The Red Axe

  CHAPTER XLVIII

  HUGO GOTTFRIED, RED AXE OF THE WOLFMARK

  Then cried Dessauer from the door to me as I stood thus holding my fatherin my arms:

  "Haste you, lad; there are men coming across the yard with torches. Theyare gathering in groups about the door. Now they are on the stairs--manysoldiers--and with weapons in their hands!"

  And scarcely had he spoken when the sound of the tramping of men in hastecame to us up the turret, and the door of the garret was thrust violentlyopen. A turmoil of men-at-arms burst in on us. I stood still, holdingGottfried Gottfried, his head on my shoulder, though I knew that he wasdead. But as one came forward with a paper in his hand I stooped and laidmy father gently on his bed.

  An officer of the Black Hussars, fantastically dressed in theirchurch-yard array, with skull and cross-bones slashed in silver acrosshis breast, accosted me.

  "Hugo Gottfried, son of Gottfried Gottfried, in the name of the Duke Othoand the State of the Wolfmark, I arrest you! Also you, Leopold vonDessauer, Chancellor of the Princedom of Plassenburg. You are accused asspies and enemies of the commonweal. Yield yourselves therefore to me,without condition."

  "I am indeed Hugo Gottfried," said I, "but you may see for yourselves themission on which I have come hither. And for this hour, at least, youmight have spared your brutal entry. Behold!"

  I caught a torch from the nearest soldier, and let its light shine onthe dead face of the fourteenth Hereditary Justicer of the Wolfmark.

  The men started back. The terrible countenance of the dead affected themeven more than the grim figure of the Red Axe as they had seen himstalking from the Hall of Justice to the block.

  "Ah," said the officer, not wholly irreverently, "Gottfried Gottfried hasgone now to the dark place to which he hath sent so many. But, after all,he is dead--and I heard a monkish clerk prate the other day, 'Let thedead bury their dead.' I have my orders, and the Duke Otho waits.Therefore I bid you follow me, Hugo Gottfried and Leopold von Dessauer."

  So, leaving the body of my father lying on the bed in his garret, we wereconstrained to follow our captors down the stairs. Across the court-yardwe were hurried, and through the Hall of Justice into the privateapartments of the Duke.

  Otho von Reuss, now Duke of the Wolfmark, was standing erect by the greatchair in which, as my father had so often described him to me, Casimirhad sat so many days with his head sunk on his breast. The new Duke stoodup proudly, gazing at us with frowning brows and lowering, narrowed eyes.This was mighty fine, but I could not help thinking of the poorappearance he had made on the hill above the Hirschgasse as he slunk offwhen he saw an evil cause going desperately against him.

  "So," he said, "gentlemen both, I have caught you spying in my land. Youknow what those have to expect who are caught in hostile territory indisguise."

  I thought it was as well to take the high hand at once, especially sinceI saw that humility would avail us nothing at any rate.

  "Before now I have seen Otho von Reuss in hostile territory, and a rightcowed traitor he looked!" said I, boldly.

  The Duke smiled upon me, like a man that has a complete retort on histongue but who is content for the present to reserve it.

  "My friend," he said, suavely, "I will reply to you presently. I have aword to speak to your betters."

  He turned him about to Dessauer.

  "And what, Lord High Chancellor of Plassenburg, think you of thismasquerading? Dignified, is it not? And your wondrous speech in courtthat was to have done such great things. Will you be pleased to abidewith us here in the Wolfsberg? Or must you forsake us to pleasure theEmperor, who, poor man, cannot sleep of nights in his bed at Ratisbontill the eloquent Doctor is come to cheer him with the full-flowing riverof speech?"

  "Duke Otho," said Dessauer, "my life is indeed in your hands. I hold itforfeit. A few years less or more are but little to Leopold von Dessauernow. But there is one who will most bloodily avenge us if a hair of ourheads falls to the ground."

  "Who?" said Otho, sneeringly. "Karl Miller's Son, I suppose. Ah, foolthat you are, I hold your poor Karl in the palm of my hand!"

  "It is like enough," said Dessauer, with a quick look, the look of a keenfencer when he sees an advantage. "I have often enough seen the palm ofyour hand approach Karl Miller's Son's treasury when I kept the moneys."

  I saw the face of Otho twitch angrily. But he had evidently made up hismind to command his temper, sure of having that up his sleeve which wouldsufficiently answer all taunts.

  "You mistake me," he said, with more subtlety than I had expected fromthe brute. "I had not meant to prove ungrateful. I am but newly come tomy own here in the Wolfmark. I have learned from your host, BishopPeter, how precious a thing forgiveness is. And now I am resolved topractise it. There is a time to love and a time to hate; a time to warand a time to be at peace. This is the last news I had from the holyclerk whose revenues I pay. So lay it to heart, as I have done."

  "Glad am I," said Dessauer, courteously, as if he had been turning aphrase on the terrace at Plassenburg--"glad am I that in your hour youare to be mindful of old friends, for they are like old wine, which growsbetter and mellower with the years."

  "It is indeed well," said Otho von Reuss, ironically. "I have known theChancellor Dessauer many years, and he grows more honorable and more wisewith each decade.

  "But now 'tis with this young man that I would speak," he said, changinghis tone. "He at least is mine own servant, and so I have other words forhim. Hugo Gottfried, you remember that you insulted me, striking me onthe face with a glove, because I offered certain civilities to a maid ofhonor to the Princess of Plassenburg. You wounded me in the arm. Yourfather, of whose death I have heard but now, cast me forth like a cur-dogfrom a chamber window. Between you ye have shamed me, and would shame meworse--for the sake of the murderess of mine uncle, Duke Casimir."

  "Well do you know that the Lady Helene is innocent of that crime, or anyother," said I; "she is purer than your eyes can look upon or your heartconceive. Yet, solely because she knows you for the foul thing you are,Helene lies condemned in your dungeons to-night. I ask you to grant mebut one boon--that I may die with her!"

  "Nay, my friend, gentlest squire of dames, defender of the oppressed, Ihave better things in store for you and your maid than that!"

  He paused and looked a long while at me, as it seemed, chewing the cudof revenge upon that which he had to say to me.

  At last he came a step nearer, that he might look into my eyes.

  "Hugo Gottfried," he said, slowly, "son of Gottfried Gottfried, you aremy servant now. I said that I would forgive you all for the sake of oldtimes in exile together. And now you and I are both again in our ownland. They that kept us out of our offices are dead, and we standing intheir places. There is a maid down there in the Wolfsberg dungeons whoto-morrow must meet her fate."

  He paused a moment and laid his hand on my shoulder impressively.

  "And you, Hugo Gottfried, Hereditary Justicer of the Dukedom, Red Axe ofthe Wolfmark, art the man who must carry out that doom!"

  Again he paused--and the world seemed instantly to dissolve intowhirling vapor at his words. I had never once thought of such aconclusion. Yet I was indubitably, by my father's death, HereditaryExecutioner of the Wolfmark. Red Axe of Thorn I was, and by a terriblechance I had returned in time to be installed in mine office, even asthe Lady Ysolinde had foretold.

  But a strong thought swelled triumphant in my heart.

  "Well," said I, looking the sneering tormentor in the face, "if so bethat I am your Hereditary Justicer, it will be long ere a sentence somonstrous shall be carried out by me. I will not slay the innocent, norpour out the blood of a virgin saint, for a million deaths. You cantorture me with all your hellish engines, and you will find that aGottfried has learned how to suffer, as well as, how to make otherssuffer, in fourteen generations. As God strengthens me, I will nevercarry out your sentence--do with me what you will."

  "Nobly said, Justicer of the Mark!"
said Otho. "I had thought of that!But in case you should refuse to do your lawful office, it may be wellfor you to remember that I have other instruments that mayhap will pleaseyou less."

  He threw open a door suddenly, and we looked into an underground hall,where a dozen men were carousing--Duke Casimir's Hussars of Death,black-browed, evil-faced, slack-jowled villains every man of them, crueland sensual. A blast of ribald oaths came sulphurously up, as if themouth of hell had been opened.

  "Listen!" said Otho, with his hand on my shoulder.

  And a jest struck to our ears concerning the prisoner, the LittlePlaymate--a jest which sticks in my memory to this day. And even yet Ihope to cleave the jester through the brain, meet him when I may.

  The Duke shut the door, and turned to me again. His eyes narrowed to athin line which glittered with hate and triumph.

  "If you, Hugo Gottfried, Hereditary Executioner of the Mark, refuse to doyour duty at the time appointed upon the prisoner condemned, I, DukeOtho, solemnly declare that I will cast your fair and tender lamb intothat den of wolves down there to work their wills upon. Hark to them!They will have no misgivings--no qualms, no noble renunciations."

  Then he turned to me airily and confidently.

  "Well, my good Justicer, will you carry out the just and mercifulsentence of the law, and baptize your Red Axe with the blood of her forwhose sake you chose to insult and wound a Duke of the Mark?"

  I turned away, sick at heart.

  "Give me time. God's mercy--give me time!" I cried. "At least let me seeHelene. I will give you my answer to-night. But, first of all, let me seemy beloved."

  "I am forgiving and most merciful," he said, smiling till his teethshowed. "Observe, I do not even cast you into prison to make sure of you.Go your ways" (he sat down and wrote rapidly); "here is a pass which willenable you to visit the prisoner. At midnight I shall expect you to tellme that to-morrow you will fulfil your office."

  He handed me the paper and motioned us away.

  "We are free to go?" said I, wonderingly.

  "Surely," he replied, smiling. "Are you not both my friends, and can Othovon Reuss be forgetful of old times? Come and go at your pleasure. Besure to be here to give me your answer at midnight to-night--or--"

  He pointed with his hand to the door he had again opened, and with thefingers of his other hand beat time to the blasphemous chorus which camebelching up from below.