CHAPTER XL.

RIDE, RIDE TOGETHER.

To cover three leagues in an hour on such a horse as Nigel bestrode was no great affair.

It may have been a little more or a little less when Sergeant Blick, with his watchful eyes, descried that his former colonel was rapidly overtaking a little party that rode in the same direction. It consisted apparently of a lady habited in a riding-dress suitable for the winter, surmounted by a military-looking cloak, and a groom on another horse just behind.

As Sergeant Blick was a long way off when he saw so much, he did not even attempt to guess who she might be. There were many highly-born ladies in Ratisbon just at that time, though Blick did not know why.

He was not long before he noticed that Nigel rode up on the lady's right and saluted her, and that her movements were such as to suggest to an observer that the meeting was a chance rencontre and a surprise.

The groom, who, like themselves, carried pistols in his holsters, fell back and gradually took up a position not far in front of Sergeant Blick, but kept his horse trotting at a certain distance as if aware of the soldiers, and not willing to mingle with them.

But the colonel did not seem to have any intention of leaving the lady to conclude her promenade alone. The two, in fact, rode quickly side by side, as if bent on reaching some still distant goal in company. And it was some time before it dawned upon Blick's mind that this had been a rendezvous, and that his former colonel had entered upon the first phase of the enterprise to which he had referred the night before.

Had Blick been a Frenchman instead of a German he would have sniffed out an affair of the heart as soon as he caught a glimpse of a petticoat, but Blick was a German soldier, who had begun to get grizzled, and was already weather-beaten and scarred, and cared a vast deal more for a good dinner and a jovial emptying of beer-mugs than for toying with wenches, and on the occasions when Cupid had asserted his rights of dominion over him, the manifestations of Sergeant Blick's possession had been uncouth and rough, and in nowise redolent of sentiment or of poetry. Nor had he ever observed any amorous tendencies in his former captain and colonel. He, on the contrary, had seemed to shun all such opportunities of dalliance as the fortune of war threw in his way, to care nothing, in fact, for women kind or unkind, only moderately for the more gratifying enjoyments of wine and meat, and prodigiously, for an officer, for clean muskets and well-sharpened pikes, or for well-groomed horses and bright swords. Sergeant Blick could not account for the change, and did not in his heart approve of it, the more that he could make no manner of guess who the lady was.

So he urged his horse a little more till he came alongside the groom, whom he saluted civilly enough and asked plumply who his mistress was, to which the groom replied with equal civility that she was the Countess Ottilie von Thüringen.

"Gott im Himmel!" said Sergeant Blick, and plied no more questions.

He remembered well the Countess Ottilie in the early episodes, and wondered the more. Then he gave up wondering, and remembered that he had not drunk for over two hours, an unprecedented thing for him, when not actually engaged on the stern duties of his vocation. Besides, the effort of thinking could only be borne by the aid of liquor.

"She was mixed up with those ... Lutherans! So she was!" said Blick to himself.

Blick's thirst found relief in time, for Nigel halted at the first convenient inn which promised passable entertainment in the town of Straubing, eight and a half leagues from the city of Ratisbon. He knew that no hostelry on the road to Znaim could in the nature of things produce a meal fit to set before this rare daughter of the Habsburgs. For her nothing could be too kingly, but as the best that could be got was coarse, he had perforce to trust to her love and a traveller's appetite.

They did well to find a hostelry which had another room than that used by the common wayfarers. Nigel bade Blick give his men and the groom a good meal, feed and water the horses sparingly, and have all ready in an hour.

Then they spoke of their immediate plans.

Having encountered no obstacles hitherto, they decided to push on and gain the furthest town they could before the hour of shutting gates. The Archduchess would lodge in the convent. The town they thought to reach was Passau, which possessed two convents as well as a number of churches of old name and fame, in one of which they had it in mind on the morrow to hear the priest pronounce over them the words "conjungo vos," by which they should become one till death.

"You are firm of purpose, Stephanie? There is still time to go back!" said Nigel solemnly, looking into her eyes.

"I am plighted, Nigel!" she replied with an equal seriousness. "Let us go on!"

They rose up from the table and went out, mounted and rode on to Plattling. And this time Nigel bade Blick and the troopers ride in front so that they might bring back word if any hindrance barred the road. For Nigel had noticed, and so had Blick, that the roads were patrolled by parties of the Elector's own bodyguard of horse, a circumstance which would have had no significance if they had been upon the road between Ratisbon and Ingolstadt, from which the Swedish troops might at any time arrive. Still, beyond a salute the Bavarian troopers gave no sign. The two rode on.

But as they neared Plattling and the bridge across the Isar by which they would reach the road to Passau, Sergeant Blick came back in haste and warned them that the passing of the bridge was forbidden by a strong party of cavalry in charge of an officer.

Nigel spurred his horse forward, and the Archduchess did the like. They were soon at the bridge.

The officer was unknown to Nigel, but they saluted with great ceremony. The officer saluted with still greater ceremony the Archduchess.

"My escort, captain, tells me you are unable to let us pass the bridge!" said Nigel.

"My instructions are that in sum!" said the officer.

"It would give us pleasure to hear them," said the Archduchess.

"As regards your Imperial Highness," said the officer, "my instructions were that, should you at any time desire to cross, I was to take care that you had an escort of at least fifty men and two officers. I can furnish them at once."

"And General Charteris?"

"His case comes under the second section. No officer or man of the Imperial army may cross the bridge except by the written order of the Elector, or unless he be carrying despatches to Vienna."

"For what reason is the second order?"

"To prevent desertions from the Elector and the Emperor's troops here to join Wallenstein's!"

"The Elector is very solicitous for our safety and your loyalty, General Charteris. It seems that we must need curtail our pleasurable excursion and return."

The officer looked confused. He had no wish to cross the whim of an Archduchess, but to disobey the Elector was worse. He bowed and made numerous apologies.

Force it was impossible to use. The bridge at Bogen, which was a mile or two to the eastward of Straubing, would be equally guarded. Reluctantly, but without appearance of reluctance, they turned their horses and went back. To Nigel it appeared to be pure mischance.

"No! Where the Jesuits are, dear Nigel, all is fore-thoughted. Our secret is known or guessed. This was the Elector's prevision!"

"Then we must hasten back before the gates close!" said Nigel, perturbed to the depths. "You must be able to say that you had ridden further in admiration of this beautiful country than you intended, and accepted my escort, not wishing to be incommoded by a train of attendants."

The Archduchess was full of foreboding.

"If we are only back in time my excuse will at all events bear an appearance of probability. But what are we to do next? You are not yet strong enough to take the field. Yet you may depend upon the Elector finding you some pressing duty out of Ratisbon, and he may urge that you were strong enough to ride with me."

"I must obey!" said Nigel. "But I could not leave you without putting our marriage beyond question. Once Holy Church pronounces the blessed words 'conjungo vos,' Stephanie, nor Emperors nor Electors can dissolve the union."

"It shall be, Nigel! It shall be before midnight to-morrow. Leave the plan, the place, the time to me. I have learned some of the secret ways of Ratisbon. And if you be ordered to-morrow on some futile quest, you must use delay. Oh! dearest! I cannot help but fear, though I shall be cool in plan and firm in execution."

"Courage!" said Nigel stoutly. Though he felt something creeping over him which seemed to give his very voice the lie.

Presently as they interchanged some further words his voice sounded so hollow and feeble that her woman's ear caught the change.

"Nigel! What is it, Nigel?"

"I feel a faintness!" he said. "It will pass!"

"Thank the saints we are near Straubing! Let us walk our horses. It may be we can get wine and supper, and a posting carriage. Her accents betrayed the deep concern, the measureless pity the woman felt for the man she had chosen. Could they be those of the proud Archduchess? Even faintly as they reached his ears they brought the thought to his mind, and filled his soul with a strange ecstasy of strength, carrying on the action of his will, when will seemed to have no more to say.

They reached the Black Eagle of Straubing. Brandy and hot soup was served, and, once alone with him, the Archduchess stripped off his cloak, his tunic, and with a table-knife ripped open his shirt from his wounded shoulder, as she feared the wound had reopened with the toil of riding. Blick was sent for an apothecary, salve and bandages. Fortunately the man of drugs was to be found, and the wound washed and salved and bound up anew. The Archduchess paid him with a golden crown, bade him hold his peace for ever, and dismissed him.

Then Blick found post-horses and a carriage, and they set forth once more. Yet there was time, if the coachman and postboys did their best, and the promise of gold was tempting.

As the carriage bounded and rumbled along the starlit road, Stephanie took her lover's head upon her soft shoulder, putting her arm about him and drawing him to her as a mother does her child, and kissed him softly, tenderly, as a mother does, and Nigel fell into a deep, peaceful slumber, his last murmur being her name--"Stephanie."

Very peacefully he slept, despite the rumbling and swaying of the carriage, and the Archduchess, satisfied that his breathing was natural, gave herself up to the maturing of her plan, listening now and then to the clattering of the hoofs of their attendants' horses upon the hard road not far behind. At the rate they had travelled she decided that there was yet time to spare. She feared the Elector not at all, her brother Ferdinand about as much, as far as her own self was concerned. But she feared immeasurably for Nigel. The thought that she must be parted from him almost inevitably, directly they had pledged their mutual marriage vows, crushed her with a leaden weight.

They stopped somewhere. She could not guess. The horses were steaming with their exertions. Men threw cloths over them while they rested in their traces. Then they resumed the journey, and presently Nigel awoke, ashamed that he had slept, but with strength of mind and body renewed.

They reached a little village called Obertraubling, two leagues short of Ratisbon.

The carriage stopped. Nigel sprang out. It was of no use, the postboy said. One horse had gone lame. He could kill the horse by thrashing him, but to get to Ratisbon with the carriage was impossible in the time. He had done his best. Neither Blick nor his troopers nor his groom had come up. Nigel went from one poor house and inn to another in search of one or two fresh horses. Not a horse was to be found.

"No one had a horse if not Farmer Grabstein, the last house in the village."

Postboy and coachman led the stumbling horses along to the house of Farmer Grabstein. No one was about. Nigel knocked at the door and it yielded. There was a fire upon the hearth. There was food of a rough sort upon the table. There were even candles hanging from a beam. He lit one at the embers and stuck it in a candlestick. Then he went back to the carriage and bade Stephanie alight.

She came into the farmhouse and sat down on a bench in the fireplace to warm herself while Nigel made a search. Downstairs there was no one. Upstairs (it was a rough wooden stair, steep as a ladder) were garrets under the thatch. Rolled up in undistinguishable bundles appeared to be some human beings. The air was fetid with their breath and their personal exhalations. Was it worth while to wake them? At all events the Archduchess could not go up that stair.

Then he bade the men put their horses in the stable and sleep there beside them. It would at least be warm.

"Stephanie! My beloved! There is no help for it but wait here till Blick comes up. Then he must get into Ratisbon and bring out horses by hook or by crook! The night is yet young. Our plans have gone dismally awry. Yet I would not have it different if it were not for the tongue of rumour that will even now be busy in Ratisbon!"

She knew well what he meant. The honour of the Emperor's daughter would be besmirched, despite anything that might be said or done or attested: and were it but one day's stain, that stain should not lie between her and the husband she had chosen.

"Show me the place!" she said with a touch of her old hauteur. Nigel took the candle and preceded her. There was yet another room on this floor, an apartment hung with leather, and having a good chest or two of carved work, an oaken table and some chairs: the farmer's state-room, doubtless used on high occasions.

"Here will I abide! Go you, Tall Captain, and fetch me some old dame from the village, so she be clean and not smelling of the cow-byre more than ordinary, and bid her bring a blanket or two."

Nigel went off into the dark again. But she without loss of a moment examined the room and found a door which led into an outermost room, where guns, boots, powder-flasks, and other utensils of the chase hung, and beyond was a great door bolted and barred. This she undid, though it taxed her strength, and found that it opened on to the stable-yard. That she crossed and entered the stable, roused one of the men and bade him rub down the soundest of the horses, feed and water it, and then strap on a saddle she had found in the gun-room, in one hour's time. He would be awakened if necessary. She would ride to Ratisbon. Neither his mate nor any one else was to know. The present of a gold crown made him promise mountains and marvels. She returned to their kitchen and awaited Nigel by the fire.