As soon as they reached the quay, Sir Helmer put his head out of the
hatchway, and beheld a man jump on shore in great haste from the
forecastle. Helmer had only seen his back; he was clad like a German
grocer's apprentice; but he felt pretty certain it was the outlawed
Kagge. The mantle of the order of the Holy Ghost lay under the
foremost rowing bench. With his drawn sword in his hand. Sir Helmer
now sprang upon deck, together with the Drost's squire, whose left
hand was wrapped in his mantle. Their attire was somewhat rent and
blood-stained, yet they appeared to have found time to bind up each
other's wounds, and even to arrange their dress. Without saying a word,
they passed the armed crew of the vessel, with a salutation of defiance
to Henrik Gullandsfar, and a jeering smile at the heavy and wrathful
Rostocker, whose broad visage glowed with anger. Helmer and the squire
sheathed their swords on the quay, and those who saw them come up from
thence, without noticing the spots of blood upon their clothes, took
them for fellow-travellers, who, in all peacefulness, had arrived in
the Rostock vessel.
"The 'prentice! mark him, Canute!" whispered Sir Helmer to the squire
as they both left the quay with hasty steps, and looked around them on
all sides. "What hath become of him? There!--no--that is another--ha,
there!--no, another again!"
At every turn they fancied they saw the disguised outlaw, but were
frequently deceived by a similar dress and figure. The German grocer's
apprentices thronged in busy crowds on the quay, and near the vessels
in the haven, where they were in constant occupation, and had a number
of porters at work.
These foreign mercantile agents were usually elderly single men, most
frequently with sour, unpleasant countenances, and maintaining much
spruce neatness in their dress, and preciseness in their deportment. As
pepper was the chief article sold in their grocers' booths, they were
usually called pepper 'prentices[1], not without a design to jeer at
their peevishness and irritability. They made themselves conspicuous by
large silver buttons on their long-skirted coats of German cloth; a
woollen cap from Garderige[2], and a long Spanish gold-headed cane,
which served them at the same time for an ell measure, formed part of
their finery; and they were so remarkable for the sameness of their
appearance and deportment, the effect of their living apart from
others, and pursuing a uniform occupation, that they were often exposed
to the jibes and jeers of the people, especially on account of their
celibacy, which was enjoined them by their Hanseatic masters, and was a
necessary consequence of their position as traders in a foreign city,
where they were not privileged to become residents with families.
Sir Helmer stared attentively at every German grocer's apprentice he
met, and became at last so wroth at his frequent mistakes that he was
ready to insult those personages, who in their busy vocation frequently
jostled him in the crowd, "Those accursed pepper-'prentices, they drive
me mad!" he exclaimed at length, and stamped on the ground. "I will
break the neck of the first that brushes against my arm!"
"That is just and reasonable, noble Sir," said the squire; "my fingers
itch every time I see such a fellow. If they will be monks, they should
not be running here and staring every maiden in the face in broad day
light. They are as soon enamoured as any shaven crown--I had well nigh
said--St. Antony forgive me my wicked thought! Look! here we have one
again I saw ye how he twisted his eyes in his head to goggle at that
pretty kitchen maid with the cabbage basket? Shall I buffet him down to
the Catsound, noble Sir?"
"No, surely not, crack-brains!" answered Sir Helmer, sharply; "let us
behave reasonably. Do thou stay here in the ale-house near the haven,
and keep an eye on the outlaw, that he slinks not back to the vessel;
if there is law and justice in the town, he 'scapes us not. Thou dost
surely know him well?"
"Yes, assuredly! Kagge with the scar; him from whom they scalded off
his knightly honour on the scaffold. I should know him among a thousand
scoundrels, and his black horse to boot. 'Tis a sin such a handsome
beast----"
"Perhaps it was a God's Providence we came here against our will,"
interrupted Helmer. "The red hat from Rome wants to negotiate a treaty
here betwixt the king and the run-away bishop from Hammershuus; they
are now at the castle, and have got the little bishop Johan in their
clutches. It will doubtless end in nothing; but comes the king hither
where the Roskild bishop rules, he may chance to need both our eyes and
our swords. But, what in all the world is the matter here? Look, how
the people flock together!"
Sir Helmer now, for the first time, remarked a singular stir and
disturbance among the inhabitants of the town; there were far greater
numbers of persons in the street than were usually to be seen in the
most populous towns. He went onward, still looking around in search of
the outlawed fugitive; he now heard loud talk among the burghers and
mechanics who passed him, and expressions of wild wrath against the
Lord Bishop Johan and his ecclesiastical guests at Axelhuus. The people
assembled in groups in the streets, and only dispersed, grumbling and
murmuring on the appearance of a troop of men-at-arms. "The provost's
people! The bishop's men!" they muttered one to another, by way of
warning. "Aside! make way, comrades! as yet it is not time. Down to the
old strand!"
"What means this?" said Helmer to the squire, who still followed him on
the quay, alongside the ships in the harbour, staring around with
surprise and curiosity. "It looks like sedition and mutiny."
"Who are ye who bear arms in the bishop's town? Know ye not the rights
and town-law of Copenhagen?" said a powerful voice behind them. They
turned round and saw a man who from his attire seemed to be a burgher,
but who wore a kind of herald's mantle over his long coat, and held a
white staff in his hand, on which were painted the arms of the Bishop
of Roskild. He was accompanied by a crowd of the bishop's retainers.
"I am the king's knight and halberdier, as you see well enough,"
answered Helmer. "What hath your bishop and his town-law to do with
me?"
"Ho! ho, my bold sir!--stick your finger in the ground, and smell where
ye are! You surely come from worldly towns and castles where neither
order nor discipline are kept. What's your name, Sir Halberdier?"
"Helmer Blaa," answered the knight, laying his hand on the hilt of his
sword. "You have perhaps heard that name before?--or shall I teach you
to know it?"
"By your favour, noble sir!" answered the herald in a lowered tone, and
looking at him with surprise; "are you the renowned knight, Helmer, who
beat all the six brothers at once, and of whom the whole town sings the
ballad--
"He rides in the saddle so free."
"That I will never deny," answered Helmer, with a nod of satisfaction;
"he that made that ballad about me hath not lied. I will not pride
myself on that account," he added, "it concerned but my own life and
fortune. You brave Copenhageners have won full as much honour in Marsk
Stig's feud, and we shall soon come to an understanding I think."
"I think so too, by my troth, Sir Helmer," said the burgher herald with
cheerfulness, frankly giving him his hand at the same time. "I would
just as little insult you as your master, our excellent young king. As
free as you ride in the saddle by his side, so frank and free for aught
I would hinder it, may you walk here; but the service is strict at this
time. Here's mutiny as you see against our lord, the bishop. I must in
the council's name summon every man bearing arms to the lay court, and
to the council in 'Endaboth.' With the king's knights, especially with
a man like you, I think, however, the lord bishop would make a
difference."
"If the bishop wills to keep his beard, he will doubtless allow the
knight to keep his sword," said Helmer. "If he hath appointed you to
hinder misdeed and crime then help me rather to seize an outlawed
criminal who has been set on shore here from yonder Rostocker. He hath
crept into a German pepper-'prentice coat; he seeks after the king's
life--he is easy to know, it is Kagge with the scar. If you catch him
dead or alive, I will laud you as a true Danish man, and brave subject
of the king."
"That are we all here at heart, noble Sir," answered the herald,
lowering his voice, and looking cautiously around him while he made a
signal to his armed followers to fall back. "Our loyalty to the king we
have, as you say yourself, shewn right honestly in Marsk Stig's feud;
the king also hath recompensed us for that; he hath honourably helped
us with the fortifications of our good town, and with the new palisade.
Every honest man in Copenhagen would rather obey him than the priestly
rulers; but if we would speak out aloud of any other master here than
the bishop, we must give all our chattels to his treasury, and wander
houseless out of the town. Go in peace, Sir Helmer; but hide your sword
under your mantle! If I light upon the evil doer ye seek, I shall
assuredly seize him and summon him in your name to the council. Where
may you be found yourself?"
"Here, in the inn, close to St. Clement's church--you are an honest man
I perceive--tell me frankly, countryman! would it avail were I to speak
to the provost, or to your bishop touching yon miscreant? He is one of
those impudent regicides. I have my eye also on that braggart
Rostocker; he brings false coin into the country, and hath threatened
the king. What I know further about him I have promised not to speak
of--but wherever I meet him--I am his man!"
"You will surely get no justice here on the king's enemies, Sir
Knight!" whispered the herald. "If ye will take my advice ye will keep
as far off from our bishop and his provost as possible! The king's
friends are not exactly theirs, and must not, either, seem to be ours.
Had I not a good dame and children, you would hardly have seen me with
this staff in hand. If you would catch hold of the pepper 'prentices,"
he added, shutting one eye, "you must seek them at the dice boards in
the ale-house! What may chance there, none need do penance for--but in
the harbour and on the quay none dare touch them. On, fellows! The
stranger knight hath given account of himself like an honourable man,"
cried the herald, with a voice of authority, and proceeded onwards with
his armed train.
Helmer looked after him, and nodded to the squire. "Brisk fellows,
these Copenhageners!" said he. "It is shameful they are forced
to be under the bishop's thumb! That counsel about the taverns and
draught-boards suits not my humour either. We will seek the foe in the
straight path. First, however, let us thank St. George and St. Clement
for our deliverance, and then we can with a good conscience despatch
the rascals wherever we light on them." He approached St. Clement's
church, but found the church door locked, and marked with a large black
cross. "What means this?" he exclaimed. "Is there pestilence in God's
house?"
"Prohibition, interdict, son! according to the enactment 'cum ecclesia
Daciana,'" answered an old Dominican monk, who was kneeling before a
stone crucifix without the closed church door, and now arose slowly.
"The sins of the high-born are about to be visited upon those of low
degree; our most pious bishop hath no longer dared to withhold the
great national punishment which the holy Father hath commanded on
account of the presumptuous imprisonment of the archbishop, contrary to
the constitution of all holy laws. Virgo amata! ora pro nobis!" he
muttered, and folded his hands.
"The devil take those Latin laws, with reverence be it spoken,
venerable father!" answered the knight. "The archbishop is at liberty;
and is it now the time to punish a nation and country for that old sin
of the king's, if it really was a sin?"
"Assuredly it was a heavy sin and injustice," answered the monk; "but
the chastisement is too hard--that is the truth--and it falls on the
souls of the innocent--the people are only made ungodly and uproarious
by it; as we have proofs daily. If the king is not come hither to
bethink himself, and do penance, the prospect may be a drear one for us
all."
"Is he come?" asked Helmer hastily.
"Not here to the town--but to the royal castle at Sorretslov; his
plenipotentiaries are already at Axelhuus. Alas! yes! it is high time
he should give in, ere the interdict drives the whole nation to
rebellion and destruction.--Ora pro nobis!" he muttered again, and
turned towards the crucifix.
"Believe ye he hath come hither to humble himself, and crouch at the
bishop's feet? venerable father?" answered the knight; "then you will
find your belief to fail you in this matter, as I observe this tumult
concerns not the king, but your own little bishop and his overbearing
guests. Against this stupid church-shutting, a remedy will surely be
found at home. The nation is pitiful indeed which would let itself be
shut out from God's house while there are sturdy axes and iron crows in
the country."
"Alas, ye children of the world! ye worldly lords! ye will ever forward
with might and violence,--ye would at last storm heaven's gates if ye
were able," groaned the monk; "from the great and mighty doth all that
defiance and scandal proceed; and the poor, deluded people! _they_
listen but too willingly to such wild and ungodly counsel. Look! yonder
comes another flock of erring sheep, who have turned into wolves! There
they come, with spears and staves, like those who followed Judas, that
child of wrath. Hear how they bluster and storm. God be merciful! They
are surely rushing hither; they will assuredly open the church by
force."
The dismayed Dominican was preparing to fly, but the insurgents placed
themselves in his way. "Tarry a little, pious father!" shouted the
ringleader of the troop, a tall carpenter, with a large axe in his
hand. "Thou shalt read us the Holy Scripture before St. Clement's
altar; we have heard neither vespers nor mass for three days. Force the
church door, comrades!"
"Are ye distraught?" cried the monk; "will ye do violence to the house
of God!"
"No chattering! Force the door, countrymen!" shouted the leader.
"Neither St. Peter nor our Lady have taken it amiss of us. Mass goes on
cheerily in all the churches. We will hear our vespers at St. Nicholas.
Well done my lads! Look! now is the interdict ended! The church door
gave way before the ponderous strokes; the insurgents poured into the
church with a wild shout of victory, dragging the Dominican along with
them.
"That will be but a disturbed worship, noble sir," said the squire; "we
had better reserve our piety for another time. Look, yonder comes a
fresh troop! Nay, look! They have balista and cross-bows with them;
they will now surely assault Axelhuus."
"That hits my fancy!" exclaimed Sir Helmer, joyfully. "This prelatical
tyranny should not be tolerated by any Danish man. I come at the right
time; there may be something to take a hand in here. If they will
besiege the bishop's nest, I Will teach them at least to do it briskly.
Stay thou on the quay, and watch the pepper 'prentices, Canute! I must
set the honest burghers a little to rights with the balista." So saying
Sir Helmer hastened with rapid strides down to the old strand, where
the restless crowds of insurgents flocked together in wild tumult.