The Sword Maker by Robert Barr

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"And why have I received the preference?"

"Perhaps, sir, it would be more accurate to say your house received the
preference, if it is such. I was struck by its appearance of solidity
and wealth, and, differing from all others in the door being ajar, I
lingered before it last night with some inclination to enter. Then the
procession which accompanied you came along. I heard your address to
your friends, and wondered what the formality was about. After the door
was closed I accosted one of those who escorted you, and learned your
name, business, and reputation."

"You must be a stranger in Frankfort when you needed to make such
inquiry."

"Those are almost the same words that my acquaintance of last night
used, and he seemed astonished when I replied that I was born in
Frankfort, and had lived here all my life."

"Ah, I suppose no man is so well known as he thinks he is, but I venture
to assert that you are not engaged in business here."

"Sir, you are in the right. I fear I have hitherto led a somewhat
useless existence."

"On money earned by some one else, perhaps."

"Again you hit the nail on the head, Herr Goebel. I lodge on the other
side of the river, and coming to and fro each day, the sight of all
those useless barges depresses me, and I have formulated a plan for
putting them in motion again."

"I fear, sir, that wiser heads than yours have been meditating upon that
project without avail."

"I should have been more gratified, Herr Goebel, if you had said 'older
heads.'"

The suspicion of a smile hovered for a brief instant round the shrewd,
firm lips of the merchant.

"Young sir, your gentle reproof is deserved. I know nothing of your
wisdom, and so should have referred to the age, and not to the equipment
of your head. It occurs to me, as I study you more closely, that I have
met you before. Your face seems familiar."

"'Tis but a chance resemblance, I suspect. Until very recently I have
been absorbed in my studies, and rarely left my father's house."

"I am doubtless mistaken. But to return to our theme. As you are
ignorant of my name and standing in this city, you are probably unaware
of the efforts already made to remove the deadlock on the Rhine."

"In that, Herr Goebel, you are at fault. I know an expedition of folly
was promoted at enormous expense, and that the empty barges, numbering
something like fivescore, now rest in the deepest part of the Rhine."

"Why do you call it an expedition of folly?"

"Surely the result shows it to be such."

"A plan may meet with disaster, even where every precaution has been
taken. We did the best we could, and if the men we had paid for the
protection of the flotilla had not, with base cowardice, deserted their
posts, these barges would have reached Cologne."

"Never! The defenders you chose were riff-raff, picked up in the gutters
of Frankfort, and you actually supposed such cattle, undisciplined and
untrained, would stand up against the fearless fighters of the Barons,
swashbucklers, hardened to the use of sword and pike. What else was to
be expected? The goods were not theirs, but yours. They had received
their pay, and so speedily took themselves out of danger."

"You forget, sir, or you do not know, that several hundred of them were
cut to pieces."

"I know that, also, but the knowledge does not in the least nullify my
contention. I am merely endeavoring to show you that the heads you spoke
of a moment ago were only older, but not necessarily wiser than mine. It
would be impossible for me to devise an expedition so preposterous."

"What should we have done?"

"For one thing, you should have gone yourselves, and defended your own
bales."

The merchant showed visible signs of a slowly rising anger, and had the
young man's head contained the wisdom he appeared to claim for it, he
would have known that his remarks were entirely lacking in tact, and
that he was making no progress, but rather the reverse. "You speak like
a heedless, untutored youth. How could we defend our bales, when no
merchant is allowed to wear a sword?"

Roland rose and put his hands to the throat of his cloak.

"I am not allowed to wear a sword;" and saying this, he dramatically
flung wide his cloak, displaying the prohibited weapon hanging from his
belt. The merchant sat back in his chair, visibly impressed.

"You seem to repose great confidence in me," he said. "What if I were to
inform the authorities?"

The youth smiled.

"You forget, Herr Goebel, that I learned much about you from your friend
last night. I feel quite safe in your house."

He flung his cloak once more over the weapon, and sat down again.

"What is your occupation, sir?" asked the merchant.

"I am a teacher of swordsmanship. I practice the art of a
fencing-master."

"Your clients are aristocrats, then?"

"Not so. The class with which I am now engaged contains twenty skilled
artisans of about my own age."

"If they do not belong to the aristocracy, your instruction must be
surreptitious, because it is against the law."

"It is both surreptitious and against the law, but in spite of these
disadvantages, my twenty pupils are the best swordsmen in Frankfort, and
I would willingly pit them against any twenty nobles with whom I am
acquainted."

"So!" cried the merchant. "You are acquainted with twenty nobles, are
you?"

"Well, you see," explained the young man, flushing slightly, "these
metal-workers whom I drill, being out of employment, cannot afford to
pay for their lessons, and naturally, as you indicated, a fencing-master
must look to the nobles for his bread. I used the word acquaintance
hastily. I am acquainted with the nobles in the same way that a clerk in
the woolen trade might say he was acquainted with a score of merchants,
to none of whom he had ever spoken."

"I see. Am I to take it that your project for opening the Rhine depends
for its success on those twenty metal-workers, who quite lawlessly know
how to handle their swords?"

"Yes."

"Tell me what your plan is."

"I do not care to disclose my plan, even to you."

"I thought you came here hoping I should further your project, and
perhaps finance it. Am I wrong in such a surmise?"

"Sir, you are not. The very first proviso is that you pay to me across
this table a thousand thalers in gold."

The smile came again to the lips of the merchant.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Yes. You will select one of your largest barges, and fill it with
whatever class of goods you deal in."

"Don't you know what class of goods I deal in?"

"No! I do not."

Goebel's smile broadened. That a youth so ignorant of everything
pertaining to the commerce of Frankfort, should come in thus boldly and
demand a thousand thalers in gold from a man whose occupation he did not
know, seemed to the merchant one of the greatest pieces of impudence he
had encountered in his long experience of men.

"After all, my merchandise," he said, "matters little one way or another
when I am engaged with such a customer as you. What next?"

"You will next place a price upon the shipload; a price such as you
would accept if the boat reached Cologne intact. I agree to pay you that
money, together with the thousand thalers, when I return to Frankfort."

"And when will that be, young sir?"

"You are better able to estimate the length of time than I. I do not
know, for instance, how long it takes a barge to voyage from Frankfort
to Cologne."

"Given fair weather, which we may expect in July, and premising that
there are no interruptions, let us say a week."

"Would a man journeying on horseback from Cologne to Frankfort reach
here sooner than the boat?"

"The barge having to make headway against a strong current, I should say
the horseman would accomplish the trip in a third of the time."

"Very well. To allow for all contingencies, I promise to pay the money
one month from the day we leave the wharf at Frankfort."

"That would be eminently satisfactory."

"I forgot to mention that I expect you, knowing more about navigation
than I, to supply a trustworthy captain and an efficient crew for the
manning of the barge. I should like men who understand the currents of
the river, and who, if questioned by the Barons, would not be likely to
tell more than they were asked."

"I can easily provide such a set of sailors."

"Very well, Herr Goebel. Those are my requirements. Will you agree to
supply them?"

"With great pleasure, my young and enthusiastic friend, provided that
you comply with one of the most common of our commercial rules."

"And what is that, mein Herr?"

"Before you depart you will leave with me ample security that if I never
see you again, the value of the goods, plus the thousand thalers, will
be repaid to me when the month is past."

"Ah," said the young man, "you impose an impossible condition."

"Give me a bond, then, signed by three responsible merchants."

"Sir, as I am acquainted with no merchant in this city except yourself,
how could I hope to obtain the signature of even one responsible man?"

"How, then, do you expect to obtain my consent to a project which I know
cannot succeed, while I bear all the risk?"

"Pardon me, Herr Goebel. I and my comrades risk our lives. You risk
merely your money and your goods."

"You intend, then, to fight your way down the Rhine?"

"Surely. How else?"

"Supported by only twenty followers?"

"Yes."

"And you hope to succeed where a thousand of our men failed?"

"Yes; they were hirelings, as I told you. With my twenty I could put
them all to flight. Aside from this, I should like to point out to you
that the merchants of Frankfort formed their combination at public
meetings, called together by the burgomaster. There was no secrecy about
their deliberations. Every robber Baron along the Rhine knew what you
were going to attempt, and was prepared for your coming. I intend that
your barge shall leave Frankfort at midnight. My company will proceed
across country, and join her at some agreed spot, probably below
Bingen."

"I see. Well, my young friend, you have placed before me a very
interesting proposal, but I am a business man, and not an adventurer.
Unless you can furnish me with security, I decline to advance a single
thaler, not to mention a thousand."

The young man rose to his feet, and the merchant, with a sigh, seemed
glad that the conference was ended.

"Herr Goebel, you deeply disappoint me."

"I am sorry for that, and regret the forfeiting of your good opinion,
but despite that disadvantage I must persist in my obstinacy."

"I do not wonder that this fair city lies desolate if her prosperity
depends upon her merchants, and if you are chief among them; yet I
cannot forget that you risked life and liberty on my behalf, though now
you will not venture a miserable thousand thalers on my word of honor."

"On _your_ behalf? What do you mean?"

"I mean, Herr Goebel, that I am Prince Roland, only son of the Emperor,
and that you placed your neck in jeopardy to elevate me to the throne."

II

THE BARGAIN IS STRUCK

Every epoch seems to have possessed a two-word phrase that contained, as
it were, the condensed wisdom of the age, and was universally believed
by the people. For instance, the aphorism "Know thyself" rose to
popularity when cultured minds turned towards science. In the period to
which this recital belongs the adage "Blood tells" enjoyed universal
acceptance. It was, in fact, that erroneous statement "The King can do
no wrong" done up into tabloid form. From it, too, sprang that
double-worded maxim of the days of chivalry, "_Noblesse oblige_."

In our own time, the two-worded phrase is "Money talks," and if diligent
inquirers probe deeply into the matter, they will find that the
aspirations of the people always correspond with reasonable accuracy to
the meaning of the phrase then in use. Nothing could be more excellent,
for instance, than the proverb "Money talks" as representing two
commercial countries like America and England. In that short sentence is
packed the essence of many other wise and drastic sayings, as, for
instance, "The devil take the hindmost;" for, of course, if money talks,
then the man without it must remain silent, and his place is at the tail
of the procession, where the devil prowls about like a Cossack at the
rear of Napoleon's army.

Confronting each other in that ancient house on the Fahrgasse, we
witness, then, the personification of the two phrases, ancient and
modern: blood represented by the standing lad, and money by the seated
merchant.

"I am Prince Roland, only son of the Emperor," the young man had said,
and he saw at once by the expression on the face of his host that, could
he be convinced of the truth of the assertion, the thousand thalers that
the Prince had demanded would be his on the instant.

For a full minute Roland thought he had succeeded, but as the surprise
died out of the merchant's countenance, there replaced it that mask of
caution which had had so much to do with the building of his fortune.
During their conference Herr Goebel cudgeled his brain, trying to
remember where he had seen this young man before, but memory had roamed
among clerks, salesmen, and industrious people of that sort where,
somehow, this young fellow did not fit in. When Roland suddenly sprung
on him the incredible statement that he was a member of the Imperial
family, the merchant's recollection then turned towards pageants he had
seen, in one of which this young stranger might very well have borne a
part. Blood was beginning to tell.

But now experience came to the merchant's aid. Only in romances did
princes of the blood royal wander about like troubadours. Even a member
of the lesser nobility did not call unheralded at the house of a
merchant. The aristocracy always wanted money, it is true, "but what
they thought they might require, they went and took," as witness the
piratical Barons of the Rhine, whose exactions brought misery on the
great city of Frankfort.

Then all at once came the clinching remembrance that when the Electors
were appealed to on behalf of the young Prince, the three Archbishops
had promptly seized his Royal Highness, and, in spite of the pleadings
of the Empress (the Emperor was drunk and indifferent) placed him in the
custody of the Archbishop nearest to Frankfort, the warrior prelate of
Mayence, who imprisoned him in the strong fortress of Ehrenfels, from
which, well guarded and isolated as it was upon a crag over-hanging the
Rhine, no man could escape.

"Will you kindly be seated again, sir," requested the merchant, and if
he had spoken a short time before, he would have put the phrase "your
Royal Highness" in the place of the word "sir."

Roland, after a moment's hesitation, sat down. He saw that his coup had
failed, because he was unable to back it up by proofs. His dramatic
action had been like a brilliant cavalry charge, for a moment
successful, but coming to naught because there was no solid infantry to
turn the temporary confusion of the enemy into complete rout. Realizing
that the battle must be fought over again, the Prince sat back with a
sigh of disappointment, a shade of discontent on his handsome face.

"I find myself in rather a quandary," proceeded the merchant. "If indeed
you are the Emperor's son, it is not for such as I to cross-examine
you."

"Ask me any questions you like, sir. I shall answer them promptly
enough."

"If I beg you to supply proof of the statement you make, you would be
likely to reply that as you dared not enter your father's Palace, you
are unable to furnish me with corroboration."

"Sir, you put the case in better language than I could employ. In more
halting terms that is what I should have said."

"When were you last in the Palace?"

"About the same time, sir, that you took up your residence in prison."

"Ah, yes; that naturally would be your answer. Now, my young friend, you
have shown me that you know nothing of mercantile practice; therefore it
may perhaps interest you if I explain some of our methods."

"Herr Goebel, you may save your breath. Such a recital must not only
fail to interest me, but will bore me extremely. I care nothing for your
mercantile procedure, and, to be quite plain with you, I despise your
trade, and find some difficulty in repressing my contempt for those who
practice it."

"If an emissary of mine," returned Goebel, unperturbed, "approached a
client or customer for the purpose of obtaining a favor, and used as
little tact as you do, I should dismiss him."

"I'm not asking any favors from you."

"You wish me to hand over to you a thousand thalers, otherwise why came
you here?"

"I desire to bestow upon you the greatest of boons, namely to open up
the Rhine, and bring back prosperity to Frankfort, which you brainless,
cowardly merchants have allowed to slip through your fingers, blaming
now the Barons, now the Emperor, now the Electors; censuring everybody,
in fact, except the real culprits ... yourselves. You speak of the money
as a favor, but it is merely an advance for a few weeks, and will be
returned to you; yet because I desire to confer this inestimable gift
upon you and your city, you expect me to cringe to you, and flatter you,
as if I were a member of your own sycophantic league. I refuse to do
anything of the kind, and yet, by God, I'll have the money!"

The merchant, for the first time during their conference, laughed
heartily. The young man's face was aflame with anger, yet the truculent
words he used did more to convince Herr Goebel that he belonged to the
aristocracy than if he had spoken with the most exemplary humility.
Goebel felt convinced he was not the Prince, but some young noble, who,
intimate with the Royal Family, and knowing the Emperor's son to be out
of the way, thought it safe to assume his name, the better to carry
forward his purpose, whatever that purpose might actually be. That it
was to open the Rhine he did not for a moment credit, and that he would
ever see his cash again, if once he parted with it, he could not
believe.

"At the risk of tiring you, I shall nevertheless proceed with what I was
about to say. We merchants, for our own protection, contribute to a fund
which might be entitled one for secret service. This fund enables us to
procure private information that may be of value in our business. Among
other things we need to know are accurate details pertaining to the
intentions and doings of our rulers, for whatever our own short-comings
may be, the actions of those above us affect business one way or the
other. May I read you a short report that came in while I was serving my
term of imprisonment?"

"Oh, read what you like," said Roland indifferently, throwing back his
head, and partially closing his eyes, with an air of _ennui_.

The merchant drew towards him a file of papers, and going through them
carefully, selected a document, and drew it forth, then, clearing his
throat, he read aloud--

"'At an hour after midnight, on St. Stanislas' Day, three nobles, one
representing the Archbishop of Mayence, the second the Archbishop of
Treves, and the third the Archbishop of Cologne, armed with authority
from these three Electors and Princes of the Church, entered the Saalhof
from the side facing the river, and arrested in his bed the young Prince
Roland. They assured the Empress, who protested, that the Prince would
be well cared for, and that, as an insurrection was feared in Frankfort,
it was considered safer that the person whom they intended to elevate to
the throne on the event of the Emperor's death, should be out of harm's
way, being placed under the direct care of the Archbishop of Mayence.
They informed the Empress that the Archbishops would not remove the
Prince from the Palace in opposition to the wishes of either the Emperor
or herself, but if this permission was not given, a meeting of the
Electors would at once be called, and some one else selected to succeed
the present ruler.

"'This consideration exerted a great influence upon the Empress, who
counseled her son to acquiesce. The young man was led to a boat then in
waiting by the river steps of the Palace, and so conveyed down the Main
to the Rhine, which was reached just after daybreak. Without landing,
and keeping as much as possible to the middle of the river, the party
proceeded down the Rhine, past Bingen, to the foot of the crag on which
stands the castle of Ehrenfels. The Prince was taken up to the Castle,
where he now remains.

"'The Archbishops from their revenues allot to him seven hundred thalers
a month, in addition to his maintenance. It is impossible for him to
escape from this stronghold unaided, and as the Emperor takes no
interest in the matter, and the Empress has given her consent, he is
like to be an inmate of Ehrenfels during the pleasure of the
Archbishops, who doubtless will not elect him to the throne in
succession unless he proves compliant to their wishes. The Prince being
a young man of no particular force of character'" (the merchant paused
in his reading, and looked across at his _vis-a-vis_ with a smile, but
the latter appeared to be asleep), "'he will probably succumb to the
Archbishops, therefore merchants are advised to base no hopes upon an
improvement in affairs, even though the son should succeed the father.
Despite the precautions taken, the arrest and imprisonment of the
Prince, and even the place of his detention, became rather generally
known in Frankfort, but the news is in the form of rumor only, and
excites little interest throughout the city.'

"There, Sir Roland, what do you say to that?"

"Oh, nothing much," replied Roland. "The account might have stated that
in the boat were five rowers, who worked lustily until we reached the
Rhine, when, the wind being favorable, a sail was hoisted, and with the
current assisting the wind, we made excellent time to Ehrenfels. I
observe, further, that your secret service keeps you very well informed,
and therefore withdraw a tithe of the harsh things I said regarding the
stupidity of the merchants."

"Many thanks for the concession," said Goebel, replacing the document
with its fellows. "Now, as a plain and practical man, what strikes me is
this: you need only return to Ehrenfels for two months, and as there is
little use for money in that fortress, your maintenance being
guaranteed, and seven hundred thalers allowed, you can come away with
four hundred thalers more than the sum you demand from me, and thus put
your project into force without being under obligations to any despised
merchant."

"True, Herr Goebel, but can you predict what will happen in Frankfort
before two months are past? You learn from that document that the shrewd
Archbishops anticipate an insurrection, and doubtless they command the
force at hand ready to crush it, but during this conflict, which you
seem to regard so lightly, does it ever occur to you that the merchants'
palaces along the Fahrgasse may be sacked and burnt?"

"That, of course, is possible," commented the merchant.

"Nay, it is absolutely certain. Civil war means ruin, to innocent and
guilty alike."

"You are in the right. Now, will you tell me how you escaped from
Ehrenfels?"

"Yes; if you agree to my terms without further haggling."

"I shall agree to your terms if I believe your story."

"It seems impossible, sir, to pin you down to any definite bargain. Is
this the way you conduct your business?"

"Yes; unless I am well assured of the good faith of my customer. I
offered you ordinary business terms when I asked for security, or for
the signature of three responsible merchants to your bond. It is because
I am a merchant, and not a speculator, that I haggle, as you term it."

"Very well, then, I will tell you how I got away, but I begin my recital
rather hopelessly, for you always leave yourself a loophole of escape.
If you believe my story, you say! Yes: could I weave a romance about
tearing my sheets into ropes; of lowering myself in the dark from the
battlements to the ground; of an alarm given; of torches flashing; of
diving into the Rhine, and swimming under the water until I nearly
strangled; of floating down over the rapids, with arrows whizzing round
me in the night; of climbing dripping to the farther shore, far from
sight of Ehrenfels, then, doubtless, you would believe. But my escape
was prosaically commonplace, depending on the cupidity of one man. The
material for it was placed in my hands by the Archbishops themselves.
Your account states that the Castle is well guarded. So it is, but when
the Archbishop needs an augmentation of his force, he withdraws his men
from Ehrenfels to Mayence, as my prison is the nearest of his
possessions to his capital city, and thus at times it happens that the
Castle is bereft of all save the custodian and his family. His eldest
son happens to be of my own age, and not unlike me in appearance. None
of the guards saw me, except the custodian, and you must remember he was
a very complacent jailer, for the reason that he knew well every rising
sun might bring with it tidings that I was his Emperor, so he cultivated
my acquaintance, to learn in his own thrifty, peasant way what manner of
ruler I might become, and I, having no one else to talk to, made much of
his company.

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