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The Strong Arm

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"What do you want?" asked the captain, curtly.

She asked instead of answered:

"Is your prisoner still alive?"

"The son of the Outlaw? Yes, but he would be a confident prophet who
would predict as much for him at this hour to-morrow."

"Take me, I beg of you, to the Countess."

"That is as it may be. Who are you and what is your business with
her?"

"I shall reveal myself to her Ladyship, and to her will state the
object of my coming."

"Your object is plain enough. You are some tatterdemalion of the
forest come to beg the life of your lover, who hangs to-morrow, or I am
a heathen Saracen."

"I do beseech you, tell the Countess that a miserable woman craves
permission to speak with her."

What success might have attended her petition is uncertain, but the
problem was solved by the appearance of the Countess herself on the
terrace above them, which ran the length of the castle on its western
side. The lady leaned over the parapet and watched with evident
curiosity the strange scene in the courtyard below, the captain and his
men in a ring around the maiden of the forest, who occupying the centre
of the circle, peered now in one face, now in another, as if searching
for some trace of sympathy in the stolid countenances of the warriors
all about her. Before the captain could reply, his lady addressed him.

"Whom have you there, Conrad?"

It seemed as if the unready captain would get no word said, for again
before he had made answer the girl spoke to the Countess.

"I do implore your Ladyship to grant me speech with you."

The Countess looked down doubtfully upon the supplicant, evidently
prejudiced by her rags and wildly straying hair. The captain cleared
his throat and opened his mouth, but the girl eagerly forestalled him.

"Turn me not away, my Lady, because I come in unhandsome guise, for I
have travelled far through forest and over rock, climbing hills and
skirting the river's brink to be where I am. The reluctant wilderness,
impeding me, has enviously torn my garments, leaving me thus ashamed
before you, but, dear Lady, let not that work to my despite. Grant my
petition and my prayer shall ever be that the dearest wish of your own
heart go not unsatisfied."

"Alas!" said the Countess, with a deep sigh, "my dearest wish gives
little promise of fulfilment."

Conrad, seeing that the lady thought of her lost son, frowned angrily,
and in low growling tones bade the girl have a care what she said, but
Elsa was not to be silenced and spoke impetuously.

"Oh, Countess, the good we do often returns to us tenfold; mercy calls
forth mercy. An acorn planted produces an oak; cruelty sown leaves us
cruelty to reap. It is not beyond imagination that the soothing of my
bruised heart may bring balm to your own."

"Take the girl to the east room, Conrad, and let her await me there,"
said the Countess.

"With a guard, your Ladyship?"

"Without a guard, Conrad."

"Pardon me, my Lady, but I distrust her. She may have designs against
you."

The Countess had little acquaintance with fear. She smiled at the
anxious captain and said:

"Her only desire is to reach my heart, Conrad."

"God grant it may not be with a dagger," grumbled the captain, as he
made haste to obey the commands of the lady.

When the Countess entered the room in which Elsa stood, her first
question was an inquiry regarding her visitor's name and station, the
telling of which seemed but an indifferent introduction for the girl,
who could not help noting that the Countess shrank, involuntarily from
her when she heard the Outlaw mentioned.

"Our house has little cause to confer favour on any kin of the Outlaw
of Hundsrück," the lady said at last.

"I do not ask for favour, my Lady. I have come to give your revenge
completeness, if it is revenge you seek. The young man now imprisoned
in Schonburg is so little esteemed by my uncle that not a single blow
has been struck on his behalf. If the Count thinks to hurt the Outlaw
by executing Wilhelm, he will be gravely in error, for my uncle and his
men regard the captive so lightly that they have gone beyond Mayence
without even making an effort toward his rescue. As for me, my uncle
bestows upon me such affection as he is capable of, and would be more
grieved should I die, than if any other of his kin were taken from him.
Release Wilhelm and I will gladly take his place, content to receive
such punishment as his Lordship, the Count, considers should be imposed
on a relative of the Outlaw."

"What you ask is impossible. The innocent should not suffer for the
guilty."

"My Lady, the innocent have suffered for others since the world began,
and will continue to do so till it ends. Our only hope of entering
Heaven comes through Him who was free from sin being condemned in our
stead. I do beseech your Ladyship to let me take the place of Wilhelm."

"You love this young man," said the Countess, seating herself, and
regarding the girl with the intent interest which women, whose own love
affair has prospered, feel when they are confronted with an incident
that reminds them of their youth.

"Not otherwise than as a friend and dear companion, my Lady," replied
Elsa, blushing. "When he was a little boy and I a baby, he carried me
about in his arms, and since that time we have been comrades together."

"Comradeship stands for much, my girl," said the Countess, in kindly
manner, "but it rarely leads one friend willingly to accept death for
another. I have not seen this young man whom you would so gladly
liberate; the dealing with prisoners is a matter concerning my husband
alone; I never interfere, but if I should now break this rule because
you have travelled so far, and are so anxious touching the prisoner's
welfare, would you be willing to accept my conditions?"

"Yes, my Lady, so that his life were saved."

"He is a comely young man doubtless, and there are some beautiful women
within this castle; would it content you if he were married to one of
my women, and so escaped with life?"

A sudden pallor overspread the girl's face, and she clasped her hands
nervously together. Tears welled into her eyes, and she stood thus for
a few moments unable to speak. At last she murmured, with some
difficulty:

"Wilhelm can care nothing for any here, not having beheld them, and it
would be wrong to coerce a man in such extremity. I would rather die
for him, that he might owe his life to me."

"But he would live to marry some one else."

"If I were happy in heaven, why should I begrudge Wilhelm's happiness
on earth?"

"Ah, why, indeed, Elsa? And yet you disclaim with a sigh. Be assured
that I shall do everything in my power to save your lover, and that not
at the expense of your own life or happiness. Now come with me, for I
would have you arrayed in garments more suited to your youth and your
beauty, that you may not be ashamed when you meet this most fascinating
prisoner, for such he must be, when you willingly risk so much for his
sake."

The Countess, after conducting the girl to the women's apartments,
sought her husband, but found to her dismay that he showed little sign
of concurrence with her sympathetic views regarding the fate of the
prisoner. It was soon evident to her that Count Herbert had determined
upon the young man's destruction, and that there was some concealed
reason for this obdurate conclusion which the Count did not care to
disclose. Herbert von Schonburg was thoroughly convinced that his son
was dead, mutilated beyond recognition by the Outlaw of Hundsrück, yet
this he would not tell to Beatrix, his wife, who cherished the unshaken
belief that the boy still lived and would be restored to her before she
died. The Count for years had waited for his revenge, and even though
his wife now pleaded that he forego it, the Master of Schonburg was in
no mind to comply, though he said little in answer to her persuading.
The incoming of Elsa to the castle merely convinced him that some trick
was meditated on the part of the Outlaw, and the sentimental
consideration urged by the Countess had small weight with him. He gave
a curt order to his captain to double his guards around the stronghold,
and relax no vigilance until the case of the prisoner had been finally
dealt with. He refused permission for Elsa to see her cousin, even in
the presence of witnesses, as he was certain that her coming was for
the purpose of communicating to him some message from the Outlaw, the
news of whose alleged withdrawal he did not believe.

"With the country at peace, the Outlaw has instigated, and his son has
executed, an attack upon this castle. The penalty is death. To-morrow
I shall hear what he has to say in his defence, and shall deliver
judgment, I hope, justly. If his kinswoman wishes to see him, she may
come to his trial, and then will be in a position to testify to her
uncle that sentence has been pronounced in accordance with the law that
rules the Rhine provinces. If she has communication to make to her
cousin, let it be made in the Judgment Hall in the presence of all
therein."

The Countess, with sinking heart, left her husband, having the tact not
to press upon him too strongly the claims of mercy as well as of
justice. She knew that his kind nature would come to the assistance of
her own suing, and deeply regretted that the time for milder influences
to prevail was so short. In a brief conference with Elsa, she
endeavoured to prepare the girl's mind for a disastrous ending of her
hopes.

Some minutes before the hour set for Wilhelm's trial, the Countess
Beatrix, followed by Elsa, entered the Judgment Hall to find the Count
seated moodily in the great chair at one end of the long room, in whose
ample inclosure many an important state conference had been held, each
of the forefathers of the present owner being seated in turn as
president of the assemblage. Some thought of this seemed to oppress the
Count's mind, for seated here with set purpose to extinguish his
enemy's line, the remembrance that his own race died with him was not
likely to be banished. The Countess brought Elsa forward and in a
whisper urged her to plead for her kinsman before his judge. The girl's
eloquence brought tears to the eyes of Beatrix, but the Count's
impassive face was sphinx-like in its settled gloom. Only once during
the appeal did he speak, and that was when Elsa offered herself as a
sacrifice to his revenge, then he said, curtly:

"We do not war against women. You are as free to go as you were to
come, but you must not return."

A dull fear began to chill the girl's heart and to check her earnest
pleading: She felt that her words were making no impression on the
silent man seated before her, and this knowledge brought weak
hesitation to her tongue and faltering to her speech. In despair she
wrung her hands and cried: "Oh, my Lord, my Lord, think of your own son
held at the mercy of an enemy. Think of him as a young man just the age
of your prisoner, at a time when life is sweetest to him! Think, think,
I beg of you----"

The Count roused himself like a lion who had been disturbed, and cried
in a voice that resounded hoarsely from the rafters of the arched roof,
startling the Countess with the unaccustomed fierceness of its tone:

"Yes, I will think of him--of my only son in the clutch of his bitter
foe, and I thank you for reminding me of him, little as I have for
these long years needed spur to my remembrance. Bring in the prisoner."

When Wilhelm was brought in, heavy manacles on his wrists, walking
between the men who guarded him, Elsa looked from judge to culprit, and
her heart leaped with joy. Surely such blindness could not strike this
whole concourse that some one within that hall would not see that, here
confronted, stood father and son, on the face of one a frown of anger,
on the face of the other a frown of defiance, expressions almost
identical, the only difference being the thirty years that divided
their ages. For a few moments the young man did not distinguish Elsa in
the throng, then a glad cry of recognition escaped him, and the cloud
cleared from his face as if a burst of sunshine had penetrated the
sombre-coloured windows and had thrown its illuminating halo around his
head. He spoke impetuously, leaning forward:

"Elsa, Elsa, how came you here?" then, a shadow of concern crossing his
countenance, "you are not a prisoner, I trust?"

"No, no, Wilhelm, I am here to beseech the clemency of the Count--"

"Not for me!" exclaimed the prisoner, defiantly, drawing himself up
proudly: "not for me, Elsa. You must never ask favour from a robber and
a coward like, Count von Schonburg, brave only in his own Judgment
Hall."

"Oh, Wilhelm, Wilhelm, have a care what you say, or you will break my
heart. And your proclamation is far from true. The Count is a brave man
who has time and again proved himself so, and my only hope is that he
will prove as merciful as he is undoubtedly courageous. Join your
prayers with mine, Wilhelm, and beg for mercy rather than justice."

"I beg from no man, either mercy or justice. I am here, my Lord Count,
ready to receive whatever you care to bestow, and I ask you to make the
waiting brief for the sake of the women present, for I am I sure the
beautiful, white-haired lady there dislikes this traffic in men's lives
as much as does my fair-haired cousin."

"Oh, my lord Count, do not heed what he says; his words but show the
recklessness of youth; hold them not against him."

"Indeed I mean each word I say, and had I iron in my hand instead of
round my wrists, his Lordship would not sit so calmly facing me."

Elsa, seeing how little she had accomplished with either man began to
weep helplessly, and the Count, who had not interrupted the colloquy,
listening unmoved to the contumely heaped upon him by the prisoner, now
said to the girl:

"Have you finished your questioning?"

Receiving no answer, he said to the prisoner after a pause:

"Why did you move against this castle?"

"Because I hoped to take it, burn it, and hang or behead its owner."

"Oh, Wilhelm, Wilhelm!" wailed the girl.

"And, having failed, what do you expect?"

"To be hanged, or beheaded, depending on whether your Lordship is the
more expert with a cord or with an axe."

"You called me a coward, and I might have retorted that in doing so you
took advantage of your position as prisoner, but setting that aside,
and speaking as man to man, what ground have you for such an
accusation?"

"We cannot speak as man to man, for I am bound and you are free, but
touching the question of your cowardice, I have heard it said by those
who took part in the defence of my father's castle, when you attacked
it and destroyed it, commanding a vastly superior force, my father
leaped from the wall and dared you to follow him. For a moment, they
told me, it seemed that you would accept the challenge, but you
contented yourself with calling on others to do what you feared to do
yourself, and thus my father, meeting no opposition from a man of his
own rank, was compelled to destroy the unfortunate serfs who stood in
his way and, so cut out a path to safety. In refusing to accept the
plunge he took, you branded yourself a coward, and once a toward always
a coward."

"Oh, Wilhelm," cried Elsa, in deep distress at the young man's lack of
diplomacy, while she could not but admire his ill-timed boldness,
"speak not so to the Count, for I am sure what you say is not true."

"Indeed," growled Captain Conrad, "the young villain is more crafty
than we gave him credit for. Instead of a rope he will have a challenge
from the Count, and so die honourably like a man, in place of being
strangled like the dog he is."

"Dear Wilhelm, for my sake, do not persist in this course, but throw
yourself on the mercy of the Count. Why retail here the irresponsible
gossip of a camp, which I am sure contains not a word of truth, so far
as the Count is concerned."

Herbert of Schonburg held up his hand for silence, and made confession
with evident difficulty.

"What the young man says with harshness is true in semblance, if not
strictly so in action. For the moment, thinking of my wife and child, I
hesitated, and when the hesitation was gone the opportunity was gone
with it. My punishment has been severe; by that moment's cowardice, I
am now a childless man, and therefore perhaps value my life less highly
than I held it at the time we speak of. Hear then, your sentence: You
will be taken to the top of the wall, the iron removed from your
wrists, and your sword placed in your hand. You will then leap from
that wall, and if you are unhurt, I will leap after you. Should your
sword serve you as well as your father's served him, you will be free
of the forest, and this girl is at liberty to accompany you. I ask her
now to betake herself to the field outside the gate, there to await the
result of our contest."

At this there was an outcry on the part of Countess Beatrix, who
protested against her husband placing himself in this unnecessary
jeopardy, but the Count was firm and would permit no interference with
his sentence. Elsa was in despair at the unaccountable blindness of all
concerned, not knowing that the Count was convinced his son was dead,
and that the Countess thought continually of her boy as a child of
four, taking no account of the years that had passed, although her
reason, had she applied reason to that which touched her affections
only, would have told her, he must now be a stalwart young man and not
the little lad she had last held in her arms. For a moment Elsa wavered
in her allegiance to the oath she had taken, but she saw against the
wall the great crucifix which had been placed there by the first
crusader who had returned to the castle from the holy wars and she
breathed a prayer as she passed it, that the heir of this stubborn
house might not be cut off in his youth through the sightless rancour
that seemed to pervade it.

The Count tried to persuade his weeping wife not to accompany him to
the walls, but she would not be left behind, and so, telling Conrad to
keep close watch upon her, in case that in her despair she might
attempt to harm herself, his lordship led the way to the battlements.

Wilhelm, at first jubilant that he was allowed to take part in a sword
contest rather than an execution, paused for a moment as he came to the
courtyard, and looked about him in a dazed manner, once or twice
drawing his hand across his eyes, as if to perfect his vision. Some
seeing him thus stricken silent and thoughtful, surmised that the young
man was like to prove more courageous in word than in action; others
imagined that the sudden coming from the semi-gloom of the castle
interior into the bright light dazzled him. The party climbed the
flight of stone steps which led far upward to the platform edged by the
parapet from which the spring was to be made. The young man walked up
and down the promenade, unheeding those around him, seeming like one in
a dream, groping for something he failed to find. The onlookers watched
him curiously, wondering at his change of demeanour.

Suddenly he dropped his sword on the stones at his feet, held up his
hands and cried aloud:

"I have jumped from here before--when I was a lad--a baby almost--I
remember it all now--where am I--when was I here before--where is my
wooden sword--and where is Conrad, who made it--Conrad, where are you?"

The captain was the first to realise what had happened. He stepped
hurriedly forward, scrutinising his late prisoner, the light of
recognition, in his eyes.

"It is the young master," he shouted. "My Lord Count, this is no
kinsman of the Outlaw, but your own son, a man grown."

The Count stood amazed, as incapable of motion as a statue of stone;
the countess, gazing with dreamy eyes, seemed trying to adjust her
inward vision of the lad of four with the outward reality of the man of
twenty-one. In the silence rose the clear sweet voice of Elsa without
the walls, her face upturned like a painting of the Madonna, her hands
clasped in front of her.

"Dear Virgin Mother in Heaven, I thank thee that my prayer was not
unheard, and bear me witness that I have kept my oath--I have kept my
oath, and may Thy intervention show a proud and sinful people the
blackness of revenge."

Count Herbert, rousing himself from his stupor, appealed loudly to the
girl.

"Woman, is this indeed my son, and, if so, why did you not speak before
we came to such extremity?"

"I cannot answer. I have sworn an oath. If you would learn who stands
beside you, send a messenger to the Outlaw, saying you have killed him,
as indeed you purposed doing," then stretching out her arms, she said,
with faltering voice: "Wilhelm, farewell," and turning, fled toward the
forest.

"Elsa, Elsa, come back!" the young man cried, foot on the parapet, but
the girl paid no heed to his commanding summons, merely waving her hand
without looking over her shoulder.

"Elsa!"

The name rang out so thrillingly strange that its reverberation
instantly arrested the flying footsteps of the girl. Instinctively she
knew it was the voice of a man falling rapidly through the air. She
turned in time to see Wilhelm strike the ground, the impetus
precipitating him prone on his face, where he lay motionless. The cry
of horror from the battlements was echoed by her own as she sped
swiftly toward him. The young man sprang to his feet as she approached
and caught her breathless in his arms.

"Ah, Elsa," he said, tenderly, "forgive me the fright I gave you, but I
knew of old your fleetness of foot, and if the forest once encircled
you, how was I ever to find you?"

The girl made no effort to escape from her imprisonment, and showed
little desire to exchange the embrace she endured for that of the
forest.

"Though I should blush to say it, Wilhelm, I fear I am easily found,
when you are the searcher."

"Then let old Schloss Schonburg claim you, Elsa, that the walls which
beheld a son go forth, may see a son and daughter return."




CHAPTER III

A CITY OF FEAR


The Countess Beatrix von Schonburg warmly welcomed her lost son and her
newly-found daughter. The belief of Beatrix in Wilhelm's ultimate
return had never wavered during all the long years of his absence, and
although she had to translate her dream of the child of four into a
reality that included a stalwart young man of twenty-one, the
readjustment was speedily accomplished. Before a week had passed it
seemed to her delighted heart that the boy had never left the castle.
The Countess had liked Elsa from the first moment when she saw her,
ragged, unkempt and forlorn, among the lowering, suspicious men-at-arms
in the courtyard, and now that she knew the dangers and the privations
the girl had braved for the sake of Wilhelm, the affectionate heart of
Beatrix found ample room for the motherless Elsa.

With the Count, the process of mental reconstruction was slower, not
only on account of his former conviction that his son was dead, but
also because of the deep distrust in which he held the Outlaw. He said
little, as was his custom, but often sat with brooding brows, intently
regarding his son, gloomy doubt casting a shadow over his stern
countenance. Might not this be a well-laid plot on the part of the
Outlaw to make revenge complete by placing a von Weithoff in the halls
of Schonburg as master of that ancient stronghold? The circumstances
in which identity was disclosed, although sufficient to convince every
one else in the castle, appeared at times to the Count but the stronger
evidence of the Outlaw's craft and subtlety. If the young man were
actually the son of von Weithoff, then undoubtedly the Outlaw had run
great risk of having him hanged forthwith, but on the other hand, the
prize to be gained, comprising as it did two notable castles and two
wide domains, was a stake worth playing high for, and a stake which
appealed strongly to a houseless, landless man, with not even a name
worth leaving to his son. Thus, while the Countess lavished her
affection on young Wilhelm, noticing nothing of her husband's
distraction in this excessive happiness, Count Herbert sat alone in the
lofty Knight's Hall, his elbows resting on the table before him, his
head buried in his hands, ruminating on the strange transformation that
had taken place, endeavouring to weigh the evidence _pro_ and
_con_ with the impartial mind of an outsider, becoming the more
bewildered the deeper he penetrated into the mystery.

It was in this despondent attitude that Elsa found him a few days after
the leap from the wall that had caused her return to Schonburg, a
willing captive. The Count did not look up when she entered, and the
girl stood for a few moments in silence near him. At last she spoke in
a low voice, hesitating slightly, nevertheless going with incisive
directness into the very heart of the problem that baffled Count
Herbert.

"My Lord, you do not believe that Wilhelm is indeed your son."

The master of Schonburg raised his head slowly and looked searchingly
into the frank face of the girl, gloomy distrust reflected from his own
countenance.

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