"I fear there are storms in the sky, dear Agnes," said Algernon Grey,
as the stars disappeared, and the heavy clouds rolled broad over the
heavens. "How cold the night wind blows!--does it not chill you, dear
sister?"
"No," she answered; "I am warmly clad; but the poor Queen!--I dread to
think of such a journey for her. Happy it is, indeed, that all the
royal children were sent away before!"
"Happy indeed!" repeated her companion; "for their presence would have
added terribly to the sufferings and fears of such a time as this. The
darkness of the night, however, like many another gloomy thing, may
not be so evil as it seems. It will conceal their flight; for I much
fear that Maximilian of Bavaria would hold himself justified in
seizing and keeping as prisoners both King and Queen, notwithstanding
the armistice, if he discovered they had left Prague."
"He, surely, never would be so base!" cried Agnes, warmly.
"I know not," replied her lover; "policy is a base thing; and there
never was an act so foul that some smooth excuse could not be found
for its commission. He has been brought up, too, in a school where
plausible pretexts for evil deeds is one part of the training; and to
hold Frederic in captivity, would be too great a temptation for a
Jesuitical spirit to resist, I fear."
"Then I will thank the darkness," answered his fair companion, "if it
be as black as that of Egypt."
"It may sorely impede us ourselves," replied Algernon Grey. "Do you
remember, Agnes, the last time that we wandered together through the
greater part of the night? I never thought it would be our fate to do
so again. But what a different evening was that!--preceded, it is
true, by dangers and sorrows, but followed by many brighter days. Oh,
may this be so too!"
"God grant it!" cried Agnes. "I recollect it well--can I ever forget
it? Oh, no; it is one of those things which, painted on memory--like
the frescoes of the Italian artists, in colours that mingle with the
very structure of that which bears them,--can never perish but with
memory itself! To me that day seems like the beginning of life--of
a new life, it certainly was; for what varied scenes--what
spirit-changing events, have I not gone through since then! How
different has been every aspect of my fate! how altered all my
thoughts and feelings, my hopes, and even my fears!"
"I, too, shall remember it for ever," answered Algernon Grey; "though
my fate has not undergone such changes. On has it gone in the same
course, tending, I trust, to happiness, but by a thorny path. Men have
fewer epochs in their lives than women, Agnes--at least, in ordinary
circumstances. They pass gradually from state to state; but still, for
those who feel--though the current of external things may not be
subject to such changes--yet, in the world of the heart, they find
moments, too, marked out indelibly in the history of life. That night
was one of them for me. Let us ride on somewhat faster, and I will
tell you, Agnes, as much as will interest you of my past existence.
You must know it some time. Who can tell when opportunity may serve
again?"
"Oh! not to-night, not to-night," answered Agnes, shrinking from new
emotions on a day which had been so full of agitation. "I may be very
weak, my friend; but I have already undergone so much within twelve
hours that, if you would have me keep my courage up for other dangers
which may be still before us, you will not tell me aught that can move
me more just now. And how can I," she added, feeling that she was
showing the feelings of her heart more clearly than woman ever likes
to display them; "how can I hear anything, affecting sadly one who has
saved, befriended, comforted, supported me, without being deeply
moved? Another day, Algernon, when we have calmer thoughts."
"Well, be it so," replied her lover; "I only sought to speak of
matters not very bright, lest Agnes Herbert should think, hereafter, I
had willingly concealed aught from her that she had a right to know."
"I shall never think evil of you, Algernon," she said, in a firm,
quiet tone; "I could sooner doubt myself than you. Hark! do you not
hear voices speaking--there, to the right?"
Algernon Grey listened, but all was still; and, somewhat quickening
their pace, they rode on through the deep wood which then stretched
along the bank of the Moldau. A few minutes after, the sky became
lighter as the shadowy masses of vapour were borne away by the wind,
and Algernon Grey said, in a low voice, "The moon is rising, I think.
Darkness were our best friend, dear Agnes; but yet I trust we are now
beyond all danger from the enemy. The wood seems coming to an end."
It was as he supposed; for, ere they had gone a quarter of a mile
farther, the trees suddenly ceased, and they found themselves on a
broad road close by the side of the river. The moon was shining on the
wide waters, rendering them one sheet of liquid silver; but a minute
or two after they had emerged from the screen of branches, the horse
of Algernon Grey swerved violently away from some object on the bank.
He reined him round, and gazed towards the stream. There was a corpse
lying on the bank, stripped already of arms and clothing; and a large
dark body--what, it was not possible to discover--was seen floating
rapidly down the stream. All was still and silent around, without a
sound but the murmuring Moldau rushing between its banks, which there
were low and flat; and it had a strange and horrible effect, as
Algernon Grey gazed over the scene, to behold that naked corpse lying
there in the bright moonlight, with the glistening river flowing by,
and the dark towers of Prague, far up the stream, rising in its
splendid basin of hills, vast and irregular, so that rock and town,
could hardly be distinguished from each other; while, on the other
side of the river, was still to be distinguished, though faint and
indefinite, the glare of the Bavarian watchfires.
"There have been plunderers at work here already," said Algernon Grey,
riding on; but Agnes had seen the same object which had caught his
sight, and she kept silence, covering her eyes with her hand.
The road then rose again a little, then fell into a sort of wooded
glen; and, as they were descending, a voice suddenly cried out,
"Stand! who goes there?" and at the same moment an armed man, pike in
hand, presented himself, while two or three others drew out from the
bushes.
Agnes' heart sunk; but Algernon Grey answered, in a calm tone, "We are
peaceable travellers, if we are not molested. But we will not be
stopped."
He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, for he heard the galloping of
a horse, and to his surprise he saw that, while the lad Frill remained
firm, and had already drawn his sword, his old and tried servant Tony
was riding quickly away.
"Peaceable travellers!" said the man. "You ride late, and with casque
and cuirass. Come up, my men; come up! We must make these peaceable
travellers account for their doings to General Tilly."
Algernon Grey's eye ran over the ground around. There were but four
men visible, and all seemed armed alike as pikemen. "Drop behind,
Agnes," he said in a low tone; "they have no fire-arms. I and the boy
have."
As he spoke, the nearest man advanced to lay his hand upon the horse's
bridle. "Stand back!" cried the young Englishman in a stern tone,
drawing a pistol from his saddle-bow, and levelling it. "Make way
there!--You are mere marauders, that is clear, stripping the dead. I
will stop for the bidding of none such."
The man recoiled a step or two; but then, after an instant's
hesitation, he sprang forward, pushing his pike at the horse's
poitral. The young Englishman's finger was pressed firmly and steadily
upon the trigger, the hammer fell, a ringing report followed, and his
assailant reeled and fell back upon the turf at once. "Now for
another," cried Algernon Grey, in German; "which of you will be the
next?" and at the same moment he drew a second pistol from the
holster. "Have the other weapons at hand, Frill," he continued,
speaking to the page, but never withdrawing his eyes from the group
before him. "Who is the next, I say?"
No one moved; but they still stood across the path, apparently
speaking together in a low voice. It was evident to Algernon Grey that
the enemy had no force to fall back upon, and that the party consisted
merely either of men sent across the river to cut off any stragglers
from the Bohemian army, or of the plunderers who always follow great
hosts, and live too frequently by assassinating the wounded and
stripping the dead. As they were still three to two, however, and the
presence of Agnes Herbert filled him with apprehensions on her account
which he had never known on his own, he was unwilling to hurry into
any further strife, while there was a chance of the men retiring and
leaving the way open. He therefore paused, ere he took upon himself
the part of assailant, holding the pistol ready cocked in his hand,
and prepared at once to repel any sudden attack. After a brief
consultation amongst themselves, however, the men separated; one
remained close to the road, merely drawing behind a tree to the side;
the other two ran to the right and left amongst the bushes, evidently
with the intention of springing out upon him and his party as he
passed. The young Englishman's position was dangerous; but there
seemed no choice. To retreat might throw him in the way of other and
stronger parties of the same marauders. To parley with the adversary
could produce no good result; and, choosing his course speedily,
Algernon Grey turned his head to Agnes, saying, "Close up close to me,
dear lady; you, boy, take your place on the left, put up your sword,
and advance slowly, pistol in hand; aim steadily and near, if any one
attacks you, and still keep on."
Then, drawing his sword, he placed it between his teeth, and, holding
the pistol in his right, advanced at a foot-pace as soon as Agnes had
ridden up to his side.
It would seem that the adversaries were somewhat intimidated by his
proceedings, for they did not make their attack at once, as he had
expected: and the delay brought unexpected help; for, as the young
Englishman, keeping a tight rein upon his charger, was proceeding
slowly along the road, he suddenly heard the galloping of horse behind
him, and, for an instant, feared that all was lost. He did not venture
to turn his head, indeed, keeping a watchful eye in front, and on
either side; but the boy Frill, less cautious, looked round by the
light of the moon, and then exclaimed aloud,--
"Hurrah! Here comes friend Tony with help."
Either the sort of cheer he gave, or their own observation, showed the
marauders that they were likely to be overmatched. The man behind the
tree started away and ran down the road, receiving the ball of
Algernon Grey's pistol as he went, falling, rising again, and
staggering in amongst the bushes. The other two were heard pushing
their way through the dry branches; but, ere they could have gone far,
the old servant was by his master's side.
"I beg your pardon, my lord, for running away. I'm not accustomed to
that trick; but I had heard English tongues, and caught a little
glimpse of a fire, as we passed through the wood; and I thought I
could serve you better in the rear than in the front."
"Who have you got with you?" asked Algernon Grey, looking round to the
other men who had come up, one of whom, with his sword's point
dropped, was gazing down upon the body of the man who had been shot,
while two others had followed Tony close to the young gentleman's
side, and a fourth seemed to be searching the brushwood on the right
for any concealed enemy.
"They are four men from Master Digby's troop," answered Tony. "I could
have sworn that the voices I heard were English, so I had no fear in
going back; and they may prove desperate good help to us as we
proceed."
Algernon Grey paused to consider for a moment; and then, turning to
the men, he asked them some questions, the answers to which showed
that, after the last charge on the part of the Bohemian force, they
had contrived to cross the Moldau, and conceal themselves in the wood.
They had seen several bands of plunderers come over the river during
the evening, and had lain quite still till it was dark, when they had
lighted a fire, and sent one of their number to a neighbouring village
for provisions. The store they had obtained had been scanty; but they
were solacing themselves with this supply when Tony's apparition
called them to the saddle; and, without hesitation or fear, they came
down to aid a countryman in distress. They asked no better than to
accompany the young Englishman and his party; but Algernon Grey,
recollecting that Digby's troop had suffered but little, and that
Brandeis had been appointed as a rallying place, would only suffer
them to accompany him three or four miles farther down the river and
then, paying them liberally for their escort, directed them, to the
best of his knowledge, on their road to the point of rendezvous.
A little village lay immediately before him, when he parted with his
new companions; but it was all dark and solitary; and, though the
clouds had gathered thickly over the sky, and the north-east wind was
blowing keen, he asked Agnes if she could still proceed; and, on her
answering in the affirmative, rode on along the broad and even road,
catching, from time to time, a glimpse of the glistening Moldau on the
left, though at a much greater distance than before.
"If I recollect right, dear Agnes," he said, "some six or seven miles
ahead is the small town of Weltrus, where there is a passage-boat
across the river. We can discover there whether there is any danger to
be expected on the other side; and, if not, can get across, placing
ourselves in the enemy's rear; after which we shall have no difficulty
in reaching Waldsachsen, where we shall be in a friendly country, and
able, I trust, to make our way through the Upper Palatinate to
Heilbronn and Heidelberg."
Agnes agreed to all that he proposed; but the distance was somewhat
greater than he had imagined. His own horse showed great symptoms of
fatigue. It became necessary to proceed more slowly as they advanced;
and the church clock struck three as they entered the narrow street.
All was dark and silent as they advanced, till, when they were about
midway through the little town, they heard the watchman of the night,
as was then common in almost every village in Germany, and is still
practised in remote places, knocking at the doors of the principal
houses, and waking the drowsy inhabitants, to assure them that "all is
right."
With the aid of this functionary, the landlord of the little
Guest-house was brought to the door, and rooms speedily prepared for
the travellers to repose. He would fain, to say the truth, have put
them all into one chamber; for the manners of that part of the country
were somewhat rude in their simplicity; and the good man could not
understand the delicacy of a more refined state. All, however, was
arranged at length; and Agnes lay down to repose. Her lover occupied a
chamber near; and his two attendants were placed on a pallet across
the lady's door.
It was evident, from the quiet manner of the host, that no tidings had
yet reached him of the rout of Prague; but Algernon Grey was anxious
to depart before the rumour spread through the country, and, with the
first ray of morning light, he was on foot. From the boatmen at the
ferry he found that the only intelligence they had yet received from
the scene of war was nearly four days old. Men spoke of the combat of
Rakonitz as the last great event, and satisfied that, on the way
before him, there would be found none but the ordinary dangers which
awaited all travellers in those days, he returned and roused Agnes
from the deep slumber into which she had fallen.
In a few minutes she was by his side, saying, "How strange a thing is
sleep, Algernon! I had forgot all, and, in the only dream I had, I was
a child again, in the happy valley by the banks of the Meuse."
Algernon Grey smiled sadly. "Sometimes I hardly know," he said, "which
is the dream, which the reality: the vivid images of sleep or those
that pass before our waking eyes. Perhaps a time may come when we
shall wake to truer things, and find that this life and all that it
presents was but a vision."
"No," said his fair companion, after a moment's thought; "there are
some things that must be real. The strong affections that go down with
us to death; good actions, and, alas! evil ones, likewise.--But I am
ready; let us set out again."
Algernon Grey would not suffer her to encounter renewed fatigue
without some refreshment; and, after a light meal already ordered,
they passed across the river in the ferry-boat.
"Great news! great news!" cried a stranger, riding up to cross over
from the other side, just as they were remounting their horses after
landing, "The good Duke of Bavaria and General Bucquoy have defeated
the heretic Elector Palatine under the walls of Prague, and taken him
and his English wife prisoners!"
"Are you sure of the intelligence?" asked Algernon Grey, gravely.
"Quite," said the horseman, sharply; "do you doubt it, young
gentleman?"
"Nay, wait till you get to the other side of the water, and then
inquire farther," answered Algernon; "there is many a battle reported
won, that is really lost--Good-day" and he rode on with Agnes, leaving
the traveller in some doubt and consternation.
"We must lose no time, dear Agnes," he said; "but hasten on into the
rear of the enemy's army ere this news spreads far. If we can reach
Laun, I think we may escape suspicion as fugitives from Prague, and
there are still some garrisons in that quarter which have not yet
submitted to the Austrians."
But, as usual in all calculations of distances, the state of the roads
was not reckoned. The day proved lowering and gloomy, the wind blew in
sharp fierce gusts over the bare hilly ground between the Moldau and
the Eger, and though the distance from the one point to the other is
not thirty miles in a direct line, the sinuosities of an ill-made
country road rendered it nearly double. At length as night was
falling, Algernon Grey lifted his fair weary companion from her horse
at the door of a small village inn, somewhat to the west of Teinitz,
and gladly sat down with her by the fireside of the good widow
hostess, who with her daughter were the only occupants of the house.
The fare was scanty and simple, but there was a cheerful good humour
in the manner with which it was served which rendered it palatable;
and the inhabitants of a remote place, with neither fortress nor
castle in the neighbourhood, seemed to know and care little about the
war which had passed with its rude current at a distance from them.
The woman, too, could speak German, and after having provided the
weary travellers with all that her house could afford in the way of
food, she threw her gray hood over her head, saying, with a cheerful
laugh, to Agnes, "I am going out to search the village for eggs, and
fowls, and meat; for it will snow before morning; and then we may not
be able to get them."
Agnes gazed in Algernon's face with a look of apprehension; but he
smiled gaily, replying to her look; "Let it snow if it will, dear
Agnes. We shall then have an icy fortress for our defence, which no
enemy will be in haste to pass. It will give us time for rest, and
thought, and preparation."
The woman's prophecy proved true, for the next morning at daybreak the
ground was covered with several feet of snow; and for three days the
roads in the neighbourhood were impassable. They seemed to fly very
quickly, however, to Agnes Herbert and Algernon Grey, though she felt
her situation arrange. But her companion's gentle kindness deprived it
of any painful feeling. The rich stores of his mind were all poured
forth to cheer and to amuse her; and if they loved before the hour of
their arrival there, oh how they loved when, on the fourth morning,
they again set forth from the poor but comfortable shelter they had
found!
The day was bright, and almost as warm as summer, they and their
horses, too, were refreshed and cheered, and a long day's journey
brought them close to the frontiers of the Upper Palatinate. Avoiding
all large cities, they again rested for the night in a small town; and
on the following day gladly passed the limits of Bohemia, never to
return. The rest of their journey, as far as the banks of the Rhine,
was performed without difficulty, though not without fatigue,
remembered dangers made present security seem more sweet, the weather
continued clear and fine, and they wandered for six days through
mountains, and valleys and woods, almost as cheerfully as if in the
first spring of young love they had gone forth together to view all
that is fair and bright in the beautiful book of nature.