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Updated: June 7, 2025
The duke and I passed through the door by which Max and Hymbercourt had left the hall, and entered a narrow passageway eight or ten yards long, having two doors at the farther end. The door to the right, I soon learned, led to the little parley room where Max and Hymbercourt had gone. The door to the left opened into a staircase that led to the apartments of the duchess.
I asked, slowly dropping my words in astonishment. "She was in the castle yard when her father entered, and at the Postern?" "Yes, she took his hand and sprang to a seat behind him," answered Hymbercourt. "She met him inside the Postern, say you?" I repeated musingly. "What is there amazing about so small an act?" asked Hymbercourt.
Marcus Grote had told me there were but two openings to the castle, the Postern and the great gate on the other side of the castle by the donjon keep. To reach the great gate one must pass out by Cambrai or the Somme Gate and go around the city walls an hour's journey. With an air of carelessness I asked Hymbercourt concerning the various entrances to the castle. He confirmed what Grote had said.
"I am listening," I replied. "I am greatly interested. Her gown she wore a gown she wore a gown " "Yes, of course she wore a gown," laughingly retorted Hymbercourt. "Your lagging attention is what I deserve, Sir Karl, for trying in my lame fashion to describe a woman's gear to a man who is half priest, half warrior. I do not wonder that you did not follow me."
A letter from Hymbercourt, that reached me nearly two years after this affair, spoke of a tender little maiden in Burgundy, whose heart throbbed with disappointment while it also clung to its ideal, as tender natures are apt to do. This hint in Hymbercourt's letter sank to the tenderest spot in Max's heart. On Max's twenty-first birthday he was knighted by the emperor.
By God, Hymbercourt, it makes my blood boil to hear you, a man of sound reason, talk like a fool. I hear the same maudlin protest from the duchess. She, too, is under the spell of this girl, and mourns over her trumped-up grief like a parish priest at a bishop's funeral." "But, my lord, consider the creature your daughter is to marry," said Hymbercourt.
"In God's name, yes!" exclaimed the duke, stirred by some irritation, but spurred by curiosity. "My lord," said Hymbercourt, speaking to the duke and extending his hand toward Max, "it is my great honor to present to Your Grace his highness, Maximilian, Count of Hapsburg."
"Do you want to give the reasons for your advice?" "Yes, I am quite willing," he answered, "but I would not have my words repeated." "Of that you may rest assured," I answered. "If you do not tell the duke who you are," said Hymbercourt, "he will soon learn it from our Italian friends, who have the fiend's own energy in the pursuit of vengeance.
We shall leave Count Calli no excuse to avoid this combat, even if I must tell Your Grace my true rank and station." "This knight," said Hymbercourt, addressing Charles and extending his hand toward Max, "is of birth entitling him to meet in the lists any knight in Burgundy, and I will gladly stand his sponsor."
After Max had entered the true lists the gates were closed, and Hymbercourt, myself, and our squires stood outside the barrier at the north end of the false lists, the north being Max's station on the course. Max sat his charger, lance in rest; Calli waited in the south, and these two faced each other with death between them.
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