The Sign Of Flame Part 52

Here it was again--the harsh words which he had already heard once before--"fled from the colors." It forced the blood to his brow again.

"Why did you not become an officer?" continued Egon. "You could have become one early at your home; you could have taken your leave then at an age when life only commences. Then you would have been free--honorably."

Hartmut was silent. His father had told him the same, but he had not wanted to wait and submit himself to rules. A barrier had stood in his way, and he simply threw it down unconcernedly. But he threw down duty and honor with it.

"You do not know all that stormed upon me at that time," he replied, heavily. "My mother--I do not wish to accuse her--but she has been my doom. My father had separated from her in early life. I thought her dead, when suddenly she entered my life and s.n.a.t.c.hed me to her with her burning mother love--with her promise of freedom and happiness. She alone is responsible for that unfortunate breaking of my word----"

"What word?" interrupted Egon, excitedly. "Had you sworn to the standard?"

"No, but I had given my father my word to return when he allowed me the last conversation with my mother----"

"Instead of which you fled with her?"

"Yes."

The answer was almost inaudible and was followed by a long pause. The Prince spoke never a word; but in his open, sunny face deep, bitter pain was depicted--the bitterest of his life, for at this moment he lost his so pa.s.sionately loved friend.

At last Hartmut resumed, but he did not raise his eyes. "You understand now why I want to force an entrance into the army at any price. Now that war has broken out, the man can atone for the boy's sin. Therefore I left Sicily immediately after the first threatening news, and flew as in a storm to Germany. I hoped to be able to hasten to arms. I had no idea of all the difficulties and hindrances which would be put in my way. But you can put them aside, if you intercede for me."

"No, I cannot do that," said Egon, coldly. "After what I have heard just now, this is impossible."

Hartmut turned deathly white and stepped up close to Egon with a vehement gesture.

"You cannot? That means--you will not?"

The Prince was silent.

"Egon!" Wild, stormy entreaty was in the tone. "You know I have never made a request of you--this is the first and last one. But now I beg--entreat you for this friendly service. It is the relief from the doom which has hung over me since that hour. The reconciliation with my father--the reconciliation with myself--you must help me!"

"I cannot," repeated the Prince. "The rejection to which you have been subjected may hurt you deeply--I believe it--but it is only just. You have broken with your fatherland--with your duties--and that cannot be mended so easily without anything further, when one has become of a different opinion. You fled from the service of our standard--you, the son of an officer! Now the army is closed to you, and you must bear it."

"And you tell me that so calmly--so coldly!" cried Hartmut, beside himself. "Do you not see that it is a question of life or death to me?

I saw my father again that day at Rodeck, when he hastened to the deathbed of Wallmoden. He crushed me with his contempt--with the awful words he threw into my face. It was that which drove me away from Germany, which chased me ceaselessly from place to place. His words went with me and made life a h.e.l.l to me. I have greeted the war cry as a deliverance. I want to fight for the fatherland which I once cast from me, and now the door which is open to every one is closed to me alone. Egon, you turn from me! Oh--there is only one way left for me!"

With a sudden, pa.s.sionate motion he turned to the table, where the Prince's pistols were lying; but the Prince sprang at him and tore him back.

"Hartmut, are you out of your senses?"

"Perhaps I shall be so. All of you torture me beyond endurance."

Boundless despair lay in those words.

Egon, too, had turned pale, and his voice trembled as he said: "Before it goes so far--I will try to find an opening in a regiment for you."

"At last! I thank you."

"However, I cannot promise you anything, for the Duke has to be put altogether aside now. Besides, he leaves to-morrow for the battlefield.

Should he learn later on that you serve in his corps, we shall then be in the midst of the storm of war, and one does not ask 'How' and 'Why'

in the face of a completed fact. But it may take days before the decision arrives. Will you be my guest?"

Formerly the Prince would have accepted that as only natural and would have been exasperated if his friend had refused; now he made the inquiry, and Hartmut felt what lay in the cold question.

"No, I shall not remain in town," he replied. "I shall go to the Forester at Rodeck, and I beg that you will send your answer there. I can return here in a few hours."

"As you wish. Then you will not go to the castle?"

Hartmut gazed at him with a long, sad look.

"No; to the Forester's. Farewell, Egon."

"Farewell."

They parted without a pressure of the hand, without a further word, and when the door closed behind him, Hartmut knew that he had lost the friend who had idolized him. Judged here, too--and cast out! He had to atone terribly for the old guilt.

CHAPTER L.

Over the Wald hung a dark, cloudy sky, which, from time to time, sent down showers of rain. Gray mists clung around the heights, and storms raged through the crowns of the trees. It was a regular autumn day in the middle of summer.

The mistress of Ostwalden was alone at her castle. She had received news from her brother that he had already left, and that the meeting planned between them could not take place. Therefore Adelaide had postponed her departure to be present at the marriage of Willibald and Marietta, which was quietly celebrated in the presence of the nearest relatives.

The young couple had left for Berlin, where Willibald was to join his regiment immediately. His young wife wished to remain near him the few days before the order came to march. From there she was to go to Burgsdorf, whither her mother-in-law had preceded her.

The morning hours had not yet pa.s.sed when Prince Adelsberg drove up to the castle of Ostwalden. He had asked for leave of absence to-day to "arrange some important matters"; but the important matters did not carry him to Rodeck, but to Ostwalden. He came to say farewell to Adelaide, whom he had not seen since that first visit.

As his carriage entered the castle yard, they met the priest of the neighboring village with the holy sacrament, and attendant chorister.

Apparently the last rites had been administered to one seriously ill.

The Prince inquired to whom the sad visit had been paid, and learned that it was to one of the inspectors of the estate, and that the mistress of the castle was at present with the dying man; but the guest should be announced to her instantly.

Egon restlessly paced up and down the reception room, into which he had been shown. He had come here to obtain an a.s.surance, without which he did not feel able to march into a campaign of life or death; and the uncertainty with which such a campaign was ever taken, must serve as apology for thus approaching a young widow still in deep mourning. It need not yet be a proposal. He wanted to take with him only a hope the promise of which had risen so brightly at their last meeting, when Adelaide had shown such warm interest in his sorrow about his absent friend. He did not dream that he had made a fatal mistake. Still, in spite of this, a deep shadow rested upon the face of the Prince, usually so cheerful. It was not the leave-taking which gave him pain, for he went to the battlefield with glowing enthusiasm and the happy faith of youth, which dreams only of victory, and rejects all dark prospects. Besides, he dreamed of another happiness in the future, which he wished to secure now.

The door opened to admit Frau von Wallmoden.

"I beg your pardon for detaining you so long, Your Highness," she said, after the first greetings. "It was probably told you that I was beside a deathbed?"

"I learned so upon my arrival," replied Egon, who had hastened to meet her. "Is the case really so serious?"

"Alas, yes! poor Tanner! He used to be tutor in a family in the neighborhood, but had to give up his position on account of a serious illness. At the request of the Chief Forester, I gave him employment in cataloguing my husband's library, which had been sent to Ostwalden, and it was hoped that he would quite recover in the easy office and the invigorating forest air. He was so grateful for it, and told me only yesterday how happy his mother was that he should be excused from military service, on account of not being yet quite well. But suddenly this morning he had a hemorrhage, and the physician tells me that he can live but an hour longer. It is awful to see a young life bleed to death like that!"

"And yet this will happen to thousands in the next few weeks," said Egon, gravely. "Have you been with the poor man?"

"Yes, at his request. He knew how it was with him, and wished to lay a prayer upon my heart for his old mother, who loses in him her only support. I have calmed his mind on that subject, but it was all I could do for him----"

One could see how deeply the scene at the deathbed had impressed the young widow, and Egon, too, felt deep compa.s.sion at the narrative.

"I come to say farewell," he said, after a short pause. "We march the day after to-morrow, and I could not deny myself a visit to you once more. I am happy to have found you here, as I understand you intend leaving soon."