CHAPTER IX.

THE KING'S WHIM.

Things had been going on very pleasantly for some weeks, and Michael and his attractive little neighbour had been growing more and more intimate with each other, when one evening, on entering the room as usual, he saw at once that something was amiss; for Esther's bright face was quite overclouded, and her blue eyes looked troubled.

But Euphrosyne was mounting guard over her young mistress as she always did, and Michael's anxious but cautious inquiries met with evasive answers, or passed unnoticed.

How he wished the old woman would find something to look after in the kitchen or elsewhere--anything to get rid of her, if but for a few minutes!

The conversation was less animated than usual this evening: Esther seemed to find a difficulty in talking and she said positively that she could not sing; and Michael was becoming quite uneasy and almost inclined to take his departure, when--whether she felt that she was not wanted or not--something or other made Euphrosyne discover, or perhaps pretend to discover, that she had something to attend to in another room.

Such a thing had never happened before, and Michael seized his opportunity, blessing her in his heart for leaving them to themselves, but fearing she would be back before he had said what he wanted to say.

"Now, Esther," he said persuasively, seating himself on the divan by her side--"now, Esther, tell me what has happened. What is troubling you? you look so sad and out of spirits. What is the matter? I am sure there is something."

"My friend," answered Esther, "I _am_ sad, for I am to leave Buda."

"Why? where are you going?" cried Michael.

"I don't know," said the girl--"I don't know! There! read what he says." And she handed Michael a letter.

"The king's writing!" he exclaimed; and then he read with a beating heart:--

"MY LITTLE SISTER[13] ESTHER,--Your parents came of distinguished ancestry. You are an orphan; Mr. Samson got possession of all that belonged to you, and since he has paid the penalty of his crimes, his property has come into our treasury. We have lately heard from Munkacs that he has died a natural death, and we are willing to restore a portion of his possessions to you, if you on your part are willing to give your hand to one of our 'Supreme Counts,'[14] a man of very ancient family. If you cannot make up your mind to this, my little sister, then you must go away from here; for your frequent meetings with Mr. Tornay--whose head I will wash for him!--have attracted attention, and will make you talked about.

"MATTHIAS."

[Footnote 13: "Little sister" and "little brother" are usual forms of addressing the young.]

[Footnote 14: _Foe-ispan_, the head and administrator of a county, not a hereditary count.]

Michael let the letter drop from his hand in dismay, and then exclaimed passionately, "Why, the king placed me here; and, besides, he asked me himself whether I had made acquaintance with my neighbour."

"True," said Esther sadly, "and I told His Highness so myself; but he gave me quite a scolding for letting you come and see me so often."

"What!" cried Michael, surprised and even startled; "the king has been here?"

"He has indeed," said Esther, the tears springing to her eyes. "Yesterday, while you were out riding the beautiful cream-coloured horse with the green silk trappings, the king came. I had never seen him before, but as he closed the door behind him, I knew in a moment that it was the king and no one else. I felt it somehow, I don't know how."

"And what did he say? was he in a good humour?"

"Good? not by any means. He looked at me as fiercely as if I were going to do him I don't know what injury, and yet I pray for him every day, and have never sinned against him so much as in thought."

"Strange!" said Michael. "And this count! The whirlwind take him and all his ancient family pedigree away together! Do you know this count? And is there any count in all the wide world who loves you as well as I do?"

"You?" said Esther, lifting her tearful eyes; "but you see you never told me you did."

"I _have_ told you!" said Michael, impetuously seizing Esther's hand and covering it with kisses; "every word I have uttered has told you so, ever since I first saw you. Ah! you might have understood me, because--I was once a beggar boy, how could I speak more plainly? _I_ have no family pedigree, and I shall never be a Supreme Count," he finished gloomily.

"Is it true?" said Esther, blushing very prettily, but looking several shades less melancholy than before.

"Why shouldn't it be true, my star? Of course it is true! Don't you believe me?" said Michael, drawing her to himself. "But I am the son of poor parents, only a beggar boy, and that abominable count, hang him! may--what was I going to say?--well, anyhow, may the grasshoppers fall upon him!"

"Michael," said Esther, a little shyly, "if you do love me--but understand well, I mean _really_ love me, really and truly--well then, I will just confess that I love you too, with all my heart, truly, as my life. You are more to me than all the counts in the world, for you are my Supreme Count; and even if you can't point to a line of ancestors, what does it signify? Somebody has to make a beginning, and you are making your own name; surely that is a great deal more than merely inheriting it! Besides, your family pedigree is as long as any one's in the world after all; for it reaches back to old Father Adam, and no one can go further."

At that moment Euphrosyne reappeared with the lights; but Michael cared little for her, now that he had found out what he wanted to know. Esther cared for him; what else could possibly matter?

"I must go to the king," said Michael. "He has always been most gracious to me, and why should he want to crush me now, after being the making of me? Why should he make my heart bitter, when it beats true to him and to my love? Don't be sad, my star. I will see him to-morrow, and tell him everything. He is so good, so kind, and so just! and it wouldn't be just to take you away from me, after bringing you here and letting us learn to know one another. If I only knew which count it was! but there are more than fifty. There is not one of them, though, that found you out in Mr. Samson's castle, and you never sang any of their songs, did you now? _Did_ any one ever make songs for you but me?"

"No one! I don't know any count, unless the old gentleman who escorted us was one, and I hardly spoke to him."

But just then they were interrupted, for the door opened, and one of the royal pages stepped in.

"I have been looking for you in your quarters, lieutenant-general," said he; "and as I did not find you at home, it is a good thing you are here. See, this is from the king; please to read it." And he handed a note to Michael, who turned deadly pale as he took it and read as follows:--

"I wish you all good.

"So you have become very well acquainted indeed with your neighbours! and we suspect that you have spent more time tied to their apron-strings than in exercising the garrison. We shall therefore give you something to do.

"We shall expect you to be at Visegrad by eleven o'clock to-morrow morning, and we will there give you our orders. Be prepared for three months' absence from Buda.

"You will not see your neighbour again; she is to be the bride of Aggtelky Mihaly, one of our best-beloved and most trusty counts. God be with us.[15]

"MATTHIAS."

[Footnote 15: Equivalent to our "adieu."]

The note was written in the most formally polite style. There was no "gossip" or "little brother," there was not even a "thou" in it--nothing from beginning to end but "your grace," answering indeed to our "you," but a good deal more chilling to those accustomed to the friendly "thee" and "thou."

Michael smothered his wrath as best he could, feeling how much he owed to the king, and that it would be the blackest ingratitude to show passion and resentment because he now crossed his will.

"I will obey His Highness's commands," said he to the page, who at once withdrew.

Then he embraced Esther, and said with a heavy sigh, "All is not lost yet. The king is good, and--God is better. Keep up your heart."

* * * * *

The next morning the young lieutenant-general was at Visegrad by the appointed time, and went at once to the governor, who told him that the king had arrived a couple of hours previously, very irritable and out of humour, as it seemed.

"What can have happened to His Highness?" asked Michael, grieved to hear of the king's ill-humour, and fearing not only that his petition would come at a most unfortunate time, but that the king would not perhaps let him have speech of him at all.

"Eh!" said the governor, "who knows what our good king has to worry him? There's trouble enough in the country just now, that's certain, and he has both his hands full. But I am sure I am not afraid of him; and as for those who vex him, may they suffer for it as they deserve!"

A long hour passed, and still the king did not send for Michael, though the governor had lost no time in announcing his arrival. But at last, after he had waited what to him seemed a very long time, the summons came. The page who brought it looked grave, but beyond that his face betrayed nothing, and Michael hastened with a beating heart into the presence of the master whom he adored, but now, perhaps for the first time in his life, feared to meet.

When he entered the beautiful, well-lighted room, whose painted windows looked out upon the Danube, he found King Matthias seated near an open window, in an arm-chair covered with yellow velvet, and looking more gloomy than he had ever seen him before. He was very plainly, almost carelessly, attired, and near him was his favourite scholar, the librarian Galeotti, who also looked melancholy and stood gazing at vacancy, as if he were trying to peer into the future.

"Is it you?" said Matthias coldly; "you have kept me waiting a long time."

"Mr. King," answered Michael, "I have been here for the past two hours, as you commanded."

"Ah! true, I was forgetting; of course they announced you. Are you prepared for a long journey?"

"A soldier is ready to march without much preparation," said Michael, with a great want of his usual alacrity. "I am ready to receive your Highness's orders."

"Good," said the king. "You will start for Vienna in an hour's time then, with Mr. Galeotti here. He is going on a mission for me to the Emperor Friedrich; and until my friend has completed his business, which may perhaps take six months, you are not to leave him."

Michael said nothing.

"Well?" the king went on, in a tone of impatient annoyance. "Perhaps you don't fancy such an errand; you would prefer, no doubt, to be sent against Axamith,[16] who has effected a lodgment again in the north, as we hear, and is thieving and plundering like a swarm of grasshoppers."

[Footnote 16: One of the Bohemian freebooters.]

"Why should I deny it?" said Michael humbly, well knowing that the king liked the truth even when he was angry. "If Your Highness were disposed to send me on active service somewhere, I _should_ prefer it. But wherever you please to order me, I shall go with a good will; for my life belongs to my king."

"Hm!" said Matthias, fixing his searching eyes upon the speaker; "may be so, but just at present your tongue does not speak the thoughts of your heart."

"Sir! Your Highness!"

"'Highness' I may be, but 'gracious' I am not to-day, am I, Mr. Michael Tornay? You have yourself to thank for it, for you have been putting bad wood on the fire,[17] and you have been going very near what is forbidden fruit."

[Footnote 17: That is, you have been up to mischief.]

"Forbidden fruit?" said Michael, exceedingly cast down by the king's cold treatment of him.

"It is true I did not distinctly forbid it you, but I could not suppose you would take fire so quickly."

Michael said nothing, and the king went on,--

"Don't deny it, for I know everything. You have fallen in love with Esther. It is just fortunate that the girl has more sense than you, and does not trust your fine words."

"I humbly beg your pardon," said Michael, unwilling to let the opportunity slip, "I believe, on the contrary, Your Highness, that Esther--"

"Esther is going to marry Aggtelky Mihaly, the Supreme Count," said the king decidedly; "and now that you know this, it will be as well for you to give up thinking of her. To make it easier for you, and to impress it upon your mind, it will not be amiss for you to spend a few months away from Buda."

"Your Highness," Michael began again in an imploring tone.

"Enough!" said the king in a stern voice. "Now both follow me to the castle chapel. You will receive your instructions after service, and then--to Vienna!"

Michael was in the utmost consternation, but he did not venture another word. It was so strange to see the gay, good-natured king thus unlike himself, that he thought he must either be ill, or must have had very bad news from somewhere, or--was it possible?--that some one had been trying to set him against himself, by telling malicious tales. His rapid advancement, and the favour which the king showed him, had, he knew, excited some envy and jealousy. Had some secret enemy then been at work?

But then King Matthias was not given to listening to tales, and if he had heard anything to Michael's discredit, he would have told him of it plainly, and given him the opportunity of clearing himself.

He glanced interrogatively at Galeotti; but the Italian merely shrugged his shoulders to express his entire bewilderment. They were walking behind the king now, towards the chapel, which they found dressed with lovely flowers as if for a festival; but Michael was so engrossed in his own thoughts, so sore at heart, and so hurt by what he felt to be the just king's injustice, that he had no attention to spare for anything else.

They took their places; the shrill tones of a bell were heard, and the service began and proceeded quietly to its close.

The king rose up, and was about to leave the chapel, when he stopped short, saying, "So--I was forgetting! Another little ceremony takes place here to-day, of course. Follow me."

With that he turned towards the vestry, Michael following him with listless steps.

The door was opened by some one within; but Michael's eyes were bent upon the ground, and he saw nothing but the marble floor, until Galeotti twitched him by the sleeve and made him look up. Then he saw what filled him first with amazement and next with passionate indignation.

For there before him, like a beautiful dream, stood Esther--_his_ Esther as he felt her to be, in spite of kings and counts--_his_ Esther, robed in white, with a bridal wreath on her head, and looking as fair and pure as a dove!

Michael turned almost as white as the bride's dress. He had been brought to Visegrad to see her married to the count! That was his first collected thought. Could the king, the master whom he had so loved--_could_ he be so cruel, so heartlessly cruel?

For a moment or two Michael was so torn in pieces between his love for Esther and his love and reverence for the king, that he felt as if he were losing his senses, and might say or do something outrageous.

The king stopped and turned towards him, as if he were about to speak; but Michael did not notice it, for his eyes were fixed upon the bride, and he was trying to master himself.

"Mr. Michael Tornay!"

Michael started at the sound of the king's voice, and looked at him mechanically.

Matthias held in his hand a heavy gold case, with a piece of parchment from which hung a large seal. The clouds had vanished from his face as if by magic, and he was apparently quite himself again, for he looked as bright and pleasant as possible.

"Mr. Michael Tornay," he said in a gay tone, which completed Michael's bewilderment, "you have answered all our expectations. If we have been the making of you, you have given us complete satisfaction in return. You have won our heart by your faithful affection, your valour, and your love and devotion to your country. And now, see, we herewith endow you with an estate for which we have chosen the name of Aggtelky, from one of the properties included in it. We also entrust you with the administration of the county of Szathmar; and that you may not be lonely, and find the time hang heavy on your hands, we propose to give you this naughty little daughter of Eve to torment you.

"What have you to say to this? Will it suit you better than going to Vienna, little brother--eh? Ah! I thought so," as Michael and his bride fell upon their knees, unable for the moment to utter a word. "Then, if the bride is pleased to accept you after all, Mr. Supreme Count Michael Aggtelky, the wedding shall take place at once."

THE END

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Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the original text have been corrected.

In Chapter I, a period was added after "To be sure".

In Chapter IV, a period was added after "better to be beforehand with them".

The name Zokoli/Zokoly is spelled inconsistently in the original text.