"Yes," said the nurse, "a lay-brother of Saint Valentine"s was there when I went, who had brought him to Marienberg."
The man vehemently grasped the woman"s wasted arm.
"Do you not remember his name?"
"I do not know it, my lord, no one told me. But he was very old, and must be dead long since."
"Saint Valentine"s," repeated the stranger between his teeth. "Indeed, Saint Valentine"s--there perhaps I might find a trace," and he started up in haste to remount his horse; but the woman clutched him by the sleeve,
"My lord, my lord," she cried, "for G.o.d"s sake! you will not leave us in our misery--and my child, the poor orphan--My hour is near--Have pity on the child or she must starve."
The knight flung a gold-piece into the sick woman"s lap. "Here, that is all I carry with me in case of emergency; now, keep me no longer."
But she clung to him in her dying agony, "Gold is of no use to us, what does the child know of gold; wicked men may take it from her, and then she will be as helpless as ever. Shelter, my lord, and protection for the innocent! Oh, my lord, she is not my child, she is a child of sin; but the child is pure, my lord, as pure as the dew, as innocent as the fawn in the forest. I have brought her up in decency and the fear of G.o.d. Take charge of her, she is of n.o.ble blood; her mother was a lady, and the knight, her husband, was so long away in the field that she thought he was dead; then she fell into trouble. And the child"s father--G.o.d save his soul--was a minnesanger at Count Albert"s court, and the child has come by many gifts through him; she can sing and is full of pretty tunes, and hidden things are revealed to her. You would find her a joy to you, my lord."
The dark-looking man struck his hand against his forehead with a loud and scornful laugh.
"It serves me right! I cast out my own flesh and blood, and in exchange I get a b.a.s.t.a.r.d; now I am searching again for my own outcast child, and again, oh! mocking Fate, you fling the b.a.s.t.a.r.d scornfully into my lap.
Ay, Thou art just, Thou severe G.o.d, and Thy ways are past finding out."
The woman and the girl looked in alarm at the powerful man; but after a pause he spoke more calmly,
"I am the Count of Reichenberg," he said, "whose guilty wife gave this child into your charge."
"Great G.o.d!" cried the nurse, crossing herself. "Do not harm her, my lord, she could not help it."
The count"s gaze gradually softened as he looked at the girl"s childish beauty.
"No, you cannot help it. You have your mother"s eyes, but they are not false like hers. I forgave her on her death-bed, and how could I be cruel to you? By Heaven, the child bewitches me as her mother did before her. Be off with your sick nurse there to Reichenberg; you shall no longer wander about homeless. Give this ring to the warder as a token that I have sent you, and that he is to take you in to the castle, and take care of you. I shall come after you later, but first I have important work to do in this neighbourhood."
"Thank you, my lord, and may G.o.d reward you," cried the nurse, who was almost bewildered by such unexpected good fortune; "I cannot get so far, for I feel my end is near, but the child--I will send her to you at once."
But the little girl shook her head, and threw the ring from her.
"No," she said, "I will not go with the strange man, I will stay with you, mother."
"Child, do not be foolish; when I am dead, what then?"
"Then I will stay with the angel, he will take care of me."
"Oh, you silly child!" wailed the woman. "He cannot help you, for he is only a man, and is himself shut up a prisoner among the monks there."
"Then I will go to the blessed maidens that they may set him free,"
said the child confidently.
The Count had not been listening to the last words; he had thrown himself on horseback and set off again--away through wind and weather, straight across country, over roots and broken branches in fevered haste, to the heath of Mals, and he raised his fist threateningly at the convent on the height where the gleaming windows shone far out over the dark scene around.
Up in the convent all were astir. The monks were a.s.sembled for a solemn and fearful task; they were sitting in judgment on a breach of their holy rule--the crime of self-mutilation--of which Donatus was guilty.
This was _culpa gravis_, punishable by the heaviest penance that could be inflicted.
One word could absolve the criminal; he had only to say that one of the priests had ordered the deed, that he had done it in obedience to a superior command; but this word he did not speak, for his guilt would then fall on that other one, and he would have none but himself bear his cross.
And he, that other who could save him, he spoke not. The lips of both remained sealed. If Donatus had still had eyes, the cruel instigator of the crime might well have blenched before the silent appeal with which his victim turned to him; but those eyes were gone which might have spoken, and the bloodstained bandage concealed even the unspoken anguish stamped on the pale brow.
The enquiry was ended, the sentence only was wanting; the monks stood in a half-circle round the Abbot who supported himself on the arms of his chair; his hands trembled, his face was as pale as death. The younger brethren covered their faces and wept; Donatus waited in humble resignation for the sentence to be p.r.o.nounced.
Three times the Abbot rose, three times his voice failed him--at last he spoke.
"Seeing that the holy rule of Saint Benedict strictly forbids any follower of his to lay violent hands upon himself, in that he is no longer his own but belongs to the holy Church, and, as such, may not injure himself any more than any sacred vessel, garment, altar, temple or whatever else is the Church"s property--
"Seeing that you, unhappy child, have been instructed and indoctrinated in that holy rule and have wittingly sinned against it out of your own pride of judgment as to what is best, and have thus rendered yourself unfit to do the Church that service for which G.o.d had especially chosen you--
"Seeing that by the commission of this deed, you have rebelled against the will of your spiritual and temporal superiors and so are guilty of the gravest disobedience--
"We declare and p.r.o.nounce that, as a terrible example to the votaries of all Orders and at all times you--" here again his voice failed and he had to draw a long breath, "that you shall be imprisoned to all perpetuity in the Convent dungeon."
Donatus bowed his head in silence--the Abbot sank back in his chair and clasped his hands over his face which was bathed in tears. One single inarticulate sob broke from all the conclave; only Correntian stood unmoved and his eyes were fixed upon the prisoner. A long silence followed; over their heads stared the fixed stony face of Duty--that pitiless divinity--suppressing every outward expression of the sorrow that filled their shrinking hearts.
At last the Abbot rose and turning to Correntian with an awful and reproachful look,
"You, Correntian," he said, "may fill the office of executioner and lead him away--for not one of us could bear it."
And, just as he had long ago s.n.a.t.c.hed him from his nurse"s arms, ruthlessly and without delay Correntian grasped the blind man"s arm--to tear him from the last hearth of humanity that was open to him--from the midst of the brotherhood. Donatus obediently turned to follow him.
"Forgive us!" cried the sobbing group of monks, "We only do our duty."
The blind man spread out his arms as though he would clasp them all in one embrace, "If I had eyes to weep, my brethren, it should be for you all and not for myself."
The Abbot could contain himself no longer; with a cry of anguish he flung himself upon Donatus; "My son, my son--why have you done this to me?"
The youth sank into his arms with unutterable affection and they stood in close embrace through a long silence.
But even these loving arms, which had once rescued him from Correntian"s iron grip, could not save him now; that iron hand tore him from them and led him away--an unresisting prey. Correntian remained the victor.
"Let us mourn and fast for forty days, my brethren, as for one that is dead," said the Abbot to the conclave. "And send for brother Eusebius--why is he not here?--He must bind up that poor boy"s eyes to the best of his skill--the law does not forbid that," and as he spoke he tottered and put out his hand to cling to the man nearest to him--the strong man"s powers were spent and the brethren had to support him, or he would have fallen.
Correntian led his victim down the slippery dungeon stair; two of the convent servants followed him with hand-cuffs. They reached the damp vault in silence. Correntian led his prisoner to a bed made of a heap of straw in a corner, close to which, riveted to the wall, were the rings to which he was to be fastened.
"Chains too?" said Donatus; and in the tone in which he spoke these two words there was something which penetrated even Correntian"s hard heart to that secret human core, which up to this minute no lament, no dying sigh of any mortal had ever touched; but he strangled the emotion before it found birth, and said calmly, "So it must be."
"If it is possible," said Donatus humbly, "spare me that--Yet, not my will but thine be done."
"So it must be," repeated Correntian, and the lad was silent. Only once he pressed his hand on the bandage which covered his burning sockets, then he submissively held out his trembling hands for the chains; it was quickly done, the irons were riveted and the servants went away.
The two monks were alone.