit the junker hath been worse to him than ten devils."

"That's the great folks' business," answered Kyste. "I serve the man who pays best, and ask not of aught besides--had I known the archbishop brought not so much as a mark with him, and should lose all he expected from Skaane, the devil take me if I would have perilled my life for his sake."

"You had a rough passage, then, with him from Sjoeborg?"

"Yes, you may well say that;--we were hard put to it ere we got him housed. We were obliged to run in under Hveen; and we lay with our life in our hands a whole day and two nights at Saltholm.--They were chasing us every where with barks and those confounded fishing smacks; but the fog and the bishop's prayers helped us that once. We sailed, in peril of our lives, in a howling storm, to Kaasebjerg, and by the time we reached Hammershuus we were half perished with cold and hunger; and what got we for our pains? Mad Morten the cook got a bishop's letter for a pilgrimage. I and Ole Ark got a dry blessing with three wizened fingers, and a fresh absolution for ten years' sins. It may have its use;--I never slight God's gifts; but such like gifts help little to fill purse and stomach. Of course," he added, "we have now leave to seek our bread where we can find it, and plunder our Lord's and the archbishop's enemies till our dying day, without having a hair singed in purgatory for it; but----"

"Content thyself, Kyste; it will be a livelihood, nevertheless," interrupted Palle. "But if thy new masters side with the archbishop I cannot imagine what the devil they want here--the junker and the archbishop agree together like cat and dog."

"As I said, that's the great folks' business," answered the deserter. "What they have plotted with the archbishop at Hammershuus I can't tell; but could they patch up an agreement for the junker with Master Grand, and get the ban done away, he would have nought against it, I trow; and one service is as good as the other. If the junker gets into a scrape with the king, he will need a prop; and if the king goes to the wall, the junker perhaps will get uppermost, and may help his friends again. But that concerns not me; matters may turn out as the foul fiend pleases for aught I care, so long as there are good oars to be had, and something to lay one's hands on. But what was that noise? Heard ye not horses tramp on the other side of the castle?"

"Dream'st thou, Kyste? Who would visit the castle so late?" said Palle, listening anxiously.

"Here I have _my_ masters. Now any one may come that Satan pleases," said the deserter, and ran towards the vessel.

Two tall men, in ample grey mantles, and with hoods over their heads, accompanied by a little hump-backed personage, in a red cloak, came forth from a secret door in the castle wall, and passed over a small drawbridge which was let down over the outer castle moat. They hasted down to the quay, where they greeted Sir Palle by a silent nod, and, without uttering a word, entered the vessel, which instantly pushed off from the shore, and set sail. Sir Palle shook his head thoughtfully, and looked after them as he listened, and thought he heard a distant noise of arms and horses' hoofs without the castle gate. He hasted over the small drawbridge before which he had stood on guard, and drew it up hastily behind him. He then passed quickly through the private door into the castle.

On the opposite side of the outer fortification stood Drost Aage with his horsemen, who, according to his orders, had led their horses slowly, and one at a time, over the half-completed drawbridge, which as yet could not be drawn up. The strongly secured castle gate was shut, and they had knocked several times, apparently without being heard by any one. "Who is there?" at last said a drowsy voice from the battlement over the gate. It was the watchman or warder of the castle, who now stood up, with a long spear in the one hand, and an alarm horn in the other.

"Sleep'st thou at thy post, watch?" called Aage, in a stern tone; "seest thou not it is the king's men who would enter? Haste! let the porter open to us instantly.--This is the new garrison."

"New garrison! That know we nought of here," muttered the warder. "I shall have to blow the horn, then, as the junker hath commanded."

"A single sound costs thee thy life, fellow!" menaced the Drost. "Where the king himself commands no junker hath a word to say."

"The Lord bless you, if that be true, noble sir!" said the warder, joyfully; "I shall then not have to ride the wooden horse to-morrow because I slept?"