Zawis and Kunigunde/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII.
FURSTENBERG AND ITS POLICY.
“Now, dear heart,” said Zawis as soon as the shelter of his own towers, and the fidelity of his retainers afforded security, “we may perhaps, hopefully, review the conditions for honor, fidelity, and happiness in each other’s affection that surround us. For yourself, dear heart, you may confidently rely on my own unfailing love, devotion, and respect.”
“Urge it not, good Zawis,” earnestly interposed Kunigunde. “Had I not discerned a manly heart under the hauberk of a good knight, and learned the generous zeal of a proud and loyal baron, as respectful to his own honor as faithful in his chivalrous service to his country and his prince, I trust I know my duty too well ever to have given you my heart, as I have done, and here I do again, in all wifely duty and cheerfulness. Believe me, Zawis, no shade of distrust dims the bright surface of my confidence, no uneven ruffle breaks the placidity of my sincere affection. I am yours, Zawis, in a love as free from blemish as the diamond, and as stainless of doubt or speck of insincerity as the fairest lily in your garden.”
“I doubt it not, dearest heart,” earnestly replied Zawis, “and amid the uncertainties, the possible confusion, and the unconcealed jealousies that encompass us we shall need all the courage, all the undivided purpose that the tenacity of mutual love, counsel, and sympathy can bestow.
“We confront a perilous conjuncture. On one side an ambitious emperor, poor, greedy of provinces, and as unscrupulous in his disregard of rights as he is remorseless in his methods of enriching his necessitous family. He cannot acquire for himself a foot of land, but he can confer provinces and dukedoms.
“Having disposed of the greater part of the external Bohemian domain, he now has taken measures to absorb the remainder by the double marriage of his son and daughter to a son and daughter of Bohemia. On the other side weconfront, unhappily, a divided country. Our marriage has already created fierce, jealousies; and men too feeble to govern a county, too uncultured to compose an agricultural report, through their very ignorance of details, are ambitious, of governing a kingdom, solely because they cannot even dream of the minute general knowledge that is required. The more feeble the reason, the more irregular its processes; and the more ignorant of details the more rapidly and presumptuously it leaps into vast generalities that cloud its opaque understanding still more fatally. Persons who cannot compute the simplest problems of calculation, or of ratios, or of proportions, discuss vast millions with the flippancy of vanity and fatuity. Men who can scarcely command intelligence enough to earn a subsistence with the best opportunities, discourse volubly of legislating for the masses.”
“The king will, on his restoration,” said Kunigunde, “assuredly rally round him the respect and power of the nation.”
“The respect is of small importance without strength. A man, like a nation, is respected in proportion as he is feared,” answered Zawis. “Such a source of command as platonic authority, resting on mere sentiment, never did enforce order or obedience; certainly not in Bohemia. Authority can only be enforced even by the strongest, by a spirit of equity and the equalization of the burdens of life. Men will claim, and they are entitled to, equality before the law, whereof the prince is only the representative in this kingdom. No class of men in this land, or of our stock, will ever long be content, like some in Asia, to be the bearers of burdens for any other. That is the true Bohemian mind. Oppression creates deception, cunning, fraud, and violence against the eppressor. To sustain this principle during the confusion that confronts us will require wisdom indeed.”
“Assuredly, my dear lord,” interposed Kunigunde, “our institutions have acquired sufficient stability to survive our present troubles.”
“The best law will never enforce itself,” answered Zawis, “unless the opinion of the nation coincides with it. Unhappily opinion is too often swayed by self-interest; and a political party is being sedulously formed now by the emperor’s adherents whose purpose is to substitute imperial power and Roman ascendency for the ancient law that has created Bohemian nationality. In politics we are to be an integral province of the empire instead of an accretion or adjunct to it; andin religion we are to be subordinated completely to the deadening influence of Roman subtlety that is to leave us no thought which it does not suggest, and no mind but such as merges in blind veneration for Roman dogmatism. The leavening process in both respects will now be intensified with more material and more fervor than ever. We are scarcely ina condition to resist, much less to counteract either. Wisdom indeed must that statesman possess who can preserve his country from sucha combination of perils.”
“Surely I can perform my partin this great duty,” earnestly pleaded Kunigunde. “Indeed, dear Zawis, you can command my utmost devotion.”
“So far as I can at present perceive the propriety of your action, dear Kunigunde,” thoughtfully rejoined Zawis, “it will consist in prudent silence and watchfulness. First, our house will be the resort of spies sent hither by the emperor and his agents and masters, both lay and clerical. I perceive plots and counterplots. They will watch who comes and goes in order to find who are our friends and partizans. Next, our own countrymen will plan and combine. Your wisdom towards them will consist of friendliness and in showing them consideration. Bohemian eratitude is composed largely of earnestness for favors yet in expectancy. The few official positions to be bestowed, after the young king’s restoration, poorly paid and uncertain, will speedily develop a host of applicants. “The emperor will promise but never bestow favors in order to counteract the possibility of union among us; and the church will extend its lands, abbacies, and orders, until Bohemia shall be doubly garrisoned with armies devoted to the power of aliens, sustained out of the coveted treasures of its own hills. Our silver mines, that for centuries have largely supplied Europe, are now in the hands of our enemies. Our chief hope must rest in the toughness of the Bohemian character, and its constancy in adhering to the native customs. To sustain Bohemian independence in the midst of these conflicting hostilities will require wisdom indeed.”
“My dear Zawis,” sadly interposed Kunigunde, laying her hand gently on his, “the fate of my boy causes me disquietude. I know that his uncle of Brandenburg is in a measure responsible for his well-being; but I have received no intelligence since Wenzel’s removal into Brandenburg. I fear all is not well.”
“All is not well,” replied Zawis; “the boy, I am indirectly informed, is grossly neglected. He is required to recite twenty masses a day, and that exercise includes his whole education. But I will endeavor to obtain accurate information. The emperor does not propose that Wenzel shall acquire much of the spirit of his fathers; and when he does return I apprehend he will exhibit only the distorted and disingenuous devices instilled into him by his young and artful wife, and her advisers.
“We can expect no more of the unmingled and manly patriotism of the Premysls; however mistaken many of their methods and policies may have been. They will pervert Wenzel’s mind, but they will not instruct him.”
“Surely,” urged Kunigunde, “Wenzel’s royal descent will exhibit the qualities of his ancestors. Native proclivities, and race characteristics cannot be eradicated.”
“Royal birth and origin will do much,” replied Zawis, “but a mind left wholly uninstructed in facts must easily yield to superstitious fictions that only bear a semblance of reason. In such case natural tendencies can only give force to perverted sensibilities. Sound knowledge is denounced even now as the magic taught by the evil one. Such association with the malignant spirit is hurled at me as a reproach, and an appeal to the passions of the ignorant, by the new ecclesiasticism that is the chief agent employed to enslave us. We have, however, a bastioned fortress in my Witkowici adherents. Rudolph early discovered the local power of that family alliance, and partly succeeded in detaching it from Otakar. His intrigues in that quarter, and his treacherous wiles to undermine Otakar’s legitimate authority provoked the king’s manly indignation. My strong policy must be to combine all this native strength in favor of Bohemian unity. If I succeed, we may be wounded, but Bohemia will survive. ‘Melius mori quam videre patriam mori.” After a pause Zawis added, “It is now time for Witek to report. Hourly precaution must not be neglected.” A messenger summoned Lord Witek the castellan. That guardian promptly appeared, exhibiting an unusually stern aspect. Without waiting to be questioned Witek said, “The guard reports, sinister rumors of severe events in Hungary. One of our women attendants returned last night bringing tidings, as she claims, of a violent outbreak at Gran; and, the death by fire of our friends Pietro and Eudocia, under direct orders from King Ladislaus.”
Zawis received the intelligence calmly as an officer who hears from an attack on an outpost in what direction his enemy has commenced to operate.
“We must commission Lord Drda to Rudolph to ascertain if possible the imperial policy in such events; and also to Ladislaus that we may ascertain how far he has succeeded in enlisting the aid of the Teutonic order. I know he has applied to Hartman von Heldrungen, the grand master; but I do not believe that the knights are either able or willing to abandon the Prussian enterprise at present.”
“If there be any thought of such an alliance,” said Witek, “I feel confident that old Lord Boppo von Osterna, who possesses almost as much influence as his illustrious namesake, would speedily dissipate it.”
The next day Lord Drda attended, having been hastily summoned from his Moravian home. His instructions consisted more of suggested advice than of definite duties; and as his absence might be protracted, his leave-taking gathered around him the chief persons of the household. Approaching Lady Ludmila, who sat silent and apart. Lord Drda said, “How long I shall be absent, dear lady, I know not; but I hope I bear with me some assurance that I shall be remembered by none more than by yourself.”
“Most assuredly, dear Lord Drda,” replied Ludmila, “I shall remember you very warmly indeed. You have my best wishes for your success and safety.”
“Perhaps, " Lord Drda replied, “I may ask some more definite expression of your personal regard. You know that I entertain the tenderest feelings toward you.”
“Thank you,” the lady replied, speaking more with her eyes than her words, “I would see more placid prospects than are perceptible at this moment before I could seriously permit myself to indulge in hopes such as you have already alluded to. Our fortunes, and all that we hold most dear, demand our unreserved homage; but I cherish the most earnest hopes for the success of your mission. Believe me you bear with you my best esteem, and constant good wishes”
“Dear Lady Ludmila, you know I trust to earn a far greater share of your heart, and warmer expression of your regard than you are pleased to give me. But as your devoted knight and true, I ask for some slight token that I am not wholly without hope of possessing your full heart, for which you know I would venture any knightly duty.”
Ludmila allowed Drda to take one of her gloves and set it securely within his belt. This he did openly, so that all eyes observed the action; and with courtly adieu he departed. Ludmila at once sought her chamber; and then a passionate burst of tears expressed the strong earnestness of her love that a lofty reserve alone had forbidden her expressly to avow.