CHAPTER XXVIII
THE PRINCE'S COMPACT
In spite of all drawbacks and difficulties (and I had my share of them) Iloved Plassenburg. And especially I loved the Prince. The son, so theysaid, of a miller in the valley of the Almer, he had entered the guard ofthe last Prince of Plassenburg, much as I had now entered his ownservice. Prince Dietrich had taken a fancy to him, and advanced him sorapidly that, after the disastrous war with Duke Casimir of the Mark andthe death of the last legitimate Prince, Karl, the miller's son, havingset himself to reorganize the army, succeeded so well that it was notlong before he found himself the source of all authority in Plassenburg.
Thereafter he gave to the decimated and heartless land adequate defencesand complete safety against foreign foes, together with security for lifeand property, under equal laws, within its own borders. So, in time, noman saying him nay, Karl Miller's Son became the Prince of Plassenburg,and his seat was more secure upon his throne than that of any legitimateprince for a thousand miles all round about.
After the quarrel with Von Reuss, the Prince, for reasons of his own,favored me with a great deal of his society. He was often graciouslypleased to talk concerning his early difficulties.
"When I was an understrapper," he was wont to say, "the land wasoverswarmed and eaten up by officialdom. I could not see the good meatwasted upon crawlers. 'Get to work,' said I, 'or ye shall neither eatnor crawl!'
"'We must eat--to beg we are not ashamed, to steal is the right of ournoble Ritterdom,' the crawlers replied.
"'So,' said I, '_bitte_--as to that we shall see!'
"Then I made me a fine gallows, builded like that outside Paris, which Ihad seen once when on an embassy for Prince Dietrich. It was like acastle, with walls twelve feet thick, and on the beams of it room for ahundred or more to swing, each with his six feet of clearance, allcomfortable, and no complaints.
"Then came the crawlers and asked me what this fine thing was for.
"'For the sacred Ritterdom of Plassenburg!' answered I, 'if it will notcease to burn houses and to ravish and carry off honest men's wives anddaughters.'
"'But you must catch us!' quoth Crawlerdom. 'Walls fourteen feet thick!'said they.
"'Content,' cried I; 'there is the more fun in catching you. Only the endis the same--that is to say, my new, well-ventilated castle out there onthe heath, fine girdles and neck-pieces and anklets of iron, and six feetof clearance for each of you to swing in.'
"So they went back to their castles, and robbed and ravished and rieved,even as did their fathers for a thousand years, thinking no evil. But Itook my soldiers, whom in seven years' service I had taught to obeyorders-two foot of clearance did well enough for the disobedient amongthem, not being either ritters or men of mark. And I, Karl the Miller'sbrat, as at that time they called me in contempt, borrowed cannon--great lumbering things--from my friend the Margrave George, down there tothe south. A great work we had dragging them up to Plassenburg by ropeand chain and laboring plough oxen. We shot them off before thefourteen-feet walls. Then arose various clouds of dust, shriekings,surrenderings, crying of 'Forgive us, great Prince, we never meant to doit,' followed, as I had said, by the six-feet clearances. But these intime I had to reduce to four--so great became the competition for placesin my new Schloss Muellerssohn.
"But 'Once done, well done--done forever!' is my motto. So since thattime the winds have mostly blown through my Schloss untainted, and thesons of Ritterdom, magnanimous captains and honest bailies of quietbailiwicks, are my very good friends and faithful officers."
Prince Karl the Miller's Son was silent a moment.
"But I am still looking out for another man with a head-piece to comeafter me. I have no son, and if I had, the chances are ten to one that hewould be either a milksop or a flittermouse painted blue. Milksops Ihate, and send to the monkeries. I can endure flittermice painted blue,but they must wear petticoats--and pretty petticoats too. Have youobserved those of the Princess?" said he, abruptly changing the subject.
"The Princess's flittermice?" I faltered, not well knowing what I said,for he had turned roughly and suddenly upon me.
"Aye, marry, you may say it! But I meant the Princess's wilicoats!"
"No," said I, as curtly as I could, for the subject had its obviouslimitations.
"Ah, they are pretty ones," said Karl, "I assure you. She has at least anundeniable taste in lace and cambric. They say in other lands--not inthis--though I would not hinder them if they did--that she wears theunder-garments of men and rules the state. But I think not so. ThePrincess is a better Queen than wife, a better woman than either."
On this subject also I had nothing to say which I dared venture to thehusband of the Lady Ysolinde.
"She read my horoscope," said I, weakly, searching for something in thecorners of my brain to change the subject.
"How so?" said the Prince, quickly.
"First in a crystal and then in a pool of ink," I replied.
"It was a good horoscope and of a fortunate ending?"
"On the whole--yes!" said I; "though there was much in it that I couldnot understand."
"Like enow!" laughed the Prince; "I warrant she could not understand itherself! It is ever the way of the ink-pool folk."
Then ensued a silence between us.
Prince Karl remained long with his head resting on his hand. He lookedcritically at the twisted stem of his wineglass, twirling it between histhick fingers.
"The Princess loves you!" he said, at last, looking shrewdly at me frombeneath his gray brows.
It was spoken half as a question and half as information.
"Loves me?" stammered I, the blood sucking back to my heart and leavingmy head light and tingling.
The Prince nodded calmly.
"So they say!" said he.
"My Lord, it is a thing impossible!" cried I, earnestly. "I am but a poorlad--and she has been kind to me. But of love no word has been spoken.Besides--"
And I stopped.
"Out with it, man!" said the Prince, more like, as it seemed to me, acomrade inviting a confidence than a great Prince speaking to a newlymade officer.
"Well, I--I love the Little Playmate."
It came out with a rush at last.
"Oh!" said he; "that is bad. I hope that is not a matter arranged, athing serious. For if the Princess knows as much, the young woman willnot have her troubles to seek in the Palace of Plassenburg."
I hung my head and said naught, save that Helene declared she loved menot, but that I thought she was mistaken.
"Ah, then," cried the Prince, like one exceedingly relieved, "it is butsome boy and girl affair. That is better. She may change her mind, as youwill certainly change yours--and that several times--among the ladies ofthe court. I was in hopes--"
And the Prince stopped in his turn, not from bashfulness, but rather likea man who desires more carefully to choose his words.
"I was in hopes," he went on, speaking slowly, "that if the Princessloved your boy's face and liked my conversation (which I may say withoutpride that I think she does) you and I together might have kept her athome. So over-much wandering is not good for the state. Also it gets hera name beyond all manner of ill-doing within-doors."
Once more I knew not well what to answer to this speech of the Prince's,so I remained discreetly silent.
"I have seen the Princess's flittermice about her before, often enough (Ithank thee for the word, Sir Captain.), but this is the first time shehas performed the ink-pool and crystal foolery with any man. There is nogreat harm in the Princess. In the things of love she is as inflammableas the ink, and as soft as the crystal. Fear not, Joseph, Potiphera maybe depended upon not to proceed to extremities. But I was in some hopesthat you and I could have arranged matters between us, being bothmen--aye, and honorable men."
I saw that Karl Miller's Son looked sad and troubled.
"Prince, you love the Princess!" said I, thrusting out my hand to himbefore I thought. He did not take it, but ins
tead he thrust a flagon ofwine into it, as if I had asked for that--yet the thing was not done byway of a rebuff. I saw that plainly.
"Pshaw! What does a grizzle-pate with love?" said he, gruffly."Nevertheless, I was in hopes."
"Prince Karl," said I, "I give you word of honor, 'tis not as you say orthey say. The Princess has indeed done me the honor to be friendly--"
"To hold your hand!" he murmured, softly, like a chorus.
"Well, to be friendly, and--"
"To caress your cheek?" put in the Prince, gently as before.
"Done me the honor to be friendly--"
"To play with your curls, lad?"
"The Princess--" I began, all in a tremor. For anything more awkwardthan this conversation I had never experienced. It bathed me in a dripof cold sweat.
"To kiss you, perhaps, at the waygoing?" he insinuated.
"No!" thundered I, at last. "Prince, you do your Princess great wrong."
He lifted his hand in a gentle, deprecating way, most unlike the riderwho had ridden so fast and so hotly that night of our coming.
"You mistake me, sir," he said. "On the contrary, I have the greatestrespect for the Princess Ysolinde. I would not wrong her for the world.But I know her track of old. You are a brave lad, and, after all, I fearthere is something in that calf-love of yours--devil take it!"
I thought I could now dimly discern whither the Prince's planswere tending.
"Your Highness," said I, "I am a young man and of little experience. Icannot tell why you have chosen to speak so freely to me. But I am yourservant, and, in all that hurts not the essence and matter of my love forthe Little Playmate, I will do even as you say."
Prince Karl grasped my hand.
"Ah, well said!" he cried. "You are running your head into a peck oftroubles, though. And you are likely to have some experience of womenkindshortly--a thing which does no brisk young fellow any harm, unless helets them come between him and his career. Women are harmless enough, sothat you keep them well down to leeward. I am Baltic-bred, and have everheld to this--that you may sail unscathed through fleets of farthingales,so being that you keep the wind well on your quarter, and see thefair-way clear before you."
I did not at the time understand half he said, but I knew we had madesome sort of a bargain. And I thought, with an aching, unsatisfied heart,that though it might be well enough for an iron-gray and cynical oldPrince, the thing would hardly commend itself to Helene, my LittlePlaymate, to whom I had so recently spoken loving words, sweeter thanever before.
"Devil take all Princes and Princesses!" I said, as I thought, to myself.But I must have spoken aloud, for the Prince laughed.
"Do not waste good prayers needlessly," he said; "he will!"
And so, with a careless and humorsome wave of his hand to one side, hewent down the staircase, and so out into the quadrangle of the Palace.