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The Sword Maker by Robert Barr

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Now the boat's nose came dully against the ledge of rock, to whose
surface the swaying chain rose dripping from the water, sparkling like a
jointed snake under the torchlight.

"God save us all!" cried the Margrave, "what rare show have we here? By
my sainted patron, the Archbishop, merchants under arms! Whoever saw the
like? Ha! stout Captain Blumenfels, do I recognize you? Once more my
chain has caught you. This makes the third time, does it not,
Blumenfels?"

"Yes, your Majesty."

"You may as well call me 'your Holiness' as 'your Majesty.' I'm
contented with my title, the 'Laughing Baron,' Haw-haw-haw-haw! And so
your merchants have taken to arms again? The lesson at the Lorely taught
them nothing! Are there any ropes aboard, captain?"

"Plenty, my lord."

"Then fling a coil ashore. Now, my tigers," he roared to his
men-at-arms, "hale me to land those damned shopkeepers."

With a clash of armor and weapons the brigands threw themselves on the
boat, and in less time than is taken to tell it, every man of the guild
was disarmed and flung ashore. Here another command of the Red Margrave
gave them the outlaw's knot, as he termed it, a most painful tying-up of
the body and the limbs until each victim was rigid as a red of iron.
They were flung face downwards in a row, and beaten black and blue with
cudgels, despite their screams of agony and appeals for mercy.

"Now turn them over on their backs," commanded the Margrave, and it was
done. The glare of the pitiless torches fell upon contorted faces. The
Baron turned his horse athwart the line of helpless men, and spurred
that animal over it from end to end, but the intelligent horse, more
merciful than its rider, stepped with great daintiness, despite its
unusual size, and never trod on one of the prostrate bodies. During what
followed, the Red Baron, shaking with laughter, marched his horse up and
down over the stricken men.

"Now, unload the boat, but do not injure any of the sailors! I hope to
see them often again. You cannot tell how we have missed you, captain.
What are you loaded with this time? Sound Frankfort cloth?"

"Yes, your Majesty--I mean, my lord."

"No, you mean my Holiness, for I expect to be an Archbishop yet, if all
goes well," and his laughter echoed across the Rhine. "Uplift your
hatches, Blumenfels, and tell your men to help fling the goods ashore."

Delicately paced the fearful horse over the prone men, snorting, perhaps
in sympathy, from his red nostrils, his jet-black coat a-quiver with the
excitement of the scene. The captain obeyed the Margrave with promptness
and celerity. The hatches were lifted, and his sailors, two and two,
flung on the ledge of rock the merchant's bales. The men-at-arms, who
proved to be men-of-all-work, had piled their weapons in a heap, and
were carrying the bales a few yards inland. Through it all the Baron
roared with laughter, and rode his horse along its living pavement,
turning now at this end and now at the other.

"Do not be impatient," he cried down to them, "'twill not take long to
strip the boat of every bale, then I shall hang you on these trees, and
send back your bodies in the barge, as a lesson to Frankfort. You must
return, captain," he cried, "for you cannot sell dead bodies to my liege
of Cologne."

As he spoke a ruddy flush spread over the Rhine, as if some one had
flashed a red lantern upon the waters. The glow died out upon the
instant.

"What!" thundered the Margrave, "is that the reflection of my beard, or
are Beelzebub and his fiends coming up from below for a portion of the
Frankfort cloth? I will share with good brother Satan, but with no one
else. Boil me if I ever saw a sight like that before! What was it,
captain?"

"I saw nothing unusual, my lord."

"There, there!" exclaimed the Margrave, and as he spoke it seemed that a
crimson film had fallen on the river, growing brighter and brighter.

"Oh, my lord," cried the captain, "the Castle is on fire!"

"Saints protect us!" shouted the Red Margrave, crossing himself, and
turning to the west, where now both hearing and sight indicated that a
furnace was roaring. The whole western sky was aglow, and although the
flames could not be seen for the intervening cliff, every one knew there
was no other dwelling that could cause such an illumination.

Spurring his horse, and calling his men to come on, the nobleman dashed
up the steep acclivity, and when the last man had departed, Roland,
followed by his two lieutenants, stepped from the forest to the right
down upon the rocky plateau.




XIII

"A SENTENCE; COME, PREPARE!"


"Captain," said Roland quietly, "bring your crew ashore, and fling these
bales on board again as quickly as you can."

An instant later the sailors were at work, undoing their former efforts.

"In mercy's name, Roland," wailed one of the stricken, "get a sword and
cut our bonds."

"All in good time," replied Roland. "The bales are more valuable to me
than you are, and we have two barrels of gold at the foot of the cliff
to bring in, if they haven't sunk in the Rhine. Greusel, do you and
Ebearhard take two of the crew, launch the small boat, and rescue the
barrels if you can find them."

"Mercy on us, Roland! Mercy!" moaned his former comrades.

"I have already wasted too much mercy upon you," he said. "If I rescue
you now, I shall be compelled to hang you in the morning as breakers of
law, so I may as well leave you where you are, and allow the Red
Margrave to save me the trouble. The loss of his castle will not make
him more compassionate, especially if he learns you were the cause of
it. You will then experience some refined tortures, I imagine; for, like
myself, he may think hanging too good for you. I should never have fired
his castle had it not been for your rebellion."

The men on the ground groaned but made no further appeal. Some of them
were far-seeing enough to realize that an important change had come over
the young man they thought so well known to them, who stood there with
an air of indifference, throwing out a suggestion now and then for the
more effective handling of the bales; suggestions carrying an impalpable
force of authority that caused them to be very promptly obeyed. They did
not know that this person whom they had regarded as one of themselves,
the youngest at that, treating him accordingly, had but a day or two
before received a tremendous assurance, which would have turned the head
of almost any individual in the realm, old or young; the assurance that
he was to be supreme ruler over millions of creatures like themselves; a
ruler whose lightest word might carry their extinction with it.

Yet such is the strange littleness of human nature that, although this
potent knowledge had been gradually exercising its effect on Roland's
character, it was not the rebellion of the eighteen or their mutinous
words that now made him hard as granite towards them. It was the trivial
fact that four of them had dared to manhandle him; had made a personal
assault upon him; had pinioned his helpless arms, and flung his sword,
that insignia of honor, to the feet of Kurzbold, leader of the revolt.

The Lord's Anointed, he was coming to consider himself, although not yet
had the sacred ointment been placed upon his head. A temporal Emperor
and a vice-regent of Heaven upon earth, his hand was destined to hold
the invisible hilt of the Almighty's sword of vengeance. The words "I
will repay" were to reach their fulfillment through his action.
Notwithstanding his youth, or perhaps because of it, he was animated by
deep religious feeling, and this, rather than ambition, explained the
celerity with which he agreed to the proposals of the Archbishops.

The personage the prisoners saw standing on the rock-ledge of
Furstenberg was vastly different from the young man who, a comrade of
comrades, had departed from Frankfort in their company. They beheld him
plainly enough, for there was now no need of torches along the
foreshore; the night was crimson in its brilliancy, and down the hill
came a continuous roar, like that of the Rhine Fall seventy leagues
away.

Into this red glare the small boat and its four occupants entered, and
Roland saw with a smile that two well-filled casks formed its freight.
The bales were now aboard the barge again, and the Commander ordered the
crew to help the quartette in the small boat with the lifting of the
heavy barrels. Greusel and Ebearhard clambered over the side, and came
thus to the ledge where Roland stood, as the crew rolled the barrels
down into the cabin.

"Lieutenants," said the Commander, "select two stout battle-axes from
that heap. Follow the chain up the hill until you reach that point where
it is attached to the thick rope. Cut the rope with your axes, and draw
down the chain with you, thus clearing a passage for the barge."

The two men chose battle-axes, then turned to their leader.

"Should we not get our men aboard," they said, "before the barge is
free?"

"These rebels are prisoners of the Red Margrave. They belong to him, and
not to me. Where they are, there they remain."

The lieutenants, with one impulse, advanced to their Commander, who
frowned as they did so. A cry of despair went up from the pinioned men,
but Kurzbold shouted:

"Cut him down, Ebearhard, and then release us. In the name of the guild
I call on you to act! He is unarmed; cut him down! 'Tis foul murder to
desert us thus."

The cutting down could easily have been accomplished, for Roland stood
at their mercy, weaponless since the _emeute_ on the barge.
Notwithstanding the seriousness of the occasion, the optimistic
Ebearhard laughed, although every one else was grave enough.

"Thank you, Kurzbold, for your suggestion. We have come forward, not to
use force, but to try persuasion. Roland, you cannot desert to death the
men whom you conducted out of Frankfort."

"Why can I not?"

"I should have said a moment ago that you will not, but now I say you
cannot. Kurzbold has just shown what an irreclaimable beast he is, and
on that account, because birth, or training, or something has made you
one of different caliber, you cannot thus desert him to the reprisal of
that red fiend up the hill."

"If I save him now, 'twill be but to hang him an hour later. I am no
hangman, while the Margrave is. I prefer that he should attend to my
executions."

Again Ebearhard laughed.

"'Tis no use, Roland, pretending abandonment, for you will not abandon.
I thoroughly favor choking the life out of Kurzbold, and one or two of
the others, and will myself volunteer for the office of headsman,
carrying, as I do, the ax, but let everything be done decently and in
order, that a dignified execution may follow on a fair trial."

"Commander," shouted the captain from the deck of the barge, "make
haste, I beg of you. The rope connecting with the Castle has been burnt,
and the chain is dragging free. The current is swift, and this barge
heavy. We shall be away within the minute."

"Get your crew ashore on the instant," cried Roland, "and fling me these
despicable burdens aboard. A man at the head, another at the heels, and
toss each into the barge. Is there time, captain, to take this heap of
cutlery with us as trophies of the fray?"

"Yes," replied the captain, "if we are quick about it."

The howling human packages were hurled from ledge to barge; the strong,
unerring sailors, accustomed to the task, heaved no man into the water.
Others as speedily fell upon the heap of weapons, and threw them,
clattering, on the deck. All then leaped aboard, and Roland, motioning
his lieutenants to precede him, was the last to climb over the prow.

The chain came down over the stones with a clattering run, and fell with
a great splash into the river. The barge, now clear, swung with the
current stern foremost; the sailors got to their oars, and gradually
drew their craft away from the shore. A little farther from the landing,
those on deck, looking upstream, enjoyed an uninterrupted view of the
magnificent conflagration. The huge stone Castle seemed to glow white
hot. The roof had fallen in, and a seething furnace reddened the
midnight sky. Like a flaming torch the great tower roared to the
heavens. The whole hilltop resembled the crater of an active volcano.
Timber floors and wooden partitions, long seasoned, proved excellent
material for the incendiaries, and even the stones were crumbling away,
falling into the gulf of fire, sending up a dazzling eruption of sparks,
as section after section tumbled into this earthly Hades.

The long barge floated placidly down a river resembling molten gold. The
boat was in disarray, covered with bales of cloth not yet lowered into
the hold, cluttered here and there with swords, battle-axes, and spears.
In the various positions where they had been flung lay the helpless men,
some on their faces, some on their backs. The deck was as light as if
the red setting sun were casting his rays upon it. Roland seated himself
on a bale, and said to the captain:

"Turn all these men face upward," and the captain did so.

"Ebearhard, you said execution should take place after a fair trial.
There is no necessity to call witnesses, or to go through any court of
law formalities. You two are perfectly cognizant of everything that has
taken place, and no testimony will either strengthen or weaken that
knowledge. As a preliminary, take Kurzbold, the new president, and
Gensbein, his lieutenant, from among that group, and set them apart. Two
members of the crew will carry out this order," which was carried out
accordingly.

Roland rose, walked along the prostrate row, and selected, apparently at
haphazard, four others, then said to the members of his crew:

"Place these four men beside their leader. Left to myself," he continued
to his lieutenants, "I should hang the six. However, I shall take no
hand in the matter. I appoint you, Joseph Greusel, and you, Gottlieb
Ebearhard, as judges, with power of life and death. If your verdict on
any or all of the accused is death, I shall use neither the ax nor the
cord, but propose flinging them into the river, and if God wills them to
reach the shore alive, their binding will be no hindrance to escape."

Kurzbold and his lieutenant broke out into alternate curses and appeals,
protesting that Greusel and Ebearhard had not been expelled from the
guild, and calling upon them by their solemn oath of brotherhood to
release them now that they possessed the power. To these appeals the
newly-appointed judges made no reply, and for once Ebearhard did not
laugh.

The other four directed their supplications to Roland himself. They had
been misled, they cried, and deeply regretted it. Already they suffered
punishment of a severity almost beyond power of human endurance, and
they feared their bones were broken with the cudgeling, since which
assault their bonds grievously tortured them. All swore amendment, and
their grim commander still remaining silent, they asked him in what
respect they were more guilty than the dozen others whom seemingly he
intended to spare. At last Roland replied.

"You four," he said sternly, "dared to lay hands upon me, and for that I
demand from the judges a sentence of death."

Even his two lieutenants gazed at him in amazement, that he should make
so much of an action which they themselves had endured and nothing said
of it. Surely the laying-on of hands, even in rudeness, was not a
capital crime, yet they saw to their astonishment that Roland was in
deadly earnest.

The leader turned a calm face toward their scrutiny, but there was a
frown upon his brow.

"Work while ye have the light," he said. "Judges, consider your
decision, and deliver your verdict."

Greusel and Ebearhard turned their backs on every one, walked slowly
aft, and down into the cabin. Roland resumed his seat on the bale of
cloth, elbows on his knees, and face in his hands. All appeals had
ceased, and deep silence reigned, every man aboard the boat in a state
of painful tension. The fire in the distant castle lowered and lowered,
and darkness was returning to the deck of the barge. At last the judges
emerged from the cabin, and came slowly forward.

It was Greusel who spoke.

"We wish to know if only these six are on trial?"

"Only these six," replied Roland.

"Our verdict is death," said Greusel. "Kurzbold and Gensbein are to be
thrown into the Rhine bound as they lie, but the other four receive one
chance for life, in that the cords shall be cut, leaving their limbs
free."

This seeming mercy brought no consolation to the quartette, for each
plaintively proclaimed that he could not swim.

"I thank you for your judgment," said Roland, "which I am sure you must
have formed with great reluctance. Having proven yourself such excellent
judges, I doubt not you will now act with equal wisdom as advisers. A
phrase of yours, Ebearhard, persists in my mind, despite all efforts to
dislodge it. You uttered on the ledge of rock yonder something to the
effect that we left Frankfort as comrades together. That is very true,
and unless you override my resolution, I have come to the conclusion
that if any of us are fated to die, the penalty shall be dealt by some
other hand than mine. The twelve who lie here are scarcely less guilty
than the six now under sentence, and I propose, therefore, to put ashore
on the east bank Kurzbold and Gensbein, one a rogue, the other a fool.
The sixteen who remain have so definitely proven themselves to be
simpletons that I trust they will not resent my calling them such. If
however, they abandon all claim to the comradeship that has been so much
prated about, swearing by the Three Kings of Cologne faithfully to
follow me, and obey my every word without cavil or argument, I will
pardon them, but the first man who rebels will show that my clemency has
been misplaced, and I can assure them that it shall not be exercised
again. Captain, your sailors are familiar with knotted ropes. Bid them
release all these men except the six condemned."

The boatmen, with great celerity, freed the prostrate captives from
their bonds, but some of the mutineers had been so cruelly used in the
cudgeling that it was necessary to assist them to their feet. The early
summer daybreak was at hand, its approach heralded by the perceptible
diluting of the darkness that surrounded them, and a ghastly, pallid
grayness began to overspread the surface of the broad river. Down the
stream to the west the towers of Bacharach could be faintly
distinguished, looking like a dream city, the lower gloom of which was
picked out here and there by points of light, each betokening an early
riser.

It was a deeply dejected, silent group that stood in this weird
half-light, awaiting the development of Roland's mind regarding them;
he, the youngest of their company, quiet, unemotional, whose dominion no
one now thought of disputing.

"Captain," he continued, "steer for the eastern shore. I know that
Bacharach is the greatest wine mart on the Rhine, and well sustains the
reputation of the drunken god for whom it is named, but we will
nevertheless avoid it. There is a long island opposite the town, but a
little farther down. I dare say you know it well. Place that island
between us and Bacharach, and tie up to the mainland, out of view from
the stronghold of Bacchus. He is a misleading god, with whom we shall
hold no further commerce.

"Now, Joseph Greusel, and Gottlieb Ebearhard, do you two administer the
oath of the Three Kings to these twelve men; but before doing so, give
each one his choice, permitting him to say whether he will follow
Kurzbold on the land or obey me on the water."

Here Kurzbold broke out again in trembling anger:

"Your pretended fairness is a sham, and your bogus option a piece of
your own sneaking dishonesty. What chance have we townsmen, put ashore,
penniless, in an unknown wilderness, far from any human habitation,
knowing nothing of the way back to Frankfort? Your fraudulent clemency
rescues us from drowning merely to doom us to starvation."

The daylight had so increased that all might see the gentle smile coming
to Roland's lips, and the twinkle in his eye as he looked at the
wrathful Kurzbold.

"A most intelligent leader of men are you, Herr Conrad. I suppose this
dozen will stampede to join your leadership. They must indeed be proud
of you when they learn the truth. I shall present to each of you, out of
my own store of gold that came from the castle you so bravely attacked
last night, one half the amount that is your due. This will be more
money than any of you ever possessed before; each portion, indeed,
excelling the total that you eighteen accumulated during your whole
lives. I could easily bestow your share without perceptible diminution
of the fund we three, unaided, extracted from the coffers of the Red
Margrave. The reason I do not pay in full is this. When you reach
Frankfort, I must be assured that you will keep your foolish tongues
silent. If any man speaks of our labors, I shall hear of it on my
return, and will fine that man his remaining half-share.

"It distresses me to expose your ignorance, Kurzbold, but I put you
ashore amply provided with money, barely two-thirds of a league from
Lorch, where you spent so jovial an evening, and where a man with gold
in his pouch need fear neither hunger nor thirst. Lorch may be attained
by a leisurely walker in less than half an hour; indeed, it is barely
two leagues from this spot to Assmannshausen, and surely you know the
road from that storehouse of red wine to the capital city of Frankfort,
having once traversed it. A child of six, Kurzbold, might be safely put
ashore where you shall set foot on land. Therefore, lieutenants, let
each man know he will receive a bag of coin, and may land unmolested to
accompany the brave and intelligent Kurzbold."

As he finished this declamation, that caused even some of the beaten
warriors to laugh at their leader, the barge came gently alongside the
strand, well out of sight of Bacharach. Each of the dozen swore the
terrible, unbreakable oath of the Three Kings to be an obedient henchman
to Roland.

"You may," said Roland, "depart to the cabin, where a flagon of wine
will be served to every man, and also an early breakfast. After that you
are permitted to lie down and relax your swollen limbs, meditating on
the extract from Holy Writ which relates the fate of the blind when led
by the blind."

When the dozen limped away, the chief turned to his prisoners.

"Against you four I bear resentment that I thought could not be appeased
except by your expulsion, but reflection shows me that you acted under
instruction from the foolish leader you selected, and therefore the
principal, not the agent, is most to blame. I give you the same choice I
have accorded to the rest. Unloose them, captain; and while this is
being done, Greusel, get two empty bags from the locker, open one of the
casks, and place in each bag an amount which you estimate to be one half
the share which is Kurzbold's due."

The four men standing up took the oath, and thanked Roland for his
mercy, hurrying away at a sign from him to their bread and wine.

"Send hither," cried Roland after them, "two of the men who have already
refreshed themselves, each with a loaf of bread and a full flagon of
wine. And now, captain, release Kurzbold and Gensbein."

When these two stood up and stretched themselves, the bearers of bread
and wine presented them with this refreshment, and after they had
partaken of it, Greusel gave them each a bag of gold, which they tied to
their belts without a word, while Greusel and Ebearhard waited to escort
them to land.

"We want our swords," said Kurzbold sullenly.

Ebearhard looked at his chief, but he shook his head.

"They have disgraced their swords," he said, "which now by right belong
to the Margrave Hermann von Katznellenbogenstahleck. Put them ashore,
lieutenant."

It was broad daylight, and the men had all come up from the cabin,
standing in a silent group at the stern. Kurzbold, on the bank, foaming
at the mouth with fury, shook his fist at them, roaring:

"Cowards! Pigs! Dolts! Asses! Poltroons!"

The men made no reply, but Ebearhard's hearty laugh rang through the
forest.

"You have given us your titles, Kurzbold," he cried. "Send us your
address whenever you get one!"

"Captain," said Roland, "cast off. Cross to this side of that island,
and tie up there for the day. Set a man on watch, relieving the sentinel
every two hours. We have spent an exciting night, and will sleep till
evening."

"Your honor, may I first stow away these bales, and dispose of the
battle-axes, spears, and broadswords, so to clear the deck?"

"You may do that, captain, at sunset. As for the bales, they make a very
comfortable couch upon which I intend to rest."




XIV

THE PRISONER OF EHRENFELS


There is inspiration in the sight of armed men marching steadily
together; men well disciplined, keeping step to the measured clank of
their armor. Like a great serpent the soldiers of Cologne issued from
the forest, coming down two and two, for the path was narrow. They would
march four abreast when they reached the river road, and the evolutions
which accomplished this doubling of the columns, without changing step
or causing confusion, called forth praise from the two southern
Archbishops.

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