THE UKRAINE CROSS
Upon the green plain beside the Alla a great multitude was assembled.
They had come together to witness a sight never seen in Courtland
before--the dread punishment of the Ukraine Cross. It was to be done,
they said, upon the body of the handsome youth with whom the Princess
Margaret was secretly in love--some even whispered married to him.
The townsfolk murmured among themselves. This was certainly the
beginning of the end. Who knew what would come next? If the barbarous
Muscovite punishments began in Courtland, it would end in all of them
being made slaves, liable at any moment to knout and plet. Ivan had
bewitched the Prince. That was clear, and for a certainty the Princess
Margaret wept night and day. In this fashion ran the bruit of that which
was to be.
"Torn to pieces by wild horses!" It was a thing often talked about, but
one which none had seen in a civilised country for a thousand years.
Where was it to be done? It was shocking, terrible; but--it would be
worth seeing. So all the city went out, the men with weapons under their
cloaks pressing as near as the soldiers would allow them, while the
women, being more pitiful, stood afar off and wept into their
aprons--only putting aside the corners that they might see clearly and
miss nothing.
At ten a great green square of riverside grass was held by the archers
of Courtland. The people extended as far back as the shrine of the
Virgin, where at the city entrance travellers are wont to give thanks
for a favourable journey. At eleven the lances of Prince Ivan's Cossacks
were seen topping the city wall. On the high bank of the Alla the people
were craning their necks and looking over each other's shoulders.
The wild music of the Cossacks came nearer, each man with the butt of
his lance set upon his thigh, and the pennon of blue and white waving
above. Then a long pitying "A--a--h!" went up from the people. For now
the Sparhawk was in sight, and at the first glimpse of him they swayed
from the Riga Gate to the shrine of John Evangelist, like a willow copse
stricken by a squall from off the Baltic, so that it shows the
under-grey of its leaves.
"The poor lad! So handsome, so young!"
The first soft universal hush of pity broke presently into a myriad
exclamations of anger and deprecation. "How high he holds his head! See!
They have opened his shirt at the neck. Poor Princess, how she must love
him! His hands are tied behind his back. He rides in that jolting cart
as if he were a conqueror in a triumphal procession, instead of a victim
going to his doom."
"Pity, pity that one so young should die such a death! They say she is
to be carried up to the top of the Castle wall that she may see. Ah,
here he comes! He is smiling! God forgive the butchers, who by strength
of brute beasts would tear asunder those comely limbs that are fitted to
be a woman's joy! Down with all false and cruel princes, say I! Nay,
mistress, I will not be silent. And there are many here who will back
me, if I be called in question. Who is the Muscovite, that he should
bring his abominations into Courtland? If I had my way, Prince
Conrad----"
"Hush, hush! Here they come! Side by side, as usual, the devil and his
dupe. Aha! there is no sound of cheering! Let but a man shout, 'Long
live the Prince!' and I will slit his wizzand. I, Henry the
coppersmith, will do it! He shall sleep with pennies on his eyes this
night!"
So through the lane by which the city gate communicated with the
tapestried stand set apart for the greater spectators, the Princes Louis
and Ivan, fool and knave, servant and master, took their way. And they
had scarce passed when the people, mutinous and muttering, surged black
behind the archers' guard.
"Back there--stand back! Way for their Excellencies--way!"
"Stand back yourselves," came the growling answer. "We be free men of
Courtland. You will find we are no Muscovite serfs, and that or the day
be done. Karl Wendelin, think shame--thou that art my sister's son--to
be aiding and abetting such heathen cruelty to a Christen man, all that
you may eat a great man's meat and wear a jerkin purfled with gold."
Such cries and others worse pursued the Princes' train as it went.
"Cossack--Cossack! You are no Courtlanders, you archers! Not a girl in
the city will look at you after this! Butchers' slaughtermen every one?
Whipped hounds that are afraid of ten score Muscovites! Down, dogs,
knock your foreheads on the ground! Here comes a Muscovite!"
* * * * *
Thus angrily ran taunt and jeer, till the Courtland guard, mostly young
fellows with relatives and sweethearts among the crowd, grew well-nigh
frantic with rage and shame. The rabble, which had hung on the Prince of
Muscovy so long as he scattered his largesse, had now wheeled about with
characteristic fickleness.
"See yonder! What are they doing? Peter Altmaar, what are they doing?
Tell us, thou long man! Of what use is your great fathom of pump-water?
Can you do nothing for your meat but reach down black puddings from the
rafters?"
At this all eyes turned to Peter, a lanky overgrown lad with a keen eye,
a weak mouth, and the gift of words.
"Speak up, Peter! Aye, listen to Peter--a good lad, Peter, as ever was!"
"Strong Jan the smith, take him up on your back so that he may see the
better!"
"Hush, there! Stop that woman weeping. We cannot hear for her noise. She
says he is like her son, does she? Well then, there will be time enough
to weep for him afterwards."
"They are bringing up four horses from the Muscovite camp. The folk are
getting as far off as they can from their heels," began Peter Altmaar,
looking under his hand over the people's heads. "Half a score of men are
at each brute's head. How they plunge! They will never stand still a
moment. Ah, they are tethering them to the great posts of stone in the
middle of the green square. Between, there is a table--no, a kind of
square wooden stand like a priest's platform in Lent when he tells us
our sins outside the church."
* * * * *
"The Princes are sitting their horses, watching. Bravo, that was well
done. We came near to seeing the colour of the Muscovite brains that
time. One of the wild horses spread his hoofs on either side of Prince
Ivan's head!"
"God send him a better aim next time! Tell on, Peter! Aye, get on, good
Peter!"
"The Princes have gone up into their balcony. They are laughing and
talking as if it were a raree-show!"
"What of him, good Peter? How takes he all this?"
"What of whom?" queried Peter, who, like all great talkers, was rapidly
growing testy under questioning.
"There is but one 'he' to-day, man. The young lad, the Princess
Margaret's sweetheart."
"They have brought him down from the cart. The Cossacks are close about
him. They have put all the Courtland men far back."
[Illustration: "Maurice was set on high." [_Page 305_]]
"Aye, aye; they dare not trust them. Oh, for an hour of Prince Conrad!
If we of the city trades had but a leader, this shame should not blot
our name throughout all Christendom! What now, Peter?"
"The Muscovites are binding the lad to a wooden frame like the empty
lintels of a door. He stands erect, his hands in the corners above, and
his feet in the corners below. They have stripped him to the waist."
"Hold me higher up, Jan the smith! I would see this out, that you may
tell your children and your children's children. Aye--ah, so it is. It
is true. Sainted Virgin! I can see his body white in the sunshine. It
shines slender as a peeled willow wand."
Then the woman who had wept began again. Her wailing angered the people.
"He is like my son--save him! He is the very make and image of my
Kaspar. Slender as a young willow, supple as an ash, eyes like the
berries of the sloe-thorn. Give me a sword! Give an old woman a sword,
and I will deliver him myself, for my Kaspar's sake. God's grace--Is
there never a man amongst you?"
And as her voice rose into a shriek there ran through all the multitude
the strange shiver of fear with which a great crowd expects a horror. A
hush fell broad and equal as dew out of a clear sky. A mighty silence
lay on all the folk. Peter Altmaar's lips moved, but no sound came from
them. For now Maurice was set on high, so that all could see for
themselves. White against the sky of noon, making the cross of Saint
Andrew within the oblong framework to which he was lashed, they could
discern the slim body of the young man who was about to be torn in
sunder. The executioners held him up thus a minute or two for a
spectacle, and then, their arrangements completed, they lowered that
living crucifix till it lay flat upon its little platform, with the
limbs extended stark and tense towards the heels of the wild plunging
horses of the Ukraine.
Then again the voice of Peter Altmaar was heard, now ringing false like
an untuned fiddle. "They are welding the manacles upon his ankles and
wrists. Listen to the strokes of the hammer."
And in the hush which followed, faintly and musically they could hear
iron ring on iron, like anvil strokes in some village smithy heard in
the hush of a summer's afternoon.
"Blessed Virgin! they are casting loose the horses! A Cossack with a
cruel whip stands by each to lash him to fury! They are slipping the
platform from under him. God in heaven! What is this?"
* * * * *
Hitherto the eyes of the great multitude, which on three sides
surrounded the place of execution, had been turned inward. But now with
one accord they were gazing, not on the terrible preparations which were
coming so near their bloody consummation, but over the green
tree-studded Alla meads towards a group of horsemen who were approaching
at a swift hand-gallop.
Whereupon immediately Peter, the lank giant, was in greater request than
ever.
"What do they look at, good Peter--tell us quickly? Will the horses not
pull? Will the irons not hold? Have the ropes broken? Is it a miracle?
Is it a rescue? Thunder-weather, man! Do not stand and gape. Speak--tell
us what you see, or we will prod you behind with our daggers!"
"Half a dozen riding fast towards the Princes' stand, and holding up
their hands--nay, there are a dozen. The Princes are standing up to
look. The men have stopped casting loose the wild horses. The man on the
frame is lying very still, but the chains from his ankles and arms are
not yet fastened to the traces."
"Go on, Peter! How slow you are, Peter! Stupid Peter!"
"There is a woman among those who ride--no, two of them! They are
getting near the skirts of the crowd. Men are shouting and throwing up
their hands in the air. I cannot tell what for. The soldiers have their
hats on the tops of their pikes. They, too, are shouting!"
As Peter paused the confused noise of a multitude crying out, every man
for himself, was borne across the crowd on the wind. As when a great
stone is cast into a little hill-set tarn, and the wavelet runs round,
swamping the margin's pebbles and swaying the reeds, so there ran a
shiver, and then a mighty tidal wave of excitement through all that ring
which surrounded the crucified man, the deadly platform, and the
tethered horses.
Men shouted sympathetically without knowing why, and the noise they made
was half a suppressed groan, so eager were they to take part in that
which should be done next. They thrust their womenkind behind them,
shouldering their way into the thick of the press that they might see
the more clearly. Instinctively every weaponed man fingered that which
he chanced to carry. Yet none in all that mighty assembly had the least
conception of what was really about to happen.
By this time there was no more need of Peter Altmaar. The ring was
rapidly closing now all about, save upon the meadow side, where a lane
was kept open. Through this living alley came a knight and a lady--the
latter in riding habit and broad velvet cap, the knight with his visor
up, but armed from head to foot, a dozen squires and men-at-arms
following in a compact little cloud; and as they came they were greeted
with the enthusiastic acclaim of all that mighty concourse.
About them eddied the people, overflowing and sweeping away the
Cossacks, carrying the Courtland archers with them in a mad frenzy of
fraternisation. In the stand above Prince Louis could be seen shrilling
commands, yet dumb show was all he could achieve, so universal the
clamour beneath him. But the Princess Margaret heard the shouting and
her heart leaped.
"Prince Conrad--our own Prince Conrad, he has come back, our true
Prince? We knew he was no priest! Courtland for ever! Down with Louis
of the craven heart! Down with the Muscovite! The young man shall not
die! The Princess shall have her sweetheart!"
And as soon as the cavalcade had come within the square the living wave
broke black over all. The riders could not dismount, so thick the press.
The halters of the wild horses were cut, and right speedily they made a
way for themselves, the people falling back and closing again so soon as
they had passed out across the plain with necks arched to their knees
and a wild flourish of unanimous hoofs.
Then the cries began again. Swords and bare fists were shaken at the
grand stand, where, white as death, Prince Louis still kept his place.
"Prince Conrad and the Lady Joan!"
"Kill the Muscovite, the torturer!"
"Death to Prince Louis, the traitor and coward!"
"We will save the lad alive!"
About the centre platform whereon the living cross was extended the
crush grew first oppressive and then dangerous.
"Back there--you are killing him! Back, I say!"
Then strong men took staves and halberts out of the hands of dazed
soldiermen, and by force of brawny arms and sharp pricking steel pressed
the people back breast high. The smiths who had riveted the wristlets
and ankle-rings were already busy with their files. The lashings were
cast loose from the frames. A hundred palms chafed the white swollen
limbs. A burgher back in the crowd slipped his cloak. It was passed
overhead on a thousand eager hands and thrown across the young man's
body.
At last all was done, and dazed and blinded, but unshaken in his soul,
Maurice von Lynar stood totteringly upon his feet.
"Lift him up! Lift him up! Let us see him! If he be dead, we will slay
Prince Louis and crucify the Muscovite in his place!"
"Bah!" another would cry, "Louis is no longer ruler! Conrad is the true
Prince!"
"Down with the Russ, the Cossack! Where are they? Pursue them! Kill
them!"
* * * * *
So ran the fierce shouts, and as the rescuers raised the Sparhawk high
on their plaited hands that all men might see, on the far skirts of the
crowd Ivan of Muscovy, with a bitter smile on his face, gathered
together his scattered horsemen. One by one they had struggled out of
the press while all men's eyes were fixed upon the vivid centrepiece of
that mighty whirlpool.
"Set Prince Louis in your midst and ride for your lives!" he cried. "To
the frontier, where bides the army of the Czar!"
With a flash of pennons and a tossing of horses' heads they obeyed, but
Prince Ivan himself paused upon the top of a little swelling rise and
looked back towards the Alla bank.
The delivered prisoner was being held high upon men's arms. The
burgher's cloak was wrapped about him like a royal robe.
Prince Ivan gnashed his teeth in impotent anger.
"It is your day. Make the most of it," he muttered. "In three weeks I
will come back! And then, by Michael the Archangel, I will crucify one
of you at every street corner and cross-road through all the land of
Courtland! And that which I would have done to my lady's lover shall not
be named beside that which I shall yet do to those who rescued him!"
And he turned and rode after his men, in the midst of whom was Prince
Louis, his head twisted in fear and apprehension over his shoulder, and
his slack hands scarce able to hold the reins.
After this manner was the Sparhawk brought out from the jaws of death,
and thus came Joan of the Sword Hand the second time to Courtland.
But the end was not yet.