At night there were great rejoicings in Copenhagen. The king's presence
seemed to secure the peaceable part of the community against further
disturbance of the public tranquillity.
The occurrences of the day had given satisfaction, and there was a
general feeling of enthusiasm respecting the fortunate issue of the
insurrection. That which had been aimed at was attained. The shutting
of the churches was at an end, and the stern prelatical government of
the town had been cowed. After this violent outbreak of the people's
wrath, it was now hoped that no interdict would ever be carried into
effect in Denmark. The report that the archbishop and the cardinal had
quitted Axelhuus, and that the archbishop was banished for life, was
spread throughout the whole town, ere midnight, and increased the
general rejoicing. Where the lights had been extinguished in the
windows after the king's departure, they were now re-lighted. The
archbishop's flight and banishment were thus celebrated throughout the
town as an important victory over ecclesiastical tyranny, and as a
happy consequence of the public spirit of the burghers, and of the
king's high courage. In the tavern near the Catsound, in the vicinity
of St. Clement's church, sat the Drost's squire Canute, late at night,
merrily carousing with a number of young Copenhageners, who had eagerly
taken part in the besieging of Axelhuus. In the midst of the group sat
an elderly burgher, with a full cup of mead in his hand drinking with
them, amid songs and bold scoffs, at the strict law which prohibited
late tavern keeping and nightly intemperance, which they now regarded
as a dead letter. It was the same personage who at noon had
peregrinated the town as an official authority, and who, as the
summoning herald of the council, had forbidden every one to bear arms
in the streets. His herald's mantle, and the white staff bearing the
bishop's arms, had been thrown under the drinking table; he now
appeared in the usual burgher's dress, and had himself a warlike sword
at his side. From his talk it could be gathered that he had also joined
in the siege of Axelhuus.
The carousers spoke openly and boldly against prelatical government, to
which they believed they had given a good fillip. They lauded the king
and the brisk Sir Helmer, and opined that the king had only feignedly,
and for the sake of appearances, caused that brave knight to be placed
under arrest. They unanimously agreed, also, that the king's stern
words to the balista slingers, and those who were storming the castle,
could not have come much further than from between his teeth, since,
after all, it was but his worst foe they had attacked.
There were bursts of exultation at the flight and exile of the
archbishop, which had been related to them by two newly-arrived guests,
and the party took credit to themselves for having stoned Master Grand
out of the country.
"Ay, laud us Copenhageners!" said the herald, with a self-satisfied
nod; "we have helped the king before at a pinch."
"What can the pope and all the world's bishops do to him _now_?" said
the squire, draining his cup. "The game is won, comrades, provided all
we Danes from this day forward act like you, brave Copenhageners of
this town. Against those Latin curses we have arrows, swords, and
balista, and good Danish granite stone; and if they lock us up the
church doors again, we have, the Lord be thanked, iron crows and axes,
and men who can lift a church door as easy as a barrel of wheat. Now is
my master the Drost over in Sweden to fetch the king's betrothed," he
continued; "had I been with him there the arrogant Hanse would not have
pounced on me. Matters may go hard enough with the king's marriage;
they say these priests would fain put a spoke in the wheel, and shut
all Heaven's gates on us; but what shall we wager, comrades, that the
king snaps his fingers at them, touching the dispension, or whatever it
is called, and keeps his bridal, when the Lord and he himself pleases?
Then will there be sport and jollity over all the country. Long live
the king's true love!"
"But she is a Swede," objected one of the young fellows.
"Pah! hereafter will Swede and Dane be good and boon companions,"
continued Canute, with a jolly flourish of his cup. "When our kings
give each other their sisters we will dance with the Swedish maidens,
and their young fellows again with ours, and no one shall look sour on
the other, because we have tried our strength before in another sort of
game. The Swedish princess, they say, is the fairest king's daughter in
the world, as fair and straight as a lily, and as pious and mild as the
blessed Queen Dagmar. Long life to her, by my soul and honour, and to
our excellent young king besides, and to all frank and free men, and
all pretty maidens, both here and in Sweden's land! Hurra for the king
and his true love! He is a scoundrel who drinks not with me."
All the jolly carousers joined in the toast; but the merriment in the
tavern-room was now interrupted by the noise of an eager scuffle in the
chamber above, where several guests of higher rank were playing at
draughts. The squire and his comrades crowded inquisitively to the
door, and looked into the chamber. "Ay, indeed! my fat Rostocker here!"
exclaimed Canute; "would he tweak the Copenhageners by the nose also? I
should think he would come badly off at that game." He now related to
his companions what had happened at Skanoer fair--how the arrogant
traders, who were now in the fray, had brought the false coin of the
outlaws into the country--and how the Rostocker, with his crafty
comrade, had dared to threaten the king at Sjoeborg.
"Let's have at him!" shouted all with one accord, and rushed into the
chamber, where Berner Kopmand and Henrik Gullandsfar, with a crowd of
foreign merchants and agents, were engaged in fierce dispute with two
of the richest burghers of the town, who accused them of dishonest
play, and of cheating with false money. The squire and his young
comrades took the part of the Copenhageners, and a wild and bloody
fray, with pitchers and cans, sticks and clenched fists, soon
commenced. The Rostocker and Henrik Gullandsfar first drew their
swords; they laid about them with courage and valour. The pepper
'prentices cried and shouted desperately, but were unable to defend
themselves with their long ell measures; at last they all took to
flight, with Henrik Gullandsfar at their head. Berner Kopmand would
have followed them, but the incensed squire placed himself in his way,
and forced him into a desperate encounter. "Out of the way, comrades!"
he shouted; "leave me to deal alone with this fellow; I have a little
reckoning to settle with him!"
All gave way, and formed a ring round the combatants; the heavy-built
hot-headed Rostocker laid frantically about him, but was wounded every
moment by the man-at-arms, who, though far less in stature, was his
superior in swordsmanship. "Take that for thy false money, good fellow,
and that for thy false play, and that for thy shameless arrogance!"
shouted the squire at every wound he gave his antagonist; "that because
thou wouldest hang Sir Helmer and me, and that because thou hast
threatened our king, thou grocer hero!" This last thrust ended the
fight. The merchant fell mortally wounded to the ground, among the
overturned wine-flasks and draught-boards. Meanwhile the routed pepper
'prentices had given the alarm in the streets, and, with a fearful cry
of murder, assembled the night-watch, and as many of the provost's men,
who, as yet, had sufficient courage to maintain order in the town. The
bishop's famulus had arrived with some men-at-arms, on the part of the
provost, and when Berner Kopmand fell the tavern of St. Clement's was
already surrounded by a guard. The famulus made his way into the tavern
with his men, and surrounded the squire, who stood in silence with the
bloody sword in his hand, gazing on the dying Rostocker.
"Seize him! Shackle him! The godless murderer, in the name of the
bishop and council!" cried the famulus, in a screeching voice,
springing up on a bench to bring himself into notice. He was a little
man, clad in a short black cloak over a blue lay brother's dress, with
a roll of parchment in his hand, which he flourished like a commander's
staff. All the jolly revellers had retreated, and the Drost's squire
stood alone by the Rostocker's body in the faint light of the oil-lamp,
which was suspended from the roof. He menacingly brandished his bloody
sword, and no one dared to approach him.
"Let him go; he is guiltless!" cried a powerful but stuttering voice,
and the burgher herald stepped forward half intoxicated, with glowing
cheeks and reeling steps, from a corner of the apartment. He had again
attired himself in his herald's mantle, and brandished the white staff
with the bishop's arms in his hand. He elbowed his way through the
crowd, and placed himself, with solemn, official mien, between the
squire and the provost's men, directly opposite the little famulus on
the bench. "Let none touch this fellow; he is guiltless!" he continued:
"the other drunken guest hath got his deserts; he has fallen, as was
meet and fit in a regular tavern brawl, and at the dice-board; that _I_
can witness--he is to get no chastisement, according to the law and
right of our good city, that you must know full as well as I, Master
Famulus."
"Believe him not, he is drunk!" cried the bishop's famulus with
eagerness; "the ale speaks through him; he exercises his office, and
expounds law and justice like a toper and partizan. The law he prates
about concerns but fisty-cuffs and pulling of hair; but a murder hath
been committed within the town paling; it should at least be punished
with perpetual imprisonment, according to the town law. Seize the
murderer instantly, say I!"
"Touch him not, say I," resumed the herald, "he hath slain a cheat, a
false player, a shameless scoundrel, who had defied the king; it was
done in honourable fight; it was in self-defence,--that I saw myself;
the fat Rostocker struck the first blow with a sharp weapon, although
he got the first cuff, but from an wholly unarmed fist; _that_ I can
take my oath of, let me be ever so drunk. He is a knave and a sorry
Christian who gets not honestly drunk to-night, now that we have forced
the shut gate of heaven. This brave young fellow is, besides, the
Drost's squire, and my good friend. We have no right to imprison him, I
will stand security for him, with all my substance!"
"But what are ye thinking of?" bawled the famulus, stamping on the
bench, "he hath certainly slain a man here."
"Even so! naught else! Know ye not better our pious Lord Bishop's
orders! Master Famulus!" shouted the burgher herald in an overpowering
voice, as he leaned on his staff of office. "_This_ is a worldly tavern
and place of entertainment--_here_, where gaming, pastime, and toping
have full swing from morning to night--none hath a right to require
safety for life and limb, it is all in due order; and a very wise and
reasonable regulation; mad cats get torn skins, and where one sets
aside the law, every one must take the damage as wages. The scoundrel
who lies there fell at the forbidden draught-board; if there is law and
justice in the town, he shall never be laid in christian ground. That I
will uphold, as surely as I bear this sacred staff." As he, at the
conclusion of his speech, was about again to brandish the herald's
staff over his head, he had nearly lost his balance; but his
authoritative conduct, and stern official deportment, seemed, however,
not without its effect upon the provost's men, especially as the
bishop's famulus was forced to allow the justice of his protest against
the burial of the slain in christian ground.
While they were yet disputing, whether they had or had not the right of
imprisoning the murderer, the squire rushed out of the door, with his
drawn sword in his hand, and none dared to stop him.
As soon as he found himself in the open air, he concealed his sword
under his mantle, slouched his hat over his brow, and mingled in the
throng which surrounded the house, and had thrust the guard aside. It
appeared, even to him, somewhat doubtful and improbable that persons
might thus be slain with perfect impunity at the gaming table; what he
had heard respecting perpetual imprisonment in the bishop's city, still
sounded very unpleasantly in his ear, and he thought it most advisable
to decamp as soon as possible; but in order not to excite suspicion, he
walked on quietly, and whistled a blithe drinking song. "There's
desperate work in the house between the pepper 'prentices and the
king's men," he said aloud, "the devil take me if I stand here gaping
any longer." As soon as he was fairly out of the crowd, he quickened
his steps and hastened down past the Catsound towards the old strand.
He went onward without knowing whither, and often looked behind to see
whether any one pursued him. He saw lights in all the houses on the
strand--mirth and song resounded, contrary to usage, in many quarters
of the generally quiet town, in defiance of the strict regulations of
the bishop and archbishop; but all was gloomy and still at Axelhuus. He
pursued his way along the level shore, and approached the church of St.
Nicholas. In the churchyard he saw a crowd of people assembled. A
strange, half devout, half seditious murmur, was heard in the crowd,
and a solemn council appeared to be held. He hastened past the sullen
muttering assemblage, and reached the ferry opposite Bremen-island.
Here all the great warehouses were desolate and deserted; he sat down
quite breathless on the quay to recover himself, and think of the means
of escape. It was past midnight. The moon shone upon the broad stream
and the tall warehouses on Bremen island. He felt oppressed by the
death-like stillness around him. The wild scene of the murder in the
alehouse was now solemnly and fearfully present to his imagination--he
heard his heart beat; he wiped the blood from off his sword, and put it
into the sheath. He perceived spots of blood upon his clothes, and was
about to go down to the water to wash them out, but he now heard a
sound near him like the gasping of a dying man; he looked around him
with uneasiness, but no human being was to be seen. The singular sound
still fell on his ear, and mingled with his vivid recollection of the
death-rattle of the slain Rostocker. He had felt no dread of the living
adversary,--now he shuddered at the thought of the dead. The hair of
the fugitive squire stood on end; he hastily started off from the quay,
and would have fled further; but he now distinctly heard that the sound
which terrified him proceeded from the sea-shore. The faint ray of the
moon now lit up the beach, on which he beheld a man lying stretched at
full length. "The pepper 'prentice! What became of him?"--he heard the
voice gasp forth, and recognised its tones. "Our Lady be merciful to
us! Sir Helmer! what hath happened you?" exclaimed Canute, aghast, and
hasted down to the half-expiring knight, who was utterly exhausted by
fighting and swimming, and whom, with much difficulty, he raised on his
legs, and in some degree restored to consciousness. His drenched
clothes were rent and bloody; his long brown locks clung to his swollen
cheeks, and in his left hand, which was convulsively clenched, he held
a thick tuft of reddish hair. "Look! look!" he said, "it was all I got
hold of, the rest the devil hath taken. He twined round me like a
water-snake. He bit and tore like the devil. The stream put an end to
our embrace, it had well nigh put an end to my life, I perceive."
"Our Lady and St. George help you, noble sir!" said the squire,
crossing himself, as he reached him a small flask. "Take something to
strengthen your heart after that joust! If you have fought with the
evil one at the bottom of the sea you have surely had to stand a hard
encounter."
"I hope it was the right one," said Helmer, and drained the flask,
"Thanks, countryman! it hath helped me! Now I have got my strength
again. I ail nothing in reality; my limbs are sound; I am but a little
bruised, and dizzy in my head."
"But what in all the world have you been about? Have you been seeking
the pepper 'prentice, or Satan himself, at the bottom of the sea, and
know not rightly yourself whether you found him?"
"I was hard pressed for time, thou must know. The king rode quietly
past the beach. I was somewhat wrath with him, I must needs confess. I
was on the way to the bishop's dungeon, on account of my having taken
the balista a little in hand; but then I caught a sight of that devil
of a pepper 'prentice; he stood not a yard from me in a boat, and would
have pushed past us; it seemed to me that he stared after the king, and
fumbled with his hand in his breast, as if after a dagger. Whether it
was the right rascal or not, there was not time to discover. The fellow
looked confoundedly suspicious, and one pepper 'prentice, more or less,
of what consequence was it, when the king's life was in question? so I
jumped into the boat. Ere I wast fully sensible of it I had the fellow
by the throat, and had tumbled blithely with him into the stream."
"Have you sent the pepper 'prentice down to his home, noble sir?" said
Canute with restored cheerfulness, and somewhat proudly,--"then I have
sent a bottle-nosed Hanse grocer to hell, from an ale tavern. None can
say we have been idle here in Copenhagen. We serve the king as well as
we can--although we may have come a little out of the way he sent us.
If you only have but hit on the right man! your exploit was far more
daring and dangerous than mine, noble sir! But in two particulars I
have been more lucky, however; I _know_ I hit on the right person, and
know also I mastered the rascal to some purpose. It was he who would
have hung us in the morning, and who would have taken the king's life,
had he had power and courage to do so."
"The Rostocker! Berner Kopmand?"
"The same! He now lies dead as a herring, in the ale-house; he will
never be laid in Christian ground, if my honest friend the herald is in
the right. But come, sir!--if you can bestir yourself, let's get out of
the bishop's town, and the sooner the better! If the provost or the
bishop's men pounce on us, we shall not 'scape from their dungeons all
our life-time."
With some difficulty the wounded knight followed the squire, and they
soon reached the east gate at the end of East Street. The gate was
shut, but its lock and bolts had been forced in the insurrection. The
fugitives opened it without difficulty, and entered into the large
grass-grown marketplace, where the Halland vegetable vendors especially
had their landing-places and stalls. Meanwhile, Sir Helmer felt weaker
at every step. With the help of the squire he dragged himself with
difficulty to the chapel by St. Anna's bridge; here he sank down
powerless before the chapel door;--all grew dark before his eyes, and
he was near falling into a swoon.
"The Lord and St. Anna assist us!" said the squire, hastily seizing a
wooden bowl which stood near the chapel; he sprang with it to the
running stream under the bridge, and soon returned with the bowl full
of clear, pure water.
"Drink, sir! drink in St. Anna's blessed name!" he said, eagerly, "and
then I will bathe you on the head, and on every part where you feel
pain. If St. Anna's stream hath the wondrous healing power it is said
to have you will assuredly soon feel yourself strengthened, provided
you are a good Christian, as I surely hope."
The knight drank, and washed the blood from his face, which, as well as
his neck, was scratched and lacerated; he was besides bruised all over
his body, and exhausted to a great degree. The cold water refreshed and
strengthened him, as he fancied, in a wonderful and incomprehensible
manner. Around the chapel lay a number of crutches and rags, cast aside
by the sick and paralytic who had here been healed. Inspired with
sudden enthusiasm by his regained strength, and by the miracle he
believed he had here experienced, Sir Helmer sprang up and knelt before
the image of St. Anna over the chapel door. "Thanks and honour, holy
Anna!" he exclaimed in a lowered voice, and with clasped hands, "it was
nobly done of thee; it was doubtless for the sake of my fair young
wife--for the sake of my Anna's pious prayers! When we meet again in
health, we will assuredly not forget the wax lights and purple velvet
for thine altar." He then arose, and exulting in his strength, flapped
his arms around him, as if to certify himself of the fact of this
restoration; he embraced the squire, and then flung him off to some
distance on the grass, with as much ease as he would have flung his
glove. "Look, there lies my crutch also, to thy thanks and honour, holy
Anna!" he exclaimed in a loud voice, "he is a rascal who doubts of thy
wondrous power; thou hast given me strength and vigour again."
"Ay, indeed! thanks and honour be to St. Anna for it!" panted the
squire, as he rose half in alarm. "You are now, by my troth, in full
vigour. Sir Helmer! as I can testify; but you are somewhat strange and
violent in your devotion; you must excuse my not continuing to lie here
among the other crutches!"
Helmer bounded blithely on the green sward, to try whether his legs
also stood him in good stead; he seemed again preparing to wrestle with
the squire, but Canute sprang aside. "Keep your devotion within bounds,
noble sir! and listen to a word of sense!" he said, seizing the
intractable knight by the arm. "A boat lies unmoored here, let's take
possession of it, and row up the great canal!--then perhaps we may slip
whole-skinned out of the town, and get to Sorretslov. If there is any
reasonableness whatever in the king, he will not cause us to be hanged,
because we have chastised his enemies and persecutors; but if they get
hold of us here he will find it hard, despite all his power, to save
us."
"Had I but my good sword!"--said Helmer. "Lend me thine, brisk
countryman! Do thou row the boat! and I will defend us both."
"Yes, if you will be mannerly, Sir Knight, and not try your sword on
me, in honour of St. Anna!"
Helmer laughed, and clapped him on the shoulder. They were soon both
seated in the boat, and pondering how best to provide for their safety.
Helmer sat sword in hand at the rudder, and the squire, despite the
pain of his lacerated hand, rowed with powerful strokes of the oar up
the stream which enclosed the town on the north-east. They stopped not
until they reached the fishermen's houses at Pustervig. Here the
northern boundary of the town was protected by a new fortification of
palisades. While the squire rested his wearied arms, they consulted
together whether they should now row to the left, through the canal, to
get out through the north gate, where, however, it was uncertain
whether they would not be stopped and seized,--or whether they might
not with greater safety, although with more difficulty, pursue their
flight up the stream to Sorretslov lake. This last plan they considered
to be the most expedient. Helmer now seized the one oar, and they began
to row briskly forward. The night was calm, and during the whole
passage from St. Anna's bridge they had not seen a single human being.
But an arrow from a cross-bow now suddenly whistled over the heads of
the fugitives; they heard a splashing of oars behind them, and saw two
boats push off from the beach at Pustervig.
"The murderer! stop him, shoot him! a hundred silver crowns to the man
who seizes him!" called a loud voice from one of the boats.
Helmer and the squire recognised the voice of Henrik Gullandsfar, and
kept on rowing. The one boat lay to behind them to stop the way in case
they should retreat. The other, which was manned with the provost's
men, and was steered by Henrik Gullandsfar himself, pursued them with
four oars up the river. In the bow stood two cross-bowmen, who
constantly aimed and shot, but as it appeared without real skill in the
management of this dangerous weapon, with which the strongest armour
might be pierced, and people wounded almost without perceiving it.
"You shoot badly, knaves!" shouted Helmer. "Is that the way to hold a
cross-bow? Come but nearer, and I will teach ye to handle it!" he
continued, letting go the oar and brandishing his sword over his
uncovered head, as he stood in the stern of the boat. "As surely as St.
Anna hath given me my strength again, it shall not fare a hair better
with ye than with my departed brothers-in-law." Another cross-bow bolt
whistled over his head, but without injuring a hair of it--another
split the gunwale and broke the tiller. Helmer seized the harmless
bolt, and just as he was about to be overtaken, flung it back with all
his might whence it came. It whistled past both the cross-bowmen, but
hit Henrik Gullandsfar on the forehead, and the merchant fell backwards
without life sufficient to utter a cry.
"Death and misfortune! 'Twas Helmer Blaa who threw!" cried one of the
provost's men. "The devil a bit will I fight with _him_.--Let's be
off!"
The provost's men and the cross-bow shooters now took to flight down
the stream with the body of Gullandsfar. Sir Helmer again seized the
one oar, and the two bold fugitives rowed unmolested up to Sorretslov
lake. Here they sprang ashore on the green sward, leaving the boat to
float back with the current.
"We have got thus far on dry land," said Helmer, looking around him;
"we are without the town paling, and are scarce a hundred paces distant
from the king's castle. When the king hears of our exploits, perhaps he
will say, it was bravely done, but will cause us to be bound and thrown
into the tower, according to strict law, and there we may be suffered
to lie until his council and the bishops are agreed whether we are to
be punished with death or only with imprisonment for life."
"Would you scare me, Sir Helmer?" exclaimed Canute, in dismay. "As soon
as we reach the king's castle yonder, we surely stand under the king's
protection."
"But here he is on the bishop's preserve as well as we. We have
forgotten that in our hurry," observed Helmer; "the sixteen villages in
this neighbourhood belong to the little Roskild bishop. Bishop law and
church law are valid here; and this I know beforehand, the king will
not swerve a hair's-breadth from what is lawful for _our_ sake, even
though we were his best friends, and had saved his life an hundred
times over."
"Death and confusion! What shall we do then? In that case we were mad
should we take refuge with him here?"
"So I think, countryman! But help us he _shall_, whether he will it or
no. Knowest thou the two white horses here in the meadow? Look! how
they dance in the tether and snort towards the dawn."
"The king's tournament prancers!--the very apple of his eye! Every
knights' squire knows _them_. You have surely not lost your wits, Sir
Helmer! What would you be at?"
"Thou shalt soon see," said Helmer, approaching the starting and
rearing steeds. "So! ho! old fellows! stand still!--if we have risked
our lives for the king, he can doubtless lend us a pair of horses. Had
I my good Arab it should fly with us both faster than the wind. The
pepper 'prentice I answer for," he continued, still enticing the
horses. "I have soused and pumelled him so soundly, that he will do no
mischief again in a hurry, if there is life in him yet--and I dare
wager my head it was the right one. If thou hast made an end of Berner
Kopmand, countryman, I answer for Henrik Gullandsfar, and the
archbishop hath gone to the devil; there is now no great danger astir,
and the king needs us no longer here. I am no great lover of trial and
imprisonment, seest thou? and if the king does not need my life, I know
of one who will give me a kiss for saving it.--So ho, there! That's
right, my lad!--a noble animal, by my soul! I desert not from the
service to run home to my young wife,--that none shall say of me. Do
thou like me, countryman! I will now ride on the king's prancer as his
bridesman to Sweden, to perform what I have neglected. If thou wilt
come with me, come then!" Meanwhile Helmer had caught one of the
spirited steeds. In an instant he was upon its back, and galloped away
over hedge and ditch with the swiftness of a deer. The Drost's squire
did not long hesitate; he was soon seated on the back of the other, and
followed Sir Helmer at a brisk gallop.