Yolanda: Maid of Burgundy Part 25

My horse fell with me three weeks ago, as Your Grace well knows."

"When your arm mends, you must fight and prove your cause, or by the soul of G.o.d, you hang! We'll make a fete of this combat, and another of your funeral. There shall be a thousand candles, and ma.s.ses sufficient to save the soul of Satan himself. My Lord Campo-Ba.s.so, let not the like of this happen again. Vengeance in Burgundy is mine, not my Italians'.

Heralds, dismiss the company. These men are free."

All departed save Castleman, Hymbercourt, Max, and myself, who remained at the duke's request.

"If you will remain at the castle, you are most welcome," said Charles, addressing Max and me.

I would have jumped at the offer, but Max thanked the duke and declined.

"We will, with Your Grace's permission, remain at Grote's inn for a short time and then ask leave to depart from Burgundy."

The duke answered:--

"As you will. I do not press you. If you change your mind, come to the castle, and you will be very welcome."

He turned and, with brief adieu, left the great-hall by the small door near the dais. Castleman, Hymbercourt, and Max pa.s.sed out through the great doors, and I was about to follow them when I was startled by the voice I had heard in the night:--

"Little Max, Little Max," came softly from the ladies' gallery.

I paused to hear more, but all was silent in the great hall. The words could have come from no other lips than Yolanda's--Mary's. True, I reasoned, Yolanda might be one of the ladies of the court, perhaps a near relative of the duke. Once the horrifying thought that he was her lover came to my mind, but it fled instantly. There was no evil in Yolanda.

Max did not hear the voice. I intended to tell him of it when we should reach the inn, and I thought to tell him also that I believed Yolanda was the Princess Mary. I changed my mind, however, and again had reason to be thankful for my silence.

CHAPTER XII

A LIVE WREN PIE

The next day came the invitation to sup at Castleman's, and we were on hand promptly at the appointed time--four o'clock. Before leaving the inn I had determined to ask Castleman to satisfy my curiosity concerning Yolanda. With good reason I felt that it was my duty and my right to know certainly who she was. She might not be Mary of Burgundy, but she surely was not a burgher girl, and in some manner she was connected with the court of Duke Charles.

Max and I were sitting in the long room (it was on the ground floor and extended across the entire front of the house) with Castleman when Frau Kate entered followed by Yolanda and Twonette. The frau courtesied, and gave us welcome. Twonette courtesied and stepped to her father's side.

Yolanda gave Max her hand and lifted it to be kissed. The girl laughed joyously, and, giving him her other hand, stood looking up into his face. Her laughter soon became nervous, and that change in a womanly woman is apt to be the forerunner of tears. They soon came to moisten Yolanda's eyes, but she kept herself well in hand and said:--

"It has been a very long time, Sir Max, since last I saw you."

"A hard, cruel time for me, Fraulein. Your hot-headed duke gives strange license to his murderous courtiers," answered Max.

"It has been a hard time for others, too," she responded. "Hard for uncle, hard for tante, hard for Twonette--very hard for Twonette." She spoke jestingly, but one might easily see her emotion.

"And you, Fraulein?" he asked smilingly.

"I--I dare not say how hard it has been for me, Little Max. Do you not see? I fear--I fear I shall--weep--if I try to tell you. I am almost weeping now. I fear I have grown gray because of it," she answered, closing with a nervous laugh. Max, too, could hardly speak. She smiled up into his face, and bending before him stood on tiptoe to bring the top of her head under his inspection.

"You may see the white hairs if you look carefully," she said.

Max laughed and stooped to examine the great bush of fluffy dark hair.

"I see not one white hair," he said.

"Look closely," she insisted.

He looked closely, and startled us all, including Yolanda, by putting his lips to the fragrant, silky ma.s.s.

"Ah!" exclaimed Yolanda, stepping back from him and placing her hand to the top of her head on the spot that he had kissed. She looked up to him with a fluttering little laugh:--

"I--I did not know you were going to do that."

"Neither did I," said Max.

Castleman and his wife looked displeased and Twonette's face wore an expression of amused surprise.

After a constrained pause Frau Katherine said:--

"Our guests are not in the habit of kissing us."

"No one has kissed you, tante," retorted Yolanda, "nor do they intend to do so. Do not fear. I--I brought it on myself, and if I do not complain, you may bear up under it."

"It certainly is unusual to--" began the frau.

"Tante," cried Yolanda, flushing angrily and stamping her foot. Tante was silent.

"Your words night before last brought marvellous comfort to us, Fraulein," said Max. "Where were you, and how--"

"My words? Night before last?" asked Yolanda, in open-eyed wonder, "I have not seen you since three weeks ago."

"You called to me in my prison in the tower," said Max. "You called to me by the name you sometimes use."

"Ah, that is wonderful," exclaimed Yolanda. "I wakened myself night before last calling your name, and telling you not to fear. I was dreaming that you were in danger, but I also dreamed that you would soon be free. Can it be possible that the voice of a dreamer can travel to a distance and penetrate stone walls? You almost make me fear myself by telling me that you heard my call."

Like most persons, Max loved the mysterious, so he at once became greatly interested. He would have discussed the subject further had not Yolanda turned to me, saying:--

"Ah, I have not greeted Sir Karl."

She gave me her hand, and I would have knelt had she not prevented me by a surprised arching of her eyebrows. My attempt to salute her on my knee was involuntary, but when I saw the warning expression in her eyes, I quickly recovered myself. I bowed and she withdrew her hand.

"Let us go to the garden," she suggested.

The others left the room, but Yolanda held back and detained me by a gesture.

"You would have knelt to me," she said almost angrily.

"Yes, mademoiselle," I replied, "the movement was involuntary."

"I once warned you, Sir Karl, not to try to learn anything concerning me. I told you that useless knowledge was dangerous. You have been guessing, and probably are very far wrong in your conclusion. But whatever your surmises are, don't let me know them. Above all, say nothing to Sir Max; I warn you! Unless you would see no more of me, bear this warning in mind. Yolanda is a burgher girl. Treat her accordingly, and impress the fact on Sir Max. Were I as great as the ill-tempered Princess of Burgundy, whose estates you came to woo, I should still despise adulation. Bah! I hate it all," she continued, stamping her foot. "I hate princes and princesses, and do not understand how they can endure to have men kneel and grovel before them. This fine Princess of Burgundy, I am told, looks--" She paused and then went on: "I sometimes hate her most of all. I am a burgher girl, I tell you, and I am proud of it. I warn you not to make me other."

"Your warning, my lady, is--"