The Mad King

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  VI

  A TRAP IS SPRUNG

  Long before Prince von der Tann reached Lustadt he had come to theconclusion that Leopold was in virtue a prisoner in Blentz. To provehis conclusion he directed one of his staff to return to Blentz andattempt to have audience with the king.

  "Risk anything," he instructed the officer to whom he had entrustedthe mission. "Submit, if necessary, to the humiliation of seeking anAustrian pass through the lines to the castle. See the king at anycost and deliver this message to him and to him alone and secretly.Tell him my fears, and that if I do not have word from him withintwenty-four hours I shall assume that he is indeed a prisoner.

  "I shall then direct the mobilization of the army and take suchsteps as seem fit to rescue him and drive the invaders from the soilof Lutha. If you do not return I shall understand that you are heldprisoner by the Austrians and that my worst fears have beenrealized."

  But Prince Ludwig was one who believed in being forehanded and so ithappened that the orders for the mobilization of the army of Luthawere issued within fifteen minutes of his return to Lustadt. Itwould do no harm, thought the old man, with a grim smile, to getthings well under way a day ahead of time. This accomplished, hesummoned the Serbian minister, with what purpose and to what effectbecame historically evident several days later. When, aftertwenty-four hours' absence, his aide had not returned from Blentz,the chancellor had no regrets for his forehandedness.

  In the castle of Peter of Blentz the king of Lutha was beingentertained royally. He was told nothing of the attempt of hischancellor to see him, nor did he know that a messenger from Princevon der Tann was being held a prisoner in the camp of the Austriansin the village. He was surrounded by the creatures of Prince Peterand by Peter's staunch allies, the Austrian minister and theAustrian officers attached to the expeditionary force occupying thetown. They told him that they had positive information that theSerbians already had crossed the frontier into Lutha, and that thepresence of the Austrian troops was purely for the protection ofLutha.

  It was not until the morning following the rebuff of Prince von derTann that Peter of Blentz, Count Zellerndorf and Maenck heard of theoccurrence. They were chagrined by the accident, for they were notready to deliver their final stroke. The young officer of the guardhad, of course, but followed his instructions--who would havethought that old Von der Tann would come to Blentz! That hesuspected their motives seemed apparent, and now that his rebuff atthe gates had aroused his ire and, doubtless, crystallized hissuspicions, they might find in him a very ugly obstacle to thefruition of their plans.

  With Von der Tann actively opposed to them, the value of having theking upon their side would be greatly minimized. The people and thearmy had every confidence in the old chancellor. Even if he opposedthe king there was reason to believe that they might still side withhim.

  "What is to be done?" asked Zellerndorf. "Is there no way either towin or force Von der Tann to acquiescence?"

  "I think we can accomplish it," said Prince Peter, after a moment ofthought. "Let us see Leopold. His mind has been prepared to receivealmost gratefully any insinuations against the loyalty of Von derTann. With proper evidence the king may easily be persuaded to orderthe chancellor's arrest--possibly his execution as well."

  So they saw the king, only to meet a stubborn refusal upon the partof Leopold to accede to their suggestions. He still was madly inlove with Von der Tann's daughter, and he knew that a blow deliveredat her father would only tend to increase her bitterness toward him.The conspirators were nonplussed.

  They had looked for a comparatively easy road to the consummation oftheir desires. What in the world could be the cause of the king'sstubborn desire to protect the man they knew he feared, hated, andmistrusted with all the energy of his suspicious nature? It was theking himself who answered their unspoken question.

  "I cannot believe in the disloyalty of Prince Ludwig," he said, "norcould I, even if I desired it, take such drastic steps as yousuggest. Some day the Princess Emma, his daughter, will be myqueen."

  Count Zellerndorf was the first to grasp the possibilities that layin the suggestion the king's words carried.

  "Your majesty," he cried, "there is a way to unite all factions inLutha. It would be better to insure the loyalty of Von der Tannthrough bonds of kinship than to antagonize him. Marry the PrincessEmma at once.

  "Wait, your majesty," he added, as Leopold raised an objecting hand."I am well informed as to the strange obstinacy of the princess, butfor the welfare of the state--yes, for the sake of your very throne,sire--you should exert your royal prerogatives and command thePrincess Emma to carry out the terms of your betrothal."

  "What do you mean, Zellerndorf?" asked the king.

  "I mean, sire, that we should bring the princess here and compel herto marry you."

  Leopold shook his head. "You do not know her," he said. "You do notknow the Von der Tann nature--one cannot force a Von der Tann."

  "Pardon, sire," urged Zellerndorf, "but I think it can beaccomplished. If the Princess Emma knew that your majesty believedher father to be a traitor--that the order for his arrest andexecution but awaited your signature--I doubt not that she wouldgladly become queen of Lutha, with her father's life and liberty asa wedding gift."

  For several minutes no one spoke after Count Zellerndorf had ceased.Leopold sat looking at the toe of his boot. Peter of Blentz, Maenck,and the Austrian watched him intently. The possibilities of the planwere sinking deep into the minds of all four. At last the king rose.He was mumbling to himself as though unconscious of the presence ofthe others.

  "She is a stubborn jade," he mumbled. "It would be an excellentlesson for her. She needs to be taught that I am her king," and thenas though his conscience required a sop, "I shall be very good toher. Afterward she will be happy." He turned toward Zellerndorf."You think it can be done?"

  "Most assuredly, your majesty. We shall take immediate steps tofetch the Princess Emma to Blentz," and the Austrian rose and backedfrom the apartment lest the king change his mind. Prince Peter andMaenck followed him.

  Princess Emma von der Tann sat in her boudoir in her father's castlein the Old Forest. Except for servants, she was alone in thefortress, for Prince von der Tann was in Lustadt. Her mind wasoccupied with memories of the young American who had entered herlife under such strange circumstances two years before--memoriesthat had been awakened by the return of Lieutenant Otto Butzow toLutha. He had come directly to her father and had been attached tothe prince's personal staff.

  From him she had heard a great deal about Barney Custer, and the oldinterest, never a moment forgotten during these two years, wasreawakened to all its former intensity.

  Butzow had accompanied Prince Ludwig to Lustadt, but Princess Emmawould not go with them. For two years she had not entered thecapital, and much of that period had been spent in Paris. Onlywithin the past fortnight had she returned to Lutha.

  In the middle of the morning her reveries were interrupted by theentrance of a servant bearing a message. She had to read it twicebefore she could realize its purport; though it was plainlyworded--the shock of it had stunned her. It was dated at Lustadt andsigned by one of the palace functionaries:

  Prince von der Tann has suffered a slight stroke. Do not bealarmed, but come at once. The two troopers who bear this messagewill act as your escort.

  It required but a few minutes for the girl to change to her ridingclothes, and when she ran down into the court she found her horseawaiting her in the hands of her groom, while close by two mountedtroopers raised their hands to their helmets in salute.

  A moment later the three clattered over the drawbridge and along theroad that leads toward Lustadt. The escort rode a short distancebehind the girl, and they were hard put to it to hold the mad pacewhich she set them.

  A few miles from Tann the road forks. One branch leads toward thecapital and the other winds over the hills in the direction ofBlentz. The fork occurs within the boundaries of the Old Forest.Great trees
overhang the winding road, casting a twilight shade evenat high noon. It is a lonely spot, far from any habitation.

  As the Princess Emma approached the fork she reined in her mount,for across the road to Lustadt a dozen horsemen barred her way. Atfirst she thought nothing of it, turning her horse's head to therighthand side of the road to pass the party, all of whom were inuniform; but as she did so one of the men reined directly in herpath. The act was obviously intentional.

  The girl looked quickly up into the man's face, and her own wentwhite. He who stopped her way was Captain Ernst Maenck. She had notseen the man for two years, but she had good cause to remember himas the governor of the castle of Blentz and the man who hadattempted to take advantage of her helplessness when she had been aprisoner in Prince Peter's fortress. Now she looked straight intothe fellow's eyes.

  "Let me pass, please," she said coldly.

  "I am sorry," replied Maenck with an evil smile; "but the king'sorders are that you accompany me to Blentz--the king is there."

  For answer the girl drove her spur into her mount's side. The animalleaped forward, striking Maenck's horse on the shoulder and halfturning him aside, but the man clutched at the girl's bridle-rein,and, seizing it, brought her to a stop.

  "You may as well come voluntarily, for come you must," he said. "Itwill be easier for you."

  "I shall not come voluntarily," she replied. "If you take me toBlentz you will have to take me by force, and if my king is notsufficiently a gentleman to demand an accounting of you, I am atleast more fortunate in the possession of a father who will."

  "Your father will scarce wish to question the acts of his king,"said Maenck--"his king and the husband of his daughter."

  "What do you mean?" she cried.

  "That before you are many hours older, your highness, you will bequeen of Lutha."

  The Princess Emma turned toward her tardy escort that had justarrived upon the scene.

  "This person has stopped me," she said, "and will not permit me tocontinue toward Lustadt. Make a way for me; you are armed!"

  Maenck smiled. "Both of them are my men," he explained.

  The girl saw it all now--the whole scheme to lure her to Blentz.Even then, though, she could not believe the king had been one ofthe conspirators of the plot.

  Weak as he was he was still a Rubinroth, and it was difficult for aVon der Tann to believe in the duplicity of a member of the housethey had served so loyally for centuries. With bowed head theprincess turned her horse into the road that led toward Blentz. Halfthe troopers preceded her, the balance following behind.

  Maenck wondered at the promptness of her surrender.

  "To be a queen--ah! that was the great temptation," he thought buthe did not know what was passing in the girl's mind. She had seenthat escape for the moment was impossible, and so had decided tobide her time until a more propitious chance should come. In silenceshe rode among her captors. The thought of being brought to Blentzalive was unbearable.

  Somewhere along the road there would be an opportunity to escape.Her horse was fleet; with a short start he could easily outdistancethese heavier cavalry animals and as a last resort she could--shemust--find some way to end her life, rather than to be dragged tothe altar beside Leopold of Lutha.

  Since childhood Emma von der Tann had ridden these hilly roads. Sheknew every lane and bypath for miles around. She knew the shortcuts, the gullies and ravines. She knew where one might, with a goodjumper, save a wide detour, and as she rode toward Blentz she passedin review through her mind each of the many spots where a suddenbreak for liberty might have the best chance to succeed.

  And at last she hit upon the place where a quick turn would take herfrom the main road into the roughest sort of going for one notfamiliar with the trail. Maenck and his soldiers had alreadypartially relaxed their vigilance. The officer had come to theconclusion that his prisoner was resigned to her fate and that,after all, the fate of being forced to be queen did not appear sodark to her.

  They had wound up a wooded hill and were half way up to the summit.The princess was riding close to the right-hand side of the road.Quite suddenly, and before a hand could be raised to stay her, shewheeled her mount between two trees, struck home her spur, and wasgone into the wood upon the steep hillside.

  With an oath, Maenck cried to his men to be after her. He himselfspurred into the forest at the point where the girl had disappeared.So sudden had been her break for liberty and so quickly had thefoliage swallowed her that there was something almost uncanny in it.

  A hundred yards from the road the trees were further apart, andthrough them the pursuers caught a glimpse of their quarry. The girlwas riding like mad along the rough, uneven hillside. Her mount,surefooted as a chamois, seemed in his element. But two of thehorses of her pursuers were as swift, and under the cruel spurs oftheir riders were closing up on their fugitive. The girl urged herhorse to greater speed, yet still the two behind closed in.

  A hundred yards ahead lay a deep and narrow gully, hid by bushesthat grew rankly along its verge. Straight toward this the PrincessEmma von der Tann rode. Behind her came her pursuers--two quiteclose and the others trailing farther in the rear. The girl reinedin a trifle, letting the troopers that were closest to her gainuntil they were but a few strides behind, then she put spur to herhorse and drove him at topmost speed straight toward the gully. Atthe bushes she spoke a low word in his backlaid ears, raised himquickly with the bit, leaning forward as he rose in air. Like a birdthat animal took the bushes and the gully beyond, while close behindhim crashed the two luckless troopers.

  Emma von der Tann cast a single backward glance over her shoulder,as her horse regained his stride upon the opposite side of thegully, to see her two foremost pursuers plunging headlong into it.Then she shook free her reins and gave her mount his head along anarrow trail that both had followed many times before.

  Behind her, Maenck and the balance of his men came to a sudden stopat the edge of the gully. Below them one of the troopers wasstruggling to his feet. The other lay very still beneath hismotionless horse. With an angry oath Maenck directed one of his mento remain and help the two who had plunged over the brink, then withthe others he rode along the gully searching for a crossing.

  Before they found one their captive was a mile ahead of them, and,barring accident, quite beyond recapture. She was making for ahighway that would lead her to Lustadt. Ordinarily she had been wontto bear a little to the north-east at this point and strike backinto the road that she had just left; but today she feared to do solest she be cut off before she gained the north and south highroadwhich the other road crossed a little farther on.

  To her right was a small farm across which she had never ridden, forshe always had made it a point never to trespass upon fencedgrounds. On the opposite side of the farm was a wood, and somewherebeyond that a small stream which the highroad crossed upon a littlebridge. It was all new country to her, but it must be ventured.

  She took the fence at the edge of the clearing and then reined in amoment to look behind her. A mile away she saw the head andshoulders of a horseman above some low bushes--the pursuers hadfound a way through the gully.

  Turning once more to her flight the girl rode rapidly across thefields toward the wood. Here she found a high wire fence so close tothickly growing trees upon the opposite side that she dared notattempt to jump it--there was no point at which she would not havebeen raked from the saddle by overhanging boughs. Slipping to theground she attacked the barrier with her bare hands, attempting totear away the staples that held the wire in place. For severalminutes she surged and tugged upon the unyielding metal strand. Anoccasional backward glance revealed to her horrified eyes the rapidapproach of her enemies. One of them was far in advance of theothers--in another moment he would be upon her.

  With redoubled fury she turned again to the fence. A superhumaneffort brought away a staple. One wire was down and an instant latertwo more. Standing with one foot upon the wires to keep them fromtangling about
her horse's legs, she pulled her mount across intothe wood. The foremost horseman was close upon her as she finallysucceeded in urging the animal across the fallen wires.

  The girl sprang to her horse's side just as the man reached thefence. The wires, released from her weight, sprang up breast highagainst his horse. He leaped from the saddle the instant that thegirl was swinging into her own. Then the fellow jumped the fence andcaught her bridle.

  She struck at him with her whip, lashing him across the head andface, but he clung tightly, dragged hither and thither by thefrightened horse, until at last he managed to reach the girl's armand drag her to the ground.

  Almost at the same instant a man, unkempt and disheveled, sprangfrom behind a tree and with a single blow stretched the trooperunconscious upon the ground.