"Evil news, Oberntraut, evil news!" cried Colonel Herbert, as he sat
in his tower at Heidelberg, with an open letter in his hand. "Anhalt
has been defeated under the walls of Prague--totally defeated! How
could it be otherwise? Fifty thousand trained Austrians and Bavarians
against thirty-five thousand raw recruits--a mere mob of herds and
citizens, and wild Transylvanian horse!"
"What more?" asked Oberntraut, who stood before him with a stern but
calm brow. "There must be other news at the back of that; and if you
have not yet got it, few days will pass ere it comes."
"There is plenty more," said Herbert, sadly; "Frederic, the Queen, and
all the court fled, no one knows whither, and Prague surrendered on
the following day."
"I thought so," answered Oberntraut, without any change of tone, "one
could see it coming as plain as the Neckar from the bridge. But who is
the letter from, your niece? Where is she?--How fares she?"
"I know not," answered the old officer, laying the paper down upon the
table and clasping his hands together.
"The letter is from Lodun--but he says no word of Agnes--God help us!
But I will not be apprehensive; where her royal mistress could pass,
she could pass too. Besides, even if she remained in Prague, these men
would never hurt a woman."
"I do not know," replied Oberntraut, with a very gloomy brow. "Tilly
is not tender, and such as he have done strange things in the
Palatinate lately, as witness Bensheim, Heppenheim, and Otterberg.
Herbert, I love your niece too well to rest satisfied so. I must have
further news, and I go to seek it."
Herbert rose and grasped his hand, gazing sadly in his face, "Alas!
Oberntraut," he said, after a moment's silence, "I fear you are
preparing disappointment for yourself.--Woman's heart is a wayward
thing, and--"
Oberntraut waved his hand, "You mistake me, my friend," he said; "any
disappointment that could be felt has been drunk to the dregs already.
Agnes loves me not, as I should require to be loved; and I seek no
heart that cannot be entirely mine. I have had my lesson, and have
learned it well. I love her still, but with a different love to that
of former times; cold, but not less strong; and in return she shall
give me esteem and regard. This she cannot refuse; for it depends upon
myself, not her--but let us talk of other things. I will have news of
her, ere many days be over. I cannot leave my post, 'tis true; nor can
you quit yours; but still, neither of us can rest satisfied without
some tidings of her fate--you have no indication of which way her
steps are turned?--none of where the Queen has gone to?"
"None," answered Herbert. "Lodun says nought that can give the
slightest clue. He feared, it would seem, that his letter might fall
into the enemy's hands, and wrote most guardedly in consequence.--Yet
stay, I recollect that when she left me, the Queen made a solemn
promise to send her back hither, if by the chances of war Frederic's
court should be driven out of Prague--nor is she one to forget such a
promise."
"Hither!" said Oberntraut; "it is an unsafe place of refuge. Here,
with war at our very gates; Heidelberg itself menaced daily; weak,
vacillating princes, ruining the noblest cause and the finest army
ever men had, the Spanish force, daily gaining ground against us; and
the whole valley of the Rhine a prey to a foreign enemy.--But it
cannot be helped. Even now, most likely, she is on the road; and we
must try to shield her from peril, when she comes into the midst of
this scene of carnage."
As he spoke a heavy step was heard upon the stairs; and an armed man
thrust his head into the room, saying, "The town is in a strange
state, Colonel; for the news has driven the people out of their wits
with fear."
"What do the fools expect?" exclaimed Oberntraut; "that Maximilian
will march hither direct?"
The man shook his head, as if he did not understand him; and Herbert
interposed, inquiring, "What news, Ancient?"
"Why, that Spinola has taken Weinheim, and is marching hither,"
replied the soldier. "Professors and half the students are flying to
Neckargemund; and all the rich citizens are frightening each other
with long faces in the market-place; while the women are in the
churches, praying as hard as they can pray."
"This must be seen to," said the Baron of Oberntraut. "You go and
quiet the people, and prepare for defence. I will ride out with my
troop, and discover what truth there is in these tidings."
"I love not to meddle," said Herbert, "for I vowed I would have no
command, when Merven was put over my head here. But still, I suppose,
I must do my best; and, when the hour for fighting comes, they will
find that I am young and active enough to defend the place, if not to
command the garrison."
"Nay, nay, cast away jealousies," said Oberntraut; "do I not serve
under mere boys when the time requires it?"
"Ay, you are mightily changed, my friend," said Herbert.
"I thank God for it," answered Oberntraut, "I have lost nought that
was good to keep, and much that was better cast away. But minutes are
precious: let us forth. I think the folks will fight when the time of
need comes; for these citizens are often more frightened at a distant
rumour than a present peril."
"Let those that will, fly," answered Herbert, casting his sword-belt
over his shoulder, and putting on his hat. "If we are to have a siege,
the fewer mouths and the fewer cowards the better."
The town of Heidelberg presented a strange scene, as the two officers
passed through the streets, after descending, by the shortest path,
from the castle. Consternation was at its height; and the only
preparations to be seen were for flight, not for defence. Men on
horseback and on foot--women in carts, many with children in their
arms--waggons loaded with goods--every sort of conveyance, in short,
that could be found in haste--well nigh blocked up the way leading to
the eastern gate of the town, now called the Karl-thor; and in all the
marketplaces and open spaces of the city, crowds of burghers were to
be seen; some of them bold, indeed, in words, but almost all of them
filled with terror, and meditating future flight.
Herbert mingled with the different groups, amidst a population
where he was well known, asking, in a calm and somewhat scornful
tone,--"Why, what are you afraid of, good people?" and generally
adding,--"There is no danger, I tell you, if you have but a little
spirit. First, the news is not true, I believe; and, secondly, Spinola
has not half men enough to take Heidelberg, if but the schoolboys and
parish-beadles will please to hold the gates against him. Come, come;
go home and rest quiet. Six months hence it may be a different matter;
but now you have no cause for fear."
In many instances, his words, but, more still, his calm tone and easy
bearing, had their effect in re-assuring the people. They began to be
ashamed of their fears; and a number of the principal townsmen
returned to their homes to tell their wives and families that the
danger had been magnified. As no farther report of Spinola's approach
reached the town during the day, towards evening Heidelberg became far
more tranquil, though it must be admitted that the population was
considerably thinned between morning and night.
In the mean while, Oberntraut issued forth by the Mannheim-gate at the
head of a party of about two hundred horse, and advanced rapidly into
the plain. No enemy could be discovered for some time; but at length
the young commander saw the smoke of a burning mill at some distance,
and concluded thence that Spinola, after sacking Weinheim, had
retired, making a mere demonstration on the city of Heidelberg, more
for the purpose of striking the inhabitants with terror than with any
intention of attacking a place too strong for his small force. Shortly
after, from a little rise, the rear-guard of his army could be
discovered marching towards Ladenburg; but, at the same time, several
large parties of Spanish horse were to be seen on the south side of
the Neckar, and two or three cornets could be perceived going at a
quick pace along the mountain-road towards Wiesloch.
"On my life! they are somewhat bold," said Oberntraut to himself.
"Whither are they going now, I wonder? We must see."
He paused for several minutes, watching; then called up to his side
one of the young officers of his troop, and gave him orders to proceed
with fifty men on the road towards Mosbach, to inquire eagerly for all
news from Prague, and if he met with any of the ladies of Elizabeth's
court returning towards Heidelberg, to give them safe escort back.
Three single horsemen he despatched on separate roads--the reader who
knows the Palatinate will remember that, passing through the woods and
orchards, there are innumerable small bridle-paths and cart-tracks--to
watch the movements of the party which had been seen approaching
Wiesloch; and then, advancing slowly amongst the trees, so as to
conceal his force as far as possible, the German officer did not halt
till he reached the village of Hockenheim, whence he threw a small
party into Waldorf. Night fell shortly afterwards; and Oberntraut was
seated at his frugal supper, when one of the men returned in haste to
tell him that the Spanish horse had passed by Wiesloch, and just at
nightfall attacked Langenbrücken, adding,--
"They had got possession of one part of the town, I think, ere I came
away; but the people had barricaded the bridge, and seemed resolved to
hold out in the other part."
"We must give them help," said Oberntraut. "How many of the Spaniards
were there?"
"One of the men whom I found half drunk upon the road," said the
soldier, "told me that there were Jeronimo Valetto's troop and
another; in all near three hundred men."
"Well, we are a hundred and fifty," answered Oberntraut. "Go down,
call the men to the saddle--but no trumpets, remember; we will do all
quietly;" and, as soon as the soldier was gone, he filled himself a
large horn-cup full of wine and drank it off; then placing his helmet
on his head again, and tightening the buckle of his cuirass, he issued
forth, and in five minutes more was in the saddle.
Advancing quietly and silently by the paths through the plain, which
he well knew, he approached Langenbrücken, fancying at one time he
heard a firing in that direction. As he came nearer, however, all was
still; and neither sight nor sound gave any indication of strife in
the long straggling village. At the distance of a quarter of a mile
the young baron rode on with four or five men in advance of his troop;
and, shortly after, heard several voices laughing, talking, and
singing. They were not German tongues; and though the language that
they spoke was more harmonious than his own, it did not sound sweet to
Oberntraut's ear. Dismounting in profound silence, he advanced with
four of his men on foot, till he came in sight of a fire at the end of
the narrow street, where three Italian soldiers were sitting, whiling
away the time of their watch with drink and song; and, approaching as
near as he could without being seen, Oberntraut whispered a word to
his followers, and then darted forward upon the little party of the
enemy. He had one down and under his feet in a moment; the others
started up, but were instantly grappled with by the German reiters,
and mastered at once. One of them, indeed, levelled a carbine at
Oberntraut and was about to fire; but a stout, tall German thrust his
hand over the pan just in time to stop a report which would have
alarmed the town.
"The least noise and you are dead men," said Oberntraut, in as good
Spanish as he could command. "Where is Valetto?"
"Who are you?" demanded the man to whom he spoke.
"I am he whom you call 'that devil Oberntraut,'" answered the young
baron; "so give me an answer quickly, or I'll drive my dagger down
your throat."
"He is in that house there, where the sign swings," answered the man
sullenly, pointing up the street.
"And the rest of the men?" asked the Colonel.
"Oh, in the different houses, where you will see lights and hear
tongues," answered the Italian soldier in bad Spanish; and looking
over his shoulder at the same time, he saw the young baron's troop
advancing quietly over the dusty road into the town.
"Let fifteen dismount and come with me," said Oberntraut in a low
voice, as soon as the head of the troop was near; "the rest search all
the houses where there are lights; but let a party be at each door
before the least noise is made; then cut down the enemy wherever you
find them. Give these men their lives; but guard them well."
Thus saying, he advanced, with the number he had commanded to follow
him, towards the house which the Italian had pointed out as his
officer's quarters. There was a little step before the door; and, as
Oberntraut put his foot upon it, he heard voices speaking in the room
to the left. One was that of a man, loud, boisterous, and jovial. The
other a woman's tongue, soft and sweet, but speaking in the tone of
lamentation and entreaty. Something in that voice made the young
baron's heart thrill; and, cocking the pistol in his hand, he pushed
open the outer door, turned suddenly to the left, and entered the room
whence the sounds proceeded.
Before him, seated at a table loaded with viands and wine, was a
stout, tall man with a face inflamed with drink; while, a
little in advance, held by the arm by a rough soldier, was the
never-to-be-forgotten form of Agnes Herbert. Her face was
drowned in tears; her limbs seemed scarcely to have strength
to hold her up; and yet her eye flashed as she said, "You are
cruel--ungenerous--discourteous!"
Valetto started suddenly up from his seat as he beheld Oberntraut's
face; and the soldier, who held Agnes, turned fiercely round and was
drawing his sword. But the young baron's pistol was at his head in a
moment; the hammer fell, and he rolled dead upon the floor.
Agnes sprang forward to Oberntraut's side; and Valetto sank down into
his seat again as pale as death, for the heads of five or six German
troopers were seen behind their leader, and the sounds of contention,
fierce but short--pistols fired, clashing swords, groans and oaths in
Spanish, Italian, and German--were heard from other parts of the
house.
"Take that man, and tie him!" said the young baron, speaking to his
soldiers. "Two will be enough. The rest go and still that noise! I
will come after.--Fear not, fear not, lady! The town is in my
hands--you are now quite safe.--Here, sit you down for an instant, and
I will rejoin you speedily." As he spoke, he led Agnes gently to a
seat, and was then turning away to leave her, when she exclaimed, "Oh!
my kind friend--there is--there is--one who needs aid in that room
behind, if they have not murdered him.--We were on our way to
Heidelberg, when--"
"I will return directly," said Oberntraut, as the sound of another
pistol was heard, "fear not--all shall be done that you can desire."
Thus saying, he left her; and Agnes, sitting down, covered her eyes
with her hands and wept.
In the mean time the two German soldiers had tied Valetto's arms, and
he sat gazing upon the fair girl he had been grossly insulting the
moment before, with a look of anxious hesitation.
"Speak to him for me, lady," he said, at length, in Italian, "that
incarnate devil will put me to death, if you do not. I know his face
too well."
"What do you deserve?" asked Agnes Herbert, raising her eyes for a
moment, with a look of reproach; "not for what you have said to me,
for that I can forgive, though it was base and cowardly, but for what
you have done to those who defended me, and only did their duty to the
Prince they serve."
"What is it he has done?" cried Oberntraut, who had overheard the last
words as he returned to the room.
"Master Algernon Grey," answered Agnes, with the colour mounting in
her pale cheek again, "escorted me hither from Prague, by the Queen's
commands. He aided the people to defend the town, and was brought in
badly wounded. They tore me away from him when I would have staunched
the blood; and I heard that man order him to be put to death."
"Take him out to the door," said Oberntraut, "and hang him to the
sign-pole."
"I did but jest! I did but jest!" cried Valetto, who had learned some
German, "the cavalier is safe--you will find him living. I know--I
believe he is living--if he died not of his wounds--I did but
jest--the soldiers know it."
"Nay, nay,--I beseech you," said Agnes, in a tremulous voice, laying
her hand upon Oberntraut's arm, "I do not seek revenge--I ought
not--must not feel it--Oh, spare him!"
"If our noble friend is alive, well," answered Oberntraut, sternly;
"but if he be dead, I will avenge him, whatever you may say, lady. The
act shall be mine: come, show me where he was?--and you, my friend,
make your peace with Heaven, as far as may be, and as soon; for, if I
find him not in life, your time on earth will not be more than five
minutes. Come, dear lady, where was our friend when last you saw him?
I trust this man's words are true; for no soldier would venture to put
a prisoner to death, unless by his commander's orders."
"Come," said Agnes, "this way;" and she led him through the door.
There was a man lying across the passage, with a ghastly wound on his
left temple, and the blood weltering forth over the scorched and
smoke-blackened skin, forming a small pool in the inequalities of the
earthen floor. The lady recoiled for an instant from that fearful
object; but the life of Algernon Grey was at stake; and, summoning all
her resolution, she stepped over the corpse, and pursued her path
towards the back part of the house.
It seemed that the German soldiers had not penetrated there; and it is
probable that many of Valetto's men had made their escape already by
the little garden at the back, the door of which stood open. Some few
steps ere she reached it, the fair girl paused and laid her hand upon
a lock on the right, hesitating with that terrible contention of hope
and fear, from which the human bosom is seldom free, either in one
shape or another. She might, the next moment, see him she loved lying
a corpse before her eyes: she might find the greater part of her
apprehensions vain; but yet fear had the predominance, and it required
a great effort of resolution to make her open the door and look in.
There was a light in the room; and the moment a step was heard,
Algernon Grey turned quickly on the bed where he was laid in the
clothes which he had worn on his journey; and, looking round with a
faint smile, he said, in a low and feeble voice, "I am better, dear
Agnes--the bleeding has stopped. What has that man done?--what was all
that noise?"
Had the whole world been present, Agues Herbert could not have
resisted the feelings of her heart; and, advancing to the bed-side,
she dropped upon her knees, resting her hands on his, and exclaimed,
"Thank God!--oh, thank God!"
"Ah, Oberntraut, too;" said Algernon Grey, "then I need not ask what
those pistol-shots implied. Welcome, my good friend, welcome."
"Hush!" said Oberntraut, gravely, holding up his hand. "The doctors
made me keep silence when I was wounded, and so will I do with
you.--Are you sure that the wounds have stopped bleeding?--Come, let
me see;" and advancing close to the young Englishman's side, he drew
back his vest and the neck of his shirt, which were already stiff with
blood, and saw a large wound on the right breast, and another,
apparently from a pistol-shot, just below the bend of the shoulder.
"Is this all?" he asked, in a cheerful tone. "Methinks these won't
kill you, my good friend."
"There is another just below the knee," replied Algernon Grey; "but
that is nothing."
"Let me see," said Oberntraut; "let me see;" and he proceeded to
examine.
"It is not much," he said carelessly; "but still, this is bleeding and
must be stopped; and we must take care that the others do not break
out again. I wonder if there be such a thing as a leech in the
place--there must be a barber, and we will send for him. Barbers never
fly, for enemies must have their beards dressed as well as friends.
Stay with him, dear lady, stay with him, and do something, if you can,
to stop this blood. I will send some one who knows more of such
matters than I do; my trade is more to shed blood than to stanch it."
He staid to say no more, but hurried out; gave some hasty orders to
the soldiers in the house, went farther down the street, looked into
several houses where there were lights within and horses at the door,
and, having satisfied himself that all resistance was over in the
place, he inquired of a countryman, whom he found in one of the rooms,
where the barber of the village was to be found.
"Oh, a long way farther up," said the man; "you will see the pole and
basin out," and, calling two or three of his troopers to follow him,
Oberntraut strode away, giving various orders for the security of his
men as he went.
The trade of the barber and the profession of the surgeon were then,
very strangely, combined together throughout the world, with the
exception of one or two cities in one or two kingdoms, in which the
chirurgeon was acknowledged as belonging to a higher and more
honourable class than the mere trimmer of men's beards and the shaver
of their cheeks. In every country town, however, the latter exercised
the craft of bone-setting and wound-dressing, and the learned
functionary of Langenbrücken was not at all surprised at being called
upon by the Baron of Oberntraut to tend a wounded man.
"You have nothing to do," said the Baron is a commanding tone, "but to
stop the bleeding, and to make sure that it does not break out again
as we go to Heidelberg. This case is above your skill, my friend, so
that I want you to do nought more than I have said: no vulnerary
salves and sympathetic ointments, if you please; and, if I find you
meddling beyond your craft, I will slit your ears."
"But how is the gentleman hurt?" asked the barber; "let me know that,
at least, that I may bring what is needful."
"How is he hurt?" exclaimed Oberntraut, "what a question is that!
First, he is very badly hurt, and I doubt he will not recover, so I
don't want you to make it sure. Then he is hurt with sword-thrusts and
pistol-balls. All you have to do is to bind up his wounds." Therefore
come along at once; and, leading him down to the door of the house
where Algernon Grey lay, he then went on to ascertain the number of
the prisoners, and of the dead and wounded on both parts.
When the barber entered the room to which Agnes had conducted
Oberntraut, he found her still kneeling by her lover's bed-side, and
with her hand clasped in his; but the wound, from which the blood had
been flowing when the young Baron left them, was now tightly bound up
with a scarf, so that but a few drops trickled through, staining the
bandage slightly. The lady withdrew her hand as soon as the door
opened, and the barber proceeded to his examination, and, being not
without skill, from long experience, to which science is but a
handmaid, he did what was really best at the moment, in all respects
but one. His look and his words certainly did not tend to reassure the
wounded man, for, with a fault very ordinary in his calling, he was
inclined to make the worst of any case presented to him, for the sake
of some little additional reputation if recovery took place, and of
security if a fatal result occurred.
Poor Agnes's heart sank at the doubtful shake of the head, and the
still more alarming words, "A very bad wound indeed--I wonder where
the point of the weapon went;" and not even the cheerful tone of
Oberntraut, when he returned, could dispel her apprehensions.
"There, get you gone, sallow-face," said the Baron, addressing the
barber. "There's a crown for you. Your dismal looks are enough to push
a sick man into the grave, were he a mile off it. Well, my good
friend," he continued, speaking to Algernon Grey, "you will be upon
your feet as soon as I was, I dare say. We must get you to Heidelberg
to-night, however, for this is an open place and without defence. You
shall have a little wine before you go to keep you up, and I have told
the men to make some sort of litter to carry you.--There, do not
speak; they told me that speaking was the worst of all things. I will
answer all your questions, without your asking. I found a man and a
boy in one of the houses hard by; the man shot through the leg, just
like yourself, and the boy with a wound through his cheek and two or
three grinders lost; but they'll do very well, and can ride as far as
need be. Did you come in a carriage, or on horseback, dear lady? I can
find no carriage in the place, but horses enough to mount a regiment."
"On horseback," answered Agnes. "We had no time for carriages in
quitting Prague."
"Ay, ay! a sad affair, that!" said the young Baron. "But tell me, what
has become of the King and Queen, for here we are all in darkness."
Agnes gave him a short account of all that had taken place up to the
time of her quitting Prague--under some embarrassment, indeed, for the
keen eye of the young Baron of Oberntraut was fixed upon her
countenance during the whole time, not rudely, but firmly. Shortly
after her account was concluded, and before he could ask any more
questions, one of the men came in to say that all was ready, and that
the boy had pointed out the lady's horse.
Some wine was then procured, and Oberntraut insisted not only that
Algernon Grey should take some, but that Agnes should partake, passing
the cup from the one to the other with a meaning smile, not without
some share of sadness in it. The hastily-constructed litter was then
brought in, and the wounded man placed upon it and carried out. At the
door of the little hostelry a number of the villagers had gathered
together on the report of the enemy's discomfiture, and Oberntraut
addressed them in one of his blunt short speeches, saying, "I have a
great mind to burn your town, you knaves, to punish you for not
defending it better; but look well to the wounded and I will forgive
you. Keep a shrewd watch over the foreigners, and send them in to
Heidelberg as they get better. I have left only one of my men with
you, and if you do not treat him well I will skin you alive. There,
bring the prisoners along;" and, placing Agnes on her horse, he
mounted and rode away.