CHAPTER XVI
PRINCE WASP'S COMPACT
"I cannot go back to Courtland dishonoured," said Prince Louis to Ivanof Muscovy, as they stood on the green bank looking down on the rushingriver, broad and brown, which had so lately been the Fords of Alla. Theriver had risen almost as it seemed upon the very heels of the fourhundred horsemen of Kernsberg, and the ironclad knights and men-at-armswho followed the Prince of Courtland could not face the yeasty swirl ofthe flood.
Prince Ivan, left to himself, would have dared it.
"What is a little brown water?" he cried. "Let the men leave theirarmour on this side and swim their horses through. We do it fifty timesa month in Muscovy in the springtime. And what are your hill-fed brooksto the full-bosomed rivers of the Great Plain?"
"It is just because they are hill-fed that we know them and will notrisk our lives. The Alla has come down out of the mountains ofHohenstein. For four-and-twenty hours nothing without wing may pass andrepass. Yet an hour earlier and our Duchess had been trapped on thehither side even as we. But now she will sit and laugh up there inKernsberg. And--I cannot go back to Courtland without a bride!"
Prince Ivan stood a moment silent. Then his eyes glanced over hiscompanion with a certain severe and amused curiosity. From foot to headthey scanned him, beginning at the shoes of red Cordovan leather,following upwards to the great tassel he wore at his poignard; then camethe golden girdle about his waist, the flowered needlework at his wristsand neck, and the scrutiny ended with the flat red cap on his head, fromwhich a white feather nodded over his left eye.
Then the gaze of Prince Ivan returned again slowly to the pointed redshoes of Cordovan leather.
If there was anything so contemptuous as that eye-blink in the openscorn of all the burghers of Courtland, Prince Louis was to be excusedfor any hesitation he might show in facing his subjects.
The matter of Prince Wasp's meditation ran somewhat thuswise: "Thou man,fashioned from a scullion's nail-paring, and cocked upon a horse, whatcan I make of thee? Thou, to have a country, a crown, a wife! Gudgeoneats stickleback, jack-pike eats gudgeon and grows fat, till at last thesturgeon in his armour eats him. I will fatten this jack. I will feedhim like the gudgeons of Kernsberg and Hohenstein, then take him with adainty lure indeed, black-tipped, with sleeves gay as cranes' wings, andanswering to the name of 'my lady Joan.' But wait--I must be wary, andhave a care lest I shadow his water."
So saying within his heart, Prince Wasp became exceedingly thoughtfuland of a demure countenance.
"My lord," he said, "this day's work will not go well down in Courtland,I fear me!"
Prince Louis moved uneasily, keeping his regard steadily upon the brownturmoil of the Alla swirling beneath, whereas the eyes of Ivan werenever removed from his friend's meagre face.
"Your true Courtlander is more than half a Muscovite," mused PrinceWasp, as if thinking aloud; "he wishes not to be argued with. He wants amaster, and he will not love one who permits himself to be choused of awife upon his wedding-day!"
Prince Louis started quickly as the Wasp's sting pricked him.
"And pray, Prince Ivan," he said, "what could I have done that I leftundone? Speak plainly, since you are so prodigal of smiles suppressed,so witty with covert words and shoulder-tappings!"
"My Louis," said Prince Wasp, laying his hand upon the arm of hiscompanion with an affectation of tenderness. "I flout you not--I mockyou not. And if I speak harshly, it is only that I love not to see youin your turn flouted, mocked, scorned, made light of before your ownpeople!"
"I believe it, Ivan; pardon the heat of my hasty temper!" said thePrince of Courtland. The watchful Muscovite pursued his advantage,narrowing his eyes that he might the better note every change on theface of the man whom he held in his toils. He went on, with a certainresigned sadness in his voice--
"Ever since I came first to Courtland with the not dishonourable hope ofcarrying back to my father a princess of your house, none have been soamiable together as you and I. We have been even as David and Jonathan."
The Prince Louis put out a hand, which apparently Ivan did not see, forhe continued without taking it.
"Yet what have I gained either of solid good or even of the lighter butnot less agreeable matter of my lady's favour? So far as your sister isconcerned, I have wasted my time. If I consider the union of ourpeoples, already one in heart, your brother works against us both; thePrincess Margaret despises me, Prince Conrad thwarts us. He would bindus in chains and carry us tinkling to the feet of his pagan master inRome!"
"I think not so," answered Prince Louis--"I cannot think so of mybrother, with all his faults. Conrad is a brave soldier, a goodknight--though, as is the custom of our house, it is his lot to be nomore than a prince-bishop!"
The Wasp laughed a little hard laugh, clear and inhuman as the snap andrattle of Spanish castanets.
"Louis, my good friend, your simplicity, your lack of guile, do youwrong most grievous! You judge others as you yourself are. Do you notsee that Conrad your brother must pay for his red hat? He must earn hiscardinalate. Papa Sixtus gives nothing for nothing. Courtland must payPeter's pence, must become monkish land. On every flake of stockfish,every grain of sturgeon roe, every ounce of marled amber, your HolyFather must levy his sacred dues. And the clear ambition of your brotheris to make you chief cat's-paw pontifical upon the Baltic shore.Consider it, good Louis."
And the Prince of Muscovy twirled his moustache and smiledcondescendingly between his fingers. Then, as if he thought suddenly ofsomething else and made a new calculation, he laughed a laugh, quick andshort as the barking of a dog.
"Ha!" he cried, "truly we order things better in my country. I havebrothers, one, two, three. They are grand dukes, highnesses very serene.One of them has this province, another this sinecure, yet another waitson my father. My father dies--and I--well, I am in my father's place.What will my brothers do with their serene highnesses then? They willtake each one the clearest road and the shortest for the frontier, or bythe Holy Icon of Moscow, there would very speedily be certain newtablets in the funeral vault of my fathers."
The Prince of Courtland started.
"This thing I could never imagine of Conrad my brother. He loves me. Atheart he ever cared but for his books, and now that he is a priest hehath forsworn knighthood, and tournaments, and wars."
"Poor Louis," said Ivan sadly, "not to see that once a soldier always asoldier. But 'tis a good fault, this generous blindness of the eyes. Hehath already the love of your people. He has won already the voice thatspeaks from every altar and presbytery. The power to loose and bindmen's consciences is in his hand. In a little, when he has bartered awayyour power for his cardinal's hat, he may be made a greater thanyourself, an elector of the empire, the right-hand man of Papa Sixtus,as his uncle Adrian was before him. Then indeed your Courtland willunderlie the tinkle of Peter's keys!"
"I am sure that Conrad would do nothing against his fatherland or to thehurt of his prince and brother!" said Prince Louis, but he spoke in awavering voice, like one more than half convinced.
"Again," continued Ivan, without heeding him, "there is your wife. I amsure that if he had been the prince and you the priest--well, she hadnot slept this night in the Castle of Kernsberg!"
"Ivan, if you love me, be silent," cried the tortured Prince ofCourtland, setting his hand to his brow. "This is the mere idle dreamingof a fool. How learned you these things? I mean how did the thoughtsenter into your mind?"
"I learned the matter from the Princess Margaret, who in the brief spaceof a day became your wife's confidante!"
"Did Margaret tell it you?"
The Prince Ivan laughed a short, self-depreciatory laugh.
"Nay, truly," he said, smiling sadly, "you and I are in one despite,Louis. Your wife scorns you--me, my sweetheart. Did Margaret tell me?Nay, verily! Yet I learned it, nevertheless, even more certainly becauseshe denied it so vehemently. But, after all, I daresay all will end forthe best."
"How so?" de
manded Prince Louis haughtily.
"Why, I have heard that your Papa at Rome will do aught for money.Doubtless he will dissolve this marriage, which indeed is no more thanone in name. He has done more than that already for his own nephews. Hewill absolve your brother from his vows. Then you can be the monk and hethe king. There will be a new marriage, at which doubtless you shallhold the service book and he the lady's hand. Then we shall have noridings back to Kernsberg, with four hundred lances, at a word from agirl's scornful mouth. And the Alla down there may rise or fall at itspleasure, and neither hurt nor hinder any!"
The Prince of Courtland turned an angry countenance upon his friend, butthe keen-witted Muscovite looked so kindly and yet so sadly upon himthat after awhile the severity of his face relaxed as it had beenagainst his will, and with a quick gesture he added, "I believe you loveme, Ivan, though indeed your words are no better than red-hot pincers inmy heart."
"Love you, Louis?" cried Prince Ivan. "I love you better than anybrother I have, though they will never live to thwart me as yoursthwarts you--better even than my father, for you do not keep me out ofmy inheritance!"
Then in a gayer tone he went on.
"I love you so much that I will pledge my father's whole army to helpyou, first to win your wife, next to take Hohenstein, Kernsberg, andMarienfeld. And after that, if you are still ambitious, why--toPlassenburg and the Wolfmark, which now the Executioner's Son holds.That would make a noble kingdom to offer a fair and wilful queen."
"And for this you ask?"
"Only your love, Louis--only your love! And, if it please you, thealliance with that Princess of your honourable house, of whom we spokejust now!"
"My sister Margaret, you mean? I will do what I can, Ivan, but she alsois wilful. You know she is wilful! I cannot compel her love!"
The Prince Ivan laughed.
"I am not so complaisant as you, Louis, nor yet so modest. Give me mybride on the day Joan of the Sword Hand sleeps in the palace ofCourtland as its princess, and I will take my chance of winning ourMargaret's love!"