MY LADY'S KISS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13728, 20 April 1908, Page 3

MY LADY'S KISS.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

HISTORICAL ROMANCE. BY NORMAN INNES, Author of "The Snrze of War," "Parson Croft," "The Lonely Guard," etc. [COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER IX.—(Continued.) She had bought her retainer's life, but the price had been all too high. As she threaded those sunless galleries her regret was that this man had ever crossed her path, this dragoon whom fate had sent to bumble her. Had she known all that was to follow, Kemmel might nave perished before she had paid its ransom, the first step in that headlong course of folly that had brought her failure and humiliation. For the former she cared nothing, failure at the worst might be borne : it was the other that woke despair in the proudest in Bavaria. The sacrifice made, her one desire was to hide herself from her servants, from the troopers, above all from. St. Eux, to gain the solitude of her room where tears might bring her peace. But, to her chagrin and her boundless surprise, this hope was denied her. As she threw open the door of her chamber .she stood still ; n utter astonishment at the sight of a man's figure- leaning athwart the sill of the window that, faced her. His arm was raised, he seemed in the act of balancing himself upon the ledge. At the creak of the rust-worn hinges he slipped to the ground, and a.s ho turned, with eyes wide and cheeks every whit as pale as hers, Mistress Ertha. recognised the unfortunate lieutenant who had first made her prisoner and of whose discomfiture she had later been a witness. With one hand still grasping the. sill, he gaped at her in dismay, then his face grew scarlet. He would have spoken but surprise held him dumb. Of the two Ertha von Reuth showed the least astonishment, though at a loss to find a reason for this unlooked-for intrusion. What was he doing there, when every man of the garrison was in hourly expectation of the foe? Had he come at his superior's bidding to inflict some further shame upon her".' Were it so, the man hardly seemed in love with his errand. His beardless cheeks were all colours a.s a maid's in fair-time, his eyes ablink, his fingers plucking nervously at the buckle of his sword belt. *' Your business, sir?" demanded the lady in hoi. indignation. "Who sent you hither?" She "spoke curtly, though not without certain misgivings. " None sent me, mistress," stammered the man. ' 1 passed the chamber, the door was wide, and I stood for a moment at the window." "The prospect is fair. Heir Teazel," rejoined the other, still standing in the entrance, " but as fair may bo seen from the castle walls. Besides, the dooi was shut not a moment since. Her manner was not lost upon the intruder. '• I ask your pardon," lie faltered, and turned from the window with a single glance without. " I had forgotten that this had of late become your lodging, had "my memory been bettor' I should never have : crossed the threshold."

"Then, if it please you, cross the threshold once again, and may heaven send you a better memory, Heir Ter.zel."

The lieutenant, bowed low, feathered hat in hand. He was dressed in brown velvet with an orange scarf about his waist, his hair was curled; his sword hilt and spurs were brightly polished: a gallant that might flutter hearts though he might not win them, a well-looking, ruffling youth, with a high opinion of his own small merits and with a few flakes of a. reddish-brown dust upon his sleeve to mar the nicety of his dress.

" Touching you, madam," he rejoined softly, " heaven could not- better my memory." Ertha- von Reuth tossed her chin; she had met many such in her day, and set no great value upon them, but at the sight of the cavalier bowing in the doorway it crossed her mind that his words might be put to the proof and that with advantage. Her manner, frigid hitherto, underwent a sudden change. She laughed lightly. " Your speech is fair, sir, as is the speech of few in this place it seems. The Hcrr de St. Eux " "Hell burn St. Eux," growled the coxcomb, frowning. Mistress Ertha paid no heed to the interruption. Her heart grew lighter, for the moment she forgot her troubles; ,so the quarrel between this sprucely dressed gentleman and his officer was not healed. ''My thinks for your words,'" said she, "but would " and then she sighed and the long lashes drooped. The man was snared as a quail in harvest. '• Nay, I have else than words," said lie with a curl of his moustache. " You have hut to a.'ik, mistress, and Heinrich Tenzel is at your sen-ice in aught. A message to Kemmel mayhap?" It waiS the woman's turn to stare. A message to Kemmel," she gasped, ''and you m Starem, and like to be besieged :" The youth, smiled. "I am in Staren as you say, yet trust the saints- that I am not besieged therein." "But they any that the foe, Swedes or Saxons, are not two leagues distant."' The other nodded, paused, and then, with a swift glance above his shoulder down the corridor, answered — "And it is my hope that when they call on the castle to surrender 1 shall be as many leagues distant." His voice had sunk low, there was a look half-braggart, half-craven in his eyes. Her lips all but curled at what she held to be a frank avowal of cowardice, "So, Herr Tenzel?" said she and looked him full in the face. The man toyed uneasily with the feather in his wide-brimmed hat in fear that he had said too much. Ertha. von Reuth saw his embarrassment and hastened to reassure, him. " Nay, I am no friend to the castellan; your secret, is safe in my keeping.' For a moment the other's face spoke doubt. " "lis thus," said lie as if in haste, and brushing a streak of that reddish powder from his sleeve. " There, lies little love .between me and this St. Eux. lam weary of his tongue and his discipline. None is good enough to follow him, though there are blades in tha company who have served von Speyer and Madras, under old Jan Loot/, the Walloon, under Pappehhenm himself, under Andrea Orfcegna the Tuscan, and a score besides whoso harness he is not worthy to polish." " But they tell me. that this Captain St. Eux is a rare leader to follow," said the woman desirous of sounding the man further, " that he has the love of his troopers." Tenzel swallowed an oath.

Little love of mine," he growled. " For his pride and his biting tongue I've sworn vengeance on him." The woman's fa-co hardened, she too would have vengeance on. the castellan. " So you hate him, sir?" she breathed. " As you do unless I am mistaken," replied the other with a grin. " Yet if I did other than loathe the man, I would offer to put myself at your commands." He sighed, and stole a glance at the blue eyes that were watching the play of his every feature, ere he continued— "Enough have I had of this squadron, enough of its leader. Let none marvel if I am missing when they take the roll at sunset." " But how will you pass the gates?" asked the woman: this gallant of a surety hated the castellan as did she, and might be trusted to bear a message to the Freiherr. " When the horses are taken to water at the pool beneath the castle," he rejoined, "call me a dullard if I cannot slip away unseen. Once within the forest 'twill go hard with me if I am. taken." " And then?" " And then I will ride to Kemmel in your service, after 1 have had speech with a friend." "And this friend?" asked Mistress Ertha almost breathless, caught by the man's leer. The other shrugged his shoulders and stooped to flick a few flakes of that rust-hued powder that streaked his boot.

"'Dungs go ill with us Catholics, said he. "A man mast, look; to himcetl, and mayhap his friend can do me a service, ana I can toll him a tale perchance." She guessed it now; so his knave would plav the traitor. She looked him up ana down and shuddered at the thought of such an all v. Could she trust him with those •shallow eyes that told of unstable purpose. With his own ends in view, would he trouble himself with her message? But the man was impatient of delay. "J have told all that lies in mind," saul he; "and now, mistress, your commands. ' She shuddered again but stifled her loathing, since by him she could be avenged on St. Kux. "You will tell my uncle, sir, that I am here in Staren; bear my greetings to my cousin." The man bowed. "I will, mistress, though the latter duty is bitter." " Bitter or no, it is my bidding," said she coldly, with gathering disgust for her messenger. ''Your bidding is my pleasure," rejoined the lieutenant as he stood in the doorway. "Farewell, and when I have gone, should any question you, say naught of our meeting. "^ " Not a word, sir, and may heaven prosper your venture," said she with a smile, though her latter words stuck.as blasphemy in her throat. CHAPTER X. The disappearance of .their lieutenant gave food fur talk to the troopers as they supped that night, mayhap a flavour to the castle rations, for Heinrieh Tenzel had small share of their love. Search had been made for the missing man, but without success, and his loss was set down to the enemy's scout, who had been seen within a league Staren.

' Following the closing of the outer gates' i at sundown, when a second post had rid-': . den with the latest intelligence for Neufels, the northern sky glowed "ruddy with the., t watch-fires of the foe. It was the general , opinion that the assault would not he long.; delayed, and the garrison, little disturbed by the fate of their officer, looked for- , ward to the coming of the enemy with.; '. some confidence. Water they knew was-, plentiful, the cisterns full to the brim, and, so long as the attack was unsupported by cannon, the troopers were assured , that the walls might be hold till the count could take measures for their relief. . It was otherwise with the, castellan. i Like his master, von Neufels, and many. another Leaguer, the news of the Swedish victory had fallen on him like a thunderbolt. Few had expected that the tide of war which had ebbed away westwards would return with such a swift a..' sudden flow. Though Wallenstein was in Si-' lesia, there was not on Imperialist that had doubted the veteran Tilly of being - a match for that restless Swedish king, and, the blow having fallen, he; was scarcely a man of the Emperor's adherens in a condition to safeguard his own i interests, much less to combine in making | head against the invaders. Nor were, the ! adherents of the opposing faction in state ; more prepared to take advantage of their allies' success. The flower of their levies were either with" Bernard of Weimar, or in the army of the Saxon Elector, who" was in two minds as to an advance in the direction of Vienna ; Kemmel was as bare ? fighting men as was Neufels, or a dozen other petty lordships. For Staren the outlook was black indeed ; the Reformer's forces wore sweeping southward, and the castle stood perilously near their line of march, and its crumbling walls, mere relics of feudal ages, might be breached hi a dozen different places. Though the place was small, the slender garrison of no more than fifty men was inadequate to make an effective defence were the enemy bent on its capture, and but for an old culverin, a few matchlocks were the. only firearms in the place, while the supply of powder was of the scantiest. So far as victuals went the castle might have been held for months, and the great tanks, known far and wide as the Eyes of Staren, were full to the brim, but St. Eux could not blind himself to the fact that in face of an attack in force the keep must fall within a week. «* Of the numbers of the foe his scouts ccuid tell him nothing, nor of their race,., were they Swedes or Saxons. ' Not that it mattered to the castellan : his orders were precise, he had fifty he could trust ; come what might and how many, they who would win Staren must win it at a price. Left for dead on a stricken field when

but a hoy of sixteen, the dragoon had tasted of every change of -fortune through the opening years of the long warfare. At. twenty a captaincy in one of John of Worth's regiments of mercenaries, gained by a great lady's influence, had fallen to his lot. Thereafter, his knowledge of march and skirmish, of leaguer and sally, of victory and rout, had gathered year by year, till at the age of three and thirty, Giers de St. Eux had wounds and scars enough, a knowledge of himself, the love of his fifty troopers and the confidence of his master, Ignatz of Ncufels. It, was little help that he could expect, from the count in his strait. Von Neufels would need every man he could muster for the defence of the township, which, if some distance from the enemy's line of march, was well worth the sacking'. The broken armies of the Imperialists waited help from Vienna, the northern states were ready to join hands with Gustavus, and once again Bohemia, Bavaria, and the Upper Palatinate were like to become the field of a, wide and desultory campaign. Staren must look to itself for aid. Another matter weighed with the, castellan ; hi his care was one whose safeguarding was now leas a matter of probable advantage than of sheer necessity to Ignatz of Neufels in the event of negotiations being opened between himself' and the Protestant invaders. That his prisoner was a woman, Ertha von Reuth, instead of her cousin, Ernst of Kemrael. but made his responsibility the greater, added to the difficulty of his position. St. Eux all but. repented having borne from Neufel, unbeknown to his master, this proud dame who, scorning him for a soldier of fortune, knew no forgiveness for that unlucky incident in Kemmel. In the light of all that had followed, he acknowledged the madness of the fancy that had seized him in the market-square when he must needs hold the town to ransom, ft was an act of folly as he knew at the time, of wildest folly, the consequences of which were as yet unknown. To the woman's resentment

would bo added von Neufels' when he grasped the tale in its fullness, nor was it likely that Conrad of Kemmel, though he had acquiesced in an aet that had relieved him from embarrassment, would forgive the slight his house had suffered at the hands of a foreign mercenary. Yet the call of his heart, drowning the soberer voice of reason, told him that he did not regret his act, nay, would "risk the vengeance of a score of nobles to repeat it. On his lips that kiss still lingered ; the woman and her beauty had wrought strangely with the soldier. If Giers de St. Eux was not one to catch a maiden's earliest fancy, ho at least could wake a woman's love and hold it. His dark, clear skin and hard, tanned features, his stature, his breadth of shoulder, the muscle and sinew that backed the strength of purpose in his face, had won the homage of fair eyes from Paris to the plains of Lombardy. But the tale had been ever the same j he had no heart, that stalwart Frenchman. He would scarce smile again on smiling features, instead would stare, and staring bring a deeper flush to crimson cheeks. Dames of rank and of beauty would have had him for their lover, but the soldier went his way, secure in the knowledge that his heart was at his side in the scabbard that touched his heel, in the blade whose hiss of menace was sweet in his ears as woman's song, whose gleam outshone woman's glance. His love was in his calling, in his rough trade at which the bookmen jeered, in the glamour of the charge, in the shock of jarring squadrons, in the skelter of the broken foe. So he had lived his life, so he would live it, trusting to lay him down in the good hope of duty done, the boom of cannon his requiem, nor wake till the blast of the Judgment trump. (To he continued daily.)