Part 24 (1/2)
There was an uncanny note in the music of the voice. It seemed almost celestial. We could not tell whence it came. Every stone in the walls and ceiling, every slab in the floor seemed resonant with silvery tones.
After Max had answered there was a pause lasting two or three minutes, and the voice spoke again:--
”I love you, Little Max. I tell you because I wish to comfort you. Do not fear. You shall be free to-morrow. Do not answer. Adieu.”
”Yolanda! Yolanda!” cried Max, pleadingly; but he received no answer. He put his hand on my shoulder and said:--
”It was Yolanda, Karl--ah, G.o.d must hate a child that He brings into the world a prince.”
For the rest of the night we did not sleep, neither did we speak. The morrow was to be a day of frightful import to us, and we awaited it in great anxiety.
When the morning broke and the sun shot his rays through the narrow window, we carefully examined the floor and walls of our room, but we found no opening through which the voice could have penetrated. In the side of the room formed by the wall of the tower, the mortar had fallen from between two stones, leaving one of them somewhat loose, but the castle wall at that point was fully sixteen feet thick, and it was impossible that the voice should have come through the layers of stone.
From my first acquaintance with Yolanda there had seemed to be a supernatural element in her nature, an elfin quality in her face and manner that could not be described. Max had often told me that she impressed him in like manner. The voice in our stone-girt chamber, coming as it did from nowhere, and resounding as it did everywhere, intensified that feeling till it was almost a conviction, though I am slow to accept supernatural explanations--a natural one usually exists.
Of course, there are rare instances of supernatural power vested in men and women, and Yolanda's great, burning eyes caused me at times, almost to believe that she was favored with it.
The voice that we had heard was unquestionably Yolanda's, but by what strange power it was enabled to penetrate our rock-ribbed prison and give tongues to the cold stones I could not guess, though I could not stop trying. Here was another riddle set by this marvellous girl for my solving. This riddle, however, helped to solve the first, and confirmed my belief that Yolanda was Mary of Burgundy.
After breakfast Max and I were taken to the great hall, where we found Castleman standing before the ducal throne, speaking to Charles. The burgher turned toward us, and as we approached I heard him say:--
”My lord, these men are not spies.”
”Who are they?” demanded the duke.
Castleman gave our names and told the story of our meeting at Basel, after we had escorted Merchant Franz from Cannstadt. Then he narrated Max's adventure at the moat bridge, closing with:--
”Count Calli grossly insulted Fraulein Castleman, for which Sir Max chastised him; and no doubt, my lord, this arrest has been made for revenge.”
”Has the younger man name or t.i.tle other than you have given?” asked Charles.
The burgher hesitated before he answered:--
”He has, my lord, though I may not disclose it to Your Grace without his permission, unless you order me so to do upon my fealty. That I humbly beg Your Grace not to do.”
”I beg Your Grace not to ask me to disclose my ident.i.ty at this time,”
said Max. ”I am willing, should you insist upon knowing who I am, to tell it privately in Your Grace's ear; but I am travelling incognito with my friend, Sir Karl de Pitti, and I beg that I may remain so. My estate is neither very great nor very small, but what it is I desire for many reasons not to divulge. These reasons in no way touch Burgundy, and I am sure Your Grace will not wish to intrude upon them. Within a month, perhaps within a few days, I will enlighten you. If you will permit me to remain in Peronne, I will communicate my reasons to you personally; if I leave, I will write to Your Grace. I give my parole that I will, within a month, surrender myself to Your Lords.h.i.+p, if you are not satisfied, upon hearing my explanations, that my word is that of an honorable knight, and my station one worthy of Your Grace's respect. I hope my Lord d'Hymbercourt and my good friend Castleman will stand as hostages for me in making this pledge.”
Both men eagerly offered their persons and their estates as hostages, and the duke, turning to the captain of the guard, said:--
”Remove the manacles from these knights.”
The chains were removed, and the duke, coming down to the last step of the dais, looked into Max's face.
Max calmly returned the fierce gaze without so much as the faltering of an eyelid.
”All step back save this young man,” ordered the duke, extending his open palm toward the courtiers.
We all fell away, but the duke said:--
”Farther back, farther back, I say! Don't crowd in like a pack of yokels at a street fight!”