The Mercenary Part 32

"No one can say, your Highness!"

Her Highness left him to growl at his fellow-officers at the extraordinary habit of woman, even lovely woman, even a Habsburger, to ask questions which did not admit of an answer, and in any case did not concern her. Then she attacked the next she met with similar results.

She even dared to beard the old general in his quarters, beginning with sympathetic inquiries after his wounds. The old general, taciturn and not over gracious by force of habit, unbent a little to the Emperor's daughter.

"Give me time, your Highness, and I shall beat the Swede."

"How?"

"Look you, your Highness! The farther the Swede marches from the Baltic the longer must be his chain of garrisons in his rear, for if he once sustain a great defeat he must retreat. By the time he reaches the Rhine his army of Swedes must be greatly diminished, and his force consist largely of German Protestants, recruited as he goes."

"And do not Protestants fight as well as Catholics?"

"When they are trained and disciplined!"

"And where will _you_ get trained soldiers?"

"From the Imperial garrisons! Then there are the Spaniards in the Rhenish Palatinate, the best infantry in the world."

"And if Richelieu launches the French soldiers at them?"

"It would be the devil!" Count Tilly became very thoughtful. "It is not to be expected that a Catholic power would give aid to the Swedes. Was it not Richelieu who turned the scales against Wallenstein at Ratisbon?"

"But," objected the princess, "what did that prove? Did it not result in the dispersal of Wallenstein's army, and the weakening of the Catholic power, of the Imperial power?"

"I am not politician, your Highness! I hate cardinals and politicians equally. I am a soldier. If I have a moderate measure of fortune, and Pappenheim does not make any more blunders, it is odds but we beat the Swede, Richelieu or no Richelieu."

The Archd.u.c.h.ess showed by her manner that she thought otherwise.

"There is Saxony! There is Brandenburg! There is Weimar!"

"Confound them all!" growled Count Tilly, who had done nothing else but look at the astonishing problem he proposed to face, and he at present tied by the leg with a mere eight or ten battalions under his banner.

"And," this was an after-thought born of sheer impatience, "your Highness, there is a lady who calls herself Ottilie von Thuringen, who takes a great interest in the Lutheran cause."

"Indeed!" said the Archd.u.c.h.ess.

"She was taken prisoner at Magdeburg and sent under escort of Colonel Charteris to Erfurt! I saw her and had some words with her."

"Yes?" said the Archd.u.c.h.ess.

"She bore a singular likeness to your Highness! I was wondering if you had any relative of that name!"

"I have never heard of one!" said the Archd.u.c.h.ess.

"A mere coincidence, doubtless!" said the general.

"By the way, Count, I am thinking of leaving Halberstadt."

"Leaving Halberstadt! Does your Highness propose to ride with me to raise an army?"

"I might be of less use elsewhere!" she said, smiling, to tease the old general, whose dislike of petticoats was well known.

"Where is elsewhere?"

"Vienna!"

"And how do you propose to get there?"

"You can lend me an escort?"

"Impossible! You would want six battalions to fight off the rearguard of Gustavus, or the left wing of the Saxons."

"But you have just let Colonel Charteris go with a mere handful!"

"He will ride the faster! Colonel Charteris is a soldier, and the very devil for getting into trouble and out of it."

"But the Emperor's daughter?"

"Your Highness, were you the daughter of twenty emperors it would still be impossible."

"You think that I should not arrive at Vienna in safety!"

"Except as a prisoner. But your Highness came hither of your own choice."

"a.s.suredly! I intend to leave it of my own choice too."

Count Tilly tugged at his long moustaches in despair. "Princess!" And in addition to all his other cares! There was really only one princess, but she appeared to him by reason of her self-will to be at least half a dozen. She still stood there gazing at him out of those wonderful dancing black eyes. ("Confound her eyes," Tilly said to himself.)

"Perhaps Gustavus or John George might give me a safe-conduct if I required it."

"There are more unlikely things, your Highness! Particularly if your Highness made your request in person!"

"They could not be more obdurate than Count Tilly!"

"At the present time, your Highness, they are in better posture to afford courtesies than I am to spare men."

Her Highness pouted and went in search of her uncle, the Bishop. She thought to win him over before Count Tilly had seen him.

But her uncle Leopold, now that it seemed as if the tide of war was to sweep away from Halberstadt, was not willing to part with his niece.

Even a Bishop of the Holy Roman Church, vowed to celibacy as he was, was not indifferent to ties of familial affection, and Stephanie's beauty and youth and intelligence were all living and pleasant things, not to be lightly set aside.

"You are as safe here, Stephanie, as in Vienna!".

"But I am not afraid! I would rather be where my father is!"

"But you came here to avoid marrying Maximilian or going into a nunnery, which was it?"

"Both, uncle. But Maximilian will be too busy for marrying for a long time to come. He has to find an army and beat Gustavus."