The Princess Dehra Part 48

"Here are two sealed orders," she continued; "immediately after dinner you will ride down to Porgia; there, not before, you will open the one addressed to yourself, and deliver the other to the Commanding Officer of the garrison. For the rest, the orders will speak for themselves."

Once more, the martinet's hand went up.

"Yes, Your Highness," he said; "but how am I to go without getting leave from the Archduke?"

"I will get it for you-you need not say anything to him-just go--Ah!

there he is now-Armand," said she, when he had greeted her, "I want to borrow Colonel Bernheim for a little while after dinner, may I have him?"

"Take him," said the Archduke, with a smile at his Aide; and when Bernheim had gone: "but why don't you borrow me instead?"

"Because, sweetheart, one doesn't need to borrow what one has," she answered, and gave him both her hands.

XXI IN THE DUKE'S LIBRARY

The Princess managed so well that by a little after eleven o'clock the card games were over, and she, laughingly, had escorted Armand to his own door and received his promise to retire at once.

Then she went to her apartment and dismissed all the attendants except her maid. To-night she must ride as a man, so she donned a close-fitting divided skirt, high boots, and her Blue Guard's jacket, and topped it with a long military overcoat that came almost to her spurs.

Colonel Moore met her at a side entrance, and they hurried across the courtyard and over the bridge to where, a little way down the avenue, were waiting De Coursey and Marsov, with Jessac and the horses. They had thought to send the old man in a carriage, but he would have none of it; so they let him have his way, when he a.s.sured them he could ride twice the distance without fatigue-and he proved it that night.

In calm persistence of purpose Dehra was a typical Dalberg; she had determined that the Archduke should not expose his life in Lotzen's castle, and so she was a.s.suming the risk, without the least hesitation; just as the same Dalberg spirit sent the Archduke to recover the Book, heedless of the peril entailed. And so now, after a word of inquiry as to the general arrangements and the time required to reach the postern gate, she made no further reference to the business in hand. Instead, she chatted with Moore as unconcernedly as though she rode for her pleasure, and not upon a desperate mission where death was likely waiting for them all.

There was no moon, but the stars burned with double brilliancy in the wonderful mountain heavens; the road lay fair before them; and far off to the front the lights of Lotzen Castle beckoned. And as they crossed the valley, the lights gradually grew fewer, until presently there was but one remaining, which Jessac said was the big lamp on the bridge in front of the gate-arch, and which always burnt until sunrise.

A little way from the Lotzen road they met Colonel Bernheim, alone. He bent forward in sharp scrutiny.

"Thank G.o.d, Moore, you persuaded her not to come!" he exclaimed, as they drew up.

The Princess' light laugh answered him, and he actually cried out in distressed disappointment, and forgot the eternal salute.

"I wasn't to be persuaded, Colonel," said she. "Is everything arranged?"

This time the salute came.

"The dispositions are made as Your Highness ordered," he answered.

She thanked him, and he rode beside her to the cross-roads.

"I must leave you here.-Heaven keep you safe this night," he ended, with broken voice.

She reined over close to him and held out her hand.

"My good Bernheim, nothing is going to happen to me," she said; "but if there should, it will be for you and Epping to seat the Archduke where he belongs, and to confound Lotzen and his satellites-promise me."

The Colonel's face twitched, and his eyes glistened, and for a moment he bowed his head on his breast; then he leaned over and kissed her gauntlet.

"As G.o.d reigns, it shall be done, my mistress," he said; "and though I have to kill Lotzen with my own hand."

Instead of taking the road to the Castle they continued up the valley a little way, to where a narrow brook tumbled noisily across the track, eager to reach the foaming Dreer. Here Jessac dismounted, and, leading his horse, turned upstream. There was no path, and the starlight availed nothing in the heavy timber, yet the old man never hesitated, winding his way among the trees and around the rocks as readily as though it were day. After half a mile, the ground began to ascend sharply; almost immediately he halted, and at his direction they turned the horses over to the orderlies, and followed him on foot.

"The postern path, such as it is, is yonder," he said, and a few steps brought them to it, just where it ended its plunge down the bald side of the hill from the Castle that now towered almost straight above them, a ma.s.s of black forbiddingness respoussed against the sky-line by the reflection of the gate-way lamp.

Colonel Moore made a last appeal to the Princess to abandon her purpose to accompany them, and was good-naturedly overruled, and peremptorily ordered to lead on.

"Would you have a Dalberg retire with the enemy in sight?" she ended.

The postern path was now no path-only a narrow, water-washed gully; yet, even so, it was the only means of access to the summit from that side,-or indeed, from any side save in front-elsewhere the tangle of brambles and the rocks, with the almost perpendicular elevation, made ascent practically impossible by daylight, and absolutely impossible by night.

In fact, this way had long been abandoned, and the present course lay close under the wall, and over the moat by a narrow foot bridge, and then along it to the road just below the main gate. Jessac had not ventured to use it, however, because it was exposed to the light of the lamp, and so was in full view of the porter on duty in the tower.

It was rough climbing, and half way up Moore called a halt, to give the Princess a short rest; then they went on, stumbling, slipping, scrambling, trying to go quietly, and yet, it seemed, making noise sufficient to wake every one in Lotzen Castle.

But at last they reached the top, and the Princess leaned against the wall, breathless and trembling from the unaccustomed exertion.

Moore raised his hand for silence. In the intense calm of the night, the lightest noise would have echoed trebly loud, yet the only sound they heard was the splashing of the Dreer among its rocks, in the fog strewn valley far below. He drew out his watch, and after much looking made out the time.

"It's after one o'clock," he whispered; "when Your Highness is ready--"

"I'm ready now," said she, and turned at once to the gate.

"Quiet, man, quiet!" Moore cautioned, as Jessac's key sc.r.a.ped into the lock, and suddenly turned it with a loud snap. The old man pushed the door back slowly; the arch was twenty feet through, and the darkness impenetrable; but he entered unhesitatingly, and the others with him, Moore's hand on the Regent's arm.

"Can you find the stone without a light?" he asked.

"Easily, sir! ... here it is-stand back, my lord, or it may hit you ...

there!"

There was a slight creak, and Moore was sensible of something swinging up by his face.

"It's open, sir," said Jessac; "but best not show a light until we are inside, it might be seen in the courtyard-I'll go in first-bend low or you'll strike your head."

The Adjutant took Dehra's hand and having located the stone and the opening, he guided her through. Jessac closed the stone into place and then, by the light of Moore's electric torch, he showed them how it was so balanced that by pressure at the top (from without) or at the bottom (from within) it would swing around parallel with the floor.

The pa.s.sage was large enough for two of them to walk abreast and without stooping, and extended through the heart of the wall, about a hundred feet, until opposite the keep, as Jessac informed them; here it narrowed to half, and by a dozen stone steps descended below the level of the bailey, and thence under it to another set of steps leading up inside the wall of the keep.

Thus far they had come rapidly and without incident. Suddenly a drove of rats, blinded by the light and squeaking in terror, ran among their feet, and the Princess instinctively caught up the skirts of her long coat, and, with a little shriek of fright, tried to climb up the side of the pa.s.sage.

The cry, slight as it was, let loose all the echoes of the vault with appalling resonance; instantly Moore extinguished the torch and laid his hand on her arm.

"What a fool I am!" she exclaimed in a whisper; "now, I've spoiled everything."

"Not likely," he a.s.sured her; "the castle is asleep and the walls are thick, but we best wait a bit."

Presently the rats commenced to squeak again, and to scurry about, and the Princess beginning to tremble, he switched on the torch and motioned Jessac to proceed.

Treading as lightly as one of his own mountain cats, the old fellow went swiftly up the stairs, and when the others reached the top he was not to be seen. Moore shot the light down the pa.s.sage; thirty feet away, if the draft were correct, were the stairs that ended at the library; when they reached them, Jessac was on the landing signaling to come on.