The Mercenary Part 23

"Magdeburg was at fault too!" smiled the Abbot. "The Emperor is a good Catholic. So am I, I trust. But the Emperor is too Spanish in his Catholicism. Lutheranism was a kind of quartan fever, a theologic plague, a wen into which all manner of foul humours of discontent drained till it burst. It should have been allowed to exhaust itself.

What did my predecessors do? They sat fast. They rewarded their good faithful Catholics. They made no wholesale persecution of the heretics, of whom there were a few. But the heretics found out that the true faith paid them better. Here and there one was quietly deprived of his farm or of our custom. Lutheranism grew stale, as all these violent uprisings must. The old order continued. Little by little, when those tinged with heresy saw that we were not to be moved, they came back."

"They were long-headed men, the Abbots of Fulda! Now Fulda trades with Hesse Ca.s.sel and with Thuringia, which are both Lutheran. We exchange our cattle and our wine and leather for their goods or their money, and do not find fault because either smells of Lutheranism."

"It sounds reasonable!" said the Count von Teschen.

"Edicts are all very well," the Abbot continued, "but if edicts are going to destroy men and women and children, homesteads, workshops, trade, they are going to destroy our revenues."

"But surely," suggested Nigel, "our Father the Pope approved of the Emperor's Edict and the means he took to enforce it."

The Abbot smiled with great benignity.

"If the Grand Turk issued an edict that all his subjects should become Christians, would not the Holy Father approve? Without a doubt! But if the Grand Turk applied to His Holiness for a million of gold crowns to a.s.sist him in his task of conversion?"

"I wager," said Hildebrand, "His Holiness would not subscribe a single rix-dollar!"

"It would be a pious aspiration! And so was our Pope's. They call him Pope Luthera.n.u.s. He was not willing to discourage the Emperor Ferdinand in his desires to restore to the church what the church had lost, but he has not shown himself willing to contribute out of the treasure of Rome to set armies marching hither and thither over the peaceful lands of Germany to enforce his aspiration. Let well alone!"

"The Duke of Friedland allowed himself to be dismissed," said the Count von Teschen, "because he saw that it was the Emperor's desire to make him the instrument of oppression to the Protestants."

Nigel's ears p.r.i.c.ked up. Who was this that spoke so intimately of Wallenstein's mind?

"Doubtless he saw also," said the Abbot, "that the ideas of the Emperor would draw together all the Protestant powers. It is coming to that.

Even my neighbour the Landgrave of Hesse Ca.s.sel is but now on his way, if he has not already started, to join Gustavus."

"Indeed!" said Count von Teschen. There was that in his look and tone which suggested to Nigel that it was news to him, and unwelcome news.

"Moreover, my neighbours of Thuringia are in a ferment and have raised up at least a regiment to march into Saxony."

"To what end?" said Nigel. "It is thought the Elector, John George, is too well affected to the Emperor."

"John George is by nature peaceful! But he is gathering an army. And if the Emperor were as politic as he is a good Catholic he would say to John George, 'Come! Let us talk no more about edicts. Let us drive out the Swedes.' But he cannot. He is too headstrong, and too sure of John George. And John George has his people to consider. Do you think Magdeburg has softened _them_? Has not every village had its separate tale, and, as for Thuringia, there is a preacher called Pastor Rad, who has painted the fall of Magdeburg from one end of the forest to the other in the colours of Sodom and Gomorrah. Beware how you and your troops ride through the forest. Just now the sight of a casque or a gorget would madden the peasantry till not one trooper of your regiment would remain to ride his horse."

Nigel was not ungrateful to the Abbot for his warning, though he suspected the dignitary of an inclination to exaggerate. He was no coward, but he had seen enough of the Forest to know its solitudes of trees, the deep beds of leaves that lay in the hollows, undisturbed from year to year, till those of ten years ago had become thick black soft earth in which a man's body might lie and moulder silently and surely till the bones parted company. In the Forest a shrewd bolt from an old cross-bow, an opportune thrust of pike from behind a tree, a stone well dropped from a bough, might each and all thin his ranks and no enemy be seen.

But these gruesome forebodings were set aside by something the genial and talkative host was saying to Count von Teschen.

"Prague! I have never journeyed thither! They say the Duke of Friedland has a goodly dwelling." He looked round complacently. "Our own is not amiss seeing what a patchwork the ages and my predecessors have made of it. Is the Duke's greater?"

"It is in a great park!" said Count von Teschen. There are six gates to its outer walls, and he has twenty gentlemen of birth serving him as if he were the King of France. The servants and hors.e.m.e.n are numberless, and his riches make the whole expense appear but a t.i.the of them.

"And how does he spend his time?"

"You have heard of his astrologer?"

"Has he an astrologer of his own?"

"Aye! One Master Seni! 'Tis not the only one, for I have heard of another, Master Pietro Bramante, who travels up and down and visits him at times."

"And what do they that a man cannot do for himself?"

"I know not! All they do they do in secret. But 'tis said they both watch the stars for signs."

"As Caesar watched the entrails of the sacrifice for signs!" said the Abbot with a laugh. "But I wager that Don Caesar could always find the auspices propitious, if his own plans were ripe."

This caustic comment did not seem to please Count von Teschen, for he said nothing but smiled an unpleasant smile that showed his fine white teeth.

"You may tell the Duke that I was much gratified by his gift. That antique mitre of old goldsmith's work and the rochet will be famous additions to our Abbey's treasure-house, and that which he has sent me of a more personal kind is very precious to an old man who finds much of his enjoyment in his toys."

Count von Teschen expressed his thanks for the Abbot's appreciation and promised deliverance of the message.

The Abbot, on his part, promised to show them the treasures of St Boniface on the morrow, and after a little while of further talk the guests were shown with all ceremony to their bedchambers.

Nigel was nothing loth. But he had no sooner found his couch than he began to con over this Count von Teschen. That he was an emissary of Wallenstein was plain: but that a rich n.o.bleman should send presents appropriate in character to a rich prelate had nothing suspicious in it.

If Wallenstein had lost favour and power mainly through the loss of the support of the great Catholic electors, the Bishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Treves, it was not so wonderful that he should by indirect methods attempt to curry favour with a man like the Abbot of Fulda, who was almost the equal of the great Prince-Bishops, and would share their politics and their fortunes. But was this _all_ the task of the emissary? Was it not possibly a cover to his real purpose, an end in itself, but only a minor one? If it were so, how was Nigel on the Abbot's own friendly territory to bid Count von Teschen stand and deliver, backed though he was by three hundred indifferent hors.e.m.e.n, many of whom were Count von Teschen's own countrymen? It is to be feared that Nigel's last prayers before sleep came were not for the salvation of Father Lamormain.

The next morning Nigel and Hildebrand met the Abbot, who had with him Count von Teschen, at the hour of nine, and made the round of the Cathedral and the treasure-house and the princ.i.p.al apartments of the palace and the abbey, which occupied them well till the hour of dinner, when they were again treated with sumptuous liberality. The meal over, Count von Teschen took his leave, and Nigel was unable to see him depart: but for this he had taken measures. The Abbot seemed very willing to detain the others, and asked particularly to see the muster of the troops and an exercise or two, for his tastes seemed to lie strongly towards secular matters. Nigel could do no less than gratify him, and though he himself was quite aware that his men were far from showing the discipline and skill of the veteran troops he had once led, the display pleased his host, and occupied a good deal of time.

His first question of Sergeant Blick was as to the direction taken by the Count. When he learned that it was on towards the borders of Hesse Ca.s.sel he was possessed by eagerness to set off, which, however, he had to restrain till he could take decent leave of the prelate.

"You have a good many Bohemians in your ranks, colonel!" said the Abbot.

It was significant that the Abbot of St Boniface could put two and two together.

"Aye," said Nigel to himself, "corbies dinna pick oot corbies' een!"

CHAPTER XX.

CASTING OUT A DEVIL.

It was thus two hours past noon when Nigel and his men rode out of the north gate of Fulda, and took the road that leads along the left bank of the river Fulda, which steadily pursues its way till it finds an opening in Taunus and so breaks into Hesse Ca.s.sel. Whether Count von Teschen had taken that road, or returned, seemed of little moment, for he had at least two hours' start, and as he had but a single man-servant, and both of them were well mounted, pursuit promised little result; for the speed of Nigel's command was perforce the speed of the worst horse. Moreover, as they were approaching a country of doubtful friendliness, it was wiser to approach it in good order and condition than upon horses blown with haste.

At the frontier of Hesse was a small military post the captain of which challenged their further pa.s.sage.

Nigel made a civil reply that he was commanding a regiment of the Emperor's horse and purposed to ride through Hesse Ca.s.sel into Lower Saxony. The captain requested that he would stay his march till the wishes of the Landgrave could be ascertained. To this Nigel made the firm answer that he was unable to wait for such permission, the more so that the Emperor was not at war with Hesse but with Sweden. The captain told him that he pa.s.sed at his own peril, and called in his handful of men. Nigel rode on to Hersfeld. Such of the inhabitants that he met or overtook preserved a sullen demeanour, which did not savour of anything but hostility. Perhaps they regarded him and his men as the woeful harbingers of great armies, and few of them, indeed, made any guess as to the master he served, being disquieted at the uncouth aspect of the strangers.

But at Hersfeld he found something more than sullenness. For outside the gates on the town's common was drawn up a considerable body of well-armed infantry, and the numerous pennons showed that here was a muster camp. Two regiments were disposed in battle array in the dense battalion formation usual with all armies but that of Gustavus. A little in front of these was a group of richly-dressed officers, and in the middle one of high rank.

Nigel halted his men and rode forward with Hildebrand till he came within saluting distance, when, after a cold acknowledgment, the general commanding the Hessians motioned him to come forward.

Nigel advanced a few steps and reined in his horse.

"Who are you?" was the curt inquiry.

"Colonel Nigel Charteris of the Imperial Service, with my regiment of horse. I am leading them through the territories of Hesse Ca.s.sel to join Count Tilly."