"Don"t you hear the trees?" Osra whispered to her lover. "Don"t you hear them? They are whispering for me what I dare not whisper."
"What is it they whisper, sweet?" he asked; he himself did no more than whisper.
"The trees whisper, "Love, love, love." And the wind--don"t you hear the wind murmuring, "Love, love, love"? And the birds sing, "Love, love, love." Aye, all the world to-day is softly whispering, "Love, love, love." What else should the great world whisper but my love? For my love is greater than the world." And she suddenly hid her face in her hands; and he could kiss no more than her hands, though her eyes gleamed at him from between slim white fingers.
But suddenly her hands dropped, and she leant forward as though she listened.
"What is that sound?" she asked, apprehension dawning in her eyes.
"It is but another whisper, love!" said he.
"Nay, but it sounds to me like--ah, like the noise of horses galloping."
"It is but the stream, beating over stones."
"Listen, listen, listen!" she cried springing to her feet. "They are horses" hoofs! Ah, merciful G.o.d, it is the King!" And she caught him by the hand and pulled him to his feet, looking at him with a face pale and alarmed.
"Not the King," said he. "He would not know yet. It is some one else.
Hide your face, dear lady, and all will be well."
"It is the King," she cried. "Hark how they gallop on the road! It is my brother. Love, he will kill you, love, he will kill you."
"It is the King," said he, "I have been betrayed."
"The horses, the horses!" she cried. "By your love for me, the horses!"
He nodded his head, and, turning, disappeared among the trees. She stood with clasped hands, heaving breast, and fearful eyes, awaiting his return. Minutes pa.s.sed and he did not come. She flung herself on her knees, beseeching heaven for his life. At last he came alone, and he bent over her, taking her hand.
"My love," said he, "the horses are gone!"
"Gone?" she cried, gripping his hand.
"Aye. This love, my love, is a wonderful thing. For I forgot to tie them, and they are gone. Yet what matter? For the King--yes, sweet, I think now it is the King--will not be here for some minutes yet, and those minutes I have still for love and life."
"He will kill you," she said.
"Yes," said he.
She looked long in his eyes; then she threw her arms about his neck, and, for the first time unasked, covered his face with kisses.
"Kiss me, kiss me," said she; and he kissed her. Then she drew back a little, but took his arm and set it round her waist. And she drew a little knife from her girdle, and showed it to him.
"If the King will not pardon us and let us love one another, I also will die," said she, and her voice was quiet and happy. "Indeed, my love, I should not grieve. Ah, do not tell me to live without you!"
"Would you obey?" he asked.
"Not in that," said she.
Thus they stood, while the sound of the hoofs drew very near. But she looked up at him and he looked at her; then she looked at the point of the little dagger, and she whispered:
"Keep your arm round me till I die."
He bent his head and kissed her once again, saying:
"My Princess, it is enough."
And she, though she did not know why he smiled, yet smiled back at him.
For although life was sweet that day, yet such a death, with him, and to prove her love for him, seemed well-nigh as sweet. Thus they awaited the coming of the King.
King Rudolf and his Guards far outstripped the people who pursued them from the city, and when they came to the skirt of the wood they divided themselves into four parties, since, if they went all together, they might easily miss the fugitives whom they sought. Of these four parties one found nothing, another found the two horses, which the student himself, who had hidden them, failed to find; the third party had not gone far before they caught sight of the lovers, though the lovers did not see them; and two of them remained to watch, and if need were to intercept any attempted flight, while the other rode off to find the King and bring him where Osra and the student were, as he had commanded.
But the fourth party, with which the King was, though it did not find the fugitives, found the emba.s.sy from the Grand Duke of Mittenheim; for the amba.s.sador, with all his train, was resting by the roadside, seeming in no haste at all to reach Strelsau. When the King suddenly rode up at great speed and came upon the emba.s.sy, an officer that stood by the amba.s.sador--whose name was Count Sergius of Antheim--stooped down and whispered in his Excellency"s ear; upon which he rose and advanced towards the King, uncovering his head and bowing profoundly; for he chose to a.s.sume that the King had ridden to meet him out of excessive graciousness and courtesy towards the Grand Duke; so that he began, to the impatient King"s infinite annoyance, to make a very long and stately speech, a.s.suring his Majesty of the great hope and joy with which his master awaited the result of the emba.s.sy; for, said he, since the King was so zealous in his cause, his master could not bring himself to doubt of success, and therefore most confidently looked to win for his bride the most exalted and lovely lady in the world, the peerless Princess Osra, the glory of the Court of Strelsau, and the brightest jewel in the crown of the King her brother. Having brought this period to a prosperous conclusion, Count Sergius took breath and began another that promised to be fully as magnificent and not a whit less long. So that, before it was well started, the King smote his hand on his thigh, and roared:
"Heavens, man, while you"re making speeches, that rascal is carrying off my sister!"
Count Sergius, who was an elderly man of handsome presence and great dignity, being thus rudely and strangely interrupted, showed great astonishment and offence; but the officer by him covered his mouth with his hand to hide a smile. For the moment that the King had spoken these impetuous words he was himself overwhelmed with confusion; since the last thing that he wished the Grand Duke"s amba.s.sador to know was that the Princess, whom his master courted, had run away that morning with a student of the University of Strelsau. Accordingly he began, very hastily and with more regard for prudence than for truth, to tell Count Sergius how a noted and bold criminal had that morning swooped down on the Princess as she rode unattended outside the city and carried her off; which seemed to the amba.s.sador a very strange story. But the King told it with great fervour, and he besought the Count to scatter his attendants all through the wood, and seek the robber; yet he charged them not to kill the man themselves but to keep him till he came. "For I have sworn to kill him with my own hand," he cried.
Now Count Sergius, however much astonished he might be, could do nothing but accede to the King"s request, and he sent off all his men to scour the woods, and, mounting his horse, himself set out with them, showing great zeal in the King"s service, but still thinking the King"s story a very strange one. Thus the King was left alone with his two Guards and with the officer who had smiled.
"Will you not go also, sir?" asked the King.
But at this moment a man galloped up at furious speed, crying:
"We have found them, sire, we have found them!"
"Then he hasn"t five minutes to live!" cried the King in fierce joy, and he lugged out his sword, adding: "The moment I set my eyes on him, I will kill him. There is no need for words between me and him."
At this speech the face of the officer grew suddenly grave and alarmed, and he put spurs to his horse and hastened after the King, who had at once dashed away in the direction in which the man had pointed; but the King had got a start and kept it, so that the officer seemed terribly frightened, and muttered to himself:
"Heaven send that he does not kill him before he knows!" And he added some very impatient words, concerning the follies of Princes, and, above all, of Princes in love.
Thus, while the amba.s.sador and his men searched high and low for the noted robber, and the King"s men hunted for the student of the University, the King, followed by two of his Guards at a distance of about fifty yards (for his horse was better than theirs), came straight to where Osra and her lover stood together; a few yards behind the Guards came the officer; and he also had by now drawn his sword. But he rode so eagerly that he overtook and pa.s.sed the King"s Guards, and got within thirty yards of the King by the time that the King was within twenty of the lovers. But the King let him get no nearer, for he dug his spurs again into his horse"s side, and the animal bounded forward, while the King cried furiously to his sister: "Stand away from him!"
The Princess did not heed, but stood in front of her lover (for the student was wholly unarmed), holding up the little dagger in her hand.
The King laughed scornfully and angrily, thinking that Osra menaced him with the weapon, and not supposing that it was herself for whom she destined it. And, having reached them, the King leapt from his horse and ran at them, with his sword raised to strike. Osra gave a cry of terror.
"Mercy!" she cried, "mercy!" But the King had no thought of mercy, and he would certainly then and there have killed her lover, had not the officer, gaining a moment"s time by the King"s dismounting, at this very instant come galloping up; and, there being no leisure for any explanation, he leant from his saddle as he dashed by, and, putting out his hand, s.n.a.t.c.hed the King"s sword away from him, just as the King was about to thrust it through his sister"s lover.
But the officer"s horse was going so furiously that he could not stop it for hard on forty yards; he narrowly escaped splitting his head against a great bough that hung low across the gra.s.sy path, and he dropped first his own sword and then the King"s; but at last he brought his horse to a standstill, and, leaping down, ran back towards where the swords lay.
But at the moment the King also ran towards them; for the fury that he had been in before was as nothing to that which now possessed him. After his sword was s.n.a.t.c.hed from him he stood in speechless anger for a full minute, but then had turned to pursue the man who had dared to treat him with such insult; and now, in his desire to be at the officer, he had come very near to forgetting the student. Just as the officer came to where the King"s sword lay and picked it up, the King in his turn reached the officer"s sword and picked up that. The King came with a rush at the officer, who, seeing that the King was likely to kill him, or he the King, if he stood his ground, turned tail and sped away at the top of his speed through the forest; but as he went, thinking that the time had come for plain speaking, he looked back over his shoulder and shouted:
"Sire, it"s the Grand Duke himself!"
The King stopped short in sudden amazement.
"Is the man mad?" he asked. "Who is the Grand Duke?"