My Lady Rotha Part 17

'Oh, I?' he cried with a drunken swagger. 'I am a double gold ducat, true metal, stamped with the Emperor's man-at-arms! Melted in the Low Countries under Spinola--that is, these thirteen years back--minted by Wallenstein, tried by the n.o.ble general!

"Clink! Clink! Clink!

Sword and stirrup and spur.

Ride! Ride! Ride!

Fast as feather or fur!"

That is my sort! But come, welcome! Will you drink? Will you play?

Will you 'list? Come, the night is young,

"For the night-sky is red, And the burgher's abed, And bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!"

Which shall it be, friend?'

'I will drink with you or play with you, captain,' I answered, seeing nothing else for it, 'so far as a poor man may; but as for enlisting, I am satisfied with my present service.'

'Ha! ha! I can quite understand that!' he answered, winking tipsily.

'Woman, lovely woman! Here's to her! Here's to her! Here's to her, lads of the free company!

"Drink, lads, drink!

Firkin and flagon and flask.

Hands, lads, hands!

A round to the maid in the mask!"

Why, man, you look like a death's head! You are too sober! Shame on you, and you a German!'

'An Italian were as good a toper!' one of the men beside him growled.

'Or a whey-fed Switzer!'

'Perhaps you are better with the dice!' the captain, intendant, or what he was, continued. 'You will throw a main? Come, for the honour of your mistress!'

I had nearly a score of ducats of my own in my pouch, and so far I could pay if I lost. I thought that I might get some clue to Tzerclas'

nature and plans by humouring the man, and I a.s.sented.

'The dice, lads, the dice!' he cried. Ludwig, the others called him.

'"Ho, the roof shall be red O'er the heretic's head, For bold Pappenheim's raiding the lea!"

The dice, the dice!'

'Your guest looks scared,' one said, looking at me grimly. 'Perhaps he is a heretic!'

'Chut! we are all heretics for the present!' Ludwig answered recklessly. 'A fig for a credo and a fig for a psalm! Give me a good horse and a good sword and fat farmhouses. I ask no more. Shall it be a short life and a merry one? The highest to have it?'

'Content,' I said, trying to fall into his humour.

'A ducat a throw?' he asked, posing the caster. A man, as he spoke, placed a saddle between us, while half a dozen others pressed round to watch us. The flame leaping up shone on their dark, lean faces and gleaming eyes, or picked out here and there the haft of a knife or the b.u.t.t of a pistol. Some wore steel caps, some caps of fur, some gaudy handkerchiefs twisted round their heads. There were Spaniards, Bohemians, Walloons among them; a Croat or two; a few Saxons. 'Come,'

cried the captain, rattling the dice-box. 'A ducat a throw, Master Peace? Between gentlemen?'

'Content,' I said, though my heart beat fast. I had never even seen men play so high.

'So!' growled a German who crouched beside me--a one-eyed man, fat and fair, the one fair-faced man in the company; "tis a c.o.c.k of a fine hackle!'

'See me strip him!' Captain Ludwig rejoined gleefully. And he threw and I threw, and I won; while the flame, leaping and sinking, flung its ruddy light on the walls of our huge, leafy chamber. Then he won.

Then I won. I won again, again, again!

'He has the fiend's own luck!' a Pole cried with a curse.

'Steady, Ludwig!' quoth another. 'Will you be beaten by a clod-pate?'

'Fill his cup!' my opponent cried hardily. 'He has the knack of it!

But I will strip him! Beat up the fire there! I can't see the spots.

That is nine ducats you have won, good broad-piece! Throw away!'

I threw, and at it we went again, but now luck began to run against me, though slowly. The hollow rattle of the dice, the voices calling the numbers, the oath and the cry of triumph want on monotonously: went on--and I think the spirit of play had fairly got hold of me--when a stern voice suddenly broke in on our game.

'Put up, there, you rascals!' Tzerclas cried from his fire. 'Have done, do you hear, or it will be the worse for you! Kennel, I say!'

Captain Ludwig swore under his breath. 'Ugh!' he muttered, 'just as I was getting my hand in! What is the score? Seven ducats to me; and little enough for the trouble. Hand over, comrade. You know the proverb.'

In haste to be gone after the warning we had received, I plunged my hand into my pouch, and drew out in a hurry, not a fistful of ducats as I intended, but a score of links of gold chain, which for a moment glittered in the firelight. As quickly as I could I thrust the chain--it was Marie Wort's, of course--back into my pocket, but not before the German sitting beside me had seen it. I looked at him guiltily while I fumbled for the money, and he tried to look as if he had seen nothing. But his one eye sparkled evilly, and I saw his lips tremble with greed. He made no remark, however, and in a moment I found the money and paid my debt.

Most of the men had already laid themselves down and were snoring, with their feet to the fire. I muttered good night, and seizing my cap went off. To gain my quarters, I had to walk across the open under the beech-tree. I had just reached this tree, and was pa.s.sing through the shadow under the branches, when the sound of a light footstep at my heels startled me, and turning in my tracks I surprised the one-eyed German.

'Well,' I said wrathfully--I was not in the best of tempers at losing--'what do you want?'

The action and the challenge took him aback. 'Want?' he grumbled, recoiling a step. 'Nothing. Is this your private property?'

He had _thief_ written all over his fat, pale face, and I knew very well what private property he wanted. If I ever saw a sneaking, hang-dog visage it was his! The more I looked at him the more I loathed him.

'Go!' I said; 'get home, you cur! or I will break every bone in your body.'

He glared at me with a curse in his one eye, but he saw that I was too big for him. Besides, General Tzerclas lay reading by his fire thirty paces away. Baffled and furious, the rascal slunk off with a muttered word, and went back the way he had come.

I found Ernst on guard, and after seeing to the fire and hearing that all was well, I lay down beside him in my cloak. But I found it less easy to sleep. The firelight, playing among the leaves and branches overhead, formed likenesses of the men I had left, now grotesque masks, and now scowling faces, fierce-eyed and grim. Von Werder's warning, too, recurred to me with added weight and would not leave me at peace. I wondered what he meant; I wondered what he suspected, still more, what he knew.

And yet had I need to wonder, or do more than look round and use my wits? What was our position? How were we situate? In the camp and in the hands of a soldier of fortune; a man cold and polite, probably cruel and possibly brutal, lacking enthusiasm, lacking, or I was mistaken, religion, without any check save such as his ambition or fears imposed upon him. And for his power, I saw him surrounded by desperadoes, soldiers in name, banditti in fact, savage, reckless, and unscrupulous; the men, or the twin-brothers of the men, who under another banner had sacked Magdeburg and ravaged Halle.

What was to prevent such a man making his advantage out of us? What was to prevent him marching back to Heritzburg and seizing town and castle under cover of my lady's name, or detaining us as long as he saw fit, or as suited his purpose? The Landgrave and his Minister were far away, plunged in the turmoil of a great war. The Emperor's authority was at an end. The Saxon circle to which we belonged was disorganized. All law, all order, all administration outside the walls of the cities were in abeyance. In his own camp and as far beyond it as his sword could reach the soldier of fortune was lord, absolute and uncontrolled.