CHAP. IX.
It was late, and every one retired to rest. The king repaired to hisprivate chamber. Count Henrik saw with uneasiness that Master Thrandfollowed him. The king's chamber was immediately adjoining the library,to which Count Henrik had access. He hesitated a moment; it seemed tohim degrading, without the king's knowledge and consent, to become aconcealed witness to his conversation with the mysterious scholar; buthis anxiety and care for the king's safety at last overcame everyscruple. He took a light with him and went to the library. The lightwent out in the passage, which he deemed fortunate, as his presencemight otherwise be easily betrayed if there was the least chink in thedoor between the library and the private chamber. He stepped softlyinto the vaulted and flagged apartment, where a pair of bookshelveswith wire grating, together with some chairs and a reading table, werethe only furniture. The moon shone brightly through the small bowwindow; he seated himself at the table close by the door of the privatechamber, fixed his eyes on an open manuscript, and listened.
"Here we are now alone, and wholly undisturbed," he heard the king say,and the chivalrous Count Henrik felt he blushed for himself; he made amovement to depart, but put a constraint on his feelings and kept hisseat on hearing Master Thrand's whispering voice, but in so low andmysterious a tone that he could not understand a word.
"I know it all," continued the king, "and it is useless for you to denyit, learned Master Thrand! You are what is called a heretic and Leccarbrother; as such you are doomed to fire and faggot, by the pope, withyour whole sect, and proscribed by all Christian kings; according to mydecree, and at the requirement of the papal court you are banished frommy state and country also. Yet if you can prove to me you have foundthe philosopher's stone, as you seem yourself to imagine, and thatthere exists a higher truth and wisdom than the revealed Word, I willacquit you, and in defiance of pope and clergy will recal the decree ofbanishment against your sect."
"Most mighty sovereign!" now said the mountebank, distinctly, though ina hesitating tone;--"what you know of me I have myself confided to you;had I not known your generosity and reverence for the laws ofhospitality, and had I not known you were elevated far above thisignorant and narrow-minded age, such a confidence in a ruler would havestamped me as the most contemptible of fools. You have spoken truth,great sovereign!" he continued, as it seemed with assumed firmness. "_Iam_ a heretic and Leccar brother; but, to be such I esteem a higherhonour (even should I at last die at the stake for it) than if allblinded, gulled Christendom were to worship me as the greatest and mostadmirable of saints."
"Truly!" answered the king, sternly, "that is a bold speech, MasterThrand; if it contain not loftier wisdom than hath yet been known tothe best and wisest scholars during the space of thirteen centuries, Imust regard it as the most mad and presumptuous declaration that hathever passed the lips of man. I stand myself, as you know, in dangerousand daring strife with that power which in the church's name would ruleprinces as well as people, and enslave our souls. I defy every decreeof man which would drive us to despair and ungodliness, and give overour souls to the destroyer; but notwithstanding, I deem the church andthe divine Word on which it is founded not the less sure and stedfast,and I would fain see that philosopher--or fool, who would cause me toswerve a hair's breath from this belief."
"As soon as your grace understands me fully," answered Master Thrand,with calmness, "you will see that is nowise my aim: the real church oftruth is the invisible one which I also worship in spirit, and the trueeternal Word of God is that which hath never been wholly revealed, butto which I hearken with reverence, and appropriate through the mediumof science, by searching into yon great book of revelation, which canonly be unlocked by the wakened power of divinity within us. Hear yenot yourself, noble king! the mighty voice of divinity in the thundersof heaven? See ye not the finger of the Almighty in the destructivelightning? And must you not confess that he who is ruler over thosemighty forces of nature, is the only true powerful God whom we mustworship and adore?"
"Well! that is a matter of course, but what of that?" asked the king,in an impatient tone.
"If I now could show you," continued Master Thrand, with rising zeal,"that the same power lies in _my_ hand and in _my_ will--that _I_by a nod can force the voice of Omnipotence to speak and announce inshouts of thunder, that _I_ am the Lord and master of those godlikepowers--will you then deny my right to publish the divine word, whichspeaks through my will as it does through nature? Will you then anylonger doubt my having found and possessed myself of the essence ofthings,--the source of power,--which shall hereafter change the form ofthe world and throw down the idol temples of prejudice, and thefortified castles of tyrants? Will you then believe I have found thekey to the great mystery of life; and that the voice of deity, whichspeaks through _my_ will and _my_ works, is able to say--_Live!_ whentime, sickness, and age,--when sword and poison,--when war, pestilence,and hunger,--when stake and executioners,--when popes and tyrants, andall the foes of life, shout--_Die!_"
There was a moment's silence in the private chamber, and Count Henrikdrew breath with difficulty. "Strange!" said the king's voice again;"but no--it is impossible. I will defer forming an opinion of yourwisdom, Master Thrand, until I have seen the marvellous things youspeak of. As far as I understand you, you seem to consider yourself notonly as the lord and master of nature, but of Deity itself: suchdiscourse sounds to me like the greatest and most presumptuousmadness."
"Madness and wisdom, lying and truth, evil and good, darkness andlight, border closely on each other, noble king," again whispered thewell-oiled tongue of Thrand. "This must especially be the case in alltransitions from night to day, from error to truth, from one age toanother. That which I have here dared to whisper to you in this privatechamber, in reliance on the strength of your royal mind, will one daybe openly announced from the lowest seat of learning, and seem but asthe pastime of children to the mature in spirit. How each one of uswill picture to himself the divinity is in fact his own affair; thatwill depend on his own individual mental vision; and will be anecessity like all other things. What is divine is, and must everpartly remain, a mystery to the majority; but we can all attain clearviews of time and its mutable concerns: this lies within the sphere ofour common vision, and so far I flatter myself I shall be able to openyour penetrating eyes, great king, that no part of time shall be whollyhidden from you, and that you may be able to look as clearly into thefuture as back upon the past perishable world of things and actions."
"Well then," said the king, impatiently, "teach me to see more clearlywith the mind's eye, if you are able. I have all reverence for yourbodily glass eyes, and you have certainly opened to me a wider view ofthe outer world. One mirror of the past I know already in the study ofour chronicles; if there is also a natural mirror of the future, showit me."
"There are _two_, gracious king!" answered Master Thrand, withemphasis; "we call them providence and divination: we can possessourselves of both by keen wisdom, and awakened inner sense. With thefirst you can see much; with the second more; with both almost everything. Of the highly-important step you are about to take to-morrowyour grace can only judge by means of such a twofold insight."
"What!" exclaimed the king, with vehemence; "think ye I am now about touse my understanding for the first time, and consider the step which,with well-advised purpose and with the help of God, I have alreadytaken, and which is my highest happiness? Be the consequences what theymay, and whatever the Almighty Ruler of the world hath ordained for meand my kingdom, on this point the clearest insight into futurity cannotchange my will or extinguish the fairest hope of my life."
"But look, great sovereign!" continued Master Thrand, with eagerness;"cast an unprejudiced and dispassionate glance into those person'ssouls which you would link with yours. Three royal brothers--yourfuture brothers-in-law--stand yonder beside a throne; the weakest, theleast gifted, hath been chosen to fill it; but the superior mind andpower and courage of his brothers in
crease mightily. The nobler spiritcan never bow before its inferior; the fermenting forces must developethemselves; opposing ones must separate; those of close affinity mustcombine; what hath been arbitrarily joined must be forcibly severed;and he who plunges into the wild tumultuous stream must be swept alongwith it and perish."
"Silence! With thy presumptuous talk," interrupted the king, in a loudvoice, and stamping hard on the ground; "no contemptible calculationand dread of the future shall stop my progress, or disquiet my soul.Whatever may be working in the minds of those princes, crowns are notleft to be the sport of wild passions; justice and the highest powerare not subject to the will and authority of man, but to that of theAlmighty. A royal sceptre may repose secure in the hand of a child whenGod is with him, even though that child stands surrounded by traitorsand murderers. This I have myself experienced."
"But, your royal grace, when the minor, as yonder, never attains tomajority in mind," objected Thrand, "when the power proceeding from thewill of a free and powerful nation is, through foolish superstition andmisconception, linked to the phantom which theologians call God'sgrace--an idea which only hath meaning and significance when we seethat grace revealed in the great and noble, though mutable, will of thepeople, to which all connection with the weaker unapt spirit isdestruction----"
"By all the holy men, the highest might and authority comes fromabove!" interrupted the king, with vehemence, "In man's will only, notin the Lord's, is there vacillation and change; he who justly wears acrown hath a power in the will of God, which no mortal shall defyunpunished. But enough of this. I called you not hither to consult withyou on state affairs. Knew I not you were a philosopher who takes butlittle interest in worldly government, I should be tempted to believeyou were a wily emissary from my foes, and those who secretly strive toundermine my happiness."
"Heaven forefend! your grace," exclaimed Master Thrand, in dismay.
"I called you hither to warn you--not to receive warnings," continuedthe king, with stern vehemence. "I have perceived that your opinions onspiritual things are dangerous and misleading. Keep them to yourself,or I shall be necessitated to banish you from the country. I have alldue respect for your knowledge in worldly matters," he added; "it mayprove useful to me. My master of the mint, however, you cannot be atpresent, and my spiritual adviser still less. If the wise Roger Baconwas your teacher and master I would willingly know what he hath taughtyou that is good and reasonable; but I will not hear a word more of thephilosopher's stone. I ask not to look into futurity; if you understandthat art, keep it to yourself. I regard it, if not as witchcraft, asequally sinful and unwise. Such faculty hath as yet never made anyhuman being happy.
"If you can (which, however, I much doubt) protract human life beyondits natural limits, keep such knowledge to yourself also: it seems tome not less presumptuous and irrational. I desire not to live an hourlonger in this world than the Almighty hath ordained; but if you can,by natural means and without sin unveil to me the secrets of nature--ifyou can imitate the thunders of heaven as you assume--then show me andour philosophers the art, and explain it to us, at whatever price youdeem fitting; but how far soever your mastery over the powers of naturemay extend, imagine not you have usurped the power from Him, incomparison of whom the wisest and mightiest man on earth is but amiserable impotent worm. Go hence and pray our Lord and the holy Virginto pardon you the presumptuous words you have here uttered. Would thatyou might one day gain a better insight into what is of higherimportance to soul and salvation than all your temporal learning!"
Count Henrik could not hear what answer was made by Master Thrand tothis severe reproof; the words "to-morrow, noble king!" were all hethought he understood, besides some common-place and obsequiousexpressions of respect, and it seemed to him that the artist's voicesounded hollow and hardly audible. The door of the private door openedand shut again; Count Henrik perceived that the king was alone, andheard him open the door to his sleeping chamber. The Count steppedsoftly out of the library; he heard footsteps before him in the darkpassage. It was Master Thrand coming from the king's private chamber.Count Henrik stood still on remarking that the little juggler oftenpaused in the passage, as if in secret deliberation; he muttered tohimself, and was busied with something in the dark; his whimsical gaitand figure was now suddenly lit up by a bright light, which instantlyvanished again; Master Thrand at last stopped at a private door whichled to Junker Christopher's apartments, but to which none had accessbeside. The door opened and closed again, and Thrand disappeared.
"What was that?" said Count Henrik to himself, with a start, "a spiritof darkness lurks between the royal brothers!" He left not the passageere he had seen the pyrotechnic artist steal back from the junker'sapartments, and repair to the knights' story in the opposite wing ofthe castle, where all the stranger guests were assigned their quartersfor the night. Count Henrik did not betake himself to rest, but watchedthis night as captain of the halberdiers, without the door of theking's sleeping apartment.
King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 3 Page 9