CHAPTER XIX
Wogan did not move. In a few minutes he heard voices whispering in thecourtyard below. By that time the Princess should have escaped into thethicket. The stairs creaked, and again he saw a face over the edge of astep. It was the flabby face of a stranger, who turned and whispered inGerman to others behind him. The face rose; a pair of shoulders, aportly body, and a pair of unbooted legs became visible. The man carrieda drawn sword; between his closed eyelashes Wogan saw that four otherswith the like arms followed. There should have been six; but the sixthwas Harry Whittington, who, to be sure, was not likely to show himselfto Wogan awake. The five men passed the first turn of the stairs withoutnoise. Wogan was very well pleased with their noiselessness. Men withoutboots to their feet were at a very great disadvantage when it came to afight. He allowed them to come up to the second turn, he allowed theleader to ascend the last straight flight until he was almost withinsword-reach, and then he quietly rose to his feet.
"Gentlemen," said he, "I grieve to disappoint you; but I have hired thislodging for the night."
The leader stopped, discountenanced, and leaned back against hisfollowers. "You are awake?" he stammered.
"It is a habit of mine."
The leader puffed out his cheeks and assumed an appearance of dignity.
"Then we are saved some loss of time. For we were coming to awake you."
"It was on that account, no doubt," said Wogan, folding his arms, "thatyou have all taken off your boots. But, pardon me, your four friendsbehind appear in spite of what I have said to be thrusting you forward.I beg you to remain on the step on which you stand. For if you mount onemore, you will put me to the inconvenience of drawing my sword."
Wogan leaned back idly against the wall. The Princess should now be onthe road and past the inn--unless perhaps Whittington was at watchbeneath the windows. That did not seem likely, however. Whittingtonwould work in the dark and not risk detection. The leader of the fourhad stepped back at Wogan's words, but he said very bravely,--
"I warn you to use no violence to officers in discharge of their duty.We hold a warrant for your arrest."
"Indeed?" said Wogan, with a great show of surprise. "I cannot bringmyself to believe it. On what counts?"
"Firstly, in that you stole away her Highness the Princess Clementinafrom the Emperor's guardianship on the night of the 27th of April atInnspruck."
"Did I indeed do that?" said Wogan, carelessly. "Upon my word, thiscloak of mine is frayed. I had not noticed it;" and he picked at thefringe of his cloak with some annoyance.
"In the second place, you did kill and put to death, at a wayside innoutside Stuttgart, one Anton Gans, servant to the Countess of Berg."
Wogan smiled amicably.
"I should be given a medal for that with a most beautiful ribbon ofsalmon colour, I fancy, salmon or aquamarine. Which would look best, doyou think, on a coat of black velvet? I wear black velvet, as yourrelations will too, my friend, if you forget which step your foot is on.Shall we say salmon colour for the ribbon? The servant was a noxiousfellow. We will."
The leader of the four, who had set his foot on the forbidden step,withdrew it quickly. Wogan continued in the same quiet voice,--
"You say you have a warrant?" And a voice very different from hisleader's--a voice loud and decisive, which came from the last of thefour--answered him,--
"We have. The Emperor's warrant."
"And how comes it," asked Wogan, "that the Emperor's warrant runs inVenice?"
"Because the Emperor's arm strikes in Venice," cried the hindermostagain, and he pushed past the man in front of him.
"That we have yet to see," cried Wogan, and his sword flashed naked inhis hand. At the same moment the man who had spoken drew a pistol andfired. He fired in a hurry; the bullet cut a groove in the rail of thestair and flattened itself against the passage wall.
"The Emperor's arm shakes, it seems," said Wogan, with a laugh. Theleader of the party, thrust forward by those behind him, was lifted tothe forbidden step.
"I warned you," cried Wogan, and his sword darted out. But whether fromdesign or accident, the man uttered a cry and stumbled forward on hisface. Wogan's sword flashed over his shoulder, and its point sank intothe throat of the soldier behind him. That second soldier fell back,with the blood spurting from his wound, upon the man with the smokingpistol, who thrust him aside with an oath.
"Make room," he cried, and lunged over the fallen leader.
"Here's a fellow in the most desperate hurry," said Wogan, and parryingthe thrust he disengaged, circled, disengaged again, and lunging feltthe soldier's leather coat yield to his point. "The Emperor's arm isweak, too, one might believe," he laughed, and he drove his sword home.The man fell upon the stairs; but as Wogan spoke the leader crouched onthe step plucked violently at his cloak below his knees. Wogan had notrecovered from his lunge; the jerk at the cloak threw him off hisbalance, his legs slipped forward under him, in another moment he wouldhave come crashing down the stairs upon his back, and at the bottom ofthe flight there stood one man absolutely unharmed supporting hiscomrade who had been wounded in the throat. Wogan felt the jerk,understood the danger, and saw its remedy at the same instant. He didnot resist the impetus, he threw his body into it, he sprang from thestairs forwards, tearing his cloak from the leader's hands, he sprangacross the leader, across the soldier who had fired at him, and hedropped with all his weight into the arms of the third man with thepierced throat. The blood poured out from the wound over Wogan's faceand breast in a blinding jet. The fellow uttered one choking cry andreeling back carried the comrade who supported him against thebalustrade at the turn of the stairs. Wogan did not give that fourth mantime to disengage himself, but dropping his sword caught him by thethroat as the third wounded man slipped between them to the ground.Wogan bent his new opponent backwards over the balustrade, and felt themuscles of his back resist and then slacken. Wogan bent him further andfurther over until it seemed his back must break. But it was thebalustrade which broke. Wogan heard it crack. He had just time to loosehis hands and step back, and the railing and the man poised on the railfell outwards into the courtyard. Wogan stepped forward and peereddownwards. The soldier had not broken his neck, for Wogan saw himwrithe upon the ground. He bent his head to see the better; he heard areport behind him, and a bullet passed through the crown of his hat. Heswung round and saw the leader of the four with one of his own pistolssmoking in his hand.
"You!" cried Wogan. "Sure, here's a rabbit attacking a terrier dog;" andhe sprang up the stairs. The man threw away the pistol, fell on hisknees, and held up his hands for mercy.
"Now what will I do to you?" said Wogan. "Did you not fire at my back?That's reprehensible cowardice. And with my own pistol, too, which issheer impertinence. What will I do with you?" The man's expression wasso pitiable, his heavy cheeks hung in such despairing folds, that Woganwas stirred to laughter. "Well, you have put me to a deal ofinconvenience," said he; "but I will be merciful, being strong, beingmost extraordinary strong. I'll send you back to your master the Emperorwith a message from me that four men are no manner of use at all. Comein here for a bit."
Wogan took the unfortunate man and led him into the parlour. Then he lita lamp, and making his captive sit where he could see any movement thathe made, he wrote a very polite note to his Most Catholic Majesty theEmperor wherein he pointed out that it was a cruel thing to send fourpoor men who had never done harm to capture Charles Wogan; that no Kingor Emperor before who had wanted to capture Charles Wogan, of whom therewere already many, and by God's grace he hoped there would be more, hadever despatched less than a regiment of horse upon so hazardous anexpedition; and that when Captain O'Toole might be expected to bestanding side by side with Wogan, it was usually thought necessary toadd seven batteries of artillery and a field marshal. Wogan thereuponwent on to point out that Peri was in Venetian territory, which his MostCatholic Majesty had violated, and that Charles Wogan would accordinglyfeel it his bounden duty not to sleep ni
ght or day until he had made aconfederation of Italian states to declare war and captivity upon hisMost Catholic Majesty. Wogan concluded with the assurances of hisprofoundest respects and was much pleased by his letter, which he sealedand compelled his prisoner upon his knees to promise to deliver into theEmperor's own hands.
"Now where is that pretty warrant?" said Wogan, as soon as thisimportant function was accomplished.
"It is signed by the Governor of Trent," said the man.
"Who in those regions is the Emperor's deputy. Hand it over."
The man handed it over reluctantly.
"Now," continued Wogan, "here is paper and ink and a chair. Sit down andwrite a full confession of your audacious incursion into a friendlycountry, and just write, if you please, how much you paid the landladyto hear nothing of what was doing."
"You will not force me to that," cried the fellow.
"By no means. The confession must be voluntary and written of your ownfree will. So write it, my friend, without any compulsion whatever, orI'll throw you out of the window."
Then followed a deal of sighing and muttering. But the confession waswritten and handed to Wogan, who glanced over it.
"But there's an omission," said he. "You make mention of only five men."
"There were only five men on the staircase."
"But there are six horses in the stables. Will you be good enough towrite down at what hour on what day Mr. Harry Whittington knocked at theGovernor's door in Trent and told the poor gout-ridden man that thePrincess and Mr. Wogan had put up at the Cervo Inn at Ala."
The soldier turned a startled face on Wogan.
"So you knew!" he cried.
"Oh, I knew," answered Wogan, suddenly. "Look at me! Did you ever seeeyes so heavy with want of sleep, a face so worn by it, a body so jerkedupon strings like a showman's puppet? Write, I tell you! We who servethe King are trained to wakefulness. Write! I am in haste!"
"Yet your King does not reign!" said the man, wonderingly, and he wrote.He wrote the truth about Harry Whittington; for Wogan was looking overhis shoulder.
"Did he pay you to keep silence as to his share in the business?" askedWogan, as the man scattered some sand over the paper. "There is no wordof it in your handwriting."
The man added a sentence and a figure.
"That will do," said Wogan. "I may need it for a particular purpose;"and he put the letter carefully away in the pocket of his coat. "For avery particular purpose," he added. "It will be well for you to conveyyour party back with all haste to Trent. You are on the wrong side ofthe border."