THE BROKEN BOND
Above, in the dusky light of the upper hall, Conrad and Joan stood
holding each other's hands. It was the first time they had been alone
together since the day on which they had walked along the sand-dunes of
Rugen.
Since then they seemed to have grown inexplicably closer together. To
Joan, Conrad now seemed much more her own--the man who loved her, whom
she loved--than he had been on the Island. To watch day by day for his
passing in martial attire brought back the knight of the tournament
whose white plume she had seen storm through the lists on the day when,
a slim secretary, she had stood with beating heart and shining eyes
behind the chair of Leopold von Dessauer, Ambassador of Plassenburg.
For almost five minutes they stood thus without speech; then Joan drew
away her hands.
"You forget," she said smiling, "that was forbidden in the bond."
"My lady," he said, "was not the bond for Isle Rugen alone? Here we are
comrades in the strife. We must save our fatherland. I have laid aside
my priesthood. If I live, I shall appeal to the Holy Father to loose me
wholly from my vows."
Smilingly she put his eager argument by.
"It was of another vow I spoke. I am not the Holy Father, and for this I
will not give you absolution. We are comrades, it is true--that and no
more! To-morrow I ride to Kernsberg, where I will muster every man,
call down the shepherds from the hills, and be back with you by the Alla
before the Muscovite can attack you. I, Joan of the Sword Hand, promise
it!"
She stamped her foot, half in earnest and half in mockery of the
sonorous name by which she was known.
"I would rather you were Joan of the Grange at Isle Rugen, and I your
jerkined servitor, cleaving the wood that you might bake the bread."
"Conrad," said Joan, shaking her head wistfully, "such thoughts are not
wise for you and me to harbour. I may indeed be no duchess and you no
prince, but we must stand to our dignities now when the enemy threatens
and the people need us. Afterwards, an it like us, we may step down
together. But, indeed, I need not to argue, for I think better of you,
my comrade, than to suppose you would ever imagine anything else."
"Joan," said Conrad very gravely, "do not fear for me. I have turned
once for all from a career I never chose. Death alone shall turn me back
this time."
"I know it," she answered; "I never doubted it. But what shall we do
with this poor lovesick bride of ours?"
And she told him of her interview that morning with his sister. Conrad
laughed gently, yet with sympathy; Margaret had always been his "little
girl," and her very petulances were dear to him.
"It had been well if she would have consented to remain here," he said;
"and yet I do not know. She is not built for rough weather, our
Gretchen. We are near the enemy, and many things may happen. Our
soldiers are mostly levies in Courtland, and the land has been long at
peace. The burghers and country folk are willing enough, but--well,
perhaps she will be better with you."
"She swears she will not go without her husband," said Joan. "Yet he
ought to remain with you. I do not need him; Werner will be enough."
"Leave me Von Orseln, and do you take the young man," said Conrad;
"then Margaret will go with you willingly and gladly."
"But she will want to return--that is, if Maurice comes, too."
"Isle Rugen?" suggested Conrad, smilingly. "Send your ten men who know
the road. If they could carry off Joan of the Sword Hand, they should
have no difficulty with little Margaret of Courtland."
Joan clapped her hands with pleasure and relief, all unconscious that
immediately behind her Margaret had entered softly and now stood
arrested by the sound of her own name.
"Oh, they will have no trouble, will they not?" she said in her own
heart, and smiled. "Isle Rugen? Thank you, my very dear brother and
sister. You would get rid of me, separate me from Maurice while he is
fighting for your precious princedoms. What is a country in comparison
with a husband? I would not care a doit which country I belonged to, so
long as I had Maurice with me!"
A moment or two Conrad and Joan discussed the details of the capture,
while more softly than before Margaret retired to the door. She would
have slipped out altogether but that something happened just then which
froze her to the spot.
A trumpet blew without--once, twice, and thrice, in short and stirring
blasts. Hardly had the echoes died away when she heard her brother say,
"Adieu, best-beloved! It is the signal that tells me that Prince Ivan is
within a day's march of Courtland. I bid you goodbye, and if--if we
should never meet again, do not forget that I loved you--loved you as
none else could love!"
He held out his hand. Joan stood rooted to the spot, her lips moving,
but no words coming forth. Then Margaret heard a hoarse cry break from
her who had contemned love.
"I cannot let you go thus!" she cried. "I cannot keep the vow! It is too
hard for me! Conrad!--I am but a weak woman after all!"
And in a moment the Princess Margaret saw Joan the cold, Joan of the
Sword Hand, Joan Duchess of Kernsberg and Hohenstein, in the arms of her
brother.
Whereupon, not being of set purpose an eavesdropper, Margaret went out
and shut the door softly. The lovers had neither heard her come nor go.
And the wife of Maurice von Lynar was smiling very sweetly as she went,
but in her eyes lurked mischief.
Conrad descended the stair from the apartments of the Duchess Joan,
divided between the certainty that his lips had tasted the unutterable
joy and the fear lest his soul had sinned the unpardonable sin.
A moment Joan steadied herself by the window, with her hand to her
breast as if to still the flying pulses of her heart. She took a step
forward that she might look once more upon him ere he went. But,
changing her purpose in the very act, she turned about and found herself
face to face with the Princess Margaret, who was still smiling subtly.
"You have granted my request?" she said softly.
Joan commanded herself with difficulty.
"What request?" she asked, for she indeed had forgotten.
"That Maurice and I should first go with you to Kernsberg and afterwards
to Plassenburg."
"Let me think--let me think--give me time!" said Joan, sinking into a
chair and looking straight before her. The world was suddenly filled
with whirling vapour and her brain turned with it.
"I am in the midst of troubles. I know not what to do!" she murmured.
"Ah, it was quieter at Isle Rugen, was it not?" suggested Margaret, who
had not forgiven the project of kidnapping her and carrying her off from
her husband.
But Joan was thinking too deeply to answer or even to notice any taunt.
"I cannot go," she murmured, thinking aloud. "I cannot ride to Kernsberg
and leave him in the front of danger!"
"A woman's place is at home!" said Margaret in a low tone, maliciously
quoting Joan's words.
"He must not fight this battle alone. Perhaps I shall never see him
again!"
"A man must not be hampered by affection in the hour of danger!"
At this point Joan looked down upon Margaret as she might have done at a
puppy that worried a stick to attract her attention.
"Do you know," she said, "that Prince Ivan and his Muscovites are within
a day's march of Courtland, and that Prince Conrad has already gone
forth to meet them?"
"What!" cried Margaret, "within a day's march of the city? I must go and
find my husband."
"Wait!" said Joan. "I see my way. Your husband shall come hither."
She went to the door and clapped her hands. An attendant appeared, one
of the faithful Kernsberg ten to whom so much had been committed upon
the Isle Rugen.
"Send hither instantly Werner von Orseln, Alt Pikker, and the Count von
Löen!"
She waited with the latch of the door in her hand till she heard their
footsteps upon the stair. They entered together and saluted. Margaret
moved instinctively nearer to her husband. Indeed, only the feeling that
the moment was a critical one kept her from running at once to him. As
for Maurice, he had not yet grown ashamed of his wife's open
manifestations of affection.
"Gentlemen," said Joan, "the enemy is at the gate of the city. We shall
need every man. Who will ride to Kernsberg and bring back succour?"
"Alt Pikker will go!" said Maurice instantly; "he is in charge of the
levies!"
"The Count von Löen is young. He will ride fastest!" said the chief
captain.
"Werner von Orseln, of course!" said Alt Pikker, "he is in chief
command."
"What? You do not wish to go?" said Joan a little haughtily, looking
from one to the other of them. It was Werner von Orseln who answered.
"Your Highness," he said respectfully, "if the enemy be so near, and a
battle imminent, the man is no soldier who would willingly be absent.
But we are your servants. Choose you one to go; or, if it seem good to
you, more than one. Bid us go, and on our heads it shall be to escort
you safely to Kernsberg and bring back reinforcements."
The Princess came closer to Joan and slipped a hand into hers. The witty
wrinkle at the corner of Werner von Orseln's mouth twitched.
"Von Lynar shall go!" said Joan.
Whereat Maurice held down his head, Margaret clapped her hands, and the
other two stood stolidly awaiting instructions, as became their
position.
"At what hour shall I depart, my lady?" said Maurice.
"Now! So soon as you can get the horses ready?"
"But your Grace must have time to make her preparations!"
"I am not going to Kernsberg. I stay here!" said Joan, stating a fact.
Werner von Orseln was just going out of the door, jubilantly confiding
to Alt Pikker that as soon as he saw the Princess put her hand in their
lady's he knew they were safe. At the sound of Joan's words he was
startled into crying out loudly, "What?" At the same time he faced about
with the frown on his face which he wore when he corrected an
irregularity in the ranks.
"I am not going to Kernsberg. I bide here!" Joan repeated calmly. "Have
you anything to say to that, Chief Captain von Orseln?"
"But, my lady----"
"There are no buts in the matter. Go to your quarters and see that the
arms and armour are all in good case!"
"Madam, the arms and armour are always in good case," said Werner, with
dignity; "but go to Kernsberg you must. The enemy is near to the city,
and your Highness might fall into their hands."
"You have heard what I have said!" Joan tapped the oaken floor with her
foot.
"But, madam, let me beseech you----"
Joan turned from her chief captain impatiently and walked towards the
door of her private apartments. Werner followed his mistress, with his
hands a little outstretched and a look of eager entreaty on his face.
"My lady," he said, "thirty years I was the faithful servant of your
father--ten I have served you. By the memory of those years, if ever I
have served you faithfully--"
"My father taught you but little, if after thirty years you have not
learned to obey. Go to your post!"
Werner von Orseln drew himself up and saluted. Then he wheeled about and
clanked out without adding a word more.
"Faith," he confided to Alt Pikker, "the wench is her father all over
again. If I had gone a step further, I swear she would have beat me with
the flat of my own sword. I saw her eye full on the hilt of it."
"Faith, I too, wished that I had been better helmeted!" chuckled Alt
Pikker.
"Well," said Werner, like one who makes the best of ill fortune, "we
must keep the closer to her, you and I, that in the stress of battle she
come not to a mischief. Yet I confess that I am not deeply sorry. I
began to fear that Isle Rugen had sapped our lass's spirit. To my mind,
she seemed somewhat over content to abide there."
"Ah," nodded Alt Pikker, "that is because, after all, our Joan is a
woman. No one can know the secret of a woman's heart."
"And those who think they know most, know the least!" concurred the much
experienced Werner.
* * * * *
For a moment, after the door closed upon the men, Joan and Margaret
stood in silence regarding each other.
"I must go and make me ready," said Margaret, speaking like one who is
thinking deeply. Joan stood still, conscious that something was about to
happen, uncertain what it might be.
"I shall see you before I depart," Margaret was saying, with her hand on
the latch.
Suddenly she dropped the handle of the door and ran impulsively to Joan,
clasping her about the neck.
"_I know!_" she said, looking up into her face.
With a great leap the blood flew to Joan's neck and brow, then as slowly
faded away, leaving her paler than before.
"What do you know?" she faltered; and she feared, yet desired, to hear.
"That you love him!" said Margaret very low. "I came in--I could not
help it--I did not know--when Conrad was bidding you goodbye. Joan, I am
so glad--so glad! Now you will understand; now you will not think me
foolish any more!"
"Margaret, I am shamed for ever--it is sin!" whispered Joan, with her
arms about her friend.
"It is love!" said the wife of Maurice von Lynar, with glowing eyes and
pride in her voice.
"I hope I shall die in battle----"
"Joan!"
"I a wife, and love a priest--the brother of the man who is my husband!
I pray God that He will take my life to atone for the sin of loving him.
Yet He knows that I could neither help it nor yet hinder."
"Joan, you will yet be happy."
The Duchess shook her head.
"It were best for us both that I should die--that is what I pray for."
"May Heaven avert this thing--you know not what you say. And yet,"
Margaret continued in a more meditative tone, "I am not sure. If he were
there with you, death itself would not be so hard; at all events, it
were better than living without each other."
And the two women went into the attiring-room with arms still locked
about each other's waists. And as often as their eyes encountered they
lingered a little, as if tasting the sweet new knowledge which they had
in common. Then those of Joan of the Sword Hand were averted and she
blushed.