THE DECENT SERVITOR
"This grows past all bearing," cried the Prince one morning, when he had
summoned into his hall the Chancellor Dessauer and myself. For, though
the Prince was still wont to command in person in any important action,
and in the general policy of his realm took counsel with none, yet it had
somehow come about that we, the old man and the young, had been
constituted an informal council of two which was liable to be summoned at
any moment, whenever the Prince was weary or troubled.
He struck one clinched hand into the palm of the other before he
spoke again.
"Duke Casimir is either in his dotage, or his riders have gotten out of
hand since Hugo and you drove the young wolf over to help the old. Both
are likely enough, with a people praying for deliverance and yearning for
their Duke's death. A bare board and an empty treasury may render a new
course of plunder necessary abroad, in order to keep his Dukedom from
toppling about his ears at home. After all, 'tis natural enough. But I
had thought that he would have had enough of sense to let the borders of
Plassenburg alone so long as its Prince lived."
"And what, my lord, has befallen?" asked the High Councillor.
"Why," cried the Prince, "the Black Riders of the Wolfmark are out again,
and have left their ancient trail behind them in slain men and frantic
women--and on our borders, too, among our kindly husbandmen, our honest,
sunburnt peasants. Bitterly shall Casimir Ironteeth rue the day that he
meddled with Karl Miller's Son."
"Your Highness," I said, "this is indeed madness. We have but to collect
our forces, choose a time, and, lo! we are within the town of Thorn! Once
there, we would be welcomed by man, woman, and child. We could then
besiege the Wolfsberg, and in three days make an end."
"Aye, that is it," said the Prince, grimly; "you have hit it, Hugo. We
_will_ make an end."
"Also, my Prince," I went on, boldly, "so ye give me leave and approve of
my design, I will go alone to the town of Thorn, and bring you back word
of their power and dispositions. Save the Count von Reuss, there is none
who could now recognize me within the city walls."
"What think ye, Dessauer?" said the Prince, looking over at the High
Chancellor.
"I think well," said he, a little doubtfully; "but would it not be
better that two should go than that one should adventure alone into the
wolf's den ?"
"Surely it were better to keep the matter between our three selves," the
Prince made answer; "not even the Princess must know of our attempt. Keep
a candle flame within the hollow of your palm, and though the wind blow
the sparks will not fly far."
"I will go with the lad, Prince Karl," said the Chancellor, firmly. "In
my youth I had some practice as a leech. I am acquainted with the art of
healing. I could travel either as a doctor of healing, as a travelling
philosopher seeking disputation with the scholars of each country, or,
perhaps best of all, in mine own quality of a doctor of law. And in any
case this young man might with all safety be my pupil or servant,
whichever best liketh him."
"Servant, then," said I, "for the art of disputation I have hitherto
chiefly undertaken with my fists and side-irons. And as to surgery, I am
more practised in the giving of wounds than in the healing of them."
The Prince leaned his head upon his hand. He thought carefully over our
proposal, taking up point after point, resolving difficulty after
difficulty in his mind, as was his wont.
"How long would you be away?" he asked, looking up at us.
"Ten days, Prince," said I. "Give us but ten days and we will return."
"I will give you eight, and if ye are not home again on the eve of the
last, as sure as I am Karl Miller's Son, the army of Plassenburg will be
thundering on the walls of Thorn seeking for a wandering Chancellor and a
lost Hugo Gottfried!"
And so it was arranged. We of the Prince's staff were indeed in great
need of such a mission, for we had heard nothing from Thorn or the
Wolfmark during many months; no tidings, at all events, that could be
relied upon. For the cutting up of our frontiers by new raids, and the
severance of all relations between us and the dwellers in the Wolfmark,
through fear of reprisals, caused us to hear little news but such as was
manifest lies.
As thus: Duke Casimir was collecting a great army, magnificent with
cannon and munitions of war. He was shut up tight in the Wolfsberg, not
daring to show his face to his own citizens. He would appear some fine
day before the Palace of Plassenburg and slay every man of us. He was in
a madman's cell, and Otho von Reuss was Duke of the Mark in his place.
These were only a few of the stories which were brought to regale us
daily. And since there was no certainty anywhere, we were all in the dark
concerning the military matters which it behooved us greatly to be
acquainted with. Therefore I was honestly eager for my master's sake to
undertake the perilous journey. But to tell the whole truth, the fact
that I had not had a word from the Little Playmate, not so much as a line
of script nor a verbal message since her disappearance, made me more
eager to go than the high politics of a dozen provinces.
Since the duel, and the final declaring of my love for Helene, I had seen
but little of the Princess. Indeed, I kept out of her way, so far at
least as I could. And the Lady Ysolinde remained mostly in her own
domains--to which, of late, I had been less and less invited.
Nevertheless, when we met, she was more than kind to me--gentle,
forbearing, pathetic almost in bearing and demeanor, like as a woman
wronged, slighted, misconstrued.
Also there was sent to my quarters a new banner for my following,
broidered and blazoned in yellow and blue, a saddle-cloth of silk for my
horse, fine as a woman's robe, with a crowned Y faint and small in the
corner, lettered in straw-colored gold. No man could help being touched
by such kindly thought, which, after all, is more than mere liberality.
Yet I saw a sight upon her stairs one night which awoke me with a sudden
start to the fact that we had one to reckon with in our journeying to the
city of Thorn whom we had not as yet taken into consideration.
For it chanced that I was passing up to the Prince's apartments by the
quicker way, through corridors and by stairs to which he had given me
private access. And there, upon the steps leading to the Lady Ysolinde's
rooms, I saw the decent servitor of Master Gerard stand waiting. He
stared as hard at me as I did at him. But whereas his smooth, silent,
secret face remained with me, and I knew him at a glance, it was, I
judged, clean impossible that he could know the beardless stripling in
the mustached leader of soldiers, walking well-accustomed and unafraid
through palaces.
The man had a letter in his hand, and I saw him deliver it to a maid who
came to the dividing curtain to take it.
So there was later news from the city of Thorn within the Palace of
Plassenburg than we of the Prince's council of three possessed. Should I
tell our Karl of this encounter? I thought it might be safer not. Because
the Prince was the last man to attempt to obtain aught from his wife by
compulsion, and any question, direct or indirect, might only put her upon
her guard.
If I let him into the secret, the Prince would be most likely to stride
straight into the Princess's rooms with the brusque words: "Gottfried has
seen a letter come to you from your father--what were its contents?"
And that would not suit us at all.
So, rightly or wrongly, I kept the matter from my master, speaking of it
only to Dessauer. And if aught befel from my reticence, it was at least I
myself who bore the burden, and, in the final event, paid the penalty.