CHAPTER LIV
THE CROWNING OF DUKE OTHO
But at long and last the most tardy-footed day comes to an end. And so,just as fast as on any common day, the sun at last dropped to the edgeof the horizon and slowly sank, leaving a shallowing lake of orangecolor behind.
The red roofs of Thorn grew gray, with purple veins of shadow in theinterstices where the streets ran, or rather burrowed. The nightly hum ofthe city began. For, under the cruel rule of the wolves of the castle,Thorn was ever busiest in the right. Indeed, the cheating of the guardhad become a business well understood of all the citizens, who had aregular code of signals to warn each other of its approach.
Lights winked and kindled in the Wolfsberg over against me. I could seethe long array of lighted windows where the Duke would presently bedining with Michael Texel, High Councillor Gerard von Sturm, and most ofhis other intimates. There, beneath, were the stables of the BlackRiders, and before them men were constantly passing and repassing withbuckets and soldier gear.
I wondered if the Duke had news of the approach of the enemy.
So soon as I judged it safe I went to the top of the Red Tower andunfolded the paper which Jan the Lubber Fiend had brought me. It waswithout name and address or signature, and read as follows:
"To-night we shall be all in readiness. When the time is ripe let a firebe lighted upon some conspicuous tower or high place of the city. Then wewill come."
Thereafter Helene, being lonely, climbed up and sat down beside me. Ihanded her the paper.
"To-night will be a stormy one in Thorn and the Wolfsberg, little one,"said I. "I fear you and I are not yet out of the wood."
The Little Playmate read the letter and gave it back to me. I tore it up,and let the wind carry away the pieces one by one, small, like dust, sothat scarce one letter clave to another.
Her hand stole into mine.
"Ah," she sighed, "I am beginning to believe in it now! To-night may beas dangerous as yesternight. But at least we are together, never to beseparated. And to us two that means all."
It was a strange marriage night, this of ours--thus to sit on the roof ofthe Tower, under the iron beacon which had been placed there in mygrandfather's time, and listen to the hum and murmur of the city,straining our eyes meanwhile through the darkness to catch the firstspear-glint from the army of the Prince.
"If they do not come by midnight, or if Jan Lubber Fiend does not lighthis fire by the White Gate, we must e'en risk it and kindle this one hereon the Red Tower."
So the night passed on till it was about eleven, or it might be a quarterof an hour later. Then all suddenly I saw a little crowd of men disengagethemselves from that private entrance of the Hall of Judgment by which,on the day of the trial, Dessauer and I had entered. They made straighttowards the Red Tower at a quick run.
"Dear love," said I to Helene, "see yonder! Be ready to light thebeacon. I fear me much that our time has come to fight for life."
"Kiss me, then," she said, "and I will be ready for all that may be. Atworst, we can die together, true husband and true wife."
Presently there came a thundering knock at the door of the Red Tower. Icrouched on the stairs behind and listened intently. I could hear thebreathing of several men.
"He is surely within," said a voice. "The tower has been watched everymoment of the day."
Again came the loud knocking.
"Open--in the name of the Duke!" cried the voice. And the door wasrattled fiercely against its fastenings.
But I knew well enough that it could hold against any force of unassistedmen. For my father had ever taken a special pride in the bars anddefences of the single low door which led into his much-threatenedresidence.
So I crouched in the dark of the stairs and listened with yet morequivering intentness. Presently I could hear shoulders set to theiron-studded surface, and a voice counted, softly, "One--two--three--anda heave!" But though I discerned the laboring of the men strainingthemselves with all their might, they might as well have pushed at therough-harled wall of the Wolfsberg.
"It will not do," I heard one say at last. "We cannot hope to succeedthus. Bring the powder-bag and prepare the fuse."
So then I knew indeed that our time was at hand. I mounted the stairsthree at a time till I came to the room where Helene was waiting for mein the dark.
"Fire the beacon on the Tower!" I bade her--"our enemies are upon us!"
"And after that may I come to you, Hugo?" she said.
"Nay, little one, it is better that you bide on the roof and see thatthe beacon burns. You will find plenty of tow and oil in the niche by thestair-head."
I could hear Helene give vent to a little sigh. But she obeyed instantly,and her light feet went pattering up the stairs.
Then I waited for the explosion, which seemed as if it would never come.I had my dagger in my belt, but of pure instinct my right hand seized theRed Axe. For I had more skill of that than any other weapon, and as I hadcast it down when they brought us in from the scaffold that morning, itlay ready to my hand.
So I waited at the stair-head, and watched keenly the narrow passage upwhich the men must come one by one. I measured my distance with theaxe-handle, and made a trial sweep or two, so that I might be sure ofclearing the stones on either side. I could not see that there would bemuch difficulty in holding the place for a while, if only Prince Karlwould haste him and come. For to me the game of breaking heads andslicing necks would be easy as cracking nuts on an anvil--at least, solong as they would come up singly.
Presently I heard the roar of burning fuel above me, and immediatelyafter a cry from below. Through the narrow stairway lattice I could seethe uncertain flicker of flames lighting up the street. Men ran backwardacross the open square, looking up as they ran. So by that I knew thatHelene had done her work, and was now watching the burning beacon, as theflames flicked upward and clapped their fiery applausive palms.
But at the same moment, from the foot of the stairs, there came the loudreport of the explosion beneath the door of the Red Tower, the rumble ofstones, and then an eager rush of men to see what had been effected.
"Now for it!" I thought, as I gripped the Red Axe.
But it was not to be so soon. The iron bars, which my father hadengineered so that they sank deep into the wall on either side, stillheld nobly, and I heard the loud voice crying again for a battering-ram.The soldiers of the attacking party went scurrying across the yard, andpresently returned, carrying between them a young tree cleared of itsbranches, but with the rough bark still upon it.
Without, in the square, the turmoil increased, and the streets echoedwith shouting. A wild hope came into my heart that Prince Karl had notawaited the summons of the beacon, and that his troops were already inthe streets of Thorn. But even as the thought passed through my brain Iknew that it was vain.
On the other hand, it was evident that in the town the general alarm hadbeen given, for the trumpets blew from the ramparts of the Wolfsberg, andthe call to arms resounded incessantly in the court-yard. I doubted notalso that many a stout burgher was getting him under arms--and but few ofthem to fight for the Duke.
Suddenly the bars of the door jangled on the stones under the swingingblows of the battering-ram. I heard feet clatter on the stair. They camewith a rush, but long ere they had arrived at the top the pace slackened.Only one man at a time could come up the stairway, and it is always adrag upon the enthusiasm of an assault when at least two cannot advancetogether. The light flickered and filtered in from the torches in thestreets, and the reflected glow of the bonfire on the roof made thestair-head clear as a lucid twilight.
I waited, with the axe swinging loosely in one hand. A head bobbed up,clad in a steel cap. Bat as the unseen feet propelled it upward the RedAxe took little reck of the head. Betwixt the steel cap and the rim ofsteel of the body armor appeared a gray line of leather jerkin and athinner white line of neck. The Red Axe swung. I bethought me that it wasa bad light to cut off calves' heads in. But the Re
d Axe made no mistake.I had learned my trade. There was not even a groan--only a dull thudsome way underneath, such as you may hear when the children of thequarter play football on the streets.
Then the foremost of the assailants were blocked by the fallen body, andthe feet of the men behind were stayed as the strange round playthingrebounded among them.
"Back!" they cried, who were in front.
"Forward!" replied those who were hindmost and knew nothing.
"Come, men--on and finish it!" cried the voice which had commanded thepowder-flask and the tree--the voice I now knew to be that of DukeOtho himself.
But the kick-ball argument of the Red Axe was mightily discouraging tothose immediately concerned, and as I felt the muscles of my right armand waited, I could hear Otho reasoning, threatening, coaxing, all invain. Then his tones mounted steadily into hot anger. He reviled hisfollowers for dogs, cowards, curs who had eaten his bread and now wouldnot rid him of his enemies.
"A thousand rix-dollars to the man who kills Hugo Gottfried!" he shouted."But, hear ye, save the girl alive!"
Yet not a man would attempt the first hazard of the stair.
"Knaves, traitors, curs!" he cried; "would that there were so much as asingle true man among you--but there is not one worth spitting upon!"
"Cur yourself!" growled a man, somewhere in the dark--"you have most atstake in this. Try the stair yourself if you are so keen. We will followfast enough!"
"God strike me dead if I do not!" shouted Otho; "if it were only to shameyou cowards."
He paused to prepare his weapons.
"Follow me, men!" he shouted again; "all together!"
Again there was the clatter of iron-shod feet on the stone stepsbeneath me.
My grip on the Red Axe became like iron, but my joints were loose andswung easily as a flail swings on well-seasoned leathers.
"Welcome, Otho von Reuss!" I cried; "ye could not be crowned without thedeath of Helene my wife! Come up hither and I will crown thee once forall with the iron crown."
There, at last, was mine enemy at the turn of the stair, rushingfuriously upon me, sword in hand.
"Traitor!" he cried, and his sword was almost at my breast, sofast he came.
"Murderer!" I shouted.
And almost ere I was aware the Red Axe flashed as it swept full circlewith scarce a pause, but it took the head of a man with it on its way.
Otho von Reuss was crowned. Helene, the Little Playmate, was avenged.