CHAPTER IX.

AN ITALIAN AND A SPANIARD.

An hour before dawn came Sergeant Blick to awaken Nigel with the news, "We have the man on the sorrel horse!"

Nigel awoke completely, sprang out of bed, and was attired, even to his jack-boots and spurs, in a few minutes. Then getting astride his horse he was out of Eger and a mile on the road to Pilsen in a very few more.

"A kind of accursed Jew fellow! Some dark Moorish infidel of a heretic!" was Sergeant Blick's summing up.

Sure enough it was that learned Doctor Pietro Bramante himself.

But this was not the field of prophecy or of divination. This was the atmosphere of dawn, the kingdom of cold fact. Nigel nodded and said in his brief military manner--

"Doctor! You must please turn out your saddle-bags and your pockets for some papers which are lost. Sergeant, assist the doctor!"

The learned doctor began to protest, as might have been expected, but Nigel merely vouchsafed that it was "in the service of the Emperor." He himself searched the prisoner, whose multifarious garments made the matter one of difficulty. And the fact that, if not an Israelite, he was a very near relation, did not make the operation to Nigel a pleasant one. But when he had finished, he was sure that nothing so bulky as Count Tilly's despatches were upon him.

Sergeant Blick produced in his turn many curious vessels and books and bottles from the saddle-bags, crossing himself at sight of anything unusual, for he had no doubt that he was dealing, if not with the Evil One, with one of his familiars. Nothing was found. Nigel with no excess of courtesy bade him pack up his belongings.

"From what town came you to Eger?"

"Even from Hof by Olsnitz!"

"And for what reason got you half a truss of hay?"

"To save the inn charges and time!"

"And your companions?"

"They rest in Eger, being bound for Gräslitz. I know them not. We did but join company for protection."

"At what inn did they rest?"

"I did not ask! Neither did I tell them that I had business with the Duke."

"Enough!" said Nigel, and wheeled his horse.

With a rueful countenance the diviner began to replace his utensils, carefully and patiently. He had at least learned two virtues.

Nigel, gravelled, rode back into the town in an ill-humour and called for his breakfast. By the time that was finished the troopers were at the door.

There was no help but to go forward, and one may be assured that neither hill nor stream nor any wayside beauty of Bohemia could do aught to bring his mind back to a calm mood. He suspected the "Jew," as he called him. He suspected Gordon, and as for the phantasmagoria of last night, he could make nothing of it. His tendency was to disbelieve, only his respect for Wallenstein's powers of thought diminished his disbelief to something approaching mere doubt. The one thing that stood out was the vision of Ottilie von Thüringen.

Surely it was her "wraith." And if it had by chance been that of some familiar friend in Scotland, or of some one of his blood relations, he would have been awed, but he would have regarded it, in accord with tradition, as portending or announcing some stroke of fate.

He had been carried too much out of himself to hear what Wallenstein had muttered, to observe closely how that great one received the vision. This at least he had garnered, that Wallenstein also recognised her.

But who then was she? There was another feeling that sprang up in his heart, an uneasy half-born pang, which he dismissed only to find it knocking at the door again. The "wraith" of Ottilie had gazed at Wallenstein, not with eyes of speculation, as the playwright Shakespeare had it, but as one might gaze with open eyes in dream at some beloved object limned only in the brain behind.

But she had gazed at Wallenstein with a benignity which had softened the whole countenance, a benignity which he himself in his two days' contact with her had never surprised upon it. And this the geometrical hocus-pocus of the vile Jew had foreshadowed when he contrived that the right focus of her orbit should also be the centre of Wallenstein's. As Nigel had no knowledge of geometry, and regarded it as a cabalistic invention, though he had heard of telescopes, and of Columbus, and vessel charts, he esteemed this part of the diviner's doings as mere trickery, akin to the old devices of the magicians before Pharaoh. But by no explanation of mere artifice could he doubt that he saw the "wraith" of Ottilie, and that Wallenstein also saw. While recognising her as some one he knew, had Wallenstein thought of her in any close relation to himself? His attitude of surprise said no. But was it possible that Wallenstein could forget so mysterious an occurrence, dismiss it as a mere dream?

Nigel had had five or six years of close companionship with men. There are men who, from their cradle to their grave, are attended and companioned by women, and shrink from the rough and, on the whole, kindly and bracing contact with their kind. Nigel had thrust himself into the world of man at the dawn of manhood, and in the fellowship of arms he had found as mixed a chance-medley as the world of men could show, free from the namby-pamby of the courts, free from the court's petty chicane, free from the emulous avarice of the mart; not in some corners destitute of scholarship, though scholarship was rare; rejoicing in bodily strength and skill in arms, in hearty eating, in wine, and beer, and song, in which they honoured women much more than they ever did in such commerce of love or licence as the fortune of war or the conditions of the camp afforded.

From his study of manhood this Nigel had observed, that whereas among the younger men the talk of doings in the lists of love was as frequent as their flagons, it was almost entirely to seek among the older officers, as among the older soldiers, giving place to criticism of their professional doings, the appraising of the abilities of those more advanced in rank, to politics, to affairs more akin to those of that world without, that in some shape or form paid the reckoning.

He reasoned from the general to the particular, from those who had failed to become Wallensteins to him who had not failed. He was forty-eight, and if any man could find his interest in affairs of state or war that man was Wallenstein. But the diviner had declared that Wallenstein's future was bound up with a woman--had raised up, by what witchcraft or geometry Nigel could give no guess, a vision of her with rapt eyes bent on Wallenstein. Was Wallenstein at forty-eight proof against the lure, proof against the charm of a majestic lovely woman, in whom was nothing of Circe, nothing of that Helen of Troy, whose face, so Kit Marlowe had phrased it, had

"... launched a thousand ships, And burned the topless towers of Ilium,"

yet whose bodily presence had left Nigel with a hunger of the heart and an unrest unaccustomed, as it was unsought, and unappeasable?

He knew it when he saw the vision, and he feared lest Wallenstein should feel it, and, feeling it, stretch out his lion paw for the lioness Destiny had offered.

These thoughts occupied much of his time as he journeyed to Pilsen, and, with the exception that a well equipped and horsed light travelling carriage passed them on the road with curtains closely drawn, no traveller had passed or met them. But nearing Pilsen a pair of cavaliers on very excellent beasts overtook them, and, saluting Nigel, made as if they would fain keep him company. He could not profess to be travelling faster seeing they had overtaken him, and a look at their horses showed that they were better-bred animals and in better condition than his own. Their politeness was marked, and one of them appeared to be an Italian and one a Spaniard by his accent, though they addressed Nigel and his lieutenant in good German. This they presently confirmed, for the Italian gave his name as the Cavalier Marco Strozzi and introduced the other as Don Phillipo di Tortaugas. They were travelling to Vienna, and their valets were coming behind, having been outstripped by their masters, who were eager to reach that city.

Nigel was bound to reciprocate their confidences by giving his own and his companion's names and conditions, mentioning that a military errand was taking him also to Vienna.

They were well-bred men and well travelled, for they spoke with assurance of many towns and cities and princes and gentlemen of repute of their acquaintance. They were curious to know of this Edict of Restitution, of which every one spoke, and displayed some measure of sympathy with the Emperor, who was the instrument of the Pope in the enforcing of it. In their countries they were thankful to say heresy was practically non-existent. In them the Church was powerful and paramount, and they had no doubt of the ultimate success of the Church in Germany.

They spoke of Wallenstein, of whom they had heard much, and asked Nigel if he thought Wallenstein was well affected towards the Edict. If so, why had he been requested by the Emperor to give up his command? Nigel cautiously answered that Wallenstein was before all things a professional soldier, and had laid down his baton when the Emperor had no more present need of him.

By the time they arrived at Pilsen the four gentlemen were on good terms and sat down together to the evening meal. The two cavaliers insisted on ordering the wine, whereof they themselves drank but sparingly, and made merry with numerous tales of Italy and Spain, so that Nigel and his lieutenant thought that they had never spent a more sociable evening. At length the two cavaliers professed themselves sleepy and called for candles, and Nigel and his comrade, not only professing, but most indubitably inclined the same way, also made for their night quarters.

Now it was Nigel's custom to have his saddle-bags and holsters brought to his own chamber, and this had been done. Sergeant Blick had always this service to do, and Nigel dismissed him to a final quart of beer, and was himself very soon asleep. In two hours he awoke,--a fact he set down to the account of the unusual quality of the wine he had taken, which was costly beyond his own purse limits, and some wines have the nature to be greatly soporific, yet the effect is of somewhat brief lasting.

He turned on his side, and, as he did so, he thought he heard the creaking of a leathern strap, for his saddle-bags and holsters were new and did not easily open. Then he took a deep audible breath and made as if he sank into sleep again. But his ears were fully alert, and he made sure that the noise was real. Very silently he turned again upon his right side, meaning to possess himself of his sword, which was always placed near his right hand, stretching out to take it. In an instant his hand was caught in a noose and fastened to the bedpost. Springing up to release it, his left ankle was seized and tied to another bedpost, and a very effective bandage pushed into his mouth. The rest of him was secured very quickly, and, as he could not cry out, he had the felicity of knowing that his possessions were being thoroughly ransacked by the two marauders, whoever they were.

Not a word was said. The room was in pitch darkness, and presently the thieves stole away. For long he could not release himself by as much as a single knot, but by infinite workings of his neck and chin and ankles and wrists, till all were sore alike, he wore some fastening loose. And just as he had attacked the last one, which bound his left leg, he heard the sound of horses below in the courtyard, and presently the great gates closed with a clang, and the hoofs of four horses sounded on the cobblestones of the street.

He struck a light. All that he carried was on the floor, and saddle-bags and holsters were empty. Nothing had been taken. His money, his clothes, his weapons were all there. It had not then been for these.

It was a search for something, and that something was the despatches. And these had been already stolen. It was evident that the first plotters and the second were of diverse parties. The first might conceivably be men who served the Protestant cause; but who were the second? It was to the interest of the Protestant cause that their leaders throughout Germany should know what forces they had to meet, what Tilly was going to do next. But of whom else?