ANOTHER MAN'S COAT
I followed the Prince without another word, and when he received the
Princess I had the happiness of taking the Little Playmate by the hand
and conducting her as gallantly as I could into the palace. And I was
glad, for it helped to allay a kind of reproachful feeling in my heart,
which would keep tugging and gnawing there whenever I was not thinking of
anything else. I feared lest, in the throng and press of new experiences,
I might a little have neglected or been in danger of forgetting the love
of the many years and all the sweetness of our solitary companionship.
Nevertheless, I knew well that I loved those sweetest eyes of hers more
than all the words of men and women and priests.
And even as I helped her to dismount, I went over and told her so.
It was just when I held her in my arms for a moment as she dismounted.
She clung to me, and methought I heard a little sob.
"Do not ever be unkind, Hugo," she said. "I am very lonely. I wish, with
all my heart, I were back again in the old Red Tower."
"Unkind--never while I live, little one," I whispered in her ear. "Cheer
your heart, and to-morrow your sorrows will wear off, and you and I both
shall find friendship in the strange land."
"I hate the Princess! And I shall never like her as long as I live!" she
said, with that certain concentrated dislike which only good women feel
towards those a degree less innocent, specially when the latter are well
to look upon.
There was no time to reply immediately as I conducted her up the steps.
For I had to keep my eyes open to observe how the Prince conducted
himself, and in the easy ceremonial of Plassenburg it chanced that I
happened upon nothing extravagant.
"But, Helene, you said a while ago that you hated _me_!" I said, after a
little pause, smiling down at her.
"Did I?" she answered. "Surely nay!"
"Ah, but 'tis true as your eyes," I persisted. "Do you not remember when
I had cut the calf's head off with the axe? You did not love the thought
of the Red Tower so much then!"
"Oh, _that_!" she said, as if the discrepancy had been fully explained by
the inflexion of her voice upon the word.
But she pressed my hand, so I cared not a jot for logic.
"You do not love her, you are sure?" she said, looking up at me when we
came to the darker turn of the stairs, for the corkscrews were narrower
in the ancient castle than in the new palace below.
"Not a bit!" said I, heartily, without any more pretence that I did not
understand what she meant.
She pressed my hand again, momentarily slipping her own down off my
arm to do it.
"It is not that I love you, Hugo, or that I want you to love me," she
said, like one who explains that which is plain already, "except, of
course, as your Little Playmate. But I could not bear that you should
care about that--that woman."
It was evident that there were to be stirring times in the Castle of
Plassenburg, and that I, Hugo Gottfried, was to have my share of them.
As soon as we had arrived at the banqueting-hall, the Prince beckoned me
and presented me formally to the Lady Ysolinde.
"Your Highness, this is Captain Hugo Gottfried, my new
officer-in-waiting."
The Princess bowed gravely and held out her hand. Her aqua-marine eyes
were bent upon me, suffused with a certain quick and evident pleasure
which became them well.
"Your Highness has chosen excellently. I can bear witness that the
Captain Gottfried is a brave--a very brave man," she said.
And at that moment I was most grateful to her for the testimony. For
behind us stood the young Von Reuss, pulling at his mustache and looking
very superciliously over at me.
Then the Lady Ysolinde withdrew to her own apartments, and that day I got
no more words with her nor yet with Helene.
The Prince also went to his room, and I remained where I was, deeming
that for the present my duty was done.
The servant of the man whose coat I wore stood with another servitor
close at hand--indeed, many of all ranks stood about.
"That is the fellow," I heard one say, tauntingly, meaning me to
hear--"peacocking it there in my master's coat!"
His companion laughed contumeliously, at which the passion within me
suddenly stirred. I gave one of them the palm of my hand, and as the
other fell hastily back my foot took him.
"What ho, there! No quarrelling among the lackeys!" cried Von Reuss,
insolently, from the other side of the room.
"Were you, by any chance, speaking to me?" said I, politely, looking
over at him.
"Why, yes, fellow!" he said. "If you squabble with the waiting-men
concerning cast-off clothes, you had better do it in the stables, where,
as you say, your own wardrobe is kept."
"Sir," said I, "the coat I wear, I wear by the command of your Prince. It
shall be immediately returned to you when the Prince permits me to go off
duty. In the mean time, pray take notice that I am Captain Hugo
Gottfried, officer-in-waiting to the Prince Karl of Plassenburg, and that
my sword is wholly at your service."
"You are," retorted Von Reuss, "the son of my uncle Casimir's
Hereditary Executioner, and one day you may be mine. Let that be
sufficient honor for you."
"That I may be yours is the only part of my father's hereditary office I
covet!" said I, pointedly.
And certainly I had him there, for immediately he turned on his heel and
would have walked away.
But this I could not permit. So I strode sharply after him, and seizing
him by his embroidered shoulder-strap, I wheeled him about.
"But, sir," said I, "you have insulted an officer of the Prince. Will you
answer for that with your sword, or must I strike you on the face each
time I meet you to quicken your sense of honor?"
Before he had time to answer the Prince came in.
"What, quarrelling already, young Spitfire!" he cried. "I made you my
orderly--not my disorderly."
Von Reuss and I stood blankly enough, looking away from one another.
"What was the quarrel?" asked the Prince, when he had seated
himself at table.
I looked to Von Reuss to explain. For indeed I was somewhat awed to think
that thus early in my new career I had embroiled myself with the nephew
of Duke Casimir, even though, like myself, he was in exile and dependent
upon, the liberality of Prince Karl.
But, since he did not speak, I made bold to say: "Sire, the Count von
Reuss taunted me with wearing a borrowed coat, and called me a servitor,
because by birth I am the son of the Hereditary Executioner of the
Wolfmark. So I told him I was an officer of your household, and that my
sword was much at his service."
"So you are," cried the Prince--"so you are--a servitor! So is he--young
fools both! And as for being son of the Hereditary Executioner, it is
throughout all our German land an honorable office. Once I was assistant
executioner myself, and wished with all my heart that I had been
principal, and so pocketed the guilders. No more of this folly, Von
Reuss. I am ashamed of you, and to a new-comer! Hear ye, sir, I will not
have it! I will e'en resume my old trade and do a little justicing on my
own account. Shake hands this instant, you young bantams!"
And the Prince sat back in his chair and looked grimly at us. I went a
step forward. But Von Reuss held aloof.
"Provost Marshal!" cried the Prince, in a voice which made every one in
the room jump and all the glasses ring on the table--"bring a guard!"
The Provost Marshal advanced, bowed, and was departing, when Von Reuss
came forward and held his hand out, at first sulkily, but afterwards
readily enough.
Then we shook hands solemnly and stiffly, of course loving each other not
one whit better.
"Ah," said the Prince, "I thought you would! For if you had not, your
uncle, Duke Casimir, might have been a Duke without either an heir to his
Dukedom or a successor to his Hereditary Justicer."
"Now sit down, lads, sit down and agree!" he said, after a pause. "The
ladies come not to table to-night. So now begin and tell me all the
affair of the Earthhouses. I must ride and see the place. I declare I
grow rotten and thewless in this dull Plassenburg, where they dare not
stick so much as a knife in one another, all for fear of Karl Miller's
Son! Since I cannot adventure forth on my own account, I am become a man
that wearies for news. Tell me every part of the affair, concealing
nothing. But if you can, relate even your own share in it as faithfully
as becomes a modest youth."
So I told him at length all that hath already been told, giving as far as
I could the credit to Jorian and Boris, as indeed was only their desert.
Whereupon the tale being finished, the Prince said: "Have the two
archers up!"
And while the pursuivant had gone for them, the old Councillor leaned
across the table and whispered: "Enter Field-Marshal Jorian and
General Boris!"
But when the archers came in and stood like a pair of kitchen pokers, the
Prince ordered them to tell the story.
Jorian turned his head to Boris, and Boris turned his head to Jorian.
They both made a little impatient gesture, which said: "Tell it you!"
But neither appeared to be able to speak first.
"Wind them up with a cup of wine apiece!" cried the hearty Prince;
"surely that will set one of them off."
Two great flagons of wine were handed to Jorian and Boris, and they drank
as if one machine had been propelling their internal workings, throwing
off the liquor with beautiful unanimity and then bringing their cups to
the position of salute as if they had been musketoons at the new French
drill. After which each of them, having finished, gave the little cough
of content and appreciation, which among the archers means manners.
But nevertheless the Prince's information with regard to the affair of
Erdberg was not increased.
"Go on!" he cried, impatiently, looking at Jorian and Boris sternly.
They were still silent.
"This officer, Captain Hugo Gottfried," said the Prince, looking at me,
"tells me that the credit of the preservation of the Princess among the
cave folk is due to you two brave men."
"He lies!" said Wendish Jorian, with a face like a blank wall.
"Good!" muttered Boris, approvingly.
"He did it himself!" said Boris, adding, after a pause--"with an axe!"
"Good!" quoth Jorian.
"He cut a calf's head off!" said Jorian, as a complete explanation of how
the preserving of the Princess was effected.
Whereat all laughed, and the Prince more than any. For ever since he
drank his first draught of wine, he had begun to mellow.
"Well, hearty fellows, what reward would you have for your great
bravery?"
They turned their heads simultaneously inward without moving any other
part of their bodies. They nodded to one another.
"Well," cried the Prince, "what reward do you desire?"
"Now for the Field-Marshal's wand!" said the Councillor near to me, under
his breath.
"Twelve dozen Rhenish!" said Jorian.
The Prince looked at Boris.
"And you?" he said.
"Twelve dozen Rhenish!" said Boris, without moving a muscle.
"God Bacchus!" cried the Prince, "you will empty my cellars between
you, and I shall not have a sober archer for a month. But you shall
have it. Go!"
Jorian and Boris saluted with a wink to each other as they wheeled, which
said, as plain as monk's script or plainer, "Good!"