“But what need of eight men to guard two?”
“Do you suppose, Christian, that the baron is going to remain quiet, when, for the first time, one of his diabolical combinations has failed? I do not know what he will resolve upon, but you may be very sure that he will make an attempt of some kind, even if he should try to burn down Stollborg. That is why I have resolved to pass the night here, so as to be in position, with the help of my soldiers, to seize the other bandits, who will probably arrive before long, either with offers of service, or otherwise. The greater number of the baron’s foreign footmen are nothing more than a band of thieves and assassins, and we must try and seize them all in some flagrant misdemeanor. Then I can guarantee that the magistracy will venture to pursue rigorously this powerful noble, and that he will be left without resources, since his peasants hate him too much to offer him any assistance. If we proceed in any other way, you may be sure that we should be the losing party. The baron would deny having had any responsibility in the matter, or would find means to effect the escape of our prisoners. You would pass for an assassin, and we should pass for visionaries, or at least for young officers without experience, taking the part of a guilty man and arresting honest people; for you can rely upon it that these two bravos are well trained. I am going to examine them, and you will see that they know how to tell their story. I wager that they have learned their lesson, and know it by heart.”
In fact, the two bandits replied impudently that they had come by order of the baron to conduct the man with the marionettes, who was late with his performance, to the chateau; that the latter seeing among them one of his old comrades, against whom he had a grudge, rushed in pursuit of him, and killed him. He had then insulted and challenged the others, and the one who had wounded Christian declared that he had done so by mistake, while trying to seize a furious madman. “So furious,” he added, “that he has broken my breast-bone, and that I am spitting blood.”
“You see,” said Christian to the major, “that I failed in my duty towards these gentlemen, in not allowing myself to be assassinated.”
“And you will see,” replied Larrson, “that the assassins will escape the gallows! According to our laws, capital punishment can only be inflicted upon criminals who confess. These fellows know this well, and however absurd their defence may be, they will stick to it. Your cause, perhaps, will not be as good as theirs. This makes it necessary for us to be doubly on our guard, for do not doubt, Christian, that we shall remain with you, and stand by you through it all.”
“Oh, Christian has a very good cause!” said M. Goefle, who had come to listen to the examination, and who, now that it was concluded, was conducting his guests to his apartment, which he called his bear-manor. “We should have plenty of weapons against the baron if we could succeed in freeing old Stenson, who has been carried, whether he would or not, to the chateau. You must help us, gentlemen, to accomplish it.”
“That would be quite out of my power, M. Goefle,” said the major. “The chatelain is judge on his own domain, and consequently in his own house. I do not know what M. Stenson’s case can have in common with Christian’s, but my advice is not to complicate this affair with any other. Above all things, I should like to know whether Christian has chanced to find a gold goblet in his ass’s pack-saddle, which the baron—like Joseph of old, wishing to try his brothers, but, I presume, with much less pacific intentions—ordered to be placed there.”
“Upon my word,” said Christian, “I don’t know anything about it; let us go and see.”
They went to the stable, where they found Puffo, pale and trembling, in a corner. They searched him, and found the goblet about him. He begged for mercy, and confessed after his fashion. An hour before he had seen Master Johan, he said, bring this precious object there, and had guessed what his design was. Not supposing that he was watched, he had resolved to take it, so as to carry it back to the chateau and prevent his master from being accused of a theft of which he was innocent; but when he tried to go out, he found that the stable-door was fastened, and in spite of all his efforts he had been unable to open it; which was the reason that he had not gone to his master’s assistance during the combat. In consequence of these very suspicious statements, the major ordered Puffo to be bound like the rest, and conducted to the gaard, where Peterson, summoned to lend assistance, had taken the place of the officers in watching the three prisoners. The gold goblet was taken in triumph by M. Goefle, and placed upon the table of the bear-room.
Meanwhile, Martina Akerstrom ran to meet her betrothed, without the slightest fear of what people would say, and without being the least embarrassed by the presence of the major and the corporal. The good and simple-hearted child, who was making tea for “those poor gentlemen, who must be so cold,” had now only two causes of anxiety: the uneasiness that her absence might be occasioning her parents, and the want of sugar for her tea. She requested to have some one sent to the new chateau to reassure the authors of her being, and to bring back some sugar.