Albrecht Part 10

Albrecht sank into the chair toward which the priest waved his hand, and for a moment he sat with his chin in his hand, his full chestnut beard pushed up so that it half covered his cheeks.

"I know not where to begin, Father," he said, "unless it be at my birth.

My father was king of the kobolds in the Neiderwa.s.ser valley, and a brave and merry tribe they are. My mother died at my birth; and as this is a thing which seldom happens with our race, I was always looked upon as destined for some great or strange destiny. When I was four or five years old, my father caught Herr von Zimmern in the forest where he was hunting, and brought him home to the mountain caves where we dwelt, that he might teach me all knightly skill, for we kobolds are always jealous of the arts of knighthood."

"But did Herr von Zimmern desire to stay in such strange company?"

asked Father Christopher, whose countenance expressed the greatest astonishment at this tale.

"He had no choice," rejoined Albrecht. "Once he tried to escape, and my father houghed him, that he should never again be able to travel through the forests fast enough to give trouble in bringing him back."

The priest shuddered, and the other for the first time in his life seemed to perceive the cruelty of this deed.

"My father," he said humbly, "had no soul."

Father Christopher's expression of horror changed to one of pity; and with a sigh Albrecht went on with his narrative.

"I was bred up at home," he said, "but now and then Herr von Zimmern has taken me to the cities, and to the fairs of the country, and now and then to a tourney that I might prove my knightly prowess. My father was killed in an avalanche some ten years since. He had offended the mountain sprites, and they lay in wait for him. I have lived with Herr von Zimmern since, and he has been my servant because I am ruler as my father was. It was he who told me of the delights of possessing a soul, and that a kobold might win one if a mortal maiden should love him with her whole heart and wed him. It was for this that he brought me to Rittenberg, and it was for this that I wooed its mistress."

There was a deep silence in the chamber as Albrecht ceased speaking.

Strongly moved as he was by the confession, Father Christopher felt his heart so strongly yearn toward the baron, and so touched was he by the other's evident contrition, that he could not find it in his heart to speak the condemnation which the knight's course might merit. It was now too late, moreover, to prevent the mischief, and there seemed more wisdom in considering whether it were not possible to comply with Albrecht's agonized request, and to aid him to become worthy of his wife rather than to make any endeavor to separate them. If this might be done, it would be the saving of a soul; and however it had been come by, if Albrecht had indeed gained a spirit, it demanded the priest's best efforts to bring it to salvation.

"My son," the priest said after some moments' reflection, "what thou hast done would indeed be a grievous sin if thou hadst been a mortal, and I know not whether it is to be called a sin as it is or no. But now at least thou hast a soul, and it is mortal sin to live unbaptized."

"I was afraid," Albrecht said with simple candor and with an air of relief, "that thou wouldst command me to leave my wife; and that I could not do."

"No," the priest answered, "whom G.o.d through the Church hath joined are not lightly to be put asunder; but the rite of baptism is not to be neglected for a single hour."

"I know so little of these things," Albrecht murmured doubtfully.

"The priests of the Great Emperor," answered the old man, "administer baptism to the barbarians in token that they desire Christian light, and I can do no less for thee, who art in a devout mind."

Albrecht leaned forward in his chair and put out his hand half timidly to touch that of the other.

"I feel that I am ignorant of everything," he said. "Father, it is like suddenly coming into a strange land where I know not even the tongue that I should speak. I am afraid to go forward, lest I stumble into pitfalls I do not see."

Father Christopher laid his wrinkled hand kindly upon that of his penitent.

"But the way will become clear," he said, smiling. "Only follow the light that is given thee, and pray to G.o.d and his saints."

"But I know not how to pray."

"My son," the priest responded with a smile which comforted Albrecht more than words could have done, "our Great Emperor has said in his Capitularies: 'Let none suppose that prayer cannot be made to G.o.d save in three tongues, for G.o.d is adored in all tongues, and man is heard if he do but ask for the things that be right.' Be of good cheer, my son; G.o.d would not give a soul and not add enough knowledge for its salvation."

There was in the mien of Albrecht, as he knelt to receive the rite of baptism, the showing forth of great feeling. He had the air of one who comes into the fruit of a quest with joy, yet who regards that which he has won with something of doubt and secret awe; while withal it was evident that to his mind did this christening seem a thing which should serve in a sort as a talisman to defend him from this strange and awful guest that had come to dwell within him, but which even yet scarce seemed a part of himself. He was as one who knew not himself, but who was rather confused than enlightened by the new vision which had been imparted by the miracle that had been wrought.

"Father," he asked hesitatingly, "my wife, must I tell her?"

The priest considered a moment.

"Dost thou wish to tell her?" he inquired.

"Would to G.o.d that she had known!" was Albrecht's answer, "but how can I tell her now? What if she should turn against me?"

The strength of his newly found soul seemed to go out in his love for Erna, and he was white and trembling at the thought of losing her affection. Father Christopher regarded him keenly, with sympathy and complexity struggling in his mind.

"Now thou needst not tell her," he said. "The time may come; but now strive to become worthy of her whiteness, her innocence, her piety. If thou wouldst be sure of her love, my son, look upon this as a respite that thou mayest be one soul with hers when the day comes that she must be told. And of this be sure," the priest continued, his eye kindling as if some higher power were speaking through him, "since thou hast won thy soul through her, it is with hers that thine must stand or fall. If thou shalt drag hers down, there can be no salvation for thine."

XII

HOW THE MORGENGABE WAS BESTOWED.

Albrecht walked slowly back to his chamber after he had left the priest, all his mind in a confused whirl of strange and new emotions. He could not find the old self in this man whom he had become. He was still within the shadow of the awe which had fallen upon him when he awakened in the early dawn a human being, and he still thrilled with the reverential dread which had pierced him as the waters of baptism were laid upon his head.

Erna had not yet risen, but had fallen into a light sleep; and as he came to the bedside she softly murmured his name, as if she were even in her morning dream conscious that he had returned. Her white throat was bare, and from her lovely bosom the draperies were half displaced, so that its rounded swell melted into a foam of lace as if she were Aphrodite just emerging from the waves. All his newly found earnestness fell from Albrecht like a garment, and he was only conscious of his wife and his pa.s.sion for her; albeit his love was not to-day the selfish desire of the kobold alone, as it had been last night. Fired by her beauty, he bent over and kissed her. She awoke with a smile that melted into a blush as she saw the ardent eyes of Albrecht bent upon her and felt his embrace steal about her. She let him lift her to kiss her again, and then she hid her s.h.i.+ning face in his breast.

"Now thou must go," she said, as she returned his embrace. "They will stay for us in the hall. Send me my damsel, and I will be ready very quickly."

"Yes," he cried, springing up with all his old joyousness; "be thou as swift as may be, that we may bestow upon thee the _Morgengabe_."

The Lady Adelaide, after the manner of her kind, had been most curious in regard to the _Morgengabe_. Her maid Elsa had plied the retainers of Baron von Waldstein with questions, and the Lady Adelaide herself had not been above some cunning attempts to extract from Herr von Zimmern somewhat touching the nature and extent of the bridegroom's ability and probable liberality in this direction, but neither had obtained any definite information. Herr Frederich had replied that his master certainly had the means and the disposition to do things upon a grand scale, but he professed complete ignorance as to Baron Albrecht's actual intentions, a statement which Lady Adelaide took the liberty of doubting, as it seemed probable that the orders which her newly made nephew had sent home had been executed through Herr von Zimmern. As nothing further was to be got out of this functionary, however, and as Elsa found the men of the baron equally uncommunicative, there was no help for it, but curiosity must wait unsatisfied until the bridegroom's gift should be bestowed.

The Lady Adelaide, her black eyes s.h.i.+ning with excitement, was already in the great hall when Albrecht and his bride entered, and Father Christopher was not far behind. All the household gathered, for the bestowing of the _Morgengabe_ was an important ceremony which hardly ranked below that of the bridal. The damsel Elsa, who could no more help coquetting than she could help breathing, took advantage of a chance which for a moment brought her face to face with Baron Albrecht to cast upon him one of her most languis.h.i.+ng glances, but to her surprise and mayhap vexation he only smiled good-humoredly like one who comprehended thoroughly her wiles, and pa.s.sed on to the side of Erna, who had already taken her place in readiness for the entrance of the bearers of her husband's gift.

"Body of Saint Fridolin!" muttered Elsa to herself, unconsciously using her mistress's favorite expletive, "but the wind has changed, methinks, since he touched me under the chin last night. Marriage has tamed you quickly, my Lord Baron! But we may see wonders yet."

And now with a peal of music, a wild strain which the retainers of the baron had learned from no human master, the great doors were thrown open and the little train of Von Waldstein's followers entered. Behind the musicians walked Herr von Zimmern, and after him followed six servitors, each pair bearing between them a casket of goodly size and apparently of some weight.

"The baron's _Morgengabe_ does not take up too much room," murmured Elsa in the ear of Lady Adelaide, behind whom she stood, with the familiarity of long and close service.

"Hush, simpleton!" her mistress responded. "If those caskets hold jewels, he is giving her a king's ransom."

The bringers of the _Morgengabe_ marched up the long hall, and saluting the company, the musicians fell back and ended their weird refrain. Herr von Zimmern stopped before Erna, and made a sign to the first pair of his followers to set down their burden at her feet.

"Gracious lady," Albrecht said, indicating it with his hand, "deign to accept this casket as a part of the unworthy _Morgengabe_ that I offer."

At a sign from Herr von Zimmern, the thralls threw back the lid and lifted out the trays of the casket, while a murmur of astonishment and delight ran through the hall. Within, in a glowing heap, in strings and cl.u.s.ters and singly, lay the most glorious carbuncles and topazes and sapphires that had ever been seen at Rittenberg, where, too, there had been some notable jewels in times gone by.

"Body of Saint Fridolin!" cried the old great-aunt. "Oh, that I were young and had married thee, Baron!"

A sunbeam shone through a high window and fell upon the gems, making them glow with all the hues of the rainbow. Erna knelt down beside the glittering heap, an exclamation of surprise and pleasure on her lips.

She took up in her hands now one and then another of the splendid bawbles, her woman's love of finery and her sense of beauty alike appealed to by the wonderful stones. From the treasures she selected a string of magnificent sapphires, blue as the sky in springtime, and clasped it about her throat. She said not a word, but her look satisfied her husband. At a sign from him, Herr von Zimmern moved the casket aside, and had the second set in its place. This in its turn was opened, and within were gems more splendid and more precious than in the first; emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. The wealth of the coffer was confusing, so great was it.

"G.o.d's blood!" cried out the Lady Adelaide, falling back upon the oath which she kept for the very last extremity; "it is the ransom of a kingdom rather than of a king. Should the Huns hear of this _Morgengabe_ they might well come from the North for no other purpose than to capture it. By my soul! Herr Baron, one would think that thou wert in league with the gnomes to be possessed of jewels like these."

"I am on friendly terms with them," he answered, his truthfulness pa.s.sing as a jest.