CHAPTER XX.
Meanwhile Alf went on, truly and honorably discharging the duties of his office, although, after the first arrangement had been effected he had given up the personal guard of the royal bedchamber to other officers, reserving to himself only a general nightly superintendance; and the cruel Johannes passed his nights under as good a defence as if angels with flaming swords had guarded him. His office, however, daily called the youth to the palace, and he could not but perceive that the magnificent Gertrude often threw herself in his way. She evidently loved the beautiful youth as only an unprincipled woman can love,--and her passion had nothing to combat but the fear of the sultan of the harem, whose discovery of the least infidelity would have brought instant death upon the guilty. Yet so powerful was her passion that it conquered even this fear.
At one of those intoxicating court festivals with which the king sought to stupify himself and those about him, Alf was standing to take breath after a brisk dance, with his hands behind him, when suddenly he felt a warm soft pressure of his right hand, a piece of paper being simultaneously slipped into it, and a moment afterwards the first queen stepped forward from behind him, giving him a significant glance as she passed. He left the room immediately, and by the nearest lamp in the corridor read the following words:--
'An hour after midnight, in the upper passage on the left; the first door.'
Hastening back to the dancing-hall, his glowing cheeks and triumphant carriage immediately betrayed to the beauteous syren, that he had read and comprehended her billet.
Meanwhile the midnight hour struck. Gertrude was suddenly attacked by a headache and suffered her attendants to lead her to her chamber. The king smilingly whispered a word to Eliza, which caused a flush to pass over her cheeks, and which she answered with downcast eyes. The assembly gradually departed, and Alf, lost in pleasing dreams, proceeded to his dwelling.
He found the devoted little Clara yet patiently waiting for him, occupying herself at the spinning wheel; her now constantly bright eyes a little dimmed; but whether from late watching, or weeping, or from both together, he could not exactly decide.
'I began to think you were not coming home tonight,' said the maiden in a friendly tone, which yet had something of sadness in it.
'The dancing to-night continued unusually late,' replied Alf; casting a glance at the mirror, and coming to the conclusion that he was right worthy of the beauteous queen, he proudly pressed his richly plumed cap over his eyes.
Meanwhile Clara had lighted his chamber lamp and handed it to him.
'I am going out again immediately, dear Clara,' said Alf, with some little embarrassment. 'I came merely to tell you, that you might not sit up all night waiting for me.'
'You are going out again?' asked Clara, looking intently at him. 'This is not your time for guard duty.'
'The feast of to-day has disturbed all our arrangements,' stammered Alf with embarrassment. 'I must actually go to the palace once more to-night.'
Clara seized his hand with both of hers, and with her mild honest eyes gave him a piercing look. His guilty conscience deprived him of the power to meet her gaze. 'Kippenbrock,' cried she, suddenly alarmed, 'are you not going for some wicked purpose?'
'You are already dreaming, from having watched so long, my child. Go to bed, pretty one,' said Alf, bending down to kiss the maiden as he wished her good night; a friendly habit in which he had for some time indulged. But Clara avoided his embrace, saying earnestly to him, 'not this evening, dear Kippenbrock, all is not as it should be.'
'You are a little simpleton!' cried he half indignantly, and hastened forth as if he wished to run away from the 'unpleasant feelings her suspicions had given him. As the third quarter after midnight struck, he stood by the stove, closely wrapped in his mantle, in the upper passage way of the palace, watching with anxious eyes, by the dim light of the almost expiring lamps, the first door on the left. Finally, the hour struck, and still no door was opened.
'It is in reality a great wrong for me to be standing here,' said Alf to himself. 'Let the king now be what he may, and do what he will, yet I have once for all acknowledged him as my lord, and this Gertrude is his wife. It is the duty of my office to preserve order and propriety in the royal palace, which I in intention am so vile as to violate. Moreover, I encroach upon the rights of the good Clara, who so secretly and tenderly loves me, and whom I should look upon as my affianced bride. Did she but know that I was standing here waiting for the creaking of that door, she would weep her eyes out of her head; and she even appeared to suspect some intrigue. Her manner toward me appeared very strange at my departure. Good God! with what face shall I appear before her in the morning! No! it is settled,--the beautiful Gertrude shall wait for me in vain, and thus shall we both be spared a sin.'