The Mercenary Part 35

Something very like a gleam of impatience, if not of anger, shot into his eyes.

"Could such a confederacy take place and the Emperor Ferdinand consent?"

he asked.

"No! Nor could it take place while the Order of Jesus exists."

"That also must go!" He showed plainly how indifferent it was. "But how did you learn so much of my intentions?"

"The dead gave up what the living had not sufficient trust to reveal!"

she said with some air of being hurt.

"So von Teschen is dead! At Breitenfeld?"

She nodded.

"He was a useful servant, but too ras.h.!.+ Still, I am sorry to have lost him!"

"Was it altogether worthy of Albrecht von Waldstein to wait the issue of a battle, and then to send congratulations to the victor?" The voice of Ottilie von Thuringen conveyed sorrow. Her eyes, wide open, searched the Duke's face, which showed nothing.

"It is the handle of the sword I seek, not the point. There is nothing worthy or unworthy. Without a command I cannot sway a single state! I must begin by taking the sword by the handle."

"Your Grace seems to have forgotten the tenor of the compact made with a Habsburger, a rebel, but still a Habsburger. Let me remind you of it.

The objective was the restoration of your Grace to the command of the armies of the Emperor, or of the Catholic League. To do this it was necessary to encourage the Protestant powers to attack, and the greater the danger to the Empire, the more sure would be your restoration. That accomplished, the sword once more in your hand, you were to demand the throne of Bohemia."

"And who says that my purpose does not hold?"

"Albrecht von Waldstein seems to say it. He talks of confederacies, of driving out the Habsburgs. He who aspires to sit beside a Habsburg upon a throne must first be worthy of her, and not diminish her worth in lowering the l.u.s.tre of her family and her name!"

The splendid voice rang out with the pride and command of a great princess, rebuking a too aspiring courtier.

Wallenstein bowed to the utterance as to the throne itself, but raising his head again and throwing back his wide shoulders replied--

"I have not forgotten, Ottilie! But the Habsburg princess that would sit beside Wallenstein upon the throne of Bohemia derives her t.i.tle from him. It is not Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, a joining of two monarchies. I confess that Europe holds but one princess, and that a Habsburger, who can be an equal mate by reason of her intelligence, her beauty, and her race, for Wallenstein, but she must learn that what he does is right. Forgive me if I set the matter out too harshly. No man ever played a greater game for greater stakes under auspices more divine; but Wallenstein must play it."

The eyes of the Countess Ottilie flashed in the light of the candles and the firelight as she turned her head to answer him.

But her answer died upon her lips, for the man-servant knocked and entered.

"A general officer from Vienna pa.s.sing by with troops for Prague craves audience, your Grace!"

The Countess Ottilie resumed her hood and sat down again by the fire.

Wallenstein, antic.i.p.ating no long interruption, understood that she would contrive to remain incognita while he admitted this stranger to a short audience.

Nigel Charteris entered.

As he came forward into the full light the Duke of Friedland started perceptibly.

"It is an omen! The circle, the oval, and the arc once more!" he muttered.

"Ah! Major-General! So _your_ star mounts! Whilst _mine_ flickers in a far-off sky."

"I had thought to have found your Grace alone, Duke!" said Nigel, casting a glance at the hooded lady.

"She is like yourself and myself a chance traveller to Znaim. I know her. She is a friend before whom one may speak freely. What of the war?"

Nigel told briefly what was known in Vienna, what he guessed that Wallenstein already knew.

The lady spread out her long slender fingers to the fire. Nigel saw them without regarding them. He could not see her face, nor was he concerned to try. She was Wallenstein's affair.

Nigel did not wish to let the occasion slip, nor to lay too much stress upon it.

"In short," he said, after his recital of the position as a soldier understood it to explain to a soldier, "the affairs of the Emperor are in a serious plight, and he looks round for aid."

"Is not His Holiness the Pope sending him an army, or at least an aid?"

asked Wallenstein.

"It is said that His Holiness has too much to occupy his troops in Italy," said Nigel. "Meantime Saxony is getting ready for the march."

"The winter will stop him!" said Wallenstein.

"He is like to winter in Prague!" said Nigel.

The lady by the fireplace may have s.h.i.+vered, or shrugged her shoulders in the least. A thought came to him that his prophecy might have gone home to the Duke more truly than he knew. It was at Prague that Wallenstein maintained a princely house. He must, in the event of the Saxons attacking Prague, submit to their dominance, a thing unpleasant and inconsonant with Wallenstein's character, or remove his household before their approach, or make an alliance with them and so cut himself entirely adrift from the Empire, or raise troops for the Emperor and defend the town. In any event out of the four he must make up his mind and act soon.

"To whom then does the Emperor look to save him from his enemies?"

"There is but one, your Grace, and that the Duke of Friedland!"

Again the lady at the hearth held out her fingers idly to the blaze, and Nigel's eyes following the action saw the red glow of the blood between them, and this time he marked their slenderness.

"The Emperor must needs bid high!" said the Duke. "And soon! The posture of affairs is not what it was. There must be no more talk of edicts! The time has come when there can be no more Catholic States and Protestant States but German States! If the Emperor becomes strong again through his armies, it can only be in order to be able to treat on a more equal footing. But what possible price can he offer me to forego my private peace, my ease, the enjoyment of my revenues, and submit to the hara.s.sments of raising an army? I speak not yet of a supreme command.

Caesar made war against the Gauls because he needed money before he could gratify his ambition. I do not need money."

Nigel noticed that the lady's head gave an impatient toss, as who should say, "What ails the man?"

"You do not covet the honour of the supreme command, and of driving Saxony back to his frontiers and the Swede across the Baltic?" Nigel said in genuine amazement.

"For what? To become again a private gentleman?"

"There would be the Turks next, who are even now talking of invading Hungary."

"More toil! More glory, if you like, or perhaps death in the course of the task. And again to what end if successful?"

"The great soldiers have never looked to the end when they began their campaigns," Nigel replied, glowing; "but none of them has ever rested of his own will while great victories were yet to be won."

"The Emperor would scarce like to endow me with such powers as I should demand before I listened to him. There is but one Wallenstein. When the Emperor chooses to send his request in language plain and manifest, offering to confer such absolute power to raise him an army as I consider my least due, I will consider it. Till then I lift no finger, not even if the Saxons thunder at the doors of Prague. Tilly has failed.

Pappenheim has failed, Maximilian will fail."