The Childhood of King Erik Menved: An Historical Romance

Excerpt: ...utmost glee, and warmly kissing his master\'s hand: "if ever I deserve to be knighted, let it be by this hand! It will do me far more honour than such a king\'s--" "Skirmen!" interrupted Drost Peter, sternly and gravely, "dost thou, too, dare to censure my king and master? Thou servest me at present: if, hereafter, thou shouldst be made a knight, thou wilt then serve the king and country; and no servant should despise his master." "But can you in your own heart, then, noble sir drost--" "I can be silent, where the heart cannot speak without making the tongue a traitor; and that is ever the case when it contemns majesty. Be thou now also silent, and bandage me. There was still hero-blood in the arm that gave me this wound," he added, sadly, as he bared his arm. "This wild Rimaardson fights well. God support his noble kinsman, when he learns what has happened here!" Drost Peter, attended by his careful squire, then went to his bed-chamber, and everything was soon as quiet in Harrestrup Castle as if nothing had occurred. Before daybreak next morning, Drost Peter, together with twelve smart house-carls, was already on horseback, and rode off to meet the king. The castle-warden and the remaining house-carls he left behind, to wash out the traces of the night\'s encounter, and to guard the prisoners, who were chained in the tower. Skirmen, with his master\'s permission, rode to the hunting-seat where Henner Friser and his granddaughter resided, to inform them of the king\'s arrival, and to attend to their security. Drost Peter did not regard his wounds as of much consequence, and had not troubled himself about Skirmen\'s scruples, or his foster-mother Dorothy\'s inconvenient attentions. It was not until long after the conflict with the robbers was over, that the old lady awoke, and became aware of what had occurred, when, in her anxiety for her dear young master, she went and awoke him in the middle of...