As soon as the captive mountebank heard he was in safety, but was to be taken as a prisoner to a fortress, he looked around him with a proud smile, "My noble persecuted master was right," he said. "The age is not sufficiently matured for us and our compeers. It is dangerous to be wise among fools; even the least glimpse of the light which is to appear is, as yet, too strong for these weak-sighted barbarians. It is not the first time a great genius hath appeared a century too soon!"
"Silence, wretched juggler!" said Aagé. "The great man whom thou dishonourest, by calling thy master, was a wise and pious monk, I have been told, but no juggler and self-appointed priest. Thank the holy Virgin and her Son, whom thou deniest, for thy life to-day! It is not for thy wisdom, but for thy folly, and the confusion thou wouldest spread among the people, that I have caused thee to be bound."
Ere Aagé quitted the vessel he took Master Laurentius aside, and gazed on him with a look of thoughtful interest. "You are too good to be this juggler's attendant and apprentice," he said; "your blind admiration for his knowledge of the perishing things of time, hath caused you to deny and dishonour your own holy calling, and the high vocation to which you are dedicated. St. Olaf, and the souls entrusted to you, you have deserted for this deformed artificer of hell-fire. From want and need you shall no longer be necessitated thus to degrade yourself. The captain of the vessel hath orders to care for your requirements; at Helsingborg he will provide you with suitable priest's attire, and money for your journey. To save your life, Master Laurentius, I have been forced to use you more hardly than I wished. When you arrive at Helsingborg, you are free and your own master; but your suspicious companion must, as a state prisoner, tarry the king's coming, and justify himself before him, if he can do so. It is known to me that he is a Leccar brother; as such it is forbidden to him to rove the country at large and mislead the people. I know, also, he wishes you to join his sect; but, I conjure you by that Almighty Lord and Master you have been near betraying--draw back, good Master Laurentius, and preserve your immortal soul! It hath assuredly a higher and a worthier calling, if your countenance and warm enthusiasm for what is beautiful and true have not deceived me. The Lord be with you! farewell!" Aagé quitted the ship without awaiting an answer from the deeply agitated youth, whose eyes were suffused with tears, and who vainly strove to reach him his fettered hand.
The Drost rowed back to Skanor. It was dark night, and there was a great stir and tumult on the quay. A quarrel and serious affray had arisen between the Drost's knights and the Hanseatic merchants, who had been chased from the inn and had taken flight towards the harbour. Berner Kopmand and Henrik Gullandsfar, with their armed seamen, laid furiously about them, but could not compete in the dexterous use of their weapons with Sir Helmer and the other incensed young knights, who were supported by the Skanor burghers. "Cut the forgers down! The cheats! The overbearing dogs!" they shouted. "They have brought false coin here to the fair--they have outlaws on board!" The affray was serious and bloody. The Hanseatics withdrew, fighting, to their boats. It was impossible for Aagé to restore peace. The foreign merchants and the greater part of their seamen at last escaped to their ships, under cover of the night. They instantly hoisted sail. It was not until they were in the open sea that the knights missed Sir Helmer and the Drost's most active squire, Canute of Fyen.
CHAP. XVI.
Drost Aagé was compelled to prosecute his journey early the next morning, without having been able to discover Sir Helmer and the squire. When Aagé and the royal halberdiers left Skanor, they were followed through the streets by a great crowd of persons. It appeared that the burghers had learned, or conjectured, the object of this showy procession.
The ballad, "For Eric the youthful king!" was as popular in Scania as in Denmark. "Long live king Eric and his true men!" shouted the crowd. "Bring him and Denmark a second Dagmar, good sirs!"
Aagé rejoiced at these tokens of the disposition of the brave Scanians; but he entertained little hope of a happy result from his embassy, and he was under great anxiety for the fate of the brave Sir Helmer and his own alert and trusty squire. Two of his other squires, and three of the young knights remained dangerously wounded at Skanor.
Sir Helmer, and his companions, had followed the bragging Rostocker and his seamen to their inn. They had unanimously resolved with their own hands to chastise and humble the overbearing Hanseatics. While at the inn the Drost's squire had displayed a false coin, with which one of the lower class had been imposed upon in Berner Kopmand's booth, and it was affirmed the Rostockers had brought with them whole chests of such money. It was conjectured, and with reason, that this false money was coined by the outlaws, who the preceding year had captured some of the king's chief coiners. Complaints of false coin had frequently been made before, and now that it was heard the Rostockers imported them by bushels, the indignation instantly became great and general, and a fight soon commenced with the foreign merchants and skippers. When the Hanseatics were chased from the quay of Skanor, Sir Helmer had eagerly pursued the armed seamen, and had assisted in rolling into the sea some chests containing their bad money; at last, accompanied by the Drost's squire, the daring Canute, he had sprung after them into the boat to hinder their flight; but here they were overpowered by numbers, and dragged captive on board the Rostock vessel.
Sorely wounded, and with hands and feet fast bound, Helmer and his companion were thrown down into the ship's hold. Here they lay the whole night among a number of ale barrels, firkins of salt, and sacks of groceries, which had not been unladen. The vessel rolled heavily; the weather had become boisterous, and those on board seemed only busied in saving ship and goods. At length the weather grew calmer. The strong motion of the ship ceased; it glided slowly and almost imperceptibly forward, and all became quiet on deck. The wearied seamen appeared to sleep. Sir Helmer now perceived a faint light above his head. He thought it was daylight; but soon discovered it was the moon shining in upon him through a chink in the ship's hatches directly above him. He presently heard the voices of two men in the stillness of the night; and recognised the tones of Berner Kopmand and Henrik Gullandsfar. "I cannot sleep for wrath and wound-smarting," growled the Rostocker. "Lo! this is the free trade and security one has to expect when a greenhorn sits on the throne, and justice lies in the knights' lances. Pestilence and destruction on the whole pack of puffed-up aristocrats! The accursed sycophants and slaves of kings and tyrants! They would have it seem as if they protected the people and the burghers--pshaw! It is but for themselves and their high master they fight. Had I not spoken those bold words against their strutting knight-king at Sjöborg, nor had that piece of royal game of an outlaw on board, our money would surely have been as good ware as before. They are a vile robber pack, the whole set of them that call themselves knights and noble, as well here as in Germany--as long as there are thrones and knights' castles left, neither trade nor burghership can thrive. So soon as the sun rises those two jackanapes we laid hold of shall dangle at the yard-arm."