A Soldier's Daughter, and Other Stories

by G. A. Henty

"So I have heard," Conrad said, "and yet I would fain be allowed entrance, having need of speech with your master on a matter of importance. I pray you to tell him so."

She returned in a minute. "The master says that your visit is untimely, but that if the matter is of importance he will see you."

Tying up his pony to a hook in the wall, Conrad followed the maid into the house. A big powerful-looking man was sitting on a chair before the empty grate; he looked up listlessly at Conrad's entrance.

"I hope," he said, "young man, that you have not disturbed me in my trouble needlessly, or entered here under a false pretext?"

"Assuredly I do not enter needlessly, though I own that it is under a false pretext. And yet it is not so though; the matter I would speak of to you is of importance. I have heard, Herr Grun, that you are a kindly man, just in your dealings, and one to be trusted. I am going to trust you."

The farmer listened with increasing surprise as he spoke; his manner of speech was not one that a travelling pedlar of goods would have adopted, but was rather that of a man of rank.

"I am Conrad von Waldensturm," the young count went on. The farmer gave an exclamation of surprise, and rose to his feet. "I have just hurried back from the war, at the news that my castle had been destroyed, my estate ravaged, and my sister carried off. I have come home to rescue her. I heard of the outrage of which you and your daughter have been the victims, and, having made enquiries, I judge that you would not be one to sit down tamely under it."

"Tamely, no," the man said passionately, "and there is the pain of it! What can I, a tiller of the soil, do against my feudal lord? Show me the way to avenge myself, Count von Waldensturm, and be assured that you will not find me backward. There is not a man in the barony who would not see the castle razed to the ground with joy. What can we do? He has two hundred armed men within its walls, and could crush us as a hammer would crush an egg. We have suffered unnumbered wrongs at his hands and at those of his son, who is even worse than himself; but how with clubs and staves could we attack a castle that is the strongest in the electorate, and has never yet been taken. However, count, you have doubtless some plan in your mind that you have thus come to me. All knew and honoured your father, and envied those who held land under him, and it was reported that you, his son, would tread in his footsteps, and were already beloved by all his vassals."

"My first object," Conrad said, "is, as you may suppose, to rescue my sister from his hands. With that intention I returned home, and you may well believe that the news that the baron intends to wed her to his son has added to that desire, and has shown me the need for haste in carrying it out. The first thing is to ascertain exactly in what part of the castle she is confined, how she is guarded, and the manner in which her chamber could be approached. Having ascertained this, I must, of course, open communications with her so that she may be cognizant of my plans, and be ready to assist in their being carried out. But this is not all; the baron, and no doubt his son, with a party of men-at-arms, will set off in pursuit, and I shall have an ambush prepared. I have but some twenty men with me, all good soldiers, who have fought in the wars, and I hope to gather fifty more from our former vassals; this should be enough to ensure that none of the party who sally out shall return alive to the castle. Had I as many more determined men I might carry the castle by surprise, for I could, with my own troop, ride forward, and being taken for the baron, would find the gate open and the drawbridge down. Entering, I could hold the gate with my men until the rest, who would have followed close behind, rushed in, when we might well overcome the garrison, taken by surprise as they would be."

"'Tis a good plan!" the farmer said, striding up and down the room, "and methinks that not only can I promise you the aid of my daughter, but can bring some score of stout fellows to aid you. The hired ruffians of the baron are hated as much as he is; they enter every house they choose and demand victuals and wine, insult the women with their foul oaths and coarse manners, lay hands on anything they fancy, and treat us as if we were a conquered people and they were our masters. 'Tis worse than useless to complain of them to the baron. A neighbour of mine did so, and he was hung over the gate as a lesson to the rest of us. Some of us have talked the matter over again and again, as to whether it would not be possible to attack the baron when he rode out with a party of his men; but if we did so, and were successful, the neighbouring lords would all unite against us as rebels against our master, and the whole country would be harried, and those who were caught hung like dogs. But under your leading it would be a different matter; it would be a feud between two nobles. What would you do with the castle, sir?"