The Childhood of King Erik Menved Part 29

On one of the finest days of spring, a company of travellers on horseback, consisting of two distinguished knights and two ladies, together with an ecclesiastic of eminence, and accompanied by a young squire, two grooms, and two waiting-maids, rode in through the gate of Flynderborg Castle, near Orekrog. On the castle-stairs stood the commandant, Sir Lave Little, uncovered, to receive his honoured guests with due respect. The tall Lady Inge stood by her father's side.

Whilst the knights a.s.sisted their ladies to dismount, and conducted them up the stairs, the corpulent ecclesiastic remained quietly seated on his palfrey, reading a Latin inscription over the doorway: he was the chancellor of the kingdom, the learned Master Martinus de Dacia.

The short, gray-haired, but still hale and nimble knight, who first ascended the castle-stairs, with a tall, middle-aged lady upon his arm, was Counsellor Sir John Little, with his wife, Fru Ingefried. His daughter Cecilia was accompanied by a young, knightly gentleman, in whose tall form Jomfru[23] Inge, with blus.h.i.+ng cheeks, immediately recognised Drost Peter Hessel.

Not without a certain degree of embarra.s.sment and secret uneasiness did Sir Lave receive his guests. Despite his extreme politeness, he appeared to scan, with much anxiety, his old kinsman's looks. Having saluted Drost Peter with repulsive coldness, Sir Lave seemed to regard the learned chancellor, who had at length reached the top of the stairs with a shy, suspicious glance; but when the learned gentleman at once commenced his inquiries respecting the age of the castle and its antiquities, Sir Lave appeared somewhat more at ease, and referred him to his daughter, who, as he said, knew better about such odd kind of things than any one else in the castle.

"You must live here like a little king, my good Lave," observed Sir John, looking round the large arched hall, which occupied the whole breadth of the wing, and from which two large doors opened into the castle-garden, commanding a most beautiful view over the Sound.

"Yes, indeed, sir counsellor: the castle is royal enough, and your presence gives it its proper l.u.s.tre," replied Sir Lave, in a submissive tone, which showed at once the dependent relation in which he stood to his renowned kinsman, whose preponderance, both in rank and intellect, he only too oppressively felt.

"You are too polite, cousin," replied Sir John. "l.u.s.tre, you know well enough, is not my affair. But if the castle is as strong as it is fair and pleasant, I should like to be governor of it in time of war. Have you been here before, Drost Peter?"

"In my childhood I was often in these halls, and I here regain the memory of my dearest, fairest years," replied Drost Peter, with a glance at Jomfra Inge, whom he had yet only silently saluted, and who appeared to be entirely busied with Fru Ingefried and Lady Cecilia. Her eyes now met his, and he observed, with pleasure, that this remembrance did not appear indifferent to her.

"Have you not been here since?" inquired Sir John; but Drost Peter did not hear him.

"You are under a spell, I think. Have you been here since, Peter Hessel?" he repeated.

"Last year," answered Drost Peter, somewhat embarra.s.sed, "in the course of my unpleasant duty respecting Duke Waldemar's arrest."

At these words Sir Lave turned, highly uneasy, towards the old counsellor, and overwhelmed him with half a score of questions at once, princ.i.p.ally about court news, and indifferent matters.

"I do not trouble myself concerning such fooleries," replied Sir John, gravely, looking at his uneasy kinsman with a sharp, inquiring glance; "but the best and most important news is already well known to you, cousin--that, since the king has regained a faithful subject in Duke Waldemar, we may now hope for peace and unity in the country. We may therefore reasonably expect that every Danish knight who may have been mistaken, but who still means honestly towards his country, will follow the young duke's example, and sincerely forswear every thought of turbulent resistance and rebellious defiance to the laws of the kingdom. In some instances a strict inquiry may perhaps be deemed necessary," he added; "but I hope that many adherents of the audacious Marsk Andersen are not to be found in the country."

Sir Lave had become deadly pale; and on the stern Sir John's countenance appeared a mingled expression of anger and deep sorrow, which, however, immediately disappeared, as he turned playfully to Jomfru Inge, with reference to one of her childhood's heroines, proud Dotte, whose history was represented on the old wrought tapestry of the hall.

"Do you still hold by this proud damsel?" he inquired, pointing to the picture, representing a lady chained, on board a s.h.i.+p, with a little anchor in her hand. "Can you still sing about her cheese-anchors, with which she would have kept the whole of Harald Hardrada's fleet from Denmark?"[24]

"Do you still remember that, my n.o.ble kinsman?" asked Lady Inge blus.h.i.+ng. "When I sang that song by your side, and defended Dotte against your jokes, I was still a child, and you laughed at my zeal: but I must still defend her, my n.o.ble kinsman. Had the men of Denmark, in her time, been as brave as she calculated upon, they would have found steel enough to defend her cheese-anchors, and not have suffered the Norwegian pirate-king to carry off a Danish maiden in chains, on account of a bold word. Somewhat of haughtiness, and of childish defiance towards a superior power, there certainly was in the whole jest," she continued, with warmth; "but a little innocent boasting was still a sign that she had good faith in Danish manhood and fidelity.

Had she been your daughter, I am certain that you would have gladly paid a double ransom for her freedom."

"That may well be," replied Sir John, patting his brave kinswoman on the cheek. "Right, proud Ingelil![25] Thou art thy brave mother's daughter. The girl is right in some things," he continued, turning to the learned chancellor: "she is better acquainted with these ancient heroes than I am. This Harald Hardrada was little better than a bold, skilful pirate: a lofty, kingly soul, he never had. His doings in Denmark and Myklegaard redounded not to his honour; and I look upon the daring Jarl Mindre-Alf, of our own times, as his worthy representative."

"In mind and deed, abundance of similar representatives might be mentioned, with sanguinary, heathenish souls in Christian bodies,"

replied Master Martin.

"Jarl Mindre-Alf!" repeated Jomfru Inge, starting: "the coa.r.s.e, rude algrev--the little, fierce, brutish sea-rover--is he a jarl?[26] I thought he was only Count of Tonsberg."

"He is a mighty jarl, and, next to King Erik the Priesthater, and Duke Hakon, the greatest man in Norway," answered Sir John. "But thou art right, child: he is a coa.r.s.e, rude carl, and more like a beast than a man. Thou hast never seen him, hast thou?"

"I have heard more of him than I could have desired," she replied, hastily, avoiding the question, which occasioned her father great anguish.

Drost Peter still hoped that Sir Lave, notwithstanding his present palpable embarra.s.sment, had been more imprudent than guilty on the occasion of the suspicious visit to which this accidental allusion had just been made. In order, therefore, to rid him of this uneasiness, and to relieve him from every fear of being called upon to answer for that transaction, the drost turned, with perfect good nature, to Lady Inge's father, and informed him that the real object of the present journey, which gave him an opportunity of revisiting so dear a spot, was an emba.s.sy to the Swedish court of Stockholm; and that Sir John was, at the same time, taking his family to their summer residence, Tommerup Guard, in Scania.

This explanation instantly brightened up Sir Lave's features. He seemed at once to comprehend the drost's good-natured intention in this communication, and held out his hand to him with unrestrained emotion.

"You are welcome to me, sir drost," he said, with a trembling voice, and drawing him aside to the open garden-door. "What has occurred between us concerns n.o.body," he continued, anxiously, descending the garden-steps with him. He cast back a look towards the saloon, and perceiving old Sir John in lively conversation with the chancellor and the ladies, he drew Drost Peter hastily into a by-path in the garden.

"A word in confidence, Drost Hessel," he continued, in a fatherly tone, that reminded the drost of his childhood: "what occurred when you were last here, might be misinterpreted in a manner dangerous to my honour and rank; but I have sufficient confidence in your integrity to rest a.s.sured that you will not abuse the advantage which circ.u.mstances gave you over me, to ruin and destroy me. Will you give me your word of honour thereupon?"

"By my knightly honour!" answered Drost Peter, much affected, and giving him his hand. "G.o.d be praised, I have never deemed myself bound to come forward as your accuser; and Heaven forbid that I should ever be obliged to do so."

"Good," exclaimed Sir Lave, rea.s.sured: "I only desired to know that I was safe in your hands as regards the past; and for that, your honour is now my pledge: the future, I shall myself take care of. Our old relations.h.i.+p is now dissolved, and a new one cannot be formed between us. We two can now be as if dead to one another."

He turned to depart; but Drost Peter retained him. "Hear me, Sir Lave,"

he exclaimed, warmly. "I have also an important word to say to you. I do not regard that relations.h.i.+p as dissolved, which I first learned to prize highly at the moment it appeared to be torn asunder. That which estranges you from me, binds me to your house and n.o.ble race still more firmly, and with a bond that no earthly power can dissolve. It is the same bond that unites Denmark's crown and Denmark's hearts together. In this, your n.o.ble-hearted daughter shares my views, and that, too, with an ardour and animation that have enchained my soul irrevocably with her's, spite of every opposing or doubtful circ.u.mstance. I have not spoken a word to her but what you have yourself heard, and what I now with certainty know I feel for her. Whether she entertains the same feelings towards me, I dare not yet say; but I have a great and fond hope, which I will not relinquish while I live, unless she herself, which G.o.d forbid! should rob me of it."

"Every word of this is now superfluous, sir drost," interrupted Sir Lave, coldly and strangely. "For me, you may hope and feel what you will. My will, as her father, you know. Your connections and principles render me, and every open-minded Dane, common heretics in your eyes; and, for the future, I can never think of any union with you. Let us mutually esteem each other's hearts and good intentions, however dissimilar, in other respects, we may be in our views," he added, with less coldness: "let us not, as professors of a different political faith, condemn one another for the sake of our opinions. So, let us bid each other a peaceful farewell--for ever!" With these words, and with averted face, he extended his hand to Drost Peter.

"This, then, is the last time you give me your hand, Sir Lave?"

exclaimed Drost Peter, with subdued grief. "Oh, that I could hold fast by this hand, and drag you from the uncertain, tortuous path on which you falter--"

"Unhand me, man! and be silent!" whispered Sir Lave, looking uneasily about him. "Would you bring me to misfortune by your discourse? My way is not your's; but I had learnt to go alone, before you were born.

Unhand me! We belong not to each other."

"Pity 'tis that you are right!" sighed Drost Peter, with secret horror, as he relinquished the cold, trembling hand.

Without again looking at him, Sir Lave hastily returned to his other important guests; whilst Drost Peter, violently agitated, took his way along a gloomy arched walk in the garden.

In the garden-hall, to his great comfort, Sir Lave found old Sir John still engaged in jocular conversation with Master Martinus; whilst Fru Ingefried and her daughter, in company with Lady Inge, were about leaving it, to view the castle-garden.

"Drost Hessel is already outside, enjoying the beautiful prospect,"

said the commandant, bowing to the stranger ladies. "My daughter will conduct you to some of those remarkable spots where the clear waters and the green trees furnish abundant themes for the most pa.s.sionate admirers of their country's beauties. I am not so fortunate as to appreciate these things myself."

The ladies smiled courteously at these careless remarks, and descended the garden-steps. Sir Lave cast an inquiring look at the weatherc.o.c.k over the castle-gate, and then approached the two gentlemen, without disturbing their conversation.

"You astonish me, learned sir chancellor," said Sir John, laughing heartily. "Who could have believed that dry philosophy should be so amusing? And this is altogether your own discovery?"

"Certainly, sir counsellor," replied the learned chancellor, gravely, with a self-satisfied air: "it is the fruit of many a waking night's inquiries. I had already thought of it before I took degrees at Paris; but it first became quite clear to me in my peaceful _otium_ at Antvorskov, and now it is taught in all the universities of Europe."

"And this is the famous Martinian mod--mod--what do you call it?"

"_Modi significandi Martiniani_," said the chancellor, correcting him.

"It is a treasury of learning, and a fund of science, which I ought not to boast of; but I still hope, in all humility, that, with G.o.d and the Holy Virgin's aid, this important discovery in logic will preserve my name in the history of philosophy, and be remembered as long as solid learning and universities exist."

"Now, indeed, that I can understand," replied Sir John, with a suppressed smile. "Sooth to say, it must be learned and philosophic, for I will give you my head if I can understand a word of it. But what can a layman, and others like myself, know of such things?"

"How, sir counsellor!" exclaimed the chancellor, astonished, and wiping the perspiration from his bald forehead. "Is it not as clear and evident as G.o.d's daylight? and have I not taken pains to translate for you all the Greek and Latin terms, which are a great ornament in such matters, though, perhaps, dark to the uninitiated? Allow me, and I will again explain to you the whole system from the beginning. By _modus significandi_, is to be understood, in logic--"

"Nay, for heaven's sake--nay, best of chancellors!" interrupted Sir John, hastily; "plunge me no deeper into the science. I have every respect for it, and believe that it will immortalise you, among the learned, to the end of time; but, if I cannot become immortal by other means, my memory must perish, and I must be contented, in G.o.d's name, to do the best I can when living, and leave our Lord to care for the rest. Seriously speaking, sir chancellor: if a man cannot become wise and intelligent without all this vexatious trouble, and if I must twist and turn my thoughts by this method, before I can know whether they are wise or foolish--by the Lord's truth! I should be a hundred years old before I could master a single common thought, and should require the lifetime of three men before I could put an excellent thought into practice. Nay: I must make use of another method. When I know what I wish to say, I say it; and when I know what I wish and ought to do, I do it; and do not trouble myself whether the world stands or falls.

There you have the whole of my system. It is not so learned as your's; but that you also follow it, in the main, you have given me excellent proof, for which I have every esteem and honour."

So saying, he shook the learned chancellor heartily by the hand, and cast a look towards Sir Lave. "See, there stands my cousin, the commandant," he continued, gaily: "he is nearly five years younger than I, and can perhaps still learn something in the world. If you can bring him to see how we should think justly and reasonably, in these crazy times, it may not perhaps be out of the way. But I must out, and draw a breath of fresh air in the garden."

Surrendering Sir Lave to the somewhat tiresome, philosophic chancellor, he made his exit hastily by the garden-door, and was soon plunged in serious thought in the arched walk.

On a green knoll, commanding a magnificent view over the Sound, Drost Peter stood, meanwhile, between Jomfru Inge and Lady Cecilia, in lively conversation respecting those notable events of olden times, of which the traditions and supposed memorials were still preserved in this glorious region. Contrary to Jomfru Inge's opinion, Drost Peter maintained that these events must be referred to other, and, to him, well-known spots in Jutland. The subject of their conversation was the great tragical legend of Hamlet. Fru Ingefried listened with interest, whilst the animated, patriotic Jomfru Inge enlivened her description of these events by traditions and s.n.a.t.c.hes of popular ballads, and pointed to every spot where, as a child, she had heard and believed that they must have happened. Fru Ingefried now perceived her husband by the end of the arched walk, and went to meet him; while Drost Peter and Jomfru Inge continued to converse of Hamlet and his daring plans, the sagacity of which Drost Peter admired, but maintained that they still wanted truth, justice, and n.o.ble grandeur.

"This knavish cunning," he said--"this merely apparent love of truth, by means of which the real truth is concealed, when it is spoken ambiguously and figuratively--this crafty play with sound sense and madness, with jest and cruel earnest, is to me sufficiently detestable; but these features of the tradition, however un-Danish they may appear, are still founded on a remarkable peculiarity in the character of our people."