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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5584.txt b/5584.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37d5549 --- /dev/null +++ b/5584.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1591 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook In The Blue Pike, by Georg Ebers, v1 +#145 in our series by Georg Ebers + +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: In The Blue Pike, Volume 1. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5584] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 17, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE BLUE PIKE, BY EBERS, V1 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +IN THE BLUE PIKE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 1. + + +Translated from the German by Mary T. Safford + + + +CHAPTER I. + +"May a thunderbolt strike you!" The imprecation suited the rough fellow +who uttered it. He had pointed out of doors as he spoke, and scarcely +lowered the strange tones of his voice, yet of all the rabble who +surrounded him only two persons understood his meaning--a fading, sickly +girl, and the red-haired woman, only a few years her senior, who led the +swearing man by a chain, like a tame bear. + +The Nuremberg magistrates had had Cyriax's tongue cropped for gross +blasphemy, and listeners could scarcely comprehend the words he mangled +in his gasping speech. + +The red-haired woman dropped the knife with which she was slicing bread +and onions into a pot, and looked at her companion with an anxious, +questioning glance. + +"Nuremberg Honourables," he stammered as fast as he could, snatched his +wife's shawl from her shoulders, and drew it over his unkempt head. + +The woman beckoned to their travelling companions--a lame fellow of +middle age who, propped on crutches, leaned against the wall, an older +pock-marked man with a bloated face, and the sickly girl--calling to them +in the harsh, metallic voice peculiar to hawkers and elderly singers at +fairs. + +"Help Cyriax hide. You first, Jungel! They needn't recognise him as +soon as they get in. Nuremberg magistrates are coming. Aristocratic +blood-suckers of the Council. Who knows what may still be on the tally +for us?" + +Kuni, the pale-faced girl, wrapped her bright-coloured garment tighter +around her mutilated left leg, and obeyed. Lame Jungel, too, prepared to +fulfil red-haired Gitta's wish. + +But Raban had glanced out, and hastily drew the cloth jerkin, patched +with green and blue linen, closer through his belt, ejaculating anxiously: + +"Young Groland of the Council. I know him." + +This exclamation induced the other vagabonds to glide along the wall to +the nearest door, intending to slip out. + +"A Groland?" asked Gitta, Cyriax's wife, cowering as if threatened with a +blow from an invisible hand. "It was he--" + +"He?" laughed the chain-bearer, while he crouched beside her, drawing +himself into the smallest space possible. "No, Redhead! The devil +dragged the man who did that down to the lower regions long ago, on +account of my tongue. It's his son. The younger, the sharper. This +stripling made Casper Rubling,--[Dice, in gambler's slang]--poor wretch, +pay for his loaded dice with his eyesight." + +He thrust his hand hurriedly into his jerkin as he spoke, and gave Gitta +something which he had concealed there. It was a set of dice, but, with +ready presence of mind, she pressed them so hard into the crumb of the +loaf of bread which she had just cut that it entirely concealed them. + +All this had passed wholly unnoticed in the corner of the long, wide +room, for all the numerous travellers whom it sheltered were entirely +occupied with their own affairs. Nothing was understood except what was +said between neighbour and neighbour, for a loud uproar pervaded the +tavern of The Blue Pike. + +It was one of the most crowded inns, being situated on the main ferry at +Miltenberg, where those journeying from Nuremberg, Augsburg, and other +South German cities, on their way to Frankfort and the Lower Rhine, +rested and exchanged the saddle for the ship. Just at the present time +many persons of high and low degree were on their way to Cologne, whither +the Emperor Maximilian, having been unable to come in April to Trier on +the Moselle, had summoned the Reichstag. + +The opening would take place in a few days, and attracted not only +princes, counts, and knights, exalted leaders and more modest servants of +the Church, ambassadors from the cities, and other aristocrats, but also +honest tradesfolk, thriving money-lenders with the citizen's cloak and +the yellow cap of the Jew, vagrants and strollers of every description, +who hoped to practise their various feats to the best advantage, or to +fill their pockets by cheating and robbery. + +This evening many had gathered in the spacious taproom of The Blue Pike. +Now those already present were to be joined by the late arrivals whom +Cyriax had seen ride up. + +It was a stately band. Four aristocratic gentlemen at the head of the +troop were followed by an escort of twenty-five Nuremberg mercenaries, a +gay company whose crimson coats, with white slashes on the puffed +sleeves, presented a showy spectacle. Their helmets and armour glittered +in the bright light of the setting sun of the last day of July, as they +turned their horses in front of the wide gateway of The Blue Pike to ride +into Miltenberg and ask lodgings of the citizens. + +The trampling of hoofs, the shouts of command, and the voices of the +gentlemen and their attendants outside attracted many guests to the doors +and windows of the long, whitewashed building. + +The strollers, however, kept the place at theirs without difficulty; no +one desired to come near them. + +The girl with the bandaged foot had now also turned her face toward the +street. As her gaze rested on the youngest of the Nuremberg dignitaries, +her pale cheeks flushed, and, as if unconsciously, the exclamation: +"It is he!" fell from her lips. + +"Who?" asked red-haired Gitta, and was quickly answered in a low tone + +"I mean Lienhard, Herr Groland." + +"The young one," stuttered Cyriax. + +Then, raising the shawl, he continued inquisitively: + +"Do you know him? For good or for evil?" + +The girl, whose face, spite of its sunken cheeks and the dark rings under +the deep-set blue eyes, still bore distinct traces of former beauty, +started and answered sharply, though not very loudly, for speech was +difficult: + +"Good is what you call evil, and evil is what you call good. My +acquaintance with Lienhard, Herr Groland, is my own affair, and, you may +be sure, will remain mine." She glanced contemptuously away from the +others out of doors, but Cyriax, spite of his mutilated tongue, retorted +quickly and harshly: + +"I always said so. She'll die a saint yet." Then grasping Kuni's arm +roughly, he dragged her down to him, and whispered jeeringly: + +"Ratz has a full purse and sticks to his offer for the cart. If you put +on airs long, he'll get it and the donkey, too, and you'll be left here. +What was it about Groland? You can try how you'll manage on your stump +without us, if we're too bad for you." + +"We are not under eternal obligations to you on the child's account," +added red-haired Gitta in a gentler tone. "Don't vex my husband, or +he'll keep his word about the cart, and who else will be bothered with a +useless creature like you?" + +The girl lowered her eyes and looked at her crippled limb. + +How would she get on without the cart, which received her when the pain +grew too sharp and the road was too hard and long? + +So she turned to the others again, saying soothingly: + +"It all happened in the time before I fell." Then she looked out of +doors once more, but she did not find what she sought. The Nuremberg +travellers had ridden through the broad gateway into the large square +courtyard, surrounded by stables on three sides. When Cyriax and his +wife again called to her, desiring to know what had passed between her +and Groland, she clasped her hands around her knees, fixed her eyes on +the gaystuffs wound around the stump where her foot had been amputated, +and in a low, reluctant tone, continued: + +"You want to learn what I have to do with Herr Groland? It was about six +years ago, in front of St. Sebald's church, in Nuremberg. A wedding was +to take place. The bridegroom was one of the Council--Lienhard Groland. +The marriage was to be a very quiet one--the bridegroom's father lay +seriously ill. Yet there could have been no greater throng at the +Emperor's nuptials. I stood in the midst of the crowd. A rosary dropped +from the belt of the fat wife of a master workman--she was decked out +like a peacock--and fell just in front of me. It was a costly ornament, +pure gold and Bohemian garnets. I did not let it lie there." + +"A miracle!" chuckled Cyriax, but the girl was obliged to conquer a +severe attack of coughing before she could go on with her story. + +"The chaplet fairly burned my hand. I would gladly have given it back, +but the woman was no longer before me. Perhaps I might have returned it, +but I won't say so positively. However, there was no time to do it; the +wedding party was coming, and on that account But what is the use of +talking? While I was still gazing, the owner discovered her loss. +An officer seized me, and so I was taken to prison and the next day was +brought before the magistrates. Herr Groland was one of them, and, since +it wasn't certain that I would not have restored the property I found, he +interceded in my behalf. When the others still wished to punish me, he +besought my release because it was my first offence. So we met, and when +I admit that I am grateful to him for it, you know all." + +"H'm," replied Cyriax, giggling, as he nudged his wife in the side and +made remarks concerning what he had just heard which induced even red- +haired Gitta to declare that the loss of his tongue was scarcely a +misfortune. + +Kuni indignantly turned her back upon the slanderer and gazed out of the +window again. The Nuremberg Honourables had disappeared, but several +grooms were unbuckling the knapsacks from the horses and carrying them +into the house. The aristocratic travellers were probably cleansing +themselves from the dust of the road before they entered the taproom. + +Kuni thought so, and gazed sometimes into vacancy, sometimes into her own +lap. Her eyes had a dreamy light, for the incident which she had just +related rose before her mind with perfect clearness. + +It seemed as though she were gazing a second time at the wedding +procession which was approaching St. Sebald's, and the couple who led it. + +Never had she beheld anything fairer than the bride with the myrtle +wreath on her beautifully formed head, whence a delicate lace veil +floated over her long, thick, golden hair. She could not help gazing at +her as if spellbound. When she moved forward, holding her bridegroom's +hand, she appeared to float over the rice and flowers strewn in her path +to the church--it was in February. As Kuni saw the bride raise her large +blue eyes to her lover's so tenderly and yet so modestly, and the +bridegroom thank her with a long joyous look of love, she wondered what +must be the feelings of a maiden who, so pure, so full of ardent love, +and so fervently beloved in return, was permitted to approach the house +of God, accompanied by a thousand pious wishes, with the first and only +man whom she loved, and to whom she wished to devote herself for her +whole life. Again, as at that time, a burning thrill ran through her +limbs. Then a bitter smile hovered around her lips. + +She had asked herself whether the heart of one who experienced such joys, +to whom such a fate was allotted, would not burst from sheer joy. Now +the wish, the hope, and every new resolve for good or ill were alike +over. At that hour, before the door of St. Sebald's, she had been +capable of all, all, perhaps even the best things, if any one had +cherished her in his heart as Lienhard Groland loved the beautiful woman +at his side. + +She could not help remembering the spell with which the sight of those +two had forced her to watch their every movement, to gaze at them, and +them only, as if the world contained nothing else. How often she had +repeated to herself that in that hour she was bewitched, whether by him +or by her she could not decide. As the throng surged forward, she had +been crowded against the woman who lost the rosary. She had not had the +faintest thought of it when the bailiff suddenly snatched her from her +rapturous gazing to stern reality, seizing with a rude grip the hand that +held the jewel. Then, pursued by the reviling and hissing of the +populace, she had been taken to prison. + +Now she again saw herself amid the vile rabble assembled there, again +felt how eagerly she inhaled the air as she was led across the courtyard +of the townhall into the presence of the magistrates. Oh, if she could +but take such a long, deep breath of God's pure air as she did then! +But that time was past. Her poor, sunken chest would no longer permit +it. Then she fancied that she was again standing before the judges, who +were called The Five. + +Four magistrates sat with the Pfander--[Chief of police]--at the table +covered with a green cloth, but one, who surpassed all the others both in +stature and in manly beauty, was the selfsame Lienhard Groland, who +yesterday had led to the altar the wonderfully lovely girl who had +bewitched her. She felt how the blood had mounted into her cheeks when +she again saw him who could know nothing of her except that she was a +jade, who had stolen another person's property. Yet her glance soon met +his, and he must have been blind had he not read in the radiant lustre of +her blue eyes, which had early learned to woo applause and promise love, +what he was to her, and how gratefully her heart throbbed for him. + +After the other gentlemen had treated her harshly, and threatened to put +her in the stocks, he interceded for her, and entreated his brother +magistrates to let mercy, in this instance, take the place of justice, +because she was so young, and perhaps had intended to return the rosary +later. Finally he bent smiling toward his companions and said something +to them in a subdued tone. The voice was so low that his intention to +keep her in ignorance of it was evident. But Kuni's hearing had been as +keen as a bird's, and not a word escaped her. He could not help +regarding it as an evil omen for him and his young wife if a girl, +hitherto unpunished, should be plunged into disgrace and perhaps made +miserable throughout the rest of a long life on account of his wedding +procession. + +How high her heart had throbbed at this request, and when it was granted, +the discussion closed, and she herself informed that she would be set +free, she hurried after her preserver, who had left the Council chamber +with the other magistrates, to thank him. He permitted her to detain +him, and when she found herself alone in his presence, at first, with +streaming eyes, she was unable to utter a word. He laid his hand kindly +on her shoulder to soothe her, and then listened to her assurance that, +though she was a strolling rope-dancer, she had never taken other +people's property. + +Now she closed her eyes to have a clearer vision of the picture evoked by +memory, which rose so vividly before her. Again she saw herself seize +his hand to kiss it humbly, yet with fervent devotion; again she met the +patronizing but friendly smile with which he withdrew it, and a thrill of +happiness ran through every nerve, for she imagined she once more felt +his slender white hand soothingly stroke her black hair and burning +cheeks, as if she were a sick child who needed help. Later years had +never granted her aught more blissful than that moment. + +As had often happened before, the memory of it overmastered her with such +power that she could not escape it, but recalled his every look and +movement. Meanwhile, she imagined that she heard his voice, whose deep, +pure tones had pleased her ear, alive to harmony, more than any to which +she had ever listened, counselling her to give up her vagrant life, and +again received his assurance that he pitied her, and it would grieve him +if she, who seemed worthy of a better fate, should be ruined, body and +soul, so young. Thus absorbed, she neither saw nor listened to anything +that was occurring near her or in the large room of the tavern, but stood +gazing into vacancy as if rapt away from earth. + +True, Cyriax and the others had lowered their voices, for they were +talking about her and the aristocratic couple on whose wedding day Kuni +had stolen the rosary. + +Raban, a tall, lank vagabond with red-rimmed eyes, whose ugly face +bristled with a half-grown black beard, had a few more particulars to +give concerning the bride and bridegroom. He wandered about the world +and, whenever he stretched out his hand to beg, gave the pretext that he +was collecting the price of blood required for a man whom he had killed +in self-defence, that his own head might not fall under the axe of the +executioner. His dead father had heated the furnaces in the smelting +works at Eschenbach, near Nuremberg, and the bride was Katharina, the +eldest of the three daughters of the owner, old Harsdorffer of the +Council. He had been a man of steel and iron, and opposed Lienhard +Groland's father at every point, not excepting even their official +business. When he discovered that the young man was carrying on a love +affair with his daughter, he had summoned him before a court of justice +for a breach of the law which forbade minors to betroth themselves +without parental consent. The magistrates sentenced Lienhard to five +years' exile from the city but, through the Emperor's mediation, he was +spared the punishment. Old Harsdorffer afterward succeeded in keeping +the suitor away from his daughter a long time, but finally relinquished +his opposition. + +"The devil came soon enough and broke his stiff neck," added Cyriax, on +whom the vagabond's story had had the same effect as a red rag upon a +bull. Spite of the old slanderer's mutilated tongue, invectives flowed +fast enough from his lips when he thought of young Frau Groland's father. +If the Groland outside resembled his father-in-law, he would like to +drink him a pledge that should burn like the plague and ruin. + +He snatched a flask from his pocket as he spoke, and after a long pull +and a still longer "A-ah!" he stammered: + +"I've been obliged to bid farewell to my tongue, yet it feels as if it +were sticking in my throat like the dry sole of a shoe. That's what +comes from talking in this dog-day heat." + +He looked into the empty bottle and was about to send Kuni out to fill it +again. In turning to do so he saw her pale face, wan with suffering, but +which now glowed with a happy light that lent it a strange beauty. How +large her blue eyes were! When he had picked her up in Spain she was +already a cripple and in sore distress. But Groland probably knew what +he was about when he released her. She must have been a pretty creature +enough at that time, and he knew that before her fall she was considered +one of the most skilful rope-dancers. + +An elderly woman with a boy, whose blindness helped her to arouse +compassion, was crouching by Raban's side, and had just been greeted by +Kuni as an old acquaintance. They had journeyed from land to land in +Loni's famous troupe, and as Raban handed Cyriax his own bottle, he +turned from the dreaming girl, whose services he no longer needed, and +whispered to the blind boy's mother--who among the people of her own +calling still went by the name of Dancing Gundel--the question whether +yonder ailing cripple had once had any good looks, and what position she +had held among rope-dancers. + +The little gray-haired woman looked up with sparkling eyes. Under the +name of "Phyllis" she had earned, ere her limbs were stiffened by age, +great applause by her dainty egg-dance and all sorts of feats with the +balancing pole. The manager of the band had finally given her the +position of crier to support herself and her blind boy. This had made +her voice so hollow and hoarse that it was difficult to understand her +as, with fervid eloquence, vainly striving to be heard by absent-minded +Kuni, she began: "She surpassed even Maravella the Spaniard. And her +feats at Augsburg during the Reichstag--I tell you, Cyriax, when she +ascended the rope to the belfry, with the pole and without--" + +"I've just heard of that from another quarter," he interrupted. "What I +want to know is whether she pleased the eyes of men." + +"What's that to you?" interposed red-haired Gitta jealously, trying to +draw him away from Gundel by the chain. + +Raban laughed heartily, and lame Jungel, chuckling, rapped on the floor +with his right crutch, exclaiming: + +"Good for you!" + +Kuni was accustomed to such outbursts of merriment. They were almost +always awakened by some trifle, and this time she did not even hear the +laughing. But Cyriax struck his wife so rudely on the hand that she +jerked furiously at the chain and, with a muttered oath, blew on the +bruised spot. Meanwhile Gundel was telling the group how many +distinguished gentlemen had formerly paid court to Kuni. She was as +agile as a squirrel. Her pretty little face, with its sparkling blue +eyes, attracted the men as bacon draws mice. Then, pleased to have +listeners, she related how the girl had lured florins and zecchins from +the purse of many a wealthy ecclesiastic. She might have been as rich as +the Fuggers if she hadn't met with the accident and had understood how to +keep what she earned. But she could not hold on to her gold. She had +flung it away like useless rubbish. So long as she possessed anything +there had been no want in Loni's company. She, Gundel, had caught her +arm more than once when she was going to fling Hungarian ducats, instead +of coppers, to good-for-nothing beggars. She had often urged her, too, +to think of old age, but Kuni--never cared for any one longer than a few +weeks, though there were some whom she might easily have induced to offer +her the wedding ring. + +She glanced at Kuni again, but, perceiving that the girl did not yet +vouchsafe her even a single look, she was vexed, and, moving nearer to +Cyriax, she added in a still lower tone: + +"A more inconstant, faithless, colder heart than hers I never met, even +among the most disorderly of Loni's band; for, blindly as the infatuated +lovers obeyed every one of her crazy whims, she laughed at the best and +truest. 'I hate them all,' she would say. 'I wouldn't let one of them +even touch me with the tip of his finger if I could not use their +zecchins. 'With these,' she said, 'she would help the rich to restore +to the poor what they had stolen from them.' She really treated many a +worthy gentleman like a dog, nay, a great deal worse; for she was tender +enough to all the animals that travelled with the company; the poodles +and the ponies, nay, even the parrots and the doves. She would play with +the children, too, even the smallest ones--isn't that so, Peperle?--like +their own silly mothers." She smoothed the blind boy's golden hair as +she spoke, then added, sighing: + +"But the little fellow was too young to remember it. The rattle which +she gave him at Augsburg--it was just before the accident--because she +was so fond of him--Saint Kunigunde, how could we keep such worthless +jewels in our sore need?--was made of pure silver. True, the simpletons +who were so madly in love with her, and with whom she played so cruelly, +would have believed her capable of anything sooner than such kindness. +There was a Swabian knight, a young fellow----" + +Here she stopped, for Cyriax and the other vagabonds, even the girl of +whom she was speaking, had started up and were gazing at the door. + +Kuni opened her eyes as wide as if a miracle had happened, and the +crimson spots on her sunken cheeks betrayed how deeply she was agitated. +But she had never experienced anything of this kind; for while thinking +of the time when, through Lienhard Groland's intercession, she had +entered the house of the wealthy old Frau Schurstab, in order to become +estranged from a vagabond life, and recalling how once, when he saw her +sorrowful there, he had spoken kindly to her, it seemed as if she had +actually heard his own voice. As it still appeared to echo in her ears, +she suddenly became aware that the words really did proceed from his +lips. What she had heard in her dream and what now came from his own +mouth, as he stood at the door, blended into one. She would never have +believed that the power of imagination could reproduce anything so +faithfully. + +Listening intently, she said to herself that, during the many thousand +times when she had talked with him in fancy, it had also seemed as if she +heard him speak. And the same experience had befallen her eyes; for +whenever memory reverted to those distant days, she had beheld him just +as he now looked standing on the threshold, where he was detained by the +landlady of The Pike. Only his face had become still more manly, his +bearing more dignified. The pleasant, winning expression of the bearded +lips remained unchanged, and more than once she had seen his eyes sparkle +with a far warmer light than now, while he was thanking the portly woman +for her cordial welcome. + +While Kuni's gaze still rested upon him as if spellbound, Cyriax nudged +her, stammering hurriedly: + +"They will have to pass us. Move forward, women, in front of me. Spread +out your skirt, you Redhead! It might be my death if yonder Nuremberg +fine gentleman should see me here and recollect one thing and another." + +As he spoke he dragged Kuni roughly from the window, flung the sack which +he had brought in from the cart down before him, and made them sit on it, +while he stretched himself on the floor face downward, and pretended to +be asleep behind the women. + +This suited Kuni. If Lienhard Groland passed her now he could not help +seeing her, and she had no greater desire than to meet his glance once +more before her life ended. Yet she dreaded this meeting with an +intensity plainly revealed by the passionate throbbing of her heart and +the panting of her weakened lungs. There was a rushing noise in her +ears, and her eyes grew dim. Yet she was obliged to keep them wide open- +-what might not the next moment bring? + +For the first time since her entrance she gazed around the large, long +apartment, which would have deserved the name of hall had it not been too +low. + +The heated room, filled with buzzing flies, was crowded with travellers. +The wife and daughter of a feather-curler, who were on their way with the +husband and father to the Reichstag, where many an aristocratic gentleman +would need plumes for his own head and his wife's, had just dropped the +comb with which they were arranging each other's hair. The shoemaker and +his dame from Nuremberg paused in the sensible lecture they were +alternately addressing to their apprentices. The Frankfort messenger put +down the needle with which he was mending the badgerskin in his knapsack. +The travelling musicians who, to save a few pennies, had begun to eat +bread, cheese, and radishes, instead of the warm meals provided for the +others, let their knives drop and set down the wine-jugs. The traders, +who were hotly arguing over Italian politics and the future war with +Turkey, were silent. The four monks, who had leaned their heads against +the cornice of the wide, closed fireplace and, in spite of the flies +which buzzed around them, had fallen asleep, awoke. The vender of +indulgences in the black cowl interrupted the impressive speech which he +was delivering to the people who surrounded his coffer. This group also +--soldiers, travelling artisans, peasants, and tradesfolk with their +wives, who, like most of those present, were waiting for the vessel which +was to sail down the Main early the next morning--gazed toward the door. +Only the students and Bacchantes,--[Travelling scholars]--who were fairly +hanging on the lips of a short, slender scholar, with keen, intellectual +features, noticed neither the draught of air caused by the entrance of +the distinguished arrivals and their followers, nor the general stir +aroused by their appearance, until Dr. Eberbach, the insignificant, +vivacious speaker, recognised in one of the group the famous Nuremberg +humanist, Wilibald Pirckheimer. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +At first Dietel, the old waiter, whose bullet-shaped head was covered +with thick gray hair, also failed to notice them. Without heeding their +entrance, he continued,--aided by two assistants who were scarcely beyond +boyhood,--to set the large and small pine tables which he had placed +wherever he could find room. + +The patched tablecloths which he spread over the tops were coarse and +much worn; the dishes carried after him by the two assistants, whose +knees bent under the burden, were made of tin, and marred by many a dent. +He swung his stout body to and fro with jerks like a grasshopper, and in +doing so his shirt rose above his belt, but the white napkin under his +arm did not move a finger's width. In small things, as well as great +ones, Dietel was very methodical. So he continued his occupation +undisturbed till an inexperienced merchant's clerk from Ulm, who wanted +to ride farther speedily, accosted him and asked for some special dish. +Dietel drew his belt farther down and promptly snubbed the young man with +the angry retort; "Everybody must wait for his meal. We make no +exceptions here." + +Interrupted in his work, he also saw the newcomers, and then cast a +peevish glance at one corner of the room, where stood a table covered +with fine linen and set with silver dishes, among them a platter on which +early pears and juicy plums were spread invitingly. The landlady of The +Pike had arranged them daintily upon fresh vine leaves an hour before +with her own plump but nimble hands. Of course they were intended for +the gentlemen from Nuremberg and their guests. Dietel, too, now knew +them, and saw that the party numbered a person no less distinguished than +the far-famed and highly learned Doctor and Imperial Councillor, Conrad +Peutinger. They were riding to Cologne together under the same escort. +The citizens of Nuremberg were distinguished men, as well as their guest, +but Dietel had served distinguished personages by the dozen at The Blue +Pike for many years--among them even crowned heads--and they had wanted +for nothing. His skill, however, was not sufficient for these city +demigods; for the landlord of The Pike intended to look after their table +himself. Tomfoolery! There was more than enough for him to do that day +over yonder in the room occupied by the lansquenets and the city +soldiers, where he usually directed affairs in person. It roused +Dietel's ire. The cooking of The Blue Pike, which the landlady +superintended, could vie with any in the Frank country, on the Rhine, or +in Swabia, yet, forsooth, it wasn't good enough for the Nuremberg guests. +The Council cook, a fat, pompous fellow, accompanied them, and had +already begun to bustle about the hearth beside the hostess. They +really would have required no service at all, for they brought their own +attendants. It certainly was not Dietel's usual custom to wish any one +evil, but if Gotz Berlichinger, who had recently attacked a party of +Leipsic merchants at Forchheim, or Hans von Geisslingen had fallen upon +them and subdued their arrogance, it would not have spoiled Dietel's +appetite. + +At last they moved forward. The others might treat them as they chose; +he, at least, would neither say anything to them nor bow before them as +the ears did before Joseph in Holy Writ. Nevertheless, he looked out of +the corner of his eye at them as he took from the basket of the round- +checked kitchen maid, who had now found her way to him, one fresh brown +roll after another, and placed them beside plate after plate. How well +risen and how crusty they were! They fairly cracked under the pressure +of the thumb, yet wheat rolls had been baked specially for the Nuremberg +party. Was God's good gift too poor for the Honourables with the gold +chains? + +Now, even fragile little Dr. Eberbach, and the students and Bacchantes +who had stood around him like disciples, intently listening to his words, +bowed respectfully. The ungodly, insolent fellows who surrounded the +Dominican Jacobus, the vender of indulgences, had turned from him, while +he exhorted them, as if he were an importunate beggar. What did the +merchants, artisans, and musicians know about the godless Greek and Latin +writings which brought the names of Pirckheimer and Peutinger before the +people, yet how reverently many of these folk now bowed before them. +Only the soldiers with swords at their sides held their heads erect. +They proved that they were right in calling themselves "pious +lansquenets." The broad-shouldered knight, with the plumed hat and +suit of mail, who walked beside them, was Sir Hans von Obernitz, the +Schultheiss of Nuremberg. He was said to be a descendant of the ancient +Brandenstein race, and yet--was the world topsy-turvy?--he, too, was +listening to every word uttered by Wilibald Pirckheimer and Dr. Peutinger +as if it were a revelation. The gray-haired leech and antiquary, +Hartmann Schedel, whom Herr Wilibald,--spite of the gout which sometimes +forced a slight grimace to distort his smooth-shaven, clever, almost +over-plump face,--led by the arm like a careful son, resembled, with his +long, silver locks, a patriarch or an apostle. + +The young envoy of the Council, Herr Lienhard Groland, lingered behind +the others and seemed to be taking a survey of the room. + +What bright, keen eyes he had; how delicately cut was the oval face with +the strong, very slightly hooked nose; how thick were the waving brown +locks that fell upon the slender neck; how well the pointed beard suited +his chin; with what austere majesty his head rose above the broad, +plaited, snow-white ruff, which he must have just donned! + +Now his eyes rested upon the vagrants, and Dietel perceived something +which threw him completely off his balance; for the first time he changed +the position of his napkin, jerking it from its place under his left arm +to tuck it beneath the right one. He had known Kuni a long time. In her +prosperous days, when she was the ornament of Loni's band and had +attracted men as a ripe pear draws wasps, she had often been at the +tavern, and both he and the landlord of The Pike had greeted her +cordially, for whoever sought her favour was obliged to order the best +and dearest of everything, not only for her and himself, but for a whole +tableful of hungry guests. When she had met him just now he would never +have recognised her had she not been in Gundel's company. True, the +sight of her in this plight was not unexpected, yet it pierced him to the +heart, for Kuni had been a remarkable girl, and yet was now in far +greater penury than many of much less worth whom he had watched stumbling +along the downward path before her. When he saw Lienhard Groland's +glance rest upon her, he noticed also how strangely her emaciated face +changed colour. Though it had just been as white as the napkin under his +arm, it now flushed as red as the balsam blossoms in the window, and then +paled again. She had formerly gazed around her boldly enough, but now +she lowered her eyes to the floor as modestly as any demure maiden on her +way to church. + +And what did this mean? + +The honourable member of the Nuremberg Council must be well acquainted +with the girl, for his eyes had scarcely met hers ere a strange smile +flitted over his grave, manly face. + +Now--was it in jest or earnest?--he even shook his finger at her. He +stopped in front of her a moment, too, and Dietel heard him exclaim: + +"So here you are! On the highway again, in spite of everything?" + +The distance which separated them and the loud talking of the guests +prevented the waiter's hearing her reply, "The captive bird can not +endure the cage long, Herr Lienhard," far less the words, added in a +lower tone: + +"Yet flight has been over since my fall at Augsburg. My foot lies buried +there with many other things which will never return. I can only move on +wheels behind the person who takes me." Then she paused and ventured to +look him full in the face. Her eyes met his beaming with a radiant +light, but directly after they were dimmed by a mist of tears. Yet she +forced them back, though the deep suffering from which they sprung was +touchingly apparent in the tone of her voice, as she continued: + +"I have often wished, Herr Lienhard, that the cart was my coffin and the +tavern the graveyard." + +Dietel noticed the fit of coughing which followed this speech, and the +hasty movement with which the Nuremberg patrician thrust his hand into +his purse and tossed Kuni three coins. They did not shine with the dull +white lustre of silver, but with the yellow glitter of gold. The +waiter's eyes were sharp and he had his own ideas about this +unprecedented liberality. + +The travelling companions of the aristocratic burgomaster and ambassadors +of the proud city of Nuremberg had also noticed this incident. + +After they had taken their seats at the handsomely ornamented table, +Wilibald Pirckheimer bent toward the ear of his young friend and +companion in office, whispering: + +"The lovely wife at home whom you toiled so hard to win, might, I +know, rest quietly, secure in the possession of all the charms of foam- +born Aphrodite, yet I warn you. Whoever is as sure of himself as you +cares little for the opinion of others. And yet we stand high, friend +Lienhard, and therefore are seen by all; but the old Argus who watches +for his neighbour's faults has a hundred sharp eyes, while among the gods +three are blind--Justice, Happiness, and Love. Besides, you flung gold +to yonder worthless rabble. I would rather have given it to the +travelling musicians. They, like us humanists, are allied to the Muses +and, moreover, are harmless, happy folk." + +Lienhard Groland listened till his older friend had finished. Then, +after thanking him for his well-meant counsel, he answered, turning to +the others also: + +"In better days rope-dancing was the profession of yonder poor, coughing +creature. Now, after a severe accident, she is dragging herself through +life on one foot. I once knew her, for I succeeded in saving her from +terrible disgrace." + +"And," replied Wilibald Pirckheimer, "we would rather show kindness a +second and a third time to any one on whom we have be stowed a favour +than to render it once to a person from whom we have received one. This +is my own experience. But the wise man must guard against nothing more +carefully than to exceed moderation in his charity. How easily, when +Caius sees Cnejus lavish gold where silver or copper would serve, he +thinks of Martial's apt words: 'Who gives great gifts, expects great +gifts again.'--[Martial, Epigram 5, 59, 3.]--Do not misunderstand me. +What could yonder poor thing bestow that would please even a groom? But +the eyes of suspicion scan even the past. I have often seen you open +your purse, friend Lienhard, and this is right. Whoever hath ought to +give, and my dead mother used to say that: 'No one ever became a beggar +by giving at the proper time.'" + +"And life is gladdened by what one gives to another," remarked Conrad +Peutinger, the learned Augsburg city clerk, who valued his Padua title of +doctor more than that of an imperial councillor. "It applies to all +departments. Don't allow yourself to regret your generosity, friend +Lienhard. 'Nothing becomes man better than the pleasure of giving,' says +Terentius.--[Terenz. Ad. 360]--Who is more liberal than the destiny +which adorns the apple tree that is to bear a hundred fruits, with ten +thousand blossoms to please our eyes ere it satisfies our appetite?" + +"To you, if to any one, it gives daily proof of liberality in both +learning and the affairs of life," Herr Wilibald assented. + +"If you will substitute 'God, our Lord,' for 'destiny,' I agree with +you," observed the Abbot of St. AEgidius in Nuremberg. + +The portly old prelate nodded cordially to Dr. Peutinger as he spoke. +The warm, human love with which he devoted himself to the care of souls +in his great parish consumed the lion's share of his time and strength. +He spent only his leisure hours in the study of the ancient writers, in +whom he found pleasure, and rejoiced in the work of the humanists without +sharing their opinions. + +"Yes, my dear Doctor," he continued in his deep voice, in a tone of the +most earnest conviction, "if envy were ever pardonable, he who presumed +to feel it toward you might most speedily hope to find forgiveness. +There is no physical or mental gift with which the Lord has not blessed +you, and to fill the measure to overflowing, he permitted you to win a +beautiful and virtuous wife of noble lineage." + +"And allowed glorious daughters to grow up in your famous home," cried +little Dr. Eberbach, waving his wineglass enthusiastically. "Who has not +heard of Juliane Peutinger, the youngest of humanists, but no longer one +of the least eminent, who, when a child only four years old, addressed +the Emperor Maximilian in excellent Latin. But when, as in the child +Juliane, the wings of the intellect move so powerfully and so +prematurely, who would not think of the words of the superb Ovid: 'The +human mind gains victories more surely than lances and arrows.'" + +But, ere he had finished the verse which, like many another Latin one, +he mingled with his German words, he noticed Lienhard Groland eagerly +motioning to him to stop. The latter knew only too well what had not yet +reached the ears of Eberbach in Vienna. The marvellous child, whose +precocious learning he had just extolled as a noble gift of Providence to +the father, was no longer among the living. Her bright eyes had closed +ere she reached maidenhood. + +Dr. Eberbach, in painful embarrassment, tried to apologize for his +heedlessness, but the Augsburg city clerk, with a friendly gesture, +endeavoured to soothe his young fellow-scholar. + +"It brought the true nature of happiness very vividly before all our +eyes," he remarked with a faint sigh. "In itself it is not lasting. A +second piece of good fortune is needed to maintain the first. Mine was +indeed great and beautiful enough. But we will let the dead rest. What +more have you heard concerning the first books of the Annales of Tacitus, +said to have been discovered in the Corvey monastery? If the report +should be verified----" + +Here Eberbach, delighted to find an opportunity to afford the honoured +man whom he had unwittingly grieved a little pleasure, eagerly +interrupted. Hurriedly thrusting his hand into the breast of his black +doublet, he drew forth several small sheets on which he had succeeded in +copying the beginning of the precious new manuscript, and handed them to +Peutinger, who, with ardent zeal, instantly became absorbed in the almost +illegible characters of his young comrade in learning. Wilibald +Pirckheimer and Lienhard Groland also frequently forgot the fresh salmon +and young partridges, which were served in succession, to share this +brilliant novelty. The Abbot of St. AEgidius, too, showed his pleasure +in the fortunate discovery, and did not grow quieter until the +conversation turned upon the polemical writing which Reuchlin had just +finished. It had recently appeared in Frankfort under the title: The Eye +Mirror, and assailed with crushing severity those who blamed him for +opposing the proposal to destroy the books of the Jews. + +"What in the world do we care about the writings of the Hebrews?" the +deep bass voice of Hans von Obernitz here interrupted the conversation. +"A new Latin manuscript--that I value! But has this noble fragment of +Tacitus created half as much stir as this miserable dispute?" + +"There is more at stake," said Lienhard Groland positively. "The Jewish +writings merely serve as a pretext for the Cologne inquisitors to attack +the great Reuchlin. He, the most profound and keenest student of the +noble Greek tongue, who also forced the venerable language in which the +Old Testament speaks to discourse to us Germans--" + +"The Hebrew!" cried Hans von Obernitz impatiently, passing his napkin +over his thick moustache; "what do we want of it? How can a sagacious +man plunge into such annoyances on its account?" + +"Because the excess of liberty which you gentlemen grant to the human +intellect blinds him," observed the abbot. "His learning would throw the +doors wide open to heresy. The Scriptures are true. On them Tungern and +Kollin, whom you mention, rely. In the original Hebrew text they will be +given up to every one who wishes to seek an interpretation----" + +"Then a new bridge will be built for truth," declared the little +Thuringian with flashing eyes. + +"The Cologne theologians hold a different opinion," replied the abbot. + +"Because the Grand Inquisitor and his followers--Tungern, Kollin, and +whatever the rest may be called--are concerned about some thing very +different from the noblest daughter of Heaven," said Lienhard Groland, +and the other gentlemen assented. "You yourself, my lord abbot, admitted +to me on the ride here that it angered you, too, to see the Cologne +Dominicans pursue the noble scholar 'with such fierce hatred and bitter +stings.'"--[Virgil, Aeneid, xi. 837.] + +"Because conflict between Christians always gives me pain," replied the +abbot. + +But here Dr. Eberbach impetuously broke in upon the conversation: + +"For the sake of a fair woman Ilion suffered unspeakable tortures. +But to us a single song of Homer is worth more than all these Hebrew +writings. And yet a Trojan war of the intellect has been kindled +concerning them. Here freedom of investigation, yonder with Hoogstraten +and Tungern, fettering of the mind. Among us, the ardent yearning to +hold aloft the new light which the revival of learning is kindling, +yonder superior force is struggling to extinguish it. Here the rule of +the thinking mind, in whose scales reason and counter-argument decide the +matter; among the Cologne people it is the Grand Inquisitor's jailers, +chains, dungeons, and the stake." + +"They will not go so far," replied the abbot soothingly. "True, both the +front and the back stairs are open to the Dominicans in Rome." + +"Yet where should humanism find more zealous friends than in that very +place, among the heads of the Church?" asked Dr. Peutinger. "From the +Tiber, I hope----" + +Here he paused, for the new guest who had just entered the room attracted +his attention also. The landlord of The Blue Pike respectfully preceded +him and ushered him directly to the Nuremberg party, while he requested +the Dominican monks who accompanied him to wait. + +The late arrival was Prof. Arnold von Tungern, dean of the theological +faculty at the University of Cologne. This gentleman had just been +mentioned with the greatest aversion at the table he was now approaching, +and his arrogant manner did little to lessen it. + +Nevertheless, his position compelled the Nuremberg dignitaries to invite +him to share their meal, which was now drawing to a close. The Cologne +theologian accepted the courtesy with a patronizing gesture, as if it +were a matter of course. Nay, after he had taken his seat, he ordered +the landlord, as if he were the master, to see that this and that thing +in the kitchen was not forgotten. + +Unwelcome as his presence doubtless was to his table companions, as +sympathizers with Reuchlin and other innovators, well as he doubtless +remembered their scornful attacks upon his Latin--he was a man to +maintain his place. So, with boastful self-conceit, allowing no one else +an opportunity to speak, he at once began to complain of the fatigues of +the journey and to mention, with tiresome detail, the eminent persons +whom he had met and who had treated him like a valued friend. The vein +on the little doctor's high forehead swelled with wrath as he listened to +this boastful chatter, which did not cease until the first dish was +served. To brave him, Eberbach turned the conversation to humanism, its +redeeming power over minds, and its despicable foes. His scornful jests +buzzed around his enemy like a swarm of gnats; but Arnold von Tungern +pretended not to hear them. Only now and then a tremor of the mouth, as +he slowly chewed his food, or a slight raising of the eye-brows, betrayed +that one shaft or another had not wholly missed its mark. + +The older gentlemen had sometimes interrupted the Thuringian, to try to +change the conversation, but always in vain, and the guest from Cologne +vouchsafed them only curt, dry answers. + +Not until a pause occurred between two courses did von Tungern alter his +manner. Then, like an inquisitor who has succeeded in convicting the +person accused, he leaned back in his chair with a satisfied, long-drawn +"So-o," wiped his moist chin, and began: + +"You have showed me your state of mind plainly enough, my young Herr +Doctor. Your name is Eberbach, if I am not mistaken. We will remember +it at a fitting opportunity. But, pugnaciously as your loud voice +summons to the strife, it will never destroy the sacred and venerable +things which are worthy to endure. Thanks to the foundation of rock +which supports them, and the watchfulness of their defenders, they will +stand firmer than the walls of Jericho, whose fate you doubtless wish to +bestow upon them. But you, my valued friends"--here he turned to the +envoys--"who stand at the head of communities whose greatness is founded +upon their ancient order and system, beware of opening your ears and your +gates to the siren song and fierce outcries of the innovators and +agitators." + +"Thanks for the counsel," replied Wilibald Pirckheimer, with repellent +coldness; but Arnold von Tungern pretended to consider the humanist's +reply an assent, and, nodding approvingly, continued: + +"How could you help exclaiming, with us and the pagan Ovid, 'We praise +the ancients!' And this is merely saying that what time has tested and +made venerable is the best."--[Ovid. Fast., 1, 225.] + +Here Doctor Peutinger tried to interrupt him, but the other cut him short +with an arrogant wave of the hand, and in an instructive tone began +again: + +"The honourable Council of Nuremberg--so I am informed--set a +praiseworthy example several years ago. There was a youthful member of +one of your patrician families--an Ebner, I believe, or a Stromer or +Tucher. He had imbibed in Padua mistaken ideas which, unhappily, are +held in high esteem by many from whom we should expect more discernment. +So it chanced that when he returned home he ventured to contract a formal +betrothal with an honourable maiden of noble lineage, against the +explicit desire of her distinguished parents. The rebellious youth was +therefore summoned before a court of justice, and, on account of his +reckless offence and wanton violation of custom and law, banished from +the city and sentenced to pay a fine----" + +"A punishment which I endured calmly, Herr Professor," interrupted +Lienhard Groland, "for I myself was that 'rebellious youth.' Besides, +it was by no means the teachings of humanism which led me to an act that +you, learned sir, doubtless regard with sterner eyes than the Christian +charity which your clerical garb made me expect would permit." + +These words fell, with the winning earnestness peculiar to him, from the +lips of the young man who, at a time when he cared for no other woman +than his new-made bride, had seen in the poor, endangered rope-dancer a +human being worthy of aid. Only his fiery dark eyes met the professor's +sternly enough. + +The latter was still seeking a fitting reply, when the folding doors of +the room were thrown wide open, and a belated party of travellers +entered. They came opportunely, for they afforded a timely excuse to +withhold an answer without attracting notice; yet at the head of the new +guests of The Blue Pike was his Cologne colleague Conrad Kollin, who was +followed, as he himself had been, by a number of Dominican friars. + +Tungern, of course, went to greet him, and this made it easy to part from +his table companions in a manner that aroused no comment; for while +Kollin was surrounded and respectfully welcomed by the Dominican friars +and many other travellers, the humanists left the house. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Dietel did not lose sight of the envoys. After whispering together a +short time they had risen and gone out. At the door the Abbot of St. +AEgidius left them to greet Professor Kollin, and, with the easy kindness +characteristic of him, to say that the room had become too warm for the +other gentlemen. They presented their compliments to the distinguished +citizen of Cologne, and placed their table at the service of the +newcomer. + +Dietel's sharp ears had enabled him to catch these words; but then he was +obliged to move again, a table had to be set outside the house for the +Nuremberg travellers and their companions, and jugs of wine must be +filled for them. + +Then he was called back to the taproom. While the landlord of The Pike +was serving a fresh meal to Professor Kollin at the table vacated by the +Nuremberg dignitaries, and Arnold von Tungern was emptying the full vials +of his wrath upon the little doctor and the whole body of humanists, the +Nuremberg travellers and their guests were now conversing freely, as if +relieved from a nightmare, upon the topics which most deeply interested +them. + +Dietel would far rather have served the Cologne theologians, whom he +regarded as the appointed defenders of the true faith, than the +insignificant folk at the other tables who had just finished their meal. + +How unmannerly their behaviour was! Better wine had been served before +dessert, and they now shouted and sang so loudly and so out of tune +that the air played by the strolling musicians could scarcely be +distinguished. Many a table, too, groaned under blows from the clinched +fist of some excited reveller. Every one seemed animated by a single +desire-to drink again and again. + +Now the last pieces of bread and the cloths were removed from the tables. +The carousers no longer needed Dietel. He could leave the task of +filling the jugs to his young assistants. + +What were the envoys outside doing? They were well off. In here the +atmosphere was stifling from the fumes emanating from the throng of +people, the wine, and the food. It seemed to draw all the flies from far +and near. Whence did they come? They seemed to have increased by +thousands since the early morning, when the room was empty. The outside +air appeared delightful to breathe. He longed to fill his lungs again +with the pure wind of heaven, and at the same time catch a few words of +the conversation between the envoys to the Reichstag. + +So Dietel hobbled to the open window, where the strollers were resting. + +Cyriax was lying on the floor asleep, with the brandy bottle in his arms. +Two of his companions, with their mouths wide open, were snoring at his +side. Raban, who begged for blood-money, was counting the copper coins +which he had received. Red-haired Gitta was sewing another patch of +cloth upon her rough husband's already well-mended jerkin by the dim +light of a small lamp, into which she had put some fat and a bit of rag +for a wick. It was difficult to thread the needle. Had it not been for +the yellow blaze of the pitchpans fastened to the wall with iron clamps, +which had already been burning an hour, she could scarcely have +succeeded. + +"Make room there," the waiter called to the vagrants, giving the sleeping +Jungel a push with his club foot. The latter grasped his crutch, as he +had formerly seized the sword he carried as a foot soldier ere he lost +his leg before Padua. Then, with a Spanish oath learned in the +Netherlands, he turned over, still half asleep, on his side. So Dietel +found room, and, after vainly looking for Kuni among the others, gazed +out at the starlit sky. + +Yonder, in front of the house, beside the tall oleanders which grew in +wine casks cut in halves instead of in tubs, the learned and aristocratic +gentlemen sat around the table with outstretched heads, examining by the +light of the torches the pages which Dr. Eberbach drew forth, one after +another, from the inexhaustible folds of the front of his black robe. + +Dietel, the schoolmaster's son, who had once sat on the bench with the +pupils of the Latin class, pricked up his cars; he heard foreign words +which interested him like echoes of memories of his childhood. He did +not understand them, yet he liked to listen, for they made him think of +his dead father. He had always meant kindly, but he had been a morose, +deeply embittered man. How pitilessly he had flogged him and the other +boys with hazel rods. And he would have been still harsher and sterner +but for his mother's intercession. + +A pleasant smile hovered around his lips as he remembered her. Instead +of continuing to listen to the Greek sentences which Herr Wilibald +Pirckheimer was reading aloud to the others, he could not help thinking +of the pious, gentle little woman who, with her cheerful kindness, so +well understood how to comfort and to sustain courage. She never railed +or scolded; at the utmost she only wiped her eyes with her apron when the +farmers of his little native town in Hesse sent to the schoolmaster, for +the school tax, grain too bad for bread, hay too sour for the three +goats, and half-starved fowls. + +He thoughtfully patted the plump abdomen which, thanks to the fleshpots +of The Blue Pike, had grown so rotund in his fifteen years of service. + +"It pays better to provide for people's bodies than for their brains," he +said to himself. "The Nuremberg and Augsburg gentlemen outside are rich +folk's children. For them learning is only the raisins, almonds, and +citron in the cake; knowledge agrees with them better than it did with my +father. He was the ninth child of respectable stocking weavers, but, as +the pastor perceived that he was gifted with special ability, his parents +took a portion of their savings to make him a scholar. The tuition fee +and the boy were both confided to a Beanus--that is, an older pupil, who +asserted that he understood Latin--in order that he might look after the +inexperienced little fellow and help him out of school as well as in. +But, instead of using for his protigee the florins intrusted to him, the +Beanus shamefully squandered the money saved for a beloved child by so +many sacrifices. While he feasted on roast meat and wine, the little boy +placed in his charge went hungry." Whenever, in after years, the old man +described this time of suffering, his son listened with clinched fists, +and when Dietel saw a Beanus at The Blue Pike snatch the best pieces from +the child in his care, he interfered in his behalf sternly enough. Nay, +he probably brought to him from the kitchen, on his own account, a piece +of roast meat or a sausage. Many of the names which fell from the moist +lips of the gentlemen outside--Lucian and Virgil, Ovid and Seneca, Homer +and Plato--were perfectly familiar to him. The words the little doctor +was reading must belong to their writings. How attentively the others +listened! Had not Dietel run away from the monks' school at Fulda he, +too, might have enjoyed the witticisms of these sages, or even been +permitted to sit at the same table with the great lights of the Church +from Cologne. + +Now it was all over with studying. + +And yet--it could not be so very serious a matter, for Doctor Eberbach +had just read something aloud at which the young Nuremberg ambassador, +Lienhard Groland, could not help laughing heartily. It seemed to amuse +the others wonderfully, too, and even caused the astute Dr. Peutinger to +strike his clinched fist upon the table with the exclamation, "A devil of +a fellow!" and Wilibald Pirckheimer to assent eagerly, praising Hutten's +ardent love for his native land and courage in battling for its +elevation; but this Hutten whom he so lauded was the ill-advised scion of +the knightly race that occupied Castle Steckelberg in his Hessian home, +whom he knew well. The state of his purse was evident from the fact that +the landlord of The Pike had once been obliged to detain him because he +could not pay the bill--though it was by no means large--in any other +coin than merry tales. + +But even the best joke of the witty knight would have failed to produce +its effect on the listening waiter just now; for the gentlemen outside +were again discussing the Reuchlin controversy, and in doing so uttered +such odious words about the Cologne theologians, whom Dietel knew as +godly gentlemen who consumed an ample supply of food, that he grew hot +and cold by turns. He was a good man who would not hurt a fly. Yet, +when he heard things and opinions which his mother had taught him to hold +sacred assailed, he could become as angry as a savage brute. The little +impious blasphemer Eberbach, especially, he would have been more than +ready to lash with the best hazel rod which he had ever cut for his dead +father. But honest anger affords a certain degree of enjoyment, so it +was anything rather than agreeable to him to be called away. + +The feather curler and his table companions wanted Kitzing wine, but it +was in the cellar, and a trip there would have detained him too long from +his post of listener. So he turned angrily back into the room, and told +the business men that princes, bishops, and counts were satisfied with +the table wine of The Blue Pike, which had been already served to them, +and the sceptre and crozier were of more importance than their twisted +feathers. "Those are not the wisest people," he added sagely, "who +despise what is good to try to get better. So stick to the excellent +Blue Pike wine and say no more about it!" + +Without waiting for an answer from the astonished guests, he limped back +to his window to resume his listening. The conversation, however, had +already taken a new turn, for Dr. Peutinger was describing the Roman +monument which he had had put up in the courtyard of his Augsburg house, +but, as this interested Dietel very little, he soon turned his attention +to the high road, whence a belated guest might still come to The Blue +Pike. + +The landlady's little kitchen garden lay between it and the river Main, +and there--no, it was no deception--there, behind the low hawthorn hedge, +a human figure was moving. + +One of the vagabonds had certainly slipped into the garden to steal fruit +or vegetables, or even honey from the bee hives. An unprecedented +offence! Dietel's blood boiled, for the property of The Blue Pike was +as dear to him as his own. + +With prompt decision he went through the entry into the yard, where he +meant to unchain the butcher's dog to help him chase the abominable +robber. But some time was to elapse ere he could execute this +praiseworthy intention; for before he could cross the threshold the +landlord of The Pike appeared, berated him, and ordered him to be more +civil in the performance of his duties. The words were intended less for +the waiter than for the feather dealer and his friends. + +The latter had complained of Dietel to the landlord of The Pike, and, +after he had received a reproof, they punished him for his rudeness by +ordering him to fetch one jug of wine from the cellar after another. At +last, when, with many a malediction, he had brought up the fifth, his +tormentors released him, but then the best time was lost. Nevertheless +he continued the pursuit and entered the little garden with the dog, but +the thief had fled. + +After assuring himself of this fact he stood still, rubbing his narrow +forehead with the tips of his fingers. + +The rogue was most probably one of the vagrants, and like a flash it +entered his mind that the ropedancer, Kuni, who in her prosperous days, +instead of eating meat and vegetables, preferred to satisfy her appetite +with fruits and sweet dainties, might be the culprit. Besides, when he +had looked around among the guests just before, she was no longer with +the other vagabonds. + +Certain of having found the right trail, he instantly went to the window +below which the strollers lay, thrust his head into the room from the +outside, and waked the wife of the tongueless swearer. She had fallen +asleep on the floor with the sewing in her hand. The terror with which +she started up at his call bore no favourable testimony to her good +conscience, but she had already recovered her bold unconcern when he +imperiously demanded to know what had become of lame Kuni. + +"Ask the other travellers--the soldiers, the musicians, the monks, for +aught I care," was the scornful, irritating answer. But when Dietel +angrily forbade such insolent mockery, she cried jeeringly: + +"Do you think men don't care for her because she has lost her foot and +has that little cough? You ought to know better. + +"Master Dieter has a sweetheart for every finger, though the lower part +of his own body isn't quite as handsome as it might be." + +"On account of my foot?" the waiter answered spitefully. "You'll soon +find that it knows how to chase. Besides, the Nuremberg city soldiers +will help me in the search. If you don't tell me at once where the girl +went--by St. Eoban, my patron----" + +Here red-haired Gitta interrupted him in a totally different tone; she +and her companions had nothing good to expect from the city soldiers. + +In a very humble manner she protested that Kuni was an extraordinarily +charitable creature. In a cart standing in the meadow by the highroad +lay the widow of a beggar, Nickel; whom the peasants had hung on account +of many a swindling trick. A goose and some chickens had strayed off to +his premises. The woman had just given birth to twins when Nickel was +hung, and she was now in a violent fever, with frequent attacks of +convulsions, and yet had to nurse the infants. The landlady of The Pike +had sent her some broth and a little milk for the children. As for Kuni, +she had gone to carry some linen from her own scanty store to the two +babies, who were as naked as little frogs. He would find her with the +sick mother. + +All this flowed from Gitta's lips with so much confidence that Dietel, +whose heart was easily touched by such a deed of charity, though he by no +means put full confidence in her, allowed himself to be induced to let +the city soldiers alone for the present and test the truth of her strange +statement himself. + +So he prepared to go in search of the cart, but the landlord of The Pike +met him at the door, and, angrily asking what ailed him that day, ordered +him to fetch the Erbach, more of which was wanted inside. Dietel went +down into the cellar again, but this time he was not to leave it so +speedily, for the apprentice of a Nuremberg master shoemaker, whose +employer was going to the Frankfort fair with his goods, and who made +common cause with the feather dealer, stole after Dietel, and of his own +volition, for his own pleasure, locked him in. The good Kitzing wine had +strengthened his courage. Besides, experience taught him that an offence +would be more easily pardoned the more his master himself disliked the +person against whom it was committed. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Arrogant wave of the hand, and in an instructive tone +Honest anger affords a certain degree of enjoyment +Ovid, 'We praise the ancients' +Pays better to provide for people's bodies than for their brains +Who gives great gifts, expects great gifts again +Who watches for his neighbour's faults has a hundred sharp eyes + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE BLUE PIKE, BY EBERS, V1 *** + +********** This file should be named 5584.txt or 5584.zip ********* + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +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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