any harm in that--call him every instant the noble and the pious, just
as if he were the only good knight in Christendom! but at any rate give
_me_ leave to defend Sir Kagge, and feel anxious for him when he perils
his life for my sake! It was indeed not _quite_ according to rule that
he left us when we were captured! I shall scold him finely for that
when we meet; but what was he to do against so many? If he escaped, he
could still hope to free us as long as he himself was at liberty. As to
his attacking the Drost in the dark gateway, without sounding a trumpet
before him, it perhaps did not look altogether chivalrous; but
stratagem against superior force is always lawful in war, and it was
after all a bold and desperate enterprise, which may even yet cost him
his life, although it did nought either for or against us--ah! did I
but know he was safe, I would gladly be patient, and put up with this
captivity some time longer.--When the king gets to know what I now know
he will have to ask pardon, and treat me like a princess."
"Poor Ulrica! what sayest thou?" exclaimed her sister in dismay, and
turning pale; "what madman can have put into your head----"
"That was the secret, then, thou wouldst never out with, my pious
sister!" interrupted Ulrica, with a joyous smile. "I had determined to
conceal my discovery until I could show thee what use it was of; but
now I will show thee that Kagge is much more true and devoted to me
than thou art. While thou thoughtest only of the wounded Drost, my
outlawed knight hath enabled me to guess who I am, and hath sent me a
billet of more importance than all the Drosts in the world.--This Runic
scrap should burst before us the doors of every prison in Denmark." So
saying, she produced with a triumphant air, a small and curiously
carved wooden tablet, upon which was depicted a royal coat of arms with
three crowned leopards, and with Ulrica's name below, in Runic
characters, by the side of Princess Merete's, King Eric Ericson's, and
Junker Christopher's. "Seest thou," said she, drawing up her head
proudly, "the three crowned leopards stand in the king's great seal? As
yet I have only half made out the connection. But at any rate I have
gathered thus much from all the puzzling hints they have given me:--The
king's father must have been secretly wedded to a noble lady of Marsk
Stig's kindred. It must no doubt have been a hazardous affair,
since he had another for his queen; but, nevertheless, lam his
daughter, just the same, and therefore Princess Merete's and the king's
half sister--though no one must know it.--My poor mother hath no doubt
suffered great wrong, and thus come by her death; but that thy father
and his kinsmen have amply revenged. Me they brought up in the Marsk's
house, and therefore I must now share the persecutions that have come
upon thy whole race."
"Alas! believe not one word of that confused and wretched story, dear
Ulrica!" exclaimed Margaretha, bursting into tears; "burn those
unfortunate lines, and believe me thou art in truth my sister, and all
that talk of a higher birth can but bring thee shame and degradation."
"That thou would'st scarcely say had'st thou seen thine own name by the
side of kings and princes," answered Ulrica, with a proud toss of the
head, while she gazed with sparkling eyes on the wooden tablet; "and
look," she continued, fuming it over, "here stand the Norwegian Duke
Haco's lion shield, and pedigree; it reaches in a direct line up to the
great Harold Harfager; and seest thou there stands my true knight
Kagge's name in a side branch like mine--he traces his descent also
from kings and princes; and rememberest thou not what old Mother Else
foretold me at Hald? I was to become a great princess one day, she
said, and get a handsome and rich bridegroom of princely birth."
"Alas, dearest sister!" exclaimed Margaretha, sorrowfully, "thy
childish vanity makes thy soul the sport of dishonourable and
traitorous braggarts--the domestic miseries which brought misfortune
upon the country as well as on our renowned race could be represented
to thee by none but an evil spirit as a source of honour and good
fortune. The blood of slaves, not the blood of princes, runs in that
man's veins who could picture _that_ to thee as an honour which would
make thee to die of grief and shame, did'st thou believe it to be true,
and knewest how to prize the birth which is in truth high and
honourable.
"'Tis pity thou art not a priest, sister!" said Ulrica, with a toss of
the head; "if the story of my high birth were only an idle and
unfounded report, it could hardly have had such important consequences
here in the country; thou must thyself have thought it true, since thou
never would'st confide it to me; but I have long had an inkling of it.
Old Mother Else dared not come quite out with it; but this you must at
any rate allow,--all who have known us and our family have ever bowed
much lower to me than to thee, although thou wert the eldest; and I
have seen folk point oft to me, when I was gaily clad, and heard them
whisper, 'Look, there goes the little princess; look, her pretty eyes
twinkle just like King Glipping's.'"[16]
"Poor, poor sister!" exclaimed Margaretha, folding her, weeping, in her
arms; "and could'st thou endure to hear such hateful words? Were they
able to flatter thy vain and childish heart by a glittering title which
concealed the bitterest hate and scorn? Poor Ulrica! thy greatest
misfortune, after all, is thy soul's blindness--it makes thee even vain
and proud of what should be thy grief and shame. Alas! didst thou
tremble with me at that tale as at a voice from the bottomless pit I
perhaps should know how to comfort and counsel thee; then would I weep
with thee, and pray our blessed Lady to give thee the hope she gave me,
when at times all the horrors I saw and heard in my childhood seemed
like a frightful dream, and it was as though an angel whispered to my
soul that the whole was error and illusion.--Ah, mother! mother! how
shall I perform that I promised thee, and bring this erring child safe
to thine arms?"
"Now thou art growing tiresome again, Margaretha, with all thy love,
and thy piety, and thy conscience," interrupted Ulrica, pettishly,
"_Your_ mother was only my foster mother; that I can well understand.
Who _my_ real mother was thou mightest easily tell, if there was any
real sisterly love in thee; but thou art not my sister after all. I
would thou wert in a nunnery! there thou mightest mourn over me, and
pray for me as much as it pleased thee, without plaguing me with it;
yet, no! for then I must part from thee, and that I could not bear,"
she added, affectionately. "I am still a worldling, dear good
Margaretha!" continued Ulrica, with child-like simplicity. "I have told
you so a hundred times. All the misfortunes that happened in our
childhood, or before I was born, I have neither seen nor shared in;
how, then, canst thou require I should grieve over them? And what good
would it do were I now to sit down with thee to mourn and weep? What
our parents and their kindred have suffered or done amiss our blessed
Lady must pray our Lord to make amends for, and forgive them; but that
I have just as little to do with as thou. I thank my Lord and Maker,
and our blessed Lady, that I have come into this fair world, and that I
am not ashamed of my birth, even though I am but half a princess. The
sorrow and degradation thou would'st have me despair over I care not to
meddle with; either it is altogether idle talk, and then there is
nought to mourn for; or it is true, and I must be satisfied with it as
my destiny; and then I should still be a kind of princess; and what
shame can it be to me that I should be called what I am, and that a
knight of royal descent woos me, and would bring me to the station and
honour which are mine by right?"
"Alas! for thy honour and thy wooer, poor sister!" answered Margaretha,
"there is not a true word in Sir Kagge; all know he is come of higher
birth than he deserves, and it was not till he was outlawed and fled to
Norway that he thought of disowning his own kindred, and tracing his
pedigree in a disgraceful manner to the royal house of Norway. Such
dishonourable fiction would show thee his character, if thou didst not
share his perverted hankerings after the greatness which confers not
honour."
During this conversation Ulrica had arrayed herself in her richest
attire, and it had become quite light. "Now look at me!" she said,
contemplating herself in the polished shield on the wall. "Need I
really be so terribly ashamed of my own existence, or wish I had never
been born? That indeed would be shameful and ungodly. To speak
honestly, Margaretha, should I doubt all that Sir Kagge hath told me of
my descent and of my beauty, I ought to doubt my own eyes also, and
every mirror I looked into would be just as false a flatterer and
traitor as thou deemest him to be."
"Truly the mirror _is_ a false flatterer," answered Margaretha; "it
shows us but the fair outside and the smooth skin, but hides the
skeleton and the image of death within us. The more pleasure we take in
the mimic image it displays to us in our vanity, the more the eyes are
blinded and the soul corrupted. Hadst thou heard the exaggerated
compliments Sir Kagge paid _me_ ere he saw thee quite grown up, and
found thou hadst a more attentive ear for his fair speeches and bold
plans concerning our forfeited goods and rights, he would scarcely have
been less the object of thy laughter and ridicule than that foolish Sir
Palle."
"Ah, how terribly unreasonable thou art, thou dear pious Margaretha!"
interrupted Ulrica; "that fat stupid Sir Palle was made to be a
laughing stock. I know well enough Kagge was once a little in love with
thee, but I can readily forgive him, since he hath got over it so
well.--Thou wert too in some sort my sister, and at the time I was
almost a child.--Thou wouldst doubtless have had him sigh himself to
death over thy coldness, but that was too much to ask of a handsome
young knight. Should he then be deemed a faithless and inconstant lover
because he was mistaken in us sisters, ere he could know our hearts and
his own? How could he help that thou wert so cold and indifferent, and
so insufferably pious? And was it then so unpardonable a sin that at
last he found out that I was quite as fair--or perhaps rather more so?"
"Dear deluded child!" sighed Margaretha, patting her sister's cheek,
while she parted the fair curled locks from her brow, "must thou ever
seek to trace every sentiment thou wouldst rightly understand to a vain
and empty source? Kagge was a loyal and devoted squire to our father,
it is true; he was a zealous sharer in that fearful deed of vengeance,
the grounds of which thou now thinkest thou hast discovered; but were
those grounds not false, and wert thou in truth that thou thinkest
thyself to be, how canst thou give thy hand without shuddering to a man
who was with the band in Finnerup-barn?" She paused, and folded her
hands as if in silent prayer, as she knelt down on the prie-dieu, and
rented her lovely head on the breviary.
"Margaretha! dearest Margaretha! thou hast terrified me," exclaimed
Ulrica, who had turned quite pale. "A horrible and ghastly form rises
before me. Ah! thou art right; I never thought of that. If the story of
my birth be true I ought never to hold Sir Kagge dear, and yet I never
saw the noble ill-fated prince who fell in Finnerup-barn. Should I hate
all those who willed his death, I must also hate my mother, and thy
mother, and father Stig. Alas, Margaretha! we must never think on our
lot in this world, if we would be gay and happy among other human
beings; we must either forget all that hath chanced to us, or go into a
nunnery, and bid the beautiful joyous world good night; but that I
cannot do. Dear sister! pray for me. I will forget what it is not good
to think upon, but I cannot hate any living soul; and he who loves me
with truth and fervour I _must_ love again, whoever he may be, and for
what cause soever he may be outlawed and persecuted." She burst into a
flood of tears, and held up her long golden tresses before her eyes.
"Dearest Ulrica! weep not. I will pray for thee as long as I live,"
said Margaretha. She rose hastily from the prie-dieu, and folded her
sister tenderly in her arms. "We have not as yet wished each other a
happy new year. The Lord and our blessed Lady make thee pious and
patient, and blessed, and grant us both that which is most profitable
for soul and salvation. Weep not, dearest Ulrica! If I have spoken
harshly to thee, and grieved thee, forgive me, for our mother's sake!
She bade me admonish thee, and guard thy soul from thoughts of vanity.
But I see it is so, thou _art_ good and pious and blessed; only weep
not!"
"Yes, if thou wilt never more speak evil of Sir Kagge, or require I
should forget him, and leave off dreaming of him, for that I cannot;
that I _will not_ do." So saying, Ulrica dried her eyes with her long
hair, and peeped archly at her sister through her fingers.
"In the Lord's name, love every living soul in which there is a spark
of God's grace," answered Margaretha, "only be not sorrowful."
"Well, I can understand you now," said Ulrica, taking her hand from her
eyes. She laughed, and heartily kissed her sister. "A happy new year,
sister Margaretha! Would thou might'st wed the handsome Drost ere the
year is out, and would we might get out of this cage ere the woods are
green and the birds sing." She then began to dance with her staid
sister round the prison chamber, singing,
"I know where stands a castle fair,
All dazzling to the sight;
Its walls are decked with carvings rare,
With gold and silver bright."[17]
"Hush! hush! dear sister! some one is coming," said Margaretha,
entreatingly. Ulrica listened, and on hearing the bolt withdrawn from
the prison door she hastily arranged her hair in the polished shield,
and suddenly assumed a stiff and consequential deportment. The door
opened, and a sprightly little maiden entered to attend on them, and to
bring the usual morning repast. "A happy new year, with the blessing of
our Lady and St. Joseph, noble ladies!" said the maiden, curtseying, as
she placed the cup of warm ale on the table. "Master asks whether you
will drive afterwards to high mass with his dame. There came strangers
in the night," she added, anxious to impart the news. "They slept up
above in the knights' story. There are to be fine doings because of
them; they are to breakfast in the ladies' apartment, and there is a
fire on the hearth in the great hall.--The strangers are come from
court; they say the Drost will depart----"
"Depart!" repeated Margaretha, blushing deeply. "Ah, yes," she added,
calmly, "it is possible, indeed, if it be necessary. Yet if they could
allow a few days more it would be better for him. Follow me to the
ladies' apartment, little Karen! Perhaps he wants his wounds bound up
in haste."
"No, stay, and see first if my hair is properly dressed!" said Ulrica.
"Happy new year, little Karen! and a lover ere this day twelvemonth."
"A bridegroom you surely mean, lady! for lovers one may have in plenty
every year," answered the maiden, simpering.
"Your hair is finely dressed. Lady Ulrica! Had _I_ such beautiful
silken hair, and head-gear of gold and pearl to boot, as you have, by
my troth I should never wish to put on a matron's cap while I lived;
but _my_ hair I wish to hide; the sooner the better. Whenever my
sweetheart hath had a scold from master, I am ever forced to hear it is
rough and short. You are as small as a reed. Lady Ulrica!" she
continued, looking at her slender form and gay attire; "one may easily
see you are a dainty highborn knight's daughter, and no serving maid or
kitchen drudge--if _I_ could appear in such fashion to my sweetheart,
how he would stare! But I saw at once you were born to trail in silk
and scarlet.--There hides something else under those wadmal cloaks than
maidens of our condition, said I to Maren, the porter's wife, as soon
as we set eyes on you; and when master grew afterwards so civil to you,
and his wife sent you all those fine clothes and adornments on
Christmas eve--we saw well enough how it was, that we had rare birds in
the cage; perhaps even a princess, as some will have it.--That light
green laced boddice becomes you marvellously. Lady Ulrica; but
were I in Lady Margaretha's place I would not wear white attire on
new-year's-day; it hath such a sad appearance, and it is no good omen
for the good luck and happiness of the new year----"
"My colour hath been the shroud's since my father and mother died,"
said Margaretha, with a deep sigh; "but come now, little Karen! while
you pass judgment on garments and finery many a mass may be sung to an
end."
"Mattins are over, and there is time enough ere high mass," said the
maiden; "but take some refreshment. It is not good to drive to church
or bind the Drost's neck on a fasting stomach."
"I say so too, little Karen!" said Ulrica, with an arch smile, as she
partook heartily of the morning draught. "So the Drost is well again,
and going to depart," she continued; "truly it must be hard for so
brave a knight to live so long under maiden's care, especially with
that frightful scar on his neck."
"The shame is not his, but the coward's who dared not face
him,"--answered the maiden; "is it not so, Lady Margaretha?"
"That is my sister's opinion also," sighed Margaretha; "but come! I
think I hear a ringing."
"Not yet awhile; truly thou art much too devout, sister!" said Ulrica,
with an arch look. "You forget your repast every morning for mass, and
mattins often ring in your ears much before the hour. But it is true
the Drost's neck should be looked at ere mass, and that is ever a work
of time.--Now I am coming; take me with you. I am coming instantly. I
will not again be shut up here alone--ah yes, sister! had I not thee by
me I should be an ungodly being, and sleep over mass time every
morning.--Thou mayst thank the Drost's neck that thou dost never
oversleep thyself--stay a moment; I am coming."--She drained the pewter
cup, and hastened out of the door with her sister and their attendant.
CHAP. X.
From the maiden's tower, which, with the ancient Waldemar's tower, near
the chapel, stood within the northern semicircle of the wall
surrounding the castle, a vaulted private passage led to the broad
flagged and spacious hall on the first floor of the main building into
which the knights' hall, the ladies' apartment, and various others
opened. There was likewise a front entrance from the court-yard by a
flight of high wooden steps, surmounted by a porch, and enclosed on
each side with an iron railing that led up to the balcony. Directly
opposite the two northern towers stood, on the side towards the sea, in
the southern semicircle of the castle wall, the strongly fortified
towers called the dragon and the sea tower. Above the entrance stood
the castle tower, and above the chapel was a small belfry. In the midst
of the castle square stood a high flagstaff, bearing the royal arms,
the three crowned leopards among a number of golden hearts. The
circular wall, which, with its high battlements and towers, surrounded
the whole castle, was also environed by ramparts and deep moats. As the
castle was often occupied by the king and his whole court, it was kept
in perfect repair, and amply provided with furniture and every kind of
convenience.
The castle was one of the most important fortresses in the kingdom. The
number of men belonging to the garrison and household was not
inconsiderable. Whenever the chapel bell rung for mattins, the
commandant, with all the inmates of the castle and its precincts,
proceeded to the chapel across the spacious square of the castle. They
now were returning from mattins with their extinguished lanterns in
their hands.
The captive maidens were guarded without any severity. When accompanied
by one female attendant, the whole castle was open to them during the
day. They were obliged, however, to sleep at night in the tower, which
was never unlocked until daylight; and the porter was only permitted to
open the castle gate for them when the commandant himself or his family
accompanied them to the church of the town, or through the orchard to
the chase of the castle, where at this season of the year they
sometimes amused themselves by hawking, a sport of which Ulrica was
passionately fond, but in which Margaretha only shared for her sister's
sake.
When Ulrica, with her sister and the attendant maiden, stepped out of
the dark passage into the vestibule, she instantly ran as usual to one
of the bow windows, and breathed upon one of the panes to clear away
the frost and make herself a peep-hole into the castle yard. "Look!
look!" she said, gaily; "we shall have the new yellow car to drive in
to-day to church; and look! there they ride to water with the
strangers' horses--I declare they have long silken coverings on, and
there are the royal grooms with them--Look! the commandant, with the
Drost and the strangers, are crossing over this way--one of the
strangers is a canon; but who _can_ those two comical men be with the
German caps?"
"Let us go into the ladies' apartment," said Margaretha; "it would not
be seemly that they should find us here alone so early."
"One can never see any thing, or enjoy any thing, because of that
tiresome seemliness," said Ulrica, pettishly, and followed her sister
reluctantly into the ladies' apartment. Shortly afterwards the door
opened, and Drost Aage entered the ante-chamber, with the king's
confessor. Master Petrus de Dacia, and the two German minstrels,
accompanied by the commandant. Sir Ribolt, a tall man of noble
presence, whose knightly attire was arranged in strict conformity to
the fashion of the time. The commandant first crossed the threshold,
and closed the door to keep in the warmth, which began to diffuse
itself from the large glowing stone chimney.
"In the king's name!" he said, with a kind of solemnity, as he doffed
his high plumed hat, "welcome in his hall, noble sirs! Here he is your
host, though in my insignificant person--I may expect him here, then,
in the spring, venerable sir?"
"He bade me bring you that message, next to royal greeting and favour,"
answered Master Petrus de Dacia, giving his hand to the commandant. "We
have slept under your roof, but as yet your guests are unknown to you,"
he continued. "My name you know. In a few hours I must journey onwards;
but these honourable strangers desire, and have royal permission, to be
your guests for some time, partly with a learned and scientific
object." He now presented to the commandant Master Poppe and Master
Rumelant from Swabia, as renowned professors of the noble art of
minstrelsy, who had visited the territories of many lords and princes,
and who were now desirous also of seeing and knowing all that was
remarkable in Denmark respecting the manners and the customs of the
people, and the state of art and science, compared with that of other
nations. "These learned persons," he added, "are commended to you as
the king's guests, so long as it is their desire to remain here. It is
the king's pleasure that they should have free access to the royal
collection of manuscripts and the archives of the castle."
"Well, these learned guests are welcome," answered the commandant,
saluting the strangers with some embarrassment; "it is probably the
chronicles they desire to search into, and the ancient manuscripts
which lie here, treating of the affairs of Denmark and the German
kingdoms in olden times. There was lately here a learned monk from Nye,
who, by the king's command, had much to do with these writings. They
are treasures which I, to say truth, know but little how to prize; but
scholars can never sufficiently laud our king's carefulness in
collecting such writings, and the free use of them which he allows both
to native and foreign scholars. The Lord help me. Sir Drost!" he
whispered to Aage, "they are surely most awfully learned; they perhaps
do not understand a word of Danish?"
"Are not your king's famous 'Congesta'[18] to be found here?" asked the
tall master Poppe, in a half German half Danish dialect; "we desire
especially to become acquainted with that important historical
collection, as well as with the copy which is here to be seen of your
famous Saxo Grammaticus, likewise Sveno Agonis[19], and whatever may be
found here of collections of old ballads, and of Norwegian or Icelandic
poems, and Sagas of heathen time; item, all remarkable monumenta and
volumina antiquitatis."