The Riddle of Countess Runa

ANTHONY HOPE.

AVING reduced the rest of his kingdom to obedience in three arduous campaigns, King Stanislas sat himself down with a great army before the strong place of Or, which was held against him by Runa, daughter of Count Theobald the Fierce. For Countess Runa said that since her father had paid neither obedience nor tribute to the King's father for fifty years, neither would she pay obedience or tribute to the King, nor would she open the city gates to him save at her own time and by her own will. So the King came and enveloped the city on all sides, so that none could pass in or out, and sent his heralds to Countess Runa demanding surrender; in default of which he would storm the ramparts, sack the city, and lay the citadel level with the earth, in such wise that men should not remember the place where it had been.

Sitting on her high chair beneath the painted window through which the sun struck athwart her fair hair, Runa heard the message.

"Tell the King—for a king he is, though no king of mine—that we are well-armed and have knights of fame with us. Tell him that we are provisioned for more months than he shall reign years, and that we will tire him sooner than he can starve us."

She ceased speaking, and the principal herald, bowing low, asked: "Is that all the message?"

"No, there is more. Tell him that the daughter of Count Theobald the Fierce rules in the City of Or."

Bowing, again, the principal herald asked: "Is that all the message?"

Runa sat silent for a minute. Then she said: "No, there is more. Tell the King that he must carry the citadel before he can pass the ramparts."

The principal herald frowned, then smiled and said: "But with deference, madam, how can that be? For the citadel is high on a rock, and the city lies round it below, and again round the city lie the ramparts. How, then, shall the King carry the citadel before?"

Runa raised her brows in weariness.

"Your speech is as long as your siege will be," she said. "You are a mouthpiece, Sir Herald, not an interpreter. Begone, and say to the King what I have given you to say."

So the heralds returned to King Stanislas and gave him Runa's answer; but the King, in his wrath, listened more to the first part of it than to the last, and assaulted the ramparts fiercely for three days. But Runa's men rolled his men back with loss and in confusion, For they were in good heart because of the message Runa had sent. "For," they said, "our Countess has bidden the King perform what is impossible before she will yield the city; and as we trusted Theobald the father, so we trust the daughter Runa."

After his three assaults had failed, King Stanislas waited in quiet for a month, drawing his cordon yet more closely round the city. Then he sent again to the Countess, saying that he would spend the first half of his reign outside the walls of Or, provided he could spend the second half of it inside the same; but if she would yield now, she should have his favour and all her wealth; but if she would not yield, she must await starvation and sack and the extremity of his anger. To which summons she answered only: "Tell the King that he must carry the citadel before he can pass the ramparts." And she would say no more to the heralds.

"A plague on her!" cried Stanislas. "A plague on the woman and her insolent riddles! Of what appearance is she? I have never seen her."

"As the sun for beauty and the moon for dignity," said the principal herald, whose occupation naturally bred eloquence.

"Stuff!" said King Stanislas very crossly.

The herald bowed, but with an offended air.

"Does she seem sane?" asked Stanislas.

"Perfectly sane, sire," answered the herald. "Although, as your Majesty deigns to intimate, the purport of her message is certainly not such as might reasonably be expected from a lady presumably endowed with"

"I am ready for the next audience," said King Stanislas to his chamberlain.

And after the next audience he sat down and thought. But, as often happens with meaner men, he took nothing by it, except a pain in the head and a temper much the worse. So that he ordered three more assaults on the ramparts of the City of Or, which ended as the first three had; and then sent another summons to Countess Runa, to which she returned the same answer. And for the life of him the King could see in it no meaning save that never in all his life should he pass the ramparts. "Only an army of birds could do what she says!" he declared peevishly. Indeed he was so chagrined and shamed that he would then and there have raised the siege and returned to the capital, had it not been for the unfortunate circumstance that, on leaving it, he had publicly and solemnly vowed never to return, nor to show himself to his lieges there, unless and until he should be master of the City of Or. So there he was, unable to enter either city, and saddled with a great army to feed, winter coming on, and the entire situation, as his chancellor observed, full of perplexity. On the top of all this, too, there were constant sounds and signs of merriment and plenty within the city, and the Countess's men, when they had eaten, took to flinging the bones of their meat to the besiegers outside—an action most insulting, however one might be pleased to interpret.

Meanwhile Countess Runa sat among her ladies and knights, on her high chair under the emblazoned window, with the sun striking athwart her fair hair. Often she smiled; once or twice she sighed. Perhaps she was wondering what King Stanislas would do next—and when he would understand her message.

II. was with King Stanislas' army a certain friar named Nicholas, a man who was pious, brave, and cheerful, although, in the judgment of some, more given to good-fellowship and conviviality than became his sacred profession. He was a shrewd fellow too, and had a good wit; and for all these qualities Stanislas held him in good will and allowed him some degree of familiarity. Friar Nicholas had heard the Countess Runa's message, which, indeed, had leaked through the army and been much discussed and canvassed round the camp fires. The friar had listened to all the talk, agreeing with every man in turn, nodding his head wisely, but holding his tongue closely. No man heard him utter any opinion whatsoever as to what Countess Runa meant—supposing her to mean anything save defiance pure and simple.

One night, when the King sat in his tent very moody and sore out of heart with his undertaking, the flap of the tent was lifted, and Friar Nicholas stood there.

"I did not summon you," said the King.

"David did not summon Nathan," said Nicholas. "But he came to him."

"What ewe-lamb is it that I have taken?" Stanislas asked, smiling, for he was glad to be rid of his thoughts and have company. "Let Nathan drink with David," he added, pushing a flagon of wine towards Nicholas, who, on this invitation, let the flap of the tent fall behind him and came in. "Is the ewe-lamb this one city which of all the realm holds out against me? Is Or the ewe-lamb of Countess Runa?

"The City of Or is the ewe-lamb," said Nicholas, after he had drank.

"But in the first place, Prophet, I have not taken it—a curse on it! And in the second, it is mine by right, as by right it was my father's before me. Why, then, am I to be denounced by my holy Prophet?"

"I do not come to denounce you for having taken it, but to show you how to take it," answered Nicholas. And he stood there, in the centre of the tent, wrapping his frock close round him. "O King," said he, "I will put a question to you."

The King leant back in his chair. "I will listen and answer," he said.

"Where is the citadel of an army, O King?" asked Nicholas.

"An army has no citadel," answered the King. "A city has a citadel, a fortress of stone or of brick, set in the middle of it and on high. But an army lies in tents or on the bare ground, moving hither and thither. An army has no citadel, O Prophet! Are you answered?"

"Where is the citadel of an army, O King?" asked Nicholas again.

"An army has no citadel," replied the King. "A city that is made of brick and of stone has a citadel. But an army is not of brick and stone, but is made and composed only of men, of their flesh and bones, their sinews and muscles, their brains and hearts. An army has no citadel, O Prophet! Are you answered?"

"Where is the citadel of an army, O King?" asked Nicholas for the third time.

Then, seeing that he had a meaning, the King took thought; for many minutes he sat in meditation, while Nicholas stood in the centre of the tent, never moving, with his eyes set on the King's face.

At last the King answered.

"An army has a citadel," he said. "The citadel of an army is the stout heart of him who leads it. His heart is its citadel, O Prophet! Are you answered?"

"You have spoken it. I am answered, O King!" said Nicholas, and he turned and went out from the King's tent.

But the King sprang to his feet with an eager cry. "It is not otherwise with a city!" he cried. "And before I can pass the ramparts of Or, I must carry the citadel!"

III. sat in her high chair under the emblazoned window of the great hall, with her ladies and knights about her, and one of her officers craved leave to bring a prisoner into her presence. Leave given, the officer presented his charge—a tall and comely young man, standing between two guards, yet bearing himself proudly and with a free man's carriage of his head. His hair was dark, his eyes blue, his shoulders broad; he was long in the leg and lean in the flank, Runa suffered her eyes to glance at him in approval.

"Where did you find him?" she asked of the officer.

"He came late last night to the southern gate," the officer answered, "and begged asylum from the anger of King Stanislas."

"He's a deserter, then?" she asked, frowning a little.

"He has told us nothing. He would tell his story, he said, to your Highness only."

"Let him speak," she said, taking a peacock fan from one of her ladies and half-hiding her face behind it.

"Speak, prisoner," said the officer.

"If I am a prisoner, it is by my own will," said the stranger; "but I was in such straits that my will had no alternative save to cause me to throw myself on the mercy of your Highness. Yet I am no traitor, and wish naught but good to my lord King Stanislas."

"Then you had best wish that he shall return to his own city and leave mine alone," said Runa.

The knights smiled and the ladies tittered. The stranger took no heed of these things, nor, as it seemed, of her Highness's remark.

"I was high in the King's confidence," he said. "He deemed me a wise man, and held that I knew all that was to be known, and that by my aid alone he could discover all that was hidden, and unravel any riddle, however difficult. Through three victorious campaigns I was by his side, and then he brought me to the walls of Or, not doubting that by my valour and counsel he should be enabled to make himself master of the city. I do not boast. I repeat only what the King has many a time said of me, both publicly and when we two were alone."

"Then one man at least has a good esteem of you," said Runa. "Indeed, as I think, two."

Again the ladies tittered and the knights smiled. But the stranger was unmoved.

"Then," he went on in a smooth equable voice whose rich tones struck pleasantly on their ears and made the ladies sorry for their mocking, "came the day, fatal to me, when your Highness was pleased to send his Majesty a message. For when the King asked me the meaning of your riddle—asked how a man could carry the citadel before he passed the ramparts—I told him to take no heed of it, for it was an idle vaunt. And he believed me and assaulted the ramparts three times in vain. And in vain brave men died. Again came your message, and when the King asked me the meaning of it, I said it was insolent defiance. And he believed me, and assaulted the ramparts three times in vain. And in vain brave men died. Then came the message a third time, and the King demanded of me the meaning of it. But I did not know the meaning, and, lest more men should die, I confessed to him that I could not read the riddle."

"You learnt wisdom late and at a cost," said Runa, setting her eyes on him over the top of the peacock fan.

"When I confessed that, he called me a blockhead and, with many hard words, told me plainly that all my credit stood on my reading him that riddle, and reading it, the third time, right; and that if I could not read it, I could never see home again nor my own people, but that my life must end here outside the walls of the city, and end in disgrace and defeat. So the King said to me in his wrath, and in fear of him and of the death he threatened I stole by night from his camp and delivered myself to the officer of your Highness's watch at the southern gate of the city."

"What do you want of me?" asked Runa.

"Either the answer to the riddle, that I may carry it back to the King forthwith and have his favour again"

"And failing that?" said Runa, smiling.

"Leave to abide here for a while, in the hope that by my own wit I may discover the meaning."

The knights laughed and murmured scornfully, but the ladies, on whom the stranger's appearance had made no small impression, sighed sadly, as though it were lamentable to hear a personable brave man ask such foolish things. But Runa sank her head in thought. When she raised her eyes, she met those of the stranger fixed full on her. They gleamed blue and keen. A faint flush rose on Runa's cheek—or was it a red light from the painted window over her head?

"Seven days and seven nights you may abide here," she said, "but on condition that at the end of that time my officers deliver you to your King again. If by then you have read the riddle, it will be good for the King and for you. But if you have not read it, let it be evil for you as for him—evil unto death. How say you?"

"I accept the condition, and I will abide," said the stranger.

Runa signed that he should be led forth. "And leave me alone, all of you," she said.

IV. days and seven nights, then, the stranger abode in the city. Every day he held speech with Runa, both in the great hall with the ladies and the knights, and privately. Much he told her concerning the kingdom and the King, and she showed him all the wealth and power of her city. But when she bade him speak of himself, he would answer, "I am nothing without the King," and would say no more of himself, so that she was full of wonder about him, and pondered more and more as to who he was and whence he came. And meanwhile the King's army lay idle in its tents and made no assault on the ramparts.

At last, on the third day, she said to him: "Tell me why the King your master leaves all his great kingdom and makes war on my poor city?"

"The King," he answered, "makes war that peace may come, and union, and power. In three years he has brought peace to all the kingdom. This city alone is left, a foe set among friends, disobedient among the obedient, a weakness amidst that which is strong. Without the kingdom the city is nothing, and without the city the kingdom is feeble."

Runa knit her brows and heard him in silence. But after a while she said:

"Had the King sent an embassy to me with these words, it may be that I should have listened. But he sent me only a summons to surrender."

The next day she sent for him again and said: "If I give up my city and submit myself to the King, what am I then—I who was Runa of Or?"

"You will be high in the King's counsel and in his love," he answered.

"I do not covet the King's love," said Runa, knitting her brows again.

"You do not know what it is, madam," he said softly.

On the fifth day she sent for him again, and privately, and said to him:

"If I give up my city and submit myself to the King, and there is peace in the kingdom such as there has not been since the day my father Count Theobald ruled in Or, what will the King do?"

"He will enrich the kingdom and make it fair and secure it against all foes."

"And what will you do?" she asked.

"I shall be by the King's side," he answered, "if by chance I can give him good counsel."

"And he will reward you with high honour?"

"All honour is at once mine if I read the riddle," he replied.

"You have not read it?"

"I seek to read it in your eyes," he answered boldly, and Runa turned her glance away from him, lest he should read the riddle there.

On the seventh day, in the evening, she sent for him again in secret, unknown to any of her knights or ladies. The great hall in which she sat alone was dimly lighted; only her face, her fair hair, and her rich robe of white gleamed from the gloom. He came and stood before her.

"To-morrow at sunrise," she said, "I must deliver you to the King your master according to our agreement. What gift do you carry in your hand to turn his wrath into favour?"

"If I do not bear in my hand the keys of the citadel, I bear nothing," he answered.

There fell a long silence between them, and the great hall was marvellously still. The stranger drew very near to Countess Runa and stood by the arm of her high chair.

"Madam, farewell," he said.

She looked up at him and murmured softly: "Farewell." "Yet we shall meet again."

"When?" she asked, with lips just parted and eyes that strained to see his face.

"In two days, outside the ramparts."

"Outside the ramparts?"

"Yes." He knelt before her and kissed her hand. "The citadel of the city is the heart of its mistress," he said.

She rose suddenly to her feet and would have spoken, but he raised his hand to impose silence on her. With one long look he turned away and left her alone, standing under the emblazoned window, through which one ray of moonlight caught her fair hair and illumined it.

She stood with clasped hands, her eyes still set on the door by which he had gone out.

"My heart knows its lord," she whispered. "I have been speaking with my King."

V. the morrow, in the afternoon, King Stanislas, being returned from a journey on which affairs of State had called him, and having assumed again the command of his army, led it forth in battle array and took up his position in the plain before the southern gate, not far from the ramparts of the city.

"We are going to assault the ramparts again," said an old soldier to Friar Nicholas, who was there to see what passed and to exercise his sacred functions in case need arose.

"Nay, I think the King is going to carry the citadel," answered the Friar, with a laugh. And all of them laughed, thinking that he jested at the King's expense.

As the clock struck four, the King rode forth, magnificently appointed, and bestriding a black war-horse of great strength and spirit. When he was two hundred yards from the walls, he halted all his army and rode forward alone, save for the herald by his side. Coming close under the ramparts, which were thronged with Countess Runa's knights and men-at-arms, to say nothing of those who were ready to pour down stones and molten pitch and heavy bars of iron on the assaulters, he bade the herald cry that King Stanislas would speak with her Highness the Countess Runa.

Much stir rose on the ramparts at this message, but the King sat calm and motionless on his great black horse. So passed half an hour or so. Then the city gate rolled open, and Runa rode forth, in a robe of scarlet, seated on a white palfrey, and with all her knights and ladies round about her.

"This is no assault on the ramparts," said the old soldier to Friar Nicholas, grumbling because there was danger that he should be balked of a fight.

"I think you will soon pass them, though," said Nicholas.

When the King saw Countess Runa, he touched his horse with the spur and rode up to her where she awaited his coming. When she saw him, her eyes brightened to a new brilliance. Yet she showed no wonder.

"My heart knew," she said, when her ladies and her knights marvelled.

King Stanislas saluted her.

"Whither, my King?" she asked.

He leant down, put his arm about her waist, and lifted her from her palfrey. A great shout went up from the army in the plain and from the defenders on the walls. The King set her in front of him on his great horse.

"I carry the citadel," he said. "And now I will pass the ramparts"; and they two rode together into the city amidst mighty rejoicings.

VI. which story there are a number of morals quite out of proportion to its size.

This for Kings and Rulers: That they should state their objects openly—provided that they wish to have them known.

This for Children: That what their fathers did for fifty years, it may be wise for them to cease from doing immediately—especially if they wish to make good marriages.

This for Men: That though it be impossible that a woman should mean what she says, yet she means something by what she says—at any rate, if she says it three times.

This for Women: That though the ramparts protect the citadel, the citadel may often betray the ramparts.

And this for Everybody: That he who devotes a good intelligence to enlightening others is like unto a man who cooks his neighbour's dinner without being invited to table. For when once the citadel was carried, the ramparts passed, and the lovers happy, neither King nor Countess nor anybody else gave another thought to poor Friar Nicholas!

Copyright, 1904, by Anthony Hope Hawkins, in the United States of America. All rights reserved.