The dancing-wench was locked into the cell with the rest of the
wanderers, and as I looked in through the window at the fine young
creature, squatting in a corner, I had pity on her, and for my part I
would fain have sent her forth and away never to see her more.
I could nowhere find Herdegen; I had no mind for Uncle Christian’s
jests; and when, at last, I betook me to my own chamber, meseemed that
some horrible doom was in the air, from which there was no escape. And
matters were no better when Ann, who of late had been free from her bad
headache, came up to bed, to hide her increasing pain among the pillows.
So I sat dumb and thoughtful by her side, till Aunt Jacoba sent for me
to lay cold water on the arm of the little kidnapped maid. The child had
been well washed, and lay clean and fresh between the sheets, and the
swarthy dirty little changeling was now a sweet, fair-haired darling. I
tended it gladly; all the more when I thought of the joy it would bring
to its father and mother; notwithstanding the evil nightmare would
not be cast off, not even when the clatter of wine cups and Uncle
Christian’s big laugh fell on my ear.
Seldom had I so keenly missed Herdegen’s mirthful voice. The housekeeper
told me that he had gone on horseback into the town at about the hour
of Ave Maria. My grand-uncle had bidden him to go to him. The vagabond
knaves had already been put to the torture in my brother’s presence, but
they had confessed nothing of their guilt; inasmuch, indeed, as in our
dungeon there were none other instruments of torture than the rack,
the thumbscrew, and scourges needful for the Bamberg torture, and a
Pomeranian cap, made to crush the head somewhat; but in Nuremberg there
was a store, less mild and of more active effect.
The air was hot and heavy, the sun had set behind black clouds, yellow
and dim, like a blind eye. A strange languor came over me, though I
was wont to be so brisk, and with it a long train of dismal and hideous
images. First I saw the Junker and Sir Franz, who had fallen out about
me, a foolish maid; then it was my Ann, pining with grief, paler than
ever with a nun’s veil on her; or standing by the Pegnitz, on the very
spot where, erewhile, in the sweet Springtide, a forsaken maid had cast
herself in.
The first lightning rent the sky and the storm came up in haste,
bursting above our heads, and as the thunder roared closer and closer
after the flash I was more and more frightened. Moreover the sick child
wept piteously and waxed restless with fever and pain. By this time
all was still in the dining-hall; but when my aunt bid me let the
housekeeper take my place by the little one’s bed and go to my rest, I
would not; for indeed I could in no wise have slept.
They let me have my way, and soon after midnight, seized with fresh
dread anent Herdegen, I was at the open window to let the rough wind
fan my hot head, when suddenly the hounds set up a furious barking, as
though the Forest lodge were beset on all sides by robbers. And at the
same time I saw, by the glare of the lightning, that the old lime-tree
in the midst of my aunt’s herb garden was lying on the earth. This cut
me to the heart, inasmuch as this tree was dear to my uncle, having been
planted by his grandfather; and there was never a spot where his ailing
wife was so fain to be in the hot summer days as under its shadow. Aye,
and all my young life’s happiness, meseemed, was like that tree-torn up
by the roots, and I gazed spellbound at the blasted lime-tree till I was
affrighted by a new horror; on the furthest rim of the sky, on the side
where the town lay, I beheld a line of light which waxed broader and
brighter till it was rose and blood-red.
A wild uproar came up from the kennels and foresters’ huts, and I heard
a medley of many voices; and whereas the distant flare began to soar
more brightly heavenward I believed those who were saying below that all
Nuremberg was in flames.
Even Aunt Jacoba had quitted her bed, and every soul under that roof
looked forth at the fire and gave an opinion as to whether it were
waxing or waning. And, thanks be to the Blessed Virgin, the latter were
in the right; some few granaries, or stores of goods it might be, had
been burnt out, and I, among other fainting hearts, was beginning to
breathe more easily, when the watchman’s cry was heard once more and
what next befell showed that my fears had not been groundless.
It was the vigil of Saint Simon and Saint Jude’s day--[October 28th]--in
the year of our Lord 1420, and never shall I forget it. The great things
which befell that night are they not written in the Chronicles of the
town, and still fresh in many minds? but peradventure in none are they
more deeply printed than in mine; and while I move my pen I can, as it
were, see the great hall of the hunting lodge with my very eyes. Many
folks are astir, and all in scant attire and full of eager thirst for
tidings. The alarm of fire has brought them from their pillows in all
haste, and they press close and gaze through the door, which stands wide
open, at the light spot in the sky. Not one dares go forth in the wild
wind, and many a one draws his garment or cloak or coverlet closer round
him; the gale sweeps in with such fury that the pitch torches against
the wall are well nigh blown out, and the red and yellow glare casts a
weird light in the hall.
Then the watchman’s call is silent, and the growling and wailing of the
forest folk comes nigher and nigher.
Presently a man totters across the threshold, upheld with sore
difficulty by the gate-keeper Endres inasmuch as his own knees quake;
and he who comes home thus, as he might be drunken or grievously hurt,
is none other than my brother Herdegen. The torchlight falls on his
face, and whereas my eyes descry him I cry aloud, and my soul has no
thought of him but sheer pity and true love.
I haste to take Endres’ place while Eppelein, his faithful serving-man,
whom he had not taken with him as is his wont, holds him up on the other
hand.
But touch him where we may he feels a hurt; and while Uncle Conrad and
the rest press him with questions, he can only point to his head and
lips, which are too weak for thinking or speaking.
Alas! that poor fellow, meseems, bears but little likeness to my noble
Herdegen, on whose arm the Italian Marchesa riveted her golden fetter.
His face is swollen and bloodshot in one part, and cruelly torn in
others. Where are the lovelocks that graced him so well? His left arm
is helpless, his rich attire hangs about him in rags. He might be a
battered, wretched beggar picked up in the high-road, and I rejoice
truly to think that Ann is within the shelter of her bed and escapes the
sight.
My aunt, who had long ere this been carried down to the hall, felt all
his limbs and joints, and found that no bones were broken, while my
uncle questioned him; and he told us in broken words that his horse had
taken fright in the forest at a flash of lightning, had thrown him, and
then dragged him through the brushwood; it was his man’s nag which, as
it fell, he had taken out that evening, and it was roaming now about the
woods.
He had scarce ended his tale, when one of the warders of the dungeon and
the gate-keeper rushed in with the tidings that one of the prisoners,
and that the young wench, had escaped, although the door of the keep
was locked and the window barred. She was clearly a witch, and only one
thing was possible; namely that she had flown through the barred window,
after the manner of witches on a broomstick, or in the shape of a bird,
a bat, or an owl; nay, this was as good as certain, inasmuch as that the
watchman had seen a wraith in the woods at about the hour of midnight,
and the same face had appeared to the kennel-keeper. Both swore they
had crossed themselves thereat, and said many paternosters. The other
captives bore witness to the same, declaring that the wench had never
been one of them, but had joined herself unawares to their company last
midsummer eve, without saying whence, or whither she would go. She had
flown off some hours since in the form of a monstrous vampire, but had
fallen upon them first with tooth and nail; and albeit they were an
evil-disposed crew their tale seemed truthful, whereas they were covered
with many scratches which were not caused by the torture.
At these tidings my brother lost all heart, and fell back in the
arm-chair as pale as ashes. I was presently left alone with him; but he
answered nothing to my questions, and meseemed he slept. As day dawned I
was chilled with the cold, so, inasmuch I could do nothing to help him,
I went down stairs. There I found our gentlemen taking leave, for one
was off to the city to make inquisition as to the fire, and the other
would fain seek his warm bed.
Hot elecampane wine had been served to give them comfort, when again
we heard horses’ hoofs and the watchman’s call. Everybody came out in
haste, only Uncle Christian Pfinzing did not move, for, so long as the
wine jug was not empty, it would have needed more than this to stir him.
He was a mighty fat man, with a short brick-red neck, cropped grey hair,
and a round, well-favored countenance, with shrewd little eyes which
stood out from his head.
We young Schoppers loved this jolly, warm-hearted uncle, who was
childless, with all our hearts; but I clung to him most of all, since he
was my dear godfather; likewise had he for many years shown an especial
and truly fatherly care for Ann.
Well, Uncle Christian had peacefully gone on drinking the fiery liquor,
waiting for the others; but when they came to tell him what tidings the
horseman had brought, the cup fell from his hand, clattering down on
the paved floor and spilling the wine; and at the same time his kind,
faithful head dropped to one side, and for a few minutes his senses had
left him. Albeit we were able ere long to bring him back to life again,
I found, to my great distress, that his tongue seemed to have waxed
heavy. Howbeit, by the help of the Blessed Virgin, he afterwards was
so far recovered that when he sat over his cups his loud voice and deep
laugh could be heard ringing through the room.
The tidings delivered by the messenger and which brought on this
sickness--of which the leech Ulsenius had ere this warned him--might
have shaken the heart of a sterner man; for my Uncle Christian lodged in
the Imperial Fort as its warder, and his duty it was to guard it. Near
it, likewise, on the same hill-crag, stood the old castle belonging to
the High Constable, or Burgrave Friedrich. Now the Burgrave had come to
high words with Duke Ludwig the Bearded, of Bayern-Ingolstadt, so that
the Duke’s High Steward, the noble Christoph von Laymingen, who dwelt at
Lauf, had made so bold, with his lord at his back, as to break the
peace with Friedrich, although he had lately become a powerful prince as
Elector of the Mark of Brandenburg.
The said Christoph von Laymingen, so the horsemen told us, had ridden
forth to Nuremberg this dark night and had seized the castle--not indeed
the Imperial castle, which stood unharmed, but the stronghold of the
old Zollern family which had stood by its side--and bad burnt it to
the ground. This, indeed, was no mighty offence in the eyes of the
town-council, inasmuch as it bore no great friendship to his Lordship
the Constable and Elector, and had had many quarrels with him-nay, long
after this the council was able to gain possession of the land and
ruins by purchases--till, uncle Christian bitterly rued having sent
his men-at-arms, whose duty it was to defend the castle, out into the
country, though it were for so good a purpose as fighting against the
Hussites.
It might have brought him into bad favor with the Elector; however,
it did him no further mischief. One thing was certainly proven beyond
doubt: that knavish treason had been at work in this matter; at
Nuremberg, under the torture, it came out that the bear-master had been
a spy and tell-tale bribed by Laymingen to discover whither Pfinzing and
his men had removed.
And lest any one should conceive that here was an end to the woes that
had fallen on the forest lodge in that short time from midnight to
daybreak, I must record one more; for the new day, which dawned with
no hue of rose, grey and dismal over the tawny woods, brought us fresh
sorrow and evil.
Behind the moss-hut, wherein I had found my Herdegen with the dancing
hussy, the Swabian Junker and Ritter Franz had fought, without any heed
of the law and order of such combat--fought for life or death, and for
my sake. And as though in this cruel time I were doomed to go through
all that should worst wound my poor heart, I must need go forth to see
the stricken limetree at that very moment when the Junker had dealt his
enemy a deadly stroke and came rushing away with his hair all abroad
like a mad man. It was indeed a merciful chance that my Uncle Conrad and
the chaplain likewise had come forth to the garden, so that I might go
with them to see the wounded knight.
The youth was lying on the wet grass, now much paler than ever, and his
lips trembling with pain. A faded leaf had fallen on his brow and was
strange to behold against his ashen skin; but I bent me down and took
it off. By him was lying the uprooted limetree, from which that leaf had
fallen, and whereas the rain was dropping from it fast, meseemed it was
weeping.
And my heart was knit as it never had been before, to this young knight
who had shed his blood in my behalf; but while I gazed down right
lovingly into his face the Swabian came close up to him with ruthful
eyes, and from those of the wounded man there shot at me a glance so
full of hate and malice that I shuddered before it. This was an end,
then, to all pity and tenderness. And yet, as I looked on his cold, set
face, as pale and white as dull chalk, I could not forbear tears; for
it is ever pitiful to see when death overtakes one who is not ripe for
dying, as we bewail the green corn which is smitten by the hail, and
hold festival when the reaper cuts the golden ears.
Thus were there three sick and wounded in the forest-lodge, besides my
aunt; for Uncle Christian must have some few days of rest and nursing.
Howbeit there was no lack of us to tend them; Ann was recovered to-day
and Cousin Maud had come in all haste so soon as she knew of what had
befallen Herdegen; for, of us all, he held the largest room in her
heart; and even when he was at school, albeit he had money and to spare
of his own, she had given him so freely of hers that he was no whit
behind the sons of wealthy Counts.
Biding the time till my cousin should come--and she could not until the
evening--it was my part to stay with my brother; but whereas Ann would
fain have helped me, this Aunt Jacoba conceived to be in no way fitting
for a young maid; much less then would she grant my earnest desire that
I might devote me to the care of Sir Franz; though she had it less in
mind to consider its fitness, than to conceive that it would be of small
benefit to the wounded man, at the height of his fever, to know that the
maid for whose love he had vainly sued was at his side.
Thus I was forbidden to see Ann in my brother’s chamber; nevertheless
I had much on my heart and I could guess that she likewise was eager to
speak with me; but when at last I was alone with her in our bed chamber,
she had matter for speech of which I had not dreamed. When I asked her
what message she might desire me to give Herdegen from her, she besought
me as I loved her not to name her at all in his presence. This, indeed,
amazed me not a little, inasmuch as I weened not that she knew of all
the grief I had suffered yestereve. But this was not so; I learnt now
that she had marked everything, and had heard the men’s light talk about
the dashing youth whom the dark-eyed hussy had been so swift to choose
from among them all. I, indeed, tried to make the best of the matter,
but she gave me to understand that, if her lover had not done himself
a mischief, it had been her intent to question him that very day as to
whether he was in earnest with his love-pledges, or would rather that
she should give him back his ring and his word. All this she spoke
without a tear or a sigh, with steadfast purpose; and already I began,
for my part, to doubt of the truth of her love; and I told her this
plainly. Thereupon she clasped me to her, and while the tears gathered
and sparkled in her great eyes, expounded to me all the matter; and in
truth it was all I should myself have said in her place. She, of simple
birth, would enter the circle of her betters on sufferance, and her
new friends would, of a certainty, not do her more honor than her own
husband. On his manner of treating her therefore would depend what
measure of respect she might look for as his wife. And so long as their
promise to marry was a secret, she would have him show, whether to her
alone or before all the world, that he held her consent as of no less
worth than that of the wealthiest and highest born heiress.
All this she spoke in hot haste while her cheeks glowed red. I saw the
blue veins swell on her pure brow, and can never forget the image of her
as she raised her tearful eyes to Heaven and pressing her hands on
her panting bosom cried: “To go forth with him to want or death is as
nothing! But never will I be led into shame, not even by him.”
When presently I left her, after speaking many loving words to her, and
holding her long in my arms, she was ready to forgive him; but she held
to this: “Not a word, not a glance, not a kiss, until Herdegen had vowed
that yesterday’s offence should be the first and last she should ever
suffer.”
How clearly she had apprehended the matter!
Albeit she little knew how deeply her beloved had sinned against the
truth he owed her. They say that Love is blind, and so he may be at
first. But when once his trust is shaken the bandage falls, and the
purblind boy is turned into a many-eyed, sharp-sighted Argus.