Princess Maritza

P >> Percy Brebner >> Princess Maritza

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

Joshua Hutchinson, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

PRINCESS MARITZA

[Illustration]

PRINCESS MARITZA

By PERCY BREBNER

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

To V. F. G.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.-PLAYING TRUANT

CHAPTER II.-MONSIEUR DE FROILETTE

CHAPTER III.-THE WOMAN IN THE SILK MASK

CHAPTER IV.-THE COURT OF STURATZBERG

CHAPTER V.-TWO VISITORS

CHAPTER VI.-FRINA MAVRODIN'S GUEST

CHAPTER VII.-THE TIME ARRIVES

CHAPTER VIII.-THE IRON BRACELET

CHAPTER IX.-THE DUEL

CHAPTER X.-THE FOLLY OF A SOLDIER

CHAPTER XI.-IN THE BOIS

CHAPTER XII.-GRIGOSIE

CHAPTER XIII.-THE CASTLE IN THE HILLS

CHAPTER XIV.-THE TOKEN IS DELIVERED

CHAPTER XV.-THE RACE FOR LIFE

CHAPTER XVI.-THE TRAITOR

CHAPTER XVII.-THE TRUE WORTH OF BARON PETRESCU

CHAPTER XVIII.-SIX LOYAL MEN

CHAPTER XIX.-IN DESPERATE STRAITS

CHAPTER XX.-TREACHERY OR SACRIFICE

CHAPTER XXI.-THE RESCUE

CHAPTER XXII.-IN VASILICI'S STRONGHOLD

CHAPTER XXIII.-THE TEMPTATION OF FRINA MAVRODIN

CHAPTER XXIV.-HOW MARITZA ENTERED STURATZBERG

CHAPTER XXV.-'TWIXT LOVE AND PITY

CHAPTER XXVI.-REBELLION

CHAPTER XXVII.-IN PURPLE AND RED AND GOLD

CHAPTER XXVIII.-THE DIPLOMACY OF LORD CLOVERTON

CHAPTER XXIX.-AFTER WAR--PEACE

CHAPTER I.

PLAYING TRUANT

A breezy morning after a night of rain. Fleecy clouds, some in massive
folds and fantastic shape, some in small half-transparent wisps like
sunlit ghosts, were driven rapidly across the blue. Hurrying shadows
flecked the swelling bosom of the downs, and where the grass was long
it rippled like a green sea, making rustling music. Overhead the larks
fluttering upward, ever-diminishing specks to the empyrean, carolled
their joyous song, and a thousand perfumes filled the air. It was a
morning to live in, to enjoy, to take into one's lungs in deep,
intoxicating draughts, until the sorrows of life and its cares were
forgotten; a morning that lent strong wings to ambition, filling the
future with hope and the promise of realized desires.

Something of the aspect of the morning was reflected in the face of
the man who stoutly climbed the downs against the wind. He was above
the average height, but did not give the impression of being tall. His
frame was well knit and muscular; strength and power of endurance above
the common were evident in every movement; and there was a quiet
determination in his face which proclaimed him one of those who would
be likely to succeed in anything he undertook, no matter what dangers
and difficulties might stand in his path, one who would march straight
forward to his object even as he breasted the downs this morning. Most
men would have pronounced him handsome, judging, as men ever do, by
build and muscle; women might have hesitated to give an opinion in
spite of the well-cut, clean-shaven face, and the dark blue eyes which
never looked away from a person with whom their possessor talked.
Perhaps there was a want of sympathy in the face, a certain lack of
that gentle deference which so appeals to women in a man, that silent
recognition of the woman's power which is so pleasant to her.

Desmond Ellerey had had little to do with women. He did not pretend
to understand them, and it had never occurred to him that there was
any reason why he should strive to do so. He had experienced pleasant
moments in their company, but one woman was pretty much the same as
another to him, and it is quite certain that no such thing as a faded
flower, or a glove, or love token of any kind held a place among his
treasures. No woman in the past had given him a single heart throb
which love lent a sense of pain to, and it seemed unlikely that any
woman would wish to do so now. For Desmond Ellerey was a man under a
cloud, a very black cloud, the gloom of which even this breezy morning
could not entirely dispel from his face. He had set himself to bear
his burden bravely, but the task was a heavy one. Surely those
straightforward blue eyes gave the lie to much that was said against
him?

There were few hours in the day in which he did not brood over his
trouble, over the loss of his career which it involved, and as he
approached the top of the downs his eyes were bent upon the ground in
deep thought, while in his heart was fierce rebellion against the world
and his fellow men.

He was suddenly startled by a sharp and shrill "Hallo!" and at the
same moment was aware of a straw hat racing past him a little to his
left. A run of a few yards enabled him to intercept it, and he grasped
it in his strong fingers, regardless of the flowers and ribbons upon
it. Then he turned to discover the owner.

She was standing on the summit of the downs, her loose hair streaming
in the breeze. She did not come to meet him, but waited for him to go
to her.

"I am afraid it is not improved," he said, handing her the hat.

"I hardly expected it would be when I saw the way you dived for it,"
she answered with a smile; "but thanks all the same. Had it got past
you, it would have been good-bye to it altogether. Isn't this a
morning?"

"Very pleasant after the rain," he said.

"Pleasant!" she cried. "Is that the best you can say for it? Pleasant!
Why it makes me feel that there is nothing in the world which is beyond
my power; no difficulty I could not fight and overcome; no danger I
could not despise and laugh at. My blood is full of the very fire I
of life, and I pant to do something-something unexpected, outrageous,
desperate. Don't you ever feel like that?"

"Sometimes."

"It is good to be a man," she went on. "He has the world before him,
with its high places waiting to be won. There is nothing out of his
reach, if he strive sufficiently, no honor he may not win to. Oh, I
wish I were a man!"

There was a half-whimsical smile upon Ellerey's face, at her enthusiasm,
and in his eyes a look of admiration, which he could not conceal, at
her beauty. Her loose hair streaming in the wind was the color of
burnished copper, rich as a golden autumn tint in the glow of an evening
sun. Her eyes were dark, yet of a changeful color, as full of secrets
as a deep pool in the hollow of a wood, quiet, silent secrets which
presently, when the time came, a lover might seek to understand, yet
promising angry and tempestuous moods should storms happen. Her lips,
parted often as though she were waiting for someone with eager
expectation, revealed an even row of pearly teeth, and the pink flush
of health and beauty was in her cheeks. She was tall: with her hair
done up, would have passed for a woman already, Desmond thought; with
it down, and her frock to her boot-tops, she was still a girl, a
beautiful girl, a very pleasant picture to contemplate.

"Being a man is not always such a grand thing as you suppose," Ellerey
said after a pause.

"He has a freedom which a woman never has," the girl answered quickly.
"Oh, yes, women try, especially in this country, I know, but it is
never the same. She cannot be a statesman, she cannot be a soldier.
She cannot take her life by the throat, as it were, and win place and
power by the sheer force of a good right arm as a man can."

"But she often succeeds in ruling the man after he has won place
and power," Ellerey answered.

"That sort of conquest does not appeal to me."

"Ah, but it will some day," he returned quickly, and then he half
regretted his words, remembering she was but a girl.

She looked at him curiously for a moment, a smile upon her lips, yet
a little anger lurking in her eyes.

"You think I am very young," she said.

"Are you not?"

"And very innocent, or ignorant, or whatever word you would use to
explain me."

"You can hardly have probed life very deeply yet," said Ellerey.

"Much deeper than you would imagine," she answered. "You are not so
very wise and old yourself, are you?"

"Indeed, no; I fancy I am more of a fool than anything else," he
laughed.

"You should not let yourself think that," she said gravely. "To think
highly of one's powers is half-way to success. That sounds as if I had
stolen something from a copy-book, doesn't it? But no, I am speaking
from experience. Why do you laugh? Some of us have to touch life's
hardships early."

"You do not show the marks of such experience," said Ellerey, hardly
knowing whether to treat her seriously or not.

"No, but I might, were I conscious of what is before me. I am not as
other girls. There is a destiny I have to struggle towards, an end I
must win. It was born into, handed down in my blood through generations
of men of action. The ambition of those generations of men beats to-day
in the heart of a woman. It is a pity, but I shall win, or die
fighting."

"At least the spirit in you deserves success."

"Come a little this way," she said, touching his arm, and then she
pointed down into the valley below them. "Do you see that building
yonder, white among the trees, with a point of conical roof at the end
of it?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what it is?"

"No."

"By this time they are hunting for me all over that place down there.
I heard the bell ring half an hour ago. That's a school, a big,
expensive, fashionable school, where they teach young ladies how to
behave properly, how to grow up to rule those fighting men we were
speaking of, how to fit themselves to be their wives, and in due time
the mothers of their children--in short, how to fulfil their destiny,
woman's destiny. They are trying to teach me."

"You? Then--"

"Yes, I'm one of the girls there, and I've played truant, and--yes,
I think I shall go back presently, when I have taken my fill of freedom
and this glorious morning."

"And will get punished, I am afraid," said Ellerey.

"Perhaps; but it will not be very heavy punishment. It is strange, but
they rather like me there, in spite of everything."

"I do not think that is strange at all."

"No, you wouldn't; you're a man," she answered quickly, "and men are
weak where attractive women are concerned, all the world over."

Such a declaration coming from a truant schoolgirl somewhat startled
Ellerey, and yet, as he looked at her, he was more conscious of the
woman than the girl.

"Oh, yes, I know I am attractive," she went on, and there was no
deepening of the color in her face as she said it. "I am glad that it
is so. My looks will help me when the work of my life begins in earnest,
when I have played the truant from school for the last time, and do
not go back."

"Then you intend to run away eventually?"

"Yes, unless another way should seem better. That shocks you. I often
shock them down at the white house yonder, and they excuse me because
I am a foreigner. You English are so polite. You do not seem to expect
foreigners to know how to behave, and you make excuses for them. It
is very funny. It makes me laugh," and she laughed so merrily that her
former gravity seemed more unnatural.

"You speak English perfectly. I should not have taken you for a
foreigner," said Ellerey.

"And French, and German, and my own tongue, I speak them all perfectly.
I have lived in all these countries. It was necessary."

"And you do not like England nor Englishmen?"

"I have not said so," she answered; "but here in England I am being
taken care of, kept out of mischief, and sometimes I feel like a
prisoner. It is only that which makes me dislike England. Of Englishmen
I know little, but I have read about them, and they have done some
good, brave deeds. They are, perhaps, just a little conceited with
themselves, don't you think? There is no one quite like an Englishman
it would seem."

"There are all sorts, good and bad," said Ellerey carelessly. "At the
best he wants a lot of beating; at the worst, well, he wants a lot of
beating that way, too. How is it you feel like a prisoner?"

The girl drew herself up to her full height. There was something haughty
in her demeanor, occasioned, perhaps, by the careless way in which he
asked the question. She felt that he was treating her rather like a
spoilt child, while she felt herself a determined woman.

"In my own country I am a princess," she said.

"Indeed?"

"You do not believe me?"

"Why not? You look every inch a princess," he answered.

"It is so like a man to say what he thinks will please," she returned
with a flash in her eyes. "You do not believe me, but you are afraid
to say so. Go down there and ask them."

"I do not disbelieve you," said Ellerey quietly.

The girl relented in a moment.

"We should be very good friends, you and I, if we knew each other. You
have ambition. I can see it in your face."

"I had, Princess."

"Hush, no one calls me that here. Why do you say you had ambition?"

"You would not understand."

"Try me and see," she said, standing close beside him as though to
measure her strength against his for a moment. "You may trust me. I
would trust you anywhere, in peace or war."

Ellerey looked at her curiously for an instant, with a sudden desire
to take her into his confidence. Then he shook his head slowly. It was
pleasant to hear such faith expressed in him, and he was unwilling to
destroy the faith of this fair woman. Altogether a woman she seemed
to him just then.

"You will not. Never mind, perhaps one day you will. Only never speak
of ambition as something past. That is weak and unmanly."

"Upon my honor, you do me good," Ellerey exclaimed.

"And you me," she answered eagerly. "To look at you makes me feel
strong. It is good when a man makes a woman feel like that. I am a
woman, although I am still at school. There is southern blood in me,
and we become women earlier than English girls do. Listen! There are
England, and France, and Germany, and Austria, and Russia all interested
in me, and nothing would please them all so much as my death. As it
is, I am a difficulty in all their politics. They would like me to
forget who, and what, I am. They would marry me to some nobleman of
no importance, if they could, just to keep me quiet."

"And you will not be quiet."

"No. Why should I be? Would you? In my country a usurper is upon the
throne, kept there, held there, like a child who would fall but for
its nurse's arms, by all the Powers of Europe. It is I who should be
there. It is I who will be there one day. Shall I tell you? There are
hundreds, thousands, of men who are ready to strike in my cause when
the time is ripe. Even now there is a statesman working to set these
countries at cross purposes with one another, and when they quarrel,
then is my opportunity. You shall see. That is why I said I would be
a man if I could. It would be so much easier for a man, but as it is,
a woman shall do it."

"I hope you may. You deserve to."

"But you doubt it?" she said.

"There seem to be heavy odds against you."

"That helps me. It stirs up the best that is in me. It is good to have
something to struggle for, something to win, and if I may not win, I
hope to fall in the press of the fight, and, to the loud funeral music
of clashing steel, find the death of a soldier. What is your name?"

"Desmond Ellerey."

"It is an easy name to remember. Well, Desmond Ellerey, if your ambition
finds no outlet in England, come to my country, to the city of
Sturatzberg, and claim friendship with Princess Maritza. She shall
find you work for your good right arm."

She walked away from him as though she had bestowed a great favor,
never looking back. She went in the opposite direction to the school,
her truant spirit not yet satisfied, and Ellerey watched her until he
lost sight of the tall, graceful figure in a fold of the downs. Then
he turned and went slowly back the way he had come.

Desmond Ellerey had declared that she had done him good. It was true.
Although he walked slowly, his spirit was stirred within him, and his
blood ran with something of its old vigor. Faced by a thousand
difficulties, this girl had the courage to look upon them bravely, and
to believe in her power to overcome them. That was her secret, the
belief in her own power. He had faced his difficulties bravely enough,
but he had not had the courage to hope; therein lay his weakness, and
this girl, this princess, had shown it to him. He had allowed himself
to drift into a backwater; it was time he pulled out into the stream
again, and fought his way back to his rightful place, inch by inch,
against whatever tide might run.

For some little time he had been staying with Sir Charles and Lady
Martin, two people who had looked into his eyes when he had denied the
charges brought against him, and had believed him.

As he crossed the lawn toward the house he met his host.

"I have had an adventure, Charles; I have met a princess."

"There are some pretty rustic maidens in the village. I have been
struck with their beauty myself."

"I mean a real Princess; at least, she said so," Desmond answered.
"She was playing truant from school, a large white house, on the other
side of the downs."

"Do you mean a tall, red-headed girl?" asked Sir Charles.

"Have you seen her?" Desmond asked.

"No, but I know all about her."

"Ah, I thought you couldn't have seen her, or you wouldn't describe
her as a tall, red-headed girl. She's the most beautiful woman I ever
saw. She spoke the truth, then; she is a Princess?"

"Oh, yes, but the sooner she forgets the fact the better for her and
for--for everybody. She is the descendant of a line of rulers chiefly
remarkable for their inability to rule, and her chance of ascending
the throne of her fathers is absolutely _nil_, fortunately for Europe.
You are not a student of contemporary history, Desmond, or you would
know something about Wallaria and its exiled Princess."

"I am not a diplomat, but a soldier--at least, I was," Desmond answered.
"Still, I should like to improve my knowledge."

"That is easily managed," said Sir Charles. "If you come into the
library I can find you a heap of literature concerning this little
wasps' nest of a state, and when you have mastered the position, thank
your natal stars that you were not born to take a hand in ruling it.
It is a menace to Europe, Desmond, that's the truth of the matter.
Wallaria may at any time be the cause of a European war. If this
Princess of yours had her way, that time would not be long in coming."

For the remainder of the day Desmond Ellerey filled a corner of the
library with tobacco smoke, and his head with a thousand details
concerning Wallaria. When he went to dress for dinner he felt that he
had been reading an absorbing romance, and blessed the good fortune
which had brought about the meeting on the downs.

"Helen and I have been talking about you, Desmond," said Sir Charles
after dinner.

"Not revising your opinion of me, I hope."

"No," said Lady Martin, "but thinking of your future. Why not travel
for a little while, Desmond; for a year or so? It will give time for
the truth to leak out. It will leak out, you know, even as a lie does."

"I have made up my mind to go abroad," said Desmond quietly. "I shall
clear out of England before the month is over. It has been awfully
good of you both to have me here at a time when most of my friends
found it convenient to forget me. I shall not come back until the men
who were so ready to accuse me have eaten their words and the country
so ready to dispense with my services asks for them again."

"That will come in time," said Lady Martin.

"I am glad to hear your determination," said Sir Charles. "Where are
you going?"

"To Wallaria."

"Wallaria!"

"Why not? It seems there is room for a soldier there."

Sir Charles looked grave.

"But, Desmond, supposing--"

"I know what you would say," returned Ellerey quickly. "Supposing
Englishmen should have to fight against Wallaria, and I should have
to carry arms against my country; well, with whom does the fault lie,
with England or with me? England has dispensed with my services,
believing a lie; she drives me from her, and makes me a renegade. What
allegiance do I owe to England? I will offer my sword to Wallaria, and
if she will have it, by Heaven, she shall."

Lady Martin put her hand upon his shoulder, pressed it in kindly
sympathy for a moment, and then left the room.

"Sleep on it, Desmond, you will think better of it in the morning," said
Sir Charles.

"You have been very good to me, both of you," said Ellerey, turning
round suddenly when Lady Martin had gone. "I can never thank you enough.
It seems poor gratitude to pain you now. Such a contingency as we
imagine will probably never arise, but I have decided to go."

"The Princess has bewitched you."

"Nonsense. Am I not offering my sword to the usurper, her enemy? My
ambitions have been nipped like a tree in the budding here, and I see
a new outlet for my energies yonder, that is all. My own country
despises me. I hope for better things from the country of my adoption."

CHAPTER II.

MONSIEUR DE FROILETTE

At a turn of the road which had been deserted for some two hours past,
a man suddenly reined in his horse to a walking pace. He had ridden
far, for his dress was dusty, and the animal showed signs of fatigue.
The evening was stormy-looking, and there was a bite in the wind
blowing from the higher lands to the plain.

The road ran, with many a twist and turn, between dense woods on one
side, and rugged waste ground, with tangled patches of undergrowth,
on the other. Here and there a clearing had been made in the woods,
and a rough dwelling erected, but they were apparently deserted; there
were no signs of life about them this evening. The man rode easily,
yet with constant watchfulness. The times were unsettled and dangerous,
and the slightest unfamiliar sound instantly attracted his attention.
He was accustomed to be on the alert, and whatever thoughts held sway
behind his gloomy looks, they were not sufficiently absorbing to render
him careless for a moment.

Suddenly he pulled his horse to a standstill, turning sharply in his
saddle to look back upon the way he had come. Then he examined his
holster, and, moving his horse to a position which gave him a better
command of the road, sat quietly waiting.

The sound which had attracted his attention grew rapidly nearer, and
presently three riders came round the bend at a gallop, one some paces
in advance of his companions. He pulled up short, seeing the motionless
horseman by the roadside, scenting danger and ready for it; but the
next moment he raised his hat with pronounced courtesy, and bowed low
in his saddle.

"Pardon, monsieur," he said, "but one sees a possible enemy in so
unexpected an encounter."

"Unexpected, monsieur?"

"I said so. May I add fortunate, too?"

"Such enemies as you suggest seldom stand singly," was the rather
ungracious answer.

"And in these times wise men seldom ride alone, monsieur," came the
quick retort. "I travel with an escort myself, you see, Captain Ellerey.
I do not make a mistake, I think; you are Captain Ellerey of his
Majesty's Regiment of Chasseurs?"

"That is my name."

"And you are returning to Sturatzberg? Good! We can proceed together,"
and without waiting for an assent to this arrangement, he ordered his
servants to go forward, and watched them until they had disappeared.
"Now, monsieur, we may go forward at our leisure."

"I have not the honor of--"

"My name. Ah, it is of small consequence. Jules de Froilette, at your
service. It is unknown to you?"

"I think so, but your face seems familiar," said Ellerey, as they went
on together.

"Ah, yes. I go to Court sometimes."

"And I but seldom, monsieur."

"Then you may have seen me in the streets of Sturatzberg. I know the
city well, and have nothing to hide. I have interests in this country,
let us say, in timber; it is the answer I give when I am questioned,
for no one respects a lazy man. A voluntary exile from my country, I
have no quarrel with France, nor she with me. In these days men are
become cosmopolitan, is it not so?"

"It looks like it in Sturatzberg," Ellerey replied.

"Monsieur is also an exile, and has no quarrel with his motherland?"

"At least I do not speak of it, Monsieur De Froilette."

"Pardon me, I am not inquisitive. You crave for excitement, so come to
Sturatzberg. The promise of adventure will ever attract men of spirit
and--"

"And the failures at home," suggested Ellerey.

"I was going to say men of courage," De Froilette answered, "but the
failures come, too, and succeed--sometimes."

"You are as doubtful of the reward as I am," said Ellerey, laughing.

De Froilette did not join in his merriment.

"A Captain of Horse is not to be despised," he said slowly, glancing
furtively at his companion.

"True, but he remains a Captain of Horse. I expected rapid events in
this country, and quick promotion for those who came out of the struggle
with their lives. Instead, we have an expedition against some brigands'
fastness, which is deserted when we arrive, or a troop to quell a petty
riot which has fizzled out when we get there, and that is all."

"And monsieur thirsts for more; the desperate encounter and the bloody
sword; for high place and Court favor."

"Is it too great an ambition?" Ellerey demanded. "Do we not all from
the bottom rung of the ladder look eagerly toward the top--the student
to the masters of his profession, the apprentice to the seat of his
employer? Why should not a soldier look for high favor at Court?"

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23