THE DUEL IN THE WOOD
When I regained consciousness I was in my father's room, lying on the
bed. Joubert was sitting on the bed beside me.
"Joubert," said I, "where is he?"
"Who?"
"Vogel."
"God knows!" said Joubert. "Here, drink this."
It was brandy, and it nearly took my breath away, but it gave me life.
"Now," said Joubert, putting the glass on the table by the bed and
taking my small trousers in his hand, "put these on."
"Why am I to dress, Joubert?"
"We are going away. Ah, fine doings there have been! And who knows the
end of it all?"
As he helped me to dress, he told me of what had occurred. The gentlemen
below had been playing cards when the shrieks of Vogel had sundered the
cardplayers like the sword of death.
Rushing upstairs, they had found Marengo guarding the dead body of
Vogel, and me standing on the bed screaming. When my father caught me in
his arms, I told all. Of Vogel's attempt to smother me, of the knife I
had found in my pillow, and of the occurrence in the bell-tower. It
must have been my subconscious intelligence speaking, for I remember
nothing of it; but it was enough.
"Then," said Joubert, "the General, with you tucked under his left arm,
turned on the Baron. 'What is this?' said he. 'Assassination in the
Schloss Lichtenberg!'"
"'Liar!' cried the Baron. And before the word was well from his mouth,
crack! the General had hit him open-fisted in the face, and the mark
sprang up as if the General had hit him red-handed. Mordieu! I never saw
a neater blow given, or one so taken, for the Baron never blinked. He
just nodded his head, as if to say, 'Yes.' Then he put his arm in Count
Hahn's, and the General turned to Major von der Goltz, and, taking him
by the arm, followed the others. Then word came to pack up and have you
ready, for we are leaving the schloss this night. Now then, vite!"
"But, Joubert, I remember nothing of all that."
"All what?"
"Telling my father of Vogel and the bell."
"Well, whether you remember it or not, there it is."
"And the knife---- Joubert, did you not, you yourself, stick the knife
in the pillow?"
"I!" said Joubert. "When would you catch me playing such fool's tricks
as that?"
"Joubert."
"Yes?"
"I think I know why they wanted to kill me."
"Why?"
"Because they thought I would kill little Carl."
Joubert grunted.
"Here," said he, "hold up your foot till I lace that boot."
Scarcely had he done so before General Hahn appeared at the door.
"Dress the child, pack, and be ready to leave the schloss at once!" he
cried to Joubert. "The horses are being got ready."
"I have my orders," replied Joubert.
He grumbled and talked to himself, and swore, as he got the rest of my
clothes on, for I was quite unable to help myself. And then, when I was
ready, he gave me a great, smacking kiss that nearly took my breath
away, and his hand was shaky, and I had never seen it shake before, and
he had never kissed me before in his life. Then he left me sitting on
the bed, and I heard him in the next room, where the dead man was,
packing my things.
In the midst of all this, the castle clock struck eleven.
And now from below came the trampling of horses, and the crash of wheels
on gravel, and the harsh German voices of the servants. Doors banged,
and a man came up, flung our door open, and cried: "Ready!" And Joubert,
with a portmanteau on his shoulder, led me along by the hand down the
corridor, the servant following with the rest of our luggage.
Down in the hall, which was brilliantly lit, Major von der Goltz and my
father stood talking together in one corner, and Von Lichtenberg and
General Hahn stood by the great fireplace, their hands behind them,
neither of them speaking, and both with their eyes on the floor as if in
profound thought. And I noticed that the great red mark on the Baron's
cheek was still there, just as if a blood-stained hand had struck him.
When they saw us coming, with Marengo following us, Von Lichtenberg and
the General took their hats from a table close by and walked towards the
door, which was opened for them by a servant.
General Hahn held under his arm a bundle done up in a cloak, and from it
protruded two sword-hilts.
My father, taking my hand and followed by Major von der Goltz, came
after the Baron.
It was a clear and windy night; flying clouds were passing over the
moon. Two carriages were drawn up at the door, and a dozen men with
torches blazing and blowing in the wind gave light whilst our luggage
was put in.
The first carriage was our own, the second a carriage belonging to the
schloss.
Joubert put our luggage in and mounted on the box; then my father,
bowing to Major von der Goltz, held the door open; the Major, with a
slight bow to my father, got in; we followed, the carriage started,
running torchmen leading us and following behind.
"Are we truly going away, father?" I asked nestling close to him and
holding his hand.
"Yes, my child; we are going away."
"Why are those men with torches running with us?"
"You will see--you will see. Major von der Goltz, I hope those words I
have just said to you will not be forgotten in the event----"
"They shall be remembered," said the Major.
Up to this all the company at the schloss had been hail-fellow-well-met
one with the other. My father had addressed Von der Goltz as Franz, and
the Major had been just as familiar in his manner, but all this was now
changed. The two men were as stiff and formal as though they had never
met before, one facing the other, bolt upright, and with heads somewhat
averted, as I could see by the dancing torchlight; and in my childish
heart I wondered at this.
As we slowed up to pass the great gates of the avenue, I heard the
wheels of the other carriage coming behind, and as we made the turning,
I saw it, with the light of the torches glinting on the headpieces of
the horses, and behind the carriage the plumes of the pine-trees showed
against the moon, and they looked like the plumes of a hearse.
The estate of Von Lichtenberg stretched for a mile and more beyond the
gates; and it seems that it is not etiquette to kill a man on his own
estate, no more than it is etiquette to strike a man in his own house.
We took the forest road. Mixed with the sound of hoofs and wheels, I
could hear the footsteps of the running torchmen: the flickering light
shot in between the tree-boles, disturbing the wood creatures, and, as
we went, all of a sudden, the jägers running with us broke out in a
chorus of what seemed lamentation mixed with curses.
Von der Goltz sprang up on the seat and looked ahead.
"A white hare is running before us," said he. "That is bad for Count
Carl von Lichtenberg."
My father bowed slightly, as if to a half-heard remark.
A white hare, it seems, was the sign of death in the house of
Lichtenberg.
Turning a bend in the road, the carriage drew up.
We waited for a moment till the sound behind told us that the second
carriage had also stopped. Then we alighted.
"Joubert," said my father, handing him a packet, "you will stay here
with the dog. Open this packet should anything befall me. Patrick, you
will come with me."
"Dieu vous garde!" said Joubert. And, following the others, we entered
the forest.
I felt sick and faint with fear, and the light of the dancing
torch-flames made me reel. I held tight to my father's hand, and I
remember thinking how big and strong and warm it was. What was about to
happen I could not guess, but I knew that the shadow of death was with
us, and the chill of him in my heart.
We had not gone more than two hundred yards when we came to a clearing
amidst the trees--a breezy, open space, that the moon lit over the
waving pine-tops. Here the jägers divided themselves into two lines,
five yards or so apart, and stood motionless as soldiers on parade.
Baron von Lichtenberg with his arms folded, stood with his back to us,
looking at the clouds running across the face of the moon; and the two
army officers, drawing aside, began to undo the swords from the bundle.
"Patrick," said my father, leading me under the shade of the trees, "I
struck my kinsman in his own house to-night. The only excuse I can make
for that action is to kill him, so let this be a lesson to you the
length of your life." He stopped, stooped, hugged me in his arms, and
then strode out into the torchlight, and took his sword from Von der
Goltz.
It was a curious little speech, or would have been from anyone but an
Irishman. But I was not thinking of it. I was mesmerised by the sight
before me.
When the two men took their swords they returned them to the seconds.
The swords were then bent to prove the steel, and measured, and then
returned to the principals.
Then the jägers moved together almost shoulder to shoulder, and in the
space between the two lines of torches the duellists took their stand.
There was dead silence for a moment.
I could hear the wind in the pines, and the guttering and slobbering of
the flambeaux, and a fox barking, away somewhere in the forest.
Then came General Hahn's voice, and, instant upon it, the quarrelling of
the rapiers.
The antagonists were perfect swordsmen; the rapiers were now invisible,
now like jets of light as the torchlight shot along them. Over the music
of the steel, the wind in the pine-trees said "Hush!" and the barking of
the fox still came from the far distance.
At first you might have thought these two gentlemen were at play, till
the fury subdued by science broke loose at last, and the rings and
flashes of light and the clash of the steel spoke the language of the
thing and the meaning of it.
It was a duel to the death; and I, looking on, my soul on fire, agony in
my heart, my hands thrust deep in the pockets of my caped overcoat,
counted the bits of biscuit-crumbs in those same pockets, and made tiny
balls from the fluff, and noted with deep and particular attention the
extent of a hole in one of the linings. The interior of my
overcoat-pockets marked itself upon my memory as sharply and insistently
as the scene before me--such a strange thing is mind.
Yet I knew that, if Von Lichtenberg was the conqueror, my father would
die, and I would be left to the mercy of Von Lichtenberg.
Yet, despite all my fears, oh, that heroic moment! The concentrated fury
of the fight beneath the singing pines, lit by the blazing torches!
Then, in a flash, it was over. Von Lichtenberg's sword flew from his
hand; his arms flung out as though he were crucified on the air; and
then, just as though he were a man of wax before a fiery furnace, he
fell together horribly, and became a heap on the ground.
The hammer of Thor could not have felled him more effectually than the
rapier that had passed through his armpit like a ribbon of light.
I ran to my father, and clung to him.
General Hahn, on one knee, was supporting Von Lichtenberg in his arms.
The Baron's face was clay-coloured, his head drooped forward, and his
jaw hung loose.
Hahn, with his knee in the armpit to suppress the terrible bleeding,
called for a knife to rip the sleeve; and as they were doing it the
stricken man came to and yawned.
He yawned just as a man yawns who is deadly tired and half roused from
sleep, and he tossed his arms just in the same way. He seemed to care
about nothing, his weariness was so great.
And then, just as a man speaks who is half roused and wants to drop
asleep again:
"Hahn."
"I am here."
"Ah, yes! I leave the child to your care and Gretel----"
"Yes"
"She is to be brought up just as I have done. Should she love him, the
old tragedy will come again. She must never know love----" Then he
yawned, and yawned, rousing slightly as they cut his sleeve to pieces in
an attempt to reach the wound. He didn't seem to care. He spoke only
once again: "Hahn!"
"I am listening."
The wind in the pine-trees, and the fox in the wood and the slobbering
of the torches filled the silence.
"I am listening."
"He is dead," said Von der Goltz.