The Dove in the Eagle's Nest by Charlotte M. Yonge (e novels for free .txt) 📖

If he has freely risked himself in my hands, I will as freely risk myself in his.  Moreover, I thought he had won thy heart.”

“Reigned over it, rather,” said Christina.  “It is but the disguise that I suspect and mistrust.  Bid me not leave thee alone with him, my son.”

“Nay, dear mother,” said Ebbo, “the matters on which he is like to speak will brook no presence save our own, and even that will be hard enough to bear.  So prop me more upright!  So!  And comb out these locks somewhat smoother.  Thanks, mother.  Now can he see whether he will choose Eberhard of Adlerstein for friend or foe.”

By the time supper was ended, the only light in the upper room came from the flickering flames of the fire of pine knots on the hearth.  It glanced on the pale features and dark sad eyes of the young Baron, sad in spite of the eager look of scrutiny that he turned on the figure that entered at the door, and approached so quickly that the partial light only served to show the gloss of long fair hair, the glint of a jewelled belt, and the outline of a tall, well-knit, agile frame.

“Welcome, Herr Ritter,” he said; “I am sorry we have been unable to give you a fitter reception.”

“No host could be more fully excused than you,” said the stranger, and Ebbo started at his voice.  “I fear you have suffered much, and still have much to suffer.”

“My sword wound is healing fast,” said Ebbo; “it is the shot in my broken thigh that is so tedious and painful.”

“And I dare be sworn the leeches made it worse.  I have hated all leeches ever since they kept me three days a prisoner in a ’pothecary’s shop stinking with drugs.  Why, I have cured myself with one pitcher of water of a raging fever, in their very despite!  How did they serve thee, my poor boy?”

“They poured hot oil into the wound to remove the venom of the lead,” said Ebbo.

“Had it been my case the lead should have been in their own brains first, though that were scarce needed, the heavy-witted Hans Sausages.  Why should there be more poison in lead than in steel?  I have asked all my surgeons that question, nor ever had a reasonable answer.  Greater havoc of warriors do they make than ever with the arquebus—ay, even when every lanzknecht bears one.”

“Alack!” Ebbo could not help exclaiming, “where will be room for chivalry?”

“Talk not old world nonsense,” said Theurdank; “chivalry is in the heart, not in the weapon.  A youth beforehand enough with the world to be building bridges should know that, when all our troops are provided with such an arm, then will their platoons in serried ranks be as a solid wall breathing fire, and as impregnable as the lines of English archers with long bows, or the phalanx of Macedon.  And, when each man bears a pistol instead of the misericorde, his life will be far more his own.”

Ebbo’s face was in full light, and his visitor marked his contracted brow and trembling lip.  “Ah!” he said, “thou hast had foul experience of these weapons.”

“Not mine own hurt,” said Ebbo; “that was but fair chance of war.”

“I understand,” said the knight; “it was the shot that severed the goodly bond that was so fair to see.  Young man, none has grieved more truly than King Max.”

“And well he may,” said Ebbo.  “He has not lost merely one of his best servants, but all the better half of another.”

“There is still stuff enough left to make that one well worth having,” said Theurdank, kindly grasping his hand, “though I would it were more substantial!  How didst get old Wolfgang down, boy?  He must have been a tough morsel for slight bones like these, even when better covered than now.  Come, tell me all.  I promised the Markgraf of Wurtemburg to look into the matter when I came to be guest at St. Ruprecht’s cloister, and I have some small interest too with King Max.”

His kindliness and sympathy were more effectual with Ebbo than the desire to represent his case favourably, for he was still too wretched to care for policy; but he answered Theurdank’s questions readily, and explained how the idea of the bridge had originated in the vigil beside the broken waggons.

“I hope,” said Theurdank, “the merchants made up thy share?  These overthrown goods are a seignorial right of one or other of you lords of the bank.”

“True, Herr Ritter; but we deemed it unknightly to snatch at what travellers lost by misfortune.”

“Freiherr Eberhard, take my word for it, while thou thus holdest, all the arquebuses yet to be cut out of the Black Forest will not mar thy chivalry.  Where didst get these ways of thinking?”

“My brother was a very St. Sebastian!  My mother—”

“Ah! her sweet wise face would have shown it, even had not poor Kasimir of Adlerstein raved of her.  Ah! lad, thou hast crossed a case of true love there!  Canst not brook even such a gallant stepfather?”

“I may not,” said Ebbo, with spirit; “for with his last breath Schlangenwald owned that my own father died not at the hostel, but may now be alive as a Turkish slave.”

“The devil!” burst out Theurdank.  “Well! that might have been a pretty mess!  A Turkish slave, saidst thou!  What year chanced all this matter—thy grandfather’s murder and all the rest?”

“The year before my birth,” said Ebbo.  “It was in the September of 1475.”

“Ha!” muttered Theurdank, musing to himself; “that was the year the dotard Schenk got his overthrow at the fight of Rain on Sare from the Moslem.  Some composition was made by them, and old Wolfgang was not unlikely to have been the go-between.  So!  Say on, young knight,” he added, “let us to the matter in hand.  How rose the strife that kept back two troops from our—from the banner of the empire?”

Ebbo proceeded with the narration, and concluded it just as the bell now belonging to the chapel began to toll for compline, and Theurdank prepared to obey its summons, first, however, asking if he should send any one to the patient.  Ebbo thanked him, but said he needed no one till his mother should come after prayers.

“Nay, I told thee I had some leechcraft.  Thou art weary, and must rest more entirely;”—and, giving him little choice, Theurdank supported him with one arm while removing the pillows that propped him, then laid him tenderly down, saying, “Good night, and the saints bless thee, brave young knight.  Sleep well, and recover in spite of the leeches.  I cannot afford to lose both of you.”

Ebbo strove to follow mentally the services that were being performed in the chapel, and whose “Amens” and louder notes pealed up to him, devoid of the clear young tones that had sung their last here below, but swelled by grand bass notes that as much distracted Ebbo’s attention as the memory of his guest’s conversation; and he impatiently awaited his mother’s arrival.

At length, lamp in hand, she appeared with tears shining in her eyes, and bending over him said,

“He hath done honour to our blessed one, my Ebbo; he knelt by him, and crossed him with holy water, and when he led me from the chapel he told me any mother in Germany might envy me my two sons even now.  Thou must love him now, Ebbo.”

“Love him as one loves one’s loftiest model,” said Ebbo—“value the old castle the more for sheltering him.”

“Hath he made himself known to thee?”

“Not openly, but there is only one that he can be.”

Christina smiled, thankful that the work of pardon and reconciliation had been thus softened by the personal qualities of the enemy, whose conduct in the chapel had deeply moved her.

“Then all will be well, blessedly well,” she said.

“So I trust,” said Ebbo, “but the bell broke our converse, and he laid me down as tenderly as—O mother, if a father’s kindness be like his, I have truly somewhat to regain.”

“Knew he aught of the fell bargain?” whispered Christina.

“Not he, of course, save that it was a year of Turkish inroads.  He will speak more perchance to-morrow.  Mother, not a word to any one, nor let us betray our recognition unless it be his pleasure to make himself known.”

“Certainly not,” said Christina, remembering the danger that the household might revenge Friedel’s death if they knew the foe to be in their power.  Knowing as she did that Ebbo’s admiration was apt to be enthusiastic, and might now be rendered the more fervent by fever and solitude, she was still at a loss to understand his dazzled, fascinated state.

When Heinz entered, bringing the castle key, which was always laid under the Baron’s pillow, Ebbo made a movement with his hand that surprised them both, as if to send it elsewhere—then muttered, “No, no, not till he reveals himself,” and asked, “Where sleeps the guest?”

“In the grandmother’s room, which we fitted for a guest-chamber, little thinking who our first would be,” said his mother.

“Never fear, lady; we will have a care to him,” said Heinz, somewhat grimly.

“Yes, have a care,” said Ebbo, wearily; “and take care all due honour is shown to him!  Good night, Heinz.”

“Gracious lady,” said Heinz, when by a sign he had intimated to her his desire of speaking with her unobserved by the Baron, “never fear; I know who the fellow is as well as you do.  I shall be at the foot of the stairs, and woe to whoever tries to step up them past me.”

“There is no reason to apprehend treason, Heinz, yet to be on our guard can do no harm.”

“Nay, lady, I could look to the gear for the oubliette if you would speak the word.”

“For heaven’s sake, no, Heinz.  This man has come hither trusting to our honour, and you could not do your lord a greater wrong, nor one that he could less pardon, than by any attempt on our guest.”

“Would that he had never eaten our bread!” muttered Heinz.  “Vipers be they all, and who knows what may come next?”

“Watch, watch, Heinz; that is all,” implored Christina, “and, above all, not a word to any one else.”

And Christina dismissed the man-at-arms gruff and sullen, and herself retired ill at ease between fears of, and for, the unwelcome guest whose strange powers of fascination had rendered her, in his absence, doubly distrustful.

CHAPTER XXI
RITTER THEURDANK

The snow fell all night without ceasing, and was still falling on the morrow, when the guest explained his desire of paying a short visit to the young Baron, and then taking his departure.  Christina would gladly have been quit of him, but she felt bound to remonstrate, for their mountain was absolutely impassable during a fall of snow, above all when accompanied by wind, since the drifts concealed fearful abysses, and the shifting masses insured destruction to the unwary wayfarer; nay, natives themselves had perished between the hamlet and the castle.

“Not the hardiest cragsman, not my son himself,” she said, “could venture on such a morning to guide you to—”

“Whither, gracious dame?” asked Theurdank, half smiling.

“Nay, sir, I would not utter what you would not make known.”

“You know me then?”

“Surely, sir, for our noble foe, whose generous trust in our honour must win my son’s heart.”

“So!” he said, with a peculiar smile, “Theurdank—Dankwart—I see!  May I ask if your son likewise smelt out the Schlangenwald?”

“Verily, Sir Count, my Ebbo is not easily deceived.  He said our guest could be but one man in all the empire.”

Theurdank smiled again, saying, “Then, lady, you shudder not at a man whose kin and yours have shed so much of one another’s blood?”

“Nay, ghostly knight, I regard you as no more stained therewith than are my sons by the deeds of their grandfather.”

“If there were more like you, lady,” returned Theurdank, “deadly feuds would soon be starved out.  May I to your son?  I have more to say to him, and I would fain hear his views of the storm.”

Christina could not be quite at ease with Theurdank in her son’s room, but she had no choice, and she knew that Heinz was watching on the turret stair, out of hearing indeed, but as ready to spring as a cat who sees her young ones in the hand of a child that she only half trusts.

Ebbo lay eagerly watching for his visitor, who greeted him with the same almost paternal kindness he had evinced the night before, but consulted him upon the way from the castle.  Ebbo confirmed his mother’s opinion that the path was impracticable so long as the snow fell, and the wind tossed it in wild drifts.

“We have been caught in snow,” he said, “and hard work have we had to get home!  Once indeed, after a bear hunt, we fully thought the castle stood before us, and lo! it was all a cruel snow mist in that mocking shape.  I was even about to climb our last Eagle’s Step, as I thought, when behold, it proved to be the very brink of the abyss.”

“Ah! these ravines are