The clock struck eleven; directly afterward there came a hesitating knock at her door.
"Come in! You may come in!" she called joyfully. She thought it was Ludwig.
The door opened slowly, only half-way, and the voice which began to speak was not Ludwig"s; it was the groom.
"Beg pardon, madame!" (thus he addressed the little maid).
"Is it you, Henry? What do you want? You may come in. I am still up."
The groom entered, and closed the door behind him. He was a tall, gray-haired man, with an honest face and enormously large hands.
"What is it, Henry? Did the count send you?"
"No, madame; I only wish he were able."
"Why? What is the matter with him?"
"I don"t know, indeed! I believe he is dying."
"Who? Ludwig?"
"Yes, madame; my master."
"For G.o.d"s sake, tell me what you mean!"
"He is lying on his bed, quite out of his mind. His face is flushed, his eyes gleam like hot coals, and he is talking wildly. I have never seen him in such a condition."
"Oh, heaven! what shall we do?"
"I don"t know, madame. When any of us gets sick the count knows what to do; but he does n"t seem able to cure himself now; the contents of the medicine-chest are scattered all over the floor."
"Is there no doctor in the village?"
"Yes, madame; the county physician."
"Then he must be sent for."
"I thought of that, but I did not like to venture to do so."
"Why not?"
"Because the count has declared that he will shoot me if I attempt to bring a stranger into his room, or into madame"s. He told me I must never admit within the castle gate a doctor, a preacher, or a woman; and I should not think of disobeying him."
"But now that he is so ill? and you say he may die? Merciful G.o.d! Ludwig die! It cannot--must not--happen!"
"But how will madame hinder it?"
"If you will not venture to fetch the doctor, then I will go myself."
"Oh, madame! you must not even think of doing this!"
"I think of nothing else but that he is ill unto death. I am going, and you are coming with me."
"Holy Father! The count will kill me if I do that."
"And if you don"t do it you will kill the count."
"That is true, too, madame."
"Then don"t you do anything. _I_ shall do what is necessary. I will put on my veil, and let no one see my face."
"But in this storm? Just listen, madame, how it thunders."
"I am not afraid of thunder, you stupid Henry. Light a lantern, and arm yourself with a stout cudgel, while I am putting on my pattens. If Ludwig should get angry, I shall be on hand to pacify him. If only the dear Lord will spare his life! Oh, hasten, hasten, my good Henry!"
"He will shoot me dead; I know it. But let him, in G.o.d"s name! I do it at your command, madame. If madame is really determined to go herself for the doctor, then we will take the carriage."
"No, indeed! Ludwig would hear the sound of wheels, and know what we were doing. Then he would jump out of bed, run into the court, and take a cold that would certainly be his death. No; we must go on foot, as noiselessly as possible. It is not so very far to the village. Go now, and fetch the lantern."
Several minutes afterward, the gates of the Nameless Castle opened, and there came forth a veiled lady, who clung with one hand to the arm of a tall man, and carried a lantern in the other. Her companion held over her, to protect her from the pouring rain, a large red umbrella, and steadied his steps in the slippery mud with a stout walking-stick. The lady walked so rapidly that her companion with difficulty kept pace with her.
CHAPTER IV
Dr. Tromfszky had just returned from a _visum repertum_ in a criminal case, and had concluded that he would go to bed so soon as he had finished his supper. The rain fell in torrents on the roof, and rushed through the gutters with a roaring noise.
"Now just let any one send again for me this night!" he exclaimed, when his housekeeper came to remove the remnants of cheese from the supper-table. "I would n"t go--not if the primate himself got a fish-bone fast in his throat; no, not for a hundred ducats. I swear it!"
At that moment there came a knock at the street door, and a very peremptory one, too.
"There! did n"t I know some one would take it into his head to let the devil fetch him to-night? Go to the door, Zsuzsa, and tell them that I have a pain in my foot--that I have just applied a poultice, and can"t walk."
Frau Zsuzsa, with the kitchen lamp in her hand, waddled into the corridor. After inquiring the second time through the door, "Who is it?"
and the one outside had answered: "It is I," she became convinced, from the musical feminine tone, that it was not the notorious robber, Satan Laczi, who was seeking admittance.
Then she opened the door a few inches, and said:
"The Herr Doctor can"t go out any more to-night; he has gone to bed, and is poulticing his foot."
The door was open wide enough to admit a delicate feminine hand, which pressed into the housekeeper"s palm a little heap of money. By the light of the lamp Frau Zsuzsa recognized the shining silver coins, and the door was opened its full width.
When she saw before her the veiled lady she became quite complaisant.
Curiosity is a powerful lever.
"I humbly beg your ladyship to enter."