Chapter LXVII: Viscount Dundrennan

Towards the latter end of October, when the brown or ruddy autumnal tints were stealing over the chestnut forests of the Vosges, a day of gloom had closed, and, as the night drew on, the red lurid light behind the mountains to the westward of Lutzelstein denoted a coming storm. There was a solemn stillness in the valley, and the hoarse brawl of the cascade beneath the castle-wall rang clearly on the dewy air. Smoking a Dutch pipe, I sat on the platform of the keep, immersed in reverie, and hoping a storm might come on, as a little variety, when the form of a horseman, far off, galloping along the defile below, caught my eye; and as every stray passenger became an object of interest and source of speculation in that solitary place, I watched him as long as the light made him visible. I soon discerned that he was armed, and wore a helmet, and that he seemed to have come by the road which led towards the Rhine. He was well mounted, for he rode swiftly; yet the light faded away, and the moon had risen, amid black and flitting clouds, which afforded momentary gleams of witchlike light, before he halted at the gate of Lutzelstein, and with a Scottish tongue replied to the challenge of the Scottish sentinel. Ruthven summoned me from the usual scene of my meditations, and on descending to the arched hall, wherein ten huge candles in sconces of tin flared like torches in the wind, I saw a tall and handsome cavalier, completely armed in the trappings of the Guard. He was Dundrennan, who turned and embraced me.

'Viscount--you here!' I exclaimed.

'Why not?' said he, throwing aside his sword and gloves; 'am I not welcome to this new castle of king Louis?'

'But, here without an escort!'

'Tush! the whole country is clear of men now, and, unfortunately, of women too, which I find much more insupportable; but get me some wine if you have any, for I am sorely athirst by my long ride. By Jove! they have capital wine at Maltzheim, and you are certain to have some of the same stuff here.'

'And you have come from----'

'Seltz, twenty-seven miles north of Strasbourg, where we are blocking up a body of fugitives under De Bitche, and pouring such a fire of shot and shell upon them, that those who die there will not deem the lower world quite so hot as people say.'

'And to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you?'

'A despatch for you, M. le Gouverneur, and here it is; but while you con it over, Ruthven, like a good fellow, will assist me to get some of my iron shell off, for I have ridden eight good leagues since I mounted.'

I tore open the letter which he gave me, and found it to run as follows:

'Trenches before Seltz,
10th October, 1637.

'NOBLE COMRADE,

'I have just ascertained that a coach containing certain Imperialists of high rank is proceeding from the neighbourhood of Toul, towards the German frontier; and that, guided by a spy who is in our interest, it will, on the night of the 11th, pass through a defile of the Vosges, two miles north of your garrison. These Imperialists it behoves you to capture, and as you value the service of the most Christian King, to seize at all hazards. They have a slender escort, to avoid notice; but kill or capture them all, and my good Lord Dundrennan will return to me for further orders. Meantime, accept the assurance of my utmost esteem.

'GORDON,
'_Captain of the Garde du Corps Ecossais_.

'For Blane, of that Ilk,
'Captain of Lutzelstein,
'_These_.'

'Well, Arthur, what is to be done?' asked Dundrennan, stretching out his legs and draining a long horn of purple Rhenish, after scanning over the Marquis's letter.

'Obey.'

'Of course; I never doubted that: so we shall have a little affair with sword and pistol.'

'Who may those Imperialists be? Duke Charles, perhaps?'

'Nay, he is supposed to be with Count Gallas beyond the Rhine.'

'De Bitche probably?'

'Wrong again: he is shut up by our troops in Seltz.'

'This coach passes on the evening of the 11th.'

'To-morrow.'

'I will undertake this duty; and you, Dundrennan, will keep the castle for me in my absence.'

The Viscount demurred loudly against this arrangement; but in case the whole affair might be a decoy, a snare to lure off my garrison and recapture the castle of the Counts Palatine, he ultimately agreed to keep the place in my absence, and secure a retreat for me in case of my falling into an ambush.