"I have shared your apprehensions, n.o.ble Drost! I blamed the king's impetuous procedure; I vainly strove to hinder these far too hasty steps. His purpose is inflexible. But amid all my fears for the consequences, I could not but admire the kingly spirit, which ventured so much for the support of royal dignity. In reliance on the justice of his cause, ere twice twenty-four hours King Eric will stand with his knights before Kallundborg, to teach obedience to his rebellious brother."

"The report was true, then, of the blockading of Kallundborg, and the new fortification?"

"Alas, yes! The king was greatly displeased at the junker's contumacy, but still more at his treacherous endeavour to hinder the marriage.--The wily Drost Bruncke hath betrayed him, probably with the view of causing a breach between the brothers, and stirring up tumult in the country."

"Hum! and the Dukes of Sleswig renew their former pretensions at the same time."

"They are probably in league with the junker; yet they have not scared the king.--If they have already forgotten the defeat at Gronsund, he will show them he dares face them on land also. Marsk Oluffsen is a.s.sembling all the foot forces against them at Hadersleben."

"And the archbishop and the cardinal, where are they?"

"Grand threatens from Bornholm, and Isarnus from Axelhuus. He demands safe conduct for the archbishop, and protests against the confiscation of the Lund church property. Bishop Johan of Roskild wavers. The enforcement of the interdict is dreaded."

"Merciful Heaven! and, amid all this, can the king think of his marriage?"

"The first of June he purposes to cross to Helsingborg, with a bridal train or an armed force. Yet, perhaps, that was but a hasty speech to me and the Marsk. The Lord forbid it should come to such extremity!"

"He draws the bow too tight; it must break. But one word more--the outlaws who were pursued; are they taken?"

"I know not; but their death doom is p.r.o.nounced, wherever they are found; the last murderous attempt hath rendered the king implacable--A price is set on every outlaw's head--Aage Kagge was on the expedition with Marsk Stig's daughters--There is now, a.s.suredly, little hope at present of the freedom of the unhappy maidens."

"They are innocent! by the Lord above, they are innocent!" exclaimed Aage, impetuously. "I must to the king; it is high time." He tore the sling from his left arm, and moved it somewhat stiffly. "It _shall_ do," he continued; "my right arm hath no one lamed. I must speed to Kallundborg to the king. If the castle is to be stormed--if the traitorous junker is to be chastised, leave that to me--against his own brother my king shall not himself bear sword and shield. Matters must have been carried far; his forbearance can hold out no longer."

"Still, however," interrupted Master Petrus, "he expressly enjoins you to spare the junker, wherever you meet him.--You are to blockade Holbek with as little alarm as possible.--If you could even yet make peace between the brothers, n.o.ble Drost! you would perhaps save state and kingdom."

The door of the ladies' apartment now opened, and the commandant returned. "Your morning repast will be cold, my honoured guests," he said, courteously; "but what see I, Sir Drost? Your arm is not in the sling?"

"It can and must be dispensed with," answered Aage. "You have spoilt me here; you have been much too prudent and watchful. I have now to thank you and your n.o.ble captives for your kindly care. The king needs strong arms and swords. Can you instantly furnish me with two hundred men from the garrison here?"

"Two hundred men shall stand fully armed and in the court-yard here within an hour, if you, as Drost, command it in the king's name,"

answered Sir Ribolt. "Dare I ask their destination?"

"I march to Holbek and Kallundborg. There is the king's name and seal for it."--He gave him the king's letter. "It is for you also--but it is to go no farther than ourselves."

"Against the junker? merciful Heaven! Sir Drost, is it possible?"

exclaimed the commandant, clasping his hands in the greatest astonishment.

"The junker hath taken a fancy to add new fortifications, and shut the gates against the king's men, as you know. It is probably only an unfortunate jest, or a misunderstanding; but you see yourself such gates must be forced betimes, when the king is on the road, and would enter therein. Two hundred men, then, within an hour, but with as little stir as possible, of course!"

"You shall find all ready ere it rings to high ma.s.s," answered the commandant, with calm determination. "But your wound, Sir Drost! Can you yourself ride forth without danger? Otherwise the task is mine?"

"With or without danger I must--I will onward," answered Aage. "When it rings for high ma.s.s, then; and secrecy is expedient--Let it concern a hunt after the outlaws--Understand you?"

"Right! that shall be the belief in the castle here within the half hour." So saying, Sir Ribolt hasted into the castle-yard, and Drost Aage went with Master Petrus into the ladies' apartment.

CHAP. XI.

The state of feverish anxiety into which Aage had been thrown, had called the colour into his cheek, and restored the appearance of health to his countenance. In the s.p.a.cious apartment appropriated to the female inmates of the castle, where strangers were received, and where the household a.s.sembled on holidays before divine service, Aage and Master Petrus were received by the aged mistress of the castle, who herself presented the guests their warm morning drink in cups of polished silver. At a large round table in the middle of the apartment, which was covered with a white fringed woollen table-cloth, sat the two German minstrels, with the smoking cups before them, in pleasant converse with the ladies. Ulrica questioned them, with curiosity, of their visits to foreign princes, in whose praise and exaltation Master Rumelant was as inexhaustible as he was unwearied in reckoning up all the honour he had gained by his lays with these "excellent lords, his august and most gracious patrons."

Margaretha also took part in the conversation with the strangers; but she was more modest in her queries. She was much more interested in their art than in the good fortune they had sought and obtained by it from the great. The solemn Master Poppe favoured her with a detailed account of the genius and lays of the famous Minnesingers, whose most flourishing period Master Poppe a.s.serted could only be supposed by the ignorant to have pa.s.sed away. He affirmed, on the contrary, that the n.o.ble art of minstrelsy had only now for the first time fully developed itself on higher themes,--in the praise of moral truth and seraphic beauty. Minstrels no longer repeated the monotonous praises of verdant May, or of the beauty of earthly females and vain loves, but now in the same, or even in a more regular measure, sang moral or religious themes and important theological dogmas. He could not, however, deny that the ancient love songs possessed a degree of pathos and animation which even his good friends Master Henrick Frauenlob and a certain Master Regenbogen, as well as the famous schoolmaster of Esslingen, with all their learning, vainly strove to attain. Meanwhile he deemed it very fortunate that, as princes and emperors no longer, as in former times, devoted themselves to the n.o.ble art of minstrelsy, now cultivated chiefly by the honest burgher cla.s.s, there still were lords and princes, like the King of Denmark, to honour and encourage the art, and that the minstrel's lay yet resounded in knightly halls and in the apartments of n.o.ble ladies. He lauded the poetic spirit of the chivalrous poetry of Denmark, but still considered it, as well as the love songs, too vain and worldly; a charge which Margaretha took much to heart, although she readily admitted to the learned minstrel, that all the Danish ballads she knew and admired treated of love adventures; not a single one on scriptural or theological subjects.

When Drost Aage entered the ladies' apartment, Margaretha rose to return his greeting, and observed, with some uneasiness, that he had thrown aside his sling. Her attention to Master Poppe's discourse was at an end, and she entreated him to excuse, that she, as an attendant on a wounded patient, had an occupation which could not be postponed.

"Pardon me, Sir Drost!" she said to Aage, and pointed to his unswathed arm. "This is not according to agreement; yet you seem to have the use of your arm," she added, when she perceived how easily he moved it.

"The wound is healed in some sort. With caution you may use it, in moderation. But the stiff neck bandage----"

"That I shall wear in remembrance of you, until we meet again, n.o.ble maiden!" answered Aage; "although I almost think it might be dispensed with. Within an hour I must leave the castle. That I am able to do so I owe to your skill and unwearied care. I think soon to see my n.o.ble master the king," he added, in a low voice, as he drew her to a recess in the window fronting the castle garden; "but the suitable time for effecting any thing towards your liberation is, alas! hardly come as yet."

"We ask no clemency from our earthly judges, but only that which is just and reasonable," answered Margaretha, with calm seriousness. "I should have thought all times were equally convenient to a good sovereign for hearing the justification of the innocent."

"It would grieve me deeply, n.o.ble Lady Margaretha!" said Aage, "if my just-intentioned sovereign were for a moment to seem unjust in your eyes; but your case now appears dark and intricate to those who are not, as I am, acquainted with your pious sentiments and admirable conduct. It is known that the traitorous squire Kagge was in your company--your unfortunate confidence in that miscreant brought suspicion on your innocence, and places you under a cloud; but, by the living Lord! I will justify you. If earthly justice is blind, the judgment of Heaven and my knightly sword shall surely open her eyes!"

"No, dear Drost!" exclaimed Margaretha, half alarmed; "if you will peril your precious life in any cause, let it be in that higher and more important one to which you have dedicated it, but not for the fate of two insignificant captives. To suffer injustice is, besides, surely not the greatest misfortune," she added, with a look of mildness and love, as she raised her long-fringed eyelids, and gazed through the window panes up to the clear heavens. "Do not hasten rashly for our sake; we will willingly wait for the Lord and for his appointed hour.

When we think but on the injustice our Lord suffered for our sakes, we may surely bear our little cross throughout a short life for his sake.

The blessing of Heaven be with you, n.o.ble Drost Aage!" she continued; "heartfelt thanks for the kindness with which you have rendered our captivity imperceptible. We shall miss you very much. I shall, no doubt, forget how to play at chess; but what we have spoken together at the chessboard I can never forget. The sweet ballads you taught me I shall also remember; and when we maidens talk of Florez and Blantseflor, we will remember you also, and the quiet evenings by the hearth here, and all the beautiful tales of chivalry you told us. If the king comes. .h.i.ther in the spring, as they say, you will surely come with him?"

"Perhaps," answered Aage; "at any rate I will please myself with that hope. But where the king or his true knights will be in the spring it hardly lies in his power to determine, n.o.ble maiden. It is a dangerous and troublous time. May the Lord order all things for us for the best!"

"He will do so a.s.suredly, and always, dear Drost!" said Margaretha, in a confiding and friendly tone, as she laid her hand on his right arm, which rested on the cas.e.m.e.nt of the large window. "Even that which seems worst and most unfortunate to us turns out at last to be the best, if no sin be in it. This captivity, which a few weeks back appeared so terrible to me, hath notwithstanding been the happiest time I have pa.s.sed since my father and mother died."

"Sweet Margaretha!" whispered Aage, with subdued fervour, laying his left hand on hers, which still rested upon his right arm; "dare I hope I have the smallest share in that heavenly peace and joy which I daily see beaming from your meek and loving eyes? Your hope and peace are doubtless drawn from the fountain of Eternal Life; such joys come not to you from any human source."

"In every n.o.ble and pious heart a.s.suredly there shines a ray from yon source of Eternal Life!" answered Margaretha; "though its deepest source be hid in the heart of the Redeemer, which bled for our sakes, that it might include every soul in its unfathomable depths of grace and commiserating love."

"Most precious of beings!" exclaimed Aage, with overflowing emotion; "dare I hope that which I dare not utter?" He paused; then added, in a calmer tone, "Will you, then, really miss me at times, and sing the songs I taught you?"

"Indeed, indeed I will--but the stranger guest would talk with you, Sir Drost!" interrupted Margaretha, hastily, and blushing as she withdrew her hand. "As I told you," she added aloud, as she stepped forward with Aage out of the recess, and vainly sought to hide her bashfulness and confusion; "the bandage round your neck you must keep on, and the sling to support your arm."

"If it is convenient to you. Sir Drost!" said Master Petrus, who had modestly approached, without interrupting his conversation with the fair maiden, "we might now perhaps conclude our affairs in your private chamber."

"I will attend you instantly, venerable Sir! Permit me but a parting word to the n.o.ble and hospitable hostess."

"And to me also, surely, Sir Drost! although we have never been exactly able to agree?" interrupted Ulrica, rising from the table, where Master Rumelant's panegyrics on his excellent lords and Mecaenases already began to weary her.

After many reciprocal expressions of courtesy, which, however, were not wanting in sincerity and heartfelt goodwill, the Drost left the ladies'

apartment with Master Petrus; but the object on which his eye lingered the longest was the fair Lady Margaretha. As it rang for ma.s.s in Vordingborg town, Drost Aage, clad in complete armour, rode out of the castle gate at the head of two thirds of the garrison of the fortress.

At the same time the lady of the castle drove to church with the two captive maidens. At the cross-road before the fortress Drost Aage once more turned round and saluted the ladies in the car. He observed with pleasure a white veil waving from the car in the meek Margaretha's hand. The car was followed to church by Sir Ribolt, accompanied by the three strangers on horseback.

"Whither goes the Drost, with all those men-at-arms, Sir Ribolt?" asked Ulrica, inquisitively, as she put her head out of the car; "there is surely neither war nor rebellion here?"

"They go but to rid the land of the outlaws and other vagabonds,"

answered Sir Ribolt. "The a.s.sa.s.sin who attacked the Drost it seems hath been taken already," he added, in a careless tone, without recollecting the connection of the captive maidens with these turbulent and hated characters, and without remarking that the lively querist turned pale.

"What ails thee, sweet child? Canst thou not endure to sit backward?"

asked the watchful mistress of the castle. "Come, change places with me; I can bear it."