"Thy name?" said the duke abruptly, laying down his pen.
"Nickelas Valdemar, your excellency," replied the skipper, humbly removing his fur cap, being somewhat startled by the abruptness of the duke's manner.
"Kneel down, sir," said Bernard, unsheathing his sword.
"I beseech your excellency to spare me--to pardon me, if--if----" faltered the poor man, tottering down on his knees, and eyeing the bright blade askance with startled eyes; "if--if," he paused again.
"If what, sir--dost think I am going to kill thee?"
"If I was too long of hauling inshore; but I assure your excellency that the wind was right ahead----"
"Nay, my good man, better late than never. Of all my coward fleet, thou and yonder gallant Scot didst alone warp shoreward, and saved me with the help of this brave regiment; for that good deed I dub thee knight--arise, Sir Nickelas Valdemar!"
"Knight Valdemar!" reiterated the honest skipper, drawing up his punchy figure to the full extent of its short height, and taking a complacent view of himself from his red beard to his brass shoe-buckles. "Knight Valdemar!--oh, your excellency! what news this will be for my poor old mother, who sells tallow and pitch at Helsingör. I shall now carry my pennant through the Sound at the mainmast-head, like the king himself or any other knight of the Dannebrog--and who shall say me nay? not the admiral of Zeeland himself. Knight Valdemar!--oh, your excellency----"
"Oh--did you receive on board the prisoners I sent you yesterday morning?"
"The Count of Carlstein would pay his respects to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar," said Ian, entering unhelmeted, and leading in the brave Imperialist, who had now somewhat recovered from the effect of his dangerous immersion.
"The Count of Carlstein, now colonel-general of the Imperial horse! I knew not that a soldier so renowned in arms was our prisoner," replied the duke, rising; and then they saluted each other with the utmost politeness.
"We meet under different circumstances now than when last we met, Saxe-Weimar," said the count, with a smile.
"Yes, at Lütter, just below the castle wall. I was at the head of my German cavalry, and you----"
"At the head of Cronenborg's invincibles."
"We had a tough two hours of it with pistol and spada," said the duke, laughing; "but remember that now, saved as you have been from drowning, Count of Carlstein, you are not to be considered as our prisoner. Go--I free you; retain that sword which you have ever drawn with honour against us, and unransomed rejoin your victorious soldiers on the first opportunity; for us, they are too fatally victorious. To-day I have lost my dukedom, and to-morrow Denmark may lose her crown."