Читать книгу The Sword Decides! - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 4

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The hard, perfect turquoise of the summer sky was fading into the glowing purple of evening, and the first stars glittered golden above the vast calm of the Adriatic Sea; silver olives were changing into gray, and the white foam of wild cherry trees were slowly dimmed by the encroaching dusk; a few late swallows were abroad, and over the grass and flowers of the meadows faint butterflies chased each other.

There, under the shade of the chestnut trees, within close distance of the coast, were a number of tents, men, horses, and baggage; a small but splendid encampment.

It was the night of June 3rd, 1343; and this the train of Andreas of Hungary, on his way to Naples to join his unseen wife, Giovanna, grand-daughter of the King.

They had been travelling many days, and now, near the end of their journey and among surroundings more beautiful than any their sterner land could show, were taking their ease here on the shores of the Adriatic.

The Hungarians walked under the trees in couples and whispered together, a little overawed by the magnificence of these meadows and the wonder of the sea; and the Italians, their guides and escorts, lounged along the grass, laughing, jesting, and cursing the increasing heat.

As the night closed in, and the scattered groups became lost in the gathering shadows, a man made his way through the confusion of the camp to the tent lying in the centre, above which the royal banner of Hungary fluttered lazily in the Italian night.

A soldier kept guard at the entrance; but he saluted and moved aside, for the newcomer was Konrad of Gottif, and the Prince's dearest friend.

Brusquely and without ceremony, Konrad lifted the tent flap and entered. A couple of pages were polishing a huge gilt-and-steel helmet, and a white hound slept beside them; beyond this heavy curtains concealed the rest.

"Is the Prince within?" demanded Konrad; he was a large, rough man, and his voice deep and uncouth.

The pages sprang up, between them dropping the helmet, which rolled glittering to Konrad's feet.

"Ah, careless fools!" he scowled, and, pushing past them without waiting for their speech, he raised the curtain at one corner. He stood silent a moment, staring at the scene within.

The tent was hung with tapestry of a peacock-green gold, and from the centre of the roof a bronze lamp was suspended by a heavy chain; this gave a dull yellow light, and showed coffers, rugs, armour, and weapons piled against the sides. It showed also a young man lying along a low couch covered with lynx and bear skins, resting his head in his hands and gazing at a girl who sat in the centre of the silk rug spread over the floor.

The youth was not above twenty, but of a large, powerful make. His regular features wore an expression cold and haughty; his smooth, heavy, fair hair was cut straight above his hard blue eyes, and hung on to his purple velvet coat behind; on his head was a gold net cap that bore in front a great tuft of the breast plumage and two trailing tail-feathers of the golden eagle.

His huge limbs, stretched along the bear-skins, were clothed in parti-coloured hose, dull pink-and-white; a cluster of wild roses was pinned into the embroidery at his breast, and the hands that showed above the sumptuous fantasy of his sleeves were singularly well-shaped and white.

The girl sitting doubled up under the lamp was slight and slender as a child; she wore the faded clothes of the peasantry of the Marches, and by her side was a great basket of oranges and lemons, many of which had rolled across the floor.

Konrad dropped the curtain behind him and advanced into the tent; Andreas of Hungary looked up, the golden plumage on his brow shimmering as he raised his head.

"Good even, Prince," said Konrad, with a'scowl at the girl. "I have to speak with you."

Andreas slowly sat up on the couch.

"On what matter?" he said, and there was a shade of annoyance in his cold eyes. "Hippolyta"—he looked in the direction of the girl indifferently—"is helping me to better my Italian, and telling me of Naples, and of Giovanna."

"I also," answered Konrad, "have to speak of Naples—and of Giovanna."

He pronounced the last word with so much quiet meaning that Andreas regarded him curiously; Hippolyta, the peasant girl, sat motionless and smiled from one to the other.

"Of Giovanna, my wife?" asked Andreas slowly.

Konrad crossed the tent and flung himself on to a carved chest at the far end.

"Send the girl away," he said briefly, with his eyes on the floor.

Andreas frowned and hesitated, looked from the man to the maid, and said at length:

"Get thee gone, Hippolyta."

She rose instantly, emptied the fruit on to the floor, and picked up the basket.

"Come to-morrow," said Andreas sullenly, "and I will pay thee."

She looked at him and laughed, flinging back the black hair from her eyes; then she came lightly to his couch and kissed his hand. He moved heavily and watched her erect figure disappear through the dark curtains then he glanced at Konrad with a slow impatience.

"You could have spoken before the little fruit-seller," he said in his curious unanimated way. "She amuses me."

Konrad looked the Prince straight in the eyes.

"And I have not come to amuse you, Andreas."

The Prince stared sullenly.

"You have something to say of Giovanna?"

"Yes," said Konrad earnestly. "But, first, because I am so much older, and your friend, and your brother's friend, I will be plain and honest with you. This marriage of yours is pure policy, is it not?"

"What else? I have not seen my wife," answered Andreas heavily.

"And it is not Giovanna you desire, but the throne of Naples?"

The Prince's eyes flashed a little.

"By Christ! I am the nearer heir," he said, and clenched his hand beside him. "I am of the elder branch, and she, my cousin and my wife, is but the grandchild of a usurper—you know this, Konrad?"

"And the King, her grandfather, knows it; and as some atonement for his stolen throne, he brings about this match—to give you back your right and heal the rift, and bring all differences within the circle of a wedding ring."

"Yes," answered Andreas slowly.

"The King," said Konrad impatiently, "is crazy with age, to think to reconcile himself with Heaven in this manner!"

Andreas moved on his couch.

"Why?" he demanded. "He, King Roberto, is dying, and the sole heir he leaves, this Giovanna—well, she is a child and my wife. I shall be King of Naples and Sicily, Jerusalem and Provence."

Konrad looked at him curiously.

"And she?"

Andreas raised his blue-grey eyes haughtily.

"The woman, Giovanna?"

"Yes," said Konrad briefly.

"Why, if I care for her, she can be my Queen; if I dislike her, I shall send her to Hungary or into a convent, and rule alone." He glanced at his friend under lowering brows. "She will do well to please me; I do not love my uncle's race."

"And you think she would take this meekly, Prince?"

"She is a woman," answered the other scornfully. "What should she oppose to me?"

Konrad straightened himself on his seat.

"By Christ! Prince, take care," he said; "for you walk into that you do not dream of." He drew a thick folded letter from his pocket. "I intercepted this package—it was being taken by a peasant to Giovanna at Naples. It is sent by this very San Severino who is escorting you to Naples; it shows how much you may trust the Italian witch."

Andreas stared at him with the bewilderment of a slow-witted man struggling to comprehend something unexpected and sudden.

"A letter to Giovanna?" he said, frowning.

"From San Severino—evidently her spy. Andreas, listen."

Konrad unfolded the letter.

"Her spy?" echoed Andreas.

Konrad nodded.

"It is inscribed to Madonna Giovanna, Duchess of Calabria, at the Castel Nuovo, Naples, and it is dated to-day."

Andreas drew his scowling brows yet closer together.

"Well, read it," he said heavily.

Konrad of Gottif spread the letter out in the red lamplight and commenced:

"MADONNA,—As the Prince will enter Naples so soon, this is the last of the letters I shall write you. I have told you all I could gather of the Prince, and my first verdict needs no amending: he is rough, rude, colds and brutal; he may, I think, give trouble. For all the pains that have been taken to educate him befitting his destiny, teaching him the Italian and the polite arts, he remains uncouth and sullen; and though you dislike him upon report, you will dislike him more upon acquaintance. Believe me, Madonna, far from being fit to be your lord and the sharer of your throne, he is hardly worthy to be your lackey..."

A fierce exclamation from Andreas interrupted the reader.

"Hear the rest," said Konrad grimly, and he continued:

"In your last letter you say that you already dislike and despise him; but, Madonna, you should fear him also. He comes with full intent to seize your throne; both he and his Hungarians boast of his greater right, and make much of the fact that he is of the elder branch, and that his grandfather was the just heir to the throne your grandfather holds. King Roberto's act in bringing about this marriage has in no way pacified him; he intends to make himself sole and undisputed master of Sicily and Naples. This, Madonna, is the temper of the Prince, and he is supported and upheld by his brother, the King of Hungary. You ask me how the matter lies with regard to King Roberto's wishes as to your sister Maria's marriage with this same King. I think neither the King nor his subjects are desirous of it, though he pretends to consider it.

"Madonna, as last words, I can but say that Andreas, your husband, comes to rob you of your rights; that on the death of the King, he and his faction will hasten to make themselves supreme in the kingdom and consign you to obscurity or the convent. But, Madonna, you have what he can never gain—the love of the people; so be of good cheer, having faith in Raymond de Cabane, and

"Your servant,

"OCTAVIO SAN SEVERINO."

Konrad dropped the paper and gazed at the Prince. "What do you make of that?" he asked in a low voice.

Andreas sat motionless; his face was flushed, the veins in his forehead swollen, his eyes fixed on the letter in Konrad's hand; he grasped tightly the bear-skin on the couch.

"Will you go?" said Konrad earnestly. "Will you not, even now, turn back to Hungary?"

"Turn back?" repeated the Prince; and under his scowling brows his eyes burnt fiercely.

"Yes, turn back. You walk into a trap;—you see the nature of this woman and the temper of her friends."

Andreas tossed the golden plumes on his brow.

"Do you think that I am afraid of these Italians? I?"

Konrad straightened himself.

"I think, Andreas," he said earnestly, "that you will be a fool if you go to Naples."

Andreas was silent; there was nothing to be gathered from his sullen face.

"You have with you three hundred men," continued Konrad. "You will be a foreigner—Giovanna is in her own land; every man will be against you. When the King dies, you will stand alone; you will sink to the position of her subject."

"Silence!" cried Andreas suddenly. "I am going to Naples."

Konrad rose.

"Then you go to play a game where the odds are so against you that you can never win."

The Prince's breast heaved; the colour darkened in his face.

"No Neapolitan witch shall keep me from my kingdom," he said thickly.

"She has the country behind her," said Konrad.

Andreas of Hungary rose from his couch, showing the splendid make and strength of his great figure; he began pacing the room with something of the slow, heavy movements of the tiger; his head hung forward on his breast, and in the lamplight his hair glistened like threads of gold.

Thunderously, under his breath, he began venting his wrath.

"By God's heaven!"—his chest heaved with rage; his words came unsteadily—"by Christ! they write so of me! she sets her spies on me—she of the usurper's brood? But I will win my crown in spite of her—she, a sly Italian wench!" He stopped suddenly before Konrad. "Who is Raymond de Cabane?"

"Plainly your enemy," was the grim answer. "More I do not know."

"I will sweep him from Naples—I will clear the land of them." He lifted his hard angry eyes. "I will be the King, and she shall know it."

He paused a moment, struggling with slow utterance; then he flung himself along the couch again. "Where is San Severino?" he demanded.

"Somewhere in the camp, Prince."

Andreas drew his dagger and laid it along the bearskin.

"Send him to me," he said briefly.

Konrad eyed him curiously and made no movement to obey.

"To what purpose?" he asked.

"To prove I am the master," answered Andreas heavily. "Send him to me."

"Andreas," said Konrad, "you are violent and headstrong. Think a moment before you see this man now."

Andreas swore heavily.

"Am I your Prince? Are you not bound to obey me?" He raised himself, thundering wrath. "Send this Italian to me, and bring my guards up without my tent."

Konrad lifted his shoulders.

"You are resolved?" he asked, and his eyes dwelt with a curious half-tenderness on the splendid youth.

"On what?" said Andreas fiercely.

"On going on to Naples—to what awaits you."

The Prince glanced at his dagger lying beside him.

"If it were hell's mouth," he answered sullenly.

Konrad folded the letter and put it in his doublet.

"To each his fate," he said, and again lifted his shoulders.

"Send me San Severino!" cried Andreas violently, "or, by God's heaven, Konrad! I will go and find him!"

"You are master," was the answer. "But remember afterwards I told you it was folly."

And the Lord of Gottif left the tent.

When he was alone, the Prince shouted for his pages, then flung himself along the couch again, with his head in his hands and his blue eyes staring at the bare dagger lying between his elbows.

Lying so, he ordered the varlets to bring more lights and clear away the lemons and oranges strewn over the floor.

"And bring me my sword," he commanded fiercely, "and put it behind that coffer; and wait without, not entering, whatever happens, until I call."

Then they lit two other swinging lamps, and the tent was bright with light; they brought the Prince's sword and laid it carefully behind the coffer—between them they could barely carry it, so massive and heavy a weapon it was. Andreas watched them moodily, and when they had gone he stared frowning at a golden orange left on the gorgeous carpet.

Octavio San Severino, entering with a light step and observant eyes, found him so, and paused with his hand on the arras.

"Good even, Prince," he said.

Andreas turned a slow glance on him; noted the alert figure, a blaze of blue satin and silver, and was silent.

San Severino on his side marked everything: the naked weapon on the bear-skin; the sullen, flushed face of the boy lounging on the couch; the expression of the clear blue-grey eyes staring at him furiously.

He smiled, and shifted his girdle carelessly so that his dagger lay nearer his thin fingers.

"How do you like our Italian nights?" he said.

"Sit down," answered Andreas heavily.

Octavio San Severino obeyed; he sank into a carved chair under a lamp and the light ran in and out of his blue clothes like a golden liquid. Both his teeth and his eyes gleamed overmuch, and he had the air of keeping a constant watch upon himself.

Andreas of Hungary fondled the bare weapon before him; he took his gaze from the man to whom he spoke. "I want to ask you of my wife, San Severino," he said awkwardly.

San Severino laughed, and at the sound of it the young prince sat upright on his couch and the eagle plumes danced angrily.

"By God's heaven! why do you laugh, San Severino?" he cried thickly.

The Italian was sober in an instant.

"For pure idleness," he said. "Now what shall I tell you of Giovanna d'Anjou?"

Andreas was still staring at him intently, angrily.

"Tell me with what thought she waits me," he demanded.

San Severino made the slightest movement of his hand on the arm of his chair, and his eyes narrowed.

"Why, how should I know?" he said. "How I, Prince?"

Andreas leant slightly forward. "Tell me what her welcome will be to me in Naples?"

San Severino answered easily: "What should her welcome be to her cousin and her lord?"

"So she is meek and tender?" sneered Andreas.

The other man looked at him straightly.

"She is very beautiful, and Italian; she is of royal blood; she does not lack for pride"—for a second his voice was touched with scorn; "she is well loved in Naples."

A tense silence fell. San Severino was on the alert, for all his easy bearing; the Prince appeared to have sunk into a moody self-absorption. Then suddenly he spoke:

"Who is Raymond de Cabane?"

Again the Italian's hand tightened on his chair, for he knew now that Andreas had seen his letter; very quietly he answered:

"The Conte d'Eboli, the captain of the King's guard in Naples."

"And what else?" demanded Andreas.

"A favourite of the old King, a powerful man."

"A noble of a fine family?" questioned the Prince.

San Severino laughed once more.

"His father was a negro slave," he said, "who rose to be major-domo to the King, and his mother was a Catanian washerwoman who nursed Madonna Giovanna's father."

Andreas scowled. "And is such scum among her friends?" he cried.

San Severino rose.

"Who told you that much?" he asked quietly.

"You!" flung out Andreas. "By God's heaven! you!"

There was no change in San Severino's face.

"You have seen my letter," he said. "Well, it told you the truth."

Andreas rose heavily to his feet and picked up the dagger from the bear-skin.

"We are too near Naples, my lord," cried the Italian, quick and scornful. "This should have been in Austria."

"You insolent spy!" muttered the Prince, and his chest heaved with passion.

San Severino smoothed his glittering blue sleeve.

"You are not in your brother's kingdom," he remarked; "so take care, Prince."

"I'm master here," said Andreas passionately—"master enough to have you hanged!"

San Severino lifted his dark brows.

"This is boy's talk," he mocked. "All your Hungarian boors would not dare to touch me; and you are foolish, Prince, to insult me—in Naples you may be glad of a friend."

Andreas reddened furiously.

"Hound, I shall be King in Naples!"

San Severino looked at him gently. "I do not think so; if you were wise you would not go to Naples."

The Prince clutched his dagger until it seemed that he must break it in his grip.

"Why do you dare say that to me?" he cried.

San Severino moved slowly towards the entry; there he turned and looked at the magnificent, furious figure by the couch. "Because of Giovanna," he said; then, as he despised this barbarous foreigner, held himself safe under the protection of Naples; and was by nature malicious, he added: "and because of Raymond de Cabane."

In his ponderous way, Andreas came a little nearer, a splendid figure in the purple colour with the golden hair and golden plumes.

"Why do you use that name to me?" he asked, and he spoke with more dignity than the Italian had yet seen in him.

"Because you will do well to be aware of him," smiled San Severino, amused at this boy fumbling in his ignorance.

The Prince flung away his dagger and folded his arms over his great chest. The Italian felt easier (though the blue satin concealed armour).

"Tell me," said Andreas slowly, "more of this man."

"You will soon know," laughed San Severino. "By Christ! I am sorry for you, Prince."

Andreas looked at him out of narrowed eyes.

"Tell me," he said, "of this man." His self-control was small; he struggled painfully and obviously with surging fury; his breath came in short pants, his face flushed and paled. To San Severino, who knew of no passion he could not control, this was amusing; he emphasised his mockery.

"Raymond de Cabane is a great man—a very great man; he will most likely marry the Queen's sister, Madonna Maria."

Andreas of Hungary became red in the face, and his eyes were extraordinarily bewildered.

"Maria?" he asked clumsily. "Why, you insult me! My cousin to wed a negro's son?"

"If he be useful to Madonna Giovanna," said San Severino quietly. "If this be the reward he asks for—all perhaps he cares to ask for,—why not?"

"She is my brother's betrothed!" cried Andreas, flushing and panting. "Do you make a mock of me? do you wish to goad me?"

"Prince, neither; therefore I will suffer the Conte d'Eboli to speak for himself."

Andreas was striding about with clenched fists.

"By God's heaven! you had better leave me!" He broke off, muttering under his breath.

San Severino smiled, lifted his shoulders, and noiselessly slipped out of the tent.

The Prince, sore and stung, came to the entrance, caught back the arras with an angry hand, and gazed after him.

And without, to the starlit Adriatic, the soldiers toasted:

"Giovanna! Giovanna of Naples!"