It was past midnight when Drost AagÉ, with his troop of horsemen, drew near the Issefiord near Holbek. The weather was calm and frosty, the snow sparkled in the starlight winter night, the marshes and all the pools by the road side were frozen, but the ford was still open and passable. Holbek rather resembled a ruin than a town; instead of houses, there were now chiefly to be seen single walls and solitary hearths. Five years before the town had been plundered and nearly burnt down by the Norwegian fleet, in the feud with Marsk Stig and the outlaws. Some small houses, however, had been rebuilt. The church and the monastery of the Gray Friars stood unscathed, as well as the castle, which had been lately put in good repair by Junker Christopher, and which, it appeared, he now intended, despite the king's prohibition, to make as strong a fortress as Kallundborg.

By AagÉ's side rode an elderly captain of horse, Sir Ribolt's brother, a silent, serious personage, whom the Drost informed by the way of what was here to be attempted. When they approached the town they halted, and had their horses rubbed down, while each horseman received his separate directions. They then rode slowly, and as quietly as possible, through the snow-covered streets of the town, and past the monastery, where all lay in profound slumber. At the castle also the inmates seemed to be reposing in the greatest calmness and security; even the warders on the battlements were asleep. They examined the castle narrowly on every side. There was not a light to be seen in the whole of the upper story; it was only from the knights' hall, opposite the ford, that a faint light gleamed from a window; and at the quay behind the castle lay a boat with a red sail, from which glimmered the light of a horn lantern. On the quay a fat knight, wrapped in a fox-skin pelisse, paced up and down, apparently waiting for some one; he often yawned, and rubbed his hands, while he looked up impatiently at the window from whence gleamed the solitary light. A rough-looking, one-eyed fellow, with a hideous and bloated visage, lay half asleep on the rampart.

"If thou fallest asleep, and drop'st into the ford, Kyste! thou wilt cheat the rope-maker of an hempen cord," said the fat knight, and laughed at his own wit.

"Ha, indeed! think ye the halter is so sure of me. Sir PallÉ?" muttered the fellow; "you may well crack your jests, you are neither made to be drowned nor hanged; with your round carcass, you would swim like an ale barrel, and he who would hang you must risk his own neck."

"Well," answered PallÉ, yawning, "mine is a very politic shape; thou and thy daring masters might need such an one. But what the devil has become of them? They are wrangling and consulting a confounded time together."

"It concerns high play, though, Sir PallÉ," muttered the man, flapping his arms around his body to keep himself warm. "Had I but a good can of German ale at my side, of a surety I would keep my eyes open."

"If thou canst keep one eye open it deserves all honour, since thou hast not more by thee," jested the knight. "But what the devil is the junker about?" he continued, "to set me to watch here in frost and cold while he consults on weighty matters in his warm private chamber! Me, his right hand, and let into all his secrets! But tell me, Kyste, what means this secret nightly visit? The proud Niels Brock and Johan PapÉ I well know; they are two limbs of Satan, and I can easily divine what they would be at; but who was the third stranger thou broughtest hither,--yon little fellow, with the hump and the red mantle?"

"It is the Evil One himself, I almost believe," answered the deserter, and crossed himself; "a wizard at the least. I will be hanged if he understands not the black art. They call him wise Master Thrand; he has been condemned to fire and stake by the pope, and banished both by kings and emperors; but he snaps his fingers at them all--he laughs at the world's governors and rulers, and cares not for our Lord or our Lady, either, when he is on the seas. If he is right, then are we all fools together in Christendom, and should obey none other than him our master, who is within us and in all things; but that passes my understanding. He can be pious too when it serves his turn. I saw that when he kissed the archbishop's hand at parting, and took the letter of absolution, which truly he afterwards cast overboard--he is a good friend of Niels Brock, and can make gold, they say."

"Then would he might teach us and the junker that art!" said PallÉ; "then it were sin should he be burned for a little touch of heresy--for that he will one day burn in the other world. But tell me, Kyste, if thou and thy masters come from Hammershuus, from the archbishop, how darest thou appear before the junker? The archbishop hath given him over, as well as the king, to the devil; and I must needs admit the junker hath been worse to him than ten devils."

"That's the great folks' business," answered Kyste. "I serve the man who pays best, and ask not of aught besides--had I known the archbishop brought not so much as a mark with him, and should lose all he expected from Skaane, the devil take me if I would have perilled my life for his sake."

"You had a rough passage, then, with him from SjÖborg?"

"Yes, you may well say that;--we were hard put to it ere we got him housed. We were obliged to run in under Hveen; and we lay with our life in our hands a whole day and two nights at Saltholm.--They were chasing us every where with barks and those confounded fishing smacks; but the fog and the bishop's prayers helped us that once. We sailed, in peril of our lives, in a howling storm, to Kaasebjerg, and by the time we reached Hammershuus we were half perished with cold and hunger; and what got we for our pains? Mad Morten the cook got a bishop's letter for a pilgrimage. I and OlÉ Ark got a dry blessing with three wizened fingers, and a fresh absolution for ten years' sins. It may have its use;--I never slight God's gifts; but such like gifts help little to fill purse and stomach. Of course," he added, "we have now leave to seek our bread where we can find it, and plunder our Lord's and the archbishop's enemies till our dying day, without having a hair singed in purgatory for it; but----"

"Content thyself, Kyste; it will be a livelihood, nevertheless," interrupted PallÉ. "But if thy new masters side with the archbishop I cannot imagine what the devil they want here--the junker and the archbishop agree together like cat and dog."

"As I said, that's the great folks' business," answered the deserter. "What they have plotted with the archbishop at Hammershuus I can't tell; but could they patch up an agreement for the junker with Master Grand, and get the ban done away, he would have nought against it, I trow; and one service is as good as the other. If the junker gets into a scrape with the king, he will need a prop; and if the king goes to the wall, the junker perhaps will get uppermost, and may help his friends again. But that concerns not me; matters may turn out as the foul fiend pleases for aught I care, so long as there are good oars to be had, and something to lay one's hands on. But what was that noise? Heard ye not horses tramp on the other side of the castle?"

"Dream'st thou, Kyste? Who would visit the castle so late?" said PallÉ, listening anxiously.

"Here I have my masters. Now any one may come that Satan pleases," said the deserter, and ran towards the vessel.

Two tall men, in ample grey mantles, and with hoods over their heads, accompanied by a little hump-backed personage, in a red cloak, came forth from a secret door in the castle wall, and passed over a small drawbridge which was let down over the outer castle moat. They hasted down to the quay, where they greeted Sir PallÉ by a silent nod, and, without uttering a word, entered the vessel, which instantly pushed off from the shore, and set sail. Sir PallÉ shook his head thoughtfully, and looked after them as he listened, and thought he heard a distant noise of arms and horses' hoofs without the castle gate. He hasted over the small drawbridge before which he had stood on guard, and drew it up hastily behind him. He then passed quickly through the private door into the castle.

On the opposite side of the outer fortification stood Drost AagÉ with his horsemen, who, according to his orders, had led their horses slowly, and one at a time, over the half-completed drawbridge, which as yet could not be drawn up. The strongly secured castle gate was shut, and they had knocked several times, apparently without being heard by any one. "Who is there?" at last said a drowsy voice from the battlement over the gate. It was the watchman or warder of the castle, who now stood up, with a long spear in the one hand, and an alarm horn in the other.

"Sleep'st thou at thy post, watch?" called AagÉ, in a stern tone; "seest thou not it is the king's men who would enter? Haste! let the porter open to us instantly.--This is the new garrison."

"New garrison! That know we nought of here," muttered the warder. "I shall have to blow the horn, then, as the junker hath commanded."

"A single sound costs thee thy life, fellow!" menaced the Drost. "Where the king himself commands no junker hath a word to say."

"The Lord bless you, if that be true, noble sir!" said the warder, joyfully; "I shall then not have to ride the wooden horse to-morrow because I slept?"

"Haste thee! or we force the gates."--To AagÉ's surprise, the castle gate was opened without demur in a few minutes. The troop presently filled the castle yard. Guards were immediately stationed at all the entrances, as well as on the towers and the battlements on the wall surrounding the fortress. This was done hastily, and with as little noise as possible. The sound of so many horses' hoofs and clashing weapons had, notwithstanding, awakened all the inhabitants of the castle, who peeped in dismay out of the windows and loopholes, ignorant into whose hands it had fallen. But the Drost now ordered three trumpeters to call together all the unarmed household servants, with all the men-at-arms in the castle. He announced to the warder and the household, in the king's name, that they were released from their duties here in the junker's service; and that the king for the present had taken possession of the castle himself. Those who would enter his service, and swear fealty to him, might remain; the rest were at liberty to withdraw, and serve the junker at his other castles and estates. On hearing this proclamation fear was suddenly changed into general rejoicing, "Long live the king!" re-echoed from mouth to mouth. There was not a single domestic who hesitated to change masters; and many expressions and exclamations were heard which showed how little Junker Christopher had understood to win the good will of his dependants. As soon as the new force had garrisoned all the posts, Drost AagÉ, with the remainder of his troop, entered the castle. The steward was the first person who appeared. He was a taciturn personage, of short stature, with a half German accent. He delivered the keys of the castle to the Drost, and seemed to share in the general satisfaction; but as soon as he had installed his unexpected guests he vanished, and did not again make his appearance.

Ere the day had dawned, Drost AagÉ was again on horseback, and, with the half of his troop of horse, quitted Holbek castle, and took the road to Kallundborg. Sir Ribolt's brother remained as commandant, with strict orders not to open the gates to any one, or give up the castle to the junker, ere he had the king's warrant and seal for so doing.

"Sir Drost," said an old horseman, as they rode out of the still slumbering town, amid its ruins and deserted sites, "was it then your own order that we might not stop any one who would out of the castle; and that none, under pain of death, might lift a hand against the high-born junker, if he was on the spot?"

"That was the king's command to us all," answered the Drost.

"Then I now know that I was right, even though I did let rogues and traitors slink off," continued the horseman. "I stood on guard at the gate of the back court. Sir Drost, and I saw three men in disguise lead their horses out of the stable. They disappeared through the rampart gate close to the ford, and the Lord only knows what became of them. My comrades thought we should have stopped and seized them, for they stole so strangely away, and looked around them on all sides; but I said, 'No! it is a criminal act if we touch them,' and we let them 'scape. The one was assuredly the little German who was forced to give you the keys; the other was a fat fellow, who could hardly waddle away; but the third was a tall stern man; he swore, and laid about him, at every step. I could almost take my oath it was the junker himself. He was hardly twelve paces from me when he caught a sight of me, and shyed off, as it were.--He led his horse over the dunghill, that he might not come too near us, I suppose; but then the hood fell back from his neck, and I saw the long black hair you know of; it is as rough as a horse-tail. No one in the country has such dark unsightly hair as the junker. But, as I say, we let him go, and budged not from the spot.--The king himself will know how to chastise him, thought I."

"Good!" exclaimed the Drost; "thou hast behaved as was thy duty--as to the rest, what is between the king and his brother concerns not us, and still less whether the junker's hair be fine or coarse." He then spurred his horse, and proceeded at a brisk trot, without stopping.

Ere Drost AagÉ, with his horsemen, reached Kallundborg, the king approached the town, with the greater part of his chivalry, and a more numerous troop of horsemen and spearmen than he was ever wont to take with him when about to visit his vassals or one of his castles. It was noon. The horses foamed with hard riding. The troop halted at St. George's Hospital, upon the high hill just without the town.