Joan of the Sword Hand

by S. R. Crockett

  CHAPTER VIII

  JOHANN IN THE SUMMER PALACE

  At the door of the summer palace not a soul was on guard. A great quietsurrounded it. The secretary could hear the gentle lapping of the riverover the parapet, for the little pavilion had been erected overhangingthe water, and the leaves of the linden-trees rustled above. These lastwere still clamorous with the hum of bees, whose busy wings gave forth asort of dull booming roar, comparable only to the distant noise ofbreakers when a roller curls slowly over and runs league-long down thesandy beach.

  It was with a beating heart that Johann Pyrmont knocked.

  "Enter!" said a voice within, with startling suddenness.

  And opening the door and grasping his papers, the secretary suddenlyfound himself in the presence of the hero of the tournament.

  The Prince was standing by a desk covered with books and papers. In hishand he held a quill, wherewith he had been writing in a great bookwhich lay on a shelf at his elbow. For a moment the secretary could notreconcile this monkish occupation with his idea of the gallantwhite-plumed knight whom he had seen flash athwart the lists, driving aclean furrow through the hostile ranks with his single spear.

  But he remembered his sister's description, and looked at him with thereverence of the time for one to whom all knowledge was open.

  "You have business with me, young sir?" said the Prince courteously,turning upon the youth a regard full of dignity and condescension. Theknees of Johann Pyrmont trembled. For a full score of moments his tonguerefused its office.

  "I come," he said at last, "to convey these documents to the noblePrince of Courtland and Wilna." He gained courage as he spoke, for hehad carefully rehearsed this speech to Dessauer. "I am acting assecretary to the Ambassador--in lieu of a better. These are theproposals concerning alliance between the realms proposed by our latemaster, the Prince Karl, before his death; and now, it is hoped, to beratified and carried out between Courtland and Plassenburg under hissuccessors, the Princess Helene and her husband."

  The tall fair-haired Prince listened carefully. His luminous and steadyeyes seemed to pierce through every disguise and to read the truth inthe heart of the young architect-secretary. He took the papers from thehand of Johann Pyrmont, and laid them on a desk beside him, without,however, breaking the seals.

  "I will gladly take charge of such proposals. They do as much credit, Idoubt not, to the sagacity of the late Prince, your great master, as tothe kindness and good-feeling of our present noble rulers. But where isthe Ambassador? I had hoped to see High Councillor von Dessauer for myown sake, as well as because of the ancient kindliness andcorrespondence that there was between him and my brother."

  "His brother," thought the secretary. "I did not know he had abrother--a lad, I suppose, in whom Dessauer hath an interest. He is everconsiderate to the young!" But aloud he answered, "I grieve to tell you,my lord, that the High Councillor von Dessauer is not able to leave hisbed this morning. He caught a chill yesterday, either riding hither orat the tourney, and it hath induced an old trouble which no leech hashitherto been skilful enough to heal entirely. He will, I fear, be keptclose in his room for several days."

  "I also am grieved," said the Prince, with grave regret, seeing theyouth's agitation, and liking him for it. "I am glad he keeps the art tomake himself so beloved. It is one as useful as it is unusual in adiplomatist!"

  Then with a quick change of subject habitual to the man, he said, "Howfound you your way hither? The corridors are both confusing andintricate, and the guards ordinarily somewhat exacting."

  The tall youth smiled.

  "I was in the best hands," he said. "Your sister, the Princess Margaret,was good enough to direct me, being on her way to her own apartment."

  "Ah!" muttered the Prince, smiling as if he knew his sister, "this isthe way to the Princess's apartments, is it? The Moscow road to Rome, Iwot!"

  He said no more, but stood regarding the youth, whose blushes came andwent as he stood irresolute before him.

  "A modest lad," said the Prince to himself; "this ingenuousness isparticularly charming in a secretary of legation. I must see more ofhim."

  Suddenly a thought crossed his mind.

  "Why, did I not hear that you came to us by way of Kernsberg?" he said.

  The blushes ceased and a certain pallor showed under the tan whichoverspread the young man's face as the Prince continued to gaze fixedlyat him. He could only bow in assent.

  "Then, doubtless, you would see the Duchess Joan?" he continued. "Is shevery beautiful? They say so."

  "I do not think so. I never thought about it at all!" answered thesecretary. Suddenly he found himself plunged into deep waters, just ashe had seen the port of safety before him.

  The Prince laughed, throwing back his head a little.

  "That is surely a strange story to bring here to Courtland," he said,"whither the lady is to come as a bride ere long! Especially strange totell to me, who----"

  "I ask your pardon," said Johann Pyrmont; "your Highness must bear withme. I have never done an errand of such moment before, having mostlyspent my life among soldiers and ("he was on his guard now") in afortress. For diplomacy and word-play I have no skill--no, nor anyliking!"

  "You have chosen your trade strangely, then," smiled the Prince, "toproclaim such tastes. Wherefore are you not a soldier?"

  "I am! I am!" cried Johann eagerly; "at least, as much as it is allowedto one of my--of my strength to be."

  "Can you fence?" asked the Prince, "or play with the broad blade?"

  "I can do both!"

  "Then," continued his inquisitor, "you must surely have tried yourselfagainst the Duchess Joan. They say she has wonderful skill. Joan of theSword Hand, I have heard her called. You have often fenced with her?"

  "No," said the secretary, truthfully, "I have never fenced with theDuchess Joan."

  "So," said the Prince, evidently in considerable surprise; "then youhave certainly often seen her fence?"

  "I have never seen the Duchess fence, but I have often seen others fencewith her."

  "You practise casuistry, surely," cried the Prince. "I do not quitefollow the distinction."

  But, nevertheless, the secretary knew that the difference existed. Hewould have given all the proceeds and emoluments of his office to escapeat this moment, but the eye of the Prince was too steady.

  "I doubt not, young sir," he continued, "that you were one of the armyof admirers which, they say, continually surrounds the Duchess ofHohenstein!"

  "Indeed, you are in great error, my lord," said Johann Pyrmont, withmuch earnestness and obvious sincerity; "I never said one single word oflove to the Lady Joan--no, nor to any other woman!"

  "No," said a new voice from the doorway, that of the Princess Margaret,"but doubtless you took great pleasure in teaching them foreign customs.And I am persuaded you did it very well, too!"

  The Prince left his desk for the first time and came smilingly towardshis sister. As he stooped to kiss her hand, Johann observed that hishair seemed already to be thin upon the top of his head.

  "He is young to be growing bald," he said to himself; "but, after all"(with a sigh), "that does not matter in a man so noble of mien and inevery way so great a prince."

  The impulsive Princess Margaret scarcely permitted her hand to bekissed. She threw her arms warmly about her brother's neck, and then asquickly releasing him, she turned to the secretary, who stooddeferentially looking out at the window, that he might not observe themeeting of brother and sister.

  "I told you he was my favourite brother, and that you would love him,too," she said. "You must leave your dull Plassenburg and come toCourtland. I, the Princess, ask you. Do you promise?"

  "I think I shall come again to Courtland," answered the secretary verygravely.

  "This young man knows the Duchess Joan of Hohenstein," said the Prince,still smiling quietly; "but I do not think he admires her verygreatly--an opinion he had better keep to himself if he would have aquiet life of it in Court
land!"

  "Indeed," said the Princess brusquely. "I wonder not at it. I hear sheis a forward minx, and at any rate she shall never lord it over me. Iwill run away with a dog-whipper first."

  "Your husband would have occasion for the exercise of his art, sistermine!" said the Prince. "But, indeed, you must not begin by mislikingthe poor young maid that will find herself so far from home."

  "Oh," cried the Princess, laughing outright, "I mislike her not a whit.But there is no reason in the world why, because you are all ready tofall down and worship, this young man or any other should be compelledto do likewise."

  And right princess-like she looked as she pouted her proud little lipsand with her foot patted the polished oak.

  "But," she went on again to her brother, "your poor beast out there hathalmost fretted himself into ribands by this time. If you have done withthis noble youth, I have a fancy to hear him tell of the countrieswherein he has sojourned. And, in addition, I have promised to show himthe carp in the ponds. You have surely given him a great enough dose ofdiplomatics and canon law by this time. You have, it seems to me, spenthalf the day in each other's society."

  "On the contrary," returned the Prince, smiling again, but going towardsthe desk to put away the papers which Dessauer's secretary hadbrought--"on the contrary, we talked almost solely about women--asubject not uncommon when man meets man."

  "But somewhat out of keeping with the dignity of your calling, mybrother!" said the Princess pointedly.

  "And wherefore?" he said, turning quickly with the papers still in hishand. "If to guide, to advise, to rule, are of my profession, surely tospeak of women, who are the more important half of the human race,cannot be foreign to my calling!"

  "Come," she said, hearing the words without attending to the sense, "Ialso like things foreign. The noble secretary has promised to teach mesome more of them!"

  The tolerant Prince laughed. He was evidently accustomed to his sister'swhims, and, knowing how perfectly harmless they were, he neverinterfered with them.

  "A good day to you," he said to the young man, by way of dismissal. "IfI do not see you again before you leave, you must promise me to comeback to the wedding of the Duchess Johanna. In that event you must dome the honour to be my guest on that occasion."

  The red flooded back to Johann's cheek.

  "I thank you," he said, bowing; "I _will_ come back to the wedding ofthe Duchess Joan."

  "And you promise to be my guest? I insist upon it," continued the kindlyPrince, willing to gratify his sister, who was smiling approval, "Iinsist that you shall let me be your host."

  "I hope to be your guest, most noble Prince," said the secretary,looking up at him quickly as he went through the door.

  It was a singular look. For a moment it checked and astonished thePrince so much that he stood still on the threshold.

  "Where have I seen a look like that before?" he mused, as he cast hismemory back into the past without success. "Surely never on any man'sface?"

  Which, after all, was likely enough.

  Then putting the matter aside as curious, but of no consequence, thePrince rode away towards that part of the city from which the towers ofthe minster loomed up. A couple of priests bowed low before him as hepassed, and the people standing still to watch his broad shoulders anderect carriage, said one to the other, "Alas! alas! the truest Prince ofthem all--to be thus thrown away!"

  And these were the words which the secretary heard from a couple ofguards who talked at the gate of the rose-garden, as they, too, stoodlooking after the Prince.

  "Wait," said Johann Pyrmont to himself; "wait, I will yet show themwhether he is thrown away or not."