The Red Axe

by S. R. Crockett

  CHAPTER XLII

  PRINCESS PLAYMATE

  Then began my father to tell the story slowly, with many a pause andinterruption, now searching for words, now racked with pain, all of whichI need not imitate, and shall leave out. But the substance of his talewas to this effect:

  "After you had left us, the Dukedom went from bad to worse--no peace, norest, no money. Duke Casimir took less and less of my advice, but, on thecontrary, began again his old horrors--plundering, killing, living byterror and in terror. He threatened Torgau. He attacked Plassenburg. Hestirred up hornets' nests everywhere. At home he made himself the commonmark for every assassin.

  "Then suddenly came his nephew back, and almost immediately he grew greatin favor with him. Uncle and nephew drank together. They paraded theterraces arm in arm. I was never more sent for save to do my duty. Othovon Reuss rode abroad at the head of the Black Horsemen.

  "But, at the same time, to my great joy, arrived the Little Playmateback to me. She was safer with me, she said. So that, having her, Ineeded naught else. She came with good news of you, making the journeynot alone, for two men of the Princess's retinue brought her to thecity gates."

  "The Princess!" I cried; "aye, I thought so. I judged that it was thePrincess who sent her back."

  Dessauer motioned with his hand. He saw that it was dangerous to throwmy father off the track. And, indeed, this was proven at once, for myunfortunate interruption set my father's mind to wandering, till finallyI had to drop certain drops of the red liquid on his tongue. These,indeed, had a marvellous effect upon him. He sat up instantly, his eyesflashing the old light, and began to speak rapidly and to clear purport,even as he used to do in the old days when Duke Casimir would comestriding across the yard at all hours of the night and day to consulthis Justicer.

  "What was I telling?" he went on. "Yes, I remember, of the home-comingof Helene under honorable escort. And she was beautiful--but all herrace were beautiful, all the women of them, at any rate. But that isanother matter.

  "So things went well enough with us till, as she went across the yard oneday to meet me at the door of the hall as I came out, who should see herbut the Count Otho von Reuss. And she turned from him like a queen andtook hold of my arm, clasping it strongly. Then he gazed fixedly at usboth, and his look was the evil-doer's look. Oh, I know it. Who knowsthat look, if not I? And so we passed within. But my Helene was quiveringand much afraid, nestling to me--aye, to me, old Gottfried Gottfried,like a frightened dove.

  "After this she went not out into the court-yard or city any more, savewith me by her side, and Otho von Reuss lingered about, watching like awolf about the sheepfold. For, as I say, he was in high favor with DukeCasimir, and had already equal place with him on the bed of justice.

  "Then there came a night, lightning peeping and blazing, alternate blueand ghastly white--God's face and the devil's time about staring in atthe lattice. I lay alone in my chamber. But I was not asleep. As youknow, I do not often sleep. But I lay awake and thought and thought. Thelightning showed me faces I had not seen for thirty years, and forms Iremembered, black against eternity. But all at once, in a certainafter-clap of silence that followed the roaring thunder, I heard a voicecall to me.

  "'My father--my father" it cried.

  "It was like a soul in danger calling on God.

  "I rose and went, clad as I was in the red of mine office (for that day Ihad done the final grace more than once); even so, I ran down the stairsto the room of my little Helene.

  "The lightning showed me my lamb crouched in the corner, her lips open,white, squared with horror, her arms extended, as though to push somemonstrous thing away. A black shape, whose, I could not tell, I sawbending over her. Then came blackness of darkness again. And again myHelene's voice. Ah, God, I can hear it now, calling pitifully, like awoman hanging over hell and losing hold: 'Father--my father!'

  "'I am here!' I cried, loudly, even as on the scaffold I cry the doom forwhich the malefactors die.

  "And the room lit up with a flame, white as the face of God as He passedby on Mount Sinai, flash on continuous flash. And there before me, with acountenance like a demon's, stood Otho von Reuss."

  I uttered a hoarse cry, but Dessauer again checked me. My father went on:

  "Otho von Reuss it was--he saw me in my red apparel, and cried aloud withmighty fear. If God had given me mine axe in my hand--well, Duke or noDuke, he had cried no more. But even as he turned and fled from the roomI seized him about the waist, and, opening the window with my other hand,I cast him forth. And as he went down backward, clutching at nothing, Godlooked again out of the skylights of heaven, and showed me the face ofthe devil, even as Michael saw it when he hurled him shrieking into thenether pit.

  "Then I went back and took in my arms my one ewe lamb.

  "Many days (so they brought me word) Otho lay at the point of death, andDuke Casimir came not near me nor yet sent for me. But by that verycircumstance I knew Otho had not revealed how his accident had befallen.Yet he but bided his time. And as he grew well, Duke Casimir grew ill. Hewaxed more and more like an armored ghost, and one day he came here andsat on the bed as in old times.

  "'I know my friends now,' he said, 'good Red Axe of mine, friend of manyyears. I have had mine eyes blinded, but this morning there has come amighty clearness, and from this day forth you and I shall stand face toface and see eye to eye again, as in the days of old!'

  "Then being athirst, he asked for something to drink. Which, when oursweet Helene had brought, he patted her cheek. 'A maid too good for acourt--one among a thousand, a fair one !' he said; and passed away downthe stairs, walking with his old steady tread.

  "But even at the steps of the Hall of Justice he stumbled and fell. Theycarried him in, and there in the robing chamber he lay unconscious for aweek, and then died without speech.

  "When he was dead, and ere he had been embalmed, there arose a clamor,first among the followers of Otho von Reuss, and after that among thoseof the Wolfsberg who expected that they would be favored by the new Duke.It was first whispered, and then cried aloud, that the death of DukeCasimir had been compassed by witchcraft and potions.

  "Cunningly and with subtlety was spread the report how my daughter and Ihad worked upon Duke Casimir. How he had gone to our house, drunken adraught, and then died ere he could come to his own chamber. But as forme, I went on my way and heeded them not. For just then the plague, whichhad stricken the Duke first, stalked athwart the city unchecked, and allthrough it this Helene of ours was as the angel of God, coming and goingby night and day among the streets and lanes of the town. And the commonfolk almost worshipped her. And so do unto this day.

  "Now perhaps I did not heed this babble as I ought to have done. Butthere came one night--how long ago I have forgotten--and with it a clamorin the court-yard. The Black Riders, the worst of them, fiends incarnatethat Otho had of late gathered about him, thundered upon us without, andpresently burst in the door.

  "I met them with mine axe at the stair-head, and for the better part ofan hour I kept them at a distance. And some died and some weredismembered. For at that business I am not a man to make mistakes. Thencame Otho limping from his fall and shot me with a bolt from behind hismen. And so over my body as I lay at the stair-head they took my love andleft me here to die. And the new Duke will not kill me, for he desiresthat I shall see her agony ere my own life is taken. For that alone thefiend keeps me in life!

  "And that," said my father, feebly, "is all."

  But just as he seemed to ebb away a wild fear startled him.

  "No," he cried, "there is yet something more. Hugo, Hugo, keep me here alittle! Hold me that my mind may not wander away among the racking-wheelsand the faces mopping and mowing. I have something yet to tell."

  I held him up while Dessauer poured a drop or two of the potent liquidinto his mouth. As before, it instantly revived him. The color came backto his cheeks.

  "Quick, Hugo, lad!" he cried; "give me that black box which sits behindthe bl
ock." I brought it, and from this he extracted a small key, whichhe gave me.

  "Unlock the panel you see there in the wall," he said.

  I looked, but could find none.

  "The oaken knob!" he cried, sharply, as to a clumsy servitor.

  I could only see a rough knob in the wood-work, a little worm-eaten, andin the centre one hole a little larger than the rest.

  "Put in the key!" commanded my father, making as if he would come out ofbed and hasten me himself.

  I thrust in the key, indeed, but with no more faith than if I had beenbidden to put it into a mouse-hole.

  Nevertheless, it turned easy as thinking, and a little door swung open,cunningly fitted. Here were dresses, books, parchments huddled together.

  "Bring all these to me," he said.

  And I brought them carefully in my arms and laid them on the bed.

  The eye of old Dessauer fell on something among them and was instantlyfascinated. It was a woman's waist-belt of thick bars of gold laid threeand three, with crests and letters all over it.

  The Chancellor put his hand forward for it, and my father allowed him totake it, following him, however, with a questioning eye.

  Then Dessauer put his hand into his bosom and drew out a chain ofgold--the necklace of the woodman, in-deed--and laid the two side byside. He uttered a shrill cry as he did so.

  "The belt of the lost Princess!" he cried; "the little Princess ofPlassenburg!"

  And, laying them one above the other, each group of six bars read thus:

  o o o H o o o H o o o H o o o | | |o o o E o o o E o o o E o o o The Necklace | | |o o o L o o o L o o o L o o o

  o o o E o o o E o o o E o o o | | |o o o N o o o N o o o N o o o The Belt | | |o o o E o o o E o o o E o o o]

  With delight on his face, like that of a mathematician when hiscalculations work out truly, Dessauer reached over his hand for thepapers also, but my father stayed him.

  "Who may you be that has a chain to match mine?" he asked, with hismighty hand on Dessauer's wrist.

  "I am the State's Chancellor of Plassenburg, and it needed but this toshow me our true Princess."

  "Here, then," said my father, "is more and better."

  And he handed him the papers.

  "It meets! It meets!" cried Dessauer, enthusiastically, as he glancedthem over. "It is complete. It would stand probation in the Dict ofthe Emperor."

  "But yet all that will not prevent Helene Gottfried dying at the stake!"cried my father, sadly, and fell back unconscious on his bed.

  * * * * *

  We spent this heaviest of nights at the palace of Bishop Peter--Dessauerwith the prelate--I, praise to the holy pyx, in the kitchen with theserving men and maids. Peter of the Pigs was there, but no more eager tofight. The lay brother who had gone with the letter, and the conductorwho had run away from the dread door of the Hall of Justice, hadreturned, and had spread a favorable report of our courage.

  Certainly the house of Peter the Bishop might be a poor one and scantilyprovendered, but there was little sign of it that night. For if themaster went fasting and his guests lived on pulse (as they said inThorn), certainly not so Bishop Peter's servants.

  For there were pasties of larks, with sauce of butter and herbs, mostexcellent and toothsome. There were rabbits from the sand-hills, andpigeons from the towers of the minster. The clear chill Rhenish vied withthe more generous wine of Burgundy and the red juice of Assmanhauser. Forme, as was natural, I ate little. I spoke not at all. But I looked sodangerous with my swarthy face and desperate eye, I dare say, also I wasso well armed, that the roysterers left me severely alone.

  But I drank--Lord, what did I not drink that night! I poured down mygullet all and sundry that was given me. And to render these Bishop'sthralls their dues, there was no lack and no inhospitality. But thestrange thing of it was that, though I am a man more than ordinarilytemperate, that night I poured the Rhenish into me like water down acistern-pipe and felt it not. God forgive me, I wanted to make me drunkenand forgetful, and lo! the dog's swill would not bite.

  So I cursed their drink, and asked if they had no LyonsWater-of-Life, stark and mordant, or social Hollands, or indeedanything that was not mere compound of whey and dirty water. Whereatthey wondered, and held me thereafter in great respect as a goodcompanion and approven worthy drinker.

  Then they brought me of the strong spirit of Dantzig, with curiouslittle flakes of gold dancing in it. It was raw and strong, and at firstI had good hopes of it. But I drank the Dautzig like spring-water, allthere was of it, and though it had a taste singularly displeasing tome, it took no more effect than so much warm barley-brew for the palatesof babes. Upon this I had great glory. For the card-players and thedicers actually left their games and gazed open-jawed to see me drink.And I sat there and expounded the Levitical law and the wheels of theProphet Ezekiel, the law of succession to the empire, and also theapostolic succession--all with surprising clearness and cogency ofreasoning. So that before I had finished they required of me whether itwas I or my master who was sent for to dispute before His Sovereignmightiness the Emperor.

  Then I told them that the things I knew (that is, which the Hollands hadput into my head) were but the commonest chamber-sweepings of my master'slearning, which I had picked up as I rode at his elbow. And this bred amighty wondering what manner of man he might be who was so wise. And Ithink, if I had gone on, Dessauer and I might both have found ourselvesin the Bishop's prison, on suspicion of being the devil and one of hisministrants.

  But suddenly, as with a kind of recoil or back stroke, all that I haddrunken must have come upon me. The clearness of vision went from me likea candle that is blown out. I know not what happened after, save that Ifound myself upon my truckle-bed, with my leathern money-pouch clasped inmy hand with surprising tightness, as if I had been mortally afraid thatsome one would mistake my poor satchel for his own pocket.

  So in time the morrow came, and by all rules I ought to have had aracking headache. For I saw many of those that had been with me the nightbefore pale of countenance and eating handfuls of baker's salt. So Ijudged that their anxiety and the turmoil of their hearts had not burnedtheir liquor up, as had been the case with me.

  Now it is small wonder that all my soul cried out for oblivion till Ishould be able to do something for the Beloved--break her prison, hastenthe troops from Plassenburg, or in some way save my love.

  Hardly had I looked out of the main door that morning, desiring no morethan to pass away the time till the trial should begin again, before Isaw the Lubber Fiend, smirking and becking across the way. He hadsquatted himself down on the side of the street opposite, looking over atthe Bishop's palace.

  He pointed at me with his finger.

  "Your complexion runs down," he said. "I know you. But go to the springthere by the stable, wash your face, and I shall know you better."

  This was fair perdition and nothing less. For one may stay the tongue ofa scoundrel with money, or the expectation of it, until opportunityarrive to stop it with steel or prison masonry. But who shall curb orhalter the tongue of a fool?

  Then, swift as one that sees his face in a glass, I bethought meof a plan.

  "See," I said, "do you desire gold, Sir Lubber Fiend?"

  He wagged his great head and shook his cabbage-leaf ears till they madecurrents in the heavy air, to signify that he loved the touch of theyellow metal.

  "See then, Lubber," said I, "you shall have ten of these now, and tenmore afterwards, if you will carry a letter to the Prince at Plassenburg,or meet him on the way."

  "Not possible," said he, shaking his head sadly; "my little Missie hascome to Thorn."

  "But," said I, "little Missie would desire it; take letter to the Prince,good Jan, then Missie will be happy."

&nbs
p; "Would she let poor Jan Lubberchen kiss her hand, think you?" he asked,looking up at me.

  "Aye," said I; "kiss her cheek maybe!"

  He danced excitedly from side to side.

  "Jan will run--Jan will run all the way!" he cried.

  So I pulled out a scrap of parchment and wrote a hasty message to thePrince, asking him, for the love of God and us, to set every soldier inPlassenburg on the march for Thorn, and to come on ahead himself withsuch a flying column as he could gather. No more I added, because I knewthat my good master would need no more.

  Then I went down with my messenger to the Weiss Thor, and with great fearand pulsation of the midriff I saw the idiot pass the house of MasterGerard. Then, at the outer gate, I gave him his ten golden coins, andwatched him trot away briskly on the green winding road to Plassenburg.

  "Mind," he called back to me, "Jan is to kiss her cheek if Jan takesletter to the Prince!"

  And I promised it him without wincing. For by this time lying had no moreeffect upon me than dram-drinking.