"They ride point blank after us," answered the Cornet, "and gain more
and more upon us."
"Heavens! if they overtake us, I fear my father will kill you, dearest
Holger! but I will shield you with my weak body, for I cannot outlive
you."
During these painful, interrupted conversations, they had travelled
about two miles from the rivulet, across the western heath. Their
pursuers were already close to the east bank, and might be both
distinguished and counted. The apprehension of the fugitives was rapidly
passing into despair; there seemed not a gleam of hope. The Cornet vied
with the mare in panting, the Froeken wept. At this moment, a tall man
clad in brown, with a gun in one hand, and a low-crowned hat in the
other, started up before them out of the high heather. The fugitives
made a stand. "Who is there? Where are you from?" cried the Cornet, in a
military tone.
"From there," answered the man, "where the houses stand out of doors,
and the geese go barefoot. And where are you from? and where are you
going? But stop, have not we two seen each other before? Are you not the
person who lately begged for me, when Niels keeper would have laid me
sprawling?"
"Black Mads!" exclaimed the Cornet.
"So they call me," answered the poacher; "but how happens it that I meet
you here so early with such a pretty companion? You have also apparently
been out poaching. If I can help you in any way, let me know." "In time
of need," said the Cornet, "the first friend is the best. I am the
Major's son at Vestervig, and have been fetching a bride from Ansbjerg.
Her father and a whole troop of horse are after us. If you can save or
conceal us, I will be grateful while I live; but it must be instantly,
for they are on the other side of the rivulet."
Holding his hat before his eyes on account of the sun, Mads exclaimed,
"Faith! here we have him sure enough, with all his people. Kinsmen are
hardest towards kinsmen, as the fox said, when the red dogs were after
him. If you will promise never to make known the place to which I take
you, I will try to hit upon some plan."
The Froeken promised, and the Cornet swore.
"Hear then, children," continued he, "they are just now riding along the
bank on the opposite side of the rivulet; before they can arrive on this
side, a good time must pass; and they cannot see what we are about. In
the mean while we will set up a hedge for them that they will not so
easily jump over." Saying these words, he laid down his gun, drew forth
his tinder-box and struck fire. He then rubbed two or three handfuls of
dry moss together, placed the tinder-box among it, blew till he caused
it to blaze, then cast it down into the midst of the heather, where,
after crackling and smoking for a few seconds, the fire spread itself in
all directions. While engaged in this occupation, the object of which
was not immediately manifest to the fugitives, Black Mads did not cease
giving vent to his thoughts in the following broken sentences:--"The
wind is with us, the heather's dry; now Niels keeper can soon get a
light for his pipe--it is the second time he has had the benefit of my
tinder-box; the man will, no doubt, curse and swagger about the
heath-fowl, because I roast them without basting; but need knows no law,
and a brave fellow takes care of himself. See now! it's beginning to
smoulder." With these words he rose, and said to the Cornet, "Do now as
you see I do, pull up a head of heather, set fire to it, run ten paces
towards the north, and fire the heath; then pull up another, run, and
again set fire, all towards the north, till you approach that little
heath-hill yonder two or three gunshots distant. I will do the same
towards the south, and then we will run as quickly back. The Froeken can
in the mean time stay here with the horse. It will soon be done: now let
us begin! Light before and dark behind." With this formula the poacher
commenced his operations. The Cornet followed his instructions, and
soon a tract of heath, two miles in breadth, stood in a blaze, and both
incendiaries immediately rejoined the trembling Froeken.
"We have now earned our breakfast!" cried Mads, "be so good as follow
me, and put up with very humble accommodation--but what can we do with
this?" he gave the mare a slap with his open hand, "Can you find your
way home alone?"
"O," said the Froeken, "she follows me wherever I go."
"No, that she certainly must not, for she would betray us: the door of
my house is too narrow for her to enter, and we dare not let her stand
without. You are too good to suffer harm," said he to the mare, while
taking off the saddle and pillion, "but every one is nearest to
himself."
The Cornet, who saw his design, took his mistress by the hand and led
her some stops aside, as if to place her beyond the range of the
conflagration. The poacher took his piece, cocked it, went up to the
side of the mare, held it behind her ear, and fired. The Froeken turned
round with a shriek of horror, just in time to see her poor Dun, sinking
down among the heather. Tears of pity flowed down the pale cheeks of the
sorrowful girl.
"The jade is as dead as a herring," cried Mads, by way of comforting
her; "she did not even hear the report."
He then took off the bridle, laid saddle and pillion on one shoulder,
his gun on the other, and began to move onwards, at the same time
encouraging the lovers to follow as fast as they could, with the
grateful intelligence that his castle lay at no great distance.
"Only don't look behind you," added he, at the same time quickening his
pace, "but think of Lot's wife."
The Froeken, though in a riding habit,[15] was unable to go so fast
through the tall heather. She frequently stumbled and entangled herself
in the branches. The Cornet, therefore, without waiting for permission,
took her in his arms, and, notwithstanding her reluctance, bore her
away.
"Now we are at home," at length cried their conductor, at the same time
flinging saddle and package at the foot of a little heath-grown hill.
"Where," cried the Cornet, also relieving himself of his burden. He
looked around without discovering any thing bearing the remotest
resemblance to a human habitation. A suspicion darted rapidly into his
mind; but for a moment only. Had the man been a murderous robber, he
could long ago have executed his villanous purpose without any risk of
resistance, as long as he himself had literally both hands full.
"Here," answered the poacher; at the same time raising a very broad
piece of turf and laying it aside, he said, "Some days since I lived
above ground, there I might not remain; but it is a poor mouse that has
but one hole." While saying this, he lifted and laid aside four or five
stones, each as large as a strong man could carry, and now an opening
was disclosed to view sufficiently wide for a person to creep into it.
"It looks as if they had been digging out foxes here," said the Cornet.
"So it should look," answered Mads; "but before we go in, we will just
see around us, not on account of the Ansbjerg folks, who cannot yet have
passed by the fire, but there might possibly be others in the
neighbourhood." They looked on every side: to the south, west, and north,
not a living being was to be seen, and all the eastern quarter was
hidden in clouds of smoke so dense that the beams of the morning sun
were unable to penetrate them.
"Have the kindness to stoop," said Mads, while he himself crept in on
all fours, "and just follow me. The door is low, but the place will very
well hold us; I will bring your baggage in instantly."
With some difficulty they followed their conductor, and soon found
themselves in the subterranean dwelling, a spacious apartment, the walls
of which were composed of huge unhewn stones, and the roof of beams
laid close to each other, from which hung a lamp, whose faint light but
imperfectly illumined the objects present. On the one side were two
beds, a larger and a smaller; on the other a bench, a table, two or
three chairs, a chest, and two hanging presses. In the smaller bed lay
three naked children, who, on the entrance of the strangers, dived, like
so many young wild ducks, under the covering. On the side of the large
bed sat Lisbeth, _alias_ Madame Mads, knitting a stocking, which in her
astonishment she let fall with both hands into her lap. At the end of
the table stood a little red-haired man, clad in skin from his chin to
his knees, whom the host introduced to his guest as his good friend
Mikkel Foxtail. "We were once digging here," added he, smiling, and
pointing to Mikkel, "after his half-brother,[16] and so found this nook.
Mike thinks it has been a robber's cave in former times; but it may also
have been some old warrior's burial-place, for there stood there two or
three black pots with bones and ashes in them." At the name of "robber's
cave," a shudder passed over all the Froeken's frame: her lover observing
it, said in French, "Fear not, my dearest, here we are secure; but it
pains me that the first habitation into which I conduct you, should
inspire you with horror and disgust."
"I will show you all my conveniences and luxuries," continued the
poacher, at the same time opening a door in the background. "There is my
kitchen, where we dare have fire only in the night; here is also my
dining-room," added he, pointing to a salting trough and some legs of
venison that were hung to smoke over the fire-place. "Bread and meat I
have also got, and I bought a drop of mead in Viborg with the last
deer-skin." With these words, he set a stone bottle and a wooden dish,
with the aforesaid provisions on the table. "Eat and drink as much as
you desire, and of whatever the house affords; and when you wish to
depart, you shall have a trustworthy guide."
The Cornet pressed the hand of the honest Troglodyte, and said, "At the
present moment I have nothing to offer you but my thanks--"
"I require nothing," said Black Mads, interrupting him; "but promise me
only that you will never betray me or my cave."
With the most solemn assurances, this promise was given; and the lovers
now partook of a breakfast, to which hunger and joy at their safety
imparted a double relish.
At the suggestion of their host, they resolved on waiting till evening,
before they again entered on their interrupted journey. In the meantime,
Mikkel offered to go out and reconnoitre; both to watch the pursuers,
and make inquiry after the carriage from Vestervig. The first time he
went no further than the opening of the cavern, from whence he informed
them, that the party had ridden round the burnt space, and, in two
divisions, proceeded westwards. Some hours after, he ventured out a
short distance on the heath, and returned with the intelligence, that
they had now taken a north-west direction, and that the heath would most
probably be quite safe, as they could not suspect that the fugitives
were still on it, and had no doubt been led out of the right track by
false information. A little past noon Mads and Mikkel went out together,
the latter to order a conveyance in one of the villages lying to the
west. After an hour had passed, Mads returned with the intelligence that
he had met with a young fellow who appeared to him somewhat suspicious,
and who from his accent seemed to be a German. He inquired the way to
the inn at Hvam, and whether some travellers had not passed by in the
course of the day. From the description of the young man's person and
dress, the Cornet felt convinced that it was his brother's Hungarian
servant. They therefore both went out, and were so fortunate as to
overtake him about a mile from the cave. We will not detain the reader
with the Hungarian's account relative to the non-appearance of the
carriage, but merely mention, that both he and the coachman had mistaken
for Karup rivulet that which runs some miles to the west, and where the
carriage was then waiting. With equal brevity, we will further remark,
that a little before noon he had been stopped and interrogated by the
pursuers, and that he had not only skilfully extricated himself out of
this examination, but had sent them in a direction which he rightly
judged would not lead them into the track of the fugitives, of whose
fate, however, he was in a state of the most painful uncertainty.
The next morning, the Cornet and his fair companion arrived safe at
Vestervig, where they became man and wife, and obtained from his elder
brother, the owner of the estate, a small country house at Thye for
their habitation. Junker Kai got at first a galling disappointment, and
secondly, after the lapse of a twelve-month, a still richer Froeken from
the Isle of Fyen. The lord of Ansbjerg and his lady washed their hands
clean of their daughter, and, notwithstanding the humble and penitent
letters of her and her husband, were not to be reconciled.