MY LADY'S KISS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13724, 14 April 1908, Page 3

MY LADY'S KISS.

, •fOBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY NORMAN INNES, Author of " The Surge of War," " Parson Croft," " The Lonely Guard," etc. I

HISTORICAL ROMANCE. IM-h- '

!!£ '•, [COPYX7.GHT.] !||;v CHAPTER VII. , MOCKED. : 111 on the brow of a low hill, deep in a te? f y forest, stands the Castle of Staren, • the cradle of Count Ignatz's race. It had f known siege and assault ere cannon was cast or powder mixed, and but for the -<f fact that the springs that of old had . watered it had run dry some hundred . ■ years before, the place might still have : ; maintained some fame as a fortress. As ■ °C'-- it was. having to depend for its supply - of, water on the quantity of 'rain caught in two great tanks within the keep, it ■ : was acknowledged by all who knew it to be as ill to defend as it was lacking in 11 comfort, to live in. In winter or spring when rain fell in abundance and the cisterns were full it would have kept its foes at bay for months, but during a dry summer the water consumed in the castle bad to be brought from some distance, and if besieged at that season or in early autumn Staren must have yielded at the first summons to surrender. For this cause it'had been taken and gutted by Mansfield in the campaign of 1620, and had been all but dismantled till within the preceding three years. It was a grim hold enough in the waning light, vith its grey walls, clear cut against the sunset sky, a grim place and a sombre, but it had no terrors for Ertha von Reuth as she passed the outer gate, so weary was she and sick at heart. Blindly she slipped from the saddle, blindly watched the men-at-arms as they ragged the huntsman from his horse, had it in / her mind then and there to beg mercy on him from St. Eux, and then without a word, though her heart was breaking, with her hand on her maid's arm, she followed the captain of dragoons who had been waiting their dismounting. _ 'Forlorn they followed him into tho gloom of the keep; in spite ot her mistress' aid Crete Zips had hardly enough strength to climb the stairway after their guide. Fortunately St. Fux led the way without so much at turning his head, and as yet, so Mistress Ertha assured herself, had 110 ; v suspicion of their disguise.' Since she had met that one keen glance in the count s audience-chamber, she had watched him closely, but no sign had he given of having read their secret. The journey through he had paid no attention to his prisoners until her unlucky attempt at flight, and having reached Staren his one thought was, it seemed, to have the two younger r.afe under lock and key, and the elder handed out of hand. Any momentary tear ;/*■' that? might have possessed her with regard f?'K to the discovery of their imposture quickly vanished at the sight of the gaunt - figure striding on before them. Men of his trade were not the folk to spare a jesu at a woman's expense, and she felt sure that a soldier's suspicions being once awakened he would have at once set his boorish wit to mock and humiliate them. And now as she followed at his back she smiled at the thought her disguise should have baffled - both von Neufels and his lieutenant. It was nob light work, as they found it, to keep up with their guide in the maze of ; corridors and stairways that they threaded. St. Eux carried a lantern, but other light there was none, save at rare intervals when the feeble flicker of a hanging lamp but made the _s shadpwß the deeper. Blundering, stumbling they followed him, nor met a living soul except an oid woman who passed them as a ghost at- the bend of a winding stairway. At length at the very end of a gloomy passage the castellan unlocked the door, and as he threw it open a bright light streamed forth upon them. "Your chamber, Herr von Kemmel,' said he, leading the way into a large sparsely-furnished, room which, but for the blazing fire, would have been cheerless indeed. " Yonder are beds for you and your groom, and supper' shall be - brought presently." Mistress and maid peered round the chamber; saving the two beds, a settle, a table, and a great cupboard that- stood half-open beside the hearth the place was bare.. Nor arras, nor, pictures garnished x he walls, nor carpet the fiocr. It v-x: was damp, too. and cold, musty with V* long disuse; Mistress Ertha found herself wondering who its last occupant might have been. Two candles unlit stood upright in sconces upon the table, and a heap of faggots lay oiled in the chimney corner. In the wall that faced the doorway was one deep-set window, some five feet above the floor, through which the moon ' was shining. The dragoon, however, in spite of its bareness, looked round the room with every appearance of satisfaction, and from the grim smile that wrinkled his lips he seemed well pleased with the preparations. "Fair lodging," muttered he, turning to go, and then, as if on second thoughts, ■ \ he strode to the cupboard, glanced within, and made for the doorway. Mistress Ertha would have stayed him. "And my other servant, sir?" said she to St. Eux, who was fitting the key in the lock. . " He will be brought before me within the hour," came the curt reply, and without another word the iron-bound door swung home and was made fast upon them. < Side by side the prisoners stood. They heard the jar of the bolts, the ring of the man's spurs upon the flags, fancied they caught a chuckle, and then as the footsteps grew faint in the distance, Gret-e Zips, who had borce the long day and its terrors with as stout a heart as ever buoyed German maiden in sorrow's hour, sink weeping beside the bed. ' "They will kill him, they will kill him, she fobbed, rooking to and fro in her distress. "Ah, save him, mistress, as he, for your sake, would have saved your cousin." As ."suppliant she spread her anus to Mistress Ertha as if her word was law in Staren as in Kemmel. The girl was beside herself for distress, and would' have none of the other's comfort. "Save him," was her cry, repeated with the monotony of despair, " surely the man will listen to thee." She crouched at the bedside disconsolate, •f nor could Ertha von Reuth stay her weepinl'. A prisoner in a disguise that she C' "' loathed, of which she bitterly repented, what could she do? Would that she could have undone the folly of the past four-and-twenty hours. • But for' that unlucky meeting with von eufel's officer following the. way-laying W- of her cousin ail would have been well, and she, old Zips, and his daughter at that Ir'y*' moment, safe in Kemmel, whither Ernst, for lack of letter to deliver, must have returned as well. Chance had, indeed, used her ill in delivering her in circumstances j so falsely invidious into the hands of her ftL-' uncle's enemy, the suitor whose very name Fv, she hated. Helpless, lost to her own kmA dred, beneath the care of one whose deeds i'-i were a byword in that wild age, well might ]]'■" she have given herself over to the same *- black despair as had her dependant. But Ertha von Reuth was the child of a jfc'- . stout old stock, nor was it the first time m - the history of her race that one of tne name I' bad looked ruin in the face. She was but a P woman, but in her blood ran the fire <> a long line of Rhineland warriors who had faced odds gay of heart, with nought but II ft heaven's favour to kick them in tueir qnw- . rel. • Birth and high breeding, each stint.e asset of Ions: descent, still stayed her coin.V ' age. All that had befallen those other two who had so lovally shared her venture, all that was like to befall them, banished fear fit for hersef. No matter the ties of kinship, 15; she knew well enough that Conrad of em mell was not the man to lift a finger o a one- who had compassed her own misterUires. in the act of thwarting ms schemes, fegbulr she swallowed her sorrow; her shame, i&feher:;many; doubts, arid instead of sobbiu I but her maid, - fell her sorrow her shame, her manv doubts, and instead of like her'maid, fell to rackmg her brains ~iv\" ~ iir " 7 best to act in her strait. •

Up and down the chamber she strode, turning over in her mind, her future line of conduct, to pause at length before the window where for the moment her difficulties wore forgotten in the brilliance of the sight before her. Not more than ten feet beneath lay a narrow court, some twenty ' yards square, flanked,by two high walls without loophole or window to break their rigid outline. In the midst of this court stood two great pools of water, oval in shape, with a narrow stone causeway running about them, while beyond and approached by steps from the causeway, rose another wall the battlements of'which were much on a level with the opening at which she stood. The night was very still, not' a breath ruffled the water in those basins that shone like mirrors in the moonlight. Their lustre dazzled her, and her eyes once accustomed to the brilliance, she was held by the radiant tranquillity of the scene. These then were the great tanks on which the castle depended for its store of water; they were full to the brim though it was but September, for much rain tmd fallen ] that summer.., She had heard of those mighty cisterns, yet had never realised ti'l that moment all that they must mean to the defenders of the keep. She gazed at them for a while in silence, and sighing turned to pace the room once more. Her tread and the fall of the ashes were the only sounds to break the stillness; Grete's weeping had died in broken sobs, and ever the* hopelessness of their strait grew more apparent to Ertha von Reuth. If he would, her uncle could not aid her, nor her cousin Ernst could as yet have knowledge of the cause of her disappearance, much less imagine that she was in Count Ignatz's power, a prisoner to that insolent who had shamed her and her kindred in the sight of all Kemmel. Her position was moreover as false a«s it was hopeless; events must take their course, her imposture would be discovered, and then the case of Ertha von Beuth was like to be worse than anything that could have befallen Ernst of Kemmel. The fire had sunk down, the room was growing cold, and she flung some faggots j upon the hearth. The brands were dry, the flames shot up in an instant, and, as she raised herself from stooping before the blaze, her glance chanced to fall on the cupboard that stood to the left of the chimxtev corner. The wood burned brightly, playing upon the polished surface of the half-opened door, yet without lighting up the blackness of the interior of the press. Hitherto she had hardly noticed the cupboard, and it was less in curiosity than for lack of .aught else to occupy her that she pryed into its depths. All was gloom witliin save where a chink of light shone through the space between the hinges, and for some moments the woman stood peering before her. Then she took a candle standing on the table, lit it at the fire and in another moment was staring in blank wonder at a settle that ran the length of the recess. Next, the candle and sconce fell clattering to the ground as Ertha von Renth clutched at the cupboard door, a-tremble from head to foot. Her breath came panting, the blood surged tingling to her cheeks, doubt shook her heart, at the sight of two piles of women's clothing set forth in great order upon the bench. The garments were free from dust, free as was the polished settle on which they were spread, indeed to all appearance not many hours could have elapsed since some one had placed them there, and as she re-lit the candle it was with gathering dismay that Mistress Ertha called to mind how the castellan had glanced carelessly into that cupboard but a short | half-hour before. Then as womanlike, she stooped to learn of the weight and texture of the gear, she all but dropped the candle again as ber glance rested on a great key lying midway between the two heaps of clothes. (To tie continued daily.)