"Well, Sir Margrave! for twenty-four hours I will await him, but not an hour longer. Till to-morrow at this time I will restrain my just wrath, and with sheathed sword wait without the gate which hath been presumptuously shut before mine eyes. But ere I hear another ave from the pious Franciscans here--the castle shall be in my power; that I vow, by all the holy men! as surely as I am lord here, and would be called king in Denmark."
"It is agreed, then, your grace!" answered the margrave, with spirit, after a moment's deliberation. "If I stand not within twenty-four hours with your brother acquitted before your sight--then let yon fair castle mount up in smoke and flames--or take it with a storming hand! Count Henrik hath no doubt a strong desire to show you his prowess and generalship. Then I shall have done what lay in my power, and shown you both, as I trust, that you have had a friend for your guest."
"You have my word for it, Sir Margrave! I shall owe you thanks if your good purpose succeed. See you how the shadow yonder falls from the middle spire upon the cloister roof--It marks the bounds of my patience to-morrow. The Lord and our holy Lady be with us all!" So saying, Eric waved his right hand, and saluted the margrave, as he spurred his horse, and rode forward at the head of his troop of warriors. The king and his knights now rode down the hill in the direction of the castle, while Margrave Waldemar, with his little train of German and Danish men-at-arms, proceeded at full gallop on the road to Holbek.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1]: "Marsk," a military title, corresponding in some degree to our field marshal. This office, however, comprises civil as well as military duties, the marsk being also one of the principal ministers of state.
[Footnote 2]: The private wrongs committed by Eric the Seventh, surnamed Glipping, against his Marsk, Stig, a nobleman of high rank, had rendered him his deadly foe. Stig headed a band of conspirators on the 22d of November, 1286, disguised as Franciscan monks, and murdered him while asleep in a barn at the village of Finnerup, where he had taken refuge from their pursuit. The king's chamberlain, a kinsman of Marsk Stig, conducted the assassins to the place where the king lay concealed.--Translator's Note.
[Footnote 3]: Waldemar the Victorious was Eric Menved's great-grandfather.
[Footnote 4]: Drost, the prime minister of state in Denmark in the middle ages; all state ministers however, in that age, were required to serve in the field as well as in council. When the Drost was present, he superseded the Marsk in the command of the army.--Translator's Note.
[Footnote 5]: Junker (pronounced Yunker) was the title of the sons of the kings of Denmark in the middle ages, corresponding to that of Infant in Spain.--Translator's Note.
[Footnote 6]: Baron Holberg supposes that the word "carline" (kierlinge in Danish) had its origin in the easy victories obtained by the Northmen over the French, or Carlines, the subjects of Charles the Bald: the word carline or kierlinge now signifying in Danish an old woman, and applied in derision to the fainthearted of the other sex.--Translator.