Author of "The Prisoner of Zenda," "The Dolly Dialogues," etc.
King Rudolf, being in the worst of humors, had declared in the
presence of all the court that women were born to plague men and for
no other purpose whatsoever under heaven. Hearing this discourteous
speech, the Princess Osra rose, and said that, for her part, she would
go walking alone by the river outside the city gates, where she
would at least be assailed by no more reproaches. For since she was
irrevocably determined to live and die unmarried, of what use or
benefit was it to trouble her with embassies, courtings, or proposals,
either from the Grand Duke of Mittenheim or anybody else? She was
utterly weary of this matter of love--and her mood would be unchanged,
though this new suitor were as exalted as the King of France, as rich
as Croesus himself, and as handsome as the god Apollo. She did not
desire a husband, and there was an end of it. Thus she went out, while
the queen sighed, and the king fumed, and the courtiers and
ladies said to one another that these dissensions made life very
uncomfortable at Strelsau, the ladies further adding that he would
be a bold man who married Osra, although doubtless she was not
ill-looking.
To the banks of the river outside the walls then Osra went; and as she
went she seemed to be thinking of nothing at all in the world, least
of all of whom she might chance to meet there on the banks of the
river, where in those busy hours of the day few came. Yet there was a
strange new light in her eyes, and there seemed a new understanding in
her mind; and when a young peasant-wife came by, her baby in her arms,
Osra stopped her, and kissed the child and gave money, and then ran on
in unexplained confusion, laughing and blushing as though she had done
something which she did not wish to be seen. Then, without reason, her
eyes filled with tears; but she dashed them away, and burst suddenly
into singing. And she was still singing when, from the long grass by
the river's edge, a young man sprang up, and, with a very low bow,
drew aside to let her pass. He had a book in his hand, for he was a
student at the University, and came there to pursue his learning in
peace. His plain brown clothes spoke of no wealth or station, though
certainly they set off a stalwart straight shape, and seemed to match
well with his bright brown hair and hazel eyes. Very low this young
man bowed, and Osra bent her head. The pace of her walk slackened,
grew quicker, slackened again; she was past him, and with a great sigh
he lay down again. She turned, he sprang up; she spoke coldly, yet
kindly.
"Sir," said she, "I cannot but notice that you lie every day here by
the river, with your book, and that you sigh. Tell me your trouble,
and if I can I will relieve it."
"I am reading, madam," he answered, "of Helen of Troy, and I am
sighing because she is dead."
"It is an old grief by now," said Osra, smiling. "Will no one serve
you but Helen of Troy?"
"If I were a prince," said he, "I need not mourn."
"No, sir?"
"No, madam," he said, with another bow.
"Farewell, sir."
"Madam, farewell."
So she went on her way, and saw him no more till the next day, nor
after that till the next day following; and then came an interval when
she saw him not, and the interval was no less than twenty-four hours;
yet still he read of Helen of Troy, and still sighed that she was dead
and he no prince. At last he tempted the longed-for question from her
shy, smiling lips.
"Why would you not mourn, sir, if you were a prince?" said she. "For
princes and princesses have their share of sighs." And with a very
plaintive sigh Osra looked at the rapid-running river, as she waited
for the answer.
"Because I would then go to Strelsau, and so forget her."
[Illustration: "FROM THE LONG GRASS BY THE RIVER'S EDGE A YOUNG MAN
SPRANG UP, AND, WITH A VERY LOW BOW, DREW ASIDE TO LET HER PASS."]
"But you are at Strelsau now!" she cried with wonderful surprise.
"Ah, but I am no prince, madam!" said he.
"Can princes alone--forget in Strelsau?"
"How should a poor student dare to--forget in Strelsau?" And as he
spoke he made bold to step near her, and stood close, looking down
into her face. Without a word she turned and left him, going with a
step that seemed to dance through the meadow and yet led her to her
own chamber, where she could weep in quiet.
"I know it now, I know it now!" she whispered softly that night to
the tree that rose by her window. "Heigh-ho, what am I to do? I cannot
live; no, and now I cannot die. Ah me! what am I to do? I wish I were
a peasant-girl--but then perhaps he would not--Ah yes, but he would!"
And her low, long laugh rippled in triumph through the night, and
blended with the rustling of the leaves under a summer breeze, and
she stretched her white arms to heaven, imploring the kind God with
prayers that she dared not speak even to His pitiful ear.
"Love knows no princesses, my princess." It was that she heard as she
fled from him next day. She should have rebuked him. But for that she
must have stayed, and to stay she had not dared. Yet she must rebuke
him. She must see him again in order to rebuke him. Yet all this while
she must be pestered with the court of the Grand Duke of Mittenheim!
And when she would not name a day on which the embassy should come,
the king flew into a passion, and declared that he would himself set
a date for it. Was his sister mad, he asked, that she would do nothing
but walk every day by the river's bank?
"Surely I must be mad," thought Osra, "for no sane being could be at
once so joyful and so piteously unhappy."
Did he know what it was he asked? He seemed to know nothing of it. He
did not speak any more now of princesses, only of his princess; nor of
queens, save of his heart's queen; and when his eyes asked love, they
asked as though none would refuse and there could be no cause for
refusal. He would have wooed his neighbor's daughter thus, and thus
he wooed the sister of King Rudolf. "Will you love me?" was his
question--not, "Though you love, yet dare you own you love?" He seemed
to shut the whole world from her, leaving nothing but her and him;
and in a world that held none but her and him she could love unblamed,
untroubled, and with no trembling.
"You forget who I am," she faltered once.
"You are the beauty of the world," he answered smiling, and he kissed
her hand--a matter about which she could make no great ado, for it was
not the first time that he had kissed it.
But the embassy from the Grand Duke was to come in a week, and to
be received with great pomp. The ambassador was already on the way,
carrying proposals and gifts. Therefore Osra went pale and sad down
to the river bank that day, having declared again to the king that she
would live and die unmarried. But the king had laughed again. Surely
she needed kindness and consolation that sad day; but Fate had kept
by her a crowning sorrow, for she found him also almost sad. At least,
she could not tell whether he were sad or not; for he smiled and
yet seemed ill at ease, like a man who ventures a fall with fortune,
hoping and fearing. And he said to her:
"Madam, in a week I return to my own country."
She looked at him in silence with lips just parted. For her life she
could not speak; but the sun grew dark, and the river changed its
merry tune to mournful dirges.
"So the dream ends," said he. "So comes the awakening. But if life
were all a dream!" And his eyes sought hers.
"Yes," she whispered, "if life were all a dream, sir?"
"Then I should dream of two dreamers whose dream was one, and in that
dream I should see them ride together at break of day from Strelsau."
"Whither?" she murmured.
"To Paradise," said he. "But the dream ends. If it did not end--" He
paused.
"If it did not end?" a breathless longing whisper echoed.
"If it did not end now, it should not end even with death," said he.
"You see them in your dream? You see them riding--"
"Aye, swiftly, side by side, they two alone, through the morning. None
is near, none knows."
He seemed to be searching her face for something that yet he scarcely
hoped to find.
"And their dream," said he, "brings them at last to a small cottage,
and there they live--"
"They live?"
[Illustration: "'YOU ARE THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD,' HE ANSWERED
SMILING, AND HE KISSED HER HAND."]
"And work," he added. "For she keeps his home while he works."
"What does she do?" asked Osra, with smiling, wondering eyes.
"She gets his food for him when he comes home weary in the evening,
and makes a bright fire, and--"
"Ah, and she runs to meet him at the door--oh, further than the door!"
"But she has worked hard and is weary."
"No, she is not weary," cried Osra. "It is for him!"
"The wise say this is silly talk," said he.
"The wise are fools, then!" cried Osra.
"So the dream would please you, madam?" he asked.
She had come not to know how she left him. Somehow, while he still
spoke, she would suddenly escape by flight. He did not pursue, but
let her go. So now she returned to the city, her eyes filled with
that golden dream, and she entered her home as though it had been some
strange palace decked with new magnificence, and she an alien in it.
For her true home seemed now rather in the cottage of the dream, and
she moved unfamiliarly through the pomp that had been hers from birth.
Her soul was gone from it, while her body rested there; and life
stopped for her till she saw him again by the banks of the river.
"In five days now I go," said he; and he smiled at her. She hid her
face in her hands. Still he smiled; but suddenly he sprang forward,
for she had sobbed. The summons had sounded, he was there; and who
could sob again when he was there and his sheltering arm warded away
all grief? She looked up at him with shining eyes, whispering:
"Do you go alone?"
A great joy blazed confidently in his eyes as he whispered in answer:
"I think I shall not go alone."
"But how, how?"
"I have two horses."
"You! You have two horses?"
"Yes. Is it not riches? But we will sell them when we get to the
cottage."
"To the cottage! Two horses!"
"I would I had but one for both of us."
"Yes."
"But we should not go quick enough."
"No."
He took his hand from her waist, and stood away from her.
"You will not come?" he said.
"If you doubt of my coming, I will not come. Ah, do not doubt of my
coming! For there is a great horde of fears and black thoughts beating
at the door, and you must not open it."
"And what can keep it shut, my princess?"
"I think your arm, my prince," said she; and she flew to him.
That evening King Rudolf swore that if a man were only firm enough,
and kept his temper (which, by the way, the king had not done, though
none dared say no), he could bring any foolish girl to reason in good
time. For in the softest voice, and with the strangest smile flitting
to her face, the Princess Osra was pleased to bid the embassy come on
the fifth day from then.
"And they shall have their answer then," said she, flushing and
smiling.
"It is as much as any lady could say," the court declared; and it was
reported through all Strelsau that the match was as good as made, and
that Osra was to be Grand Duchess of Mittenheim.
"She is a sensible girl, after all," cried Rudolf, all his anger gone.
The dream began, then, before they came to the cottage. Those days she
lived in its golden mists that shut out all the cold world from her,
moving through space that held but one form, and time that stood still
waiting for one divine unending moment. And the embassy drew near to
Strelsau.
It was night, the dead of night, and all was still in the palace. But
the sentinel by the little gate was at his post, and the gate-warden
stood by the western gate of the city. Each was now alone, but to
each, an hour ago, a man had come, stealthily and silently through
the darkness, and each was richer by a bag of gold than he had been
before. The gold was Osra's--how should a poor student, whose whole
fortune was two horses, scatter bags of gold? And other gold Osra had,
aye, five hundred crowns. Would not that be a brave surprise for the
poor student? And she, alone of all awake, stood looking round her
room, entranced with the last aspect of it. Over the city also she
looked, but in the selfishness of her joy did no more than kiss a
hasty farewell to the good city folk who loved her. Once she thought
that maybe some day he and she would steal together back to Strelsau,
and, sheltered by some disguise, watch the king ride in splendor
through the streets. But if not--why, what was Strelsau and the people
and the rest? Ah, how long the hours were before those two horses
stood by the little gate, and the sentry and the gate-warden earned
their bags of gold! So she passed the hours--the last long lingering
hours.
There was a little tavern buried in the narrowest, oldest street of
the city. Here the poor student had lodged; here in the back room a
man sat at a table, and two others stood before him. These two seemed
gentlemen, and their air spoke of military training. They stroked long
mustaches, and smiled with an amusement that deference could not hide.
Both were booted and wore spurs, and the man sitting at the table gave
them orders.
"You will meet the embassy," he said to one, "about ten o'clock. Bring
it to the place I have appointed, and wait there. Do not fail."
The officer addressed bowed and retired. A minute later his horse's
hoofs clattered through the streets. Perhaps he also had a bag of
gold, for the gate-warden opened the western gate for him, and he rode
at a gallop along the river banks, till he reached the great woods
that stretch to within ten miles of Strelsau.
"An hour after we are gone," said the man at the table to the other
officer, "go warily, find one of the king's servants, and give him the
letter. Give no account of how you came by it, and say nothing of who
you are. All that is necessary is in the letter. When you have given
it, return here, and remain in close hiding till you hear from me
again."
The second officer bowed. The man at the table rose, and went out into
the street. He took his way to where the palace rose, and then skirted
along the wall of its gardens till he came to the little gate. Here
stood two horses and at their heads a man.
"It is well. You can go," said the student; and he was left alone
with the horses. They were good horses for a student to possess. The
thought perhaps crossed their owner's mind, for he laughed softly as
he looked at them. Then he also fell to thinking that the hours were
long; and a fear came suddenly upon him that she would not come. It
was in these last hours that doubts crept in, and she was not there to
drive them away. Would the great trial fail? Would she shrink at the
last? But he would not think it of her, and he was smiling again, when
the clock of the cathedral struck two, and told him that no more than
one hour now parted her from him. For she would come; the princess
would come to him, the student, led by the vision of that cottage in
the dream.
Would she come? She would come; she had risen from her knees, and
moved to and fro, in cautious silence, making her last preparations.
She had written a word of farewell for the brother she loved--for some
day, of course, Rudolf would forgive her--and she had ready all that
she took with her--the five hundred crowns, one ring that she would
give her lover, some clothes to serve till his loving labor furnished
more. That night she had wept, and she had laughed; but now she
neither wept nor laughed, but there was a great pride in her face and
gait. And she opened the door of her room, and walked down the great
staircase, under the eyes of crowned kings who hung framed upon the
walls. And as she went she seemed indeed their daughter. For her head
was erect and her eye set firm in haughty dignity. Who dared to say
that she did anything that a king's daughter should not do? Should not
a woman love? Love should be her diadem. And so with this proud step
she came through the gardens of the palace, looking neither to right
nor left nor behind, but with her face set straight for the little
gate, and she walked as she had been accustomed to walk when all
Strelsau looked on her and hailed her as its glory and its darling.
The sentry slept, or seemed to sleep. Her face was not even veiled
when she opened the little gate. She would not veil her proud face.
It was his to look on now when he would; and thus she stood for an
instant in the gateway, while he sprang to her, and, kneeling, carried
her hand to his lips.
"You are come?" he cried; for though he had believed, yet he wondered.
"I am come," she smiled. "Is not the word of a princess sure? Ah, how
could I not come?"
"See, love," said he, rising, "day dawns in royal purple for you, and
golden love for me."
"The purple is for my king, and the love for me," she whispered, as he
led her to her horse. "Your fortune!" said she, pointing to them.
"But I also have brought a dowry--fancy, five hundred crowns!" and
her mirth and happiness burst out in a laugh. It was so deliciously
little, five hundred crowns!
She was mounted now, and he stood by her.
"Will you turn back?" he said.
"You shall not make me angry," said she. "Come, mount."
"Aye, I must mount," said he. "For if we were found here the king
would kill me."
For the first time the peril of their enterprise seemed to strike,
into her mind, and turned her cheek pale.
"Ah, I forgot! In my happiness I forgot. Mount, mount! Oh, if he found
you!"
He mounted. Once they clasped hands; then they rode swiftly for the
western gate.
"Veil your face," he said; and since he bade her, she obeyed, saying:
"But I can see you through the veil."
The gate stood open, and the gate-warden was not there. They were out
of the city; the morning air blew cold and pure from the meadows along
the river. The horses stretched into an eager gallop. And Osra tore
her veil from her face, and turned on him eyes of radiant triumph.
"It is done," she cried; "it is done!"
"Yes, it is done, my princess," said he.
"And--and it is begun, my prince," said she.
"Yes, and it is begun," said he.
She laughed aloud in absolute joy, and for a moment he also laughed.
But then his face grew grave, and he said:
"I pray you may never grieve for it."
She looked at him with eyes wide in wonder; for an instant she seemed
puzzled, but then she fell again to laughing.
"Grieve for it!" said she between her merry laughs.
King Rudolf was a man who lay late in the morning; and he was not well
pleased to be roused when the clock had but just struck four. Yet he
sat up in his bed readily enough, for he imagined that the embassy
from the Grand Duke of Mittenheim must be nearer than he had thought,
and, sooner than fail in any courtesy towards the prince whose
alliance he ardently desired, he was ready to submit to much
inconvenience. But his astonishment was great when, instead of any
tidings from the embassy, one of his gentlemen handed him a
letter, saying that a servant had received it from a stranger with
instructions to carry it at once to the king. When asked if any answer
were desired from his majesty, the stranger had answered, "Not through
me," and at once turned away, and quickly disappeared. The king, with
a peevish oath at having been roused for such a trifle, broke the seal
and fastenings of the letter, and opened it; and he read:
"Sire--Your sister does not wait for the embassy, but chooses her own
lover. She has met a student of the University every day for the last
three weeks by the river bank." (The king started.) "This morning she
has fled with him on horseback along the western road. If you desire a
student for a brother-in-law, sleep again. If not, up and ride. Do not
doubt these tidings."
There was no signature to the letter; yet the king, knowing his
sister, cried:
"See whether the princess is in the palace. And in the meanwhile
saddle my horse, and let a dozen of the guard be at the gate."
The princess was not in the palace; but her woman found the letter
that she had left, and brought it to the king. And the king read:
"Brother, whom I love best of all men in the world save one, I have
left you to go with that one. You will not forgive me now, but some
day forgive me. Nay, it is not I who have done it, but my love which
is braver than I. He is the sweetest gentleman alive, brother, and
therefore he must be my lord. Let me go, but still love me--Osra."
"It is true," said the king. "And the embassy will be here to-day."
And for a moment he seemed dazed. Yet he spoke nothing to anybody of
what the letters contained, but sent word to the queen's apartments
that he went riding for pleasure. And he took his sword and his
pistols; for he swore that by his own hand, and that of no other man,
this sweetest gentleman alive should meet his death. But all, knowing
that the princess was not in the palace, guessed that the king's
sudden haste concerned her; and great wonder and speculation rose in
the palace, and presently, as the morning advanced, spread from the
palace to its environs, and from the environs to the rest of the city.
For it was reported that a sentinel that had stood guard that night
was missing, and that the gate-warden of the western gate was nowhere
to be found, and that a mysterious letter had come by an unknown hand
to the king, and lastly, that Princess Osra--their princess--was
gone; whether by her own will or by some bold plot of seizure and
kidnapping, none knew. Thus a great stir grew in all Strelsau, and men
stood about the street gossiping when they should have gone to work,
while women chattered in lieu of sweeping their houses and dressing
their children. So that when the king rode out of the courtyard of the
palace at a gallop, with twelve of the guard behind, he could hardly
make his way through the streets for the people who crowded round him,
imploring him to tell them where the princess was. When the king saw
that the matter had thus become public, his wrath was greater still,
and he swore again that the student of the University should pay the
price of life for his morning ride with the princess. And when he
darted through the gate, and set his horse straight along the western
road, many of the people, neglecting all their business, as folk will
for excitement's sake, followed him as they best could, agog to see
the thing to its end.
"The horses are weary," said the student to the princess, "we must let
them rest; we are now in the shelter of the wood."
"But my brother may pursue you," she urged; "and if he came up with
you--ah, heaven forbid!"
[Illustration: "'LISTEN!' SHE CRIED, SPRINGING TO HER FEET. 'THEY ARE
HORSES' HOOFS'.... AND SHE CAUGHT HIM BY THE HAND, AND PULLED HIM TO
HIS FEET."]
"He will not know you have gone for another three hours," smiled he.
"And here is a green bank where we can rest."
So he aided her to dismount; then, saying he would tether the horses,
he led them away some distance, so that she could not see where he had
posted them; and he returned to her, smiling still. Then he took
from his pocket some bread, and, breaking the loaf in two, gave her
one-half, saying:
"There is a spring just here; so we shall have a good breakfast."
"Is this your breakfast?" she asked, with a wondering laugh. Then
she began to eat, and cried directly, "How delicious this bread is!
I would have nothing else for breakfast;" and at this the student
laughed.
Yet Osra ate little of the bread she liked so well; and presently she
leaned against her lover's shoulder, and he put his arm round her; and
they sat for a little while in silence, listening to the soft sounds
that filled the waking woods as day grew to fulness and the sun beat
warm through the sheltering foliage.
"Don't you hear the trees?" Osra whispered to her lover. "Don't you
hear them? They are whispering for me what I dare not whisper."
"What is it they whisper, sweet?" he asked; and he himself did no more
than whisper.
"The trees whisper, 'Love, love, love.' And the wind--don't you hear
the wind murmuring, 'Love, love, love'? And the birds sing, 'Love,
love, love.' Aye, all the world to-day is softly whispering, 'Love,
love, love!' What else should the great world whisper but my love? For
my love is greater than the world." And she suddenly hid her face in
her hands; and he could kiss no more than her hands, though her eyes
gleamed at him from between slim white fingers.
But suddenly her hands dropped, and she leaned forward as though she
listened.
"What is that sound?" she asked, apprehension dawning in her eyes.
"It is but another whisper, love!" said he.
"Nay, but it sounds to me like--ah, like the noise of horses
galloping."
"It is but the stream, beating over stones."
"Listen, listen, listen!" she cried, springing to her feet. "They are
horses' hoofs. Ah, merciful God, it is the king!" And she caught him
by the hand, and pulled him to his feet, looking at him with a face
pale and alarmed.
"Not the king," said he; "he would not know yet. It is some one else.
Hide your face, dear lady, and all will be well."
"It is the king," she cried. "Hark how they gallop on the road! It is
my brother. Love, he will kill you; love, he will kill you!"
"If it is the king," said he, "I have been betrayed."
"The horses, the horses!" she cried. "By your love for me, the
horses!"
He nodded his head, and, turning, disappeared among the trees. She
stood with clasped hands, heaving breast, and fearful eyes, awaiting
his return. Minutes passed, and he came not. She flung herself on her
knees, beseeching heaven for his life. At last he came along alone,
and he bent over her, taking her hand.
"My love," said he, "the horses are gone."
"Gone!" she cried, gripping his hand.
"Aye. This love, my love, is a wonderful thing. For I forgot to tie
them, and they are gone. Yet what matter? For the king--yes, sweet, I
think now it is the king--will not be here for some minutes yet, and
those minutes I have still for love and life."
"He will kill you!" she said.
"Yes," said he.
She looked long in his eyes; then she threw her arms about his neck,
and, for the first time unasked, covered his face with kisses.
"Kiss me, kiss me," said she; and he kissed her. Then she drew back
a little, but took his arm and set it round her waist. And she drew a
little knife from her girdle, and showed it him.
"If the king will not pardon us and let us love one another, I also
will die," said she; and her voice was quiet and happy. "Indeed, my
love, I should not grieve. Ah, do not tell me to live without you!"
"Would you obey?" he asked.
"Not in that," said she.
And thus they stood silent, while the sound of the hoofs drew very
near. But she looked up at him, and he looked at her; then she looked
at the point of the little dagger, and she whispered:
"Keep your arm round me till I die."
He bent his head, and kissed her once again, saying:
"My princess, it is enough."
And she, though she did not know why he smiled, yet smiled back at
him. For although life was sweet that day, yet such a death, with him
and to prove her love for him, seemed well-nigh as sweet. And thus
they awaited the coming of the king.