The Red Axe

by S. R. Crockett

  CHAPTER XXIX

  LOVES ME--LOVES ME NOT

  Now how this plan of my Lord Prince's worked in the Palace of PlassenburgI find it difficult to tell without writing myself down a "paintedflittermouse," as the Prince expressed it. I was in high favor with mymaster; well liked also by most of the hard-driving, rough-riding youngsoldiers whom the miller's son had made out of the sons of dead anddamned Ritterdom. I got my share of honor and good service, too, in goingto different courts and bringing back all that Prince Karl needed. Toexercise myself in the art of war, I hunted the border thieves and gavethem short enough shrift. In a year I had made such an assault as that ofthe inn at Erdberg an impossibility all along the marches of ourprovinces.

  The crusty old councillor, Leopold Dessauer, who had held office underthe last Prince of the legitimate line, was ever ready to assist me withthe kindest of deeds and the bitterest and saltest of words.

  "What did I tell you about being Field-Marshal?" said he one day--"inKarl's kingdom the shorter the service, the higher the distinction.If you and the Prince live long enough, I shall see you carry amusketoon yet, and not one of the latest pattern, either. You will bepromoted down, like a booby who has been raised by chance to the topof the class!"

  "Well," said I, humbly, for I always reverenced age, "then I hope,High-Chancellor Dessauer, that I shall carry my musketoon as becomes abrave man!"

  "I do not doubt it!" said he. "And that is the most hopeful thing I haveseen about you yet. It is just possible, on the other hand, that you mayyet rule and the Prince carry the piece."

  "God forbid!" said I, heartily. For next to my own father, of all men Iloved the Prince.

  "The Princess hath a pretty hand," remarked Dessauer casually, as if hehad said, "It will rain to-morrow!"

  "I' faith, yes!" said I; "what have you been at to find out that?"

  "Weak--weak!" he said, shaking his head. "I fear you will wreck on thatrock. It is your blind peril!"

  "My blind peril!" cried I. "What may that be, High Councillor?"

  "Ah, lad," he said, smiling with that wise, all-patient smile which theaged affect when they mean to be impressive, yet know how useless istheir wisdom, "it was never intended by the Almighty that any man shouldhave eyes all round his head. That is why He fixed two in front, and madethem look straight forward. That is also why He made us a little lower(generally a good deal lower) than the angels!"

  I heard him as if I heard him not.

  "You do me the honor to follow me?" he said, looking at me. He was, Ithink, conscious that my eyes wandered to the door, for indeed I wasexpecting the Little Playmate to come down every minute.

  "Ah! yes, you follow indeed," he said, bitterly, "but it is the trip offeet, the flirt of farthingales down the turret steps. No matter! As Iwas saying, every man has his blind peril. He can see the thousand. Heprovides laboriously against them. He blocks every avenue of risk, helocks every dangerous door, and lo! there is the thousand-and-first rightbefore him, yawning wide open, which he does not see--his Blind Peril!"

  "And what, High-Councillor Dessauer, is my blind peril?"

  "I will tell you, Hugo," he said; "not that you will believe or alter ahair. A man may do many things in this world, but one thing he cannot do.He cannot kiss the fingers of a Princess--dainty fingers, too, separatingfinger from finger--and kiss also the Princess's maid of honor on themouth. The combination is certainly entertaining, but like the Friar'spowder it is somewhat explosive."

  "And how," asked I, "may you know all that ?"

  The old man nodded his head sagely.

  "Neither by ink-pool nor yet by scrying! All the same, I know. Moreover,your peril is not a blind peril only, but a blind man's peril. Ye mustchoose, and that quickly, little son--fingers or lips."

  I heard the rustle of a skirt down the stair. It was the light, springingtread of the one I loved first and best, last and only.

  "By the twelve gods, lips!" cried I, and made for the door.

  And I heard the chuckling laughter of High-Chancellor Dessauer behind meas I followed Helene down the stairs. It sounded like the decanting ofmellow wine, long hidden in darksome cellars, and now, in the flower ofits age, bringing to the light the smiling of ancient vineyards and theshining of forgotten suns.

  I found Helene arrived before me in the rose-garden. She did not turnround as I came, though she heard me well enough. Instead she walked on,plucking at a marguerite.

  "Loves me--loves me _not_!" she said, bearing upon the last word withtriumphant accent, as she continued to dismantle the poor flower.

  And flashing round upon me with the solitary petal in her hand, shepresented it with a low bow, in elfish mockery of the manner of the courtexquisite.

  "Ah, true flower!" she said, apostrophizing the bare stalk, "a flowercannot lie. It has not a glozing tongue. It cannot change back and forth.The sun shines. It turns towards the sun. The sun leaves the skies. Itshuts itself up and waits his return. Ah,-true flower, dear flower, howunlike a man you are!"

  "Helene," said I, "you have learned conceits from the catch-books. Youquarrel by rote. Were I as eager to answer me, I might say: 'Ah, falseflower, you grow out of the foulness underneath. You give your fragranceto all without discretion--a common lover, prodigal of favors, fit onlyto be torn to shreds by pretty, spiteful fingers, and to die at last witha lie in your mouth. Again I say--false flower!'"

  "You can turn the corners, Sir Juggler, with the cup and ball of words,"answered Helene. "So much they have already taught you in a court. Butthere is one thing that your fine-feathered tutors have not taughtyou--to make love to two women in one house and hide it from both ofthem. Hot and cold may not come too near each other. They will mix andmake lukewarm of both."

  A wise observation, and one that I wished I had made myself.

  "May the devil take all princes and princesses!" I began, as I had doneto the Prince himself.

  Helene shook her head.

  "Hugo," she said, "I was but a simpleton when I came hither, and knewnothing. Now I am wise, and I know!"

  She touched her forehead with her finger, just where the curls weresoftest and prettiest.

  "Oh, you have learned to be thrice more beautiful than ever you were!" Isaid, impetuously.

  "So I am often told," answered she, calmly.

  "Who dared tell you ?" cried I, quick as fire, laying my hand on mysword.

  "The false common flowers by the wayside tell me!" said Helene, pertly.

  "Let them beware, or I will take their heads off for rank weeds!"I answered.

  For at that time, in the Court of Plassenburg, we talked in figures andromance words. We had indeed become so familiar with the mode that wecould use no other, even in times of earnestness. So that a man would goto be hanged or married with a quipsome conceit on his lips.

  "I think, Sir Janus Double-tongue," she said, "that you would not be theworse of a little medicine of your own concocting."

  And with that she swept her skirts daintily about and tripped down in tothe pleasaunce of flowers, to make which the Prince Karl had brought askilled gardener all the way from France.

  I prowled about the higher terrace, moodily watching the sky and thinkingon the morrow's weather. And by-and-by I saw one come forth from amongthe cropped Dutch hedges, and stride across to where Helene walked withsomething white in her hand. I could see her again picking a flower topieces, and methought I could hear the words. My jealous fancy conjuredup the ending, "Loves me not--loves me! Loves me not!"

  She turned even as she had done to me. The newcomer was that sneeringCourt fop, the Count von Reuss, Duke Casimir's nephew--still in hidingfrom the wrath of his uncle. For at that time hardly any court in Germanywas without one or two of these hangers-on, and a bad, reckless,ill-contriving breed they were at Plassenburg, as doubtless elsewhere.

  Then grew my heart hard and bitter, and yet, in a moment afterwards, wasagain only wistful and sad.

  "She had been safer," thought I, "in the old Red Tower th
an playingflower fancies with such a man!"

  For I had seen the very devil look out of his eye--which indeed it didas often as he cast it on a fair woman. In especial, I longed tothrottle him each time he turned to watch Helene as she went by. Andhere she was walking with him, and talking pleasantly too, in the rosegarden of the palace.

  "Ah, devil take all princes and princesses!" said I. This one, it istrue, was only a count, and disinherited. But I felt that the thing wasthe Prince's doing, and that it was for the sake of the covenant he hadmade with me that I was compelled to put up with such a toad as Von Reusscrawling and besliming the fair garden of my love.

  It was an evening without clouds--everything shining clear after rain,the scent of the flowers rising like incense so full and sweet that youcould almost see it. The unnumbered birds were every one awake,responsive and emulous. The deep silence of midsummer was broken up. Itwas like another spring.

  The Princess Ysolinde came out to take the air. She was wrapped in hergown of sea-green silk, with sparkles of dull copper upon it. The dressfitted her like a snake's skin, and glittered like it too as she swayedher lithe body in walking.

  "Ha, Hugo," she said, "I thought I should find you here!"

  I did not say that if another had been kinder she might have found meelsewhere and otherwise employed. I had at least the discretion to leavethings as they were. For the time to speak plainly was not yet.

  She took my arm, and we paced up and down.

  "Princess--" I began.

  "Ysolinde!" corrected she, softly.

  It was an old and unsettled contention between us.

  "Well then, Ysolinde, to-morrow must I ride to fight the men of mine owncountry of the Wolfmark. I like not the duty. But since it must be, forthe sake of the brave Prince, it shall be well done."

  "You do not say 'For your sake, Ysolinde'?" she answered, pensively.

  "No," I said, bluntly, "'for the Prince's sake.'"

  "You would do all things for the Prince's sake--nothing for mine!" saidthe Princess, withdrawing her hand.

  "On the contrary, Lady Ysolinde," I made answer, "I do all things foryour sake. Save for the sake of your good-will, I should now beelsewhere."

  Which was true enough. I should have been in the garden pleasauncebeneath, and probably with my sword out, arguing the case with Von Reuss.

  But she pressed my arm, for she understood that I had delayed a day frommy duty for her sake. So touched at heart was Ysolinde that she slippedher hand down from my arm and took my hand instead, flirting a corner ofher shawl cleverly over both, to hide the fact from the men-at-arms--asHelene could not have done to save her life. But every maid of honor whopassed noted and knew, lifting eyebrows at one another, I doubt not, assoon as we passed, which thing made me feel like a fool and blush hotly.For I knew that ere they were couched that night every maid of them wouldtell Helene, and with pleasure in the telling too.

  "Devil take--" I began and stopped.

  "What did you say?" asked Ysolinde, almost tenderly.

  "That if I come not back again from the Wolfmark it will be the betterfor all of us!" I made answer, which was indeed the sense if not theexact text of my remark.

  "Nay," she said, shuddering, "not better for me that am companionless!"

  "Why so?" said I, boldly. "You do not love me. Deep at the bottom ofyour heart you love your husband, Karl the Prince. You know there is noman like him. Me you do not love at all."

  "You will not let me," she said, softly, almost like a shy countrymaiden.

  "Ah, if I had, you would have slain me long ere this," said I, "for Iread you like a child's horn-book that he plays battledore with. 'Havenot--_love_! Have--_hate_.' There you are, all in brief, my LadyYsolinde."

  "It is false," laughed she; "but nevertheless I love greatly to hear youcall me Ysolinde."

  She netted her fingers in mine beneath the shawl. Well might the HighCouncillor say that she had a beautiful hand. Though, God wot, much heknew about it. For Ysolinde of Plassenburg could speak with her hand,love with it, be angry with it, hate with it--and kill with it.

  "I am an experiment," said I; "one indeed that has lasted you a littlelonger than the others, my Lady Ysolinde, only because you have not cometo the end of me so soon."

  "Pshaw!" she said, pushing me from her, for we were at the turning of apath, "you love another. That is the amulet against infection that youcarry. Yet sometimes I think that that other is only your hateful,plain-favored, vainly conceited self!"

  I saw the Prince sit alone, according to his custom, in an arbor behindus at that very moment--and judge if I blushed or no. But the Princesssaw him not, being eager upon her flouting of me.

  "I tell you," she cried, scornfully and disdainfully, "there is nothinginteresting about you but the blueness of your eyes, and that any monkcan make upon parchment, aye, and deeper and bluer, with hislapis-lazuli. An experiment!--Why should I, Ysolinde of Plassenburg,experiment with you, the son of the Red Axe of the Wolfsberg ?"

  "Nay, that I know not," I answered; "but yet I am indeed no more thanyour arrow-butts, your target of practice, your whipping-boy, to be slungat and arrow-drilled and bullet-pitted at your pleasure!"

  "I dare say," she said, bitterly; "and all the time you go scathless--nomore heart-stricken than if summer flies lighted on thee. Away with sucha man; he is the ghost of a man--a simulacrum--no true lover!"

  "At your will, Princess. I shall indeed go away. I will to-morrow seekthe spears. But, after all, you will not send me forth in anger?" I said,with a strong conviction that I knew the answer.

  "And why not?" said she.

  "Because," I replied, looking at her, "I am, after all, the one man whobelieves thoroughly in your heart's deep inward goodness. I believe inyou even when you do not believe in yourself. I can affirm, for I knowbetter than you know yourself. You cover the beauty of your heart fromothers. You flout and jeer. Above all, you experiment dangerously withwords and actions. But, after all, I am necessary to you. You will notsend me away in anger. For you need some one to believe in the soundnessof your heart. And I, Hugo Gottfried, am that man!"

  "Hence, flatterer!" cried the lady, smiling, but well pleased. "It isknown to all that I am the Old Serpent--the deceiver--the ill fruit ofthe Knowledge of Evil. And now you say of Good also! And what is more andworse, you expect me to believe you. Wherein you also experiment! I prayyou, do not so. That is to you the forbidden fruit. Good-night. Go, now,and pray for a more truthful tongue!"

  And with that she went in, the copper spangles glancing at her waist redas the light on ripe wheat, and all her tall figure lissome as thebending corn.