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Clementina written by A.E.W. Mason

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The man thanked him and advanced to the table.

"It is a raw hot wine," continued Misset, "and goes better with water;"
and he filled up the glass from the water-jug. The courier reached out
his hand for it.

"I am the thirstiest man in all Germany," said he, and he took a gulp of
the wine and immediately fell to spluttering.

"Save us," said he, "but this wine is devilishly strong."

"Try some more water," said Misset, and again he filled up the glass.
The courier drank it all in a single draught, and stood winking his eyes
and shaking his head.

"That warms a man," said he. "It does one good;" and again he called for
the landlord, and this time in a strange voice. The landlord still
lagged, however, and Misset did not doubt that Wogan had found a means
to detain him. He filled up the courier's glass again, half wine, half
water. The courier sat heavily down in a chair.

"I take the liberty, gentlemen," said he. "I am no better than a
dung-heap to sit beside gentlemen. But indeed I can stand no longer.
Never have I stridden across such vile slaughter-house cattle as they
keep for travellers on the Brenner road. I have sprained my legs with
spurring 'em. Seven times," he cried with an oath,--"seven times has a
horse dropped under me to-day. There's not an inch of me unbruised,
curse me if there is! I'm a cake of mud."

Misset knew very well why the courier had suffered these falls. The
horses he had ridden had first been tired by the Prince of Baden, and
then had the last spark of fire flogged out of them by the Princess's
postillions. He merely shrugged his shoulders, however, and said, "That
looks ill for us."

The courier gazed suddenly at Misset, then at O'Toole, with a dull sort
of suspicion in his eyes.

"And which way might you gentlemen be travelling?"

"To Innspruck; we're from Trent," said Misset, boldly.

The courier turned to O'Toole.

"And you too, sir?"

O'Toole turned a stolid, uncomprehending face upon the courier.

"Pour moi, monsieur, je suis Savoyard. Monsieur qui vous parle, c'est
mon compagnon de negoce."

The courier gazed with blank, heavy eyes at O'Toole. He had the
appearance of a man fuddled with drink. He heaved a sigh or two.

"Will you repeat that," he said at length, "and slowly?"

O'Toole repeated his remark, and the courier nodded at him. "That's
very strange," said he, solemnly, wagging his head. "I do not dispute
its truth, but it is most strange. I will tell my wife of it." He turned
in his chair, and a twinge from his bruises made him cry out. "I shall
be as stiff as a mummy in the morning," he exclaimed, and swore loudly
at "the bandits" who had caused him this deplorable journey. Misset and
O'Toole exchanged a quick glance, and Misset pushed the glass across the
table. The courier took it, and his eyes lighted up.

"You have come from Trent," said he. "Did you pass a travelling carriage
on the road?"

"Yes," said Misset; "the Prince of Baden with a large following drove
into Trent as we came out."

"Yes, yes," said the courier. "But no second party behind the Prince?"

Misset shook his head; he made a pretence of consulting O'Toole in
French, and O'Toole shook his head.

"Then I shall have the robbers," cried the courier. "They are to be
flayed alive, and they deserve it," he shouted fiercely to Misset.
"Gallows-birds!"

He dropped his head upon his arms and muttered "gallows-birds" again. It
seemed that he was falling asleep, but he suddenly sat up and beat on
the table with his fist.

"I have eaten nothing since the morning. Ah--gallows-birds--flayed
alive, and hanged--no, hanged and flayed alive--no, that's impossible."
He drank off the wine which Misset had poured out for him, and rose from
his chair. "Where's the landlord? I want supper. I want besides to speak
to him;" and he staggered towards the door.

"As for supper," said Misset, "we shall be glad if you will share ours.
Travellers should be friendly."

O'Toole caught the courier by the arm and with a polite speech in French
drew him again down into his chair. The courier stared at O'Toole and
forgot all about the landlord. He had eaten nothing all day, and the
wine and the water-jug had gone to his head. He put a long forefinger on
O'Toole's knee.

"Say that again," said he, and O'Toole obeyed. A slow, fat smile spread
all over the courier's face.

"I'll tell my wife about it," said he. He tried to clap O'Toole on the
back, and missing him fell forward with his face on the table. The next
minute he was snoring. Misset walked round the table and deftly picked
his pockets. There was a package in one of them superscribed to "Prince
Taxis, the Governor of Trent." Misset deliberately broke the seal and
read the contents. He handed the package to O'Toole, who read it, and
then flinging it upon the ground danced upon it. Misset went out of the
room and found Wogan and Gaydon keeping watch by Clementina's door. To
them he spoke in a whisper.

"The fellow brings letters from General Heister to the Governor of Trent
to stop us at all costs. But his letters are destroyed, and he's lying
dead-drunk on the table."

The three men quickly concerted a plan. The Princess must be roused; a
start must be made at once; and O'Toole must be left behind to keep a
watch upon the courier, Wogan rapped at the door and waked Clementina;
he sent Gaydon to the stables to bribe the ostlers, and with Misset went
down to inform O'Toole.

O'Toole, however, was sitting with his eyes closed and his head nodding,
surrounded by scraps of the letter which he had danced to pieces. Wogan
shook him by the shoulder, and he opened his eyes and smiled fatuously.

"He means to tell his wife," he said with a foolish gurgle of laughter.
"He must be an ass. I don't think if I had a wife I should tell her.
Would you, Wogan, tell your wife if you had one? Misset wouldn't tell
his wife."

Misset interrupted him.

"What have you drank since I went out of the room?" he asked roughly. He
took up the water-jug and turned it topsy-turvy. It was quite empty.

"Only water," said O'Toole, dreamily, and he laughed again. "Now I
wouldn't mind telling my wife that," said he.

Misset let him go and turned with a gesture of despair to Wogan.

"I poured my flask out into the water-bottle. It was full of burnt
Strasbourg brandy, of double strength. It is as potent as opium. Neither
of them will have his wits before to-morrow. It will not help us to
leave O'Toole to guard the courier."

"And we cannot take him," said Wogan. "There is the Princess to be
thought of. We must leave him, and we cannot leave him alone, for his
neck's in danger,--more than in danger if the courier wakes before him."

He picked up carefully the scraps of the letter and placed them in the
middle of the fire. They were hardly burnt before Gaydon came into the
room with word that horses were already being harnessed to the berlin.
Wogan explained their predicament.

"We must choose which of us three shall stay behind," said he.

"Which of us two," Misset corrected, pointing to Gaydon and himself.
"When the Princess drives into Bologna, Charles Wogan, who first had the
high heart to dare this exploit, the brain to plot, the hand to execute
it,--Charles Wogan must ride at her side, not Misset, not Gaydon. I take
no man's honours." He shook Wogan by the hand as he spoke, and he had
spoken with an extraordinary warmth of admiration. Gaydon could do no
less than follow his companion's example, though there was a shade of
embarrassment in his manner of assenting. It was not that he had any
envy of Wogan, or any desire to rob him of a single tittle of his due
credit. There was nothing mean in Gaydon's nature, but here was a
halving of Clementina's protectors, and he could not stifle a suspicion
that the best man of the four to leave behind was really Charles Wogan
himself. Not a word, however, of this could he say, and so he nodded his
assent to Misset's proposal.

"It is I, then, who stay behind with O'Toole and the courier," he said.
"Misset has a wife; the lot evidently falls to me. We will make a shift
somehow or another to keep the fellow quiet till sundown to-morrow,
which time should see you out of danger." He unbuckled the sword from
his waist and laid it on the table, and that simple action somehow
touched Wogan to the heart. He slipped his arm into Gaydon's and said
remorsefully,--

"Dick, I do hate to leave you, you and Lucius. I swept you into the
peril, you two, my friends, and now I leave you in the thick of it to
find a way out for yourselves. But there is no remedy, is there? I shall
not rest until I see you both again. Goodbye, Lucius." He looked at
O'Toole sprawling with outstretched legs upon his groaning chair. "My
six feet four," said he, turning to Gaydon; "you must give me the
passport. Have a good care of him, Dick;" and he gripped O'Toole
affectionately by the arms for a second, and then taking the passport
hurried from the room. Gaydon had seldom seen Wogan so moved.

The berlin was brought round to the door; the Princess, rosy with sleep,
stepped into it; Wogan had brought with him a muff, and he slipped it
over Clementina's feet to keep her warm during the night; Misset took
Gaydon's place, and the postillion cracked his whip and set off towards
Trent. Gaydon, sitting before the fire in the parlour, heard the wheels
grate upon the road; he had a vision of the berlin thundering through
the night with a trail of sparks from the wheels; and he wondered
whether Misset was asleep or merely leaning back with his eyes shut, and
thus visiting incognito Woman's fairy-land of dreams. However, Gaydon
consoled himself with the reflection that it was none of his business.




CHAPTER XVII


But Gaydon was out of his reckoning. There were no fairy tales told for
Misset to overhear, and the Princess Clementina slept in her corner of
the carriage. If a jolt upon a stone wakened her, a movement opposite
told her that her sentinel was watchful and alert. Three times the
berlin stopped for a change of horses; and on each occasion Wogan was
out of the door and hurrying the ostlers before the wheels had ceased to
revolve.

"You should sleep, my friend," said she.

"Not till we reach Italy," he replied; and with the confidence of a
child she nestled warmly in her cloak again and closed her eyes. This
feeling of security was a new luxury to her after the months of anxiety
and prison. The grey light of the morning stole into the berlin and
revealed to her the erect and tireless figure of her saviour. The sun
leaped down the mountain-peaks, and the grey of the light was now a
sparkling gold. Wogan bade her Highness look from the carriage window,
and she could not restrain a cry of delight. On her left, mountain-ridge
rose behind mountain-ridge, away to the towering limestone cliffs of
Monte Scanupia; on her right, the white peaks of the Orto d'Abram
flashed to the sun; and between the hills the broad valley of the Adige
rolled southwards,--a summer country of villages and vines, of
mulberry-trees and fields of maize, in the midst of which rose the
belfries of an Italian town.

"This is Italy," she cried.

"But the Emperor's Italy," answered Wogan; and at half-past nine that
morning the carriage stopped in the public square of Trent. As Wogan
stepped onto the ground, he saw a cloud of dust at the opposite side of
the square, and wrapped in that cloud men on horseback like soldiers in
the smoke of battle; he heard, too, the sound of wheels. The Prince of
Baden had that instant driven away, and he had taken every procurable
horse in the town. Wogan's own horses could go no further. He came back
to the door of the carriage.

"I must search through Trent," said he, "on the mere chance of finding
what will serve us. Your Highness must wait in the inn;" and Clementina,
muffling her face, said to him,--

"I dare not. My face is known in Trent, though this is the first time
ever I saw it. But many gentlemen from Trent came to the Innspruck
carnival, and of these a good number were kind enough to offer me their
hearts. They were allowed to besiege me to their content. I must needs
remain in the shelter of the carriage."

Wogan left Misset to stand sentinel, and hurried off upon his business.
He ran from stable to stable, from inn to inn. The Prince of Baden had
hired thirty-six horses; six more were nowhere to be found. Wogan would
be content with four; he ended in a prayer for two. At each house the
door was shut in his face. Wogan was in despair; nowhere could delay be
so dangerous as at Trent, where there were soldiers, and a Governor who
would not hesitate to act without orders if he suspected the Princess
Clementina was escaping through his town. Two hours had passed in
Wogan's vain search,--two hours of daylight, during which Clementina had
sat in an unharnessed carriage in the market square. Wogan ran back to
the square, half expecting to find that she had been recognised and
arrested. As he reached the square, he saw that curious people were
loitering about the carriage; as he pushed through them, he heard them
questioning why travellers should on so hot a morning of spring sit
muffled up in a close, dark carriage when they could take their ease
beneath trees in the inn-garden. One man laughed out at the Princess and
the comical figure she made with her scarlet cloak drawn tight about her
face. Wogan himself had bought that cloak in Strasbourg to guard his
Princess from the cold of the Brenner, and guessed what discomfort its
ermine lining must now be costing her. And this lout dared to laugh and
make her, this incomparable woman, a butt for his ridicule! Wogan took a
step towards the fellow with his fists clenched, but thought the better
of his impulse, and turning away ran to the palace of Prince Taxis.

This desperate course alone remained to him; he must have speech with
the Prince-bishop himself. At the palace, however, he was informed that
the Prince was in bed with the gout. Mr. Wogan, however, insisted.

"You will present my duties to the Prince; you will show him my
passport; you will say that the Count of Cernes has business of the last
importance in Italy, and begs permission, since the Prince of Baden has
hired every post-horse in the town, to requisition half a dozen
farm-horses from the fields."

Mr. Wogan kicked his heels in the courtyard while the message was taken.
At any moment some rumour of the curious spectacle in the square might
be brought to the palace and excite inquiry. There might be another
courier in pursuit besides the man whom Gaydon kept a prisoner. Wogan
was devoured with a fever of impatience. It seemed to him hours before
the Prince's secretary returned to him. The secretary handed him back
his passport, and on the part of the Prince made a speech full of
civilities.

"Here's a great deal of jam, sir," said Wogan. "I misdoubt me but what
there's a most unpalatable pill hidden away in it."

"Indeed," said the secretary, "the Prince begs you to be content and to
wait for the post-horses to return."

"Ah, ah!" cried Wogan, "but that's the one thing I cannot do. I must
speak plainly, it appears." He drew the secretary out of ear-shot, and
resumed: "My particular business is to catch up the Prince of Baden. He
is summoned back to Innspruck. Do you understand?" he asked
significantly.

"Sir, we are well informed in Trent as to the Emperor's wishes," said
the secretary, with a great deal of dignity.

"No, no, my friend," said Wogan. "It is not by the Emperor the Prince of
Baden is summoned, though I have no doubt the summons is much to his
taste."

The secretary stepped back in surprise.

"By her Highness the Princess?" he exclaimed.

"She changes her mind; she is willing where before she was obdurate. To
tell you the truth, the Prince plied her too hard, and she would have
none of him. Now that he turns his back and puts the miles as fast as he
can between himself and her, she cannot sleep for want of him."

The secretary nodded his head sagaciously.

"Her Highness is a woman," said he, "and that explains all. But it will
do her no harm to suffer a little longer for her obstinacy, and, to tell
you the truth, the Prince Taxis is so tormented with the gout that--"

"That you are unwilling to approach him a second time," interrupted
Wogan. "I have no doubt of it. I have myself seen prelates in a most
unprelatical mood. But here is a case where needs must. I have not told
you all. There is a devil of a fellow called Charles Wogan."

The secretary nodded his head.

"A mad Irishman who has vowed to free her Highness."

"He has set out from Strasbourg with that aim."

"He will hang for it, then, but he will never rescue her;" and the
secretary began to laugh. "I cannot upon my honour vex the Prince again
because a gallows-bird has prated in his cups."

"No, no," said Wogan; "you do not follow me. Charles Wogan will come to
the gallows over this adventure. For my part, I would have him broken on
the wheel and tortured in many uncomfortable ways. These Irishmen all
the world over are pestilent fellows. But the trouble is this: If her
Highness hears of his attempt, she is, as you sagely discovered, a
woman, a trivial, trifling thing. She will be absurd enough to imagine
her rescue possible; she will again change her mind, and it is precisely
that which General Heister fears. He would have her formally betrothed
to the Prince of Baden before Charles Wogan is caught and hanged
sky-high. Therefore, since I was pressing into Italy, he charged me with
this message to the Prince of Baden. Now observe this, if you please.
Suppose that I do not overtake the Prince; suppose that her Highness
hears of Wogan's coming and again changes her mind,--who will be to
blame? Not I, for I have done my best, not Prince Taxis, for he is not
informed, but Prince Taxis's secretary."

The secretary yielded to Wogan's argument. He might be in a great fear
of Prince Taxis, but he was in a greater of the Emperor's wrath. He left
Wogan again, and in a little while came back with the written
permission which Wogan desired. Wogan wasted no time in unnecessary
civilities; the morning had already been wasted. The clocks were
striking one as he hurried away from the palace, and before two the
Princess Clementina was able to throw back her cloak from about her face
and take the air; for the berlin was on the road from Trent to Roveredo.

"Those were the four worst hours since we left Innspruck," she said. "I
thought I should suffocate." The revulsion from despair, the knowledge
that each beat of the hoofs brought them nearer to safety, the glow of
the sun upon a country which was Italy in all but name, raised them all
to the top of their spirits. Clementina was in her gayest mood; she
lavished caresses upon her "little woman," as she called Mrs. Misset;
she would have Wogan give her an account of his interview with Prince
Taxis's secretary; she laughed with the merriest enjoyment over his
abuse of Charles Wogan.

"But it was not myself alone whom I slandered," said he. "Your Highness
had a share of our abuse. Our heads wagged gravely over woman's
inconstancies. It was not in nature but you must change your mind.
Indeed, your Highness would have laughed."

But at all events her Highness did not laugh now. On the contrary, her
eyes lost all their merriment, and her blood rushed hotly into her
cheeks. She became for that afternoon a creature of moods, now talking
quickly and perhaps a trifle wildly, now relapsing into long silences.
Wogan was troubled by a thought that the strain of her journey was
telling its tale even upon her vigorous youth. It may be that she noted
his look of anxiety, but she said to him abruptly and with a sort of
rebellion,--

"You would despise any woman who had the temerity to change her mind."

"Nay; I do not say that."

"But it is merely politeness that restrains you. You would despise her,
judging her by men. When a man changes his mind, why, it is so, he
changes his mind. But when a girl does, it may well be that for the
first time she is seriously exercising her judgment. For her upbringing
renders it natural that she should allow others to make up her mind for
her at the first."

"That I think is very true," said Wogan.

Clementina, however, was not satisfied with his assent. She attacked him
again and almost vindictively.

"You of course would never change your mind for any reason, once it was
fixed. You are resolute. You are quite, quite perfect."

Mr. Wogan could not imagine what he had done thus to provoke her irony.

"Madam," he pleaded, "I am not in truth so obstinate a fellow as you
make me out. I have often changed my mind. I take some pride in it on
occasion."

Her Highness inclined to a greater graciousness.

"I am glad to know it. You shall give me examples. One may have a stiff
neck and yet no cause for pride."

Wogan looked so woe-begone under this reproof that Clementina suddenly
broke out into a laugh, and so showed herself in a fresh and more
familiar mood. The good-humour continued; she sat opposite to Mr. Wogan;
if she moved, her hand, her knee, her foot, must needs touch his; she
made him tell her stories of his campaigns; and so the evening came upon
them,--an evening of stars and mysterious quiet and a clear, dark sky.

They passed Roveredo; they drew near to Ala, the last village in the
Emperor's territories. Five miles beyond Ala they would be on Venetian
soil, and already they saw the lights of the village twinkling like so
many golden candles. But the berlin, which had drawn them so stoutly
over these rugged mountain-roads, failed them at the last. One of the
hind wheels jolted violently upon a great stone, there was a sudden
cracking of wood, and the carriage lurched over, throwing its occupants
one against the other.

Wogan disentangled himself, opened the door, and sprang out. He sprang
out into a pool of water. One glance at the carriage, dark though the
night was, told him surely what had happened. The axle-tree was broken.
He saw that Clementina was about to follow him.

"There is water," said he. "It is ankle-deep."

"And no white stone," she answered with a laugh, "whereon I can safely
set my foot?"

"No," said he, "but you can trust without fear to my arms;" and he
reached them out to her.

"Can I?" said she, in a curious voice; and when he had lifted her from
the carriage, she was aware that she could not. He lifted her daintily,
like a piece of porcelain; but to lift her was not enough, he must carry
her. His arms tightened about her waist, hers in spite of herself about
his shoulders. He took a step or two from the carriage, with the water
washing over his boots, and the respectful support of a servant became
the warm grip of a man. He no longer held her daintily; he clipped her
close to him, straining her breasts against his chest; he was on fire
with her. She could not but know it; his arms shook, his bosom heaved;
she felt the quick hammering of his heart; and a murmur, an inarticulate
murmur, of infinite longing trembled from his throat. And something of
his madness passed into her and made a sweet tumult in her blood. He
stopped still holding her; he felt her fingers clasp tighter; he looked
downwards into her face upturned to his. They were alone for a moment,
these two, alone in an uninhabited world. The broken carriage, the busy
fingers about it, the smoking horses, the lights of Ala twinkling in the
valley, had not even the substance of shadows. They simply were not, and
they never had been. There were just two people alive between the
Poles,--not princess and servant, but man and woman in the primitive
relationship of rescuer and rescued; and they stood in the dark of a
translucent night of spring, with the stars throbbing above them to the
time of their passionate hearts, and the earth stretching about them
rich as black velvet. He looked down into her eyes as once in the
night-time he had done before; and again he marvelled at their
steadiness and their mysterious depths. Her eyes were fixed on his and
did not flinch; her arms were close about his neck; he bent his head
towards her, and she said in a queer, toneless voice, low but as steady
as her eyes,--

"I know. Ah, but well I know. Last night I dreamed; I rode on your black
horse into your city of dreams;" and the moment of passion ended in
farce. For Wogan, startled by the words, set her down there and then
into the pool. She stood over her ankles in water. She uttered a little
cry and shivered. Then she laughed and sprang lightly onto dry soil,
making much of her companion's awkwardness. Wogan joined in the
laughter, finding therein as she did a cover and a cloak.

"We must walk to Ala," said he.

"It is as well," said she. "There was a time when cavaliers laid their
cloaks in the mud to save a lady's shoe-sole."

"Madam," said Wogan, "the chivalry of to-day has the same intention."

"But in its effect," said she, "it is more rheumatical."

Wogan searched in the carriage and drew out a coil of rope which he
slung across his shoulders like a bandolier. Clementina laughed at him
for his precautions, but Wogan was very serious. "I would not part with
it," said he. "I never travelled for four days without being put to it
for a piece of rope."