NIGEL'S INSTRUCTIONS, WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN.
It is not too much to say that the Emperor Ferdinand and the Jesuits,
which may be taken to include the Duke of Bavaria, were intoxicated by
the fall of Magdeburg. Ferdinand was bent on carrying out his Edict,
bent on restoring to the Church of Rome its ancient possessions, bent on
levelling the edifice of Protestantism till not one stone should be left
in company with another, as witness that within the bounds of the empire
there had once been such a heresy as Lutheranism, or such another heresy
as Calvinism. Rather a tractless desert, which, for lack of a better
name, he could call a Catholic state, than well-cultivated provinces,
studded thickly with prosperous towns and cities, wherein men and women
worshipped their Maker after any other fashion than his own. It was a
dream of fanaticism.
Once the Emperor had deemed that he was within reach of his desires,
when Wallenstein and his army had traversed the land driving the forces
of Protestantism before him, not all Protestantism, mark you, but all
that had courage enough to show an armed front in Germany. And the Diet
of Ratisbon had said, "Your Majesty must dismiss Wallenstein." The
Jesuits had been foremost, for they had weighed Wallenstein and found
him wanting in their own kind of strenuousness. Reluctantly the Emperor
had listened and agreed to let him go.
Gustavus had arisen. "Another little enemy," said Ferdinand, still full
of the sensation of power that had crept into his heart with the
aggrandisement of Wallenstein's army. Gustavus established himself in
Mecklenburg and in Pomerania. "It is no great matter," said the Emperor.
"Let our General Tilly and your General Pappenheim, Duke Maximilian, go
on with their work and enforce the Edict. Brandenburg lies between
Gustavus and Magdeburg, and George William is no fire-eater. He will
stand by the Empire. Saxony, broad and rich in cities and men, lies next
in his path, and John George is, Protestant though he be, a staunch
Elector of the Empire. Let Tilly and Pappenheim go onward, maugre the
threats of these northern migrants. We have seen Christian of Denmark
driven back to his flat lands. So shall we see Gustavus." And lo! Tilly
and Pappenheim took Magdeburg, and, whether they could help it or not,
the city was burned and twenty thousand of its citizens died the death
of the heretic: and the bruit of it had sent a shudder through all
Protestant Germany. Who indeed should stand at the last day against the
arms of the Empire?
"And all without your vaunted Wallenstein!" said Duke Maximilian. They
set it down to impotence on the part of Gustavus.
The Emperor Ferdinand was not indisposed to show some other parts of
Germany that Vienna was active, keeping them in mind, and he was not
altogether sure of Hesse Cassel and its Landgrave. He did not wish to
send his new regiment to join Tilly by the straight path through Saxony,
because Saxony might take umbrage. It would help to preach submission if
it took the road through Hesse Cassel and came by the north side of the
mountains into the south of Hanover, and got into sight of Gustavus
from the west bank of the Elbe, it being presumed that the Swedish king
was upon the other side, and came up stream to Tilly.
This time Nigel had no despatches to carry. The Grand Duke Lothar had
summoned him to read in his presence the instructions of the Emperor,
which he was to impart to Major Hildebrand von Hohendorf. The only
papers he was furnished with were general authorities to quarter his
troops where he thought it expedient. Money was given him, but not in
such abundance as to cumber his march. Last of all, he was bidden to
Father Lamormain's apartments.
The priest received him with the urbanity that sat so well upon him, and
bade him be seated.
"I trust that your visit to Vienna has been a pleasant and a profitable
one!" he said.
"Both the one and the other beyond all expectations!" said Nigel
heartily.
"You are entering upon a perilous adventure," said the priest. "But the
Emperor and his councillors have great hopes that you will acquit
yourself successfully. Your journey is a long one, and you will pass
through many states, towns, bishoprics, and it depends upon yourself
what speed you make. I do not doubt but that your zeal will conduct you
to our armies. But the Emperor desires that you should note with care
the disposition and affection of each district to his rule, so that he
may know on whom to count for support or enmity. More than that, it is
suspected here that the Duke of Friedland has intelligence with many
princes and magistrates, even with Gustavus of Sweden."
"Impossible, Father!" the young man interposed with a flush of
indignation. "Wallenstein a traitor!"
Father Lamormain made a little movement with his hands.
"I do not say treasonable! We live in times when we find it as difficult
to say what is honour as Pilate found it hard to say what was truth.
Besides, Wallenstein, being a private gentleman holding no office, may
if he so chooses write letters even to Gustavus about ... shall we say
butterflies, or forestry, or a thousand subjects."
"But with the open enemy of the Emperor!" protested Nigel.
The priest maintained his suavity.
"Injudicious, let us say, if it be true! It is suspected. Now if you
should in your journeying intercept any of his messengers, the Emperor's
service demands that you should possess yourself of his letters and hand
them to the next regular priest you meet for transmission to the
Emperor."
At the first grasp of the proposal Nigel was inclined to hesitate. But
at the second he saw that there was nothing essentially unbecoming in
it. He was in the service of the Emperor, and the Emperor's enemies
avowed or secret must be his. There could be no division of allegiance.
Besides, it was too impossible.
Father Lamormain watched his face, saw the hesitation, and drew forth a
written order, signed by the Emperor himself, to seize the person of any
messenger he would who carried letters, examine him, and send unbroken
to the Emperor any letters he might seize.
Nigel read it and nodded.
"I understand, Father. It is for the safety of the Empire!"
"And Holy Church!" added the priest. "Your responsibility ceases when
you report yourself to Count Tilly."
Nigel devoutly hoped that he would reach Tilly in the shortest possible
space of time. Fighting was one thing. In so far as one did not get shot
oneself or maimed, it was an impersonal thing. Provided one did not
have too much of it, it was exciting and almost enjoyable; besides that,
it was the exercise of an old and honourable profession. But stopping
messengers on the highroad, when there was no chance of reprisals on
their part, questioning them at point of pistol, or rifling their
holsters, seemed to be the work of a lower order entailing a certain
stain upon him who performed it.
"I would ask you a question, Father. Why have I been chosen for this
work?"
The priest smiled.
"For your knowledge of your craft the Archduke Lothar vouches. For your
being a good Catholic the Church vouches. And that you are of the
Scottish nation is good pledge that you will have no personal end to
serve in Germany but your own advancement. To you Saxony is Saxony,
Bavaria, Bavaria, but they mean nothing. You have taken service with the
Emperor, and him only will you serve. So long as you serve the Emperor
with a single eye you will succeed. The blessing of Heaven will follow
you. The higher you climb, the more difficult the path will be. But only
obey!"
The openness of the priest's avowal and his fatherly manner, almost a
benediction in itself, won upon Nigel to a great degree, so that his
suspicions of the Jesuits and their ways were almost, if not quite, laid
to rest.
"To obey comes easy to the soldier, Father! But it does not make some
duties less irksome."
"Ah! There I disagree with you," said the priest. "The rule of my order
is obedience. The patience, the skill demanded of us, the interest
involved in carrying out the task to a complete and successful issue
beyond the possibility of doubt, remove all that you call irksomeness.
Strive after our conception of obedience and all else becomes easy to
you."
"But in your case," said Nigel, "there is no tie of blood that binds
you. You admit neither father nor mother. The Church and your order
stand in their stead."
"That is true! The member of the brotherhood of Jesus reckons no human
relationship as having any meaning in his regard, and being free he
moves safely to his instructed purpose. There is but one human passion
which can be a source of danger to you. You are young. You may love. At
present no danger threatens. Am I right?"
Nigel answered tersely enough.
"No woman claims me. I claim no woman!"
And his answer was as sincere as it appeared to be to Father Lamormain.
For if his thoughts had often turned towards the lost Ottilie, and his
admiration been roused by the Archduchess Stephanie, the unknown
distance of the one and the exalted rank of the other had stayed the
fire, as trenches widely dug will upon a burning heath.
Nigel was sensible of the pervading influence of the priest. He had
passed the stage at which he had silently questioned his instructions,
nor did he think it strange that the confessor of the Emperor should
have been the channel of their conveyance: for by this time from one and
another he had realised the peculiarly close leaning that the Emperor
had towards the Church and towards its regular priests. He, however, did
not recognise that one purpose of the interview was that Father
Lamormain should make the further acquaintance with the instrument the
Emperor and himself proposed to use.
On the whole, Father Lamormain was well pleased, and satisfied on the
main head that Nigel was no creature of Wallenstein, though as a soldier
he reverenced his old commander. For any further work beyond the
present, time would show if this Scottish gentleman might become a more
confidential agent of the order.
On the morrow Nigel set forth from Vienna with his three hundred
"Rough-riders," and if, horses and men, they presented an uncouth and
unfinished appearance, they also had a certain aspect of the formidable
that boded ill for any obstacle they might encounter.