"Haste thee! or we force the gates."--To Aagé's surprise, the castle gate was opened without demur in a few minutes. The troop presently filled the castle yard. Guards were immediately stationed at all the entrances, as well as on the towers and the battlements on the wall surrounding the fortress. This was done hastily, and with as little noise as possible. The sound of so many horses' hoofs and clashing weapons had, notwithstanding, awakened all the inhabitants of the castle, who peeped in dismay out of the windows and loopholes, ignorant into whose hands it had fallen. But the Drost now ordered three trumpeters to call together all the unarmed household servants, with all the men-at-arms in the castle. He announced to the warder and the household, in the king's name, that they were released from their duties here in the junker's service; and that the king for the present had taken possession of the castle himself. Those who would enter his service, and swear fealty to him, might remain; the rest were at liberty to withdraw, and serve the junker at his other castles and estates. On hearing this proclamation fear was suddenly changed into general rejoicing, "Long live the king!" re-echoed from mouth to mouth. There was not a single domestic who hesitated to change masters; and many expressions and exclamations were heard which showed how little Junker Christopher had understood to win the good will of his dependants. As soon as the new force had garrisoned all the posts, Drost Aagé, with the remainder of his troop, entered the castle. The steward was the first person who appeared. He was a taciturn personage, of short stature, with a half German accent. He delivered the keys of the castle to the Drost, and seemed to share in the general satisfaction; but as soon as he had installed his unexpected guests he vanished, and did not again make his appearance.
Ere the day had dawned, Drost Aagé was again on horseback, and, with the half of his troop of horse, quitted Holbek castle, and took the road to Kallundborg. Sir Ribolt's brother remained as commandant, with strict orders not to open the gates to any one, or give up the castle to the junker, ere he had the king's warrant and seal for so doing.
"Sir Drost," said an old horseman, as they rode out of the still slumbering town, amid its ruins and deserted sites, "was it then your own order that we might not stop any one who would out of the castle; and that none, under pain of death, might lift a hand against the high-born junker, if he was on the spot?"
"That was the king's command to us all," answered the Drost.
"Then I now know that I was right, even though I did let rogues and traitors slink off," continued the horseman. "I stood on guard at the gate of the back court. Sir Drost, and I saw three men in disguise lead their horses out of the stable. They disappeared through the rampart gate close to the ford, and the Lord only knows what became of them. My comrades thought we should have stopped and seized them, for they stole so strangely away, and looked around them on all sides; but I said, 'No! it is a criminal act if we touch them,' and we let them 'scape. The one was assuredly the little German who was forced to give you the keys; the other was a fat fellow, who could hardly waddle away; but the third was a tall stern man; he swore, and laid about him, at every step. I could almost take my oath it was the junker himself. He was hardly twelve paces from me when he caught a sight of me, and shyed off, as it were.--He led his horse over the dunghill, that he might not come too near us, I suppose; but then the hood fell back from his neck, and I saw the long black hair you know of; it is as rough as a horse-tail. No one in the country has such dark unsightly hair as the junker. But, as I say, we let him go, and budged not from the spot.--The king himself will know how to chastise him, thought I."
"Good!" exclaimed the Drost; "thou hast behaved as was thy duty--as to the rest, what is between the king and his brother concerns not us, and still less whether the junker's hair be fine or coarse." He then spurred his horse, and proceeded at a brisk trot, without stopping.
Ere Drost Aagé, with his horsemen, reached Kallundborg, the king approached the town, with the greater part of his chivalry, and a more numerous troop of horsemen and spearmen than he was ever wont to take with him when about to visit his vassals or one of his castles. It was noon. The horses foamed with hard riding. The troop halted at St. George's Hospital, upon the high hill just without the town.
CHAP. XIII.
The report of the king's arrival had preceded him. It had excited great alarm in the whole neighbourhood, and had especially thrown the burghers of Kallundborg into a state of anxious suspense. Their devotion to the king, and fear of his wrath, placed them in a most dangerous position with regard to their stern deputed master, Junker Christopher, and his warlike commandant at the castle. Disquieting and contradictory reports respecting a difference between the king and his brother had already for some time been in circulation, but no one knew the real state of the case. As Lord of Samsöe, Holbek, and Kallundborg, Junker Christopher exercised an almost royal authority wherever he had troops and fortresses under his command. Latterly he had been often seen in Kallundborg, where he had assembled a considerable garrison at the castle, and, to the dismay of the burghers, had put the fortifications opposite the town and the land side into such a state of defence as if the breaking out of a dangerous civil war might daily be expected. Some weeks back admittance had been refused at the castle to Marsk Oluffsen, who, with a small troop of men-at-arms, had demanded to enter in the king's name. From this refractoriness towards a royal ambassador it was thought the most serious results were now to be apprehended. The prince himself went night and day to and from Kallundborg; now with a large armed train on horseback, and now by sea with the armed vessels which constantly plied between Samsöe and Kallundborg, and conveyed both men-at-arms and provisions to the fortress. No one knew whether Junker Christopher was personally present at the castle at the time when the report of the king's arrival threw the whole town into commotion; but it was observed with dismay that the drawbridge was raised, and that serious preparations were making to repel an attack.
The king halted at the head of his numerous train on the hill, and caused his white steed to be rubbed down while he looked down thoughtfully upon town and castle. At his right hand was the brave young Margrave Waldemar of Brandenborg, who had deferred his homeward journey, and accompanied the king on this expedition, to take leave of his good friend Junker Christopher, and, if possible, to avert the storm which menaced him. At the king's left hand was seen his energetic general, Count Henrik of Mecklenborg, who now, next to Drost Aagé, seemed the king's most confidential friend. The troops watered their horses at the pond by the chapel of the Holy Cross. All the cripples of St. George's Hospital came out to see the king, and the numerous fraternity of St. George, or demi-ecclesiastical attendants on the sick, vied with each other in offering refreshments to him and his train. The thronging and curious crowd kept, however, at a respectful distance from the king and the two stranger lords.