THERESA'S TREACHERY
That night the whole city of Courtland cowered in fear before its
triumphant enemy. At the nearest posts the Muscovites were in great
strength, and the sight of their burnings fretted the souls of the
citizens on guard. Some came near enough to cry insults up to the
defenders.
"You would not have your own true Prince. Now ye shall have ours. We
will see how you like the exchange!"
This was the cry of some renegade Courtlander, or of a Muscovite learned
(as ofttimes they are) in the speech of the West.
But within the walls and at the gates the men of Kernsberg and
Hohenstein rubbed their hands and nudged each other.
"Brisk lads," one said, "let us make our wills and send them by pigeon
post. I am leaving Gretchen my Book of Prayers, my Lives of the Saints,
my rosary, and my belt pounced with golden eye-holes----"
"Methinks that last will do thy Gretchen most service," said his
companion, "since the others have gone to the vintner's long ago!"
* * * * *
"Thou art the greater knave to say so," retorted his companion; "and if
by God's grace we come safe out of this I will break thy head for thy
roguery!"
The Muscovites had dragged the captured cannon in front of the
Plassenburg Gate, and now they fired occasionally, mostly great balls
of quarried stone, but afterward, as the day wore later, any piece of
metal or rock they could find. And the crash of wooden galleries and
stone machicolations followed, together with the scuttling of the
Courtland levies from the post of danger. A few of the younger citizens,
indeed, were staunch, but for the most part the Plassenburgers and
Kernsbergers were left to bite their lips and confide to each other what
their Prince Hugo or their Joan of the Hand Sword would have done to
bring such cowards to reason and right discipline.
"An it were not for our own borders and that brave priest-prince, no
shaveling he," they said, "faith, such curs were best left to the
Muscovite. The plet and the knout were made for such as they!"
"Not so," said he who had maligned Gretchen; "the Courtlanders are
yea-for-soothing knaves, truly; but they are Germans, and need only to
know they must, to be brave enough. One or two of our Karl's hostelries,
with thirteen lodgings on either side, every guest upright and a-swing
by the neck--these would make of the Courtlanders as good soldiers as
thyself, Hans Finck!"
But at that moment came Captain Boris by and rebuked them sharply for
the loudness of their speech. It was approaching ten of the clock. Boris
and Jorian had already visited all the posts, and were now ready to make
their venture with Theresa von Lynar.
"No fools like old fools!" grumbled Jorian sententiously, as he buckled
on his carinated breastplate, that could shed aside bolts, quarrels, and
even bullets from powder guns as the prow of a vessel sheds the waves to
either side in a good northerly wind.
"'Tis you should know," retorted Boris, "being both old and a fool."
"A man is known by the company he keeps!" answered Jorian, adjusting the
lining of his steel cap, which was somewhat in disarray after the battle
of the morning.
"Ah!" sighed his companion. "I would that I had the choosing of the
company I am to keep this night!"
"And I!" assented Jorian, looking solemn for once as he thought of
pretty Martha Pappenheim.
"Well, we do it from a good motive," said Boris; "that is one comfort.
And if we lose our lives, Prince Conrad will order many masses (they
will need to be very many) for your soul's peace and good quittance from
purgatory!"
"Humph!" said Jorian, as if he did not see much comfort in that, "I
would rather have a box on the ear from Martha Pappenheim than all the
matins of all the priests that ever sung laud!"
"Canst have that and welcome--if her sister will do as well!" cried
Anna, as the two men went out into the long passage. And she suited the
deed to the word.
"Oh! I have hurt my hand against that hard helmet. It serves me right
for listening! Marthe!"--she looked about for her sister before turning
to the soldiers--"see, I have hurt my hand," she added.
Then she made the tears well up in her eyes by an art of the tongue in
the throat she had.
"Kiss it well, Marthe!" she said, looking up at her sister as she came
along the passage swinging a lantern as carelessly as if there were not
a Muscovite in the world.
But Boris forestalled the newcomer and caught up the small white hand in
the soft leathern grip of his palm where the ring-mail stopped.
"_I_ will do that better than any sister!" he said.
"That, indeed, you cannot; for only the kiss of love can make a hurt
better!"
Anna glanced up at him with wet eyes, a little maid full of innocence
and simplicity. Most certainly she was all unconscious of the danger in
which she was putting herself.
"Well, then, I love you!" said Boris, who did his wooing plainly.
And did not kiss her hand.
Meanwhile the others had wandered to the end of the passage and now
stood at the turnpike staircase, the light of Martha Pappenheim's
lantern making a dim haze of light about them.
Anna looked at Boris as often as she could.
"You really love me?" she questioned. "No, you cannot; you have known me
too brief a time. Besides, this is no time to speak of love, with the
enemy at the gates!"
"Tush!" said Boris, with the roughness which Anna had looked for in vain
among all the youth of Courtland. "I tell you, girl, it is the time. You
and I are no Courtlanders, God be thanked! In a little while I shall
ride back to Plassenburg, which is a place where men live. I shall not
go alone. You, little Anna, shall come, too!"
"You are not deceiving me?" she murmured, looking up upon occasion.
"There is none at Plassenburg whom you love at all?"
"I have never loved any woman but you!" said Boris, settling his
conscience by adding mentally, "though I may have thought I did when I
told them so."
"Nor I any man!" said Anna, softly meditative, making, however, a
similar addition.
Thus Greek met Greek, and both were very happy in the belief that their
own was the only mental reservation.
"But you are going out?" pouted Anna, after a while. "Why cannot you
stay in the Castle to-night?"
"To-night of all nights it is impossible," said Boris. "We must make the
rounds and see that the gates are guarded. The safety of the city is in
our hands."
"You are sure that you will not run into any danger!" said Anna
anxiously. She remembered a certain precariousness of tenure among some
of her previous--mental reservations. There was Fritz Wünch, who had
laughed at the red beard of a Prussian baron; Wilhelm of Bautzen, who
went once too often on a foray with his uncle, Fighting Max of
Castelnau----
For answer the staunch war-captain kissed her, and the girl clung to her
lover, this time in real tears. Martha's candle had gone out, and the
two had perforce to go down the stair in the dark. They reached the foot
at last.
"None of them were quite like him," she owned that night to her sister.
"He takes you up as if he would break you in his arms. And he could,
too. It is good to feel!"
"Jorian also is just like that--so satisfactory!" answered Martha. Which
shows the use Jorian must have made of his time at the stairhead, and
why Martha Pappenheim's light went out.
"He swears he has never loved any woman before."
"Jorian does just the same."
"I suppose we must never tell them----"
"Marthe--if you should dare, I will---- Besides, you were just as bad!"
"Anna, as if I would dream of such a thing!"
And the two innocents fell into each other's arms and embraced after the
manner of women, each in her own heart thinking how much she preferred
"the way of a man with a maid"--at least that form of it cultivated by
stout war-captains of Plassenburg.
Without, Boris and Jorian trampled along through a furious gusting of
Baltic rain, which came in driving sheets from the north and splashed
its thumb-board drops equally upon the red roofs of Courtland, the
tented Muscovites drinking victory, and upon the dead men lying afield.
Worse still, it fell on many wounded, and to such even the thrust of the
thievish camp-follower's tolle-knife was merciful. Never could monks
more fitly have chanted, "Blessed are the dead!" than concerning those
who lay stiff and unconscious on the field where they had fought, to
whose ears the Alla sang in vain.
Attired in her cloak of blue, with the hood pulled low over her face,
Theresa von Lynar was waiting for Boris and Jorian at the door of the
market-hospital.
"I thank you for your fidelity," she said quickly. "I have sore need of
you. I put a great secret into your hands. I could not ask one of the
followers of Prince Conrad, nor yet a soldier of the Duchess Joan, lest
when that is done which shall be done to-night the Prince or the Duchess
should be held blameworthy, having most to gain or lose thereto. But you
are of Plassenburg and will bear me witness!"
Boris and Jorian silently signified their obedience and readiness to
serve her. Then she gave them their instructions.
"You will conduct me past the city guards, out through the gates, and
take me towards the camp of the Prince of Muscovy. There you will leave
me, and I shall be met by one who in like manner will lead me through
the enemy's posts."
"And when will you return, my Lady Theresa? We shall wait for you!"
"Thank you, gentlemen. You need not wait. I shall not return!"
"Not return?" cried Jorian and Boris together, greatly astonished.
"No," said Theresa very slowly and quietly, her eyes set on the
darkness. "Hear ye, Captains of Plassenburg--I will give you my mind.
You are trusty men, and can, as I have proved, hold your own counsel."
Boris and Jorian nodded. There was no difficulty about that.
"Good!" they said together as of old.
As they grew older it became more and more easy to be silent. Silence
had always been easier to them than speech, and the habit clave to them
even when they were in love.
"Listen, then," Theresa went on. "You know, and I know, that unless
quick succour come, the city is doomed. You are men and soldiers, and
whether ye make an end amid the din of battle, or escape for this time,
is a matter wherewith ye do not trouble your minds till the time comes.
But for me, be it known to you that I am the widow of Henry the Lion of
Kernsberg. My son Maurice is the true heir to the Dukedom. Yet, being
bound by an oath sworn to the man who made me his wife, I have never
claimed the throne for him. But now Joan his sister knows, and out of
her great heart she swears that she will give up the Duchy to him. If,
therefore, the city is taken, the Muscovite will slay my son, slay him
by their hellish tortures, as they have sworn to do for the despite he
put upon Prince Ivan. And his wife, the Princess Margaret, will die of
grief when they carry her to Moscow to make a bride out of a widow. Joan
will be a prisoner, Conrad either dead or a priest, and Kernsberg, the
heritage of Henry the Lion, a fief of the Czar. There is no help in any.
Your Prince would succour, but it takes time to raise the country, and
long ere he can cross the frontier the Russian will have worked his will
in Courtland. Now I see a way--a woman's way. And if I fall in the doing
of it, well--I but go to meet him for the sake of whose children I
freely give my life. In this bear me witness."
"Madam," said Boris, gravely, "we are but plain soldiers. We pretend not
to understand the great matters of State of which you speak. But rest
assured that we will serve you with our lives, bear true witness, and in
all things obey your word implicitly."
Without difficulty they passed through the streets and warded gates.
Werner von Orseln, indeed, tramping the inner rounds, cried "Whither
away?" Then, seeing the lady cloaked between them, he added after his
manner, "By my faith, you Plassenburgers beat the world. Hang me to a
gooseberry bush if I do not tell Anna Pappenheim of it ere to-morrow's
sunset. As I know, she will forgive inconstancy only in herself!"
They plunged into the darkness of the outer night. As soon as they were
beyond the gates the wind drave past them hissing level. The black trees
roared overhead. At first in the swirl of the storm the three could see
nothing; but gradually the watchfires of the Muscovite came out
thicksown like stars along the rising grounds on both sides of the Alla.
Boris strode on ahead, peering anxiously into the night, and a little
behind Jorian gave Theresa his hand over the rough and uneven ground. A
pair of ranging stragglers, vultures that accompany the advance of all
great armies, came near and examined the party, but retreated promptly
as they caught the glint of the firelight upon the armour of the
war-captains. Presently they began to descend into the valley, the
iron-shod feet of the men clinking upon the stones. Theresa walked
silently, steeped in thought, laying a hand on arm or shoulder as she
had occasion. Suddenly tall Boris stopped dead and with a sweep of his
arm halted the others.
"There!" he whispered, pointing upward.
And against the glow thrown from behind a ridge they could see a pair of
Cossacks riding to and fro ceaselessly, dark against the ruddy sky.
"Gott, would that I had my arbalist! I could put gimlet holes in these
knaves!" whispered Jorian over Boris's shoulder.
"Hush!" muttered Boris; "it is lucky for Martha Pappenheim that you left
it at home!"
"Captains Boris and Jorian," Theresa was speaking with quietness,
raising her voice just enough to make herself heard over the roar of the
wind overhead, for the nook in which they presently found themselves was
sheltered, "I bid you adieu--it may be farewell. You have done nobly and
like two valiant captains who were fit to war with Henry the Lion. I
thank you. You will bear me faithful witness in the things of which I
have spoken to you. Take this ring from me, not in recompense, but in
memory. It is a bauble worth any lady's acceptance. And you this
dagger." She took two from within her mantle, and gave one to Jorian.
"It is good steel and will not fail you. The fellow of it I will keep!"
She motioned them backward with her hand.
"Abide there among the bushes till you see a man come out to meet me.
Then depart, and till you have good reason keep the last secret of
Theresa, wife of Henry the Lion, Duke of Kernsberg and Hohenstein!"
Boris and Jorian bowed themselves as low as the straitness of their
armour would permit.
"We thank you, madam," they said; "as you have commanded, so will we
do!"
And as they had been bidden they withdrew into a clump of willow and
alder whose leaves clashed together and snapped like whips in the wind.
"Yonder woman is braver than you or I, Jorian," said Boris, as crouching
they watched her climb the ridge. "Which of us would do as much for any
on the earth?"
"After all, it is for her son. If you had children, who can say----?"
"Whether I may have children or no concerns you not," returned Boris,
who seemed unaccountably ruffled. "I only know that I would not throw
away my life for a baker's dozen of them!"
Upon the skyline Theresa von Lynar stood a moment looking backward to
make sure that her late escort was hidden. Then she took a whistle from
her gown and blew upon it shrilly in a lull of the storm. At the sound
the war-captains could see the Cossacks drop their lances and pause in
their unwearying ride. They appeared to listen eagerly, and upon the
whistle being repeated one of them threw up a hand. Then between them
and on foot the watchers saw another man stand, a dark shadow against
the watchfires. The sentinels leaned down to speak with him, and then,
lifting their lances, they permitted him to pass between them. He was a
tall man, clad in a long caftan which flapped about his feet, a
sheepskin posteen or winter jacket, and a round cap of fur, high-crowned
and flat-topped, upon his head.
He came straight towards Theresa as if he expected a visitor.
The two men in hiding saw him take her hand as a host might that of an
honoured guest, kiss it reverently, and then lead her up the little hill
to where the sentinels waited motionless on their horses. So soon as the
pair had passed within the lines, their figures and the Cossack salute
momentarily silhouetted against the watchfires, the twin horsemen
resumed their monotonous ride.
By this time Jorian's head was above the bushes and his eyes stood well
nigh out of his head.
"Down, fool!" growled Boris, taking him by the legs and pulling him
flat; "the Cossacks will see you!"
"Boris," gasped Jorian, who had descended so rapidly that the fall and
the weight of his plate had driven the wind out of him, "I know that
fellow. I have seen him before. It is Prince Wasp's physician, Alexis
the Deacon. I remember him in Courtland when first we came thither!"
"Well, and what of that?" grunted Boris, staring at the little detached
tongues of willow-leaf flame which were blown upward from the Muscovite
watchfires.
"What of that, man?" retorted Boris. "Why, only this. We have been
duped. She was a traitress, after all. This has been planned a long
while."
"Traitress or saint, it is none of our business," said Boris grimly. "We
had better get ourselves within the walls of Courtland, and say nothing
to any of this night's work!"
"At any rate," added the long man as an afterthought, "I have the ring.
It will be a rare gift for Anna."
Jorian looked ruefully at his dagger, holding it between the rustling
alder leaves, so as to catch the light from the watchfires. The red glow
fell on a jewel in the hilt.
"'Tis a pretty toy enough, but how can I give that to Marthe? It is not
a fit keepsake for a lady!"
"Well," said Boris, suddenly appeased, "I will swop you for it. I am not
so sure that my pretty spitfire would not rather have it than any ring I
could give her. Shall we exchange?"
"But we promised to keep them as souvenirs?" urged Jorian, whose
conscience smote him slightly. "One does not tell lies to a lady--at
least where one can help it."
"It depends upon the lady!" said Boris practically. "You can tell your
Marthe the truth. I will please myself with Anna. Hand over the dagger."
So wholly devoid of sentiment are war-captains when they deal with
keepsakes.