The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mercenary, by W. J. Eccott This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license Title: The Mercenary A Tale of The Thirty Years' War Author: W. J. Eccott Release Date: August 23, 2012 [EBook #40567] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERCENARY *** Produced by Sandra Eder, sp1nd and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) The Mercenary WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Crown 8vo, 6s. FORTUNE'S CASTAWAY. Crown 8vo, 6s. HIS INDOLENCE OF ARRAS. Popular Edition, 6d. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE HEARTH OF HUTTON. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE RED NEIGHBOUR. Popular Edition, 1s. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE BACKGROUND. Crown 8vo, 6s. A DEMOISELLE OF FRANCE. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE SECOND CITY. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. The Mercenary A Tale of The Thirty Years' War BY W. J. ECCOTT AUTHOR OF 'HIS INDOLENCE OF ARRAS,' 'THE RED NEIGHBOUR,' ETC. William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London 1913 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. IN SEARCH OF BOOTY 1 II. NIGEL COLLECTS HIS DUES 10 III. TILLY, COUNT OF TZERCLAËS 17 IV. ON THE ROAD TO ERFURT 24 V. TWO OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH 32 VI. AT THE CASTLE OF HRADSCHIN 42 VII. THE ROAD TO EGER 53 VIII. INTERLACING DESTINIES 61 IX. AN ITALIAN AND A SPANIARD 73 X. FATHER LAMORMAIN 81 XI. THE LOST DESPATCHES FOUND 92 XII. NIGEL MEETS FATHER LAMORMAIN 99 XIII. A FATHER, A CONFESSOR, AND A DAUGHTER 107 XIV. IN THE CIRCLE OF THE EMPEROR 114 XV. THE ARCHDUCHESS AND WALLENSTEIN 125 XVI. NIGEL'S NEW REGIMENT 133 XVII. FAREWELL TO THE ARCHDUCHESS 140 XVIII. NIGEL'S INSTRUCTIONS, WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN 149 XIX. THE GUESTS OF THE ABBOT OF FULDA 156 XX. CASTING OUT A DEVIL 165 XXI. INTO THE FOREST'S HEART 176 XXII. THE DRAGON'S GORGE 184 XXIII. A CLASH OF HEARTS 190 XXIV. MISTRESS AND ENEMY 198 XXV. BREITENFELD 206 XXVI. AT HALBERSTADT 214 XXVII. THE RESTLESSNESS OF STEPHANIE 223 XXVIII. PREPARES THE GROUND 232 XXIX. ORBIT AND FOCUS 239 XXX. LOVE AND A LOCKSMITH 249 XXXI. AN ASSIGNATION 256 XXXII. PASTOR RAD AGAIN 263 XXXIII. THE PASTOR'S PILGRIMAGE 270 XXXIV. LUTHERAN AND JESUIT 278 XXXV. AN EMBASSY FOR STEPHANIE 286 XXXVI. A RECONNAISSANCE 293 XXXVII. THE DEFENCE OF THE LECH 301 XXXVIII. A SURPRISE AT RATISBON 307 XXXIX. THE CLOUDS AND SERGEANT BLICK 314 XL. RIDE, RIDE TOGETHER 320 XLI. A LATE ARRIVAL AT NICHOLAS KRAFT'S 329 XLII. IN THE ABBEY CHURCH 336 THE MERCENARY: A TALE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. CHAPTER I. I N S E A R C H O F B O O T Y. It was the evening of the second day of the sack of Magdeburg. Nigel Charteris, soldier of fortune by profession and in rank captain of musketeers, sought a certain house in the Kloster Strasse, if haply it were still standing. It troubled the captain little that Magdeburg should be sacked. He was of the Catholic faith. And Magdeburg had proved herself malignantly Protestant. She had flouted the Edict of Restitution. The Emperor Ferdinand II., Habsburger by race, Catholic to the marrow, had proclaimed that the possessions, wrenched from the grasp of the Catholics a hundred years before by the Lutherans and Calvinists, should be restored to Catholic hands, that the mass bell should tinkle in every chancel, and all be as if that pestilent monk, that Junker Georg of the Wartburg, had never been. Rome had bided her time, as Rome can always bide her time, and seize her opportunity. The Emperor found himself with a right good flail and a stout husbandman, Count Tilly, to wield it. The husbandman with his flail had arrived before the threshing-floors of Magdeburg in bleak March. It had taken him to jocund May to force an entrance, and then the threshing and the winnowing began. It was a question if the house in the Kloster Strasse still stood, for even before the turbulent entry of the Emperor's troops fires had broken out, and still burned furiously. It was a city of shards and carcases. Here and there streets still stood, as a patch of corn stands, left for to-morrow's cutting, amid the prone swathes. Nigel wondered if he would be able to recognise the street that he had left as the dawn broke that morning. "This is the street, Captain. The spire's had a shake!" said Sergeant Blick. Nigel nodded, and strode over the stones, and the sheet-lead, and the broken images of stone and of human flesh that lay in his path. But for the loss of its church-tower the street was still passably whole. Clambering over the barrier of ruins, a half company of musketeers followed in loose order, expectant of more plunder. All day they had spent in camp, and were now let out for their share in the ruthless harvesting. There was method too in their captain's gleaning. He halted his men, and addressed Sergeant Blick in the tone of a man used to command and accustomed to be obeyed. "Now, Sergeant, you and two men come with me. The rest may help themselves in this street. It is now seven o'clock. At nine they will fall in, and march back to camp. No throat-cutting! No drunkenness! And no mishandling of women!" Sergeant Blick wheeled about, marched three paces to the front, and repeated the orders in a fine sonorous voice. By way of making them more intelligible, he called his men "drunken pigs" and "little calves" and "blunderheads," and added a few very personal admonitions to the more wilfully or weakly inclined of the flock. Then he wheeled about again, his two picked men followed, and Nigel, in front of the three, marched up the street till he came to a tall house which stood with projecting upper storeys and an almost magisterial aspect amid its smaller fellows. The massive door yielded to a push, admitting them to a stone-paved hall, on either side of which there were some very meagrely furnished rooms, and behind it kitchens, larders, and servants' quarters equally bare. Nothing of potable or eatable was to be seen. Nor was there a single kitchen wench. Having made this reconnaissance, Nigel mounted the wide open staircase with Sergeant Blick at his heels, and the two musketeers, two steps behind, to preserve the distance prescribed by the sergeant's rank. They halted at the first landing. From behind the first door came the stifled cry of a woman, and a dull sound of a fall. Sergeant Blick essayed to open it in vain. Nigel Charteris rapped upon it with the hilt of his sword. "Open in the name of the Emperor!" he demanded. [2] [3] A key turned in the lock. "I warn you!" said a haughty voice, the voice of a woman of rank, rich and full. "You enter at your own peril!" For answer Nigel thrust his foot and his steel cap into the opening as the door gave way a span, and a dagger descended with the breathless fury of a woman's onset, only to glance off the casque, while the assailed swung round and seized the wrist of the thruster. The dagger fell to the floor. Blick stooped and picked it up and thrust it into his belt, where it had company of the same sort. It was worth a guilder, he reflected; and stood waiting just inside the door, his men without. The soldier of fortune was a tall man, and she who faced him, flushed and disappointed, was a tall woman. The soldier of fortune was a handsome fellow of a dark russet upon olive complexion, with a crisp curl to his moustaches and his hair, though little of that emerged from the steel cap inlaid with gold that had so well protected him. Her eyes ran over him and said to her "Lineage." His eyes in turn told him that the woman was sprung of a ruling race, incapable of fear, unused to any domination: told him also that she had dark hair in abundance, dark mist-laden eyes, a clear paleness of complexion which was neither white nor yellow nor pink nor olive; told him that her carriage was that of a queen, and that she was as virginal as the dawn. If the eagle in her held his eyes in its imperious clutch, hers encountered a spirit just as much an eagle's. High lineage and high poverty had been his portion, and no Charteris had ever feared to look a haughty beauty in the eyes. It was the matter of an instant. Nigel looked round. In the embrasure of the principal window, seated in a great chair, was the figure of an old man, whose dress denoted a Lutheran pastor. His head was fallen helplessly sidelong on the pillows that had but a few moments ago supported it. He was dead. At his feet, half on the dais of the window, lay a golden- haired girl. The great white kerchief that covered her shoulders and bosom showed a red spot over the heart, and a little dagger was still enclosed by the listless fingers that lay quiet in her lap. She too looked like one that is dead. "Your handiwork, brave captain!" said the dark lady bitterly. "Pastor Reinheit died of shock as you halted without. Elspeth stabbed herself to save her honour as soon as she heard your footsteps on the stair. It was well done!" "Count Tilly does not make war upon girls!" said Nigel angrily, striding across and kneeling beside the girl. "Bring water, linen, and salve!" Gently he laid her flat upon the floor with a cushion beneath her head. Quickly he unfastened the neckerchief and staunched the blood till he could see the wound, of what width it was, and how the blood welled up into its mouth. Then he looked at the dagger. "Blick! Look you here! A flesh wound! A thumbnail's depth? What say you?" Sergeant Blick gently pinched the wound. "Aye, is it! More fright than hurt! A barber's stitch of a silk thread. A bandage and salve! 'Tis all she needs." Nigel looked up. The lady of the misty eyes looked down. "She lives!" said he. "You have but to wash the wound, put in three stitches, lay salve upon it and a bandage of linen. She will not bleed to death this time." The woman knelt down and did as she was bidden with deft long fingers and without a word. Before the bandage was made secure the girl Elspeth opened her eyes and her gaze fell first upon Nigel. A red flush came to her cheek, perhaps because of her neck lying so uncovered before a man, perhaps by reason of other thoughts. And as the colour natural to her face, a healthy rosy hue, came back, Nigel on his part gave a little start of surprise and turned away. He wondered that he had not known her again. Yesterday she had worn a healthy ruddiness in her cheeks and a white dress upon her jolly plump form. To-day with the absolute pallor of her swoon and her sombre grey clothes his eyes had been cheated, or was it that his eyes had lost something of their natural sharpness in the duello with those others of the race of eagles? The service rendered to her golden-haired friend, the snowy neck once more shrouded in its covering kerchief, the dark lady resumed her haughty aloofness. A flash had broken through the mists of her eyes, as a passing gleam of the moon breaks for an instant through fast scudding clouds, when she saw the recognition pass. Perhaps she wondered. Elspeth was of the burgher-class, well-to-do it might be, and she who looked was noble by every outward token, and might well disregard such affairs as brought a poor gentleman of the sword, and an outlander to boot, into contact with a burgher-maiden at the sack of Magdeburg. Nigel Charteris was indifferent. He concerned himself as little with the thoughts of either girl. His present business was the gathering of booty. No man became soldier or officer in Tilly's army for his pay. Pay [4] [5] [6] was a mighty uncertain thing. So was the sack of a town. So many were the avenues to perdition, or to salvation, according to one's views of the future state, and of one's own destination in it. A shot from a window, a tile from a roof, a stab in a dark corner, any of the three might "his quietus make." It was only common justice in the soldier's rough code that, when Dame Fortune came his way and opened a town's gates to him, he should fill his pockets, and any odd sack he could bear with him on his march. How should he pay Peter for the ultimate repose of his soul if not by relieving Paul of those riches that were an actual impediment to Paul's salvation? Nigel took a brief survey of the room, and his eyes rested upon the motionless figure of the dead pastor, unreal-looking in posture and in face. He frowned and crossed himself. The proud lady followed his glance. "A brave piece of work your Edict of Restitution! Is it not time to get on with your trade?" she taunted. "In good time!" he said curtly. "Call in two men!" was his order to Sergeant Blick. The two men came in, muskets at the ready. "This lady will show you where to lay the old man!" he said. As before she obeyed, stepping across the room to a door which opened into a small bedchamber. The two men-at-arms at a sign from the sergeant lifted the body and laid it on the bed. Elspeth of the golden- hair made an effort to rise, bent on following, but her strength had not yet returned. She lay back again on her cushion and wept silently. "Peace! Lie still, dear heart!" said the dark lady, kneeling beside her and holding her hand, raising about her the bulwark of her own compassion, as who should say to Nigel Charteris that he was without the pale. When the door of the dead man's chamber closed and the musketeers stood once more to command he bade them make ready their weapons. Without a look at the women he strode across the chamber to another door at the opposite side of the room to that which he had entered and flung it open. In the doorway stood three very determined-looking men armed with pikes, and behind them a motley assembly of burghers, some armed, some not. A curiously interested expression came upon the face of her who knelt. To her mind Tilly's captain was in the toils. But Tilly's captain had quick ears. He had divined something of what lay behind the door. When he stepped backward three paces and drew his sword, there stood covering the door with their muskets his two men. The three men looked at one another. It was certain death for two out of the three. Which two? Would the others, their comrades, face it out and cut down the hated Catholics? There was a certain disadvantage in knowing their fellows. They were not sure of them. They were quite sure about the musketeers and Tilly's captain. Nigel Charteris had led a round dozen of storming parties. "Come you!" said he with the short stern note of command. The man indicated came sullenly forward, laid his weapon in a corner and stood upright against the wall. One by one the rest did the same as he did. One of them was a young pastor whose thick, coarse, straw-coloured hair, heavy brow and lower jaw, companioned by two cold blue eyes, proclaimed physical energy and dour obstinacy to be his, whatever theology he carried in his wallet. "My Bible is my weapon," he said, looking his captor in the face. "Woe unto you who wound maidens and spoil the houses of the true faith! Woe to the Edict of Restitution, edict of robbery and murder in the name of which you come! Woe to the Emperor, rightly named of Rome, for from Rome he has his orders, and from Rome his monstrous superstitions!" His intention was to kneel beside Elspeth, but Nigel pointed to the wall. It was a medley of weapons; an old halbert or two, some ancient bows, swords of divers patterns, daggers not a few, pikes and hunting knives, two heavy smith's hammers, and half a dozen pistols and firelocks of ponderous make and uncertain utility. These made up the tale of them. It was a medley of men who surrendered them. Some of their belts and other accoutrements proclaimed them the organised defenders of the city, other than the Swedish soldiery that Gustavus had thrown into the place together with his devoted officer Falkenburg. The rest were merchants, artificers, apprentices, of whom some had doubtless assisted in the defence of the city, and others probably had continued to ply their callings with what peace they could. Why they had mustered in this house round their old pastor, and with what hope remained, Nigel could only guess. In fact he cared nothing to know. It was but a nest of hornets to destroy. [7] [8] [9] Sergeant Blick whistled from the window. Two more men appeared to guard the door. Then he went off to gather the rest of his half company. CHAPTER II. N I G E L C O L L E C T S H I S D U E S . Nigel's quick eye roved over the throng. "Now, Master Scrivener!" he said, picking out a lean-faced worthy who shrank behind a burly citizen. "Sit you at this table and write down the names and conditions of the prisoners!" The scrivener drew forth pen and inkhorn. "Now, madame! Yours!" "Ottilie of Thüringen!" She had risen to make the reply, and again their eyes met in silent combat. "It would be as well, your Highness, if you carried your friend to another room! What is her name and condition?" "Elspeth Reinheit, daughter of Andreas Reinheit, farmer, of Eisenach in Thüringen!" Then she motioned to the young pastor, who came forward with an air of defiance which sat ill upon him, and together they lifted the girl. At the mention of her name she had opened her still tear-laden eyes and let them seek those of Nigel, who appeared not to see; but the young pastor, as he and the dark lady lifted their charge, knitted his brows as if a spasm of jealousy had waylaid him, who had some right to the feeling where the sick girl was concerned. They passed out by the door of the room which had harboured the Magdeburgers. "Now, sirs, step hither to the scrivener one by one; let him write your name and calling. And whatever of money or money's worth you carry on your persons place it here on the table." There was a low murmuring, but no open dispute of his will. A grim smile relaxed the features of the musketeers. A grave portly merchant came forward and announced himself as "Ulrich Pfeifer, silk mercer," and deposited a gold chain and a purse of money. The eyes of the soldiers glistened as they heard the clink of the good metal. If they had thought their captain was, though a hearty fighter, a somewhat indifferent gatherer of the spoils, they were ready to retract their opinion. As for Nigel's face, it showed no eagerness or greed. The merchant of silk was followed by a tanner, a hosier, an armourer, a shoemaker, and a maker of gloves. There were a few gold chains in the company, and the money was in purses of divers kinds and conditions, and of all the currencies of Europe. After the merchants came the craftsmen and artisans, who made but meagre contributions: and not a few lips trembled as the hard-earned and hardly-kept florins rattled on the table. Then came the apprentices, shamefaced, turning out their pockets in proof that they had none but a few copper coins, which Nigel Charteris bade them pick up again. The scrivener's task being completed, together with the heaping of the spoil, Nigel called for Sergeant Blick and bade him conduct the prisoners to the camp and set a guard over them, till he should come to take Count Tilly's instructions for their disposal. At which order they one and all looked more crestfallen than before, for it portended they knew not what. Two months' leaguer with all its hardships, its alarms, its hunger; a week's storming with its perils from without, two days of horrors within, had left them all with a lively sense of the power of the Emperor to enforce his edicts. And in their ears the name of Count Tilly was a synonym for an incarnation of the powers and practices of the Evil One. But there was no appeal from the Catholic captain. The young pastor, who had returned, and the scrivener headed the procession. The soldiers below received them. Sergeant Blick gave the orders, and the noise of their retreating feet came through the open window to the ears of Nigel. "Now," said he to the two men-at-arms, who had been with him from the beginning of the episode, "you can search the house for yourselves. Touch nothing of that which belongs to the ladies who were here; nor load yourselves with that which is heavy to carry and of no certain worth. Say to the Lady Ottilie of Thüringen that I crave her presence here in a quarter of an hour. The other two of you remain on guard without." The order obeyed, he poured out his booty into a heap, picked out the gold pieces and the chain, that had been so cherished an adornment of the silk weaver, and put them in a purse of leather, which he fastened securely and disposed with equal care about him; then the silver pieces, which were far more numerous and bulky, he divided into four parts, two for Sergeant Blick, and one each for the musketeers, in case their ransacking of the house under the conditions laid down should provide them [10] [11] [12] with but a meagre reward. These three weighty and bulky parcels, tied in separate purses, he fastened beneath his cloak to his sword-belt, and he had scarcely done so before the haughty Ottilie made her entry. Her bearing was serene and high. He rose from the chair and bade her be seated. She accepted the offer without thanks but without any show of disdain. She seemed to have allowed herself to enter upon a softer mood. "I have asked for an audience, your Highness——" "Why Highness?" she asked. "In German lands that is for princesses." "It accords with your bearing! The grades of rank in these countries are bewildering. What would you be called?" "In Thüringen I am styled plainly, madame!" "Madame, be it then! Are you the daughter of the Landgrave of Thüringen?" "In what way does that concern one of Tilly's captains of musketeers? I go where I choose, and own no man for my master." Nigel smiled at her petulance. "It concerns me in this way. Magdeburg is a heap of ruins. It is true a few streets remain, but I have no mind to leave you and your friend Elspeth Reinheit to be the chance prey of fire, or of plunder-seeking cut-throats." "You describe your soldiery with admirable precision!" she interrupted. "I was referring to the human vermin that swarm from their haunts in cities whenever order gives way to disorder, and to camp-followers who are like unto them." His voice took on a deeper seriousness. "Come to the window, it is beginning to get dusk, you will see them." She rose and moved across in her stately way to the casement. He pointed to the street. "Do you see those?" Three nondescript tattered ruffians and a woman with half-naked breasts, clad in remnants, gave vent to raucous laughter, and each man fingered a long knife at his girdle. On the back of each was a stuffed wallet, and at the sight of the lady they raised a shrill cry of glee, and made across. The lady shuddered. "I have men outside," he said. "But if they were not, do you think your puny dagger-play, or your proud tongue, would save you? They would hack off your slender fingers for their rings, strip you for your fine linen, and if they left you your life...." The girl's face blanched. "You need not go on! I understand. What are we to do?" "Your friend Elspeth Reinheit dwells at Eisenach? And you, madame, at some castle near by? Is it not so?" "I have friends at the castle of the Wartburg!" she said. "Good! I will arrange an escort and send you both to your friends. It is about three days' journey." "Elspeth will not be able to ride!" "Then she must have a coach, if one can be found." "And the pastor?" "I cannot answer for him. There are too many of them as it is." "As to that," she said, "it depends on one's faith. But there is talk of a betrothal between them." The girl watched his face with a close scrutiny as she said it. "I do not know what Count Tilly may order concerning him. She is quite welcome to her pastor," he said with indifference. "As I said, there are far too many pastors, and priests too for that matter, for quiet living. If they would baptise the children, marry the youths and maidens, administer the sacraments, and amuse you women in between without interfering with the other business of the world, it would be far better." "We had better make ready!" she said. "And the dead pastor?" "He must be left to his flock. Count Tilly will dismiss the poorest prisoners. Do you, madame, get your charge ready at once for her journey to the camp. The men shall make a litter!" "You are more an officer of Wallenstein than of Tilly!" she said. "Were I you, I should seek employment with the former." "Wallenstein! I was with Wallenstein till the Emperor accepted his resignation!" "The Emperor will recall him!" she said confidently. [13] [14] [15] Nigel sprang towards her eagerly. "Is this true? And if true, how do you know it? Who are you?" She smiled a lofty, condescending, tantalising smile and left him. Wallenstein! Wallenstein in chief command again! Wallenstein the supreme general of generals, the man who could pick men, place them in the exact rank they could fill, caring nothing for archdukes or landgraves, only for soldiers,—the man who could make war itself an orderly thing, not quartering rough soldiers promiscuously upon quiet burgher families, but levying contributions and spending them in pay and provisions like any merchant, getting good value for them. Wallenstein appealed to the Scot in Nigel as a thorough man, no less brave than Tilly, but a genius for organising armies, a good Catholic, but no fanatic. It was like a shrill summons to Nigel to hear that Wallenstein might take the field again. But how could this proud damsel of Thüringen know? Who was she? To be the daughter of the Landgrave of Thüringen was to be almost the daughter of a prince. She had not admitted it, but that she came of very noble birth he was sure. She must be steeped in Lutheranism to be in Magdeburg during the siege. Yet she seemed not to regard either the dead pastor or the living with the respect that one who was strong in the faith would be likely to show. His men-at-arms came in, doublets and pockets stuffed. They had found no wine at all events. He bade them take two of the old pikes from the pile of arms, tear down a curtain, and with them make a rough litter. "I must take one more look at my uncle," Elspeth murmured when her companion returned with her, and Nigel opened the door. She paid her last dues of affection, loth to leave her dead to a possibly unceremonious burial at strange hands. But Ottilie had explained the matter to her. Then she came out and lay down upon the litter. The two musketeers lifted her as if she had weighed but a few pounds, and tramped towards the door. Her friend walked just beside her. Nigel cast one look round and followed. Then they made their way to the outskirts of the town beyond the ramparts and the fosses. When Nigel had with infinite trouble found them privacy and housing for the night, the lady of Thüringen responded graciously enough to his "good night!" adding, "I am glad my dagger failed me, Sir Captain. You are too courteous to die by a woman's hand." CHAPTER III. T I L LY, C O U N T O F T Z E R C L A Ë S . "So, sir, you would leave me for Wallenstein!" said the dry, wiry old man with the short grey beard resting on a charger of ruff, looking keenly out of a pair of very sharp eyes, which were the eyes of General Tilly, Count of Tzerclaës. "What in thunder made you think Wallenstein was in favour again?" "It is true then, General?" "It may prove true in time. It depends on Gustavus, on Magdeburg, on Saxony. Are you by chance a necromancer? Your calf country has produced a brood of them at times. And your King Jamie, who was father-in-law to our famous Winter King by the way, made rather a name for himself rooting out the witches, didn't he?" Nigel Charteris knew Count Tilly's predilection for a gird at foreign officers. But as the old general was in a good vein he made no attempt to defend the memory of King Jamie, who was dead, and had died a Protestant, to Nigel in itself a proof of something lacking in his intelligence. "Not I, General! I had it from a haughty damsel I found in the same house with the nest of Magdeburgers I brought you." "Who was she, captain?" "She gave herself out to be the Lady Ottilie of Thüringen! She is of a surety highly-born. But I didn't know what to make of her. She is not given to much speech, and what there is is tart in flavour. Would she by chance be a daughter of the Landgrave? She hinted at the Wartburg." "Not she! The Landgrave has no daughter. I should like to see this damsel. She may tell an old man more than she would tell a young one like yourself. Send for her!" Nigel gave an order to a soldier. "As for Wallenstein, it may well be later on. At present it behoves me to let the Emperor know fully about Magdeburg, what men we have lost and what dispositions I am making, for, look you, this matter [16] [17] [18] must needs rouse Gustavus and bring him about my ears. I can well spare you for a matter of ten days to ride to Vienna to bring me word again. What say you? Will you be the messenger?" "With the greatest goodwill, General!" There was no mistaking the sentiments of the younger man. He was a soldier, and knew that this way leads to advancement. "It should serve your turn. I know a soldier when I see one, and you have quitted yourself manfully." "Thanks, General!" Nigel glowed all over with his commendation. At this moment the unknown lady made her entrance. Count Tilly signed to Nigel to stay: raising his fine eyebrows with a movement that gave him a quizzical air, and a slightly amused look crept into his face. He rose and bowed politely— "The Lady Ottilie of Thüringen?" A look flashed from her eyes to Count Tilly's as she bowed in return. "It is the name by which I am known to your officer here!" "There is a singular likeness between your face and that of a lady I once met at the court of Vienna," said Count Tilly, as if it were a matter of no moment. "Indeed!" she said unmovedly. "At the present moment I am seeking a safe-conduct to Thüringen, for myself and two persons in whom I am interested." "To what part?" "To Eisenach, or, if not, then to any point on the frontiers!" "And your business, madame?" "To restore my friends to their families, and rest, after the horrors to which you have subjected us, Count." Tilly made no sign of displeasure. The air of amused courtesy still sat in his eyes, in his manner. "How long have you been in Magdeburg?" he asked. "Ten days, reckoned by time," she said with meaning. "You must have changed into a cat, or an owl, to get into the city ten days ago!" he said, surveying her calmly. "Yes. It was possible to you. Now, are you ready to start at once?" "Within an hour, Count!" "Good! Captain Charteris here will escort you and your party as far as Erfurt. After that you must make your own plans!" The Lady Ottilie von Thüringen did not look overjoyed at the news. She stole a glance at the captain, who on his side evinced no rejoicing, and then at the general. One might have supposed that she suspected some design on the part of the elder man. "It is the utmost I can hope for, I suppose," she said grudgingly. "Women should stay at home!" said the Count. "Especially girls of your age and condition," he added, waving his hand in token of dismissal. The lady's lips curled as she bowed and withdrew. It was plain she was accustomed to having her own way, and not accustomed to being rebuked by generals, however eminent. "My young friend," the Count went on to Nigel, "you will have a curious convoy as far as Erfurt. When you leave them at Erfurt, see that some trustworthy men are to accompany them. I seldom forget faces, and more rarely voices. Be careful. Look closely after her. Find out what you can! Don't make love to her! It is of no importance to you what I think. I may be misled by a resemblance. It is a thousand chances that I am. But for you, the less you know at the outset the better for you. It is a great protection sometimes not to know anything. Here is an order for a lieutenant and twenty troopers. Take any travelling carriage and four horses you can lay hands on. And stay, here are a hundred gold crowns for your expenses. On leaving Erfurt you will go as fast as possible to Vienna, after which, God be with you till we meet again!" Nigel pocketed the crowns and the blessing with a good grace, thanked Count Tilly, and saluted. It was not often that an officer found such favour with the dry old general. He was too busy during the next hour with his preparations to trouble his head with the speculations of Count Tilly as to the identity of "dark Ottilie," as he called her to himself. In point of fact he was rather disappointed to be called upon to act as escort even as far as Erfurt. He would so much more willingly have ridden by the shortest road to Vienna, where his ambition was already, if we may speak of a man's desire outstripping his body by three days or so. For his secret heart sang "Wallenstein," and not "Ottilie" dark or fair. Yet Wallenstein, for the little that [19] [20] [21] Nigel Charteris had seen of him, or knew of him through others, was not a man to be beloved of men. He had been twice married, which might prove that he was beloved of women, or not, according to the side the pleader took. Nigel could recall without difficulty the long narrow face with the large ears set close back against the head, the high deeply-furrowed brow, the thoughtful scrutinising eyes from which all laughter was absent, the plain linen collar turned flatly down over his cuirass, the little tuft on his chin, the look of solid power about the face as a whole, a face dominated by resolution rather than pride. What was it then that drew Nigel Charteris to him? It was perhaps the sense of the orderliness and discipline that prevailed about the famous general and emanated from him. It was perhaps the audacity that had led him to offer, in the dark days of the empire, to raise an army of twenty thousand men which should cost the Emperor nothing but his mandate, or the sound foresight that in fact provided thirty thousand for the war of '26. Nigel Charteris had marched with him as a mere subaltern to the crushing defeat of Mansfeld at Dessau on the Elbe, had joined in the resistless pursuit through Silesia, through Mähren into Hungary, where Mansfeld was striving to unite with Bethlem Gabor of Siebenbürgen, most turbulent of Electors. Nigel had seen the army of thirty thousand grow into seventy thousand, and the Emperor able to dictate in the affairs of Europe. There had been nothing to equal Wallenstein's army in the world. And then the Habsburger, listening to jealousies, to his own fears perhaps, to the Jesuits certainly, to Maximilian of Bavaria, had bidden Wallenstein, laden as he was with honours and riches, lay down his baton. Wallenstein had made no demur, raised no standard of rebellion, had gone into retirement. The army mouldered away regiment by regiment. Some had joined Tilly, like Nigel. More had become idlers in the great cities. It had been Wallenstein's army. Without him to command even the Emperor could not keep the snows from melting. And now came this mysterious message that Wallenstein would be summoned again. His old officers would be flocking back. Nigel felt it in his bones. Loyalty to a great leader is one of the strongest engines in the world, least visible to the eye, most potent in effect. A travelling carriage was found, the body hung by leathern straps, steadied by light chains, to the solid box and hinder seats, which were just above the axles. From somewhere had sprung two serving maids, the one a plump, wide-chested, short Saxon girl, evidently a retainer of Elspeth Reinheit; the other, an older, slightly-wizened woman of dark complexion, with a certain air about her of one accustomed to the chambers of great ladies, of one above the common herd of waiting women, and as plainly the attendant of Ottilie of Thüringen. The two had probably been hidden in some garret of the house in Magdeburg, and followed their mistresses, having no other goal to make for, to the outskirts of the camp. The Saxon girl was already on terms of familiarity with the troopers. The other held herself pursed up and aloof. Nigel mounted the two on the hinder seat of the coach, their mistresses within, and presently gave the order to the lieutenant, who sent on two men in advance. Nigel and the lieutenant followed at the head of ten troopers. The other eight rode behind as a rearguard. They gave a glance back at the smoking ruins of Magdeburg, out of which still rose some spires of churches which had successfully defied the conflagration, and were no longer the objective of Tilly's cannon, and rode along the level road towards Strassfurt, comparing their military experiences of the last three days. The young pastor had been mounted on a horse of indifferent mettle, and rode as well as he was able behind the coach just in front of the rearguard. It was clear that he was not in a grateful frame of mind, notwithstanding his freedom. Nor had he any great reason to be, for was not the fall of this great city of Magdeburg, this stronghold of Protestantism, an open and visible sign of the hated Edict? CHAPTER IV. O N T H E R O A D TO E R F U RT. Let your journeying be never so brief, it need not be tedious. The road was as flat from Magdeburg to Strassfurt, and that was twenty miles, as is the great plain that stretches from the Zuider Zee to Warsaw and on and on. There were undulations. It was not as flat as a backgammon board, nor had it a hill that would have made an old horse out of breath. It was a sunshiny morning towards the end of May, and the sun rises early over the German lands in May, and shines hotly towards noon on the great plain. There was little or no shelter, but horses and men, even the pastor, though he came from the pine forests of Thüringen, thought little of the heat and the dust. To the men it was a holiday jaunt after the military turmoils of the past two months. To the pastor it was a return to his flock with a wallet full, not of indulgences like that of Johann Tetzel, the Dominican, of Luther's day, but of doings and sufferings. How he would be able to point his sermons with what he had seen and heard! How he would inflame the whole forest with it! The fires, the murders, the even blacker [22] [23] [24] horrors of the sack of Magdeburg, should be caught up into the trumpet of his prophecy and belched forth in his own sonorous, if not altogether silvery voice, till every valley of Thüringen and every hamlet in the hills rang with the fame and the shame of the Edict. He conceived himself as a brand plucked from a literal burning. As he rode, innumerable texts rose to his remembrance; and pathways of thought, full of intricacies, opened out therefrom, till his head almost ached by reason of the fixity with which he gazed upon the hinder seat of the coach, while in his imagination he saw a mass of upturned faces on the hillside upturned to him. The beauty of the morning and the monotony or interest of the road were not for him. Nor did they affect the Saxon maid-servant, who from her high perch behind the coach could see every now and then the steel caps of the troopers in front glancing in the sun, and, when she felt sure the Herr Pastor was not thinking about her, she twisted her stout body about and twisted her short neck till she could win a good satisfying look at the foremost couple of horsemen behind him. As for her companion, the high-born lady's tiring woman, the Saxon girl could make nothing of her. She belonged to the east, she said. The Saxon girl had once been to Dresden. Further east was a mystery of all manner of strange peoples. The woman spoke German, but she did not look German, and she did not chatter, an unhealthy sign to the mind of the Saxon girl. She had not a look for the troopers nor for the country-side. She was thinking of the little hoard of florins and kreuzers she had left in the hands of a respectable goldsmith before she set out on this ridiculous journey with the highly-born lady, who, subject to the god of greed, owned her body and soul. The writings relative to the hoard were in a little bag, which she wore in a secure place beneath her outward and visible garments. Every now and again she pinched the spot to make sure they were there: a fact the Saxon girl noticed, but forbore to question for the reason. For the lady and the farmer's daughter the road had different messages. Both in their ways felt the loveliness of the morning and the welling up of Spring in the blood. To the lowlier-born a little farmstead with its yellowish clayed walls and great black beams, its thatch of many seasons' straw, spoke of men and women and babes and kine. Then she remembered, and called softly out of the window "Pastor Rad," and the pastor urged his horse beside her and said a few words, but soon dropped behind again. She could make nothing of him. He did not even ask after her wound. And "dark Ottilie" of Thüringen? The beauty of the morning set her pulses thrilling, and chanted in her ears a song of freedom. She knew well that she was not free, that she was playing the rebel against all orthodoxy of courts and the rule of princes for their women-folk. She had but these few weeks essayed the game of freedom, which had already led her into strange accidents, but danger and Spring and pride made a heady mixture. She loved this flat open road because it was new to her, and led to strange little towns. "Did that stupid old General Tilly recognise her?" She asked herself the question, and answered that these old generals and statesmen were all full of craft and ruse, and it was impossible to say. Why, if he did, should he let her go? Then her thoughts evidently fell upon the Scot: and, since he showed no sign of coming to her of his own accord, she had the word passed to him. Nigel wheeled his horse and waited till the coach was abreast. The coach was high and he needed not to bend. He saluted and said — "Madame?" "What is the name of this place we make for?" "Strassfurt!" "Is it much farther?" "A league or so, madame!" "And then?" "We shall dine and proceed to Aschersleben. Then, if you are not too fatigued, we shall go on to Sangershausen." Then he looked across to Elspeth and a look of friendliness came into his eyes. "How is your wound to-day, Fräulein?" "Better! Much better, captain!" Elspeth had another access of blushes. "Of a truth," said "dark Ottilie" to herself, "there must have been some passages between this gentleman and our pastor's niece;" and she herself began to observe him more closely, how well he sat his horse, what a figure he had, as gallant a soldier as she remembered to have seen. "Captain!" She threw aside her haughtiness for a moment as she would have dropped a cloak when she had loosed the clasp. "Whence came you?" "From Scotland, madame!" "The country of Marie Stuart?" "She was the grandmother of our present king, Charles!" "And what brought you here?" "A younger son's lack of fortune, and a taste for sword-play!" [25] [26] [27] "But surely at the English court!" "There were already too many Scots, too many younger sons, and a king who had no taste for sword- play, madame!" "They say the English ladies are rich and beautiful! Were there none who would keep a Scottish gentleman from crossing the seas to find a fortune, when she held one in her lap?" "I would not have looked beyond her face, madame, and, wanting a fortune of my own, would never have looked her in the face to ask for hers." "You are too proud, sir! And how long have you plied the trade of a soldier?" "Since Wallenstein raised his army and fought with Mansfeld. Five years, madame!" A strange rapt gleam came into her eyes at the name of Wallenstein. "And the fortune?" she asked. "My Lord Verulam in his book tells us 'if a man look sharply and attentively he shall see Fortune: for though she be blind yet she is not invisible,'" said the Scot. "I am still looking for her." "It is a good saying: and your Lord Verulam plainly had a shrewd notion that Fortune walks abroad in petticoats as often as she hides herself in the treasure-house of a king." Nigel Charteris looked into her face, wondering exactly what she meant by her commentary, and the dark eyes held a lurking demon of laughter somewhere about them for an instant, but the mist came over the twin lakes and her face resumed its lofty repose. They were not the only wayfarers: though the little groups were getting more and more infrequent. For the final attack on Magdeburg, which had let loose into its streets and places thousands of soldiery on plunder intent, careless of violence to women and to babes, had also opened its gates for the egress of fugitives. Those who had friends or relatives in the country made such haste as was possible in the deadly hubbub of the sack to steal out with their bare lives on to the roads and walk fast and far. Many were the glances of hate at the troopers, and of wonder at Elspeth Reinheit, who was known to many as the "pastor's niece." As for the young pastor, the fugitives bowed or curtsied to him, and pitied him because they supposed him a prisoner; whereas they themselves possessed a precarious freedom, won out of the press of death that had confronted them in so many forms on the grisly days of the sack. The pastor, buried in his indignation, and in his thoughts of stirring themes for congregations not yet assembled, sometimes acknowledged their salutations, sometimes missed seeing them. One question in the intervals of his professional wrath came into his mind every now and again, and he was indignant at the intrusion. It was this: What had happened that Elspeth should have had any dealings with Tilly's captain? He had seen how her eyes had sought the captain's, the eyes of an accursed Catholic, accursed in that his hands were imbrued, actually or vicariously, in the bloody wine-presses of the wrath of man, still more accursed that he had done what he had in furtherance of the policy of Rome. And Elspeth Reinheit, though not formally betrothed to him, Pastor Rad, was looked upon as his by others than himself or herself. How was it possible that the soldier and she could have met, and he the pastor and lover not know it? How could there be a look of understanding or of gentle inquiry pass from her to him to his own exclusion? It filled him with vague uneasiness. It hurt his pride of possession. It raised suspicion of her integrity. No doubt Pastor Rad would have been still more surprised had he known that the highly-born sympathiser—he was not sure enough of her spiritual leanings to call her adherent,—Ottilie of Thüringen, was at this moment questioning Elspeth on that very matter. "Dearest Elspeth, you have met yonder captain before yesterday? I am sure of it." She nodded towards his back as he trotted forward to the head of his men after the little conversation. "That is true!" said Elspeth. "There is no need to keep it secret from you, though I dare not tell Melchior Rad. He would never understand." "As to that," said her companion, "I cannot advise you. You know the pastor. But your eyes have a most eloquent speech of their own, and are not easily veiled, and, when he and I carried you to your chamber, your eyes sought the captain's, and I could have sworn your pastor marked it." "Oh dear!" said Elspeth. "And he is so harsh; well, not exactly harsh, but you know what I mean." "These good men are hard in judgment!" said the other. "Like diamonds for rarity and hardness. As for sparkle ... well, I should not say Pastor Rad sparkles, but never mind." "This is Thursday!" said Elspeth. "Well, it was on Tuesday night and nearly midnight. I had been sitting watching my uncle in too great anxiety to leave the dear old man, and went down into the kitchen to make him a warm posset. "As I crept into the kitchen in my night-rail and slippers, my hair down even, imagine, Ottilie, with a candle in my hand, a man stood there in the outer doorway. He seized my hands in his and looked me [28] [29] [30] straight in the face, the candle-light between us. "'No word, maiden!' he said in a low tone. 'Give me food! Give me a couch to lie upon! I am wearied to death!' "His face was blackened with smoke and streaked with sweat. His cloak and doublet and gauntlets were stained with I know not what. His voice was hoarse and weak. He was clearly wellnigh done for. I was frightened out of my life, but not out of all pity. And he was young and had fine eyes, Ottilie. What could I do?" "And what did you do?" "'If thine enemy hunger, feed him,'" said Elspeth. "I did not ask him on which side he fought. I gave him bread and meat and drink, and took him by the little stairs to my own chamber. It was the only safe place, and I bade him sleep there till I wakened him in the morning. "I spent the night watching my uncle and dozing by his bedside. In the morning, when it was an hour past dawn, I thought of my other charge and went to my chamber. He was gone." "God in heaven!" said Ottilie. "And that was the captain there?" "I could not swear to it!" said Elspeth, blushing again. "I think it was." "It is possible also that he came back to the house to see what had happened to you on the second day of the sack!" "I wonder if he did," said Elspeth. "I should like to think so!" CHAPTER V. T W O O F T H E C AT H O L I C FA I T H . Strassfurt gave the travellers too poor an entertainment to make them tarry by it. They got a change of horses and pushed on another ten miles, the ground rising steadily as they began to leave the plains and cross the eastern spurs of the Harz mountains. At Aschersleben the a...