The Red Axe Read online

  CHAPTER II

  THE LITTLE PLAYMATE COMES HOME

  But there was to be no Session in the Hall of Judgment that night. Thegreat court-yard, roofed with the vault of stars and lit by the moon, wasto see all done that remained to be done. The torches were planted in theiron hold-fasts round about. The plunder of the captured towns andcastles was piled for distribution on the morrow, and no man dared keepback so much as a Brandenburg broad-piece or a handful of Bohemiangulden. For the fear of the Duke and the Duke's dog-kennels was uponevery stout fighting-kerl. They minded the fate of Hans Pulitz, who hadkept back a belt of gold, and had gotten himself flung by the heels withno more than the stolen belt upon him, into the kennels where the Duke'sblood-hounds howled and clambered with their fore-feet on theblack-spattered barriers. And they say that the belt of gold was all thatwas ever seen again of the poor rascal. Hans Pulitz--who had hoped for somany riotous evenings among the Fat Pigs of Thorn and so many draughts ofthe slippery wine of the Rheingan careering down the poor thirsty throatof him. But, alas for Hans Pulitz! the end of all imagining was no morethan five minutes of snapping, snarling, horrible Pandemonium in thekennels of the Wolfsberg, and the scored gold chain on the ground was allthat remained to tell his tale. Verily, there were few Achans in DukeCasimir's camp.

  And it is small wonder after this, that scant and sparse were the jestsplayed on the grim master of the Wolfsberg, or that the bay of ablood-hound tracking on the downs frightened the most stout-hearted riderin all that retinue of dare-devils.

  Going to the side of the Red Tower, which looked towards the court-yard,I saw the whole array come in. I watched the prisoners unceremoniouslydismounted and huddled together against the coming of the Duke. There wasbut one man among them who stood erect. The torch-light played on hisface, which was sometimes bent down to a little child in his arms, sothat I saw him well. He looked not at all upon the rude men-at-arms whopushed and bullied about him, but continued tenderly to hush his charge,as if he had been a nurse in a babe-chamber under the leads, with silencein all the house below.

  It pleased me to see the man, for all my life I had loved children. Andyet at ten years of age I had never so much as touched one--no, norspoken even, only looked down on those that hated me and spat on the verytower wherein I dwelt. But nevertheless I loved them and yearned to tellthem so, even when they mocked me. So I watched this little one in theman's arms.

  Then came the Duke along the line, and behind him, like the Shadow ofDeath, paced my father Gottfried Gottfried, habited all in red from neckto heel, and carrying for his badge of office as Hereditary Justicer tothe Dukes of the Wolfmark that famous red-handled, red-bladed axe, thegleaming white of whose deadly edge had never been wet save with theblood of men and women.

  The guard pushed the captives rudely into line as the Duke Casimir strodealong the front. The women he passed without a sign or so much as a look.They were kept for another day. But the men were judged sharp and sudden,as the Duke in his black armor passed along, and that scarlet Shadow ofDeath with the broad axe over his shoulder paced noiselessly behind him.

  For as each man looked into the eyes of Casimir of the Wolfsberg he readhis doom. The Duke turned his wrist sharply down, whereupon the attendantsprites of the Red Shadow seized the man and rent his garment down fromhis neck--or the hand pointed up, and then the man set his hand to hisheart and threw his head back in a long sigh of relief.

  It came the turn of the man who carried the babe.

  Duke Casimir paused before him, scowling gloomily at him.

  "Ha, Lord Prince of so great a province, you will not set yourself up anymore haughtily. You will quibble no longer concerning tithes and tollswith Casimir of the Wolfmark."

  And the Duke lifted his hand and smote the man on the cheek with hisopen hand.

  Yet the captive only hushed the child that wailed aloud to see herguardian smitten.

  He looked Duke Casimir steadfastly in the eyes and spoke no word.

  "Great God, man, have you nothing to say to me ere you die?" cried DukeCasimir, choked with hot, sudden anger to be so crossed.

  The elder man gazed steadily at his captor.

  "God will judge betwixt me, a man about to die, and you, Casimir of theWolfmark," he said at last, very slowly--"by the eyes of this little maidHe will judge!"

  "Like enough," cried Casimir, sneeringly. "Bishop Peter hath told me asmuch. But then God's payments are long deferred, and, so far as I cansee, I can take Him into my own hand. And your little maid--pah! sinceone day you took from me the mother, I, in my turn, will take thedaughter and make her a titbit for the teeth of my blood-hounds."

  The man answered not again, but only hushed and fondled the little one.

  Duke Casimir turned quickly to my father, showing his long teeth like asnarling dog:

  "Take the child," he said, "and cast her into the kennels before theman's eyes, that he may learn before he dies to dread more than God'sJudgment Seat the vengeance of Duke Casimir!"

  Then all the men-at-arms turned away, heart-sick at the horror. But theman with the child never blanched.

  High perched on the top tower, I also heard the words and loved the maid.And they tell me (though I do not remember it) that I cried down from theleads of the Red Tower: "My father, save the little maid and give her tome--or else I, Hugo Gottfried, will cast myself down on the stones atyour feet!"

  At which all the men looked up and saw me in white, a small, lonelyfigure, with my legs hanging over the top of the wall.

  "Go back!" my father shouted. "Go back, Hugo! 'Tis my only son--mysuccessor--the fifteenth of our line, my lord!" he said to the Dukein excuse.

  But I cried all the more: "Save the maid's life, or I will fling myselfheadlong. By Jesu-Mary, I swear it!"

  For I thought that was the name of one great saint.

  Then my father, who ever doted on me, bent his knee before his master:"A boon!" he cried, "my first and last, Duke Casimir--this maid's lifefor my son!"

  But the Duke hung on the request a long, doubtful moment.

  "Gottfried Gottfried," he said, even reproachfully, "this is not welldone of you, to make me go back on my word."

  "Take the man's life," said my father--"take the man's life for thechild's and the fulfilling of your word, and by the sword of St. Peter Iwill smite my best!"

  "Aye," said the man with the babe, "even so do, as the Red Axe says.Save the young child, but bid him smite hard at this abased neck. Ye havetaken all, Duke Casimir, take my life. But save the young child alive!"

  So, without further word or question, they did so, and the man who hadcarried the child kissed her once and separated gently the baby handsthat clung about his neck. Then he handed her to my father.

  "Be gracious to Helene," he said; "she was ever a sweet babe."

  Now by this time I was down hammering on the door of the Red Tower, whichhad been locked on the outside.

  Presently some one turned the key, and so soon as I got among the men Idarted between their legs.

  "Give me the babe!" I cried; "the babe is mine; the Duke himselfhath said it." And my father gave her to me, crying as if her heartwould break.

  Nevertheless she clung to me, perhaps because I was nearer her own age.

  Then the dismal procession of the condemned passed us, followed by myfather, who strode in front with his axe over his shoulder, and thelaughing and jesting men-at-arms bringing up the rear.

  As I stood a little aside for them to pass, the hand of the man fell onmy head and rested there a moment.

  "God's blessing on you, little lad!" he said. "Cherish the babe you havesaved, and, as sure as that I am now about to die, one day you shall berepaid." And he stooped and kissed the little maid before he went on withthe others to the place of slaughter.

  Then I hurried within, so that I might not hear the dull thud of the RedAxe, on the block nor the inhuman howlings of the dogs in the kennelsafterwards.

  When my father came home an hour later, before even
he took off hiscostume of red, he came up to our chamber and looked long at the littlemaid as she lay asleep. Then he gazed at me, who watched him from undermy lids and from behind the shadows of the bedclothes.

  But his quick eye caught the gleam of light in mine.

  "You are awake, boy!" he said, somewhat sternly.

  I nodded up to him without speaking.

  "What would you with the little maid?" he said. "Do you know that you andshe together came very near losing me my favor with the Duke, and itmight be my life also, both at one time to-night?"

  I put my hand on the maiden's head where it lay on the pillow by me.

  "She is my little wife!" I said. "The Duke gave her to me out in thecourt-yard there!"

  And this is the whole tale of how the Little Playmate came to dwell withus in the Red Tower.