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?"
"Haste thee! or we force the gates."--To Aage's surprise, the castle
gate was opened without demur in a few minutes. The troop presently
filled the castle yard. Guards were immediately stationed at all the
entrances, as well as on the towers and the battlements on the wall
surrounding the fortress. This was done hastily, and with as little
noise as possible. The sound of so many horses' hoofs and clashing
weapons had, notwithstanding, awakened all the inhabitants of the
castle, who peeped in dismay out of the windows and loopholes, ignorant
into whose hands it had fallen. But the Drost now ordered three
trumpeters to call together all the unarmed household servants, with
all the men-at-arms in the castle. He announced to the warder and the
household, in the king's name, that they were released from their
duties here in the junker's service; and that the king for the present
had taken possession of the castle himself. Those who would enter his
service, and swear fealty to him, might remain; the rest were at
liberty to withdraw, and serve the junker at his other castles and
estates. On hearing this proclamation fear was suddenly changed into
general rejoicing, "Long live the king!" re-echoed from mouth to mouth.
There was not a single domestic who hesitated to change masters; and
many expressions and exclamations were heard which showed how little
Junker Christopher had understood to win the good will of his
dependants. As soon as the new force had garrisoned all the posts,
Drost Aage, with the remainder of his troop, entered the castle. The
steward was the first person who appeared. He was a taciturn personage,
of short stature, with a half German accent. He delivered the keys of
the castle to the Drost, and seemed to share in the general
satisfaction; but as soon as he had installed his unexpected guests he
vanished, and did not again make his appearance.
Ere the day had dawned, Drost Aage was again on horseback, and, with
the half of his troop of horse, quitted Holbek castle, and took the
road to Kallundborg. Sir Ribolt's brother remained as commandant, with
strict orders not to open the gates to any one, or give up the castle
to the junker, ere he had the king's warrant and seal for so doing.
"Sir Drost," said an old horseman, as they rode out of the still
slumbering town, amid its ruins and deserted sites, "was it then your
own order that we might not stop any one who would out of the castle;
and that none, under pain of death, might lift a hand against the
high-born junker, if he was on the spot?"
"That was the king's command to us all," answered the Drost.
"Then I now know that I was right, even though I did let rogues and
traitors slink off," continued the horseman. "I stood on guard at the
gate of the back court. Sir Drost, and I saw three men in disguise lead
their horses out of the stable. They disappeared through the rampart
gate close to the ford, and the Lord only knows what became of them. My
comrades thought we should have stopped and seized them, for they stole
so strangely away, and looked around them on all sides; but I said,
'No! it is a criminal act if we touch them,' and we let them 'scape.
The one was assuredly the little German who was forced to give you the
keys; the other was a fat fellow, who could hardly waddle away; but the
third was a tall stern man; he swore, and laid about him, at every
step. I could almost take my oath it was the junker himself. He was
hardly twelve paces from me when he caught a sight of me, and shyed
off, as it were.--He led his horse over the dunghill, that he might not
come too near us, I suppose; but then the hood fell back from his
neck, and I saw the long black hair you know of; it is as rough as a
horse-tail. No one in the country has such dark unsightly hair as
the junker. But, as I say, we let him go, and budged not from the
spot.--The king himself will know how to chastise him, thought I."
"Good!" exclaimed the Drost; "thou hast behaved as was thy duty--as to
the rest, what is between the king and his brother concerns not us, and
still less whether the junker's hair be fine or coarse." He then
spurred his horse, and proceeded at a brisk trot, without stopping.
Ere Drost Aage, with his horsemen, reached Kallundborg, the king
approached the town, with the greater part of his chivalry, and a more
numerous troop of horsemen and spearmen than he was ever wont to take
with him when about to visit his vassals or one of his castles. It was
noon. The horses foamed with hard riding. The troop halted at St.
George's Hospital, upon the high hill just without the town.
CHAP. XIII.
The report of the king's arrival had preceded him. It had excited great
alarm in the whole neighbourhood, and had especially thrown the
burghers of Kallundborg into a state of anxious suspense. Their
devotion to the king, and fear of his wrath, placed them in a most
dangerous position with regard to their stern deputed master, Junker
Christopher, and his warlike commandant at the castle. Disquieting and
contradictory reports respecting a difference between the king and his
brother had already for some time been in circulation, but no one knew
the real state of the case. As Lord of Samsoee, Holbek, and Kallundborg,
Junker Christopher exercised an almost royal authority wherever he had
troops and fortresses under his command. Latterly he had been often
seen in Kallundborg, where he had assembled a considerable garrison at
the castle, and, to the dismay of the burghers, had put the
fortifications opposite the town and the land side into such a state of
defence as if the breaking out of a dangerous civil war might daily be
expected. Some weeks back admittance had been refused at the castle to
Marsk Oluffsen, who, with a small troop of men-at-arms, had demanded to
enter in the king's name. From this refractoriness towards a royal
ambassador it was thought the most serious results were now to be
apprehended. The prince himself went night and day to and from
Kallundborg; now with a large armed train on horseback, and now by sea
with the armed vessels which constantly plied between Samsoee and
Kallundborg, and conveyed both men-at-arms and provisions to the
fortress. No one knew whether Junker Christopher was personally present
at the castle at the time when the report of the king's arrival threw
the whole town into commotion; but it was observed with dismay that the
drawbridge was raised, and that serious preparations were making to
repel an attack.
The king halted at the head of his numerous train on the hill, and
caused his white steed to be rubbed down while he looked down
thoughtfully upon town and castle. At his right hand was the brave
young Margrave Waldemar of Brandenborg, who had deferred his homeward
journey, and accompanied the king on this expedition, to take leave of
his good friend Junker Christopher, and, if possible, to avert the
storm which menaced him. At the king's left hand was seen his energetic
general, Count Henrik of Mecklenborg, who now, next to Drost Aage,
seemed the king's most confidential friend. The troops watered their
horses at the pond by the chapel of the Holy Cross. All the cripples of
St. George's Hospital came out to see the king, and the numerous
fraternity of St. George, or demi-ecclesiastical attendants on the
sick, vied with each other in offering refreshments to him and his
train. The thronging and curious crowd kept, however, at a respectful
distance from the king and the two stranger lords.
"Your grace will find the whole is some absurd mistake," said the young
margrave, in a light and careless tone, as he sprang off his horse, and
adjusted his rich attire. "At all events, it is assuredly nothing more
than a mistaken sense of honour in the junker, or rather in his
commandant here, and the brave Marsk Oluffsen; that excellent man hath
an altogether peculiar talent of offending every one, without dreaming
of doing so himself. That you must yourself have observed. Such persons
one can but employ to plague both friend and foe. I am fond of being
mediator between kinsmen and kind friends," he continued, gaily--"there
is nothing like drinking to a reconciliation after every quarrel, and
then all goes on merrily.--I know the junker's wine cellar at the
castle here; it is almost better than any prior's; if he willed not to
open it to your sharp spoken Marsk, he hath perhaps but wished to
reserve it for dearer guests."