It was a fortnight after Easter. The trees of the chase were springing
into leaf. Flocks of twittering starlings in whirling clouds hovered
and sang above the towers of Wordingborg Castle. The cuckoo's note was
heard in the beech groves, and the nightingale was come. The Marsk
stood in the ante-chamber awaiting orders. Ah inquiry was made after
the Drost. He had repaired to the maidens' tower with the judges of the
court of justice of the castle, in order to be present at an
examination of Marsk Stig's daughters. He had himself hastened this act
of justice, in his firm conviction of their innocence; he hoped by his
testimony to be instrumental towards their acquittal, and that the
affair might, from the king's presence there, come to a speedy and
happy termination. The Drost's longing to see the fair Margaretha
again, had perhaps some share in the haste and zeal with which he
followed the grave judges. But hardly had he entered the prison with
these personages, and had met, and responded to, a tender and
melancholy glance from the gentle Margaretha, ere Ulrica, who appeared
to have been sitting quietly before her sister's tapestry frame,
suddenly started up with a wild look and dishevelled hair, and rushed
menacingly towards them. "Ye have murdered him, ye monsters,"--she
cried--"Ye have murdered my true knight--are ye now come to drag me
also to the scaffold? Look! here I am!--tarry not!--bring forward your
chains!--bring forward your executioner! Lead me but to death! I
despise life and all of ye! I knew Kagge was here to avenge my
degradation, and lead me out of this vile captivity. Me, you may murder
also--the sooner the better. I ask no other freedom--call but your
executioner, and put an end to my sorrow! I knew the king's life was in
danger, and I was silent to save my friend and true knight--but my
sister is innocent--none shall injure a hair of _her_ head. She
besought me to move him to flee, and cause no mishap--that I can
witness on the gospels."
"Both were then, it seems, cognizant of the presence of the outlawed
regicide and of his treasonable purpose," said the chief judge; "Sir
Drost! the testimony we have here from the most guilty of the two,
renders them both, at the least, state prisoners for their lifetime."
Drost Aage appeared thunderstruck. "The unhappy lady must rave," he
said, hastily recollecting himself. "She hath been ill, and not in her
right mind, as we know--her confession and testimony are of no weight.
Her knowledge of yon miscreant I have indeed observed; but it is
impossible she could have been an accomplice in his crime, and still
less her pious sister; that I will stake my life upon! Answer us! for
the sake of the Lord in heaven, tell us the truth noble Lady
Margaretha! Knew you Kagge was here in disguise at the castle, and
seeking after the king's life?"
"I knew it, Sir Drost." answered Margaretha calmly, with her hand on
her heart. "But by the lips of the Holy Virgin, and the Spirit of holy
truth, it lay not in my power, nor in my sister's, to hinder his
coming. When I heard he was here, and what he meditated, it was night,
and our prison door was locked. It was not possible for me to caution
you and the king against him, had I even (which I trust in God I had)
courage and strength and will to do so. In the morning it was affirmed
he had escaped, and--I was silent, that I might not plunge an erring
unhappy soul into still greater misery."
"A serious case! a very serious case!" said the judge. "We must examine
into all the circumstances of the affair."
While the examination was continued the commandant of the castle
entered, and summoned the Drost to the king. Aage left the chamber with
a deep sigh, and a sorrowing glance at the unhappy maidens, of whose
acquittal and liberation from prison he now almost despaired.
With feelings of deep emotion the Drost joined the Marsk in the
ante-chamber, where he was to await the king's commands. They heard the
king pacing with hasty steps up and down his private chamber.
"There are snakes in the grass, Drost!" said the Marsk. "Why did they
not instantly cut off the heads of those hounds, without ceremony, and
cast their high-born friend and protector into the tower. Now they have
all 'scaped, the whole pack of them, and we have enough to do to be on
our guard."
"Whom mean you, Sir Marsk?" asked Aage absently. "You have received
letters I know?"
"Yes, in abundance--Brock and Papae got off for that once; they are
scouring Jutland round, and stirring up the people about these
priest-riots and the shutting of the churches, which all dread so much;
just as if a church-door was a fortress gate with ramparts and towers,
and had St. Paul himself for a porter. I thought truly, it was a bad
business when those haughty nobles laid their heads together so often
with the junker, and had slit napkins laid before their noses. I should
have been right glad to have hewn the whole pack of them in pieces; but
amid all our stupid ceremonies with trencher and napkin, and tattered
clouts, we let fly the birds of prey, and the junker into the bargain,
although he got a rent to hide which made his ears glowing red."
"How, Sir Marsk!" exclaimed Aage, a conjecture suddenly flashing across
his mind. "You surely were not yourself his secret accuser?"
"You have hit it, Drost! I cared not much to keep the secret: had any
one asked, my answer would have been ready, and my good sword with it,
if required: proofs and such like frippery I had not, it is true--that
was the worst of it; but, however, I had my conjectures and my own
thoughts. I cannot abide that fellow, do you see--were he guiltless,
and had he courage to defend his honour,--by the foul fiend! he would
not have sat there as if upon thorns, and have hid that little rent. I
was just going by the table, do you see? and saw how matters stood with
those three mangy hounds. The junker's napkin lay so conveniently at
hand, my blood was up, and it struck me the high-born junker would be
the better for a little alarm."
"By your favour. Sir Marsk! it was a most rash proceeding; by acting
thus, you have increased the misunderstanding between the king and his
brother."
"So much the better; either keep with him or break with him--one or the
other; nought comes of this truckling: but so far you are right--I
should not have busied myself with those apish ceremonies, they better
beseem all of _you_. I should rather have said it right out, and
answered for it instantly with my hand on my neck:--but enough of
this--Know ye Master Grand is here?"
"Grand! the Archbishop? Where?"
"At Copenhagen, and with a royal convoy. That was a piece of folly,
also--_You_ were, no doubt, one in council?"
"It was not deemed necessary," answered Aage, repressing his annoyance
at the Marsk's offensive bluntness. "The counsel you so flatteringly
attribute to me was not mine either. The state council and the king
himself considered it good policy. The cardinal demanded it, and
offered his mediation. If the archbishop becomes manageable, and
recalls the ban, he, of course, could not come hither without an
assurance of personal safety."
"Do ye not yet know that fellow better?" answered the Marsk. "Ere
_he_ becomes tractable, heaven and earth will pass away. In this
respect, the king is not far behind him--but if he _will_ be at the
archbishop--by Satan! he should not have given him a convoy, and
allowed him to set foot again upon Danish ground, though the whole
state-council should get a colic from fright. Now, Grand and that
accursed red hat sit like a pair of popes at Axelhuus, and none dare
injure a hair of their heads: there they may begin the game, and stir
us up the whole country in a trice. The cardinal hath already confirmed
that confounded constitution of Veile, and the Bishop of Roskild now
causes all his churches to be shut. The storm will and must burst soon,
and then all depends on how wind and current drive."
"Great Heavens! is it possible?" exclaimed Aage, in dismay. "Have you
certain tidings, Sir Marsk? Doth the king know it?"
"I have brought him some doses on a fasting stomach in a couple of
letters--that he hath swallowed them you may know from the clatter of
his spurs and boot-heels--You brought him letters from Sweden, Drost!
Love letters, doubtless, and fine ballads from his betrothed? Were
there any tidings of a rational kind?"
"None of a very cheering description," answered Aage, looking with
uneasiness towards the king's door. "What the princess hath imparted I
know not; but the excellent Master Petrus can effect nothing with the
state-council touching the king's marriage."
"S'Death!" said the Marsk, rubbing his hands. "Then it will not be easy
to get to talk with him to-day. These are knots which it will be hard
even for _your_ state-policy to loose, my wise Sir Drost! but if _I_
know the king well, he will give all your fine wisdom to the devil, and
keep him to me and his good sword."
"Against rebels we may use the sword, Marsk, but neither against bishop
nor pope, and just as little against the king's future brother-in-law,"
answered Aage. "We stand in need of discretion in this matter, and,
above all, of the help of the Lord."
The door of the king's private chamber now opened, and the king himself
looked out into the ante-chamber, and nodded. His countenance indicated
passion and anxiety, and the Marsk, as well as the Drost, entered the
chamber with a thoughtful aspect.
An hour afterwards Marsk Oluffsen departed with the Wordingborg troop
of horse on his way to Jutland; and Drost Aage set out, attended by
twelve knights and squires, as ambassador to the Swedish court, with a
letter which inspired him with secret anxiety for his king and country.
Among the twelve knights appointed to accompany Drost Aage to Sweden,
was Sir Palle's brother-in-law, the brave knight, Helmer Blaa, who had
made himself famous by gaining his bride by dint of arms, and
vanquishing Sir Palle and her six brothers, who had all fallen upon him
at once. He was young, of a tall and well-proportioned figure, with
sparkling brown eyes, and remarkably light and agile in his movements.
He was a native of Fyen, of high birth; a great friend of the Drost's,
and devoted heart and soul to the king.
"He rides in the saddle so free--"
was wont to be carolled forth by the lower orders whenever they saw
Helmer riding his handsome Arabian horse, which flew with him swift as
the wind, and was the gift of royal favour to him on his marriage-day
the preceding summer.
Drost Aage rode for an hour in calm silence by the side of this gallant
knight, on the road to Kioege, from whence he was to embark for Skanor
on the Swedish coast.
"Count Henrik goes with the king of course?" said Sir Helmer, at last
breaking silence. "If one would visit a bishop's nest in these times,
it must assuredly be with sword and coat of mail."
"Count Henrik stirs not from his side," answered Aage--"that he hath
promised me with word and hand--I now go hence unwillingly; Grand's
thirst for revenge, and the boldness of the outlaws know no bounds."
"That accursed Kagge! He made an end also of my fat seal of a
brother-in-law--that lump of flesh, indeed, I accounted not much of;
his miserable death, however, I have vowed to St. George to avenge,
chiefly for my dear wife's sake. She had but that one brother left
since I came to mishap with all the others; but it was done openly,
and in honourable self-defence; she hath not even loved me the less
either for that affair--but to fight by stealth, and with a poisoned
weapon--faugh! 'Twas an accursed Italian trick--such was never before
the usage here in the north. Are you quite certain the wretched
assassin is dead and buried in good earnest, Sir Drost? The people have
divers tales to tell. He who hath had no shame in his life would not
die of shame, I should think--One hath seen ere this a cunning fox run
from the trap and leave his tail behind him."
Aage started. "I saw him not after death," he answered; "but his end
was certainly announced by the provost and Commendator of the
monastery. There can surely be no doubt of the truth."
"The Commendator is a holy man of God, doubtless," replied Helmer, with
an incredulous smile; "one ought not, indeed, to suspect him of deceit
and treason, even though he be a good friend of Master Grand's, and
might have wished to save the dishonoured life of one of so high and
holy a race. I first heard that unbelieving gossip when the body was
thrown into the carrion pit, and consumed with unslacked lime; it
doubtless showed great caution and good care for the public health; but
they will have it it was a corpse from the hospital of the monastery,
with beard and eyebrows of good Danish boar bristles."
"Can it be possible!" exclaimed Aage. "Should he be alive and at
liberty, he would then become a more pestilent foe than all the outlaws
put together--Yon dishonoured miscreant is capable of any crime; he
hath now hardly aught more to lose."
"Be that as it may," answered Helmer, "if Kagge be above ground, so is
my arm and my good sword also--the Lord be praised for it!--and
wherever I meet him, I am his man."
"If the miscreant is alive, and falls into our hands, we can but bind
his hands and wash our own of the matter," answered Aage.
They now continued their journey in grave silence for another hour.
Each time Aage thought of the unfortunate daughters of Marsk Stig in
the maidens' tower a sigh burst from his heart; and whenever he felt
the king's important letter within his vest it seemed to him as if he
was oppressed by the future fate of king and country.
"We received but scanty orders," resumed Helmer Blaa again, seemingly
wearied by the long silence and the Drost's reverie. "We were to learn
the rest from you, Drost; but you seem to have left tongue and speech
at Wordingborg."
"You know what is of most importance," answered Aage. "It concerns King
Eric's highest happiness in this world. As matters stand now with the
archbishop and pope, you may easily imagine there are great
difficulties about the dispensation for his marriage; if we cannot
prevail on King Birger and his state council to permit the marriage to
take place ere St. John's Day, and that despite both pope and clergy,
then--more should not be said," he added, in a lowered voice; "then I
fear matters will stand badly, Sir Helmer."
"Not worse surely than with me when they threw hindrances in the way of
my marriage!" answered Helmer. "How such difficulties may be got over
our bold king knows full as well as I--" So saying, he gaily struck
upon his clanking sword.
"That did very well with your brother-in-law, brave Helmer," said Aage.
"It concerned only half a dozen of our worst knights. HERE state and
kingdom are in question. The king is of a hasty temper, you know; he is
only but too ready to imitate your bold manner of wooing; but if he is
to win his bride by war and battle, there will be a bloody bridal here
in the summer, to as little pleasure for Denmark as for Sweden."
"There you may perhaps be in the right, Drost," answered Helmer. "There
is a difference between _my_ brothers-in-law and the king's, I own; but
if honour and our king's fortune in love are now at stake, assuredly no
Danish knight will hesitate to become his bridegroom's man with sword
and lance, however hard one might be put to it. This much we must allow
to the Swede--he ever fights like a brave fellow. Swedish knighthood
yields not to us in manhood; but when we sing,
'For Eric the youthful king!'
the heart of no Danish man will sink below his belt, I know, were the
Swede ten times as strong, and had they ten Thorkild Knudsons in
council and camp."
"Let us not talk too loud of these things," said Aage, in a low voice,
and allowing the other knights to pass by, while he and Helmer
slackened their pace. "Honourable warfare is indeed ever to be
preferred to a deceitful and shameful peace," he continued; "but the
Lord and St. George forbid it should come to a breach now, just when
love and good will seem in truth desirous to make us and our brave
neighbours friends. Could these unhappy scruples be removed I should
deem both Denmark and Sweden fortunate indeed. If a noble Swedish
princess sits on the throne of Denmark's queens, and a Danish one on
that of Sweden, we might then hope to see extinguished the last spark
of ancient national hate and fraternal enmity. We may say what we
please in our pride, and boast of Danish greatness in the days of
Canute the Great and the Valdemars; Scandinavians were, however,
brethren in the beginning; we have shared honour and fame with each
other all over the world, among Longobards and Goths and Northmen; and
we must combine together again, if aught great is to be achieved by the
powers of the north."
"It may be so," answered Sir Helmer. "I am well nigh of your opinion,
especially since it hath now come to something more than mere state
policy and cold calculations with these betrothings of royal children.
This one at first was but a politic scheme of Queen Agnes and Drost
Hessel; in such plans there are seldom any truth and honesty. Strange
enough it should turn out as it hath done; for every man, both here and
in Sweden's land, knows that our young king is almost more enamoured
than a Sir Tristan or Florez in the new books of chivalry; and
the fair Princess Ingeborg--here they already call her our second
Dagmar--although we have but heard she is pious and mild, and hath
pretty blue eyes and beautiful golden hair, like Dagmar. I shall be
well pleased to see her," he added. "No Swedish or Danish knights can
ever commend her sufficiently, and she is, indeed, well nigh praised to
the disparagement of our own lovely ladies--that vexes me I own."
"I saw her at Helsingborg, at the bridal of Count Gerhard and Queen
Agnes," said Aage, and his pensive eye sparkled. "She was then still
almost a child; but she hath since ever seemed to me like one of God's
holy angels, destined to diffuse the blessings of peace and love
through this land and kingdom. There is but one female form in the
world which I could compare with her, or perhaps even exalt above her
in fair and noble presence," he added with emotion; but suddenly paused
and cleared his throat with some embarrassment.
"Now, out with it, Drost Aage; I am not jealous," said Sir Helmer, with
a pleased and proud look. "You mean doubtless my fair young wife--It is
worthy a true knight to admire the beauty of a young and fair woman in
all reverence and honour. She hath well nigh the fairest presence of
any woman here in the country; every one says so who sees her, both
here and in Fyen; and I have nought against it. I know assuredly she
holds me dearest of all, although I came to mishap, as you know, both
with her uncle and those stiff-necked brothers. She is now at my
castle, longing to have me back again; if it please the Lord and St.
George, she shall soon hear a good report of me, if there is anything
to be done in earnest."
Drost Aage's usually pale cheek had become crimson. "You guessed wrong,
however, this once Sir Helmer"--he said, with a smile; "the lady I
thought of was another, without disparagement to your fair young wife.
But, if we would reach Kjoege ere midnight, we must ride faster. In a
steady trot, and at the long run, I think my Danish horse will be a
match for your Arabian." He spurred his horse, and Sir Helmer hastened
to redeem the honour of his favourite Arabian, while he shook his head
at the Drost's want of discernment in the matter of female beauty.