Part 19 (1/2)
”My pleasure!” repeated the young Queen bitterly. ”How much do they think or care for that?”
”Indeed, madam, they are a wild and turbulent crew; and in very truth an infant King might have a task he would be little able to perform----”
”Helen, Helen, thou art not counselling me to let this thing be without protest?”
”Nay, madam, I would not dare to give such counsel. But I would remind you how the thing will look in the eyes of the fierce and restless Magyars.”
The Queen sighed; her heart was full of bitterness and apprehension. A weaker woman might have given way to what appeared the inevitable; but Elizabeth was not a weak woman, and a mother will be brave for the rights of her children, where she might be willing to cede her own.
It was only a few days before the dreaded news was formally made known to her. Her n.o.bles requested that she would give her hand in marriage to the King of Poland, and thus unite the two territories, and give them a King whom they would be ready to serve.
The young Queen's answer was slightly evasive. She promised to consider the matter carefully; but since she had been so recently made a widow, she begged that they would not press another husband upon her too speedily.
With this reply they had to be content; but it did not stop them from carrying on the negotiations with the neighbouring Prince on their own account. They began to arrange at once for an emba.s.sy; and the Queen heard words dropped from time to time that told her how much the matter was looked upon as an accomplished fact.
”Helen,” she cried, in deep excitement, when she had one day dismissed her other ladies and was alone with her faithful friend, ”Helen, you know what they are already talking of now?”
Helen shook her head in sorrowful acquiescence.
”Alas! madam, they are talking already of bringing him here, and of crowning him with St. Stephen's crown, and then of awaiting your pleasure to wed him----”
”Ay, ay, the cowards! They think to force the thing on me! They think that then I must needs do their pleasure! That, being Queen in my own right, as truly I am, I must needs wed with him they will crown as King to save my Royal station! Ah, how down-trodden and helpless are we poor women! Who will come to our aid? They talk of the days of chivalry! But where is true chivalry to be found?”
She paced up and down the room in her excitement; and then, suddenly stopping before Helen, she said in low, deliberate, but very cautious tones:
”Helen, thou hast said that they will crown him with St. Stephen's crown. But supposing that that crown could not be found--what then?”
Helen started and looked hastily round her. Her eyes dilated like those of the Queen, into which she was looking. The two young women stood opposite to one another, breathing hard, and gazing, as if fascinated, into each other's faces.
”How if the crown could not be found, Helen?” repeated the Queen, with bated breath.
”Oh, madam, how could such a thing be?”
Deep silence reigned in the room. The Queen gradually recovered her self-possession, and taking Helen's arm, walked back to the seat she had quitted; she was trembling a little, but it was not with fear.
”Helen, I have thought and thought of this thing till it has become strangely clear in my mind. If we could gain possession of this crown, and hold it in trust, till we can have it placed upon the head of the son whom our Blessed Lady will send me--oh, then, good Helen, all might yet be well.”
”But, madam, how can the crown be got at? Do not the n.o.bles guard it as the apple of the eye? Would it not be certain death if any were found seeking to gain possession of it, even in the Queen's name?”
”Alas, Helen, it would! Whosoever seeks to do this thing takes his life in his hand in so doing. And yet--and yet--G.o.d has watched over more perilous undertakings even than this, and has brought them to a happy end.”
Helen looked into the Queen's eyes, and asked: ”Madam, is it a task that a woman may perform? Can Helen Kottenner accomplish this thing for her Queen?”
The tears rushed to Elizabeth's eyes, as she cried:
”Oh, Helen, Helen, I verily believe that thou couldst do this thing--with one faithful knight to help thee, if only thou didst dare to adventure the peril thereof!”
Then the Queen rapidly unfolded her plan. The sacred crown was in the vaults of the castle of Vissegrad, where the n.o.bles had jealously conveyed both it and the Queen upon her husband's death. The crown, with other Royal treasures, was locked in a great iron-bound chest in a vault beneath the castle, closely guarded by one or another of the leading n.o.bles of the kingdom. To attempt to reach the vault now, when the castle was full of people, all more or less engaged in guarding the Queen's person, was a manifest impossibility, although there was an entrance to the vault from these very chambers, given over to her and her maidens. But the n.o.bles wished the Queen to change her place of abode, and to remove her court to Presburg; and the thought had come to her that if the crown and other Royal jewels were left behind, as seemed probable, since no talk of moving them had reached her ears, then she might make excuse to send back Helen, as though for something left behind, to the comparatively deserted castle, and trust to her woman's wit and skill and address to find a way of entering the vault, and possessing herself of the coveted treasure.
For the Queen was possessed of a signet precisely like to the one with which the chest was sealed; and she had keys which, it was believed, might open some of the locks; and, if not, they could make provision against such difficulties as that. If once Helen could gain possession of the sacred crown, and carry it away from the power of the n.o.bles, no King could be set upon the throne of Hungary, and they would be forced to await the Queen's pleasure. But it was a task before which even the bravest heart might quail. Those were days when human life was held of little count, and the fierce custodians of castle or vault would make short work of any intruder found engaged in such a task as the one proposed to Helen.
”They will kill you if they catch you, Helen,” said the Queen, with a little catch in her voice; but Helen's mind was now made up. The bold blood of a soldier race ran in her veins. She was not to be turned from her purpose by the promptings of fear.