King Eric and the Outlaws Volume Ii Part 13

"If he errs in the one thing needful, and if the highest and most sacred truths, as well as all that is beautiful and n.o.ble, are in his estimation nothing but folly," observed Aage, "I have but little confidence in his knowledge of less important matters; and I would not give much for all the rest of his learning."

"I thus judged once myself, of the sciences and arts that teach us but earthly things," answered the Icelander, "but while I was at the foreign universities a new light dawned upon me. I am indeed far from calling (like my learned travelling companion) the revelation of deity in nature the only true one, by which, as you have rightly observed, he hath in his inconsiderate zeal, betrayed a highly erroneous opinion; but even the wisdom of the heathen in worldly concerns is in nowise to be despised, and I have never seen anything that hath more strengthened my faith in the Almighty power and wisdom of the Triune G.o.d, than the marvellous effects of the powers of nature, with which this singular man hath made me acquainted."

"What hath he shown you, then, of such great importance? Master Laurentius!" asked Aage.

"I have seen effects of his art, which I should in common with the ignorant mult.i.tude, and my prejudiced colleagues, have taken to be witchcraft and the work of the devil," answered the Icelander eagerly, "had he not explained them to me by the powers of nature, and from the great misjudged Roger Bacon's 'Opus Majus,' of which he carries a rare and invaluable ma.n.u.script with him. Not to speak of his great knowledge of plants and animals, and the properties and composition of metals; what most hath captivated me is all that points to the soul's dominion over time and decay, over life and death, over the universe, and all pa.s.sive powers in nature. He affirms that by his art alone, without supernatural aid, he is able to preserve youth, and prevent the infirmities of age; he knows the course of the heavens, and the influence of the stars on human life; he hath a number of artful gla.s.ses, by which he is almost able to see the invisible; but his greatest and most wondrous art is the preparation of an inextinguishable fire, with which he imitates the thunder and lightning of the heavens. He hath shewn me a specimen of it, which hath astonished me. With a single handful of that subtle combustible matter, he can produce such an amazing thunder-clap, that the strongest wall would be rent by it, and such a burst of consuming flame, that he who rightly understands its powers, would be able to destroy a whole army with it, and devastate castles and towns."

The knights stared in amazement at the Icelander, and some crossed themselves. "It is impossible! That no man can do! it cannot be done by natural means!--it must be done by witchcraft and devilry!" said the one to the other.

Drost Aage was silent, and looked sharply and gravely at the Icelander.

"I hold you neither for an unwise man, nor for one who would deal in falsehood and deceit, good Master Laurentius!" he at length began, "although what you tell us of your learned companion borders on the incredible--but are you not yourself deceived? You say you have but known this man of miracles a short time. In your admiration of his arts and his rare knowledge of the secrets of nature, you have concerned yourself but little about his principles and way of thinking, which, however, I consider to be the most important points in every man's character, whether he be scholar or layman. If he is not a juggler or braggart, I fear he is something worse. He would fain have us laymen believe he had found the philosopher's stone. Those who talk openly of such things are generally enthusiasts or impostors."

"That which is above our understanding, Sir Drost," answered the Icelander, "we are but too apt to misjudge as folly, or the invention of the evil-minded--but here our own self-conceit and vanity are to blame. That which the wisest men in the world have so long mused upon, cannot a.s.suredly be an absurd imagination, and I doubt not the philosopher's stone will and must one day be found--if it be not found already. Perhaps we may meet at Skanor fair, Sir Drost!" he added, rising to depart, "My learned friend and travelling companion doth not visit princes and n.o.bles only--the enlightenment of the ignorant vulgar is a more important object to him. I accompany him as amanuensis, partly from a present necessity, which I blush not to acknowledge, and in this lay mantle, that I may not give offence to my prejudiced colleagues; but I learn much in this way, and, as I said--I trust to return more rich in knowledge from these worldly bye-paths to the service of St. Olaf, and to my most venerable friend and protector at Nidaros, who probably may soon need support in the cause against his unruly canons."

The conversation was now broken off with the Iceland clerk, as Sir Helmer rushed almost breathless into the apartment. "It _was_ Kagge!

Drost! there is no doubt of it," exclaimed Helmer, "but, by Satan!--he is already on board the Rostock vessel."

"Who? the dead Kagge? dream ye, Helmer? Was it he ye meant before?"

"He, and none other--the base regicide! as surely as I have eyes and ears. He hath both his beard and eye-brows shaved; but I know his fox's face and screeching voice; the dull Rostocker mentioned his name himself in his drunkenness, out of defiance and pride. They insulted me in the ancient coa.r.s.e fashion I will not name, and pushed off from sh.o.r.e with the outlaw before mine eyes."

"We must arrest them at Skanor tomorrow," answered Aage, "if the criminal is on board the Rostock vessel, he hath now peace and respite of life under the Hanse flag and the Lubeck law; but whenever he sets foot on Danish ground he dies! Such pestilent ware no Hanseatic hath the privilege of unloading." They then retired to rest. The Iceland clerk had gone, and no more was seen of either him or the learned Thrand Fistlier. The account they had heard of this worker of wonders continued, however, till a late hour in the night, the theme of the knights' conversation at the drinking table.

CHAP. XIV.

Drost Aage retired to rest in silence, but he vainly tried to sleep. He was uncertain whether he ought not instantly to have captured the two overbearing Hanseatics on the ground of their former menace at Sjoberg; here they were no longer amba.s.sadors and privileged persons. If they had circulated false coin, and openly protected an outlaw upon Danish ground, they might with strict justice be called to account. The knowledge that the base Kagge still lived also disquieted him; but what still more banished sleep from the Drost's eyes, was the idea of the mysterious Master Thrand, and his wondrous arts. That a human being possessed such a power over nature as to be able to imitate the thunder and lightning of the heavens, with all their terrific effects, appeared to him an amazing prodigy, and what the enthusiastic Master Laurentius had said of the still deeper views of his master--of the preservation of youth by a mysterious art, and of the philosopher's stone, as something actually existent in nature, had especially inspired the meditative and somewhat visionary Aage with singular musings.

The countenance and mountebank deportment of the little deformed philosopher, had, indeed, awakened great doubts of his honesty, and what Aage had comprehended of his expressions appeared to him strange and confused, as opposed to what he had been piously taught in childhood regarding the highest and eternal truths in which, despite his unhappy excommunication, he had been confirmed by his confessor, Master Petrus de Dacia, who had succeeded in making him at peace with himself and the church. But the Iceland clerk's ardent enthusiasm for Master Thrand and his worldly wisdom had not been without its effect; and Aage was forced to confess there lay an acuteness and intelligence in the little mountebank's eye which he had never seen equalled in any of the pious and learned men he knew. Laurentius's open and ingenuous countenance bore witness also to the truth of his testimony as to what he had seen and admired in the disciple of the famous Roger Bacon; and the longer Aage pondered on what he had heard, the more doubts and strange thoughts crowded upon his mind. Master Thrand's contempt of the age in which he lived, and the confidence with which he expressed himself respecting the only true revelation of nature with which he was, above all, conversant, had also excited a feeling of strange and painful uneasiness in Aage's mind. The melancholy knight had often, when oppressed by the thought of his excommunication, sought peace and tranquillity in the contemplation of nature in lonely nights under a calm and starry sky, without, however, feeling able to dispense with the comfort and consolation of the church. He now stood, with his arms folded, in his sleeping chamber, gazing out on the gloomy heavens.

"Were it possible!" said he to himself. "Am I wandering here with all my contemporaries in thick darkness? Know we neither our own nature nor that around us? Are all our purposes and energies but as the gropings of the blind, without aim or object? Will the time come when children will jeer at us as erring fools and insane dreamers, scared by what did not exist, and amused by empty juggling? Can this be? Can even that which is most high and sacred, which we have believed in and lived for with our fathers--for which thousands of inspired martyrs have died with a halo of glory around their beaming countenances--for which our pilgrims and Crusaders wend to Jerusalem, and renounce all the riches and treasures of this world--which was the spring of action in our ancestors' lives as our own, and made them heroes and conquerors in life and death--could all that be dreaming, deception, and ignorance?

Could the existence and achievements of whole centuries have been a monstrous lie? No! No! If yonder fellow be not a liar and a cheat, there is neither truth, nor life, nor redemption, nor salvation." He shrunk with horror from his own thoughts. A sound now reached his ears which, at this moment, almost struck him with dismay. He fancied he once more heard the voice of the mysterious stranger close beside him.

"Darest thou not yet face the naked truth? my dear Laurentius!" sounded the shrill voice of the philosopher, slowly and solemnly through the thin wooden part.i.tion of the adjoining chamber. "Dost thou dread to enter into the holy calling of a Leccar Brother, and priest of nature?

Dost thou tremble at an initiation into the great church of the world, of which we are all originally priests; we who have eyes for truth, and courage to announce it, despite the repeated outcry of the fools of thirteen centuries! Look, I open unto thee the great sanctuary in the name of truth and science, and in the sight of that deity who dwells in the breast of the initiated. Cast off the miserable prejudices of thy time! Throw down the phantom thou callest the Church, and a saving faith, with the same strength with which thou hast rejected the senseless fables of heathenism! Cast off all that was not given thee when thou becamest a human being! Rid thyself of all exploded and worn out doctrines--cast off the whole puerile tissue of phantasms and visions of crude ages, which thou callest Revelation! Divest thyself of thy preconceptions regarding the essence of things, and of all the pomp and imagery thou callest poetry! Then gaze freely around thee, and tell me what remains!"

"Nothing! nothing! learned master!" answered the voice of the young Icelander, in a desponding tone.

"Yes, a.s.suredly!" was the answer; "thou thyself remainest, and great eternal nature, and, if thou wilt, a great and mighty deity, which is the soul and life of this nature of which thou art thyself a part--all truth, all wisdom lie slumbering and buried there. Wake it if thou canst! Call forth deity in thyself and in nature! Rule it by that mighty art! Ask boldly, and force it to respond!"

"That I am not able to do, my wise master!" said the voice of the young Icelander, within the part.i.tion; "but could I wake lifeless nature, and force her to solve the mysteries I gaze upon, would she answer aught else than what the dead have ever answered the living, what the dead Vola[11] answered Odin in our ancient poems, what the spirit of Samuel answered Saul in the presence of the Witch of Endor:--'Thou shalt die!

to-morrow thou shalt die!'"

"Well," resumed the philosopher, "were the answer not much more cheering, if it were but truth could a philosopher, a Leccar Brother, a priest of nature and truth demand or wish it otherwise? You _will_ have flattery, you _will_ all of you be cheated and deceived--therefore you cling so fast to that flattering lie, but hate and persecute truth as unG.o.dliness, heresy, or devilry--therefore are popes and bishops, like the prophets and evangelists of old, still able to lead the whole human race blindfold round in an eternal circle of error from one age to another until they have their eyes opened, and see that they stand where their blind fathers stood, by the closed book of nature, which amid their dreaming they have forgotten to open through the lapse of ages. Look! there thou standest, my pupil! and art ready to despair, because all that fair jugglery hath vanished and been blown away by my breath as it were a spider's web, or bubbles of air! and thou seest nought but one enormous lifeless body which I call nature.--But look!

the lifeless body wakes! 'Tis deity, and yet our slave,--obedient to the mightier manifestation of deity within us. Only through our means can nature's deity awake to consciousness and self-knowledge. In us, and in our will alone lives the only true G.o.d we should obey. Courage, Laurentius!--courage! Truth must make its way--the slumbering and disguised G.o.d of nature must be wakened and unveiled. It must open to us its vast recesses, it must restore to us what it hath robbed and hidden--the philosopher's stone must be found, even though its workings should seem to us eternal death and petrifaction."

All was again hushed in the adjoining chamber; Aage had thrown open a window, and the cool night air streamed in upon him; the sky had become clear--Aage raised his eyes towards the starry vault, he grasped the cross-hilt of his sword, a heavy load oppressed his heart, he bent his knee in silent devotion, and rose, feeling that his prayer was answered by the return of a calm and cheerful frame of mind. "To G.o.d be thanks and praise! I know better however," he said, with a feeling of consolation. "He, within there, is a liar and deceiver, as surely as _He_ above is love itself! and He whom He sent unto us was the way, the truth, and the life!" Aage was now about to betake himself to rest, but the voice of the learned Master Thrand again caught his ear. The young Icelander he heard no more. German was now spoken, but in a low whispering tone, and the talk seemed to be on worldly matters. Aage tried not to overhear anything; it was repugnant to his feelings, and appeared to him dishonourable and unworthy, to become a concealed witness to the secrets of others. He thought of knocking to give notice of his presence and the thinness of the part.i.tion; but, at this moment, he heard the name of "Grand" mentioned, and he started. The whispering continued for a long time afterwards, and he caught words which caused him the greatest uneasiness. The talk was of the king and Junker Christopher, of the outlaws, of death, and downfall; but what it was he could neither hear nor comprehend, with any distinctness. At last all became silent. He conjectured that his foreign neighbour had left the inn, and towards morning Aage fell asleep. When he was awakened at dawn by his squire, in order to embark in a Swedish vessel, he had dreamt the most marvellous things. He fancied he had beheld an entirely changed world; without monasteries and monks, without fortified castles, without the images of the Madonna and the saints, without kings and thrones, even without women and children, and with nothing but men, with keen staring eyes and diminutive and deformed bodies, like Master Thrand's. At last it seemed to him that the sun was burnt out and hung, like a great black coal, over his head; that the moon and all the stars were pulled down and used instead of stones, for fences and inclosures round small withered cabbage gardens. All trees and flowers were torn up and peeled into fibres; all birds and animals lay slaughtered and cut open; and the little hump-backed men sat, with great spectacles, examining the putrified carcases. All that he beheld,--the whole subverted and disjointed world, seemed to him at last metamorphosed into one enormous ma.s.s of stone, and a terrific voice sounded over the petrified world, and cried "Behold! _This_ is thy world! _this_ is thy G.o.d! _this_ is the philosopher's stone!" Amid his dismay at hearing this voice, Aage awakened, just as his brisk squire knocked at his door, still so confused by his dream that he could not distinguish between what he had dreamed, and what he thought he had heard from behind the part.i.tion.

CHAP. XV.

At the fair of Skanor a great number of persons of all cla.s.ses were a.s.sembled. It was thronged with skippers and merchants from every part of the world, but especially from Hamburgh, Lubeck, Rostock, Deventer, and Overyssel. These last were chiefly dealers in spices. They brought hither the most costly groceries to market from Venice and Genoa: wares were here to be seen even from India, Persia, and Egypt, which these enterprising traders had brought down the Rhine, and with which they journeyed to northern lands. Here lay many English vessels laden with wine; but what especially struck the eye were the splendid a.s.sortments of cloths, of all colours, which waved like flags from the vessels in the harbour, and lay in large bales in the streets under tents or wooden sheds.

The situation of Skanor was advantageous for trade. The town extended quite to the sh.o.r.e of the coast of Skania, between Falsterbo and Malmoe. It lay to the north of Falsterbo, and was both larger and much more ancient than that town. Over the gate of the place was a stone with an inscription, in the ancient Scanian language, which bore witness to the antiquity of the town, and which afterwards ran thus in more modern rhyme:

"Lund and Skanor throve apace, When Christ appeared to bring us grace."

The great fairs of the town were particularly famed, and, during fair-time, many persons crossed over from Zealand. On the whole the intercourse between Scania and the Danish provinces was far more frequent than in aftertime, when this beautiful province, which bore the closest affinity to Zealand, was dismembered from the kingdom. Amid the crowd of visitors at the fair were seen knights, monks, and burghers of towns, both from Zealand and Scania, among peasants, knights' ladies, and gaily-attired dairy and kitchen maids from the nearest lordly castles, as well as ragged beggars and pretty country maidens, in the national costumes of Scania and Halland. The fair was thronged with musicians and jugglers of all kinds. Rosaries and little images of saints were exposed for sale by the side of every description of worldly wares and foreign luxuries.

Over the two best stocked and most frequented booths at the fair, waved Henrik Gullandsfar's and Berner Kopmand's well-known flag and sign--a griffin and a dragon, with a bundle of lances tied together, and with the Lubek charter in their claws, defending their treasures against a troop of robbers in knightly attire, and ridiculously caricatured.

These great merchants who had their agents, or resident grocers'

apprentices, in the town, did not attend the sale of their goods in person, but were present at the unloading of their ships, to watch that no toll was demanded, contrary to the privileges of trade. The sound of music and dancing was heard in the taverns, and all places of entertainment. German ale and wine were poured out in abundance for the rich guests at the fair, while the poorer were content with Scanian and Zealand ale. Towards evening many drunken persons were to be seen; here and there disputes and fights occurred, and the provost with the watchmen and armed constables of the town were often forced to interfere.

What attracted most attention at Skanor fair at this time was a booth hung with coloured lamps, close to the quay, where fireworks were exhibited, together with many new and curious sights, at which the spectators wondered and crossed themselves as though they beheld the delusions of the evil one. Here the learned Master Thrand had erected his optical theatre. He stood himself on a raised platform and harangued the mob on the excellence of his masterpieces, and their great superiority over all the relics, amulets, and false panacea with which people suffered themselves to be imposed upon by unlearned mountebanks and jugglers. He chiefly extolled his arts as being innocent, and grounded on the principles of nature; and invited the unprejudiced and sensible public to draw nearer, and attend to what he (rather, he said, for the sake of science and truth, than for worldly gain) was about to expound and exhibit. His admirer, the young Master Laurentius, who, in his red lay-mantle, was not suspected to be an ecclesiastic, zealously a.s.sisted him as an amanuensis, and collected from time to time in his hat, money from the spectators, but in a manner which showed that he was ashamed of this employment; to which, however, he had doubtless (though with another and more pious aim) been accustomed, when on the anniversaries of the dedication of St. Olaf's church at Nidaros, he had, as p[oe]nitentarius, collected alms for the treasury of the church.

Close by the booth of the distinguished and learned mountebank stood a light, under the image of the Madonna, in a little stone-walled chapel, where was also an iron-bound poor-box nailed fast upon a block. No merchant or skipper went to or from his ship without first kneeling here and depositing a piece of money in the box for the poor, and for the treasury of the Holy Virgin. In the evening there stood by this chapel, which went by the name of the Quay Chapel, Sir Helmer Blaa, who, with the Drost's squire Canute of Fyen, and some young knights of Aage's train, kept a sharp look out on every one who came up from the quay. The wind had been contrary all day, and the merchants were just come on sh.o.r.e. Berner Kopmand's Rostock vessel lay at anchor before them in the harbour. It had reached Skanor with a fair wind ere day-break. The indefatigable owner of the vessel had been on board the whole day superintending the unlading of the cargo, and ere it was dark, Sir Helmer thought he saw the outlawed fugitive on deck by his side. In case of the criminal's venturing to land preparations had been made for his seizure, with the knowledge of the provost; but the fugitive seemed not to purpose quitting his place of refuge. After vespers, however, Berner Kopmand and Henrik Gullandsfar landed with great parade, and a considerable train of armed seamen. They omitted not to cross themselves at the chapel, and to throw a loud-c.h.i.n.king offering into the poor-box, as they pa.s.sed by the knights with an air of proud defiance.

"How many false silver coins think ye are now in that box?" said Sir Helmer, aloud. The heavy Rostocker turned towards him with a look of rage; but Gullandsfar nudged his elbow with a grave look, and they pa.s.sed on. Helmer and the other young knights followed them, and seemed to have a great desire to chastise their arrogance.

Drost Aage had not neglected to attend Thrand Fistlier's performances, and the optic theatre with which he entertained the astonished visitors at the fair. He had bought of the artist some of his most remarkable and valuable inventions, and gained information of their application and use. He could not refuse his admiration to what he here saw of the famous discoveries of Roger Bacon, and observed the whole exhibition with attention. It consisted chiefly of small optical cases in which the powers of the magnifying gla.s.s were applied in a manner hitherto unknown in the North, and by which the artist excited great astonishment. What was seen in these boxes was not only the transformation of small animals into monsters, but even a figurative metamorphosis of the world in Master Thrand's own taste:--saints and martyrs, miraculous sights, and legendary pictures, processions of monks with the Host, the banners of the Madonna, and crucifixes, were represented in a ridiculous manner by the side of all the Grecian and Roman G.o.ds with their profanest love adventures. All this pa.s.sed in dim caricature before the eyes of the spectators, and gave place at last to a number of dazzling allegorical figures, intended to represent Wisdom, Philosophy, Freedom, Burgher Commerce, Political Economy, The Study of Nature, and other subjects of the same kind. As soon as it grew sufficiently dark for the purpose, Master Thrand exhibited small burning wheels, stars, and suns with many-coloured rays, which flew with a clear light into the air, and suddenly exploded with a slight report.

The Drost considered this last exhibition both beautiful and remarkable; all these things, however, were but trifles compared with what Master Laurentius had related of the matchless and wondrous feats which this mountebank was capable of performing. The sight of the small stars and suns which flew up over the sea and burst in the calm evening sky, afforded endless amus.e.m.e.nt to the spectators, to whom it seemed an entirely novel and incomprehensible phenomenon; but the people's admiration of this dazzling diversion as well as the beautiful fantastic spectacle itself in its aerial theatre, threw Aage into a singularly pensive mood.

This glimpse of a new and secret art, whose vast and hidden workings he had already heard mentioned, struck him as being the forerunner of that new era announced by the mysterious artist, in which all opinions and ideas should be reformed and enlarged, and all that was ancient should vanish like the mimic suns and stars now waning and disappearing over the sea. Aage could not forget the strange conversations he had heard between the artist and his pupil, of the delusive dream in which the whole Christian world was wandering. In the learned Master Thrand's peculiar conception of the doctrine of the notorious Leccar Brethren he saw but a haughty and contumacious insanity, which, should it ever become dominant, would subvert all that was beautiful and true, and sacred upon earth; his own dream of the petrified world was still fearfully present to his recollection. The noise and joyousness of the crowd became almost painful to him. At last he sought relief and freedom from these distressing thoughts in the little chapel of the quay. He bent his knee before the painted wooden image of the Madonna, who was here represented as usual with the child in her arms, and the globe of the world with a cross upon it, like a ball and sceptre in the child's hand. Aage had folded his hands in prayer, but as he turned his eyes on the image, it was suddenly illuminated by a ball of fire sent up from the artist's booth. The Madonna's image appeared to him in the vivid flash of light like a horribly grinning idol--at the same moment he heard a loud report in the air, resembling a clap of thunder, followed by shrieks of terror from women and children. The little chapel shook; the ancient worm-eaten image of the Virgin tottered, and fell down at his feet. He started up, and rushed out of the chapel. The joyousness of the people was changed to fear and wrath. Some women had fainted; the life of one had been seriously endangered; a Capuchin's beard had been singed by the explosion. "Witchcraft! Sorcery!" was re-echoed in the crowd. "Stone him!--Burn him! the accursed wizard! He is a heretic!" cried some. "He hath said he will draw off all worshippers from our Lady and the saints--he saith he will match his thunders against the Lord's himself.--Stone him! Burn him! Cast him upon the beach! Tear down the wizard's house!"

Amid all this commotion the enraged mob rushed upon the pyrotechnist's booth. The hapless little artist had hid himself with his amanuensis among some large boxes in an adjacent booth. Two of the enraged mob and a lay brother drew them forth from under the planks of the broken-down booth to give them up to the maltreatment of the mob. The provost and constables vainly strove to hinder these acts of violence. At last Drost Aage stepped forth, and cried in an authoritative voice, "Stop there, countrymen! Peace here, in the king's name! Secure these jugglers, but injure not a hair of their heads. They shall be judged and punished according to the law of the land if they cannot give account of themselves. What they have shewn us was done by natural means, my friends! These people know more than we do of the powers of nature; but they abuse their wisdom by boasting and juggling, and by scoffing at sacred things."

As soon as they heard the name of the king, and recognised his and the nation's favourite, the enraged mob was pacified. Thrand Fistlier and his amanuensis were instantly seized by the constables and conducted to the quay, with all their effects; followed by a great throng of people.

Drost Aage followed them himself on board a royal vessel, which was to sail next day to Helsingborg, and the captain, with his armed seamen, received orders to protect the captives from all injury.

As soon as the captive mountebank heard he was in safety, but was to be taken as a prisoner to a fortress, he looked around him with a proud smile, "My n.o.ble persecuted master was right," he said. "The age is not sufficiently matured for us and our compeers. It is dangerous to be wise among fools; even the least glimpse of the light which is to appear is, as yet, too strong for these weak-sighted barbarians. It is not the first time a great genius hath appeared a century too soon!"

"Silence, wretched juggler!" said Aage. "The great man whom thou dishonourest, by calling thy master, was a wise and pious monk, I have been told, but no juggler and self-appointed priest. Thank the holy Virgin and her Son, whom thou deniest, for thy life to-day! It is not for thy wisdom, but for thy folly, and the confusion thou wouldest spread among the people, that I have caused thee to be bound."

Ere Aage quitted the vessel he took Master Laurentius aside, and gazed on him with a look of thoughtful interest. "You are too good to be this juggler's attendant and apprentice," he said; "your blind admiration for his knowledge of the perishing things of time, hath caused you to deny and dishonour your own holy calling, and the high vocation to which you are dedicated. St. Olaf, and the souls entrusted to you, you have deserted for this deformed artificer of h.e.l.l-fire. From want and need you shall no longer be necessitated thus to degrade yourself. The captain of the vessel hath orders to care for your requirements; at Helsingborg he will provide you with suitable priest's attire, and money for your journey. To save your life, Master Laurentius, I have been forced to use you more hardly than I wished. When you arrive at Helsingborg, you are free and your own master; but your suspicious companion must, as a state prisoner, tarry the king's coming, and justify himself before him, if he can do so. It is known to me that he is a Leccar brother; as such it is forbidden to him to rove the country at large and mislead the people. I know, also, he wishes you to join his sect; but, I conjure you by that Almighty Lord and Master you have been near betraying--draw back, good Master Laurentius, and preserve your immortal soul! It hath a.s.suredly a higher and a worthier calling, if your countenance and warm enthusiasm for what is beautiful and true have not deceived me. The Lord be with you! farewell!" Aage quitted the ship without awaiting an answer from the deeply agitated youth, whose eyes were suffused with tears, and who vainly strove to reach him his fettered hand.

The Drost rowed back to Skanor. It was dark night, and there was a great stir and tumult on the quay. A quarrel and serious affray had arisen between the Drost's knights and the Hanseatic merchants, who had been chased from the inn and had taken flight towards the harbour.

Berner Kopmand and Henrik Gullandsfar, with their armed seamen, laid furiously about them, but could not compete in the dexterous use of their weapons with Sir Helmer and the other incensed young knights, who were supported by the Skanor burghers. "Cut the forgers down! The cheats! The overbearing dogs!" they shouted. "They have brought false coin here to the fair--they have outlaws on board!" The affray was serious and b.l.o.o.d.y. The Hanseatics withdrew, fighting, to their boats.

It was impossible for Aage to restore peace. The foreign merchants and the greater part of their seamen at last escaped to their ships, under cover of the night. They instantly hoisted sail. It was not until they were in the open sea that the knights missed Sir Helmer and the Drost's most active squire, Canute of Fyen.