CHAP. II.
The ancient sea-tower was situated at some distance from the castle, inthe most deserted quarter of the town, next the sea shore. It was around watch-tower, built of freestone, with loopholes in the wall, anda sentry-walk above, between the rampart-like battlements. Below weretwo vaulted stone chambers, of which one was used as a guard-room inwar time, and the other as a depository for the bodies of the drowned,until their burial. The tower was now chiefly used for hanging outlights at night, in stormy and bad weather, to guide sailors into theentrance of the bay.
In the guard-room Drost Aage found the wounded sentinel at the point ofdeath.
A monk, who had been sent for from the monastery, was engaged inadministering to him the last sacrament. On a table lay a paper, onwhich the pious Franciscan had just written the last testament of thedying man. An oil lamp hung upon the dirty wall, and lit up the stonevault and the solemn scene of death. With a sympathizing look at thedying man-at-arms Aage quitted the guard-room, almost unnoticed, andopened the door to what was called "the corpse chamber," from which,according to tradition, there had been, in Esbern Snare's time, adescent to a subterranean passage, and where Aage conjectured he shoulddiscover the supposed secret entrance to the castle.
Into this murky chamber, which had the reputation of being haunted, thecaptive murderer had been brought. Through the aid of the surgeon hehad been restored to consciousness, and had his wound dressed; but hetalked and raved wildly. He had been bound to the bench appropriated tothe bodies of the drowned, which served him as a couch, and all haddeserted him with horror and aversion.
When Drost Aage entered this chamber, the light of a yellow hornlantern, which hung from the roof, fell on the murderer's swollen bluevisage with the hare-lip scar and ugly projecting teeth: he laughedhorribly, and ground his teeth like a chained wild beast. "Comestthou hither, thou excommunicated hound!" he muttered, thrustingforth his tongue from his foaming jaws; "then thou art also dead anddamned--that's some small comfort, though among devils--Now are thefishes gnawing at my fist, at the bottom of the sea, while I lie acorpse here in hell's antechamber--that was thy doing, thou pale ghost,with St. George's sword! I feared thou hadst come off free, for thystupid piety's sake, and thy hound-like faithfulness."
"Why so?" asked Aage, strangely affected by having half entered intothe dark imaginings of the madman--"How couldst thou think anexcommunicated man could 'scape damnation?"
"Seest thou, comrade?" whispered the bound robber, gazing wildly aroundhim, "the same holy man who gave thee over to the Evil One, gave me apassport to heaven's kingdom. It lies there in my jerkin; Satan'sbarber cut it off from me just now; and the letter was a lie,--like allvirtue and piety in the world. If that holy man could give me a falsewarrant for salvation, he might also have made a false reckoning withthy soul. It pleaseth me, however, to see he is apt in some things," hecontinued, with a horrible laugh. "I ever thought so: those blackfellows can curse far better than they can bless. But who did thybusiness for thee? The hand that should have done it is gone to theDevil--Ha! there bites a hungry fish at my fingers' ends."
"From whom was the private letter? and to whom shouldst thou havebrought it?" asked Aage, suddenly in a stern voice, and in a tone ofoverawing authority: "confess the truth, and it shall fare better withthee, wretch, than thou hast deserved!"
"What! though I should break the most solemn oath I ever swore?"muttered the robber. "No, stern sir! let the Devil take his own, andOle Ark's sinful soul too, if the worst come to the worst! I have sentmany an accursed heretic and excommunicated man to hell, and truly alsomany an honest fellow to heaven; but if I am now myself about to go tothe Devil, it shall be as a right-believing Christian; and none shallsay of me I broke my sworn oath, even to the living Satan."
"Tell me the way thou shouldst have gone, is it here?" continued Aage,looking around the large murky stone chamber.
"The way to my master's den?" muttered the robber with a grin--"Wouldstferret _that_ out, comrade? Take care thou dost not burn thyself init!"
"It is here, then," said Aage to himself, looking around him, withstill greater attention--"And here is the key; is it not so?" Sosaying, he produced the old rusty key which had been found on therobber's person together with the private letter.
"Right, comrade, the key to hell!" returned the raving murderer, with ahorrid laugh.
Aage now examined the whole vault, but discovered no trace of anycellar or descent. The floor was paved with large flags. He stamped onseveral places, and at last perceived a hollow sound, and the clang ofmetal under the stone floor. He took the lantern from the iron hook inthe arch of the roof, and placed it on the floor. On doing so hediscovered a large loose stone, which might be raised, and hisconjecture was confirmed. The loose stone concealed a fast-locked irontrap-door, which, however, seemed too small to admit of the descent ofany person. He tried the key, and it fitted. He opened the trap-door;the raw damp air of the vault rose up to him from a pitch-dark abyss,into which a ladder led down to an uncertain depth.
While this examination was carrying on the insane murderer lay on thecorpse bench, and grinned with horrible contortions. Aage stoodthoughtfully by the opening, pondering over his daring enterprise. Itnow struck him, for the first time, that, if undisguised, he mustundoubtedly be recognised and his plan frustrated. His eye fell on theblood-stained jerkin, which had been stript from off the robber'sperson, in order to bind him, "Well," he said, "we exchange garments;there, thou hast my mantle and hat; I take thy jerkin and cap."
"Good exchange enough," muttered Ole Ark; "if my luck goes with myjerkin, he goeth down to fame and honour. Ha! loose my body, Satan, andlet me follow him into the pit."
It was not without repugnance that Aage clad himself in the soiled,stained dress of the vagabond, which, however, answered his purpose,and rendered him almost incognisable. He then took the lamp in hishand, and prepared to descend through the narrow aperture in the floor;but the scorn and defiance of the bound robber now changed into apiteous lament.
"Mercy! mercy!" he cried, "take not the last glimpse of light from me!Now comes the Devil himself to rend me to pieces--Ha! let me not lie acorpse here in the dark--Mercy! mercy!" he howled, and pulled and toreat the cords which bound him.
"Pray to thy God and Judge for mercy," said Aage; "I cannot help thee."He then squeezed himself through the narrow opening, with the lanternin his hand, and pulled the trap-door after him, that he might not hearthe howls of the madman; but was nearly falling down head foremost fromthe ladder, on hearing, to his dismay, that the trap-door, which had aspring-lock, fell and closed over his head. He felt now as though hewere entombed alive. He had forgotten to take the key with him; and thefaint howling of the robber soon seemed lost in triumphant laughterabove the grave which had closed over him.
Aage grew dizzy, but recovered himself, and clung fast to the slipperysteps of the ladder, while he continued to descend. At last he stood atthe bottom: the descent was steep and deep, but it led to a narrowvaulted passage, which was so low as hardly to admit of his walkingupright. The air was foul and suffocating, and he often trod onsprawling toads and other reptiles. He held up the lantern before him,but beheld nothing save the long narrow passage, to which he coulddiscern no end; its direction, however, convinced him that it mustundoubtedly lead to the castle. He went forward with hasty steps, andlooked anxiously at the light in the lamp, which gleamed fainter andfainter. The air seemed not to contain sufficient nourishment for lifeand flame. He had hardly proceeded more than a hundred paces ere whathe feared took place--the light went out in the lantern, and he stoodin the dark. He felt a degree of alarm and a want of power and courage,which was quite foreign to his nature; at the same time he heard ahollow clang far behind, as if the iron trap-door had been again openedand clapped to. He involuntarily quickened his steps, but slipped everymoment on slimy reptiles, and was often forced to pause in order totake breath, while the air he inhaled seemed to lame every limb
and tocontract his lungs. He was nearly sinking down in a state ofinsensibility; but he now thought he heard a sound as of stealthy stepsbehind him, and his increased apprehension inspired him with renewedstrength. "Is any one there?" he shouted, and turned round; but no oneanswered, and there was suddenly a deathlike stillness again.
It was so dark that he could not see his own hand before his eyes. Inorder not to awaken suspicion by his bold enterprise he had taken offhis sword in the corpse-chamber, and was entirely defenceless. In hischildhood, Aage had not been wholly free from the dread of supernaturalbeings; and, according to the creed of the age, the idea of theinfluence of a mighty world of spirits on human life was closelyconnected with religious belief. Aage nowise doubted the possibility ofthe appearance of evil as well as of good spirits; but this idea neverdisquieted him in open day, when he knew he was on a lawful errand, andhad his sword with its cross-hilt at his side. "Is it honourable andchivalrous to steal along thus?" he said to himself. "Why took I not mygood sword with me? It was hard, though, to take the light from himabove there--he lies now in the pains of hell on yonder bench, andcurses me;--or hath he got loose, and is he lurking after me in thedark?" He now thought he heard again distinctly, at every stride hetook, the same sound, as of stealthy footsteps behind him; but eachtime he turned round all was still as before. This consciousness of thepresence of an unknown being in the dark passage put him into a stateof fearful apprehension, and recalled those images of horror to hisimagination, which he felt himself least able to combat. "Is he nowdead above there?--is it his maniac spirit which persecutes thee?" hewhispered to himself; and the form of the frantic murderer appeared tohis imagination far more terrific than when he beheld it actuallystretched on the corpse-bench; "or is it thou, old Palle!" heexclaimed, almost with an outcry of terror. The scene of the murder inFinnerup barn, which had haunted him in his childhood, and the image ofthe aged and insane regicide he had himself slain on the body of themurdered king, were again vividly present to his imagination. His hairstood on end; it seemed to him as if he was now actually about to fightwith demons and evil spirits in the dark pit of the grave,--a fancywhich had often disquieted him in dreams, and which lately had been thedominant plague of his fevered imagination. At last his terrorincreased to such a degree that he could no longer control it; heturned suddenly round, and rushed with all his might with clenchedhands towards the place where he again thought he distinguished thestealthy footsteps. He then distinctly heard a clanking sword strikeagainst the wall close beside his ear. "Ha! a human being after all!Wretched murderer! is it thou?" he shouted, quite recovering hiscourage at the discovery of a real and bodily pursuer, and sprangforward towards the unseen deadly foe, while he struck aside the sword,which seemed to be wielded by a left and powerless arm. The sword flewclanging forward in the dark passage; but at the same moment Aage felthis neck clutched almost to suffocation by a pair of convulsivelystrained arms, dripping wet.
"Ha! ha! have I pounced on thee at last, hell-hound?" suddenly roared awild rough voice in his ear, and Aage recognised the tones of thewounded robber. "I have long enough lain a corpse--now thou mayst takemy place, comrade!" This terrific voice presently rose into the howl ofa wild beast, and Aage felt the madman's tusks in his forehead; hestruck desperately around him, and strove with all his might to freehimself from the suffocating grasp of the monster, but in vain; and hewas long compelled to combat and wrestle with him ere he succeeded inthrowing him to the ground, and was even then still forced to strugglewith the robber, whose howls were growing weaker and weaker, without,however, being able to free his neck from his convulsive grasp. At lastthe clutching arms loosened from round his neck, and his franticadversary lay silent and apparently dead, or in a swoon, under hisknee.
"The Lord have mercy on his sinful soul," sighed Aage, rising halfbreathless. His opponent now made a sudden movement as if to rise, butfell back, with a rattling in his throat; and Aage perceived, for thefirst time, that he was in all probability wading in the blood of thewounded murderer. He hastened on with rapid strides. Once or twice hestopped out of breath, and fancied he again heard the murderer stealingafter him. At last he hit against something hard, and discovered byfeeling that it was a large door of metal. He shook it with all hismight, but it appeared to be locked on the other side, and immoveable.He thundered at it with his iron-shod heels, and each stroke runghollow through the vault. After the lapse of some time a little shutteropened in the door, and the light of a dark lantern, and a swarthywarrior-like visage, appeared. "Who is there? and from whom?" asked theman-at-arms.
"No one, from no one," answered Aage, suddenly calling to mind themysterious expression in the private letter.
"Right! thou knowest the watchword," was the answer; "and oneonly?--without arms?"
"As thou seest--but open quick!--there is no time to lose."
"Come, give time! The guard must first know of it." The shutter closedagain, and Aage heard the sound of a horn, which was answered at somedistance: soon after the iron door opened, and a strong-builtsteel-clad warrior stepped out and advanced towards him into thepassage, with a light in the one hand and a drawn sword in the other.He eyed the disguised Drost from head to foot, by the light of thelantern, and started back a couple of paces. "Faugh! how thou look'st,thou bloodhound!" he said, with disgust. "'Tis hard for an honestfellow to let such guests in, when the king himself must standwithout."
"I have had a hard joust on the road, brave countryman." said Aage;"but haste thee!"
"Come, come; give time, thou scoundrel! The bandage over thy eyesfirst."
"What! bandage! and foul words to me!"
"Of course, loggerhead! Thou mightest be a spy and traitor, as thou arta bloodhound and accursed robber; thou lookest fit for all such trades.The bandage over the eyes instantly, thou hound! or I kick thee backinto thy fox-hole."
It was with difficulty that Aage subdued his ire, and recollected thathe was not Drost here, nor able to justify himself; he bore this roughusage in silence, allowed his eyes to be bandaged, and was thus ledthrough the iron gate. He heard it bolted and barred after him. Soonafterwards he heard the sound of chains and pullies, as if a drawbridgewas being lowered, and he perceived he was led upon a swinging bridge.
"Go straight forward, scoundrel! or thou fallest into the moat,"muttered his companion close behind him. A cold shudder came over him;but he was silent, and went straight onward.
"Ay, truly thou hast had better luck than I wished thee," it wasmuttered behind him; "but thou hast another bridge to cross; that isten times worse; here thou art quit of _me_."
Aage heard his warlike companion re-cross the bridge, which wasimmediately afterwards raised. He conjectured that he was within theoutermost rampart of the castle, towards the north-west, which laybetween the sea-tower and the circular wall, for he had paid closeattention to the direction in which he had proceeded. He had now twonew companions, who were as little sparing as the former incontemptuous expressions respecting his cut-throat appearance andsupposed marauding trade. Aage suffered himself to be led onward bythem without answering a word to their threats and scoffs, whichsecretly rejoiced him, as a token of their dispositions and honourablefeelings. At last a horn was again sounded; it was answered as beforeat some distance. A drawbridge was again lowered, and Aage perceived hewas directly under the castle wall; for he heard a noise above his headlike the moving of balista and other warlike machines. He felt anunfriendly poke in the back, and stood as before on a rocking-bridge.
"Straight on, fellow, or thou fallest into the moat!" said a warningvoice behind him. "Goest thou a hair's breadth aside thou art a deadman!" He commended his soul to God, and went on. His guides allowed himto proceed alone for some time, and appeared to rejoice over his deadlyperil. Meanwhile, as he perceived the rocking under his feet hadceased, he knew they had passed over the inner castle moat, and werewithin the circular wall. At last he was led up a staircase; but thebandage was not yet removed from his eyes. It was not till he had been
led in many circuitous directions, as if through a labyrinth ofpassages and stairs, that he was freed from the bandage over his eyes,and found himself in an apartment of the castle which was not unknownto him, and where he was ordered to await the commandant.
It was still night. One of the men-at-arms who had last followed himremained standing at the door with a lantern and a drawn sword, andapparently watching him with fear and abhorrence.
"Who dost thou take me for?" asked Aage.
"For one of the junker's secret emissaries," was the answer. "Surely,good tidings thou bringest not, since thou comest pale and bloody fromthe secret passage. Hark! now they are taking the burning stones fromthe furnace. Kallundborg town will presently be in flames."
"The Lord forbid!" cried Aage: "call the commandant instantly! I havestrict prohibition from the junker."
"Thou lookest not as if thou hadst," said the man, starting.--"I willrun then. Thou wilt do no mischief meanwhile?" The man hastilydeparted, and took the lantern with him. Aage looked out at the window,and saw with alarm that burning stones were carried on gridirons acrossthe yard to the balista on the walls.
"Stop, fellows!" said a rough voice in the castle yard. "There is aprotest from the junker: not a shot must be fired as yet."
"A noble fellow at heart, after all!" said Aage to himself, believinghe had heard the commandant's voice. The door opened soon afterwards; atall warrior, with a stern grave countenance, and armed from head tofoot, entered the apartment with a light in his hand. When he beheldAage's blood-stained face and figure he retreated a step, and placedthe light on the table, while he hastily laid his hand on his largebattle sword. "What fellow art thou?" he asked, in a stern and roughvoice. "Doth the junker send pale corpses to plague me? Answer, fellow?Who art thou? Tell me thy watchwords, or I cut thee down on the spot!"
"No one, from no one," answered Aage; and the commandant took his handfrom the hilt of his sword.
"Speak, thou messenger of ill! If thou bringest me a prohibition fromthe junker, it is, of course, against mercy and delay? Is the town toburn? Is the Franciscan monastery first to be fired? There sleeps theking to-night."
"The town is to be spared," answered Aage. "The castle is to be openedto the king at sunrise--the papers are to be given up, and the door ofthe pit nailed fast."
"Dost thou rave, fellow?" cried the commandant, in amazement. "Darest_thou_ speak what _I_ hardly dare think? Would the junker recall by thymouth that which he commanded me with his own, on pain of death? Whothen is to be punished for all that hath here been done, and stand inthe gap between us and the king's anger?"
"You should fly the king's as well as the junker's wrath, and carryyour secret and your knowledge of a weighty transaction with you intoexile."
"And stand branded a perjurer and traitor before all the world? No,fellow! were that even the junker's command, I obey it not. What I havesworn I must keep; but the responsibility is the junker's. I have soldhim my life--but my honour, as a warrior, is my own. Show me black andwhite for what thou sayest, or I will cause thee to be hanged as a spyand traitor!"
"Now, in the Lord's name!" said Aage, as he suddenly threw off therobber's cap and dress, and stood in his well-known knightly attirebefore the commandant, "I cannot, I will not deceive a man of honourlike you. I am Drost Aage; I announce to you the will of my liege andsovereign, not that of the junker; you may now deal with me as you cananswer to God and your own conscience: but if the royal house and yourfatherland be dearer to you than your own pride and an imaginaryfealty, you will follow my counsel, and make the great sacrifice I askof you."
"Sir Drost!" answered the commandant, bowing with haughty coldness;"you have ventured on a daring game. You are now my prisoner; how Ishall act depends not on me. Oaths and vows are more binding than man'spleasure and man's will. I am an old-fashioned warrior, do yousee--Your subtle state policy and artificial virtues I understandnot--the law I acknowledge says, obey that which is commanded thee bythy lawful superior, and let him who commanded it answer for theconsequences."
"But when you see the most destructive, the most fearful consequencesbefore your eyes; when your superior hath broken his oath of fealty,and abused his rights----"
"That concerns not me. I keep steady to him to whom I swore allegiance;but _he_ must answer for what is done here, be it good or evil."
"But when you swore an ungodly oath, and fealty to a rebel?"
"Then must I keep the oath I swore to him, though, by way of thanks, heshould cause me to be hung for it, or go to hell. There is no choicehere: had I even entered the devil's service, Sir Drost, I must endureto the end, however fearful that end may be!"
"Your pride blinds your eyes to truth and justice, noble sir!"exclaimed Aage gazing on the tall steel-clad chieftain with a speciesof admiration; "but hear me, I conjure you by the living Lord!"
"You must excuse me. Sir Drost!" interrupted the chief, with coldcalmness. "My time is short, I have perhaps not many hours to live; Iexpect thanks neither from the king nor the junker, and perhaps butlittle honour on this side the prison and the grave; but all thingsaccording to order. You are now going to the tower, and I to thebattlement--to-morrow you perhaps will sit at the king's right hand,while I lie on the wheel: but so long as we are at our posts, each mustdo his duty, and, as I said, all things according to order." So saying,he stamped on the floor, and three men-at-arms entered.
"Take this knight instantly to the prison tower"--ordered thecommandant, nodding to the two nearest him.
"And thou, Bent!" he said, addressing himself to the third, "let thestones be heated again: it was a false protest--off with thee!"
The two men instantly seized Aage, and led him towards a secret door,which they opened in the wall. Aage turned round once more, and calledto the chief, in the highest state of anxiety and alarm. "Think uponyour immortal soul, in what you do! remember, you should obey Godrather than sinful men." More he could not say, for the private doorwas closed behind him.
The third man-at-arms still lingered, as if he expected the sterncommand he had received would be recalled; but the imperturbable chiefglanced menacingly at him. "The stones are to be heated, I tell thee.Art thou deaf, fellow? Off with thee! Obedience or death, while Icommand here!"
The man-at-arms turned quickly round, and departed gloomy and silentthrough the door, beside which he stood.
The commandant strode hastily once or twice up and down the floor, withhis hand upon his broad forehead. At last he stopped at a prie-dieu,and bent his knee, while his eye rested on the open prayer book. "Yeservants," he muttered, and folded his hands, "obey your mastersaccording to the flesh, in _all_ things;" he then rose, signed a crossover his broad steel-clad breast, and went in silence and with hastysteps out of the door.
King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 2 Page 2