Joan of the Sword Hand
Page 49
CHAPTER XLVIII
JOAN GOVERNS THE CITY
It was night in the city of Courtland, and a time of great fear. Thewatchmen went to and fro on the walls, staring into the blank dark. TheAlla, running low with the droughts, lapped gently about the piles ofthe Summer Palace and lisped against the bounding walls of the city.
But ever and anon from the east, where lay the camps of the opposedforces, there came a sound, heavy and sonorous, like distant thunder.Whereat the frighted wives of the burghers of Courtland said, "I wonderwhat mother's son lies a-dying now. Hearken to the talking of Great Peg,the Margraf's cannon!"
At the western or Brandenberg gate there was yet greater fear. For thenews had spread athwart the city that a great body of horsemen hadpaused in front of it, and were being held in parley by the guard onduty, till the Lady Joan, Governor of the city, should be made aware.
"They swear that they are friends"--so ran the report--"which is proofthat they are enemies. For how can there be friends who are notCourtlanders. And these speak an outland speech, clacking in theirthroats, hissing their s's, and laughing 'Ho! ho!' instead of 'Hoch!hoch!' as all good Christians do!"
The Governor of the city, roused from a rare slumber, leaped on herhorse and went clattering off with an escort through the unsleepingstreets. When first she came the folk had cheered her as she went. Butthey were too jaded and saddened now.
"Our Governor, the Princess Joan!" they used to call her with pride. Butfor all that she found not the same devotion among these easyCourtlanders as among her hardy men of Hohenstein. To these she wasindeed the Princess Joan. But to those in Castle Kernsberg she was Joanof the Sword Hand.
When at last she came to the Brandenburg gate she found before it agreat gathering of the townsfolk. The city guard manned the walls,fretted with haste and falling over each other in their uncertainty.There was yet no strictness of discipline among these raw train-bands,and, instead of waiting for an officer to hail the horsemen in front,every soldier, hackbutman, and halberdier was shouting his loudest, tillnot a word of the reply could be heard.
But all this turmoil vanished before the first fierce gust of Joan'swrath like leaves blown away by the blasts of January.
"To your posts, every man! I will have the first man spitted with arrowswho disobeys--aye, or takes more upon himself than simple obedience toorders. Let such as are officers only abide here with me. Silencebeneath in the tower there."
Looking out, Joan could see a dark mass of horsemen, while above themglinted in the pale starlight a forest of spearheads.
"Whence come you, strangers?" cried Joan, in the loud, clear voice whichcarried so far.
"From Plassenburg we are!" came back the answer.
"Who leads you?"
"Captains Boris and Jorian, officers of the Prince's bodyguard."
"Let Captains Boris and Jorian approach and deliver their message."
"With whom are we in speech?" cried the unmistakable voice of Boris, thelong man.
"With the Princess Joan of Hohenstein, Governor of the city ofCourtland," said Joan firmly.
"Come on, Boris; those Courtland knaves will not shoot us now. That isthe voice of Joan of the Sword Hand. There can be no treachery where sheis."
"Ho, below there!" cried Joan. "Shine a light on them from the uppersally port."
The lanterns flashed out, and there, immediately below her, Joan beheldBoris and Jorian saluting as of old, with the simultaneous gesture whichhad grown so familiar to her during the days at Isle Rugen. She wasmoved to smile in spite of the soberness of the circumstances.
"What news bring you, good envoys?"
"The best of news," they said with one accord, but stopped there as ifthey had no more to say.
"And that news is----"
"First, we are here to fight. Pray you tell us if it is all over!"
"It is not over; would to Heaven it were!" said Joan.
"Thank God for that!" cried Boris and Jorian, with quite remarkableunanimity of piety.
"Is that all your tidings?"
"Nay, we have brought the most part of the Palace Guard with us--fivehundred good lances and all hungry-bellied for victuals and allmonstrously thirsty in their throats. Besides which, Prince Hugo raisesPlassenburg and the Mark, and in ten days he will be on the march forCourtland."
"God send him speed! I fear me in ten days it will be over indeed," saidJoan, listening for the dull recurrent thunder down towards the Allamouth.
"What, does the Muscovite press you so hard?"
"He has thousands to our hundreds, so that he can hem us in on everyside."
"Never fear," cried Boris confidently; "we will hold him in check foryou till our good Hugo comes to take him on the flank."
Then Joan bade the gates be opened, and the horsemen of Plassenburg,strong men on huge horses, trampled in. She held out a hand for thecaptains to kiss, and sent the burgomaster to assign them billets in thetown.
Then, without resting, she went to the wool market, which had beenturned into a soldiers' hospital. Here she found Theresa von Lynar,going from bed to bed smoothing pillows, anointing wounded limbs, andassisting the surgeons in the care of those who had been brought backfrom the fatal battlefields of the Alla.
Theresa von Lynar rose to meet Joan as she entered, with all the respectdue to the city's Governor. Silently the young girl beckoned her tofollow, and they went out between long lines of pallets. Here and therea torch glimmered in a sconce against the wall, or a surgeon with acandle in his hand paused at a bedside. The sough of moaning came fromall about, and in a distant window-bay, unseen, a man distract withfever jabbered and fought fitfully.
Never had Joan realised so nearly the reverse of war. Never had she solonged for the peace of Isle Rugen. She could govern a city. She couldlead a foray. She was not afraid to ride into battle, lance in rest orsword in hand. But she owned to herself that she could not do what thiswoman was doing.
"Remember, when all is over I shall keep my vow!" Joan began, as theypaused and looked down the long alley of stained pillows, tossing heads,and torn limbs lying very still on palliasses of straw. Without, some ofthe riotous youth of the city were playing martial airs on twanginginstruments.
"And I also will keep mine!" responded Theresa briefly.
"I am Duchess and city Governor only till the invader is driven out,"Joan continued. "Then Isle Rugen is to be mine, and your son shall sitin the seat of Henry the Lion!"
"Isle Rugen shall be yours!" answered Theresa.
"And when you are tired of Castle Kernsberg you will cross the wastesand take boat to visit me, even as at the first I came to you!" saidJoan, kindling at the thought of a definite sacrifice. It seemed like anatonement for her soul's sin.
"And what of Prince Conrad!" said Theresa quietly.
Joan was silent for a space, then she answered with her eyes on theground.
"Prince Conrad shall rule this land as is his duty--Cardinal,Archbishop, Prince he shall be; there shall be none to deny him so soonas the power of the Muscovite is broken. He will be in full alliancewith Hohenstein. He will form a blood bond with Plassenburg. And when hedies, all that is his shall belong to the children of Duke Maurice andhis wife Margaret!"
Theresa von Lynar stood a moment weighing Joan's words, and when shespoke it was a question that she asked.
"Where is Maurice to-night?" she asked.
"He commands the Kernsbergers in the camp. Prince Conrad has made himprovost-marshal."
"And the Princess Margaret?"
"She abides in the river gate of the city, which Maurice passes oftenupon his rounds!"
A strange smile passed over the face of Theresa von Lynar.
"There are many kinds of love," she said; "but not after this fashiondid I, that am a Dane, love Henry the Lion. Wherefore should a womanhamper a man in his wars? Sooner would I have died by his hand!"
"She loves him," said Joan, with a new sympathy. "She is a princess andwilful. Moreover, not even a woman c
an prophesy what love will makeanother woman do!"
"Aye!" retorted Theresa, "I am with you there. But to help a man, not tohinder. Let her strip herself naked that he may go forth clad. Let herfall on the sharp wayside stones that he may march to victory. Let herefface herself that no breath may sully his great name. Let her dieunknown--nay, make of herself a living death--that he may increase andfill the mouths of men. That is love--the love of women as I haveimagined it. But this love that takes and will not give, that hampersand sends not forth to conquer, that keeps a man within call like a dogstraining upon a leash--pah! that is not the love I know!"
She turned sharply upon Joan, all her body quivering with excitement.
"No, nor yet is it your way of love, my Lady Joan!"
"I shall never be so tried, like Margaret," answered Joan, willing tochange her mood. "I shall never love any man with the love of wife!"
"God forbid," said Theresa, looking at her, "that such a woman as youshould die without living!"