"No, a hundred times, no."
"Well then, I shall go alone."
She turned away in the direction of the park, but with two strides Ulric reached her and placed himself before her, barring the road.
"Back, my lady, you can"t get through, I tell you, least of all, this way where my men are. Lady or not, it is all the same to them now. Your name is Berkow, and that is enough. As soon as they find out who you are, you will have them all upon you. You cannot and shall not go over there now. Stay here where you are."
These last words were spoken imperatively and in a tone of menace, but Eugenie was not accustomed to submit to orders, and the almost delirious violence with which he was striving to keep her from Arthur called up in her a vague anxiety and dread lest things should be worse with him than she had been led to believe.
"I shall go to my husband," she repeated very resolutely, "and I shall see whether on my way to him any one dares stop me by force. Let your friends a.s.sault a woman, give the signal for it yourself, if you care to take the credit of the heroic deed. I shall go."
And she went; darting by him and taking the path which led across the fields.
Hartmann stood gazing after her with eyes which glowed again, paying no heed to his father"s prayers and remonstrances. He understood better than the old man what she intended by this venture, what she wished to compel him to. But this time he would not yield to her. She might perish on the threshold of her own house, in sight of her husband, before he would take her back to the arms of a man he hated, before he ...
At this moment a troop of miners made their appearance, excited and uproarious, coming from the place of meeting to rejoin their leader.
The foremost of them was only some hundred paces off. They had already noticed the solitary female figure before them; in another minute she would be recognised, and he himself had, but half-an-hour ago, been goading on these men to blind fury against all that bore the name of Berkow.
Eugenie went forward to meet the danger, not attempting even to conceal her face. In his desperation Ulric stamped on the ground; then he tore himself free from his father, and in an instant was at her side.
"Put down your veil," he said, and grasped her hand with an iron grasp.
Eugenie obeyed, drawing a deep breath of relief. She was safe now; she knew he would not loose his hold on her hand again, if all the men on the works were to attack them at once. She had gone on deliberately to meet the danger, with full consciousness of what she was doing, but also with the conviction that nothing short of her visible and imminent peril would win for her that protection which had been refused.
They now came up to the troop of insurgents, who at once attempted to throng round their leader so as to place him in their midst, but he briefly and emphatically bade them make way, and ordered them over to the shafts without loss of time. They obeyed at once as their comrades had done previously, and Ulric, who had not halted for so much as a second, drew his companion on more rapidly than ever. She began to see plainly how impossible it would have been for her to force a pa.s.sage through by herself, and how idle any other protection would have proved than that which was at her side.
This stretch of meadow-land, usually so peaceful, was to-day the scene of busy surging tumult, although the actual strife was confined to the neighbourhood of the shafts. Knots of miners were trooping about, or standing closely grouped together in noisy conference. Everywhere angry faces and threatening gestures were to be seen, everywhere turmoil and confusion reigned paramount, an object only seemed wanting for them to give vent to their wild excitement by some deed of violence.
Happily, the footpath skirted the edge of the fields where the tumult was relatively less, but even here Ulric no sooner showed himself than he became the centre of observation, and was greeted everywhere with loud shouts, in which there mingled a certain note of surprise. A host of astonished, distrustful, suspicious glances were levelled at the female figure by his side. No one guessed that, attired in that dark travelling-dress and thick veil, the master"s wife was pa.s.sing through their midst. Had any one fancied he recognised her gait and bearing, such a notion would have been scouted by the others.
Ulric Hartmann was protecting her, and he would most surely never have accorded his protection to any one connected with the house of Berkow; still it was a lady who was walking with him, the Manager"s rough, uncourteous son, though he cared nothing for women generally, not even for Martha Ewers, who was cared for, in some degree, by almost every unmarried man in the place.
Ulric, who, at a time like the present, looked upon and treated his comrades" wives as an unnecessary burthen to be shaken off as much as possible, Ulric was now playing the guide to this stranger, and there was a look on his face as though he would strike down any one who ventured a step too near her. That short walk, which lasted barely ten minutes in all, was a bold experiment even for the young leader himself, but he showed that here, at least, he was master, and that he knew how to make use of his power.
Now, by a few imperious words, he dissolved a group which stood in his way; now, again, he issued orders and instructions to a troop of miners bearing down upon him, which took them off in another direction; to those who would have pressed round with questions and reports of what was going on he cried,
"By and by, I am coming back!" and all the time he never lost a moment, but drew his companion swiftly on, so as to prevent discovery or delay.
At last they reached the park, closed at this spot by a wooden gate only. Ulric pushed it open, and stepped inside with her under the sheltering trees.
"That is enough," he said, letting go her hand. "The park is safe still, and in five minutes you will be at the house."
Eugenie was still trembling at the danger they had pa.s.sed through, and her hand ached from the iron pressure of his. She put back her veil slowly.
"Make haste," said he with bitter sarcasm. "I have honestly done my part towards helping you back to your husband. You will not keep him waiting now?"
Eugenie looked up at him. His face betrayed the torture she had inflicted, by placing before him the alternative of witnessing an attack upon her, or of himself leading her to her husband.
She had no courage to thank him, but she put out her hand in silence.
Ulric pushed it away.
"You asked much of me," he said. "So much that it was within a hair of miscarrying. Now you have your will. Do not attempt to compel me again as you did to-day, especially when _he_ is by; for, if you do, I swear I will give you both up to your fate."
On the terrace before the house stood the two servants, Frank and Anthony, gazing over in the direction of the works with anxious yet curious looks. They started back no less affrighted than the old Manager had been, for, without the sound of carriage wheels to announce her coming, and unattended even by her maid, they suddenly saw standing before them their mistress, whom they supposed to be far away in the distant capital.
She could not possibly have come through the works, still less by way of the park, for out on the meadows at the back things were even worse--yet she was there! They were both so confounded, they could hardly answer her hasty question, but she managed to find out that Herr Berkow was at that moment at home, and hurried past them up the steps.
Frank, who followed her, had even more ground for astonishment, for she hardly allowed him to take her hat and shawl, and, when he would have hastened with the news of her arrival over to the wing occupied by his master, she bade him stay, and said she would go and announce herself.
The man stood with the cloak in his hand, staring after her with open mouth. It had all pa.s.sed like a whirlwind. What could have happened in the city?
Eugenie pa.s.sed rapidly through the several rooms in succession, until all at once she stopped. Arthur"s study was near at hand, and from it the sound of voices met her ear. She had so surely reckoned on finding her husband alone, had wished to come to him thus unexpected, unannounced, and now she found him in the company of a stranger!
Ah! she could not meet him in the presence of another! Eugenie stood undecided whether to stand back or to remain. At last she stepped noiselessly behind the heavy _portiere_, the folds of which almost hid her from view.
"It is impossible, Herr Berkow," said the sharp clear voice of the chief-engineer, "If you push forbearance further, you will do it to the injury of those who are beginning to take to their work in an orderly manner. They beat a retreat on this occasion, because they were the weaker, but we shall have worse and bloodier scenes than what took place this morning. That was only a hand-to-hand skirmish. Hartmann has shown that he will not spare his own people if they rebel against his system of terrorism. Friend and foe may suffer alike, but his principles must be upheld."
Eugenie could see through the open door into the room. Just opposite her at the open window stood Arthur, the full light falling upon his face, which had grown so much more sombre since last she had seen it.
Even then the shadow of care had lain on his brow; at that time, however, it had been new to him and had not marked itself there indelibly, but now two deep furrows were graven which probably would never again be effaced.
Each separate line in his face was sharper, more severely defined; the look of energy, which then had but newly dawned and was only distinctly visible in moments of excitement, had now become the dominant expression of his countenance even when at rest, and had altogether replaced the old dreamy air; his voice and manner were alike firm and decided. It was evident that he had learned in a few weeks that which it takes others years to acquire.
"I should certainly be the last to advise seeking help from without, if it could be avoided, but I do think that now we, and you in particular, have abstained from it long enough. There really can be no blame to us if, at length, we have recourse to measures which were employed on the neighbouring works long ago without any such pressing necessity as ours."
Arthur shook his head sadly.
"The other works can be no rule for us. A few arrests, a few slight wounds, and matters were settled there. Fifty men and three or four shots in the air were sufficient to quell the whole revolt. Here they have Hartmann at their head, and we all know what that means. He would not yield to a bayonet charge, and all his party are ready to stand or fall with him. They would challenge us to do our worst, and, to buy peace, we must sacrifice some lives."
The other was silent, but his significant shrug showed that he was of the same opinion.
"But if peace is to be had in no other way?"
"If it were to be had at all! but it is not, and the sacrifice of life will be made in vain. I can crush the rebellion for the time being, but in a year, in a few months perhaps, it will break out again, and you know as well as I do that the last chance of keeping on the works would be gone from me then. Elsewhere there are some signs of returning confidence and of a juster feeling; elsewhere the people seem to be coming to their senses again, but that is not to be hoped with us. The distrust sown during long years cannot be speedily overcome. Hatred and hostility was the watchword given out against me when I came here; it is the watchword still, and, if once I cause blood to be shed, all will be over for ever between us."
"Hartmann may venture to bring his recusant followers back to obedience by open combat and to impose his will on them by force, he will still remain their Messiah to whom they look for salvation. If I were to order one shot to be fired, if I take up arms in my own defence, I shall be called a tyrant, ready to murder them in cold blood, and taking delight in their destruction. The old Manager was right that day, when he said: "If troubles break out here among our people, the Lord have mercy upon us!""
There was no complaint, no dispirited lament in these words, only the bitterness of a man who finds himself at length borne to the very verge of that precipice to avoid which he has in vain been straining every nerve.
Probably the young master would have so spoken to no other. The chief-engineer was the only person who seemed to have drawn nearer him of late. He had stood by him so steadfastly through all the danger, helping so actively to carry out all the necessary measures, and he was the only one to whom Arthur would occasionally speak freely, pa.s.sing beyond the mere instructions and encouraging speeches which were all the other officials ever heard from his lips.
"But some of the hands are willing to take to work again already,"
objected the elder man.
"And that is just what compels me to make war on the rest. There is no making terms with Hartmann. I have tried to do so and failed."
"With whom? You have tried what?" asked the other, with such a horrified expression that Arthur looked at him in surprise.
"To come to an understanding with Hartmann. It was not done officially, it is true, that might have been interpreted as a sign of weakness. It was when we met one day accidentally that I held out my hand to him once again."