HELENA, PRINCESS OF PLASSENBURG
There was, however, deadly work yet before the men of Plassenburg. We
found, indeed, that the townsfolk were with us almost to a man. Their
guild train-bands gathered and mustered at their halls. The guards at the
city gates fraternally turned their arms to the ground.
"The Prince will restore your ancient liberties!" I cried. And the people
shouted. "Prince Karl of Plassenburg and our ancient liberties!"
Then we made our way up the street by different routes to the Wolfsberg.
There was little fighting till we arrived under those vast and gloomy
walls. The Black Riders had disappeared within. Those worst tools of grim
tyranny had early withdrawn themselves, knowing that small mercy would be
shown them by the people if once the Wolfsberg were taken. But the common
soldiers of the fighting rank, sons and brothers of the women of Thorn,
tore off the badge of the bloody Dukes and with loud shouts marched with
us as comrades.
But when we came before the walls, and with sound of trumpet and loud
shouts summoned the Wolfsberg to surrender, a discharge of musketry from
the walls, and the determined faces of a multitude of defenders showed us
conclusively that all was not yet over.
It was no use wasting men in attacking the great pile of buildings
with the force at our disposal. We had men in plenty, but for
breeching we needed the cannon left behind by these swift forces,
which, marching day and night, had arrived in the very nick of time
before the walls of Thorn.
Nevertheless, it was not the fate of the Wolfsberg to be taken by Lazy
Peg and her compeers.
These ponderous pieces of ordnance were presently being dragged through
the swamps and over the brick-dust barrens of the borderlands, and it
might be three or four days before they could arrive to aid us. There was
nothing, therefore, to do but to sit down and wait, drawing a cincture
that not a mouse could creep through about the cliffs of the Wolfsberg.
But deep within the heart of the old Red Tower there was one stronger
than Lazy Peg fighting for us.
"Fire! Fire!" cried the people in the streets. "The Wolfsberg is on
fire!" And so, surely, it was. The flames burst out from the windows
of the Red Tower and were rapidly carried by a dry fanning northerly
wind along the wooden workshops and kennels to the main building,
where the Hall of Judgment was soon blazing like a torch. The
defenders seemed paralyzed by this misadventure. Some ran to the
castle well. Some threw themselves desperately from the walls, others
crowded to the gates, and through the bars besought our Prince's
pledge that mercy would be shown them.
Then the crowd without were ill to deal with, for they cried aloud, "No
mercy to the murderers! Show us our Saint Helena!"
Then it was that I leaped once more upon the scaffold, which had seen
such a sight the day before, and cried, "Duke Otho is dead! I, Hugo
Gottfried, slew him with this Red Axe. Prince Karl is come to save you,
and to give you back your ancient liberties. Your Saint Helena is my
wife, and is safe under the protection of Bishop Peter."
But though they cheered at my words they would not cease from crying,
"Show us Saint Helena, and if she bid us we will have mercy on the wolves
of the Wolfsberg!"
So it was necessary for Helene to be brought and to show herself to them,
for the sake of the poor souls sore driven and in jeopardy 'twixt the
fire and the knives.
"Have mercy on the poor folk!" she cried, when they had done shouting
because of her safety. "At worst, they are but misguided, ignorant men!"
By this time the doors of the Wolfsberg were thrown open from within, and
the men crowded out, casting down their arms in heaps on either side the
gate. They were then marched, under charge of the soldiers of
Plassenburg, to various strongholds which were pointed out by the
Burgomeister and the chiefs of the guilds. The fortified halls of the
trades were filled with them. By daybreak the whole of Thorn was in our
hands, while the gray barrens of the Wolfmark were lit for leagues by the
flaming Wolfsberg, which, on its craggy height, vomited fire and sparks
into the blackness of night.
And the reek of this great burning hung for days after in the heavens.
Thus was an end made to the iniquities of the house of the Black Duke
Casimir and the Red Duke Otho. And the last Duke mixed his ashes with
that of the fatal Tower. For on the morrow there remained only the
blackened walls and glowing skeleton beams of all that mighty
palace--which, indeed, has never been rebuilt. For the people of Thorn,
under the mild and equitable rule which followed, erected a great
memorial church upon the spot--as may be seen to this day, a landmark
from far to witness if I have lied in the tale which has been told.
So the Prince Karl gave back to Thorn its liberties, as he had promised.
But the regality of the Dukedom he kept for himself, and he took the
Wolfmark and made it part of his dominions, till, as he had formerly
undertaken, the broom-bush kept the cow throughout the length and breadth
of Plassenburg and the Mark.
It was a noble home-coming when we returned to Plassenburg--victorious
and famous; but also there was mourning deep and solemn for the Princess
Ysolinde, who by her sacrifice had wrought such great things for the arms
of Plassenburg, and had died in the moment of victory.
Then, when after the stately funeral of the dead Princess we returned
back to the palace, it was the Prince's pleasure that Helene and myself
should ride on either hand of him through the city.
And when we were announced in the court, and the councillors of state
stood about, my wife was named by her true name, "Helena, Princess of
Plassenburg!"
Whereat the courtiers opened their mouths and widened their
eyes--thinking, perhaps, that that ancient wizard, Chancellor Leopold von
Dessauer had suddenly gone mad.
But when the representatives of the cities of the Princedom, and the
delegates from Thorn and the Mark, had been received with due honor, the
Prince bade his Chancellor recount all he had learned from my father, and
all that he had discovered in the archives of Plassenburg.
Then, when Dessauer had finished, Karl the Prince arose.
"I am," he said, "a plain, brusque man. And speech was never my
stronghold. But this I say. When Karl the Miller's Son goes the way of
King's son and beggar's son, it is his will that Helene, legitimate
Princess of Plassenburg, shall reign over you. And also that her husband,
Hugo, who, as you know, won her from dreadful death, shall stand by her
right hand."
Then the nobles and great lords, fearing the Prince, and perhaps also
envying a little the man who was the Prince's general of his armies,
shouted amain:
"We swear to obey the Princess Helena!"
Whereat uprose the Little Playmate, very princess-like and full of sweet
regal dignity.
"I thank you, noble Prince," she said. "I am glad that I can claim so
honorable a name and lineage; but I had rather be no Princess, nor
anything else than that which my husband hath made me--the wife of the
captain-general of the armies of Karl, the only true and noble Prince of
Plassenburg!"
Then the Prince rose and clasped her in his arms, kissing her fondly on
both cheeks.
"Fear not," he said, "dear and loyal lady. If you live to be the
Princess, your goodman shall be the Prince. Never shall the gray mare
flaunt it first, in Plassenburg!"
And he gave us each a hand, and conducted us to a pair of seats which had
been set level with his on the platform of the Council-chamber of the
Princedom.
The Prince Karl lived many days after the winning of the Wolfmark and the
ending of the ducal Wolves. But he gave less and less care to the
regalities, leaving them even more completely to me, sitting mostly in
the pleasaunce by the river-side, or in the far-regarding room which had
been the Lady Ysolinde's.
Also he never looked again on the face of a woman--except as it might
be to bid them good-day--save on that of my wife, Helene, who, as you
who know her may guess, waxed but the sweeter and the fairer as the
years went by.
And the blessing of children came to us, and in this thing the Prince
Karl was even happier than we.
One day, however, it chanced that he was seated in full Council, and
right noble he looked. I had just handed him a paper to sign. But he
looked neither at me nor yet at the paper. His eyes were fixed on the
locked doors of the privy bedchamber, through which only those of
princely blood might come.
He stared so long at it that to recall him I put my hand on his sleeve
and said, "Prince, the Council waits your pleasure!"
Bat he heard me not, his eyes being fixed on the door.
"Your pardon, my lords and knights," he said, at last, fighting a little
stiffly with his utterance, "but it seemed that I saw the Princess, my
wife, come through the door, clad in white, and beckon me with her hand.
I must go to her, my lords; I think she waits for me. The Prince Hugo
will take my place at the Council."
And the old man took a step from the high seat. But at the foot of the
throne he stumbled and fell into my arms.
He said but one word after that, with his eyes still fixed on the
bolted door.
"_Ysolinde_!"
And so the Prince Karl and his wife were united at last.
Since then we have lived long, the Little Playmate and I; but never have
we been other than comrades and friends--lovers also, which is the best
of all. And so (an the good God please) we shall abide till the end
comes. And in the gloaming we two also shall see the beckoning finger
from beyond the bolted door and turn our feet homeward, passing the
bourne of the new life hand in hand--and undismayed.
THE END