King Eric and the Outlaws Volume I Part 7

Without looking at him, Ulrica began to sing,

"List ye then, Sir Palle!

No wrong do ye to me, When ma.s.s is sung and ended, In my car shall ye seated be."

"Sing not that accursed song, fairest of maidens!" interrupted Sir Palle; "I will not offend you; but believe me, loveliest of the lovely----"

Without heeding him, she now sang aloud,

"And then she clad her driver lad In purple robe so rare; In the driver's suit was quickly clad Gundelill', that maiden fair."

"Hush! I will not say a word more," interrupted Sir Palle again. "But if you knew how greatly I love and honour you----"

The sportive maiden set up a loud laugh, and continued to sing,

"Sir Palle then, the wealthy knight, Enters the car full bold, Salutes the driver with delight And in his arms doth fold.

"It was the lady Gundelille Who drove into the yard; She laughed, I tell ye, heartily At the jest he deemed so hard."

"Ha!~ that jest you shall dearly rue," whispered Palle, in a rage. "You sing sweetly," he said aloud; "remember you the whole ballad, fair lady? If you sing another verse," he whispered, "it shall cost you dear."

"Hush, dearest sister!" said Margaretha, in a tone of earnest entreaty; and Ulrica was silent.

Sir Palle now rode round to Drost Aage's side, and did not again address himself to the captive maiden. He was silent and gloomy. He had observed with great wrath a repressed smile on the Drost's countenance; and the huntsmen who followed them laughed, and whispered together in a manner which too plainly indicated that Sir Palle and his unfortunate love adventure were the subject of their ridicule. The two younger huntsmen were strongly, attached to Aage; they had remarked how little acceptable Sir Palle's company was to him; and they now, as if to beguile the time, began to hum the well-known ballad of the brave knight Helmer Blaa. In one of the many scenes of violence which were the consequences of the proscription of the outlawed regicides, Helmer Blaa had slain Sir Palle's uncle. On this account he had for a long time been barbarously persecuted by Sir Palle and his six brothers, until he at last vanquished all the six in honourable self-defence, and compelled Palle to give him his sister in marriage, who, before this feud, had been betrothed to the gallant knight. This occurrence (so derogatory to Sir Palle's reputation) had attracted general attention, and almost every young fellow in the country could repeat a ballad in honour of the bold Helmer Blaa, who had not only been acquitted by the king and whole body of knighthood, but stood also high in favour with Eric. The burden of the song,--

"In the saddle he rides so free,"

fell on Sir Palle's ear.

He looked back towards the huntsmen, with a face glowing with rage, but they appeared not to notice it; and one of them sang aloud,--

"Better I cannot counsel thee, That thou tarry not, but hence should'st flee, In the saddle he rides so free."

"Your huntsmen, Sir Drost, would drive me hence with vile songs, I perceive," said Sir Palle, turning to Aage. "Is it you, or yonder pretty maiden, who have inspired them with this pleasant conceit?"

"You are perhaps not a lover of song, Sir Palle?" answered Aage; "that is unfortunate: the merry fellows wish to beguile the time for us on the road."

"If I hear aright," growled Palle, "that song may perhaps shorten the road to heaven for both of them if it is not presently ended."

"Think you so?" answered Aage carelessly. "If you will give us your company you must reconcile yourself to our merriment. Haste to sing the song to the end," he called to the huntsmen, "or Sir Palle will be wroth;" and the huntsmen sang gaily,--

"In the town my true love shall ne'er hear it said That I before her brothers have fled.

"Full boldly rode Helmer her brothers to meet, His courage was equal to every feat.

"First Ove, then Lang, his eye did survey, And then did his sword come quick into play."

"S'death!" shouted Sir Palle, and his sword flew from the scabbard. "If ye _will_ have the sword come into play, you shall feel it too." So saying, he turned his horse, and rushed like a madman upon the huntsmen, who had not time to prepare for defence, ere his sword had cut through their jerkins, and inflicted one or two wounds. But the huntsmen, enraged at this sudden onset, drew their long hunting-knives, and threatened a b.l.o.o.d.y revenge. Ulrica shrieked on hearing the affray, and the elder sister turned pale. "Stop, knaves!" cried Aage, riding in between Palle and his antagonists: "two against one is not fair play. I will decide this matter alone with Sir Palle." The Drost had drawn his sword, and was expecting his opponent to turn towards him, but Sir Palle's horse seemed to have become suddenly skittish and unruly: it galloped off, on the road to Esrom, with its enraged master, whose spurs stuck in its sides, while he swore and brandished his sword over his head. The huntsmen laughed loudly at this sight. Ulrica joined in the laugh; and as soon as the slight wounds of the huntsmen had been bound up, the party pursued their journey, though in a different direction from that in which they had set out.

"I must have been mistaken," said Drost Aage to the huntsmen. "It could hardly have been to Kallundborg, but rather to Vordingborg, that the king commanded me to accompany these ladies; there he, and not Prince Christopher, is ruler. If there was other meaning in his words, I will be answerable for it." As they turned into a bye road, a tall man in a peasant's dress, mounted on a small peasant's horse, without a saddle, started out of the thicket by the road side, and suddenly disappeared again among the bushes. "Kagge!" exclaimed Ulrica, with involuntary delight, and seized her sister's arm. Margaretha gave her a significant look, and she was silent, but often gazed restlessly around.

Drost Aage had heard the exclamation, and started. The name of Kagge was but too familiar to him. A squire of n.o.ble birth of this name had been among Eric Glipping's murderers at Finnerup; he had fled with the other outlaws to Norway, and was prohibited, on pain of death, from setting foot on Danish ground; had he, notwithstanding, been in the train of the captive maidens, their connection with so dangerous a traitor might operate greatly against them. This incident obliged the Drost to be on the watch over the security of his captives. Silent and anxious he pursued the journey.

CHAP. V.

Prince Christopher and his train meanwhile pursued their way to Sjoborg. They rode at a slow pace, to suit the convenience of the foreign prelate. The mysterious importance which Cardinal Isarnus knew how to a.s.sume as the pope's legate, and the reserve with which he evaded every close question, had worked up the prince to a pitch of anxious expectation, which he vainly endeavoured to hide. Isarnus appeared with a splendour corresponding to his high rank as a dignitary of the church; his richly attired attendants followed him at a respectful distance, together with his famulus and secretary; near him rode the Abbot of Esrom and two foreign ecclesiastics. Isarnus conversed with his countrymen and with the abbot by turns, in the Italian and Latin tongue: his converse with the prince and the margrave was short and abrupt, and carried on in almost unintelligible German.

He appeared, indeed, to avail himself of the want of a common language, by leaving every query unanswered to which he considered it might be impolitic to reply. In important negociations he made use of his famulus as an interpreter. Wherever this powerful prelate appeared in the country, he was the object of superst.i.tious awe. The unusual spectacle of the cardinal's red hat worked upon the imagination of the people like the appearance of a comet, and was considered to be as ominous of evil, as that dreaded phenomenon of the heavens. Some of the most ignorant among the lower orders even believed it was the pope himself who had arrived in Denmark to dethrone the king and excommunicate the kingdom; and it was not alone from reverence, but as much from fear, that the wonder-stricken peasants and old women especially, knelt down whenever they encountered the cardinal. His long, sallow, and imperturbable visage, with its expression of cool menace, and foreign aspect, combined with the preconceived notion of a supernatural and mysterious power, seemed endowed with the petrifying influence of Medusa's head.

"Dear Sir Pope! harm us not!" frequently whimpered forth the sick and crippled who knelt in his path. He understood them not, and no word proceeded from his thin compressed lips, but he extended his arm, with a cold unchanging mien, and with his three fingers, which sparkled with costly rings, signed over their uncovered heads the silent token of a blessing, which they feared would soon be changed into a curse, for the threats with which he had last left the king and the country, were generally made known through the fears of the clergy themselves, and their zealous exhortations to repentance.

Accompanied by this ecclesiastical scarecrow. Prince Christopher now approached Sjoborg. After several fruitless attempts to gain the confidence of the mysterious legate, the prince withdrew, leaving his place by the cardinal's side to the Abbot of Esrom and the other ecclesiastics, who conversed with him, in Latin, upon philosophical and theological subjects. The bold and joyous margrave rode by the side of Sir Helmer Blaa, and talked eagerly of campaigns and tournaments. The prince allowed them to pa.s.s him, and remained alone behind with the Swedish statesman, Drost Bruncke, to whom he appeared desirous of communicating something of importance ere they reached Sjoborg.

"You will now probably delay your homeward journey, Sir Drost!" said the prince, in a confidential tone. "That which yon mysterious guest brings with him may prove as important to your sovereign and to the Swedish council as to us."

"Perhaps it may alter the state of things here rather more than your royal house would wish," answered Bruncke, ambiguously; "what else can your highness mean?"

"Yonder red cloud is doubtless charged with holy lightnings," continued the prince, pointing to the cardinal, whose red hat flared through the trees in the moonlight. "If my stiff-necked brother does not now give in, misfortune stands at his door; such is ever the result of all half measures. An important state prisoner should be either timely buried, or else let loose. Was not that your opinion also, Sir Drost?"

"It is often the wisest policy," answered Bruncke. "The dead _cannot_ tell tales; and the generous, once restored to freedom, _will not_."

"You know the individual I allude to," continued the prince; "he will now either be let loose, and become perhaps more dangerous than ever, or the storm will burst which he hath conjured over us. .h.i.ther from Rome. He was as good as buried--that was my doing, but I got sorry thanks for it. Out of mistimed compa.s.sion he was brought up once more from the grave;--to spare a sick priest, they had the folly to let loose the bishop's understrapper, so that he was able to flee, and stir up heaven and earth to work our ruin. I then counselled a timely reconciliation; but when sternness should have been used they were weak and mild, and when reconciliation became the wisest policy they were stern and pertinacious. My counsel was never heeded; hate and disfavour were my thanks. The people will now have their eyes opened, and perhaps your young king also, provided he will be guided by his wisest counsellor."

"Very possibly, n.o.ble prince!" answered Bruncke, with a crafty smile; "but as yet I see not the danger, and even were I so fortunate as to perceive it, and to understand you, so long as Thorkild Knudson is at the head of state affairs, and in such high honour and favour"--he paused, and shrugged his shoulders.

"He rises but to fall," continued the prince, "should he even win my brother's favour also. By his friendship with your dangerous dukes, and the high alliance which is spoken of, he is sealing his own doom."

"That is very possible, your highness," answered Bruncke, with a malicious smile; "his vaunted wisdom is not infallible; with time cometh experience. Were but your royal brother only not so ardent a lover, and our fair princess somewhat less devoted to him"--

"Childish fancies!" interrupted the prince. "State policy alone, not childish folly, should counsel here. Your young king hastes not so with his marriage, and therein he acts wisely. Between ourselves, Bruncke,"--here he whispered confidentially, while he nearly drew bridle,--"my sister Merete is little suited to your king, but his soft-hearted sister is still less so to my brother. This double alliance will be ruinous for both kingdoms. You may easily come to share our unhappy position with regard to the papal see; and if enmity breaks out betwixt your king and his ambitious brother, there is no doubt against whom Princess Ingeborg, as queen, will arm Denmark and my enamoured brother. That she holds the haughty warlike duke, Eric, far dearer than his crowned brother, you know yourself much better than I."

"Truly, I cannot but admire your highness's policy," replied Bruncke, in a fawning tone, while his wily glance seemed to penetrate the prince's most secret thoughts. "You are as wise as generous; prizing Denmark and Sweden's happiness higher than your own sister's and brother's domestic felicity! Here I recognise the lofty, princely spirit, which soars above the petty interests of private life. But, to speak truly, I see not how this double alliance can be prevented or broken off, without a breach of peace, while your royal brother sways here, and follows nought but his own inclinations."

"We must have time, Bruncke" whispered the prince; "the guest we bring him to-night will soon change the aspect of affairs in Denmark. I shudder myself to think of what may happen, but things cannot remain as they are; your young king will always need a wise counsellor, who can rule people and kingdom in his name. For this office no one is so fit as yourself. Set your head to work, sage Bruncke; if it should be endangered, you may count on me."