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diff --git a/old/s4fag10.txt b/old/s4fag10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b68a56c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/s4fag10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6006 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories by Foreign Authors: German, by Various + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Stories by Foreign Authors: German + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5431] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 18, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, STORIES BY FOREIGN AUTHORS: GERMAN *** + + + + +Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + +STORIES BY FOREIGN AUTHORS + +GERMAN + + + + +THE FURY ...... BY PAUL HEYSE + +THE PHILOSOPHER'S PENDULUM ...... BY RUDOLPH LINDAU + +THE BOOKBINDER OF HORT........BY LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH + +THE EGYPTIAN FIRE-EATER........BY RUDOLPH BAUMBACH + +THE CREMONA VIOLIN ........BY E.T. . HOFFMANN + +ADVENTURES Of A NEW-YEAR'S EVE...... BY HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE + + + + +THE FURY + +BY + +PAUL HEYSE + + +From "Tales from the German of Paul Heyse" + + + + +THE FURY + +(L'ARRABIATA) + +The day had scarcely dawned. Over Vesuvius hung one broad gray +stripe of mist, stretching across as far as Naples, and darkening +all the small towns along the coast. The sea lay calm. Along the +shore of the narrow creek that lies beneath the Sorrento cliffs, +fishermen and their wives were at work already, some with giant +cables drawing their boats to land, with the nets that had been cast +the night before, while others were rigging their craft, trimming +the sails, or fetching out oars and masts from the great grated +vaults that have been built deep into the rocks for shelter to the +tackle overnight. Nowhere an idle hand; even the very aged, who had +long given up going to sea, fell into the long chain of those who +were hauling in the nets. Here and there, on some flat housetop, an +old woman stood and spun, or busied herself about her grandchildren, +whom their mother had left to help her husband. + +"Do you see, Rachela? yonder is our padre curato," said one to a +little thing of ten, who brandished a small spindle by her side; +"Antonio is to row him over to Capri. Madre Santissima! but the +reverend signore's eyes are dull with sleep!" and she waved her hand +to a benevolent-looking little priest, who was settling himself in +the boat, and spreading out upon the bench his carefully tucked-up +skirts. + +The men upon the quay had dropped their work to see their pastor +off, who bowed and nodded kindly, right and left. + +"What for must he go to Capri, granny?" asked the child. "Have the +people there no priest of their own, that they must borrow ours?" + +"Silly thing!" returned the granny. "Priests they have in plenty-- +and the most beautiful of churches, and a hermit too, which is more +than we have. But there lives a great signora, who once lived here; +she was so very ill! Many's the time our padre had to go and take +the Most Holy to her, when they thought she could not live the +night. But with the Blessed Virgin's help she got strong and well, +and was able to bathe every day in the sea. When she went away, she +left a fine heap of ducats behind her for our church, and for the +poor; and she would not go, they say, until our padre promised to go +and see her over there, that she might confess to him as before. It +is quite wonderful, the store she lays by him! Indeed, and we have +cause to bless ourselves for having a curato who has gifts enough +for an archbishop, and is in such request with all the great folks. +The Madonna be with him!" she cried, and waved her hand again, as +the boat was about to put from shore. + +"Are we to have fair weather, my son?" inquired the little priest, +with an anxious look toward Naples. + +"The sun is not yet up," the young man answered; "when he comes, he +will easily do for that small trifle of mist." + +"Off with you, then! that we may arrive before the heat." + +Antonio was just reaching for his long oar to shove away the boat, +when suddenly he paused, and fixed his eyes upon the summit of the +steep path that leads down from Sorrento to the water. A tall and +slender girlish figure had become visible upon the heights, and was +now hastily stepping down the stones, waving her handkerchief She +had a small bundle under her arm, and her dress was mean and poor. +Yet she had a distinguished if somewhat savage way of throwing back +her head, and the dark tress wreathed around it was like a diadem. + +"What have we to wait for?" inquired the curato. + +"There is some one coming who wants to go to Capri--with your +permission, padre. We shall not go a whit the slower. It is a slight +young thing, but just eighteen." + +At that moment the young girl appeared from behind the wall that +bounds the winding path. + +"Laurella!" cried the priest; "and what has she to do in Capri?" + +Antonio shrugged his shoulders. She came up with hasty steps, her +eyes fixed straight before her. + +"Ha! l'Arrabiata! good-morning!" shouted one or two of the young +boatmen. But for the curato's presence, they might have added more; +the look of mute defiance with which the young girl received their +welcome appeared to tempt the more mischievous among them. + +"Good-day, Laurella!" now said the priest; "how are you? Are you +coming with us to Capri?" + +"If I may, padre." + +"Ask Antonio there; the boat is his. Every man is master of his own, +I say, as God is master of us all." + +"There is half a carlino, if I may go for that?" said Laurella, +without looking at the young boatman. + +"You need it more than I," he muttered, and pushed aside some +orange-baskets to make room: he was to sell the oranges in Capri, +which little isle of rocks has never been able to grow enough for +all its visitors. + +"I do not choose to go for nothing," said the girl, with a slight +frown of her dark eyebrows. + +"Come, child," said the priest; "he is a good lad, and had rather +not enrich himself with that little morsel of your poverty. Come +now, and step in," and he stretched out his hand to help her, "and +sit you down by me. See, now, he has spread his jacket for you, that +you may sit the softer. Young folks are all alike; for one little +maiden of eighteen they will do more than for ten of us reverend +fathers. Nay, no excuse, Tonino. It is the Lord's own doing, that +like and like should hold together." + +Meantime Laurella had stepped in, and seated herself beside the +padre, first putting away Antonio's jacket without a word. The young +fellow let it lie, and, muttering between his teeth, he gave one +vigorous push against the pier, and the little boat flew out into +the open bay. + +"What are you carrying there in that little bundle?" inquired the +padre, as they were floating on over a calm sea, now just beginning +to be lighted up with the earliest rays of the rising sun. "Silk, +thread, and a loaf, padre. The silk is to be sold at Anacapri, to a +woman who makes ribbons, and the thread to another." + +"Spun by yourself?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You once learned to weave ribbons yourself, if I remember right?" + +"I did, sir; but mother has been much worse, and I cannot stay so +long from home; and a loom to ourselves we are not rich enough to +buy." + +"Worse, is she? Ah! dear, dear! when I was with you last, at Easter, +she was up." + +"The spring is always her worst time. Ever since those last great +storms, and the earthquakes she has been forced to keep her bed from +pain." + +"Pray, my child. Never slacken your prayers and petitions that the +Blessed Virgin may intercede for you; and be industrious and good, +that your prayers may find a hearing." + +After a pause: "When you were coming toward the shore, I heard them +calling after you. 'Good-morning, l'Arrabiata!' they said. What made +them call you so? It is not a nice name for a young Christian +maiden, who should be meek and mild." + +The young girl's brown face glowed all over, while her eyes flashed +fire. + +"They always mock me so, because I do not dance and sing, and stand +about to chatter, as other girls do. I might be left in peace, I +think; I do THEM no harm." + +"Nay, but you might be civil. Let others dance and sing, on whom +this life sits lighter; but a kind word now and then is seemly even +from the most afflicted." + +Her dark eyes fell, and she drew her eyebrows closer over them, as +if she would have hidden them. + +They went on a while in silence. The sun now stood resplendent above +the mountain chain; only the tip of Mount Vesuvius towered beyond +the group of clouds that had gathered about its base; and on the +Sorrento plains the houses were gleaming white from the dark green +of their orange-gardens. + +"Have you heard no more of that painter, Laurella?" asked the +curato--"that Neapolitan, who wished so much to marry you?" She +shook her head." He came to make a picture of you. Why would you not +let him?" + +"What did he want it for? There are handsomer girls than I. Who +knows what he would have done with it? He might have bewitched me +with it, or hurt my soul, or even killed me, mother says." + +"Never believe such sinful things!" said the little curato very +earnestly. "Are not you ever in God's keeping, without whose will +not one hair of your head can fall? and is one poor mortal with an +image in his hand to prevail against the Lord? Besides, you might +have seen that he was fond of you; else why should he want to marry +you?" + +She said nothing. + +"And wherefore did you refuse him? He was an honest man, they say, +and comely; and he would have kept you and your mother far better +than you ever can yourself, for all your spinning and silk-winding." + +"We are so poor!" she said passionately; "and mother has been ill so +long, we should have become a burden to him. And then I never should +have done for a signora. When his friends came to see him, he would +only have been ashamed of me." + +"How can you say so? I tell you the man was good and kind; he would +even have been willing to settle in Sorrento. It will not be so easy +to find another, sent straight from heaven to be the saving of you, +as this man, indeed, appeared to be." + +"I want no husband--I never shall," she said, very stubbornly, half +to herself. + +"Is this a vow? or do you mean to be a nun?" + +She shook her head. + +"The people are not so wrong who call you wilful, although the name +they give you is not kind. Have you ever considered that you stand +alone in the world, and that your perverseness must make your sick +mother's illness worse to bear, her life more bitter? And what sound +reason can you have to give for rejecting an honest hand, stretched +out to help you and your mother? Answer me, Laurella." + +"I have a reason," she said reluctantly, and speaking low; "but it +is one I cannot give." + +"Not give! not give to me? not to your confessor, whom you surely +know to be your friend--or is he not?" + +Laurella nodded. + +"Then, child, unburden your heart. If your reason be a good one, I +shall be the very first to uphold you in it. Only you are young, and +know so little of the world. A time may come when you will find +cause to regret a chance of happiness thrown away for some foolish +fancy now." + +Shyly she threw a furtive glance over to the other end of the boat, +where the young boatman sat, rowing fast. His woollen cap was pulled +deep down over his eyes; he was gazing far across the water, with +averted head, sunk, as it appeared, in his own meditations. + +The priest observed her look, and bent his ear down closer. + +"You did not know my father?" she whispered, while a dark look +gathered in her eyes. + +"Your father, child! Why, your father died when you were ten years +old. What can your father (Heaven rest his soul in paradise!) have +to do with this present perversity of yours?" + +"You did not know him, padre; you did not know that mother's illness +was caused by him alone." + +"And how?" + +"By his ill-treatment of her; he beat her and trampled upon her. I +well remember the nights when he came home in his fits of frenzy. +She never said a word, and did everything he bade her. Yet he would +beat her so, my heart felt ready to break. I used to cover up my +head and pretend to be asleep, but I cried all night. And then, when +he saw her lying on the floor, quite suddenly he would change, and +lift her up and kiss her, till she screamed and said he smothered +her. Mother forbade me ever to say a word of this; but it wore her +out. And in all these long years since father died, she has never +been able to get well again. And if she should soon die--which God +forbid!--I know who it was that killed her." + +The little curato's head wagged slowly to and fro; he seemed +uncertain how far to acquiesce in the young girl's reasons. At +length he said: "Forgive him, as your mother has forgiven! And turn +your thoughts from such distressing pictures, Laurella; there may be +better days in store for you, which will make you forget the past." + +"Never shall I forget that!" she said, and shuddered. "And you must +know, padre, it is the reason why I have resolved to remain +unmarried. I never will be subject to a man, who may beat and then +caress me. Were a man now to want to beat or kiss me, I could defend +myself; but mother could not--neither from his blows nor kisses-- +because she loved him. Now, I will never so love a man as to be made +ill and wretched by him." + +"You are but a child, and you talk like one who knows nothing at all +of life. Are all men like that poor father of yours? Do all ill- +treat their wives, and give vent to every whim and gust of passion? +Have you never seen a good man yet? or known good wives, who live in +peace and harmony with their husbands?" + +"But nobody ever knew how father was to mother; she would have died +sooner than complain or tell of him, and all because she loved him. +If this be love--if love can close our lips when they should cry out +for help--if it is to make us suffer without resistance, worse than +even our worst enemy could make us suffer--then, I say, I never will +be fond of mortal man." + +"I tell you you are childish; you know not what you are saying. When +your time comes, you are not likely to be consulted whether you +choose to fall in love or not." After a pause, he added, "And that +painter: did you think he could have been cruel?" + +"He made those eyes I have seen my father make, when he begged my +mother's pardon and took her in his arms to make it up. I know those +eyes. A man may make such eyes, and yet find it in his heart to beat +a wife who never did a thing to vex him! It made my flesh creep to +see those eyes again." + +After this she would not say another word. The curato also remained +silent. He bethought himself of more than one wise saying, wherewith +the maiden might have been admonished; but he refrained, in +consideration of the young boatman, who had been growing rather +restless toward the close of this confession. + +When, after two hours' rowing, they reached the little bay of Capri, +Antonio took the padre in his arms, and carried him through the last +few ripples of shallow water, to set him reverently down upon his +legs on dry land. But Laurella did not wait for him to wade back and +fetch her. Gathering up her little petticoat, holding in one hand +her wooden shoes and in the other her little bundle, with one +splashing step or two she had reached the shore. "I have some time +to stay at Capri," said the priest. "You need not wait--I may not +perhaps return before to-morrow. When you get home, Laurella, +remember me to your mother; I will come and see her within the week. +You mean to go back before it gets dark?" + +"If I find an opportunity," answered the girl, turning all her +attention to her skirts. + +"I must return, you know," said Antonio, in a tone which he believed +to be one of great indifference. "I shall wait here till the Ave +Maria. If you should not come, it is the same to me." + +"You must come," interposed the little priest; "you never can leave +your mother all alone at night. Is it far you have to go?" + +"To a vineyard by Anacapri." + +"And I to Capri. So now God bless you, child--and you, my son." + +Laurella kissed his hand, and let one farewell drop, for the padre +and Antonio to divide between them. Antonio, however, appropriated +no part of it to himself; he pulled off his cap exclusively to the +padre, without even looking at Laurella. But after they had turned +their backs, he let his eyes travel but a short way with the padre, +as he went toiling over the deep bed of small, loose stones; he soon +sent them after the maiden, who, turning to the right, had begun to +climb the heights, holding one hand above her eyes to protect them +from the scorching sun. Just before the path disappeared behind high +walls, she stopped, as if to gather breath, and looked behind her. +At her feet lay the marina; the rugged rocks rose high around her; +the sea was shining in the rarest of its deep-blue splendor. The +scene was surely worth a moment's pause. But, as chance would have +it, her eyes, in glancing past Antonio's boat, met Antonio's own, +which had been following her as she climbed. + +Each made a slight movement, as persons do who would excuse +themselves for some mistake; and then, with her darkest look, the +maiden went her way. + +Hardly one hour had passed since noon, and yet for the last two +Antonio had been sitting waiting on the bench before the fishers' +tavern. He must have been very much preoccupied with something, for +he jumped up every moment to step out into the sunshine, and look +carefully up and down the roads, which, parting right and left, lead +to the only two little towns upon the island. He did not altogether +trust the weather, he then said to the hostess of the osteria; to be +sure, it was clear enough, but he did not quite like that tint of +sea and sky. Just so it had looked, he said, before the last awful +storm, when the English family had been so nearly lost; surely she +must remember it? + +No, indeed, she said, she didn't. + +Well, if the weather should happen to change before night, she was +to think of him, he said. + +"Have you many fine folk over there?" she asked him, after a while. + +"They are only just beginning; as yet, the season has been bad +enough; those who came to bathe, came late." + +"The spring came late. Have you not been earning more than we at +Capri?" + +"Not enough to give me macaroni twice a week, if I had had nothing +but the boat--only a letter now and then to take to Naples, or a +gentleman to row out into the open sea, that he might fish. But you +know I have an uncle who is rich; he owns more than one fine orange- +garden; and, 'Tonino,' says he to me, 'while I live you shall not +suffer want; and when I am gone you will find that I have taken care +of you.' And so, with God's help, I got through the winter." + +"Has he children, this uncle who is rich?" + +"No, he never married; he was long in foreign parts, and many a good +piastre he has laid together. He is going to set up a great fishing +business, and set me over it, to see the rights of it." + +"Why, then you are a made man, Tonino!" + +The young boatman shrugged his shoulders. + +"Every man has his own burden," said he, starting up again to have +another look at the weather, turning his eyes right and left, +although he must have known that there can be no weather side but +one. + +"Let me fetch you another bottle," said the hostess; "your uncle can +well afford to pay for it." + +"Not more than one glass; it is a fiery wine you have in Capri, and +my head is hot already." + +"It does not heat the blood; you may drink as much of it as you +like. And here is my husband coming; so you must sit a while, and +talk to him." + +And in fact, with his nets over his shoulder, and his red cap upon +his curly head, down came the comely padrone of the osteria. He had +been taking a dish of fish to that great lady, to set before the +little curato. As soon as he caught sight of the young boatman, he +began waving him a most cordial welcome; and he came to sit beside +him on the bench, chattering and asking questions. Just as his wife +was bringing her second bottle of pure unadulterated Capri, they +heard the crisp sand crunch, and Laurella was seen approaching from +the left-hand road to Anacapri. She nodded slightly in salutation; +then stopped, and hesitated. + +Antonio sprang from his seat. "I must go," he said. "It is a young +Sorrento girl, who came over with the signor curato in the morning. +She has to get back to her sick mother before night." + +"Well, well, time enough yet before night," observed the fisherman; +"time enough to take a glass of wine. Wife, I say, another glass!" + +"I thank you; I had rather not;" and Laurella kept her distance. + +"Fill the glasses, wife; fill them both, I say; she only wants a +little pressing." + +"Don't," interposed the lad. "It is a wilful head of her own she +has; a saint could not persuade her to do what she does not choose." +And, taking a hasty leave, he ran down to the boat, loosened the +rope, and stood waiting for Laurella. Again she bent her head to the +hostess, and slowly approached the water, with lingering steps. She +looked around on every side, as if in hopes of seeing some other +passenger. But the marina was deserted. The fishermen were asleep, +or rowing about the coast with rods or nets; a few women and +children sat before their doors, spinning or sleeping: such +strangers as had come over in the morning were waiting for the cool +of the evening to return. She had not time to look about her long; +before she could prevent him, Antonio had seized her in his arms and +carried her to the boat, as if she had been an infant. He leaped in +after her, and with a stroke or two of his oar they were in deep +water. + +She had seated herself at the end of the boat, half turning her back +to him, so that he could only see her profile. She wore a sterner +look than ever; the low, straight brow was shaded by her hair; the +rounded lips were firmly closed; only the delicate nostril +occasionally gave a wilful quiver. After they had gone on a while in +silence, she began to feel the scorching of the sun; and, +unloosening her bundle, she threw the handkerchief over her head, +and began to make her dinner of the bread; for in Capri she had +eaten nothing. + +Antonio did not stand this long; he fetched out a couple of the +oranges with which the baskets had been filled in the morning. "Here +is something to eat to your bread, Laurella," he said. "Don't think +I kept them for you; they had rolled out of the basket, and I only +found them when I brought the baskets back to the boat." + +"Eat them yourself; bread is enough for me." + +"They are refreshing in this heat, and you have had to walk so far." + +"They gave me a drink of water, and that refreshed me." + +"As you please," he said, and let them drop into the basket. + +Silence again. The sea was smooth as glass. Not a ripple was heard +against the prow. Even the white sea-birds that roost among the +caves of Capri pursued their prey with soundless flight. + +"You might take the oranges to your mother," again commenced Tonino. + +"We have oranges at home; and when they are gone, I can go and buy +some more." + +"Nay, take these to her, and give them to her with my compliments." + +"She does not know you." + +"You could tell her who I am." + +"I do not know you either." + +It was not the first time that she had denied him thus. One Sunday +of last year, when that painter had first come to Sorrento, Antonio +had chanced to be playing boccia with some other young fellows in +the little piazza by the chief street. + +There, for the first time, had the painter caught sight of Laurella, +who, with her pitcher on her head, had passed by without taking any +notice of him. The Neapolitan, struck by her appearance, stood still +and gazed after her, not heeding that he was standing in the very +midst of the game, which, with two steps, he might have cleared. A +very ungentle ball came knocking against his shins, as a reminder +that this was not the spot to choose for meditation. He looked +round, as if in expectation of some excuse. But the young boatman +who had thrown the ball stood silent among his friends, in such an +attitude of defiance that the stranger had found it more advisable +to go his ways and avoid discussion. Still, this little encounter +had been spoken of, particularly at the time when the painter had +been pressing his suit to Laurella. "I do not even know him," she +said indignantly, when the painter asked her whether it was for the +sake of that uncourteous lad she now refused him. But she had heard +that piece of gossip, and known Antonio well enough when she had met +him since. + +And now they sat together in this boat, like two most deadly +enemies, while their hearts were beating fit to kill them. Antonio's +usually so good-humored face was heated to scarlet; he struck the +oars so sharply that the foam flew over to where Laurella sat, while +his lips moved as if muttering angry words. She pretended not to +notice, wearing her most unconscious look, bending over the edge of +the boat, and letting the cool water pass between her fingers. Then +she threw off her handkerchief again, and began to smooth her hair, +as though she had been alone. Only her eyebrows twitched, and she +held up her wet hands in vain attempts to cool her burning cheeks. + +Now they were well out in the open sea. The island was far behind, +and the coast before them lay yet distant in the hot haze. Not a +sail was within sight, far or near--not even a passing gull to break +the stillness. Antonio looked all round, evidently ripening some +hasty resolution. The color faded suddenly from his cheek, and he +dropped his oars. Laurella looked round involuntarily--fearless, yet +attentive. + +"I must make an end of this," the young fellow burst forth. "It has +lasted too long already! I only wonder that it has not killed me! +You say you do not know me? And all this time you must have seen me +pass you like a madman, my whole heart full of what I had to tell +you; and then you only made your crossest mouth, and turned your +back upon me." + +"What had I to say to you?" she curtly replied. "I may have seen +that you were inclined to meddle with me, but I do not choose to be +on people's wicked tongues for nothing. I do not mean to have you +for a husband--neither you nor any other." + +"Nor any other? So you will not always say! You say so now, because +you would not have that painter. Bah! you were but a child! You will +feel lonely enough yet, some day; and then, wild as you are, you +will take the next best who comes to hand." + +"Who knows? which of us can see the future? It may be that I will +change my mind. What is that to you?" + +"What is it to me?" he flew out, starting to his feet, while the +small boat leaped and danced; "what is it to me, you say? You know +well enough! I tell you, that man shall perish miserably to whom you +shall prove kinder than you have been to me!" + +"And to you, what did I ever promise? Am I to blame if you be mad? +What right have you to me?" + +"Ah! I know," he cried, "my right is written nowhere. It has not +been put in Latin by any lawyer, nor stamped with any seal. But this +I feel: I have just the right to you that I have to heaven, if I die +an honest Christian. Do you think I could look on and see you go to +church with another man, and see the girls go by and shrug their +shoulders at me?" + +"You can do as you please. I am not going to let myself be +frightened by all those threats. I also mean to do as I please." + +"You shall not say so long!" and his whole frame shook with passion. +"I am not the man to let my whole life be spoiled by a stubborn +wench like you! You are in my power here, remember, and may be made +to do my bidding." + +She could not repress a start, but her eyes flashed bravely on him. + +"You may kill me if you dare," she said slowly. + +"I do nothing by halves," he said, and his voice sounded choked and +hoarse. "There is room for us both in the sea. I cannot help thee, +child"--he spoke the last words dreamily, almost pitifully--"but we +must both go down together--both at once--and now!" he shouted, and +snatched her in his arms. But at the same moment he drew back his +right hand; the blood gushed out; she had bitten him fiercely. + +"Ha! can I be made to do your bidding?" she cried, and thrust him +from her, with one sudden movement; "am I here in your power?" and +she leaped into the sea, and sank. + +She rose again directly; her scanty skirts clung close; her long +hair, loosened by the waves, hung heavy about her neck. She struck +out valiantly, and, without uttering a sound, she began to swim +steadily from the boat toward the shore. + +With senses benumbed by sudden terror, he stood, with outstretched +neck, looking after her, his eyes fixed as though they had just been +witness to a miracle. Then, giving himself a shake, he seized his +oars, and began rowing after her with all the strength he had, while +all the time the bottom of the boat was reddening fast with the +blood that kept streaming from his hand. + +Rapidly as she swam, he was at her side in a moment. "For the love +of our most Holy Virgin" he cried, "get into the boat! I have been a +madman! God alone can tell what so suddenly darkened my brain. It +came upon me like a flash of lightning, and set me all on fire. I +knew not what I did or said. I do not even ask you to forgive me, +Laurella, only to come into the boat again, and not to risk your +life!" + +She swam on as though she had not heard him. + +"You can never swim to land. I tell you, it is two miles off. Think +of your mother! If you should come to grief, I should die of +horror." + +She measured the distance with her eye, and then, without answering +him one word, she swam up to the boat, and laid her hands upon the +edge; he rose to help her in. As the boat tilted over to one side +with the girl's weight, his jacket that was lying on the bench +slipped into the water. Agile as she was, she swung herself on board +without assistance, and gained her former seat. As soon as he saw +that she was safe, he took to his oars again, while she began +quietly wringing out her dripping clothes, and shaking the water +from her hair. As her eyes fell upon the bottom of the boat, and saw +the blood, she gave a quick look at the hand, which held the oar as +if it had been unhurt. + +"Take this," she said, and held out her handkerchief. He shook his +head, and went on rowing. After a time she rose, and, stepping up to +him, bound the handkerchief firmly round the wound, which was very +deep. Then, heedless of his endeavors to prevent her, she took an +oar, and, seating herself opposite him, began to row with steady +strokes, keeping her eyes from looking toward him--fixed upon the +oar that was scarlet with his blood. Both were pale and silent. As +they drew near land, such fishermen as they met began shouting after +Antonio and gibing at Laurella; but neither of them moved an eyelid, +or spoke one word. + +The sun stood yet high over Procida when they landed at the marina. +Laurella shook out her petticoat, now nearly dry, and jumped on +shore. The old spinning woman, who in the morning had seen them +start, was still upon her terrace. She called down, "What is that +upon your hand, Tonino? Jesus Christ! the boat is full of blood!" + +"It is nothing, comare," the young fellow replied. "I tore my hand +against a nail that was sticking out too far; it will be well to- +morrow. It is only this confounded ready blood of mine, that always +makes a thing look worse than it is." + +"Let me come and bind it up, comparello. Stop one moment; I will go +and fetch the herbs, and come to you directly." + +"Never trouble yourself, comare. It has been dressed already; to- +morrow morning it will be all over and forgotten. I have a healthy +skin, that heals directly." + +"Addio!" said Laurella, turning to the path that goes winding up the +cliffs. "Good-night!" he answered, without looking at her; and then +taking his oars and baskets from the boat, and climbing up the small +stone stairs, he went into his own hut. + +He was alone in his two little rooms, and began to pace them up and +down. Cooler than upon the dead calm sea, the breeze blew fresh +through the small unglazed windows, which could only be closed with +wooden shutters. The solitude was soothing to him. He stooped before +the little image of the Virgin, devoutly gazing upon the glory round +the head (made of stars cut out in silver paper). But he did not +want to pray. What reason had he to pray, now that he had lost all +he had ever hoped for? + +And this day appeared to last for ever. He did so long for night! +for he was weary, and more exhausted by the loss of blood than he +would have cared to own. His hand was very sore. Seating himself +upon a little stool, he untied the handkerchief that bound it; the +blood, so long repressed, gushed out again; all round the wound the +hand was swollen high. + +He washed it carefully, cooling it in the water; then he clearly saw +the marks of Laurella's teeth. + +"She was right," he said; "I was a brute, and deserved no better. I +will send her back the handkerchief by Giuseppe to-morrow. Never +shall she set eyes on me again." And he washed the handkerchief with +the greatest care, and spread it out in the sun to dry. + +And having bound up his hand again, as well as he could manage with +his teeth and his left hand, he threw himself upon his bed, and +closed his eyes. + +He was soon waked up from a sort of slumber by the rays of the +bright moonlight, and also by the pain of his hand; he had just +risen for more cold water to soothe its throbbings, when he heard +the sound of some one at the door. Laurella stood before him. + +She came in without a question, took off the handkerchief she had +tied over her head, and placed her little basket upon the table; +then she drew a deep breath. + +"You are come to fetch your handkerchief," he said. "You need not +have taken that trouble. In the morning I would have asked Giuseppe +to take it to you." + +"It is not the handkerchief," she said quickly. "I have been up +among the hills to gather herbs to stop the blood; see here." And +she lifted the lid of her little basket. + +"Too much trouble," he said, not in bitterness--"far too much +trouble. I am better, much better; but if I were worse, it would be +no more than I deserve. Why did you come at such a time? If any one +should see you? You know how they talk, even when they don't know +what they are saying." + +"I care for no one's talk," she said, passionately. "I came to see +your hand, and put the herbs upon it; you cannot do it with your +left." + +"It is not worth while, I tell you." + +"Let me see it then, if I am to believe you." + +She took his hand, that was not able to prevent her, and unbound the +linen. When she saw the swelling, she shuddered, and gave a cry: +"Jesus Maria!" + +"It is a little swollen," he said; "it will be over in four-and- +twenty hours." + +She shook her head. "It will certainly be a week before you can go +to sea." + +"More likely a day or two; and if not, what matters?" + +She had fetched a basin, and began carefully washing out the wound, +which he suffered passively, like a child. She then laid on the +healing leaves, which at once relieved the burning pain, and finally +bound it up with the linen she had brought with her. + +When it was done: "I thank you," he said. "And now, if you would do +me one more kindness, forgive the madness that came over me; forget +all I said and did. I cannot tell how it came to pass; certainly it +was not your fault--not yours. And never shall you hear from me +again one word to vex you." + +She interrupted him. "It is I who have to beg your pardon. I should +have spoken differently. I might have explained it better, and not +enraged you with my sullen ways. And now that bite--" + +"It was in self-defence; it was high time to bring me to my senses. +As I said before, it is nothing at all to signify. Do not talk of +being forgiven; you only did me good, and I thank you for it. And +now, here is your handkerchief; take it with you." + +He held it to her, but yet she lingered, hesitated, and appeared to +have some inward struggle. At length she said: "You have lost your +jacket, and by my fault; and I know that all the money for the +oranges was in it. I did not think of this till afterward. I cannot +replace it now; we have not so much at home--or if we had, it would +be mother's. But this I have--this silver cross. That painter left +it on the table the day he came for the last time. I have never +looked at it all this while, and do not care to keep it in my box; +if you were to sell it? It must be worth a few piastres, mother +says. It might make up the money you have lost; and if not quite, I +could earn the rest by spinning at night when mother is asleep." + +"Nothing will make me take it," he said shortly, pushing away the +bright new cross, which she had taken from her pocket. + +"You must," she said; "how can you tell how long your hand may keep +you from your work? There it lies; and nothing can make me so much +as look at it again." + +"Drop it in the sea, then." + +"It is no present I want to make you; it is no more than is your +due; it is only fair." + +"Nothing from you can be due to me; and hereafter when we chance to +meet, if you would do me a kindness, I beg you not to look my way. +It would make me feel you were thinking of what I have done. And now +good-night; and let this be the last word said." + +She laid the handkerchief in the basket, and also the cross, and +closed the lid. But when he looked into her face, he started. Great +heavy drops were rolling down her cheeks; she let them flow +unheeded. + +"Maria Santissima!" he cried. "Are you ill? You are trembling from +head to foot!" + +"It is nothing," she said; "I must go home;" and with unsteady steps +she was moving to the door, when suddenly she leaned her brow +against the wall, and gave way to a fit of bitter sobbing. Before he +could go to her she turned upon him suddenly, and fell upon his +neck. + +"I cannot bear it!" she cried, clinging to him as a dying thing to +life--"I cannot bear it! I cannot let you speak so kindly, and bid +me go, with all this on my conscience. Beat me! trample on me! curse +me! Or if it can be that you love me still, after all I have done to +you, take me and keep me, and do with me as you please; only do not +send me away so!" She could say no more for sobbing. + +Speechless, he held her a while in his arms. "If I can love you +still!" he cried at last. "Holy Mother of God! Do you think that all +my best heart's blood has gone from me through that little wound? +Don't you hear it hammering now, as though it would burst my breast +and go to you? But if you say this to try me, or because you pity +me, I can forget it. You are not to think you owe me this, because +you know what I have suffered for you." + +"No!" she said very resolutely, looking up from his shoulder into +his face, with her tearful eyes; "it is because I love you; and let +me tell you, it was because I always feared to love you that I was +so cross. I will be so different now. I never could bear again to +pass you in the street without one look! And lest you should ever +feel a doubt, I will kiss you, that you may say, 'She kissed me;' +and Laurella kisses no man but her husband." + +She kissed him thrice, and, escaping from his arms: "And now good- +night, amor mio, cara vita mia!" she said. "Lie down to sleep, and +let your hand get well. Do not come with me; I am afraid of no man, +save of you alone." + +And so she slipped out, and soon disappeared in the shadow of the +wall. + +He remained standing by the window, gazing far out over the calm +sea, while all the stars in heaven appeared to flit before his eyes. + +The next time the little curato sat in his confessional, he sat +smiling to himself. Laurella had just risen from her knees after a +very long confession. + +"Who would have thought it?" he said musingly--"that the Lord would +so soon have taken pity upon that wayward little heart? And I had +been reproaching myself for not having adjured more sternly that ill +demon of perversity. Our eyes are but short-sighted to see the ways +of Heaven! Well, may God bless her, I say, and let me live to go to +sea with Laurella's eldest born, rowing me in his father's place! +Ah! well, indeed! l'Arrabiata!" + + + + +THE PHILOSOPHER'S PENDULUM + +BY + +RUDOLPH LINDAU + + + + +THE PHILOSOPHER'S PENDULUM + +A TALE FROM GERMANY BY RUDOLPH LINDAU + +I. + + +During many long years Hermann Fabricius had lost sight of his +friend Henry Warren, and had forgotten him. + +Yet when students together they had loved each other dearly, and +more than once they had sworn eternal friendship. This was at a +period which, though not very remote, we seem to have left far +behind us--a time when young men still believed in eternal +friendship, and could feel enthusiasm for great deeds or great +ideas. Youth in the present day is, or thinks itself, more rational. +Hermann and Warren in those days were simple-minded and ingenuous; +and not only in the moment of elation, when they had sworn to be +friends for ever, but even the next day, and the day after that, in +sober earnestness, they had vowed that nothing should separate them, +and that they would remain united through life. The delusion had not +lasted long. The pitiless machinery of life had caught up the young +men as soon as they left the university, and had thrown one to the +right, the other to the left. For a few months they had exchanged +long and frequent letters; then they had met once, and finally they +had parted, each going his way. Their letters had become more +scarce, more brief, and at last had ceased altogether. It would +really seem that the fact of having interests in common is the one +thing sufficiently powerful to prolong and keep up the life of +epistolary relations. A man may feel great affection for an absent +friend, and yet not find time to write him ten lines, while he will +willingly expend daily many hours on a stranger from whom he expects +something. None the less he may be a true and honest friend. Man is +naturally selfish; the instinct of self-preservation requires it of +him. Provided he be not wicked, and that he show himself ready to +serve his neighbor--after himself--no one has a right to complain, +or to accuse him of hard-heartedness. + +At the time this story begins, Hermann had even forgotten whether he +had written to Warren last, or whether he had left his friend's last +letter unanswered. In a word, the correspondence which began so +enthusiastically had entirely ceased. Hermann inhabited a large +town, and had acquired some reputation as a writer. From time to +time, in the course of his walks, he would meet a young student with +brown hair, and mild, honest-looking blue eyes, whose countenance, +with its frank and youthful smile, inspired confidence and invited +the sympathy of the passer-by. Whenever Hermann met this young man +he would say to himself, "How like Henry at twenty!" and for a few +minutes memory would travel back to the already distant days of +youth, and he would long to see his dear old Warren again. More than +once, on the spur of the moment, he had resolved to try and find out +what had become of his old university comrade. But these good +intentions were never followed up. On reaching home he would find +his table covered with books and pamphlets to be reviewed, and +letters from publishers or newspaper editors asking for "copy"--to +say nothing of invitations to dinner, which must be accepted or +refused; in a word, he found so much URGENT business to despatch +that the evening would go by, and weariness would overtake him, +before he could make time for inquiring about his old friend. + +In the course of years, the life of most men becomes so regulated +that no time is left for anything beyond "necessary work." But, +indeed, the man who lives only for his own pleasure--doing, so to +speak, nothing--is rarely better in this respect than the writer, +the banker, and the savant, who are overburdened with work. + +One afternoon, as Hermann, according to his custom, was returning +home about five o'clock, his porter handed him a letter bearing the +American post-mark. He examined it closely before opening it. The +large and rather stiff handwriting on the address seemed familiar, +and yet he could not say to whom it belonged. Suddenly his +countenance brightened, and he exclaimed, "A letter from Henry!" He +tore open the envelope, and read as follows: + +"MY DEAR HERMANN,--It is fortunate that one of us at least should +have attained celebrity. I saw your name on the outside of a book of +which you are the author. I wrote at once to the publisher; that +obliging man answered me by return of post, and, thanks to these +circumstances, I am enabled to tell you that I will land at Hamburg +towards the end of September. Write to me there, Poste Restante, and +let me know if you are willing to receive me for a few days. I can +take Leipzig on my way home, and would do so most willingly if you +say that you would see me again with pleasure. + +"Your old friend, + +"HENRY WARREN." + +Below the signature there was a postscript of a single line: "This +is my present face." And from an inner envelope Hermann drew a small +photograph, which he carried to the window to examine leisurely. As +he looked, a painful impression of sadness came over him. The +portrait was that of an old man. Long gray hair fell in disorder +over a careworn brow; the eyes, deep sunk in their sockets, had a +strange and disquieting look of fixity; and the mouth, surrounded by +deep furrows, seemed to tell its own long tale of sorrow. + +"Poor Henry!" said Hermann; "this, then, is your present face! And +yet he is not old; he is younger than I am; he can scarcely be +thirty-eight. Can I, too, be already an old man?" + +He walked up to the glass, and looked attentively at the reflection +of his own face. No! those were not the features of a man whose life +was near its close; the eye was bright, and the complexion indicated +vigor and health. Still, it was not a young face. Thought and care +had traced their furrows round the mouth and about the temples, and +the general expression was one of melancholy, not to say +despondency. + +"Well, well, we have grown old," said Hermann, with a sigh. "I had +not thought about it this long while; and now this photograph has +reminded me of it painfully." Then he took up his pen and wrote to +say how happy he would be to see his old friend again as soon as +possible. + +The next day chance brought him face to face in the street with the +young student who was so like Warren. "Who knows?" thought Hermann; +"fifteen or twenty years hence this young man may look no brighter +than Warren does today. Ah, life is not easy! It has a way of +saddening joyous looks, and imparting severity to smiling lips. As +for me, I have no real right to complain of my life. I have lived +pretty much like everybody; a little satisfaction, and then a little +disappointment, turn by turn; and often small worries; and so my +youth has gone by, I scarcely know how." + +On the 2d of October Hermann received a telegram from Hamburg +announcing the arrival of Warren for the same evening. At the +appointed hour he went to the railway station to meet his friend. He +saw him get down from the carriage slowly, and rather heavily, and +he watched him for a few seconds before accosting him. Warren +appeared to him old and broken-down, and even more feeble than he +had expected to see him from his portrait. He wore a travelling suit +of gray cloth, so loose and wide that it hung in folds on the gaunt +and stooping figure; a large wide-awake hat was drawn down to his +very eyes. The new-comer looked right and left, seeking no doubt to +discover his friend; not seeing him, he turned his weary and languid +steps towards the way out. Hermann then came forward. Warren +recognized him at once; a sunny, youthful smile lighted up his +countenance, and, evidently much moved, he stretched out his hand. +An hour later, the two friends were seated opposite to each other +before a well-spread table in Hermann's comfortable apartments. + +Warren ate very little; but, on the other hand, Hermann noticed with +surprise and some anxiety that his friend, who had been formerly a +model of sobriety, drank a good deal. Wine, however, seemed to have +no effect on him. The pale face did not flush; there was the same +cold, fixed look in the eye; and his speech, though slow and dull in +tone, betrayed no embarrassment. + +When the servant who had waited at dinner had taken away the dessert +and brought in coffee, Hermann wheeled two big arm-chairs close to +the fire, and said to his friend: + +"Now, we will not be interrupted. Light a cigar, make yourself at +home, and tell me all you have been doing since we parted." + +Warren pushed away the cigars. "If you do not mind," said he, "I +will smoke my pipe. I am used to it, and I prefer it to the best of +cigars." + +So saying, he drew from its well-worn case an old pipe, whose color +showed it had been long used, and filled it methodically with moist, +blackish tobacco. Then he lighted it, and after sending forth one or +two loud puffs of smoke, he said, with an air of sovereign +satisfaction: + +"A quiet, comfortable room--a friend--a good pipe after dinner--and +no care for the morrow. That's what I like." + +Hermann cast a sidelong glance at his companion, and was painfully +struck at his appearance. The tall gaunt frame in its stooping +attitude; the grayish hair and sad, fixed look; the thin legs +crossed one over the other; the elbow resting on the knee and +supporting the chin,--in a word, the whole strange figure, as it sat +there, bore no resemblance to Henry Warren, the friend of his youth. +This man was a stranger, a mysterious being even. Nevertheless, the +affection he felt for his friend was not impaired; on the contrary, +pity entered into his heart. "How ill the world must have used him," +thought Hermann, "to have thus disfigured him!" Then he said aloud: + +"Now, then, let me have your story, unless you prefer to hear mine +first." + +He strove to speak lightly, but he felt that the effort was not +successful. As to Warren, he went on smoking quietly, without saying +a word. The long silence at last became painful. Hermann began to +feel an uncomfortable sensation of distress in presence of the +strange guest he had brought to his home. After a few minutes he +ventured to ask for the third time, "Will you make up your mind to +speak, or must I begin?" + +Warren gave vent to a little noiseless laugh. "I am thinking how I +can answer your question. The difficulty is that, to speak truly, I +have absolutely nothing to tell. I wonder now--and it was that made +me pause--how it has happened that, throughout my life, I have been +bored by--nothing. As if it would not have been quite as natural, +quite as easy, and far pleasanter, to have been amused by that same +nothing--which has been my life. The fact is, my dear fellow, that I +have had no deep sorrow to bear, neither have I been happy. I have +not been extraordinarily successful, and have drawn none of the +prizes of life. But I am well aware that, in this respect, my lot +resembles that of thousands of other men. I have always been obliged +to work. I have earned my bread by the sweat of my brow. I have had +money difficulties; I have even had a hopeless passion--but what +then? every one has had that. Besides, that was in bygone days; I +have learned to bear it, and to forget. What pains and angers me is, +to have to confess that my life has been spent without satisfaction +and without happiness." + +He paused an instant, and then resumed, more calmly: "A, few years +ago I was foolish enough to believe that things might in the end +turn out better. I was a professor with a very moderate salary at +the school at Elmira. I taught all I knew, and much that I had to +learn in order to be able to teach it--Greek and Latin, German and +French, mathematics and physical sciences. During the so-called +play-hours, I even gave music lessons. In the course of the whole +day there were few moments of liberty for me. I was perpetually +surrounded by a crowd of rough, ill-bred boys, whose only object +during lessons was to catch me making a fault in English. When +evening came, I was quite worn out; still, I could always find time +to dream for half an hour or so with my eyes open before going to +bed. Then all my desires were accomplished, and I was supremely +happy. At last I had drawn a prize! I was successful in everything; +I was rich, honored, powerful--what more can I say? I astonished the +world--or rather, I astonished Ellen Gilmore, who for me was the +whole world. Hermann, have you ever been as mad? Have you, too, in a +waking dream, been in turn a statesman, a millionaire, the author of +a sublime work, a victorious general, the head of a great political +party? Have you dreamt nonsense such as that? I, who am here, have +been all I say--in dreamland. Never mind; that was a good time. +Ellen Gilmore, whom I have just mentioned, was the eldest sister of +one of my pupils, Francis Gilmore, the most undisciplined boy of the +school. His parents, nevertheless, insisted on his learning +something; and as I had the reputation of possessing unwearying +patience, I was selected to give him private lessons. That was how I +obtained a footing in the Gilmore family. Later on, when they had +found out that I was somewhat of a musician--you may remember, +perhaps, that for an amateur I was a tolerable performer on the +piano--I went every day to the house to teach Latin and Greek to +Francis, and music to Ellen. + +"Now, picture to yourself the situation, and then laugh at your +friend as he has laughed at himself many a time. On the one side-- +the Gilmore side--a large fortune and no lack of pride; an +intelligent, shrewd, and practical father; an ambitious and vain +mother; an affectionate but spoilt boy; and a girl of nineteen, +surpassingly lovely, with a cultivated mind and great good sense. On +the other hand, you have Henry Warren, aged twenty-nine; in his +dreams the author of a famous work, or the commander-in-chief of the +Northern armies, or. it may be, President of the Republic--in +reality, Professor at Elmira College, with a modest stipend of +seventy dollars a month. Was it not evident that the absurdity of my +position as a suitor for Ellen would strike me at once? Of course it +did. In my lucid moments, when I was not dreaming, I was a very +rational man, who had read a good deal, and learned not a little; +and it would have been sheer madness in me to have indulged for an +instant the hope of a marriage between Ellen and myself. I knew it +was an utter impossibility--as impossible as to be elected President +of the United States; and yet, in spite of myself, I dreamed of it. +However, I must do myself the justice to add that my passion +inconvenienced nobody. I would no more have spoken of it than of my +imaginary command of the army of the Potomac. The pleasures which my +love afforded me could give umbrage to no one. Yet I am convinced +that Ellen read my secret. Not that she ever said a word to me on +the subject; no look or syllable of hers could have made me suspect +that she had guessed the state of my mind. + +"One single incident I remember which was not in accordance with her +habitual reserve in this respect. I noticed one day that her eyes +were red. Of course I dared not ask her why she had cried. During +the lesson she seemed absent; and when leaving she said, without +looking at me, 'I may perhaps be obliged to interrupt our lessons +for some little time; I am very sorry. I wish you every happiness.' +Then, without raising her eyes, she quickly left the room. I was +bewildered. What could her words mean? And why had they been said in +such an affectionate tone? + +"The next day Francis Gilmore called to inform me, with his father's +compliments, that he was to have four days' holidays, because his +sister had just been betrothed to Mr. Howard, a wealthy New York +merchant, and that, for the occasion, there would be great +festivities at home. + +"Thenceforward there was an end of the dreams which up to that +moment had made life pleasant. In sober reason I had no more cause +to deplore Ellen's marriage than to feel aggrieved because Grant had +succeeded Johnson as President. Nevertheless, you can scarcely +conceive how much this affair--I mean the marriage--grieved me. My +absolute nothingness suddenly stared me in the face. I saw myself as +I was--a mere schoolmaster, with no motive for pride in the past, or +pleasure in the present, or hope in the future." + +Warren's pipe had gone out while he was telling his story. He +cleaned it out methodically, drew from his pocket a cake of +Cavendish tobacco, and, after cutting off with a penknife the +necessary quantity, refilled his pipe and lit it. The way in which +he performed all these little operations betrayed long habit. He had +ceased to speak while he was relighting his pipe, and kept on +whistling between his teeth. Hermann looked on--silently. After a +few minutes, and when the pipe was in good order, Warren resumed his +story. + +"For a few weeks I was terribly miserable; not so much because I had +lost Ellen--a man cannot lose what he has never hoped to possess--as +from the ruin of all my illusions. During those days I plucked and +ate by the dozen of the fruits of the tree of self-knowledge, and I +found them very bitter. I ended by leaving Elmira, to seek my +fortunes elsewhere. I knew my trade well. Long practice had taught +me how to make the best of my learning, and I never had any +difficulty in finding employment. I taught successively in upwards +of a dozen States of the Union. I can scarcely recollect the names +of all the places where I have lived--Sacramento, Chicago, St. +Louis, Cincinnati, Boston, New York; I have been everywhere-- +everywhere. And everywhere I have met with the same rude schoolboys, +just as I have found the same regular and irregular verbs in Latin +and Greek. If you would see a man thoroughly satiated and saturated +with schoolboys and classical grammars, look at me. + +"In the leisure time which, whatever might be my work, I still +contrived to make for myself, I indulged in philosophical +reflections. Then it was I took to the habit of smoking so much." + +Warren stopped suddenly, and, looking straight before him, appeared +plunged in thought. Then, passing his hand over his forehead, he +repeated, in an absent manner, "Yes, of smoking so much. I also took +to another habit," he added, somewhat hastily; "but that has nothing +to do with my story. The theory which especially occupied my +thoughts was that of the oscillations of an ideal instrument of my +own imagining, to which, in my own mind, I gave the name of the +Philosopher's Pendulum. To this invention I owe the quietude of mind +which has supported me for many years, and which, as you see, I now +enjoy. I said to myself that my great sorrow--if I may so call it +without presumption--had arisen merely from my wish to be +extraordinarily happy. When, in his dreams, a man has carried +presumption so far as to attain to the heights of celebrity, or to +being the husband of Ellen Gilmore, there was nothing wonderful if, +on awaking, he sustained a heavy fall before reaching the depths of +reality. Had I been less ambitious in my desires, their realization +would have been easier, or, at any rate, the disappointment would +have been less bitter. Starting from this principle, I arrived at +the logical conclusion that the best means to avoid being unhappy is +to wish for as little happiness as possible. This truth was +discovered by my philosophical forefathers many centuries before the +birth of Christ, and I lay no claim to being the finder of it; but +the outward symbol which I ended by giving to this idea is--at least +I fancy it is--of my invention. + +"Give me a sheet of paper and a pencil," he added, turning to his +friend, "and with a few lines I can demonstrate clearly the whole +thing." + +Hermann handed him what he wanted without a word. Warren then began +gravely to draw a large semicircle, open at the top, and above the +semicircular line a pendulum, which fell perpendicularly and touched +the circumference at the exact point where on the dial of a clock +would be inscribed the figure VI. This done, he wrote on the right- +hand side of the pendulum, beginning from the bottom and at the +places of the hours V, IV, III, the words Moderate Desires--Great +Hopes, Ambition--Unbridled Passion, Mania of Greatness. Then, +turning the paper upside-down, he wrote on the opposite side, where +on a dial would be marked VII, VIII, IX, the words Slight Troubles-- +Deep Sorrow, Disappointment--Despair. Lastly, in the place of No. +VI, just where the pendulum fell, he sketched a large black spot, +which he shaded off with great care, and above which he wrote, like +a scroll, Dead Stop, Absolute Repose. + +Having finished this little drawing, Warren laid down his pipe, +inclined his head on one side, and raising his eyebrows, examined +his work with a critical frown. "This compass is not yet quite +complete," he said; "there is something missing. Between Dead Stop +and Moderate Desires on the right, and Slight Troubles on the left, +there is the beautiful line of Calm and Rational Indifference. +However, such as the drawing is, it is sufficient to demonstrate my +theory. Do you follow me?" + +Hermann nodded affirmatively. He was greatly pained. In lieu of the +friend of his youth, for whom he had hoped a brilliant future, here +was a poor monomaniac! + +"You see," said Warren, speaking collectedly, like a professor, "if +I raise my pendulum till it reaches the point of Moderate Desires +and then let it go, it will naturally swing to the point of Slight +Troubles, and go no further. Then it will oscillate for some time in +a more and more limited space on the line of Indifference, and +finally it will stand still without any jerk on Dead Stop, Absolute +Repose. That is a great consolation!" + +He paused, as if waiting for some remark from Hermann; but as the +latter remained silent, Warren resumed his demonstration. + +"You understand now, I suppose, what I am coming to. If I raise the +pendulum to the point of Ambition or Mania of Greatness, and then +let it go, that same law which I have already applied will drive it +to Deep Sorrow or Despair. That is quite clear, is it not?" + +"Quite clear," repeated Hermann sadly. + +"Very well," continued Warren, with perfect gravity; "for my +misfortune, I discovered this fine theory rather late. I had not set +bounds to my dreams and limited them to trifles. I had wished to be +President of the Republic, an illustrious savant, the husband of +Ellen. No great things, eh? What say you to my modesty? I had raised +the pendulum to such a giddy height that when it slipped from my +impotent hands it naturally performed a long oscillation, and +touched the point Despair. That was a miserable time. I hope you +have never suffered what I suffered then. I lived in a perpetual +nightmare--like the stupor at intoxication." He paused, as he had +done before, and then, with a painfully nervous laugh, be added, +"Yes, like intoxication. I drank." Suddenly a spasm seemed to pass +over his face, be looked serious and sad as before, and he said, +with a shudder, "It's a terrible thing to see one's self inwardly, +and to know that one is fallen." + +After this he remained long silent. At last, raising his head, he +turned to his friend and said, "Have you had enough of my story, or +would you like to hear it to the end?" + +"I am grieved at all you have told me," said Hermann; "but pray go +on; it is better I should know all" + +"Yes; and I feel, too, that it relieves me to pour out my heart. +Well, I used to drink. One takes to the horrid habit in America far +easier than anywhere else. I was obliged to give up more than one +good situation because I had ceased to be RESPECTABLE. Anyhow, I +always managed to find employment without any great difficulty. I +never suffered from want, though I have never known plenty. If I +spent too much in drink, I took it out of my dress and my boots. + +"Eighteen months after I had left Elmira, I met Ellen one day in +Central Park, in New York. I was aware that she had been married a +twelve-month. She knew me again at once, and spoke to me. I would +have wished to sink into the earth. I knew that my clothes were +shabby, that I looked poor, and I fancied that she must discern on +my face the traces of the bad habits I had contracted. But she did +not, or would not, see anything. She held out her hand, and said in +her gentle voice: + +"'I am very glad to see you again, Mr. Warren. I have inquired about +you, but neither my father nor Francis could tell me what had become +of you. I want to ask you to resume the lessons you used to give me. +Perhaps you do not know where I live? This is my address,' and she +gave me her card. + +"I stammered out a few unmeaning words in reply to her invitation. +She looked at me, smiling kindly the while; but suddenly the smile +vanished, and she added, 'Have you been ill, Mr. Warren? You seem +worn.' + +"'Yes,' I answered, too glad to find an excuse for my appearance-- +'yes, I have been ill, and I am still suffering.' + +"'I am very sorry,' she said, in a low voice. + +"Laugh at me, Hermann--call me an incorrigible madman; but believe +me when I say that her looks conveyed to me the impression of more +than common interest or civility. A thrilling sense of pain shot +through my frame. What had I done that I should be so cruelly tried? +A mist passed before my eyes; anxiety, intemperance, sleeplessness, +had made me weak. I tottered backwards a few steps. She turned +horribly pale. All around us was the crowd--the careless, +indifferent crowd. + +"'Come and see me soon,' she added hastily, and left me. I saw her +get into a carriage, which she had doubtless quitted to take a walk; +and when she drove past, she put her head out and looked at me with +her eyes wide open--there was an almost wildly anxious expression in +them. + +"I went home. My way led me past her house--it was a palace. I shut +myself up in my wretched hotel-room, and once more I fell to +dreaming. Ellen loved me; she admired me; she was not for ever lost +to me! The pendulum was swinging, you see, up as high as Madness. +Explain to me, if you can, how it happens that a being perfectly +rational in ordinary life should at certain seasons, and, so to +speak, voluntarily, be bereft of reason. To excuse and explain my +temporary insanity, I am ready to admit that the excitement to which +I gave way may have been a symptom of the nervous malady which laid +hold of me a few days later, and stretched me for weeks upon a bed +of pain. + +"As I became convalescent, reason and composure returned. But it was +too late. In the space of two months, twenty years had passed over +my head. When I rose from my sick-bed I was as feeble and as broken- +down as you see me now. My past had been cheerless and dim, without +one ray of happiness; yet that past was all my life! Henceforward +there was nothing left for me to undertake, to regret, or to desire. +The pendulum swung idly backwards and forwards on the line of +Indifference. I wonder what are the feelings of successful men--of +men who HAVE been victorious generals, prime ministers, celebrated +authors, and that sort of tiling! Upheld by a legitimate pride, do +they retire satisfied from the lists when evening conies, or do they +lay down their arms as I did, disappointed and dejected, and worn +out with the fierce struggle? Can no man with impunity look into his +own heart and ask himself how his life has been spent?" + +Here Warren made a still longer pause than before, and appeared +absorbed in gloomy thought. At last he resumed in a lower tone: + +"I had not followed up Ellen's invitation. But in some way she had +discovered my address, and knew of my illness. Do not be alarmed, my +dear Hermann; my story will not become romantic. No heavenly vision +appeared to me during my fever; I felt no gentle white hands laid on +my burning brow. I was nursed at the hospital, and very well nursed +too; I figured there as 'Number 380,' and the whole affair was, as +you see, as prosaic as possible. But on quitting the hospital, and +as I was taking leave of the manager, he handed me a letter, in +which was enclosed a note for five hundred dollars. In the envelope +there was also the following anonymous note: + +"'An old friend begs your acceptance, as a loan, of the inclosed +sum. It will be time enough to think of paying off this debt when +you are strong enough to resume work, and you can then do it by +instalments, of which you can yourself fix the amount, and remit +them to the hospital of New York.' + +"It was well meant, no doubt, but it caused me a painful impression. +My determination was taken at once. I refused without hesitation. I +asked the manager, who had been watching me with a friendly smile +while I read the letter, whether he could give the name of the +person who had sent it. In spite of his repeated assurances that he +did not know it, I never doubted for a single instant that he was +concealing the truth. After a few seconds' reflection I asked if he +would undertake to forward an answer to my unknown correspondent; +and, on his consenting to do so, I promised that he should have my +answer the next day. + +"I thought long over my letter. One thing was plain to me--it was +Ellen who had come to my help. How could I reject her generous aid +without wounding her or appearing ungrateful? After great hesitation +I wrote a few lines, which, as far as I can recollect, ran thus: + +"'I thank you for the interest you have shown me, but it is +impossible for me to accept the sum you place at my disposal. Do not +be angry with me because I return it. Do not withdraw your sympathy; +I will strive to remain worthy of it, and will never forget your +goodness.' + +"A few days later, after having confided this letter to the manager, +I left New York for San Francisco. For several years I heard nothing +of Ellen; her image grew gradually fainter, and at last almost +disappeared from my memory. + +"The dark river that bore the frail bark which carried me and my +fortunes was carrying me smoothly and unconsciously along towards +the mysterious abyss where all that exists is engulfed. Its course +lay through a vast desert; and the banks which passed before my eyes +were of fearful sameness. Indescribable lassitude took possession of +my whole being. I had never, knowingly, practised evil; I had loved +and sought after good. Why, then, was I so wretched? I would have +blessed the rock which wrecked my bark so that I might have been +swallowed up and have gone down to my eternal rest. Up to the day +when I heard of Ellen's betrothal, I had hoped that the morrow would +bring happiness. The long-wished-for morrow had come at last, gloomy +and colorless, without realizing any of my vague hopes. Henceforth +my life was at an end." + +Warren said these last words so indistinctly that Hermann could +scarcely hear them; he seemed to be speaking to himself rather than +to his friend. Then he raised the forefinger of his right hand, and +after moving it slowly from right to left, in imitation of the swing +of a pendulum, he placed it on the large black dot he had drawn on +the sheet of paper exactly below his pendulum, and said, "Dead Stop, +Absolute Repose. Would that the end were come!" + +Another and still longer interval of silence succeeded, and at last +Hermann felt constrained to speak. + +"How came you to make up your mind," he said, "to return to Europe?" + +"Ah, yes, to be sure," answered Warren, hurriedly; "the story--the +foolish story--is not ended. In truth it has no end, as it had no +beginning; it is a thing without form or purpose, and less the +history of a life than of a mere journeying towards death. Still I +will finish--following chronological order. It does not weary you?" + +"No, no; go on, my dear friend." + +"Very well. I spent several years in the United States. The pendulum +worked well. It came and went, to and fro, slowly along the line of +Indifference, without ever transgressing as its extreme limits on +either hand, Moderate Desires and Slight Troubles. I led obscurely a +contemplative life, and I was generally considered a queer +character. I fulfilled my duties, and took little heed of any one. +Whenever I had an hour at my disposal, I sought solitude in the +neighboring woods, far from the town and from mankind. I used to lie +down under the big trees. Every season in turn, spring and summer, +autumn and winter, had its peculiar charm for me. My heart, so full +of bitterness, felt lightened as soon as I listened to the rustling +of the foliage overhead. The forest! There is nothing finer in all +creation. A deep calm seemed to settle down upon me. I was growing +old. I was forgetting. It was about this time that, in consequence +of my complete indifference to all surroundings, I acquired the +habit of answering 'Very well' to everything that was said. The +words came so naturally that I was not aware of my continual use of +them, until one day one of my fellow-teachers happened to tell me +that masters and pupils alike had given me the nickname of 'Very +well.' Is it not odd that one who has never succeeded in anything +should be known as 'Very well'? + +"I have only one other little adventure to relate, and I will have +told all. Then I can listen to your story. + +"Last year, my journeyings brought me to the neighborhood of Elmira. +It was holiday-time. I had nothing to do, and I had in my purse a +hundred hardly earned dollars, or thereabout. The wish seized me to +revisit the scene of my joys and my sorrows. I had not set foot in +the place for more than seven years. I was so changed that nobody +could know me again; nor would I have cared much if they had. After +visiting the town and looking at my old school, and the house where +Ellen had lived, I bent my steps towards the park, which is situated +in the environs--a place where I used often to walk in company of my +youthful dreams. It was September, and evening was closing in. The +oblique rays of the setting sun sent a reddish gleam the leafy +branches of the old oaks. I seated on a bench beneath a tree on one +side of the path. As I drew near I recognized Ellen. I remained +rooted to the spot where I stood, not daring to move a step. She was +stooping forward with her head bent down, while with the end of her +parasol she traced lines upon the gravel. She had not seen me. I +turned back instantly, and retired without making any noise. When I +had gone a little distance, I left the path and struck into the +wood. Once there, I looked back cautiously. Ellen was still at the +same place and in the same attitude. Heaven knows what thoughts +passed through my brain! I longed to see her closer. What danger was +there? I was sure she would not know me again. I walked towards her +with the careless step of a casual passer-by, and in a few minutes +passed before her. When my shadow fell on the path, she looked up. +and our eyes met. My heart was beating fast. Her look was cold and +indifferent; but suddenly a strange light shot into her eyes, and +she made a quick movement, as if to rise. I saw no more, and went on +without turning round. Before I could get out of the park her +carriage drove past me, and I saw her once more as I had seen her +five years before in Central Park, pale, with distended eyes, and +her anxious looks fixed upon me. Why did I not bow to her? I cannot +say; my courage failed me. I saw the light die out of her eyes. I +almost fancied that I saw her heave a sigh of relief as she threw +herself back carelessly in the carriage; and she disappeared. I was +then thirty-six, and I am almost ashamed to relate the schoolboy's +trick of which I was guilty. I sent her the following lines: 'A +devoted friend, whom you obliged in former days, and who met you +yesterday in the park without your recognizing him, sends you his +remembrances.' I posted this letter a few minutes before getting +into the train which was to take me to New York; and, as I did so, +my heart beat as violently as though I had performed a heroic deed. +Great adventures, forsooth! And to think that my life presents none +more striking, and that trifles such as these are the only food for +my memory! + +"A twelvemonth later I met Francis Gilmore in Broadway. The world is +small--so small that it is really difficult to keep out of the way +of people one has once known. The likeness of my former pupil to his +sister struck me, and I spoke to him. He looked at me at first with +a puzzled expression, but after a few moments of hesitation he +recognized me, a bright smile lighted up his pleasant face, and he +shook hands warmly. + +"'Mr. Warren,' he exclaimed, 'how glad I am to see you! Ellen and I +have often talked of you, and wondered what could have become of +you. Why did we never hear from you?' + +"'I did not suppose it would interest you.' I spoke timidly; and yet +I owed nothing to the young fellow, and wanted nothing of him. + +"'You wrong us by saying that,' replied Francis; 'do you think me +ungrateful? Do you fancy I have forgotten our pleasant walks in +former days, and the long conversations we used to have? You alone +ever taught me anything, and it is to you I owe the principles that +have guided me through life. Many a day I have thought of you, and +regretted you sincerely. As regards Ellen, no one has ever filled +your place with her; she plays to this day the same pieces of music +you taught her, and follows all your directions with a fidelity that +would touch you.' + +"'How are your father and mother, and how is your sister?' I +inquired, feeling more deeply moved than I can express. + +"'My poor mother died three years ago. It is Ellen who keeps house +now.' + +"'Your brother-in-law lives with you, then?' + +"'My brother-in-law!' replied Francis, with surprise; 'did you not +know that he was on board the Atlantic, which was lost last year in +the passage from Liverpool to New York?' + +"I could find no words to reply. + +"'As to that,' added Francis, with great composure--'between you and +me, he was no great loss. My dear brother-in-law was not by any +means what my father fancied he was when he gave him my sister as a +wife. The whole family has often regretted the marriage. Ellen lived +apart from her husband for many years before his death.' + +"I nodded so as to express my interest in his communications, but I +could not for worlds have uttered a syllable. + +"'You will come and see us soon, I hope,' added Francis, without +noticing my emotion. 'We are still at the same place; but to make +sure, here is my card. Come, Mr. Warren--name your own day to come +and dine with us. I promise you a hearty welcome.' + +"I got off by promising to write the next day, and we parted. + +"Fortunately my mind had lost its former liveliness. The pendulum, +far from being urged to unruly motion, continued to swing slowly in +the narrow space where it had oscillated for so many years. I said +to myself that to renew my intimacy with the Gilmores would be to +run the almost certain risk of reviving the sorrows and the +disappointments of the past. I was then calm and rational. It would +be madness in me, I felt, to aspire to the hand of a young, wealthy, +and much admired widow. To venture to see Ellen again was to incur +the risk of seeing my reason once more wrecked, and the fatal +chimera which had been the source of all my misery start into life +again. If we are to believe what poets say, love ennobles man and +exalts him into a demigod. It may be so, but it turns him likewise +into a fool and a madman. That was my case. At any cost I was to +guard against that fatal passion. I argued seriously with myself, +and I determined to let the past be, and to reject every opportunity +of bringing it to life again. + +"A few days before my meeting with Francis, I had received tidings +of the death of an old relative, whom I scarcely knew. In my +childhood I had, on one or two occasions, spent my holidays at his +house. He was gloomy and taciturn, but nevertheless he had always +welcomed me kindly. I have a vague remembrance of having been told +that he had been in love with my mother once upon a time, and that +on hearing of her marriage he had retired into the solitude which he +never left till the day of his death. Be that as it may, I had not +lost my place in his affections, it seems: he had continued to feel +an interest in me; and on his deathbed he had remembered me, and +left me the greater part of his not very considerable fortune. I +inherited little money; but there was a small, comfortably-furnished +country-house, and an adjoining farm let on a long lease for two +hundred and forty pounds per annum. This was wealth for me, and more +than enough to satisfy all my wants. Since I had heard of this +legacy I had been doubtful as to my movements. My chance meeting +with Francis settled the matter. I resolved at once to leave +America, and to return to live in my native country. I knew your +address, and wrote to you at once. I trusted that the sight of my +old and only friend would console me for the disappointments that +life has inflicted on me--and I have not been deceived. At last I +have been able to open my heart to a fellow-creature, and relieve +myself of the heavy burden which I have borne alone ever since our +separation. Now I feel lighter. You are not a severe judge. +Doubtless you deplore my weakness, but you do not condemn me. If, as +I have already said, I have done no good, neither have I committed +any wicked action. I have been a nonentity--an utterly useless +being; 'one too many,' like the sad hero of Tourgueneff's sad story. +Before leaving, I wrote to Francis informing him that the death of a +relative obliged me to return to Europe, and giving him your +address, so as not to seem to be running away from him. Then I went +on board, and at last reached your home. Dixi!" + +Warren, who during this long story had taken care to keep his pipe +alight, and had, moreover, nearly drained the bottle of port placed +before him, now declared himself ready to listen to his friend's +confession. But Hermann had been saddened by all he had heard, and +was in no humor for talking. He remarked that it was getting late, +and proposed to postpone any further conversation till the morrow. + +Warren merely answered, "Very well," knocked the ashes out of his +pipe, shared out the remainder of the wine between his host and +himself, and, raising his glass, said, in a somewhat solemn tone, +"To our youth, Hermann!" After emptying his glass at one draught, be +replaced it on the table, and said complacently, "It is long since I +have drunk with so much pleasure; for this time I have not drunk to +forgetfulness, but to memory." + + + + +II. + + +Warren spent another week in Leipzig with his friend. No man was +easier to live with: to every suggestion of Hermann's he invariably +answered, "Very well;" and if Hermann proposed nothing, he was quite +content to remain seated in a comfortable arm-chair by the fireside, +holding a book which he scarcely looked at, and watching the long +rolls of smoke from his pipe. He disliked new acquaintances; +nevertheless, the friends to whom Hermann introduced him found in +him a quiet, unobtrusive, and well-informed companion. He pleased +everybody. There was something strange and yet attractive in his +person; there was a "charm" about him, people said. Hermann felt the +attraction without being able to define in what it consisted. Their +former friendship had been renewed unreservedly. The kind of +fascination that Warren exercised over all those who approached him +often led Hermann to think that it was not unlikely that in his +youth he had inspired a real love in Ellen Gilmore. + +One evening Hermann took his friend to the theatre, where a comic +piece was being performed. In his young days Warren had been very +partial to plays of that kind, and his joyous peals of laughter on +such occasions still rang in the ears of his friend. But the attempt +was a complete failure. Warren watched the performance without +showing the slightest interest, and never even smiled. During the +opening scenes he listened with attention, as though he were +assisting at some performance of the legitimate drama; then, as if +he could not understand what was going on before his eyes, he turned +away with a wearied air and began looking at the audience. When, at +the close of the second act, Hermann proposed that they should leave +the house, he answered readily: + +"Yes, let us go; all this seems very stupid--we will be much better +at home. There is a time for all things, and buffoonery suits me no +longer." + +There was nothing left in Warren of the friend that Hermann had +known fifteen years before. He loved him none the less; on the +contrary, to his affection for him had been superadded a feeling of +deep compassion. He would have made great sacrifices to secure his +friend's happiness, and to see a smile light up the immovable +features and the sorrowful dulness of the eye. His friendly anxiety +had not been lost upon Warren; and when the latter took his leave, +he said with emotion: + +"You wish me well, my old friend, I see it and feel it; and, believe +me, I am grateful. We must not lose sight of each other again--I +will write regularly." + +A few days later, Hermann received a letter for his friend. It was +an American letter, and the envelope was stamped with the initials +"E. H." They were those of Ellen Howard, the heroine of Warren's sad +history. He forwarded the letter immediately, and wrote at the same +time to his friend: "I hope the inclosed brings you good news from +America." But in his reply Warren took no notice of this passage, +and made no allusion to Ellen. He only spoke of the new house in +which he had just settled himself--"to end," as he said, "his days;" +and he pressed Hermann to come and join him. The two friends at last +agreed to pass Christmas and New Year's Day together; but when +December came, Warren urged his friend to hasten his arrival. + +"I do not feel well," he wrote, "and am often so weary that I stay +at home all day. I have made no new acquaintances, and, most likely, +will make none. I am alone. Your society would give me great +pleasure. Come; your room is ready, and will be, I trust, to your +liking. There is a large writing table and tolerably well-filled +book-shelves; you can write there quite at your ease, without fear +of disturbance. Come as soon as possible, my dear friend. I am +expecting you impatiently." + +Hermann happened to be at leisure, and was able to comply with his +friend's wish, and to go to him in the first week of December. He +found Warren looking worn and depressed. It was in vain he sought to +induce him to consult a physician. Warren would reply: + +"Doctors can do nothing for my complaint. I know where the shoe +pinches. A physician would order me probably to seek relaxation and +amusement, just as he would advise a poor devil whose blood is +impoverished by bad food to strengthen himself with a generous diet +and good wine. The poor man could not afford to get the good living, +and I do not know what could enliven or divert me. Travel? I like +nothing so well as sitting quietly in my arm-chair. New faces? They +would not interest me--yours is the only company I prefer to +solitude. Books? I am too old to take pleasure in learning new +things, and what I have learned has ceased to interest me. It is not +always easy to get what might do one good, and we must take things +as they are." + +Hermann noticed, as before, that his friend ate little, but that, on +the other hand, he drank a great deal. The sincere friendship he +felt for him emboldened him to make a remark on the subject. + +"It is true," said Warren, "I drink too much; but what can I do? +Food is distasteful to me, and I must keep up my strength somehow. I +am in a wretched state; my health is ruined." + +One evening, as the two friends were seated together in Warren's +room, while the wind and sleet were beating against the window- +panes, the invalid began of his own accord to speak about Ellen. + +"We now correspond regularly," he said. "She tells me in her last +letter that she hopes soon to see me. Do you know, Hermann, that she +is becoming an enigma for me? It is very evident that she does not +treat me like other people, and I often wonder and ask myself what I +am in her eyes? What does she feel towards me? Love? That is +inadmissible. Pity, perhaps? This then, is the end of my grand +dreams--to be an object of pity? I have just answered her letter to +say that I am settled here with the fixed intention of ending my +useless existence in quiet and idleness. Do you remember a scene in +Henry Heine's 'Reisebilder,' when a young student kisses a pretty +girl, who lets him have his own way and makes no great resistance, +because he has told her, 'I will be gone to-morrow at dawn, and I +will never see you again'? The certainty of never seeing a person +again gives a man the courage to say things that otherwise he would +have kept hidden in the most secret depths of his being. I feel that +my life is drawing to a close. Do not say no, my dear friend; my +presentiments are certain. I have written it to Ellen. I have told +her other things besides. What folly! All I have ever done has been +folly or chimera. I end my life logically, in strict accordance with +my whole Past, by making my first avowal of love on my deathbed. Is +not that as useless a thing as can be?" + +Hermann would have wished to know some particulars about this +letter; but Warren replied, somewhat vaguely, "If I had a copy of my +letter, I would show it to you willingly. You know my whole story, +and I would not be ashamed to lay before you my last act of folly. I +wrote about a fortnight ago, when I felt sure that death was drawing +near. I was in a fever, not from fear--Death gains but little by +taking my life--but from a singular species of excitement. I do not +remember what were the words I used. Who knows? Perhaps this last +product of my brain may have been quite a poetical performance. +Never mind! I do not repent of what I have done; I am glad that +Ellen should know at last that I have loved her silently and +hopelessly. If that is not disinterested, what is?" he added with a +bitter smile. + +Christmas went by sadly. Warren was now so weak that he could +scarcely leave his bed for two or three hours each day. Hermann had +taken upon himself to send for a doctor, but this latter had +scarcely known what to prescribe. Warren was suffering from no +special malady; he was dying of exhaustion. Now and then, during a +few moments, which became daily more rare and more brief, his +vivacity would return; but the shadow of Death was already darkening +his mind. + +On New Year's Eve he got up very late. "We will welcome in the New +Year," he said to Hermann. "I hope it may bring you happiness; I +know it will bring me rest." A few minutes before midnight he opened +the piano, and played with solemnity, and as if it had been a +chorale, a song of Schumann's, entitled "To the Drinking-cup of a +Departed Friend." Then, on the first stroke of midnight, he filled +two glasses with some old Rhenish wine, and raised his own glass +slowly. He was very pale, and his eyes were shining with feverish +light. He was in a state of strange and fearful excitement. He +looked at the glass which he held, and repeated deliberately a verse +of the song which he had just been playing. "The vulgar cannot +understand what I see at the bottom of this cup." Then, at one +draught, he drained the full glass. + +While he was thus speaking and drinking, he had taken no notice of +Hermann, who was watching him with consternation. Recovering himself +at length, he exclaimed, "Another glass, Hermann! To friendship!" He +drained this second glass, like the first, to the very last drop; +and then, exhausted by the effort he had made, he sank heavily on a +chair. Soon after, Hermann led him, like a sleepy child, to his bed. + +During the days that followed, he was unable to leave his room; and +the doctor thought it right to warn Hermann that all the symptoms +seemed to point to a fatal issue. + +On the 8th of January a servant from the hotel in the little +neighboring town brought a letter, which, he said, required an +immediate answer. The sick man was then lying almost unconscious. +Hermann broke the seal without hesitation, and read as follows: + +"MY DEAR FRIEND,--A visit to Europe which my father had long planned +has at last been undertaken. I did not mention it to you, in order +to have the pleasure of surprising you. On reaching this place, I +learn that the illness of which you spoke in your last letter has +not yet left you. Under these circumstances, I will not venture to +present myself without warning you of my arrival, and making sure +that you are able to receive me. I am here with my brother, who, +like myself, would not come so near to you without seeing you. My +father has gone on to Paris, where Francis and I will join him in a +few days. ELLEN." + +Hermann, after one instant's thought, took up his hat and dismissed +the messenger, saying he would give the answer himself. At the hotel +he sent in his card, with the words, "From Mr. Warren," and was +immediately ushered into Ellen's presence. + +She was alone. Hermann examined her rapidly. He saw an extremely +beautiful woman, whose frank and fearless eyes were fixed on him +with a questioning look. + +Hermann had not frequented the society of women much, and was +usually rather embarrassed in their presence. But on this occasion +he thought only of his friend, and found no difficulty in explaining +the motive of his visit. He told her his friend was ill--very ill-- +dying--and that he had opened the letter addressed to Warren. Ellen +did not answer for some time; she seemed not to have understood what +she had heard. After a while her eyes filled with tears, and she +asked whether she could see Mr. Warren. On Hermann answering in the +affirmative, she further inquired whether her brother might +accompany her. + +"Two visitors might fatigue the invalid too much," said Hermann; +"your brother may come later." + +"Are you not afraid that my visit may tire him?" + +"I do not think so; it will make him very happy." + +Ellen only took a few minutes to put on her hat and cloak, and they +started. The short journey was accomplished in silence. When they +reached the house, Hermann went in first to see how the dying man +was. He was lying in his bed, in the delirium of fever, muttering +incoherent sentences. Nevertheless he recognized Hermann, and asked +for something to drink. After having allayed his thirst, he closed +his eyes, as if to sleep. + +"I have brought you a friend," said Hermann; "will you see him?" + +"Hermann? He is always welcome." + +"No; it is a friend from America." + +"From America?...I lived there many years...How desolate and +monotonous were the shores I visited!..." + +"Will you see your friend?" + +"I am carried away by the current of the river. In the distance I +see dark and shadowy forms; there are hills full of shade and +coolness...but I will never rest there." + +Hermann retired noiselessly, and returned almost immediately with +Ellen. + +Warren, who had taken no notice of him, continued to follow the +course of his wandering thoughts. + +"The river is drawing near to the sea. Already I can hear the roar +of the waves...The banks are beginning to be clothed with verdure...The +hills are drawing nearer....It is dark now. Here are the big trees +beneath which I have dreamed so often. A radiant apparition shines +through their foliage....It comes towards me... +Ellen!" + +She was standing beside the bed. The dying man saw her, and without +showing the least surprise, said with a smile, "Thank God! you have +come in time. I knew you were coming." + +He murmured a few unintelligible words, and then remained silent for +a long while. His eyes were wide open. Suddenly he cried, "Hermann!" + +Hermann came and stood beside Ellen. + +"The pendulum...You know what I mean?" A frank childish smile--the +smile of his student days--lighted up his pallid face. He raised his +right hand, and tracing in the air with his forefinger a wide +semicircle, to imitate the oscillation of a pendulum, he said, +"Then." He then figured in the same manner a more limited and slower +movement, and after repeating it several times, said, "Now." Lastly, +he pointed straight before him with a motionless and almost menacing +finger, and said with a weak voice, "Soon." + +He spoke no more, and closed his eyes. The breathing was becoming +very difficult. + +Ellen bent, over him, and called him softly, "Henry, Henry!" He +opened his eyes. She brought her mouth close to his ear, and said, +with a sob, "I have always loved you." + +"I knew it from the first," he said, quietly and with confidence. + +A gentle expression stole over his countenance, and life seemed to +return. Once more he had the confident look of youth. A sad and +beautiful smile played on his lips; he took the hand of Ellen in +his, and kissed it gently. + +"How do you feel now?" inquired Hermann. + +The old answer, "Very well." + +His hands were plucking at the bedclothes, as if he strove to cover +his face with them. Then his arms stiffened and the fingers remained +motionless. + +"Very well," he repeated. + +He appeared to fall into deep thought. There was a long pause. At +last he turned a dying look, fraught with tender pity and sadness, +towards Ellen, and in a low voice, which was scarcely audible, he +said these two words, with a slight emphasis on the first-- +"PERFECTLY well." + + + + +THE BOOKBINDER OF HORT + +BY + +LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH + + + + +From "Jewish Tales," published by A.C. McClurg & Co. + +Copyright, 1894, by A.C. McClurg & Co. + + + + +Looking abroad from the table-land of Esced, over the Hungarian +plain that stretches from the foot of Mount Matra to Szolnok, and +finally merges into the horizon where the silver thread of the +Theiss winds its way, the eye is attracted by a smiling section of +country whose vineyards and cornfields gleam brightly in the sun. +This fair spot is neither a park nor grove nor pleasant woodland, +but the imposing village of Hort, its pretty white houses half +concealed by a wealth of trees and shrubbery. + +In this village lived a Jewish bookbinder, Simcha Kalimann, a wit +and bel esprit, the oracle of the entire province, the living +chronicle of his times and people. + +Reviewing in reverie the procession of events in his own life, +Kalimann could see, as in a mirror, the phases through which his co- +religionists in Hungary had passed in their efforts toward liberty. +He had lived during that dark period when the Jew dared claim no +rights among his fellow-countrymen. He had suffered evil, he had +endured disgrace, and the storehouse of his memory held many a +tragi-comic picture of the days that were no more. But he had also +lived in times when the spirit of tolerance took possession of men's +minds, and he had been swept along on that tidal movement +inaugurated by Count Szechenyi, the greatest of Hungarians, through +his celebrated book, "Light." + +The revolution of 1848 brought about the new Hungarian Constitution, +and put an end to feudal government. Light penetrated into the +darksome streets of the Ghetto, and through the windows opened to +receive the Messiah, a saviour entered proclaiming liberty and +equality to the downtrodden and oppressed. + +Crushed and forsaken, as all Israel was, it gratefully responded to +this message of universal brotherhood. + +The Hungarian Jew had found a country, and from that moment he had +thrown aside his native timidity, and found the strength to display +his patriotism with an ardor and enthusiasm worthy of the cause. +Thousands quitted the Ghettos, and gathered around the tricolored +flag. Among the warm-hearted soldiers was Simcha Kalimann. He +followed Kossuth as a simple honved (volunteer), and fought at +Kapolna, Vaitzen, and Temesvar. + +High hopes and golden dreams were succeeded by despondency and +disillusion; then supervened years of impatient waiting,--a standing +with folded arms when so much remained to be done, a time of +despair, of restless suffering. But the Jew had acquired his +franchise, and gratefully he remembered those to whom he owed this +priceless blessing. + +When the Austro-Hungarian Convention gave Hungary her king and +constitution, the hearts of the people of the Ghetto beat high. This +time, however, liberty did not make her entry with clang of arms and +beat of drum,--peace and reconciliation were her handmaidens, and +progress followed in her footsteps. + +It was at this epoch in Hungary's history that Israelites began to +speak the language of the country, and to accept Hungarian names. To +her credit be it said that no such shameful sale was made as +disgraced the time of Joseph II., when surnames were sold, according +to their attractiveness or desirability, to the highest bidder. + +Consequently, as a high-sounding name cost no more than a simple +one, Kalimann chose the most imposing he could find, and, his +country's hero in mind, called himself Sandor Hunyadi. This historic +title revived, as it were, his latent patriotism, and, digging his +gun and cartridge-box from their hiding-place in the garden where he +had carefully buried them after the capitulation of Vilagos, he +proudly hung these trophies of his prowess over his bed, and +rejoiced in the memories of his martial exploits. + +Liberty and religious peace held equal sway. Reciprocal kindliness +and toleration spread light where darkness had been, and scattered +the shadows of prejudice. + +Hunyadi, or Kalimann, was regarded in Hort as a freethinker. This +was scarcely just; he was pious, and strictly discharged his +religious observances, emancipating himself at the same time from +those distinctions in dress and customs which he deemed neither in +accordance with Mosaic law nor with his ideas of progress. + +He followed the observance of wearing his hat while at synagogue, +but during no other religious ceremony; troubled himself but little +regarding the dietary laws; dressed as his Christian neighbor did; +and strictly prohibited any superstitious practices in his house. He +even permitted his wife to let her hair grow,--a bold innovation. + +His appearance was by no means suggestive of the hero. Short, thin, +and insignificant-looking, with hair that frizzled beyond all +thought of disentanglement, a tanned and freckled skin, flaxen +moustache, and gray eyes that blinked continuously, Kalimann had +truly no cause for vanity. Besides, he was excessively near-sighted, +and as his large spectacles were taken from their red case only when +he read or worked, it not unfrequently happened that when he took +his walk abroad he would mistake a tall post for the chief +magistrate of the county, and salute it with his most respectful +bow; or, with a composure born of self-complacency, it would be his +misfortune to pass by Madame Barkany, his best customer, with a +vacant stare, under the impression that the fair apparition was +linen hung to bleach in the sun. + +Kalimann worked alone with a little apprentice named Hersch, whom he +had indentured far more from charity than necessity, since the +worthy bookbinder felt within him that love for his art which would +have enabled him to bind the entire literature of Europe with no +greater aid than his good right arm. He was a conscientious, +faithful workman, and, as a rule, his entire days were spent in his +shop; when necessity demanded he would toil on late into the night +by the light of a tallow candle, or an ill-smelling lamp. + +His work was his pride; reading his delight. If a single dark spot +clouded the surface of this simple honest life, that shadow fell +from the portly form of Mrs. Rachel Kalimann, or Rose Hunyadi, as it +was that lady's pleasure now to be called. It would be unjust, +however, to the handsome woman, whose buxom proportions served, as +it were, to give weight to the establishment, to say that her faults +were of a serious nature; she was, at the most, insensible to her +husband's intellectual aspirations, which she termed, with more +vigor than the occasion demanded, "stuff and nonsense." + +Quotations from the Talmud and the Scriptures were equally impotent +to quell the torrent of the worthy woman's eloquence when she felt +that the occasion demanded her timely interference; in vain Kalimann +supported his side of the question by citing from the book of Job: +"The gold and the crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it +shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of +coral or of pearls; for the price of wisdom is above rubies." +[Footnote: See Job xxviii. 17, 18.] + +Rose would retort curtly: "What can I buy with your wisdom? Will it +give me wherewith to eat and to drink, and to clothe myself? No! +Very well then, what is the good of it?" + +The learned bookbinder would, as a rule, sigh and silently abandon +the argument when it had reached this stage, but at times his +composure would break down under the strain imposed on it. Disputes +and quarrels would ensue, but in the end Kalimann would capitulate, +his conjugal love overcoming his anger and resentment. + +Occasionally, however, he would endeavor to escape his wife's +vigilance, and take refuge in a remote corner with one of his +treasured volumes. On one of these "secret" evenings she surprised +him in the poultry house, at his side a small lantern shedding a +doubtful light upon a fine edition of "Hamlet" on his lap. Rose read +him a long lecture, and commanded him to retire at once. The good +man obeyed, but carried "Hamlet" to bed with him, turning once more +to his Shakespeare for refreshment and sweet content. He had +scarcely read half a page, when his spouse rose in all her majesty +and blew out the candle. + +Kalimann was desperate, and yet resistance would have been unwise. +Sadly resigned, he turned his head upon the pillow, and soon snored +in unison with Hersch. A half-hour of profound silence, then the +culprit rose, and making sure that his wife was sleeping the sleep +of the just, he cautiously took his book and spectacles, glided out +of doors, and sitting upon the old moss-grown bench in front of the +house, continued the tragedy of the Danish prince by the light of +the moon. + +Yes, he loved his books with passion and tenderness; but not having +means wherewith to buy them, he read every book that was entrusted +to him to bind. Not being the collector of the volumes in his +workshop, chance alone being responsible for the heterogeneous +display,--to-day a sentimental love-tale, to-morrow a medical +treatise, the next day a theological work,--it followed that the +poor little bookbinder's head was filled with as confused a mass of +lore, religious and profane, as ever cast in its lot in the sum of +human knowledge. The more a book pleased him, the longer did the +owner have to wait for it; and it was only after repeated insistence +that the coveted volume was placed in the rightful possessor's +hands. + +Naturally, Kalimann's prices varied according to the work required, +or the cost of material; but when it came to the question of +ornamental finishing or decorative impressions, his customer's +orders were totally ignored, and he it was who decided upon the +finishing according to the subject or the value of the work. + +When he carried the books back to his customers, he would always tie +them up carefully in a large colored handkerchief, and, while +unwrapping them, would embrace the opportunity of expressing his +views upon their contents; at times, however, he regarded the open +assertion of his opinion as dangerous, and could not be induced to +pass judgment. On these occasions he never failed to say with a +sorrowful shake of the head, "While we are living we may not speak, +when we are dead it is too late!" + +There lived in Hort at this time a wealthy and pretty widow, Mrs. +Zoe Barkany by name, originally Sarah Samuel. From her, Kalimann +would get his novels and classical literature; these he bound in +pale blues and greens and brilliant scarlets, ornamenting them with +a golden lyre, surmounted with an arrow-pierced heart. He worked +upon these bindings con amore, and, transported by his love of the +aesthetic, would occasionally give vent to his enthusiasm, and +venture observations bordering upon the chivalrous. In each and +every heroine of the plays and romances he devoured, he could see +the captivating face and figure of Mrs. Barkany. + +Entering the fair widow's garden one morning, and discovering her +seated on a rustic bench, dressed in white, a guitar in her hand, he +exclaimed, with a reverential bow: "Ah, mon Dieu, there sits +Princess Eboli!" (the heroine in "Don Carlos"). Another time seeing +her in a. morning gown of Turkish stuff, he declared she must be +sitting for the picture of Rebecca in "Ivanhoe." In short, Mrs. +Barkany very soon learned to anticipate her bookbinder's speeches, +and would say, with a pretty smile: "Well, am I Esmeralda to-day?" +or, "I wager that I am reminding you of the Duchess; tell me, am I +right or not?" + +Binding works on jurisprudence for the notary, he developed his +philosophy of law; returning some volumes to the village doctor, he +surprised that worthy by launching forth with enthusiasm into a +disquisition on medicine; and dropping in one fine day at Professor +Gambert's,--the pensioned schoolmaster,--he proved himself no mean +adversary in a discussion upon natural history. He invariably +approached a subject with a refreshing originality, and on one +occasion maintained with an obstinacy born of conviction that the +reason Moses had prohibited the Jews from eating pork was because he +had discovered the trichina. + +Simcha Kalimann had taken upon himself the office of censor in his +village, as may be seen by the following incident. The widow had +given him a richly illustrated German edition of "Nana" to bind. At +dusk one evening he discovered his apprentice crouched in a corner +by the window, evidently intensely amused over the illustrations. He +quietly seized the culprit by the hair, shook him as he would a +puppy, and then, putting on his spectacles, began inspecting the +volume himself. At first he shook his head, then took off his +glasses and rubbed them as though they were playing him some prank, +and finally closed the book with an expression of profound disgust. + +Mrs. Barkany awaited the return of her "Nana" with unruffled +patience; finally she despatched her cook Gutel with an order for +the book. Kalimann was ready with his excuses, and after a +fortnight's delay the widow found her way into the workshop, and +began suing for the book in person. + +"I want my copy of 'Nana,'" she began. + +"Nana?" Kalimann went on with his work. + +"You have not bound it yet?" + +"No, madame." + +"But when am I to have it?" "You are not to have that book at all." + +"What! You talk absurdly." + + "We merit trust, the Count will own; + For nothing's left of flesh or bone," + +quoted Kalimann from Schiller's ballad "The Forge." "As for 'Nana,' +I've simply pushed it in the stove." + +"Kalimann, this is going too far." + +"It is not a book for a Jewish woman to own." + +The widow flushed indignantly, but would not yield the victory to +her adversary. + +"If you have burned my book you must give me an equivalent." + +"With pleasure," replied the bookbinder, and taking down a picture +from the wall, he begged her acceptance of it. It represented a +scene from Schiller's "Song of the Bell," a fair young woman, +surrounded by her children, seated on the balcony of her house. As +title to the picture were printed these lines: + + "The house spreadeth out, + And in it presides + The chaste gentle housewife, + The mother of children; + And ruleth metely + The household discreetly." + +Our bookbinder had a reverential admiration for all scholars, poets, +or artists, irrespective of race or creed. Awaiting the widow in her +library one day, his attention was attracted by an engraving +representing Schiller at Carlsbad seated upon an ass. His eyes +filled with tears at the sight. "A man like that," he exclaimed, +"riding upon an ass! While ordinary people like Baron Fay or Mr. de +Mariassy ride about proudly on horses." + +Later on it occurred to him that Balaam too was mounted on an ass, +and he derived a measure of consolation from the thought that +Schiller was a prophet as well. Would it be venturesome to say that +in Kalimann there was the stuff for poet or prophet? + +In addition to his trade, our bookbinder carried on another pursuit +which was quite lucrative in its way, and one universally well +established among all Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. Kalimann +was Cupid's secretary: in other words, he wrote love-letters for +those who could neither read nor write. The opportunity thus +vouchsafed his native tendency toward sentiment helped not only to +swell the hearts of his clients with gratitude, but also to swell +his own slender income. Thus it was that the fire of his poetic +genius was enkindled, and thus it was he became the Petrarch of +Hort. + +One day Gutel Wolfner, Mrs. Barkany's cook, came to him with the +request that he would write a letter for her to a friend at Gyongos. + +"Well, well, little one," said the scribe, "so Love's arrow has +reached you at last!" + +"Heaven preserve me!" cried the girl, "he is not named Love, but +Mendel Sucher, and he has never drawn a bow in his life." + +Gutel now gave the bookbinder a general idea of the letter she +wished written, and inquired the price. + +"That will not depend upon the length of the epistle," he replied, +"but upon its quality." Thereupon he read aloud to her his tariff. + + 1st. A friendly letter ....................10 kreutzers + 2d. A kind and well-intentioned letter.15 " + 3d. A tender letter ...................... 20 " + 4th. A touching letter ..................30 " + 5th. A letter that goes straight to the + heart .............................. 1/2 florin + +"Very good; a friendly letter will do well enough this time," said +the girl, as she deposited her ten kreutzers on the table. + +"I will write a kind and well-intentioned letter for you for the +same price as a friendly one," said Kalimann, gallantly. + +Mendel Sucher received the missive the following day, and as his +scholarship was as limited as Gutel's, he forthwith sought out Saul +Wahl, a lawyer's clerk at Gyongos, likewise a member of the same +erotic profession as the bookbinder of Hort. Wahl read Kalimann's +letter to the smiling recipient with such pathos that Mendel was +completely overcome. Placing twenty kreutzers on the table, the +happy swain begged the clerk to write as finely turned a letter to +Gutel as the one she had sent him. + +Saul, who had at a glance recognized Kalimann's calligraphy, said to +himself: "It will go hard with me but I will show the bookbinder +that they know how to write letters at Gyongos, and can also quote +from the classic authors." + +He at once wrote Gutel a missive so thickly interlarded with +quotations from the Song of Solomon, from Goethe, Petofi, Heine, and +Chateaubriand, that when Kalimann read the billet-doux to the +blushing girl her head was quite turned. + +The bookbinder himself scratched his head and muttered: "This Saul +is a man of letters; his style is vigorous! Who would have thought +it?" + +The correspondence between Gutel and Mendel, or rather between +Kalimann and Saul, flourished for some time. If Kalimann addressed +Mendel as "my cherished friend," "my turtle dove," Saul on his side +would intersperse throughout his letters such expressions as "your +gazelle-like eyes," "your fairy form," "your crimson lips," "your +voice rivalling the music of the celestial spheres." + +Kalimann's "friendly" letter was followed by those of the tender and +touching variety, and finally Gutel decided upon sacrificing her +half florin and sending one that "would go straight to the heart." +To make assurance doubly sure she supplemented her silver piece by a +bottle of wine. Her amanuensis poured out a glass, emptied it at a +draught, smacked his lips, and began to write. Suddenly, however, he +stopped, and turning to the girl, said: "Do you know, Gutel, that +wine of yours was a happy inspiration, but the great poet Hafiz was +not alone inspired by the spirit of wine, he placed a great virtue +upon the crimson lips of pretty girls." + +Gutel was not slow to understand. + +"As I have given you a half florin and a bottle of wine," she said, +in a shamefaced way, wiping her mouth with the corner of her apron +the while, "I see no reason why I should not add a touch of my lips +as well." So saying she gave the happy bookbinder a hearty kiss. The +consequence of all this was that the pen flew over the paper, and +when Kalimann read the letter for Gutel's approval the tender- +hearted girl burst into tears of emotion. + +As for Mendel, when Saul read him this letter going "straight to the +heart," he could contain himself no longer; rushing from the house +he flew to the factory where he worked, and asked his employer, Mr. +Schonberg, to permit him to quit his service. + +"What is the matter with you?" cried Schonberg. "Why do you wish to +leave? Do you want more wages?" + +"No, no, Mr. Schonberg, that is not the reason. But--but I can stay +no longer here at Gyongos, I must go to Hort." + +"To Hort? What is the reason of that?" + +For reply the dazed fellow held out the letter for him to read. +Schonberg glanced over it, and smiled. "This Kalimann," he murmured, +"is a deuce of a fellow. The world has lost a novelist in him. But +let me see how I can arrange matters. Mendel," he continued, turning +to the open-mouthed lover, "you shall stay here, and you shall marry +your Gutel. I will give you two or three rooms in the factory for +your housekeeping, and Mrs. Barkany will give the girl her +trousseau. How does that strike you?" + +Mendel beamed. He would have thrown himself on his employer's neck, +but resisted the impulse, and, instead, brushed the back of his hand +across his eyes. Schonberg gave him a day's holiday, and the happy +fellow lost no time in making his way to Hort, and subsequently into +the arms of his inamorata. Mrs. Barkany gave Gutel the trousseau, +and the marriage took place at harvest-time. + +At one end of the table, in the seat of honor next to the rabbi, sat +the bookbinder of Hort. All had been his work, and, truth to tell, +this was not the first happy couple he had been the means of +bringing together. + +When it was his turn to deliver a toast in honor of the bride and +groom, he rose, filled his glass, and holding it in his hand, +declaimed from his favorite poet Schiller, and with an enthusiasm +worthy the occasion: + + "Honor to women! round Life they are wreathing + Roses, the fragrance of Heaven sweet-breathing!" + + + + +THE EGYPTIAN FIRE-EATER + +BY + +RUDOLPH BAUMBACH + + + +From "Summer Legends," translated by Helen B. Dole. +Published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. + +Copyright, 1888, by T.Y. Crowell & Co + + + + +Next Easter he must go to N--to school.--Fact.--It is high time; he +is eleven years old, and here he is running wild with the street- +boys.--That's what I say." + +He, that is, I, hung my head, and I felt more like crying than +laughing. I had passed eleven sunny boyhood years in the little +country town, I stood in high esteem among my playmates, and would +rather be the first in the ranks of my birthplace than second in the +metropolis. + +Through the gray mist, which surrounded my near future like a thick +fog, gleamed only one light, but a bright, attractive light; that +was the theatre, the splendor of which I had already learned to +know. The white priests in the "Magic Flute," Sarastro's lions, the +fire-spitting serpents, and the gay, merry Papageno,--such things +could not be seen at home; and when my parents promised me +occasional visits to the theatre, as a reward for diligence in study +and exemplary conduct, I left the Eden of my childhood, half +consoled. + +Young trees, transplanted at the proper time, soon take root. After +a tearful farewell to my friends and a slight attack of home- +sickness, I was quite content. I was received into the second class +at the gymnasium, and drank eagerly of the fountain of knowledge; a +certain Frau Eberlein, with whom I found board and lodging, cared +for my bodily welfare. + +She was a widow, and kept a little store, in which, with the +assistance of a shop-girl, she served customers, who called from +morning to night. She dealt principally in groceries and vegetables, +but besides these, every conceivable thing was found piled up in her +shop: knitting-yarn, sheets of pictures, slate-pencils, cheese, pen- +knives, balls of twine, herring, soap, buttons, writing-paper, glue, +hairpins, cigar-holders, oranges, fly-poison, brushes, varnish, +gingerbread, tin soldiers, corks, tallow candles, tobacco-pouches, +thimbles, gum-balls, and torpedoes. Besides, she prepared, by means +of essences, peach brandy, maraschino, ros solis, and other +liqueurs, as well as an excellent ink, in the manufacture of which I +used to help her. She rejoiced in considerable prosperity, lived +well, and did not let me want for anything. + +My passion for the theatre was a source of great anxiety to good +Frau Eberlein. She did not have a very good opinion of the art in +general, but the comedy she despised from the bottom of her heart. +Therefore she made my visiting the theatre as difficult as possible, +and it was only after long discussions, and after the shop-girl had +added her voice, that she would hand over the necessary amount for +purchasing a ticket. The shop-girl was an oldish person, as thin as +a giraffe which had fasted for a long time, and was very well read. +She subscribed regularly to a popular periodical with the motto, +"Culture is freedom," and Frau Eberlein was influenced somewhat by +her judgment. This kind-hearted woman was friendly towards me, and +as often as her employer asked, "Is the play a proper one for young +people?" she would answer, "Yes," and Frau Eberlein would have to +let me go. + +Those were glorious evenings. Long before it was time for the play +to begin, I was in my seat in the gallery, looking down from my +dizzy height, into the house, still unlighted. Now a servant comes +and lights the lamps in the orchestra. The parquet and the upper +seats fill, but the reserved seats and the boxes are still empty. +Now it suddenly grows light; the chandelier comes down from an +opening in the ceiling. The musicians appear and tune their +instruments. It makes a horrible discord, but still it is beautiful. +The doors slam; handsomely dressed ladies, in white cloaks, gay +officers, and civilians in stiff black and white evening dress take +their seats in the boxes. The conductor mounts his elevated seat and +now it begins. The overture is terribly long, but it comes to an +end. Ting-aling-aling,--the curtain rises. Ah!-- + +I soon decided in my own mind that it should be my destiny, some +time, to delight the audience from the stage, but I was still +undecided whether I would devote myself to the drama or the opera, +for it seemed to me an equally desirable lot to shoot charmed +bullets in "Der Freischutz," or, hidden behind elderberry bushes, to +shoot at tyrannical Geslers in "William Tell." In the meantime I +learned Tell's monologue, "Along this narrow path the man must +come," by heart, and practised the aria, "Through the forest, +through the meadows." + +Providence seemed to favor my plan, for it led me into an +acquaintance with a certain Lipp, who, on account of his +connections, was in a position to pave my way to the stage. + +Lipp was a tall, slender youth, about sixteen years old, with +terribly large feet and hands. He usually wore a very faded, light- +blue coat, the sleeves of which hardly came below his elbows, and a +red vest. He had a rather stooping gait, and a beaming smile +continually played about his mouth. Besides, the poor fellow was +always hungry, and it was this peculiarity which brought about our +acquaintance. + +On afternoons when there was no school, and I went out on the green +to play ball with my companions or fly my kite, Frau Eberlein used +to put something to eat in my pocket. Lipp soon spied it out, and he +knew how to get a part, or even the whole of my luncheon for +himself. He would pick up a pebble off the ground, slip it from one +hand to the other several times, then place one fist above the +other, saying: + + "This hand, or that? + Burned is the tail of the cat. + Which do you choose? + Upper or under will lose!" + +If I said "upper," the stone was always in the lower hand, and vice +versa. And Lipp would take my apple from me with a smile, and devour +it as if he were half-famished. + +Why did I allow it? In the first place because Lipp was beyond me in +years and in strength, and in the second place, because he was the +son of a very important personage. His father was nothing less than +the doorkeeper of the theatre; a splendid man with a shining red +nose and coal-black beard reaching to his waist. The wise reader now +knows how young Lipp came by a light-blue coat and red vest. + +My new friend from his earliest years had been constantly on the +stage. He played the gamin in folk-scenes and the monster in +burlesques. Besides, he was an adept at thunder and lightning; by +means of cracking a whip and the close imitation of the neighing of +horses, he announced the approaching stage-coach; he lighted the +moon in "Der Freischutz;" and with a kettle and pair of tongs gave +forewarning of the witches' hour. When I opened my heart to Lipp and +confided to him that I wanted to go on the stage, he reached out his +broad hand to me with emotion and said, "And so do I." Hereupon we +swore eternal friendship, and Lipp promised as soon as possible to +procure me an opportunity for putting my dramatic qualifications to +the test. From that hour his manner changed towards me. Before, he +had treated me with some condescension, but now his behavior towards +me was more like that of a colleague. Moreover, the game of chance +for my lunch came to an end, for from that time forth I shared it +with him like a brother. + +The fine fellow kept his promise to make a way for me to go on the +stage. A few evenings later ("Der Freischutz" was being played), I +stood with a beating heart behind the scenes, and friend Lipp stood +by my side. In my hand I held a string, with which I set the wings +of the owl in the wolf's glen in rhythmic motion. My companion +performed the wild chase. By turns he whistled through his fingers, +cracked a whip, and imitated the yelping of the hounds. It was +awfully fine. + +"You did your part splendidly," said Lipp to me at the end of the +scene; "next time you must go out on the stage." + +I swam in a sea of delight. A short time after, "Preciosa" was +given, and Lipp told me that I could play the gypsy boy. They put a +white frock on me and wound red bands crosswise about my legs. Then +a chorister took me by the hand and led me up and down the back of +the stage two or three times. That was my first appearance. + +It was also my last. The affair became known. In school I received a +severe reprimand, and in addition, as a consequence of the airy +gypsy costume, a cold with a cough, which kept me in bed for a day +or two. + +"It serves you right," said Frau Eberlein. "He who will not hear +must feel. This comes from playing in the theatre. If your blessed +grandmother knew that you had been with play-actors she would turn +in her grave." + +Crushed and humiliated, I swallowed the various teas which my nurse +steeped for me one after another. But with each cup I had to listen +to an instructive story about the depravity of actors. In order to +lead me back from the way of the transgressors to the path of +virtue, Frau Eberlein painted with glowing colors; one story in +particular, in which occurred three bottles of punch-essence never +paid for, made a deep impression on me. But Frau Eberlein's +anecdotes failed to make me change my resolves. + +Soon after, something very serious happened. Lipp's father, the +doorkeeper of the theatre, after drinking heavily, fell down +lifeless by the card-table in the White Horse; and my friend, in +consequence of this misfortune, came under the control of a cold- +hearted guardian, who had as little comprehension of the dramatic +art as Frau Eberlein. Lipp was given over to a house-painter, who, +invested with extended authority, took the unfortunate fellow as an +apprentice. + +Lipp was inconsolable at the change in his lot. The smile +disappeared from his face, and I too felt melancholy when I saw him +going along the street in his paint-bespattered clothes, the picture +of despair. + +One day I met the poor fellow outside the city gate, where the last +houses stand, painting a garden fence with an arsenic-green color. +"My good friend," he said, with a melancholy smile, "I cannot give +you my hand, for there is paint on it; but we are just the same as +ever." Then he spoke of his disappointed hopes. "But," he continued, +"because they are deferred, they are not put off for ever, and these +clouds" (by this he referred to his present apprenticeship as +painter) "will pass away. The time will come--I say no more about +it; but the time will come." Here Lipp stopped speaking and dipped +his brush in the paint-pot, for his master was coming around the +corner of the house. + +One day Lipp disappeared. The authorities did everything in their +power to find him, but in vain; and since, at that time, the river, +on which the city stood, had overflowed its banks, it was decided +that Lipp had perished. The only person who did not share in this +opinion was myself. I had a firm conviction that he had gone out +into the wide world to seek his fortune, and that some day he would +turn up again as a celebrated artist and a successful man. But year +after year passed by and nothing was heard of Lipp. + +I had entered upon my fifteenth year, was reading Virgil and +Xenophon, and could enumerate the causes which brought the Roman +empire to ruin. But in the midst of my classical studies I did not +lose sight of the real aim of my life, the dramatic art; and as the +stage had been closed to me since my first appearance, I studied in +my own room the roles in which I hoped to shine later. Then I had +already tried my skill as a dramatic author, and in my writing-desk +lay concealed a finished tragedy. It was entitled "Pharaoh." In it +occurred the seven plagues of Egypt and the miracles of Moses; but +Pharaoh's destruction in the Red Sea formed the finale from which I +promised myself the most brilliant success. + +Therefore I went about dressed as a regular artist. My schoolmates +imitated the University students,--wore gay-colored caps, dark +golden-red bands, and carried canes adorned with tassels; but I wore +over my wild hair a pointed Calabrian hat, around my neck a loose +silk handkerchief fastened together in an artistic knot, and in +unpleasant weather a cloak, the red-lined corner of which I threw +picturesquely over my left shoulder. + +In this attire I went about in my native town, where I was +accustomed to spend my summer vacations. The boys on the street made +sport of me by their words and actions, but I thought, "What does +the moon care when the dog bays at her!" and holding my head high, I +walked past the scoffers. + +Every year, in the month of August, a fair was held in the little +town. On the common, tents and arbors were put up, where beer and +sausages were furnished. Further entertainment was provided in the +way of rope-dancers, jugglers, a Punch-and-Judy show, fortune- +tellers, monstrosities, wax figures, and tragedies. + +As a spoiled city youth, I considered it decidedly beneath my +dignity to take part in the people's merry-making; but I couldn't +get out of it, and so I went with my parents and brothers and +sisters to the opening of the festival out in the park, and walked +more proudly than ever under my Calabrian hat. + +The sights were inspected one after another, and in the evening we +all sat together in the front row of a booth, the proprietor of +which promised to exhibit the most extraordinary thing that had ever +been seen. The spectacle was divided into three parts. In the first +a little horse with a large head was brought out, which answered any +questions asked him by nodding, shaking, and beating his hoofs. In +the second part two trained hares performed their tricks. With their +forelegs they beat the drum, fired off pistols, and in the "Battle +with the Hounds" they put to flight a whining terrier. + +The proprietor had kept the best of all--that is, the Egyptian fire- +eater, called "Phosphorus"--for the last part. The curtain went up +for the third time, and on the stage, in fantastic scarlet dress, +with a burning torch in his left hand, there stood a tall--ah! a +form only too well known to me. It was Lipp, who had been looked +upon as dead. + +I saw how the unfortunate fellow with a smile put a lump of burning +pitch in his mouth, and then everything began to swim around me. I +pulled my hat down over my eyes, made my way through the crowd +howling their applause, and staggered home exhausted. + +During the rest of the festival I kept myself in strict seclusion. I +announced that I was not well, and this was really no untruth, for I +was very miserable. "That is because he is growing," said my anxious +mother; and I assented, and swallowed submissively the family +remedies which she brought to me. + +At last the fair was over, and the Egyptian fire-eater had left the +town. But the poor fellow did not go far. In the city where he +exhibited his skill he was recognized and arrested, because he had +avoided service in the army. To be sure, he was set free again after +a few weeks as unqualified; but in the meantime his employer with +the performing hares had gone nobody knew where, and Lipp was left +solely dependent on his art, which he practised for some time in the +neighboring towns and villages. + +The end of his artistic career is sad and melancholy. He fell a +victim to his calling. As an ambitious man he enlarged his artistic +capabilities; he ate not only pitch but also pieces of broken glass, +and an indigestible lamp-chimney was the cause of his destruction. + +When I returned to the city I burned my tragedy of "Pharaoh," and +sold my cloak and Calabrian hat to an old-clothes dealer. I was +thoroughly disgusted with the career of an artist, and whenever +afterwards I was inclined to relapse, Frau Eberlein would call out +to me, "Do you, too, want to die from a lamp-chimney?" Then I would +bend my head and bury my nose in my Greek grammar. + + + + +THE CREMONA VIOLIN + +BY + +E.T.A. HOFFMANN + + +From "Weird Tales," translated by J.T. Beally. Published by Charles +Scribner's Sons. + + + + +Councillor Krespel was one of the strangest, oddest men I ever met +with in my life. When I went to live in H---for a time the whole +town was full of talk about him, as he happened to be just then in +the midst of one of the very craziest of his schemes. Krespel had +the reputation of being both a clever, learned lawyer and a skilful +diplomatist. One of the reigning princes of Germany--not, however, +one of the most powerful--had appealed to him for assistance in +drawing up a memorial, which he was desirous of presenting at the +Imperial Court with the view of furthering his legitimate claims +upon a certain strip of territory. The project was crowned with the +happiest success; and as Krespel had once complained that he could +never find a dwelling sufficiently comfortable to suit him, the +prince, to reward him for the memorial, undertook to defray the cost +of building a house which Krespel might erect just as he pleased. +Moreover, the prince was willing to purchase any site that he should +fancy. This offer, however, the Councillor would not accept; he +insisted that the house should be built in his garden, situated in a +very beautiful neighborhood outside the town-walls. So he bought all +kinds of materials and had them carted out. Then he might have been +seen day after day, attired in his curious garments (which he had +made himself according to certain fixed rules of his own), slacking +the lime, riddling the sand, packing up the bricks and stones in +regular heaps, and so on. All this he did without once consulting an +architect or thinking about a plan. One fine day, however, he went +to an experienced builder of the town and requested him to be in his +garden at daybreak the next morning, with all his journeymen and +apprentices, and a large body of laborers, etc., to build him his +house. Naturally the builder asked for the architect's plan, and was +not a little astonished when Krespel replied that none was needed, +and that things would turn out all right in the end, just as he +wanted them. Next morning, when the builder and his men came to the +place, they found a trench drawn out in the shape of an exact +square; and Krespel said, "Here's where you must lay the +foundations; then carry up the walls until I say they are high +enough." "Without windows and doors, and without partition walls?" +broke in the builder, as if alarmed at Krespel's mad folly. "Do what +I tell you, my dear sir," replied the Councillor quite calmly; +"leave the rest to me; it will be all right." It was only the +promise of high pay that could induce the builder to proceed with +the ridiculous building; but none has ever been erected under +merrier circumstances. As there was an abundant supply of food and +drink, the workmen never left their work; and amidst their +continuous laughter the four walls were run up with incredible +quickness, until one day Krespel cried, "Stop!" Then the workmen, +laying down trowel and hammer, came down from the scaffoldings and +gathered round Krespel in a circle, whilst every laughing face was +asking, "Well, and what now?" "Make way!" cried Krespel; and then +running to one end of the garden, he strode slowly towards the +square of brickwork. When he came close to the wall he shook his +head in a dissatisfied manner, ran to the other end of the garden, +again strode slowly towards the brickwork square, and proceeded to +act as before. These tactics he pursued several times, until at +length, running his sharp nose hard against the wall, he cried, +"Come here, come here, men! break me a door in here! Here's where I +want a door made!" He gave the exact dimensions in feet and inches, +and they did as he bid them. Then he stepped inside the structure, +and smiled with satisfaction as the builder remarked that the walls +were just the height of a good two-storeyed house. Krespel walked +thoughtfully backwards and forwards across the space within, the +bricklayers behind him with hammers and picks, and wherever he +cried, "Make a window here, six feet high by four feet broad!" +"There a little window, three feet by two!" a hole was made in a +trice. + +It was at this stage of the proceedings that I came to H---; and it +was highly amusing to see how hundreds of people stood round about +the garden and raised a loud shout whenever the stones flew out and +a new window appeared where nobody had for a moment expected it. And +in the same manner Krespel proceeded with the buildings and fittings +of the rest of the house, and with all the work necessary to that +end; everything had to be done on the spot in accordance with the +instructions which the Councillor gave from time to time. However, +the absurdity of the whole business, the growing conviction that +things would in the end turn out better than might have been +expected, but above all, Krespel's generosity--which indeed cost him +nothing--kept them all in good-humor. Thus were the difficulties +overcome which necessarily arose out of this eccentric way of +building, and in a short time there was a completely finished house, +its outside, indeed, presenting a most extraordinary appearance, no +two windows, etc., being alike, but on the other hand the interior +arrangements suggested a peculiar feeling of comfort. All who +entered the house bore witness to the truth of this; and I too +experienced it myself when I was taken in by Krespel after I had +become more intimate with him. For hitherto I had not exchanged a +word with this eccentric man; his building had occupied him so much +that he had not even once been to Professor M---'s to dinner, as he +was in the habit of doing on Tuesdays. Indeed, in reply to a special +invitation, he sent word that he should not set foot over the +threshold before the house-warming of his new building took place. +All his friends and acquaintances, therefore, confidently looked +forward to a great banquet; but Krespel invited nobody except the +masters, journeymen, apprentices, and laborers who had built the +house. He entertained them with the choicest viands; bricklayers' +apprentices devoured partridge pies regardless of consequences; +young joiners polished off roast pheasants with the greatest +success; whilst hungry laborers helped themselves for once to the +choicest morsels of truffes fricassees. In the evening their wives +and daughters came, and there was a great ball. After waltzing a +short while with the wives of the masters, Krespel sat down amongst +the town musicians, took a violin in his hand, and directed the +orchestra until daylight. + +On the Tuesday after this festival, which exhibited Councillor +Krespel in the character of a friend of the people, I at length saw +him appear, to my no little joy, at Professor M---'s. Anything more +strange and fantastic than Krespel's behavior it would be impossible +to find. He was so stiff and awkward in his movements, that he +looked every moment as if he would run up against something or do +some damage. But he did not; and the lady of the house seemed to be +well aware that he would not, for she did not grow a shade paler +when he rushed with heavy steps round a table crowded with beautiful +cups, or when he manoeuvred near a large mirror that reached down to +the floor, or even when he seized a flower-pot of beautifully +painted porcelain and swung it round in the air as if desirous of +making its colors play. Moreover, before dinner he subjected +everything in the Professor's room to a most minute examination; he +also took down a picture from the wall and hung it up again, +standing on one of the cushioned chairs to do so. At the same time +he talked a good deal and vehemently; at one time his thoughts kept +leaping, as it were, from one subject to another (this was most +conspicuous during dinner); at another, he was unable to have done +with an idea; seizing upon it again and again, he gave it all sorts +of wonderful twists and turns, and couldn't get back into the +ordinary track until something else took hold of his fancy. +Sometimes his voice was rough and harsh and screeching, and +sometimes it was low and drawling and singing; but at no time did it +harmonize with what he was about. Music was the subject of +conversation; the praises of a new composer were being sung, when +Krespel, smiling, said in his low, singing tones, "I wish the devil +with his pitchfork would hurl that atrocious garbler of music +millions of fathoms down to the bottomless pit of hell!" Then he +burst out passionately and wildly, "She is an angel of heaven, +nothing but pure God-given music!--the paragon and queen of song!"-- +and tears stood in his eyes. To understand this, we had to go back +to a celebrated artiste, who had been the subject of conversation an +hour before. + +Just at this time a roast hare was on the table; I noticed that +Krespel carefully removed every particle of meat from the bones on +his plate, and was most particular in his inquiries after the hare's +feet; these the Professor's little five-year-old daughter now +brought to him with a very pretty smile. Besides, the children had +cast many friendly glances towards Krespel during dinner; now they +rose and drew nearer to him, but not without signs of timorous awe. +What's the meaning of that? thought I to myself. Dessert was brought +in; then the Councillor took a little box from his pocket, in which +he had a miniature lathe of steel. This he immediately screwed fast +to the table, and turning the bones with incredible skill and +rapidity, he made all sorts of little fancy boxes and balls, which +the children received with cries of delight. Just as we were rising +from table, the Professor's niece asked, "And what is our Antonia +doing?" Krespel's face was like that of one who has bitten of a sour +orange and wants to look as if it were a sweet one; but this +expression soon changed into the likeness of a hideous mask, whilst +he laughed behind it with downright, bitter, fierce, and, as it +seemed to me, satanic scorn. "Our Antonia? our dear Antonia?" he +asked in his drawling, disagreeable singing way. The Professor +hastened to intervene; in the reproving glance which he gave his +niece I read that she had touched a point likely to stir up +unpleasant memories in Krespel's heart. "How are you getting on with +your violins?" interposed the Professor in a jovial manner, taking +the Councillor by both hands. Then Krespel's countenance cleared up, +and with a firm voice he replied, "Capitally, Professor; you +recollect my telling you of the lucky chance which threw that +splendid Amati [Footnote: The Amati were a celebrated family of +violin-makers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, belonging +to Cremona in Italy. They form the connecting-link between the +Brescian school of makers and the greatest of all makers, +Straduarius and Guarnerius.] into my hands. Well, I've only cut it +open to-day--not before to-day. I hope Antonia has carefully taken +the rest of it to pieces." "Antonia is a good child," remarked the +Professor. "Yes, indeed, that she is," cried the Councillor, +whisking himself round; then, seizing his hat and stick, he hastily +rushed out of the room. I saw in the mirror how that tears were +standing in his eyes. + +As soon as the Councillor was gone, I at once urged the Professor to +explain to me what Krespel had to do with violins, and particularly +with Antonia. "Well," replied the Professor, "not only is the +Councillor a remarkably eccentric fellow altogether, but he +practises violin-making in his own crack-brained way." "Violin- +making!" I exclaimed, perfectly astonished. "Yes," continued the +Professor, "according to the judgment of men who understand the +thing, Krespel makes the very best violins that can be found +nowadays; formerly he would frequently let other people play on +those in which he had been especially successful, but that's been +all over and done with now for a long time. As soon as he has +finished a violin he plays on it himself for one or two hours, with +very remarkable power and with the most exquisite expression, then +he hangs it up beside the rest, and never touches it again or +suffers anybody else to touch it. If a violin by any of the eminent +old masters is hunted up anywhere, the Councillor buys it +immediately, no matter what the price put upon it. But he plays it +as he does his own violins, only once; then he takes it to pieces in +order to examine closely its inner structure, and should he fancy he +hasn't found exactly what he sought for, he in a pet throws the +pieces into a big chest, which is already full of the remains of +broken violins." "But who and what is Antonia?" I inquired, hastily +and impetuously. "Well, now, that," continued the Professor,--"that +is a thing which might very well make me conceive an unconquerable +aversion to the Councillor, were I not convinced that there is some +peculiar secret behind it, for he is such a good-natured fellow at +bottom as to be sometimes guilty of weakness. When we came to H---, +several years ago, he led the life of an anchorite, along with an +old housekeeper, in ---- Street. Soon, by his oddities, he excited the +curiosity of his neighbors; and immediately he became aware of this, +he sought and made acquaintances. Not only in my house but +everywhere we became so accustomed to him that he grew to be +indispensable. In spite of his rude exterior, even the children +liked him, without ever proving a nuisance to him; for, +notwithstanding all their friendly passages together, they always +retained a certain timorous awe of him, which secured him against +all over-familiarity. You have to-day had an example of the way in +which he wins their hearts by his ready skill in various things. We +all took him at first for a crusty old bachelor, and he never +contradicted us. After he had been living here some time, he went +away, nobody knew where, and returned at the end of some months. The +evening following his return his windows were lit up to an unusual +extent! This alone was sufficient to arouse his neighbors' +attention, and they soon heard the surpassingly beautiful voice of a +female singing to the accompaniment of a piano. Then the music of a +violin was heard chiming in and entering upon a keen ardent contest +with the voice. They knew at once that the player was the +Councillor. I myself mixed in the large crowd which had gathered in +front of his house to listen to this extraordinary concert; and I +must confess that, besides this voice and the peculiar, deep, soul- +stirring impression which the execution made upon me, the singing of +the most celebrated artistes whom I had ever heard seemed to me +feeble and void of expression. Until then I had had no conception of +such long-sustained notes, of such nightingale trills, of such +undulations of musical sound, of such swelling up to the strength of +organ-notes, of such dying away to the faintest whisper. There was +not one whom the sweet witchery did not enthral; and when the singer +ceased, nothing but soft sighs broke the impressive silence. +Somewhere about midnight the Councillor was heard talking violently, +and another male voice seemed, to judge from the tones, to be +reproaching him, whilst at intervals the broken words of a sobbing +girl could be detected. The Councillor continued to shout with +increasing violence, until he fell into that drawling, singing way +that you know. He was interrupted by a loud scream from the girl, +and then all was as still as death. Suddenly a loud racket was heard +on the stairs; a young man rushed out sobbing, threw himself into a +post-chaise which stood below, and drove rapidly away. The next day +the Councillor was very cheerful, and nobody had the courage to +question him about the events of the previous night. But on +inquiring of the housekeeper, we gathered that the Councillor had +brought home with him an extraordinarily pretty young lady whom he +called Antonia, and she it was who had sung so beautifully. A young +man also had come along with them; he had treated Antonia very +tenderly, and must evidently have been her betrothed. But he, since +the Councillor peremptorily insisted on it, had had to go away again +in a hurry. What the relations between Antonia and the Councillor +are has remained until now a secret, but this much is certain, that +he tyrannizes over the poor girl in the most hateful fashion. He +watches her as Doctor Bartholo watches his ward in the Barber of +Seville; she hardly dare show herself at the window; and if, +yielding now and again to her earnest entreaties, he takes her into +society, he follows her with Argus' eyes, and will on no account +suffer a musical note to be sounded, far less let Antonia sing-- +indeed, she is not permitted to sing in his own house. Antonia's +singing on that memorable night has, therefore, come to be regarded +by the townspeople in the light of a tradition of some marvellous +wonder that suffices to stir the heart and the fancy; and even those +who did not hear it often exclaim, ever any other singer attempts to +display her powers in the place, 'What sort of a wretched squeaking +do you call that? Nobody but Antonia knows how to sing.'" + +Having a singular weakness for such like fantastic histories, I +found it necessary, as may easily be imagined, to make Antonia's +acquaintance. I had myself often enough heard the popular sayings +about her singing, but had never imagined that that exquisite +artiste was living in the place, held a captive in the bonds of this +eccentric Krespel like the victim of a tyrannous sorcerer. Naturally +enough I heard in my dreams on the following night Antonia's +marvellous voice, and as she besought me in the most touching manner +in a glorious adagio movement (very ridiculously it seemed to me, as +if I had composed it myself) to save her--I soon resolved, like a +second Astolpho,[Footnote: A reference to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. +Astolpho, an English cousin of Orlando, was a great boaster, but +generous, courteous, gay, and remarkably handsome; he was carried to +Alcina's island on the back of a whale.] to penetrate into Krespel's +house, as if into another Alcina's magic ca stle, and deliver the +queen of song from her ignominious fetters. + +It all came about in a different way from what I had expected; I had +seen the Councillor scarcely more than two or three times, and +eagerly discussed with him the best method of constructing violins, +when he invited me to call and see him. I did so; and he showed me +his treasures of violins. There were fully thirty of them hanging up +in a closet; one amongst them bore conspicuously all the marks of +great antiquity (a carved lion's head, etc.), and, hung up higher +than the rest, and surmounted by a crown of flowers, it seemed to +exercise a queenly supremacy over them. "This violin," said Krespel, +on my making some inquiry relative to it, "this violin is a very +remarkable and curious specimen of the work of some unknown master, +probably of Tartini's [Footnote: Giuseppe Tartini, born in 1692, +died in 1770, was one of the most celebrated violinists of the +eighteenth century, and the discoverer (in 1714) of "resultant +tones," or "Tartini's tones," as they are frequently called. Most of +his life was spent at Padua. He did much to advance the art of the +violinist, both by his compositions for that instrument, as well as +by his treatise on its capabilities.] age. I am perfectly convinced +that there is something especially exceptional in its inner +construction, and that, if I took it to pieces, a secret would be +revealed to me which I have long been seeking to discover, but-- +laugh at me if you like--this senseless thing which only gives signs +of life and sound as I make it, often speaks to me in a strange way +of itself. The first time I played upon it I somehow fancied that I +was only the magnetizer who has the power of moving his subject to +reveal of his own accord in words the visions of his inner nature. +Don't go away with the belief that I am such a fool as to attach +even the slightest importance to such fantastic notions, and yet +it's certainly strange that I could never prevail upon myself to cut +open that dumb lifeless thing there. I am very pleased now that I +have not cut it open, for since Antonia has been with me I sometimes +play to her upon this violin. For Antonia is fond of it--very fond +of it." As the Councillor uttered these words with visible signs of +emotion, I felt encouraged to hazard the question, "Will you not +play it to me, Councillor?" Krespel made a wry face, and falling +into his drawling, singing way, said, "No, my good sir!" and that +was an end of the matter. Then I had to look at all sorts of rare +curiosities, the greater part of them childish trifles; at last +thrusting his arm into a chest, he brought out a folded piece of +paper, which he pressed into my hand, adding solemnly, "You are a +lover of art; take this present as a priceless memento, which you +must value at all times above everything else." Therewith he took me +by the shoulders and gently pushed me towards the door, embracing me +on the threshold. That is to say, I was in a symbolical manner +virtually kicked out of doors. Unfolding the paper, I found a piece +of a first string of a violin about an eighth of an inch in length, +with the words, "A piece of the treble string with which the +deceased Stamitz [Footnote: This was the name of a well-known +musical family from Bohemia. Karl Stamitz is the one here possibly +meant, since he died about eighteen or twenty years previous to the +publication of this tale.] strung his violin for the last concert at +which he ever played." + +This summary dismissal at mention of Antonia's name led me to infer +that I should never see her; but I was mistaken, for on my second +visit to the Councillor's I found her in his room, assisting him to +put a violin together. At first sight Antonia did not make a strong +impression; but soon I found it impossible to tear myself away from +her blue eyes, her sweet rosy lips, her uncommonly graceful, lovely +form. She was very pale; but a shrewd remark or a merry sally would +call up a winning smile on her face and suffuse her cheeks with a +deep burning flush, which, however, soon faded away to a faint rosy +glow. My conversation with her was quite unconstrained, and yet I +saw nothing whatever of the Argus-like watchings on Krespel's part +which the Professor had imputed to him; on the contrary, his +behavior moved along the customary lines, nay, he even seemed to +approve of my conversation with Antonia. So I often stepped in to +see the Councillor; and as we became accustomed to each other's +society, a singular feeling of homeliness, taking possession of our +little circle of three, filled our hearts with inward happiness. I +still continued to derive exquisite enjoyment from the Councillor's +strange crotchets and oddities; but it was of course Antonia's +irresistible charms alone which attracted me, and led me to put up +with a good deal which I should otherwise, in the frame of mind in +which I then was, have impatiently shunned. For it only too often +happened that in the Councillor's characteristic extravagance there +was mingled much that was dull and tiresome; and it was in a special +degree irritating to me that, as often as I turned the conversation +upon music, and particularly upon singing, he was sure to interrupt +me, with that sardonic smile upon his face and those repulsive +singing tones of his, by some remark of a quite opposite tendency, +very often of a commonplace character. From the great distress which +at such times Antonia's glances betrayed, I perceived that he only +did it to deprive me of a pretext for calling upon her for a song. +But I didn't relinquish my design. The hindrances which the +Councillor threw in my way only strengthened my resolution to +overcome them; I MUST hear Antonia sing if I was not to pine away in +reveries and dim aspirations for want of hearing her. + +One evening Krespel was in an uncommonly good humor; he had been +taking an old Cremona violin to pieces, and had discovered that the +sound-post was fixed half a line more obliquely than usual--an +important discovery!--one of incalculable advantage in the practical +work of making violins! I succeeded in setting him off at full speed +on his hobby of the true art of violin-playing. Mention of the way +in which the old masters picked up their dexterity in execution from +really great singers (which was what Krespel happened just then to +be expatiating upon) naturally paved the way for the remark that now +the practice was the exact opposite of this, the vocal score +erroneously following the affected and abrupt transitions and rapid +scaling of the instrumentalists. "What is more nonsensical," I +cried, leaping from my chair, running to the piano, and opening it +quickly--"what is more nonsensical than such an execrable style as +this, which, far from being music, is much more like the noise of +peas rolling across the floor?" At the same time I sang several of +the modern fermatas, which rush up and down and hum like a well-spun +peg-top, striking a few villainous chords by way of accompaniment. + +Krespel laughed outrageously and screamed: "Ha! ha! methinks I hear +our German-Italians or our Italian-Germans struggling with an aria +from Pucitta, [Footnote: Vincenzo Pucitta (1778-1861) was an Italian +opera composer, whose music "shows great facility, but no +invention." He also wrote several songs.] or Portogallo, [Footnote: +Il Portogallo was the Italian sobriquet of a Portuguese musician +named Mark Anthony Simao (1763-1829). He lived alternately in Italy +and Portugal, and wrote several operas.] or some other Maestro di +capella, or rather schiavo d'un primo uomo." [Footnote: Literally, +"The slave of a primo uomo," primo uomo being the masculine form +corresponding to prima donna, that is, a singer of hero's parts in +operatic music. At one time also female parts were sung and acted by +men or boys.] Now, thought I, now's the time; so turning to Antonia, +I remarked, "Antonia knows nothing of such singing as that, I +believe?" At the same time I struck up one of old Leonardo Leo's +[Footnote: Leonardo Leo, the chief Neapolitan representative of +Italian music in the first part of the eighteenth century, and +author of more than forty operas and nearly one hundred compositions +for the Church.] beautiful soul-stirring songs. Then Antonia's +cheeks glowed; heavenly radiance sparkled in her eyes, which grew +full of reawakened inspiration; she hastened to the piano; she +opened her lips; but at that very moment Krespel pushed her away, +grasped me by the shoulders, and with a shriek that rose up to a +tenor pitch, cried, "My son--my son--my son!' And then he +immediately went on, singing very softly, and grasping my hand with +a bow that was the pink of politeness, "In very truth, my esteemed +and honorable student-friend, in very truth, it would be a violation +of the codes of social intercourse, as well as of all good manners, +were I to express aloud and in a stirring way my wish that here, on +this very spot, the devil from hell would softly break your neck +with his burning claws, and so in a sense make short work of you; +but, setting that aside, you must acknowledge, my dearest friend, +that it is rapidly growing dark, and there are no lamps burning to- +night, so that, even though I did not kick you downstairs at once, +your darling limbs might still run a risk of suffering damage. Go +home by all means; and cherish a kind remembrance of your faithful +friend, if it should happen that you never,--pray, understand me,-- +If you should never see him in his own house again." Therewith he +embraced me, and, still keeping fast hold of me, turned with me +slowly towards the door, so that I could not get another single look +at Antonia. Of course it is plain enough that in my position I +couldn't thrash the Councillor, though that is what he really +deserved. The Professor enjoyed a good laugh at my expense, and +assured me that I had ruined for ever all hopes of retaining the +Councillor's friendship. Antonia was too dear to me, I might say too +holy, for me to go and play the part of the languishing lover and +stand gazing up at her window, or to fill the role of the lovesick +adventurer. Completely upset, I went away from H---; but, as is +usual in such cases, the brilliant colors of the picture of my fancy +faded, and the recollection of Antonia, as well as of Antonia's +singing (which I had never heard), often fell upon my heart like a +soft faint trembling light, comforting me. + +Two years afterwards I received an appointment in B---, and set out +on a journey to the south of Germany. The towers of H---- rose before +me in the red vaporous glow of the evening; the nearer I came the +more was I oppressed by an indescribable feeling of the most +agonizing distress; it lay upon me like a heavy burden; I could not +breathe; I was obliged to get out of my carriage into the open air. +But my anguish continued to increase until it became actual physical +pain. Soon I seemed to hear the strains of a solemn chorale floating +in the air; the sounds continued to grow more distinct; I realized +the fact that they were men's voices chanting a church chorale. +"What's that? what's that?" I cried, a burning stab darting as it +were through my breast. "Don't you see?" replied the coachman, who +was driving along beside me, "why don't you see? they're burying +somebody up yonder in yon churchyard." And indeed we were near the +churchyard; I saw a circle of men clothed in black standing round a +grave, which was on the point of being closed. Tears started to my +eyes; I somehow fancied they were burying there all the joy and all +the happiness of life. Moving on rapidly down the hill, I was no +longer able to see into the churchyard; the chorale came to an end, +and I perceived not far distant from the gate some of the mourners +returning from the funeral. The Professor, with his niece on his +arm, both in deep mourning, went close past me without noticing me. +The young lady had her handkerchief pressed close to her eyes, and +was weeping bitterly. In the frame of mind in which I then was I +could not possibly go into the town, so I sent on my servant with +the carriage to the hotel where I usually put up, whilst I took a +turn in the familiar neighborhood to get rid of a mood that was +possibly only due to physical causes, such as heating on the +journey, etc. On arriving at a well-known avenue, which leads to a +pleasure resort, I came upon a most extraordinary spectacle. +Councillor Krespel was being conducted by two mourners, from whom he +appeared to be endeavoring to make his escape by all sorts of +strange twists and turns. As usual, he was dressed in his own +curious home-made gray coat; but from his little cocked-hat, which +he wore perched over one ear in military fashion, a long narrow +ribbon of black crape fluttered backwards and forwards in the wind. +Around his waist he had buckled a black sword-belt; but instead of a +sword he had stuck a long fiddle-bow into it. A creepy shudder ran +through my limbs: "He's insane," thought I, as I slowly followed +them. The Councillor's companions led him as far as his house, where +he embraced them, laughing loudly. They left him; and then his +glance fell upon me, for I now stood near him. He stared at me +fixedly for some time; then he cried in a hollow voice, "Welcome, my +student friend! you also understand it!" Therewith he took me by the +arm and pulled me into the house, up the steps, into the room where +the violins hung. They were all draped in black crape; the violin of +the old master was missing; in its place was a cypress wreath. I +knew what had happened. "Antonia! Antonia!" I cried, in inconsolabie +grief. The Councillor, with his arms crossed on his breast, stood +beside me, as if turned into stone. I pointed to the cypress wreath. +"When she died," said he, in a very hoarse solemn voice, "when she +died, the sound-post of that violin broke into pieces with a ringing +crack, and the sound-board was split from end to end. The faithful +instrument could only live with her and in her; it lies beside her +in the coffin, it has been buried with her." Deeply agitated, I sank +down upon a chair, whilst the Councillor began to sing a gay song in +a husky voice; it was truly horrible to see him hopping about on one +foot, and the crape strings (he still had his hat on) flying about +the room and up to the violins hanging on the walls. Indeed, I could +not repress a loud cry that rose to my lips when, on the Councillor +making an abrupt turn, the crape came all over me; I fancied he +wanted to envelop me in it and drag me down into the horrible dark +depths of insanity. Suddenly he stood still and addressed me in his +singing way, "My son! my son! why do you call out? Have you espied +the angel of death? That always precedes the ceremony." Stepping +into the middle of the room, he took the violin-bow out of his +sword-belt, and, holding it over his head with both hands, broke it +into a thousand pieces. Then, with a loud laugh, he cried, "Now you +imagine my sentence is pronounced, don't you, my son? but it's +nothing of the kind--not at all! not at all! Now I'm free--free-- +free--hurrah! I'm free! Now I shall make no more violins--no more +violins--hurrah! no more violins!" This he sang to a horrible +mirthful tune, again spinning round on one foot. Perfectly aghast, I +was making the best of my way to the door, when he held me fast, +saying quite calmly, "Stay, my student friend, pray don't think from +this outbreak of grief, which is torturing me as if with the agonies +of death, that I am insane; I only do it because a short time ago I +made myself a dressing-gown in which I wanted to look like Fate or +like God!" The Councillor then went on with a medley of silly and +awful rubbish, until he fell down utterly exhausted; I called up the +old housekeeper, and was very pleased to find myself in the open air +again. + +I never doubted for a moment that Krespel had become insane; the +Professor, however, asserted the contrary. "There are men," he +remarked, "from whom nature or a special destiny has taken away the +cover behind which the mad folly of the rest of us runs its course +unobserved. They are like thin-skinned insects, which, as we watch +the restless play of their muscles, seem to be misshapen, while +nevertheless everything soon comes back into its proper form again. +All that with us remains thought passes over with Krespel into +action. That bitter scorn which the spirit that is wrapped up in the +doings and dealings of the earth often has at hand, Krespel gives +vent to in outrageous gestures and agile caprioles. But these are +his lightning conductor. What comes up out of the earth he gives +again to the earth, but what is divine, that he keeps; and so I +believe that his inner consciousness, in spite of the apparent +madness which springs from it to the surface, is as right as a +trivet. To be sure, Antonia's sudden death grieves him sore, but I +warrant that to-morrow will see him going along in his old jog-trot +way as usual." And the Professor's prediction was almost literally +filled. Next day the Councillor appeared to be just as he formerly +was, only he averred that he would never make another violin, nor +yet ever play on another. And, as I learned later, he kept his word. + +Hints which the Professor let fall confirmed my own private +conviction that the so carefully guarded secret of the Councillor's +relations to Antonia, nay, that even her death, was a crime which +must weigh heavily upon him, a crime that could not be atoned for. I +determined that I would not leave H---- without taxing him with the +offence which I conceived him to be guilty of; I determined to shake +his heart down to its very roots, and so compel him to make open +confession of the terrible deed. The more I reflected upon the +matter, the clearer it grew in my own mind that Krespel must be a +villain, and in the same proportion did my intended reproach, which +assumed of itself the form of a real rhetorical masterpiece, wax +more fiery and more impressive. Thus equipped and mightily incensed, +I hurried to his house. I found him with a calm smiling countenance +making playthings. "How can peace," I burst out--"how can peace find +lodgment even for a single moment in your breast, so long as the +memory of your horrible deed preys like a serpent upon you?" He +gazed at me in amazement, and laid his chisel aside. "What do you +mean, my dear sir?" he asked; "pray take a seat." But my indignation +chafing me more and more, I went on to accuse him directly of having +murdered Antonia, and to threaten him with the vengeance of the +Eternal. + +Further, as a newly full-fledged lawyer, full of my profession, I +went so far as to give him to understand that I would leave no stone +unturned to get a clue to the business, and so deliver him here in +this world into the hands of an earthly judge. I must confess that I +was considerably disconcerted when, at the conclusion of my violent +and pompous harangue, the Councillor, without answering so much as a +single word, calmly fixed his eyes upon me as though expecting me to +go on again. And this I did indeed attempt to do, but it sounded so +ill-founded and so stupid as well that I soon grew silent again. +Krespel gloated over my embarrassment, whilst a malicious ironical +smile flitted across his face. Then he grew very grave, and +addressed me in solemn tones. "Young man, no doubt you think I am +foolish, insane; that I can pardon you, since we are both confined +in the same mad-house; and you only blame me for deluding myself +with the idea that I am God the Father because you imagine yourself +to be God the Son. But how do you dare desire to insinuate yourself +into the secrets and lay bare the hidden motives of a life that is +strange to you and that must continue so? She has gone and the +mystery is solved." He ceased speaking, rose, and traversed the room +backwards and forwards several times. I ventured to ask for an +explanation; he fixed his eyes upon me, grasped me by the hand, and +led me to the window, which he threw wide open. Propping himself +upon his arms, he leaned out, and, looking down into the garden, +told me the history of his life. When he finished I left him, +touched and ashamed. + +In a few words, his relations with Antonia rose in the following +way. Twenty years before, the Councillor had been led into Italy by +his favorite engrossing passion of hunting up and buying the best +violins of the old masters. At that time he had not yet begun to +make them himself, and so of course he had not begun to take to +pieces those which he bought. In Venice he heard the celebrated +singer Angela----i, who at that time was playing with splendid +success as prima donna at St. Benedict's Theatre. His enthusiasm was +awakened, not only in her art--which Signora Angela had indeed +brought to a high pitch of perfection--but in her angelic beauty as +well. He sought her acquaintance; and in spite of all his rugged +manners he succeeded in winning her heart, principally through his +bold and yet at the same time masterly violin-playing. Close +intimacy led in a few weeks to marriage, which, however, was kept a +secret, because Angela was unwilling to sever her connection with +the theatre, neither did she wish to part with her professional +name, that by which she was celebrated, nor to add to it the +cacophonous "Krespel." With the most extravagant irony he described +to me what a strange life of worry and torture Angela led him as +soon as she became his wife. Krespel was of opinion that more +capriciousness and waywardness were concentrated in Angela's little +person than in all the rest of the prima donnas in the world put +together. If he now and again presumed to stand up in his own +defence, she let loose a whole army of abbots, musical composers, +and students upon him, who, ignorant of his true connection with +Angela, soundly rated him as a most intolerable, ungallant lover for +not submitting to all the Signora's caprices. It was just after one +of these stormy scenes that Krespel fled to Angela's country seat to +try and forget in playing fantasias on his Cremona violin the +annoyances of the day. But he had not been there long before the +Signora, who had followed hard after him, stepped into the room. She +was in an affectionate humor; she embraced her husband, overwhelmed +him with sweet and languishing glances, and rested her pretty head +on his shoulder. But Krespel, carried away into the world of music; +continued to play on until the walls echoed again; thus he chanced +to touch the Signora somewhat ungently with his arm and the fiddle- +bow. She leapt back full of fury, shrieking that he was a "German +brute," snatched the violin from his hands, and dashed it on the +marble table into a thousand pieces. Krespel stood like a statue of +stone before her; but then, as if awakening out of a dream, he +seized her with the strength of a giant and threw her out of the +window of her own house, and, without troubling himself about +anything more, fled back to Venice--to Germany. It was not, however, +until some time had elapsed that he had a clear recollection of what +he had done; although he knew that the window was scarcely five feet +from the ground, and although he was fully cognizant of the +necessity, under the above-mentioned circumstances, of throwing the +Signora out of the window, he yet felt troubled by a sense of +painful uneasiness, and the more so since she had imparted to him in +no ambiguous terms an interesting secret as to her condition. He +hardly dared to make inquiries; and he was not a little surprised +about eight months afterwards at receiving a tender letter from his +beloved wife, in which she made not the slightest allusion to what +had taken place in her country house, only adding to the +intelligence that she had been safely delivered of a sweet little +daughter the heartfelt prayer that her dear husband and now a happy +father would come at once to Venice. That, however, Krespel did not +do; rather he appealed to a confidential friend for a more +circumstantial account of the details, and learned that the Signora +had alighted upon the soft grass as lightly as a bird, and that the +sole consequences of the fall or shock had been psychic. That is to +say, after Krespel's heroic deed she had become completely altered; +she never showed a trace of caprice, of her former freaks, or of her +teasing habits; and the composer who wrote for the next carnival was +the happiest fellow under the sun, since the Signora was willing to +sing his music without the scores and hundreds of changes which she +at other times had insisted upon. "To be sure," added his friend, +"there was every reason for preserving the secret of Angela's cure, +else every day would see lady singers flying through windows." The +Councillor was not a little excited at this news; he engaged horses; +he took his seat in the carriage. "Stop!" he cried suddenly. "Why, +there's not a shadow of doubt," he murmured to himself, "that as +soon as Angela sets eyes upon me again, the evil spirit will recover +his power and once more take possession of her. And since I have +already thrown her out of the window, what could I do if a similar +case were to occur again? What would there be left for me to do?" He +got out of the carriage, and wrote an affectionate letter to his +wife, making graceful allusion to her tenderness in especially +dwelling upon the fact that his tiny daughter had, like him, a +little mole behind the ear, and--remained in Germany. Now ensued an +active correspondence between them. Assurances of unchanged +affection--invitations--laments over the absence of the beloved +one--thwarted wishes--hopes, etc.--flew backwards and forwards from +Venice to H----, from H---- to Venice. At length Angela came to +Germany, and, as is well known, sang with brilliant success as prima +donna at the great theatre in F----. Despite the fact that she was +no longer young, she won all hearts by the irresistible charm of her +wonderfully splendid singing. At that time she had not lost her +voice in the least degree. Meanwhile, Antonia had been growing up; +and her mother never tired of writing to tell her father how that a +singer of the first rank was developing in her. Krespel's friends in +F---- also confirmed this intelligence, and urged him to come for +once to F---- to see and admire this uncommon sight of two such +glorious singers. They had not the slightest suspicion of the close +relations in which Krespel stood to the pair. Willingly would he +have seen with his own eyes the daughter who occupied so large a +place in his heart, and who moreover often appeared to him in his +dreams; but as often as he thought upon his wife he felt very +uncomfortable, and so he remained at home amongst his broken +violins. There was a certain promising young composer, B---- of F----, +who was found to have suddenly disappeared, nobody knew where. +This young man fell so deeply in love with Antonia that, as she +returned his love, he earnestly besought her mother to consent to an +immediate union, sanctified as it would further be by art. Angela +had nothing to urge against his suit; and the Councillor the more +readily gave his consent that the young composer's productions had +found favor before his rigorous critical judgment. Krespel was +expecting to hear of the consummation of the marriage, when he +received instead a black-sealed envelope addressed in a strange +hand. Doctor R---- conveyed to the Councillor the sad intelligence +that Angela had fallen seriously ill in consequence of a cold caught +at the theatre, and that during the night immediately preceding what +was to have been Antonia's wedding-day, she had died. To him, the +Doctor, Angela had disclosed the fact that she was Krespel's wife, +and that Antonia was his daughter; he, Krespel, had better hasten +therefore to take charge of the orphan. Notwithstanding that the +Councillor was a good deal upset by this news of Angela's death, he +soon began to feel that an antipathetic, disturbing influence had +departed out of his life, and that now for the first time he could +begin to breathe freely. The very same day he set out for F----. You +could not credit how heartrending was the Councillor's description +of the moment when he first saw Antonia. Even in the fantastic +oddities of his expression there was such a marvellous power of +description that I am unable to give even so much as a faint +indication of it. Antonia inherited all her mother's amiability and +all her mother's charms, but not the repellent reverse of the medal. +There was no chronic moral ulcer, which might break out from time to +time. Antonia's betrothed put in an appearance, whilst Antonia +herself, fathoming with happy instinct the deeper-lying character of +her wonderful father, sang one of old Padre Martini's [Footnote: +Giambattista Martini, more commonly called Padre Martini, of +Bologna, formed an influential school of music there in the latter +half of the eighteenth century. He wrote vocal and instrumental +pieces both for the church and for the theatre. He was also a +learned historian of music. He has the merit of having discerned and +encouraged the genius of Mozart when, a boy of fourteen, he visited +Bologna in 1770.] motets, which, she knew, Krespel in the heyday of +his courtship had never grown tired of hearing her mother sing. The +tears ran in streams down Krespel's cheeks; even Angela he had never +heard sing like that. Antonia's voice was of a very remarkable and +altogether peculiar timbre: at one time it was like the sighing of +an Aeolian harp, at another like the warbled gush of the +nightingale. It seemed as if there was not room for such notes in +the human breast. Antonia, blushing with joy and happiness, sang on +and on--all her most beautiful songs, B---- playing between whiles as +only enthusiasm that is intoxicated with delight can play. Krespel +was at first transported with rapture, then he grew thoughtful-- +still--absorbed in reflection. At length he leapt to his feet, +pressed Antonia to his heart, and begged her in a low husky voice, +"Sing no more if you love me--my heart is bursting--I fear--I fear-- +don't sing again." + +"No!" remarked the Councillor next day to Doctor R----, "when, as +she sang, her blushes gathered into two dark red spots on her pale +cheeks, I knew it had nothing to do with your nonsensical family +likenesses, I knew it was what I dreaded." The Doctor, whose +countenance had shown signs of deep distress from the very beginning +of the conversation, replied, "Whether it arises from a too early +taxing of her powers of song, or whether the fault is Nature's-- +enough, Antonia labors under an organic failure in the chest, while +it is from it too that her voice derives its wonderful power and its +singular timbre, which I might almost say transcend the limits of +human capabilities of song. But it bears the announcement of her +early death; for, if she continues to sing, I wouldn't give her at +the most more than six months longer to live." Krespel's heart was +lacerated as if by the stabs of hundreds of stinging knives. It was +as though his life had been for the first time overshadowed by a +beautiful tree full of the most magnificent blossoms, and now it was +to be sawn to pieces at the roots, so that it could not grow green +and blossom any more. His resolution was taken. He told Antonia all; +he put the alternatives before her--whether she would follow her +betrothed and yield to his and the world's seductions, but with the +certainty of dying early, or whether she would spread round her +father in his old days that joy and peace which had hitherto been +unknown to him, and so secure a long life. She threw herself sobbing +into his arms, and he, knowing the heartrending trial that was +before her, did not press for a more explicit declaration, He talked +the matter over with her betrothed; but, notwithstanding that the +latter averred that no note should ever cross Antonia's lips, the +Councillor was only too well aware that even B---- could not resist +the temptation of hearing her sing, at any rate arias of his own +composition. And the world, the musical public, even though +acquainted with the nature of the singer's affliction, would +certainly not relinquish its claims to hear her, for in cases where +pleasure is concerned people of this class are very selfish and +cruel. The Councillor disappeared from F---- along with Antonia, and +came to H----. B---- was in despair when he learned that they had +gone. He set out on their track, overtook them, and arrived at H---- +at the same time that they did. "Let me see him only once, and then +die!" entreated Antonia. "Die! die!" cried Krespel, wild with anger, +an icy shudder running through him. His daughter, the only creature +in the wide world who had awakened in him the springs of unknown +joy, who alone had reconciled him to life, tore herself away from +his heart, and he--he suffered the terrible trial to take place. B---- +sat down to the piano; Antonia sang; Krespel fiddled away merrily, +until the two red spots showed themselves on Antonia's cheeks. Then +he bade her stop; and as B---- was taking leave of his betrothed, she +suddenly fell to the floor with a loud scream. "I thought," +continued Krespel in his narration, "I thought that she was, as I +had anticipated, really dead; but as I had prepared myself for the +worst, my calmness did not leave me, nor my self-command desert me. +I grasped B----, who stood like a silly sheep in his dismay, by the +shoulders, and said (here the Councillor fell into his singing +tone), 'Now that you, my estimable pianoforte-player, have, as you +wished and desired, really murdered your betrothed, you may quietly +take your departure; at least have the goodness to make yourself +scarce before I run my bright hanger through your heart. My +daughter, who, as you see, is rather pale, could very well do with +some color from your precious blood. Make haste and run, for I might +also hurl a nimble knife or two after you.' I must, I suppose, have +looked rather formidable as I uttered these words, for, with a cry +of the greatest terror, B---- tore himself loose from my grasp, +rushed out of the room, and down the steps." Directly after B---- was +gone, when the Councillor tried to lift up his daughter, who lay +unconscious on the floor, she opened her eyes with a deep sigh, but +soon closed them again as if about to die. Then Krespel's grief +found vent aloud, and would not be comforted. The doctor, whom the +old housekeeper had called in, pronounced Antonia's case a somewhat +serious but by no means dangerous attack; and she did indeed recover +more quickly than her father had dared to hope. She now clung to him +with the most confiding childlike affection; she entered into his +favorite hobbies--into his mad schemes and whims. She helped him +take old violins to pieces and glue new ones together. "I won't sing +again any more, but live for you," she often said, sweetly smiling +upon him, after she had been asked to sing and had refused. Such +appeals, however, the Councillor was anxious to spare her as much as +possible; therefore it was that he was unwilling to take her into +society, and solicitously shunned all music. He well understood how +painful it must be for her to forego altogether the exercise of that +art which she had brought to such a pitch of perfection. When the +Councillor bought the wonderful violin that he had buried with +Antonia, and was about to take it to pieces, she met him with such +sadness in her face and softly breathed the petition, "What! this as +well?" By some power, which he could not explain, he felt impelled +to leave this particular instrument unbroken, and to play upon it. +Scarcely had he drawn the first few notes from it than Antonia cried +aloud with joy, "Why, that's me!--now I shall sing again." And, in +truth, there was something remarkably striking about the clear, +silvery, bell-like tones of the violin; they seemed to have been +engendered in the human soul. Krespel's heart was deeply moved; he +played, too, better than ever. As he ran up and down the scale, +playing bold passages with consummate power and expression, she +clapped her hands together and cried with delight, "I did that well! +I did that well." + +From this time onwards her life was filled with peace and +cheerfulness. She often said to the Councillor, "I should like to +sing something, father." Then Krespel would take his violin down +from the wall and play her most beautiful songs, and her heart was +right glad and happy. Shortly before my arrival in H----, the +Councillor fancied one night that he heard somebody playing the +piano in the adjoining room, and he soon made out distinctly that B---- +was flourishing on the instrument in his usual style. He wished to +get up, but felt himself held down as if by a dead weight, and lying +as if fettered in iron bonds; he was utterly unable to move an inch. +Then Antonia's voice was heard singing low and soft; soon, however, +it began to rise and rise in volume until it became an ear-splitting +fortissimo; and at length she passed over into a powerfully +impressive song which B---had once composed for her in the +devotional style of the old masters. Krespel described his condition +as being incomprehensible, for terrible anguish was mingled with a +delight he had never experienced before. All at once he was +surrounded by a dazzling brightness, in which he beheld B---and +Antonia locked in a close embrace, and gazing at each other in a +rapture of ecstasy. The music of the song and of the pianoforte +accompanying it went on without any visible signs that Antonia sang +or that B---- touched the instrument. Then the Councillor fell into a +sort of dead faint, whilst the images vanished away. On awakening he +still felt the terrible anguish of his dream. He rushed into +Antonia's room. She lay on the sofa, her eyes closed, a sweet +angelic smile on her face, her hands devoutly folded, and looking as +if asleep and dreaming of the joys and raptures of heaven. But she +was--dead. + + + + +ADVENTURES OF A NEW-YEAR'S EVE + +BY + +HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE + + +From "Tales by Heinrich Zschokke." Translated by Parke Godwin. +Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. + + + + +Mother Kate, the watchman's wife, at nine o'clock on New Year's Eve, +opened her little window, and put out her head into the night air. +The snow was reddened by the light from the window as it fell in +silent, heavy flakes upon the street. She observed the crowds of +happy people, hurrying to and fro from the brilliantly lighted shops +with presents, or pouring out of the various inns and coffee-houses, +and going to the dances and other entertainments with which the New +Year is married to the Old in joy and pleasure. But when a few cold +flakes had lighted on her nose, she drew back her head, closed the +window, and said to her husband: "Gottlieb, stay at home, and let +Philip watch for thee to-night; for the snow comes as fast as it can +from Heaven, and thou knowest the cold does thy old bones no good. +The streets will be gay to-night. There seems dancing and feasting +in every house, masqueraders are going about, and Philip will enjoy +the sport." + +Old Gottlieb nodded his assent. "I am willing, Kate," he said. "My +barometer, the old wound above my knee, has given me warning the +last two days of a change of weather. It is only right that my son +should aid me in a service to which he will be my successor." + +We must give the reader to understand that old Gottlieb had been a +sergeant of cavalry in one of the king's regiments, until he was +made a cripple for life by a musket-ball, as he was the first +mounting the walls of a hostile fort in a battle for his fatherland. +The officer who commanded the attack received the cross of honor on +the battlefield for his heroism, and was advanced in the service; +while Gottlieb was fain to creep homewards on a pair of crutches. +From pity they made him a schoolmaster, for he was intelligent, +liked to read, and wrote a good hand. But when the school increased +they took it away from him to provide for a young man who could do +none of these as well as he, merely because he was a godson of one +of the trustees. However, they promoted Gottlieb to the post of +watchman, with the reversion of it to his son Philip, who had in the +meantime bound himself to a gardener. It was only the good +housewifery of Mistress Katharine, and the extreme moderation of old +Gottlieb, that enabled them to live happily on the little they +possessed. Philip gave his services to the gardener for his board +and lodging, but he occasionally received very fine presents when he +carried home flowers to the rich people of the town. He was a fresh, +handsome young fellow, of six-and-twenty. Noble ladies often gave +him sundry extra dollars for his fine looks, a thing they would +never have thought of doing for an ugly face. Mrs. Kate had already +put on her cloak to go to the gardener's house to fetch her son, +when he entered the apartment. + +"Father," said Philip, giving a hand to both father and mother, +"it's snowing, and the snow won't do you much good. I'll take the +watch to-night, and you can get to bed." + +"You're a good boy," said old Gottlieb. + +"And then I've been thinking," continued Philip, "that as to-morrow +is New Year's Day, I may come and dine with you and make myself +happy. Mother perhaps has no joint in the kitchen, and--" + +"No," interrupted the mother, "we've no joint, but then we have a +pound and a and a half of venison; with potatoes for a relish, and a +little rice with laurel leaves for a soup, and two flasks of beer to +drink. Only come, Philip, for we shall live finely to-morrow! Next +week we may do better, for the New Year's gifts will be coming in, +and Gottlieb's share will be something! Oh! we shall live grandly." + +"Well, so much the better, dear mother," said Philip; "but have you +paid the rent of the cottage yet?" + +Old Gottlieb shrugged his shoulders. + +Philip laid a purse upon the table. + +"There are two-and-twenty dollars that I have saved. I can do very +well without them; take them for a New Year's gift, and then we can +all three enter on the new year without a debt or a care. God grant +that we may end it in health and happiness! Heaven in its goodness +will provide for both you and me!" + +Tears came into Mother Katharine's eyes as she kissed her son; old +Gottlieb said: "Philip, you are the prop and stay of our old age. +Continue to be honest and good, and to love your parents, so will a +blessing rest on you. I can give you nothing for a New Year's gift, +but a prayer that you may keep your heart pure and true--this is in +your power--you will be rich enough--for a clear conscience is a +Heaven in itself." + +So said old Gottlieb, and then he wrote down in an account-book the +sum of two-and-twenty dollars that his son had given him. + +"All that you have cost me in childhood is now nearly paid up. Your +savings amount to three hundred and seventeen dollars, which I have +received." + +"Three hundred and seventeen dollars!" cried Mistress Katharine, in +the greatest amazement; and then turning to Philip with a voice full +of tenderness, "Ah, Philip," she said, "thou grievest me. Child of +my heart! Yes, indeed thou dost. Hadst thou saved that money for +thyself thou might have bought some land with it, and started as +gardener on thy own account, and married Rose. NOW that is +impossible. But take comfort, Philip. We are old, and thou wilt not +have to support us long." + +"Mother!" exclaimed Philip, and he frowned a little; "what are you +thinking of? Rose is dear to me as my life, but I would give up a +hundred Roses rather than desert you and my father. I should never +find any other parents in this world but you, but there are plenty +of Roses, although I would have none but Mrs. Bittner's Rose, were +there even ten thousand others." + +"You are right, Philip," said Gottlieb; "loving and marrying are not +in the commandments--but to honor your father and mother is a duty +and commandment. To give up strong passions and inclinations for the +happiness of your parents is the truest gratitude of a son. It will +gain you the blessing from above:--it will make you rich in your own +heart." + +"If it were only not too long for Rose to wait," said Mrs. +Katharine, "or if you could give up the engagement altogether! For +Rose is a pretty girl, that can't be denied; and though she is poor, +there will be no want of wooers. She is virtuous and understands +housekeeping." + +"Never fear, mother," replied Philip; "Rose has solemnly sworn to +marry no man but me; and that is sufficient. Her mother has nothing +to object to me. And if I was in business and had money enough to +keep a wife with, Rose would be my wife to-morrow. The only +annoyance we have is, that her mother will not let us meet so often +as we wish. She says frequent meetings do no good; but I differ from +her, and so does Rose--for we think meeting often does us both a +great deal of good. And we have agreed to meet to-night, at twelve +o'clock, at the great door of St. Gregory's Church, for Rose is +bringing in the year at a friend's house, and I am to take her +home." + +In the midst of such conversation the clock of the neighboring tower +struck three-quarters, and Philip took his father's great-coat from +the warm stove where Katharine had carefully laid it, wrapped +himself in it, and taking the lantern and staff, and wishing his +parents good-night, proceeded to his post. + + + + +II. + + +Philip stalked majestically through the snow-covered streets of the +capital, where as many people were still visible as in the middle of +the day. Carriages were rattling in all directions, the houses were +all brilliantly lighted. Our watchman enjoyed the scene, he sang his +verses at ten o'clock, and blew his horn lustily in the neighborhood +of St. Gregory's Church, with many a thought on Rose, who was then +with her friend. "Now she hears me," he said to himself; "now she +thinks on me, and forgets the scene around her. I hope she won't +fail me at twelve o'clock at the church door." And when he had gone +his round, he always returned to the dear house and looked up at the +lighted windows. Sometimes he saw female figures, and his heart beat +quick at the sight; sometimes he fancied he saw Rose herself; and +sometimes he studied the long shadows thrown on the wall or the +ceiling to discover which of them was Rose's, and to fancy what she +was doing. It was certainly not a very pleasant employment to stand +in frost and snow and look up at a window; but what care lovers for +frost and snow? And watchmen are as fiery and romantic lovers as +ever were the knights of ancient ballads. + +He only felt the effects of the frost when, at eleven o'clock, he +had to set out upon his round. His teeth chattered with cold; he +could scarcely call the hour or sound his horn. He would willingly +have gone into a beer-house to warm himself at the fire. As he was +pacing through a lonely by-street, he met a man with a black half- +mask on his face, enveloped in a fire-colored silken mantle, and +wearing on his head a magnificent hat turned up at one side, and +fantastically ornamented with a number of high and waving plumes. + +Philip endeavored to escape the mask, but in vain. The stranger +blocked up his path and said: "Ha! thou art a fine fellow; I like +thy phiz amazingly. Where are you going, eh? I say, where are you +going?" + +"To Mary Street," replied Philip. "I am going to call the hour +there." + +"Enchanting!" answered the mask. "I'll hear thee: I'll go with thee. +Come along, thou foolish fellow, and let me hear thee, and mind thou +singest well, for I am a good judge. Canst thou sing me a jovial +song?" + +Philip saw that his companion was of high rank and a little tipsy, +and answered: "I sing better over a glass of wine in a warm room, +than when up to my waist in snow." + +They had now reached Mary Street, and Philip sang and blew the horn. + +"Ha! that's but a poor performance," exclaimed the mask, who had +accompanied him thither. "Give me the horn! I shall blow so well +that you'll half die with delight." + +Philip yielded to the mask's wishes, and let him sing the verses and +blow. For four or five times all was done as if the stranger had +been a watchman all his life. He dilated most eloquently on the joys +of such an occupation, and was so inexhaustible in his own praises +that he made Philip laugh at his extravagance. His spirits evidently +owed no small share of their elevation to an extra glass of wine. + +"I'll tell you what, my treasure, I've a great fancy to be a +watchman myself for an hour or two. If I don't do it now, I shall +never arrive at that honor in the course of my life. Give me your +great-coat and wide-brimmed hat, and take my domino. Go into a beer- +house and take a bottle at my expense; and when you have finished +it, come again and give me back my masking-gear. You shall have a +couple of dollars for your trouble. What do you think, my treasure?" + +But Philip did not like this arrangement. At last, however, at the +solicitations of the mask, he capitulated as they entered a dark +lane. Philip was half frozen; a warm drink would do him good, and so +would a warm fire. He agreed for one half-hour to give up his +watchmanship, which would be till twelve o'clock. Exactly at that +time the stranger was to come to the great door of St. Gregory's and +give back the great-coat, horn, and staff, taking back his own silk +mantle, hat, and domino. Philip also told him the four streets in +which he was to call the hour. The mask was in raptures: "Treasure +of my heart, I could kiss thee if thou wert not a dirty, miserable +fellow! But thou shalt have naught to regret, if thou art at the +church at twelve, for I will give thee money for a supper then. Joy! +I am a watchman!" The mask looked a watchman to the life, while +Philip was completely disguised with the half-mask tied over his +face, the bonnet ornamented with a buckle of brilliants on his head, +and the red silk mantle thrown around him. When he saw his companion +commence his walk he began to fear that the young gentleman might +compromise the dignity of the watchman. He therefore addressed him +once more, and said: + +"I hope you will not abuse my good nature and do any mischief or +misbehave in any way, as it may cost me the situation." + +"Hallo!" answered the stranger. "What are you talking about? Do you +think I don't know my duty? Off with you this moment, or I'll let +you feel the weight of my staff. But come to St. Gregory's Church +and give me back my clothes at twelve o'clock. Good-bye. This is +glorious fun!" + +The new guardian of the streets walked onward with all the dignity +becoming his office, while Philip hurried to a neighboring tavern. + + + + +III. + + +As he was passing the door of the royal palace, he was laid hold of +by a person in a mask who had alighted from a carriage. Philip +turned round, and in a low whispering voice asked what the stranger +wanted. + +"My gracious lord," answered the mask, "in your reverie you have +passed the door. Will your Royal Highness--" + +"What? Royal Highness?" said laughing. "I am no highness. What put +that in your head?" + +The mask bowed respectfully, and pointed to the brilliant buckle in +Philip's hat. "I ask your pardon if I have betrayed your disguise. +But, in whatever character you asume, your noble bearing will betray +you. Will you condescend to lead the way? Does your Highness intend +to dance?" + +"I? To dance?" replied Philip. "No--you see I have boots on." + +"To play, then?" inquired the mask. + +"Still less. I have brought no money with me," said the assistant +watchman. + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed the mask. "Command my purse--all that I +possess is at your service!" Saying this, he forced a full purse +into Philip's hand. + +"But do you know who I am?" inquired Philip, and rejected the purse. + +The mask whispered with a bow of profound obeisance: "His Royal +Highness, Prince Julian." + +At this moment Philip heard his deputy in an adjoining street +calling the hour very distinctly, and he now became aware of his +metamorphosis. Prince Julian, who was well known in the capital as +an amiable, wild, and good-hearted young man, had been the person +with whom he had changed his clothes. "Now, then," thought Philip, +"as he enacts the watchman so well, I will not shame his rank; I'll +see if, for one half-hour, I can't be the Prince. If I make any +mistake, he has himself to blame for it." He wrapped the red silken +mantle closer round him, took the offered purse, put it in his +pocket, and said: "Who are you, mask? I will return your gold to- +morrow." + +"I am the Chamberlain Pilzou." + +"Good--lead the way--I'll follow." The Chamberlain obeyed, and +tripped up the marble stairs, Philip coming close behind him. They +entered an immense hall lighted by a thousand tapers and dazzling +chandeliers, which were reflected by brilliant mirrors. A confused +crowd of maskers jostled each other, sultans, Tyrolese, harlequins, +knights in armor, nuns, goddesses, satyrs, monks, Jews, Medes, and +Persians. Philip for a while was abashed and blinded. Such splendor +he had never dreamt of. In the middle of the hall the dance was +carried on with hundreds of people to the music of a full band. +Philip, whom the heat of the apartment recovered from his frozen +state, was so bewildered with the scene that he could scarcely nod +his head as different masks addressed him, some confidentially, +others deferentially. + +"Will you go to the hazard table?" whispered the Chamberlain, who +stood beside him, and who Philip now saw was dressed as a Brahmin. + +"Let me get thawed first," answered Philip; "I am an icicle at +present." + +"A glass of warm punch?" inquired the Brahmin, and led him into the +refreshment-room. The pseudo-prince did not wait for a second +invitation, but emptied one glass after the other in short time. The +punch was good, and it spread its genial warmth through Philip's +veins. + +"How is it you don't dance tonight, Brahmin?" he asked of his +companion, when they returned into the hall. The Brahmin sighed, and +shrugged his shoulders. + +"I have no pleasure now in the dance. Gayety is distasteful to me. +The only person I care to dance with--the Countess Bonau--I thought +she loved me; our families offered no objection--but all at once she +broke with me." His voice trembled as he spoke. + +"How?" said Philip, "I never heard of such a thing." + +"You never heard of it?" repeated the other; "the whole city rings +with it. The quarrel happened a fortnight ago, and she will not +allow me to justify myself, but has sent back three letters I wrote +to her, unopened. She is a declared enemy of the Baroness +Reizenthal, and had made me promise to drop her acquaintance. But, +think how unfortunate I was! When the Queen-mother made the hunting +party to Freudenwald, she appointed me cavalier to the Baroness. +What could I do? It was impossible to refuse. On the very birthday +of the adorable Bonau I was obliged to set out.....She heard of +it.....She put no trust in my heart!" + +"Well, then, Brahmin, take advantage of the present moment. The New +Year makes up all quarrels. Is the Countess here?" + +"Do you not see her over there--the Carmelite on the left of the +third pillar beside the two black dominos. She has laid aside her +mask. Ah, Prince! your intercession would--" + +Philip thought: "Now I can do a good work!" and, as the punch had +inspired him, he walked directly to the Carmelite. The Countess +Bonau looked at him for some time seriously, and with flushed +cheeks, as he sat down beside her. She was a beautiful girl; yet +Philip remained persuaded that Rose was a thousand times more +beautiful. + +"Countess," he said,--and became embarrassed when he met her clear +bright eye fixed upon him. + +"Prince," said the Countess, "an hour ago you were somewhat too +bold." + +"Fair Countess, I am therefore at this present moment the more +quiet." + +"So much the better. I shall not, then, be obliged to keep out of +your way." + +"Fair lady, allow me to ask one question. Have you put on a nun's +gown to do penance for your sins?" + +"I have nothing to do penance for." + +"But you have, Countess!--your cruelties--your injustice to the poor +Brahmin yonder, who seems neglected by his God and all the world." + +The beautiful Carmelite cast down her eyes, and appeared uneasy. + +"And do you know, fair Countess, that in the Freudenwald affair the +Chamberlain is as innocent as I am?" + +"As you, Prince?" said the Countess, frowning, "what did you tell me +an hour ago?" + +"You are right, dear Countess, I was too bold. You said so yourself. +But now I declare to you the Chamberlain was obliged to go to +Freudenwald by command of the Queen-mother--against his will was +obliged to be cavalier to the hated Reizenthal--" + +"Hated--by him?"--interrupted the Countess with a bitter and +sneering laugh. + +"Yes--he hates,--he despises the Baroness. Believe me, he scarcely +treated her with civility, and incurred the Royal displeasure by so +doing. I know it; and it was for your sake. You are the only person +he loves--to you he offers his hand, his heart--and you!--you reject +him!" + +"How comes it, Prince, that you intercede so warmly for Pilzou? You +did not do so formerly." + +"That was because I did not know him, and still less the sad state +into which you have thrown him by your behavior. I swear to you he +is innocent--you have nothing to forgive in him--he has much to +forgive in you." + +"Hush!" whispered the Carmelite, "we are watched here; away from +this." She replaced her mask, stood up, and placing her arm within +that of the supposed Prince, they crossed the hall and entered a +side-room. The Countess uttered many bitter complaints against the +Chamberlain, but they were the complaints of jealous love. The +Countess was in tears, when the tender Brahmin soon after came +timidly into the apartment. There was a deep silence among the +three. Philip, not knowing how to conclude his intercession better, +led the Brahmin to the Carmelite, and joined their hands together, +without saying a word, and left them to fate. He himself returned +into the hall. + +IV. + +Here he was hastily addressed by a Mameluke: "I'm glad I have met +you, Domino. Is the Rose-girl in the side-room?" The Mameluke rushed +into it, but returned in a moment evidently disappointed. "One word +alone with you, Domino," he said, and led Philip into a window +recess in a retired part of the hall. + +"What do you want?" asked Philip. + +"I beseech you," replied the Mameluke, in a subdued yet terrible +voice, "where is the Rose-girl?" + +"What is the Rose-girl to me?" + +"But to me she is everything!" answered the Mameluke, whose +suppressed voice and agitated demeanor showed that a fearful +struggle was going on within. "To me she is everything. She is my +wife. You make me wretched, Prince! I conjure you drive me not to +madness. Think of my wife no more!" + +"With all my heart," answered Philip, dryly; "what have I to do with +your wife?" + +"O Prince, Prince!" exclaimed the Mameluke, "I have made a resolve +which I shall execute if it cost me my life. Do not seek to deceive +me a moment longer. I have discovered everything. Here! look at +this! 'tis a note my false wife slipped into your hand, and which +you dropped in the crowd, without having read." + +Philip took the note. 'T was written in pencil, and in a fine +delicate hand: "Change your mask. Everybody knows you. My husband +watches you. He does not know me. If you obey me, I will reward +you." + +"Hem!" muttered Philip. "As I live, this was not written to me. I +don't trouble my head about your wife." + +"Death and fury, Prince! do not drive me mad! Do you know who it is +that speaks to you? I am the Marshal Blankenswerd. Your advances to +my wife are not unknown to me, ever since the last rout at the +palace." + +"My Lord Marshal," answered Philip, "excuse me for saying that +jealousy has blinded you. If you knew me well, you would not think +of accusing me of such folly. I give you my word of honor I will +never trouble your wife." + +"Are you in earnest, Prince?" + +"Entirely." + +"Give me a proof of this?" + +"Whatever you require." + +"I know you have hindered her until now from going with me to visit +her relations in Poland. Will you persuade her to do so now?" + +"With all my heart, if you desire it." + +"Yes, yes! and your Royal Highness will prevent inconceivable and +unavoidable misery." + +The Mameluke continued for some time, sometimes begging and praying, +and sometimes threatening so furiously, that Philip feared he might +make a scene before the whole assembly that would not have suited +him precisely. He therefore quitted him as soon as possible. +Scarcely had he lost himself in the crowd, when a female, closely +wrapped in deep mourning, tapped him familiarly on the arm, and +whispered: + +"Butterfly, whither away? Have you no pity for the disconsolate +Widow?" + +Philip answered very politely: "Beautiful widows find no lack of +comforters. May I venture to include myself amongst them?" + +"Why are you so disobedient? and why have you not changed your +mask?" said the Widow, while she led him aside that they might speak +more freely. "Do you really fancy, Prince, that every one here does +not know who you are?" + +"They are very much mistaken in me, I assure you," replied Philip. + +"No, indeed," answered the Widow, "they know you very well, and if +you do not immediately change your apparel, I shall not speak to you +again the whole evening. I have no desire to give my husband an +opportunity of making a scene." + +By this Philip discovered whom he was talking with. "You were the +beautiful Rose-girl; are your roses withered so soon?" + +"What is there that does not wither? not the constancy of man? I saw +you when you slipped off with the Carmelite. Acknowledge your +inconstancy--you can deny it no longer." + +"Hem," answered Philip, dryly, "accuse me if you will, I can return +the accusation." + +"How,--pretty butterfly?" + +"Why, for instance, there is not a more constant man alive than the +Marshal." + +"There is not indeed!--and I am wrong, very wrong to have listened +to you so long. I reproached myself enough, but he has unfortunately +discovered our flirtation." + +"Since the last rout at Court, fair Widow---" + +"Were you so unguarded and particular--pretty butterfly!" + +"Let us repair the mischief. Let us part. I honor the Marshal, and, +for my part, do not like to give him pain." + +The Widow looked at him for some time in speechless amazement. + +"If you have indeed any regard for me," continued Philip, "you will +go with the Marshal to Poland, to visit your relations. 'Tis better +that we should not meet so often. A beautiful woman is beautiful-- +but a pure and virtuous woman is more beautiful still." + +"Prince!" cried the astonished Widow, "are you really in earnest? +Have you ever loved me, or have you all along deceived?" + +"Look you," answered Philip, "I am a tempter of a peculiar kind. I +search constantly among women to find truth and virtue, and 'tis but +seldom that I encounter them. Only the true and virtuous can keep me +constant--therefore I am true to none; but no!--I will not lie-- +there is one that keeps me in her chains--I am sorry, fair Widow, +that that one--is not you!" + +"You are in a strange mood to-night, Prince," answered the Widow, +and the trembling of her voice and heaving of her bosom showed the +working of her mind. + +"No," answered Philip, "I am in as rational a mood to-night as I +ever was in my life. I wish only to repair an injury; I have +promised to your husband to do so." + +"How!" exclaimed the Widow, in a voice of terror, "you have +discovered all to the Marshal?" + +"Not everything," answered Philip, "only what I knew." + +The Widow wrung her hands in the extremity of agitation, and at last +said, "Where is my husband?" + +Philip pointed to the Mameluke, who at this moment approached them +with slow steps. + +"Prince," said the Widow, in a tone of inexpressible rage,--"Prince, +you may be forgiven this, but not from me! I never dreamt that the +heart of man could be so deceitful,--but you are unworthy of a +thought. You are an impostor! My husband in the dress of a barbarian +is a prince; you in the dress of a prince are a barbarian. In this +world you see me no more!" + +With these words she turned proudly away from him, and going up to +the Mameluke, they left the hall in deep and earnest conversation. +Philip laughed quietly, and said to himself: "My substitute, the +watchman, must look to it, for I do not play my part badly; I only +hope when he returns he will proceed as I have begun." + +He went up to the dancers, and was delighted to see the beautiful +Carmelite standing up in a set with the overjoyed Brahmin. No sooner +did the latter perceive him, than he kissed his hand to him, and in +dumb-show gave him to understand in what a blessed state he was. +Philip thought: 'T is a pity I am not to be prince all my life-time. +The people would be satisfied then; to be a prince is the easiest +thing in the world. He can do more with a single word than a lawyer +with a four-hours' speech. Yes! if I were a prince, my beautiful +Rose would be--lost to me for ever. No! I would not be a prince." He +now looked at the clock, and saw 't was half-past eleven. The +Mameluke hurried up to him and gave him a paper. "Prince," he +exclaimed, "I could fall at your feet and thank you in the very +dust. I am reconciled to my wife. You have broken her heart; but it +is better that it should be so. We leave for Poland this very night, +and there we shall fix our home. Farewell! I shall be ready whenever +your Royal Highness requires me, to pour out my last drop of blood +in your service. My gratitude is eternal. Farewell!" + +"Stay!" said Philip to the Marshal, who was hurrying away, "what am +I to do with this paper?" + +"Oh, that,-'tis the amount of my loss to your Highness last week at +hazard. I had nearly forgotten it; but before my departure, I must +clear my debts. I have indorsed it on the back." With these words +the Marshal disappeared. + + + + +V. + + +Philip opened the paper, and read in it an order for five thousand +dollars. He put it in his pocket, and thought: "Well, it's a pity +that I'm not a prince." Some one whispered in his ear: + +"Your Royal Highness, we are both discovered; I shall blow my brains +out." + +Philip turned round in amazement, and saw a negro at his side. + +"What do you want, mask?" he asked, in an unconcerned tone. + +"I am Colonel Kalt," whispered the negro. "The Marshal's wife has +been chattering to Duke Herman, and he has been breathing fire and +fury against us both." + +"He is quite welcome," answered Philip. + +"But the King will hear it all," sighed the negro. "This very night +I may be arrested and carried to a dungeon; I'll sooner hang +myself." + +"No need of that," said Philip. + +"What! am I to be made infamous for my whole life? I am lost, I tell +you. The Duke will demand entire satisfaction. His back is black and +blue yet with the marks of the cudgelling I gave him. I am lost, and +the baker's daughter too! I'll jump from the bridge and drown myself +at once!" + +"God forbid!" answered Philip; "what have you and the baker's +daughter to do with it?" + +"Your Royal Highness banters me, and I am in despair!--I humbly +beseech you to give me two minutes' private conversation." + +Philip followed the negro into a small boudoir dimly lighted up with +a few candles. The negro threw himself on a sofa, quite overcome, +and groaned aloud. Philip found some sandwiches and wine on the +table, and helped himself with great relish. + +"I wonder your Royal Highness can be so cool on hearing this cursed +story. If that rascally Salmoni was here who acted the conjurer, he +might save us by some contrivance, for the fellow was a bunch of +tricks. As it is, he has slipped out of the scrape." + +"So much the better," interrupted Philip, replenishing his glass; +"since he has got out of the way, we can throw all the blame on his +shoulders." + +"How can we do that? The Duke, I tell you, knows that you, and I, +and the Marshal's wife, and the baker's daughter, were all in the +plot together, to take advantage of his superstition. He knows that +it was you that engaged Salmoni to play the conjurer; that it was I +that instructed the baker's daughter (with whom he is in love) how +to inveigle him into the snare; that it was I that enacted the +ghost, that knocked him down, and cudgelled him till he roared +again. If I had only not carried the joke too far, but I wished to +cool his love a little for my sweetheart. 'T was a devilish +business. I'll take poison." + +"Rather swallow a glass of wine--'t is delicious," said Philip, +taking another tart at the same time. "For to tell you the truth, my +friend, I think you are rather a white-livered sort of rogue for a +colonel, to think of hanging, drowning, shooting, and poisoning +yourself about such a ridiculous story as that. One of these modes +would be too much, but as to all the four--nonsense. I tell you that +at this moment I don't know what to make out of your tale." + +"Your Royal Highness, have pity on me, my brain is turned. The +Duke's page, an old friend of mine, has told me this very moment, +that the Marshal's wife, inspired by the devil, went up to the Duke, +and told him that the trick played on him at the baker's house was +planned by Prince Julian, who opposed his marriage with his sister; +that the spirit he saw was myself, sent by the Princess to be a +witness of his superstition; that your Highness was a witness of his +descent into the pit after hidden gold, and of his promise to make +the baker's daughter his mistress, and also to make her one of the +nobility immediately after his marriage with the Princess. 'Do not +hope to gain the Princess. It is useless for you to try,' were the +last words of the Marshal's wife to the Duke." + +"And a pretty story it is," muttered Philip; "why, behavior like +that would be a disgrace to the meanest of the people. I declare +there is no end to these deviltries." + +"Yes, indeed. 'T is impossible to behave more meanly than the +Marshal's lady. The woman must be a fury. My gracious Lord, save me +from destruction." + +"Where is the Duke?" asked Philip. + +"The page told me he started up on hearing the story, and said, 'I +will go to the King.' And if he tells the story to the King in his +own way--" + +"Is the King here, then?" + +"Oh, yes, he is at play in the next room, with the Archbishop and +the Minister of Police." + +Philip walked with long steps through the boudoir. The case required +consideration. + +"Your Royal Highness," said the negro, "protect me. Your own honor +is at stake. You can easily make all straight; otherwise, I am ready +at the first intimation of danger to fly across the border. I will +pack up, and to-morrow I shall expect your last commands as to my +future behavior." + +With these words the negro took his leave. + + + + +VI. + + +"It is high time I were a watchman again," thought Philip. "I am +getting both myself and my substitute into scrapes he will find it +hard to get out of--and this makes the difference between a peasant +and a prince. One is no better off than the other. Good heavens! +what stupid things these court lords are doing which we do not dream +of with our lanterns and staff in hand, or when at the spade. We +think they lead the lives of angels, without sin or care. Pretty +piece of business! Within a quarter of an hour I have heard of more +rascally tricks than I ever played in my whole life. And--" but his +reverie was interrupted by a whisper. + +"So lonely, Prince! I consider myself happy in having a minute's +conversation with your Royal Highness." + +Philip looked at the speaker; and he was a miner, covered over with +gold and jewels. + +"But one instant," said the mask. "The business is pressing, and +deeply concerns you." + +"Who are you?" inquired Philip. + +"Count Bodenlos, the Minister of Finance, at your Highness's +service," answered the miner, and showed his face, which looked as +if it were a second mask, with its little eyes and copper-colored +nose. + +"Well, then, my lord, what are your commands?" + +"May I speak openly? I waited on your Royal Highness thrice, and was +never admitted to the honor of an audience; and yet--Heaven is my +witness--no man in all this court has a deeper interest in your +Royal Highness than I have." + +"I am greatly obliged to you," replied Philip; "what is your +business just now? But be quick." + +"May I venture to speak of the house of Abraham Levi?" + +"As much as you like." + +"They have applied to me about the fifty thousand dollars which you +owe them, and threaten to apply to the King. And you remember your +promise to his Majesty, when last he paid your debts." + +"Can't the people wait?" asked Philip. + +"No more than the Brothers, goldsmiths, who demand their seventy- +five thousand dollars." + +"It is all one to me. If the people won't wait for their money, I +must--" + +"No hasty resolution, my gracious Lord! I have it in my power to +make everything comfortable, if--" + +"Well, if what?" + +"If you will honor me by listening to me one moment. I hope to have +no difficulty in redeeming all your debts. The house of Abraham Levi +has bought up immense quantities of corn, so that the price is very +much raised. A decree against importation will raise it three or +four percent. higher. By giving Abraham Levi the monopoly, the +business will be arranged. The house erases your debt, and pays off +your seventy-five thousand dollars to the goldsmiths, and I give you +over the receipts. But everything depends on my continuing for +another year at the head of the Finance. If Baron Griefensack +succeeds in ejecting me from the Ministry, I shall be unable to +serve your Royal Highness as I could wish. If your Highness will +leave the party of Griefensack, our point is gained. For me, it is a +matter of perfect indifference whether I remain in office or not. I +sigh for repose. But for your Royal Highness, it is a matter of +great moment. If I have not the mixing of the pack, I lose the +game." + +Philip for some time did not know what answer to make. At last, +while the Finance Minister, in expectation of his reply, took a +pinch out of his snuff-box set with jewels, Philip said: + +"If I rightly understand you, Sir Count, you would starve the +country a little, in order to pay my debts. Consider, sir, what +misery you will cause. And will the King consent to it?" + +"If I remain in office I will answer for that, my gracious Lord! +When the price of corn rises, the King will, of course, think of +permitting importation, and prevent exportation by levying heavy +imposts. The permission to do so is given to the house of Abraham +Levi, and they export as much as they choose. But, as I said before, +if Griefensack gets the helm, nothing can be done. For the first +year he would be obliged to attend strictly to his duty, in order to +be able afterwards to feather his nest at the expense of the +country. He must first make sure of his ground. He is dreadfully +grasping!" + +"A pretty project," answered Philip; "and how long do you think a +finance minister must be in office before he can lay his shears on +the flock to get wool enough for himself and me?" + +"Oh, if he has his wits about him, he may manage it in a year." + +"Then the King ought to be counselled to change his finance minister +every twelve months, if he wishes to be faithfully and honorably +served." + +"I hope, your Royal Highness, that since I have had the Exchequer, +the King and Court have been faithfully served?" + +"I believe you, Count, and the poor people believe you still more. +Already they scarcely know how to pay their rates and taxes. You +should treat us with a little more consideration, Count." + +"Us!--don't I do everything for the Court?" + +"No! I mean the people. You should have a little more consideration +for them." + +"I appreciate what your Royal Highness says; but I serve the King +and the Court, and the people are not to be considered. The country +is his private property, and the people are only useful to him as +increasing the value of the land. But this is no time to discuss the +old story about the interests of the people. I beg your Royal +Highness' answer to my propositions. Shall I have the honor to +discharge your debts on the above specified conditions?" + +"Answer,--no--never, never! at the expense of hundreds and thousands +of starving families." + +"But, your Royal Highness, if, in addition to the clearance of your +debts, I make the house of Abraham Levi present you with fifty +thousand dollars in hard cash? I think it may afford you that sum. +The house will gain so much by the operation, that--" + +"Perhaps it may be able to give YOU also a mark of its regard." + +"Your Highness is pleased to jest with me. I gain nothing by the +affair. My whole object is to obtain the protection of your Royal +Highness." + +"You are very polite!" + +"I may hope, then, Prince? My duty is to be of service to you. To- +morrow I shall send for Abraham, and conclude the arrangement with +him. I shall have the honor to present your Royal Highness with the +receipt for all your debts, besides the gift of fifty thousand +dollars." + +"Go, I want to hear no more of it." + +"And your Royal Highness will honor me with your favor? For unless I +am in the Ministry, it is impossible for me to deal with Abraham +Levi so as--" + +"I wish to Heaven you and your Ministry and Abraham Levi were all +three on the Blocksberg! I tell you what, unless you lower the price +of corn, and take away the monopoly from that infernal Jew, I'll go +this moment and reveal your villainy to the King, and get you and +Abraham Levi banished from the country. See to it--I'll keep my +word." Philip turned away in a rage, and proceeded into the dancing- +room, leaving the Minister of Finance petrified with amazement. + + + + +VII. + + +"When does your Royal Highness require the carriage?" whispered a +stout little Dutch merchant in a bob-wig. + +"Not at all," answered Philip. + +"'Tis after half-past eleven, and the beautiful singer expects you. +She will tire of waiting." + +"Let her sing something to cheer her." + +"How, Prince? Have you changed your mind? Would you leave the +captivating Rollina in the lurch, and throw away the golden +opportunity you have been sighing for for two months? The letter you +sent to-day, inclosing the diamond watch, did wonders. The proud but +fragile beauty surrenders. This morning you were in raptures, and +now you are as cold as ice! What is the cause of the change?" + +"That is my business, not yours," said Philip. + +"I had your orders to join you at half-past eleven. Perhaps you have +other engagements?" + +"Perhaps." + +"A petit souper with the Countess Born? She is not present here; at +least among all the masks I can't trace her out. I should know her +among a thousand by that graceful walk and her peculiar way of +carrying her little head--eh, Prince?" + +"Well, but if it were so, there would be no necessity for making you +my confidant, would there?" + +"I will take the hint, and be silent. But won't you at any rate send +to the Signora Rollina to let her know you are not coming?" + +"If I have sighed for her for two months, she had better sigh a +month or two for me. I sha'n't go near her." + +"So that beautiful necklace which you sent her for a New Year's +present was all for nothing?" + +"As far as I am concerned." + +"Will you break with her entirely?" + +"There is nothing between us to break, that I know of." + +"Well, then, since you speak so plainly, I may tell you something +which you perhaps know already. Your love for the Signora has +hitherto kept me silent; but now that you have altered your mind +about her, I can no longer keep the secret from you. You are +deceived." + +"By whom?" + +"By the artful singer. She would divide her favors between your +Royal Highness and a Jew." + +"A Jew?" + +"Yes! with the son of Abraham Levi." + +"Is that rascal everywhere?" + +"So your Highness did not know it? but I am telling you the exact +truth; if it were not for your Royal Highness, she would be his +mistress. I am only sorry you gave her that watch." + +"I don't regret it at all." + +"The jade deserves to be whipped." + +"Few people meet their deserts," answered Philip. + +"Too true, too true, your Royal Highness. For instance, I have +discovered a girl--O Prince, there is not such another in this city +or in the whole world! Few have seen this angel.--Pooh! Rollina is +nothing to her. Listen--a girl tall and slender as a palm tree--with +a complexion like the red glow of evening upon snow--eyes like +sunbeams--rich golden tresses,--in short, the most beautiful +creature I ever beheld--a Venus--a goddess in rustic attire. Your +Highness, we must give her chase." + +"A peasant girl?" + +"A mere rustic; but then you must see her yourself, and you will +love her. But my descriptions are nothing. Imagine the embodiment of +all that you can conceive most charming--add to that, artlessness, +grace, and innocence. But the difficulty is to catch sight of her. +She seldom leaves her mother. I know her seat in church, and have +watched her for many Sundays past, as she walked with her mother to +the Elm-Gate. I have ascertained that a handsome young fellow, a +gardener, is making court to her. He can't marry her, for he is a +poor devil, and she has nothing. The mother is the widow of a poor +weaver." + +"And the mother's name is?" + +"Widow Bittner, in Milk Street; and the daughter, fairest of +flowers, is in fact called Rose." + +Philip's blood boiled at the sound of the beloved name. His first +inclination was to knock the communicative Dutchman down. He +restrained himself, however, and only asked: + +"Are you the devil himself?" + +"'T is good news, is it not? I have taken some steps in the matter +already, but you must see her first. But perhaps such a pearl has +not altogether escaped your keen observation? Do you know her?" + +"Intimately." + +"So much the better. Have I been too lavish of my praises? You +confess their truth? She sha'n't escape us. We must go together to +the widow; you must play the philanthropist. You have heard of the +widow's poverty, and must insist on relieving it. You take an +interest in the good woman; enter into her misfortunes; leave a +small present at each visit, and by this means become acquainted +with Rose. The rest follows, of course. The gardener can be easily +got out of the way, or perhaps a dozen or two dollars slipped +quietly into his hand may--" + +Philip's rage broke forth. + +"I'll throttle you--" + +"If the gardener makes a fuss?" interposed the Dutchman. "Leave me +to settle this matter. I'll get him kidnapped, and sent to the army +to fight for his country. In the meantime you get possession of the +field; for the girl has a peasant's attachment for the fellow, and +it will not be easy to get the nonsense out of her head, which she +has been taught by the canaille. But I will give her some lessons, +and then--" + +"I'll break your neck." + +"Your Highness is too good. But if your Highness would use your +influence with the King to procure me the Chamberlain's key--" + +"I wish I could procure you--" + +"Oh, don't flatter me, your Highness. Had I only known you thought +so much of her beauty, she would have been yours long ago." + +"Not a word more," cried the enraged Philip, in a smothered voice; +for he dared not speak aloud, he was so surrounded by maskers, who +were listening, dancing, talking, as they passed him, and he might +have betrayed himself; "not a word more!" + +"No, there will be more than words. Deeds shall show my sincerity. +You may advance. You are wont to conquer. The outposts will be +easily taken. The gardener I will manage, and the mother will range +herself under your gilded banners. Then the fortress will be won!" + +"Sir, if you venture," said Philip, who now could hardly contain +himself. It was with great difficulty he refrained from open +violence, and he clutched the arm of the Dutchman with the force of +a vice. + +"Your Highness, for Heaven's sake, moderate your joy. I shall +scream--you are mashing my arm!" + +"If you venture to go near that innocent girl, I will demolish every +bone in your body." + +"Good, good," screamed the Dutchman, in intense pain; "only let go +my arm." + +"If I find you anywhere near Milk Street, I'll dash your miserable +brains out. So look to it." + +The Dutchman seemed almost stupefied; trembling, he said: + +"May it please your Highness, I could not imagine you really loved +the girl as it seems you do." + +"I love her! I will own it before the whole world!" + +"And are loved in return?" + +"That's none of your business. Never mention her name to me again. +Do not even think of her; it would be a stain upon her purity. Now +you know what I think. Be off!" + +Philip twirled the unfortunate Dutchman round as he let go his arm, +and that worthy gentleman slunk out of the hall. + + + + +VIII. + + +In the meantime Philip's substitute supported his character of +watchman on the snow-covered streets. It is scarcely necessary to +say that this was none other than Prince Julian who had taken a +notion to join the watch--his head being crazed by the fire of the +sweet wine. He attended to the directions left by Philip, and went +his rounds, and called the hour with great decorum, except that, +instead of the usual watchman's verses, he favored the public with +rhymes of his own. He was cogitating a new stanza, when the door of +a house beside him opened, and a well-wrapped-up girl beckoned to +him, and ran into the shadow of the house. + +The Prince left his stanza half finished, and followed the +apparition. A soft hand grasped his in the darkness, and a voice +whispered: + +"Good-evening, dear Philip. Speak low, that nobody may hear us. I +have only got away from the company for one moment to speak to you +as you passed. Are you happy to see me?" + +"Blest as a god, my angel,--who could be otherwise than happy by thy +side?" + +"I've some good news for you, Philip. You must sup at our house to- +morrow evening. My mother has allowed me to ask you. You 'll come?" + +"For the whole evening, and as many more as you wish. Would we might +be together till the end of the world! 'T would be a life fit for +gods!" + +"Listen, Philip; in half an hour I shall be at St. Gregory's. I +shall expect you there. You won't fail me? Don't keep me waiting +long--we shall have a walk together. Go now--we may be discovered." +She tried to go, but Julian held her back and threw his arms round +her. + +"What, wilt thou leave me so coldly?" he said, and tried to press a +kiss upon her lips. + +Rose did not know what to think of this boldness, for Philip had +always been modest, and never dared more than kiss her hand, except +once, when her mother had forbidden their meeting again. They had +then exchanged their first kiss in great sorrow and in great love, +but never since then. She struggled to free herself, but Julian held +her firm, till at last she had to buy her liberty by submitting to +the kiss, and begged him to go. But Julian seemed not at all +inclined to move. + +"What! go? I'm not such a fool as that comes to! You think I love my +horn better than you? No indeed!" + +"But then it isn't right, Philip." + +"Not right? why not, my beauty? there is nothing against kissing in +the ten commandments." + +"Why, if we could marry, perhaps you might--but you know very well +we can't marry, and--" + +"Not marry? why not? You can marry me any day you like." + +"Philip!--why will you talk such folly? You know we must not think +of such a thing." + +"But _I_ think very seriously about it--if you would consent." + +"You are unkind to speak thus. Ah, Philip, I had a dream last +night." + +"A dream--what was it?" + +"You had won a prize in the lottery; we were both so happy! you had +bought a beautiful garden, handsomer than any in the city. It was a +little paradise of flowers--and there were large beds of vegetables, +and the trees were laden with fruit. And when I awoke, Philip, I +felt so wretched--I wished I had not dreamed such a happy dream. +You've nothing in the lottery, Philip, have you? Have you really won +anything? The drawing took place to-day." + +"How much must I have gained to win you too?" + +"Ah, Philip, if you had only gained a thousand dollars, you might +buy such a pretty garden!" + +"A thousand dollars! And what if it were more?" + +"Ah, Philip--what? is it true? is it really? Don't deceive me! +'twill be worse than the dream. You had a ticket! and you've won!-- +own it! own it!" + +"All you can wish for." + +Rose flung her arms around his neck in the extremity of her joy, and +kissed him. + +"More than the thousand dollars? and will they pay you the whole?" + +Her kiss made the Prince forget to answer. It was so strange to hold +a pretty form in his arms, receive its caresses, and to know they +were not meant for him. + +"Answer me, answer me!" cried Rose, impatiently. "Will they give you +all that money?" + +"They've done it already--and if it will add to your happiness I +will hand it to you this moment." + +"What! have you got it with you?" + +The Prince took out his purse, which he had filled with money in +expectation of some play. + +"Take it and weigh it, my girl," he said, placing it in her hand and +kissing her again. "This, then, makes you mine!" + +"Oh, not THIS--nor all the gold in the world, if you were not my own +dear Philip!" + +"And how if I had given you twice as much as all this money, and yet +were not your own dear Philip?" + +"I would fling the purse at your feet, and make you a very polite +curtsey," said Rose. + +A door now opened; the light streamed down the steps, and the +laughing voices of girls were heard. Rose whispered: + +"In half an hour, at St. Gregory's," and ran up the steps, leaving +the Prince in the darkness. Disconcerted by the suddenness of the +parting, and his curiosity excited by his ignorance of the name of +his new acquaintance, and not even having had a full view of her +face, he consoled himself with the rendezvous at St. Gregory's +Church door. This he resolved to keep, though it was evident that +all the tenderness which had been bestowed on him was intended for +his friend the watchman. + + + + +IX. + + +The interview with Rose, or the coldness of the night, increased the +effect of the wine to such an extent that the mischievous +propensities of the young Prince got the upper hand of him. Standing +amidst a crowd of people, in the middle of the street, he blew so +lustily on his horn that the women screamed, and the men gasped with +fear. He called the hour, and then shouted, at the top of his lungs: + + The bus'ness of our lovely state + Is stricken by the hand of fate-- + Even our maids, both light and brown, + Can find no sale in all the town; + They deck themselves with all their arts, + But no one buys their worn-out hearts." + +"Shame! shame!" cried several female voices from the window at the +end of this complimentary effusion, which, however, was crowned with +a loud laugh from the men. "Bravo, watchman!" cried some; "Encore! +encore!" shouted others. "How dare you, fellow, insult ladies in the +open street?" growled a young lieutenant, who had a very pretty girl +on his arm. + +"Mr. Lieutenant," answered a miller, "unfortunately watchmen always +tell the truth, and the lady on your arm is a proof of it. Ha! young +jade, do you know me? do you know who I am? Is it right for a +betrothed bride to be gadding at night about the streets with other +men? To-morrow your mother shall hear of this. I'll have nothing +more to do with you!" + +The girl hid her face, and nudged the young officer to lead her +away. But the lieutenant, like a brave soldier, scorned to retreat +from the miller, and determined to keep the field. He therefule made +use of a full round of oaths, which were returned with interest, and +a sabre was finally resorted to, with some flourishes; but two +Spanish cudgels were threateningly held over the head of the +lieutenant by a couple of stout townsmen, while one of them, who was +a broad-shouldered beer-brewer, cried: "Don't make any more fuss +about the piece of goods beside you--she ain't worth it. The +miller's a good fellow, and what he says is true, and the watchman's +right too. A plain tradesman can hardly venture to marry now. All +the women wish to marry above their station. Instead of darning +stockings, they read romances; instead of working in the kitchen, +they run after comedies and concerts. Their houses are dirty, and +they are walking out, dressed like princesses; all they bring a +husband as a dowry are handsome dresses, lace ribbons, intrigues, +romances, and idleness! Sir, I speak from experience; I should have +married long since, if girls were not spoiled." + +The spectators laughed heartily, and the lieutenant slowly put back +his sword, saying peevishly: "It's a little too much to be obliged +to hear a sermon from the canaille." + +"What! Canaille!" cried a smith, who held the second cudgel. "Do you +call those canaille who feed you noble idlers by duties and taxes? +Your licentiousness is the cause of our domestic discords, and noble +ladies would not have so much cause to mourn if you had learned both +to pray and to work." + +Several young officers had gathered together already, and so had +some mechanics; and the boys, in the meantime, threw snowballs among +both parties, that their share in the fun might not be lost. The +first ball hit the noble lieutenant on the nose, and thinking it an +attack from the canaille, he raised his sabre. The fight began. + +The Prince, who had laughed amazingly at the first commencement of +the uproar, had betaken himself to another region, and felt quite +unconcerned as to the result. In the course of his wanderings, he +came to the palace of Count Bodenlos, the Minister of Finance, with +whom, as Philip had discovered at the masquerade, the Prince was not +on the best terms. The Countess had a large party. Julian saw the +lighted windows, and still feeling poetically disposed, he planted +himself opposite the balcony, and blew a peal on his horn. Several +ladies and gentlemen opened the shutters, because they had nothing +better to do, and listened to what he should say. + +"Watchman," cried one of them, "sing us a New Year's greeting!" + +This invitation brought a fresh accession of the Countess' party to +the windows. Julian called the hour in the usual manner, and sang, +loud enough to be distinctly heard inside: + + "Ye who groan with heavy debts, + And swift approaching failure frets, + Pray the Lord that He this hour + May raise you to some place of power; + And while the nation wants and suffers, + Fill your own from the people's coffers." + +"Outrageous!" screamed the lady of the Minister; "who is the +insolent wretch that dares such an insult?" + +"Pleashe your exshellenshy," answered Julian, imitating the Jewish +dialect in voice and manner, "I vash only intendsh to shing you a +pretty shong. I am de Shew Abraham Levi, vell known at dish court. +Your ladyship knowsh me ver' well." + +"How dare you tell such a lie, you villain?" exclaimed a voice, +trembling with rage, at one of the windows; "how dare you say you +are Abraham Levi? I am Abraham Levi! You are a cheat!" + +"Call the police!" cried the Countess. "Have that man arrested!" + +At these words the party confusedly withdrew from the windows. Nor +did the Prince remain where he was, but quickly effected his escape +through a cross-street. A crowd of servants rushed out of the +palace, led by the secretaries of the Finance Minister, and +commenced a search for the offender. "We have him!" cried some, as +the rest eagerly approached. It was in fact the real guardian of the +night, who was carefully perambulating his beat, in innocent +unconsciousness of any offence. In spite of all he could say, he was +disarmed and carried off to the watch-house, and charged with +causing a disturbance by singing libellous songs. The officer of the +police shook his head at the unaccountable event, and said: "We have +already one watchman in custody, whose verses about some girl caused +a very serious affray between the town's people and the garrison." + +The prisoner would confess to nothing, but swore prodigiously at the +tipsy young people who had disturbed him in the fulfilment of his +duty. One of the secretaries of the Finance Minister repeated the +whole verse to him. The soldiers standing about laughed aloud, but +the ancient watchman swore with tears in his eyes that he had never +thought of such a thing. While the examination was going on, and one +of the secretaries of the Finance Minister began to be doubtful +whether the poor watchman was really in fault or not, an uproar was +heard outside, and loud cries of "Watch, watch!" + +The guard rushed out, and in a few minutes the Field-Marshal entered +the office, accompanied by the captain of the guards on duty. "Have +that scoundrel locked up tight," said the Marshal, pointing behind +him--and two soldiers brought in a watchman, whom they held close +prisoner, and whom they had disarmed of his staff and horn. + +"Are the watchmen gone all mad to-night?" exclaimed the chief of +police. + +"I'll have the rascal punished for his infamous verses," said the +Field-Marshal angrily. + +"Your excellency," exclaimed the trembling watchman, "as true as I +live, I never made a verse in my born days." + +"Silence, knave!" roared the Marshal. "I'll have you hanged for +them! And if you contradict me again, I'll cut you in two on the +spot." + +The police officer respectfully observed to the Field-Marshal that +there must be some poetical epidemic among the watchmen, for three +had been brought before him within the last quarter of an hour, +accused of the same offence. + +"Gentlemen," said the Marshal to the officers who had accompanied +him, "since the scoundrel refuses to confess, it will be necessary +to take down from your remembrance the worlds of his atrocious +libel. Let them be written down while you still recollect them. +Come, who can say them?" + +The officer of police wrote to the dictation of the gentlemen who +remembered the whole verses between them: + + "On empty head a flaunting feather, + A long queue tied with tape and leather; + Padded breast and waist so little, + Make the soldier to a tittle; + By cards and dance, and dissipation, + He's sure to win a Marshal's station." + +"Do you deny, you rascal," cried the Field-Marshal to the terrified +watchman; "do you deny that you sang these infamous lines as I was +coming out of my house?" + +"They may sing it who like, it was not me," said the watchman. + +"Why did you run away, then, when you saw me?" + +"I did not run away." + +"What!" said the two officers who had accompanied the Marshal--"not +run away? Were you not out of breath when at last we laid hold of +you there by the market?" + +"Yes, but it was with fright at being so ferociously attacked. I am +trembling yet in every limb." + +"Lock the obstinate dog up till the morning," said the Marshal; "he +will come to his senses by that time!" With these words the wrathful +dignitary went away. These incidents had set the whole police force +of the city on the qui vive. In the next ten minutes two more +watchmen were brought to the office on similar charges with the +others. One was accused of singing a libel under the window of the +Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which it was insinuated that there +were no affairs to which he was more foreign than those of his own +department. The other had sung some verses before the door of the +Bishop's palace, informing him that the "lights of the church" were +by no means deficient in tallow, but gave a great deal more smoke +than illumination. The Prince, who had wrought the poor watchmen all +this woe, was always lucky enough to escape, and grew bolder and +bolder with every new attempt. The affair was talked of everywhere. +The Minister of Police, who was at cards with the King, was informed +of the insurrection among the hitherto peaceful watchmen, and, as a +proof of it, some of the verses were given to him in writing. The +King laughed very heartily at the doggerel verse about the miserable +police, who were always putting their noses into other people's +family affairs, but could never smell anything amiss in their own, +and were therefore lawful game, and ordered the next poetical +watchman who should be taken to be brought before him. He broke up +the card-table, for he saw that the Minister of Police had lost his +good humor. + + + + +X. + + +In the dancing-hall next to the card-room, Philip had looked at his +watch, and discovered that the time of his appointment with Rose at +St. Gregory's had nearly come. He was by no means sorry at the +prospect of giving back his silk mantle and plumed bonnet to his +substitute, for he began to find high life not quite to his taste. +As he was going to the door, the Negro once more came up to him, and +whispered: "Your Highness, Duke Herrman is seeking for you +everywhere." Philip shook his head impatiently and hurried out, +followed by the Negro. When they got to the ante-chamber, the Negro +cried out, "By Heaven, here comes the Duke!"--and slipped back into +the hall. + +A tall black mask walked fiercely up to Philip, and said: "Stay a +moment, sir; I've a word or two to say to you; I've been seeking for +you long." + +"Quick, then," said Philip, "for I have no time to lose." + +"I would not waste a moment, sir; I have sought you long enough; you +owe me satisfaction, you have injured me infamously." + +"Not that I am aware of." + +"You don't know me, perhaps," said the Duke, lifting up his mask; +"now that you see me, your own conscience will save me any more +words. I demand satisfaction. You and the cursed Salmoni have +deceived me!" + +"I know nothing about it," said Philip. + +"You got up that shameful scene in the cellar of the baker's +daughter. It was at your instigation that Colonel Kalt made an +assault upon me with a cudgel." + +"There's not a word of truth in what you say." + +"What!--you deny it? The Lady Blankenswerd, the Marshal's lady, was +an eye-witness of it all, and she has told me every circumstance." + +"She has told your grace a fancy tale--I have had nothing to do with +it; if you made an ass of yourself in the baker's cellar, that was +your own fault." + +"I ask, once more, will you give me satisfaction? If not, I will +expose you. Follow me instantly to the King. You shall either fight +with me, or--go to his Majesty." + +Philip was nonplussed. "Your grace," he said, "I have no wish either +to fight with you or to go to the King." + +This was indeed the truth, for he was afraid he should be obliged to +unmask, and would be punished, of course, for the part he had +played. He therefore tried to get off by every means, and watched +the door to seize a favorable moment for effecting his escape. The +Duke, on the other hand, observed the uneasiness of the Prince (as +he thought him), and waxed more valorous every minute. At last he +seized poor Philip by the arm, and was dragging him into the hall. + +"What do you want with me?" said Philip, sorely frightened, and +shook off the Duke. + +"To the King. He shall hear how shamefully you insult a guest at his +court." + +"Very good," replied Philip, who saw no hope of escape, except by +continuing the character of the Prince. "Very good. Come, then, I am +ready. By good luck I happen to have the agreement with me between +you and the baker's daughter, in which you promise--" + +"Nonsense! stuff!" answered the Duke, "that was only a piece of fun, +which may be allowed surely with a baker's daughter. Show it if you +like, I will explain all that." + +But it appeared that the Duke was not quite so sure of the +explanation, for he no longer urged Philip to go before the King. +He, however, insisted more earnestly than ever on getting into his +carriage, and going that moment--Heaven knows where--to decide the +matter with sword and pistol, an arrangement which did not suit our +watchman at all. Philip pointed out the danger and consequences of +such a proceeding, but the Duke overruled all objections. He had +made every preparation, and when it was over he would leave the city +that same night. + +"If you are not the greatest coward in Europe, you will follow me to +the carriage--Prince!" + +"I--am--no--prince," at last stuttered Philip, now driven to +extremities. + +"You are! Everybody recognized you at the ball. I know you by your +hat. You sha'n't escape me." + +Philip lifted up his mask, and showed the Duke his face. + +"Now, then, am I a prince?" + +Duke Herrman, when he saw the countenance of a man he had never seen +before, started back, and stood gazing as if he had been petrified. +To have revealed his secrets to a perfect stranger! 'T was horrible +beyond conception! But before he had recovered from his surprise, +Philip had opened the door and effected his escape. + + + + +XI. + + +The moment he found himself at liberty he took off his hat and +feathers, and wrapping them in his silk mantle, rushed through the +streets towards St. Gregory's, carrying them under his arm. There +stood Rose already, in a corner of the high church door, expecting +his arrival. + +"Ah, Philip, dear Philip," she said, pressing his hand, "how happy +you have made me! how lucky we are! I was very uneasy to get away +from my friend's house, and I have been waiting here this quarter of +an hour, but never cared for the frost and snow--my happiness was so +great: I am so glad you're come back." + +"And I too, dear Rose, thank God that I have got back to you. May +the eagles fly away with these trinkum-trankums of great people. But +I'll tell you some other time of the scenes I've had. Tell me now, +my darling, how you are, and whether you love me still!" + +"Ah! Philip, you've become a great man now, and it would be better +to ask if you still care anything for me." + +"Thunder! How came you to know so soon that I've been a great man?" + +"Why, you told me yourself. Ah! Philip, Philip, I only hope you +won't be proud, now that you've grown so rich. I am but a poor girl, +and not good enough for you now--and I have been thinking, Philip, +if you forsake me, I would rather have had you continue a poor +gardener. I should fret myself to death if you forsook me." + +"What are you talking about, Rose? 'T is true that for one half-hour +I have been a prince; 't was but a joke, and I want no more of such +jokes in my life. Now I am a watchman again, and as poor as ever. To +be sure, I have five thousand dollars in my pocket, that I got from +a Mameluke; that would make us rich, but unfortunately they don't +belong to me!" + +"You're speaking nonsense, Philip," said Rose, giving him the purse +of gold that the Prince had given her. "Here, take back your money, +'t is too heavy for my bag." + +"What should I do with all this gold? Where did you get it, Rose?" + +"You won it in the lottery, Philip." + +"What! have I won? and they told me at the office my number was not +yet out. I had hoped and wished that it might come to give us a +setting up in the world; but gardener Redman said to me as I went a +second time towards the office: 'Poor Philip--a blank.' Huzzah! I +have won! Now I will buy a large garden and marry you. How much is +it?" + +"Are you crazy, Philip, or have you drunk too much? You must know +better than I can tell you how much it is. I only looked at it +quietly under the table at my friend's, and was frightened to see so +many glittering coins, all of gold, Philip. Ah! then I thought, no +wonder Philip was so impertinent--for, you know, you were very +impertinent, Philip,--but I can't blame you for it. Oh, I could +throw my own arms round your neck and cry for joy." + +"Rose, if you will do it I shall make no objections. But there's +some misunderstanding here. Who was it that gave you this money, and +told you it was my prize in the lottery? I have my ticket safe in my +drawer at home, and nobody has asked me for it." + +"Ah! Philip, don't play your jokes on me! you yourself told me it +half an hour ago, and gave me the purse with your own hand." + +"Rose--try to recollect yourself. This morning I saw you at mass, +and we agreed to meet here to-night, but since that time I have not +seen you for an instant." + +"No, except half an hour ago, when I saw you at Steinman's door. But +what is that bundle under your arm? why are you without a hat this +cold night? Philip! Philip! be careful. All that gold may turn your +brain. You've been in some tavern, Philip, and have drunk more than +you should. But tell me, what is in the bundle? Why--here's a +woman's silk gown.--Philip, Philip, where have you been?" + +"Certainly not with you half an hour ago; you want to play tricks on +me, I fancy; where have you got that money, I should like to know?" + +"Answer me first, Philip, where you got that woman's gown. Where +have you been, sir?" + +They were both impatient for explanations, both a little jealous-- +and finally began to quarrel. + + + + +XII. + + +But as this was a lovers' quarrel, it ended as lovers' quarrels +invariably do. When Rose took out her white pocket-handkerchief, put +it to her beautiful eyes, and turned away her head as the sighs +burst forth from her breast, this sole argument proved instantly +that she was in the right, and Philip decidedly in the wrong. He +confessed he was to blame for everything, and told her that he had +been at a masked ball, and that his bundle was not a silk gown, but +a man's mantle and a hat and feathers. And now he had to undergo a +rigid examination. Every maiden knows that a masked ball is a +dangerous maze for unprotected hearts. It is like plunging into a +whelming sea of dangers, and you will be drowned if you are not a +good swimmer. Rose did not consider Philip the best swimmer in the +world--it is difficult to say why. He denied having danced, but when +she asked him, he could not deny having talked with some feminine +masks. He related the whole story to her, yet would constantly add: +"The ladies were of high rank, and they took me for another." Rose +doubted him a little, but she suppressed her resentment until he +said they took him for Prince Julian. Then she shook her little +head, and still more when she heard that Prince Julian was +transformed into a watchman while Philip was at the ball. But he +smothered her doubts by saying that in a few minutes the Prince +would appear at St. Gregory's Church and exchange his watch-coat for +the mask. + +Rose, in return, related all her adventure; but when she came to the +incident of the kiss-- + +"Hold there!" cried Philip; "I didn't kiss you, nor, I am sure, did +you kiss me in return." + +"I am sure 'twas INTENDED for you, then," replied Rose, whilst her +lover rubbed his hair down, for fear it should stand on end. + +"If 'twas not you," continued Rose, anxiously, "I will believe all +that you have been telling me." + +But as she went on in her story a light seemed to break in on her, +and she exclaimed: "And, after all, I do not believe it was Prince +Julian in your coat!" + +Philip was certain it was, and cried: "The rascal! He stole my +kisses--now I understand! That's the reason why he wanted to take my +place and gave me his mask!" And now the stories he had heard at the +masquerade came into Philip's head. He asked if anybody had called +at her mother's to offer her money; if any gentleman was much about +Milk Street; if she saw any one watching her at church; but to all +his questions her answers were so satisfactory, that it was +impossible to doubt her total ignorance of all the machinations of +the rascally courtiers. He warned her against all the advances of +philanthropical and compassionate princes--and Rose warned him +against the dangers of a masked ball and adventures with ladies of +rank, by which many young men have been made unhappy--and as +everything was now forgiven, in consideration of the kiss not been +wilfully bestowed, he was on the point of claiming for himself the +one of which be had been cheated, when his designs were interrupted +by an unexpected incident. A man out of breath with his rapid flight +rushed against them. By the great-coat, staff, and horn, Philip +recognized his deputy. He, on the other hand, snatched at the silk +cloak and hat. "Ah! sir," said Philip, "here are your things. I +would not change places with you again in this world! I should be no +gainer by the operation." + +"Quick! quick!" cried the Prince, and threw the watchman's apparel +on the snow and fastened on his mask, hat, and cloak. Philip +returned to his old beaver and coat, and took up the lantern and +staff. Rose had shrunk back into the door. + +"I promised thee a dole, comrade--but it's a positive fact--I have +not got my purse." + +"I've got it here," said Philip, and held it out to him. "You gave +it to my intended there; but, please your Highness, I must forbid +all presents in that quarter." + +"Comrade, keep what you've got, and be off as quick as you can. You +are not safe here." + +The Prince was flying off as he spoke, but Philip held him by the +mantle. + +"One thing, my Lord, we have to settle--" + +"Run! watchman! I tell you. They're in search of you." + +"I have nothing to run for. But your purse, here--" + +"Keep it, I tell you. Fly! if you can run." + +"And a billet of Marshal Blankenswerd's for five thousand dollars--" + +"Ha! what the plague do you know about Marshal Blankenswerd?" + +"He said it was a gambling debt he owed you. He and his lady start +to-night for their estates in Poland." + +"Are you mad? how do you know that? Who gave you the message for +me?" + +"And, your Highness, the Minister of Finance will pay all your debts +to Abraham Levi and others if you will use your influence with the +King to keep him in office." + +"Watchman! you've been tampering with Old Nick." + +"But I rejected the offer." + +"YOU rejected the offer of the Minister?" + +"Yes, your Highness. And, moreover, I have entirely reconciled the +Baroness Bonau with the Chamberlain Pilzou." + +"Which of us two is a fool?" + +"Another thing, your Highness. Signora Rollina is a bad woman. I +have heard of some love affairs of hers. You are deceived--I +therefore thought her not worthy of your attentions, and put off the +meeting to-night at her house." + +"Signora Rollina! How did you come to hear of her?" + +"Another thing. Duke Herrman is terribly enraged about that business +in the cellar. He is going to complain of you to the King." + +"The Duke! Who told you about that?" + +"Himself. You are not secure yet--but I don't think he'll go to the +King, for I threatened him with his agreement with the baker's +daughter. But he wants to fight you; be on yoor guard." + +"Once for all--do you know how the Duke was informed of all this?" + +"Through the Marshal's wife. She told all, and confessed she had +acted the witch in the ghost-raising." + +The Prince took Philip by the arm. "My good fellow," he said, "you +are no watchman." He turned his face towards a lamp, and started +when he saw the face of this strange man. + +"Are you possessed by Satan, or...Who are you?" said Julian, who +had now become quite sober. + +"I am Philip Stark, the gardener, son of old Gottlieb Stark, the +watchman," said Philip, quietly. + + + + +XIII. + + +"Lay hold on him! That's the man!" cried many voices, and Philip, +Rose, and Julian saw themselves surrounded by six lusty servants of +the police. Rose screamed, Philip took her hand, and told her not to +be alarmed. The Prince clapped his hand on Philip's shoulder. + +"'Tis a stupid business," he said, "and you should have escaped when +I told you. But don't be frightened; there shall no harm befall +you." + +"That's to be seen," said one of the captors. "In the meantime he +must come along with us." + +"Where to?" inquired Philip; "I am doing my duty. I am watchman of +this beat." + +"That's the reason we take you. Come." + +The Prince stepped forward. "Let the man go, good people," he said, +and searched in all his pockets for his purse. As he found it +nowhere, he was going to whisper to Philip to give it him, but the +police tore them apart, and one of them shouted: "On! We can't stop +to talk here." + +"The masked fellow must go with us too; he is suspicious-looking." + +"Not so," exclaimed Philip; "you are in search of the watchman. Here +I am, if you choose to answer for taking me from my duty. But let +this gentleman go." + +"We don't want any lessons from you in our duty," replied the +sergeant; "march! all of them!" + +"The damsel too?" asked Philip; "you don't want her surely!" + +"No, she may go; but we must see her face, and take down her name +and residence; it may be of use." + +"She is the daughter of Widow Bittner," said Philip; and was not a +little enraged when the whole party took Rose to a lamp and gazed on +her tearful face. + +"Go home, Rose, and don't be alarmed on my account," said Philip, +trying to comfort her; "my conscience is clear." + +But Rose sobbed so as to move even the policemen to pity her. The +Prince, availing himself of the opportunity, attempted to spring out +of his captors' hands, but one of the men was a better jumper than +he, and put an obstacle in his way. + +"Hallo!" cried the sergeant, "this conscience is not quite so clear; +hold him firm; march!" + +"Whither?" said the Prince. + +"Directly to the Minister of Police." + +"Listen," said the Prince, seriously but affably, for he did not +like the turn affairs were taking, as he was anxious to keep his +watchman frolic concealed. "I have nothing to do with this business. +I belong to the court. If you venture to force me to go with you, +you will be sorry for it when you are feasting on bread and water +tomorrow in prison." + +"For Heaven's sake, let the gentleman go," cried Philip; "I give you +my word he is a great lord, and will make you repent your conduct. +He is--" + +"Hush; be silent," interrupted Julian; "tell no human being who I +am. Whatever happens keep my name a secret. Do you hear? an entire +secret from every one!" + +"We do our duty," said the sergeant, "and nobody can punish us for +that; you may go to a prison yourself; we have often had fellows +speak as high, and threaten as fiercely; forward!" + +"Men! take advice; he is a distinguished man at court." + +"If it were a king himself he should go with us. He is a suspicious +character, and we must do our duty." + +While the contest about the Prince went on, a carriage, with eight +horses and outriders, bearing flambeaux, drove past the church. + +"Stop!" said a voice from the carriage, as it was passing the crowd +of policemen who had the Prince in custody. + +The carriage stopped. The door flew open, and a gentleman, with a +brilliant star on the breast of his surtout, leaped out. He pushed +through the party, and examined the Prince from head to foot. + +"I thought," he said, "I knew the bird by his feathers. Mask, who +are you?" + +Julian was taken by surprise, for in the inquirer he recognized Duke +Herrman. + +"Answer me," roared Herrman in a voice of thunder. + +Julian shook his head, and made signs to the Duke to desist, but he +pressed the question he upon him, being determined to know who it he +had accosted at the masquerade. He asked the policemen. They stood +with heads uncovered, and told him they had orders to bring the +watchman instantly before the Minister of Police, for he had been +singing wicked verses, they had heard some of them; that the mask +had given himself out as some great lord of the court, but that they +believed that to be a false pretence, and therefore considered it +their duty to take him into custody. + +"The man is not of the court," answered the Duke; "take my word for +that. He himself clandestinely into the ball, and himself off for +Prince Julian. I forced him to unmask, and detected the impostor, +but he escaped me. I have informed the Lord Chamberlain; off with +him to the palace! You have made a fine prize!" + +With these words the Duke strode back to his carriage, and once more +urging them not to let the villains escape, gave orders to drive on. + +The Prince saw no chance left. To reveal himself now would be to +make his night's adventures the talk of the whole city. He thought +it better to disclose his incognito to the Chamberlain or the +Minister of Police. "Since it must be so, come on then," he said; +and the party marched forward, keeping a firm hand on the two +prisoners. + + + + +XIV. + + +Phipip was not sure whether he was bewitched, or whether the whole +business was not a dream, for it was a night such as he had never +passed before in his life. He had nothing to blame himself for +except that he had changed clothes with the Prince, and then, +whether he would or no, been forced to support his character. He +felt pretty safe, for it was the princely watchman who had been at +fault, and he saw no occasion for his being committed. His heart +beat, however, when they came to the palace. His coat, horn, and +staff were taken from him. Julian spoke a few words to a young +nobleman, and immediately the policemen were sent away. The Prince +ascended the stairs, and Philip had to follow. + +"Fear nothing," said Julian, and left him. Philip was taken to a +little ante-room, where he had to wait a good while. At last one of +the royal grooms came to him, and said: "Come this way; the King +will see you." + +Philip was distracted with fear. His knees shook so that he could +hardly walk. He was led into a splendid chamber. The old King was +sitting at a table, and laughing long and load; near him stood +Prince Julian without a mask. Besides these, there was nobody in the +room. + +The King looked at Philip with a good-humored expression. "Tell me +all--without missing a syllable--that you have done to-night." + +Philip took courage from the condescension of the old King, and told +the whole story from beginning to end. He had the good sense, +however, to conceal all he had heard among the courtiers that could +turn to the prejudice of the Prince. The King laughed again and +again, and at last took two gold-pieces from his pocket and gave +them to Philip. "Here, my son, take these, but say not a word of +your night's adventures. Await your trial; no harm shall cone of it +to you. Now go, my friend, and remember what I have told you." + +Philip knelt down at the King's feet and kissed his hand as he +stammered some words of thanks. When he arose, and was leaving the +room, Prince Julian said: "I beseech your Majesty to allow the young +man to wait a few minutes outside. I have some compensation to make +to him for the inconvenience he has suffered." + +The King, smiling, nodded his assent, and Philip left the apartment. + +"Prince!" said the King, holding up his forefinger in a threatening +manner to his son, "'tis well for you that you told me nothing but +the truth. For this time I must pardon your wild scrape, but if such +a thing happens again you will offend me. There will be no excuse +for you! I must take Duke Herrman in hand myself. I shall not be +sorry if we can get quit of him. As to the Ministers of Finance and +Police. I must have further proofs of what you say. Go now, and give +some present to the gardener. He has shown more discretion in your +character than you have in his." + +The Prince took leave of the King, and having changed his dress in +an ante-room, sent for Philip to go to his palace with him; there he +made him go over--word for word--everything that had occurred. When +Philip had finished his narrative, the Prince clapped him on the +shoulder and said: "Philip, listen! You're a sensible fellow. I can +confide in you, and I am satisfied with you. What you have done in +my name with the Chamberlain Pilzou, the Countess Bonau, the Marshal +and his wife, Colonel Kalt, and the Minister of Finance--I will +maintain--as if I had done it myself. But, on the other hand, YOU +must take all the blame of my doings with the horn and staff. As a +penalty for verses, you shall lose your office of watchman. You +shall be my head-gardener from this date, and have charge of my two +gardens at Heimleben and Quellenthal. The money I gave your bride +she shall keep as her marriage portion,--and I give you the order of +Marshal Blankenswerd for five thousand dollars, as a mark of my +regard. Go, now; be faithful and true!" + +Who could be happier than Philip! He almost flew to Rose's house. +She had not yet gone to bed, but sat with her mother beside a table, +and was weeping. He threw the purse on the table and said: "Rose, +there is thy dowry! and here are five thousand dollars, which are +mine! As a watchman I have transgressed, and shall therefore lose my +father's situation; but the day after to-morrow I shall go, as head- +gardener of Prince Julian, to Heimleben. And you, mother and Rose, +must go with me. My father and mother also. I can support you all. +Huzza! Gods send all good people such a happy New Year!" + +Mother Bittner hardly knew whether to believe Philip or not, +notwithstanding she saw the gold. But when he told her how it had +all happened--though with some reservations--she wept with joy, +embraced him, laid her her daughter on his breast, and then danced +about the room in a perfect ecstasy, "Do thy father and mother know +this, Philip?" she said. And when he answered no, she cried: "Rose, +kindle the fire, put over the water, and make some coffee for all of +us." She then wrapped herself in her little woollen shawl and left +the house. + +But Rose lay on Philip's breast, and forgot all about the wood and +water. And there she yet lay when Mother Bittner returned with old +Gottlieb and Mother Katharine. They surrounded their children and +blessed them. Mother Bittner saw if she wanted coffee, she would be +obliged to cook it herself. + +Philip lost his situation as watchman. Rose became his wife in two +weeks; their parents went with them to--; but this does not belong +to the adventures of a New Year's Eve, a night more ruinous to the +Minister of Finance than any one else; neither have we heard of any +more pranks by the wild Prince Julian. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, STORIES BY FOREIGN AUTHORS: GERMAN *** + +This file should be named s4fag10.txt or s4fag10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, s4fag11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, s4fag10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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