King Matthias and the Beggar Boy Part 10

"I don't know," said the girl--"I don't know! There! read what he says."

And she handed Michael a letter.

"The king's writing!" he exclaimed; and then he read with a beating heart:--

"MY LITTLE SISTER[13] ESTHER,--Your parents came of distinguished ancestry. You are an orphan; Mr. Samson got possession of all that belonged to you, and since he has paid the penalty of his crimes, his property has come into our treasury. We have lately heard from Munkacs that he has died a natural death, and we are willing to restore a portion of his possessions to you, if you on your part are willing to give your hand to one of our 'Supreme Counts,'[14] a man of very ancient family. If you cannot make up your mind to this, my little sister, then you must go away from here; for your frequent meetings with Mr.

Tornay--whose head I will wash for him!--have attracted attention, and will make you talked about.

"MATTHIAS."

[Footnote 13: "Little sister" and "little brother" are usual forms of addressing the young.]

[Footnote 14: _Fo-ispan_, the head and administrator of a county, not a hereditary count.]

Michael let the letter drop from his hand in dismay, and then exclaimed pa.s.sionately, "Why, the king placed me here; and, besides, he asked me himself whether I had made acquaintance with my neighbour."

"True," said Esther sadly, "and I told His Highness so myself; but he gave me quite a scolding for letting you come and see me so often."

"What!" cried Michael, surprised and even startled; "the king has been here?"

"He has indeed," said Esther, the tears springing to her eyes.

"Yesterday, while you were out riding the beautiful cream-coloured horse with the green silk trappings, the king came. I had never seen him before, but as he closed the door behind him, I knew in a moment that it was the king and no one else. I felt it somehow, I don't know how."

"And what did he say? was he in a good humour?"

"Good? not by any means. He looked at me as fiercely as if I were going to do him I don't know what injury, and yet I pray for him every day, and have never sinned against him so much as in thought."

"Strange!" said Michael. "And this count! The whirlwind take him and all his ancient family pedigree away together! Do you know this count? And is there any count in all the wide world who loves you as well as I do?"

"You?" said Esther, lifting her tearful eyes; "but you see you never told me you did."

"I _have_ told you!" said Michael, impetuously seizing Esther's hand and covering it with kisses; "every word I have uttered has told you so, ever since I first saw you. Ah! you might have understood me, because--I was once a beggar boy, how could I speak more plainly? _I_ have no family pedigree, and I shall never be a Supreme Count," he finished gloomily.

"Is it true?" said Esther, blushing very prettily, but looking several shades less melancholy than before.

"Why shouldn't it be true, my star? Of course it is true! Don't you believe me?" said Michael, drawing her to himself. "But I am the son of poor parents, only a beggar boy, and that abominable count, hang him!

may--what was I going to say?--well, anyhow, may the gra.s.shoppers fall upon him!"

"Michael," said Esther, a little shyly, "if you do love me--but understand well, I mean _really_ love me, really and truly--well then, I will just confess that I love you too, with all my heart, truly, as my life. You are more to me than all the counts in the world, for you are my Supreme Count; and even if you can't point to a line of ancestors, what does it signify? Somebody has to make a beginning, and you are making your own name; surely that is a great deal more than merely inheriting it! Besides, your family pedigree is as long as any one's in the world after all; for it reaches back to old Father Adam, and no one can go further."

At that moment Euphrosyne reappeared with the lights; but Michael cared little for her, now that he had found out what he wanted to know. Esther cared for him; what else could possibly matter?

"I must go to the king," said Michael. "He has always been most gracious to me, and why should he want to crush me now, after being the making of me? Why should he make my heart bitter, when it beats true to him and to my love? Don't be sad, my star. I will see him to-morrow, and tell him everything. He is so good, so kind, and so just! and it wouldn't be just to take you away from me, after bringing you here and letting us learn to know one another. If I only knew which count it was! but there are more than fifty. There is not one of them, though, that found you out in Mr. Samson's castle, and you never sang any of their songs, did you now?

_Did_ any one ever make songs for you but me?"

"No one! I don't know any count, unless the old gentleman who escorted us was one, and I hardly spoke to him."

But just then they were interrupted, for the door opened, and one of the royal pages stepped in.

"I have been looking for you in your quarters, lieutenant-general,"

said he; "and as I did not find you at home, it is a good thing you are here. See, this is from the king; please to read it." And he handed a note to Michael, who turned deadly pale as he took it and read as follows:--

"I wish you all good.

"So you have become very well acquainted indeed with your neighbours! and we suspect that you have spent more time tied to their ap.r.o.n-strings than in exercising the garrison. We shall therefore give you something to do.

"We shall expect you to be at Visegrad by eleven o'clock to-morrow morning, and we will there give you our orders. Be prepared for three months' absence from Buda.

"You will not see your neighbour again; she is to be the bride of Aggtelky Mihaly, one of our best-beloved and most trusty counts. G.o.d be with us.[15]

"MATTHIAS."

[Footnote 15: Equivalent to our "adieu."]

The note was written in the most formally polite style. There was no "gossip" or "little brother," there was not even a "thou" in it--nothing from beginning to end but "your grace," answering indeed to our "you,"

but a good deal more chilling to those accustomed to the friendly "thee"

and "thou."

Michael smothered his wrath as best he could, feeling how much he owed to the king, and that it would be the blackest ingrat.i.tude to show pa.s.sion and resentment because he now crossed his will.

"I will obey His Highness's commands," said he to the page, who at once withdrew.

Then he embraced Esther, and said with a heavy sigh, "All is not lost yet. The king is good, and--G.o.d is better. Keep up your heart."

The next morning the young lieutenant-general was at Visegrad by the appointed time, and went at once to the governor, who told him that the king had arrived a couple of hours previously, very irritable and out of humour, as it seemed.

"What can have happened to His Highness?" asked Michael, grieved to hear of the king's ill-humour, and fearing not only that his pet.i.tion would come at a most unfortunate time, but that the king would not perhaps let him have speech of him at all.

"Eh!" said the governor, "who knows what our good king has to worry him? There's trouble enough in the country just now, that's certain, and he has both his hands full. But I am sure I am not afraid of him; and as for those who vex him, may they suffer for it as they deserve!"

A long hour pa.s.sed, and still the king did not send for Michael, though the governor had lost no time in announcing his arrival. But at last, after he had waited what to him seemed a very long time, the summons came. The page who brought it looked grave, but beyond that his face betrayed nothing, and Michael hastened with a beating heart into the presence of the master whom he adored, but now, perhaps for the first time in his life, feared to meet.

When he entered the beautiful, well-lighted room, whose painted windows looked out upon the Danube, he found King Matthias seated near an open window, in an arm-chair covered with yellow velvet, and looking more gloomy than he had ever seen him before. He was very plainly, almost carelessly, attired, and near him was his favourite scholar, the librarian Galeotti, who also looked melancholy and stood gazing at vacancy, as if he were trying to peer into the future.

"Is it you?" said Matthias coldly; "you have kept me waiting a long time."

"Mr. King," answered Michael, "I have been here for the past two hours, as you commanded."

"Ah! true, I was forgetting; of course they announced you. Are you prepared for a long journey?"

"A soldier is ready to march without much preparation," said Michael, with a great want of his usual alacrity. "I am ready to receive your Highness's orders."

"Good," said the king. "You will start for Vienna in an hour's time then, with Mr. Galeotti here. He is going on a mission for me to the Emperor Friedrich; and until my friend has completed his business, which may perhaps take six months, you are not to leave him."

Michael said nothing.

"Well?" the king went on, in a tone of impatient annoyance. "Perhaps you don't fancy such an errand; you would prefer, no doubt, to be sent against Axamith,[16] who has effected a lodgment again in the north, as we hear, and is thieving and plundering like a swarm of gra.s.shoppers."