CHAPTER LVI
HELENA, PRINCESS OF PLASSENBURG
There was, however, deadly work yet before the men of Plassenburg. Wefound, indeed, that the townsfolk were with us almost to a man. Theirguild train-bands gathered and mustered at their halls. The guards at thecity gates fraternally turned their arms to the ground.
"The Prince will restore your ancient liberties!" I cried. And the peopleshouted. "Prince Karl of Plassenburg and our ancient liberties!"
Then we made our way up the street by different routes to the Wolfsberg.There was little fighting till we arrived under those vast and gloomywalls. The Black Riders had disappeared within. Those worst tools of grimtyranny had early withdrawn themselves, knowing that small mercy would beshown them by the people if once the Wolfsberg were taken. But the commonsoldiers of the fighting rank, sons and brothers of the women of Thorn,tore off the badge of the bloody Dukes and with loud shouts marched withus as comrades.
But when we came before the walls, and with sound of trumpet and loudshouts summoned the Wolfsberg to surrender, a discharge of musketry fromthe walls, and the determined faces of a multitude of defenders showed usconclusively that all was not yet over.
It was no use wasting men in attacking the great pile of buildingswith the force at our disposal. We had men in plenty, but forbreeching we needed the cannon left behind by these swift forces,which, marching day and night, had arrived in the very nick of timebefore the walls of Thorn.
Nevertheless, it was not the fate of the Wolfsberg to be taken by LazyPeg and her compeers.
These ponderous pieces of ordnance were presently being dragged throughthe swamps and over the brick-dust barrens of the borderlands, and itmight be three or four days before they could arrive to aid us. There wasnothing, therefore, to do but to sit down and wait, drawing a cincturethat not a mouse could creep through about the cliffs of the Wolfsberg.
But deep within the heart of the old Red Tower there was one strongerthan Lazy Peg fighting for us.
"Fire! Fire!" cried the people in the streets. "The Wolfsberg is onfire!" And so, surely, it was. The flames burst out from the windowsof the Red Tower and were rapidly carried by a dry fanning northerlywind along the wooden workshops and kennels to the main building,where the Hall of Judgment was soon blazing like a torch. Thedefenders seemed paralyzed by this misadventure. Some ran to thecastle well. Some threw themselves desperately from the walls, otherscrowded to the gates, and through the bars besought our Prince'spledge that mercy would be shown them.
Then the crowd without were ill to deal with, for they cried aloud, "Nomercy to the murderers! Show us our Saint Helena!"
Then it was that I leaped once more upon the scaffold, which had seensuch a sight the day before, and cried, "Duke Otho is dead! I, HugoGottfried, slew him with this Red Axe. Prince Karl is come to save you,and to give you back your ancient liberties. Your Saint Helena is mywife, and is safe under the protection of Bishop Peter."
But though they cheered at my words they would not cease from crying,"Show us Saint Helena, and if she bid us we will have mercy on the wolvesof the Wolfsberg!"
So it was necessary for Helene to be brought and to show herself to them,for the sake of the poor souls sore driven and in jeopardy 'twixt thefire and the knives.
"Have mercy on the poor folk!" she cried, when they had done shoutingbecause of her safety. "At worst, they are but misguided, ignorant men!"
By this time the doors of the Wolfsberg were thrown open from within, andthe men crowded out, casting down their arms in heaps on either side thegate. They were then marched, under charge of the soldiers ofPlassenburg, to various strongholds which were pointed out by theBurgomeister and the chiefs of the guilds. The fortified halls of thetrades were filled with them. By daybreak the whole of Thorn was in ourhands, while the gray barrens of the Wolfmark were lit for leagues by theflaming Wolfsberg, which, on its craggy height, vomited fire and sparksinto the blackness of night.
And the reek of this great burning hung for days after in the heavens.Thus was an end made to the iniquities of the house of the Black DukeCasimir and the Red Duke Otho. And the last Duke mixed his ashes withthat of the fatal Tower. For on the morrow there remained only theblackened walls and glowing skeleton beams of all that mightypalace--which, indeed, has never been rebuilt. For the people of Thorn,under the mild and equitable rule which followed, erected a greatmemorial church upon the spot--as may be seen to this day, a landmarkfrom far to witness if I have lied in the tale which has been told.
So the Prince Karl gave back to Thorn its liberties, as he had promised.But the regality of the Dukedom he kept for himself, and he took theWolfmark and made it part of his dominions, till, as he had formerlyundertaken, the broom-bush kept the cow throughout the length and breadthof Plassenburg and the Mark.
It was a noble home-coming when we returned to Plassenburg--victoriousand famous; but also there was mourning deep and solemn for the PrincessYsolinde, who by her sacrifice had wrought such great things for the armsof Plassenburg, and had died in the moment of victory.
Then, when after the stately funeral of the dead Princess we returnedback to the palace, it was the Prince's pleasure that Helene and myselfshould ride on either hand of him through the city.
And when we were announced in the court, and the councillors of statestood about, my wife was named by her true name, "Helena, Princess ofPlassenburg!"
Whereat the courtiers opened their mouths and widened theireyes--thinking, perhaps, that that ancient wizard, Chancellor Leopold vonDessauer had suddenly gone mad.
But when the representatives of the cities of the Princedom, and thedelegates from Thorn and the Mark, had been received with due honor, thePrince bade his Chancellor recount all he had learned from my father, andall that he had discovered in the archives of Plassenburg.
Then, when Dessauer had finished, Karl the Prince arose.
"I am," he said, "a plain, brusque man. And speech was never mystronghold. But this I say. When Karl the Miller's Son goes the way ofKing's son and beggar's son, it is his will that Helene, legitimatePrincess of Plassenburg, shall reign over you. And also that her husband,Hugo, who, as you know, won her from dreadful death, shall stand by herright hand."
Then the nobles and great lords, fearing the Prince, and perhaps alsoenvying a little the man who was the Prince's general of his armies,shouted amain:
"We swear to obey the Princess Helena!"
Whereat uprose the Little Playmate, very princess-like and full of sweetregal dignity.
"I thank you, noble Prince," she said. "I am glad that I can claim sohonorable a name and lineage; but I had rather be no Princess, noranything else than that which my husband hath made me--the wife of thecaptain-general of the armies of Karl, the only true and noble Prince ofPlassenburg!"
Then the Prince rose and clasped her in his arms, kissing her fondly onboth cheeks.
"Fear not," he said, "dear and loyal lady. If you live to be thePrincess, your goodman shall be the Prince. Never shall the gray mareflaunt it first, in Plassenburg!"
And he gave us each a hand, and conducted us to a pair of seats which hadbeen set level with his on the platform of the Council-chamber of thePrincedom.
The Prince Karl lived many days after the winning of the Wolfmark and theending of the ducal Wolves. But he gave less and less care to theregalities, leaving them even more completely to me, sitting mostly inthe pleasaunce by the river-side, or in the far-regarding room which hadbeen the Lady Ysolinde's.
Also he never looked again on the face of a woman--except as it mightbe to bid them good-day--save on that of my wife, Helene, who, as youwho know her may guess, waxed but the sweeter and the fairer as theyears went by.
And the blessing of children came to us, and in this thing the PrinceKarl was even happier than we.
One day, however, it chanced that he was seated in full Council, andright noble he looked. I had just handed him a paper to sign. But helooked neither at me nor yet at the paper. His eyes we
re fixed on thelocked doors of the privy bedchamber, through which only those ofprincely blood might come.
He stared so long at it that to recall him I put my hand on his sleeveand said, "Prince, the Council waits your pleasure!"
Bat he heard me not, his eyes being fixed on the door.
"Your pardon, my lords and knights," he said, at last, fighting a littlestiffly with his utterance, "but it seemed that I saw the Princess, mywife, come through the door, clad in white, and beckon me with her hand.I must go to her, my lords; I think she waits for me. The Prince Hugowill take my place at the Council."
And the old man took a step from the high seat. But at the foot of thethrone he stumbled and fell into my arms.
He said but one word after that, with his eyes still fixed on thebolted door.
"_Ysolinde_!"
And so the Prince Karl and his wife were united at last.
Since then we have lived long, the Little Playmate and I; but never havewe been other than comrades and friends--lovers also, which is the bestof all. And so (an the good God please) we shall abide till the endcomes. And in the gloaming we two also shall see the beckoning fingerfrom beyond the bolted door and turn our feet homeward, passing thebourne of the new life hand in hand--and undismayed.
THE END
The Red Axe Page 55