initial commit of ebook 31439HEADmain

11 files changed, 50790 insertions, 0 deletions

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/31439-0.txt b/31439-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..723be75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31439-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12461 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Weird Tales, Vol. II.
+
+Author: E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+Translator: J. T. Bealby
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #31439]
+[Most recently updated: December 2, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen
+
+
+
+
+Weird Tales
+
+BY
+
+E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+
+_A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN_
+WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR
+
+By J. T. BEALBY, B.A.
+FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES
+VOL. II.
+
+
+NEW YORK
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+1885
+
+TROW'S
+PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
+NEW YORK.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
+
+THE DOGE AND DOGESS
+MASTER MARTIN THE COOPER
+MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI
+GAMBLER'S LUCK
+MASTER JOHANNES WACHT
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
+
+
+
+
+THE DOGE AND DOGESS1
+
+This was the title that distinguished in the art-catalogue of the works
+exhibited by the Berlin Academy of Arts in September, 1816, a picture
+which came from the brush of the skilful clever Associate of the
+Academy, C. Kolbe.2 There was such a peculiar charm in the piece that
+it attracted all observers. A Doge, richly and magnificently dressed,
+and a Dogess at his side, as richly adorned with jewellery, are
+stepping out on to a balustered balcony; _he_ is an old man, with a
+grey beard and rusty red face, his features indicating a peculiar
+blending of expressions, now revealing strength, now weakness, again
+pride and arrogance, and again pure good-nature; _she_ is a young
+woman, with a far-away look of yearning sadness and dreamy aspiration
+not only in her eyes but also in her general bearing. Behind them is an
+elderly lady and a man holding an open sun-shade. At one end of the
+balcony is a young man blowing a conch-shaped horn, whilst in front of
+it a richly decorated gondola, bearing the Venetian flag and having two
+gondoliers, is rocking on the sea. In the background stretches the sea
+itself studded with hundreds and hundreds of sails, whilst the towers
+and palaces of magnificent Venice are seen rising out of its waves. To
+the left is Saint Mark's, to the right, more in the front, San Giorgio
+Maggiore. The following words were cut in the golden frame of the
+picture.
+
+
+Ah! senza amare,
+Andare sul mare
+Col sposo del mare,
+Non puo consolare.
+
+To go on the sea
+With the spouse of the sea,
+When loveless I be,
+Is no comfort to me.
+
+
+One day there arose before this picture a fruitless altercation as to
+whether the artist really intended it for anything more than a mere
+picture, that is, the temporary situation, sufficiently indicated by
+the verse, of a decrepit old man who with all his splendour and
+magnificence is unable to satisfy the desires of a heart filled with
+yearning aspirations, or whether he intended to represent an actual
+historical event. One after the other the visitors left the place,
+tired of the discussion, so that at length there were only two men
+left, both very good friends to the noble art of painting. "I can't
+understand," said one of them, "how people can spoil all their
+enjoyment by eternally hunting after some jejune interpretation or
+explanation. Independently of the fact that I have a pretty accurate
+notion of what the relations in life between this Doge and Dogess were,
+I am more particularly struck by the subdued richness and power that
+characterises the picture as a whole. Look at this flag with the winged
+lions, how they flutter in the breeze as if they swayed the world. O
+beautiful Venice!" He began to recite Turandot's3 riddle of Lion of the
+Adriatic, "_Dimmi, qual sia quella terribil fera_," &c. He had hardly
+come to the end when a sonorous masculine voice broke in with Calaf's4
+solution, "_Tu quadrupede fera_," &c. Unobserved by the friends, a man
+of tall and noble appearance, his grey mantle thrown picturesquely
+across his shoulder, had taken up a position behind them, and was
+examining the picture with sparkling eyes. They got into conversation,
+and the stranger said almost in atone of solemnity, "It is indeed a
+singular mystery, how a picture often arises in the mind of an artist,
+the figures of which, previously indistinguishable, incorporate mist
+driving about in empty space, first seem to shape themselves into
+vitality in his mind, and there seem to find their home. Suddenly the
+picture connects itself with the past, or even with the future,
+representing something that has really happened or that will happen.
+Perhaps it was not known to Kolbe himself that the persons he was
+representing in this picture are none other than the Doge Marino
+Falieri5 and his lady Annunciata."
+
+The stranger paused, but the two friends urgently entreated him to
+solve for them this riddle as he had solved that of the Lion of the
+Adriatic. Whereupon he replied, "If you have patience, my inquisitive
+sirs, I will at once explain the picture to you by telling you
+Falieri's history. But have you patience? I shall be very
+circumstantial, for I cannot speak otherwise of things which stand so
+life-like before my eyes that I seem to have seen them myself. And that
+may very well be the case, for all historians--amongst whom I happen to
+be one--are properly a kind of talking ghost of past ages."
+
+The friends accompanied the stranger into a retired room, when, without
+further preamble, he began as follows:--
+
+It is now a long time ago, and if I mistake not, it was in the month of
+August, 1354, that the valiant Genoese captain, Paganino Doria6 by
+name, utterly routed the Venetians and took their town of Parenzo. And
+his well-manned galleys were now cruising backwards and forwards in the
+Lagune, close in front of Venice, like ravenous beasts of prey which,
+goaded by hunger, roam restlessly up and down spying out where they may
+most safely pounce upon their victims; and both people and seignory
+were panic-stricken with fear. All the male population, liable to
+military service, and everybody who could lift an arm, flew to their
+weapons or seized an oar. The harbour of Saint Nicholas was the
+gathering-place for the bands. Ships and trees were sunk, and chains
+riveted to chains, to lock the harbour-mouth against the enemy. Whilst
+there was heard the rattle of arms and the wild tumult of preparation,
+and whilst the ponderous masses thundered down into the foaming sea, on
+the Rialto the agents of the seignory were wiping the cold sweat from
+their pale brows, and with troubled countenances and hoarse voices
+offering almost fabulous percentage for ready money, for the straitened
+republic was in want of this necessary also. Moreover, it was
+determined by the inscrutable decree of Providence that just at this
+period of extreme distress and anxiety, the faithful shepherd should be
+taken away from his troubled flock. Completely borne down by the burden
+of the public calamity, the Doge Andrea Dandolo7 died; the people
+called him the "dear good count" (_il caro contino_), because he was
+always cordial and kind, and never crossed Saint Mark's Square without
+speaking a word of comfort to those in need of good advice, or giving a
+few sequins8 to those who were in want of money. And as every blow is
+wont to fall with double sharpness upon those who are discouraged by
+misfortune, when at other times they would hardly have felt it at all,
+so now, when the people heard the bells of Saint Mark's proclaim in
+solemn muffled tones the death of their Duke, they were utterly undone
+with sorrow and grief. Their support, their hope, was now gone, and
+they would have to bend their necks to the Genoese yoke, they cried, in
+despite of the fact that Dandolo's loss did not seem to have any very
+counteractive effect upon the progress that was being made with all
+necessary warlike preparations. The "dear good count" had loved to live
+in peace and quietness, preferring to follow the wondrous courses of
+the stars rather than the problematical complications of state policy;
+he understood how to arrange a procession on Easter Day better than how
+to lead an army.
+
+The object now was to elect a Doge who, endowed at one and the same
+time with the valour and genius of a war captain, and with skill in
+statecraft, should save Venice, now tottering on her foundations, from
+the threatening power of her bold and ever-bolder enemy. But when the
+senators assembled there was none but what had a gloomy face, hopeless
+looks, and head bent earthwards and resting on his supporting hand.
+Where were they to find a man who could seize the unguided helm and
+direct the bark of the state aright? At last the oldest of the
+councillors, called Marino Bodoeri, lifted up his voice and said, "You
+will not find him here around us, or amongst us; direct your eyes to
+Avignon, upon Marino Falieri, whom we sent to congratulate Pope
+Innocent9 on his elevation to the Papal dignity; he can find better
+work to do now; he's the man for us; let us choose him Doge to stem
+this current of adversity. You will urge by way of objection that he is
+now almost eighty years old, that his hair and beard are white as
+silver, that his blithe appearance, fiery eye, and the deep red of his
+nose and cheeks are to be ascribed, as his traducers maintain, to good
+Cyprus wine rather than to energy of character; but heed not that.
+Remember what conspicuous bravery this Marino Falieri showed as admiral
+of the fleet in the Black Sea, and bear in mind the great services
+which prevailed with the Procurators of Saint Mark to invest this
+Falieri with the rich countship of Valdemarino." Thus highly did
+Bodoeri extol Falieri's virtues; and he had a ready answer for all
+objections, so that at length all voices were unanimous in electing
+Falieri. Several, however, still continued to allude to his hot,
+passionate temper, his ambition, and his self-will; but they were met
+with the reply: "And it is exactly because all these have gone from the
+old man, that we choose the _grey-beard_ Falieri and not the _youth_
+Falieri." And these censuring voices were completely silenced when the
+people, learning upon whom the choice had fallen, greeted it with the
+loudest and most extravagant demonstrations of delight. Do we not know
+that in such dangerous times, in times of such tension and unrest, any
+resolution that really is a resolution is accepted as an inspiration
+from Heaven? Thus it came to pass that the "dear good count" and all
+his gentleness and piety were forgotten, and every one cried, "By Saint
+Mark, this Marino ought long ago to have been our Doge, and then we
+should not have yon arrogant Doria before our very doors." And crippled
+soldiers painfully lifted up their wounded arms and cried, "That is
+Falieri who beat the Morbassan10--the valiant captain whose victorious
+banners waved in the Black Sea." Wherever a knot of people gathered,
+there was one amongst them telling of Falieri's heroic deeds; and, as
+though Doria were already defeated, the air rang with wild shouts of
+triumph. An additional reason for this was that Nicolo Pisani11 who,
+Heaven knows why! instead of going to meet Doria with his fleet, had
+coolly sailed away to Sardinia,12 was now returned. Doria withdrew from
+the Lagune; and what was really due to the approach of Pisani's fleet
+was ascribed to the formidable name of Marino Falieri. Then the people
+and the seignory were seized by a kind of frantic ecstasy that such an
+auspicious choice had been made; and as an uncommon way of testifying
+the same, it was determined to welcome the newly elected Doge as if he
+were a messenger from heaven bringing honour, victory, and abundance of
+riches. Twelve nobles, each accompanied by a numerous retinue in rich
+dresses, had been sent by the Seignory to Verona, where the ambassadors
+of the Republic were again to announce to Falieri, on his arrival, with
+all due ceremony, his elevation to the supreme office in the state.
+Then fifteen richly decorated vessels of state, equipped by the
+Podesta13 of Chioggia, and under the command of his own son Taddeo
+Giustiniani, took the Doge and his attendant company on board at
+Chiozza; and now they moved on like the triumphal procession of a most
+mighty and victorious monarch to St. Clement's, where the Bucentaur14
+was awaiting the Doge.
+
+At this very moment, namely, when Marino Falieri was about to set foot
+on board the Bucentaur,--and that was on the evening of the 3d of
+October about sunset--a poor unfortunate man lay stretched at full
+length on the hard marble pavement in front of the Customhouse. A few
+rags of striped linen, of a colour now no longer recognisable, the
+remains of what apparently had once been a sailor's dress, such as was
+worn by the very poorest of the people--porters and assistant oarsmen,
+hung about his lean starved body. There was not a trace of a shirt to
+be seen, except the poor fellow's own skin, which peeped through his
+rags almost everywhere, and was so white and delicate that the very
+noblest need not have been shy or ashamed of it Accordingly, his
+leanness only served to display more fully the perfect proportions of
+his well-knit frame. A careful scrutiny of the unfortunate's light-
+chestnut hair, now hanging all tangled and dishevelled about his
+exquisitely beautiful forehead, his blue eyes dimmed with extreme
+misery, his Roman nose, his fine formed lips--he seemed to be not more
+than twenty years old at the most--inevitably suggested that he was of
+good birth, and had by some adverse turn of fortune been thrown amongst
+the meanest classes of the people.
+
+As remarked, the youth lay in front of the pillars of the Custom-house,
+his head resting on his right arm, and his eyes riveted in a vacant
+stare upon the sea, without movement or change of posture. An observer
+might well have fancied that he was devoid of life, or that death had
+fixed him there whilst turning him into an image of stone, had not a
+deep sigh escaped him from time to time, as if wrung from him by
+unutterable pain. And they were in fact occasioned by the pain of his
+left arm, which had apparently been seriously wounded, and was lying
+stretched out on the pavement, wrapped up in bloody rags.
+
+All labour had ceased; the hum of trade was no longer heard; all
+Venice, in thousands of boats and gondolas, was gone out to meet the
+much-lauded Falieri. Hence it was that the unhappy youth was sighing
+away his pain in utter helplessness. But just as his weary head fell
+back upon the pavement, and he seemed on the point of fainting, a
+hoarse and very querulous voice cried several times in succession,
+"Antonio, my dear Antonio." At length Antonio painfully raised himself
+partly up; and, turning his head towards the pillars of the Custom-
+house, whence the voice seemed to proceed, he replied very faintly, and
+in a scarce intelligible voice, "Who is calling me? Who has come to
+cast my dead body into the sea, for it will soon be all over with me."
+Then a little shrivelled wrinkled crone came up panting and coughing,
+hobbling along by the aid of her staff; she approached the wounded
+youth, and squatting down beside him, she burst out into a most
+repulsive chuckling and laughing. "You foolish child, you foolish
+child," whispered the old woman, "are you going to perish here--will
+you stay here to die, while a golden fortune is waiting for you? Look
+yonder, look yonder at yon blazing fire in the west; there are sequins
+for you! But you must eat, dear Antonio, eat and drink; for it's only
+hunger which has made you fall down here on this cold pavement. Your
+arm is now quite well again, yes, that it is." Antonio recognised in
+the old crone the singular beggar-woman who was generally to be seen on
+the steps of the Franciscan Church, chuckling to herself and laughing,
+and soliciting alms from the worshippers; he himself, urged by some
+inward inexplicable propensity, had often thrown her a hard-earned
+penny, which he had not had to spare. "Leave me, leave me in peace, you
+insane old woman," he said; "but you are right, it is hunger more than
+my wound which has made me weak and miserable; for three days I have
+not earned a farthing. I wanted to go over to the monastery15 and see
+if I could get a spoonful or two of the soup that is made for invalids;
+but all my companions have gone; there is not one to have compassion
+upon me and take me in his _barca_;16 and now I have fallen down here,
+and shall, I expect, never get up again." "Hi! hi! hi! hi!" chuckled
+the old woman; "why do you begin to despair so soon? Why lose heart so
+quickly? You are thirsty and hungry, but I can help you. Here are a few
+fine dried fish which I bought only to-day in the Mint; here is
+lemon-juice and a piece of nice white bread; eat, my son; and then we
+will look at the wounded arm." And the old woman proceeded to bring
+forth fish, bread, and lemon juice from the bag which hung like a hood
+down her back, and also projected right above her bent head. As soon as
+Antonio had moistened his parched and burning lips with the cool drink,
+he felt the pangs of hunger return with double fury, and he greedily
+devoured the bread and the fish.
+
+Meanwhile the old woman was busy unwrapping the rags from his wounded
+arm, and it was found that, though it was badly crushed, the wound was
+progressing favourably towards healing. The old woman took a salve out
+of a little box and warmed it with the breath of her mouth, and as she
+rubbed it on the wound she asked, "But who then has given you such a
+nasty blow, my poor boy?" Antonio was so refreshed and charged anew
+with vital energy that he had raised himself completely up; his eyes
+flashed, and he shook his doubled fist above his head, crying, "Oh!
+that rascal Nicolo; he tried to maim me, because he envies me every
+wretched penny that any generous hand bestows upon me. You know, old
+dame, that I barely managed to hold body and soul together by helping
+to carry bales of goods from ships and freight-boats to the _dépôt_ of
+the Germans, the so-called Fontego17--of course you know the
+building"--Directly Antonio uttered the word Fontego, the old woman
+began to chuckle and laugh most abominably, and to mumble, "Fontego--
+Fontego--Fontego." "Have done with your insane laughing if I am to go
+on with my story," added Antonio angrily. At once the old woman grew
+quiet, and Antonio continued, "after a time I saved a little bit of
+money, and bought a new jerkin, so that I looked quite fine; and then I
+got enrolled amongst the gondoliers. As I was always in a blithe
+humour, worked hard, and knew a great many good songs, I soon earned a
+good deal more than the rest. This, however, awakened my comrades'
+envy. They blackened my character to my master, so that he turned me
+adrift; and everywhere where I went or where I stood they cried after
+me, 'German cur! Cursed heretic!' Three days ago, as I was helping to
+unload a boat near St. Sebastian, they fell upon me with sticks and
+stones. I defended myself stoutly, but that malicious Nicolo dealt me a
+blow with his oar, which grazed my head and severely injured my arm,
+and knocked me on the ground. Ay, you've given me a good meal, old
+woman, and I am sure I feel that your salve has done my arm a world of
+good. See, I can already move it easily--now I shall be able to row
+bravely again." Antonio had risen up from the ground, and was swinging
+his arm violently backwards and forwards, but the old woman again fell
+to chuckling and laughing loudly, whilst she hobbled round about him in
+the most extraordinary fashion--dancing with short tripping steps as it
+were--and she cried, "My son, my good boy, my good lad--row on
+bravely--he is coming--he is coming. The gold is shining red in the
+bright flames. Row on stoutly, row on; but only once more, only once
+more; and then never again."
+
+But Antonio was not paying the slightest heed to the old woman's words,
+for the most splendid of spectacles was unfolding itself before his
+eyes. The Bucentaur, with the Lion of the Adriatic on her fluttering
+standard, was coming along from St. Clement's to the measured stroke of
+the oars like a mighty winged golden swan. Surrounded by innumerable _
+barcas_ and gondolas, and with her head proudly and boldly raised, she
+appeared like a princess commanding a triumphing army, that had emerged
+from the depths of the sea, wearing bright and gaily decked helmets.
+The evening sun was sending down his fiery rays upon the sea and upon
+Venice, so that everything appeared to have been plunged into a bath of
+blazing fire; but whilst Antonio, completely forgetful of all his
+unhappiness, was standing gazing with wonder and delight, the gleams of
+the sun grew more bloody and more bloody. The wind whistled shrilly and
+harshly, and a hollow threatening echo came rolling in from the open
+sea outside. Down burst the storm in the midst of black clouds, and
+enshrouded all in thick darkness, whilst the waves rose higher and
+higher, pouring in from the thundering sea like foaming hissing
+monsters, threatening to engulf everything. The gondolas and _barcas_
+were driven in all directions like scattered feathers. The Bucentaur,
+unable to resist the storm owing to its flat bottom, was yawing from
+side to side. Instead of the jubilant notes of trumpets and cornets,
+there was heard through the storm the anxious cries of those in
+distress.
+
+Antonio gazed upon the scene like one stupefied, without sense and
+motion. But then there came a rattling of chains immediately in front
+of him; he looked down, and saw a little canoe, which was chained to
+the wall, and was being tossed up and down by the waves; and a thought
+entered his mind like a flash of lightning. He leaped into the canoe,
+unfastened it, seized the oar which he found in it, and pushed out
+boldly and confidently into the sea, directly towards the Bucentaur.
+The nearer he came to it the more distinctly could he hear shouts for
+help. "Here, here, come here--save the Doge, save the Doge." It is well
+known that little fisher-canoes are safer and better to manage in the
+Lagune when it is stormy than are larger boats; and accordingly these
+little craft were hastening from all sides to the rescue of Marino
+Falieri's invaluable person. But it is an invariable principle in life
+that the Eternal Power reserves every bold deed as a brilliant success
+to the one specially chosen for it, and hence all others have all their
+pains for nothing. And as on this occasion it was poor Antonio who was
+destined to achieve the rescue of the newly elected Doge, he alone
+succeeded in working his way on to the Bucentaur in his little
+insignificant fisher-canoe. Old Marino Falieri, familiar with such
+dangers, stepped firmly, without a moment's hesitation, from the
+sumptuous but treacherous Bucentaur into poor Antonio's little craft,
+which, gliding smoothly over the raging waves like a dolphin, brought
+him in a few minutes to St. Mark's Square. The old man, his clothing
+saturated with wet, and with large drops of sea-spray in his grey
+beard, was conducted into the church, where the nobles with blanched
+faces concluded the ceremonies connected with the Doge's public entry.
+But the people, as well as the seignory, confounded by this unfortunate
+_ contretemps_, to which was also added the fact that the Doge, in the
+hurry and confusion, had been led between the two columns where common
+malefactors were generally executed, grew silent in the midst of their
+triumph, and thus the day that had begun in festive fashion ended in
+gloom and sadness.
+
+Nobody seemed to think about the Doge's rescuer; nor did Antonio
+himself think about it, for he was lying in the peristyle of the Ducal
+Palace, half dead with fatigue, and fainting with the pain caused by
+his wound, which had again burst open. He was therefore all the more
+surprised when just before midnight a Ducal halberdier took him by the
+shoulders, saying, "Come along, friend," and led him into the palace,
+where he pushed him into the Duke's chamber. The old man came to meet
+him with a kindly smile, and said, pointing to a couple of purses lying
+on the table, "You have borne yourself bravely, my son. Here; take
+these three thousand sequins, and if you want more ask for them; but
+have the goodness never to come into my presence again." As he said
+these last words the old man's eyes flashed with fire, and the tip of
+his nose grew a darker red Antonio could not fathom the old man's mind;
+he did not, however, trouble himself overmuch about it, but with some
+little difficulty took up the purses, which he believed he had honestly
+and rightly earned.
+
+Next morning old Falieri, conspicuous in the splendours of his newly
+acquired dignity, stood in one of the lofty bay windows of the palace,
+watching the bustling scene below, where the people were busy engaged
+in practising all kinds of weapons, when Bodoeri, who from the days
+when he was a youth had enjoyed the intimate and unchangeable
+friendship of the Doge, entered the apartment. As, however, the Doge
+was quite wrapped up in himself and his dignity, and did not appear to
+notice his entrance, Bodoeri clapped his hands together and cried with
+a loud laugh, "Come, Falieri, what are all these sublime thoughts that
+are being hatched and nourished in your mind since you first put the
+Doge's bent bonnet on?" Falieri, coming to himself like one awakening
+from a dream, stepped forward to meet his old friend with an air of
+forced amiability. He felt that he really owed his bonnet to Bodoeri,
+and the words of the latter seemed to be a reminder of the fact. But
+since every obligation weighed like a burden upon Falieri's proud
+ambitious spirit, and he could not dismiss the oldest member of the
+Council, and his tried friend to boot, as he had dismissed poor
+Antonio, he constrained himself to utter a few words of thanks, and
+immediately began to speak of the measures to be adopted to meet their
+enemy, who was now developing so great an activity in every direction.
+Bodoeri interrupted him and said, cunningly smiling, "That, and all
+else that the state demands of you, we will maturely weigh and consider
+an hour or two hence in a full meeting of the Great Council. I have not
+come to you thus early in order to invent a plan for defeating yon
+presumptuous Doria or bringing to reason Louis18 the Hungarian, who is
+again setting his longing eyes upon our Dalmatian seaports. No, Marino,
+I was thinking solely about you, and about what you perhaps would not
+guess--your marriage." "How came you to think of such a thing as
+_that_?" replied the Doge, greatly annoyed; and rising to his feet, he
+turned his back upon Bodoeri and looked out of the window. "It's a long
+time to Ascension Day. By that time I hope the enemy will be routed,
+and that victory, honour, additional riches, and a wider extension of
+power will have been won for the sea-born lion of the Adriatic. The
+chaste bride shall find her bridegroom worthy of her." "Pshaw! pshaw!"
+interrupted Bodoeri, impatiently; "you are talking about that memorable
+ceremony on Ascension Day, when you will throw the gold ring from the
+Bucentaur into the waves under the impression that you are wedding the
+Adriatic Sea. But do you not know,--you, Marino, you, kinsman to the
+sea,--of any other bride than the cold, damp, treacherous element which
+you delude yourself into the belief that you rule, and which only
+yesterday revolted against you in such dangerous fashion? Marry, how
+can you fancy lying in the arms of such a bride of such a wild, wayward
+thing? Why when you only just skimmed her lips as you rode along in the
+Bucentaur she at once began to rage and storm. Would an entire Vesuvius
+of fiery passion suffice to warm the icy bosom of such a false bride as
+that? Continually faithless, she is wedded time after time, nor does
+she receive the ring as a treasured symbol of love, but she extorts it
+as a tribute from a slave? No, Marino, I was thinking of your marriage
+to the most beautiful child of the earth than can be found." "You are
+prating utter nonsense, utter nonsense, I tell you, old man," murmured
+Falieri without turning away from the window. "I, a grey-haired old
+man, eighty years of age, burdened with toil and trouble, who have
+never been married, and now hardly capable of loving"---- "Stop," cried
+Bodoeri, "don't slander yourself. Does not the Winter, however rough
+and cold he may be, at last stretch out his longing arms towards the
+beautiful goddess who comes to meet him borne by balmy western winds?
+And when he presses her to his benumbed bosom, when a gentle glow
+pervades his veins, where then is his ice and his snow? You say you are
+eighty years old; that is true; but do you measure old age then by
+years merely? Don't you carry your head as erect and walk with as firm
+a step as you did forty summers ago? Or do you perhaps feel that your
+strength is failing you, that you must carry a lighter sword, that you
+grow faint when you walk fast, or get short of breath when you ascend
+the steps of the Ducal Palace?" "No, by Heaven, no," broke in Falieri
+upon his friend, as he turned away from the window with an abrupt
+passionate movement and approached him, "no, I feel no traces of age
+upon me." "Well then," continued Bodoeri, "take deep draughts in your
+old age of all the delights of earth which are now destined for you.
+Elevate the woman whom I have chosen for you to be your Dogess; and
+then all the ladies of Venice will be constrained to admit that she
+stands first of all in beauty and in virtue, even as the Venetians
+recognise in you their captain in valour, intellect, and power."
+
+Bodoeri now began to sketch the picture of a beautiful woman, and in
+doing so he knew how to mix his colours so cleverly, and lay them on
+with so much vigour and effect, that old Falieri's eyes began to
+sparkle, and his face grew redder and redder, whilst he puckered up his
+mouth and smacked his lips as if he were draining sundry glasses of
+fiery Syracuse. "But who is this paragon of loveliness of whom you are
+speaking?" said he at last with a smirk. "I mean nobody else but my
+dear niece--it's she I mean," replied Bodoeri. "What! your niece?"
+interrupted Falieri. "Why, she was married to Bertuccio Nenolo when I
+was Podesta of Treviso." "Oh! you are thinking about my niece
+Francesca," continued Bodoeri, "but it is her sweet daughter whom I
+intend for you. You know how rude, rough Nenolo was enticed to the wars
+and drowned at sea. Francesca buried her pain and grief in a Roman
+nunnery, and so I had little Annunciata brought up in strict seclusion
+at my villa in Treviso"---- "What!" cried Falieri, again impatiently
+interrupting the old man, "you mean me to raise your niece's daughter
+to the dignity of Dogess? How long is it since Nenolo was married?
+Annunciata must be a child--at the most only ten years old. When I was
+Podesta in Treviso, Nenolo had not even thought of marrying, and
+that's"---- "Twenty-five years ago," interposed Bodoeri, laughing;
+"come, you are getting all at sea with your memory of the flight of
+time, it goes so rapidly with you. Annunciata is a maiden of nineteen,
+beautiful as the sun, modest, submissive, inexperienced in love, for
+she has hardly ever seen a man. She will cling to you with childlike
+affection and unassuming devotion." "I will see her, I will see her,"
+exclaimed the Doge, whose eyes again beheld the picture of the
+beautiful Annunciata which Bodoeri had sketched.
+
+His desire was gratified the self-same day; for immediately he got back
+to his own apartments from the meeting of the Great Council, the crafty
+Bodoeri, who no doubt had many reasons for wishing to see his niece
+Dogess at Falieri's side, brought the lovely Annunciata to him
+secretly. Now, when old Falieri saw the angelic maiden, he was quite
+taken aback by her wonderful beauty, and was scarcely able to stammer
+out a few unintelligible words as he sued for her hand. Annunciata, no
+doubt well instructed by Bodoeri beforehand, fell upon her knees before
+the princely old man, her cheeks flushing crimson. She grasped his hand
+and pressed it to her lips, softly whispering, "O sir, will you indeed
+honour me by raising me to a place at your side on your princely
+throne? Oh! then I will reverence you from the depths of my soul, and
+will continue your faithful handmaiden as long as I have breath." Old
+Falieri was beside himself with happiness and delight. As Annunciata
+took his hand he felt a convulsive throb in every limb; and then his
+head and all his body began to tremble and totter to such a degree that
+he had to sink hurriedly into his great arm-chair. It seemed as if he
+were about to refute Bodoeri's good opinion as to the strength and
+toughness of his eighty summers. Bodoeri, in fact, could not keep back
+the peculiar smile that darted across his lips; innocent, un*
+sophisticated Annunciata observed nothing; and happily no one else was
+present Finally it was resolved for some reason--either because old
+Falieri felt in what an uncomfortable position he would appear in the
+eyes of the people as the betrothed of a maiden of nineteen, or because
+it occurred to him as a sort of presentiment that the Venetians, who
+were so prone to mockery, ought not to be so directly challenged to
+indulge in it, or because he deemed it better to say nothing at all
+about the critical period of betrothal--at any rate, it was resolved,
+with Bodoeri's consent, that the marriage should be celebrated with the
+greatest secrecy, and that then some days later the Dogess should be
+introduced to the seignory and the people as if she had been some time
+married to Falieri, and had just arrived from Treviso, where she had
+been staying during Falieri's mission to Avignon.
+
+Let us now turn our eyes upon yon neatly dressed handsome youth who is
+going up and down the Rialto with his purse of sequins in his hand,
+conversing with Jews, Turks, Armenians, Greeks.19 He turns away his
+face with a frown, walks on further, stands still, turns round, and
+ultimately has himself rowed by a gondolier to St. Mark's Square. There
+he walks up and down with uncertain hesitating steps, his arms folded
+and his eyes bent upon the ground; nor does he observe, or even have
+any idea, that all the whispering and low coughing from various windows
+and various richly draped balconies are love-signals which are meant
+for him. Who would have easily recognised in this youth the same
+Antonio who a few days before had lain on the marble pavement in front
+of the Custom-house, poor, ragged, and miserable? "My dear boy! My dear
+golden boy, Antonio, good day, good day!" Thus he was greeted by the
+old beggar-woman, who sat on the steps leading to St. Mark's Church,
+and whom he was going past without observing. Turning abruptly round,
+he recognised the old woman, and, dipping his hand into his purse, took
+out a handful of sequins with the intention of throwing them to her.
+"Oh! keep your gold in your purse," chuckled and laughed the old woman;
+"what should I do with your money? am I not rich enough? But if you
+want to do me a kindness, get me a new hood made, for this which I am
+now wearing is no longer any protection against wind and weather. Yes,
+please get me one, my dear boy, my dear golden boy,--but keep away from
+the Fontego,--keep away from the Fontego." Antonio stared into the old
+woman's pale yellow face, the deep wrinkles in which twitched
+convulsively in a strange awe-inspiring way. And when she clapped her
+lean bony hands together so that the joints cracked, and continued her
+disagreeable laugh, and went on repeating in a hoarse voice, "Keep away
+from the Fontego," Antonio cried, "Can you not have done with that mad
+insane nonsense, you old witch?"
+
+As Antonio uttered this word, the old woman, as if struck by a
+lightning-flash, came rolling down the high marble steps like a ball.
+Antonio leapt forward and grasped her by both hands, and so prevented
+her from falling heavily. "O my good lad, my good lad," said the old
+crone in a low, querulous voice, "what a hideous word that was which
+you uttered. Kill me rather than repeat that word to me again. Oh! you
+don't know how deeply you have cut me to the heart, me--who have such a
+true affection for you--no, you don't know"---- Abruptly breaking off,
+she wrapped up her head in the dark brown cloth flaps which covered her
+shoulders like a short mantle, and sighed and moaned as if suffering
+unspeakable pain. Antonio felt his heart strangely moved; lifting up
+the old woman, he carried her up into the vestibule of the church, and
+set her down upon one of the marble benches which were there. "You have
+been kind to me, old woman," he began, after he had liberated her head
+from the ugly cloth flaps, "you have been kind to me, since it is to
+you that I really owe all my prosperity; for if you had not stood by me
+in the hour of need, I should long ere this have been at the bottom of
+the sea, nor should I have rescued the old Doge, and received these
+good sequins. But even if you had not shown that kindness to me, I yet
+feel that I should have a special liking for you as long as I live, in
+spite of the fact that your insane behaviour--chuckling and laughing so
+horribly--strikes my heart with awe. To tell you the truth, old dame,
+even when I had hard work to get a living by carrying merchandise and
+rowing, I always felt as if I must work still harder that I might have
+a few pence to give you." "O son of my heart, my golden Tonino," cried
+the old woman, raising her shrivelled arms above her head, whilst her
+staff fell rattling on the marble floor and rolled away from her, "O
+Tonino mine, I know it; yes, I know it; you must cling to me with all
+your soul, you may do as you will, for--but hush! hush! hush!" The old
+woman stooped painfully down in order to reach her staff, but Antonio
+picked it up and handed it to her.
+
+Leaning her sharp chin on her staff, and riveting her eyes in a set
+stare upon the ground, she began to speak in a reserved but hollow
+voice, "Tell me, my child, have you no recollection at all of any
+former time, of what you did or where you were before you found
+yourself here, a poor wretch hardly able to keep body and soul
+together?" With a deep sigh, Antonio took his seat beside the old crone
+and then began, "Alas! mother, only too well do I know that I was born
+of parents living in the most prosperous circumstances; but who they
+were and how I came to leave them, of this I have not the slightest
+notion, nor could I have. I remember very well a tall handsome man, who
+often took me in his arms and smothered me with kisses and put sweets
+in my mouth. And I can also in the same way call to mind a pleasant and
+pretty lady, who used to dress and undress me and place me in a soft
+little bed every night, and who in fact was very kind to me in every
+way. They used to talk to me in a foreign, sonorous language, and I
+also stammered several words of the same tongue after them. Whilst I
+was an oarsman my jealous rivals used to say I must be of German
+origin, from the colour of my hair and eyes, and from my general build.
+And this I believe myself, for the language which that man spoke (he
+must have been my father) was German. But the most vivid recollection
+which I have of that time is that of one terrible night, when I was
+awakened out of deep sleep by a fearful scream of distress. People were
+running about the house; doors were being opened and banged to; I grew
+terribly frightened, and began to cry loudly. Then the lady who used to
+dress me and take care of me burst into the room, snatched me out of
+bed, stopped my mouth, enveloped me in shawls, and ran off with me.
+From that moment I can remember nothing more, until I found myself
+again in a splendid house, situated in a most charming district. Then
+there rises up the image of a man whom I called 'father,' a majestic
+man of noble but benevolent appearance. Like all the rest in the house,
+he spoke Italian.
+
+"For several weeks I had not seen my father, when one day several ugly-
+looking strangers came and kicked up a great deal of noise in the
+house, rummaging about and turning out everything. When they saw me
+they asked who I was, and what I was doing there? 'Don't you know I'm
+Antonio, and belong to the house?' I replied; but they laughed in my
+face and tore off all my fine clothes and turned me out of doors,
+threatening to have me whipped if I dared to show myself again. I ran
+away screaming and crying. I had not gone a hundred yards from the
+house when I met an old man, whom I recognised as being one of my
+foster-father's servants. 'Come along, Antonio,' he said, taking hold
+of my hand, 'come along, my poor boy, that house is now closed to us
+both for ever. We must both look out and see how we can earn a crust of
+bread.'
+
+"The old man brought me along with him here. He was not so poor as he
+seemed to be from his mean clothing. Directly we arrived I saw him rip
+up his jerkin and produce a bag of sequins; and he spent the whole day
+running about on the Rialto, now acting as broker, now dealing on his
+own account. I had always to be close at his heels; and whenever he had
+made a bargain he had a habit of begging a trifle for the _figliuolo_
+(little boy). Every one whom I looked boldly in the face was glad to
+pull out a few pence, which the old man pocketed with infinite
+satisfaction, affirming, as he stroked my cheeks, that he was saving it
+up to buy me a new jerkin. I was very comfortable with the old man,
+whom the people called Old Father Bluenose, though for what reason I
+don't know. But this life did not last long. You will remember that
+terrible time, old woman, when one day the earth began to tremble, and
+towers and palaces were shaken to their very foundations and began to
+reel and totter, and the bells to ring as if tolled by the arms of
+invisible giants. Hardly seven years have passed since that day.
+Fortunately I escaped along with my old man out of the house before it
+fell in with a crash behind us. There was no business doing; everybody
+on the Rialto seemed stunned, and everything lifeless. But this
+dreadful event was only the precursor of another approaching monster,
+which soon breathed out its poisonous breath over the town and the
+surrounding country. It was known that the pestilence, which had first
+made its way from the Levant into Sicily, was committing havoc in
+Tuscany.20 As yet Venice had been spared. One day Old Father Bluenose
+was dealing with an Armenian on the Rialto; they were agreed over their
+bargain, and warmly shook hands. Father Bluenose had sold the Armenian
+certain good wares at a very low price, and now asked for the usual
+trifle for the _figliuolo_. The stranger, a big stalwart man with a
+thick curly beard (I can see him now), bent a kind look upon me, and
+then kissed me, pressing a few sequins into my hand, which I hastily
+pocketed. We took a gondola to St. Mark's. On the way the old man asked
+me for the sequins, but for some reason or other, I don't know what
+induced me to do it, I maintained that I must keep them myself, since
+the Armenian had wished me to do so. The old man got angry; but whilst
+he was quarrelling with me I noticed a disagreeable dirty yellow colour
+spreading over his face, and that he was mixing up all sorts of
+incoherent nonsense in his talk. When we reached the Square he reeled
+about like a drunken man, until he fell to the ground in front of the
+Ducal Palace--dead. With a loud wail I threw myself upon the corpse.
+The people came running round us, but as soon as the dreaded cry 'The
+pestilence! the pestilence!' was heard, they scattered and flew apart
+in terror. At the same moment I was seized by a dull numbing pain, and
+my senses left me.
+
+"When I awoke I found I was in a spacious room, lying on a plain
+mattress, and covered with a blanket. Round about me there were fully
+twenty or thirty other pale ghastly forms lying on similar mattresses.
+As I learned later, certain compassionate monks, who happened to be
+just coming out of St. Mark's, had, on finding signs of life in me, put
+me in a gondola and got me taken over to Giudecca into the monastery of
+San Giorgio Maggiore, where the Benedictines had established a
+hospital. How can I describe to you, old woman, this moment of re-
+awakening? The violence of the plague had completely robbed me of all
+recollections of the past. Just as if the spark of life had been
+suddenly dropped into a lifeless statue, I had but a momentary kind of
+existence, so to speak, linked on to nothing. You may imagine what
+trouble, what distress this life occasioned me in which my
+consciousness seemed to swim in empty space without an anchorage. All
+that the monks could tell me was that I had been found beside Father
+Bluenose, whose son I was generally accounted to be. Gradually and
+slowly I gathered my thoughts together, and tried to reflect upon my
+previous life, but what I have told you, old dame, is all that I can
+remember of it, and that consists only of certain individual
+disconnected pictures. Oh! this miserable being-alone-in-the-world! I
+can't be gay and happy, no matter what may happen!" "Tonino, my dear
+Tonino," said the old woman, "be contented with what the present moment
+gives you."
+
+"Say no more, old woman, say no more," interrupted Antonio; "there is
+still something else which embitters my life, following me about
+incessantly everywhere; I know it will be the utter ruin of me in the
+end. An unspeakable longing,--a consuming aspiration for something,--I
+can neither say nor even conceive what it is--has taken complete
+possession of my heart and mind since I awoke to renewed life in the
+hospital. Whilst I was still poor and wretched, and threw myself down
+at night on my hard couch, weary and worn out by the hard heavy labour
+of the day, a dream used to come to me, and, fanning my hot brow with
+balmy rustling breezes, shed about my heart all the inexpressible bliss
+of some single happy moment, in which the Eternal Power had been
+pleased to grant me in thought a glimpse of the delights of heaven, and
+the memory of which was treasured up in the recesses of my soul I now
+rest on soft cushions, and no labour consumes my strength: but if I
+awaken out of a dream, or if in my waking hours the recollection of
+that great moment returns to my mind, I feel that the lonely wretched
+existence I lead is just as much an oppressive burden now as it was
+then, and that it is vain for me to try and shake it off. All my
+thinking and all my inquiries are fruitless; I cannot fathom what this
+glorious thing is which formerly happened in my life. Its mysterious
+and alas! to me, unintelligible echo, as it were, fills me with such
+great happiness; but will not this happiness pass over into the most
+agonising pain, and torture me to death, when I am obliged to
+acknowledge that all my hope of ever finding that unknown Eden again,
+nay, that even the courage to search for it, is lost? Can there indeed
+remain traces of that which has vanished without leaving any sign
+behind it?" Antonio ceased speaking, and a deep and painful sigh
+escaped his breast.
+
+During his narrative the old crone had behaved like one who sympathised
+fully with his trouble, and felt all that he felt, and like a mirror
+reflected every movement and gesture which the pain wrung from him.
+"Tonino," she now began in a tearful voice, "my dear Tonino, do you
+mean to tell me that you let your courage sink because the remembrance
+of some glorious moment in your life has perished out of your mind? You
+foolish child! You foolish child! Listen to--hi! hi! hi!" The old woman
+began to chuckle and laugh in her usual disagreeable way, and to hop
+about on the marble floor. Some people came; she cowered down in her
+accustomed posture; they threw her alms. "Antonio--lead me away,
+Antonio--away to the sea," she croaked Almost involuntarily--he could
+not explain how it came about--he took her by the arm and led her
+slowly across St. Mark's Square. On the way the old woman muttered
+softly and solemnly, "Antonio, do you see these dark stains of blood
+here on the ground? Yes, blood--much blood--much blood everywhere! But,
+hi! hi! hi! Roses will spring up out of the blood--beautiful red roses
+for a wreath for you--for your sweetheart. O good Lord of all, what
+lovely angel of light is this, who is coming to meet you with such
+grace and such a bright starry smile? Her lily-white arms are stretched
+out to embrace you. O Antonio, you lucky, lucky lad! bear yourself
+bravely! bear yourself bravely! And at the sweet hour of sunset you may
+pluck myrtle-leaves--myrtle-leaves for the bride--for the
+maiden-widow--hi! hi! hi! Myrtle-leaves plucked at the hour of sunset,
+but these will not be blossoms until midnight! Do you hear the
+whisperings of the night-winds? the longing moaning swell of the sea?
+Row away bravely, my bold oarsman, row away bravely!" Antonio's heart
+was deeply thrilled with awe as he listened to the old crone's
+wonderful words, which she mumbled to herself in a very peculiar and
+extraordinary way, mingled with an incessant chuckling.
+
+They came to the pillar which bears the Lion of the Adriatic. The old
+woman was going on right past it, still muttering to herself; but
+Antonio, feeling very uncomfortable at the old crone's behaviour, and
+being, moreover, stared at in astonishment by the passers-by, stopped
+and said roughly, "Here--sit you down on these steps, old woman, and
+have done with your talk; it will drive me mad. It is a fact that you
+saw my sequins in the fiery images in the clouds; but, for that very
+reason, what do you mean by prating about angels of light--bride--
+maiden-widow--roses and myrtle-leaves? Do you want to make a fool of
+me, you fearful woman, till some insane attempt hurries me to
+destruction? You shall have a new hood--bread--sequins--all that you
+want, but leave me alone." And he was about to make off hastily; but
+the old woman caught him by the mantle, and cried in a shrill piercing
+voice, "Tonino, my Tonino, do take a good look at me for once, or else
+I must go to the very edge of the Square yonder and in despair throw
+myself over into the sea." In order to avoid attracting more eyes upon
+him than he was already doing, Antonio actually stood still. "Tonino,"
+went on the old woman, "sit down here beside me; my heart is bursting,
+I must tell you--Oh! do sit down here beside me." Antonio sat down on
+the steps, but so as to turn his back upon her; and he took out his
+account-book, whose white pages bore witness to the zeal with which he
+did business on the Rialto.
+
+The old woman now whispered very low, "Tonino, when you look upon my
+shrivelled features, does there not dawn upon your mind the slightest,
+faintest recollection of having known me formerly a long, long time
+ago?" "I have already told you, old woman," replied Antonio in the same
+low tones, and without turning round, "I have already told you, that I
+feel drawn towards you in a way that I can't explain to myself, but I
+don't attribute it to your ugly shrivelled face. Nay, when I look at
+your strange black glittering eyes and sharp nose, at your blue lips
+and long chin, and bristly grey hair, and when I hear your abominable
+chuckling and laughing, and your confused talk, I rather turn away from
+you with disgust, and am even inclined to believe that you possess some
+execrable power for attracting me to you." "O God! God! God!" whined
+the old dame, a prey to unspeakable pain, "what fiendish spirit of
+darkness has put such fearful thoughts into your head? O Tonino, my
+darling Tonino, the woman who took such tender loving care of you when
+a child, and who saved your life from the most threatening danger on
+that awful night--it was I."
+
+In the first moments of startled surprise Antonio turned round as if
+shot; but then he fixed his eyes upon the old woman's hideous face and
+cried angrily, "So that is the way you think you are going to befool
+me, you abominable insane old crone! The few recollections which I have
+retained of my childhood are fresh and lively. That kind and pretty
+lady who tended me--Oh! I can see her plainly now! She had a full
+bright face with some colour in it--eyes gently smiling-beautiful dark-
+brown hair--dainty hands; she could hardly be thirty years old, and
+you--you, an old woman of ninety!" "O all ye saints of Heaven!"
+interrupted the old dame, sobbing, "all ye blessed ones, what shall I
+do to make my Tonino believe in me, his faithful Margaret?" "Margaret!"
+murmured Antonio, "Margaret! That name falls upon my ears like music
+heard a long long time ago, and for a long long time forgotten. But--
+no, it is impossible--impossible." Then the old dame went on more
+calmly, dropping her eyes, and scribbling as it were with her staff on
+the ground, "You are right; the tall handsome man who used to take you
+in his arms and kiss you and give you sweets was your father, Tonino;
+and the language in which we spoke to each other was the beautiful
+sonorous German. Your father was a rich and influential merchant in
+Augsburg. His young and lovely wife died in giving birth to you. Then,
+since he could not settle down in the place where his dearest lay
+buried, he came hither to Venice, and brought me, your nurse, with him
+to take care of you. That terrible night an awful fate overtook your
+father, and also threatened you. I succeeded in saving you. A noble
+Venetian adopted you; I, deprived of all means of support, had to
+remain in Venice.
+
+"My father, a barber-surgeon, of whom it was said that he practised
+forbidden science as well, had made me familiar from my earliest
+childhood with the mysterious virtues of Nature's remedies. By him I
+was taught to wander through the fields and woods, learning the
+properties of many healing herbs, of many insignificant mosses, the
+hours when they should be plucked and gathered, and how to mix the
+juices of the various simples. But to this knowledge there was added a
+very special gift, which Heaven has endowed me with for some
+inscrutable purpose. I often see future events as if in a dim and
+distant mirror; and almost without any conscious effort of will, I
+declare in expressions which are unintelligible to myself what I have
+seen; for some unknown Power compels me, and I cannot resist it. Now
+when I had to stay behind in Venice, deserted of all the world, I
+resolved to earn a livelihood by means of my tried skill. In a brief
+time I cured the most dangerous diseases. And furthermore, as my
+presence alone had a beneficial effect upon my patients, and the soft
+stroking of my hand often brought them past the crisis in a few
+minutes, my fame necessarily soon spread through the town, and money
+came pouring in in streams. This awakened the jealousy of the
+physicians, quacks who sold their pills and essences in St. Mark's
+Square, on the Rialto, and in the Mint, poisoning their patients
+instead of curing them. They spread abroad that I was in league with
+the devil himself; and they were believed by the superstitious folk. I
+was soon arrested and brought before the ecclesiastical tribunal. O my
+Tonino, what horrid tortures did they inflict upon me in order to force
+from me a confession of the most damnable of all alliances! I remained
+firm. My hair turned white; my body withered up to a mummy; my feet and
+hands were paralysed. But there was still the terrible rack left--the
+cunningest invention of the foul fiend,--and it extorted from me a
+confession at which I shudder even now. I was to be burnt alive; but
+when the earthquake shook the foundations of the palaces and of the
+great prison, the door of the underground dungeon in which I lay
+confined sprang open of itself, and I staggered up out of my grave as
+it were through rubbish and ruins.21 O Tonino, you called me an old
+woman of ninety; I am hardly more than fifty. This lean, emaciated
+body, this hideously distorted face, this icicle-like hair, these lame
+feet--no, it was not the lapse of years, it was only unspeakable
+tortures which could in a few months change me thus from a strong woman
+into the monstrous creature I now am. And my hideous chuckling and
+laughing--this was forced from me by the last strain on the rack, at
+the memory of which my hair even now stands on an end, and I feel
+altogether as if I were locked in a red-hot coat of mail; and since
+that time I have been constantly subject to it; it attacks me without
+my being able to check it. So don't stand any longer in awe of me,
+Tonino, Oh! it was indeed your heart which told you that as a little
+boy you lay on my bosom." "Woman," said Antonio hoarsely, wrapped up in
+his own thoughts, "woman, I feel as if I must believe you. But who was
+my father? What was he called? What was the awful fate which overtook
+him on that terrible night? Who was it who adopted me? And--what was
+that occurrence in my life which now, like some potent magical spell
+from a strange and unknown world, exercises an irresistible sway over
+my soul, so that all my thoughts are dissipated into a dark night-like
+sea, so to speak? When you tell me all this, you mysterious woman, then
+I will believe you." "Tonino," replied the old crone, sighing, "for
+your own sake I must keep silent; but the time when I may speak will
+soon come. The Fontego--the Fontego--keep away from the Fontego."
+
+"Oh!" cried Antonio angrily, "you need not begin to speak your dark
+sentences again to enchant me by some devilish wile or other. My heart
+is rent, you must speak, or"---- "Stop," interrupted she, "no
+threats--am I not your faithful nurse, who tended you?"---- Without
+waiting to hear what the old woman had got further to say, he picked
+himself up and ran away swiftly. From a distance he shouted to her,
+"You shall nevertheless have a new hood, and as many sequins besides as
+you like."
+
+It was in truth a remarkable spectacle, to see the old Doge Marino
+Falieri and his youthful wife: he, strong enough and robust enough in
+very truth, but with a grey beard, and innumerable wrinkles in his
+rusty brown face, with some difficulty bearing his head erect, forming
+a pathetic figure as he strode along; she, a perfect picture of grace,
+with the pure gentleness of an angel in her divinely beautiful face, an
+irresistible charm in her longing glances, a queenly dignity enthroned
+upon her open lily-white brow, shadowed by her dark locks, a sweet
+smile upon her cheeks and lips, her pretty head bent with winsome
+submissiveness, her slender form moving with ease, scarce seeming to
+touch the earth--a beautiful lady in fact, a native of another and a
+higher world. Of course you have seen angelic forms like this,
+conceived and painted by the old masters. Such was Annunciata. How then
+could it be otherwise but that every one who saw her was astonished and
+enraptured with her beauty, and all the fiery youths of the Seignory
+were consumed with passion, measuring the old Doge with mocking looks,
+and swearing in their hearts that they would be the Mars to this
+Vulcan, let the consequences be what they might? Annunciata soon found
+herself surrounded with admirers, to whose flattering and seductive
+words she listened quietly and graciously, without thinking anything in
+particular about them. The conception which her pure angelic spirit had
+formed of her relation to her aged and princely husband was that she
+ought to honour him as her supreme lord, and cling to him with all the
+unquestioning fidelity of a submissive handmaiden. He treated her
+kindly, nay tenderly; he pressed her to his ice-cold heart and called
+her his darling; he heaped up all the jewels he could find upon her;
+what else could she wish for from him, what other rights could she have
+upon him? In this way, therefore, it was impossible for the thought of
+unfaithfulness to the old man ever in any way to find lodgment in her
+mind; all that lay beyond the narrow circle of these limited relations
+was to this good child an unknown region, whose forbidden borders were
+wrapped in dark mists, unseen and unsuspected by her. Hence all efforts
+to win her love were fruitless.
+
+But the flames of passion--of love for the beautiful Dogess--burned in
+none so violently and so uncontrolled as in Michele Steno.
+Notwithstanding his youth, he was invested with the important and
+influential post of Member of the Council of Forty. Relying upon this
+fact, as well as upon his personal beauty, he felt confident of
+success. Old Marino Falieri he did not fear in the least; and, indeed,
+the old man seemed to indulge less frequently in his violent outbreaks
+of furious passion, and to have laid aside his rugged untamable
+fierceness, since his marriage. There he sat beside his beautiful
+Annunciata, spruce and prim, in the richest, gayest apparel, smirking
+and smiling, challenging in the sweet glances of his grey eyes,--from
+which a treacherous tear stole from time to time,--those who were
+present to say if any one of them could boast of such a wife as his.
+Instead of speaking in the rough arrogant tone of voice in which he had
+formerly been in the habit of expressing himself, he whispered, scarce
+moving his lips, addressed every one in the most amiable manner, and
+granted the most absurd petitions. Who would have recognised in this
+weak amorous old man the same Falieri who had in a fit of passion
+buffeted the bishop22 on Corpus Christi Day at Treviso, and who had
+defeated the valiant Morbassan. This growing weakness spurred on
+Michele Steno to attempt the most extravagant schemes. Annunciata did
+not understand why he was constantly pursuing her with his looks and
+words; she had no conception of his real purpose, but always preserved
+the same gentle, calm, and friendly bearing towards him. It was just
+this quiet unconscious behaviour, however, which drove him wild, which
+drove him to despair almost. He determined to effect his end by
+sinister means. He managed to involve Annunciata's most confidential
+maid in a love intrigue, and she at last permitted him to visit her at
+night. Thus he believed he had paved a way to Annunciata's unpolluted
+chamber; but the Eternal Power willed that this treacherous iniquity
+should recoil upon the head of its wicked author.
+
+One night it chanced that the Doge, who had just received the ill
+tidings of the battle which Nicolo Pisani had lost against Doria off
+Porto Longo,23 was unable to sleep owing to care and anxiety, and was
+rambling through the passages of the Ducal Palace. Then he became aware
+of a shadow stealing apparently out of Annunciata's apartments and
+creeping towards the stairs. He at once rushed towards it; it was
+Michele Steno leaving his mistress. A terrible thought flashed across
+Falieri's mind; with the cry "Annunciata!" he threw himself upon Steno
+with his drawn dagger in his hand. But Steno, who was stronger and more
+agile than the old man, averted the thrust, and knocked him down with a
+violent blow of his fist; then, laughing loudly and shouting,
+"Annunciata! Annunciata!" he rushed downstairs. The old man picked
+himself up and stole towards Annunciata's apartments, his heart on fire
+with the torments of hell. All was quiet, as still as the grave. He
+knocked; a strange maid opened the door--not the one who was in the
+habit of sleeping near Annunciata's chamber. "What does my princely
+husband command at this late and unusual hour?" asked Annunciata in a
+calm and sweetly gentle tone, for she had meanwhile thrown on a light
+night-robe and was now come forward. Old Falieri stared at her
+speechless; then, raising both hands above his head, he cried, "No, it
+is not possible, it is not possible." "What is not possible, my
+princely sir?" asked Annunciata, startled at the deep solemn tones of
+the old man's voice. But Falieri, without answering her question,
+turned to the maid, "Why are _you_ sleeping here? why does not Luigia
+sleep here as usual?" "Oh!" replied the little one, "Luigia would make
+me exchange places with her to-night; she is sleeping in the ante-room
+close by the stairs." "Close by the stairs!" echoed Falieri, delighted;
+and he hurried away to the ante-room. At his loud knocking Luigia
+opened the door; and when she saw the Doge, her master's face inflamed
+with rage, and his flashing eyes, she threw herself upon her bare knees
+and confessed her shame, which was set beyond all doubt by a pair of
+elegant gentleman's gloves lying on the easy-chair, whilst the sweet
+scent about them betrayed their dandified owner. Hotly incensed at
+Steno's unheard-of impudence, the Doge wrote to him next morning,
+forbidding him, on pain of banishment from the town, to approach the
+Ducal Palace, or the presence of the Doge and Dogess.
+
+Michele Steno was wild with fury at the failure of his well-planned
+scheme, and at the disgrace of being thus banished from the presence of
+his idol. Now when he had to see from a distance how gently and kindly
+the Dogess spoke to other young men of the Seignory--that was indeed
+her natural manner--his envy and the violence of his passion filled his
+mind with evil thoughts. The Dogess had without doubt only scorned him
+because he had been anticipated by others with better luck; and he had
+the hardihood to utter his thoughts openly and publicly. Now whether it
+was that old Falieri had tidings of this shameless talk, or whether he
+came to look upon the occurrence of that memorable night as the warning
+finger of destiny, or whether now, in spite of all his calmness and
+equanimity, and his perfect confidence in the fidelity of his wife, he
+saw clearly the danger of the unnatural position in which he stood in
+respect to her--at any rate he became ill-tempered and morose. He was
+plagued and tortured by all the fiends of jealousy, and confined
+Annunciata to the inner apartments of the Ducal Palace, so that no man
+ever set eyes upon her. Bodoeri took his niece's part, and soundly
+rated old Falieri; but he would not hear of any change in his conduct.
+
+All this took place shortly before Holy Thursday. On the occasion of
+the popular sports which take place on this day in St. Mark's Square,
+it was customary for the Dogess to take her seat beside the Doge, under
+a canopy erected on the balcony which lies opposite to the Piazetti.
+Bodoeri reminded the Doge of this custom, and told him that it would be
+very absurd, and sure to draw down upon him the mocking laughter of
+both populace and Seignory, if, in the teeth of custom and usage, he
+let his perverse jealousy exclude Annunciata from this honour. "Do you
+think," replied old Falieri, whose pride was immediately aroused, "do
+you think I am such an idiotic old fool that I am afraid to show my
+most precious jewel for fear of thievish hands, and that I could not
+prevent her being stolen from me with my good sword? No, old man, you
+are mistaken; to-morrow Annunciata shall go with me in solemn
+procession across St. Mark's Square, that the people may see their
+Dogess, and on Holy Thursday she shall receive the nosegay from the
+bold sailor who comes sailing down out of the air to her." The Doge was
+thinking of a very ancient custom as he said these words. On Holy
+Thursday a bold fellow from amongst the people is drawn up from the sea
+to the summit of the tower of St. Mark's, in a machine that resembles a
+little ship and is suspended on ropes, then he shoots from the top of
+the tower with the speed of an arrow down to the Square where the Doge
+and Dogess are sitting, and presents a nosegay of flowers to the
+Dogess, or to the Doge if he is alone.
+
+The next day the Doge carried out his intention. Annunciata had to don
+her most magnificent robes; and surrounded by the Seignory and attended
+by pages and guards, she and Falieri crossed the Square when it was
+swarming with people. They pushed and squeezed themselves to death
+almost to see the beautiful Dogess; and he who succeeded in setting
+eyes upon her thought he had taken a peep into Paradise and had beheld
+the loveliest of the bright and beautiful angels. But according to
+Venetian habits, in the midst of the wildest outbreaks of their frantic
+admiration, here and there were heard all sorts of satiric phrases and
+rhymes--and coarse enough too--aimed at old Falieri and his young wife.
+Falieri, however, appeared not to notice them, but strode along as
+pathetically as possible at Annunciata's side, smirking and smiling all
+over his face, and free on this occasion from all jealousy, although he
+must have seen the glances full of burning passion which were directed
+upon his beautiful lady from all sides. Arrived before the principal
+entrance to the Palace, the guards had some difficulty in driving back
+the crowd, so that the Doge and Dogess might go in; but here and there
+were still standing isolated knots of better-dressed citizens, who
+could not very well be refused entrance into even the inner quadrangle
+of the Palace. Now it happened just at the moment that the Dogess
+entered the quadrangle, that a young man, who with a few others stood
+under the portico, fell down suddenly upon the hard marble floor, as if
+dead, with the loud scream, "O good God! good God!" The people ran
+together from every side and surrounded the dead man, so that the
+Dogess could not see him; yet, as the young man fell, she felt as if a
+red-hot knife were suddenly thrust into her heart; she grew pale; she
+reeled, and was only prevented from fainting by the smelling-bottles of
+the ladies who hastened to her assistance. Old Falieri, greatly alarmed
+and put out by the accident, wished the young man and his fit anywhere;
+and he carried his Annunciata, who hung her pretty head on her bosom
+and closed her eyes like a sick dove, himself up the steps into her own
+apartments in the interior of the Palace, although it was very hard
+work for him to do so.
+
+Meanwhile the people, who had increased to crowds in the inner
+quadrangle, had been spectators of a remarkable scene. They were about
+to lift up the young man, whom they took to be quite dead, and carry
+him away, when an ugly old beggar-woman, all in rags, came limping up
+with a loud wail of grief; and punching their sides and ribs with her
+sharp elbows she made a way for herself through the thick of the crowd.
+When she at length saw the senseless youth, she cried, "Let him be,
+fools; you stupid people, let him be; he is not dead." Then she
+squatted down beside him; and taking his head in her lap she gently
+rubbed and stroked his forehead, calling him by the sweetest of names.
+As the people noted the old woman's ugly apish face, and the repulsive
+play of its muscles, bending over the young fellow's fine handsome
+face, his soft features now stiff and pale as in death, when they saw
+her filthy rags fluttering about over the rich clothing the young man
+wore, and her lean brownish-yellow arms and long hands trembling upon
+his forehead and exposed breast--they could not in truth resist
+shuddering with awe. It looked as if it were the grinning form of death
+himself in whose arms the young man lay. Hence the crowd standing round
+slipped away quietly one after the other, till there were only a few
+left They, when the young man opened his eyes with a deep sigh, took
+him up and carried him, at the old woman's request, to the Grand Canal,
+where a gondola took them both on board, the old woman and the youth,
+and brought them to the house which she had indicated as his dwelling.
+Need it be said that the young man was Antonio, and that the old woman
+was the beggar of the steps of the Franciscan Church, who wanted to
+make herself out to be his nurse?
+
+When Antonio was quite recovered from his stupefaction and perceived
+the old woman at his bed-side, and knew that she had just been giving
+him some strengthening drops, he said brokenly in a hoarse voice,
+bending a long gloomy melancholy gaze upon her, "_You_ with me,
+Margaret--that is good; what more faithful nurse could I have found
+than you? Oh! forgive me, mother, that I, a doltish, senseless boy,
+doubted for an instant what you discovered to me. Yes, you are _the_
+Margaret who reared me, who cared for me and tended me; I knew it all
+the time, but some evil spirit bewildered my thoughts. I have seen her;
+it is she--it is she. Did I not tell you there was some mysterious
+magical power dwelling in me, which exercised an uncontrollable
+supremacy over me? It has emerged from its obscurity dazzling with
+light, to effect my destruction through nameless joy. I now know all--
+everything. Was not my foster-father Bertuccio Nenolo, and did he not
+bring me up at his country-seat near Treviso?" "Yes, yes," replied the
+old woman, "it was indeed Bertuccio Nenolo, the great sea-captain, whom
+the sea devoured as he was about to adorn his temples with the victor's
+wreath." "Don't interrupt me," continued Antonio; "listen patiently to
+what I have to say.
+
+"With Bertuccio Nenolo I lived in clover. I wore fine clothes; the
+table was always covered when I was hungry; and after I had said my
+three prayers properly I was allowed to run about the woods and fields
+just as I pleased. Close beside the villa there was a little wood of
+sweet pines, cool and dark, and filled with sweet scents and songs.
+There one evening, when the sun began to sink, I threw me down beneath
+a big tree, tired with running and jumping about, and stared up at the
+blue sky. Perhaps I was stupefied by the fragrant smell of the
+flowering herbs in the midst of which I lay; at any rate, my eyes
+closed involuntarily, and I sank into a state of dreamy reverie, from
+which I was awakened by a rustling, as if some one had struck a blow in
+the grass beside me. I started up into a sitting posture; an angelic
+child with heavenly eyes stood near me and looked down upon me, smiling
+most sweetly and bewitchingly. 'O good boy,' she said, in a low soft
+voice, 'how beautiful and calmly you sleep, and yet death, nasty death,
+was so near to you.' Close beside my breast I saw a small black snake
+with its head crushed; the little girl had killed the poisonous reptile
+with a switch from a nut-tree, and just as it was wriggling on to my
+destruction. Then a trembling of sweet awe fell upon me; I knew that
+angels often came down from heaven above to rescue men in person from
+the threatening attack of some evil enemy. I fell upon my knees and
+raised my folded hands. 'Oh! you are surely an angel of light, sent by
+God to save my life,' I cried. The pretty creature stretched out both
+arms towards me and said softly, whilst a deeper flush mantled upon her
+cheeks, 'No, good boy; I am not an angel, but a girl--a child like
+you.' Then my feeling of awe gave place to a nameless delight, which
+spread like a gentle warmth through all my limbs. I rose to my feet; we
+clasped each other in our arms, our lips met, and we were speechless,
+weeping, sobbing with sweet unutterable sadness.
+
+"Then a clear silvery voice cried through the wood, 'Annunciata!
+Annunciata!' 'I must go now, darling boy, mother is calling me,'
+whispered the little girl. My heart was rent with unspeakable pain.
+'Oh! I love you so much,' I sobbed, and the scalding tears fell from
+the little girl's eyes upon my cheeks. 'I am so--so fond of you, good
+boy,' she cried, pressing a last kiss upon my lips. 'Annunciata,' the
+voice cried again; and the little girl disappeared behind the bushes.
+Now that, Margaret, was the moment when the mighty spark of love fell
+upon my soul, and it will gather strength, and, enkindling flame after
+flame, will continue to burn there for ever. A few days afterwards I
+was turned out of the house.
+
+"Father Bluenose told me, since I did not cease talking about the
+lovely child who had appeared to me, and whose sweet voice I thought I
+heard in the rustling of the trees, in the gushing murmurs of the
+springs, and in the mysterious soughing of the sea--yes, then Father
+Bluenose told me that the girl could be none other than Nenolo's
+daughter Annunciata, who had come to the villa with her mother
+Francesca, but had left it again on the following day. O mother--
+Margaret--help me. Heaven! This Annunciata--is the Dogess." And Antonio
+buried his face in the pillows, weeping and sobbing with unspeakable
+emotion.
+
+"My dear Tonino," said the old woman, "rouse yourself and be a man;
+come, do resist bravely this foolish emotion. Come, come, how can you
+think of despairing when you are in love? For whom does the golden
+flower of hope blossom if not for the lover? You do not know in the
+evening what the morning may bring; what you have beheld in your dreams
+comes to meet you in living form. The castle that hovered in the air
+stands all at once on the earth, a substantial and splendid building.
+See here, Tonino, you are not paying the least heed to my words; but my
+little finger tells me, and so does somebody else as well, that the
+bright standard of love is gaily waving for you out at sea. Patience,
+Tonino--patience, my boy!" Thus the old woman sought to comfort poor
+Antonio; and her words did really sound like sweet music. He would not
+let her leave him again. The beggar-woman had disappeared from the
+steps of the Franciscan Church, and in her stead people saw Signor
+Antonio's housekeeper, dressed in becoming matronly style, limping
+about St. Mark's Square and buying the requisite provisions for his
+table.
+
+Holy Thursday was come. It was to be celebrated on this occasion in
+more magnificent fashion than it had ever been before. In the middle of
+the Piazzetta of St. Mark's a high staging was erected for a special
+kind of artistic fire--something perfectly new, which was to be
+exhibited by a Greek--a man experienced in such matters. In the evening
+old Falieri came out on the balcony along with his beautiful lady,
+reflecting his pride and happiness in the magnificence of his
+surroundings, and with radiant eyes challenging all who stood near to
+admire and wonder. As he was about to take his seat on the chair of
+state he perceived Michele Steno actually on the same balcony with him,
+and saw that he had chosen a position whence he could keep his eyes
+constantly fixed upon the Dogess, and must of necessity be observed by
+her. Completely overmastered by furious rage, and wild with jealousy,
+Falieri shouted in a loud and commanding tone that Steno was to be at
+once removed from the balcony. Michele Steno raised his hand against
+Falieri, but that same moment the guards appeared, and compelled him to
+quit his place, which he did, foaming with rage and grinding his teeth,
+and threatening revenge in the most horrible imprecations.
+
+Meanwhile Antonio, utterly beside himself at sight of his beloved
+Annunciata, had made his way out through the crowd, and was striding
+backwards and forwards in the darkness of the night alone along the
+edge of the sea, his heart rent by unutterable anguish. He debated
+within himself whether it would not be better to extinguish the
+consuming fire within him in the ice-cold waves than to be slowly
+tortured to death by hopeless pain. But little was wanting, and he had
+leapt into the sea; he was already standing on the last step that goes
+down to the water, when a voice called to him from a little boat, "Ay,
+a very good evening to you, Signor Antonio." By the reflection cast by
+the illuminations of the Square, he recognised that it was merry
+Pietro, one of his former comrades. He was standing in the boat, his
+new cap adorned with feathers and tinsel, and his new striped jacket
+gaily decorated with ribbons, whilst he held in his hand a large and
+beautiful nosegay of sweet-scented flowers. "Good evening, Pietro,"
+shouted Antonio back, "what grand folks are you going to row to-night
+that you are decked off so fine?" "Oh!" replied Pietro, dancing till
+his boat rocked; "see you, Signor Antonio, I am going to earn my three
+sequins to-day; for I'm going to make the journey up to St. Mark's
+Tower and then down again, to take this nosegay to the beautiful
+Dogess." "But isn't that a risky and break-neck adventure, Pietro, my
+friend?" asked Antonio. "Well," he replied, "there is some little
+chance of breaking one's neck, especially as we go to-day right through
+the middle of the artificial fire. The Greek says, to be sure, that he
+has arranged everything so that the fire will not hurt a hair of
+anybody's head, but"---- Pietro shrugged his shoulders.
+
+Antonio stepped down to Pietro in the boat, and now perceived that he
+stood close in front of the machine, which was fastened to a rope
+coming out of the sea. Other ropes, by means of which the machine was
+to be drawn up, were lost in the night. "Now listen, Pietro," began
+Antonio, after a silent pause, "see here, comrade, if you could earn
+ten sequins to-day without exposing your life to danger, would it not
+be more agreeable to you?" "Why, of course," and Pietro burst into a
+good hearty laugh. "Well then," continued Antonio, "take these ten
+sequins and change clothes with me, and let me take your place, I will
+go up instead of you. Do, my good friend and comrade, Pietro, let me go
+up." Pietro shook his head dubiously, and weighing the money in his
+hand, said, "You are very kind, Signor Antonio, to still call a poor
+devil like me your comrade, and you are generous as well. The money I
+should certainly like very much; but, on the other hand, to place this
+nosegay in our beautiful Dogess's hand myself, to hear her sweet
+voice--and after all that's really why I am ready to risk my life.
+Well, since it is you, Signor Antonio, I close with your offer." They
+both hastily changed their clothes; and hardly was Antonio dressed when
+Pietro cried, "Quick, into the machine; the signal is given." At the
+same moment the sea was lit up with the reflection of thousands of
+bright flashes, and all the air along the margin of the sea rang with
+loud reverberating thunders. Right through the midst of the hissing
+crackling flames of the artificial fire, Antonio rose up into the air
+with the speed of a hurricane, and shot down uninjured upon the
+balcony, hovering in front of the Dogess. She had risen to her feet and
+stepped forward; he felt her breath on his cheeks; he gave her the
+nosegay. But in the unspeakable delirious delight of the moment he was
+clasped as if in red-hot arms by the fiery pain of hopeless love.
+Senseless, insane with longing, rapture, anguish, he grasped her hand,
+and covered it with burning kisses, crying in the sharp tone of
+despairing misery, "O Annunciata!" Then the machine, like a blind
+instrument of fate, whisked him away from his beloved back to the sea,
+where he sank down stunned, quite exhausted, into Pietro's arms, who
+was waiting for him in the boat.
+
+Meanwhile the Doge's balcony was the scene of tumult and confusion. A
+small strip of paper had been found fastened to the Doge's seat,
+containing in the common Venetian dialect the words:
+
+Il Dose Falier della bella muier,
+I altri la gode é lui la mantien.
+
+(The Doge Falieri, the husband of the beautiful lady; others kiss her,
+and he--he keeps her.)
+
+Old Falieri burst into a violent fit of passion, and swore that the
+severest punishment should overtake the man who had been guilty of this
+audacious offence. As he cast his eyes about they fell upon Michele
+Steno standing beneath the balcony in the Square, in the full light of
+the torches; he at once commanded his guards to arrest him as the
+instigator of the outrage. This command of the Doge's provoked a
+universal cry of dissent; in giving way to his overmastering rage he
+was offering insult to both Seignory and populace, violating the rights
+of the former, and spoiling the latter's enjoyment of their holiday.
+The members of the Seignory left their places; but old Marino Bodoeri
+mixed among the people, actively representing the grave nature of the
+outrage that had been done to the head of the state, and seeking to
+direct the popular hatred upon Michele Steno. Nor had Falieri judged
+wrongly; for Michele Steno, on being expelled from the Duke's balcony,
+had really hurried off home, and there written the above-mentioned
+slanderous words; then when all eyes were fixed upon the artificial
+fire, he had fastened the strip of paper to the Doge's seat, and
+withdrawn from the gallery again unobserved. He maliciously hoped it
+would be a galling blow for them, for both the Doge and the Dogess, and
+that the wound would rankle deeply--so deeply as to touch a vital part.
+Willingly and openly he admitted the deed, and transferred all blame to
+the Doge, since he had been the first to give umbrage to _him_.
+
+The Seignory had been for some time dissatisfied with their chief, for
+instead of meeting the just expectations of the state, he gave proofs
+daily that the fiery warlike courage in his frozen and worn-out heart
+was merely like the artificial fire which bursts with a furious rush
+out of the rocket-apparatus, but immediately disappears in black
+lifeless flakes, and has accomplished nothing. Moreover, since his
+union with his young and beautiful wife (it had long before leaked out
+that he was married to her directly after attaining to the Dogate) old
+Falieri's jealousy no longer let him appear in the character of heroic
+captain, but rather of _vechio Pantalone_ (old fool); hence it was that
+the Seignory, nursing their swelling resentment, were more inclined to
+condone Michele Steno's fault, than to see justice done to their
+deeply-wounded chief. The matter was referred by the Council of Ten to
+the Forty, one of the leaders of which Michele had formerly been. The
+verdict was that Michele Steno had already suffered sufficiently, and a
+month's banishment was quite punishment enough for the offence. This
+sentence only served to feed anew and more fully old Falieri's
+bitterness against a Seignory which, instead of protecting their own
+head, had the impudence to punish insults that were offered to him as
+they would offences of merely the most insignificant description.
+
+As generally happens in the case of lovers, once a single ray of the
+happiness of love has fallen upon them, they are surrounded for days
+and weeks and months by a sort of golden veil, and dream dreams of
+Paradise; and so Antonio could not recover himself from the stupefying
+rapture of that happy moment; he could hardly breathe for delirious
+sadness. He had been well scolded by the old woman for running such a
+great risk; and she never ceased mumbling and grumbling about exposure
+to unnecessary danger.
+
+But one day she came hopping and dancing with her staff in the strange
+way she had when apparently affected by some foreign magical influence.
+Without heeding Antonio's words and questions, she began to chuckle and
+laugh, and kindling a small fire in the stove, she put a little pan on
+it, into which she poured several ingredients from many various-
+coloured phials, and made a salve, which she put into a little box;
+then she limped out of the house again, chuckling and laughing. She did
+not return until late at night, when she sat down in the easy-chair,
+panting and coughing for breath; and after she had in a measure
+recovered from her great exhaustion, she at length began, "Tonino, my
+boy Tonino, whom do you think I have come from? See--try if you can
+guess. Whom do I come from? where have I been?" Antonio looked at her,
+and a singular instinctive feeling took possession of him. "Well now,"
+chuckled the old woman, "I have come from her--her herself, from the
+pretty dove, lovely Annunciata." "Don't drive me mad, old woman!"
+shouted Antonio. "What do you say?" continued she, "I am always
+thinking about you, my Tonino.
+
+"This morning, whilst I was haggling for some fine fruit under the
+peristyle of the Palace, I heard the people talking with bated breath
+of the accident that had befallen the beautiful Dogess. I inquired
+again and again of several people, and at last a big, uncultivated, red
+haired fellow, who stood leaning against a column, yawning and chawing
+lemons, said to me, 'Oh well, a young scorpion has been trying its
+little teeth on the little finger of her left hand, and there's been a
+drop or two of blood shed--that's all. My master, Signor Doctor
+Giovanni Basseggio, is now in the palace, and he has, no doubt, before
+this cut off her pretty hand, and the finger with it.' Just as the
+fellow was telling me this there arose a great noise on the broad
+steps, and a little man--such a tiny little man--came rolling down at
+our feet, screaming and lamenting, for the guards had kicked him down
+as if he had been a nine pin. The people gathered round him, laughing
+heartily; the little man struggled and fought with his legs in the air
+without being able to get up; but the red-haired fellow rushed forward,
+snatched up the little doctor, tucked him under his arm, and ran off
+with him as fast as his legs could carry him to the Canal, where he got
+into a gondola with him and rowed away--the little doctor screaming and
+yelling with all his might the whole time. I knew how it was; just as
+Signor Basseggio was getting his knife ready to cut off the pretty
+hand, the Doge had had him kicked down the steps. I also thought of
+something else--quick--quick as you can--go home make a salve--and then
+come back here to the Ducal Palace.
+
+"And I stood on the great stairs with my bright little phial in my
+hand. Old Falieri was just coming down; he darted a glance at me, and,
+his choler rising, said, 'What does this old woman want here?' Then I
+curtsied low--quite down to the ground--as well as I could, and told
+him that I had a nice remedy which would very soon cure the beautiful
+Dogess. When the old man heard that, he fixed a terrible keen look upon
+me, and stroked his grey beard into order; then he seized me by both
+shoulders and pushed me upstairs and on into the chamber, where I
+nearly fell all my length. O Tonino, there was the pretty child
+reclining on a couch, as pale as death, sighing and moaning with pain
+and softly lamenting, 'Oh! I am poisoned in every vein.' But I at once
+set to work and took off the simple doctor's silly plaster. O just
+Heaven! her dear little hand--all red as red--and swollen. Well, well,
+my salve cooled it--soothed it. 'That does it good; yes, that does it
+good,' softly whispered the sick darling. Then Marino cried quite
+delighted, 'You shall have a thousand sequins, old woman, if you save
+me the Dogess;' and therewith he left the room.
+
+"For three hours I sat there, holding her little hand in mine, stroking
+and attending to it. Then the darling woman woke up out of the gentle
+slumber into which she had fallen, and no longer felt any pain. After I
+had made a fresh poultice, she looked at me with eyes brimming with
+gladness. Then I said, 'O most noble lady, you once saved a boy's life
+when you killed the little snake that was about to attack him as he
+slept.' O Tonino, you should have seen the hot blood rush into her pale
+face, as if a ray of the setting sun had fallen upon it--and how her
+eyes flashed with the fire of joy. 'Oh! yes, old woman,' she said, 'oh!
+I was quite a child then--it was at my father's country villa. Oh! he
+was a dear pretty boy--I often think of him now. I don't think I have
+ever had a single happy experience since that time.' Then I began to
+talk about you, that you were in Venice, that your heart still beat
+with the love and rapture of that moment, that, in order to gaze _once_
+more in the heavenly eyes of the angel who saved you, you had faced the
+risk of the dangerous aerial voyage, that you it was who had given her
+the nosegay on Holy Thursday. 'O Tonino, Tonino,' she cried in an
+ecstasy of delight, 'I felt it, I felt it; when he pressed my hand to
+his lips, when he named my name, I could not conceive why it went so
+strangely to my heart; it was indeed pleasure, but pain as well. Bring
+him here, bring him to me--the pretty boy.'" As the old woman said this
+Antonio threw himself upon his knees and cried like one insane, "O good
+God! pray let no dire fate overtake me now--now at least until I have
+seen her, have pressed her to my heart." He wanted the old woman to
+take him to the Palace the very next day; but she flatly refused, since
+old Falieri was in the habit of paying visits to his sick wife nearly
+every hour that came.
+
+Several days went by; the old woman had completely cured the Dogess;
+but as yet it had been quite impossible to take Antonio to see her. The
+old woman soothed his impatience as well as she could, always repeating
+that she was constantly talking to beautiful Annunciata about the
+Antonio whose life she had saved, and who loved her so passionately.
+Tormented by all the pangs of desire and yearning love, Antonio spent
+his time in going about in his gondola and restlessly traversing the
+squares. But his footsteps involuntarily turned time after time in the
+direction of the Ducal Palace. One day he saw Pietro standing on the
+bridge close to the back part of the Palace, opposite the prisons,
+leaning on a gay-coloured oar, whilst a gondola, fastened to one of the
+pillars, was rocking on the Canal. Although small, it had a comfortable
+little deck, was adorned with tasteful carvings, and even decorated
+with the Venetian flag, so that it bore some resemblance to the
+Bucentaur. As soon as Pietro saw his former comrade he shouted out to
+him, "Hi! Signor Antonio, the best of good greetings to you; your
+sequins have brought me good luck." Antonio asked somewhat absently
+what sort of good luck he meant, and learned the important intelligence
+that nearly every evening Pietro had to take the Doge and Dogess in his
+gondola across to Giudecca, where the Doge had a nice house not far
+from San Giorgio Maggiore. Antonio stared at Pietro, and then burst out
+spasmodically, "Comrade, you may earn another ten sequins and more if
+you like. Let me take your place; I will row the Doge over." But Pietro
+informed him that he could not think of doing so, for the Doge knew him
+and would not trust himself with anybody else. At length when Antonio,
+his mind excited by all the tortures of love, began to give way to
+unbridled anger, and violently importune him, and to swear in an insane
+and ridiculous fashion that he would leap after the gondola and drag it
+down under the sea, Pietro replied laughing, "Why, Signor Antonio,
+Signor Antonio, why, I declare you have quite lost yourself in the
+Dogess's beautiful eyes." But he consented to allow Antonio to go with
+him as his assistant in rowing; he would excuse it to old Falieri on
+the ground of the weight of the boat, as well, as being himself a
+little weak and unwell, and old Falieri did always think the gondola
+went too slowly on this trip. Off Antonio ran, and he only just
+returned to the bridge in time, dressed in coarse oarsman's clothing,
+his face stained, and with a long moustache stuck above his lips, for
+the Doge came down from the Palace with the Dogess, both attired most
+splendidly and magnificently. "Who's that stranger fellow there?" began
+the Doge angrily to Pietro; and it required all Pietro's most solemn
+asseverations that he really required an assistant, before the old man
+could be induced to allow Antonio to help row the gondola.
+
+It often happens that in the midst of the wildest delirium of delight
+and rapture the soul, strengthened as it were by the power of the
+moment, is able to impose fetters upon itself, and to control the
+flames of passion which threaten to blaze out from the heart. In a
+similar way Antonio, albeit he was close beside the lovely Annunciata
+and the seam of her dress touched him, was able to hide his consuming
+passion by maintaining a firm and powerful hold upon his oar, and,
+whilst avoiding any greater risk, by only glancing at her momentarily
+now and then. Old Falieri was all smirks and smiles; he kissed and
+fondled beautiful Annunciata's little white hands, and threw his arm
+around her slender waist. In the middle of the channel, when St. Mark's
+Square and magnificent Venice with all her proud towers and palaces lay
+extended before them, old Falieri raised his head and said, gazing
+proudly about him, "Now, my darling, is it not a grand thing to ride on
+the sea with the lord--the husband of the sea? Yes, my darling, don't
+be jealous of my bride, who is submissively bearing us on her broad
+bosom. Listen to the gentle splashing of the wavelets; are they not
+words of love which she is whispering to the husband who rules her?
+Yes, yes, my darling, you indeed wear my ring on your finger, but she
+below guards in the depths of her bosom the ring of betrothal which I
+threw to her." "Oh! my princely Sir," began Annunciata, "oh! how can
+this cold treacherous water be your bride? it quite makes me shiver to
+think that you are married to this proud imperious element." Old
+Falieri laughed till his chin and beard tottered and shook. "Don't
+distress yourself, my pet," he said, "it's far better, of course, to
+rest in your soft warm arms than in the ice-cold lap of my bride below
+there; but it's a grand thing to ride on the sea with the lord of the
+sea!" Just as the Doge was saying these words, the faint strains of
+music at a distance came floating towards them. The notes of a soft
+male voice, gliding along the waves of the sea, came nearer and nearer;
+the words that were sung were--
+
+Ah! senza amare,
+Andare sul mare,
+Col sposo del' mare
+Non puo consolare.
+
+Other voices took up the strain, and the same words were repeated again
+and again in every-varying alternation, until the song died away like
+the soft breath of the wind as it were. Old Falieri appeared not to pay
+the slightest heed to the song; on the contrary, he was relating to the
+Dogess with much prolixity the meaning and history of the solemnity
+which takes place on Ascension Day when the Doge throws his ring from
+the Bucentaur and is married to the sea.
+
+He spoke of the victories of the republic, and how she had formerly
+conquered Istria and Dalmatia under the rule of Peter Urseolus the
+Second,24 and how this ceremony had its origin in that conquest But if
+old Falieri heeded not the song, so now his tales were lost upon the
+Dogess. She sat with her mind completely wrapped up in the sweet sounds
+which came floating along the sea. When the song came to an end her
+eyes wore a strange far-off look, as if she were awakening from a
+profound dream and striving to see and interpret the images which
+sportively mocked her efforts to hold them fast. "_Senza amare, senza
+amare, non puo consolare_," she whispered softly, whilst the tears
+glistened like bright pearls in her heavenly eyes, and sighs escaped
+her breast as it heaved and sank with the violence of her emotions.
+Still smirking and smiling and talking away, the old man, with the
+Dogess at his side, stepped out upon the balcony of his house near San
+Giorgio Maggiore, without noticing that Annunciata stood at his side
+like one in a dream, speechless, her tearful eyes fixed upon some far-
+off land, whilst her heart was agitated by feelings of a singular and
+mysterious character. A young man in gondolier's costume blew a blast
+on a conch-shaped horn, till the sounds echoed far away over the sea.
+At this signal another gondola drew near. Meanwhile an attendant
+bearing a sunshade and a maid had approached the Doge and Dogess; and
+thus attended they went towards the palace. The second gondola came to
+shore, and from it stepped forth Marino Bodoeri and several other
+persons, amongst whom were merchants, artists, nay people out of the
+lowest classes of the populace even; and they followed the Doge.
+
+Antonio could hardly wait until the following evening, since he hoped
+then to have the desired message from his beloved Annunciata. At last--
+at last the old woman came limping in, dropped panting into the arm-
+chair, and clapped her thin bony hands together again and again,
+crying. "Tonino, O Tonino! what in the world has happened to our dear
+darling? When I went into her room, there she lay on the couch with her
+eyes half closed, her pretty head resting on her arm, neither
+slumbering nor awake, neither sick nor well. I approached her: 'Oh!
+noble lady,' said I, 'what misfortune has happened to you? Does your
+scarce-healed wound hurt you still?' But she looked at me, oh! with
+such eyes, Antonio--I have never seen anything like them. And directly
+I looked down into the humid moonlight that was in them, they withdrew
+behind the dark clouds of their silken lashes. Then sighing a sigh that
+came from the depths of her heart, she turned her lovely pale face to
+the wall and whispered softly--so softly, but oh! so sadly! that I was
+cut right to the heart, '_Amare--amare--ah! senza amare!_' I fetched a
+little chair and sat down beside her, and began to talk about you. She
+buried herself in the cushions; and her breathing, coming quicker and
+quicker and quicker, turned to sighing. I told her candidly that you
+had been in the gondola disguised, and that I would now at once without
+delay take you, who were dying of love and longing, to see her. Then
+she suddenly started up from the cushions, and whilst the scalding
+tears streamed down her cheeks, she exclaimed vehemently, 'For God's
+sake! By all the Holy Saints! no--no--I cannot see him, old woman. I
+conjure you, tell him he is never--never again to come near me--never.
+Tell him he is to leave Venice, to go away at once!' 'So then you will
+let my poor Antonio die?' I interposed. Then she sank back upon the
+cushions, apparently smarting from the most unutterable anguish, and
+her voice was almost choked with tears as she sobbed out, 'Shall not I
+also die the bitterest of deaths?' At this point old Falieri entered
+the room, and at a sign from him I had to withdraw." "She has rejected
+me--away--away into the sea!" cried Antonio, giving way to utter
+despair. The old woman chuckled and laughed in her usual way, and went
+on, "You simple child! you simple child! don't you see that lovely
+Annunciata loves you with all the intensity, with all the agonised love
+of which a woman's heart is capable? You simple boy! Late to-morrow
+evening slip into the Ducal Palace; you will find me in the second
+gallery on the right from the great staircase, and then we will see
+what's to be done."
+
+The following evening as Antonio, trembling with expectant happiness,
+stole up the great staircase, his conscience suddenly smote him, as
+though he were about to commit some great crime. He was so dazed, and
+he trembled and shook so, that he was scarcely able to climb the
+stairs. He had to stop and rest by leaning himself against a column
+immediately in front of the gallery that had been indicated to him. All
+at once he was plunged in the midst of a bright glare of torches, and
+before he could move from the place old Bodoeri stood in front of him,
+accompanied by some servants, who bore the torches. Bodoeri fixed his
+eyes upon the young man, and then said, "Ha! you are Antonio; you have
+been assigned this post, I know; come, follow me." Antonio, convinced
+that his proposed interview with the Dogess was betrayed, followed, not
+without trembling. But imagine his astonishment when, on entering a
+remote room, Bodoeri embraced him and spoke of the importance of the
+post that had been assigned to him, and which he would have to maintain
+with courage and firm resolution that very night. But his amazement
+increased to anxious fear and dismay when he learned that a conspiracy
+had been long ripening against the Seignory, and that at the head of it
+was the Doge himself. And this was the night in which, agreeably to the
+resolutions come to in Falieri's house on Giudecca, the Seignory was to
+fall and old Marino Falieri was to be proclaimed sovereign Duke of
+Venice.
+
+Antonio stared at Bodoeri without uttering a word; Bodoeri interpreted
+the young man's silence as a refusal to take part in the execution of
+the formidable conspiracy, and he cried incensed, "You cowardly fool!
+You shall not leave this palace again; you shall either take up arms on
+our side or die--but talk to this man first" A tall and noble figure
+stepped forward from the dark background of the apartment. As soon as
+Antonio saw the man's face, which he could not do until he came into
+the light of the torches, and recognised it, he threw himself upon his
+knees and cried, completely losing his presence of mind at seeing him
+whom he never dreamt of seeing again, "O good God! my father, Bertuccio
+Nenolo! my dear foster-parent." Nenolo raised the young man up, clasped
+him in his arms, and said in a gentle voice, "Aye, of a verity I am
+Bertuccio Nenolo, whom you perhaps thought lay buried at the bottom of
+the sea, but I have only quite recently escaped from my shameful
+captivity at the hands of the savage Morbassan. Yes, I am the Bertuccio
+Nanolo who adopted you. And I never for a moment dreamt that the stupid
+servants whom Bodoeri sent to take possession of the villa, which he
+had bought of me, would turn you out of the house. You infatuated
+youth! Do you hesitate to take up arms against a despotic caste whose
+cruelty robbed you of a father? Ay! go down to the quadrangle of the
+Fontego, and the stains which you will there see on the stone pavements
+are the stains of your father's blood. The Seignory when making over to
+the German merchants the _dépôt_ and exchange which you know under the
+name of the Fontego, forbade all those who had offices assigned to them
+to take the keys with them when they went away; they were to leave them
+with the official in charge of the Fontego. Your father acted contrary
+to this law, and had therefore incurred a heavy penalty. But now when
+the offices were opened on your father's return, there was found
+amongst his wares a chest of false Venetian coins. He vainly protested
+his innocence; it was only too evident that some malicious fiend,
+perhaps the official in charge himself, had smuggled in the chest in
+order to ruin your father. The inexorable judges, satisfied that the
+chest had been found in your father's offices, condemned him to death.
+He was executed in the quadrangle of the Fontego; nor would you now be
+living if faithful Margaret had not saved you. I, your father's truest
+friend, adopted you; and in order that you might not betray yourself to
+the Seignory, you were not told what was your father's name. But now--
+now, Anthony Dalbirger,--now is the time--now, to seize your arms and
+revenge upon the heads of the Seignory your father's shameful death."
+
+Antonio, fired by the spirit of vengeance, swore to be true to the
+conspirators and to act with invincible courage. It is well known that
+it was the affront put upon Bertuccio Nenolo by Dandulo when he was
+appointed to superintend the naval preparations, and on the occasion of
+a quarrel struck Nenolo in the face, that induced him to join with his
+ambitious son-in-law in his conspiracy against the Seignory. Both
+Nenolo and Bodoeri were desirous for old Falieri to assume the princely
+mantle in order that they might themselves rise along with him. The
+conspirators' plan was to spread abroad the news that the Genoese fleet
+lay before the Lagune. Then when night came the great bell in St.
+Mark's Tower was to be rung, and the town summoned to arms, under the
+false pretext of defence. This was to be the signal for the
+conspirators, whose numbers were considerable, and who were scattered
+throughout all Venice, to occupy St. Mark's Square, make themselves
+masters of the remaining principal squares of the town, murder the
+leading men of the Seignory, and proclaim the Doge sovereign Duke of
+Venice.
+
+But it was not the will of Heaven that this murderous scheme should
+succeed, nor that the fundamental constitution of the harassed state
+should be trampled in the dust by old Falieri--a man inflamed with
+pride and haughtiness. The meetings in Falieri's house on Giudecca had
+not escaped the watchfulness of the Ten; but they failed altogether to
+learn any reliable intelligence. But the conscience of one of the
+conspirators, a fur-merchant of Pisa, Bentian by name, pricked him; he
+resolved to save from destruction his friend and gossip, Nicolas Leoni,
+a member of the Council of Ten. When twilight came on, he went to him
+and besought him not to leave his house during the night, no matter
+what occurred. Leoni's suspicion was aroused; he detained the
+fur-merchant, and on pressing him closely learned the whole scheme. In
+conjunction with Giovanni Gradenigo and Marco Cornaro he called the
+Council of Ten together in St. Salvador's (church); and there, in less
+than three hours, measures were taken calculated to stifle all the
+efforts of the conspirators on the first sign of movement.
+
+Antonio's commission was to take a body of men and go to St. Mark's
+Tower, and see that the bell was tolled. Arrived there, he found the
+tower occupied by a large force of Arsenal troops, who, on his
+attempting to approach, charged upon him with their halberds. His own
+band, seized with a sudden panic, scattered like chaff; and he himself
+slipped away in the darkness of the night. But he heard the footsteps
+of a man following close at his heels; he felt him lay hands upon him,
+and he was just on the point of cutting his pursuer down when by means
+of a sudden flash of light he recognised Pietro. "Save yourself," cried
+he, "save yourself, Antonio,--here in my gondola. All is betrayed.
+Bodoeri--Nenolo--are in the power of the Seignory; the doors of the
+Ducal Palace are closed; the Doge is confined a prisoner in his own
+apartment--watched like a criminal by his own faithless guards. Come
+along--make haste--get away." Almost stupefied, Antonio suffered
+himself to be dragged into the gondola. Muffled voices--the clash of
+weapons--single cries for help--then with the deepest blackness of the
+night there followed a breathless awful silence. Next morning the
+populace, stricken with terror, beheld a fearful sight; it made every
+man's blood run cold in his veins. The Council of the Ten had that very
+same night passed sentence of death upon the leaders of the conspiracy
+who had been seized. They were strangled, and suspended from the
+balcony at the side of the Palace overlooking the Piazzetta, the one
+whence the Doge was in the habit of witnessing all ceremonies,--and
+where, alas! Antonio had hovered in the air before the lovely
+Annunciata, and where she had received from him the nosegay of flowers.
+Amongst the corpses were those of Marino Bodoeri and Bertuccio Nenolo.
+Two days later old Marino Falieri was sentenced to death by the Council
+of Ten, and executed on the so-called Giant Stairs of the Palace.
+
+Antonio wandered about unconsciously, like a man in a dream; no one
+laid hands upon him, for no one recognised him as having been of the
+number of the conspirators. On seeing old Falieri's grey head fall, he
+started up, as it were, out of his death-like trance. With a most
+unearthly scream--with the shout, "Annunciata!" he rushed storming in
+the Palace, and along the passages. Nobody stopped him; the guards, as
+if stupefied by the terrible thing that had just taken place, only
+stared after him. The old crone came to meet him, loudly lamenting and
+complaining; she seized his hand and--a few steps more, and along with
+her he entered Annunciata's room. There she lay, poor thing, on the
+couch, as if already dead. Antonio rushed towards her and covered her
+hands with burning kisses, calling her by the sweetest and tenderest
+names.
+
+Then she slowly opened her lovely heavenly eyes and saw Antonio; at
+first, however, it appeared as if it cost her an effort to call him to
+mind; but speedily she raised herself up, threw both her arms around
+his neck, and drew him to her bosom, showering down her hot tears upon
+him and kissing his cheeks--his lips. "Antonio--my Antonio--I love you,
+oh! more than I can tell you--yes, yes, there _is_ a heaven on earth.
+What are my father's and my uncle's and my husband's death in
+comparison with the blissful joy of your love? Oh! let us flee--flee
+from this scene of blood and murder." Thus spake Annunciata, her heart
+rent by the bitterest anguish, as well as by the most passionate love.
+Amid thousands of kisses and never-ending tears, the two lovers
+mutually swore eternal fidelity; and, forgetting the fearful events of
+the terrible day that was past, they turned their eyes from the earth
+and looked up into the heaven which the spirit of love had unfolded to
+their view. The old woman advised them to flee to Chiozza; thence
+Antonio intended to travel in an opposite direction by land towards his
+own native country.
+
+His friend, Pietro, procured him a small boat and had it brought to the
+bridge behind the Palace. When night came, Annunciata, enveloped in a
+thick shawl, crept stealthily down the steps with her lover, attended
+by old Margaret, who bore some valuable jewel caskets in her hood. They
+reached the bridge unobserved, and unobserved they embarked in their
+small craft. Antonio seized the oar, and away they went at a quick and
+vigorous rate. The bright moonlight danced along the waves in front of
+them like a gladsome messenger of love. They reached the open sea. Then
+began a peculiar whistling and howling of the wind far above their
+heads; black shadows came trooping up and hung themselves like a dark
+veil over the bright face of the moon. The dancing moonshine, the
+gladsome messenger of love, sank in the black depths of the sea amongst
+its muttering thunders. The storm came on and drove the black piled-up
+masses of clouds in front of it with wrathful violence. Up and down
+tossed the boat. "O help us! God, help us!" screamed the old woman.
+Antonio, no longer master of the oar, clasped his darling Annunciata in
+his arms, whilst she, aroused by his fiery kisses, strained him to her
+bosom in the intensity of her rapturous affection. "O my Antonio!"--"O
+my Annunciata!" they whispered, heedless of the storm which raged and
+blustered ever more furiously. Then the sea, the jealous widow of the
+beheaded Doge Falieri, stretched up her foaming waves as if they were
+giant arms, and seized upon the lovers, and dragged them, along with
+the old woman, down, down into her fathomless depths.
+
+As soon as the man in the mantle had thus concluded his narrative, he
+jumped up quickly and left the room with strong rapid strides. The
+friends followed him with their eyes, silently and very much
+astonished; then they went to take another look at the picture. The old
+Doge again looked down upon them with a smirk, in his ridiculous finery
+and foppish vanity; but when they carefully looked into the Dogess's
+face they perceived quite plainly that the shadow of some unknown
+pain--a pain of which she only had a foreboding--was throned upon her
+lily brow, and that dreamy aspirations of love gleamed from behind her
+dark lashes, and hovered around her sweet lips. The Hostile Power
+seemed to be threatening death and destruction from out the distant sea
+and the vaporous clouds which enshrouded St. Mark's. They now had a
+clear conception of the deeper significance of the charming picture;
+but so often as they looked upon it again, all the sympathetic sorrow
+which they had felt at the history of Antonio and Annunciata's love
+returned upon them and filled the deepest recesses of their souls with
+its pleasurable awe.
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "THE DOGE AND DOGESS."
+
+Footnote 1 Written for the _Taschenbuch der Liebe und Freundschaft
+gewidmet_, 1819; edited by S. Schütze, Frankfort-on-Main.]
+
+Footnote 2 C W. Kolbe, junr., historical and genre painter, was born in
+1781 and died in 1853.]
+
+Footnote 3 The story _Turandot_ has a history. Its prototype is in the
+Persian poet Nizámí (1141-1203). From Gozzi it was translated into
+German by Werthes; and it was from his translation that Schiller worked
+up his play in November and December, 1801. The proud Turandot,
+daughter of the Emperor of China, entertains such loathing of marriage
+that she rejects all suitors, until on her father's threatening to
+compel her to wed, she institutes a kind of version of the caskets in
+the _Merchant of Venice_. Any prince may woo for her, but in a peculiar
+way. He must solve three riddles in the full assembly of the court. If
+he succeeds, he wins the princess; if he does not succeed, he loses his
+own head. In Gozzi the three riddles are about the Year, the Sun, and
+(extremely inapposite to the circumstances) the Lion of the Adriatic.
+The two last Schiller replaced by riddles about the Eye and the
+Plough.]
+
+Footnote 4 Calaf, Prince of Astrakhan, successfully solves the riddles
+and wins the Princess Turandot.]
+
+Footnote 5 The story of this Doge's conspiracy has furnished materials
+for a tragedy to Byron (1821), Casimir Delavinge (1829), and Albert
+Lindner (1875). A translation of the story is given by Mr. F. Cohen
+(Sir F. Palgrave) from Sanuto's _Chronicle_, in the Appendix to the
+play in Byron's works.]
+
+Footnote 6 Paganino Dona, one of the greatest of Genoese admirals, took
+and burnt Parenzo, a town on the west coast of Istria, on the 11th of
+August, 1354. At this period the rivalry between the two republics,
+Venice and Genoa, in their commercial relations with the East and in
+the Black Sea, was especially bitter, and they were almost constantly
+at war with each other.]
+
+Footnote 7 Andrea Dandolo (1307-1354), Doge from 1343 to 1354. During
+his reign Venice actively extended her commercial conquests in the
+Black Sea and the countries around the Levant, engaged part of the time
+in active hostilities with the Genoese.]
+
+Footnote 8 The sequin was a gold coin of Venice and Tuscany, worth
+about 9s. 3d. It is sometimes used as equivalent to ducat (Note, page
+63, Vol. i.)
+
+Footnote 9 Pope Innocent VI., Pope at Avignon, from 1352 to 1362.]
+
+Footnote 10 Hoffmann states that he derived his materials for this
+story from Le Bret's "History of Venice,"--a book which, unfortunately,
+up to the time of going to press, the translator had not been able to
+obtain.]
+
+Footnote 11 Nicolo Pisani, a very active naval commander in the third
+war with Genoa (1350-1355), fought battles in the Bosphorus, off
+Sardinia, and at Porto Longo, near Modon (Greece).]
+
+Footnote 12 Sardinia was for many, many years an object of contention
+between Pisa, Genoa, and the Aragonese. At this time (1354) it belonged
+to the latter, but the Genoese were constantly endeavouring to stir up
+the people of the island to revolt against the Aragonese; hence we may
+see reason for Pisani's being in Sardinian waters.]
+
+Footnote 13 Equivalent to "Governor," Chioggia was an old town thirty
+miles south of Venice, at the southern extremity of the Lagune. Chiozza
+= Chioggia.]
+
+Footnote 14 The state barge of Venice; the word means "little golden
+boat." Pope Alexander III. bestowed upon the Doge Sebastian Ziani, for
+his victory over Frederick Barbarossa near Parenzo on Ascension Day,
+1177, a ring in token of the suzerainty of Venice over the Adriatic.
+From this time dates the observance of the annual ceremony of the
+Doge's marrying the Adriatic from the Bucentaur.]
+
+Footnote 15 San Giorgio Maggiore. Venice, as everybody knows, is not
+built upon the mainland but upon islands. The two largest, whose
+greatest length is from east to west, are divided by the Grand Canal,
+upon which axe situated most of the palaces and important public
+buildings. South of these two principal islands, and separated from
+them by the Giudecca Canal, are the islands of Giudecca and San Giorgio
+Maggiore close together, the latter on the east and opposite the south
+entrance to the Grand Canal, beyond which are the Piazetta and St.
+Mark's Square.]
+
+Footnote 16 This is larger than the gondola, and also more modern; it
+is calculated to hold six persons, and even luggage.]
+
+Footnote 17 The Fondaco de' Tedeschi, erected in 1506, on the Grand
+Canal. It was formerly decorated externally with paintings by Titian
+and his pupils. At first it served as _dépôt_ for the wares of German
+merchants (whence its name), but is now used as a custom-house.]
+
+Footnote 18 Louis I. the Great of Hungary (1342-1382). The Dalmatian
+and Istrian sea-board formed a fruitful source of contention between
+the Venetians and Hungary, Louis proving a very formidable opponent to
+the Republic.]
+
+Footnote 19 At this epoch Venice was the mart and mediatory between the
+West and the East, the commercial riches of the latter having been
+opened up to the feudal civilisation of Europe, chiefly through the
+Crusades. Hence the cosmopolitan character of the merchants on the
+Rialto.]
+
+Footnote 20 In the year 1348, Venice was visited by an earthquake, and
+this was followed by the plague (the Black Death). In order to complete
+the roll of the republic's misfortunes in this gloomy year, it may be
+added that she also lost almost the whole of her Black Sea fleet to the
+Genoese.]
+
+Footnote 21 It may perhaps be interesting to observe that a precisely
+similar occurrence forms the central feature in H. v. Kleist's
+"Erdbeben in Chili" (1810), perhaps one of the best of his short
+stories.]
+
+Footnote 22 Narrated in the translation of the Chronicle of Sanuto by
+Sir Francis Palgrave in Byron's notes to "Marino Faliero."]
+
+Footnote 23 On the island of Sapenzia, south-west of the Morea.]
+
+Footnote 24 Pietro Urseolo I. was Doge from 991 to 1009; Dalmatia was
+subdued in 997.]
+
+
+
+
+_MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER,
+AND HIS JOURNEYMAN._1
+
+
+Well may your heart swell in presentient sadness, indulgent reader,
+when your footsteps wander through places where the splendid monuments
+of Old German Art speak, like eloquent tongues, of the magnificence,
+good steady industry, and sterling honesty of an illustrious age now
+long since passed away. Do you not feel as if you were entering a
+deserted house? The Holy Book in which the head of the household read
+is still lying open on the table, and the gay rich tapestry that the
+mistress of the house spun with her own hands is still hanging on the
+walls; whilst round about in the bright clean cupboards are ranged all
+kinds of valuable works of art, gifts received on festive occasions.
+You could almost believe a member of the household will soon enter and
+receive you with genuine hearty hospitality. But you will wait in vain
+for those whom the eternally revolving wheel of Time has whirled away;
+you may therefore surrender yourself to the sweet dream in which the
+old Masters rise up before you and speak honest and weighty words that
+sink deeply into your heart Then for the first time will you be able to
+grasp the profound significance of their works, for you will then not
+only live in, but you will also understand the age which could produce
+such masters and such works. But, alas! does it not happen that, as you
+stretch out your loving arms to clasp the beautiful image of your
+dream, it shyly flees away on the light morning clouds before the noisy
+bustle of the day, whilst you, your eyes filling with scalding tears,
+gaze after the bright vision as it gradually disappears? And so, rudely
+disturbed by the life that is pulsing about you, you are suddenly
+wakened out of your pleasant dream, retaining only the passionate
+longing that thrills your breast with its delicious awe.
+
+Such sentiments as these, indulgent reader, have always animated the
+breast of him who is about to pen these pages for you, whenever his
+path has led him through the world-renowned city of Nuremberg. Now
+lingering before that wonderful structure, the fountain2 in the
+market-place, now contemplating St. Sebald's shrine,3 and the ciborium4
+in St. Lawrence's Church, and Albert Dürer's5 grand pictures in the
+castle and in the town-house, he used to give himself up entirely to
+the delicious reveries which transported him into the midst of all the
+glorious splendours of the old Imperial Town. He thought of the
+true-hearted words of Father Rosenblüth6--
+
+O Nuremberg, thou glorious spot,
+Thy honour's bolt was aimed aright,
+Sticks in the mark whereat wisdom shot;
+And truth in thee hath come to light.
+
+Many a picture of the life of the worthy citizens of that period, when
+art and manual industry went loyally and industriously hand in hand,
+rose up brightly before his mind's eye, impressing itself upon his soul
+in especially cheerful and pleasing colours. Graciously be pleased,
+therefore, that he put one of these pictures before you. Perhaps, as
+you gaze upon it, it may afford you gratification, perhaps it may draw
+from you a good-natured smile, perhaps you may even come to feel
+yourself at home in Master Martin's house, and may linger willingly
+amongst his casks and tubs. Well!--Then the writer of these pages will
+have effected what is the sincere and honest wish of his heart.
+
+_How Master Martin was elected "Candle-master" and how he returned
+thanks therefor._
+
+On the 1st of May, 1580, in accordance with traditionary custom and
+usage, the honourable guild of coopers, or wine-cask makers, of the
+free Imperial Town of Nuremberg, held with all due ceremony a meeting
+of their craft. A short time previously one of the presidents, or
+"Candle-masters," as they were called, had been carried to his grave;
+it was therefore necessary to elect a successor. Choice fell upon
+Master Martin. And in truth there was scarcely another who could be
+measured against him in the building of strong and well-made casks;
+none understood so well as he the management of wine in the cellar;7
+hence he counted amongst his customers very many men of distinction,
+and lived in the most prosperous circumstances--nay, almost rolled in
+riches. Accordingly, after Martin had been elected, the worthy
+Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner, who, in his official character of
+syndic,8 presided over the meeting, said, "You have done bravely well,
+friends, to choose Master Martin as your president, for the office
+could not be in better hands. He is held in high esteem by all who know
+him, not only on account of his great skill, but on account of his ripe
+experience in the art of keeping and managing the rich juice of the
+grape. His steady industry and upright life, in spite of all the wealth
+he has amassed, may serve as an example to you all. Welcome then a
+thousand times, goodman Master Martin, as our honoured president."
+
+With these words Paumgartner rose to his feet and took a few steps
+forward, with open arms, expecting that Martin would come to meet him.
+The latter immediately placed both his hands upon the arms of his chair
+and raised himself as expeditiously as his portly person would permit
+him to rise,--which was only slowly and heavily. Then just as slowly he
+strode into Paumgartner's hearty embrace, which, however, he scarcely
+returned. "Well," said Paumgartner, somewhat nettled at this, "well,
+Master Martin, are you not altogether well pleased that we have elected
+you to be our 'Candle-master'?" Master Martin, as was his wont, threw
+his head back into his neck, played with his fingers upon his capacious
+belly, and, opening his eyes wide and thrusting forward his under-lip
+with an air of superior astuteness, let his eyes sweep round the
+assembly. Then, turning to Paumgartner, he began, "Marry, my good and
+worthy sir, why should I not be altogether well pleased, seeing that I
+receive what is my due? Who refuses to take the reward of his honest
+labour? Who turns away from his threshold the defaulting debtor when at
+length he comes to pay his long standing debt? What! my good sirs," and
+Martin turned to the masters who sat around, "what! my good sirs, has
+it then occurred to you at last that I--I _must_ be president of our
+honourable guild? What do you look for in your president? That he be
+the most skilful in workmanship? Go look at my two-tun cask made
+without fire,9 my brave masterpiece, and then come and tell me if
+there's one amongst you dare boast that, so far as concerns
+thoroughness and finish, he has ever turned out anything like it. Do
+you desire that your president possess money and goods? Come to my
+house and I will throw open chests and drawers, and you shall feast
+your eyes on the glitter of the sparkling gold and silver. Will you
+have a president who is respected by noble and base-born alike? Only
+ask our honoured gentlemen of the Council, ask the princes and noblemen
+around our good town of Nuremberg, ask his Lordship, the Bishop of
+Bamberg, ask what they all think of Master Martin? Oh! I--I don't think
+you'll hear much said against him." At the same time Master Martin
+struck his big fat belly with the greatest self-satisfaction, smiling
+with his eyes half-closed. Then, as all remained silent, nothing being
+heard except a dubious clearing of the throat here and there, he
+continued, "Ay! ay! I see. I ought, I know very well, to thank you all
+handsomely that in this election the good Lord above has at last seen
+fit to enlighten your minds. Well, when I receive the price of my
+labour, when my debtor repays me the borrowed money, I write at the
+bottom of the bill or of the receipt my 'Paid with thanks, Thomas10
+Martin, Master-cooper here.' Let me then thank you all from my heart,
+since in electing me to be your president and 'Candle-master' you have
+wiped out an old debt. As for the rest, I pledge you that I will
+discharge the duties of my office with all fidelity and uprightness. In
+the hour of need I will stand by the guild and by each of you to the
+very best of my abilities with word and deed. I will exert the utmost
+diligence to uphold the honour and fame of our celebrated handicraft,
+without bating one jot of its present credit. My honoured syndic, and
+all you, my good friends and masters, I invite to come and partake of
+good cheer with me on the coming Sunday. Then, with blithesome hearts
+and minds, let us deliberate over a glass of good Hochheimer11] or
+Johannisberger,12 or any other choice wine in my cellar that your
+palates may crave, what can be done for the furtherance of our common
+weal. Once again, I say you shall be all heartily welcome."
+
+The honest masters' countenances, which had perceptibly clouded on
+hearing Master Martin's proud words, now recovered their serenity,
+whilst the previous dead silence was followed by the cheerful buzz of
+conversation, in which a good deal was said about Master Martin's great
+deserts, and also about his choice cellar. All promised to be present
+on the Sunday, and offered their hands to the newly-elected "Candle-
+master," who took them and shook them warmly, also drawing a few of the
+masters a little towards him, as if desirous of embracing them. The
+company separated in blithe good-humour.
+
+_What afterwards took place in Master Martin's house._
+
+Now it happened that Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner had to pass by
+Master Martin's in order to reach his own home; and as they both stood
+outside Master Martin's door, and Paumgartner was about to proceed on
+his way, his friend, doffing his low bonnet, and bowing respectfully
+and as low as he was able, said to him, "I should be very glad, my good
+and worthy sir, if you would not disdain to step in and spend an hour
+or so in my humble house. Be pleased to suffer me to derive both profit
+and entertainment from your wise conversation." "Ay, ay! Master Martin,
+my friend," replied Paumgartner smiling, "gladly enough will I stay a
+while with you; but why do you call your house a humble house? I know
+very well that there's none of the richest of our citizens who can
+excel you in jewels and valuable furniture. Did you not a short time
+ago complete a handsome building which makes your house one of the
+ornaments of our renowned Imperial Town?13 In respect of its interior
+fittings I say nothing, for no patrician even need be ashamed of it."
+
+Old Paumgartner was right; for on opening the door, which was brightly
+polished and richly ornamented with brass-work, they stepped into a
+spacious entrance hall almost resembling a state-room; the floor was
+tastefully inlaid, fine pictures hung on the walls, and the cupboards
+and chairs were all artistically carved. And all who came in willingly
+obeyed the direction inscribed in verses, according to olden custom, on
+a tablet which hung near the door:--
+
+Let him who will the stairs ascend
+See that his shoes be rubbed well clean.
+Or taken off were better, I ween;
+He thus avoids what might offend.
+A thoughtful man is well aware
+How he indoors himself should bear.
+
+It had been a hot day, and now as the hour of twilight was approached
+it began to be close and stuffy in the rooms, so Master Martin led his
+eminent guest into the cool and spacious parlour-kitchen. For this was
+the name applied at that time to a place in the houses of the rich
+citizens which, although furnished as a kitchen, was never used as
+such--all kinds of valuable utensils and other necessaries of
+housekeeping being there set out on show. Hardly had they got inside
+the door when Master Martin shouted in a loud voice, "Rose, Rose!" Then
+the door was immediately opened, and Rose, Master Martin's only
+daughter, came in.
+
+I should like you, dear reader, to awaken at this moment a vivid
+recollection of our great Albrecht Dürer's masterpieces; I would wish
+that the glorious maidens whom we find in them, with all their noble
+grace, their sweet gentleness and piety, should recur to your mind,
+endowed with living form. Recall the noble and delicate figure, the
+beautifully arched, lily-white forehead, the carnation flitting like a
+breath of roses across the cheek, the full sweet cherry-red lips,--
+recall the eyes full of pious aspirations, half-veiled by their dark
+lashes, like moonlight seen through dusky foliage,--recall the silky
+hair, artfully gathered into graceful plaits,--recall the divine beauty
+of these maidens, and you will see lovely Rose. How else than in this
+way could the narrator sketch the dear, darling child? And yet permit
+me to remind you here of an admirable young artist into whose heart a
+quickening ray has fallen from these beautiful old times. I mean the
+German painter Cornelius,14 in Rome. Just as Margaret looks in
+Cornelius's drawings to Goethe's mighty _Faust_ when she utters the
+words, "Bin weder Fräulein noch schön"15 (I am neither a lady of rank,
+nor yet beautiful), so also may Rose have looked when in the shyness of
+her pure chaste heart she felt compelled to shun addresses that smacked
+somewhat too much of freedom.
+
+Rose bowed low with child-like respect before Paumgartner, and taking
+his hand, pressed it to her lips. The crimson colour rushed into the
+old gentleman's pale cheeks, as the sun when setting shoots up a dying
+flash, suddenly converting the dark foliage into gold, so the fire of a
+youth now left far behind gleamed once more in his eyes. "Ay! ay!" he
+cried in a blithesome voice, "marry, my good friend Master Martin, you
+are a rich and a prosperous man, but the best of all the blessings
+which the good Lord has given you is your lovely daughter Rose. If the
+hearts of old gentlemen like us who sit in the Town Council are so
+stirred that we cannot turn away our purblind eyes from the dear child,
+who can find fault with the young folks if they stop and stand like
+blocks of wood, or as if spell-bound, when they meet your daughter in
+the street, or see her at church, though we have a word of blame for
+our clerical gentry, because on the Allerwiese,16 or wherever else a
+festival is held, they all crowd round your daughter, with their sighs,
+and loving glances, and honied words, to the vexation of all other
+girls? Well, well, Master Martin, you can choose you your son-in-law
+amongst any of our young patricians, or wherever else you may list."
+
+A dark frown settled on Master Martin's face; he bade his daughter
+fetch some good old wine; and after she had left the room, the hot
+blushes mantling thick and fast upon her cheeks, and her eyes bent upon
+the floor, he turned to old Paumgartner, "Of a verity, my good sir,
+Heaven has dowered my daughter with exceptional beauty, and herein too
+I have been made rich; but how can you speak of it in the girl's
+presence? And as for a patrician son-in-law, there'll never be anything
+of that sort." "Enough, Master Martin, say no more," replied
+Paumgartner, laughing. "Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth must
+speak. Don't you believe, then, that when I set eyes on Rose the
+sluggish blood begins to leap in my old heart also? And if I do
+honestly speak out what she herself must very well know, surely there's
+no very great mischief done."
+
+Rose brought the wine and two beautiful drinking-glasses. Then Martin
+pushed the heavy table, which was ornamented with some remarkable
+carving, into the middle of the kitchen. Scarcely, however, had the old
+gentlemen taken their places and Master Martin had filled the glasses
+when a trampling of horses was heard in front of the house. It seemed
+as if a horseman had pulled up, and as if his voice was heard in the
+entrance-passage below. Rose hastened down and soon came back with the
+intelligence that old Junker17 Heinrich von Spangenberg was there and
+wished to speak to Master Martin. "Marry!" cried Martin, "now this is
+what I call a fine lucky evening, which brings me my best and oldest
+customer. New orders of course, I see I shall have to 'cask' out
+again"--Therewith he hastened down as fast as he was able to meet his
+welcome guest.
+
+_How Master Martin extols his trade above all others._
+
+The Hochheimer sparkled in the beautiful cut drinking-glasses, and
+loosened the tongues and opened the hearts of the three old gentlemen.
+Old Spangenberg especially, who, though advanced in years, was yet
+brimming with freshness and vivacity, had many a jolly prank out of his
+merry youth to relate, so that Master Martin's belly wabbled famously,
+and again and again he had to brush the tears out of his eyes, caused
+by his loud and hearty laughing. Herr Paumgartner, too, forgot more
+than was customary with him the dignity of the Councillor, and enjoyed
+right well the noble liquor and the merry conversation. But when Rose
+again made her appearance with the neat housekeeper's basket under her
+arm, out of which she took a tablecloth as dazzling white as fresh-
+fallen snow,--when she tripped backwards and forwards busy with
+household matters, laying the cloth, and placing a plentiful supply of
+appetising dishes on the table,--when, with a winning smile she invited
+the gentlemen not to despise what had been hurriedly prepared, but to
+turn to and eat--during all this time their conversation and laughter
+ceased. Neither Paumgartner nor Spangenberg averted their sparkling
+eyes from the fascinating maiden, whilst Master Martin too, leaning
+back in his chair, and folding his hands, watched her busy movements
+with a gratified smile. Rose was withdrawing, but old Spangenberg was
+on his feet in a moment, quick as a youth; he took the girl by both
+shoulders and cried, again and again, as the bright tears trickled from
+his eyes, "Oh you good, you sweet little angel! What a dear darling
+girl you are!" then he kissed her twice--three times on the forehead,
+and returned to his seat, apparently in deep thought.
+
+Paumgartner proposed the toast of Rose's health. "Yes," began
+Spangenberg, after she had gone out of the room, "yes, Master Martin,
+Providence has given you a precious jewel in your daughter, whom you
+cannot well over-estimate. She will yet bring you to great honour. Who
+is there, let him be of what rank in life he may, who would not
+willingly be your son-in-law?" "There you are," interposed Paumgartner;
+"there you see, Master Martin, the noble Herr von Spangenberg is
+exactly of my opinion. I already see our dear Rose a patrician's bride
+with the rich jewellery of pearls18 in her beautiful flaxen hair." "My
+dear sirs," began Martin, quite testily, "why do you, my dear sirs,
+keep harping upon this matter--a matter to which I have not as yet
+directed my thoughts? My Rose has only just reached her eighteenth
+year; it's not time for such a young thing to be looking out for a
+lover. How things may turn out afterwards--well, that I leave entirely
+to the will of the Lord; but this I do at any rate know, that none
+shall touch my daughter's hand, be he patrician or who he may, except
+the cooper who approves himself the cleverest and skilfullest master in
+his trade--presuming, of course, that my daughter will have him, for
+never will I constrain my dear child to do anything in the world, least
+of all to make a marriage that she does not like." Spangenberg and
+Paumgartner looked at each other, perfectly astonished at this
+extraordinary decision of the Master's.19 At length, after some
+clearing of his throat, Spangenberg began, "So, then, your daughter is
+not to wed out of her own station?" "God forbid she should," rejoined
+Martin. "But," continued Spangenberg, "if now a skilled master of a
+higher trade, say a goldsmith, or even a brave young artist, were to
+sue for your Rose and succeeded in winning her favour more than all
+other young journeymen, what then?" "I should say," replied Master
+Martin, throwing his head back into his neck, "show me, my excellent
+young friend, the fine two-tun cask which you have made as your
+masterpiece; and if he could not do so, I should kindly open the door
+for him and very politely request him to try his luck elsewhere." "Ah!
+but," went on Spangenberg again, "if the young journeyman should reply,
+'A little structure of that kind I cannot show you, but come with me to
+the market-place and look at yon beautiful house which is sending up
+its slender gable into the free open air--that's my masterpiece.'" "Ah!
+my good sir, my good sir," broke in Master Martin impatiently, "why do
+you give yourself all this trouble to try and make me alter my
+conviction? Once and for all, my son-in-law must be of _my_ trade; for
+my trade I hold to be the finest trade there is in the world. Do you
+think we've nothing to do but to fix the staves into the trestles
+(hoops), so that the cask may hold together? Marry, it's a fine thing
+and an admirable thing that our handiwork requires a previous knowledge
+of the way in which that noble blessing of Heaven, good wine, must be
+kept and managed, that it may acquire strength and flavour so as to go
+through all our veins and warm our blood like the true spirit of life!
+And then as for the construction of the casks--if we are to turn out a
+successful piece of work, must we not first draw out our plans with
+compass and rule? We must be arithmeticians and geometricians of no
+mean attainments, how else can we adapt the proportion and size of the
+cask to the measure of its contents? Ay, sir, my heart laughs in my
+body when we've bravely laboured at the staves with jointer and adze
+and have gotten a brave cask in the vice; and then when my journeymen
+swing their mallets and down it comes on the drivers clipp! clapp!
+clipp! clapp!--that's merry music for you; and there stands your well-
+made cask. And of a verity I may look a little proudly about me when I
+take my marking-tool in my hand and mark the sign of my handiwork, that
+is known and honoured of all respectable wine-masters, on the bottom of
+the cask. You spoke of house-building, my good sir. Well, a beautiful
+house is in truth a glorious piece of work, but if I were a house-
+builder and went past a house I had built, and saw a dirty fellow or
+good-for-nothing rascal who had got possession of it looking down upon
+me from the bay-window, I should feel thoroughly ashamed,--I should
+feel, purely out of vexation and annoyance, as if I should like to pull
+down and destroy my own work. But nothing like that can happen with the
+structures I build. Within them there comes and lives once for all
+nothing but the purest spirit on earth--good wine. God prosper my
+handiwork!"
+
+"That's a fine eulogy," said Spangenberg, "and honestly and well meant.
+It does you honour to think so highly of your craft; but--do not get
+impatient if I keep harping upon the same string--now if a patrician
+really came and sued for your daughter? When a thing is brought right
+home to a man it often looks very different from what he thought it
+would." "Why, i' faith," cried Master Martin somewhat vehemently, "why,
+what else could I do but make a polite bow and say, 'My dear sir, if
+you were a brave cooper, but as it is'"---- "Stop a bit," broke in
+Spangenberg again; "but if now some fine day a handsome Junker on a
+gallant horse, with a brilliant retinue dressed in magnificent silks
+and satins, were to pull up before your door and ask you for Rose to
+wife?" "Marry, by my faith," cried Master Martin still more vehemently
+than before, "why, marry, I should run down as fast as I could and lock
+and bolt the door, and I should shout 'Ride on farther! Ride on
+farther! my worshipful Herr Junker; roses like mine don't blossom for
+you. My wine-cellar and my money-bags would, I dare say, suit you
+passing well--and you would take the girl in with the bargain; but ride
+on! ride on farther.'" Old Spangenberg rose to his feet, his face hot
+and red all over; then, leaning both hands on the table, he stood
+looking on the floor before him. "Well," he began after a pause, "and
+now the last question, Master Martin. If the Junker before your door
+were my own son, if I myself stopped at your door, would you shut it
+then, should you believe then that we were only come for your wine-
+cellar and your money-bags?" "Not at all, not at all, my good and
+honoured sir," replied Master Martin. "I would gladly throw open my
+door, and everything in my house should be at your and your son's
+service; but as for my Rose, I should say to you, 'If it had only
+pleased Providence to make your gallant son a brave cooper, there would
+be no more welcome son-in-law on earth than he; but now'---- But, my
+dear good sir, why do you tease and worry me with such curious
+questions? See you, our merry talk has come abruptly to an end, and
+look! our glasses are all standing full. Let's put all sons-in-law and
+Rose's marriage aside; here, I pledge you to the health of your son,
+who is, I hear, a handsome young knight." Master Martin seized his
+glass; Paumgartner followed his example, saying, "A truce to all
+captious conversation, and here's a health to your gallant son."
+Spangenberg touched glasses with them, and said with a forced smile,
+"Of course you know I was only speaking in jest; for nothing but wild
+head-strong passion could ever lead my son, who may choose him a wife
+from amongst the noblest families in the land, so far to disregard his
+rank and birth as to sue for your daughter. But methinks you might have
+answered me in a somewhat more friendly way." "Well, but, my good sir,"
+replied Master Martin, "even in jest I could only speak as I should act
+if the wonderful things you are pleased to imagine were really to
+happen. But you _must_ let me have my pride; for you cannot but allow
+that I am the skilfullest cooper far and near, that I understand the
+management of wine, that I observe strictly and truly the admirable
+wine-regulations of our departed Emperor Maximilian20 (may he rest in
+peace!), that as beseems a pious man I abhor all godlessness, that I
+never burn more than one small half-ounce of pure sulphur21 in one of
+my two-tun casks, which is necessary to preserve it--the which, my good
+and honoured sirs, you will have abundantly remarked from the flavour
+of my wine." Spangenberg resumed his seat, and tried to put on a
+cheerful countenance, whilst Paumgartner introduced other topics of
+conversation. But, as it so often happens, when once the strings of an
+instrument have got out of tune, they are always getting more or less
+warped, so that the player in vain tries to entice from them again the
+full-toned chords which they gave at first, thus it was with the three
+old gentlemen; no remark, no word, found a sympathetic response.
+Spangenberg called for his grooms, and left Master Martin's house quite
+in an ill-humour after he had entered it in gay good spirits.
+
+_The old Grandmother's Prophecy._
+
+Master Martin was rather ill at ease because his brave old customer had
+gone away out of humour in this way, and he said to Paumgartner, who
+had just emptied his last glass and rose to go too, "For the life of
+me, I can't understand what the old gentleman meant by his talk, and
+why he should have got testy about it at last." "My good friend Master
+Martin," began Paumgartner, "you are a good and honest man; and a man
+has verily a right to set store by the handiwork he loves and which
+brings him wealth and honour; but he ought not to show it in boastful
+pride, that's against all right Christian feeling. And in our guild-
+meeting to-day you did not act altogether right in putting yourself
+before all the other masters. It may true that you understand more
+about your craft than all the rest; but that you go and cast it in
+their teeth can only provoke ill-humour and black looks. And then you
+must go and do it again this evening! You could not surely be so
+infatuated as to look for anything else in Spangenberg's talk beyond a
+jesting attempt to see to what lengths you would go in your obstinate
+pride. No wonder the worthy gentleman felt greatly annoyed when you
+told him you should only see common covetousness in any Junker's wooing
+of your daughter. But all would have been well if, when Spangenberg
+began to speak of his son, you had interposed--if you had said, 'Marry,
+my good and honoured sir, if you yourself came along with your son to
+sue for my daughter--why, i' faith, that would be far too high an
+honour for me, and I should then have wavered in my firmest
+principles.' Now, if you had spoken to him like that, what else could
+old Spangenberg have done but forget his former resentment, and smile
+cheerfully and in good humour as he had done before?" "Ay, scold me,"
+said Master Martin, "scold me right well, I have well deserved it; but
+when the old gentleman would keep talking such stupid nonsense I felt
+as if I were choking, I could not make any other answer." "And then,"
+went on Paumgartner, "what a ridiculous resolve to give your daughter
+to nobody but a cooper! You will commit, you say, your daughter's
+destiny to Providence, and yet with human shortsightedness you
+anticipate the decree of the Almighty in that you obstinately determine
+beforehand that your son-in-law is to come from within a certain narrow
+circle. That will prove the ruin of you and your Rose, if you are not
+careful Have done, Master Martin, have done with such unchristian
+childish folly; leave the Almighty, who will put a right choice in your
+daughter's honest heart when the right time comes--leave Him to manage
+it all in his own way." "O my worthy friend," said Master Martin, quite
+crest-fallen, "I now see how wrong I was not to tell you everything at
+first. You think it is nothing but overrating my handiwork that has
+brought me to take this unchangeable resolve of wedding Rose to none
+but a master-cooper; but that is not so; there is another reason, a
+more wonderful and mysterious reason. I can't let you go until you have
+learned all; you shall not bear ill-will against me over-night. Sit
+down, I earnestly beg you, stay a few minutes longer. See here; there's
+still a bottle of that old wine left which the ill-tempered Junker has
+despised; come, let's enjoy it together." Paumgartner was astonished at
+Master Martin's earnest, confidential tone, which was in general
+perfectly foreign to his nature; it seemed as if there was something
+weighing heavy upon the man's heart that he wanted to get rid of.
+
+And when Paumgartner had taken his seat and drunk a glass of wine,
+Master Martin began as follows. "You know, my good and honoured friend,
+that soon after Rose was born I lost my beloved wife; Rose's birth was
+her death. At that time my old grandmother was still living, if you can
+call it living when one is blind, deaf as a post, scarce able to speak,
+lame in every limb, and lying in bed day after day and night after
+night Rose had been christened; and the nurse sat with the child in the
+room where my old grandmother lay. I was so cut up with grief, and when
+I looked upon my child, so sad and yet so glad--in fact I was so
+greatly shaken that I felt utterly unfitted for any kind of work, and
+stood quite still and wrapped up in my own thoughts beside my old
+grandmother's bed; and I counted her happy, since now all her earthly
+pain was over. And as I gazed upon her face a strange smile began to
+steal across it, her withered features seemed to be smoothed out, her
+pale cheeks became flushed with colour. She raised herself up in bed;
+she stretched out her paralysed arms, as if suddenly animated by some
+supernatural power,--for she had never been able to do so at other
+times. She called distinctly in a low pleasant voice, 'Rose, my darling
+Rose!' The nurse got up and brought her the child, which she rocked up
+and down in her arms. But then, my good sir, picture my utter
+astonishment, nay, my alarm, when the old lady struck up in a clear
+strong voice a song in the _Hohe fröhliche Lobweis_22 of Herr Hans
+Berchler, mine host of the Holy Ghost in Strasburg, which ran like
+this--
+
+Maiden tender, with cheeks so red,
+Rose, listen to the words I say;
+Wouldst guard thyself from fear and ill?
+Then put thy trust in God alway;
+Let not thy tongue at aught make mock,
+Nor foolish longings feed at heart.
+A vessel fair to see he'll bring,
+In which the spicy liquid foams,
+And bright, bright angels gaily sing.
+And then in reverent mood
+Hearken to the truest love,
+Oh! hearken to the sweet love-words.
+The vessel fair with golden grace--
+Lo! him who brings it in the house
+Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace;
+And an thy lover be but true,
+Thou need'st nor wait thy father's kiss.
+The vessel fair will always bring
+All wealth and joy and peace and bliss;
+So, virgin fair, with the bright, bright eyes,
+Let aye thy little ear be ope
+To all true words. And henceforth live,
+And with God's richest blessing thrive.
+
+"And after she had sung this song through, she laid the child gently
+and carefully down upon the coverlet; and, placing her trembling
+withered hand upon her forehead, she muttered something to herself, to
+us, however, unintelligible; but the rapt countenance of the old lady
+showed in every feature that she was praying. Then her head sank back
+upon the pillows, and just as the nurse took up the child my old
+grandmother took a deep breath; she was dead." "That is a wonderful
+story," said Paumgartner when Master Martin ceased speaking; "but I
+don't exactly see what is the connection between your old grandmother's
+prophetic song and your obstinate resolve to give Rose to none but a
+master-cooper." "What!" replied Master Martin, "why, what can be
+plainer than that the old lady, especially inspired by the Lord at the
+last moments of her life, announced in a prophetic voice what must
+happen if Rose is to be happy? The lover who is to bring wealth and joy
+and peace and bliss into the house with his vessel fair, who is that
+but a lusty cooper who has made his vessel fair, his masterpiece with
+me? In what other vessel does the spicy liquid foam, if not in the
+wine-cask? And when the wine works, it bubbles and even murmurs and
+splashes; that's the lovely angels chasing each other backwards and
+forwards in the wine and singing their gay songs. Ay, ay, I tell you,
+my old grandmother meant none other lover than a master-cooper; and it
+shall be so, it shall be so." "But, my good Master Martin," said
+Paumgartner, "you are interpreting the words of your old grandmother
+just in your own way. Your interpretation is far from satisfactory to
+my mind; and I repeat that you ought to leave all simply to the
+ordering of Providence and your daughter's heart, in which I dare be
+bound the right choice lies hidden away somewhere." "And I repeat,"
+interrupted Martin impatiently, "that my son-in-law _shall_ be,--I am
+resolved,--_shall_ be none other than a skilful cooper." Paumgartner
+almost got angry at Master Martin's stubbornness; he controlled
+himself, however, and, rising from his seat, said, "It's getting late,
+Master Martin, let us now have done with our drinking and talking, for
+neither methinks will do us any more good."
+
+When they came out into the entrance-hall, there stood a young woman
+with five little boys, the eldest scarce eight years old apparently,
+and the youngest scarce six months. She was weeping and sobbing
+bitterly. Rose hastened to meet the two old gentlemen and said, "Oh
+father, father! Valentine is dead; there is his wife and the children."
+"What! Valentine dead?" cried Master Martin, greatly startled. "Oh!
+that accident! that accident! Just fancy," he continued, turning to
+Paumgartner, "just fancy, my good sir, Valentine was the cleverest
+journeyman I had on the premises; and he was industrious, and a good
+honest man as well. Some time ago he wounded himself dangerously with
+the adze in building a large cask; the wound got worse and worse; he
+was seized with a violent fever, and now he has had to die of it in the
+prime of life." Thereupon Master Martin approached the poor
+disconsolate woman, who, bathed in tears, was lamenting that she had
+nothing but misery and starvation staring her in the face. "What!" said
+Master Martin, "what do you think of me then? Your husband got his
+dangerous wound whilst working for me, and do you think I am going to
+let you perish of want? No, you all belong to my house from now
+onwards. To-morrow, or whenever you like, we'll bury your poor husband,
+and then do you and your boys go to my farm outside the Ladies Gate,23
+where my fine open workshop is, and where I work every day with my
+journeymen. You can install yourself as housekeeper there to look after
+things for me, and your fine boys I will educate as if they were my own
+sons. And, I tell you what, I'll take your old father as well into my
+house. He was a sturdy journeyman cooper once upon a time whilst he
+still had muscle in his arms. And now--if he can no longer wield the
+mallet, or the beetle or the beak iron, or work at the bench, he yet
+can do something with croze-adze, or can hollow out staves for me with
+the draw-knife. At any rate he shall come along with you and be taken
+into my house." If Master Martin had not caught hold of the woman, she
+would have fallen on the floor at his feet in a dead swoon, she was so
+affected by grief and emotion. The eldest of the boys clung to his
+doublet, whilst the two youngest, whom Rose had taken in her arms,
+stretched out their tiny hands towards him, as if they had understood
+it all. Old Paumgartner said, smiling and with bright tears standing in
+his eyes, "Master Martin, one can't bear you any ill-will;" and he
+betook himself to his own home.
+
+_How the two young journeymen Frederick and Reinhold became acquainted
+with each other._
+
+Upon a beautiful, grassy, gently-sloping hill, shaded by lofty trees,
+lay a fine well-made young journeyman, whose name was Frederick. The
+sun had already set, and rosy tongues of light were stretching upwards
+from the furthest verge of the horizon. In the distance the famed
+imperial town of Nuremberg could be plainly seen, spreading across the
+valley and boldly lifting up her proud towers against the red glow of
+the evening, its golden rays gilding their pinnacles. The young
+journeyman was leaning his arm on his bundle, which lay beside him, and
+contained his necessaries whilst on the travel, and was gazing with
+looks full of longing down into the valley. Then he plucked some of the
+flowers which grew among the grass within reach of him and tossed them
+into the air towards the glorious sunset; afterwards he sat gazing
+sadly before him, and the burning tears gathered in his eyes. At length
+he raised his head, and spreading out his arms as if about to embrace
+some one dear to him, he sang in a clear and very pleasant voice the
+following song:--
+
+My eyes now rest once more
+On thee, O home, sweet home!
+My true and honest heart
+Has ne'er forgotten thee.
+O rosy glow of evening come,
+I fain would naught but roses see.
+Ye sweetest buds and flowers of love,
+Bend down and touch my heart
+With winsome sweet caresses.
+O swelling bosom, wilt thou burst?
+Yet hold in pain and sweet joy fast.
+O golden evening red!
+O beauteous ray, be my sweet messenger,
+And bear to her my sighs and tears--
+My tears and sighs on faithfully to her.
+And were I now to die,
+And roses then did ask thee--say,
+"His heart with love--it pined away."
+
+Having sung this song, Frederick took a little piece of wax out of his
+bundle, warmed it in his bosom, and began in a neat and artistic manner
+to model a beautiful rose with scores of delicate petals. Whilst busy
+with this work he hummed to himself some of the lines of the song he
+had just sung, and so deeply absorbed was he in his occupation that he
+did not observe the handsome youth who had been standing behind him for
+some time and attentively watching his work.
+
+"Marry, my friend," began now the youth, "by my troth, that is a dainty
+piece of work you are making there." Frederick looked round in alarm;
+but when he looked into the dark friendly eyes of the young stranger,
+he felt as if he had known him for a long time. Smiling, he replied,
+"Oh! my dear sir, how can you notice such trifling? it only serves me
+for pastime on my journey." "Well then," went on the stranger youth,
+"if you call that delicately formed flower, which is so faithful a
+reproduction of Nature, trifling, you must be a skilful practised
+modeller. You have afforded me a pleasant surprise in two ways. First,
+I was quite touched to the heart by the song you sang so admirably to
+Martin Häscher's _Zarte Buchstabenweis_; and now I cannot but admire
+your artistic skill in modelling. How much farther do you intend to
+travel to-day?" Frederick replied, "Yonder lies the goal of my journey
+before our eyes. I am going home, to the famed imperial town of
+Nuremberg. But as the sun has now been set some time, I shall pass the
+night in the village below there, and then by being up and away in the
+early morning I can be in Nuremberg at noon." "Marry," cried the youth,
+delighted, "how finely things will fit; we are both going the same way,
+for I want to go to Nuremberg. I will spend the night with you here in
+the village, and then we'll proceed on our way again to-morrow. And now
+let us talk a little." The youth, Reinhold by name, threw himself down
+beside Frederick on the grass, and continued, "If I mistake not, you
+are a skilful artist-caster, are you not? I infer it from your style of
+modelling; or perhaps you are a worker in gold and silver?" Frederick
+cast down his eyes sadly, and said dejectedly, "Marry, my dear sir, you
+are taking me for something far better and higher than I really am.
+Well, I will speak candidly; I have learned the trade of a cooper, and
+am now going to work for a well-known master in Nuremberg. You will no
+doubt look down upon me with contempt since, instead of being able to
+mould and cast splendid statues, and such like, all I can do is to hoop
+casks and tubs." Reinhold burst out laughing, and cried, "Now that I
+call droll. I shall look down upon you--eh? because you are a cooper;
+why man, that's what I am; I'm nothing but a cooper." Frederick opened
+his eyes wide in astonishment; he did not know what to make of it, for
+Reinhold's dress was in keeping with anything sooner than a journeyman
+cooper's on travel. His doublet of fine black cloth, trimmed with
+slashed velvet, his dainty ruff, his short broadsword, and baretta with
+a long drooping feather, seemed rather to point to a prosperous
+merchant; and yet again there was a strange something about the face
+and form of the youth which completely negatived the idea of a
+merchant. Reinhold, noticing Frederick's doubting glances, undid his
+travelling-bundle and produced his cooper's apron and knife-belt,
+saying, "Look here, my friend, look here. Have you any doubts now as to
+my being a comrade? I perceive you are astonished at my clothing, but I
+have just come from Strasburg, where the coopers go about the streets
+as fine as noblemen. Certainly I did once set my heart upon something
+else like you, but now to be a cooper is the topmost height of my
+ambition, and I have staked many a grand hope upon it. Is it not the
+same with you, comrade? But I could almost believe that a dark cloud-
+shadow had been hung unawares about the brightness of your youth, so
+that you are no longer able to look freely and gladly about you. The
+song which you were just singing was full of pain and of the yearning
+of love; but there were strains in it that seemed as if they proceeded
+from my own heart, and I somehow fancy I know all that is locked up
+within your breast. You may therefore all the more put confidence in
+me, for shall we not then be good comrades in Nuremberg?" Reinhold
+threw his arm around Frederick and looked kindly into his eyes.
+Whereupon Frederick said, "The more I look at you, honest friend, the
+stronger I feel drawn towards you; I clearly discern within my breast
+the wonderful voice which faithfully echoes the cry that you are a
+sympathetic spirit I must tell you all--not that a poor fellow like me
+has any important secrets to confide to you, but simply because there
+is room in the heart of the true friend for _his_ friend's pain, and
+during the first moments of our new acquaintance even I acknowledge you
+to be my truest friend.
+
+"I am now a cooper, and may boast that I understand my work; but all my
+thoughts have been directed to another and a nobler art since my very
+childhood. I wished to become a great master in casting statues and in
+silver-work, like Peter Fischer24 or the Italian Benvenuto Cellini;25
+and so I worked with intense ardour along with Herr Johannes
+Holzschuer,26 the well-known worker in silver in my native town yonder.
+For although he did not exactly cast statues himself, he was yet able
+to give me a good introduction to the art. And Herr Tobias Martin, the
+master-cooper, often came to Herr Holzschuer's with his daughter,
+pretty Rose. Without being consciously aware of it, I fell in love with
+her. I then left home and went to Augsburg in order to learn properly
+the art of casting, but this first caused my smouldering passion to
+burst out into flames. I saw and heard nothing but Rose; every exertion
+and all labour that did not tend to the winning of her grew hateful to
+me. And so I adopted the only course that would bring me to this goal.
+For Master Martin will only give his daughter to the cooper who shall
+make the very best masterpiece in his house, and who of course finds
+favour in his daughter's eyes as well. I deserted my own art to learn
+cooperage. I am now going to Nuremberg to work for Master Martin. But
+now that my home lies before me and Rose's image rises up before my
+eyes, I feel overcome with anxiety and nervousness, and my heart sinks
+within me. Now I see clearly how foolishly I have acted; for I don't
+even know whether Rose loves me or whether she ever will love me."
+Reinhold had listened to Frederick's story with increasing attention.
+He now rested his head on his arm, and, shading his eyes with his hand,
+asked in a hollow moody voice, "And has Rose never given you any signs
+of her love?" "Nay," replied Frederick, "nay, for when I left Nuremberg
+she was more a child than a maiden. No doubt she liked me; she smiled
+upon me most sweetly when I never wearied plucking flowers for her in
+Herr Holzschuer's garden and weaving them into wreaths, but----" "Oh!
+then all hope is not yet lost," cried Reinhold suddenly, and so
+vehemently and in such a disagreeably shrill voice that Frederick was
+almost terrified. At the same time he leapt to his feet, his sword
+rattling against his side, and as he stood upright at his full stature
+the deep shadows of the night fell upon his pale face and distorted his
+gentle features in a most unpleasant way, so that Frederick cried,
+perfectly alarmed, "What's happened to you all at once?" and stepping
+back, his foot knocked against Reinhold's bundle. There proceeded from
+it the jarring of some stringed instrument, and Reinhold cried angrily,
+"You ill-mannered fellow, don't break my lute all to pieces." The
+instrument was fastened to the bundle; Reinhold unbuckled it and ran
+his fingers wildly over the strings as if he would break them all. But
+his playing soon grew soft and melodious. "Come, brother," said he in
+the same gentle tone as before, "let us now go down into the village.
+I've got a good means here in my hands to banish the evil spirits who
+may cross our path, and who might in particular have any dealings with
+me." "Why, brother," replied Frederick, "what evil spirits will be
+likely to have anything to do with us on the way? But your playing is
+very, very nice; please go on with it."
+
+The golden stars were beginning to dot the dark azure sky. The night
+breezes in low murmurous whispers swept lightly over the fragrant
+meadows. The brooks babbled louder, and the trees rustled in the
+distant woods round about Then Frederick and Reinhold went down the
+slope playing and singing, and the sweet notes of their songs, so full
+of noble aspirations, swelled up clear and sharp in the air, as if they
+had been plumed arrows of light. Arrived at their quarters for the
+night, Reinhold quickly threw aside lute and bundle and strained
+Frederick to his heart; and Frederick felt on his cheeks the scalding
+tears which Reinhold shed.
+
+_How the two young journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick, were taken into
+Master Martin's house._
+
+Next morning when Frederick awoke he missed his new-won friend, who had
+the night before thrown himself down upon the straw pallet at his side;
+and as his lute and his bundle were likewise missing, Frederick quite
+concluded that Reinhold, from reasons which were unknown to him, had
+left him and gone another road. But directly he stepped out of the
+house Reinhold came to meet him, his bundle on his back and his lute
+under his arm, and dressed altogether differently from what he had been
+the day before. He had taken the feather out of his baretta, and laid
+aside his sword, and had put on a plain burgher's doublet of an
+unpretentious colour, instead of the fine one with the velvet
+trimmings. "Now, brother," he cried, laughing merrily to his astonished
+friend, "you will acknowledge me for your true comrade and faithful
+work-mate now, eh? But let me tell you that for a youth in love you
+have slept most soundly. Look how high the sun is. Come, let us be
+going on our way." Frederick was silent and busied with his own
+thoughts; he scarcely answered Reinhold's questions and scarcely heeded
+his jests. Reinhold, however, was full of exuberant spirits; he ran
+from side to side, shouted, and waved his baretta in the air. But he
+too became more and more silent the nearer they approached the town. "I
+can't go any farther, I am so full of nervousness and anxiety and sweet
+sadness; let us rest a little while beneath these trees." Thus spake
+Frederick just before they reached the gate; and he threw himself down
+quite exhausted in the grass. Reinhold sat down beside him, and after a
+while began, "I daresay you thought me extremely strange yesterday
+evening, good brother mine. But as you told me about your love, and
+were so very dejected, then all kinds of foolish nonsense flooded my
+mind and made me quite confused, and would have made me mad in the end
+if your good singing and my lute had not driven away the evil spirits.
+But this morning when the first ray of sunlight awoke me, all my gaiety
+of heart returned, for all nasty feelings had already left me last
+evening. I ran out, and whilst wandering among the undergrowth a crowd
+of fine things came into my mind: how I had found you, and how all my
+heart felt drawn towards you. There also occurred to me a pretty little
+story which happened some time ago when I was in Italy; I will tell it
+to you, since it is a remarkable illustration of what true friendship
+can do.
+
+"It chanced that a noble prince, a warm patron and friend of the Fine
+Arts, offered a very large prize for a painting, the subject of which
+was definitely fixed, and which, though a splendid subject, was one
+difficult to treat. Two young painters, united by the closest bond of
+friendship and wont to work together, resolved to compete for the
+prize. They communicated their designs to each other and had long talks
+as to how they should overcome the difficulties connected with the
+subject. The elder, more experienced in drawing and in arrangement and
+grouping, had soon formed a conception of the picture and sketched it;
+then he went to the younger, whom he found so discouraged in the very
+designing that he would have given the scheme up, had not the elder
+constantly encouraged him, and imparted to him good advice. But when
+they began to paint, the younger, a master in colour, was able to give
+his friend many a hint, which he turned to the best account; and
+eventually it was found that the younger had never designed a better
+picture, nor the elder coloured one better. The pieces being finished,
+the two artists fell upon each other's neck; each was delighted,
+enraptured, with the other's work, and each adjudged the prize, which
+they both deserved, to his friend. But when, eventually, the prize was
+declared to have fallen to the younger, he cried, ashamed, 'Oh! how can
+I have gained the prize? What is my merit in comparison with that of my
+friend? I should never have produced anything at all good without his
+advice and valuable assistance.' Then said the elder, 'And did not you
+too stand by me with invaluable counsel? My picture is certainly not
+bad; but yours has carried off the prize as it deserved. To strive
+honestly and openly towards the same goal, that is the way of true
+friends; the wreath which the victor wins confers honour also upon the
+vanquished. I love you now all the more that you have so bravely
+striven, and in your victory I also reap fame and honour.' And the
+painter was right, was he not, Frederick? Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+still more and knit their hearts still closer, instead of setting them
+at variance. Ought there to be any room in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hate?" "Never, certainly not," replied Frederick. "We are
+now faithful loving brothers, and shall both in a short time construct
+our masterpiece in Nuremburg, a good two-tun cask, made without fire;
+but Heaven forbid that I should feel the least spark of envy if yours,
+dear brother Reinhold, turned out to be better than mine." "Ha! ha!
+ha!" laughed Reinhold heartily, "go on with you and your masterpiece;
+you'll soon manage that to the joy of all good coopers. And let me tell
+you that in all that concerns calculation of size and proportion, and
+drawing plans of sections of circles, you'll find I'm your man. And
+then in choosing your wood you may rely fully upon me. Staves of the
+holm oak felled in winter, without worm-holes, without either red or
+white streaks, and without blemish, that's what we must look for; you
+may trust my eyes. I will stand by you with all the help I can, in both
+deed and counsel; and my own masterpiece will be none the worse for
+it." "But in the name of all that's holy," broke in Frederick here,
+"why are we chattering about who is to make the best masterpiece? Are
+we to have any contest about the matter?--the best masterpiece--to gain
+Rose! What are we thinking about? The very thought makes me giddy."
+"Marry, brother," cried Reinhold, still laughing, "there was no thought
+at all of Rose. You are a dreamer. Come along, let us go on if we are
+to get into the town." Frederick leapt to his feet, and went on his
+way, his mind in a whirl of confusion.
+
+As they were washing and brushing off the dust of travel in the
+hostelry, Reinhold said to Frederick, "To tell you the truth, I for my
+part don't know for what master I shall work; I have no acquaintances
+here at all; and I thought you would perhaps take me along with you to
+Master Martin's, brother? Perhaps I may get taken on by him." "You
+remove a heavy load from my heart," replied Frederick, "for if you will
+only stay with me, it will be easier for me to conquer my anxiety and
+nervousness." And so the two young apprentices trudged sturdily on to
+the house of the famed cooper, Master Martin.
+
+It happened to be the very Sunday on which Master Martin gave his feast
+in honour of his election as "Candle-master;" and the two arrived just
+as they were partaking of the good cheer. So it was that as Reinhold
+and Frederick entered into Master Martin's house they heard the ringing
+of glasses and the confused buzz and rattle of a merry company at a
+feast. "Oh!" said Frederick quite cast down, "we have, it seems, come
+at an unseasonable time." "Nay, I think we have come exactly at the
+right time," replied Reinhold, "for Master Martin is sure to be in good
+humour after a good feast, and well disposed to grant our wishes." They
+caused their arrival to be announced to Master Martin, and soon he
+appeared in the entrance-passage, dressed in holiday garb and with no
+small amount of colour in his nose and on his cheeks. On catching sight
+of Frederick he cried, "Holla! Frederick, my good lad, have you come
+home again? That's fine! And so you have taken up the best of all
+trades--cooperage. Herr Holzschuer cuts confounded wry faces when your
+name is mentioned, and says a great artist is ruined in you, and that
+you could have cast little images and espaliers as fine as those in St.
+Sebald's or on Fugger's27 house at Augsburg. But that's all nonsense;
+you have done quite right to step across the way here. Welcome, lad,
+welcome with all my heart." And therewith Herr Martin took him by the
+shoulders and drew him to his bosom, as was his wont, thoroughly well
+pleased. This kind reception by Master Martin infused new spirits into
+Frederick; all his nervousness left him, so that unhesitatingly and
+without constraint he was able not only to prefer his own request but
+also warmly to recommend Reinhold. "Well, to tell you the truth," said
+Master Martin, "you could not have come at a more fortunate time than
+just now, for work keeps increasing and I am bankrupt of workmen. You
+are both heartily welcome. Put your bundles down and come in; our meal
+is indeed almost finished, but you can come and take your seats at the
+table, and Rose shall look after you and get you something." And Master
+Martin and the two journeymen went into the room. There sat the honest
+masters, the worthy syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their head, all with
+hot red faces. Dessert was being served, and a better brand of wine was
+sparkling in the glasses. Every master was talking about something
+different from all his neighbours and in a loud voice, and yet they all
+thought they understood each other; and now and again some of them
+burst out in a hearty laugh without exactly knowing why. When, however.
+Master Martin came back, leading the two young men by the hand, and
+announced aloud that he brought two journeymen who had come to him well
+provided with testimonials just at the time he wanted them, then all
+grew silent, each master scrutinising the smart young fellows with a
+smile of comfortable satisfaction, whilst Frederick cast his eyes down
+and twisted his baretta about in his hands. Master Martin directed the
+youths to places at the very bottom of the table; but these were soon
+the very best of all, for Rose came and took her seat between the two,
+and served them attentively both with dainty dishes and with good rich
+wine. There was Rose, a most winsome picture of grace and loveliness,
+seated between the two handsome youths, all in midst of the bearded old
+men--it was a right pleasant sight to see; the mind instantly recalled
+a bright morning cloud rising solitary above the dim dark horizon, or
+beautiful spring flowers lifting up their bright heads from amidst the
+uniform colourless grass. Frederick was so very happy and so very
+delighted that his breath almost failed him for joy; and only now and
+again did he venture to steal a glance at her who filled his heart so
+fully. His eyes were fixedly bent upon his plate; how could he possibly
+dream of eating the least morsel? Reinhold, on the other hand, could
+not turn his sparkling, radiant eyes away from the lovely maiden. He
+began to talk about his long journeys in such a wonderful way that Rose
+had never heard anything like it. She seemed to see everything of which
+he spoke rise up vividly before her in manifold ever-changing forms.
+She was all eyes and ears; and when Reinhold, carried away by the fire
+of his own words, grasped her hand and pressed it to his heart, she
+didn't know where she was. "But bless me," broke off Reinhold all at
+once, "why, Frederick, you are quite silent and still. Have you lost
+your tongue? Come, let us drink to the weal of the lovely maiden who
+has so hospitably entertained us." With a trembling hand Frederick
+seized the huge drinking-glass that Reinhold had filled to the brim and
+now insisted on his draining to the last drop. "Now here's long life to
+our excellent master," cried Reinhold, again filling the glasses and
+again compelling Frederick to empty his. Then the fiery juices of the
+wine permeated his veins and stirred up his stagnant blood until it
+coursed as it were triumphantly through his every limb. "Oh! I feel so
+indescribably happy," he whispered, the burning blushes mounting into
+his cheeks. "Oh! I have never felt so happy in all my life before."
+Rose, who undoubtedly gave another interpretation to his words, smiled
+upon him with incomparable gentleness. Then, quit of all his
+embarrassing shyness, Frederick said, "Dear Rose, I suppose you no
+longer remember me, do you?" "But, dear Frederick," replied Rose,
+casting down her eyes, "how could I possibly forget you in so short a
+time? When you were at Herr Holzschuer's--true, I was only a mere child
+then, yet you did not disdain to play with me, and always had something
+nice and pretty to talk about. And that dear little basket made of fine
+silver wire that you gave me at Christmas-time, I've got it still, and
+I take care of it and keep it as a precious memento." Frederick was
+intoxicated with delight and tears glittered in his eyes. He tried to
+speak, but there only burst from his breast, like a deep sigh, the
+words, "O Rose--dear, dear Rose." "I have always really from my heart
+longed to see you again," went on Rose; "but that you would become a
+cooper, that I never for a moment dreamed. Oh! when I call to mind the
+beautiful things that you made whilst you were with Master
+Holzschuer--oh! it really is a pity that you have not stuck to your
+art." "O Rose," said Frederick, "it is only for your sake that I have
+become unfaithful to it." No sooner had he uttered these words than he
+could have sunk into the earth for shame and confusion. He had most
+thoughtlessly let the confession slip over his lips. Rose, as if
+divining all, turned her face away from him; whilst he in vain
+struggled for words.
+
+Then Herr Paumgartner struck the table a bang with his knife, and
+announced to the company that Herr Vollrad, a worthy _Meistersinger_,28
+would favour them with a song. Herr Vollrad at once rose to his feet,
+cleared his throat, and sang such an excellent song in the _Güldne
+Tonweis_29 of Herr Vogelgesang that everybody's heart leapt with joy,
+and even Frederick recovered himself from his awkward embarrassment
+again. After Herr Vollrad had sung several other excellent songs to
+several other excellent tunes, such as the _Süsser Ton_, the
+_Krummzinkenweis_, the _ Geblümte Paradiesweis_, the _Frisch
+Pomeranzenweis_, &c., he called upon any one else at the table who
+understood anything of the sweet and delectable art of the
+_Meistersinger_ also to honour them with a song. Then Reinhold rose to
+his feet and said that if he might be allowed to accompany himself on
+his lute in the Italian fashion he would give them a song, keeping,
+however, strictly to the German tune. As nobody had any objection he
+fetched his instrument, and, after a little tuneful prelude, began the
+following song:--
+
+Where is the little fount
+Where sparkles the spicy wine?
+From forth its golden depths
+Its golden sparkles mount
+And dance 'fore the gladdened eye.
+This beautiful little fount
+Wherein the golden wine
+Sparkles--who made it,
+With thoughtful skill and fine,
+With such high art and industry,
+That praise deserve so well?
+This little fount so gay,
+Wrought with high art and fine,
+Was fashioned by one
+Who ne'er an artist was--
+But a brave young cooper he,
+His veins with rich wine glowing,
+His heart with true love singing,
+And ever lovingly--
+For that's young cooper's way
+In all the things he does.
+
+This song pleased them all down to the ground, but none more so than
+Master Martin, whose eyes sparkled with pleasure and delight. Without
+heeding Vollrad, who had almost too much to say about Hans Müller's _
+Stumpfe Schossweis_, which the youth had caught excellently well,--
+Master Martin, without heeding him, rose from his seat, and, lifting
+his _passglas_30 above his head, called aloud, "Come here, honest
+cooper and _Meistersinger_, come here and drain this glass with me,
+your Master Martin." Reinhold had to do as he was bidden. Returning to
+his place, he whispered into Frederick's ear, who was looking very
+pensive, "Now, you must sing--sing the song you sang last night." "Are
+you mad?" asked Frederick, quite angry. But Reinhold turned to the
+company and said in a loud voice, "My honoured gentlemen and masters,
+my dear brother Frederick here can sing far finer songs, and has a much
+pleasanter voice than I have, but his throat has got full of dust from
+his travels, and he will treat you to some of his songs another time,
+and then to the most admirable tunes." And they all began to shower
+down their praises upon Frederick, as if he had already sung. Indeed,
+in the end, more than one of the masters was of opinion that his voice
+was really more agreeable than journeyman Reinhold's, and Herr Vollrad
+also, after he had drunk another glass, was convinced that Frederick
+could use the beautiful German tunes far better than Reinhold, for the
+latter had too much of the Italian style about him. And Master Martin,
+throwing his head back into his neck, and giving his round belly a
+hearty slap, cried, "Those are _my_ journeymen, _my_ journeymen, I tell
+you--mine, master-cooper Tobias Martin's of Nuremberg." And all the
+other masters nodded their heads in assent, and, sipping the last drops
+out of the bottom of their tall glasses, said, "Yes, yes. Your brave,
+honest journeymen, Master Martin--that they are." At length it was time
+to retire to rest Master Martin led Reinhold and Frederick each into a
+bright cheerful room in his own house.
+
+_How the third journeyman came into Master Martin's house, and what
+followed in consequence._
+
+After the two journeymen had worked for some weeks in Master Martin's
+workshop, he perceived that in all that concerned measurement with rule
+and compass, and calculation, and estimation of measure and size by
+eyesight, Reinhold could hardly find his match, but it was a different
+thing when it came to hard work at the bench or with the adze or the
+mallet. Then Reinhold soon grew tired, and the work did not progress,
+no matter how great efforts he might make. On the other hand, Frederick
+planed and hammered away without growing particularly tired. But one
+thing they had in common with each other, and that was their well-
+mannered behaviour, marked, principally at Reinhold's instance, by much
+natural cheerfulness and good-natured enjoyment. Besides, even when
+hard at work, they did not spare their throats, especially when pretty
+Rose was present, but sang many an excellent song, their pleasant
+voices harmonising well together. And whenever Frederick, glancing
+shyly across at Rose, seemed to be falling into his melancholy mood,
+Reinhold at once struck up a satirical song that he composed,
+beginning, "The cask is not the cither, nor is the cither the cask," so
+that old Herr Martin often had to let the croze-adze which he had
+raised, sink again without striking and hold his big belly as it
+wabbled from his internal laughter. Above all, the two journeymen, and
+mainly Reinhold, had completely won their way into Martin's favour; and
+it was not difficult to observe that Rose found a good many pretexts
+for lingering oftener and longer in the workshop than she certainly
+otherwise would have done.
+
+One day Master Martin entered his open workshop outside the town-gate,
+where work was carried on all the summer through, with his brow
+weighted with thought Reinhold and Frederick were in the act of setting
+up a small cask. Then Master Martin planted himself before them with
+his arms crossed over his chest and said, "I can't tell you how pleased
+I am with you, my good journeymen, but I am just now in a great
+difficulty. They write me from the Rhine that this will be a more
+prosperous wine-year than there ever has been before. A learned man
+says that the comet which has been seen in the heavens will fructify
+the earth with its wonderful tail, so that the glowing heat which
+fabricates the precious metals down in the deepest mines will all
+stream upwards and evaporate into the thirsty vines, till they prosper
+and thrive and put forth multitudes of grapes, and the liquid fire with
+which they are filled will be poured out into the grapes. It will be
+almost three hundred years before such a favourable constellation
+occurs again. So now we shall all have our hands full of work. And then
+there's his Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg has written to me and
+ordered a large cask. That we can't get done; and I shall have to look
+about for another useful journeyman. Now I should not like to take the
+first fellow I meet off the street amongst us, and yet the matter is
+very urgent. If you know of a good journeyman anywhere whom you would
+be willing to work with, you have only to tell me, and I will get him
+here, even though it should cost me a good sum of money."
+
+Hardly had Master Martin finished speaking when a young man, tall and
+stalwart, shouted to him in a loud voice, "Hi! you there! is this
+Master Martin's workshop?" "Certainly," replied Master Martin, going
+towards the young man, "certainly it is; but you needn't shout so
+deuced loud and lumber in like that; that's not the way to find
+people." "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the young fellow, "marry, you are Master
+Martin himself, for--fat belly--stately double-chin--sparkling eyes,
+and red nose--yes, that's just how he was described to me. I bid you
+good hail, Master Martin." "Well, and what do you want from Master
+Martin?" he asked, indignantly. The young fellow replied, "I am a
+journeyman cooper, and merely wanted to ask if I could find work with
+you." Marvelling that just as he was thinking about looking out for a
+journeyman one should come to him like this, Master Martin drew back a
+few paces and eyed the young man from head to foot. He, however, met
+the scrutiny unabashed and with sparkling eyes. Noting his broad chest,
+stalwart build, and powerful arms, Master Martin thought within
+himself, it's just such a lusty fellow as this that I want, and he at
+once asked him for his trade testimonials.31 "I haven't them with me
+just at this present moment," replied the young man, "but I will get
+them in a short time; and I give you now my word of honour that I will
+work well and honestly, and that must suffice you." Thereupon, without
+waiting for Master Martin's reply, the young journeyman stepped into
+the workshop. He threw down his baretta and bundle, took off his
+doublet, put on his apron, and said, "Come, Master Martin, tell me at
+once what I am to begin with." Master Martin, completely taken aback by
+the young stranger's resolute vigour and promptitude, had to think a
+little; then he said, "Come then, my fine fellow, and show me at once
+that you are a good cooper; take this croze-adze and finish the groove
+of that cask lying in the vice yonder." The stranger performed what he
+had been bidden with remarkable strength, quickness, and skill; and
+then he cried, laughing loudly, "Now, Master Martin, have you any
+doubts now as to my being a good cooper? But," he continued, going
+backwards and forwards through the shop, and examining the instruments
+and tools, and supply of wood, "but though you are well supplied with
+useful stores and--but what do you call this little thing of a mallet?
+I suppose it's for your children to play with; and this little adze
+here--why it must be for your apprentices when they first begin," and
+he swung round his head the huge heavy mallet which Reinhold could not
+lift and which Frederick had great difficulty in wielding; and then he
+did the same with the ponderous adze with which Master Martin himself
+worked. Then he rolled a couple of huge casks on one side as if they
+had been light balls, and seized one of the large thick beams which had
+not yet been worked at "Marry, master," he cried, "marry, this is good
+sound oak; I wager it will snap like glass." And thereupon he struck
+the stave against the grindstone so that it broke clean in half with a
+loud crack. "Pray be so kind," said Master Martin, "pray have the
+kindness, my good fellow, to kick that two-tun cask about or to pull
+down the whole shop. There, you can take that balk for a mallet, and
+that you may have an adze to your mind I will have Roland's sword,
+which is three yards long, fetched for you from the town-house." "Ay,
+do, that's just the thing," said the young man, his eyes flashing; but
+the next minute he cast them down upon the ground and said, lowering
+his voice, "I only thought, good master, that you wanted right strong
+journeymen for your heavy work, and now I have, I see, been too
+forward, too swaggering, in displaying my bodily strength. But do take
+me on to work, I will faithfully do whatever you shall require of me."
+Master Martin scanned the youth's features, and could not but admit
+that he had never seen more nobility and at the same time more
+downright honesty in any man's face. And yet, as he looked upon the
+young fellow, there stole into his mind a dim recollection of some man
+whom he had long esteemed and honoured, but he could not clearly call
+to mind who it was. For this reason he granted the young man's request
+on the spot, only enjoining upon him to produce at the earliest
+opportunity the needful credible trade attestations.
+
+Meanwhile Reinhold and Frederick had finished setting up their cask and
+were now busy driving on the first hoops. Whilst doing this they were
+always in the habit of striking up a song; and on this occasion they
+began a good song in Adam Puschmann's _Stieglitzweis_. Then Conrad
+(that was the name of the new journeyman) shouted across from the bench
+where Master Martin had placed him, "By my troth, what squalling do you
+call that? I could fancy I hear mice squeaking somewhere about the
+shop. An you mean to sing at all, sing so that it will cheer the heart
+and make the work go down well. That's how I sing a bit now and again."
+And he began to bellow out a noisy hunting ditty with its hollas! and
+hoy, boys! and he imitated the yelping of the hounds and the shrill
+shouts of the hunters in such a clear, keen, stentorian voice that the
+huge casks rang again and all the workshop echoed. Master Martin held
+his hands over his ears, and Dame Martha's (Valentine's widow) little
+boys, who were playing in the shop, crept timorously behind the piled-
+up staves. Just at this moment Rose came in, amazed, nay, frightened at
+the terrible noise; it could not be called singing anyhow. As soon as
+Conrad observed her, he at once stopped, and leaving his bench he
+approached her and greeted her with the most polished grace. Then he
+said in a gentle voice, whilst an ardent fire gleamed in his bright
+brown eyes, "Lovely lady, what a sweet rosy light shone into this
+humble workman's hut when you came in! Oh! had I but perceived you
+sooner, I had not outraged your tender ears with my wild hunting
+ditty." Then, turning to Master Martin and the other journeymen, he
+cried, "Oh! do stop your abominable knocking and rattling. As long as
+this gracious lady honours us with her presence, let mallets and
+drivers rest. Let us only listen to her sweet voice, and with bowed
+head hearken to what she may command us, her humble servants." Reinhold
+and Frederick looked at each other utterly amazed; but Master Martin
+burst out laughing and said, "Well, Conrad, it is now plain that you
+are the most ridiculous donkey who ever put on apron. First you come
+here and want to break everything to pieces like an uncultivated giant;
+then you bellow in such a way as to make our ears tingle; and, as a
+fitting climax to all your foolishness, you take my little daughter
+Rose for a lady of rank and act like a love-smitten Junker." Conrad
+replied, coolly, "Your lovely daughter I know very well, my worthy
+Master Martin; but I tell you that she is the most peerless lady who
+treads the earth, and if Heaven grant it she would honour the very
+noblest of Junkers by permitting him to be her Paladin in faithful
+knightly love." Master Martin held his sides, and it was only by giving
+vent to his laughter in hums and haws that he prevented himself from
+choking. As soon as he could at all speak, he stammered, "Good, very
+good, my most excellent youth; you may continue to regard my daughter
+as a lady of high rank, I shall not hinder you; but, irrespective of
+that, will you have the goodness to go back to your bench?" Conrad
+stood as if spell-bound, his eyes cast down upon the ground; and
+rubbing his forehead, he said in a low voice, "Ay, it is so," and did
+as he was bidden. Rose, as she always did in the shop, sat down upon a
+small cask, which Frederick placed for her, and which Reinhold
+carefully dusted. At Master Martin's express desire they again struck
+up the admirable song in which they had been so rudely interrupted by
+Conrad's bluster; but he went on with his work at the bench, quite
+still, and entirely wrapped up in his own thoughts.
+
+When the song came to an end Master Martin said, "Heaven has endowed
+you with a noble gift, my brave lads; you would not believe how highly
+I value the delectable art of song. Why, once I wanted to be a _
+Meistersinger_ myself, but I could not manage it, even though I tried
+all I knew how. All that I gained by my efforts was ridicule and
+mockery. In 'Voluntary Singing'32 I either got into false 'appendages,'
+or 'double notes,' or a wrong 'measure,' or an unsuitable
+'embellishment,' or started the wrong melody altogether. But you will
+succeed better, and it shall be said, what the master can't do, his
+journeymen can. Next Sunday after the sermon there will be a singing
+contest by the _Meistersinger_ at the usual time in St. Catherine's
+Church. But before the 'Principal Singing' there will be a 'Voluntary,'
+in which you may both of you win praise and honour in your beautiful
+art, for any stranger who can sing at all, may freely take part in
+this. And, he! Conrad, my journeyman Conrad," cried Master Martin
+across to the bench, "would not you also like to get into the singing-
+desk and treat our good folk to your fine hunting-chorus?" Without
+looking up, Conrad replied, "Mock not, good master, mock not;
+everything in its place. Whilst you are being edified by the _
+Meistersinger_, I shall enjoy myself in my own way on the Allerwiese."
+
+And what Master Martin anticipated came to pass. Reinhold got into the
+singing-desk and sang divers songs to divers tunes, with which all the
+_ Meistersingers_ were well pleased; and although they were of opinion
+that the singer had not made any mistake, yet they had a slight
+objection to urge against him--a sort of something foreign about his
+style, but yet they could not say exactly in what it consisted. Soon
+afterwards Frederick took his seat in the singing-desk; and doffing his
+baretta, he stood some seconds looking silently before him; then after
+sending a glance at the audience which entered lovely Rose's bosom like
+a burning arrow, and caused her to fetch a deep sigh, he began such a
+splendid song in Heinrich Frauenlob's33 _Zarter Ton_, that all the
+masters agreed with one accord there was none amongst them who could
+surpass the young journeyman.
+
+The singing-school came to an end towards evening, and Master Martin,
+in order to finish off the day's enjoyment in proper style, betook
+himself in high good-humour to the Allerwiese along with Rose. The two
+journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick, were permitted to accompany them;
+Rose was walking between them. Frederick, radiant with delight at the
+masters' praise, and intoxicated with happiness, ventured to breathe
+many a daring word in Rose's ear which she, however, casting down her
+eyes in maidenly coyness, pretended not to hear. Rather she turned to
+Reinhold, who, according to his wont, was running on with all sorts of
+merry nonsense; nor did he hesitate to place his arm in Rose's. Whilst
+even at a considerable distance from the Allerwiese they could hear
+noisy shouts and cries. Arrived at the place where the young men were
+amusing themselves in all kinds of games, partly chivalric, they heard
+the crowd shout time after time, "Won again! won again! He's the
+strongest again! Nobody can compete with him." Master Martin, on
+working his way through the crowd, perceived that it was nobody else
+but his journeyman Conrad who was reaping all this praise and exciting
+the people to all this applause. He had beaten everybody in racing and
+boxing and throwing the spear. As Martin came up, Conrad was shouting
+out and inquiring if there was anybody who would have a merry bout with
+him with blunt swords. This challenge several stout young patricians,
+well accustomed to this species of pastime, stepped forward and
+accepted. But it was not long before Conrad had again, without much
+trouble or exertion, overcome all his opponents; and the applause at
+his skill and strength seemed as if it would never end.
+
+The sun had set; the last glow of evening died away, and twilight began
+to creep on apace. Master Martin, with Rose and the two journeymen, had
+thrown themselves down beside a babbling spring of water. Reinhold was
+telling of the wonders of distant Italy, but Frederick, quiet and
+happy, had his eyes fixed on pretty Rose's face. Then Conrad drew near
+with slow hesitating steps, as if rather undecided in his own mind
+whether he should join them or not Master Martin called to him, "Come
+along, Conrad, come along, come along; you have borne yourself bravely
+on the meadow; that's what I like in my journeymen, and it's what
+becomes them. Don't be shy, lad; come and join us, you have my
+permission." Conrad cast a withering glance at his master, who however
+met it with a condescending nod; then the young journeyman said
+moodily, "I am not the least bit shy of you, and I have not asked your
+permission whether I may lie down here or not,--in fact, I have not
+come to _you_ at all. All my opponents I have stretched in the sand in
+the merry knightly sports, and all I now wanted was to ask this lovely
+lady whether she would not honour me with the beautiful flowers she
+wears in her bosom, as the prize of the chivalric contest." Therewith
+he dropped upon one knee in front of Rose, and looked her straight and
+honestly in the face with his clear brown eyes, and he begged, "O give
+me those beautiful flowers, sweet Rose, as the prize of victory; you
+cannot refuse me that." Rose at once took the flowers from her bosom
+and gave them to him, laughing and saying, "Ay, I know well that a
+brave knight like you deserves a token of honour from a lady; and so
+here, you may have my withered flowers." Conrad kissed the flowers that
+were given him, and then fastened them in his baretta; but Master
+Martin, rising to his feet, cried, "There's another of your silly
+tricks--come, let us be going home; it is getting dark." Herr Martin
+strode on first; Conrad with modest courtly grace took Rose's arm;
+whilst Reinhold and Frederick followed them considerably out of humour.
+People who met them, stopped and turned round to look after them,
+saying, "Marry, look now, look; that's the rich cooper Thomas Martin,
+with his pretty little daughter and his stout journeymen. A fine set of
+people I call them."
+
+_Of Dame Martha's conversation with Rose about the three journeymen,
+Conrad's quarrel with Master Martin._
+
+Generally it is the morning following a holiday when young girls are
+wont to enjoy all the pleasure of it, and taste it, and thoroughly
+digest it; and this after celebration they seem to like far better than
+the actual holiday itself. And so next morning pretty Rose sat alone in
+her room with her hands folded on her lap, and her head bent slightly
+forward in meditation--her spindle and embroidery meanwhile resting.
+Probably she was now listening to Reinhold's and Frederick's songs, and
+now watching Conrad cleverly gaining the victory over his competitors,
+and now she saw him coming to her for the prize of victory; and then
+she hummed a few lines of a pretty song, and then she whispered, "Do
+you want my flowers?" whereat a deeper crimson suffused her cheeks, and
+brighter glances made their way through her downcast eyelashes, and
+soft sighs stole forth from her inmost heart. Then Dame Martha came in,
+and Rose was delighted to be able to tell at full length all that had
+taken place in St. Catherine's Church and on the Allerwiese. When Rose
+had done speaking, Dame Martha said, smiling, "Oh! so now, dear Rose,
+you will soon have to make your choice between your three handsome
+lovers." "For God's sake," burst out Rose, quite frightened, and
+flushing hotly all over her face, "for mercy's sake, Dame Martha, what
+do you mean by that? I--three lovers!" "Don't take on so," went on Dame
+Martha, "don't take on in that way, dear Rose, as if you knew nothing,
+as if you could guess nothing. Why, where do you put your eyes, girl?
+you must be quite blind not to see that our journeymen. Reinhold,
+Frederick, and Conrad--yes, all three of them--are madly in love with
+you." "What a fancy, to be sure, Dame Martha," whispered Rose, holding
+her hands before her face. Then Dame Martha knelt down before her, and
+threw her arm about her, saying, "Come, my pretty, bashful child, take
+your hands away, and look me straight in the eyes, and then tell me you
+have not long ago perceived that you fill both the heart and the mind
+of each of our journeymen, deny that if you can. Nay, I tell you, you
+can't do it; and it would, i' faith, be a truly wonderful thing if a
+maiden's eyes did not see a thing of that sort. Why, when you go into
+the shop, their eyes are off their work and flying across to you in a
+minute, and they bustle and stir about with new life. And Reinhold and
+Frederick begin their best songs, and even wild Conrad grows quiet and
+gentle; each tries to invent some excuse to approach nearer to you, and
+when you honour one of them with a sweet look or a kindly word, how his
+eyes sparkle, and his face flushes! Come now, my pet, is it not nice to
+have such handsome fellows all making love to you? But whether you will
+choose one of the three or which it will be, that I cannot indeed say,
+for you are good and kind to them all alike, and yet--and yet--but I
+must not say more. Now an you come to me and said, 'O Dame Martha, give
+me your advice, to which of these young men, who are all wanting me,
+shall I give my hand and heart?' then I should of course answer, 'If
+your heart does not speak out loudly and distinctly. It's this or it's
+that, why, let them all three go.' I must say Reinhold pleases me right
+well, and so does Frederick, and so does Conrad; and then again on the
+other hand I have something to say against each of them. In fact, dear
+Rose, when I see them working away so bravely, I always think of my
+poor Valentine; and I must say that, if he could not perhaps produce
+any better work, there was yet quite a different kind of swing and
+style in all that he did do. You could see all his heart was in his
+work; but with these young fellows it always seems to me as if they
+only worked so, so--as if they had in their heads different things
+altogether from their work; nay, it almost strikes me as if it were a
+burden which they have voluntarily taken up, and were now bearing with
+sturdy courage. Of them all I can get on best with Frederick; he's such
+a faithful, affectionate fellow. He is the one who seems to belong to
+us most; I understand all that he says. And then his love for you is so
+still, and as shy as a good child's; he hardly dares to look at you,
+and blushes if you only say a single word to him; and that's what I
+like so much in the dear lad." A tear seemed to glisten in Rose's eye
+as Dame Martha said this. She stood up, and turning to the window,
+said, "I like Frederick very much, but you must not pass over Reinhold
+contemptuously." "I never dreamt of doing so," replied Dame Martha,
+"for Reinhold is by a long way the handsomest of all. And what eyes he
+has! And when he looks you through and through with his bright
+glances--no, it's more than you can endure. And yet there's something
+so strange and peculiar in his character, it quite makes me shiver at
+times, and makes me quite afraid of him. When Reinhold is working in
+the shop, I should think Herr Martin, when he tells him to do this or
+do that, must always feel as I should if anybody were to put a bright
+pan in my kitchen all glittering with gold and precious stones, and
+should bid me use it like any ordinary common pan--why, I should hardly
+dare to touch it at all. He tells his stories and talks and talks, and
+it all sounds like sweet music, and you are quite carried away by it,
+but when I sit down to think seriously about what he has been saying, I
+find I haven't understood a single word. And then when he now and again
+jests in the way we do, and I think now he's just like us, then all at
+once he looks so distinguished that I get really afraid of him. And yet
+I can't say that he puffs himself up in the way that many of our
+Junkers or patricians do; no, it's something else altogether different.
+In a word, it strikes me, by my troth, as if he held intercourse with
+higher spirits, as if he belonged, in fact, to another world. Conrad is
+a wild overbearing fellow, and yet there is something confoundedly
+distinguished about him as well; it doesn't agree with the cooper's
+apron somehow. And he always acts as if nobody but he had to give
+orders, and as if the others must obey him. In the short time that he
+has been here he has got so far that when he bellows at Master Martin
+in his loud ringing voice, his master generally does what he wishes.
+But at the same time he is so good-natured and so thoroughly honest
+that you can't bear ill-will against him; rather, I must say, that in
+spite of his wildness, I almost like him better than I do Reinhold, for
+even if he does speak fearfully grand, you can yet understand him very
+well. I wager he has once been a campaigner, he may say what he likes.
+That's why he knows so much about arms, and has even got something of
+knights' ways about him, which doesn't suit him at all badly. Now do
+tell me, Rose dear, without any ifs and ands, which of the three
+journeymen you like best?" "Don't ask me such searching questions, dear
+Dame Martha," answered Rose. "But of this I am quite sure, that
+Reinhold does not stir up in me the same feelings that he does in you.
+It's perfectly true, too, that he is altogether different from his
+equals; and when he talks I could fancy I enter into a beautiful garden
+full of bright and magnificent flowers and blossoms and fruits, such as
+are not to be found on earth, and I like to be amongst them. Since
+Reinhold has been here I see many things in a different light, and lots
+of things that were once dim and formless in my mind are now so bright
+and clear that I can easily distinguish them." Dame Martha rose to her
+feet, and shaking her finger at Rose as she went out of the room, said,
+"Ah! ah! Rose, so Reinhold is the favourite then? I didn't think it, I
+didn't even dream it." Rose made answer as she accompanied her as far
+as the door, "Pray, dear Dame Martha, think nothing, dream nothing, but
+leave all to the future. What _it_ brings is the will of God, and to
+that everybody must bow humbly and gratefully."
+
+Meanwhile it was becoming extremely lively in Master Martin's workshop.
+In order to execute all his orders he had engaged with ordinary
+labourers and taken in some apprentices, and they all hammered and
+knocked till the din could be heard far and wide. Reinhold had finished
+his calculations and measurements for the great cask that was to be
+built for the Bishop of Bamberg, whilst Frederick and Conrad had set it
+up so cleverly that Master Martin's heart laughed in his body, and he
+cried again and again, "Now that I call a grand piece of work; that'll
+be the best little cask I've ever made--except my masterpiece." Now the
+three apprentices stood driving the hoops on to the fitted staves, and
+the whole place rang again with the din of their mallets. Old Valentine
+was busy plying his draw-knife, and Dame Martha, her two youngest on
+her knee, sat just behind Conrad, whilst the other wideawake little
+rascals were shouting and making a noise, tumbling the hoops about, and
+chasing each other. In fact, there was so much hubbub and so much
+vigorous hard work going on that hardly anybody noticed old Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer as he stepped into the shop. Master Martin went to
+meet him, and politely inquired what he desired. "Why, in the first
+place," said Holzschuer, "I want to have a look at my dear Frederick
+again, who is working away so lustily yonder. And then, goodman Master
+Martin, I want a stout cask for my wine-cellar, which I will ask you to
+make for me. Why look you, that cask they are now setting up there is
+exactly the sort of thing I want; you can let me have that, you've only
+got to name the price." Reinhold, who had grown tired and had been
+resting a few minutes down in the shop, and was now preparing to ascend
+the scaffolding again, heard Holzschuer's words and said, turning his
+head towards the old gentleman, "Marry, my friend Herr Holzschuer, you
+need not set your heart upon this cask; we are making it for his
+Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg." Master Martin, his arms folded on his
+back, his left foot planted forward, his head thrown back in his neck,
+blinked at the cask and said proudly, "My dear master, you might have
+seen from the carefully selected wood and the great pains taken in the
+work that a masterpiece like that was meant for a prince's34 cellar. My
+journeyman Reinhold has said the truth; don't set your heart on a piece
+of work like that. But when the vintage is over I will get you a plain
+strong little cask made, such as will be suitable for your cellar." Old
+Holzschuer, incensed at Master Martin's pride, replied that his gold
+pieces weighed just as much as the Bishop of Bamberg's, and that he
+hoped he could get good work elsewhere for ready money. Master Martin,
+although fuming with rage, controlled himself with difficulty; he would
+not by any means like to offend old Herr Holzschuer, who stood so high
+in the esteem both of the Council and of all the burghers. At this
+moment Conrad struck mightier blows than ever with his mallet, so that
+the whole shop rang and cracked; then Master Martin's internal rage
+boiled over, and he shouted vehemently, "Conrad, you blockhead, what do
+you mean by striking so blindly and heedlessly? do you mean to break my
+cask in pieces?" "Ho! ho!" replied Conrad, looking round defiantly at
+his master, "Ho! ho! my comical little master, and why should I not?"
+And therewith he dealt such a terrible blow at the cask that the
+strongest hoop sprang, rattling, and knocked Reinhold down from the
+narrow plank on the scaffolding; and it was further evident from the
+hollow echo that a stave had been broken as well. Completely mastered
+by his furious anger, Master Martin snatched out of Valentine's hand
+the bar he was shaving, and striding towards the cask, dealt Conrad a
+good sound stroke with it on the back, shouting, "You cursed dog!" As
+soon as Conrad felt the blow he wheeled sharply round, and after
+standing for a moment as if bereft of his senses, his eyes blazed up
+with fury, he ground his teeth, and screamed, "Struck! struck!" Then at
+one bound he was down from the scaffolding, had snatched up an adze
+that lay on the floor, and aimed a powerful stroke at his master; had
+not Frederick pulled Martin on one side the blow would have split his
+head; as it was, the adze only grazed his arm, from which, however, the
+blood at once began to spurt out. Martin, fat and helpless as he was,
+lost his equilibrium and fell over the bench, at which one of the
+apprentices was working, into the floor. They all threw themselves upon
+Conrad, who was frantic, flourishing his bloody adze in the air, and
+shouting and screaming in a terrible voice, "Let him go to hell! To
+hell with him!" Hurling them all off with the strength of a giant, he
+was preparing to deal a second blow at his poor master, who was gasping
+for breath and groaning on the floor,--a blow that would have
+completely done for him--when Rose, pale as a corpse with fright,
+appeared in the shop-door. As soon as Conrad observed her he stood as
+if turned to a pillar of stone, the adze suspended in the air. Then he
+threw the tool away from him, struck his hands together upon his chest,
+and cried in a voice that went to everybody's heart, "Oh, good God!
+good God! what have I done?" and away he rushed out of the shop. No one
+thought of following him.
+
+Now poor Master Martin was after some difficulty lifted up; it was
+found, however, that the adze had only penetrated into the thick fleshy
+part of the arm, and the wound could not therefore be called serious.
+Old Herr Holzschuer, whom Martin had involved with him in his fall, was
+pulled out from beneath the shavings, and Dame Martha's children, who
+ceased not to scream and cry over good Father Martin, were appeased as
+far as that could be done. As for Martin himself, he was quite dazed,
+and said if only that devil of a bad journeyman had not spoilt his fine
+cask he should not make much account of the wound.
+
+Sedan chairs were brought for the old gentlemen, for Holzschuer also
+had bruised himself rather in his fall. He hurled reproaches at a trade
+in which they employed such murderous tools, and conjured Frederick to
+come back to his beautiful art of casting and working in the precious
+metals, and the sooner the better.
+
+As soon as the dusk of evening began to creep up over the sky,
+Frederick, and along with him Reinhold, whom the hoop had struck rather
+sharply, and who felt as if every limb was benumbed, strode back into
+the town in very low spirits. Then they heard a soft sighing and
+groaning behind a hedge. They stood still, and a tall figure at once
+rose up; they immediately recognised Conrad, and began to withdraw
+timidly. But he addressed them in a tearful voice, saying, "You need
+not be so frightened at me, my good comrades; of course you take me for
+a devilish murderous brute, but I am not--indeed I am not so. I could
+not do otherwise; I _ought_ to have struck down the fat old master, and
+by rights I ought to go along with you and do it _now_, if I only
+could. But no, no; it's all over. Remember me to pretty Rose, whom I
+love so above all reason. Tell her I will bear her flowers on my heart
+all my life long, I will adorn myself with them when I--but she will
+perhaps hear of me again some day. Farewell! farewell! my good, brave
+comrades." And Conrad ran away across the field without once stopping.
+
+Reinhold said, "There is something peculiar about this young fellow; we
+can't weigh or measure this deed by any ordinary standard. Perhaps the
+future will unfold to us the secret that has lain heavy upon his
+breast."
+
+_Reinhold leaves Master Martin's house._
+
+If formerly there had been merry days in Master Martin's workshop, so
+now they were proportionately dull. Reinhold, incapable of work,
+remained confined to his room; Martin, his wounded arm in a sling, was
+incessantly abusing the good-for-nothing stranger-apprentice, and
+railing at him for the mischief he had wrought Rose, and even Dame
+Martha and her children, avoided the scene of the rash savage deed, and
+so Frederick's blows fell dull and melancholy enough, like a
+woodcutter's in a lonely wood in winter time, for to Frederick it was
+now left to finish the big cask alone, and a hard task it was.
+
+And soon his mind and heart were possessed by a profound sadness, for
+he believed he had now clear proofs of what he had for a long time
+feared. He no longer had any doubt that Rose loved Reinhold. Not only
+had she formerly shown many a kindness to Reinhold alone, and to him
+alone given many a sweet word, but now--it was as plain as noonday--
+since Reinhold could no longer come to work. Rose too no longer thought
+of going out, but preferred to stay indoors, no doubt to wait upon and
+take good care of her lover. On Sundays, when all the rest set out
+gaily, and Master Martin, who had recovered to some extent of his
+wound, invited him to walk with him and Rose to the Allerwiese, he
+refused the invitation; but, burdened with trouble and the bitter pain
+of disappointed love, he hastened off alone to the village and the hill
+where he had first met with Reinhold. He threw himself down in the tall
+grass where the flowers grew, and as he thought how that the beautiful
+star of hope which had shone before him all along his homeward path had
+now suddenly set in the blackness of night after he had reached his
+goal, and as he thought how that this step which he had taken was like
+the vain efforts of a dreamer stretching out his yearning arms after an
+empty vision of air,--the tears fell from his eyes and dropped upon the
+flowers, which bent their little heads as if sorrowing for the young
+journeyman's great unhappiness. Without his being exactly conscious of
+it, the painful sighs which escaped his labouring breast assumed the
+form of words, of musical notes, and he sang this song:--
+
+My star of hope,
+Where hast thou gone?
+Alas! thy glory rises up--
+Thy glory sweet, far from me now--
+And pours its light on others down.
+Ye rustling evening breezes, rouse you,
+Blow on my breast,
+Awake all joy that kills,
+Awake all pain that brings to death,
+So that my sore and bleeding heart,
+Steeped to the core in bitter tears,
+May break in yearning comfortless.
+Why whisper ye, ye darksome trees?
+So softly and like friends together?
+And why, O golden skirts of sky,
+Look ye so kindly down on me?
+Show me my grave;
+For that is now my haven of hope,
+Where I shall calmly, softly sleep.
+
+And as it often happens that the very greatest trouble, if only it can
+find vent in tears and words, softens down into a gentle melancholy,
+mild and painless, and that often a faint glimmer of hope appears then
+in the soul, so it was with Frederick; when he had sung this song he
+felt wonderfully strengthened and comforted The evening breezes and the
+darksome trees that he had called upon in his song rustled and
+whispered words of consolation; and like the sweet dreams of distant
+glory or of distant happiness, golden streaks of light worked their way
+up across the dusky sky. Frederick rose to his feet, and went down the
+hill into the village. He almost fancied that Reinhold was walking
+beside him as he did on the day they first found each other; and all
+the words which Reinhold had spoken again recurred to his mind. And as
+his thoughts dwelt upon Reinhold's story about the contest between the
+two painters who were friends, then the scales fell from his eyes.
+There was no doubt about it; Reinhold must have seen Rose before and
+loved her. It was only his love for her which had brought him to
+Nuremberg to Master Martin's, and by the contest between the two
+painters he meant simply and solely their own--Reinhold's and
+Frederick's--rival wooing of beautiful Rose. The words that Reinhold
+had then spoken rang again in his ears,--"Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+and knit their hearts still closer together, instead of setting them at
+variance. There should never be any place in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hatred." "Yes," exclaimed Frederick aloud, "yes, friend of
+my heart, I will appeal to you without any reserve, you yourself shall
+tell me if all hope for me is lost."
+
+It was approaching noon when Frederick tapped at Reinhold's door. As
+all remained still within, he pushed open the door, which was not
+locked as usual, and went in. But the moment he did so he stood rooted
+to the spot. Upon an easel, the glorious rays of the morning sun
+falling upon it, was a splendid picture, Rose in all the pride of her
+beauty and charms, and life size. The maul-stick lying on the table,
+and the wet colours of the palette, showed that some one had been at
+work on the picture quite recently. "O Rose, Rose!--By Heaven!" sighed
+Frederick. Reinhold, who had entered behind him unperceived, clapped
+him on the shoulder and asked, smiling, "Well, now, Frederick, what do
+you say to my picture!" Then Frederick pressed him to his heart and
+cried, "Oh you splendid fellow--you are indeed a noble artist. Yes,
+it's all clear to me now. You have won the prize--for which I--poor
+me!--had the hardihood to struggle. Oh! what am I in comparison with
+you? And what is my art against yours? And yet I too had some fine
+ideas in my head. Don't laugh at me, dear Reinhold; but, look you, I
+thought what a grand thing it would be to model Rose's lovely figure
+and cast it in the finest silver. But that's all childishness, whilst
+you--you--Oh! how sweetly she smiles upon you, and how delightfully you
+have brought out all her beauty. O Reinhold! Reinhold! you happy, happy
+fellow! Ay, and it has all come about as you said long ago. We have
+both striven for the prize and you have won it: you could not help but
+win it, and I shall still continue to be your friend with all my heart
+But I must leave this house--my home: I cannot bear it, I should die if
+I were to see Rose again. Please forgive me, my dear, dear, noble
+friend. To-day, this very moment, I will go--go away into the wide
+world, where my trouble, my unbearable misery, is sending me." And thus
+speaking, Frederick was hastening out of the apartment, but Reinhold
+held him fast, saying gently, "You shall not go; for things may turn
+out quite different from what you think. It is now time for me to tell
+you all that I have hitherto kept silence about. That I am not a cooper
+but a painter you are now well aware, and I hope a glance at this
+picture will convince you that I am not to be ranked amongst the
+inferior artists. Whilst still young I went to Italy, the land of art;
+there I had the good fortune to be accepted as a pupil by renowned
+masters, who fostered into living fire the spark which glowed within
+me. Thus it came to pass that I rapidly rose into fame, that my
+pictures became celebrated throughout all Italy, and the powerful Duke
+of Florence35 summoned me to his court. At that time I would not hear a
+word about German art, and without having seen any of your pictures, I
+talked a good deal of nonsense about the coldness, the bad drawing, and
+the hardness of your Dürer and your Cranach.36 But one day a
+picture-dealer brought a small picture of the Madonna by old Albrecht
+to the Duke's gallery, and it made a powerful and wonderful impression
+upon me, so that I turned away completely from the voluptuousness of
+Italian art, and from that very hour determined to go back to my native
+Germany and study there the masterpieces upon which my heart was now
+set I came to Nuremberg here, and when I beheld Rose I seemed to see
+the Madonna who had so wonderfully stirred my heart, walking in bodily
+form on earth. I had the same experiences as you, dear Frederick; the
+bright flames of love flashed up and consumed me, mind and heart and
+soul. I saw nothing, I thought of nothing, but Rose; all else had
+vanished from my mind; and even art itself only retained its hold upon
+me in so far as it enabled me to draw and paint Rose again and again--
+hundreds of times. I would have approached the maiden in the free
+Italian way; but all my attempts proved fruitless. There was no means
+of securing a footing of intimacy in Master Martin's house in any
+insidious way. At last I made up my mind to sue for Rose directly, when
+I learned that Master Martin had determined to give his daughter only
+to a good master-cooper. Straightway I formed the adventurous resolve
+to go and learn the trade of cooperage in Strasburg, and then to come
+and work in Master Martin's work-shop. I left all the rest to the
+ordering of Providence. You know in what way I carried out my resolve;
+but I must now also tell you what Master Martin said to me some days
+ago. He said I should make a skilful cooper and should be a right dear
+and worthy son-in-law, for he saw plainly that I was seeking to gain
+Rose's favour, and that she liked me right well." "Can it then indeed
+well be otherwise?" cried Frederick, painfully agitated "Yes, yes, Rose
+will be _yours_; how came I, unhappy wretch that I am, ever to hope for
+such happiness?" "You are forgetting, my brother," Reinhold went on to
+say; "you are forgetting that Rose herself has not confirmed this,
+which our cunning Master Martin no doubt is well aware of. True it is
+that Rose has always shown herself kind and charming towards me, but a
+loving heart betrays itself in other ways. Promise me, brother, to
+remain quiet for three days longer, and to go to your work in the shop
+as usual. I also could now go to work again, but since I have been busy
+with, and wrapt up in this picture, I feel an indescribable disgust at
+that coarse rough work out yonder. And, what is more, I can never lay
+hand upon mallet again, let come what will. On the third day I will
+frankly tell you how matters stand between me and Rose. If I should
+really be the lucky one to whom she has given her love, then you may go
+your way and make trial of the experience that time can cure the
+deepest wounds." Frederick promised to await his fate.
+
+On the third day Frederick's heart beat with fear and anxious
+expectation; he had in the meantime carefully avoided meeting Rose.
+Like one in a dream he crept about the workshop, and his awkwardness
+gave Master Martin, no doubt, just cause for his grumbling and
+scolding, which was not by any means customary with him. Moreover, the
+master seemed to have encountered something that completely spoilt all
+his good spirits. He talked a great deal about base tricks and
+ingratitude, without clearly expressing what he meant by it. When at
+length evening came, and Frederick was returning towards the town, he
+saw not far from the gate a horseman coming to meet him, whom he
+recognised to be Reinhold. As soon as the latter caught sight of
+Frederick he cried, "Ha! ha! I meet you just as I wanted." And leaping
+from his horse, he slung the rein over his arm, and grasped his
+friend's hand. "Let us walk along a space beside each other," he said.
+"Now I can tell you what luck I have had with my suit." Frederick
+observed that Reinhold wore the same clothes which he had worn when
+they first met each other, and that the horse bore a portmanteau.
+Reinhold looked pale and troubled. "Good luck to you, brother," he
+began somewhat wildly; "good luck to you. You can now go and hammer
+away lustily at your casks; I will yield the field to you. I have just
+said adieu to pretty Rose and worthy Master Martin." "What!" exclaimed
+Frederick, whilst an electric thrill, as it were, shot through all his
+limbs--"what! you are going away now that Master Martin is willing to
+take you for his son-in-law, and Rose loves you?" Reinhold replied,
+"That was only a delusion, brother, which your jealousy has led you
+into. It has now come out that Rose would have had me simply to show
+her dutifulness and obedience, but there's not a spark of love glowing
+in her ice-cold heart. Ha! ha! I should have made a fine cooper--that I
+should. Week-days scraping hoops and planing staves, Sundays walking
+beside my honest wife to St. Catherine's or St. Sebald's, and in the
+evening to the Allerwiese, year after year"---- "Nay, mock not," said
+Frederick, interrupting Reinhold's loud laughter, "mock not at the
+excellent burgher's simple, harmless life. If Rose does not really love
+you, it is not her fault; you are so passionate, so wild." "You are
+right," said Reinhold; "It is only the silly way I have of making as
+much noise as a spoilt child when I conceive I have been hurt. You can
+easily imagine that I spoke to Rose of my love and of her father's
+good-will. Then the tears started from her eyes, and her hand trembled
+in mine. Turning her face away, she whispered, 'I must submit to my
+father's will'--that was enough for me. My peculiar resentment, dear
+Frederick, will now let you see into the depths of my heart; I must
+tell you that my striving to win Rose was a deception, imposed upon me
+by my wandering mind. After I had finished Rose's picture my heart grew
+calm; and often, strange enough, I fancied that Rose was now the
+picture, and that the picture was become the real Rose. I detested my
+former coarse, rude handiwork; and when I came so intimately into
+contact with the incidents of common life, getting one's 'mastership'
+and getting married, I felt as if I were going to be confined in a
+dungeon and chained to the stocks. How indeed can the divine being whom
+I carry in my heart ever be my wife? No, she shall for ever stand forth
+glorious in youth, grace, and beauty, in the pictures--the
+masterpieces--which my restless spirit shall create. Oh! how I long for
+such things! How came I ever to turn away from my divine art? O thou
+glorious land, thou home of Art, soon again will I revel amidst thy
+cool and balmy airs." The friends had reached the place where the road
+which Reinhold intended to take turned to the left. "Here we will
+part," cried Reinhold, pressing Frederick to his heart in a long warm
+embrace; then he threw himself upon horseback and galloped away.
+Frederick stood watching him without uttering a word, and then,
+agitated by the most unaccountable feelings, he slowly wended his way
+homewards.
+
+_How Frederick was driven out of the workshop by Master Martin._
+
+The next day Master Martin was working away at the great cask for the
+Bishop of Bamberg in moody silence, nor could Frederick, who now felt
+the full bitterness of parting from Reinhold, utter a word either,
+still less break out into song. At last Master Martin threw aside his
+mallet, and crossing his arms, said in a muffled voice, "Well,
+Reinhold's gone. He was a distinguished painter, and has only been
+making a fool of me with his pretence of being a cooper. Oh! that I had
+only had an inkling of it when he came into my house along with you and
+bore himself so smart and clever, wouldn't I just have shown him the
+door! Such an open honest face, and so much deceit and treachery in his
+mind! Well, he's gone, and now you will faithfully and honestly stick
+to me and my handiwork. Who knows whether you may not become something
+more to me still--when you have become a skilful master and Rose will
+have you--well, you understand me, and may try to win Rose's favour."
+Forthwith he took up his mallet and worked away lustily again.
+Frederick did not know how to account for it, but Master Martin's words
+rent his breast, and a strange feeling of anxiety arose in his mind,
+obscuring every glimmer of hope. After a long interval Rose made a
+first appearance again in the workshop, but was very reserved, and, as
+Frederick to his mortification could see, her eyes were red with
+weeping. She has been weeping for him, she does love him, thus he said
+within himself, and he was quite unable to raise his eyes to her whom
+he loved with such an unutterable love.
+
+The mighty cask was finished, and now Master Martin began to be blithe
+and in good humour again as he regarded this very successful piece of
+work. "Yes, my son," said he, clapping Frederick on the shoulder, "yes,
+my son, I will keep my word: if you succeed in winning Rose's favour
+and build a good sound masterpiece, you shall be my son-in-law. And
+then you can also join the noble guild of the _Meistersinger_, and so
+win you great honour."
+
+Master Martin's business now increased so very greatly that he had to
+engage two other journeymen, clever workmen, but rude fellows, quite
+demoralised by their long wanderings. Coarse jests now echoed in the
+workshop instead of the many pleasant talks of former days, and in
+place of Frederick and Reinhold's agreeable singing were now heard low
+and obscene ditties. Rose shunned the workshop, so that Frederick saw
+her but seldom, and only for a few moments at a time. And then when he
+looked at her with melancholy longing and sighed, "Oh! if I might talk
+to you again, dear Rose, if you were only as friendly again as at the
+time when Reinhold was still with us!" she cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and whispered "Have you something to tell me, dear
+Frederick?" And Frederick stood like a statue, unable to speak a word,
+and the golden opportunity was quickly past, like a flash of lightning
+that darts across the dark red glow of the evening, and is gone almost
+before it is observed.
+
+Master Martin now insisted that Frederick should begin his masterpiece.
+He had himself sought out the finest, purest oak wood, without the
+least vein or flaw, which had been over five years in his wood-store,
+and nobody was to help Frederick except old Valentine. Not only was
+Frederick put more and more out of taste with his work by the rough
+journeymen, but he felt a tightness in his throat as he thought that
+this masterpiece was to decide over his whole life long. The same
+peculiar feeling of anxiety which he had experienced when Master Martin
+was praising his faithful devotion to his handiwork now grew into a
+more and more distinct shape in a quite dreadful way. He now knew that
+he should fail miserably and disgracefully in his work; his mind, now
+once more completely taken up with his own art, was fundamentally
+averse to it. He could not forget Reinhold and Rose's picture. His own
+art now put on again her full glory in his eyes. Often as he was
+working, the crushing sense of the unmanliness of his conduct quite
+overpowered him, and, alleging that he was unwell, he ran off to St.
+Sebald's Church. There he spent hours in studying Peter Fischer's
+marvellous monument, and he would exclaim, as if ravished with delight,
+"Oh, good God! Is there anything on earth more glorious than to
+conceive and execute such a work?" And when he had to go back again to
+his staves and hoops, and remembered that in this way only was Rose to
+be won, he felt as if burning talons were rending his bleeding heart,
+and as if he must perish in the midst of his unspeakable agony.
+Reinhold often came to him in his dreams and brought him striking
+designs for artistic castings, into which Rose's form was worked in
+most ingenious ways, now as a flower, now as an angel, with little
+wings. But there was always something wanting; he discovered that it
+was Rose's heart which Reinhold had forgotten, and that he added to the
+design himself. Then he thought he saw all the flowers and leaves of
+the work move, singing and diffusing their sweet fragrances, and the
+precious metals showed him Rose's likeness in their glittering surface.
+Then he stretched out his arms longingly after his beloved, but the
+likeness vanished as if in dim mist, and Rose herself, pretty Rose,
+pressed him to her loving heart in an ecstasy of passionate love.
+
+His condition with respect to the unfortunate cooperage grew worse and
+worse, and more and more unbearable, and he went to his old master
+Johannes Holzschuer to seek comfort and assistance. He allowed
+Frederick to begin in his shop a piece of work which he, Frederick, had
+thought out and for which he had for some time been saving up his
+earnings, so that he could procure the necessary gold and silver. Thus
+it happened that Frederick was scarcely ever at work in Martin's shop,
+and his deathly pale face gave credence to his pretext that he was
+suffering from a consuming illness. Months went past, and his
+masterpiece, his great two-tun cask, was not advanced any further.
+Master Martin was urgent upon him that he should at least do as much as
+his strength would allow, and Frederick really saw himself compelled to
+go to the hated cutting block again and take the adze in hand. Whilst
+he was working, Master Martin drew near and examined the staves at
+which he was working; and he got quite red in the face and cried, "What
+do you call this? What work is this, Frederick? Has a journeyman been
+preparing these staves for his 'mastership,' or a stupid apprentice who
+only put his nose into the workshop three days ago? Pull yourself
+together, lad: what devil has entered into you that you are making a
+bungle of things like this? My good oak wood,--and this your
+masterpiece! Oh! you awkward, imprudent boy!" Overmastered by the
+torture and agony which raged within him, Frederick was unable to
+contain himself any longer; so, throwing the adze from him he said,
+"Master, it's all over; no, even though it cost me my life, though I
+perish in unutterable misery, I cannot work any longer--no, I cannot
+work any longer at this coarse trade. An irresistible power is drawing
+me back to my own glorious art. Your daughter Rose I love unspeakably,
+more than anybody else on earth can ever love her. It is only for her
+sake that I ever entered upon this hateful work. I have now lost her, I
+know, and shall soon die of grief for love of her; but I can't help it,
+I must go back to my own glorious art, to my excellent old master,
+Johannes Holzschuer, whom I so shamefully deserted." Master Martin's
+eyes blazed like flashing candles. Scarce able to speak for rage, he
+stammered, "What! you too! Deceit and treachery! Dupe _me_ like this!
+coarse trade--cooperage! Out of my eyes, you disgraceful fellow; begone
+with you!" And therewith he laid hold of poor Frederick by the
+shoulders and threw him out of the shop, which the rude journeymen and
+apprentices greeted with mocking laughter. But old Valentine folded his
+hands, and gazing thoughtfully before him, said, "I've noticed, that I
+have, the good fellow had something higher in his mind than our casks."
+Dame Martha shed many tears, and her boys cried and screamed for
+Frederick, who had often played kindly with them and brought them
+several lots of sweets.
+
+_Conclusion._
+
+
+However angry Master Martin might feel towards Reinhold and Frederick,
+he could not but admit to himself that along with them all joy and all
+pleasure had disappeared from the workshop. Every day he was annoyed
+and provoked by the new journeymen. He had to look after every little
+trifle, and it cost him no end of trouble and exertion to get even the
+smallest amount of work done to his mind. Quite tired out with the
+cares of the day, he often sighed, "O Reinhold! O Frederick! I wish you
+had not so shamefully deceived me, I wish you had been good coopers."
+Things at last got so bad that he often contemplated the idea of giving
+up business altogether.
+
+As he was sitting at home one evening in one of these gloomy moods,
+Herr Jacobus Paumgartner and along with him Master Johannes Holzschuer
+came in quite unexpectedly. He saw at once that they were going to talk
+about Frederick; and in fact Herr Paumgartner very soon turned the
+conversation upon him, and Master Holzschuer at once began to say all
+he could in praise of the young fellow. It was his opinion that
+Frederick with his industry and his gifts would certainly not only make
+an excellent goldsmith, but also a most admirable art-caster, and would
+tread in Peter Fischer's footsteps. And now Herr Paumgartner began to
+reproach Master Martin in no gentle terms for his unkind treatment of
+his poor journeyman Frederick, and they both urged him to give Rose to
+the young fellow to wife when he was become a skilful goldsmith and
+caster,--that is, of course, in case she looked with favour upon
+him,--for his affection for her tingled in every vein he had. Master
+Martin let them have their say out, then he doffed his cap and said,
+smiling, "That's right, my good sirs, I'm glad you stand up so bravely
+for the journeyman who so shamefully deceived me. That, however, I will
+forgive him; but don't ask that I should alter my fixed resolve for his
+sake; Rose can never be anything to him." At this moment Rose entered
+the room, pale and with eyes red with weeping, and she silently placed
+wine and glasses on the table. "Well then," began Herr Holzschuer, "I
+must let poor Frederick have his own way; he wants to leave home for
+ever. He has done a beautiful piece of work at my shop, which, if you,
+my good master, will allow, he will present to Rose as a keepsake; look
+at it." Whereupon Master Holzschuer produced a small
+artistically-chased silver cup, and handed it to Master Martin, who, a
+great lover of costly vessels and such like, took it and examined it on
+all sides with much satisfaction. And indeed a more splendid piece of
+silver work than this little cup could hardly be seen. Delicate chains
+of vine-leaves and roses were intertwined round about it, and pretty
+angels peeped up out of the roses and the bursting buds, whilst within,
+on the gilded bottom of the cup, were engraved angels lovingly
+caressing each other. And when the clear bright wine was poured into
+the cup, the little angels seemed to dance up and down as if playing
+prettily together. "It is indeed an elegant piece of work," said Master
+Martin, "and I will keep it if Frederick will take the double of what
+it is worth in good gold pieces." Thus speaking, he filled the cup and
+raised it to his lips. At this moment the door was softly opened, and
+Frederick stepped in, his countenance pale and stamped with the bitter,
+bitter pain of separating for ever from her he held dearest on earth.
+As soon as Rose saw him she uttered a loud piercing cry, "O my dearest
+Frederick!" and fell almost fainting on his breast. Master Martin set
+down the cup, and on seeing Rose in Frederick's arms opened his eyes
+wide as if he saw a ghost. Then he again took up the cup without
+speaking a word, and looked into it; but all at once he leapt from his
+seat and cried in a loud voice, "Rose, Rose, do you love Frederick?"
+"Oh!" whispered Rose, "I cannot any longer conceal it, I love him as I
+love my own life; my heart nearly broke when you sent him away." "Then
+embrace your betrothed, Frederick; yes, yes, your betrothed,
+Frederick," cried Master Martin. Paumgartner and Holzschuer looked at
+each other utterly bewildered with astonishment, but Master Martin,
+holding the cup in his hand, went on, "By the good God, has it not all
+come to pass as the old lady prophesied?--
+
+'A vessel fair to see he'll bring,
+In which the spicy liquid foams,
+And bright, bright angels gaily sing.
+... The vessel fair with golden grace,
+Lo! him who brings it in the house,
+Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace,
+And, an thy lover be but true,
+Thou need'st not wait thy father's kiss.'
+
+O Stupid fool I have been! Here is the vessel fair to see, the angels--
+the lover--Ay! ay! gentlemen; it's all right now, all right now; my
+son-in-law is found."
+
+Whoever has had his mind ever confused by a bad dream, so that he
+thought he was lying in the deep cold blackness of the grave, and
+suddenly he awakens in the midst of the bright spring-tide full of
+fragrance and sunshine and song, and she whom he holds dearest on earth
+has come to him and has cast her arms about him, and he can look up
+into the heaven of her lovely face,--whoever has at any time
+experienced this will understand Frederick's feelings, will comprehend
+his exceeding great happiness. Unable to speak a word, he held Rose
+tightly clasped in his arms as though he would never let her leave him,
+until she at length gently disengaged herself and led him to her
+father. Then he found his voice, "O my dear master, is it all really
+true? You will give me Rose to wife, and I may go back to my art?"
+"Yes, yes," said Master Martin, "you may in truth believe it; can I do
+any other since you have fulfilled my old grandmother's prophecy? You
+need not now of course go on with your masterpiece." Then Frederick,
+perfectly radiant with delight, smiled and said, "No, my dear master,
+if it be pleasing to you I will now gladly and in good spirits finish
+my big cask--my last piece of work in cooperage--and then I will go
+back to the melting-furnace." "Yes, my good brave son," replied Master
+Martin, his eyes sparkling with joy, "yes, finish your masterpiece, and
+then we'll have the wedding."
+
+Frederick kept his word faithfully, and finished the two-tun cask; and
+all the masters declared that it would be no easy task to do a finer
+piece of work, whereat Master Martin was delighted down to the ground,
+and was moreover of opinion that Providence could not have found for
+him a more excellent son-in-law.
+
+At length the wedding day was come, Frederick's masterpiece stood in
+the entrance hall filled with rich wine, and crowned with garlands. The
+masters of the trade, with the syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their
+head, put in an appearance along with their housewives, followed by the
+master goldsmiths. All was ready for the procession to begin its march
+to St. Sebald's Church, where the pair were to be married, when a sound
+of trumpets was heard in the street, and a neighing and stamping of
+horses before Martin's house. Master Martin hastened to the bay-window.
+It was Herr Heinrich von Spangenberg, in gay holiday attire, who had
+pulled up in front of the house; a few paces behind him, on a high-
+spirited horse, sat a young and splendid knight, his glittering sword
+at his side, and high-coloured feathers in his baretta, which was also
+adorned with flashing jewels. Beside the knight, Herr Martin perceived
+a wondrously beautiful lady, likewise splendidly dressed, seated on a
+jennet the colour of fresh-fallen snow. Pages and attendants in
+brilliant coats formed a circle round about them. The trumpet ceased,
+and old Herr von Spangenberg shouted up to him, "Aha! aha! Master
+Martin, I have not come either for your wine cellar or for your gold
+pieces, but only because it is Rose's wedding day. Will you let me in,
+good master?" Master Martin remembered his own words very well, and was
+a little ashamed of himself; but he hurried down to receive the Junker.
+The old gentleman dismounted, and after greeting him, entered the
+house. Some of the pages sprang forward, and upon their arms the lady
+slipped down from her palfrey; the knight gave her his hand and
+followed the old gentleman. But when Master Martin looked at the young
+knight he recoiled three paces, struck his hands together, and cried,
+"Good God! Conrad!" "Yes, Master Martin," said the knight, smiling, "I
+am indeed your journeyman Conrad. Forgive me for the wound I inflicted
+on you. But you see, my good master, that I ought properly to have
+killed you; but things have now all turned out different." Greatly
+confused, Master Martin replied, that it was after all better that he
+had not been killed; of the little bit of a cut with the adze he had
+made no account. Now when Master Martin with his new guests entered the
+room where the bridal pair and the rest were assembled, they were all
+agreeably surprised at the beautiful lady, who was so exactly like the
+bride, even down to the minutest feature, that they might have been
+taken for twin-sisters. The knight approached the bride with courtly
+grace and said, "Grant, lovely Rose, that Conrad be present here on
+this auspicious day. You are not now angry with the wild thoughtless
+journeyman who was nigh bringing a great trouble upon you, are you?"
+But as the bridegroom and the bride and Master Martin were looking at
+each other in great wonder and embarrassment, old Herr von Spangenberg
+said, "Well, well, I see I must help you out of your dream. This is my
+son Conrad, and here is his good, true wife, named Rose, like the
+lovely bride. Call our conversation to mind, Master Martin. I had a
+very special reason for asking you whether you would refuse your Rose
+to my son. The young puppy was madly in love with her, and he induced
+me to lay aside all other considerations and make up my mind to come
+and woo her on his behalf. But when I told him in what an uncourteous
+way I had been dismissed, he in the most nonsensical way stole into
+your house in the guise of a cooper, intending to win her favour and
+then actually to run away with her. But--you cured him with that good
+sound blow across his back; my best thanks for it. And now he has found
+a lady of rank who most likely is, after all, _the_ Rose who was
+properly in his heart from the beginning."
+
+Meanwhile the lady had with graceful kindness greeted the bride, and
+hung a valuable pearl necklace round her neck as a wedding present.
+"See here, dear Rose," she then said, taking a very withered bunch of
+flowers out from amongst the fresh blooming ones which she wore at her
+bosom--"see here, dear Rose, these are the flowers that you once gave
+my Conrad as the prize of victory; he kept them faithfully until he saw
+me, then he was unfaithful to you and gave them to me; don't be angry
+with me for it." Rose, her cheeks crimson, cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion, saying, "Oh! noble lady, how can you say so? Could the
+Junker then ever really love a poor maiden like me? You alone were his
+love, and it was only because I am called Rose, and, as they say here,
+something like you, that he wooed me, all the while thinking it was
+you."
+
+A second time the procession was about to set out, when a young man
+entered the room, dressed in the Italian style, all in black slashed
+velvet, with an elegant lace collar and rich golden chains of honour
+hanging from his neck. "O Reinhold, my Reinhold!" cried Frederick,
+throwing himself upon the young man's breast. The bride and Master
+Martin also cried out excitedly, "Reinhold, our brave Reinhold is
+come!" "Did I not tell you," said Reinhold, returning Frederick's
+embrace with warmth,--"did I not tell you, my dear, dear friend, that
+things might turn out gloriously for you? Let me celebrate your wedding
+day with you; I have come a long way on purpose to do so; and as a
+lasting memento hang up in your house the picture which I have painted
+for you and brought with me." And then he called down to his two
+servants, who brought in a large picture in a magnificent gold frame.
+It represented Master Martin in his workshop along with his journeymen
+Reinhold, Frederick, and Conrad working at the great cask, and lovely
+Rose was just entering the shop. Everybody was astonished at the truth
+and magnificent colouring of the piece as a work of art. "Ay," said
+Frederick, smiling, "that is, I suppose, your masterpiece as cooper;
+mine is below yonder in the entrance-hall; but I shall soon make
+another." "I know all," replied Reinhold, "and rate you lucky. Only
+stick fast to your art; it can put up with more domesticity and such-
+like than mine."
+
+At the marriage feast Frederick sat between the two Roses, and opposite
+him Master Martin between Conrad and Reinhold. Then Herr Paumgartner
+filled Frederick's cup up to the brim with rich wine, and drank to the
+weal of Master Martin and his brave journeymen. The cup went round; and
+first it was drained by the noble Junker Heinrich von Spangenberg, and
+after him by all the worthy masters who sat at the table--to the weal
+of Master Martin and his brave journeymen.
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER":
+
+Footnote 1 Written for the Leipsic _Taschenbuch zum geselligen
+Vergnügen_ for 1819.]
+
+Footnote 2 The "Beautiful Fountain," as it is called, is about 64 ft.
+in height, and consists of three stone Gothic pyramids and many statues
+(electors and heroes and prophets). It was built by Schonhover in
+1355-61, and restored in 1820.]
+
+Footnote 3 St. Sebald's shrine in St. Sebald's Church consists of a
+bronze sarcophagus and canopy of rich Gothic style. It stands about
+16-1/2 ft. high, and bears admirable statues of the Twelve Apostles,
+certain church-fathers and prophets, and other representations of a
+semi-mythological character, together with reliefs illustrative of
+episodes in the saint's life. It is regarded by many as one of the gems
+of German artistic work, and is the result of thirteen years' labour
+(1506-1519) by Peter Vischer and his sons.]
+
+Footnote 4 This ciborium or receptacle for the host is the work of Adam
+Krafft, stands about 68 feet in height, and represents Christ's
+Passion. The style is florid Gothic, and the material stone.]
+
+Footnote 5 Albrecht Dürer, born at Nuremberg in 1471, and died in 1528,
+contemporary with Titian and Raphael, the most truly representative
+German painter as well as, perhaps, the greatest.]
+
+Footnote 6 Hans Rosenblüth, _Meistersinger_ and _ Wappendichter_
+(Mastersinger and Herald-poet), called the _Schnepperer_ (babbler), was
+a native of Nuremberg. Between 1431 and 1460 is the period of his
+literary activity, when he wrote _Fastnachtspiele_ (developments of the
+comic elements in Mysteries), "Odes" on Wine, Farces, &c. He marks the
+transition from the poetry of chivalric life and manners to that of
+burgher life and manners.]
+
+Footnote 7 Wine was frequently stored at this period on the cooper's
+premises in huge casks, and afterwards drawn off in smaller casks and
+bottled.]
+
+Footnote 8 In many Mediæval German towns the rulers (Burgomaster and
+Councillors) were mostly self-elected, power being in the hands of a
+few patrician families. A Councillor generally attended a full meeting
+of a guild as a sort of "patron" or "visitor." Compare the position
+which Sir Patrick Charteris occupied with respect to the good citizens
+of Perth. (See Sir Walter Scott's _Fair Maid of Perth_, chap. vii., _et
+passim_.)]
+
+Footnote 9 The well-known Great Cask of Heidelberg, built for the
+Elector Palatine Ernest Theodore in 1751, is calculated to hold 49,000
+gallons, and is 32 feet long and 26 feet in diameter. This is not the
+only gigantic wine cask that has been made in Germany. Other monsters
+are now in the cellars at Tübingen (made in 1546), Groningen (1678),
+Königstein (1725), &c.]
+
+Footnote 10 Hoffmann calls him Tobias also lower down, and then Thomas
+again.]
+
+Footnote 11 Hochheimer is the name of a Rhine wine that has been
+celebrated since the beginning of the ninth century, and is grown in
+the neighbourhood of Hochheim, a town in the district of Wiesbaden.]
+
+Footnote 12 Johannisberger is also grown near Wiesbaden. The celebrated
+vineyard is said to cover only 39-1/2 acres.]
+
+Footnote 13 Nuremberg is noted for its interesting old houses with high
+narrow gables turned next the street: amongst the most famous are those
+belonging to the families of Nassau, Tucher, Peller, Petersen (formerly
+Toppler), and those of Albrecht Dürer and of Hans Sachs, the
+cobbler-poet of the 16th century.]
+
+Footnote 14 Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867), founder of a great German
+school of historical painting. Going to Rome in 1811, he painted a set
+of seven scenes illustrative of Goethe's _Faust_, having previously
+finished a set at Frankfort (on Main). Amongst his many famous works
+are the Last Judgment in the Ludwig Church at Munich and frescoes in
+the Glyptothek there.]
+
+Footnote 15 Gretchen's real words were "Bin weder Fräulein weder
+schön." See the scene which follows the "Hexenküche" scene in the first
+part of _Faust_.]
+
+Footnote 16 A meadow or common on the outskirts of the town, which
+served as a general place of recreation and amusement. Nearly every
+German town has such; as the Theresa Meadow at Munich, the Canstatt
+Meadow near Stuttgart, the Communal Meadow on the right bank of the
+Main not far from Frankfort (see Goethe, _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, near
+the beginning), &c.]
+
+Footnote 17 This word is generally used to designate an untitled
+country nobleman, a member of an old-established noble "county" family.
+In Prussia the name came to be applied to a political party. A most
+interesting description of the old Prussian Junker is given in Wilibald
+Alexis' (W. H. Häring's) charming novel _Die Hosen des Herrn v. Bredow_
+(1846-48), in Sir Walter Scott's style.]
+
+Footnote 18 A string of pearls worn on the wedding-day was a
+prerogative of a patrician bride.]
+
+Footnote 19 In the Middle Ages, in Nuremberg, and in most other
+industrial towns also, the artisans and others who formed _guilds_
+(each respective trade or calling having generally its guild) were
+divided into three grades, masters, journeymen, and apprentices.
+Admission from one of these grades into the one next above it was
+subject to various more or less restrictive conditions. A man could
+only become a "master" and regularly set up in business for himself
+after having gone through the various stages of training in conformity
+with the rules or prescriptions of his guild, after having constructed
+his masterpiece to the satisfaction of a specially appointed
+commission, and after fulfilling certain requirements as to age,
+citizenship, and in some cases possession of a certain amount of
+property. It was usual for journeymen to spend a certain time in
+travelling going from one centre of their trade to another.]
+
+Footnote 20 From another passage (_Der Feind_, chap. i) it appears that
+the reference is to a series of regulations dealing with the wine
+industry, of date August 24, 1498, in the reign of Maximilian I.]
+
+Footnote 21 Sulphur is burnt inside the cask (care being taken that it
+does not touch it) in order to keep it sweet and pure, as well as to
+impart both flavour and colour to the wine.]
+
+Footnote 22 See note 2, p. 15. The German _Meistersinger_ always sang
+without any accompaniment of musical instruments.]
+
+Footnote 23 This is one of the principal round towers, erected
+1558-1568, in the town walls; it is situated on the south-east.]
+
+Footnote 24 Peter Vischer (_c._ 1455-1529), a native of Nuremberg, one
+of the most distinguished of German sculptors, was chiefly engaged in
+making monuments for deceased princes in various parts of Germany and
+central Europe. The shrine in St. Sebald's, mentioned above, is
+generally considered his masterpiece.]
+
+Footnote 25 Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1569) of Florence, goldsmith and
+worker in metals. Mr. W. M. Rossetti rightly says that his biography,
+written by himself, forms one of the most "fascinating" of books. It
+has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, and by Goethe into
+German.]
+
+Footnote 26 Holzschuher was the name of an old and important family in
+Nuremberg. Fifty-four years before the date of the present story, that
+is in 1526, a member of the family was burgomaster of his native town,
+and was painted by Dürer.]
+
+Footnote 27 The family of Fugger, which rose from the position of poor
+weavers to be the richest merchant princes in Augsburg, decorated their
+house with frescoes externally, like so many other old German
+families.]
+
+Footnote 28 During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries
+there existed in many German towns (Nuremberg, Frankfort, Strasburg,
+Ulm, Mayence, &c.) associations or guild-like corporations of burghers,
+the object of which was the cultivation of song in the same systematic
+way that the mechanical arts were practised. They framed strict and
+well-defined codes of rules (_Tablatures_) by means of which they
+tested a singer's capabilities. As the chief aims which they set before
+themselves were the invention of new tunes or melodies, and also songs
+(words), it resulted that they fell into the inevitable vice of cold
+formalism, and banished the true spirit of poetry by their many
+arbitrary rules about rhyme, measure, and melody, and the dry business-
+like manner in which they worked. The guild or company generally
+consisted of five distinct grades, the ultimate one being that of
+master, entrance into which was only permitted to the man who had
+invented a new melody or tune, and had sung it in public without
+offending against any of the laws of the _Tablature_. The subjects,
+which, as the singers were honest burghers, could not be taken from
+topics in which chivalric life took any interest, were mostly
+restricted to fables, legendary lore, and consisted very largely of
+Biblical narratives and passages.]
+
+Footnote 29 These words are the names of various "tunes," and signified
+in each case a particular metre, rhyme, melody, &c, so that each was a
+brief definition of a number of individual items, so to speak. These
+_Meistersinger_ technical terms (or slang?) are therefore not
+translatable, nor could they be made intelligible by paraphrase, even
+if the requisite information for each instance were at hand.]
+
+Footnote 30 A glass divided by means of marks placed at intervals from
+top to bottom. It was usual for one who was invited to drink to drink
+out of the challenger's glass down to the mark next below the top of
+the liquid.]
+
+Footnote 31 These would consist of the certificate of his admission
+into the ranks of the journeymen of the guild, of the certificates of
+proper dismissal signed by the various masters for whom he had worked
+whilst on travel, together with testimonials of good conduct from the
+same masters.]
+
+Footnote 32 On these great singing days, generally on Sundays in the
+churches, and on special occasions in the town-house, the
+"performances" consisted of three parts. 1. First came a "Voluntary
+Solo-Singing," in which anybody, even a stranger, might participate, no
+contest being entered into, and no rewards given. 2. This was followed
+by a song by all the masters in chorus, 3. Then came the "Principal
+Singing," the chief "event" of the day--the actual singing contest.
+Four judges were appointed to examine those who successively presented
+themselves, being guided by the strict laws and regulations of the _
+Tablatures_. Those who violated these laws, that is, who made mistakes,
+had to leave the singing-desk; the successful ones were, however,
+crowned with wreaths, and had earned the right to act themselves as
+judges on future occasions.]
+
+Footnote 33 Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob (died 1318), after
+having lived at various courts in both the north and the south of
+Germany, settled at Mayence and gathered together (1311) a school or
+society of burgher singers.]
+
+Footnote 34 The word "prince" is expressed in German by two distinct
+words; one, like the English word, designates a member of a royal or
+reigning house; the other is used as a simple title, often official,
+ranking above duke. The Bishop of Bamberg was in this latter sense a
+prince of the empire.]
+
+Footnote 35 At this time Francesco I. (of the illustrious house of
+Medici) was _Grand Duke of Tuscany_, his father Cosimo I. having
+exchanged the title of Duke of Florence for that of Grand Duke of
+Tuscany in 1569. Francesco did much for the encouragement of art and
+science. He founded the well-known Uffizi Gallery, and it was in his
+reign that the Accademia Della Crusca was instituted.]
+
+Footnote 36 Lucas Cranach occupies along with his contemporary Albrecht
+Dürer the first place in the ranks of German painters. Born in Upper
+Franconia in 1472 (died 1553), he secured the favour of the Elector of
+Saxony, and manifested extraordinary activity in several branches of
+painting.]
+
+
+
+
+_MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI._
+_A TALE OF THE TIMES OF LOUIS XIV._
+
+
+The little house in which lived Madeleine de Scudéri,1 well known for
+her pleasing verses, and the favour of Louis XIV. and the Marchioness
+de Maintenon, was situated in the Rue St. Honorée.
+
+One night almost at midnight--it would be about the autumn, of the year
+1680--there came such a loud and violent knocking at the door of her
+house that it made the whole entrance-passage ring again. Baptiste, who
+in the lady's small household discharged at one and the same time the
+offices of cook, footman, and porter, had with his mistress's
+permission gone into the country to attend his sister's wedding; and
+thus it happened that La Martinière, Mademoiselle's lady-maid was
+alone, and the only person awake in the house. The knockings were
+repeated. She suddenly remembered that Baptiste had gone for his
+holiday, and that she and her mistress were left in the house without
+any further protection. All the outrages burglaries, thefts, and
+murders--which were then so common in Paris, crowded upon her mind; she
+was sure it was a band of cut-throats who were making all this
+disturbance outside; they must be well aware how lonely the house
+stood, and if let in would perpetrate some wicked deed against her
+mistress; and so she remained in her room, trembling and quaking with
+fear, and cursing Baptiste and his sister's wedding as well.
+
+Meanwhile the hammering at the door was being continued; and she
+fancied she heard a voice shouting at intervals, "Oh! do open the door!
+For God's sake, do open the door!" At last La Martinière's anxiety rose
+to such a pitch that, taking up the lighted candle, she ran out into
+the passage. There she heard quite plainly the voice of the person
+knocking, "For God's sake! do open the door, please!" "Certainly,"
+thought she, "that surely is not the way a robber would knock. Who
+knows whether it is not some poor man being pursued and wants
+protection from Mademoiselle, who is always ready to do an act of
+kindness? But let us be cautious." Opening a window, she called out,
+asking who was down making such a loud noise at the house-door so late
+at night, awakening everybody up out of their sleep; and she
+endeavoured to give her naturally deep voice as manly a tone as she
+possibly could.
+
+By the glimmer of the moon, which now broke through the dark clouds,
+she could make out a tall figure, enveloped in a light-grey mantle,
+having his broad-brimmed hat pulled down right over his eyes. Then she
+shouted in a loud voice, so as to be heard by the man below, "Baptiste,
+Claude, Pierre, get up and go and see who this good-for-nothing
+vagabond is, who is trying to break into the house." But the voice from
+below made answer gently, and in a tone that had a plaintive ring in
+it, "Oh! La Martinière, I know quite well that it is you, my good
+woman, however much you try to disguise your voice; I also know that
+Baptiste has gone into the country, and that you are alone in the house
+with your mistress. You may confidently undo the door for me; you need
+have no fear. For I must positively speak with your mistress, and this
+very minute." "Whatever are you thinking about?" replied La Martinière.
+"You want to speak to Mademoiselle in the middle of the night? Don't
+you know that she has been gone to bed a long time, and that for no
+price would I wake her up out of her first sound sleep, which at her
+time of life she has so much need of?" The person standing below said,
+"But I know that your mistress has only just laid aside her new romance
+_ Clélie_, at which she labours so unremittingly; and she is now
+writing certain verses which she intends to read to the Marchioness de
+Maintenon2 to-morrow. I implore you, Madame Martinière, have pity and
+open me the door. I tell you the matter involves the saving of an
+unfortunate man from ruin,--that the honour, freedom, nay, that the
+life of a man is dependent upon this moment, and I _must_ speak to
+Mademoiselle. Recollect how your mistress's anger would rest upon you
+for ever, if she learned that you had had the hard-heartedness to turn
+an unfortunate man away from her door when he came to supplicate her
+assistance." "But why do you come to appeal to my mistress's compassion
+at this unusual hour? Come again early in the morning," said La
+Martinière. The person below replied, "Does Destiny, then, heed times
+and hours when it strikes, like the fatal flash, fraught with
+destruction? When there is but a single moment longer in which rescue
+is still possible, ought assistance to be delayed? Open me the door;
+you need have nothing to fear from a poor defenceless wretch, who is
+deserted of all the world, pursued and distressed by an awful fate,
+when he comes to beseech Mademoiselle to save him from threatening
+danger?" La Martinière heard the man below moaning and sobbing with
+anguish as he said these words, and at the same time the voice was the
+voice of a young man, gentle, and gifted with the power of appealing
+straight to the heart She was greatly touched; without much further
+deliberation she fetched the keys.
+
+But hardly had she got the door opened when the figure enveloped in the
+mantle burst tumultuously in, and striding past Martinière into the
+passage, cried wildly, "Lead me to your mistress!" In terror Martinière
+lifted up the candle, and its light fell upon a young man's face,
+deathly pale and fearfully agitated. Martinière almost dropped on the
+floor with fright, for the man now threw open his mantle and showed the
+bright hilt of a stiletto sticking out of the bosom of his doublet. His
+eyes flashed fire as he fixed them upon her, crying still more wildly
+than before, "Lead me to your mistress, I tell you." Martinière now
+believed Mademoiselle was in the most imminent danger; and her
+affection for her beloved mistress, whom she honoured, moreover, as her
+good and faithful mother, burnt up stronger in her heart, enkindling a
+courage which she had not conceived herself capable of showing. Hastily
+pulling to the door of her chamber, which she had left standing open,
+she planted herself before it, and said in a strong firm voice, "I tell
+you what, your mad behaviour in the house here, corresponds but ill
+with your plaintive words outside; I see clearly that I let my pity be
+excited on a wrong occasion. You neither ought to, nor shall you, speak
+to my mistress now. If your intentions are not evil, you need not fear
+daylight; so come again to-morrow and state your business then. Now,
+begone with you out of the house." The man heaved a deep and painful
+sigh, and fixing Martinière with a formidable look, grasped his
+stiletto. She silently commended her soul to Heaven, but manfully stood
+her ground, and boldly met the man's gaze, at the same time drawing
+herself closer to the door, for through it the man would have to go to
+get to her mistress's chamber. "Let me go to your mistress, I tell
+you!" cried the man again. "Do what you will," replied Martinière, "I
+shall not stir from this place. Go on and finish your wicked deed; but
+remember that you also will die a shameful death at the Place Grève,
+like your atrocious partners in crime." "Ah! yes, you are right, La
+Martinière," replied the man, "I do look like a villainous robber and
+cut-throat, and am armed like one, but my partners have not been
+executed,--no, not yet." Therewith, hurling looks of furious wrath at
+the poor woman, who was almost dead with terror, he drew his stiletto.
+"O God! O God!" she exclaimed, expecting her death-blow; but at this
+moment there was heard a rattle of arms in the street, and the hoof-
+strokes of horses. "The _Maréchaussée_!3 the _Maréchaussée_! Help!
+Help!" screamed Martinière. "You abominable woman, you are determined
+to ruin me. All is lost now--it's all over. But here, here--take this.
+Give that to your mistress this very night--to-morrow if you like."
+Whispering these words, he snatched the light from La Martinière,
+extinguished it, and then forced a casket into her hands. "By your
+hopes of salvation, I conjure you, give this casket to Mademoiselle,"
+cried the man; and he rushed out of the house.
+
+Martinière fell to the floor; at length she rose up with difficulty,
+and groped her way back in the darkness to her own room, where she sank
+down in an arm-chair completely exhausted, unable to utter a sound.
+Then she heard the keys rattle, which she had left in the lock of the
+street-door. The door was closed and locked, and she heard cautious,
+uncertain footsteps approaching her room. She sat riveted to the chair
+without power to move, expecting something terrible to happen. But her
+sensations may be imagined when the door opened, and by the light of
+the night-taper she recognised at the first glance that it was honest
+Baptiste, looking very pale and greatly troubled. "In the name of all
+the saints!" he began, "tell me, Dame Martinière, what has happened?
+Oh! the anxiety and fear I have had! I don't know what it was, but
+something drove me away from the wedding last evening. I couldn't help
+myself; I had to come. On getting into our street, I thought. Dame
+Martinière sleeps lightly, she'll be sure to hear me, thinks I, if I
+tap softly and gently at the door, and will come out and let me in.
+Then there comes a strong patrol on horseback as well as on foot, all
+armed to the teeth, and they stop me and won't let me go on. But
+luckily Desgrais the lieutenant of the _Maréchaussée_, is amongst them,
+who knows me quite well; and when they put their lanterns under my
+nose, he says, 'Why, Baptiste, where are you coming from at this time
+o' night? You'd better stay quietly in the house and take care of it
+There's some deviltry at work, and we are hoping to make a good capture
+to-night.' You wouldn't believe how heavy these words fell on my heart.
+Dame Martinière. And then when I put my foot on the threshold, there
+comes a man, all muffled up, rushing out of the house with a drawn
+dagger in his hand, and he runs over me--head over heels. The door was
+open, and the keys sticking in the lock. Oh! tell me what it all
+means." Martinière, relieved of her terrible fear and anxiety, related
+all that had taken place.
+
+Then she and Baptiste went out into the passage, and there they found
+the candlestick lying on the floor where the stranger had thrown it as
+he ran away. "It is only too certain," said Baptiste, "that our
+Mademoiselle would have been robbed, ay, and even murdered, I make no
+doubt. The fellow knew, as you say, that you were alone with
+Mademoiselle,--why, he also knew that she was awake with her writings.
+I would bet anything it was one of those cursed rogues and thieves who
+force their way right into the houses, cunningly spying out everything
+that may be of use to them in carrying out their infernal plans. And as
+for that little casket, Dame Martinière--I think we'd better throw it
+into the Seine where it's deepest. Who can answer for it that there's
+not some wicked monster got designs on our good lady's life, and that
+if she opens the box she won't fall down dead like old Marquis de
+Tournay did, when he opened a letter that came from somebody he didn't
+know?"
+
+After a long consultation the two faithful souls made up their minds to
+tell their mistress everything next morning, and also to place the
+mysterious casket in her hands, for of course it could be opened with
+proper precautions. After minutely weighing every circumstance
+connected with the suspicious stranger's appearance, they were both of
+the same opinion, namely, that there was some special mystery connected
+with the matter, which they durst not attempt to control single-handed;
+they must leave it to their good lady to unriddle.
+
+Baptiste's apprehensions were well founded. Just at that time Paris was
+the scene of the most abominable atrocities, and exactly at the same
+period the most diabolical invention of Satan was made, to offer the
+readiest means for committing these deeds.
+
+Glaser, a German apothecary, the best chemist of his age, had busied
+himself, as people of his profession were in the habit of doing, with
+alchemistical experiments. He had made it the object of his endeavour
+to discover the Philosopher's Stone. His coadjutor was an Italian of
+the name of Exili. But this man only practised alchemy as a blind. His
+real object was to learn all about the mixing and decoction and
+sublimating of poisonous compounds, by which Glaser on his part hoped
+to make his fortune; and at last he succeeded in fabricating that
+subtle poison4 that is without smell and without taste, that kills
+either on the spot or gradually and slowly, without ever leaving the
+slightest trace in the human body, and that deceives all the skill and
+art of the physicians, since, not suspecting the presence of poison,
+they fail not to ascribe the death to natural causes. Circumspectly as
+Exili5 went to work, he nevertheless fell under the suspicion of being
+a seller of poison, and was thrown into the Bastille. Soon afterwards
+Captain Godin de Sainte Croix was confined in the same dungeon. This
+man had for a long time been living in relations with the Marchioness
+de Brinvillier,6 which brought disgrace on all the family; so at last,
+as the Marquis continued indifferent to his wife's shameful conduct,
+her father, Dreux d'Aubray, _Civil Lieutenant_ of Paris, compelled the
+guilty pair to part by means of a warrant which was executed upon the
+Captain. Passionate, unprincipled, hypocritically feigning to be pious,
+and yet inclined from his youth up to all kinds of vice, jealous,
+revengeful even to madness, the Captain could not have met with any
+more welcome information than that contained in Exili's diabolical
+secret, since it would give him the power to annihilate all his
+enemies. He became an eager scholar of Exili, and soon came to be as
+clever as his master, so that, on being liberated from the Bastille, he
+was in a position to work on unaided.
+
+Before an abandoned woman, De Brinvillier became through Sainte Croix's
+instrumentality a monster. He contrived to induce her to poison
+successively her own father, with whom she was living, tending with
+heartless hypocrisy his declining days, and then her two brothers, and
+finally her sister,--her father out of revenge, and the others on
+account of the rich family inheritance. From the histories of several
+poisoners we have terrible examples how the commission of crimes of
+this class becomes at last an all-absorbing passion. Often, without any
+further purpose than the mere vile pleasure of the thing, just as
+chemists make experiments for their own enjoyment, have poisoners
+destroyed persons whose life or death must have been to them a matter
+of perfect indifference.
+
+The sudden decease of several poor people in the Hotel Dieu some time
+afterwards excited the suspicion that the bread had been poisoned which
+Brinvillier, in order to acquire a reputation for piety and
+benevolence, used to distribute there every week. At any rate, it is
+undoubtedly true that she was in the habit of serving the guests whom
+she invited to her house with poisoned pigeon pie. The Chevalier de
+Guet and several other persons fell victims to these hellish banquets.
+Sainte Croix, his confederate La Chaussée,7 and Brinvillier were able
+for a long time to enshroud their horrid deeds behind an impenetrable
+veil. But of what avail is the infamous cunning of reprobate men when
+the Divine Power has decreed that punishment shall overtake the guilty
+here on earth?
+
+The poisons which Sainte Croix prepared were of so subtle a nature that
+if the powder (called by the Parisians _Pondre de Succession_, or
+Succession Powder) were prepared with the face exposed, a single
+inhalation of it might cause instantaneous death. Sainte Croix
+therefore, when engaged in its manufacture, always wore a mask made of
+fine glass. One day, just as he was pouring a prepared powder into a
+phial, his mask fell off, and, inhaling the fine particles of the
+poison, he fell down dead on the spot. As he had died without heirs,
+the officers of the law hastened to place his effects under seal.
+Amongst them they found a locked box, which contained the whole of the
+infernal arsenal of poisons that the abandoned wretch Sainte Croix had
+had at command; they also found Brinvillier's letters, which left no
+doubt as to her atrocious crimes. She fled to Liége, into a convent
+there. Desgrais, an officer of the _Maréchaussée_, was sent after her.
+In the disguise of a monk he arrived at the convent where she had
+concealed herself, and contrived to engage the terrible woman in a love
+intrigue, and finally, under the pretext of a secret meeting, to entice
+her out to a lonely garden beyond the precincts of the town. Directly
+she arrived at the appointed place she was surrounded by Desgrais'
+satellites, whilst her monkish lover was suddenly converted into an
+officer of the _Maréchaussée_, who compelled her to get into the
+carriage which stood ready near the garden; and, surrounded by the
+police troop, she was driven straight off to Paris. La Chaussée had
+been already beheaded somewhat earlier; Brinvillier suffered the same
+death, after which her body was burned and the ashes scattered to the
+winds.
+
+Now that the monster who had been able to direct his secret murderous
+weapons against both friend and foe alike unpunished was out of the
+world, the Parisians breathed freely once more. But it soon became
+known abroad that the villain Sainte Croix's abominable art had been
+handed down to certain successors. Like a malignant invisible spirit,
+murder insinuated itself into the most intimate circles, even the
+closest of those formed by relationship and love and friendship, and
+laid a quick sure grasp upon its unfortunate victims. He who was seen
+one day in the full vigour of health, tottered about the next a weak
+wasting invalid, and no skill of the physician could save him from
+death. Wealth, a lucrative office, a beautiful and perhaps too young a
+wife--any of these was sufficient to draw down upon the possessor this
+persecution unto death. The most sacred ties were severed by the
+cruellest mistrust. The husband trembled at his wife, the father at his
+son, the sister at the brother. The dishes remained untouched, and the
+wine at the dinner, which a friend put before his friends; and there
+where formerly jest and mirth had reigned supreme, savage glances were
+now spying about for the masked murderer. Fathers of families were
+observed buying provisions in remote districts with uneasy looks and
+movements, and preparing them themselves in the first dirty cook-shop
+they came to, since they feared diabolical treachery in their own
+homes. And yet even the greatest and most well-considered precautions
+were in many cases of no avail.
+
+In order to put a stop to this iniquitous state of things, which
+continued to gain ground and grow greater day by day, the king
+appointed a special court of justice for the exclusive purpose of
+inquiring into and punishing these secret crimes. This was the so-
+called _Chambre Ardente_, which held its sittings not far from the
+Bastille, its acting president being La Regnie.8 For a considerable
+period all his efforts, however zealously they were prosecuted,
+remained fruitless; it was reserved for the crafty Desgrais to discover
+the most secret haunts of the criminals. In the Faubourg St. Germain
+there lived an old woman called Voisin, who made a regular business of
+fortune-telling and raising departed spirits; and with the help of her
+confederates Le Sage and Le Vigoureux, she managed to excite fear and
+astonishment in the minds of persons who could not be called exactly
+either weak or credulous. But she did more than this. A pupil of Exili,
+like La Croix, she, like him, concocted the same subtle poison that
+killed and left no trace behind it; and so she helped in this way
+profligate sons to get early possession of their inheritance, and
+depraved wives to another and younger husband. Desgrais wormed his way
+into her secret; she confessed all; the _Chambre Ardente_ condemned her
+to be burned alive, and the sentence was executed in the Place Grève.
+
+Amongst her effects was found a list of all the persons who had availed
+themselves of her assistance; and hence it was that not only did
+execution follow upon execution, but grave suspicion fell even upon
+persons of high position. Thus it was believed that Cardinal Bonzy had
+obtained from La Voisin the means of bringing to an untimely end all
+those persons to whom, as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was obliged to pay
+annuities. So also the Duchess de Bouillon, and the Countess de
+Soissons,9 whose names were found on the list, were accused of having
+had dealings with the diabolical woman; and even Francois Henri de
+Montmorenci, Boudebelle, Duke of Luxemburg,10 peer and marshal of the
+kingdom, was not spared. He too was prosecuted by the terrible _Chambre
+Ardente_. He voluntarily gave himself up to be imprisoned in the
+Bastille, where through Louvois'11 and La Regnie's hatred he was
+confined in a cell only six feet long. Months passed before it was made
+out satisfactorily that the Duke's transgression did not deserve any
+blame: he had once had his horoscope cast by Le Sage.
+
+It is certain that the President La Regnie was betrayed by his blind
+zeal into acts of cruelty and arbitrary violence. The tribunal acquired
+the character of an Inquisition; the most trifling suspicion was
+sufficient to entail strict incarceration; and it was left to chance to
+establish the innocence of a person accused of a capital crime.
+Moreover, La Regnie was hideous in appearance, and of a malicious
+temperament, so that he soon drew down upon himself the hatred of those
+whose avenger or protector he was appointed to be. The Duchess de
+Bouillon, being asked by him during her trial if she had seen the
+devil, replied, "I fancy I can see him at this moment."12
+
+But whilst the blood of the guilty and the suspected alike was flowing
+in streams in the Place Grève, and after a time the secret poisonings
+became less and less frequent, a new kind of outrage came to light, and
+again filled the city with dismay. It seemed as if a band of miscreant
+robbers were in league together for the purpose of getting into their
+possession all the jewellery they could. No sooner was any valuable
+ornament purchased than, no matter how or where kept, it vanished in an
+inconceivable way. But what was still worse, any one who ventured to
+wear jewellery on his person at night was robbed, and often murdered
+even, either in the public street or in the dark passage of a house.
+Those who escaped with their lives declared that they had been knocked
+down by a blow on the head, which felled them like a lightning flash,
+and that on awaking from their stupor they had found that they had been
+robbed and were lying in quite a different place from that where they
+had received the blow. All who were murdered, some of whom were found
+nearly every morning lying either in the streets or in the houses, had
+all one and the same fatal wound,--a dagger-thrust in the heart,
+killing, according to the judgment of the surgeons, so instantaneously
+and so surely that the victim would drop down like a stone, unable to
+utter a sound. Who was there at the voluptuous court of Louis XIV. who
+was not entangled in some clandestine intrigue, and stole to his
+mistress at a late hour, often carrying a valuable present about him?
+The robbers, as if they were in league with spirits, knew almost
+exactly when anything of this sort was on foot. Often the unfortunate
+did not reach the house where he expected to meet with the reward of
+his passion; often he fell on the threshold, nay, at the very chamber
+door of his mistress, who was horrified at finding the bloody corpse.
+
+In vain did Argenson, the Minister of Police, order the arrest of every
+person from amongst the populace against whom there was the least
+suspicion; in vain did La Regnie rage and try to extort confessions; in
+vain did they strengthen their watch and their patrols;--they could not
+find a trace of the evil-doers. The only thing that did to a certain
+extent avail was to take the precaution of going armed to the teeth and
+have a torch carried before one; and yet instances were not wanting in
+which the servant was annoyed by stones thrown at him, whilst at the
+same moment his master was murdered and robbed. It was especially
+remarkable that, in spite of all inquiries in every place where traffic
+in jewellery was in any way possible, not the smallest specimen of the
+stolen ornaments ever came to light, and so in this way also no clue
+was found which might have been followed.
+
+Desgrais was furious that the miscreants should thus baffle all his
+cunning. The quarter of the town in which he happened to be stationed
+was spared; whilst in the others, where nobody apprehended any evil,
+these robberies and murders claimed their richest victims.
+
+Desgrais hit upon the ruse of making several Desgrais one after the
+other, so exactly alike in gait, posture, speech, figure, and face,
+that the myrmidons of the police themselves did not know which was the
+real Desgrais. Meanwhile, at the risk of his own life, he used to watch
+alone in the most secret haunts and lairs of crime, and follow at a
+distance first this man and then that, who at his own instance carried
+some valuable jewellery about his person. These men, however, were not
+attacked; and hence the robbers must be acquainted with this
+contrivance also. Desgrais absolutely despaired.
+
+One morning Desgrais came to President La Regnie pale and perturbed,
+quite distracted in fact. "What's the matter? What news? Have you got a
+clue?" cried the President "Oh! your excellency," began Desgrais,
+stammering with rage, "oh! your excellency--last night--not far from
+the Louvre--the Marquis de la Fare13 was attacked in my presence." "By
+Heaven then!" shouted La Regnie, exultant with joy, "we have them."
+"But first listen to me," interrupted Desgrais with a bitter smile,
+"and hear how it all came about. Well then, I was standing near the
+Louvre on the watch for these devils who mock me, and my heart was on
+fire with fury. Then there came a figure close past me without noticing
+me, walking with unsteady steps and looking behind him. By the faint
+moonlight I saw that it was Marquis de la Fare. I was not surprised to
+see him; I knew where he was stealing to. But he had not gone more than
+ten or twelve paces past me when a man started up right out of the
+earth as it seemed and knocked him down, and stooped over him. In the
+sudden surprise and on the impulse of the moment, which would else have
+delivered the murderer into my hands, I was thoughtless enough to cry
+out; and I was just bursting out of my hiding-place with a rush,
+intending to throw myself upon him, when I got entangled in my mantle
+and fell down. I saw the man hurrying away on the wings of the wind; I
+made haste and picked myself up and ran after him; and as I ran I blew
+my horn; from the distance came the answering whistles of the man; the
+streets were all alive; there was a rattle of arms and a trampling of
+horses in all directions. 'Here! here! Desgrais! Desgrais!' I shouted
+till the streets echoed. By the bright moonlight I could always see the
+man in front of me, doubling here and there to deceive me. We came to
+the Rue Nicaise, and there his strength appeared to fail him: I
+redoubled my efforts; and he only led me by fifteen paces at the
+most"---- "You caught him up; you seized him; the patrol came up?"
+cried La Regnie, his eyes flashing, whilst he seized Desgrais by the
+arm as though he were the flying murderer. "Fifteen paces," continued
+Desgrais in a hollow voice and with difficulty drawing his breath--
+"fifteen paces from me the man sprang aside into the shade and
+disappeared through the wall." "Disappeared?--through the wall? Are you
+mad?" cried La Regnie, taking a couple of steps backwards and striking
+his hands together.
+
+"From this moment onwards," continued Desgrais, rubbing his brow like a
+man tormented by hateful thoughts, "your excellency may call me a
+madman or an insane ghost-seer, but it was just as I have told you. I
+was standing staring at the wall like one petrified when several men of
+the patrol hurried up breathless, and along with them Marquis de la
+Fare, who had picked himself up, with his drawn sword in his hand. We
+lighted the torches, and sounded the wall backwards and forwards,--not
+an indication of a door or a window or an opening. It was a strong
+stone wall bounding a yard, and was joined on to a house in which live
+people against whom there has never risen the slightest suspicion. To-
+day I have again taken a careful survey of the whole place. It must be
+the Devil himself who is mystifying us."
+
+Desgrais' story became known in Paris. People's heads were full of the
+sorceries and incantations and compacts with Satan of Voisin,
+Vigoureuse, and the reprobate priest Le Sage; and as in the eternal
+nature of us men, the leaning to the marvellous and the wonderful so
+often outweighs all the authority of reason, so the public soon began
+to believe simply and solely that as Desgrais in his mortification had
+said, Satan himself really did protect the abominable wretches, who
+must have sold their souls to him. It will readily be believed that
+Desgrais' story received all sorts of ornamental additions. An account
+of the adventure, with a woodcut on the title-page representing a grim
+Satanic form before which the terrified Desgrais was sinking in the
+earth, was printed and largely sold at the street corners. This alone
+was enough to overawe the people, and even to rob the myrmidons of the
+police of their courage, who now wandered about the streets at night
+trembling and quaking, hung about with amulets and soaked in holy
+water.
+
+Argenson perceived that the exertions of the _Chambre Ardente_ were of
+no avail, and he appealed to the king to appoint a tribunal with still
+more extensive powers to deal with this new epidemic of crime, to hunt
+up the evil-doers, and to punish them. The king, convinced that he had
+already vested too much power in the _Chambre Ardente_ and shaken with
+horror at the numberless executions which the bloodthirsty La Regnie
+had decreed, flatly refused to entertain the proposed plan.
+
+Another means was chosen to stimulate the king's interest in the
+matter.
+
+Louis was in the habit of spending the afternoon in Madame de
+Maintenon's salons, and also despatching state business therewith his
+ministers until a late hour at night. Here a poem was presented to him
+in the name of the jeopardised lovers, complaining that, whenever
+gallantry bid them honour their mistress with a present, they had
+always to risk their lives on the fulfilment of the injunction. There
+was always both honour and pleasure to be won in shedding their blood
+for their lady in a knightly encounter; but it was quite another thing
+when they had to deal with a stealthy malignant assassin, against whom
+they could not arm themselves. Would Louis, the bright polar star of
+all love and gallantry, cause the resplendent beams of his glory to
+shine and dissipate this dark night, and so unveil the black mystery
+that was concealed within it? The god-like hero, who had broken his
+enemies to pieces, would now (they hoped) draw his sword glittering
+with victory, and, as Hercules did against the Lernean serpent, or
+Theseus the Minotaur, would fight against the threatening monster which
+was gnawing away all the raptures of love, and darkening all their joy
+and converting it into deep pain and grief inconsolable.
+
+Serious as the matter was, yet the poem did not lack clever and witty
+turns, especially in the description of the anxieties which the lovers
+had to endure as they stole by secret ways to their mistresses, and of
+how their apprehensions proved fatal to all the rapturous delights of
+love and to every dainty gallant adventure before it could even develop
+into blossom. If it be added that the poem was made to conclude with a
+magniloquent panegyric upon Louis XIV., the king could not fail to read
+it with visible signs of satisfaction. Having reached the end of it, he
+turned round abruptly to Madame de Maintenon, without lifting his eyes
+from the paper, and read the poem through again aloud; after which he
+asked her with a gracious smile what was her opinion with respect to
+the wishes of the jeopardised lovers.
+
+De Maintenon, faithful to the serious bent of her mind, and always
+preserving a certain colour of piety, replied that those who walked
+along secret and forbidden paths were not worthy of any special
+protection, but that the abominable criminals did call for special
+measures to be taken for their destruction. The king, dissatisfied with
+this wavering answer, folded up the paper, and was going back to the
+Secretary of State, who was working in the next room, when on casting a
+glance sideways his eye fell upon Mademoiselle de Scudéri, who was
+present in the salon and had taken her seat in a small easy-chair not
+far from De Maintenon. Her he now approached, whilst the pleasant smile
+which at first had played about his mouth and on his cheeks, but had
+then disappeared, now won the upper hand again. Standing immediately in
+front of Mademoiselle, and unfolding the poem once more, he said
+softly, "Our Marchioness will not countenance in any way the
+gallantries of our amorous gentlemen, and give us evasive answers of a
+kind that are almost quite forbidden. But you, Mademoiselle, what is
+your opinion of this poetic petition?" De Scudéri rose respectfully
+from her chair, whilst a passing blush flitted like the purple sunset
+rays in evening across the venerable lady's pale cheeks, and she said,
+bowing gently and casting down her eyes,
+
+"Un amant qui craint les voleurs
+N'est point digne d'amour."
+
+(A lover who is afraid of robbers is not worthy of love.)
+
+The king, greatly struck by the chivalric spirit breathed in these few
+words, which upset the whole of the poem with its yards and yards of
+tirades, cried with sparkling eyes, "By St. Denis, you are right.
+Mademoiselle! Cowardice shall not be protected by any blind measures
+which would affect the innocent along with the guilty; Argenson and La
+Regnie must do their best as they are."
+
+All these horrors of the day La Martinière depicted next morning in
+startling colours when she related to her mistress the occurrence of
+the previous night; and she handed over to her the mysterious casket in
+fear and trembling. Both she and Baptiste, who stood in the corner as
+pale as death, twisting and doubling up his night-cap, and hardly able
+to speak in his fear and anxiety,--both begged Mademoiselle in the most
+piteous terms and in the names of all the saints, to use the utmost
+possible caution in opening the box. De Scudéri, weighing the locked
+mystery in her hand, and subjecting it to a careful scrutiny, said
+smiling, "You are both of you ghost-seers! That I am not rich, that
+there are not sufficient treasures here to be worth a murder, is known
+to all these abandoned assassins, who, you yourself tell me, spy out
+all that there is in a house, as well as it is to me and you. You think
+they have designs upon my life? Who could make capital out of the death
+of an old lady of seventy-three, who never did harm to anybody in the
+world except the miscreants and peace-breakers in the romances which
+she writes herself, who makes middling verses which can excite nobody's
+envy, who will have nothing to leave except the state dresses of an old
+maid who sometimes went to court, and a dozen or two well-bound books
+with gilt edges? And then you, Martinière,--you may describe the
+stranger's appearance as frightful as you like, yet I cannot believe
+that his intentions were evil. So then----"
+
+La Martinière recoiled some paces, and Baptiste, uttering a stifled
+"Oh!" almost sank upon his knees as Mademoiselle proceeded to press
+upon a projecting steel knob; then the lid flew back with a noisy jerk.
+
+But how astonished was she to see a pair of gold bracelets, richly set
+with jewels, and a necklace to match. She took them out of the case;
+and whilst she was praising the exquisite workmanship of the necklace,
+Martinière was eyeing the valuable bracelets, and crying time after
+time, that the vain Lady Montespan herself had no such ornaments as
+these. "But what is it for? what does it all mean?" said De Scudéri.
+But at this same moment she observed a small slip of paper folded
+together, lying at the bottom of the casket. She hoped, and rightly, to
+find in it an explanation of the mystery. She had hardly finished
+reading the contents of the scrip when it fell from her trembling
+hands. She sent an appealing glance towards Heaven, and then fell back
+almost fainting into her chair. Terrified, Martinière sprang to her
+assistance, and so also did Baptiste. "Oh! what an insult!" she
+exclaimed, her voice half-choked with tears, "Oh! what a burning shame!
+Must I then endure this in my old age? Have I then gone and acted with
+wrong and foolish levity like some young giddy thing? O God, are words
+let fall half in jest capable of being stamped with such an atrocious
+interpretation? And am I, who have been faithful to virtue, and of
+blameless piety from my earliest childhood until now,--am I to be
+accused of the crime of making such a diabolical compact?"
+
+Mademoiselle held her handkerchief to her eyes and wept and sobbed
+bitterly, so that Martinière and Baptiste were both of them confused
+and rendered helpless by embarrassed constraint, not knowing what to do
+to help their mistress in her great trouble.
+
+Martinière picked up the ominous strip of paper from the floor. Upon it
+was written--
+
+"Un amant qui craint les voleurs
+N'est point digne d'amour.
+
+"Your sagacious mind, honoured lady, has saved us from great
+persecution. We only exercise the right of the stronger over the weak
+and the cowardly in order to appropriate to ourselves treasures that
+would else be disgracefully squandered. Kindly accept these jewels as a
+token of our gratitude. They are the most brilliant that we have been
+enabled to meet with for a long time; and yet you, honoured lady, ought
+to be adorned with jewellery even still finer than this is. We trust
+you will not withdraw from us your friendship and kind remembrance.
+
+"THE INVISIBLES."14
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed De Scudéri after she had to some extent
+recovered herself, "is it possible for men to carry their shameless
+insolence, their godless scorn, to such lengths?" The sun shone
+brightly through the dark-red silk window curtains and made the
+brilliants which lay on the table beside the open casket to sparkle in
+the reddish gleam. Chancing to cast her eyes upon them, De Scudéri hid
+her face with abhorrence, and bade Martinière take the fearful
+jewellery away at once, that very moment, for the blood of the murdered
+victims was still adhering to it. Martinière at once carefully locked
+the necklace and bracelets in the casket again, and thought that the
+wisest plan would be to hand it over to the Minister of Police, and to
+confide to him every thing connected with the appearance of the young
+man who had caused them so much uneasiness, and the way in which he had
+placed the casket in her hands.
+
+De Scudéri rose to her feet and slowly paced up and down the room in
+silence, as if she were only now reflecting what was to be done. She
+then bade Baptiste fetch a sedan chair, while Martinière was to dress
+her, for she meant to go straight to the Marchioness de Maintenon.
+
+She had herself carried to the Marchioness's just at the hour when she
+knew she should find that lady alone in her salons. The casket with the
+jewellery De Scudéri also took with her.
+
+Of course the Marchioness was greatly astonished to see Mademoiselle,
+who was generally a pattern of dignity, amiability (notwithstanding her
+advanced age), and gracefulness, come in with tottering steps, pale,
+and excessively agitated. "By all the saints, what's happened to you?"
+she cried when she saw the poor troubled lady, who, almost distracted
+and hardly able to walk erect, hurried to reach the easy-chair which De
+Maintenon pushed towards her. At length, having recovered her power of
+speech somewhat, Mademoiselle related what a deep insult--she should
+never get over it--her thoughtless jest in answer to the petition of
+the jeopardised lovers had brought upon her. The Marchioness, after
+learning the whole of the story by fragments, arrived at the conclusion
+that De Scudéri took the strange occurrence far too much to heart, that
+the mockery of depraved wretches like these could never come home to a
+pious, noble mind like hers, and finally she requested to see the
+ornaments.
+
+De Scudéri gave her the open casket; and the Marchioness, on seeing the
+costly jewellery, could not help uttering a loud cry of admiration. She
+took out the necklace and the bracelets, and approached the window with
+them, where first she let the sun play upon the stones, and then she
+held them up close to her eyes in order to see better the exquisite
+workmanship of the gold, and to admire the marvellous skill with which
+every little link in the elaborate chain was finished. All at once the
+Marchioness turned round abruptly towards Mademoiselle and cried, "I
+tell you what, Mademoiselle, these bracelets and necklace must have
+been made by no less a person than René Cardillac."
+
+René Cardillac was at that time the most skilful goldsmith in Paris,
+and also one of the most ingenious as well as one of the most eccentric
+men of the age. Rather small than great, but broad-shouldered and with
+a strong and muscular frame, Cardillac, although considerably more than
+fifty, still possessed the strength and activity of youth. And his
+strength, which might be said to be something above the common, was
+further evidenced by his abundant curly reddish hair, and his thick-set
+features and the sultry gleam upon them. Had not Cardillac been known
+throughout all Paris, as one of the most honest and honourable of men,
+disinterested, frank, without any reserve, always ready to help, the
+very peculiar appearance of his eyes, which were small, deep-set,
+green, and glittering, might have drawn upon him the suspicion of
+lurking malice and viciousness.
+
+As already said, Cardillac was the greatest master in his trade, not
+only in Paris, but also perhaps of his age. Intimately acquainted with
+the properties of precious stones, he knew how to treat them and set
+them in such a manner that an ornament which had at first been looked
+upon as wanting in lustre, proceeded out of Cardillac's shop possessing
+a dazzling magnificence. Every commission he accepted with burning
+avidity, and fixed a price that seemed to bear no proportion whatever
+to the work to be done--so small was it. Then the work gave him no
+rest; both night and day he was heard hammering in his work-shop, and
+often when the thing was nearly finished he would suddenly conceive a
+dislike to the form; he had doubts as to the elegance of the setting of
+some or other of the jewels, of a little link--quite a sufficient
+reason for throwing all into the crucible, and beginning the entire
+work over again. Thus every individual piece of jewellery that he
+turned out was a perfect and matchless masterpiece, utterly astounding
+to the person who had given the commission.
+
+But it was now hardly possible to get any work that was once finished
+out of his hands. Under a thousand pretexts he put off the owner from
+week to week, and from month to month. It was all in vain to offer him
+double for the work; he would not take a single _Louis d'or_15 more
+than the price bargained for. When at last he was obliged to yield to
+the insistence of his customer, he could not help betraying all the
+signs of the greatest annoyance, nay, of even fury seething in his
+heart. If the piece of work which he had to deliver up was something of
+more than ordinary importance, especially anything of great value,
+worth many thousands owing to the costliness of the jewels or the
+extreme delicacy of the gold-work, he was capable of running about like
+a madman, cursing himself, his labour, and all about him. But then if
+any person came up behind him and shouted, "René Cardillac, would you
+not like to make a beautiful necklace for my betrothed?--bracelets for
+my sweet-heart," or so forth, he would suddenly stop still, and looking
+at him with his little eyes, would ask, as he rubbed his hands, "Well,
+what have you got?" Thereupon the other would produce a small jewel-
+case, and say, "Oh! some jewels--see; they are nothing particular, only
+common things, but in your hands"---- Cardillac does not let him finish
+what he has to say, but snatching the case out of his hand takes out
+the stones (which are in reality of but little value) and holds them up
+to the light, crying enraptured, "Ho! ho! common things, are they? Not
+at all! Pretty stones--magnificent stones; only let me make them up for
+you. And if you're not squeamish to a handful or two of _Louis d'or_, I
+can add a few more little gems, which shall sparkle in your eyes like
+the great sun himself." The other says, "I will leave it all to you,
+Master René, and pay you what you like."
+
+Then, without making any difference whether his customer is a rich
+citizen only or an eminent nobleman of the court, Cardillac throws his
+arms impetuously round his neck and embraces him and kisses him, saying
+that now he is quite happy again, and the work will be finished in a
+week's time. Running off home with breathless speed and up into his
+workshop, he begins to hammer away, and at the week's end has produced
+a masterpiece of art But when the customer comes prepared to pay with
+joy the insignificant sum demanded, and expecting to take the finished
+ornament away with him, Cardillac gets testy, rude, obstinate, and hard
+to deal with. "But, Master Cardillac, recollect that my wedding is to-
+morrow."--"But what have I to do with your wedding? come again in a
+fortnight's time." "The ornament is finished; here is your money; and I
+must have it." "And I tell you that I've lots of things to alter in it,
+and I shan't let you have it to-day." "And I tell you that if you won't
+deliver up the ornament by fair means--of course I am willing to pay
+you double for it--you shall soon see me march up with Argenson's
+serviceable underlings."--"Well, then, may Satan torture you with
+scores of red-hot pincers, and hang three hundredweight on the necklace
+till it strangle your bride." And therewith, thrusting the jewellery
+into the bridegroom's breast pocket, Cardillac seizes him by the arm
+and turns him roughly out of the door, so that he goes stumbling all
+down the stairs. Then Cardillac puts his head out of the window and
+laughs like a demon on seeing the poor young man limp out of the house,
+holding his handkerchief to his bloody nose.
+
+But one thing there was about him that was quite inexplicable. Often,
+after he had enthusiastically taken a piece of work in hand, he would
+implore his customer by the Virgin and all the saints, with every sign
+of deep and violent agitation, and with moving protestations, nay,
+amidst tears and sobs, that he might be released from his engagement.
+Several persons who were most highly esteemed of the king and the
+people had vainly offered large sums of money to get the smallest piece
+of work from him. He threw himself at the king's feet and besought as a
+favour at his hands that he might not be asked to do any work for him.
+In the same way he refused every commission from De Maintenon; he even
+rejected with aversion and horror the proposal she made him to
+fabricate for her a little ring with emblematic ornaments, which was to
+be presented to Racine.
+
+Accordingly De Maintenon now said, "I would wager that if I sent for
+Cardillac to come here to tell me at least for whom he made these
+ornaments, he would refuse to come, since he would probably fear it was
+some commission; and he never will make anything for me on any account.
+And yet he has, it seems, dropped something of his inflexible obstinacy
+some time ago, for I hear that he now labours more industriously than
+ever, and delivers up his work at once, though still not without much
+inward vexation and turning away of his face." De Scudéri, who was
+greatly concerned that the ornaments should, if it could possibly be
+managed, come soon into the hands of the proper owner, thought they
+might send express word to Master Whimsicality that they did not want
+him to do any work, but only to pass his opinion upon some jewels. This
+commended itself to the Marchioness. Cardillac was sent for; and, as
+though he had been already on the way, after a brief interval he
+stepped into the room.
+
+On observing De Scudéri he appeared to be embarrassed; and, like one
+confounded by something so utterly unexpected that he forgets the
+claims of propriety such as the moment demands, he first made a low and
+reverential obeisance to this venerable lady, and then only did he turn
+to the Marchioness. She, pointing to the jewellery, which now lay
+glittering on the dark-green table-cloth, asked him hastily if it was
+of his workmanship. Hardly glancing at it, and keeping his eyes
+steadily fixed upon De Maintenon, Cardillac hurriedly packed the
+necklace and bracelets into the casket, which stood beside them, and
+pushed it violently away from him. Then he said, whilst a forbidding
+smile gleamed in his red face, "By my honour, noble lady, he would have
+but a poor acquaintance with René Cardillac's workmanship who should
+believe for a single moment that any other goldsmith in the world could
+set a piece of jewellery like that is done. Of course it's my
+handiwork." "Then tell me," continued the Marchioness, "for whom you
+made these ornaments." "For myself alone," replied Cardillac. "Ah! I
+dare say your ladyship finds that strange," he continued, since both
+she and De Scudéri had fixed their eyes upon him astounded, the former
+full of mistrust, the latter of anxious suspense as to what turn the
+matter would take next; "but it is so. Merely out of love for my
+beautiful handicraft I picked out all my best stones and gladly set to
+work upon them, exercising more industry and care over them than I had
+ever done over any stones before. A short time ago the ornaments
+disappeared in some inconceivable way out of my workshop." "Thank
+Heaven!" cried De Scudéri, whilst her eyes sparkled with joy, and she
+jumped up from her chair as quick and nimble as a young girl; then
+going up to Cardillac, she placed both her hands upon his shoulders,
+and said, "Here, Master René, take your property back again, which
+these rascally miscreants stole from you." And she related every detail
+of how she had acquired possession of the ornaments, to all of which
+Cardillac listened silently, with his eyes cast down upon the floor.
+Only now and again he uttered an indistinct "Hm!--So!--Ho! ho!" now
+throwing his hands behind his back, and now softly stroking his chin
+and cheeks.
+
+When De Scudéri came to the end of her story, Cardillac appeared to be
+struggling with some new and striking thought which had occurred to him
+during the course of it, and as though he were labouring with some
+rebellious resolve that refused to conform to his wishes. He rubbed his
+forehead, sighed, drew his hand across his eyes, as if to check tears
+which were gushing from them. At length he seized the casket which De
+Scudéri was holding out towards him, and slowly sinking upon one knee,
+said, "These jewels have been decreed to you, my noble and respected
+lady, by Destiny. Yes, now I know that it was you I thought about when
+I was labouring at them, and that it was for you I worked. Do not
+disdain to accept these ornaments, nor refuse to wear them; they are
+indeed the best things I have made for a very long time." "Why, why,
+Master René," replied De Scudéri, in a charming, jesting manner; "what
+are you thinking about? Would it become me at my years to trick myself
+out with such bright gems? And what makes you think of giving me such
+an over-rich present? Nay, nay, Master René. Now if I were beautiful
+like the Marchioness de Fontange,16 and rich too, I assure you I should
+not let these ornaments pass out of my hands; but what do these
+withered arms want with vain show, and this covered neck with
+glittering ornaments?" Meanwhile Cardillac had risen to his feet again;
+and whilst persistently holding out the casket towards De Scudéri he
+said, like one distracted--and his looks were wild and uneasy,--"Have
+pity upon me, Mademoiselle, and take the ornaments. You don't know what
+great respect I cherish in my heart for your virtue and your high good
+qualities. Accept this little present as an effort on my behalf to show
+my deep respect and devotion." But as De Scudéri still continued to
+hesitate, De Maintenon took the casket out of Cardillac's hands,
+saying, "Upon my word, Mademoiselle, you are always talking about your
+great age. What have we, you and I, to do with years and their burdens?
+And aren't you acting just like a shy young thing, who would only too
+well like to take the sweet fruit that is offered to her if she could
+only do so without stirring either hand or finger? Don't refuse to
+accept from our good Master René as a free gift what scores of others
+could never get, in spite of all their gold and all their prayers and
+entreaties."
+
+Whilst speaking De Maintenon had forced the casket into Mademoiselle's
+hand; and now Cardillac again fell upon his knees and kissed De
+Scudéri's gown and hands, sighing and gasping, weeping and sobbing;
+then he jumped up and ran off like a madman, as fast as he could run,
+upsetting chairs and tables in his senseless haste, and making the
+glasses and porcelain tumble together with a ring and jingle and clash.
+
+De Scudéri cried out quite terrified, "Good Heavens! what's happened to
+the man?" But the Marchioness, who was now in an especially lively mood
+and in such a pert humour as was in general quite foreign to her, burst
+out into a silvery laugh, and said, "Now, I've got it, Mademoiselle.
+Master René has fallen desperately in love with you, and according to
+the established form and settled usage of all true gallantry, he is
+beginning to storm your heart with rich presents." She even pushed her
+raillery further, admonishing De Scudéri not to be too cruel towards
+her despairing lover, until Mademoiselle, letting her natural-born
+humour have play, was carried away by the bubbling stream of merry
+conceits and fancies. She thought that if that was really the state of
+the case, she should be at last conquered and would not be able to help
+affording to the world the unprecedented example of a goldsmith's
+bride, of untarnished nobility, of the age of three and seventy. De
+Maintenon offered her services to weave the wedding-wreath, and to
+instruct her in the duties of a good house-wife, since such a snippety
+bit of a girl could not of course know much about such things.
+
+But when at length De Scudéri rose to say adieu to the Marchioness, she
+again, notwithstanding all their laughing jests, grew very grave as she
+took the jewel-case in her hand, and said, "And yet, Marchioness, do
+you know, I can never wear these ornaments. Whatever be their history,
+they have at some time or other been in the hands of those diabolical
+wretches who commit robbery and murder with all the effrontery of Satan
+himself; nay, I believe they must be in an unholy league with him. I
+shudder with awe at the sight of the blood which appears to adhere to
+the glittering stones. And then, I must confess, I cannot help feeling
+that there is something strangely uneasy and awe-inspiring about
+Cardillac's behaviour. I cannot get rid of the dark presentiment that
+behind all this there is lurking some fearful and terrible secret; but
+when, on the other hand, I pass the whole matter with all its
+circumstantial adjuncts in clear review before my mind, I cannot even
+guess what the mystery consists in, nor yet how our brave honest Master
+René, the pattern of a good industrious citizen, can have anything to
+do with what is bad or deserving of condemnation; but of this I am
+quite sure, that I shall never dare to put the ornaments on."
+
+The Marchioness thought that this was carrying scruples too far. But
+when De Scudéri asked her on her conscience what she should really do
+in her (Scudéri's) place, De Maintenon replied earnestly and
+decisively, "Far sooner throw the ornaments into the Seine than ever
+wear them."
+
+The scene with Master René was described by De Scudéri in charming
+verses, which she read to the king on the following evening in De
+Maintenon's salon. And of course it may readily be conceived that,
+conquering her uncomfortable feelings and forebodings of evil, she drew
+at Master René's expense a diverting picture, in bright vivacious
+colours, of the goldsmith's bride of three and seventy who was of such
+ancient nobility. At any rate the king laughed heartily, and swore that
+Boileau Despreux had found his master; hence De Scudéri's poem was
+popularly adjudged to be the wittiest that ever was written.
+
+Several months had passed, when, as chance would have it, De Scudéri
+was driving over the Pont Neuf in the Duchess de Montansier's glass
+coach. The invention of this elegant class of vehicles was still so
+recent that a throng of the curious always gathered round it when one
+appeared in the streets. And so there was on the present occasion a
+gaping crowd round De Montansier's coach on the Pont Neuf, so great as
+almost to hinder the horses from getting on. All at once De Scudéri
+heard a continuous fire of abuse and cursing, and perceived a man
+making his way through the thick of the crowd by the help of his fists
+and by punching people in the ribs. And when he came nearer she saw
+that his piercing eyes were riveted upon her. His face was pale as
+death and distorted by pain; and he kept his eyes riveted upon her all
+the time he was energetically working his way onwards with his fists
+and elbows, until he reached the door. Pulling it open with impetuous
+violence, he threw a strip of paper into De Scudéri's lap, and again
+dealing out and receiving blows and punches, disappeared as he had
+come. Martinière, who was accompanying her mistress, uttered a scream
+of terror when she saw the man appear at the coach door, and fell back
+upon the cushions in a swoon. De Scudéri vainly pulled the cord and
+called out to the driver; he, as if impelled by the foul Fiend, whipped
+up his horses, so that they foamed at the mouth and tossed their heads,
+and kicked and plunged, and finally thundered over the bridge at a
+sharp trot. De Scudéri emptied her smelling-bottle over the insensible
+woman, who at length opened her eyes. Trembling and shaking, she clung
+convulsively to her mistress, her face pale with anxiety and terror as
+she gasped out, "For the love of the Virgin, what did that terrible man
+want? Oh! yes, it was he! it was he!--the very same who brought you the
+casket that awful night." Mademoiselle pacified the poor woman,
+assuring her that not the least mischief had been done, and that the
+main thing to do just then was to see what the strip of paper
+contained. She unfolded it and found these words--
+
+"I am being plunged into the pit of destruction by an evil destiny
+which you may avert. I implore you, as the son does the mother whom he
+cannot leave, and with the warmest affection of a loving child, send
+the necklace and bracelets which you received from me to Master René
+Cardillac; any pretext will do, to get some improvement made--or to get
+something altered. Your welfare, your life, depend upon it. If you have
+not done so by the day after to-morrow I will force my way into your
+dwelling and kill myself before your eyes."
+
+"Well now, it is at any rate certain," said De Scudéri when she had
+read it, "that this mysterious man, even if he does really belong to
+the notorious band of thieves and robbers, yet has no evil designs
+against me. If he had succeeded in speaking to me that night, who knows
+whether I should not have learnt of some singular event or some
+mysterious complication of things, respecting which I now try in vain
+to form even the remotest guess. But let the matter now take what shape
+it may, I shall certainly do what this note urgently requests me to do,
+if for no other reason than to get rid of those ill-starred jewels,
+which I always fancy are a talisman of the foul Fiend himself. And I
+warrant Cardillac, true to his rooted habit, won't let it pass out of
+his hands again so easily."
+
+The very next day De Scudéri intended to go and take the jewellery to
+the goldsmith's. But somehow it seemed as if all the wits and
+intellects of entire Paris had conspired together to overwhelm
+Mademoiselle just on this particular morning with their verses and
+plays and anecdotes. No sooner had La Chapelle17 finished reading a
+tragedy, and had slyly remarked with some degree of confident assurance
+that he should now certainly beat Racine, than the latter poet himself
+came in, and routed him with a pathetic speech of a certain king, until
+Boileau appeared to let off the rockets of his wit into this black sky
+of Tragedy--in order that he might not be talked to death on the
+subject of the colonnade18 of the Louvre, for he had been penned up in
+it by Dr. Perrault, the architect.
+
+It was high noon; De Scudéri had to go to the Duchess de Montansier's;
+and so the visit to Master René Cardillac's was put off until the next
+day. Mademoiselle, however, was tormented by a most extraordinary
+feeling of uneasiness. The young man's figure was constantly before her
+eyes; and deep down in her memory there was stirring a dim recollection
+that she had seen his face and features somewhere before. Her sleep,
+which was of the lightest, was disturbed by troublesome dreams. She
+fancied she had acted frivolously and even criminally in having delayed
+to grasp the hand which the unhappy wretch, who was sinking into the
+abyss of ruin, was stretching up towards her; nay, she was even haunted
+by the thought that she had had it in her power to prevent a fatal
+event from taking place or an enormous crime from being committed. So,
+as soon as the morning was fully come, she had Martinière finish her
+toilet, and drove to the goldsmith, taking the jewel-casket with her.
+
+The people were pouring into the Rue Nicaise, to the house where
+Cardillac lived, and were gathering about his door, shouting,
+screaming, and creating a wild tumult of noise; and they were with
+difficulty prevented by the _Maréchaussée_, who had drawn a cordon
+round the house, from forcing their way in. Angry voices were crying in
+a wild confused hubbub, "Tear him to pieces! pound him to dust! the
+accursed murderer!" At length Desgrais appeared on the scene with a
+strong body of police, who formed a passage through the heart of the
+crowd. The house door flew open and a man stepped out loaded with
+chains; and he was dragged away amidst the most horrible imprecations
+of the furious mob.
+
+At the moment that De Scudéri, who was half swooning from fright and
+her apprehensions that something terrible had happened, was witness of
+this scene, a shrill piercing scream of distress rang upon her ears.
+"Go on, go on, right forward," she cried to her coachman, almost
+distracted. Scattering the dense mass of people by a quick clever turn
+of his horses, he pulled up immediately in front of Cardillac's door.
+There De Scudéri observed Desgrais, and at his feet a young girl, as
+beautiful as the day, with dishevelled hair, only half dressed, and her
+countenance stamped with desperate anxiety and wild with despair. She
+was clasping his knees and crying in a tone of the most terrible, the
+most heart-rending anguish, "Oh! he is innocent! he is innocent." In
+vain were Desgrais' efforts, as well as those of his men, to make her
+leave hold and to raise her up from the floor. At last a strong brutal
+fellow laid his coarse rough hands upon the poor girl and dragged her
+away from Desgrais by main force, but awkwardly stumbling let her drop,
+so that she rolled down the stone steps and lay in the street, without
+uttering a single sound more; she appeared to be dead.
+
+Mademoiselle could no longer contain herself. "For God's sake, what has
+happened? What's all this about?" she cried as she quickly opened the
+door of her coach and stepped out. The crowd respectfully made way for
+the estimable lady. She, on perceiving that two or three compassionate
+women had raised up the girl and set her on the steps, where they were
+rubbing her forehead with aromatic waters, approached Desgrais and
+repeated her question with vehemence. "A horrible thing has happened,"
+said Desgrais. "René Cardillac was found this morning murdered, stabbed
+to the heart with a dagger. His journeyman Olivier Brusson is the
+murderer. That was he who was just led away to prison." "And the girl?"
+exclaimed Mademoiselle---- "Is Madelon, Cardillac's daughter," broke in
+Desgrais. "Yon abandoned wretch is her lover. And she's screaming and
+crying, and protesting that Olivier is innocent, quite innocent. But
+the real truth is she is cognisant of the deed, and I must have her
+also taken to the _conciergerie_ (prison)."
+
+Saying which, Desgrais cast a glance of such spiteful malicious triumph
+upon the girl that De Scudéri trembled. Madelon was just beginning to
+breathe again, but she still lay with her eyes closed incapable of
+either sound or motion; and they did not know what to do, whether to
+take her into the house or to stay with her longer until she came round
+again. Mademoiselle's eyes filled with tears, and she was greatly
+agitated, as she looked upon the innocent angel; Desgrais and his
+myrmidons made her shudder. Downstairs came a heavy rumbling noise;
+they were bringing down Cardillac's corpse. Quickly making up her mind.
+De Scudéri said loudly, "I will take the girl with me; you may attend
+to everything else, Desgrais." A muttered wave of applause swept
+through the crowd. They lifted up the girl, whilst everybody crowded
+round and hundreds of arms were proffered to assist them; like one
+floating in the air the young girl was carried to the coach and placed
+within it,--blessings being showered from the lips of all upon the
+noble lady who had come to snatch innocence from the scaffold.
+
+The efforts of Seron, the most celebrated physician in Paris, to bring
+Madelon back to herself were at length crowned with success, for she
+had lain for hours in a dead swoon, utterly unconscious. What the
+physician began was completed by De Scudéri, who strove to excite the
+mild rays of hope in the girl's soul, till at length relief came to her
+in the form of a violent fit of tears and sobbing. She managed to
+relate all that had happened, although from time to time her heart-
+rending grief got the upper hand, and her voice was choked with
+convulsive sobs.
+
+About midnight she had been awakened by a light tap at her chamber
+door, and heard Olivier's voice imploring her to get up at once, as her
+father was dying. Though almost stunned with dismay, she started up and
+opened the door, and saw Olivier with a light in his hand, pale and
+dreadfully agitated, and dripping with perspiration. He led the way
+into her father's workshop, with an unsteady gait, and she followed
+him. There lay her father with fixed staring eyes, his throat rattling
+in the agonies of death. With a loud wail she threw herself upon him,
+and then first noticed his bloody shirt. Olivier softly drew her away
+and set to work to wash a wound in her father's left breast with a
+traumatic balsam, and to bind it up. During this operation her father's
+senses came back to him; his throat ceased to rattle; and he bent,
+first upon her and then upon Olivier, a glance full of feeling, took
+her hand, and placed it in Olivier's, fervently pressing them together.
+She and Olivier both fell upon their knees beside her father's bed; he
+raised himself up with a cry of agony, but at once sank back again, and
+in a deep sigh breathed his last. Then they both gave way to their
+grief and sorrow, and wept aloud.
+
+Olivier related how during a walk, on which he had been commanded by
+his master to attend him, the latter had been murdered in his presence,
+and how through the greatest exertions he had carried the heavy man
+home, whom he did not believe to have been fatally wounded.
+
+When morning dawned the people of the house, who had heard the
+lumbering noises, and the loud weeping and lamenting during the night,
+came up and found them still kneeling in helpless trouble by her
+father's corpse. An alarm was raised; the _Maréchaussée_ made their way
+into the house, and dragged off Olivier to prison as the murderer of
+his master. Madelon added the most touching description of her beloved
+Olivier's goodness, and steady industry, and faithfulness. He had
+honoured his master highly, as though he had been his own father; and
+the latter had fully reciprocated this affection, and had chosen
+Brusson, in spite of his poverty, to be his son-in-law, since his skill
+was equal to his faithfulness and the nobleness of his character. All
+this the girl related with deep, true, heart-felt emotion; and she
+concluded by saying that if Olivier had thrust his dagger into her
+father's breast in her own presence she should take it for some
+illusion caused by Satan, rather than believe that Olivier could be
+capable of such a horrible wicked crime.
+
+De Scudéri, most deeply moved by Madelon's unutterable sufferings, and
+quite ready to regard poor Olivier as innocent, instituted inquiries,
+and she found that all Madelon had said about the intimate terms on
+which master and journeyman had lived was fully confirmed. The people
+in the same house, as well as the neighbours, unanimously agreed in
+commending Olivier as a pattern of goodness, morality, faithfulness,
+and industry; nobody knew anything evil about him, and yet when mention
+was made of his heinous deed, they all shrugged their shoulders and
+thought there was something passing comprehension in it.
+
+Olivier, on being arraigned before the _Chambre Ardente_ denied the
+deed imputed to him, as Mademoiselle learned, with the most steadfast
+firmness and with honest sincerity, maintaining that his master had
+been attacked in the street in his presence and stabbed, that then, as
+there were still signs of life in him, he had himself carried him home,
+where Cardillac had soon afterwards expired. And all this too
+harmonised with Madelon's account.
+
+Again and again and again De Scudéri had the minutest details of the
+terrible event repeated to her. She inquired minutely whether there had
+ever been a quarrel between master and journeyman, whether Olivier was
+perhaps not subject occasionally to those hasty fits of passion which
+often attack even the most good-natured of men like a blind madness,
+impelling the commission of deeds which appear to be done quite
+independent of voluntary action. But in proportion as Madelon spoke
+with increasing heartfelt warmth of the quiet domestic happiness in
+which the three had lived, united by the closest ties of affection,
+every shadow of suspicion against poor Olivier, now being tried for his
+life, vanished away. Scrupulously weighing every point and starting
+with the assumption that Olivier, in spite of all the things which
+spoke so loudly for his innocence, was nevertheless Cardillac's
+murderer, De Scudéri did not find any motive within the bounds of
+possibility for the hideous deed; for from every point of view it would
+necessarily destroy his happiness. He is poor but clever. He has
+succeeded in gaining the good-will of the most renowned master of his
+trade; he loves his master's daughter; his master looks upon his love
+with a favourable eye; happiness and prosperity seem likely to be his
+lot through life. But now suppose that, provoked in some way that God
+alone may know, Olivier had been so overmastered by anger as to make a
+murderous attempt upon his benefactor, his father, what diabolical
+hypocrisy he must have practised to have behaved after the deed in the
+way in which he really did behave. Firmly convinced of Olivier's
+innocence, Mademoiselle made up her mind to save the unhappy young man
+at no matter what cost.
+
+Before appealing, however, to the king's mercy, it seemed to her that
+the most advisable step to take would be to call upon La Regnie, and
+direct his attention to all the circumstances that could not fail to
+speak for Olivier's innocence, and so perhaps awaken in the President's
+mind a feeling of interest favourable to the accused, which might then
+communicate itself to the judges with beneficial results.
+
+La Regnie received De Scudéri with all the great respect to which the
+venerable lady, highly honoured as she was by the king himself, might
+justly lay claim. He listened quietly to all that she had to adduce
+with respect to the terrible crime, and Olivier's relations to the
+victim and his daughter, and his character. Nevertheless the only proof
+he gave that her words were not falling upon totally deaf ears was a
+slight and well-nigh mocking smile; and in the same way he heard her
+protestations and admonitions, which were frequently interrupted by
+tears, that the judge was not the enemy of the accused, but must also
+duly give heed to anything that spoke in his favour. When at length
+Mademoiselle paused, quite exhausted, and dried the tears from her
+eyes. La Regnie began, "It does honour to the excellence of your heart.
+Mademoiselle, that, being moved by the tears of a young lovesick girl,
+you believe everything she tells you, and none the less so that you are
+incapable of conceiving the thought of such an atrocious deed; but not
+so is it with the judge, who is wont to rend asunder the mask of brazen
+hypocrisy. Of course I need not tell you that it is not part of my
+office to unfold to every one who asks me the various stages of a
+criminal trial. Mademoiselle, I do my duty and trouble myself little
+about the judgment of the world. All miscreants shall tremble before
+the _Chambre Ardente_, which knows no other punishment except the
+scaffold and the stake. But since I do not wish you, respected lady, to
+conceive of me as a monster of hard-heartedness and cruelty, suffer me
+in a few words to put clearly before you the guilt of this young
+reprobate, who, thank Heaven, has been overtaken by the avenging arm of
+justice. Your sagacious mind will then bid you look with scorn upon
+your own good kindness, which does you so much honour, but which would
+never under any circumstances be fitting in me.
+
+"Well then! René Cardillac is found in the morning stabbed to the heart
+with a dagger. The only persons with him are his journeyman Olivier
+Brusson and his own daughter. In Olivier's room, amongst other things,
+is found a dagger covered with blood, still fresh, which dagger fits
+exactly into the wound. Olivier says, 'Cardillac was cut down at night
+before my eyes.' 'Somebody attempted to rob him?' 'I don't know.' 'You
+say you went with him, how then were you not able to keep off the
+murderer, or hold him fast, or cry out for help?' 'My master walked
+fifteen, nay, fully twenty paces in front of me, and I followed him.'
+'But why, in the name of wonder, at such a distance?' 'My master would
+have it so.' 'But tell us then what Master Cardillac was doing out in
+the streets at so late an hour?' 'That I cannot say.' 'But you have
+never before known him to leave the house after nine o'clock in the
+evening, have you?' Here Olivier falters; he is confused; he sighs; he
+bursts into tears; he protests by all that is holy that Cardillac
+really went out on the night in question, and then met with his death.
+But now your particular attention, please, Mademoiselle. It has been
+proved to absolute certainty that Cardillac never left the house that
+night, and so, of course, Olivier's assertion that he went out with him
+is an impudent lie. The house door is provided with a ponderous lock,
+which on locking and unlocking makes a loud grating echoing noise;
+moreover, the wings of the door squeak and creak horribly on their
+hinges, so that, as we have proved by repeated experiments, the noise
+is heard all the way up to the garrets. Now in the bottom story, and so
+of course close to the street door, lives old Master Claude Patru and
+his housekeeper, a person of nearly eighty years of age, but still
+lively and nimble. Now these two people heard Cardillac come downstairs
+punctually at nine o'clock that evening, according to his usual
+practice, and lock and bolt the door with considerable noise, and then
+go up again, where they further heard him read the evening prayers
+aloud, and then, to judge by the banging of doors, go to his own
+sleeping-chamber. Master Claude, like many old people, suffers from
+sleeplessness; and that night too he could not close an eye. And so,
+somewhere about half-past nine it seems, his old housekeeper went into
+the kitchen (to get into which she had to cross the passage) for a
+light, and then came and sat down at the table beside Master Claude
+with an old Chronicle, out of which she read; whilst the old man,
+following the train of his thoughts, first sat down in his easy-chair,
+and then stood up again, and paced softly and slowly up and down the
+room in order to bring on weariness and sleepiness. All remained quiet
+and still until after midnight. Then they heard quick steps above them
+and a heavy fall like some big weight being thrown on the floor, and
+then soon after a muffled groaning. A peculiar feeling of uneasiness
+and dreadful suspense took possession of them both. It was horror at
+the bloody deed which had just been committed, which passed out beside
+them. The bright morning came and revealed to the light what had been
+begun in the hours of darkness."
+
+"But," interrupted De Scudéri, "but by all the saints, tell me what
+motive for this diabolical deed you can find in any of the
+circumstances which I just now repeated to you at such length?" "Hm!"
+rejoined La Regnie, "Cardillac was not poor--he had some valuable
+stones in his possession." "But would not his daughter inherit
+everything?" continued De Scudéri. "You are forgetting that Olivier was
+to be Cardillac's son-in-law." "But perhaps he had to share or only do
+the murderous deed for others," said La Regnie. "Share? do a murderous
+deed for others?" asked De Scudéri, utterly astounded. "I must tell
+you, Mademoiselle," continued the President, "that Olivier's blood
+would long ago have been shed in the Place Grève, had not his crime
+been bound up with that deeply enshrouded mystery which has hitherto
+exercised such a threatening sway over all Paris. It is evident that
+Olivier belongs to that accursed band of miscreants who, laughing to
+scorn all the watchfulness, and efforts, and strict investigations of
+the courts, have been able to carry out their plans so safely and
+unpunished. Through him all shall--all must be cleared up. Cardillac's
+wound is precisely similar to those borne by all the persons who have
+been found murdered and robbed in the streets and houses. But the most
+decisive fact is that since the time Olivier Brusson has been under
+arrest all these murders and robberies have ceased The streets are now
+as safe by night as they are by day. These things are proof enough that
+Olivier probably was at the head of this band of assassins. As yet he
+will not confess it; but there are means of making him speak against
+his will." "And Madelon," exclaimed De Scudéri, "and Madelon, the
+faithful, innocent dove!" "Oh!" said La Regnie, with a venomous smile,
+"Oh! but who will answer to me for it that she also is not an
+accomplice in the plot? What does she care about her father's death?
+Her tears are only shed for this murderous rascal." "What do you say?"
+screamed De Scudéri; "it cannot possibly be. Her father--this girl!"
+"Oh!" went on La Regnie, "Oh, but pray recollect De Brinvillier. You
+will be so good as to pardon me if I perhaps soon find myself compelled
+to take your favourite from your protection, and have her cast into the
+Conciergerie."
+
+This terrible suspicion made Mademoiselle shudder. It seemed to her as
+if no faithfulness, no virtue, could stand fast before this fearful
+man; he seemed to espy murder and blood-guiltiness in the deepest and
+most secret thoughts. She rose to go. "Be human!" was all that she
+could stammer out in her distress, and she had difficulty in breathing.
+Just on the point of going down the stairs, to the top of which the
+President had accompanied her with ceremonious courtesy, she was
+suddenly struck by a strange thought, at which she herself was
+surprised. "And could I be allowed to see this unhappy Olivier
+Brusson?" she asked, turning round quickly to the President. He,
+however, looked at her somewhat suspiciously, but his face was soon
+contracted into the forbidding smile so characteristic of him. "Of
+course, honoured lady," said he, "relying upon your feelings and the
+little voice within you more than upon what has taken place before our
+very eyes, you will yourself prove Olivier's guilt or innocence, I
+perceive. If you are not afraid to see the dark abodes of crime, and if
+you think there will be nothing too revolting in looking upon pictures
+of depravity in all its stages, then the doors of the Conciergerie
+shall be opened to you in two hours from now. You shall have this
+Olivier, whose fate excites your interest so much, presented to you."
+
+To tell the truth, De Scudéri could by no means convince herself of the
+young man's guilt. Although everything spoke against him, and no judge
+in the world could have acted differently from what La Regnie did in
+face of such conclusive circumstantial evidence, yet all these base
+suspicions were completely outweighed by the picture of domestic
+happiness which Madelon had painted for her in such warm lifelike
+colours; and hence she would rather adopt the idea of some
+unaccountable mystery than believe in the truth of that at which her
+inmost heart revolted.
+
+She was thinking that she would get Olivier to repeat once more all the
+events of that ill-omened night and worm her way as much as possible
+into any secret there might be which remained sealed to the judges,
+since for their purposes it did not seem worth while to give themselves
+any further trouble about the matter.
+
+On arriving at the Conciergerie, De Scudéri was led into a large light
+apartment. She had not long to wait before she heard the rattle of
+chains. Olivier Brusson was brought in. But the moment he appeared in
+the doorway De Scudéri sank on the floor fainting. When she recovered,
+Olivier had disappeared. She demanded impetuously that she should be
+taken to her carriage; she would go--go at once, that very moment, from
+the apartments of wickedness and infamy. For oh! at the very first
+glance she had recognised in Olivier Brusson the young man who had
+thrown the note into the carriage on the Pont Neuf, and who had brought
+her the casket and the jewels. Now all doubts were at an end; La
+Regnie's horrible suspicion was fully confirmed. Olivier Brusson
+belonged to the atrocious band of assassins; undoubtedly he murdered
+his master. And Madelon? Never before had Mademoiselle been so bitterly
+deceived by the deepest promptings of her heart; and now, shaken to the
+very depths of her soul by the discovery of a power of evil on earth in
+the existence of which she had not hitherto believed, she began to
+despair of all truth. She allowed the hideous suspicion to enter her
+mind that Madelon was involved in the complot, and might have had a
+hand in the infamous deed of blood. As is frequently the case with the
+human mind, that, once it has laid hold upon an idea, it diligently
+seeks for colours, until it finds them, with which to deck out the
+picture in tints ever more vivid and ever more glaring; so also De
+Scudéri, on reflecting again upon all the circumstances of the deed, as
+well as upon the minutest features in Madelon's behaviour, found many
+things to strengthen her suspicion. And many points which hitherto she
+had regarded as a proof of innocence and purity now presented
+themselves as undeniable tokens of abominable wickedness and studied
+hypocrisy. Madelon's heartrending expressions of trouble, and her
+floods of piteous tears, might very well have been forced from her, not
+so much from fear of seeing her lover perish on the scaffold, as of
+falling herself by the hand of the executioner. To get rid at once of
+the serpent she was nourishing in her bosom, this was the determination
+with which Mademoiselle got out of her carriage.
+
+When she entered her room, Madelon threw herself at her feet. With her
+lovely eyes--none of God's angels had truer--directed heavenwards, and
+with her hands folded upon her heaving bosom, she wept and wailed,
+craving help and consolation. Controlling herself by a painful effort,
+De Scudéri, whilst endeavouring to impart as much earnestness and
+calmness as she possibly could to the tone in which she spoke, said,
+"Go--go--comfort yourself with the thought that righteous punishment
+will overtake yon murderer for his villainous deeds. May the Holy
+Virgin forbid that you yourself come to labour under the heavy burden
+of blood-guiltiness." "Oh! all hope is now lost!" cried Madelon, with a
+piercing shriek, as she reeled to the floor senseless. Leaving La
+Martinière to attend to the girl, Mademoiselle withdrew into another
+room.
+
+De Scudéri's heart was torn and bleeding; she felt herself at variance
+with all mankind, and no longer wished to live in a world so full of
+diabolical deceit! She reproached Destiny which in bitter mockery had
+so many years suffered her to go on strengthening her belief in virtue,
+and truth, only to destroy now in her old age the beautiful images
+which had been her guiding-stars through life.
+
+She heard Martinière lead away Madelon, who was sighing softly and
+lamenting. "Alas! and she--she too--these cruel men have infatuated
+her. Poor, miserable me! Poor, unhappy Olivier!" The tones of her voice
+cut De Scudéri to the heart; again there stirred in the depths of her
+soul a dim presentiment that there was some mystery connected with the
+case, and also the belief in Olivier's innocence returned. Her mind
+distracted by the most contradictory feelings, she cried, "What spirit
+of darkness is it which has entangled me in this terrible affair? I am
+certain it will be the death of me." At this juncture Baptiste came in,
+pale and terrified, with the announcement that Desgrais was at the
+door. Ever since the trial of the infamous La Voisin the appearance of
+Desgrais in any house was the sure precursor of some criminal charge;
+hence came Baptiste's terror, and therefore it was that Mademoiselle
+asked him with a gracious smile, "What's the matter with you, Baptiste?
+The name Scudéri has been found on La Voisin's list, has it not, eh?"
+"For God's sake," replied Baptiste, trembling in every limb, "how can
+you speak of such a thing? But Desgrais, that terrible man Desgrais,
+behaves so mysteriously, and is so urgent; he seems as if he couldn't
+wait a moment before seeing you." "Well, then, Baptiste," said De
+Scudéri, "then bring him up at once--the man who is so terrible to you;
+in me, at least, he will excite no anxiety."
+
+"The President La Regnie has sent me to you, Mademoiselle," said
+Desgrais on stepping into the room, "with a request which he would
+hardly dare hope you could grant, did he not know your virtue and your
+courage. But the last means of bringing to light a vile deed of blood
+lie in your hands; and you have already of your own accord taken an
+active part in the notorious trial which the _Chambre Ardente_, and in
+fact all of us, are watching with breathless interest. Olivier Brusson
+has been half a madman since he saw you. He was beginning to show signs
+of compliance and a readiness to make a confession, but he now swears
+again, by all the powers of Heaven, that he is perfectly innocent of
+the murder of Cardillac; and yet he says he is ready to die the death
+which he has deserved. You will please observe, Mademoiselle, that the
+last clause evidently has reference to other crimes which weigh upon
+his conscience. But vain are all our efforts to get him to utter a
+single word more; even the threat of torture has been of no avail. He
+begs and prays, and beseeches us to procure him an interview with you;
+for to _you_, to _you_ only, will he confess all. Pray deign,
+Mademoiselle, to hear Brusson's confession." "What!" exclaimed De
+Scudéri indignantly, "am I to be made an instrument of by a criminal
+court, am I to abuse this unhappy man's confidence to bring him to the
+scaffold? No, Desgrais. However vile a murderer Brusson may be, I would
+never, never deceive him in that villainous way. I don't want to know
+anything about his secrets; in any case they would be locked up within
+my own bosom as if they were a holy confession made to a priest"
+"Perhaps," rejoined Desgrais with a subtle smile, "perhaps,
+Mademoiselle, you would alter your mind after you had heard Brusson.
+Did you not yourself exhort the President to be human? And he is being
+so, in that he gives way to Brusson's foolish request, and thus resorts
+to the last means before putting him to the rack, for which he was well
+ripe some time ago." De Scudéri shuddered involuntarily. "And then,
+honoured lady," continued Desgrais, "it will not be demanded of you
+that you again enter those dark gloomy rooms which filled you with such
+horror and aversion. Olivier shall be brought to you here in your own
+house as a free man, but at night, when all excitement can be avoided.
+Then, without being even listened to, though of course he would be
+watched, he may without constraint make a clean confession to you. That
+you personally will have nothing to fear from the wretch--for that I
+will answer to you with my life. He mentions your name with the
+intensest veneration. He reiterates again and again that it is nothing
+but his dark destiny, which prevented him seeing you before, that has
+brought his life into jeopardy in this way. Moreover, you will be at
+liberty to divulge what you think well of the things which Brusson
+confesses to you. And what more could we indeed compel you to do?"
+
+De Scudéri bent her eyes upon the floor in reflection. She felt she
+must obey the Higher Power which was thus demanding of her that she
+should effect the disclosure of some terrible secret, and she felt,
+too, as though she could not draw back out of the tangled skein into
+which she had run without any conscious effort of will. Suddenly making
+up her mind, she replied with dignity, "God will give me firmness and
+self-command, Bring Brusson here; I will speak with him."
+
+Just as on the previous occasion when Brusson brought the casket, there
+came a knock at De Scudéri's house door at midnight. Baptiste,
+forewarned of this nocturnal visit, at once opened the door. De Scudéri
+felt an icy shiver run through her as she gathered from the light
+footsteps and hollow murmuring voices that the guards who had brought
+Brusson were taking up their stations about the passages of the house.
+
+At length the room door was softly opened. Desgrais came in, followed
+by Olivier Brusson, freed from his fetters, and dressed in his own neat
+clothing. The officer bowed respectfully and said, "Here is Brusson,
+honoured lady," and then left the room. Brusson fell upon his knees
+before Mademoiselle, and raised his folded hands in entreaty, whilst
+copious tears ran down his cheeks.
+
+De Scudéri turned pale and looked down upon him without being able to
+utter a word. Though his features were now gaunt and hollow from
+trouble and anguish and pain, yet an expression of the truest
+staunchest honesty shone upon his countenance. The longer Mademoiselle
+allowed her eyes to rest upon his face, the more forcibly was she
+reminded of some loved person, whom she could not in any way clearly
+call to mind. All her feelings of shivery uncomfortableness left her;
+she forgot that it was Cardillac's murderer who was kneeling before
+her; she spoke in the calm pleasing tone of goodwill that was
+characteristic of her, "Well, Brusson, what have you to tell me?" He,
+still kneeling, heaved a sigh of unspeakable sadness, that came from
+the bottom of his heart, "Oh! honoured, highly esteemed lady, can you
+have lost all traces of recollection of me?" Mademoiselle scanned his
+features more narrowly, and replied that she had certainly discovered
+in his face a resemblance to some one she had once loved, and that it
+was entirely owing to this resemblance that she had overcome her
+detestation of the murderer, and was listening to him calmly.
+
+Brusson was deeply hurt at these words; he rose hastily to his feet and
+took a step, backwards, fixing his eyes gloomily on the floor. "Then
+you have completely forgotten Anne Guiot?" he said moodily; "it is her
+son Olivier,--the boy whom you often tossed on your lap--who now stands
+before you." "Oh help me, good Heaven!" exclaimed Mademoiselle,
+covering her face with both hands and sinking back upon the cushions.
+And reason enough she had to be thus terribly affected. Anne Guiot, the
+daughter of an impoverished burgher, had lived in De Scudéri's house
+from a little girl, and had been brought up by Mademoiselle with all
+the care and faithfulness which a mother expends upon her own child.
+Now when she was grown up there came a modest good-looking young man,
+Claude Brusson by name, and he wooed the girl. And since he was a
+thoroughly clever watchmaker, who would be sure to find a very good
+living in Paris, and since Anne had also grown to be truly fond of him,
+De Scudéri had no scruples about giving her consent to her adopted
+daughter's marriage. The young people, having set up housekeeping, led
+a quiet life of domestic happiness; and the ties of affection were knit
+still closer by the birth of a marvellously pretty boy, the perfect
+image of his lovely mother.
+
+De Scudéri made a complete idol of little Olivier, carrying him off
+from his mother for hours and days together to caress him and to fondle
+him. Hence the boy grew quite accustomed to her, and would just as
+willingly be with her as with his mother. Three years passed away, when
+the trade-envy of Brusson's fellow-artificers made them concert
+together against him, so that his business decreased day by day, until
+at last he could hardly earn enough for a bare subsistence. Along with
+this he felt an ardent longing to see once more his beautiful native
+city of Geneva; accordingly the small family moved thither, in spite of
+De Scudéri's opposition and her promises of every possible means of
+support Anne wrote two or three times to her foster-mother, and then
+nothing more was heard from her; so that Mademoiselle had to take
+refuge in the conclusion that the happy life they were leading in
+Brusson's native town prevented their memories dwelling upon the days
+that were past and gone. It was now just twenty-three years since
+Brusson had left Paris along with his wife and child and had gone to
+Geneva.
+
+"Oh! horrible!" exclaimed De Scudéri when she had again recovered
+herself to some extent. "Oh! horrible! are you Olivier? my Anne's son?
+And now----" "Indeed, honoured lady," replied Olivier calmly and
+composedly, "indeed you never could, I suppose, have any the least idea
+that the boy whom you fondled with all a mother's tenderness, into
+whose mouth you never tired of putting sweets and candies as you tossed
+him on your lap, whom you called by the most caressing names, would,
+when grown up to be a young man, one day stand before you accused of an
+atrocious crime. I am not free from reproach; the _Chambre Ardente_ may
+justly bring a charge against me; but by my hopes of happiness after
+death, even though it be by the executioner's hand, I am innocent of
+this bloody deed; the unhappy Cardillac did not perish through me, nor
+through any guilty connivance on my part." So saying, Olivier began to
+shake and tremble. Mademoiselle silently pointed to a low chair which
+stood beside him, and he slowly sank down upon it.
+
+"I have had plenty of time to prepare myself for my interview with
+you," he began, "which I regard as the last favour to be granted me by
+Heaven in token of my reconciliation with it, and I have also had time
+enough to gain what calmness and composure are needful in order to
+relate to you the history of my fearful and unparalleled misfortunes. I
+entreat your pity, that you will listen calmly to me, however much you
+may be surprised--nay, even struck with horror, by the disclosure of a
+secret which I am sure you have never for a moment suspected. Oh! that
+my poor father had never left Paris! As far back as my recollections of
+Geneva go I remember how I felt the tears of my unhappy parents falling
+upon my cheeks; and how their complaints of misery, which I did not
+understand, provoked me also to tears. Later I experienced to the full
+and with keen consciousness in what a state of crushing want and of
+deep distress my parents lived. My father found all his hopes deceived.
+He died bowed to the earth with pain, and broken with trouble,
+immediately after he had succeeded in placing me as apprentice to a
+goldsmith. My mother talked much about you; she said she would pour out
+all her troubles to you; but then she fell a victim to that despondency
+which is born of misery. That, and also a feeling of false shame, which
+often preys upon a deeply wounded spirit, prevented her from taking any
+decisive step. Within a few months after my father's death my mother
+followed him to the grave." "Poor Anne! poor Anne!" exclaimed
+Mademoiselle, quite overcome by sorrow. "All praise and thanks to the
+Eternal Power of Heaven that she is gone to the better land; she will
+not see her darling son, branded with shame, fall by the hand of the
+executioner," cried Olivier aloud, casting his eyes upwards with a wild
+unnatural look of anguish.
+
+The police grew uneasy outside; footsteps passed to an fro. "Ho! ho!"
+said Olivier, smiling bitterly, "Desgrais is waking up his myrmidons,
+as though I could make my escape _here_. But to continue--I led a hard
+life with my master, albeit I soon got to be the best workman, and at
+last even surpassed my master himself. One day a stranger happened to
+come into our shop to buy some jewellery. And when he saw a beautiful
+necklace which I had made he clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly
+way and said, eyeing the ornament, 'Ha! i' faith, my young friend,
+that's an excellent piece of work. To tell you the truth, I don't know
+who there is who could beat you, unless it were René Cardillac, who,
+you know, is the first goldsmith in the world. You ought to go to him;
+he would gladly take you into his workshop; for nobody but you could
+help him in his artistic labours; and on the other hand he is the only
+man from whom you could learn anything.' The stranger's words sank into
+my heart and took deep root there. I hadn't another moment's ease in
+Geneva; I felt a violent impulse to be gone. At last I contrived to get
+free from my master. I came to Paris. René Cardillac received me coldly
+and churlishly. I persevered in my purpose; he must give me some work,
+however insignificant it might be. I got a small ring to finish. On my
+taking the work to him, he fixed his keen glittering eyes upon me as if
+he would read the very depths of my soul. Then he said, 'You are a good
+clever journeyman; you may come to me and help me in my shop. I will
+pay you well; you shall be satisfied with me.' Cardillac kept his word.
+I had been several weeks with him before I saw Madelon; she was at that
+time, if I mistake not, in the country, staying, with a female relative
+of Cardillac's; but at length she came. O Heaven! O God! what did I
+feel when I saw the sweet angel? Has any man ever loved as I do? And
+now--O Madelon!"
+
+Olivier was so distressed he could not go on. Holding both hands before
+his face, he sobbed violently, But at length, fighting down with an
+effort the sharp pain that shook him, he went on with his story.
+
+"Madelon looked upon me with friendly eyes. Her visits into the
+workshop grew more and more frequent. I was enraptured to perceive that
+she loved me. Notwithstanding the strict watch her father kept upon us
+many a stolen pressure of the hand served as a token of the mutual
+understanding arrived at between us; Cardillac did not appear to notice
+anything. I intended first to win his favour, and, if I could gain my
+mastership, then to woo for Madelon. One day, as I was about to begin
+work, Cardillac came to me, his face louring darkly with anger and
+scornful contempt 'I don't want your services any longer,' he began,
+'so out you go from my house this very hour; and never show yourself in
+my sight again. Why I can't do with you here any longer, I have no need
+to tell you. For you, you poor devil, the sweet fruit at which you are
+stretching out your hand hangs too high.' I attempted to speak, but he
+laid hold upon me with a powerful grasp and threw me out of doors, so
+that I fell to the floor and severely wounded my head and arm. I left
+the house hotly indignant and furious with the stinging pain; at last I
+found a good-natured acquaintance in the remotest corner of the
+Faubourg St. Martin, who received me into his garret. But I had neither
+ease nor rest. Every night I used to lurk about Cardillac's house
+deluding myself with the fancy that Madelon would hear my sighing and
+lamenting, and that she would perhaps find a way to speak to me out of
+the window unheard. All sorts of confused plans were revolving in my
+brain, which I hoped to persuade her to carry out.
+
+"Now joining Cardillac's house in the Rue Nicaise there is a high wall,
+with niches and old stone figures in them, now half crumbled away. One
+night I was standing close beside one of these stone images and looking
+up at those windows of the house which looked out upon the court
+enclosed by the wall. All at once I observed a light in Cardillac's
+workshop. It was midnight; Cardillac never used to be awake at that
+hour; he was always in the habit of going to rest on the stroke of
+nine. My heart beat in uncertain trepidation; I began to think
+something might have happened which would perhaps pave the way for me
+to go back into the house once more. But soon the light vanished again.
+I squeezed myself into the niche close to the stone figure; but I
+started back in dismay on feeling a pressure against me, as if the
+image had become instinct with life. By the dusky glimmer of the night
+I perceived that the stone was slowly revolving, and a dark form
+slipped out from behind it and went away down the street with light,
+soft footsteps. I rushed towards the stone figure; it stood as before,
+close to the wall. Almost without thinking, rather as if impelled by
+some inward prompter, I stealthily followed the figure. Just beside an
+image of the Virgin he turned round; the light of the street lamp
+standing exactly in front of the image fell full upon his face. It was
+Cardillac.
+
+"An unaccountable feeling of apprehension--an unearthly dread fell upon
+me. Like one subject to the power of magic, I had to go on--on--in the
+track of the spectre-like somnambulist. For that was what I took my
+master to be, notwithstanding that it was not the time of full moon,
+when this visitation is wont to attack the sleeper. Finally Cardillac
+disappeared into the deep shade on the side of the street. By a sort of
+low involuntary cough, which, however, I knew well, I gathered that he
+was standing in the entry to a house. 'What is the meaning of that?
+What is he going to do?' I asked myself, utterly astounded, pressing
+close against a house-wall. It was not long before a man came along
+with fluttering plumes and jingling spur, singing and gaily humming an
+air. Like a tiger leaping upon his prey, Cardillac burst out of his
+lurking-place and threw himself upon the man, who that very same
+instant fell to the ground, gasping in the agonies of death. I rushed
+up with a cry of horror; Cardillac was stooping over the man, who lay
+on the floor. 'Master Cardillac, what are you doing?' I shouted.
+'Cursed fool!' growled Cardillac, running past me with lightning-like
+speed and disappearing from sight.
+
+"Quite upset and hardly able to take a step, I approached the man who
+had been stabbed. I knelt down beside him. 'Perhaps,' thought I, 'he
+still may be saved;' but there was not the least sign of life. In my
+fearful agitation I had hardly noticed that the _Maréchausée_ had
+surrounded me. 'What? already another assassinated by these demons! Hi!
+hi! Young man, what are you about here?--Are you one of the band?--Away
+with him!' Thus they cried one after another, and they laid hold of me.
+I was scarcely able to stammer out that I should never be capable of
+such an abominable deed, and that they might therefore let me go my way
+in peace. Then one of them turned his lamp upon my face and said
+laughing, 'Why, it's Olivier Brusson, the journeyman goldsmith, who
+works for our worthy honest Master René Cardillac. Ay, I should think
+so!--_he_ murder people in the street--he looks like it indeed! It's
+just like murderous assassins to stoop lamenting over their victim's
+corpse till somebody comes and takes them into custody. Well, how was
+it, youngster? Speak out boldly?' 'A man sprang out immediately in
+front of me,' I said, 'and threw himself upon this man and stabbed him,
+and then ran away as quick as lightning when I shouted out. I only
+wanted to see if the stabbed man might still be saved.' 'No, my son,'
+cried one of those who had taken up the corpse; 'he's dead enough; the
+dagger has gone right through the heart as usual.' 'The Devil!' said
+another; 'we have come too late again, as we did yesterday.' Thereupon
+they went their way, taking the corpse with them.
+
+"What my feelings were I cannot attempt to describe. I felt myself to
+make sure whether I were not being mocked by some hideous dream; I
+fancied I must soon wake up and wonder at the preposterous delusion.
+Cardillac, the father of my Madelon, an atrocious murderer! My strength
+failed me; I sank down upon the stone steps leading up to a house. The
+morning light began to glimmer and was stronger and stronger; an
+officer's hat decorated with feathers lay before me on the pavement. I
+saw again vividly Cardillac's bloody deed, which had been perpetrated
+on the spot where I sat. I ran off horrified.
+
+"I was sitting in my garret, my thoughts in a perfect whirl, nay, I was
+almost bereft of my senses, when the door opened, and René Cardillac
+came in. 'For God's sake, what do you want?' I exclaimed on seeing him.
+Without heeding my words, he approached close to me, smiling with
+calmness and an air of affability which only increased my inward
+abhorrence. Pulling up a rickety old stool and taking his seat upon it
+close beside me, for I was unable to rise from the heap of straw upon
+which I had thrown myself, he began, 'Well, Olivier, how are you
+getting on, my poor fellow? I did indeed do an abominably rash thing
+when I turned you out of the house; I miss you at every step and turn.
+I have got a piece of work on hand just now which I cannot finish
+without your help. How would it be if you came back to work in my shop?
+Have you nothing to say? Yes, I know I have insulted you. I will not
+attempt to conceal it from you that I was angry on account of your love
+making to my Madelon. But since then I have ripely reflected upon the
+matter, and decided that, considering your skill and industry and
+faithful honesty, I could not wish for any better son-in-law than you.
+So come along with me, and see if you can win Madelon to be your
+bride.'
+
+"Cardillac's words cut me to the very heart; I trembled with dread at
+his wickedness; I could not utter a word. 'Do you hesitate?' he
+continued in a sharp tone, piercing me through and through with his
+glittering eyes; 'do you hesitate? Perhaps you can't come along with me
+just to-day--perhaps you have some other business on hand! Perhaps you
+mean forsooth to pay a visit to Desgrais or get yourself admitted to an
+interview with D'Argenson or La Regnie. But you'd better take care,
+boy, that the claws which you entice out of their sheaths to other
+people's destruction don't seize upon you yourself and tear you to
+pieces!' Then my swelling indignation suddenly found vent 'Let those
+who are conscious of having committed atrocious crimes,' I cried,--'let
+them start at the names you just named. As for me, I have no reason to
+do so--I have nothing to do with them.' 'Properly speaking,' went on
+Cardillac, 'properly speaking, Olivier, it is an honour to you to work
+with me--with me, the most renowned master of the age, and highly
+esteemed everywhere for his faithfulness and honesty, so that all
+wicked calumnies would recoil upon the head of the backbiter. And as
+far as concerns Madelon, I must now confess that it is she alone to
+whom you owe this compliance on my part. She loves you with an
+intensity which I should not have credited the delicate child with.
+Directly you had gone she threw herself at my feet, clasped my knees,
+and confessed amid endless tears that she could not live without you. I
+thought she only fancied so, as so often happens with young and love-
+sick girls; they think they shall die at once the first time a milky-
+faced boy looks kindly upon them. But my Madelon did really become ill
+and begin to pine away; and when I tried to talk her out of her foolish
+silly notions, she only uttered your name scores of times. What on
+earth could I do if I didn't want her to die away in despair? Last
+evening I told her I would give my consent to her dearest wishes, and
+would come and fetch you to-day. And during the night she has blossomed
+up like a rose, and is now waiting for you with all the longing
+impatience of love.'
+
+"May God in heaven forgive me! I don't know myself how it came about,
+but I suddenly found myself in Cardillac's house; and Madelon cried
+aloud with joy, 'Olivier! my Olivier! my darling! my husband!' as she
+rushed towards me and threw both her arms round my neck, pressing me
+close to her bosom, till in a perfect delirium of passionate delight I
+swore by the Virgin and all the saints that I would never, never leave
+her."
+
+Olivier was so deeply agitated by the recollection of this fateful
+moment, that he was obliged to pause. De Scudéri, struck with horror at
+this foul iniquity in a man whom she had always looked upon as a model
+of virtue and honest integrity, cried, "Oh! it is horrible! So René
+Cardillac belongs to the murderous band which has so long made our good
+city a mere bandits' haunt?" "What do you say, Mademoiselle, to the
+_band_?" said Olivier. "There has never been such a band. It was
+Cardillac _alone_ who, active in wickedness, sought for his victims and
+found them throughout the entire city. And it was because he acted
+alone that he was enabled to carry on his operations with so much
+security, and from the same cause arose the insuperable difficulty of
+getting a clue to the murderer. But let me go on with my story; the
+sequel will explain to you the secrets of the most atrocious but at the
+same time of the most unfortunate of men.
+
+"The situation in which I now found myself fixed at my master's may be
+easily imagined. The step was taken; I could not go back. At times I
+felt as though I were Cardillac's accomplice in crime; the only thing
+that made me forget the inner anguish that tortured me was Madelon's
+love, and it was only in her presence that I succeeded in totally
+suppressing all external signs of the nameless trouble and anxiety I
+had in my heart. When I was working with the old man in the shop, I
+could never look him in the face; and I was hardly able to speak a
+word, owing to the awful dread with which I trembled whenever near the
+villain, who fulfilled all the duties of a faithful and tender father,
+and of a good citizen, whilst the night veiled his monstrous iniquity.
+Madelon, dutiful, pure, confiding as an angel, clung to him with
+idolatrous affection. The thought often struck like a dagger to my
+heart that, if justice should one day overtake the reprobate and unmask
+him, she, deceived by the diabolical arts of the foul Fiend, would
+assuredly die in the wildest agonies of despair. This alone would keep
+my lips locked, even though it brought upon me a criminal's death.
+Notwithstanding that I picked up a good deal of information from the
+talk of the _Maréchaussée_ yet the motive for Cardillac's atrocities,
+as well as his manner of accomplishing them, still remained riddles to
+me; but I had not long to wait for the solution.
+
+"One day Cardillac was very grave and preoccupied over his work,
+instead of being in the merriest of humours, jesting and laughing as he
+usually did, and so provoking my abhorrence of him. All of a sudden he
+threw aside the ornament he was working at, so that the pearls and
+other stones rolled across the floor, and starting to his feet he
+exclaimed, 'Olivier, things can't go on in this way between us; the
+footing we are now on is getting unbearable. Chance has played into
+your hands the knowledge of a secret which has baffled the most
+inventive cunning of Desgrais and all his myrmidons. You have seen me
+at my midnight work, to which I am goaded by my evil destiny; no
+resistance is ever of any avail. And your evil destiny it was which led
+you to follow me, which wrapped you in an impenetrable veil and gave
+you the lightness of foot which, enabled you to walk as noiselessly as
+the smallest insect, so that I, who in the blackest night see as
+plainly as a tiger and hear the slightest noise, the humming of midges,
+far away along the streets, did not perceive you near me. Your evil
+star has brought you to me, my associate. As you are now circumstanced
+there can be no thought of treachery on your part, and so you may now
+know all.' 'Never, never will I be your associate, you hypocritical
+reprobate,' I endeavoured to cry out, but I felt a choking sensation in
+my throat, caused by the dread which came upon me as Cardillac spoke.
+Instead of speaking words, I only gasped out certain unintelligible
+sounds. Cardillac again sat down on his bench, drying the perspiration
+from his brow. He appeared to be fearfully agitated by his
+recollections of the past and to have difficulty in preserving his
+composure. But at length he began.
+
+"'Learned men say a good deal about the extraordinary impressions of
+which women are capable when _enceinte_, and of the singular influence
+which such a vivid involuntary external impression has upon the unborn
+child. I was told a surprising story about my mother. About eight
+months before I was born, my mother accompanied certain other women to
+see a splendid court spectacle in the Trianon.19 There her eyes fell
+upon a cavalier wearing a Spanish costume, who wore a flashing jewelled
+chain round his neck, and she could not keep her eyes off it. Her whole
+being was concentrated into desire to possess the glittering stones,
+which she regarded as something of supernatural origin. Several years
+previously, before my mother was married, the same cavalier had paid
+his insidious addresses to her, but had been repulsed with indignant
+scorn. My mother knew him again; but now by the gleam of the brilliant
+diamonds he appeared to her to be a being of a higher race--the paragon
+of beauty. He noticed my mother's looks of ardent desire. He believed
+he should now be more successful than formerly. He found means to
+approach her, and, yet more, to draw her away from her acquaintances to
+a retired place. Then he clasped her passionately in his arms, whilst
+she laid hold of the handsome chain; but in that moment the cavalier
+reeled backwards, dragging my mother to the ground along with him.
+Whatever was the cause--whether he had a sudden stroke, or whether it
+was due to something else--enough, the man was dead. All my mother's
+efforts to release herself from the stiffened arms of the corpse proved
+futile. His glazed eyes, their faculty of vision now extinguished, were
+fixed upon her; and she lay on the ground with the dead man. At length
+her piercing screams for help reached the ears of some people passing
+at a distance; they hurried up and freed her from the arms of her
+ghastly lover. The horror prostrated her in a serious illness. Her
+life, and mine too, was despaired of; but she recovered, and her
+accouchement was more favourable than could have been expected. But the
+terror of that fearful moment had left its stamp upon _me_. The evil
+star of my destiny had got in the ascendant and shot down its sparks
+upon me, enkindling in me a most singular but at the same time a most
+pernicious passion. Even in the earliest days of my childhood there was
+nothing I thought so much of as I did of flashing diamonds and
+ornaments of gold. It was regarded as an ordinary childish inclination.
+But the contrary was soon made manifest, for when a boy I stole all the
+gold and jewellery I could anywhere lay my hands on. Like the most
+experienced goldsmith I could distinguish by instinct false jewellery
+from real. The latter alone proved an attraction to me; objects made of
+imitated gold as well as gold coins I heeded not in the least. My
+inborn propensity had, however, to give way to the excessively cruel
+thrashings which I received at my father's hand.
+
+"'I adopted the trade of a goldsmith, merely that I might be able to
+handle gold and precious stones. I worked with passionate enthusiasm
+and soon became the first master in the craft. But now began a period
+in which my innate propensity, so long repressed, burst forth with
+vehemence and grew most rapidly, imbibing nourishment from everything
+about it. So soon as I had completed a piece of jewellery, and had
+delivered it up to the customer, I fell into a state of unrest, of
+desperate disquiet, which robbed me of sleep and health and courage for
+my daily life. Day and night the person for whom I had done the work
+stood before my eyes like a spectre, adorned with my jewellery, whilst
+a voice whispered in my ears, "Yes, it's yours; yes it's yours. Go and
+take it. What does a dead man want diamonds for?" Then I began to
+practise thievish arts. As I had access to the houses of the great, I
+speedily turned every opportunity to good account: no lock could baffle
+my skill; and I soon had the object which I had made in my hands again.
+But after a time even that did not banish my unrest. That unearthly
+voice still continued to make itself heard in my ears, mocking me to
+scorn, and crying, "Ho! ho! a dead man is wearing your jewellery." By
+some inexplicable means, which I do not understand, I began to conceive
+an unspeakable hatred of those for whom I made my ornaments. Ay, deep
+down in my heart there began to stir a murderous feeling against them,
+at which I myself trembled with apprehension.
+
+"'About this time I bought this house. I had just struck a bargain with
+the owner; we were sitting in this room drinking a glass of wine
+together and enjoying ourselves over the settlement of our business.
+Night had come; I rose to go; then the vendor of the house said, "See
+here, Master René; before you go, I must make you acquainted with the
+secret of the place." Therewith he unlocked that press let into the
+wall there, pushed away the panels at the back, and stepped into a
+little room, where, stooping down, he lifted up a trap-door. We
+descended a flight of steep, narrow stairs, and came to a narrow
+postern, which he unlocked, and let us out into the court-yard. Then
+the old gentleman, the previous owner of the house, stepped up to the
+wall and pressed an iron knob, which projected only very triflingly
+from it; immediately a portion of the wall swung round, so that a man
+could easily slip through the opening, and in that way gain the street.
+I will show you the neat contrivance some day, Olivier; very likely it
+was constructed by the cunning monks of the monastery which formerly
+stood on this site, in order that they might steal in and out secretly.
+It is a piece of wood, plastered with mortar and white-washed on the
+outside only, and within it, on the side next the street, is fixed a
+statue, also of wood, but coloured to look exactly like stone, and the
+whole piece, together with the statue, moves upon concealed hinges.
+Dark thoughts swept into my mind when I saw this contrivance; it
+appeared to have been built with a predestined view to such deeds as
+yet remained unknown to myself.
+
+"'I had just completed a valuable ornament for a courtier, and knew
+that he intended it for an opera-dancer. The ominous torture assailed
+me again; the spectre dogged my footsteps; the whispering fiend was at
+my ear. I took possession of my new house. I tossed sleeplessly on my
+couch, bathed in perspiration, caused by the hideous torments I was
+enduring. In imagination I saw the man gliding along to the dancer's
+abode with my ornament. I leapt up full of fury; threw on my mantle,
+went down by the secret stairs, through the wall, and into the Rue
+Nicaise. He is coming along; I throw myself upon him; he screams out;
+but I have seized him fast from behind, and driven my dagger right into
+his heart; the ornament is mine. This done I experienced a calmness, a
+satisfaction in my soul, which I had never yet experienced. The spectre
+had vanished; the voice of the fiend was still. Now I knew what my evil
+Destiny wanted; I had either to yield to it or to perish. And now too
+you understand the secret of all my conduct, Olivier. But do not
+believe, because I must do that for which there is no help, that
+therefore I have entirely lost all sense of pity, of compassion, which
+is said to be one of the essential properties of human nature. You know
+how hard it is for me to part with a finished piece of work, and that
+there are many for whom I refuse to work at all, because I do not wish
+their death; and it has also happened that when I felt my spectre would
+have to be exorcised on the following day by blood, I have satisfied it
+with a stout blow of the fist the same day, which stretched on the
+ground the owner of my jewel, and delivered the jewel itself into my
+hand.'
+
+"Having told me all this Cardillac took me into his secret vault and
+granted me a sight of his jewel-cabinet; and the king himself has not
+one finer. A short label was attached to each article, stating
+accurately for whom it was made, when it was recovered, and whether by
+theft, or by robbery from the person accompanied with violence, or by
+murder. Then Cardillac said in a hollow and solemn voice, 'On your
+wedding-day, Olivier, you will have to lay your hand on the image of
+the crucified Christ and swear a solemn oath that after I am dead you
+will reduce all these riches to dust, through means which I shall then,
+before I die, disclose to you. I will not have any human creature, and
+certainly neither Madelon nor you, come into possession of this blood-
+bought treasure-store.' Entangled in this labyrinth of crime, and with
+my heart lacerated by love and abhorrence, by rapture and horror, I
+might be compared to the condemned mortal whom a lovely angel is
+beckoning upwards with a gentle smile, whilst on the other hand Satan
+is holding him fast in his burning talons, till the good angel's smiles
+of love, in which are reflected all the bliss of the highest heaven,
+become converted into the most poignant of his miseries. I thought of
+flight--ay, even of suicide--but Madelon! Blame me, reproach me,
+honoured lady, for my too great weakness in not fighting down by an
+effort of will a passion that was fettering me to crime; but am I not
+about to atone for my fault by a death of shame?
+
+"One day Cardillac came home in uncommonly good spirits. He caressed
+Madelon, greeted me with the most friendly good-will, and at dinner
+drank a bottle of better wine, of a brand that he only produced on high
+holidays and festivals, and he also sang and gave vent to his feelings
+in exuberant manifestations of joy. When Madelon had left us I rose to
+return to the workshop. 'Sit still, lad,' said Cardillac; 'we'll not
+work any more to-day. Let us drink another glass together to the health
+of the most estimable and most excellent lady in Paris.' After I had
+joined glasses with him and had drained mine to the bottom, he went on,
+'Tell me, Olivier, how do you like these verses,'
+
+'Un amant qui craint les voleuis
+N'est point digne d'amour.'
+
+"Then he went on to relate the episode between you and the king in De
+Maintenon's salons, adding that he had always honoured you as he never
+had any other human creature, and that you were gifted with such lofty
+virtue as to make his ill-omened star of Destiny grow pale, and that if
+you were to wear the handsomest ornament he ever made it would never
+provoke in him either an evil spectre or murderous thoughts. 'Listen
+now, Olivier,' he said, 'what I have made up my mind to do. A long time
+ago I received an order for a necklace and a pair of bracelets for
+Henrietta of England,20 and the stones were given me for the purpose.
+The work turned out better than the best I had ever previously done;
+but my heart was torn at the thought of parting from the ornaments, for
+they had become my pet jewels. You are aware of the Princess's unhappy
+death by sinister means. The ornaments I retained, and will now send
+them to Mademoiselle de Scudéri in the name of the persecuted band of
+robbers as a token of my respect and gratitude. Not only will
+Mademoiselle receive an eloquent token of her triumph, but I shall also
+laugh Desgrais and his associates to scorn, as they deserve to be
+laughed at. You shall take her the ornaments.' As Cardillac mentioned
+your name, Mademoiselle, I seemed to see a dark veil thrown aside,
+revealing the fair, bright picture of my early happy childhood days in
+gay and cheerful colours. A wondrous source of comfort entered my soul,
+a ray of hope, before which all my dark spirits faded away. Possibly
+Cardillac noted the effect which his words had upon me and interpreted
+it in his own way, 'You appear to find pleasure in my plan,' he said.
+'And I may as well state to you that I have been commanded to do this
+by an inward monitor deep down in my heart, very different from that
+which demands its holocaust of blood like some ravenous beast of prey.
+I often experience very remarkable feelings; I am powerfully affected
+by an inward apprehension, by fear of something terrible, the horrors
+of which breathe upon me in the air from a far-distant world of the
+Supernatural. I then feel even as if the crimes I commit as the blind
+instrument of my ill-starred Destiny may be charged upon my immortal
+soul, which has no share in them. During one such mood I vowed to make
+a diamond crown for the Holy Virgin in St. Eustace's Church. But so
+often as I thought seriously about setting to work upon it, I was
+overwhelmed by this unaccountable apprehension, so that I gave up the
+project altogether. Now I feel as if I must humbly offer an
+acknowledgment at the altar of virtue and piety by sending to De
+Scudéri the handsomest ornaments I have ever worked.'
+
+"Cardillac, who was intimately acquainted with your habits and ways of
+life. Mademoiselle, gave me instructions respecting the manner and the
+hour--the how and the when--in which I was to deliver the ornaments,
+which he locked in an elegant case, into your hands. I was completely
+thrilled with delight, for Heaven itself now pointed out to me through
+the miscreant Cardillac, a way by which I might rescue myself from the
+hellish thraldom in which I, a sinner and outcast, was slowly
+perishing; these at least were my thoughts. In express opposition to
+Cardillac's will I resolved to force myself in to an interview with
+you. I intended to reveal myself as Anne Brusson's son, as your own
+adoptive child, and to throw myself at your feet and confess all--all.
+I knew that you would have been so touched by the overwhelming misery
+which would have threatened poor innocent Madelon by any disclosure
+that you would have respected the secret; whilst your keen, sagacious
+mind would, I felt assured, have devised some means by which
+Cardillac's infamous wickedness might have been prevented without any
+exposure. Pray do not ask me what shape these means would have taken; I
+do not know. But that you would save Madelon and me, of that I was most
+firmly convinced, as firmly as I believe in the comfort and help of the
+Holy Virgin. You know how my intention was frustrated that night,
+Mademoiselle. I still cherished the hope of being more successful
+another time. Soon after this Cardillac seemed suddenly to lose all his
+good-humour. He went about with a cloudy brow, fixed his eyes on
+vacancy in front of him, murmured unintelligible words, and
+gesticulated with his hands, as if warding off something hostile from
+him; his mind appeared to be tormented by evil thoughts. Thus he
+behaved during the course of one whole morning. Finally he sat down to
+his work-table; but he soon leapt up again peevishly and looked out of
+the window, saying moodily and earnestly, 'I wish after all that
+Henrietta of England had worn my ornaments.' These words struck terror
+to my heart. Now I knew that his warped mind was again enslaved by the
+abominable spectre of murder, and that the voice of the fiend was again
+ringing audibly in his ears. I saw your life was threatened by the
+villainous demon of murder. If Cardillac only had his ornaments in his
+hands again, you were saved.
+
+"Every moment the danger increased. Then I met you on the Pont Neuf,
+and forced my way to your carriage, and threw you that note, beseeching
+you to restore the ornaments which you had received to Cardillac's
+hands at once. You did not come. My distress deepened to despair when
+on the following day Cardillac talked about nothing else but the
+magnificent ornaments which he had seen before his eyes during the
+night. I could only interpret that as having reference to your
+jewellery, and I was certain that he was brooding over some fresh
+murderous onslaught which he had assuredly determined to put into
+execution during the coming night. I must save you, even if it cost
+Cardillac's own life. So soon as he had locked himself in his own room
+after evening prayers, according to his wont, I climbed out of a window
+into the court-yard, slipped through the opening in the wall, and took
+up my station at no great distance, hidden in the deep shade. I had not
+long to wait before Cardillac appeared and stole softly up the street,
+me following him. He bent his steps towards the Rue St. Honoré; my
+heart trembled with apprehension. All of a sudden I lost sight of him.
+I made up my mind to take post at your house-door. Then there came an
+officer past me, without perceiving me, singing and gaily humming a
+tune to himself, as on the occasion when chance first made me a witness
+of Cardillac's bloody deeds. But that selfsame moment a dark figure
+leapt forward and fell upon the officer. It was Cardillac. This murder
+I would at any rate prevent. With a loud shout I reached the spot in
+two or three bounds, when, not the officer, but Cardillac, fell on the
+floor groaning. The officer let his dagger fall, and drawing his sword
+put himself in a posture for fighting, imagining that I was the
+murderer's accomplice; but when he saw that I was only concerned about
+the slain man, and did not trouble myself about him, he hurried away.
+Cardillac was still alive. After picking up and taking charge of the
+dagger which the officer had let fall, I loaded my master upon my
+shoulders and painfully hugged him home, carrying him up to the
+workshop by way of the concealed stairs. The rest you know.
+
+"You see, honoured lady, that my only crime consists in the fact that I
+did not betray Madelon's father to the officers of the law, and so put
+an end to his enormities. My hands are clean of any deed of blood. No
+torture shall extort from me a confession of Cardillac's crimes. I will
+not, in defiance of the Eternal Power, which veiled the father's
+hideous bloodguiltiness from the eyes of the virtuous daughter, be
+instrumental in unfolding all the misery of the past, which would now
+have a far more disastrous effect upon her, nor do I wish to aid
+worldly vengeance in rooting up the dead man from the earth which
+covers him, nor that the executioner should now brand the mouldering
+bones with dishonour. No; the beloved of my soul will weep for me as
+one who has fallen innocent, and time will soften her sorrow; but how
+irretrievable a shock would it be if she learnt of the fearful and
+diabolical deeds of her dearly-loved father."
+
+Olivier paused; but now a torrent of tears suddenly burst from his
+eyes, and he threw himself at De Scudéri's feet imploringly. "Oh! now
+you are convinced of my innocence--oh! surely you must be! have pity
+upon me; tell me how my Madelon bears it." Mademoiselle summoned La
+Martinière, and in a few moments more Madelon's arms were round
+Olivier's neck. "Now all is well again since you are here. I knew it, I
+knew this most noble-minded lady would save you," cried Madelon again
+and again; and Olivier forgot his situation and all that was impending
+over him, he was free and happy. It was most touching to hear the two
+mutually pour out all their troubles, and relate all that they had
+suffered for one another's sake; then they embraced one another anew,
+and wept with joy to see each other again.
+
+If De Scudéri had not been already convinced of Olivier's innocence she
+would assuredly have been satisfied of it now as she sat watching the
+two, who forgot the world and their misery and their excessive
+sufferings in the happiness of their deep and genuine mutual affection.
+"No," she said to herself, "it is only a pure heart which is capable of
+such happy oblivion."
+
+The bright beams of morning broke in through the window. Desgrais
+knocked softly at the room door, and reminded those within that it was
+time to take Olivier Brusson away, since this could not be done later
+without exciting a commotion. The lovers were obliged to separate.
+
+The dim shapeless feelings which had taken possession of De Scudéri's
+mind on Olivier's first entry into the room, had now acquired form and
+content--and in a fearful way. She saw the son of her dear Anne
+innocently entangled in such a way that there hardly seemed any
+conceivable means of saving him from a shameful death. She honoured the
+young man's heroic purpose in choosing to die under an unjust burden of
+guilt rather than divulge a secret that would certainly kill his
+Madelon. In the whole region of possibility she could not find any
+means whatever to snatch the poor fellow out of the hands of the cruel
+tribunal. And yet she had a most clear conception that she ought not to
+hesitate at any sacrifice to avert this monstrous perversion of justice
+which was on the point of being committed. She racked her brain with a
+hundred different schemes and plans, some of which bordered upon the
+extravagant, but all these she rejected almost as soon as they
+suggested themselves. Meanwhile the rays of hope grew fainter and
+fainter, till at last she was on the verge of despair. But Madelon's
+unquestioning child-like confidence, the rapturous enthusiasm with
+which she spoke of her lover, who now, absolved of all guilt, would
+soon clasp her in his arms as his bride, infused De Scudéri with new
+hope and courage, exactly in proportion as she was the more touched by
+the girl's words.
+
+At length, for the sake of doing something. De Scudéri wrote a long
+letter to La Regnie, in which she informed him that Olivier Brusson had
+proved to her in the most convincing manner his perfect innocence of
+Cardillac's death, and that it was only his heroic resolve to carry
+with him into the grave a secret, the revelation of which would entail
+disaster upon virtue and innocence, that prevented him making a
+revelation to the court which would undoubtedly free him, not only from
+the fearful suspicion of having murdered Cardillac, but also of having
+belonged to a band of vile assassins. De Scudéri did all that burning
+zeal, that ripe and spirited eloquence could effect, to soften La
+Regnie's hard heart. In the course of a few hours La Regnie replied
+that he was heartily glad to learn that Olivier Brusson had justified
+himself so completely in the eyes of his noble and honoured
+protectress. As for Olivier's heroic resolve to carry with him into the
+grave a secret that had an important bearing upon the crime under
+investigation, he was sorry to say that the _Chambre Ardente_ could not
+respect such heroic courage, but would rather be compelled to adopt the
+strongest means to break it. At the end of three days he hoped to be in
+possession of this extraordinary secret, which it might be presumed
+would bring wonders to light.
+
+De Scudéri knew only too well what those means were by which the savage
+La Regnie intended to break Brusson's heroic constancy. She was now
+sure that the unfortunate was threatened with the rack. In her
+desperate anxiety it at length occurred to her that the advice of a
+doctor of the law would be useful, if only to effectuate a postponement
+of the torture. The most renowned advocate in Paris at that time was
+Pierre Amaud d'Andilly; and his sound knowledge and liberal mind were
+only to be compared to his virtue and his sterling honesty. To him,
+therefore, De Scudéri had recourse, and she told him all, so far as she
+could, without violating Brusson's secret She expected that D'Andilly
+would take up the cause of the innocent man with zeal, but she found
+her hopes most bitterly deceived. The lawyer listened calmly to all she
+had to say, and then replied in Boileau's words, smiling as he did so,
+"_Le vrai peut quelque fois n'être pas vraisemblable_"(Sometimes truth
+wears an improbable garb). He showed De Scudéri that there were most
+noteworthy grounds for suspicion against Brusson, that La Regnie's
+proceedings could neither be called cruel nor yet hurried, rather they
+were perfectly within the law--nay, that he could not act otherwise
+without detriment to his duties as judge. He himself did not see his
+way to saving Brusson from torture, even by the cleverest defence.
+Nobody but Brusson himself could avert it, either by a candid
+confession or at least by a most detailed account of all the
+circumstances attending Cardillac's murder, and this might then perhaps
+furnish grounds for instituting fresh inquiries. "Then I will throw
+myself at the king's feet and pray for mercy," said De Scudéri,
+distracted, her voice half choked by tears. "For Heaven's sake, don't
+do it, Mademoiselle, don't do it. I would advise you to reserve this
+last resource, for if it once fail it is lost to you for ever. The king
+will never pardon a criminal of this class: he would draw down upon
+himself the bitterest reproaches of the people, who would believe their
+lives were always in danger. Possibly Brusson, either by disclosing his
+secret or by some other means, may find a way to allay the suspicions
+which are working against him. Then will be the time to appeal to the
+king for mercy, for he will not inquire what has been proved before the
+court, but be guided by his own inner conviction." De Scudéri had no
+help for it but to admit that D'Andilly with his great experience was
+in the right.
+
+Late one evening she was sitting in her own room in very great trouble,
+appealing to the Virgin and the Holy Saints, and thinking whatever
+should she do to save the unhappy Brusson, when La Martinière came in
+to announce that Count de Miossens, colonel of the King's Guards, was
+urgently desiring to speak to Mademoiselle.
+
+"Pardon me, Mademoiselle," said Miossens, bowing with military grace,
+"pardon me for intruding upon you so late, at such an inconvenient
+hour. We soldiers cannot do as we like, and then a couple of words will
+suffice to excuse me. It is on Olivier Brusson's account that I have
+come." De Scudéri's attention was at once on the stretch as to what was
+to follow, and she said, "Olivier Brusson?--that most unhappy of
+mortals? What have you to do with him?" "Yes, I did indeed think,"
+continued Miossens smiling, "that your _protégé's_ name would be
+sufficient to procure me a favourable hearing. All the public are
+convinced of Brusson's guilt. But you, I know, cling to another
+opinion, which is based, to be sure, upon the protestations of the
+accused, as it is said; with me, however, it is otherwise. Nobody can
+be more firmly convinced that Brusson is innocent of Cardillac's death
+than I am." "Oh! go on and tell me; go on, pray!" exclaimed De Scudéri,
+whilst her eyes sparkled with delight. Miossens continued, speaking
+with emphasis, "It was I--I who stabbed the old goldsmith not far from
+your house here in the Rue St. Honors." "By the Saints!--you--you?"
+exclaimed Mademoiselle. "And I swear to you, Mademoiselle," went on
+Miossens, "that I am proud of the deed. For let me tell you that
+Cardillac was the most abandoned and hypocritical of villains, that it
+was he who committed those dreadful murders and robberies by night, and
+so long escaped all traps laid for him. Somehow, I can't say how, a
+strong feeling of suspicion was aroused in my mind against the old
+reprobate when he brought me an ornament I had ordered and was so
+visibly disturbed on giving it to me; and then he inquired particularly
+for whom I wanted the ornament, and also questioned my valet in the
+most artful way as to when I was in the habit of visiting a certain
+lady. I had long before noticed that all the unfortunates who fell
+victims to this abominable epidemic of murder and robbery bore one and
+the same wound. I felt sure that the assassin had by practice grown
+perfect in inflicting it, and that it must prove instantaneously fatal,
+and upon this he relied implicitly. If it failed, then it would come to
+a fight on equal terms. This led me to adopt a measure of precaution
+which is so simple that I cannot comprehend why it did not occur to
+others, who might then have safeguarded themselves against any
+murderous assault that threatened them. I wore a light shirt of mail
+under my tunic. Cardillac attacked me from behind. He laid hold upon me
+with the strength of a giant, but the surely-aimed blow glanced aside
+from the iron. That same moment I wrested myself free from his grasp,
+and drove my dagger, which I held in readiness, into his heart." "And
+you maintained silence?" asked De Scudéri; "you did not notify to the
+tribunals what you had done?" "Permit me to remark," went on Miossens,
+"permit me to remark, Mademoiselle, that such an announcement, if it
+had not at once entailed disastrous results upon me, would at any rate
+have involved me in a most detestable trial. Would La Regnie, who
+ferrets out crime everywhere--would he have believed my unsupported
+word if I had accused honest Cardillac, the pattern of piety and
+virtue, of an attempted murder? What if the sword of justice had turned
+its point against me?" "That would not have been possible," said De
+Scudéri, "your birth--your rank"---- "Oh! remember Marshal de
+Luxembourg, whose whim for having his horoscope cast by Le Sage brought
+him under the suspicion of being a poisoner, and eventually into the
+Bastille. No! by St. Denis! I would not risk my freedom for an hour--
+not even the lappet of my ear--in the power of that madman La Regnie,
+who only too well would like to have his knife at the throats of all of
+us." "But do you know you are bringing innocent Brusson to the
+scaffold?" "Innocent?" rejoined Miossens, "innocent? Are you speaking
+of the villain Cardillac's accomplice, Mademoiselle? he who helped him
+in his evil deeds? who deserves to die a hundred deaths? No, indeed! He
+would meet a just end on the scaffold. I have only disclosed to you,
+honoured lady, the details of the occurrence on the presupposition
+that, without delivering me into the hands of the _Chambre Ardent_, you
+will yet find a way to turn my secret to account on behalf of your _
+protégé_."
+
+De Scudéri was so enraptured at finding her conviction of Brusson's
+innocence confirmed in such a decisive manner that she did not scruple
+to tell the Count all, since he already knew of Cardillac's iniquity,
+and to exhort him to accompany her to see D'Andilly. To _him_ all
+should be revealed under the seal of secrecy, and he should advise them
+what was to be done.
+
+After De Scudéri had related all to D'Andilly down to the minutest
+particulars, he inquired once more about several of the most
+insignificant features. In particular he asked Count Miossens whether
+he was perfectly satisfied that it was Cardillac who had attacked him,
+and whether he would be able to identify Olivier Brusson as the man who
+had carried away the corpse. De Miossens made answer, "Not only did I
+very well recognise Cardillac by the bright light of the moon, but I
+have also seen in La Regnie's hands the dagger with which Cardillac was
+stabbed; it is mine, distinguished by the elegant workmanship of the
+hilt. As I only stood one yard from the young man, and his hat had
+fallen off, I distinctly saw his features, and should certainly
+recognise him again."
+
+After gazing thoughtfully before him for some minutes in silence,
+D'Andilly said, "Brusson cannot possibly be saved from the hands of
+justice in any ordinary and regular way. Out of consideration for
+Madelon he refuses to accuse Cardillac of being the thievish assassin.
+And he must continue to do so, for even if he succeeded in proving his
+statements by pointing out the secret exit and the accumulated store of
+stolen jewellery, he would still be liable to death as a partner in
+Cardillac's guilt. And the bearings of things would not be altered if
+Count Miossens were to state to the judges the real details of the
+meeting with Cardillac. The only thing we can aim at securing is a
+postponement of the torture. Let Count Miossens go to the
+_Conciergerie_, have Olivier Brusson brought forward, and recognise in
+him the man who carried away Cardillac's dead body. Then let him hurry
+off to La Regnie and say, 'I saw a man stabbed in the Rue St. Honoré,
+and as I stood close beside the corpse another man sprang forward and
+stooped down over the dead body; but on finding signs of life in him he
+lifted him on his shoulders and carried him away. This man I recognise
+in Olivier Brusson.' This evidence would lead to another hearing of
+Brusson and to his confrontation with Miossens. At all events the
+torture would be delayed and further inquiries would be instituted.
+Then will come the proper time to appeal to the king. It may be left to
+your sagacity, Mademoiselle, to do this in the adroitest manner. As far
+as my opinion goes, I think it would be best to disclose to him the
+whole mystery. Brusson's confessions are borne out by this statement of
+Count Miossens; and they may, perhaps, be still further substantiated
+by secret investigations at Cardillac's own house. All this could not
+afford grounds for a verdict of acquittal by the court, but it might
+appeal to the king's feelings, that it is his prerogative to speak
+mercy where the judge can only condemn, and so elicit a favourable
+decision from His Majesty." Count Miossens followed implicitly
+D'Andilly's advice; and the result was what the latter had foreseen.
+
+But now the thing was to get at the king; and this was the most
+difficult part of all to accomplish, since he believed that Brusson
+alone was the formidable assassin who for so long a time had held all
+Paris enthralled by fear and anxiety, and accordingly he had conceived
+such an abhorrence of him that he burst into a violent fit of passion
+at the slightest allusion to the notorious trial. De Maintenon,
+faithful to her principle of never speaking to the king on any subject
+that was disagreeable, refused to take any steps in the affair; and so
+Brusson's fate rested entirely in De Scudéri's hands. After long
+deliberation she formed a resolution which she carried into execution
+as promptly as she had conceived it. Putting on a robe of heavy black,
+silk, and hanging Cardillac's valuable necklace round her neck, and
+clasping the bracelets on her arms, and throwing a black veil over her
+head, she presented herself in De Maintenon's salons at a time when she
+knew the king would be present there. This stately robe invested the
+venerable lady's noble figure with such majesty as could not fail to
+inspire respect, even in the mob of idle loungers who were wont to
+collect in anterooms, laughing and jesting in frivolous and irreverent
+fashion. They all shyly made way for her; and when she entered the
+salon the king himself in his astonishment rose and came to meet her.
+As his eyes fell upon the glitter of the costly diamonds in the
+necklace and bracelets, he cried, "'Pon my soul, that's Cardillac's
+jewellery!" Then, turning to De Maintenon, he added with an arch smile,
+"See, Marchioness, how our fair bride mourns for her bridegroom." "Oh!
+your Majesty," broke in De Scudéri, taking up the jest and carrying it
+on, "would it indeed beseem a deeply sorrowful bride to adorn herself
+in this splendid fashion? No, I have quite broken off with that
+goldsmith, and should never think about him more, were it not that the
+horrid recollection of him being carried past me after he had been
+murdered so often recurs to my mind." "What do you say?" asked the
+king. "What! you saw the poor devil?" De Scudéri now related in a few
+words how she chanced to be near Cardillac's house just as the murder
+was discovered--as yet she did not allude to Brusson's being mixed up
+in the matter. She sketched Madelon's excessive grief, told what a deep
+impression the angelic child made upon her, and described in what way
+she had rescued the poor girl out of Desgrais' hands, amid the
+approving shouts of the people. Then came the scenes with La Regnie,
+with Desgrais, with Brusson--the interest deepening and intensifying
+from moment to moment. The king was so carried away by the
+extraordinary graphic power and burning eloquence of Mademoiselle's
+narration that he did not perceive she was talking about the hateful
+trial of the abominable wretch Brusson; he was quite unable to utter a
+word; all he could do was to let off the excess of his emotion by an
+exclamation from time to time. Ere he knew where he was--he was so
+utterly confused by this unprecedented tale which he had heard that he
+was unable to order his thoughts--De Scudéri was prostrate at his feet,
+imploring pardon for Olivier Brusson. "What are you doing?" burst out
+the king, taking her by both hands and forcing her into a chair. "What
+do you mean, Mademoiselle? This is a strange way to surprise me. Oh!
+it's a terrible story. Who will guarantee me that Brusson's marvellous
+tale is true?" Whereupon De Scudéri replied, "Miossens' evidence--an
+examination of Cardillac's house--my heart-felt conviction--and oh!
+Madelon's virtuous heart, which recognised the like virtue in unhappy
+Brusson's." Just as the king was on the point of making some reply he
+was interrupted by a noise at the door, and turned round. Louvois, who
+during this time was working in the adjoining apartment, looked in with
+an expression of anxiety stamped upon his features. The king rose and
+left the room, following Louvois.
+
+The two ladies, both De Scudéri and De Maintenon, regarded this
+interruption as dangerous, for having been once surprised the king
+would be on his guard against falling a second time into the trap set
+for him. Nevertheless after a lapse of some minutes the king came back
+again; after traversing the room once or twice at a quick pace, he
+planted himself immediately in front of De Scudéri and, throwing his
+arms behind his back, said in almost an undertone, yet without looking
+at her, "I should very much like to see your Madelon." Mademoiselle
+replied, "Oh! my precious liege! what a great--great happiness your
+condescension will confer upon the poor unhappy child. Oh! the little
+girl only waits a sign from you to approach, to throw herself at your
+feet." Then she tripped towards the door as quickly as she was able in
+her heavy clothing, and called out on the outside of it that the king
+would admit Madelon Cardillac; and she came back into the room weeping
+and sobbing with overpowering delight and gladness.
+
+De Scudéri had foreseen that some such favour as this might be granted
+and so had brought Madelon along with her, and she was waiting with the
+Marchioness' lady-in-waiting with a short petition in her hands that
+had been drawn up by D'Andilly. After a few minutes she lay prostrate
+at the king's feet, unable to speak a word. The throbbing blood was
+driven quicker and faster through the poor girl's veins owing to
+anxiety, nervous confusion, shy reverence, love, and anguish. Her
+cheeks were died with a deep purple blush; her eyes shone with bright
+pearly tears, which from time to time fell through her silken eyelashes
+upon her beautiful lily-white bosom. The king appeared to be struck
+with the surprising beauty of the angelic creature. He softly raised
+her up, making a motion as if about to kiss the hand which he had
+grasped. But he let it go again and regarded the lovely girl with tears
+in his eyes, thus betraying how great was the emotion stirring within
+him. De Maintenon softly whispered to Mademoiselle, "Isn't she exactly
+like La Vallière,21 the little thing? There's hardly a pin's difference
+between them. The king luxuriates in the most pleasing memories. Your
+cause is won."
+
+Notwithstanding the low tone in which De Maintenon spoke, the king
+appeared to have heard what she said. A fleeting blush passed across
+his face; his eye wandered past De Maintenon; he read the petition
+which Madelon had presented to him, and then said mildly and kindly, "I
+am quite ready to believe, my dear child, that you are convinced of
+your lover's innocence; but let us hear what the _Chambre Ardente_ has
+got to say to it." With a gentle wave of the hand he dismissed the
+young girl, who was weeping as if her heart would break.
+
+To her dismay De Scudéri observed that the recollection of La Vallière,
+however beneficial it had appeared to be at first, had occasioned the
+king to alter his mind as soon as De Maintenon mentioned her name.
+Perhaps the king felt he was being reminded in a too indelicate way of
+how he was about to sacrifice strict justice to beauty, or perhaps he
+was like the dreamer, when, on somebody's shouting to him, the lovely
+dream-images which he was about to clasp, quickly vanish away. Perhaps
+he no longer saw _his_ La Vallière before his eyes, but only thought of
+Sœur Louise de la Misèricorde (Louise the Sister of Mercy),--the name
+La Vallière had assumed on joining the Carmelite nuns--who worried him
+with her pious airs and repentance. What else could they now do but
+calmly wait for the king's decision?
+
+Meanwhile Count Miossens' deposition before the _Chambre Ardente_ had
+become publicly known; and as it frequently happens that the people
+rush so readily from one extreme to another, so on this occasion he
+whom they had at first cursed as a most abominable murderer and had
+threatened to tear to pieces, they now pitied, even before he ascended
+the scaffold, as the innocent victim of barbarous justice. Now his
+neighbours first began to call to mind his exemplary walk of life, his
+great love for Madelon, and the faithfulness and touching submissive
+affection which he had cherished for the old goldsmith. Considerable
+bodies of the populace began to appear in a threatening manner before
+La Regnie's palace and to cry out, "Give us Olivier Brusson; he is
+innocent;" and they even stoned the windows, so that La Regnie was
+obliged to seek shelter from the enraged mob with the _Maréchaussée_.
+
+Several days passed, and Mademoiselle heard not the least intelligence
+about Olivier Brusson's trial. She was quite inconsolable and went off
+to Madame de Maintenon; but she assured her that the king maintained a
+strict silence about the matter, and it would not be advisable to
+remind him of it. Then when she went on to ask with a smile of singular
+import how little La Vallière was doing, De Scudéri was convinced that
+deep down in the heart of the proud lady there lurked some feeling of
+vexation at this business, which might entice the susceptible king into
+a region whose charm she could not understand. Mademoiselle need
+therefore hope for nothing from De Maintenon.
+
+At last, however, with D'Andilly's help, De Scudéri succeeded in
+finding out that the king had had a long and private interview with
+Count Miossens. Further, she learned that Bontems, the king's most
+confidential valet and general agent, had been to the Conciergerie and
+had an interview with Brusson, also that the same Bontems had one night
+gone with several men to Cardillac's house, and there spent a
+considerable time. Claude Patru, the man who inhabited the lower
+storey, maintained that they were knocking about overhead all night
+long, and he was sure that Olivier had been with them, for he
+distinctly heard his voice. This much was, therefore, at any rate
+certain, that the king himself was having the true history of the
+circumstances inquired into; but the long delay before he gave his
+decision was inexplicable. La Regnie would no doubt do all he possibly
+could to keep his grip upon the victim who was to be taken out of his
+clutches. And this annihilated every hope as soon as it began to bud.
+
+A month had nearly passed when De Maintenon sent word to Mademoiselle
+that the king wished to see her that evening in her salons.
+
+De Scudéri's heart beat high; she knew that Brusson's case would now be
+decided. She told poor Madelon so, who prayed fervently to the Virgin
+and the saints that they would awaken in the king's mind a conviction
+of Brusson's innocence.
+
+Yet it appeared as though the king had completely forgotten the matter,
+for in his usual way he dallied in graceful conversation with the two
+ladies, and never once made any allusion to poor Brusson. At last
+Bontems appeared, and approaching the king whispered certain words in
+his ear, but in so low a tone that neither De Maintenon nor De Scudéri
+could make anything out of them. Mademoiselle's heart quaked. Then the
+king rose to his feet and approached her, saying with brimming eyes, "I
+congratulate you, Mademoiselle. Your _protégé_ Olivier Brusson, is
+free." The tears gushed from the old lady's eyes; unable to speak a
+word, she was about to throw herself at the king's feet. But he
+prevented her, saying, "Go, go, Mademoiselle. You ought to be my
+advocate in Parliament and plead my causes, for, by St. Denis, there's
+nobody on earth could withstand your eloquence; and yet," he continued,
+"and yet when Virtue herself has taken a man under her own protection,
+is he not safe from all base accusations, from the _Chambre Ardente_
+and all other tribunals in the world?" De Scudéri now found words and
+poured them out in a stream of glowing thanks. The king interrupted
+her, by informing her that she herself would find awaiting her in her
+own house still warmer thanks than he had a right to claim from her,
+for probably at that moment the happy Olivier was clasping his Madelon
+in his arms. "Bontems shall pay you a thousand _Louis d'or_," concluded
+the king. "Give them in my name to the little girl as a dowry. Let her
+marry her Brusson, who doesn't deserve such good fortune, and then let
+them both be gone out of Paris, for such is my will."
+
+La Martinière came running forward to meet her mistress, and Baptiste
+behind her; the faces of both were radiant with joy; both cried
+delighted, "He is here! he is free! O the dear young people!" The happy
+couple threw themselves at Mademoiselle's feet. "Oh! I knew it! I knew
+it!" cried Madelon. "I knew that you, that nobody but you, would save
+my darling Olivier." "And O my mother," cried Olivier, "my belief in
+you never wavered." They both kissed the honoured lady's hands, and
+shed innumerable tears. Then they embraced each other again and again,
+affirming that the exquisite happiness of that moment outweighed all
+the unutterable sufferings of the days that were past; and they vowed
+never to part from each other till Death himself came to part them.
+
+A few days later they were united by the blessing of the priest. Even
+though it had not been the King's wish, Brusson would not have stayed
+in Paris, where everything would have reminded him of the fearful time
+of Cardillac's crimes, and where, moreover, some accident might reveal
+in pernicious wise his dark secret, now become known to several
+persons, and so his peace of mind might be ruined for ever. Almost
+immediately after the wedding he set out with his young wife for
+Geneva, Mademoiselle's blessings accompanying them on the way. Richly
+provided with means through Madelon's dowry, and endowed with uncommon
+skill at his trade, as well as with every virtue of a good citizen, he
+led there a happy life, free from care. He realised the hopes which had
+deceived his father and had brought him at last to his grave.
+
+A year after Brusson's departure there appeared a public proclamation,
+signed by Harloy de Chauvalon, Archbishop of Paris, and by the
+parliamentary advocate, Pierre Arnaud d'Andilly, which ran to the
+effect that a penitent sinner had, under the seal of confession, handed
+over to the Church a large and valuable store of jewels and gold
+ornaments which he had stolen. Everybody who up to the end of the year
+1680 had lost ornaments by theft, particularly by a murderous attack in
+the public street, was to apply to D'Andilly, and then, if his
+description of the ornament which had been stolen from him tallied
+exactly with any of the pieces awaiting identification, and if further
+there existed no doubt as to the legitimacy of his claim, he should
+receive his property again. Many of those whose names stood on
+Cardillac's list as having been, not murdered, but merely stunned by a
+blow, gradually came one after the other to the parliamentary advocate,
+and received, to their no little amazement, their stolen property back
+again. The rest fell to the coffers of the Church of St. Eustace.
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI":
+
+Footnote 1 Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701), a native of Normandy, went
+to Paris and became connected with the Hotel Rambouillet. Afterwards,
+on its being broken up by the troubles of the Fronde, she formed a
+literary circle of her own, their "Saturday gatherings" becoming
+celebrated. Mademoiselle de Scudéry wrote some vapid and tedious
+novels, amongst which were the _Clélie_ (1656), an historical romance,
+to be mentioned presently in the text.]
+
+Footnote 2 The well-known wife of Scarron, then the successor of Madame
+de Montespan in the favour of Louis XIV., and afterwards his wife.]
+
+Footnote 3 A kind of mounted gensdarmes or police.]
+
+Footnote 4 Supposed to have been arsenic.]
+
+Footnote 5 These facts are all for the most part historically true.]
+
+Footnote 6 Marie M. d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, a notorious
+poisoner, executed July 16, 1676. Madame de Sévigné's _Lettres_ contain
+interesting information on the events of this period. A special history
+of De Brinvillier's trial was also published in the same year, 1676.]
+
+Footnote 7 An old servant of Sainte Croix's, whose real name was Jean
+Amelin.]
+
+Footnote 8 Nicholas G. de la Reynie was born at Limoges in 1625; he
+acquired a sort of Judge Jeffreys' reputation by his cruelties and
+bloodthirstiness as president of the _Chambre Ardente_.]
+
+Footnote 9 These two ladies, Marie and Olympe Mancini, were sisters,
+nieces of Mazarin. The latter was promoted to be head of the Queen's
+household, and thus provoked the hatred of Madame de Montespan (the
+King's mistress) and Louvois, through whose machinations she was
+accused before the _Chambre Ardente_.]
+
+Footnote 10 François Henry de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg, was
+known until 1661 by the name of Bouteville. His name stands high on the
+roll of distinguished French Marshals.]
+
+Footnote 11 François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois (1639-91),
+Louis XIV.'s minister at this time.]
+
+Footnote 12 Her real answer was, "Je le vois en ce moment; il est fort
+laid et fort vilain; il est déguisé en conseiller d'état." (I see him
+at this moment; he is very ugly and very hideous; he is disguised as a
+state councillor.)]
+
+Footnote 13 The Marquis de la Fare had liaisons, first with Madame de
+Rochefort, with Louvois for rival, and afterwards with Madame de la
+Sablière.]
+
+Footnote 14 This incident is not an invention of the author's. He
+states that he got it from Wagenseil's _Chronik von Nürnberg_ (1697),
+the said Wagenseilius having been to Paris and paid a visit to
+Mademoiselle de Scudéry herself. The answer this lady gave the king is
+also historically true, according to Hoffmann, and it was spoken under
+circumstances almost exactly like those represented in the text.]
+
+Footnote 15 The old _Louis d'Or_ of Louis XIV. = about £1, 0s. 3d. (Cf.
+A _Frederick d'or_ was a gold coin worth five thalers.--Note, p. 281,
+vol. I.)]
+
+Footnote 16 One of Louis XIV.'s former mistresses--Marie de Roussille,
+Duchess de Fontanges (1661-1681)--is described as being of great
+beauty, but deficient in intellectual grace and charm of manner, and as
+being arrogant and cold-hearted.]
+
+Footnote 17 Jean de la Chapelle (1655-1723) attempted to fill the gap
+left in the dramatic world by Racine's retirement from play-writing,
+though,--it is said, with but indifferent success.]
+
+Footnote 18 It was constructed after plans by this Claude Perrault in
+1666-1670.]
+
+Footnote 19 The well-known pleasure castle erected by Louis XIV. at
+Versailles for De Maintenon.]
+
+Footnote 20 Daughter of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria of France; she
+died 29th June, 1670, believing herself to have been poisoned; and this
+was currently accepted in France, though now rejected by historians as
+incorrect.]
+
+Footnote 21 Françoise Louise, Duchess de La Vallière, a former mistress
+of Louis XIV. On being supplanted in the monarch's favour by Madame de
+Montespan, she entered the order of Carmelite nuns.
+
+
+
+
+_GAMBLER'S LUCK._
+
+
+Pyrmont had a larger concourse of visitors than ever in the summer of
+18--. The number of rich and illustrious strangers increased from day
+to day, greatly exciting the zeal of speculators of all kinds. Hence it
+was also that the owners of the faro-bank took care to pile up their
+glittering gold in bigger heaps, in order that this, the bait of the
+noblest game, which they, like good skilled hunters, knew how to decoy,
+might preserve its efficacy.
+
+Who does not know how fascinating an excitement gambling is,
+particularly at watering-places, during the season, where every
+visitor, having laid aside his ordinary habits and course of life,
+deliberately gives himself up to leisure and ease and exhilarating
+enjoyment? then gambling becomes an irresistible attraction. People who
+at other times never touch a card are to be seen amongst the most eager
+players; and besides, it is the fashion, especially in higher circles,
+for every one to visit the bank in the evening and lose a little money
+at play.
+
+The only person who appeared not to heed this irresistible attraction,
+and this injunction of fashion, was a young German Baron, whom we will
+call Siegfried. When everybody else hurried off to the play-house, and
+he was deprived of all means and all prospect of the intellectual
+conversation he loved, he preferred either to give reins to the flights
+of his fancy in solitary walks or to stay in his own room and take up a
+book, or even indulge in poetic attempts, in writing, himself.
+
+As Siegfried was young, independent, rich, of noble appearance and
+pleasing disposition, it could not fail but that he was highly esteemed
+and loved, and that he had the most decisive good-fortune with the fair
+sex. And in everything that he took up or turned his attention to,
+there seemed to be a singularly lucky star presiding over his actions.
+Rumour spoke of many extraordinary love-intrigues which had been forced
+upon him, and out of which, however ruinous they would in all
+likelihood have been for many other young men, he escaped with
+incredible ease and success. But whenever the conversation turned upon
+him and his good fortune, the old gentlemen of his acquaintance were
+especially fond of relating a story about a watch, which had happened
+in the days of his early youth. For it chanced once that Siegfried,
+while still under his guardian's care, had quite unexpectedly found
+himself so straitened for money on a journey that he was absolutely
+obliged to sell his gold watch, which was set with brilliants, merely
+in order to get on his way. He had made up his mind that he would have
+to throw away his valuable watch for an old song; but as there happened
+to be in the hotel where he had put up at a young prince who was just
+in want of such an ornament, the Baron actually received for it more
+than it was really worth. More than a year passed and Siegfried had
+become his own master, when he read in the newspapers in another place
+that a watch was to be made the subject of a lottery. He took a ticket,
+which cost a mere trifle, and won--the same gold watch set with
+brilliants which he had sold. Not long afterwards he exchanged this
+watch for a valuable ring. He held office for a short time under the
+Prince of G----, and when he retired from his post the Prince presented
+to him as a mark of his good-will the very identical gold watch set
+with brilliants as before, together with a costly chain.
+
+From this story they passed to Siegfried's obstinacy in never on any
+account touching a card; why, with his strongly pronounced good-luck he
+had all the more inducement to play; and they were unanimous in coming
+to the conclusion that the Baron, notwithstanding all his other
+conspicuous good qualities, was a miserly fellow, far too careful and
+far too stingy to expose himself to the smallest possible loss. That
+the Baron's conduct was in every particular the direct contrary of that
+of an avaricious man had no weight with them; and as is so often the
+case, when the majority have set their hearts upon tagging a
+questioning 'but' on to the good name of a talented man, and are
+determined to find this 'but' at any cost, even though it should be in
+their own imagination, so in the present case the sneering allusion to
+Siegfried's aversion to play afforded them infinite satisfaction.
+
+Siegfried was not long in learning what was being said about him; and
+since, generous and liberal as he was, there was nothing he hated and
+detested more than miserliness, he made up his mind to put his
+traducers to shame by ransoming himself from this foul aspersion at the
+cost of a couple of hundred _Louis d'or_, or even more if need be,
+however much disgusted he might feel at gambling. He presented himself
+at the faro-bank with the deliberate intention of losing the large sum
+which he had put in his pocket; but in play also the good luck which
+stood by him in everything he undertook did not prove unfaithful. Every
+card he chose won. The cabalistic calculations of seasoned old players
+were shivered to atoms against the Baron's play. No matter whether he
+changed his cards or continued to stake on1 the same one, it was all
+the same: he was always a winner. In the Baron they had the singular
+spectacle of a punter at variance with himself because the cards fell
+favourable for him; and notwithstanding that the explanation of his
+behaviour was pretty patent, yet people looked at each other
+significantly and gave utterance in no ambiguous terms to the opinion
+that the Baron, carried along by his penchant for the marvellous, might
+eventually become insane, for any player who could be dismayed at his
+run of luck must surely be insane.
+
+The very fact of having won a considerable sum of money made it
+obligatory upon the Baron to go on playing until he should have carried
+out his original purpose; for in all probability his large win would be
+followed by a still larger loss. But people's expectations were not in
+the remotest degree realised, for the Baron's striking good-luck
+continued to attend him.
+
+Without his being conscious of it, there began to be awakened in his
+mind a strong liking for faro, which with all its simplicity is the
+most ominous of games; and this liking continued to increase more and
+more. He was no longer dissatisfied with his good-luck; gambling
+fettered his attention and held him fast to the table for nights and
+nights, so that he was perforce compelled to give credence to the
+peculiar attraction of the game, of which his friends had formerly
+spoken and which he would by no means allow to be correct, for he was
+attracted to faro not by the thirst for gain, but simply and solely by
+the game itself.
+
+One night, just as the banker had finished a _taille_, the Baron
+happened to raise his eyes and observed that an elderly man had taken
+post directly opposite to him and had got his eyes fixed upon him in a
+set, sad, earnest gaze. And as long as play lasted, every time the
+Baron looked up, his eyes met the stranger's dark sad stare, until at
+last he could not help being struck with a very uncomfortable and
+oppressive feeling. And the stranger only left the apartment when play
+came to an end for the night. The following night he again stood
+opposite the Baron, staring at him with unaverted gaze, whilst his eyes
+had a dark mysterious spectral look. The Baron still kept his temper.
+But when on the third night the stranger appeared again and fixed his
+eyes, burning with a consuming fire, upon the Baron, the latter burst
+out, "Sir, I must beg you to choose some other place. You exercise a
+constraining influence upon my play."
+
+With a painful smile the stranger bowed and left the table, and the
+hall too, without uttering a word.
+
+But on the next night the stranger again stood opposite the Baron,
+piercing him through and through with his dark fiery glance. Then the
+Baron burst out still more angrily than on the preceding night, "If you
+think it a joke, sir, to stare at me, pray choose some other time and
+some other place to do so; and now have the"---- A wave of the hand
+towards the door took the place of the harsh words the Baron was about
+to utter. And as on the previous night, the stranger, after bowing
+slightly, left the hall with the same painful smile upon his lips.
+
+Siegfried was so excited and heated by play, by the wine which he had
+taken, and also by the scene with the stranger, that he could not
+sleep. Morning was already breaking, when the stranger's figure
+appeared before his eyes. He observed his striking, sharp-cut features,
+worn with suffering, and his sad deep-set eyes just as he had stared at
+him; and he noticed his distinguished bearing, which, in spite of his
+mean clothing, betrayed a man of high culture. And then the air of
+painful resignation with which the stranger submitted to the harsh
+words flung at him, and fought down his bitter feelings with an effort,
+and left the hall! "No," cried Siegfried, "I did him wrong--great
+wrong. Is it indeed at all like me to blaze up in this rude, ill-
+mannered way, like an uncultivated clown, and to offer insults to
+people without the least provocation?" The Baron at last arrived at the
+conviction that it must have been a most oppressive feeling of the
+sharp contrast between them which had made the man stare at him so; in
+the moment that he was perhaps contending with the bitterest poverty,
+he (the Baron) was piling up heaps and heaps of gold with all the
+superciliousness of the gambler. He resolved to find out the stranger
+that very morning and atone to him for his rudeness.
+
+And as chance would have it, the very first person whom the Baron saw
+strolling down the avenue was the stranger himself.
+
+The Baron addressed him, offered the most profuse apologies for his
+behaviour of the night before, and in conclusion begged the stranger's
+pardon in all due form. The stranger replied that he had nothing to
+pardon, since large allowances must be made for a player deeply intent
+over his game, and besides, he had only himself to blame for the harsh
+words he had provoked, since he had obstinately persisted in remaining
+in the place where he disturbed the Baron's play.
+
+The Baron went further; he said there were often seasons of momentary
+embarrassment in life which weighed with a most galling effect upon a
+man of refinement, and he plainly hinted to the stranger that he was
+willing to give the money he had won, or even more still, if by that
+means he could perhaps be of any assistance to him.
+
+"Sir," replied the stranger, "you think I am in want, but that is not
+indeed the case; for though poor rather than rich, I yet have enough to
+satisfy my simple wants. Moreover, you will yourself perceive that as a
+man of honour I could not possibly accept a large sum of money from you
+as indemnification for the insult you conceive you have offered me,
+even though I were not a gentleman of birth."
+
+"I think I understand you," replied the Baron starting; "I am ready to
+grant you the satisfaction you demand."
+
+"Good God!" continued the stranger--"Good God, how unequal a contest it
+would be between us two! I am certain that you think as I do about a
+duel, that it is not to be treated as a piece of childish folly; nor do
+you believe that a few drops of blood, which have perhaps fallen from a
+scratched finger, can ever wash tarnished honour bright again. There
+are many cases in which it is impossible for two particular individuals
+to continue to exist together on this earth, even though the one live
+in the Caucasus and the other on the Tiber; no separation is possible
+so long as the hated foe can be thought of as still alive. In this case
+a duel to decide which of the two is to give way to the other on this
+earth is a necessity. Between us now, as I have just said, a duel would
+be fought upon unequal terms, since nohow can my life be valued so
+highly as yours. If I run you through, I destroy a whole world of the
+finest hopes; and if I fall, then you have put an end to a miserable
+existence, that is harrowed by the bitterest and most agonising
+memories. But after all--and this is of course the main thing--I don't
+conceive myself to have been in the remotest degree insulted. You bade
+me go, and I went."
+
+These last words the stranger spoke in a tone which nevertheless
+betrayed the sting in his heart. This was enough for the Baron to again
+apologise, which he did by especially dwelling upon the fact that the
+stranger's glance had, he did not know why, gone straight to his heart,
+till at last he could endure it no longer.
+
+"I hope then," said the stranger, "that if my glance did really
+penetrate to your heart, it aroused you to a sense of the threatening
+danger on the brink of which you are hovering. With a light glad heart
+and youthful ingenuousness you are standing on the edge of the abyss of
+ruin; one single push and you will plunge headlong down without a hope
+of rescue. In a single word, you are on the point of becoming a
+confirmed and passionate gambler and ruining yourself."
+
+The Baron assured him that he was completely mistaken. He related the
+circumstances under which he had first gone to the faro-table, and
+assured him that he entirely lacked the gambler's characteristic
+disposition; all he wished was to lose two hundred _Louis d'or_ or so,
+and when he had succeeded in this he intended to cease punting. Up to
+that time, however, he had had the most conspicuous run of good-luck.
+
+"Oh! but," cried the stranger, "oh! but it is exactly this run of good-
+luck wherein lies the subtlest and most formidable temptation of the
+malignant enemy. It is this run of good-luck which attends your play,
+Baron,--the circumstances under which you have begun to play,--nay,
+your entire behaviour whilst actually engaged in play, which only too
+plainly betray how your interest in it deepens and increases on each
+occasion; all--all this reminds me only too forcibly of the awful fate
+of a certain unhappy man, who, in many respects like you, began to play
+under circumstances similar to those which you have described in your
+own case. And therefore it was that I could not keep my eyes off you,
+and that I was hardly able to restrain myself from saying in words what
+my glances were meant to tell you. 'Oh! see--see--see the demons
+stretching out their talons to drag you down into the pit of ruin.'
+Thus I should like to have called to you. I was desirous of making your
+acquaintance; and I have succeeded. Let me tell you the history of the
+unfortunate man whom I mentioned; you will then perhaps be convinced
+that it is no idle phantom of the brain when I see you in the most
+imminent danger, and warn you."
+
+The stranger and the Baron both sat down upon a seat which stood quite
+isolated, and then the stranger began as follows:--
+
+"The same brilliant qualities which distinguish you, Herr Baron, gained
+Chevalier Menars the esteem and admiration of men and made him a
+favourite amongst women. In riches alone Fortune had not been so
+gracious to him as she has been to you; he was almost in want; and it
+was only through exercising the strictest economy that he was enabled
+to appear in a state becoming his position as the scion of a
+distinguished family. Since even the smallest loss would be serious for
+him and upset the entire tenor of his course of life, he dare not
+indulge in play; besides, he had no inclination to do so, and it was
+therefore no act of self-sacrifice on his part to avoid the tables. It
+is to be added that he had the most remarkable success in everything
+which he took in hand, so that Chevalier Menars' good-luck became a
+by-word.
+
+"One night he suffered himself to be persuaded, contrary to his
+practice, to visit a play-house. The friends whom he had accompanied
+were soon deeply engaged in play.
+
+"Without taking any interest in what was going forward, the Chevalier,
+busied with thoughts of quite a different character, first strode up
+and down the apartment and then stood with his eyes fixed upon the
+gaming-table, where the gold continued to pour in upon the banker from
+all sides. All at once an old colonel observed the Chevalier, and cried
+out, 'The devil! Here we've got Chevalier Menars and his good-luck
+amongst us, and yet we can win nothing, since he has declared neither
+for the banker nor for the punters. But we can't have it so any longer;
+he shall at once punt for me.'
+
+"All the Baron's attempts to excuse himself on the ground of his lack
+of skill and total want of experience were of no avail; the Colonel was
+not to be denied; the Chevalier must take his place at the table.
+
+"The Chevalier had exactly the same run of fortune that you have, Herr
+Baron. The cards fell favourable for him, and he had soon won a
+considerable sum for the Colonel, whose joy at his grand thought of
+claiming the loan of Chevalier Menars' steadfast good-luck knew no
+bounds.
+
+"This good-luck, which quite astonished all the rest of those present,
+made not the slightest impression upon the Chevalier; nay, somehow, in
+a way inexplicable to himself, his aversion to play took deeper root,
+so that on the following morning when he awoke and felt the
+consequences of his exertion during the night, through which he had
+been awake, in a general relaxation both mental and physical, he took a
+most earnest resolve never again under any circumstances to visit a
+play-house.
+
+"And in this resolution he was still further strengthened by the old
+Colonel's conduct; he had the most decided ill-luck with every card he
+took up; and the blame for this run of bad-luck he, with the most
+extraordinary infatuation, put upon the Chevalier's shoulders. In an
+importunate manner he demanded that the Chevalier should either punt
+for him or at any rate stand at his side, so as by his presence to
+banish the perverse demon who always put into his hands cards which
+never turned up right. Of course it is well known that there is more
+absurd superstition to be found amongst gamblers than almost anywhere
+else. The only way in which the Chevalier could get rid of the Colonel
+was by declaring in a tone of great seriousness that he would rather
+fight him than play for him, for the Colonel was no great friend of
+duels. The Chevalier cursed his good-nature in having complied with the
+old fool's request at first.
+
+"Now nothing less was to be expected than that the story of the Baron's
+marvellously lucky play should pass from mouth to mouth, and also that
+all sorts of enigmatical mysterious circumstances should be invented
+and added on to it, representing the Chevalier as a man in league with
+supernatural powers. But the fact that the Chevalier in spite of his
+good-luck did not touch another card, could not fail to inspire the
+highest respect for his firmness of character, and so very much
+increase the esteem which he already enjoyed.
+
+"Somewhere about a year later the Chevalier was suddenly placed in a
+most painful and embarrassing position owing to the non-arrival of the
+small sum of money upon which he relied to defray his current expenses.
+He was obliged to disclose his circumstances to his most intimate
+friend, who without hesitation supplied him with what he needed, at the
+same time twitting him with being the most hopelessly eccentric fellow
+that ever was. 'Destiny,' said he 'gives us hints in what way and where
+we ought to seek our own benefit; and we have only our own indolence to
+blame if we do not heed, do not understand these hints. The Higher
+Power that rules over us has whispered quite plainly in your ears, If
+you want money and property go and play, else you will be poor and
+needy, and never independent, as long as you live.'
+
+"And now for the first time the thought of how wonderfully fortune had
+favoured him at the faro-bank took clear and distinct shape in his
+mind; and both in his dreams and when awake he heard the banker's
+monotonous _gagne_, _perd_,2 and the rattle of the gold pieces. 'Yes,
+it is undoubtedly so,' he said to himself, 'a single night like that
+one before would free me from my difficulties, and help me over the
+painful embarrassment of being a burden to my friends; it is my duty to
+follow the beckoning finger of fate.' The friends who had advised him
+to try play, accompanied him to the play-house, and gave him twenty
+_Louis d'or_3 more that he might begin unconcerned.
+
+"If the Chevalier's play had been splendid when he punted for the old
+Colonel, it was indeed doubly so now. Blindly and without choice he
+drew the cards he staked upon, but the invisible hand of that Higher
+Power which is intimately related to Chance, or rather actually is what
+we call Chance, seemed to be regulating his play. At the end of the
+evening he had won a thousand _Louis d'or_.
+
+"Next morning he awoke with a kind of dazed feeling. The gold pieces he
+had won lay scattered about beside him on the table. At the first
+moment he fancied he was dreaming; he rubbed his eyes; he grasped the
+table and pulled it nearer towards him. But when he began to reflect
+upon what had happened, when he buried his fingers amongst the gold
+pieces, when he counted them with gratified satisfaction, and even
+counted them through again, then delight in the base mammon shot for
+the first time like a pernicious poisonous breath through his every
+nerve and fibre, then it was all over with the purity of sentiment
+which he had so long preserved intact. He could hardly wait for night
+to come that he might go to the faro-table again. His good-luck
+continued constant, so that after a few weeks, during which he played
+nearly every night, he had won a considerable sum.
+
+"Now there are two sorts of players. Play simply as such affords to
+many an indescribable and mysterious pleasure, totally irrespective of
+gain. The strange complications of chance occur with the most
+surprising waywardness; the government of the Higher Power becomes
+conspicuously evident; and this it is which stirs up our spirit to move
+its wings and see if it cannot soar upwards into the mysterious
+kingdom, the fateful workshop of this Power, in order to surprise it at
+its labours.
+
+"I once knew a man who spent many days and nights alone in his room,
+keeping a bank and punting against himself; this man was, according to
+my way of thinking, a genuine player. Others have nothing but gain
+before their eyes, and look upon play as a means to getting rich
+speedily. This class the Chevalier joined, thus once more establishing
+the truth of the saying that the real deeper inclination for play must
+lie in the individual nature--must be born in it. And for this reason
+he soon found the sphere of activity to which the punter is confined
+too narrow. With the very large sum of money that he had won by
+gambling he established a bank of his own; and in this enterprise
+fortune favoured him to such an extent that within a short time his
+bank was the richest in all Paris. And agreeably to the nature of the
+case, the largest proportion of players flocked to him, the richest and
+luckiest banker.
+
+"The heartless, demoralising life of a gambler soon blotted out all
+those advantages, as well mental as physical, which had formerly
+secured to the Chevalier people's affection and esteem. He ceased to be
+a faithful friend, a cheerful, easy guest in society, a chivalrous and
+gallant admirer of the fair sex. Extinguished was all his taste for
+science and art, and gone all striving to advance along the road to
+sound knowledge. Upon his deathly pale countenance, and in his gloomy
+eyes, where a dim, restless fire gleamed, was to be read the full
+expression of the extremely baneful passion in whose toils he was
+entangled. It was not fondness for play, no, it was the most abominable
+avarice which had been enkindled in his soul by Satan himself. In a
+single word, he was the most finished specimen of a faro-banker that
+may be seen anywhere.
+
+"One night Fortune was less favourable to the Chevalier than usual,
+although he suffered no loss of any consequence. Then a little thin old
+man, meanly clad, and almost repulsive to look at, approached the
+table, drew a card with a trembling hand, and placed a gold piece upon
+it. Several of the players looked up at the old man at first greatly
+astonished, but after that they treated him with provoking contempt.
+Nevertheless his face never moved a muscle, far less did he utter a
+single word of complaint.
+
+"The old man lost; he lost one stake after another; but the higher his
+losses rose the more pleased the other players got. And at last, when
+the new-comer, who continued to double his stake every time, placed
+five hundred _Louis d'or_ at once upon a card and this the very next
+moment turned up on the losing side, one of the other players cried
+with a laugh, 'Good-luck, Signor Vertua, good-luck! Don't lose heart.
+Go on staking; you look to me as if you would finish with breaking the
+bank through your immense winnings.' The old man shot a basilisk-like
+look upon the mocker and hurried away, but only to return at the end of
+half an hour with his pockets full of gold. In the last _taille_ he
+was, however, obliged to cease playing, since he had again lost all the
+money he had brought back with him.
+
+"This scornful and contemptuous treatment of the old man had
+excessively annoyed the Chevalier, for in spite of all his abominable
+practices, he yet insisted on certain rules of good behaviour being
+observed at his table. And so on the conclusion of the game, when
+Signor Vertua had taken his departure, the Chevalier felt he had
+sufficient grounds to speak a serious word or two to the mocker, as
+well as to one or two other players whose contemptuous treatment of the
+old man had been most conspicuous, and whom the Chevalier had bidden
+stay behind for this purpose.
+
+"'Ah! but, Chevalier,' cried one of them, 'you don't know old Francesco
+Vertua, or else you would have no fault to find with us and our
+behaviour towards him; you would rather approve of it. For let me tell
+you that this Vertua, a Neapolitan by birth, who has been fifteen years
+in Paris, is the meanest, dirtiest, most pestilent miser and usurer who
+can be found anywhere. He is a stranger to every human feeling; if he
+saw his own brother writhing at his feet in the agonies of death, it
+would be an utter waste of pains to try to entice a single _Louis d'or_
+from him, even if it were to save his brother's life. He has a heavy
+burden of curses and imprecations to bear, which have been showered
+down upon him by a multitude of men, nay, by entire families, who have
+been plunged into the deepest distress through his diabolical
+speculations. He is hated like poison by all who know him; everybody
+wishes that vengeance may overtake him for all the evil that he has
+done, and that it may put an end to his career of iniquity. He has
+never played before, at least since he has been in Paris; and so from
+all this you need not wonder at our being so greatly astounded when the
+old skin-flint appeared at your table. And for the same reasons we
+were, of course, pleased at the old fellow's serious losses, for it
+would have been hard, very hard, if the old rascal had been favoured by
+Fortune. It is only too certain. Chevalier, that the old fool has been
+deluded by the riches of your bank. He came intending to pluck you and
+has lost his own feathers. But yet it completely puzzles me how Vertua
+could act thus in a way so opposite to the true character of a miser,
+and could bring himself to play so high. Ah! well--you'll see he will
+not come again; we are now quit of him.'
+
+"But this opinion proved to be far from correct, for on the very next
+night Vertua presented himself at the Chevalier's bank again, and
+staked and lost much more heavily than on the night preceding. But he
+preserved a calm demeanour through it all; he even smiled at times with
+a sort of bitter irony, as though foreseeing how soon things would be
+totally changed. But during each of the succeeding nights the old man's
+losses increased like a glacier at a greater and greater rate, till at
+last it was calculated that he had paid over thirty thousand _Louis
+d'or_ to the bank. Finally he entered the hall one evening, long after
+play had begun, with a deathly pale face and troubled looks, and took
+up his post at some distance from the table, his eyes riveted in a set
+stare upon the cards which the Chevalier successively drew. At last,
+just as the Chevalier had shuffled the cards, had had them cut and was
+about to begin the _taille_, the old man cried in such a harsh grating
+voice, 'Stop!' that everybody looked round well-nigh dismayed. Then,
+forcing his way to the table close up to the Chevalier, he said in his
+ear, speaking in a hoarse voice, 'Chevalier, my house in the Rue St.
+Honoré, together with all the furniture and all the gold and silver and
+all the jewels I possess, are valued at eighty thousand francs, will
+you accept the stake?' 'Very good,' replied the Chevalier coldly,
+without looking round at the old man; and he began the _taille_.
+
+"'The queen,' said Vertua; and at the next draw the queen had lost. The
+old man reeled back from the table and leaned against the wall
+motionless and paralysed, like a rigid stone statue. Nobody troubled
+himself any further about him.
+
+"Play was over for the night; the players were dispersing; the
+Chevalier and his croupiers4 were packing away in the strong box the
+gold he had won. Then old Vertua staggered like a ghost out of the
+corner towards the Chevalier and addressed him in a hoarse, hollow
+voice, 'Yet a word with you, Chevalier,--only a single word.'
+
+"'Well, what is it?' replied the Chevalier, withdrawing the key from
+the lock of the strong box and measuring the old man from head to foot
+with a look of contempt.
+
+"'I have lost all my property at your bank, Chevalier,' went on the old
+man; 'I have nothing, nothing left I don't know where I shall lay my
+head tomorrow, nor how I shall appease my hunger. You are my last
+resource, Chevalier; lend me the tenth part of the sum I have lost to
+you that I may begin my business over again, and so work my way up out
+of the distressed state I now am in.'
+
+"'Whatever are you thinking about,' rejoined the Chevalier, 'whatever
+are you thinking about, Signor Vertua? Don't you know that a faro-
+banker never dare lend of his winnings? That's against the old rule,
+and I am not going to violate it.'
+
+"'You are right,' went on Vertua again. 'You are right, Chevalier. My
+request was senseless--extravagant--the tenth part! No, lend me the
+twentieth part.' 'I tell you,' replied the Chevalier impatiently, 'that
+I won't lend a farthing of my winnings.'
+
+"'True, true,' said Vertua, his face growing paler and paler and his
+gaze becoming more and more set and staring, 'true, you ought not to
+lend anything--I never used to do. But give some alms to a beggar--give
+him a hundred _Louis d'or_ of the riches which blind Fortune has thrown
+in your hands to-day.'
+
+"'Of a verity you know how to torment people, Signor Vertua,' burst out
+the Chevalier angrily. 'I tell you you won't get so much as a hundred,
+nor fifty, nor twenty, no, not so much as a single _Louis d'or_ from
+me. I should be mad to make you even the smallest advance, so as to
+help you begin your shameful trade over again. Fate has stamped you in
+the dust like a poisonous reptile, and it would simply be villainy for
+me to aid you in recovering yourself. Go and perish as you deserve.'
+
+"Pressing both hands over his face, Vertua sank on the floor with a
+muffled groan. The Chevalier ordered his servant to take the strong-box
+down to his carriage, and then cried in a loud voice, 'When will you
+hand over to me your house and effects, Signor Vertua?'
+
+"Vertua hastily picked himself up from the ground and said in a firm
+voice, 'Now, at once--this moment, Chevalier; come with me.'
+
+"'Good,' replied the Chevalier, 'you may ride with me as far as your
+house, which you shall leave tomorrow for good.'
+
+"All the way neither of them spoke a single word, neither Vertua nor
+the Chevalier. Arrived in front of the house in the Rue St. Honoré,
+Vertua pulled the bell; an old woman opened the door, and on perceiving
+it was Vertua cried, 'Oh! good heavens, Signor Vertua, is that you at
+last? Angela is half dead with anxiety on your account.'
+
+"'Silence,' replied Vertua. 'God grant she has not heard this unlucky
+bell! She is not to know that I have come.' And therewith he took the
+lighted candle out of the old woman's hand, for she appeared to be
+quite stunned, and lighted the Chevalier up to his own room.
+
+"'I am prepared for the worst,' said Vertua. 'You hate, you despise me,
+Chevalier. You have ruined me, to your own and other people's joy; but
+you do not know me. Let me tell you then that I was once a gambler like
+you, that capricious Fortune was as favourable to me as she is to you,
+that I travelled through half Europe, stopping everywhere where high
+play and the hope of large gains enticed me, that the piles of gold
+continually increased in my bank as they do in yours. I had a true and
+beautiful wife, whom I neglected, and she was miserable in the midst of
+all her magnificence and wealth. It happened once, when I had set up my
+bank in Genoa, that a young Roman lost all his rich patrimony at my
+bank. He besought me to lend him money, as I did you to-day, sufficient
+at least to enable him to travel back to Rome. I refused with a laugh
+of mocking scorn, and in the insane fury of despair he thrust the
+stiletto which he wore right into my breast. At great pains the
+surgeons succeeded in saving me; but it was a wearying painful time
+whilst I lay on the bed of sickness. Then my wife tended me, comforted
+me, and kept up my courage when I was ready to sink under my
+sufferings; and as I grew towards recovery a feeling began to glimmer
+within me which I had never experienced before, and it waxed ever
+stronger and stronger. A gambler becomes an alien to all human emotion,
+and hence I had not known what was the meaning of a wife's love and
+faithful attachment. The debt of what I owed my wife burned itself into
+my ungrateful heart, and also the sense of the villainous conduct to
+which I had sacrificed her. All those whose life's happiness, whose
+entire existence, I had ruined with heartless indifference were like
+tormenting spirits of vengeance, and I heard their hoarse hollow voices
+echoing from the grave, upbraiding me with all the guilt and
+criminality, the seed of which I had planted in their bosoms. It was
+only my wife who was able to drive away the unutterable distress and
+horror that then came upon me. I made a vow never to touch a card more.
+I lived in retirement; I rent asunder all the ties which held me fast
+to my former mode of life; I withstood the enticements of my croupiers,
+when they came and said they could not do without me and my good-luck.
+I bought a small country villa not far from Rome, and thither, as soon
+as I was recovered of my illness, I fled for refuge along with my wife.
+Oh! only one single year did I enjoy a calmness, a happiness, a
+peaceful content, such as I had never dreamt of! My wife bore me a
+daughter, and died a few weeks later. I was in despair; I railed at
+Heaven and again cursed myself and my reprobate life, for which Heaven
+was now exacting vengeance upon me by depriving me of my wife--she who
+had saved me from ruin, who was the only creature who afforded me hope
+and consolation. I was driven away from my country villa hither to
+Paris, like the criminal who fears the horrors of solitude. Angela grew
+up the lovely image of her mother; my heart was wholly wrapt up in her;
+for her sake I felt called upon not so much to obtain a large fortune
+for her as to increase what I had already got. It is the truth that I
+lent money at a high rate of interest; but it is a foul calumny to
+accuse me of deceitful usury. And who are these my accusers?
+Thoughtless, frivolous people who worry me to death until I lend them
+money, which they immediately go and squander like a thing of no worth,
+and then get in a rage if I demand inexorable punctuality in repayment
+of the money which does not indeed belong to me,--no, but to my
+daughter, for I merely look upon myself as her steward. It's not long
+since I saved a young man from disgrace and ruin by advancing him a
+considerable sum. As I knew he was terribly poor, I never mentioned a
+syllable about repayment until I knew he had got together a rich
+property. Then I applied to him for settlement of his debt Would you
+believe it, Chevalier? the dishonourable knave, who owed all he had to
+me, tried to deny the debt, and on being compelled by the court to pay
+me, reproached me with being a villainous miser? I could tell you more
+such like cases; and these things have made me hard and insensible to
+emotion when I have to deal with folly and baseness. Nay, more--I could
+tell you of the many bitter tears I have wiped away, and of the many
+prayers which have gone up to Heaven for me and my Angela, but you
+would only regard it as empty boasting, and pay not the slightest heed
+to it, for you are a gambler. I thought I had satisfied the resentment
+of Heaven; it was but a delusion, for Satan has been permitted to lead
+me astray in a more disastrous way than before. I heard of your good-
+luck. Chevalier. Every day I heard that this man and that had staked
+and staked at your bank until he became a beggar. Then the thought came
+into my mind that I was destined to try my gambler's luck, which had
+never hitherto deserted me, against yours, that the power was given me
+to put a stop to your practices; and this thought, which could only
+have been engendered by some extraordinary madness, left me no rest, no
+peace. Hence I came to your bank; and my terrible infatuation did not
+leave me until all my property--all my Angela's property--was yours.
+And now the end has come. I presume you will allow my daughter to take
+her clothing with her?'
+
+"'Your daughter's wardrobe does not concern me,' replied the Chevalier.
+'You may also take your beds and other necessary household utensils,
+and such like; for what could I do with all the old lumber? But see to
+it that nothing of value of the things which now belong to me get mixed
+up with it.'
+
+"Old Vertua stared at the Chevalier a second or two utterly speechless;
+then a flood of tears burst from his eyes, and he sank upon his knees
+in front of the Chevalier, perfectly upset with trouble and despair,
+and raised his hands crying, 'Chevalier, have you still a spark of
+human feeling left in your breast? Be merciful, merciful. It is not I,
+but my daughter, my Angela, my innocent angelic child, whom you are
+plunging into ruin. Oh! be merciful to _her_; lend _her_, _her_, my
+Angela, the twentieth part of the property you have deprived her of.
+Oh! I know you will listen to my entreaty! O Angela! my daughter!' And
+therewith the old man sobbed and lamented and moaned, calling upon his
+child by name in the most heart-rending tones.
+
+"'I am getting tired of this absurd theatrical scene,' said the
+Chevalier indifferently but impatiently; but at this moment the door
+flew open and in burst a girl in a white night-dress, her hair
+dishevelled, her face pale as death,--burst in and ran to old Vertua,
+raised him up, took him in her arms, and cried, 'O father! O father! I
+have heard all, I know all! Have you really lost everything--
+everything, really? Have you not your Angela? What need have we of
+money and property? Will not Angela sustain you and tend you? O father,
+don't humiliate yourself a moment longer before this despicable
+monster. It is not _we_, but _he_, who is poor and miserable in the
+midst of his contemptible riches; for see, he stands there deserted in
+his awful hopeless loneliness; there is not a heart in all the wide
+world to cling lovingly to his breast, to open out to him when he
+despairs of his own life, of himself. Come, father. Leave this house
+with me. Come, let us make haste and be gone, that this fearful man may
+not exult over your trouble.'
+
+"Vertua sank half fainting into an easy-chair. Angela knelt down before
+him, took his hands, kissed them, fondled them, enumerated with
+childish loquacity all the talents, all the accomplishments, which she
+was mistress of, and by the aid of which she would earn a comfortable
+living for her father; she besought him from the midst of burning tears
+to put aside all his trouble and distress, since her life would now
+first acquire true significance, when she had to sew, embroider, sing,
+and play her guitar, not for mere pleasure, but for her father's sake.
+
+"Who, however hardened a sinner, could have remained insensible at the
+sight of Angela, thus radiant in her divine beauty, comforting her old
+father with sweet soft words, whilst the purest affection, the most
+childlike goodness, beamed from her eyes, evidently coming from the
+very depths of her heart?
+
+"Quite otherwise was it with the Chevalier. A perfect Gehenna of
+torment and of the stinging of conscience was awakened within him.
+Angela appeared to him to be the avenging angel of God, before whose
+splendour the misty veil of his wicked infatuation melted away, so that
+he saw with horror the repulsive nakedness of his own miserable soul.
+Yet right through the midst of the flames of this infernal pit that was
+blazing in the Chevalier's heart passed a divine and pure ray, whose
+emanations of light were the sweetest rapture, the very bliss of
+heaven; but the shining of this ray only made his unutterable torments
+the more terrible to bear.
+
+"The Chevalier had never been in love. The moment in which he saw
+Angela was the moment in which he was to experience the most ardent
+passion, and also at the same time the crushing pain of utter
+hopelessness. For no man who had appeared before the pure angel-child,
+lovely Angela, in the way the Chevalier had done, could dream of hope.
+He attempted to speak, but his tongue seemed to be numbed by cramp. At
+last, controlling himself with an effort, he stammered with trembling
+voice, 'Signor Vertua, listen to me. I have not won anything from you--
+nothing at all. There is my strong box; it is yours,--nay, I must pay
+you yet more than there is there. I am your debtor. There, take it,
+take it!'
+
+"'O my daughter!' cried Vertua. But Angela rose to her feet, approached
+the Chevalier, and flashed a proud look upon him, saying earnestly and
+composedly, *'Chevalier, allow me to tell you that there is something
+higher than money and goods; there are sentiments to which you are a
+stranger, which, whilst sustaining our souls with the comfort of
+Heaven, bid us reject your gift, your favour, with contempt. Keep your
+mammon, which is burdened with the curse that pursues you, you
+heartless, depraved gambler.'
+
+"'Yes,' cried the Chevalier in a fearful voice, his eyes flashing
+wildly, for he was perfectly beside himself, 'yes, accursed,--accursed
+will I be--down into the depths of damnation may I be hurled if ever
+again this hand touches a card. And if you then send me from you,
+Angela, then it will be you who will bring irreparable ruin upon me.
+Oh! you don't know--you don't understand me. You can't help but call me
+insane; but you will feel it--you will know all, when you see me
+stretched at your feet with my brains scattered. Angela! It's now a
+question of life or death! Farewell!'
+
+"Therewith the Chevalier rushed off in a state of perfect despair.
+Vertua saw through him completely; he knew what change had come over
+him; he endeavoured to make his lovely Angela understand that certain
+circumstances might arise which would make it necessary to accept the
+Chevalier's present Angela trembled with dread lest she should
+understand her father. She did not conceive how it would ever be
+possible to meet the Chevalier on any other terms save those of
+contempt. Destiny, which often ripens into shape deep down in the human
+heart, without the mind being aware of it, permitted that to take place
+which had never been thought of, never been dreamed of.
+
+"The Chevalier was like a man suddenly wakened up out of a fearful
+dream; he saw himself standing on the brink of the abyss of ruin, and
+stretched out his arms in vain towards the bright shining figure which
+had appeared to him, not, however, to save him--no--but to remind him
+of his damnation.
+
+"To the astonishment of all Paris, Chevalier Menars' bank disappeared
+from the gambling-house; nobody ever saw him again; and hence the most
+diverse and extraordinary rumours were current, each of them more false
+than the rest. The Chevalier shunned all society; his love found
+expression in the deepest and most unconquerable despondency. It
+happened, however, that old Vertua and his daughter one day suddenly
+crossed his path in one of the dark and lonely alleys of the garden of
+Malmaison.5
+
+"Angela, who thought she could never look upon the Chevalier without
+contempt and abhorrence, felt strangely moved on seeing him so deathly
+pale, terribly shaken with trouble, hardly daring in his shy respect to
+raise his eyes. She knew quite well that ever since that ill-omened
+night he had altogether relinquished gambling and effected a complete
+revolution in his habits of life. She, she alone had brought all this
+about, she had saved the Chevalier from ruin--could anything be more
+flattering to her woman's vanity? Hence it was that, after Vertua had
+exchanged the usual complimentary remarks with the Chevalier, Angela
+asked in a tone of gentle and sympathetic pity, 'What is the matter
+with you, Chevalier Menars? You are looking very ill and full of
+trouble. I am sure you ought to consult a physician.'
+
+"It is easy to imagine how Angela's words fell like a comforting ray of
+hope upon the Chevalier's heart. From that moment he was not like the
+same man. He lifted up his head; he was able to speak in those tones,
+full of the real inward nature of the man, with which he had formerly
+won all hearts. Vertua exhorted him to come and take possession of the
+house he had won.
+
+"'Yes, Signor Vertua,' cried the Chevalier with animation, 'yes, that I
+will do. I will call upon you tomorrow; but let us carefully weigh and
+discuss all the conditions of the transfer, even though it should last
+some months.'
+
+"'Be it so then, Chevalier,' replied Vertua, smiling. 'I fancy that
+there will arise a good many things to be discussed, of which we at the
+present moment have no idea.' The Chevalier, being thus comforted at
+heart, could not fail to develop again all the charms of manner which
+had once been so peculiarly his own before he was led astray by his
+insane, pernicious passion for gambling. His visits at old Vertua's
+grew more and more frequent; Angela conceived a warmer and warmer
+liking for the man whose safeguarding angel she had been, until finally
+she thought she loved him with all her heart; and she promised him her
+hand, to the great joy of old Vertua, who at last felt that the
+settlement respecting the property he had lost to the Chevalier could
+now be concluded.
+
+"One day Angela, Chevalier Menars' happy betrothed, sat at her window
+wrapped up in varied thoughts of the delights and happiness of love,
+such as young girls when betrothed are wont to dwell upon. A regiment
+of _chasseurs_ passed by to the merry sound of the trumpet, bound for a
+campaign in Spain. As Angela was regarding with sympathetic interest
+the poor men who were doomed to death in the wicked war, a young man
+wheeled his horse quickly to one side and looked up at her, and she
+sank back in her chair fainting.
+
+"Oh! the _chasseur_ who was riding to meet a bloody death was none
+other than young Duvernet, their neighbour's son, with whom she had
+grown up, who had run in and out of the house nearly every day, and had
+only kept away since the Chevalier had begun to visit them.
+
+"In the young man's glance, which was charged with reproaches having
+all the bitterness of death in them, Angela became conscious for the
+first time, not only that he loved her unspeakably, but also how
+boundless was the love which she herself felt for him. Hitherto she had
+not been conscious of it; she had been infatuated, fascinated by the
+glitter which gathered ever more thickly about the Chevalier. She now
+understood, and for the first time, the youth's labouring sighs and
+quiet unpretending homage; and now too she also understood her own
+embarrassed heart for the first time, knew what had caused the
+fluttering sensation in her breast when Duvernet had come, and when she
+had heard his voice.
+
+"'It is too late! I have lost him!' was the voice that spoke in
+Angela's soul. She had courage enough to beat down the feelings of
+wretchedness which threatened to distract her heart; and for that
+reason--namely, that she possessed the courage--she succeeded.
+
+"Nevertheless it did not escape the Chevalier's acute perception that
+something had happened to powerfully affect Angela; but he possessed
+sufficient delicacy of feeling not to seek for a solution of the
+mystery, which it was evident she desired to conceal from him. He
+contented himself with depriving any dangerous rival of his power by
+expediting the marriage; and he made all arrangements for its
+celebration with such fine tact, and such a sympathetic appreciation of
+his fair bride's situation and sentiments, that she saw in them a new
+proof of the good and amiable qualities of her husband.
+
+"The Chevalier's behaviour towards Angela showed him attentive to her
+slightest wish, and exhibited that sincere esteem which springs from
+the purest affection; hence her memory of Duvernet soon vanished
+entirely from her mind. The first cloud that dimmed the bright heaven
+of her happiness was the illness and death of old Vertua.
+
+"Since the night when he had lost all his fortune at the Chevalier's
+bank he had never touched a card, but during the last moments of his
+life play seemed to have taken complete possession of his soul. Whilst
+the priest who had come to administer to him the consolation of the
+Church ere he died, was speaking to him of heavenly things, he lay with
+his eyes closed, murmuring between his teeth, '_perd_, _gagne_,' whilst
+his trembling half-dead hands went through the motions of dealing
+through a _taille_, of drawing the cards. Both Angela and the Chevalier
+bent over him and spoke to him in the tenderest manner, but it was of
+no use; he no longer seemed to know them, nor even to be aware of their
+presence. With a deep-drawn sigh '_gagne_,' he breathed his last.
+
+"In the midst of her distressing grief Angela could not get rid of an
+uncomfortable feeling of awe at the way in which the old man had died.
+She again saw in vivid shape the picture of that terrible night when
+she had first seen the Chevalier as a most hardened and reprobate
+gambler; and the fearful thought entered her mind that he might again,
+in scornful mockery of her, cast aside his mask of goodness and appear
+in his original fiendish character, and begin to pursue his old course
+of life once more.
+
+"And only too soon was Angela's dreaded foreboding to become reality.
+However great the awe which fell upon the Chevalier at old Francesco
+Vertua's death-scene, when the old man, despising the consolation of
+the Church, though in the last agonies of death, had not been able to
+turn his thoughts from his former sinful life--however great was the
+awe that then fell upon the Chevalier, yet his mind was thereby led,
+though how he could not explain, to dwell more keenly upon play than
+ever before, so that every night in his dreams he sat at the faro-bank
+and heaped up riches anew.
+
+"In proportion as Angela's behaviour became more constrained, in
+consequence of her recollection of the character in which she had first
+seen the Chevalier, and as it became more and more impossible for her
+to continue to meet him upon the old affectionate, confidential footing
+upon which they had hitherto lived, so exactly in the same degree
+distrust of Angela crept into the Chevalier's mind, since he ascribed
+her constraint to the secret which had once disturbed her peace of mind
+and which had not been revealed to him. From this distrust were born
+displeasure and unpleasantness, and these he expressed in various ways
+which hurt Angela's feelings. By a singular cross-action of spiritual
+influence Angela's recollections of the unhappy Duvemet began to recur
+to her mind with fresher force, and along with these the intolerable
+consciousness of her ruined love,--the loveliest blossom that had
+budded in her youthful heart. The strained relations between the pair
+continued to increase until things got to such a pitch that the
+Chevalier grew disgusted with his simple mode of life, thought it dull,
+and was smitten with a powerful longing to enjoy the life of the world
+again. His star of ill omen began to acquire the ascendancy. The change
+which had been inaugurated by displeasure and great unpleasantness was
+completed by an abandoned wretch who had formerly been croupier in the
+Chevalier's faro-bank. He succeeded by means of the most artful
+insinuations and conversations in making the Chevalier look upon his
+present walk of life as childish and ridiculous. The Chevalier could
+not understand at last how, for a woman's sake, he ever came to leave a
+world which appeared to him to contain all that made life of any worth.
+
+"It was not long ere Chevalier Menars' rich bank was flourishing more
+magnificently than ever. His good-luck had not left him; victim after
+victim came and fell; he amassed heaps of riches. But Angela's
+happiness--it was ruined--ruined in fearful fashion; it was to be
+compared to a short fair dream. The Chevalier treated her with
+indifference, nay even with contempt. Often, for weeks and months
+together, she never saw him once; the household arrangements were
+placed in the hands of a steward; the servants were being constantly
+changed to suit the Chevalier's whims; so that Angela, a stranger in
+her own house, knew not where to turn for comfort. Often during her
+sleepless nights the Chevalier's carriage stopped before the door, the
+heavy strong-box was carried upstairs, the Chevalier flung out a few
+harsh monosyllabic words of command, and then the doors of his distant
+room were sent to with a bang--all this she heard, and a flood of
+bitter tears started from her eyes. In a state of the most heart-
+rending anguish she called upon Duvernet time after time, and implored
+Providence to put an end to her miserable life of trouble and
+suffering.
+
+"One day a young man of good family, after losing all his fortune at
+the Chevalier s bank, sent a bullet through his brain in the gambling-
+house, and in the very same room even in which the bank was
+established, so that the players were sprinkled by the blood and
+scattered brains, and started up aghast. The Chevalier alone preserved
+his indifference; and, as all were preparing to leave the apartment, he
+asked whether it was in accordance with their rules and custom to leave
+the bank before the appointed hour on account of a fool who had had no
+conduct in his play.
+
+"The occurrence created a great sensation. The most experienced and
+hardened gamblers were indignant at the Chevalier's unexampled
+behaviour. The voice of the public was raised against him. The bank was
+closed by the police. He was, moreover, accused of false play; and his
+unprecedented good-luck tended to establish the truth of the charge. He
+was unable to clear himself. The fine he was compelled to pay deprived
+him of a considerable part of his riches. He found himself disgraced
+and looked upon with contempt; then he went back to the arms of the
+wife he had ill-used, and she willingly received him, the penitent,
+since the remembrance of how her own father had turned aside from the
+demoralising life of a gambler allowed a glimmer of hope to rise, that
+the Chevalier's conversion might this time, now that he was older,
+really have some stamina in it.
+
+"The Chevalier left Paris along with his wife, and went to Genoa,
+Angela's birthplace. Here he led a very retired life at first. But all
+endeavours to restore the footing of quiet domesticity with Angela,
+which his evil genius had destroyed, were in vain. It was not long
+before his deep-rooted discontent awoke anew and drove him out of the
+house in a state of uneasy, unsettled restlessness. His evil reputation
+had followed him from Paris to Genoa; he dare not venture to establish
+a bank, although he was being goaded to do so by a power he could
+hardly resist.
+
+"At that time the richest bank in Genoa was kept by a French colonel,
+who had been invalided owing to serious wounds. His heart burning with
+envy and fierce hatred, the Chevalier appeared at the Colonel's table,
+expecting that his usual good fortune would stand by him, and that he
+should soon ruin his rival. The Colonel greeted him in a merry humour,
+such as was in general not customary with him, and said that now the
+play would really be worth indulging in since they had got Chevalier
+Menars and his good-luck to join them, for now would come the struggle
+which alone made the game interesting.
+
+"And in fact during the first _taille_ the cards fell favourable to the
+Chevalier as they always had done. But when, relying upon his
+invincible luck, he at last cried '_Va banquet_,'6 he lost a very
+considerable sum at one stroke.
+
+"The Colonel, at other times preserving the same even temperament
+whether winning or losing, now swept the money towards him with the
+most demonstrative signs of extreme delight. From this moment fortune
+turned away from the Chevalier utterly and completely. He played every
+night, and every night he lost, until his property had melted away to a
+few thousand ducats,7 which he still had in securities.
+
+"The Chevalier had spent the whole day in running about to get his
+securities converted into ready money, and did not reach home until
+late in the evening. So soon as it was fully night, he was about to
+leave the house with his last gold pieces in his pocket, when Angela,
+who suspected pretty much how matters stood, stepped in his path and
+threw herself at his feet, whilst a flood of tears gushed from her
+eyes, beseeching him by the Virgin and all the saints to abandon his
+wicked purpose, and not to plunge her in want and misery.
+
+"He raised her up and strained her to his heart with painful passionate
+intensity, saying in a hoarse voice, 'Angela, my dear sweet Angela! It
+can't be helped now, indeed it must be so; I must go on with it, for I
+can't let it alone. But to-morrow--to-morrow all your troubles shall be
+over, for by the Eternal Destiny that rules over us I swear that to-day
+shall be the last time I will play. Quiet yourself, my dear good
+child--go and sleep--dream of happy days to come, of a better life that
+is in store for you; that will bring good-luck. Herewith he kissed his
+wife and hurried off before she could stop him.
+
+"Two _tailles_, and the Chevalier had lost all--all. He stood beside
+the Colonel, staring upon the faro-table in moody senselessness.
+
+"'Are you not punting any more, Chevalier?' said the Colonel, shuffling
+the cards for a new _taille_, 'I have lost all,' replied the Chevalier,
+forcing himself with an effort to be calm.
+
+"'Have you really nothing left?' asked the Colonel at the next _
+taille_.
+
+"'I am a beggar,' cried the Chevalier, his voice trembling with rage
+and mortification; and he continued to stare fiercely upon the table
+without observing that the players were gaining more and more
+advantages over the banker.
+
+"The Colonel went on playing quietly. But whilst shuffling the cards
+for the following _taille_, he said in a low voice, without looking at
+the Chevalier, 'But you have a beautiful wife.'
+
+"'What do you mean by that?' burst out the Chevalier angrily. The
+Colonel drew his cards without making any answer.
+
+"'Ten thousand ducats or--Angela!' said the Colonel, half turning round
+whilst the cards were being cut.
+
+"'You are mad!' exclaimed the Chevalier, who now began to observe on
+coming more to himself that the Colonel continually lost and lost
+again.
+
+"'Twenty thousand ducats against Angela!' said the Colonel in a low
+voice, pausing for a moment in his shuffling of the cards.
+
+"The Chevalier did not reply. The Colonel went on playing, and almost
+all the cards fell to the players' side.
+
+"'Taken!' whispered the Chevalier in the Colonel's ear, as the new
+_taille_ began, and he pushed the queen on the table.
+
+"In the next draw the queen had lost. The Chevalier drew back from the
+table, grinding his teeth, and in despair stood leaning in a window,
+his face deathly pale.
+
+"Play was over. 'Well, and what's to be done now?' were the Colonel's
+mocking words as he stepped up to the Chevalier.
+
+"'Ah!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself, 'you have made me a
+beggar, but you must be insane to imagine that you could win my wife.
+Are we on the islands? is my wife a slave, exposed as a mere _thing_ to
+the brutal arbitrariness of a reprobate man, that he may trade with
+her, gamble with her? But it is true! You would have had to pay twenty
+thousand ducats if the queen had won, and so I have lost all right to
+raise a protest if my wife is willing to leave me to follow you. Come
+along with me, and despair when you see how my wife will repel you with
+detestation when you propose to her that she shall follow you as your
+shameless mistress.'
+
+"'You will be the one to despair,' replied the Colonel, with a mocking,
+scornful laugh; 'you will be the one to despair, Chevalier, when Angela
+turns with abhorrence from you--you, the abandoned sinner, who have
+made her life miserable--and flies into my arms in rapture and delight;
+you will be the one to despair when you learn that we have been united
+by the blessing of the Church, and that our dearest wishes are crowned
+with happiness. You call me insane. Ho! ho! All I wanted to win was the
+right to claim her, for of Angela herself I am sure. Ho! ho! Chevalier,
+let me inform you that your wife loves _me_--_me_, with unspeakable
+love: let me inform you that I am that Duvernet, the neighbour's son,
+who was brought up along with Angela, bound to her by ties of the most
+ardent affection--he whom you drove away by means of your diabolical
+devices. Ah! it was not until I had to go away to the wars that Angela
+became conscious to herself of what I was to her; I know all. It was
+too late. The Spirit of Evil suggested to me the idea that I might ruin
+you in play, and so I took to gambling--followed you to Genoa,--and now
+I have succeeded. Away now to your wife.'
+
+"The Chevalier was almost annihilated, like one upon whose head had
+fallen the most disastrous blows of fortune. Now he saw to the bottom
+of that mysterious secret, now he saw for the first time the full
+extent of the misfortune which he had brought upon poor Angela.
+'Angela, my wife, shall decide,' he said hoarsely, and followed the
+Colonel, who was hurrying off at full speed.
+
+"On reaching the house the Colonel laid his hand upon the latch of
+Angela's chamber; but the Chevalier pushed him back, saying, 'My wife
+is asleep. Do you want to rouse her up out of her sweet sleep?'
+
+"'Hm!' replied the Colonel. 'Has Angela ever enjoyed sweet sleep since
+you brought all this nameless misery upon her?' Again the Colonel
+attempted to enter the chamber; but the Chevalier threw himself at his
+feet and screamed, frantic with despair, 'Be merciful. Let me keep my
+wife; you have made me a beggar, but let me keep my wife.'
+
+"'That's how old Vertua lay at your feet, you miscreant dead to all
+feeling, and could not move your stony heart; may Heaven's vengeance
+overtake you for it.' Thus spoke the Colonel; and he again strode
+towards Angela's chamber.
+
+"The Chevalier sprang towards the door, tore it open, rushed to the bed
+in which his wife lay, and drew back the curtains, crying, 'Angela!
+Angela!' Bending over her, he grasped her hand; but all at once he
+shook and trembled in mortal anguish and cried in a thundering voice,
+'Look! look! you have won my wife's corpse.'
+
+"Perfectly horrified, the Colonel approached the bed; no sign of
+life!--Angela was dead--dead.
+
+"Then the Colonel doubled his fist and shook it heavenwards, and rushed
+out of the room uttering a fearful cry. Nothing more was ever heard of
+him."
+
+This was the end of the stranger's tale; and the Baron was so shaken
+that before he could say anything the stranger had hastily risen from
+the seat and gone away.
+
+A few days later the stranger was found in his room suffering from
+apoplexy of the nerves. He never opened his mouth up to the moment of
+his death, which ensued after the lapse of a few hours. His papers
+proved that, though he called himself Baudasson simply, he was no less
+a person than the unhappy Chevalier Menars himself.
+
+The Baron recognised it as a warning from Heaven, that Chevalier Menars
+had been led across his path to save him just as he was approaching the
+brink of the precipice; he vowed that he would withstand all the
+seductions of the gambler's deceptive luck.
+
+Up till now he has faithfully kept his word.
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "GAMBLER'S LUCK":
+
+Footnote 1 In faro the keeper of the bank plays against all the rest of
+the players (who are called _punters_). He has a full pack; they have
+but a single complete suit. The punters may stake what they please upon
+any card they please, except in so far as rules may have been made to
+the contrary by the banker. After the cards have been cut, the banker
+proceeds to take off the two top cards one after the other, placing the
+first at his right hand, and the second at his left, each with the face
+uppermost. Any punter who has staked a card which bears exactly the
+same number of "peeps" as the card turned up on the banker's right hand
+loses the stake to the latter; but if it bears the same number of
+"peeps" as the card on the banker's left, it is the banker who has to
+pay the punter a sum equal to the value of his stake. The twenty-six
+drawings which a full pack allows the banker to make are called a
+_taille_.
+
+This general sketch will help to make the text intelligible for the
+most part without going into minor technicalities of the game.]
+
+Footnote 2 The words "win," "lose," with which the banker places the
+two cards on the table, the first to his right for himself, the second
+on his left for the punter.]
+
+Footnote 3 The new _Louis d'or_ were worth somewhat less than the old
+coins of the time of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. (See note, page 175.)]
+
+Footnote 4 The banker's assistants, who shuffle cards for him, change
+cheques, notes, and make themselves generally useful.]
+
+Footnote 5 Malmaison is a chateau and park situated about six miles W.
+of Paris. It once belonged to Richelieu; and there the Empress
+Josephine lived, and there she died on the 13th May, 1814.]
+
+Footnote 6 "_Va bout_" or "_Va banque_" meant a challenge to the bank
+to the full amount of the highest limit of play, and if the punter won
+he virtually broke the bank.]
+
+Footnote 7 The first silver ducat is believed to have been struck in
+1140 by Roger II., Norman king of Sicily; and ducats have been struck
+constantly since the twelfth century, especially at Venice (see
+_Merchant of Venice_). They have varied considerably both in weight and
+fineness, and consequently in value, at different times and places.
+Ducats have been struck in both gold and silver. The early Venetian
+silver ducat was worth about five shillings. The name is said,
+according to one account, to have been derived from the last word of
+the Latin legend found on the earliest Venetian gold coins:--_Sit tibi,
+Christe, datus, quem tu regis, ducatus_ (duchy); according to another
+account it is taken from "_il ducato_," the name generally applied to
+the duchy of Apulia. (Note, page 98, Vol. I.)]
+
+
+
+
+_MASTER JOHANNES WACHT._1
+
+
+At the time when people in the beautiful and pleasant town of Bamberg
+lived, according to the well-known saying, well, _i.e._, under the
+crook, namely in the end of the previous century, there was also one
+inhabitant, a man belonging to the burgher class, who might be called
+in every respect both singular and eminent His name was Johannes Wacht,
+and his trade was that of a carpenter.
+
+Nature, in weighing and definitely determining her children's
+destinies, pursues her own dark inscrutable path; and all that is
+claimed by convenience, and by the opinions and considerations which
+prevail in man's narrow existence, as determining factors in settling
+the true tendency of every man's self. Nature regards as nothing more
+than the pert play of deluded children imagining themselves to be wise.
+But short-sighted man often finds an insuperable irony in the
+contradiction between the conviction of his own mind and the mysterious
+ordering of this inscrutable Power, who first nourished and fed him at
+her maternal bosom and then deserted him; and this irony fills him with
+terror and awe, since it threatens to annihilate his own self.
+
+The mother of Life does not choose for her favourites either the
+palaces of the great or the state-apartments of princes. And so she
+made our Johannes, who, as the kindly reader will soon learn, might be
+called one of her most richly endowed favourites, first see the light
+of the world on a wretched heap of straw, in the workshop of an
+impoverished master turner in Augsburg. His mother died of want and
+from suffering soon after the child's birth, and his father followed
+her after the lapse of a few months.
+
+The town government had to take charge of the helpless boy; and when
+the Council's master carpenter, a well-to-do, respectable man, who
+found in the child's face, notwithstanding that it was pinched with
+hunger, certain traits which pleased him,--when he would not suffer the
+boy to be lodged in a public institution, but took him into his own
+house, in order to bring him up along with his own children, then there
+dawned upon Johannes his first genial ray of sunshine, heralding a
+happier lot in the future.
+
+In an incredibly short space of time the boy's frame developed, so that
+it was difficult to believe that the little insignificant creature in
+the cradle had really been the shapeless colourless chrysalis out of
+which this pretty, living, golden-locked boy had proceeded, like a
+beautiful butterfly. But--what seemed of more importance--along with
+this pleasing grace of physical form the boy soon displayed such
+eminent intellectual faculties as astonished both his foster-father and
+his teachers. Johannes grew up in a workshop which sent forth some of
+the best and highest work that mechanical skill was able to produce,
+since the master carpenter to the Council was constantly engaged upon
+the most important buildings. No wonder, therefore, that the child's
+mind, which caught up everything with such keen clear perception,
+should be excited thereby, and should feel all his heart drawn towards
+a trade the deeper significance of which, in so far as it was concerned
+with the material creation of great and bold ideas, he dimly felt deep
+down in his soul. The joy that this bent of the orphan's mind
+occasioned his foster-father may well be conceived; and hence he felt
+persuaded to teach the boy all practical matters himself with great
+care and attention, and furthermore, when he had grown into a youth, to
+have him instructed by the cleverest masters in all the higher branches
+of knowledge connected with the trade, both theoretical and practical,
+such as, for instance, drawing, architecture, mechanics, &c.
+
+Our Johannes was four and twenty years of age when the old master
+carpenter died; and even at that time his foster-son was a thoroughly
+experienced and skilful journeyman in all branches of his craft, whose
+equal could not be found far and near. At this period Johannes set out,
+along with his true and faithful comrade Engelbrecht, on the usual
+journeyman's2 travels.
+
+Herewith you know, indulgent reader, all that it is needful to know
+about the youth of our worthy Wacht; and it only remains to tell you in
+a few words how it was that he came to settle in Bamberg and how he
+became master there.
+
+After being on the travel for a pretty long time he happened to arrive
+at Bamberg on his way home along with his comrade Engelbrecht; and
+there they found the Bishop's palace undergoing thorough repair, and
+particularly on that side of it where the walls rose up to a great
+height out of a very narrow alley or court. Here an entirely new roof
+was to be put up, of very great and very heavy beams; and they wanted a
+machine, which, whilst taking up the least possible room, would possess
+sufficient concentration of power to raise the heavy weights up to the
+required height. The Prince-bishop's builder, who knew how to calculate
+to a nicety how Trajan's Column in Rome had been made to stand, and
+also knew the hundred or more mistakes that had been made which he
+should never have laid himself open to the reproach of committing, had
+indeed constructed a machine--a sort of crane--which was very nice to
+look at, and was praised by everybody as a masterpiece of mechanical
+skill; but when the men tried to set the thing agoing, it turned out
+that the Herr builder had calculated upon downright Samsons and
+Herculeses. The wheels creaked and squeaked horribly; the huge beams
+which were hooked on to the crane did not budge an inch; the men
+declared, whilst shaking the sweat from their brows, that they would
+much sooner carry ships' mainmasts up steep stairs than strain
+themselves in this way, and waste all their best strength in vain over
+such a machine; and there matters remained.
+
+Standing at some distance, Wacht and Engelbrecht looked on at what they
+were doing, or rather, not doing; and it is possible that Wacht may
+have smiled just a little at the builder's want of knowledge.
+
+A grey-headed old foreman, recognising the strangers' handicraft from
+their clothing, stepped up to them without more ado, and asked Wacht if
+he understood how to manage the machine any better since he looked so
+cunning about it. "Ah, well!" replied Wacht, without being in the least
+disconcerted, "ah well; it's a doubtful point whether I know better,
+for every fool thinks he understands everything better than anybody
+else; but I can't help wondering that in this part of the country you
+don't seem to be acquainted with a certain simple contrivance, which
+would easily perform all that the Herr Builder yonder is vainly
+tormenting his men to accomplish."
+
+The young man's bold answer nettled the grey-haired old foreman not a
+little; he turned away muttering to himself; and very soon it was known
+to them all that a young stranger, a carpenter's journeyman, had
+laughed the builder together with his machine to scorn, and boasted
+that he was acquainted with a more serviceable contrivance. As is
+usually the case, nobody paid any heed to it; but the worthy builder as
+well as the honourable guild of carpenters in Bamberg were of opinion
+that the stranger had not, it was to be presumed, devoured up all the
+wisdom of the world, nor would he presume to dictate to and teach old
+and experienced masters. "Now do you see, Johannes," said Engelbrecht
+to his comrade, "now do you see how your rash boldness has again
+provoked against you the people whom we must meet as comrades of the
+craft?"
+
+"Who can, who may look on quietly," replied Johannes, whilst his eyes
+flashed, "when the poor labourers--I'm sure they're to be pitied--are
+tormented so and made to work beyond all reason, and that all to no
+purpose. And who knows whether my rash boldness may not, after all,
+have beneficial consequences?" And it really turned out to be so.
+
+One single individual, of such pre-eminent intellectual capacity that
+no gleam of knowledge, however fugitive it might be, ever escaped his
+keen penetration, attached a quite different importance to the youth's
+words from what the rest did, for the builder had reported them to him
+as the presumptuous saying of a young fledgling carpenter. This man was
+the Prince-bishop himself. He had the young man summoned to his
+presence, that he might inquire further into the import of his words,
+and was not a little astonished both at his appearance and at his
+general bearing and character. My kindly reader ought to know what this
+astonishment was due to, and now is the time to tell him something more
+about Johannes Wacht's exterior and Johannes Wacht's mind and thoughts.
+
+As far as his face and figure were concerned, he might justly be called
+a remarkably handsome young fellow, and yet his noble features and
+majestic stature did not attain to full perfection until after he had
+reached a riper manhood. Æsthetic canons of the cathedral credited
+Johannes with having the head of an old Roman; a younger member of the
+same fraternity, who even in the severest winter was in the habit of
+going about dressed in black silk, and who had read Schiller's
+_Fiesko_, maintained, on the contrary, that Johannes Wacht was Verrina3
+in the flesh.
+
+But the mysterious charm by means of which many highly-gifted men are
+enabled to win at once the confidence of those whom they approach does
+not consist in beauty and grace of external form alone. We in a certain
+sense feel their superiority; yet this feeling is by no means an
+oppressive feeling as might be imagined; but, whilst elevating the
+spirit, it also excites a certain kind of mental comfort that does us
+an incalculable amount of good. All the factors of the physical and
+intellectual organism are united into a whole by the most perfect
+harmony, so that the contact with the superior soul is like a pure
+strain of music; it suffers no discord. This harmony creates that
+inimitable deportment, that--one might almost say--comfort in the
+slightest movements, through which the consciousness of true human
+dignity is proclaimed. This deportment can be taught by no dancing-
+master, by no Prince's tutor; and well and rightly does it deserve its
+proper name of the distinguished deportment, since it is stamped as
+such by Nature herself. Here need only be added that Master Wacht,
+unflinchingly constant in generosity, truth, and faithfulness to his
+burgher standing, became as the years went on ever more a man of the
+people. He developed all the virtues, but at the same time all the
+unconquerable prejudices, which are generally wont to form the
+unfavourable sides of such men's characters. My kindly reader will soon
+learn of what these prejudices consisted.
+
+I have now perhaps sufficiently explained why it was that the young
+man's appearance made such an uncommon impression upon the respected
+Prince-bishop. For a long time he observed the stalwart young workman
+in silence, but with visible satisfaction; then he questioned him about
+his previous life. Johannes answered all his questions candidly and
+modestly, and finally explained to the Prince with convincing
+clearness, that the master-builder's machine, though perhaps fitted for
+other purposes, would in the present case never effect what it was
+intended to do.
+
+In reply to the Prince's inquiry whether he could indeed trust himself
+to specify a machine that would be more suitable for the purpose,
+namely, to raise the heavy weights, the young man replied that all he
+required to construct such a machine was a single day, and the help of
+his comrade Engelbrecht and a few skilful and willing labourers.
+
+It may be conceived with what malicious and mischievous inward joy, and
+with what impatience the master-builder, and all who were connected
+with him, looked forward to the morrow, when the forward stranger would
+be sent off home covered with shame and ridicule. But things turned out
+different from what these good-hearted people had expected, or indeed
+had wished.
+
+Three capsterns suitably situated and so arranged as to exert an effect
+one upon another, and each only manned by eight labourers, elevated the
+heavy beams up to the giddy level of the roof with so much ease that
+they appeared to dance in the air. From this moment the brave clever
+craftsman could date the foundation of his reputation in Bamberg. The
+Prince urged him seriously to stay in that town and secure his
+mastership; towards the attainment of this end he would lend him all
+the assistance he possibly could. Wacht, however, hesitated,
+notwithstanding that he was very well pleased with the pleasant and
+cheap town of Bamberg. The fact that several important buildings were
+just then in course of erection put a heavy weight into the scale for
+staying; but the final turn to the balance was given by a circumstance
+which is very often wont to decide matters in life; namely, Johannes
+Wacht found again quite unexpectedly in Bamberg the beautiful virtuous
+maiden whom he had seen several years previously in Erlangen, and into
+whose friendly blue eyes he had then peeped a little too much. In a few
+words, Johannes Wacht became master, married the virtuous maiden of
+Erlangen, and soon contrived through industry and skill to purchase a
+pretty house on the Kaulberg,4 which had a large tract of garden ground
+stretching away back up the hill, and there he settled down for life.
+
+But upon whom does the friendly star of good fortune shine unchangeably
+with the same degree of splendour at all times? Providence had decreed
+that our honest Johannes should be submitted to a trial under which
+perhaps any other man, with less firmness of spirit, would have sunk.
+The first fruit of this very happy marriage was a son, an excellent
+youth, who appeared to be walking steadfastly in his father's
+footsteps. He was eighteen years of age when one night a large fire
+broke out not far from Wacht's house. Father and son hurried to the
+spot, agreeably to their calling, to help in extinguishing the flames.
+Along with other carpenters the son boldly clambered up to the roof in
+order to cut away its burning framework, as far as could be done. His
+father, who had remained below, as he always did, to direct the
+demolition of walls, &c., and to superintend the work of extinction,
+looked up and seeing the imminent danger shouted, "Johannes! men! come
+down! come down!" Too late--with a fearful crash the wall fell in; the
+son lay struck to death in the flames, which leapt up crackling louder
+as if in horrid triumph.
+
+But this terrible blow was not the only one which was to fall upon poor
+Johannes. An inconsiderate maid-servant burst with a frantic cry of
+distress into her mistress' room, who was only partly convalescent from
+a distracting nervous disorder, and was in great uneasiness and anxiety
+about the fire, the dark-red reflection of which was flickering on the
+walls of her chamber. "Your son, your Johannes, is killed; the wall has
+buried him and his comrades in the middle of the flames," screamed the
+girl. As though stung with sharp, sudden pain, her mistress raised
+herself up in the bed; but breathing out a deep sigh, she sank back
+upon the cushions again. She was struck with paralysis of the nerves;
+she was dead.
+
+"Now let us see," said the citizens, "how Master Wacht will bear his
+great trouble. He has often enough preached to us that a man ought not
+to succumb to the greatest misfortune, but ought to bear his head erect
+and strive with the strength which the Creator has planted in every
+man's breast to withstand the misery that threatens him, so long as the
+contrary is not evidently decreed in the Eternal counsels. Let us see
+now what sort of an example he will give us."
+
+They were not a little astonished when, although the master himself was
+not seen in the workshop, yet his journeymen's activity continued
+without interruption, so that work never stood still for a single
+moment, but went on just as if the master had not experienced any
+trouble.
+
+With steadfast courage and firm step, and with his face shining with
+all the consolation and all the hope that sprang from his belief--the
+true religion rooted deep down in his breast--he had followed the
+corpses of his wife and son; and on the noon of the same day after the
+funeral, which had taken place in the morning, he said to Engelbrecht,
+"Engelbrecht, it is now necessary for me to be alone with my grief,
+which is almost breaking my heart, in order that I may become
+acquainted with it and strengthen myself against it. You, brother, my
+honest, industrious foreman, will know what to do for a week; for that
+space I am going to shut myself up in my own chamber."
+
+And indeed for a whole week Master Wacht never left his room. The maid
+frequently brought down his food again untouched; and they often heard
+in the passage his low, sad cry, cutting them to the quick, "O my wife!
+O my Johannes!"
+
+Many of Wacht's acquaintances were of opinion that he ought not by any
+means to be left in this solitary state; by brooding constantly over
+his grief his mind might become unsettled Engelbrecht, however, met
+them with the reply, "Let him alone; you don't know my Johannes. Since
+Providence, in its inscrutable purposes, has sent him this hard trial,
+it has also given him strength to overcome it, and all earthly
+consolation would only outrage his feelings. I know in what manner he
+is working his way out of his deep grief." These last words Engelbrecht
+uttered with a well-nigh cunning look upon his face; but he would not
+give any further information as to what he meant. Wacht's acquaintances
+had to content themselves, and leave the unfortunate man in peace.
+
+A week was passed, and early the next morning, which was a bright
+summer morning, at five o'clock Master Wacht came out unexpectedly into
+the workyard amongst his journeymen, who were all hard at work. Their
+axes and saws stopped, whilst they greeted him with a half-sorrowful
+cry, "Master Wacht! Our good Master Wacht!"
+
+With a cheerful face, upon which the traces of the struggle against
+grief which he had gone through had deepened the expression of sterling
+good-nature and given it a most touching character, he stepped amongst
+his faithful workpeople and told them how the goodness of Heaven had
+sent down the spirit of mercy and consolation upon him, and that he was
+now filled with strength and courage to go on and discharge the duties
+of his calling. He betook himself to the building in the middle of the
+yard, which served for the storage of the tools at night, and for
+keeping the plans and memoranda of work, &c. Englebrecht, the
+journeymen, the apprentices, followed him in a string. On entering,
+Johannes stood rooted to the spot.
+
+His poor boy's axe, which was identified by certain distinctive marks,
+had been found with half-charred handle under the ruins of the house
+that had been burnt down. His companions had fastened it high up on the
+wall directly opposite the door, and, in a rather rude attempt at art,
+had painted round it a wreath of roses and cypress-branches; and
+underneath the wreath they had placed their beloved comrade's name,
+together with the year of his birth and the date of the ill-omened
+night when he had met such a violent death.
+
+"Poor Hans!"5 exclaimed Master Wacht on perceiving this touching
+monument of the true faithful spirits, whilst a flood of tears gushed
+from his eyes. "Poor Hans! the last time you wielded that tool was for
+the welfare of your brothers; but now you are resting in your grave,
+and will never more stand by my side and use your earnest industry in
+helping to forward a good piece of work."
+
+Then Master Wacht went round the circle and gave each journeyman and
+each apprentice a good honest shake of the hand, saying, "Think of
+him." Then they all went back to their work, except Engelbrecht, whom
+Wacht bid stay with him.
+
+"See here, my old comrade," cried Wacht, "what extraordinary means the
+Eternal Power has chosen to help me to overcome my great trouble.
+During the days when I was almost heart-broken with grief for my wife
+and child, whom I have lost in such a terrible way, there came into my
+mind the idea of a highly artistic and complicated trussed girder,
+which I had been thinking about for a long time without ever being able
+to see my way to the thing clearly. Look here."
+
+Therewith Master Wacht unrolled the drawing at which he had worked
+during the past week, and Engelbrecht was greatly astonished at the
+boldness and originality of the invention no less than at its
+exceptional neatness in the finished state. The mechanical part of the
+contrivance was so skilfully and cleverly arranged that even
+Engelbrecht, with all his great experience, could not comprehend it at
+once; but the greater therefore was his glad admiration when Master
+Wacht explained to him the whole construction down to the minutest
+details, and he had convinced himself that the putting of the plan into
+execution could not fail to be successful.
+
+At this time Wacht's household consisted of only two daughters besides
+himself; but it was very soon to be increased.
+
+Albeit a clever and industrious workman, Master Engelbrecht had never
+been able to advance so far as that lowest grade of affluence which had
+been the reward of Wacht's very earliest undertakings. He had to
+contend with the worst enemy of life, against which no human power is
+of any avail; it not only threatened to destroy him, but really did
+destroy him--namely, consumption. He died, leaving a wife and two boys
+almost in want. His wife went back to her own home; and Master Wacht
+would willingly have taken both boys into his own house, but this could
+only be arranged in the case of the elder, who was called Sebastian. He
+was a strong intelligent lad, and having an inclination to follow his
+father's trade, promised to make a good clever carpenter. He had,
+however, a certain refractoriness of disposition, which at times seemed
+to border closely upon badness, as well as being somewhat rude in his
+manners, and even often wild and untamable; but these ill qualities
+Wacht hoped to conquer by wise training. The younger boy, Jonathan by
+name, was exactly the opposite of his elder brother; he was a very
+pretty little boy, but rather fragile, his blue eyes laughing with
+gentleness and kind-heartedness. This boy had been adopted during his
+father's lifetime by Herr Theophilus Eichheimer, a worthy doctor of
+law, as well as the first and oldest advocate in the place. Noticing
+the boy's remarkably good parts, as well as his most decided bent for
+knowledge, he had taken him to train him for a lawyer.
+
+And here one of those unconquerable prejudices of our Wacht came to
+light which have been already spoken of above, namely, he was perfectly
+convinced in his own mind that everything understood under the name of
+law was nothing else but so many phrases artificially hammered out and
+put together by lawyers, with the sole purpose of perplexing the true
+feeling of right which had been planted in every virtuous man's breast.
+Since he could not exactly shut his eyes to the necessity for law-
+courts, he discharged all his hatred upon the advocates, whom as a
+class he conceived to be, if not altogether miserable deceivers, yet at
+any rate such contemptible men that they practised usury in shameful
+fashion with all that was most holy and venerable in the world. It will
+be seen presently how Wacht, who in all other relations of life was an
+intelligent and clear-sighted man, resembled in this particular the
+coarsest-minded amongst the lowest of the people. The further prejudice
+that he would not admit there was any piety or virtue amongst the
+adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, and that he trusted no
+Catholic, might perhaps be pardoned him, since he had imbibed the
+principles of a well-nigh fanatical Protestantism in Augsburg. It may
+be conceived, therefore, how it cut Master Wacht to the heart to see
+the son of his most faithful friend entering upon a career that he so
+bitterly detested.
+
+The will of the deceased, however, was in his eyes sacred; and it was,
+moreover, at any rate certain that Jonathan with his weakly body could
+not be trained up to any handicraft that made any very large demand
+upon physical strength. Besides, when old Herr Theophilus Eichheimer
+talked to the master about the divine gift of knowledge, at the same
+time praising little Jonathan as a good intelligent boy, Wacht for the
+moment forgot the advocate, and law, and his own prejudice as well. He
+fastened all his hopes upon the belief that Jonathan, who bore his
+father's virtues in his heart, would give up his profession when he
+arrived at riper years, and was able to perceive all the disgrace that
+attached to it.
+
+Though Jonathan was a good, quiet boy, fond of studying in-doors,
+Sebastian was all the oftener and all the deeper engaged in all kinds
+of wild foolish pranks. But since in respect to his handiwork he
+followed in his father's footsteps, and no fault could ever be found
+with his industry or with the neatness of his work, Master Wacht
+ascribed his at times too outrageous tricks to the unrefined untamed
+fire of youth, and he forgave the young fellow, observing that he would
+be sure to sow his wild oats when on his travels.
+
+These travels Sebastian soon set out upon; and Master Wacht heard
+nothing more from him until Sebastian, on attaining his majority, wrote
+from Vienna, begging for his little patrimonial inheritance, which
+Master Wacht sent to him correct to the last farthing, receiving in
+return a receipt for it drawn up by one of the Vienna courts.
+
+Just the same sort of difference in character as distinguished the
+Engelbrechts was noticeable also between Wacht's two daughters, of whom
+the elder was called Rettel6 and the younger Nanni.
+
+It may here be hastily remarked in passing, that, according to the
+taste generally prevalent in Bamberg, the Christian name Nanni is the
+prettiest and finest a girl can well have. And so, kindly reader, if
+you ever ask a pretty child in Bamberg, "What is your name, my little
+angel?" the little thing will be sure to cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and tug at her black silk apron, and whisper in friendly
+fashion with a slight blush upon her cheeks, "'N! 'N! Nanni, y'r
+honour."
+
+Rettel, Wacht's elder daughter, was a fat little thing, with red rosy
+cheeks and right friendly black eyes, with which she looked boldly into
+the face of the sunshine of life, as it had dawned upon her, without
+blinking. In respect of her education and her character she had not
+risen a hair's breadth above the sphere of the handicraftsman. She
+gossiped with her female relatives and friends, and liked dressing
+herself, though in gay colours and without taste; but her own peculiar
+element, wherein she "lived and moved, and had her being," was the
+kitchen. Nobody's hare-ragout and geese giblets, not even those of the
+most experienced cook far and near, ever turned out so tasty as hers;
+in the preparation of sauces she was a perfect adept; vegetables, such
+as savoy and cauliflower, were dressed by Rettel's cunning hand in a
+way that could not be beaten, since she knew in a moment through a
+subtle unfailing instinct when there was too much or too little
+dripping; and her short cakes put in the shade the most successful
+productions of a similar kind at the most sumptuous of church feasts.7
+
+Father Wacht was very well satisfied with his daughter's cooking; and
+he once hazarded the opinion that the Prince-bishop could not have more
+delicious vermicelli noodles8 on his table than those which Rettel
+made. This remark sank so deeply into the good girl's pleased heart,
+that she was preparing to send a huge dish of the said vermicelli
+noodles up to the Prince-bishop, and that too on a fast day.
+Fortunately Master Wacht got scent of the plan in time, and amidst
+hearty laughter prevented the bold idea from being put into execution.
+
+Not only was stout little Rettel a clever housekeeper, a perfect cook,
+and at the same time a pattern of good nature and childish affection
+and fidelity, but like a well-trained child she also loved her father
+very tenderly.
+
+Now characters of Wacht's class, in spite of their earnestness, often
+display a certain ironical waggishness which comes into play on easy
+provocation, and lends an agreeable charm to life, just as the deep
+brook greets with its silver curling waves the light breeze that skims
+its surface.
+
+It could not fail but that good Rettel's ways and doings frequently
+provoked this sly humour; and so the relations between Wacht and his
+daughter were invested with a curiously modified charm of colour. The
+indulgent reader will come across instances later on; for the present
+it may suffice to mention one such here, which certainly deserves to be
+called entertaining. In Master Wacht's house there was a quiet,
+good-looking young man, who held a post in the Prince's exchequer
+office and drew a very good income. In straightforward German fashion
+he sued the father for the hand of his elder daughter, and Master
+Wacht, if he would not do an injustice to the young man as well as to
+his Rettel, could not help but grant him permission to visit the house,
+that he might have opportunities to try and win the girl's affections.
+Rettel, informed of the man's purpose, received him with very friendly
+looks, in which might be read at times, "At our wedding, dear, I shall
+bake the cake myself."
+
+Master Wacht, however, was not altogether well pleased with his
+daughter's growing liking for the Herr Administrator of the Prince's
+revenues, since the Herr Administrator himself didn't seem to him to be
+all that he should be. In the first place, the man was as a matter of
+course a Roman Catholic, and in the second place Wacht thought he
+perceived in him on nearer acquaintance a certain sneaking
+dissimulation of manner, which pointed to a mind ill at ease. He would
+willingly have got the undesirable suitor out of the house again if he
+could have done so without hurting Rettel's feelings. Master Wacht
+observed him closely, and knew how to make shrewd and cunning use of
+his observations. He perceived that the Herr Administrator did not set
+much store by well-cooked dishes, but swallowed down everything in the
+same indiscriminate fashion, and that, moreover, in a disagreeably
+repulsive way. One Sunday, when the Herr Administrator was dining at
+Master Wacht's, as he usually did on that day, the latter began to heap
+up praises and commendations upon every dish which busy Rettel caused
+to be served up; and not only did he call upon the Herr Administrator
+to join him in his encomiums, but he also asked him pointedly what he
+thought of various ways of dressing dishes. The Herr Administrator
+replied somewhat dryly that he was a temperate and abstemious man,
+accustomed from his youth up to the greatest frugality. At noon, for
+dinner, he was satisfied with a spoonful or two of soup and a little
+piece of beef, but the latter must be cooked hard, since so cooked a
+smaller quantity sufficed to satisfy the hunger, and there was no need
+to overload the stomach with large pieces. For his evening meal he
+generally managed upon a saucer of good egg and butter beaten up
+together and a very small glass of liquor; moreover, the only other
+refreshment he allowed himself was a glass of extra beer at six o'clock
+in the evening, taken if possible in the good fresh air. It may be
+imagined what looks Rettelchen fixed upon the unfortunate
+administrator. And yet the worst was still to come. Bavarian puffy
+noodles were next served, and they were swollen up to such a big, big
+size that they seemed to be the masterpiece of the table. The frugal
+Herr Administrator took his knife and with the most cool-blooded
+indifference cut the noodle which was passed to him into many pieces.
+Rettel rushed out of the room with a loud cry of despair.
+
+I must inform the reader who does not know the secret of eating
+Bavarian puffy noodles that when eaten they must be cleverly pulled to
+pieces, since when cut they lose all taste and bring disgrace upon the
+professional pride of the cook who made them.
+
+From that moment Rettel looked upon the frugal Herr Administrator as
+the most abominable man under the face of the sun. Master Wacht did not
+contradict her in any way; and so the reckless iconoclast in the
+province of cookery lost his bride for ever.
+
+Though the chequered figure of little Rettel has cost almost too many
+words, yet a very few strokes will suffice to put clearly before my
+reader's eyes the face, figure, and character of pretty, graceful
+Nanni.
+
+It is only in South Germany, particularly in Franconia, and almost
+exclusively in the burgher classes, that you can meet with such elegant
+and delicate figures, such good and pleasing angelic little faces,
+where there is a sweet heavenly yearning in the blue eyes and a divine
+smile upon the rosy lips, as Nanni's; from them we at once see that the
+old painters had not far to seek the originals of their Madonnas. Of
+exactly the same type in figure, face, and character was the Erlangen
+maiden whom Master Wacht had married; and Nanni was a most faithful
+copy of her mother. With respect to her genuine tender womanliness and
+with respect to that beneficial culture which is nothing but true tact
+under all conditions of life, her mother was the exact counterpart of
+what Master Wacht was with respect to his distinguishing qualities as
+man. Perhaps the daughter was less serious and firm than her mother,
+but on the other hand she was the perfection of maidenly sweetness; and
+the only fault that could be found with her was that her womanly
+tenderness of feeling and a sensitiveness which, as a consequence of
+her weakened organisation, was easily provoked to a tearful and
+unhealthy degree, made her too delicate and fragile for the realities
+of life.
+
+Master Wacht could not look at the dear child without emotion, and he
+loved her in a way that is seldom found in the case of strong
+characters like his. It is possible that he may have always spoiled her
+a little; and it will soon be shown in what way her tenderness so often
+received that special material and encouragement which made it often
+degenerate into sickly sentimentality.
+
+Nanni loved to dress with extreme simplicity, but in the finest stuffs
+and according to cuts which rose above the limits of her station in
+life. Wacht, however, let her do as she liked, since when dressed
+according to her own taste the dear child looked so very pretty and
+engaging.
+
+I must now hasten to destroy an idea which perhaps might arise in the
+mind of any reader who should happen to have been in Bamberg several
+years ago, and so would call to mind the hideous and tasteless head-
+dress with which at that time even the prettiest maidens were wont to
+disfigure their faces--the flat hood fitting close to the head and not
+allowing the smallest little lock of hair to be seen, a black and not
+over-broad ribbon crossing close over the forehead, and meeting behind
+low down on the neck in an outrageously ugly bow. This ribbon
+afterwards continued to increase in width until it reached the
+preposterous breadth of nearly half an ell; hence it had to be
+specially ordered in the manufactory and strengthened inside with stiff
+card-board, so that it projected above the head like a steeple-hat;
+just above the hollow of the neck they wore a bow, which owing to its
+breadth stuck out far beyond the shoulders, and resembled the outspread
+wings of an eagle; and along the temples and about the ears tiny curls
+crept out from beneath the hood. And strange to say, many a fine
+Bamberg beauty looked quite charming in this head-covering.
+
+It formed a very picturesque sight to stand behind a funeral procession
+and watch it set itself in motion. It is the custom in Bamberg for the
+burghers to be invited to attend the funeral procession of a deceased
+person by the so-called "death-woman," who in a croaking voice and in
+the name of the deceased screams out her invitation in the street, in
+front of the house of the persons she is inviting; as, for instance,
+"Herr so-and-so, or Frau so-and-so, beg you to pay them the last
+honours." The good gossips and the young maidens, who in general seldom
+get out into the open air, fail not to put in an appearance in great
+numbers; and when the troop of women sets itself in motion and the wind
+catches the immense ends of the bows, it can be likened to nothing else
+but a huge flock of black ravens or eagles suddenly startled and just
+beginning their rustling flight.
+
+The indulgent reader is therefore requested not to picture pretty Nanni
+in any other head-dress except a neat little Erlangen hood.
+
+However objectionable it was to Master Wacht that Jonathan was to
+belong to a class which he hated, he did not by any means make the boy,
+or later the youth, feel the consequences of his displeasure. Rather he
+was always very pleased to see the good quiet Jonathan look in after
+his day's work was done, to spend the evening with his daughters and
+old Barbara. But then Jonathan also wrote the finest hand that could be
+seen anywhere; and it afforded Master Wacht no little joy, for he was
+uncommonly fond of good handwriting, when his Nanni, whose writing-
+master Jonathan had installed himself to be, began gradually after a
+time to write the same elegant hand as her master.
+
+In the evening Master Wacht himself was either busy in his own work-
+room, or, as was often the case, he visited a beer-house, where he met
+with his fellow-craftsmen and the gentlemen of the council, and in his
+way enlivened the company with his own rare wit. Meanwhile in the house
+at home Barbara busily kept her distaff on the whirl and whizz, whilst
+Rettel balanced the house-keeping accounts, or thought out the
+preparation of new and hitherto unheard-of dishes, or related again to
+the old woman, mingled with a good deal of loud laughter, what she had
+learned in confidence from her various gossips in the town.
+
+And the youth Jonathan? He sat at the table with Nanni; and she also
+wrote and drew, of course under his guidance. And yet to sit writing
+and drawing the whole evening through is a downright tiring piece of
+business; hence it was no unfrequent occurrence for Jonathan to draw
+some neatly-bound book out of his pocket and read it to pretty,
+sensitive Nanni in a low softly-whispering tone.
+
+Through old Eichheimer's influence Jonathan had won the patronage of
+the minor canon, who designated Master Wacht a real Verrina. The canon,
+Count von Kösel, a man of genius, lived and revelled in Goethe's and
+Schiller's works, which were just at that time beginning to rise like
+bright streaming meteors, overtopping all others, above the horizon of
+the literary sky. He thought, and rightly, that he discerned a similar
+tendency in his attorney's young clerk, and took a special delight not
+only in lending him the works in question, but in reading them in
+common with him, and so helping him to thoroughly digest them.
+
+But Jonathan won his way to the Count's heart in an especial way,
+because he expressed a very favourable opinion of the verses which the
+Count patched together out of high-sounding phrases in the sweat of his
+own brow, and because he was, to the Count's unspeakable satisfaction,
+edified and touched by them to the proper pitch. Nevertheless it is a
+fact that Jonathan's taste in æsthetic matters was really greatly
+improved by his intercourse with the intellectual, though somewhat
+euphuistic, Count.
+
+My kind reader now knows what class of books Jonathan used to take out
+of his pocket and read to pretty Nanni, and can form a just conception
+of the way in which this kind of writings would inevitably excite a
+girl mentally organised as Nanni was. "O star of the gloaming eve!"
+Would not Nanni's tears flow when her attractive writing-master began
+in this low and solemn fashion?
+
+It is a fact of common experience that young people who are in the
+habit of singing tender love-duets together very easily put themselves
+in the places of the fictitious characters of the song, and come to
+look upon the duets in question as giving both the melody and the text
+for the whole of life; so also the youth who reads a love romance to a
+maiden very readily becomes the hero of the story, whilst the girl
+dreams herself into the role of the heroine. In the case of such fitly
+adapted spirits as Jonathan and Nanni such incitement as this even was
+not required to provoke them to love each other. They were one heart
+and one soul; the maiden and the youth were, so to speak, but one
+brightly burning flame of love, pure and inextinguishable. Of his
+daughter's tender passion Father Wacht had not the slightest inkling;
+but he was soon to learn all.
+
+Through unwearied industry and genuine talent Jonathan succeeded in a
+brief space of time in completing his legal studies and qualifying for
+admission to the grade of advocate; and, as a matter of fact, his
+admission soon followed. He intended one Sunday to surprise Master
+Wacht with this glad news, which established him upon a secure footing
+for life. But imagine how he trembled with dismay when Wacht bent his
+eyes upon him, blazing with anger; he had never seen him look so
+passionately wrathful. "What!" cried Wacht, in a tone that made the
+walls ring again, "what! you miserable good-for-nothing fellow! Nature
+has neglected your body, but richly endowed you with splendid
+intellectual gifts, and these you are intending to abuse in a shameless
+way, like a bad crafty knave, and so putting your knife at your own
+mother's throat? You mean to say you are going to traffic in justice as
+in some cheap paltry ware in the public market, and weigh it out with
+false scales to the poor peasants and the oppressed burgher, who in
+vain utter their plaintive cries before the soft-cushioned seat of the
+inexorable judge, and going to get yourself paid with blood-stained
+pence which the poor man hands to you whilst bathed in tears? Will you
+fill your brains with lying laws of man's contriving, and practise
+knavish tricks and schemes, and make a lucrative business of it to
+fatten yourself upon? Is all your father's virtue, tell me, vanished
+from your heart? Your father--your name is Engelbrecht--no! when I hear
+you called so I will not believe that it is the name of my comrade, who
+was a pattern of virtue and honesty, but I must believe that it is
+Satan, who in the apish mockery of Hell is shouting the name across his
+grave, and so beguiling men to take the young lying lawyer's cub for
+the real son of that excellent carpenter Gottfried Engelbrecht. Begone!
+you are no longer my foster-son! You are a serpent whom I will pluck
+from my bosom, whom I will disown"----
+
+At this point Nanni rushed in and threw herself at Master Wacht's feet
+with a piercing heart-rending cry of distress. "Father!" she cried,
+completely overcome by her incontrollable anguish and unbridled
+despair, "father, if you disown him, you will disown me also--me, your
+own favourite daughter; he is mine, my Jonathan; I can never, never
+part with him in this world."
+
+The poor child fell down in a swoon and struck her head against the
+closet-door, so that the drops of blood trickled down her delicate
+white forehead. Barbara and Rettel ran in and carried the insensible
+girl to the sofa. Jonathan stood like a statue, as if thunderstruck,
+incapable of the slightest movement. It would be difficult to describe
+the inner emotions which revealed themselves on Wacht's countenance.
+His face, instead of being flushed with the redness of anger, was now
+pale as a corpse's; there only remained a dark fire gleaming in his
+fixed set eyes; the cold perspiration of death appeared to be standing
+on his forehead. After gazing unchangeably before him for some minutes
+without speaking, he relieved his labouring breast by saying in a
+significant tone, "So that was it!" then he strode slowly towards the
+door, where he again stood still, and turning half round towards the
+women, cried, "Dont' spare _eau de Cologne_, and this foolery will soon
+be over."
+
+Shortly afterwards the Master was seen to leave the house at a quick
+pace and bend his steps towards the hills. It may be conceived in what
+great trouble and distress the family was plunged. Rettel and Barbara
+could not for the life of them imagine what terrible thing had
+happened; but when the Master did not return to dinner, but stayed out
+till late at night--a thing he had never done before--they were greatly
+agitated with anxiety and fear. At length they heard him coming, heard
+him open the street-door, bang it violently to, ascend the stairs with
+strong firm footsteps, and lock himself in his own chamber.
+
+Poor Nanni soon recovered herself again and wept quietly to herself.
+But Jonathan did not stop short of wild outbreaks of inconsolable
+despair, and several times spoke of shooting himself. It is a fortunate
+thing that pistols are articles which do not necessarily belong to the
+furniture of sentimental young lawyers; or at least, if they are to be
+found amongst their effects, they generally have no lock or else won't
+go off.
+
+After he had run through certain streets like a madman, Jonathan's
+course led him instinctively to his noble patron, to whom he lamented
+all his unheard-of misery in outbreaks of the most violent passion. It
+need hardly be added, it is so self-evident a thing, that the young
+love-smitten advocate was, according to his own desperate assertions,
+the first and only individual in all the wide world whom such a
+terrible fate had befallen, wherefore he reproached destiny and all the
+powers of enmity as having conspired together against him.
+
+The canon listened to him calmly and with a certain share of interest;
+but nevertheless he did not appear to appreciate the full extent of the
+trouble which the young lawyer imagined he felt "My dear young friend,"
+said the canon, taking the advocate by the hand in a friendly way, and
+leading him to a seat, "my dear young friend, hitherto I have looked
+upon our carpenter Herr Johannes Wacht as a great man in his way, but I
+now perceive that he is also a very great fool. Great fools are like
+jibbing horses; it's hard to make them move; but once they have been
+got to move, they trot merrily along the way they are wanted to go. In
+spite of the old man's senseless anger you ought not by any means to
+give up your beautiful Nanni in consequence of the unpleasant scene of
+today. But before proceeding to talk further about your love-affair,
+which is indeed very charming and romantic, let us turn to and discuss
+a little breakfast. It was noon when you went to old Wacht, and I don't
+dine until four o'clock in Seehof."9
+
+A very appetising breakfast indeed was served up on the little table at
+which they both sat--the canon and the advocate--Bayonne hams,
+garnished round about with slices of Portuguese onions, a cold larded
+partridge of the red kind and a foreigner to boot, truffles cooked in
+red wine, a dish of Strasburg _pâtés de foie gras_, finally a plate of
+genuine Strachino10 and another with butter, as yellow and shining as
+lilies of the valley.
+
+The indulgent reader who loves such dainty butter, and ever goes to
+Bamberg, will be pleased at getting there the finest and best, but will
+also at the same time be annoyed when he learns that the inhabitants,
+from mistaken notions of housekeeping, melt it down to a grease, which
+generally tastes rancid and spoils all the food.
+
+Besides, good dry champagne was sending up its pearly sparkles in a
+beautifully-cut crystal decanter. The canon had not unloosed the napkin
+from his neck, but had let it stay where it was when he had received
+the young lawyer; and, after the footman had quickly supplied a second
+cover, he proceeded to place the choicest morsels before the despairing
+lover and to pour out wine for him; and then he set to work heartily
+himself. Some one once had the hardihood to maintain that the stomach
+is equivalent to all the other physical and intellectual parts of man
+put together. That is a profane and abominable doctrine; but this much
+is certain, that the stomach is like a despotic tyrant or ironical
+mystifier, and often carries through its own will. And this was the
+case in the present instance. For instinctively, without being clearly
+conscious of what he was about, the young lawyer had in a few minutes
+devoured a huge piece of Bayonne ham, created terrible devastation
+amongst the Portuguese garniture, put out of sight half a partridge, no
+inconsiderable quantity of trufles, and also more Strasburg _pâtés_
+than was exactly becoming in a young advocate full of trouble.
+Moreover, they both relished the champagne so much that the footman
+soon had to fill up the crystal decanter a second time.
+
+The advocate felt a pleasant and beneficial degree of warmth penetrate
+his vitals, and all he experienced of his trouble was a singular sort
+of shiver, which exactly resembled electric shocks, causing pain but
+doing good. He proved himself susceptible to the consolations of his
+patron, who, after comfortably sipping up his last glass of wine and
+elegantly wiping his mouth, settled himself into position and began as
+follows:--
+
+"In the first place, my dear good friend, you must not be so foolish as
+to imagine that you are the only man on earth to whom a father has
+refused the hand of his daughter. But that's nothing to do with the
+present case. As I have already told you, the old fool's reason for
+hating you is so preposterously absurd that it cannot last long; and
+whether it appear to you at this moment nonsensical or not, I can
+hardly bear the thought of all ending in a tame commonplace wedding, so
+that the whole thing may be summed up in the few words,--Peter has
+wooed Grete,11 and Peter and Grete are man and wife.
+
+"The situation is, however, so far new and grand in that it is merely
+hatred against a class to which the beloved foster-son belongs that can
+furnish the sole lever for setting a new and special tragic development
+in motion; but to the real matter at issue! You are a poet, my friend,
+and that alters everything. Your love, your trouble, ought to appear in
+your eyes as something magnificent, in the full splendours of the
+sacred art of poesy. You will hear the strains of the lyre struck by
+the muse who is nearest akin to you, and in the divine gush of
+inspiration you will receive the winged words in which to express your
+love and your unhappiness. As a poet you might be called at this moment
+the happiest man on the earth, since, your heart having been really
+wounded as deep as it can be wounded, your heart's blood is now gushing
+out. You require, therefore, no artificial incitement to allure you to
+a poetic mood; and mark my words, this period of trouble will enable
+you to produce something great and admirable.
+
+"I must draw your attention to the fact that in these first moments of
+your unhappiness there will be mingled with it a peculiar and very
+unpleasant feeling which cannot be woven into any poetry; but it is a
+feeling which soon vanishes away. Let me make you understand. For
+example, after the unfortunate lover has had a good sound drubbing from
+the enraged father, and has been kicked out of the house, and the
+outraged mamma has locked the young lady in her chamber, and repelled
+the attempted storming on the part of the desperate lover by the armed
+domestics of the house, and when plebeian fists have even entertained
+no shyness of the very finest cloth" (here the canon sighed somewhat),
+"then this fermented prose of miserable vulgarity must evaporate in
+order that the pure poetic unhappiness of love may settle as sediment
+You have been fearfully scolded, my dear young friend, this was the
+bitter prose that had to be surmounted; you have surmounted it, and so
+now give yourself up entirely to poetry. Here--here are Petrarch's _
+Sonnets_ and Ovid's _Elegies_; take them, read them, write yourself,
+and come and read to me what you have written. Perhaps in the meantime
+I also may experience a disappointment in love, of which I am not
+altogether deprived of hopes, since I shall in all likelihood fall in
+love with a stranger lady who has stopped at the 'White Lamb' in the
+Steinweg,12 and whom Count Nesselstädt maintains to be a paragon of
+beauty and grace, albeit he has only caught a fugitive glimpse of her
+at the window. Then, my friend, like the Dioscuri, we will travel the
+same bright path of poetry and disappointed love. Note, my good fellow,
+what a great advantage my station in life gives me, for every affection
+which I conceive, being a longing and hoping which can never be
+gratified, rises to tragic intensity. But now, my friend, out, out,
+away into the woods as you ought to."
+
+It would doubtless be very wearisome to my kind reader, if not
+unbearable, were I to describe here at length, in detail and with all
+sorts of over-choice and exquisite words and phrases, all that Jonathan
+and Nanni did in their trouble. Such things may be found in any
+indifferent romance; and it is often amusing enough to see into what
+postures the struggling author throws himself, merely in order to
+appear original. On the other hand, it seems to be of great importance
+to follow Master Wacht on his walks, or rather in his mental
+journeyings.
+
+It must appear very remarkable that a man of such strong self-reliant
+spirit as Master Wacht, who had borne with unshaken courage and
+unbending steadfastness the most terrible misfortunes that had befallen
+him, and that would have crushed many less stouthearted spirits, could
+be thus put beside himself with passion at an occurrence which any
+other father of a family would have regarded as an ordinary event and
+one easy to remedy, and would in fact have set about remedying it in
+some way or other, good or bad. Of course the indulgent reader is well
+aware that this behaviour of Wacht's must be traced to some good
+psychological reason. The thought that poor Nanni's love for innocent
+Jonathan was a misfortune which would exercise a pernicious influence
+upon the whole course of his subsequent life was only due to the
+perverse discord in Wacht's soul. But the very fact that this discord
+was able to go on making itself heard in the otherwise harmonical
+character of this thoroughly noble man, embraced the impossibility of
+smothering it or reducing it completely to silence.
+
+Wacht had made his acquaintance with the feminine character in one who
+possessed it in a simple but also at the same time grand and noble
+form. His own wife had enabled him to see into the depths of the real
+woman's nature, as in a bright mirror-like lake. He saw in her the true
+heroine who fought with weapons that were constantly unconquerable. His
+orphan wife had forfeited the inheritance of an immensely rich aunt,
+she had forfeited the love of all her relatives, and she had opposed
+with unshaken courage the persistent efforts of the Church, which
+embittered her life with many a hard trial, when, though herself
+trained up in the Catholic religion, she had married the Protestant
+Wacht, and shortly before had gone over to this faith in Augsburg,
+impelled thereto by the pure enthusiasm of conviction. All this now
+passed through Master Wacht's mind; and as he thought upon the
+sentiments he had felt when he led the maiden to the altar, the warm
+tears ran down his cheeks. Nanni was her mother over again; Wacht loved
+the child with an intensity of affection that was quite unparalleled,
+and this fact was of itself more than enough to make him reject as
+abominable, nay, as fiendishly cruel, any attempt to separate the
+lovers that appeared in the remotest degree to savour of violence.
+When, on the other hand, he reflected upon the whole course of
+Jonathan's previous life, he was obliged to admit that all the virtues
+of a good, industrious, and modest youth could not easily be so happily
+united in another as they were in Jonathan, albeit his handsome
+expressive face bore the impress of traits which were perhaps a little
+too soft, and almost effeminate, and his diminutive and weak but
+elegant bodily frame bespoke a tender intellectual spirit. When he
+reflected further that the two children had always been together, and
+how evident had been their mutual liking for each other, he was really
+puzzled to understand how it was that he had not expected beforehand
+what had now really happened, and so could have taken precautions in
+time. Now it was too late.
+
+He was urged on through the hills by a mood of mind which set his whole
+being in a turmoil of distraction; such a state as this he had hitherto
+never experienced, and he was inclined to take it for a seduction of
+Satan, since several thoughts arose in his mind which in the very next
+minute he could not help regarding as diabolical. He could not recover
+his self-composure, still less form any decisive plan of action. The
+sun was beginning to set when he reached the village of Buch;13 turning
+into the hotel, he ordered something good to eat and a bottle of
+excellent beer from the rock.14
+
+"Ah! a very fine evening! Ah! what a remarkable occurrence to see our
+good Master Wacht here in beautiful Buch, on this glorious Sunday
+evening. To tell you the truth, I can hardly believe my eyes. Your
+respected family is, I presume, somewhere else in the country." Thus
+was Master Wacht addressed by some one with a shrill, squeaking voice.
+The man who thus interrupted his meditations was no less a personage
+than Herr Pickard Leberfink, a decorator and gilder by trade, and one
+of the drollest men in the world.
+
+Leberfink's exterior struck everybody's eye as something eccentric and
+extraordinary. He was of small size, thick and stumpy, with a body too
+long, and with short bowed legs; his face was not at all ugly, but
+good-natured, with round red little cheeks and small grey eyes that
+were by no means wanting in vivacity. Pursuant to an old obsolete
+French fashion, he was elaborately curled and powdered every day; but
+it was on Sundays that his costume was especially striking. For then he
+wore, to take one example, a striped silk coat of a lilac and canary-
+yellow colour with immense silver-plated buttons, a waistcoat
+embroidered in gay tints, satin hose of a brilliant green, white and
+light-blue silk stockings, delicately striped, and shining black
+polished shoes, upon which glittered large buckles set with precious
+stones. If to this we add that his gait was the elegant gait of a
+dancing master, that he had a certain cat-like suppleness of body, and
+that his little legs had a strange knack of knocking the heels together
+on fitting occasions,--for instance, when leaping across a gutter,--it
+could not fail but that the little decorator got himself singled out
+everywhere as an extraordinary creature. With other aspects of his
+character my kindly reader will make an acquaintance presently.
+
+Master Wacht was not altogether displeased at having his painful
+meditations interrupted in this way. Herr, or better Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink, decorator and gilder, was a great fop, but at the same time
+the most honest and faithful soul in the world; he was a very liberal-
+minded man, was generous to the poor, and always ready to serve his
+friends. He only practised his calling now and again, merely out of
+love for it, since he had no need of business. He was rich; his father
+had left him some landed property, having a magnificent rock-cellar,
+which was only separated from Master Wacht's premises by a large
+garden. Master Wacht was fond of the droll little Leberfink on account
+of his downright genuineness, and also because he was a member of the
+small Protestant community which was permitted to exercise the rites of
+its faith in Bamberg. With conspicuous alacrity and willingness
+Leberfink accepted Wacht's invitation to join him at his table, and
+drink another bottle of beer from the rock along with him. He began the
+conversation by saying that for a long time he had been wanting to call
+upon Master Wacht at his own house, since he had two things he wished
+to talk to him about, one of which was almost making his heart burst.
+Wacht made answer, he thought Leberfink knew him, and must be aware
+that anybody who had anything to say to him, no matter what it was,
+might speak out his thoughts frankly. Leberfink now imparted to the
+Master in confidence that the wine-dealer who owned the beautiful
+garden, with the massive pavilion, which lay between their two
+properties, had privately offered to sell it to him. He thought he
+recollected having heard Wacht once express a wish how very much he
+should like to own this garden; if now the opportunity was come to
+satisfy this wish, he (Leberfink) offered his services as negotiator,
+and expressed his willingness to settle everything for him.
+
+It was a fact that Master Wacht had for some time entertained a desire
+to enlarge his property by the addition of a good garden, and
+especially so since Nanni was always longing for the beautiful shrubs
+and trees which gave out such a luxurious abundance of sweet scents in
+this very garden. Moreover, it seemed to him now as if Fortune were
+graciously smiling upon him, and just at the time when poor Nanni had
+experienced such bitter trouble, an opportunity for affording her
+pleasure should present itself so unexpectedly. The Master at once
+settled all the needful particulars with the obliging decorator, who
+promised that on the following Sunday Wacht should be able to stroll
+through the garden as its owner. "Come now," cried Master Wacht, "come
+now, friend Leberfink, out with it--what is it that is making your
+heart burst?"
+
+Then Herr Pickard Leberfink fell to sighing in the most pitiable
+manner; and he pulled the most extraordinary faces, and ran on with
+such a string of gibberish that nobody could make either head or tail
+of it. Master Wacht, however, knew what to make of it, for he shook his
+head, saying, "Ah! that may be contrived;" and he smiled to himself at
+the wonderful sympathy of their related spirits.
+
+This meeting with Leberfink had certainly done Master Wacht good; he
+believed he had conceived a plan by virtue of which he should manage
+not only to stand against, but even to overcome, the severest and most
+terrible misfortune which, according to his infatuated way of thinking,
+had come upon him. The only thing that can declare the verdict of the
+tribunal within him is the course of action he adopted; and perhaps,
+kindly reader, this tribunal faltered for the first time. Here is the
+place to offer a brief remark, which, perhaps, would not very well lend
+itself for insertion later. As so frequently happens in such cases, old
+Barbara had interfered in the matter, and been very urgent in her
+accusations of the loving pair to Master Wacht, making it a special
+charge against them that they had always read worldly books together.
+The Master caused her to bring two or three of the books which Nanni
+had. One was a work of Goethe's; unfortunately it is not known which
+work it was. After turning over the leaves, he gave it back to Barbara,
+that she might restore it to the place whence she had secretly taken
+it. Not a single word about Nanni's reading ever escaped him; once
+only, when some seasonable occasion presented at dinner, did he say,
+"There is a remarkable mind rising up amongst us Germans; God grant him
+success! My days are over; such things are not for my age, nor yet for
+my calling; but you--Jonathan? I envy you many things that will come to
+light in the days to come." Jonathan understood Wacht's oracular words
+the more easily, since some days previously he had discovered by chance
+_ Götz von Berlichingen_15 lying on the Master's work-table, half
+covered by other papers. Wacht's great mind, whilst acknowledging the
+uncommon genius of the new writer, had also perceived the impossibility
+of beginning a new flight himself.
+
+Next day poor Nanni hung her head like a sick dove. "What's the matter
+with my dear child?" asked Master Wacht in the tender sympathetic tone
+that was so peculiarly his own, and with which he knew how to stir
+everybody's heart, "what's the matter with my dear child? are you ill?
+I can't believe it. You don't get out into the fresh air sufficiently.
+See here now; I have a long time been wishing you would for once in a
+way bring me my tea out to the workshop. Do so to-day; we may expect a
+most beautiful evening. You will come, won't you, Nanni, my darling?
+You will butter me some rolls yourself--that will make them ever so
+good." Therewith Master Wacht took the dear girl in his arms and
+stroked her brown curls back from her forehead, and he kissed her and
+pressed her to his heart, and tenderly caressed her,--treating her, in
+fact, in the most affectionate way that he knew how; and he was well
+aware of the irresistible charm of his manner at such times. A flood of
+tears gushed from Nanni's eyes, and with some difficulty all she could
+get out was, "Father! father!" "Well, well!" said Wacht, and a strain
+of embarrassment might have been detected in his voice, "all may yet
+turn out well."
+
+A week passed; naturally enough Jonathan had not shown himself, and the
+Master had not mentioned him with a single syllable. On Sunday, when
+the soup was standing smoking on the table, and the family were about
+to take their seats for dinner. Master Wacht asked gaily, "And where is
+our Jonathan?" Rettel, with a view to sparing poor Nanni, replied in an
+undertone, "Father, don't you know then what's taken place? Wouldn't
+Jonathan of course be shy of showing himself here in your presence?"
+"Oh the monkey!" said Wacht, laughing; "let Christian run over at once
+and fetch him."
+
+It need hardly be said that the young advocate failed not to put in an
+appearance immediately, nor that during the first moments after his
+arrival a dark oppressive thunder-cloud, as it were, hovered over them
+all. At length, however, Master Wacht's unconstrained good spirits,
+seconded by Leberfink's droll sallies, succeeded in calling forth a
+tone of conversation which, if it could not be called exactly merry,
+yet managed to maintain the balance of concord pretty evenly. After
+dinner Master Wacht said, "Let us get a little fresh air and stroll out
+to my workyard." And they did so.
+
+Monsieur Pickard Leberfink deliberately kept close to Rettelchen's
+side, who was a pattern of friendliness towards him, since the polite
+decorator had exhausted himself in praising her dishes, and had
+confessed that never so long as he had lived, not even when dining with
+the ecclesiastics in Banz,16 had he enjoyed a more delicious meal. As
+Master Wacht now hurried on at a quick pace right across the middle of
+the workyard, with a large bundle of keys in his hand, the young lawyer
+was unintentionally brought close to Nanni. But all that the lovers
+ventured upon were stolen sighs and low soft-breathed love-plaints.
+
+Master Wacht came to a halt in front of a fine newly-made door, which
+had been constructed in the wall parting his workyard from the
+merchant's garden. He unlocked the door and stepped in, inviting his
+family to follow him. They, none of them, knew exactly what to make of
+the old gentleman, except Herr Pickard Leberfink, who never laid aside
+his sly smile, or ceased his soft giggle. In the midst of the beautiful
+garden there was a very spacious pavilion; this too Master Wacht
+opened, and stepping in remained standing in its centre; from every one
+of its windows one obtained a different romantic view. "Yes," said
+Master Wacht in a voice that bore witness to a heart well pleased with
+itself, "here I am in my own property; this beautiful garden is mine. I
+was obliged to buy it, not so much to augment my own place or increase
+the value of my property, no! but because I knew that a certain darling
+little thing longed so for these shrubs and trees, and for these
+beautiful sweet-smelling flower-beds."
+
+Then Nanni threw herself upon the old gentleman's breast and cried, "O
+father! father! You will break my heart with your kindness, with your
+goodness; do have pity"---- "There, there, say no more," Master Wacht
+interrupted his suffering child, "be a good girl, and all may be
+brought right in some marvellous way. You can find a great deal of
+comfort in this little paradise"---- "Oh! yes, yes, yes," exclaimed
+Nanni in a burst of enthusiasm, "O ye trees, ye shrubs, ye flowers, ye
+distant hills, you beautiful fleeting evening clouds--my spirit lives
+wholly in you all; I shall come to myself again when your sweet voices
+comfort me." Therewith Nanni ran out of the open door of the pavilion
+into the garden like a startled young roe; and Jonathan, the lawyer,
+delayed not to follow her at his fastest speed, for no power would then
+have been able to keep him back. Monsieur Pickard Leberfink requested
+permission to show Rettelchen round the new property.
+
+Meanwhile old Wacht had beer and tobacco brought to a spot under the
+trees, close at the brow of the hill, whence he could look down into
+the valley; and there he sat in a right glad and comfortable humour,
+puffing the blue clouds of genuine Holland into the air. No doubt my
+kindly reader is wondering greatly at this frame of mind in Master
+Wacht, and is at a loss to explain to himself how a mood like this was
+at all possible to a temperament like Wacht's. He had arrived, not so
+much at any determined plan as at the conviction that the Eternal Power
+could not possibly let him live to experience such a very terrible
+misfortune as that of seeing his favourite child united to a lawyer;
+that is, to Satan himself. "Something will happen," he said to himself;
+"something must happen, by which either this unhappy affair will be
+broken off or Jonathan snatched from the pit of destruction. It would
+be rash temerity, nay, perhaps a ruinous piece of mischief, producing
+the exact contrary of what was wished, if with my feeble hand I were to
+attempt to control the fly-wheel of Destiny."
+
+It is hard to credit what miserable, nay, often what absurd reasons a
+man will hunt up in order to represent the approaching misfortune as
+avertable. So there were moments in which Wacht built his hopes upon
+the arrival of wild Sebastian, whom he pictured to himself as a
+stalwart young fellow in the full flush and pride of youth, just on the
+point of attaining to manhood, and that he would bring about a change
+of direction in the drifting of circumstances, and make things
+different from what they then were. The very common, and alas! often
+too true idea came into his head, that woman is too greatly impressed
+by strong and striking manliness not to be conquered by it at last.
+
+When the sun began to go down, Monsieur Pickard Leberfink invited the
+family to go into his garden, which adjoined their own, and take a
+little refreshment. Beside Wacht's new possession the noble decorator
+and gilder's garden formed a most ridiculous and extraordinary
+contrast. Whilst almost too small in size, so that the only thing it
+could perhaps boast in its favour was the good height at which it was
+situated, it was laid out in Dutch style, the trees and hedges clipped
+with the shears in the most scrupulous and pedantic fashion. The
+slender stems of the fruit-trees standing in the flower-beds looked
+very pretty in their coats of light blue and rose tints, and pale
+yellow, and other colours. Leberfink had varnished them, and so
+beautified Nature. Moreover they saw in the trees the apples of the
+Hesperides.17
+
+But yet several further surprises were in store. Leberfink bade the
+girls pluck themselves a nosegay each; but on gathering the flowers
+they perceived to their amazement that both stalks and leaves were
+gilded. It was also very remarkable that all the leaves which Rettel
+took into her hands were shaped like hearts.
+
+The refreshment upon which Leberfink regaled his guests consisted of
+the choicest confectionery, the finest sweetmeats, and old Rhine wine
+and Muscatel. Rettel was quite beside herself over the confectionery,
+observing with special emphasis that such sweetmeats, which were for
+the most part splendidly silvered and gilded, were not, she knew made
+in Bamberg. Then Monsieur Pickard Leberfink assured her privately, with
+a most amorous smirk, that he himself knew a little about baking cakes
+and sweets, and that he was the happy maker of all these delicious
+dainties. Rettel almost fell upon her knees before him in reverence and
+astonishment; and yet the greatest surprise, was still in store for
+her.
+
+In the deepening dusk Monsieur Pickard Leberfink very cleverly
+contrived to entice little Rettel into a small arbour. No sooner was he
+alone with her than he recklessly plumped himself down upon both knees
+in the wet grass, notwithstanding that he was wearing his brilliant
+green satin hose; and, amidst many strange and unintelligible sounds of
+distress--not very dissimilar to the midnight elegies of the tom-cat
+Hinz18--he presented her with an immense nosegay of flowers, in the
+middle of which was the finest full-blown rose that could be found
+anywhere. Rettel did what everybody does who has a nosegay given to
+him; she raised it to her nose; but in the selfsame moment she felt a
+sharp prick. In her alarm she was about to throw the nosegay away. But
+see what charming wonder had revealed itself in the meantime! A
+beautifully varnished little cupid had leapt up out of the heart of the
+rose and was holding out a burning heart with both hands towards
+Rettel. From his mouth depended a small strip of paper on which were
+written the words, "Voilà le cœur de Monsieur Pickard Leberfink, que je
+vous offre" (Here I offer you the heart of Monsieur Pickard Leberfink).
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Rettel, very much alarmed. "Good gracious!
+what are you doing, my good Herr Leberfink? Don't kneel down in front
+of me as if I were a princess. You will make marks on your beautiful
+satin--in the wet grass, and you will catch cold yourself; but elder
+tea and white sugar candy are good remedies."
+
+"No!" exclaimed the desperate lover--"No, O Margaret, Pickard
+Leberfink, who loves you with all his heart, will not rise from the wet
+grass until you promise to be his"---- "You want to marry me?" asked
+Rettel. "Well then, up you get at once. Speak to my father, darling
+Leberfink, and drink one or two cups of elder tea this evening."
+
+Why should the reader be longer wearied with Leberfink's and Rettel's
+folly? They were made for each other, and were betrothed, at which
+Father Wacht was right glad in his own teasing, humorous way.
+
+A certain degree of life was introduced into Wacht's house by Rettel's
+betrothal; and even the disconsolate lovers had more freedom, since
+they were less observed. But something of a quite special character was
+to happen to put an abrupt end to this quiet and comfortable condition
+in which they were all living. The young lawyer seemed particularly
+preoccupied, and his thoughts busy with some affair or another that
+absorbed all his energies; his visits at Wacht's house even began to be
+less frequent, and he often stayed away in the evening--a thing he had
+never been wont to do previously. "What can be the matter with our
+Jonathan? He is completely preoccupied; he's quite another fellow from
+what he used to be," said Master Wacht, although he knew very well what
+was the cause, or rather the event, which was exercising such a visible
+influence upon the young lawyer, at least to all outward appearance. To
+tell the truth, he looked upon this event as the dispensation of
+Providence through which he should perhaps escape the great misfortune
+by which he believed himself threatened, and which he felt would
+completely upset all the happiness of his life.
+
+Some few months previously a young and unknown lady had arrived in
+Bamberg, and under circumstances which could only be called singular
+and mysterious. She was staying at the "White Lamb." All the servants
+she had with her were an old grey-haired manservant and an old lady's-
+maid. Very various were the opinions current about her. Many maintained
+she was a distinguished and immensely rich Hungarian countess, who,
+owing to matrimonial dissensions, was compelled to take up her
+residence in solitary retirement in Bamberg for a time. Others, on the
+contrary, set her down as an ordinary forsaken Dido, and yet others as
+an itinerant singer, who would soon throw off her veil of nobility and
+announce herself as about to give a concert,--possibly she had no
+recommendations to the Prince-bishop. At any rate the majority were
+unanimous in making up their minds to regard the stranger, who,
+according to the statements of the few persons who had seen her, was of
+exceptional beauty, as an extremely ambiguous person.
+
+It had been noticed that the stranger lady's old man-servant had
+followed the young lawyer about a long time, until one day he caught
+him at the spring in the market-place, which is ornamented with an
+image of Neptune (whom the honest folk of Bamberg are generally in the
+habit of calling the Fork-man); and there the old man stood talking to
+Jonathan a long, long time. Spirits alive to all that goes forward, who
+can never meet anybody without asking eagerly, "Wherever has he been?
+Wherever is he going? Whatever is he doing?" and so on, had made out
+that the young advocate very often visited the beautiful unknown, in
+fact almost every day and at night-time, when he spent several hours
+with her. It was soon the talk of the town that the lawyer Jonathan
+Engelbrecht had got entangled in the dangerous toils of the young
+unknown adventuress.
+
+It would have been, both then and always, entirely contrary to Master
+Wacht's character to make use of this apparent erring conduct of the
+young advocate as a weapon against poor Nanni. He left it to Dame
+Barbara and her whole following of gossips to keep Nanni informed of
+all particulars; from them she would learn every item of intelligence,
+and that, he made no doubt, with a due amplification of all the
+details. The crisis of the whole affair was reached when one day the
+young lawyer suddenly set off on a journey along with the lady, nobody
+knew whither. "That's the way frivolity goes on; the forward young
+gentleman will lose his business," said the knowing ones. But this was
+not the case; for not a little to the astonishment of the public, old
+Eichheimer himself attended to his foster-son's business with the most
+painstaking care; he seemed to be initiated into the secret about the
+lady and to approve of all the steps taken by his foster-son.
+
+Master Wacht never spoke a word about the matter, and once when poor
+Nanni could no longer hide her trouble, but moaned in a low tone, her
+voice half-choked with tears, "Why has Jonathan left us?" Master Wacht
+replied in an off-handed way, "Ay, that's just what lawyers do. Who
+knows what sort of an intrigue Jonathan has got entangled in with the
+stranger, thinking it will bring him money, and be to his advantage?"
+Then, however, Herr Pickard Leberfink was wont to take Jonathan's side,
+and to assert that he for his part was convinced the stranger could be
+nothing less than a princess, who had had recourse to the already
+world-renowned young advocate in an extremely delicate law-suit And
+therewith he also unearthed so many stories about lawyers who, through
+especial sagacity and especial penetration and skill, had unravelled
+the most complicated difficulties, and brought to light the most
+closely hidden things, till Master Wacht begged him for goodness' sake
+to hold his tongue, since he was feeling quite ill and sick; Nanni, on
+the contrary, derived inward comfort from all Leberfink's remarkable
+stories, and she plucked up her hopes again. With her trouble, however,
+there was united a perceptible mixture of annoyance and anger, and
+particularly at the moments when it seemed to her utterly impossible
+that Jonathan could have been untrue to her. From this it might be
+inferred that Jonathan had not sought to exculpate himself, but had
+obstinately maintained silence about his adventure.
+
+After some months had elapsed the young lawyer came back to Bamberg in
+the highest good spirits; and Master Wacht, on seeing the bright glad
+light in Nanni's eyes when she looked at him, could not well do
+otherwise than conclude that Jonathan had fully justified his conduct
+to her. Doubtless it would not be disagreeable to the indulgent reader
+to have the history of what had taken place between the stranger lady
+and the young lawyer inserted here as an episodical _novella_.
+
+Count Z----, a Hungarian, owner of more than a million, married from
+pure affection a miserably poor girl, who drew down upon her head the
+hatred of his family, not only because her own family was enshrouded in
+complete obscurity, but also because the only valuable treasures she
+possessed were her divine virtue, beauty, and grace. The Count promised
+his wife that at his death he would settle all his property upon her by
+will.
+
+Once when he returned to Vienna into the arms of his wife, after having
+been summoned from Paris to St. Petersburg on diplomatic business, he
+related to her that he had been attacked by a severe illness in a
+little town, the name of which he had quite forgotten; there he had
+seized the opportunity whilst recovering from his illness to draw up a
+will in her favour and deposit it with the court. Some miles farther on
+the road he must have been seized with a new and doubly virulent attack
+of his grave nervous complaint, so that the name of the place where he
+had made his will and that of the court where he had deposited it had
+completely slipped his memory; moreover, he had lost the document of
+receipt from the court acknowledging the deposition of the testament.
+As so often happens in similar cases the Count postponed the making of
+a new will from day to day, until he was overtaken by death. Then his
+relatives did not neglect to lay claim to all the property he left
+behind him, so that the poor Countess saw her too rich inheritance
+melted down to the insignificant sum represented by certain valuable
+presents she had received from the Count, and which his relatives could
+not deprive her of. Many different notifications bearing upon the
+features of the case were found amongst the Count's papers; but since
+such statements, that a will was in existence, could not take the place
+of the will itself, they proved not to be of the slightest advantage to
+the Countess. She had consulted many learned lawyers about her
+unfortunate situation, and had finally come to Bamberg to have recourse
+to old Eichheimer; but he had directed her to young Engelbrecht, who,
+being less busy and equipped with excellent intellectual acuteness and
+great love for his profession, would perhaps be able to get a clue to
+the unfortunate will or furnish some other circumstantial proof of its
+actual existence.
+
+The young advocate set to work by requesting permission of the
+competent authorities to submit the Count's papers in the castle to
+another searching investigation. He himself went thither along with the
+Countess; and in the presence of the officials of the court he found in
+a cupboard of nut-wood, that had hitherto escaped observation, an old
+portfolio, in which, though they did not find the Count's document of
+receipt relating to the deposition of the will, they yet discovered a
+paper which could not fail to be of the utmost importance for the young
+advocate's purpose. For this paper contained an accurate description of
+all the circumstances, even the minutest details, under which the Count
+had made a will in favour of his wife and deposited it in the keeping
+of a court. The Count's diplomatic journey from Paris to Petersburg had
+brought him to Königsberg in Prussia. Here he chanced to come across
+some East Prussian noblemen, whom he had previously met with whilst on
+a visit to Italy. In spite of the express rate at which the Count was
+travelling, he nevertheless suffered himself to be persuaded to make a
+short excursion into East Prussia, particularly as the big hunts had
+begun, and the Count was a passionate sportsman. He named the towns
+Wehlau, Allenburg, Friedland, &c., as places where he had been. Then he
+set out to go straight forwards directly to the Russian frontier,
+without returning to Königsberg.
+
+In a little town, whose wretched appearance the Count could hardly find
+words to describe, he was suddenly prostrated by a nervous disorder,
+which for several days quite deprived him of consciousness. Fortunately
+there was a young and right clever doctor in the place, who opposed a
+stout resistance to the disease, so that the Count not only recovered
+consciousness but also his health, so far that after a few days he was
+in a position to continue his journey. But his heart was oppressed with
+the fear that a second attack on the road might kill him, and so plunge
+his wife in a condition of the most straitened poverty. Not a little to
+his astonishment he learned from the doctor that the place, in spite of
+its small size and wretched appearance, was the seat of a Prussian
+provincial court, and that he could there have his will registered with
+all due formality, as soon as he could succeed in establishing his
+identity. This, however, was a most formidable difficulty, for who knew
+the Count in this district? But wonderful are the doings of Accident!
+Just as the Count got out of his carriage in front of the inn of the
+little town, there stood in the doorway a grey-haired old invalid,
+almost eighty years old, who dwelt in a neighbouring village and earned
+a living by plaiting willow baskets, and who only seldom came into the
+town. In his youth he had served in the Austrian army, and for fifteen
+successive years had been groom to the Count's father. At the first
+glance he remembered his master's son; and he and his wife acted as
+fully legitimated vouchers of the Count's identity, and not to their
+detriment, as may well be conceived.
+
+The young advocate at once saw that all depended upon the locality and
+its exact correspondence with the Count's statements, if he wanted to
+glean further details and find a clue to the place where the Count had
+been ill and made his testament. He set off with the Countess for East
+Prussia. There by examination of the post-books he was desirous of
+making out, if possible, the route of travel pursued by the Count. But
+after a good deal of wasted effort, he only managed to discover that
+the Count had taken post-horses from Eylau to Allenburg. Beyond
+Allenburg every trace was lost; nevertheless he satisfied himself that
+the Count had certainly travelled through Prussian Lithuania, and of
+this he was still further convinced on finding registered at Tilsit
+that the Count had arrived there and departed thence by extra post.
+Beyond this point again all traces were lost. Accordingly it seemed to
+the young advocate that they must seek for the solution of the
+difficulty in the short stretch of country between Allenburg and
+Tilsit.
+
+Quite dispirited and full of anxious care he arrived one rainy evening
+at the small country town of Insterburg, accompanied by the Countess.
+On entering the wretched apartments in the inn, he became conscious
+that a strange kind of expectant feeling was taking possession of him.
+He felt so like being at home in them, as if he had even been there
+before, or as if the place had been most accurately described to him.
+The Countess withdrew to her apartments. The young advocate tossed
+restlessly on his bed. When the morning sun shone in brightly through
+the window, his eyes fell upon the paper in one corner of the room. He
+noticed that a large patch of the blue colour with which the room was
+but lightly washed had fallen off, showing the disagreeable glaring
+yellow that formed the ground colour, and upon it he observed that all
+kinds of hideous faces in the New Zealand style had been painted to
+serve as pleasing arabesques. Perfectly beside himself with joy and
+delight, the young lawyer sprang out of bed. He was in the room in
+which Count Z---- had made the all-important will. The description
+agreed too exactly; there could not be any doubt about the matter.
+
+But why now weary the reader with all the minor details of the things
+that now took place one after the other? Suffice it to say that
+Insterburg was then, as it still is, the seat of a Prussian superior
+tribunal, at that time called an Imperial Court. The young advocate at
+once waited upon the president with the Countess. By means of the
+papers which she had brought with her, and which were drawn up in due
+authenticated form, the Countess established her own identity in the
+most satisfactory manner; and the will was publicly declared to be
+perfectly genuine. Hence the Countess, who had left her own country in
+great distress and poverty, now returned in the full possession of all
+the rights of which a hostile destiny had attempted to deprive her.
+
+In Nanni's eyes the advocate appeared like a hero from heaven, who had
+victoriously protected deserted innocence against the wickedness of the
+world. Leberfink also poured out all his great admiration of the young
+lawyer's acuteness and energy in exaggerated encomiums. Master Wacht,
+too, praised Jonathan's industry, and this trait he emphasised; and yet
+the boy had really done nothing but what it was his duty to do; still
+he somehow fancied that things might have been managed in a much
+shorter way. "This event I regard," said Jonathan, "as a star of real
+good fortune, which has risen upon the path of my career almost before
+I have started upon it The case has created a great deal of sensation.
+All the Hungarian magnates are excited about it. My name has become
+known. And what is a long way the best of all, the Countess was so
+liberal as to honour me with ten thousand Brabant thalers."19
+
+During the course of the young advocate's narration, the muscles of
+Master Wacht's face began to move in a remarkable way, till at last his
+countenance wore an expression of the greatest indignation. "What!" he
+at length shouted in a lion-like voice, whilst his eyes flashed fire--
+"What! did I not tell you? You have made a sale of justice. The
+Countess, in order to get her lawful inheritance out of the hands of
+her rascally relations, has had to pay money, to sacrifice to Mammon.
+Faugh! faugh! be ashamed of yourself." All the sensible protestations
+of the young advocate, as well as of the rest of the persons who
+happened to be present, were not of the slightest avail. For a second
+it seemed as if their representations would gain a hearing, when it was
+stated that no one had ever given a present with more willing pleasure
+than the Countess had done on the sudden conclusion of her case, and
+that, as good Leberfink very well knew, the young advocate had only
+himself to blame that his honorarium had not turned out to be more in
+amount as well as more on a level with the magnitude of the lady's
+gain; nevertheless Master Wacht stuck to his own opinion, and they
+heard from him in his own obstinate fashion the familiar words, "So
+soon as you begin to talk about justice, you and everybody else in the
+world ought to hold your tongues about money. It is true," he went on
+more calmly after a pause, "there are several circumstances connected
+with this history which might very well excuse you, and yet at the same
+time lead you astray into base selfishness; but have the kindness to
+hold your tongue about the Countess, and the will, and the ten thousand
+thalers, if you please. I should indeed be fancying many a time that
+you didn't altogether belong to your place at my table there."
+
+"You are very hard--very unjust towards me, father," said the young
+advocate, his voice trembling with sadness. Nanni's tears flowed
+quietly; Leberfink, like an experienced man of the world, hastened to
+turn the conversation upon the new gildings in St. Gangolph's.20
+
+It may readily be conceived in what strained relations the members of
+Wacht's family now lived. Where was their unconstrained conversation,
+their bright good spirits, where their cheerfulness? A deadly vexation
+was slowly gnawing at Wacht's heart, and it stood plainly written upon
+his countenance.
+
+Meanwhile they received not the least scrap of intelligence from
+Sebastian Engelbrecht, and so the last feeble ray of hope that Master
+Wacht had seen glimmering appeared about to fade. Master Wacht's
+foreman, Andreas by name, was a plain, honest, faithful fellow, who
+clung to his master with an affection that could not be matched
+anywhere. "Master," said he one morning as they were measuring beams
+together--"Master, I can't bear it any longer; it breaks my heart to
+see you suffer so. Fräulein Nanni--poor Herr Jonathan!" Quickly
+throwing away the measuring lines, Master Wacht stepped up to him and
+took him by the breast, saying, "Man, if you are able to tear out of
+this heart the convictions as to what is true and right which have been
+engraven upon it by the Eternal Power in letters of fire, then what you
+are thinking about may come to pass." Andreas, who was not the man to
+enter upon a dispute with his master upon these sort of terms,
+scratched himself behind his ear, and replied with an embarrassed
+smirk, "Then if a certain distinguished gentleman were to pay a morning
+visit to the workshop, I suppose it would produce no particular
+effect?" Master Wacht perceived in a moment that a storm was brewing
+against him, and that it was in all probability being directed by Count
+von Kösel.
+
+Just as the clock struck nine Nanni appeared in the workshop, followed
+by old Barbara with the breakfast. The Master was not well pleased to
+see his daughter, since it was out of rule; and he saw the programme of
+the concerted attack already peeping out. Nor was it long before the
+minor canon really made his appearance, as smart and prim and proper as
+a pet doll. Close at his heels followed Monsieur Pickard Leberfink,
+decorator and gilder, clad in all sorts of gay colours, so that he
+looked not unlike a spring-chafer. Wacht pretended to be highly
+delighted with the visit, the cause of which he at once insinuated to
+be that the minor canon very likely wanted to see his newest models.
+The truth is, Master Wacht felt very shy at the possibility of having
+to listen to the canon's long-winded sermons, which he would deliver
+himself of uselessly if he attempted to shake his (Wacht's) resolution
+with respect to Nanni and Jonathan. Accident came to his rescue; for
+just as the canon, the young lawyer, and the varnisher were standing
+together, and the first-named was beginning to approach the most
+intimate relations of life in the most elegantly turned phrases, fat
+Hans shouted out "Wood here!" and big Peter on the other side pushed
+the wood across to him so roughly that it caught the canon a violent
+blow on the shoulder and sent him reeling against Monsieur Pickard; he
+in his turn stumbled against the young advocate, and in a trice the
+whole three had disappeared. For just behind them was a huge piled-up
+heap of chips and saw-dust and so on. The unfortunates were buried
+under this heap, so that all that could be seen of them were four black
+legs and two buff-coloured ones; the latter were the gala stockings of
+Herr Pickard Leberfink, decorator and gilder. It couldn't possibly be
+helped; the journeymen and apprentices burst out into a ringing peal of
+laughter, notwithstanding that Master Wacht bade them be still and look
+grave.
+
+Of them all the canon cut the worst figure, since the saw-dust had got
+into the folds of his robe and even into the elegant curls which
+adorned his head. He fled as if upon the wings of the wind, covered
+with shame, and the young advocate hard after him. Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink was the only one who preserved his good humour and took the
+thing in merry part, notwithstanding that it might be regarded as
+certain he would never be able to wear the buff-coloured stockings
+again, since the saw-dust had proved especially injurious to them and
+had quite destroyed the "clock." Thus the storm which was to have been
+adventured against Wacht was baffled by a ridiculous incident. But the
+Master did not dream what terrible thing was to happen to him before
+the day was over.
+
+Master Wacht had finished dinner and was just going downstairs in order
+to betake himself to his workyard, when he heard a loud, rough voice
+shouting in front of the house, "Hi, there! This is where that knavish
+old rascal, Carpenter Wacht, lives, isn't it?" A voice in the street
+made answer, "There is no knavish old rascal living here; this is the
+house of our respected fellow-citizen Herr Johannes Wacht, the
+carpenter." In the same moment the street-door was forced open with a
+violent bang, and a big strong fellow of wild appearance stood before
+the master. His black hair stuck up like bristles through his ragged
+soldier's cap, and in scores of places his tattered tunic was unable to
+conceal his loathsome skin, browned with filth and exposure to rough
+weather. The fellow wore soldier's shoes on his feet, and the blue
+weals on his ankles showed the traces of the chains he had been
+fettered with. "Ho, ho!" cried the fellow, "I bet you don't know me.
+You don't know Sebastian Engelbrecht, whom you've cheated out of his
+property--not you." With all the imposing dignity of his majestic form,
+Master Wacht took a step towards the man, mechanically advancing the
+cane he held in his hand. Then the wild fellow seemed to be almost
+thunderstruck; he recoiled a few paces, and then raised his doubled
+fists shouting, "Ho, ho! I know where my property is, and I'll go and
+help myself to it, in spite of you, you old sinner." And he ran off
+down the Kaulberg like an arrow from a bow, followed by the crowd.
+
+Master Wacht stood in the passage like a statue for several seconds.
+But when Nanni cried in alarm, "Good heavens! father, that was
+Sebastian," he went into the room, more reeling than walking, and sank
+down exhausted in an arm-chair; then, holding both hands before his
+face, he cried in a heart-rending voice, "By the eternal mercy of God,
+that is Sebastian Engelbrecht."
+
+There arose a tumult in the street, the crowd poured down the Kaulberg,
+and voices in the far distance could be heard shouting "Murder!
+murder!" A prey to the most terrible apprehensions, the Master, ran
+down to Jonathan's dwelling, situated immediately at the foot of the
+Kaulberg. A dense mass of people were pushing and crowding together in
+front of him; in their midst he perceived Sebastian struggling like a
+wild animal against the watch, who had just thrown him upon the ground,
+where they overpowered him and bound him hand and foot, and led him
+away. "O God! O God! Sebastian has slain his brother," lamented the
+people, who came crowding out of the house. Master Wacht forced his way
+through and found poor Jonathan in the hands of the doctors, who were
+exerting themselves to call him back to life. As he had received three
+powerful blows upon the head, dealt with all the strength of a strong
+man, the worst was to be feared.
+
+As generally happens under such circumstances, Nanni learnt immediately
+the whole history of the affair from her kind-hearted friends, and at
+once rushed off to her lover's dwelling, where she arrived just as the
+young lawyer, thanks to the lavish use of naphtha, opened his eyes
+again, and the doctors were talking about trepanning. What further took
+place may be conceived. Nanni was inconsolable; Rettel, notwithstanding
+her betrothal, was sunk in grief; and Monsieur Pickard Leberfink
+exclaimed, whilst tears of sorrow ran down his cheeks, "God be merciful
+to the man upon whose pate a carpenter's fist falls." The loss of young
+Herr Jonathan would be irreparable. At any rate the varnish on his
+coffin should be of unsurpassed brightness and blackness; and the
+silvering of the skulls and other nice ornaments should baffle all
+comparison.
+
+It appeared that Sebastian had escaped out of the hands of a troop of
+Bavarian soldiers, whilst they were conducting a band of vagabonds
+through the district of Bamberg, and he had found his way into the town
+in order to carry out a mad project which he had for a long time been
+brooding over in his mind. His career was not that of an abandoned,
+vicious criminal; it afforded rather an example of those supremely
+frivolous-minded men, who, despite the very admirable qualities with
+which Nature has endowed them, give way to every temptation to evil,
+and finally sinking to the lowest depths of vice, perish in shame and
+misery. In Saxony he had fallen into the hands of a petti-fogging
+lawyer, who had made him believe that Master Wacht, when sending him
+his patrimonial inheritance, had paid him very much short, and kept
+back the remainder for the benefit of his brother Jonathan, to whom he
+had promised to give his favourite daughter Nanni to wife. Very likely
+the old deceiver had concocted this story out of various utterances of
+Sebastian himself. The kindly reader already knows by what violent
+means Sebastian set to work to secure his own rights. Immediately after
+leaving Master Wacht he had burst into Jonathan's room, where the
+latter happened to be sitting at his study table, ordering some
+accounts and counting the piles of money which lay heaped up before
+him. His clerk sat in the other corner of the room. "Ah! you villain!"
+screamed Sebastian in a fury, "there you are sitting over your mammon.
+Are you counting what you have robbed me of? Give me here what yon old
+rascal has stolen from me and bestowed upon you. You poor, weak thing!
+You greedy clutching devil--you!" And when Sebastian strode close up to
+him, Jonathan instinctively stretched out both hands to ward him off,
+crying aloud, "Brother! for God's sake, brother!" But Sebastian replied
+by dealing him several stunning blows on the head with his double fist,
+so that Jonathan sank down fainting. Sebastian hastily seized upon some
+of the rolls of gold and was making off with them--in which naturally
+enough he did not succeed.
+
+Fortunately it turned out that none of Jonathan's wounds, which
+outwardly wore the appearance of large bumps, had occasioned any
+serious concussion of the brain, and hence none of them could be
+esteemed as likely to prove dangerous. After a lapse of two months,
+when Sebastian was taken away to the convict prison, where he was to
+atone for his attempt at murder by a heavy punishment, the young lawyer
+felt himself quite well again.
+
+This terrible occurrence exerted such a shattering effect upon Master
+Wacht that a consuming surly peevishness was the consequence of it.
+This time the stout strong oak was shaken from its topmost branch to
+its deepest root. Often when his mind was thought to be busy with quite
+different matters, he was heard to murmur in a low tone, "Sebastian--a
+fratricide! That's how you reward me?" and then he seemed to come to
+himself like one awakening out of a nasty dream. The only thing that
+kept him from breaking down was the hardest and most assiduous labour.
+But who can fathom the unsearchable depths in which the secret links of
+feeling are so strangely forged together as they were in Master Wacht's
+soul? His abhorrence of Sebastian and his wicked deed faded out of his
+mind, whilst the picture of his own life, ruined by Jonathan's love for
+Nanni, deepened in colour and vividness as the days went by. This frame
+of mind Master Wacht betrayed in many short exclamations--"So then your
+brother is condemned to hard labour and to work in chains!--That's
+where he has been brought by his attempted crime against you--It's a
+fine thing for a brother to be the cause of making his own brother a
+convict--shouldn't like to be in the first brother's place--but lawyers
+think differently; they want justice, that is, they want to play with a
+lay figure and dress it up and give it whatever name they please."
+
+Such like bitter, and even incomprehensible reproaches, the young
+advocate was obliged to hear from Master Wacht, and to hear them only
+too often. Any attempt at rebutting these charges would have been
+fruitless. Accordingly Jonathan made no reply; only often when his
+heart was almost distracted by the old man's fatal delusion, which was
+ruining all his happiness, he broke out in his exceeding great pain,
+"Father, father, you are unjust towards me, exasperatingly unjust."
+
+One day when the family were assembled at the decorator Leberfink's,
+and Jonathan also was present, Master Wacht began to tell how somebody
+had been saying that Sebastian Engelbrecht, although apprehended as a
+criminal, could yet make good by action at law his claim against Master
+Wacht, who had been his guardian. Then, smiling venomously and turning
+to Jonathan, he went on, "That would be a pretty case for a young
+advocate. I thought you might take up the suit; you might play a part
+in it yourself; perhaps I have cheated you as well?" This made the
+young lawyer start to his feet; his eyes flashed, his bosom heaved; he
+seemed all of a sudden to be quite a different man; stretching his hand
+towards Heaven he cried, "No, you shall no longer be my father; you
+must be insane to sacrifice without scruple the peace and happiness of
+the most loving of children to a ridiculous prejudice. You will never
+see me again; I will go and at once accept the offer which the American
+consul made to me to-day; I will go to America." "Yes," replied Wacht
+filled with rage and anger, "ay, away out of my eyes, brother of the
+fratricide, who've sold your soul to Satan." Casting upon Nanni, who
+was half fainting, a look full of hopeless love and anguish and
+despair, the young advocate hurriedly left the garden.
+
+It was remarked earlier in the course of this story when the young
+lawyer threatened to shoot himself _à la_ Werther,21 what a good thing
+it was that the indispensable pistol was in very many cases not within
+reach. And here it will be just as useful to remark that the young
+advocate was not able, to his own good be it said, to embark there and
+then on the Regnitz and sail straight away to Philadelphia. Hence it
+was that his threat to leave Bamberg and his darling Nanni for ever
+remained still unfulfilled, even when at last, after two years more had
+elapsed, the wedding-day of Herr Leberfink, decorator and gilder, was
+come. Leberfink would have been inconsolable at this unjust
+postponement of his happiness, although the delay was almost a matter
+of necessity after the terrible events which had fallen blow after blow
+in Wacht's house, had it not afforded him an opportunity to decorate
+over again in deep red and appropriate gold the ornamental work in his
+parlour, which had before been gay with nice light-blue and silver, for
+he had picked up from Rettelchen that a red table, red chairs, and so
+on, would be more in accordance with her taste.
+
+When the happy decorator insisted upon seeing the young lawyer at his
+wedding. Master Wacht had not offered a moment's opposition; and the
+young lawyer--he was pleased to come. It may be imagined with what
+feelings the two young people saw each other again, for since that
+terrible moment when Jonathan had left the garden they had literally
+not set eyes upon each other. The assembly was large; but not a single
+person with whom they were on a friendly footing fathomed their pain.
+
+Just as they were on the point of setting out for church. Master Wacht
+received a thick letter; he had read no more than a few lines when he
+became violently agitated and rushed off out of the room, not a little
+to the consternation of the rest, who at once suspected some fresh
+misfortune. Shortly afterwards Master Wacht called the young advocate
+out. When they were alone together in the Master's own room, the
+latter, vainly endeavouring to conceal his excessive agitation, began,
+"I've got the most extraordinary news of your brother; here is a letter
+from the governor of the prison relating fully all the circumstances of
+what has taken place. As you cannot know them all, I must begin at the
+beginning and tell you everything right to the end so as to make
+credible to you what is incredible; but time presses." So saying,
+Master Wacht fixed a keen glance upon the advocate's face, so that he
+blushed and cast down his eyes in confusion. "Yes, yes," went on Master
+Wacht, raising his voice, "you don't know how great a remorse took
+possession of your brother a very few hours after he was put in prison;
+there is hardly anybody whose heart has been more torn by it. You don't
+know how his attempt at murder and theft has prostrated him. You don't
+know how that in mad despair he prayed Heaven day and night either to
+kill him or to save him that he might henceforth by the exercise of the
+strictest virtue wash himself pure from bloodguiltiness. You don't know
+how that on the occasion of building a large wing to the prison, in
+which the convicts were employed as labourers, your brother so
+distinguished himself as a clever and well-instructed carpenter that he
+soon filled the post of foreman of the workmen, without anybody's
+noticing how it came about so. You don't know how his quiet good
+behaviour, and his modesty, combined with the decision of his
+regenerate mind, made everybody his friend. All this you do not know,
+and so I am telling it you. But to go on. The Prince-bishop has
+pardoned your brother; he has become a master. But how could all this
+be done without a supply of money?" "I know," said the young advocate
+in a low voice, "I know that you, my good father, have sent money to
+the prison authorities every month, in order that they might keep my
+brother separate from the other prisoners and find him better
+accommodation and better food. Later on you sent him materials for his
+trade"---- Then Master Wacht stepped close up to the young advocate,
+took him by both arms, and said in a voice that vacillated in a way
+that cannot be described between delight, sadness, and pain, "But would
+that alone have helped Sebastian to honour again, to freedom, and his
+civil rights, and to property, however strongly his fundamental
+virtuous qualities had sprung up again? An unknown philanthropist, who
+must take an especially warm interest in Sebastian's fate, has
+deposited ten thousand 'large' thalers with the court, to"---- Master
+Wacht could not speak any further owing to his violent emotion; he drew
+the young advocate impetuously to his heart, crying, though he could
+only get out his words with difficulty, "Advocate, help me to penetrate
+to the deep import of law such as lives in your breast, and that I may
+stand before the Eternal Bar of justice as you will one day stand
+before it.--And yet," he continued after a pause of some seconds,
+releasing the young lawyer, "and yet, my dear Jonathan, if Sebastian
+now comes back as a good and industrious citizen and reminds me of my
+pledged word, and Nanni"---- "Then I will bear my trouble till it kills
+me," said the young advocate; "I will flee to America." "Stay here,"
+cried Master Wacht in an enthusiastic burst of joy and delight, "stay
+here, son of my heart! Sebastian is going to marry a girl whom he
+formerly deceived and deserted. Nanni is yours."
+
+Once more the Master threw his arms around Jonathan's neck, saying, "My
+lad, I feel like a schoolboy before you, and should like to beg your
+pardon for all the blame I have put upon you, and all the injustice I
+have done you. But let us say no more; other people are waiting for
+us." Therewith Master Wacht took hold of the young lawyer and pulled
+him along into the room where the wedding guests were assembled; there
+he placed himself and Jonathan in the midst of the company, and said,
+raising his voice and speaking in a solemn tone, "Before we proceed to
+celebrate the sacred rite I invite you all, my honest friends, ladies
+and gentlemen, and you too, my virtuous maidens and young men, six
+weeks hence to a similar festival in my house; for here I introduce to
+you Herr Jonathan Engelbrecht, the advocate, to whom I herewith
+solemnly betroth my youngest daughter, Nanni." The lovers sank into
+each other's arms. A breath of the profoundest astonishment passed over
+the whole assembly; but good old Andreas, holding his little three-
+cornered carpenter's cap before his breast, said softly, "A man's heart
+is a wonderful thing; but true, honest faith overcomes the base and
+even sinful resoluteness of a hardened spirit; and all things turn out
+at last for the best, just as the good God wishes them to do."
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MASTER JOHANNES WACHT":
+
+Footnote 1 Included in a collection of stories entitled _ Geschichten,
+Märchen, und Sagen_, Von Fr. H. v. d. Hagen, E. T. A. Hoffmann, und H.
+Steffens; Breslau, 1823.]
+
+Footnote 2 See note p. 81, Vol. II.]
+
+Footnote 3 The stern inexorable Republican patriot, who kills even his
+friend Fiesco when the latter refuses to throw aside the purple dignity
+he had assumed. See Schiller's _Fiesko_, act v., last scene (cf. I.
+10-13; III. 1).]
+
+Footnote 4 A long hilly street in Bamberg.]
+
+Footnote 5 Pet name for Johannes, the name of Wacht's son.]
+
+Footnote 6 _Rettel_ and _Rettelchen_ (little Rettel) are pet names for
+Margaret.]
+
+Footnote 7 The anniversary of the consecration of the church is made
+the occasion of a great and general festive holiday in many parts of
+Germany, particularly in the south.]
+
+Footnote 8 "Noodles" are long strips of rolled-out paste, made up and
+cooked in various ways.]
+
+Footnote 9 Seehof or Marquardsburg, situated to the north-east of
+Bamberg, was formerly a bishop's castle, and was rebuilt by Marquard
+Sebastian Schenk of Stauffenberg in 1688.]
+
+Footnote 10 Stracchino, a kind of cheese made in North Italy,
+especially in Brescia, Milan, and Bergamo.]
+
+Footnote 11 A pet name for Gretchen (Margaret), frequently used also as
+equivalent to "sweetheart," "lass," just as we might say, "Every Johnny
+has his Jeannie."]
+
+Footnote 12 A long winding suburb of Bamberg.]
+
+Footnote 13 Or Bug, as it is generally spelled, a pleasure resort on
+the Regnitz, about half an hour distant from Bamberg. Hoffmann was in
+the habit of visiting it almost daily when he lived at Bamberg.]
+
+Footnote 14 In the days before ice was preserved on such an extensive
+scale by the German brewers as it is at the present time, beer was kept
+in excavations in rock, wherever a suitable place could be found; this
+made it deliciously cool and fresh.]
+
+Footnote 15 Goethe's well-known work.]
+
+Footnote 16 A once rich and celebrated Benedictine abbey between
+Bamberg and Coburg, founded in the eleventh century, and frequently
+destroyed and sacked in war.]
+
+Footnote 17 That is, they were golden, or gilded.]
+
+Footnote 18 Hinze is Tieck's _Gestiefelter Kater_ (Puss in Boots). The
+reference is perhaps to act ii. scene 2, where Hinze goes out to catch
+rabbits, &c., and hears the nightingale singing, the humour of the
+scene lying in the quick alternation of the human poetic sentiments and
+the native instincts of the cat.]
+
+Footnote 19 So named from the place where they were struck. See note,
+p. 281, Vol. I., viz.--Imperial thalers varied in value at different
+times, but estimating their value at three shillings, the sum here
+mentioned would be equivalent to about £22,500. A _Frederick d'or_ was
+a gold coin worth five thalers.]
+
+Footnote 20 A church situated at the beginning of the Steinweg.]
+
+Footnote 21 It need scarcely be said this refers to the excessively
+sentimental hero of Goethe's _Leiden des jungen Werthers_.]
+
+
+
+
+_BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE._1
+
+
+Like many others whose pens have been employed in authorship, the
+subject of this notice, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm2 Hoffmann, led a very
+chequered life, the various facts and incidents of which throw a good
+deal of light upon his writings.
+
+Hoffmann was born at Königsberg in Prussia on the 24th January, 1776.3
+His parents were very ill-assorted, and led such an unhappy life that
+they parted in young Ernst's third year. His father, who was in the
+legal profession, was a man of considerable talent and of acute
+intellect, but irregular and wild in his habits and given to
+reprehensible practices. His mother, on the contrary, the daughter of
+Consistorialrath Dörffer, had been trained up on the strictest moral
+principles, and to habits of orderliness and propriety; and to her
+regard for outward conformity to old-established forms and conventional
+routine was added a weak and ailing condition of body, which made her
+for the most part a confirmed invalid. When, in 1782, the elder
+Hoffmann was promoted to the dignity of judge and transferred to a
+criminal court at Insterburg (Prussia), Ernst was taken into the house
+of his maternal grandmother; and his father appears never to have
+troubled himself further either about him or his elder brother, who
+afterwards took to evil ways. The brothers in all probability never met
+again, though an unfinished letter, dated 10th July, 1817, found
+amongst Hoffmann's papers after his death, was evidently written to his
+brother in reply to one received from him requesting pecuniary
+assistance.
+
+In his grandmother's house young Hoffmann spent his boyhood and youth.
+The members of the household were four, the grandmother, her son, her
+two daughters, of whom one was the boy's invalid mother. The old lady,
+owing to her great age, was also virtually an invalid; so that both she
+and her daughter scarcely ever left their room, and hence their
+influence upon young Ernst's education and training was practically
+nil. His uncle, however, after an abortive attempt to follow the law,
+had settled down to a quiet vegetative sort of existence, which he
+regulated strictly according to fixed rules and methodical procedure;
+and these he imposed more or less upon the household. Justizrath Otto
+(or Ottchen, as his mother continued to call him to her life's end),
+though acting as a dead weight upon his high-spirited, quick-witted
+nephew's intellectual development, by his efforts to mould him to his
+own course of life and his own unpliant habits of thought, nevertheless
+planted certain seeds in the boy's mind which proved of permanent
+service to him throughout all his subsequent career. To this precise
+and order-loving uncle he owed his first thorough grounding in the
+elements of music, and also his persevering industry and sense of
+method and precision. As uncle and nephew shared the same sitting-room
+and the same sleeping-chamber, and as the former would never suffer any
+departure from the established routine of things, the boy Ernst began
+not only to look forward to the one afternoon a week when Otto went out
+to make his calls, but also to study narrowly his uncle's habits, and
+to play upon his weaknesses and turn them to his own advantage, so that
+by the time he was twelve years old he was quite an adept at mystifying
+the staid old gentleman. His aunt, an unmarried lady, was cheerful,
+witty, and full of pleasant gaiety; she was the only one who understood
+and appreciated her clever nephew; indeed she was so fond of him, and
+humoured him to such an extent, that she is said to have spoiled him.
+It was to her he poured out all his childish troubles and all his
+boyish confidences and weaknesses. Her love he repaid with faithful
+affection, and he has memorialised it in a touching way in the
+character of "Tante Füsschen" in _Kater Murr_ (Pt. I.), where also
+other biographical details of this period may be read. Of his poor
+mother, feeble in body and in mind alike, Hoffmann only spoke
+unwillingly, but always with deep respect mingled with sadness.
+
+Two other persons must be mentioned as having exercised a lasting
+influence upon his early life. One of these was an old great-uncle,
+Justizrath Vöthöry, brother of both his grandmothers, and a gentleman
+of Hungarian origin. This excellent man was retired from all business,
+with the exception that he continued to act as justiciary for the
+estates of certain well-tried friends. He used to visit the various
+properties at stated seasons of the year, and was always a welcome
+guest; for this "hero of olden times in dressing-gown and slippers," as
+Wilibald Alexis called him, was the V---- who figures so genially in
+_Das Majorat_ ("The Entail"). The old gentleman once took his great-
+nephew with him on one of these trips, and to it we are indebted for
+this master-piece of Hoffmann. The other person who gave a bent to
+young Ernst's mind was Dr. Wannowski, the head of the German Reformed
+School in Königsberg, where the boy was sent in his sixth or seventh
+year. Wannowski, who possessed the faculty of awakening slumbering
+talent in his pupils, and attracting them to himself, enjoyed the
+friendship and intercourse of Kant, Hippel (the elder), Scheffner,
+Hamann, and others, and might perhaps lay claim to be called a Prussian
+Dr. Arnold, owing to the many illustrious pupils he turned out.
+
+During the first seven years of his school-days, young Hoffmann was in
+nowise distinguished above his school-fellows either for industry or
+for quickness of parts. But when he reached his thirteenth or
+fourteenth year, his taste for both music and painting was awakened.
+His liking for these two arts was so genuine and sincere, and
+consequently his progress in them so rapid, that he came to be looked
+upon as a child-wonder. He would sit down at a piano and play
+improvisations and other compositions of his own creation, to the
+astonishment of all who heard him, for his performances, though
+somewhat fantastic, were not wanting in talent and originality, and his
+diminutive stature made him appear some years younger than he really
+was. In drawing he early showed a decided inclination for caricature,
+and in this his quickness of perception and accuracy in reproduction
+proved of permanent service to him. Later he endeavoured to improve
+himself both in theory and in practice in higher styles also: in the
+former by diligent study of Winckelmann, and in the latter by copying
+the models of the art treasures of Herculaneum preserved in the Royal
+Library.
+
+In his eleventh year Hoffmann made the acquaintance of Theodor von
+Hippel, nephew of T. G. Hippel, author of _Die Lebensläufe in
+aufsteigender Linie_, a boy one month older than himself. The
+acquaintance ripened into a warm fast friendship when the two boys
+recognised each other again at the same school, and they continued
+faithful devoted friends until the day of Hoffmann's death. What tended
+principally to knit them together was the similarity and yet difference
+in their bringing up and family relations. Both grew up without the
+society of brothers or sisters or playfellows; but whilst Hoffmann was
+a son of the town, Hippel's early days had been spent in the country.
+In another respect, too, they presented a striking contrast in
+behaviour; Hoffmann's chief delight was to mystify and tease his uncle
+Otto, but Hippel was most scrupulous in paying to all the proper meed
+of respect which he conceived he owed them. Once when Hippel reproached
+his friend about his behaviour towards his uncle, young Hoffmann
+replied, "But think what relatives fate has blessed me with! If I only
+had a father and an uncle like yours such things would never come into
+my head." This saying is significant for the understanding of the early
+stages of Hoffmann's intellectual development.
+
+The bonds of inclination and natural liking were drawn still closer by
+an idea of uncle Otto's. It was arranged that young Hippel should spend
+the Wednesday afternoons (when the Justizrath went out to make his
+round of visits amongst his acquaintances), along with his friend in
+studying together, principally the classics. And Saturday afternoons
+were also to be devoted to the same duties whenever practicable. But,
+as might very well be expected, the classics soon gave way to other
+books, such as Rousseau's _Confessions_ and Wiegleb's _Natürliche
+Magie_;4 and these in turn were forced to yield to such pastimes as
+music, drawing, mummeries, boyish games, masquerades, and even more
+pretentious adventures out in the garden, such as mimic chivalric
+contests, construction of underground passages, &c. The boys also
+discovered common ground in their desire to cultivate their minds by
+poetry and other reading. The last two years at school were most
+beneficial and productive in shaping Hoffmann's mind; he acquired a
+taste for classics and excited the attention of his teachers by his
+artistic talents, his graphic powers of representation being noticeable
+even at this early age. During this time also he cultivated the
+acquaintance of the painter Matuszewski, whom he introduces by name in
+his tale _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall").
+
+When sixteen or seventeen years old Hoffmann conceived his first boyish
+affection, which only deserves mention as giving occasion to a frequent
+utterance of his at this time, that illustrates one of the most
+striking sides of his character. It appears that the young lady who was
+the object of his fancied passion either refused to notice his homage
+or else laughed it to scorn, for he remarked to his friend with great
+warmth of feeling, "Since I can't interest her with a pleasing
+exterior, I wish I were a perfect image of ugliness, so that I might
+strike her attention, and so make her at least look at me."
+
+The beginning of Hoffmann's university career--he matriculated at
+Königsberg on 27th March, 1792--offers nothing of special interest. He
+decided to study jurisprudence. In making this decision he was
+doubtless influenced by the family connections and the traditional
+calling of the male members of the family. As already remarked, his
+father, his uncle, and his great-uncle had all followed the profession
+of law, and he had another uncle Dörffer in the same profession, who
+occupied a position of some influence at Glogau in Silesia. But it is
+also certain that he was determined to this decision--it cannot be
+called choice--from the desire to make himself independent of the
+family in Königsberg as soon as he could contrive to do so, in order
+that he might free himself from the shackles and galling unpleasantness
+of the untoward relations in life to which he was there subject. But he
+was devoted heart and soul to art--to music and painting. As the
+studies of the two friends, Hoffmann and Hippel, were different, they
+necessarily did not see so much of each other as previously; but once a
+week during the winter months they devoted a night to mutual
+outpourings of the things that were in them--the aspirations, hopes,
+dreams, and plans for the future, &c., such as imaginative youths are
+wont to cherish and indulge in. These meetings were strictly confined
+to their two selves; no third was admitted. Their rules were one bottle
+of wine for the whole evening, and the conversation to be carried on in
+rhymed verses; and Hoffmann we find looking back upon these hours with
+glad remembrance even in the full flush of his manhood and fame: even
+on his last sad birthday, a few months before his death, he dwells upon
+them with fond delight.
+
+Whilst, however, devoting himself enthusiastically to the pursuit of
+art, he did not neglect his more serious studies. He made good and
+steady progress in the knowledge of law; and he also gave lessons in
+music. It was whilst officiating in this latter capacity that his heart
+was stirred by its first serious passion--a passion which left an
+indelible impress upon all his future life. He fell in love with a
+charming girl, who had a fine taste and true sentiment in art matters,
+but who was separated from her admirer by an impassable barrier of
+rank; but although her social position was far above Hoffmann's, yet
+she returned warmly his pure and ardent affection. Hoffmann, however,
+never disguised from himself the hopelessness of his love; and the fact
+that it was so hopeless embittered all the rest of his time in
+Königsberg, until he left it in June, 1796, for a legal appointment at
+Great Glogau in Silesia.
+
+As these years seem to have been mainly instrumental in forming his
+character and shaping its outlines and giving depth and strength to its
+chief features, it is desirable to dwell for a moment upon the
+principal currents which at this time poured their influences upon him.
+By nature of a genial and gay temperament, gifted with an acute
+perception, which he had further trained in sharpness and accuracy,
+endowed with no small share of talent and with an ardent love for art,
+ambitious, vain in some respects, full of high spirits, and with a keen
+sense of humour, and not devoid of originality, he was daily chafed and
+galled in the depressing atmosphere of his home relations. He felt how
+illogical was the rigid methodicity, how unreasonable the arbitrary
+routine, how absurd the restrictions and restraints of his uncle's
+household regulations; he was eager to be quit of them, to turn his
+back upon them; he was anxious to find a congenial field for his
+powers-~a field where he could turn his accomplishments and genius to
+good account. The only way in which he could hope to do so at present,
+at least for some years to come, was by pursuing a legal career, and
+law he had no inclination for. He says, in a letter to Hippel, dated
+25th Nov., 1795, "If it depended upon myself alone I should be a
+musical composer, and I have hopes that I could do something great in
+that line; as for the one I have now chosen, I shall be a bungler in it
+as long as I live." He gradually came to live upon a strained and
+barely tolerable footing with his uncle, since as he grew older his
+tricks and ironical behaviour towards little Otto assumed a more
+pronounced character, and stirred up in the old gentleman's mind
+feelings of suspicion against his unmanageable nephew. In these
+circumstances we may easily discern the germs of a dissatisfaction not
+only with his lot in life but also with himself.
+
+Next came the fact of his hopeless love which has just been mentioned.
+And another and no less potent cause which tended to deepen and
+intensify this spirit of inward dissatisfaction was the delay that
+occurred between his passing his entrance examination into the legal
+profession in July, 1795, and his appointment to a definite post of
+active duty in June, 1796. To be compelled to wear out his independent,
+ambitious heart in forced inactivity must have been galling in the
+extreme, especially when it is remembered how eagerly he was longing to
+shake himself free from the relations amidst which he had grown up, and
+his no less earnest desire to get beyond the reach of the passion, or
+at any rate the object of the passion, that was gnawing at his very
+heart-strings. To an energetic spirit, longing for a useful sphere of
+activity, hardly anything can be more fruitful as a source of
+unhappiness than enforced idleness. And this sentiment Hoffmann gives
+frequent utterance to in his letters at this period.
+
+During these same months he cultivated his mind by the perusal of the
+works of such writers as Jean Paul, Schiller, and Goethe, the
+intellectual giants upon whom the eyes of Germany were at that time
+fixed in wonder. But this course of reading, instead of counteracting,
+rather encouraged a native leaning towards poetic dreaming and
+sentimentality. In a letter to Hippel, dated 10th Jan., 1796, he even
+says, "I cannot possibly demand that she [the lady he loved] should
+love me to the same unmeasured extent of passionate devotion that has
+turned my head--and this torments me.... I can never leave her; she
+might weep for me for twenty-four hours and then forget me--I should
+_never forget her_." There was yet another cause or series of causes
+which co-operated with those mentioned above to increase the distracted
+and agitated condition of his heart. It has been already stated more
+than once that he was a diligent student of music and painting. These
+formed his recreation from the severe and dry study of law-books; but
+to these two arts he now added the fascination of literary composition,
+and wrote two novels, which he entitled _Cornaro_ and _Der
+Geheimnissvolle_. The former was rejected by a publisher, who had at
+first held out some hopes of being able to accept it, on the ground
+that its author was unknown. Besides this, the productions of his brush
+failed to sell. Hence fresh sources of disappointment and vexation.
+
+Through all this, however, even in his darkest moods and most desperate
+moments, he was upheld by the feelings and sentiments associated with
+his friendship for his unshaken friend Hippel. To him he poured out all
+his troubles in a series of letters,5 which gave a most graphic account
+of his mental condition at this period. He led a very retired life,
+hardly seeing anybody; he calls himself an anchorite, and states he was
+living apart from all the world, seeking to find food for contemplation
+and reflection in his own self. He also fostered, perhaps unconscious
+to himself, high poetic aspirations, and also those extravagant dreams
+of friendship which were so fashionable in the days of "Posa" and
+"Werther" and Wieland; "his heart was never more susceptible to what is
+good," and "his bosom never swelled with nobler thoughts," he says in
+one of his letters. Then he goes on to describe the "flat, stale, and
+unprofitable" surroundings in the midst of which he was confined.
+"Round about me here it is icy cold, as in Nova Zembla, whilst I am
+burning and being consumed by the fiery breath within me," he says in
+another place. The violence of his inner conflict, of his heart-torture
+and unhappiness, finds vent in a wild burst in the letter before quoted
+of 10th Jan., 1796 (and also in others). He says:--
+
+"Many a time I think it's all over with me, and if it were not for my
+uncle's little musical evenings. I don't know what really would become
+of me.... Let me stay here and eat my heart out.... Nothing can be made
+of me, that you will see quite well.... I am ruined for everything; I
+have been cheated in everything, and in a most exasperating way." ...
+Again, "If I thought it possible that this frantic imp, my fancy, at
+which I laugh right sardonically in my calmer moments, could ever
+strain the fibres of my brain or could touch the feelers of my
+emotional power, I should wish to cry with Shakespeare's Falstaff, 'I
+would it were bedtime, and all well;'" ... and "I am accused by the
+Santa Hermandad of my own conscience." And in another letter he unbares
+the root of all his troubles in the exclamation, "Oh! that I had a
+mother like you."
+
+Tearing himself away from his lady-love with a violent wrench, Hoffmann
+left Königsberg in a sort of "dazed or intoxicated state," his heart
+bleeding with the anguish of parting. He arrived at Glogau on 15th
+June, and met with a very friendly reception from his uncle and his
+uncle's family, which consisted of his wife and a son and two
+daughters. But though they appear to have exerted themselves to make
+the unhappy youth comfortable, his heart and mind were too much
+occupied with the dear one he had left behind for him to derive full
+benefit from their kind and well-meant attentions. In the first letter
+he wrote to his friend from his new home he says, "As Hamlet advised
+his mother, I have thrown away the worser part of my heart to live the
+purer with the other half.... Am I happy, you ask? I was never more
+unhappy." In other letters, written some months later, he writes, "I am
+tired of railing against Destiny and myself.... There are moments in
+which I despair of all that is good, in which I feel it has been
+enjoined upon me to work against everything that makes a vaunt of
+specious happiness." But he took no manful and resolute steps to battle
+against his unhappy state; he continued to correspond with the lady of
+his affections, to gaze upon her portrait, to write to his friend about
+her, and to dwell upon the past, the hours he had spent in her society.
+His relatives, though treating him with all kindness, would seem to
+have endeavoured to reason him out of his passion, since after he had
+been some months in Glogau, he complains that those who had at first
+been all love and sympathy were now cold and reserved towards him; he
+was misunderstood; he was tormented with _ennui_, and looked with
+contempt (partly amused and partly bitter) upon the childish follies
+and fopperies, the trifling and dandling with serious feelings and
+affections, of the folks amongst whom he lived, who spent their time in
+"hunting after flies and _bonmots_." During these months, however, and
+during the course of the two years he spent in Silesia, he penetrated
+deeper into the secret constitution of his own nature than he ever did
+before or after: we find him confessing to his hot passionate
+disposition and his quickness to take offence, and making mention of
+the change that had taken place in him since the days of his early
+friendship with Hippel--he was become hypochondriacal, dissatisfied
+with himself, ready to kick against destiny, and prone to assume a
+defiant attitude towards her and to blame her and call her to account
+for her treatment of him; then again he was melancholy and sad and
+sentimental, using in his letters expressions built up after Jean
+Paul's style, and indulging in gushing protestations of unalterable
+friendship. But then this was the age of exaggerated friendships. His
+humour and joviality did not, however, altogether desert him; he made
+himself a welcome guest of an evening, and carried out amusing pranks
+with his merry cousins.
+
+In the spring of 1797 Hoffmann accompanied his uncle on a journey to
+Königsberg, where he again saw the young girl he loved, but only to
+open up again all the anguish of the wounds that had never yet fully
+healed. On his return to Glogau things continued much as they were
+previous to his visit to his native town.
+
+Of his two favourite arts, painting seems to have occupied him more
+than music just at this period. Probably this was due to the influence
+of the painter Molinari, whose acquaintance he made before he had been
+six months in Glogau; and besides this man, whom he styles a "child of
+misfortune" like himself, he also enjoyed the society of Holbein,
+dramatic poet and actor; of Julius von Voss, a well-known writer; and
+of the Countess Lichtenau, formerly favourite of Frederick William II.
+of Prussia, but at that time a sort of prisoner in the garrison at
+Glogau.6 The serious study of law he also prosecuted most assiduously,
+and to such good purpose that in June, 1798, he was able to surmount
+successfully his second or "referendary" examination. But for this
+earnest and persevering labour there was a special incitement--a
+particular cause. However contradictory it may sound, he was already
+engaged in another love affair; this time with the lady who afterwards
+became his wife, Maria Thekla Michaelina Rorer, of Polish extraction.
+The beginning of his intimacy with her dates, strange to say, from the
+early part of the year 1797, just previous to his journey to Königsberg
+with his uncle. Soon after passing his "referendary" examination, he
+was moved to the Supreme Court at Berlin, as a consequence of the
+promotion of his uncle to be _geheimer Obertribunalsrath_ in the
+capital. But before proceeding to Berlin to take up his residence
+there, Hoffmann made a tour through the Silesian mountains, partly with
+an eccentric friend of his uncle's and partly alone, finishing up the
+trip by an inspection of the art treasures of Dresden, where he was
+specially struck with works by Correggio and Battoni (mentioned in _Der
+Sandmann_, &c.) and Raphael. One very remarkable incident which
+happened to him during this trip must not be passed over in silence. He
+was induced to play at faro at a certain place where he stopped, and
+though he was perfectly unskilled in the game, yet he had such an
+extraordinary run of good luck, that he rose from the table with what
+was for him a small fortune. Next morning the event made so deep and
+powerful an impression upon his excitable temperament--his mind was so
+awed by the magnitude of his winnings--that he vowed never to touch a
+card again so long as he lived; and this vow he faithfully kept. In the
+tale _Spielerglück_ ("Gambler's Luck") we find the incident recorded in
+the experiences of Baron Siegfried; and in the third volume of the
+_Serapionsbrüder_ (Part VI.) he relates some of the very amusing
+eccentricities of his travelling companion, which are too long to be
+given here.
+
+We next find Hoffmann in Berlin, where, whilst the impressions which he
+had brought back with him from his excursion were still fresh upon his
+mind, he began to revel in the enjoyment of the picture-galleries and
+other opportunities for cultivating his taste in art. Here he saw
+really how little his own skill in painting was developed; he threw
+away colours, and took up drawing again like a beginner. His position
+in a professional regard now took a more favourable turn. Freiherr von
+Schleinitz, the first president of the court to which Hoffmann was
+attached, was a friend of Hippel's; and both he and the genial good-
+hearted second president Von Kircheisen noticed and encouraged his
+talents. In consequence, he laboured at his duties and studies with
+such zeal that he succeeded in passing his third and last examination,
+the so-called _examen rigorosum_, and so qualifying for the position of
+judge in the highest courts of Prussia, in the summer of 1799. He was
+recommended for an appointment as councillor in a provincial supreme
+court; but before proceeding to the dignity of councillor it was
+obligatory upon him to serve a probationary year as _assessor_. He was
+accordingly sent down to the newly-acquired Polish provinces (South
+Prussia, as they were called), to the town of Posen, where work was
+plentiful and talented and energetic workers were in demand. Before
+leaving the capital he had the pleasure of seeing his friend Hippel,
+who spent two happy months with him, living the past over again,
+visiting Potsdam, Dessau, Leipsic, Dresden, &c., and discussing the
+journey to Italy, which through all his life Hoffmann continued to
+dream of as an ideal plan to be some time consummated, but which
+unfortunately never was consummated. Hippel accompanied his friend to
+Posen.
+
+The Polish provinces were fraught with great danger for any young man
+who was not possessed of exceptional firmness and sound moral
+principles. For a young lawyer, the work was severe and exacting, but
+the emoluments were large. Time, however, failed to allow of
+cultivating the higher sources of enjoyment; hence all hastened to make
+the most of it by throwing themselves into the lower. Drinking was a
+habit of the country; and the drink that was drunk was of the strongest
+kinds, the fiery wines of Hungary and strong liquors. There reigned
+also a deplorable laxity of morals; and the graceful Polish women were
+very seductive. That Hoffmann followed the example of his colleagues,
+and plunged into the giddy whirlpool of miscalled pleasure, will
+perhaps appear natural when we take into consideration the sources of
+discontent that had for some time been fermenting in his spirit. Having
+been submitted to the trammels of unreasonable constraint, it need not
+be wondered at that his passionate restless nature should be enticed by
+the temptations to which he was now so suddenly and unreservedly
+exposed, that he forgot all his higher strivings and cast his better
+purposes to the winds, and drank greedily of the pleasures of life
+which his newly-won freedom brought in so easy and seductive a form
+within his reach. He candidly states, "for some months a conflict of
+feelings, principles, &c., which are directly contradictory the one to
+the other, has been raging within me; I wished to stifle all
+recollection, and become what schoolmasters, preachers, uncles, and
+aunts call profligate." There was none in the circles which he
+frequented to encourage him in his desire to reach out after better
+things, to live himself into "the poetry of life," as Hitzig expresses
+it; and hence he fell into the mire of demoralisation, and his fall was
+the greater since he set about it with deliberate intent.
+
+He was at length so far carried away by the delirious whirl into which
+he had been caught as to engage in a piece of wanton folly that threw
+him back upon his career by some years, just as he was about to plant
+his foot securely upon the path leading to the summits of his
+profession. Beguiled by his striking talent for caricature, he designed
+and executed a series of sketches, satirising in an exquisitely witty
+and humorous style various situations and characters and well-known
+relations of Posen society. The inscriptions appended to the
+caricatures were not less skilfully done than were the caricatures
+themselves. No rank of society was spared, and hardly any person of
+consequence in the town. One of his friends, who afterwards became his
+brother-in-law, distributed the leaves at a masked ball in the disguise
+of an Italian hawker of pictures, cleverly contriving to place each
+individual sketch in the hands of the person to whom it would most
+likely be most welcome. Hence for several minutes universal glee at the
+excellent jest! But when they came to compare notes, _i.e._, the
+presents they had received, the merriment gave way to hot indignation.
+The author of the outrage was very speedily guessed at, since there was
+only one person in Posen with proved ability enough to wield the pencil
+so as to produce such striking likenesses--unfortunate Hoffmann! That
+very same night it is said that a man of high rank, General von
+Zastrow, deeply incensed at several of the pieces in which he himself
+played a ridiculous _rôle_, sent off an express courier to Berlin with
+a report of the whole affair. The consequence of the thoughtless trick
+was that Hoffmann's patent as councillor to the government at Posen,
+which lay all ready for signing, was exchanged for one appointing him
+to the town of Plock (on the R. Vistula). Thither he went early in
+1802, accompanied by his wife, whose maiden name was "Rorer, or rather
+Trzczynska, a Poless by birth, daughter of the former town-councillor
+T. of Posen, twenty-two years old, of medium stature and good figure,
+with dark-brown hair and dark blue eyes," as he himself describes her.
+He had taken the step of marriage in face of the earnest dissuasion of
+his uncle Otto, in the last months of his residence in Posen. But
+previous to this, late in the autumn of 1801, he had paid another visit
+to Königsberg, meeting on his return journey his friend Hippel; and
+together they saw Elbing and Dantzic. To this latter visit we owe the
+story of _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall"), published in 1817. Hippel,
+be it remarked, was disagreeably struck by the change in his friend:
+Hoffmann gave himself up to an unhealthy degree, to wild and
+extravagant gaiety, and disclosed a liking for what was low and lewd.
+
+In Plock Hoffmann spent two years. This was a quiet, stagnant place,
+where, according to his own account, he "was buried alive," and "walked
+in a morass covered with low thorny shrubs which lacerated his feet;"
+he "thought of Yorick and the imprisoned starling;" and he should have
+given way to despair had not the bitter experiences which he was made
+to drain to the lees been sweetened by the affection of his dear good
+wife, who gave him strength for the present and encouraged him to hope
+for the future. Owing to the external circumstances in the midst of
+which he was fixed, he again turned his attention seriously to music
+and painting, and also to authorship. He wrote short essays, composed
+masses, vespers, and sonatas, and translated Italian canzonets, &c. _
+Scherz, List, und Rache_, a _Singspiel_ of Goethe's, he had already set
+to music in Posen. During these two years he led a more strictly
+domestic life, and spent more of his time out of the hours of official
+duty in his own house, than he ever did afterwards. Here also, as
+almost everywhere throughout his life he was zealous and industrious in
+discharging the duties of his position. At length, just as he was
+beginning to settle down and feel contented with his lot in Plock, his
+friends in Berlin succeeded in securing his removal (1804) to a better
+and more congenial sphere of activity in Warsaw. After once more
+visiting Königsberg in February, 1804, and then spending several days
+with Hippel on his estate at Leistenau (province Marienwerder, East
+Prussia), he eventually proceeded to his new post in Poland in the
+spring of that same year.
+
+One illustrative and very characteristic anecdote of this period
+deserves mention. In a letter to Hippel, dated "Plock, 3rd October,
+1803," Hoffmann writes, "My uncle in Berlin will never do much more to
+recommend me, for he has become 'a grave man,' as Mercutio says in
+Shakespeare;7 he died on the night of 24-25th September of inflammation
+of the lungs." But in his diary of October 1 he writes, in allusion to
+the same sad event, "My tears did not flow, nor did fear and grief draw
+from me any loud lamentations; but the image of the man whom I loved
+and honoured is constantly before my eyes; it never leaves me. The
+whole day through my mind has been in a tumult; my nerves are so
+excited that the least little noise makes me start." Thus he could jest
+in the midst of pain; and it is a type of the man's character.
+
+Warsaw, in notable contrast to other places in the Polish provinces,
+possessed many things calculated to excite and engage the attention of
+an active mind, of a mind so eager for knowledge and so keenly alive to
+all that was especially interesting and extraordinary as was
+Hoffmann's. The new scene of his labours cannot be better described
+than in the words of Hitzig and of Hoffmann himself. The former says
+the city had
+
+"Streets of magnificent breadth, consisting of palaces in the finest
+Italian style and of wooden huts which threaten every moment to tumble
+together about the ears of their indwellers; in these edifices Asiatic
+sumptuousness most closely mingled with Greenland filth; a populace
+incessantly on the stir, forming, as in a procession of maskers, the
+most startling contrasts--long-bearded Jews, and monks clad in the garb
+of every order, closely veiled nuns of the strictest rules and
+unapproachable reserve, and troops of young Polesses dressed in the
+gayest-coloured silk mantles conversing to each other across the
+spacious squares, venerable old Polish gentlemen with moustaches,
+caftan, _pass_ (girdle), sabre, and yellow or red boots, the coming
+generation in the most matchless of Parisian fashions, Turks and
+Greeks, Russians, Italians, and Frenchmen in a constantly varying
+crowd; besides this an almost inconceivably tolerant police, who never
+interfered to prevent any popular enjoyment, so that the streets and
+squares were always swarming with 'punch-and-judy' shows, dancing-
+bears, camels, and apes, whilst the occupants of the most elegant
+equipage equally with the common porter stopped to stare at them open-
+mouthed; further, a theatre conducted in the national language, a
+thoroughly good French troupe, an Italian opera, German comedians, who
+were at least ready to undertake almost anything, 'routs' of a quite
+original but extremely attractive kind, and resorts of pilgrims in the
+immediate vicinity of the town--was there not something for an eye like
+Hoffmann's to see and for a hand like Hoffmann's to sketch?"8
+
+
+Thus far Hitzig. Hoffmann writes on May 14, 1804:--
+
+"Yesterday ... I resolved to enjoy myself; I threw away my deeds and
+sat down to the piano to compose a sonata, but soon found myself in the
+situation of Hogarth's _Musicien enragé_ (Wrathful Musician).
+Immediately underneath my window there arose certain differences
+between three women selling meal, two wheelbarrow-men, and one sailor;
+each of the parties pleaded its cause with a good deal of violent
+demonstration before the tribunal of the hunchback, who stands with a
+stall under the door-way below. Whilst this was going on the bells of
+the parish church, of the Bennonites, and of the Dominican church (all
+close to me) began to clang; in the churchyard of the last named (right
+opposite to me) the hopeful catechumens were hammering away on two old
+kettle-drums, with which all the dogs of the neighbourhood, spurred by
+the strong powers of instinct, joined with a chorus of barkings and
+howlings--at that moment too Wambach and his musical band of
+Janissaries trotted gaily past to the merry strains of their own
+music--meeting them out of [another] street came a herd of swine. A
+tremendous friction in the middle of the street--seven swine were
+ridden over! Terrific squealing!--Oh!--oh! a _tutti_ invented for the
+torture of the damned! Here I threw aside my pen and paper, pulled on
+my top-boots, and ran away out of the wild mad tumult through the
+Cracow suburb--through the 'new world'--down the hill. A sacred Grove
+received me in its shade; I was in Lazienki.9 Ay, truly, the pleasant
+palace swims upon the mirror-like lake like a virgin swan. Zephyrs come
+wafted through the blossoming trees loaded with voluptuous delight. How
+pleasant to stroll through the thickly foliaged walks! That is the
+place for an amiable Epicurean to live in. What! why this man with the
+white nose galloping10 along here through the dark-leaved trees must be
+the 'Commendatore' in _Don Juan_. Ah! John Sobieski! _Pink fecit-- male
+fecit_. Oh! what a state of things! He is riding over writhing
+prostrate slaves, who are stretching up their withered arms to the
+rearing horse--an ugly sight! What! is it possible? Great Sobieski--as
+a Roman with _wonçi_11 has girt a Polish sabre about his waist, and it
+is made--of wood--ridiculous!... You ask me, my dear friend, how I like
+Warsaw. A motley world! too noisy--too wild--too harum-scarum--
+everything topsy-turvey! Where can I find time to write, to sketch, to
+compose music? The king ought to give up Lasienki to me; _there_ one
+could live nicely, if you like!"12
+
+The first few months of his residence in this "new world," as it
+appeared to immigrants from the "old land" of Prussia, Hoffmann spent
+in familiarising himself with the novelty and strangeness of the place,
+in wondering at and admiring the motley scenes which daily met his
+view; and doubtless his acute perceptive faculties gleaned a valuable
+harvest of notes for use on future occasions, both for his pencil and
+his pen. About the end of June he formed the acquaintance of J. E.
+Hitzig, who came down to Warsaw with the rank of _assessor_ in the
+administrative college in which Hoffmann held that of councillor. The
+crust of formal courtesy and commonplaces was broken through by
+Hitzig's pithy answer, to a question asking his opinion about some
+newly-arrived colleague, that he was "a man in buckram." The borrowed
+words of Falstaff banished Hoffmann's reserve, and caused his sombre
+face to light up with joy and his tongue to pour out a brilliant gush
+of talk. This new-made friend, who had previously (1800, 1801) lived in
+Warsaw, where he began his career, introduced Hoffmann into a pleasant
+and intellectual set of men, amongst whom was Zacharias Werner, author
+of _Söhne des Thales_, _Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_,13 &c. Hitzig had
+spent the interval from 1801 in Berlin, where he had kept fully abreast
+of the newest productions in literature and art, whilst Hoffmann had
+been living, partly a rude and riotous life, and partly a solitary and
+monkish one, at Posen and Plock. Hence the one had plenty to
+communicate and the other great eagerness to listen, especially as the
+little he had begun to hear roused anew his slumbering better feelings,
+and whetted with a keen edge his native desire for self-improvement
+through art and literature.
+
+In the following year, 1805, one of the Prussian administrative
+officials, an enthusiast in music, conceived the idea of establishing a
+club or society for the purpose of amusement and mutual instruction in
+his favourite art, and for the purpose also of training singers of both
+sexes. Hoffmann's interest was enlisted in the scheme; and things
+proceeded at an energetic rate, the first concert being successful
+beyond expectation. With this encouragement the society was induced to
+go to work on a larger and more pretentious scale. The Miniszeki
+Palace, injured by fire, was bought for the seat of the new academy;
+and then Hoffmann threw himself into the plans of the society with all
+his soul, working indefatigably in preparing architectural designs, and
+later in decorating the halls and corridors. During all the mild days
+of the spring of 1806 he was never to be met with at home. If not in
+the government office, he was invariably to be found perched up on a
+high scaffolding in the new musical Ressource, painter's jacket on and
+surrounded by a crowd of colour-pots, amongst which was sure to be a
+bottle of Hungarian or Italian wine; there he painted and thence he
+conversed with his friends below. If, on occasion, parties requiring
+the services of Councillor Hoffmann came to look for him at the new
+Ressource, whither they had been directed from his own house, they were
+greatly surprised to see him drop nimbly to the floor from before an
+elaborate wall-painting of ancient Egyptian gods, mixed up with
+caricature figures and animal-like fragments of modems (his friends
+with tails, wings, etc.), hastily wash his hands, trot along in front
+of them to his place of business, and in a brief space of time turn out
+some complicated legal instrument with which it would defy the sharpest
+critic to find anything amiss.
+
+So absorbed was he in this work, and in that of directing at the
+evening performances and composing music for them, that he hardly knew
+anything of the dark thunder-cloud of war that was gathering in the
+West until the news of the fateful battle of Jena came; but upon these
+music enthusiasts in Warsaw even this intelligence made no perceptible
+impression. Their concerts and practisings and meetings went on
+uninterruptedly just as before, until one fine day the advanced guard
+of the Russian army rode into the streets of the former Polish capital.
+Soon after the Russian general had taken up his quarters in Praga,
+close to Warsaw, there appeared on the other side of the town the
+pioneers of the great army of Napoleon. The Prussians and Russians
+withdrew from the town. Milhaud arrived with the main body of Murat's
+forces; in Napoleon's name the Prussian Government was dissolved, and
+its officials were superseded by native Poles. Hence Hoffmann was left
+without employment. He and his colleagues divided the contents of the
+treasury between them to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+French; this secured them from want for the present. Careless about the
+future, and revelling in the luxury of untrammelled freedom, Hoffmann
+was now perfectly happy. The excitement was like rich wine to his
+brilliant fancy; he never had enough of it. He spent all the livelong
+day in running about seeing and hearing the many remarkable things to
+be both seen and heard. And the little, restless, energetic man was
+like quicksilver; he was everywhere. He specially loved to frequent the
+theatres, where, before the curtain rose, conversations might be heard
+carried on in ten or a dozen living tongues at once. Pushing his way
+through the motley throng, he penetrated to every part of the house,
+busy gathering all sorts of rich observations, and storing up a most
+varied assortment of experiences; and nothing escaped his falcon eye or
+remained unnoticed by his keen perception. Many and exquisite were the
+humorous anecdotes he picked up, the gestures he copied, the tricks and
+eccentricities he caught, the extraordinary characters he understood
+and fathomed at a glance; and these experiences he afterwards retailed
+to his friends, to their unbounded delight.
+
+But amid all the tumult of the French occupation of the city, the
+evenings at the Musical Ressource still went on the same as ever.
+Hoffmann indeed, in order to escape the burdens of billeting as well as
+from motives of economy, took up his residence in one of the attics of
+the Ressource, where, though somewhat straitened for accommodation (for
+he had his wife, a niece aged about twelve, and a little baby daughter
+with him), he was as happy and contented as he well could be. He had
+the rich library of the Ressource at command, and his own piano stood
+in one of its rooms; and "that was all he wanted to make him forget the
+French and the future." Early in 1807, he took advantage of a
+favourable opportunity and sent his wife and the two children to her
+friends in Posen; Hitzig also, and his family, and most other friends,
+left Warsaw in March of that year: thus Hoffmann was left almost alone.
+Soon afterwards he was attacked by a grave nervous disorder, but
+successfully nursed through it by the one or two friends who still
+remained in the city. On recovering, he wished to go to Vienna, with
+the view of beginning an artistic career, and was only prevented from
+carrying out his design by want of money to defray the expenses of the
+journey. He was in great distress, and even began to despond, until
+finally in the summer he contrived to get to Posen, and thence to
+Berlin, where he arrived some time in July.
+
+In Berlin, however, his prospects did not improve. He failed to find
+employment for his talents: nobody could be got to purchase his
+sketches or sit to him for a portrait; an attempt to interest Iffland,
+the actor and dramatist, in him failed; and no publisher could be found
+for his musical productions. Everything he was willing to do came to
+nothing. Then came other misfortunes. His ready-money, consisting of
+six _Louis d'or_, was stolen from him; news reached him of the death of
+his dearly-loved daughter Cecily when two years old, and of the illness
+of his wife. He was on the point of despair, when it suddenly occurred
+to him to advertise for the post of musical director in a theatre. This
+had the desired effect of eventually securing him the post he wished,
+in the theatre at Bamberg which was conducted under the auspices of
+Count von Soden; but the engagement was not to commence until October,
+1808. The intervening months were months of hard struggle for Hoffmann;
+he says he was almost in the extremities of want, and should have
+lacked the bare necessaries of life had he not succeeded in disposing
+of some minor productions in music and painting for a couple of _Louis
+d'or_ received in advance. In the summer of 1808, he at last fetched
+his wife from Posen, and then repaired to Bamberg (1st September).
+
+To these years in Warsaw and Berlin belong three operas and other minor
+musical pieces (including music for Werner's tragedy _Das Kreuz an der
+Ostsee_), several productions of his pencil and brush, but no literary
+works. Here at the end of what may be termed the first act in E. T. W.
+Hoffmann's chequered life we may pause a moment And the pause we may
+turn to account by quoting a description of his personal appearance and
+some peculiarities of habit.
+
+"Hoffmann was very short of stature, of yellowish complexion; and he
+had dark, almost black hair, growing down low upon his forehead, gray
+eyes which had nothing remarkable about them when they were at rest,
+but which assumed an uncommonly humorous and cunning expression when he
+blinked them, as he often did. His nose was thin and of the Roman type,
+and his mouth tightly closed.
+
+"Notwithstanding his agility, his body seemed to be capable of
+endurance, for in contrast with his size his breast was high and his
+shoulders broad.
+
+"During the earlier part of his life his dress was sufficiently
+elegant, without falling into foppery. The only thing he set great and
+special store by was his whiskers, which he carefully cut so as to form
+a point against the corners of his mouth....
+
+"What particularly struck the eye in his exterior was his extraordinary
+vivacity of movement, which rose to the highest pitch when he began to
+narrate anything. His manners at receiving and parting from people--
+repeated quick short bendings of the neck without moving the head--had
+a good deal that appeared to partake of the nature of caricature, and
+might very readily have been taken for irony had not the impression
+made by his singular gestures on such occasions been softened by his
+cordial warmth of manner.
+
+"He spoke with incredible quickness and in a somewhat hoarse voice, so
+that he was always very difficult to understand, especially during the
+last years of his life, when he had lost some of his front teeth. When
+relating he always spoke in quite short sentences; but when the
+conversation turned upon art matters and he got enthusiastic--against
+which, however, he seemed to guard himself--he employed long and finely
+rounded periods. If he were reading any of his own compositions aloud--
+whether literary or official--he hurried over the unimportant parts at
+such a rate that his listeners had hard work to follow him; but those
+places which are called 'strong touches' in a picture he emphasised
+with almost comic pathos; he screwed up his mouth as he read, and
+looked round to see if his listeners caught the points, so that he
+often upset both his own and their equilibrium. Owing to this habit he
+was conscious that he did not read well, and was always uncommonly
+pleased if anybody else would relieve him of the task; this, however,
+was a ticklish thing to do, especially in the case of MSS. copy, for
+every word read falsely or every hesitating glance upon a word to make
+sure what it was went like a knife to his heart, and this effect he
+could not conceal. As a singer he was a fine powerful tenor."14
+
+To Bamberg Hoffmann went with high hopes of being able to realise the
+dreams of his life; but his fond expectations were doomed to the
+bitterest disappointment. His post he barely retained two months. The
+theatre circumstances were on an exact par with those described in _
+Wilhelm Meister_ (_videatur_ the name Melina, &c.). Hoffmann's style of
+directing gave offence to the Bamberg public on the very first evening;
+Count von Soden had placed the management of the theatre in the hands
+of a certain Cuno, whose affairs were so embarrassed that he never, or
+only seldom, paid his officials, and finally became insolvent in
+February, 1809. The disappointed director, embittered against the
+public by his failure to recommend himself to them, supported himself
+and his wife by composing the incidental music for the various pieces
+given at the theatre, at a small monthly salary (of which he received
+but little), and by giving music lessons in many of the best families
+of the town. But the war approaching that district of Germany caused
+many of these families to leave the place; and Hoffmann began to be in
+embarrassed circumstances. Then he wrote an extremely droll letter to
+Rochlitz, the editor of the _Musicalische Zeitung_ at Leipsic, was
+taken on as a contributor, and continued to work for this magazine all
+the time he was in Bamberg--producing mostly reviews and criticisms of
+musical works, and writing fugitive pieces of musical interest. He also
+composed several pieces of music of various descriptions independently
+of those which he wrote for the theatre. Nor was his brush idle, for he
+received several commissions for large family pictures. Thus things
+went on until the summer of 1809, when a brighter cloud dawned upon him
+for a time. One fine summer evening he made the acquaintance of Kunz, a
+bookseller, publisher, and wine-dealer, at the pleasure-resort of Bug
+(close to Bamberg) in a characteristic manner. Kunz, an honest, jovial,
+good-natured giant, not lacking humour and gifted with a remarkable
+talent for mimicry and imitation, became little Hoffmann's fast
+friend--nay, his only real friend--during the whole of the time the
+latter remained in Bamberg. They were almost inseparable, associated in
+all amusements and diversions: they spent many long winter evenings
+together in pouring out their hearts and experiences to each other in
+mutual confidences, and many long summer evenings at the "Rose," where
+according to German custom a throng of visitors gathered to spend the
+hours between closing business and going to bed. In July, 1810,
+Holbein, Hoffmann's Glogau friend, came to undertake the management of
+the Bamberg theatre. This, of course, could not fail to be of advantage
+to Hoffmann, who, though he did not resume his post of musical
+director, yet received a permanent engagement to act in a multitude of
+departments: he was musical composer, architect, scene-painter, part
+comptroller of the financial arrangements, and director of the
+repertoire, &c. Under Holbein's management the theatre rose to a
+flourishing level; classic operas and good plays15 were introduced with
+success, to which the versatile talents of Hoffmann largely
+contributed. In the evenings the choice spirits of Bamberg, mostly of
+theatrical and artistic connection, used to assemble in the "Rose,"
+where Hoffmann was the soul of the party, his genius, wit, irony, and
+drollery being inexhaustible. Whilst sending out flashes of sarcastic
+wit or gleams of exquisite humour, he would clench a droll or clever
+description by quickly embodying his thoughts and words in impromptu
+sketches, which were handed round to the company. Music and singing,
+often by the actors and actresses, also added to the entertainment of
+the evening. Mine host of the "Rose" saw his company increased by some
+scores of visitors when it was known that the inimitable sharp-eyed
+little music-director was going to be present; and he used to send
+across (Hoffmann lived the other side of the street only) during the
+day to inquire if he intended being there in the evening. But on the
+whole, Hoffmann was more generally feared than loved, or even
+respected, by the main body of the townsfolk. His vanity was openly
+displayed; he must lead the conversation, and everybody else must fall
+in with his humour and his whim, or they might expect some marked
+rudeness from his bitter tongue; and the fellow had a confoundedly
+sharp tongue, and no less sharp a pen and pencil. The most wonderful
+things were said about him in the town, and to those not intimate with
+him or who did not know him personally, he was a man to be gazed at
+from a distance; it was hardly safe to seek his acquaintance, although
+his talk was said to be something extraordinary, and his gestures and
+grimaces irresistibly diverting, yet he could also launch stinging
+barbs and on occasion utter insulting sarcasms. In fact the outside
+public were wont to regard him as invested with a nimbus of wonder, or
+even as a sort of dæmonic being. Though these evenings were beyond all
+conception gay and festive, Hoffmann seldom drank to excess. Of course
+he drank a good deal: he had acquired the habit, as remarked, at Posen,
+but he was not a common drinker, who drinks for the drink's sake. It
+was the exhilaration it gave to his spirits and the fire it gave to his
+mind and brilliant parts that he found attractive in the habit.16
+Excursions were also made into the country, particularly to Bug; and
+here, as at Warsaw, the restless "quicksilver" man was everywhere.
+
+In March, 1811, he was fortunate to be introduced to Von Weber the
+musician, whose regard for his musical talents continued undiminished
+until his death; and in the same month Hoffmann paid a visit to Jean
+Paul at Bayreuth, and had from him a fairly cordial reception. Towards
+the end of the year came the intelligence that his uncle Otto Dörffer
+of Königsberg had died, leaving him heir to his property. But the sum
+Hoffmann received barely sufficed, if indeed it did suffice, to pay his
+debts. These had been accumulated first by Hoffmann's own want of
+prudence--when he had money in his purse he spent it merrily without a
+thought about the morrow--and secondly, by the frequent illness of his
+wife, the simple, homely, unassuming, good-natured creature with whom
+he always lived on happy terms in spite of his own unpardonable
+vagaries. Curiously enough, he used to labour under the odd delusion
+that she was gifted with keen critical taste and was an intellectual
+woman, though this was far from being the truth, according to the
+express evidence of his bosom-friend Kunz.
+
+Amongst Hoffmann's pupils was a young girl of sixteen, Julia M----;
+this was his favourite pupil. For her he came to conceive an
+overmastering passion; but whether it was more of the imagination or of
+the heart it would appear difficult to decide with absolute certainty.
+He did not know himself; "he preferred to remain a riddle to himself, a
+riddle which he always dreaded to have solved;" and he demanded from
+his friend Kunz that he should look upon him as a "sacred inexplicable
+hieroglyph." The girl, who was pretty and amiable, of good
+understanding, and of child-like deportment towards her music-master,
+never for a single moment dreamt of such a thing as his passion for
+her, and so of course she never consciously encouraged it in any way.
+She did not even show any signs of possessing a dreamy or poetic
+temperament, or seem to be inclined to sentimentality, so that
+Hoffmann's extraordinary infatuation can only be explained as a "fixed
+insanity." At any rate, it powerfully affected his mind, and left an
+indelible trace upon him almost down to his dying day. The day on which
+her betrothal to a stupid, weak-minded man, a man in all respects
+unworthy of her, was celebrated at the pleasure-resort of Pommersfelden
+(four hours from Bamberg), was one which shook Hoffmann's storm-tossed
+soul to its profoundest depths. He had hated himself for his weakness,
+and yet could not or would not manfully resolve to break through it.
+Now he was compelled to do so, and in a way that was galling to the
+utmost degree. Her marriage turned out an unhappy one; and eight years
+later, that is two years before his death, hearing she was in great
+trouble, he sent many kind messages to her through a mutual friend.
+These relations are detailed with striking truth and fidelity in the _
+Nachricht von den neusten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza_, published
+in the _Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier_ (1814-15). Perhaps, if we
+sufficiently compare the descriptions which he gives of various
+heroines in his tales (all of which were written after this time),17
+and bear in mind the common characteristic running through them all,
+namely, that he puts them before us more as individual pictures than as
+developments of character, giving us purely objective sketches of them
+after the manner of a painter--if we compare these descriptions with
+what we know of Hoffmann's mind and character, his restless, brilliant
+imagination, and the taint of sensuousness that helped to mar its
+purity, his keen eye for beauty in form and colour, his strong talent
+for seeing the things with which he came in contact through an
+unmistakable veil of either love or hatred, we may perhaps hazard the
+opinion, without risk of going far wrong, that it was his imagination--
+the imagination that made up such a large part of the man--that was
+principally concerned in this remarkable passion; if his heart was also
+touched, as it would undoubtedly appear to have been, the road to it
+must no less undoubtedly have been found through his imagination.
+
+Early in 1812 Hoffmann was invited to a banquet at the monastery of the
+Capuchins; and the visit made an extraordinary impression upon him. All
+during dinner he could not keep his eyes off a gray-haired old monk
+with a fine antique head, genuine Italian face, strong-marked features,
+and long snow-white beard. On being introduced to Father Cyrillus he
+asked him innumerable questions about the secrets of monastic life,
+especially about those things of which "we profane have only dim
+guesses, no clear conceptions." They got into a poetic and exalted
+frame of mind, and rose just as it was getting dusk to inspect the
+chapel and crypt, and other objects of interest. In the crypt Hoffmann
+was powerfully agitated: he reverently doffed his hat, his wine-heated
+face became terribly pale, and he visibly showed that he was held in
+the thraldom of supernatural awe. When Father Cyrillus went on to point
+out the spot where his own mortal remains should rest, and to indulge
+in certain pious exhortations to them (Hoffmann and Kunz) to shed a
+tear upon his grave if they should come there again in after years,
+Hoffmann lost control of himself; he stood like a marble pillar, his
+face and eyes set, his hair standing on end, unable to utter a word.18
+Then making a gesture upwards he hurried out of the crypt with hasty
+uncertain steps. The impressions made upon him by this visit, and the
+observations he gathered, he employed in the _Elixiere des Teufels_ and
+_Kater Murr_ (pt. II.), the meeting between _ Kapellmeister_ Kreisler
+and Father Hilarius, as well as the description of the monastery and
+its situation in the latter, being invested with a fine poetic flavour.
+
+The scene in the crypt points to another side of Hoffmann's character,
+or rather personality, which hitherto has not been alluded to. In fact,
+it does not seem, as far as can be gathered from the biographical
+sources, that it began to be strongly developed until the Bamberg
+period. We have seen how that early in life he conceived a decided
+antipathy to the prosaic and the commonplace, and his career up to this
+point furnishes abundant evidence that he hated with a genuine hatred
+to keep in the ruts of custom and conventionality, as if bound to do so
+because such was prescribed by custom and conventionality. His
+sentiments he never concealed, and his actions harmonised, almost
+without exception, strictly with his sentiments; for one of his most
+striking and instructive characteristics was the remarkable
+fearlessness which he displayed no less in his actual conduct than in
+his habits of thought. Affectation was far from him; thorough
+genuineness was stamped upon all he did, showing unmistakably that it
+came direct from the man himself. In fact it might be said, with
+special significance, that his inner and his outer life--the in other
+cases invisible life of the soul and the visible life in action--were
+perfectly correlated, if not one and indivisibly the same. Being then
+thus honest with himself,19 and detesting as he did all that was
+commonplace and wearying, fiat and stale and dull, it is no wonder that
+he should tend to fall into the opposite extreme, and should delight in
+the unusual, the singular, the extraordinary. Further, when we remember
+his fine imaginative powers, his inimitable humour, his vanity, his
+poetic cast of mind, his bitterness against the public for not
+appreciating his musical talents, and his consequent fits of fierce
+defiance and satiric gloom, there is still less cause for wonder when
+we find this propensity for seeking the uncommon and the marvellous
+deepening and developing in time into an unconquerable penchant for
+what was grotesque and eccentric, for what was fantastic, unnatural,
+ghostly, and horrible. He loved to occupy his fancy most with the
+extremes of human action, and to dive down into the most secret and
+unexplored recesses of human nature to bring back thence some wild
+startling trait that scarce any other imagination save his own would
+have discovered. If he ever studied human nature at all, it was along
+the border-lands of rationality; those misty shadowy states, such as
+insanity, monomania, and hypochondriacal somnambulism, where the soul
+hardly knows itself and loses touch of reality and almost of self-
+consciousness. These and the like mysterious states of being exercised
+a strange fascination upon his spirit. He was constantly pursued by the
+idea that some secret and dreadful calamity would happen to him, and
+his mind was often haunted by images of awful form and by "doubles" of
+himself and others. He even believed he saw visions with his own bodily
+eyes, and no expostulations of his friends could drive this belief out
+of his head. Not only when he was engaged in writing, but even in the
+midst of an ordinary conversation, at supper, or whilst drinking a
+social glass of wine or rum, he would suddenly exclaim, "See there--
+there--that ugly little pigmy--see what capers he cuts. Pray don't
+incommode yourself, my little man. You are at liberty to listen to us
+as much as you please. Will you not approach nearer? You are welcome."
+(Here, and occasionally, he would accompany his words with violent
+muscular contortions of the face.) "Pray what will you take? Oh! don't
+go, my good little fellow." All this, or similar disconnected phrases,
+he used to utter with his eyes fixed and riveted upon the place where
+he affirmed he saw the vision; and if his word was doubted or he was
+laughed at as a stupid foolish man, he would knit his brows and with
+great earnestness reiterate his assertions and appeal to his wife to
+support him, saying, "I often see them, don't I, Mischa" (Misza,
+Mischa, short form for the Polish name Michaelina)?
+
+This side of Hoffmann's individuality is not only one of the most
+characteristic of him, it is necessary to grasp it in order to
+understand his written works. These remarks will also serve to make
+more intelligible the sensation aroused in Hoffmann the evening he was
+at the Capuchin monastery. It is in the _Elixiere des Teufels_ that
+these noteworthy traits find in most respects their fullest expression.
+
+To return to the historical narrative. The story _Meister Martin_ and
+the unfinished _Der Feind_ owe their origin to a visit which Hoffmann
+paid to Erlangen and Nuremberg in March, 1812. In the same year he also
+devoted some attention to sport, and learned to use a sportsman's
+rifle; but his imagination was always swifter than his rifle-charge. A
+_ sitting_ sparrow he did at length contrive to hit, but a flying one,
+or a hare, or even a deer, he never could succeed in knocking over,
+that is to say the real animals. Clods of earth and tufts of grass
+which his imagination conjured into game he could sometimes hit, but no
+living animal would ever be likely to approach near him, for his quick
+restless movements and mercurial gestures were a standing impediment to
+any game ever coming within shot of him unless actually driven close
+past his "stand," and then his excitement either made him fire too soon
+or else miss. Nevertheless, he enjoyed these sporting excursions, in
+his own eccentric fashion, immensely.20
+
+During the summer Hoffmann took up his residence for four weeks in the
+picturesque ruins of the castle of Altenburg, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Bamberg, where, whilst living a hermit's life in
+company with his spouse, he painted one of the towers with frescoes
+illustrative of incidents in the life of Count Adalbert von Babenberg,
+whose residence the castle had formerly been. But he also occupied
+himself with literary schemes; it was in this retreat that he wrote
+certain sketches designed to form parts of a work which long occupied
+his mind, but which never came to anything, namely, the _Lichte Stunden
+eines wahnsinnigen Musikers_ (Rational Intervals of a Crack-brained
+Musician). In this he purposed to develop his opinions on the theory of
+music and the principles of harmony. The fragments were afterwards
+revised and appeared as the _Kreisleriana_ in the _Fantasiestücke_.
+
+In the next month, July, his star of adversity was again to be in the
+ascendant. Holbein severed his connection with the theatre, and
+Hoffmann lost his fixed income. Things grew darker and darker for him,
+until he was almost reduced to actual want; at any rate he came to be
+in very embarrassed circumstances. Singular to say, however, under all
+this cloud of adversity he maintained a shining face and a light heart
+behind it. This was peculiar to him; Rochlitz says "he belonged to the
+large class of men who can bear ill fortune better than good fortune."
+During this time of distress, which was a repetition of his dark days
+in Berlin in 1807-8, he displayed a remarkable activity in his usual
+pursuits. His criticism of _Don Juan_, and exposition of the problem of
+Mozart's great opera, for which Hoffmann cherished a profound and
+almost extravagant admiration, owes its origin to this period.21 An
+anecdote in relation to this will also illustrate his true passionate
+admiration of art. Kunz lost a child, for which he grieved sadly; two
+days afterwards Hoffmann advised him to go with him to see _Don Juan_
+at night, declaring it would assuage his grief and soothe and comfort
+his heart. Of course Kunz looked upon the idea as preposterous.
+Nevertheless Hoffmann would not be denied; he exerted all his arts of
+persuasion to induce his friend to go. At last Kunz did go; on the way
+to the theatre Hoffmann discoursed of the opera in such a sensible,
+acute, and touching way, and so poetically and with especial reference
+to his friend's loss, and afterwards in the theatre he expressed his
+sympathy in such kind and delicate lines, whilst tears of genuine
+feeling stood in his eyes, that his friend was obliged to admit, "This
+music of the spheres, which I had heard at least a dozen times before,
+exerted a greater power over me than all the dictates of reason or the
+consolations of friends."
+
+In February, 1813, the struggling ex-director received an altogether
+unexpected letter from Joseph Seconda, offering him the post of music-
+director to his opera company at Dresden; and on April 21, 1813,
+Hoffmann's residence in Bamberg, which may be regarded as the turning-
+point in his life, came to an end. Four days later he arrived at his
+destination without encountering any very serious adventure on the
+road, although it swarmed most of the way with scouting Bashkirs,
+Cossacks, Prussian hussars, and Russian dragoons, and was thickly lined
+with heavy guns and munition-waggons,--massing for the battle of Lützen
+(May 2). On arriving at Dresden Hoffmann found quite unexpectedly his
+friend Hippel, and with him spent several right happy days. Then he was
+summoned by Seconda to join him at Leipsic, for Seconda seems to have
+spent his time between this town and Dresden. But the journey was
+postponed until May 20th, owing to the proximity of the contending
+forces and the consequent unsettled state of the country. In the
+intervals several sharp skirmishes between the Russians and French took
+place in and close around Dresden. As might be expected, Hoffmann could
+not check his irrepressible desire to be in the thick of the
+excitement; on May 9th he was standing close beside one of the town
+gates when a ball struck against a wall near him and in the rebound hit
+him on the shin; he quietly stooped down and picked up the flattened
+"coin," and preserved it as a memento, "being quite satisfied with that
+one memento, unselfishly not asking for any more," as he wrote. Even
+during these troubled restless days he worked at the _Fantasiestücke_.
+On the way to Leipsic happened a startling occurrence, which probably
+served as the prototype for the catastrophe at the end of _Das Majorat_
+(The Entail). The coach was upset and a newly married Countess was
+taken up dead; Hoffmann's own wife also received a severe wound on the
+head. Seconda's troupe only remained in Leipsic a few weeks longer;
+permission was given him to play in the Court theatre at Dresden; hence
+on 24th June we find Hoffmann on his way back to Dresden, and deriving
+in his characteristic fashion much amusement from a waggon heavily
+laden with theatrical appurtenances, living and non-living, something
+in the style of the carriage scene in _Die Fermate_.
+
+The return, however, was a return into the very hottest scene of the
+struggle between the Allies and Napoleon. On August 26th and 27th the
+fight raged furiously around the walls of Dresden; the quarter in which
+Hoffmann was living was shelled; the people in the house "bivouaced"
+under the stone stairs, trembling with fear and anxiety. Hoffmann,
+however, could not bear to hide away, so he slipped out by a back door
+and went to join one of his theatrical friends. Looking out of his
+window they watched the damage done by the shells, and saw one burst in
+the market-place below, crushing a soldier's head, tearing open the
+body of a passing citizen, and seriously wounding three other people
+not far away. Keller the actor, in his start of apprehension, let his
+glass fall out of his hand; "I," says Hoffmann, "drank mine empty and
+cried, 'What is life? Not able to bear a little bit of hot iron? Poor
+weak human nature! God give me calmness and courage in the midst of
+danger! We can get over it all better so.'" Then he returned to the
+anxious party under the steps, taking them wine and rum--the latter was
+Hoffmann's favourite drink. His presence brought the unfailing good
+spirits and humour which hardly ever deserted him, even under the
+darkest cloud of adversity. On the 29th he visited the battle-field and
+saw its cruel sights and its horrors. But other horrors were in store
+for the inhabitants of the city; for the next few weeks Dresden was
+besieged, and her citizens suffered from famine and pestilence and all
+the other usual terrible concomitants of a siege.
+
+Hoffmann's literary activity through all these weeks of turmoil was
+something astonishing. Whilst the thunders of cannon were making "the
+ground to tremble and the windows to shake," and the shells were
+bursting around him and the sharp crack and dull ping of bullets were
+incessantly striking upon his ear, this extraordinary man sat
+unconcerned amidst it all, absorbed in literary or musical composition,
+either writing his _Goldener Topf_ (or _Der Dichter und der Componist_
+or _Der Magnetiseur_) or working out his opera _Undine_, which was
+begun in Bamberg in 1812. Even when suffering from the dysentery which
+raged in the place, his intellectual activity went on without being
+impaired. In a letter to Kunz of date Sept 8th of this year he writes,
+"I am, as you will observe, unwearied in cultivating the fine arts, and
+if to-morrow or the day after I am not blown into the air by a Prussian
+or Russian or Austrian shell, you will find me fat and well-favoured
+from art enjoyments of every sort."
+
+It was through Kunz's intervention that the Introduction prefixed to
+the _Fantasiestücke_ was obtained from Jean Paul, and that against
+Hoffmann's own wish, for all introductions except those which stand as
+_ prolegomena_ before a scientific work he hated--when a well-known
+writer prefixed an introduction before the work of an unknown as a sort
+of attestation, it seemed to him like "an incendiary letter which the
+young author takes into his hand in order to go and beg for applause
+with it." Another short passage from one of his letters to Kunz of this
+same summer may here be quoted as illustrating a trait in his
+character:--
+
+"So far about business; and now the earnest request that you will keep
+in mind and constantly before your eyes who and what I am, and let our
+business even be inspired with that spirit of cheerfulness and good-
+humour which always marked our intercourse with each other, and even in
+money matters prevented the dead, stiff, frosty mercantile style from
+coming to the surface. I am sure it was quite foreign to both of us,
+and could only excite in us such fear as we feel when set upon by an
+angry 'wauwau,' at which afterwards we can only laugh to each other."
+
+This unwillingness, nay almost repugnance to look at things from their
+serious side, was quite characteristic of him. "But these are _odiosa_"
+was a frequent phrase in his mouth.
+
+On 9th December Seconda and his opera company once more repaired to
+Leipsic, and Hoffmann of course along with them. There on New Year's
+Day he was struck down by a severe attack of inflammation in the chest,
+aggravated by gout, in consequence of a violent cold caught in the
+theatre; the case was so severe and grave that his life was at times in
+danger. "Podagrists are generally visited by an especial humour--
+brilliant fancies; this comforts me; I experience the truth of it,
+since often when I feel the sharpest pangs I write _con amore_," he
+states in a letter to Kunz (24th March). And during his illness one of
+his friends "found him in one of the meanest rooms in one of the
+meanest inns, sitting on a wretched bed, but ill protected against the
+cold, and with his feet drawn up by gout." A board was lying in front
+of him, and he appeared to be busy doing something upon it. "God bless
+me!" exclaimed his friend, "whatever are you doing?" "Making
+caricatures," replied Hoffmann laughing--"caricatures of the cursed
+Frenchman; I am inventing them, drawing them, and colouring them." He
+also wrote about this time the _Vision auf dem Schlachtfelde bei
+Dresden_ and other pieces, and finished his _Undine_; further, whilst
+in this distressing condition, he began the _Elixiere des Teufels_, the
+first volume of which was completed in less than a month. This work he
+intended to be an illustration, or illustrative exposition of his own
+notions, of "a man who even at his birth was an object of contention
+between the powers divine and demoniacal, and his tortuous wonderful
+life was intended to exhibit in a clear and distinct light those secret
+and mysterious combinations between the human spirit and all those
+Higher Principles which are concealed in all Nature, and only flash out
+now and again--and these flashes we call chance." That he succeeded in
+his purpose cannot be maintained. His own individuality was too strong
+for him: he failed to handle his subject from a sufficiently
+independent standpoint. He was not the artist creating a work that was
+quite outside himself; he was rather the silk-worm spinning his
+entangling threads round about himself. The book can scarcely be read
+without shuddering; the dark maze of humane motion and human weakness--
+a mingling of poetry, sentimentality, rollicking humour, wild remorse,
+stern gloom, blind delusion, dark insanity, over all which is thrown a
+veil steeped in the fantastic and the horrible--all this detracts from
+the artistic merits of the work, but invests it with a corresponding
+proportion of interest as a revealer of some of the deepest secrets and
+hidden phases of the human soul, if one only has the courage to wade
+through it. The dreamy mystifications and the wild insanity and mystic
+passion of Brother Medardus are not unrelieved by scenes and characters
+which bear the stamp of bright poetic beauty and rich comic humour
+(_e.g._, the character of the Abbess of the Cistercian convent, the _
+jäger_, the description of the monastery, the scenes with Mr. Ewson and
+Belcampo _alias_ Schönfeld).
+
+For some reason which cannot be quite made out for certain, either in
+consequence of his continued illness or because of a quarrel with
+Seconda, Hoffmann found himself once more adrift in the world without
+an anchor to hold fast by in February, 1814. In striking contrast with
+his treatment by the Bamberg public, his talents as director whilst
+with Seconda's company were fully and adequately appreciated, both by
+the artistes and the orchestra, as well as by the general public. This
+may have been due to two causes; first, the actors and actresses were
+not embarrassed by his directing from the pianoforte instead of with
+the violin as those in Bamberg were, and in the second place his
+criticisms and essays on musical subjects in Rochlitz's _Musicalische
+Zeitung_ had gained him a certain reputation as an authority in musical
+matters. After having refused the offer of a post as music-director in
+his native city of Königsberg in February (1814), he was agreeably
+surprised by Hippel's promise to secure his return into official life.
+Accordingly towards the end of September in that same year he set out
+for Berlin.
+
+Here ends what may be termed the second act of this very unsettled,
+eventful life. That this wandering aside from the career he first
+started upon--viz., that of law and public life to tread the thorny
+precarious path of art was fraught with greater consequences than can
+be estimated upon the unfortunate man's character, will be evident from
+what has been already stated. These dark years were those mainly
+instrumental in stifling the good germs that had once been in him, and
+yet more did they result in encouraging and bringing out prominently
+all his less praiseworthy qualities. As his works and his life are so
+intimately interwoven, and as his works were nearly all written
+subsequent to this disastrous period, it seemed desirable to dwell
+somewhat upon the events and circumstances of the earlier part of his
+life. With the view of showing that Hoffmann himself fully understood
+the nature and tendency of his existence in Bamberg, the following
+passages are quoted from a letter written to Dr. Speyer in that town in
+July, 1813:--
+
+"I felt in my own mind perfectly convinced that I must get out of
+Bamberg as soon as possible if I was not to be ruined altogether. Call
+vividly to mind what my life in Bamberg was from the first moment of my
+arrival, and you will allow that everything co-operated like an hostile
+demoniacal power to thrust me forcibly from the path I had chosen, or
+rather from art, to which I had devoted my entire existence, my very
+self with all my activities and energies. My position under Cuno, and
+even all those unbargained-for duties which were thrown upon me by
+Holbein, notwithstanding their many seductive attractions, but above
+all those scenes with----which I shall never forget and never overcome,
+the old man's miserable stupid platitudes, which yet in another respect
+had a pernicious influence, those wretched, terrible scenes with----and
+last of all with----, whom I always thought a parvenu ill-bred imp,--in
+a word, everything that went against all effort and doing and work in
+the higher life, in which a man raises himself on alert wing above the
+stinking morass of his miserable crust-begging life, engendered within
+me an inward dissension--an inward strife, which much sooner than any
+external commotion around me would have caused me to perish. Every
+harsh and undeserved indignity I had to suffer only increased my secret
+rancour, and whilst accustoming myself more and more to wine as a
+stimulant and so stirring up the fire to make it bum more merrily, I
+heeded not that this was the only way by which good could come out of
+the ruinous evil. In these few words, in this brief statement, I hope
+you will find the key to many things which may have appeared to you
+contradictory, if not enigmatical But _transeant cum ceteris._"22
+
+Again, it can scarcely be doubted that we have a description of his own
+state when he writes in the _Elixiere_ (Part II.), "I am what I appear
+to be, and do not appear as what I really am; to myself an unsolvable
+riddle, I am at variance with my own self."
+
+The change of residence to Berlin did little to improve Hoffmann's
+circumstances. During the first ten months he was, according to the
+conditions imposed, labouring to make himself acquainted with the
+changes that had taken place in legal procedure, and to fit himself for
+entering the service of the state again and resuming his interrupted
+career; but he received no compensation for his pains; he had to
+support himself as best he could by the fruits of his pen. On July 1,
+1815, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of the Minister
+of Justice, which post he exchanged on 1st May, 1816, for that of
+Councillor in the Supreme Court, being also restored to all his rights
+of seniority as though no break had ever taken place in his official
+career. The duties attaching to this office he continued to discharge
+with his accustomed diligence and skill until promoted in the autumn of
+1821 to be a member of the Senate of Higher Appeal in the same court.
+Notwithstanding his sad and disappointing experiences, and the
+tempestuous times of his "martyr years" at Bamberg, he was not yet
+disgusted with the life of an artist. His hopes were not yet alienated
+from the calling that hovered before his mind as an ideal for so many
+years. Whilst battling, with somewhat less of reckless high spirits and
+humour, against the embarrassments and pecuniary difficulties which he
+had to encounter during these ten months, he was also dreaming of an
+appointment as _Kapellmeister_ (orchestral director) or as musical
+composer to a theatre. He says upon this point in a letter to Hippel,
+of date March 12, 1815, "I cannot anyhow cease to interest myself in
+art; and had I not to care for a dearly beloved wife, and were it not
+my duty to try and procure her a comfortable life after what she has
+gone through with me, I would rather become a music schoolmaster again
+than let myself be stamped in the juristic fulling-mill."23 After more
+than one disappointment in his efforts to secure permanent and
+remunerative employment, in which efforts he was assisted by his
+influential friend Hippel, he became a clerk, as already stated, in the
+department of the Minister of Justice.
+
+In his social relations Hoffmann was more fortunate. He now enjoyed the
+close companionship of Hitzig again, and through Hitzig was introduced
+into a select circle which counted amongst its members such men as
+Fouqué (author of _Undine_), Chamisso (of _Peter Schlemihl_ fame),
+Contessa, Koreff, Tieck, Bernhardi, Devrient, and others. The harassing
+tumultuous days he had passed through during the last eight years had
+now begun to make him gentler and more modest; his character was more
+tempered, and his behaviour more subdued. His good-nature too took such
+a prominent place in the qualities he displayed that Hitzig's children
+were quite delighted with their father's newly arrived friend; for them
+Hoffmann wrote the pleasant little fairy tale _Nussknacker und
+Mäusekönig_ (Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Before the end of
+1815 he had finished the second part of the _Elixiere des Teufels_, to
+which he himself attached no value, since its connection with the first
+part was broken; its author's ideas had got into another track;
+feelings and circumstances were changed. Still less than Schiller with
+_ Don Carlos_. did Hoffmann succeed in making an artificial junction
+between the two parts of his work atone for its breach of artistic
+unity; he even said later of the first part, "I ought not to have had
+it printed." Besides this second part of the _Elixiere_, he also wrote
+the concluding pieces of the _Fantasiestücke_, namely, _Die Abenteuer
+der Sylvesternacht_, which owes its existence to Chamisso's _Peter
+Schlemihl_ and to Chamisso himself, who is portrayed in the work; and
+also _Die Correspondenz des Kapellmeisters Kreisler mit dem Baron
+Wallborn_, that is Hoffmann himself and Baron von Fouqué. With the
+latter Hoffmann spent a happy fortnight in 1815 at his seat of
+Nennhausen near Rathenow; Hitzig was also of the party. In August of
+the following year the opera _Undine_ was put upon the stage. Though
+Fouqué's libretto did not pass without some adverse criticism, all
+voices were unanimous in praise of the music. Von Weber the musician
+especially expressed himself warmly in admiration of it, affirming that
+it was "one of the most talented productions of recent times;" and he
+especially singled out for attention its truth, its smooth-flowing
+melodies, and its instrumentation; it was "in truth _one_ gush" of
+music. The opera was repeated more than a score of times, when
+unfortunately the theatre was burnt down, and Hoffmann, who lived
+immediately adjoining it, was almost burnt out of house and home at the
+same time.
+
+Through the success of this opera as well as through that of his
+_Fantasiestücke_, Hoffmann found himself celebrated. He was invited as
+the hero of the evening to the fashionable tea circles of Berlin, where
+ignorant or half-educated _dilettanti_ affected an interest in art
+matters, that was over-strained and wanting in sincerity when it was
+not ridiculous. For what was there the man could not do? He wrote books
+about which all Germany was talking, he could improvise on the
+pianoforte, compose operas, sketch caricatures, and streams of wit
+gushed from him so soon as he opened his mouth. The homage showered
+upon him at these gatherings flattered Hoffmann's vanity for a time,
+but he soon saw the motives for which he was asked to be present--to
+amuse the guests with his wit, to accompany the daughter or lady of the
+house on the piano, to discuss art matters in a becoming way now with
+an old grandmother, now with a grave professor, to tell diverting
+anecdotes, to tickle the lazy minds of those who listened with some
+spicy satire upon their enemies--in fact to be made a useful show of.
+Quickly fathoming these motives, Hoffmann proved himself readily equal
+to the occasion: as soon as he began to get bored, which very
+frequently was the case, he made the most hideous grimaces, and when he
+saw the company were preparing to draw something from him by way of
+criticism which they could carry further and perhaps repeat again as
+springing from their own acute judgment, he began to talk the most
+arrant nonsense he could think of, or to fire off some of his stinging
+sarcasms steeped in the bitterness of gall, till there were none but
+blank and embarrassed faces around him--everybody thinking the man was
+mad; but he went away delighted at the consternation he had been
+instrumental in causing. The givers of fashionable teas soon ceased to
+invite Hoffmann to their entertainments, but they had already
+sufficiently sown the seeds of fresh mischief in him.
+
+To have more money in his pockets than he just required for the
+immediate wants of the moment was always fatal to him, and no less so
+was the excitement attendant upon the giddy whirl of pleasure and
+social popularity, or what stood for such. These were rocks of danger
+upon which he always struck. The former led him to indulge in his
+reprehensible habit of drinking, and the latter soon made him upset all
+the systems of order and regulation. Day he turned into night and night
+into day. He shunned for the most part the society of Hitzig and his
+circle of friends, with their stimulating discussions that cultivated
+the mind whilst unfolding and developing the feelings, and frequented a
+low wine-shop and the common coarse company that was to be met with
+there. Hence during nearly all the rest of his life, that is, from 1816
+to 1821, he spent his mornings in the discharge of his official duties
+at the Supreme Court (two mornings a week, Monday and Thursday), or in
+writing; the afternoons he generally slept, or in summer took a walk;
+and the evenings and nights always found him in the wine-shop of his
+choice; and he never liked to leave it until morning came, nor did any
+other engagements prevent him from putting in an appearance at his
+habitual haunt, even though it were past midnight before he were free.
+As already remarked, however, it was not to sit and drink like a sot
+that he gave way to this degrading habit, but to get himself "exalted"
+as he called it, and then when he was duly "exalted" came the firework
+display of wit and glowing fancy, going on hour after hour without rest
+or interruption for the space of five or six hours at once. If his
+tongue was not the medium through which he discharged the creations of
+his teeming imagination, his eagle eye was spying out all that was
+ridiculous or strikingly extraordinary, or even what was possessed of a
+touch of pathos or deep feeling, or he employed his hand in sketching
+and drawing inimitable caricatures. He never sat idle and silent, and
+drank steadily and stolidly as so many confirmed drinkers do. Hitzig,
+who was deeply grieved at this downward course of his friend and at the
+estrangement it had brought about between them, contrived to draw him
+away from his demoralising companions of the wine-shop for at least one
+night a week. On that evening there was a small gathering at Hoffmann's
+house, moderation being strictly enjoined as one of the chief
+regulations of the meeting. This small circle, which consisted of
+Hoffmann, Hitzig, Contessa, and Koreff,24 and an occasional friend or
+two whom one of them introduced, called itself "The Serapion Brethren,"
+this title being adopted from the fact that the first meeting was held
+on the night of the anniversary of that saint, according to Frau
+Hoffmann's Polish almanac. It is interesting to remark that amongst
+these occasional guests figures the great Danish poet Oehlenschläger in
+the year 1816. In a letter written to Hoffmann on March 26th, 1821,
+recommending a young fellow-countryman to him, Oehlenschläger says,
+"Dip him also a little in the magic sea of your humour, respected
+friend, and teach him how a man can be a philosopher and seer of the
+world under the ironical mantle of the mad-house, and what is more an
+amiable man as well;" and he subscribes himself, "A. Oehlenschläger,
+Serapion Brother."
+
+In 1817 was published the collection of tales called _Die Nachtstücke_,
+embracing _Der Sandmann_ (The Sand-man) and _Das Majorat_ (The Entail),
+which reproduce personages and experiences belonging to the years in
+Königsberg; _Die Jesuitenkirche_ and _Das steinerne Herz_, going back
+to his life in Glogau; _Das Gelübde_, built upon a story related by his
+wife as connected with her native town of Posen; _Das Sanctus_, which
+was suggested by an incident in Berlin soon after Hoffmann's arrival
+there; and _das öde Haus_, this last due to the way in which he was
+incessantly haunted by the appearance of a closed house in the _Unter
+den Linden_. These were mostly written in 1816 and 1817; and to them he
+added _Ignas Denner_, which possesses some merit, but is of too gloomy
+and darkly unpleasant a cast to be attractive to English readers; it
+was written during the first days in Dresden, just after his
+emancipation from the Bamberg thraldom. Whilst in it he gives free rein
+to sombre melancholy, and dips his pen in "midnight blackness," in _
+Berganza_, written about the same time, he has poured out the cynical
+bitterness and scathing scorn which was then undoubtedly gnawing at his
+heart. _Der Sandmann_, though embodying reminiscences of its author's
+youth, also contains material derived from an incident which took place
+during a visit of Hoffmann's to Fouqué's country-seat near Ratenow, and
+Nathanael was recognised by Fouqué as meant for himself. _Das Majorat_
+is, as already stated, a lasting memorial to his old great-uncle,
+Vöthöry; the moral backbone of the story--the evil destiny attaching to
+the successors of a man whose ambition aimed at founding a powerful
+family by an act of injustice to his youngest son--reminds the reader
+forcibly of the purpose that runs through Hawthorne's _House with the
+Seven Gables_. Of the in many respects admirable story _Das Gelübde_--
+it is to be regretted that it is marred by the dangerous nature of the
+subject;25 it is else poetically treated and invested with a spirit of
+weird mysticism that would have made it rank higher than what it does.
+The others in the collection are of lesser merit.
+
+The next year 1818 saw no important work from Hoffmann's pen; but in
+1819 appeared _Die seltsame Leiden eines Theaterdirekters_, a book
+written in the form of a dialogue, which was due to the example of his
+favourite, Diderot's "Rameau's Nephew" (by Goethe), and which conveys a
+tolerably faithful account of Hoffmann's experiences in the capacity
+indicated whilst in the town on the Regnitz, and indeed is useful as
+illustrating the condition of the German stage generally at that
+period. This was followed by a kind of fairy tale, _Klein Zaches
+genannt Zinnober_; as this book was generally believed to be a local
+satire upon persons and circumstances well known, it entailed many
+severe strictures and much unpleasantness upon its writer. The truth
+about it seems to be this: the idea--that of a sort of ugly kobold of
+the Handy Andy type--was suggested by a sudden fancy during an attack
+of fever, and in a moment of semi-delirium. On recovering his health
+again, Hoffmann set to work in his impetuous and hasty way, and worked
+out the idea in probably less than a fortnight. Similarly his _Meister
+Floh_, one of the last and weakest caricatures he wrote, was likely to
+have entailed disagreeable consequences upon him, had not his last
+illness come before any authoritative steps could be taken. For he had
+made use of incidents which came to his knowledge in the official
+discharge of his duties, and which were of such a character that they
+ought to have been guarded as inviolable secrets; and he further
+employed certain phrases which he took from confidential papers that
+likewise came into his hands in consequence of his public position. In
+extenuation of his fault, or perhaps in explanation of it, be it
+remarked that his conduct does not appear to have been actuated by
+premeditated or deliberate malice, but to have sprung solely from his
+recklessness and want of prudence: the ridiculous appealed to his sense
+of humour so irresistibly that nothing was sacred against it, and so
+nothing was safe from it.
+
+In the summer of 1819 Hoffmann was ordered by his physician to visit
+the Silesian baths; and he derived excellent benefit from the
+prescription, coming home stronger and in a more healthful frame of
+mind than his friends had seen him for a long time. Soon after his
+return he was appointed on the commission selected to inquire into
+those secret societies and other suspicious political organisations
+which were particularly active about this time (_Burschenschaften_,
+_Landsmannschaften_ in their political aspect). Towards the end of the
+year he published the first two volumes of the _Serapionsbrüder_, the
+third volume following in 1820 and the fourth in 1821. These volumes
+contain all his tales that had appeared in various magazines and serial
+publications, together with others now first published, and are linked
+together by a running commentary, or rather they are set into it as
+into a framework; the Serapion Society are represented as meeting at
+stated intervals, when one or more of the members relate a tale. The
+discussions which precede and follow the tales are full of sage remarks
+about art and art-matters and other ripe practical wisdom, and contain
+perhaps more matured thought than anything else that proceeded from
+Hoffmann's pen. Of these numerous stories the best have been selected
+for translation in these two volumes, namely, _Der Artushof_ (Arthur's
+Hall), _Die Fermate_ (The Fermata), _Doge und Dogaresse_ (Doge and
+Dogess), _Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen_ (Master Martin
+the Cooper and his Journey men ), _Das Fräulein von Scudéri_
+(Mademoiselle de Scudéri), _Spieler Glück_ (Gambler's Luck), and _
+Signor Formica_. The remaining twelve tales call for no special
+mention, except perhaps _Nussknacker_, which has been already alluded
+to, _Das fremde Kind_, a curious mixture of reality and fairyland, and
+_ Der Zusammenhang der Dinge_, which is not devoid of interest. Several
+of the things in this collection suggest comparison with Poe's writings
+for weirdness and bizarre imaginative power, though of course there are
+wide differences between the styles of the two writers.
+
+In March, 1820, came a letter of good wishes from Beethoven, whose
+music Hoffmann greatly admired; hence the letter was a source of much
+real pleasure to him. Spontini, the well-known writer of operas, came
+to Berlin in the summer of the same year and was received by Hoffmann
+with every mark of respect. It was indeed maintained that the composer
+of _Undine_ showed an unworthy servility in the way in which he
+publicly acknowledged Spontini's talent. Whether this is true would
+appear doubtful; servility was not one of the author's failings, though
+vanity was. By Spontini's ministering to his vanity Hoffmann may have
+been provoked to return him the compliment in his own coin, but it is
+hardly likely that he went so far as to flatter against his own
+conviction or against his better judgment. Of his longer and more
+ambitious works the one which he ranked highest in merit was _
+Lebensansichten des Katers Murr, nebst Biographie des Kapellmeisters
+Johannes Kreisler_, the first volume of which appeared in 1820 and the
+second in 1822. In respect of literary form and execution, as well as
+of artistic worth, this is undoubtedly Hoffmann's most finished
+production (_i.e._ of his longer works). It contains a good deal of
+genial, keen, and subtle satire, conveyed in the doings of Murr the
+tom-cat; and it is also a useful source for early biographical details,
+both of facts and of mental development and opinions, contained in the
+"waste-paper leaves" (treating of Kreisler), inserted at frequent
+intervals between those which carry on the life and adventures of Murr.
+The third volume, which was all ready and completed in the author's
+head, and only wanted writing down, never came to the birth. The first
+two volumes present to us a personification of Hoffmann's humoristic
+self, and the third was to culminate in Kreisler's insanity, a result
+brought about by the disappointments and baffling experiences he
+encountered in life--Hoffmann's own career, that is; and the whole was
+to conclude with the _Lichte Stunden eines wahnsinnigen Musikers_,--a
+work which had been occupying his mind ever since he was in Bamberg,
+and which had not yet been executed. In 1821 was published one of his
+weakest things, a fairy tale, _Prinzessin Brambilla_, which is greatly
+wanting in clearness of conception, though he himself ranked it highly.
+
+The excesses in which Hoffmann had for so long indulged brought at
+last, as may easily be conceived, their own inevitable retribution. The
+first herald of the approaching physical troubles was the death
+(November 30, 1821) of the sagacious cat who was the real hero of
+_Kater Murr_. Hoffmann was much cut up by the death of his favourite,
+which he described to Hitzig with truly touching pathos.26 Soon after
+this he was suddenly stricken down by disease--_tabes dorsalis_; his
+body gradually died, beginning at the feet and moving up to the brain,
+a process which lasted several weeks. But from the autumn of 1821 to
+April, 1822, he was cheered by the daily visits of the beloved friend
+of his youth, Hippel, who had come up to Berlin for that space of time.
+Hoffmann celebrated his 46th birthday with this true friend, and with
+Hitzig and others less dear. Hoffmann and Hippel were dwelling fondly
+upon the days of their youth and reviving old recollections, when
+mention was made of death and dying. Hitzig remarked in substance that
+"life was not the highest of all goods;" this caused the suffering
+Hoffmann to reply with passionate emphasis, such as he did not give way
+to on any other occasion during the course of the evening, "No, no--let
+me live, live--let me only live, no matter in what condition." "There
+was something awful," says Hitzig, "in the way in which these words
+burst from his lips." And his wish was fulfilled in terrible wise; one
+limb after the other failed to perform its office; his feet and hands
+and certain parts of his inner organism became quite dead. On the day
+before he died he was virtually a corpse as far as his neck; and so he
+was full of hope that he should soon be well again, since he "felt no
+more pain then." Even in this truly pitiable and helpless condition his
+imagination continued to pour forth a stream of the most whimsical and
+humorous fancies, and his cheerfulness was even greater than in the
+days of sound health. Hippel's departure in April was a hard blow to
+him. About four weeks before his death he underwent the sharp operation
+of being burned on each side of the spine with red-hot irons. When
+Hitzig entered the room after the terrible operation was over, Hoffmann
+cried, "Can you smell the flavour of roast meat?" and he said that
+whilst the doctors were burning him, the thought entered his mind that
+the "Minister of Police was having him leaded lest he should slip out
+as contraband;"--he was shrivelled up to a mummy almost, so that, owing
+to his small size as well, a woman could carry him in her arms. Though
+his body was thus a perfect wreck, his mental powers were as brilliant
+and keen as ever; and when his hands proved useless to him, he engaged
+the services of an amanuensis and went on dictating until almost the
+very hour of his death. In fact, the last thing he spoke about was a
+direction for his writer to read to him the passages where he had
+broken off in _Der Feind_; then he turned his face to the wall; the
+fatal rattle was heard in his throat; and all Hoffmann's earthly
+troubles were over (June 25, 1822).
+
+It is very remarkable that the works dictated by this extraordinary man
+on his deathbed show an almost total departure from the style of most
+of his previous tales. He no longer records his own experiences,--the
+events and occurrences, the sentiments and thoughts, that were
+peculiarly his own,--but he writes from a purely objective standpoint,
+and _creates_. Of most of his other works it may be said that they are
+_ he_; but of these it can only be said they are _his_ in the sense
+that they owed their origin to him. _Meister Johannes Wacht_, one of
+these, is translated in Vol. II. The scene is laid in Bamberg, and the
+characters of the story were also said to be faithful portraits of
+actual people in Bamberg; yet we look in vain to find anything like
+Hoffmann himself in it. _Des Vetters Eckfenster_, though hardly a tale,
+is yet one of the best things Hoffmann has written. Those who know
+Émile Souvestre's _Un Philosophe sous les Toits_ would find in this
+thing of Hoffmann's dying days something to their taste; it is a
+running commentary on personages seen in the market from the writer's
+own window, and each little scene brings before us a true and lifelike
+character in a few weighty and well-chosen words. _Die Genesung_, a
+mere sketch, arose out of the dying man's pathetic longing to see the
+green of the woods and the meadows. _Der Feind_, a fragment full of
+promise, is a tale of old Nuremberg of the days of Albrecht Dürer, who
+figures in it. Before being deprived of the use of his hands he had
+written several other short tales, amongst which may be mentioned _Die
+Doppeltgänger_, as being a favourite theme with Hoffmann, and _Der
+Elementargeist_, a weird, entrancing story. In _Die Räuber_ he gives us
+a weak version of Schiller's celebrated work.
+
+In Hoffmann we have an instance of a man who nearly all his life long
+failed to get himself placed amid the circumstances in the midst of
+which it was his one burning wish to be placed. He never found his
+right calling. He is a man ruined by circumstances (_zerfahren_). He
+was not wanting in warm natural feeling, as is proved by his close and
+faithful friendships with Hippel, Hitzig, and Kunz; and more than one
+instance of spontaneous kindness and of winning amiability are
+preserved by his biographer.27 In youth his mind and heart were full of
+noble thoughts and aspirations, and he was sincerely desirous to
+educate himself up to better things. We see it in "May it never happen
+to me that my heart is not readily receptive of every communication
+from without, as well as for every feeling within, for the head must
+never injure the heart, nor must the heart ever run away with the head,
+that is my idea of culture," and "an excitable heart and a restless
+nature will never let us be quite happy, but will have a beneficial
+influence upon our education, upon our striving after greater
+perfection." His poetic temperament, and such like poetic tendencies,
+found no responsive sympathy amongst his relatives. Being thrust back
+upon himself and then having his feelings centred, when at length they
+did meet with sympathetic appreciation, in such a way as could only
+bring disappointment and unhappiness, he was early made a fit
+instrument for circumstances to play upon, and sorely was he buffeted
+by them through all the years from going to Posen right down until the
+day of his death. But this result must also be traced partly to the
+want of a parent's loving, watchful eye. In those years which are the
+most important for moulding a boy's character he was practically left
+to go his own way. True, his uncle Otto held him down to habits of
+industry and order; but he did nothing to encourage the boy's better
+and higher nature, or guide it sympathetically along the paths where it
+was striving to find its own way. Hoffmann had no high idea of the
+moral dignity of man, and at times even seemed to have but little
+conception of it. The relations upon which he lived with his uncle Otto
+and the history of his own father prevented this sense of moral worth
+from being planted in his mind. The germ which bore fruit in his love
+for extremes, for what was extraordinary and quite out of the common
+beaten track of life, was probably engendered in the following way. Not
+finding the sympathy he needed in his efforts after a better life, he
+turned in upon himself and began to despise the petty details of
+everyday existence; and several passages in his letters clearly go to
+show that his unhappiness and discontent were largely due to the fact
+of his overlooking the real enjoyment to be derived from the small
+occurrences and events of every day, which rightly viewed are capable
+of affording such a large fund of real contentment. In a letter to
+Hippel early in 1815, he himself states, "For my shattered life I have
+really only myself to blame; I ought to have shown more resolution and
+less levity in my earlier years. When a youth, when a boy, I ought to
+have devoted myself entirely to Art and never to have thought of
+anything else. But of course something also was due to perverse
+education." It must not be supposed, however, from the above that he
+was deficient in firmness or strength of will. The perseverance with
+which he worked through his early examinations, as well as the energy
+and zeal he brought to bear upon his official duties, contradict such
+supposition. Specific instances might also be quoted did space permit;
+it will be enough to recall his resolve never to gamble. It is stated
+that he avowed his intention to amend his ways if he recovered from his
+last fatal illness. The real key to his wayward character lies in the
+fact just alluded to, that he had no conception of the supreme
+importance of moral worth. This was the backbone wanting in his
+character; and for this reason we fail to detect any steady sterling
+course of action through all the vicissitudes of his life. If he had a
+ruling motive it was capricious humour; at any rate it swayed him more
+than anything else. On one day he would laugh at what had annoyed him
+on the day preceding, or be delighted to-day at what he had greeted
+yesterday with irony. Nobody knew better than himself how he was
+tyrannised over by his changeable moods. "My capricious humour
+(_Laune_) is the first weather-prophet I know, and if I had the
+good-will and were bored I could make an almanac," is one of his
+expressions; and another runs, "You know that my capricious humour is
+often _Maître de Flaisir_." Besides being thus the creature of caprice,
+he was also impulsive, impetuous, and wont to act with impassioned
+haste. These qualities were revealed in his restless vivacious eyes, in
+his movements and gestures, and even broke out in extraordinary
+grimaces, as already remarked. And just in the same fervid eager way he
+often seized upon an idea or a pleasing fancy, till it took complete
+possession of him; he could not rid himself of it. With this was
+combined his remarkable quickness of perception and comprehension; a
+single gesture or phrase was often sufficient to enable him to grasp a
+character. What he hated above all things was dulness--_ennui_; this
+never failed to provoke his keenest irony and bitterest sarcasms. In
+his last years he even became cynical and rugged and vulgar, in which
+we may of course trace the influence of his tavern associates. It is to
+his credit that he did not sink into Byronic misanthropy and bitter
+self-lacerating scorn, or even into Heine's irreverence and persiflage.
+
+An old German poet says, "Seht das Loos der Menschheit--Heute Freude,
+Morgen Leid;"28 but with Hoffmann joy and pain were frequently more
+closely allied than this even: whilst the jest was on his lips the
+sting would be in his heart. In this, as well as in several other
+features of his stormy career, he did indeed resemble his countryman
+Heine. One of the necessities of his nature was human society--not
+simply society, however, but people who could appreciate him, who could
+fall in with his moods, and either follow intelligently when he led, or
+lend him a stimulating and helping hand to keep the ball of wit and
+jollity rolling. An illustration of this is found in the fact that he
+"did not love the society of women. If he could not mystify them, or
+draw them into the circle of his fantasies, or discover in them any
+decided talent for comicality, he preferred the society of men."
+Amongst women, however, after those of the class just named, he was
+most interested in young and pretty girls, being attracted by the charm
+of their fresh beauty, not by the charm of their mind. Learned women he
+hated.
+
+Hoffmann was, as already observed, the child of extremes. These were
+revealed not only in his life and action, but also in his writings; for
+his writings are the man. Indeed German critics have said that his
+works, particularly the _Fantasiestücke_, are "lyrics in prose." What
+they mean by this phrase is chiefly that the things he wrote exhibit
+subjective phrases of his nature, and are disconnected, or rather not
+connected, not balanced parts of a systematic whole. This is true so
+far as it is true that Hoffmann never did complete a long work, except
+the _Elixiere_, and this work, as there has been occasion to point out,
+consists of two disjointed parts. One of the things that strike us most
+in reading his books is the peculiar mixture of the real and the
+unreal, of matters appertaining to actual life and of fantasies born
+only of the imagination. Very often the imagination would be called by
+most people a diseased imagination; but it is not always so, sometimes
+it is the poet's imagination. Hence, from this blending or close
+alternation of reality with what is not of the earth--hence came his
+love for fairy tales, tales in which we meet with kobolds, imps,
+witches, little monsters of all kinds--the spirits and apparitions in
+fact which used to haunt his excited fancy in such a strange way.
+Several of these are poetic creatures, whom he handles in a light,
+graceful, and pleasing style (_Goldener Topf_, _Nussknacker_, _Das
+fremde Kind_, &c.); others, on the other hand, are drawn in horrible
+and unearthly colours and awaken the sentiments of awe and dread. What
+he loved especially to dwell upon was the "night side of natural
+science," the puzzling relations between the psychic and the physical
+principles both in man and in Nature. Hence such states as
+somnambulism, magnetism, dreams, dark forebodings of the terrible,
+inhuman passions, and such things as automata and vampyres, had for him
+an insuperable attraction. Insanity was a mystery that haunted his
+thoughts for years: it figures largely in _Die Elixiere_ and _Der
+Sandmann_; and in the third part of _Kater Murr_ it was his intention
+to represent Kreisler's battle with adverse circumstances as
+culminating in insanity. Handling these, and states and situations
+equally hideous, fantastic, and grotesque, with extraordinary clearness
+and precision both of thought and of language, considering the often
+misty nature of the subjects he treats of, and pouring upon the vivid
+pictures he conjures up the brightness of his wit and the exuberant
+gaiety and grace of his fancy, he succeeds in creating scenes,
+situations, and characters which seem verily instinct with real life.
+This end was attained principally by the true genius he displayed in
+perception, apprehension, and description. His graphic descriptive
+power is that which mainly procured him his wide-reaching fame during
+his own lifetime, not only in Germany but also in France, and is that
+which principally gives to his works whatever permanent value they may
+possess. With a painter's eye he grasps a character or a scene by a few
+of its more prominent and essential features, and with a painter's hand
+and eye he sketches them in a few telling strokes. The reader must not
+look to find in Hoffmann any clever or subtle analysis of the deeper
+motives that work towards the development of character; all that
+Hoffmann can give him will be talented _pictures_. He himself lays down
+his canon of literary spirit in the introduction to the first volume of
+the _Serapionsbrüder_--
+
+"Vain are an author's efforts to bring us to believe in what he does
+not believe in himself, in what he cannot believe in, since he has not
+made it his own by _seeing_ it (_erschauen_). What else are the
+characters of such an author, who, to borrow the old phrase, is no true
+seer, but deceitful marionettes, painfully glued together out of alien
+materials?... At least let each one of us [the Brethren] strive
+earnestly and truly to grasp the image that has arisen in his mind in
+all its features, its colours, its lights and its shades, and then when
+he feels himself really enkindled by them let him proceed to embody
+them in an external description."
+
+
+Hoffmann has mostly succeeded in acting up to his canon and has written
+in its spirit; and in so far true genius cannot be denied him. And he
+possessed in no less eminent a degree the true art of the born story-
+teller. The interest seldom if ever flags; and the curious anomalies of
+men and of men-creatures (_Mensch-Thiere_), whom he mingles amongst his
+winning heroines and his delightful satiric characters, oftener than
+not quite enthrall the mind or afford it true enjoyment as the case may
+be, and this they do in spite of the fact that, owing to their own
+nature, they frequently stand outside the ordinary sphere of human
+sympathies. Of course it may readily be conceived that the danger which
+he was liable to fall into was want of clearness in conception and
+sentiment, but he has avoided this rock for the most part with
+wonderful skill. One of his latest productions, _Prinzessin Brambilla_,
+is the one where this fault is most markedly conspicuous; nor is the
+_Elixiere_ free from it.
+
+German critics have not failed to notice the sweet grace and winning
+loveliness which hover about the characters of most of his heroines.
+They are nearly all presented in colours impregnated with real poetic
+beauty; see, for instance, Seraphina (_Das Majorat_), Annunciata
+(_Doge_), Madelon and Mdlle. de Scudéry (_Scudéri_), Rose (_Meister
+Martin_), Cecily (_Berganza_), and others.
+
+Carlyle, whose brief and for the most part truthful essay upon Hoffmann
+(in vol. ii. of his _German Romance_, 1829) appears to have been based
+largely upon others' opinions rather than upon first-hand acquaintance
+with his author, says that in him "there are the materials of a
+glorious poet, but no poet has been fashioned out of them." And when we
+seek for poetic elements in Hoffmann's works, we are not altogether
+disappointed. We have just stated that his heroines are creations of a
+poet's fancy; and in the scene between Father Hilarius and Kreisler in
+_ Kater Murr_, and in the passages and characters already alluded to in
+_ Die Elixiere_, in the sunny cheerful _Märchen_--_Der goldene Topf_
+(which Hoffmann calls his "poetic masterpiece"), in _Das Gelübde_,
+_Nussknacker_, &c., we enter the world of higher imagination. Again,
+whilst in _Doge und Dogaresse_ we are arrested by the poetic charm of
+the island life of the Lagune in the golden days of Venice's splendour,
+in _Meister Martin_ we are no less, perhaps still more impressed by the
+rich romantic beauty of life in the old mediæval town of Nuremberg. In
+_Die Scudéri_ we are made acquainted with the cold glittering court of
+Louis XIV. through the lovable character of Mdlle. de Scudéry; and
+whilst on the one hand following with deep interest the fate of Brusson
+and his love, on the other we are led to contrast the subtilty of the
+plot with the fine analytic power of Poe in The _Murders in the Rue
+Morgue_. When visiting with Hoffmann the weird castle of _Das Majorat_,
+we are made to hear the cold shrill blasts of the Baltic whistling past
+our ears, and to feel the storm and the sea-spray dashing in our faces.
+These four tales are unquestionably the best that Hoffmann has written;
+to them must be added _Meister Wachte_, on account of its excellent
+characterisation of the hero. In striking contrast with the majority of
+the things he has written, these five tales show him when he is most
+objective; in them he has wielded his powers with more wise restraint
+than in any of the others, and introduced less of his strange fantastic
+caricatures. Next after these tales must be named, though on a lower
+level, and simply because they best illustrate his peculiar genius, the
+two books of _Kater Murr_, the fairy tale _Der goldene Topf_, and _Des
+Vetters Eckfenster_. In the works here named we have the best fruits of
+Hoffmann's pen. And if instead of asking in the mistaken spirit of
+competition which is now so much in vogue. What is Hoffmann's position
+in literature? we ask rather, Has he written anything that deserves to
+be read? we shall have already had our answer. The works here singled
+out are worthy of being preserved and read; and of them _Das Majorat_
+and _Meister Martin_ are perhaps entitled to be called the best, though
+some German critics have mentioned _Meister Wacht_ along with the
+former as having a claim to the first rank.
+
+It is now time to take a glance at Hoffmann's satiric power. This was
+launched principally against two classes of society; the one is that of
+which his uncle Otto was a type, the man who is unreasonably obstinate
+in defence of the conventionalities of life, and no less so in their
+steady observance: the second class was that whose representatives
+aroused Hoffmann's ire so greatly at Bamberg and Berlin "tea-circles,"
+or "tea-sings"--those who coquetted with art in an unworthy or
+frivolous manner. Against this latter class his irony and satiric wrath
+were especially fierce, as may be read in _Berganza_, _Die Irrungen_,
+the _Kreisleriana_, _Kater Murr_, _Signor Formica_, &c. Perhaps the
+most amusing, for quiet humour, of the former class is _Die Brautwahl_.
+The force of his satiric power lay in the skilful use of sudden
+contrast. Hence it plays more frequently upon or near the surface, and
+lacks the depth and pathos of true humour; but it is idle to expect
+from a man what he hasn't got.
+
+In so far as this author had any serious philosophical belief, it would
+appear to have been that man was a slave of Chance, or Fate, or
+Destiny, or whatever it may be called. Sometimes he is the plaything of
+circumstances; sometimes a defenceless victim under "Fate's brazen
+hand," or of "that Eternal Power which rules over us." The real
+significance of life is summoned up in the statement that it is a
+struggle between contending powers of good and evil, against both of
+which man is equally helpless. He believed that whenever any good fell
+to a man's lot there was always some evil lurking in ambush behind it,
+or, to borrow his own expressive phrase, "the Devil must put his tail
+upon everything." His further views are here quoted from _Der
+Magnetiseur_:--
+
+"We are knitted with all things without us, with all Nature, in such
+close ties, both psychic and physical, that the severance from them
+would, if it were indeed possible, destroy our own existence. Our so-
+called intensive life is conditioned by the extensive; the former is
+only a reflex of the latter, in which the figures and images received,
+as if reflected in a concave mirror, often appear in changed relations
+that are wonderful and singularly strange, notwithstanding that these
+caricatures again And their real originals in life. I boldly maintain,
+that no man has ever thought or dreamt anything the elements of which
+were not to be found in Nature; nohow can he get out of her."
+
+Was this the cause or the result of the visions he used to see?
+
+From his conception of strife between good and evil as interpreting the
+significance of existence arose that dissonance which lies at the root
+of nearly all his most characteristic works--that sense of want, that
+failure to find final satisfaction which may be only too readily
+detected. For the conflict within himself he knew no real mediatory: he
+was baffled to discover a higher category in which to unite the
+conflicting principles. Religion he never willingly talked about; hence
+it could not give him the satisfaction he lacked. He thought he found
+it in Art, however; since for Art he battled with all the strength of
+his genius, and in the sacred mission of Art he believed with all his
+soul. He has many enthusiastic bursts on the subject, agreeing in some
+respects with the views laid down by Schiller in his _Aesthetische
+Erziehung des Menschen_:--
+
+"They alone are true artists who devote themselves with undivided love
+and enthusiasm to their goddess; to them alone is true Art revealed....
+There is no Art which is not sacred.... The sacred purpose of all Art
+is apprehension of Nature in that deepest sense of the word which
+enkindles in the soul an ardent striving after the higher life.... I do
+not ask about the artistes life; but his work must be pure, in the
+highest degree respectable, and if possible religious. It has no need,
+therefore, to have any so-called moral tendency; nay, it ought not to
+have such. The truly beautiful is itself moral, only in another
+form.... Art is eternally clear. The mists of ignorance are as inimical
+to her as the life-destroying carbonic acid gas of immorality. Art is
+the highest perfection of human power. Heart and Understanding are her
+common parents."
+
+Music was his favourite art. It first taught him to feel; and not only
+was it his unfailing solace in hours of trouble, but it brought him
+messages of deeper import: it disclosed to him glimpses of another
+world--it was the "language of heaven." Here again a passage from his
+own works expresses his opinions upon this point better than any other
+pen can express them:--
+
+"No art, I believe, affords such strong evidence of the spiritual in
+man as music, and there is no art that requires so exclusively means
+that are--purely intellectual and ætherial. The intuition of what is
+Highest and Holiest--of the Intelligent Power which enkindles the spark
+of life in all Nature--is audibly expressed in musical sound; hence
+music and song are the utterance of the fullest perfection of
+existence--praise of the Creator! Agreeably to its real essential
+nature, therefore, music is religious cultus; and its origin is to be
+sought for and found, simply and solely, in religion, in the Church."29
+
+Treating of Hoffmann's position with respect to music, Wilibald Alexis
+says, "We do not know any other man who has expressed in words such a
+real true enthusiasm for an art [as Hoffmann for music]; and
+specialists assure us that few have thoroughly grasped the nature of
+music so admirably."
+
+As far as a foreigner may presume to judge of Hoffmann's language and
+literary style, it would appear to be chiefly distinguished by strong
+grace, ease, naturalness, and nervous vigour. German critics
+acknowledge its charms, calling it a model of clearness and masterly
+skill and elegance. Perhaps its beauties are best seen, that is in a
+more chastened form, in _Kater Murr_. Repetitions, however, and
+exaggerations in description of sentiment tend, at times, to mar the
+reader's pleasure. Signs of haste, too, are not wanting, as Carlyle
+pointed out. This was chiefly due to the very large number of
+commissions he received from publishers and others, who keenly competed
+for the productions of his pen. At the date of his death he had as many
+commissions on hand as would, if he accepted them all, have kept him
+fully employed for several years.
+
+To those who love a good story, well told, the five specially mentioned
+may be recommended; and for those who desire to explore the dark
+by-paths (_Irrwege_) of the human spirit, to penetrate to some of its
+rarest comers, and to know all its ins and outs, as well as for those
+who aim at studying German literature, Hoffmann is a writer who ought
+to be read at greater length.
+
+THE TRANSLATOR.
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE":
+
+Footnote 1 The chief sources for this biographical notice have been _E.
+T. A. Hoffmann's Leben und Nachlass, von J. G. Hitzig, herausg. von
+Micheline Hoffmann, geb. Rorer_, 5 vols., Stuttgart, 1839;
+_Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben_, von Z. Funck [C. Kunz], Leipsic, 1836;
+and various minor essays and papers.]
+
+Footnote 2 Later in life he adopted the name of "Amadeus" instead of
+"Wilhelm," out of admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great
+musician (see _Erinng._, pp. 77-80).]
+
+Footnote 3 Another account (see H. Döring's article "Hoffmann," in
+Ersch und Gruber's _Allgem. Encyk._) states 21st Jan., 1778. The date
+in the text is the one, however, that is generally accepted, and now
+without question; it is the one confirmed by Hoffmann himself (cf.
+Letter 15 in _Leben_).]
+
+Footnote 4 These two books, together with Schubert's _ Symbolik des
+Traums_, were favourites with him throughout life. In his youth he was
+a most diligent student of the new literature of his native country;
+English he also read to a large extent, Shakespearian quotations being
+very frequent in his letters; and we find the names of Sterne, Swift,
+Smollett, &c. Later in life he hardly read anything unless it were
+exceptionally good, and then only when recommended to do so by his
+friends. Political papers he never read, and scarcely ever criticisms
+on his own works.]
+
+Footnote 5 That is, after Hippel had completed his academic career, and
+left Königsberg.]
+
+Footnote 6 That is, after the king's death in 1797. She afterwards
+married the Holbein here mentioned.]
+
+Footnote 7 _Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 9.]
+
+Footnote 8 _Leben_, iii. pp. 231-233.]
+
+Footnote 9 A suburb or park of Warsaw, beneath the tall beeches of
+which Hoffmann loved to lie dreaming, or sketch from Nature.]
+
+Footnote 10 An equestrian statue of John Sobieski, the deliverer of
+Vienna from the Turks.]
+
+Footnote 11 Polish for "moustaches."]
+
+Footnote 12 _Leben_, iii. pp. 251-254.]
+
+Footnote 13 A very comic incident, of which Hoffmann himself was the
+hero, took place on the occasion of Werner's reading his new tragedy
+_Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_ to a select circle of friends. Unfortunately
+it cannot be compressed into sufficiently short space to be quoted
+here. Hoffmann relates it in _Die Serapionsbrüder_, vol. iv., after _
+Signor Formica_.]
+
+Footnote 14 _Leben_, v. pp. 18-20; cf. also _ Erinnerungen_ p. 1, &c.,
+where Kunz details the circumstances under which he was introduced to
+Hoffmann.]
+
+Footnote 15 Several of Calderon's, mainly at Hoffmann's suggestion and
+by his assistance; the "Worship of the Cross" was particularly
+successful in the Catholic town of Bamberg.]
+
+Footnote 16 Kunz tells us how they used to go down into the cellar, sit
+astride of the cask, and drink, and _sich des heitern Lebens freuen_
+with genial and sprightly sallies; and his picture has no faint smack
+of Auerbach's Keller (_Faust_). See _Leben_, v. p. 177, note.]
+
+Footnote 17 Compare Nanni in _Meister Wacht_, Clara in _ Der Sandmann_,
+Rose in _Meister Martin_, Cecily in _Berganza_, &c.]
+
+Footnote 18 See _Erinnerungen_, pp. 60 _sq._]
+
+Footnote 19 See _Leben_, iv. p. 95, v. p. 27; _ Erinnerungen_, pp.
+28-31.]
+
+Footnote 20 These adventures are described in one of the most humorous
+chapters (iv.) of the _Erinnerungen_.]
+
+Footnote 21 It is treated of in _Don Juan_ and in _ Die Fremdenloge_,
+in the _Fantasiestücke_. A recent critic has declared that this essay
+will always have value in connection with the stage-representation of
+the problem of Don Juan (cf. _Die Gegenwart_, 24th May, 1884).]
+
+Footnote 22 _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 58, 59.]
+
+Footnote 23 _Leben_, vol. iv. p. 140.]
+
+Footnote 24 Contessa and Koreff are strikingly portrayed in the
+_Serapionsbrüder_ (vol. ii.), the former as "Sylvester," the latter as
+"Vincenz."]
+
+Footnote 25 The sexual relations are handled in a mystical, sensuous
+way; something of the same kind of treatment occurs again in _Das
+Elementargeist_.]
+
+Footnote 26 _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 118-120.]
+
+Footnote 27 _Leben_, iii. pp. 120-123; iv. p. 60.]
+
+Footnote 28 "Behold the lot of mankind--joy to-day, to-morrow grief,"
+Walther von Eschenbach's _Parzival_, ii. 103, ll. 23, 24.]
+
+Footnote 29 _Serapionsbrüder_, vol. ii., Introduction to part iv.]
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31439-0.txt or 31439-0.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/3/31439/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
+be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
+specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
+eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
+for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
+away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
+not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
+trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
+
+START: FULL LICENSE
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
+person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
+1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
+Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country outside the United States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
+on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+
+  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
+  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
+  are located before using this ebook.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
+other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
+Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+provided that
+
+* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
+  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+  Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
+  works.
+
+* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+  receipt of the work.
+
+* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
+Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
+www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
+mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
+volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
+locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
+Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
+date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
+official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+    Chief Executive and Director
+    gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
+state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
+facility: www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
diff --git a/31439-0.zip b/31439-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4544655
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31439-0.zip
diff --git a/31439-h.zip b/31439-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a8693f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31439-h.zip
diff --git a/31439-h/31439-h.htm b/31439-h/31439-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fab83b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31439-h/31439-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,13209 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+
+body { margin-left: 20%;
+       margin-right: 20%;
+       text-align: justify; }
+
+h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight:
+normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;}
+
+h1 {font-size: 300%;
+    margin-top: 0.6em;
+    margin-bottom: 0.6em;
+    letter-spacing: 0.12em;
+    word-spacing: 0.2em;
+    text-indent: 0em;}
+h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
+h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;}
+h4 {font-size: 120%;}
+h5 {font-size: 110%;}
+
+.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */
+
+div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;}
+
+hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;}
+
+p {text-indent: 1em;
+   margin-top: 0.25em;
+   margin-bottom: 0.25em; }
+
+p.poem {text-indent: 0%;
+        margin-left: 10%;
+        font-size: 90%;
+        margin-top: 1em;
+        margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+p.center  {text-align: center;
+           text-indent: 0em;
+           margin-top: 1em;
+           margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+p.right {text-align: right;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+         margin-top: 1em;
+         margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:hover {color:red}
+
+p.continue       {text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;}
+
+.quote           {font-size:90%}
+
+p.hang1        {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;}
+p.hang2        {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0;}
+
+.poem {
+  margin-left : 10%;
+  }
+  .poem .stanza {
+  margin : 1em 0;
+  margin-top:24pt;
+  }
+  .poem p {
+  margin : 0;
+  padding-left : 3em;
+  text-indent : -3em;
+  }
+  .poem p.i4 {
+  margin-left : 2em;
+  }
+
+</style>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+<pre>
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Weird Tales, Vol. II.
+
+Author: E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+Translator: J. T. Bealby
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #31439]
+[Most recently updated: December 2, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<h1>Weird Tales</h1>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">E. T. A. Hoffmann</h2>
+
+<h4><i>A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN</i></h4>
+
+<h4>WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR</h4>
+
+<h3>By J. T. BEALBY, B.A.</h3>
+<h5>FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE</h5>
+
+<h3>IN TWO VOLUMES<br />
+VOL. II.</h3>
+
+<h4>NEW YORK</h4>
+<h3>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h3>
+<h4>1885</h4>
+
+<h5>TROW'S<br />
+PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,<br />
+NEW YORK.</h5>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.</h2>
+
+<table cellpadding="10" style="width:90%; margin-left:5%; font-size:14pt">
+
+<tr>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_doge" href="#div1_doge">THE DOGE AND DOGESS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_martin" href="#div1_martin">MASTER MARTIN THE COOPER</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_scudéri" href="#div1_scudéri">MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_gambler" href="#div1_gambler">GAMBLER'S LUCK</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_wacht" href="#div1_wacht">MASTER JOHANNES WACHT</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_biographical" href="#div1_biographical">BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="div1_doge" href="#div1Ref_doge">THE DOGE AND DOGESS</a><sup><a name="div2_doge1" href="#div2Ref_doge1">1</a></sup></h2>
+
+<p class="continue">This was the title that distinguished in the art-catalogue
+of the works
+exhibited by the Berlin Academy of Arts in September, 1816, a picture
+which came from the brush of the skilful clever Associate of the
+Academy, C. Kolbe.<sup><a name="div2_doge2" href="#div2Ref_doge2">2</a></sup> There was such a peculiar charm in the piece that
+it attracted all observers. A Doge, richly and magnificently dressed,
+and a Dogess at his side, as richly adorned with jewellery, are
+stepping out on to a balustered balcony; <i>he</i> is an old man, with a
+grey beard and rusty red face, his features indicating a peculiar
+blending of expressions, now revealing strength, now weakness, again
+pride and arrogance, and again pure good-nature; <i>she</i> is a young
+woman, with a far-away look of yearning sadness and dreamy aspiration
+not only in her eyes but also in her general bearing. Behind them is an
+elderly lady and a man holding an open sun-shade. At one end of the
+balcony is a young man blowing a conch-shaped horn, whilst in front of
+it a richly decorated gondola, bearing the Venetian flag and having two
+gondoliers, is rocking on the sea. In the background stretches the sea
+itself studded with hundreds and hundreds of sails, whilst the towers
+and palaces of magnificent Venice are seen rising out of its waves. To
+the left is Saint Mark's, to the right, more in the front, San Giorgio
+Maggiore. The following words were cut in the golden frame of the
+picture.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i4">Ah! senza amare,</p>
+<p class="i4">Andare sul mare</p>
+<p class="i4">Col sposo del mare,</p>
+<p class="i4">Non puo consolare.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i4">To go on the sea</p>
+<p class="i4">With the spouse of the sea,</p>
+<p class="i4">When loveless I be,</p>
+<p class="i4">Is no comfort to me.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+One day there arose before this picture a fruitless
+altercation as to
+whether the artist really intended it for anything more than a mere
+picture, that is, the temporary situation, sufficiently indicated by
+the verse, of a decrepit old man who with all his splendour and
+magnificence is unable to satisfy the desires of a heart filled with
+yearning aspirations, or whether he intended to represent an actual
+historical event. One after the other the visitors left the place,
+tired of the discussion, so that at length there were only two men
+left, both very good friends to the noble art of painting. &quot;I can't
+understand,&quot; said one of them, &quot;how people can spoil all their
+enjoyment by eternally hunting after some jejune interpretation or
+explanation. Independently of the fact that I have a pretty accurate
+notion of what the relations in life between this Doge and Dogess were,
+I am more particularly struck by the subdued richness and power that
+characterises the picture as a whole. Look at this flag with the winged
+lions, how they flutter in the breeze as if they swayed the world. O
+beautiful Venice!&quot; He began to recite Turandot's<sup><a name="div2_doge3" href="#div2Ref_doge3">3</a></sup> riddle of Lion of
+the Adriatic, &quot;<i>Dimmi, qual sia quella terribil fera</i>,&quot; &amp;c. He had
+hardly come to the end when a sonorous masculine voice broke in with
+Calaf's<sup><a name="div2_doge4" href="#div2Ref_doge4">4</a></sup> solution, &quot;<i>Tu quadrupede fera</i>,&quot; &amp;c. Unobserved by the
+friends, a man of tall and noble appearance, his grey mantle thrown
+picturesquely across his shoulder, had taken up a position behind them,
+and was examining the picture with sparkling eyes. They got into
+conversation, and the stranger said almost in atone of solemnity, &quot;It
+is indeed a singular mystery, how a picture often arises in the mind of
+an artist, the figures of which, previously indistinguishable,
+incorporate mist driving about in empty space, first seem to shape
+themselves into vitality in his mind, and there seem to find their
+home. Suddenly the picture connects itself with the past, or even with
+the future, representing something that has really happened or that
+will happen. Perhaps it was not known to Kolbe himself that the persons
+he was representing in this picture are none other than the Doge Marino
+Falieri<sup><a name="div2_doge5" href="#div2Ref_doge5">5</a></sup> and his lady Annunciata.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger paused, but the two friends urgently entreated
+him to
+solve for them this riddle as he had solved that of the Lion of the
+Adriatic. Whereupon he replied, &quot;If you have patience, my inquisitive
+sirs, I will at once explain the picture to you by telling you
+Falieri's history. But have you patience? I shall be very
+circumstantial, for I cannot speak otherwise of things which stand so
+life-like before my eyes that I seem to have seen them myself. And that
+may very well be the case, for all historians--amongst whom I happen to
+be one--are properly a kind of talking ghost of past ages.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The friends accompanied the stranger into a retired room,
+when, without
+further preamble, he began as follows:--</p>
+
+<p>It is now a long time ago, and if I mistake not, it was in the
+month of
+August, 1354, that the valiant Genoese captain, Paganino Doria<sup><a name="div2_doge6" href="#div2Ref_doge6">6</a></sup> by
+name, utterly routed the Venetians and took their town of Parenzo. And
+his well-manned galleys were now cruising backwards and forwards in the
+Lagune, close in front of Venice, like ravenous beasts of prey which,
+goaded by hunger, roam restlessly up and down spying out where they may
+most safely pounce upon their victims; and both people and seignory
+were panic-stricken with fear. All the male population, liable to
+military service, and everybody who could lift an arm, flew to their
+weapons or seized an oar. The harbour of Saint Nicholas was the
+gathering-place for the bands. Ships and trees were sunk, and chains
+riveted to chains, to lock the harbour-mouth against the enemy. Whilst
+there was heard the rattle of arms and the wild tumult of preparation,
+and whilst the ponderous masses thundered down into the foaming sea, on
+the Rialto the agents of the seignory were wiping the cold sweat from
+their pale brows, and with troubled countenances and hoarse voices
+offering almost fabulous percentage for ready money, for the straitened
+republic was in want of this necessary also. Moreover, it was
+determined by the inscrutable decree of Providence that just at this
+period of extreme distress and anxiety, the faithful shepherd should be
+taken away from his troubled flock. Completely borne down by the burden
+of the public calamity, the Doge Andrea Dandolo<sup><a name="div2_doge7" href="#div2Ref_doge7">7</a></sup> died; the people
+called him the &quot;dear good count&quot; (<i>il caro contino</i>), because he was
+always cordial and kind, and never crossed Saint Mark's Square without
+speaking a word of comfort to those in need of good advice, or giving a
+few sequins<sup><a name="div2_doge8" href="#div2Ref_doge8">8</a></sup> to those who were in want of money. And as every blow is
+wont to fall with double sharpness upon those who are discouraged by
+misfortune, when at other times they would hardly have felt it at all,
+so now, when the people heard the bells of Saint Mark's proclaim in
+solemn muffled tones the death of their Duke, they were utterly undone
+with sorrow and grief. Their support, their hope, was now gone, and
+they would have to bend their necks to the Genoese yoke, they cried, in
+despite of the fact that Dandolo's loss did not seem to have any very
+counteractive effect upon the progress that was being made with all
+necessary warlike preparations. The &quot;dear good count&quot; had loved to live
+in peace and quietness, preferring to follow the wondrous courses of
+the stars rather than the problematical complications of state policy;
+he understood how to arrange a procession on Easter Day better than how
+to lead an army.</p>
+
+<p>The object now was to elect a Doge who, endowed at one and the
+same
+time with the valour and genius of a war captain, and with skill in
+statecraft, should save Venice, now tottering on her foundations, from
+the threatening power of her bold and ever-bolder enemy. But when the
+senators assembled there was none but what had a gloomy face, hopeless
+looks, and head bent earthwards and resting on his supporting hand.
+Where were they to find a man who could seize the unguided helm and
+direct the bark of the state aright? At last the oldest of the
+councillors, called Marino Bodoeri, lifted up his voice and said, &quot;You
+will not find him here around us, or amongst us; direct your eyes to
+Avignon, upon Marino Falieri, whom we sent to congratulate Pope
+Innocent<sup><a name="div2_doge9" href="#div2Ref_doge9">9</a></sup> on his elevation to the Papal dignity; he can find better
+work to do now; he's the man for us; let us choose him Doge to stem
+this current of adversity. You will urge by way of objection that he is
+now almost eighty years old, that his hair and beard are white as
+silver, that his blithe appearance, fiery eye, and the deep red of his
+nose and cheeks are to be ascribed, as his traducers maintain, to good
+Cyprus wine rather than to energy of character; but heed not that.
+Remember what conspicuous bravery this Marino Falieri showed as admiral
+of the fleet in the Black Sea, and bear in mind the great services
+which prevailed with the Procurators of Saint Mark to invest this
+Falieri with the rich countship of Valdemarino.&quot; Thus highly did
+Bodoeri extol Falieri's virtues; and he had a ready answer for all
+objections, so that at length all voices were unanimous in electing
+Falieri. Several, however, still continued to allude to his hot,
+passionate temper, his ambition, and his self-will; but they were met
+with the reply: &quot;And it is exactly because all these have gone from the
+old man, that we choose the <i>grey-beard</i> Falieri and not the <i>youth</i>
+Falieri.&quot; And these censuring voices were completely silenced when the
+people, learning upon whom the choice had fallen, greeted it with the
+loudest and most extravagant demonstrations of delight. Do we not know
+that in such dangerous times, in times of such tension and unrest, any
+resolution that really is a resolution is accepted as an inspiration
+from Heaven? Thus it came to pass that the &quot;dear good count&quot; and all
+his gentleness and piety were forgotten, and every one cried, &quot;By Saint
+Mark, this Marino ought long ago to have been our Doge, and then we
+should not have yon arrogant Doria before our very doors.&quot; And crippled
+soldiers painfully lifted up their wounded arms and cried, &quot;That is
+Falieri who beat the Morbassan<sup><a name="div2_doge10" href="#div2Ref_doge10">10</a></sup>--the valiant captain whose
+victorious banners waved in the Black Sea.&quot; Wherever a knot of people
+gathered, there was one amongst them telling of Falieri's heroic deeds;
+and, as though Doria were already defeated, the air rang with wild
+shouts of triumph. An additional reason for this was that Nicolo
+Pisani<sup><a name="div2_doge11" href="#div2Ref_doge11">11</a></sup> who, Heaven knows why! instead of going to meet Doria with
+his fleet, had coolly sailed away to Sardinia,<sup><a name="div2_doge12" href="#div2Ref_doge12">12</a></sup> was now returned.
+Doria withdrew from the Lagune; and what was really due to the approach
+of Pisani's fleet was ascribed to the formidable name of Marino
+Falieri. Then the people and the seignory were seized by a kind of
+frantic ecstasy that such an auspicious choice had been made; and as an
+uncommon way of testifying the same, it was determined to welcome the
+newly elected Doge as if he were a messenger from heaven bringing
+honour, victory, and abundance of riches. Twelve nobles, each
+accompanied by a numerous retinue in rich dresses, had been sent by the
+Seignory to Verona, where the ambassadors of the Republic were again to
+announce to Falieri, on his arrival, with all due ceremony, his
+elevation to the supreme office in the state. Then fifteen richly
+decorated vessels of state, equipped by the Podesta<sup><a name="div2_doge13" href="#div2Ref_doge13">13</a></sup> of Chioggia,
+and under the command of his own son Taddeo Giustiniani, took the Doge
+and his attendant company on board at Chiozza; and now they moved on
+like the triumphal procession of a most mighty and victorious monarch
+to St. Clement's, where the Bucentaur<sup><a name="div2_doge14" href="#div2Ref_doge14">14</a></sup> was awaiting the Doge.</p>
+
+<p>At this very moment, namely, when Marino Falieri was about to
+set foot
+on board the Bucentaur,--and that was on the evening of the 3d of
+October about sunset--a poor unfortunate man lay stretched at full
+length on the hard marble pavement in front of the Customhouse. A few
+rags of striped linen, of a colour now no longer recognisable, the
+remains of what apparently had once been a sailor's dress, such as was
+worn by the very poorest of the people--porters and assistant oarsmen,
+hung about his lean starved body. There was not a trace of a shirt to
+be seen, except the poor fellow's own skin, which peeped through his
+rags almost everywhere, and was so white and delicate that the very
+noblest need not have been shy or ashamed of it Accordingly, his
+leanness only served to display more fully the perfect proportions of
+his well-knit frame. A careful scrutiny of the unfortunate's light-
+chestnut hair, now hanging all tangled and dishevelled about his
+exquisitely beautiful forehead, his blue eyes dimmed with extreme
+misery, his Roman nose, his fine formed lips--he seemed to be not more
+than twenty years old at the most--inevitably suggested that he was of
+good birth, and had by some adverse turn of fortune been thrown amongst
+the meanest classes of the people.</p>
+
+<p>As remarked, the youth lay in front of the pillars of the
+Custom-house,
+his head resting on his right arm, and his eyes riveted in a vacant
+stare upon the sea, without movement or change of posture. An observer
+might well have fancied that he was devoid of life, or that death had
+fixed him there whilst turning him into an image of stone, had not a
+deep sigh escaped him from time to time, as if wrung from him by
+unutterable pain. And they were in fact occasioned by the pain of his
+left arm, which had apparently been seriously wounded, and was lying
+stretched out on the pavement, wrapped up in bloody rags.</p>
+
+<p>All labour had ceased; the hum of trade was no longer heard;
+all
+Venice, in thousands of boats and gondolas, was gone out to meet the
+much-lauded Falieri. Hence it was that the unhappy youth was sighing
+away his pain in utter helplessness. But just as his weary head fell
+back upon the pavement, and he seemed on the point of fainting, a
+hoarse and very querulous voice cried several times in succession,
+&quot;Antonio, my dear Antonio.&quot; At length Antonio painfully raised himself
+partly up; and, turning his head towards the pillars of the Custom-
+house, whence the voice seemed to proceed, he replied very faintly, and
+in a scarce intelligible voice, &quot;Who is calling me? Who has come to
+cast my dead body into the sea, for it will soon be all over with me.&quot;
+Then a little shrivelled wrinkled crone came up panting and coughing,
+hobbling along by the aid of her staff; she approached the wounded
+youth, and squatting down beside him, she burst out into a most
+repulsive chuckling and laughing. &quot;You foolish child, you foolish
+child,&quot; whispered the old woman, &quot;are you going to perish here--will
+you stay here to die, while a golden fortune is waiting for you? Look
+yonder, look yonder at yon blazing fire in the west; there are sequins
+for you! But you must eat, dear Antonio, eat and drink; for it's only
+hunger which has made you fall down here on this cold pavement. Your
+arm is now quite well again, yes, that it is.&quot; Antonio recognised in
+the old crone the singular beggar-woman who was generally to be seen on
+the steps of the Franciscan Church, chuckling to herself and laughing,
+and soliciting alms from the worshippers; he himself, urged by some
+inward inexplicable propensity, had often thrown her a hard-earned
+penny, which he had not had to spare. &quot;Leave me, leave me in peace, you
+insane old woman,&quot; he said; &quot;but you are right, it is hunger more than
+my wound which has made me weak and miserable; for three days I have
+not earned a farthing. I wanted to go over to the monastery<sup><a name="div2_doge15" href="#div2Ref_doge15">15</a></sup> and see
+if I could get a spoonful or two of the soup that is made for invalids;
+but all my companions have gone; there is not one to have compassion
+upon me and take me in his <i>barca</i>;<sup><a name="div2_doge16" href="#div2Ref_doge16">16</a></sup> and now I have fallen down
+here, and shall, I expect, never get up again.&quot; &quot;Hi! hi! hi! hi!&quot;
+chuckled the old woman; &quot;why do you begin to despair so soon? Why lose
+heart so quickly? You are thirsty and hungry, but I can help you. Here
+are a few fine dried fish which I bought only to-day in the Mint; here
+is lemon-juice and a piece of nice white bread; eat, my son; and then
+we will look at the wounded arm.&quot; And the old woman proceeded to bring
+forth fish, bread, and lemon juice from the bag which hung like a hood
+down her back, and also projected right above her bent head. As soon as
+Antonio had moistened his parched and burning lips with the cool drink,
+he felt the pangs of hunger return with double fury, and he greedily
+devoured the bread and the fish.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the old woman was busy unwrapping the rags from his
+wounded
+arm, and it was found that, though it was badly crushed, the wound was
+progressing favourably towards healing. The old woman took a salve out
+of a little box and warmed it with the breath of her mouth, and as she
+rubbed it on the wound she asked, &quot;But who then has given you such a
+nasty blow, my poor boy?&quot; Antonio was so refreshed and charged anew
+with vital energy that he had raised himself completely up; his eyes
+flashed, and he shook his doubled fist above his head, crying, &quot;Oh!
+that rascal Nicolo; he tried to maim me, because he envies me every
+wretched penny that any generous hand bestows upon me. You know, old
+dame, that I barely managed to hold body and soul together by helping
+to carry bales of goods from ships and freight-boats to the <i>dépôt</i> of
+the Germans, the so-called Fontego<sup><a name="div2_doge17" href="#div2Ref_doge17">17</a></sup>--of course you know the
+building&quot;--Directly Antonio uttered the word Fontego, the old woman
+began to chuckle and laugh most abominably, and to mumble, &quot;Fontego--
+Fontego--Fontego.&quot; &quot;Have done with your insane laughing if I am to go
+on with my story,&quot; added Antonio angrily. At once the old woman grew
+quiet, and Antonio continued, &quot;after a time I saved a little bit of
+money, and bought a new jerkin, so that I looked quite fine; and then I
+got enrolled amongst the gondoliers. As I was always in a blithe
+humour, worked hard, and knew a great many good songs, I soon earned a
+good deal more than the rest. This, however, awakened my comrades'
+envy. They blackened my character to my master, so that he turned me
+adrift; and everywhere where I went or where I stood they cried after
+me, 'German cur! Cursed heretic!' Three days ago, as I was helping to
+unload a boat near St. Sebastian, they fell upon me with sticks and
+stones. I defended myself stoutly, but that malicious Nicolo dealt me a
+blow with his oar, which grazed my head and severely injured my arm,
+and knocked me on the ground. Ay, you've given me a good meal, old
+woman, and I am sure I feel that your salve has done my arm a world of
+good. See, I can already move it easily--now I shall be able to row
+bravely again.&quot; Antonio had risen up from the ground, and was swinging
+his arm violently backwards and forwards, but the old woman again fell
+to chuckling and laughing loudly, whilst she hobbled round about him
+in the most extraordinary fashion--dancing with short tripping steps
+as it were--and she cried, &quot;My son, my good boy, my good lad--row on
+bravely--he is coming--he is coming. The gold is shining red in the
+bright flames. Row on stoutly, row on; but only once more, only once
+more; and then never again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Antonio was not paying the slightest heed to the old
+woman's words,
+for the most splendid of spectacles was unfolding itself before his
+eyes. The Bucentaur, with the Lion of the Adriatic on her fluttering
+standard, was coming along from St. Clement's to the measured stroke of
+the oars like a mighty winged golden swan. Surrounded by innumerable <i>
+barcas</i> and gondolas, and with her head proudly and boldly raised, she
+appeared like a princess commanding a triumphing army, that had emerged
+from the depths of the sea, wearing bright and gaily decked helmets.
+The evening sun was sending down his fiery rays upon the sea and upon
+Venice, so that everything appeared to have been plunged into a bath of
+blazing fire; but whilst Antonio, completely forgetful of all his
+unhappiness, was standing gazing with wonder and delight, the gleams of
+the sun grew more bloody and more bloody. The wind whistled shrilly and
+harshly, and a hollow threatening echo came rolling in from the open
+sea outside. Down burst the storm in the midst of black clouds, and
+enshrouded all in thick darkness, whilst the waves rose higher and
+higher, pouring in from the thundering sea like foaming hissing
+monsters, threatening to engulf everything. The gondolas and <i>barcas</i>
+were driven in all directions like scattered feathers. The Bucentaur,
+unable to resist the storm owing to its flat bottom, was yawing from
+side to side. Instead of the jubilant notes of trumpets and cornets,
+there was heard through the storm the anxious cries of those in
+distress.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio gazed upon the scene like one stupefied, without sense
+and
+motion. But then there came a rattling of chains immediately in front
+of him; he looked down, and saw a little canoe, which was chained to
+the wall, and was being tossed up and down by the waves; and a thought
+entered his mind like a flash of lightning. He leaped into the canoe,
+unfastened it, seized the oar which he found in it, and pushed out
+boldly and confidently into the sea, directly towards the Bucentaur.
+The nearer he came to it the more distinctly could he hear shouts for
+help. &quot;Here, here, come here--save the Doge, save the Doge.&quot; It is well
+known that little fisher-canoes are safer and better to manage in the
+Lagune when it is stormy than are larger boats; and accordingly these
+little craft were hastening from all sides to the rescue of Marino
+Falieri's invaluable person. But it is an invariable principle in life
+that the Eternal Power reserves every bold deed as a brilliant success
+to the one specially chosen for it, and hence all others have all their
+pains for nothing. And as on this occasion it was poor Antonio who was
+destined to achieve the rescue of the newly elected Doge, he alone
+succeeded in working his way on to the Bucentaur in his little
+insignificant fisher-canoe. Old Marino Falieri, familiar with such
+dangers, stepped firmly, without a moment's hesitation, from the
+sumptuous but treacherous Bucentaur into poor Antonio's little craft,
+which, gliding smoothly over the raging waves like a dolphin, brought
+him in a few minutes to St. Mark's Square. The old man, his clothing
+saturated with wet, and with large drops of sea-spray in his grey
+beard, was conducted into the church, where the nobles with blanched
+faces concluded the ceremonies connected with the Doge's public entry.
+But the people, as well as the seignory, confounded by this unfortunate <i>
+contretemps</i>, to which was also added the fact that the Doge, in the
+hurry and confusion, had been led between the two columns where common
+malefactors were generally executed, grew silent in the midst of their
+triumph, and thus the day that had begun in festive fashion ended in
+gloom and sadness.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody seemed to think about the Doge's rescuer; nor did
+Antonio
+himself think about it, for he was lying in the peristyle of the Ducal
+Palace, half dead with fatigue, and fainting with the pain caused by
+his wound, which had again burst open. He was therefore all the more
+surprised when just before midnight a Ducal halberdier took him by the
+shoulders, saying, &quot;Come along, friend,&quot; and led him into the palace,
+where he pushed him into the Duke's chamber. The old man came to meet
+him with a kindly smile, and said, pointing to a couple of purses lying
+on the table, &quot;You have borne yourself bravely, my son. Here; take
+these three thousand sequins, and if you want more ask for them; but
+have the goodness never to come into my presence again.&quot; As he said
+these last words the old man's eyes flashed with fire, and the tip of
+his nose grew a darker red Antonio could not fathom the old man's mind;
+he did not, however, trouble himself overmuch about it, but with some
+little difficulty took up the purses, which he believed he had honestly
+and rightly earned.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning old Falieri, conspicuous in the splendours of his
+newly
+acquired dignity, stood in one of the lofty bay windows of the palace,
+watching the bustling scene below, where the people were busy engaged
+in practising all kinds of weapons, when Bodoeri, who from the days
+when he was a youth had enjoyed the intimate and unchangeable
+friendship of the Doge, entered the apartment. As, however, the Doge
+was quite wrapped up in himself and his dignity, and did not appear to
+notice his entrance, Bodoeri clapped his hands together and cried with
+a loud laugh, &quot;Come, Falieri, what are all these sublime thoughts that
+are being hatched and nourished in your mind since you first put the
+Doge's bent bonnet on?&quot; Falieri, coming to himself like one awakening
+from a dream, stepped forward to meet his old friend with an air of
+forced amiability. He felt that he really owed his bonnet to Bodoeri,
+and the words of the latter seemed to be a reminder of the fact. But
+since every obligation weighed like a burden upon Falieri's proud
+ambitious spirit, and he could not dismiss the oldest member of the
+Council, and his tried friend to boot, as he had dismissed poor
+Antonio, he constrained himself to utter a few words of thanks, and
+immediately began to speak of the measures to be adopted to meet their
+enemy, who was now developing so great an activity in every direction.
+Bodoeri interrupted him and said, cunningly smiling, &quot;That, and all
+else that the state demands of you, we will maturely weigh and consider
+an hour or two hence in a full meeting of the Great Council. I have not
+come to you thus early in order to invent a plan for defeating yon
+presumptuous Doria or bringing to reason Louis<sup><a name="div2_doge18" href="#div2Ref_doge18">18</a></sup> the Hungarian, who
+is again setting his longing eyes upon our Dalmatian seaports. No,
+Marino, I was thinking solely about you, and about what you perhaps
+would not guess--your marriage.&quot; &quot;How came you to think of such a thing
+as <i>that</i>?&quot; replied the Doge, greatly annoyed; and rising to his feet,
+he turned his back upon Bodoeri and looked out of the window. &quot;It's a
+long time to Ascension Day. By that time I hope the enemy will be
+routed, and that victory, honour, additional riches, and a wider
+extension of power will have been won for the sea-born lion of the
+Adriatic. The chaste bride shall find her bridegroom worthy of her.&quot;
+&quot;Pshaw! pshaw!&quot; interrupted Bodoeri, impatiently; &quot;you are talking
+about that memorable ceremony on Ascension Day, when you will throw the
+gold ring from the Bucentaur into the waves under the impression that
+you are wedding the Adriatic Sea. But do you not know,--you, Marino,
+you, kinsman to the sea,--of any other bride than the cold, damp,
+treacherous element which you delude yourself into the belief that you
+rule, and which only yesterday revolted against you in such dangerous
+fashion? Marry, how can you fancy lying in the arms of such a bride of
+such a wild, wayward thing? Why when you only just skimmed her lips as
+you rode along in the Bucentaur she at once began to rage and storm.
+Would an entire Vesuvius of fiery passion suffice to warm the icy bosom
+of such a false bride as that? Continually faithless, she is wedded
+time after time, nor does she receive the ring as a treasured symbol of
+love, but she extorts it as a tribute from a slave? No, Marino, I was
+thinking of your marriage to the most beautiful child of the earth than
+can be found.&quot; &quot;You are prating utter nonsense, utter nonsense, I tell
+you, old man,&quot; murmured Falieri without turning away from the window.
+&quot;I, a grey-haired old man, eighty years of age, burdened with toil and
+trouble, who have never been married, and now hardly capable of
+loving&quot;---- &quot;Stop,&quot; cried Bodoeri, &quot;don't slander yourself. Does not
+the Winter, however rough and cold he may be, at last stretch out his
+longing arms towards the beautiful goddess who comes to meet him borne
+by balmy western winds? And when he presses her to his benumbed bosom,
+when a gentle glow pervades his veins, where then is his ice and his
+snow? You say you are eighty years old; that is true; but do you
+measure old age then by years merely? Don't you carry your head as
+erect and walk with as firm a step as you did forty summers ago? Or do
+you perhaps feel that your strength is failing you, that you must carry
+a lighter sword, that you grow faint when you walk fast, or get short
+of breath when you ascend the steps of the Ducal Palace?&quot; &quot;No, by
+Heaven, no,&quot; broke in Falieri upon his friend, as he turned away from
+the window with an abrupt passionate movement and approached him, &quot;no,
+I feel no traces of age upon me.&quot; &quot;Well then,&quot; continued Bodoeri, &quot;take
+deep draughts in your old age of all the delights of earth which are
+now destined for you. Elevate the woman whom I have chosen for you to
+be your Dogess; and then all the ladies of Venice will be constrained
+to admit that she stands first of all in beauty and in virtue, even as
+the Venetians recognise in you their captain in valour, intellect, and
+power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bodoeri now began to sketch the picture of a beautiful woman,
+and in
+doing so he knew how to mix his colours so cleverly, and lay them on
+with so much vigour and effect, that old Falieri's eyes began to
+sparkle, and his face grew redder and redder, whilst he puckered up his
+mouth and smacked his lips as if he were draining sundry glasses of
+fiery Syracuse. &quot;But who is this paragon of loveliness of whom you are
+speaking?&quot; said he at last with a smirk. &quot;I mean nobody else but my
+dear niece--it's she I mean,&quot; replied Bodoeri. &quot;What! your niece?&quot;
+interrupted Falieri. &quot;Why, she was married to Bertuccio Nenolo when I
+was Podesta of Treviso.&quot; &quot;Oh! you are thinking about my niece
+Francesca,&quot; continued Bodoeri, &quot;but it is her sweet daughter whom I
+intend for you. You know how rude, rough Nenolo was enticed to the wars
+and drowned at sea. Francesca buried her pain and grief in a Roman
+nunnery, and so I had little Annunciata brought up in strict seclusion
+at my villa in Treviso&quot;---- &quot;What!&quot; cried Falieri, again impatiently
+interrupting the old man, &quot;you mean me to raise your niece's daughter
+to the dignity of Dogess? How long is it since Nenolo was married?
+Annunciata must be a child--at the most only ten years old. When I was
+Podesta in Treviso, Nenolo had not even thought of marrying, and
+that's&quot;---- &quot;Twenty-five years ago,&quot; interposed Bodoeri, laughing;
+&quot;come, you are getting all at sea with your memory of the flight of
+time, it goes so rapidly with you. Annunciata is a maiden of nineteen,
+beautiful as the sun, modest, submissive, inexperienced in love, for
+she has hardly ever seen a man. She will cling to you with childlike
+affection and unassuming devotion.&quot; &quot;I will see her, I will see her,&quot;
+exclaimed the Doge, whose eyes again beheld the picture of the
+beautiful Annunciata which Bodoeri had sketched.</p>
+
+<p>His desire was gratified the self-same day; for immediately he
+got back
+to his own apartments from the meeting of the Great Council, the crafty
+Bodoeri, who no doubt had many reasons for wishing to see his niece
+Dogess at Falieri's side, brought the lovely Annunciata to him
+secretly. Now, when old Falieri saw the angelic maiden, he was quite
+taken aback by her wonderful beauty, and was scarcely able to stammer
+out a few unintelligible words as he sued for her hand. Annunciata, no
+doubt well instructed by Bodoeri beforehand, fell upon her knees before
+the princely old man, her cheeks flushing crimson. She grasped his hand
+and pressed it to her lips, softly whispering, &quot;O sir, will you indeed
+honour me by raising me to a place at your side on your princely
+throne? Oh! then I will reverence you from the depths of my soul, and
+will continue your faithful handmaiden as long as I have breath.&quot; Old
+Falieri was beside himself with happiness and delight. As Annunciata
+took his hand he felt a convulsive throb in every limb; and then his
+head and all his body began to tremble and totter to such a degree that
+he had to sink hurriedly into his great arm-chair. It seemed as if he
+were about to refute Bodoeri's good opinion as to the strength and
+toughness of his eighty summers. Bodoeri, in fact, could not keep back
+the peculiar smile that darted across his lips; innocent, un*
+sophisticated Annunciata observed nothing; and happily no one else was
+present Finally it was resolved for some reason--either because old
+Falieri felt in what an uncomfortable position he would appear in the
+eyes of the people as the betrothed of a maiden of nineteen, or because
+it occurred to him as a sort of presentiment that the Venetians, who
+were so prone to mockery, ought not to be so directly challenged to
+indulge in it, or because he deemed it better to say nothing at all
+about the critical period of betrothal--at any rate, it was resolved,
+with Bodoeri's consent, that the marriage should be celebrated with the
+greatest secrecy, and that then some days later the Dogess should be
+introduced to the seignory and the people as if she had been some time
+married to Falieri, and had just arrived from Treviso, where she had
+been staying during Falieri's mission to Avignon.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now turn our eyes upon yon neatly dressed handsome
+youth who is
+going up and down the Rialto with his purse of sequins in his hand,
+conversing with Jews, Turks, Armenians, Greeks.<sup><a name="div2_doge19" href="#div2Ref_doge19">19</a></sup> He turns away his
+face with a frown, walks on further, stands still, turns round, and
+ultimately has himself rowed by a gondolier to St. Mark's Square. There
+he walks up and down with uncertain hesitating steps, his arms folded
+and his eyes bent upon the ground; nor does he observe, or even have
+any idea, that all the whispering and low coughing from various windows
+and various richly draped balconies are love-signals which are meant
+for him. Who would have easily recognised in this youth the same
+Antonio who a few days before had lain on the marble pavement in front
+of the Custom-house, poor, ragged, and miserable? &quot;My dear boy! My dear
+golden boy, Antonio, good day, good day!&quot; Thus he was greeted by the
+old beggar-woman, who sat on the steps leading to St. Mark's Church,
+and whom he was going past without observing. Turning abruptly round,
+he recognised the old woman, and, dipping his hand into his purse, took
+out a handful of sequins with the intention of throwing them to her.
+&quot;Oh! keep your gold in your purse,&quot; chuckled and laughed the old woman;
+&quot;what should I do with your money? am I not rich enough? But if you
+want to do me a kindness, get me a new hood made, for this which I am
+now wearing is no longer any protection against wind and weather. Yes,
+please get me one, my dear boy, my dear golden boy,--but keep away from
+the Fontego,--keep away from the Fontego.&quot; Antonio stared into the old
+woman's pale yellow face, the deep wrinkles in which twitched
+convulsively in a strange awe-inspiring way. And when she clapped her
+lean bony hands together so that the joints cracked, and continued her
+disagreeable laugh, and went on repeating in a hoarse voice, &quot;Keep away
+from the Fontego,&quot; Antonio cried, &quot;Can you not have done with that mad
+insane nonsense, you old witch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Antonio uttered this word, the old woman, as if struck by a
+lightning-flash, came rolling down the high marble steps like a ball.
+Antonio leapt forward and grasped her by both hands, and so prevented
+her from falling heavily. &quot;O my good lad, my good lad,&quot; said the old
+crone in a low, querulous voice, &quot;what a hideous word that was which
+you uttered. Kill me rather than repeat that word to me again. Oh! you
+don't know how deeply you have cut me to the heart, me--who have such a
+true affection for you--no, you don't know&quot;---- Abruptly breaking off,
+she wrapped up her head in the dark brown cloth flaps which covered her
+shoulders like a short mantle, and sighed and moaned as if suffering
+unspeakable pain. Antonio felt his heart strangely moved; lifting up
+the old woman, he carried her up into the vestibule of the church, and
+set her down upon one of the marble benches which were there. &quot;You have
+been kind to me, old woman,&quot; he began, after he had liberated her head
+from the ugly cloth flaps, &quot;you have been kind to me, since it is to
+you that I really owe all my prosperity; for if you had not stood by me
+in the hour of need, I should long ere this have been at the bottom of
+the sea, nor should I have rescued the old Doge, and received these
+good sequins. But even if you had not shown that kindness to me, I yet
+feel that I should have a special liking for you as long as I live, in
+spite of the fact that your insane behaviour--chuckling and laughing so
+horribly--strikes my heart with awe. To tell you the truth, old dame,
+even when I had hard work to get a living by carrying merchandise and
+rowing, I always felt as if I must work still harder that I might have
+a few pence to give you.&quot; &quot;O son of my heart, my golden Tonino,&quot; cried
+the old woman, raising her shrivelled arms above her head, whilst her
+staff fell rattling on the marble floor and rolled away from her, &quot;O
+Tonino mine, I know it; yes, I know it; you must cling to me with all
+your soul, you may do as you will, for--but hush! hush! hush!&quot; The old
+woman stooped painfully down in order to reach her staff, but Antonio
+picked it up and handed it to her.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning her sharp chin on her staff, and riveting her eyes in
+a set
+stare upon the ground, she began to speak in a reserved but hollow
+voice, &quot;Tell me, my child, have you no recollection at all of any
+former time, of what you did or where you were before you found
+yourself here, a poor wretch hardly able to keep body and soul
+together?&quot; With a deep sigh, Antonio took his seat beside the old crone
+and then began, &quot;Alas! mother, only too well do I know that I was born
+of parents living in the most prosperous circumstances; but who they
+were and how I came to leave them, of this I have not the slightest
+notion, nor could I have. I remember very well a tall handsome man, who
+often took me in his arms and smothered me with kisses and put sweets
+in my mouth. And I can also in the same way call to mind a pleasant and
+pretty lady, who used to dress and undress me and place me in a soft
+little bed every night, and who in fact was very kind to me in every
+way. They used to talk to me in a foreign, sonorous language, and I
+also stammered several words of the same tongue after them. Whilst I
+was an oarsman my jealous rivals used to say I must be of German
+origin, from the colour of my hair and eyes, and from my general build.
+And this I believe myself, for the language which that man spoke (he
+must have been my father) was German. But the most vivid recollection
+which I have of that time is that of one terrible night, when I was
+awakened out of deep sleep by a fearful scream of distress. People were
+running about the house; doors were being opened and banged to; I grew
+terribly frightened, and began to cry loudly. Then the lady who used to
+dress me and take care of me burst into the room, snatched me out of
+bed, stopped my mouth, enveloped me in shawls, and ran off with me.
+From that moment I can remember nothing more, until I found myself
+again in a splendid house, situated in a most charming district. Then
+there rises up the image of a man whom I called 'father,' a majestic
+man of noble but benevolent appearance. Like all the rest in the house,
+he spoke Italian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For several weeks I had not seen my father, when one day
+several ugly-
+looking strangers came and kicked up a great deal of noise in the
+house, rummaging about and turning out everything. When they saw me
+they asked who I was, and what I was doing there? 'Don't you know I'm
+Antonio, and belong to the house?' I replied; but they laughed in my
+face and tore off all my fine clothes and turned me out of doors,
+threatening to have me whipped if I dared to show myself again. I ran
+away screaming and crying. I had not gone a hundred yards from the
+house when I met an old man, whom I recognised as being one of my
+foster-father's servants. 'Come along, Antonio,' he said, taking hold
+of my hand, 'come along, my poor boy, that house is now closed to us
+both for ever. We must both look out and see how we can earn a crust of
+bread.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The old man brought me along with him here. He was not so
+poor as he
+seemed to be from his mean clothing. Directly we arrived I saw him rip
+up his jerkin and produce a bag of sequins; and he spent the whole day
+running about on the Rialto, now acting as broker, now dealing on his
+own account. I had always to be close at his heels; and whenever he had
+made a bargain he had a habit of begging a trifle for the <i>figliuolo</i>
+(little boy). Every one whom I looked boldly in the face was glad to
+pull out a few pence, which the old man pocketed with infinite
+satisfaction, affirming, as he stroked my cheeks, that he was saving it
+up to buy me a new jerkin. I was very comfortable with the old man,
+whom the people called Old Father Bluenose, though for what reason I
+don't know. But this life did not last long. You will remember that
+terrible time, old woman, when one day the earth began to tremble, and
+towers and palaces were shaken to their very foundations and began to
+reel and totter, and the bells to ring as if tolled by the arms of
+invisible giants. Hardly seven years have passed since that day.
+Fortunately I escaped along with my old man out of the house before it
+fell in with a crash behind us. There was no business doing; everybody
+on the Rialto seemed stunned, and everything lifeless. But this
+dreadful event was only the precursor of another approaching monster,
+which soon breathed out its poisonous breath over the town and the
+surrounding country. It was known that the pestilence, which had first
+made its way from the Levant into Sicily, was committing havoc in
+Tuscany.<sup><a name="div2_doge20" href="#div2Ref_doge20">20</a></sup> As yet Venice had been spared. One day Old Father Bluenose
+was dealing with an Armenian on the Rialto; they were agreed over their
+bargain, and warmly shook hands. Father Bluenose had sold the Armenian
+certain good wares at a very low price, and now asked for the usual
+trifle for the <i>figliuolo</i>. The stranger, a big stalwart man with a
+thick curly beard (I can see him now), bent a kind look upon me, and
+then kissed me, pressing a few sequins into my hand, which I hastily
+pocketed. We took a gondola to St. Mark's. On the way the old man asked
+me for the sequins, but for some reason or other, I don't know what
+induced me to do it, I maintained that I must keep them myself, since
+the Armenian had wished me to do so. The old man got angry; but whilst
+he was quarrelling with me I noticed a disagreeable dirty yellow colour
+spreading over his face, and that he was mixing up all sorts of incoherent
+nonsense in his talk. When we reached the Square he reeled about like
+a drunken man, until he fell to the ground in front of the Ducal
+Palace--dead. With a loud wail I threw myself upon the corpse. The people
+came running round us, but as soon as the dreaded cry 'The pestilence! the
+pestilence!' was heard, they scattered and flew apart in terror. At the
+same moment I was seized by a dull numbing pain, and my senses left me.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I awoke I found I was in a spacious room, lying on a
+plain
+mattress, and covered with a blanket. Round about me there were fully
+twenty or thirty other pale ghastly forms lying on similar mattresses.
+As I learned later, certain compassionate monks, who happened to be
+just coming out of St. Mark's, had, on finding signs of life in me, put
+me in a gondola and got me taken over to Giudecca into the monastery of
+San Giorgio Maggiore, where the Benedictines had established a
+hospital. How can I describe to you, old woman, this moment of re-
+awakening? The violence of the plague had completely robbed me of all
+recollections of the past. Just as if the spark of life had been
+suddenly dropped into a lifeless statue, I had but a momentary kind of
+existence, so to speak, linked on to nothing. You may imagine what
+trouble, what distress this life occasioned me in which my
+consciousness seemed to swim in empty space without an anchorage. All
+that the monks could tell me was that I had been found beside Father
+Bluenose, whose son I was generally accounted to be. Gradually and
+slowly I gathered my thoughts together, and tried to reflect upon my
+previous life, but what I have told you, old dame, is all that I can
+remember of it, and that consists only of certain individual
+disconnected pictures. Oh! this miserable being-alone-in-the-world! I
+can't be gay and happy, no matter what may happen!&quot; &quot;Tonino, my dear
+Tonino,&quot; said the old woman, &quot;be contented with what the present moment
+gives you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say no more, old woman, say no more,&quot; interrupted Antonio;
+&quot;there is
+still something else which embitters my life, following me about
+incessantly everywhere; I know it will be the utter ruin of me in the
+end. An unspeakable longing,--a consuming aspiration for something,--I
+can neither say nor even conceive what it is--has taken complete
+possession of my heart and mind since I awoke to renewed life in the
+hospital. Whilst I was still poor and wretched, and threw myself down
+at night on my hard couch, weary and worn out by the hard heavy labour
+of the day, a dream used to come to me, and, fanning my hot brow with
+balmy rustling breezes, shed about my heart all the inexpressible bliss
+of some single happy moment, in which the Eternal Power had been
+pleased to grant me in thought a glimpse of the delights of heaven, and
+the memory of which was treasured up in the recesses of my soul I now
+rest on soft cushions, and no labour consumes my strength: but if I
+awaken out of a dream, or if in my waking hours the recollection of
+that great moment returns to my mind, I feel that the lonely wretched
+existence I lead is just as much an oppressive burden now as it was
+then, and that it is vain for me to try and shake it off. All my
+thinking and all my inquiries are fruitless; I cannot fathom what this
+glorious thing is which formerly happened in my life. Its mysterious
+and alas! to me, unintelligible echo, as it were, fills me with such
+great happiness; but will not this happiness pass over into the most
+agonising pain, and torture me to death, when I am obliged to
+acknowledge that all my hope of ever finding that unknown Eden again,
+nay, that even the courage to search for it, is lost? Can there indeed
+remain traces of that which has vanished without leaving any sign
+behind it?&quot; Antonio ceased speaking, and a deep and painful sigh
+escaped his breast.</p>
+
+<p>During his narrative the old crone had behaved like one who
+sympathised
+fully with his trouble, and felt all that he felt, and like a mirror
+reflected every movement and gesture which the pain wrung from him.
+&quot;Tonino,&quot; she now began in a tearful voice, &quot;my dear Tonino, do you
+mean to tell me that you let your courage sink because the remembrance
+of some glorious moment in your life has perished out of your mind? You
+foolish child! You foolish child! Listen to--hi! hi! hi!&quot; The old woman
+began to chuckle and laugh in her usual disagreeable way, and to hop
+about on the marble floor. Some people came; she cowered down in her
+accustomed posture; they threw her alms. &quot;Antonio--lead me away,
+Antonio--away to the sea,&quot; she croaked Almost involuntarily--he could
+not explain how it came about--he took her by the arm and led her
+slowly across St. Mark's Square. On the way the old woman muttered
+softly and solemnly, &quot;Antonio, do you see these dark stains of blood
+here on the ground? Yes, blood--much blood--much blood everywhere! But,
+hi! hi! hi! Roses will spring up out of the blood--beautiful red roses
+for a wreath for you--for your sweetheart. O good Lord of all, what
+lovely angel of light is this, who is coming to meet you with such
+grace and such a bright starry smile? Her lily-white arms are stretched
+out to embrace you. O Antonio, you lucky, lucky lad! bear yourself
+bravely! bear yourself bravely! And at the sweet hour of sunset
+you may pluck myrtle-leaves--myrtle-leaves for the bride--for the
+maiden-widow--hi! hi! hi! Myrtle-leaves plucked at the hour of sunset,
+but these will not be blossoms until midnight! Do you hear the
+whisperings of the night-winds? the longing moaning swell of the sea?
+Row away bravely, my bold oarsman, row away bravely!&quot; Antonio's heart
+was deeply thrilled with awe as he listened to the old crone's wonderful
+words, which she mumbled to herself in a very peculiar and extraordinary
+way, mingled with an incessant chuckling.</p>
+
+<p>They came to the pillar which bears the Lion of the Adriatic.
+The old
+woman was going on right past it, still muttering to herself; but
+Antonio, feeling very uncomfortable at the old crone's behaviour, and
+being, moreover, stared at in astonishment by the passers-by, stopped
+and said roughly, &quot;Here--sit you down on these steps, old woman, and
+have done with your talk; it will drive me mad. It is a fact that you
+saw my sequins in the fiery images in the clouds; but, for that very
+reason, what do you mean by prating about angels of light--bride--
+maiden-widow--roses and myrtle-leaves? Do you want to make a fool of
+me, you fearful woman, till some insane attempt hurries me to
+destruction? You shall have a new hood--bread--sequins--all that you
+want, but leave me alone.&quot; And he was about to make off hastily; but
+the old woman caught him by the mantle, and cried in a shrill piercing
+voice, &quot;Tonino, my Tonino, do take a good look at me for once, or else
+I must go to the very edge of the Square yonder and in despair throw
+myself over into the sea.&quot; In order to avoid attracting more eyes upon
+him than he was already doing, Antonio actually stood still. &quot;Tonino,&quot;
+went on the old woman, &quot;sit down here beside me; my heart is bursting,
+I must tell you--Oh! do sit down here beside me.&quot; Antonio sat down on
+the steps, but so as to turn his back upon her; and he took out his
+account-book, whose white pages bore witness to the zeal with which he
+did business on the Rialto.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman now whispered very low, &quot;Tonino, when you look
+upon my
+shrivelled features, does there not dawn upon your mind the slightest,
+faintest recollection of having known me formerly a long, long time
+ago?&quot; &quot;I have already told you, old woman,&quot; replied Antonio in the same
+low tones, and without turning round, &quot;I have already told you, that I
+feel drawn towards you in a way that I can't explain to myself, but I
+don't attribute it to your ugly shrivelled face. Nay, when I look at
+your strange black glittering eyes and sharp nose, at your blue lips
+and long chin, and bristly grey hair, and when I hear your abominable
+chuckling and laughing, and your confused talk, I rather turn away from
+you with disgust, and am even inclined to believe that you possess some
+execrable power for attracting me to you.&quot; &quot;O God! God! God!&quot; whined
+the old dame, a prey to unspeakable pain, &quot;what fiendish spirit of
+darkness has put such fearful thoughts into your head? O Tonino, my
+darling Tonino, the woman who took such tender loving care of you when
+a child, and who saved your life from the most threatening danger on
+that awful night--it was I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the first moments of startled surprise Antonio turned round
+as if
+shot; but then he fixed his eyes upon the old woman's hideous face and
+cried angrily, &quot;So that is the way you think you are going to befool
+me, you abominable insane old crone! The few recollections which I have
+retained of my childhood are fresh and lively. That kind and pretty
+lady who tended me--Oh! I can see her plainly now! She had a full
+bright face with some colour in it--eyes gently smiling-beautiful dark-
+brown hair--dainty hands; she could hardly be thirty years old, and
+you--you, an old woman of ninety!&quot; &quot;O all ye saints of Heaven!&quot;
+interrupted the old dame, sobbing, &quot;all ye blessed ones, what shall I
+do to make my Tonino believe in me, his faithful Margaret?&quot; &quot;Margaret!&quot;
+murmured Antonio, &quot;Margaret! That name falls upon my ears like music
+heard a long long time ago, and for a long long time forgotten. But--
+no, it is impossible--impossible.&quot; Then the old dame went on more
+calmly, dropping her eyes, and scribbling as it were with her staff on
+the ground, &quot;You are right; the tall handsome man who used to take you
+in his arms and kiss you and give you sweets was your father, Tonino;
+and the language in which we spoke to each other was the beautiful
+sonorous German. Your father was a rich and influential merchant in
+Augsburg. His young and lovely wife died in giving birth to you. Then,
+since he could not settle down in the place where his dearest lay
+buried, he came hither to Venice, and brought me, your nurse, with him
+to take care of you. That terrible night an awful fate overtook your
+father, and also threatened you. I succeeded in saving you. A noble
+Venetian adopted you; I, deprived of all means of support, had to
+remain in Venice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father, a barber-surgeon, of whom it was said that he
+practised
+forbidden science as well, had made me familiar from my earliest
+childhood with the mysterious virtues of Nature's remedies. By him I
+was taught to wander through the fields and woods, learning the
+properties of many healing herbs, of many insignificant mosses, the
+hours when they should be plucked and gathered, and how to mix the
+juices of the various simples. But to this knowledge there was added a
+very special gift, which Heaven has endowed me with for some
+inscrutable purpose. I often see future events as if in a dim and
+distant mirror; and almost without any conscious effort of will, I
+declare in expressions which are unintelligible to myself what I have
+seen; for some unknown Power compels me, and I cannot resist it. Now
+when I had to stay behind in Venice, deserted of all the world, I
+resolved to earn a livelihood by means of my tried skill. In a brief
+time I cured the most dangerous diseases. And furthermore, as my
+presence alone had a beneficial effect upon my patients, and the soft
+stroking of my hand often brought them past the crisis in a few
+minutes, my fame necessarily soon spread through the town, and money
+came pouring in in streams. This awakened the jealousy of the
+physicians, quacks who sold their pills and essences in St. Mark's
+Square, on the Rialto, and in the Mint, poisoning their patients
+instead of curing them. They spread abroad that I was in league with
+the devil himself; and they were believed by the superstitious folk. I
+was soon arrested and brought before the ecclesiastical tribunal. O my
+Tonino, what horrid tortures did they inflict upon me in order to force
+from me a confession of the most damnable of all alliances! I remained
+firm. My hair turned white; my body withered up to a mummy; my feet and
+hands were paralysed. But there was still the terrible rack left--the
+cunningest invention of the foul fiend,--and it extorted from me a
+confession at which I shudder even now. I was to be burnt alive; but
+when the earthquake shook the foundations of the palaces and of the
+great prison, the door of the underground dungeon in which I lay
+confined sprang open of itself, and I staggered up out of my grave as
+it were through rubbish and ruins.<sup><a name="div2_doge21" href="#div2Ref_doge21">21</a></sup> O Tonino, you called me an old
+woman of ninety; I am hardly more than fifty. This lean, emaciated
+body, this hideously distorted face, this icicle-like hair, these lame
+feet--no, it was not the lapse of years, it was only unspeakable
+tortures which could in a few months change me thus from a strong woman
+into the monstrous creature I now am. And my hideous chuckling and
+laughing--this was forced from me by the last strain on the rack, at
+the memory of which my hair even now stands on an end, and I feel
+altogether as if I were locked in a red-hot coat of mail; and since
+that time I have been constantly subject to it; it attacks me without
+my being able to check it. So don't stand any longer in awe of me,
+Tonino, Oh! it was indeed your heart which told you that as a little
+boy you lay on my bosom.&quot; &quot;Woman,&quot; said Antonio hoarsely, wrapped up in
+his own thoughts, &quot;woman, I feel as if I must believe you. But who was
+my father? What was he called? What was the awful fate which overtook
+him on that terrible night? Who was it who adopted me? And--what was
+that occurrence in my life which now, like some potent magical spell
+from a strange and unknown world, exercises an irresistible sway over
+my soul, so that all my thoughts are dissipated into a dark night-like
+sea, so to speak? When you tell me all this, you mysterious woman, then
+I will believe you.&quot; &quot;Tonino,&quot; replied the old crone, sighing, &quot;for
+your own sake I must keep silent; but the time when I may speak will
+soon come. The Fontego--the Fontego--keep away from the Fontego.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh!&quot; cried Antonio angrily, &quot;you need not begin to speak your
+dark
+sentences again to enchant me by some devilish wile or other. My heart
+is rent, you must speak, or&quot;---- &quot;Stop,&quot; interrupted she, &quot;no
+threats--am I not your faithful nurse, who tended you?&quot;---- Without
+waiting to hear what the old woman had got further to say, he picked
+himself up and ran away swiftly. From a distance he shouted to her,
+&quot;You shall nevertheless have a new hood, and as many sequins besides as
+you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in truth a remarkable spectacle, to see the old Doge Marino
+Falieri and his youthful wife: he, strong enough and robust enough in
+very truth, but with a grey beard, and innumerable wrinkles in his
+rusty brown face, with some difficulty bearing his head erect, forming
+a pathetic figure as he strode along; she, a perfect picture of grace,
+with the pure gentleness of an angel in her divinely beautiful face, an
+irresistible charm in her longing glances, a queenly dignity enthroned
+upon her open lily-white brow, shadowed by her dark locks, a sweet
+smile upon her cheeks and lips, her pretty head bent with winsome
+submissiveness, her slender form moving with ease, scarce seeming to
+touch the earth--a beautiful lady in fact, a native of another and a
+higher world. Of course you have seen angelic forms like this,
+conceived and painted by the old masters. Such was Annunciata. How then
+could it be otherwise but that every one who saw her was astonished and
+enraptured with her beauty, and all the fiery youths of the Seignory
+were consumed with passion, measuring the old Doge with mocking looks,
+and swearing in their hearts that they would be the Mars to this
+Vulcan, let the consequences be what they might? Annunciata soon found
+herself surrounded with admirers, to whose flattering and seductive
+words she listened quietly and graciously, without thinking anything in
+particular about them. The conception which her pure angelic spirit had
+formed of her relation to her aged and princely husband was that she
+ought to honour him as her supreme lord, and cling to him with all the
+unquestioning fidelity of a submissive handmaiden. He treated her
+kindly, nay tenderly; he pressed her to his ice-cold heart and called
+her his darling; he heaped up all the jewels he could find upon her;
+what else could she wish for from him, what other rights could she have
+upon him? In this way, therefore, it was impossible for the thought of
+unfaithfulness to the old man ever in any way to find lodgment in her
+mind; all that lay beyond the narrow circle of these limited relations
+was to this good child an unknown region, whose forbidden borders were
+wrapped in dark mists, unseen and unsuspected by her. Hence all efforts
+to win her love were fruitless.</p>
+
+<p>But the flames of passion--of love for the beautiful
+Dogess--burned in
+none so violently and so uncontrolled as in Michele Steno.
+Notwithstanding his youth, he was invested with the important and
+influential post of Member of the Council of Forty. Relying upon this
+fact, as well as upon his personal beauty, he felt confident of
+success. Old Marino Falieri he did not fear in the least; and, indeed,
+the old man seemed to indulge less frequently in his violent outbreaks
+of furious passion, and to have laid aside his rugged untamable
+fierceness, since his marriage. There he sat beside his beautiful
+Annunciata, spruce and prim, in the richest, gayest apparel, smirking
+and smiling, challenging in the sweet glances of his grey eyes,--from
+which a treacherous tear stole from time to time,--those who were
+present to say if any one of them could boast of such a wife as his.
+Instead of speaking in the rough arrogant tone of voice in which he had
+formerly been in the habit of expressing himself, he whispered, scarce
+moving his lips, addressed every one in the most amiable manner, and
+granted the most absurd petitions. Who would have recognised in this
+weak amorous old man the same Falieri who had in a fit of passion
+buffeted the bishop<sup><a name="div2_doge22" href="#div2Ref_doge22">22</a></sup> on Corpus Christi Day at Treviso, and who had
+defeated the valiant Morbassan. This growing weakness spurred on
+Michele Steno to attempt the most extravagant schemes. Annunciata did
+not understand why he was constantly pursuing her with his looks and
+words; she had no conception of his real purpose, but always preserved
+the same gentle, calm, and friendly bearing towards him. It was just
+this quiet unconscious behaviour, however, which drove him wild, which
+drove him to despair almost. He determined to effect his end by
+sinister means. He managed to involve Annunciata's most confidential
+maid in a love intrigue, and she at last permitted him to visit her at
+night. Thus he believed he had paved a way to Annunciata's unpolluted
+chamber; but the Eternal Power willed that this treacherous iniquity
+should recoil upon the head of its wicked author.</p>
+
+<p>One night it chanced that the Doge, who had just received the
+ill
+tidings of the battle which Nicolo Pisani had lost against Doria off
+Porto Longo,<sup><a name="div2_doge23" href="#div2Ref_doge23">23</a></sup> was unable to sleep owing to care and anxiety, and was
+rambling through the passages of the Ducal Palace. Then he became aware
+of a shadow stealing apparently out of Annunciata's apartments and
+creeping towards the stairs. He at once rushed towards it; it was
+Michele Steno leaving his mistress. A terrible thought flashed across
+Falieri's mind; with the cry &quot;Annunciata!&quot; he threw himself upon Steno
+with his drawn dagger in his hand. But Steno, who was stronger and more
+agile than the old man, averted the thrust, and knocked him down with a
+violent blow of his fist; then, laughing loudly and shouting,
+&quot;Annunciata! Annunciata!&quot; he rushed downstairs. The old man picked
+himself up and stole towards Annunciata's apartments, his heart on fire
+with the torments of hell. All was quiet, as still as the grave. He
+knocked; a strange maid opened the door--not the one who was in the
+habit of sleeping near Annunciata's chamber. &quot;What does my princely
+husband command at this late and unusual hour?&quot; asked Annunciata in a
+calm and sweetly gentle tone, for she had meanwhile thrown on a light
+night-robe and was now come forward. Old Falieri stared at her
+speechless; then, raising both hands above his head, he cried, &quot;No, it
+is not possible, it is not possible.&quot; &quot;What is not possible, my
+princely sir?&quot; asked Annunciata, startled at the deep solemn tones of
+the old man's voice. But Falieri, without answering her question,
+turned to the maid, &quot;Why are <i>you</i> sleeping here? why does not Luigia
+sleep here as usual?&quot; &quot;Oh!&quot; replied the little one, &quot;Luigia would make
+me exchange places with her to-night; she is sleeping in the ante-room
+close by the stairs.&quot; &quot;Close by the stairs!&quot; echoed Falieri, delighted;
+and he hurried away to the ante-room. At his loud knocking Luigia
+opened the door; and when she saw the Doge, her master's face inflamed
+with rage, and his flashing eyes, she threw herself upon her bare knees
+and confessed her shame, which was set beyond all doubt by a pair of
+elegant gentleman's gloves lying on the easy-chair, whilst the sweet
+scent about them betrayed their dandified owner. Hotly incensed at
+Steno's unheard-of impudence, the Doge wrote to him next morning,
+forbidding him, on pain of banishment from the town, to approach the
+Ducal Palace, or the presence of the Doge and Dogess.</p>
+
+<p>Michele Steno was wild with fury at the failure of his
+well-planned
+scheme, and at the disgrace of being thus banished from the presence of
+his idol. Now when he had to see from a distance how gently and kindly
+the Dogess spoke to other young men of the Seignory--that was indeed
+her natural manner--his envy and the violence of his passion filled his
+mind with evil thoughts. The Dogess had without doubt only scorned him
+because he had been anticipated by others with better luck; and he had
+the hardihood to utter his thoughts openly and publicly. Now whether it
+was that old Falieri had tidings of this shameless talk, or whether he
+came to look upon the occurrence of that memorable night as the warning
+finger of destiny, or whether now, in spite of all his calmness and
+equanimity, and his perfect confidence in the fidelity of his wife, he
+saw clearly the danger of the unnatural position in which he stood in
+respect to her--at any rate he became ill-tempered and morose. He was
+plagued and tortured by all the fiends of jealousy, and confined
+Annunciata to the inner apartments of the Ducal Palace, so that no man
+ever set eyes upon her. Bodoeri took his niece's part, and soundly
+rated old Falieri; but he would not hear of any change in his conduct.</p>
+
+<p>All this took place shortly before Holy Thursday. On the
+occasion of
+the popular sports which take place on this day in St. Mark's Square,
+it was customary for the Dogess to take her seat beside the Doge, under
+a canopy erected on the balcony which lies opposite to the Piazetti.
+Bodoeri reminded the Doge of this custom, and told him that it would be
+very absurd, and sure to draw down upon him the mocking laughter of
+both populace and Seignory, if, in the teeth of custom and usage, he
+let his perverse jealousy exclude Annunciata from this honour. &quot;Do you
+think,&quot; replied old Falieri, whose pride was immediately aroused, &quot;do
+you think I am such an idiotic old fool that I am afraid to show my
+most precious jewel for fear of thievish hands, and that I could not
+prevent her being stolen from me with my good sword? No, old man, you
+are mistaken; to-morrow Annunciata shall go with me in solemn
+procession across St. Mark's Square, that the people may see their
+Dogess, and on Holy Thursday she shall receive the nosegay from the
+bold sailor who comes sailing down out of the air to her.&quot; The Doge was
+thinking of a very ancient custom as he said these words. On Holy
+Thursday a bold fellow from amongst the people is drawn up from the sea
+to the summit of the tower of St. Mark's, in a machine that resembles a
+little ship and is suspended on ropes, then he shoots from the top of
+the tower with the speed of an arrow down to the Square where the Doge
+and Dogess are sitting, and presents a nosegay of flowers to the
+Dogess, or to the Doge if he is alone.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the Doge carried out his intention. Annunciata
+had to don
+her most magnificent robes; and surrounded by the Seignory and attended
+by pages and guards, she and Falieri crossed the Square when it was
+swarming with people. They pushed and squeezed themselves to death
+almost to see the beautiful Dogess; and he who succeeded in setting
+eyes upon her thought he had taken a peep into Paradise and had beheld
+the loveliest of the bright and beautiful angels. But according to
+Venetian habits, in the midst of the wildest outbreaks of their frantic
+admiration, here and there were heard all sorts of satiric phrases and
+rhymes--and coarse enough too--aimed at old Falieri and his young wife.
+Falieri, however, appeared not to notice them, but strode along as
+pathetically as possible at Annunciata's side, smirking and smiling all
+over his face, and free on this occasion from all jealousy, although he
+must have seen the glances full of burning passion which were directed
+upon his beautiful lady from all sides. Arrived before the principal
+entrance to the Palace, the guards had some difficulty in driving back
+the crowd, so that the Doge and Dogess might go in; but here and there
+were still standing isolated knots of better-dressed citizens, who
+could not very well be refused entrance into even the inner quadrangle
+of the Palace. Now it happened just at the moment that the Dogess
+entered the quadrangle, that a young man, who with a few others stood
+under the portico, fell down suddenly upon the hard marble floor, as if
+dead, with the loud scream, &quot;O good God! good God!&quot; The people ran
+together from every side and surrounded the dead man, so that the
+Dogess could not see him; yet, as the young man fell, she felt as if a
+red-hot knife were suddenly thrust into her heart; she grew pale; she
+reeled, and was only prevented from fainting by the smelling-bottles of
+the ladies who hastened to her assistance. Old Falieri, greatly alarmed
+and put out by the accident, wished the young man and his fit anywhere;
+and he carried his Annunciata, who hung her pretty head on her bosom
+and closed her eyes like a sick dove, himself up the steps into her own
+apartments in the interior of the Palace, although it was very hard
+work for him to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the people, who had increased to crowds in the inner
+quadrangle, had been spectators of a remarkable scene. They were about
+to lift up the young man, whom they took to be quite dead, and carry
+him away, when an ugly old beggar-woman, all in rags, came limping up
+with a loud wail of grief; and punching their sides and ribs with her
+sharp elbows she made a way for herself through the thick of the crowd.
+When she at length saw the senseless youth, she cried, &quot;Let him be,
+fools; you stupid people, let him be; he is not dead.&quot; Then she
+squatted down beside him; and taking his head in her lap she gently
+rubbed and stroked his forehead, calling him by the sweetest of names.
+As the people noted the old woman's ugly apish face, and the repulsive
+play of its muscles, bending over the young fellow's fine handsome
+face, his soft features now stiff and pale as in death, when they saw
+her filthy rags fluttering about over the rich clothing the young man
+wore, and her lean brownish-yellow arms and long hands trembling upon
+his forehead and exposed breast--they could not in truth resist
+shuddering with awe. It looked as if it were the grinning form of death
+himself in whose arms the young man lay. Hence the crowd standing round
+slipped away quietly one after the other, till there were only a few
+left They, when the young man opened his eyes with a deep sigh, took
+him up and carried him, at the old woman's request, to the Grand Canal,
+where a gondola took them both on board, the old woman and the youth,
+and brought them to the house which she had indicated as his dwelling.
+Need it be said that the young man was Antonio, and that the old woman
+was the beggar of the steps of the Franciscan Church, who wanted to
+make herself out to be his nurse?</p>
+
+<p>When Antonio was quite recovered from his stupefaction and
+perceived
+the old woman at his bed-side, and knew that she had just been giving
+him some strengthening drops, he said brokenly in a hoarse voice,
+bending a long gloomy melancholy gaze upon her, &quot;<i>You</i> with me,
+Margaret--that is good; what more faithful nurse could I have found
+than you? Oh! forgive me, mother, that I, a doltish, senseless boy,
+doubted for an instant what you discovered to me. Yes, you are <i>the</i>
+Margaret who reared me, who cared for me and tended me; I knew it all
+the time, but some evil spirit bewildered my thoughts. I have seen her;
+it is she--it is she. Did I not tell you there was some mysterious
+magical power dwelling in me, which exercised an uncontrollable
+supremacy over me? It has emerged from its obscurity dazzling with
+light, to effect my destruction through nameless joy. I now know all--
+everything. Was not my foster-father Bertuccio Nenolo, and did he not
+bring me up at his country-seat near Treviso?&quot; &quot;Yes, yes,&quot; replied the
+old woman, &quot;it was indeed Bertuccio Nenolo, the great sea-captain, whom
+the sea devoured as he was about to adorn his temples with the victor's
+wreath.&quot; &quot;Don't interrupt me,&quot; continued Antonio; &quot;listen patiently to
+what I have to say.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Bertuccio Nenolo I lived in clover. I wore fine clothes;
+the
+table was always covered when I was hungry; and after I had said my
+three prayers properly I was allowed to run about the woods and fields
+just as I pleased. Close beside the villa there was a little wood of
+sweet pines, cool and dark, and filled with sweet scents and songs.
+There one evening, when the sun began to sink, I threw me down beneath
+a big tree, tired with running and jumping about, and stared up at the
+blue sky. Perhaps I was stupefied by the fragrant smell of the
+flowering herbs in the midst of which I lay; at any rate, my eyes
+closed involuntarily, and I sank into a state of dreamy reverie, from
+which I was awakened by a rustling, as if some one had struck a blow in
+the grass beside me. I started up into a sitting posture; an angelic
+child with heavenly eyes stood near me and looked down upon me, smiling
+most sweetly and bewitchingly. 'O good boy,' she said, in a low soft
+voice, 'how beautiful and calmly you sleep, and yet death, nasty death,
+was so near to you.' Close beside my breast I saw a small black snake
+with its head crushed; the little girl had killed the poisonous reptile
+with a switch from a nut-tree, and just as it was wriggling on to my
+destruction. Then a trembling of sweet awe fell upon me; I knew that
+angels often came down from heaven above to rescue men in person from
+the threatening attack of some evil enemy. I fell upon my knees and
+raised my folded hands. 'Oh! you are surely an angel of light, sent by
+God to save my life,' I cried. The pretty creature stretched out both
+arms towards me and said softly, whilst a deeper flush mantled upon her
+cheeks, 'No, good boy; I am not an angel, but a girl--a child like
+you.' Then my feeling of awe gave place to a nameless delight, which
+spread like a gentle warmth through all my limbs. I rose to my feet; we
+clasped each other in our arms, our lips met, and we were speechless,
+weeping, sobbing with sweet unutterable sadness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then a clear silvery voice cried through the wood,
+'Annunciata!
+Annunciata!' 'I must go now, darling boy, mother is calling me,'
+whispered the little girl. My heart was rent with unspeakable pain.
+'Oh! I love you so much,' I sobbed, and the scalding tears fell from
+the little girl's eyes upon my cheeks. 'I am so--so fond of you, good
+boy,' she cried, pressing a last kiss upon my lips. 'Annunciata,' the
+voice cried again; and the little girl disappeared behind the bushes.
+Now that, Margaret, was the moment when the mighty spark of love fell
+upon my soul, and it will gather strength, and, enkindling flame after
+flame, will continue to burn there for ever. A few days afterwards I
+was turned out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father Bluenose told me, since I did not cease talking about
+the
+lovely child who had appeared to me, and whose sweet voice I thought I
+heard in the rustling of the trees, in the gushing murmurs of the
+springs, and in the mysterious soughing of the sea--yes, then Father
+Bluenose told me that the girl could be none other than Nenolo's
+daughter Annunciata, who had come to the villa with her mother
+Francesca, but had left it again on the following day. O mother--
+Margaret--help me. Heaven! This Annunciata--is the Dogess.&quot; And Antonio
+buried his face in the pillows, weeping and sobbing with unspeakable
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Tonino,&quot; said the old woman, &quot;rouse yourself and be a
+man;
+come, do resist bravely this foolish emotion. Come, come, how can you
+think of despairing when you are in love? For whom does the golden
+flower of hope blossom if not for the lover? You do not know in the
+evening what the morning may bring; what you have beheld in your dreams
+comes to meet you in living form. The castle that hovered in the air
+stands all at once on the earth, a substantial and splendid building.
+See here, Tonino, you are not paying the least heed to my words; but my
+little finger tells me, and so does somebody else as well, that the
+bright standard of love is gaily waving for you out at sea. Patience,
+Tonino--patience, my boy!&quot; Thus the old woman sought to comfort poor
+Antonio; and her words did really sound like sweet music. He would not
+let her leave him again. The beggar-woman had disappeared from the
+steps of the Franciscan Church, and in her stead people saw Signor
+Antonio's housekeeper, dressed in becoming matronly style, limping
+about St. Mark's Square and buying the requisite provisions for his
+table.</p>
+
+<p>Holy Thursday was come. It was to be celebrated on this
+occasion in
+more magnificent fashion than it had ever been before. In the middle of
+the Piazzetta of St. Mark's a high staging was erected for a special
+kind of artistic fire--something perfectly new, which was to be
+exhibited by a Greek--a man experienced in such matters. In the evening
+old Falieri came out on the balcony along with his beautiful lady,
+reflecting his pride and happiness in the magnificence of his
+surroundings, and with radiant eyes challenging all who stood near to
+admire and wonder. As he was about to take his seat on the chair of
+state he perceived Michele Steno actually on the same balcony with him,
+and saw that he had chosen a position whence he could keep his eyes
+constantly fixed upon the Dogess, and must of necessity be observed by
+her. Completely overmastered by furious rage, and wild with jealousy,
+Falieri shouted in a loud and commanding tone that Steno was to be at
+once removed from the balcony. Michele Steno raised his hand against
+Falieri, but that same moment the guards appeared, and compelled him to
+quit his place, which he did, foaming with rage and grinding his teeth,
+and threatening revenge in the most horrible imprecations.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Antonio, utterly beside himself at sight of his
+beloved
+Annunciata, had made his way out through the crowd, and was striding
+backwards and forwards in the darkness of the night alone along the
+edge of the sea, his heart rent by unutterable anguish. He debated
+within himself whether it would not be better to extinguish the
+consuming fire within him in the ice-cold waves than to be slowly
+tortured to death by hopeless pain. But little was wanting, and he had
+leapt into the sea; he was already standing on the last step that goes
+down to the water, when a voice called to him from a little boat, &quot;Ay,
+a very good evening to you, Signor Antonio.&quot; By the reflection cast by
+the illuminations of the Square, he recognised that it was merry
+Pietro, one of his former comrades. He was standing in the boat, his
+new cap adorned with feathers and tinsel, and his new striped jacket
+gaily decorated with ribbons, whilst he held in his hand a large and
+beautiful nosegay of sweet-scented flowers. &quot;Good evening, Pietro,&quot;
+shouted Antonio back, &quot;what grand folks are you going to row to-night
+that you are decked off so fine?&quot; &quot;Oh!&quot; replied Pietro, dancing till
+his boat rocked; &quot;see you, Signor Antonio, I am going to earn my three
+sequins to-day; for I'm going to make the journey up to St. Mark's
+Tower and then down again, to take this nosegay to the beautiful
+Dogess.&quot; &quot;But isn't that a risky and break-neck adventure, Pietro, my
+friend?&quot; asked Antonio. &quot;Well,&quot; he replied, &quot;there is some little
+chance of breaking one's neck, especially as we go to-day right through
+the middle of the artificial fire. The Greek says, to be sure, that he
+has arranged everything so that the fire will not hurt a hair of
+anybody's head, but&quot;---- Pietro shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio stepped down to Pietro in the boat, and now perceived
+that he
+stood close in front of the machine, which was fastened to a rope
+coming out of the sea. Other ropes, by means of which the machine was
+to be drawn up, were lost in the night. &quot;Now listen, Pietro,&quot; began
+Antonio, after a silent pause, &quot;see here, comrade, if you could earn
+ten sequins to-day without exposing your life to danger, would it not
+be more agreeable to you?&quot; &quot;Why, of course,&quot; and Pietro burst into a
+good hearty laugh. &quot;Well then,&quot; continued Antonio, &quot;take these ten
+sequins and change clothes with me, and let me take your place, I will
+go up instead of you. Do, my good friend and comrade, Pietro, let me go
+up.&quot; Pietro shook his head dubiously, and weighing the money in his
+hand, said, &quot;You are very kind, Signor Antonio, to still call a poor
+devil like me your comrade, and you are generous as well. The money I
+should certainly like very much; but, on the other hand, to place this
+nosegay in our beautiful Dogess's hand myself, to hear her sweet
+voice--and after all that's really why I am ready to risk my life. Well,
+since it is you, Signor Antonio, I close with your offer.&quot; They both
+hastily changed their clothes; and hardly was Antonio dressed when
+Pietro cried, &quot;Quick, into the machine; the signal is given.&quot; At the
+same moment the sea was lit up with the reflection of thousands of
+bright flashes, and all the air along the margin of the sea rang with
+loud reverberating thunders. Right through the midst of the hissing
+crackling flames of the artificial fire, Antonio rose up into the air
+with the speed of a hurricane, and shot down uninjured upon the
+balcony, hovering in front of the Dogess. She had risen to her feet and
+stepped forward; he felt her breath on his cheeks; he gave her the
+nosegay. But in the unspeakable delirious delight of the moment he was
+clasped as if in red-hot arms by the fiery pain of hopeless love.
+Senseless, insane with longing, rapture, anguish, he grasped her hand,
+and covered it with burning kisses, crying in the sharp tone of
+despairing misery, &quot;O Annunciata!&quot; Then the machine, like a blind
+instrument of fate, whisked him away from his beloved back to the sea,
+where he sank down stunned, quite exhausted, into Pietro's arms, who
+was waiting for him in the boat.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Doge's balcony was the scene of tumult and
+confusion. A
+small strip of paper had been found fastened to the Doge's seat,
+containing in the common Venetian dialect the words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Il Dose Falier della bella muier,</p>
+<p class="i4">I altri la gode é lui la mantien.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">(The Doge Falieri, the husband of the beautiful lady; others
+kiss her, and he--he keeps her.)</p>
+
+<p>Old Falieri burst into a violent fit of passion, and swore
+that the
+severest punishment should overtake the man who had been guilty of this
+audacious offence. As he cast his eyes about they fell upon Michele
+Steno standing beneath the balcony in the Square, in the full light of
+the torches; he at once commanded his guards to arrest him as the
+instigator of the outrage. This command of the Doge's provoked a
+universal cry of dissent; in giving way to his overmastering rage he
+was offering insult to both Seignory and populace, violating the rights
+of the former, and spoiling the latter's enjoyment of their holiday.
+The members of the Seignory left their places; but old Marino Bodoeri
+mixed among the people, actively representing the grave nature of the
+outrage that had been done to the head of the state, and seeking to
+direct the popular hatred upon Michele Steno. Nor had Falieri judged
+wrongly; for Michele Steno, on being expelled from the Duke's balcony,
+had really hurried off home, and there written the above-mentioned
+slanderous words; then when all eyes were fixed upon the artificial
+fire, he had fastened the strip of paper to the Doge's seat, and
+withdrawn from the gallery again unobserved. He maliciously hoped it
+would be a galling blow for them, for both the Doge and the Dogess, and
+that the wound would rankle deeply--so deeply as to touch a vital part.
+Willingly and openly he admitted the deed, and transferred all blame to
+the Doge, since he had been the first to give umbrage to <i>him</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Seignory had been for some time dissatisfied with their
+chief, for
+instead of meeting the just expectations of the state, he gave proofs
+daily that the fiery warlike courage in his frozen and worn-out heart
+was merely like the artificial fire which bursts with a furious rush
+out of the rocket-apparatus, but immediately disappears in black
+lifeless flakes, and has accomplished nothing. Moreover, since his
+union with his young and beautiful wife (it had long before leaked out
+that he was married to her directly after attaining to the Dogate) old
+Falieri's jealousy no longer let him appear in the character of heroic
+captain, but rather of <i>vechio Pantalone</i> (old fool); hence it was that
+the Seignory, nursing their swelling resentment, were more inclined to
+condone Michele Steno's fault, than to see justice done to their
+deeply-wounded chief. The matter was referred by the Council of Ten to
+the Forty, one of the leaders of which Michele had formerly been. The
+verdict was that Michele Steno had already suffered sufficiently, and a
+month's banishment was quite punishment enough for the offence. This
+sentence only served to feed anew and more fully old Falieri's
+bitterness against a Seignory which, instead of protecting their own
+head, had the impudence to punish insults that were offered to him as
+they would offences of merely the most insignificant description.</p>
+
+<p>As generally happens in the case of lovers, once a single ray
+of the
+happiness of love has fallen upon them, they are surrounded for days
+and weeks and months by a sort of golden veil, and dream dreams of
+Paradise; and so Antonio could not recover himself from the stupefying
+rapture of that happy moment; he could hardly breathe for delirious
+sadness. He had been well scolded by the old woman for running such a
+great risk; and she never ceased mumbling and grumbling about exposure
+to unnecessary danger.</p>
+
+<p>But one day she came hopping and dancing with her staff in the
+strange
+way she had when apparently affected by some foreign magical influence.
+Without heeding Antonio's words and questions, she began to chuckle and
+laugh, and kindling a small fire in the stove, she put a little pan on
+it, into which she poured several ingredients from many various-
+coloured phials, and made a salve, which she put into a little box;
+then she limped out of the house again, chuckling and laughing. She did
+not return until late at night, when she sat down in the easy-chair,
+panting and coughing for breath; and after she had in a measure
+recovered from her great exhaustion, she at length began, &quot;Tonino, my
+boy Tonino, whom do you think I have come from? See--try if you can
+guess. Whom do I come from? where have I been?&quot; Antonio looked at her,
+and a singular instinctive feeling took possession of him. &quot;Well now,&quot;
+chuckled the old woman, &quot;I have come from her--her herself, from the
+pretty dove, lovely Annunciata.&quot; &quot;Don't drive me mad, old woman!&quot;
+shouted Antonio. &quot;What do you say?&quot; continued she, &quot;I am always
+thinking about you, my Tonino.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This morning, whilst I was haggling for some fine fruit under
+the
+peristyle of the Palace, I heard the people talking with bated breath
+of the accident that had befallen the beautiful Dogess. I inquired
+again and again of several people, and at last a big, uncultivated, red
+haired fellow, who stood leaning against a column, yawning and chawing
+lemons, said to me, 'Oh well, a young scorpion has been trying its
+little teeth on the little finger of her left hand, and there's been a
+drop or two of blood shed--that's all. My master, Signor Doctor
+Giovanni Basseggio, is now in the palace, and he has, no doubt, before
+this cut off her pretty hand, and the finger with it.' Just as the
+fellow was telling me this there arose a great noise on the broad
+steps, and a little man--such a tiny little man--came rolling down at
+our feet, screaming and lamenting, for the guards had kicked him down
+as if he had been a nine pin. The people gathered round him, laughing
+heartily; the little man struggled and fought with his legs in the air
+without being able to get up; but the red-haired fellow rushed forward,
+snatched up the little doctor, tucked him under his arm, and ran off
+with him as fast as his legs could carry him to the Canal, where he got
+into a gondola with him and rowed away--the little doctor screaming and
+yelling with all his might the whole time. I knew how it was; just as
+Signor Basseggio was getting his knife ready to cut off the pretty
+hand, the Doge had had him kicked down the steps. I also thought of
+something else--quick--quick as you can--go home make a salve--and then
+come back here to the Ducal Palace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I stood on the great stairs with my bright little phial
+in my
+hand. Old Falieri was just coming down; he darted a glance at me, and,
+his choler rising, said, 'What does this old woman want here?' Then I
+curtsied low--quite down to the ground--as well as I could, and told
+him that I had a nice remedy which would very soon cure the beautiful
+Dogess. When the old man heard that, he fixed a terrible keen look upon
+me, and stroked his grey beard into order; then he seized me by both
+shoulders and pushed me upstairs and on into the chamber, where I
+nearly fell all my length. O Tonino, there was the pretty child
+reclining on a couch, as pale as death, sighing and moaning with pain
+and softly lamenting, 'Oh! I am poisoned in every vein.' But I at once
+set to work and took off the simple doctor's silly plaster. O just
+Heaven! her dear little hand--all red as red--and swollen. Well, well,
+my salve cooled it--soothed it. 'That does it good; yes, that does it
+good,' softly whispered the sick darling. Then Marino cried quite
+delighted, 'You shall have a thousand sequins, old woman, if you save
+me the Dogess;' and therewith he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For three hours I sat there, holding her little hand in mine,
+stroking
+and attending to it. Then the darling woman woke up out of the gentle
+slumber into which she had fallen, and no longer felt any pain. After I
+had made a fresh poultice, she looked at me with eyes brimming with
+gladness. Then I said, 'O most noble lady, you once saved a boy's life
+when you killed the little snake that was about to attack him as he
+slept.' O Tonino, you should have seen the hot blood rush into her pale
+face, as if a ray of the setting sun had fallen upon it--and how her
+eyes flashed with the fire of joy. 'Oh! yes, old woman,' she said, 'oh!
+I was quite a child then--it was at my father's country villa. Oh! he
+was a dear pretty boy--I often think of him now. I don't think I have
+ever had a single happy experience since that time.' Then I began to
+talk about you, that you were in Venice, that your heart still beat
+with the love and rapture of that moment, that, in order to gaze <i>once</i>
+more in the heavenly eyes of the angel who saved you, you had faced the
+risk of the dangerous aerial voyage, that you it was who had given her
+the nosegay on Holy Thursday. 'O Tonino, Tonino,' she cried in an
+ecstasy of delight, 'I felt it, I felt it; when he pressed my hand to
+his lips, when he named my name, I could not conceive why it went so
+strangely to my heart; it was indeed pleasure, but pain as well. Bring
+him here, bring him to me--the pretty boy.'&quot; As the old woman said this
+Antonio threw himself upon his knees and cried like one insane, &quot;O good
+God! pray let no dire fate overtake me now--now at least until I have
+seen her, have pressed her to my heart.&quot; He wanted the old woman to
+take him to the Palace the very next day; but she flatly refused, since
+old Falieri was in the habit of paying visits to his sick wife nearly
+every hour that came.</p>
+
+<p>Several days went by; the old woman had completely cured the
+Dogess;
+but as yet it had been quite impossible to take Antonio to see her. The
+old woman soothed his impatience as well as she could, always repeating
+that she was constantly talking to beautiful Annunciata about the
+Antonio whose life she had saved, and who loved her so passionately.
+Tormented by all the pangs of desire and yearning love, Antonio spent
+his time in going about in his gondola and restlessly traversing the
+squares. But his footsteps involuntarily turned time after time in the
+direction of the Ducal Palace. One day he saw Pietro standing on the
+bridge close to the back part of the Palace, opposite the prisons,
+leaning on a gay-coloured oar, whilst a gondola, fastened to one of the
+pillars, was rocking on the Canal. Although small, it had a comfortable
+little deck, was adorned with tasteful carvings, and even decorated
+with the Venetian flag, so that it bore some resemblance to the
+Bucentaur. As soon as Pietro saw his former comrade he shouted out to
+him, &quot;Hi! Signor Antonio, the best of good greetings to you; your
+sequins have brought me good luck.&quot; Antonio asked somewhat absently
+what sort of good luck he meant, and learned the important intelligence
+that nearly every evening Pietro had to take the Doge and Dogess in his
+gondola across to Giudecca, where the Doge had a nice house not far
+from San Giorgio Maggiore. Antonio stared at Pietro, and then burst out
+spasmodically, &quot;Comrade, you may earn another ten sequins and more if
+you like. Let me take your place; I will row the Doge over.&quot; But Pietro
+informed him that he could not think of doing so, for the Doge knew him
+and would not trust himself with anybody else. At length when Antonio,
+his mind excited by all the tortures of love, began to give way to
+unbridled anger, and violently importune him, and to swear in an insane
+and ridiculous fashion that he would leap after the gondola and drag it
+down under the sea, Pietro replied laughing, &quot;Why, Signor Antonio,
+Signor Antonio, why, I declare you have quite lost yourself in the
+Dogess's beautiful eyes.&quot; But he consented to allow Antonio to go with
+him as his assistant in rowing; he would excuse it to old Falieri on
+the ground of the weight of the boat, as well, as being himself a
+little weak and unwell, and old Falieri did always think the gondola
+went too slowly on this trip. Off Antonio ran, and he only just
+returned to the bridge in time, dressed in coarse oarsman's clothing,
+his face stained, and with a long moustache stuck above his lips, for
+the Doge came down from the Palace with the Dogess, both attired most
+splendidly and magnificently. &quot;Who's that stranger fellow there?&quot; began
+the Doge angrily to Pietro; and it required all Pietro's most solemn
+asseverations that he really required an assistant, before the old man
+could be induced to allow Antonio to help row the gondola.</p>
+
+<p>It often happens that in the midst of the wildest delirium of
+delight
+and rapture the soul, strengthened as it were by the power of the
+moment, is able to impose fetters upon itself, and to control the
+flames of passion which threaten to blaze out from the heart. In a
+similar way Antonio, albeit he was close beside the lovely Annunciata
+and the seam of her dress touched him, was able to hide his consuming
+passion by maintaining a firm and powerful hold upon his oar, and,
+whilst avoiding any greater risk, by only glancing at her momentarily
+now and then. Old Falieri was all smirks and smiles; he kissed and
+fondled beautiful Annunciata's little white hands, and threw his arm
+around her slender waist. In the middle of the channel, when St. Mark's
+Square and magnificent Venice with all her proud towers and palaces lay
+extended before them, old Falieri raised his head and said, gazing
+proudly about him, &quot;Now, my darling, is it not a grand thing to ride on
+the sea with the lord--the husband of the sea? Yes, my darling, don't
+be jealous of my bride, who is submissively bearing us on her broad
+bosom. Listen to the gentle splashing of the wavelets; are they not
+words of love which she is whispering to the husband who rules her?
+Yes, yes, my darling, you indeed wear my ring on your finger, but she
+below guards in the depths of her bosom the ring of betrothal which I
+threw to her.&quot; &quot;Oh! my princely Sir,&quot; began Annunciata, &quot;oh! how can
+this cold treacherous water be your bride? it quite makes me shiver to
+think that you are married to this proud imperious element.&quot; Old
+Falieri laughed till his chin and beard tottered and shook. &quot;Don't
+distress yourself, my pet,&quot; he said, &quot;it's far better, of course, to
+rest in your soft warm arms than in the ice-cold lap of my bride below
+there; but it's a grand thing to ride on the sea with the lord of the
+sea!&quot; Just as the Doge was saying these words, the faint strains of
+music at a distance came floating towards them. The notes of a soft
+male voice, gliding along the waves of the sea, came nearer and nearer;
+the words that were sung were--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Ah! senza amare,</p>
+<p class="i4">Andare sul mare,</p>
+<p class="i4">Col sposo del' mare</p>
+<p class="i4">Non puo consolare.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Other voices took up the strain, and the same words were
+repeated again
+and again in every-varying alternation, until the song died away like
+the soft breath of the wind as it were. Old Falieri appeared not to pay
+the slightest heed to the song; on the contrary, he was relating to the
+Dogess with much prolixity the meaning and history of the solemnity
+which takes place on Ascension Day when the Doge throws his ring from
+the Bucentaur and is married to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke of the victories of the republic, and how she had
+formerly
+conquered Istria and Dalmatia under the rule of Peter Urseolus the
+Second,<sup><a name="div2_doge24" href="#div2Ref_doge24">24</a></sup> and how this ceremony had its origin in that conquest But
+if old Falieri heeded not the song, so now his tales were lost upon the
+Dogess. She sat with her mind completely wrapped up in the sweet sounds
+which came floating along the sea. When the song came to an end her
+eyes wore a strange far-off look, as if she were awakening from a
+profound dream and striving to see and interpret the images which
+sportively mocked her efforts to hold them fast. &quot;<i>Senza amare, senza
+amare, non puo consolare</i>,&quot; she whispered softly, whilst the tears
+glistened like bright pearls in her heavenly eyes, and sighs escaped
+her breast as it heaved and sank with the violence of her emotions.
+Still smirking and smiling and talking away, the old man, with the
+Dogess at his side, stepped out upon the balcony of his house near San
+Giorgio Maggiore, without noticing that Annunciata stood at his side
+like one in a dream, speechless, her tearful eyes fixed upon some far-
+off land, whilst her heart was agitated by feelings of a singular and
+mysterious character. A young man in gondolier's costume blew a blast
+on a conch-shaped horn, till the sounds echoed far away over the sea.
+At this signal another gondola drew near. Meanwhile an attendant
+bearing a sunshade and a maid had approached the Doge and Dogess; and
+thus attended they went towards the palace. The second gondola came to
+shore, and from it stepped forth Marino Bodoeri and several other
+persons, amongst whom were merchants, artists, nay people out of the
+lowest classes of the populace even; and they followed the Doge.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio could hardly wait until the following evening, since
+he hoped
+then to have the desired message from his beloved Annunciata. At last--
+at last the old woman came limping in, dropped panting into the arm-
+chair, and clapped her thin bony hands together again and again,
+crying. &quot;Tonino, O Tonino! what in the world has happened to our dear
+darling? When I went into her room, there she lay on the couch with her
+eyes half closed, her pretty head resting on her arm, neither
+slumbering nor awake, neither sick nor well. I approached her: 'Oh!
+noble lady,' said I, 'what misfortune has happened to you? Does your
+scarce-healed wound hurt you still?' But she looked at me, oh! with
+such eyes, Antonio--I have never seen anything like them. And directly
+I looked down into the humid moonlight that was in them, they withdrew
+behind the dark clouds of their silken lashes. Then sighing a sigh that
+came from the depths of her heart, she turned her lovely pale face to
+the wall and whispered softly--so softly, but oh! so sadly! that I was
+cut right to the heart, '<i>Amare--amare--ah! senza amare!</i>' I fetched a
+little chair and sat down beside her, and began to talk about you. She
+buried herself in the cushions; and her breathing, coming quicker and
+quicker and quicker, turned to sighing. I told her candidly that you
+had been in the gondola disguised, and that I would now at once without
+delay take you, who were dying of love and longing, to see her. Then
+she suddenly started up from the cushions, and whilst the scalding
+tears streamed down her cheeks, she exclaimed vehemently, 'For God's
+sake! By all the Holy Saints! no--no--I cannot see him, old woman. I
+conjure you, tell him he is never--never again to come near me--never.
+Tell him he is to leave Venice, to go away at once!' 'So then you will
+let my poor Antonio die?' I interposed. Then she sank back upon the
+cushions, apparently smarting from the most unutterable anguish, and
+her voice was almost choked with tears as she sobbed out, 'Shall not I
+also die the bitterest of deaths?' At this point old Falieri entered
+the room, and at a sign from him I had to withdraw.&quot; &quot;She has rejected
+me--away--away into the sea!&quot; cried Antonio, giving way to utter
+despair. The old woman chuckled and laughed in her usual way, and went
+on, &quot;You simple child! you simple child! don't you see that lovely
+Annunciata loves you with all the intensity, with all the agonised love
+of which a woman's heart is capable? You simple boy! Late to-morrow
+evening slip into the Ducal Palace; you will find me in the second
+gallery on the right from the great staircase, and then we will see
+what's to be done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The following evening as Antonio, trembling with expectant
+happiness,
+stole up the great staircase, his conscience suddenly smote him, as
+though he were about to commit some great crime. He was so dazed, and
+he trembled and shook so, that he was scarcely able to climb the
+stairs. He had to stop and rest by leaning himself against a column
+immediately in front of the gallery that had been indicated to him. All
+at once he was plunged in the midst of a bright glare of torches, and
+before he could move from the place old Bodoeri stood in front of him,
+accompanied by some servants, who bore the torches. Bodoeri fixed his
+eyes upon the young man, and then said, &quot;Ha! you are Antonio; you have
+been assigned this post, I know; come, follow me.&quot; Antonio, convinced
+that his proposed interview with the Dogess was betrayed, followed, not
+without trembling. But imagine his astonishment when, on entering a
+remote room, Bodoeri embraced him and spoke of the importance of the
+post that had been assigned to him, and which he would have to maintain
+with courage and firm resolution that very night. But his amazement
+increased to anxious fear and dismay when he learned that a conspiracy
+had been long ripening against the Seignory, and that at the head of it
+was the Doge himself. And this was the night in which, agreeably to the
+resolutions come to in Falieri's house on Giudecca, the Seignory was to
+fall and old Marino Falieri was to be proclaimed sovereign Duke of
+Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio stared at Bodoeri without uttering a word; Bodoeri
+interpreted
+the young man's silence as a refusal to take part in the execution of
+the formidable conspiracy, and he cried incensed, &quot;You cowardly fool!
+You shall not leave this palace again; you shall either take up arms on
+our side or die--but talk to this man first&quot; A tall and noble figure
+stepped forward from the dark background of the apartment. As soon as
+Antonio saw the man's face, which he could not do until he came into
+the light of the torches, and recognised it, he threw himself upon his
+knees and cried, completely losing his presence of mind at seeing him
+whom he never dreamt of seeing again, &quot;O good God! my father, Bertuccio
+Nenolo! my dear foster-parent.&quot; Nenolo raised the young man up, clasped
+him in his arms, and said in a gentle voice, &quot;Aye, of a verity I am
+Bertuccio Nenolo, whom you perhaps thought lay buried at the bottom of
+the sea, but I have only quite recently escaped from my shameful
+captivity at the hands of the savage Morbassan. Yes, I am the Bertuccio
+Nanolo who adopted you. And I never for a moment dreamt that the stupid
+servants whom Bodoeri sent to take possession of the villa, which he
+had bought of me, would turn you out of the house. You infatuated
+youth! Do you hesitate to take up arms against a despotic caste whose
+cruelty robbed you of a father? Ay! go down to the quadrangle of the
+Fontego, and the stains which you will there see on the stone pavements
+are the stains of your father's blood. The Seignory when making over to
+the German merchants the <i>dépôt</i> and exchange which you know under the
+name of the Fontego, forbade all those who had offices assigned to them
+to take the keys with them when they went away; they were to leave them
+with the official in charge of the Fontego. Your father acted contrary
+to this law, and had therefore incurred a heavy penalty. But now when
+the offices were opened on your father's return, there was found
+amongst his wares a chest of false Venetian coins. He vainly protested
+his innocence; it was only too evident that some malicious fiend,
+perhaps the official in charge himself, had smuggled in the chest in
+order to ruin your father. The inexorable judges, satisfied that the
+chest had been found in your father's offices, condemned him to death.
+He was executed in the quadrangle of the Fontego; nor would you now be
+living if faithful Margaret had not saved you. I, your father's truest
+friend, adopted you; and in order that you might not betray yourself to
+the Seignory, you were not told what was your father's name. But now--
+now, Anthony Dalbirger,--now is the time--now, to seize your arms and
+revenge upon the heads of the Seignory your father's shameful death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio, fired by the spirit of vengeance, swore to be true to
+the
+conspirators and to act with invincible courage. It is well known that
+it was the affront put upon Bertuccio Nenolo by Dandulo when he was
+appointed to superintend the naval preparations, and on the occasion of
+a quarrel struck Nenolo in the face, that induced him to join with his
+ambitious son-in-law in his conspiracy against the Seignory. Both
+Nenolo and Bodoeri were desirous for old Falieri to assume the princely
+mantle in order that they might themselves rise along with him. The
+conspirators' plan was to spread abroad the news that the Genoese fleet
+lay before the Lagune. Then when night came the great bell in St.
+Mark's Tower was to be rung, and the town summoned to arms, under the
+false pretext of defence. This was to be the signal for the
+conspirators, whose numbers were considerable, and who were scattered
+throughout all Venice, to occupy St. Mark's Square, make themselves
+masters of the remaining principal squares of the town, murder the
+leading men of the Seignory, and proclaim the Doge sovereign Duke of
+Venice.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not the will of Heaven that this murderous scheme
+should
+succeed, nor that the fundamental constitution of the harassed state
+should be trampled in the dust by old Falieri--a man inflamed with
+pride and haughtiness. The meetings in Falieri's house on Giudecca had
+not escaped the watchfulness of the Ten; but they failed altogether to
+learn any reliable intelligence. But the conscience of one of the
+conspirators, a fur-merchant of Pisa, Bentian by name, pricked him; he
+resolved to save from destruction his friend and gossip, Nicolas
+Leoni, a member of the Council of Ten. When twilight came on, he went
+to him and besought him not to leave his house during the night, no
+matter what occurred. Leoni's suspicion was aroused; he detained the
+fur-merchant, and on pressing him closely learned the whole scheme. In
+conjunction with Giovanni Gradenigo and Marco Cornaro he called the
+Council of Ten together in St. Salvador's (church); and there, in less
+than three hours, measures were taken calculated to stifle all the
+efforts of the conspirators on the first sign of movement.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio's commission was to take a body of men and go to St.
+Mark's
+Tower, and see that the bell was tolled. Arrived there, he found the
+tower occupied by a large force of Arsenal troops, who, on his
+attempting to approach, charged upon him with their halberds. His own
+band, seized with a sudden panic, scattered like chaff; and he himself
+slipped away in the darkness of the night. But he heard the footsteps
+of a man following close at his heels; he felt him lay hands upon him,
+and he was just on the point of cutting his pursuer down when by means
+of a sudden flash of light he recognised Pietro. &quot;Save yourself,&quot; cried
+he, &quot;save yourself, Antonio,--here in my gondola. All is betrayed.
+Bodoeri--Nenolo--are in the power of the Seignory; the doors of the
+Ducal Palace are closed; the Doge is confined a prisoner in his own
+apartment--watched like a criminal by his own faithless guards. Come
+along--make haste--get away.&quot; Almost stupefied, Antonio suffered
+himself to be dragged into the gondola. Muffled voices--the clash of
+weapons--single cries for help--then with the deepest blackness of the
+night there followed a breathless awful silence. Next morning the
+populace, stricken with terror, beheld a fearful sight; it made every
+man's blood run cold in his veins. The Council of the Ten had that very
+same night passed sentence of death upon the leaders of the conspiracy
+who had been seized. They were strangled, and suspended from the
+balcony at the side of the Palace overlooking the Piazzetta, the one
+whence the Doge was in the habit of witnessing all ceremonies,--and
+where, alas! Antonio had hovered in the air before the lovely
+Annunciata, and where she had received from him the nosegay of flowers.
+Amongst the corpses were those of Marino Bodoeri and Bertuccio Nenolo.
+Two days later old Marino Falieri was sentenced to death by the Council
+of Ten, and executed on the so-called Giant Stairs of the Palace.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio wandered about unconsciously, like a man in a dream;
+no one
+laid hands upon him, for no one recognised him as having been of the
+number of the conspirators. On seeing old Falieri's grey head fall, he
+started up, as it were, out of his death-like trance. With a most
+unearthly scream--with the shout, &quot;Annunciata!&quot; he rushed storming in
+the Palace, and along the passages. Nobody stopped him; the guards, as
+if stupefied by the terrible thing that had just taken place, only
+stared after him. The old crone came to meet him, loudly lamenting and
+complaining; she seized his hand and--a few steps more, and along with
+her he entered Annunciata's room. There she lay, poor thing, on the
+couch, as if already dead. Antonio rushed towards her and covered her
+hands with burning kisses, calling her by the sweetest and tenderest
+names.</p>
+
+<p>Then she slowly opened her lovely heavenly eyes and saw
+Antonio; at
+first, however, it appeared as if it cost her an effort to call him to
+mind; but speedily she raised herself up, threw both her arms around
+his neck, and drew him to her bosom, showering down her hot tears upon
+him and kissing his cheeks--his lips. &quot;Antonio--my Antonio--I love you,
+oh! more than I can tell you--yes, yes, there <i>is</i> a heaven on earth.
+What are my father's and my uncle's and my husband's death in
+comparison with the blissful joy of your love? Oh! let us flee--flee
+from this scene of blood and murder.&quot; Thus spake Annunciata, her heart
+rent by the bitterest anguish, as well as by the most passionate love.
+Amid thousands of kisses and never-ending tears, the two lovers
+mutually swore eternal fidelity; and, forgetting the fearful events of
+the terrible day that was past, they turned their eyes from the earth
+and looked up into the heaven which the spirit of love had unfolded to
+their view. The old woman advised them to flee to Chiozza; thence
+Antonio intended to travel in an opposite direction by land towards his
+own native country.</p>
+
+<p>His friend, Pietro, procured him a small boat and had it
+brought to the
+bridge behind the Palace. When night came, Annunciata, enveloped in a
+thick shawl, crept stealthily down the steps with her lover, attended
+by old Margaret, who bore some valuable jewel caskets in her hood. They
+reached the bridge unobserved, and unobserved they embarked in their
+small craft. Antonio seized the oar, and away they went at a quick and
+vigorous rate. The bright moonlight danced along the waves in front of
+them like a gladsome messenger of love. They reached the open sea. Then
+began a peculiar whistling and howling of the wind far above their
+heads; black shadows came trooping up and hung themselves like a dark
+veil over the bright face of the moon. The dancing moonshine, the
+gladsome messenger of love, sank in the black depths of the sea amongst
+its muttering thunders. The storm came on and drove the black piled-up
+masses of clouds in front of it with wrathful violence. Up and down
+tossed the boat. &quot;O help us! God, help us!&quot; screamed the old woman.
+Antonio, no longer master of the oar, clasped his darling Annunciata in
+his arms, whilst she, aroused by his fiery kisses, strained him to her
+bosom in the intensity of her rapturous affection. &quot;O my Antonio!&quot;--&quot;O
+my Annunciata!&quot; they whispered, heedless of the storm which raged and
+blustered ever more furiously. Then the sea, the jealous widow of the
+beheaded Doge Falieri, stretched up her foaming waves as if they were
+giant arms, and seized upon the lovers, and dragged them, along with
+the old woman, down, down into her fathomless depths.</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as the man in the mantle had thus concluded his narrative, he
+jumped up quickly and left the room with strong rapid strides. The
+friends followed him with their eyes, silently and very much
+astonished; then they went to take another look at the picture. The old
+Doge again looked down upon them with a smirk, in his ridiculous finery
+and foppish vanity; but when they carefully looked into the Dogess's
+face they perceived quite plainly that the shadow of some unknown
+pain--a pain of which she only had a foreboding--was throned upon her
+lily brow, and that dreamy aspirations of love gleamed from behind her
+dark lashes, and hovered around her sweet lips. The Hostile Power
+seemed to be threatening death and destruction from out the distant sea
+and the vaporous clouds which enshrouded St. Mark's. They now had a
+clear conception of the deeper significance of the charming picture;
+but so often as they looked upon it again, all the sympathetic sorrow
+which they had felt at the history of Antonio and Annunciata's love
+returned upon them and filled the deepest recesses of their souls with
+its pleasurable awe.</p>
+
+<p class="continue">FOOTNOTES TO &quot;THE DOGE AND DOGESS.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge1" href="#div2_doge1">1</a></sup> Written for the <i>Taschenbuch der Liebe und
+Freundschaft
+gewidmet</i>, 1819; edited by S. Schütze, Frankfort-on-Main.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge2" href="#div2_doge2">2</a></sup> C W. Kolbe, junr., historical and genre painter,
+was born in 1781 and died in 1853.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge3" href="#div2_doge3">3</a></sup> The story <i>Turandot</i> has a history. Its
+prototype is in the Persian poet Nizámí (1141-1203). From Gozzi it was translated into
+German by Werthes; and it was from his translation that Schiller worked
+up his play in November and December, 1801. The proud Turandot,
+daughter of the Emperor of China, entertains such loathing of marriage
+that she rejects all suitors, until on her father's threatening to
+compel her to wed, she institutes a kind of version of the caskets in
+the <i>Merchant of Venice</i>. Any prince may woo for her, but in a peculiar
+way. He must solve three riddles in the full assembly of the court. If
+he succeeds, he wins the princess; if he does not succeed, he loses his
+own head. In Gozzi the three riddles are about the Year, the Sun, and
+(extremely inapposite to the circumstances) the Lion of the Adriatic.
+The two last Schiller replaced by riddles about the Eye and the
+Plough.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge4" href="#div2_doge4">4</a></sup> Calaf, Prince of Astrakhan, successfully solves
+the riddles and wins the Princess Turandot.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge5" href="#div2_doge5">5</a></sup> The story of this Doge's conspiracy has furnished
+materials for a tragedy to Byron (1821), Casimir Delavinge (1829), and
+Albert Lindner (1875). A translation of the story is given by Mr. F.
+Cohen (Sir F. Palgrave) from Sanuto's <i>Chronicle</i>, in the Appendix to
+the play in Byron's works.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge6" href="#div2_doge6">6</a></sup> Paganino Dona, one of the greatest of Genoese
+admirals, took and burnt Parenzo, a town on the west coast of Istria, on the 11th
+of August, 1354. At this period the rivalry between the two republics,
+Venice and Genoa, in their commercial relations with the East and in
+the Black Sea, was especially bitter, and they were almost constantly
+at war with each other.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge7" href="#div2_doge7">7</a></sup> Andrea Dandolo (1307-1354), Doge from 1343 to
+1354. During his reign Venice actively extended her commercial conquests in the
+Black Sea and the countries around the Levant, engaged part of the time
+in active hostilities with the Genoese.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge8" href="#div2_doge8">8</a></sup> The sequin was a gold coin of Venice and Tuscany,
+worth about 9s. 3d. It is sometimes used as equivalent to ducat (Note, page 63, Vol. i.)</p>
+
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge9" href="#div2_doge9">9</a></sup> Pope Innocent VI., Pope at Avignon, from 1352 to
+1362.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge10" href="#div2_doge10">10</a></sup> Hoffmann states that he derived his materials
+for this story from Le Bret's &quot;History of Venice,&quot;--a book which, unfortunately,
+up to the time of going to press, the translator had not been able to
+obtain.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge11" href="#div2_doge11">11</a></sup> Nicolo Pisani, a very active naval commander in
+the third war with Genoa (1350-1355), fought battles in the Bosphorus, off
+Sardinia, and at Porto Longo, near Modon (Greece).]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge12" href="#div2_doge12">12</a></sup> Sardinia was for many, many years an object of
+contention between Pisa, Genoa, and the Aragonese. At this time (1354)
+it belonged to the latter, but the Genoese were constantly endeavouring
+to stir up the people of the island to revolt against the Aragonese;
+hence we may see reason for Pisani's being in Sardinian waters.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge13" href="#div2_doge13">13</a></sup> Equivalent to &quot;Governor,&quot; Chioggia was an old
+town thirty miles south of Venice, at the southern extremity of the Lagune.
+Chiozza = Chioggia.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge14" href="#div2_doge14">14</a></sup> The state barge of Venice; the word means
+&quot;little golden boat.&quot; Pope Alexander III. bestowed upon the Doge Sebastian Ziani, for
+his victory over Frederick Barbarossa near Parenzo on Ascension Day,
+1177, a ring in token of the suzerainty of Venice over the Adriatic.
+From this time dates the observance of the annual ceremony of the
+Doge's marrying the Adriatic from the Bucentaur.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge15" href="#div2_doge15">15</a></sup> San Giorgio Maggiore. Venice, as everybody
+knows, is not built upon the mainland but upon islands. The two largest, whose
+greatest length is from east to west, are divided by the Grand Canal,
+upon which axe situated most of the palaces and important public
+buildings. South of these two principal islands, and separated from
+them by the Giudecca Canal, are the islands of Giudecca and San Giorgio
+Maggiore close together, the latter on the east and opposite the south
+entrance to the Grand Canal, beyond which are the Piazetta and St.
+Mark's Square.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge16" href="#div2_doge16">16</a></sup> This is larger than the gondola, and also more
+modern; it is calculated to hold six persons, and even luggage.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge17" href="#div2_doge17">17</a></sup> The Fondaco de' Tedeschi, erected in 1506, on
+the Grand Canal. It was formerly decorated externally with paintings by Titian
+and his pupils. At first it served as <i>dépôt</i> for the wares of German
+merchants (whence its name), but is now used as a custom-house.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge18" href="#div2_doge18">18</a></sup> Louis I. the Great of Hungary (1342-1382). The
+Dalmatian and Istrian sea-board formed a fruitful source of contention between
+the Venetians and Hungary, Louis proving a very formidable opponent to
+the Republic.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge19" href="#div2_doge19">19</a></sup> At this epoch Venice was the mart and mediatory
+between the West and the East, the commercial riches of the latter having been
+opened up to the feudal civilisation of Europe, chiefly through the
+Crusades. Hence the cosmopolitan character of the merchants on the
+Rialto.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge20" href="#div2_doge20">20</a></sup> In the year 1348, Venice was visited by an
+earthquake,
+and this was followed by the plague (the Black Death). In order to
+complete the roll of the republic's misfortunes in this gloomy year, it
+may be added that she also lost almost the whole of her Black Sea fleet
+to the Genoese.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge21" href="#div2_doge21">21</a></sup> It may perhaps be interesting to observe that a
+precisely similar occurrence forms the central feature in H. v. Kleist's
+&quot;Erdbeben in Chili&quot; (1810), perhaps one of the best of his short
+stories.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge22" href="#div2_doge22">22</a></sup> Narrated in the translation of the Chronicle of
+Sanuto by Sir Francis Palgrave in Byron's notes to &quot;Marino Faliero.&quot;]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge23" href="#div2_doge23">23</a></sup> On the island of Sapenzia, south-west of the
+Morea.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_doge24" href="#div2_doge24">24</a></sup> Pietro Urseolo I. was Doge from 991 to 1009;
+Dalmatia was subdued in 997.]</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><i><a name="div1_martin" href="#div1Ref_martin">MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER</a>,<br />
+AND HIS JOURNEYMAN.</i><sup><a name="div2_martin1" href="#div2Ref_martin1">1</a></sup></h2>
+
+<p class="continue">Well may your heart swell in presentient sadness, indulgent
+reader,
+when your footsteps wander through places where the splendid monuments
+of Old German Art speak, like eloquent tongues, of the magnificence,
+good steady industry, and sterling honesty of an illustrious age now
+long since passed away. Do you not feel as if you were entering a
+deserted house? The Holy Book in which the head of the household read
+is still lying open on the table, and the gay rich tapestry that the
+mistress of the house spun with her own hands is still hanging on the
+walls; whilst round about in the bright clean cupboards are ranged all
+kinds of valuable works of art, gifts received on festive occasions.
+You could almost believe a member of the household will soon enter and
+receive you with genuine hearty hospitality. But you will wait in vain
+for those whom the eternally revolving wheel of Time has whirled away;
+you may therefore surrender yourself to the sweet dream in which the
+old Masters rise up before you and speak honest and weighty words that
+sink deeply into your heart Then for the first time will you be able to
+grasp the profound significance of their works, for you will then not
+only live in, but you will also understand the age which could produce
+such masters and such works. But, alas! does it not happen that, as you
+stretch out your loving arms to clasp the beautiful image of your
+dream, it shyly flees away on the light morning clouds before the noisy
+bustle of the day, whilst you, your eyes filling with scalding tears,
+gaze after the bright vision as it gradually disappears? And so, rudely
+disturbed by the life that is pulsing about you, you are suddenly
+wakened out of your pleasant dream, retaining only the passionate
+longing that thrills your breast with its delicious awe.</p>
+
+<p>Such sentiments as these, indulgent reader, have always
+animated the
+breast of him who is about to pen these pages for you, whenever his
+path has led him through the world-renowned city of Nuremberg. Now
+lingering before that wonderful structure, the fountain<sup><a name="div2_martin2" href="#div2Ref_martin2">2</a></sup>
+in the market-place, now contemplating St. Sebald's shrine,<sup><a name="div2_martin3" href="#div2Ref_martin3">3</a></sup> and the
+ciborium<sup><a name="div2_martin4" href="#div2Ref_martin4">4</a></sup> in St. Lawrence's Church, and Albert Dürer's<sup><a name="div2_martin5" href="#div2Ref_martin5">5</a></sup> grand
+pictures in the castle and in the town-house, he used to give himself
+up entirely to the delicious reveries which transported him into the
+midst of all the glorious splendours of the old Imperial Town. He
+thought of the true-hearted words of Father Rosenblüth<sup><a name="div2_martin6" href="#div2Ref_martin6">6</a></sup>--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">O Nuremberg, thou glorious spot,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thy honour's bolt was aimed aright,</p>
+<p class="i4">Sticks in the mark whereat wisdom shot;</p>
+<p class="i4">And truth in thee hath come to light.</p></div>
+
+<p>Many a picture of the life of the worthy citizens of that
+period, when
+art and manual industry went loyally and industriously hand in hand,
+rose up brightly before his mind's eye, impressing itself upon his soul
+in especially cheerful and pleasing colours. Graciously be pleased,
+therefore, that he put one of these pictures before you. Perhaps, as
+you gaze upon it, it may afford you gratification, perhaps it may draw
+from you a good-natured smile, perhaps you may even come to feel
+yourself at home in Master Martin's house, and may linger willingly
+amongst his casks and tubs. Well!--Then the writer of these pages will
+have effected what is the sincere and honest wish of his heart.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>How Master Martin was elected &quot;Candle-master&quot; and how
+he returned thanks therefor.</i></p>
+
+<p>On the 1st of May, 1580, in accordance with traditionary
+custom and
+usage, the honourable guild of coopers, or wine-cask makers, of the
+free Imperial Town of Nuremberg, held with all due ceremony a meeting
+of their craft. A short time previously one of the presidents, or
+&quot;Candle-masters,&quot; as they were called, had been carried to his grave;
+it was therefore necessary to elect a successor. Choice fell upon
+Master Martin. And in truth there was scarcely another who could be
+measured against him in the building of strong and well-made casks;
+none understood so well as he the management of wine in the cellar;<sup><a name="div2_martin7" href="#div2Ref_martin7">7</a></sup>
+hence he counted amongst his customers very many men of distinction,
+and lived in the most prosperous circumstances--nay, almost rolled in
+riches. Accordingly, after Martin had been elected, the worthy
+Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner, who, in his official character of
+syndic,<sup><a name="div2_martin8" href="#div2Ref_martin8">8</a></sup> presided over the meeting, said, &quot;You have done bravely
+well, friends, to choose Master Martin as your president, for the
+office could not be in better hands. He is held in high esteem by all
+who know him, not only on account of his great skill, but on account of
+his ripe experience in the art of keeping and managing the rich juice
+of the grape. His steady industry and upright life, in spite of all the
+wealth he has amassed, may serve as an example to you all. Welcome then
+a thousand times, goodman Master Martin, as our honoured president.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With these words Paumgartner rose to his feet and took a few
+steps
+forward, with open arms, expecting that Martin would come to meet him.
+The latter immediately placed both his hands upon the arms of his chair
+and raised himself as expeditiously as his portly person would permit
+him to rise,--which was only slowly and heavily. Then just as slowly he
+strode into Paumgartner's hearty embrace, which, however, he scarcely
+returned. &quot;Well,&quot; said Paumgartner, somewhat nettled at this, &quot;well,
+Master Martin, are you not altogether well pleased that we have elected
+you to be our 'Candle-master'?&quot; Master Martin, as was his wont, threw
+his head back into his neck, played with his fingers upon his capacious
+belly, and, opening his eyes wide and thrusting forward his under-lip
+with an air of superior astuteness, let his eyes sweep round the
+assembly. Then, turning to Paumgartner, he began, &quot;Marry, my good and
+worthy sir, why should I not be altogether well pleased, seeing that I
+receive what is my due? Who refuses to take the reward of his honest
+labour? Who turns away from his threshold the defaulting debtor when at
+length he comes to pay his long standing debt? What! my good sirs,&quot; and
+Martin turned to the masters who sat around, &quot;what! my good sirs, has
+it then occurred to you at last that I--I <i>must</i> be president of our
+honourable guild? What do you look for in your president? That he be
+the most skilful in workmanship? Go look at my two-tun cask made
+without fire,<sup><a name="div2_martin9" href="#div2Ref_martin9">9</a></sup> my brave masterpiece, and then come and tell me if
+there's one amongst you dare boast that, so far as concerns
+thoroughness and finish, he has ever turned out anything like it. Do
+you desire that your president possess money and goods? Come to my
+house and I will throw open chests and drawers, and you shall feast
+your eyes on the glitter of the sparkling gold and silver. Will you
+have a president who is respected by noble and base-born alike? Only
+ask our honoured gentlemen of the Council, ask the princes and noblemen
+around our good town of Nuremberg, ask his Lordship, the Bishop of
+Bamberg, ask what they all think of Master Martin? Oh! I--I don't think
+you'll hear much said against him.&quot; At the same time Master Martin
+struck his big fat belly with the greatest self-satisfaction, smiling
+with his eyes half-closed. Then, as all remained silent, nothing being
+heard except a dubious clearing of the throat here and there, he
+continued, &quot;Ay! ay! I see. I ought, I know very well, to thank you all
+handsomely that in this election the good Lord above has at last seen
+fit to enlighten your minds. Well, when I receive the price of my
+labour, when my debtor repays me the borrowed money, I write at the
+bottom of the bill or of the receipt my 'Paid with thanks, Thomas<sup><a name="div2_martin10" href="#div2Ref_martin10">10</a></sup>
+Martin, Master-cooper here.' Let me then thank you all from my heart,
+since in electing me to be your president and 'Candle-master' you have
+wiped out an old debt. As for the rest, I pledge you that I will
+discharge the duties of my office with all fidelity and uprightness. In
+the hour of need I will stand by the guild and by each of you to the
+very best of my abilities with word and deed. I will exert the utmost
+diligence to uphold the honour and fame of our celebrated handicraft,
+without bating one jot of its present credit. My honoured syndic, and
+all you, my good friends and masters, I invite to come and partake of
+good cheer with me on the coming Sunday. Then, with blithesome hearts
+and minds, let us deliberate over a glass of good Hochheimer<sup><a name="div2_martin11" href="#div2Ref_martin11">11</a></sup>] or
+Johannisberger,<sup><a name="div2_martin12" href="#div2Ref_martin12">12</a></sup> or any other choice wine in my cellar that your
+palates may crave, what can be done for the furtherance of our common
+weal. Once again, I say you shall be all heartily welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The honest masters' countenances, which had perceptibly
+clouded on
+hearing Master Martin's proud words, now recovered their serenity,
+whilst the previous dead silence was followed by the cheerful buzz of
+conversation, in which a good deal was said about Master Martin's great
+deserts, and also about his choice cellar. All promised to be present
+on the Sunday, and offered their hands to the newly-elected &quot;Candle-
+master,&quot; who took them and shook them warmly, also drawing a few of the
+masters a little towards him, as if desirous of embracing them. The
+company separated in blithe good-humour.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>What afterwards took place in Master Martin's house.</i></p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner had to
+pass by
+Master Martin's in order to reach his own home; and as they both stood
+outside Master Martin's door, and Paumgartner was about to proceed on
+his way, his friend, doffing his low bonnet, and bowing respectfully
+and as low as he was able, said to him, &quot;I should be very glad, my good
+and worthy sir, if you would not disdain to step in and spend an hour
+or so in my humble house. Be pleased to suffer me to derive both profit
+and entertainment from your wise conversation.&quot; &quot;Ay, ay! Master Martin,
+my friend,&quot; replied Paumgartner smiling, &quot;gladly enough will I stay a
+while with you; but why do you call your house a humble house? I know
+very well that there's none of the richest of our citizens who can
+excel you in jewels and valuable furniture. Did you not a short time
+ago complete a handsome building which makes your house one of the
+ornaments of our renowned Imperial Town?<sup><a name="div2_martin13" href="#div2Ref_martin13">13</a></sup> In respect of its interior
+fittings I say nothing, for no patrician even need be ashamed of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Old Paumgartner was right; for on opening the door, which was
+brightly
+polished and richly ornamented with brass-work, they stepped into a
+spacious entrance hall almost resembling a state-room; the floor was
+tastefully inlaid, fine pictures hung on the walls, and the cupboards
+and chairs were all artistically carved. And all who came in willingly
+obeyed the direction inscribed in verses, according to olden custom, on
+a tablet which hung near the door:--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Let him who will the stairs ascend</p>
+<p class="i4">See that his shoes be rubbed well clean.</p>
+<p class="i4">Or taken off were better, I ween;</p>
+<p class="i4">He thus avoids what might offend.</p>
+<p class="i4">A thoughtful man is well aware</p>
+<p class="i4">How he indoors himself should bear.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It had been a hot day, and now as the hour of twilight was
+approached
+it began to be close and stuffy in the rooms, so Master Martin led his
+eminent guest into the cool and spacious parlour-kitchen. For this was
+the name applied at that time to a place in the houses of the rich
+citizens which, although furnished as a kitchen, was never used as
+such--all kinds of valuable utensils and other necessaries of
+housekeeping being there set out on show. Hardly had they got inside
+the door when Master Martin shouted in a loud voice, &quot;Rose, Rose!&quot; Then
+the door was immediately opened, and Rose, Master Martin's only
+daughter, came in.</p>
+
+<p>I should like you, dear reader, to awaken at this moment a
+vivid
+recollection of our great Albrecht Dürer's masterpieces; I would wish
+that the glorious maidens whom we find in them, with all their noble
+grace, their sweet gentleness and piety, should recur to your mind,
+endowed with living form. Recall the noble and delicate figure, the
+beautifully arched, lily-white forehead, the carnation flitting like a
+breath of roses across the cheek, the full sweet cherry-red lips,--
+recall the eyes full of pious aspirations, half-veiled by their dark
+lashes, like moonlight seen through dusky foliage,--recall the silky
+hair, artfully gathered into graceful plaits,--recall the divine beauty
+of these maidens, and you will see lovely Rose. How else than in this
+way could the narrator sketch the dear, darling child? And yet permit
+me to remind you here of an admirable young artist into whose heart a
+quickening ray has fallen from these beautiful old times. I mean the
+German painter Cornelius,<sup><a name="div2_martin14" href="#div2Ref_martin14">14</a></sup> in Rome. Just as Margaret looks in
+Cornelius's drawings to Goethe's mighty <i>Faust</i> when she utters the
+words, &quot;Bin weder Fräulein noch schön&quot;<sup><a name="div2_martin15" href="#div2Ref_martin15">15</a></sup> (I am neither a lady of
+rank, nor yet beautiful), so also may Rose have looked when in the
+shyness of her pure chaste heart she felt compelled to shun addresses
+that smacked somewhat too much of freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Rose bowed low with child-like respect before Paumgartner, and
+taking
+his hand, pressed it to her lips. The crimson colour rushed into the
+old gentleman's pale cheeks, as the sun when setting shoots up a dying
+flash, suddenly converting the dark foliage into gold, so the fire of a
+youth now left far behind gleamed once more in his eyes. &quot;Ay! ay!&quot; he
+cried in a blithesome voice, &quot;marry, my good friend Master Martin, you
+are a rich and a prosperous man, but the best of all the blessings
+which the good Lord has given you is your lovely daughter Rose. If the
+hearts of old gentlemen like us who sit in the Town Council are so
+stirred that we cannot turn away our purblind eyes from the dear child,
+who can find fault with the young folks if they stop and stand like
+blocks of wood, or as if spell-bound, when they meet your daughter in
+the street, or see her at church, though we have a word of blame for
+our clerical gentry, because on the Allerwiese,<sup><a name="div2_martin16" href="#div2Ref_martin16">16</a></sup> or wherever else a
+festival is held, they all crowd round your daughter, with their sighs,
+and loving glances, and honied words, to the vexation of all other
+girls? Well, well, Master Martin, you can choose you your son-in-law
+amongst any of our young patricians, or wherever else you may list.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A dark frown settled on Master Martin's face; he bade his
+daughter
+fetch some good old wine; and after she had left the room, the hot
+blushes mantling thick and fast upon her cheeks, and her eyes bent upon
+the floor, he turned to old Paumgartner, &quot;Of a verity, my good sir,
+Heaven has dowered my daughter with exceptional beauty, and herein too
+I have been made rich; but how can you speak of it in the girl's
+presence? And as for a patrician son-in-law, there'll never be anything
+of that sort.&quot; &quot;Enough, Master Martin, say no more,&quot; replied
+Paumgartner, laughing. &quot;Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth must
+speak. Don't you believe, then, that when I set eyes on Rose the
+sluggish blood begins to leap in my old heart also? And if I do
+honestly speak out what she herself must very well know, surely there's
+no very great mischief done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Rose brought the wine and two beautiful drinking-glasses. Then
+Martin
+pushed the heavy table, which was ornamented with some remarkable
+carving, into the middle of the kitchen. Scarcely, however, had the old
+gentlemen taken their places and Master Martin had filled the glasses
+when a trampling of horses was heard in front of the house. It seemed
+as if a horseman had pulled up, and as if his voice was heard in the
+entrance-passage below. Rose hastened down and soon came back with the
+intelligence that old Junker<sup><a name="div2_martin17" href="#div2Ref_martin17">17</a></sup> Heinrich von Spangenberg was there and
+wished to speak to Master Martin. &quot;Marry!&quot; cried Martin, &quot;now this is
+what I call a fine lucky evening, which brings me my best and oldest
+customer. New orders of course, I see I shall have to 'cask' out
+again&quot;--Therewith he hastened down as fast as he was able to meet his
+welcome guest.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>How Master Martin extols his trade above all others.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Hochheimer sparkled in the beautiful cut drinking-glasses,
+and
+loosened the tongues and opened the hearts of the three old gentlemen.
+Old Spangenberg especially, who, though advanced in years, was yet
+brimming with freshness and vivacity, had many a jolly prank out of his
+merry youth to relate, so that Master Martin's belly wabbled famously,
+and again and again he had to brush the tears out of his eyes, caused
+by his loud and hearty laughing. Herr Paumgartner, too, forgot more
+than was customary with him the dignity of the Councillor, and enjoyed
+right well the noble liquor and the merry conversation. But when Rose
+again made her appearance with the neat housekeeper's basket under her
+arm, out of which she took a tablecloth as dazzling white as fresh-
+fallen snow,--when she tripped backwards and forwards busy with
+household matters, laying the cloth, and placing a plentiful supply of
+appetising dishes on the table,--when, with a winning smile she invited
+the gentlemen not to despise what had been hurriedly prepared, but to
+turn to and eat--during all this time their conversation and laughter
+ceased. Neither Paumgartner nor Spangenberg averted their sparkling
+eyes from the fascinating maiden, whilst Master Martin too, leaning
+back in his chair, and folding his hands, watched her busy movements
+with a gratified smile. Rose was withdrawing, but old Spangenberg was
+on his feet in a moment, quick as a youth; he took the girl by both
+shoulders and cried, again and again, as the bright tears trickled from
+his eyes, &quot;Oh you good, you sweet little angel! What a dear darling
+girl you are!&quot; then he kissed her twice--three times on the forehead,
+and returned to his seat, apparently in deep thought.</p>
+
+<p>Paumgartner proposed the toast of Rose's health. &quot;Yes,&quot; began
+Spangenberg, after she had gone out of the room, &quot;yes, Master Martin,
+Providence has given you a precious jewel in your daughter, whom you
+cannot well over-estimate. She will yet bring you to great honour. Who
+is there, let him be of what rank in life he may, who would not
+willingly be your son-in-law?&quot; &quot;There you are,&quot; interposed Paumgartner;
+&quot;there you see, Master Martin, the noble Herr von Spangenberg is
+exactly of my opinion. I already see our dear Rose a patrician's bride
+with the rich jewellery of pearls<sup><a name="div2_martin18" href="#div2Ref_martin18">18</a></sup> in her beautiful flaxen hair.&quot;
+&quot;My dear sirs,&quot; began Martin, quite testily, &quot;why do you, my dear sirs,
+keep harping upon this matter--a matter to which I have not as yet
+directed my thoughts? My Rose has only just reached her eighteenth
+year; it's not time for such a young thing to be looking out for a
+lover. How things may turn out afterwards--well, that I leave entirely
+to the will of the Lord; but this I do at any rate know, that none
+shall touch my daughter's hand, be he patrician or who he may, except
+the cooper who approves himself the cleverest and skilfullest master in
+his trade--presuming, of course, that my daughter will have him, for
+never will I constrain my dear child to do anything in the world, least
+of all to make a marriage that she does not like.&quot; Spangenberg and
+Paumgartner looked at each other, perfectly astonished at this
+extraordinary decision of the Master's.<sup><a name="div2_martin19" href="#div2Ref_martin19">19</a></sup> At length, after some
+clearing of his throat, Spangenberg began, &quot;So, then, your daughter is
+not to wed out of her own station?&quot; &quot;God forbid she should,&quot; rejoined
+Martin. &quot;But,&quot; continued Spangenberg, &quot;if now a skilled master of a
+higher trade, say a goldsmith, or even a brave young artist, were to
+sue for your Rose and succeeded in winning her favour more than all
+other young journeymen, what then?&quot; &quot;I should say,&quot; replied Master
+Martin, throwing his head back into his neck, &quot;show me, my excellent
+young friend, the fine two-tun cask which you have made as your
+masterpiece; and if he could not do so, I should kindly open the door
+for him and very politely request him to try his luck elsewhere.&quot; &quot;Ah!
+but,&quot; went on Spangenberg again, &quot;if the young journeyman should reply,
+'A little structure of that kind I cannot show you, but come with me to
+the market-place and look at yon beautiful house which is sending up
+its slender gable into the free open air--that's my masterpiece.'&quot; &quot;Ah!
+my good sir, my good sir,&quot; broke in Master Martin impatiently, &quot;why do
+you give yourself all this trouble to try and make me alter my
+conviction? Once and for all, my son-in-law must be of <i>my</i> trade; for
+my trade I hold to be the finest trade there is in the world. Do you
+think we've nothing to do but to fix the staves into the trestles
+(hoops), so that the cask may hold together? Marry, it's a fine thing
+and an admirable thing that our handiwork requires a previous knowledge
+of the way in which that noble blessing of Heaven, good wine, must be
+kept and managed, that it may acquire strength and flavour so as to go
+through all our veins and warm our blood like the true spirit of life!
+And then as for the construction of the casks--if we are to turn out a
+successful piece of work, must we not first draw out our plans with
+compass and rule? We must be arithmeticians and geometricians of no
+mean attainments, how else can we adapt the proportion and size of the
+cask to the measure of its contents? Ay, sir, my heart laughs in my
+body when we've bravely laboured at the staves with jointer and adze
+and have gotten a brave cask in the vice; and then when my journeymen
+swing their mallets and down it comes on the drivers clipp! clapp!
+clipp! clapp!--that's merry music for you; and there stands your well-
+made cask. And of a verity I may look a little proudly about me when I
+take my marking-tool in my hand and mark the sign of my handiwork, that
+is known and honoured of all respectable wine-masters, on the bottom of
+the cask. You spoke of house-building, my good sir. Well, a beautiful
+house is in truth a glorious piece of work, but if I were a house-
+builder and went past a house I had built, and saw a dirty fellow or
+good-for-nothing rascal who had got possession of it looking down upon
+me from the bay-window, I should feel thoroughly ashamed,--I should
+feel, purely out of vexation and annoyance, as if I should like to pull
+down and destroy my own work. But nothing like that can happen with the
+structures I build. Within them there comes and lives once for all
+nothing but the purest spirit on earth--good wine. God prosper my
+handiwork!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's a fine eulogy,&quot; said Spangenberg, &quot;and honestly and
+well meant.
+It does you honour to think so highly of your craft; but--do not get
+impatient if I keep harping upon the same string--now if a patrician
+really came and sued for your daughter? When a thing is brought right
+home to a man it often looks very different from what he thought it
+would.&quot; &quot;Why, i' faith,&quot; cried Master Martin somewhat vehemently, &quot;why,
+what else could I do but make a polite bow and say, 'My dear sir, if
+you were a brave cooper, but as it is'&quot;---- &quot;Stop a bit,&quot; broke in
+Spangenberg again; &quot;but if now some fine day a handsome Junker on a
+gallant horse, with a brilliant retinue dressed in magnificent silks
+and satins, were to pull up before your door and ask you for Rose to
+wife?&quot; &quot;Marry, by my faith,&quot; cried Master Martin still more vehemently
+than before, &quot;why, marry, I should run down as fast as I could and lock
+and bolt the door, and I should shout 'Ride on farther! Ride on
+farther! my worshipful Herr Junker; roses like mine don't blossom for
+you. My wine-cellar and my money-bags would, I dare say, suit you
+passing well--and you would take the girl in with the bargain; but ride
+on! ride on farther.'&quot; Old Spangenberg rose to his feet, his face hot
+and red all over; then, leaning both hands on the table, he stood
+looking on the floor before him. &quot;Well,&quot; he began after a pause, &quot;and
+now the last question, Master Martin. If the Junker before your door
+were my own son, if I myself stopped at your door, would you shut it
+then, should you believe then that we were only come for your wine-
+cellar and your money-bags?&quot; &quot;Not at all, not at all, my good and
+honoured sir,&quot; replied Master Martin. &quot;I would gladly throw open my
+door, and everything in my house should be at your and your son's
+service; but as for my Rose, I should say to you, 'If it had only
+pleased Providence to make your gallant son a brave cooper, there would
+be no more welcome son-in-law on earth than he; but now'---- But, my
+dear good sir, why do you tease and worry me with such curious
+questions? See you, our merry talk has come abruptly to an end, and
+look! our glasses are all standing full. Let's put all sons-in-law and
+Rose's marriage aside; here, I pledge you to the health of your son,
+who is, I hear, a handsome young knight.&quot; Master Martin seized his
+glass; Paumgartner followed his example, saying, &quot;A truce to all
+captious conversation, and here's a health to your gallant son.&quot;
+Spangenberg touched glasses with them, and said with a forced smile,
+&quot;Of course you know I was only speaking in jest; for nothing but wild
+head-strong passion could ever lead my son, who may choose him a wife
+from amongst the noblest families in the land, so far to disregard his
+rank and birth as to sue for your daughter. But methinks you might have
+answered me in a somewhat more friendly way.&quot; &quot;Well, but, my good sir,&quot;
+replied Master Martin, &quot;even in jest I could only speak as I should act
+if the wonderful things you are pleased to imagine were really to
+happen. But you <i>must</i> let me have my pride; for you cannot but allow
+that I am the skilfullest cooper far and near, that I understand the
+management of wine, that I observe strictly and truly the admirable
+wine-regulations of our departed Emperor Maximilian<sup><a name="div2_martin20" href="#div2Ref_martin20">20</a></sup> (may he rest in
+peace!), that as beseems a pious man I abhor all godlessness, that I
+never burn more than one small half-ounce of pure sulphur<sup><a name="div2_martin21" href="#div2Ref_martin21">21</a></sup> in one of
+my two-tun casks, which is necessary to preserve it--the which, my good
+and honoured sirs, you will have abundantly remarked from the flavour
+of my wine.&quot; Spangenberg resumed his seat, and tried to put on a
+cheerful countenance, whilst Paumgartner introduced other topics of
+conversation. But, as it so often happens, when once the strings of an
+instrument have got out of tune, they are always getting more or less
+warped, so that the player in vain tries to entice from them again the
+full-toned chords which they gave at first, thus it was with the three
+old gentlemen; no remark, no word, found a sympathetic response.
+Spangenberg called for his grooms, and left Master Martin's house quite
+in an ill-humour after he had entered it in gay good spirits.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The old Grandmother's Prophecy.</i></p>
+
+<p>Master Martin was rather ill at ease because his brave old
+customer had
+gone away out of humour in this way, and he said to Paumgartner, who
+had just emptied his last glass and rose to go too, &quot;For the life of
+me, I can't understand what the old gentleman meant by his talk, and
+why he should have got testy about it at last.&quot; &quot;My good friend Master
+Martin,&quot; began Paumgartner, &quot;you are a good and honest man; and a man
+has verily a right to set store by the handiwork he loves and which
+brings him wealth and honour; but he ought not to show it in boastful
+pride, that's against all right Christian feeling. And in our guild-
+meeting to-day you did not act altogether right in putting yourself
+before all the other masters. It may true that you understand more
+about your craft than all the rest; but that you go and cast it in
+their teeth can only provoke ill-humour and black looks. And then you
+must go and do it again this evening! You could not surely be so
+infatuated as to look for anything else in Spangenberg's talk beyond a
+jesting attempt to see to what lengths you would go in your obstinate
+pride. No wonder the worthy gentleman felt greatly annoyed when you
+told him you should only see common covetousness in any Junker's wooing
+of your daughter. But all would have been well if, when Spangenberg
+began to speak of his son, you had interposed--if you had said, 'Marry,
+my good and honoured sir, if you yourself came along with your son to
+sue for my daughter--why, i' faith, that would be far too high an
+honour for me, and I should then have wavered in my firmest
+principles.' Now, if you had spoken to him like that, what else could
+old Spangenberg have done but forget his former resentment, and smile
+cheerfully and in good humour as he had done before?&quot; &quot;Ay, scold me,&quot;
+said Master Martin, &quot;scold me right well, I have well deserved it; but
+when the old gentleman would keep talking such stupid nonsense I felt
+as if I were choking, I could not make any other answer.&quot; &quot;And then,&quot;
+went on Paumgartner, &quot;what a ridiculous resolve to give your daughter
+to nobody but a cooper! You will commit, you say, your daughter's
+destiny to Providence, and yet with human shortsightedness you
+anticipate the decree of the Almighty in that you obstinately determine
+beforehand that your son-in-law is to come from within a certain narrow
+circle. That will prove the ruin of you and your Rose, if you are not
+careful Have done, Master Martin, have done with such unchristian
+childish folly; leave the Almighty, who will put a right choice in your
+daughter's honest heart when the right time comes--leave Him to manage
+it all in his own way.&quot; &quot;O my worthy friend,&quot; said Master Martin, quite
+crest-fallen, &quot;I now see how wrong I was not to tell you everything at
+first. You think it is nothing but overrating my handiwork that has
+brought me to take this unchangeable resolve of wedding Rose to none
+but a master-cooper; but that is not so; there is another reason, a
+more wonderful and mysterious reason. I can't let you go until you have
+learned all; you shall not bear ill-will against me over-night. Sit
+down, I earnestly beg you, stay a few minutes longer. See here; there's
+still a bottle of that old wine left which the ill-tempered Junker has
+despised; come, let's enjoy it together.&quot; Paumgartner was astonished at
+Master Martin's earnest, confidential tone, which was in general
+perfectly foreign to his nature; it seemed as if there was something
+weighing heavy upon the man's heart that he wanted to get rid of.</p>
+
+<p>And when Paumgartner had taken his seat and drunk a glass of
+wine,
+Master Martin began as follows. &quot;You know, my good and honoured friend,
+that soon after Rose was born I lost my beloved wife; Rose's birth was
+her death. At that time my old grandmother was still living, if you can
+call it living when one is blind, deaf as a post, scarce able to speak,
+lame in every limb, and lying in bed day after day and night after
+night Rose had been christened; and the nurse sat with the child in the
+room where my old grandmother lay. I was so cut up with grief, and when
+I looked upon my child, so sad and yet so glad--in fact I was so
+greatly shaken that I felt utterly unfitted for any kind of work, and
+stood quite still and wrapped up in my own thoughts beside my old
+grandmother's bed; and I counted her happy, since now all her earthly
+pain was over. And as I gazed upon her face a strange smile began to
+steal across it, her withered features seemed to be smoothed out, her
+pale cheeks became flushed with colour. She raised herself up in bed;
+she stretched out her paralysed arms, as if suddenly animated by some
+supernatural power,--for she had never been able to do so at other
+times. She called distinctly in a low pleasant voice, 'Rose, my darling
+Rose!' The nurse got up and brought her the child, which she rocked up
+and down in her arms. But then, my good sir, picture my utter
+astonishment, nay, my alarm, when the old lady struck up in a clear
+strong voice a song in the <i>Hohe fröhliche Lobweis</i><sup><a name="div2_martin22" href="#div2Ref_martin22">22</a></sup> of Herr Hans
+Berchler, mine host of the Holy Ghost in Strasburg, which ran like
+this--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Maiden tender, with cheeks so red,</p>
+<p class="i4">Rose, listen to the words I say;</p>
+<p class="i4">Wouldst guard thyself from fear and ill?</p>
+<p class="i4">Then put thy trust in God alway;</p>
+<p class="i4">Let not thy tongue at aught make mock,</p>
+<p class="i4">Nor foolish longings feed at heart.</p>
+<p class="i4">A vessel fair to see he'll bring,</p>
+<p class="i4">In which the spicy liquid foams,</p>
+<p class="i4">And bright, bright angels gaily sing.</p>
+<p class="i4">And then in reverent mood</p>
+<p class="i4">Hearken to the truest love,</p>
+<p class="i4">Oh! hearken to the sweet love-words.</p>
+<p class="i4">The vessel fair with golden grace--</p>
+<p class="i4">Lo! him who brings it in the house</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace;</p>
+<p class="i4">And an thy lover be but true,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou need'st nor wait thy father's kiss.</p>
+<p class="i4">The vessel fair will always bring</p>
+<p class="i4">All wealth and joy and peace and bliss;</p>
+<p class="i4">So, virgin fair, with the bright, bright eyes,</p>
+<p class="i4">Let aye thy little ear be ope</p>
+<p class="i4">To all true words. And henceforth live,</p>
+<p class="i4">And with God's richest blessing thrive.</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;And after she had sung this song through, she laid the child
+gently and
+carefully down upon the coverlet; and, placing her trembling withered
+hand upon her forehead, she muttered something to herself, to us,
+however, unintelligible; but the rapt countenance of the old lady
+showed in every feature that she was praying. Then her head sank back
+upon the pillows, and just as the nurse took up the child my old
+grandmother took a deep breath; she was dead.&quot; &quot;That is a wonderful
+story,&quot; said Paumgartner when Master Martin ceased speaking; &quot;but I
+don't exactly see what is the connection between your old grandmother's
+prophetic song and your obstinate resolve to give Rose to none but a
+master-cooper.&quot; &quot;What!&quot; replied Master Martin, &quot;why, what can be
+plainer than that the old lady, especially inspired by the Lord at the
+last moments of her life, announced in a prophetic voice what must
+happen if Rose is to be happy? The lover who is to bring wealth and joy
+and peace and bliss into the house with his vessel fair, who is that
+but a lusty cooper who has made his vessel fair, his masterpiece with
+me? In what other vessel does the spicy liquid foam, if not in the
+wine-cask? And when the wine works, it bubbles and even murmurs and
+splashes; that's the lovely angels chasing each other backwards and
+forwards in the wine and singing their gay songs. Ay, ay, I tell you,
+my old grandmother meant none other lover than a master-cooper; and it
+shall be so, it shall be so.&quot; &quot;But, my good Master Martin,&quot; said
+Paumgartner, &quot;you are interpreting the words of your old grandmother
+just in your own way. Your interpretation is far from satisfactory to
+my mind; and I repeat that you ought to leave all simply to the
+ordering of Providence and your daughter's heart, in which I dare be
+bound the right choice lies hidden away somewhere.&quot; &quot;And I repeat,&quot;
+interrupted Martin impatiently, &quot;that my son-in-law <i>shall</i> be,--I am
+resolved,--<i>shall</i> be none other than a skilful cooper.&quot; Paumgartner
+almost got angry at Master Martin's stubbornness; he controlled
+himself, however, and, rising from his seat, said, &quot;It's getting late,
+Master Martin, let us now have done with our drinking and talking, for
+neither methinks will do us any more good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When they came out into the entrance-hall, there stood a young
+woman
+with five little boys, the eldest scarce eight years old apparently,
+and the youngest scarce six months. She was weeping and sobbing
+bitterly. Rose hastened to meet the two old gentlemen and said, &quot;Oh
+father, father! Valentine is dead; there is his wife and the children.&quot;
+&quot;What! Valentine dead?&quot; cried Master Martin, greatly startled. &quot;Oh!
+that accident! that accident! Just fancy,&quot; he continued, turning to
+Paumgartner, &quot;just fancy, my good sir, Valentine was the cleverest
+journeyman I had on the premises; and he was industrious, and a good
+honest man as well. Some time ago he wounded himself dangerously with
+the adze in building a large cask; the wound got worse and worse; he
+was seized with a violent fever, and now he has had to die of it in the
+prime of life.&quot; Thereupon Master Martin approached the poor
+disconsolate woman, who, bathed in tears, was lamenting that she had
+nothing but misery and starvation staring her in the face. &quot;What!&quot; said
+Master Martin, &quot;what do you think of me then? Your husband got his
+dangerous wound whilst working for me, and do you think I am going to
+let you perish of want? No, you all belong to my house from now
+onwards. To-morrow, or whenever you like, we'll bury your poor husband,
+and then do you and your boys go to my farm outside the Ladies
+Gate,<sup><a name="div2_martin23" href="#div2Ref_martin23">23</a></sup> where my fine open workshop is, and where I work every day
+with my journeymen. You can install yourself as housekeeper there to
+look after things for me, and your fine boys I will educate as if they
+were my own sons. And, I tell you what, I'll take your old father as
+well into my house. He was a sturdy journeyman cooper once upon a time
+whilst he still had muscle in his arms. And now--if he can no longer
+wield the mallet, or the beetle or the beak iron, or work at the bench,
+he yet can do something with croze-adze, or can hollow out staves for
+me with the draw-knife. At any rate he shall come along with you and be
+taken into my house.&quot; If Master Martin had not caught hold of the
+woman, she would have fallen on the floor at his feet in a dead swoon,
+she was so affected by grief and emotion. The eldest of the boys clung
+to his doublet, whilst the two youngest, whom Rose had taken in her
+arms, stretched out their tiny hands towards him, as if they had
+understood it all. Old Paumgartner said, smiling and with bright tears
+standing in his eyes, &quot;Master Martin, one can't bear you any ill-will;&quot;
+and he betook himself to his own home.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>How the two young journeymen Frederick and Reinhold became
+acquainted with each other.</i></p>
+
+<p>Upon a beautiful, grassy, gently-sloping hill, shaded by lofty
+trees,
+lay a fine well-made young journeyman, whose name was Frederick. The
+sun had already set, and rosy tongues of light were stretching upwards
+from the furthest verge of the horizon. In the distance the famed
+imperial town of Nuremberg could be plainly seen, spreading across the
+valley and boldly lifting up her proud towers against the red glow of
+the evening, its golden rays gilding their pinnacles. The young
+journeyman was leaning his arm on his bundle, which lay beside him, and
+contained his necessaries whilst on the travel, and was gazing with
+looks full of longing down into the valley. Then he plucked some of the
+flowers which grew among the grass within reach of him and tossed them
+into the air towards the glorious sunset; afterwards he sat gazing
+sadly before him, and the burning tears gathered in his eyes. At length
+he raised his head, and spreading out his arms as if about to embrace
+some one dear to him, he sang in a clear and very pleasant voice the
+following song:--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">My eyes now rest once more</p>
+<p class="i4">On thee, O home, sweet home!</p>
+<p class="i4">My true and honest heart</p>
+<p class="i4">Has ne'er forgotten thee.</p>
+<p class="i4">O rosy glow of evening come,</p>
+<p class="i4">I fain would naught but roses see.</p>
+<p class="i4">Ye sweetest buds and flowers of love,</p>
+<p class="i4">Bend down and touch my heart</p>
+<p class="i4">With winsome sweet caresses.</p>
+<p class="i4">O swelling bosom, wilt thou burst?</p>
+<p class="i4">Yet hold in pain and sweet joy fast.</p>
+<p class="i4">O golden evening red!</p>
+<p class="i4">O beauteous ray, be my sweet messenger,</p>
+<p class="i4">And bear to her my sighs and tears--</p>
+<p class="i4">My tears and sighs on faithfully to her.</p>
+<p class="i4">And were I now to die,</p>
+<p class="i4">And roses then did ask thee--say,</p>
+<p class="i4">&quot;His heart with love--it pined away.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having sung this song, Frederick took a little piece of wax
+out of his
+bundle, warmed it in his bosom, and began in a neat and artistic manner
+to model a beautiful rose with scores of delicate petals. Whilst busy
+with this work he hummed to himself some of the lines of the song he
+had just sung, and so deeply absorbed was he in his occupation that he
+did not observe the handsome youth who had been standing behind him for
+some time and attentively watching his work.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marry, my friend,&quot; began now the youth, &quot;by my troth, that is
+a dainty
+piece of work you are making there.&quot; Frederick looked round in alarm;
+but when he looked into the dark friendly eyes of the young stranger,
+he felt as if he had known him for a long time. Smiling, he replied,
+&quot;Oh! my dear sir, how can you notice such trifling? it only serves me
+for pastime on my journey.&quot; &quot;Well then,&quot; went on the stranger youth,
+&quot;if you call that delicately formed flower, which is so faithful a
+reproduction of Nature, trifling, you must be a skilful practised
+modeller. You have afforded me a pleasant surprise in two ways. First,
+I was quite touched to the heart by the song you sang so admirably to
+Martin Häscher's <i>Zarte Buchstabenweis</i>; and now I cannot but admire
+your artistic skill in modelling. How much farther do you intend to
+travel to-day?&quot; Frederick replied, &quot;Yonder lies the goal of my journey
+before our eyes. I am going home, to the famed imperial town of
+Nuremberg. But as the sun has now been set some time, I shall pass the
+night in the village below there, and then by being up and away in the
+early morning I can be in Nuremberg at noon.&quot; &quot;Marry,&quot; cried the youth,
+delighted, &quot;how finely things will fit; we are both going the same way,
+for I want to go to Nuremberg. I will spend the night with you here in
+the village, and then we'll proceed on our way again to-morrow. And now
+let us talk a little.&quot; The youth, Reinhold by name, threw himself down
+beside Frederick on the grass, and continued, &quot;If I mistake not, you
+are a skilful artist-caster, are you not? I infer it from your style of
+modelling; or perhaps you are a worker in gold and silver?&quot; Frederick
+cast down his eyes sadly, and said dejectedly, &quot;Marry, my dear sir, you
+are taking me for something far better and higher than I really am.
+Well, I will speak candidly; I have learned the trade of a cooper, and
+am now going to work for a well-known master in Nuremberg. You will no
+doubt look down upon me with contempt since, instead of being able to
+mould and cast splendid statues, and such like, all I can do is to hoop
+casks and tubs.&quot; Reinhold burst out laughing, and cried, &quot;Now that I
+call droll. I shall look down upon you--eh? because you are a cooper;
+why man, that's what I am; I'm nothing but a cooper.&quot; Frederick opened
+his eyes wide in astonishment; he did not know what to make of it, for
+Reinhold's dress was in keeping with anything sooner than a journeyman
+cooper's on travel. His doublet of fine black cloth, trimmed with
+slashed velvet, his dainty ruff, his short broadsword, and baretta with
+a long drooping feather, seemed rather to point to a prosperous
+merchant; and yet again there was a strange something about the face
+and form of the youth which completely negatived the idea of a
+merchant. Reinhold, noticing Frederick's doubting glances, undid his
+travelling-bundle and produced his cooper's apron and knife-belt,
+saying, &quot;Look here, my friend, look here. Have you any doubts now as to
+my being a comrade? I perceive you are astonished at my clothing, but I
+have just come from Strasburg, where the coopers go about the streets
+as fine as noblemen. Certainly I did once set my heart upon something
+else like you, but now to be a cooper is the topmost height of my
+ambition, and I have staked many a grand hope upon it. Is it not the
+same with you, comrade? But I could almost believe that a dark cloud-
+shadow had been hung unawares about the brightness of your youth, so
+that you are no longer able to look freely and gladly about you. The
+song which you were just singing was full of pain and of the yearning
+of love; but there were strains in it that seemed as if they proceeded
+from my own heart, and I somehow fancy I know all that is locked up
+within your breast. You may therefore all the more put confidence in
+me, for shall we not then be good comrades in Nuremberg?&quot; Reinhold
+threw his arm around Frederick and looked kindly into his eyes.
+Whereupon Frederick said, &quot;The more I look at you, honest friend, the
+stronger I feel drawn towards you; I clearly discern within my breast
+the wonderful voice which faithfully echoes the cry that you are a
+sympathetic spirit I must tell you all--not that a poor fellow like me
+has any important secrets to confide to you, but simply because there
+is room in the heart of the true friend for <i>his</i> friend's pain, and
+during the first moments of our new acquaintance even I acknowledge you
+to be my truest friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am now a cooper, and may boast that I understand my work;
+but all my
+thoughts have been directed to another and a nobler art since my very
+childhood. I wished to become a great master in casting statues and in
+silver-work, like Peter Fischer<sup><a name="div2_martin24" href="#div2Ref_martin24">24</a></sup> or the Italian Benvenuto
+Cellini;<sup><a name="div2_martin25" href="#div2Ref_martin25">25</a></sup> and so I worked with intense ardour along with Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer,<sup><a name="div2_martin26" href="#div2Ref_martin26">26</a></sup> the well-known worker in silver in my native
+town yonder. For although he did not exactly cast statues himself, he
+was yet able to give me a good introduction to the art. And Herr Tobias
+Martin, the master-cooper, often came to Herr Holzschuer's with his
+daughter, pretty Rose. Without being consciously aware of it, I fell in
+love with her. I then left home and went to Augsburg in order to learn
+properly the art of casting, but this first caused my smouldering
+passion to burst out into flames. I saw and heard nothing but Rose;
+every exertion and all labour that did not tend to the winning of her
+grew hateful to me. And so I adopted the only course that would bring
+me to this goal. For Master Martin will only give his daughter to the
+cooper who shall make the very best masterpiece in his house, and who
+of course finds favour in his daughter's eyes as well. I deserted my
+own art to learn cooperage. I am now going to Nuremberg to work for
+Master Martin. But now that my home lies before me and Rose's image
+rises up before my eyes, I feel overcome with anxiety and nervousness,
+and my heart sinks within me. Now I see clearly how foolishly I have
+acted; for I don't even know whether Rose loves me or whether she ever
+will love me.&quot; Reinhold had listened to Frederick's story with
+increasing attention. He now rested his head on his arm, and, shading
+his eyes with his hand, asked in a hollow moody voice, &quot;And has Rose
+never given you any signs of her love?&quot; &quot;Nay,&quot; replied Frederick, &quot;nay,
+for when I left Nuremberg she was more a child than a maiden. No doubt
+she liked me; she smiled upon me most sweetly when I never wearied
+plucking flowers for her in Herr Holzschuer's garden and weaving them
+into wreaths, but----&quot; &quot;Oh! then all hope is not yet lost,&quot; cried
+Reinhold suddenly, and so vehemently and in such a disagreeably shrill
+voice that Frederick was almost terrified. At the same time he leapt to
+his feet, his sword rattling against his side, and as he stood upright
+at his full stature the deep shadows of the night fell upon his pale
+face and distorted his gentle features in a most unpleasant way, so
+that Frederick cried, perfectly alarmed, &quot;What's happened to you all at
+once?&quot; and stepping back, his foot knocked against Reinhold's bundle.
+There proceeded from it the jarring of some stringed instrument, and
+Reinhold cried angrily, &quot;You ill-mannered fellow, don't break my lute
+all to pieces.&quot; The instrument was fastened to the bundle; Reinhold
+unbuckled it and ran his fingers wildly over the strings as if he would
+break them all. But his playing soon grew soft and melodious. &quot;Come,
+brother,&quot; said he in the same gentle tone as before, &quot;let us now go
+down into the village. I've got a good means here in my hands to banish
+the evil spirits who may cross our path, and who might in particular
+have any dealings with me.&quot; &quot;Why, brother,&quot; replied Frederick, &quot;what
+evil spirits will be likely to have anything to do with us on the way?
+But your playing is very, very nice; please go on with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The golden stars were beginning to dot the dark azure sky. The
+night
+breezes in low murmurous whispers swept lightly over the fragrant
+meadows. The brooks babbled louder, and the trees rustled in the
+distant woods round about Then Frederick and Reinhold went down the
+slope playing and singing, and the sweet notes of their songs, so full
+of noble aspirations, swelled up clear and sharp in the air, as if they
+had been plumed arrows of light. Arrived at their quarters for the
+night, Reinhold quickly threw aside lute and bundle and strained
+Frederick to his heart; and Frederick felt on his cheeks the scalding
+tears which Reinhold shed.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>How the two young journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick,
+were taken into Master Martin's house.</i></p>
+
+<p>Next morning when Frederick awoke he missed his new-won
+friend, who had
+the night before thrown himself down upon the straw pallet at his side;
+and as his lute and his bundle were likewise missing, Frederick quite
+concluded that Reinhold, from reasons which were unknown to him, had
+left him and gone another road. But directly he stepped out of the
+house Reinhold came to meet him, his bundle on his back and his lute
+under his arm, and dressed altogether differently from what he had been
+the day before. He had taken the feather out of his baretta, and laid
+aside his sword, and had put on a plain burgher's doublet of an
+unpretentious colour, instead of the fine one with the velvet
+trimmings. &quot;Now, brother,&quot; he cried, laughing merrily to his astonished
+friend, &quot;you will acknowledge me for your true comrade and faithful
+work-mate now, eh? But let me tell you that for a youth in love you
+have slept most soundly. Look how high the sun is. Come, let us be
+going on our way.&quot; Frederick was silent and busied with his own
+thoughts; he scarcely answered Reinhold's questions and scarcely heeded
+his jests. Reinhold, however, was full of exuberant spirits; he ran
+from side to side, shouted, and waved his baretta in the air. But he
+too became more and more silent the nearer they approached the town. &quot;I
+can't go any farther, I am so full of nervousness and anxiety and sweet
+sadness; let us rest a little while beneath these trees.&quot; Thus spake
+Frederick just before they reached the gate; and he threw himself down
+quite exhausted in the grass. Reinhold sat down beside him, and after a
+while began, &quot;I daresay you thought me extremely strange yesterday
+evening, good brother mine. But as you told me about your love, and
+were so very dejected, then all kinds of foolish nonsense flooded my
+mind and made me quite confused, and would have made me mad in the end
+if your good singing and my lute had not driven away the evil spirits.
+But this morning when the first ray of sunlight awoke me, all my gaiety
+of heart returned, for all nasty feelings had already left me last
+evening. I ran out, and whilst wandering among the undergrowth a crowd
+of fine things came into my mind: how I had found you, and how all my
+heart felt drawn towards you. There also occurred to me a pretty little
+story which happened some time ago when I was in Italy; I will tell it
+to you, since it is a remarkable illustration of what true friendship
+can do.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It chanced that a noble prince, a warm patron and friend of
+the Fine
+Arts, offered a very large prize for a painting, the subject of which
+was definitely fixed, and which, though a splendid subject, was one
+difficult to treat. Two young painters, united by the closest bond of
+friendship and wont to work together, resolved to compete for the
+prize. They communicated their designs to each other and had long talks
+as to how they should overcome the difficulties connected with the
+subject. The elder, more experienced in drawing and in arrangement and
+grouping, had soon formed a conception of the picture and sketched it;
+then he went to the younger, whom he found so discouraged in the very
+designing that he would have given the scheme up, had not the elder
+constantly encouraged him, and imparted to him good advice. But when
+they began to paint, the younger, a master in colour, was able to give
+his friend many a hint, which he turned to the best account; and
+eventually it was found that the younger had never designed a better
+picture, nor the elder coloured one better. The pieces being finished,
+the two artists fell upon each other's neck; each was delighted,
+enraptured, with the other's work, and each adjudged the prize, which
+they both deserved, to his friend. But when, eventually, the prize was
+declared to have fallen to the younger, he cried, ashamed, 'Oh! how can
+I have gained the prize? What is my merit in comparison with that of my
+friend? I should never have produced anything at all good without his
+advice and valuable assistance.' Then said the elder, 'And did not you
+too stand by me with invaluable counsel? My picture is certainly not
+bad; but yours has carried off the prize as it deserved. To strive
+honestly and openly towards the same goal, that is the way of true
+friends; the wreath which the victor wins confers honour also upon the
+vanquished. I love you now all the more that you have so bravely
+striven, and in your victory I also reap fame and honour.' And the
+painter was right, was he not, Frederick? Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+still more and knit their hearts still closer, instead of setting them
+at variance. Ought there to be any room in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hate?&quot; &quot;Never, certainly not,&quot; replied Frederick. &quot;We are
+now faithful loving brothers, and shall both in a short time construct
+our masterpiece in Nuremburg, a good two-tun cask, made without fire;
+but Heaven forbid that I should feel the least spark of envy if yours,
+dear brother Reinhold, turned out to be better than mine.&quot; &quot;Ha! ha!
+ha!&quot; laughed Reinhold heartily, &quot;go on with you and your masterpiece;
+you'll soon manage that to the joy of all good coopers. And let me tell
+you that in all that concerns calculation of size and proportion, and
+drawing plans of sections of circles, you'll find I'm your man. And
+then in choosing your wood you may rely fully upon me. Staves of the
+holm oak felled in winter, without worm-holes, without either red or
+white streaks, and without blemish, that's what we must look for; you
+may trust my eyes. I will stand by you with all the help I can, in both
+deed and counsel; and my own masterpiece will be none the worse for
+it.&quot; &quot;But in the name of all that's holy,&quot; broke in Frederick here,
+&quot;why are we chattering about who is to make the best masterpiece? Are
+we to have any contest about the matter?--the best masterpiece--to gain
+Rose! What are we thinking about? The very thought makes me giddy.&quot;
+&quot;Marry, brother,&quot; cried Reinhold, still laughing, &quot;there was no thought
+at all of Rose. You are a dreamer. Come along, let us go on if we are
+to get into the town.&quot; Frederick leapt to his feet, and went on his
+way, his mind in a whirl of confusion.</p>
+
+<p>As they were washing and brushing off the dust of travel in
+the
+hostelry, Reinhold said to Frederick, &quot;To tell you the truth, I for my
+part don't know for what master I shall work; I have no acquaintances
+here at all; and I thought you would perhaps take me along with you to
+Master Martin's, brother? Perhaps I may get taken on by him.&quot; &quot;You
+remove a heavy load from my heart,&quot; replied Frederick, &quot;for if you will
+only stay with me, it will be easier for me to conquer my anxiety and
+nervousness.&quot; And so the two young apprentices trudged sturdily on to
+the house of the famed cooper, Master Martin.</p>
+
+<p>It happened to be the very Sunday on which Master Martin gave
+his feast
+in honour of his election as &quot;Candle-master;&quot; and the two arrived just
+as they were partaking of the good cheer. So it was that as Reinhold
+and Frederick entered into Master Martin's house they heard the ringing
+of glasses and the confused buzz and rattle of a merry company at a
+feast. &quot;Oh!&quot; said Frederick quite cast down, &quot;we have, it seems, come
+at an unseasonable time.&quot; &quot;Nay, I think we have come exactly at the
+right time,&quot; replied Reinhold, &quot;for Master Martin is sure to be in good
+humour after a good feast, and well disposed to grant our wishes.&quot; They
+caused their arrival to be announced to Master Martin, and soon he
+appeared in the entrance-passage, dressed in holiday garb and with no
+small amount of colour in his nose and on his cheeks. On catching sight
+of Frederick he cried, &quot;Holla! Frederick, my good lad, have you come
+home again? That's fine! And so you have taken up the best of all
+trades--cooperage. Herr Holzschuer cuts confounded wry faces when your
+name is mentioned, and says a great artist is ruined in you, and that
+you could have cast little images and espaliers as fine as those in St.
+Sebald's or on Fugger's<sup><a name="div2_martin27" href="#div2Ref_martin27">27</a></sup> house at Augsburg. But that's all nonsense;
+you have done quite right to step across the way here. Welcome, lad,
+welcome with all my heart.&quot; And therewith Herr Martin took him by the
+shoulders and drew him to his bosom, as was his wont, thoroughly well
+pleased. This kind reception by Master Martin infused new spirits into
+Frederick; all his nervousness left him, so that unhesitatingly and
+without constraint he was able not only to prefer his own request but
+also warmly to recommend Reinhold. &quot;Well, to tell you the truth,&quot; said
+Master Martin, &quot;you could not have come at a more fortunate time than
+just now, for work keeps increasing and I am bankrupt of workmen. You
+are both heartily welcome. Put your bundles down and come in; our meal
+is indeed almost finished, but you can come and take your seats at the
+table, and Rose shall look after you and get you something.&quot; And Master
+Martin and the two journeymen went into the room. There sat the honest
+masters, the worthy syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their head, all with
+hot red faces. Dessert was being served, and a better brand of wine was
+sparkling in the glasses. Every master was talking about something
+different from all his neighbours and in a loud voice, and yet they all
+thought they understood each other; and now and again some of them
+burst out in a hearty laugh without exactly knowing why. When, however.
+Master Martin came back, leading the two young men by the hand, and
+announced aloud that he brought two journeymen who had come to him well
+provided with testimonials just at the time he wanted them, then all
+grew silent, each master scrutinising the smart young fellows with a
+smile of comfortable satisfaction, whilst Frederick cast his eyes down
+and twisted his baretta about in his hands. Master Martin directed the
+youths to places at the very bottom of the table; but these were soon
+the very best of all, for Rose came and took her seat between the two,
+and served them attentively both with dainty dishes and with good rich
+wine. There was Rose, a most winsome picture of grace and loveliness,
+seated between the two handsome youths, all in midst of the bearded old
+men--it was a right pleasant sight to see; the mind instantly recalled
+a bright morning cloud rising solitary above the dim dark horizon, or
+beautiful spring flowers lifting up their bright heads from amidst the
+uniform colourless grass. Frederick was so very happy and so very
+delighted that his breath almost failed him for joy; and only now and
+again did he venture to steal a glance at her who filled his heart so
+fully. His eyes were fixedly bent upon his plate; how could he possibly
+dream of eating the least morsel? Reinhold, on the other hand, could
+not turn his sparkling, radiant eyes away from the lovely maiden. He
+began to talk about his long journeys in such a wonderful way that Rose
+had never heard anything like it. She seemed to see everything of which
+he spoke rise up vividly before her in manifold ever-changing forms.
+She was all eyes and ears; and when Reinhold, carried away by the fire
+of his own words, grasped her hand and pressed it to his heart, she
+didn't know where she was. &quot;But bless me,&quot; broke off Reinhold all at
+once, &quot;why, Frederick, you are quite silent and still. Have you lost
+your tongue? Come, let us drink to the weal of the lovely maiden who
+has so hospitably entertained us.&quot; With a trembling hand Frederick
+seized the huge drinking-glass that Reinhold had filled to the brim and
+now insisted on his draining to the last drop. &quot;Now here's long life to
+our excellent master,&quot; cried Reinhold, again filling the glasses and
+again compelling Frederick to empty his. Then the fiery juices of the
+wine permeated his veins and stirred up his stagnant blood until it
+coursed as it were triumphantly through his every limb. &quot;Oh! I feel so
+indescribably happy,&quot; he whispered, the burning blushes mounting into
+his cheeks. &quot;Oh! I have never felt so happy in all my life before.&quot;
+Rose, who undoubtedly gave another interpretation to his words, smiled
+upon him with incomparable gentleness. Then, quit of all his
+embarrassing shyness, Frederick said, &quot;Dear Rose, I suppose you no
+longer remember me, do you?&quot; &quot;But, dear Frederick,&quot; replied Rose,
+casting down her eyes, &quot;how could I possibly forget you in so short a
+time? When you were at Herr Holzschuer's--true, I was only a mere child
+then, yet you did not disdain to play with me, and always had something
+nice and pretty to talk about. And that dear little basket made of fine
+silver wire that you gave me at Christmas-time, I've got it still, and
+I take care of it and keep it as a precious memento.&quot; Frederick was
+intoxicated with delight and tears glittered in his eyes. He tried to
+speak, but there only burst from his breast, like a deep sigh, the
+words, &quot;O Rose--dear, dear Rose.&quot; &quot;I have always really from my heart
+longed to see you again,&quot; went on Rose; &quot;but that you would become a
+cooper, that I never for a moment dreamed. Oh! when I call to mind
+the beautiful things that you made whilst you were with Master
+Holzschuer--oh! it really is a pity that you have not stuck to your art.&quot;
+&quot;O Rose,&quot; said Frederick, &quot;it is only for your sake that I have become
+unfaithful to it.&quot; No sooner had he uttered these words than he could
+have sunk into the earth for shame and confusion. He had most thoughtlessly
+let the confession slip over his lips. Rose, as if divining all, turned her
+face away from him; whilst he in vain struggled for words.</p>
+
+<p>Then Herr Paumgartner struck the table a bang with his knife,
+and
+announced to the company that Herr Vollrad, a worthy <i>Meistersinger</i>,<sup><a name="div2_martin28" href="#div2Ref_martin28">28</a></sup>
+would favour them with a song. Herr Vollrad at once rose to his feet,
+cleared his throat, and sang such an excellent song in the <i>Güldne
+Tonweis</i><sup><a name="div2_martin29" href="#div2Ref_martin29">29</a></sup> of Herr Vogelgesang that everybody's heart leapt with joy,
+and even Frederick recovered himself from his awkward embarrassment again.
+After Herr Vollrad had sung several other excellent songs to several other
+excellent tunes, such as the <i>Süsser Ton</i>, the <i>Krummzinkenweis</i>, the <i>
+Geblümte Paradiesweis</i>, the <i>Frisch Pomeranzenweis</i>, &amp;c., he called
+upon any one else at the table who understood anything of the sweet and
+delectable art of the <i>Meistersinger</i> also to honour them with a song. Then
+Reinhold rose to his feet and said that if he might be allowed to accompany
+himself on his lute in the Italian fashion he would give them a song,
+keeping, however, strictly to the German tune. As nobody had any objection
+he fetched his instrument, and, after a little tuneful prelude, began the
+following song:--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Where is the little fount</p>
+<p class="i4">Where sparkles the spicy wine?</p>
+<p class="i4">From forth its golden depths</p>
+<p class="i4">Its golden sparkles mount</p>
+<p class="i4">And dance 'fore the gladdened eye.</p>
+<p class="i4">This beautiful little fount</p>
+<p class="i4">Wherein the golden wine</p>
+<p class="i4">Sparkles--who made it,</p>
+<p class="i4">With thoughtful skill and fine,</p>
+<p class="i4">With such high art and industry,</p>
+<p class="i4">That praise deserve so well?</p>
+<p class="i4">This little fount so gay,</p>
+<p class="i4">Wrought with high art and fine,</p>
+<p class="i4">Was fashioned by one</p>
+<p class="i4">Who ne'er an artist was--</p>
+<p class="i4">But a brave young cooper he,</p>
+<p class="i4">His veins with rich wine glowing,</p>
+<p class="i4">His heart with true love singing,</p>
+<p class="i4">And ever lovingly--</p>
+<p class="i4">For that's young cooper's way</p>
+<p class="i4">In all the things he does.</p></div>
+
+<p>This song pleased them all down to the ground, but none more
+so than
+Master Martin, whose eyes sparkled with pleasure and delight. Without
+heeding Vollrad, who had almost too much to say about Hans Müller's <i>
+Stumpfe Schossweis</i>, which the youth had caught excellently well,--
+Master Martin, without heeding him, rose from his seat, and, lifting
+his <i>passglas</i><sup><a name="div2_martin30" href="#div2Ref_martin30">30</a></sup> above his head, called aloud, &quot;Come here, honest
+cooper and <i>Meistersinger</i>, come here and drain this glass with me,
+your Master Martin.&quot; Reinhold had to do as he was bidden. Returning to
+his place, he whispered into Frederick's ear, who was looking very
+pensive, &quot;Now, you must sing--sing the song you sang last night.&quot; &quot;Are
+you mad?&quot; asked Frederick, quite angry. But Reinhold turned to the
+company and said in a loud voice, &quot;My honoured gentlemen and masters,
+my dear brother Frederick here can sing far finer songs, and has a much
+pleasanter voice than I have, but his throat has got full of dust from
+his travels, and he will treat you to some of his songs another time,
+and then to the most admirable tunes.&quot; And they all began to shower
+down their praises upon Frederick, as if he had already sung. Indeed,
+in the end, more than one of the masters was of opinion that his voice
+was really more agreeable than journeyman Reinhold's, and Herr Vollrad
+also, after he had drunk another glass, was convinced that Frederick
+could use the beautiful German tunes far better than Reinhold, for the
+latter had too much of the Italian style about him. And Master Martin,
+throwing his head back into his neck, and giving his round belly a
+hearty slap, cried, &quot;Those are <i>my</i> journeymen, <i>my</i> journeymen, I
+tell
+you--mine, master-cooper Tobias Martin's of Nuremberg.&quot; And all the
+other masters nodded their heads in assent, and, sipping the last drops
+out of the bottom of their tall glasses, said, &quot;Yes, yes. Your brave,
+honest journeymen, Master Martin--that they are.&quot; At length it was time
+to retire to rest Master Martin led Reinhold and Frederick each into a
+bright cheerful room in his own house.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>How the third journeyman came into Master Martin's house,
+and what followed in consequence.</i></p>
+
+<p>After the two journeymen had worked for some weeks in Master
+Martin's
+workshop, he perceived that in all that concerned measurement with rule
+and compass, and calculation, and estimation of measure and size by
+eyesight, Reinhold could hardly find his match, but it was a different
+thing when it came to hard work at the bench or with the adze or the
+mallet. Then Reinhold soon grew tired, and the work did not progress,
+no matter how great efforts he might make. On the other hand, Frederick
+planed and hammered away without growing particularly tired. But one
+thing they had in common with each other, and that was their well-
+mannered behaviour, marked, principally at Reinhold's instance, by much
+natural cheerfulness and good-natured enjoyment. Besides, even when
+hard at work, they did not spare their throats, especially when pretty
+Rose was present, but sang many an excellent song, their pleasant
+voices harmonising well together. And whenever Frederick, glancing
+shyly across at Rose, seemed to be falling into his melancholy mood,
+Reinhold at once struck up a satirical song that he composed,
+beginning, &quot;The cask is not the cither, nor is the cither the cask,&quot; so
+that old Herr Martin often had to let the croze-adze which he had
+raised, sink again without striking and hold his big belly as it
+wabbled from his internal laughter. Above all, the two journeymen, and
+mainly Reinhold, had completely won their way into Martin's favour; and
+it was not difficult to observe that Rose found a good many pretexts
+for lingering oftener and longer in the workshop than she certainly
+otherwise would have done.</p>
+
+<p>
+One day Master Martin entered his open workshop outside the town-gate,
+where work was carried on all the summer through, with his brow
+weighted with thought Reinhold and Frederick were in the act of setting
+up a small cask. Then Master Martin planted himself before them with
+his arms crossed over his chest and said, &quot;I can't tell you how pleased
+I am with you, my good journeymen, but I am just now in a great
+difficulty. They write me from the Rhine that this will be a more
+prosperous wine-year than there ever has been before. A learned man
+says that the comet which has been seen in the heavens will fructify
+the earth with its wonderful tail, so that the glowing heat which
+fabricates the precious metals down in the deepest mines will all
+stream upwards and evaporate into the thirsty vines, till they prosper
+and thrive and put forth multitudes of grapes, and the liquid fire with
+which they are filled will be poured out into the grapes. It will be
+almost three hundred years before such a favourable constellation
+occurs again. So now we shall all have our hands full of work. And then
+there's his Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg has written to me and
+ordered a large cask. That we can't get done; and I shall have to look
+about for another useful journeyman. Now I should not like to take the
+first fellow I meet off the street amongst us, and yet the matter is
+very urgent. If you know of a good journeyman anywhere whom you would
+be willing to work with, you have only to tell me, and I will get him
+here, even though it should cost me a good sum of money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had Master Martin finished speaking when a young man,
+tall and
+stalwart, shouted to him in a loud voice, &quot;Hi! you there! is this
+Master Martin's workshop?&quot; &quot;Certainly,&quot; replied Master Martin, going
+towards the young man, &quot;certainly it is; but you needn't shout so
+deuced loud and lumber in like that; that's not the way to find
+people.&quot; &quot;Ha! ha! ha!&quot; laughed the young fellow, &quot;marry, you are Master
+Martin himself, for--fat belly--stately double-chin--sparkling eyes,
+and red nose--yes, that's just how he was described to me. I bid you
+good hail, Master Martin.&quot; &quot;Well, and what do you want from Master
+Martin?&quot; he asked, indignantly. The young fellow replied, &quot;I am a
+journeyman cooper, and merely wanted to ask if I could find work with
+you.&quot; Marvelling that just as he was thinking about looking out for a
+journeyman one should come to him like this, Master Martin drew back a
+few paces and eyed the young man from head to foot. He, however, met
+the scrutiny unabashed and with sparkling eyes. Noting his broad chest,
+stalwart build, and powerful arms, Master Martin thought within
+himself, it's just such a lusty fellow as this that I want, and he at
+once asked him for his trade testimonials.<sup><a name="div2_martin31" href="#div2Ref_martin31">31</a></sup> &quot;I haven't them with me
+just at this present moment,&quot; replied the young man, &quot;but I will get
+them in a short time; and I give you now my word of honour that I will
+work well and honestly, and that must suffice you.&quot; Thereupon, without
+waiting for Master Martin's reply, the young journeyman stepped into
+the workshop. He threw down his baretta and bundle, took off his
+doublet, put on his apron, and said, &quot;Come, Master Martin, tell me at
+once what I am to begin with.&quot; Master Martin, completely taken aback by
+the young stranger's resolute vigour and promptitude, had to think a
+little; then he said, &quot;Come then, my fine fellow, and show me at once
+that you are a good cooper; take this croze-adze and finish the groove
+of that cask lying in the vice yonder.&quot; The stranger performed what he
+had been bidden with remarkable strength, quickness, and skill; and
+then he cried, laughing loudly, &quot;Now, Master Martin, have you any
+doubts now as to my being a good cooper? But,&quot; he continued, going
+backwards and forwards through the shop, and examining the instruments
+and tools, and supply of wood, &quot;but though you are well supplied with
+useful stores and--but what do you call this little thing of a mallet?
+I suppose it's for your children to play with; and this little adze
+here--why it must be for your apprentices when they first begin,&quot; and
+he swung round his head the huge heavy mallet which Reinhold could not
+lift and which Frederick had great difficulty in wielding; and then he
+did the same with the ponderous adze with which Master Martin himself
+worked. Then he rolled a couple of huge casks on one side as if they
+had been light balls, and seized one of the large thick beams which had
+not yet been worked at &quot;Marry, master,&quot; he cried, &quot;marry, this is good
+sound oak; I wager it will snap like glass.&quot; And thereupon he struck
+the stave against the grindstone so that it broke clean in half with a
+loud crack. &quot;Pray be so kind,&quot; said Master Martin, &quot;pray have the
+kindness, my good fellow, to kick that two-tun cask about or to pull
+down the whole shop. There, you can take that balk for a mallet, and
+that you may have an adze to your mind I will have Roland's sword,
+which is three yards long, fetched for you from the town-house.&quot; &quot;Ay,
+do, that's just the thing,&quot; said the young man, his eyes flashing; but
+the next minute he cast them down upon the ground and said, lowering
+his voice, &quot;I only thought, good master, that you wanted right strong
+journeymen for your heavy work, and now I have, I see, been too
+forward, too swaggering, in displaying my bodily strength. But do take
+me on to work, I will faithfully do whatever you shall require of me.&quot;
+Master Martin scanned the youth's features, and could not but admit
+that he had never seen more nobility and at the same time more
+downright honesty in any man's face. And yet, as he looked upon the
+young fellow, there stole into his mind a dim recollection of some man
+whom he had long esteemed and honoured, but he could not clearly call
+to mind who it was. For this reason he granted the young man's request
+on the spot, only enjoining upon him to produce at the earliest
+opportunity the needful credible trade attestations.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Reinhold and Frederick had finished setting up their
+cask and
+were now busy driving on the first hoops. Whilst doing this they were
+always in the habit of striking up a song; and on this occasion they
+began a good song in Adam Puschmann's <i>Stieglitzweis</i>. Then Conrad
+(that was the name of the new journeyman) shouted across from the bench
+where Master Martin had placed him, &quot;By my troth, what squalling do you
+call that? I could fancy I hear mice squeaking somewhere about the
+shop. An you mean to sing at all, sing so that it will cheer the heart
+and make the work go down well. That's how I sing a bit now and again.&quot;
+And he began to bellow out a noisy hunting ditty with its hollas! and
+hoy, boys! and he imitated the yelping of the hounds and the shrill
+shouts of the hunters in such a clear, keen, stentorian voice that the
+huge casks rang again and all the workshop echoed. Master Martin held
+his hands over his ears, and Dame Martha's (Valentine's widow) little
+boys, who were playing in the shop, crept timorously behind the piled-
+up staves. Just at this moment Rose came in, amazed, nay, frightened at
+the terrible noise; it could not be called singing anyhow. As soon as
+Conrad observed her, he at once stopped, and leaving his bench he
+approached her and greeted her with the most polished grace. Then he
+said in a gentle voice, whilst an ardent fire gleamed in his bright
+brown eyes, &quot;Lovely lady, what a sweet rosy light shone into this
+humble workman's hut when you came in! Oh! had I but perceived you
+sooner, I had not outraged your tender ears with my wild hunting
+ditty.&quot; Then, turning to Master Martin and the other journeymen, he
+cried, &quot;Oh! do stop your abominable knocking and rattling. As long as
+this gracious lady honours us with her presence, let mallets and
+drivers rest. Let us only listen to her sweet voice, and with bowed
+head hearken to what she may command us, her humble servants.&quot; Reinhold
+and Frederick looked at each other utterly amazed; but Master Martin
+burst out laughing and said, &quot;Well, Conrad, it is now plain that you
+are the most ridiculous donkey who ever put on apron. First you come
+here and want to break everything to pieces like an uncultivated giant;
+then you bellow in such a way as to make our ears tingle; and, as a
+fitting climax to all your foolishness, you take my little daughter
+Rose for a lady of rank and act like a love-smitten Junker.&quot; Conrad
+replied, coolly, &quot;Your lovely daughter I know very well, my worthy
+Master Martin; but I tell you that she is the most peerless lady who
+treads the earth, and if Heaven grant it she would honour the very
+noblest of Junkers by permitting him to be her Paladin in faithful
+knightly love.&quot; Master Martin held his sides, and it was only by giving
+vent to his laughter in hums and haws that he prevented himself from
+choking. As soon as he could at all speak, he stammered, &quot;Good, very
+good, my most excellent youth; you may continue to regard my daughter
+as a lady of high rank, I shall not hinder you; but, irrespective of
+that, will you have the goodness to go back to your bench?&quot;
+Conrad stood as if spell-bound, his eyes cast down upon the ground; and
+rubbing his forehead, he said in a low voice, &quot;Ay, it is so,&quot; and did
+as he was bidden. Rose, as she always did in the shop, sat down upon a
+small cask, which Frederick placed for her, and which Reinhold
+carefully dusted. At Master Martin's express desire they again struck
+up the admirable song in which they had been so rudely interrupted by
+Conrad's bluster; but he went on with his work at the bench, quite
+still, and entirely wrapped up in his own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>When the song came to an end Master Martin said, &quot;Heaven has
+endowed
+you with a noble gift, my brave lads; you would not believe how highly
+I value the delectable art of song. Why, once I wanted to be a <i>
+Meistersinger</i> myself, but I could not manage it, even though I tried
+all I knew how. All that I gained by my efforts was ridicule and
+mockery. In 'Voluntary Singing'<sup><a name="div2_martin32" href="#div2Ref_martin32">32</a></sup> I either got into false
+'appendages,' or 'double notes,' or a wrong 'measure,' or an unsuitable
+'embellishment,' or started the wrong melody altogether. But you will
+succeed better, and it shall be said, what the master can't do, his
+journeymen can. Next Sunday after the sermon there will be a singing
+contest by the <i>Meistersinger</i> at the usual time in St. Catherine's
+Church. But before the 'Principal Singing' there will be a 'Voluntary,'
+in which you may both of you win praise and honour in your beautiful
+art, for any stranger who can sing at all, may freely take part in
+this. And, he! Conrad, my journeyman Conrad,&quot; cried Master Martin
+across to the bench, &quot;would not you also like to get into the singing-
+desk and treat our good folk to your fine hunting-chorus?&quot; Without
+looking up, Conrad replied, &quot;Mock not, good master, mock not;
+everything in its place. Whilst you are being edified by the <i>
+Meistersinger</i>, I shall enjoy myself in my own way on the Allerwiese.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And what Master Martin anticipated came to pass. Reinhold got
+into the
+singing-desk and sang divers songs to divers tunes, with which all the <i>
+Meistersingers</i> were well pleased; and although they were of opinion
+that the singer had not made any mistake, yet they had a slight
+objection to urge against him--a sort of something foreign about his
+style, but yet they could not say exactly in what it consisted. Soon
+afterwards Frederick took his seat in the singing-desk; and doffing his
+baretta, he stood some seconds looking silently before him; then after
+sending a glance at the audience which entered lovely Rose's bosom like
+a burning arrow, and caused her to fetch a deep sigh, he began such a
+splendid song in Heinrich Frauenlob's<sup><a name="div2_martin33" href="#div2Ref_martin33">33</a></sup> <i>Zarter Ton</i>, that all the
+masters agreed with one accord there was none amongst them who could
+surpass the young journeyman.</p>
+
+<p>The singing-school came to an end towards evening, and Master
+Martin,
+in order to finish off the day's enjoyment in proper style, betook
+himself in high good-humour to the Allerwiese along with Rose. The two
+journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick, were permitted to accompany them;
+Rose was walking between them. Frederick, radiant with delight at the
+masters' praise, and intoxicated with happiness, ventured to breathe
+many a daring word in Rose's ear which she, however, casting down her
+eyes in maidenly coyness, pretended not to hear. Rather she turned to
+Reinhold, who, according to his wont, was running on with all sorts of
+merry nonsense; nor did he hesitate to place his arm in Rose's. Whilst
+even at a considerable distance from the Allerwiese they could hear
+noisy shouts and cries. Arrived at the place where the young men were
+amusing themselves in all kinds of games, partly chivalric, they heard
+the crowd shout time after time, &quot;Won again! won again! He's the
+strongest again! Nobody can compete with him.&quot; Master Martin, on
+working his way through the crowd, perceived that it was nobody else
+but his journeyman Conrad who was reaping all this praise and exciting
+the people to all this applause. He had beaten everybody in racing and
+boxing and throwing the spear. As Martin came up, Conrad was shouting
+out and inquiring if there was anybody who would have a merry bout with
+him with blunt swords. This challenge several stout young patricians,
+well accustomed to this species of pastime, stepped forward and
+accepted. But it was not long before Conrad had again, without much
+trouble or exertion, overcome all his opponents; and the applause at
+his skill and strength seemed as if it would never end.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had set; the last glow of evening died away, and
+twilight began
+to creep on apace. Master Martin, with Rose and the two journeymen, had
+thrown themselves down beside a babbling spring of water. Reinhold was
+telling of the wonders of distant Italy, but Frederick, quiet and
+happy, had his eyes fixed on pretty Rose's face. Then Conrad drew near
+with slow hesitating steps, as if rather undecided in his own mind
+whether he should join them or not Master Martin called to him, &quot;Come
+along, Conrad, come along, come along; you have borne yourself bravely
+on the meadow; that's what I like in my journeymen, and it's what
+becomes them. Don't be shy, lad; come and join us, you have my
+permission.&quot; Conrad cast a withering glance at his master, who however
+met it with a condescending nod; then the young journeyman said
+moodily, &quot;I am not the least bit shy of you, and I have not asked your
+permission whether I may lie down here or not,--in fact, I have not
+come to <i>you</i> at all. All my opponents I have stretched in the sand in
+the merry knightly sports, and all I now wanted was to ask this lovely
+lady whether she would not honour me with the beautiful flowers she
+wears in her bosom, as the prize of the chivalric contest.&quot; Therewith
+he dropped upon one knee in front of Rose, and looked her straight and
+honestly in the face with his clear brown eyes, and he begged, &quot;O give
+me those beautiful flowers, sweet Rose, as the prize of victory; you
+cannot refuse me that.&quot; Rose at once took the flowers from her bosom
+and gave them to him, laughing and saying, &quot;Ay, I know well that a
+brave knight like you deserves a token of honour from a lady; and so
+here, you may have my withered flowers.&quot; Conrad kissed the flowers that
+were given him, and then fastened them in his baretta; but Master
+Martin, rising to his feet, cried, &quot;There's another of your silly
+tricks--come, let us be going home; it is getting dark.&quot; Herr Martin
+strode on first; Conrad with modest courtly grace took Rose's arm;
+whilst Reinhold and Frederick followed them considerably out of humour.
+People who met them, stopped and turned round to look after them,
+saying, &quot;Marry, look now, look; that's the rich cooper Thomas Martin,
+with his pretty little daughter and his stout journeymen. A fine set of
+people I call them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Of Dame Martha's conversation with Rose about the three
+journeymen, Conrad's quarrel with Master Martin.</i></p>
+
+<p>Generally it is the morning following a holiday when young
+girls are
+wont to enjoy all the pleasure of it, and taste it, and thoroughly
+digest it; and this after celebration they seem to like far better than
+the actual holiday itself. And so next morning pretty Rose sat alone in
+her room with her hands folded on her lap, and her head bent slightly
+forward in meditation--her spindle and embroidery meanwhile resting.
+Probably she was now listening to Reinhold's and Frederick's songs, and
+now watching Conrad cleverly gaining the victory over his competitors,
+and now she saw him coming to her for the prize of victory; and then
+she hummed a few lines of a pretty song, and then she whispered, &quot;Do
+you want my flowers?&quot; whereat a deeper crimson suffused her cheeks, and
+brighter glances made their way through her downcast eyelashes, and
+soft sighs stole forth from her inmost heart. Then Dame Martha came in,
+and Rose was delighted to be able to tell at full length all that had
+taken place in St. Catherine's Church and on the Allerwiese. When Rose
+had done speaking, Dame Martha said, smiling, &quot;Oh! so now, dear Rose,
+you will soon have to make your choice between your three handsome
+lovers.&quot; &quot;For God's sake,&quot; burst out Rose, quite frightened, and
+flushing hotly all over her face, &quot;for mercy's sake, Dame Martha, what
+do you mean by that? I--three lovers!&quot; &quot;Don't take on so,&quot; went on Dame
+Martha, &quot;don't take on in that way, dear Rose, as if you knew nothing,
+as if you could guess nothing. Why, where do you put your eyes, girl?
+you must be quite blind not to see that our journeymen. Reinhold,
+Frederick, and Conrad--yes, all three of them--are madly in love with
+you.&quot; &quot;What a fancy, to be sure, Dame Martha,&quot; whispered Rose, holding
+her hands before her face. Then Dame Martha knelt down before her, and
+threw her arm about her, saying, &quot;Come, my pretty, bashful child, take
+your hands away, and look me straight in the eyes, and then tell me you
+have not long ago perceived that you fill both the heart and the mind
+of each of our journeymen, deny that if you can. Nay, I tell you, you
+can't do it; and it would, i' faith, be a truly wonderful thing if a
+maiden's eyes did not see a thing of that sort. Why, when you go into
+the shop, their eyes are off their work and flying across to you in a
+minute, and they bustle and stir about with new life. And Reinhold and
+Frederick begin their best songs, and even wild Conrad grows quiet and
+gentle; each tries to invent some excuse to approach nearer to you, and
+when you honour one of them with a sweet look or a kindly word, how his
+eyes sparkle, and his face flushes! Come now, my pet, is it not nice to
+have such handsome fellows all making love to you? But whether you will
+choose one of the three or which it will be, that I cannot indeed say,
+for you are good and kind to them all alike, and yet--and yet--but I
+must not say more. Now an you come to me and said, 'O Dame Martha, give
+me your advice, to which of these young men, who are all wanting me,
+shall I give my hand and heart?' then I should of course answer, 'If
+your heart does not speak out loudly and distinctly. It's this or it's
+that, why, let them all three go.' I must say Reinhold pleases me right
+well, and so does Frederick, and so does Conrad; and then again on the
+other hand I have something to say against each of them. In fact, dear
+Rose, when I see them working away so bravely, I always think of my
+poor Valentine; and I must say that, if he could not perhaps produce
+any better work, there was yet quite a different kind of swing and
+style in all that he did do. You could see all his heart was in his
+work; but with these young fellows it always seems to me as if they
+only worked so, so--as if they had in their heads different things
+altogether from their work; nay, it almost strikes me as if it were a
+burden which they have voluntarily taken up, and were now bearing with
+sturdy courage. Of them all I can get on best with Frederick; he's such
+a faithful, affectionate fellow. He is the one who seems to belong to
+us most; I understand all that he says. And then his love for you is so
+still, and as shy as a good child's; he hardly dares to look at you,
+and blushes if you only say a single word to him; and that's what I
+like so much in the dear lad.&quot; A tear seemed to glisten in Rose's eye
+as Dame Martha said this. She stood up, and turning to the window,
+said, &quot;I like Frederick very much, but you must not pass over Reinhold
+contemptuously.&quot; &quot;I never dreamt of doing so,&quot; replied Dame Martha,
+&quot;for Reinhold is by a long way the handsomest of all. And what eyes
+he has! And when he looks you through and through with his bright
+glances--no, it's more than you can endure. And yet there's something
+so strange and peculiar in his character, it quite makes me shiver at
+times, and makes me quite afraid of him. When Reinhold is working in
+the shop, I should think Herr Martin, when he tells him to do this or
+do that, must always feel as I should if anybody were to put a bright
+pan in my kitchen all glittering with gold and precious stones, and
+should bid me use it like any ordinary common pan--why, I should hardly
+dare to touch it at all. He tells his stories and talks and talks, and
+it all sounds like sweet music, and you are quite carried away by it,
+but when I sit down to think seriously about what he has been saying, I
+find I haven't understood a single word. And then when he now and again
+jests in the way we do, and I think now he's just like us, then all at
+once he looks so distinguished that I get really afraid of him. And yet
+I can't say that he puffs himself up in the way that many of our
+Junkers or patricians do; no, it's something else altogether different.
+In a word, it strikes me, by my troth, as if he held intercourse with
+higher spirits, as if he belonged, in fact, to another world. Conrad is
+a wild overbearing fellow, and yet there is something confoundedly
+distinguished about him as well; it doesn't agree with the cooper's
+apron somehow. And he always acts as if nobody but he had to give
+orders, and as if the others must obey him. In the short time that he
+has been here he has got so far that when he bellows at Master Martin
+in his loud ringing voice, his master generally does what he wishes.
+But at the same time he is so good-natured and so thoroughly honest
+that you can't bear ill-will against him; rather, I must say, that in
+spite of his wildness, I almost like him better than I do Reinhold, for
+even if he does speak fearfully grand, you can yet understand him very
+well. I wager he has once been a campaigner, he may say what he likes.
+That's why he knows so much about arms, and has even got something of
+knights' ways about him, which doesn't suit him at all badly. Now do
+tell me, Rose dear, without any ifs and ands, which of the three
+journeymen you like best?&quot; &quot;Don't ask me such searching questions, dear
+Dame Martha,&quot; answered Rose. &quot;But of this I am quite sure, that
+Reinhold does not stir up in me the same feelings that he does in you.
+It's perfectly true, too, that he is altogether different from his
+equals; and when he talks I could fancy I enter into a beautiful garden
+full of bright and magnificent flowers and blossoms and fruits, such as
+are not to be found on earth, and I like to be amongst them. Since
+Reinhold has been here I see many things in a different light, and lots
+of things that were once dim and formless in my mind are now so bright
+and clear that I can easily distinguish them.&quot; Dame Martha rose to her
+feet, and shaking her finger at Rose as she went out of the room, said,
+&quot;Ah! ah! Rose, so Reinhold is the favourite then? I didn't think it, I
+didn't even dream it.&quot; Rose made answer as she accompanied her as far
+as the door, &quot;Pray, dear Dame Martha, think nothing, dream nothing, but
+leave all to the future. What <i>it</i> brings is the will of God, and to
+that everybody must bow humbly and gratefully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile it was becoming extremely lively in Master Martin's
+workshop.
+In order to execute all his orders he had engaged with ordinary
+labourers and taken in some apprentices, and they all hammered and
+knocked till the din could be heard far and wide. Reinhold had finished
+his calculations and measurements for the great cask that was to be
+built for the Bishop of Bamberg, whilst Frederick and Conrad had set it
+up so cleverly that Master Martin's heart laughed in his body, and he
+cried again and again, &quot;Now that I call a grand piece of work; that'll
+be the best little cask I've ever made--except my masterpiece.&quot; Now the
+three apprentices stood driving the hoops on to the fitted staves, and
+the whole place rang again with the din of their mallets. Old Valentine
+was busy plying his draw-knife, and Dame Martha, her two youngest on
+her knee, sat just behind Conrad, whilst the other wideawake little
+rascals were shouting and making a noise, tumbling the hoops about, and
+chasing each other. In fact, there was so much hubbub and so much
+vigorous hard work going on that hardly anybody noticed old Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer as he stepped into the shop. Master Martin went to
+meet him, and politely inquired what he desired. &quot;Why, in the first
+place,&quot; said Holzschuer, &quot;I want to have a look at my dear Frederick
+again, who is working away so lustily yonder. And then, goodman Master
+Martin, I want a stout cask for my wine-cellar, which I will ask you to
+make for me. Why look you, that cask they are now setting up there is
+exactly the sort of thing I want; you can let me have that, you've only
+got to name the price.&quot; Reinhold, who had grown tired and had been
+resting a few minutes down in the shop, and was now preparing to ascend
+the scaffolding again, heard Holzschuer's words and said, turning his
+head towards the old gentleman, &quot;Marry, my friend Herr Holzschuer, you
+need not set your heart upon this cask; we are making it for his
+Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg.&quot; Master Martin, his arms folded on his
+back, his left foot planted forward, his head thrown back in his neck,
+blinked at the cask and said proudly, &quot;My dear master, you might have
+seen from the carefully selected wood and the great pains taken in the
+work that a masterpiece like that was meant for a prince's<sup><a name="div2_martin34" href="#div2Ref_martin34">34</a></sup> cellar.
+My journeyman Reinhold has said the truth; don't set your heart on a
+piece of work like that. But when the vintage is over I will get you a
+plain strong little cask made, such as will be suitable for your
+cellar.&quot; Old Holzschuer, incensed at Master Martin's pride, replied
+that his gold pieces weighed just as much as the Bishop of Bamberg's,
+and that he hoped he could get good work elsewhere for ready money.
+Master Martin, although fuming with rage, controlled himself with
+difficulty; he would not by any means like to offend old Herr
+Holzschuer, who stood so high in the esteem both of the Council and of
+all the burghers. At this moment Conrad struck mightier blows than ever
+with his mallet, so that the whole shop rang and cracked; then Master
+Martin's internal rage boiled over, and he shouted vehemently, &quot;Conrad,
+you blockhead, what do you mean by striking so blindly and heedlessly?
+do you mean to break my cask in pieces?&quot; &quot;Ho! ho!&quot; replied Conrad,
+looking round defiantly at his master, &quot;Ho! ho! my comical little
+master, and why should I not?&quot; And therewith he dealt such a terrible
+blow at the cask that the strongest hoop sprang, rattling, and knocked
+Reinhold down from the narrow plank on the scaffolding; and it was
+further evident from the hollow echo that a stave had been broken as
+well. Completely mastered by his furious anger, Master Martin snatched
+out of Valentine's hand the bar he was shaving, and striding towards
+the cask, dealt Conrad a good sound stroke with it on the back,
+shouting, &quot;You cursed dog!&quot; As soon as Conrad felt the blow he wheeled
+sharply round, and after standing for a moment as if bereft of his
+senses, his eyes blazed up with fury, he ground his teeth, and
+screamed, &quot;Struck! struck!&quot; Then at one bound he was down from the
+scaffolding, had snatched up an adze that lay on the floor, and aimed a
+powerful stroke at his master; had not Frederick pulled Martin on one
+side the blow would have split his head; as it was, the adze only
+grazed his arm, from which, however, the blood at once began to spurt
+out. Martin, fat and helpless as he was, lost his equilibrium and fell
+over the bench, at which one of the apprentices was working, into the
+floor. They all threw themselves upon Conrad, who was frantic,
+flourishing his bloody adze in the air, and shouting and screaming in a
+terrible voice, &quot;Let him go to hell! To hell with him!&quot; Hurling them
+all off with the strength of a giant, he was preparing to deal a second
+blow at his poor master, who was gasping for breath and groaning on the
+floor,--a blow that would have completely done for him--when Rose, pale
+as a corpse with fright, appeared in the shop-door. As soon as Conrad
+observed her he stood as if turned to a pillar of stone, the adze
+suspended in the air. Then he threw the tool away from him, struck his
+hands together upon his chest, and cried in a voice that went to
+everybody's heart, &quot;Oh, good God! good God! what have I done?&quot; and away
+he rushed out of the shop. No one thought of following him.</p>
+
+<p>Now poor Master Martin was after some difficulty lifted up; it
+was
+found, however, that the adze had only penetrated into the thick fleshy
+part of the arm, and the wound could not therefore be called serious.
+Old Herr Holzschuer, whom Martin had involved with him in his fall, was
+pulled out from beneath the shavings, and Dame Martha's children, who
+ceased not to scream and cry over good Father Martin, were appeased as
+far as that could be done. As for Martin himself, he was quite dazed,
+and said if only that devil of a bad journeyman had not spoilt his fine
+cask he should not make much account of the wound.</p>
+
+<p>Sedan chairs were brought for the old gentlemen, for
+Holzschuer also
+had bruised himself rather in his fall. He hurled reproaches at a trade
+in which they employed such murderous tools, and conjured Frederick to
+come back to his beautiful art of casting and working in the precious
+metals, and the sooner the better.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the dusk of evening began to creep up over the sky,
+Frederick, and along with him Reinhold, whom the hoop had struck rather
+sharply, and who felt as if every limb was benumbed, strode back into
+the town in very low spirits. Then they heard a soft sighing and
+groaning behind a hedge. They stood still, and a tall figure at once
+rose up; they immediately recognised Conrad, and began to withdraw
+timidly. But he addressed them in a tearful voice, saying, &quot;You need
+not be so frightened at me, my good comrades; of course you take me for
+a devilish murderous brute, but I am not--indeed I am not so. I could
+not do otherwise; I <i>ought</i> to have struck down the fat old master, and
+by rights I ought to go along with you and do it <i>now</i>, if I only
+could. But no, no; it's all over. Remember me to pretty Rose, whom I
+love so above all reason. Tell her I will bear her flowers on my heart
+all my life long, I will adorn myself with them when I--but she will
+perhaps hear of me again some day. Farewell! farewell! my good, brave
+comrades.&quot; And Conrad ran away across the field without once stopping.</p>
+
+<p>Reinhold said, &quot;There is something peculiar about this young
+fellow; we
+can't weigh or measure this deed by any ordinary standard. Perhaps the
+future will unfold to us the secret that has lain heavy upon his
+breast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Reinhold leaves Master Martin's house.</i></p>
+
+<p>If formerly there had been merry days in Master Martin's
+workshop, so
+now they were proportionately dull. Reinhold, incapable of work,
+remained confined to his room; Martin, his wounded arm in a sling, was
+incessantly abusing the good-for-nothing stranger-apprentice, and
+railing at him for the mischief he had wrought Rose, and even Dame
+Martha and her children, avoided the scene of the rash savage deed, and
+so Frederick's blows fell dull and melancholy enough, like a
+woodcutter's in a lonely wood in winter time, for to Frederick it was
+now left to finish the big cask alone, and a hard task it was.</p>
+
+<p>And soon his mind and heart were possessed by a profound
+sadness, for
+he believed he had now clear proofs of what he had for a long time
+feared. He no longer had any doubt that Rose loved Reinhold. Not only
+had she formerly shown many a kindness to Reinhold alone, and to him
+alone given many a sweet word, but now--it was as plain as noonday--
+since Reinhold could no longer come to work. Rose too no longer thought
+of going out, but preferred to stay indoors, no doubt to wait upon and
+take good care of her lover. On Sundays, when all the rest set out
+gaily, and Master Martin, who had recovered to some extent of his
+wound, invited him to walk with him and Rose to the Allerwiese, he
+refused the invitation; but, burdened with trouble and the bitter pain
+of disappointed love, he hastened off alone to the village and the hill
+where he had first met with Reinhold. He threw himself down in the tall
+grass where the flowers grew, and as he thought how that the beautiful
+star of hope which had shone before him all along his homeward path had
+now suddenly set in the blackness of night after he had reached his
+goal, and as he thought how that this step which he had taken was like
+the vain efforts of a dreamer stretching out his yearning arms after an
+empty vision of air,--the tears fell from his eyes and dropped upon the
+flowers, which bent their little heads as if sorrowing for the young
+journeyman's great unhappiness. Without his being exactly conscious of
+it, the painful sighs which escaped his labouring breast assumed the
+form of words, of musical notes, and he sang this song:--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">My star of hope,</p>
+<p class="i4">Where hast thou gone?</p>
+<p class="i4">Alas! thy glory rises up--</p>
+<p class="i4">Thy glory sweet, far from me now--</p>
+<p class="i4">And pours its light on others down.</p>
+<p class="i4">Ye rustling evening breezes, rouse you,</p>
+<p class="i4">Blow on my breast,</p>
+<p class="i4">Awake all joy that kills,</p>
+<p class="i4">Awake all pain that brings to death,</p>
+<p class="i4">So that my sore and bleeding heart,</p>
+<p class="i4">Steeped to the core in bitter tears,</p>
+<p class="i4">May break in yearning comfortless.</p>
+<p class="i4">Why whisper ye, ye darksome trees?</p>
+<p class="i4">So softly and like friends together?</p>
+<p class="i4">And why, O golden skirts of sky,</p>
+<p class="i4">Look ye so kindly down on me?</p>
+<p class="i4">Show me my grave;</p>
+<p class="i4">For that is now my haven of hope,</p>
+<p class="i4">Where I shall calmly, softly sleep.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And as it often happens that the very greatest trouble, if
+only it can
+find vent in tears and words, softens down into a gentle melancholy,
+mild and painless, and that often a faint glimmer of hope appears then
+in the soul, so it was with Frederick; when he had sung this song he
+felt wonderfully strengthened and comforted The evening breezes and the
+darksome trees that he had called upon in his song rustled and
+whispered words of consolation; and like the sweet dreams of distant
+glory or of distant happiness, golden streaks of light worked their way
+up across the dusky sky. Frederick rose to his feet, and went down the
+hill into the village. He almost fancied that Reinhold was walking
+beside him as he did on the day they first found each other; and all
+the words which Reinhold had spoken again recurred to his mind. And as
+his thoughts dwelt upon Reinhold's story about the contest between the
+two painters who were friends, then the scales fell from his eyes.
+There was no doubt about it; Reinhold must have seen Rose before and
+loved her. It was only his love for her which had brought him to
+Nuremberg to Master Martin's, and by the contest between the two
+painters he meant simply and solely their own--Reinhold's and
+Frederick's--rival wooing of beautiful Rose. The words that Reinhold
+had then spoken rang again in his ears,--&quot;Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+and knit their hearts still closer together, instead of setting them at
+variance. There should never be any place in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hatred.&quot; &quot;Yes,&quot; exclaimed Frederick aloud, &quot;yes, friend of
+my heart, I will appeal to you without any reserve, you yourself shall
+tell me if all hope for me is lost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was approaching noon when Frederick tapped at Reinhold's
+door. As
+all remained still within, he pushed open the door, which was not
+locked as usual, and went in. But the moment he did so he stood rooted
+to the spot. Upon an easel, the glorious rays of the morning sun
+falling upon it, was a splendid picture, Rose in all the pride of her
+beauty and charms, and life size. The maul-stick lying on the table,
+and the wet colours of the palette, showed that some one had been at
+work on the picture quite recently. &quot;O Rose, Rose!--By Heaven!&quot; sighed
+Frederick. Reinhold, who had entered behind him unperceived, clapped
+him on the shoulder and asked, smiling, &quot;Well, now, Frederick, what do
+you say to my picture!&quot; Then Frederick pressed him to his heart and
+cried, &quot;Oh you splendid fellow--you are indeed a noble artist. Yes,
+it's all clear to me now. You have won the prize--for which I--poor
+me!--had the hardihood to struggle. Oh! what am I in comparison with
+you? And what is my art against yours? And yet I too had some fine
+ideas in my head. Don't laugh at me, dear Reinhold; but, look you, I
+thought what a grand thing it would be to model Rose's lovely figure
+and cast it in the finest silver. But that's all childishness, whilst
+you--you--Oh! how sweetly she smiles upon you, and how delightfully you
+have brought out all her beauty. O Reinhold! Reinhold! you happy, happy
+fellow! Ay, and it has all come about as you said long ago. We have
+both striven for the prize and you have won it: you could not help but
+win it, and I shall still continue to be your friend with all my heart
+But I must leave this house--my home: I cannot bear it, I should die if
+I were to see Rose again. Please forgive me, my dear, dear, noble
+friend. To-day, this very moment, I will go--go away into the wide
+world, where my trouble, my unbearable misery, is sending me.&quot; And thus
+speaking, Frederick was hastening out of the apartment, but Reinhold
+held him fast, saying gently, &quot;You shall not go; for things may turn
+out quite different from what you think. It is now time for me to tell
+you all that I have hitherto kept silence about. That I am not a cooper
+but a painter you are now well aware, and I hope a glance at this
+picture will convince you that I am not to be ranked amongst the
+inferior artists. Whilst still young I went to Italy, the land of art;
+there I had the good fortune to be accepted as a pupil by renowned
+masters, who fostered into living fire the spark which glowed within
+me. Thus it came to pass that I rapidly rose into fame, that my
+pictures became celebrated throughout all Italy, and the powerful Duke
+of Florence<sup><a name="div2_martin35" href="#div2Ref_martin35">35</a></sup> summoned me to his court. At that time I would not hear
+a word about German art, and without having seen any of your pictures,
+I talked a good deal of nonsense about the coldness, the bad drawing,
+and the hardness of your Dürer and your Cranach.<sup><a name="div2_martin36" href="#div2Ref_martin36">36</a></sup> But one day a
+picture-dealer brought a small picture of the Madonna by old Albrecht
+to the Duke's gallery, and it made a powerful and wonderful impression
+upon me, so that I turned away completely from the voluptuousness of
+Italian art, and from that very hour determined to go back to my native
+Germany and study there the masterpieces upon which my heart was now
+set I came to Nuremberg here, and when I beheld Rose I seemed to see
+the Madonna who had so wonderfully stirred my heart, walking in bodily
+form on earth. I had the same experiences as you, dear Frederick; the
+bright flames of love flashed up and consumed me, mind and heart and
+soul. I saw nothing, I thought of nothing, but Rose; all else had
+vanished from my mind; and even art itself only retained its hold upon
+me in so far as it enabled me to draw and paint Rose again and again--
+hundreds of times. I would have approached the maiden in the free
+Italian way; but all my attempts proved fruitless. There was no means
+of securing a footing of intimacy in Master Martin's house in any
+insidious way. At last I made up my mind to sue for Rose directly, when
+I learned that Master Martin had determined to give his daughter only
+to a good master-cooper. Straightway I formed the adventurous resolve
+to go and learn the trade of cooperage in Strasburg, and then to come
+and work in Master Martin's work-shop. I left all the rest to the
+ordering of Providence. You know in what way I carried out my resolve;
+but I must now also tell you what Master Martin said to me some days
+ago. He said I should make a skilful cooper and should be a right dear
+and worthy son-in-law, for he saw plainly that I was seeking to gain
+Rose's favour, and that she liked me right well.&quot; &quot;Can it then indeed
+well be otherwise?&quot; cried Frederick, painfully agitated &quot;Yes, yes, Rose
+will be <i>yours</i>; how came I, unhappy wretch that I am, ever to hope for
+such happiness?&quot; &quot;You are forgetting, my brother,&quot; Reinhold went on to
+say; &quot;you are forgetting that Rose herself has not confirmed this,
+which our cunning Master Martin no doubt is well aware of. True it is
+that Rose has always shown herself kind and charming towards me, but a
+loving heart betrays itself in other ways. Promise me, brother, to
+remain quiet for three days longer, and to go to your work in the shop
+as usual. I also could now go to work again, but since I have been busy
+with, and wrapt up in this picture, I feel an indescribable disgust at
+that coarse rough work out yonder. And, what is more, I can never lay
+hand upon mallet again, let come what will. On the third day I will
+frankly tell you how matters stand between me and Rose. If I should
+really be the lucky one to whom she has given her love, then you may go
+your way and make trial of the experience that time can cure the
+deepest wounds.&quot; Frederick promised to await his fate.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day Frederick's heart beat with fear and anxious
+expectation; he had in the meantime carefully avoided meeting Rose.
+Like one in a dream he crept about the workshop, and his awkwardness
+gave Master Martin, no doubt, just cause for his grumbling and
+scolding, which was not by any means customary with him. Moreover, the
+master seemed to have encountered something that completely spoilt all
+his good spirits. He talked a great deal about base tricks and
+ingratitude, without clearly expressing what he meant by it. When at
+length evening came, and Frederick was returning towards the town, he
+saw not far from the gate a horseman coming to meet him, whom he
+recognised to be Reinhold. As soon as the latter caught sight of
+Frederick he cried, &quot;Ha! ha! I meet you just as I wanted.&quot; And leaping
+from his horse, he slung the rein over his arm, and grasped his
+friend's hand. &quot;Let us walk along a space beside each other,&quot; he said.
+&quot;Now I can tell you what luck I have had with my suit.&quot; Frederick
+observed that Reinhold wore the same clothes which he had worn when
+they first met each other, and that the horse bore a portmanteau.
+Reinhold looked pale and troubled. &quot;Good luck to you, brother,&quot; he
+began somewhat wildly; &quot;good luck to you. You can now go and hammer
+away lustily at your casks; I will yield the field to you. I have just
+said adieu to pretty Rose and worthy Master Martin.&quot; &quot;What!&quot; exclaimed
+Frederick, whilst an electric thrill, as it were, shot through all his
+limbs--&quot;what! you are going away now that Master Martin is willing to
+take you for his son-in-law, and Rose loves you?&quot; Reinhold replied,
+&quot;That was only a delusion, brother, which your jealousy has led you
+into. It has now come out that Rose would have had me simply to show
+her dutifulness and obedience, but there's not a spark of love glowing
+in her ice-cold heart. Ha! ha! I should have made a fine cooper--that I
+should. Week-days scraping hoops and planing staves, Sundays walking
+beside my honest wife to St. Catherine's or St. Sebald's, and in the
+evening to the Allerwiese, year after year&quot;---- &quot;Nay, mock not,&quot; said
+Frederick, interrupting Reinhold's loud laughter, &quot;mock not at the
+excellent burgher's simple, harmless life. If Rose does not really love
+you, it is not her fault; you are so passionate, so wild.&quot; &quot;You are
+right,&quot; said Reinhold; &quot;It is only the silly way I have of making as
+much noise as a spoilt child when I conceive I have been hurt. You can
+easily imagine that I spoke to Rose of my love and of her father's
+good-will. Then the tears started from her eyes, and her hand trembled
+in mine. Turning her face away, she whispered, 'I must submit to my
+father's will'--that was enough for me. My peculiar resentment, dear
+Frederick, will now let you see into the depths of my heart; I must
+tell you that my striving to win Rose was a deception, imposed upon me
+by my wandering mind. After I had finished Rose's picture my heart grew
+calm; and often, strange enough, I fancied that Rose was now the
+picture, and that the picture was become the real Rose. I detested my
+former coarse, rude handiwork; and when I came so intimately into
+contact with the incidents of common life, getting one's 'mastership'
+and getting married, I felt as if I were going to be confined in a
+dungeon and chained to the stocks. How indeed can the divine being whom
+I carry in my heart ever be my wife? No, she shall for ever stand forth
+glorious in youth, grace, and beauty, in the pictures--the
+masterpieces--which my restless spirit shall create. Oh! how I long for
+such things! How came I ever to turn away from my divine art? O thou
+glorious land, thou home of Art, soon again will I revel amidst thy
+cool and balmy airs.&quot; The friends had reached the place where the road
+which Reinhold intended to take turned to the left. &quot;Here we will
+part,&quot; cried Reinhold, pressing Frederick to his heart in a long warm
+embrace; then he threw himself upon horseback and galloped away.
+Frederick stood watching him without uttering a word, and then,
+agitated by the most unaccountable feelings, he slowly wended his way
+homewards.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>How Frederick was driven out of the workshop by
+Master Martin.</i></p>
+
+<p>The next day Master Martin was working away at the great cask
+for the
+Bishop of Bamberg in moody silence, nor could Frederick, who now felt
+the full bitterness of parting from Reinhold, utter a word either,
+still less break out into song. At last Master Martin threw aside his
+mallet, and crossing his arms, said in a muffled voice, &quot;Well,
+Reinhold's gone. He was a distinguished painter, and has only been
+making a fool of me with his pretence of being a cooper. Oh! that I had
+only had an inkling of it when he came into my house along with you and
+bore himself so smart and clever, wouldn't I just have shown him the
+door! Such an open honest face, and so much deceit and treachery in his
+mind! Well, he's gone, and now you will faithfully and honestly stick
+to me and my handiwork. Who knows whether you may not become something
+more to me still--when you have become a skilful master and Rose will
+have you--well, you understand me, and may try to win Rose's favour.&quot;
+Forthwith he took up his mallet and worked away lustily again.
+Frederick did not know how to account for it, but Master Martin's words
+rent his breast, and a strange feeling of anxiety arose in his mind,
+obscuring every glimmer of hope. After a long interval Rose made a
+first appearance again in the workshop, but was very reserved, and, as
+Frederick to his mortification could see, her eyes were red with
+weeping. She has been weeping for him, she does love him, thus he said
+within himself, and he was quite unable to raise his eyes to her whom
+he loved with such an unutterable love.</p>
+
+<p>The mighty cask was finished, and now Master Martin began to
+be blithe
+and in good humour again as he regarded this very successful piece of
+work. &quot;Yes, my son,&quot; said he, clapping Frederick on the shoulder, &quot;yes,
+my son, I will keep my word: if you succeed in winning Rose's favour
+and build a good sound masterpiece, you shall be my son-in-law. And
+then you can also join the noble guild of the <i>Meistersinger</i>, and so
+win you great honour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Master Martin's business now increased so very greatly that he
+had to
+engage two other journeymen, clever workmen, but rude fellows, quite
+demoralised by their long wanderings. Coarse jests now echoed in the
+workshop instead of the many pleasant talks of former days, and in
+place of Frederick and Reinhold's agreeable singing were now heard low
+and obscene ditties. Rose shunned the workshop, so that Frederick saw
+her but seldom, and only for a few moments at a time. And then when he
+looked at her with melancholy longing and sighed, &quot;Oh! if I might talk
+to you again, dear Rose, if you were only as friendly again as at the
+time when Reinhold was still with us!&quot; she cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and whispered &quot;Have you something to tell me, dear
+Frederick?&quot; And Frederick stood like a statue, unable to speak a word,
+and the golden opportunity was quickly past, like a flash of lightning
+that darts across the dark red glow of the evening, and is gone almost
+before it is observed.</p>
+
+<p>Master Martin now insisted that Frederick should begin his
+masterpiece.
+He had himself sought out the finest, purest oak wood, without the
+least vein or flaw, which had been over five years in his wood-store,
+and nobody was to help Frederick except old Valentine. Not only was
+Frederick put more and more out of taste with his work by the rough
+journeymen, but he felt a tightness in his throat as he thought that
+this masterpiece was to decide over his whole life long. The same
+peculiar feeling of anxiety which he had experienced when Master Martin
+was praising his faithful devotion to his handiwork now grew into a
+more and more distinct shape in a quite dreadful way. He now knew that
+he should fail miserably and disgracefully in his work; his mind, now
+once more completely taken up with his own art, was fundamentally
+averse to it. He could not forget Reinhold and Rose's picture. His own
+art now put on again her full glory in his eyes. Often as he was
+working, the crushing sense of the unmanliness of his conduct quite
+overpowered him, and, alleging that he was unwell, he ran off to St.
+Sebald's Church. There he spent hours in studying Peter Fischer's
+marvellous monument, and he would exclaim, as if ravished with delight,
+&quot;Oh, good God! Is there anything on earth more glorious than to
+conceive and execute such a work?&quot; And when he had to go back again to
+his staves and hoops, and remembered that in this way only was Rose to
+be won, he felt as if burning talons were rending his bleeding heart,
+and as if he must perish in the midst of his unspeakable agony.
+Reinhold often came to him in his dreams and brought him striking
+designs for artistic castings, into which Rose's form was worked in
+most ingenious ways, now as a flower, now as an angel, with little
+wings. But there was always something wanting; he discovered that it
+was Rose's heart which Reinhold had forgotten, and that he added to the
+design himself. Then he thought he saw all the flowers and leaves of
+the work move, singing and diffusing their sweet fragrances, and the
+precious metals showed him Rose's likeness in their glittering surface.
+Then he stretched out his arms longingly after his beloved, but the
+likeness vanished as if in dim mist, and Rose herself, pretty Rose,
+pressed him to her loving heart in an ecstasy of passionate love.</p>
+
+<p>His condition with respect to the unfortunate cooperage grew
+worse and
+worse, and more and more unbearable, and he went to his old master
+Johannes Holzschuer to seek comfort and assistance. He allowed
+Frederick to begin in his shop a piece of work which he, Frederick, had
+thought out and for which he had for some time been saving up his
+earnings, so that he could procure the necessary gold and silver. Thus
+it happened that Frederick was scarcely ever at work in Martin's shop,
+and his deathly pale face gave credence to his pretext that he was
+suffering from a consuming illness. Months went past, and his
+masterpiece, his great two-tun cask, was not advanced any further.
+Master Martin was urgent upon him that he should at least do as much as
+his strength would allow, and Frederick really saw himself compelled to
+go to the hated cutting block again and take the adze in hand. Whilst
+he was working, Master Martin drew near and examined the staves at
+which he was working; and he got quite red in the face and cried, &quot;What
+do you call this? What work is this, Frederick? Has a journeyman been
+preparing these staves for his 'mastership,' or a stupid apprentice who
+only put his nose into the workshop three days ago? Pull yourself
+together, lad: what devil has entered into you that you are making a
+bungle of things like this? My good oak wood,--and this your
+masterpiece! Oh! you awkward, imprudent boy!&quot; Overmastered by the
+torture and agony which raged within him, Frederick was unable to
+contain himself any longer; so, throwing the adze from him he said,
+&quot;Master, it's all over; no, even though it cost me my life, though I
+perish in unutterable misery, I cannot work any longer--no, I cannot
+work any longer at this coarse trade. An irresistible power is drawing
+me back to my own glorious art. Your daughter Rose I love unspeakably,
+more than anybody else on earth can ever love her. It is only for her
+sake that I ever entered upon this hateful work. I have now lost her, I
+know, and shall soon die of grief for love of her; but I can't help it,
+I must go back to my own glorious art, to my excellent old master,
+Johannes Holzschuer, whom I so shamefully deserted.&quot; Master Martin's
+eyes blazed like flashing candles. Scarce able to speak for rage, he
+stammered, &quot;What! you too! Deceit and treachery! Dupe <i>me</i> like this!
+coarse trade--cooperage! Out of my eyes, you disgraceful fellow; begone
+with you!&quot; And therewith he laid hold of poor Frederick by the
+shoulders and threw him out of the shop, which the rude journeymen and
+apprentices greeted with mocking laughter. But old Valentine folded his
+hands, and gazing thoughtfully before him, said, &quot;I've noticed, that I
+have, the good fellow had something higher in his mind than our casks.&quot;
+Dame Martha shed many tears, and her boys cried and screamed for
+Frederick, who had often played kindly with them and brought them
+several lots of sweets.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Conclusion.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>However angry Master Martin might feel towards Reinhold and
+Frederick,
+he could not but admit to himself that along with them all joy and all
+pleasure had disappeared from the workshop. Every day he was annoyed
+and provoked by the new journeymen. He had to look after every little
+trifle, and it cost him no end of trouble and exertion to get even the
+smallest amount of work done to his mind. Quite tired out with the
+cares of the day, he often sighed, &quot;O Reinhold! O Frederick! I wish you
+had not so shamefully deceived me, I wish you had been good coopers.&quot;
+Things at last got so bad that he often contemplated the idea of giving
+up business altogether.</p>
+
+<p>As he was sitting at home one evening in one of these gloomy
+moods,
+Herr Jacobus Paumgartner and along with him Master Johannes Holzschuer
+came in quite unexpectedly. He saw at once that they were going to talk
+about Frederick; and in fact Herr Paumgartner very soon turned the
+conversation upon him, and Master Holzschuer at once began to say all
+he could in praise of the young fellow. It was his opinion that
+Frederick with his industry and his gifts would certainly not only make
+an excellent goldsmith, but also a most admirable art-caster, and would
+tread in Peter Fischer's footsteps. And now Herr Paumgartner began to
+reproach Master Martin in no gentle terms for his unkind treatment of
+his poor journeyman Frederick, and they both urged him to give Rose
+to the young fellow to wife when he was become a skilful goldsmith
+and caster,--that is, of course, in case she looked with favour upon
+him,--for his affection for her tingled in every vein he had. Master
+Martin let them have their say out, then he doffed his cap and said,
+smiling, &quot;That's right, my good sirs, I'm glad you stand up so bravely
+for the journeyman who so shamefully deceived me. That, however, I will
+forgive him; but don't ask that I should alter my fixed resolve for his
+sake; Rose can never be anything to him.&quot; At this moment Rose entered the
+room, pale and with eyes red with weeping, and she silently placed wine
+and glasses on the table. &quot;Well then,&quot; began Herr Holzschuer, &quot;I must
+let poor Frederick have his own way; he wants to leave home for ever.
+He has done a beautiful piece of work at my shop, which, if you, my
+good master, will allow, he will present to Rose as a keepsake; look at
+it.&quot; Whereupon Master Holzschuer produced a small artistically-chased
+silver cup, and handed it to Master Martin, who, a great lover of
+costly vessels and such like, took it and examined it on all sides with
+much satisfaction. And indeed a more splendid piece of silver work than
+this little cup could hardly be seen. Delicate chains of vine-leaves
+and roses were intertwined round about it, and pretty angels peeped up
+out of the roses and the bursting buds, whilst within, on the gilded
+bottom of the cup, were engraved angels lovingly caressing each other.
+And when the clear bright wine was poured into the cup, the little
+angels seemed to dance up and down as if playing prettily together. &quot;It
+is indeed an elegant piece of work,&quot; said Master Martin, &quot;and I will
+keep it if Frederick will take the double of what it is worth in good
+gold pieces.&quot; Thus speaking, he filled the cup and raised it to his
+lips. At this moment the door was softly opened, and Frederick stepped
+in, his countenance pale and stamped with the bitter, bitter pain of
+separating for ever from her he held dearest on earth. As soon as Rose
+saw him she uttered a loud piercing cry, &quot;O my dearest Frederick!&quot; and
+fell almost fainting on his breast. Master Martin set down the cup, and
+on seeing Rose in Frederick's arms opened his eyes wide as if he saw a
+ghost. Then he again took up the cup without speaking a word, and
+looked into it; but all at once he leapt from his seat and cried in a
+loud voice, &quot;Rose, Rose, do you love Frederick?&quot; &quot;Oh!&quot; whispered Rose,
+&quot;I cannot any longer conceal it, I love him as I love my own life; my
+heart nearly broke when you sent him away.&quot; &quot;Then embrace your
+betrothed, Frederick; yes, yes, your betrothed, Frederick,&quot; cried
+Master Martin. Paumgartner and Holzschuer looked at each other utterly
+bewildered with astonishment, but Master Martin, holding the cup in his
+hand, went on, &quot;By the good God, has it not all come to pass as the old
+lady prophesied?--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">'A vessel fair to see he'll bring,</p>
+<p class="i4">In which the spicy liquid foams,</p>
+<p class="i4">And bright, bright angels gaily sing.</p>
+<p class="i4">... The vessel fair with golden grace,</p>
+<p class="i4">Lo! him who brings it in the house,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace,</p>
+<p class="i4">And, an thy lover be but true,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou need'st not wait thy father's kiss.'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">O Stupid fool I have been! Here is the vessel fair to see,
+the angels--
+the lover--Ay! ay! gentlemen; it's all right now, all right now; my
+son-in-law is found.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whoever has had his mind ever confused by a bad dream, so that
+he
+thought he was lying in the deep cold blackness of the grave, and
+suddenly he awakens in the midst of the bright spring-tide full of
+fragrance and sunshine and song, and she whom he holds dearest on earth
+has come to him and has cast her arms about him, and he can look up
+into the heaven of her lovely face,--whoever has at any time
+experienced this will understand Frederick's feelings, will comprehend
+his exceeding great happiness. Unable to speak a word, he held Rose
+tightly clasped in his arms as though he would never let her leave him,
+until she at length gently disengaged herself and led him to her
+father. Then he found his voice, &quot;O my dear master, is it all really
+true? You will give me Rose to wife, and I may go back to my art?&quot;
+&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; said Master Martin, &quot;you may in truth believe it; can I do
+any other since you have fulfilled my old grandmother's prophecy? You
+need not now of course go on with your masterpiece.&quot; Then Frederick,
+perfectly radiant with delight, smiled and said, &quot;No, my dear master,
+if it be pleasing to you I will now gladly and in good spirits finish
+my big cask--my last piece of work in cooperage--and then I will go
+back to the melting-furnace.&quot; &quot;Yes, my good brave son,&quot; replied Master
+Martin, his eyes sparkling with joy, &quot;yes, finish your masterpiece, and
+then we'll have the wedding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Frederick kept his word faithfully, and finished the two-tun
+cask; and
+all the masters declared that it would be no easy task to do a finer
+piece of work, whereat Master Martin was delighted down to the ground,
+and was moreover of opinion that Providence could not have found for
+him a more excellent son-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>At length the wedding day was come, Frederick's masterpiece
+stood in
+the entrance hall filled with rich wine, and crowned with garlands. The
+masters of the trade, with the syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their
+head, put in an appearance along with their housewives, followed by the
+master goldsmiths. All was ready for the procession to begin its march
+to St. Sebald's Church, where the pair were to be married, when a sound
+of trumpets was heard in the street, and a neighing and stamping of
+horses before Martin's house. Master Martin hastened to the bay-window.
+It was Herr Heinrich von Spangenberg, in gay holiday attire, who had
+pulled up in front of the house; a few paces behind him, on a high-
+spirited horse, sat a young and splendid knight, his glittering sword
+at his side, and high-coloured feathers in his baretta, which was also
+adorned with flashing jewels. Beside the knight, Herr Martin perceived
+a wondrously beautiful lady, likewise splendidly dressed, seated on a
+jennet the colour of fresh-fallen snow. Pages and attendants in
+brilliant coats formed a circle round about them. The trumpet ceased,
+and old Herr von Spangenberg shouted up to him, &quot;Aha! aha! Master
+Martin, I have not come either for your wine cellar or for your gold
+pieces, but only because it is Rose's wedding day. Will you let me in,
+good master?&quot; Master Martin remembered his own words very well, and was
+a little ashamed of himself; but he hurried down to receive the Junker.
+The old gentleman dismounted, and after greeting him, entered the
+house. Some of the pages sprang forward, and upon their arms the lady
+slipped down from her palfrey; the knight gave her his hand and
+followed the old gentleman. But when Master Martin looked at the young
+knight he recoiled three paces, struck his hands together, and cried,
+&quot;Good God! Conrad!&quot; &quot;Yes, Master Martin,&quot; said the knight, smiling, &quot;I
+am indeed your journeyman Conrad. Forgive me for the wound I inflicted
+on you. But you see, my good master, that I ought properly to have
+killed you; but things have now all turned out different.&quot; Greatly
+confused, Master Martin replied, that it was after all better that he
+had not been killed; of the little bit of a cut with the adze he had
+made no account. Now when Master Martin with his new guests entered the
+room where the bridal pair and the rest were assembled, they were all
+agreeably surprised at the beautiful lady, who was so exactly like the
+bride, even down to the minutest feature, that they might have been
+taken for twin-sisters. The knight approached the bride with courtly
+grace and said, &quot;Grant, lovely Rose, that Conrad be present here on this
+auspicious day. You are not now angry with the wild thoughtless journeyman
+who was nigh bringing a great trouble upon you, are you?&quot; But as the
+bridegroom and the bride and Master Martin were looking at each other in
+great wonder and embarrassment, old Herr von Spangenberg said, &quot;Well, well,
+I see I must help you out of your dream. This is my son Conrad, and here
+is his good, true wife, named Rose, like the lovely bride. Call our
+conversation to mind, Master Martin. I had a very special reason for asking
+you whether you would refuse your Rose to my son. The young puppy was madly
+in love with her, and he induced me to lay aside all other considerations
+and make up my mind to come and woo her on his behalf. But when I told him
+in what an uncourteous way I had been dismissed, he in the most nonsensical
+way stole into your house in the guise of a cooper, intending to win her
+favour and then actually to run away with her. But--you cured him with
+that good sound blow across his back; my best thanks for it. And now he
+has found a lady of rank who most likely is, after all, <i>the</i> Rose who
+was properly in his heart from the beginning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the lady had with graceful kindness greeted the
+bride, and
+hung a valuable pearl necklace round her neck as a wedding present.
+&quot;See here, dear Rose,&quot; she then said, taking a very withered bunch of
+flowers out from amongst the fresh blooming ones which she wore at her
+bosom--&quot;see here, dear Rose, these are the flowers that you once gave
+my Conrad as the prize of victory; he kept them faithfully until he saw
+me, then he was unfaithful to you and gave them to me; don't be angry
+with me for it.&quot; Rose, her cheeks crimson, cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion, saying, &quot;Oh! noble lady, how can you say so? Could the
+Junker then ever really love a poor maiden like me? You alone were his
+love, and it was only because I am called Rose, and, as they say here,
+something like you, that he wooed me, all the while thinking it was
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A second time the procession was about to set out, when a
+young man
+entered the room, dressed in the Italian style, all in black slashed
+velvet, with an elegant lace collar and rich golden chains of honour
+hanging from his neck. &quot;O Reinhold, my Reinhold!&quot; cried Frederick,
+throwing himself upon the young man's breast. The bride and Master
+Martin also cried out excitedly, &quot;Reinhold, our brave Reinhold is
+come!&quot; &quot;Did I not tell you,&quot; said Reinhold, returning Frederick's
+embrace with warmth,--&quot;did I not tell you, my dear, dear friend, that
+things might turn out gloriously for you? Let me celebrate your wedding
+day with you; I have come a long way on purpose to do so; and as a
+lasting memento hang up in your house the picture which I have painted
+for you and brought with me.&quot; And then he called down to his two
+servants, who brought in a large picture in a magnificent gold frame.
+It represented Master Martin in his workshop along with his journeymen
+Reinhold, Frederick, and Conrad working at the great cask, and lovely
+Rose was just entering the shop. Everybody was astonished at the truth
+and magnificent colouring of the piece as a work of art. &quot;Ay,&quot; said
+Frederick, smiling, &quot;that is, I suppose, your masterpiece as cooper;
+mine is below yonder in the entrance-hall; but I shall soon make
+another.&quot; &quot;I know all,&quot; replied Reinhold, &quot;and rate you lucky. Only
+stick fast to your art; it can put up with more domesticity and such-
+like than mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the marriage feast Frederick sat between the two Roses, and
+opposite
+him Master Martin between Conrad and Reinhold. Then Herr Paumgartner
+filled Frederick's cup up to the brim with rich wine, and drank to the
+weal of Master Martin and his brave journeymen. The cup went round; and
+first it was drained by the noble Junker Heinrich von Spangenberg, and
+after him by all the worthy masters who sat at the table--to the weal
+of Master Martin and his brave journeymen.</p>
+
+<p class="continue">FOOTNOTES TO &quot;MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER&quot;:</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin1" href="#div2_martin1">1</a></sup> Written for the Leipsic <i>Taschenbuch zum
+geselligen Vergnügen</i> for 1819.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin2" href="#div2_martin2">2</a></sup> The &quot;Beautiful Fountain,&quot; as it is called, is
+about 64 ft. in height, and consists of three stone Gothic pyramids and many statues
+(electors and heroes and prophets). It was built by Schonhover in
+1355-61, and restored in 1820.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin3" href="#div2_martin3">3</a></sup> St. Sebald's shrine in St. Sebald's Church
+consists of a bronze sarcophagus and canopy of rich Gothic style. It stands about
+16-1/2 ft. high, and bears admirable statues of the Twelve Apostles,
+certain church-fathers and prophets, and other representations of a
+semi-mythological character, together with reliefs illustrative of
+episodes in the saint's life. It is regarded by many as one of the gems
+of German artistic work, and is the result of thirteen years' labour
+(1506-1519) by Peter Vischer and his sons.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin4" href="#div2_martin4">4</a></sup> This ciborium or receptacle for the host is the
+work of Adam Krafft, stands about 68 feet in height, and represents Christ's
+Passion. The style is florid Gothic, and the material stone.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin5" href="#div2_martin5">5</a></sup> Albrecht Dürer, born at Nuremberg in 1471, and
+died in 1528, contemporary with Titian and Raphael, the most truly
+representative German painter as well as, perhaps, the greatest.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin6" href="#div2_martin6">6</a></sup> Hans Rosenblüth, <i>Meistersinger</i> and <i>
+Wappendichter</i> (Mastersinger and Herald-poet), called the <i>Schnepperer</i>
+(babbler), was a native of Nuremberg. Between 1431 and 1460 is the period of his
+literary activity, when he wrote <i>Fastnachtspiele</i> (developments of the
+comic elements in Mysteries), &quot;Odes&quot; on Wine, Farces, &amp;c. He marks the
+transition from the poetry of chivalric life and manners to that of
+burgher life and manners.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin7" href="#div2_martin7">7</a></sup> Wine was frequently stored at this period on the
+cooper's premises in huge casks, and afterwards drawn off in smaller casks and
+bottled.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin8" href="#div2_martin8">8</a></sup> In many Mediæval German towns the rulers
+(Burgomaster and Councillors) were mostly self-elected, power being in the hands of a
+few patrician families. A Councillor generally attended a full meeting
+of a guild as a sort of &quot;patron&quot; or &quot;visitor.&quot; Compare the position
+which Sir Patrick Charteris occupied with respect to the good citizens
+of Perth. (See Sir Walter Scott's <i>Fair Maid of Perth</i>, chap. vii., <i>et
+passim</i>.)]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin9" href="#div2_martin9">9</a></sup> The well-known Great Cask of Heidelberg, built
+for the Elector Palatine Ernest Theodore in 1751, is calculated to hold 49,000
+gallons, and is 32 feet long and 26 feet in diameter. This is not the
+only gigantic wine cask that has been made in Germany. Other monsters
+are now in the cellars at Tübingen (made in 1546), Groningen (1678),
+Königstein (1725), &amp;c.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin10" href="#div2_martin10">10</a></sup> Hoffmann calls him Tobias also lower down, and
+then Thomas again.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin11" href="#div2_martin11">11</a></sup> Hochheimer is the name of a Rhine wine that has
+been celebrated since the beginning of the ninth century, and is grown in
+the neighbourhood of Hochheim, a town in the district of Wiesbaden.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin12" href="#div2_martin12">12</a></sup> Johannisberger is also grown near Wiesbaden. The
+celebrated vineyard is said to cover only 39-1/2 acres.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin13" href="#div2_martin13">13</a></sup> Nuremberg is noted for its interesting old
+houses with high narrow gables turned next the street: amongst the most famous are
+those belonging to the families of Nassau, Tucher, Peller, Petersen
+(formerly Toppler), and those of Albrecht Dürer and of Hans Sachs, the
+cobbler-poet of the 16th century.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin14" href="#div2_martin14">14</a></sup> Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867), founder of a
+great German school of historical painting. Going to Rome in 1811, he painted
+a set of seven scenes illustrative of Goethe's <i>Faust</i>, having
+previously finished a set at Frankfort (on Main). Amongst his many
+famous works are the Last Judgment in the Ludwig Church at Munich and
+frescoes in the Glyptothek there.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin15" href="#div2_martin15">15</a></sup> Gretchen's real words were &quot;Bin weder Fräulein
+weder schön.&quot; See the scene which follows the &quot;Hexenküche&quot; scene in the first
+part of <i>Faust</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin16" href="#div2_martin16">16</a></sup> A meadow or common on the outskirts of the town,
+which served as a general place of recreation and amusement. Nearly every
+German town has such; as the Theresa Meadow at Munich, the Canstatt
+Meadow near Stuttgart, the Communal Meadow on the right bank of the
+Main not far from Frankfort (see Goethe, <i>Wahrheit und Dichtung</i>, near
+the beginning), &amp;c.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin17" href="#div2_martin17">17</a></sup> This word is generally used to designate an
+untitled country nobleman, a member of an old-established noble &quot;county&quot; family.
+In Prussia the name came to be applied to a political party. A most
+interesting description of the old Prussian Junker is given in Wilibald
+Alexis' (W. H. Häring's) charming novel <i>Die Hosen des Herrn v. Bredow</i>
+(1846-48), in Sir Walter Scott's style.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin18" href="#div2_martin18">18</a></sup> A string of pearls worn on the wedding-day was a
+prerogative of a patrician bride.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin19" href="#div2_martin19">19</a></sup> <a name="div2_wacht2a" href="#div2Ref_wacht2a">In the Middle Ages, in Nuremberg, and in most
+other industrial towns also, the artisans and others who formed <i>guilds</i>
+(each respective trade or calling having generally its guild) were
+divided into three grades, masters, journeymen, and apprentices.
+Admission from one of these grades into the one next above it was
+subject to various more or less restrictive conditions. A man could
+only become a &quot;master&quot; and regularly set up in business for himself
+after having gone through the various stages of training in conformity
+with the rules or prescriptions of his guild, after having constructed
+his masterpiece to the satisfaction of a specially appointed
+commission, and after fulfilling certain requirements as to age,
+citizenship, and in some cases possession of a certain amount of
+property. It was usual for journeymen to spend a certain time in
+travelling going from one centre of their trade to another.</a>]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin20" href="#div2_martin20">20</a></sup> From another passage (<i>Der Feind</i>, chap. i)
+it appears that the reference is to a series of regulations dealing with the wine
+industry, of date August 24, 1498, in the reign of Maximilian I.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin21" href="#div2_martin21">21</a></sup> Sulphur is burnt inside the cask (care being
+taken that it does not touch it) in order to keep it sweet and pure, as well as to
+impart both flavour and colour to the wine.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin22" href="#div2_martin22">22</a></sup> See note 2, p. 15. The German <i>Meistersinger</i>
+always sang without any accompaniment of musical instruments.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin23" href="#div2_martin23">23</a></sup> This is one of the principal round towers,
+erected 1558-1568, in the town walls; it is situated on the south-east.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin24" href="#div2_martin24">24</a></sup> Peter Vischer (<i>c.</i> 1455-1529), a native of
+Nuremberg, one of the most distinguished of German sculptors, was chiefly engaged
+in making monuments for deceased princes in various parts of Germany
+and central Europe. The shrine in St. Sebald's, mentioned above, is
+generally considered his masterpiece.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin25" href="#div2_martin25">25</a></sup> Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1569) of Florence,
+goldsmith and worker in metals. Mr. W. M. Rossetti rightly says that his biography,
+written by himself, forms one of the most &quot;fascinating&quot; of books. It
+has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, and by Goethe into
+German.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin26" href="#div2_martin26">26</a></sup> Holzschuher was the name of an old and important
+family in Nuremberg. Fifty-four years before the date of the present story,
+that is in 1526, a member of the family was burgomaster of his native
+town, and was painted by Dürer.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin27" href="#div2_martin27">27</a></sup> The family of Fugger, which rose from the
+position of poor weavers to be the richest merchant princes in Augsburg, decorated
+their house with frescoes externally, like so many other old German
+families.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin28" href="#div2_martin28">28</a></sup> During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
+centuries there existed in many German towns (Nuremberg, Frankfort, Strasburg,
+Ulm, Mayence, &amp;c.) associations or guild-like corporations of burghers,
+the object of which was the cultivation of song in the same systematic
+way that the mechanical arts were practised. They framed strict and
+well-defined codes of rules (<i>Tablatures</i>) by means of which they
+tested a singer's capabilities. As the chief aims which they set before
+themselves were the invention of new tunes or melodies, and also songs
+(words), it resulted that they fell into the inevitable vice of cold
+formalism, and banished the true spirit of poetry by their many
+arbitrary rules about rhyme, measure, and melody, and the dry business-
+like manner in which they worked. The guild or company generally
+consisted of five distinct grades, the ultimate one being that of
+master, entrance into which was only permitted to the man who had
+invented a new melody or tune, and had sung it in public without
+offending against any of the laws of the <i>Tablature</i>. The subjects,
+which, as the singers were honest burghers, could not be taken from
+topics in which chivalric life took any interest, were mostly
+restricted to fables, legendary lore, and consisted very largely of
+Biblical narratives and passages.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin29" href="#div2_martin29">29</a></sup> These words are the names of various &quot;tunes,&quot;
+and signified in each case a particular metre, rhyme, melody, &amp;c, so that
+each was a brief definition of a number of individual items, so to
+speak. These <i>Meistersinger</i> technical terms (or slang?) are therefore
+not translatable, nor could they be made intelligible by paraphrase,
+even if the requisite information for each instance were at hand.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin30" href="#div2_martin30">30</a></sup> A glass divided by means of marks placed at
+intervals from top to bottom. It was usual for one who was invited to drink to
+drink out of the challenger's glass down to the mark next below the top
+of the liquid.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin31" href="#div2_martin31">31</a></sup> These would consist of the certificate of his
+admission into the ranks of the journeymen of the guild, of the certificates of
+proper dismissal signed by the various masters for whom he had worked
+whilst on travel, together with testimonials of good conduct from the
+same masters.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin32" href="#div2_martin32">32</a></sup> On these great singing days, generally on
+Sundays in the churches, and on special occasions in the town-house, the
+&quot;performances&quot; consisted of three parts. 1. First came a &quot;Voluntary
+Solo-Singing,&quot; in which anybody, even a stranger, might participate, no
+contest being entered into, and no rewards given. 2. This was followed
+by a song by all the masters in chorus, 3. Then came the &quot;Principal
+Singing,&quot; the chief &quot;event&quot; of the day--the actual singing contest.
+Four judges were appointed to examine those who successively presented
+themselves, being guided by the strict laws and regulations of the <i>
+Tablatures</i>. Those who violated these laws, that is, who made
+mistakes, had to leave the singing-desk; the successful ones were,
+however, crowned with wreaths, and had earned the right to act
+themselves as judges on future occasions.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin33" href="#div2_martin33">33</a></sup> Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob (died
+1318), after having lived at various courts in both the north and the south of
+Germany, settled at Mayence and gathered together (1311) a school or
+society of burgher singers.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin34" href="#div2_martin34">34</a></sup> The word &quot;prince&quot; is expressed in German by two
+distinct words; one, like the English word, designates a member of a royal or
+reigning house; the other is used as a simple title, often official,
+ranking above duke. The Bishop of Bamberg was in this latter sense a
+prince of the empire.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin35" href="#div2_martin35">35</a></sup> At this time Francesco I. (of the illustrious
+house of Medici) was <i>Grand Duke of Tuscany</i>, his father Cosimo I. having
+exchanged the title of Duke of Florence for that of Grand Duke of
+Tuscany in 1569. Francesco did much for the encouragement of art and
+science. He founded the well-known Uffizi Gallery, and it was in his
+reign that the Accademia Della Crusca was instituted.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_martin36" href="#div2_martin36">36</a></sup> Lucas Cranach occupies along with his
+contemporary
+Albrecht Dürer the first place in the ranks of German painters. Born in
+Upper Franconia in 1472 (died 1553), he secured the favour of the
+Elector of Saxony, and manifested extraordinary activity in several
+branches of painting.]</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><i><a name="div1_scudéri" href="#div1Ref_scudéri">MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI</a>.</i><br />
+<i>A TALE OF THE TIMES OF LOUIS XIV.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="continue">The little house in which lived Madeleine de Scudéri,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri1" href="#div2Ref_scudéri1">1</a></sup>
+well known for
+her pleasing verses, and the favour of Louis XIV. and the Marchioness
+de Maintenon, was situated in the Rue St. Honorée.</p>
+
+<p>One night almost at midnight--it would be about the autumn, of
+the year 1680--there came such a loud and violent knocking at the door of her
+house that it made the whole entrance-passage ring again. Baptiste, who
+in the lady's small household discharged at one and the same time the
+offices of cook, footman, and porter, had with his mistress's
+permission gone into the country to attend his sister's wedding; and
+thus it happened that La Martinière, Mademoiselle's lady-maid was
+alone, and the only person awake in the house. The knockings were
+repeated. She suddenly remembered that Baptiste had gone for his
+holiday, and that she and her mistress were left in the house without
+any further protection. All the outrages burglaries, thefts, and
+murders--which were then so common in Paris, crowded upon her mind; she
+was sure it was a band of cut-throats who were making all this
+disturbance outside; they must be well aware how lonely the house
+stood, and if let in would perpetrate some wicked deed against her
+mistress; and so she remained in her room, trembling and quaking with
+fear, and cursing Baptiste and his sister's wedding as well.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the hammering at the door was being continued; and
+she
+fancied she heard a voice shouting at intervals, &quot;Oh! do open the door!
+For God's sake, do open the door!&quot; At last La Martinière's anxiety rose
+to such a pitch that, taking up the lighted candle, she ran out into
+the passage. There she heard quite plainly the voice of the person
+knocking, &quot;For God's sake! do open the door, please!&quot; &quot;Certainly,&quot;
+thought she, &quot;that surely is not the way a robber would knock. Who
+knows whether it is not some poor man being pursued and wants
+protection from Mademoiselle, who is always ready to do an act of
+kindness? But let us be cautious.&quot; Opening a window, she called out,
+asking who was down making such a loud noise at the house-door so late
+at night, awakening everybody up out of their sleep; and she
+endeavoured to give her naturally deep voice as manly a tone as she
+possibly could.</p>
+
+<p>By the glimmer of the moon, which now broke through the dark
+clouds,
+she could make out a tall figure, enveloped in a light-grey mantle,
+having his broad-brimmed hat pulled down right over his eyes. Then she
+shouted in a loud voice, so as to be heard by the man below, &quot;Baptiste,
+Claude, Pierre, get up and go and see who this good-for-nothing
+vagabond is, who is trying to break into the house.&quot; But the voice from
+below made answer gently, and in a tone that had a plaintive ring in
+it, &quot;Oh! La Martinière, I know quite well that it is you, my good
+woman, however much you try to disguise your voice; I also know that
+Baptiste has gone into the country, and that you are alone in the house
+with your mistress. You may confidently undo the door for me; you need
+have no fear. For I must positively speak with your mistress, and this
+very minute.&quot; &quot;Whatever are you thinking about?&quot; replied La Martinière.
+&quot;You want to speak to Mademoiselle in the middle of the night? Don't
+you know that she has been gone to bed a long time, and that for no
+price would I wake her up out of her first sound sleep, which at her
+time of life she has so much need of?&quot; The person standing below said,
+&quot;But I know that your mistress has only just laid aside her new romance <i>
+Clélie</i>, at which she labours so unremittingly; and she is now writing
+certain verses which she intends to read to the Marchioness de
+Maintenon<sup><a name="div2_scudéri2" href="#div2Ref_scudéri2">2</a></sup> to-morrow. I implore you, Madame Martinière, have pity and
+open me the door. I tell you the matter involves the saving of an
+unfortunate man from ruin,--that the honour, freedom, nay, that the
+life of a man is dependent upon this moment, and I <i>must</i> speak to
+Mademoiselle. Recollect how your mistress's anger would rest upon you
+for ever, if she learned that you had had the hard-heartedness to turn
+an unfortunate man away from her door when he came to supplicate her
+assistance.&quot; &quot;But why do you come to appeal to my mistress's compassion
+at this unusual hour? Come again early in the morning,&quot; said La
+Martinière. The person below replied, &quot;Does Destiny, then, heed times
+and hours when it strikes, like the fatal flash, fraught with
+destruction? When there is but a single moment longer in which rescue
+is still possible, ought assistance to be delayed? Open me the door;
+you need have nothing to fear from a poor defenceless wretch, who is
+deserted of all the world, pursued and distressed by an awful fate,
+when he comes to beseech Mademoiselle to save him from threatening
+danger?&quot; La Martinière heard the man below moaning and sobbing with
+anguish as he said these words, and at the same time the voice was the
+voice of a young man, gentle, and gifted with the power of appealing
+straight to the heart She was greatly touched; without much further
+deliberation she fetched the keys.</p>
+
+<p>But hardly had she got the door opened when the figure
+enveloped in the
+mantle burst tumultuously in, and striding past Martinière into the
+passage, cried wildly, &quot;Lead me to your mistress!&quot; In terror Martinière
+lifted up the candle, and its light fell upon a young man's face,
+deathly pale and fearfully agitated. Martinière almost dropped on the
+floor with fright, for the man now threw open his mantle and showed the
+bright hilt of a stiletto sticking out of the bosom of his doublet. His
+eyes flashed fire as he fixed them upon her, crying still more wildly
+than before, &quot;Lead me to your mistress, I tell you.&quot; Martinière now
+believed Mademoiselle was in the most imminent danger; and her
+affection for her beloved mistress, whom she honoured, moreover, as her
+good and faithful mother, burnt up stronger in her heart, enkindling a
+courage which she had not conceived herself capable of showing. Hastily
+pulling to the door of her chamber, which she had left standing open,
+she planted herself before it, and said in a strong firm voice, &quot;I tell
+you what, your mad behaviour in the house here, corresponds but ill
+with your plaintive words outside; I see clearly that I let my pity be
+excited on a wrong occasion. You neither ought to, nor shall you, speak
+to my mistress now. If your intentions are not evil, you need not fear
+daylight; so come again to-morrow and state your business then. Now,
+begone with you out of the house.&quot; The man heaved a deep and painful
+sigh, and fixing Martinière with a formidable look, grasped his
+stiletto. She silently commended her soul to Heaven, but manfully stood
+her ground, and boldly met the man's gaze, at the same time drawing
+herself closer to the door, for through it the man would have to go to
+get to her mistress's chamber. &quot;Let me go to your mistress, I tell
+you!&quot; cried the man again. &quot;Do what you will,&quot; replied Martinière, &quot;I
+shall not stir from this place. Go on and finish your wicked deed; but
+remember that you also will die a shameful death at the Place Grève,
+like your atrocious partners in crime.&quot; &quot;Ah! yes, you are right, La
+Martinière,&quot; replied the man, &quot;I do look like a villainous robber and
+cut-throat, and am armed like one, but my partners have not been
+executed,--no, not yet.&quot; Therewith, hurling looks of furious wrath at
+the poor woman, who was almost dead with terror, he drew his stiletto.
+&quot;O God! O God!&quot; she exclaimed, expecting her death-blow; but at this
+moment there was heard a rattle of arms in the street, and the hoof-
+strokes of horses. &quot;The <i>Maréchaussée</i>!<sup><a name="div2_scudéri3" href="#div2Ref_scudéri3">3</a></sup> the <i>Maréchaussée</i>! Help!
+Help!&quot; screamed Martinière. &quot;You abominable woman, you are determined
+to ruin me. All is lost now--it's all over. But here, here--take this.
+Give that to your mistress this very night--to-morrow if you like.&quot;
+Whispering these words, he snatched the light from La Martinière,
+extinguished it, and then forced a casket into her hands. &quot;By your
+hopes of salvation, I conjure you, give this casket to Mademoiselle,&quot;
+cried the man; and he rushed out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Martinière fell to the floor; at length she rose up with
+difficulty,
+and groped her way back in the darkness to her own room, where she sank
+down in an arm-chair completely exhausted, unable to utter a sound.
+Then she heard the keys rattle, which she had left in the lock of the
+street-door. The door was closed and locked, and she heard cautious,
+uncertain footsteps approaching her room. She sat riveted to the chair
+without power to move, expecting something terrible to happen. But her
+sensations may be imagined when the door opened, and by the light of
+the night-taper she recognised at the first glance that it was honest
+Baptiste, looking very pale and greatly troubled. &quot;In the name of all
+the saints!&quot; he began, &quot;tell me, Dame Martinière, what has happened?
+Oh! the anxiety and fear I have had! I don't know what it was, but
+something drove me away from the wedding last evening. I couldn't help
+myself; I had to come. On getting into our street, I thought. Dame
+Martinière sleeps lightly, she'll be sure to hear me, thinks I, if I
+tap softly and gently at the door, and will come out and let me in.
+Then there comes a strong patrol on horseback as well as on foot, all
+armed to the teeth, and they stop me and won't let me go on. But
+luckily Desgrais the lieutenant of the <i>Maréchaussée</i>, is amongst them,
+who knows me quite well; and when they put their lanterns under my
+nose, he says, 'Why, Baptiste, where are you coming from at this time
+o' night? You'd better stay quietly in the house and take care of it
+There's some deviltry at work, and we are hoping to make a good capture
+to-night.' You wouldn't believe how heavy these words fell on my heart.
+Dame Martinière. And then when I put my foot on the threshold, there
+comes a man, all muffled up, rushing out of the house with a drawn
+dagger in his hand, and he runs over me--head over heels. The door was
+open, and the keys sticking in the lock. Oh! tell me what it all
+means.&quot; Martinière, relieved of her terrible fear and anxiety, related
+all that had taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Then she and Baptiste went out into the passage, and there
+they found
+the candlestick lying on the floor where the stranger had thrown it as
+he ran away. &quot;It is only too certain,&quot; said Baptiste, &quot;that our
+Mademoiselle would have been robbed, ay, and even murdered, I make no
+doubt. The fellow knew, as you say, that you were alone with
+Mademoiselle,--why, he also knew that she was awake with her writings.
+I would bet anything it was one of those cursed rogues and thieves who
+force their way right into the houses, cunningly spying out everything
+that may be of use to them in carrying out their infernal plans. And as
+for that little casket, Dame Martinière--I think we'd better throw it
+into the Seine where it's deepest. Who can answer for it that there's
+not some wicked monster got designs on our good lady's life, and that
+if she opens the box she won't fall down dead like old Marquis de
+Tournay did, when he opened a letter that came from somebody he didn't
+know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a long consultation the two faithful souls made up their
+minds to
+tell their mistress everything next morning, and also to place the
+mysterious casket in her hands, for of course it could be opened with
+proper precautions. After minutely weighing every circumstance
+connected with the suspicious stranger's appearance, they were both of
+the same opinion, namely, that there was some special mystery connected
+with the matter, which they durst not attempt to control single-handed;
+they must leave it to their good lady to unriddle.</p>
+
+<p>
+Baptiste's apprehensions were well founded. Just at that time Paris was
+the scene of the most abominable atrocities, and exactly at the same
+period the most diabolical invention of Satan was made, to offer the
+readiest means for committing these deeds.</p>
+
+<p>Glaser, a German apothecary, the best chemist of his age, had
+busied
+himself, as people of his profession were in the habit of doing, with
+alchemistical experiments. He had made it the object of his endeavour
+to discover the Philosopher's Stone. His coadjutor was an Italian of
+the name of Exili. But this man only practised alchemy as a blind. His
+real object was to learn all about the mixing and decoction and
+sublimating of poisonous compounds, by which Glaser on his part hoped
+to make his fortune; and at last he succeeded in fabricating that
+subtle poison<sup><a name="div2_scudéri4" href="#div2Ref_scudéri4">4</a></sup> that is without smell and without taste, that kills
+either on the spot or gradually and slowly, without ever leaving the
+slightest trace in the human body, and that deceives all the skill and
+art of the physicians, since, not suspecting the presence of poison,
+they fail not to ascribe the death to natural causes. Circumspectly as
+Exili<sup><a name="div2_scudéri5" href="#div2Ref_scudéri5">5</a></sup> went to work, he nevertheless fell under the suspicion of
+being a seller of poison, and was thrown into the Bastille. Soon
+afterwards Captain Godin de Sainte Croix was confined in the same
+dungeon. This man had for a long time been living in relations with the
+Marchioness de Brinvillier,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri6" href="#div2Ref_scudéri6">6</a></sup> which brought disgrace on all the
+family; so at last, as the Marquis continued indifferent to his wife's
+shameful conduct, her father, Dreux d'Aubray, <i>Civil Lieutenant</i> of
+Paris, compelled the guilty pair to part by means of a warrant which
+was executed upon the Captain. Passionate, unprincipled, hypocritically
+feigning to be pious, and yet inclined from his youth up to all kinds
+of vice, jealous, revengeful even to madness, the Captain could not
+have met with any more welcome information than that contained in
+Exili's diabolical secret, since it would give him the power to
+annihilate all his enemies. He became an eager scholar of Exili, and
+soon came to be as clever as his master, so that, on being liberated
+from the Bastille, he was in a position to work on unaided.</p>
+
+<p>Before an abandoned woman, De Brinvillier became through
+Sainte Croix's
+instrumentality a monster. He contrived to induce her to poison
+successively her own father, with whom she was living, tending with
+heartless hypocrisy his declining days, and then her two brothers, and
+finally her sister,--her father out of revenge, and the others on
+account of the rich family inheritance. From the histories of several
+poisoners we have terrible examples how the commission of crimes of
+this class becomes at last an all-absorbing passion. Often, without any
+further purpose than the mere vile pleasure of the thing, just as
+chemists make experiments for their own enjoyment, have poisoners
+destroyed persons whose life or death must have been to them a matter
+of perfect indifference.</p>
+
+<p>The sudden decease of several poor people in the Hotel Dieu
+some time
+afterwards excited the suspicion that the bread had been poisoned which
+Brinvillier, in order to acquire a reputation for piety and
+benevolence, used to distribute there every week. At any rate, it is
+undoubtedly true that she was in the habit of serving the guests whom
+she invited to her house with poisoned pigeon pie. The Chevalier de
+Guet and several other persons fell victims to these hellish banquets.
+Sainte Croix, his confederate La Chaussée,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri7" href="#div2Ref_scudéri7">7</a></sup> and Brinvillier were able
+for a long time to enshroud their horrid deeds behind an impenetrable
+veil. But of what avail is the infamous cunning of reprobate men when
+the Divine Power has decreed that punishment shall overtake the guilty
+here on earth?</p>
+
+<p>The poisons which Sainte Croix prepared were of so subtle a
+nature that
+if the powder (called by the Parisians <i>Pondre de Succession</i>, or
+Succession Powder) were prepared with the face exposed, a single
+inhalation of it might cause instantaneous death. Sainte Croix
+therefore, when engaged in its manufacture, always wore a mask made of
+fine glass. One day, just as he was pouring a prepared powder into a
+phial, his mask fell off, and, inhaling the fine particles of the
+poison, he fell down dead on the spot. As he had died without heirs,
+the officers of the law hastened to place his effects under seal.
+Amongst them they found a locked box, which contained the whole of the
+infernal arsenal of poisons that the abandoned wretch Sainte Croix had
+had at command; they also found Brinvillier's letters, which left no
+doubt as to her atrocious crimes. She fled to Liége, into a convent
+there. Desgrais, an officer of the <i>Maréchaussée</i>, was sent after her.
+In the disguise of a monk he arrived at the convent where she had
+concealed herself, and contrived to engage the terrible woman in a love
+intrigue, and finally, under the pretext of a secret meeting, to entice
+her out to a lonely garden beyond the precincts of the town. Directly
+she arrived at the appointed place she was surrounded by Desgrais'
+satellites, whilst her monkish lover was suddenly converted into an
+officer of the <i>Maréchaussée</i>, who compelled her to get into the
+carriage which stood ready near the garden; and, surrounded by the
+police troop, she was driven straight off to Paris. La Chaussée had
+been already beheaded somewhat earlier; Brinvillier suffered the same
+death, after which her body was burned and the ashes scattered to the
+winds.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the monster who had been able to direct his secret
+murderous
+weapons against both friend and foe alike unpunished was out of the
+world, the Parisians breathed freely once more. But it soon became
+known abroad that the villain Sainte Croix's abominable art had been
+handed down to certain successors. Like a malignant invisible spirit,
+murder insinuated itself into the most intimate circles, even the
+closest of those formed by relationship and love and friendship, and
+laid a quick sure grasp upon its unfortunate victims. He who was seen
+one day in the full vigour of health, tottered about the next a weak
+wasting invalid, and no skill of the physician could save him from
+death. Wealth, a lucrative office, a beautiful and perhaps too young a
+wife--any of these was sufficient to draw down upon the possessor this
+persecution unto death. The most sacred ties were severed by the
+cruellest mistrust. The husband trembled at his wife, the father at his
+son, the sister at the brother. The dishes remained untouched, and the
+wine at the dinner, which a friend put before his friends; and there
+where formerly jest and mirth had reigned supreme, savage glances were
+now spying about for the masked murderer. Fathers of families were
+observed buying provisions in remote districts with uneasy looks and
+movements, and preparing them themselves in the first dirty cook-shop
+they came to, since they feared diabolical treachery in their own
+homes. And yet even the greatest and most well-considered precautions
+were in many cases of no avail.</p>
+
+<p>In order to put a stop to this iniquitous state of things,
+which
+continued to gain ground and grow greater day by day, the king
+appointed a special court of justice for the exclusive purpose of
+inquiring into and punishing these secret crimes. This was the so-
+called <i>Chambre Ardente</i>, which held its sittings not far from the
+Bastille, its acting president being La Regnie.<sup><a name="div2_scudéri8" href="#div2Ref_scudéri8">8</a></sup> For a considerable
+period all his efforts, however zealously they were prosecuted,
+remained fruitless; it was reserved for the crafty Desgrais to discover
+the most secret haunts of the criminals. In the Faubourg St. Germain
+there lived an old woman called Voisin, who made a regular business of
+fortune-telling and raising departed spirits; and with the help of her
+confederates Le Sage and Le Vigoureux, she managed to excite fear and
+astonishment in the minds of persons who could not be called exactly
+either weak or credulous. But she did more than this. A pupil of Exili,
+like La Croix, she, like him, concocted the same subtle poison that
+killed and left no trace behind it; and so she helped in this way
+profligate sons to get early possession of their inheritance, and
+depraved wives to another and younger husband. Desgrais wormed his way
+into her secret; she confessed all; the <i>Chambre Ardente</i> condemned her
+to be burned alive, and the sentence was executed in the Place Grève.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst her effects was found a list of all the persons who
+had availed
+themselves of her assistance; and hence it was that not only did
+execution follow upon execution, but grave suspicion fell even upon
+persons of high position. Thus it was believed that Cardinal Bonzy had
+obtained from La Voisin the means of bringing to an untimely end all
+those persons to whom, as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was obliged to pay
+annuities. So also the Duchess de Bouillon, and the Countess de
+Soissons,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri9" href="#div2Ref_scudéri9">9</a></sup> whose names were found on the list, were accused of having
+had dealings with the diabolical woman; and even Francois Henri de
+Montmorenci, Boudebelle, Duke of Luxemburg,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri10" href="#div2Ref_scudéri10">10</a></sup> peer and marshal of the
+kingdom, was not spared. He too was prosecuted by the terrible <i>Chambre
+Ardente</i>. He voluntarily gave himself up to be imprisoned in the
+Bastille, where through Louvois'<sup><a name="div2_scudéri11" href="#div2Ref_scudéri11">11</a></sup> and La Regnie's hatred he was
+confined in a cell only six feet long. Months passed before it was made
+out satisfactorily that the Duke's transgression did not deserve any
+blame: he had once had his horoscope cast by Le Sage.</p>
+
+<p>It is certain that the President La Regnie was betrayed by his
+blind
+zeal into acts of cruelty and arbitrary violence. The tribunal acquired
+the character of an Inquisition; the most trifling suspicion was
+sufficient to entail strict incarceration; and it was left to chance to
+establish the innocence of a person accused of a capital crime.
+Moreover, La Regnie was hideous in appearance, and of a malicious
+temperament, so that he soon drew down upon himself the hatred of those
+whose avenger or protector he was appointed to be. The Duchess de
+Bouillon, being asked by him during her trial if she had seen the
+devil, replied, &quot;I fancy I can see him at this moment.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_scudéri12" href="#div2Ref_scudéri12">12</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>But whilst the blood of the guilty and the suspected alike was
+flowing
+in streams in the Place Grève, and after a time the secret poisonings
+became less and less frequent, a new kind of outrage came to light, and
+again filled the city with dismay. It seemed as if a band of miscreant
+robbers were in league together for the purpose of getting into their
+possession all the jewellery they could. No sooner was any valuable
+ornament purchased than, no matter how or where kept, it vanished in an
+inconceivable way. But what was still worse, any one who ventured to
+wear jewellery on his person at night was robbed, and often murdered
+even, either in the public street or in the dark passage of a house.
+Those who escaped with their lives declared that they had been knocked
+down by a blow on the head, which felled them like a lightning flash,
+and that on awaking from their stupor they had found that they had been
+robbed and were lying in quite a different place from that where they
+had received the blow. All who were murdered, some of whom were found
+nearly every morning lying either in the streets or in the houses, had
+all one and the same fatal wound,--a dagger-thrust in the heart,
+killing, according to the judgment of the surgeons, so instantaneously
+and so surely that the victim would drop down like a stone, unable to
+utter a sound. Who was there at the voluptuous court of Louis XIV. who
+was not entangled in some clandestine intrigue, and stole to his
+mistress at a late hour, often carrying a valuable present about him?
+The robbers, as if they were in league with spirits, knew almost
+exactly when anything of this sort was on foot. Often the unfortunate
+did not reach the house where he expected to meet with the reward of
+his passion; often he fell on the threshold, nay, at the very chamber
+door of his mistress, who was horrified at finding the bloody corpse.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did Argenson, the Minister of Police, order the arrest
+of every
+person from amongst the populace against whom there was the least
+suspicion; in vain did La Regnie rage and try to extort confessions; in
+vain did they strengthen their watch and their patrols;--they could not
+find a trace of the evil-doers. The only thing that did to a certain
+extent avail was to take the precaution of going armed to the teeth and
+have a torch carried before one; and yet instances were not wanting in
+which the servant was annoyed by stones thrown at him, whilst at the
+same moment his master was murdered and robbed. It was especially
+remarkable that, in spite of all inquiries in every place where traffic
+in jewellery was in any way possible, not the smallest specimen of the
+stolen ornaments ever came to light, and so in this way also no clue
+was found which might have been followed.</p>
+
+<p>Desgrais was furious that the miscreants should thus baffle
+all his
+cunning. The quarter of the town in which he happened to be stationed
+was spared; whilst in the others, where nobody apprehended any evil,
+these robberies and murders claimed their richest victims.</p>
+
+<p>Desgrais hit upon the ruse of making several Desgrais one
+after the
+other, so exactly alike in gait, posture, speech, figure, and face,
+that the myrmidons of the police themselves did not know which was the
+real Desgrais. Meanwhile, at the risk of his own life, he used to watch
+alone in the most secret haunts and lairs of crime, and follow at a
+distance first this man and then that, who at his own instance carried
+some valuable jewellery about his person. These men, however, were not
+attacked; and hence the robbers must be acquainted with this
+contrivance also. Desgrais absolutely despaired.</p>
+
+<p>One morning Desgrais came to President La Regnie pale and
+perturbed,
+quite distracted in fact. &quot;What's the matter? What news? Have you got a
+clue?&quot; cried the President &quot;Oh! your excellency,&quot; began Desgrais,
+stammering with rage, &quot;oh! your excellency--last night--not far from
+the Louvre--the Marquis de la Fare<sup><a name="div2_scudéri13" href="#div2Ref_scudéri13">13</a></sup> was attacked in my presence.&quot;
+&quot;By Heaven then!&quot; shouted La Regnie, exultant with joy, &quot;we have them.&quot;
+&quot;But first listen to me,&quot; interrupted Desgrais with a bitter smile,
+&quot;and hear how it all came about. Well then, I was standing near the
+Louvre on the watch for these devils who mock me, and my heart was on
+fire with fury. Then there came a figure close past me without noticing
+me, walking with unsteady steps and looking behind him. By the faint
+moonlight I saw that it was Marquis de la Fare. I was not surprised to
+see him; I knew where he was stealing to. But he had not gone more than
+ten or twelve paces past me when a man started up right out of the
+earth as it seemed and knocked him down, and stooped over him. In the
+sudden surprise and on the impulse of the moment, which would else have
+delivered the murderer into my hands, I was thoughtless enough to cry
+out; and I was just bursting out of my hiding-place with a rush,
+intending to throw myself upon him, when I got entangled in my mantle
+and fell down. I saw the man hurrying away on the wings of the wind; I
+made haste and picked myself up and ran after him; and as I ran I blew
+my horn; from the distance came the answering whistles of the man; the
+streets were all alive; there was a rattle of arms and a trampling of
+horses in all directions. 'Here! here! Desgrais! Desgrais!' I shouted
+till the streets echoed. By the bright moonlight I could always see the
+man in front of me, doubling here and there to deceive me. We came to
+the Rue Nicaise, and there his strength appeared to fail him: I
+redoubled my efforts; and he only led me by fifteen paces at the
+most&quot;---- &quot;You caught him up; you seized him; the patrol came up?&quot;
+cried La Regnie, his eyes flashing, whilst he seized Desgrais by the
+arm as though he were the flying murderer. &quot;Fifteen paces,&quot; continued
+Desgrais in a hollow voice and with difficulty drawing his breath--
+&quot;fifteen paces from me the man sprang aside into the shade and
+disappeared through the wall.&quot; &quot;Disappeared?--through the wall? Are you
+mad?&quot; cried La Regnie, taking a couple of steps backwards and striking
+his hands together.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From this moment onwards,&quot; continued Desgrais, rubbing his
+brow like a
+man tormented by hateful thoughts, &quot;your excellency may call me a
+madman or an insane ghost-seer, but it was just as I have told you. I
+was standing staring at the wall like one petrified when several men of
+the patrol hurried up breathless, and along with them Marquis de la
+Fare, who had picked himself up, with his drawn sword in his hand. We
+lighted the torches, and sounded the wall backwards and forwards,--not
+an indication of a door or a window or an opening. It was a strong
+stone wall bounding a yard, and was joined on to a house in which live
+people against whom there has never risen the slightest suspicion. To-
+day I have again taken a careful survey of the whole place. It must be
+the Devil himself who is mystifying us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Desgrais' story became known in Paris. People's heads were
+full of the
+sorceries and incantations and compacts with Satan of Voisin,
+Vigoureuse, and the reprobate priest Le Sage; and as in the eternal
+nature of us men, the leaning to the marvellous and the wonderful so
+often outweighs all the authority of reason, so the public soon began
+to believe simply and solely that as Desgrais in his mortification had
+said, Satan himself really did protect the abominable wretches, who
+must have sold their souls to him. It will readily be believed that
+Desgrais' story received all sorts of ornamental additions. An account
+of the adventure, with a woodcut on the title-page representing a grim
+Satanic form before which the terrified Desgrais was sinking in the
+earth, was printed and largely sold at the street corners. This alone
+was enough to overawe the people, and even to rob the myrmidons of the
+police of their courage, who now wandered about the streets at night
+trembling and quaking, hung about with amulets and soaked in holy
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Argenson perceived that the exertions of the <i>Chambre
+Ardente</i> were of
+no avail, and he appealed to the king to appoint a tribunal with still
+more extensive powers to deal with this new epidemic of crime, to hunt
+up the evil-doers, and to punish them. The king, convinced that he had
+already vested too much power in the <i>Chambre Ardente</i> and shaken with
+horror at the numberless executions which the bloodthirsty La Regnie
+had decreed, flatly refused to entertain the proposed plan.</p>
+
+<p>Another means was chosen to stimulate the king's interest in
+the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>Louis was in the habit of spending the afternoon in Madame de
+Maintenon's salons, and also despatching state business therewith his
+ministers until a late hour at night. Here a poem was presented to him
+in the name of the jeopardised lovers, complaining that, whenever
+gallantry bid them honour their mistress with a present, they had
+always to risk their lives on the fulfilment of the injunction. There
+was always both honour and pleasure to be won in shedding their blood
+for their lady in a knightly encounter; but it was quite another thing
+when they had to deal with a stealthy malignant assassin, against whom
+they could not arm themselves. Would Louis, the bright polar star of
+all love and gallantry, cause the resplendent beams of his glory to
+shine and dissipate this dark night, and so unveil the black mystery
+that was concealed within it? The god-like hero, who had broken his
+enemies to pieces, would now (they hoped) draw his sword glittering
+with victory, and, as Hercules did against the Lernean serpent, or
+Theseus the Minotaur, would fight against the threatening monster which
+was gnawing away all the raptures of love, and darkening all their joy
+and converting it into deep pain and grief inconsolable.</p>
+
+<p>Serious as the matter was, yet the poem did not lack clever
+and witty
+turns, especially in the description of the anxieties which the lovers
+had to endure as they stole by secret ways to their mistresses, and of
+how their apprehensions proved fatal to all the rapturous delights of
+love and to every dainty gallant adventure before it could even develop
+into blossom. If it be added that the poem was made to conclude with a
+magniloquent panegyric upon Louis XIV., the king could not fail to read
+it with visible signs of satisfaction. Having reached the end of it, he
+turned round abruptly to Madame de Maintenon, without lifting his eyes
+from the paper, and read the poem through again aloud; after which he
+asked her with a gracious smile what was her opinion with respect to
+the wishes of the jeopardised lovers.</p>
+
+<p>De Maintenon, faithful to the serious bent of her mind, and
+always
+preserving a certain colour of piety, replied that those who walked
+along secret and forbidden paths were not worthy of any special
+protection, but that the abominable criminals did call for special
+measures to be taken for their destruction. The king, dissatisfied with
+this wavering answer, folded up the paper, and was going back to the
+Secretary of State, who was working in the next room, when on casting a
+glance sideways his eye fell upon Mademoiselle de Scudéri, who was
+present in the salon and had taken her seat in a small easy-chair not
+far from De Maintenon. Her he now approached, whilst the pleasant smile
+which at first had played about his mouth and on his cheeks, but had
+then disappeared, now won the upper hand again. Standing immediately in
+front of Mademoiselle, and unfolding the poem once more, he said
+softly, &quot;Our Marchioness will not countenance in any way the
+gallantries of our amorous gentlemen, and give us evasive answers of a
+kind that are almost quite forbidden. But you, Mademoiselle, what is
+your opinion of this poetic petition?&quot; De Scudéri rose respectfully
+from her chair, whilst a passing blush flitted like the purple sunset
+rays in evening across the venerable lady's pale cheeks, and she said,
+bowing gently and casting down her eyes,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">&quot;Un amant qui craint les voleurs</p>
+<p class="i4">N'est point digne d'amour.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">(A lover who is afraid of robbers is not worthy of love.)</p>
+
+<p>The king, greatly struck by the chivalric spirit breathed in
+these few
+words, which upset the whole of the poem with its yards and yards of
+tirades, cried with sparkling eyes, &quot;By St. Denis, you are right.
+Mademoiselle! Cowardice shall not be protected by any blind measures
+which would affect the innocent along with the guilty; Argenson and La
+Regnie must do their best as they are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>
+All these horrors of the day La Martinière depicted next morning in
+startling colours when she related to her mistress the occurrence of
+the previous night; and she handed over to her the mysterious casket in
+fear and trembling. Both she and Baptiste, who stood in the corner as
+pale as death, twisting and doubling up his night-cap, and hardly able
+to speak in his fear and anxiety,--both begged Mademoiselle in the most
+piteous terms and in the names of all the saints, to use the utmost
+possible caution in opening the box. De Scudéri, weighing the locked
+mystery in her hand, and subjecting it to a careful scrutiny, said
+smiling, &quot;You are both of you ghost-seers! That I am not rich, that
+there are not sufficient treasures here to be worth a murder, is known
+to all these abandoned assassins, who, you yourself tell me, spy out
+all that there is in a house, as well as it is to me and you. You think
+they have designs upon my life? Who could make capital out of the death
+of an old lady of seventy-three, who never did harm to anybody in the
+world except the miscreants and peace-breakers in the romances which
+she writes herself, who makes middling verses which can excite nobody's
+envy, who will have nothing to leave except the state dresses of an old
+maid who sometimes went to court, and a dozen or two well-bound books
+with gilt edges? And then you, Martinière,--you may describe the
+stranger's appearance as frightful as you like, yet I cannot believe
+that his intentions were evil. So then----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Martinière recoiled some paces, and Baptiste, uttering a
+stifled
+&quot;Oh!&quot; almost sank upon his knees as Mademoiselle proceeded to press
+upon a projecting steel knob; then the lid flew back with a noisy jerk.</p>
+
+<p>But how astonished was she to see a pair of gold bracelets,
+richly set
+with jewels, and a necklace to match. She took them out of the case;
+and whilst she was praising the exquisite workmanship of the necklace,
+Martinière was eyeing the valuable bracelets, and crying time after
+time, that the vain Lady Montespan herself had no such ornaments as
+these. &quot;But what is it for? what does it all mean?&quot; said De Scudéri.
+But at this same moment she observed a small slip of paper folded
+together, lying at the bottom of the casket. She hoped, and rightly, to
+find in it an explanation of the mystery. She had hardly finished
+reading the contents of the scrip when it fell from her trembling
+hands. She sent an appealing glance towards Heaven, and then fell back
+almost fainting into her chair. Terrified, Martinière sprang to her
+assistance, and so also did Baptiste. &quot;Oh! what an insult!&quot; she
+exclaimed, her voice half-choked with tears, &quot;Oh! what a burning shame!
+Must I then endure this in my old age? Have I then gone and acted with
+wrong and foolish levity like some young giddy thing? O God, are words
+let fall half in jest capable of being stamped with such an atrocious
+interpretation? And am I, who have been faithful to virtue, and of
+blameless piety from my earliest childhood until now,--am I to be
+accused of the crime of making such a diabolical compact?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle held her handkerchief to her eyes and wept and
+sobbed
+bitterly, so that Martinière and Baptiste were both of them confused
+and rendered helpless by embarrassed constraint, not knowing what to do
+to help their mistress in her great trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Martinière picked up the ominous strip of paper from the
+floor. Upon it
+was written--</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">&quot;Un amant qui craint les voleurs</p>
+<p class="i4">N'est point digne d'amour.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Your sagacious mind, honoured lady, has saved us from great
+persecution. We only exercise the right of the stronger over the weak
+and the cowardly in order to appropriate to ourselves treasures that
+would else be disgracefully squandered. Kindly accept these jewels as a
+token of our gratitude. They are the most brilliant that we have been
+enabled to meet with for a long time; and yet you, honoured lady, ought
+to be adorned with jewellery even still finer than this is. We trust
+you will not withdraw from us your friendship and kind remembrance.</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;THE INVISIBLES.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_scudéri14" href="#div2Ref_scudéri14">14</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it possible?&quot; exclaimed De Scudéri after she had to some
+extent
+recovered herself, &quot;is it possible for men to carry their shameless
+insolence, their godless scorn, to such lengths?&quot; The sun shone
+brightly through the dark-red silk window curtains and made the
+brilliants which lay on the table beside the open casket to sparkle in
+the reddish gleam. Chancing to cast her eyes upon them, De Scudéri hid
+her face with abhorrence, and bade Martinière take the fearful
+jewellery away at once, that very moment, for the blood of the murdered
+victims was still adhering to it. Martinière at once carefully locked
+the necklace and bracelets in the casket again, and thought that the
+wisest plan would be to hand it over to the Minister of Police, and to
+confide to him every thing connected with the appearance of the young
+man who had caused them so much uneasiness, and the way in which he had
+placed the casket in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri rose to her feet and slowly paced up and down the
+room in
+silence, as if she were only now reflecting what was to be done. She
+then bade Baptiste fetch a sedan chair, while Martinière was to dress
+her, for she meant to go straight to the Marchioness de Maintenon.</p>
+
+<p>She had herself carried to the Marchioness's just at the hour
+when she
+knew she should find that lady alone in her salons. The casket with the
+jewellery De Scudéri also took with her.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the Marchioness was greatly astonished to see
+Mademoiselle,
+who was generally a pattern of dignity, amiability (notwithstanding her
+advanced age), and gracefulness, come in with tottering steps, pale,
+and excessively agitated. &quot;By all the saints, what's happened to you?&quot;
+she cried when she saw the poor troubled lady, who, almost distracted
+and hardly able to walk erect, hurried to reach the easy-chair which De
+Maintenon pushed towards her. At length, having recovered her power of
+speech somewhat, Mademoiselle related what a deep insult--she should
+never get over it--her thoughtless jest in answer to the petition of
+the jeopardised lovers had brought upon her. The Marchioness, after
+learning the whole of the story by fragments, arrived at the conclusion
+that De Scudéri took the strange occurrence far too much to heart, that
+the mockery of depraved wretches like these could never come home to a
+pious, noble mind like hers, and finally she requested to see the
+ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri gave her the open casket; and the Marchioness, on
+seeing the
+costly jewellery, could not help uttering a loud cry of admiration. She
+took out the necklace and the bracelets, and approached the window with
+them, where first she let the sun play upon the stones, and then she
+held them up close to her eyes in order to see better the exquisite
+workmanship of the gold, and to admire the marvellous skill with which
+every little link in the elaborate chain was finished. All at once the
+Marchioness turned round abruptly towards Mademoiselle and cried, &quot;I
+tell you what, Mademoiselle, these bracelets and necklace must have
+been made by no less a person than René Cardillac.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>René Cardillac was at that time the most skilful goldsmith in
+Paris,
+and also one of the most ingenious as well as one of the most eccentric
+men of the age. Rather small than great, but broad-shouldered and with
+a strong and muscular frame, Cardillac, although considerably more than
+fifty, still possessed the strength and activity of youth. And his
+strength, which might be said to be something above the common, was
+further evidenced by his abundant curly reddish hair, and his thick-set
+features and the sultry gleam upon them. Had not Cardillac been known
+throughout all Paris, as one of the most honest and honourable of men,
+disinterested, frank, without any reserve, always ready to help, the
+very peculiar appearance of his eyes, which were small, deep-set,
+green, and glittering, might have drawn upon him the suspicion of
+lurking malice and viciousness.</p>
+
+<p>As already said, Cardillac was the greatest master in his
+trade, not
+only in Paris, but also perhaps of his age. Intimately acquainted with
+the properties of precious stones, he knew how to treat them and set
+them in such a manner that an ornament which had at first been looked
+upon as wanting in lustre, proceeded out of Cardillac's shop possessing
+a dazzling magnificence. Every commission he accepted with burning
+avidity, and fixed a price that seemed to bear no proportion whatever
+to the work to be done--so small was it. Then the work gave him no
+rest; both night and day he was heard hammering in his work-shop, and
+often when the thing was nearly finished he would suddenly conceive a
+dislike to the form; he had doubts as to the elegance of the setting of
+some or other of the jewels, of a little link--quite a sufficient
+reason for throwing all into the crucible, and beginning the entire
+work over again. Thus every individual piece of jewellery that he
+turned out was a perfect and matchless masterpiece, utterly astounding
+to the person who had given the commission.</p>
+
+<p>But it was now hardly possible to get any work that was once
+finished
+out of his hands. Under a thousand pretexts he put off the owner from
+week to week, and from month to month. It was all in vain to offer him
+double for the work; he would not take a single <i>Louis d'or</i><sup><a name="div2_scudéri15" href="#div2Ref_scudéri15">15</a></sup> more
+than the price bargained for. When at last he was obliged to yield to
+the insistence of his customer, he could not help betraying all the
+signs of the greatest annoyance, nay, of even fury seething in his
+heart. If the piece of work which he had to deliver up was something of
+more than ordinary importance, especially anything of great value,
+worth many thousands owing to the costliness of the jewels or the
+extreme delicacy of the gold-work, he was capable of running about like
+a madman, cursing himself, his labour, and all about him. But then if
+any person came up behind him and shouted, &quot;René Cardillac, would you
+not like to make a beautiful necklace for my betrothed?--bracelets for
+my sweet-heart,&quot; or so forth, he would suddenly stop still, and looking
+at him with his little eyes, would ask, as he rubbed his hands, &quot;Well,
+what have you got?&quot; Thereupon the other would produce a small jewel-
+case, and say, &quot;Oh! some jewels--see; they are nothing particular, only
+common things, but in your hands&quot;---- Cardillac does not let him finish
+what he has to say, but snatching the case out of his hand takes out
+the stones (which are in reality of but little value) and holds them up
+to the light, crying enraptured, &quot;Ho! ho! common things, are they? Not
+at all! Pretty stones--magnificent stones; only let me make them up for
+you. And if you're not squeamish to a handful or two of <i>Louis d'or</i>, I
+can add a few more little gems, which shall sparkle in your eyes like
+the great sun himself.&quot; The other says, &quot;I will leave it all to you,
+Master René, and pay you what you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then, without making any difference whether his customer is a
+rich
+citizen only or an eminent nobleman of the court, Cardillac throws his
+arms impetuously round his neck and embraces him and kisses him, saying
+that now he is quite happy again, and the work will be finished in a
+week's time. Running off home with breathless speed and up into his
+workshop, he begins to hammer away, and at the week's end has produced
+a masterpiece of art But when the customer comes prepared to pay with
+joy the insignificant sum demanded, and expecting to take the finished
+ornament away with him, Cardillac gets testy, rude, obstinate, and hard
+to deal with. &quot;But, Master Cardillac, recollect that my wedding is to-
+morrow.&quot;--&quot;But what have I to do with your wedding? come again in a
+fortnight's time.&quot; &quot;The ornament is finished; here is your money; and I
+must have it.&quot; &quot;And I tell you that I've lots of things to alter in it,
+and I shan't let you have it to-day.&quot; &quot;And I tell you that if you won't
+deliver up the ornament by fair means--of course I am willing to pay
+you double for it--you shall soon see me march up with Argenson's
+serviceable underlings.&quot;--&quot;Well, then, may Satan torture you with
+scores of red-hot pincers, and hang three hundredweight on the necklace
+till it strangle your bride.&quot; And therewith, thrusting the jewellery
+into the bridegroom's breast pocket, Cardillac seizes him by the arm
+and turns him roughly out of the door, so that he goes stumbling all
+down the stairs. Then Cardillac puts his head out of the window and
+laughs like a demon on seeing the poor young man limp out of the house,
+holding his handkerchief to his bloody nose.</p>
+
+<p>But one thing there was about him that was quite inexplicable.
+Often,
+after he had enthusiastically taken a piece of work in hand, he would
+implore his customer by the Virgin and all the saints, with every sign
+of deep and violent agitation, and with moving protestations, nay,
+amidst tears and sobs, that he might be released from his engagement.
+Several persons who were most highly esteemed of the king and the
+people had vainly offered large sums of money to get the smallest piece
+of work from him. He threw himself at the king's feet and besought as a
+favour at his hands that he might not be asked to do any work for him.
+In the same way he refused every commission from De Maintenon; he even
+rejected with aversion and horror the proposal she made him to
+fabricate for her a little ring with emblematic ornaments, which was to
+be presented to Racine.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly De Maintenon now said, &quot;I would wager that if I
+sent for
+Cardillac to come here to tell me at least for whom he made these
+ornaments, he would refuse to come, since he would probably fear it was
+some commission; and he never will make anything for me on any account.
+And yet he has, it seems, dropped something of his inflexible obstinacy
+some time ago, for I hear that he now labours more industriously than
+ever, and delivers up his work at once, though still not without much
+inward vexation and turning away of his face.&quot; De Scudéri, who was
+greatly concerned that the ornaments should, if it could possibly be
+managed, come soon into the hands of the proper owner, thought they
+might send express word to Master Whimsicality that they did not want
+him to do any work, but only to pass his opinion upon some jewels. This
+commended itself to the Marchioness. Cardillac was sent for; and, as
+though he had been already on the way, after a brief interval he
+stepped into the room.</p>
+
+<p>On observing De Scudéri he appeared to be embarrassed; and,
+like one
+confounded by something so utterly unexpected that he forgets the
+claims of propriety such as the moment demands, he first made a low and
+reverential obeisance to this venerable lady, and then only did he turn
+to the Marchioness. She, pointing to the jewellery, which now lay
+glittering on the dark-green table-cloth, asked him hastily if it was
+of his workmanship. Hardly glancing at it, and keeping his eyes
+steadily fixed upon De Maintenon, Cardillac hurriedly packed the
+necklace and bracelets into the casket, which stood beside them, and
+pushed it violently away from him. Then he said, whilst a forbidding
+smile gleamed in his red face, &quot;By my honour, noble lady, he would have
+but a poor acquaintance with René Cardillac's workmanship who should
+believe for a single moment that any other goldsmith in the world could
+set a piece of jewellery like that is done. Of course it's my
+handiwork.&quot; &quot;Then tell me,&quot; continued the Marchioness, &quot;for whom you
+made these ornaments.&quot; &quot;For myself alone,&quot; replied Cardillac. &quot;Ah! I
+dare say your ladyship finds that strange,&quot; he continued, since both
+she and De Scudéri had fixed their eyes upon him astounded, the former
+full of mistrust, the latter of anxious suspense as to what turn the
+matter would take next; &quot;but it is so. Merely out of love for my
+beautiful handicraft I picked out all my best stones and gladly set to
+work upon them, exercising more industry and care over them than I had
+ever done over any stones before. A short time ago the ornaments
+disappeared in some inconceivable way out of my workshop.&quot; &quot;Thank
+Heaven!&quot; cried De Scudéri, whilst her eyes sparkled with joy, and she
+jumped up from her chair as quick and nimble as a young girl; then
+going up to Cardillac, she placed both her hands upon his shoulders,
+and said, &quot;Here, Master René, take your property back again, which
+these rascally miscreants stole from you.&quot; And she related every detail
+of how she had acquired possession of the ornaments, to all of which
+Cardillac listened silently, with his eyes cast down upon the floor.
+Only now and again he uttered an indistinct &quot;Hm!--So!--Ho! ho!&quot; now
+throwing his hands behind his back, and now softly stroking his chin
+and cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>When De Scudéri came to the end of her story, Cardillac
+appeared to be
+struggling with some new and striking thought which had occurred to him
+during the course of it, and as though he were labouring with some
+rebellious resolve that refused to conform to his wishes. He rubbed his
+forehead, sighed, drew his hand across his eyes, as if to check tears
+which were gushing from them. At length he seized the casket which De
+Scudéri was holding out towards him, and slowly sinking upon one knee,
+said, &quot;These jewels have been decreed to you, my noble and respected
+lady, by Destiny. Yes, now I know that it was you I thought about when
+I was labouring at them, and that it was for you I worked. Do not
+disdain to accept these ornaments, nor refuse to wear them; they are
+indeed the best things I have made for a very long time.&quot; &quot;Why, why,
+Master René,&quot; replied De Scudéri, in a charming, jesting manner; &quot;what
+are you thinking about? Would it become me at my years to trick myself
+out with such bright gems? And what makes you think of giving me such
+an over-rich present? Nay, nay, Master René. Now if I were beautiful
+like the Marchioness de Fontange,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri16" href="#div2Ref_scudéri16">16</a></sup> and rich too, I assure you I
+should not let these ornaments pass out of my hands; but what do these
+withered arms want with vain show, and this covered neck with
+glittering ornaments?&quot; Meanwhile Cardillac had risen to his feet again;
+and whilst persistently holding out the casket towards De Scudéri he
+said, like one distracted--and his looks were wild and uneasy,--&quot;Have
+pity upon me, Mademoiselle, and take the ornaments. You don't know what
+great respect I cherish in my heart for your virtue and your high good
+qualities. Accept this little present as an effort on my behalf to show
+my deep respect and devotion.&quot; But as De Scudéri still continued to
+hesitate, De Maintenon took the casket out of Cardillac's hands,
+saying, &quot;Upon my word, Mademoiselle, you are always talking about your
+great age. What have we, you and I, to do with years and their burdens?
+And aren't you acting just like a shy young thing, who would only too
+well like to take the sweet fruit that is offered to her if she could
+only do so without stirring either hand or finger? Don't refuse to
+accept from our good Master René as a free gift what scores of others
+could never get, in spite of all their gold and all their prayers and
+entreaties.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whilst speaking De Maintenon had forced the casket into
+Mademoiselle's
+hand; and now Cardillac again fell upon his knees and kissed De
+Scudéri's gown and hands, sighing and gasping, weeping and sobbing;
+then he jumped up and ran off like a madman, as fast as he could run,
+upsetting chairs and tables in his senseless haste, and making the
+glasses and porcelain tumble together with a ring and jingle and clash.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri cried out quite terrified, &quot;Good Heavens! what's
+happened to
+the man?&quot; But the Marchioness, who was now in an especially lively mood
+and in such a pert humour as was in general quite foreign to her, burst
+out into a silvery laugh, and said, &quot;Now, I've got it, Mademoiselle.
+Master René has fallen desperately in love with you, and according to
+the established form and settled usage of all true gallantry, he is
+beginning to storm your heart with rich presents.&quot; She even pushed her
+raillery further, admonishing De Scudéri not to be too cruel towards
+her despairing lover, until Mademoiselle, letting her natural-born
+humour have play, was carried away by the bubbling stream of merry
+conceits and fancies. She thought that if that was really the state of
+the case, she should be at last conquered and would not be able to help
+affording to the world the unprecedented example of a goldsmith's
+bride, of untarnished nobility, of the age of three and seventy. De
+Maintenon offered her services to weave the wedding-wreath, and to
+instruct her in the duties of a good house-wife, since such a snippety
+bit of a girl could not of course know much about such things.</p>
+
+<p>But when at length De Scudéri rose to say adieu to the
+Marchioness, she
+again, notwithstanding all their laughing jests, grew very grave as she
+took the jewel-case in her hand, and said, &quot;And yet, Marchioness, do
+you know, I can never wear these ornaments. Whatever be their history,
+they have at some time or other been in the hands of those diabolical
+wretches who commit robbery and murder with all the effrontery of Satan
+himself; nay, I believe they must be in an unholy league with him. I
+shudder with awe at the sight of the blood which appears to adhere to
+the glittering stones. And then, I must confess, I cannot help feeling
+that there is something strangely uneasy and awe-inspiring about
+Cardillac's behaviour. I cannot get rid of the dark presentiment that
+behind all this there is lurking some fearful and terrible secret; but
+when, on the other hand, I pass the whole matter with all its
+circumstantial adjuncts in clear review before my mind, I cannot even
+guess what the mystery consists in, nor yet how our brave honest Master
+René, the pattern of a good industrious citizen, can have anything to
+do with what is bad or deserving of condemnation; but of this I am
+quite sure, that I shall never dare to put the ornaments on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Marchioness thought that this was carrying scruples too
+far. But
+when De Scudéri asked her on her conscience what she should really do
+in her (Scudéri's) place, De Maintenon replied earnestly and
+decisively, &quot;Far sooner throw the ornaments into the Seine than ever
+wear them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The scene with Master René was described by De Scudéri in
+charming
+verses, which she read to the king on the following evening in De
+Maintenon's salon. And of course it may readily be conceived that,
+conquering her uncomfortable feelings and forebodings of evil, she drew
+at Master René's expense a diverting picture, in bright vivacious
+colours, of the goldsmith's bride of three and seventy who was of such
+ancient nobility. At any rate the king laughed heartily, and swore that
+Boileau Despreux had found his master; hence De Scudéri's poem was
+popularly adjudged to be the wittiest that ever was written.</p>
+
+<p>Several months had passed, when, as chance would have it, De
+Scudéri
+was driving over the Pont Neuf in the Duchess de Montansier's glass
+coach. The invention of this elegant class of vehicles was still so
+recent that a throng of the curious always gathered round it when one
+appeared in the streets. And so there was on the present occasion a
+gaping crowd round De Montansier's coach on the Pont Neuf, so great as
+almost to hinder the horses from getting on. All at once De Scudéri
+heard a continuous fire of abuse and cursing, and perceived a man
+making his way through the thick of the crowd by the help of his fists
+and by punching people in the ribs. And when he came nearer she saw
+that his piercing eyes were riveted upon her. His face was pale as
+death and distorted by pain; and he kept his eyes riveted upon her all
+the time he was energetically working his way onwards with his fists
+and elbows, until he reached the door. Pulling it open with impetuous
+violence, he threw a strip of paper into De Scudéri's lap, and again
+dealing out and receiving blows and punches, disappeared as he had
+come. Martinière, who was accompanying her mistress, uttered a scream
+of terror when she saw the man appear at the coach door, and fell back
+upon the cushions in a swoon. De Scudéri vainly pulled the cord and
+called out to the driver; he, as if impelled by the foul Fiend, whipped
+up his horses, so that they foamed at the mouth and tossed their heads,
+and kicked and plunged, and finally thundered over the bridge at a
+sharp trot. De Scudéri emptied her smelling-bottle over the insensible
+woman, who at length opened her eyes. Trembling and shaking, she clung
+convulsively to her mistress, her face pale with anxiety and terror as
+she gasped out, &quot;For the love of the Virgin, what did that terrible man
+want? Oh! yes, it was he! it was he!--the very same who brought you the
+casket that awful night.&quot; Mademoiselle pacified the poor woman,
+assuring her that not the least mischief had been done, and that the
+main thing to do just then was to see what the strip of paper
+contained. She unfolded it and found these words--</p>
+
+<p>
+&quot;I am being plunged into the pit of destruction by an evil destiny
+which you may avert. I implore you, as the son does the mother whom he
+cannot leave, and with the warmest affection of a loving child, send
+the necklace and bracelets which you received from me to Master René
+Cardillac; any pretext will do, to get some improvement made--or to get
+something altered. Your welfare, your life, depend upon it. If you have
+not done so by the day after to-morrow I will force my way into your
+dwelling and kill myself before your eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>
+&quot;Well now, it is at any rate certain,&quot; said De Scudéri when she had
+read it, &quot;that this mysterious man, even if he does really belong to
+the notorious band of thieves and robbers, yet has no evil designs
+against me. If he had succeeded in speaking to me that night, who knows
+whether I should not have learnt of some singular event or some
+mysterious complication of things, respecting which I now try in vain
+to form even the remotest guess. But let the matter now take what shape
+it may, I shall certainly do what this note urgently requests me to do,
+if for no other reason than to get rid of those ill-starred jewels,
+which I always fancy are a talisman of the foul Fiend himself. And I
+warrant Cardillac, true to his rooted habit, won't let it pass out of
+his hands again so easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The very next day De Scudéri intended to go and take the
+jewellery to
+the goldsmith's. But somehow it seemed as if all the wits and
+intellects of entire Paris had conspired together to overwhelm
+Mademoiselle just on this particular morning with their verses and
+plays and anecdotes. No sooner had La Chapelle<sup><a name="div2_scudéri17" href="#div2Ref_scudéri17">17</a></sup> finished reading a
+tragedy, and had slyly remarked with some degree of confident assurance
+that he should now certainly beat Racine, than the latter poet himself
+came in, and routed him with a pathetic speech of a certain king, until
+Boileau appeared to let off the rockets of his wit into this black sky
+of Tragedy--in order that he might not be talked to death on the
+subject of the colonnade<sup><a name="div2_scudéri18" href="#div2Ref_scudéri18">18</a></sup> of the Louvre, for he had been penned up
+in it by Dr. Perrault, the architect.</p>
+
+<p>It was high noon; De Scudéri had to go to the Duchess de
+Montansier's;
+and so the visit to Master René Cardillac's was put off until the next
+day. Mademoiselle, however, was tormented by a most extraordinary
+feeling of uneasiness. The young man's figure was constantly before her
+eyes; and deep down in her memory there was stirring a dim recollection
+that she had seen his face and features somewhere before. Her sleep,
+which was of the lightest, was disturbed by troublesome dreams. She
+fancied she had acted frivolously and even criminally in having delayed
+to grasp the hand which the unhappy wretch, who was sinking into the
+abyss of ruin, was stretching up towards her; nay, she was even haunted
+by the thought that she had had it in her power to prevent a fatal
+event from taking place or an enormous crime from being committed. So,
+as soon as the morning was fully come, she had Martinière finish her
+toilet, and drove to the goldsmith, taking the jewel-casket with her.</p>
+
+<p>The people were pouring into the Rue Nicaise, to the house
+where
+Cardillac lived, and were gathering about his door, shouting,
+screaming, and creating a wild tumult of noise; and they were with
+difficulty prevented by the <i>Maréchaussée</i>, who had drawn a cordon
+round the house, from forcing their way in. Angry voices were crying in
+a wild confused hubbub, &quot;Tear him to pieces! pound him to dust! the
+accursed murderer!&quot; At length Desgrais appeared on the scene with a
+strong body of police, who formed a passage through the heart of the
+crowd. The house door flew open and a man stepped out loaded with
+chains; and he was dragged away amidst the most horrible imprecations
+of the furious mob.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment that De Scudéri, who was half swooning from
+fright and
+her apprehensions that something terrible had happened, was witness of
+this scene, a shrill piercing scream of distress rang upon her ears.
+&quot;Go on, go on, right forward,&quot; she cried to her coachman, almost
+distracted. Scattering the dense mass of people by a quick clever turn
+of his horses, he pulled up immediately in front of Cardillac's door.
+There De Scudéri observed Desgrais, and at his feet a young girl, as
+beautiful as the day, with dishevelled hair, only half dressed, and her
+countenance stamped with desperate anxiety and wild with despair. She
+was clasping his knees and crying in a tone of the most terrible, the
+most heart-rending anguish, &quot;Oh! he is innocent! he is innocent.&quot; In
+vain were Desgrais' efforts, as well as those of his men, to make her
+leave hold and to raise her up from the floor. At last a strong brutal
+fellow laid his coarse rough hands upon the poor girl and dragged her
+away from Desgrais by main force, but awkwardly stumbling let her drop,
+so that she rolled down the stone steps and lay in the street, without
+uttering a single sound more; she appeared to be dead.</p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle could no longer contain herself. &quot;For God's sake,
+what has
+happened? What's all this about?&quot; she cried as she quickly opened the
+door of her coach and stepped out. The crowd respectfully made way for
+the estimable lady. She, on perceiving that two or three compassionate
+women had raised up the girl and set her on the steps, where they were
+rubbing her forehead with aromatic waters, approached Desgrais and
+repeated her question with vehemence. &quot;A horrible thing has happened,&quot;
+said Desgrais. &quot;René Cardillac was found this morning murdered, stabbed
+to the heart with a dagger. His journeyman Olivier Brusson is the
+murderer. That was he who was just led away to prison.&quot; &quot;And the girl?&quot;
+exclaimed Mademoiselle---- &quot;Is Madelon, Cardillac's daughter,&quot; broke in
+Desgrais. &quot;Yon abandoned wretch is her lover. And she's screaming and
+crying, and protesting that Olivier is innocent, quite innocent. But
+the real truth is she is cognisant of the deed, and I must have her
+also taken to the <i>conciergerie</i> (prison).&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying which, Desgrais cast a glance of such spiteful
+malicious triumph
+upon the girl that De Scudéri trembled. Madelon was just beginning to
+breathe again, but she still lay with her eyes closed incapable of
+either sound or motion; and they did not know what to do, whether to
+take her into the house or to stay with her longer until she came round
+again. Mademoiselle's eyes filled with tears, and she was greatly
+agitated, as she looked upon the innocent angel; Desgrais and his
+myrmidons made her shudder. Downstairs came a heavy rumbling noise;
+they were bringing down Cardillac's corpse. Quickly making up her mind.
+De Scudéri said loudly, &quot;I will take the girl with me; you may attend
+to everything else, Desgrais.&quot; A muttered wave of applause swept
+through the crowd. They lifted up the girl, whilst everybody crowded
+round and hundreds of arms were proffered to assist them; like one
+floating in the air the young girl was carried to the coach and placed
+within it,--blessings being showered from the lips of all upon the
+noble lady who had come to snatch innocence from the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>The efforts of Seron, the most celebrated physician in Paris,
+to bring
+Madelon back to herself were at length crowned with success, for she
+had lain for hours in a dead swoon, utterly unconscious. What the
+physician began was completed by De Scudéri, who strove to excite the
+mild rays of hope in the girl's soul, till at length relief came to her
+in the form of a violent fit of tears and sobbing. She managed to
+relate all that had happened, although from time to time her heart-
+rending grief got the upper hand, and her voice was choked with
+convulsive sobs.</p>
+
+<p>About midnight she had been awakened by a light tap at her
+chamber
+door, and heard Olivier's voice imploring her to get up at once, as her
+father was dying. Though almost stunned with dismay, she started up and
+opened the door, and saw Olivier with a light in his hand, pale and
+dreadfully agitated, and dripping with perspiration. He led the way
+into her father's workshop, with an unsteady gait, and she followed
+him. There lay her father with fixed staring eyes, his throat rattling
+in the agonies of death. With a loud wail she threw herself upon him,
+and then first noticed his bloody shirt. Olivier softly drew her away
+and set to work to wash a wound in her father's left breast with a
+traumatic balsam, and to bind it up. During this operation her father's
+senses came back to him; his throat ceased to rattle; and he bent,
+first upon her and then upon Olivier, a glance full of feeling, took
+her hand, and placed it in Olivier's, fervently pressing them together.
+She and Olivier both fell upon their knees beside her father's bed; he
+raised himself up with a cry of agony, but at once sank back again, and
+in a deep sigh breathed his last. Then they both gave way to their
+grief and sorrow, and wept aloud.</p>
+
+<p>Olivier related how during a walk, on which he had been
+commanded by
+his master to attend him, the latter had been murdered in his presence,
+and how through the greatest exertions he had carried the heavy man
+home, whom he did not believe to have been fatally wounded.</p>
+
+<p>When morning dawned the people of the house, who had heard the
+lumbering noises, and the loud weeping and lamenting during the night,
+came up and found them still kneeling in helpless trouble by her
+father's corpse. An alarm was raised; the <i>Maréchaussée</i> made their way
+into the house, and dragged off Olivier to prison as the murderer of
+his master. Madelon added the most touching description of her beloved
+Olivier's goodness, and steady industry, and faithfulness. He had
+honoured his master highly, as though he had been his own father; and
+the latter had fully reciprocated this affection, and had chosen
+Brusson, in spite of his poverty, to be his son-in-law, since his skill
+was equal to his faithfulness and the nobleness of his character. All
+this the girl related with deep, true, heart-felt emotion; and she
+concluded by saying that if Olivier had thrust his dagger into her
+father's breast in her own presence she should take it for some
+illusion caused by Satan, rather than believe that Olivier could be
+capable of such a horrible wicked crime.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri, most deeply moved by Madelon's unutterable
+sufferings, and
+quite ready to regard poor Olivier as innocent, instituted inquiries,
+and she found that all Madelon had said about the intimate terms on
+which master and journeyman had lived was fully confirmed. The people
+in the same house, as well as the neighbours, unanimously agreed in
+commending Olivier as a pattern of goodness, morality, faithfulness,
+and industry; nobody knew anything evil about him, and yet when mention
+was made of his heinous deed, they all shrugged their shoulders and
+thought there was something passing comprehension in it.</p>
+
+<p>Olivier, on being arraigned before the <i>Chambre Ardente</i>
+denied the
+deed imputed to him, as Mademoiselle learned, with the most steadfast
+firmness and with honest sincerity, maintaining that his master had
+been attacked in the street in his presence and stabbed, that then, as
+there were still signs of life in him, he had himself carried him home,
+where Cardillac had soon afterwards expired. And all this too
+harmonised with Madelon's account.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again and again De Scudéri had the minutest details
+of the
+terrible event repeated to her. She inquired minutely whether there had
+ever been a quarrel between master and journeyman, whether Olivier was
+perhaps not subject occasionally to those hasty fits of passion which
+often attack even the most good-natured of men like a blind madness,
+impelling the commission of deeds which appear to be done quite
+independent of voluntary action. But in proportion as Madelon spoke
+with increasing heartfelt warmth of the quiet domestic happiness in
+which the three had lived, united by the closest ties of affection,
+every shadow of suspicion against poor Olivier, now being tried for his
+life, vanished away. Scrupulously weighing every point and starting
+with the assumption that Olivier, in spite of all the things which
+spoke so loudly for his innocence, was nevertheless Cardillac's
+murderer, De Scudéri did not find any motive within the bounds of
+possibility for the hideous deed; for from every point of view it would
+necessarily destroy his happiness. He is poor but clever. He has
+succeeded in gaining the good-will of the most renowned master of his
+trade; he loves his master's daughter; his master looks upon his love
+with a favourable eye; happiness and prosperity seem likely to be his
+lot through life. But now suppose that, provoked in some way that God
+alone may know, Olivier had been so overmastered by anger as to make a
+murderous attempt upon his benefactor, his father, what diabolical
+hypocrisy he must have practised to have behaved after the deed in the
+way in which he really did behave. Firmly convinced of Olivier's
+innocence, Mademoiselle made up her mind to save the unhappy young man
+at no matter what cost.</p>
+
+<p>Before appealing, however, to the king's mercy, it seemed to
+her that
+the most advisable step to take would be to call upon La Regnie, and
+direct his attention to all the circumstances that could not fail to
+speak for Olivier's innocence, and so perhaps awaken in the President's
+mind a feeling of interest favourable to the accused, which might then
+communicate itself to the judges with beneficial results.</p>
+
+<p>La Regnie received De Scudéri with all the great respect to
+which the
+venerable lady, highly honoured as she was by the king himself, might
+justly lay claim. He listened quietly to all that she had to adduce
+with respect to the terrible crime, and Olivier's relations to the
+victim and his daughter, and his character. Nevertheless the only proof
+he gave that her words were not falling upon totally deaf ears was a
+slight and well-nigh mocking smile; and in the same way he heard her
+protestations and admonitions, which were frequently interrupted by
+tears, that the judge was not the enemy of the accused, but must also
+duly give heed to anything that spoke in his favour. When at length
+Mademoiselle paused, quite exhausted, and dried the tears from her
+eyes. La Regnie began, &quot;It does honour to the excellence of your heart.
+Mademoiselle, that, being moved by the tears of a young lovesick girl,
+you believe everything she tells you, and none the less so that you are
+incapable of conceiving the thought of such an atrocious deed; but not
+so is it with the judge, who is wont to rend asunder the mask of brazen
+hypocrisy. Of course I need not tell you that it is not part of my
+office to unfold to every one who asks me the various stages of a
+criminal trial. Mademoiselle, I do my duty and trouble myself little
+about the judgment of the world. All miscreants shall tremble before
+the <i>Chambre Ardente</i>, which knows no other punishment except the
+scaffold and the stake. But since I do not wish you, respected lady, to
+conceive of me as a monster of hard-heartedness and cruelty, suffer me
+in a few words to put clearly before you the guilt of this young
+reprobate, who, thank Heaven, has been overtaken by the avenging arm of
+justice. Your sagacious mind will then bid you look with scorn upon
+your own good kindness, which does you so much honour, but which would
+never under any circumstances be fitting in me.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well then! René Cardillac is found in the morning stabbed to
+the heart
+with a dagger. The only persons with him are his journeyman Olivier
+Brusson and his own daughter. In Olivier's room, amongst other things,
+is found a dagger covered with blood, still fresh, which dagger fits
+exactly into the wound. Olivier says, 'Cardillac was cut down at night
+before my eyes.' 'Somebody attempted to rob him?' 'I don't know.' 'You
+say you went with him, how then were you not able to keep off the
+murderer, or hold him fast, or cry out for help?' 'My master walked
+fifteen, nay, fully twenty paces in front of me, and I followed him.'
+'But why, in the name of wonder, at such a distance?' 'My master would
+have it so.' 'But tell us then what Master Cardillac was doing out in
+the streets at so late an hour?' 'That I cannot say.' 'But you have
+never before known him to leave the house after nine o'clock in the
+evening, have you?' Here Olivier falters; he is confused; he sighs; he
+bursts into tears; he protests by all that is holy that Cardillac
+really went out on the night in question, and then met with his death.
+But now your particular attention, please, Mademoiselle. It has been
+proved to absolute certainty that Cardillac never left the house that
+night, and so, of course, Olivier's assertion that he went out with him
+is an impudent lie. The house door is provided with a ponderous lock,
+which on locking and unlocking makes a loud grating echoing noise;
+moreover, the wings of the door squeak and creak horribly on their
+hinges, so that, as we have proved by repeated experiments, the noise
+is heard all the way up to the garrets. Now in the bottom story, and so
+of course close to the street door, lives old Master Claude Patru and
+his housekeeper, a person of nearly eighty years of age, but still
+lively and nimble. Now these two people heard Cardillac come downstairs
+punctually at nine o'clock that evening, according to his usual
+practice, and lock and bolt the door with considerable noise, and then
+go up again, where they further heard him read the evening prayers
+aloud, and then, to judge by the banging of doors, go to his own
+sleeping-chamber. Master Claude, like many old people, suffers from
+sleeplessness; and that night too he could not close an eye. And so,
+somewhere about half-past nine it seems, his old housekeeper went into
+the kitchen (to get into which she had to cross the passage) for a
+light, and then came and sat down at the table beside Master Claude
+with an old Chronicle, out of which she read; whilst the old man,
+following the train of his thoughts, first sat down in his easy-chair,
+and then stood up again, and paced softly and slowly up and down the
+room in order to bring on weariness and sleepiness. All remained quiet
+and still until after midnight. Then they heard quick steps above them
+and a heavy fall like some big weight being thrown on the floor, and
+then soon after a muffled groaning. A peculiar feeling of uneasiness
+and dreadful suspense took possession of them both. It was horror at
+the bloody deed which had just been committed, which passed out beside
+them. The bright morning came and revealed to the light what had been
+begun in the hours of darkness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; interrupted De Scudéri, &quot;but by all the saints, tell me
+what
+motive for this diabolical deed you can find in any of the
+circumstances which I just now repeated to you at such length?&quot; &quot;Hm!&quot;
+rejoined La Regnie, &quot;Cardillac was not poor--he had some valuable
+stones in his possession.&quot; &quot;But would not his daughter inherit
+everything?&quot; continued De Scudéri. &quot;You are forgetting that Olivier was
+to be Cardillac's son-in-law.&quot; &quot;But perhaps he had to share or only do
+the murderous deed for others,&quot; said La Regnie. &quot;Share? do a murderous
+deed for others?&quot; asked De Scudéri, utterly astounded. &quot;I must tell
+you, Mademoiselle,&quot; continued the President, &quot;that Olivier's blood
+would long ago have been shed in the Place Grève, had not his crime
+been bound up with that deeply enshrouded mystery which has hitherto
+exercised such a threatening sway over all Paris. It is evident that
+Olivier belongs to that accursed band of miscreants who, laughing to
+scorn all the watchfulness, and efforts, and strict investigations of
+the courts, have been able to carry out their plans so safely and
+unpunished. Through him all shall--all must be cleared up. Cardillac's
+wound is precisely similar to those borne by all the persons who have
+been found murdered and robbed in the streets and houses. But the most
+decisive fact is that since the time Olivier Brusson has been under
+arrest all these murders and robberies have ceased The streets are now
+as safe by night as they are by day. These things are proof enough that
+Olivier probably was at the head of this band of assassins. As yet he
+will not confess it; but there are means of making him speak against
+his will.&quot; &quot;And Madelon,&quot; exclaimed De Scudéri, &quot;and Madelon, the
+faithful, innocent dove!&quot; &quot;Oh!&quot; said La Regnie, with a venomous smile,
+&quot;Oh! but who will answer to me for it that she also is not an
+accomplice in the plot? What does she care about her father's death?
+Her tears are only shed for this murderous rascal.&quot; &quot;What do you say?&quot;
+screamed De Scudéri; &quot;it cannot possibly be. Her father--this girl!&quot;
+&quot;Oh!&quot; went on La Regnie, &quot;Oh, but pray recollect De Brinvillier. You
+will be so good as to pardon me if I perhaps soon find myself compelled
+to take your favourite from your protection, and have her cast into the
+Conciergerie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This terrible suspicion made Mademoiselle shudder. It seemed
+to her as
+if no faithfulness, no virtue, could stand fast before this fearful
+man; he seemed to espy murder and blood-guiltiness in the deepest and
+most secret thoughts. She rose to go. &quot;Be human!&quot; was all that she
+could stammer out in her distress, and she had difficulty in breathing.
+Just on the point of going down the stairs, to the top of which the
+President had accompanied her with ceremonious courtesy, she was
+suddenly struck by a strange thought, at which she herself was
+surprised. &quot;And could I be allowed to see this unhappy Olivier
+Brusson?&quot; she asked, turning round quickly to the President. He,
+however, looked at her somewhat suspiciously, but his face was soon
+contracted into the forbidding smile so characteristic of him. &quot;Of
+course, honoured lady,&quot; said he, &quot;relying upon your feelings and the
+little voice within you more than upon what has taken place before our
+very eyes, you will yourself prove Olivier's guilt or innocence, I
+perceive. If you are not afraid to see the dark abodes of crime, and if
+you think there will be nothing too revolting in looking upon pictures
+of depravity in all its stages, then the doors of the Conciergerie
+shall be opened to you in two hours from now. You shall have this
+Olivier, whose fate excites your interest so much, presented to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth, De Scudéri could by no means convince
+herself of the
+young man's guilt. Although everything spoke against him, and no judge
+in the world could have acted differently from what La Regnie did in
+face of such conclusive circumstantial evidence, yet all these base
+suspicions were completely outweighed by the picture of domestic
+happiness which Madelon had painted for her in such warm lifelike
+colours; and hence she would rather adopt the idea of some
+unaccountable mystery than believe in the truth of that at which her
+inmost heart revolted.</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking that she would get Olivier to repeat once
+more all the
+events of that ill-omened night and worm her way as much as possible
+into any secret there might be which remained sealed to the judges,
+since for their purposes it did not seem worth while to give themselves
+any further trouble about the matter.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the Conciergerie, De Scudéri was led into a
+large light
+apartment. She had not long to wait before she heard the rattle of
+chains. Olivier Brusson was brought in. But the moment he appeared in
+the doorway De Scudéri sank on the floor fainting. When she recovered,
+Olivier had disappeared. She demanded impetuously that she should be
+taken to her carriage; she would go--go at once, that very moment, from
+the apartments of wickedness and infamy. For oh! at the very first
+glance she had recognised in Olivier Brusson the young man who had
+thrown the note into the carriage on the Pont Neuf, and who had brought
+her the casket and the jewels. Now all doubts were at an end; La
+Regnie's horrible suspicion was fully confirmed. Olivier Brusson
+belonged to the atrocious band of assassins; undoubtedly he murdered
+his master. And Madelon? Never before had Mademoiselle been so bitterly
+deceived by the deepest promptings of her heart; and now, shaken to the
+very depths of her soul by the discovery of a power of evil on earth in
+the existence of which she had not hitherto believed, she began to
+despair of all truth. She allowed the hideous suspicion to enter her
+mind that Madelon was involved in the complot, and might have had a
+hand in the infamous deed of blood. As is frequently the case with the
+human mind, that, once it has laid hold upon an idea, it diligently
+seeks for colours, until it finds them, with which to deck out the
+picture in tints ever more vivid and ever more glaring; so also De
+Scudéri, on reflecting again upon all the circumstances of the deed, as
+well as upon the minutest features in Madelon's behaviour, found many
+things to strengthen her suspicion. And many points which hitherto she
+had regarded as a proof of innocence and purity now presented
+themselves as undeniable tokens of abominable wickedness and studied
+hypocrisy. Madelon's heartrending expressions of trouble, and her
+floods of piteous tears, might very well have been forced from her, not
+so much from fear of seeing her lover perish on the scaffold, as of
+falling herself by the hand of the executioner. To get rid at once of
+the serpent she was nourishing in her bosom, this was the determination
+with which Mademoiselle got out of her carriage.</p>
+
+<p>When she entered her room, Madelon threw herself at her feet.
+With her
+lovely eyes--none of God's angels had truer--directed heavenwards, and
+with her hands folded upon her heaving bosom, she wept and wailed,
+craving help and consolation. Controlling herself by a painful effort,
+De Scudéri, whilst endeavouring to impart as much earnestness and
+calmness as she possibly could to the tone in which she spoke, said,
+&quot;Go--go--comfort yourself with the thought that righteous punishment
+will overtake yon murderer for his villainous deeds. May the Holy
+Virgin forbid that you yourself come to labour under the heavy burden
+of blood-guiltiness.&quot; &quot;Oh! all hope is now lost!&quot; cried Madelon, with a
+piercing shriek, as she reeled to the floor senseless. Leaving La
+Martinière to attend to the girl, Mademoiselle withdrew into another
+room.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri's heart was torn and bleeding; she felt herself at
+variance
+with all mankind, and no longer wished to live in a world so full of
+diabolical deceit! She reproached Destiny which in bitter mockery had
+so many years suffered her to go on strengthening her belief in virtue,
+and truth, only to destroy now in her old age the beautiful images
+which had been her guiding-stars through life.</p>
+
+<p>She heard Martinière lead away Madelon, who was sighing softly
+and
+lamenting. &quot;Alas! and she--she too--these cruel men have infatuated
+her. Poor, miserable me! Poor, unhappy Olivier!&quot; The tones of her voice
+cut De Scudéri to the heart; again there stirred in the depths of her
+soul a dim presentiment that there was some mystery connected with the
+case, and also the belief in Olivier's innocence returned. Her mind
+distracted by the most contradictory feelings, she cried, &quot;What spirit
+of darkness is it which has entangled me in this terrible affair? I am
+certain it will be the death of me.&quot; At this juncture Baptiste came in,
+pale and terrified, with the announcement that Desgrais was at the
+door. Ever since the trial of the infamous La Voisin the appearance of
+Desgrais in any house was the sure precursor of some criminal charge;
+hence came Baptiste's terror, and therefore it was that Mademoiselle
+asked him with a gracious smile, &quot;What's the matter with you, Baptiste?
+The name Scudéri has been found on La Voisin's list, has it not, eh?&quot;
+&quot;For God's sake,&quot; replied Baptiste, trembling in every limb, &quot;how can
+you speak of such a thing? But Desgrais, that terrible man Desgrais,
+behaves so mysteriously, and is so urgent; he seems as if he couldn't
+wait a moment before seeing you.&quot; &quot;Well, then, Baptiste,&quot; said De
+Scudéri, &quot;then bring him up at once--the man who is so terrible to you;
+in me, at least, he will excite no anxiety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The President La Regnie has sent me to you, Mademoiselle,&quot;
+said
+Desgrais on stepping into the room, &quot;with a request which he would
+hardly dare hope you could grant, did he not know your virtue and your
+courage. But the last means of bringing to light a vile deed of blood
+lie in your hands; and you have already of your own accord taken an
+active part in the notorious trial which the <i>Chambre Ardente</i>, and in
+fact all of us, are watching with breathless interest. Olivier Brusson
+has been half a madman since he saw you. He was beginning to show signs
+of compliance and a readiness to make a confession, but he now swears
+again, by all the powers of Heaven, that he is perfectly innocent of
+the murder of Cardillac; and yet he says he is ready to die the death
+which he has deserved. You will please observe, Mademoiselle, that the
+last clause evidently has reference to other crimes which weigh upon
+his conscience. But vain are all our efforts to get him to utter a
+single word more; even the threat of torture has been of no avail. He
+begs and prays, and beseeches us to procure him an interview with you;
+for to <i>you</i>, to <i>you</i> only, will he confess all. Pray deign,
+Mademoiselle, to hear Brusson's confession.&quot; &quot;What!&quot; exclaimed De
+Scudéri indignantly, &quot;am I to be made an instrument of by a criminal
+court, am I to abuse this unhappy man's confidence to bring him to the
+scaffold? No, Desgrais. However vile a murderer Brusson may be, I would
+never, never deceive him in that villainous way. I don't want to know
+anything about his secrets; in any case they would be locked up within
+my own bosom as if they were a holy confession made to a priest&quot;
+&quot;Perhaps,&quot; rejoined Desgrais with a subtle smile, &quot;perhaps,
+Mademoiselle, you would alter your mind after you had heard Brusson.
+Did you not yourself exhort the President to be human? And he is being
+so, in that he gives way to Brusson's foolish request, and thus resorts
+to the last means before putting him to the rack, for which he was well
+ripe some time ago.&quot; De Scudéri shuddered involuntarily. &quot;And then,
+honoured lady,&quot; continued Desgrais, &quot;it will not be demanded of you
+that you again enter those dark gloomy rooms which filled you with such
+horror and aversion. Olivier shall be brought to you here in your own
+house as a free man, but at night, when all excitement can be avoided.
+Then, without being even listened to, though of course he would be
+watched, he may without constraint make a clean confession to you. That
+you personally will have nothing to fear from the wretch--for that I
+will answer to you with my life. He mentions your name with the
+intensest veneration. He reiterates again and again that it is nothing
+but his dark destiny, which prevented him seeing you before, that has
+brought his life into jeopardy in this way. Moreover, you will be at
+liberty to divulge what you think well of the things which Brusson
+confesses to you. And what more could we indeed compel you to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri bent her eyes upon the floor in reflection. She
+felt she
+must obey the Higher Power which was thus demanding of her that she
+should effect the disclosure of some terrible secret, and she felt,
+too, as though she could not draw back out of the tangled skein into
+which she had run without any conscious effort of will. Suddenly making
+up her mind, she replied with dignity, &quot;God will give me firmness and
+self-command, Bring Brusson here; I will speak with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Just as on the previous occasion when Brusson brought the
+casket, there
+came a knock at De Scudéri's house door at midnight. Baptiste,
+forewarned of this nocturnal visit, at once opened the door. De Scudéri
+felt an icy shiver run through her as she gathered from the light
+footsteps and hollow murmuring voices that the guards who had brought
+Brusson were taking up their stations about the passages of the house.</p>
+
+<p>At length the room door was softly opened. Desgrais came in,
+followed
+by Olivier Brusson, freed from his fetters, and dressed in his own neat
+clothing. The officer bowed respectfully and said, &quot;Here is Brusson,
+honoured lady,&quot; and then left the room. Brusson fell upon his knees
+before Mademoiselle, and raised his folded hands in entreaty, whilst
+copious tears ran down his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri turned pale and looked down upon him without being
+able to
+utter a word. Though his features were now gaunt and hollow from
+trouble and anguish and pain, yet an expression of the truest
+staunchest honesty shone upon his countenance. The longer Mademoiselle
+allowed her eyes to rest upon his face, the more forcibly was she
+reminded of some loved person, whom she could not in any way clearly
+call to mind. All her feelings of shivery uncomfortableness left her;
+she forgot that it was Cardillac's murderer who was kneeling before
+her; she spoke in the calm pleasing tone of goodwill that was
+characteristic of her, &quot;Well, Brusson, what have you to tell me?&quot; He,
+still kneeling, heaved a sigh of unspeakable sadness, that came from
+the bottom of his heart, &quot;Oh! honoured, highly esteemed lady, can you
+have lost all traces of recollection of me?&quot; Mademoiselle scanned his
+features more narrowly, and replied that she had certainly discovered
+in his face a resemblance to some one she had once loved, and that it
+was entirely owing to this resemblance that she had overcome her
+detestation of the murderer, and was listening to him calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Brusson was deeply hurt at these words; he rose hastily to his
+feet and
+took a step, backwards, fixing his eyes gloomily on the floor. &quot;Then
+you have completely forgotten Anne Guiot?&quot; he said moodily; &quot;it is her
+son Olivier,--the boy whom you often tossed on your lap--who now stands
+before you.&quot; &quot;Oh help me, good Heaven!&quot; exclaimed Mademoiselle,
+covering her face with both hands and sinking back upon the cushions.
+And reason enough she had to be thus terribly affected. Anne Guiot, the
+daughter of an impoverished burgher, had lived in De Scudéri's house
+from a little girl, and had been brought up by Mademoiselle with all
+the care and faithfulness which a mother expends upon her own child.
+Now when she was grown up there came a modest good-looking young man,
+Claude Brusson by name, and he wooed the girl. And since he was a
+thoroughly clever watchmaker, who would be sure to find a very good
+living in Paris, and since Anne had also grown to be truly fond of him,
+De Scudéri had no scruples about giving her consent to her adopted
+daughter's marriage. The young people, having set up housekeeping, led
+a quiet life of domestic happiness; and the ties of affection were knit
+still closer by the birth of a marvellously pretty boy, the perfect
+image of his lovely mother.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri made a complete idol of little Olivier, carrying
+him off
+from his mother for hours and days together to caress him and to fondle
+him. Hence the boy grew quite accustomed to her, and would just as
+willingly be with her as with his mother. Three years passed away, when
+the trade-envy of Brusson's fellow-artificers made them concert
+together against him, so that his business decreased day by day, until
+at last he could hardly earn enough for a bare subsistence. Along with
+this he felt an ardent longing to see once more his beautiful native
+city of Geneva; accordingly the small family moved thither, in spite of
+De Scudéri's opposition and her promises of every possible means of
+support Anne wrote two or three times to her foster-mother, and then
+nothing more was heard from her; so that Mademoiselle had to take
+refuge in the conclusion that the happy life they were leading in
+Brusson's native town prevented their memories dwelling upon the days
+that were past and gone. It was now just twenty-three years since
+Brusson had left Paris along with his wife and child and had gone to
+Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! horrible!&quot; exclaimed De Scudéri when she had again
+recovered
+herself to some extent. &quot;Oh! horrible! are you Olivier? my Anne's son?
+And now----&quot; &quot;Indeed, honoured lady,&quot; replied Olivier calmly and
+composedly, &quot;indeed you never could, I suppose, have any the least idea
+that the boy whom you fondled with all a mother's tenderness, into
+whose mouth you never tired of putting sweets and candies as you tossed
+him on your lap, whom you called by the most caressing names, would,
+when grown up to be a young man, one day stand before you accused of an
+atrocious crime. I am not free from reproach; the <i>Chambre Ardente</i> may
+justly bring a charge against me; but by my hopes of happiness after
+death, even though it be by the executioner's hand, I am innocent of
+this bloody deed; the unhappy Cardillac did not perish through me, nor
+through any guilty connivance on my part.&quot; So saying, Olivier began to
+shake and tremble. Mademoiselle silently pointed to a low chair which
+stood beside him, and he slowly sank down upon it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have had plenty of time to prepare myself for my interview
+with
+you,&quot; he began, &quot;which I regard as the last favour to be granted me by
+Heaven in token of my reconciliation with it, and I have also had time
+enough to gain what calmness and composure are needful in order to
+relate to you the history of my fearful and unparalleled misfortunes. I
+entreat your pity, that you will listen calmly to me, however much you
+may be surprised--nay, even struck with horror, by the disclosure of a
+secret which I am sure you have never for a moment suspected. Oh! that
+my poor father had never left Paris! As far back as my recollections of
+Geneva go I remember how I felt the tears of my unhappy parents falling
+upon my cheeks; and how their complaints of misery, which I did not
+understand, provoked me also to tears. Later I experienced to the full
+and with keen consciousness in what a state of crushing want and of
+deep distress my parents lived. My father found all his hopes deceived.
+He died bowed to the earth with pain, and broken with trouble,
+immediately after he had succeeded in placing me as apprentice to a
+goldsmith. My mother talked much about you; she said she would pour out
+all her troubles to you; but then she fell a victim to that despondency
+which is born of misery. That, and also a feeling of false shame, which
+often preys upon a deeply wounded spirit, prevented her from taking any
+decisive step. Within a few months after my father's death my mother
+followed him to the grave.&quot; &quot;Poor Anne! poor Anne!&quot; exclaimed
+Mademoiselle, quite overcome by sorrow. &quot;All praise and thanks to the
+Eternal Power of Heaven that she is gone to the better land; she will
+not see her darling son, branded with shame, fall by the hand of the
+executioner,&quot; cried Olivier aloud, casting his eyes upwards with a wild
+unnatural look of anguish.</p>
+
+<p>The police grew uneasy outside; footsteps passed to an fro.
+&quot;Ho! ho!&quot;
+said Olivier, smiling bitterly, &quot;Desgrais is waking up his myrmidons,
+as though I could make my escape <i>here</i>. But to continue--I led a hard
+life with my master, albeit I soon got to be the best workman, and at
+last even surpassed my master himself. One day a stranger happened to
+come into our shop to buy some jewellery. And when he saw a beautiful
+necklace which I had made he clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly
+way and said, eyeing the ornament, 'Ha! i' faith, my young friend,
+that's an excellent piece of work. To tell you the truth, I don't know
+who there is who could beat you, unless it were René Cardillac, who,
+you know, is the first goldsmith in the world. You ought to go to him;
+he would gladly take you into his workshop; for nobody but you could
+help him in his artistic labours; and on the other hand he is the only
+man from whom you could learn anything.' The stranger's words sank into
+my heart and took deep root there. I hadn't another moment's ease in
+Geneva; I felt a violent impulse to be gone. At last I contrived to get
+free from my master. I came to Paris. René Cardillac received me coldly
+and churlishly. I persevered in my purpose; he must give me some work,
+however insignificant it might be. I got a small ring to finish. On my
+taking the work to him, he fixed his keen glittering eyes upon me as if
+he would read the very depths of my soul. Then he said, 'You are a good
+clever journeyman; you may come to me and help me in my shop. I will
+pay you well; you shall be satisfied with me.' Cardillac kept his word.
+I had been several weeks with him before I saw Madelon; she was at that
+time, if I mistake not, in the country, staying, with a female relative
+of Cardillac's; but at length she came. O Heaven! O God! what did I
+feel when I saw the sweet angel? Has any man ever loved as I do? And
+now--O Madelon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Olivier was so distressed he could not go on. Holding both
+hands before
+his face, he sobbed violently, But at length, fighting down with an
+effort the sharp pain that shook him, he went on with his story.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Madelon looked upon me with friendly eyes. Her visits into
+the
+workshop grew more and more frequent. I was enraptured to perceive that
+she loved me. Notwithstanding the strict watch her father kept upon us
+many a stolen pressure of the hand served as a token of the mutual
+understanding arrived at between us; Cardillac did not appear to notice
+anything. I intended first to win his favour, and, if I could gain my
+mastership, then to woo for Madelon. One day, as I was about to begin
+work, Cardillac came to me, his face louring darkly with anger and
+scornful contempt 'I don't want your services any longer,' he began,
+'so out you go from my house this very hour; and never show yourself in
+my sight again. Why I can't do with you here any longer, I have no need
+to tell you. For you, you poor devil, the sweet fruit at which you are
+stretching out your hand hangs too high.' I attempted to speak, but he
+laid hold upon me with a powerful grasp and threw me out of doors, so
+that I fell to the floor and severely wounded my head and arm. I left
+the house hotly indignant and furious with the stinging pain; at last I
+found a good-natured acquaintance in the remotest corner of the
+Faubourg St. Martin, who received me into his garret. But I had neither
+ease nor rest. Every night I used to lurk about Cardillac's house
+deluding myself with the fancy that Madelon would hear my sighing and
+lamenting, and that she would perhaps find a way to speak to me out of
+the window unheard. All sorts of confused plans were revolving in my
+brain, which I hoped to persuade her to carry out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now joining Cardillac's house in the Rue Nicaise there is a
+high wall,
+with niches and old stone figures in them, now half crumbled away. One
+night I was standing close beside one of these stone images and looking
+up at those windows of the house which looked out upon the court
+enclosed by the wall. All at once I observed a light in Cardillac's
+workshop. It was midnight; Cardillac never used to be awake at that
+hour; he was always in the habit of going to rest on the stroke of
+nine. My heart beat in uncertain trepidation; I began to think
+something might have happened which would perhaps pave the way for me
+to go back into the house once more. But soon the light vanished again.
+I squeezed myself into the niche close to the stone figure; but I
+started back in dismay on feeling a pressure against me, as if the
+image had become instinct with life. By the dusky glimmer of the night
+I perceived that the stone was slowly revolving, and a dark form
+slipped out from behind it and went away down the street with light,
+soft footsteps. I rushed towards the stone figure; it stood as before,
+close to the wall. Almost without thinking, rather as if impelled by
+some inward prompter, I stealthily followed the figure. Just beside an
+image of the Virgin he turned round; the light of the street lamp
+standing exactly in front of the image fell full upon his face. It was
+Cardillac.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An unaccountable feeling of apprehension--an unearthly dread
+fell upon
+me. Like one subject to the power of magic, I had to go on--on--in the
+track of the spectre-like somnambulist. For that was what I took my
+master to be, notwithstanding that it was not the time of full moon,
+when this visitation is wont to attack the sleeper. Finally Cardillac
+disappeared into the deep shade on the side of the street. By a sort of
+low involuntary cough, which, however, I knew well, I gathered that he
+was standing in the entry to a house. 'What is the meaning of that?
+What is he going to do?' I asked myself, utterly astounded, pressing
+close against a house-wall. It was not long before a man came along
+with fluttering plumes and jingling spur, singing and gaily humming an
+air. Like a tiger leaping upon his prey, Cardillac burst out of his
+lurking-place and threw himself upon the man, who that very same
+instant fell to the ground, gasping in the agonies of death. I rushed
+up with a cry of horror; Cardillac was stooping over the man, who lay
+on the floor. 'Master Cardillac, what are you doing?' I shouted.
+'Cursed fool!' growled Cardillac, running past me with lightning-like
+speed and disappearing from sight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite upset and hardly able to take a step, I approached the
+man who
+had been stabbed. I knelt down beside him. 'Perhaps,' thought I, 'he
+still may be saved;' but there was not the least sign of life. In my
+fearful agitation I had hardly noticed that the <i>Maréchausée</i> had
+surrounded me. 'What? already another assassinated by these demons!
+Hi! hi! Young man, what are you about here?--Are you one of the
+band?--Away with him!' Thus they cried one after another, and they
+laid hold of me. I was scarcely able to stammer out that I should never
+be capable of such an abominable deed, and that they might therefore
+let me go my way in peace. Then one of them turned his lamp upon my
+face and said laughing, 'Why, it's Olivier Brusson, the journeyman
+goldsmith, who works for our worthy honest Master René Cardillac. Ay, I
+should think so!--<i>he</i> murder people in the street--he looks like it
+indeed! It's just like murderous assassins to stoop lamenting over
+their victim's corpse till somebody comes and takes them into custody.
+Well, how was it, youngster? Speak out boldly?' 'A man sprang out
+immediately in front of me,' I said, 'and threw himself upon this man
+and stabbed him, and then ran away as quick as lightning when I shouted
+out. I only wanted to see if the stabbed man might still be saved.'
+'No, my son,' cried one of those who had taken up the corpse; 'he's
+dead enough; the dagger has gone right through the heart as usual.'
+'The Devil!' said another; 'we have come too late again, as we did
+yesterday.' Thereupon they went their way, taking the corpse with them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What my feelings were I cannot attempt to describe. I felt
+myself to
+make sure whether I were not being mocked by some hideous dream; I
+fancied I must soon wake up and wonder at the preposterous delusion.
+Cardillac, the father of my Madelon, an atrocious murderer! My strength
+failed me; I sank down upon the stone steps leading up to a house. The
+morning light began to glimmer and was stronger and stronger; an
+officer's hat decorated with feathers lay before me on the pavement. I
+saw again vividly Cardillac's bloody deed, which had been perpetrated
+on the spot where I sat. I ran off horrified.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was sitting in my garret, my thoughts in a perfect whirl,
+nay, I was
+almost bereft of my senses, when the door opened, and René Cardillac
+came in. 'For God's sake, what do you want?' I exclaimed on seeing him.
+Without heeding my words, he approached close to me, smiling with
+calmness and an air of affability which only increased my inward
+abhorrence. Pulling up a rickety old stool and taking his seat upon it
+close beside me, for I was unable to rise from the heap of straw upon
+which I had thrown myself, he began, 'Well, Olivier, how are you
+getting on, my poor fellow? I did indeed do an abominably rash thing
+when I turned you out of the house; I miss you at every step and turn.
+I have got a piece of work on hand just now which I cannot finish
+without your help. How would it be if you came back to work in my shop?
+Have you nothing to say? Yes, I know I have insulted you. I will not
+attempt to conceal it from you that I was angry on account of your love
+making to my Madelon. But since then I have ripely reflected upon the
+matter, and decided that, considering your skill and industry and
+faithful honesty, I could not wish for any better son-in-law than you.
+So come along with me, and see if you can win Madelon to be your
+bride.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cardillac's words cut me to the very heart; I trembled with
+dread at
+his wickedness; I could not utter a word. 'Do you hesitate?' he
+continued in a sharp tone, piercing me through and through with his
+glittering eyes; 'do you hesitate? Perhaps you can't come along with me
+just to-day--perhaps you have some other business on hand! Perhaps you
+mean forsooth to pay a visit to Desgrais or get yourself admitted to an
+interview with D'Argenson or La Regnie. But you'd better take care,
+boy, that the claws which you entice out of their sheaths to other
+people's destruction don't seize upon you yourself and tear you to
+pieces!' Then my swelling indignation suddenly found vent 'Let those
+who are conscious of having committed atrocious crimes,' I cried,--'let
+them start at the names you just named. As for me, I have no reason to
+do so--I have nothing to do with them.' 'Properly speaking,' went on
+Cardillac, 'properly speaking, Olivier, it is an honour to you to work
+with me--with me, the most renowned master of the age, and highly
+esteemed everywhere for his faithfulness and honesty, so that all
+wicked calumnies would recoil upon the head of the backbiter. And as
+far as concerns Madelon, I must now confess that it is she alone to
+whom you owe this compliance on my part. She loves you with an
+intensity which I should not have credited the delicate child with.
+Directly you had gone she threw herself at my feet, clasped my knees,
+and confessed amid endless tears that she could not live without you. I
+thought she only fancied so, as so often happens with young and love-
+sick girls; they think they shall die at once the first time a milky-
+faced boy looks kindly upon them. But my Madelon did really become ill
+and begin to pine away; and when I tried to talk her out of her foolish
+silly notions, she only uttered your name scores of times. What on
+earth could I do if I didn't want her to die away in despair? Last
+evening I told her I would give my consent to her dearest wishes, and
+would come and fetch you to-day. And during the night she has blossomed
+up like a rose, and is now waiting for you with all the longing
+impatience of love.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May God in heaven forgive me! I don't know myself how it came
+about,
+but I suddenly found myself in Cardillac's house; and Madelon cried
+aloud with joy, 'Olivier! my Olivier! my darling! my husband!' as she
+rushed towards me and threw both her arms round my neck, pressing me
+close to her bosom, till in a perfect delirium of passionate delight I
+swore by the Virgin and all the saints that I would never, never leave
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Olivier was so deeply agitated by the recollection of this
+fateful
+moment, that he was obliged to pause. De Scudéri, struck with horror at
+this foul iniquity in a man whom she had always looked upon as a model
+of virtue and honest integrity, cried, &quot;Oh! it is horrible! So René
+Cardillac belongs to the murderous band which has so long made our good
+city a mere bandits' haunt?&quot; &quot;What do you say, Mademoiselle, to the <i>band</i>?&quot;
+said Olivier. &quot;There has never been such a band. It was
+Cardillac <i>alone</i> who, active in wickedness, sought for his victims and
+found them throughout the entire city. And it was because he acted
+alone that he was enabled to carry on his operations with so much
+security, and from the same cause arose the insuperable difficulty of
+getting a clue to the murderer. But let me go on with my story; the
+sequel will explain to you the secrets of the most atrocious but at the
+same time of the most unfortunate of men.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The situation in which I now found myself fixed at my
+master's may be
+easily imagined. The step was taken; I could not go back. At times I
+felt as though I were Cardillac's accomplice in crime; the only thing
+that made me forget the inner anguish that tortured me was Madelon's
+love, and it was only in her presence that I succeeded in totally
+suppressing all external signs of the nameless trouble and anxiety I
+had in my heart. When I was working with the old man in the shop, I
+could never look him in the face; and I was hardly able to speak a
+word, owing to the awful dread with which I trembled whenever near the
+villain, who fulfilled all the duties of a faithful and tender father,
+and of a good citizen, whilst the night veiled his monstrous iniquity.
+Madelon, dutiful, pure, confiding as an angel, clung to him with
+idolatrous affection. The thought often struck like a dagger to my
+heart that, if justice should one day overtake the reprobate and unmask
+him, she, deceived by the diabolical arts of the foul Fiend, would
+assuredly die in the wildest agonies of despair. This alone would keep
+my lips locked, even though it brought upon me a criminal's death.
+Notwithstanding that I picked up a good deal of information from the
+talk of the <i>Maréchaussée</i> yet the motive for Cardillac's atrocities,
+as well as his manner of accomplishing them, still remained riddles to
+me; but I had not long to wait for the solution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One day Cardillac was very grave and preoccupied over his
+work,
+instead of being in the merriest of humours, jesting and laughing as he
+usually did, and so provoking my abhorrence of him. All of a sudden he
+threw aside the ornament he was working at, so that the pearls and
+other stones rolled across the floor, and starting to his feet he
+exclaimed, 'Olivier, things can't go on in this way between us; the
+footing we are now on is getting unbearable. Chance has played into
+your hands the knowledge of a secret which has baffled the most
+inventive cunning of Desgrais and all his myrmidons. You have seen me
+at my midnight work, to which I am goaded by my evil destiny; no
+resistance is ever of any avail. And your evil destiny it was which led
+you to follow me, which wrapped you in an impenetrable veil and gave
+you the lightness of foot which, enabled you to walk as noiselessly as
+the smallest insect, so that I, who in the blackest night see as
+plainly as a tiger and hear the slightest noise, the humming of midges,
+far away along the streets, did not perceive you near me. Your evil
+star has brought you to me, my associate. As you are now circumstanced
+there can be no thought of treachery on your part, and so you may now
+know all.' 'Never, never will I be your associate, you hypocritical
+reprobate,' I endeavoured to cry out, but I felt a choking sensation in
+my throat, caused by the dread which came upon me as Cardillac spoke.
+Instead of speaking words, I only gasped out certain unintelligible
+sounds. Cardillac again sat down on his bench, drying the perspiration
+from his brow. He appeared to be fearfully agitated by his
+recollections of the past and to have difficulty in preserving his
+composure. But at length he began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Learned men say a good deal about the extraordinary
+impressions of
+which women are capable when <i>enceinte</i>, and of the singular influence
+which such a vivid involuntary external impression has upon the unborn
+child. I was told a surprising story about my mother. About eight
+months before I was born, my mother accompanied certain other women to
+see a splendid court spectacle in the Trianon.<sup><a name="div2_scudéri19" href="#div2Ref_scudéri19">19</a></sup> There her eyes fell
+upon a cavalier wearing a Spanish costume, who wore a flashing jewelled
+chain round his neck, and she could not keep her eyes off it. Her whole
+being was concentrated into desire to possess the glittering stones,
+which she regarded as something of supernatural origin. Several years
+previously, before my mother was married, the same cavalier had paid
+his insidious addresses to her, but had been repulsed with indignant
+scorn. My mother knew him again; but now by the gleam of the brilliant
+diamonds he appeared to her to be a being of a higher race--the paragon
+of beauty. He noticed my mother's looks of ardent desire. He believed
+he should now be more successful than formerly. He found means to
+approach her, and, yet more, to draw her away from her acquaintances to
+a retired place. Then he clasped her passionately in his arms, whilst
+she laid hold of the handsome chain; but in that moment the cavalier
+reeled backwards, dragging my mother to the ground along with him.
+Whatever was the cause--whether he had a sudden stroke, or whether it
+was due to something else--enough, the man was dead. All my mother's
+efforts to release herself from the stiffened arms of the corpse proved
+futile. His glazed eyes, their faculty of vision now extinguished, were
+fixed upon her; and she lay on the ground with the dead man. At length
+her piercing screams for help reached the ears of some people passing
+at a distance; they hurried up and freed her from the arms of her
+ghastly lover. The horror prostrated her in a serious illness. Her
+life, and mine too, was despaired of; but she recovered, and her
+accouchement was more favourable than could have been expected. But the
+terror of that fearful moment had left its stamp upon <i>me</i>. The evil
+star of my destiny had got in the ascendant and shot down its sparks
+upon me, enkindling in me a most singular but at the same time a most
+pernicious passion. Even in the earliest days of my childhood there was
+nothing I thought so much of as I did of flashing diamonds and
+ornaments of gold. It was regarded as an ordinary childish inclination.
+But the contrary was soon made manifest, for when a boy I stole all the
+gold and jewellery I could anywhere lay my hands on. Like the most
+experienced goldsmith I could distinguish by instinct false jewellery
+from real. The latter alone proved an attraction to me; objects made of
+imitated gold as well as gold coins I heeded not in the least. My
+inborn propensity had, however, to give way to the excessively cruel
+thrashings which I received at my father's hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I adopted the trade of a goldsmith, merely that I might be
+able to
+handle gold and precious stones. I worked with passionate enthusiasm
+and soon became the first master in the craft. But now began a period
+in which my innate propensity, so long repressed, burst forth with
+vehemence and grew most rapidly, imbibing nourishment from everything
+about it. So soon as I had completed a piece of jewellery, and had
+delivered it up to the customer, I fell into a state of unrest, of
+desperate disquiet, which robbed me of sleep and health and courage for
+my daily life. Day and night the person for whom I had done the work
+stood before my eyes like a spectre, adorned with my jewellery, whilst
+a voice whispered in my ears, &quot;Yes, it's yours; yes it's yours. Go and
+take it. What does a dead man want diamonds for?&quot; Then I began to
+practise thievish arts. As I had access to the houses of the great, I
+speedily turned every opportunity to good account: no lock could baffle
+my skill; and I soon had the object which I had made in my hands again.
+But after a time even that did not banish my unrest. That unearthly
+voice still continued to make itself heard in my ears, mocking me to
+scorn, and crying, &quot;Ho! ho! a dead man is wearing your jewellery.&quot; By
+some inexplicable means, which I do not understand, I began to conceive
+an unspeakable hatred of those for whom I made my ornaments. Ay, deep
+down in my heart there began to stir a murderous feeling against them,
+at which I myself trembled with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'About this time I bought this house. I had just struck a
+bargain with
+the owner; we were sitting in this room drinking a glass of wine
+together and enjoying ourselves over the settlement of our business.
+Night had come; I rose to go; then the vendor of the house said, &quot;See
+here, Master René; before you go, I must make you acquainted with the
+secret of the place.&quot; Therewith he unlocked that press let into the
+wall there, pushed away the panels at the back, and stepped into a
+little room, where, stooping down, he lifted up a trap-door. We
+descended a flight of steep, narrow stairs, and came to a narrow
+postern, which he unlocked, and let us out into the court-yard. Then
+the old gentleman, the previous owner of the house, stepped up to the
+wall and pressed an iron knob, which projected only very triflingly
+from it; immediately a portion of the wall swung round, so that a man
+could easily slip through the opening, and in that way gain the street.
+I will show you the neat contrivance some day, Olivier; very likely it
+was constructed by the cunning monks of the monastery which formerly
+stood on this site, in order that they might steal in and out secretly.
+It is a piece of wood, plastered with mortar and white-washed on the
+outside only, and within it, on the side next the street, is fixed a
+statue, also of wood, but coloured to look exactly like stone, and the
+whole piece, together with the statue, moves upon concealed hinges.
+Dark thoughts swept into my mind when I saw this contrivance; it
+appeared to have been built with a predestined view to such deeds as
+yet remained unknown to myself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I had just completed a valuable ornament for a courtier, and
+knew
+that he intended it for an opera-dancer. The ominous torture assailed
+me again; the spectre dogged my footsteps; the whispering fiend was at
+my ear. I took possession of my new house. I tossed sleeplessly on my
+couch, bathed in perspiration, caused by the hideous torments I was
+enduring. In imagination I saw the man gliding along to the dancer's
+abode with my ornament. I leapt up full of fury; threw on my mantle,
+went down by the secret stairs, through the wall, and into the Rue
+Nicaise. He is coming along; I throw myself upon him; he screams out;
+but I have seized him fast from behind, and driven my dagger right into
+his heart; the ornament is mine. This done I experienced a calmness, a
+satisfaction in my soul, which I had never yet experienced. The spectre
+had vanished; the voice of the fiend was still. Now I knew what my evil
+Destiny wanted; I had either to yield to it or to perish. And now too
+you understand the secret of all my conduct, Olivier. But do not
+believe, because I must do that for which there is no help, that
+therefore I have entirely lost all sense of pity, of compassion, which
+is said to be one of the essential properties of human nature. You know
+how hard it is for me to part with a finished piece of work, and that
+there are many for whom I refuse to work at all, because I do not wish
+their death; and it has also happened that when I felt my spectre would
+have to be exorcised on the following day by blood, I have satisfied it
+with a stout blow of the fist the same day, which stretched on the
+ground the owner of my jewel, and delivered the jewel itself into my
+hand.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Having told me all this Cardillac took me into his secret
+vault and
+granted me a sight of his jewel-cabinet; and the king himself has not
+one finer. A short label was attached to each article, stating
+accurately for whom it was made, when it was recovered, and whether by
+theft, or by robbery from the person accompanied with violence, or by
+murder. Then Cardillac said in a hollow and solemn voice, 'On your
+wedding-day, Olivier, you will have to lay your hand on the image of
+the crucified Christ and swear a solemn oath that after I am dead you
+will reduce all these riches to dust, through means which I shall then,
+before I die, disclose to you. I will not have any human creature, and
+certainly neither Madelon nor you, come into possession of this blood-
+bought treasure-store.' Entangled in this labyrinth of crime, and with
+my heart lacerated by love and abhorrence, by rapture and horror, I
+might be compared to the condemned mortal whom a lovely angel is
+beckoning upwards with a gentle smile, whilst on the other hand Satan
+is holding him fast in his burning talons, till the good angel's smiles
+of love, in which are reflected all the bliss of the highest heaven,
+become converted into the most poignant of his miseries. I thought of
+flight--ay, even of suicide--but Madelon! Blame me, reproach me,
+honoured lady, for my too great weakness in not fighting down by an
+effort of will a passion that was fettering me to crime; but am I not
+about to atone for my fault by a death of shame?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One day Cardillac came home in uncommonly good spirits. He
+caressed
+Madelon, greeted me with the most friendly good-will, and at dinner
+drank a bottle of better wine, of a brand that he only produced on high
+holidays and festivals, and he also sang and gave vent to his feelings
+in exuberant manifestations of joy. When Madelon had left us I rose to
+return to the workshop. 'Sit still, lad,' said Cardillac; 'we'll not
+work any more to-day. Let us drink another glass together to the health
+of the most estimable and most excellent lady in Paris.' After I had
+joined glasses with him and had drained mine to the bottom, he went on,
+'Tell me, Olivier, how do you like these verses,'</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">'Un amant qui craint les voleuis</p>
+<p class="i4">N'est point digne d'amour.'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Then he went on to relate the episode between you and the
+king in De
+Maintenon's salons, adding that he had always honoured you as he never
+had any other human creature, and that you were gifted with such lofty
+virtue as to make his ill-omened star of Destiny grow pale, and that if
+you were to wear the handsomest ornament he ever made it would never
+provoke in him either an evil spectre or murderous thoughts. 'Listen
+now, Olivier,' he said, 'what I have made up my mind to do. A long time
+ago I received an order for a necklace and a pair of bracelets for
+Henrietta of England,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri20" href="#div2Ref_scudéri20">20</a></sup> and the stones were given me for the purpose.
+The work turned out better than the best I had ever previously done;
+but my heart was torn at the thought of parting from the ornaments, for
+they had become my pet jewels. You are aware of the Princess's unhappy
+death by sinister means. The ornaments I retained, and will now send
+them to Mademoiselle de Scudéri in the name of the persecuted band of
+robbers as a token of my respect and gratitude. Not only will
+Mademoiselle receive an eloquent token of her triumph, but I shall also
+laugh Desgrais and his associates to scorn, as they deserve to be
+laughed at. You shall take her the ornaments.' As Cardillac mentioned
+your name, Mademoiselle, I seemed to see a dark veil thrown aside,
+revealing the fair, bright picture of my early happy childhood days in
+gay and cheerful colours. A wondrous source of comfort entered my soul,
+a ray of hope, before which all my dark spirits faded away. Possibly
+Cardillac noted the effect which his words had upon me and interpreted
+it in his own way, 'You appear to find pleasure in my plan,' he said.
+'And I may as well state to you that I have been commanded to do this
+by an inward monitor deep down in my heart, very different from that
+which demands its holocaust of blood like some ravenous beast of prey.
+I often experience very remarkable feelings; I am powerfully affected
+by an inward apprehension, by fear of something terrible, the horrors
+of which breathe upon me in the air from a far-distant world of the
+Supernatural. I then feel even as if the crimes I commit as the blind
+instrument of my ill-starred Destiny may be charged upon my immortal
+soul, which has no share in them. During one such mood I vowed to make
+a diamond crown for the Holy Virgin in St. Eustace's Church. But so
+often as I thought seriously about setting to work upon it, I was
+overwhelmed by this unaccountable apprehension, so that I gave up the
+project altogether. Now I feel as if I must humbly offer an
+acknowledgment at the altar of virtue and piety by sending to De
+Scudéri the handsomest ornaments I have ever worked.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cardillac, who was intimately acquainted with your habits and
+ways of
+life. Mademoiselle, gave me instructions respecting the manner and the
+hour--the how and the when--in which I was to deliver the ornaments,
+which he locked in an elegant case, into your hands. I was completely
+thrilled with delight, for Heaven itself now pointed out to me through
+the miscreant Cardillac, a way by which I might rescue myself from the
+hellish thraldom in which I, a sinner and outcast, was slowly
+perishing; these at least were my thoughts. In express opposition to
+Cardillac's will I resolved to force myself in to an interview with
+you. I intended to reveal myself as Anne Brusson's son, as your own
+adoptive child, and to throw myself at your feet and confess all--all.
+I knew that you would have been so touched by the overwhelming misery
+which would have threatened poor innocent Madelon by any disclosure
+that you would have respected the secret; whilst your keen, sagacious
+mind would, I felt assured, have devised some means by which
+Cardillac's infamous wickedness might have been prevented without any
+exposure. Pray do not ask me what shape these means would have taken; I
+do not know. But that you would save Madelon and me, of that I was most
+firmly convinced, as firmly as I believe in the comfort and help of the
+Holy Virgin. You know how my intention was frustrated that night,
+Mademoiselle. I still cherished the hope of being more successful
+another time. Soon after this Cardillac seemed suddenly to lose all his
+good-humour. He went about with a cloudy brow, fixed his eyes on
+vacancy in front of him, murmured unintelligible words, and
+gesticulated with his hands, as if warding off something hostile from
+him; his mind appeared to be tormented by evil thoughts. Thus he
+behaved during the course of one whole morning. Finally he sat down to
+his work-table; but he soon leapt up again peevishly and looked out of
+the window, saying moodily and earnestly, 'I wish after all that
+Henrietta of England had worn my ornaments.' These words struck terror
+to my heart. Now I knew that his warped mind was again enslaved by the
+abominable spectre of murder, and that the voice of the fiend was again
+ringing audibly in his ears. I saw your life was threatened by the
+villainous demon of murder. If Cardillac only had his ornaments in his
+hands again, you were saved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every moment the danger increased. Then I met you on the Pont
+Neuf,
+and forced my way to your carriage, and threw you that note, beseeching
+you to restore the ornaments which you had received to Cardillac's
+hands at once. You did not come. My distress deepened to despair when
+on the following day Cardillac talked about nothing else but the
+magnificent ornaments which he had seen before his eyes during the
+night. I could only interpret that as having reference to your
+jewellery, and I was certain that he was brooding over some fresh
+murderous onslaught which he had assuredly determined to put into
+execution during the coming night. I must save you, even if it cost
+Cardillac's own life. So soon as he had locked himself in his own room
+after evening prayers, according to his wont, I climbed out of a window
+into the court-yard, slipped through the opening in the wall, and took
+up my station at no great distance, hidden in the deep shade. I had not
+long to wait before Cardillac appeared and stole softly up the street,
+me following him. He bent his steps towards the Rue St. Honoré; my
+heart trembled with apprehension. All of a sudden I lost sight of him.
+I made up my mind to take post at your house-door. Then there came an
+officer past me, without perceiving me, singing and gaily humming a
+tune to himself, as on the occasion when chance first made me a witness
+of Cardillac's bloody deeds. But that selfsame moment a dark figure
+leapt forward and fell upon the officer. It was Cardillac. This murder
+I would at any rate prevent. With a loud shout I reached the spot in
+two or three bounds, when, not the officer, but Cardillac, fell on the
+floor groaning. The officer let his dagger fall, and drawing his sword
+put himself in a posture for fighting, imagining that I was the
+murderer's accomplice; but when he saw that I was only concerned about
+the slain man, and did not trouble myself about him, he hurried away.
+Cardillac was still alive. After picking up and taking charge of the
+dagger which the officer had let fall, I loaded my master upon my
+shoulders and painfully hugged him home, carrying him up to the
+workshop by way of the concealed stairs. The rest you know.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see, honoured lady, that my only crime consists in the
+fact that I
+did not betray Madelon's father to the officers of the law, and so put
+an end to his enormities. My hands are clean of any deed of blood. No
+torture shall extort from me a confession of Cardillac's crimes. I will
+not, in defiance of the Eternal Power, which veiled the father's
+hideous bloodguiltiness from the eyes of the virtuous daughter, be
+instrumental in unfolding all the misery of the past, which would now
+have a far more disastrous effect upon her, nor do I wish to aid
+worldly vengeance in rooting up the dead man from the earth which
+covers him, nor that the executioner should now brand the mouldering
+bones with dishonour. No; the beloved of my soul will weep for me as
+one who has fallen innocent, and time will soften her sorrow; but how
+irretrievable a shock would it be if she learnt of the fearful and
+diabolical deeds of her dearly-loved father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Olivier paused; but now a torrent of tears suddenly burst from
+his
+eyes, and he threw himself at De Scudéri's feet imploringly. &quot;Oh! now
+you are convinced of my innocence--oh! surely you must be! have pity
+upon me; tell me how my Madelon bears it.&quot; Mademoiselle summoned La
+Martinière, and in a few moments more Madelon's arms were round
+Olivier's neck. &quot;Now all is well again since you are here. I knew it, I
+knew this most noble-minded lady would save you,&quot; cried Madelon again
+and again; and Olivier forgot his situation and all that was impending
+over him, he was free and happy. It was most touching to hear the two
+mutually pour out all their troubles, and relate all that they had
+suffered for one another's sake; then they embraced one another anew,
+and wept with joy to see each other again.</p>
+
+<p>If De Scudéri had not been already convinced of Olivier's
+innocence she
+would assuredly have been satisfied of it now as she sat watching the
+two, who forgot the world and their misery and their excessive
+sufferings in the happiness of their deep and genuine mutual affection.
+&quot;No,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;it is only a pure heart which is capable of
+such happy oblivion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bright beams of morning broke in through the window.
+Desgrais
+knocked softly at the room door, and reminded those within that it was
+time to take Olivier Brusson away, since this could not be done later
+without exciting a commotion. The lovers were obliged to separate.</p>
+
+<p>The dim shapeless feelings which had taken possession of De
+Scudéri's
+mind on Olivier's first entry into the room, had now acquired form and
+content--and in a fearful way. She saw the son of her dear Anne
+innocently entangled in such a way that there hardly seemed any
+conceivable means of saving him from a shameful death. She honoured the
+young man's heroic purpose in choosing to die under an unjust burden of
+guilt rather than divulge a secret that would certainly kill his
+Madelon. In the whole region of possibility she could not find any
+means whatever to snatch the poor fellow out of the hands of the cruel
+tribunal. And yet she had a most clear conception that she ought not to
+hesitate at any sacrifice to avert this monstrous perversion of justice
+which was on the point of being committed. She racked her brain with a
+hundred different schemes and plans, some of which bordered upon the
+extravagant, but all these she rejected almost as soon as they
+suggested themselves. Meanwhile the rays of hope grew fainter and
+fainter, till at last she was on the verge of despair. But Madelon's
+unquestioning child-like confidence, the rapturous enthusiasm with
+which she spoke of her lover, who now, absolved of all guilt, would
+soon clasp her in his arms as his bride, infused De Scudéri with new
+hope and courage, exactly in proportion as she was the more touched by
+the girl's words.</p>
+
+<p>At length, for the sake of doing something. De Scudéri wrote a
+long
+letter to La Regnie, in which she informed him that Olivier Brusson had
+proved to her in the most convincing manner his perfect innocence of
+Cardillac's death, and that it was only his heroic resolve to carry
+with him into the grave a secret, the revelation of which would entail
+disaster upon virtue and innocence, that prevented him making a
+revelation to the court which would undoubtedly free him, not only from
+the fearful suspicion of having murdered Cardillac, but also of having
+belonged to a band of vile assassins. De Scudéri did all that burning
+zeal, that ripe and spirited eloquence could effect, to soften La
+Regnie's hard heart. In the course of a few hours La Regnie replied
+that he was heartily glad to learn that Olivier Brusson had justified
+himself so completely in the eyes of his noble and honoured
+protectress. As for Olivier's heroic resolve to carry with him into the
+grave a secret that had an important bearing upon the crime under
+investigation, he was sorry to say that the <i>Chambre Ardente</i> could not
+respect such heroic courage, but would rather be compelled to adopt the
+strongest means to break it. At the end of three days he hoped to be in
+possession of this extraordinary secret, which it might be presumed
+would bring wonders to light.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri knew only too well what those means were by which
+the savage
+La Regnie intended to break Brusson's heroic constancy. She was now
+sure that the unfortunate was threatened with the rack. In her
+desperate anxiety it at length occurred to her that the advice of a
+doctor of the law would be useful, if only to effectuate a postponement
+of the torture. The most renowned advocate in Paris at that time was
+Pierre Amaud d'Andilly; and his sound knowledge and liberal mind were
+only to be compared to his virtue and his sterling honesty. To him,
+therefore, De Scudéri had recourse, and she told him all, so far as she
+could, without violating Brusson's secret She expected that D'Andilly
+would take up the cause of the innocent man with zeal, but she found
+her hopes most bitterly deceived. The lawyer listened calmly to all she
+had to say, and then replied in Boileau's words, smiling as he did so,
+&quot;<i>Le vrai peut quelque fois n'être pas vraisemblable</i>&quot;(Sometimes truth
+wears an improbable garb). He showed De Scudéri that there were most
+noteworthy grounds for suspicion against Brusson, that La Regnie's
+proceedings could neither be called cruel nor yet hurried, rather they
+were perfectly within the law--nay, that he could not act otherwise
+without detriment to his duties as judge. He himself did not see his
+way to saving Brusson from torture, even by the cleverest defence.
+Nobody but Brusson himself could avert it, either by a candid
+confession or at least by a most detailed account of all the
+circumstances attending Cardillac's murder, and this might then perhaps
+furnish grounds for instituting fresh inquiries. &quot;Then I will throw
+myself at the king's feet and pray for mercy,&quot; said De Scudéri,
+distracted, her voice half choked by tears. &quot;For Heaven's sake, don't
+do it, Mademoiselle, don't do it. I would advise you to reserve this
+last resource, for if it once fail it is lost to you for ever. The king
+will never pardon a criminal of this class: he would draw down upon
+himself the bitterest reproaches of the people, who would believe their
+lives were always in danger. Possibly Brusson, either by disclosing his
+secret or by some other means, may find a way to allay the suspicions
+which are working against him. Then will be the time to appeal to the
+king for mercy, for he will not inquire what has been proved before the
+court, but be guided by his own inner conviction.&quot; De Scudéri had no
+help for it but to admit that D'Andilly with his great experience was
+in the right.</p>
+
+<p>Late one evening she was sitting in her own room in very great
+trouble,
+appealing to the Virgin and the Holy Saints, and thinking whatever
+should she do to save the unhappy Brusson, when La Martinière came in
+to announce that Count de Miossens, colonel of the King's Guards, was
+urgently desiring to speak to Mademoiselle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon me, Mademoiselle,&quot; said Miossens, bowing with military
+grace,
+&quot;pardon me for intruding upon you so late, at such an inconvenient
+hour. We soldiers cannot do as we like, and then a couple of words will
+suffice to excuse me. It is on Olivier Brusson's account that I have
+come.&quot; De Scudéri's attention was at once on the stretch as to what was
+to follow, and she said, &quot;Olivier Brusson?--that most unhappy of
+mortals? What have you to do with him?&quot; &quot;Yes, I did indeed think,&quot;
+continued Miossens smiling, &quot;that your <i>protégé's</i> name would be
+sufficient to procure me a favourable hearing. All the public are
+convinced of Brusson's guilt. But you, I know, cling to another
+opinion, which is based, to be sure, upon the protestations of the
+accused, as it is said; with me, however, it is otherwise. Nobody can
+be more firmly convinced that Brusson is innocent of Cardillac's death
+than I am.&quot; &quot;Oh! go on and tell me; go on, pray!&quot; exclaimed De Scudéri,
+whilst her eyes sparkled with delight. Miossens continued, speaking
+with emphasis, &quot;It was I--I who stabbed the old goldsmith not far from
+your house here in the Rue St. Honors.&quot; &quot;By the Saints!--you--you?&quot;
+exclaimed Mademoiselle. &quot;And I swear to you, Mademoiselle,&quot; went on
+Miossens, &quot;that I am proud of the deed. For let me tell you that
+Cardillac was the most abandoned and hypocritical of villains, that it
+was he who committed those dreadful murders and robberies by night, and
+so long escaped all traps laid for him. Somehow, I can't say how, a
+strong feeling of suspicion was aroused in my mind against the old
+reprobate when he brought me an ornament I had ordered and was so
+visibly disturbed on giving it to me; and then he inquired particularly
+for whom I wanted the ornament, and also questioned my valet in the
+most artful way as to when I was in the habit of visiting a certain
+lady. I had long before noticed that all the unfortunates who fell
+victims to this abominable epidemic of murder and robbery bore one and
+the same wound. I felt sure that the assassin had by practice grown
+perfect in inflicting it, and that it must prove instantaneously fatal,
+and upon this he relied implicitly. If it failed, then it would come to
+a fight on equal terms. This led me to adopt a measure of precaution
+which is so simple that I cannot comprehend why it did not occur to
+others, who might then have safeguarded themselves against any
+murderous assault that threatened them. I wore a light shirt of mail
+under my tunic. Cardillac attacked me from behind. He laid hold upon me
+with the strength of a giant, but the surely-aimed blow glanced aside
+from the iron. That same moment I wrested myself free from his grasp,
+and drove my dagger, which I held in readiness, into his heart.&quot; &quot;And
+you maintained silence?&quot; asked De Scudéri; &quot;you did not notify to the
+tribunals what you had done?&quot; &quot;Permit me to remark,&quot; went on Miossens,
+&quot;permit me to remark, Mademoiselle, that such an announcement, if it
+had not at once entailed disastrous results upon me, would at any rate
+have involved me in a most detestable trial. Would La Regnie, who
+ferrets out crime everywhere--would he have believed my unsupported
+word if I had accused honest Cardillac, the pattern of piety and
+virtue, of an attempted murder? What if the sword of justice had turned
+its point against me?&quot; &quot;That would not have been possible,&quot; said De
+Scudéri, &quot;your birth--your rank&quot;---- &quot;Oh! remember Marshal de
+Luxembourg, whose whim for having his horoscope cast by Le Sage brought
+him under the suspicion of being a poisoner, and eventually into the
+Bastille. No! by St. Denis! I would not risk my freedom for an hour--
+not even the lappet of my ear--in the power of that madman La Regnie,
+who only too well would like to have his knife at the throats of all of
+us.&quot; &quot;But do you know you are bringing innocent Brusson to the
+scaffold?&quot; &quot;Innocent?&quot; rejoined Miossens, &quot;innocent? Are you speaking
+of the villain Cardillac's accomplice, Mademoiselle? he who helped him
+in his evil deeds? who deserves to die a hundred deaths? No, indeed! He
+would meet a just end on the scaffold. I have only disclosed to you,
+honoured lady, the details of the occurrence on the presupposition
+that, without delivering me into the hands of the <i>Chambre Ardent</i>, you
+will yet find a way to turn my secret to account on behalf of your <i>
+protégé</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri was so enraptured at finding her conviction of
+Brusson's
+innocence confirmed in such a decisive manner that she did not scruple
+to tell the Count all, since he already knew of Cardillac's iniquity,
+and to exhort him to accompany her to see D'Andilly. To <i>him</i> all
+should be revealed under the seal of secrecy, and he should advise them
+what was to be done.</p>
+
+<p>After De Scudéri had related all to D'Andilly down to the
+minutest
+particulars, he inquired once more about several of the most
+insignificant features. In particular he asked Count Miossens whether
+he was perfectly satisfied that it was Cardillac who had attacked him,
+and whether he would be able to identify Olivier Brusson as the man who
+had carried away the corpse. De Miossens made answer, &quot;Not only did I
+very well recognise Cardillac by the bright light of the moon, but I
+have also seen in La Regnie's hands the dagger with which Cardillac was
+stabbed; it is mine, distinguished by the elegant workmanship of the
+hilt. As I only stood one yard from the young man, and his hat had
+fallen off, I distinctly saw his features, and should certainly
+recognise him again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After gazing thoughtfully before him for some minutes in
+silence,
+D'Andilly said, &quot;Brusson cannot possibly be saved from the hands of
+justice in any ordinary and regular way. Out of consideration for
+Madelon he refuses to accuse Cardillac of being the thievish assassin.
+And he must continue to do so, for even if he succeeded in proving his
+statements by pointing out the secret exit and the accumulated store of
+stolen jewellery, he would still be liable to death as a partner in
+Cardillac's guilt. And the bearings of things would not be altered if
+Count Miossens were to state to the judges the real details of the
+meeting with Cardillac. The only thing we can aim at securing is a
+postponement of the torture. Let Count Miossens go to the <i>Conciergerie</i>, have
+Olivier Brusson brought forward, and recognise in
+him the man who carried away Cardillac's dead body. Then let him hurry
+off to La Regnie and say, 'I saw a man stabbed in the Rue St. Honoré,
+and as I stood close beside the corpse another man sprang forward and
+stooped down over the dead body; but on finding signs of life in him he
+lifted him on his shoulders and carried him away. This man I recognise
+in Olivier Brusson.' This evidence would lead to another hearing of
+Brusson and to his confrontation with Miossens. At all events the
+torture would be delayed and further inquiries would be instituted.
+Then will come the proper time to appeal to the king. It may be left to
+your sagacity, Mademoiselle, to do this in the adroitest manner. As far
+as my opinion goes, I think it would be best to disclose to him the
+whole mystery. Brusson's confessions are borne out by this statement of
+Count Miossens; and they may, perhaps, be still further substantiated
+by secret investigations at Cardillac's own house. All this could not
+afford grounds for a verdict of acquittal by the court, but it might
+appeal to the king's feelings, that it is his prerogative to speak
+mercy where the judge can only condemn, and so elicit a favourable
+decision from His Majesty.&quot; Count Miossens followed implicitly
+D'Andilly's advice; and the result was what the latter had foreseen.</p>
+
+<p>But now the thing was to get at the king; and this was the
+most
+difficult part of all to accomplish, since he believed that Brusson
+alone was the formidable assassin who for so long a time had held all
+Paris enthralled by fear and anxiety, and accordingly he had conceived
+such an abhorrence of him that he burst into a violent fit of passion
+at the slightest allusion to the notorious trial. De Maintenon,
+faithful to her principle of never speaking to the king on any subject
+that was disagreeable, refused to take any steps in the affair; and so
+Brusson's fate rested entirely in De Scudéri's hands. After long
+deliberation she formed a resolution which she carried into execution
+as promptly as she had conceived it. Putting on a robe of heavy black,
+silk, and hanging Cardillac's valuable necklace round her neck, and
+clasping the bracelets on her arms, and throwing a black veil over her
+head, she presented herself in De Maintenon's salons at a time when she
+knew the king would be present there. This stately robe invested the
+venerable lady's noble figure with such majesty as could not fail to
+inspire respect, even in the mob of idle loungers who were wont to
+collect in anterooms, laughing and jesting in frivolous and irreverent
+fashion. They all shyly made way for her; and when she entered the
+salon the king himself in his astonishment rose and came to meet her.
+As his eyes fell upon the glitter of the costly diamonds in the
+necklace and bracelets, he cried, &quot;'Pon my soul, that's Cardillac's
+jewellery!&quot; Then, turning to De Maintenon, he added with an arch smile,
+&quot;See, Marchioness, how our fair bride mourns for her bridegroom.&quot; &quot;Oh!
+your Majesty,&quot; broke in De Scudéri, taking up the jest and carrying it
+on, &quot;would it indeed beseem a deeply sorrowful bride to adorn herself
+in this splendid fashion? No, I have quite broken off with that
+goldsmith, and should never think about him more, were it not that the
+horrid recollection of him being carried past me after he had been
+murdered so often recurs to my mind.&quot; &quot;What do you say?&quot; asked the
+king. &quot;What! you saw the poor devil?&quot; De Scudéri now related in a few
+words how she chanced to be near Cardillac's house just as the murder
+was discovered--as yet she did not allude to Brusson's being mixed up
+in the matter. She sketched Madelon's excessive grief, told what a deep
+impression the angelic child made upon her, and described in what way
+she had rescued the poor girl out of Desgrais' hands, amid the
+approving shouts of the people. Then came the scenes with La Regnie,
+with Desgrais, with Brusson--the interest deepening and intensifying
+from moment to moment. The king was so carried away by the
+extraordinary graphic power and burning eloquence of Mademoiselle's
+narration that he did not perceive she was talking about the hateful
+trial of the abominable wretch Brusson; he was quite unable to utter a
+word; all he could do was to let off the excess of his emotion by an
+exclamation from time to time. Ere he knew where he was--he was so
+utterly confused by this unprecedented tale which he had heard that he
+was unable to order his thoughts--De Scudéri was prostrate at his feet,
+imploring pardon for Olivier Brusson. &quot;What are you doing?&quot; burst out
+the king, taking her by both hands and forcing her into a chair. &quot;What
+do you mean, Mademoiselle? This is a strange way to surprise me. Oh!
+it's a terrible story. Who will guarantee me that Brusson's marvellous
+tale is true?&quot; Whereupon De Scudéri replied, &quot;Miossens' evidence--an
+examination of Cardillac's house--my heart-felt conviction--and oh!
+Madelon's virtuous heart, which recognised the like virtue in unhappy
+Brusson's.&quot; Just as the king was on the point of making some reply he
+was interrupted by a noise at the door, and turned round. Louvois, who
+during this time was working in the adjoining apartment, looked in with
+an expression of anxiety stamped upon his features. The king rose and
+left the room, following Louvois.</p>
+
+<p>The two ladies, both De Scudéri and De Maintenon, regarded
+this
+interruption as dangerous, for having been once surprised the king
+would be on his guard against falling a second time into the trap set
+for him. Nevertheless after a lapse of some minutes the king came back
+again; after traversing the room once or twice at a quick pace, he
+planted himself immediately in front of De Scudéri and, throwing his
+arms behind his back, said in almost an undertone, yet without looking
+at her, &quot;I should very much like to see your Madelon.&quot; Mademoiselle
+replied, &quot;Oh! my precious liege! what a great--great happiness your
+condescension will confer upon the poor unhappy child. Oh! the little
+girl only waits a sign from you to approach, to throw herself at your
+feet.&quot; Then she tripped towards the door as quickly as she was able in
+her heavy clothing, and called out on the outside of it that the king
+would admit Madelon Cardillac; and she came back into the room weeping
+and sobbing with overpowering delight and gladness.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri had foreseen that some such favour as this might be
+granted
+and so had brought Madelon along with her, and she was waiting with the
+Marchioness' lady-in-waiting with a short petition in her hands that
+had been drawn up by D'Andilly. After a few minutes she lay prostrate
+at the king's feet, unable to speak a word. The throbbing blood was
+driven quicker and faster through the poor girl's veins owing to
+anxiety, nervous confusion, shy reverence, love, and anguish. Her
+cheeks were died with a deep purple blush; her eyes shone with bright
+pearly tears, which from time to time fell through her silken eyelashes
+upon her beautiful lily-white bosom. The king appeared to be struck
+with the surprising beauty of the angelic creature. He softly raised
+her up, making a motion as if about to kiss the hand which he had
+grasped. But he let it go again and regarded the lovely girl with tears
+in his eyes, thus betraying how great was the emotion stirring within
+him. De Maintenon softly whispered to Mademoiselle, &quot;Isn't she exactly
+like La Vallière,<sup><a name="div2_scudéri21" href="#div2Ref_scudéri21">21</a></sup> the little thing? There's hardly a pin's
+difference between them. The king luxuriates in the most pleasing
+memories. Your cause is won.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the low tone in which De Maintenon spoke, the
+king
+appeared to have heard what she said. A fleeting blush passed across
+his face; his eye wandered past De Maintenon; he read the petition
+which Madelon had presented to him, and then said mildly and kindly, &quot;I
+am quite ready to believe, my dear child, that you are convinced of
+your lover's innocence; but let us hear what the <i>Chambre Ardente</i> has
+got to say to it.&quot; With a gentle wave of the hand he dismissed the
+young girl, who was weeping as if her heart would break.</p>
+
+<p>To her dismay De Scudéri observed that the recollection of La
+Vallière,
+however beneficial it had appeared to be at first, had occasioned the
+king to alter his mind as soon as De Maintenon mentioned her name.
+Perhaps the king felt he was being reminded in a too indelicate way of
+how he was about to sacrifice strict justice to beauty, or perhaps he
+was like the dreamer, when, on somebody's shouting to him, the lovely
+dream-images which he was about to clasp, quickly vanish away. Perhaps
+he no longer saw <i>his</i> La Vallière before his eyes, but only thought of
+S&#339;ur Louise de la Misèricorde (Louise the Sister of Mercy),--the
+name La Vallière had assumed on joining the Carmelite nuns--who worried
+him with her pious airs and repentance. What else could they now do but
+calmly wait for the king's decision?</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Count Miossens' deposition before the <i>Chambre
+Ardente</i> had
+become publicly known; and as it frequently happens that the people
+rush so readily from one extreme to another, so on this occasion he
+whom they had at first cursed as a most abominable murderer and had
+threatened to tear to pieces, they now pitied, even before he ascended
+the scaffold, as the innocent victim of barbarous justice. Now his
+neighbours first began to call to mind his exemplary walk of life, his
+great love for Madelon, and the faithfulness and touching submissive
+affection which he had cherished for the old goldsmith. Considerable
+bodies of the populace began to appear in a threatening manner before
+La Regnie's palace and to cry out, &quot;Give us Olivier Brusson; he is
+innocent;&quot; and they even stoned the windows, so that La Regnie was
+obliged to seek shelter from the enraged mob with the <i>Maréchaussée</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Several days passed, and Mademoiselle heard not the least
+intelligence
+about Olivier Brusson's trial. She was quite inconsolable and went off
+to Madame de Maintenon; but she assured her that the king maintained a
+strict silence about the matter, and it would not be advisable to
+remind him of it. Then when she went on to ask with a smile of singular
+import how little La Vallière was doing, De Scudéri was convinced that
+deep down in the heart of the proud lady there lurked some feeling of
+vexation at this business, which might entice the susceptible king into
+a region whose charm she could not understand. Mademoiselle need
+therefore hope for nothing from De Maintenon.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, with D'Andilly's help, De Scudéri succeeded
+in
+finding out that the king had had a long and private interview with
+Count Miossens. Further, she learned that Bontems, the king's most
+confidential valet and general agent, had been to the Conciergerie and
+had an interview with Brusson, also that the same Bontems had one night
+gone with several men to Cardillac's house, and there spent a
+considerable time. Claude Patru, the man who inhabited the lower
+storey, maintained that they were knocking about overhead all night
+long, and he was sure that Olivier had been with them, for he
+distinctly heard his voice. This much was, therefore, at any rate
+certain, that the king himself was having the true history of the
+circumstances inquired into; but the long delay before he gave his
+decision was inexplicable. La Regnie would no doubt do all he possibly
+could to keep his grip upon the victim who was to be taken out of his
+clutches. And this annihilated every hope as soon as it began to bud.</p>
+
+<p>A month had nearly passed when De Maintenon sent word to
+Mademoiselle
+that the king wished to see her that evening in her salons.</p>
+
+<p>De Scudéri's heart beat high; she knew that Brusson's case
+would now be
+decided. She told poor Madelon so, who prayed fervently to the Virgin
+and the saints that they would awaken in the king's mind a conviction
+of Brusson's innocence.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it appeared as though the king had completely forgotten
+the matter,
+for in his usual way he dallied in graceful conversation with the two
+ladies, and never once made any allusion to poor Brusson. At last
+Bontems appeared, and approaching the king whispered certain words in
+his ear, but in so low a tone that neither De Maintenon nor De Scudéri
+could make anything out of them. Mademoiselle's heart quaked. Then the
+king rose to his feet and approached her, saying with brimming eyes, &quot;I
+congratulate you, Mademoiselle. Your <i>protégé</i> Olivier Brusson, is
+free.&quot; The tears gushed from the old lady's eyes; unable to speak a
+word, she was about to throw herself at the king's feet. But he
+prevented her, saying, &quot;Go, go, Mademoiselle. You ought to be my
+advocate in Parliament and plead my causes, for, by St. Denis, there's
+nobody on earth could withstand your eloquence; and yet,&quot; he continued,
+&quot;and yet when Virtue herself has taken a man under her own protection,
+is he not safe from all base accusations, from the <i>Chambre Ardente</i>
+and all other tribunals in the world?&quot; De Scudéri now found words and
+poured them out in a stream of glowing thanks. The king interrupted
+her, by informing her that she herself would find awaiting her in her
+own house still warmer thanks than he had a right to claim from her,
+for probably at that moment the happy Olivier was clasping his Madelon
+in his arms. &quot;Bontems shall pay you a thousand <i>Louis d'or</i>,&quot; concluded
+the king. &quot;Give them in my name to the little girl as a dowry. Let her
+marry her Brusson, who doesn't deserve such good fortune, and then let
+them both be gone out of Paris, for such is my will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>La Martinière came running forward to meet her mistress, and
+Baptiste
+behind her; the faces of both were radiant with joy; both cried
+delighted, &quot;He is here! he is free! O the dear young people!&quot; The happy
+couple threw themselves at Mademoiselle's feet. &quot;Oh! I knew it! I knew
+it!&quot; cried Madelon. &quot;I knew that you, that nobody but you, would save
+my darling Olivier.&quot; &quot;And O my mother,&quot; cried Olivier, &quot;my belief in
+you never wavered.&quot; They both kissed the honoured lady's hands, and
+shed innumerable tears. Then they embraced each other again and again,
+affirming that the exquisite happiness of that moment outweighed all
+the unutterable sufferings of the days that were past; and they vowed
+never to part from each other till Death himself came to part them.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later they were united by the blessing of the
+priest. Even
+though it had not been the King's wish, Brusson would not have stayed
+in Paris, where everything would have reminded him of the fearful time
+of Cardillac's crimes, and where, moreover, some accident might reveal
+in pernicious wise his dark secret, now become known to several
+persons, and so his peace of mind might be ruined for ever. Almost
+immediately after the wedding he set out with his young wife for
+Geneva, Mademoiselle's blessings accompanying them on the way. Richly
+provided with means through Madelon's dowry, and endowed with uncommon
+skill at his trade, as well as with every virtue of a good citizen, he
+led there a happy life, free from care. He realised the hopes which had
+deceived his father and had brought him at last to his grave.</p>
+
+<p>A year after Brusson's departure there appeared a public
+proclamation,
+signed by Harloy de Chauvalon, Archbishop of Paris, and by the
+parliamentary advocate, Pierre Arnaud d'Andilly, which ran to the
+effect that a penitent sinner had, under the seal of confession, handed
+over to the Church a large and valuable store of jewels and gold
+ornaments which he had stolen. Everybody who up to the end of the year
+1680 had lost ornaments by theft, particularly by a murderous attack in
+the public street, was to apply to D'Andilly, and then, if his
+description of the ornament which had been stolen from him tallied
+exactly with any of the pieces awaiting identification, and if further
+there existed no doubt as to the legitimacy of his claim, he should
+receive his property again. Many of those whose names stood on
+Cardillac's list as having been, not murdered, but merely stunned by a
+blow, gradually came one after the other to the parliamentary advocate,
+and received, to their no little amazement, their stolen property back
+again. The rest fell to the coffers of the Church of St. Eustace.</p>
+
+<p class="continue">FOOTNOTES TO &quot;MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI&quot;:</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri1" href="#div2_scudéri1">1</a></sup> Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701), a native of
+Normandy, went to Paris and became connected with the Hotel Rambouillet.
+Afterwards, on its being broken up by the troubles of the Fronde, she
+formed a literary circle of her own, their &quot;Saturday gatherings&quot;
+becoming celebrated. Mademoiselle de Scudéry wrote some vapid and
+tedious novels, amongst which were the <i>Clélie</i> (1656), an historical
+romance, to be mentioned presently in the text.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri2" href="#div2_scudéri2">2</a></sup> The well-known wife of Scarron, then the
+successor of Madame de Montespan in the favour of Louis XIV., and afterwards his
+wife.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri3" href="#div2_scudéri3">3</a></sup> A kind of mounted gensdarmes or police.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri4" href="#div2_scudéri4">4</a></sup> Supposed to have been arsenic.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri5" href="#div2_scudéri5">5</a></sup> These facts are all for the most part
+historically true.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri6" href="#div2_scudéri6">6</a></sup> Marie M. d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, a
+notorious poisoner, executed July 16, 1676. Madame de Sévigné's <i>Lettres</i> contain
+interesting information on the events of this period. A special history
+of De Brinvillier's trial was also published in the same year, 1676.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri7" href="#div2_scudéri7">7</a></sup> An old servant of Sainte Croix's, whose real name
+was Jean Amelin.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri8" href="#div2_scudéri8">8</a></sup> Nicholas G. de la Reynie was born at Limoges in
+1625; he acquired a sort of Judge Jeffreys' reputation by his cruelties and
+bloodthirstiness as president of the <i>Chambre Ardente</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri9" href="#div2_scudéri9">9</a></sup> These two ladies, Marie and Olympe Mancini, were
+sisters, nieces of Mazarin. The latter was promoted to be head of the Queen's
+household, and thus provoked the hatred of Madame de Montespan (the
+King's mistress) and Louvois, through whose machinations she was
+accused before the <i>Chambre Ardente</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri10" href="#div2_scudéri10">10</a></sup> François Henry de Montmorency, Duke of
+Luxembourg, was known until 1661 by the name of Bouteville. His name stands high on the
+roll of distinguished French Marshals.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri11" href="#div2_scudéri11">11</a></sup> François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois
+(1639-91), Louis XIV.'s minister at this time.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri12" href="#div2_scudéri12">12</a></sup> Her real answer was, &quot;Je le vois en ce moment;
+il est fort laid et fort vilain; il est déguisé en conseiller d'état.&quot; (I see
+him at this moment; he is very ugly and very hideous; he is disguised
+as a state councillor.)]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri13" href="#div2_scudéri13">13</a></sup> The Marquis de la Fare had liaisons, first with
+Madame de Rochefort, with Louvois for rival, and afterwards with Madame de la
+Sablière.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri14" href="#div2_scudéri14">14</a></sup> This incident is not an invention of the
+author's. He states that he got it from Wagenseil's <i>Chronik von Nürnberg</i> (1697),
+the said Wagenseilius having been to Paris and paid a visit to
+Mademoiselle de Scudéry herself. The answer this lady gave the king is
+also historically true, according to Hoffmann, and it was spoken under
+circumstances almost exactly like those represented in the text.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri15" href="#div2_scudéri15">15</a></sup> <a name="div2_gambler3a" href="#div2Ref_gambler3a">The old <i>Louis d'Or</i> of Louis XIV. = about
+£1, 0s. 3d.</a> (Cf. A <i>Frederick d'or</i> was a gold coin
+worth five thalers.--Note, p. 281, vol. I.)]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri16" href="#div2_scudéri16">16</a></sup> One of Louis XIV.'s former mistresses--Marie de
+Roussille, Duchess de Fontanges (1661-1681)--is described as being of
+great beauty, but deficient in intellectual grace and charm of manner,
+and as being arrogant and cold-hearted.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri17" href="#div2_scudéri17">17</a></sup> Jean de la Chapelle (1655-1723) attempted to
+fill the gap left in the dramatic world by Racine's retirement from play-writing,
+though,--it is said, with but indifferent success.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri18" href="#div2_scudéri18">18</a></sup> It was constructed after plans by this Claude
+Perrault in 1666-1670.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri19" href="#div2_scudéri19">19</a></sup> The well-known pleasure castle erected by Louis
+XIV. at Versailles for De Maintenon.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri20" href="#div2_scudéri20">20</a></sup> Daughter of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria of
+France; she died 29th June, 1670, believing herself to have been poisoned; and this
+was currently accepted in France, though now rejected by historians as
+incorrect.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_scudéri21" href="#div2_scudéri21">21</a></sup> Françoise Louise, Duchess de La Vallière, a
+former mistress of Louis XIV. On being supplanted in the monarch's favour by
+Madame de Montespan, she entered the order of Carmelite nuns.</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><i><a name="div1_gambler" href="#div1Ref_gambler">GAMBLER'S LUCK</a>.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="continue">Pyrmont had a larger concourse of visitors than ever in the
+summer of
+18--. The number of rich and illustrious strangers increased from day
+to day, greatly exciting the zeal of speculators of all kinds. Hence it
+was also that the owners of the faro-bank took care to pile up their
+glittering gold in bigger heaps, in order that this, the bait of the
+noblest game, which they, like good skilled hunters, knew how to decoy,
+might preserve its efficacy.</p>
+
+<p>Who does not know how fascinating an excitement gambling is,
+particularly at watering-places, during the season, where every
+visitor, having laid aside his ordinary habits and course of life,
+deliberately gives himself up to leisure and ease and exhilarating
+enjoyment? then gambling becomes an irresistible attraction. People who
+at other times never touch a card are to be seen amongst the most eager
+players; and besides, it is the fashion, especially in higher circles,
+for every one to visit the bank in the evening and lose a little money
+at play.</p>
+
+<p>The only person who appeared not to heed this irresistible
+attraction,
+and this injunction of fashion, was a young German Baron, whom we will
+call Siegfried. When everybody else hurried off to the play-house, and
+he was deprived of all means and all prospect of the intellectual
+conversation he loved, he preferred either to give reins to the flights
+of his fancy in solitary walks or to stay in his own room and take up a
+book, or even indulge in poetic attempts, in writing, himself.</p>
+
+<p>As Siegfried was young, independent, rich, of noble appearance
+and
+pleasing disposition, it could not fail but that he was highly esteemed
+and loved, and that he had the most decisive good-fortune with the fair
+sex. And in everything that he took up or turned his attention to,
+there seemed to be a singularly lucky star presiding over his actions.
+Rumour spoke of many extraordinary love-intrigues which had been forced
+upon him, and out of which, however ruinous they would in all
+likelihood have been for many other young men, he escaped with
+incredible ease and success. But whenever the conversation turned upon
+him and his good fortune, the old gentlemen of his acquaintance were
+especially fond of relating a story about a watch, which had happened
+in the days of his early youth. For it chanced once that Siegfried,
+while still under his guardian's care, had quite unexpectedly found
+himself so straitened for money on a journey that he was absolutely
+obliged to sell his gold watch, which was set with brilliants, merely
+in order to get on his way. He had made up his mind that he would have
+to throw away his valuable watch for an old song; but as there happened
+to be in the hotel where he had put up at a young prince who was just
+in want of such an ornament, the Baron actually received for it more
+than it was really worth. More than a year passed and Siegfried had
+become his own master, when he read in the newspapers in another place
+that a watch was to be made the subject of a lottery. He took a ticket,
+which cost a mere trifle, and won--the same gold watch set with
+brilliants which he had sold. Not long afterwards he exchanged this
+watch for a valuable ring. He held office for a short time under the
+Prince of G----, and when he retired from his post the Prince presented
+to him as a mark of his good-will the very identical gold watch set
+with brilliants as before, together with a costly chain.</p>
+
+<p>From this story they passed to Siegfried's obstinacy in never
+on any
+account touching a card; why, with his strongly pronounced good-luck he
+had all the more inducement to play; and they were unanimous in coming
+to the conclusion that the Baron, notwithstanding all his other
+conspicuous good qualities, was a miserly fellow, far too careful and
+far too stingy to expose himself to the smallest possible loss. That
+the Baron's conduct was in every particular the direct contrary of that
+of an avaricious man had no weight with them; and as is so often the
+case, when the majority have set their hearts upon tagging a
+questioning 'but' on to the good name of a talented man, and are
+determined to find this 'but' at any cost, even though it should be in
+their own imagination, so in the present case the sneering allusion to
+Siegfried's aversion to play afforded them infinite satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Siegfried was not long in learning what was being said about
+him; and
+since, generous and liberal as he was, there was nothing he hated and
+detested more than miserliness, he made up his mind to put his
+traducers to shame by ransoming himself from this foul aspersion at the
+cost of a couple of hundred <i>Louis d'or</i>, or even more if need be,
+however much disgusted he might feel at gambling. He presented himself
+at the faro-bank with the deliberate intention of losing the large sum
+which he had put in his pocket; but in play also the good luck which
+stood by him in everything he undertook did not prove unfaithful. Every
+card he chose won. The cabalistic calculations of seasoned old players
+were shivered to atoms against the Baron's play. No matter whether he
+changed his cards or continued to stake on<sup><a name="div2_gambler1" href="#div2Ref_gambler1">1</a></sup> the same one, it was all
+the same: he was always a winner. In the Baron they had the singular
+spectacle of a punter at variance with himself because the cards fell
+favourable for him; and notwithstanding that the explanation of his
+behaviour was pretty patent, yet people looked at each other
+significantly and gave utterance in no ambiguous terms to the opinion
+that the Baron, carried along by his penchant for the marvellous, might
+eventually become insane, for any player who could be dismayed at his
+run of luck must surely be insane.</p>
+
+<p>The very fact of having won a considerable sum of money made
+it
+obligatory upon the Baron to go on playing until he should have carried
+out his original purpose; for in all probability his large win would be
+followed by a still larger loss. But people's expectations were not in
+the remotest degree realised, for the Baron's striking good-luck
+continued to attend him.</p>
+
+<p>Without his being conscious of it, there began to be awakened
+in his
+mind a strong liking for faro, which with all its simplicity is the
+most ominous of games; and this liking continued to increase more and
+more. He was no longer dissatisfied with his good-luck; gambling
+fettered his attention and held him fast to the table for nights and
+nights, so that he was perforce compelled to give credence to the
+peculiar attraction of the game, of which his friends had formerly
+spoken and which he would by no means allow to be correct, for he was
+attracted to faro not by the thirst for gain, but simply and solely by
+the game itself.</p>
+
+<p>One night, just as the banker had finished a <i>taille</i>, the
+Baron
+happened to raise his eyes and observed that an elderly man had taken
+post directly opposite to him and had got his eyes fixed upon him in a
+set, sad, earnest gaze. And as long as play lasted, every time the
+Baron looked up, his eyes met the stranger's dark sad stare, until at
+last he could not help being struck with a very uncomfortable and
+oppressive feeling. And the stranger only left the apartment when play
+came to an end for the night. The following night he again stood
+opposite the Baron, staring at him with unaverted gaze, whilst his eyes
+had a dark mysterious spectral look. The Baron still kept his temper.
+But when on the third night the stranger appeared again and fixed his
+eyes, burning with a consuming fire, upon the Baron, the latter burst
+out, &quot;Sir, I must beg you to choose some other place. You exercise a
+constraining influence upon my play.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a painful smile the stranger bowed and left the table,
+and the
+hall too, without uttering a word.</p>
+
+<p>But on the next night the stranger again stood opposite the
+Baron,
+piercing him through and through with his dark fiery glance. Then the
+Baron burst out still more angrily than on the preceding night, &quot;If you
+think it a joke, sir, to stare at me, pray choose some other time and
+some other place to do so; and now have the&quot;---- A wave of the hand
+towards the door took the place of the harsh words the Baron was about
+to utter. And as on the previous night, the stranger, after bowing
+slightly, left the hall with the same painful smile upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Siegfried was so excited and heated by play, by the wine which
+he had
+taken, and also by the scene with the stranger, that he could not
+sleep. Morning was already breaking, when the stranger's figure
+appeared before his eyes. He observed his striking, sharp-cut features,
+worn with suffering, and his sad deep-set eyes just as he had stared at
+him; and he noticed his distinguished bearing, which, in spite of his
+mean clothing, betrayed a man of high culture. And then the air of
+painful resignation with which the stranger submitted to the harsh
+words flung at him, and fought down his bitter feelings with an effort,
+and left the hall! &quot;No,&quot; cried Siegfried, &quot;I did him wrong--great
+wrong. Is it indeed at all like me to blaze up in this rude, ill-
+mannered way, like an uncultivated clown, and to offer insults to
+people without the least provocation?&quot; The Baron at last arrived at the
+conviction that it must have been a most oppressive feeling of the
+sharp contrast between them which had made the man stare at him so;
+in the moment that he was perhaps contending with the bitterest poverty,
+he (the Baron) was piling up heaps and heaps of gold with all the
+superciliousness of the gambler. He resolved to find out the stranger
+that very morning and atone to him for his rudeness.</p>
+
+<p>And as chance would have it, the very first person whom the
+Baron saw
+strolling down the avenue was the stranger himself.</p>
+
+<p>The Baron addressed him, offered the most profuse apologies
+for his
+behaviour of the night before, and in conclusion begged the stranger's
+pardon in all due form. The stranger replied that he had nothing to
+pardon, since large allowances must be made for a player deeply intent
+over his game, and besides, he had only himself to blame for the harsh
+words he had provoked, since he had obstinately persisted in remaining
+in the place where he disturbed the Baron's play.</p>
+
+<p>The Baron went further; he said there were often seasons of
+momentary
+embarrassment in life which weighed with a most galling effect upon a
+man of refinement, and he plainly hinted to the stranger that he was
+willing to give the money he had won, or even more still, if by that
+means he could perhaps be of any assistance to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir,&quot; replied the stranger, &quot;you think I am in want, but that
+is not
+indeed the case; for though poor rather than rich, I yet have enough to
+satisfy my simple wants. Moreover, you will yourself perceive that as a
+man of honour I could not possibly accept a large sum of money from you
+as indemnification for the insult you conceive you have offered me,
+even though I were not a gentleman of birth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I understand you,&quot; replied the Baron starting; &quot;I am
+ready to
+grant you the satisfaction you demand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good God!&quot; continued the stranger--&quot;Good God, how unequal a
+contest it
+would be between us two! I am certain that you think as I do about a
+duel, that it is not to be treated as a piece of childish folly; nor do
+you believe that a few drops of blood, which have perhaps fallen from a
+scratched finger, can ever wash tarnished honour bright again. There
+are many cases in which it is impossible for two particular individuals
+to continue to exist together on this earth, even though the one live
+in the Caucasus and the other on the Tiber; no separation is possible
+so long as the hated foe can be thought of as still alive. In this case
+a duel to decide which of the two is to give way to the other on this
+earth is a necessity. Between us now, as I have just said, a duel would
+be fought upon unequal terms, since nohow can my life be valued so
+highly as yours. If I run you through, I destroy a whole world of the
+finest hopes; and if I fall, then you have put an end to a miserable
+existence, that is harrowed by the bitterest and most agonising
+memories. But after all--and this is of course the main thing--I don't
+conceive myself to have been in the remotest degree insulted. You bade
+me go, and I went.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These last words the stranger spoke in a tone which
+nevertheless
+betrayed the sting in his heart. This was enough for the Baron to again
+apologise, which he did by especially dwelling upon the fact that the
+stranger's glance had, he did not know why, gone straight to his heart,
+till at last he could endure it no longer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope then,&quot; said the stranger, &quot;that if my glance did
+really
+penetrate to your heart, it aroused you to a sense of the threatening
+danger on the brink of which you are hovering. With a light glad heart
+and youthful ingenuousness you are standing on the edge of the abyss of
+ruin; one single push and you will plunge headlong down without a hope
+of rescue. In a single word, you are on the point of becoming a
+confirmed and passionate gambler and ruining yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Baron assured him that he was completely mistaken. He
+related the
+circumstances under which he had first gone to the faro-table, and
+assured him that he entirely lacked the gambler's characteristic
+disposition; all he wished was to lose two hundred <i>Louis d'or</i> or so,
+and when he had succeeded in this he intended to cease punting. Up to
+that time, however, he had had the most conspicuous run of good-luck.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! but,&quot; cried the stranger, &quot;oh! but it is exactly this run
+of good-
+luck wherein lies the subtlest and most formidable temptation of the
+malignant enemy. It is this run of good-luck which attends your play,
+Baron,--the circumstances under which you have begun to play,--nay,
+your entire behaviour whilst actually engaged in play, which only too
+plainly betray how your interest in it deepens and increases on each
+occasion; all--all this reminds me only too forcibly of the awful fate
+of a certain unhappy man, who, in many respects like you, began to play
+under circumstances similar to those which you have described in your
+own case. And therefore it was that I could not keep my eyes off you,
+and that I was hardly able to restrain myself from saying in words what
+my glances were meant to tell you. 'Oh! see--see--see the demons
+stretching out their talons to drag you down into the pit of ruin.'
+Thus I should like to have called to you. I was desirous of making your
+acquaintance; and I have succeeded. Let me tell you the history of the
+unfortunate man whom I mentioned; you will then perhaps be convinced
+that it is no idle phantom of the brain when I see you in the most
+imminent danger, and warn you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger and the Baron both sat down upon a seat which
+stood quite
+isolated, and then the stranger began as follows:--</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same brilliant qualities which distinguish you, Herr
+Baron, gained
+Chevalier Menars the esteem and admiration of men and made him a
+favourite amongst women. In riches alone Fortune had not been so
+gracious to him as she has been to you; he was almost in want; and it
+was only through exercising the strictest economy that he was enabled
+to appear in a state becoming his position as the scion of a
+distinguished family. Since even the smallest loss would be serious for
+him and upset the entire tenor of his course of life, he dare not
+indulge in play; besides, he had no inclination to do so, and it was
+therefore no act of self-sacrifice on his part to avoid the tables. It
+is to be added that he had the most remarkable success in everything
+which he took in hand, so that Chevalier Menars' good-luck became a
+by-word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One night he suffered himself to be persuaded, contrary to
+his
+practice, to visit a play-house. The friends whom he had accompanied
+were soon deeply engaged in play.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without taking any interest in what was going forward, the
+Chevalier,
+busied with thoughts of quite a different character, first strode up
+and down the apartment and then stood with his eyes fixed upon the
+gaming-table, where the gold continued to pour in upon the banker from
+all sides. All at once an old colonel observed the Chevalier, and cried
+out, 'The devil! Here we've got Chevalier Menars and his good-luck
+amongst us, and yet we can win nothing, since he has declared neither
+for the banker nor for the punters. But we can't have it so any longer;
+he shall at once punt for me.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All the Baron's attempts to excuse himself on the ground of
+his lack
+of skill and total want of experience were of no avail; the Colonel was
+not to be denied; the Chevalier must take his place at the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier had exactly the same run of fortune that you
+have, Herr
+Baron. The cards fell favourable for him, and he had soon won a
+considerable sum for the Colonel, whose joy at his grand thought of
+claiming the loan of Chevalier Menars' steadfast good-luck knew no
+bounds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This good-luck, which quite astonished all the rest of those
+present,
+made not the slightest impression upon the Chevalier; nay, somehow, in
+a way inexplicable to himself, his aversion to play took deeper root,
+so that on the following morning when he awoke and felt the
+consequences of his exertion during the night, through which he had
+been awake, in a general relaxation both mental and physical, he took a
+most earnest resolve never again under any circumstances to visit a
+play-house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in this resolution he was still further strengthened by
+the old
+Colonel's conduct; he had the most decided ill-luck with every card he
+took up; and the blame for this run of bad-luck he, with the most
+extraordinary infatuation, put upon the Chevalier's shoulders. In an
+importunate manner he demanded that the Chevalier should either punt
+for him or at any rate stand at his side, so as by his presence to
+banish the perverse demon who always put into his hands cards which
+never turned up right. Of course it is well known that there is more
+absurd superstition to be found amongst gamblers than almost anywhere
+else. The only way in which the Chevalier could get rid of the Colonel
+was by declaring in a tone of great seriousness that he would rather
+fight him than play for him, for the Colonel was no great friend of
+duels. The Chevalier cursed his good-nature in having complied with the
+old fool's request at first.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now nothing less was to be expected than that the story of
+the Baron's
+marvellously lucky play should pass from mouth to mouth, and also that
+all sorts of enigmatical mysterious circumstances should be invented
+and added on to it, representing the Chevalier as a man in league with
+supernatural powers. But the fact that the Chevalier in spite of his
+good-luck did not touch another card, could not fail to inspire the
+highest respect for his firmness of character, and so very much
+increase the esteem which he already enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Somewhere about a year later the Chevalier was suddenly
+placed in a
+most painful and embarrassing position owing to the non-arrival of the
+small sum of money upon which he relied to defray his current expenses.
+He was obliged to disclose his circumstances to his most intimate
+friend, who without hesitation supplied him with what he needed, at the
+same time twitting him with being the most hopelessly eccentric fellow
+that ever was. 'Destiny,' said he 'gives us hints in what way and where
+we ought to seek our own benefit; and we have only our own indolence to
+blame if we do not heed, do not understand these hints. The Higher
+Power that rules over us has whispered quite plainly in your ears, If
+you want money and property go and play, else you will be poor and
+needy, and never independent, as long as you live.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now for the first time the thought of how wonderfully
+fortune had
+favoured him at the faro-bank took clear and distinct shape in his
+mind; and both in his dreams and when awake he heard the banker's
+monotonous <i>gagne</i>, <i>perd</i>,<sup><a name="div2_gambler2" href="#div2Ref_gambler2">2</a></sup> and the rattle of the gold pieces.
+'Yes, it is undoubtedly so,' he said to himself, 'a single night like that
+one before would free me from my difficulties, and help me over the
+painful embarrassment of being a burden to my friends; it is my duty to
+follow the beckoning finger of fate.' The friends who had advised him
+to try play, accompanied him to the play-house, and gave him twenty <i>Louis
+d'or</i><sup><a name="div2_gambler3" href="#div2Ref_gambler3">3</a></sup> more that he might begin unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the Chevalier's play had been splendid when he punted for
+the old
+Colonel, it was indeed doubly so now. Blindly and without choice he
+drew the cards he staked upon, but the invisible hand of that Higher
+Power which is intimately related to Chance, or rather actually is what
+we call Chance, seemed to be regulating his play. At the end of the
+evening he had won a thousand <i>Louis d'or</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Next morning he awoke with a kind of dazed feeling. The gold
+pieces he
+had won lay scattered about beside him on the table. At the first
+moment he fancied he was dreaming; he rubbed his eyes; he grasped the
+table and pulled it nearer towards him. But when he began to reflect
+upon what had happened, when he buried his fingers amongst the gold
+pieces, when he counted them with gratified satisfaction, and even
+counted them through again, then delight in the base mammon shot for
+the first time like a pernicious poisonous breath through his every
+nerve and fibre, then it was all over with the purity of sentiment
+which he had so long preserved intact. He could hardly wait for night
+to come that he might go to the faro-table again. His good-luck
+continued constant, so that after a few weeks, during which he played
+nearly every night, he had won a considerable sum.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now there are two sorts of players. Play simply as such
+affords to
+many an indescribable and mysterious pleasure, totally irrespective of
+gain. The strange complications of chance occur with the most
+surprising waywardness; the government of the Higher Power becomes
+conspicuously evident; and this it is which stirs up our spirit to move
+its wings and see if it cannot soar upwards into the mysterious
+kingdom, the fateful workshop of this Power, in order to surprise it at
+its labours.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I once knew a man who spent many days and nights alone in his
+room,
+keeping a bank and punting against himself; this man was, according to
+my way of thinking, a genuine player. Others have nothing but gain
+before their eyes, and look upon play as a means to getting rich
+speedily. This class the Chevalier joined, thus once more establishing
+the truth of the saying that the real deeper inclination for play must
+lie in the individual nature--must be born in it. And for this reason
+he soon found the sphere of activity to which the punter is confined
+too narrow. With the very large sum of money that he had won by
+gambling he established a bank of his own; and in this enterprise
+fortune favoured him to such an extent that within a short time his
+bank was the richest in all Paris. And agreeably to the nature of the
+case, the largest proportion of players flocked to him, the richest and
+luckiest banker.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The heartless, demoralising life of a gambler soon blotted
+out all
+those advantages, as well mental as physical, which had formerly
+secured to the Chevalier people's affection and esteem. He ceased to be
+a faithful friend, a cheerful, easy guest in society, a chivalrous and
+gallant admirer of the fair sex. Extinguished was all his taste for
+science and art, and gone all striving to advance along the road to
+sound knowledge. Upon his deathly pale countenance, and in his gloomy
+eyes, where a dim, restless fire gleamed, was to be read the full
+expression of the extremely baneful passion in whose toils he was
+entangled. It was not fondness for play, no, it was the most abominable
+avarice which had been enkindled in his soul by Satan himself. In a
+single word, he was the most finished specimen of a faro-banker that
+may be seen anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One night Fortune was less favourable to the Chevalier than
+usual,
+although he suffered no loss of any consequence. Then a little thin old
+man, meanly clad, and almost repulsive to look at, approached the
+table, drew a card with a trembling hand, and placed a gold piece upon
+it. Several of the players looked up at the old man at first greatly
+astonished, but after that they treated him with provoking contempt.
+Nevertheless his face never moved a muscle, far less did he utter a
+single word of complaint.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The old man lost; he lost one stake after another; but the
+higher his
+losses rose the more pleased the other players got. And at last, when
+the new-comer, who continued to double his stake every time, placed
+five hundred <i>Louis d'or</i> at once upon a card and this the very next
+moment turned up on the losing side, one of the other players cried
+with a laugh, 'Good-luck, Signor Vertua, good-luck! Don't lose heart.
+Go on staking; you look to me as if you would finish with breaking the
+bank through your immense winnings.' The old man shot a basilisk-like
+look upon the mocker and hurried away, but only to return at the end of
+half an hour with his pockets full of gold. In the last <i>taille</i> he
+was, however, obliged to cease playing, since he had again lost all the
+money he had brought back with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This scornful and contemptuous treatment of the old man had
+excessively annoyed the Chevalier, for in spite of all his abominable
+practices, he yet insisted on certain rules of good behaviour being
+observed at his table. And so on the conclusion of the game, when
+Signor Vertua had taken his departure, the Chevalier felt he had
+sufficient grounds to speak a serious word or two to the mocker, as
+well as to one or two other players whose contemptuous treatment of the
+old man had been most conspicuous, and whom the Chevalier had bidden
+stay behind for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Ah! but, Chevalier,' cried one of them, 'you don't know old
+Francesco
+Vertua, or else you would have no fault to find with us and our
+behaviour towards him; you would rather approve of it. For let me tell
+you that this Vertua, a Neapolitan by birth, who has been fifteen years
+in Paris, is the meanest, dirtiest, most pestilent miser and usurer who
+can be found anywhere. He is a stranger to every human feeling; if he
+saw his own brother writhing at his feet in the agonies of death, it
+would be an utter waste of pains to try to entice a single <i>Louis d'or</i>
+from him, even if it were to save his brother's life. He has a heavy
+burden of curses and imprecations to bear, which have been showered
+down upon him by a multitude of men, nay, by entire families, who have
+been plunged into the deepest distress through his diabolical
+speculations. He is hated like poison by all who know him; everybody
+wishes that vengeance may overtake him for all the evil that he has
+done, and that it may put an end to his career of iniquity. He has
+never played before, at least since he has been in Paris; and so from
+all this you need not wonder at our being so greatly astounded when the
+old skin-flint appeared at your table. And for the same reasons we
+were, of course, pleased at the old fellow's serious losses, for it
+would have been hard, very hard, if the old rascal had been favoured by
+Fortune. It is only too certain. Chevalier, that the old fool has been
+deluded by the riches of your bank. He came intending to pluck you and
+has lost his own feathers. But yet it completely puzzles me how Vertua
+could act thus in a way so opposite to the true character of a miser,
+and could bring himself to play so high. Ah! well--you'll see he will
+not come again; we are now quit of him.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this opinion proved to be far from correct, for on the
+very next
+night Vertua presented himself at the Chevalier's bank again, and
+staked and lost much more heavily than on the night preceding. But he
+preserved a calm demeanour through it all; he even smiled at times with
+a sort of bitter irony, as though foreseeing how soon things would be
+totally changed. But during each of the succeeding nights the old man's
+losses increased like a glacier at a greater and greater rate, till at
+last it was calculated that he had paid over thirty thousand <i>Louis
+d'or</i> to the bank. Finally he entered the hall one evening, long after
+play had begun, with a deathly pale face and troubled looks, and took
+up his post at some distance from the table, his eyes riveted in a set
+stare upon the cards which the Chevalier successively drew. At last,
+just as the Chevalier had shuffled the cards, had had them cut and was
+about to begin the <i>taille</i>, the old man cried in such a harsh grating
+voice, 'Stop!' that everybody looked round well-nigh dismayed. Then,
+forcing his way to the table close up to the Chevalier, he said in his
+ear, speaking in a hoarse voice, 'Chevalier, my house in the Rue St.
+Honoré, together with all the furniture and all the gold and silver and
+all the jewels I possess, are valued at eighty thousand francs, will
+you accept the stake?' 'Very good,' replied the Chevalier coldly,
+without looking round at the old man; and he began the <i>taille</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The queen,' said Vertua; and at the next draw the queen had
+lost. The
+old man reeled back from the table and leaned against the wall
+motionless and paralysed, like a rigid stone statue. Nobody troubled
+himself any further about him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Play was over for the night; the players were dispersing; the
+Chevalier and his croupiers<sup><a name="div2_gambler4" href="#div2Ref_gambler4">4</a></sup> were packing away in the strong box the
+gold he had won. Then old Vertua staggered like a ghost out of the
+corner towards the Chevalier and addressed him in a hoarse, hollow
+voice, 'Yet a word with you, Chevalier,--only a single word.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Well, what is it?' replied the Chevalier, withdrawing the
+key from
+the lock of the strong box and measuring the old man from head to foot
+with a look of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I have lost all my property at your bank, Chevalier,' went
+on the old
+man; 'I have nothing, nothing left I don't know where I shall lay my
+head tomorrow, nor how I shall appease my hunger. You are my last
+resource, Chevalier; lend me the tenth part of the sum I have lost to
+you that I may begin my business over again, and so work my way up out
+of the distressed state I now am in.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Whatever are you thinking about,' rejoined the Chevalier,
+'whatever
+are you thinking about, Signor Vertua? Don't you know that a faro-
+banker never dare lend of his winnings? That's against the old rule,
+and I am not going to violate it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You are right,' went on Vertua again. 'You are right,
+Chevalier. My
+request was senseless--extravagant--the tenth part! No, lend me the
+twentieth part.' 'I tell you,' replied the Chevalier impatiently, 'that
+I won't lend a farthing of my winnings.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'True, true,' said Vertua, his face growing paler and paler
+and his
+gaze becoming more and more set and staring, 'true, you ought not to
+lend anything--I never used to do. But give some alms to a beggar--give
+him a hundred <i>Louis d'or</i> of the riches which blind Fortune has thrown
+in your hands to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Of a verity you know how to torment people, Signor Vertua,'
+burst out
+the Chevalier angrily. 'I tell you you won't get so much as a hundred,
+nor fifty, nor twenty, no, not so much as a single <i>Louis d'or</i> from
+me. I should be mad to make you even the smallest advance, so as to
+help you begin your shameful trade over again. Fate has stamped you in
+the dust like a poisonous reptile, and it would simply be villainy for
+me to aid you in recovering yourself. Go and perish as you deserve.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pressing both hands over his face, Vertua sank on the floor
+with a
+muffled groan. The Chevalier ordered his servant to take the strong-box
+down to his carriage, and then cried in a loud voice, 'When will you
+hand over to me your house and effects, Signor Vertua?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Vertua hastily picked himself up from the ground and said in
+a firm
+voice, 'Now, at once--this moment, Chevalier; come with me.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Good,' replied the Chevalier, 'you may ride with me as far
+as your
+house, which you shall leave tomorrow for good.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All the way neither of them spoke a single word, neither
+Vertua nor
+the Chevalier. Arrived in front of the house in the Rue St. Honoré,
+Vertua pulled the bell; an old woman opened the door, and on perceiving
+it was Vertua cried, 'Oh! good heavens, Signor Vertua, is that you at
+last? Angela is half dead with anxiety on your account.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Silence,' replied Vertua. 'God grant she has not heard this
+unlucky
+bell! She is not to know that I have come.' And therewith he took the
+lighted candle out of the old woman's hand, for she appeared to be
+quite stunned, and lighted the Chevalier up to his own room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I am prepared for the worst,' said Vertua. 'You hate, you
+despise me,
+Chevalier. You have ruined me, to your own and other people's joy; but
+you do not know me. Let me tell you then that I was once a gambler like
+you, that capricious Fortune was as favourable to me as she is to you,
+that I travelled through half Europe, stopping everywhere where high
+play and the hope of large gains enticed me, that the piles of gold
+continually increased in my bank as they do in yours. I had a true and
+beautiful wife, whom I neglected, and she was miserable in the midst of
+all her magnificence and wealth. It happened once, when I had set up my
+bank in Genoa, that a young Roman lost all his rich patrimony at my
+bank. He besought me to lend him money, as I did you to-day, sufficient
+at least to enable him to travel back to Rome. I refused with a laugh
+of mocking scorn, and in the insane fury of despair he thrust the
+stiletto which he wore right into my breast. At great pains the
+surgeons succeeded in saving me; but it was a wearying painful time
+whilst I lay on the bed of sickness. Then my wife tended me, comforted
+me, and kept up my courage when I was ready to sink under my
+sufferings; and as I grew towards recovery a feeling began to glimmer
+within me which I had never experienced before, and it waxed ever
+stronger and stronger. A gambler becomes an alien to all human emotion,
+and hence I had not known what was the meaning of a wife's love and
+faithful attachment. The debt of what I owed my wife burned itself into
+my ungrateful heart, and also the sense of the villainous conduct to
+which I had sacrificed her. All those whose life's happiness, whose
+entire existence, I had ruined with heartless indifference were like
+tormenting spirits of vengeance, and I heard their hoarse hollow voices
+echoing from the grave, upbraiding me with all the guilt and
+criminality, the seed of which I had planted in their bosoms. It was
+only my wife who was able to drive away the unutterable distress and
+horror that then came upon me. I made a vow never to touch a card more.
+I lived in retirement; I rent asunder all the ties which held me fast
+to my former mode of life; I withstood the enticements of my croupiers,
+when they came and said they could not do without me and my good-luck.
+I bought a small country villa not far from Rome, and thither, as soon
+as I was recovered of my illness, I fled for refuge along with my wife.
+Oh! only one single year did I enjoy a calmness, a happiness, a
+peaceful content, such as I had never dreamt of! My wife bore me a
+daughter, and died a few weeks later. I was in despair; I railed at
+Heaven and again cursed myself and my reprobate life, for which Heaven
+was now exacting vengeance upon me by depriving me of my wife--she who
+had saved me from ruin, who was the only creature who afforded me hope
+and consolation. I was driven away from my country villa hither to
+Paris, like the criminal who fears the horrors of solitude. Angela grew
+up the lovely image of her mother; my heart was wholly wrapt up in her;
+for her sake I felt called upon not so much to obtain a large fortune
+for her as to increase what I had already got. It is the truth that I
+lent money at a high rate of interest; but it is a foul calumny to
+accuse me of deceitful usury. And who are these my accusers?
+Thoughtless, frivolous people who worry me to death until I lend them
+money, which they immediately go and squander like a thing of no worth,
+and then get in a rage if I demand inexorable punctuality in repayment
+of the money which does not indeed belong to me,--no, but to my
+daughter, for I merely look upon myself as her steward. It's not long
+since I saved a young man from disgrace and ruin by advancing him a
+considerable sum. As I knew he was terribly poor, I never mentioned a
+syllable about repayment until I knew he had got together a rich
+property. Then I applied to him for settlement of his debt Would you
+believe it, Chevalier? the dishonourable knave, who owed all he had to
+me, tried to deny the debt, and on being compelled by the court to pay
+me, reproached me with being a villainous miser? I could tell you more
+such like cases; and these things have made me hard and insensible to
+emotion when I have to deal with folly and baseness. Nay, more--I could
+tell you of the many bitter tears I have wiped away, and of the many
+prayers which have gone up to Heaven for me and my Angela, but you
+would only regard it as empty boasting, and pay not the slightest heed
+to it, for you are a gambler. I thought I had satisfied the resentment
+of Heaven; it was but a delusion, for Satan has been permitted to lead
+me astray in a more disastrous way than before. I heard of your good-
+luck. Chevalier. Every day I heard that this man and that had staked
+and staked at your bank until he became a beggar. Then the thought came
+into my mind that I was destined to try my gambler's luck, which had
+never hitherto deserted me, against yours, that the power was given me
+to put a stop to your practices; and this thought, which could only
+have been engendered by some extraordinary madness, left me no rest, no
+peace. Hence I came to your bank; and my terrible infatuation did not
+leave me until all my property--all my Angela's property--was yours.
+And now the end has come. I presume you will allow my daughter to take
+her clothing with her?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Your daughter's wardrobe does not concern me,' replied the
+Chevalier.
+'You may also take your beds and other necessary household utensils,
+and such like; for what could I do with all the old lumber? But see to
+it that nothing of value of the things which now belong to me get mixed
+up with it.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Old Vertua stared at the Chevalier a second or two utterly
+speechless;
+then a flood of tears burst from his eyes, and he sank upon his knees
+in front of the Chevalier, perfectly upset with trouble and despair,
+and raised his hands crying, 'Chevalier, have you still a spark of
+human feeling left in your breast? Be merciful, merciful. It is not I,
+but my daughter, my Angela, my innocent angelic child, whom you are
+plunging into ruin. Oh! be merciful to <i>her</i>; lend <i>her</i>, <i>her</i>, my
+Angela, the twentieth part of the property you have deprived her of.
+Oh! I know you will listen to my entreaty! O Angela! my daughter!' And
+therewith the old man sobbed and lamented and moaned, calling upon his
+child by name in the most heart-rending tones.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I am getting tired of this absurd theatrical scene,' said
+the
+Chevalier indifferently but impatiently; but at this moment the door
+flew open and in burst a girl in a white night-dress, her hair
+dishevelled, her face pale as death,--burst in and ran to old Vertua,
+raised him up, took him in her arms, and cried, 'O father! O father! I
+have heard all, I know all! Have you really lost everything--
+everything, really? Have you not your Angela? What need have we of
+money and property? Will not Angela sustain you and tend you? O father,
+don't humiliate yourself a moment longer before this despicable
+monster. It is not <i>we</i>, but <i>he</i>, who is poor and miserable in the
+midst of his contemptible riches; for see, he stands there deserted in
+his awful hopeless loneliness; there is not a heart in all the wide
+world to cling lovingly to his breast, to open out to him when he
+despairs of his own life, of himself. Come, father. Leave this house
+with me. Come, let us make haste and be gone, that this fearful man may
+not exult over your trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Vertua sank half fainting into an easy-chair. Angela knelt
+down before
+him, took his hands, kissed them, fondled them, enumerated with
+childish loquacity all the talents, all the accomplishments, which she
+was mistress of, and by the aid of which she would earn a comfortable
+living for her father; she besought him from the midst of burning tears
+to put aside all his trouble and distress, since her life would now
+first acquire true significance, when she had to sew, embroider, sing,
+and play her guitar, not for mere pleasure, but for her father's sake.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who, however hardened a sinner, could have remained
+insensible at the
+sight of Angela, thus radiant in her divine beauty, comforting her old
+father with sweet soft words, whilst the purest affection, the most
+childlike goodness, beamed from her eyes, evidently coming from the
+very depths of her heart?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite otherwise was it with the Chevalier. A perfect Gehenna
+of
+torment and of the stinging of conscience was awakened within him.
+Angela appeared to him to be the avenging angel of God, before whose
+splendour the misty veil of his wicked infatuation melted away, so that
+he saw with horror the repulsive nakedness of his own miserable soul.
+Yet right through the midst of the flames of this infernal pit that was
+blazing in the Chevalier's heart passed a divine and pure ray, whose
+emanations of light were the sweetest rapture, the very bliss of
+heaven; but the shining of this ray only made his unutterable torments
+the more terrible to bear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier had never been in love. The moment in which he
+saw
+Angela was the moment in which he was to experience the most ardent
+passion, and also at the same time the crushing pain of utter
+hopelessness. For no man who had appeared before the pure angel-child,
+lovely Angela, in the way the Chevalier had done, could dream of hope.
+He attempted to speak, but his tongue seemed to be numbed by cramp. At
+last, controlling himself with an effort, he stammered with trembling
+voice, 'Signor Vertua, listen to me. I have not won anything from you--
+nothing at all. There is my strong box; it is yours,--nay, I must pay
+you yet more than there is there. I am your debtor. There, take it,
+take it!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'O my daughter!' cried Vertua. But Angela rose to her feet,
+approached
+the Chevalier, and flashed a proud look upon him, saying earnestly and
+composedly, *'Chevalier, allow me to tell you that there is something
+higher than money and goods; there are sentiments to which you are a
+stranger, which, whilst sustaining our souls with the comfort of
+Heaven, bid us reject your gift, your favour, with contempt. Keep your
+mammon, which is burdened with the curse that pursues you, you
+heartless, depraved gambler.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Yes,' cried the Chevalier in a fearful voice, his eyes
+flashing
+wildly, for he was perfectly beside himself, 'yes, accursed,--accursed
+will I be--down into the depths of damnation may I be hurled if ever
+again this hand touches a card. And if you then send me from you,
+Angela, then it will be you who will bring irreparable ruin upon me.
+Oh! you don't know--you don't understand me. You can't help but call me
+insane; but you will feel it--you will know all, when you see me
+stretched at your feet with my brains scattered. Angela! It's now a
+question of life or death! Farewell!'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Therewith the Chevalier rushed off in a state of perfect
+despair.
+Vertua saw through him completely; he knew what change had come over
+him; he endeavoured to make his lovely Angela understand that certain
+circumstances might arise which would make it necessary to accept the
+Chevalier's present Angela trembled with dread lest she should
+understand her father. She did not conceive how it would ever be
+possible to meet the Chevalier on any other terms save those of
+contempt. Destiny, which often ripens into shape deep down in the human
+heart, without the mind being aware of it, permitted that to take place
+which had never been thought of, never been dreamed of.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier was like a man suddenly wakened up out of a
+fearful
+dream; he saw himself standing on the brink of the abyss of ruin, and
+stretched out his arms in vain towards the bright shining figure which
+had appeared to him, not, however, to save him--no--but to remind him
+of his damnation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the astonishment of all Paris, Chevalier Menars' bank
+disappeared
+from the gambling-house; nobody ever saw him again; and hence the most
+diverse and extraordinary rumours were current, each of them more false
+than the rest. The Chevalier shunned all society; his love found
+expression in the deepest and most unconquerable despondency. It
+happened, however, that old Vertua and his daughter one day suddenly
+crossed his path in one of the dark and lonely alleys of the garden of
+Malmaison.<sup><a name="div2_gambler5" href="#div2Ref_gambler5">5</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Angela, who thought she could never look upon the Chevalier
+without
+contempt and abhorrence, felt strangely moved on seeing him so deathly
+pale, terribly shaken with trouble, hardly daring in his shy respect to
+raise his eyes. She knew quite well that ever since that ill-omened
+night he had altogether relinquished gambling and effected a complete
+revolution in his habits of life. She, she alone had brought all this
+about, she had saved the Chevalier from ruin--could anything be more
+flattering to her woman's vanity? Hence it was that, after Vertua had
+exchanged the usual complimentary remarks with the Chevalier, Angela
+asked in a tone of gentle and sympathetic pity, 'What is the matter
+with you, Chevalier Menars? You are looking very ill and full of
+trouble. I am sure you ought to consult a physician.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is easy to imagine how Angela's words fell like a
+comforting ray of
+hope upon the Chevalier's heart. From that moment he was not like the
+same man. He lifted up his head; he was able to speak in those tones,
+full of the real inward nature of the man, with which he had formerly
+won all hearts. Vertua exhorted him to come and take possession of the
+house he had won.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Yes, Signor Vertua,' cried the Chevalier with animation,
+'yes, that I
+will do. I will call upon you tomorrow; but let us carefully weigh and
+discuss all the conditions of the transfer, even though it should last
+some months.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Be it so then, Chevalier,' replied Vertua, smiling. 'I fancy
+that
+there will arise a good many things to be discussed, of which we at the
+present moment have no idea.' The Chevalier, being thus comforted at
+heart, could not fail to develop again all the charms of manner which
+had once been so peculiarly his own before he was led astray by his
+insane, pernicious passion for gambling. His visits at old Vertua's
+grew more and more frequent; Angela conceived a warmer and warmer
+liking for the man whose safeguarding angel she had been, until finally
+she thought she loved him with all her heart; and she promised him her
+hand, to the great joy of old Vertua, who at last felt that the
+settlement respecting the property he had lost to the Chevalier could
+now be concluded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One day Angela, Chevalier Menars' happy betrothed, sat at her
+window
+wrapped up in varied thoughts of the delights and happiness of love,
+such as young girls when betrothed are wont to dwell upon. A regiment
+of <i>chasseurs</i> passed by to the merry sound of the trumpet, bound for a
+campaign in Spain. As Angela was regarding with sympathetic interest
+the poor men who were doomed to death in the wicked war, a young man
+wheeled his horse quickly to one side and looked up at her, and she
+sank back in her chair fainting.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! the <i>chasseur</i> who was riding to meet a bloody death
+was none
+other than young Duvernet, their neighbour's son, with whom she had
+grown up, who had run in and out of the house nearly every day, and had
+only kept away since the Chevalier had begun to visit them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the young man's glance, which was charged with reproaches
+having
+all the bitterness of death in them, Angela became conscious for the
+first time, not only that he loved her unspeakably, but also how
+boundless was the love which she herself felt for him. Hitherto she had
+not been conscious of it; she had been infatuated, fascinated by the
+glitter which gathered ever more thickly about the Chevalier. She now
+understood, and for the first time, the youth's labouring sighs and
+quiet unpretending homage; and now too she also understood her own
+embarrassed heart for the first time, knew what had caused the
+fluttering sensation in her breast when Duvernet had come, and when she
+had heard his voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It is too late! I have lost him!' was the voice that spoke
+in
+Angela's soul. She had courage enough to beat down the feelings of
+wretchedness which threatened to distract her heart; and for that
+reason--namely, that she possessed the courage--she succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless it did not escape the Chevalier's acute
+perception that
+something had happened to powerfully affect Angela; but he possessed
+sufficient delicacy of feeling not to seek for a solution of the
+mystery, which it was evident she desired to conceal from him. He
+contented himself with depriving any dangerous rival of his power by
+expediting the marriage; and he made all arrangements for its
+celebration with such fine tact, and such a sympathetic appreciation of
+his fair bride's situation and sentiments, that she saw in them a new
+proof of the good and amiable qualities of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier's behaviour towards Angela showed him attentive
+to her
+slightest wish, and exhibited that sincere esteem which springs from
+the purest affection; hence her memory of Duvernet soon vanished
+entirely from her mind. The first cloud that dimmed the bright heaven
+of her happiness was the illness and death of old Vertua.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since the night when he had lost all his fortune at the
+Chevalier's
+bank he had never touched a card, but during the last moments of his
+life play seemed to have taken complete possession of his soul. Whilst
+the priest who had come to administer to him the consolation of the
+Church ere he died, was speaking to him of heavenly things, he lay with
+his eyes closed, murmuring between his teeth, '<i>perd</i>, <i>gagne</i>,'
+whilst
+his trembling half-dead hands went through the motions of dealing
+through a <i>taille</i>, of drawing the cards. Both Angela and the Chevalier
+bent over him and spoke to him in the tenderest manner, but it was of
+no use; he no longer seemed to know them, nor even to be aware of their
+presence. With a deep-drawn sigh '<i>gagne</i>,' he breathed his last.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the midst of her distressing grief Angela could not get
+rid of an
+uncomfortable feeling of awe at the way in which the old man had died.
+She again saw in vivid shape the picture of that terrible night when
+she had first seen the Chevalier as a most hardened and reprobate
+gambler; and the fearful thought entered her mind that he might again,
+in scornful mockery of her, cast aside his mask of goodness and appear
+in his original fiendish character, and begin to pursue his old course
+of life once more.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And only too soon was Angela's dreaded foreboding to become
+reality.
+However great the awe which fell upon the Chevalier at old Francesco
+Vertua's death-scene, when the old man, despising the consolation of
+the Church, though in the last agonies of death, had not been able to
+turn his thoughts from his former sinful life--however great was the
+awe that then fell upon the Chevalier, yet his mind was thereby led,
+though how he could not explain, to dwell more keenly upon play than
+ever before, so that every night in his dreams he sat at the faro-bank
+and heaped up riches anew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In proportion as Angela's behaviour became more constrained,
+in
+consequence of her recollection of the character in which she had first
+seen the Chevalier, and as it became more and more impossible for her
+to continue to meet him upon the old affectionate, confidential footing
+upon which they had hitherto lived, so exactly in the same degree
+distrust of Angela crept into the Chevalier's mind, since he ascribed
+her constraint to the secret which had once disturbed her peace of mind
+and which had not been revealed to him. From this distrust were born
+displeasure and unpleasantness, and these he expressed in various ways
+which hurt Angela's feelings. By a singular cross-action of spiritual
+influence Angela's recollections of the unhappy Duvemet began to recur
+to her mind with fresher force, and along with these the intolerable
+consciousness of her ruined love,--the loveliest blossom that had
+budded in her youthful heart. The strained relations between the pair
+continued to increase until things got to such a pitch that the
+Chevalier grew disgusted with his simple mode of life, thought it dull,
+and was smitten with a powerful longing to enjoy the life of the world
+again. His star of ill omen began to acquire the ascendancy. The change
+which had been inaugurated by displeasure and great unpleasantness was
+completed by an abandoned wretch who had formerly been croupier in the
+Chevalier's faro-bank. He succeeded by means of the most artful
+insinuations and conversations in making the Chevalier look upon his
+present walk of life as childish and ridiculous. The Chevalier could
+not understand at last how, for a woman's sake, he ever came to leave a
+world which appeared to him to contain all that made life of any worth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was not long ere Chevalier Menars' rich bank was
+flourishing more
+magnificently than ever. His good-luck had not left him; victim after
+victim came and fell; he amassed heaps of riches. But Angela's
+happiness--it was ruined--ruined in fearful fashion; it was to be
+compared to a short fair dream. The Chevalier treated her with
+indifference, nay even with contempt. Often, for weeks and months
+together, she never saw him once; the household arrangements were
+placed in the hands of a steward; the servants were being constantly
+changed to suit the Chevalier's whims; so that Angela, a stranger in
+her own house, knew not where to turn for comfort. Often during her
+sleepless nights the Chevalier's carriage stopped before the door, the
+heavy strong-box was carried upstairs, the Chevalier flung out a few
+harsh monosyllabic words of command, and then the doors of his distant
+room were sent to with a bang--all this she heard, and a flood of
+bitter tears started from her eyes. In a state of the most heart-
+rending anguish she called upon Duvernet time after time, and implored
+Providence to put an end to her miserable life of trouble and
+suffering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One day a young man of good family, after losing all his
+fortune at
+the Chevalier s bank, sent a bullet through his brain in the gambling-
+house, and in the very same room even in which the bank was
+established, so that the players were sprinkled by the blood and
+scattered brains, and started up aghast. The Chevalier alone preserved
+his indifference; and, as all were preparing to leave the apartment, he
+asked whether it was in accordance with their rules and custom to leave
+the bank before the appointed hour on account of a fool who had had no
+conduct in his play.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The occurrence created a great sensation. The most
+experienced and
+hardened gamblers were indignant at the Chevalier's unexampled
+behaviour. The voice of the public was raised against him. The bank was
+closed by the police. He was, moreover, accused of false play; and his
+unprecedented good-luck tended to establish the truth of the charge. He
+was unable to clear himself. The fine he was compelled to pay deprived
+him of a considerable part of his riches. He found himself disgraced
+and looked upon with contempt; then he went back to the arms of the
+wife he had ill-used, and she willingly received him, the penitent,
+since the remembrance of how her own father had turned aside from the
+demoralising life of a gambler allowed a glimmer of hope to rise, that
+the Chevalier's conversion might this time, now that he was older,
+really have some stamina in it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier left Paris along with his wife, and went to
+Genoa,
+Angela's birthplace. Here he led a very retired life at first. But all
+endeavours to restore the footing of quiet domesticity with Angela,
+which his evil genius had destroyed, were in vain. It was not long
+before his deep-rooted discontent awoke anew and drove him out of the
+house in a state of uneasy, unsettled restlessness. His evil reputation
+had followed him from Paris to Genoa; he dare not venture to establish
+a bank, although he was being goaded to do so by a power he could
+hardly resist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At that time the richest bank in Genoa was kept by a French
+colonel,
+who had been invalided owing to serious wounds. His heart burning with
+envy and fierce hatred, the Chevalier appeared at the Colonel's table,
+expecting that his usual good fortune would stand by him, and that he
+should soon ruin his rival. The Colonel greeted him in a merry humour,
+such as was in general not customary with him, and said that now the
+play would really be worth indulging in since they had got Chevalier
+Menars and his good-luck to join them, for now would come the struggle
+which alone made the game interesting.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in fact during the first <i>taille</i> the cards fell
+favourable to the
+Chevalier as they always had done. But when, relying upon his
+invincible luck, he at last cried '<i>Va banquet</i>,'<sup><a name="div2_gambler6" href="#div2Ref_gambler6">6</a></sup> he lost a very
+considerable sum at one stroke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Colonel, at other times preserving the same even
+temperament
+whether winning or losing, now swept the money towards him with the
+most demonstrative signs of extreme delight. From this moment fortune
+turned away from the Chevalier utterly and completely. He played every
+night, and every night he lost, until his property had melted away to a
+few thousand ducats,<sup><a name="div2_gambler7" href="#div2Ref_gambler7">7</a></sup> which he still had in securities.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier had spent the whole day in running about to get
+his
+securities converted into ready money, and did not reach home until
+late in the evening. So soon as it was fully night, he was about to
+leave the house with his last gold pieces in his pocket, when Angela,
+who suspected pretty much how matters stood, stepped in his path and
+threw herself at his feet, whilst a flood of tears gushed from her
+eyes, beseeching him by the Virgin and all the saints to abandon his
+wicked purpose, and not to plunge her in want and misery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He raised her up and strained her to his heart with painful
+passionate
+intensity, saying in a hoarse voice, 'Angela, my dear sweet Angela! It
+can't be helped now, indeed it must be so; I must go on with it, for I
+can't let it alone. But to-morrow--to-morrow all your troubles shall
+be over, for by the Eternal Destiny that rules over us I swear that
+to-day shall be the last time I will play. Quiet yourself, my dear good
+child--go and sleep--dream of happy days to come, of a better life that
+is in store for you; that will bring good-luck. Herewith he kissed his
+wife and hurried off before she could stop him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two <i>tailles</i>, and the Chevalier had lost all--all. He
+stood beside
+the Colonel, staring upon the faro-table in moody senselessness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Are you not punting any more, Chevalier?' said the Colonel,
+shuffling
+the cards for a new <i>taille</i>, 'I have lost all,' replied the Chevalier,
+forcing himself with an effort to be calm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Have you really nothing left?' asked the Colonel at the next <i>
+taille</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I am a beggar,' cried the Chevalier, his voice trembling
+with rage
+and mortification; and he continued to stare fiercely upon the table
+without observing that the players were gaining more and more
+advantages over the banker.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Colonel went on playing quietly. But whilst shuffling the
+cards
+for the following <i>taille</i>, he said in a low voice, without looking at
+the Chevalier, 'But you have a beautiful wife.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What do you mean by that?' burst out the Chevalier angrily.
+The
+Colonel drew his cards without making any answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Ten thousand ducats or--Angela!' said the Colonel, half
+turning round
+whilst the cards were being cut.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You are mad!' exclaimed the Chevalier, who now began to
+observe on
+coming more to himself that the Colonel continually lost and lost
+again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twenty thousand ducats against Angela!' said the Colonel in
+a low
+voice, pausing for a moment in his shuffling of the cards.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier did not reply. The Colonel went on playing, and
+almost
+all the cards fell to the players' side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Taken!' whispered the Chevalier in the Colonel's ear, as the
+new <i>taille</i> began, and he pushed the queen on the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the next draw the queen had lost. The Chevalier drew back
+from the
+table, grinding his teeth, and in despair stood leaning in a window,
+his face deathly pale.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Play was over. 'Well, and what's to be done now?' were the
+Colonel's
+mocking words as he stepped up to the Chevalier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Ah!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself, 'you have
+made me a
+beggar, but you must be insane to imagine that you could win my wife.
+Are we on the islands? is my wife a slave, exposed as a mere <i>thing</i> to
+the brutal arbitrariness of a reprobate man, that he may trade with
+her, gamble with her? But it is true! You would have had to pay twenty
+thousand ducats if the queen had won, and so I have lost all right to
+raise a protest if my wife is willing to leave me to follow you. Come
+along with me, and despair when you see how my wife will repel you with
+detestation when you propose to her that she shall follow you as your
+shameless mistress.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'You will be the one to despair,' replied the Colonel, with a
+mocking,
+scornful laugh; 'you will be the one to despair, Chevalier, when Angela
+turns with abhorrence from you--you, the abandoned sinner, who have
+made her life miserable--and flies into my arms in rapture and delight;
+you will be the one to despair when you learn that we have been united
+by the blessing of the Church, and that our dearest wishes are crowned
+with happiness. You call me insane. Ho! ho! All I wanted to win was the
+right to claim her, for of Angela herself I am sure. Ho! ho! Chevalier,
+let me inform you that your wife loves <i>me</i>--<i>me</i>, with unspeakable
+love: let me inform you that I am that Duvernet, the neighbour's son,
+who was brought up along with Angela, bound to her by ties of the most
+ardent affection--he whom you drove away by means of your diabolical
+devices. Ah! it was not until I had to go away to the wars that Angela
+became conscious to herself of what I was to her; I know all. It was
+too late. The Spirit of Evil suggested to me the idea that I might ruin
+you in play, and so I took to gambling--followed you to Genoa,--and now
+I have succeeded. Away now to your wife.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier was almost annihilated, like one upon whose
+head had
+fallen the most disastrous blows of fortune. Now he saw to the bottom
+of that mysterious secret, now he saw for the first time the full
+extent of the misfortune which he had brought upon poor Angela.
+'Angela, my wife, shall decide,' he said hoarsely, and followed the
+Colonel, who was hurrying off at full speed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On reaching the house the Colonel laid his hand upon the
+latch of
+Angela's chamber; but the Chevalier pushed him back, saying, 'My wife
+is asleep. Do you want to rouse her up out of her sweet sleep?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Hm!' replied the Colonel. 'Has Angela ever enjoyed sweet
+sleep since
+you brought all this nameless misery upon her?' Again the Colonel
+attempted to enter the chamber; but the Chevalier threw himself at his
+feet and screamed, frantic with despair, 'Be merciful. Let me keep my
+wife; you have made me a beggar, but let me keep my wife.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That's how old Vertua lay at your feet, you miscreant dead
+to all
+feeling, and could not move your stony heart; may Heaven's vengeance
+overtake you for it.' Thus spoke the Colonel; and he again strode
+towards Angela's chamber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Chevalier sprang towards the door, tore it open, rushed
+to the bed
+in which his wife lay, and drew back the curtains, crying, 'Angela!
+Angela!' Bending over her, he grasped her hand; but all at once he
+shook and trembled in mortal anguish and cried in a thundering voice,
+'Look! look! you have won my wife's corpse.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perfectly horrified, the Colonel approached the bed; no sign
+of
+life!--Angela was dead--dead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then the Colonel doubled his fist and shook it heavenwards,
+and rushed
+out of the room uttering a fearful cry. Nothing more was ever heard of
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>
+This was the end of the stranger's tale; and the Baron was so shaken
+that before he could say anything the stranger had hastily risen from
+the seat and gone away.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the stranger was found in his room suffering
+from
+apoplexy of the nerves. He never opened his mouth up to the moment of
+his death, which ensued after the lapse of a few hours. His papers
+proved that, though he called himself Baudasson simply, he was no less
+a person than the unhappy Chevalier Menars himself.</p>
+
+<p>The Baron recognised it as a warning from Heaven, that
+Chevalier Menars
+had been led across his path to save him just as he was approaching the
+brink of the precipice; he vowed that he would withstand all the
+seductions of the gambler's deceptive luck.</p>
+
+<p>Up till now he has faithfully kept his word.</p>
+
+<p class="continue">FOOTNOTES TO &quot;GAMBLER'S LUCK&quot;:</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler1" href="#div2_gambler1">1</a></sup> In faro the keeper of the bank plays against all
+the rest of the players (who are called <i>punters</i>). He has a full pack; they
+have but a single complete suit. The punters may stake what they please
+upon any card they please, except in so far as rules may have been made
+to the contrary by the banker. After the cards have been cut, the
+banker proceeds to take off the two top cards one after the other,
+placing the first at his right hand, and the second at his left, each
+with the face uppermost. Any punter who has staked a card which bears
+exactly the same number of &quot;peeps&quot; as the card turned up on the
+banker's right hand loses the stake to the latter; but if it bears the
+same number of &quot;peeps&quot; as the card on the banker's left, it is the
+banker who has to pay the punter a sum equal to the value of his stake.
+The twenty-six drawings which a full pack allows the banker to make are
+called a <i>taille</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="hang2">This general sketch will help to make the text intelligible
+for the
+most part without going into minor technicalities of the game.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler2" href="#div2_gambler2">2</a></sup> The words &quot;win,&quot; &quot;lose,&quot; with which the banker
+places the two cards on the table, the first to his right for himself, the second
+on his left for the punter.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler3" href="#div2_gambler3">3</a></sup> The new <i>Louis d'or</i> were worth somewhat
+less than the old coins of the time of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. (<a name="div2Ref_gambler3a" href="#div2_gambler3a">See note, page 175</a>.)]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler4" href="#div2_gambler4">4</a></sup> The banker's assistants, who shuffle cards for
+him, change cheques, notes, and make themselves generally useful.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler5" href="#div2_gambler5">5</a></sup> Malmaison is a chateau and park situated about
+six miles W. of Paris. It once belonged to Richelieu; and there the Empress
+Josephine lived, and there she died on the 13th May, 1814.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler6" href="#div2_gambler6">6</a></sup> &quot;<i>Va bout</i>&quot; or &quot;<i>Va banque</i>&quot; meant a
+challenge to the bank to the full amount of the highest limit of play, and if the punter won
+he virtually broke the bank.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_gambler7" href="#div2_gambler7">7</a></sup>
+The first silver ducat is believed to have been struck in 1140 by Roger II.,
+Norman king of Sicily; and ducats have been struck constantly since the twelfth
+century, especially at Venice (see <i>Merchant
+of Venice</i>). They have varied considerably both in weight and fineness, and
+consequently in value, at different times and places. Ducats have been struck
+in both gold and silver. The early Venetian silver ducat was worth about five
+shillings. The name is said, according to one account, to have been derived
+from the last word of the Latin legend found on the earliest Venetian gold
+coins:--_Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis, ducatus_ (duchy); according
+to another account it is taken from &quot;<i>il ducato</i>,&quot; the name generally applied
+to the duchy of Apulia. (Note, page 98, Vol. I.)]</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><i><a name="div1_wacht" href="#div1Ref_wacht">MASTER JOHANNES WACHT</a>.</i><sup><a name="div2_wacht1" href="#div2Ref_wacht1">1</a></sup></h2>
+
+<p class="continue">At the time when people in the beautiful and pleasant town
+of Bamberg lived, according to the well-known saying, well, <i>i.e.</i>, under the
+crook, namely in the end of the previous century, there was also one
+inhabitant, a man belonging to the burgher class, who might be called
+in every respect both singular and eminent His name was Johannes Wacht,
+and his trade was that of a carpenter.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, in weighing and definitely determining her children's
+destinies, pursues her own dark inscrutable path; and all that is
+claimed by convenience, and by the opinions and considerations which
+prevail in man's narrow existence, as determining factors in settling
+the true tendency of every man's self. Nature regards as nothing more
+than the pert play of deluded children imagining themselves to be wise.
+But short-sighted man often finds an insuperable irony in the
+contradiction between the conviction of his own mind and the mysterious
+ordering of this inscrutable Power, who first nourished and fed him at
+her maternal bosom and then deserted him; and this irony fills him with
+terror and awe, since it threatens to annihilate his own self.</p>
+
+<p>The mother of Life does not choose for her favourites either
+the
+palaces of the great or the state-apartments of princes. And so she
+made our Johannes, who, as the kindly reader will soon learn, might be
+called one of her most richly endowed favourites, first see the light
+of the world on a wretched heap of straw, in the workshop of an
+impoverished master turner in Augsburg. His mother died of want and
+from suffering soon after the child's birth, and his father followed
+her after the lapse of a few months.</p>
+
+<p>The town government had to take charge of the helpless boy;
+and when
+the Council's master carpenter, a well-to-do, respectable man, who
+found in the child's face, notwithstanding that it was pinched with
+hunger, certain traits which pleased him,--when he would not suffer the
+boy to be lodged in a public institution, but took him into his own
+house, in order to bring him up along with his own children, then there
+dawned upon Johannes his first genial ray of sunshine, heralding a
+happier lot in the future.</p>
+
+<p>In an incredibly short space of time the boy's frame
+developed, so that
+it was difficult to believe that the little insignificant creature in
+the cradle had really been the shapeless colourless chrysalis out of
+which this pretty, living, golden-locked boy had proceeded, like a
+beautiful butterfly. But--what seemed of more importance--along with
+this pleasing grace of physical form the boy soon displayed such
+eminent intellectual faculties as astonished both his foster-father and
+his teachers. Johannes grew up in a workshop which sent forth some of
+the best and highest work that mechanical skill was able to produce,
+since the master carpenter to the Council was constantly engaged upon
+the most important buildings. No wonder, therefore, that the child's
+mind, which caught up everything with such keen clear perception,
+should be excited thereby, and should feel all his heart drawn towards
+a trade the deeper significance of which, in so far as it was concerned
+with the material creation of great and bold ideas, he dimly felt deep
+down in his soul. The joy that this bent of the orphan's mind
+occasioned his foster-father may well be conceived; and hence he felt
+persuaded to teach the boy all practical matters himself with great
+care and attention, and furthermore, when he had grown into a youth, to
+have him instructed by the cleverest masters in all the higher branches
+of knowledge connected with the trade, both theoretical and practical,
+such as, for instance, drawing, architecture, mechanics, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Our Johannes was four and twenty years of age when the old
+master
+carpenter died; and even at that time his foster-son was a thoroughly
+experienced and skilful journeyman in all branches of his craft, whose
+equal could not be found far and near. At this period Johannes set out,
+along with his true and faithful comrade Engelbrecht, on the usual
+journeyman's<sup><a name="div2_wacht2" href="#div2Ref_wacht2">2</a></sup> travels.</p>
+
+<p>Herewith you know, indulgent reader, all that it is needful to
+know
+about the youth of our worthy Wacht; and it only remains to tell you in
+a few words how it was that he came to settle in Bamberg and how he
+became master there.</p>
+
+<p>After being on the travel for a pretty long time he happened
+to arrive
+at Bamberg on his way home along with his comrade Engelbrecht; and
+there they found the Bishop's palace undergoing thorough repair, and
+particularly on that side of it where the walls rose up to a great
+height out of a very narrow alley or court. Here an entirely new roof
+was to be put up, of very great and very heavy beams; and they wanted a
+machine, which, whilst taking up the least possible room, would possess
+sufficient concentration of power to raise the heavy weights up to the
+required height. The Prince-bishop's builder, who knew how to calculate
+to a nicety how Trajan's Column in Rome had been made to stand, and
+also knew the hundred or more mistakes that had been made which he
+should never have laid himself open to the reproach of committing, had
+indeed constructed a machine--a sort of crane--which was very nice to
+look at, and was praised by everybody as a masterpiece of mechanical
+skill; but when the men tried to set the thing agoing, it turned out
+that the Herr builder had calculated upon downright Samsons and
+Herculeses. The wheels creaked and squeaked horribly; the huge beams
+which were hooked on to the crane did not budge an inch; the men
+declared, whilst shaking the sweat from their brows, that they would
+much sooner carry ships' mainmasts up steep stairs than strain
+themselves in this way, and waste all their best strength in vain over
+such a machine; and there matters remained.</p>
+
+<p>Standing at some distance, Wacht and Engelbrecht looked on at
+what they
+were doing, or rather, not doing; and it is possible that Wacht may
+have smiled just a little at the builder's want of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>A grey-headed old foreman, recognising the strangers'
+handicraft from
+their clothing, stepped up to them without more ado, and asked Wacht if
+he understood how to manage the machine any better since he looked so
+cunning about it. &quot;Ah, well!&quot; replied Wacht, without being in the least
+disconcerted, &quot;ah well; it's a doubtful point whether I know better,
+for every fool thinks he understands everything better than anybody
+else; but I can't help wondering that in this part of the country you
+don't seem to be acquainted with a certain simple contrivance, which
+would easily perform all that the Herr Builder yonder is vainly
+tormenting his men to accomplish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young man's bold answer nettled the grey-haired old
+foreman not a
+little; he turned away muttering to himself; and very soon it was known
+to them all that a young stranger, a carpenter's journeyman, had
+laughed the builder together with his machine to scorn, and boasted
+that he was acquainted with a more serviceable contrivance. As is
+usually the case, nobody paid any heed to it; but the worthy builder as
+well as the honourable guild of carpenters in Bamberg were of opinion
+that the stranger had not, it was to be presumed, devoured up all the
+wisdom of the world, nor would he presume to dictate to and teach old
+and experienced masters. &quot;Now do you see, Johannes,&quot; said Engelbrecht
+to his comrade, &quot;now do you see how your rash boldness has again
+provoked against you the people whom we must meet as comrades of the
+craft?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who can, who may look on quietly,&quot; replied Johannes, whilst
+his eyes
+flashed, &quot;when the poor labourers--I'm sure they're to be pitied--are
+tormented so and made to work beyond all reason, and that all to no
+purpose. And who knows whether my rash boldness may not, after all,
+have beneficial consequences?&quot; And it really turned out to be so.</p>
+
+<p>One single individual, of such pre-eminent intellectual
+capacity that
+no gleam of knowledge, however fugitive it might be, ever escaped his
+keen penetration, attached a quite different importance to the youth's
+words from what the rest did, for the builder had reported them to him
+as the presumptuous saying of a young fledgling carpenter. This man was
+the Prince-bishop himself. He had the young man summoned to his
+presence, that he might inquire further into the import of his words,
+and was not a little astonished both at his appearance and at his
+general bearing and character. My kindly reader ought to know what this
+astonishment was due to, and now is the time to tell him something more
+about Johannes Wacht's exterior and Johannes Wacht's mind and thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>As far as his face and figure were concerned, he might justly
+be called
+a remarkably handsome young fellow, and yet his noble features and
+majestic stature did not attain to full perfection until after he had
+reached a riper manhood. Æsthetic canons of the cathedral credited
+Johannes with having the head of an old Roman; a younger member of the
+same fraternity, who even in the severest winter was in the habit of
+going about dressed in black silk, and who had read Schiller's <i>Fiesko</i>, maintained,
+on the contrary, that Johannes Wacht was
+Verrina<sup><a name="div2_wacht3" href="#div2Ref_wacht3">3</a></sup> in the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>But the mysterious charm by means of which many highly-gifted
+men are
+enabled to win at once the confidence of those whom they approach does
+not consist in beauty and grace of external form alone. We in a certain
+sense feel their superiority; yet this feeling is by no means an
+oppressive feeling as might be imagined; but, whilst elevating the
+spirit, it also excites a certain kind of mental comfort that does us
+an incalculable amount of good. All the factors of the physical and
+intellectual organism are united into a whole by the most perfect
+harmony, so that the contact with the superior soul is like a pure
+strain of music; it suffers no discord. This harmony creates that
+inimitable deportment, that--one might almost say--comfort in the
+slightest movements, through which the consciousness of true human
+dignity is proclaimed. This deportment can be taught by no dancing-
+master, by no Prince's tutor; and well and rightly does it deserve its
+proper name of the distinguished deportment, since it is stamped as
+such by Nature herself. Here need only be added that Master Wacht,
+unflinchingly constant in generosity, truth, and faithfulness to his
+burgher standing, became as the years went on ever more a man of the
+people. He developed all the virtues, but at the same time all the
+unconquerable prejudices, which are generally wont to form the
+unfavourable sides of such men's characters. My kindly reader will soon
+learn of what these prejudices consisted.</p>
+
+<p>I have now perhaps sufficiently explained why it was that the
+young
+man's appearance made such an uncommon impression upon the respected
+Prince-bishop. For a long time he observed the stalwart young workman
+in silence, but with visible satisfaction; then he questioned him about
+his previous life. Johannes answered all his questions candidly and
+modestly, and finally explained to the Prince with convincing
+clearness, that the master-builder's machine, though perhaps fitted for
+other purposes, would in the present case never effect what it was
+intended to do.</p>
+
+<p>In reply to the Prince's inquiry whether he could indeed trust
+himself
+to specify a machine that would be more suitable for the purpose,
+namely, to raise the heavy weights, the young man replied that all he
+required to construct such a machine was a single day, and the help of
+his comrade Engelbrecht and a few skilful and willing labourers.</p>
+
+<p>It may be conceived with what malicious and mischievous inward
+joy, and
+with what impatience the master-builder, and all who were connected
+with him, looked forward to the morrow, when the forward stranger would
+be sent off home covered with shame and ridicule. But things turned out
+different from what these good-hearted people had expected, or indeed
+had wished.</p>
+
+<p>Three capsterns suitably situated and so arranged as to exert
+an effect
+one upon another, and each only manned by eight labourers, elevated the
+heavy beams up to the giddy level of the roof with so much ease that
+they appeared to dance in the air. From this moment the brave clever
+craftsman could date the foundation of his reputation in Bamberg. The
+Prince urged him seriously to stay in that town and secure his
+mastership; towards the attainment of this end he would lend him all
+the assistance he possibly could. Wacht, however, hesitated,
+notwithstanding that he was very well pleased with the pleasant and
+cheap town of Bamberg. The fact that several important buildings were
+just then in course of erection put a heavy weight into the scale for
+staying; but the final turn to the balance was given by a circumstance
+which is very often wont to decide matters in life; namely, Johannes
+Wacht found again quite unexpectedly in Bamberg the beautiful virtuous
+maiden whom he had seen several years previously in Erlangen, and into
+whose friendly blue eyes he had then peeped a little too much. In a few
+words, Johannes Wacht became master, married the virtuous maiden of
+Erlangen, and soon contrived through industry and skill to purchase a
+pretty house on the Kaulberg,<sup><a name="div2_wacht4" href="#div2Ref_wacht4">4</a></sup> which had a large tract of garden
+ground stretching away back up the hill, and there he settled down for
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But upon whom does the friendly star of good fortune shine
+unchangeably
+with the same degree of splendour at all times? Providence had decreed
+that our honest Johannes should be submitted to a trial under which
+perhaps any other man, with less firmness of spirit, would have sunk.
+The first fruit of this very happy marriage was a son, an excellent
+youth, who appeared to be walking steadfastly in his father's
+footsteps. He was eighteen years of age when one night a large fire
+broke out not far from Wacht's house. Father and son hurried to the
+spot, agreeably to their calling, to help in extinguishing the flames.
+Along with other carpenters the son boldly clambered up to the roof in
+order to cut away its burning framework, as far as could be done. His
+father, who had remained below, as he always did, to direct the
+demolition of walls, &amp;c., and to superintend the work of extinction,
+looked up and seeing the imminent danger shouted, &quot;Johannes! men! come
+down! come down!&quot; Too late--with a fearful crash the wall fell in; the
+son lay struck to death in the flames, which leapt up crackling louder
+as if in horrid triumph.</p>
+
+<p>But this terrible blow was not the only one which was to fall
+upon poor
+Johannes. An inconsiderate maid-servant burst with a frantic cry of
+distress into her mistress' room, who was only partly convalescent from
+a distracting nervous disorder, and was in great uneasiness and anxiety
+about the fire, the dark-red reflection of which was flickering on the
+walls of her chamber. &quot;Your son, your Johannes, is killed; the wall has
+buried him and his comrades in the middle of the flames,&quot; screamed the
+girl. As though stung with sharp, sudden pain, her mistress raised
+herself up in the bed; but breathing out a deep sigh, she sank back
+upon the cushions again. She was struck with paralysis of the nerves;
+she was dead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now let us see,&quot; said the citizens, &quot;how Master Wacht will
+bear his
+great trouble. He has often enough preached to us that a man ought not
+to succumb to the greatest misfortune, but ought to bear his head erect
+and strive with the strength which the Creator has planted in every
+man's breast to withstand the misery that threatens him, so long as the
+contrary is not evidently decreed in the Eternal counsels. Let us see
+now what sort of an example he will give us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were not a little astonished when, although the master
+himself was
+not seen in the workshop, yet his journeymen's activity continued
+without interruption, so that work never stood still for a single
+moment, but went on just as if the master had not experienced any
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>With steadfast courage and firm step, and with his face
+shining with
+all the consolation and all the hope that sprang from his belief--the
+true religion rooted deep down in his breast--he had followed the
+corpses of his wife and son; and on the noon of the same day after the
+funeral, which had taken place in the morning, he said to Engelbrecht,
+&quot;Engelbrecht, it is now necessary for me to be alone with my grief,
+which is almost breaking my heart, in order that I may become
+acquainted with it and strengthen myself against it. You, brother, my
+honest, industrious foreman, will know what to do for a week; for that
+space I am going to shut myself up in my own chamber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And indeed for a whole week Master Wacht never left his room.
+The maid
+frequently brought down his food again untouched; and they often heard
+in the passage his low, sad cry, cutting them to the quick, &quot;O my wife!
+O my Johannes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Many of Wacht's acquaintances were of opinion that he ought
+not by any
+means to be left in this solitary state; by brooding constantly over
+his grief his mind might become unsettled Engelbrecht, however, met
+them with the reply, &quot;Let him alone; you don't know my Johannes. Since
+Providence, in its inscrutable purposes, has sent him this hard trial,
+it has also given him strength to overcome it, and all earthly
+consolation would only outrage his feelings. I know in what manner he
+is working his way out of his deep grief.&quot; These last words Engelbrecht
+uttered with a well-nigh cunning look upon his face; but he would not
+give any further information as to what he meant. Wacht's acquaintances
+had to content themselves, and leave the unfortunate man in peace.</p>
+
+<p>A week was passed, and early the next morning, which was a
+bright
+summer morning, at five o'clock Master Wacht came out unexpectedly into
+the workyard amongst his journeymen, who were all hard at work. Their
+axes and saws stopped, whilst they greeted him with a half-sorrowful
+cry, &quot;Master Wacht! Our good Master Wacht!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a cheerful face, upon which the traces of the struggle
+against
+grief which he had gone through had deepened the expression of sterling
+good-nature and given it a most touching character, he stepped amongst
+his faithful workpeople and told them how the goodness of Heaven had
+sent down the spirit of mercy and consolation upon him, and that he was
+now filled with strength and courage to go on and discharge the duties
+of his calling. He betook himself to the building in the middle of the
+yard, which served for the storage of the tools at night, and for
+keeping the plans and memoranda of work, &amp;c. Englebrecht, the
+journeymen, the apprentices, followed him in a string. On entering,
+Johannes stood rooted to the spot.</p>
+
+<p>His poor boy's axe, which was identified by certain
+distinctive marks,
+had been found with half-charred handle under the ruins of the house
+that had been burnt down. His companions had fastened it high up on the
+wall directly opposite the door, and, in a rather rude attempt at art,
+had painted round it a wreath of roses and cypress-branches; and
+underneath the wreath they had placed their beloved comrade's name,
+together with the year of his birth and the date of the ill-omened
+night when he had met such a violent death.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor Hans!&quot;<sup><a name="div2_wacht5" href="#div2Ref_wacht5">5</a></sup> exclaimed Master Wacht on perceiving this
+touching
+monument of the true faithful spirits, whilst a flood of tears gushed
+from his eyes. &quot;Poor Hans! the last time you wielded that tool was for
+the welfare of your brothers; but now you are resting in your grave,
+and will never more stand by my side and use your earnest industry in
+helping to forward a good piece of work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then Master Wacht went round the circle and gave each
+journeyman and
+each apprentice a good honest shake of the hand, saying, &quot;Think of
+him.&quot; Then they all went back to their work, except Engelbrecht, whom
+Wacht bid stay with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See here, my old comrade,&quot; cried Wacht, &quot;what extraordinary
+means the
+Eternal Power has chosen to help me to overcome my great trouble.
+During the days when I was almost heart-broken with grief for my wife
+and child, whom I have lost in such a terrible way, there came into my
+mind the idea of a highly artistic and complicated trussed girder,
+which I had been thinking about for a long time without ever being able
+to see my way to the thing clearly. Look here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Therewith Master Wacht unrolled the drawing at which he had
+worked
+during the past week, and Engelbrecht was greatly astonished at the
+boldness and originality of the invention no less than at its
+exceptional neatness in the finished state. The mechanical part of the
+contrivance was so skilfully and cleverly arranged that even
+Engelbrecht, with all his great experience, could not comprehend it at
+once; but the greater therefore was his glad admiration when Master
+Wacht explained to him the whole construction down to the minutest
+details, and he had convinced himself that the putting of the plan into
+execution could not fail to be successful.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Wacht's household consisted of only two daughters
+besides
+himself; but it was very soon to be increased.</p>
+
+<p>Albeit a clever and industrious workman, Master Engelbrecht
+had never
+been able to advance so far as that lowest grade of affluence which had
+been the reward of Wacht's very earliest undertakings. He had to
+contend with the worst enemy of life, against which no human power is
+of any avail; it not only threatened to destroy him, but really did
+destroy him--namely, consumption. He died, leaving a wife and two boys
+almost in want. His wife went back to her own home; and Master Wacht
+would willingly have taken both boys into his own house, but this could
+only be arranged in the case of the elder, who was called Sebastian. He
+was a strong intelligent lad, and having an inclination to follow his
+father's trade, promised to make a good clever carpenter. He had,
+however, a certain refractoriness of disposition, which at times seemed
+to border closely upon badness, as well as being somewhat rude in his
+manners, and even often wild and untamable; but these ill qualities
+Wacht hoped to conquer by wise training. The younger boy, Jonathan by
+name, was exactly the opposite of his elder brother; he was a very
+pretty little boy, but rather fragile, his blue eyes laughing with
+gentleness and kind-heartedness. This boy had been adopted during his
+father's lifetime by Herr Theophilus Eichheimer, a worthy doctor of
+law, as well as the first and oldest advocate in the place. Noticing
+the boy's remarkably good parts, as well as his most decided bent for
+knowledge, he had taken him to train him for a lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>And here one of those unconquerable prejudices of our Wacht
+came to
+light which have been already spoken of above, namely, he was perfectly
+convinced in his own mind that everything understood under the name of
+law was nothing else but so many phrases artificially hammered out and
+put together by lawyers, with the sole purpose of perplexing the true
+feeling of right which had been planted in every virtuous man's breast.
+Since he could not exactly shut his eyes to the necessity for law-
+courts, he discharged all his hatred upon the advocates, whom as a
+class he conceived to be, if not altogether miserable deceivers, yet at
+any rate such contemptible men that they practised usury in shameful
+fashion with all that was most holy and venerable in the world. It will
+be seen presently how Wacht, who in all other relations of life was an
+intelligent and clear-sighted man, resembled in this particular the
+coarsest-minded amongst the lowest of the people. The further prejudice
+that he would not admit there was any piety or virtue amongst the
+adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, and that he trusted no
+Catholic, might perhaps be pardoned him, since he had imbibed the
+principles of a well-nigh fanatical Protestantism in Augsburg. It may
+be conceived, therefore, how it cut Master Wacht to the heart to see
+the son of his most faithful friend entering upon a career that he so
+bitterly detested.</p>
+
+<p>The will of the deceased, however, was in his eyes sacred; and
+it was,
+moreover, at any rate certain that Jonathan with his weakly body could
+not be trained up to any handicraft that made any very large demand
+upon physical strength. Besides, when old Herr Theophilus Eichheimer
+talked to the master about the divine gift of knowledge, at the same
+time praising little Jonathan as a good intelligent boy, Wacht for the
+moment forgot the advocate, and law, and his own prejudice as well. He
+fastened all his hopes upon the belief that Jonathan, who bore his
+father's virtues in his heart, would give up his profession when he
+arrived at riper years, and was able to perceive all the disgrace that
+attached to it.</p>
+
+<p>Though Jonathan was a good, quiet boy, fond of studying
+in-doors,
+Sebastian was all the oftener and all the deeper engaged in all kinds
+of wild foolish pranks. But since in respect to his handiwork he
+followed in his father's footsteps, and no fault could ever be found
+with his industry or with the neatness of his work, Master Wacht
+ascribed his at times too outrageous tricks to the unrefined untamed
+fire of youth, and he forgave the young fellow, observing that he would
+be sure to sow his wild oats when on his travels.</p>
+
+<p>These travels Sebastian soon set out upon; and Master Wacht
+heard
+nothing more from him until Sebastian, on attaining his majority, wrote
+from Vienna, begging for his little patrimonial inheritance, which
+Master Wacht sent to him correct to the last farthing, receiving in
+return a receipt for it drawn up by one of the Vienna courts.</p>
+
+<p>Just the same sort of difference in character as distinguished
+the
+Engelbrechts was noticeable also between Wacht's two daughters, of whom
+the elder was called Rettel<sup><a name="div2_wacht6" href="#div2Ref_wacht6">6</a></sup> and the younger Nanni.</p>
+
+<p>It may here be hastily remarked in passing, that, according to
+the
+taste generally prevalent in Bamberg, the Christian name Nanni is the
+prettiest and finest a girl can well have. And so, kindly reader, if
+you ever ask a pretty child in Bamberg, &quot;What is your name, my little
+angel?&quot; the little thing will be sure to cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and tug at her black silk apron, and whisper in friendly
+fashion with a slight blush upon her cheeks, &quot;'N! 'N! Nanni, y'r
+honour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Rettel, Wacht's elder daughter, was a fat little thing, with
+red rosy
+cheeks and right friendly black eyes, with which she looked boldly into
+the face of the sunshine of life, as it had dawned upon her, without
+blinking. In respect of her education and her character she had not
+risen a hair's breadth above the sphere of the handicraftsman. She
+gossiped with her female relatives and friends, and liked dressing
+herself, though in gay colours and without taste; but her own peculiar
+element, wherein she &quot;lived and moved, and had her being,&quot; was the
+kitchen. Nobody's hare-ragout and geese giblets, not even those of the
+most experienced cook far and near, ever turned out so tasty as hers;
+in the preparation of sauces she was a perfect adept; vegetables, such
+as savoy and cauliflower, were dressed by Rettel's cunning hand in a
+way that could not be beaten, since she knew in a moment through a
+subtle unfailing instinct when there was too much or too little
+dripping; and her short cakes put in the shade the most successful
+productions of a similar kind at the most sumptuous of church
+feasts.<sup><a name="div2_wacht7" href="#div2Ref_wacht7">7</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>Father Wacht was very well satisfied with his daughter's
+cooking; and
+he once hazarded the opinion that the Prince-bishop could not have more
+delicious vermicelli noodles<sup><a name="div2_wacht8" href="#div2Ref_wacht8">8</a></sup> on his table than those which Rettel
+made. This remark sank so deeply into the good girl's pleased heart,
+that she was preparing to send a huge dish of the said vermicelli
+noodles up to the Prince-bishop, and that too on a fast day.
+Fortunately Master Wacht got scent of the plan in time, and amidst
+hearty laughter prevented the bold idea from being put into execution.</p>
+
+<p>Not only was stout little Rettel a clever housekeeper, a
+perfect cook,
+and at the same time a pattern of good nature and childish affection
+and fidelity, but like a well-trained child she also loved her father
+very tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>Now characters of Wacht's class, in spite of their
+earnestness, often
+display a certain ironical waggishness which comes into play on easy
+provocation, and lends an agreeable charm to life, just as the deep
+brook greets with its silver curling waves the light breeze that skims
+its surface.</p>
+
+<p>It could not fail but that good Rettel's ways and doings
+frequently
+provoked this sly humour; and so the relations between Wacht and his
+daughter were invested with a curiously modified charm of colour. The
+indulgent reader will come across instances later on; for the present
+it may suffice to mention one such here, which certainly deserves
+to be called entertaining. In Master Wacht's house there was a quiet,
+good-looking young man, who held a post in the Prince's exchequer
+office and drew a very good income. In straightforward German fashion
+he sued the father for the hand of his elder daughter, and Master
+Wacht, if he would not do an injustice to the young man as well as to
+his Rettel, could not help but grant him permission to visit the house,
+that he might have opportunities to try and win the girl's affections.
+Rettel, informed of the man's purpose, received him with very friendly
+looks, in which might be read at times, &quot;At our wedding, dear, I shall
+bake the cake myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht, however, was not altogether well pleased with
+his
+daughter's growing liking for the Herr Administrator of the Prince's
+revenues, since the Herr Administrator himself didn't seem to him to be
+all that he should be. In the first place, the man was as a matter of
+course a Roman Catholic, and in the second place Wacht thought he
+perceived in him on nearer acquaintance a certain sneaking
+dissimulation of manner, which pointed to a mind ill at ease. He would
+willingly have got the undesirable suitor out of the house again if he
+could have done so without hurting Rettel's feelings. Master Wacht
+observed him closely, and knew how to make shrewd and cunning use of
+his observations. He perceived that the Herr Administrator did not set
+much store by well-cooked dishes, but swallowed down everything in the
+same indiscriminate fashion, and that, moreover, in a disagreeably
+repulsive way. One Sunday, when the Herr Administrator was dining at
+Master Wacht's, as he usually did on that day, the latter began to heap
+up praises and commendations upon every dish which busy Rettel caused
+to be served up; and not only did he call upon the Herr Administrator
+to join him in his encomiums, but he also asked him pointedly what he
+thought of various ways of dressing dishes. The Herr Administrator
+replied somewhat dryly that he was a temperate and abstemious man,
+accustomed from his youth up to the greatest frugality. At noon, for
+dinner, he was satisfied with a spoonful or two of soup and a little
+piece of beef, but the latter must be cooked hard, since so cooked a
+smaller quantity sufficed to satisfy the hunger, and there was no need
+to overload the stomach with large pieces. For his evening meal he
+generally managed upon a saucer of good egg and butter beaten up
+together and a very small glass of liquor; moreover, the only other
+refreshment he allowed himself was a glass of extra beer at six o'clock
+in the evening, taken if possible in the good fresh air. It may be
+imagined what looks Rettelchen fixed upon the unfortunate
+administrator. And yet the worst was still to come. Bavarian puffy
+noodles were next served, and they were swollen up to such a big, big
+size that they seemed to be the masterpiece of the table. The frugal
+Herr Administrator took his knife and with the most cool-blooded
+indifference cut the noodle which was passed to him into many pieces.
+Rettel rushed out of the room with a loud cry of despair.</p>
+
+<p>I must inform the reader who does not know the secret of
+eating
+Bavarian puffy noodles that when eaten they must be cleverly pulled to
+pieces, since when cut they lose all taste and bring disgrace upon the
+professional pride of the cook who made them.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment Rettel looked upon the frugal Herr
+Administrator as
+the most abominable man under the face of the sun. Master Wacht did not
+contradict her in any way; and so the reckless iconoclast in the
+province of cookery lost his bride for ever.</p>
+
+<p>Though the chequered figure of little Rettel has cost almost
+too many
+words, yet a very few strokes will suffice to put clearly before my
+reader's eyes the face, figure, and character of pretty, graceful
+Nanni.</p>
+
+<p>It is only in South Germany, particularly in Franconia, and
+almost
+exclusively in the burgher classes, that you can meet with such elegant
+and delicate figures, such good and pleasing angelic little faces,
+where there is a sweet heavenly yearning in the blue eyes and a divine
+smile upon the rosy lips, as Nanni's; from them we at once see that the
+old painters had not far to seek the originals of their Madonnas. Of
+exactly the same type in figure, face, and character was the Erlangen
+maiden whom Master Wacht had married; and Nanni was a most faithful
+copy of her mother. With respect to her genuine tender womanliness and
+with respect to that beneficial culture which is nothing but true tact
+under all conditions of life, her mother was the exact counterpart of
+what Master Wacht was with respect to his distinguishing qualities as
+man. Perhaps the daughter was less serious and firm than her mother,
+but on the other hand she was the perfection of maidenly sweetness; and
+the only fault that could be found with her was that her womanly
+tenderness of feeling and a sensitiveness which, as a consequence of
+her weakened organisation, was easily provoked to a tearful and
+unhealthy degree, made her too delicate and fragile for the realities
+of life.</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht could not look at the dear child without emotion,
+and he
+loved her in a way that is seldom found in the case of strong
+characters like his. It is possible that he may have always spoiled her
+a little; and it will soon be shown in what way her tenderness so often
+received that special material and encouragement which made it often
+degenerate into sickly sentimentality.</p>
+
+<p>Nanni loved to dress with extreme simplicity, but in the
+finest stuffs
+and according to cuts which rose above the limits of her station in
+life. Wacht, however, let her do as she liked, since when dressed
+according to her own taste the dear child looked so very pretty and
+engaging.</p>
+
+<p>I must now hasten to destroy an idea which perhaps might arise
+in the
+mind of any reader who should happen to have been in Bamberg several
+years ago, and so would call to mind the hideous and tasteless head-
+dress with which at that time even the prettiest maidens were wont to
+disfigure their faces--the flat hood fitting close to the head and not
+allowing the smallest little lock of hair to be seen, a black and not
+over-broad ribbon crossing close over the forehead, and meeting behind
+low down on the neck in an outrageously ugly bow. This ribbon
+afterwards continued to increase in width until it reached the
+preposterous breadth of nearly half an ell; hence it had to be
+specially ordered in the manufactory and strengthened inside with stiff
+card-board, so that it projected above the head like a steeple-hat;
+just above the hollow of the neck they wore a bow, which owing to its
+breadth stuck out far beyond the shoulders, and resembled the outspread
+wings of an eagle; and along the temples and about the ears tiny curls
+crept out from beneath the hood. And strange to say, many a fine
+Bamberg beauty looked quite charming in this head-covering.</p>
+
+<p>It formed a very picturesque sight to stand behind a funeral
+procession
+and watch it set itself in motion. It is the custom in Bamberg for the
+burghers to be invited to attend the funeral procession of a deceased
+person by the so-called &quot;death-woman,&quot; who in a croaking voice and in
+the name of the deceased screams out her invitation in the street, in
+front of the house of the persons she is inviting; as, for instance,
+&quot;Herr so-and-so, or Frau so-and-so, beg you to pay them the last
+honours.&quot; The good gossips and the young maidens, who in general seldom
+get out into the open air, fail not to put in an appearance in great
+numbers; and when the troop of women sets itself in motion and the wind
+catches the immense ends of the bows, it can be likened to nothing else
+but a huge flock of black ravens or eagles suddenly startled and just
+beginning their rustling flight.</p>
+
+<p>The indulgent reader is therefore requested not to picture
+pretty Nanni
+in any other head-dress except a neat little Erlangen hood.</p>
+
+<p>However objectionable it was to Master Wacht that Jonathan was
+to
+belong to a class which he hated, he did not by any means make the boy,
+or later the youth, feel the consequences of his displeasure. Rather he
+was always very pleased to see the good quiet Jonathan look in after
+his day's work was done, to spend the evening with his daughters and
+old Barbara. But then Jonathan also wrote the finest hand that could be
+seen anywhere; and it afforded Master Wacht no little joy, for he was
+uncommonly fond of good handwriting, when his Nanni, whose writing-
+master Jonathan had installed himself to be, began gradually after a
+time to write the same elegant hand as her master.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening Master Wacht himself was either busy in his own
+work-
+room, or, as was often the case, he visited a beer-house, where he met
+with his fellow-craftsmen and the gentlemen of the council, and in his
+way enlivened the company with his own rare wit. Meanwhile in the house
+at home Barbara busily kept her distaff on the whirl and whizz, whilst
+Rettel balanced the house-keeping accounts, or thought out the
+preparation of new and hitherto unheard-of dishes, or related again to
+the old woman, mingled with a good deal of loud laughter, what she had
+learned in confidence from her various gossips in the town.</p>
+
+<p>And the youth Jonathan? He sat at the table with Nanni; and
+she also
+wrote and drew, of course under his guidance. And yet to sit writing
+and drawing the whole evening through is a downright tiring piece of
+business; hence it was no unfrequent occurrence for Jonathan to draw
+some neatly-bound book out of his pocket and read it to pretty,
+sensitive Nanni in a low softly-whispering tone.</p>
+
+<p>Through old Eichheimer's influence Jonathan had won the
+patronage of
+the minor canon, who designated Master Wacht a real Verrina. The canon,
+Count von Kösel, a man of genius, lived and revelled in Goethe's and
+Schiller's works, which were just at that time beginning to rise like
+bright streaming meteors, overtopping all others, above the horizon of
+the literary sky. He thought, and rightly, that he discerned a similar
+tendency in his attorney's young clerk, and took a special delight not
+only in lending him the works in question, but in reading them in
+common with him, and so helping him to thoroughly digest them.</p>
+
+<p>But Jonathan won his way to the Count's heart in an especial
+way,
+because he expressed a very favourable opinion of the verses which the
+Count patched together out of high-sounding phrases in the sweat of his
+own brow, and because he was, to the Count's unspeakable satisfaction,
+edified and touched by them to the proper pitch. Nevertheless it is a
+fact that Jonathan's taste in æsthetic matters was really greatly
+improved by his intercourse with the intellectual, though somewhat
+euphuistic, Count.</p>
+
+<p>My kind reader now knows what class of books Jonathan used to
+take out
+of his pocket and read to pretty Nanni, and can form a just conception
+of the way in which this kind of writings would inevitably excite a
+girl mentally organised as Nanni was. &quot;O star of the gloaming eve!&quot;
+Would not Nanni's tears flow when her attractive writing-master began
+in this low and solemn fashion?</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact of common experience that young people who are in
+the
+habit of singing tender love-duets together very easily put themselves
+in the places of the fictitious characters of the song, and come to
+look upon the duets in question as giving both the melody and the text
+for the whole of life; so also the youth who reads a love romance to a
+maiden very readily becomes the hero of the story, whilst the girl
+dreams herself into the role of the heroine. In the case of such fitly
+adapted spirits as Jonathan and Nanni such incitement as this even was
+not required to provoke them to love each other. They were one heart
+and one soul; the maiden and the youth were, so to speak, but one
+brightly burning flame of love, pure and inextinguishable. Of his
+daughter's tender passion Father Wacht had not the slightest inkling;
+but he was soon to learn all.</p>
+
+<p>Through unwearied industry and genuine talent Jonathan
+succeeded in a
+brief space of time in completing his legal studies and qualifying for
+admission to the grade of advocate; and, as a matter of fact, his
+admission soon followed. He intended one Sunday to surprise Master
+Wacht with this glad news, which established him upon a secure footing
+for life. But imagine how he trembled with dismay when Wacht bent his
+eyes upon him, blazing with anger; he had never seen him look so
+passionately wrathful. &quot;What!&quot; cried Wacht, in a tone that made the
+walls ring again, &quot;what! you miserable good-for-nothing fellow! Nature
+has neglected your body, but richly endowed you with splendid
+intellectual gifts, and these you are intending to abuse in a shameless
+way, like a bad crafty knave, and so putting your knife at your own
+mother's throat? You mean to say you are going to traffic in justice as
+in some cheap paltry ware in the public market, and weigh it out with
+false scales to the poor peasants and the oppressed burgher, who in
+vain utter their plaintive cries before the soft-cushioned seat of the
+inexorable judge, and going to get yourself paid with blood-stained
+pence which the poor man hands to you whilst bathed in tears? Will you
+fill your brains with lying laws of man's contriving, and practise
+knavish tricks and schemes, and make a lucrative business of it to
+fatten yourself upon? Is all your father's virtue, tell me, vanished
+from your heart? Your father--your name is Engelbrecht--no! when I hear
+you called so I will not believe that it is the name of my comrade, who
+was a pattern of virtue and honesty, but I must believe that it is
+Satan, who in the apish mockery of Hell is shouting the name across his
+grave, and so beguiling men to take the young lying lawyer's cub for
+the real son of that excellent carpenter Gottfried Engelbrecht. Begone!
+you are no longer my foster-son! You are a serpent whom I will pluck
+from my bosom, whom I will disown&quot;----</p>
+
+<p>At this point Nanni rushed in and threw herself at Master
+Wacht's feet
+with a piercing heart-rending cry of distress. &quot;Father!&quot; she cried,
+completely overcome by her incontrollable anguish and unbridled
+despair, &quot;father, if you disown him, you will disown me also--me, your
+own favourite daughter; he is mine, my Jonathan; I can never, never
+part with him in this world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The poor child fell down in a swoon and struck her head
+against the
+closet-door, so that the drops of blood trickled down her delicate
+white forehead. Barbara and Rettel ran in and carried the insensible
+girl to the sofa. Jonathan stood like a statue, as if thunderstruck,
+incapable of the slightest movement. It would be difficult to describe
+the inner emotions which revealed themselves on Wacht's countenance.
+His face, instead of being flushed with the redness of anger, was now
+pale as a corpse's; there only remained a dark fire gleaming in his
+fixed set eyes; the cold perspiration of death appeared to be standing
+on his forehead. After gazing unchangeably before him for some minutes
+without speaking, he relieved his labouring breast by saying in a
+significant tone, &quot;So that was it!&quot; then he strode slowly towards the
+door, where he again stood still, and turning half round towards the
+women, cried, &quot;Dont' spare <i>eau de Cologne</i>, and this foolery will soon
+be over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards the Master was seen to leave the house at a
+quick
+pace and bend his steps towards the hills. It may be conceived in what
+great trouble and distress the family was plunged. Rettel and Barbara
+could not for the life of them imagine what terrible thing had
+happened; but when the Master did not return to dinner, but stayed out
+till late at night--a thing he had never done before--they were greatly
+agitated with anxiety and fear. At length they heard him coming, heard
+him open the street-door, bang it violently to, ascend the stairs with
+strong firm footsteps, and lock himself in his own chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Nanni soon recovered herself again and wept quietly to
+herself.
+But Jonathan did not stop short of wild outbreaks of inconsolable
+despair, and several times spoke of shooting himself. It is a fortunate
+thing that pistols are articles which do not necessarily belong to the
+furniture of sentimental young lawyers; or at least, if they are to be
+found amongst their effects, they generally have no lock or else won't
+go off.</p>
+
+<p>After he had run through certain streets like a madman,
+Jonathan's
+course led him instinctively to his noble patron, to whom he lamented
+all his unheard-of misery in outbreaks of the most violent passion. It
+need hardly be added, it is so self-evident a thing, that the young
+love-smitten advocate was, according to his own desperate assertions,
+the first and only individual in all the wide world whom such a
+terrible fate had befallen, wherefore he reproached destiny and all the
+powers of enmity as having conspired together against him.</p>
+
+<p>The canon listened to him calmly and with a certain share of
+interest;
+but nevertheless he did not appear to appreciate the full extent of the
+trouble which the young lawyer imagined he felt &quot;My dear young friend,&quot;
+said the canon, taking the advocate by the hand in a friendly way, and
+leading him to a seat, &quot;my dear young friend, hitherto I have looked
+upon our carpenter Herr Johannes Wacht as a great man in his way, but I
+now perceive that he is also a very great fool. Great fools are like
+jibbing horses; it's hard to make them move; but once they have been
+got to move, they trot merrily along the way they are wanted to go. In
+spite of the old man's senseless anger you ought not by any means to
+give up your beautiful Nanni in consequence of the unpleasant scene of
+today. But before proceeding to talk further about your love-affair,
+which is indeed very charming and romantic, let us turn to and discuss
+a little breakfast. It was noon when you went to old Wacht, and I don't
+dine until four o'clock in Seehof.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_wacht9" href="#div2Ref_wacht9">9</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>A very appetising breakfast indeed was served up on the little
+table at
+which they both sat--the canon and the advocate--Bayonne hams,
+garnished round about with slices of Portuguese onions, a cold larded
+partridge of the red kind and a foreigner to boot, truffles cooked in
+red wine, a dish of Strasburg <i>pâtés de foie gras</i>, finally a plate of
+genuine Strachino<sup><a name="div2_wacht10" href="#div2Ref_wacht10">10</a></sup> and another with butter, as yellow and shining as
+lilies of the valley.</p>
+
+<p>The indulgent reader who loves such dainty butter, and ever
+goes to
+Bamberg, will be pleased at getting there the finest and best, but will
+also at the same time be annoyed when he learns that the inhabitants,
+from mistaken notions of housekeeping, melt it down to a grease, which
+generally tastes rancid and spoils all the food.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, good dry champagne was sending up its pearly sparkles
+in a
+beautifully-cut crystal decanter. The canon had not unloosed the napkin
+from his neck, but had let it stay where it was when he had received
+the young lawyer; and, after the footman had quickly supplied a second
+cover, he proceeded to place the choicest morsels before the despairing
+lover and to pour out wine for him; and then he set to work heartily
+himself. Some one once had the hardihood to maintain that the stomach
+is equivalent to all the other physical and intellectual parts of man
+put together. That is a profane and abominable doctrine; but this much
+is certain, that the stomach is like a despotic tyrant or ironical
+mystifier, and often carries through its own will. And this was the
+case in the present instance. For instinctively, without being clearly
+conscious of what he was about, the young lawyer had in a few minutes
+devoured a huge piece of Bayonne ham, created terrible devastation
+amongst the Portuguese garniture, put out of sight half a partridge, no
+inconsiderable quantity of trufles, and also more Strasburg <i>pâtés</i>
+than was exactly becoming in a young advocate full of trouble.
+Moreover, they both relished the champagne so much that the footman
+soon had to fill up the crystal decanter a second time.</p>
+
+<p>The advocate felt a pleasant and beneficial degree of warmth
+penetrate
+his vitals, and all he experienced of his trouble was a singular sort
+of shiver, which exactly resembled electric shocks, causing pain but
+doing good. He proved himself susceptible to the consolations of his
+patron, who, after comfortably sipping up his last glass of wine and
+elegantly wiping his mouth, settled himself into position and began as
+follows:--</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first place, my dear good friend, you must not be so
+foolish as
+to imagine that you are the only man on earth to whom a father has
+refused the hand of his daughter. But that's nothing to do with the
+present case. As I have already told you, the old fool's reason for
+hating you is so preposterously absurd that it cannot last long; and
+whether it appear to you at this moment nonsensical or not, I can
+hardly bear the thought of all ending in a tame commonplace wedding, so
+that the whole thing may be summed up in the few words,--Peter has
+wooed Grete,<sup><a name="div2_wacht11" href="#div2Ref_wacht11">11</a></sup> and Peter and Grete are man and wife.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The situation is, however, so far new and grand in that it is
+merely
+hatred against a class to which the beloved foster-son belongs that can
+furnish the sole lever for setting a new and special tragic development
+in motion; but to the real matter at issue! You are a poet, my friend,
+and that alters everything. Your love, your trouble, ought to appear in
+your eyes as something magnificent, in the full splendours of the
+sacred art of poesy. You will hear the strains of the lyre struck by
+the muse who is nearest akin to you, and in the divine gush of
+inspiration you will receive the winged words in which to express your
+love and your unhappiness. As a poet you might be called at this moment
+the happiest man on the earth, since, your heart having been really
+wounded as deep as it can be wounded, your heart's blood is now gushing
+out. You require, therefore, no artificial incitement to allure you to
+a poetic mood; and mark my words, this period of trouble will enable
+you to produce something great and admirable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must draw your attention to the fact that in these first
+moments of
+your unhappiness there will be mingled with it a peculiar and very
+unpleasant feeling which cannot be woven into any poetry; but it is a
+feeling which soon vanishes away. Let me make you understand. For
+example, after the unfortunate lover has had a good sound drubbing from
+the enraged father, and has been kicked out of the house, and the
+outraged mamma has locked the young lady in her chamber, and repelled
+the attempted storming on the part of the desperate lover by the armed
+domestics of the house, and when plebeian fists have even entertained
+no shyness of the very finest cloth&quot; (here the canon sighed somewhat),
+&quot;then this fermented prose of miserable vulgarity must evaporate in
+order that the pure poetic unhappiness of love may settle as sediment
+You have been fearfully scolded, my dear young friend, this was the
+bitter prose that had to be surmounted; you have surmounted it, and so
+now give yourself up entirely to poetry. Here--here are Petrarch's <i>
+Sonnets</i> and Ovid's <i>Elegies</i>; take them, read them, write yourself,
+and come and read to me what you have written. Perhaps in the meantime
+I also may experience a disappointment in love, of which I am not
+altogether deprived of hopes, since I shall in all likelihood fall in
+love with a stranger lady who has stopped at the 'White Lamb' in the
+Steinweg,<sup><a name="div2_wacht12" href="#div2Ref_wacht12">12</a></sup> and whom Count Nesselstädt maintains to be a paragon of
+beauty and grace, albeit he has only caught a fugitive glimpse of her
+at the window. Then, my friend, like the Dioscuri, we will travel the
+same bright path of poetry and disappointed love. Note, my good fellow,
+what a great advantage my station in life gives me, for every affection
+which I conceive, being a longing and hoping which can never be
+gratified, rises to tragic intensity. But now, my friend, out, out,
+away into the woods as you ought to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It would doubtless be very wearisome to my kind reader, if not
+unbearable, were I to describe here at length, in detail and with all
+sorts of over-choice and exquisite words and phrases, all that Jonathan
+and Nanni did in their trouble. Such things may be found in any
+indifferent romance; and it is often amusing enough to see into what
+postures the struggling author throws himself, merely in order to
+appear original. On the other hand, it seems to be of great importance
+to follow Master Wacht on his walks, or rather in his mental
+journeyings.</p>
+
+<p>It must appear very remarkable that a man of such strong
+self-reliant
+spirit as Master Wacht, who had borne with unshaken courage and
+unbending steadfastness the most terrible misfortunes that had befallen
+him, and that would have crushed many less stouthearted spirits, could
+be thus put beside himself with passion at an occurrence which any
+other father of a family would have regarded as an ordinary event and
+one easy to remedy, and would in fact have set about remedying it in
+some way or other, good or bad. Of course the indulgent reader is well
+aware that this behaviour of Wacht's must be traced to some good
+psychological reason. The thought that poor Nanni's love for innocent
+Jonathan was a misfortune which would exercise a pernicious influence
+upon the whole course of his subsequent life was only due to the
+perverse discord in Wacht's soul. But the very fact that this discord
+was able to go on making itself heard in the otherwise harmonical
+character of this thoroughly noble man, embraced the impossibility of
+smothering it or reducing it completely to silence.</p>
+
+<p>Wacht had made his acquaintance with the feminine character in
+one who
+possessed it in a simple but also at the same time grand and noble
+form. His own wife had enabled him to see into the depths of the real
+woman's nature, as in a bright mirror-like lake. He saw in her the true
+heroine who fought with weapons that were constantly unconquerable. His
+orphan wife had forfeited the inheritance of an immensely rich aunt,
+she had forfeited the love of all her relatives, and she had opposed
+with unshaken courage the persistent efforts of the Church, which
+embittered her life with many a hard trial, when, though herself
+trained up in the Catholic religion, she had married the Protestant
+Wacht, and shortly before had gone over to this faith in Augsburg,
+impelled thereto by the pure enthusiasm of conviction. All this now
+passed through Master Wacht's mind; and as he thought upon the
+sentiments he had felt when he led the maiden to the altar, the warm
+tears ran down his cheeks. Nanni was her mother over again; Wacht loved
+the child with an intensity of affection that was quite unparalleled,
+and this fact was of itself more than enough to make him reject as
+abominable, nay, as fiendishly cruel, any attempt to separate the
+lovers that appeared in the remotest degree to savour of violence.
+When, on the other hand, he reflected upon the whole course of
+Jonathan's previous life, he was obliged to admit that all the virtues
+of a good, industrious, and modest youth could not easily be so happily
+united in another as they were in Jonathan, albeit his handsome
+expressive face bore the impress of traits which were perhaps a little
+too soft, and almost effeminate, and his diminutive and weak but
+elegant bodily frame bespoke a tender intellectual spirit. When he
+reflected further that the two children had always been together, and
+how evident had been their mutual liking for each other, he was really
+puzzled to understand how it was that he had not expected beforehand
+what had now really happened, and so could have taken precautions in
+time. Now it was too late.</p>
+
+<p>He was urged on through the hills by a mood of mind which set
+his whole
+being in a turmoil of distraction; such a state as this he had hitherto
+never experienced, and he was inclined to take it for a seduction of
+Satan, since several thoughts arose in his mind which in the very next
+minute he could not help regarding as diabolical. He could not recover
+his self-composure, still less form any decisive plan of action. The
+sun was beginning to set when he reached the village of Buch;<sup><a name="div2_wacht13" href="#div2Ref_wacht13">13</a></sup>
+turning into the hotel, he ordered something good to eat and a bottle
+of excellent beer from the rock.<sup><a name="div2_wacht14" href="#div2Ref_wacht14">14</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! a very fine evening! Ah! what a remarkable occurrence to
+see our
+good Master Wacht here in beautiful Buch, on this glorious Sunday
+evening. To tell you the truth, I can hardly believe my eyes. Your
+respected family is, I presume, somewhere else in the country.&quot; Thus
+was Master Wacht addressed by some one with a shrill, squeaking voice.
+The man who thus interrupted his meditations was no less a personage
+than Herr Pickard Leberfink, a decorator and gilder by trade, and one
+of the drollest men in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Leberfink's exterior struck everybody's eye as something
+eccentric and
+extraordinary. He was of small size, thick and stumpy, with a body too
+long, and with short bowed legs; his face was not at all ugly, but
+good-natured, with round red little cheeks and small grey eyes that
+were by no means wanting in vivacity. Pursuant to an old obsolete
+French fashion, he was elaborately curled and powdered every day; but
+it was on Sundays that his costume was especially striking. For then he
+wore, to take one example, a striped silk coat of a lilac and canary-
+yellow colour with immense silver-plated buttons, a waistcoat
+embroidered in gay tints, satin hose of a brilliant green, white and
+light-blue silk stockings, delicately striped, and shining black
+polished shoes, upon which glittered large buckles set with precious
+stones. If to this we add that his gait was the elegant gait of a
+dancing master, that he had a certain cat-like suppleness of body, and
+that his little legs had a strange knack of knocking the heels together
+on fitting occasions,--for instance, when leaping across a gutter,--it
+could not fail but that the little decorator got himself singled out
+everywhere as an extraordinary creature. With other aspects of his
+character my kindly reader will make an acquaintance presently.</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht was not altogether displeased at having his
+painful
+meditations interrupted in this way. Herr, or better Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink, decorator and gilder, was a great fop, but at the same time
+the most honest and faithful soul in the world; he was a very liberal-
+minded man, was generous to the poor, and always ready to serve his
+friends. He only practised his calling now and again, merely out of
+love for it, since he had no need of business. He was rich; his father
+had left him some landed property, having a magnificent rock-cellar,
+which was only separated from Master Wacht's premises by a large
+garden. Master Wacht was fond of the droll little Leberfink on account
+of his downright genuineness, and also because he was a member of the
+small Protestant community which was permitted to exercise the rites of
+its faith in Bamberg. With conspicuous alacrity and willingness
+Leberfink accepted Wacht's invitation to join him at his table, and
+drink another bottle of beer from the rock along with him. He began the
+conversation by saying that for a long time he had been wanting to call
+upon Master Wacht at his own house, since he had two things he wished
+to talk to him about, one of which was almost making his heart burst.
+Wacht made answer, he thought Leberfink knew him, and must be aware
+that anybody who had anything to say to him, no matter what it was,
+might speak out his thoughts frankly. Leberfink now imparted to the
+Master in confidence that the wine-dealer who owned the beautiful
+garden, with the massive pavilion, which lay between their two
+properties, had privately offered to sell it to him. He thought he
+recollected having heard Wacht once express a wish how very much he
+should like to own this garden; if now the opportunity was come to
+satisfy this wish, he (Leberfink) offered his services as negotiator,
+and expressed his willingness to settle everything for him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fact that Master Wacht had for some time entertained
+a desire
+to enlarge his property by the addition of a good garden, and
+especially so since Nanni was always longing for the beautiful shrubs
+and trees which gave out such a luxurious abundance of sweet scents in
+this very garden. Moreover, it seemed to him now as if Fortune were
+graciously smiling upon him, and just at the time when poor Nanni had
+experienced such bitter trouble, an opportunity for affording her
+pleasure should present itself so unexpectedly. The Master at once
+settled all the needful particulars with the obliging decorator, who
+promised that on the following Sunday Wacht should be able to stroll
+through the garden as its owner. &quot;Come now,&quot; cried Master Wacht, &quot;come
+now, friend Leberfink, out with it--what is it that is making your
+heart burst?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then Herr Pickard Leberfink fell to sighing in the most
+pitiable
+manner; and he pulled the most extraordinary faces, and ran on with
+such a string of gibberish that nobody could make either head or tail
+of it. Master Wacht, however, knew what to make of it, for he shook his
+head, saying, &quot;Ah! that may be contrived;&quot; and he smiled to himself at
+the wonderful sympathy of their related spirits.</p>
+
+<p>This meeting with Leberfink had certainly done Master Wacht
+good; he
+believed he had conceived a plan by virtue of which he should manage
+not only to stand against, but even to overcome, the severest and most
+terrible misfortune which, according to his infatuated way of thinking,
+had come upon him. The only thing that can declare the verdict of the
+tribunal within him is the course of action he adopted; and perhaps,
+kindly reader, this tribunal faltered for the first time. Here is the
+place to offer a brief remark, which, perhaps, would not very well lend
+itself for insertion later. As so frequently happens in such cases, old
+Barbara had interfered in the matter, and been very urgent in her
+accusations of the loving pair to Master Wacht, making it a special
+charge against them that they had always read worldly books together.
+The Master caused her to bring two or three of the books which Nanni
+had. One was a work of Goethe's; unfortunately it is not known which
+work it was. After turning over the leaves, he gave it back to Barbara,
+that she might restore it to the place whence she had secretly taken
+it. Not a single word about Nanni's reading ever escaped him; once
+only, when some seasonable occasion presented at dinner, did he say,
+&quot;There is a remarkable mind rising up amongst us Germans; God grant him
+success! My days are over; such things are not for my age, nor yet for
+my calling; but you--Jonathan? I envy you many things that will come to
+light in the days to come.&quot; Jonathan understood Wacht's oracular words
+the more easily, since some days previously he had discovered by chance <i>
+Götz von Berlichingen</i><sup><a name="div2_wacht15" href="#div2Ref_wacht15">15</a></sup> lying on the Master's work-table, half
+covered by other papers. Wacht's great mind, whilst acknowledging the
+uncommon genius of the new writer, had also perceived the impossibility
+of beginning a new flight himself.</p>
+
+<p>Next day poor Nanni hung her head like a sick dove. &quot;What's
+the matter
+with my dear child?&quot; asked Master Wacht in the tender sympathetic tone
+that was so peculiarly his own, and with which he knew how to stir
+everybody's heart, &quot;what's the matter with my dear child? are you ill?
+I can't believe it. You don't get out into the fresh air sufficiently.
+See here now; I have a long time been wishing you would for once in a
+way bring me my tea out to the workshop. Do so to-day; we may expect a
+most beautiful evening. You will come, won't you, Nanni, my darling?
+You will butter me some rolls yourself--that will make them ever so
+good.&quot; Therewith Master Wacht took the dear girl in his arms and
+stroked her brown curls back from her forehead, and he kissed her and
+pressed her to his heart, and tenderly caressed her,--treating her, in
+fact, in the most affectionate way that he knew how; and he was well
+aware of the irresistible charm of his manner at such times. A flood of
+tears gushed from Nanni's eyes, and with some difficulty all she could
+get out was, &quot;Father! father!&quot; &quot;Well, well!&quot; said Wacht, and a strain
+of embarrassment might have been detected in his voice, &quot;all may yet
+turn out well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A week passed; naturally enough Jonathan had not shown
+himself, and the
+Master had not mentioned him with a single syllable. On Sunday, when
+the soup was standing smoking on the table, and the family were about
+to take their seats for dinner. Master Wacht asked gaily, &quot;And where is
+our Jonathan?&quot; Rettel, with a view to sparing poor Nanni, replied in an
+undertone, &quot;Father, don't you know then what's taken place? Wouldn't
+Jonathan of course be shy of showing himself here in your presence?&quot;
+&quot;Oh the monkey!&quot; said Wacht, laughing; &quot;let Christian run over at once
+and fetch him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It need hardly be said that the young advocate failed not to
+put in an
+appearance immediately, nor that during the first moments after his
+arrival a dark oppressive thunder-cloud, as it were, hovered over them
+all. At length, however, Master Wacht's unconstrained good spirits,
+seconded by Leberfink's droll sallies, succeeded in calling forth a
+tone of conversation which, if it could not be called exactly merry,
+yet managed to maintain the balance of concord pretty evenly. After
+dinner Master Wacht said, &quot;Let us get a little fresh air and stroll out
+to my workyard.&quot; And they did so.</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Pickard Leberfink deliberately kept close to
+Rettelchen's
+side, who was a pattern of friendliness towards him, since the polite
+decorator had exhausted himself in praising her dishes, and had
+confessed that never so long as he had lived, not even when dining with
+the ecclesiastics in Banz,<sup><a name="div2_wacht16" href="#div2Ref_wacht16">16</a></sup> had he enjoyed a more delicious meal. As
+Master Wacht now hurried on at a quick pace right across the middle of
+the workyard, with a large bundle of keys in his hand, the young lawyer
+was unintentionally brought close to Nanni. But all that the lovers
+ventured upon were stolen sighs and low soft-breathed love-plaints.</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht came to a halt in front of a fine newly-made
+door, which
+had been constructed in the wall parting his workyard from the
+merchant's garden. He unlocked the door and stepped in, inviting his
+family to follow him. They, none of them, knew exactly what to make of
+the old gentleman, except Herr Pickard Leberfink, who never laid aside
+his sly smile, or ceased his soft giggle. In the midst of the beautiful
+garden there was a very spacious pavilion; this too Master Wacht
+opened, and stepping in remained standing in its centre; from every one
+of its windows one obtained a different romantic view. &quot;Yes,&quot; said
+Master Wacht in a voice that bore witness to a heart well pleased with
+itself, &quot;here I am in my own property; this beautiful garden is mine. I
+was obliged to buy it, not so much to augment my own place or increase
+the value of my property, no! but because I knew that a certain darling
+little thing longed so for these shrubs and trees, and for these
+beautiful sweet-smelling flower-beds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then Nanni threw herself upon the old gentleman's breast and
+cried, &quot;O
+father! father! You will break my heart with your kindness, with your
+goodness; do have pity&quot;---- &quot;There, there, say no more,&quot; Master Wacht
+interrupted his suffering child, &quot;be a good girl, and all may be
+brought right in some marvellous way. You can find a great deal of
+comfort in this little paradise&quot;---- &quot;Oh! yes, yes, yes,&quot; exclaimed
+Nanni in a burst of enthusiasm, &quot;O ye trees, ye shrubs, ye flowers, ye
+distant hills, you beautiful fleeting evening clouds--my spirit lives
+wholly in you all; I shall come to myself again when your sweet voices
+comfort me.&quot; Therewith Nanni ran out of the open door of the pavilion
+into the garden like a startled young roe; and Jonathan, the lawyer,
+delayed not to follow her at his fastest speed, for no power would then
+have been able to keep him back. Monsieur Pickard Leberfink requested
+permission to show Rettelchen round the new property.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile old Wacht had beer and tobacco brought to a spot
+under the
+trees, close at the brow of the hill, whence he could look down into
+the valley; and there he sat in a right glad and comfortable humour,
+puffing the blue clouds of genuine Holland into the air. No doubt my
+kindly reader is wondering greatly at this frame of mind in Master
+Wacht, and is at a loss to explain to himself how a mood like this was
+at all possible to a temperament like Wacht's. He had arrived, not so
+much at any determined plan as at the conviction that the Eternal Power
+could not possibly let him live to experience such a very terrible
+misfortune as that of seeing his favourite child united to a lawyer;
+that is, to Satan himself. &quot;Something will happen,&quot; he said to himself;
+&quot;something must happen, by which either this unhappy affair will be
+broken off or Jonathan snatched from the pit of destruction. It would
+be rash temerity, nay, perhaps a ruinous piece of mischief, producing
+the exact contrary of what was wished, if with my feeble hand I were to
+attempt to control the fly-wheel of Destiny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to credit what miserable, nay, often what absurd
+reasons a
+man will hunt up in order to represent the approaching misfortune as
+avertable. So there were moments in which Wacht built his hopes upon
+the arrival of wild Sebastian, whom he pictured to himself as a
+stalwart young fellow in the full flush and pride of youth, just on the
+point of attaining to manhood, and that he would bring about a change
+of direction in the drifting of circumstances, and make things
+different from what they then were. The very common, and alas! often
+too true idea came into his head, that woman is too greatly impressed
+by strong and striking manliness not to be conquered by it at last.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun began to go down, Monsieur Pickard Leberfink
+invited the
+family to go into his garden, which adjoined their own, and take a
+little refreshment. Beside Wacht's new possession the noble decorator
+and gilder's garden formed a most ridiculous and extraordinary
+contrast. Whilst almost too small in size, so that the only thing it
+could perhaps boast in its favour was the good height at which it was
+situated, it was laid out in Dutch style, the trees and hedges clipped
+with the shears in the most scrupulous and pedantic fashion. The
+slender stems of the fruit-trees standing in the flower-beds looked
+very pretty in their coats of light blue and rose tints, and pale
+yellow, and other colours. Leberfink had varnished them, and so
+beautified Nature. Moreover they saw in the trees the apples of the
+Hesperides.<sup><a name="div2_wacht17" href="#div2Ref_wacht17">17</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>But yet several further surprises were in store. Leberfink
+bade the
+girls pluck themselves a nosegay each; but on gathering the flowers
+they perceived to their amazement that both stalks and leaves were
+gilded. It was also very remarkable that all the leaves which Rettel
+took into her hands were shaped like hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The refreshment upon which Leberfink regaled his guests
+consisted of
+the choicest confectionery, the finest sweetmeats, and old Rhine wine
+and Muscatel. Rettel was quite beside herself over the confectionery,
+observing with special emphasis that such sweetmeats, which were for
+the most part splendidly silvered and gilded, were not, she knew made
+in Bamberg. Then Monsieur Pickard Leberfink assured her privately, with
+a most amorous smirk, that he himself knew a little about baking cakes
+and sweets, and that he was the happy maker of all these delicious
+dainties. Rettel almost fell upon her knees before him in reverence and
+astonishment; and yet the greatest surprise, was still in store for
+her.</p>
+
+<p>In the deepening dusk Monsieur Pickard Leberfink very cleverly
+contrived to entice little Rettel into a small arbour. No sooner was he
+alone with her than he recklessly plumped himself down upon both knees
+in the wet grass, notwithstanding that he was wearing his brilliant
+green satin hose; and, amidst many strange and unintelligible sounds of
+distress--not very dissimilar to the midnight elegies of the tom-cat
+Hinz<sup><a name="div2_wacht18" href="#div2Ref_wacht18">18</a></sup>--he presented her with an immense nosegay of flowers, in the
+middle of which was the finest full-blown rose that could be found
+anywhere. Rettel did what everybody does who has a nosegay given to
+him; she raised it to her nose; but in the selfsame moment she felt a
+sharp prick. In her alarm she was about to throw the nosegay away. But
+see what charming wonder had revealed itself in the meantime! A
+beautifully varnished little cupid had leapt up out of the heart of the
+rose and was holding out a burning heart with both hands towards
+Rettel. From his mouth depended a small strip of paper on which were
+written the words, &quot;Voilà le c&#339;ur de Monsieur Pickard Leberfink, que
+je vous offre&quot; (Here I offer you the heart of Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink).</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good gracious!&quot; exclaimed Rettel, very much alarmed. &quot;Good
+gracious!
+what are you doing, my good Herr Leberfink? Don't kneel down in front
+of me as if I were a princess. You will make marks on your beautiful
+satin--in the wet grass, and you will catch cold yourself; but elder
+tea and white sugar candy are good remedies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No!&quot; exclaimed the desperate lover--&quot;No, O Margaret, Pickard
+Leberfink, who loves you with all his heart, will not rise from the wet
+grass until you promise to be his&quot;---- &quot;You want to marry me?&quot; asked
+Rettel. &quot;Well then, up you get at once. Speak to my father, darling
+Leberfink, and drink one or two cups of elder tea this evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Why should the reader be longer wearied with Leberfink's and
+Rettel's
+folly? They were made for each other, and were betrothed, at which
+Father Wacht was right glad in his own teasing, humorous way.</p>
+
+<p>A certain degree of life was introduced into Wacht's house by
+Rettel's
+betrothal; and even the disconsolate lovers had more freedom, since
+they were less observed. But something of a quite special character was
+to happen to put an abrupt end to this quiet and comfortable condition
+in which they were all living. The young lawyer seemed particularly
+preoccupied, and his thoughts busy with some affair or another that
+absorbed all his energies; his visits at Wacht's house even began to be
+less frequent, and he often stayed away in the evening--a thing he had
+never been wont to do previously. &quot;What can be the matter with our
+Jonathan? He is completely preoccupied; he's quite another fellow from
+what he used to be,&quot; said Master Wacht, although he knew very well what
+was the cause, or rather the event, which was exercising such a visible
+influence upon the young lawyer, at least to all outward appearance. To
+tell the truth, he looked upon this event as the dispensation of
+Providence through which he should perhaps escape the great misfortune
+by which he believed himself threatened, and which he felt would
+completely upset all the happiness of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Some few months previously a young and unknown lady had
+arrived in
+Bamberg, and under circumstances which could only be called singular
+and mysterious. She was staying at the &quot;White Lamb.&quot; All the servants
+she had with her were an old grey-haired manservant and an old lady's-
+maid. Very various were the opinions current about her. Many maintained
+she was a distinguished and immensely rich Hungarian countess, who,
+owing to matrimonial dissensions, was compelled to take up her
+residence in solitary retirement in Bamberg for a time. Others, on the
+contrary, set her down as an ordinary forsaken Dido, and yet others as
+an itinerant singer, who would soon throw off her veil of nobility and
+announce herself as about to give a concert,--possibly she had no
+recommendations to the Prince-bishop. At any rate the majority were
+unanimous in making up their minds to regard the stranger, who,
+according to the statements of the few persons who had seen her, was of
+exceptional beauty, as an extremely ambiguous person.</p>
+
+<p>It had been noticed that the stranger lady's old man-servant
+had
+followed the young lawyer about a long time, until one day he caught
+him at the spring in the market-place, which is ornamented with an
+image of Neptune (whom the honest folk of Bamberg are generally in the
+habit of calling the Fork-man); and there the old man stood talking to
+Jonathan a long, long time. Spirits alive to all that goes forward, who
+can never meet anybody without asking eagerly, &quot;Wherever has he been?
+Wherever is he going? Whatever is he doing?&quot; and so on, had made out
+that the young advocate very often visited the beautiful unknown, in
+fact almost every day and at night-time, when he spent several hours
+with her. It was soon the talk of the town that the lawyer Jonathan
+Engelbrecht had got entangled in the dangerous toils of the young
+unknown adventuress.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been, both then and always, entirely contrary to
+Master
+Wacht's character to make use of this apparent erring conduct of the
+young advocate as a weapon against poor Nanni. He left it to Dame
+Barbara and her whole following of gossips to keep Nanni informed of
+all particulars; from them she would learn every item of intelligence,
+and that, he made no doubt, with a due amplification of all the
+details. The crisis of the whole affair was reached when one day the
+young lawyer suddenly set off on a journey along with the lady, nobody
+knew whither. &quot;That's the way frivolity goes on; the forward young
+gentleman will lose his business,&quot; said the knowing ones. But this was
+not the case; for not a little to the astonishment of the public, old
+Eichheimer himself attended to his foster-son's business with the most
+painstaking care; he seemed to be initiated into the secret about the
+lady and to approve of all the steps taken by his foster-son.</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht never spoke a word about the matter, and once
+when poor
+Nanni could no longer hide her trouble, but moaned in a low tone, her
+voice half-choked with tears, &quot;Why has Jonathan left us?&quot; Master Wacht
+replied in an off-handed way, &quot;Ay, that's just what lawyers do. Who
+knows what sort of an intrigue Jonathan has got entangled in with the
+stranger, thinking it will bring him money, and be to his advantage?&quot;
+Then, however, Herr Pickard Leberfink was wont to take Jonathan's side,
+and to assert that he for his part was convinced the stranger could be
+nothing less than a princess, who had had recourse to the already
+world-renowned young advocate in an extremely delicate law-suit And
+therewith he also unearthed so many stories about lawyers who, through
+especial sagacity and especial penetration and skill, had unravelled
+the most complicated difficulties, and brought to light the most
+closely hidden things, till Master Wacht begged him for goodness' sake
+to hold his tongue, since he was feeling quite ill and sick; Nanni, on
+the contrary, derived inward comfort from all Leberfink's remarkable
+stories, and she plucked up her hopes again. With her trouble, however,
+there was united a perceptible mixture of annoyance and anger, and
+particularly at the moments when it seemed to her utterly impossible
+that Jonathan could have been untrue to her. From this it might be
+inferred that Jonathan had not sought to exculpate himself, but had
+obstinately maintained silence about his adventure.</p>
+
+<p>After some months had elapsed the young lawyer came back to
+Bamberg in
+the highest good spirits; and Master Wacht, on seeing the bright glad
+light in Nanni's eyes when she looked at him, could not well do
+otherwise than conclude that Jonathan had fully justified his conduct
+to her. Doubtless it would not be disagreeable to the indulgent reader
+to have the history of what had taken place between the stranger lady
+and the young lawyer inserted here as an episodical <i>novella</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Count Z----, a Hungarian, owner of more than a million,
+married from
+pure affection a miserably poor girl, who drew down upon her head the
+hatred of his family, not only because her own family was enshrouded in
+complete obscurity, but also because the only valuable treasures she
+possessed were her divine virtue, beauty, and grace. The Count promised
+his wife that at his death he would settle all his property upon her by
+will.</p>
+
+<p>Once when he returned to Vienna into the arms of his wife,
+after having
+been summoned from Paris to St. Petersburg on diplomatic business, he
+related to her that he had been attacked by a severe illness in a
+little town, the name of which he had quite forgotten; there he had
+seized the opportunity whilst recovering from his illness to draw up a
+will in her favour and deposit it with the court. Some miles farther on
+the road he must have been seized with a new and doubly virulent attack
+of his grave nervous complaint, so that the name of the place where he
+had made his will and that of the court where he had deposited it had
+completely slipped his memory; moreover, he had lost the document of
+receipt from the court acknowledging the deposition of the testament.
+As so often happens in similar cases the Count postponed the making of
+a new will from day to day, until he was overtaken by death. Then his
+relatives did not neglect to lay claim to all the property he left
+behind him, so that the poor Countess saw her too rich inheritance
+melted down to the insignificant sum represented by certain valuable
+presents she had received from the Count, and which his relatives could
+not deprive her of. Many different notifications bearing upon the
+features of the case were found amongst the Count's papers; but since
+such statements, that a will was in existence, could not take the place
+of the will itself, they proved not to be of the slightest advantage to
+the Countess. She had consulted many learned lawyers about her
+unfortunate situation, and had finally come to Bamberg to have recourse
+to old Eichheimer; but he had directed her to young Engelbrecht, who,
+being less busy and equipped with excellent intellectual acuteness and
+great love for his profession, would perhaps be able to get a clue to
+the unfortunate will or furnish some other circumstantial proof of its
+actual existence.</p>
+
+<p>The young advocate set to work by requesting permission of the
+competent authorities to submit the Count's papers in the castle to
+another searching investigation. He himself went thither along with the
+Countess; and in the presence of the officials of the court he found in
+a cupboard of nut-wood, that had hitherto escaped observation, an old
+portfolio, in which, though they did not find the Count's document of
+receipt relating to the deposition of the will, they yet discovered a
+paper which could not fail to be of the utmost importance for the young
+advocate's purpose. For this paper contained an accurate description of
+all the circumstances, even the minutest details, under which the Count
+had made a will in favour of his wife and deposited it in the keeping
+of a court. The Count's diplomatic journey from Paris to Petersburg had
+brought him to Königsberg in Prussia. Here he chanced to come across
+some East Prussian noblemen, whom he had previously met with whilst on
+a visit to Italy. In spite of the express rate at which the Count was
+travelling, he nevertheless suffered himself to be persuaded to make a
+short excursion into East Prussia, particularly as the big hunts had
+begun, and the Count was a passionate sportsman. He named the towns
+Wehlau, Allenburg, Friedland, &amp;c., as places where he had been. Then he
+set out to go straight forwards directly to the Russian frontier,
+without returning to Königsberg.</p>
+
+<p>In a little town, whose wretched appearance the Count could
+hardly find
+words to describe, he was suddenly prostrated by a nervous disorder,
+which for several days quite deprived him of consciousness. Fortunately
+there was a young and right clever doctor in the place, who opposed a
+stout resistance to the disease, so that the Count not only recovered
+consciousness but also his health, so far that after a few days he was
+in a position to continue his journey. But his heart was oppressed with
+the fear that a second attack on the road might kill him, and so plunge
+his wife in a condition of the most straitened poverty. Not a little to
+his astonishment he learned from the doctor that the place, in spite of
+its small size and wretched appearance, was the seat of a Prussian
+provincial court, and that he could there have his will registered with
+all due formality, as soon as he could succeed in establishing his
+identity. This, however, was a most formidable difficulty, for who knew
+the Count in this district? But wonderful are the doings of Accident!
+Just as the Count got out of his carriage in front of the inn of the
+little town, there stood in the doorway a grey-haired old invalid,
+almost eighty years old, who dwelt in a neighbouring village and earned
+a living by plaiting willow baskets, and who only seldom came into the
+town. In his youth he had served in the Austrian army, and for fifteen
+successive years had been groom to the Count's father. At the first
+glance he remembered his master's son; and he and his wife acted as
+fully legitimated vouchers of the Count's identity, and not to their
+detriment, as may well be conceived.</p>
+
+<p>The young advocate at once saw that all depended upon the
+locality and
+its exact correspondence with the Count's statements, if he wanted to
+glean further details and find a clue to the place where the Count had
+been ill and made his testament. He set off with the Countess for East
+Prussia. There by examination of the post-books he was desirous of
+making out, if possible, the route of travel pursued by the Count. But
+after a good deal of wasted effort, he only managed to discover that
+the Count had taken post-horses from Eylau to Allenburg. Beyond
+Allenburg every trace was lost; nevertheless he satisfied himself that
+the Count had certainly travelled through Prussian Lithuania, and of
+this he was still further convinced on finding registered at Tilsit
+that the Count had arrived there and departed thence by extra post.
+Beyond this point again all traces were lost. Accordingly it seemed to
+the young advocate that they must seek for the solution of the
+difficulty in the short stretch of country between Allenburg and
+Tilsit.</p>
+
+<p>Quite dispirited and full of anxious care he arrived one rainy
+evening
+at the small country town of Insterburg, accompanied by the Countess.
+On entering the wretched apartments in the inn, he became conscious
+that a strange kind of expectant feeling was taking possession of him.
+He felt so like being at home in them, as if he had even been there
+before, or as if the place had been most accurately described to him.
+The Countess withdrew to her apartments. The young advocate tossed
+restlessly on his bed. When the morning sun shone in brightly through
+the window, his eyes fell upon the paper in one corner of the room. He
+noticed that a large patch of the blue colour with which the room was
+but lightly washed had fallen off, showing the disagreeable glaring
+yellow that formed the ground colour, and upon it he observed that all
+kinds of hideous faces in the New Zealand style had been painted to
+serve as pleasing arabesques. Perfectly beside himself with joy and
+delight, the young lawyer sprang out of bed. He was in the room in
+which Count Z---- had made the all-important will. The description
+agreed too exactly; there could not be any doubt about the matter.</p>
+
+<p>But why now weary the reader with all the minor details of the
+things
+that now took place one after the other? Suffice it to say that
+Insterburg was then, as it still is, the seat of a Prussian superior
+tribunal, at that time called an Imperial Court. The young advocate at
+once waited upon the president with the Countess. By means of the
+papers which she had brought with her, and which were drawn up in due
+authenticated form, the Countess established her own identity in the
+most satisfactory manner; and the will was publicly declared to be
+perfectly genuine. Hence the Countess, who had left her own country in
+great distress and poverty, now returned in the full possession of all
+the rights of which a hostile destiny had attempted to deprive her.</p>
+
+<p>In Nanni's eyes the advocate appeared like a hero from heaven,
+who had
+victoriously protected deserted innocence against the wickedness of the
+world. Leberfink also poured out all his great admiration of the young
+lawyer's acuteness and energy in exaggerated encomiums. Master Wacht,
+too, praised Jonathan's industry, and this trait he emphasised; and yet
+the boy had really done nothing but what it was his duty to do; still
+he somehow fancied that things might have been managed in a much
+shorter way. &quot;This event I regard,&quot; said Jonathan, &quot;as a star of real
+good fortune, which has risen upon the path of my career almost before
+I have started upon it The case has created a great deal of sensation.
+All the Hungarian magnates are excited about it. My name has become
+known. And what is a long way the best of all, the Countess was so
+liberal as to honour me with ten thousand Brabant thalers.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_wacht19" href="#div2Ref_wacht19">19</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>During the course of the young advocate's narration, the
+muscles of
+Master Wacht's face began to move in a remarkable way, till at last his
+countenance wore an expression of the greatest indignation. &quot;What!&quot; he
+at length shouted in a lion-like voice, whilst his eyes flashed fire--
+&quot;What! did I not tell you? You have made a sale of justice. The
+Countess, in order to get her lawful inheritance out of the hands of
+her rascally relations, has had to pay money, to sacrifice to Mammon.
+Faugh! faugh! be ashamed of yourself.&quot; All the sensible protestations
+of the young advocate, as well as of the rest of the persons who
+happened to be present, were not of the slightest avail. For a second
+it seemed as if their representations would gain a hearing, when it was
+stated that no one had ever given a present with more willing pleasure
+than the Countess had done on the sudden conclusion of her case, and
+that, as good Leberfink very well knew, the young advocate had only
+himself to blame that his honorarium had not turned out to be more in
+amount as well as more on a level with the magnitude of the lady's
+gain; nevertheless Master Wacht stuck to his own opinion, and they
+heard from him in his own obstinate fashion the familiar words, &quot;So
+soon as you begin to talk about justice, you and everybody else in the
+world ought to hold your tongues about money. It is true,&quot; he went on
+more calmly after a pause, &quot;there are several circumstances connected
+with this history which might very well excuse you, and yet at the same
+time lead you astray into base selfishness; but have the kindness to
+hold your tongue about the Countess, and the will, and the ten thousand
+thalers, if you please. I should indeed be fancying many a time that
+you didn't altogether belong to your place at my table there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are very hard--very unjust towards me, father,&quot; said the
+young
+advocate, his voice trembling with sadness. Nanni's tears flowed
+quietly; Leberfink, like an experienced man of the world, hastened to
+turn the conversation upon the new gildings in St. Gangolph's.<sup><a name="div2_wacht20" href="#div2Ref_wacht20">20</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>It may readily be conceived in what strained relations the
+members of
+Wacht's family now lived. Where was their unconstrained conversation,
+their bright good spirits, where their cheerfulness? A deadly vexation
+was slowly gnawing at Wacht's heart, and it stood plainly written upon
+his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile they received not the least scrap of intelligence
+from
+Sebastian Engelbrecht, and so the last feeble ray of hope that Master
+Wacht had seen glimmering appeared about to fade. Master Wacht's
+foreman, Andreas by name, was a plain, honest, faithful fellow, who
+clung to his master with an affection that could not be matched
+anywhere. &quot;Master,&quot; said he one morning as they were measuring beams
+together--&quot;Master, I can't bear it any longer; it breaks my heart to
+see you suffer so. Fräulein Nanni--poor Herr Jonathan!&quot; Quickly
+throwing away the measuring lines, Master Wacht stepped up to him and
+took him by the breast, saying, &quot;Man, if you are able to tear out of
+this heart the convictions as to what is true and right which have been
+engraven upon it by the Eternal Power in letters of fire, then what you
+are thinking about may come to pass.&quot; Andreas, who was not the man to
+enter upon a dispute with his master upon these sort of terms,
+scratched himself behind his ear, and replied with an embarrassed
+smirk, &quot;Then if a certain distinguished gentleman were to pay a morning
+visit to the workshop, I suppose it would produce no particular
+effect?&quot; Master Wacht perceived in a moment that a storm was brewing
+against him, and that it was in all probability being directed by Count
+von Kösel.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the clock struck nine Nanni appeared in the workshop,
+followed
+by old Barbara with the breakfast. The Master was not well pleased to
+see his daughter, since it was out of rule; and he saw the programme of
+the concerted attack already peeping out. Nor was it long before the
+minor canon really made his appearance, as smart and prim and proper as
+a pet doll. Close at his heels followed Monsieur Pickard Leberfink,
+decorator and gilder, clad in all sorts of gay colours, so that he
+looked not unlike a spring-chafer. Wacht pretended to be highly
+delighted with the visit, the cause of which he at once insinuated to
+be that the minor canon very likely wanted to see his newest models.
+The truth is, Master Wacht felt very shy at the possibility of having
+to listen to the canon's long-winded sermons, which he would deliver
+himself of uselessly if he attempted to shake his (Wacht's) resolution
+with respect to Nanni and Jonathan. Accident came to his rescue; for
+just as the canon, the young lawyer, and the varnisher were standing
+together, and the first-named was beginning to approach the most
+intimate relations of life in the most elegantly turned phrases, fat
+Hans shouted out &quot;Wood here!&quot; and big Peter on the other side pushed
+the wood across to him so roughly that it caught the canon a violent
+blow on the shoulder and sent him reeling against Monsieur Pickard; he
+in his turn stumbled against the young advocate, and in a trice the
+whole three had disappeared. For just behind them was a huge piled-up
+heap of chips and saw-dust and so on. The unfortunates were buried
+under this heap, so that all that could be seen of them were four black
+legs and two buff-coloured ones; the latter were the gala stockings of
+Herr Pickard Leberfink, decorator and gilder. It couldn't possibly be
+helped; the journeymen and apprentices burst out into a ringing peal of
+laughter, notwithstanding that Master Wacht bade them be still and look
+grave.</p>
+
+<p>Of them all the canon cut the worst figure, since the saw-dust
+had got
+into the folds of his robe and even into the elegant curls which
+adorned his head. He fled as if upon the wings of the wind, covered
+with shame, and the young advocate hard after him. Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink was the only one who preserved his good humour and took the
+thing in merry part, notwithstanding that it might be regarded as
+certain he would never be able to wear the buff-coloured stockings
+again, since the saw-dust had proved especially injurious to them and
+had quite destroyed the &quot;clock.&quot; Thus the storm which was to have been
+adventured against Wacht was baffled by a ridiculous incident. But the
+Master did not dream what terrible thing was to happen to him before
+the day was over.</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht had finished dinner and was just going downstairs
+in order
+to betake himself to his workyard, when he heard a loud, rough voice
+shouting in front of the house, &quot;Hi, there! This is where that knavish
+old rascal, Carpenter Wacht, lives, isn't it?&quot; A voice in the street
+made answer, &quot;There is no knavish old rascal living here; this is the
+house of our respected fellow-citizen Herr Johannes Wacht, the
+carpenter.&quot; In the same moment the street-door was forced open with a
+violent bang, and a big strong fellow of wild appearance stood before
+the master. His black hair stuck up like bristles through his ragged
+soldier's cap, and in scores of places his tattered tunic was unable to
+conceal his loathsome skin, browned with filth and exposure to rough
+weather. The fellow wore soldier's shoes on his feet, and the blue
+weals on his ankles showed the traces of the chains he had been
+fettered with. &quot;Ho, ho!&quot; cried the fellow, &quot;I bet you don't know me.
+You don't know Sebastian Engelbrecht, whom you've cheated out of his
+property--not you.&quot; With all the imposing dignity of his majestic form,
+Master Wacht took a step towards the man, mechanically advancing the
+cane he held in his hand. Then the wild fellow seemed to be almost
+thunderstruck; he recoiled a few paces, and then raised his doubled
+fists shouting, &quot;Ho, ho! I know where my property is, and I'll go and
+help myself to it, in spite of you, you old sinner.&quot; And he ran off
+down the Kaulberg like an arrow from a bow, followed by the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>Master Wacht stood in the passage like a statue for several
+seconds.
+But when Nanni cried in alarm, &quot;Good heavens! father, that was
+Sebastian,&quot; he went into the room, more reeling than walking, and sank
+down exhausted in an arm-chair; then, holding both hands before his
+face, he cried in a heart-rending voice, &quot;By the eternal mercy of God,
+that is Sebastian Engelbrecht.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There arose a tumult in the street, the crowd poured down the
+Kaulberg,
+and voices in the far distance could be heard shouting &quot;Murder!
+murder!&quot; A prey to the most terrible apprehensions, the Master, ran
+down to Jonathan's dwelling, situated immediately at the foot of the
+Kaulberg. A dense mass of people were pushing and crowding together in
+front of him; in their midst he perceived Sebastian struggling like a
+wild animal against the watch, who had just thrown him upon the ground,
+where they overpowered him and bound him hand and foot, and led him
+away. &quot;O God! O God! Sebastian has slain his brother,&quot; lamented the
+people, who came crowding out of the house. Master Wacht forced his way
+through and found poor Jonathan in the hands of the doctors, who were
+exerting themselves to call him back to life. As he had received three
+powerful blows upon the head, dealt with all the strength of a strong
+man, the worst was to be feared.</p>
+
+<p>As generally happens under such circumstances, Nanni learnt
+immediately
+the whole history of the affair from her kind-hearted friends, and at
+once rushed off to her lover's dwelling, where she arrived just as the
+young lawyer, thanks to the lavish use of naphtha, opened his eyes
+again, and the doctors were talking about trepanning. What further took
+place may be conceived. Nanni was inconsolable; Rettel, notwithstanding
+her betrothal, was sunk in grief; and Monsieur Pickard Leberfink
+exclaimed, whilst tears of sorrow ran down his cheeks, &quot;God be merciful
+to the man upon whose pate a carpenter's fist falls.&quot; The loss of young
+Herr Jonathan would be irreparable. At any rate the varnish on his
+coffin should be of unsurpassed brightness and blackness; and the
+silvering of the skulls and other nice ornaments should baffle all
+comparison.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that Sebastian had escaped out of the hands of a
+troop of
+Bavarian soldiers, whilst they were conducting a band of vagabonds
+through the district of Bamberg, and he had found his way into the town
+in order to carry out a mad project which he had for a long time been
+brooding over in his mind. His career was not that of an abandoned,
+vicious criminal; it afforded rather an example of those supremely
+frivolous-minded men, who, despite the very admirable qualities with
+which Nature has endowed them, give way to every temptation to evil,
+and finally sinking to the lowest depths of vice, perish in shame and
+misery. In Saxony he had fallen into the hands of a petti-fogging
+lawyer, who had made him believe that Master Wacht, when sending him
+his patrimonial inheritance, had paid him very much short, and kept
+back the remainder for the benefit of his brother Jonathan, to whom he
+had promised to give his favourite daughter Nanni to wife. Very likely
+the old deceiver had concocted this story out of various utterances of
+Sebastian himself. The kindly reader already knows by what violent
+means Sebastian set to work to secure his own rights. Immediately after
+leaving Master Wacht he had burst into Jonathan's room, where the
+latter happened to be sitting at his study table, ordering some
+accounts and counting the piles of money which lay heaped up before
+him. His clerk sat in the other corner of the room. &quot;Ah! you villain!&quot;
+screamed Sebastian in a fury, &quot;there you are sitting over your mammon.
+Are you counting what you have robbed me of? Give me here what yon old
+rascal has stolen from me and bestowed upon you. You poor, weak thing!
+You greedy clutching devil--you!&quot; And when Sebastian strode close up to
+him, Jonathan instinctively stretched out both hands to ward him off,
+crying aloud, &quot;Brother! for God's sake, brother!&quot; But Sebastian replied
+by dealing him several stunning blows on the head with his double fist,
+so that Jonathan sank down fainting. Sebastian hastily seized upon some
+of the rolls of gold and was making off with them--in which naturally
+enough he did not succeed.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately it turned out that none of Jonathan's wounds,
+which
+outwardly wore the appearance of large bumps, had occasioned any
+serious concussion of the brain, and hence none of them could be
+esteemed as likely to prove dangerous. After a lapse of two months,
+when Sebastian was taken away to the convict prison, where he was to
+atone for his attempt at murder by a heavy punishment, the young lawyer
+felt himself quite well again.</p>
+
+<p>This terrible occurrence exerted such a shattering effect upon
+Master
+Wacht that a consuming surly peevishness was the consequence of it.
+This time the stout strong oak was shaken from its topmost branch to
+its deepest root. Often when his mind was thought to be busy with quite
+different matters, he was heard to murmur in a low tone, &quot;Sebastian--a
+fratricide! That's how you reward me?&quot; and then he seemed to come to
+himself like one awakening out of a nasty dream. The only thing that
+kept him from breaking down was the hardest and most assiduous labour.
+But who can fathom the unsearchable depths in which the secret links of
+feeling are so strangely forged together as they were in Master Wacht's
+soul? His abhorrence of Sebastian and his wicked deed faded out of his
+mind, whilst the picture of his own life, ruined by Jonathan's love for
+Nanni, deepened in colour and vividness as the days went by. This frame
+of mind Master Wacht betrayed in many short exclamations--&quot;So then your
+brother is condemned to hard labour and to work in chains!--That's
+where he has been brought by his attempted crime against you--It's a
+fine thing for a brother to be the cause of making his own brother a
+convict--shouldn't like to be in the first brother's place--but lawyers
+think differently; they want justice, that is, they want to play with a
+lay figure and dress it up and give it whatever name they please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such like bitter, and even incomprehensible reproaches, the
+young
+advocate was obliged to hear from Master Wacht, and to hear them only
+too often. Any attempt at rebutting these charges would have been
+fruitless. Accordingly Jonathan made no reply; only often when his
+heart was almost distracted by the old man's fatal delusion, which was
+ruining all his happiness, he broke out in his exceeding great pain,
+&quot;Father, father, you are unjust towards me, exasperatingly unjust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One day when the family were assembled at the decorator
+Leberfink's,
+and Jonathan also was present, Master Wacht began to tell how somebody
+had been saying that Sebastian Engelbrecht, although apprehended as a
+criminal, could yet make good by action at law his claim against Master
+Wacht, who had been his guardian. Then, smiling venomously and turning
+to Jonathan, he went on, &quot;That would be a pretty case for a young
+advocate. I thought you might take up the suit; you might play a part
+in it yourself; perhaps I have cheated you as well?&quot; This made the
+young lawyer start to his feet; his eyes flashed, his bosom heaved; he
+seemed all of a sudden to be quite a different man; stretching his hand
+towards Heaven he cried, &quot;No, you shall no longer be my father; you
+must be insane to sacrifice without scruple the peace and happiness of
+the most loving of children to a ridiculous prejudice. You will never
+see me again; I will go and at once accept the offer which the American
+consul made to me to-day; I will go to America.&quot; &quot;Yes,&quot; replied Wacht
+filled with rage and anger, &quot;ay, away out of my eyes, brother of the
+fratricide, who've sold your soul to Satan.&quot; Casting upon Nanni, who
+was half fainting, a look full of hopeless love and anguish and
+despair, the young advocate hurriedly left the garden.</p>
+
+<p>It was remarked earlier in the course of this story when the
+young
+lawyer threatened to shoot himself <i>à la</i> Werther,<sup><a name="div2_wacht21" href="#div2Ref_wacht21">21</a></sup> what a good
+thing it was that the indispensable pistol was in very many cases not
+within reach. And here it will be just as useful to remark that the
+young advocate was not able, to his own good be it said, to embark
+there and then on the Regnitz and sail straight away to Philadelphia.
+Hence it was that his threat to leave Bamberg and his darling Nanni for
+ever remained still unfulfilled, even when at last, after two years
+more had elapsed, the wedding-day of Herr Leberfink, decorator and
+gilder, was come. Leberfink would have been inconsolable at this unjust
+postponement of his happiness, although the delay was almost a matter
+of necessity after the terrible events which had fallen blow after blow
+in Wacht's house, had it not afforded him an opportunity to decorate
+over again in deep red and appropriate gold the ornamental work in his
+parlour, which had before been gay with nice light-blue and silver, for
+he had picked up from Rettelchen that a red table, red chairs, and so
+on, would be more in accordance with her taste.</p>
+
+<p>When the happy decorator insisted upon seeing the young lawyer
+at his
+wedding. Master Wacht had not offered a moment's opposition; and the
+young lawyer--he was pleased to come. It may be imagined with what
+feelings the two young people saw each other again, for since that
+terrible moment when Jonathan had left the garden they had literally
+not set eyes upon each other. The assembly was large; but not a single
+person with whom they were on a friendly footing fathomed their pain.</p>
+
+<p>Just as they were on the point of setting out for church.
+Master Wacht
+received a thick letter; he had read no more than a few lines when he
+became violently agitated and rushed off out of the room, not a little
+to the consternation of the rest, who at once suspected some fresh
+misfortune. Shortly afterwards Master Wacht called the young advocate
+out. When they were alone together in the Master's own room, the
+latter, vainly endeavouring to conceal his excessive agitation, began,
+&quot;I've got the most extraordinary news of your brother; here is a letter
+from the governor of the prison relating fully all the circumstances of
+what has taken place. As you cannot know them all, I must begin at the
+beginning and tell you everything right to the end so as to make
+credible to you what is incredible; but time presses.&quot; So saying,
+Master Wacht fixed a keen glance upon the advocate's face, so that he
+blushed and cast down his eyes in confusion. &quot;Yes, yes,&quot; went on Master
+Wacht, raising his voice, &quot;you don't know how great a remorse took
+possession of your brother a very few hours after he was put in prison;
+there is hardly anybody whose heart has been more torn by it. You don't
+know how his attempt at murder and theft has prostrated him. You don't
+know how that in mad despair he prayed Heaven day and night either to
+kill him or to save him that he might henceforth by the exercise of the
+strictest virtue wash himself pure from bloodguiltiness. You don't know
+how that on the occasion of building a large wing to the prison, in
+which the convicts were employed as labourers, your brother so
+distinguished himself as a clever and well-instructed carpenter that he
+soon filled the post of foreman of the workmen, without anybody's
+noticing how it came about so. You don't know how his quiet good
+behaviour, and his modesty, combined with the decision of his
+regenerate mind, made everybody his friend. All this you do not know,
+and so I am telling it you. But to go on. The Prince-bishop has
+pardoned your brother; he has become a master. But how could all this
+be done without a supply of money?&quot; &quot;I know,&quot; said the young advocate
+in a low voice, &quot;I know that you, my good father, have sent money to
+the prison authorities every month, in order that they might keep my
+brother separate from the other prisoners and find him better
+accommodation and better food. Later on you sent him materials for his
+trade&quot;---- Then Master Wacht stepped close up to the young advocate,
+took him by both arms, and said in a voice that vacillated in a way
+that cannot be described between delight, sadness, and pain, &quot;But would
+that alone have helped Sebastian to honour again, to freedom, and his
+civil rights, and to property, however strongly his fundamental
+virtuous qualities had sprung up again? An unknown philanthropist, who
+must take an especially warm interest in Sebastian's fate, has
+deposited ten thousand 'large' thalers with the court, to&quot;---- Master
+Wacht could not speak any further owing to his violent emotion; he drew
+the young advocate impetuously to his heart, crying, though he could
+only get out his words with difficulty, &quot;Advocate, help me to penetrate
+to the deep import of law such as lives in your breast, and that I may
+stand before the Eternal Bar of justice as you will one day stand
+before it.--And yet,&quot; he continued after a pause of some seconds,
+releasing the young lawyer, &quot;and yet, my dear Jonathan, if Sebastian
+now comes back as a good and industrious citizen and reminds me of my
+pledged word, and Nanni&quot;---- &quot;Then I will bear my trouble till it kills
+me,&quot; said the young advocate; &quot;I will flee to America.&quot; &quot;Stay here,&quot;
+cried Master Wacht in an enthusiastic burst of joy and delight, &quot;stay
+here, son of my heart! Sebastian is going to marry a girl whom he
+formerly deceived and deserted. Nanni is yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more the Master threw his arms around Jonathan's neck,
+saying, &quot;My
+lad, I feel like a schoolboy before you, and should like to beg your
+pardon for all the blame I have put upon you, and all the injustice I
+have done you. But let us say no more; other people are waiting for
+us.&quot; Therewith Master Wacht took hold of the young lawyer and pulled
+him along into the room where the wedding guests were assembled; there
+he placed himself and Jonathan in the midst of the company, and said,
+raising his voice and speaking in a solemn tone, &quot;Before we proceed to
+celebrate the sacred rite I invite you all, my honest friends, ladies
+and gentlemen, and you too, my virtuous maidens and young men, six
+weeks hence to a similar festival in my house; for here I introduce to
+you Herr Jonathan Engelbrecht, the advocate, to whom I herewith
+solemnly betroth my youngest daughter, Nanni.&quot; The lovers sank into
+each other's arms. A breath of the profoundest astonishment passed over
+the whole assembly; but good old Andreas, holding his little three-
+cornered carpenter's cap before his breast, said softly, &quot;A man's heart
+is a wonderful thing; but true, honest faith overcomes the base and
+even sinful resoluteness of a hardened spirit; and all things turn out
+at last for the best, just as the good God wishes them to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="continue">FOOTNOTES TO &quot;MASTER JOHANNES WACHT&quot;:</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht1" href="#div2_wacht1">1</a></sup> Included in a collection of stories entitled <i>
+Geschichten, Märchen, und Sagen</i>, Von Fr. H. v. d. Hagen, E. T. A. Hoffmann, und H.
+Steffens; Breslau, 1823.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht2" href="#div2_wacht2">2</a></sup> See <a name="div2Ref_wacht2a" href="#div2_wacht2a">note p. 81, Vol. II.</a>]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht3" href="#div2_wacht3">3</a></sup> The stern inexorable Republican patriot, who
+kills even his friend Fiesco when the latter refuses to throw aside the purple
+dignity he had assumed. See Schiller's <i>Fiesko</i>, act v., last scene
+(cf. I. 10-13; III. 1).]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht4" href="#div2_wacht4">4</a></sup> A long hilly street in Bamberg.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht5" href="#div2_wacht5">5</a></sup> Pet name for Johannes, the name of Wacht's son.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht6" href="#div2_wacht6">6</a></sup> <i>Rettel</i> and <i>Rettelchen</i> (little
+Rettel) are pet names for Margaret.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht7" href="#div2_wacht7">7</a></sup> The anniversary of the consecration of the church
+is made the occasion of a great and general festive holiday in many parts of
+Germany, particularly in the south.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht8" href="#div2_wacht8">8</a></sup> &quot;Noodles&quot; are long strips of rolled-out paste,
+made up and cooked in various ways.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht9" href="#div2_wacht9">9</a></sup> Seehof or Marquardsburg, situated to the
+north-east of Bamberg, was formerly a bishop's castle, and was rebuilt by Marquard
+Sebastian Schenk of Stauffenberg in 1688.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht10" href="#div2_wacht10">10</a></sup> Stracchino, a kind of cheese made in North
+Italy, especially in Brescia, Milan, and Bergamo.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht11" href="#div2_wacht11">11</a></sup> A pet name for Gretchen (Margaret), frequently
+used also as equivalent to &quot;sweetheart,&quot; &quot;lass,&quot; just as we might say, &quot;Every
+Johnny has his Jeannie.&quot;]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht12" href="#div2_wacht12">12</a></sup> A long winding suburb of Bamberg.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht13" href="#div2_wacht13">13</a></sup> Or Bug, as it is generally spelled, a pleasure
+resort on the Regnitz, about half an hour distant from Bamberg. Hoffmann was in
+the habit of visiting it almost daily when he lived at Bamberg.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht14" href="#div2_wacht14">14</a></sup> In the days before ice was preserved on such an
+extensive scale by the German brewers as it is at the present time, beer was kept
+in excavations in rock, wherever a suitable place could be found; this
+made it deliciously cool and fresh.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht15" href="#div2_wacht15">15</a></sup> Goethe's well-known work.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht16" href="#div2_wacht16">16</a></sup> A once rich and celebrated Benedictine abbey
+between Bamberg and Coburg, founded in the eleventh century, and frequently
+destroyed and sacked in war.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht17" href="#div2_wacht17">17</a></sup> That is, they were golden, or gilded.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht18" href="#div2_wacht18">18</a></sup> Hinze is Tieck's <i>Gestiefelter Kater</i> (Puss
+in Boots). The reference is perhaps to act ii. scene 2, where Hinze goes out to
+catch rabbits, &amp;c., and hears the nightingale singing, the humour of
+the scene lying in the quick alternation of the human poetic sentiments
+and the native instincts of the cat.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht19" href="#div2_wacht19">19</a></sup> So named from the place where they were struck.
+See note, p. 281, Vol. I., viz.--Imperial thalers varied in value at different times, but
+estimating their value at three shillings, the sum here mentioned would
+be equivalent to about £22,500. A <i>Frederick d'or</i> was a gold coin
+worth five thalers.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht20" href="#div2_wacht20">20</a></sup> A church situated at the beginning of the
+Steinweg.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_wacht21" href="#div2_wacht21">21</a></sup> It need scarcely be said this refers to the
+excessively sentimental hero of Goethe's <i>Leiden des jungen Werthers</i>.]</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><i><a name="div1_biographical" href="#div1Ref_biographical">BIOGRAPHICAL
+NOTICE</a>.</i><sup><a name="div2_biographical1" href="#div2Ref_biographical1">1</a></sup></h2>
+
+<p class="continue">Like many others whose pens have been employed in
+authorship, the
+subject of this notice, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm<sup><a name="div2_biographical2" href="#div2Ref_biographical2">2</a></sup> Hoffmann, led a very
+chequered life, the various facts and incidents of which throw a good
+deal of light upon his writings.</p>
+
+<p>Hoffmann was born at Königsberg in Prussia on the 24th
+January,
+1776.<sup><a name="div2_biographical3" href="#div2Ref_biographical3">3</a></sup> His parents were very ill-assorted, and led such an unhappy
+life that they parted in young Ernst's third year. His father, who was
+in the legal profession, was a man of considerable talent and of acute
+intellect, but irregular and wild in his habits and given to
+reprehensible practices. His mother, on the contrary, the daughter of
+Consistorialrath Dörffer, had been trained up on the strictest moral
+principles, and to habits of orderliness and propriety; and to her
+regard for outward conformity to old-established forms and conventional
+routine was added a weak and ailing condition of body, which made her
+for the most part a confirmed invalid. When, in 1782, the elder
+Hoffmann was promoted to the dignity of judge and transferred to a
+criminal court at Insterburg (Prussia), Ernst was taken into the house
+of his maternal grandmother; and his father appears never to have
+troubled himself further either about him or his elder brother, who
+afterwards took to evil ways. The brothers in all probability never met
+again, though an unfinished letter, dated 10th July, 1817, found
+amongst Hoffmann's papers after his death, was evidently written to his
+brother in reply to one received from him requesting pecuniary
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>In his grandmother's house young Hoffmann spent his boyhood
+and youth.
+The members of the household were four, the grandmother, her son, her
+two daughters, of whom one was the boy's invalid mother. The old lady,
+owing to her great age, was also virtually an invalid; so that both she
+and her daughter scarcely ever left their room, and hence their
+influence upon young Ernst's education and training was practically
+nil. His uncle, however, after an abortive attempt to follow the law,
+had settled down to a quiet vegetative sort of existence, which he
+regulated strictly according to fixed rules and methodical procedure;
+and these he imposed more or less upon the household. Justizrath Otto
+(or Ottchen, as his mother continued to call him to her life's end),
+though acting as a dead weight upon his high-spirited, quick-witted
+nephew's intellectual development, by his efforts to mould him to his
+own course of life and his own unpliant habits of thought, nevertheless
+planted certain seeds in the boy's mind which proved of permanent
+service to him throughout all his subsequent career. To this precise
+and order-loving uncle he owed his first thorough grounding in the
+elements of music, and also his persevering industry and sense of
+method and precision. As uncle and nephew shared the same sitting-room
+and the same sleeping-chamber, and as the former would never suffer any
+departure from the established routine of things, the boy Ernst began
+not only to look forward to the one afternoon a week when Otto went out
+to make his calls, but also to study narrowly his uncle's habits, and
+to play upon his weaknesses and turn them to his own advantage, so that
+by the time he was twelve years old he was quite an adept at mystifying
+the staid old gentleman. His aunt, an unmarried lady, was cheerful,
+witty, and full of pleasant gaiety; she was the only one who understood
+and appreciated her clever nephew; indeed she was so fond of him, and
+humoured him to such an extent, that she is said to have spoiled him.
+It was to her he poured out all his childish troubles and all his
+boyish confidences and weaknesses. Her love he repaid with faithful
+affection, and he has memorialised it in a touching way in the
+character of &quot;Tante Füsschen&quot; in <i>Kater Murr</i> (Pt. I.), where also
+other biographical details of this period may be read. Of his poor
+mother, feeble in body and in mind alike, Hoffmann only spoke
+unwillingly, but always with deep respect mingled with sadness.</p>
+
+<p>Two other persons must be mentioned as having exercised a
+lasting
+influence upon his early life. One of these was an old great-uncle,
+Justizrath Vöthöry, brother of both his grandmothers, and a gentleman
+of Hungarian origin. This excellent man was retired from all business,
+with the exception that he continued to act as justiciary for the
+estates of certain well-tried friends. He used to visit the various
+properties at stated seasons of the year, and was always a welcome
+guest; for this &quot;hero of olden times in dressing-gown and slippers,&quot; as
+Wilibald Alexis called him, was the V---- who figures so genially in <i>Das
+Majorat</i> (&quot;The Entail&quot;). The old gentleman once took his great-
+nephew with him on one of these trips, and to it we are indebted for
+this master-piece of Hoffmann. The other person who gave a bent to
+young Ernst's mind was Dr. Wannowski, the head of the German Reformed
+School in Königsberg, where the boy was sent in his sixth or seventh
+year. Wannowski, who possessed the faculty of awakening slumbering
+talent in his pupils, and attracting them to himself, enjoyed the
+friendship and intercourse of Kant, Hippel (the elder), Scheffner,
+Hamann, and others, and might perhaps lay claim to be called a Prussian
+Dr. Arnold, owing to the many illustrious pupils he turned out.</p>
+
+<p>During the first seven years of his school-days, young
+Hoffmann was in
+nowise distinguished above his school-fellows either for industry or
+for quickness of parts. But when he reached his thirteenth or
+fourteenth year, his taste for both music and painting was awakened.
+His liking for these two arts was so genuine and sincere, and
+consequently his progress in them so rapid, that he came to be looked
+upon as a child-wonder. He would sit down at a piano and play
+improvisations and other compositions of his own creation, to the
+astonishment of all who heard him, for his performances, though
+somewhat fantastic, were not wanting in talent and originality, and his
+diminutive stature made him appear some years younger than he really
+was. In drawing he early showed a decided inclination for caricature,
+and in this his quickness of perception and accuracy in reproduction
+proved of permanent service to him. Later he endeavoured to improve
+himself both in theory and in practice in higher styles also: in the
+former by diligent study of Winckelmann, and in the latter by copying
+the models of the art treasures of Herculaneum preserved in the Royal
+Library.</p>
+
+<p>In his eleventh year Hoffmann made the acquaintance of Theodor
+von
+Hippel, nephew of T. G. Hippel, author of <i>Die Lebensläufe in
+aufsteigender Linie</i>, a boy one month older than himself. The
+acquaintance ripened into a warm fast friendship when the two boys
+recognised each other again at the same school, and they continued
+faithful devoted friends until the day of Hoffmann's death. What tended
+principally to knit them together was the similarity and yet difference
+in their bringing up and family relations. Both grew up without the
+society of brothers or sisters or playfellows; but whilst Hoffmann was
+a son of the town, Hippel's early days had been spent in the country.
+In another respect, too, they presented a striking contrast in
+behaviour; Hoffmann's chief delight was to mystify and tease his uncle
+Otto, but Hippel was most scrupulous in paying to all the proper meed
+of respect which he conceived he owed them. Once when Hippel reproached
+his friend about his behaviour towards his uncle, young Hoffmann
+replied, &quot;But think what relatives fate has blessed me with! If I only
+had a father and an uncle like yours such things would never come into
+my head.&quot; This saying is significant for the understanding of the early
+stages of Hoffmann's intellectual development.</p>
+
+<p>The bonds of inclination and natural liking were drawn still
+closer by
+an idea of uncle Otto's. It was arranged that young Hippel should spend
+the Wednesday afternoons (when the Justizrath went out to make his
+round of visits amongst his acquaintances), along with his friend in
+studying together, principally the classics. And Saturday afternoons
+were also to be devoted to the same duties whenever practicable. But,
+as might very well be expected, the classics soon gave way to other
+books, such as Rousseau's <i>Confessions</i> and Wiegleb's <i>Natürliche
+Magie</i>;<sup><a name="div2_biographical4" href="#div2Ref_biographical4">4</a></sup> and these in turn were forced to yield to such pastimes as
+music, drawing, mummeries, boyish games, masquerades, and even more
+pretentious adventures out in the garden, such as mimic chivalric
+contests, construction of underground passages, &amp;c. The boys also
+discovered common ground in their desire to cultivate their minds by
+poetry and other reading. The last two years at school were most
+beneficial and productive in shaping Hoffmann's mind; he acquired a
+taste for classics and excited the attention of his teachers by his
+artistic talents, his graphic powers of representation being noticeable
+even at this early age. During this time also he cultivated the
+acquaintance of the painter Matuszewski, whom he introduces by name in
+his tale <i>Der Artushof</i> (&quot;Arthur's Hall&quot;).</p>
+
+<p>When sixteen or seventeen years old Hoffmann conceived his
+first boyish
+affection, which only deserves mention as giving occasion to a frequent
+utterance of his at this time, that illustrates one of the most
+striking sides of his character. It appears that the young lady who was
+the object of his fancied passion either refused to notice his homage
+or else laughed it to scorn, for he remarked to his friend with great
+warmth of feeling, &quot;Since I can't interest her with a pleasing
+exterior, I wish I were a perfect image of ugliness, so that I might
+strike her attention, and so make her at least look at me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The beginning of Hoffmann's university career--he matriculated
+at
+Königsberg on 27th March, 1792--offers nothing of special interest. He
+decided to study jurisprudence. In making this decision he was
+doubtless influenced by the family connections and the traditional
+calling of the male members of the family. As already remarked, his
+father, his uncle, and his great-uncle had all followed the profession
+of law, and he had another uncle Dörffer in the same profession, who
+occupied a position of some influence at Glogau in Silesia. But it is
+also certain that he was determined to this decision--it cannot be
+called choice--from the desire to make himself independent of the
+family in Königsberg as soon as he could contrive to do so, in order
+that he might free himself from the shackles and galling unpleasantness
+of the untoward relations in life to which he was there subject. But he
+was devoted heart and soul to art--to music and painting. As the
+studies of the two friends, Hoffmann and Hippel, were different, they
+necessarily did not see so much of each other as previously; but once a
+week during the winter months they devoted a night to mutual
+outpourings of the things that were in them--the aspirations, hopes,
+dreams, and plans for the future, &amp;c., such as imaginative youths are
+wont to cherish and indulge in. These meetings were strictly confined
+to their two selves; no third was admitted. Their rules were one bottle
+of wine for the whole evening, and the conversation to be carried on in
+rhymed verses; and Hoffmann we find looking back upon these hours with
+glad remembrance even in the full flush of his manhood and fame: even
+on his last sad birthday, a few months before his death, he dwells upon
+them with fond delight.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst, however, devoting himself enthusiastically to the
+pursuit of
+art, he did not neglect his more serious studies. He made good and
+steady progress in the knowledge of law; and he also gave lessons in
+music. It was whilst officiating in this latter capacity that his heart
+was stirred by its first serious passion--a passion which left an
+indelible impress upon all his future life. He fell in love with a
+charming girl, who had a fine taste and true sentiment in art matters,
+but who was separated from her admirer by an impassable barrier of
+rank; but although her social position was far above Hoffmann's, yet
+she returned warmly his pure and ardent affection. Hoffmann, however,
+never disguised from himself the hopelessness of his love; and the fact
+that it was so hopeless embittered all the rest of his time in
+Königsberg, until he left it in June, 1796, for a legal appointment at
+Great Glogau in Silesia.</p>
+
+<p>As these years seem to have been mainly instrumental in
+forming his character and shaping its outlines and giving depth and
+strength to its chief features, it is desirable to dwell for a moment
+upon the principal currents which at this time poured their influences
+upon him. By nature of a genial and gay temperament, gifted with an
+acute perception, which he had further trained in sharpness and
+accuracy, endowed with no small share of talent and with an ardent love
+for art, ambitious, vain in some respects, full of high spirits, and
+with a keen sense of humour, and not devoid of originality, he was
+daily chafed and galled in the depressing atmosphere of his home
+relations. He felt how illogical was the rigid methodicity, how
+unreasonable the arbitrary routine, how absurd the restrictions and
+restraints of his uncle's household regulations; he was eager to be
+quit of them, to turn his back upon them; he was anxious to find a
+congenial field for his powers-~a field where he could turn his
+accomplishments and genius to good account. The only way in which he
+could hope to do so at present, at least for some years to come, was by
+pursuing a legal career, and law he had no inclination for. He says, in
+a letter to Hippel, dated 25th Nov., 1795, &quot;If it depended upon myself
+alone I should be a musical composer, and I have hopes that I could do
+something great in that line; as for the one I have now chosen, I shall
+be a bungler in it as long as I live.&quot; He gradually came to live upon a
+strained and barely tolerable footing with his uncle, since as he grew
+older his tricks and ironical behaviour towards little Otto assumed a
+more pronounced character, and stirred up in the old gentleman's mind
+feelings of suspicion against his unmanageable nephew. In these
+circumstances we may easily discern the germs of a dissatisfaction not
+only with his lot in life but also with himself.</p>
+
+<p>Next came the fact of his hopeless love which has just been
+mentioned.
+And another and no less potent cause which tended to deepen and
+intensify this spirit of inward dissatisfaction was the delay that
+occurred between his passing his entrance examination into the legal
+profession in July, 1795, and his appointment to a definite post of
+active duty in June, 1796. To be compelled to wear out his independent,
+ambitious heart in forced inactivity must have been galling in the
+extreme, especially when it is remembered how eagerly he was longing to
+shake himself free from the relations amidst which he had grown up, and
+his no less earnest desire to get beyond the reach of the passion, or
+at any rate the object of the passion, that was gnawing at his very
+heart-strings. To an energetic spirit, longing for a useful sphere of
+activity, hardly anything can be more fruitful as a source of
+unhappiness than enforced idleness. And this sentiment Hoffmann gives
+frequent utterance to in his letters at this period.</p>
+
+<p>During these same months he cultivated his mind by the perusal
+of the
+works of such writers as Jean Paul, Schiller, and Goethe, the intellectual
+giants upon whom the eyes of Germany were at that time fixed in wonder.
+But this course of reading, instead of counteracting, rather encouraged
+a native leaning towards poetic dreaming and sentimentality. In a letter
+to Hippel, dated 10th Jan., 1796, he even says, &quot;I cannot possibly demand
+that she [the lady he loved] should love me to the same unmeasured extent
+of passionate devotion that has turned my head--and this torments me....
+I can never leave her; she might weep for me for twenty-four hours and
+then forget me--I should <i>never forget her</i>.&quot; There was yet another cause
+or series of causes which co-operated with those mentioned above to
+increase the distracted and agitated condition of his heart. It has been
+already stated more than once that he was a diligent student of music and
+painting. These formed his recreation from the severe and dry study of
+law-books; but to these two arts he now added the fascination of
+literary composition, and wrote two novels, which he entitled <i>Cornaro</i>
+and <i>Der Geheimnissvolle</i>. The former was rejected by a publisher, who
+had at first held out some hopes of being able to accept it, on the
+ground that its author was unknown. Besides this, the productions of
+his brush failed to sell. Hence fresh sources of disappointment and
+vexation.</p>
+
+<p>Through all this, however, even in his darkest moods and most
+desperate
+moments, he was upheld by the feelings and sentiments associated with
+his friendship for his unshaken friend Hippel. To him he poured out all
+his troubles in a series of letters,<sup><a name="div2_biographical5" href="#div2Ref_biographical5">5</a></sup> which gave a most graphic
+account of his mental condition at this period. He led a very retired
+life, hardly seeing anybody; he calls himself an anchorite, and states
+he was living apart from all the world, seeking to find food for
+contemplation and reflection in his own self. He also fostered, perhaps
+unconscious to himself, high poetic aspirations, and also those
+extravagant dreams of friendship which were so fashionable in the days
+of &quot;Posa&quot; and &quot;Werther&quot; and Wieland; &quot;his heart was never more
+susceptible to what is good,&quot; and &quot;his bosom never swelled with nobler
+thoughts,&quot; he says in one of his letters. Then he goes on to describe
+the &quot;flat, stale, and unprofitable&quot; surroundings in the midst of which
+he was confined. &quot;Round about me here it is icy cold, as in Nova
+Zembla, whilst I am burning and being consumed by the fiery breath
+within me,&quot; he says in another place. The violence of his inner
+conflict, of his heart-torture and unhappiness, finds vent in a wild
+burst in the letter before quoted of 10th Jan., 1796 (and also in
+others). He says:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;Many a time I think it's all over with me, and if it were not for my
+uncle's little musical evenings. I don't know what really would become
+of me.... Let me stay here and eat my heart out.... Nothing can be made
+of me, that you will see quite well.... I am ruined for everything; I
+have been cheated in everything, and in a most exasperating way.&quot; ...
+Again, &quot;If I thought it possible that this frantic imp, my fancy, at
+which I laugh right sardonically in my calmer moments, could ever
+strain the fibres of my brain or could touch the feelers of my
+emotional power, I should wish to cry with Shakespeare's Falstaff, 'I
+would it were bedtime, and all well;'&quot; ... and &quot;I am accused by the
+Santa Hermandad of my own conscience.&quot; And in another letter he unbares
+the root of all his troubles in the exclamation, &quot;Oh! that I had a
+mother like you.&quot;</p>
+
+</div>
+<p>Tearing himself away from his lady-love with a violent wrench, Hoffmann
+left Königsberg in a sort of &quot;dazed or intoxicated state,&quot; his heart
+bleeding with the anguish of parting. He arrived at Glogau on 15th
+June, and met with a very friendly reception from his uncle and his
+uncle's family, which consisted of his wife and a son and two
+daughters. But though they appear to have exerted themselves to make
+the unhappy youth comfortable, his heart and mind were too much
+occupied with the dear one he had left behind for him to derive full
+benefit from their kind and well-meant attentions. In the first letter
+he wrote to his friend from his new home he says, &quot;As Hamlet advised
+his mother, I have thrown away the worser part of my heart to live the
+purer with the other half.... Am I happy, you ask? I was never more
+unhappy.&quot; In other letters, written some months later, he writes, &quot;I am
+tired of railing against Destiny and myself.... There are moments in
+which I despair of all that is good, in which I feel it has been
+enjoined upon me to work against everything that makes a vaunt of
+specious happiness.&quot; But he took no manful and resolute steps to battle
+against his unhappy state; he continued to correspond with the lady of
+his affections, to gaze upon her portrait, to write to his friend about
+her, and to dwell upon the past, the hours he had spent in her society.
+His relatives, though treating him with all kindness, would seem to
+have endeavoured to reason him out of his passion, since after he had
+been some months in Glogau, he complains that those who had at first
+been all love and sympathy were now cold and reserved towards him; he
+was misunderstood; he was tormented with <i>ennui</i>, and looked with
+contempt (partly amused and partly bitter) upon the childish follies
+and fopperies, the trifling and dandling with serious feelings and
+affections, of the folks amongst whom he lived, who spent their time in
+&quot;hunting after flies and <i>bonmots</i>.&quot; During these months, however, and
+during the course of the two years he spent in Silesia, he penetrated
+deeper into the secret constitution of his own nature than he ever did
+before or after: we find him confessing to his hot passionate
+disposition and his quickness to take offence, and making mention of
+the change that had taken place in him since the days of his early
+friendship with Hippel--he was become hypochondriacal, dissatisfied
+with himself, ready to kick against destiny, and prone to assume a
+defiant attitude towards her and to blame her and call her to account
+for her treatment of him; then again he was melancholy and sad and
+sentimental, using in his letters expressions built up after Jean
+Paul's style, and indulging in gushing protestations of unalterable
+friendship. But then this was the age of exaggerated friendships. His
+humour and joviality did not, however, altogether desert him; he made
+himself a welcome guest of an evening, and carried out amusing pranks
+with his merry cousins.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1797 Hoffmann accompanied his uncle on a
+journey to
+Königsberg, where he again saw the young girl he loved, but only to
+open up again all the anguish of the wounds that had never yet fully
+healed. On his return to Glogau things continued much as they were
+previous to his visit to his native town.</p>
+
+<p>Of his two favourite arts, painting seems to have occupied him
+more
+than music just at this period. Probably this was due to the influence
+of the painter Molinari, whose acquaintance he made before he had been
+six months in Glogau; and besides this man, whom he styles a &quot;child of
+misfortune&quot; like himself, he also enjoyed the society of Holbein,
+dramatic poet and actor; of Julius von Voss, a well-known writer; and
+of the Countess Lichtenau, formerly favourite of Frederick William II.
+of Prussia, but at that time a sort of prisoner in the garrison at
+Glogau.<sup><a name="div2_biographical6" href="#div2Ref_biographical6">6</a></sup> The serious study of law he also prosecuted most
+assiduously, and to such good purpose that in June, 1798, he was
+able to surmount successfully his second or &quot;referendary&quot; examination.
+But for this earnest and persevering labour there was a special
+incitement--a particular cause. However contradictory it may sound, he
+was already engaged in another love affair; this time with the lady who
+afterwards became his wife, Maria Thekla Michaelina Rorer, of Polish
+extraction. The beginning of his intimacy with her dates, strange to
+say, from the early part of the year 1797, just previous to his journey
+to Königsberg with his uncle. Soon after passing his &quot;referendary&quot;
+examination, he was moved to the Supreme Court at Berlin, as a
+consequence of the promotion of his uncle to be <i>geheimer
+Obertribunalsrath</i> in the capital. But before proceeding to Berlin to
+take up his residence there, Hoffmann made a tour through the Silesian
+mountains, partly with an eccentric friend of his uncle's and partly
+alone, finishing up the trip by an inspection of the art treasures of
+Dresden, where he was specially struck with works by Correggio and
+Battoni (mentioned in <i>Der Sandmann</i>, &amp;c.) and Raphael. One very
+remarkable incident which happened to him during this trip must not be
+passed over in silence. He was induced to play at faro at a certain
+place where he stopped, and though he was perfectly unskilled in the
+game, yet he had such an extraordinary run of good luck, that he rose
+from the table with what was for him a small fortune. Next morning the
+event made so deep and powerful an impression upon his excitable
+temperament--his mind was so awed by the magnitude of his winnings--that
+he vowed never to touch a card again so long as he lived; and this vow
+he faithfully kept. In the tale <i>Spielerglück</i> (&quot;Gambler's Luck&quot;) we
+find the incident recorded in the experiences of Baron Siegfried; and in
+the third volume of the <i>Serapionsbrüder</i> (Part VI.) he relates some of
+the very amusing eccentricities of his travelling companion, which are
+too long to be given here.</p>
+
+<p>We next find Hoffmann in Berlin, where, whilst the impressions
+which he
+had brought back with him from his excursion were still fresh upon his
+mind, he began to revel in the enjoyment of the picture-galleries and
+other opportunities for cultivating his taste in art. Here he saw
+really how little his own skill in painting was developed; he threw
+away colours, and took up drawing again like a beginner. His position
+in a professional regard now took a more favourable turn. Freiherr von
+Schleinitz, the first president of the court to which Hoffmann was
+attached, was a friend of Hippel's; and both he and the genial good-
+hearted second president Von Kircheisen noticed and encouraged his
+talents. In consequence, he laboured at his duties and studies with
+such zeal that he succeeded in passing his third and last examination,
+the so-called <i>examen rigorosum</i>, and so qualifying for the position of
+judge in the highest courts of Prussia, in the summer of 1799. He was
+recommended for an appointment as councillor in a provincial supreme
+court; but before proceeding to the dignity of councillor it was
+obligatory upon him to serve a probationary year as <i>assessor</i>. He was
+accordingly sent down to the newly-acquired Polish provinces (South
+Prussia, as they were called), to the town of Posen, where work was
+plentiful and talented and energetic workers were in demand. Before
+leaving the capital he had the pleasure of seeing his friend Hippel,
+who spent two happy months with him, living the past over again,
+visiting Potsdam, Dessau, Leipsic, Dresden, &amp;c., and discussing the
+journey to Italy, which through all his life Hoffmann continued to
+dream of as an ideal plan to be some time consummated, but which
+unfortunately never was consummated. Hippel accompanied his friend to
+Posen.</p>
+
+<p>The Polish provinces were fraught with great danger for any
+young man
+who was not possessed of exceptional firmness and sound moral
+principles. For a young lawyer, the work was severe and exacting, but
+the emoluments were large. Time, however, failed to allow of
+cultivating the higher sources of enjoyment; hence all hastened to make
+the most of it by throwing themselves into the lower. Drinking was a
+habit of the country; and the drink that was drunk was of the strongest
+kinds, the fiery wines of Hungary and strong liquors. There reigned
+also a deplorable laxity of morals; and the graceful Polish women were
+very seductive. That Hoffmann followed the example of his colleagues,
+and plunged into the giddy whirlpool of miscalled pleasure, will
+perhaps appear natural when we take into consideration the sources of
+discontent that had for some time been fermenting in his spirit. Having
+been submitted to the trammels of unreasonable constraint, it need not
+be wondered at that his passionate restless nature should be enticed by
+the temptations to which he was now so suddenly and unreservedly
+exposed, that he forgot all his higher strivings and cast his better
+purposes to the winds, and drank greedily of the pleasures of life
+which his newly-won freedom brought in so easy and seductive a form
+within his reach. He candidly states, &quot;for some months a conflict of
+feelings, principles, &amp;c., which are directly contradictory the one to
+the other, has been raging within me; I wished to stifle all
+recollection, and become what schoolmasters, preachers, uncles, and
+aunts call profligate.&quot; There was none in the circles which he
+frequented to encourage him in his desire to reach out after better
+things, to live himself into &quot;the poetry of life,&quot; as Hitzig expresses
+it; and hence he fell into the mire of demoralisation, and his fall was
+the greater since he set about it with deliberate intent.</p>
+
+<p>He was at length so far carried away by the delirious whirl
+into which
+he had been caught as to engage in a piece of wanton folly that threw
+him back upon his career by some years, just as he was about to plant
+his foot securely upon the path leading to the summits of his
+profession. Beguiled by his striking talent for caricature, he designed
+and executed a series of sketches, satirising in an exquisitely witty
+and humorous style various situations and characters and well-known
+relations of Posen society. The inscriptions appended to the
+caricatures were not less skilfully done than were the caricatures
+themselves. No rank of society was spared, and hardly any person of
+consequence in the town. One of his friends, who afterwards became his
+brother-in-law, distributed the leaves at a masked ball in the disguise
+of an Italian hawker of pictures, cleverly contriving to place each
+individual sketch in the hands of the person to whom it would most
+likely be most welcome. Hence for several minutes universal glee at the
+excellent jest! But when they came to compare notes, <i>i.e.</i>, the
+presents they had received, the merriment gave way to hot indignation.
+The author of the outrage was very speedily guessed at, since there was
+only one person in Posen with proved ability enough to wield the pencil
+so as to produce such striking likenesses--unfortunate Hoffmann! That
+very same night it is said that a man of high rank, General von
+Zastrow, deeply incensed at several of the pieces in which he himself
+played a ridiculous <i>rôle</i>, sent off an express courier to Berlin with
+a report of the whole affair. The consequence of the thoughtless trick
+was that Hoffmann's patent as councillor to the government at Posen,
+which lay all ready for signing, was exchanged for one appointing him
+to the town of Plock (on the R. Vistula). Thither he went early in
+1802, accompanied by his wife, whose maiden name was &quot;Rorer, or rather
+Trzczynska, a Poless by birth, daughter of the former town-councillor
+T. of Posen, twenty-two years old, of medium stature and good figure,
+with dark-brown hair and dark blue eyes,&quot; as he himself describes her.
+He had taken the step of marriage in face of the earnest dissuasion of
+his uncle Otto, in the last months of his residence in Posen. But
+previous to this, late in the autumn of 1801, he had paid another visit
+to Königsberg, meeting on his return journey his friend Hippel; and
+together they saw Elbing and Dantzic. To this latter visit we owe the
+story of <i>Der Artushof</i> (&quot;Arthur's Hall&quot;), published in 1817. Hippel, be
+it remarked, was disagreeably struck by the change in his friend:
+Hoffmann gave himself up to an unhealthy degree, to wild and
+extravagant gaiety, and disclosed a liking for what was low and lewd.</p>
+
+<p>In Plock Hoffmann spent two years. This was a quiet, stagnant
+place,
+where, according to his own account, he &quot;was buried alive,&quot; and &quot;walked
+in a morass covered with low thorny shrubs which lacerated his feet;&quot;
+he &quot;thought of Yorick and the imprisoned starling;&quot; and he should have
+given way to despair had not the bitter experiences which he was made
+to drain to the lees been sweetened by the affection of his dear good
+wife, who gave him strength for the present and encouraged him to hope
+for the future. Owing to the external circumstances in the midst of
+which he was fixed, he again turned his attention seriously to music
+and painting, and also to authorship. He wrote short essays, composed
+masses, vespers, and sonatas, and translated Italian canzonets, &amp;c. <i>
+Scherz, List, und Rache</i>, a <i>Singspiel</i> of Goethe's, he had already
+set to music in Posen. During these two years he led a more strictly
+domestic life, and spent more of his time out of the hours of official
+duty in his own house, than he ever did afterwards. Here also, as
+almost everywhere throughout his life he was zealous and industrious in
+discharging the duties of his position. At length, just as he was
+beginning to settle down and feel contented with his lot in Plock, his
+friends in Berlin succeeded in securing his removal (1804) to a better
+and more congenial sphere of activity in Warsaw. After once more
+visiting Königsberg in February, 1804, and then spending several days
+with Hippel on his estate at Leistenau (province Marienwerder, East
+Prussia), he eventually proceeded to his new post in Poland in the
+spring of that same year.</p>
+
+<p>One illustrative and very characteristic anecdote of this
+period
+deserves mention. In a letter to Hippel, dated &quot;Plock, 3rd October,
+1803,&quot; Hoffmann writes, &quot;My uncle in Berlin will never do much more to
+recommend me, for he has become 'a grave man,' as Mercutio says in
+Shakespeare;<sup><a name="div2_biographical7" href="#div2Ref_biographical7">7</a></sup> he died on the night of 24-25th September of
+inflammation of the lungs.&quot; But in his diary of October 1 he writes, in
+allusion to the same sad event, &quot;My tears did not flow, nor did fear
+and grief draw from me any loud lamentations; but the image of the man
+whom I loved and honoured is constantly before my eyes; it never leaves
+me. The whole day through my mind has been in a tumult; my nerves are
+so excited that the least little noise makes me start.&quot; Thus he could
+jest in the midst of pain; and it is a type of the man's character.</p>
+
+<p>Warsaw, in notable contrast to other places in the Polish
+provinces,
+possessed many things calculated to excite and engage the attention of
+an active mind, of a mind so eager for knowledge and so keenly alive to
+all that was especially interesting and extraordinary as was
+Hoffmann's. The new scene of his labours cannot be better described
+than in the words of Hitzig and of Hoffmann himself. The former says
+the city had</p>
+
+<div  class="quote">
+<p>&quot;Streets of magnificent breadth, consisting of palaces in the finest
+Italian style and of wooden huts which threaten every moment to tumble
+together about the ears of their indwellers; in these edifices Asiatic
+sumptuousness most closely mingled with Greenland filth; a populace
+incessantly on the stir, forming, as in a procession of maskers, the
+most startling contrasts--long-bearded Jews, and monks clad in the garb
+of every order, closely veiled nuns of the strictest rules and
+unapproachable reserve, and troops of young Polesses dressed in the
+gayest-coloured silk mantles conversing to each other across the
+spacious squares, venerable old Polish gentlemen with moustaches,
+caftan, <i>pass</i> (girdle), sabre, and yellow or red boots, the coming
+generation in the most matchless of Parisian fashions, Turks and
+Greeks, Russians, Italians, and Frenchmen in a constantly varying
+crowd; besides this an almost inconceivably tolerant police, who never
+interfered to prevent any popular enjoyment, so that the streets and
+squares were always swarming with 'punch-and-judy' shows, dancing-
+bears, camels, and apes, whilst the occupants of the most elegant
+equipage equally with the common porter stopped to stare at them open-
+mouthed; further, a theatre conducted in the national language, a
+thoroughly good French troupe, an Italian opera, German comedians, who
+were at least ready to undertake almost anything, 'routs' of a quite
+original but extremely attractive kind, and resorts of pilgrims in the
+immediate vicinity of the town--was there not something for an eye like
+Hoffmann's to see and for a hand like Hoffmann's to sketch?&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical8" href="#div2Ref_biographical8">8</a></sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Thus far Hitzig. Hoffmann writes on May 14, 1804:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;Yesterday ... I resolved to enjoy myself; I threw away my
+deeds and
+sat down to the piano to compose a sonata, but soon found myself in the
+situation of Hogarth's <i>Musicien enragé</i> (Wrathful Musician).
+Immediately underneath my window there arose certain differences
+between three women selling meal, two wheelbarrow-men, and one sailor;
+each of the parties pleaded its cause with a good deal of violent
+demonstration before the tribunal of the hunchback, who stands with a
+stall under the door-way below. Whilst this was going on the bells of
+the parish church, of the Bennonites, and of the Dominican church (all
+close to me) began to clang; in the churchyard of the last named (right
+opposite to me) the hopeful catechumens were hammering away on two old
+kettle-drums, with which all the dogs of the neighbourhood, spurred by
+the strong powers of instinct, joined with a chorus of barkings and
+howlings--at that moment too Wambach and his musical band of
+Janissaries trotted gaily past to the merry strains of their own
+music--meeting them out of [another] street came a herd of swine. A
+tremendous friction in the middle of the street--seven swine were
+ridden over! Terrific squealing!--Oh!--oh! a <i>tutti</i> invented for the
+torture of the damned! Here I threw aside my pen and paper, pulled on
+my top-boots, and ran away out of the wild mad tumult through the
+Cracow suburb--through the 'new world'--down the hill. A sacred Grove
+received me in its shade; I was in Lazienki.<sup><a name="div2_biographical9" href="#div2Ref_biographical9">9</a></sup> Ay, truly, the pleasant
+palace swims upon the mirror-like lake like a virgin swan. Zephyrs come
+wafted through the blossoming trees loaded with voluptuous delight. How
+pleasant to stroll through the thickly foliaged walks! That is the
+place for an amiable Epicurean to live in. What! why this man with the
+white nose galloping<sup><a name="div2_biographical10" href="#div2Ref_biographical10">10</a></sup> along here through the dark-leaved trees must
+be the 'Commendatore' in <i>Don Juan</i>. Ah! John Sobieski! <i>Pink fecit--
+male fecit</i>. Oh! what a state of things! He is riding over writhing
+prostrate slaves, who are stretching up their withered arms to the
+rearing horse--an ugly sight! What! is it possible? Great Sobieski--as
+a Roman with <i>wonçi</i><sup><a name="div2_biographical11" href="#div2Ref_biographical11">11</a></sup> has girt a Polish sabre about his waist, and
+it is made--of wood--ridiculous!... You ask me, my dear friend, how I
+like Warsaw. A motley world! too noisy--too wild--too harum-scarum--
+everything topsy-turvey! Where can I find time to write, to sketch, to
+compose music? The king ought to give up Lasienki to me; <i>there</i> one
+could live nicely, if you like!&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical12" href="#div2Ref_biographical12">12</a></sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first few months of his residence in this &quot;new world,&quot; as it
+appeared to immigrants from the &quot;old land&quot; of Prussia, Hoffmann spent
+in familiarising himself with the novelty and strangeness of the place,
+in wondering at and admiring the motley scenes which daily met his
+view; and doubtless his acute perceptive faculties gleaned a valuable
+harvest of notes for use on future occasions, both for his pencil and
+his pen. About the end of June he formed the acquaintance of J. E.
+Hitzig, who came down to Warsaw with the rank of <i>assessor</i> in the
+administrative college in which Hoffmann held that of councillor. The
+crust of formal courtesy and commonplaces was broken through by
+Hitzig's pithy answer, to a question asking his opinion about some
+newly-arrived colleague, that he was &quot;a man in buckram.&quot; The borrowed
+words of Falstaff banished Hoffmann's reserve, and caused his sombre
+face to light up with joy and his tongue to pour out a brilliant gush
+of talk. This new-made friend, who had previously (1800, 1801) lived in
+Warsaw, where he began his career, introduced Hoffmann into a pleasant
+and intellectual set of men, amongst whom was Zacharias Werner, author
+of <i>Söhne des Thales</i>, <i>Das Kreuz an der Ostsee</i>,<sup><a name="div2_biographical13" href="#div2Ref_biographical13">13</a></sup> &amp;c. Hitzig had
+spent the interval from 1801 in Berlin, where he had kept fully abreast
+of the newest productions in literature and art, whilst Hoffmann had
+been living, partly a rude and riotous life, and partly a solitary and
+monkish one, at Posen and Plock. Hence the one had plenty to
+communicate and the other great eagerness to listen, especially as the
+little he had begun to hear roused anew his slumbering better feelings,
+and whetted with a keen edge his native desire for self-improvement
+through art and literature.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year, 1805, one of the Prussian
+administrative
+officials, an enthusiast in music, conceived the idea of establishing a
+club or society for the purpose of amusement and mutual instruction in
+his favourite art, and for the purpose also of training singers of both
+sexes. Hoffmann's interest was enlisted in the scheme; and things
+proceeded at an energetic rate, the first concert being successful
+beyond expectation. With this encouragement the society was induced to
+go to work on a larger and more pretentious scale. The Miniszeki
+Palace, injured by fire, was bought for the seat of the new academy;
+and then Hoffmann threw himself into the plans of the society with all
+his soul, working indefatigably in preparing architectural designs, and
+later in decorating the halls and corridors. During all the mild days
+of the spring of 1806 he was never to be met with at home. If not in
+the government office, he was invariably to be found perched up on a
+high scaffolding in the new musical Ressource, painter's jacket on and
+surrounded by a crowd of colour-pots, amongst which was sure to be a
+bottle of Hungarian or Italian wine; there he painted and thence he
+conversed with his friends below. If, on occasion, parties requiring
+the services of Councillor Hoffmann came to look for him at the new
+Ressource, whither they had been directed from his own house, they were
+greatly surprised to see him drop nimbly to the floor from before an
+elaborate wall-painting of ancient Egyptian gods, mixed up with
+caricature figures and animal-like fragments of modems (his friends
+with tails, wings, etc.), hastily wash his hands, trot along in front
+of them to his place of business, and in a brief space of time turn out
+some complicated legal instrument with which it would defy the sharpest
+critic to find anything amiss.</p>
+
+<p>So absorbed was he in this work, and in that of directing at
+the
+evening performances and composing music for them, that he hardly knew
+anything of the dark thunder-cloud of war that was gathering in the
+West until the news of the fateful battle of Jena came; but upon these
+music enthusiasts in Warsaw even this intelligence made no perceptible
+impression. Their concerts and practisings and meetings went on
+uninterruptedly just as before, until one fine day the advanced guard
+of the Russian army rode into the streets of the former Polish capital.
+Soon after the Russian general had taken up his quarters in Praga,
+close to Warsaw, there appeared on the other side of the town the
+pioneers of the great army of Napoleon. The Prussians and Russians
+withdrew from the town. Milhaud arrived with the main body of Murat's
+forces; in Napoleon's name the Prussian Government was dissolved, and
+its officials were superseded by native Poles. Hence Hoffmann was left
+without employment. He and his colleagues divided the contents of the
+treasury between them to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+French; this secured them from want for the present. Careless about the
+future, and revelling in the luxury of untrammelled freedom, Hoffmann
+was now perfectly happy. The excitement was like rich wine to his
+brilliant fancy; he never had enough of it. He spent all the livelong
+day in running about seeing and hearing the many remarkable things to
+be both seen and heard. And the little, restless, energetic man was
+like quicksilver; he was everywhere. He specially loved to frequent the
+theatres, where, before the curtain rose, conversations might be heard
+carried on in ten or a dozen living tongues at once. Pushing his way
+through the motley throng, he penetrated to every part of the house,
+busy gathering all sorts of rich observations, and storing up a most
+varied assortment of experiences; and nothing escaped his falcon eye or
+remained unnoticed by his keen perception. Many and exquisite were the
+humorous anecdotes he picked up, the gestures he copied, the tricks and
+eccentricities he caught, the extraordinary characters he understood
+and fathomed at a glance; and these experiences he afterwards retailed
+to his friends, to their unbounded delight.</p>
+
+<p>But amid all the tumult of the French occupation of the city,
+the
+evenings at the Musical Ressource still went on the same as ever.
+Hoffmann indeed, in order to escape the burdens of billeting as well as
+from motives of economy, took up his residence in one of the attics of
+the Ressource, where, though somewhat straitened for accommodation (for
+he had his wife, a niece aged about twelve, and a little baby daughter
+with him), he was as happy and contented as he well could be. He had
+the rich library of the Ressource at command, and his own piano stood
+in one of its rooms; and &quot;that was all he wanted to make him forget the
+French and the future.&quot; Early in 1807, he took advantage of a
+favourable opportunity and sent his wife and the two children to her
+friends in Posen; Hitzig also, and his family, and most other friends,
+left Warsaw in March of that year: thus Hoffmann was left almost alone.
+Soon afterwards he was attacked by a grave nervous disorder, but
+successfully nursed through it by the one or two friends who still
+remained in the city. On recovering, he wished to go to Vienna, with
+the view of beginning an artistic career, and was only prevented from
+carrying out his design by want of money to defray the expenses of the
+journey. He was in great distress, and even began to despond, until
+finally in the summer he contrived to get to Posen, and thence to
+Berlin, where he arrived some time in July.</p>
+
+<p>In Berlin, however, his prospects did not improve. He failed
+to find
+employment for his talents: nobody could be got to purchase his
+sketches or sit to him for a portrait; an attempt to interest Iffland,
+the actor and dramatist, in him failed; and no publisher could be found
+for his musical productions. Everything he was willing to do came to
+nothing. Then came other misfortunes. His ready-money, consisting of
+six <i>Louis d'or</i>, was stolen from him; news reached him of the death of
+his dearly-loved daughter Cecily when two years old, and of the illness
+of his wife. He was on the point of despair, when it suddenly occurred
+to him to advertise for the post of musical director in a theatre. This
+had the desired effect of eventually securing him the post he wished,
+in the theatre at Bamberg which was conducted under the auspices of
+Count von Soden; but the engagement was not to commence until October,
+1808. The intervening months were months of hard struggle for Hoffmann;
+he says he was almost in the extremities of want, and should have
+lacked the bare necessaries of life had he not succeeded in disposing
+of some minor productions in music and painting for a couple of <i>Louis
+d'or</i> received in advance. In the summer of 1808, he at last fetched
+his wife from Posen, and then repaired to Bamberg (1st September).</p>
+
+<p>To these years in Warsaw and Berlin belong three operas and
+other minor
+musical pieces (including music for Werner's tragedy <i>Das Kreuz an der
+Ostsee</i>), several productions of his pencil and brush, but no literary
+works. Here at the end of what may be termed the first act in E. T. W.
+Hoffmann's chequered life we may pause a moment And the pause we may
+turn to account by quoting a description of his personal appearance and
+some peculiarities of habit.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;Hoffmann was very short of stature, of yellowish complexion; and he
+had dark, almost black hair, growing down low upon his forehead, gray
+eyes which had nothing remarkable about them when they were at rest,
+but which assumed an uncommonly humorous and cunning expression when he
+blinked them, as he often did. His nose was thin and of the Roman type,
+and his mouth tightly closed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Notwithstanding his agility, his body seemed to be capable of
+endurance, for in contrast with his size his breast was high and his
+shoulders broad.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;During the earlier part of his life his dress was
+sufficiently
+elegant, without falling into foppery. The only thing he set great and
+special store by was his whiskers, which he carefully cut so as to form
+a point against the corners of his mouth....</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What particularly struck the eye in his exterior was his
+extraordinary
+vivacity of movement, which rose to the highest pitch when he began to
+narrate anything. His manners at receiving and parting from people--
+repeated quick short bendings of the neck without moving the head--had
+a good deal that appeared to partake of the nature of caricature, and
+might very readily have been taken for irony had not the impression
+made by his singular gestures on such occasions been softened by his
+cordial warmth of manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He spoke with incredible quickness and in a somewhat hoarse
+voice, so
+that he was always very difficult to understand, especially during the
+last years of his life, when he had lost some of his front teeth. When
+relating he always spoke in quite short sentences; but when the
+conversation turned upon art matters and he got enthusiastic--against
+which, however, he seemed to guard himself--he employed long and finely
+rounded periods. If he were reading any of his own compositions aloud--
+whether literary or official--he hurried over the unimportant parts at
+such a rate that his listeners had hard work to follow him; but those
+places which are called 'strong touches' in a picture he emphasised
+with almost comic pathos; he screwed up his mouth as he read, and
+looked round to see if his listeners caught the points, so that he
+often upset both his own and their equilibrium. Owing to this habit he
+was conscious that he did not read well, and was always uncommonly
+pleased if anybody else would relieve him of the task; this, however,
+was a ticklish thing to do, especially in the case of MSS. copy, for
+every word read falsely or every hesitating glance upon a word to make
+sure what it was went like a knife to his heart, and this effect he
+could not conceal. As a singer he was a fine powerful tenor.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical14" href="#div2Ref_biographical14">14</a></sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To Bamberg Hoffmann went with high hopes of being able to realise the
+dreams of his life; but his fond expectations were doomed to the
+bitterest disappointment. His post he barely retained two months. The
+theatre circumstances were on an exact par with those described in <i>
+Wilhelm Meister</i> (<i>videatur</i> the name Melina, &amp;c.). Hoffmann's style
+of directing gave offence to the Bamberg public on the very first
+evening; Count von Soden had placed the management of the theatre in
+the hands of a certain Cuno, whose affairs were so embarrassed that he
+never, or only seldom, paid his officials, and finally became insolvent
+in February, 1809. The disappointed director, embittered against the
+public by his failure to recommend himself to them, supported himself
+and his wife by composing the incidental music for the various pieces
+given at the theatre, at a small monthly salary (of which he received
+but little), and by giving music lessons in many of the best families
+of the town. But the war approaching that district of Germany caused
+many of these families to leave the place; and Hoffmann began to be in
+embarrassed circumstances. Then he wrote an extremely droll letter to
+Rochlitz, the editor of the <i>Musicalische Zeitung</i> at Leipsic, was
+taken on as a contributor, and continued to work for this magazine all
+the time he was in Bamberg--producing mostly reviews and criticisms of
+musical works, and writing fugitive pieces of musical interest. He also
+composed several pieces of music of various descriptions independently
+of those which he wrote for the theatre. Nor was his brush idle, for he
+received several commissions for large family pictures. Thus things
+went on until the summer of 1809, when a brighter cloud dawned upon him
+for a time. One fine summer evening he made the acquaintance of Kunz, a
+bookseller, publisher, and wine-dealer, at the pleasure-resort of Bug
+(close to Bamberg) in a characteristic manner. Kunz, an honest, jovial,
+good-natured giant, not lacking humour and gifted with a remarkable
+talent for mimicry and imitation, became little Hoffmann's fast
+friend--nay, his only real friend--during the whole of the time the
+latter remained in Bamberg. They were almost inseparable, associated
+in all amusements and diversions: they spent many long winter evenings
+together in pouring out their hearts and experiences to each other in
+mutual confidences, and many long summer evenings at the &quot;Rose,&quot; where
+according to German custom a throng of visitors gathered to spend the
+hours between closing business and going to bed. In July, 1810,
+Holbein, Hoffmann's Glogau friend, came to undertake the management of
+the Bamberg theatre. This, of course, could not fail to be of advantage
+to Hoffmann, who, though he did not resume his post of musical
+director, yet received a permanent engagement to act in a multitude of
+departments: he was musical composer, architect, scene-painter, part
+comptroller of the financial arrangements, and director of the
+repertoire, &amp;c. Under Holbein's management the theatre rose to a
+flourishing level; classic operas and good plays<sup><a name="div2_biographical15" href="#div2Ref_biographical15">15</a></sup> were introduced
+with success, to which the versatile talents of Hoffmann largely
+contributed. In the evenings the choice spirits of Bamberg, mostly of
+theatrical and artistic connection, used to assemble in the &quot;Rose,&quot;
+where Hoffmann was the soul of the party, his genius, wit, irony, and
+drollery being inexhaustible. Whilst sending out flashes of sarcastic
+wit or gleams of exquisite humour, he would clench a droll or clever
+description by quickly embodying his thoughts and words in impromptu
+sketches, which were handed round to the company. Music and singing,
+often by the actors and actresses, also added to the entertainment of
+the evening. Mine host of the &quot;Rose&quot; saw his company increased by some
+scores of visitors when it was known that the inimitable sharp-eyed
+little music-director was going to be present; and he used to send
+across (Hoffmann lived the other side of the street only) during the
+day to inquire if he intended being there in the evening. But on the
+whole, Hoffmann was more generally feared than loved, or even
+respected, by the main body of the townsfolk. His vanity was openly
+displayed; he must lead the conversation, and everybody else must fall
+in with his humour and his whim, or they might expect some marked
+rudeness from his bitter tongue; and the fellow had a confoundedly
+sharp tongue, and no less sharp a pen and pencil. The most wonderful
+things were said about him in the town, and to those not intimate with
+him or who did not know him personally, he was a man to be gazed at
+from a distance; it was hardly safe to seek his acquaintance, although
+his talk was said to be something extraordinary, and his gestures and
+grimaces irresistibly diverting, yet he could also launch stinging
+barbs and on occasion utter insulting sarcasms. In fact the outside
+public were wont to regard him as invested with a nimbus of wonder, or
+even as a sort of dæmonic being. Though these evenings were beyond all
+conception gay and festive, Hoffmann seldom drank to excess. Of course
+he drank a good deal: he had acquired the habit, as remarked, at Posen,
+but he was not a common drinker, who drinks for the drink's sake. It
+was the exhilaration it gave to his spirits and the fire it gave to his
+mind and brilliant parts that he found attractive in the habit.<sup><a name="div2_biographical16" href="#div2Ref_biographical16">16</a></sup>
+Excursions were also made into the country, particularly to Bug; and
+here, as at Warsaw, the restless &quot;quicksilver&quot; man was everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1811, he was fortunate to be introduced to Von Weber
+the
+musician, whose regard for his musical talents continued undiminished
+until his death; and in the same month Hoffmann paid a visit to Jean
+Paul at Bayreuth, and had from him a fairly cordial reception. Towards
+the end of the year came the intelligence that his uncle Otto Dörffer
+of Königsberg had died, leaving him heir to his property. But the sum
+Hoffmann received barely sufficed, if indeed it did suffice, to pay his
+debts. These had been accumulated first by Hoffmann's own want of
+prudence--when he had money in his purse he spent it merrily without a
+thought about the morrow--and secondly, by the frequent illness of his
+wife, the simple, homely, unassuming, good-natured creature with whom
+he always lived on happy terms in spite of his own unpardonable
+vagaries. Curiously enough, he used to labour under the odd delusion
+that she was gifted with keen critical taste and was an intellectual
+woman, though this was far from being the truth, according to the
+express evidence of his bosom-friend Kunz.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst Hoffmann's pupils was a young girl of sixteen, Julia
+M----;
+this was his favourite pupil. For her he came to conceive an
+overmastering passion; but whether it was more of the imagination or of
+the heart it would appear difficult to decide with absolute certainty.
+He did not know himself; &quot;he preferred to remain a riddle to himself, a
+riddle which he always dreaded to have solved;&quot; and he demanded from
+his friend Kunz that he should look upon him as a &quot;sacred inexplicable
+hieroglyph.&quot; The girl, who was pretty and amiable, of good
+understanding, and of child-like deportment towards her music-master,
+never for a single moment dreamt of such a thing as his passion for
+her, and so of course she never consciously encouraged it in any way.
+She did not even show any signs of possessing a dreamy or poetic
+temperament, or seem to be inclined to sentimentality, so that
+Hoffmann's extraordinary infatuation can only be explained as a &quot;fixed
+insanity.&quot; At any rate, it powerfully affected his mind, and left an
+indelible trace upon him almost down to his dying day. The day on which
+her betrothal to a stupid, weak-minded man, a man in all respects
+unworthy of her, was celebrated at the pleasure-resort of Pommersfelden
+(four hours from Bamberg), was one which shook Hoffmann's storm-tossed
+soul to its profoundest depths. He had hated himself for his weakness,
+and yet could not or would not manfully resolve to break through it.
+Now he was compelled to do so, and in a way that was galling to the
+utmost degree. Her marriage turned out an unhappy one; and eight years
+later, that is two years before his death, hearing she was in great
+trouble, he sent many kind messages to her through a mutual friend.
+These relations are detailed with striking truth and fidelity in the <i>
+Nachricht von den neusten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza</i>, published
+in the <i>Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier</i> (1814-15). Perhaps, if we
+sufficiently compare the descriptions which he gives of various
+heroines in his tales (all of which were written after this time),<sup><a name="div2_biographical17" href="#div2Ref_biographical17">17</a></sup>
+and bear in mind the common characteristic running through them all,
+namely, that he puts them before us more as individual pictures than as
+developments of character, giving us purely objective sketches of them
+after the manner of a painter--if we compare these descriptions with
+what we know of Hoffmann's mind and character, his restless, brilliant
+imagination, and the taint of sensuousness that helped to mar its
+purity, his keen eye for beauty in form and colour, his strong talent
+for seeing the things with which he came in contact through an
+unmistakable veil of either love or hatred, we may perhaps hazard the
+opinion, without risk of going far wrong, that it was his imagination--
+the imagination that made up such a large part of the man--that was
+principally concerned in this remarkable passion; if his heart was also
+touched, as it would undoubtedly appear to have been, the road to it
+must no less undoubtedly have been found through his imagination.</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1812 Hoffmann was invited to a banquet at the
+monastery of the
+Capuchins; and the visit made an extraordinary impression upon him. All
+during dinner he could not keep his eyes off a gray-haired old monk
+with a fine antique head, genuine Italian face, strong-marked features,
+and long snow-white beard. On being introduced to Father Cyrillus he
+asked him innumerable questions about the secrets of monastic life,
+especially about those things of which &quot;we profane have only dim
+guesses, no clear conceptions.&quot; They got into a poetic and exalted
+frame of mind, and rose just as it was getting dusk to inspect the
+chapel and crypt, and other objects of interest. In the crypt Hoffmann
+was powerfully agitated: he reverently doffed his hat, his wine-heated
+face became terribly pale, and he visibly showed that he was held in
+the thraldom of supernatural awe. When Father Cyrillus went on to point
+out the spot where his own mortal remains should rest, and to indulge
+in certain pious exhortations to them (Hoffmann and Kunz) to shed a
+tear upon his grave if they should come there again in after years,
+Hoffmann lost control of himself; he stood like a marble pillar, his
+face and eyes set, his hair standing on end, unable to utter a
+word.<sup><a name="div2_biographical18" href="#div2Ref_biographical18">18</a></sup> Then making a gesture upwards he hurried out of the crypt
+with hasty uncertain steps. The impressions made upon him by this
+visit, and the observations he gathered, he employed in the <i>Elixiere
+des Teufels</i> and <i>Kater Murr</i> (pt. II.), the meeting between <i>
+Kapellmeister</i> Kreisler and Father Hilarius, as well as the
+description of the monastery and its situation in the latter, being
+invested with a fine poetic flavour.</p>
+
+<p>The scene in the crypt points to another side of Hoffmann's
+character,
+or rather personality, which hitherto has not been alluded to. In fact,
+it does not seem, as far as can be gathered from the biographical
+sources, that it began to be strongly developed until the Bamberg
+period. We have seen how that early in life he conceived a decided
+antipathy to the prosaic and the commonplace, and his career up to this
+point furnishes abundant evidence that he hated with a genuine hatred
+to keep in the ruts of custom and conventionality, as if bound to do so
+because such was prescribed by custom and conventionality. His
+sentiments he never concealed, and his actions harmonised, almost without
+exception, strictly with his sentiments; for one of his most striking and
+instructive characteristics was the remarkable fearlessness which he
+displayed no less in his actual conduct than in his habits of thought.
+Affectation was far from him; thorough genuineness was stamped upon all
+he did, showing unmistakably that it came direct from the man himself.
+In fact it might be said, with special significance, that his inner and
+his outer life--the in other cases invisible life of the soul and the
+visible life in action--were perfectly correlated, if not one and
+indivisibly the same. Being then thus honest with himself,<sup><a name="div2_biographical19" href="#div2Ref_biographical19">19</a></sup> and
+detesting as he did all that was commonplace and wearying, fiat and stale
+and dull, it is no wonder that he should tend to fall into the opposite
+extreme, and should delight in the unusual, the singular, the
+extraordinary. Further, when we remember his fine imaginative powers,
+his inimitable humour, his vanity, his poetic cast of mind, his bitterness
+against the public for not appreciating his musical talents, and his
+consequent fits of fierce defiance and satiric gloom, there is still less
+cause for wonder when we find this propensity for seeking the uncommon
+and the marvellous deepening and developing in time into an unconquerable
+penchant for what was grotesque and eccentric, for what was fantastic,
+unnatural, ghostly, and horrible. He loved to occupy his fancy most with
+the extremes of human action, and to dive down into the most secret and
+unexplored recesses of human nature to bring back thence some wild
+startling trait that scarce any other imagination save his own would
+have discovered. If he ever studied human nature at all, it was along
+the border-lands of rationality; those misty shadowy states, such as
+insanity, monomania, and hypochondriacal somnambulism, where the soul
+hardly knows itself and loses touch of reality and almost of self-
+consciousness. These and the like mysterious states of being exercised
+a strange fascination upon his spirit. He was constantly pursued by the
+idea that some secret and dreadful calamity would happen to him, and
+his mind was often haunted by images of awful form and by &quot;doubles&quot; of
+himself and others. He even believed he saw visions with his own bodily
+eyes, and no expostulations of his friends could drive this belief out
+of his head. Not only when he was engaged in writing, but even in the
+midst of an ordinary conversation, at supper, or whilst drinking a
+social glass of wine or rum, he would suddenly exclaim, &quot;See there--
+there--that ugly little pigmy--see what capers he cuts. Pray don't
+incommode yourself, my little man. You are at liberty to listen to us
+as much as you please. Will you not approach nearer? You are welcome.&quot;
+(Here, and occasionally, he would accompany his words with violent
+muscular contortions of the face.) &quot;Pray what will you take? Oh! don't
+go, my good little fellow.&quot; All this, or similar disconnected phrases,
+he used to utter with his eyes fixed and riveted upon the place where
+he affirmed he saw the vision; and if his word was doubted or he was
+laughed at as a stupid foolish man, he would knit his brows and with
+great earnestness reiterate his assertions and appeal to his wife to
+support him, saying, &quot;I often see them, don't I, Mischa&quot; (Misza,
+Mischa, short form for the Polish name Michaelina)?</p>
+
+<p>This side of Hoffmann's individuality is not only one of the
+most
+characteristic of him, it is necessary to grasp it in order to
+understand his written works. These remarks will also serve to make
+more intelligible the sensation aroused in Hoffmann the evening he was
+at the Capuchin monastery. It is in the <i>Elixiere des Teufels</i> that
+these noteworthy traits find in most respects their fullest expression.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the historical narrative. The story <i>Meister
+Martin</i> and
+the unfinished <i>Der Feind</i> owe their origin to a visit which Hoffmann
+paid to Erlangen and Nuremberg in March, 1812. In the same year he also
+devoted some attention to sport, and learned to use a sportsman's
+rifle; but his imagination was always swifter than his rifle-charge. A <i>
+sitting</i> sparrow he did at length contrive to hit, but a flying one,
+or a hare, or even a deer, he never could succeed in knocking over,
+that is to say the real animals. Clods of earth and tufts of grass
+which his imagination conjured into game he could sometimes hit, but no
+living animal would ever be likely to approach near him, for his quick
+restless movements and mercurial gestures were a standing impediment to
+any game ever coming within shot of him unless actually driven close
+past his &quot;stand,&quot; and then his excitement either made him fire too soon
+or else miss. Nevertheless, he enjoyed these sporting excursions, in
+his own eccentric fashion, immensely.<sup><a name="div2_biographical20" href="#div2Ref_biographical20">20</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>During the summer Hoffmann took up his residence for four
+weeks in the
+picturesque ruins of the castle of Altenburg, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Bamberg, where, whilst living a hermit's life in
+company with his spouse, he painted one of the towers with frescoes
+illustrative of incidents in the life of Count Adalbert von Babenberg,
+whose residence the castle had formerly been. But he also occupied
+himself with literary schemes; it was in this retreat that he wrote
+certain sketches designed to form parts of a work which long occupied
+his mind, but which never came to anything, namely, the <i>Lichte Stunden
+eines wahnsinnigen Musikers</i> (Rational Intervals of a Crack-brained
+Musician). In this he purposed to develop his opinions on the theory of
+music and the principles of harmony. The fragments were afterwards
+revised and appeared as the <i>Kreisleriana</i> in the <i>Fantasiestücke</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the next month, July, his star of adversity was again to be
+in the
+ascendant. Holbein severed his connection with the theatre, and
+Hoffmann lost his fixed income. Things grew darker and darker for him,
+until he was almost reduced to actual want; at any rate he came to be
+in very embarrassed circumstances. Singular to say, however, under all
+this cloud of adversity he maintained a shining face and a light heart
+behind it. This was peculiar to him; Rochlitz says &quot;he belonged to the
+large class of men who can bear ill fortune better than good fortune.&quot;
+During this time of distress, which was a repetition of his dark days
+in Berlin in 1807-8, he displayed a remarkable activity in his usual
+pursuits. His criticism of <i>Don Juan</i>, and exposition of the problem of
+Mozart's great opera, for which Hoffmann cherished a profound and
+almost extravagant admiration, owes its origin to this period.<sup><a name="div2_biographical21" href="#div2Ref_biographical21">21</a></sup> An
+anecdote in relation to this will also illustrate his true passionate
+admiration of art. Kunz lost a child, for which he grieved sadly; two
+days afterwards Hoffmann advised him to go with him to see <i>Don Juan</i>
+at night, declaring it would assuage his grief and soothe and comfort
+his heart. Of course Kunz looked upon the idea as preposterous.
+Nevertheless Hoffmann would not be denied; he exerted all his arts of
+persuasion to induce his friend to go. At last Kunz did go; on the way
+to the theatre Hoffmann discoursed of the opera in such a sensible,
+acute, and touching way, and so poetically and with especial reference
+to his friend's loss, and afterwards in the theatre he expressed his
+sympathy in such kind and delicate lines, whilst tears of genuine
+feeling stood in his eyes, that his friend was obliged to admit, &quot;This
+music of the spheres, which I had heard at least a dozen times before,
+exerted a greater power over me than all the dictates of reason or the
+consolations of friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1813, the struggling ex-director received an
+altogether
+unexpected letter from Joseph Seconda, offering him the post of music-
+director to his opera company at Dresden; and on April 21, 1813,
+Hoffmann's residence in Bamberg, which may be regarded as the turning-
+point in his life, came to an end. Four days later he arrived at his
+destination without encountering any very serious adventure on the
+road, although it swarmed most of the way with scouting Bashkirs,
+Cossacks, Prussian hussars, and Russian dragoons, and was thickly lined
+with heavy guns and munition-waggons,--massing for the battle of Lützen
+(May 2). On arriving at Dresden Hoffmann found quite unexpectedly his
+friend Hippel, and with him spent several right happy days. Then he was
+summoned by Seconda to join him at Leipsic, for Seconda seems to have
+spent his time between this town and Dresden. But the journey was
+postponed until May 20th, owing to the proximity of the contending
+forces and the consequent unsettled state of the country. In the
+intervals several sharp skirmishes between the Russians and French took
+place in and close around Dresden. As might be expected, Hoffmann could
+not check his irrepressible desire to be in the thick of the
+excitement; on May 9th he was standing close beside one of the town
+gates when a ball struck against a wall near him and in the rebound hit
+him on the shin; he quietly stooped down and picked up the flattened
+&quot;coin,&quot; and preserved it as a memento, &quot;being quite satisfied with that
+one memento, unselfishly not asking for any more,&quot; as he wrote. Even
+during these troubled restless days he worked at the <i>Fantasiestücke</i>.
+On the way to Leipsic happened a startling occurrence, which probably
+served as the prototype for the catastrophe at the end of <i>Das Majorat</i>
+(The Entail). The coach was upset and a newly married Countess was
+taken up dead; Hoffmann's own wife also received a severe wound on the
+head. Seconda's troupe only remained in Leipsic a few weeks longer;
+permission was given him to play in the Court theatre at Dresden; hence
+on 24th June we find Hoffmann on his way back to Dresden, and deriving
+in his characteristic fashion much amusement from a waggon heavily
+laden with theatrical appurtenances, living and non-living, something
+in the style of the carriage scene in <i>Die Fermate</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The return, however, was a return into the very hottest scene
+of the
+struggle between the Allies and Napoleon. On August 26th and 27th the
+fight raged furiously around the walls of Dresden; the quarter in which
+Hoffmann was living was shelled; the people in the house &quot;bivouaced&quot;
+under the stone stairs, trembling with fear and anxiety. Hoffmann,
+however, could not bear to hide away, so he slipped out by a back door
+and went to join one of his theatrical friends. Looking out of his
+window they watched the damage done by the shells, and saw one burst in
+the market-place below, crushing a soldier's head, tearing open the
+body of a passing citizen, and seriously wounding three other people
+not far away. Keller the actor, in his start of apprehension, let his
+glass fall out of his hand; &quot;I,&quot; says Hoffmann, &quot;drank mine empty and
+cried, 'What is life? Not able to bear a little bit of hot iron? Poor
+weak human nature! God give me calmness and courage in the midst of
+danger! We can get over it all better so.'&quot; Then he returned to the
+anxious party under the steps, taking them wine and rum--the latter was
+Hoffmann's favourite drink. His presence brought the unfailing good
+spirits and humour which hardly ever deserted him, even under the
+darkest cloud of adversity. On the 29th he visited the battle-field and
+saw its cruel sights and its horrors. But other horrors were in store
+for the inhabitants of the city; for the next few weeks Dresden was
+besieged, and her citizens suffered from famine and pestilence and all
+the other usual terrible concomitants of a siege.</p>
+
+<p>Hoffmann's literary activity through all these weeks of
+turmoil was
+something astonishing. Whilst the thunders of cannon were making &quot;the
+ground to tremble and the windows to shake,&quot; and the shells were
+bursting around him and the sharp crack and dull ping of bullets were
+incessantly striking upon his ear, this extraordinary man sat
+unconcerned amidst it all, absorbed in literary or musical composition,
+either writing his <i>Goldener Topf</i> (or <i>Der Dichter und der Componist</i>
+or <i>Der Magnetiseur</i>) or working out his opera <i>Undine</i>, which was
+begun in Bamberg in 1812. Even when suffering from the dysentery which
+raged in the place, his intellectual activity went on without being
+impaired. In a letter to Kunz of date Sept 8th of this year he writes,
+&quot;I am, as you will observe, unwearied in cultivating the fine arts, and
+if to-morrow or the day after I am not blown into the air by a Prussian
+or Russian or Austrian shell, you will find me fat and well-favoured
+from art enjoyments of every sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was through Kunz's intervention that the Introduction
+prefixed to
+the <i>Fantasiestücke</i> was obtained from Jean Paul, and that against
+Hoffmann's own wish, for all introductions except those which stand as <i>
+prolegomena</i> before a scientific work he hated--when a well-known
+writer prefixed an introduction before the work of an unknown as a sort
+of attestation, it seemed to him like &quot;an incendiary letter which the
+young author takes into his hand in order to go and beg for applause
+with it.&quot; Another short passage from one of his letters to Kunz of this
+same summer may here be quoted as illustrating a trait in his
+character:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;So far about business; and now the earnest request that you will keep
+in mind and constantly before your eyes who and what I am, and let our
+business even be inspired with that spirit of cheerfulness and good-
+humour which always marked our intercourse with each other, and even in
+money matters prevented the dead, stiff, frosty mercantile style from
+coming to the surface. I am sure it was quite foreign to both of us,
+and could only excite in us such fear as we feel when set upon by an
+angry 'wauwau,' at which afterwards we can only laugh to each other.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This unwillingness, nay almost repugnance to look at things from their
+serious side, was quite characteristic of him. &quot;But these are <i>odiosa</i>&quot;
+was a frequent phrase in his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>On 9th December Seconda and his opera company once more
+repaired to
+Leipsic, and Hoffmann of course along with them. There on New Year's
+Day he was struck down by a severe attack of inflammation in the chest,
+aggravated by gout, in consequence of a violent cold caught in the
+theatre; the case was so severe and grave that his life was at times in
+danger. &quot;Podagrists are generally visited by an especial humour--
+brilliant fancies; this comforts me; I experience the truth of it,
+since often when I feel the sharpest pangs I write <i>con amore</i>,&quot; he
+states in a letter to Kunz (24th March). And during his illness one of
+his friends &quot;found him in one of the meanest rooms in one of the
+meanest inns, sitting on a wretched bed, but ill protected against the
+cold, and with his feet drawn up by gout.&quot; A board was lying in front
+of him, and he appeared to be busy doing something upon it. &quot;God bless
+me!&quot; exclaimed his friend, &quot;whatever are you doing?&quot; &quot;Making
+caricatures,&quot; replied Hoffmann laughing--&quot;caricatures of the cursed
+Frenchman; I am inventing them, drawing them, and colouring them.&quot; He
+also wrote about this time the <i>Vision auf dem Schlachtfelde bei
+Dresden</i> and other pieces, and finished his <i>Undine</i>; further, whilst
+in this distressing condition, he began the <i>Elixiere des Teufels</i>, the
+first volume of which was completed in less than a month. This work he
+intended to be an illustration, or illustrative exposition of his own
+notions, of &quot;a man who even at his birth was an object of contention
+between the powers divine and demoniacal, and his tortuous wonderful
+life was intended to exhibit in a clear and distinct light those secret
+and mysterious combinations between the human spirit and all those
+Higher Principles which are concealed in all Nature, and only flash out
+now and again--and these flashes we call chance.&quot; That he succeeded in
+his purpose cannot be maintained. His own individuality was too strong
+for him: he failed to handle his subject from a sufficiently
+independent standpoint. He was not the artist creating a work that was
+quite outside himself; he was rather the silk-worm spinning his
+entangling threads round about himself. The book can scarcely be read
+without shuddering; the dark maze of humane motion and human weakness--
+a mingling of poetry, sentimentality, rollicking humour, wild remorse,
+stern gloom, blind delusion, dark insanity, over all which is thrown a
+veil steeped in the fantastic and the horrible--all this detracts from
+the artistic merits of the work, but invests it with a corresponding
+proportion of interest as a revealer of some of the deepest secrets and
+hidden phases of the human soul, if one only has the courage to wade
+through it. The dreamy mystifications and the wild insanity and mystic
+passion of Brother Medardus are not unrelieved by scenes and characters
+which bear the stamp of bright poetic beauty and rich comic humour
+(<i>e.g.</i>, the character of the Abbess of the Cistercian convent, the <i>
+jäger</i>, the description of the monastery, the scenes with Mr. Ewson
+and Belcampo <i>alias</i> Schönfeld).</p>
+
+<p>For some reason which cannot be quite made out for certain,
+either in
+consequence of his continued illness or because of a quarrel with
+Seconda, Hoffmann found himself once more adrift in the world without
+an anchor to hold fast by in February, 1814. In striking contrast with
+his treatment by the Bamberg public, his talents as director whilst
+with Seconda's company were fully and adequately appreciated, both by
+the artistes and the orchestra, as well as by the general public. This
+may have been due to two causes; first, the actors and actresses were
+not embarrassed by his directing from the pianoforte instead of with
+the violin as those in Bamberg were, and in the second place his
+criticisms and essays on musical subjects in Rochlitz's <i>Musicalische
+Zeitung</i> had gained him a certain reputation as an authority in musical
+matters. After having refused the offer of a post as music-director in
+his native city of Königsberg in February (1814), he was agreeably
+surprised by Hippel's promise to secure his return into official life.
+Accordingly towards the end of September in that same year he set out
+for Berlin.</p>
+
+<p>Here ends what may be termed the second act of this very
+unsettled,
+eventful life. That this wandering aside from the career he first
+started upon--viz., that of law and public life to tread the thorny
+precarious path of art was fraught with greater consequences than can
+be estimated upon the unfortunate man's character, will be evident from
+what has been already stated. These dark years were those mainly
+instrumental in stifling the good germs that had once been in him, and
+yet more did they result in encouraging and bringing out prominently
+all his less praiseworthy qualities. As his works and his life are so
+intimately interwoven, and as his works were nearly all written
+subsequent to this disastrous period, it seemed desirable to dwell
+somewhat upon the events and circumstances of the earlier part of his
+life. With the view of showing that Hoffmann himself fully understood
+the nature and tendency of his existence in Bamberg, the following
+passages are quoted from a letter written to Dr. Speyer in that town in
+July, 1813:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;I felt in my own mind perfectly convinced that I must get out of
+Bamberg as soon as possible if I was not to be ruined altogether. Call
+vividly to mind what my life in Bamberg was from the first moment of my
+arrival, and you will allow that everything co-operated like an hostile
+demoniacal power to thrust me forcibly from the path I had chosen, or
+rather from art, to which I had devoted my entire existence, my very
+self with all my activities and energies. My position under Cuno, and
+even all those unbargained-for duties which were thrown upon me by
+Holbein, notwithstanding their many seductive attractions, but above
+all those scenes with----which I shall never forget and never overcome,
+the old man's miserable stupid platitudes, which yet in another respect
+had a pernicious influence, those wretched, terrible scenes with----and
+last of all with----, whom I always thought a parvenu ill-bred imp,--in
+a word, everything that went against all effort and doing and work in
+the higher life, in which a man raises himself on alert wing above the
+stinking morass of his miserable crust-begging life, engendered within
+me an inward dissension--an inward strife, which much sooner than any
+external commotion around me would have caused me to perish. Every
+harsh and undeserved indignity I had to suffer only increased my secret
+rancour, and whilst accustoming myself more and more to wine as a
+stimulant and so stirring up the fire to make it bum more merrily, I
+heeded not that this was the only way by which good could come out of
+the ruinous evil. In these few words, in this brief statement, I hope
+you will find the key to many things which may have appeared to you
+contradictory, if not enigmatical But <i>transeant cum ceteris.</i>&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical22" href="#div2Ref_biographical22">22</a></sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Again, it can scarcely be doubted that we have a description of his own
+state when he writes in the <i>Elixiere</i> (Part II.), &quot;I am what I appear
+to be, and do not appear as what I really am; to myself an unsolvable
+riddle, I am at variance with my own self.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The change of residence to Berlin did little to improve
+Hoffmann's
+circumstances. During the first ten months he was, according to the
+conditions imposed, labouring to make himself acquainted with the
+changes that had taken place in legal procedure, and to fit himself for
+entering the service of the state again and resuming his interrupted
+career; but he received no compensation for his pains; he had to
+support himself as best he could by the fruits of his pen. On July 1,
+1815, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of the Minister
+of Justice, which post he exchanged on 1st May, 1816, for that of
+Councillor in the Supreme Court, being also restored to all his rights
+of seniority as though no break had ever taken place in his official
+career. The duties attaching to this office he continued to discharge
+with his accustomed diligence and skill until promoted in the autumn of
+1821 to be a member of the Senate of Higher Appeal in the same court.
+Notwithstanding his sad and disappointing experiences, and the
+tempestuous times of his &quot;martyr years&quot; at Bamberg, he was not yet
+disgusted with the life of an artist. His hopes were not yet alienated
+from the calling that hovered before his mind as an ideal for so many
+years. Whilst battling, with somewhat less of reckless high spirits and
+humour, against the embarrassments and pecuniary difficulties which he
+had to encounter during these ten months, he was also dreaming of an
+appointment as <i>Kapellmeister</i> (orchestral director) or as musical
+composer to a theatre. He says upon this point in a letter to Hippel,
+of date March 12, 1815, &quot;I cannot anyhow cease to interest myself in
+art; and had I not to care for a dearly beloved wife, and were it not
+my duty to try and procure her a comfortable life after what she has
+gone through with me, I would rather become a music schoolmaster again
+than let myself be stamped in the juristic fulling-mill.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical23" href="#div2Ref_biographical23">23</a></sup> After
+more than one disappointment in his efforts to secure permanent and
+remunerative employment, in which efforts he was assisted by his
+influential friend Hippel, he became a clerk, as already stated, in the
+department of the Minister of Justice.</p>
+
+<p>In his social relations Hoffmann was more fortunate. He now
+enjoyed the
+close companionship of Hitzig again, and through Hitzig was introduced
+into a select circle which counted amongst its members such men as
+Fouqué (author of <i>Undine</i>), Chamisso (of <i>Peter Schlemihl</i> fame),
+Contessa, Koreff, Tieck, Bernhardi, Devrient, and others. The harassing
+tumultuous days he had passed through during the last eight years had
+now begun to make him gentler and more modest; his character was more
+tempered, and his behaviour more subdued. His good-nature too took such
+a prominent place in the qualities he displayed that Hitzig's children
+were quite delighted with their father's newly arrived friend; for them
+Hoffmann wrote the pleasant little fairy tale <i>Nussknacker und
+Mäusekönig</i> (Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Before the end of
+1815 he had finished the second part of the <i>Elixiere des Teufels</i>, to
+which he himself attached no value, since its connection with the first
+part was broken; its author's ideas had got into another track;
+feelings and circumstances were changed. Still less than Schiller with <i>
+Don Carlos</i>. did Hoffmann succeed in making an artificial junction
+between the two parts of his work atone for its breach of artistic
+unity; he even said later of the first part, &quot;I ought not to have had
+it printed.&quot; Besides this second part of the <i>Elixiere</i>, he also wrote
+the concluding pieces of the <i>Fantasiestücke</i>, namely, <i>Die Abenteuer
+der Sylvesternacht</i>, which owes its existence to Chamisso's <i>Peter
+Schlemihl</i> and to Chamisso himself, who is portrayed in the work; and
+also <i>Die Correspondenz des Kapellmeisters Kreisler mit dem Baron
+Wallborn</i>, that is Hoffmann himself and Baron von Fouqué. With the
+latter Hoffmann spent a happy fortnight in 1815 at his seat of
+Nennhausen near Rathenow; Hitzig was also of the party. In August of
+the following year the opera <i>Undine</i> was put upon the stage. Though
+Fouqué's libretto did not pass without some adverse criticism, all
+voices were unanimous in praise of the music. Von Weber the musician
+especially expressed himself warmly in admiration of it, affirming that
+it was &quot;one of the most talented productions of recent times;&quot; and he
+especially singled out for attention its truth, its smooth-flowing
+melodies, and its instrumentation; it was &quot;in truth <i>one</i> gush&quot; of
+music. The opera was repeated more than a score of times, when
+unfortunately the theatre was burnt down, and Hoffmann, who lived
+immediately adjoining it, was almost burnt out of house and home at
+the same time.</p>
+
+<p>Through the success of this opera as well as through that of
+his <i>Fantasiestücke</i>, Hoffmann found himself celebrated. He was invited
+as
+the hero of the evening to the fashionable tea circles of Berlin, where
+ignorant or half-educated <i>dilettanti</i> affected an interest in art
+matters, that was over-strained and wanting in sincerity when it was
+not ridiculous. For what was there the man could not do? He wrote books
+about which all Germany was talking, he could improvise on the
+pianoforte, compose operas, sketch caricatures, and streams of wit
+gushed from him so soon as he opened his mouth. The homage showered
+upon him at these gatherings flattered Hoffmann's vanity for a time,
+but he soon saw the motives for which he was asked to be present--to
+amuse the guests with his wit, to accompany the daughter or lady of the
+house on the piano, to discuss art matters in a becoming way now with
+an old grandmother, now with a grave professor, to tell diverting
+anecdotes, to tickle the lazy minds of those who listened with some
+spicy satire upon their enemies--in fact to be made a useful show of.
+Quickly fathoming these motives, Hoffmann proved himself readily equal
+to the occasion: as soon as he began to get bored, which very
+frequently was the case, he made the most hideous grimaces, and when he
+saw the company were preparing to draw something from him by way of
+criticism which they could carry further and perhaps repeat again as
+springing from their own acute judgment, he began to talk the most
+arrant nonsense he could think of, or to fire off some of his stinging
+sarcasms steeped in the bitterness of gall, till there were none but
+blank and embarrassed faces around him--everybody thinking the man was
+mad; but he went away delighted at the consternation he had been
+instrumental in causing. The givers of fashionable teas soon ceased to
+invite Hoffmann to their entertainments, but they had already
+sufficiently sown the seeds of fresh mischief in him.</p>
+
+<p>To have more money in his pockets than he just required for
+the
+immediate wants of the moment was always fatal to him, and no less so
+was the excitement attendant upon the giddy whirl of pleasure and
+social popularity, or what stood for such. These were rocks of danger
+upon which he always struck. The former led him to indulge in his
+reprehensible habit of drinking, and the latter soon made him upset all
+the systems of order and regulation. Day he turned into night and night
+into day. He shunned for the most part the society of Hitzig and his
+circle of friends, with their stimulating discussions that cultivated
+the mind whilst unfolding and developing the feelings, and frequented a
+low wine-shop and the common coarse company that was to be met with
+there. Hence during nearly all the rest of his life, that is, from 1816
+to 1821, he spent his mornings in the discharge of his official duties
+at the Supreme Court (two mornings a week, Monday and Thursday), or in
+writing; the afternoons he generally slept, or in summer took a walk;
+and the evenings and nights always found him in the wine-shop of his
+choice; and he never liked to leave it until morning came, nor did any
+other engagements prevent him from putting in an appearance at his
+habitual haunt, even though it were past midnight before he were free.
+As already remarked, however, it was not to sit and drink like a sot
+that he gave way to this degrading habit, but to get himself &quot;exalted&quot;
+as he called it, and then when he was duly &quot;exalted&quot; came the firework
+display of wit and glowing fancy, going on hour after hour without rest
+or interruption for the space of five or six hours at once. If his
+tongue was not the medium through which he discharged the creations of
+his teeming imagination, his eagle eye was spying out all that was
+ridiculous or strikingly extraordinary, or even what was possessed of a
+touch of pathos or deep feeling, or he employed his hand in sketching
+and drawing inimitable caricatures. He never sat idle and silent, and
+drank steadily and stolidly as so many confirmed drinkers do. Hitzig,
+who was deeply grieved at this downward course of his friend and at the
+estrangement it had brought about between them, contrived to draw him
+away from his demoralising companions of the wine-shop for at least one
+night a week. On that evening there was a small gathering at Hoffmann's
+house, moderation being strictly enjoined as one of the chief
+regulations of the meeting. This small circle, which consisted of
+Hoffmann, Hitzig, Contessa, and Koreff,<sup><a name="div2_biographical24" href="#div2Ref_biographical24">24</a></sup> and an occasional friend or
+two whom one of them introduced, called itself &quot;The Serapion Brethren,&quot;
+this title being adopted from the fact that the first meeting was held
+on the night of the anniversary of that saint, according to Frau
+Hoffmann's Polish almanac. It is interesting to remark that amongst
+these occasional guests figures the great Danish poet Oehlenschläger in
+the year 1816. In a letter written to Hoffmann on March 26th, 1821,
+recommending a young fellow-countryman to him, Oehlenschläger says,
+&quot;Dip him also a little in the magic sea of your humour, respected
+friend, and teach him how a man can be a philosopher and seer of the
+world under the ironical mantle of the mad-house, and what is more an
+amiable man as well;&quot; and he subscribes himself, &quot;A. Oehlenschläger,
+Serapion Brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In 1817 was published the collection of tales called <i>Die
+Nachtstücke</i>, embracing <i>Der Sandmann</i> (The Sand-man) and <i>Das Majorat</i> (The
+Entail),
+which reproduce personages and experiences belonging to the years in
+Königsberg; <i>Die Jesuitenkirche</i> and <i>Das steinerne Herz</i>, going back
+to his life in Glogau; <i>Das Gelübde</i>, built upon a story related by his
+wife as connected with her native town of Posen; <i>Das Sanctus</i>, which was
+suggested by an incident in Berlin soon after Hoffmann's arrival there;
+and <i>das öde Haus</i>, this last due to the way in which he was
+incessantly haunted by the appearance of a closed house in the <i>Unter
+den Linden</i>. These were mostly written in 1816 and 1817; and to them he
+added <i>Ignas Denner</i>, which possesses some merit, but is of too gloomy
+and darkly unpleasant a cast to be attractive to English readers; it
+was written during the first days in Dresden, just after his
+emancipation from the Bamberg thraldom. Whilst in it he gives free rein
+to sombre melancholy, and dips his pen in &quot;midnight blackness,&quot; in <i>
+Berganza</i>, written about the same time, he has poured out the cynical
+bitterness and scathing scorn which was then undoubtedly gnawing at his
+heart. <i>Der Sandmann</i>, though embodying reminiscences of its author's
+youth, also contains material derived from an incident which took place
+during a visit of Hoffmann's to Fouqué's country-seat near Ratenow, and
+Nathanael was recognised by Fouqué as meant for himself. <i>Das Majorat</i>
+is, as already stated, a lasting memorial to his old great-uncle,
+Vöthöry; the moral backbone of the story--the evil destiny attaching to
+the successors of a man whose ambition aimed at founding a powerful
+family by an act of injustice to his youngest son--reminds the reader
+forcibly of the purpose that runs through Hawthorne's <i>House with the
+Seven Gables</i>. Of the in many respects admirable story <i>Das Gelübde</i>--
+it is to be regretted that it is marred by the dangerous nature of the
+subject;<sup><a name="div2_biographical25" href="#div2Ref_biographical25">25</a></sup> it is else poetically treated and invested with a spirit
+of weird mysticism that would have made it rank higher than what it
+does. The others in the collection are of lesser merit.</p>
+
+<p>The next year 1818 saw no important work from Hoffmann's pen;
+but in
+1819 appeared <i>Die seltsame Leiden eines Theaterdirekters</i>, a book
+written in the form of a dialogue, which was due to the example of his
+favourite, Diderot's &quot;Rameau's Nephew&quot; (by Goethe), and which conveys a
+tolerably faithful account of Hoffmann's experiences in the capacity
+indicated whilst in the town on the Regnitz, and indeed is useful as
+illustrating the condition of the German stage generally at that
+period. This was followed by a kind of fairy tale, <i>Klein Zaches
+genannt Zinnober</i>; as this book was generally believed to be a local
+satire upon persons and circumstances well known, it entailed many
+severe strictures and much unpleasantness upon its writer. The truth
+about it seems to be this: the idea--that of a sort of ugly kobold of
+the Handy Andy type--was suggested by a sudden fancy during an attack
+of fever, and in a moment of semi-delirium. On recovering his health
+again, Hoffmann set to work in his impetuous and hasty way, and worked
+out the idea in probably less than a fortnight. Similarly his <i>Meister
+Floh</i>, one of the last and weakest caricatures he wrote, was likely to
+have entailed disagreeable consequences upon him, had not his last
+illness come before any authoritative steps could be taken. For he had
+made use of incidents which came to his knowledge in the official
+discharge of his duties, and which were of such a character that they
+ought to have been guarded as inviolable secrets; and he further
+employed certain phrases which he took from confidential papers that
+likewise came into his hands in consequence of his public position. In
+extenuation of his fault, or perhaps in explanation of it, be it
+remarked that his conduct does not appear to have been actuated by
+premeditated or deliberate malice, but to have sprung solely from his
+recklessness and want of prudence: the ridiculous appealed to his sense
+of humour so irresistibly that nothing was sacred against it, and so
+nothing was safe from it.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1819 Hoffmann was ordered by his physician to
+visit
+the Silesian baths; and he derived excellent benefit from the
+prescription, coming home stronger and in a more healthful frame of
+mind than his friends had seen him for a long time. Soon after his
+return he was appointed on the commission selected to inquire into
+those secret societies and other suspicious political organisations
+which were particularly active about this time (<i>Burschenschaften</i>,
+<i>Landsmannschaften</i> in their political aspect). Towards the end of the
+year he published the first two volumes of the <i>Serapionsbrüder</i>, the
+third volume following in 1820 and the fourth in 1821. These volumes
+contain all his tales that had appeared in various magazines and serial
+publications, together with others now first published, and are linked
+together by a running commentary, or rather they are set into it as
+into a framework; the Serapion Society are represented as meeting at
+stated intervals, when one or more of the members relate a tale. The
+discussions which precede and follow the tales are full of sage remarks
+about art and art-matters and other ripe practical wisdom, and contain
+perhaps more matured thought than anything else that proceeded from
+Hoffmann's pen. Of these numerous stories the best have been selected
+for translation in these two volumes, namely, <i>Der Artushof</i> (Arthur's
+Hall), <i>Die Fermate</i> (The Fermata), <i>Doge und Dogaresse</i> (Doge and
+Dogess), <i>Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen</i> (Master Martin
+the Cooper and his Journey men ), <i>Das Fräulein von Scudéri</i>
+(Mademoiselle de Scudéri), <i>Spieler Glück</i> (Gambler's Luck), and <i>
+Signor Formica</i>. The remaining twelve tales call for no special
+mention, except perhaps <i>Nussknacker</i>, which has been already alluded
+to, <i>Das fremde Kind</i>, a curious mixture of reality and fairyland, and <i>
+Der Zusammenhang der Dinge</i>, which is not devoid of interest. Several
+of the things in this collection suggest comparison with Poe's writings
+for weirdness and bizarre imaginative power, though of course there are
+wide differences between the styles of the two writers.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1820, came a letter of good wishes from Beethoven,
+whose
+music Hoffmann greatly admired; hence the letter was a source of much
+real pleasure to him. Spontini, the well-known writer of operas, came
+to Berlin in the summer of the same year and was received by Hoffmann
+with every mark of respect. It was indeed maintained that the composer
+of <i>Undine</i> showed an unworthy servility in the way in which he
+publicly acknowledged Spontini's talent. Whether this is true would
+appear doubtful; servility was not one of the author's failings, though
+vanity was. By Spontini's ministering to his vanity Hoffmann may have
+been provoked to return him the compliment in his own coin, but it is
+hardly likely that he went so far as to flatter against his own
+conviction or against his better judgment. Of his longer and more
+ambitious works the one which he ranked highest in merit was <i>
+Lebensansichten des Katers Murr, nebst Biographie des Kapellmeisters
+Johannes Kreisler</i>, the first volume of which appeared in 1820 and the
+second in 1822. In respect of literary form and execution, as well as
+of artistic worth, this is undoubtedly Hoffmann's most finished
+production (<i>i.e.</i> of his longer works). It contains a good deal of
+genial, keen, and subtle satire, conveyed in the doings of Murr the
+tom-cat; and it is also a useful source for early biographical details,
+both of facts and of mental development and opinions, contained in the
+&quot;waste-paper leaves&quot; (treating of Kreisler), inserted at frequent
+intervals between those which carry on the life and adventures of Murr.
+The third volume, which was all ready and completed in the author's
+head, and only wanted writing down, never came to the birth. The first
+two volumes present to us a personification of Hoffmann's humoristic
+self, and the third was to culminate in Kreisler's insanity, a result
+brought about by the disappointments and baffling experiences he
+encountered in life--Hoffmann's own career, that is; and the whole was
+to conclude with the <i>Lichte Stunden eines wahnsinnigen Musikers</i>,--a
+work which had been occupying his mind ever since he was in Bamberg,
+and which had not yet been executed. In 1821 was published one of his
+weakest things, a fairy tale, <i>Prinzessin Brambilla</i>, which is greatly
+wanting in clearness of conception, though he himself ranked it highly.</p>
+
+<p>The excesses in which Hoffmann had for so long indulged
+brought at
+last, as may easily be conceived, their own inevitable retribution. The
+first herald of the approaching physical troubles was the death
+(November 30, 1821) of the sagacious cat who was the real hero of <i>Kater
+Murr</i>. Hoffmann was much cut up by the death of his favourite,
+which he described to Hitzig with truly touching pathos.<sup><a name="div2_biographical26" href="#div2Ref_biographical26">26</a></sup> Soon after
+this he was suddenly stricken down by disease--<i>tabes dorsalis</i>; his
+body gradually died, beginning at the feet and moving up to the brain,
+a process which lasted several weeks. But from the autumn of 1821 to
+April, 1822, he was cheered by the daily visits of the beloved friend
+of his youth, Hippel, who had come up to Berlin for that space of time.
+Hoffmann celebrated his 46th birthday with this true friend, and with
+Hitzig and others less dear. Hoffmann and Hippel were dwelling fondly
+upon the days of their youth and reviving old recollections, when
+mention was made of death and dying. Hitzig remarked in substance that
+&quot;life was not the highest of all goods;&quot; this caused the suffering
+Hoffmann to reply with passionate emphasis, such as he did not give way
+to on any other occasion during the course of the evening, &quot;No, no--let
+me live, live--let me only live, no matter in what condition.&quot; &quot;There
+was something awful,&quot; says Hitzig, &quot;in the way in which these words
+burst from his lips.&quot; And his wish was fulfilled in terrible wise; one
+limb after the other failed to perform its office; his feet and hands
+and certain parts of his inner organism became quite dead. On the day
+before he died he was virtually a corpse as far as his neck; and so he
+was full of hope that he should soon be well again, since he &quot;felt no
+more pain then.&quot; Even in this truly pitiable and helpless condition his
+imagination continued to pour forth a stream of the most whimsical and
+humorous fancies, and his cheerfulness was even greater than in the
+days of sound health. Hippel's departure in April was a hard blow to
+him. About four weeks before his death he underwent the sharp operation
+of being burned on each side of the spine with red-hot irons. When
+Hitzig entered the room after the terrible operation was over, Hoffmann
+cried, &quot;Can you smell the flavour of roast meat?&quot; and he said that
+whilst the doctors were burning him, the thought entered his mind that
+the &quot;Minister of Police was having him leaded lest he should slip out
+as contraband;&quot;--he was shrivelled up to a mummy almost, so that, owing
+to his small size as well, a woman could carry him in her arms. Though
+his body was thus a perfect wreck, his mental powers were as brilliant
+and keen as ever; and when his hands proved useless to him, he engaged
+the services of an amanuensis and went on dictating until almost the
+very hour of his death. In fact, the last thing he spoke about was a
+direction for his writer to read to him the passages where he had
+broken off in <i>Der Feind</i>; then he turned his face to the wall; the
+fatal rattle was heard in his throat; and all Hoffmann's earthly
+troubles were over (June 25, 1822).</p>
+
+<p>It is very remarkable that the works dictated by this
+extraordinary man
+on his deathbed show an almost total departure from the style of most
+of his previous tales. He no longer records his own experiences,--the
+events and occurrences, the sentiments and thoughts, that were
+peculiarly his own,--but he writes from a purely objective standpoint,
+and <i>creates</i>. Of most of his other works it may be said that they are <i>
+he</i>; but of these it can only be said they are <i>his</i> in the sense that
+they owed their origin to him. <i>Meister Johannes Wacht</i>, one of these,
+is translated in Vol. II. The scene is laid in Bamberg, and the
+characters of the story were also said to be faithful portraits of
+actual people in Bamberg; yet we look in vain to find anything like
+Hoffmann himself in it. <i>Des Vetters Eckfenster</i>, though hardly a tale,
+is yet one of the best things Hoffmann has written. Those who know
+Émile Souvestre's <i>Un Philosophe sous les Toits</i> would find in this
+thing of Hoffmann's dying days something to their taste; it is a
+running commentary on personages seen in the market from the writer's
+own window, and each little scene brings before us a true and lifelike
+character in a few weighty and well-chosen words. <i>Die Genesung</i>, a
+mere sketch, arose out of the dying man's pathetic longing to see the
+green of the woods and the meadows. <i>Der Feind</i>, a fragment full of
+promise, is a tale of old Nuremberg of the days of Albrecht Dürer, who
+figures in it. Before being deprived of the use of his hands he had
+written several other short tales, amongst which may be mentioned <i>Die
+Doppeltgänger</i>, as being a favourite theme with Hoffmann, and <i>Der
+Elementargeist</i>, a weird, entrancing story. In <i>Die Räuber</i> he gives us
+a weak version of Schiller's celebrated work.</p>
+
+<p>In Hoffmann we have an instance of a man who nearly all his
+life long
+failed to get himself placed amid the circumstances in the midst of
+which it was his one burning wish to be placed. He never found his
+right calling. He is a man ruined by circumstances (<i>zerfahren</i>). He
+was not wanting in warm natural feeling, as is proved by his close and
+faithful friendships with Hippel, Hitzig, and Kunz; and more than one
+instance of spontaneous kindness and of winning amiability are
+preserved by his biographer.<sup><a name="div2_biographical27" href="#div2Ref_biographical27">27</a></sup> In youth his mind and heart were full
+of noble thoughts and aspirations, and he was sincerely desirous to
+educate himself up to better things. We see it in &quot;May it never happen
+to me that my heart is not readily receptive of every communication
+from without, as well as for every feeling within, for the head must
+never injure the heart, nor must the heart ever run away with the head,
+that is my idea of culture,&quot; and &quot;an excitable heart and a restless
+nature will never let us be quite happy, but will have a beneficial
+influence upon our education, upon our striving after greater
+perfection.&quot; His poetic temperament, and such like poetic tendencies,
+found no responsive sympathy amongst his relatives. Being thrust back
+upon himself and then having his feelings centred, when at length they
+did meet with sympathetic appreciation, in such a way as could only
+bring disappointment and unhappiness, he was early made a fit
+instrument for circumstances to play upon, and sorely was he buffeted
+by them through all the years from going to Posen right down until the
+day of his death. But this result must also be traced partly to the
+want of a parent's loving, watchful eye. In those years which are the
+most important for moulding a boy's character he was practically left
+to go his own way. True, his uncle Otto held him down to habits of
+industry and order; but he did nothing to encourage the boy's better
+and higher nature, or guide it sympathetically along the paths where it
+was striving to find its own way. Hoffmann had no high idea of the
+moral dignity of man, and at times even seemed to have but little
+conception of it. The relations upon which he lived with his uncle Otto
+and the history of his own father prevented this sense of moral worth
+from being planted in his mind. The germ which bore fruit in his love
+for extremes, for what was extraordinary and quite out of the common
+beaten track of life, was probably engendered in the following way. Not
+finding the sympathy he needed in his efforts after a better life, he
+turned in upon himself and began to despise the petty details of
+everyday existence; and several passages in his letters clearly go to
+show that his unhappiness and discontent were largely due to the fact
+of his overlooking the real enjoyment to be derived from the small
+occurrences and events of every day, which rightly viewed are capable
+of affording such a large fund of real contentment. In a letter to
+Hippel early in 1815, he himself states, &quot;For my shattered life I have
+really only myself to blame; I ought to have shown more resolution and
+less levity in my earlier years. When a youth, when a boy, I ought to
+have devoted myself entirely to Art and never to have thought of anything
+else. But of course something also was due to perverse education.&quot; It
+must not be supposed, however, from the above that he was deficient in
+firmness or strength of will. The perseverance with which he worked
+through his early examinations, as well as the energy and zeal he brought
+to bear upon his official duties, contradict such supposition. Specific
+instances might also be quoted did space permit; it will be enough to
+recall his resolve never to gamble. It is stated that he avowed his
+intention to amend his ways if he recovered from his last fatal
+illness. The real key to his wayward character lies in the fact just
+alluded to, that he had no conception of the supreme importance of
+moral worth. This was the backbone wanting in his character; and for
+this reason we fail to detect any steady sterling course of action
+through all the vicissitudes of his life. If he had a ruling motive it
+was capricious humour; at any rate it swayed him more than anything
+else. On one day he would laugh at what had annoyed him on the day
+preceding, or be delighted to-day at what he had greeted yesterday with
+irony. Nobody knew better than himself how he was tyrannised over by
+his changeable moods. &quot;My capricious humour (<i>Laune</i>) is the first
+weather-prophet I know, and if I had the good-will and were bored I
+could make an almanac,&quot; is one of his expressions; and another runs,
+&quot;You know that my capricious humour is often <i>Maître de Flaisir</i>.&quot;
+Besides being thus the creature of caprice, he was also impulsive,
+impetuous, and wont to act with impassioned haste. These qualities were
+revealed in his restless vivacious eyes, in his movements and gestures,
+and even broke out in extraordinary grimaces, as already remarked. And
+just in the same fervid eager way he often seized upon an idea or a
+pleasing fancy, till it took complete possession of him; he could not
+rid himself of it. With this was combined his remarkable quickness of
+perception and comprehension; a single gesture or phrase was often
+sufficient to enable him to grasp a character. What he hated above all
+things was dulness--<i>ennui</i>; this never failed to provoke his keenest
+irony and bitterest sarcasms. In his last years he even became cynical
+and rugged and vulgar, in which we may of course trace the influence of
+his tavern associates. It is to his credit that he did not sink into
+Byronic misanthropy and bitter self-lacerating scorn, or even into
+Heine's irreverence and persiflage.</p>
+
+<p>An old German poet says, &quot;Seht das Loos der Menschheit--Heute
+Freude,
+Morgen Leid;&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical28" href="#div2Ref_biographical28">28</a></sup> but with Hoffmann joy and pain were frequently more
+closely allied than this even: whilst the jest was on his lips the
+sting would be in his heart. In this, as well as in several other
+features of his stormy career, he did indeed resemble his countryman
+Heine. One of the necessities of his nature was human society--not
+simply society, however, but people who could appreciate him, who could
+fall in with his moods, and either follow intelligently when he led, or
+lend him a stimulating and helping hand to keep the ball of wit and
+jollity rolling. An illustration of this is found in the fact that he
+&quot;did not love the society of women. If he could not mystify them, or
+draw them into the circle of his fantasies, or discover in them any
+decided talent for comicality, he preferred the society of men.&quot;
+Amongst women, however, after those of the class just named, he was
+most interested in young and pretty girls, being attracted by the charm
+of their fresh beauty, not by the charm of their mind. Learned women he
+hated.</p>
+
+<p>Hoffmann was, as already observed, the child of extremes.
+These were
+revealed not only in his life and action, but also in his writings; for
+his writings are the man. Indeed German critics have said that his
+works, particularly the <i>Fantasiestücke</i>, are &quot;lyrics in prose.&quot; What
+they mean by this phrase is chiefly that the things he wrote exhibit
+subjective phrases of his nature, and are disconnected, or rather not
+connected, not balanced parts of a systematic whole. This is true so
+far as it is true that Hoffmann never did complete a long work, except
+the <i>Elixiere</i>, and this work, as there has been occasion to point out,
+consists of two disjointed parts. One of the things that strike us most
+in reading his books is the peculiar mixture of the real and the
+unreal, of matters appertaining to actual life and of fantasies born
+only of the imagination. Very often the imagination would be called by
+most people a diseased imagination; but it is not always so, sometimes
+it is the poet's imagination. Hence, from this blending or close
+alternation of reality with what is not of the earth--hence came his
+love for fairy tales, tales in which we meet with kobolds, imps,
+witches, little monsters of all kinds--the spirits and apparitions in
+fact which used to haunt his excited fancy in such a strange way.
+Several of these are poetic creatures, whom he handles in a light,
+graceful, and pleasing style (<i>Goldener Topf</i>, <i>Nussknacker</i>, <i>Das
+fremde Kind</i>, &amp;c.); others, on the other hand, are drawn in horrible
+and unearthly colours and awaken the sentiments of awe and dread. What
+he loved especially to dwell upon was the &quot;night side of natural
+science,&quot; the puzzling relations between the psychic and the physical
+principles both in man and in Nature. Hence such states as
+somnambulism, magnetism, dreams, dark forebodings of the terrible,
+inhuman passions, and such things as automata and vampyres, had for him
+an insuperable attraction. Insanity was a mystery that haunted his
+thoughts for years: it figures largely in <i>Die Elixiere</i> and <i>Der
+Sandmann</i>; and in the third part of <i>Kater Murr</i> it was his intention
+to represent Kreisler's battle with adverse circumstances as
+culminating in insanity. Handling these, and states and situations
+equally hideous, fantastic, and grotesque, with extraordinary clearness
+and precision both of thought and of language, considering the often
+misty nature of the subjects he treats of, and pouring upon the vivid
+pictures he conjures up the brightness of his wit and the exuberant
+gaiety and grace of his fancy, he succeeds in creating scenes,
+situations, and characters which seem verily instinct with real life.
+This end was attained principally by the true genius he displayed in
+perception, apprehension, and description. His graphic descriptive
+power is that which mainly procured him his wide-reaching fame during
+his own lifetime, not only in Germany but also in France, and is that
+which principally gives to his works whatever permanent value they may
+possess. With a painter's eye he grasps a character or a scene by a few
+of its more prominent and essential features, and with a painter's hand
+and eye he sketches them in a few telling strokes. The reader must not
+look to find in Hoffmann any clever or subtle analysis of the deeper
+motives that work towards the development of character; all that
+Hoffmann can give him will be talented <i>pictures</i>. He himself lays down
+his canon of literary spirit in the introduction to the first volume of
+the <i>Serapionsbrüder</i>--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;Vain are an author's efforts to bring us to believe in what he does
+not believe in himself, in what he cannot believe in, since he has not
+made it his own by <i>seeing</i> it (<i>erschauen</i>). What else are the
+characters of such an author, who, to borrow the old phrase, is no true
+seer, but deceitful marionettes, painfully glued together out of alien
+materials?... At least let each one of us [the Brethren] strive
+earnestly and truly to grasp the image that has arisen in his mind in
+all its features, its colours, its lights and its shades, and then when
+he feels himself really enkindled by them let him proceed to embody
+them in an external description.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Hoffmann has mostly succeeded in acting up to his canon and has written
+in its spirit; and in so far true genius cannot be denied him. And he
+possessed in no less eminent a degree the true art of the born story-
+teller. The interest seldom if ever flags; and the curious anomalies of
+men and of men-creatures (<i>Mensch-Thiere</i>), whom he mingles amongst his
+winning heroines and his delightful satiric characters, oftener than
+not quite enthrall the mind or afford it true enjoyment as the case may
+be, and this they do in spite of the fact that, owing to their own
+nature, they frequently stand outside the ordinary sphere of human
+sympathies. Of course it may readily be conceived that the danger which
+he was liable to fall into was want of clearness in conception and
+sentiment, but he has avoided this rock for the most part with
+wonderful skill. One of his latest productions, <i>Prinzessin Brambilla</i>,
+is the one where this fault is most markedly conspicuous; nor is the
+<i>Elixiere</i> free from it.</p>
+
+<p>German critics have not failed to notice the sweet grace and
+winning
+loveliness which hover about the characters of most of his heroines.
+They are nearly all presented in colours impregnated with real poetic
+beauty; see, for instance, Seraphina (<i>Das Majorat</i>), Annunciata
+(<i>Doge</i>), Madelon and Mdlle. de Scudéry (<i>Scudéri</i>), Rose (<i>Meister
+Martin</i>), Cecily (<i>Berganza</i>), and others.</p>
+
+<p>Carlyle, whose brief and for the most part truthful essay upon
+Hoffmann
+(in vol. ii. of his <i>German Romance</i>, 1829) appears to have been based
+largely upon others' opinions rather than upon first-hand acquaintance
+with his author, says that in him &quot;there are the materials of a
+glorious poet, but no poet has been fashioned out of them.&quot; And when we
+seek for poetic elements in Hoffmann's works, we are not altogether
+disappointed. We have just stated that his heroines are creations of a
+poet's fancy; and in the scene between Father Hilarius and Kreisler in <i>
+Kater Murr</i>, and in the passages and characters already alluded to in <i>
+Die Elixiere</i>, in the sunny cheerful <i>Märchen</i>--<i>Der goldene Topf</i>
+(which Hoffmann calls his &quot;poetic masterpiece&quot;), in <i>Das Gelübde</i>,
+<i>Nussknacker</i>, &amp;c., we enter the world of higher imagination. Again,
+whilst in <i>Doge und Dogaresse</i> we are arrested by the poetic charm of
+the island life of the Lagune in the golden days of Venice's splendour,
+in <i>Meister Martin</i> we are no less, perhaps still more impressed by the
+rich romantic beauty of life in the old mediæval town of Nuremberg. In
+<i>Die Scudéri</i> we are made acquainted with the cold glittering court of
+Louis XIV. through the lovable character of Mdlle. de Scudéry; and
+whilst on the one hand following with deep interest the fate of Brusson
+and his love, on the other we are led to contrast the subtilty of the
+plot with the fine analytic power of Poe in The <i>Murders in the Rue
+Morgue</i>. When visiting with Hoffmann the weird castle of <i>Das Majorat</i>,
+we are made to hear the cold shrill blasts of the Baltic whistling past
+our ears, and to feel the storm and the sea-spray dashing in our faces.
+These four tales are unquestionably the best that Hoffmann has written;
+to them must be added <i>Meister Wachte</i>, on account of its excellent
+characterisation of the hero. In striking contrast with the majority of
+the things he has written, these five tales show him when he is most
+objective; in them he has wielded his powers with more wise restraint
+than in any of the others, and introduced less of his strange fantastic
+caricatures. Next after these tales must be named, though on a lower
+level, and simply because they best illustrate his peculiar genius, the
+two books of <i>Kater Murr</i>, the fairy tale <i>Der goldene Topf</i>, and <i>Des
+Vetters Eckfenster</i>. In the works here named we have the best fruits of
+Hoffmann's pen. And if instead of asking in the mistaken spirit of
+competition which is now so much in vogue. What is Hoffmann's position
+in literature? we ask rather, Has he written anything that deserves to
+be read? we shall have already had our answer. The works here singled
+out are worthy of being preserved and read; and of them <i>Das Majorat</i>
+and <i>Meister Martin</i> are perhaps entitled to be called the best, though
+some German critics have mentioned <i>Meister Wacht</i> along with the
+former as having a claim to the first rank.</p>
+
+<p>It is now time to take a glance at Hoffmann's satiric power.
+This was
+launched principally against two classes of society; the one is that of
+which his uncle Otto was a type, the man who is unreasonably obstinate
+in defence of the conventionalities of life, and no less so in their
+steady observance: the second class was that whose representatives
+aroused Hoffmann's ire so greatly at Bamberg and Berlin &quot;tea-circles,&quot;
+or &quot;tea-sings&quot;--those who coquetted with art in an unworthy or
+frivolous manner. Against this latter class his irony and satiric wrath
+were especially fierce, as may be read in <i>Berganza</i>, <i>Die Irrungen</i>,
+the <i>Kreisleriana</i>, <i>Kater Murr</i>, <i>Signor Formica</i>, &amp;c. Perhaps
+the
+most amusing, for quiet humour, of the former class is <i>Die Brautwahl</i>.
+The force of his satiric power lay in the skilful use of sudden
+contrast. Hence it plays more frequently upon or near the surface, and
+lacks the depth and pathos of true humour; but it is idle to expect
+from a man what he hasn't got.</p>
+
+<p>In so far as this author had any serious philosophical belief,
+it would
+appear to have been that man was a slave of Chance, or Fate, or
+Destiny, or whatever it may be called. Sometimes he is the plaything of
+circumstances; sometimes a defenceless victim under &quot;Fate's brazen
+hand,&quot; or of &quot;that Eternal Power which rules over us.&quot; The real
+significance of life is summoned up in the statement that it is a
+struggle between contending powers of good and evil, against both of
+which man is equally helpless. He believed that whenever any good fell
+to a man's lot there was always some evil lurking in ambush behind it,
+or, to borrow his own expressive phrase, &quot;the Devil must put his tail
+upon everything.&quot; His further views are here quoted from <i>Der
+Magnetiseur</i>:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;We are knitted with all things without us, with all Nature, in such
+close ties, both psychic and physical, that the severance from them
+would, if it were indeed possible, destroy our own existence. Our so-
+called intensive life is conditioned by the extensive; the former is
+only a reflex of the latter, in which the figures and images received,
+as if reflected in a concave mirror, often appear in changed relations
+that are wonderful and singularly strange, notwithstanding that these
+caricatures again And their real originals in life. I boldly maintain,
+that no man has ever thought or dreamt anything the elements of which
+were not to be found in Nature; nohow can he get out of her.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Was this the cause or the result of the visions he used to see?</p>
+
+<p>From his conception of strife between good and evil as
+interpreting the
+significance of existence arose that dissonance which lies at the root
+of nearly all his most characteristic works--that sense of want, that
+failure to find final satisfaction which may be only too readily
+detected. For the conflict within himself he knew no real mediatory: he
+was baffled to discover a higher category in which to unite the
+conflicting principles. Religion he never willingly talked about; hence
+it could not give him the satisfaction he lacked. He thought he found
+it in Art, however; since for Art he battled with all the strength of
+his genius, and in the sacred mission of Art he believed with all his
+soul. He has many enthusiastic bursts on the subject, agreeing in some
+respects with the views laid down by Schiller in his <i>Aesthetische
+Erziehung des Menschen</i>:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;They alone are true artists who devote themselves with undivided love
+and enthusiasm to their goddess; to them alone is true Art revealed....
+There is no Art which is not sacred.... The sacred purpose of all Art
+is apprehension of Nature in that deepest sense of the word which
+enkindles in the soul an ardent striving after the higher life.... I do
+not ask about the artistes life; but his work must be pure, in the
+highest degree respectable, and if possible religious. It has no need,
+therefore, to have any so-called moral tendency; nay, it ought not to
+have such. The truly beautiful is itself moral, only in another
+form.... Art is eternally clear. The mists of ignorance are as inimical
+to her as the life-destroying carbonic acid gas of immorality. Art is
+the highest perfection of human power. Heart and Understanding are her
+common parents.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Music was his favourite art. It first taught him to feel; and not only
+was it his unfailing solace in hours of trouble, but it brought him
+messages of deeper import: it disclosed to him glimpses of another
+world--it was the &quot;language of heaven.&quot; Here again a passage from his
+own works expresses his opinions upon this point better than any other
+pen can express them:--</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>&quot;No art, I believe, affords such strong evidence of the spiritual in
+man as music, and there is no art that requires so exclusively means
+that are--purely intellectual and ætherial. The intuition of what is
+Highest and Holiest--of the Intelligent Power which enkindles the spark
+of life in all Nature--is audibly expressed in musical sound; hence
+music and song are the utterance of the fullest perfection of
+existence--praise of the Creator! Agreeably to its real essential
+nature, therefore, music is religious cultus; and its origin is to be
+sought for and found, simply and solely, in religion, in the
+Church.&quot;<sup><a name="div2_biographical29" href="#div2Ref_biographical29">29</a></sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Treating of Hoffmann's position with respect to music, Wilibald Alexis
+says, &quot;We do not know any other man who has expressed in words such a
+real true enthusiasm for an art [as Hoffmann for music]; and
+specialists assure us that few have thoroughly grasped the nature of
+music so admirably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As far as a foreigner may presume to judge of Hoffmann's
+language and
+literary style, it would appear to be chiefly distinguished by strong
+grace, ease, naturalness, and nervous vigour. German critics
+acknowledge its charms, calling it a model of clearness and masterly
+skill and elegance. Perhaps its beauties are best seen, that is in a
+more chastened form, in <i>Kater Murr</i>. Repetitions, however, and
+exaggerations in description of sentiment tend, at times, to mar the
+reader's pleasure. Signs of haste, too, are not wanting, as Carlyle
+pointed out. This was chiefly due to the very large number of
+commissions he received from publishers and others, who keenly competed
+for the productions of his pen. At the date of his death he had as many
+commissions on hand as would, if he accepted them all, have kept him
+fully employed for several years.</p>
+
+<p>To those who love a good story, well told, the five specially
+mentioned
+may be recommended; and for those who desire to explore the dark by-paths (<i>Irrwege</i>) of the human spirit, to penetrate to some of its
+rarest comers, and to know all its ins and outs, as well as for those
+who aim at studying German literature, Hoffmann is a writer who ought
+to be read at greater length.</p>
+
+<p class="right">THE TRANSLATOR.</p>
+
+<p class="continue">FOOTNOTES TO &quot;BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE&quot;:</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical1" href="#div2_biographical1">1</a></sup> The chief sources for this biographical notice
+have been <i>E. T. A. Hoffmann's Leben und Nachlass, von J. G. Hitzig,
+herausg. von Micheline Hoffmann, geb. Rorer</i>, 5 vols., Stuttgart, 1839; <i>Erinnerungen
+aus meinem Leben</i>, von Z. Funck [C. Kunz], Leipsic, 1836;
+and various minor essays and papers.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical2" href="#div2_biographical2">2</a></sup> Later in life he adopted the name of &quot;Amadeus&quot;
+instead of &quot;Wilhelm,&quot; out of admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great
+musician (see <i>Erinng.</i>, pp. 77-80).]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical3" href="#div2_biographical3">3</a></sup> Another account (see H. Döring's article
+&quot;Hoffmann,&quot; in Ersch und Gruber's <i>Allgem. Encyk.</i>) states 21st Jan., 1778. The date
+in the text is the one, however, that is generally accepted, and now
+without question; it is the one confirmed by Hoffmann himself (cf.
+Letter 15 in <i>Leben</i>).]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical4" href="#div2_biographical4">4</a></sup> These two books, together with Schubert's <i>
+Symbolik des Traums</i>, were favourites with him throughout life. In his youth he was
+a most diligent student of the new literature of his native country;
+English he also read to a large extent, Shakespearian quotations being
+very frequent in his letters; and we find the names of Sterne, Swift,
+Smollett, &amp;c. Later in life he hardly read anything unless it were
+exceptionally good, and then only when recommended to do so by his
+friends. Political papers he never read, and scarcely ever criticisms
+on his own works.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical5" href="#div2_biographical5">5</a></sup> That is, after Hippel had completed his academic
+career, and left Königsberg.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical6" href="#div2_biographical6">6</a></sup> That is, after the king's death in 1797. She
+afterwards married the Holbein here mentioned.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical7" href="#div2_biographical7">7</a></sup> <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, iii. 9.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical8" href="#div2_biographical8">8</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, iii. pp. 231-233.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical9" href="#div2_biographical9">9</a></sup> A suburb or park of Warsaw, beneath the tall
+beeches of which Hoffmann loved to lie dreaming, or sketch from Nature.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical10" href="#div2_biographical10">10</a></sup> An equestrian statue of John Sobieski, the
+deliverer of Vienna from the Turks.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical11" href="#div2_biographical11">11</a></sup> Polish for &quot;moustaches.&quot;]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical12" href="#div2_biographical12">12</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, iii. pp. 251-254.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical13" href="#div2_biographical13">13</a></sup> A very comic incident, of which Hoffmann himself
+was the hero, took place on the occasion of Werner's reading his new tragedy <i>Das
+Kreuz an der Ostsee</i> to a select circle of friends. Unfortunately
+it cannot be compressed into sufficiently short space to be quoted
+here. Hoffmann relates it in <i>Die Serapionsbrüder</i>, vol. iv., after <i>
+Signor Formica</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical14" href="#div2_biographical14">14</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, v. pp. 18-20; cf. also <i>
+Erinnerungen</i> p. 1, &amp;c., where Kunz details the circumstances under which he was introduced to
+Hoffmann.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical15" href="#div2_biographical15">15</a></sup> Several of Calderon's, mainly at Hoffmann's
+suggestion and by his assistance; the &quot;Worship of the Cross&quot; was particularly
+successful in the Catholic town of Bamberg.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical16" href="#div2_biographical16">16</a></sup> Kunz tells us how they used to go down into the
+cellar, sit astride of the cask, and drink, and <i>sich des heitern Lebens
+freuen</i> with genial and sprightly sallies; and his picture has no faint
+smack of Auerbach's Keller (<i>Faust</i>). See <i>Leben</i>, v. p. 177, note.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical17" href="#div2_biographical17">17</a></sup> Compare Nanni in <i>Meister Wacht</i>, Clara in <i>
+Der Sandmann</i>, Rose in <i>Meister Martin</i>, Cecily in <i>Berganza</i>, &amp;c.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical18" href="#div2_biographical18">18</a></sup> See <i>Erinnerungen</i>, pp. 60 <i>sq.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical19" href="#div2_biographical19">19</a></sup> See <i>Leben</i>, iv. p. 95, v. p. 27; <i>
+Erinnerungen</i>, pp. 28-31.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical20" href="#div2_biographical20">20</a></sup> These adventures are described in one of the
+most humorous chapters (iv.) of the <i>Erinnerungen</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical21" href="#div2_biographical21">21</a></sup> It is treated of in <i>Don Juan</i> and in <i>
+Die Fremdenloge</i>, in the <i>Fantasiestücke</i>. A recent critic has declared that this essay
+will always have value in connection with the stage-representation of
+the problem of Don Juan (cf. <i>Die Gegenwart</i>, 24th May, 1884).]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical22" href="#div2_biographical22">22</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, vol. iv. pp. 58, 59.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical23" href="#div2_biographical23">23</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, vol. iv. p. 140.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical24" href="#div2_biographical24">24</a></sup> Contessa and Koreff are strikingly portrayed in
+the <i>Serapionsbrüder</i> (vol. ii.), the former as &quot;Sylvester,&quot; the latter
+as &quot;Vincenz.&quot;]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical25" href="#div2_biographical25">25</a></sup> The sexual relations are handled in a mystical,
+sensuous way; something of the same kind of treatment occurs again in <i>Das Elementargeist</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical26" href="#div2_biographical26">26</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, vol. iv. pp. 118-120.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical27" href="#div2_biographical27">27</a></sup> <i>Leben</i>, iii. pp. 120-123; iv. p. 60.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical28" href="#div2_biographical28">28</a></sup> &quot;Behold the lot of mankind--joy to-day,
+to-morrow grief,&quot; Walther von Eschenbach's <i>Parzival</i>, ii. 103, ll. 23, 24.]</p>
+
+<p class="hang1">Footnote <sup><a name="div2Ref_biographical29" href="#div2_biographical29">29</a></sup> <i>Serapionsbrüder</i>, vol. ii., Introduction to
+part iv.]</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31439-h.htm or 31439-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/3/31439/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
+be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
+specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
+eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
+for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
+away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
+not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
+trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
+
+START: FULL LICENSE
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
+person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
+1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
+Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country outside the United States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
+on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+
+  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
+  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
+  are located before using this ebook.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
+other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
+Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+provided that
+
+* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
+  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+  Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
+  works.
+
+* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+  receipt of the work.
+
+* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
+Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
+www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
+mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
+volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
+locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
+Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
+date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
+official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+    Chief Executive and Director
+    gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
+state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
+facility: www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+
+</html>
+
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7dfae9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #31439 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31439)
diff --git a/old/31439-8.txt b/old/31439-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dbc22b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/31439-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12552 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: Weird Tales, Vol. II.
+
+Author: E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+Translator: J. T. Bealby
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #31439]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from scans obtained from The
+Internet Archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+1. This book is derived from the Web Archive,
+http://www.archive.org/details/weirdtales05bealgoog.
+
+2. The oe diphthong is represented by [oe].
+
+3. Footnote references to volume I of this work are incorporated in the
+note in order to provide easier reading.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              WEIRD TALES
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+                           E. T. W. HOFFMANN
+
+
+
+                   A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN
+
+
+
+                       WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR
+
+
+
+                         By J. T. BEALBY, B.A.
+         FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+
+
+
+                             IN TWO VOLUMES
+                                VOL. II.
+
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                        CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+                                  1885
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 TROW'S
+                   PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
+                                NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+                         CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
+
+
+                                                              PAGE
+THE DOGE AND DOGESS,
+
+MASTER MARTIN THE COOPER,
+
+MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI,
+
+GAMBLER'S LUCK,
+
+MASTER JOHANNES WACHT,
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES,
+
+
+
+
+                          THE DOGE AND DOGESS[1]
+
+
+This was the title that distinguished in the art-catalogue of the works
+exhibited by the Berlin Academy of Arts in September, 1816, a picture
+which came from the brush of the skilful clever Associate of the
+Academy, C. Kolbe.[2] There was such a peculiar charm in the piece that
+it attracted all observers. A Doge, richly and magnificently dressed,
+and a Dogess at his side, as richly adorned with jewellery, are
+stepping out on to a balustered balcony; _he_ is an old man, with a
+grey beard and rusty red face, his features indicating a peculiar
+blending of expressions, now revealing strength, now weakness, again
+pride and arrogance, and again pure good-nature; _she_ is a young
+woman, with a far-away look of yearning sadness and dreamy aspiration
+not only in her eyes but also in her general bearing. Behind them is an
+elderly lady and a man holding an open sun-shade. At one end of the
+balcony is a young man blowing a conch-shaped horn, whilst in front of
+it a richly decorated gondola, bearing the Venetian flag and having two
+gondoliers, is rocking on the sea. In the background stretches the sea
+itself studded with hundreds and hundreds of sails, whilst the towers
+and palaces of magnificent Venice are seen rising out of its waves. To
+the left is Saint Mark's, to the right, more in the front, San Giorgio
+Maggiore. The following words were cut in the golden frame of the
+picture.
+
+            Ah! senza amare,
+            Andare sul mare
+            Col sposo del mare,
+            Non puo consolare.
+
+            To go on the sea
+            With the spouse of the sea,
+            When loveless I be,
+            Is no comfort to me.
+
+One day there arose before this picture a fruitless altercation as to
+whether the artist really intended it for anything more than a mere
+picture, that is, the temporary situation, sufficiently indicated by
+the verse, of a decrepit old man who with all his splendour and
+magnificence is unable to satisfy the desires of a heart filled with
+yearning aspirations, or whether he intended to represent an actual
+historical event. One after the other the visitors left the place,
+tired of the discussion, so that at length there were only two men
+left, both very good friends to the noble art of painting. "I can't
+understand," said one of them, "how people can spoil all their
+enjoyment by eternally hunting after some jejune interpretation or
+explanation. Independently of the fact that I have a pretty accurate
+notion of what the relations in life between this Doge and Dogess were,
+I am more particularly struck by the subdued richness and power that
+characterises the picture as a whole. Look at this flag with the winged
+lions, how they flutter in the breeze as if they swayed the world. O
+beautiful Venice!" He began to recite Turandot's[3] riddle of Lion of
+the Adriatic, "_Dimmi, qual sia quella terribil fera_," &c. He had
+hardly come to the end when a sonorous masculine voice broke in with
+Calaf's[4] solution, "_Tu quadrupede fera_," &c. Unobserved by the
+friends, a man of tall and noble appearance, his grey mantle thrown
+picturesquely across his shoulder, had taken up a position behind them,
+and was examining the picture with sparkling eyes. They got into
+conversation, and the stranger said almost in atone of solemnity, "It
+is indeed a singular mystery, how a picture often arises in the mind of
+an artist, the figures of which, previously indistinguishable,
+incorporate mist driving about in empty space, first seem to shape
+themselves into vitality in his mind, and there seem to find their
+home. Suddenly the picture connects itself with the past, or even with
+the future, representing something that has really happened or that
+will happen. Perhaps it was not known to Kolbe himself that the persons
+he was representing in this picture are none other than the Doge Marino
+Falieri[5] and his lady Annunciata."
+
+The stranger paused, but the two friends urgently entreated him to
+solve for them this riddle as he had solved that of the Lion of the
+Adriatic. Whereupon he replied, "If you have patience, my inquisitive
+sirs, I will at once explain the picture to you by telling you
+Falieri's history. But have you patience? I shall be very
+circumstantial, for I cannot speak otherwise of things which stand so
+life-like before my eyes that I seem to have seen them myself. And that
+may very well be the case, for all historians--amongst whom I happen to
+be one--are properly a kind of talking ghost of past ages."
+
+The friends accompanied the stranger into a retired room, when, without
+further preamble, he began as follows:--
+
+It is now a long time ago, and if I mistake not, it was in the month of
+August, 1354, that the valiant Genoese captain, Paganino Doria[6] by
+name, utterly routed the Venetians and took their town of Parenzo. And
+his well-manned galleys were now cruising backwards and forwards in the
+Lagune, close in front of Venice, like ravenous beasts of prey which,
+goaded by hunger, roam restlessly up and down spying out where they may
+most safely pounce upon their victims; and both people and seignory
+were panic-stricken with fear. All the male population, liable to
+military service, and everybody who could lift an arm, flew to their
+weapons or seized an oar. The harbour of Saint Nicholas was the
+gathering-place for the bands. Ships and trees were sunk, and chains
+riveted to chains, to lock the harbour-mouth against the enemy. Whilst
+there was heard the rattle of arms and the wild tumult of preparation,
+and whilst the ponderous masses thundered down into the foaming sea, on
+the Rialto the agents of the seignory were wiping the cold sweat from
+their pale brows, and with troubled countenances and hoarse voices
+offering almost fabulous percentage for ready money, for the straitened
+republic was in want of this necessary also. Moreover, it was
+determined by the inscrutable decree of Providence that just at this
+period of extreme distress and anxiety, the faithful shepherd should be
+taken away from his troubled flock. Completely borne down by the burden
+of the public calamity, the Doge Andrea Dandolo[7] died; the people
+called him the "dear good count" (_il caro contino_), because he was
+always cordial and kind, and never crossed Saint Mark's Square without
+speaking a word of comfort to those in need of good advice, or giving a
+few sequins[8] to those who were in want of money. And as every blow is
+wont to fall with double sharpness upon those who are discouraged by
+misfortune, when at other times they would hardly have felt it at all,
+so now, when the people heard the bells of Saint Mark's proclaim in
+solemn muffled tones the death of their Duke, they were utterly undone
+with sorrow and grief. Their support, their hope, was now gone, and
+they would have to bend their necks to the Genoese yoke, they cried, in
+despite of the fact that Dandolo's loss did not seem to have any very
+counteractive effect upon the progress that was being made with all
+necessary warlike preparations. The "dear good count" had loved to live
+in peace and quietness, preferring to follow the wondrous courses of
+the stars rather than the problematical complications of state policy;
+he understood how to arrange a procession on Easter Day better than how
+to lead an army.
+
+The object now was to elect a Doge who, endowed at one and the same
+time with the valour and genius of a war captain, and with skill in
+statecraft, should save Venice, now tottering on her foundations, from
+the threatening power of her bold and ever-bolder enemy. But when the
+senators assembled there was none but what had a gloomy face, hopeless
+looks, and head bent earthwards and resting on his supporting hand.
+Where were they to find a man who could seize the unguided helm and
+direct the bark of the state aright? At last the oldest of the
+councillors, called Marino Bodoeri, lifted up his voice and said, "You
+will not find him here around us, or amongst us; direct your eyes to
+Avignon, upon Marino Falieri, whom we sent to congratulate Pope
+Innocent[9] on his elevation to the Papal dignity; he can find better
+work to do now; he's the man for us; let us choose him Doge to stem
+this current of adversity. You will urge by way of objection that he is
+now almost eighty years old, that his hair and beard are white as
+silver, that his blithe appearance, fiery eye, and the deep red of his
+nose and cheeks are to be ascribed, as his traducers maintain, to good
+Cyprus wine rather than to energy of character; but heed not that.
+Remember what conspicuous bravery this Marino Falieri showed as admiral
+of the fleet in the Black Sea, and bear in mind the great services
+which prevailed with the Procurators of Saint Mark to invest this
+Falieri with the rich countship of Valdemarino." Thus highly did
+Bodoeri extol Falieri's virtues; and he had a ready answer for all
+objections, so that at length all voices were unanimous in electing
+Falieri. Several, however, still continued to allude to his hot,
+passionate temper, his ambition, and his self-will; but they were met
+with the reply: "And it is exactly because all these have gone from the
+old man, that we choose the _grey-beard_ Falieri and not the _youth_
+Falieri." And these censuring voices were completely silenced when the
+people, learning upon whom the choice had fallen, greeted it with the
+loudest and most extravagant demonstrations of delight. Do we not know
+that in such dangerous times, in times of such tension and unrest, any
+resolution that really is a resolution is accepted as an inspiration
+from Heaven? Thus it came to pass that the "dear good count" and all
+his gentleness and piety were forgotten, and every one cried, "By Saint
+Mark, this Marino ought long ago to have been our Doge, and then we
+should not have yon arrogant Doria before our very doors." And crippled
+soldiers painfully lifted up their wounded arms and cried, "That is
+Falieri who beat the Morbassan[10]--the valiant captain whose
+victorious banners waved in the Black Sea." Wherever a knot of people
+gathered, there was one amongst them telling of Falieri's heroic deeds;
+and, as though Doria were already defeated, the air rang with wild
+shouts of triumph. An additional reason for this was that Nicolo
+Pisani[11] who, Heaven knows why! instead of going to meet Doria with
+his fleet, had coolly sailed away to Sardinia,[12] was now returned.
+Doria withdrew from the Lagune; and what was really due to the approach
+of Pisani's fleet was ascribed to the formidable name of Marino
+Falieri. Then the people and the seignory were seized by a kind of
+frantic ecstasy that such an auspicious choice had been made; and as an
+uncommon way of testifying the same, it was determined to welcome the
+newly elected Doge as if he were a messenger from heaven bringing
+honour, victory, and abundance of riches. Twelve nobles, each
+accompanied by a numerous retinue in rich dresses, had been sent by the
+Seignory to Verona, where the ambassadors of the Republic were again to
+announce to Falieri, on his arrival, with all due ceremony, his
+elevation to the supreme office in the state. Then fifteen richly
+decorated vessels of state, equipped by the Podesta[13] of Chioggia,
+and under the command of his own son Taddeo Giustiniani, took the Doge
+and his attendant company on board at Chiozza; and now they moved on
+like the triumphal procession of a most mighty and victorious monarch
+to St. Clement's, where the Bucentaur[14] was awaiting the Doge.
+
+At this very moment, namely, when Marino Falieri was about to set foot
+on board the Bucentaur,--and that was on the evening of the 3d of
+October about sunset--a poor unfortunate man lay stretched at full
+length on the hard marble pavement in front of the Customhouse. A few
+rags of striped linen, of a colour now no longer recognisable, the
+remains of what apparently had once been a sailor's dress, such as was
+worn by the very poorest of the people--porters and assistant oarsmen,
+hung about his lean starved body. There was not a trace of a shirt to
+be seen, except the poor fellow's own skin, which peeped through his
+rags almost everywhere, and was so white and delicate that the very
+noblest need not have been shy or ashamed of it Accordingly, his
+leanness only served to display more fully the perfect proportions
+of his well-knit frame. A careful scrutiny of the unfortunate's
+light-chestnut hair, now hanging all tangled and dishevelled about his
+exquisitely beautiful forehead, his blue eyes dimmed with extreme
+misery, his Roman nose, his fine formed lips--he seemed to be not more
+than twenty years old at the most--inevitably suggested that he was of
+good birth, and had by some adverse turn of fortune been thrown amongst
+the meanest classes of the people.
+
+As remarked, the youth lay in front of the pillars of the Custom-house,
+his head resting on his right arm, and his eyes riveted in a vacant
+stare upon the sea, without movement or change of posture. An observer
+might well have fancied that he was devoid of life, or that death had
+fixed him there whilst turning him into an image of stone, had not a
+deep sigh escaped him from time to time, as if wrung from him by
+unutterable pain. And they were in fact occasioned by the pain of his
+left arm, which had apparently been seriously wounded, and was lying
+stretched out on the pavement, wrapped up in bloody rags.
+
+All labour had ceased; the hum of trade was no longer heard; all
+Venice, in thousands of boats and gondolas, was gone out to meet the
+much-lauded Falieri. Hence it was that the unhappy youth was sighing
+away his pain in utter helplessness. But just as his weary head fell
+back upon the pavement, and he seemed on the point of fainting, a
+hoarse and very querulous voice cried several times in succession,
+"Antonio, my dear Antonio." At length Antonio painfully raised
+himself partly up; and, turning his head towards the pillars of the
+Custom-house, whence the voice seemed to proceed, he replied very
+faintly, and in a scarce intelligible voice, "Who is calling me? Who
+has come to cast my dead body into the sea, for it will soon be all
+over with me." Then a little shrivelled wrinkled crone came up panting
+and coughing, hobbling along by the aid of her staff; she approached
+the wounded youth, and squatting down beside him, she burst out into a
+most repulsive chuckling and laughing. "You foolish child, you foolish
+child," whispered the old woman, "are you going to perish here--will
+you stay here to die, while a golden fortune is waiting for you? Look
+yonder, look yonder at yon blazing fire in the west; there are sequins
+for you! But you must eat, dear Antonio, eat and drink; for it's only
+hunger which has made you fall down here on this cold pavement. Your
+arm is now quite well again, yes, that it is." Antonio recognised in
+the old crone the singular beggar-woman who was generally to be seen on
+the steps of the Franciscan Church, chuckling to herself and laughing,
+and soliciting alms from the worshippers; he himself, urged by some
+inward inexplicable propensity, had often thrown her a hard-earned
+penny, which he had not had to spare. "Leave me, leave me in peace, you
+insane old woman," he said; "but you are right, it is hunger more than
+my wound which has made me weak and miserable; for three days I have
+not earned a farthing. I wanted to go over to the monastery[15] and see
+if I could get a spoonful or two of the soup that is made for invalids;
+but all my companions have gone; there is not one to have compassion
+upon me and take me in his _barca_;[16] and now I have fallen down
+here, and shall, I expect, never get up again." "Hi! hi! hi! hi!"
+chuckled the old woman; "why do you begin to despair so soon? Why lose
+heart so quickly? You are thirsty and hungry, but I can help you. Here
+are a few fine dried fish which I bought only to-day in the Mint; here
+is lemon-juice and a piece of nice white bread; eat, my son; and then
+we will look at the wounded arm." And the old woman proceeded to bring
+forth fish, bread, and lemon juice from the bag which hung like a hood
+down her back, and also projected right above her bent head. As soon as
+Antonio had moistened his parched and burning lips with the cool drink,
+he felt the pangs of hunger return with double fury, and he greedily
+devoured the bread and the fish.
+
+Meanwhile the old woman was busy unwrapping the rags from his wounded
+arm, and it was found that, though it was badly crushed, the wound was
+progressing favourably towards healing. The old woman took a salve out
+of a little box and warmed it with the breath of her mouth, and as she
+rubbed it on the wound she asked, "But who then has given you such a
+nasty blow, my poor boy?" Antonio was so refreshed and charged anew
+with vital energy that he had raised himself completely up; his eyes
+flashed, and he shook his doubled fist above his head, crying, "Oh!
+that rascal Nicolo; he tried to maim me, because he envies me every
+wretched penny that any generous hand bestows upon me. You know, old
+dame, that I barely managed to hold body and soul together by helping
+to carry bales of goods from ships and freight-boats to the _dépôt_
+of the Germans, the so-called Fontego[17]--of course you know the
+building"--Directly Antonio uttered the word Fontego, the old
+woman began to chuckle and laugh most abominably, and to mumble,
+"Fontego--Fontego--Fontego." "Have done with your insane laughing if I
+am to go on with my story," added Antonio angrily. At once the old
+woman grew quiet, and Antonio continued, "after a time I saved a little
+bit of money, and bought a new jerkin, so that I looked quite fine; and
+then I got enrolled amongst the gondoliers. As I was always in a blithe
+humour, worked hard, and knew a great many good songs, I soon earned a
+good deal more than the rest. This, however, awakened my comrades'
+envy. They blackened my character to my master, so that he turned me
+adrift; and everywhere where I went or where I stood they cried after
+me, 'German cur! Cursed heretic!' Three days ago, as I was helping to
+unload a boat near St. Sebastian, they fell upon me with sticks and
+stones. I defended myself stoutly, but that malicious Nicolo dealt me a
+blow with his oar, which grazed my head and severely injured my arm,
+and knocked me on the ground. Ay, you've given me a good meal, old
+woman, and I am sure I feel that your salve has done my arm a world of
+good. See, I can already move it easily--now I shall be able to row
+bravely again." Antonio had risen up from the ground, and was swinging
+his arm violently backwards and forwards, but the old woman again fell
+to chuckling and laughing loudly, whilst she hobbled round about him
+in the most extraordinary fashion--dancing with short tripping steps
+as it were--and she cried, "My son, my good boy, my good lad--row on
+bravely--he is coming--he is coming. The gold is shining red in the
+bright flames. Row on stoutly, row on; but only once more, only once
+more; and then never again."
+
+But Antonio was not paying the slightest heed to the old woman's words,
+for the most splendid of spectacles was unfolding itself before his
+eyes. The Bucentaur, with the Lion of the Adriatic on her fluttering
+standard, was coming along from St. Clement's to the measured stroke of
+the oars like a mighty winged golden swan. Surrounded by innumerable
+_barcas_ and gondolas, and with her head proudly and boldly raised, she
+appeared like a princess commanding a triumphing army, that had emerged
+from the depths of the sea, wearing bright and gaily decked helmets.
+The evening sun was sending down his fiery rays upon the sea and upon
+Venice, so that everything appeared to have been plunged into a bath of
+blazing fire; but whilst Antonio, completely forgetful of all his
+unhappiness, was standing gazing with wonder and delight, the gleams of
+the sun grew more bloody and more bloody. The wind whistled shrilly and
+harshly, and a hollow threatening echo came rolling in from the open
+sea outside. Down burst the storm in the midst of black clouds, and
+enshrouded all in thick darkness, whilst the waves rose higher and
+higher, pouring in from the thundering sea like foaming hissing
+monsters, threatening to engulf everything. The gondolas and _barcas_
+were driven in all directions like scattered feathers. The Bucentaur,
+unable to resist the storm owing to its flat bottom, was yawing from
+side to side. Instead of the jubilant notes of trumpets and cornets,
+there was heard through the storm the anxious cries of those in
+distress.
+
+Antonio gazed upon the scene like one stupefied, without sense and
+motion. But then there came a rattling of chains immediately in front
+of him; he looked down, and saw a little canoe, which was chained to
+the wall, and was being tossed up and down by the waves; and a thought
+entered his mind like a flash of lightning. He leaped into the canoe,
+unfastened it, seized the oar which he found in it, and pushed out
+boldly and confidently into the sea, directly towards the Bucentaur.
+The nearer he came to it the more distinctly could he hear shouts for
+help. "Here, here, come here--save the Doge, save the Doge." It is well
+known that little fisher-canoes are safer and better to manage in the
+Lagune when it is stormy than are larger boats; and accordingly these
+little craft were hastening from all sides to the rescue of Marino
+Falieri's invaluable person. But it is an invariable principle in life
+that the Eternal Power reserves every bold deed as a brilliant success
+to the one specially chosen for it, and hence all others have all their
+pains for nothing. And as on this occasion it was poor Antonio who was
+destined to achieve the rescue of the newly elected Doge, he alone
+succeeded in working his way on to the Bucentaur in his little
+insignificant fisher-canoe. Old Marino Falieri, familiar with such
+dangers, stepped firmly, without a moment's hesitation, from the
+sumptuous but treacherous Bucentaur into poor Antonio's little craft,
+which, gliding smoothly over the raging waves like a dolphin, brought
+him in a few minutes to St. Mark's Square. The old man, his clothing
+saturated with wet, and with large drops of sea-spray in his grey
+beard, was conducted into the church, where the nobles with blanched
+faces concluded the ceremonies connected with the Doge's public entry.
+But the people, as well as the seignory, confounded by this unfortunate
+_contretemps_, to which was also added the fact that the Doge, in the
+hurry and confusion, had been led between the two columns where common
+malefactors were generally executed, grew silent in the midst of their
+triumph, and thus the day that had begun in festive fashion ended in
+gloom and sadness.
+
+Nobody seemed to think about the Doge's rescuer; nor did Antonio
+himself think about it, for he was lying in the peristyle of the Ducal
+Palace, half dead with fatigue, and fainting with the pain caused by
+his wound, which had again burst open. He was therefore all the more
+surprised when just before midnight a Ducal halberdier took him by the
+shoulders, saying, "Come along, friend," and led him into the palace,
+where he pushed him into the Duke's chamber. The old man came to meet
+him with a kindly smile, and said, pointing to a couple of purses lying
+on the table, "You have borne yourself bravely, my son. Here; take
+these three thousand sequins, and if you want more ask for them; but
+have the goodness never to come into my presence again." As he said
+these last words the old man's eyes flashed with fire, and the tip of
+his nose grew a darker red Antonio could not fathom the old man's mind;
+he did not, however, trouble himself overmuch about it, but with some
+little difficulty took up the purses, which he believed he had honestly
+and rightly earned.
+
+Next morning old Falieri, conspicuous in the splendours of his newly
+acquired dignity, stood in one of the lofty bay windows of the palace,
+watching the bustling scene below, where the people were busy engaged
+in practising all kinds of weapons, when Bodoeri, who from the days
+when he was a youth had enjoyed the intimate and unchangeable
+friendship of the Doge, entered the apartment. As, however, the Doge
+was quite wrapped up in himself and his dignity, and did not appear to
+notice his entrance, Bodoeri clapped his hands together and cried with
+a loud laugh, "Come, Falieri, what are all these sublime thoughts that
+are being hatched and nourished in your mind since you first put the
+Doge's bent bonnet on?" Falieri, coming to himself like one awakening
+from a dream, stepped forward to meet his old friend with an air of
+forced amiability. He felt that he really owed his bonnet to Bodoeri,
+and the words of the latter seemed to be a reminder of the fact. But
+since every obligation weighed like a burden upon Falieri's proud
+ambitious spirit, and he could not dismiss the oldest member of the
+Council, and his tried friend to boot, as he had dismissed poor
+Antonio, he constrained himself to utter a few words of thanks, and
+immediately began to speak of the measures to be adopted to meet their
+enemy, who was now developing so great an activity in every direction.
+Bodoeri interrupted him and said, cunningly smiling, "That, and all
+else that the state demands of you, we will maturely weigh and consider
+an hour or two hence in a full meeting of the Great Council. I have not
+come to you thus early in order to invent a plan for defeating yon
+presumptuous Doria or bringing to reason Louis[18] the Hungarian, who
+is again setting his longing eyes upon our Dalmatian seaports. No,
+Marino, I was thinking solely about you, and about what you perhaps
+would not guess--your marriage." "How came you to think of such a thing
+as _that_?" replied the Doge, greatly annoyed; and rising to his feet,
+he turned his back upon Bodoeri and looked out of the window. "It's a
+long time to Ascension Day. By that time I hope the enemy will be
+routed, and that victory, honour, additional riches, and a wider
+extension of power will have been won for the sea-born lion of the
+Adriatic. The chaste bride shall find her bridegroom worthy of her."
+"Pshaw! pshaw!" interrupted Bodoeri, impatiently; "you are talking
+about that memorable ceremony on Ascension Day, when you will throw the
+gold ring from the Bucentaur into the waves under the impression that
+you are wedding the Adriatic Sea. But do you not know,--you, Marino,
+you, kinsman to the sea,--of any other bride than the cold, damp,
+treacherous element which you delude yourself into the belief that you
+rule, and which only yesterday revolted against you in such dangerous
+fashion? Marry, how can you fancy lying in the arms of such a bride of
+such a wild, wayward thing? Why when you only just skimmed her lips as
+you rode along in the Bucentaur she at once began to rage and storm.
+Would an entire Vesuvius of fiery passion suffice to warm the icy bosom
+of such a false bride as that? Continually faithless, she is wedded
+time after time, nor does she receive the ring as a treasured symbol of
+love, but she extorts it as a tribute from a slave? No, Marino, I was
+thinking of your marriage to the most beautiful child of the earth than
+can be found." "You are prating utter nonsense, utter nonsense, I tell
+you, old man," murmured Falieri without turning away from the window.
+"I, a grey-haired old man, eighty years of age, burdened with toil and
+trouble, who have never been married, and now hardly capable of
+loving"---- "Stop," cried Bodoeri, "don't slander yourself. Does not
+the Winter, however rough and cold he may be, at last stretch out his
+longing arms towards the beautiful goddess who comes to meet him borne
+by balmy western winds? And when he presses her to his benumbed bosom,
+when a gentle glow pervades his veins, where then is his ice and his
+snow? You say you are eighty years old; that is true; but do you
+measure old age then by years merely? Don't you carry your head as
+erect and walk with as firm a step as you did forty summers ago? Or do
+you perhaps feel that your strength is failing you, that you must carry
+a lighter sword, that you grow faint when you walk fast, or get short
+of breath when you ascend the steps of the Ducal Palace?" "No, by
+Heaven, no," broke in Falieri upon his friend, as he turned away from
+the window with an abrupt passionate movement and approached him, "no,
+I feel no traces of age upon me." "Well then," continued Bodoeri, "take
+deep draughts in your old age of all the delights of earth which are
+now destined for you. Elevate the woman whom I have chosen for you to
+be your Dogess; and then all the ladies of Venice will be constrained
+to admit that she stands first of all in beauty and in virtue, even as
+the Venetians recognise in you their captain in valour, intellect, and
+power."
+
+Bodoeri now began to sketch the picture of a beautiful woman, and in
+doing so he knew how to mix his colours so cleverly, and lay them on
+with so much vigour and effect, that old Falieri's eyes began to
+sparkle, and his face grew redder and redder, whilst he puckered up his
+mouth and smacked his lips as if he were draining sundry glasses of
+fiery Syracuse. "But who is this paragon of loveliness of whom you are
+speaking?" said he at last with a smirk. "I mean nobody else but my
+dear niece--it's she I mean," replied Bodoeri. "What! your niece?"
+interrupted Falieri. "Why, she was married to Bertuccio Nenolo when I
+was Podesta of Treviso." "Oh! you are thinking about my niece
+Francesca," continued Bodoeri, "but it is her sweet daughter whom I
+intend for you. You know how rude, rough Nenolo was enticed to the wars
+and drowned at sea. Francesca buried her pain and grief in a Roman
+nunnery, and so I had little Annunciata brought up in strict seclusion
+at my villa in Treviso"---- "What!" cried Falieri, again impatiently
+interrupting the old man, "you mean me to raise your niece's daughter
+to the dignity of Dogess? How long is it since Nenolo was married?
+Annunciata must be a child--at the most only ten years old. When I was
+Podesta in Treviso, Nenolo had not even thought of marrying, and
+that's"---- "Twenty-five years ago," interposed Bodoeri, laughing;
+"come, you are getting all at sea with your memory of the flight of
+time, it goes so rapidly with you. Annunciata is a maiden of nineteen,
+beautiful as the sun, modest, submissive, inexperienced in love, for
+she has hardly ever seen a man. She will cling to you with childlike
+affection and unassuming devotion." "I will see her, I will see her,"
+exclaimed the Doge, whose eyes again beheld the picture of the
+beautiful Annunciata which Bodoeri had sketched.
+
+His desire was gratified the self-same day; for immediately he got back
+to his own apartments from the meeting of the Great Council, the crafty
+Bodoeri, who no doubt had many reasons for wishing to see his niece
+Dogess at Falieri's side, brought the lovely Annunciata to him
+secretly. Now, when old Falieri saw the angelic maiden, he was quite
+taken aback by her wonderful beauty, and was scarcely able to stammer
+out a few unintelligible words as he sued for her hand. Annunciata, no
+doubt well instructed by Bodoeri beforehand, fell upon her knees before
+the princely old man, her cheeks flushing crimson. She grasped his hand
+and pressed it to her lips, softly whispering, "O sir, will you indeed
+honour me by raising me to a place at your side on your princely
+throne? Oh! then I will reverence you from the depths of my soul, and
+will continue your faithful handmaiden as long as I have breath." Old
+Falieri was beside himself with happiness and delight. As Annunciata
+took his hand he felt a convulsive throb in every limb; and then his
+head and all his body began to tremble and totter to such a degree that
+he had to sink hurriedly into his great arm-chair. It seemed as if he
+were about to refute Bodoeri's good opinion as to the strength and
+toughness of his eighty summers. Bodoeri, in fact, could not keep back
+the peculiar smile that darted across his lips; innocent, un*
+sophisticated Annunciata observed nothing; and happily no one else was
+present Finally it was resolved for some reason--either because old
+Falieri felt in what an uncomfortable position he would appear in the
+eyes of the people as the betrothed of a maiden of nineteen, or because
+it occurred to him as a sort of presentiment that the Venetians, who
+were so prone to mockery, ought not to be so directly challenged to
+indulge in it, or because he deemed it better to say nothing at all
+about the critical period of betrothal--at any rate, it was resolved,
+with Bodoeri's consent, that the marriage should be celebrated with the
+greatest secrecy, and that then some days later the Dogess should be
+introduced to the seignory and the people as if she had been some time
+married to Falieri, and had just arrived from Treviso, where she had
+been staying during Falieri's mission to Avignon.
+
+Let us now turn our eyes upon yon neatly dressed handsome youth who is
+going up and down the Rialto with his purse of sequins in his hand,
+conversing with Jews, Turks, Armenians, Greeks.[19] He turns away his
+face with a frown, walks on further, stands still, turns round, and
+ultimately has himself rowed by a gondolier to St. Mark's Square. There
+he walks up and down with uncertain hesitating steps, his arms folded
+and his eyes bent upon the ground; nor does he observe, or even have
+any idea, that all the whispering and low coughing from various windows
+and various richly draped balconies are love-signals which are meant
+for him. Who would have easily recognised in this youth the same
+Antonio who a few days before had lain on the marble pavement in front
+of the Custom-house, poor, ragged, and miserable? "My dear boy! My dear
+golden boy, Antonio, good day, good day!" Thus he was greeted by the
+old beggar-woman, who sat on the steps leading to St. Mark's Church,
+and whom he was going past without observing. Turning abruptly round,
+he recognised the old woman, and, dipping his hand into his purse, took
+out a handful of sequins with the intention of throwing them to her.
+"Oh! keep your gold in your purse," chuckled and laughed the old woman;
+"what should I do with your money? am I not rich enough? But if you
+want to do me a kindness, get me a new hood made, for this which I am
+now wearing is no longer any protection against wind and weather. Yes,
+please get me one, my dear boy, my dear golden boy,--but keep away from
+the Fontego,--keep away from the Fontego." Antonio stared into the old
+woman's pale yellow face, the deep wrinkles in which twitched
+convulsively in a strange awe-inspiring way. And when she clapped her
+lean bony hands together so that the joints cracked, and continued her
+disagreeable laugh, and went on repeating in a hoarse voice, "Keep away
+from the Fontego," Antonio cried, "Can you not have done with that mad
+insane nonsense, you old witch?"
+
+As Antonio uttered this word, the old woman, as if struck by a
+lightning-flash, came rolling down the high marble steps like a ball.
+Antonio leapt forward and grasped her by both hands, and so prevented
+her from falling heavily. "O my good lad, my good lad," said the old
+crone in a low, querulous voice, "what a hideous word that was which
+you uttered. Kill me rather than repeat that word to me again. Oh! you
+don't know how deeply you have cut me to the heart, me--who have such a
+true affection for you--no, you don't know"---- Abruptly breaking off,
+she wrapped up her head in the dark brown cloth flaps which covered her
+shoulders like a short mantle, and sighed and moaned as if suffering
+unspeakable pain. Antonio felt his heart strangely moved; lifting up
+the old woman, he carried her up into the vestibule of the church, and
+set her down upon one of the marble benches which were there. "You have
+been kind to me, old woman," he began, after he had liberated her head
+from the ugly cloth flaps, "you have been kind to me, since it is to
+you that I really owe all my prosperity; for if you had not stood by me
+in the hour of need, I should long ere this have been at the bottom of
+the sea, nor should I have rescued the old Doge, and received these
+good sequins. But even if you had not shown that kindness to me, I yet
+feel that I should have a special liking for you as long as I live, in
+spite of the fact that your insane behaviour--chuckling and laughing so
+horribly--strikes my heart with awe. To tell you the truth, old dame,
+even when I had hard work to get a living by carrying merchandise and
+rowing, I always felt as if I must work still harder that I might have
+a few pence to give you." "O son of my heart, my golden Tonino," cried
+the old woman, raising her shrivelled arms above her head, whilst her
+staff fell rattling on the marble floor and rolled away from her, "O
+Tonino mine, I know it; yes, I know it; you must cling to me with all
+your soul, you may do as you will, for--but hush! hush! hush!" The old
+woman stooped painfully down in order to reach her staff, but Antonio
+picked it up and handed it to her.
+
+Leaning her sharp chin on her staff, and riveting her eyes in a set
+stare upon the ground, she began to speak in a reserved but hollow
+voice, "Tell me, my child, have you no recollection at all of any
+former time, of what you did or where you were before you found
+yourself here, a poor wretch hardly able to keep body and soul
+together?" With a deep sigh, Antonio took his seat beside the old crone
+and then began, "Alas! mother, only too well do I know that I was born
+of parents living in the most prosperous circumstances; but who they
+were and how I came to leave them, of this I have not the slightest
+notion, nor could I have. I remember very well a tall handsome man, who
+often took me in his arms and smothered me with kisses and put sweets
+in my mouth. And I can also in the same way call to mind a pleasant and
+pretty lady, who used to dress and undress me and place me in a soft
+little bed every night, and who in fact was very kind to me in every
+way. They used to talk to me in a foreign, sonorous language, and I
+also stammered several words of the same tongue after them. Whilst I
+was an oarsman my jealous rivals used to say I must be of German
+origin, from the colour of my hair and eyes, and from my general build.
+And this I believe myself, for the language which that man spoke (he
+must have been my father) was German. But the most vivid recollection
+which I have of that time is that of one terrible night, when I was
+awakened out of deep sleep by a fearful scream of distress. People were
+running about the house; doors were being opened and banged to; I grew
+terribly frightened, and began to cry loudly. Then the lady who used to
+dress me and take care of me burst into the room, snatched me out of
+bed, stopped my mouth, enveloped me in shawls, and ran off with me.
+From that moment I can remember nothing more, until I found myself
+again in a splendid house, situated in a most charming district. Then
+there rises up the image of a man whom I called 'father,' a majestic
+man of noble but benevolent appearance. Like all the rest in the house,
+he spoke Italian.
+
+"For several weeks I had not seen my father, when one day several
+ugly-looking strangers came and kicked up a great deal of noise in the
+house, rummaging about and turning out everything. When they saw me
+they asked who I was, and what I was doing there? 'Don't you know I'm
+Antonio, and belong to the house?' I replied; but they laughed in my
+face and tore off all my fine clothes and turned me out of doors,
+threatening to have me whipped if I dared to show myself again. I ran
+away screaming and crying. I had not gone a hundred yards from the
+house when I met an old man, whom I recognised as being one of my
+foster-father's servants. 'Come along, Antonio,' he said, taking hold
+of my hand, 'come along, my poor boy, that house is now closed to us
+both for ever. We must both look out and see how we can earn a crust of
+bread.'
+
+"The old man brought me along with him here. He was not so poor as he
+seemed to be from his mean clothing. Directly we arrived I saw him rip
+up his jerkin and produce a bag of sequins; and he spent the whole day
+running about on the Rialto, now acting as broker, now dealing on his
+own account. I had always to be close at his heels; and whenever he had
+made a bargain he had a habit of begging a trifle for the _figliuolo_
+(little boy). Every one whom I looked boldly in the face was glad to
+pull out a few pence, which the old man pocketed with infinite
+satisfaction, affirming, as he stroked my cheeks, that he was saving it
+up to buy me a new jerkin. I was very comfortable with the old man,
+whom the people called Old Father Bluenose, though for what reason I
+don't know. But this life did not last long. You will remember that
+terrible time, old woman, when one day the earth began to tremble, and
+towers and palaces were shaken to their very foundations and began to
+reel and totter, and the bells to ring as if tolled by the arms of
+invisible giants. Hardly seven years have passed since that day.
+Fortunately I escaped along with my old man out of the house before it
+fell in with a crash behind us. There was no business doing; everybody
+on the Rialto seemed stunned, and everything lifeless. But this
+dreadful event was only the precursor of another approaching monster,
+which soon breathed out its poisonous breath over the town and the
+surrounding country. It was known that the pestilence, which had first
+made its way from the Levant into Sicily, was committing havoc in
+Tuscany.[20] As yet Venice had been spared. One day Old Father Bluenose
+was dealing with an Armenian on the Rialto; they were agreed over their
+bargain, and warmly shook hands. Father Bluenose had sold the Armenian
+certain good wares at a very low price, and now asked for the usual
+trifle for the _figliuolo_. The stranger, a big stalwart man with a
+thick curly beard (I can see him now), bent a kind look upon me, and
+then kissed me, pressing a few sequins into my hand, which I hastily
+pocketed. We took a gondola to St. Mark's. On the way the old man asked
+me for the sequins, but for some reason or other, I don't know what
+induced me to do it, I maintained that I must keep them myself, since
+the Armenian had wished me to do so. The old man got angry; but whilst
+he was quarrelling with me I noticed a disagreeable dirty yellow colour
+spreading over his face, and that he was mixing up all sorts of
+incoherent nonsense in his talk. When we reached the Square he reeled about
+like a drunken man, until he fell to the ground in front of the Ducal
+Palace--dead. With a loud wail I threw myself upon the corpse. The people
+came running round us, but as soon as the dreaded cry 'The pestilence!
+the pestilence!' was heard, they scattered and flew apart in terror. At the
+same moment I was seized by a dull numbing pain, and my senses left me.
+
+"When I awoke I found I was in a spacious room, lying on a plain
+mattress, and covered with a blanket. Round about me there were fully
+twenty or thirty other pale ghastly forms lying on similar mattresses.
+As I learned later, certain compassionate monks, who happened to be
+just coming out of St. Mark's, had, on finding signs of life in me, put
+me in a gondola and got me taken over to Giudecca into the monastery
+of San Giorgio Maggiore, where the Benedictines had established a
+hospital. How can I describe to you, old woman, this moment of
+re-awakening? The violence of the plague had completely robbed me of
+all recollections of the past. Just as if the spark of life had been
+suddenly dropped into a lifeless statue, I had but a momentary kind
+of existence, so to speak, linked on to nothing. You may imagine
+what trouble, what distress this life occasioned me in which my
+consciousness seemed to swim in empty space without an anchorage. All
+that the monks could tell me was that I had been found beside Father
+Bluenose, whose son I was generally accounted to be. Gradually and
+slowly I gathered my thoughts together, and tried to reflect upon my
+previous life, but what I have told you, old dame, is all that I can
+remember of it, and that consists only of certain individual
+disconnected pictures. Oh! this miserable being-alone-in-the-world! I
+can't be gay and happy, no matter what may happen!" "Tonino, my dear
+Tonino," said the old woman, "be contented with what the present moment
+gives you."
+
+"Say no more, old woman, say no more," interrupted Antonio; "there is
+still something else which embitters my life, following me about
+incessantly everywhere; I know it will be the utter ruin of me in the
+end. An unspeakable longing,--a consuming aspiration for something,--I
+can neither say nor even conceive what it is--has taken complete
+possession of my heart and mind since I awoke to renewed life in the
+hospital. Whilst I was still poor and wretched, and threw myself down
+at night on my hard couch, weary and worn out by the hard heavy labour
+of the day, a dream used to come to me, and, fanning my hot brow with
+balmy rustling breezes, shed about my heart all the inexpressible bliss
+of some single happy moment, in which the Eternal Power had been
+pleased to grant me in thought a glimpse of the delights of heaven, and
+the memory of which was treasured up in the recesses of my soul I now
+rest on soft cushions, and no labour consumes my strength: but if I
+awaken out of a dream, or if in my waking hours the recollection of
+that great moment returns to my mind, I feel that the lonely wretched
+existence I lead is just as much an oppressive burden now as it was
+then, and that it is vain for me to try and shake it off. All my
+thinking and all my inquiries are fruitless; I cannot fathom what this
+glorious thing is which formerly happened in my life. Its mysterious
+and alas! to me, unintelligible echo, as it were, fills me with such
+great happiness; but will not this happiness pass over into the most
+agonising pain, and torture me to death, when I am obliged to
+acknowledge that all my hope of ever finding that unknown Eden again,
+nay, that even the courage to search for it, is lost? Can there indeed
+remain traces of that which has vanished without leaving any sign
+behind it?" Antonio ceased speaking, and a deep and painful sigh
+escaped his breast.
+
+During his narrative the old crone had behaved like one who sympathised
+fully with his trouble, and felt all that he felt, and like a mirror
+reflected every movement and gesture which the pain wrung from him.
+"Tonino," she now began in a tearful voice, "my dear Tonino, do you
+mean to tell me that you let your courage sink because the remembrance
+of some glorious moment in your life has perished out of your mind? You
+foolish child! You foolish child! Listen to--hi! hi! hi!" The old woman
+began to chuckle and laugh in her usual disagreeable way, and to hop
+about on the marble floor. Some people came; she cowered down in her
+accustomed posture; they threw her alms. "Antonio--lead me away,
+Antonio--away to the sea," she croaked Almost involuntarily--he could
+not explain how it came about--he took her by the arm and led her
+slowly across St. Mark's Square. On the way the old woman muttered
+softly and solemnly, "Antonio, do you see these dark stains of blood
+here on the ground? Yes, blood--much blood--much blood everywhere! But,
+hi! hi! hi! Roses will spring up out of the blood--beautiful red roses
+for a wreath for you--for your sweetheart. O good Lord of all, what
+lovely angel of light is this, who is coming to meet you with such
+grace and such a bright starry smile? Her lily-white arms are stretched
+out to embrace you. O Antonio, you lucky, lucky lad! bear yourself
+bravely! bear yourself bravely! And at the sweet hour of sunset
+you may pluck myrtle-leaves--myrtle-leaves for the bride--for the
+maiden-widow--hi! hi! hi! Myrtle-leaves plucked at the hour of sunset,
+but these will not be blossoms until midnight! Do you hear the
+whisperings of the night-winds? the longing moaning swell of the sea?
+Row away bravely, my bold oarsman, row away bravely!" Antonio's heart
+was deeply thrilled with awe as he listened to the old crone's wonderful
+words, which she mumbled to herself in a very peculiar and extraordinary
+way, mingled with an incessant chuckling.
+
+They came to the pillar which bears the Lion of the Adriatic. The old
+woman was going on right past it, still muttering to herself; but
+Antonio, feeling very uncomfortable at the old crone's behaviour,
+and being, moreover, stared at in astonishment by the passers-by,
+stopped and said roughly, "Here--sit you down on these steps, old
+woman, and have done with your talk; it will drive me mad. It is a
+fact that you saw my sequins in the fiery images in the clouds; but,
+for that very reason, what do you mean by prating about angels of
+light--bride--maiden-widow--roses and myrtle-leaves? Do you want to
+make a fool of me, you fearful woman, till some insane attempt hurries
+me to destruction? You shall have a new hood--bread--sequins--all that
+you want, but leave me alone." And he was about to make off hastily;
+but the old woman caught him by the mantle, and cried in a shrill
+piercing voice, "Tonino, my Tonino, do take a good look at me for once,
+or else I must go to the very edge of the Square yonder and in despair
+throw myself over into the sea." In order to avoid attracting more eyes
+upon him than he was already doing, Antonio actually stood still.
+"Tonino," went on the old woman, "sit down here beside me; my heart is
+bursting, I must tell you--Oh! do sit down here beside me." Antonio sat
+down on the steps, but so as to turn his back upon her; and he took out
+his account-book, whose white pages bore witness to the zeal with which
+he did business on the Rialto.
+
+The old woman now whispered very low, "Tonino, when you look upon my
+shrivelled features, does there not dawn upon your mind the slightest,
+faintest recollection of having known me formerly a long, long time
+ago?" "I have already told you, old woman," replied Antonio in the same
+low tones, and without turning round, "I have already told you, that I
+feel drawn towards you in a way that I can't explain to myself, but I
+don't attribute it to your ugly shrivelled face. Nay, when I look at
+your strange black glittering eyes and sharp nose, at your blue lips
+and long chin, and bristly grey hair, and when I hear your abominable
+chuckling and laughing, and your confused talk, I rather turn away from
+you with disgust, and am even inclined to believe that you possess some
+execrable power for attracting me to you." "O God! God! God!" whined
+the old dame, a prey to unspeakable pain, "what fiendish spirit of
+darkness has put such fearful thoughts into your head? O Tonino, my
+darling Tonino, the woman who took such tender loving care of you when
+a child, and who saved your life from the most threatening danger on
+that awful night--it was I."
+
+In the first moments of startled surprise Antonio turned round as if
+shot; but then he fixed his eyes upon the old woman's hideous face and
+cried angrily, "So that is the way you think you are going to befool
+me, you abominable insane old crone! The few recollections which I have
+retained of my childhood are fresh and lively. That kind and pretty
+lady who tended me--Oh! I can see her plainly now! She had a full
+bright face with some colour in it--eyes gently smiling-beautiful
+dark-brown hair--dainty hands; she could hardly be thirty years old,
+and you--you, an old woman of ninety!" "O all ye saints of Heaven!"
+interrupted the old dame, sobbing, "all ye blessed ones, what shall I
+do to make my Tonino believe in me, his faithful Margaret?" "Margaret!"
+murmured Antonio, "Margaret! That name falls upon my ears like music
+heard a long long time ago, and for a long long time forgotten.
+But--no, it is impossible--impossible." Then the old dame went on more
+calmly, dropping her eyes, and scribbling as it were with her staff on
+the ground, "You are right; the tall handsome man who used to take you
+in his arms and kiss you and give you sweets was your father, Tonino;
+and the language in which we spoke to each other was the beautiful
+sonorous German. Your father was a rich and influential merchant in
+Augsburg. His young and lovely wife died in giving birth to you. Then,
+since he could not settle down in the place where his dearest lay
+buried, he came hither to Venice, and brought me, your nurse, with him
+to take care of you. That terrible night an awful fate overtook your
+father, and also threatened you. I succeeded in saving you. A noble
+Venetian adopted you; I, deprived of all means of support, had to
+remain in Venice.
+
+"My father, a barber-surgeon, of whom it was said that he practised
+forbidden science as well, had made me familiar from my earliest
+childhood with the mysterious virtues of Nature's remedies. By him I
+was taught to wander through the fields and woods, learning the
+properties of many healing herbs, of many insignificant mosses, the
+hours when they should be plucked and gathered, and how to mix the
+juices of the various simples. But to this knowledge there was added a
+very special gift, which Heaven has endowed me with for some
+inscrutable purpose. I often see future events as if in a dim and
+distant mirror; and almost without any conscious effort of will, I
+declare in expressions which are unintelligible to myself what I have
+seen; for some unknown Power compels me, and I cannot resist it. Now
+when I had to stay behind in Venice, deserted of all the world, I
+resolved to earn a livelihood by means of my tried skill. In a brief
+time I cured the most dangerous diseases. And furthermore, as my
+presence alone had a beneficial effect upon my patients, and the soft
+stroking of my hand often brought them past the crisis in a few
+minutes, my fame necessarily soon spread through the town, and money
+came pouring in in streams. This awakened the jealousy of the
+physicians, quacks who sold their pills and essences in St. Mark's
+Square, on the Rialto, and in the Mint, poisoning their patients
+instead of curing them. They spread abroad that I was in league with
+the devil himself; and they were believed by the superstitious folk. I
+was soon arrested and brought before the ecclesiastical tribunal. O my
+Tonino, what horrid tortures did they inflict upon me in order to force
+from me a confession of the most damnable of all alliances! I remained
+firm. My hair turned white; my body withered up to a mummy; my feet and
+hands were paralysed. But there was still the terrible rack left--the
+cunningest invention of the foul fiend,--and it extorted from me a
+confession at which I shudder even now. I was to be burnt alive; but
+when the earthquake shook the foundations of the palaces and of the
+great prison, the door of the underground dungeon in which I lay
+confined sprang open of itself, and I staggered up out of my grave as
+it were through rubbish and ruins.[21] O Tonino, you called me an old
+woman of ninety; I am hardly more than fifty. This lean, emaciated
+body, this hideously distorted face, this icicle-like hair, these lame
+feet--no, it was not the lapse of years, it was only unspeakable
+tortures which could in a few months change me thus from a strong woman
+into the monstrous creature I now am. And my hideous chuckling and
+laughing--this was forced from me by the last strain on the rack, at
+the memory of which my hair even now stands on an end, and I feel
+altogether as if I were locked in a red-hot coat of mail; and since
+that time I have been constantly subject to it; it attacks me without
+my being able to check it. So don't stand any longer in awe of me,
+Tonino, Oh! it was indeed your heart which told you that as a little
+boy you lay on my bosom." "Woman," said Antonio hoarsely, wrapped up in
+his own thoughts, "woman, I feel as if I must believe you. But who was
+my father? What was he called? What was the awful fate which overtook
+him on that terrible night? Who was it who adopted me? And--what was
+that occurrence in my life which now, like some potent magical spell
+from a strange and unknown world, exercises an irresistible sway over
+my soul, so that all my thoughts are dissipated into a dark night-like
+sea, so to speak? When you tell me all this, you mysterious woman, then
+I will believe you." "Tonino," replied the old crone, sighing, "for
+your own sake I must keep silent; but the time when I may speak will
+soon come. The Fontego--the Fontego--keep away from the Fontego."
+
+"Oh!" cried Antonio angrily, "you need not begin to speak your dark
+sentences again to enchant me by some devilish wile or other. My heart
+is rent, you must speak, or"---- "Stop," interrupted she, "no
+threats--am I not your faithful nurse, who tended you?"---- Without
+waiting to hear what the old woman had got further to say, he picked
+himself up and ran away swiftly. From a distance he shouted to her,
+"You shall nevertheless have a new hood, and as many sequins besides as
+you like."
+
+
+It was in truth a remarkable spectacle, to see the old Doge Marino
+Falieri and his youthful wife: he, strong enough and robust enough in
+very truth, but with a grey beard, and innumerable wrinkles in his
+rusty brown face, with some difficulty bearing his head erect, forming
+a pathetic figure as he strode along; she, a perfect picture of grace,
+with the pure gentleness of an angel in her divinely beautiful face, an
+irresistible charm in her longing glances, a queenly dignity enthroned
+upon her open lily-white brow, shadowed by her dark locks, a sweet
+smile upon her cheeks and lips, her pretty head bent with winsome
+submissiveness, her slender form moving with ease, scarce seeming to
+touch the earth--a beautiful lady in fact, a native of another and a
+higher world. Of course you have seen angelic forms like this,
+conceived and painted by the old masters. Such was Annunciata. How then
+could it be otherwise but that every one who saw her was astonished and
+enraptured with her beauty, and all the fiery youths of the Seignory
+were consumed with passion, measuring the old Doge with mocking looks,
+and swearing in their hearts that they would be the Mars to this
+Vulcan, let the consequences be what they might? Annunciata soon found
+herself surrounded with admirers, to whose flattering and seductive
+words she listened quietly and graciously, without thinking anything in
+particular about them. The conception which her pure angelic spirit had
+formed of her relation to her aged and princely husband was that she
+ought to honour him as her supreme lord, and cling to him with all the
+unquestioning fidelity of a submissive handmaiden. He treated her
+kindly, nay tenderly; he pressed her to his ice-cold heart and called
+her his darling; he heaped up all the jewels he could find upon her;
+what else could she wish for from him, what other rights could she have
+upon him? In this way, therefore, it was impossible for the thought of
+unfaithfulness to the old man ever in any way to find lodgment in her
+mind; all that lay beyond the narrow circle of these limited relations
+was to this good child an unknown region, whose forbidden borders were
+wrapped in dark mists, unseen and unsuspected by her. Hence all efforts
+to win her love were fruitless.
+
+But the flames of passion--of love for the beautiful Dogess--burned in
+none so violently and so uncontrolled as in Michele Steno.
+Notwithstanding his youth, he was invested with the important and
+influential post of Member of the Council of Forty. Relying upon this
+fact, as well as upon his personal beauty, he felt confident of
+success. Old Marino Falieri he did not fear in the least; and, indeed,
+the old man seemed to indulge less frequently in his violent outbreaks
+of furious passion, and to have laid aside his rugged untamable
+fierceness, since his marriage. There he sat beside his beautiful
+Annunciata, spruce and prim, in the richest, gayest apparel, smirking
+and smiling, challenging in the sweet glances of his grey eyes,--from
+which a treacherous tear stole from time to time,--those who were
+present to say if any one of them could boast of such a wife as his.
+Instead of speaking in the rough arrogant tone of voice in which he had
+formerly been in the habit of expressing himself, he whispered, scarce
+moving his lips, addressed every one in the most amiable manner, and
+granted the most absurd petitions. Who would have recognised in this
+weak amorous old man the same Falieri who had in a fit of passion
+buffeted the bishop[22] on Corpus Christi Day at Treviso, and who had
+defeated the valiant Morbassan. This growing weakness spurred on
+Michele Steno to attempt the most extravagant schemes. Annunciata did
+not understand why he was constantly pursuing her with his looks and
+words; she had no conception of his real purpose, but always preserved
+the same gentle, calm, and friendly bearing towards him. It was just
+this quiet unconscious behaviour, however, which drove him wild, which
+drove him to despair almost. He determined to effect his end by
+sinister means. He managed to involve Annunciata's most confidential
+maid in a love intrigue, and she at last permitted him to visit her at
+night. Thus he believed he had paved a way to Annunciata's unpolluted
+chamber; but the Eternal Power willed that this treacherous iniquity
+should recoil upon the head of its wicked author.
+
+One night it chanced that the Doge, who had just received the ill
+tidings of the battle which Nicolo Pisani had lost against Doria off
+Porto Longo,[23] was unable to sleep owing to care and anxiety, and was
+rambling through the passages of the Ducal Palace. Then he became aware
+of a shadow stealing apparently out of Annunciata's apartments and
+creeping towards the stairs. He at once rushed towards it; it was
+Michele Steno leaving his mistress. A terrible thought flashed across
+Falieri's mind; with the cry "Annunciata!" he threw himself upon Steno
+with his drawn dagger in his hand. But Steno, who was stronger and more
+agile than the old man, averted the thrust, and knocked him down with a
+violent blow of his fist; then, laughing loudly and shouting,
+"Annunciata! Annunciata!" he rushed downstairs. The old man picked
+himself up and stole towards Annunciata's apartments, his heart on fire
+with the torments of hell. All was quiet, as still as the grave. He
+knocked; a strange maid opened the door--not the one who was in the
+habit of sleeping near Annunciata's chamber. "What does my princely
+husband command at this late and unusual hour?" asked Annunciata in a
+calm and sweetly gentle tone, for she had meanwhile thrown on a light
+night-robe and was now come forward. Old Falieri stared at her
+speechless; then, raising both hands above his head, he cried, "No, it
+is not possible, it is not possible." "What is not possible, my
+princely sir?" asked Annunciata, startled at the deep solemn tones of
+the old man's voice. But Falieri, without answering her question,
+turned to the maid, "Why are _you_ sleeping here? why does not Luigia
+sleep here as usual?" "Oh!" replied the little one, "Luigia would make
+me exchange places with her to-night; she is sleeping in the ante-room
+close by the stairs." "Close by the stairs!" echoed Falieri, delighted;
+and he hurried away to the ante-room. At his loud knocking Luigia
+opened the door; and when she saw the Doge, her master's face inflamed
+with rage, and his flashing eyes, she threw herself upon her bare knees
+and confessed her shame, which was set beyond all doubt by a pair of
+elegant gentleman's gloves lying on the easy-chair, whilst the sweet
+scent about them betrayed their dandified owner. Hotly incensed at
+Steno's unheard-of impudence, the Doge wrote to him next morning,
+forbidding him, on pain of banishment from the town, to approach the
+Ducal Palace, or the presence of the Doge and Dogess.
+
+Michele Steno was wild with fury at the failure of his well-planned
+scheme, and at the disgrace of being thus banished from the presence of
+his idol. Now when he had to see from a distance how gently and kindly
+the Dogess spoke to other young men of the Seignory--that was indeed
+her natural manner--his envy and the violence of his passion filled his
+mind with evil thoughts. The Dogess had without doubt only scorned him
+because he had been anticipated by others with better luck; and he had
+the hardihood to utter his thoughts openly and publicly. Now whether it
+was that old Falieri had tidings of this shameless talk, or whether he
+came to look upon the occurrence of that memorable night as the warning
+finger of destiny, or whether now, in spite of all his calmness and
+equanimity, and his perfect confidence in the fidelity of his wife, he
+saw clearly the danger of the unnatural position in which he stood in
+respect to her--at any rate he became ill-tempered and morose. He was
+plagued and tortured by all the fiends of jealousy, and confined
+Annunciata to the inner apartments of the Ducal Palace, so that no man
+ever set eyes upon her. Bodoeri took his niece's part, and soundly
+rated old Falieri; but he would not hear of any change in his conduct.
+
+All this took place shortly before Holy Thursday. On the occasion of
+the popular sports which take place on this day in St. Mark's Square,
+it was customary for the Dogess to take her seat beside the Doge, under
+a canopy erected on the balcony which lies opposite to the Piazetti.
+Bodoeri reminded the Doge of this custom, and told him that it would be
+very absurd, and sure to draw down upon him the mocking laughter of
+both populace and Seignory, if, in the teeth of custom and usage, he
+let his perverse jealousy exclude Annunciata from this honour. "Do you
+think," replied old Falieri, whose pride was immediately aroused, "do
+you think I am such an idiotic old fool that I am afraid to show my
+most precious jewel for fear of thievish hands, and that I could not
+prevent her being stolen from me with my good sword? No, old man, you
+are mistaken; to-morrow Annunciata shall go with me in solemn
+procession across St. Mark's Square, that the people may see their
+Dogess, and on Holy Thursday she shall receive the nosegay from the
+bold sailor who comes sailing down out of the air to her." The Doge was
+thinking of a very ancient custom as he said these words. On Holy
+Thursday a bold fellow from amongst the people is drawn up from the sea
+to the summit of the tower of St. Mark's, in a machine that resembles a
+little ship and is suspended on ropes, then he shoots from the top of
+the tower with the speed of an arrow down to the Square where the Doge
+and Dogess are sitting, and presents a nosegay of flowers to the
+Dogess, or to the Doge if he is alone.
+
+The next day the Doge carried out his intention. Annunciata had to don
+her most magnificent robes; and surrounded by the Seignory and attended
+by pages and guards, she and Falieri crossed the Square when it was
+swarming with people. They pushed and squeezed themselves to death
+almost to see the beautiful Dogess; and he who succeeded in setting
+eyes upon her thought he had taken a peep into Paradise and had beheld
+the loveliest of the bright and beautiful angels. But according to
+Venetian habits, in the midst of the wildest outbreaks of their frantic
+admiration, here and there were heard all sorts of satiric phrases and
+rhymes--and coarse enough too--aimed at old Falieri and his young wife.
+Falieri, however, appeared not to notice them, but strode along as
+pathetically as possible at Annunciata's side, smirking and smiling all
+over his face, and free on this occasion from all jealousy, although he
+must have seen the glances full of burning passion which were directed
+upon his beautiful lady from all sides. Arrived before the principal
+entrance to the Palace, the guards had some difficulty in driving back
+the crowd, so that the Doge and Dogess might go in; but here and there
+were still standing isolated knots of better-dressed citizens, who
+could not very well be refused entrance into even the inner quadrangle
+of the Palace. Now it happened just at the moment that the Dogess
+entered the quadrangle, that a young man, who with a few others stood
+under the portico, fell down suddenly upon the hard marble floor, as if
+dead, with the loud scream, "O good God! good God!" The people ran
+together from every side and surrounded the dead man, so that the
+Dogess could not see him; yet, as the young man fell, she felt as if a
+red-hot knife were suddenly thrust into her heart; she grew pale; she
+reeled, and was only prevented from fainting by the smelling-bottles of
+the ladies who hastened to her assistance. Old Falieri, greatly alarmed
+and put out by the accident, wished the young man and his fit anywhere;
+and he carried his Annunciata, who hung her pretty head on her bosom
+and closed her eyes like a sick dove, himself up the steps into her own
+apartments in the interior of the Palace, although it was very hard
+work for him to do so.
+
+Meanwhile the people, who had increased to crowds in the inner
+quadrangle, had been spectators of a remarkable scene. They were about
+to lift up the young man, whom they took to be quite dead, and carry
+him away, when an ugly old beggar-woman, all in rags, came limping up
+with a loud wail of grief; and punching their sides and ribs with her
+sharp elbows she made a way for herself through the thick of the crowd.
+When she at length saw the senseless youth, she cried, "Let him be,
+fools; you stupid people, let him be; he is not dead." Then she
+squatted down beside him; and taking his head in her lap she gently
+rubbed and stroked his forehead, calling him by the sweetest of names.
+As the people noted the old woman's ugly apish face, and the repulsive
+play of its muscles, bending over the young fellow's fine handsome
+face, his soft features now stiff and pale as in death, when they saw
+her filthy rags fluttering about over the rich clothing the young man
+wore, and her lean brownish-yellow arms and long hands trembling upon
+his forehead and exposed breast--they could not in truth resist
+shuddering with awe. It looked as if it were the grinning form of death
+himself in whose arms the young man lay. Hence the crowd standing round
+slipped away quietly one after the other, till there were only a few
+left They, when the young man opened his eyes with a deep sigh, took
+him up and carried him, at the old woman's request, to the Grand Canal,
+where a gondola took them both on board, the old woman and the youth,
+and brought them to the house which she had indicated as his dwelling.
+Need it be said that the young man was Antonio, and that the old woman
+was the beggar of the steps of the Franciscan Church, who wanted to
+make herself out to be his nurse?
+
+When Antonio was quite recovered from his stupefaction and perceived
+the old woman at his bed-side, and knew that she had just been giving
+him some strengthening drops, he said brokenly in a hoarse voice,
+bending a long gloomy melancholy gaze upon her, "_You_ with me,
+Margaret--that is good; what more faithful nurse could I have found
+than you? Oh! forgive me, mother, that I, a doltish, senseless boy,
+doubted for an instant what you discovered to me. Yes, you are _the_
+Margaret who reared me, who cared for me and tended me; I knew it all
+the time, but some evil spirit bewildered my thoughts. I have seen her;
+it is she--it is she. Did I not tell you there was some mysterious
+magical power dwelling in me, which exercised an uncontrollable
+supremacy over me? It has emerged from its obscurity dazzling with
+light, to effect my destruction through nameless joy. I now know
+all--everything. Was not my foster-father Bertuccio Nenolo, and did he
+not bring me up at his country-seat near Treviso?" "Yes, yes," replied
+the old woman, "it was indeed Bertuccio Nenolo, the great sea-captain,
+whom the sea devoured as he was about to adorn his temples with the
+victor's wreath." "Don't interrupt me," continued Antonio; "listen
+patiently to what I have to say.
+
+"With Bertuccio Nenolo I lived in clover. I wore fine clothes; the
+table was always covered when I was hungry; and after I had said my
+three prayers properly I was allowed to run about the woods and fields
+just as I pleased. Close beside the villa there was a little wood of
+sweet pines, cool and dark, and filled with sweet scents and songs.
+There one evening, when the sun began to sink, I threw me down beneath
+a big tree, tired with running and jumping about, and stared up at the
+blue sky. Perhaps I was stupefied by the fragrant smell of the
+flowering herbs in the midst of which I lay; at any rate, my eyes
+closed involuntarily, and I sank into a state of dreamy reverie, from
+which I was awakened by a rustling, as if some one had struck a blow in
+the grass beside me. I started up into a sitting posture; an angelic
+child with heavenly eyes stood near me and looked down upon me, smiling
+most sweetly and bewitchingly. 'O good boy,' she said, in a low soft
+voice, 'how beautiful and calmly you sleep, and yet death, nasty death,
+was so near to you.' Close beside my breast I saw a small black snake
+with its head crushed; the little girl had killed the poisonous reptile
+with a switch from a nut-tree, and just as it was wriggling on to my
+destruction. Then a trembling of sweet awe fell upon me; I knew that
+angels often came down from heaven above to rescue men in person from
+the threatening attack of some evil enemy. I fell upon my knees and
+raised my folded hands. 'Oh! you are surely an angel of light, sent by
+God to save my life,' I cried. The pretty creature stretched out both
+arms towards me and said softly, whilst a deeper flush mantled upon her
+cheeks, 'No, good boy; I am not an angel, but a girl--a child like
+you.' Then my feeling of awe gave place to a nameless delight, which
+spread like a gentle warmth through all my limbs. I rose to my feet; we
+clasped each other in our arms, our lips met, and we were speechless,
+weeping, sobbing with sweet unutterable sadness.
+
+"Then a clear silvery voice cried through the wood, 'Annunciata!
+Annunciata!' 'I must go now, darling boy, mother is calling me,'
+whispered the little girl. My heart was rent with unspeakable pain.
+'Oh! I love you so much,' I sobbed, and the scalding tears fell from
+the little girl's eyes upon my cheeks. 'I am so--so fond of you, good
+boy,' she cried, pressing a last kiss upon my lips. 'Annunciata,' the
+voice cried again; and the little girl disappeared behind the bushes.
+Now that, Margaret, was the moment when the mighty spark of love fell
+upon my soul, and it will gather strength, and, enkindling flame after
+flame, will continue to burn there for ever. A few days afterwards I
+was turned out of the house.
+
+"Father Bluenose told me, since I did not cease talking about the
+lovely child who had appeared to me, and whose sweet voice I thought
+I heard in the rustling of the trees, in the gushing murmurs of
+the springs, and in the mysterious soughing of the sea--yes, then
+Father Bluenose told me that the girl could be none other than
+Nenolo's daughter Annunciata, who had come to the villa with her
+mother Francesca, but had left it again on the following day. O
+mother--Margaret--help me. Heaven! This Annunciata--is the Dogess."
+And Antonio buried his face in the pillows, weeping and sobbing with
+unspeakable emotion.
+
+"My dear Tonino," said the old woman, "rouse yourself and be a man;
+come, do resist bravely this foolish emotion. Come, come, how can you
+think of despairing when you are in love? For whom does the golden
+flower of hope blossom if not for the lover? You do not know in the
+evening what the morning may bring; what you have beheld in your dreams
+comes to meet you in living form. The castle that hovered in the air
+stands all at once on the earth, a substantial and splendid building.
+See here, Tonino, you are not paying the least heed to my words; but my
+little finger tells me, and so does somebody else as well, that the
+bright standard of love is gaily waving for you out at sea. Patience,
+Tonino--patience, my boy!" Thus the old woman sought to comfort poor
+Antonio; and her words did really sound like sweet music. He would not
+let her leave him again. The beggar-woman had disappeared from the
+steps of the Franciscan Church, and in her stead people saw Signor
+Antonio's housekeeper, dressed in becoming matronly style, limping
+about St. Mark's Square and buying the requisite provisions for his
+table.
+
+Holy Thursday was come. It was to be celebrated on this occasion in
+more magnificent fashion than it had ever been before. In the middle of
+the Piazzetta of St. Mark's a high staging was erected for a special
+kind of artistic fire--something perfectly new, which was to be
+exhibited by a Greek--a man experienced in such matters. In the evening
+old Falieri came out on the balcony along with his beautiful lady,
+reflecting his pride and happiness in the magnificence of his
+surroundings, and with radiant eyes challenging all who stood near to
+admire and wonder. As he was about to take his seat on the chair of
+state he perceived Michele Steno actually on the same balcony with him,
+and saw that he had chosen a position whence he could keep his eyes
+constantly fixed upon the Dogess, and must of necessity be observed by
+her. Completely overmastered by furious rage, and wild with jealousy,
+Falieri shouted in a loud and commanding tone that Steno was to be at
+once removed from the balcony. Michele Steno raised his hand against
+Falieri, but that same moment the guards appeared, and compelled him to
+quit his place, which he did, foaming with rage and grinding his teeth,
+and threatening revenge in the most horrible imprecations.
+
+Meanwhile Antonio, utterly beside himself at sight of his beloved
+Annunciata, had made his way out through the crowd, and was striding
+backwards and forwards in the darkness of the night alone along the
+edge of the sea, his heart rent by unutterable anguish. He debated
+within himself whether it would not be better to extinguish the
+consuming fire within him in the ice-cold waves than to be slowly
+tortured to death by hopeless pain. But little was wanting, and he had
+leapt into the sea; he was already standing on the last step that goes
+down to the water, when a voice called to him from a little boat, "Ay,
+a very good evening to you, Signor Antonio." By the reflection cast by
+the illuminations of the Square, he recognised that it was merry
+Pietro, one of his former comrades. He was standing in the boat, his
+new cap adorned with feathers and tinsel, and his new striped jacket
+gaily decorated with ribbons, whilst he held in his hand a large and
+beautiful nosegay of sweet-scented flowers. "Good evening, Pietro,"
+shouted Antonio back, "what grand folks are you going to row to-night
+that you are decked off so fine?" "Oh!" replied Pietro, dancing till
+his boat rocked; "see you, Signor Antonio, I am going to earn my three
+sequins to-day; for I'm going to make the journey up to St. Mark's
+Tower and then down again, to take this nosegay to the beautiful
+Dogess." "But isn't that a risky and break-neck adventure, Pietro, my
+friend?" asked Antonio. "Well," he replied, "there is some little
+chance of breaking one's neck, especially as we go to-day right through
+the middle of the artificial fire. The Greek says, to be sure, that he
+has arranged everything so that the fire will not hurt a hair of
+anybody's head, but"---- Pietro shrugged his shoulders.
+
+Antonio stepped down to Pietro in the boat, and now perceived that he
+stood close in front of the machine, which was fastened to a rope
+coming out of the sea. Other ropes, by means of which the machine was
+to be drawn up, were lost in the night. "Now listen, Pietro," began
+Antonio, after a silent pause, "see here, comrade, if you could earn
+ten sequins to-day without exposing your life to danger, would it not
+be more agreeable to you?" "Why, of course," and Pietro burst into a
+good hearty laugh. "Well then," continued Antonio, "take these ten
+sequins and change clothes with me, and let me take your place, I will
+go up instead of you. Do, my good friend and comrade, Pietro, let me go
+up." Pietro shook his head dubiously, and weighing the money in his
+hand, said, "You are very kind, Signor Antonio, to still call a poor
+devil like me your comrade, and you are generous as well. The money I
+should certainly like very much; but, on the other hand, to place this
+nosegay in our beautiful Dogess's hand myself, to hear her sweet
+voice--and after all that's really why I am ready to risk my life. Well,
+since it is you, Signor Antonio, I close with your offer." They both
+hastily changed their clothes; and hardly was Antonio dressed when
+Pietro cried, "Quick, into the machine; the signal is given." At the
+same moment the sea was lit up with the reflection of thousands of
+bright flashes, and all the air along the margin of the sea rang with
+loud reverberating thunders. Right through the midst of the hissing
+crackling flames of the artificial fire, Antonio rose up into the air
+with the speed of a hurricane, and shot down uninjured upon the
+balcony, hovering in front of the Dogess. She had risen to her feet and
+stepped forward; he felt her breath on his cheeks; he gave her the
+nosegay. But in the unspeakable delirious delight of the moment he was
+clasped as if in red-hot arms by the fiery pain of hopeless love.
+Senseless, insane with longing, rapture, anguish, he grasped her hand,
+and covered it with burning kisses, crying in the sharp tone of
+despairing misery, "O Annunciata!" Then the machine, like a blind
+instrument of fate, whisked him away from his beloved back to the sea,
+where he sank down stunned, quite exhausted, into Pietro's arms, who
+was waiting for him in the boat.
+
+Meanwhile the Doge's balcony was the scene of tumult and confusion. A
+small strip of paper had been found fastened to the Doge's seat,
+containing in the common Venetian dialect the words:
+
+            Il Dose Falier della bella muier,
+            I altri la gode é lui la mantien.
+
+(The Doge Falieri, the husband of the beautiful lady; others kiss her,
+and he--he keeps her.)
+
+Old Falieri burst into a violent fit of passion, and swore that the
+severest punishment should overtake the man who had been guilty of this
+audacious offence. As he cast his eyes about they fell upon Michele
+Steno standing beneath the balcony in the Square, in the full light of
+the torches; he at once commanded his guards to arrest him as the
+instigator of the outrage. This command of the Doge's provoked a
+universal cry of dissent; in giving way to his overmastering rage he
+was offering insult to both Seignory and populace, violating the rights
+of the former, and spoiling the latter's enjoyment of their holiday.
+The members of the Seignory left their places; but old Marino Bodoeri
+mixed among the people, actively representing the grave nature of the
+outrage that had been done to the head of the state, and seeking to
+direct the popular hatred upon Michele Steno. Nor had Falieri judged
+wrongly; for Michele Steno, on being expelled from the Duke's balcony,
+had really hurried off home, and there written the above-mentioned
+slanderous words; then when all eyes were fixed upon the artificial
+fire, he had fastened the strip of paper to the Doge's seat, and
+withdrawn from the gallery again unobserved. He maliciously hoped it
+would be a galling blow for them, for both the Doge and the Dogess, and
+that the wound would rankle deeply--so deeply as to touch a vital part.
+Willingly and openly he admitted the deed, and transferred all blame to
+the Doge, since he had been the first to give umbrage to _him_.
+
+The Seignory had been for some time dissatisfied with their chief, for
+instead of meeting the just expectations of the state, he gave proofs
+daily that the fiery warlike courage in his frozen and worn-out heart
+was merely like the artificial fire which bursts with a furious rush
+out of the rocket-apparatus, but immediately disappears in black
+lifeless flakes, and has accomplished nothing. Moreover, since his
+union with his young and beautiful wife (it had long before leaked out
+that he was married to her directly after attaining to the Dogate) old
+Falieri's jealousy no longer let him appear in the character of heroic
+captain, but rather of _vechio Pantalone_ (old fool); hence it was that
+the Seignory, nursing their swelling resentment, were more inclined to
+condone Michele Steno's fault, than to see justice done to their
+deeply-wounded chief. The matter was referred by the Council of Ten to
+the Forty, one of the leaders of which Michele had formerly been. The
+verdict was that Michele Steno had already suffered sufficiently, and a
+month's banishment was quite punishment enough for the offence. This
+sentence only served to feed anew and more fully old Falieri's
+bitterness against a Seignory which, instead of protecting their own
+head, had the impudence to punish insults that were offered to him as
+they would offences of merely the most insignificant description.
+
+As generally happens in the case of lovers, once a single ray of the
+happiness of love has fallen upon them, they are surrounded for days
+and weeks and months by a sort of golden veil, and dream dreams of
+Paradise; and so Antonio could not recover himself from the stupefying
+rapture of that happy moment; he could hardly breathe for delirious
+sadness. He had been well scolded by the old woman for running such a
+great risk; and she never ceased mumbling and grumbling about exposure
+to unnecessary danger.
+
+But one day she came hopping and dancing with her staff in the strange
+way she had when apparently affected by some foreign magical influence.
+Without heeding Antonio's words and questions, she began to chuckle
+and laugh, and kindling a small fire in the stove, she put a little
+pan on it, into which she poured several ingredients from many
+various-coloured phials, and made a salve, which she put into a little
+box; then she limped out of the house again, chuckling and laughing.
+She did not return until late at night, when she sat down in the
+easy-chair, panting and coughing for breath; and after she had in a
+measure recovered from her great exhaustion, she at length began,
+"Tonino, my boy Tonino, whom do you think I have come from? See--try if
+you can guess. Whom do I come from? where have I been?" Antonio looked
+at her, and a singular instinctive feeling took possession of him.
+"Well now," chuckled the old woman, "I have come from her--her herself,
+from the pretty dove, lovely Annunciata." "Don't drive me mad, old
+woman!" shouted Antonio. "What do you say?" continued she, "I am always
+thinking about you, my Tonino.
+
+"This morning, whilst I was haggling for some fine fruit under the
+peristyle of the Palace, I heard the people talking with bated breath
+of the accident that had befallen the beautiful Dogess. I inquired
+again and again of several people, and at last a big, uncultivated, red
+haired fellow, who stood leaning against a column, yawning and chawing
+lemons, said to me, 'Oh well, a young scorpion has been trying its
+little teeth on the little finger of her left hand, and there's been a
+drop or two of blood shed--that's all. My master, Signor Doctor
+Giovanni Basseggio, is now in the palace, and he has, no doubt, before
+this cut off her pretty hand, and the finger with it.' Just as the
+fellow was telling me this there arose a great noise on the broad
+steps, and a little man--such a tiny little man--came rolling down at
+our feet, screaming and lamenting, for the guards had kicked him down
+as if he had been a nine pin. The people gathered round him, laughing
+heartily; the little man struggled and fought with his legs in the air
+without being able to get up; but the red-haired fellow rushed forward,
+snatched up the little doctor, tucked him under his arm, and ran off
+with him as fast as his legs could carry him to the Canal, where he got
+into a gondola with him and rowed away--the little doctor screaming and
+yelling with all his might the whole time. I knew how it was; just as
+Signor Basseggio was getting his knife ready to cut off the pretty
+hand, the Doge had had him kicked down the steps. I also thought of
+something else--quick--quick as you can--go home make a salve--and then
+come back here to the Ducal Palace.
+
+"And I stood on the great stairs with my bright little phial in my
+hand. Old Falieri was just coming down; he darted a glance at me, and,
+his choler rising, said, 'What does this old woman want here?' Then I
+curtsied low--quite down to the ground--as well as I could, and told
+him that I had a nice remedy which would very soon cure the beautiful
+Dogess. When the old man heard that, he fixed a terrible keen look upon
+me, and stroked his grey beard into order; then he seized me by both
+shoulders and pushed me upstairs and on into the chamber, where I
+nearly fell all my length. O Tonino, there was the pretty child
+reclining on a couch, as pale as death, sighing and moaning with pain
+and softly lamenting, 'Oh! I am poisoned in every vein.' But I at once
+set to work and took off the simple doctor's silly plaster. O just
+Heaven! her dear little hand--all red as red--and swollen. Well, well,
+my salve cooled it--soothed it. 'That does it good; yes, that does it
+good,' softly whispered the sick darling. Then Marino cried quite
+delighted, 'You shall have a thousand sequins, old woman, if you save
+me the Dogess;' and therewith he left the room.
+
+"For three hours I sat there, holding her little hand in mine, stroking
+and attending to it. Then the darling woman woke up out of the gentle
+slumber into which she had fallen, and no longer felt any pain. After I
+had made a fresh poultice, she looked at me with eyes brimming with
+gladness. Then I said, 'O most noble lady, you once saved a boy's life
+when you killed the little snake that was about to attack him as he
+slept.' O Tonino, you should have seen the hot blood rush into her pale
+face, as if a ray of the setting sun had fallen upon it--and how her
+eyes flashed with the fire of joy. 'Oh! yes, old woman,' she said, 'oh!
+I was quite a child then--it was at my father's country villa. Oh! he
+was a dear pretty boy--I often think of him now. I don't think I have
+ever had a single happy experience since that time.' Then I began to
+talk about you, that you were in Venice, that your heart still beat
+with the love and rapture of that moment, that, in order to gaze _once_
+more in the heavenly eyes of the angel who saved you, you had faced the
+risk of the dangerous aerial voyage, that you it was who had given her
+the nosegay on Holy Thursday. 'O Tonino, Tonino,' she cried in an
+ecstasy of delight, 'I felt it, I felt it; when he pressed my hand to
+his lips, when he named my name, I could not conceive why it went so
+strangely to my heart; it was indeed pleasure, but pain as well. Bring
+him here, bring him to me--the pretty boy.'" As the old woman said this
+Antonio threw himself upon his knees and cried like one insane, "O good
+God! pray let no dire fate overtake me now--now at least until I have
+seen her, have pressed her to my heart." He wanted the old woman to
+take him to the Palace the very next day; but she flatly refused, since
+old Falieri was in the habit of paying visits to his sick wife nearly
+every hour that came.
+
+Several days went by; the old woman had completely cured the Dogess;
+but as yet it had been quite impossible to take Antonio to see her. The
+old woman soothed his impatience as well as she could, always repeating
+that she was constantly talking to beautiful Annunciata about the
+Antonio whose life she had saved, and who loved her so passionately.
+Tormented by all the pangs of desire and yearning love, Antonio spent
+his time in going about in his gondola and restlessly traversing the
+squares. But his footsteps involuntarily turned time after time in the
+direction of the Ducal Palace. One day he saw Pietro standing on the
+bridge close to the back part of the Palace, opposite the prisons,
+leaning on a gay-coloured oar, whilst a gondola, fastened to one of the
+pillars, was rocking on the Canal. Although small, it had a comfortable
+little deck, was adorned with tasteful carvings, and even decorated
+with the Venetian flag, so that it bore some resemblance to the
+Bucentaur. As soon as Pietro saw his former comrade he shouted out to
+him, "Hi! Signor Antonio, the best of good greetings to you; your
+sequins have brought me good luck." Antonio asked somewhat absently
+what sort of good luck he meant, and learned the important intelligence
+that nearly every evening Pietro had to take the Doge and Dogess in his
+gondola across to Giudecca, where the Doge had a nice house not far
+from San Giorgio Maggiore. Antonio stared at Pietro, and then burst out
+spasmodically, "Comrade, you may earn another ten sequins and more if
+you like. Let me take your place; I will row the Doge over." But Pietro
+informed him that he could not think of doing so, for the Doge knew him
+and would not trust himself with anybody else. At length when Antonio,
+his mind excited by all the tortures of love, began to give way to
+unbridled anger, and violently importune him, and to swear in an insane
+and ridiculous fashion that he would leap after the gondola and drag it
+down under the sea, Pietro replied laughing, "Why, Signor Antonio,
+Signor Antonio, why, I declare you have quite lost yourself in the
+Dogess's beautiful eyes." But he consented to allow Antonio to go with
+him as his assistant in rowing; he would excuse it to old Falieri on
+the ground of the weight of the boat, as well, as being himself a
+little weak and unwell, and old Falieri did always think the gondola
+went too slowly on this trip. Off Antonio ran, and he only just
+returned to the bridge in time, dressed in coarse oarsman's clothing,
+his face stained, and with a long moustache stuck above his lips, for
+the Doge came down from the Palace with the Dogess, both attired most
+splendidly and magnificently. "Who's that stranger fellow there?" began
+the Doge angrily to Pietro; and it required all Pietro's most solemn
+asseverations that he really required an assistant, before the old man
+could be induced to allow Antonio to help row the gondola.
+
+It often happens that in the midst of the wildest delirium of delight
+and rapture the soul, strengthened as it were by the power of the
+moment, is able to impose fetters upon itself, and to control the
+flames of passion which threaten to blaze out from the heart. In a
+similar way Antonio, albeit he was close beside the lovely Annunciata
+and the seam of her dress touched him, was able to hide his consuming
+passion by maintaining a firm and powerful hold upon his oar, and,
+whilst avoiding any greater risk, by only glancing at her momentarily
+now and then. Old Falieri was all smirks and smiles; he kissed and
+fondled beautiful Annunciata's little white hands, and threw his arm
+around her slender waist. In the middle of the channel, when St. Mark's
+Square and magnificent Venice with all her proud towers and palaces lay
+extended before them, old Falieri raised his head and said, gazing
+proudly about him, "Now, my darling, is it not a grand thing to ride on
+the sea with the lord--the husband of the sea? Yes, my darling, don't
+be jealous of my bride, who is submissively bearing us on her broad
+bosom. Listen to the gentle splashing of the wavelets; are they not
+words of love which she is whispering to the husband who rules her?
+Yes, yes, my darling, you indeed wear my ring on your finger, but she
+below guards in the depths of her bosom the ring of betrothal which I
+threw to her." "Oh! my princely Sir," began Annunciata, "oh! how can
+this cold treacherous water be your bride? it quite makes me shiver to
+think that you are married to this proud imperious element." Old
+Falieri laughed till his chin and beard tottered and shook. "Don't
+distress yourself, my pet," he said, "it's far better, of course, to
+rest in your soft warm arms than in the ice-cold lap of my bride below
+there; but it's a grand thing to ride on the sea with the lord of the
+sea!" Just as the Doge was saying these words, the faint strains of
+music at a distance came floating towards them. The notes of a soft
+male voice, gliding along the waves of the sea, came nearer and nearer;
+the words that were sung were--
+
+                  Ah! senza amare,
+                  Andare sul mare,
+                  Col sposo del' mare
+                  Non puo consolare.
+
+Other voices took up the strain, and the same words were repeated again
+and again in every-varying alternation, until the song died away like
+the soft breath of the wind as it were. Old Falieri appeared not to pay
+the slightest heed to the song; on the contrary, he was relating to the
+Dogess with much prolixity the meaning and history of the solemnity
+which takes place on Ascension Day when the Doge throws his ring from
+the Bucentaur and is married to the sea.
+
+He spoke of the victories of the republic, and how she had formerly
+conquered Istria and Dalmatia under the rule of Peter Urseolus the
+Second,[24] and how this ceremony had its origin in that conquest But
+if old Falieri heeded not the song, so now his tales were lost upon the
+Dogess. She sat with her mind completely wrapped up in the sweet sounds
+which came floating along the sea. When the song came to an end her
+eyes wore a strange far-off look, as if she were awakening from a
+profound dream and striving to see and interpret the images which
+sportively mocked her efforts to hold them fast. "_Senza amare, senza
+amare, non puo consolare_," she whispered softly, whilst the tears
+glistened like bright pearls in her heavenly eyes, and sighs escaped
+her breast as it heaved and sank with the violence of her emotions.
+Still smirking and smiling and talking away, the old man, with the
+Dogess at his side, stepped out upon the balcony of his house near
+San Giorgio Maggiore, without noticing that Annunciata stood at his
+side like one in a dream, speechless, her tearful eyes fixed upon some
+far-off land, whilst her heart was agitated by feelings of a singular
+and mysterious character. A young man in gondolier's costume blew a
+blast on a conch-shaped horn, till the sounds echoed far away over the
+sea. At this signal another gondola drew near. Meanwhile an attendant
+bearing a sunshade and a maid had approached the Doge and Dogess; and
+thus attended they went towards the palace. The second gondola came to
+shore, and from it stepped forth Marino Bodoeri and several other
+persons, amongst whom were merchants, artists, nay people out of the
+lowest classes of the populace even; and they followed the Doge.
+
+Antonio could hardly wait until the following evening, since he hoped
+then to have the desired message from his beloved Annunciata. At
+last--at last the old woman came limping in, dropped panting into the
+arm-chair, and clapped her thin bony hands together again and again,
+crying. "Tonino, O Tonino! what in the world has happened to our dear
+darling? When I went into her room, there she lay on the couch with her
+eyes half closed, her pretty head resting on her arm, neither
+slumbering nor awake, neither sick nor well. I approached her: 'Oh!
+noble lady,' said I, 'what misfortune has happened to you? Does your
+scarce-healed wound hurt you still?' But she looked at me, oh! with
+such eyes, Antonio--I have never seen anything like them. And directly
+I looked down into the humid moonlight that was in them, they withdrew
+behind the dark clouds of their silken lashes. Then sighing a sigh that
+came from the depths of her heart, she turned her lovely pale face to
+the wall and whispered softly--so softly, but oh! so sadly! that I was
+cut right to the heart, '_Amare--amare--ah! senza amare!_' I fetched a
+little chair and sat down beside her, and began to talk about you. She
+buried herself in the cushions; and her breathing, coming quicker and
+quicker and quicker, turned to sighing. I told her candidly that you
+had been in the gondola disguised, and that I would now at once without
+delay take you, who were dying of love and longing, to see her. Then
+she suddenly started up from the cushions, and whilst the scalding
+tears streamed down her cheeks, she exclaimed vehemently, 'For God's
+sake! By all the Holy Saints! no--no--I cannot see him, old woman. I
+conjure you, tell him he is never--never again to come near me--never.
+Tell him he is to leave Venice, to go away at once!' 'So then you will
+let my poor Antonio die?' I interposed. Then she sank back upon the
+cushions, apparently smarting from the most unutterable anguish, and
+her voice was almost choked with tears as she sobbed out, 'Shall not I
+also die the bitterest of deaths?' At this point old Falieri entered
+the room, and at a sign from him I had to withdraw." "She has rejected
+me--away--away into the sea!" cried Antonio, giving way to utter
+despair. The old woman chuckled and laughed in her usual way, and went
+on, "You simple child! you simple child! don't you see that lovely
+Annunciata loves you with all the intensity, with all the agonised love
+of which a woman's heart is capable? You simple boy! Late to-morrow
+evening slip into the Ducal Palace; you will find me in the second
+gallery on the right from the great staircase, and then we will see
+what's to be done."
+
+The following evening as Antonio, trembling with expectant happiness,
+stole up the great staircase, his conscience suddenly smote him, as
+though he were about to commit some great crime. He was so dazed, and
+he trembled and shook so, that he was scarcely able to climb the
+stairs. He had to stop and rest by leaning himself against a column
+immediately in front of the gallery that had been indicated to him. All
+at once he was plunged in the midst of a bright glare of torches, and
+before he could move from the place old Bodoeri stood in front of him,
+accompanied by some servants, who bore the torches. Bodoeri fixed his
+eyes upon the young man, and then said, "Ha! you are Antonio; you have
+been assigned this post, I know; come, follow me." Antonio, convinced
+that his proposed interview with the Dogess was betrayed, followed, not
+without trembling. But imagine his astonishment when, on entering a
+remote room, Bodoeri embraced him and spoke of the importance of the
+post that had been assigned to him, and which he would have to maintain
+with courage and firm resolution that very night. But his amazement
+increased to anxious fear and dismay when he learned that a conspiracy
+had been long ripening against the Seignory, and that at the head of it
+was the Doge himself. And this was the night in which, agreeably to the
+resolutions come to in Falieri's house on Giudecca, the Seignory was to
+fall and old Marino Falieri was to be proclaimed sovereign Duke of
+Venice.
+
+Antonio stared at Bodoeri without uttering a word; Bodoeri interpreted
+the young man's silence as a refusal to take part in the execution of
+the formidable conspiracy, and he cried incensed, "You cowardly fool!
+You shall not leave this palace again; you shall either take up arms on
+our side or die--but talk to this man first" A tall and noble figure
+stepped forward from the dark background of the apartment. As soon as
+Antonio saw the man's face, which he could not do until he came into
+the light of the torches, and recognised it, he threw himself upon his
+knees and cried, completely losing his presence of mind at seeing him
+whom he never dreamt of seeing again, "O good God! my father, Bertuccio
+Nenolo! my dear foster-parent." Nenolo raised the young man up, clasped
+him in his arms, and said in a gentle voice, "Aye, of a verity I am
+Bertuccio Nenolo, whom you perhaps thought lay buried at the bottom of
+the sea, but I have only quite recently escaped from my shameful
+captivity at the hands of the savage Morbassan. Yes, I am the Bertuccio
+Nanolo who adopted you. And I never for a moment dreamt that the stupid
+servants whom Bodoeri sent to take possession of the villa, which he
+had bought of me, would turn you out of the house. You infatuated
+youth! Do you hesitate to take up arms against a despotic caste whose
+cruelty robbed you of a father? Ay! go down to the quadrangle of the
+Fontego, and the stains which you will there see on the stone pavements
+are the stains of your father's blood. The Seignory when making over to
+the German merchants the _dépôt_ and exchange which you know under the
+name of the Fontego, forbade all those who had offices assigned to them
+to take the keys with them when they went away; they were to leave them
+with the official in charge of the Fontego. Your father acted contrary
+to this law, and had therefore incurred a heavy penalty. But now when
+the offices were opened on your father's return, there was found
+amongst his wares a chest of false Venetian coins. He vainly protested
+his innocence; it was only too evident that some malicious fiend,
+perhaps the official in charge himself, had smuggled in the chest in
+order to ruin your father. The inexorable judges, satisfied that the
+chest had been found in your father's offices, condemned him to death.
+He was executed in the quadrangle of the Fontego; nor would you now be
+living if faithful Margaret had not saved you. I, your father's truest
+friend, adopted you; and in order that you might not betray yourself
+to the Seignory, you were not told what was your father's name. But
+now--now, Anthony Dalbirger,--now is the time--now, to seize your arms
+and revenge upon the heads of the Seignory your father's shameful
+death."
+
+Antonio, fired by the spirit of vengeance, swore to be true to the
+conspirators and to act with invincible courage. It is well known that
+it was the affront put upon Bertuccio Nenolo by Dandulo when he was
+appointed to superintend the naval preparations, and on the occasion of
+a quarrel struck Nenolo in the face, that induced him to join with his
+ambitious son-in-law in his conspiracy against the Seignory. Both
+Nenolo and Bodoeri were desirous for old Falieri to assume the princely
+mantle in order that they might themselves rise along with him. The
+conspirators' plan was to spread abroad the news that the Genoese fleet
+lay before the Lagune. Then when night came the great bell in St.
+Mark's Tower was to be rung, and the town summoned to arms, under the
+false pretext of defence. This was to be the signal for the
+conspirators, whose numbers were considerable, and who were scattered
+throughout all Venice, to occupy St. Mark's Square, make themselves
+masters of the remaining principal squares of the town, murder the
+leading men of the Seignory, and proclaim the Doge sovereign Duke of
+Venice.
+
+But it was not the will of Heaven that this murderous scheme should
+succeed, nor that the fundamental constitution of the harassed state
+should be trampled in the dust by old Falieri--a man inflamed with
+pride and haughtiness. The meetings in Falieri's house on Giudecca had
+not escaped the watchfulness of the Ten; but they failed altogether to
+learn any reliable intelligence. But the conscience of one of the
+conspirators, a fur-merchant of Pisa, Bentian by name, pricked him; he
+resolved to save from destruction his friend and gossip, Nicolas
+Leoni, a member of the Council of Ten. When twilight came on, he went
+to him and besought him not to leave his house during the night, no
+matter what occurred. Leoni's suspicion was aroused; he detained the
+fur-merchant, and on pressing him closely learned the whole scheme. In
+conjunction with Giovanni Gradenigo and Marco Cornaro he called the
+Council of Ten together in St. Salvador's (church); and there, in less
+than three hours, measures were taken calculated to stifle all the
+efforts of the conspirators on the first sign of movement.
+
+Antonio's commission was to take a body of men and go to St. Mark's
+Tower, and see that the bell was tolled. Arrived there, he found the
+tower occupied by a large force of Arsenal troops, who, on his
+attempting to approach, charged upon him with their halberds. His own
+band, seized with a sudden panic, scattered like chaff; and he himself
+slipped away in the darkness of the night. But he heard the footsteps
+of a man following close at his heels; he felt him lay hands upon him,
+and he was just on the point of cutting his pursuer down when by means
+of a sudden flash of light he recognised Pietro. "Save yourself," cried
+he, "save yourself, Antonio,--here in my gondola. All is betrayed.
+Bodoeri--Nenolo--are in the power of the Seignory; the doors of the
+Ducal Palace are closed; the Doge is confined a prisoner in his own
+apartment--watched like a criminal by his own faithless guards. Come
+along--make haste--get away." Almost stupefied, Antonio suffered
+himself to be dragged into the gondola. Muffled voices--the clash of
+weapons--single cries for help--then with the deepest blackness of the
+night there followed a breathless awful silence. Next morning the
+populace, stricken with terror, beheld a fearful sight; it made every
+man's blood run cold in his veins. The Council of the Ten had that very
+same night passed sentence of death upon the leaders of the conspiracy
+who had been seized. They were strangled, and suspended from the
+balcony at the side of the Palace overlooking the Piazzetta, the one
+whence the Doge was in the habit of witnessing all ceremonies,--and
+where, alas! Antonio had hovered in the air before the lovely
+Annunciata, and where she had received from him the nosegay of flowers.
+Amongst the corpses were those of Marino Bodoeri and Bertuccio Nenolo.
+Two days later old Marino Falieri was sentenced to death by the Council
+of Ten, and executed on the so-called Giant Stairs of the Palace.
+
+Antonio wandered about unconsciously, like a man in a dream; no one
+laid hands upon him, for no one recognised him as having been of the
+number of the conspirators. On seeing old Falieri's grey head fall, he
+started up, as it were, out of his death-like trance. With a most
+unearthly scream--with the shout, "Annunciata!" he rushed storming in
+the Palace, and along the passages. Nobody stopped him; the guards, as
+if stupefied by the terrible thing that had just taken place, only
+stared after him. The old crone came to meet him, loudly lamenting and
+complaining; she seized his hand and--a few steps more, and along with
+her he entered Annunciata's room. There she lay, poor thing, on the
+couch, as if already dead. Antonio rushed towards her and covered her
+hands with burning kisses, calling her by the sweetest and tenderest
+names.
+
+Then she slowly opened her lovely heavenly eyes and saw Antonio; at
+first, however, it appeared as if it cost her an effort to call him to
+mind; but speedily she raised herself up, threw both her arms around
+his neck, and drew him to her bosom, showering down her hot tears upon
+him and kissing his cheeks--his lips. "Antonio--my Antonio--I love you,
+oh! more than I can tell you--yes, yes, there _is_ a heaven on earth.
+What are my father's and my uncle's and my husband's death in
+comparison with the blissful joy of your love? Oh! let us flee--flee
+from this scene of blood and murder." Thus spake Annunciata, her heart
+rent by the bitterest anguish, as well as by the most passionate love.
+Amid thousands of kisses and never-ending tears, the two lovers
+mutually swore eternal fidelity; and, forgetting the fearful events of
+the terrible day that was past, they turned their eyes from the earth
+and looked up into the heaven which the spirit of love had unfolded to
+their view. The old woman advised them to flee to Chiozza; thence
+Antonio intended to travel in an opposite direction by land towards his
+own native country.
+
+His friend, Pietro, procured him a small boat and had it brought to the
+bridge behind the Palace. When night came, Annunciata, enveloped in a
+thick shawl, crept stealthily down the steps with her lover, attended
+by old Margaret, who bore some valuable jewel caskets in her hood. They
+reached the bridge unobserved, and unobserved they embarked in their
+small craft. Antonio seized the oar, and away they went at a quick and
+vigorous rate. The bright moonlight danced along the waves in front of
+them like a gladsome messenger of love. They reached the open sea. Then
+began a peculiar whistling and howling of the wind far above their
+heads; black shadows came trooping up and hung themselves like a dark
+veil over the bright face of the moon. The dancing moonshine, the
+gladsome messenger of love, sank in the black depths of the sea amongst
+its muttering thunders. The storm came on and drove the black piled-up
+masses of clouds in front of it with wrathful violence. Up and down
+tossed the boat. "O help us! God, help us!" screamed the old woman.
+Antonio, no longer master of the oar, clasped his darling Annunciata in
+his arms, whilst she, aroused by his fiery kisses, strained him to her
+bosom in the intensity of her rapturous affection. "O my Antonio!"--"O
+my Annunciata!" they whispered, heedless of the storm which raged and
+blustered ever more furiously. Then the sea, the jealous widow of the
+beheaded Doge Falieri, stretched up her foaming waves as if they were
+giant arms, and seized upon the lovers, and dragged them, along with
+the old woman, down, down into her fathomless depths.
+
+
+As soon as the man in the mantle had thus concluded his narrative, he
+jumped up quickly and left the room with strong rapid strides. The
+friends followed him with their eyes, silently and very much
+astonished; then they went to take another look at the picture. The old
+Doge again looked down upon them with a smirk, in his ridiculous finery
+and foppish vanity; but when they carefully looked into the Dogess's
+face they perceived quite plainly that the shadow of some unknown
+pain--a pain of which she only had a foreboding--was throned upon her
+lily brow, and that dreamy aspirations of love gleamed from behind her
+dark lashes, and hovered around her sweet lips. The Hostile Power
+seemed to be threatening death and destruction from out the distant sea
+and the vaporous clouds which enshrouded St. Mark's. They now had a
+clear conception of the deeper significance of the charming picture;
+but so often as they looked upon it again, all the sympathetic sorrow
+which they had felt at the history of Antonio and Annunciata's love
+returned upon them and filled the deepest recesses of their souls with
+its pleasurable awe.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "THE DOGE AND DOGESS."
+
+[Footnote 1: Written for the _Taschenbuch der Liebe und Freundschaft
+gewidmet_, 1819; edited by S. Schütze, Frankfort-on-Main.]
+
+[Footnote 2: C W. Kolbe, junr., historical and genre painter, was born
+in 1781 and died in 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The story _Turandot_ has a history. Its prototype is in
+the Persian poet Nizámí (1141-1203). From Gozzi it was translated into
+German by Werthes; and it was from his translation that Schiller worked
+up his play in November and December, 1801. The proud Turandot,
+daughter of the Emperor of China, entertains such loathing of marriage
+that she rejects all suitors, until on her father's threatening to
+compel her to wed, she institutes a kind of version of the caskets in
+the _Merchant of Venice_. Any prince may woo for her, but in a peculiar
+way. He must solve three riddles in the full assembly of the court. If
+he succeeds, he wins the princess; if he does not succeed, he loses his
+own head. In Gozzi the three riddles are about the Year, the Sun, and
+(extremely inapposite to the circumstances) the Lion of the Adriatic.
+The two last Schiller replaced by riddles about the Eye and the
+Plough.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Calaf, Prince of Astrakhan, successfully solves the
+riddles and wins the Princess Turandot.]
+
+[Footnote 5: The story of this Doge's conspiracy has furnished
+materials for a tragedy to Byron (1821), Casimir Delavinge (1829), and
+Albert Lindner (1875). A translation of the story is given by Mr. F.
+Cohen (Sir F. Palgrave) from Sanuto's _Chronicle_, in the Appendix to
+the play in Byron's works.]
+
+[Footnote 6: Paganino Dona, one of the greatest of Genoese admirals,
+took and burnt Parenzo, a town on the west coast of Istria, on the 11th
+of August, 1354. At this period the rivalry between the two republics,
+Venice and Genoa, in their commercial relations with the East and in
+the Black Sea, was especially bitter, and they were almost constantly
+at war with each other.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Andrea Dandolo (1307-1354), Doge from 1343 to 1354. During
+his reign Venice actively extended her commercial conquests in the
+Black Sea and the countries around the Levant, engaged part of the time
+in active hostilities with the Genoese.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The sequin was a gold coin of Venice and Tuscany, worth
+about 9s. 3d. It is sometimes used as equivalent to ducat (Note, page
+63, Vol. i.)]
+
+[Footnote 9: Pope Innocent VI., Pope at Avignon, from 1352 to 1362.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Hoffmann states that he derived his materials for this
+story from Le Bret's "History of Venice,"--a book which, unfortunately,
+up to the time of going to press, the translator had not been able to
+obtain.]
+
+[Footnote 11:  Nicolo Pisani, a very active naval commander in the
+third war with Genoa (1350-1355), fought battles in the Bosphorus, off
+Sardinia, and at Porto Longo, near Modon (Greece).]
+
+[Footnote 12:  Sardinia was for many, many years an object of
+contention between Pisa, Genoa, and the Aragonese. At this time (1354)
+it belonged to the latter, but the Genoese were constantly endeavouring
+to stir up the people of the island to revolt against the Aragonese;
+hence we may see reason for Pisani's being in Sardinian waters.]
+
+[Footnote 13:  Equivalent to "Governor," Chioggia was an old town
+thirty miles south of Venice, at the southern extremity of the Lagune.
+Chiozza = Chioggia.]
+
+[Footnote 14: The state barge of Venice; the word means "little golden
+boat." Pope Alexander III. bestowed upon the Doge Sebastian Ziani, for
+his victory over Frederick Barbarossa near Parenzo on Ascension Day,
+1177, a ring in token of the suzerainty of Venice over the Adriatic.
+From this time dates the observance of the annual ceremony of the
+Doge's marrying the Adriatic from the Bucentaur.]
+
+[Footnote 15: San Giorgio Maggiore. Venice, as everybody knows, is not
+built upon the mainland but upon islands. The two largest, whose
+greatest length is from east to west, are divided by the Grand Canal,
+upon which axe situated most of the palaces and important public
+buildings. South of these two principal islands, and separated from
+them by the Giudecca Canal, are the islands of Giudecca and San Giorgio
+Maggiore close together, the latter on the east and opposite the south
+entrance to the Grand Canal, beyond which are the Piazetta and St.
+Mark's Square.]
+
+[Footnote 16: This is larger than the gondola, and also more modern; it
+is calculated to hold six persons, and even luggage.]
+
+[Footnote 17: The Fondaco de' Tedeschi, erected in 1506, on the Grand
+Canal. It was formerly decorated externally with paintings by Titian
+and his pupils. At first it served as _dépôt_ for the wares of German
+merchants (whence its name), but is now used as a custom-house.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Louis I. the Great of Hungary (1342-1382). The Dalmatian
+and Istrian sea-board formed a fruitful source of contention between
+the Venetians and Hungary, Louis proving a very formidable opponent to
+the Republic.]
+
+[Footnote 19: At this epoch Venice was the mart and mediatory between
+the West and the East, the commercial riches of the latter having been
+opened up to the feudal civilisation of Europe, chiefly through the
+Crusades. Hence the cosmopolitan character of the merchants on the
+Rialto.]
+
+[Footnote 20: In the year 1348, Venice was visited by an earthquake,
+and this was followed by the plague (the Black Death). In order to
+complete the roll of the republic's misfortunes in this gloomy year, it
+may be added that she also lost almost the whole of her Black Sea fleet
+to the Genoese.]
+
+[Footnote 21: It may perhaps be interesting to observe that a precisely
+similar occurrence forms the central feature in H. v. Kleist's
+"Erdbeben in Chili" (1810), perhaps one of the best of his short
+stories.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Narrated in the translation of the Chronicle of Sanuto by
+Sir Francis Palgrave in Byron's notes to "Marino Faliero."]
+
+[Footnote 23: On the island of Sapenzia, south-west of the Morea.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Pietro Urseolo I. was Doge from 991 to 1009; Dalmatia was
+subdued in 997.]
+
+
+
+
+                       _MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER,
+                         AND HIS JOURNEYMAN._[1]
+
+
+Well may your heart swell in presentient sadness, indulgent reader,
+when your footsteps wander through places where the splendid monuments
+of Old German Art speak, like eloquent tongues, of the magnificence,
+good steady industry, and sterling honesty of an illustrious age now
+long since passed away. Do you not feel as if you were entering a
+deserted house? The Holy Book in which the head of the household read
+is still lying open on the table, and the gay rich tapestry that the
+mistress of the house spun with her own hands is still hanging on the
+walls; whilst round about in the bright clean cupboards are ranged all
+kinds of valuable works of art, gifts received on festive occasions.
+You could almost believe a member of the household will soon enter and
+receive you with genuine hearty hospitality. But you will wait in vain
+for those whom the eternally revolving wheel of Time has whirled away;
+you may therefore surrender yourself to the sweet dream in which the
+old Masters rise up before you and speak honest and weighty words that
+sink deeply into your heart Then for the first time will you be able to
+grasp the profound significance of their works, for you will then not
+only live in, but you will also understand the age which could produce
+such masters and such works. But, alas! does it not happen that, as you
+stretch out your loving arms to clasp the beautiful image of your
+dream, it shyly flees away on the light morning clouds before the noisy
+bustle of the day, whilst you, your eyes filling with scalding tears,
+gaze after the bright vision as it gradually disappears? And so, rudely
+disturbed by the life that is pulsing about you, you are suddenly
+wakened out of your pleasant dream, retaining only the passionate
+longing that thrills your breast with its delicious awe.
+
+Such sentiments as these, indulgent reader, have always animated the
+breast of him who is about to pen these pages for you, whenever his
+path has led him through the world-renowned city of Nuremberg. Now
+lingering before that wonderful structure, the fountain[2]
+in the market-place, now contemplating St. Sebald's shrine,[3] and the
+ciborium[4] in St. Lawrence's Church, and Albert Dürer's[5] grand
+pictures in the castle and in the town-house, he used to give himself
+up entirely to the delicious reveries which transported him into the
+midst of all the glorious splendours of the old Imperial Town. He
+thought of the true-hearted words of Father Rosenblüth[6]--
+
+            O Nuremberg, thou glorious spot,
+            Thy honour's bolt was aimed aright,
+            Sticks in the mark whereat wisdom shot;
+            And truth in thee hath come to light.
+
+Many a picture of the life of the worthy citizens of that period, when
+art and manual industry went loyally and industriously hand in hand,
+rose up brightly before his mind's eye, impressing itself upon his soul
+in especially cheerful and pleasing colours. Graciously be pleased,
+therefore, that he put one of these pictures before you. Perhaps, as
+you gaze upon it, it may afford you gratification, perhaps it may draw
+from you a good-natured smile, perhaps you may even come to feel
+yourself at home in Master Martin's house, and may linger willingly
+amongst his casks and tubs. Well!--Then the writer of these pages will
+have effected what is the sincere and honest wish of his heart.
+
+
+        _How Master Martin was elected "Candle-master" and how
+                      he returned thanks therefor._
+
+On the 1st of May, 1580, in accordance with traditionary custom and
+usage, the honourable guild of coopers, or wine-cask makers, of the
+free Imperial Town of Nuremberg, held with all due ceremony a meeting
+of their craft. A short time previously one of the presidents, or
+"Candle-masters," as they were called, had been carried to his grave;
+it was therefore necessary to elect a successor. Choice fell upon
+Master Martin. And in truth there was scarcely another who could be
+measured against him in the building of strong and well-made casks;
+none understood so well as he the management of wine in the cellar;[7]
+hence he counted amongst his customers very many men of distinction,
+and lived in the most prosperous circumstances--nay, almost rolled in
+riches. Accordingly, after Martin had been elected, the worthy
+Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner, who, in his official character of
+syndic,[8] presided over the meeting, said, "You have done bravely
+well, friends, to choose Master Martin as your president, for the
+office could not be in better hands. He is held in high esteem by all
+who know him, not only on account of his great skill, but on account of
+his ripe experience in the art of keeping and managing the rich juice
+of the grape. His steady industry and upright life, in spite of all the
+wealth he has amassed, may serve as an example to you all. Welcome then
+a thousand times, goodman Master Martin, as our honoured president."
+
+With these words Paumgartner rose to his feet and took a few steps
+forward, with open arms, expecting that Martin would come to meet him.
+The latter immediately placed both his hands upon the arms of his chair
+and raised himself as expeditiously as his portly person would permit
+him to rise,--which was only slowly and heavily. Then just as slowly he
+strode into Paumgartner's hearty embrace, which, however, he scarcely
+returned. "Well," said Paumgartner, somewhat nettled at this, "well,
+Master Martin, are you not altogether well pleased that we have elected
+you to be our 'Candle-master'?" Master Martin, as was his wont, threw
+his head back into his neck, played with his fingers upon his capacious
+belly, and, opening his eyes wide and thrusting forward his under-lip
+with an air of superior astuteness, let his eyes sweep round the
+assembly. Then, turning to Paumgartner, he began, "Marry, my good and
+worthy sir, why should I not be altogether well pleased, seeing that I
+receive what is my due? Who refuses to take the reward of his honest
+labour? Who turns away from his threshold the defaulting debtor when at
+length he comes to pay his long standing debt? What! my good sirs," and
+Martin turned to the masters who sat around, "what! my good sirs, has
+it then occurred to you at last that I--I _must_ be president of our
+honourable guild? What do you look for in your president? That he be
+the most skilful in workmanship? Go look at my two-tun cask made
+without fire,[9] my brave masterpiece, and then come and tell me if
+there's one amongst you dare boast that, so far as concerns
+thoroughness and finish, he has ever turned out anything like it. Do
+you desire that your president possess money and goods? Come to my
+house and I will throw open chests and drawers, and you shall feast
+your eyes on the glitter of the sparkling gold and silver. Will you
+have a president who is respected by noble and base-born alike? Only
+ask our honoured gentlemen of the Council, ask the princes and noblemen
+around our good town of Nuremberg, ask his Lordship, the Bishop of
+Bamberg, ask what they all think of Master Martin? Oh! I--I don't think
+you'll hear much said against him." At the same time Master Martin
+struck his big fat belly with the greatest self-satisfaction, smiling
+with his eyes half-closed. Then, as all remained silent, nothing being
+heard except a dubious clearing of the throat here and there, he
+continued, "Ay! ay! I see. I ought, I know very well, to thank you all
+handsomely that in this election the good Lord above has at last seen
+fit to enlighten your minds. Well, when I receive the price of my
+labour, when my debtor repays me the borrowed money, I write at the
+bottom of the bill or of the receipt my 'Paid with thanks, Thomas[10]
+Martin, Master-cooper here.' Let me then thank you all from my heart,
+since in electing me to be your president and 'Candle-master' you have
+wiped out an old debt. As for the rest, I pledge you that I will
+discharge the duties of my office with all fidelity and uprightness. In
+the hour of need I will stand by the guild and by each of you to the
+very best of my abilities with word and deed. I will exert the utmost
+diligence to uphold the honour and fame of our celebrated handicraft,
+without bating one jot of its present credit. My honoured syndic, and
+all you, my good friends and masters, I invite to come and partake of
+good cheer with me on the coming Sunday. Then, with blithesome hearts
+and minds, let us deliberate over a glass of good Hochheimer[11] or
+Johannisberger,[12] or any other choice wine in my cellar that your
+palates may crave, what can be done for the furtherance of our common
+weal. Once again, I say you shall be all heartily welcome."
+
+The honest masters' countenances, which had perceptibly clouded on
+hearing Master Martin's proud words, now recovered their serenity,
+whilst the previous dead silence was followed by the cheerful buzz
+of conversation, in which a good deal was said about Master Martin's
+great deserts, and also about his choice cellar. All promised to be
+present on the Sunday, and offered their hands to the newly-elected
+"Candle-master," who took them and shook them warmly, also drawing a
+few of the masters a little towards him, as if desirous of embracing
+them. The company separated in blithe good-humour.
+
+
+         _What afterwards took place in Master Martin's house._
+
+Now it happened that Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner had to pass by
+Master Martin's in order to reach his own home; and as they both stood
+outside Master Martin's door, and Paumgartner was about to proceed on
+his way, his friend, doffing his low bonnet, and bowing respectfully
+and as low as he was able, said to him, "I should be very glad, my good
+and worthy sir, if you would not disdain to step in and spend an hour
+or so in my humble house. Be pleased to suffer me to derive both profit
+and entertainment from your wise conversation." "Ay, ay! Master Martin,
+my friend," replied Paumgartner smiling, "gladly enough will I stay a
+while with you; but why do you call your house a humble house? I know
+very well that there's none of the richest of our citizens who can
+excel you in jewels and valuable furniture. Did you not a short time
+ago complete a handsome building which makes your house one of the
+ornaments of our renowned Imperial Town?[13] In respect of its interior
+fittings I say nothing, for no patrician even need be ashamed of it."
+
+Old Paumgartner was right; for on opening the door, which was brightly
+polished and richly ornamented with brass-work, they stepped into a
+spacious entrance hall almost resembling a state-room; the floor was
+tastefully inlaid, fine pictures hung on the walls, and the cupboards
+and chairs were all artistically carved. And all who came in willingly
+obeyed the direction inscribed in verses, according to olden custom, on
+a tablet which hung near the door:--
+
+            Let him who will the stairs ascend
+            See that his shoes be rubbed well clean.
+            Or taken off were better, I ween;
+            He thus avoids what might offend.
+            A thoughtful man is well aware
+            How he indoors himself should bear.
+
+It had been a hot day, and now as the hour of twilight was approached
+it began to be close and stuffy in the rooms, so Master Martin led his
+eminent guest into the cool and spacious parlour-kitchen. For this was
+the name applied at that time to a place in the houses of the rich
+citizens which, although furnished as a kitchen, was never used as
+such--all kinds of valuable utensils and other necessaries of
+housekeeping being there set out on show. Hardly had they got inside
+the door when Master Martin shouted in a loud voice, "Rose, Rose!" Then
+the door was immediately opened, and Rose, Master Martin's only
+daughter, came in.
+
+I should like you, dear reader, to awaken at this moment a vivid
+recollection of our great Albrecht Dürer's masterpieces; I would
+wish that the glorious maidens whom we find in them, with all their
+noble grace, their sweet gentleness and piety, should recur to your
+mind, endowed with living form. Recall the noble and delicate figure,
+the beautifully arched, lily-white forehead, the carnation flitting
+like a breath of roses across the cheek, the full sweet cherry-red
+lips,--recall the eyes full of pious aspirations, half-veiled by their
+dark lashes, like moonlight seen through dusky foliage,--recall the
+silky hair, artfully gathered into graceful plaits,--recall the divine
+beauty of these maidens, and you will see lovely Rose. How else than in
+this way could the narrator sketch the dear, darling child? And yet
+permit me to remind you here of an admirable young artist into whose
+heart a quickening ray has fallen from these beautiful old times. I
+mean the German painter Cornelius,[14] in Rome. Just as Margaret looks
+in Cornelius's drawings to Goethe's mighty _Faust_ when she utters the
+words, "Bin weder Fräulein noch schön"[15] (I am neither a lady of
+rank, nor yet beautiful), so also may Rose have looked when in the
+shyness of her pure chaste heart she felt compelled to shun addresses
+that smacked somewhat too much of freedom.
+
+Rose bowed low with child-like respect before Paumgartner, and taking
+his hand, pressed it to her lips. The crimson colour rushed into the
+old gentleman's pale cheeks, as the sun when setting shoots up a dying
+flash, suddenly converting the dark foliage into gold, so the fire of a
+youth now left far behind gleamed once more in his eyes. "Ay! ay!" he
+cried in a blithesome voice, "marry, my good friend Master Martin, you
+are a rich and a prosperous man, but the best of all the blessings
+which the good Lord has given you is your lovely daughter Rose. If the
+hearts of old gentlemen like us who sit in the Town Council are so
+stirred that we cannot turn away our purblind eyes from the dear child,
+who can find fault with the young folks if they stop and stand like
+blocks of wood, or as if spell-bound, when they meet your daughter in
+the street, or see her at church, though we have a word of blame for
+our clerical gentry, because on the Allerwiese,[16] or wherever else a
+festival is held, they all crowd round your daughter, with their sighs,
+and loving glances, and honied words, to the vexation of all other
+girls? Well, well, Master Martin, you can choose you your son-in-law
+amongst any of our young patricians, or wherever else you may list."
+
+A dark frown settled on Master Martin's face; he bade his daughter
+fetch some good old wine; and after she had left the room, the hot
+blushes mantling thick and fast upon her cheeks, and her eyes bent upon
+the floor, he turned to old Paumgartner, "Of a verity, my good sir,
+Heaven has dowered my daughter with exceptional beauty, and herein too
+I have been made rich; but how can you speak of it in the girl's
+presence? And as for a patrician son-in-law, there'll never be anything
+of that sort." "Enough, Master Martin, say no more," replied
+Paumgartner, laughing. "Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth must
+speak. Don't you believe, then, that when I set eyes on Rose the
+sluggish blood begins to leap in my old heart also? And if I do
+honestly speak out what she herself must very well know, surely there's
+no very great mischief done."
+
+Rose brought the wine and two beautiful drinking-glasses. Then Martin
+pushed the heavy table, which was ornamented with some remarkable
+carving, into the middle of the kitchen. Scarcely, however, had the old
+gentlemen taken their places and Master Martin had filled the glasses
+when a trampling of horses was heard in front of the house. It seemed
+as if a horseman had pulled up, and as if his voice was heard in the
+entrance-passage below. Rose hastened down and soon came back with the
+intelligence that old Junker[17] Heinrich von Spangenberg was there and
+wished to speak to Master Martin. "Marry!" cried Martin, "now this is
+what I call a fine lucky evening, which brings me my best and oldest
+customer. New orders of course, I see I shall have to 'cask' out
+again"--Therewith he hastened down as fast as he was able to meet his
+welcome guest.
+
+
+         _How Master Martin extols his trade above all others._
+
+The Hochheimer sparkled in the beautiful cut drinking-glasses, and
+loosened the tongues and opened the hearts of the three old gentlemen.
+Old Spangenberg especially, who, though advanced in years, was yet
+brimming with freshness and vivacity, had many a jolly prank out of his
+merry youth to relate, so that Master Martin's belly wabbled famously,
+and again and again he had to brush the tears out of his eyes, caused
+by his loud and hearty laughing. Herr Paumgartner, too, forgot more
+than was customary with him the dignity of the Councillor, and enjoyed
+right well the noble liquor and the merry conversation. But when Rose
+again made her appearance with the neat housekeeper's basket under
+her arm, out of which she took a tablecloth as dazzling white as
+fresh-fallen snow,--when she tripped backwards and forwards busy with
+household matters, laying the cloth, and placing a plentiful supply of
+appetising dishes on the table,--when, with a winning smile she invited
+the gentlemen not to despise what had been hurriedly prepared, but to
+turn to and eat--during all this time their conversation and laughter
+ceased. Neither Paumgartner nor Spangenberg averted their sparkling
+eyes from the fascinating maiden, whilst Master Martin too, leaning
+back in his chair, and folding his hands, watched her busy movements
+with a gratified smile. Rose was withdrawing, but old Spangenberg was
+on his feet in a moment, quick as a youth; he took the girl by both
+shoulders and cried, again and again, as the bright tears trickled from
+his eyes, "Oh you good, you sweet little angel! What a dear darling
+girl you are!" then he kissed her twice--three times on the forehead,
+and returned to his seat, apparently in deep thought.
+
+Paumgartner proposed the toast of Rose's health. "Yes," began
+Spangenberg, after she had gone out of the room, "yes, Master Martin,
+Providence has given you a precious jewel in your daughter, whom you
+cannot well over-estimate. She will yet bring you to great honour. Who
+is there, let him be of what rank in life he may, who would not
+willingly be your son-in-law?" "There you are," interposed Paumgartner;
+"there you see, Master Martin, the noble Herr von Spangenberg is
+exactly of my opinion. I already see our dear Rose a patrician's bride
+with the rich jewellery of pearls[18] in her beautiful flaxen hair."
+"My dear sirs," began Martin, quite testily, "why do you, my dear sirs,
+keep harping upon this matter--a matter to which I have not as yet
+directed my thoughts? My Rose has only just reached her eighteenth
+year; it's not time for such a young thing to be looking out for a
+lover. How things may turn out afterwards--well, that I leave entirely
+to the will of the Lord; but this I do at any rate know, that none
+shall touch my daughter's hand, be he patrician or who he may, except
+the cooper who approves himself the cleverest and skilfullest master in
+his trade--presuming, of course, that my daughter will have him, for
+never will I constrain my dear child to do anything in the world, least
+of all to make a marriage that she does not like." Spangenberg and
+Paumgartner looked at each other, perfectly astonished at this
+extraordinary decision of the Master's.[19] At length, after some
+clearing of his throat, Spangenberg began, "So, then, your daughter is
+not to wed out of her own station?" "God forbid she should," rejoined
+Martin. "But," continued Spangenberg, "if now a skilled master of a
+higher trade, say a goldsmith, or even a brave young artist, were to
+sue for your Rose and succeeded in winning her favour more than all
+other young journeymen, what then?" "I should say," replied Master
+Martin, throwing his head back into his neck, "show me, my excellent
+young friend, the fine two-tun cask which you have made as your
+masterpiece; and if he could not do so, I should kindly open the door
+for him and very politely request him to try his luck elsewhere." "Ah!
+but," went on Spangenberg again, "if the young journeyman should reply,
+'A little structure of that kind I cannot show you, but come with me to
+the market-place and look at yon beautiful house which is sending up
+its slender gable into the free open air--that's my masterpiece.'" "Ah!
+my good sir, my good sir," broke in Master Martin impatiently, "why do
+you give yourself all this trouble to try and make me alter my
+conviction? Once and for all, my son-in-law must be of _my_ trade; for
+my trade I hold to be the finest trade there is in the world. Do you
+think we've nothing to do but to fix the staves into the trestles
+(hoops), so that the cask may hold together? Marry, it's a fine thing
+and an admirable thing that our handiwork requires a previous knowledge
+of the way in which that noble blessing of Heaven, good wine, must be
+kept and managed, that it may acquire strength and flavour so as to go
+through all our veins and warm our blood like the true spirit of life!
+And then as for the construction of the casks--if we are to turn out a
+successful piece of work, must we not first draw out our plans with
+compass and rule? We must be arithmeticians and geometricians of no
+mean attainments, how else can we adapt the proportion and size of the
+cask to the measure of its contents? Ay, sir, my heart laughs in my
+body when we've bravely laboured at the staves with jointer and adze
+and have gotten a brave cask in the vice; and then when my journeymen
+swing their mallets and down it comes on the drivers clipp! clapp!
+clipp! clapp!--that's merry music for you; and there stands your
+well-made cask. And of a verity I may look a little proudly about me
+when I take my marking-tool in my hand and mark the sign of my
+handiwork, that is known and honoured of all respectable wine-masters,
+on the bottom of the cask. You spoke of house-building, my good sir.
+Well, a beautiful house is in truth a glorious piece of work, but if I
+were a house-builder and went past a house I had built, and saw a dirty
+fellow or good-for-nothing rascal who had got possession of it looking
+down upon me from the bay-window, I should feel thoroughly ashamed,--I
+should feel, purely out of vexation and annoyance, as if I should like
+to pull down and destroy my own work. But nothing like that can happen
+with the structures I build. Within them there comes and lives once for
+all nothing but the purest spirit on earth--good wine. God prosper my
+handiwork!"
+
+"That's a fine eulogy," said Spangenberg, "and honestly and well meant.
+It does you honour to think so highly of your craft; but--do not get
+impatient if I keep harping upon the same string--now if a patrician
+really came and sued for your daughter? When a thing is brought right
+home to a man it often looks very different from what he thought it
+would." "Why, i' faith," cried Master Martin somewhat vehemently, "why,
+what else could I do but make a polite bow and say, 'My dear sir, if
+you were a brave cooper, but as it is'"---- "Stop a bit," broke in
+Spangenberg again; "but if now some fine day a handsome Junker on a
+gallant horse, with a brilliant retinue dressed in magnificent silks
+and satins, were to pull up before your door and ask you for Rose to
+wife?" "Marry, by my faith," cried Master Martin still more vehemently
+than before, "why, marry, I should run down as fast as I could and lock
+and bolt the door, and I should shout 'Ride on farther! Ride on
+farther! my worshipful Herr Junker; roses like mine don't blossom for
+you. My wine-cellar and my money-bags would, I dare say, suit you
+passing well--and you would take the girl in with the bargain; but ride
+on! ride on farther.'" Old Spangenberg rose to his feet, his face hot
+and red all over; then, leaning both hands on the table, he stood
+looking on the floor before him. "Well," he began after a pause, "and
+now the last question, Master Martin. If the Junker before your door
+were my own son, if I myself stopped at your door, would you shut
+it then, should you believe then that we were only come for your
+wine-cellar and your money-bags?" "Not at all, not at all, my good and
+honoured sir," replied Master Martin. "I would gladly throw open my
+door, and everything in my house should be at your and your son's
+service; but as for my Rose, I should say to you, 'If it had only
+pleased Providence to make your gallant son a brave cooper, there would
+be no more welcome son-in-law on earth than he; but now'---- But, my
+dear good sir, why do you tease and worry me with such curious
+questions? See you, our merry talk has come abruptly to an end, and
+look! our glasses are all standing full. Let's put all sons-in-law and
+Rose's marriage aside; here, I pledge you to the health of your son,
+who is, I hear, a handsome young knight." Master Martin seized his
+glass; Paumgartner followed his example, saying, "A truce to all
+captious conversation, and here's a health to your gallant son."
+Spangenberg touched glasses with them, and said with a forced smile,
+"Of course you know I was only speaking in jest; for nothing but wild
+head-strong passion could ever lead my son, who may choose him a wife
+from amongst the noblest families in the land, so far to disregard his
+rank and birth as to sue for your daughter. But methinks you might have
+answered me in a somewhat more friendly way." "Well, but, my good sir,"
+replied Master Martin, "even in jest I could only speak as I should act
+if the wonderful things you are pleased to imagine were really to
+happen. But you _must_ let me have my pride; for you cannot but allow
+that I am the skilfullest cooper far and near, that I understand the
+management of wine, that I observe strictly and truly the admirable
+wine-regulations of our departed Emperor Maximilian[20] (may he rest in
+peace!), that as beseems a pious man I abhor all godlessness, that I
+never burn more than one small half-ounce of pure sulphur[21] in one of
+my two-tun casks, which is necessary to preserve it--the which, my good
+and honoured sirs, you will have abundantly remarked from the flavour
+of my wine." Spangenberg resumed his seat, and tried to put on a
+cheerful countenance, whilst Paumgartner introduced other topics of
+conversation. But, as it so often happens, when once the strings of an
+instrument have got out of tune, they are always getting more or less
+warped, so that the player in vain tries to entice from them again the
+full-toned chords which they gave at first, thus it was with the three
+old gentlemen; no remark, no word, found a sympathetic response.
+Spangenberg called for his grooms, and left Master Martin's house quite
+in an ill-humour after he had entered it in gay good spirits.
+
+
+                   _The old Grandmother's Prophecy._
+
+Master Martin was rather ill at ease because his brave old customer had
+gone away out of humour in this way, and he said to Paumgartner, who
+had just emptied his last glass and rose to go too, "For the life of
+me, I can't understand what the old gentleman meant by his talk, and
+why he should have got testy about it at last." "My good friend Master
+Martin," began Paumgartner, "you are a good and honest man; and a man
+has verily a right to set store by the handiwork he loves and which
+brings him wealth and honour; but he ought not to show it in boastful
+pride, that's against all right Christian feeling. And in our
+guild-meeting to-day you did not act altogether right in putting
+yourself before all the other masters. It may true that you understand
+more about your craft than all the rest; but that you go and cast it in
+their teeth can only provoke ill-humour and black looks. And then you
+must go and do it again this evening! You could not surely be so
+infatuated as to look for anything else in Spangenberg's talk beyond a
+jesting attempt to see to what lengths you would go in your obstinate
+pride. No wonder the worthy gentleman felt greatly annoyed when you
+told him you should only see common covetousness in any Junker's wooing
+of your daughter. But all would have been well if, when Spangenberg
+began to speak of his son, you had interposed--if you had said, 'Marry,
+my good and honoured sir, if you yourself came along with your son to
+sue for my daughter--why, i' faith, that would be far too high an
+honour for me, and I should then have wavered in my firmest
+principles.' Now, if you had spoken to him like that, what else could
+old Spangenberg have done but forget his former resentment, and smile
+cheerfully and in good humour as he had done before?" "Ay, scold me,"
+said Master Martin, "scold me right well, I have well deserved it; but
+when the old gentleman would keep talking such stupid nonsense I felt
+as if I were choking, I could not make any other answer." "And then,"
+went on Paumgartner, "what a ridiculous resolve to give your daughter
+to nobody but a cooper! You will commit, you say, your daughter's
+destiny to Providence, and yet with human shortsightedness you
+anticipate the decree of the Almighty in that you obstinately determine
+beforehand that your son-in-law is to come from within a certain narrow
+circle. That will prove the ruin of you and your Rose, if you are not
+careful Have done, Master Martin, have done with such unchristian
+childish folly; leave the Almighty, who will put a right choice in your
+daughter's honest heart when the right time comes--leave Him to manage
+it all in his own way." "O my worthy friend," said Master Martin, quite
+crest-fallen, "I now see how wrong I was not to tell you everything at
+first. You think it is nothing but overrating my handiwork that has
+brought me to take this unchangeable resolve of wedding Rose to none
+but a master-cooper; but that is not so; there is another reason, a
+more wonderful and mysterious reason. I can't let you go until you have
+learned all; you shall not bear ill-will against me over-night. Sit
+down, I earnestly beg you, stay a few minutes longer. See here; there's
+still a bottle of that old wine left which the ill-tempered Junker has
+despised; come, let's enjoy it together." Paumgartner was astonished at
+Master Martin's earnest, confidential tone, which was in general
+perfectly foreign to his nature; it seemed as if there was something
+weighing heavy upon the man's heart that he wanted to get rid of.
+
+And when Paumgartner had taken his seat and drunk a glass of wine,
+Master Martin began as follows. "You know, my good and honoured friend,
+that soon after Rose was born I lost my beloved wife; Rose's birth was
+her death. At that time my old grandmother was still living, if you can
+call it living when one is blind, deaf as a post, scarce able to speak,
+lame in every limb, and lying in bed day after day and night after
+night Rose had been christened; and the nurse sat with the child in the
+room where my old grandmother lay. I was so cut up with grief, and when
+I looked upon my child, so sad and yet so glad--in fact I was so
+greatly shaken that I felt utterly unfitted for any kind of work, and
+stood quite still and wrapped up in my own thoughts beside my old
+grandmother's bed; and I counted her happy, since now all her earthly
+pain was over. And as I gazed upon her face a strange smile began to
+steal across it, her withered features seemed to be smoothed out, her
+pale cheeks became flushed with colour. She raised herself up in bed;
+she stretched out her paralysed arms, as if suddenly animated by some
+supernatural power,--for she had never been able to do so at other
+times. She called distinctly in a low pleasant voice, 'Rose, my darling
+Rose!' The nurse got up and brought her the child, which she rocked up
+and down in her arms. But then, my good sir, picture my utter
+astonishment, nay, my alarm, when the old lady struck up in a clear
+strong voice a song in the _Hohe fröhliche Lobweis_[22] of Herr Hans
+Berchler, mine host of the Holy Ghost in Strasburg, which ran like
+this--
+
+            Maiden tender, with cheeks so red,
+            Rose, listen to the words I say;
+            Wouldst guard thyself from fear and ill?
+            Then put thy trust in God alway;
+            Let not thy tongue at aught make mock,
+            Nor foolish longings feed at heart.
+            A vessel fair to see he'll bring,
+            In which the spicy liquid foams,
+            And bright, bright angels gaily sing.
+            And then in reverent mood
+            Hearken to the truest love,
+            Oh! hearken to the sweet love-words.
+
+            The vessel fair with golden grace--
+            Lo! him who brings it in the house
+            Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace;
+            And an thy lover be but true,
+            Thou need'st nor wait thy father's kiss.
+            The vessel fair will always bring
+            All wealth and joy and peace and bliss;
+            So, virgin fair, with the bright, bright eyes,
+            Let aye thy little ear be ope
+            To all true words. And henceforth live,
+            And with God's richest blessing thrive.
+
+"And after she had sung this song through, she laid the child gently and
+carefully down upon the coverlet; and, placing her trembling withered
+hand upon her forehead, she muttered something to herself, to us,
+however, unintelligible; but the rapt countenance of the old lady
+showed in every feature that she was praying. Then her head sank back
+upon the pillows, and just as the nurse took up the child my old
+grandmother took a deep breath; she was dead." "That is a wonderful
+story," said Paumgartner when Master Martin ceased speaking; "but I
+don't exactly see what is the connection between your old grandmother's
+prophetic song and your obstinate resolve to give Rose to none but a
+master-cooper." "What!" replied Master Martin, "why, what can be
+plainer than that the old lady, especially inspired by the Lord at the
+last moments of her life, announced in a prophetic voice what must
+happen if Rose is to be happy? The lover who is to bring wealth and joy
+and peace and bliss into the house with his vessel fair, who is that
+but a lusty cooper who has made his vessel fair, his masterpiece with
+me? In what other vessel does the spicy liquid foam, if not in the
+wine-cask? And when the wine works, it bubbles and even murmurs and
+splashes; that's the lovely angels chasing each other backwards and
+forwards in the wine and singing their gay songs. Ay, ay, I tell you,
+my old grandmother meant none other lover than a master-cooper; and it
+shall be so, it shall be so." "But, my good Master Martin," said
+Paumgartner, "you are interpreting the words of your old grandmother
+just in your own way. Your interpretation is far from satisfactory to
+my mind; and I repeat that you ought to leave all simply to the
+ordering of Providence and your daughter's heart, in which I dare be
+bound the right choice lies hidden away somewhere." "And I repeat,"
+interrupted Martin impatiently, "that my son-in-law _shall_ be,--I am
+resolved,--_shall_ be none other than a skilful cooper." Paumgartner
+almost got angry at Master Martin's stubbornness; he controlled
+himself, however, and, rising from his seat, said, "It's getting late,
+Master Martin, let us now have done with our drinking and talking, for
+neither methinks will do us any more good."
+
+When they came out into the entrance-hall, there stood a young woman
+with five little boys, the eldest scarce eight years old apparently,
+and the youngest scarce six months. She was weeping and sobbing
+bitterly. Rose hastened to meet the two old gentlemen and said, "Oh
+father, father! Valentine is dead; there is his wife and the children."
+"What! Valentine dead?" cried Master Martin, greatly startled. "Oh!
+that accident! that accident! Just fancy," he continued, turning to
+Paumgartner, "just fancy, my good sir, Valentine was the cleverest
+journeyman I had on the premises; and he was industrious, and a good
+honest man as well. Some time ago he wounded himself dangerously with
+the adze in building a large cask; the wound got worse and worse; he
+was seized with a violent fever, and now he has had to die of it in the
+prime of life." Thereupon Master Martin approached the poor
+disconsolate woman, who, bathed in tears, was lamenting that she had
+nothing but misery and starvation staring her in the face. "What!" said
+Master Martin, "what do you think of me then? Your husband got his
+dangerous wound whilst working for me, and do you think I am going to
+let you perish of want? No, you all belong to my house from now
+onwards. To-morrow, or whenever you like, we'll bury your poor husband,
+and then do you and your boys go to my farm outside the Ladies
+Gate,[23] where my fine open workshop is, and where I work every day
+with my journeymen. You can install yourself as housekeeper there to
+look after things for me, and your fine boys I will educate as if they
+were my own sons. And, I tell you what, I'll take your old father as
+well into my house. He was a sturdy journeyman cooper once upon a time
+whilst he still had muscle in his arms. And now--if he can no longer
+wield the mallet, or the beetle or the beak iron, or work at the bench,
+he yet can do something with croze-adze, or can hollow out staves for
+me with the draw-knife. At any rate he shall come along with you and be
+taken into my house." If Master Martin had not caught hold of the
+woman, she would have fallen on the floor at his feet in a dead swoon,
+she was so affected by grief and emotion. The eldest of the boys clung
+to his doublet, whilst the two youngest, whom Rose had taken in her
+arms, stretched out their tiny hands towards him, as if they had
+understood it all. Old Paumgartner said, smiling and with bright tears
+standing in his eyes, "Master Martin, one can't bear you any ill-will;"
+and he betook himself to his own home.
+
+
+          _How the two young journeymen Frederick and Reinhold
+                   became acquainted with each other._
+
+Upon a beautiful, grassy, gently-sloping hill, shaded by lofty trees,
+lay a fine well-made young journeyman, whose name was Frederick. The
+sun had already set, and rosy tongues of light were stretching upwards
+from the furthest verge of the horizon. In the distance the famed
+imperial town of Nuremberg could be plainly seen, spreading across the
+valley and boldly lifting up her proud towers against the red glow of
+the evening, its golden rays gilding their pinnacles. The young
+journeyman was leaning his arm on his bundle, which lay beside him, and
+contained his necessaries whilst on the travel, and was gazing with
+looks full of longing down into the valley. Then he plucked some of the
+flowers which grew among the grass within reach of him and tossed them
+into the air towards the glorious sunset; afterwards he sat gazing
+sadly before him, and the burning tears gathered in his eyes. At length
+he raised his head, and spreading out his arms as if about to embrace
+some one dear to him, he sang in a clear and very pleasant voice the
+following song:--
+
+            My eyes now rest once more
+            On thee, O home, sweet home!
+            My true and honest heart
+            Has ne'er forgotten thee.
+            O rosy glow of evening come,
+            I fain would naught but roses see.
+            Ye sweetest buds and flowers of love,
+            Bend down and touch my heart
+            With winsome sweet caresses.
+            O swelling bosom, wilt thou burst?
+            Yet hold in pain and sweet joy fast.
+            O golden evening red!
+            O beauteous ray, be my sweet messenger,
+            And bear to her my sighs and tears--
+            My tears and sighs on faithfully to her.
+            And were I now to die,
+            And roses then did ask thee--say,
+            "His heart with love--it pined away."
+
+Having sung this song, Frederick took a little piece of wax out of his
+bundle, warmed it in his bosom, and began in a neat and artistic manner
+to model a beautiful rose with scores of delicate petals. Whilst busy
+with this work he hummed to himself some of the lines of the song he
+had just sung, and so deeply absorbed was he in his occupation that he
+did not observe the handsome youth who had been standing behind him for
+some time and attentively watching his work.
+
+"Marry, my friend," began now the youth, "by my troth, that is a dainty
+piece of work you are making there." Frederick looked round in alarm;
+but when he looked into the dark friendly eyes of the young stranger,
+he felt as if he had known him for a long time. Smiling, he replied,
+"Oh! my dear sir, how can you notice such trifling? it only serves me
+for pastime on my journey." "Well then," went on the stranger youth,
+"if you call that delicately formed flower, which is so faithful a
+reproduction of Nature, trifling, you must be a skilful practised
+modeller. You have afforded me a pleasant surprise in two ways. First,
+I was quite touched to the heart by the song you sang so admirably to
+Martin Häscher's _Zarte Buchstabenweis_; and now I cannot but admire
+your artistic skill in modelling. How much farther do you intend to
+travel to-day?" Frederick replied, "Yonder lies the goal of my journey
+before our eyes. I am going home, to the famed imperial town of
+Nuremberg. But as the sun has now been set some time, I shall pass the
+night in the village below there, and then by being up and away in the
+early morning I can be in Nuremberg at noon." "Marry," cried the youth,
+delighted, "how finely things will fit; we are both going the same way,
+for I want to go to Nuremberg. I will spend the night with you here in
+the village, and then we'll proceed on our way again to-morrow. And now
+let us talk a little." The youth, Reinhold by name, threw himself down
+beside Frederick on the grass, and continued, "If I mistake not, you
+are a skilful artist-caster, are you not? I infer it from your style of
+modelling; or perhaps you are a worker in gold and silver?" Frederick
+cast down his eyes sadly, and said dejectedly, "Marry, my dear sir, you
+are taking me for something far better and higher than I really am.
+Well, I will speak candidly; I have learned the trade of a cooper, and
+am now going to work for a well-known master in Nuremberg. You will no
+doubt look down upon me with contempt since, instead of being able to
+mould and cast splendid statues, and such like, all I can do is to hoop
+casks and tubs." Reinhold burst out laughing, and cried, "Now that I
+call droll. I shall look down upon you--eh? because you are a cooper;
+why man, that's what I am; I'm nothing but a cooper." Frederick opened
+his eyes wide in astonishment; he did not know what to make of it, for
+Reinhold's dress was in keeping with anything sooner than a journeyman
+cooper's on travel. His doublet of fine black cloth, trimmed with
+slashed velvet, his dainty ruff, his short broadsword, and baretta with
+a long drooping feather, seemed rather to point to a prosperous
+merchant; and yet again there was a strange something about the face
+and form of the youth which completely negatived the idea of a
+merchant. Reinhold, noticing Frederick's doubting glances, undid his
+travelling-bundle and produced his cooper's apron and knife-belt,
+saying, "Look here, my friend, look here. Have you any doubts now as to
+my being a comrade? I perceive you are astonished at my clothing, but I
+have just come from Strasburg, where the coopers go about the streets
+as fine as noblemen. Certainly I did once set my heart upon something
+else like you, but now to be a cooper is the topmost height of my
+ambition, and I have staked many a grand hope upon it. Is it not
+the same with you, comrade? But I could almost believe that a dark
+cloud-shadow had been hung unawares about the brightness of your youth,
+so that you are no longer able to look freely and gladly about you. The
+song which you were just singing was full of pain and of the yearning
+of love; but there were strains in it that seemed as if they proceeded
+from my own heart, and I somehow fancy I know all that is locked up
+within your breast. You may therefore all the more put confidence in
+me, for shall we not then be good comrades in Nuremberg?" Reinhold
+threw his arm around Frederick and looked kindly into his eyes.
+Whereupon Frederick said, "The more I look at you, honest friend, the
+stronger I feel drawn towards you; I clearly discern within my breast
+the wonderful voice which faithfully echoes the cry that you are a
+sympathetic spirit I must tell you all--not that a poor fellow like me
+has any important secrets to confide to you, but simply because there
+is room in the heart of the true friend for _his_ friend's pain, and
+during the first moments of our new acquaintance even I acknowledge you
+to be my truest friend.
+
+"I am now a cooper, and may boast that I understand my work; but all my
+thoughts have been directed to another and a nobler art since my very
+childhood. I wished to become a great master in casting statues and in
+silver-work, like Peter Fischer[24] or the Italian Benvenuto
+Cellini;[25] and so I worked with intense ardour along with Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer,[26] the well-known worker in silver in my native
+town yonder. For although he did not exactly cast statues himself, he
+was yet able to give me a good introduction to the art. And Herr Tobias
+Martin, the master-cooper, often came to Herr Holzschuer's with his
+daughter, pretty Rose. Without being consciously aware of it, I fell in
+love with her. I then left home and went to Augsburg in order to learn
+properly the art of casting, but this first caused my smouldering
+passion to burst out into flames. I saw and heard nothing but Rose;
+every exertion and all labour that did not tend to the winning of her
+grew hateful to me. And so I adopted the only course that would bring
+me to this goal. For Master Martin will only give his daughter to the
+cooper who shall make the very best masterpiece in his house, and who
+of course finds favour in his daughter's eyes as well. I deserted my
+own art to learn cooperage. I am now going to Nuremberg to work for
+Master Martin. But now that my home lies before me and Rose's image
+rises up before my eyes, I feel overcome with anxiety and nervousness,
+and my heart sinks within me. Now I see clearly how foolishly I have
+acted; for I don't even know whether Rose loves me or whether she ever
+will love me." Reinhold had listened to Frederick's story with
+increasing attention. He now rested his head on his arm, and, shading
+his eyes with his hand, asked in a hollow moody voice, "And has Rose
+never given you any signs of her love?" "Nay," replied Frederick, "nay,
+for when I left Nuremberg she was more a child than a maiden. No doubt
+she liked me; she smiled upon me most sweetly when I never wearied
+plucking flowers for her in Herr Holzschuer's garden and weaving them
+into wreaths, but----" "Oh! then all hope is not yet lost," cried
+Reinhold suddenly, and so vehemently and in such a disagreeably shrill
+voice that Frederick was almost terrified. At the same time he leapt to
+his feet, his sword rattling against his side, and as he stood upright
+at his full stature the deep shadows of the night fell upon his pale
+face and distorted his gentle features in a most unpleasant way, so
+that Frederick cried, perfectly alarmed, "What's happened to you all at
+once?" and stepping back, his foot knocked against Reinhold's bundle.
+There proceeded from it the jarring of some stringed instrument, and
+Reinhold cried angrily, "You ill-mannered fellow, don't break my lute
+all to pieces." The instrument was fastened to the bundle; Reinhold
+unbuckled it and ran his fingers wildly over the strings as if he would
+break them all. But his playing soon grew soft and melodious. "Come,
+brother," said he in the same gentle tone as before, "let us now go
+down into the village. I've got a good means here in my hands to banish
+the evil spirits who may cross our path, and who might in particular
+have any dealings with me." "Why, brother," replied Frederick, "what
+evil spirits will be likely to have anything to do with us on the way?
+But your playing is very, very nice; please go on with it."
+
+The golden stars were beginning to dot the dark azure sky. The night
+breezes in low murmurous whispers swept lightly over the fragrant
+meadows. The brooks babbled louder, and the trees rustled in the
+distant woods round about Then Frederick and Reinhold went down the
+slope playing and singing, and the sweet notes of their songs, so full
+of noble aspirations, swelled up clear and sharp in the air, as if they
+had been plumed arrows of light. Arrived at their quarters for the
+night, Reinhold quickly threw aside lute and bundle and strained
+Frederick to his heart; and Frederick felt on his cheeks the scalding
+tears which Reinhold shed.
+
+
+         _How the two young journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick,
+                 were taken into Master Martin's house._
+
+Next morning when Frederick awoke he missed his new-won friend, who had
+the night before thrown himself down upon the straw pallet at his side;
+and as his lute and his bundle were likewise missing, Frederick quite
+concluded that Reinhold, from reasons which were unknown to him, had
+left him and gone another road. But directly he stepped out of the
+house Reinhold came to meet him, his bundle on his back and his lute
+under his arm, and dressed altogether differently from what he had been
+the day before. He had taken the feather out of his baretta, and laid
+aside his sword, and had put on a plain burgher's doublet of an
+unpretentious colour, instead of the fine one with the velvet
+trimmings. "Now, brother," he cried, laughing merrily to his astonished
+friend, "you will acknowledge me for your true comrade and faithful
+work-mate now, eh? But let me tell you that for a youth in love you
+have slept most soundly. Look how high the sun is. Come, let us be
+going on our way." Frederick was silent and busied with his own
+thoughts; he scarcely answered Reinhold's questions and scarcely heeded
+his jests. Reinhold, however, was full of exuberant spirits; he ran
+from side to side, shouted, and waved his baretta in the air. But he
+too became more and more silent the nearer they approached the town. "I
+can't go any farther, I am so full of nervousness and anxiety and sweet
+sadness; let us rest a little while beneath these trees." Thus spake
+Frederick just before they reached the gate; and he threw himself down
+quite exhausted in the grass. Reinhold sat down beside him, and after a
+while began, "I daresay you thought me extremely strange yesterday
+evening, good brother mine. But as you told me about your love, and
+were so very dejected, then all kinds of foolish nonsense flooded my
+mind and made me quite confused, and would have made me mad in the end
+if your good singing and my lute had not driven away the evil spirits.
+But this morning when the first ray of sunlight awoke me, all my gaiety
+of heart returned, for all nasty feelings had already left me last
+evening. I ran out, and whilst wandering among the undergrowth a crowd
+of fine things came into my mind: how I had found you, and how all my
+heart felt drawn towards you. There also occurred to me a pretty little
+story which happened some time ago when I was in Italy; I will tell it
+to you, since it is a remarkable illustration of what true friendship
+can do.
+
+"It chanced that a noble prince, a warm patron and friend of the Fine
+Arts, offered a very large prize for a painting, the subject of which
+was definitely fixed, and which, though a splendid subject, was one
+difficult to treat. Two young painters, united by the closest bond of
+friendship and wont to work together, resolved to compete for the
+prize. They communicated their designs to each other and had long talks
+as to how they should overcome the difficulties connected with the
+subject. The elder, more experienced in drawing and in arrangement and
+grouping, had soon formed a conception of the picture and sketched it;
+then he went to the younger, whom he found so discouraged in the very
+designing that he would have given the scheme up, had not the elder
+constantly encouraged him, and imparted to him good advice. But when
+they began to paint, the younger, a master in colour, was able to give
+his friend many a hint, which he turned to the best account; and
+eventually it was found that the younger had never designed a better
+picture, nor the elder coloured one better. The pieces being finished,
+the two artists fell upon each other's neck; each was delighted,
+enraptured, with the other's work, and each adjudged the prize, which
+they both deserved, to his friend. But when, eventually, the prize was
+declared to have fallen to the younger, he cried, ashamed, 'Oh! how can
+I have gained the prize? What is my merit in comparison with that of my
+friend? I should never have produced anything at all good without his
+advice and valuable assistance.' Then said the elder, 'And did not you
+too stand by me with invaluable counsel? My picture is certainly not
+bad; but yours has carried off the prize as it deserved. To strive
+honestly and openly towards the same goal, that is the way of true
+friends; the wreath which the victor wins confers honour also upon the
+vanquished. I love you now all the more that you have so bravely
+striven, and in your victory I also reap fame and honour.' And the
+painter was right, was he not, Frederick? Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+still more and knit their hearts still closer, instead of setting them
+at variance. Ought there to be any room in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hate?" "Never, certainly not," replied Frederick. "We are
+now faithful loving brothers, and shall both in a short time construct
+our masterpiece in Nuremburg, a good two-tun cask, made without fire;
+but Heaven forbid that I should feel the least spark of envy if yours,
+dear brother Reinhold, turned out to be better than mine." "Ha! ha!
+ha!" laughed Reinhold heartily, "go on with you and your masterpiece;
+you'll soon manage that to the joy of all good coopers. And let me tell
+you that in all that concerns calculation of size and proportion, and
+drawing plans of sections of circles, you'll find I'm your man. And
+then in choosing your wood you may rely fully upon me. Staves of the
+holm oak felled in winter, without worm-holes, without either red or
+white streaks, and without blemish, that's what we must look for; you
+may trust my eyes. I will stand by you with all the help I can, in both
+deed and counsel; and my own masterpiece will be none the worse for
+it." "But in the name of all that's holy," broke in Frederick here,
+"why are we chattering about who is to make the best masterpiece? Are
+we to have any contest about the matter?--the best masterpiece--to gain
+Rose! What are we thinking about? The very thought makes me giddy."
+"Marry, brother," cried Reinhold, still laughing, "there was no thought
+at all of Rose. You are a dreamer. Come along, let us go on if we are
+to get into the town." Frederick leapt to his feet, and went on his
+way, his mind in a whirl of confusion.
+
+As they were washing and brushing off the dust of travel in the
+hostelry, Reinhold said to Frederick, "To tell you the truth, I for my
+part don't know for what master I shall work; I have no acquaintances
+here at all; and I thought you would perhaps take me along with you to
+Master Martin's, brother? Perhaps I may get taken on by him." "You
+remove a heavy load from my heart," replied Frederick, "for if you will
+only stay with me, it will be easier for me to conquer my anxiety and
+nervousness." And so the two young apprentices trudged sturdily on to
+the house of the famed cooper, Master Martin.
+
+It happened to be the very Sunday on which Master Martin gave his feast
+in honour of his election as "Candle-master;" and the two arrived just
+as they were partaking of the good cheer. So it was that as Reinhold
+and Frederick entered into Master Martin's house they heard the ringing
+of glasses and the confused buzz and rattle of a merry company at a
+feast. "Oh!" said Frederick quite cast down, "we have, it seems, come
+at an unseasonable time." "Nay, I think we have come exactly at the
+right time," replied Reinhold, "for Master Martin is sure to be in good
+humour after a good feast, and well disposed to grant our wishes." They
+caused their arrival to be announced to Master Martin, and soon he
+appeared in the entrance-passage, dressed in holiday garb and with no
+small amount of colour in his nose and on his cheeks. On catching sight
+of Frederick he cried, "Holla! Frederick, my good lad, have you come
+home again? That's fine! And so you have taken up the best of all
+trades--cooperage. Herr Holzschuer cuts confounded wry faces when your
+name is mentioned, and says a great artist is ruined in you, and that
+you could have cast little images and espaliers as fine as those in St.
+Sebald's or on Fugger's[27] house at Augsburg. But that's all nonsense;
+you have done quite right to step across the way here. Welcome, lad,
+welcome with all my heart." And therewith Herr Martin took him by the
+shoulders and drew him to his bosom, as was his wont, thoroughly well
+pleased. This kind reception by Master Martin infused new spirits into
+Frederick; all his nervousness left him, so that unhesitatingly and
+without constraint he was able not only to prefer his own request but
+also warmly to recommend Reinhold. "Well, to tell you the truth," said
+Master Martin, "you could not have come at a more fortunate time than
+just now, for work keeps increasing and I am bankrupt of workmen. You
+are both heartily welcome. Put your bundles down and come in; our meal
+is indeed almost finished, but you can come and take your seats at the
+table, and Rose shall look after you and get you something." And Master
+Martin and the two journeymen went into the room. There sat the honest
+masters, the worthy syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their head, all with
+hot red faces. Dessert was being served, and a better brand of wine was
+sparkling in the glasses. Every master was talking about something
+different from all his neighbours and in a loud voice, and yet they all
+thought they understood each other; and now and again some of them
+burst out in a hearty laugh without exactly knowing why. When, however.
+Master Martin came back, leading the two young men by the hand, and
+announced aloud that he brought two journeymen who had come to him well
+provided with testimonials just at the time he wanted them, then all
+grew silent, each master scrutinising the smart young fellows with a
+smile of comfortable satisfaction, whilst Frederick cast his eyes down
+and twisted his baretta about in his hands. Master Martin directed the
+youths to places at the very bottom of the table; but these were soon
+the very best of all, for Rose came and took her seat between the two,
+and served them attentively both with dainty dishes and with good rich
+wine. There was Rose, a most winsome picture of grace and loveliness,
+seated between the two handsome youths, all in midst of the bearded old
+men--it was a right pleasant sight to see; the mind instantly recalled
+a bright morning cloud rising solitary above the dim dark horizon, or
+beautiful spring flowers lifting up their bright heads from amidst the
+uniform colourless grass. Frederick was so very happy and so very
+delighted that his breath almost failed him for joy; and only now and
+again did he venture to steal a glance at her who filled his heart so
+fully. His eyes were fixedly bent upon his plate; how could he possibly
+dream of eating the least morsel? Reinhold, on the other hand, could
+not turn his sparkling, radiant eyes away from the lovely maiden. He
+began to talk about his long journeys in such a wonderful way that Rose
+had never heard anything like it. She seemed to see everything of which
+he spoke rise up vividly before her in manifold ever-changing forms.
+She was all eyes and ears; and when Reinhold, carried away by the fire
+of his own words, grasped her hand and pressed it to his heart, she
+didn't know where she was. "But bless me," broke off Reinhold all at
+once, "why, Frederick, you are quite silent and still. Have you lost
+your tongue? Come, let us drink to the weal of the lovely maiden who
+has so hospitably entertained us." With a trembling hand Frederick
+seized the huge drinking-glass that Reinhold had filled to the brim and
+now insisted on his draining to the last drop. "Now here's long life to
+our excellent master," cried Reinhold, again filling the glasses and
+again compelling Frederick to empty his. Then the fiery juices of the
+wine permeated his veins and stirred up his stagnant blood until it
+coursed as it were triumphantly through his every limb. "Oh! I feel so
+indescribably happy," he whispered, the burning blushes mounting into
+his cheeks. "Oh! I have never felt so happy in all my life before."
+Rose, who undoubtedly gave another interpretation to his words, smiled
+upon him with incomparable gentleness. Then, quit of all his
+embarrassing shyness, Frederick said, "Dear Rose, I suppose you no
+longer remember me, do you?" "But, dear Frederick," replied Rose,
+casting down her eyes, "how could I possibly forget you in so short a
+time? When you were at Herr Holzschuer's--true, I was only a mere child
+then, yet you did not disdain to play with me, and always had something
+nice and pretty to talk about. And that dear little basket made of fine
+silver wire that you gave me at Christmas-time, I've got it still, and
+I take care of it and keep it as a precious memento." Frederick was
+intoxicated with delight and tears glittered in his eyes. He tried to
+speak, but there only burst from his breast, like a deep sigh, the
+words, "O Rose--dear, dear Rose." "I have always really from my heart
+longed to see you again," went on Rose; "but that you would become a
+cooper, that I never for a moment dreamed. Oh! when I call to mind
+the beautiful things that you made whilst you were with Master
+Holzschuer--oh! it really is a pity that you have not stuck to your art."
+"O Rose," said Frederick, "it is only for your sake that I have become
+unfaithful to it." No sooner had he uttered these words than he
+could have sunk into the earth for shame and confusion. He had most
+thoughtlessly let the confession slip over his lips. Rose, as if divining
+all, turned her face away from him; whilst he in vain struggled for words.
+
+Then Herr Paumgartner struck the table a bang with his knife, and
+announced to the company that Herr Vollrad, a worthy _Meistersinger_,[28]
+would favour them with a song. Herr Vollrad at once rose to his feet,
+cleared his throat, and sang such an excellent song in the _Güldne
+Tonweis_[29] of Herr Vogelgesang that everybody's heart leapt with joy,
+and even Frederick recovered himself from his awkward embarrassment again.
+After Herr Vollrad had sung several other excellent songs to several other
+excellent tunes, such as the _Süsser Ton_, the _Krummzinkenweis_, the
+_Geblümte Paradiesweis_, the _Frisch Pomeranzenweis_, &c., he called
+upon any one else at the table who understood anything of the sweet and
+delectable art of the _Meistersinger_ also to honour them with a song. Then
+Reinhold rose to his feet and said that if he might be allowed to accompany
+himself on his lute in the Italian fashion he would give them a song,
+keeping, however, strictly to the German tune. As nobody had any objection
+he fetched his instrument, and, after a little tuneful prelude, began the
+following song:--
+
+            Where is the little fount
+            Where sparkles the spicy wine?
+            From forth its golden depths
+            Its golden sparkles mount
+            And dance 'fore the gladdened eye.
+            This beautiful little fount
+            Wherein the golden wine
+            Sparkles--who made it,
+            With thoughtful skill and fine,
+            With such high art and industry,
+            That praise deserve so well?
+            This little fount so gay,
+            Wrought with high art and fine,
+            Was fashioned by one
+            Who ne'er an artist was--
+            But a brave young cooper he,
+            His veins with rich wine glowing,
+            His heart with true love singing,
+            And ever lovingly--
+            For that's young cooper's way
+            In all the things he does.
+
+This song pleased them all down to the ground, but none more so
+than Master Martin, whose eyes sparkled with pleasure and delight.
+Without heeding Vollrad, who had almost too much to say about Hans
+Müller's _Stumpfe Schossweis_, which the youth had caught excellently
+well,--Master Martin, without heeding him, rose from his seat, and,
+lifting his _passglas_[30] above his head, called aloud, "Come here,
+honest cooper and _Meistersinger_, come here and drain this glass with
+me, your Master Martin." Reinhold had to do as he was bidden. Returning
+to his place, he whispered into Frederick's ear, who was looking very
+pensive, "Now, you must sing--sing the song you sang last night." "Are
+you mad?" asked Frederick, quite angry. But Reinhold turned to the
+company and said in a loud voice, "My honoured gentlemen and masters,
+my dear brother Frederick here can sing far finer songs, and has a much
+pleasanter voice than I have, but his throat has got full of dust from
+his travels, and he will treat you to some of his songs another time,
+and then to the most admirable tunes." And they all began to shower
+down their praises upon Frederick, as if he had already sung. Indeed,
+in the end, more than one of the masters was of opinion that his voice
+was really more agreeable than journeyman Reinhold's, and Herr Vollrad
+also, after he had drunk another glass, was convinced that Frederick
+could use the beautiful German tunes far better than Reinhold, for the
+latter had too much of the Italian style about him. And Master Martin,
+throwing his head back into his neck, and giving his round belly a
+hearty slap, cried, "Those are _my_ journeymen, _my_ journeymen, I tell
+you--mine, master-cooper Tobias Martin's of Nuremberg." And all the
+other masters nodded their heads in assent, and, sipping the last drops
+out of the bottom of their tall glasses, said, "Yes, yes. Your brave,
+honest journeymen, Master Martin--that they are." At length it was time
+to retire to rest Master Martin led Reinhold and Frederick each into a
+bright cheerful room in his own house.
+
+
+       _How the third journeyman came into Master Martin's house
+                   and what followed in consequence._
+
+After the two journeymen had worked for some weeks in Master Martin's
+workshop, he perceived that in all that concerned measurement with rule
+and compass, and calculation, and estimation of measure and size by
+eyesight, Reinhold could hardly find his match, but it was a different
+thing when it came to hard work at the bench or with the adze or the
+mallet. Then Reinhold soon grew tired, and the work did not progress,
+no matter how great efforts he might make. On the other hand, Frederick
+planed and hammered away without growing particularly tired. But
+one thing they had in common with each other, and that was their
+well-mannered behaviour, marked, principally at Reinhold's instance, by
+much natural cheerfulness and good-natured enjoyment. Besides, even
+when hard at work, they did not spare their throats, especially when
+pretty Rose was present, but sang many an excellent song, their
+pleasant voices harmonising well together. And whenever Frederick,
+glancing shyly across at Rose, seemed to be falling into his melancholy
+mood, Reinhold at once struck up a satirical song that he composed,
+beginning, "The cask is not the cither, nor is the cither the cask," so
+that old Herr Martin often had to let the croze-adze which he had
+raised, sink again without striking and hold his big belly as it
+wabbled from his internal laughter. Above all, the two journeymen, and
+mainly Reinhold, had completely won their way into Martin's favour; and
+it was not difficult to observe that Rose found a good many pretexts
+for lingering oftener and longer in the workshop than she certainly
+otherwise would have done.
+
+
+One day Master Martin entered his open workshop outside the town-gate,
+where work was carried on all the summer through, with his brow
+weighted with thought Reinhold and Frederick were in the act of setting
+up a small cask. Then Master Martin planted himself before them with
+his arms crossed over his chest and said, "I can't tell you how pleased
+I am with you, my good journeymen, but I am just now in a great
+difficulty. They write me from the Rhine that this will be a more
+prosperous wine-year than there ever has been before. A learned man
+says that the comet which has been seen in the heavens will fructify
+the earth with its wonderful tail, so that the glowing heat which
+fabricates the precious metals down in the deepest mines will all
+stream upwards and evaporate into the thirsty vines, till they prosper
+and thrive and put forth multitudes of grapes, and the liquid fire with
+which they are filled will be poured out into the grapes. It will be
+almost three hundred years before such a favourable constellation
+occurs again. So now we shall all have our hands full of work. And then
+there's his Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg has written to me and
+ordered a large cask. That we can't get done; and I shall have to look
+about for another useful journeyman. Now I should not like to take the
+first fellow I meet off the street amongst us, and yet the matter is
+very urgent. If you know of a good journeyman anywhere whom you would
+be willing to work with, you have only to tell me, and I will get him
+here, even though it should cost me a good sum of money."
+
+Hardly had Master Martin finished speaking when a young man, tall and
+stalwart, shouted to him in a loud voice, "Hi! you there! is this
+Master Martin's workshop?" "Certainly," replied Master Martin, going
+towards the young man, "certainly it is; but you needn't shout so
+deuced loud and lumber in like that; that's not the way to find
+people." "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the young fellow, "marry, you are Master
+Martin himself, for--fat belly--stately double-chin--sparkling eyes,
+and red nose--yes, that's just how he was described to me. I bid you
+good hail, Master Martin." "Well, and what do you want from Master
+Martin?" he asked, indignantly. The young fellow replied, "I am a
+journeyman cooper, and merely wanted to ask if I could find work with
+you." Marvelling that just as he was thinking about looking out for a
+journeyman one should come to him like this, Master Martin drew back a
+few paces and eyed the young man from head to foot. He, however, met
+the scrutiny unabashed and with sparkling eyes. Noting his broad chest,
+stalwart build, and powerful arms, Master Martin thought within
+himself, it's just such a lusty fellow as this that I want, and he at
+once asked him for his trade testimonials.[31] "I haven't them with me
+just at this present moment," replied the young man, "but I will get
+them in a short time; and I give you now my word of honour that I will
+work well and honestly, and that must suffice you." Thereupon, without
+waiting for Master Martin's reply, the young journeyman stepped into
+the workshop. He threw down his baretta and bundle, took off his
+doublet, put on his apron, and said, "Come, Master Martin, tell me at
+once what I am to begin with." Master Martin, completely taken aback by
+the young stranger's resolute vigour and promptitude, had to think a
+little; then he said, "Come then, my fine fellow, and show me at once
+that you are a good cooper; take this croze-adze and finish the groove
+of that cask lying in the vice yonder." The stranger performed what he
+had been bidden with remarkable strength, quickness, and skill; and
+then he cried, laughing loudly, "Now, Master Martin, have you any
+doubts now as to my being a good cooper? But," he continued, going
+backwards and forwards through the shop, and examining the instruments
+and tools, and supply of wood, "but though you are well supplied with
+useful stores and--but what do you call this little thing of a mallet?
+I suppose it's for your children to play with; and this little adze
+here--why it must be for your apprentices when they first begin," and
+he swung round his head the huge heavy mallet which Reinhold could not
+lift and which Frederick had great difficulty in wielding; and then he
+did the same with the ponderous adze with which Master Martin himself
+worked. Then he rolled a couple of huge casks on one side as if they
+had been light balls, and seized one of the large thick beams which had
+not yet been worked at "Marry, master," he cried, "marry, this is good
+sound oak; I wager it will snap like glass." And thereupon he struck
+the stave against the grindstone so that it broke clean in half with a
+loud crack. "Pray be so kind," said Master Martin, "pray have the
+kindness, my good fellow, to kick that two-tun cask about or to pull
+down the whole shop. There, you can take that balk for a mallet, and
+that you may have an adze to your mind I will have Roland's sword,
+which is three yards long, fetched for you from the town-house." "Ay,
+do, that's just the thing," said the young man, his eyes flashing; but
+the next minute he cast them down upon the ground and said, lowering
+his voice, "I only thought, good master, that you wanted right strong
+journeymen for your heavy work, and now I have, I see, been too
+forward, too swaggering, in displaying my bodily strength. But do take
+me on to work, I will faithfully do whatever you shall require of me."
+Master Martin scanned the youth's features, and could not but admit
+that he had never seen more nobility and at the same time more
+downright honesty in any man's face. And yet, as he looked upon the
+young fellow, there stole into his mind a dim recollection of some man
+whom he had long esteemed and honoured, but he could not clearly call
+to mind who it was. For this reason he granted the young man's request
+on the spot, only enjoining upon him to produce at the earliest
+opportunity the needful credible trade attestations.
+
+Meanwhile Reinhold and Frederick had finished setting up their cask and
+were now busy driving on the first hoops. Whilst doing this they were
+always in the habit of striking up a song; and on this occasion they
+began a good song in Adam Puschmann's _Stieglitzweis_. Then Conrad
+(that was the name of the new journeyman) shouted across from the bench
+where Master Martin had placed him, "By my troth, what squalling do you
+call that? I could fancy I hear mice squeaking somewhere about the
+shop. An you mean to sing at all, sing so that it will cheer the heart
+and make the work go down well. That's how I sing a bit now and again."
+And he began to bellow out a noisy hunting ditty with its hollas! and
+hoy, boys! and he imitated the yelping of the hounds and the shrill
+shouts of the hunters in such a clear, keen, stentorian voice that
+the huge casks rang again and all the workshop echoed. Master Martin
+held his hands over his ears, and Dame Martha's (Valentine's widow)
+little boys, who were playing in the shop, crept timorously behind the
+piled-up staves. Just at this moment Rose came in, amazed, nay,
+frightened at the terrible noise; it could not be called singing
+anyhow. As soon as Conrad observed her, he at once stopped, and leaving
+his bench he approached her and greeted her with the most polished
+grace. Then he said in a gentle voice, whilst an ardent fire gleamed in
+his bright brown eyes, "Lovely lady, what a sweet rosy light shone into
+this humble workman's hut when you came in! Oh! had I but perceived you
+sooner, I had not outraged your tender ears with my wild hunting
+ditty." Then, turning to Master Martin and the other journeymen, he
+cried, "Oh! do stop your abominable knocking and rattling. As long as
+this gracious lady honours us with her presence, let mallets and
+drivers rest. Let us only listen to her sweet voice, and with bowed
+head hearken to what she may command us, her humble servants." Reinhold
+and Frederick looked at each other utterly amazed; but Master Martin
+burst out laughing and said, "Well, Conrad, it is now plain that you
+are the most ridiculous donkey who ever put on apron. First you come
+here and want to break everything to pieces like an uncultivated giant;
+then you bellow in such a way as to make our ears tingle; and, as a
+fitting climax to all your foolishness, you take my little daughter
+Rose for a lady of rank and act like a love-smitten Junker." Conrad
+replied, coolly, "Your lovely daughter I know very well, my worthy
+Master Martin; but I tell you that she is the most peerless lady who
+treads the earth, and if Heaven grant it she would honour the very
+noblest of Junkers by permitting him to be her Paladin in faithful
+knightly love." Master Martin held his sides, and it was only by giving
+vent to his laughter in hums and haws that he prevented himself from
+choking. As soon as he could at all speak, he stammered, "Good, very
+good, my most excellent youth; you may continue to regard my daughter
+as a lady of high rank, I shall not hinder you; but, irrespective of
+that, will you have the goodness to go back to your bench?"
+Conrad stood as if spell-bound, his eyes cast down upon the ground; and
+rubbing his forehead, he said in a low voice, "Ay, it is so," and did
+as he was bidden. Rose, as she always did in the shop, sat down upon a
+small cask, which Frederick placed for her, and which Reinhold
+carefully dusted. At Master Martin's express desire they again struck
+up the admirable song in which they had been so rudely interrupted by
+Conrad's bluster; but he went on with his work at the bench, quite
+still, and entirely wrapped up in his own thoughts.
+
+When the song came to an end Master Martin said, "Heaven has endowed
+you with a noble gift, my brave lads; you would not believe how highly
+I value the delectable art of song. Why, once I wanted to be a
+_Meistersinger_ myself, but I could not manage it, even though I tried
+all I knew how. All that I gained by my efforts was ridicule and
+mockery. In 'Voluntary Singing'[32] I either got into false
+'appendages,' or 'double notes,' or a wrong 'measure,' or an unsuitable
+'embellishment,' or started the wrong melody altogether. But you will
+succeed better, and it shall be said, what the master can't do, his
+journeymen can. Next Sunday after the sermon there will be a singing
+contest by the _Meistersinger_ at the usual time in St. Catherine's
+Church. But before the 'Principal Singing' there will be a 'Voluntary,'
+in which you may both of you win praise and honour in your beautiful
+art, for any stranger who can sing at all, may freely take part in
+this. And, he! Conrad, my journeyman Conrad," cried Master Martin
+across to the bench, "would not you also like to get into the
+singing-desk and treat our good folk to your fine hunting-chorus?"
+Without looking up, Conrad replied, "Mock not, good master, mock not;
+everything in its place. Whilst you are being edified by the
+_Meistersinger_, I shall enjoy myself in my own way on the Allerwiese."
+
+And what Master Martin anticipated came to pass. Reinhold got into the
+singing-desk and sang divers songs to divers tunes, with which all the
+_Meistersingers_ were well pleased; and although they were of opinion
+that the singer had not made any mistake, yet they had a slight
+objection to urge against him--a sort of something foreign about his
+style, but yet they could not say exactly in what it consisted. Soon
+afterwards Frederick took his seat in the singing-desk; and doffing his
+baretta, he stood some seconds looking silently before him; then after
+sending a glance at the audience which entered lovely Rose's bosom like
+a burning arrow, and caused her to fetch a deep sigh, he began such a
+splendid song in Heinrich Frauenlob's[33] _Zarter Ton_, that all the
+masters agreed with one accord there was none amongst them who could
+surpass the young journeyman.
+
+The singing-school came to an end towards evening, and Master Martin,
+in order to finish off the day's enjoyment in proper style, betook
+himself in high good-humour to the Allerwiese along with Rose. The two
+journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick, were permitted to accompany them;
+Rose was walking between them. Frederick, radiant with delight at the
+masters' praise, and intoxicated with happiness, ventured to breathe
+many a daring word in Rose's ear which she, however, casting down her
+eyes in maidenly coyness, pretended not to hear. Rather she turned to
+Reinhold, who, according to his wont, was running on with all sorts of
+merry nonsense; nor did he hesitate to place his arm in Rose's. Whilst
+even at a considerable distance from the Allerwiese they could hear
+noisy shouts and cries. Arrived at the place where the young men were
+amusing themselves in all kinds of games, partly chivalric, they heard
+the crowd shout time after time, "Won again! won again! He's the
+strongest again! Nobody can compete with him." Master Martin, on
+working his way through the crowd, perceived that it was nobody else
+but his journeyman Conrad who was reaping all this praise and exciting
+the people to all this applause. He had beaten everybody in racing and
+boxing and throwing the spear. As Martin came up, Conrad was shouting
+out and inquiring if there was anybody who would have a merry bout with
+him with blunt swords. This challenge several stout young patricians,
+well accustomed to this species of pastime, stepped forward and
+accepted. But it was not long before Conrad had again, without much
+trouble or exertion, overcome all his opponents; and the applause at
+his skill and strength seemed as if it would never end.
+
+The sun had set; the last glow of evening died away, and twilight began
+to creep on apace. Master Martin, with Rose and the two journeymen, had
+thrown themselves down beside a babbling spring of water. Reinhold was
+telling of the wonders of distant Italy, but Frederick, quiet and
+happy, had his eyes fixed on pretty Rose's face. Then Conrad drew near
+with slow hesitating steps, as if rather undecided in his own mind
+whether he should join them or not Master Martin called to him, "Come
+along, Conrad, come along, come along; you have borne yourself bravely
+on the meadow; that's what I like in my journeymen, and it's what
+becomes them. Don't be shy, lad; come and join us, you have my
+permission." Conrad cast a withering glance at his master, who however
+met it with a condescending nod; then the young journeyman said
+moodily, "I am not the least bit shy of you, and I have not asked your
+permission whether I may lie down here or not,--in fact, I have not
+come to _you_ at all. All my opponents I have stretched in the sand in
+the merry knightly sports, and all I now wanted was to ask this lovely
+lady whether she would not honour me with the beautiful flowers she
+wears in her bosom, as the prize of the chivalric contest." Therewith
+he dropped upon one knee in front of Rose, and looked her straight and
+honestly in the face with his clear brown eyes, and he begged, "O give
+me those beautiful flowers, sweet Rose, as the prize of victory; you
+cannot refuse me that." Rose at once took the flowers from her bosom
+and gave them to him, laughing and saying, "Ay, I know well that a
+brave knight like you deserves a token of honour from a lady; and so
+here, you may have my withered flowers." Conrad kissed the flowers that
+were given him, and then fastened them in his baretta; but Master
+Martin, rising to his feet, cried, "There's another of your silly
+tricks--come, let us be going home; it is getting dark." Herr Martin
+strode on first; Conrad with modest courtly grace took Rose's arm;
+whilst Reinhold and Frederick followed them considerably out of humour.
+People who met them, stopped and turned round to look after them,
+saying, "Marry, look now, look; that's the rich cooper Thomas Martin,
+with his pretty little daughter and his stout journeymen. A fine set of
+people I call them."
+
+
+     _Of Dame Martha's conversation with Rose about the three
+        journeymen, Conrad's quarrel with Master Martin._
+
+Generally it is the morning following a holiday when young girls are
+wont to enjoy all the pleasure of it, and taste it, and thoroughly
+digest it; and this after celebration they seem to like far better than
+the actual holiday itself. And so next morning pretty Rose sat alone in
+her room with her hands folded on her lap, and her head bent slightly
+forward in meditation--her spindle and embroidery meanwhile resting.
+Probably she was now listening to Reinhold's and Frederick's songs, and
+now watching Conrad cleverly gaining the victory over his competitors,
+and now she saw him coming to her for the prize of victory; and then
+she hummed a few lines of a pretty song, and then she whispered, "Do
+you want my flowers?" whereat a deeper crimson suffused her cheeks, and
+brighter glances made their way through her downcast eyelashes, and
+soft sighs stole forth from her inmost heart. Then Dame Martha came in,
+and Rose was delighted to be able to tell at full length all that had
+taken place in St. Catherine's Church and on the Allerwiese. When Rose
+had done speaking, Dame Martha said, smiling, "Oh! so now, dear Rose,
+you will soon have to make your choice between your three handsome
+lovers." "For God's sake," burst out Rose, quite frightened, and
+flushing hotly all over her face, "for mercy's sake, Dame Martha, what
+do you mean by that? I--three lovers!" "Don't take on so," went on Dame
+Martha, "don't take on in that way, dear Rose, as if you knew nothing,
+as if you could guess nothing. Why, where do you put your eyes, girl?
+you must be quite blind not to see that our journeymen. Reinhold,
+Frederick, and Conrad--yes, all three of them--are madly in love with
+you." "What a fancy, to be sure, Dame Martha," whispered Rose, holding
+her hands before her face. Then Dame Martha knelt down before her, and
+threw her arm about her, saying, "Come, my pretty, bashful child, take
+your hands away, and look me straight in the eyes, and then tell me you
+have not long ago perceived that you fill both the heart and the mind
+of each of our journeymen, deny that if you can. Nay, I tell you, you
+can't do it; and it would, i' faith, be a truly wonderful thing if a
+maiden's eyes did not see a thing of that sort. Why, when you go into
+the shop, their eyes are off their work and flying across to you in a
+minute, and they bustle and stir about with new life. And Reinhold and
+Frederick begin their best songs, and even wild Conrad grows quiet and
+gentle; each tries to invent some excuse to approach nearer to you, and
+when you honour one of them with a sweet look or a kindly word, how his
+eyes sparkle, and his face flushes! Come now, my pet, is it not nice to
+have such handsome fellows all making love to you? But whether you will
+choose one of the three or which it will be, that I cannot indeed say,
+for you are good and kind to them all alike, and yet--and yet--but I
+must not say more. Now an you come to me and said, 'O Dame Martha, give
+me your advice, to which of these young men, who are all wanting me,
+shall I give my hand and heart?' then I should of course answer, 'If
+your heart does not speak out loudly and distinctly. It's this or it's
+that, why, let them all three go.' I must say Reinhold pleases me right
+well, and so does Frederick, and so does Conrad; and then again on the
+other hand I have something to say against each of them. In fact, dear
+Rose, when I see them working away so bravely, I always think of my
+poor Valentine; and I must say that, if he could not perhaps produce
+any better work, there was yet quite a different kind of swing and
+style in all that he did do. You could see all his heart was in his
+work; but with these young fellows it always seems to me as if they
+only worked so, so--as if they had in their heads different things
+altogether from their work; nay, it almost strikes me as if it were a
+burden which they have voluntarily taken up, and were now bearing with
+sturdy courage. Of them all I can get on best with Frederick; he's such
+a faithful, affectionate fellow. He is the one who seems to belong to
+us most; I understand all that he says. And then his love for you is so
+still, and as shy as a good child's; he hardly dares to look at you,
+and blushes if you only say a single word to him; and that's what I
+like so much in the dear lad." A tear seemed to glisten in Rose's eye
+as Dame Martha said this. She stood up, and turning to the window,
+said, "I like Frederick very much, but you must not pass over Reinhold
+contemptuously." "I never dreamt of doing so," replied Dame Martha,
+"for Reinhold is by a long way the handsomest of all. And what eyes
+he has! And when he looks you through and through with his bright
+glances--no, it's more than you can endure. And yet there's something
+so strange and peculiar in his character, it quite makes me shiver at
+times, and makes me quite afraid of him. When Reinhold is working in
+the shop, I should think Herr Martin, when he tells him to do this or
+do that, must always feel as I should if anybody were to put a bright
+pan in my kitchen all glittering with gold and precious stones, and
+should bid me use it like any ordinary common pan--why, I should hardly
+dare to touch it at all. He tells his stories and talks and talks, and
+it all sounds like sweet music, and you are quite carried away by it,
+but when I sit down to think seriously about what he has been saying, I
+find I haven't understood a single word. And then when he now and again
+jests in the way we do, and I think now he's just like us, then all at
+once he looks so distinguished that I get really afraid of him. And yet
+I can't say that he puffs himself up in the way that many of our
+Junkers or patricians do; no, it's something else altogether different.
+In a word, it strikes me, by my troth, as if he held intercourse with
+higher spirits, as if he belonged, in fact, to another world. Conrad is
+a wild overbearing fellow, and yet there is something confoundedly
+distinguished about him as well; it doesn't agree with the cooper's
+apron somehow. And he always acts as if nobody but he had to give
+orders, and as if the others must obey him. In the short time that he
+has been here he has got so far that when he bellows at Master Martin
+in his loud ringing voice, his master generally does what he wishes.
+But at the same time he is so good-natured and so thoroughly honest
+that you can't bear ill-will against him; rather, I must say, that in
+spite of his wildness, I almost like him better than I do Reinhold, for
+even if he does speak fearfully grand, you can yet understand him very
+well. I wager he has once been a campaigner, he may say what he likes.
+That's why he knows so much about arms, and has even got something of
+knights' ways about him, which doesn't suit him at all badly. Now do
+tell me, Rose dear, without any ifs and ands, which of the three
+journeymen you like best?" "Don't ask me such searching questions, dear
+Dame Martha," answered Rose. "But of this I am quite sure, that
+Reinhold does not stir up in me the same feelings that he does in you.
+It's perfectly true, too, that he is altogether different from his
+equals; and when he talks I could fancy I enter into a beautiful garden
+full of bright and magnificent flowers and blossoms and fruits, such as
+are not to be found on earth, and I like to be amongst them. Since
+Reinhold has been here I see many things in a different light, and lots
+of things that were once dim and formless in my mind are now so bright
+and clear that I can easily distinguish them." Dame Martha rose to her
+feet, and shaking her finger at Rose as she went out of the room, said,
+"Ah! ah! Rose, so Reinhold is the favourite then? I didn't think it, I
+didn't even dream it." Rose made answer as she accompanied her as far
+as the door, "Pray, dear Dame Martha, think nothing, dream nothing, but
+leave all to the future. What _it_ brings is the will of God, and to
+that everybody must bow humbly and gratefully."
+
+Meanwhile it was becoming extremely lively in Master Martin's workshop.
+In order to execute all his orders he had engaged with ordinary
+labourers and taken in some apprentices, and they all hammered and
+knocked till the din could be heard far and wide. Reinhold had finished
+his calculations and measurements for the great cask that was to be
+built for the Bishop of Bamberg, whilst Frederick and Conrad had set it
+up so cleverly that Master Martin's heart laughed in his body, and he
+cried again and again, "Now that I call a grand piece of work; that'll
+be the best little cask I've ever made--except my masterpiece." Now the
+three apprentices stood driving the hoops on to the fitted staves, and
+the whole place rang again with the din of their mallets. Old Valentine
+was busy plying his draw-knife, and Dame Martha, her two youngest on
+her knee, sat just behind Conrad, whilst the other wideawake little
+rascals were shouting and making a noise, tumbling the hoops about, and
+chasing each other. In fact, there was so much hubbub and so much
+vigorous hard work going on that hardly anybody noticed old Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer as he stepped into the shop. Master Martin went to
+meet him, and politely inquired what he desired. "Why, in the first
+place," said Holzschuer, "I want to have a look at my dear Frederick
+again, who is working away so lustily yonder. And then, goodman Master
+Martin, I want a stout cask for my wine-cellar, which I will ask you to
+make for me. Why look you, that cask they are now setting up there is
+exactly the sort of thing I want; you can let me have that, you've only
+got to name the price." Reinhold, who had grown tired and had been
+resting a few minutes down in the shop, and was now preparing to ascend
+the scaffolding again, heard Holzschuer's words and said, turning his
+head towards the old gentleman, "Marry, my friend Herr Holzschuer, you
+need not set your heart upon this cask; we are making it for his
+Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg." Master Martin, his arms folded on his
+back, his left foot planted forward, his head thrown back in his neck,
+blinked at the cask and said proudly, "My dear master, you might have
+seen from the carefully selected wood and the great pains taken in the
+work that a masterpiece like that was meant for a prince's[34] cellar.
+My journeyman Reinhold has said the truth; don't set your heart on a
+piece of work like that. But when the vintage is over I will get you a
+plain strong little cask made, such as will be suitable for your
+cellar." Old Holzschuer, incensed at Master Martin's pride, replied
+that his gold pieces weighed just as much as the Bishop of Bamberg's,
+and that he hoped he could get good work elsewhere for ready money.
+Master Martin, although fuming with rage, controlled himself with
+difficulty; he would not by any means like to offend old Herr
+Holzschuer, who stood so high in the esteem both of the Council and of
+all the burghers. At this moment Conrad struck mightier blows than ever
+with his mallet, so that the whole shop rang and cracked; then Master
+Martin's internal rage boiled over, and he shouted vehemently, "Conrad,
+you blockhead, what do you mean by striking so blindly and heedlessly?
+do you mean to break my cask in pieces?" "Ho! ho!" replied Conrad,
+looking round defiantly at his master, "Ho! ho! my comical little
+master, and why should I not?" And therewith he dealt such a terrible
+blow at the cask that the strongest hoop sprang, rattling, and knocked
+Reinhold down from the narrow plank on the scaffolding; and it was
+further evident from the hollow echo that a stave had been broken as
+well. Completely mastered by his furious anger, Master Martin snatched
+out of Valentine's hand the bar he was shaving, and striding towards
+the cask, dealt Conrad a good sound stroke with it on the back,
+shouting, "You cursed dog!" As soon as Conrad felt the blow he wheeled
+sharply round, and after standing for a moment as if bereft of his
+senses, his eyes blazed up with fury, he ground his teeth, and
+screamed, "Struck! struck!" Then at one bound he was down from the
+scaffolding, had snatched up an adze that lay on the floor, and aimed a
+powerful stroke at his master; had not Frederick pulled Martin on one
+side the blow would have split his head; as it was, the adze only
+grazed his arm, from which, however, the blood at once began to spurt
+out. Martin, fat and helpless as he was, lost his equilibrium and fell
+over the bench, at which one of the apprentices was working, into the
+floor. They all threw themselves upon Conrad, who was frantic,
+flourishing his bloody adze in the air, and shouting and screaming in a
+terrible voice, "Let him go to hell! To hell with him!" Hurling them
+all off with the strength of a giant, he was preparing to deal a second
+blow at his poor master, who was gasping for breath and groaning on the
+floor,--a blow that would have completely done for him--when Rose, pale
+as a corpse with fright, appeared in the shop-door. As soon as Conrad
+observed her he stood as if turned to a pillar of stone, the adze
+suspended in the air. Then he threw the tool away from him, struck his
+hands together upon his chest, and cried in a voice that went to
+everybody's heart, "Oh, good God! good God! what have I done?" and away
+he rushed out of the shop. No one thought of following him.
+
+Now poor Master Martin was after some difficulty lifted up; it was
+found, however, that the adze had only penetrated into the thick fleshy
+part of the arm, and the wound could not therefore be called serious.
+Old Herr Holzschuer, whom Martin had involved with him in his fall, was
+pulled out from beneath the shavings, and Dame Martha's children, who
+ceased not to scream and cry over good Father Martin, were appeased as
+far as that could be done. As for Martin himself, he was quite dazed,
+and said if only that devil of a bad journeyman had not spoilt his fine
+cask he should not make much account of the wound.
+
+Sedan chairs were brought for the old gentlemen, for Holzschuer also
+had bruised himself rather in his fall. He hurled reproaches at a trade
+in which they employed such murderous tools, and conjured Frederick to
+come back to his beautiful art of casting and working in the precious
+metals, and the sooner the better.
+
+As soon as the dusk of evening began to creep up over the sky,
+Frederick, and along with him Reinhold, whom the hoop had struck rather
+sharply, and who felt as if every limb was benumbed, strode back into
+the town in very low spirits. Then they heard a soft sighing and
+groaning behind a hedge. They stood still, and a tall figure at once
+rose up; they immediately recognised Conrad, and began to withdraw
+timidly. But he addressed them in a tearful voice, saying, "You need
+not be so frightened at me, my good comrades; of course you take me for
+a devilish murderous brute, but I am not--indeed I am not so. I could
+not do otherwise; I _ought_ to have struck down the fat old master, and
+by rights I ought to go along with you and do it _now_, if I only
+could. But no, no; it's all over. Remember me to pretty Rose, whom I
+love so above all reason. Tell her I will bear her flowers on my heart
+all my life long, I will adorn myself with them when I--but she will
+perhaps hear of me again some day. Farewell! farewell! my good, brave
+comrades." And Conrad ran away across the field without once stopping.
+
+Reinhold said, "There is something peculiar about this young fellow; we
+can't weigh or measure this deed by any ordinary standard. Perhaps the
+future will unfold to us the secret that has lain heavy upon his
+breast."
+
+
+                _Reinhold leaves Master Martin's house._
+
+If formerly there had been merry days in Master Martin's workshop, so
+now they were proportionately dull. Reinhold, incapable of work,
+remained confined to his room; Martin, his wounded arm in a sling, was
+incessantly abusing the good-for-nothing stranger-apprentice, and
+railing at him for the mischief he had wrought Rose, and even Dame
+Martha and her children, avoided the scene of the rash savage deed, and
+so Frederick's blows fell dull and melancholy enough, like a
+woodcutter's in a lonely wood in winter time, for to Frederick it was
+now left to finish the big cask alone, and a hard task it was.
+
+And soon his mind and heart were possessed by a profound sadness, for
+he believed he had now clear proofs of what he had for a long time
+feared. He no longer had any doubt that Rose loved Reinhold. Not
+only had she formerly shown many a kindness to Reinhold alone, and
+to him alone given many a sweet word, but now--it was as plain as
+noonday--since Reinhold could no longer come to work. Rose too no
+longer thought of going out, but preferred to stay indoors, no doubt
+to wait upon and take good care of her lover. On Sundays, when all the
+rest set out gaily, and Master Martin, who had recovered to some extent
+of his wound, invited him to walk with him and Rose to the Allerwiese,
+he refused the invitation; but, burdened with trouble and the bitter
+pain of disappointed love, he hastened off alone to the village and the
+hill where he had first met with Reinhold. He threw himself down in the
+tall grass where the flowers grew, and as he thought how that the
+beautiful star of hope which had shone before him all along his
+homeward path had now suddenly set in the blackness of night after he
+had reached his goal, and as he thought how that this step which he had
+taken was like the vain efforts of a dreamer stretching out his
+yearning arms after an empty vision of air,--the tears fell from his
+eyes and dropped upon the flowers, which bent their little heads as if
+sorrowing for the young journeyman's great unhappiness. Without his
+being exactly conscious of it, the painful sighs which escaped his
+labouring breast assumed the form of words, of musical notes, and he
+ sang this song:--
+
+            My star of hope,
+            Where hast thou gone?
+            Alas! thy glory rises up--
+            Thy glory sweet, far from me now--
+            And pours its light on others down.
+            Ye rustling evening breezes, rouse you,
+            Blow on my breast,
+            Awake all joy that kills,
+            Awake all pain that brings to death,
+            So that my sore and bleeding heart,
+            Steeped to the core in bitter tears,
+            May break in yearning comfortless.
+            Why whisper ye, ye darksome trees?
+            So softly and like friends together?
+            And why, O golden skirts of sky.
+            Look ye so kindly down on me?
+            Show me my grave;
+            For that is now my haven of hope,
+            Where I shall calmly, softly sleep.
+
+And as it often happens that the very greatest trouble, if only it can
+find vent in tears and words, softens down into a gentle melancholy,
+mild and painless, and that often a faint glimmer of hope appears then
+in the soul, so it was with Frederick; when he had sung this song he
+felt wonderfully strengthened and comforted The evening breezes and the
+darksome trees that he had called upon in his song rustled and
+whispered words of consolation; and like the sweet dreams of distant
+glory or of distant happiness, golden streaks of light worked their way
+up across the dusky sky. Frederick rose to his feet, and went down the
+hill into the village. He almost fancied that Reinhold was walking
+beside him as he did on the day they first found each other; and all
+the words which Reinhold had spoken again recurred to his mind. And as
+his thoughts dwelt upon Reinhold's story about the contest between the
+two painters who were friends, then the scales fell from his eyes.
+There was no doubt about it; Reinhold must have seen Rose before and
+loved her. It was only his love for her which had brought him to
+Nuremberg to Master Martin's, and by the contest between the two
+painters he meant simply and solely their own--Reinhold's and
+Frederick's--rival wooing of beautiful Rose. The words that Reinhold
+had then spoken rang again in his ears,--"Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+and knit their hearts still closer together, instead of setting them at
+variance. There should never be any place in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hatred." "Yes," exclaimed Frederick aloud, "yes, friend of
+my heart, I will appeal to you without any reserve, you yourself shall
+tell me if all hope for me is lost."
+
+It was approaching noon when Frederick tapped at Reinhold's door. As
+all remained still within, he pushed open the door, which was not
+locked as usual, and went in. But the moment he did so he stood rooted
+to the spot. Upon an easel, the glorious rays of the morning sun
+falling upon it, was a splendid picture, Rose in all the pride of her
+beauty and charms, and life size. The maul-stick lying on the table,
+and the wet colours of the palette, showed that some one had been at
+work on the picture quite recently. "O Rose, Rose!--By Heaven!" sighed
+Frederick. Reinhold, who had entered behind him unperceived, clapped
+him on the shoulder and asked, smiling, "Well, now, Frederick, what do
+you say to my picture!" Then Frederick pressed him to his heart and
+cried, "Oh you splendid fellow--you are indeed a noble artist. Yes,
+it's all clear to me now. You have won the prize--for which I--poor
+me!--had the hardihood to struggle. Oh! what am I in comparison with
+you? And what is my art against yours? And yet I too had some fine
+ideas in my head. Don't laugh at me, dear Reinhold; but, look you, I
+thought what a grand thing it would be to model Rose's lovely figure
+and cast it in the finest silver. But that's all childishness, whilst
+you--you--Oh! how sweetly she smiles upon you, and how delightfully you
+have brought out all her beauty. O Reinhold! Reinhold! you happy, happy
+fellow! Ay, and it has all come about as you said long ago. We have
+both striven for the prize and you have won it: you could not help but
+win it, and I shall still continue to be your friend with all my heart
+But I must leave this house--my home: I cannot bear it, I should die if
+I were to see Rose again. Please forgive me, my dear, dear, noble
+friend. To-day, this very moment, I will go--go away into the wide
+world, where my trouble, my unbearable misery, is sending me." And thus
+speaking, Frederick was hastening out of the apartment, but Reinhold
+held him fast, saying gently, "You shall not go; for things may turn
+out quite different from what you think. It is now time for me to tell
+you all that I have hitherto kept silence about. That I am not a cooper
+but a painter you are now well aware, and I hope a glance at this
+picture will convince you that I am not to be ranked amongst the
+inferior artists. Whilst still young I went to Italy, the land of art;
+there I had the good fortune to be accepted as a pupil by renowned
+masters, who fostered into living fire the spark which glowed within
+me. Thus it came to pass that I rapidly rose into fame, that my
+pictures became celebrated throughout all Italy, and the powerful Duke
+of Florence[35] summoned me to his court. At that time I would not hear
+a word about German art, and without having seen any of your pictures,
+I talked a good deal of nonsense about the coldness, the bad drawing,
+and the hardness of your Dürer and your Cranach.[36] But one day a
+picture-dealer brought a small picture of the Madonna by old Albrecht
+to the Duke's gallery, and it made a powerful and wonderful impression
+upon me, so that I turned away completely from the voluptuousness of
+Italian art, and from that very hour determined to go back to my native
+Germany and study there the masterpieces upon which my heart was now
+set I came to Nuremberg here, and when I beheld Rose I seemed to see
+the Madonna who had so wonderfully stirred my heart, walking in bodily
+form on earth. I had the same experiences as you, dear Frederick; the
+bright flames of love flashed up and consumed me, mind and heart and
+soul. I saw nothing, I thought of nothing, but Rose; all else had
+vanished from my mind; and even art itself only retained its hold
+upon me in so far as it enabled me to draw and paint Rose again and
+again--hundreds of times. I would have approached the maiden in the
+free Italian way; but all my attempts proved fruitless. There was no
+means of securing a footing of intimacy in Master Martin's house in any
+insidious way. At last I made up my mind to sue for Rose directly, when
+I learned that Master Martin had determined to give his daughter only
+to a good master-cooper. Straightway I formed the adventurous resolve
+to go and learn the trade of cooperage in Strasburg, and then to come
+and work in Master Martin's work-shop. I left all the rest to the
+ordering of Providence. You know in what way I carried out my resolve;
+but I must now also tell you what Master Martin said to me some days
+ago. He said I should make a skilful cooper and should be a right dear
+and worthy son-in-law, for he saw plainly that I was seeking to gain
+Rose's favour, and that she liked me right well." "Can it then indeed
+well be otherwise?" cried Frederick, painfully agitated "Yes, yes, Rose
+will be _yours_; how came I, unhappy wretch that I am, ever to hope for
+such happiness?" "You are forgetting, my brother," Reinhold went on to
+say; "you are forgetting that Rose herself has not confirmed this,
+which our cunning Master Martin no doubt is well aware of. True it is
+that Rose has always shown herself kind and charming towards me, but a
+loving heart betrays itself in other ways. Promise me, brother, to
+remain quiet for three days longer, and to go to your work in the shop
+as usual. I also could now go to work again, but since I have been busy
+with, and wrapt up in this picture, I feel an indescribable disgust at
+that coarse rough work out yonder. And, what is more, I can never lay
+hand upon mallet again, let come what will. On the third day I will
+frankly tell you how matters stand between me and Rose. If I should
+really be the lucky one to whom she has given her love, then you may go
+your way and make trial of the experience that time can cure the
+deepest wounds." Frederick promised to await his fate.
+
+On the third day Frederick's heart beat with fear and anxious
+expectation; he had in the meantime carefully avoided meeting Rose.
+Like one in a dream he crept about the workshop, and his awkwardness
+gave Master Martin, no doubt, just cause for his grumbling and
+scolding, which was not by any means customary with him. Moreover, the
+master seemed to have encountered something that completely spoilt all
+his good spirits. He talked a great deal about base tricks and
+ingratitude, without clearly expressing what he meant by it. When at
+length evening came, and Frederick was returning towards the town, he
+saw not far from the gate a horseman coming to meet him, whom he
+recognised to be Reinhold. As soon as the latter caught sight of
+Frederick he cried, "Ha! ha! I meet you just as I wanted." And leaping
+from his horse, he slung the rein over his arm, and grasped his
+friend's hand. "Let us walk along a space beside each other," he said.
+"Now I can tell you what luck I have had with my suit." Frederick
+observed that Reinhold wore the same clothes which he had worn when
+they first met each other, and that the horse bore a portmanteau.
+Reinhold looked pale and troubled. "Good luck to you, brother," he
+began somewhat wildly; "good luck to you. You can now go and hammer
+away lustily at your casks; I will yield the field to you. I have just
+said adieu to pretty Rose and worthy Master Martin." "What!" exclaimed
+Frederick, whilst an electric thrill, as it were, shot through all his
+limbs--"what! you are going away now that Master Martin is willing to
+take you for his son-in-law, and Rose loves you?" Reinhold replied,
+"That was only a delusion, brother, which your jealousy has led you
+into. It has now come out that Rose would have had me simply to show
+her dutifulness and obedience, but there's not a spark of love glowing
+in her ice-cold heart. Ha! ha! I should have made a fine cooper--that I
+should. Week-days scraping hoops and planing staves, Sundays walking
+beside my honest wife to St. Catherine's or St. Sebald's, and in the
+evening to the Allerwiese, year after year"---- "Nay, mock not," said
+Frederick, interrupting Reinhold's loud laughter, "mock not at the
+excellent burgher's simple, harmless life. If Rose does not really love
+you, it is not her fault; you are so passionate, so wild." "You are
+right," said Reinhold; "It is only the silly way I have of making as
+much noise as a spoilt child when I conceive I have been hurt. You can
+easily imagine that I spoke to Rose of my love and of her father's
+good-will. Then the tears started from her eyes, and her hand trembled
+in mine. Turning her face away, she whispered, 'I must submit to my
+father's will'--that was enough for me. My peculiar resentment, dear
+Frederick, will now let you see into the depths of my heart; I must
+tell you that my striving to win Rose was a deception, imposed upon me
+by my wandering mind. After I had finished Rose's picture my heart grew
+calm; and often, strange enough, I fancied that Rose was now the
+picture, and that the picture was become the real Rose. I detested my
+former coarse, rude handiwork; and when I came so intimately into
+contact with the incidents of common life, getting one's 'mastership'
+and getting married, I felt as if I were going to be confined in a
+dungeon and chained to the stocks. How indeed can the divine being whom
+I carry in my heart ever be my wife? No, she shall for ever stand forth
+glorious in youth, grace, and beauty, in the pictures--the
+masterpieces--which my restless spirit shall create. Oh! how I long for
+such things! How came I ever to turn away from my divine art? O thou
+glorious land, thou home of Art, soon again will I revel amidst thy
+cool and balmy airs." The friends had reached the place where the road
+which Reinhold intended to take turned to the left. "Here we will
+part," cried Reinhold, pressing Frederick to his heart in a long warm
+embrace; then he threw himself upon horseback and galloped away.
+Frederick stood watching him without uttering a word, and then,
+agitated by the most unaccountable feelings, he slowly wended his way
+homewards.
+
+
+            _How Frederick was driven out of the workshop by
+                             Master Martin._
+
+The next day Master Martin was working away at the great cask for the
+Bishop of Bamberg in moody silence, nor could Frederick, who now felt
+the full bitterness of parting from Reinhold, utter a word either,
+still less break out into song. At last Master Martin threw aside his
+mallet, and crossing his arms, said in a muffled voice, "Well,
+Reinhold's gone. He was a distinguished painter, and has only been
+making a fool of me with his pretence of being a cooper. Oh! that I had
+only had an inkling of it when he came into my house along with you and
+bore himself so smart and clever, wouldn't I just have shown him the
+door! Such an open honest face, and so much deceit and treachery in his
+mind! Well, he's gone, and now you will faithfully and honestly stick
+to me and my handiwork. Who knows whether you may not become something
+more to me still--when you have become a skilful master and Rose will
+have you--well, you understand me, and may try to win Rose's favour."
+Forthwith he took up his mallet and worked away lustily again.
+Frederick did not know how to account for it, but Master Martin's words
+rent his breast, and a strange feeling of anxiety arose in his mind,
+obscuring every glimmer of hope. After a long interval Rose made a
+first appearance again in the workshop, but was very reserved, and, as
+Frederick to his mortification could see, her eyes were red with
+weeping. She has been weeping for him, she does love him, thus he said
+within himself, and he was quite unable to raise his eyes to her whom
+he loved with such an unutterable love.
+
+The mighty cask was finished, and now Master Martin began to be blithe
+and in good humour again as he regarded this very successful piece of
+work. "Yes, my son," said he, clapping Frederick on the shoulder, "yes,
+my son, I will keep my word: if you succeed in winning Rose's favour
+and build a good sound masterpiece, you shall be my son-in-law. And
+then you can also join the noble guild of the _Meistersinger_, and so
+win you great honour."
+
+Master Martin's business now increased so very greatly that he had to
+engage two other journeymen, clever workmen, but rude fellows, quite
+demoralised by their long wanderings. Coarse jests now echoed in the
+workshop instead of the many pleasant talks of former days, and in
+place of Frederick and Reinhold's agreeable singing were now heard low
+and obscene ditties. Rose shunned the workshop, so that Frederick saw
+her but seldom, and only for a few moments at a time. And then when he
+looked at her with melancholy longing and sighed, "Oh! if I might talk
+to you again, dear Rose, if you were only as friendly again as at the
+time when Reinhold was still with us!" she cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and whispered "Have you something to tell me, dear
+Frederick?" And Frederick stood like a statue, unable to speak a word,
+and the golden opportunity was quickly past, like a flash of lightning
+that darts across the dark red glow of the evening, and is gone almost
+before it is observed.
+
+Master Martin now insisted that Frederick should begin his masterpiece.
+He had himself sought out the finest, purest oak wood, without the
+least vein or flaw, which had been over five years in his wood-store,
+and nobody was to help Frederick except old Valentine. Not only was
+Frederick put more and more out of taste with his work by the rough
+journeymen, but he felt a tightness in his throat as he thought that
+this masterpiece was to decide over his whole life long. The same
+peculiar feeling of anxiety which he had experienced when Master Martin
+was praising his faithful devotion to his handiwork now grew into a
+more and more distinct shape in a quite dreadful way. He now knew that
+he should fail miserably and disgracefully in his work; his mind, now
+once more completely taken up with his own art, was fundamentally
+averse to it. He could not forget Reinhold and Rose's picture. His own
+art now put on again her full glory in his eyes. Often as he was
+working, the crushing sense of the unmanliness of his conduct quite
+overpowered him, and, alleging that he was unwell, he ran off to St.
+Sebald's Church. There he spent hours in studying Peter Fischer's
+marvellous monument, and he would exclaim, as if ravished with delight,
+"Oh, good God! Is there anything on earth more glorious than to
+conceive and execute such a work?" And when he had to go back again to
+his staves and hoops, and remembered that in this way only was Rose to
+be won, he felt as if burning talons were rending his bleeding heart,
+and as if he must perish in the midst of his unspeakable agony.
+Reinhold often came to him in his dreams and brought him striking
+designs for artistic castings, into which Rose's form was worked in
+most ingenious ways, now as a flower, now as an angel, with little
+wings. But there was always something wanting; he discovered that it
+was Rose's heart which Reinhold had forgotten, and that he added to the
+design himself. Then he thought he saw all the flowers and leaves of
+the work move, singing and diffusing their sweet fragrances, and the
+precious metals showed him Rose's likeness in their glittering surface.
+Then he stretched out his arms longingly after his beloved, but the
+likeness vanished as if in dim mist, and Rose herself, pretty Rose,
+pressed him to her loving heart in an ecstasy of passionate love.
+
+His condition with respect to the unfortunate cooperage grew worse and
+worse, and more and more unbearable, and he went to his old master
+Johannes Holzschuer to seek comfort and assistance. He allowed
+Frederick to begin in his shop a piece of work which he, Frederick, had
+thought out and for which he had for some time been saving up his
+earnings, so that he could procure the necessary gold and silver. Thus
+it happened that Frederick was scarcely ever at work in Martin's shop,
+and his deathly pale face gave credence to his pretext that he was
+suffering from a consuming illness. Months went past, and his
+masterpiece, his great two-tun cask, was not advanced any further.
+Master Martin was urgent upon him that he should at least do as much as
+his strength would allow, and Frederick really saw himself compelled to
+go to the hated cutting block again and take the adze in hand. Whilst
+he was working, Master Martin drew near and examined the staves at
+which he was working; and he got quite red in the face and cried, "What
+do you call this? What work is this, Frederick? Has a journeyman been
+preparing these staves for his 'mastership,' or a stupid apprentice who
+only put his nose into the workshop three days ago? Pull yourself
+together, lad: what devil has entered into you that you are making a
+bungle of things like this? My good oak wood,--and this your
+masterpiece! Oh! you awkward, imprudent boy!" Overmastered by the
+torture and agony which raged within him, Frederick was unable to
+contain himself any longer; so, throwing the adze from him he said,
+"Master, it's all over; no, even though it cost me my life, though I
+perish in unutterable misery, I cannot work any longer--no, I cannot
+work any longer at this coarse trade. An irresistible power is drawing
+me back to my own glorious art. Your daughter Rose I love unspeakably,
+more than anybody else on earth can ever love her. It is only for her
+sake that I ever entered upon this hateful work. I have now lost her, I
+know, and shall soon die of grief for love of her; but I can't help it,
+I must go back to my own glorious art, to my excellent old master,
+Johannes Holzschuer, whom I so shamefully deserted." Master Martin's
+eyes blazed like flashing candles. Scarce able to speak for rage, he
+stammered, "What! you too! Deceit and treachery! Dupe _me_ like this!
+coarse trade--cooperage! Out of my eyes, you disgraceful fellow; begone
+with you!" And therewith he laid hold of poor Frederick by the
+shoulders and threw him out of the shop, which the rude journeymen and
+apprentices greeted with mocking laughter. But old Valentine folded his
+hands, and gazing thoughtfully before him, said, "I've noticed, that I
+have, the good fellow had something higher in his mind than our casks."
+Dame Martha shed many tears, and her boys cried and screamed for
+Frederick, who had often played kindly with them and brought them
+several lots of sweets.
+
+
+                             _Conclusion._
+
+However angry Master Martin might feel towards Reinhold and Frederick,
+he could not but admit to himself that along with them all joy and all
+pleasure had disappeared from the workshop. Every day he was annoyed
+and provoked by the new journeymen. He had to look after every little
+trifle, and it cost him no end of trouble and exertion to get even the
+smallest amount of work done to his mind. Quite tired out with the
+cares of the day, he often sighed, "O Reinhold! O Frederick! I wish you
+had not so shamefully deceived me, I wish you had been good coopers."
+Things at last got so bad that he often contemplated the idea of giving
+up business altogether.
+
+As he was sitting at home one evening in one of these gloomy moods,
+Herr Jacobus Paumgartner and along with him Master Johannes Holzschuer
+came in quite unexpectedly. He saw at once that they were going to talk
+about Frederick; and in fact Herr Paumgartner very soon turned the
+conversation upon him, and Master Holzschuer at once began to say all
+he could in praise of the young fellow. It was his opinion that
+Frederick with his industry and his gifts would certainly not only make
+an excellent goldsmith, but also a most admirable art-caster, and would
+tread in Peter Fischer's footsteps. And now Herr Paumgartner began to
+reproach Master Martin in no gentle terms for his unkind treatment of
+his poor journeyman Frederick, and they both urged him to give Rose
+to the young fellow to wife when he was become a skilful goldsmith
+and caster,--that is, of course, in case she looked with favour upon
+him,--for his affection for her tingled in every vein he had. Master
+Martin let them have their say out, then he doffed his cap and said,
+smiling, "That's right, my good sirs, I'm glad you stand up so bravely
+for the journeyman who so shamefully deceived me. That, however, I will
+forgive him; but don't ask that I should alter my fixed resolve for his
+sake; Rose can never be anything to him." At this moment Rose entered the
+room, pale and with eyes red with weeping, and she silently placed wine
+and glasses on the table. "Well then," began Herr Holzschuer, "I must
+let poor Frederick have his own way; he wants to leave home for ever.
+He has done a beautiful piece of work at my shop, which, if you, my
+good master, will allow, he will present to Rose as a keepsake; look at
+it." Whereupon Master Holzschuer produced a small artistically-chased
+silver cup, and handed it to Master Martin, who, a great lover of
+costly vessels and such like, took it and examined it on all sides with
+much satisfaction. And indeed a more splendid piece of silver work than
+this little cup could hardly be seen. Delicate chains of vine-leaves
+and roses were intertwined round about it, and pretty angels peeped up
+out of the roses and the bursting buds, whilst within, on the gilded
+bottom of the cup, were engraved angels lovingly caressing each other.
+And when the clear bright wine was poured into the cup, the little
+angels seemed to dance up and down as if playing prettily together. "It
+is indeed an elegant piece of work," said Master Martin, "and I will
+keep it if Frederick will take the double of what it is worth in good
+gold pieces." Thus speaking, he filled the cup and raised it to his
+lips. At this moment the door was softly opened, and Frederick stepped
+in, his countenance pale and stamped with the bitter, bitter pain of
+separating for ever from her he held dearest on earth. As soon as Rose
+saw him she uttered a loud piercing cry, "O my dearest Frederick!" and
+fell almost fainting on his breast. Master Martin set down the cup, and
+on seeing Rose in Frederick's arms opened his eyes wide as if he saw a
+ghost. Then he again took up the cup without speaking a word, and
+looked into it; but all at once he leapt from his seat and cried in a
+loud voice, "Rose, Rose, do you love Frederick?" "Oh!" whispered Rose,
+"I cannot any longer conceal it, I love him as I love my own life; my
+heart nearly broke when you sent him away." "Then embrace your
+betrothed, Frederick; yes, yes, your betrothed, Frederick," cried
+Master Martin. Paumgartner and Holzschuer looked at each other utterly
+bewildered with astonishment, but Master Martin, holding the cup in his
+hand, went on, "By the good God, has it not all come to pass as the old
+lady prophesied?--
+
+            'A vessel fair to see he'll bring,
+            In which the spicy liquid foams.
+            And bright, bright angels gaily sing.
+            ... The vessel fair with golden grace,
+            Lo! him who brings it in the house,
+            Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace.
+            And, an thy lover be but true,
+            Thou need'st not wait thy father's kiss.'
+
+"O Stupid fool I have been! Here is the vessel fair to see, the
+angels--the lover--Ay! ay! gentlemen; it's all right now, all right
+now; my son-in-law is found."
+
+Whoever has had his mind ever confused by a bad dream, so that he
+thought he was lying in the deep cold blackness of the grave, and
+suddenly he awakens in the midst of the bright spring-tide full of
+fragrance and sunshine and song, and she whom he holds dearest on earth
+has come to him and has cast her arms about him, and he can look up
+into the heaven of her lovely face,--whoever has at any time
+experienced this will understand Frederick's feelings, will comprehend
+his exceeding great happiness. Unable to speak a word, he held Rose
+tightly clasped in his arms as though he would never let her leave him,
+until she at length gently disengaged herself and led him to her
+father. Then he found his voice, "O my dear master, is it all really
+true? You will give me Rose to wife, and I may go back to my art?"
+"Yes, yes," said Master Martin, "you may in truth believe it; can I do
+any other since you have fulfilled my old grandmother's prophecy? You
+need not now of course go on with your masterpiece." Then Frederick,
+perfectly radiant with delight, smiled and said, "No, my dear master,
+if it be pleasing to you I will now gladly and in good spirits finish
+my big cask--my last piece of work in cooperage--and then I will go
+back to the melting-furnace." "Yes, my good brave son," replied Master
+Martin, his eyes sparkling with joy, "yes, finish your masterpiece, and
+then we'll have the wedding."
+
+Frederick kept his word faithfully, and finished the two-tun cask; and
+all the masters declared that it would be no easy task to do a finer
+piece of work, whereat Master Martin was delighted down to the ground,
+and was moreover of opinion that Providence could not have found for
+him a more excellent son-in-law.
+
+At length the wedding day was come, Frederick's masterpiece stood in
+the entrance hall filled with rich wine, and crowned with garlands. The
+masters of the trade, with the syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their
+head, put in an appearance along with their housewives, followed by the
+master goldsmiths. All was ready for the procession to begin its march
+to St. Sebald's Church, where the pair were to be married, when a sound
+of trumpets was heard in the street, and a neighing and stamping of
+horses before Martin's house. Master Martin hastened to the bay-window.
+It was Herr Heinrich von Spangenberg, in gay holiday attire, who
+had pulled up in front of the house; a few paces behind him, on a
+high-spirited horse, sat a young and splendid knight, his glittering
+sword at his side, and high-coloured feathers in his baretta, which was
+also adorned with flashing jewels. Beside the knight, Herr Martin
+perceived a wondrously beautiful lady, likewise splendidly dressed,
+seated on a jennet the colour of fresh-fallen snow. Pages and
+attendants in brilliant coats formed a circle round about them. The
+trumpet ceased, and old Herr von Spangenberg shouted up to him, "Aha!
+aha! Master Martin, I have not come either for your wine cellar or for
+your gold pieces, but only because it is Rose's wedding day. Will you
+let me in, good master?" Master Martin remembered his own words very
+well, and was a little ashamed of himself; but he hurried down to
+receive the Junker. The old gentleman dismounted, and after greeting
+him, entered the house. Some of the pages sprang forward, and upon
+their arms the lady slipped down from her palfrey; the knight gave her
+his hand and followed the old gentleman. But when Master Martin looked
+at the young knight he recoiled three paces, struck his hands together,
+and cried, "Good God! Conrad!" "Yes, Master Martin," said the knight,
+smiling, "I am indeed your journeyman Conrad. Forgive me for the wound
+I inflicted on you. But you see, my good master, that I ought properly
+to have killed you; but things have now all turned out different."
+Greatly confused, Master Martin replied, that it was after all better
+that he had not been killed; of the little bit of a cut with the adze
+he had made no account. Now when Master Martin with his new guests
+entered the room where the bridal pair and the rest were assembled,
+they were all agreeably surprised at the beautiful lady, who was so
+exactly like the bride, even down to the minutest feature, that they
+might have been taken for twin-sisters. The knight approached the bride
+with courtly grace and said, "Grant, lovely Rose, that Conrad be
+present here on this auspicious day. You are not now angry with the
+wild thoughtless journeyman who was nigh bringing a great trouble upon
+you, are you?" But as the bridegroom and the bride and Master Martin
+were looking at each other in great wonder and embarrassment, old Herr
+von Spangenberg said, "Well, well, I see I must help you out of your
+dream. This is my son Conrad, and here is his good, true wife, named
+Rose, like the lovely bride. Call our conversation to mind, Master
+Martin. I had a very special reason for asking you whether you would
+refuse your Rose to my son. The young puppy was madly in love with her,
+and he induced me to lay aside all other considerations and make up my
+mind to come and woo her on his behalf. But when I told him in what an
+uncourteous way I had been dismissed, he in the most nonsensical way
+stole into your house in the guise of a cooper, intending to win her
+favour and then actually to run away with her. But--you cured him with
+that good sound blow across his back; my best thanks for it. And now he
+has found a lady of rank who most likely is, after all, _the_ Rose who
+was properly in his heart from the beginning."
+
+Meanwhile the lady had with graceful kindness greeted the bride, and
+hung a valuable pearl necklace round her neck as a wedding present.
+"See here, dear Rose," she then said, taking a very withered bunch of
+flowers out from amongst the fresh blooming ones which she wore at her
+bosom--"see here, dear Rose, these are the flowers that you once gave
+my Conrad as the prize of victory; he kept them faithfully until he saw
+me, then he was unfaithful to you and gave them to me; don't be angry
+with me for it." Rose, her cheeks crimson, cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion, saying, "Oh! noble lady, how can you say so? Could the
+Junker then ever really love a poor maiden like me? You alone were his
+love, and it was only because I am called Rose, and, as they say here,
+something like you, that he wooed me, all the while thinking it was
+you."
+
+A second time the procession was about to set out, when a young man
+entered the room, dressed in the Italian style, all in black slashed
+velvet, with an elegant lace collar and rich golden chains of honour
+hanging from his neck. "O Reinhold, my Reinhold!" cried Frederick,
+throwing himself upon the young man's breast. The bride and Master
+Martin also cried out excitedly, "Reinhold, our brave Reinhold is
+come!" "Did I not tell you," said Reinhold, returning Frederick's
+embrace with warmth,--"did I not tell you, my dear, dear friend, that
+things might turn out gloriously for you? Let me celebrate your wedding
+day with you; I have come a long way on purpose to do so; and as a
+lasting memento hang up in your house the picture which I have painted
+for you and brought with me." And then he called down to his two
+servants, who brought in a large picture in a magnificent gold frame.
+It represented Master Martin in his workshop along with his journeymen
+Reinhold, Frederick, and Conrad working at the great cask, and lovely
+Rose was just entering the shop. Everybody was astonished at the truth
+and magnificent colouring of the piece as a work of art. "Ay," said
+Frederick, smiling, "that is, I suppose, your masterpiece as cooper;
+mine is below yonder in the entrance-hall; but I shall soon make
+another." "I know all," replied Reinhold, "and rate you lucky. Only
+stick fast to your art; it can put up with more domesticity and
+such-like than mine."
+
+At the marriage feast Frederick sat between the two Roses, and opposite
+him Master Martin between Conrad and Reinhold. Then Herr Paumgartner
+filled Frederick's cup up to the brim with rich wine, and drank to the
+weal of Master Martin and his brave journeymen. The cup went round; and
+first it was drained by the noble Junker Heinrich von Spangenberg, and
+after him by all the worthy masters who sat at the table--to the weal
+of Master Martin and his brave journeymen.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER":
+
+[Footnote 1: Written for the Leipsic _Taschenbuch zum geselligen
+Vergnügen_ for 1819.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The "Beautiful Fountain," as it is called, is about 64 ft.
+in height, and consists of three stone Gothic pyramids and many statues
+(electors and heroes and prophets). It was built by Schonhover in
+1355-61, and restored in 1820.]
+
+[Footnote 3: St. Sebald's shrine in St. Sebald's Church consists of a
+bronze sarcophagus and canopy of rich Gothic style. It stands about
+16-1/2 ft. high, and bears admirable statues of the Twelve Apostles,
+certain church-fathers and prophets, and other representations of a
+semi-mythological character, together with reliefs illustrative of
+episodes in the saint's life. It is regarded by many as one of the gems
+of German artistic work, and is the result of thirteen years' labour
+(1506-1519) by Peter Vischer and his sons.]
+
+[Footnote 4: This ciborium or receptacle for the host is the work of
+Adam Krafft, stands about 68 feet in height, and represents Christ's
+Passion. The style is florid Gothic, and the material stone.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Albrecht Dürer, born at Nuremberg in 1471, and died in
+1528, contemporary with Titian and Raphael, the most truly
+representative German painter as well as, perhaps, the greatest.]
+
+[Footnote 6:  Hans Rosenblüth, _Meistersinger_ and _Wappendichter_
+(Mastersinger and Herald-poet), called the _Schnepperer_ (babbler), was
+a native of Nuremberg. Between 1431 and 1460 is the period of his
+literary activity, when he wrote _Fastnachtspiele_ (developments of the
+comic elements in Mysteries), "Odes" on Wine, Farces, &c. He marks the
+transition from the poetry of chivalric life and manners to that of
+burgher life and manners.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Wine was frequently stored at this period on the cooper's
+premises in huge casks, and afterwards drawn off in smaller casks and
+bottled.]
+
+[Footnote 8: In many Mediæval German towns the rulers (Burgomaster and
+Councillors) were mostly self-elected, power being in the hands of a
+few patrician families. A Councillor generally attended a full meeting
+of a guild as a sort of "patron" or "visitor." Compare the position
+which Sir Patrick Charteris occupied with respect to the good citizens
+of Perth. (See Sir Walter Scott's _Fair Maid of Perth_, chap. vii., _et
+passim_.)]
+
+[Footnote 9: The well-known Great Cask of Heidelberg, built for the
+Elector Palatine Ernest Theodore in 1751, is calculated to hold 49,000
+gallons, and is 32 feet long and 26 feet in diameter. This is not the
+only gigantic wine cask that has been made in Germany. Other monsters
+are now in the cellars at Tübingen (made in 1546), Groningen (1678),
+Königstein (1725), &c.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Hoffmann calls him Tobias also lower down, and then
+Thomas again.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Hochheimer is the name of a Rhine wine that has been
+celebrated since the beginning of the ninth century, and is grown in
+the neighbourhood of Hochheim, a town in the district of Wiesbaden.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Johannisberger is also grown near Wiesbaden. The
+celebrated vineyard is said to cover only 39-1/2 acres.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Nuremberg is noted for its interesting old houses with
+high narrow gables turned next the street: amongst the most famous are
+those belonging to the families of Nassau, Tucher, Peller, Petersen
+(formerly Toppler), and those of Albrecht Dürer and of Hans Sachs, the
+cobbler-poet of the 16th century.]
+
+[Footnote 14:  Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867), founder of a great
+German school of historical painting. Going to Rome in 1811, he painted
+a set of seven scenes illustrative of Goethe's _Faust_, having
+previously finished a set at Frankfort (on Main). Amongst his many
+famous works are the Last Judgment in the Ludwig Church at Munich and
+frescoes in the Glyptothek there.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Gretchen's real words were "Bin weder Fräulein weder
+schön." See the scene which follows the "Hexenküche" scene in the first
+part of _Faust_.]
+
+[Footnote 16:  A meadow or common on the outskirts of the town, which
+served as a general place of recreation and amusement. Nearly every
+German town has such; as the Theresa Meadow at Munich, the Canstatt
+Meadow near Stuttgart, the Communal Meadow on the right bank of the
+Main not far from Frankfort (see Goethe, _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, near
+the beginning), &c.]
+
+[Footnote 17: This word is generally used to designate an untitled
+country nobleman, a member of an old-established noble "county" family.
+In Prussia the name came to be applied to a political party. A most
+interesting description of the old Prussian Junker is given in Wilibald
+Alexis' (W. H. Häring's) charming novel _Die Hosen des Herrn v. Bredow_
+(1846-48), in Sir Walter Scott's style.]
+
+[Footnote 18: A string of pearls worn on the wedding-day was a
+prerogative of a patrician bride.]
+
+[Footnote 19: In the Middle Ages, in Nuremberg, and in most other
+industrial towns also, the artisans and others who formed _guilds_
+(each respective trade or calling having generally its guild) were
+divided into three grades, masters, journeymen, and apprentices.
+Admission from one of these grades into the one next above it was
+subject to various more or less restrictive conditions. A man could
+only become a "master" and regularly set up in business for himself
+after having gone through the various stages of training in conformity
+with the rules or prescriptions of his guild, after having constructed
+his masterpiece to the satisfaction of a specially appointed
+commission, and after fulfilling certain requirements as to age,
+citizenship, and in some cases possession of a certain amount of
+property. It was usual for journeymen to spend a certain time in
+travelling going from one centre of their trade to another.]
+
+[Footnote 20: From another passage (_Der Feind_, chap. i) it appears
+that the reference is to a series of regulations dealing with the wine
+industry, of date August 24, 1498, in the reign of Maximilian I.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Sulphur is burnt inside the cask (care being taken that
+it does not touch it) in order to keep it sweet and pure, as well as to
+impart both flavour and colour to the wine.]
+
+[Footnote 22: See note 2, p. 15. The German _Meistersinger_ always sang
+without any accompaniment of musical instruments.]
+
+[Footnote 23: This is one of the principal round towers, erected
+1558-1568, in the town walls; it is situated on the south-east.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Peter Vischer (_c._ 1455-1529), a native of Nuremberg,
+one of the most distinguished of German sculptors, was chiefly engaged
+in making monuments for deceased princes in various parts of Germany
+and central Europe. The shrine in St. Sebald's, mentioned above, is
+generally considered his masterpiece.]
+
+[Footnote 25: Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1569) of Florence, goldsmith and
+worker in metals. Mr. W. M. Rossetti rightly says that his biography,
+written by himself, forms one of the most "fascinating" of books. It
+has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, and by Goethe into
+German.]
+
+[Footnote 26:  Holzschuher was the name of an old and important family
+in Nuremberg. Fifty-four years before the date of the present story,
+that is in 1526, a member of the family was burgomaster of his native
+town, and was painted by Dürer.]
+
+[Footnote 27: The family of Fugger, which rose from the position of
+poor weavers to be the richest merchant princes in Augsburg, decorated
+their house with frescoes externally, like so many other old German
+families.]
+
+[Footnote 28: During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries
+there existed in many German towns (Nuremberg, Frankfort, Strasburg,
+Ulm, Mayence, &c.) associations or guild-like corporations of burghers,
+the object of which was the cultivation of song in the same systematic
+way that the mechanical arts were practised. They framed strict and
+well-defined codes of rules (_Tablatures_) by means of which they
+tested a singer's capabilities. As the chief aims which they set
+before themselves were the invention of new tunes or melodies, and
+also songs (words), it resulted that they fell into the inevitable
+vice of cold formalism, and banished the true spirit of poetry by
+their many arbitrary rules about rhyme, measure, and melody, and the
+dry business-like manner in which they worked. The guild or company
+generally consisted of five distinct grades, the ultimate one being
+that of master, entrance into which was only permitted to the man who
+had invented a new melody or tune, and had sung it in public without
+offending against any of the laws of the _Tablature_. The subjects,
+which, as the singers were honest burghers, could not be taken from
+topics in which chivalric life took any interest, were mostly
+restricted to fables, legendary lore, and consisted very largely of
+Biblical narratives and passages.]
+
+[Footnote 29: These words are the names of various "tunes," and
+signified in each case a particular metre, rhyme, melody, &c, so that
+each was a brief definition of a number of individual items, so to
+speak. These _Meistersinger_ technical terms (or slang?) are therefore
+not translatable, nor could they be made intelligible by paraphrase,
+even if the requisite information for each instance were at hand.]
+
+[Footnote 30: A glass divided by means of marks placed at intervals
+from top to bottom. It was usual for one who was invited to drink to
+drink out of the challenger's glass down to the mark next below the top
+of the liquid.]
+
+[Footnote 31: These would consist of the certificate of his admission
+into the ranks of the journeymen of the guild, of the certificates of
+proper dismissal signed by the various masters for whom he had worked
+whilst on travel, together with testimonials of good conduct from the
+same masters.]
+
+[Footnote 32: On these great singing days, generally on Sundays in the
+churches, and on special occasions in the town-house, the
+"performances" consisted of three parts. 1. First came a "Voluntary
+Solo-Singing," in which anybody, even a stranger, might participate, no
+contest being entered into, and no rewards given. 2. This was followed
+by a song by all the masters in chorus, 3. Then came the "Principal
+Singing," the chief "event" of the day--the actual singing contest.
+Four judges were appointed to examine those who successively presented
+themselves, being guided by the strict laws and regulations of the
+_Tablatures_. Those who violated these laws, that is, who made
+mistakes, had to leave the singing-desk; the successful ones were,
+however, crowned with wreaths, and had earned the right to act
+themselves as judges on future occasions.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob (died 1318), after
+having lived at various courts in both the north and the south of
+Germany, settled at Mayence and gathered together (1311) a school or
+society of burgher singers.]
+
+[Footnote 34: The word "prince" is expressed in German by two distinct
+words; one, like the English word, designates a member of a royal or
+reigning house; the other is used as a simple title, often official,
+ranking above duke. The Bishop of Bamberg was in this latter sense a
+prince of the empire.]
+
+[Footnote 35: At this time Francesco I. (of the illustrious house of
+Medici) was _Grand Duke of Tuscany_, his father Cosimo I. having
+exchanged the title of Duke of Florence for that of Grand Duke of
+Tuscany in 1569. Francesco did much for the encouragement of art and
+science. He founded the well-known Uffizi Gallery, and it was in his
+reign that the Accademia Della Crusca was instituted.]
+
+[Footnote 36: Lucas Cranach occupies along with his contemporary
+Albrecht Dürer the first place in the ranks of German painters. Born in
+Upper Franconia in 1472 (died 1553), he secured the favour of the
+Elector of Saxony, and manifested extraordinary activity in several
+branches of painting.]
+
+
+
+
+                       _MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI.
+                   A TALE OF THE TIMES OF LOUIS XIV._
+
+
+The little house in which lived Madeleine de Scudéri,[1] well known for
+her pleasing verses, and the favour of Louis XIV. and the Marchioness
+de Maintenon, was situated in the Rue St. Honorée.
+
+One night almost at midnight--it would be about the autumn, of the year
+1680--there came such a loud and violent knocking at the door of her
+house that it made the whole entrance-passage ring again. Baptiste, who
+in the lady's small household discharged at one and the same time the
+offices of cook, footman, and porter, had with his mistress's
+permission gone into the country to attend his sister's wedding; and
+thus it happened that La Martinière, Mademoiselle's lady-maid was
+alone, and the only person awake in the house. The knockings were
+repeated. She suddenly remembered that Baptiste had gone for his
+holiday, and that she and her mistress were left in the house without
+any further protection. All the outrages burglaries, thefts, and
+murders--which were then so common in Paris, crowded upon her mind; she
+was sure it was a band of cut-throats who were making all this
+disturbance outside; they must be well aware how lonely the house
+stood, and if let in would perpetrate some wicked deed against her
+mistress; and so she remained in her room, trembling and quaking with
+fear, and cursing Baptiste and his sister's wedding as well.
+
+Meanwhile the hammering at the door was being continued; and she
+fancied she heard a voice shouting at intervals, "Oh! do open the door!
+For God's sake, do open the door!" At last La Martinière's anxiety rose
+to such a pitch that, taking up the lighted candle, she ran out into
+the passage. There she heard quite plainly the voice of the person
+knocking, "For God's sake! do open the door, please!" "Certainly,"
+thought she, "that surely is not the way a robber would knock. Who
+knows whether it is not some poor man being pursued and wants
+protection from Mademoiselle, who is always ready to do an act of
+kindness? But let us be cautious." Opening a window, she called out,
+asking who was down making such a loud noise at the house-door so late
+at night, awakening everybody up out of their sleep; and she
+endeavoured to give her naturally deep voice as manly a tone as she
+possibly could.
+
+By the glimmer of the moon, which now broke through the dark clouds,
+she could make out a tall figure, enveloped in a light-grey mantle,
+having his broad-brimmed hat pulled down right over his eyes. Then she
+shouted in a loud voice, so as to be heard by the man below, "Baptiste,
+Claude, Pierre, get up and go and see who this good-for-nothing
+vagabond is, who is trying to break into the house." But the voice from
+below made answer gently, and in a tone that had a plaintive ring in
+it, "Oh! La Martinière, I know quite well that it is you, my good
+woman, however much you try to disguise your voice; I also know that
+Baptiste has gone into the country, and that you are alone in the house
+with your mistress. You may confidently undo the door for me; you need
+have no fear. For I must positively speak with your mistress, and this
+very minute." "Whatever are you thinking about?" replied La Martinière.
+"You want to speak to Mademoiselle in the middle of the night? Don't
+you know that she has been gone to bed a long time, and that for no
+price would I wake her up out of her first sound sleep, which at her
+time of life she has so much need of?" The person standing below said,
+"But I know that your mistress has only just laid aside her new romance
+_Clélie_, at which she labours so unremittingly; and she is now writing
+certain verses which she intends to read to the Marchioness de
+Maintenon[2] to-morrow. I implore you, Madame Martinière, have pity and
+open me the door. I tell you the matter involves the saving of an
+unfortunate man from ruin,--that the honour, freedom, nay, that the
+life of a man is dependent upon this moment, and I _must_ speak to
+Mademoiselle. Recollect how your mistress's anger would rest upon you
+for ever, if she learned that you had had the hard-heartedness to turn
+an unfortunate man away from her door when he came to supplicate her
+assistance." "But why do you come to appeal to my mistress's compassion
+at this unusual hour? Come again early in the morning," said La
+Martinière. The person below replied, "Does Destiny, then, heed times
+and hours when it strikes, like the fatal flash, fraught with
+destruction? When there is but a single moment longer in which rescue
+is still possible, ought assistance to be delayed? Open me the door;
+you need have nothing to fear from a poor defenceless wretch, who is
+deserted of all the world, pursued and distressed by an awful fate,
+when he comes to beseech Mademoiselle to save him from threatening
+danger?" La Martinière heard the man below moaning and sobbing with
+anguish as he said these words, and at the same time the voice was the
+voice of a young man, gentle, and gifted with the power of appealing
+straight to the heart She was greatly touched; without much further
+deliberation she fetched the keys.
+
+But hardly had she got the door opened when the figure enveloped in the
+mantle burst tumultuously in, and striding past Martinière into the
+passage, cried wildly, "Lead me to your mistress!" In terror Martinière
+lifted up the candle, and its light fell upon a young man's face,
+deathly pale and fearfully agitated. Martinière almost dropped on the
+floor with fright, for the man now threw open his mantle and showed the
+bright hilt of a stiletto sticking out of the bosom of his doublet. His
+eyes flashed fire as he fixed them upon her, crying still more wildly
+than before, "Lead me to your mistress, I tell you." Martinière now
+believed Mademoiselle was in the most imminent danger; and her
+affection for her beloved mistress, whom she honoured, moreover, as her
+good and faithful mother, burnt up stronger in her heart, enkindling a
+courage which she had not conceived herself capable of showing. Hastily
+pulling to the door of her chamber, which she had left standing open,
+she planted herself before it, and said in a strong firm voice, "I tell
+you what, your mad behaviour in the house here, corresponds but ill
+with your plaintive words outside; I see clearly that I let my pity be
+excited on a wrong occasion. You neither ought to, nor shall you, speak
+to my mistress now. If your intentions are not evil, you need not fear
+daylight; so come again to-morrow and state your business then. Now,
+begone with you out of the house." The man heaved a deep and painful
+sigh, and fixing Martinière with a formidable look, grasped his
+stiletto. She silently commended her soul to Heaven, but manfully stood
+her ground, and boldly met the man's gaze, at the same time drawing
+herself closer to the door, for through it the man would have to go to
+get to her mistress's chamber. "Let me go to your mistress, I tell
+you!" cried the man again. "Do what you will," replied Martinière, "I
+shall not stir from this place. Go on and finish your wicked deed; but
+remember that you also will die a shameful death at the Place Grève,
+like your atrocious partners in crime." "Ah! yes, you are right, La
+Martinière," replied the man, "I do look like a villainous robber and
+cut-throat, and am armed like one, but my partners have not been
+executed,--no, not yet." Therewith, hurling looks of furious wrath at
+the poor woman, who was almost dead with terror, he drew his stiletto.
+"O God! O God!" she exclaimed, expecting her death-blow; but at
+this moment there was heard a rattle of arms in the street, and the
+hoof-strokes of horses. "The _Maréchaussée_![3] the _Maréchaussée_!
+Help! Help!" screamed Martinière. "You abominable woman, you are
+determined to ruin me. All is lost now--it's all over. But here,
+here--take this. Give that to your mistress this very night--to-morrow
+if you like." Whispering these words, he snatched the light from La
+Martinière, extinguished it, and then forced a casket into her hands.
+"By your hopes of salvation, I conjure you, give this casket to
+Mademoiselle," cried the man; and he rushed out of the house.
+
+Martinière fell to the floor; at length she rose up with difficulty,
+and groped her way back in the darkness to her own room, where she sank
+down in an arm-chair completely exhausted, unable to utter a sound.
+Then she heard the keys rattle, which she had left in the lock of the
+street-door. The door was closed and locked, and she heard cautious,
+uncertain footsteps approaching her room. She sat riveted to the chair
+without power to move, expecting something terrible to happen. But her
+sensations may be imagined when the door opened, and by the light of
+the night-taper she recognised at the first glance that it was honest
+Baptiste, looking very pale and greatly troubled. "In the name of all
+the saints!" he began, "tell me, Dame Martinière, what has happened?
+Oh! the anxiety and fear I have had! I don't know what it was, but
+something drove me away from the wedding last evening. I couldn't help
+myself; I had to come. On getting into our street, I thought. Dame
+Martinière sleeps lightly, she'll be sure to hear me, thinks I, if I
+tap softly and gently at the door, and will come out and let me in.
+Then there comes a strong patrol on horseback as well as on foot, all
+armed to the teeth, and they stop me and won't let me go on. But
+luckily Desgrais the lieutenant of the _Maréchaussée_, is amongst them,
+who knows me quite well; and when they put their lanterns under my
+nose, he says, 'Why, Baptiste, where are you coming from at this time
+o' night? You'd better stay quietly in the house and take care of it
+There's some deviltry at work, and we are hoping to make a good capture
+to-night.' You wouldn't believe how heavy these words fell on my heart.
+Dame Martinière. And then when I put my foot on the threshold, there
+comes a man, all muffled up, rushing out of the house with a drawn
+dagger in his hand, and he runs over me--head over heels. The door was
+open, and the keys sticking in the lock. Oh! tell me what it all
+means." Martinière, relieved of her terrible fear and anxiety, related
+all that had taken place.
+
+Then she and Baptiste went out into the passage, and there they found
+the candlestick lying on the floor where the stranger had thrown it as
+he ran away. "It is only too certain," said Baptiste, "that our
+Mademoiselle would have been robbed, ay, and even murdered, I make no
+doubt. The fellow knew, as you say, that you were alone with
+Mademoiselle,--why, he also knew that she was awake with her writings.
+I would bet anything it was one of those cursed rogues and thieves who
+force their way right into the houses, cunningly spying out everything
+that may be of use to them in carrying out their infernal plans. And as
+for that little casket, Dame Martinière--I think we'd better throw it
+into the Seine where it's deepest. Who can answer for it that there's
+not some wicked monster got designs on our good lady's life, and that
+if she opens the box she won't fall down dead like old Marquis de
+Tournay did, when he opened a letter that came from somebody he didn't
+know?"
+
+After a long consultation the two faithful souls made up their minds to
+tell their mistress everything next morning, and also to place the
+mysterious casket in her hands, for of course it could be opened with
+proper precautions. After minutely weighing every circumstance
+connected with the suspicious stranger's appearance, they were both of
+the same opinion, namely, that there was some special mystery connected
+with the matter, which they durst not attempt to control single-handed;
+they must leave it to their good lady to unriddle.
+
+
+Baptiste's apprehensions were well founded. Just at that time Paris was
+the scene of the most abominable atrocities, and exactly at the same
+period the most diabolical invention of Satan was made, to offer the
+readiest means for committing these deeds.
+
+Glaser, a German apothecary, the best chemist of his age, had busied
+himself, as people of his profession were in the habit of doing, with
+alchemistical experiments. He had made it the object of his endeavour
+to discover the Philosopher's Stone. His coadjutor was an Italian of
+the name of Exili. But this man only practised alchemy as a blind. His
+real object was to learn all about the mixing and decoction and
+sublimating of poisonous compounds, by which Glaser on his part hoped
+to make his fortune; and at last he succeeded in fabricating that
+subtle poison[4] that is without smell and without taste, that kills
+either on the spot or gradually and slowly, without ever leaving the
+slightest trace in the human body, and that deceives all the skill and
+art of the physicians, since, not suspecting the presence of poison,
+they fail not to ascribe the death to natural causes. Circumspectly as
+Exili[5]  went to work, he nevertheless fell under the suspicion of
+being a seller of poison, and was thrown into the Bastille. Soon
+afterwards Captain Godin de Sainte Croix was confined in the same
+dungeon. This man had for a long time been living in relations with the
+Marchioness de Brinvillier,[6] which brought disgrace on all the
+family; so at last, as the Marquis continued indifferent to his wife's
+shameful conduct, her father, Dreux d'Aubray, _Civil Lieutenant_ of
+Paris, compelled the guilty pair to part by means of a warrant which
+was executed upon the Captain. Passionate, unprincipled, hypocritically
+feigning to be pious, and yet inclined from his youth up to all kinds
+of vice, jealous, revengeful even to madness, the Captain could not
+have met with any more welcome information than that contained in
+Exili's diabolical secret, since it would give him the power to
+annihilate all his enemies. He became an eager scholar of Exili, and
+soon came to be as clever as his master, so that, on being liberated
+from the Bastille, he was in a position to work on unaided.
+
+Before an abandoned woman, De Brinvillier became through Sainte Croix's
+instrumentality a monster. He contrived to induce her to poison
+successively her own father, with whom she was living, tending with
+heartless hypocrisy his declining days, and then her two brothers, and
+finally her sister,--her father out of revenge, and the others on
+account of the rich family inheritance. From the histories of several
+poisoners we have terrible examples how the commission of crimes of
+this class becomes at last an all-absorbing passion. Often, without any
+further purpose than the mere vile pleasure of the thing, just as
+chemists make experiments for their own enjoyment, have poisoners
+destroyed persons whose life or death must have been to them a matter
+of perfect indifference.
+
+The sudden decease of several poor people in the Hotel Dieu some time
+afterwards excited the suspicion that the bread had been poisoned which
+Brinvillier, in order to acquire a reputation for piety and
+benevolence, used to distribute there every week. At any rate, it is
+undoubtedly true that she was in the habit of serving the guests whom
+she invited to her house with poisoned pigeon pie. The Chevalier de
+Guet and several other persons fell victims to these hellish banquets.
+Sainte Croix, his confederate La Chaussée,[7] and Brinvillier were able
+for a long time to enshroud their horrid deeds behind an impenetrable
+veil. But of what avail is the infamous cunning of reprobate men when
+the Divine Power has decreed that punishment shall overtake the guilty
+here on earth?
+
+The poisons which Sainte Croix prepared were of so subtle a nature that
+if the powder (called by the Parisians _Pondre de Succession_, or
+Succession Powder) were prepared with the face exposed, a single
+inhalation of it might cause instantaneous death. Sainte Croix
+therefore, when engaged in its manufacture, always wore a mask made of
+fine glass. One day, just as he was pouring a prepared powder into a
+phial, his mask fell off, and, inhaling the fine particles of the
+poison, he fell down dead on the spot. As he had died without heirs,
+the officers of the law hastened to place his effects under seal.
+Amongst them they found a locked box, which contained the whole of the
+infernal arsenal of poisons that the abandoned wretch Sainte Croix had
+had at command; they also found Brinvillier's letters, which left no
+doubt as to her atrocious crimes. She fled to Liége, into a convent
+there. Desgrais, an officer of the _Maréchaussée_, was sent after her.
+In the disguise of a monk he arrived at the convent where she had
+concealed herself, and contrived to engage the terrible woman in a love
+intrigue, and finally, under the pretext of a secret meeting, to entice
+her out to a lonely garden beyond the precincts of the town. Directly
+she arrived at the appointed place she was surrounded by Desgrais'
+satellites, whilst her monkish lover was suddenly converted into an
+officer of the _Maréchaussée_, who compelled her to get into the
+carriage which stood ready near the garden; and, surrounded by the
+police troop, she was driven straight off to Paris. La Chaussée had
+been already beheaded somewhat earlier; Brinvillier suffered the same
+death, after which her body was burned and the ashes scattered to the
+winds.
+
+Now that the monster who had been able to direct his secret murderous
+weapons against both friend and foe alike unpunished was out of the
+world, the Parisians breathed freely once more. But it soon became
+known abroad that the villain Sainte Croix's abominable art had been
+handed down to certain successors. Like a malignant invisible spirit,
+murder insinuated itself into the most intimate circles, even the
+closest of those formed by relationship and love and friendship, and
+laid a quick sure grasp upon its unfortunate victims. He who was seen
+one day in the full vigour of health, tottered about the next a weak
+wasting invalid, and no skill of the physician could save him from
+death. Wealth, a lucrative office, a beautiful and perhaps too young a
+wife--any of these was sufficient to draw down upon the possessor this
+persecution unto death. The most sacred ties were severed by the
+cruellest mistrust. The husband trembled at his wife, the father at his
+son, the sister at the brother. The dishes remained untouched, and the
+wine at the dinner, which a friend put before his friends; and there
+where formerly jest and mirth had reigned supreme, savage glances were
+now spying about for the masked murderer. Fathers of families were
+observed buying provisions in remote districts with uneasy looks and
+movements, and preparing them themselves in the first dirty cook-shop
+they came to, since they feared diabolical treachery in their own
+homes. And yet even the greatest and most well-considered precautions
+were in many cases of no avail.
+
+In order to put a stop to this iniquitous state of things, which
+continued to gain ground and grow greater day by day, the king
+appointed a special court of justice for the exclusive purpose of
+inquiring into and punishing these secret crimes. This was the
+so-called _Chambre Ardente_, which held its sittings not far from the
+Bastille, its acting president being La Regnie.[8] For a considerable
+period all his efforts, however zealously they were prosecuted,
+remained fruitless; it was reserved for the crafty Desgrais to discover
+the most secret haunts of the criminals. In the Faubourg St. Germain
+there lived an old woman called Voisin, who made a regular business of
+fortune-telling and raising departed spirits; and with the help of her
+confederates Le Sage and Le Vigoureux, she managed to excite fear and
+astonishment in the minds of persons who could not be called exactly
+either weak or credulous. But she did more than this. A pupil of Exili,
+like La Croix, she, like him, concocted the same subtle poison that
+killed and left no trace behind it; and so she helped in this way
+profligate sons to get early possession of their inheritance, and
+depraved wives to another and younger husband. Desgrais wormed his way
+into her secret; she confessed all; the _Chambre Ardente_ condemned her
+to be burned alive, and the sentence was executed in the Place Grève.
+
+Amongst her effects was found a list of all the persons who had availed
+themselves of her assistance; and hence it was that not only did
+execution follow upon execution, but grave suspicion fell even upon
+persons of high position. Thus it was believed that Cardinal Bonzy had
+obtained from La Voisin the means of bringing to an untimely end all
+those persons to whom, as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was obliged to pay
+annuities. So also the Duchess de Bouillon, and the Countess de
+Soissons,[9] whose names were found on the list, were accused of having
+had dealings with the diabolical woman; and even Francois Henri de
+Montmorenci, Boudebelle, Duke of Luxemburg,[10] peer and marshal of the
+kingdom, was not spared. He too was prosecuted by the terrible _Chambre
+Ardente_. He voluntarily gave himself up to be imprisoned in the
+Bastille, where through Louvois'[11] and La Regnie's hatred he was
+confined in a cell only six feet long. Months passed before it was made
+out satisfactorily that the Duke's transgression did not deserve any
+blame: he had once had his horoscope cast by Le Sage.
+
+It is certain that the President La Regnie was betrayed by his blind
+zeal into acts of cruelty and arbitrary violence. The tribunal acquired
+the character of an Inquisition; the most trifling suspicion was
+sufficient to entail strict incarceration; and it was left to chance to
+establish the innocence of a person accused of a capital crime.
+Moreover, La Regnie was hideous in appearance, and of a malicious
+temperament, so that he soon drew down upon himself the hatred of those
+whose avenger or protector he was appointed to be. The Duchess de
+Bouillon, being asked by him during her trial if she had seen the
+devil, replied, "I fancy I can see him at this moment."[12]
+
+But whilst the blood of the guilty and the suspected alike was flowing
+in streams in the Place Grève, and after a time the secret poisonings
+became less and less frequent, a new kind of outrage came to light, and
+again filled the city with dismay. It seemed as if a band of miscreant
+robbers were in league together for the purpose of getting into their
+possession all the jewellery they could. No sooner was any valuable
+ornament purchased than, no matter how or where kept, it vanished in an
+inconceivable way. But what was still worse, any one who ventured to
+wear jewellery on his person at night was robbed, and often murdered
+even, either in the public street or in the dark passage of a house.
+Those who escaped with their lives declared that they had been knocked
+down by a blow on the head, which felled them like a lightning flash,
+and that on awaking from their stupor they had found that they had been
+robbed and were lying in quite a different place from that where they
+had received the blow. All who were murdered, some of whom were found
+nearly every morning lying either in the streets or in the houses, had
+all one and the same fatal wound,--a dagger-thrust in the heart,
+killing, according to the judgment of the surgeons, so instantaneously
+and so surely that the victim would drop down like a stone, unable to
+utter a sound. Who was there at the voluptuous court of Louis XIV. who
+was not entangled in some clandestine intrigue, and stole to his
+mistress at a late hour, often carrying a valuable present about him?
+The robbers, as if they were in league with spirits, knew almost
+exactly when anything of this sort was on foot. Often the unfortunate
+did not reach the house where he expected to meet with the reward of
+his passion; often he fell on the threshold, nay, at the very chamber
+door of his mistress, who was horrified at finding the bloody corpse.
+
+In vain did Argenson, the Minister of Police, order the arrest of every
+person from amongst the populace against whom there was the least
+suspicion; in vain did La Regnie rage and try to extort confessions; in
+vain did they strengthen their watch and their patrols;--they could not
+find a trace of the evil-doers. The only thing that did to a certain
+extent avail was to take the precaution of going armed to the teeth and
+have a torch carried before one; and yet instances were not wanting in
+which the servant was annoyed by stones thrown at him, whilst at the
+same moment his master was murdered and robbed. It was especially
+remarkable that, in spite of all inquiries in every place where traffic
+in jewellery was in any way possible, not the smallest specimen of the
+stolen ornaments ever came to light, and so in this way also no clue
+was found which might have been followed.
+
+Desgrais was furious that the miscreants should thus baffle all his
+cunning. The quarter of the town in which he happened to be stationed
+was spared; whilst in the others, where nobody apprehended any evil,
+these robberies and murders claimed their richest victims.
+
+Desgrais hit upon the ruse of making several Desgrais one after the
+other, so exactly alike in gait, posture, speech, figure, and face,
+that the myrmidons of the police themselves did not know which was the
+real Desgrais. Meanwhile, at the risk of his own life, he used to watch
+alone in the most secret haunts and lairs of crime, and follow at a
+distance first this man and then that, who at his own instance carried
+some valuable jewellery about his person. These men, however, were not
+attacked; and hence the robbers must be acquainted with this
+contrivance also. Desgrais absolutely despaired.
+
+One morning Desgrais came to President La Regnie pale and perturbed,
+quite distracted in fact. "What's the matter? What news? Have you got a
+clue?" cried the President "Oh! your excellency," began Desgrais,
+stammering with rage, "oh! your excellency--last night--not far from
+the Louvre--the Marquis de la Fare[13] was attacked in my presence."
+"By Heaven then!" shouted La Regnie, exultant with joy, "we have them."
+"But first listen to me," interrupted Desgrais with a bitter smile,
+"and hear how it all came about. Well then, I was standing near the
+Louvre on the watch for these devils who mock me, and my heart was on
+fire with fury. Then there came a figure close past me without noticing
+me, walking with unsteady steps and looking behind him. By the faint
+moonlight I saw that it was Marquis de la Fare. I was not surprised to
+see him; I knew where he was stealing to. But he had not gone more than
+ten or twelve paces past me when a man started up right out of the
+earth as it seemed and knocked him down, and stooped over him. In the
+sudden surprise and on the impulse of the moment, which would else have
+delivered the murderer into my hands, I was thoughtless enough to cry
+out; and I was just bursting out of my hiding-place with a rush,
+intending to throw myself upon him, when I got entangled in my mantle
+and fell down. I saw the man hurrying away on the wings of the wind; I
+made haste and picked myself up and ran after him; and as I ran I blew
+my horn; from the distance came the answering whistles of the man; the
+streets were all alive; there was a rattle of arms and a trampling of
+horses in all directions. 'Here! here! Desgrais! Desgrais!' I shouted
+till the streets echoed. By the bright moonlight I could always see the
+man in front of me, doubling here and there to deceive me. We came
+to the Rue Nicaise, and there his strength appeared to fail him:
+I redoubled my efforts; and he only led me by fifteen paces at the
+most"---- "You caught him up; you seized him; the patrol came up?"
+cried La Regnie, his eyes flashing, whilst he seized Desgrais by
+the arm as though he were the flying murderer. "Fifteen paces,"
+continued Desgrais in a hollow voice and with difficulty drawing his
+breath--"fifteen paces from me the man sprang aside into the shade and
+disappeared through the wall." "Disappeared?--through the wall? Are you
+mad?" cried La Regnie, taking a couple of steps backwards and striking
+his hands together.
+
+"From this moment onwards," continued Desgrais, rubbing his brow like a
+man tormented by hateful thoughts, "your excellency may call me a
+madman or an insane ghost-seer, but it was just as I have told you. I
+was standing staring at the wall like one petrified when several men of
+the patrol hurried up breathless, and along with them Marquis de la
+Fare, who had picked himself up, with his drawn sword in his hand. We
+lighted the torches, and sounded the wall backwards and forwards,--not
+an indication of a door or a window or an opening. It was a strong
+stone wall bounding a yard, and was joined on to a house in which live
+people against whom there has never risen the slightest suspicion.
+To-day I have again taken a careful survey of the whole place. It must
+be the Devil himself who is mystifying us."
+
+Desgrais' story became known in Paris. People's heads were full of the
+sorceries and incantations and compacts with Satan of Voisin,
+Vigoureuse, and the reprobate priest Le Sage; and as in the eternal
+nature of us men, the leaning to the marvellous and the wonderful so
+often outweighs all the authority of reason, so the public soon began
+to believe simply and solely that as Desgrais in his mortification had
+said, Satan himself really did protect the abominable wretches, who
+must have sold their souls to him. It will readily be believed that
+Desgrais' story received all sorts of ornamental additions. An account
+of the adventure, with a woodcut on the title-page representing a grim
+Satanic form before which the terrified Desgrais was sinking in the
+earth, was printed and largely sold at the street corners. This alone
+was enough to overawe the people, and even to rob the myrmidons of the
+police of their courage, who now wandered about the streets at night
+trembling and quaking, hung about with amulets and soaked in holy
+water.
+
+Argenson perceived that the exertions of the _Chambre Ardente_ were of
+no avail, and he appealed to the king to appoint a tribunal with still
+more extensive powers to deal with this new epidemic of crime, to hunt
+up the evil-doers, and to punish them. The king, convinced that he had
+already vested too much power in the _Chambre Ardente_ and shaken with
+horror at the numberless executions which the bloodthirsty La Regnie
+had decreed, flatly refused to entertain the proposed plan.
+
+Another means was chosen to stimulate the king's interest in the
+matter.
+
+Louis was in the habit of spending the afternoon in Madame de
+Maintenon's salons, and also despatching state business therewith his
+ministers until a late hour at night. Here a poem was presented to him
+in the name of the jeopardised lovers, complaining that, whenever
+gallantry bid them honour their mistress with a present, they had
+always to risk their lives on the fulfilment of the injunction. There
+was always both honour and pleasure to be won in shedding their blood
+for their lady in a knightly encounter; but it was quite another thing
+when they had to deal with a stealthy malignant assassin, against whom
+they could not arm themselves. Would Louis, the bright polar star of
+all love and gallantry, cause the resplendent beams of his glory to
+shine and dissipate this dark night, and so unveil the black mystery
+that was concealed within it? The god-like hero, who had broken his
+enemies to pieces, would now (they hoped) draw his sword glittering
+with victory, and, as Hercules did against the Lernean serpent, or
+Theseus the Minotaur, would fight against the threatening monster which
+was gnawing away all the raptures of love, and darkening all their joy
+and converting it into deep pain and grief inconsolable.
+
+Serious as the matter was, yet the poem did not lack clever and witty
+turns, especially in the description of the anxieties which the lovers
+had to endure as they stole by secret ways to their mistresses, and of
+how their apprehensions proved fatal to all the rapturous delights of
+love and to every dainty gallant adventure before it could even develop
+into blossom. If it be added that the poem was made to conclude with a
+magniloquent panegyric upon Louis XIV., the king could not fail to read
+it with visible signs of satisfaction. Having reached the end of it, he
+turned round abruptly to Madame de Maintenon, without lifting his eyes
+from the paper, and read the poem through again aloud; after which he
+asked her with a gracious smile what was her opinion with respect to
+the wishes of the jeopardised lovers.
+
+De Maintenon, faithful to the serious bent of her mind, and always
+preserving a certain colour of piety, replied that those who walked
+along secret and forbidden paths were not worthy of any special
+protection, but that the abominable criminals did call for special
+measures to be taken for their destruction. The king, dissatisfied with
+this wavering answer, folded up the paper, and was going back to the
+Secretary of State, who was working in the next room, when on casting a
+glance sideways his eye fell upon Mademoiselle de Scudéri, who was
+present in the salon and had taken her seat in a small easy-chair not
+far from De Maintenon. Her he now approached, whilst the pleasant smile
+which at first had played about his mouth and on his cheeks, but had
+then disappeared, now won the upper hand again. Standing immediately in
+front of Mademoiselle, and unfolding the poem once more, he said
+softly, "Our Marchioness will not countenance in any way the
+gallantries of our amorous gentlemen, and give us evasive answers of a
+kind that are almost quite forbidden. But you, Mademoiselle, what is
+your opinion of this poetic petition?" De Scudéri rose respectfully
+from her chair, whilst a passing blush flitted like the purple sunset
+rays in evening across the venerable lady's pale cheeks, and she said,
+bowing gently and casting down her eyes,
+
+           "Un amant qui craint les voleurs
+            N'est point digne d'amour."
+
+(A lover who is afraid of robbers is not worthy of love.)
+
+The king, greatly struck by the chivalric spirit breathed in these few
+words, which upset the whole of the poem with its yards and yards of
+tirades, cried with sparkling eyes, "By St. Denis, you are right.
+Mademoiselle! Cowardice shall not be protected by any blind measures
+which would affect the innocent along with the guilty; Argenson and La
+Regnie must do their best as they are."
+
+
+All these horrors of the day La Martinière depicted next morning in
+startling colours when she related to her mistress the occurrence of
+the previous night; and she handed over to her the mysterious casket in
+fear and trembling. Both she and Baptiste, who stood in the corner as
+pale as death, twisting and doubling up his night-cap, and hardly able
+to speak in his fear and anxiety,--both begged Mademoiselle in the most
+piteous terms and in the names of all the saints, to use the utmost
+possible caution in opening the box. De Scudéri, weighing the locked
+mystery in her hand, and subjecting it to a careful scrutiny, said
+smiling, "You are both of you ghost-seers! That I am not rich, that
+there are not sufficient treasures here to be worth a murder, is known
+to all these abandoned assassins, who, you yourself tell me, spy out
+all that there is in a house, as well as it is to me and you. You think
+they have designs upon my life? Who could make capital out of the death
+of an old lady of seventy-three, who never did harm to anybody in the
+world except the miscreants and peace-breakers in the romances which
+she writes herself, who makes middling verses which can excite nobody's
+envy, who will have nothing to leave except the state dresses of an old
+maid who sometimes went to court, and a dozen or two well-bound books
+with gilt edges? And then you, Martinière,--you may describe the
+stranger's appearance as frightful as you like, yet I cannot believe
+that his intentions were evil. So then----"
+
+La Martinière recoiled some paces, and Baptiste, uttering a stifled
+"Oh!" almost sank upon his knees as Mademoiselle proceeded to press
+upon a projecting steel knob; then the lid flew back with a noisy jerk.
+
+But how astonished was she to see a pair of gold bracelets, richly set
+with jewels, and a necklace to match. She took them out of the case;
+and whilst she was praising the exquisite workmanship of the necklace,
+Martinière was eyeing the valuable bracelets, and crying time after
+time, that the vain Lady Montespan herself had no such ornaments as
+these. "But what is it for? what does it all mean?" said De Scudéri.
+But at this same moment she observed a small slip of paper folded
+together, lying at the bottom of the casket. She hoped, and rightly, to
+find in it an explanation of the mystery. She had hardly finished
+reading the contents of the scrip when it fell from her trembling
+hands. She sent an appealing glance towards Heaven, and then fell back
+almost fainting into her chair. Terrified, Martinière sprang to her
+assistance, and so also did Baptiste. "Oh! what an insult!" she
+exclaimed, her voice half-choked with tears, "Oh! what a burning shame!
+Must I then endure this in my old age? Have I then gone and acted with
+wrong and foolish levity like some young giddy thing? O God, are words
+let fall half in jest capable of being stamped with such an atrocious
+interpretation? And am I, who have been faithful to virtue, and of
+blameless piety from my earliest childhood until now,--am I to be
+accused of the crime of making such a diabolical compact?"
+
+Mademoiselle held her handkerchief to her eyes and wept and sobbed
+bitterly, so that Martinière and Baptiste were both of them confused
+and rendered helpless by embarrassed constraint, not knowing what to do
+to help their mistress in her great trouble.
+
+Martinière picked up the ominous strip of paper from the floor. Upon it
+was written--
+
+           "Un amant qui craint les voleurs
+            N'est point digne d'amour.
+
+"Your sagacious mind, honoured lady, has saved us from great
+persecution. We only exercise the right of the stronger over the weak
+and the cowardly in order to appropriate to ourselves treasures that
+would else be disgracefully squandered. Kindly accept these jewels as a
+token of our gratitude. They are the most brilliant that we have been
+enabled to meet with for a long time; and yet you, honoured lady, ought
+to be adorned with jewellery even still finer than this is. We trust
+you will not withdraw from us your friendship and kind remembrance.
+
+                                           "THE INVISIBLES."[14]
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed De Scudéri after she had to some extent
+recovered herself, "is it possible for men to carry their shameless
+insolence, their godless scorn, to such lengths?" The sun shone
+brightly through the dark-red silk window curtains and made the
+brilliants which lay on the table beside the open casket to sparkle in
+the reddish gleam. Chancing to cast her eyes upon them, De Scudéri hid
+her face with abhorrence, and bade Martinière take the fearful
+jewellery away at once, that very moment, for the blood of the murdered
+victims was still adhering to it. Martinière at once carefully locked
+the necklace and bracelets in the casket again, and thought that the
+wisest plan would be to hand it over to the Minister of Police, and to
+confide to him every thing connected with the appearance of the young
+man who had caused them so much uneasiness, and the way in which he had
+placed the casket in her hands.
+
+De Scudéri rose to her feet and slowly paced up and down the room in
+silence, as if she were only now reflecting what was to be done. She
+then bade Baptiste fetch a sedan chair, while Martinière was to dress
+her, for she meant to go straight to the Marchioness de Maintenon.
+
+She had herself carried to the Marchioness's just at the hour when she
+knew she should find that lady alone in her salons. The casket with the
+jewellery De Scudéri also took with her.
+
+Of course the Marchioness was greatly astonished to see Mademoiselle,
+who was generally a pattern of dignity, amiability (notwithstanding her
+advanced age), and gracefulness, come in with tottering steps, pale,
+and excessively agitated. "By all the saints, what's happened to you?"
+she cried when she saw the poor troubled lady, who, almost distracted
+and hardly able to walk erect, hurried to reach the easy-chair which De
+Maintenon pushed towards her. At length, having recovered her power of
+speech somewhat, Mademoiselle related what a deep insult--she should
+never get over it--her thoughtless jest in answer to the petition of
+the jeopardised lovers had brought upon her. The Marchioness, after
+learning the whole of the story by fragments, arrived at the conclusion
+that De Scudéri took the strange occurrence far too much to heart, that
+the mockery of depraved wretches like these could never come home to a
+pious, noble mind like hers, and finally she requested to see the
+ornaments.
+
+De Scudéri gave her the open casket; and the Marchioness, on seeing the
+costly jewellery, could not help uttering a loud cry of admiration. She
+took out the necklace and the bracelets, and approached the window with
+them, where first she let the sun play upon the stones, and then she
+held them up close to her eyes in order to see better the exquisite
+workmanship of the gold, and to admire the marvellous skill with which
+every little link in the elaborate chain was finished. All at once the
+Marchioness turned round abruptly towards Mademoiselle and cried, "I
+tell you what, Mademoiselle, these bracelets and necklace must have
+been made by no less a person than René Cardillac."
+
+René Cardillac was at that time the most skilful goldsmith in Paris,
+and also one of the most ingenious as well as one of the most eccentric
+men of the age. Rather small than great, but broad-shouldered and with
+a strong and muscular frame, Cardillac, although considerably more than
+fifty, still possessed the strength and activity of youth. And his
+strength, which might be said to be something above the common, was
+further evidenced by his abundant curly reddish hair, and his thick-set
+features and the sultry gleam upon them. Had not Cardillac been known
+throughout all Paris, as one of the most honest and honourable of men,
+disinterested, frank, without any reserve, always ready to help, the
+very peculiar appearance of his eyes, which were small, deep-set,
+green, and glittering, might have drawn upon him the suspicion of
+lurking malice and viciousness.
+
+As already said, Cardillac was the greatest master in his trade, not
+only in Paris, but also perhaps of his age. Intimately acquainted with
+the properties of precious stones, he knew how to treat them and set
+them in such a manner that an ornament which had at first been looked
+upon as wanting in lustre, proceeded out of Cardillac's shop possessing
+a dazzling magnificence. Every commission he accepted with burning
+avidity, and fixed a price that seemed to bear no proportion whatever
+to the work to be done--so small was it. Then the work gave him no
+rest; both night and day he was heard hammering in his work-shop, and
+often when the thing was nearly finished he would suddenly conceive a
+dislike to the form; he had doubts as to the elegance of the setting of
+some or other of the jewels, of a little link--quite a sufficient
+reason for throwing all into the crucible, and beginning the entire
+work over again. Thus every individual piece of jewellery that he
+turned out was a perfect and matchless masterpiece, utterly astounding
+to the person who had given the commission.
+
+But it was now hardly possible to get any work that was once finished
+out of his hands. Under a thousand pretexts he put off the owner from
+week to week, and from month to month. It was all in vain to offer him
+double for the work; he would not take a single _Louis d'or_[15] more
+than the price bargained for. When at last he was obliged to yield to
+the insistence of his customer, he could not help betraying all the
+signs of the greatest annoyance, nay, of even fury seething in his
+heart. If the piece of work which he had to deliver up was something of
+more than ordinary importance, especially anything of great value,
+worth many thousands owing to the costliness of the jewels or the
+extreme delicacy of the gold-work, he was capable of running about like
+a madman, cursing himself, his labour, and all about him. But then if
+any person came up behind him and shouted, "René Cardillac, would you
+not like to make a beautiful necklace for my betrothed?--bracelets
+for my sweet-heart," or so forth, he would suddenly stop still, and
+looking at him with his little eyes, would ask, as he rubbed his
+hands, "Well, what have you got?" Thereupon the other would produce a
+small jewel-case, and say, "Oh! some jewels--see; they are nothing
+particular, only common things, but in your hands"---- Cardillac does
+not let him finish what he has to say, but snatching the case out of
+his hand takes out the stones (which are in reality of but little
+value) and holds them up to the light, crying enraptured, "Ho! ho!
+common things, are they? Not at all! Pretty stones--magnificent stones;
+only let me make them up for you. And if you're not squeamish to a
+handful or two of _Louis d'or_, I can add a few more little gems, which
+shall sparkle in your eyes like the great sun himself." The other says,
+"I will leave it all to you, Master René, and pay you what you like."
+
+Then, without making any difference whether his customer is a rich
+citizen only or an eminent nobleman of the court, Cardillac throws his
+arms impetuously round his neck and embraces him and kisses him, saying
+that now he is quite happy again, and the work will be finished in a
+week's time. Running off home with breathless speed and up into his
+workshop, he begins to hammer away, and at the week's end has produced
+a masterpiece of art But when the customer comes prepared to pay with
+joy the insignificant sum demanded, and expecting to take the finished
+ornament away with him, Cardillac gets testy, rude, obstinate, and hard
+to deal with. "But, Master Cardillac, recollect that my wedding is
+to-morrow."--"But what have I to do with your wedding? come again in a
+fortnight's time." "The ornament is finished; here is your money; and I
+must have it." "And I tell you that I've lots of things to alter in it,
+and I shan't let you have it to-day." "And I tell you that if you won't
+deliver up the ornament by fair means--of course I am willing to pay
+you double for it--you shall soon see me march up with Argenson's
+serviceable underlings."--"Well, then, may Satan torture you with
+scores of red-hot pincers, and hang three hundredweight on the necklace
+till it strangle your bride." And therewith, thrusting the jewellery
+into the bridegroom's breast pocket, Cardillac seizes him by the arm
+and turns him roughly out of the door, so that he goes stumbling all
+down the stairs. Then Cardillac puts his head out of the window and
+laughs like a demon on seeing the poor young man limp out of the house,
+holding his handkerchief to his bloody nose.
+
+But one thing there was about him that was quite inexplicable. Often,
+after he had enthusiastically taken a piece of work in hand, he would
+implore his customer by the Virgin and all the saints, with every sign
+of deep and violent agitation, and with moving protestations, nay,
+amidst tears and sobs, that he might be released from his engagement.
+Several persons who were most highly esteemed of the king and the
+people had vainly offered large sums of money to get the smallest piece
+of work from him. He threw himself at the king's feet and besought as a
+favour at his hands that he might not be asked to do any work for him.
+In the same way he refused every commission from De Maintenon; he even
+rejected with aversion and horror the proposal she made him to
+fabricate for her a little ring with emblematic ornaments, which was to
+be presented to Racine.
+
+Accordingly De Maintenon now said, "I would wager that if I sent for
+Cardillac to come here to tell me at least for whom he made these
+ornaments, he would refuse to come, since he would probably fear it was
+some commission; and he never will make anything for me on any account.
+And yet he has, it seems, dropped something of his inflexible obstinacy
+some time ago, for I hear that he now labours more industriously than
+ever, and delivers up his work at once, though still not without much
+inward vexation and turning away of his face." De Scudéri, who was
+greatly concerned that the ornaments should, if it could possibly be
+managed, come soon into the hands of the proper owner, thought they
+might send express word to Master Whimsicality that they did not want
+him to do any work, but only to pass his opinion upon some jewels. This
+commended itself to the Marchioness. Cardillac was sent for; and, as
+though he had been already on the way, after a brief interval he
+stepped into the room.
+
+On observing De Scudéri he appeared to be embarrassed; and, like one
+confounded by something so utterly unexpected that he forgets the
+claims of propriety such as the moment demands, he first made a low and
+reverential obeisance to this venerable lady, and then only did he turn
+to the Marchioness. She, pointing to the jewellery, which now lay
+glittering on the dark-green table-cloth, asked him hastily if it was
+of his workmanship. Hardly glancing at it, and keeping his eyes
+steadily fixed upon De Maintenon, Cardillac hurriedly packed the
+necklace and bracelets into the casket, which stood beside them, and
+pushed it violently away from him. Then he said, whilst a forbidding
+smile gleamed in his red face, "By my honour, noble lady, he would have
+but a poor acquaintance with René Cardillac's workmanship who should
+believe for a single moment that any other goldsmith in the world could
+set a piece of jewellery like that is done. Of course it's my
+handiwork." "Then tell me," continued the Marchioness, "for whom you
+made these ornaments." "For myself alone," replied Cardillac. "Ah! I
+dare say your ladyship finds that strange," he continued, since both
+she and De Scudéri had fixed their eyes upon him astounded, the former
+full of mistrust, the latter of anxious suspense as to what turn the
+matter would take next; "but it is so. Merely out of love for my
+beautiful handicraft I picked out all my best stones and gladly set to
+work upon them, exercising more industry and care over them than I had
+ever done over any stones before. A short time ago the ornaments
+disappeared in some inconceivable way out of my workshop." "Thank
+Heaven!" cried De Scudéri, whilst her eyes sparkled with joy, and she
+jumped up from her chair as quick and nimble as a young girl; then
+going up to Cardillac, she placed both her hands upon his shoulders,
+and said, "Here, Master René, take your property back again, which
+these rascally miscreants stole from you." And she related every detail
+of how she had acquired possession of the ornaments, to all of which
+Cardillac listened silently, with his eyes cast down upon the floor.
+Only now and again he uttered an indistinct "Hm!--So!--Ho! ho!" now
+throwing his hands behind his back, and now softly stroking his chin
+and cheeks.
+
+When De Scudéri came to the end of her story, Cardillac appeared to be
+struggling with some new and striking thought which had occurred to him
+during the course of it, and as though he were labouring with some
+rebellious resolve that refused to conform to his wishes. He rubbed his
+forehead, sighed, drew his hand across his eyes, as if to check tears
+which were gushing from them. At length he seized the casket which De
+Scudéri was holding out towards him, and slowly sinking upon one knee,
+said, "These jewels have been decreed to you, my noble and respected
+lady, by Destiny. Yes, now I know that it was you I thought about when
+I was labouring at them, and that it was for you I worked. Do not
+disdain to accept these ornaments, nor refuse to wear them; they are
+indeed the best things I have made for a very long time." "Why, why,
+Master René," replied De Scudéri, in a charming, jesting manner; "what
+are you thinking about? Would it become me at my years to trick myself
+out with such bright gems? And what makes you think of giving me such
+an over-rich present? Nay, nay, Master René. Now if I were beautiful
+like the Marchioness de Fontange,[16] and rich too, I assure you I
+should not let these ornaments pass out of my hands; but what do these
+withered arms want with vain show, and this covered neck with
+glittering ornaments?" Meanwhile Cardillac had risen to his feet again;
+and whilst persistently holding out the casket towards De Scudéri he
+said, like one distracted--and his looks were wild and uneasy,--"Have
+pity upon me, Mademoiselle, and take the ornaments. You don't know what
+great respect I cherish in my heart for your virtue and your high good
+qualities. Accept this little present as an effort on my behalf to show
+my deep respect and devotion." But as De Scudéri still continued to
+hesitate, De Maintenon took the casket out of Cardillac's hands,
+saying, "Upon my word, Mademoiselle, you are always talking about your
+great age. What have we, you and I, to do with years and their burdens?
+And aren't you acting just like a shy young thing, who would only too
+well like to take the sweet fruit that is offered to her if she could
+only do so without stirring either hand or finger? Don't refuse to
+accept from our good Master René as a free gift what scores of others
+could never get, in spite of all their gold and all their prayers and
+entreaties."
+
+Whilst speaking De Maintenon had forced the casket into Mademoiselle's
+hand; and now Cardillac again fell upon his knees and kissed De
+Scudéri's gown and hands, sighing and gasping, weeping and sobbing;
+then he jumped up and ran off like a madman, as fast as he could run,
+upsetting chairs and tables in his senseless haste, and making the
+glasses and porcelain tumble together with a ring and jingle and clash.
+
+De Scudéri cried out quite terrified, "Good Heavens! what's happened to
+the man?" But the Marchioness, who was now in an especially lively mood
+and in such a pert humour as was in general quite foreign to her, burst
+out into a silvery laugh, and said, "Now, I've got it, Mademoiselle.
+Master René has fallen desperately in love with you, and according to
+the established form and settled usage of all true gallantry, he is
+beginning to storm your heart with rich presents." She even pushed her
+raillery further, admonishing De Scudéri not to be too cruel towards
+her despairing lover, until Mademoiselle, letting her natural-born
+humour have play, was carried away by the bubbling stream of merry
+conceits and fancies. She thought that if that was really the state of
+the case, she should be at last conquered and would not be able to help
+affording to the world the unprecedented example of a goldsmith's
+bride, of untarnished nobility, of the age of three and seventy. De
+Maintenon offered her services to weave the wedding-wreath, and to
+instruct her in the duties of a good house-wife, since such a snippety
+bit of a girl could not of course know much about such things.
+
+But when at length De Scudéri rose to say adieu to the Marchioness, she
+again, notwithstanding all their laughing jests, grew very grave as she
+took the jewel-case in her hand, and said, "And yet, Marchioness, do
+you know, I can never wear these ornaments. Whatever be their history,
+they have at some time or other been in the hands of those diabolical
+wretches who commit robbery and murder with all the effrontery of Satan
+himself; nay, I believe they must be in an unholy league with him. I
+shudder with awe at the sight of the blood which appears to adhere to
+the glittering stones. And then, I must confess, I cannot help feeling
+that there is something strangely uneasy and awe-inspiring about
+Cardillac's behaviour. I cannot get rid of the dark presentiment that
+behind all this there is lurking some fearful and terrible secret; but
+when, on the other hand, I pass the whole matter with all its
+circumstantial adjuncts in clear review before my mind, I cannot even
+guess what the mystery consists in, nor yet how our brave honest Master
+René, the pattern of a good industrious citizen, can have anything to
+do with what is bad or deserving of condemnation; but of this I am
+quite sure, that I shall never dare to put the ornaments on."
+
+The Marchioness thought that this was carrying scruples too far. But
+when De Scudéri asked her on her conscience what she should really do
+in her (Scudéri's) place, De Maintenon replied earnestly and
+decisively, "Far sooner throw the ornaments into the Seine than ever
+wear them."
+
+The scene with Master René was described by De Scudéri in charming
+verses, which she read to the king on the following evening in De
+Maintenon's salon. And of course it may readily be conceived that,
+conquering her uncomfortable feelings and forebodings of evil, she drew
+at Master René's expense a diverting picture, in bright vivacious
+colours, of the goldsmith's bride of three and seventy who was of such
+ancient nobility. At any rate the king laughed heartily, and swore that
+Boileau Despreux had found his master; hence De Scudéri's poem was
+popularly adjudged to be the wittiest that ever was written.
+
+Several months had passed, when, as chance would have it, De Scudéri
+was driving over the Pont Neuf in the Duchess de Montansier's glass
+coach. The invention of this elegant class of vehicles was still so
+recent that a throng of the curious always gathered round it when one
+appeared in the streets. And so there was on the present occasion a
+gaping crowd round De Montansier's coach on the Pont Neuf, so great as
+almost to hinder the horses from getting on. All at once De Scudéri
+heard a continuous fire of abuse and cursing, and perceived a man
+making his way through the thick of the crowd by the help of his fists
+and by punching people in the ribs. And when he came nearer she saw
+that his piercing eyes were riveted upon her. His face was pale as
+death and distorted by pain; and he kept his eyes riveted upon her all
+the time he was energetically working his way onwards with his fists
+and elbows, until he reached the door. Pulling it open with impetuous
+violence, he threw a strip of paper into De Scudéri's lap, and again
+dealing out and receiving blows and punches, disappeared as he had
+come. Martinière, who was accompanying her mistress, uttered a scream
+of terror when she saw the man appear at the coach door, and fell back
+upon the cushions in a swoon. De Scudéri vainly pulled the cord and
+called out to the driver; he, as if impelled by the foul Fiend, whipped
+up his horses, so that they foamed at the mouth and tossed their heads,
+and kicked and plunged, and finally thundered over the bridge at a
+sharp trot. De Scudéri emptied her smelling-bottle over the insensible
+woman, who at length opened her eyes. Trembling and shaking, she clung
+convulsively to her mistress, her face pale with anxiety and terror as
+she gasped out, "For the love of the Virgin, what did that terrible man
+want? Oh! yes, it was he! it was he!--the very same who brought you the
+casket that awful night." Mademoiselle pacified the poor woman,
+assuring her that not the least mischief had been done, and that the
+main thing to do just then was to see what the strip of paper
+contained. She unfolded it and found these words--
+
+"I am being plunged into the pit of destruction by an evil destiny
+which you may avert. I implore you, as the son does the mother whom he
+cannot leave, and with the warmest affection of a loving child, send
+the necklace and bracelets which you received from me to Master René
+Cardillac; any pretext will do, to get some improvement made--or to get
+something altered. Your welfare, your life, depend upon it. If you have
+not done so by the day after to-morrow I will force my way into your
+dwelling and kill myself before your eyes."
+
+
+"Well now, it is at any rate certain," said De Scudéri when she had
+read it, "that this mysterious man, even if he does really belong to
+the notorious band of thieves and robbers, yet has no evil designs
+against me. If he had succeeded in speaking to me that night, who knows
+whether I should not have learnt of some singular event or some
+mysterious complication of things, respecting which I now try in vain
+to form even the remotest guess. But let the matter now take what shape
+it may, I shall certainly do what this note urgently requests me to do,
+if for no other reason than to get rid of those ill-starred jewels,
+which I always fancy are a talisman of the foul Fiend himself. And I
+warrant Cardillac, true to his rooted habit, won't let it pass out of
+his hands again so easily."
+
+The very next day De Scudéri intended to go and take the jewellery to
+the goldsmith's. But somehow it seemed as if all the wits and
+intellects of entire Paris had conspired together to overwhelm
+Mademoiselle just on this particular morning with their verses and
+plays and anecdotes. No sooner had La Chapelle[17] finished reading a
+tragedy, and had slyly remarked with some degree of confident assurance
+that he should now certainly beat Racine, than the latter poet himself
+came in, and routed him with a pathetic speech of a certain king, until
+Boileau appeared to let off the rockets of his wit into this black sky
+of Tragedy--in order that he might not be talked to death on the
+subject of the colonnade[18] of the Louvre, for he had been penned up
+in it by Dr. Perrault, the architect.
+
+It was high noon; De Scudéri had to go to the Duchess de Montansier's;
+and so the visit to Master René Cardillac's was put off until the next
+day. Mademoiselle, however, was tormented by a most extraordinary
+feeling of uneasiness. The young man's figure was constantly before her
+eyes; and deep down in her memory there was stirring a dim recollection
+that she had seen his face and features somewhere before. Her sleep,
+which was of the lightest, was disturbed by troublesome dreams. She
+fancied she had acted frivolously and even criminally in having delayed
+to grasp the hand which the unhappy wretch, who was sinking into the
+abyss of ruin, was stretching up towards her; nay, she was even haunted
+by the thought that she had had it in her power to prevent a fatal
+event from taking place or an enormous crime from being committed. So,
+as soon as the morning was fully come, she had Martinière finish her
+toilet, and drove to the goldsmith, taking the jewel-casket with her.
+
+The people were pouring into the Rue Nicaise, to the house where
+Cardillac lived, and were gathering about his door, shouting,
+screaming, and creating a wild tumult of noise; and they were with
+difficulty prevented by the _Maréchaussée_, who had drawn a cordon
+round the house, from forcing their way in. Angry voices were crying in
+a wild confused hubbub, "Tear him to pieces! pound him to dust! the
+accursed murderer!" At length Desgrais appeared on the scene with a
+strong body of police, who formed a passage through the heart of the
+crowd. The house door flew open and a man stepped out loaded with
+chains; and he was dragged away amidst the most horrible imprecations
+of the furious mob.
+
+At the moment that De Scudéri, who was half swooning from fright and
+her apprehensions that something terrible had happened, was witness of
+this scene, a shrill piercing scream of distress rang upon her ears.
+"Go on, go on, right forward," she cried to her coachman, almost
+distracted. Scattering the dense mass of people by a quick clever turn
+of his horses, he pulled up immediately in front of Cardillac's door.
+There De Scudéri observed Desgrais, and at his feet a young girl, as
+beautiful as the day, with dishevelled hair, only half dressed, and her
+countenance stamped with desperate anxiety and wild with despair. She
+was clasping his knees and crying in a tone of the most terrible, the
+most heart-rending anguish, "Oh! he is innocent! he is innocent." In
+vain were Desgrais' efforts, as well as those of his men, to make her
+leave hold and to raise her up from the floor. At last a strong brutal
+fellow laid his coarse rough hands upon the poor girl and dragged her
+away from Desgrais by main force, but awkwardly stumbling let her drop,
+so that she rolled down the stone steps and lay in the street, without
+uttering a single sound more; she appeared to be dead.
+
+Mademoiselle could no longer contain herself. "For God's sake, what has
+happened? What's all this about?" she cried as she quickly opened the
+door of her coach and stepped out. The crowd respectfully made way for
+the estimable lady. She, on perceiving that two or three compassionate
+women had raised up the girl and set her on the steps, where they were
+rubbing her forehead with aromatic waters, approached Desgrais and
+repeated her question with vehemence. "A horrible thing has happened,"
+said Desgrais. "René Cardillac was found this morning murdered, stabbed
+to the heart with a dagger. His journeyman Olivier Brusson is the
+murderer. That was he who was just led away to prison." "And the girl?"
+exclaimed Mademoiselle---- "Is Madelon, Cardillac's daughter," broke in
+Desgrais. "Yon abandoned wretch is her lover. And she's screaming and
+crying, and protesting that Olivier is innocent, quite innocent. But
+the real truth is she is cognisant of the deed, and I must have her
+also taken to the _conciergerie_ (prison)."
+
+Saying which, Desgrais cast a glance of such spiteful malicious triumph
+upon the girl that De Scudéri trembled. Madelon was just beginning to
+breathe again, but she still lay with her eyes closed incapable of
+either sound or motion; and they did not know what to do, whether to
+take her into the house or to stay with her longer until she came round
+again. Mademoiselle's eyes filled with tears, and she was greatly
+agitated, as she looked upon the innocent angel; Desgrais and his
+myrmidons made her shudder. Downstairs came a heavy rumbling noise;
+they were bringing down Cardillac's corpse. Quickly making up her mind.
+De Scudéri said loudly, "I will take the girl with me; you may attend
+to everything else, Desgrais." A muttered wave of applause swept
+through the crowd. They lifted up the girl, whilst everybody crowded
+round and hundreds of arms were proffered to assist them; like one
+floating in the air the young girl was carried to the coach and placed
+within it,--blessings being showered from the lips of all upon the
+noble lady who had come to snatch innocence from the scaffold.
+
+The efforts of Seron, the most celebrated physician in Paris, to bring
+Madelon back to herself were at length crowned with success, for she
+had lain for hours in a dead swoon, utterly unconscious. What the
+physician began was completed by De Scudéri, who strove to excite
+the mild rays of hope in the girl's soul, till at length relief
+came to her in the form of a violent fit of tears and sobbing. She
+managed to relate all that had happened, although from time to time
+her heart-rending grief got the upper hand, and her voice was choked
+with convulsive sobs.
+
+About midnight she had been awakened by a light tap at her chamber
+door, and heard Olivier's voice imploring her to get up at once, as her
+father was dying. Though almost stunned with dismay, she started up and
+opened the door, and saw Olivier with a light in his hand, pale and
+dreadfully agitated, and dripping with perspiration. He led the way
+into her father's workshop, with an unsteady gait, and she followed
+him. There lay her father with fixed staring eyes, his throat rattling
+in the agonies of death. With a loud wail she threw herself upon him,
+and then first noticed his bloody shirt. Olivier softly drew her away
+and set to work to wash a wound in her father's left breast with a
+traumatic balsam, and to bind it up. During this operation her father's
+senses came back to him; his throat ceased to rattle; and he bent,
+first upon her and then upon Olivier, a glance full of feeling, took
+her hand, and placed it in Olivier's, fervently pressing them together.
+She and Olivier both fell upon their knees beside her father's bed; he
+raised himself up with a cry of agony, but at once sank back again, and
+in a deep sigh breathed his last. Then they both gave way to their
+grief and sorrow, and wept aloud.
+
+Olivier related how during a walk, on which he had been commanded by
+his master to attend him, the latter had been murdered in his presence,
+and how through the greatest exertions he had carried the heavy man
+home, whom he did not believe to have been fatally wounded.
+
+When morning dawned the people of the house, who had heard the
+lumbering noises, and the loud weeping and lamenting during the night,
+came up and found them still kneeling in helpless trouble by her
+father's corpse. An alarm was raised; the _Maréchaussée_ made their way
+into the house, and dragged off Olivier to prison as the murderer of
+his master. Madelon added the most touching description of her beloved
+Olivier's goodness, and steady industry, and faithfulness. He had
+honoured his master highly, as though he had been his own father; and
+the latter had fully reciprocated this affection, and had chosen
+Brusson, in spite of his poverty, to be his son-in-law, since his skill
+was equal to his faithfulness and the nobleness of his character. All
+this the girl related with deep, true, heart-felt emotion; and she
+concluded by saying that if Olivier had thrust his dagger into her
+father's breast in her own presence she should take it for some
+illusion caused by Satan, rather than believe that Olivier could be
+capable of such a horrible wicked crime.
+
+De Scudéri, most deeply moved by Madelon's unutterable sufferings, and
+quite ready to regard poor Olivier as innocent, instituted inquiries,
+and she found that all Madelon had said about the intimate terms on
+which master and journeyman had lived was fully confirmed. The people
+in the same house, as well as the neighbours, unanimously agreed in
+commending Olivier as a pattern of goodness, morality, faithfulness,
+and industry; nobody knew anything evil about him, and yet when mention
+was made of his heinous deed, they all shrugged their shoulders and
+thought there was something passing comprehension in it.
+
+Olivier, on being arraigned before the _Chambre Ardente_ denied the
+deed imputed to him, as Mademoiselle learned, with the most steadfast
+firmness and with honest sincerity, maintaining that his master had
+been attacked in the street in his presence and stabbed, that then, as
+there were still signs of life in him, he had himself carried him home,
+where Cardillac had soon afterwards expired. And all this too
+harmonised with Madelon's account.
+
+Again and again and again De Scudéri had the minutest details of the
+terrible event repeated to her. She inquired minutely whether there had
+ever been a quarrel between master and journeyman, whether Olivier was
+perhaps not subject occasionally to those hasty fits of passion which
+often attack even the most good-natured of men like a blind madness,
+impelling the commission of deeds which appear to be done quite
+independent of voluntary action. But in proportion as Madelon spoke
+with increasing heartfelt warmth of the quiet domestic happiness in
+which the three had lived, united by the closest ties of affection,
+every shadow of suspicion against poor Olivier, now being tried for his
+life, vanished away. Scrupulously weighing every point and starting
+with the assumption that Olivier, in spite of all the things which
+spoke so loudly for his innocence, was nevertheless Cardillac's
+murderer, De Scudéri did not find any motive within the bounds of
+possibility for the hideous deed; for from every point of view it would
+necessarily destroy his happiness. He is poor but clever. He has
+succeeded in gaining the good-will of the most renowned master of his
+trade; he loves his master's daughter; his master looks upon his love
+with a favourable eye; happiness and prosperity seem likely to be his
+lot through life. But now suppose that, provoked in some way that God
+alone may know, Olivier had been so overmastered by anger as to make a
+murderous attempt upon his benefactor, his father, what diabolical
+hypocrisy he must have practised to have behaved after the deed in the
+way in which he really did behave. Firmly convinced of Olivier's
+innocence, Mademoiselle made up her mind to save the unhappy young man
+at no matter what cost.
+
+Before appealing, however, to the king's mercy, it seemed to her that
+the most advisable step to take would be to call upon La Regnie, and
+direct his attention to all the circumstances that could not fail to
+speak for Olivier's innocence, and so perhaps awaken in the President's
+mind a feeling of interest favourable to the accused, which might then
+communicate itself to the judges with beneficial results.
+
+La Regnie received De Scudéri with all the great respect to which the
+venerable lady, highly honoured as she was by the king himself, might
+justly lay claim. He listened quietly to all that she had to adduce
+with respect to the terrible crime, and Olivier's relations to the
+victim and his daughter, and his character. Nevertheless the only proof
+he gave that her words were not falling upon totally deaf ears was a
+slight and well-nigh mocking smile; and in the same way he heard her
+protestations and admonitions, which were frequently interrupted by
+tears, that the judge was not the enemy of the accused, but must also
+duly give heed to anything that spoke in his favour. When at length
+Mademoiselle paused, quite exhausted, and dried the tears from her
+eyes. La Regnie began, "It does honour to the excellence of your heart.
+Mademoiselle, that, being moved by the tears of a young lovesick girl,
+you believe everything she tells you, and none the less so that you are
+incapable of conceiving the thought of such an atrocious deed; but not
+so is it with the judge, who is wont to rend asunder the mask of brazen
+hypocrisy. Of course I need not tell you that it is not part of my
+office to unfold to every one who asks me the various stages of a
+criminal trial. Mademoiselle, I do my duty and trouble myself little
+about the judgment of the world. All miscreants shall tremble before
+the _Chambre Ardente_, which knows no other punishment except the
+scaffold and the stake. But since I do not wish you, respected lady, to
+conceive of me as a monster of hard-heartedness and cruelty, suffer me
+in a few words to put clearly before you the guilt of this young
+reprobate, who, thank Heaven, has been overtaken by the avenging arm of
+justice. Your sagacious mind will then bid you look with scorn upon
+your own good kindness, which does you so much honour, but which would
+never under any circumstances be fitting in me.
+
+"Well then! René Cardillac is found in the morning stabbed to the heart
+with a dagger. The only persons with him are his journeyman Olivier
+Brusson and his own daughter. In Olivier's room, amongst other things,
+is found a dagger covered with blood, still fresh, which dagger fits
+exactly into the wound. Olivier says, 'Cardillac was cut down at night
+before my eyes.' 'Somebody attempted to rob him?' 'I don't know.' 'You
+say you went with him, how then were you not able to keep off the
+murderer, or hold him fast, or cry out for help?' 'My master walked
+fifteen, nay, fully twenty paces in front of me, and I followed him.'
+'But why, in the name of wonder, at such a distance?' 'My master would
+have it so.' 'But tell us then what Master Cardillac was doing out in
+the streets at so late an hour?' 'That I cannot say.' 'But you have
+never before known him to leave the house after nine o'clock in the
+evening, have you?' Here Olivier falters; he is confused; he sighs; he
+bursts into tears; he protests by all that is holy that Cardillac
+really went out on the night in question, and then met with his death.
+But now your particular attention, please, Mademoiselle. It has been
+proved to absolute certainty that Cardillac never left the house that
+night, and so, of course, Olivier's assertion that he went out with him
+is an impudent lie. The house door is provided with a ponderous lock,
+which on locking and unlocking makes a loud grating echoing noise;
+moreover, the wings of the door squeak and creak horribly on their
+hinges, so that, as we have proved by repeated experiments, the noise
+is heard all the way up to the garrets. Now in the bottom story, and so
+of course close to the street door, lives old Master Claude Patru and
+his housekeeper, a person of nearly eighty years of age, but still
+lively and nimble. Now these two people heard Cardillac come downstairs
+punctually at nine o'clock that evening, according to his usual
+practice, and lock and bolt the door with considerable noise, and then
+go up again, where they further heard him read the evening prayers
+aloud, and then, to judge by the banging of doors, go to his own
+sleeping-chamber. Master Claude, like many old people, suffers from
+sleeplessness; and that night too he could not close an eye. And so,
+somewhere about half-past nine it seems, his old housekeeper went into
+the kitchen (to get into which she had to cross the passage) for a
+light, and then came and sat down at the table beside Master Claude
+with an old Chronicle, out of which she read; whilst the old man,
+following the train of his thoughts, first sat down in his easy-chair,
+and then stood up again, and paced softly and slowly up and down the
+room in order to bring on weariness and sleepiness. All remained quiet
+and still until after midnight. Then they heard quick steps above them
+and a heavy fall like some big weight being thrown on the floor, and
+then soon after a muffled groaning. A peculiar feeling of uneasiness
+and dreadful suspense took possession of them both. It was horror at
+the bloody deed which had just been committed, which passed out beside
+them. The bright morning came and revealed to the light what had been
+begun in the hours of darkness."
+
+"But," interrupted De Scudéri, "but by all the saints, tell me what
+motive for this diabolical deed you can find in any of the
+circumstances which I just now repeated to you at such length?" "Hm!"
+rejoined La Regnie, "Cardillac was not poor--he had some valuable
+stones in his possession." "But would not his daughter inherit
+everything?" continued De Scudéri. "You are forgetting that Olivier was
+to be Cardillac's son-in-law." "But perhaps he had to share or only do
+the murderous deed for others," said La Regnie. "Share? do a murderous
+deed for others?" asked De Scudéri, utterly astounded. "I must tell
+you, Mademoiselle," continued the President, "that Olivier's blood
+would long ago have been shed in the Place Grève, had not his crime
+been bound up with that deeply enshrouded mystery which has hitherto
+exercised such a threatening sway over all Paris. It is evident that
+Olivier belongs to that accursed band of miscreants who, laughing to
+scorn all the watchfulness, and efforts, and strict investigations of
+the courts, have been able to carry out their plans so safely and
+unpunished. Through him all shall--all must be cleared up. Cardillac's
+wound is precisely similar to those borne by all the persons who have
+been found murdered and robbed in the streets and houses. But the most
+decisive fact is that since the time Olivier Brusson has been under
+arrest all these murders and robberies have ceased The streets are now
+as safe by night as they are by day. These things are proof enough that
+Olivier probably was at the head of this band of assassins. As yet he
+will not confess it; but there are means of making him speak against
+his will." "And Madelon," exclaimed De Scudéri, "and Madelon, the
+faithful, innocent dove!" "Oh!" said La Regnie, with a venomous smile,
+"Oh! but who will answer to me for it that she also is not an
+accomplice in the plot? What does she care about her father's death?
+Her tears are only shed for this murderous rascal." "What do you say?"
+screamed De Scudéri; "it cannot possibly be. Her father--this girl!"
+"Oh!" went on La Regnie, "Oh, but pray recollect De Brinvillier. You
+will be so good as to pardon me if I perhaps soon find myself compelled
+to take your favourite from your protection, and have her cast into the
+Conciergerie."
+
+This terrible suspicion made Mademoiselle shudder. It seemed to her as
+if no faithfulness, no virtue, could stand fast before this fearful
+man; he seemed to espy murder and blood-guiltiness in the deepest and
+most secret thoughts. She rose to go. "Be human!" was all that she
+could stammer out in her distress, and she had difficulty in breathing.
+Just on the point of going down the stairs, to the top of which the
+President had accompanied her with ceremonious courtesy, she was
+suddenly struck by a strange thought, at which she herself was
+surprised. "And could I be allowed to see this unhappy Olivier
+Brusson?" she asked, turning round quickly to the President. He,
+however, looked at her somewhat suspiciously, but his face was soon
+contracted into the forbidding smile so characteristic of him. "Of
+course, honoured lady," said he, "relying upon your feelings and the
+little voice within you more than upon what has taken place before our
+very eyes, you will yourself prove Olivier's guilt or innocence, I
+perceive. If you are not afraid to see the dark abodes of crime, and if
+you think there will be nothing too revolting in looking upon pictures
+of depravity in all its stages, then the doors of the Conciergerie
+shall be opened to you in two hours from now. You shall have this
+Olivier, whose fate excites your interest so much, presented to you."
+
+To tell the truth, De Scudéri could by no means convince herself of the
+young man's guilt. Although everything spoke against him, and no judge
+in the world could have acted differently from what La Regnie did in
+face of such conclusive circumstantial evidence, yet all these base
+suspicions were completely outweighed by the picture of domestic
+happiness which Madelon had painted for her in such warm lifelike
+colours; and hence she would rather adopt the idea of some
+unaccountable mystery than believe in the truth of that at which her
+inmost heart revolted.
+
+She was thinking that she would get Olivier to repeat once more all the
+events of that ill-omened night and worm her way as much as possible
+into any secret there might be which remained sealed to the judges,
+since for their purposes it did not seem worth while to give themselves
+any further trouble about the matter.
+
+On arriving at the Conciergerie, De Scudéri was led into a large light
+apartment. She had not long to wait before she heard the rattle of
+chains. Olivier Brusson was brought in. But the moment he appeared in
+the doorway De Scudéri sank on the floor fainting. When she recovered,
+Olivier had disappeared. She demanded impetuously that she should be
+taken to her carriage; she would go--go at once, that very moment, from
+the apartments of wickedness and infamy. For oh! at the very first
+glance she had recognised in Olivier Brusson the young man who had
+thrown the note into the carriage on the Pont Neuf, and who had brought
+her the casket and the jewels. Now all doubts were at an end; La
+Regnie's horrible suspicion was fully confirmed. Olivier Brusson
+belonged to the atrocious band of assassins; undoubtedly he murdered
+his master. And Madelon? Never before had Mademoiselle been so bitterly
+deceived by the deepest promptings of her heart; and now, shaken to the
+very depths of her soul by the discovery of a power of evil on earth in
+the existence of which she had not hitherto believed, she began to
+despair of all truth. She allowed the hideous suspicion to enter her
+mind that Madelon was involved in the complot, and might have had a
+hand in the infamous deed of blood. As is frequently the case with the
+human mind, that, once it has laid hold upon an idea, it diligently
+seeks for colours, until it finds them, with which to deck out the
+picture in tints ever more vivid and ever more glaring; so also De
+Scudéri, on reflecting again upon all the circumstances of the deed, as
+well as upon the minutest features in Madelon's behaviour, found many
+things to strengthen her suspicion. And many points which hitherto she
+had regarded as a proof of innocence and purity now presented
+themselves as undeniable tokens of abominable wickedness and studied
+hypocrisy. Madelon's heartrending expressions of trouble, and her
+floods of piteous tears, might very well have been forced from her, not
+so much from fear of seeing her lover perish on the scaffold, as of
+falling herself by the hand of the executioner. To get rid at once of
+the serpent she was nourishing in her bosom, this was the determination
+with which Mademoiselle got out of her carriage.
+
+When she entered her room, Madelon threw herself at her feet. With her
+lovely eyes--none of God's angels had truer--directed heavenwards, and
+with her hands folded upon her heaving bosom, she wept and wailed,
+craving help and consolation. Controlling herself by a painful effort,
+De Scudéri, whilst endeavouring to impart as much earnestness and
+calmness as she possibly could to the tone in which she spoke, said,
+"Go--go--comfort yourself with the thought that righteous punishment
+will overtake yon murderer for his villainous deeds. May the Holy
+Virgin forbid that you yourself come to labour under the heavy burden
+of blood-guiltiness." "Oh! all hope is now lost!" cried Madelon, with a
+piercing shriek, as she reeled to the floor senseless. Leaving La
+Martinière to attend to the girl, Mademoiselle withdrew into another
+room.
+
+De Scudéri's heart was torn and bleeding; she felt herself at variance
+with all mankind, and no longer wished to live in a world so full of
+diabolical deceit! She reproached Destiny which in bitter mockery had
+so many years suffered her to go on strengthening her belief in virtue,
+and truth, only to destroy now in her old age the beautiful images
+which had been her guiding-stars through life.
+
+She heard Martinière lead away Madelon, who was sighing softly and
+lamenting. "Alas! and she--she too--these cruel men have infatuated
+her. Poor, miserable me! Poor, unhappy Olivier!" The tones of her voice
+cut De Scudéri to the heart; again there stirred in the depths of her
+soul a dim presentiment that there was some mystery connected with the
+case, and also the belief in Olivier's innocence returned. Her mind
+distracted by the most contradictory feelings, she cried, "What spirit
+of darkness is it which has entangled me in this terrible affair? I am
+certain it will be the death of me." At this juncture Baptiste came in,
+pale and terrified, with the announcement that Desgrais was at the
+door. Ever since the trial of the infamous La Voisin the appearance of
+Desgrais in any house was the sure precursor of some criminal charge;
+hence came Baptiste's terror, and therefore it was that Mademoiselle
+asked him with a gracious smile, "What's the matter with you, Baptiste?
+The name Scudéri has been found on La Voisin's list, has it not, eh?"
+"For God's sake," replied Baptiste, trembling in every limb, "how can
+you speak of such a thing? But Desgrais, that terrible man Desgrais,
+behaves so mysteriously, and is so urgent; he seems as if he couldn't
+wait a moment before seeing you." "Well, then, Baptiste," said De
+Scudéri, "then bring him up at once--the man who is so terrible to you;
+in me, at least, he will excite no anxiety."
+
+"The President La Regnie has sent me to you, Mademoiselle," said
+Desgrais on stepping into the room, "with a request which he would
+hardly dare hope you could grant, did he not know your virtue and your
+courage. But the last means of bringing to light a vile deed of blood
+lie in your hands; and you have already of your own accord taken an
+active part in the notorious trial which the _Chambre Ardente_, and in
+fact all of us, are watching with breathless interest. Olivier Brusson
+has been half a madman since he saw you. He was beginning to show signs
+of compliance and a readiness to make a confession, but he now swears
+again, by all the powers of Heaven, that he is perfectly innocent of
+the murder of Cardillac; and yet he says he is ready to die the death
+which he has deserved. You will please observe, Mademoiselle, that the
+last clause evidently has reference to other crimes which weigh upon
+his conscience. But vain are all our efforts to get him to utter a
+single word more; even the threat of torture has been of no avail. He
+begs and prays, and beseeches us to procure him an interview with you;
+for to _you_, to _you_ only, will he confess all. Pray deign,
+Mademoiselle, to hear Brusson's confession." "What!" exclaimed De
+Scudéri indignantly, "am I to be made an instrument of by a criminal
+court, am I to abuse this unhappy man's confidence to bring him to the
+scaffold? No, Desgrais. However vile a murderer Brusson may be, I would
+never, never deceive him in that villainous way. I don't want to know
+anything about his secrets; in any case they would be locked up within
+my own bosom as if they were a holy confession made to a priest"
+"Perhaps," rejoined Desgrais with a subtle smile, "perhaps,
+Mademoiselle, you would alter your mind after you had heard Brusson.
+Did you not yourself exhort the President to be human? And he is being
+so, in that he gives way to Brusson's foolish request, and thus resorts
+to the last means before putting him to the rack, for which he was well
+ripe some time ago." De Scudéri shuddered involuntarily. "And then,
+honoured lady," continued Desgrais, "it will not be demanded of you
+that you again enter those dark gloomy rooms which filled you with such
+horror and aversion. Olivier shall be brought to you here in your own
+house as a free man, but at night, when all excitement can be avoided.
+Then, without being even listened to, though of course he would be
+watched, he may without constraint make a clean confession to you. That
+you personally will have nothing to fear from the wretch--for that I
+will answer to you with my life. He mentions your name with the
+intensest veneration. He reiterates again and again that it is nothing
+but his dark destiny, which prevented him seeing you before, that has
+brought his life into jeopardy in this way. Moreover, you will be at
+liberty to divulge what you think well of the things which Brusson
+confesses to you. And what more could we indeed compel you to do?"
+
+De Scudéri bent her eyes upon the floor in reflection. She felt she
+must obey the Higher Power which was thus demanding of her that she
+should effect the disclosure of some terrible secret, and she felt,
+too, as though she could not draw back out of the tangled skein into
+which she had run without any conscious effort of will. Suddenly making
+up her mind, she replied with dignity, "God will give me firmness and
+self-command, Bring Brusson here; I will speak with him."
+
+Just as on the previous occasion when Brusson brought the casket, there
+came a knock at De Scudéri's house door at midnight. Baptiste,
+forewarned of this nocturnal visit, at once opened the door. De Scudéri
+felt an icy shiver run through her as she gathered from the light
+footsteps and hollow murmuring voices that the guards who had brought
+Brusson were taking up their stations about the passages of the house.
+
+At length the room door was softly opened. Desgrais came in, followed
+by Olivier Brusson, freed from his fetters, and dressed in his own neat
+clothing. The officer bowed respectfully and said, "Here is Brusson,
+honoured lady," and then left the room. Brusson fell upon his knees
+before Mademoiselle, and raised his folded hands in entreaty, whilst
+copious tears ran down his cheeks.
+
+De Scudéri turned pale and looked down upon him without being able to
+utter a word. Though his features were now gaunt and hollow from
+trouble and anguish and pain, yet an expression of the truest
+staunchest honesty shone upon his countenance. The longer Mademoiselle
+allowed her eyes to rest upon his face, the more forcibly was she
+reminded of some loved person, whom she could not in any way clearly
+call to mind. All her feelings of shivery uncomfortableness left her;
+she forgot that it was Cardillac's murderer who was kneeling before
+her; she spoke in the calm pleasing tone of goodwill that was
+characteristic of her, "Well, Brusson, what have you to tell me?" He,
+still kneeling, heaved a sigh of unspeakable sadness, that came from
+the bottom of his heart, "Oh! honoured, highly esteemed lady, can you
+have lost all traces of recollection of me?" Mademoiselle scanned his
+features more narrowly, and replied that she had certainly discovered
+in his face a resemblance to some one she had once loved, and that it
+was entirely owing to this resemblance that she had overcome her
+detestation of the murderer, and was listening to him calmly.
+
+Brusson was deeply hurt at these words; he rose hastily to his feet and
+took a step, backwards, fixing his eyes gloomily on the floor. "Then
+you have completely forgotten Anne Guiot?" he said moodily; "it is her
+son Olivier,--the boy whom you often tossed on your lap--who now stands
+before you." "Oh help me, good Heaven!" exclaimed Mademoiselle,
+covering her face with both hands and sinking back upon the cushions.
+And reason enough she had to be thus terribly affected. Anne Guiot, the
+daughter of an impoverished burgher, had lived in De Scudéri's house
+from a little girl, and had been brought up by Mademoiselle with all
+the care and faithfulness which a mother expends upon her own child.
+Now when she was grown up there came a modest good-looking young man,
+Claude Brusson by name, and he wooed the girl. And since he was a
+thoroughly clever watchmaker, who would be sure to find a very good
+living in Paris, and since Anne had also grown to be truly fond of him,
+De Scudéri had no scruples about giving her consent to her adopted
+daughter's marriage. The young people, having set up housekeeping, led
+a quiet life of domestic happiness; and the ties of affection were knit
+still closer by the birth of a marvellously pretty boy, the perfect
+image of his lovely mother.
+
+De Scudéri made a complete idol of little Olivier, carrying him off
+from his mother for hours and days together to caress him and to fondle
+him. Hence the boy grew quite accustomed to her, and would just as
+willingly be with her as with his mother. Three years passed away, when
+the trade-envy of Brusson's fellow-artificers made them concert
+together against him, so that his business decreased day by day, until
+at last he could hardly earn enough for a bare subsistence. Along with
+this he felt an ardent longing to see once more his beautiful native
+city of Geneva; accordingly the small family moved thither, in spite of
+De Scudéri's opposition and her promises of every possible means of
+support Anne wrote two or three times to her foster-mother, and then
+nothing more was heard from her; so that Mademoiselle had to take
+refuge in the conclusion that the happy life they were leading in
+Brusson's native town prevented their memories dwelling upon the days
+that were past and gone. It was now just twenty-three years since
+Brusson had left Paris along with his wife and child and had gone to
+Geneva.
+
+"Oh! horrible!" exclaimed De Scudéri when she had again recovered
+herself to some extent. "Oh! horrible! are you Olivier? my Anne's son?
+And now----" "Indeed, honoured lady," replied Olivier calmly and
+composedly, "indeed you never could, I suppose, have any the least idea
+that the boy whom you fondled with all a mother's tenderness, into
+whose mouth you never tired of putting sweets and candies as you tossed
+him on your lap, whom you called by the most caressing names, would,
+when grown up to be a young man, one day stand before you accused of an
+atrocious crime. I am not free from reproach; the _Chambre Ardente_ may
+justly bring a charge against me; but by my hopes of happiness after
+death, even though it be by the executioner's hand, I am innocent of
+this bloody deed; the unhappy Cardillac did not perish through me, nor
+through any guilty connivance on my part." So saying, Olivier began to
+shake and tremble. Mademoiselle silently pointed to a low chair which
+stood beside him, and he slowly sank down upon it.
+
+"I have had plenty of time to prepare myself for my interview with
+you," he began, "which I regard as the last favour to be granted me by
+Heaven in token of my reconciliation with it, and I have also had time
+enough to gain what calmness and composure are needful in order to
+relate to you the history of my fearful and unparalleled misfortunes. I
+entreat your pity, that you will listen calmly to me, however much you
+may be surprised--nay, even struck with horror, by the disclosure of a
+secret which I am sure you have never for a moment suspected. Oh! that
+my poor father had never left Paris! As far back as my recollections of
+Geneva go I remember how I felt the tears of my unhappy parents falling
+upon my cheeks; and how their complaints of misery, which I did not
+understand, provoked me also to tears. Later I experienced to the full
+and with keen consciousness in what a state of crushing want and of
+deep distress my parents lived. My father found all his hopes deceived.
+He died bowed to the earth with pain, and broken with trouble,
+immediately after he had succeeded in placing me as apprentice to a
+goldsmith. My mother talked much about you; she said she would pour out
+all her troubles to you; but then she fell a victim to that despondency
+which is born of misery. That, and also a feeling of false shame, which
+often preys upon a deeply wounded spirit, prevented her from taking any
+decisive step. Within a few months after my father's death my mother
+followed him to the grave." "Poor Anne! poor Anne!" exclaimed
+Mademoiselle, quite overcome by sorrow. "All praise and thanks to the
+Eternal Power of Heaven that she is gone to the better land; she will
+not see her darling son, branded with shame, fall by the hand of the
+executioner," cried Olivier aloud, casting his eyes upwards with a wild
+unnatural look of anguish.
+
+The police grew uneasy outside; footsteps passed to an fro. "Ho! ho!"
+said Olivier, smiling bitterly, "Desgrais is waking up his myrmidons,
+as though I could make my escape _here_. But to continue--I led a hard
+life with my master, albeit I soon got to be the best workman, and at
+last even surpassed my master himself. One day a stranger happened to
+come into our shop to buy some jewellery. And when he saw a beautiful
+necklace which I had made he clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly
+way and said, eyeing the ornament, 'Ha! i' faith, my young friend,
+that's an excellent piece of work. To tell you the truth, I don't know
+who there is who could beat you, unless it were René Cardillac, who,
+you know, is the first goldsmith in the world. You ought to go to him;
+he would gladly take you into his workshop; for nobody but you could
+help him in his artistic labours; and on the other hand he is the only
+man from whom you could learn anything.' The stranger's words sank into
+my heart and took deep root there. I hadn't another moment's ease in
+Geneva; I felt a violent impulse to be gone. At last I contrived to get
+free from my master. I came to Paris. René Cardillac received me coldly
+and churlishly. I persevered in my purpose; he must give me some work,
+however insignificant it might be. I got a small ring to finish. On my
+taking the work to him, he fixed his keen glittering eyes upon me as if
+he would read the very depths of my soul. Then he said, 'You are a good
+clever journeyman; you may come to me and help me in my shop. I will
+pay you well; you shall be satisfied with me.' Cardillac kept his word.
+I had been several weeks with him before I saw Madelon; she was at that
+time, if I mistake not, in the country, staying, with a female relative
+of Cardillac's; but at length she came. O Heaven! O God! what did I
+feel when I saw the sweet angel? Has any man ever loved as I do? And
+now--O Madelon!"
+
+Olivier was so distressed he could not go on. Holding both hands before
+his face, he sobbed violently, But at length, fighting down with an
+effort the sharp pain that shook him, he went on with his story.
+
+"Madelon looked upon me with friendly eyes. Her visits into the
+workshop grew more and more frequent. I was enraptured to perceive that
+she loved me. Notwithstanding the strict watch her father kept upon us
+many a stolen pressure of the hand served as a token of the mutual
+understanding arrived at between us; Cardillac did not appear to notice
+anything. I intended first to win his favour, and, if I could gain my
+mastership, then to woo for Madelon. One day, as I was about to begin
+work, Cardillac came to me, his face louring darkly with anger and
+scornful contempt 'I don't want your services any longer,' he began,
+'so out you go from my house this very hour; and never show yourself in
+my sight again. Why I can't do with you here any longer, I have no need
+to tell you. For you, you poor devil, the sweet fruit at which you are
+stretching out your hand hangs too high.' I attempted to speak, but he
+laid hold upon me with a powerful grasp and threw me out of doors, so
+that I fell to the floor and severely wounded my head and arm. I left
+the house hotly indignant and furious with the stinging pain; at last I
+found a good-natured acquaintance in the remotest corner of the
+Faubourg St. Martin, who received me into his garret. But I had neither
+ease nor rest. Every night I used to lurk about Cardillac's house
+deluding myself with the fancy that Madelon would hear my sighing and
+lamenting, and that she would perhaps find a way to speak to me out of
+the window unheard. All sorts of confused plans were revolving in my
+brain, which I hoped to persuade her to carry out.
+
+"Now joining Cardillac's house in the Rue Nicaise there is a high wall,
+with niches and old stone figures in them, now half crumbled away. One
+night I was standing close beside one of these stone images and looking
+up at those windows of the house which looked out upon the court
+enclosed by the wall. All at once I observed a light in Cardillac's
+workshop. It was midnight; Cardillac never used to be awake at that
+hour; he was always in the habit of going to rest on the stroke of
+nine. My heart beat in uncertain trepidation; I began to think
+something might have happened which would perhaps pave the way for me
+to go back into the house once more. But soon the light vanished again.
+I squeezed myself into the niche close to the stone figure; but I
+started back in dismay on feeling a pressure against me, as if the
+image had become instinct with life. By the dusky glimmer of the night
+I perceived that the stone was slowly revolving, and a dark form
+slipped out from behind it and went away down the street with light,
+soft footsteps. I rushed towards the stone figure; it stood as before,
+close to the wall. Almost without thinking, rather as if impelled by
+some inward prompter, I stealthily followed the figure. Just beside an
+image of the Virgin he turned round; the light of the street lamp
+standing exactly in front of the image fell full upon his face. It was
+Cardillac.
+
+"An unaccountable feeling of apprehension--an unearthly dread fell upon
+me. Like one subject to the power of magic, I had to go on--on--in the
+track of the spectre-like somnambulist. For that was what I took my
+master to be, notwithstanding that it was not the time of full moon,
+when this visitation is wont to attack the sleeper. Finally Cardillac
+disappeared into the deep shade on the side of the street. By a sort of
+low involuntary cough, which, however, I knew well, I gathered that he
+was standing in the entry to a house. 'What is the meaning of that?
+What is he going to do?' I asked myself, utterly astounded, pressing
+close against a house-wall. It was not long before a man came along
+with fluttering plumes and jingling spur, singing and gaily humming an
+air. Like a tiger leaping upon his prey, Cardillac burst out of his
+lurking-place and threw himself upon the man, who that very same
+instant fell to the ground, gasping in the agonies of death. I rushed
+up with a cry of horror; Cardillac was stooping over the man, who lay
+on the floor. 'Master Cardillac, what are you doing?' I shouted.
+'Cursed fool!' growled Cardillac, running past me with lightning-like
+speed and disappearing from sight.
+
+"Quite upset and hardly able to take a step, I approached the man who
+had been stabbed. I knelt down beside him. 'Perhaps,' thought I, 'he
+still may be saved;' but there was not the least sign of life. In my
+fearful agitation I had hardly noticed that the _Maréchausée_ had
+surrounded me. 'What? already another assassinated by these demons!
+Hi! hi! Young man, what are you about here?--Are you one of the
+band?--Away with him!' Thus they cried one after another, and they
+laid hold of me. I was scarcely able to stammer out that I should never
+be capable of such an abominable deed, and that they might therefore
+let me go my way in peace. Then one of them turned his lamp upon my
+face and said laughing, 'Why, it's Olivier Brusson, the journeyman
+goldsmith, who works for our worthy honest Master René Cardillac. Ay, I
+should think so!--_he_ murder people in the street--he looks like it
+indeed! It's just like murderous assassins to stoop lamenting over
+their victim's corpse till somebody comes and takes them into custody.
+Well, how was it, youngster? Speak out boldly?' 'A man sprang out
+immediately in front of me,' I said, 'and threw himself upon this man
+and stabbed him, and then ran away as quick as lightning when I shouted
+out. I only wanted to see if the stabbed man might still be saved.'
+'No, my son,' cried one of those who had taken up the corpse; 'he's
+dead enough; the dagger has gone right through the heart as usual.'
+'The Devil!' said another; 'we have come too late again, as we did
+yesterday.' Thereupon they went their way, taking the corpse with them.
+
+"What my feelings were I cannot attempt to describe. I felt myself to
+make sure whether I were not being mocked by some hideous dream; I
+fancied I must soon wake up and wonder at the preposterous delusion.
+Cardillac, the father of my Madelon, an atrocious murderer! My strength
+failed me; I sank down upon the stone steps leading up to a house. The
+morning light began to glimmer and was stronger and stronger; an
+officer's hat decorated with feathers lay before me on the pavement. I
+saw again vividly Cardillac's bloody deed, which had been perpetrated
+on the spot where I sat. I ran off horrified.
+
+"I was sitting in my garret, my thoughts in a perfect whirl, nay, I was
+almost bereft of my senses, when the door opened, and René Cardillac
+came in. 'For God's sake, what do you want?' I exclaimed on seeing him.
+Without heeding my words, he approached close to me, smiling with
+calmness and an air of affability which only increased my inward
+abhorrence. Pulling up a rickety old stool and taking his seat upon it
+close beside me, for I was unable to rise from the heap of straw upon
+which I had thrown myself, he began, 'Well, Olivier, how are you
+getting on, my poor fellow? I did indeed do an abominably rash thing
+when I turned you out of the house; I miss you at every step and turn.
+I have got a piece of work on hand just now which I cannot finish
+without your help. How would it be if you came back to work in my shop?
+Have you nothing to say? Yes, I know I have insulted you. I will not
+attempt to conceal it from you that I was angry on account of your love
+making to my Madelon. But since then I have ripely reflected upon the
+matter, and decided that, considering your skill and industry and
+faithful honesty, I could not wish for any better son-in-law than you.
+So come along with me, and see if you can win Madelon to be your
+bride.'
+
+"Cardillac's words cut me to the very heart; I trembled with dread at
+his wickedness; I could not utter a word. 'Do you hesitate?' he
+continued in a sharp tone, piercing me through and through with his
+glittering eyes; 'do you hesitate? Perhaps you can't come along with me
+just to-day--perhaps you have some other business on hand! Perhaps you
+mean forsooth to pay a visit to Desgrais or get yourself admitted to an
+interview with D'Argenson or La Regnie. But you'd better take care,
+boy, that the claws which you entice out of their sheaths to other
+people's destruction don't seize upon you yourself and tear you to
+pieces!' Then my swelling indignation suddenly found vent 'Let those
+who are conscious of having committed atrocious crimes,' I cried,--'let
+them start at the names you just named. As for me, I have no reason to
+do so--I have nothing to do with them.' 'Properly speaking,' went on
+Cardillac, 'properly speaking, Olivier, it is an honour to you to work
+with me--with me, the most renowned master of the age, and highly
+esteemed everywhere for his faithfulness and honesty, so that all
+wicked calumnies would recoil upon the head of the backbiter. And as
+far as concerns Madelon, I must now confess that it is she alone to
+whom you owe this compliance on my part. She loves you with an
+intensity which I should not have credited the delicate child with.
+Directly you had gone she threw herself at my feet, clasped my knees,
+and confessed amid endless tears that she could not live without you.
+I thought she only fancied so, as so often happens with young and
+love-sick girls; they think they shall die at once the first time a
+milky-faced boy looks kindly upon them. But my Madelon did really
+become ill and begin to pine away; and when I tried to talk her out of
+her foolish silly notions, she only uttered your name scores of times.
+What on earth could I do if I didn't want her to die away in despair?
+Last evening I told her I would give my consent to her dearest wishes,
+and would come and fetch you to-day. And during the night she has
+blossomed up like a rose, and is now waiting for you with all the
+longing impatience of love.'
+
+"May God in heaven forgive me! I don't know myself how it came about,
+but I suddenly found myself in Cardillac's house; and Madelon cried
+aloud with joy, 'Olivier! my Olivier! my darling! my husband!' as she
+rushed towards me and threw both her arms round my neck, pressing me
+close to her bosom, till in a perfect delirium of passionate delight I
+swore by the Virgin and all the saints that I would never, never leave
+her."
+
+Olivier was so deeply agitated by the recollection of this fateful
+moment, that he was obliged to pause. De Scudéri, struck with horror at
+this foul iniquity in a man whom she had always looked upon as a model
+of virtue and honest integrity, cried, "Oh! it is horrible! So René
+Cardillac belongs to the murderous band which has so long made our good
+city a mere bandits' haunt?" "What do you say, Mademoiselle, to the
+_band_?" said Olivier. "There has never been such a band. It was
+Cardillac _alone_ who, active in wickedness, sought for his victims and
+found them throughout the entire city. And it was because he acted
+alone that he was enabled to carry on his operations with so much
+security, and from the same cause arose the insuperable difficulty of
+getting a clue to the murderer. But let me go on with my story; the
+sequel will explain to you the secrets of the most atrocious but at the
+same time of the most unfortunate of men.
+
+"The situation in which I now found myself fixed at my master's may be
+easily imagined. The step was taken; I could not go back. At times I
+felt as though I were Cardillac's accomplice in crime; the only thing
+that made me forget the inner anguish that tortured me was Madelon's
+love, and it was only in her presence that I succeeded in totally
+suppressing all external signs of the nameless trouble and anxiety I
+had in my heart. When I was working with the old man in the shop, I
+could never look him in the face; and I was hardly able to speak a
+word, owing to the awful dread with which I trembled whenever near the
+villain, who fulfilled all the duties of a faithful and tender father,
+and of a good citizen, whilst the night veiled his monstrous iniquity.
+Madelon, dutiful, pure, confiding as an angel, clung to him with
+idolatrous affection. The thought often struck like a dagger to my
+heart that, if justice should one day overtake the reprobate and unmask
+him, she, deceived by the diabolical arts of the foul Fiend, would
+assuredly die in the wildest agonies of despair. This alone would keep
+my lips locked, even though it brought upon me a criminal's death.
+Notwithstanding that I picked up a good deal of information from the
+talk of the _Maréchaussée_ yet the motive for Cardillac's atrocities,
+as well as his manner of accomplishing them, still remained riddles to
+me; but I had not long to wait for the solution.
+
+"One day Cardillac was very grave and preoccupied over his work,
+instead of being in the merriest of humours, jesting and laughing as he
+usually did, and so provoking my abhorrence of him. All of a sudden he
+threw aside the ornament he was working at, so that the pearls and
+other stones rolled across the floor, and starting to his feet he
+exclaimed, 'Olivier, things can't go on in this way between us; the
+footing we are now on is getting unbearable. Chance has played into
+your hands the knowledge of a secret which has baffled the most
+inventive cunning of Desgrais and all his myrmidons. You have seen me
+at my midnight work, to which I am goaded by my evil destiny; no
+resistance is ever of any avail. And your evil destiny it was which led
+you to follow me, which wrapped you in an impenetrable veil and gave
+you the lightness of foot which, enabled you to walk as noiselessly as
+the smallest insect, so that I, who in the blackest night see as
+plainly as a tiger and hear the slightest noise, the humming of midges,
+far away along the streets, did not perceive you near me. Your evil
+star has brought you to me, my associate. As you are now circumstanced
+there can be no thought of treachery on your part, and so you may now
+know all.' 'Never, never will I be your associate, you hypocritical
+reprobate,' I endeavoured to cry out, but I felt a choking sensation in
+my throat, caused by the dread which came upon me as Cardillac spoke.
+Instead of speaking words, I only gasped out certain unintelligible
+sounds. Cardillac again sat down on his bench, drying the perspiration
+from his brow. He appeared to be fearfully agitated by his
+recollections of the past and to have difficulty in preserving his
+composure. But at length he began.
+
+"'Learned men say a good deal about the extraordinary impressions of
+which women are capable when _enceinte_, and of the singular influence
+which such a vivid involuntary external impression has upon the unborn
+child. I was told a surprising story about my mother. About eight
+months before I was born, my mother accompanied certain other women to
+see a splendid court spectacle in the Trianon.[19] There her eyes fell
+upon a cavalier wearing a Spanish costume, who wore a flashing jewelled
+chain round his neck, and she could not keep her eyes off it. Her whole
+being was concentrated into desire to possess the glittering stones,
+which she regarded as something of supernatural origin. Several years
+previously, before my mother was married, the same cavalier had paid
+his insidious addresses to her, but had been repulsed with indignant
+scorn. My mother knew him again; but now by the gleam of the brilliant
+diamonds he appeared to her to be a being of a higher race--the paragon
+of beauty. He noticed my mother's looks of ardent desire. He believed
+he should now be more successful than formerly. He found means to
+approach her, and, yet more, to draw her away from her acquaintances to
+a retired place. Then he clasped her passionately in his arms, whilst
+she laid hold of the handsome chain; but in that moment the cavalier
+reeled backwards, dragging my mother to the ground along with him.
+Whatever was the cause--whether he had a sudden stroke, or whether it
+was due to something else--enough, the man was dead. All my mother's
+efforts to release herself from the stiffened arms of the corpse proved
+futile. His glazed eyes, their faculty of vision now extinguished, were
+fixed upon her; and she lay on the ground with the dead man. At length
+her piercing screams for help reached the ears of some people passing
+at a distance; they hurried up and freed her from the arms of her
+ghastly lover. The horror prostrated her in a serious illness. Her
+life, and mine too, was despaired of; but she recovered, and her
+accouchement was more favourable than could have been expected. But the
+terror of that fearful moment had left its stamp upon _me_. The evil
+star of my destiny had got in the ascendant and shot down its sparks
+upon me, enkindling in me a most singular but at the same time a most
+pernicious passion. Even in the earliest days of my childhood there was
+nothing I thought so much of as I did of flashing diamonds and
+ornaments of gold. It was regarded as an ordinary childish inclination.
+But the contrary was soon made manifest, for when a boy I stole all the
+gold and jewellery I could anywhere lay my hands on. Like the most
+experienced goldsmith I could distinguish by instinct false jewellery
+from real. The latter alone proved an attraction to me; objects made of
+imitated gold as well as gold coins I heeded not in the least. My
+inborn propensity had, however, to give way to the excessively cruel
+thrashings which I received at my father's hand.
+
+"'I adopted the trade of a goldsmith, merely that I might be able to
+handle gold and precious stones. I worked with passionate enthusiasm
+and soon became the first master in the craft. But now began a period
+in which my innate propensity, so long repressed, burst forth with
+vehemence and grew most rapidly, imbibing nourishment from everything
+about it. So soon as I had completed a piece of jewellery, and had
+delivered it up to the customer, I fell into a state of unrest, of
+desperate disquiet, which robbed me of sleep and health and courage for
+my daily life. Day and night the person for whom I had done the work
+stood before my eyes like a spectre, adorned with my jewellery, whilst
+a voice whispered in my ears, "Yes, it's yours; yes it's yours. Go and
+take it. What does a dead man want diamonds for?" Then I began to
+practise thievish arts. As I had access to the houses of the great, I
+speedily turned every opportunity to good account: no lock could baffle
+my skill; and I soon had the object which I had made in my hands again.
+But after a time even that did not banish my unrest. That unearthly
+voice still continued to make itself heard in my ears, mocking me to
+scorn, and crying, "Ho! ho! a dead man is wearing your jewellery." By
+some inexplicable means, which I do not understand, I began to conceive
+an unspeakable hatred of those for whom I made my ornaments. Ay, deep
+down in my heart there began to stir a murderous feeling against them,
+at which I myself trembled with apprehension.
+
+"'About this time I bought this house. I had just struck a bargain with
+the owner; we were sitting in this room drinking a glass of wine
+together and enjoying ourselves over the settlement of our business.
+Night had come; I rose to go; then the vendor of the house said, "See
+here, Master René; before you go, I must make you acquainted with the
+secret of the place." Therewith he unlocked that press let into the
+wall there, pushed away the panels at the back, and stepped into a
+little room, where, stooping down, he lifted up a trap-door. We
+descended a flight of steep, narrow stairs, and came to a narrow
+postern, which he unlocked, and let us out into the court-yard. Then
+the old gentleman, the previous owner of the house, stepped up to the
+wall and pressed an iron knob, which projected only very triflingly
+from it; immediately a portion of the wall swung round, so that a man
+could easily slip through the opening, and in that way gain the street.
+I will show you the neat contrivance some day, Olivier; very likely it
+was constructed by the cunning monks of the monastery which formerly
+stood on this site, in order that they might steal in and out secretly.
+It is a piece of wood, plastered with mortar and white-washed on the
+outside only, and within it, on the side next the street, is fixed a
+statue, also of wood, but coloured to look exactly like stone, and the
+whole piece, together with the statue, moves upon concealed hinges.
+Dark thoughts swept into my mind when I saw this contrivance; it
+appeared to have been built with a predestined view to such deeds as
+yet remained unknown to myself.
+
+"'I had just completed a valuable ornament for a courtier, and knew
+that he intended it for an opera-dancer. The ominous torture assailed
+me again; the spectre dogged my footsteps; the whispering fiend was at
+my ear. I took possession of my new house. I tossed sleeplessly on my
+couch, bathed in perspiration, caused by the hideous torments I was
+enduring. In imagination I saw the man gliding along to the dancer's
+abode with my ornament. I leapt up full of fury; threw on my mantle,
+went down by the secret stairs, through the wall, and into the Rue
+Nicaise. He is coming along; I throw myself upon him; he screams out;
+but I have seized him fast from behind, and driven my dagger right into
+his heart; the ornament is mine. This done I experienced a calmness, a
+satisfaction in my soul, which I had never yet experienced. The spectre
+had vanished; the voice of the fiend was still. Now I knew what my evil
+Destiny wanted; I had either to yield to it or to perish. And now too
+you understand the secret of all my conduct, Olivier. But do not
+believe, because I must do that for which there is no help, that
+therefore I have entirely lost all sense of pity, of compassion, which
+is said to be one of the essential properties of human nature. You know
+how hard it is for me to part with a finished piece of work, and that
+there are many for whom I refuse to work at all, because I do not wish
+their death; and it has also happened that when I felt my spectre would
+have to be exorcised on the following day by blood, I have satisfied it
+with a stout blow of the fist the same day, which stretched on the
+ground the owner of my jewel, and delivered the jewel itself into my
+hand.'
+
+"Having told me all this Cardillac took me into his secret vault and
+granted me a sight of his jewel-cabinet; and the king himself has not
+one finer. A short label was attached to each article, stating
+accurately for whom it was made, when it was recovered, and whether by
+theft, or by robbery from the person accompanied with violence, or by
+murder. Then Cardillac said in a hollow and solemn voice, 'On your
+wedding-day, Olivier, you will have to lay your hand on the image of
+the crucified Christ and swear a solemn oath that after I am dead you
+will reduce all these riches to dust, through means which I shall then,
+before I die, disclose to you. I will not have any human creature,
+and certainly neither Madelon nor you, come into possession of this
+blood-bought treasure-store.' Entangled in this labyrinth of crime, and
+with my heart lacerated by love and abhorrence, by rapture and horror,
+I might be compared to the condemned mortal whom a lovely angel is
+beckoning upwards with a gentle smile, whilst on the other hand Satan
+is holding him fast in his burning talons, till the good angel's smiles
+of love, in which are reflected all the bliss of the highest heaven,
+become converted into the most poignant of his miseries. I thought of
+flight--ay, even of suicide--but Madelon! Blame me, reproach me,
+honoured lady, for my too great weakness in not fighting down by an
+effort of will a passion that was fettering me to crime; but am I not
+about to atone for my fault by a death of shame?
+
+"One day Cardillac came home in uncommonly good spirits. He caressed
+Madelon, greeted me with the most friendly good-will, and at dinner
+drank a bottle of better wine, of a brand that he only produced on high
+holidays and festivals, and he also sang and gave vent to his feelings
+in exuberant manifestations of joy. When Madelon had left us I rose to
+return to the workshop. 'Sit still, lad,' said Cardillac; 'we'll not
+work any more to-day. Let us drink another glass together to the health
+of the most estimable and most excellent lady in Paris.' After I had
+joined glasses with him and had drained mine to the bottom, he went on,
+'Tell me, Olivier, how do you like these verses,'
+
+           'Un amant qui craint les voleuis
+            N'est point digne d'amour.'
+
+"Then he went on to relate the episode between you and the king in De
+Maintenon's salons, adding that he had always honoured you as he never
+had any other human creature, and that you were gifted with such lofty
+virtue as to make his ill-omened star of Destiny grow pale, and that if
+you were to wear the handsomest ornament he ever made it would never
+provoke in him either an evil spectre or murderous thoughts. 'Listen
+now, Olivier,' he said, 'what I have made up my mind to do. A long time
+ago I received an order for a necklace and a pair of bracelets for
+Henrietta of England,[20] and the stones were given me for the purpose.
+The work turned out better than the best I had ever previously done;
+but my heart was torn at the thought of parting from the ornaments, for
+they had become my pet jewels. You are aware of the Princess's unhappy
+death by sinister means. The ornaments I retained, and will now send
+them to Mademoiselle de Scudéri in the name of the persecuted band of
+robbers as a token of my respect and gratitude. Not only will
+Mademoiselle receive an eloquent token of her triumph, but I shall also
+laugh Desgrais and his associates to scorn, as they deserve to be
+laughed at. You shall take her the ornaments.' As Cardillac mentioned
+your name, Mademoiselle, I seemed to see a dark veil thrown aside,
+revealing the fair, bright picture of my early happy childhood days in
+gay and cheerful colours. A wondrous source of comfort entered my soul,
+a ray of hope, before which all my dark spirits faded away. Possibly
+Cardillac noted the effect which his words had upon me and interpreted
+it in his own way, 'You appear to find pleasure in my plan,' he said.
+'And I may as well state to you that I have been commanded to do this
+by an inward monitor deep down in my heart, very different from that
+which demands its holocaust of blood like some ravenous beast of prey.
+I often experience very remarkable feelings; I am powerfully affected
+by an inward apprehension, by fear of something terrible, the horrors
+of which breathe upon me in the air from a far-distant world of the
+Supernatural. I then feel even as if the crimes I commit as the blind
+instrument of my ill-starred Destiny may be charged upon my immortal
+soul, which has no share in them. During one such mood I vowed to make
+a diamond crown for the Holy Virgin in St. Eustace's Church. But so
+often as I thought seriously about setting to work upon it, I was
+overwhelmed by this unaccountable apprehension, so that I gave up the
+project altogether. Now I feel as if I must humbly offer an
+acknowledgment at the altar of virtue and piety by sending to De
+Scudéri the handsomest ornaments I have ever worked.'
+
+"Cardillac, who was intimately acquainted with your habits and ways of
+life. Mademoiselle, gave me instructions respecting the manner and the
+hour--the how and the when--in which I was to deliver the ornaments,
+which he locked in an elegant case, into your hands. I was completely
+thrilled with delight, for Heaven itself now pointed out to me through
+the miscreant Cardillac, a way by which I might rescue myself from the
+hellish thraldom in which I, a sinner and outcast, was slowly
+perishing; these at least were my thoughts. In express opposition to
+Cardillac's will I resolved to force myself in to an interview with
+you. I intended to reveal myself as Anne Brusson's son, as your own
+adoptive child, and to throw myself at your feet and confess all--all.
+I knew that you would have been so touched by the overwhelming misery
+which would have threatened poor innocent Madelon by any disclosure
+that you would have respected the secret; whilst your keen, sagacious
+mind would, I felt assured, have devised some means by which
+Cardillac's infamous wickedness might have been prevented without any
+exposure. Pray do not ask me what shape these means would have taken; I
+do not know. But that you would save Madelon and me, of that I was most
+firmly convinced, as firmly as I believe in the comfort and help of the
+Holy Virgin. You know how my intention was frustrated that night,
+Mademoiselle. I still cherished the hope of being more successful
+another time. Soon after this Cardillac seemed suddenly to lose all his
+good-humour. He went about with a cloudy brow, fixed his eyes on
+vacancy in front of him, murmured unintelligible words, and
+gesticulated with his hands, as if warding off something hostile from
+him; his mind appeared to be tormented by evil thoughts. Thus he
+behaved during the course of one whole morning. Finally he sat down to
+his work-table; but he soon leapt up again peevishly and looked out of
+the window, saying moodily and earnestly, 'I wish after all that
+Henrietta of England had worn my ornaments.' These words struck terror
+to my heart. Now I knew that his warped mind was again enslaved by the
+abominable spectre of murder, and that the voice of the fiend was again
+ringing audibly in his ears. I saw your life was threatened by the
+villainous demon of murder. If Cardillac only had his ornaments in his
+hands again, you were saved.
+
+"Every moment the danger increased. Then I met you on the Pont Neuf,
+and forced my way to your carriage, and threw you that note, beseeching
+you to restore the ornaments which you had received to Cardillac's
+hands at once. You did not come. My distress deepened to despair when
+on the following day Cardillac talked about nothing else but the
+magnificent ornaments which he had seen before his eyes during the
+night. I could only interpret that as having reference to your
+jewellery, and I was certain that he was brooding over some fresh
+murderous onslaught which he had assuredly determined to put into
+execution during the coming night. I must save you, even if it cost
+Cardillac's own life. So soon as he had locked himself in his own room
+after evening prayers, according to his wont, I climbed out of a window
+into the court-yard, slipped through the opening in the wall, and took
+up my station at no great distance, hidden in the deep shade. I had not
+long to wait before Cardillac appeared and stole softly up the street,
+me following him. He bent his steps towards the Rue St. Honoré; my
+heart trembled with apprehension. All of a sudden I lost sight of him.
+I made up my mind to take post at your house-door. Then there came an
+officer past me, without perceiving me, singing and gaily humming a
+tune to himself, as on the occasion when chance first made me a witness
+of Cardillac's bloody deeds. But that selfsame moment a dark figure
+leapt forward and fell upon the officer. It was Cardillac. This murder
+I would at any rate prevent. With a loud shout I reached the spot in
+two or three bounds, when, not the officer, but Cardillac, fell on the
+floor groaning. The officer let his dagger fall, and drawing his sword
+put himself in a posture for fighting, imagining that I was the
+murderer's accomplice; but when he saw that I was only concerned about
+the slain man, and did not trouble myself about him, he hurried away.
+Cardillac was still alive. After picking up and taking charge of the
+dagger which the officer had let fall, I loaded my master upon my
+shoulders and painfully hugged him home, carrying him up to the
+workshop by way of the concealed stairs. The rest you know.
+
+"You see, honoured lady, that my only crime consists in the fact that I
+did not betray Madelon's father to the officers of the law, and so put
+an end to his enormities. My hands are clean of any deed of blood. No
+torture shall extort from me a confession of Cardillac's crimes. I will
+not, in defiance of the Eternal Power, which veiled the father's
+hideous bloodguiltiness from the eyes of the virtuous daughter, be
+instrumental in unfolding all the misery of the past, which would now
+have a far more disastrous effect upon her, nor do I wish to aid
+worldly vengeance in rooting up the dead man from the earth which
+covers him, nor that the executioner should now brand the mouldering
+bones with dishonour. No; the beloved of my soul will weep for me as
+one who has fallen innocent, and time will soften her sorrow; but how
+irretrievable a shock would it be if she learnt of the fearful and
+diabolical deeds of her dearly-loved father."
+
+Olivier paused; but now a torrent of tears suddenly burst from his
+eyes, and he threw himself at De Scudéri's feet imploringly. "Oh! now
+you are convinced of my innocence--oh! surely you must be! have pity
+upon me; tell me how my Madelon bears it." Mademoiselle summoned La
+Martinière, and in a few moments more Madelon's arms were round
+Olivier's neck. "Now all is well again since you are here. I knew it, I
+knew this most noble-minded lady would save you," cried Madelon again
+and again; and Olivier forgot his situation and all that was impending
+over him, he was free and happy. It was most touching to hear the two
+mutually pour out all their troubles, and relate all that they had
+suffered for one another's sake; then they embraced one another anew,
+and wept with joy to see each other again.
+
+If De Scudéri had not been already convinced of Olivier's innocence she
+would assuredly have been satisfied of it now as she sat watching the
+two, who forgot the world and their misery and their excessive
+sufferings in the happiness of their deep and genuine mutual affection.
+"No," she said to herself, "it is only a pure heart which is capable of
+such happy oblivion."
+
+The bright beams of morning broke in through the window. Desgrais
+knocked softly at the room door, and reminded those within that it was
+time to take Olivier Brusson away, since this could not be done later
+without exciting a commotion. The lovers were obliged to separate.
+
+The dim shapeless feelings which had taken possession of De Scudéri's
+mind on Olivier's first entry into the room, had now acquired form and
+content--and in a fearful way. She saw the son of her dear Anne
+innocently entangled in such a way that there hardly seemed any
+conceivable means of saving him from a shameful death. She honoured the
+young man's heroic purpose in choosing to die under an unjust burden of
+guilt rather than divulge a secret that would certainly kill his
+Madelon. In the whole region of possibility she could not find any
+means whatever to snatch the poor fellow out of the hands of the cruel
+tribunal. And yet she had a most clear conception that she ought not to
+hesitate at any sacrifice to avert this monstrous perversion of justice
+which was on the point of being committed. She racked her brain with a
+hundred different schemes and plans, some of which bordered upon the
+extravagant, but all these she rejected almost as soon as they
+suggested themselves. Meanwhile the rays of hope grew fainter and
+fainter, till at last she was on the verge of despair. But Madelon's
+unquestioning child-like confidence, the rapturous enthusiasm with
+which she spoke of her lover, who now, absolved of all guilt, would
+soon clasp her in his arms as his bride, infused De Scudéri with new
+hope and courage, exactly in proportion as she was the more touched by
+the girl's words.
+
+At length, for the sake of doing something. De Scudéri wrote a long
+letter to La Regnie, in which she informed him that Olivier Brusson had
+proved to her in the most convincing manner his perfect innocence of
+Cardillac's death, and that it was only his heroic resolve to carry
+with him into the grave a secret, the revelation of which would entail
+disaster upon virtue and innocence, that prevented him making a
+revelation to the court which would undoubtedly free him, not only from
+the fearful suspicion of having murdered Cardillac, but also of having
+belonged to a band of vile assassins. De Scudéri did all that burning
+zeal, that ripe and spirited eloquence could effect, to soften La
+Regnie's hard heart. In the course of a few hours La Regnie replied
+that he was heartily glad to learn that Olivier Brusson had justified
+himself so completely in the eyes of his noble and honoured
+protectress. As for Olivier's heroic resolve to carry with him into the
+grave a secret that had an important bearing upon the crime under
+investigation, he was sorry to say that the _Chambre Ardente_ could not
+respect such heroic courage, but would rather be compelled to adopt the
+strongest means to break it. At the end of three days he hoped to be in
+possession of this extraordinary secret, which it might be presumed
+would bring wonders to light.
+
+De Scudéri knew only too well what those means were by which the savage
+La Regnie intended to break Brusson's heroic constancy. She was now
+sure that the unfortunate was threatened with the rack. In her
+desperate anxiety it at length occurred to her that the advice of a
+doctor of the law would be useful, if only to effectuate a postponement
+of the torture. The most renowned advocate in Paris at that time was
+Pierre Amaud d'Andilly; and his sound knowledge and liberal mind were
+only to be compared to his virtue and his sterling honesty. To him,
+therefore, De Scudéri had recourse, and she told him all, so far as she
+could, without violating Brusson's secret She expected that D'Andilly
+would take up the cause of the innocent man with zeal, but she found
+her hopes most bitterly deceived. The lawyer listened calmly to all she
+had to say, and then replied in Boileau's words, smiling as he did so,
+"_Le vrai peut quelque fois n'être pas vraisemblable_" (Sometimes truth
+wears an improbable garb). He showed De Scudéri that there were most
+noteworthy grounds for suspicion against Brusson, that La Regnie's
+proceedings could neither be called cruel nor yet hurried, rather they
+were perfectly within the law--nay, that he could not act otherwise
+without detriment to his duties as judge. He himself did not see his
+way to saving Brusson from torture, even by the cleverest defence.
+Nobody but Brusson himself could avert it, either by a candid
+confession or at least by a most detailed account of all the
+circumstances attending Cardillac's murder, and this might then perhaps
+furnish grounds for instituting fresh inquiries. "Then I will throw
+myself at the king's feet and pray for mercy," said De Scudéri,
+distracted, her voice half choked by tears. "For Heaven's sake, don't
+do it, Mademoiselle, don't do it. I would advise you to reserve this
+last resource, for if it once fail it is lost to you for ever. The king
+will never pardon a criminal of this class: he would draw down upon
+himself the bitterest reproaches of the people, who would believe their
+lives were always in danger. Possibly Brusson, either by disclosing his
+secret or by some other means, may find a way to allay the suspicions
+which are working against him. Then will be the time to appeal to the
+king for mercy, for he will not inquire what has been proved before the
+court, but be guided by his own inner conviction." De Scudéri had no
+help for it but to admit that D'Andilly with his great experience was
+in the right.
+
+Late one evening she was sitting in her own room in very great trouble,
+appealing to the Virgin and the Holy Saints, and thinking whatever
+should she do to save the unhappy Brusson, when La Martinière came in
+to announce that Count de Miossens, colonel of the King's Guards, was
+urgently desiring to speak to Mademoiselle.
+
+"Pardon me, Mademoiselle," said Miossens, bowing with military grace,
+"pardon me for intruding upon you so late, at such an inconvenient
+hour. We soldiers cannot do as we like, and then a couple of words will
+suffice to excuse me. It is on Olivier Brusson's account that I have
+come." De Scudéri's attention was at once on the stretch as to what was
+to follow, and she said, "Olivier Brusson?--that most unhappy of
+mortals? What have you to do with him?" "Yes, I did indeed think,"
+continued Miossens smiling, "that your _protégé's_ name would be
+sufficient to procure me a favourable hearing. All the public are
+convinced of Brusson's guilt. But you, I know, cling to another
+opinion, which is based, to be sure, upon the protestations of the
+accused, as it is said; with me, however, it is otherwise. Nobody can
+be more firmly convinced that Brusson is innocent of Cardillac's death
+than I am." "Oh! go on and tell me; go on, pray!" exclaimed De Scudéri,
+whilst her eyes sparkled with delight. Miossens continued, speaking
+with emphasis, "It was I--I who stabbed the old goldsmith not far from
+your house here in the Rue St. Honors." "By the Saints!--you--you?"
+exclaimed Mademoiselle. "And I swear to you, Mademoiselle," went on
+Miossens, "that I am proud of the deed. For let me tell you that
+Cardillac was the most abandoned and hypocritical of villains, that it
+was he who committed those dreadful murders and robberies by night, and
+so long escaped all traps laid for him. Somehow, I can't say how, a
+strong feeling of suspicion was aroused in my mind against the old
+reprobate when he brought me an ornament I had ordered and was so
+visibly disturbed on giving it to me; and then he inquired particularly
+for whom I wanted the ornament, and also questioned my valet in the
+most artful way as to when I was in the habit of visiting a certain
+lady. I had long before noticed that all the unfortunates who fell
+victims to this abominable epidemic of murder and robbery bore one and
+the same wound. I felt sure that the assassin had by practice grown
+perfect in inflicting it, and that it must prove instantaneously fatal,
+and upon this he relied implicitly. If it failed, then it would come to
+a fight on equal terms. This led me to adopt a measure of precaution
+which is so simple that I cannot comprehend why it did not occur to
+others, who might then have safeguarded themselves against any
+murderous assault that threatened them. I wore a light shirt of mail
+under my tunic. Cardillac attacked me from behind. He laid hold upon me
+with the strength of a giant, but the surely-aimed blow glanced aside
+from the iron. That same moment I wrested myself free from his grasp,
+and drove my dagger, which I held in readiness, into his heart." "And
+you maintained silence?" asked De Scudéri; "you did not notify to the
+tribunals what you had done?" "Permit me to remark," went on Miossens,
+"permit me to remark, Mademoiselle, that such an announcement, if it
+had not at once entailed disastrous results upon me, would at any rate
+have involved me in a most detestable trial. Would La Regnie, who
+ferrets out crime everywhere--would he have believed my unsupported
+word if I had accused honest Cardillac, the pattern of piety and
+virtue, of an attempted murder? What if the sword of justice had turned
+its point against me?" "That would not have been possible," said De
+Scudéri, "your birth--your rank"---- "Oh! remember Marshal de
+Luxembourg, whose whim for having his horoscope cast by Le Sage brought
+him under the suspicion of being a poisoner, and eventually into
+the Bastille. No! by St. Denis! I would not risk my freedom for an
+hour--not even the lappet of my ear--in the power of that madman La
+Regnie, who only too well would like to have his knife at the throats
+of all of us." "But do you know you are bringing innocent Brusson to
+the scaffold?" "Innocent?" rejoined Miossens, "innocent? Are you
+speaking of the villain Cardillac's accomplice, Mademoiselle? he who
+helped him in his evil deeds? who deserves to die a hundred deaths?
+No, indeed! He would meet a just end on the scaffold. I have only
+disclosed to you, honoured lady, the details of the occurrence on the
+presupposition that, without delivering me into the hands of the
+_Chambre Ardent_, you will yet find a way to turn my secret to account
+on behalf of your _protégé_."
+
+De Scudéri was so enraptured at finding her conviction of Brusson's
+innocence confirmed in such a decisive manner that she did not scruple
+to tell the Count all, since he already knew of Cardillac's iniquity,
+and to exhort him to accompany her to see D'Andilly. To _him_ all
+should be revealed under the seal of secrecy, and he should advise them
+what was to be done.
+
+After De Scudéri had related all to D'Andilly down to the minutest
+particulars, he inquired once more about several of the most
+insignificant features. In particular he asked Count Miossens whether
+he was perfectly satisfied that it was Cardillac who had attacked him,
+and whether he would be able to identify Olivier Brusson as the man who
+had carried away the corpse. De Miossens made answer, "Not only did I
+very well recognise Cardillac by the bright light of the moon, but I
+have also seen in La Regnie's hands the dagger with which Cardillac was
+stabbed; it is mine, distinguished by the elegant workmanship of the
+hilt. As I only stood one yard from the young man, and his hat had
+fallen off, I distinctly saw his features, and should certainly
+recognise him again."
+
+After gazing thoughtfully before him for some minutes in silence,
+D'Andilly said, "Brusson cannot possibly be saved from the hands of
+justice in any ordinary and regular way. Out of consideration for
+Madelon he refuses to accuse Cardillac of being the thievish assassin.
+And he must continue to do so, for even if he succeeded in proving his
+statements by pointing out the secret exit and the accumulated store of
+stolen jewellery, he would still be liable to death as a partner in
+Cardillac's guilt. And the bearings of things would not be altered if
+Count Miossens were to state to the judges the real details of the
+meeting with Cardillac. The only thing we can aim at securing is a
+postponement of the torture. Let Count Miossens go to the
+_Conciergerie_, have Olivier Brusson brought forward, and recognise in
+him the man who carried away Cardillac's dead body. Then let him hurry
+off to La Regnie and say, 'I saw a man stabbed in the Rue St. Honoré,
+and as I stood close beside the corpse another man sprang forward and
+stooped down over the dead body; but on finding signs of life in him he
+lifted him on his shoulders and carried him away. This man I recognise
+in Olivier Brusson.' This evidence would lead to another hearing of
+Brusson and to his confrontation with Miossens. At all events the
+torture would be delayed and further inquiries would be instituted.
+Then will come the proper time to appeal to the king. It may be left to
+your sagacity, Mademoiselle, to do this in the adroitest manner. As far
+as my opinion goes, I think it would be best to disclose to him the
+whole mystery. Brusson's confessions are borne out by this statement of
+Count Miossens; and they may, perhaps, be still further substantiated
+by secret investigations at Cardillac's own house. All this could not
+afford grounds for a verdict of acquittal by the court, but it might
+appeal to the king's feelings, that it is his prerogative to speak
+mercy where the judge can only condemn, and so elicit a favourable
+decision from His Majesty." Count Miossens followed implicitly
+D'Andilly's advice; and the result was what the latter had foreseen.
+
+But now the thing was to get at the king; and this was the most
+difficult part of all to accomplish, since he believed that Brusson
+alone was the formidable assassin who for so long a time had held all
+Paris enthralled by fear and anxiety, and accordingly he had conceived
+such an abhorrence of him that he burst into a violent fit of passion
+at the slightest allusion to the notorious trial. De Maintenon,
+faithful to her principle of never speaking to the king on any subject
+that was disagreeable, refused to take any steps in the affair; and so
+Brusson's fate rested entirely in De Scudéri's hands. After long
+deliberation she formed a resolution which she carried into execution
+as promptly as she had conceived it. Putting on a robe of heavy black,
+silk, and hanging Cardillac's valuable necklace round her neck, and
+clasping the bracelets on her arms, and throwing a black veil over her
+head, she presented herself in De Maintenon's salons at a time when she
+knew the king would be present there. This stately robe invested the
+venerable lady's noble figure with such majesty as could not fail to
+inspire respect, even in the mob of idle loungers who were wont to
+collect in anterooms, laughing and jesting in frivolous and irreverent
+fashion. They all shyly made way for her; and when she entered the
+salon the king himself in his astonishment rose and came to meet her.
+As his eyes fell upon the glitter of the costly diamonds in the
+necklace and bracelets, he cried, "'Pon my soul, that's Cardillac's
+jewellery!" Then, turning to De Maintenon, he added with an arch smile,
+"See, Marchioness, how our fair bride mourns for her bridegroom." "Oh!
+your Majesty," broke in De Scudéri, taking up the jest and carrying it
+on, "would it indeed beseem a deeply sorrowful bride to adorn herself
+in this splendid fashion? No, I have quite broken off with that
+goldsmith, and should never think about him more, were it not that the
+horrid recollection of him being carried past me after he had been
+murdered so often recurs to my mind." "What do you say?" asked the
+king. "What! you saw the poor devil?" De Scudéri now related in a few
+words how she chanced to be near Cardillac's house just as the murder
+was discovered--as yet she did not allude to Brusson's being mixed up
+in the matter. She sketched Madelon's excessive grief, told what a deep
+impression the angelic child made upon her, and described in what way
+she had rescued the poor girl out of Desgrais' hands, amid the
+approving shouts of the people. Then came the scenes with La Regnie,
+with Desgrais, with Brusson--the interest deepening and intensifying
+from moment to moment. The king was so carried away by the
+extraordinary graphic power and burning eloquence of Mademoiselle's
+narration that he did not perceive she was talking about the hateful
+trial of the abominable wretch Brusson; he was quite unable to utter a
+word; all he could do was to let off the excess of his emotion by an
+exclamation from time to time. Ere he knew where he was--he was so
+utterly confused by this unprecedented tale which he had heard that he
+was unable to order his thoughts--De Scudéri was prostrate at his feet,
+imploring pardon for Olivier Brusson. "What are you doing?" burst out
+the king, taking her by both hands and forcing her into a chair. "What
+do you mean, Mademoiselle? This is a strange way to surprise me. Oh!
+it's a terrible story. Who will guarantee me that Brusson's marvellous
+tale is true?" Whereupon De Scudéri replied, "Miossens' evidence--an
+examination of Cardillac's house--my heart-felt conviction--and oh!
+Madelon's virtuous heart, which recognised the like virtue in unhappy
+Brusson's." Just as the king was on the point of making some reply he
+was interrupted by a noise at the door, and turned round. Louvois, who
+during this time was working in the adjoining apartment, looked in with
+an expression of anxiety stamped upon his features. The king rose and
+left the room, following Louvois.
+
+The two ladies, both De Scudéri and De Maintenon, regarded this
+interruption as dangerous, for having been once surprised the king
+would be on his guard against falling a second time into the trap set
+for him. Nevertheless after a lapse of some minutes the king came back
+again; after traversing the room once or twice at a quick pace, he
+planted himself immediately in front of De Scudéri and, throwing his
+arms behind his back, said in almost an undertone, yet without looking
+at her, "I should very much like to see your Madelon." Mademoiselle
+replied, "Oh! my precious liege! what a great--great happiness your
+condescension will confer upon the poor unhappy child. Oh! the little
+girl only waits a sign from you to approach, to throw herself at your
+feet." Then she tripped towards the door as quickly as she was able in
+her heavy clothing, and called out on the outside of it that the king
+would admit Madelon Cardillac; and she came back into the room weeping
+and sobbing with overpowering delight and gladness.
+
+De Scudéri had foreseen that some such favour as this might be granted
+and so had brought Madelon along with her, and she was waiting with the
+Marchioness' lady-in-waiting with a short petition in her hands that
+had been drawn up by D'Andilly. After a few minutes she lay prostrate
+at the king's feet, unable to speak a word. The throbbing blood was
+driven quicker and faster through the poor girl's veins owing to
+anxiety, nervous confusion, shy reverence, love, and anguish. Her
+cheeks were died with a deep purple blush; her eyes shone with bright
+pearly tears, which from time to time fell through her silken eyelashes
+upon her beautiful lily-white bosom. The king appeared to be struck
+with the surprising beauty of the angelic creature. He softly raised
+her up, making a motion as if about to kiss the hand which he had
+grasped. But he let it go again and regarded the lovely girl with tears
+in his eyes, thus betraying how great was the emotion stirring within
+him. De Maintenon softly whispered to Mademoiselle, "Isn't she exactly
+like La Vallière,[21] the little thing? There's hardly a pin's
+difference between them. The king luxuriates in the most pleasing
+memories. Your cause is won."
+
+Notwithstanding the low tone in which De Maintenon spoke, the king
+appeared to have heard what she said. A fleeting blush passed across
+his face; his eye wandered past De Maintenon; he read the petition
+which Madelon had presented to him, and then said mildly and kindly, "I
+am quite ready to believe, my dear child, that you are convinced of
+your lover's innocence; but let us hear what the _Chambre Ardente_ has
+got to say to it." With a gentle wave of the hand he dismissed the
+young girl, who was weeping as if her heart would break.
+
+To her dismay De Scudéri observed that the recollection of La Vallière,
+however beneficial it had appeared to be at first, had occasioned the
+king to alter his mind as soon as De Maintenon mentioned her name.
+Perhaps the king felt he was being reminded in a too indelicate way of
+how he was about to sacrifice strict justice to beauty, or perhaps he
+was like the dreamer, when, on somebody's shouting to him, the lovely
+dream-images which he was about to clasp, quickly vanish away. Perhaps
+he no longer saw _his_ La Vallière before his eyes, but only thought of
+S[oe]ur Louise de la Misèricorde (Louise the Sister of Mercy),--the
+name La Vallière had assumed on joining the Carmelite nuns--who worried
+him with her pious airs and repentance. What else could they now do but
+calmly wait for the king's decision?
+
+Meanwhile Count Miossens' deposition before the _Chambre Ardente_ had
+become publicly known; and as it frequently happens that the people
+rush so readily from one extreme to another, so on this occasion he
+whom they had at first cursed as a most abominable murderer and had
+threatened to tear to pieces, they now pitied, even before he ascended
+the scaffold, as the innocent victim of barbarous justice. Now his
+neighbours first began to call to mind his exemplary walk of life, his
+great love for Madelon, and the faithfulness and touching submissive
+affection which he had cherished for the old goldsmith. Considerable
+bodies of the populace began to appear in a threatening manner before
+La Regnie's palace and to cry out, "Give us Olivier Brusson; he is
+innocent;" and they even stoned the windows, so that La Regnie was
+obliged to seek shelter from the enraged mob with the _Maréchaussée_.
+
+Several days passed, and Mademoiselle heard not the least intelligence
+about Olivier Brusson's trial. She was quite inconsolable and went off
+to Madame de Maintenon; but she assured her that the king maintained a
+strict silence about the matter, and it would not be advisable to
+remind him of it. Then when she went on to ask with a smile of singular
+import how little La Vallière was doing, De Scudéri was convinced that
+deep down in the heart of the proud lady there lurked some feeling of
+vexation at this business, which might entice the susceptible king into
+a region whose charm she could not understand. Mademoiselle need
+therefore hope for nothing from De Maintenon.
+
+At last, however, with D'Andilly's help, De Scudéri succeeded in
+finding out that the king had had a long and private interview with
+Count Miossens. Further, she learned that Bontems, the king's most
+confidential valet and general agent, had been to the Conciergerie and
+had an interview with Brusson, also that the same Bontems had one night
+gone with several men to Cardillac's house, and there spent a
+considerable time. Claude Patru, the man who inhabited the lower
+storey, maintained that they were knocking about overhead all night
+long, and he was sure that Olivier had been with them, for he
+distinctly heard his voice. This much was, therefore, at any rate
+certain, that the king himself was having the true history of the
+circumstances inquired into; but the long delay before he gave his
+decision was inexplicable. La Regnie would no doubt do all he possibly
+could to keep his grip upon the victim who was to be taken out of his
+clutches. And this annihilated every hope as soon as it began to bud.
+
+A month had nearly passed when De Maintenon sent word to Mademoiselle
+that the king wished to see her that evening in her salons.
+
+De Scudéri's heart beat high; she knew that Brusson's case would now be
+decided. She told poor Madelon so, who prayed fervently to the Virgin
+and the saints that they would awaken in the king's mind a conviction
+of Brusson's innocence.
+
+Yet it appeared as though the king had completely forgotten the matter,
+for in his usual way he dallied in graceful conversation with the two
+ladies, and never once made any allusion to poor Brusson. At last
+Bontems appeared, and approaching the king whispered certain words in
+his ear, but in so low a tone that neither De Maintenon nor De Scudéri
+could make anything out of them. Mademoiselle's heart quaked. Then the
+king rose to his feet and approached her, saying with brimming eyes, "I
+congratulate you, Mademoiselle. Your _protégé_ Olivier Brusson, is
+free." The tears gushed from the old lady's eyes; unable to speak a
+word, she was about to throw herself at the king's feet. But he
+prevented her, saying, "Go, go, Mademoiselle. You ought to be my
+advocate in Parliament and plead my causes, for, by St. Denis, there's
+nobody on earth could withstand your eloquence; and yet," he continued,
+"and yet when Virtue herself has taken a man under her own protection,
+is he not safe from all base accusations, from the _Chambre Ardente_
+and all other tribunals in the world?" De Scudéri now found words and
+poured them out in a stream of glowing thanks. The king interrupted
+her, by informing her that she herself would find awaiting her in her
+own house still warmer thanks than he had a right to claim from her,
+for probably at that moment the happy Olivier was clasping his Madelon
+in his arms. "Bontems shall pay you a thousand _Louis d'or_," concluded
+the king. "Give them in my name to the little girl as a dowry. Let her
+marry her Brusson, who doesn't deserve such good fortune, and then let
+them both be gone out of Paris, for such is my will."
+
+La Martinière came running forward to meet her mistress, and Baptiste
+behind her; the faces of both were radiant with joy; both cried
+delighted, "He is here! he is free! O the dear young people!" The happy
+couple threw themselves at Mademoiselle's feet. "Oh! I knew it! I knew
+it!" cried Madelon. "I knew that you, that nobody but you, would save
+my darling Olivier." "And O my mother," cried Olivier, "my belief in
+you never wavered." They both kissed the honoured lady's hands, and
+shed innumerable tears. Then they embraced each other again and again,
+affirming that the exquisite happiness of that moment outweighed all
+the unutterable sufferings of the days that were past; and they vowed
+never to part from each other till Death himself came to part them.
+
+A few days later they were united by the blessing of the priest. Even
+though it had not been the King's wish, Brusson would not have stayed
+in Paris, where everything would have reminded him of the fearful time
+of Cardillac's crimes, and where, moreover, some accident might reveal
+in pernicious wise his dark secret, now become known to several
+persons, and so his peace of mind might be ruined for ever. Almost
+immediately after the wedding he set out with his young wife for
+Geneva, Mademoiselle's blessings accompanying them on the way. Richly
+provided with means through Madelon's dowry, and endowed with uncommon
+skill at his trade, as well as with every virtue of a good citizen, he
+led there a happy life, free from care. He realised the hopes which had
+deceived his father and had brought him at last to his grave.
+
+A year after Brusson's departure there appeared a public proclamation,
+signed by Harloy de Chauvalon, Archbishop of Paris, and by the
+parliamentary advocate, Pierre Arnaud d'Andilly, which ran to the
+effect that a penitent sinner had, under the seal of confession, handed
+over to the Church a large and valuable store of jewels and gold
+ornaments which he had stolen. Everybody who up to the end of the year
+1680 had lost ornaments by theft, particularly by a murderous attack in
+the public street, was to apply to D'Andilly, and then, if his
+description of the ornament which had been stolen from him tallied
+exactly with any of the pieces awaiting identification, and if further
+there existed no doubt as to the legitimacy of his claim, he should
+receive his property again. Many of those whose names stood on
+Cardillac's list as having been, not murdered, but merely stunned by a
+blow, gradually came one after the other to the parliamentary advocate,
+and received, to their no little amazement, their stolen property back
+again. The rest fell to the coffers of the Church of St. Eustace.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDÉRI":
+
+[Footnote 1: Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701), a native of Normandy,
+went to Paris and became connected with the Hotel Rambouillet.
+Afterwards, on its being broken up by the troubles of the Fronde, she
+formed a literary circle of her own, their "Saturday gatherings"
+becoming celebrated. Mademoiselle de Scudéry wrote some vapid and
+tedious novels, amongst which were the _Clélie_ (1656), an historical
+romance, to be mentioned presently in the text.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The well-known wife of Scarron, then the successor of
+Madame de Montespan in the favour of Louis XIV., and afterwards his
+wife.]
+
+[Footnote 3: A kind of mounted gensdarmes or police.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Supposed to have been arsenic.]
+
+[Footnote 5: These facts are all for the most part historically true.]
+
+[Footnote 6: Marie M. d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, a notorious
+poisoner, executed July 16, 1676. Madame de Sévigné's _Lettres_ contain
+interesting information on the events of this period. A special history
+of De Brinvillier's trial was also published in the same year, 1676.]
+
+[Footnote 7: An old servant of Sainte Croix's, whose real name was Jean
+Amelin.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Nicholas G. de la Reynie was born at Limoges in 1625; he
+acquired a sort of Judge Jeffreys' reputation by his cruelties and
+bloodthirstiness as president of the _Chambre Ardente_.]
+
+[Footnote 9: These two ladies, Marie and Olympe Mancini, were sisters,
+nieces of Mazarin. The latter was promoted to be head of the Queen's
+household, and thus provoked the hatred of Madame de Montespan (the
+King's mistress) and Louvois, through whose machinations she was
+accused before the _Chambre Ardente_.]
+
+[Footnote 10: François Henry de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg, was
+known until 1661 by the name of Bouteville. His name stands high on the
+roll of distinguished French Marshals.]
+
+[Footnote 11:  François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois
+(1639-91), Louis XIV.'s minister at this time.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Her real answer was, "Je le vois en ce moment; il est
+fort laid et fort vilain; il est déguisé en conseiller d'état." (I see
+him at this moment; he is very ugly and very hideous; he is disguised
+as a state councillor.)]
+
+[Footnote 13: The Marquis de la Fare had liaisons, first with Madame de
+Rochefort, with Louvois for rival, and afterwards with Madame de la
+Sablière.]
+
+[Footnote 14: This incident is not an invention of the author's. He
+states that he got it from Wagenseil's _Chronik von Nürnberg_ (1697),
+the said Wagenseilius having been to Paris and paid a visit to
+Mademoiselle de Scudéry herself. The answer this lady gave the king is
+also historically true, according to Hoffmann, and it was spoken under
+circumstances almost exactly like those represented in the text.]
+
+[Footnote 15: The old _Louis d'Or_ of Louis XIV. = about £1, 0s. 3d.
+(Cf. A _Frederick d'or_ was a gold coin worth five thalers.--Note, p.
+281, vol. I.)]
+
+[Footnote 16: One of Louis XIV.'s former mistresses--Marie de
+Roussille, Duchess de Fontanges (1661-1681)--is described as being of
+great beauty, but deficient in intellectual grace and charm of manner,
+and as being arrogant and cold-hearted.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Jean de la Chapelle (1655-1723) attempted to fill the gap
+left in the dramatic world by Racine's retirement from play-writing,
+though,--it is said, with but indifferent success.]
+
+[Footnote 18: It was constructed after plans by this Claude Perrault in
+1666-1670.]
+
+[Footnote 19: The well-known pleasure castle erected by Louis XIV. at
+Versailles for De Maintenon.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Daughter of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria of France; she
+died 29th June, 1670, believing herself to have been poisoned; and this
+was currently accepted in France, though now rejected by historians as
+incorrect.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Françoise Louise, Duchess de La Vallière, a former
+mistress of Louis XIV. On being supplanted in the monarch's favour by
+Madame de Montespan, she entered the order of Carmelite nuns.]
+
+
+
+
+                            _GAMBLER'S LUCK._
+
+
+Pyrmont had a larger concourse of visitors than ever in the summer of
+18--. The number of rich and illustrious strangers increased from day
+to day, greatly exciting the zeal of speculators of all kinds. Hence it
+was also that the owners of the faro-bank took care to pile up their
+glittering gold in bigger heaps, in order that this, the bait of the
+noblest game, which they, like good skilled hunters, knew how to decoy,
+might preserve its efficacy.
+
+Who does not know how fascinating an excitement gambling is,
+particularly at watering-places, during the season, where every
+visitor, having laid aside his ordinary habits and course of life,
+deliberately gives himself up to leisure and ease and exhilarating
+enjoyment? then gambling becomes an irresistible attraction. People who
+at other times never touch a card are to be seen amongst the most eager
+players; and besides, it is the fashion, especially in higher circles,
+for every one to visit the bank in the evening and lose a little money
+at play.
+
+The only person who appeared not to heed this irresistible attraction,
+and this injunction of fashion, was a young German Baron, whom we will
+call Siegfried. When everybody else hurried off to the play-house, and
+he was deprived of all means and all prospect of the intellectual
+conversation he loved, he preferred either to give reins to the flights
+of his fancy in solitary walks or to stay in his own room and take up a
+book, or even indulge in poetic attempts, in writing, himself.
+
+As Siegfried was young, independent, rich, of noble appearance and
+pleasing disposition, it could not fail but that he was highly esteemed
+and loved, and that he had the most decisive good-fortune with the fair
+sex. And in everything that he took up or turned his attention to,
+there seemed to be a singularly lucky star presiding over his actions.
+Rumour spoke of many extraordinary love-intrigues which had been forced
+upon him, and out of which, however ruinous they would in all
+likelihood have been for many other young men, he escaped with
+incredible ease and success. But whenever the conversation turned upon
+him and his good fortune, the old gentlemen of his acquaintance were
+especially fond of relating a story about a watch, which had happened
+in the days of his early youth. For it chanced once that Siegfried,
+while still under his guardian's care, had quite unexpectedly found
+himself so straitened for money on a journey that he was absolutely
+obliged to sell his gold watch, which was set with brilliants, merely
+in order to get on his way. He had made up his mind that he would have
+to throw away his valuable watch for an old song; but as there happened
+to be in the hotel where he had put up at a young prince who was just
+in want of such an ornament, the Baron actually received for it more
+than it was really worth. More than a year passed and Siegfried had
+become his own master, when he read in the newspapers in another place
+that a watch was to be made the subject of a lottery. He took a ticket,
+which cost a mere trifle, and won--the same gold watch set with
+brilliants which he had sold. Not long afterwards he exchanged this
+watch for a valuable ring. He held office for a short time under the
+Prince of G----, and when he retired from his post the Prince presented
+to him as a mark of his good-will the very identical gold watch set
+with brilliants as before, together with a costly chain.
+
+From this story they passed to Siegfried's obstinacy in never on any
+account touching a card; why, with his strongly pronounced good-luck he
+had all the more inducement to play; and they were unanimous in coming
+to the conclusion that the Baron, notwithstanding all his other
+conspicuous good qualities, was a miserly fellow, far too careful and
+far too stingy to expose himself to the smallest possible loss. That
+the Baron's conduct was in every particular the direct contrary of that
+of an avaricious man had no weight with them; and as is so often the
+case, when the majority have set their hearts upon tagging a
+questioning 'but' on to the good name of a talented man, and are
+determined to find this 'but' at any cost, even though it should be in
+their own imagination, so in the present case the sneering allusion to
+Siegfried's aversion to play afforded them infinite satisfaction.
+
+Siegfried was not long in learning what was being said about him; and
+since, generous and liberal as he was, there was nothing he hated and
+detested more than miserliness, he made up his mind to put his
+traducers to shame by ransoming himself from this foul aspersion at the
+cost of a couple of hundred _Louis d'or_, or even more if need be,
+however much disgusted he might feel at gambling. He presented himself
+at the faro-bank with the deliberate intention of losing the large sum
+which he had put in his pocket; but in play also the good luck which
+stood by him in everything he undertook did not prove unfaithful. Every
+card he chose won. The cabalistic calculations of seasoned old players
+were shivered to atoms against the Baron's play. No matter whether he
+changed his cards or continued to stake on[1] the same one, it was all
+the same: he was always a winner. In the Baron they had the singular
+spectacle of a punter at variance with himself because the cards fell
+favourable for him; and notwithstanding that the explanation of his
+behaviour was pretty patent, yet people looked at each other
+significantly and gave utterance in no ambiguous terms to the opinion
+that the Baron, carried along by his penchant for the marvellous, might
+eventually become insane, for any player who could be dismayed at his
+run of luck must surely be insane.
+
+The very fact of having won a considerable sum of money made it
+obligatory upon the Baron to go on playing until he should have carried
+out his original purpose; for in all probability his large win would be
+followed by a still larger loss. But people's expectations were not in
+the remotest degree realised, for the Baron's striking good-luck
+continued to attend him.
+
+Without his being conscious of it, there began to be awakened in his
+mind a strong liking for faro, which with all its simplicity is the
+most ominous of games; and this liking continued to increase more and
+more. He was no longer dissatisfied with his good-luck; gambling
+fettered his attention and held him fast to the table for nights and
+nights, so that he was perforce compelled to give credence to the
+peculiar attraction of the game, of which his friends had formerly
+spoken and which he would by no means allow to be correct, for he was
+attracted to faro not by the thirst for gain, but simply and solely by
+the game itself.
+
+One night, just as the banker had finished a _taille_, the Baron
+happened to raise his eyes and observed that an elderly man had taken
+post directly opposite to him and had got his eyes fixed upon him in a
+set, sad, earnest gaze. And as long as play lasted, every time the
+Baron looked up, his eyes met the stranger's dark sad stare, until at
+last he could not help being struck with a very uncomfortable and
+oppressive feeling. And the stranger only left the apartment when play
+came to an end for the night. The following night he again stood
+opposite the Baron, staring at him with unaverted gaze, whilst his eyes
+had a dark mysterious spectral look. The Baron still kept his temper.
+But when on the third night the stranger appeared again and fixed his
+eyes, burning with a consuming fire, upon the Baron, the latter burst
+out, "Sir, I must beg you to choose some other place. You exercise a
+constraining influence upon my play."
+
+With a painful smile the stranger bowed and left the table, and the
+hall too, without uttering a word.
+
+But on the next night the stranger again stood opposite the Baron,
+piercing him through and through with his dark fiery glance. Then the
+Baron burst out still more angrily than on the preceding night, "If you
+think it a joke, sir, to stare at me, pray choose some other time and
+some other place to do so; and now have the"---- A wave of the hand
+towards the door took the place of the harsh words the Baron was about
+to utter. And as on the previous night, the stranger, after bowing
+slightly, left the hall with the same painful smile upon his lips.
+
+Siegfried was so excited and heated by play, by the wine which he had
+taken, and also by the scene with the stranger, that he could not
+sleep. Morning was already breaking, when the stranger's figure
+appeared before his eyes. He observed his striking, sharp-cut features,
+worn with suffering, and his sad deep-set eyes just as he had stared at
+him; and he noticed his distinguished bearing, which, in spite of his
+mean clothing, betrayed a man of high culture. And then the air of
+painful resignation with which the stranger submitted to the harsh
+words flung at him, and fought down his bitter feelings with an effort,
+and left the hall! "No," cried Siegfried, "I did him wrong--great
+wrong. Is it indeed at all like me to blaze up in this rude,
+ill-mannered way, like an uncultivated clown, and to offer insults to
+people without the least provocation?" The Baron at last arrived at the
+conviction that it must have been a most oppressive feeling of the
+sharp contrast between them which had made the man stare at him so;
+in the moment that he was perhaps contending with the bitterest poverty,
+he (the Baron) was piling up heaps and heaps of gold with all the
+superciliousness of the gambler. He resolved to find out the stranger
+that very morning and atone to him for his rudeness.
+
+And as chance would have it, the very first person whom the Baron saw
+strolling down the avenue was the stranger himself.
+
+The Baron addressed him, offered the most profuse apologies for his
+behaviour of the night before, and in conclusion begged the stranger's
+pardon in all due form. The stranger replied that he had nothing to
+pardon, since large allowances must be made for a player deeply intent
+over his game, and besides, he had only himself to blame for the harsh
+words he had provoked, since he had obstinately persisted in remaining
+in the place where he disturbed the Baron's play.
+
+The Baron went further; he said there were often seasons of momentary
+embarrassment in life which weighed with a most galling effect upon a
+man of refinement, and he plainly hinted to the stranger that he was
+willing to give the money he had won, or even more still, if by that
+means he could perhaps be of any assistance to him.
+
+"Sir," replied the stranger, "you think I am in want, but that is not
+indeed the case; for though poor rather than rich, I yet have enough to
+satisfy my simple wants. Moreover, you will yourself perceive that as a
+man of honour I could not possibly accept a large sum of money from you
+as indemnification for the insult you conceive you have offered me,
+even though I were not a gentleman of birth."
+
+"I think I understand you," replied the Baron starting; "I am ready to
+grant you the satisfaction you demand."
+
+"Good God!" continued the stranger--"Good God, how unequal a contest it
+would be between us two! I am certain that you think as I do about a
+duel, that it is not to be treated as a piece of childish folly; nor do
+you believe that a few drops of blood, which have perhaps fallen from a
+scratched finger, can ever wash tarnished honour bright again. There
+are many cases in which it is impossible for two particular individuals
+to continue to exist together on this earth, even though the one live
+in the Caucasus and the other on the Tiber; no separation is possible
+so long as the hated foe can be thought of as still alive. In this case
+a duel to decide which of the two is to give way to the other on this
+earth is a necessity. Between us now, as I have just said, a duel would
+be fought upon unequal terms, since nohow can my life be valued so
+highly as yours. If I run you through, I destroy a whole world of the
+finest hopes; and if I fall, then you have put an end to a miserable
+existence, that is harrowed by the bitterest and most agonising
+memories. But after all--and this is of course the main thing--I don't
+conceive myself to have been in the remotest degree insulted. You bade
+me go, and I went."
+
+These last words the stranger spoke in a tone which nevertheless
+betrayed the sting in his heart. This was enough for the Baron to again
+apologise, which he did by especially dwelling upon the fact that the
+stranger's glance had, he did not know why, gone straight to his heart,
+till at last he could endure it no longer.
+
+"I hope then," said the stranger, "that if my glance did really
+penetrate to your heart, it aroused you to a sense of the threatening
+danger on the brink of which you are hovering. With a light glad heart
+and youthful ingenuousness you are standing on the edge of the abyss of
+ruin; one single push and you will plunge headlong down without a hope
+of rescue. In a single word, you are on the point of becoming a
+confirmed and passionate gambler and ruining yourself."
+
+The Baron assured him that he was completely mistaken. He related the
+circumstances under which he had first gone to the faro-table, and
+assured him that he entirely lacked the gambler's characteristic
+disposition; all he wished was to lose two hundred _Louis d'or_ or so,
+and when he had succeeded in this he intended to cease punting. Up to
+that time, however, he had had the most conspicuous run of good-luck.
+
+"Oh! but," cried the stranger, "oh! but it is exactly this run of
+good-luck wherein lies the subtlest and most formidable temptation
+of the malignant enemy. It is this run of good-luck which attends
+your play, Baron,--the circumstances under which you have begun to
+play,--nay, your entire behaviour whilst actually engaged in play,
+which only too plainly betray how your interest in it deepens and
+increases on each occasion; all--all this reminds me only too forcibly
+of the awful fate of a certain unhappy man, who, in many respects like
+you, began to play under circumstances similar to those which you have
+described in your own case. And therefore it was that I could not
+keep my eyes off you, and that I was hardly able to restrain myself
+from saying in words what my glances were meant to tell you. 'Oh!
+see--see--see the demons stretching out their talons to drag you down
+into the pit of ruin.' Thus I should like to have called to you. I was
+desirous of making your acquaintance; and I have succeeded. Let me tell
+you the history of the unfortunate man whom I mentioned; you will then
+perhaps be convinced that it is no idle phantom of the brain when I see
+you in the most imminent danger, and warn you."
+
+The stranger and the Baron both sat down upon a seat which stood quite
+isolated, and then the stranger began as follows:--
+
+"The same brilliant qualities which distinguish you, Herr Baron, gained
+Chevalier Menars the esteem and admiration of men and made him a
+favourite amongst women. In riches alone Fortune had not been so
+gracious to him as she has been to you; he was almost in want; and it
+was only through exercising the strictest economy that he was enabled
+to appear in a state becoming his position as the scion of a
+distinguished family. Since even the smallest loss would be serious for
+him and upset the entire tenor of his course of life, he dare not
+indulge in play; besides, he had no inclination to do so, and it was
+therefore no act of self-sacrifice on his part to avoid the tables. It
+is to be added that he had the most remarkable success in everything
+which he took in hand, so that Chevalier Menars' good-luck became a
+by-word.
+
+"One night he suffered himself to be persuaded, contrary to his
+practice, to visit a play-house. The friends whom he had accompanied
+were soon deeply engaged in play.
+
+"Without taking any interest in what was going forward, the Chevalier,
+busied with thoughts of quite a different character, first strode up
+and down the apartment and then stood with his eyes fixed upon the
+gaming-table, where the gold continued to pour in upon the banker from
+all sides. All at once an old colonel observed the Chevalier, and cried
+out, 'The devil! Here we've got Chevalier Menars and his good-luck
+amongst us, and yet we can win nothing, since he has declared neither
+for the banker nor for the punters. But we can't have it so any longer;
+he shall at once punt for me.'
+
+"All the Baron's attempts to excuse himself on the ground of his lack
+of skill and total want of experience were of no avail; the Colonel was
+not to be denied; the Chevalier must take his place at the table.
+
+"The Chevalier had exactly the same run of fortune that you have, Herr
+Baron. The cards fell favourable for him, and he had soon won a
+considerable sum for the Colonel, whose joy at his grand thought of
+claiming the loan of Chevalier Menars' steadfast good-luck knew no
+bounds.
+
+"This good-luck, which quite astonished all the rest of those present,
+made not the slightest impression upon the Chevalier; nay, somehow, in
+a way inexplicable to himself, his aversion to play took deeper root,
+so that on the following morning when he awoke and felt the
+consequences of his exertion during the night, through which he had
+been awake, in a general relaxation both mental and physical, he took a
+most earnest resolve never again under any circumstances to visit a
+play-house.
+
+"And in this resolution he was still further strengthened by the old
+Colonel's conduct; he had the most decided ill-luck with every card he
+took up; and the blame for this run of bad-luck he, with the most
+extraordinary infatuation, put upon the Chevalier's shoulders. In an
+importunate manner he demanded that the Chevalier should either punt
+for him or at any rate stand at his side, so as by his presence to
+banish the perverse demon who always put into his hands cards which
+never turned up right. Of course it is well known that there is more
+absurd superstition to be found amongst gamblers than almost anywhere
+else. The only way in which the Chevalier could get rid of the Colonel
+was by declaring in a tone of great seriousness that he would rather
+fight him than play for him, for the Colonel was no great friend of
+duels. The Chevalier cursed his good-nature in having complied with the
+old fool's request at first.
+
+"Now nothing less was to be expected than that the story of the Baron's
+marvellously lucky play should pass from mouth to mouth, and also that
+all sorts of enigmatical mysterious circumstances should be invented
+and added on to it, representing the Chevalier as a man in league with
+supernatural powers. But the fact that the Chevalier in spite of his
+good-luck did not touch another card, could not fail to inspire the
+highest respect for his firmness of character, and so very much
+increase the esteem which he already enjoyed.
+
+"Somewhere about a year later the Chevalier was suddenly placed in a
+most painful and embarrassing position owing to the non-arrival of the
+small sum of money upon which he relied to defray his current expenses.
+He was obliged to disclose his circumstances to his most intimate
+friend, who without hesitation supplied him with what he needed, at the
+same time twitting him with being the most hopelessly eccentric fellow
+that ever was. 'Destiny,' said he 'gives us hints in what way and where
+we ought to seek our own benefit; and we have only our own indolence to
+blame if we do not heed, do not understand these hints. The Higher
+Power that rules over us has whispered quite plainly in your ears, If
+you want money and property go and play, else you will be poor and
+needy, and never independent, as long as you live.'
+
+"And now for the first time the thought of how wonderfully fortune had
+favoured him at the faro-bank took clear and distinct shape in his
+mind; and both in his dreams and when awake he heard the banker's
+monotonous _gagne_, _perd_,[2] and the rattle of the gold pieces. 'Yes,
+it is undoubtedly so,' he said to himself, 'a single night like that
+one before would free me from my difficulties, and help me over the
+painful embarrassment of being a burden to my friends; it is my duty to
+follow the beckoning finger of fate.' The friends who had advised him
+to try play, accompanied him to the play-house, and gave him twenty
+_Louis d'or_[3] more that he might begin unconcerned.
+
+"If the Chevalier's play had been splendid when he punted for the old
+Colonel, it was indeed doubly so now. Blindly and without choice he
+drew the cards he staked upon, but the invisible hand of that Higher
+Power which is intimately related to Chance, or rather actually is what
+we call Chance, seemed to be regulating his play. At the end of the
+evening he had won a thousand _Louis d'or_.
+
+"Next morning he awoke with a kind of dazed feeling. The gold pieces he
+had won lay scattered about beside him on the table. At the first
+moment he fancied he was dreaming; he rubbed his eyes; he grasped the
+table and pulled it nearer towards him. But when he began to reflect
+upon what had happened, when he buried his fingers amongst the gold
+pieces, when he counted them with gratified satisfaction, and even
+counted them through again, then delight in the base mammon shot for
+the first time like a pernicious poisonous breath through his every
+nerve and fibre, then it was all over with the purity of sentiment
+which he had so long preserved intact. He could hardly wait for night
+to come that he might go to the faro-table again. His good-luck
+continued constant, so that after a few weeks, during which he played
+nearly every night, he had won a considerable sum.
+
+"Now there are two sorts of players. Play simply as such affords to
+many an indescribable and mysterious pleasure, totally irrespective of
+gain. The strange complications of chance occur with the most
+surprising waywardness; the government of the Higher Power becomes
+conspicuously evident; and this it is which stirs up our spirit to move
+its wings and see if it cannot soar upwards into the mysterious
+kingdom, the fateful workshop of this Power, in order to surprise it at
+its labours.
+
+"I once knew a man who spent many days and nights alone in his room,
+keeping a bank and punting against himself; this man was, according to
+my way of thinking, a genuine player. Others have nothing but gain
+before their eyes, and look upon play as a means to getting rich
+speedily. This class the Chevalier joined, thus once more establishing
+the truth of the saying that the real deeper inclination for play must
+lie in the individual nature--must be born in it. And for this reason
+he soon found the sphere of activity to which the punter is confined
+too narrow. With the very large sum of money that he had won by
+gambling he established a bank of his own; and in this enterprise
+fortune favoured him to such an extent that within a short time his
+bank was the richest in all Paris. And agreeably to the nature of the
+case, the largest proportion of players flocked to him, the richest and
+luckiest banker.
+
+"The heartless, demoralising life of a gambler soon blotted out all
+those advantages, as well mental as physical, which had formerly
+secured to the Chevalier people's affection and esteem. He ceased to be
+a faithful friend, a cheerful, easy guest in society, a chivalrous and
+gallant admirer of the fair sex. Extinguished was all his taste for
+science and art, and gone all striving to advance along the road to
+sound knowledge. Upon his deathly pale countenance, and in his gloomy
+eyes, where a dim, restless fire gleamed, was to be read the full
+expression of the extremely baneful passion in whose toils he was
+entangled. It was not fondness for play, no, it was the most abominable
+avarice which had been enkindled in his soul by Satan himself. In a
+single word, he was the most finished specimen of a faro-banker that
+may be seen anywhere.
+
+"One night Fortune was less favourable to the Chevalier than usual,
+although he suffered no loss of any consequence. Then a little thin old
+man, meanly clad, and almost repulsive to look at, approached the
+table, drew a card with a trembling hand, and placed a gold piece upon
+it. Several of the players looked up at the old man at first greatly
+astonished, but after that they treated him with provoking contempt.
+Nevertheless his face never moved a muscle, far less did he utter a
+single word of complaint.
+
+"The old man lost; he lost one stake after another; but the higher his
+losses rose the more pleased the other players got. And at last, when
+the new-comer, who continued to double his stake every time, placed
+five hundred _Louis d'or_ at once upon a card and this the very next
+moment turned up on the losing side, one of the other players cried
+with a laugh, 'Good-luck, Signor Vertua, good-luck! Don't lose heart.
+Go on staking; you look to me as if you would finish with breaking the
+bank through your immense winnings.' The old man shot a basilisk-like
+look upon the mocker and hurried away, but only to return at the end of
+half an hour with his pockets full of gold. In the last _taille_ he
+was, however, obliged to cease playing, since he had again lost all the
+money he had brought back with him.
+
+"This scornful and contemptuous treatment of the old man had
+excessively annoyed the Chevalier, for in spite of all his abominable
+practices, he yet insisted on certain rules of good behaviour being
+observed at his table. And so on the conclusion of the game, when
+Signor Vertua had taken his departure, the Chevalier felt he had
+sufficient grounds to speak a serious word or two to the mocker, as
+well as to one or two other players whose contemptuous treatment of the
+old man had been most conspicuous, and whom the Chevalier had bidden
+stay behind for this purpose.
+
+"'Ah! but, Chevalier,' cried one of them, 'you don't know old Francesco
+Vertua, or else you would have no fault to find with us and our
+behaviour towards him; you would rather approve of it. For let me tell
+you that this Vertua, a Neapolitan by birth, who has been fifteen years
+in Paris, is the meanest, dirtiest, most pestilent miser and usurer who
+can be found anywhere. He is a stranger to every human feeling; if he
+saw his own brother writhing at his feet in the agonies of death, it
+would be an utter waste of pains to try to entice a single _Louis d'or_
+from him, even if it were to save his brother's life. He has a heavy
+burden of curses and imprecations to bear, which have been showered
+down upon him by a multitude of men, nay, by entire families, who have
+been plunged into the deepest distress through his diabolical
+speculations. He is hated like poison by all who know him; everybody
+wishes that vengeance may overtake him for all the evil that he has
+done, and that it may put an end to his career of iniquity. He has
+never played before, at least since he has been in Paris; and so from
+all this you need not wonder at our being so greatly astounded when the
+old skin-flint appeared at your table. And for the same reasons we
+were, of course, pleased at the old fellow's serious losses, for it
+would have been hard, very hard, if the old rascal had been favoured by
+Fortune. It is only too certain. Chevalier, that the old fool has been
+deluded by the riches of your bank. He came intending to pluck you and
+has lost his own feathers. But yet it completely puzzles me how Vertua
+could act thus in a way so opposite to the true character of a miser,
+and could bring himself to play so high. Ah! well--you'll see he will
+not come again; we are now quit of him.'
+
+"But this opinion proved to be far from correct, for on the very next
+night Vertua presented himself at the Chevalier's bank again, and
+staked and lost much more heavily than on the night preceding. But he
+preserved a calm demeanour through it all; he even smiled at times with
+a sort of bitter irony, as though foreseeing how soon things would be
+totally changed. But during each of the succeeding nights the old man's
+losses increased like a glacier at a greater and greater rate, till at
+last it was calculated that he had paid over thirty thousand _Louis
+d'or_ to the bank. Finally he entered the hall one evening, long after
+play had begun, with a deathly pale face and troubled looks, and took
+up his post at some distance from the table, his eyes riveted in a set
+stare upon the cards which the Chevalier successively drew. At last,
+just as the Chevalier had shuffled the cards, had had them cut and was
+about to begin the _taille_, the old man cried in such a harsh grating
+voice, 'Stop!' that everybody looked round well-nigh dismayed. Then,
+forcing his way to the table close up to the Chevalier, he said in his
+ear, speaking in a hoarse voice, 'Chevalier, my house in the Rue St.
+Honoré, together with all the furniture and all the gold and silver and
+all the jewels I possess, are valued at eighty thousand francs, will
+you accept the stake?' 'Very good,' replied the Chevalier coldly,
+without looking round at the old man; and he began the _taille_.
+
+"'The queen,' said Vertua; and at the next draw the queen had lost. The
+old man reeled back from the table and leaned against the wall
+motionless and paralysed, like a rigid stone statue. Nobody troubled
+himself any further about him.
+
+"Play was over for the night; the players were dispersing; the
+Chevalier and his croupiers[4] were packing away in the strong box the
+gold he had won. Then old Vertua staggered like a ghost out of the
+corner towards the Chevalier and addressed him in a hoarse, hollow
+voice, 'Yet a word with you, Chevalier,--only a single word.'
+
+"'Well, what is it?' replied the Chevalier, withdrawing the key from
+the lock of the strong box and measuring the old man from head to foot
+with a look of contempt.
+
+"'I have lost all my property at your bank, Chevalier,' went on the old
+man; 'I have nothing, nothing left I don't know where I shall lay my
+head tomorrow, nor how I shall appease my hunger. You are my last
+resource, Chevalier; lend me the tenth part of the sum I have lost to
+you that I may begin my business over again, and so work my way up out
+of the distressed state I now am in.'
+
+"'Whatever are you thinking about,' rejoined the Chevalier, 'whatever
+are you thinking about, Signor Vertua? Don't you know that a
+faro-banker never dare lend of his winnings? That's against the old
+rule, and I am not going to violate it.'
+
+"'You are right,' went on Vertua again. 'You are right, Chevalier. My
+request was senseless--extravagant--the tenth part! No, lend me the
+twentieth part.' 'I tell you,' replied the Chevalier impatiently, 'that
+I won't lend a farthing of my winnings.'
+
+"'True, true,' said Vertua, his face growing paler and paler and his
+gaze becoming more and more set and staring, 'true, you ought not to
+lend anything--I never used to do. But give some alms to a beggar--give
+him a hundred _Louis d'or_ of the riches which blind Fortune has thrown
+in your hands to-day.'
+
+"'Of a verity you know how to torment people, Signor Vertua,' burst out
+the Chevalier angrily. 'I tell you you won't get so much as a hundred,
+nor fifty, nor twenty, no, not so much as a single _Louis d'or_ from
+me. I should be mad to make you even the smallest advance, so as to
+help you begin your shameful trade over again. Fate has stamped you in
+the dust like a poisonous reptile, and it would simply be villainy for
+me to aid you in recovering yourself. Go and perish as you deserve.'
+
+"Pressing both hands over his face, Vertua sank on the floor with a
+muffled groan. The Chevalier ordered his servant to take the strong-box
+down to his carriage, and then cried in a loud voice, 'When will you
+hand over to me your house and effects, Signor Vertua?'
+
+"Vertua hastily picked himself up from the ground and said in a firm
+voice, 'Now, at once--this moment, Chevalier; come with me.'
+
+"'Good,' replied the Chevalier, 'you may ride with me as far as your
+house, which you shall leave tomorrow for good.'
+
+"All the way neither of them spoke a single word, neither Vertua nor
+the Chevalier. Arrived in front of the house in the Rue St. Honoré,
+Vertua pulled the bell; an old woman opened the door, and on perceiving
+it was Vertua cried, 'Oh! good heavens, Signor Vertua, is that you at
+last? Angela is half dead with anxiety on your account.'
+
+"'Silence,' replied Vertua. 'God grant she has not heard this unlucky
+bell! She is not to know that I have come.' And therewith he took the
+lighted candle out of the old woman's hand, for she appeared to be
+quite stunned, and lighted the Chevalier up to his own room.
+
+"'I am prepared for the worst,' said Vertua. 'You hate, you despise me,
+Chevalier. You have ruined me, to your own and other people's joy; but
+you do not know me. Let me tell you then that I was once a gambler like
+you, that capricious Fortune was as favourable to me as she is to you,
+that I travelled through half Europe, stopping everywhere where high
+play and the hope of large gains enticed me, that the piles of gold
+continually increased in my bank as they do in yours. I had a true and
+beautiful wife, whom I neglected, and she was miserable in the midst of
+all her magnificence and wealth. It happened once, when I had set up my
+bank in Genoa, that a young Roman lost all his rich patrimony at my
+bank. He besought me to lend him money, as I did you to-day, sufficient
+at least to enable him to travel back to Rome. I refused with a laugh
+of mocking scorn, and in the insane fury of despair he thrust the
+stiletto which he wore right into my breast. At great pains the
+surgeons succeeded in saving me; but it was a wearying painful time
+whilst I lay on the bed of sickness. Then my wife tended me, comforted
+me, and kept up my courage when I was ready to sink under my
+sufferings; and as I grew towards recovery a feeling began to glimmer
+within me which I had never experienced before, and it waxed ever
+stronger and stronger. A gambler becomes an alien to all human emotion,
+and hence I had not known what was the meaning of a wife's love and
+faithful attachment. The debt of what I owed my wife burned itself into
+my ungrateful heart, and also the sense of the villainous conduct to
+which I had sacrificed her. All those whose life's happiness, whose
+entire existence, I had ruined with heartless indifference were like
+tormenting spirits of vengeance, and I heard their hoarse hollow voices
+echoing from the grave, upbraiding me with all the guilt and
+criminality, the seed of which I had planted in their bosoms. It was
+only my wife who was able to drive away the unutterable distress and
+horror that then came upon me. I made a vow never to touch a card more.
+I lived in retirement; I rent asunder all the ties which held me fast
+to my former mode of life; I withstood the enticements of my croupiers,
+when they came and said they could not do without me and my good-luck.
+I bought a small country villa not far from Rome, and thither, as soon
+as I was recovered of my illness, I fled for refuge along with my wife.
+Oh! only one single year did I enjoy a calmness, a happiness, a
+peaceful content, such as I had never dreamt of! My wife bore me a
+daughter, and died a few weeks later. I was in despair; I railed at
+Heaven and again cursed myself and my reprobate life, for which Heaven
+was now exacting vengeance upon me by depriving me of my wife--she who
+had saved me from ruin, who was the only creature who afforded me hope
+and consolation. I was driven away from my country villa hither to
+Paris, like the criminal who fears the horrors of solitude. Angela grew
+up the lovely image of her mother; my heart was wholly wrapt up in her;
+for her sake I felt called upon not so much to obtain a large fortune
+for her as to increase what I had already got. It is the truth that I
+lent money at a high rate of interest; but it is a foul calumny to
+accuse me of deceitful usury. And who are these my accusers?
+Thoughtless, frivolous people who worry me to death until I lend them
+money, which they immediately go and squander like a thing of no worth,
+and then get in a rage if I demand inexorable punctuality in repayment
+of the money which does not indeed belong to me,--no, but to my
+daughter, for I merely look upon myself as her steward. It's not long
+since I saved a young man from disgrace and ruin by advancing him a
+considerable sum. As I knew he was terribly poor, I never mentioned a
+syllable about repayment until I knew he had got together a rich
+property. Then I applied to him for settlement of his debt Would you
+believe it, Chevalier? the dishonourable knave, who owed all he had to
+me, tried to deny the debt, and on being compelled by the court to pay
+me, reproached me with being a villainous miser? I could tell you more
+such like cases; and these things have made me hard and insensible to
+emotion when I have to deal with folly and baseness. Nay, more--I could
+tell you of the many bitter tears I have wiped away, and of the many
+prayers which have gone up to Heaven for me and my Angela, but you
+would only regard it as empty boasting, and pay not the slightest heed
+to it, for you are a gambler. I thought I had satisfied the resentment
+of Heaven; it was but a delusion, for Satan has been permitted to
+lead me astray in a more disastrous way than before. I heard of your
+good-luck. Chevalier. Every day I heard that this man and that had
+staked and staked at your bank until he became a beggar. Then the
+thought came into my mind that I was destined to try my gambler's luck,
+which had never hitherto deserted me, against yours, that the power was
+given me to put a stop to your practices; and this thought, which could
+only have been engendered by some extraordinary madness, left me no
+rest, no peace. Hence I came to your bank; and my terrible infatuation
+did not leave me until all my property--all my Angela's property--was
+yours. And now the end has come. I presume you will allow my daughter
+to take her clothing with her?'
+
+"'Your daughter's wardrobe does not concern me,' replied the Chevalier.
+'You may also take your beds and other necessary household utensils,
+and such like; for what could I do with all the old lumber? But see to
+it that nothing of value of the things which now belong to me get mixed
+up with it.'
+
+"Old Vertua stared at the Chevalier a second or two utterly speechless;
+then a flood of tears burst from his eyes, and he sank upon his knees
+in front of the Chevalier, perfectly upset with trouble and despair,
+and raised his hands crying, 'Chevalier, have you still a spark of
+human feeling left in your breast? Be merciful, merciful. It is not I,
+but my daughter, my Angela, my innocent angelic child, whom you are
+plunging into ruin. Oh! be merciful to _her_; lend _her_, _her_, my
+Angela, the twentieth part of the property you have deprived her of.
+Oh! I know you will listen to my entreaty! O Angela! my daughter!' And
+therewith the old man sobbed and lamented and moaned, calling upon his
+child by name in the most heart-rending tones.
+
+"'I am getting tired of this absurd theatrical scene,' said the
+Chevalier indifferently but impatiently; but at this moment the
+door flew open and in burst a girl in a white night-dress, her
+hair dishevelled, her face pale as death,--burst in and ran to
+old Vertua, raised him up, took him in her arms, and cried, 'O
+father! O father! I have heard all, I know all! Have you really lost
+everything--everything, really? Have you not your Angela? What need
+have we of money and property? Will not Angela sustain you and tend
+you? O father, don't humiliate yourself a moment longer before this
+despicable monster. It is not _we_, but _he_, who is poor and miserable
+in the midst of his contemptible riches; for see, he stands there
+deserted in his awful hopeless loneliness; there is not a heart in all
+the wide world to cling lovingly to his breast, to open out to him when
+he despairs of his own life, of himself. Come, father. Leave this house
+with me. Come, let us make haste and be gone, that this fearful man may
+not exult over your trouble.'
+
+"Vertua sank half fainting into an easy-chair. Angela knelt down before
+him, took his hands, kissed them, fondled them, enumerated with
+childish loquacity all the talents, all the accomplishments, which she
+was mistress of, and by the aid of which she would earn a comfortable
+living for her father; she besought him from the midst of burning tears
+to put aside all his trouble and distress, since her life would now
+first acquire true significance, when she had to sew, embroider, sing,
+and play her guitar, not for mere pleasure, but for her father's sake.
+
+"Who, however hardened a sinner, could have remained insensible at the
+sight of Angela, thus radiant in her divine beauty, comforting her old
+father with sweet soft words, whilst the purest affection, the most
+childlike goodness, beamed from her eyes, evidently coming from the
+very depths of her heart?
+
+"Quite otherwise was it with the Chevalier. A perfect Gehenna of
+torment and of the stinging of conscience was awakened within him.
+Angela appeared to him to be the avenging angel of God, before whose
+splendour the misty veil of his wicked infatuation melted away, so that
+he saw with horror the repulsive nakedness of his own miserable soul.
+Yet right through the midst of the flames of this infernal pit that was
+blazing in the Chevalier's heart passed a divine and pure ray, whose
+emanations of light were the sweetest rapture, the very bliss of
+heaven; but the shining of this ray only made his unutterable torments
+the more terrible to bear.
+
+"The Chevalier had never been in love. The moment in which he saw
+Angela was the moment in which he was to experience the most ardent
+passion, and also at the same time the crushing pain of utter
+hopelessness. For no man who had appeared before the pure angel-child,
+lovely Angela, in the way the Chevalier had done, could dream of hope.
+He attempted to speak, but his tongue seemed to be numbed by cramp. At
+last, controlling himself with an effort, he stammered with trembling
+voice, 'Signor Vertua, listen to me. I have not won anything from
+you--nothing at all. There is my strong box; it is yours,--nay, I
+must pay you yet more than there is there. I am your debtor. There,
+take it, take it!'
+
+"'O my daughter!' cried Vertua. But Angela rose to her feet, approached
+the Chevalier, and flashed a proud look upon him, saying earnestly and
+composedly, *'Chevalier, allow me to tell you that there is something
+higher than money and goods; there are sentiments to which you are a
+stranger, which, whilst sustaining our souls with the comfort of
+Heaven, bid us reject your gift, your favour, with contempt. Keep your
+mammon, which is burdened with the curse that pursues you, you
+heartless, depraved gambler.'
+
+"'Yes,' cried the Chevalier in a fearful voice, his eyes flashing
+wildly, for he was perfectly beside himself, 'yes, accursed,--accursed
+will I be--down into the depths of damnation may I be hurled if ever
+again this hand touches a card. And if you then send me from you,
+Angela, then it will be you who will bring irreparable ruin upon me.
+Oh! you don't know--you don't understand me. You can't help but call me
+insane; but you will feel it--you will know all, when you see me
+stretched at your feet with my brains scattered. Angela! It's now a
+question of life or death! Farewell!'
+
+"Therewith the Chevalier rushed off in a state of perfect despair.
+Vertua saw through him completely; he knew what change had come over
+him; he endeavoured to make his lovely Angela understand that certain
+circumstances might arise which would make it necessary to accept the
+Chevalier's present Angela trembled with dread lest she should
+understand her father. She did not conceive how it would ever be
+possible to meet the Chevalier on any other terms save those of
+contempt. Destiny, which often ripens into shape deep down in the human
+heart, without the mind being aware of it, permitted that to take place
+which had never been thought of, never been dreamed of.
+
+"The Chevalier was like a man suddenly wakened up out of a fearful
+dream; he saw himself standing on the brink of the abyss of ruin, and
+stretched out his arms in vain towards the bright shining figure which
+had appeared to him, not, however, to save him--no--but to remind him
+of his damnation.
+
+"To the astonishment of all Paris, Chevalier Menars' bank disappeared
+from the gambling-house; nobody ever saw him again; and hence the most
+diverse and extraordinary rumours were current, each of them more false
+than the rest. The Chevalier shunned all society; his love found
+expression in the deepest and most unconquerable despondency. It
+happened, however, that old Vertua and his daughter one day suddenly
+crossed his path in one of the dark and lonely alleys of the garden of
+Malmaison.[5]
+
+"Angela, who thought she could never look upon the Chevalier without
+contempt and abhorrence, felt strangely moved on seeing him so deathly
+pale, terribly shaken with trouble, hardly daring in his shy respect to
+raise his eyes. She knew quite well that ever since that ill-omened
+night he had altogether relinquished gambling and effected a complete
+revolution in his habits of life. She, she alone had brought all this
+about, she had saved the Chevalier from ruin--could anything be more
+flattering to her woman's vanity? Hence it was that, after Vertua had
+exchanged the usual complimentary remarks with the Chevalier, Angela
+asked in a tone of gentle and sympathetic pity, 'What is the matter
+with you, Chevalier Menars? You are looking very ill and full of
+trouble. I am sure you ought to consult a physician.'
+
+"It is easy to imagine how Angela's words fell like a comforting ray of
+hope upon the Chevalier's heart. From that moment he was not like the
+same man. He lifted up his head; he was able to speak in those tones,
+full of the real inward nature of the man, with which he had formerly
+won all hearts. Vertua exhorted him to come and take possession of the
+house he had won.
+
+"'Yes, Signor Vertua,' cried the Chevalier with animation, 'yes, that I
+will do. I will call upon you tomorrow; but let us carefully weigh and
+discuss all the conditions of the transfer, even though it should last
+some months.'
+
+"'Be it so then, Chevalier,' replied Vertua, smiling. 'I fancy that
+there will arise a good many things to be discussed, of which we at the
+present moment have no idea.' The Chevalier, being thus comforted at
+heart, could not fail to develop again all the charms of manner which
+had once been so peculiarly his own before he was led astray by his
+insane, pernicious passion for gambling. His visits at old Vertua's
+grew more and more frequent; Angela conceived a warmer and warmer
+liking for the man whose safeguarding angel she had been, until finally
+she thought she loved him with all her heart; and she promised him her
+hand, to the great joy of old Vertua, who at last felt that the
+settlement respecting the property he had lost to the Chevalier could
+now be concluded.
+
+"One day Angela, Chevalier Menars' happy betrothed, sat at her window
+wrapped up in varied thoughts of the delights and happiness of love,
+such as young girls when betrothed are wont to dwell upon. A regiment
+of _chasseurs_ passed by to the merry sound of the trumpet, bound for a
+campaign in Spain. As Angela was regarding with sympathetic interest
+the poor men who were doomed to death in the wicked war, a young man
+wheeled his horse quickly to one side and looked up at her, and she
+sank back in her chair fainting.
+
+"Oh! the _chasseur_ who was riding to meet a bloody death was none
+other than young Duvernet, their neighbour's son, with whom she had
+grown up, who had run in and out of the house nearly every day, and had
+only kept away since the Chevalier had begun to visit them.
+
+"In the young man's glance, which was charged with reproaches having
+all the bitterness of death in them, Angela became conscious for the
+first time, not only that he loved her unspeakably, but also how
+boundless was the love which she herself felt for him. Hitherto she had
+not been conscious of it; she had been infatuated, fascinated by the
+glitter which gathered ever more thickly about the Chevalier. She now
+understood, and for the first time, the youth's labouring sighs and
+quiet unpretending homage; and now too she also understood her own
+embarrassed heart for the first time, knew what had caused the
+fluttering sensation in her breast when Duvernet had come, and when she
+had heard his voice.
+
+"'It is too late! I have lost him!' was the voice that spoke in
+Angela's soul. She had courage enough to beat down the feelings of
+wretchedness which threatened to distract her heart; and for that
+reason--namely, that she possessed the courage--she succeeded.
+
+"Nevertheless it did not escape the Chevalier's acute perception that
+something had happened to powerfully affect Angela; but he possessed
+sufficient delicacy of feeling not to seek for a solution of the
+mystery, which it was evident she desired to conceal from him. He
+contented himself with depriving any dangerous rival of his power by
+expediting the marriage; and he made all arrangements for its
+celebration with such fine tact, and such a sympathetic appreciation of
+his fair bride's situation and sentiments, that she saw in them a new
+proof of the good and amiable qualities of her husband.
+
+"The Chevalier's behaviour towards Angela showed him attentive to her
+slightest wish, and exhibited that sincere esteem which springs from
+the purest affection; hence her memory of Duvernet soon vanished
+entirely from her mind. The first cloud that dimmed the bright heaven
+of her happiness was the illness and death of old Vertua.
+
+"Since the night when he had lost all his fortune at the Chevalier's
+bank he had never touched a card, but during the last moments of his
+life play seemed to have taken complete possession of his soul. Whilst
+the priest who had come to administer to him the consolation of the
+Church ere he died, was speaking to him of heavenly things, he lay with
+his eyes closed, murmuring between his teeth, '_perd_, _gagne_,' whilst
+his trembling half-dead hands went through the motions of dealing
+through a _taille_, of drawing the cards. Both Angela and the Chevalier
+bent over him and spoke to him in the tenderest manner, but it was of
+no use; he no longer seemed to know them, nor even to be aware of their
+presence. With a deep-drawn sigh '_gagne_,' he breathed his last.
+
+"In the midst of her distressing grief Angela could not get rid of an
+uncomfortable feeling of awe at the way in which the old man had died.
+She again saw in vivid shape the picture of that terrible night when
+she had first seen the Chevalier as a most hardened and reprobate
+gambler; and the fearful thought entered her mind that he might again,
+in scornful mockery of her, cast aside his mask of goodness and appear
+in his original fiendish character, and begin to pursue his old course
+of life once more.
+
+"And only too soon was Angela's dreaded foreboding to become reality.
+However great the awe which fell upon the Chevalier at old Francesco
+Vertua's death-scene, when the old man, despising the consolation of
+the Church, though in the last agonies of death, had not been able to
+turn his thoughts from his former sinful life--however great was the
+awe that then fell upon the Chevalier, yet his mind was thereby led,
+though how he could not explain, to dwell more keenly upon play than
+ever before, so that every night in his dreams he sat at the faro-bank
+and heaped up riches anew.
+
+"In proportion as Angela's behaviour became more constrained, in
+consequence of her recollection of the character in which she had first
+seen the Chevalier, and as it became more and more impossible for her
+to continue to meet him upon the old affectionate, confidential footing
+upon which they had hitherto lived, so exactly in the same degree
+distrust of Angela crept into the Chevalier's mind, since he ascribed
+her constraint to the secret which had once disturbed her peace of mind
+and which had not been revealed to him. From this distrust were born
+displeasure and unpleasantness, and these he expressed in various ways
+which hurt Angela's feelings. By a singular cross-action of spiritual
+influence Angela's recollections of the unhappy Duvemet began to recur
+to her mind with fresher force, and along with these the intolerable
+consciousness of her ruined love,--the loveliest blossom that had
+budded in her youthful heart. The strained relations between the pair
+continued to increase until things got to such a pitch that the
+Chevalier grew disgusted with his simple mode of life, thought it dull,
+and was smitten with a powerful longing to enjoy the life of the world
+again. His star of ill omen began to acquire the ascendancy. The change
+which had been inaugurated by displeasure and great unpleasantness was
+completed by an abandoned wretch who had formerly been croupier in the
+Chevalier's faro-bank. He succeeded by means of the most artful
+insinuations and conversations in making the Chevalier look upon his
+present walk of life as childish and ridiculous. The Chevalier could
+not understand at last how, for a woman's sake, he ever came to leave a
+world which appeared to him to contain all that made life of any worth.
+
+"It was not long ere Chevalier Menars' rich bank was flourishing more
+magnificently than ever. His good-luck had not left him; victim after
+victim came and fell; he amassed heaps of riches. But Angela's
+happiness--it was ruined--ruined in fearful fashion; it was to be
+compared to a short fair dream. The Chevalier treated her with
+indifference, nay even with contempt. Often, for weeks and months
+together, she never saw him once; the household arrangements were
+placed in the hands of a steward; the servants were being constantly
+changed to suit the Chevalier's whims; so that Angela, a stranger in
+her own house, knew not where to turn for comfort. Often during her
+sleepless nights the Chevalier's carriage stopped before the door, the
+heavy strong-box was carried upstairs, the Chevalier flung out a
+few harsh monosyllabic words of command, and then the doors of his
+distant room were sent to with a bang--all this she heard, and a
+flood of bitter tears started from her eyes. In a state of the most
+heart-rending anguish she called upon Duvernet time after time, and
+implored Providence to put an end to her miserable life of trouble and
+suffering.
+
+"One day a young man of good family, after losing all his fortune at
+the Chevalier s bank, sent a bullet through his brain in the gambling-
+house, and in the very same room even in which the bank was
+established, so that the players were sprinkled by the blood and
+scattered brains, and started up aghast. The Chevalier alone preserved
+his indifference; and, as all were preparing to leave the apartment, he
+asked whether it was in accordance with their rules and custom to leave
+the bank before the appointed hour on account of a fool who had had no
+conduct in his play.
+
+"The occurrence created a great sensation. The most experienced and
+hardened gamblers were indignant at the Chevalier's unexampled
+behaviour. The voice of the public was raised against him. The bank was
+closed by the police. He was, moreover, accused of false play; and his
+unprecedented good-luck tended to establish the truth of the charge. He
+was unable to clear himself. The fine he was compelled to pay deprived
+him of a considerable part of his riches. He found himself disgraced
+and looked upon with contempt; then he went back to the arms of the
+wife he had ill-used, and she willingly received him, the penitent,
+since the remembrance of how her own father had turned aside from the
+demoralising life of a gambler allowed a glimmer of hope to rise, that
+the Chevalier's conversion might this time, now that he was older,
+really have some stamina in it.
+
+"The Chevalier left Paris along with his wife, and went to Genoa,
+Angela's birthplace. Here he led a very retired life at first. But all
+endeavours to restore the footing of quiet domesticity with Angela,
+which his evil genius had destroyed, were in vain. It was not long
+before his deep-rooted discontent awoke anew and drove him out of the
+house in a state of uneasy, unsettled restlessness. His evil reputation
+had followed him from Paris to Genoa; he dare not venture to establish
+a bank, although he was being goaded to do so by a power he could
+hardly resist.
+
+"At that time the richest bank in Genoa was kept by a French colonel,
+who had been invalided owing to serious wounds. His heart burning with
+envy and fierce hatred, the Chevalier appeared at the Colonel's table,
+expecting that his usual good fortune would stand by him, and that he
+should soon ruin his rival. The Colonel greeted him in a merry humour,
+such as was in general not customary with him, and said that now the
+play would really be worth indulging in since they had got Chevalier
+Menars and his good-luck to join them, for now would come the struggle
+which alone made the game interesting.
+
+"And in fact during the first _taille_ the cards fell favourable to the
+Chevalier as they always had done. But when, relying upon his
+invincible luck, he at last cried '_Va banquet_,'[6] he lost a very
+considerable sum at one stroke.
+
+"The Colonel, at other times preserving the same even temperament
+whether winning or losing, now swept the money towards him with the
+most demonstrative signs of extreme delight. From this moment fortune
+turned away from the Chevalier utterly and completely. He played every
+night, and every night he lost, until his property had melted away to a
+few thousand ducats,[7] which he still had in securities.
+
+"The Chevalier had spent the whole day in running about to get his
+securities converted into ready money, and did not reach home until
+late in the evening. So soon as it was fully night, he was about to
+leave the house with his last gold pieces in his pocket, when Angela,
+who suspected pretty much how matters stood, stepped in his path and
+threw herself at his feet, whilst a flood of tears gushed from her
+eyes, beseeching him by the Virgin and all the saints to abandon his
+wicked purpose, and not to plunge her in want and misery.
+
+"He raised her up and strained her to his heart with painful passionate
+intensity, saying in a hoarse voice, 'Angela, my dear sweet Angela! It
+can't be helped now, indeed it must be so; I must go on with it, for I
+can't let it alone. But to-morrow--to-morrow all your troubles shall
+be over, for by the Eternal Destiny that rules over us I swear that
+to-day shall be the last time I will play. Quiet yourself, my dear good
+child--go and sleep--dream of happy days to come, of a better life that
+is in store for you; that will bring good-luck.' Herewith he kissed his
+wife and hurried off before she could stop him.
+
+"Two _tailles_, and the Chevalier had lost all--all. He stood beside
+the Colonel, staring upon the faro-table in moody senselessness.
+
+"'Are you not punting any more, Chevalier?' said the Colonel, shuffling
+the cards for a new _taille_, 'I have lost all,' replied the Chevalier,
+forcing himself with an effort to be calm.
+
+"'Have you really nothing left?' asked the Colonel at the next
+_taille_.
+
+"'I am a beggar,' cried the Chevalier, his voice trembling with rage
+and mortification; and he continued to stare fiercely upon the table
+without observing that the players were gaining more and more
+advantages over the banker.
+
+"The Colonel went on playing quietly. But whilst shuffling the cards
+for the following _taille_, he said in a low voice, without looking at
+the Chevalier, 'But you have a beautiful wife.'
+
+"'What do you mean by that?' burst out the Chevalier angrily. The
+Colonel drew his cards without making any answer.
+
+"'Ten thousand ducats or--Angela!' said the Colonel, half turning round
+whilst the cards were being cut.
+
+"'You are mad!' exclaimed the Chevalier, who now began to observe on
+coming more to himself that the Colonel continually lost and lost
+again.
+
+"'Twenty thousand ducats against Angela!' said the Colonel in a low
+voice, pausing for a moment in his shuffling of the cards.
+
+"The Chevalier did not reply. The Colonel went on playing, and almost
+all the cards fell to the players' side.
+
+"'Taken!' whispered the Chevalier in the Colonel's ear, as the new
+_taille_ began, and he pushed the queen on the table.
+
+"In the next draw the queen had lost. The Chevalier drew back from the
+table, grinding his teeth, and in despair stood leaning in a window,
+his face deathly pale.
+
+"Play was over. 'Well, and what's to be done now?' were the Colonel's
+mocking words as he stepped up to the Chevalier.
+
+"'Ah!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself, 'you have made me a
+beggar, but you must be insane to imagine that you could win my wife.
+Are we on the islands? is my wife a slave, exposed as a mere _thing_ to
+the brutal arbitrariness of a reprobate man, that he may trade with
+her, gamble with her? But it is true! You would have had to pay twenty
+thousand ducats if the queen had won, and so I have lost all right to
+raise a protest if my wife is willing to leave me to follow you. Come
+along with me, and despair when you see how my wife will repel you with
+detestation when you propose to her that she shall follow you as your
+shameless mistress.'
+
+"'You will be the one to despair,' replied the Colonel, with a mocking,
+scornful laugh; 'you will be the one to despair, Chevalier, when Angela
+turns with abhorrence from you--you, the abandoned sinner, who have
+made her life miserable--and flies into my arms in rapture and delight;
+you will be the one to despair when you learn that we have been united
+by the blessing of the Church, and that our dearest wishes are crowned
+with happiness. You call me insane. Ho! ho! All I wanted to win was the
+right to claim her, for of Angela herself I am sure. Ho! ho! Chevalier,
+let me inform you that your wife loves _me_--_me_, with unspeakable
+love: let me inform you that I am that Duvernet, the neighbour's son,
+who was brought up along with Angela, bound to her by ties of the most
+ardent affection--he whom you drove away by means of your diabolical
+devices. Ah! it was not until I had to go away to the wars that Angela
+became conscious to herself of what I was to her; I know all. It was
+too late. The Spirit of Evil suggested to me the idea that I might ruin
+you in play, and so I took to gambling--followed you to Genoa,--and now
+I have succeeded. Away now to your wife.'
+
+"The Chevalier was almost annihilated, like one upon whose head had
+fallen the most disastrous blows of fortune. Now he saw to the bottom
+of that mysterious secret, now he saw for the first time the full
+extent of the misfortune which he had brought upon poor Angela.
+'Angela, my wife, shall decide,' he said hoarsely, and followed the
+Colonel, who was hurrying off at full speed.
+
+"On reaching the house the Colonel laid his hand upon the latch of
+Angela's chamber; but the Chevalier pushed him back, saying, 'My wife
+is asleep. Do you want to rouse her up out of her sweet sleep?'
+
+"'Hm!' replied the Colonel. 'Has Angela ever enjoyed sweet sleep since
+you brought all this nameless misery upon her?' Again the Colonel
+attempted to enter the chamber; but the Chevalier threw himself at his
+feet and screamed, frantic with despair, 'Be merciful. Let me keep my
+wife; you have made me a beggar, but let me keep my wife.'
+
+"'That's how old Vertua lay at your feet, you miscreant dead to all
+feeling, and could not move your stony heart; may Heaven's vengeance
+overtake you for it.' Thus spoke the Colonel; and he again strode
+towards Angela's chamber.
+
+"The Chevalier sprang towards the door, tore it open, rushed to the bed
+in which his wife lay, and drew back the curtains, crying, 'Angela!
+Angela!' Bending over her, he grasped her hand; but all at once he
+shook and trembled in mortal anguish and cried in a thundering voice,
+'Look! look! you have won my wife's corpse.'
+
+"Perfectly horrified, the Colonel approached the bed; no sign of
+life!--Angela was dead--dead.
+
+"Then the Colonel doubled his fist and shook it heavenwards, and rushed
+out of the room uttering a fearful cry. Nothing more was ever heard of
+him."
+
+
+This was the end of the stranger's tale; and the Baron was so shaken
+that before he could say anything the stranger had hastily risen from
+the seat and gone away.
+
+A few days later the stranger was found in his room suffering from
+apoplexy of the nerves. He never opened his mouth up to the moment of
+his death, which ensued after the lapse of a few hours. His papers
+proved that, though he called himself Baudasson simply, he was no less
+a person than the unhappy Chevalier Menars himself.
+
+The Baron recognised it as a warning from Heaven, that Chevalier Menars
+had been led across his path to save him just as he was approaching the
+brink of the precipice; he vowed that he would withstand all the
+seductions of the gambler's deceptive luck.
+
+Up till now he has faithfully kept his word.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "GAMBLER'S LUCK":
+
+[Footnote 1: In faro the keeper of the bank plays against all the rest
+of the players (who are called _punters_). He has a full pack; they
+have but a single complete suit. The punters may stake what they please
+upon any card they please, except in so far as rules may have been made
+to the contrary by the banker. After the cards have been cut, the
+banker proceeds to take off the two top cards one after the other,
+placing the first at his right hand, and the second at his left, each
+with the face uppermost. Any punter who has staked a card which bears
+exactly the same number of "peeps" as the card turned up on the
+banker's right hand loses the stake to the latter; but if it bears the
+same number of "peeps" as the card on the banker's left, it is the
+banker who has to pay the punter a sum equal to the value of his stake.
+The twenty-six drawings which a full pack allows the banker to make are
+called a _taille_.
+
+This general sketch will help to make the text intelligible for the
+most part without going into minor technicalities of the game.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The words "win," "lose," with which the banker places the
+two cards on the table, the first to his right for himself, the second
+on his left for the punter.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The new _Louis d'or_ were worth somewhat less than the old
+coins of the time of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. (See note, p. 175.)]
+
+[Footnote 4: The banker's assistants, who shuffle cards for him, change
+cheques, notes, and make themselves generally useful.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Malmaison is a chateau and park situated about six miles
+W. of Paris. It once belonged to Richelieu; and there the Empress
+Josephine lived, and there she died on the 13th May, 1814.]
+
+[Footnote 6: "_Va bout_" or "_Va banque_" meant a challenge to the bank
+to the full amount of the highest limit of play, and if the punter won
+he virtually broke the bank.]
+
+[Footnote 7: The first silver ducat is believed to have been struck in
+1140 by Roger II., Norman king of Sicily; and ducats have been struck
+constantly since the twelfth century, especially at Venice (see _Merchant
+of Venice_). They have varied considerably both in weight and fineness, and
+consequently in value, at different times and places. Ducats have been
+struck in both gold and silver. The early Venetian silver ducat was worth
+about five shillings. The name is said, according to one account, to have
+been derived from the last word of the Latin legend found on the earliest
+Venetian gold coins:--_Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis, ducatus_
+(duchy); according to another account it is taken from "_il ducato_," the
+name generally applied to the duchy of Apulia. (Note, page 98, Vol. I.)]
+
+
+
+
+
+                       _MASTER JOHANNES WACHT._[1]
+
+
+At the time when people in the beautiful and pleasant town of Bamberg
+lived, according to the well-known saying, well, _i.e._, under the
+crook, namely in the end of the previous century, there was also one
+inhabitant, a man belonging to the burgher class, who might be called
+in every respect both singular and eminent His name was Johannes Wacht,
+and his trade was that of a carpenter.
+
+Nature, in weighing and definitely determining her children's
+destinies, pursues her own dark inscrutable path; and all that is
+claimed by convenience, and by the opinions and considerations which
+prevail in man's narrow existence, as determining factors in settling
+the true tendency of every man's self. Nature regards as nothing more
+than the pert play of deluded children imagining themselves to be wise.
+But short-sighted man often finds an insuperable irony in the
+contradiction between the conviction of his own mind and the mysterious
+ordering of this inscrutable Power, who first nourished and fed him at
+her maternal bosom and then deserted him; and this irony fills him with
+terror and awe, since it threatens to annihilate his own self.
+
+The mother of Life does not choose for her favourites either the
+palaces of the great or the state-apartments of princes. And so she
+made our Johannes, who, as the kindly reader will soon learn, might be
+called one of her most richly endowed favourites, first see the light
+of the world on a wretched heap of straw, in the workshop of an
+impoverished master turner in Augsburg. His mother died of want and
+from suffering soon after the child's birth, and his father followed
+her after the lapse of a few months.
+
+The town government had to take charge of the helpless boy; and when
+the Council's master carpenter, a well-to-do, respectable man, who
+found in the child's face, notwithstanding that it was pinched with
+hunger, certain traits which pleased him,--when he would not suffer the
+boy to be lodged in a public institution, but took him into his own
+house, in order to bring him up along with his own children, then there
+dawned upon Johannes his first genial ray of sunshine, heralding a
+happier lot in the future.
+
+In an incredibly short space of time the boy's frame developed, so that
+it was difficult to believe that the little insignificant creature in
+the cradle had really been the shapeless colourless chrysalis out of
+which this pretty, living, golden-locked boy had proceeded, like a
+beautiful butterfly. But--what seemed of more importance--along with
+this pleasing grace of physical form the boy soon displayed such
+eminent intellectual faculties as astonished both his foster-father and
+his teachers. Johannes grew up in a workshop which sent forth some of
+the best and highest work that mechanical skill was able to produce,
+since the master carpenter to the Council was constantly engaged upon
+the most important buildings. No wonder, therefore, that the child's
+mind, which caught up everything with such keen clear perception,
+should be excited thereby, and should feel all his heart drawn towards
+a trade the deeper significance of which, in so far as it was concerned
+with the material creation of great and bold ideas, he dimly felt deep
+down in his soul. The joy that this bent of the orphan's mind
+occasioned his foster-father may well be conceived; and hence he felt
+persuaded to teach the boy all practical matters himself with great
+care and attention, and furthermore, when he had grown into a youth, to
+have him instructed by the cleverest masters in all the higher branches
+of knowledge connected with the trade, both theoretical and practical,
+such as, for instance, drawing, architecture, mechanics, &c.
+
+Our Johannes was four and twenty years of age when the old master
+carpenter died; and even at that time his foster-son was a thoroughly
+experienced and skilful journeyman in all branches of his craft, whose
+equal could not be found far and near. At this period Johannes set out,
+along with his true and faithful comrade Engelbrecht, on the usual
+journeyman's[2] travels.
+
+Herewith you know, indulgent reader, all that it is needful to know
+about the youth of our worthy Wacht; and it only remains to tell you in
+a few words how it was that he came to settle in Bamberg and how he
+became master there.
+
+After being on the travel for a pretty long time he happened to arrive
+at Bamberg on his way home along with his comrade Engelbrecht; and
+there they found the Bishop's palace undergoing thorough repair, and
+particularly on that side of it where the walls rose up to a great
+height out of a very narrow alley or court. Here an entirely new roof
+was to be put up, of very great and very heavy beams; and they wanted a
+machine, which, whilst taking up the least possible room, would possess
+sufficient concentration of power to raise the heavy weights up to the
+required height. The Prince-bishop's builder, who knew how to calculate
+to a nicety how Trajan's Column in Rome had been made to stand, and
+also knew the hundred or more mistakes that had been made which he
+should never have laid himself open to the reproach of committing, had
+indeed constructed a machine--a sort of crane--which was very nice to
+look at, and was praised by everybody as a masterpiece of mechanical
+skill; but when the men tried to set the thing agoing, it turned out
+that the Herr builder had calculated upon downright Samsons and
+Herculeses. The wheels creaked and squeaked horribly; the huge beams
+which were hooked on to the crane did not budge an inch; the men
+declared, whilst shaking the sweat from their brows, that they would
+much sooner carry ships' mainmasts up steep stairs than strain
+themselves in this way, and waste all their best strength in vain over
+such a machine; and there matters remained.
+
+Standing at some distance, Wacht and Engelbrecht looked on at what they
+were doing, or rather, not doing; and it is possible that Wacht may
+have smiled just a little at the builder's want of knowledge.
+
+A grey-headed old foreman, recognising the strangers' handicraft from
+their clothing, stepped up to them without more ado, and asked Wacht if
+he understood how to manage the machine any better since he looked so
+cunning about it. "Ah, well!" replied Wacht, without being in the least
+disconcerted, "ah well; it's a doubtful point whether I know better,
+for every fool thinks he understands everything better than anybody
+else; but I can't help wondering that in this part of the country you
+don't seem to be acquainted with a certain simple contrivance, which
+would easily perform all that the Herr Builder yonder is vainly
+tormenting his men to accomplish."
+
+The young man's bold answer nettled the grey-haired old foreman not a
+little; he turned away muttering to himself; and very soon it was known
+to them all that a young stranger, a carpenter's journeyman, had
+laughed the builder together with his machine to scorn, and boasted
+that he was acquainted with a more serviceable contrivance. As is
+usually the case, nobody paid any heed to it; but the worthy builder as
+well as the honourable guild of carpenters in Bamberg were of opinion
+that the stranger had not, it was to be presumed, devoured up all the
+wisdom of the world, nor would he presume to dictate to and teach old
+and experienced masters. "Now do you see, Johannes," said Engelbrecht
+to his comrade, "now do you see how your rash boldness has again
+provoked against you the people whom we must meet as comrades of the
+craft?"
+
+"Who can, who may look on quietly," replied Johannes, whilst his eyes
+flashed, "when the poor labourers--I'm sure they're to be pitied--are
+tormented so and made to work beyond all reason, and that all to no
+purpose. And who knows whether my rash boldness may not, after all,
+have beneficial consequences?" And it really turned out to be so.
+
+One single individual, of such pre-eminent intellectual capacity that
+no gleam of knowledge, however fugitive it might be, ever escaped his
+keen penetration, attached a quite different importance to the youth's
+words from what the rest did, for the builder had reported them to him
+as the presumptuous saying of a young fledgling carpenter. This man was
+the Prince-bishop himself. He had the young man summoned to his
+presence, that he might inquire further into the import of his words,
+and was not a little astonished both at his appearance and at his
+general bearing and character. My kindly reader ought to know what this
+astonishment was due to, and now is the time to tell him something more
+about Johannes Wacht's exterior and Johannes Wacht's mind and thoughts.
+
+As far as his face and figure were concerned, he might justly be called
+a remarkably handsome young fellow, and yet his noble features and
+majestic stature did not attain to full perfection until after he had
+reached a riper manhood. Æsthetic canons of the cathedral credited
+Johannes with having the head of an old Roman; a younger member of the
+same fraternity, who even in the severest winter was in the habit of
+going about dressed in black silk, and who had read Schiller's
+_Fiesko_, maintained, on the contrary, that Johannes Wacht was
+Verrina[3] in the flesh.
+
+But the mysterious charm by means of which many highly-gifted men are
+enabled to win at once the confidence of those whom they approach does
+not consist in beauty and grace of external form alone. We in a certain
+sense feel their superiority; yet this feeling is by no means an
+oppressive feeling as might be imagined; but, whilst elevating the
+spirit, it also excites a certain kind of mental comfort that does us
+an incalculable amount of good. All the factors of the physical and
+intellectual organism are united into a whole by the most perfect
+harmony, so that the contact with the superior soul is like a pure
+strain of music; it suffers no discord. This harmony creates that
+inimitable deportment, that--one might almost say--comfort in
+the slightest movements, through which the consciousness of true
+human dignity is proclaimed. This deportment can be taught by no
+dancing-master, by no Prince's tutor; and well and rightly does it
+deserve its proper name of the distinguished deportment, since it is
+stamped as such by Nature herself. Here need only be added that Master
+Wacht, unflinchingly constant in generosity, truth, and faithfulness to
+his burgher standing, became as the years went on ever more a man of
+the people. He developed all the virtues, but at the same time all the
+unconquerable prejudices, which are generally wont to form the
+unfavourable sides of such men's characters. My kindly reader will soon
+learn of what these prejudices consisted.
+
+I have now perhaps sufficiently explained why it was that the young
+man's appearance made such an uncommon impression upon the respected
+Prince-bishop. For a long time he observed the stalwart young workman
+in silence, but with visible satisfaction; then he questioned him about
+his previous life. Johannes answered all his questions candidly and
+modestly, and finally explained to the Prince with convincing
+clearness, that the master-builder's machine, though perhaps fitted for
+other purposes, would in the present case never effect what it was
+intended to do.
+
+In reply to the Prince's inquiry whether he could indeed trust himself
+to specify a machine that would be more suitable for the purpose,
+namely, to raise the heavy weights, the young man replied that all he
+required to construct such a machine was a single day, and the help of
+his comrade Engelbrecht and a few skilful and willing labourers.
+
+It may be conceived with what malicious and mischievous inward joy, and
+with what impatience the master-builder, and all who were connected
+with him, looked forward to the morrow, when the forward stranger would
+be sent off home covered with shame and ridicule. But things turned out
+different from what these good-hearted people had expected, or indeed
+had wished.
+
+Three capsterns suitably situated and so arranged as to exert an effect
+one upon another, and each only manned by eight labourers, elevated the
+heavy beams up to the giddy level of the roof with so much ease that
+they appeared to dance in the air. From this moment the brave clever
+craftsman could date the foundation of his reputation in Bamberg. The
+Prince urged him seriously to stay in that town and secure his
+mastership; towards the attainment of this end he would lend him all
+the assistance he possibly could. Wacht, however, hesitated,
+notwithstanding that he was very well pleased with the pleasant and
+cheap town of Bamberg. The fact that several important buildings were
+just then in course of erection put a heavy weight into the scale for
+staying; but the final turn to the balance was given by a circumstance
+which is very often wont to decide matters in life; namely, Johannes
+Wacht found again quite unexpectedly in Bamberg the beautiful virtuous
+maiden whom he had seen several years previously in Erlangen, and into
+whose friendly blue eyes he had then peeped a little too much. In a few
+words, Johannes Wacht became master, married the virtuous maiden of
+Erlangen, and soon contrived through industry and skill to purchase a
+pretty house on the Kaulberg,[4] which had a large tract of garden
+ground stretching away back up the hill, and there he settled down for
+life.
+
+But upon whom does the friendly star of good fortune shine unchangeably
+with the same degree of splendour at all times? Providence had decreed
+that our honest Johannes should be submitted to a trial under which
+perhaps any other man, with less firmness of spirit, would have sunk.
+The first fruit of this very happy marriage was a son, an excellent
+youth, who appeared to be walking steadfastly in his father's
+footsteps. He was eighteen years of age when one night a large fire
+broke out not far from Wacht's house. Father and son hurried to the
+spot, agreeably to their calling, to help in extinguishing the flames.
+Along with other carpenters the son boldly clambered up to the roof in
+order to cut away its burning framework, as far as could be done. His
+father, who had remained below, as he always did, to direct the
+demolition of walls, &c., and to superintend the work of extinction,
+looked up and seeing the imminent danger shouted, "Johannes! men! come
+down! come down!" Too late--with a fearful crash the wall fell in; the
+son lay struck to death in the flames, which leapt up crackling louder
+as if in horrid triumph.
+
+But this terrible blow was not the only one which was to fall upon poor
+Johannes. An inconsiderate maid-servant burst with a frantic cry of
+distress into her mistress' room, who was only partly convalescent from
+a distracting nervous disorder, and was in great uneasiness and anxiety
+about the fire, the dark-red reflection of which was flickering on the
+walls of her chamber. "Your son, your Johannes, is killed; the wall has
+buried him and his comrades in the middle of the flames," screamed the
+girl. As though stung with sharp, sudden pain, her mistress raised
+herself up in the bed; but breathing out a deep sigh, she sank back
+upon the cushions again. She was struck with paralysis of the nerves;
+she was dead.
+
+"Now let us see," said the citizens, "how Master Wacht will bear his
+great trouble. He has often enough preached to us that a man ought not
+to succumb to the greatest misfortune, but ought to bear his head erect
+and strive with the strength which the Creator has planted in every
+man's breast to withstand the misery that threatens him, so long as the
+contrary is not evidently decreed in the Eternal counsels. Let us see
+now what sort of an example he will give us."
+
+They were not a little astonished when, although the master himself was
+not seen in the workshop, yet his journeymen's activity continued
+without interruption, so that work never stood still for a single
+moment, but went on just as if the master had not experienced any
+trouble.
+
+With steadfast courage and firm step, and with his face shining with
+all the consolation and all the hope that sprang from his belief--the
+true religion rooted deep down in his breast--he had followed the
+corpses of his wife and son; and on the noon of the same day after the
+funeral, which had taken place in the morning, he said to Engelbrecht,
+"Engelbrecht, it is now necessary for me to be alone with my grief,
+which is almost breaking my heart, in order that I may become
+acquainted with it and strengthen myself against it. You, brother, my
+honest, industrious foreman, will know what to do for a week; for that
+space I am going to shut myself up in my own chamber."
+
+And indeed for a whole week Master Wacht never left his room. The maid
+frequently brought down his food again untouched; and they often heard
+in the passage his low, sad cry, cutting them to the quick, "O my wife!
+O my Johannes!"
+
+Many of Wacht's acquaintances were of opinion that he ought not by any
+means to be left in this solitary state; by brooding constantly over
+his grief his mind might become unsettled Engelbrecht, however, met
+them with the reply, "Let him alone; you don't know my Johannes. Since
+Providence, in its inscrutable purposes, has sent him this hard trial,
+it has also given him strength to overcome it, and all earthly
+consolation would only outrage his feelings. I know in what manner he
+is working his way out of his deep grief." These last words Engelbrecht
+uttered with a well-nigh cunning look upon his face; but he would not
+give any further information as to what he meant. Wacht's acquaintances
+had to content themselves, and leave the unfortunate man in peace.
+
+A week was passed, and early the next morning, which was a bright
+summer morning, at five o'clock Master Wacht came out unexpectedly into
+the workyard amongst his journeymen, who were all hard at work. Their
+axes and saws stopped, whilst they greeted him with a half-sorrowful
+cry, "Master Wacht! Our good Master Wacht!"
+
+With a cheerful face, upon which the traces of the struggle against
+grief which he had gone through had deepened the expression of sterling
+good-nature and given it a most touching character, he stepped amongst
+his faithful workpeople and told them how the goodness of Heaven had
+sent down the spirit of mercy and consolation upon him, and that he was
+now filled with strength and courage to go on and discharge the duties
+of his calling. He betook himself to the building in the middle of the
+yard, which served for the storage of the tools at night, and for
+keeping the plans and memoranda of work, &c. Englebrecht, the
+journeymen, the apprentices, followed him in a string. On entering,
+Johannes stood rooted to the spot.
+
+His poor boy's axe, which was identified by certain distinctive marks,
+had been found with half-charred handle under the ruins of the house
+that had been burnt down. His companions had fastened it high up on the
+wall directly opposite the door, and, in a rather rude attempt at art,
+had painted round it a wreath of roses and cypress-branches; and
+underneath the wreath they had placed their beloved comrade's name,
+together with the year of his birth and the date of the ill-omened
+night when he had met such a violent death.
+
+"Poor Hans!"[5] exclaimed Master Wacht on perceiving this touching
+monument of the true faithful spirits, whilst a flood of tears gushed
+from his eyes. "Poor Hans! the last time you wielded that tool was for
+the welfare of your brothers; but now you are resting in your grave,
+and will never more stand by my side and use your earnest industry in
+helping to forward a good piece of work."
+
+Then Master Wacht went round the circle and gave each journeyman and
+each apprentice a good honest shake of the hand, saying, "Think of
+him." Then they all went back to their work, except Engelbrecht, whom
+Wacht bid stay with him.
+
+"See here, my old comrade," cried Wacht, "what extraordinary means the
+Eternal Power has chosen to help me to overcome my great trouble.
+During the days when I was almost heart-broken with grief for my wife
+and child, whom I have lost in such a terrible way, there came into my
+mind the idea of a highly artistic and complicated trussed girder,
+which I had been thinking about for a long time without ever being able
+to see my way to the thing clearly. Look here."
+
+Therewith Master Wacht unrolled the drawing at which he had worked
+during the past week, and Engelbrecht was greatly astonished at the
+boldness and originality of the invention no less than at its
+exceptional neatness in the finished state. The mechanical part of the
+contrivance was so skilfully and cleverly arranged that even
+Engelbrecht, with all his great experience, could not comprehend it at
+once; but the greater therefore was his glad admiration when Master
+Wacht explained to him the whole construction down to the minutest
+details, and he had convinced himself that the putting of the plan into
+execution could not fail to be successful.
+
+At this time Wacht's household consisted of only two daughters besides
+himself; but it was very soon to be increased.
+
+Albeit a clever and industrious workman, Master Engelbrecht had never
+been able to advance so far as that lowest grade of affluence which had
+been the reward of Wacht's very earliest undertakings. He had to
+contend with the worst enemy of life, against which no human power is
+of any avail; it not only threatened to destroy him, but really did
+destroy him--namely, consumption. He died, leaving a wife and two boys
+almost in want. His wife went back to her own home; and Master Wacht
+would willingly have taken both boys into his own house, but this could
+only be arranged in the case of the elder, who was called Sebastian. He
+was a strong intelligent lad, and having an inclination to follow his
+father's trade, promised to make a good clever carpenter. He had,
+however, a certain refractoriness of disposition, which at times seemed
+to border closely upon badness, as well as being somewhat rude in his
+manners, and even often wild and untamable; but these ill qualities
+Wacht hoped to conquer by wise training. The younger boy, Jonathan by
+name, was exactly the opposite of his elder brother; he was a very
+pretty little boy, but rather fragile, his blue eyes laughing with
+gentleness and kind-heartedness. This boy had been adopted during his
+father's lifetime by Herr Theophilus Eichheimer, a worthy doctor of
+law, as well as the first and oldest advocate in the place. Noticing
+the boy's remarkably good parts, as well as his most decided bent for
+knowledge, he had taken him to train him for a lawyer.
+
+And here one of those unconquerable prejudices of our Wacht came to
+light which have been already spoken of above, namely, he was perfectly
+convinced in his own mind that everything understood under the name of
+law was nothing else but so many phrases artificially hammered out
+and put together by lawyers, with the sole purpose of perplexing the
+true feeling of right which had been planted in every virtuous man's
+breast. Since he could not exactly shut his eyes to the necessity for
+law-courts, he discharged all his hatred upon the advocates, whom as a
+class he conceived to be, if not altogether miserable deceivers, yet at
+any rate such contemptible men that they practised usury in shameful
+fashion with all that was most holy and venerable in the world. It will
+be seen presently how Wacht, who in all other relations of life was an
+intelligent and clear-sighted man, resembled in this particular the
+coarsest-minded amongst the lowest of the people. The further prejudice
+that he would not admit there was any piety or virtue amongst the
+adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, and that he trusted no
+Catholic, might perhaps be pardoned him, since he had imbibed the
+principles of a well-nigh fanatical Protestantism in Augsburg. It may
+be conceived, therefore, how it cut Master Wacht to the heart to see
+the son of his most faithful friend entering upon a career that he so
+bitterly detested.
+
+The will of the deceased, however, was in his eyes sacred; and it was,
+moreover, at any rate certain that Jonathan with his weakly body could
+not be trained up to any handicraft that made any very large demand
+upon physical strength. Besides, when old Herr Theophilus Eichheimer
+talked to the master about the divine gift of knowledge, at the same
+time praising little Jonathan as a good intelligent boy, Wacht for the
+moment forgot the advocate, and law, and his own prejudice as well. He
+fastened all his hopes upon the belief that Jonathan, who bore his
+father's virtues in his heart, would give up his profession when he
+arrived at riper years, and was able to perceive all the disgrace that
+attached to it.
+
+Though Jonathan was a good, quiet boy, fond of studying in-doors,
+Sebastian was all the oftener and all the deeper engaged in all kinds
+of wild foolish pranks. But since in respect to his handiwork he
+followed in his father's footsteps, and no fault could ever be found
+with his industry or with the neatness of his work, Master Wacht
+ascribed his at times too outrageous tricks to the unrefined untamed
+fire of youth, and he forgave the young fellow, observing that he would
+be sure to sow his wild oats when on his travels.
+
+These travels Sebastian soon set out upon; and Master Wacht heard
+nothing more from him until Sebastian, on attaining his majority, wrote
+from Vienna, begging for his little patrimonial inheritance, which
+Master Wacht sent to him correct to the last farthing, receiving in
+return a receipt for it drawn up by one of the Vienna courts.
+
+Just the same sort of difference in character as distinguished the
+Engelbrechts was noticeable also between Wacht's two daughters, of whom
+the elder was called Rettel[6] and the younger Nanni.
+
+It may here be hastily remarked in passing, that, according to the
+taste generally prevalent in Bamberg, the Christian name Nanni is the
+prettiest and finest a girl can well have. And so, kindly reader, if
+you ever ask a pretty child in Bamberg, "What is your name, my little
+angel?" the little thing will be sure to cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and tug at her black silk apron, and whisper in friendly
+fashion with a slight blush upon her cheeks, "'N! 'N! Nanni, y'r
+honour."
+
+Rettel, Wacht's elder daughter, was a fat little thing, with red rosy
+cheeks and right friendly black eyes, with which she looked boldly into
+the face of the sunshine of life, as it had dawned upon her, without
+blinking. In respect of her education and her character she had not
+risen a hair's breadth above the sphere of the handicraftsman. She
+gossiped with her female relatives and friends, and liked dressing
+herself, though in gay colours and without taste; but her own peculiar
+element, wherein she "lived and moved, and had her being," was the
+kitchen. Nobody's hare-ragout and geese giblets, not even those of the
+most experienced cook far and near, ever turned out so tasty as hers;
+in the preparation of sauces she was a perfect adept; vegetables, such
+as savoy and cauliflower, were dressed by Rettel's cunning hand in a
+way that could not be beaten, since she knew in a moment through a
+subtle unfailing instinct when there was too much or too little
+dripping; and her short cakes put in the shade the most successful
+productions of a similar kind at the most sumptuous of church
+feasts.[7]
+
+Father Wacht was very well satisfied with his daughter's cooking; and
+he once hazarded the opinion that the Prince-bishop could not have more
+delicious vermicelli noodles[8] on his table than those which Rettel
+made. This remark sank so deeply into the good girl's pleased heart,
+that she was preparing to send a huge dish of the said vermicelli
+noodles up to the Prince-bishop, and that too on a fast day.
+Fortunately Master Wacht got scent of the plan in time, and amidst
+hearty laughter prevented the bold idea from being put into execution.
+
+Not only was stout little Rettel a clever housekeeper, a perfect cook,
+and at the same time a pattern of good nature and childish affection
+and fidelity, but like a well-trained child she also loved her father
+very tenderly.
+
+Now characters of Wacht's class, in spite of their earnestness, often
+display a certain ironical waggishness which comes into play on easy
+provocation, and lends an agreeable charm to life, just as the deep
+brook greets with its silver curling waves the light breeze that skims
+its surface.
+
+It could not fail but that good Rettel's ways and doings frequently
+provoked this sly humour; and so the relations between Wacht and his
+daughter were invested with a curiously modified charm of colour. The
+indulgent reader will come across instances later on; for the present
+it may suffice to mention one such here, which certainly deserves
+to be called entertaining. In Master Wacht's house there was a quiet,
+good-looking young man, who held a post in the Prince's exchequer
+office and drew a very good income. In straightforward German fashion
+he sued the father for the hand of his elder daughter, and Master
+Wacht, if he would not do an injustice to the young man as well as to
+his Rettel, could not help but grant him permission to visit the house,
+that he might have opportunities to try and win the girl's affections.
+Rettel, informed of the man's purpose, received him with very friendly
+looks, in which might be read at times, "At our wedding, dear, I shall
+bake the cake myself."
+
+Master Wacht, however, was not altogether well pleased with his
+daughter's growing liking for the Herr Administrator of the Prince's
+revenues, since the Herr Administrator himself didn't seem to him to be
+all that he should be. In the first place, the man was as a matter of
+course a Roman Catholic, and in the second place Wacht thought he
+perceived in him on nearer acquaintance a certain sneaking
+dissimulation of manner, which pointed to a mind ill at ease. He would
+willingly have got the undesirable suitor out of the house again if he
+could have done so without hurting Rettel's feelings. Master Wacht
+observed him closely, and knew how to make shrewd and cunning use of
+his observations. He perceived that the Herr Administrator did not set
+much store by well-cooked dishes, but swallowed down everything in the
+same indiscriminate fashion, and that, moreover, in a disagreeably
+repulsive way. One Sunday, when the Herr Administrator was dining at
+Master Wacht's, as he usually did on that day, the latter began to heap
+up praises and commendations upon every dish which busy Rettel caused
+to be served up; and not only did he call upon the Herr Administrator
+to join him in his encomiums, but he also asked him pointedly what he
+thought of various ways of dressing dishes. The Herr Administrator
+replied somewhat dryly that he was a temperate and abstemious man,
+accustomed from his youth up to the greatest frugality. At noon, for
+dinner, he was satisfied with a spoonful or two of soup and a little
+piece of beef, but the latter must be cooked hard, since so cooked a
+smaller quantity sufficed to satisfy the hunger, and there was no need
+to overload the stomach with large pieces. For his evening meal he
+generally managed upon a saucer of good egg and butter beaten up
+together and a very small glass of liquor; moreover, the only other
+refreshment he allowed himself was a glass of extra beer at six o'clock
+in the evening, taken if possible in the good fresh air. It may be
+imagined what looks Rettelchen fixed upon the unfortunate
+administrator. And yet the worst was still to come. Bavarian puffy
+noodles were next served, and they were swollen up to such a big, big
+size that they seemed to be the masterpiece of the table. The frugal
+Herr Administrator took his knife and with the most cool-blooded
+indifference cut the noodle which was passed to him into many pieces.
+Rettel rushed out of the room with a loud cry of despair.
+
+I must inform the reader who does not know the secret of eating
+Bavarian puffy noodles that when eaten they must be cleverly pulled to
+pieces, since when cut they lose all taste and bring disgrace upon the
+professional pride of the cook who made them.
+
+From that moment Rettel looked upon the frugal Herr Administrator as
+the most abominable man under the face of the sun. Master Wacht did not
+contradict her in any way; and so the reckless iconoclast in the
+province of cookery lost his bride for ever.
+
+Though the chequered figure of little Rettel has cost almost too many
+words, yet a very few strokes will suffice to put clearly before my
+reader's eyes the face, figure, and character of pretty, graceful
+Nanni.
+
+It is only in South Germany, particularly in Franconia, and almost
+exclusively in the burgher classes, that you can meet with such elegant
+and delicate figures, such good and pleasing angelic little faces,
+where there is a sweet heavenly yearning in the blue eyes and a divine
+smile upon the rosy lips, as Nanni's; from them we at once see that the
+old painters had not far to seek the originals of their Madonnas. Of
+exactly the same type in figure, face, and character was the Erlangen
+maiden whom Master Wacht had married; and Nanni was a most faithful
+copy of her mother. With respect to her genuine tender womanliness and
+with respect to that beneficial culture which is nothing but true tact
+under all conditions of life, her mother was the exact counterpart of
+what Master Wacht was with respect to his distinguishing qualities as
+man. Perhaps the daughter was less serious and firm than her mother,
+but on the other hand she was the perfection of maidenly sweetness; and
+the only fault that could be found with her was that her womanly
+tenderness of feeling and a sensitiveness which, as a consequence of
+her weakened organisation, was easily provoked to a tearful and
+unhealthy degree, made her too delicate and fragile for the realities
+of life.
+
+Master Wacht could not look at the dear child without emotion, and he
+loved her in a way that is seldom found in the case of strong
+characters like his. It is possible that he may have always spoiled her
+a little; and it will soon be shown in what way her tenderness so often
+received that special material and encouragement which made it often
+degenerate into sickly sentimentality.
+
+Nanni loved to dress with extreme simplicity, but in the finest stuffs
+and according to cuts which rose above the limits of her station in
+life. Wacht, however, let her do as she liked, since when dressed
+according to her own taste the dear child looked so very pretty and
+engaging.
+
+I must now hasten to destroy an idea which perhaps might arise in
+the mind of any reader who should happen to have been in Bamberg
+several years ago, and so would call to mind the hideous and tasteless
+head-dress with which at that time even the prettiest maidens were wont
+to disfigure their faces--the flat hood fitting close to the head and
+not allowing the smallest little lock of hair to be seen, a black and
+not over-broad ribbon crossing close over the forehead, and meeting
+behind low down on the neck in an outrageously ugly bow. This ribbon
+afterwards continued to increase in width until it reached the
+preposterous breadth of nearly half an ell; hence it had to be
+specially ordered in the manufactory and strengthened inside with stiff
+card-board, so that it projected above the head like a steeple-hat;
+just above the hollow of the neck they wore a bow, which owing to its
+breadth stuck out far beyond the shoulders, and resembled the outspread
+wings of an eagle; and along the temples and about the ears tiny curls
+crept out from beneath the hood. And strange to say, many a fine
+Bamberg beauty looked quite charming in this head-covering.
+
+It formed a very picturesque sight to stand behind a funeral procession
+and watch it set itself in motion. It is the custom in Bamberg for the
+burghers to be invited to attend the funeral procession of a deceased
+person by the so-called "death-woman," who in a croaking voice and in
+the name of the deceased screams out her invitation in the street, in
+front of the house of the persons she is inviting; as, for instance,
+"Herr so-and-so, or Frau so-and-so, beg you to pay them the last
+honours." The good gossips and the young maidens, who in general seldom
+get out into the open air, fail not to put in an appearance in great
+numbers; and when the troop of women sets itself in motion and the wind
+catches the immense ends of the bows, it can be likened to nothing else
+but a huge flock of black ravens or eagles suddenly startled and just
+beginning their rustling flight.
+
+The indulgent reader is therefore requested not to picture pretty Nanni
+in any other head-dress except a neat little Erlangen hood.
+
+However objectionable it was to Master Wacht that Jonathan was to
+belong to a class which he hated, he did not by any means make the boy,
+or later the youth, feel the consequences of his displeasure. Rather he
+was always very pleased to see the good quiet Jonathan look in after
+his day's work was done, to spend the evening with his daughters and
+old Barbara. But then Jonathan also wrote the finest hand that could
+be seen anywhere; and it afforded Master Wacht no little joy, for
+he was uncommonly fond of good handwriting, when his Nanni, whose
+writing-master Jonathan had installed himself to be, began gradually
+after a time to write the same elegant hand as her master.
+
+In the evening Master Wacht himself was either busy in his own
+work-room, or, as was often the case, he visited a beer-house, where
+he met with his fellow-craftsmen and the gentlemen of the council, and
+in his way enlivened the company with his own rare wit. Meanwhile in
+the house at home Barbara busily kept her distaff on the whirl and
+whizz, whilst Rettel balanced the house-keeping accounts, or thought
+out the preparation of new and hitherto unheard-of dishes, or related
+again to the old woman, mingled with a good deal of loud laughter, what
+she had learned in confidence from her various gossips in the town.
+
+And the youth Jonathan? He sat at the table with Nanni; and she also
+wrote and drew, of course under his guidance. And yet to sit writing
+and drawing the whole evening through is a downright tiring piece of
+business; hence it was no unfrequent occurrence for Jonathan to draw
+some neatly-bound book out of his pocket and read it to pretty,
+sensitive Nanni in a low softly-whispering tone.
+
+Through old Eichheimer's influence Jonathan had won the patronage of
+the minor canon, who designated Master Wacht a real Verrina. The canon,
+Count von Kösel, a man of genius, lived and revelled in Goethe's and
+Schiller's works, which were just at that time beginning to rise like
+bright streaming meteors, overtopping all others, above the horizon of
+the literary sky. He thought, and rightly, that he discerned a similar
+tendency in his attorney's young clerk, and took a special delight not
+only in lending him the works in question, but in reading them in
+common with him, and so helping him to thoroughly digest them.
+
+But Jonathan won his way to the Count's heart in an especial way,
+because he expressed a very favourable opinion of the verses which the
+Count patched together out of high-sounding phrases in the sweat of his
+own brow, and because he was, to the Count's unspeakable satisfaction,
+edified and touched by them to the proper pitch. Nevertheless it is a
+fact that Jonathan's taste in æsthetic matters was really greatly
+improved by his intercourse with the intellectual, though somewhat
+euphuistic, Count.
+
+My kind reader now knows what class of books Jonathan used to take out
+of his pocket and read to pretty Nanni, and can form a just conception
+of the way in which this kind of writings would inevitably excite a
+girl mentally organised as Nanni was. "O star of the gloaming eve!"
+Would not Nanni's tears flow when her attractive writing-master began
+in this low and solemn fashion?
+
+It is a fact of common experience that young people who are in the
+habit of singing tender love-duets together very easily put themselves
+in the places of the fictitious characters of the song, and come to
+look upon the duets in question as giving both the melody and the text
+for the whole of life; so also the youth who reads a love romance to a
+maiden very readily becomes the hero of the story, whilst the girl
+dreams herself into the role of the heroine. In the case of such fitly
+adapted spirits as Jonathan and Nanni such incitement as this even was
+not required to provoke them to love each other. They were one heart
+and one soul; the maiden and the youth were, so to speak, but one
+brightly burning flame of love, pure and inextinguishable. Of his
+daughter's tender passion Father Wacht had not the slightest inkling;
+but he was soon to learn all.
+
+Through unwearied industry and genuine talent Jonathan succeeded in a
+brief space of time in completing his legal studies and qualifying for
+admission to the grade of advocate; and, as a matter of fact, his
+admission soon followed. He intended one Sunday to surprise Master
+Wacht with this glad news, which established him upon a secure footing
+for life. But imagine how he trembled with dismay when Wacht bent his
+eyes upon him, blazing with anger; he had never seen him look so
+passionately wrathful. "What!" cried Wacht, in a tone that made the
+walls ring again, "what! you miserable good-for-nothing fellow! Nature
+has neglected your body, but richly endowed you with splendid
+intellectual gifts, and these you are intending to abuse in a shameless
+way, like a bad crafty knave, and so putting your knife at your own
+mother's throat? You mean to say you are going to traffic in justice as
+in some cheap paltry ware in the public market, and weigh it out with
+false scales to the poor peasants and the oppressed burgher, who in
+vain utter their plaintive cries before the soft-cushioned seat of the
+inexorable judge, and going to get yourself paid with blood-stained
+pence which the poor man hands to you whilst bathed in tears? Will you
+fill your brains with lying laws of man's contriving, and practise
+knavish tricks and schemes, and make a lucrative business of it to
+fatten yourself upon? Is all your father's virtue, tell me, vanished
+from your heart? Your father--your name is Engelbrecht--no! when I hear
+you called so I will not believe that it is the name of my comrade, who
+was a pattern of virtue and honesty, but I must believe that it is
+Satan, who in the apish mockery of Hell is shouting the name across his
+grave, and so beguiling men to take the young lying lawyer's cub for
+the real son of that excellent carpenter Gottfried Engelbrecht. Begone!
+you are no longer my foster-son! You are a serpent whom I will pluck
+from my bosom, whom I will disown"----
+
+At this point Nanni rushed in and threw herself at Master Wacht's feet
+with a piercing heart-rending cry of distress. "Father!" she cried,
+completely overcome by her incontrollable anguish and unbridled
+despair, "father, if you disown him, you will disown me also--me, your
+own favourite daughter; he is mine, my Jonathan; I can never, never
+part with him in this world."
+
+The poor child fell down in a swoon and struck her head against the
+closet-door, so that the drops of blood trickled down her delicate
+white forehead. Barbara and Rettel ran in and carried the insensible
+girl to the sofa. Jonathan stood like a statue, as if thunderstruck,
+incapable of the slightest movement. It would be difficult to describe
+the inner emotions which revealed themselves on Wacht's countenance.
+His face, instead of being flushed with the redness of anger, was now
+pale as a corpse's; there only remained a dark fire gleaming in his
+fixed set eyes; the cold perspiration of death appeared to be standing
+on his forehead. After gazing unchangeably before him for some minutes
+without speaking, he relieved his labouring breast by saying in a
+significant tone, "So that was it!" then he strode slowly towards the
+door, where he again stood still, and turning half round towards the
+women, cried, "Dont' spare _eau de Cologne_, and this foolery will soon
+be over."
+
+Shortly afterwards the Master was seen to leave the house at a quick
+pace and bend his steps towards the hills. It may be conceived in what
+great trouble and distress the family was plunged. Rettel and Barbara
+could not for the life of them imagine what terrible thing had
+happened; but when the Master did not return to dinner, but stayed out
+till late at night--a thing he had never done before--they were greatly
+agitated with anxiety and fear. At length they heard him coming, heard
+him open the street-door, bang it violently to, ascend the stairs with
+strong firm footsteps, and lock himself in his own chamber.
+
+Poor Nanni soon recovered herself again and wept quietly to herself.
+But Jonathan did not stop short of wild outbreaks of inconsolable
+despair, and several times spoke of shooting himself. It is a fortunate
+thing that pistols are articles which do not necessarily belong to the
+furniture of sentimental young lawyers; or at least, if they are to be
+found amongst their effects, they generally have no lock or else won't
+go off.
+
+After he had run through certain streets like a madman, Jonathan's
+course led him instinctively to his noble patron, to whom he lamented
+all his unheard-of misery in outbreaks of the most violent passion. It
+need hardly be added, it is so self-evident a thing, that the young
+love-smitten advocate was, according to his own desperate assertions,
+the first and only individual in all the wide world whom such a
+terrible fate had befallen, wherefore he reproached destiny and all the
+powers of enmity as having conspired together against him.
+
+The canon listened to him calmly and with a certain share of interest;
+but nevertheless he did not appear to appreciate the full extent of the
+trouble which the young lawyer imagined he felt "My dear young friend,"
+said the canon, taking the advocate by the hand in a friendly way, and
+leading him to a seat, "my dear young friend, hitherto I have looked
+upon our carpenter Herr Johannes Wacht as a great man in his way, but I
+now perceive that he is also a very great fool. Great fools are like
+jibbing horses; it's hard to make them move; but once they have been
+got to move, they trot merrily along the way they are wanted to go. In
+spite of the old man's senseless anger you ought not by any means to
+give up your beautiful Nanni in consequence of the unpleasant scene of
+today. But before proceeding to talk further about your love-affair,
+which is indeed very charming and romantic, let us turn to and discuss
+a little breakfast. It was noon when you went to old Wacht, and I don't
+dine until four o'clock in Seehof."[9]
+
+A very appetising breakfast indeed was served up on the little table at
+which they both sat--the canon and the advocate--Bayonne hams,
+garnished round about with slices of Portuguese onions, a cold larded
+partridge of the red kind and a foreigner to boot, truffles cooked in
+red wine, a dish of Strasburg _pâtés de foie gras_, finally a plate of
+genuine Strachino[10] and another with butter, as yellow and shining as
+lilies of the valley.
+
+The indulgent reader who loves such dainty butter, and ever goes to
+Bamberg, will be pleased at getting there the finest and best, but will
+also at the same time be annoyed when he learns that the inhabitants,
+from mistaken notions of housekeeping, melt it down to a grease, which
+generally tastes rancid and spoils all the food.
+
+Besides, good dry champagne was sending up its pearly sparkles in a
+beautifully-cut crystal decanter. The canon had not unloosed the napkin
+from his neck, but had let it stay where it was when he had received
+the young lawyer; and, after the footman had quickly supplied a second
+cover, he proceeded to place the choicest morsels before the despairing
+lover and to pour out wine for him; and then he set to work heartily
+himself. Some one once had the hardihood to maintain that the stomach
+is equivalent to all the other physical and intellectual parts of man
+put together. That is a profane and abominable doctrine; but this much
+is certain, that the stomach is like a despotic tyrant or ironical
+mystifier, and often carries through its own will. And this was the
+case in the present instance. For instinctively, without being clearly
+conscious of what he was about, the young lawyer had in a few minutes
+devoured a huge piece of Bayonne ham, created terrible devastation
+amongst the Portuguese garniture, put out of sight half a partridge, no
+inconsiderable quantity of trufles, and also more Strasburg _pâtés_
+than was exactly becoming in a young advocate full of trouble.
+Moreover, they both relished the champagne so much that the footman
+soon had to fill up the crystal decanter a second time.
+
+The advocate felt a pleasant and beneficial degree of warmth penetrate
+his vitals, and all he experienced of his trouble was a singular sort
+of shiver, which exactly resembled electric shocks, causing pain but
+doing good. He proved himself susceptible to the consolations of his
+patron, who, after comfortably sipping up his last glass of wine and
+elegantly wiping his mouth, settled himself into position and began as
+follows:--
+
+"In the first place, my dear good friend, you must not be so foolish as
+to imagine that you are the only man on earth to whom a father has
+refused the hand of his daughter. But that's nothing to do with the
+present case. As I have already told you, the old fool's reason for
+hating you is so preposterously absurd that it cannot last long; and
+whether it appear to you at this moment nonsensical or not, I can
+hardly bear the thought of all ending in a tame commonplace wedding, so
+that the whole thing may be summed up in the few words,--Peter has
+wooed Grete,[11] and Peter and Grete are man and wife.
+
+"The situation is, however, so far new and grand in that it is merely
+hatred against a class to which the beloved foster-son belongs that can
+furnish the sole lever for setting a new and special tragic development
+in motion; but to the real matter at issue! You are a poet, my friend,
+and that alters everything. Your love, your trouble, ought to appear in
+your eyes as something magnificent, in the full splendours of the
+sacred art of poesy. You will hear the strains of the lyre struck by
+the muse who is nearest akin to you, and in the divine gush of
+inspiration you will receive the winged words in which to express your
+love and your unhappiness. As a poet you might be called at this moment
+the happiest man on the earth, since, your heart having been really
+wounded as deep as it can be wounded, your heart's blood is now gushing
+out. You require, therefore, no artificial incitement to allure you to
+a poetic mood; and mark my words, this period of trouble will enable
+you to produce something great and admirable.
+
+"I must draw your attention to the fact that in these first moments of
+your unhappiness there will be mingled with it a peculiar and very
+unpleasant feeling which cannot be woven into any poetry; but it is a
+feeling which soon vanishes away. Let me make you understand. For
+example, after the unfortunate lover has had a good sound drubbing from
+the enraged father, and has been kicked out of the house, and the
+outraged mamma has locked the young lady in her chamber, and repelled
+the attempted storming on the part of the desperate lover by the armed
+domestics of the house, and when plebeian fists have even entertained
+no shyness of the very finest cloth" (here the canon sighed somewhat),
+"then this fermented prose of miserable vulgarity must evaporate in
+order that the pure poetic unhappiness of love may settle as sediment
+You have been fearfully scolded, my dear young friend, this was the
+bitter prose that had to be surmounted; you have surmounted it, and so
+now give yourself up entirely to poetry. Here--here are Petrarch's
+_Sonnets_ and Ovid's _Elegies_; take them, read them, write yourself,
+and come and read to me what you have written. Perhaps in the meantime
+I also may experience a disappointment in love, of which I am not
+altogether deprived of hopes, since I shall in all likelihood fall in
+love with a stranger lady who has stopped at the 'White Lamb' in the
+Steinweg,[12] and whom Count Nesselstädt maintains to be a paragon of
+beauty and grace, albeit he has only caught a fugitive glimpse of her
+at the window. Then, my friend, like the Dioscuri, we will travel the
+same bright path of poetry and disappointed love. Note, my good fellow,
+what a great advantage my station in life gives me, for every affection
+which I conceive, being a longing and hoping which can never be
+gratified, rises to tragic intensity. But now, my friend, out, out,
+away into the woods as you ought to."
+
+It would doubtless be very wearisome to my kind reader, if not
+unbearable, were I to describe here at length, in detail and with all
+sorts of over-choice and exquisite words and phrases, all that Jonathan
+and Nanni did in their trouble. Such things may be found in any
+indifferent romance; and it is often amusing enough to see into what
+postures the struggling author throws himself, merely in order to
+appear original. On the other hand, it seems to be of great importance
+to follow Master Wacht on his walks, or rather in his mental
+journeyings.
+
+It must appear very remarkable that a man of such strong self-reliant
+spirit as Master Wacht, who had borne with unshaken courage and
+unbending steadfastness the most terrible misfortunes that had befallen
+him, and that would have crushed many less stouthearted spirits, could
+be thus put beside himself with passion at an occurrence which any
+other father of a family would have regarded as an ordinary event and
+one easy to remedy, and would in fact have set about remedying it in
+some way or other, good or bad. Of course the indulgent reader is well
+aware that this behaviour of Wacht's must be traced to some good
+psychological reason. The thought that poor Nanni's love for innocent
+Jonathan was a misfortune which would exercise a pernicious influence
+upon the whole course of his subsequent life was only due to the
+perverse discord in Wacht's soul. But the very fact that this discord
+was able to go on making itself heard in the otherwise harmonical
+character of this thoroughly noble man, embraced the impossibility of
+smothering it or reducing it completely to silence.
+
+Wacht had made his acquaintance with the feminine character in one who
+possessed it in a simple but also at the same time grand and noble
+form. His own wife had enabled him to see into the depths of the real
+woman's nature, as in a bright mirror-like lake. He saw in her the true
+heroine who fought with weapons that were constantly unconquerable. His
+orphan wife had forfeited the inheritance of an immensely rich aunt,
+she had forfeited the love of all her relatives, and she had opposed
+with unshaken courage the persistent efforts of the Church, which
+embittered her life with many a hard trial, when, though herself
+trained up in the Catholic religion, she had married the Protestant
+Wacht, and shortly before had gone over to this faith in Augsburg,
+impelled thereto by the pure enthusiasm of conviction. All this now
+passed through Master Wacht's mind; and as he thought upon the
+sentiments he had felt when he led the maiden to the altar, the warm
+tears ran down his cheeks. Nanni was her mother over again; Wacht loved
+the child with an intensity of affection that was quite unparalleled,
+and this fact was of itself more than enough to make him reject as
+abominable, nay, as fiendishly cruel, any attempt to separate the
+lovers that appeared in the remotest degree to savour of violence.
+When, on the other hand, he reflected upon the whole course of
+Jonathan's previous life, he was obliged to admit that all the virtues
+of a good, industrious, and modest youth could not easily be so happily
+united in another as they were in Jonathan, albeit his handsome
+expressive face bore the impress of traits which were perhaps a little
+too soft, and almost effeminate, and his diminutive and weak but
+elegant bodily frame bespoke a tender intellectual spirit. When he
+reflected further that the two children had always been together, and
+how evident had been their mutual liking for each other, he was really
+puzzled to understand how it was that he had not expected beforehand
+what had now really happened, and so could have taken precautions in
+time. Now it was too late.
+
+He was urged on through the hills by a mood of mind which set his whole
+being in a turmoil of distraction; such a state as this he had hitherto
+never experienced, and he was inclined to take it for a seduction of
+Satan, since several thoughts arose in his mind which in the very next
+minute he could not help regarding as diabolical. He could not recover
+his self-composure, still less form any decisive plan of action. The
+sun was beginning to set when he reached the village of Buch;[13]
+turning into the hotel, he ordered something good to eat and a bottle
+of excellent beer from the rock.[14]
+
+"Ah! a very fine evening! Ah! what a remarkable occurrence to see our
+good Master Wacht here in beautiful Buch, on this glorious Sunday
+evening. To tell you the truth, I can hardly believe my eyes. Your
+respected family is, I presume, somewhere else in the country." Thus
+was Master Wacht addressed by some one with a shrill, squeaking voice.
+The man who thus interrupted his meditations was no less a personage
+than Herr Pickard Leberfink, a decorator and gilder by trade, and one
+of the drollest men in the world.
+
+Leberfink's exterior struck everybody's eye as something eccentric and
+extraordinary. He was of small size, thick and stumpy, with a body too
+long, and with short bowed legs; his face was not at all ugly, but
+good-natured, with round red little cheeks and small grey eyes that
+were by no means wanting in vivacity. Pursuant to an old obsolete
+French fashion, he was elaborately curled and powdered every day;
+but it was on Sundays that his costume was especially striking. For
+then he wore, to take one example, a striped silk coat of a lilac and
+canary-yellow colour with immense silver-plated buttons, a waistcoat
+embroidered in gay tints, satin hose of a brilliant green, white and
+light-blue silk stockings, delicately striped, and shining black
+polished shoes, upon which glittered large buckles set with precious
+stones. If to this we add that his gait was the elegant gait of a
+dancing master, that he had a certain cat-like suppleness of body, and
+that his little legs had a strange knack of knocking the heels together
+on fitting occasions,--for instance, when leaping across a gutter,--it
+could not fail but that the little decorator got himself singled out
+everywhere as an extraordinary creature. With other aspects of his
+character my kindly reader will make an acquaintance presently.
+
+Master Wacht was not altogether displeased at having his painful
+meditations interrupted in this way. Herr, or better Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink, decorator and gilder, was a great fop, but at the same
+time the most honest and faithful soul in the world; he was a very
+liberal-minded man, was generous to the poor, and always ready to serve
+his friends. He only practised his calling now and again, merely out of
+love for it, since he had no need of business. He was rich; his father
+had left him some landed property, having a magnificent rock-cellar,
+which was only separated from Master Wacht's premises by a large
+garden. Master Wacht was fond of the droll little Leberfink on account
+of his downright genuineness, and also because he was a member of the
+small Protestant community which was permitted to exercise the rites of
+its faith in Bamberg. With conspicuous alacrity and willingness
+Leberfink accepted Wacht's invitation to join him at his table, and
+drink another bottle of beer from the rock along with him. He began the
+conversation by saying that for a long time he had been wanting to call
+upon Master Wacht at his own house, since he had two things he wished
+to talk to him about, one of which was almost making his heart burst.
+Wacht made answer, he thought Leberfink knew him, and must be aware
+that anybody who had anything to say to him, no matter what it was,
+might speak out his thoughts frankly. Leberfink now imparted to the
+Master in confidence that the wine-dealer who owned the beautiful
+garden, with the massive pavilion, which lay between their two
+properties, had privately offered to sell it to him. He thought he
+recollected having heard Wacht once express a wish how very much he
+should like to own this garden; if now the opportunity was come to
+satisfy this wish, he (Leberfink) offered his services as negotiator,
+and expressed his willingness to settle everything for him.
+
+It was a fact that Master Wacht had for some time entertained a desire
+to enlarge his property by the addition of a good garden, and
+especially so since Nanni was always longing for the beautiful shrubs
+and trees which gave out such a luxurious abundance of sweet scents in
+this very garden. Moreover, it seemed to him now as if Fortune were
+graciously smiling upon him, and just at the time when poor Nanni had
+experienced such bitter trouble, an opportunity for affording her
+pleasure should present itself so unexpectedly. The Master at once
+settled all the needful particulars with the obliging decorator, who
+promised that on the following Sunday Wacht should be able to stroll
+through the garden as its owner. "Come now," cried Master Wacht, "come
+now, friend Leberfink, out with it--what is it that is making your
+heart burst?"
+
+Then Herr Pickard Leberfink fell to sighing in the most pitiable
+manner; and he pulled the most extraordinary faces, and ran on with
+such a string of gibberish that nobody could make either head or tail
+of it. Master Wacht, however, knew what to make of it, for he shook his
+head, saying, "Ah! that may be contrived;" and he smiled to himself at
+the wonderful sympathy of their related spirits.
+
+This meeting with Leberfink had certainly done Master Wacht good; he
+believed he had conceived a plan by virtue of which he should manage
+not only to stand against, but even to overcome, the severest and most
+terrible misfortune which, according to his infatuated way of thinking,
+had come upon him. The only thing that can declare the verdict of the
+tribunal within him is the course of action he adopted; and perhaps,
+kindly reader, this tribunal faltered for the first time. Here is the
+place to offer a brief remark, which, perhaps, would not very well lend
+itself for insertion later. As so frequently happens in such cases, old
+Barbara had interfered in the matter, and been very urgent in her
+accusations of the loving pair to Master Wacht, making it a special
+charge against them that they had always read worldly books together.
+The Master caused her to bring two or three of the books which Nanni
+had. One was a work of Goethe's; unfortunately it is not known which
+work it was. After turning over the leaves, he gave it back to Barbara,
+that she might restore it to the place whence she had secretly taken
+it. Not a single word about Nanni's reading ever escaped him; once
+only, when some seasonable occasion presented at dinner, did he say,
+"There is a remarkable mind rising up amongst us Germans; God grant him
+success! My days are over; such things are not for my age, nor yet for
+my calling; but you--Jonathan? I envy you many things that will come to
+light in the days to come." Jonathan understood Wacht's oracular words
+the more easily, since some days previously he had discovered by chance
+_Götz von Berlichingen_[15] lying on the Master's work-table, half
+covered by other papers. Wacht's great mind, whilst acknowledging the
+uncommon genius of the new writer, had also perceived the impossibility
+of beginning a new flight himself.
+
+Next day poor Nanni hung her head like a sick dove. "What's the matter
+with my dear child?" asked Master Wacht in the tender sympathetic tone
+that was so peculiarly his own, and with which he knew how to stir
+everybody's heart, "what's the matter with my dear child? are you ill?
+I can't believe it. You don't get out into the fresh air sufficiently.
+See here now; I have a long time been wishing you would for once in a
+way bring me my tea out to the workshop. Do so to-day; we may expect a
+most beautiful evening. You will come, won't you, Nanni, my darling?
+You will butter me some rolls yourself--that will make them ever so
+good." Therewith Master Wacht took the dear girl in his arms and
+stroked her brown curls back from her forehead, and he kissed her and
+pressed her to his heart, and tenderly caressed her,--treating her, in
+fact, in the most affectionate way that he knew how; and he was well
+aware of the irresistible charm of his manner at such times. A flood of
+tears gushed from Nanni's eyes, and with some difficulty all she could
+get out was, "Father! father!" "Well, well!" said Wacht, and a strain
+of embarrassment might have been detected in his voice, "all may yet
+turn out well."
+
+A week passed; naturally enough Jonathan had not shown himself, and the
+Master had not mentioned him with a single syllable. On Sunday, when
+the soup was standing smoking on the table, and the family were about
+to take their seats for dinner. Master Wacht asked gaily, "And where is
+our Jonathan?" Rettel, with a view to sparing poor Nanni, replied in an
+undertone, "Father, don't you know then what's taken place? Wouldn't
+Jonathan of course be shy of showing himself here in your presence?"
+"Oh the monkey!" said Wacht, laughing; "let Christian run over at once
+and fetch him."
+
+It need hardly be said that the young advocate failed not to put in an
+appearance immediately, nor that during the first moments after his
+arrival a dark oppressive thunder-cloud, as it were, hovered over them
+all. At length, however, Master Wacht's unconstrained good spirits,
+seconded by Leberfink's droll sallies, succeeded in calling forth a
+tone of conversation which, if it could not be called exactly merry,
+yet managed to maintain the balance of concord pretty evenly. After
+dinner Master Wacht said, "Let us get a little fresh air and stroll out
+to my workyard." And they did so.
+
+Monsieur Pickard Leberfink deliberately kept close to Rettelchen's
+side, who was a pattern of friendliness towards him, since the polite
+decorator had exhausted himself in praising her dishes, and had
+confessed that never so long as he had lived, not even when dining with
+the ecclesiastics in Banz,[16] had he enjoyed a more delicious meal. As
+Master Wacht now hurried on at a quick pace right across the middle of
+the workyard, with a large bundle of keys in his hand, the young lawyer
+was unintentionally brought close to Nanni. But all that the lovers
+ventured upon were stolen sighs and low soft-breathed love-plaints.
+
+Master Wacht came to a halt in front of a fine newly-made door, which
+had been constructed in the wall parting his workyard from the
+merchant's garden. He unlocked the door and stepped in, inviting his
+family to follow him. They, none of them, knew exactly what to make of
+the old gentleman, except Herr Pickard Leberfink, who never laid aside
+his sly smile, or ceased his soft giggle. In the midst of the beautiful
+garden there was a very spacious pavilion; this too Master Wacht
+opened, and stepping in remained standing in its centre; from every one
+of its windows one obtained a different romantic view. "Yes," said
+Master Wacht in a voice that bore witness to a heart well pleased with
+itself, "here I am in my own property; this beautiful garden is mine. I
+was obliged to buy it, not so much to augment my own place or increase
+the value of my property, no! but because I knew that a certain darling
+little thing longed so for these shrubs and trees, and for these
+beautiful sweet-smelling flower-beds."
+
+Then Nanni threw herself upon the old gentleman's breast and cried, "O
+father! father! You will break my heart with your kindness, with your
+goodness; do have pity"---- "There, there, say no more," Master Wacht
+interrupted his suffering child, "be a good girl, and all may be
+brought right in some marvellous way. You can find a great deal of
+comfort in this little paradise"---- "Oh! yes, yes, yes," exclaimed
+Nanni in a burst of enthusiasm, "O ye trees, ye shrubs, ye flowers, ye
+distant hills, you beautiful fleeting evening clouds--my spirit lives
+wholly in you all; I shall come to myself again when your sweet voices
+comfort me." Therewith Nanni ran out of the open door of the pavilion
+into the garden like a startled young roe; and Jonathan, the lawyer,
+delayed not to follow her at his fastest speed, for no power would then
+have been able to keep him back. Monsieur Pickard Leberfink requested
+permission to show Rettelchen round the new property.
+
+Meanwhile old Wacht had beer and tobacco brought to a spot under the
+trees, close at the brow of the hill, whence he could look down into
+the valley; and there he sat in a right glad and comfortable humour,
+puffing the blue clouds of genuine Holland into the air. No doubt my
+kindly reader is wondering greatly at this frame of mind in Master
+Wacht, and is at a loss to explain to himself how a mood like this was
+at all possible to a temperament like Wacht's. He had arrived, not so
+much at any determined plan as at the conviction that the Eternal Power
+could not possibly let him live to experience such a very terrible
+misfortune as that of seeing his favourite child united to a lawyer;
+that is, to Satan himself. "Something will happen," he said to himself;
+"something must happen, by which either this unhappy affair will be
+broken off or Jonathan snatched from the pit of destruction. It would
+be rash temerity, nay, perhaps a ruinous piece of mischief, producing
+the exact contrary of what was wished, if with my feeble hand I were to
+attempt to control the fly-wheel of Destiny."
+
+It is hard to credit what miserable, nay, often what absurd reasons a
+man will hunt up in order to represent the approaching misfortune as
+avertable. So there were moments in which Wacht built his hopes upon
+the arrival of wild Sebastian, whom he pictured to himself as a
+stalwart young fellow in the full flush and pride of youth, just on the
+point of attaining to manhood, and that he would bring about a change
+of direction in the drifting of circumstances, and make things
+different from what they then were. The very common, and alas! often
+too true idea came into his head, that woman is too greatly impressed
+by strong and striking manliness not to be conquered by it at last.
+
+When the sun began to go down, Monsieur Pickard Leberfink invited the
+family to go into his garden, which adjoined their own, and take a
+little refreshment. Beside Wacht's new possession the noble decorator
+and gilder's garden formed a most ridiculous and extraordinary
+contrast. Whilst almost too small in size, so that the only thing it
+could perhaps boast in its favour was the good height at which it was
+situated, it was laid out in Dutch style, the trees and hedges clipped
+with the shears in the most scrupulous and pedantic fashion. The
+slender stems of the fruit-trees standing in the flower-beds looked
+very pretty in their coats of light blue and rose tints, and pale
+yellow, and other colours. Leberfink had varnished them, and so
+beautified Nature. Moreover they saw in the trees the apples of the
+Hesperides.[17]
+
+But yet several further surprises were in store. Leberfink bade the
+girls pluck themselves a nosegay each; but on gathering the flowers
+they perceived to their amazement that both stalks and leaves were
+gilded. It was also very remarkable that all the leaves which Rettel
+took into her hands were shaped like hearts.
+
+The refreshment upon which Leberfink regaled his guests consisted of
+the choicest confectionery, the finest sweetmeats, and old Rhine wine
+and Muscatel. Rettel was quite beside herself over the confectionery,
+observing with special emphasis that such sweetmeats, which were for
+the most part splendidly silvered and gilded, were not, she knew made
+in Bamberg. Then Monsieur Pickard Leberfink assured her privately, with
+a most amorous smirk, that he himself knew a little about baking cakes
+and sweets, and that he was the happy maker of all these delicious
+dainties. Rettel almost fell upon her knees before him in reverence and
+astonishment; and yet the greatest surprise, was still in store for
+her.
+
+In the deepening dusk Monsieur Pickard Leberfink very cleverly
+contrived to entice little Rettel into a small arbour. No sooner was he
+alone with her than he recklessly plumped himself down upon both knees
+in the wet grass, notwithstanding that he was wearing his brilliant
+green satin hose; and, amidst many strange and unintelligible sounds of
+distress--not very dissimilar to the midnight elegies of the tom-cat
+Hinz[18]--he presented her with an immense nosegay of flowers, in the
+middle of which was the finest full-blown rose that could be found
+anywhere. Rettel did what everybody does who has a nosegay given to
+him; she raised it to her nose; but in the selfsame moment she felt a
+sharp prick. In her alarm she was about to throw the nosegay away. But
+see what charming wonder had revealed itself in the meantime! A
+beautifully varnished little cupid had leapt up out of the heart of the
+rose and was holding out a burning heart with both hands towards
+Rettel. From his mouth depended a small strip of paper on which were
+written the words, "Voilà le c[oe]ur de Monsieur Pickard Leberfink, que
+je vous offre" (Here I offer you the heart of Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink).
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Rettel, very much alarmed. "Good gracious!
+what are you doing, my good Herr Leberfink? Don't kneel down in front
+of me as if I were a princess. You will make marks on your beautiful
+satin--in the wet grass, and you will catch cold yourself; but elder
+tea and white sugar candy are good remedies."
+
+"No!" exclaimed the desperate lover--"No, O Margaret, Pickard
+Leberfink, who loves you with all his heart, will not rise from the wet
+grass until you promise to be his"---- "You want to marry me?" asked
+Rettel. "Well then, up you get at once. Speak to my father, darling
+Leberfink, and drink one or two cups of elder tea this evening."
+
+Why should the reader be longer wearied with Leberfink's and Rettel's
+folly? They were made for each other, and were betrothed, at which
+Father Wacht was right glad in his own teasing, humorous way.
+
+A certain degree of life was introduced into Wacht's house by Rettel's
+betrothal; and even the disconsolate lovers had more freedom, since
+they were less observed. But something of a quite special character was
+to happen to put an abrupt end to this quiet and comfortable condition
+in which they were all living. The young lawyer seemed particularly
+preoccupied, and his thoughts busy with some affair or another that
+absorbed all his energies; his visits at Wacht's house even began to be
+less frequent, and he often stayed away in the evening--a thing he had
+never been wont to do previously. "What can be the matter with our
+Jonathan? He is completely preoccupied; he's quite another fellow from
+what he used to be," said Master Wacht, although he knew very well what
+was the cause, or rather the event, which was exercising such a visible
+influence upon the young lawyer, at least to all outward appearance. To
+tell the truth, he looked upon this event as the dispensation of
+Providence through which he should perhaps escape the great misfortune
+by which he believed himself threatened, and which he felt would
+completely upset all the happiness of his life.
+
+Some few months previously a young and unknown lady had arrived in
+Bamberg, and under circumstances which could only be called singular
+and mysterious. She was staying at the "White Lamb." All the servants
+she had with her were an old grey-haired manservant and an old
+lady's-maid. Very various were the opinions current about her. Many
+maintained she was a distinguished and immensely rich Hungarian
+countess, who, owing to matrimonial dissensions, was compelled to take
+up her residence in solitary retirement in Bamberg for a time. Others,
+on the contrary, set her down as an ordinary forsaken Dido, and yet
+others as an itinerant singer, who would soon throw off her veil of
+nobility and announce herself as about to give a concert,--possibly she
+had no recommendations to the Prince-bishop. At any rate the majority
+were unanimous in making up their minds to regard the stranger, who,
+according to the statements of the few persons who had seen her, was of
+exceptional beauty, as an extremely ambiguous person.
+
+It had been noticed that the stranger lady's old man-servant had
+followed the young lawyer about a long time, until one day he caught
+him at the spring in the market-place, which is ornamented with an
+image of Neptune (whom the honest folk of Bamberg are generally in the
+habit of calling the Fork-man); and there the old man stood talking to
+Jonathan a long, long time. Spirits alive to all that goes forward, who
+can never meet anybody without asking eagerly, "Wherever has he been?
+Wherever is he going? Whatever is he doing?" and so on, had made out
+that the young advocate very often visited the beautiful unknown, in
+fact almost every day and at night-time, when he spent several hours
+with her. It was soon the talk of the town that the lawyer Jonathan
+Engelbrecht had got entangled in the dangerous toils of the young
+unknown adventuress.
+
+It would have been, both then and always, entirely contrary to Master
+Wacht's character to make use of this apparent erring conduct of the
+young advocate as a weapon against poor Nanni. He left it to Dame
+Barbara and her whole following of gossips to keep Nanni informed of
+all particulars; from them she would learn every item of intelligence,
+and that, he made no doubt, with a due amplification of all the
+details. The crisis of the whole affair was reached when one day the
+young lawyer suddenly set off on a journey along with the lady, nobody
+knew whither. "That's the way frivolity goes on; the forward young
+gentleman will lose his business," said the knowing ones. But this was
+not the case; for not a little to the astonishment of the public, old
+Eichheimer himself attended to his foster-son's business with the most
+painstaking care; he seemed to be initiated into the secret about the
+lady and to approve of all the steps taken by his foster-son.
+
+Master Wacht never spoke a word about the matter, and once when poor
+Nanni could no longer hide her trouble, but moaned in a low tone, her
+voice half-choked with tears, "Why has Jonathan left us?" Master Wacht
+replied in an off-handed way, "Ay, that's just what lawyers do. Who
+knows what sort of an intrigue Jonathan has got entangled in with the
+stranger, thinking it will bring him money, and be to his advantage?"
+Then, however, Herr Pickard Leberfink was wont to take Jonathan's side,
+and to assert that he for his part was convinced the stranger could be
+nothing less than a princess, who had had recourse to the already
+world-renowned young advocate in an extremely delicate law-suit And
+therewith he also unearthed so many stories about lawyers who, through
+especial sagacity and especial penetration and skill, had unravelled
+the most complicated difficulties, and brought to light the most
+closely hidden things, till Master Wacht begged him for goodness' sake
+to hold his tongue, since he was feeling quite ill and sick; Nanni, on
+the contrary, derived inward comfort from all Leberfink's remarkable
+stories, and she plucked up her hopes again. With her trouble, however,
+there was united a perceptible mixture of annoyance and anger, and
+particularly at the moments when it seemed to her utterly impossible
+that Jonathan could have been untrue to her. From this it might be
+inferred that Jonathan had not sought to exculpate himself, but had
+obstinately maintained silence about his adventure.
+
+After some months had elapsed the young lawyer came back to Bamberg in
+the highest good spirits; and Master Wacht, on seeing the bright glad
+light in Nanni's eyes when she looked at him, could not well do
+otherwise than conclude that Jonathan had fully justified his conduct
+to her. Doubtless it would not be disagreeable to the indulgent reader
+to have the history of what had taken place between the stranger lady
+and the young lawyer inserted here as an episodical _novella_.
+
+Count Z----, a Hungarian, owner of more than a million, married from
+pure affection a miserably poor girl, who drew down upon her head the
+hatred of his family, not only because her own family was enshrouded in
+complete obscurity, but also because the only valuable treasures she
+possessed were her divine virtue, beauty, and grace. The Count promised
+his wife that at his death he would settle all his property upon her by
+will.
+
+Once when he returned to Vienna into the arms of his wife, after having
+been summoned from Paris to St. Petersburg on diplomatic business, he
+related to her that he had been attacked by a severe illness in a
+little town, the name of which he had quite forgotten; there he had
+seized the opportunity whilst recovering from his illness to draw up a
+will in her favour and deposit it with the court. Some miles farther on
+the road he must have been seized with a new and doubly virulent attack
+of his grave nervous complaint, so that the name of the place where he
+had made his will and that of the court where he had deposited it had
+completely slipped his memory; moreover, he had lost the document of
+receipt from the court acknowledging the deposition of the testament.
+As so often happens in similar cases the Count postponed the making of
+a new will from day to day, until he was overtaken by death. Then his
+relatives did not neglect to lay claim to all the property he left
+behind him, so that the poor Countess saw her too rich inheritance
+melted down to the insignificant sum represented by certain valuable
+presents she had received from the Count, and which his relatives could
+not deprive her of. Many different notifications bearing upon the
+features of the case were found amongst the Count's papers; but since
+such statements, that a will was in existence, could not take the place
+of the will itself, they proved not to be of the slightest advantage to
+the Countess. She had consulted many learned lawyers about her
+unfortunate situation, and had finally come to Bamberg to have recourse
+to old Eichheimer; but he had directed her to young Engelbrecht, who,
+being less busy and equipped with excellent intellectual acuteness and
+great love for his profession, would perhaps be able to get a clue to
+the unfortunate will or furnish some other circumstantial proof of its
+actual existence.
+
+The young advocate set to work by requesting permission of the
+competent authorities to submit the Count's papers in the castle to
+another searching investigation. He himself went thither along with the
+Countess; and in the presence of the officials of the court he found in
+a cupboard of nut-wood, that had hitherto escaped observation, an old
+portfolio, in which, though they did not find the Count's document of
+receipt relating to the deposition of the will, they yet discovered a
+paper which could not fail to be of the utmost importance for the young
+advocate's purpose. For this paper contained an accurate description of
+all the circumstances, even the minutest details, under which the Count
+had made a will in favour of his wife and deposited it in the keeping
+of a court. The Count's diplomatic journey from Paris to Petersburg had
+brought him to Königsberg in Prussia. Here he chanced to come across
+some East Prussian noblemen, whom he had previously met with whilst on
+a visit to Italy. In spite of the express rate at which the Count was
+travelling, he nevertheless suffered himself to be persuaded to make a
+short excursion into East Prussia, particularly as the big hunts had
+begun, and the Count was a passionate sportsman. He named the towns
+Wehlau, Allenburg, Friedland, &c., as places where he had been. Then he
+set out to go straight forwards directly to the Russian frontier,
+without returning to Königsberg.
+
+In a little town, whose wretched appearance the Count could hardly find
+words to describe, he was suddenly prostrated by a nervous disorder,
+which for several days quite deprived him of consciousness. Fortunately
+there was a young and right clever doctor in the place, who opposed a
+stout resistance to the disease, so that the Count not only recovered
+consciousness but also his health, so far that after a few days he was
+in a position to continue his journey. But his heart was oppressed with
+the fear that a second attack on the road might kill him, and so plunge
+his wife in a condition of the most straitened poverty. Not a little to
+his astonishment he learned from the doctor that the place, in spite of
+its small size and wretched appearance, was the seat of a Prussian
+provincial court, and that he could there have his will registered with
+all due formality, as soon as he could succeed in establishing his
+identity. This, however, was a most formidable difficulty, for who knew
+the Count in this district? But wonderful are the doings of Accident!
+Just as the Count got out of his carriage in front of the inn of the
+little town, there stood in the doorway a grey-haired old invalid,
+almost eighty years old, who dwelt in a neighbouring village and earned
+a living by plaiting willow baskets, and who only seldom came into the
+town. In his youth he had served in the Austrian army, and for fifteen
+successive years had been groom to the Count's father. At the first
+glance he remembered his master's son; and he and his wife acted as
+fully legitimated vouchers of the Count's identity, and not to their
+detriment, as may well be conceived.
+
+The young advocate at once saw that all depended upon the locality and
+its exact correspondence with the Count's statements, if he wanted to
+glean further details and find a clue to the place where the Count had
+been ill and made his testament. He set off with the Countess for East
+Prussia. There by examination of the post-books he was desirous of
+making out, if possible, the route of travel pursued by the Count. But
+after a good deal of wasted effort, he only managed to discover that
+the Count had taken post-horses from Eylau to Allenburg. Beyond
+Allenburg every trace was lost; nevertheless he satisfied himself that
+the Count had certainly travelled through Prussian Lithuania, and of
+this he was still further convinced on finding registered at Tilsit
+that the Count had arrived there and departed thence by extra post.
+Beyond this point again all traces were lost. Accordingly it seemed to
+the young advocate that they must seek for the solution of the
+difficulty in the short stretch of country between Allenburg and
+Tilsit.
+
+Quite dispirited and full of anxious care he arrived one rainy evening
+at the small country town of Insterburg, accompanied by the Countess.
+On entering the wretched apartments in the inn, he became conscious
+that a strange kind of expectant feeling was taking possession of him.
+He felt so like being at home in them, as if he had even been there
+before, or as if the place had been most accurately described to him.
+The Countess withdrew to her apartments. The young advocate tossed
+restlessly on his bed. When the morning sun shone in brightly through
+the window, his eyes fell upon the paper in one corner of the room. He
+noticed that a large patch of the blue colour with which the room was
+but lightly washed had fallen off, showing the disagreeable glaring
+yellow that formed the ground colour, and upon it he observed that all
+kinds of hideous faces in the New Zealand style had been painted to
+serve as pleasing arabesques. Perfectly beside himself with joy and
+delight, the young lawyer sprang out of bed. He was in the room in
+which Count Z---- had made the all-important will. The description
+agreed too exactly; there could not be any doubt about the matter.
+
+But why now weary the reader with all the minor details of the things
+that now took place one after the other? Suffice it to say that
+Insterburg was then, as it still is, the seat of a Prussian superior
+tribunal, at that time called an Imperial Court. The young advocate at
+once waited upon the president with the Countess. By means of the
+papers which she had brought with her, and which were drawn up in due
+authenticated form, the Countess established her own identity in the
+most satisfactory manner; and the will was publicly declared to be
+perfectly genuine. Hence the Countess, who had left her own country in
+great distress and poverty, now returned in the full possession of all
+the rights of which a hostile destiny had attempted to deprive her.
+
+In Nanni's eyes the advocate appeared like a hero from heaven, who had
+victoriously protected deserted innocence against the wickedness of the
+world. Leberfink also poured out all his great admiration of the young
+lawyer's acuteness and energy in exaggerated encomiums. Master Wacht,
+too, praised Jonathan's industry, and this trait he emphasised; and yet
+the boy had really done nothing but what it was his duty to do; still
+he somehow fancied that things might have been managed in a much
+shorter way. "This event I regard," said Jonathan, "as a star of real
+good fortune, which has risen upon the path of my career almost before
+I have started upon it The case has created a great deal of sensation.
+All the Hungarian magnates are excited about it. My name has become
+known. And what is a long way the best of all, the Countess was so
+liberal as to honour me with ten thousand Brabant thalers."[19]
+
+During the course of the young advocate's narration, the muscles of
+Master Wacht's face began to move in a remarkable way, till at last his
+countenance wore an expression of the greatest indignation. "What!"
+he at length shouted in a lion-like voice, whilst his eyes flashed
+fire--"What! did I not tell you? You have made a sale of justice. The
+Countess, in order to get her lawful inheritance out of the hands of
+her rascally relations, has had to pay money, to sacrifice to Mammon.
+Faugh! faugh! be ashamed of yourself." All the sensible protestations
+of the young advocate, as well as of the rest of the persons who
+happened to be present, were not of the slightest avail. For a second
+it seemed as if their representations would gain a hearing, when it was
+stated that no one had ever given a present with more willing pleasure
+than the Countess had done on the sudden conclusion of her case, and
+that, as good Leberfink very well knew, the young advocate had only
+himself to blame that his honorarium had not turned out to be more in
+amount as well as more on a level with the magnitude of the lady's
+gain; nevertheless Master Wacht stuck to his own opinion, and they
+heard from him in his own obstinate fashion the familiar words, "So
+soon as you begin to talk about justice, you and everybody else in the
+world ought to hold your tongues about money. It is true," he went on
+more calmly after a pause, "there are several circumstances connected
+with this history which might very well excuse you, and yet at the same
+time lead you astray into base selfishness; but have the kindness to
+hold your tongue about the Countess, and the will, and the ten thousand
+thalers, if you please. I should indeed be fancying many a time that
+you didn't altogether belong to your place at my table there."
+
+"You are very hard--very unjust towards me, father," said the young
+advocate, his voice trembling with sadness. Nanni's tears flowed
+quietly; Leberfink, like an experienced man of the world, hastened to
+turn the conversation upon the new gildings in St. Gangolph's.[20]
+
+It may readily be conceived in what strained relations the members of
+Wacht's family now lived. Where was their unconstrained conversation,
+their bright good spirits, where their cheerfulness? A deadly vexation
+was slowly gnawing at Wacht's heart, and it stood plainly written upon
+his countenance.
+
+Meanwhile they received not the least scrap of intelligence from
+Sebastian Engelbrecht, and so the last feeble ray of hope that Master
+Wacht had seen glimmering appeared about to fade. Master Wacht's
+foreman, Andreas by name, was a plain, honest, faithful fellow, who
+clung to his master with an affection that could not be matched
+anywhere. "Master," said he one morning as they were measuring beams
+together--"Master, I can't bear it any longer; it breaks my heart to
+see you suffer so. Fräulein Nanni--poor Herr Jonathan!" Quickly
+throwing away the measuring lines, Master Wacht stepped up to him and
+took him by the breast, saying, "Man, if you are able to tear out of
+this heart the convictions as to what is true and right which have been
+engraven upon it by the Eternal Power in letters of fire, then what you
+are thinking about may come to pass." Andreas, who was not the man to
+enter upon a dispute with his master upon these sort of terms,
+scratched himself behind his ear, and replied with an embarrassed
+smirk, "Then if a certain distinguished gentleman were to pay a morning
+visit to the workshop, I suppose it would produce no particular
+effect?" Master Wacht perceived in a moment that a storm was brewing
+against him, and that it was in all probability being directed by Count
+von Kösel.
+
+Just as the clock struck nine Nanni appeared in the workshop, followed
+by old Barbara with the breakfast. The Master was not well pleased to
+see his daughter, since it was out of rule; and he saw the programme of
+the concerted attack already peeping out. Nor was it long before the
+minor canon really made his appearance, as smart and prim and proper as
+a pet doll. Close at his heels followed Monsieur Pickard Leberfink,
+decorator and gilder, clad in all sorts of gay colours, so that he
+looked not unlike a spring-chafer. Wacht pretended to be highly
+delighted with the visit, the cause of which he at once insinuated to
+be that the minor canon very likely wanted to see his newest models.
+The truth is, Master Wacht felt very shy at the possibility of having
+to listen to the canon's long-winded sermons, which he would deliver
+himself of uselessly if he attempted to shake his (Wacht's) resolution
+with respect to Nanni and Jonathan. Accident came to his rescue; for
+just as the canon, the young lawyer, and the varnisher were standing
+together, and the first-named was beginning to approach the most
+intimate relations of life in the most elegantly turned phrases, fat
+Hans shouted out "Wood here!" and big Peter on the other side pushed
+the wood across to him so roughly that it caught the canon a violent
+blow on the shoulder and sent him reeling against Monsieur Pickard; he
+in his turn stumbled against the young advocate, and in a trice the
+whole three had disappeared. For just behind them was a huge piled-up
+heap of chips and saw-dust and so on. The unfortunates were buried
+under this heap, so that all that could be seen of them were four black
+legs and two buff-coloured ones; the latter were the gala stockings of
+Herr Pickard Leberfink, decorator and gilder. It couldn't possibly be
+helped; the journeymen and apprentices burst out into a ringing peal of
+laughter, notwithstanding that Master Wacht bade them be still and look
+grave.
+
+Of them all the canon cut the worst figure, since the saw-dust had got
+into the folds of his robe and even into the elegant curls which
+adorned his head. He fled as if upon the wings of the wind, covered
+with shame, and the young advocate hard after him. Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink was the only one who preserved his good humour and took the
+thing in merry part, notwithstanding that it might be regarded as
+certain he would never be able to wear the buff-coloured stockings
+again, since the saw-dust had proved especially injurious to them and
+had quite destroyed the "clock." Thus the storm which was to have been
+adventured against Wacht was baffled by a ridiculous incident. But the
+Master did not dream what terrible thing was to happen to him before
+the day was over.
+
+Master Wacht had finished dinner and was just going downstairs in order
+to betake himself to his workyard, when he heard a loud, rough voice
+shouting in front of the house, "Hi, there! This is where that knavish
+old rascal, Carpenter Wacht, lives, isn't it?" A voice in the street
+made answer, "There is no knavish old rascal living here; this is the
+house of our respected fellow-citizen Herr Johannes Wacht, the
+carpenter." In the same moment the street-door was forced open with a
+violent bang, and a big strong fellow of wild appearance stood before
+the master. His black hair stuck up like bristles through his ragged
+soldier's cap, and in scores of places his tattered tunic was unable to
+conceal his loathsome skin, browned with filth and exposure to rough
+weather. The fellow wore soldier's shoes on his feet, and the blue
+weals on his ankles showed the traces of the chains he had been
+fettered with. "Ho, ho!" cried the fellow, "I bet you don't know me.
+You don't know Sebastian Engelbrecht, whom you've cheated out of his
+property--not you." With all the imposing dignity of his majestic form,
+Master Wacht took a step towards the man, mechanically advancing the
+cane he held in his hand. Then the wild fellow seemed to be almost
+thunderstruck; he recoiled a few paces, and then raised his doubled
+fists shouting, "Ho, ho! I know where my property is, and I'll go and
+help myself to it, in spite of you, you old sinner." And he ran off
+down the Kaulberg like an arrow from a bow, followed by the crowd.
+
+Master Wacht stood in the passage like a statue for several seconds.
+But when Nanni cried in alarm, "Good heavens! father, that was
+Sebastian," he went into the room, more reeling than walking, and sank
+down exhausted in an arm-chair; then, holding both hands before his
+face, he cried in a heart-rending voice, "By the eternal mercy of God,
+that is Sebastian Engelbrecht."
+
+There arose a tumult in the street, the crowd poured down the Kaulberg,
+and voices in the far distance could be heard shouting "Murder!
+murder!" A prey to the most terrible apprehensions, the Master, ran
+down to Jonathan's dwelling, situated immediately at the foot of the
+Kaulberg. A dense mass of people were pushing and crowding together in
+front of him; in their midst he perceived Sebastian struggling like a
+wild animal against the watch, who had just thrown him upon the ground,
+where they overpowered him and bound him hand and foot, and led him
+away. "O God! O God! Sebastian has slain his brother," lamented the
+people, who came crowding out of the house. Master Wacht forced his way
+through and found poor Jonathan in the hands of the doctors, who were
+exerting themselves to call him back to life. As he had received three
+powerful blows upon the head, dealt with all the strength of a strong
+man, the worst was to be feared.
+
+As generally happens under such circumstances, Nanni learnt immediately
+the whole history of the affair from her kind-hearted friends, and at
+once rushed off to her lover's dwelling, where she arrived just as the
+young lawyer, thanks to the lavish use of naphtha, opened his eyes
+again, and the doctors were talking about trepanning. What further took
+place may be conceived. Nanni was inconsolable; Rettel, notwithstanding
+her betrothal, was sunk in grief; and Monsieur Pickard Leberfink
+exclaimed, whilst tears of sorrow ran down his cheeks, "God be merciful
+to the man upon whose pate a carpenter's fist falls." The loss of young
+Herr Jonathan would be irreparable. At any rate the varnish on his
+coffin should be of unsurpassed brightness and blackness; and the
+silvering of the skulls and other nice ornaments should baffle all
+comparison.
+
+It appeared that Sebastian had escaped out of the hands of a troop of
+Bavarian soldiers, whilst they were conducting a band of vagabonds
+through the district of Bamberg, and he had found his way into the town
+in order to carry out a mad project which he had for a long time been
+brooding over in his mind. His career was not that of an abandoned,
+vicious criminal; it afforded rather an example of those supremely
+frivolous-minded men, who, despite the very admirable qualities with
+which Nature has endowed them, give way to every temptation to evil,
+and finally sinking to the lowest depths of vice, perish in shame and
+misery. In Saxony he had fallen into the hands of a petti-fogging
+lawyer, who had made him believe that Master Wacht, when sending him
+his patrimonial inheritance, had paid him very much short, and kept
+back the remainder for the benefit of his brother Jonathan, to whom he
+had promised to give his favourite daughter Nanni to wife. Very likely
+the old deceiver had concocted this story out of various utterances of
+Sebastian himself. The kindly reader already knows by what violent
+means Sebastian set to work to secure his own rights. Immediately after
+leaving Master Wacht he had burst into Jonathan's room, where the
+latter happened to be sitting at his study table, ordering some
+accounts and counting the piles of money which lay heaped up before
+him. His clerk sat in the other corner of the room. "Ah! you villain!"
+screamed Sebastian in a fury, "there you are sitting over your mammon.
+Are you counting what you have robbed me of? Give me here what yon old
+rascal has stolen from me and bestowed upon you. You poor, weak thing!
+You greedy clutching devil--you!" And when Sebastian strode close up to
+him, Jonathan instinctively stretched out both hands to ward him off,
+crying aloud, "Brother! for God's sake, brother!" But Sebastian replied
+by dealing him several stunning blows on the head with his double fist,
+so that Jonathan sank down fainting. Sebastian hastily seized upon some
+of the rolls of gold and was making off with them--in which naturally
+enough he did not succeed.
+
+Fortunately it turned out that none of Jonathan's wounds, which
+outwardly wore the appearance of large bumps, had occasioned any
+serious concussion of the brain, and hence none of them could be
+esteemed as likely to prove dangerous. After a lapse of two months,
+when Sebastian was taken away to the convict prison, where he was to
+atone for his attempt at murder by a heavy punishment, the young lawyer
+felt himself quite well again.
+
+This terrible occurrence exerted such a shattering effect upon Master
+Wacht that a consuming surly peevishness was the consequence of it.
+This time the stout strong oak was shaken from its topmost branch to
+its deepest root. Often when his mind was thought to be busy with quite
+different matters, he was heard to murmur in a low tone, "Sebastian--a
+fratricide! That's how you reward me?" and then he seemed to come to
+himself like one awakening out of a nasty dream. The only thing that
+kept him from breaking down was the hardest and most assiduous labour.
+But who can fathom the unsearchable depths in which the secret links of
+feeling are so strangely forged together as they were in Master Wacht's
+soul? His abhorrence of Sebastian and his wicked deed faded out of his
+mind, whilst the picture of his own life, ruined by Jonathan's love for
+Nanni, deepened in colour and vividness as the days went by. This frame
+of mind Master Wacht betrayed in many short exclamations--"So then your
+brother is condemned to hard labour and to work in chains!--That's
+where he has been brought by his attempted crime against you--It's a
+fine thing for a brother to be the cause of making his own brother a
+convict--shouldn't like to be in the first brother's place--but lawyers
+think differently; they want justice, that is, they want to play with a
+lay figure and dress it up and give it whatever name they please."
+
+Such like bitter, and even incomprehensible reproaches, the young
+advocate was obliged to hear from Master Wacht, and to hear them only
+too often. Any attempt at rebutting these charges would have been
+fruitless. Accordingly Jonathan made no reply; only often when his
+heart was almost distracted by the old man's fatal delusion, which was
+ruining all his happiness, he broke out in his exceeding great pain,
+"Father, father, you are unjust towards me, exasperatingly unjust."
+
+One day when the family were assembled at the decorator Leberfink's,
+and Jonathan also was present, Master Wacht began to tell how somebody
+had been saying that Sebastian Engelbrecht, although apprehended as a
+criminal, could yet make good by action at law his claim against Master
+Wacht, who had been his guardian. Then, smiling venomously and turning
+to Jonathan, he went on, "That would be a pretty case for a young
+advocate. I thought you might take up the suit; you might play a part
+in it yourself; perhaps I have cheated you as well?" This made the
+young lawyer start to his feet; his eyes flashed, his bosom heaved; he
+seemed all of a sudden to be quite a different man; stretching his hand
+towards Heaven he cried, "No, you shall no longer be my father; you
+must be insane to sacrifice without scruple the peace and happiness of
+the most loving of children to a ridiculous prejudice. You will never
+see me again; I will go and at once accept the offer which the American
+consul made to me to-day; I will go to America." "Yes," replied Wacht
+filled with rage and anger, "ay, away out of my eyes, brother of the
+fratricide, who've sold your soul to Satan." Casting upon Nanni, who
+was half fainting, a look full of hopeless love and anguish and
+despair, the young advocate hurriedly left the garden.
+
+It was remarked earlier in the course of this story when the young
+lawyer threatened to shoot himself _à la_ Werther,[21] what a good
+thing it was that the indispensable pistol was in very many cases not
+within reach. And here it will be just as useful to remark that the
+young advocate was not able, to his own good be it said, to embark
+there and then on the Regnitz and sail straight away to Philadelphia.
+Hence it was that his threat to leave Bamberg and his darling Nanni for
+ever remained still unfulfilled, even when at last, after two years
+more had elapsed, the wedding-day of Herr Leberfink, decorator and
+gilder, was come. Leberfink would have been inconsolable at this unjust
+postponement of his happiness, although the delay was almost a matter
+of necessity after the terrible events which had fallen blow after blow
+in Wacht's house, had it not afforded him an opportunity to decorate
+over again in deep red and appropriate gold the ornamental work in his
+parlour, which had before been gay with nice light-blue and silver, for
+he had picked up from Rettelchen that a red table, red chairs, and so
+on, would be more in accordance with her taste.
+
+When the happy decorator insisted upon seeing the young lawyer at his
+wedding. Master Wacht had not offered a moment's opposition; and the
+young lawyer--he was pleased to come. It may be imagined with what
+feelings the two young people saw each other again, for since that
+terrible moment when Jonathan had left the garden they had literally
+not set eyes upon each other. The assembly was large; but not a single
+person with whom they were on a friendly footing fathomed their pain.
+
+Just as they were on the point of setting out for church. Master Wacht
+received a thick letter; he had read no more than a few lines when he
+became violently agitated and rushed off out of the room, not a little
+to the consternation of the rest, who at once suspected some fresh
+misfortune. Shortly afterwards Master Wacht called the young advocate
+out. When they were alone together in the Master's own room, the
+latter, vainly endeavouring to conceal his excessive agitation, began,
+"I've got the most extraordinary news of your brother; here is a letter
+from the governor of the prison relating fully all the circumstances of
+what has taken place. As you cannot know them all, I must begin at the
+beginning and tell you everything right to the end so as to make
+credible to you what is incredible; but time presses." So saying,
+Master Wacht fixed a keen glance upon the advocate's face, so that he
+blushed and cast down his eyes in confusion. "Yes, yes," went on Master
+Wacht, raising his voice, "you don't know how great a remorse took
+possession of your brother a very few hours after he was put in prison;
+there is hardly anybody whose heart has been more torn by it. You don't
+know how his attempt at murder and theft has prostrated him. You don't
+know how that in mad despair he prayed Heaven day and night either to
+kill him or to save him that he might henceforth by the exercise of the
+strictest virtue wash himself pure from bloodguiltiness. You don't know
+how that on the occasion of building a large wing to the prison, in
+which the convicts were employed as labourers, your brother so
+distinguished himself as a clever and well-instructed carpenter that he
+soon filled the post of foreman of the workmen, without anybody's
+noticing how it came about so. You don't know how his quiet good
+behaviour, and his modesty, combined with the decision of his
+regenerate mind, made everybody his friend. All this you do not know,
+and so I am telling it you. But to go on. The Prince-bishop has
+pardoned your brother; he has become a master. But how could all this
+be done without a supply of money?" "I know," said the young advocate
+in a low voice, "I know that you, my good father, have sent money to
+the prison authorities every month, in order that they might keep my
+brother separate from the other prisoners and find him better
+accommodation and better food. Later on you sent him materials for his
+trade"---- Then Master Wacht stepped close up to the young advocate,
+took him by both arms, and said in a voice that vacillated in a way
+that cannot be described between delight, sadness, and pain, "But would
+that alone have helped Sebastian to honour again, to freedom, and his
+civil rights, and to property, however strongly his fundamental
+virtuous qualities had sprung up again? An unknown philanthropist, who
+must take an especially warm interest in Sebastian's fate, has
+deposited ten thousand 'large' thalers with the court, to"---- Master
+Wacht could not speak any further owing to his violent emotion; he drew
+the young advocate impetuously to his heart, crying, though he could
+only get out his words with difficulty, "Advocate, help me to penetrate
+to the deep import of law such as lives in your breast, and that I may
+stand before the Eternal Bar of justice as you will one day stand
+before it.--And yet," he continued after a pause of some seconds,
+releasing the young lawyer, "and yet, my dear Jonathan, if Sebastian
+now comes back as a good and industrious citizen and reminds me of my
+pledged word, and Nanni"---- "Then I will bear my trouble till it kills
+me," said the young advocate; "I will flee to America." "Stay here,"
+cried Master Wacht in an enthusiastic burst of joy and delight, "stay
+here, son of my heart! Sebastian is going to marry a girl whom he
+formerly deceived and deserted. Nanni is yours."
+
+Once more the Master threw his arms around Jonathan's neck, saying, "My
+lad, I feel like a schoolboy before you, and should like to beg your
+pardon for all the blame I have put upon you, and all the injustice I
+have done you. But let us say no more; other people are waiting for
+us." Therewith Master Wacht took hold of the young lawyer and pulled
+him along into the room where the wedding guests were assembled; there
+he placed himself and Jonathan in the midst of the company, and said,
+raising his voice and speaking in a solemn tone, "Before we proceed to
+celebrate the sacred rite I invite you all, my honest friends, ladies
+and gentlemen, and you too, my virtuous maidens and young men, six
+weeks hence to a similar festival in my house; for here I introduce to
+you Herr Jonathan Engelbrecht, the advocate, to whom I herewith
+solemnly betroth my youngest daughter, Nanni." The lovers sank into
+each other's arms. A breath of the profoundest astonishment passed
+over the whole assembly; but good old Andreas, holding his little
+three-cornered carpenter's cap before his breast, said softly, "A man's
+heart is a wonderful thing; but true, honest faith overcomes the base
+and even sinful resoluteness of a hardened spirit; and all things turn
+out at last for the best, just as the good God wishes them to do."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MASTER JOHANNES WACHT":
+
+[Footnote 1: Included in a collection of stories entitled _Geschichten,
+Märchen, und Sagen_, Von Fr. H. v. d. Hagen, E. T. A. Hoffmann, und H.
+Steffens; Breslau, 1823.]
+
+[Footnote 2: See Footnote 19 above, for "Master Martin, The Cooper."]
+
+[Footnote 3: The stern inexorable Republican patriot, who kills even
+his friend Fiesco when the latter refuses to throw aside the purple
+dignity he had assumed. See Schiller's _Fiesko_, act v., last scene
+(cf. I. 10-13; III. 1).]
+
+[Footnote 4: A long hilly street in Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Pet name for Johannes, the name of Wacht's son.]
+
+[Footnote 6: _Rettel_ and _Rettelchen_ (little Rettel) are pet names
+for Margaret.]
+
+[Footnote 7: The anniversary of the consecration of the church is made
+the occasion of a great and general festive holiday in many parts of
+Germany, particularly in the south.]
+
+[Footnote 8: "Noodles" are long strips of rolled-out paste, made up and
+cooked in various ways.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Seehof or Marquardsburg, situated to the north-east of
+Bamberg, was formerly a bishop's castle, and was rebuilt by Marquard
+Sebastian Schenk of Stauffenberg in 1688.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Stracchino, a kind of cheese made in North Italy,
+especially in Brescia, Milan, and Bergamo.]
+
+[Footnote 11: A pet name for Gretchen (Margaret), frequently used also
+as equivalent to "sweetheart," "lass," just as we might say, "Every
+Johnny has his Jeannie."]
+
+[Footnote 12: A long winding suburb of Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Or Bug, as it is generally spelled, a pleasure resort on
+the Regnitz, about half an hour distant from Bamberg. Hoffmann was in
+the habit of visiting it almost daily when he lived at Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 14: In the days before ice was preserved on such an extensive
+scale by the German brewers as it is at the present time, beer was kept
+in excavations in rock, wherever a suitable place could be found; this
+made it deliciously cool and fresh.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Goethe's well-known work.]
+
+[Footnote 16: A once rich and celebrated Benedictine abbey between
+Bamberg and Coburg, founded in the eleventh century, and frequently
+destroyed and sacked in war.]
+
+[Footnote 17: That is, they were golden, or gilded.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Hinze is Tieck's _Gestiefelter Kater_ (Puss in Boots).
+The reference is perhaps to act ii. scene 2, where Hinze goes out to
+catch rabbits, &c., and hears the nightingale singing, the humour of
+the scene lying in the quick alternation of the human poetic sentiments
+and the native instincts of the cat.]
+
+[Footnote 19: So named from the place where they were struck. See note,
+p. 281, Vol. I., viz.--Imperial thalers varied in value at different
+times, but estimating their value at three shillings, the sum here
+mentioned would be equivalent to about £22,500. A _Frederick d'or_ was
+a gold coin worth five thalers.]
+
+[Footnote 20: A church situated at the beginning of the Steinweg.]
+
+[Footnote 21: It need scarcely be said this refers to the excessively
+sentimental hero of Goethe's _Leiden des jungen Werthers_.]
+
+
+
+
+                         _BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE._[1]
+
+
+Like many others whose pens have been employed in authorship, the
+subject of this notice, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm[2] Hoffmann, led a very
+chequered life, the various facts and incidents of which throw a good
+deal of light upon his writings.
+
+Hoffmann was born at Königsberg in Prussia on the 24th January,
+1776.[3] His parents were very ill-assorted, and led such an unhappy
+life that they parted in young Ernst's third year. His father, who was
+in the legal profession, was a man of considerable talent and of acute
+intellect, but irregular and wild in his habits and given to
+reprehensible practices. His mother, on the contrary, the daughter of
+Consistorialrath Dörffer, had been trained up on the strictest moral
+principles, and to habits of orderliness and propriety; and to her
+regard for outward conformity to old-established forms and conventional
+routine was added a weak and ailing condition of body, which made her
+for the most part a confirmed invalid. When, in 1782, the elder
+Hoffmann was promoted to the dignity of judge and transferred to a
+criminal court at Insterburg (Prussia), Ernst was taken into the house
+of his maternal grandmother; and his father appears never to have
+troubled himself further either about him or his elder brother, who
+afterwards took to evil ways. The brothers in all probability never met
+again, though an unfinished letter, dated 10th July, 1817, found
+amongst Hoffmann's papers after his death, was evidently written to his
+brother in reply to one received from him requesting pecuniary
+assistance.
+
+In his grandmother's house young Hoffmann spent his boyhood and youth.
+The members of the household were four, the grandmother, her son, her
+two daughters, of whom one was the boy's invalid mother. The old lady,
+owing to her great age, was also virtually an invalid; so that both she
+and her daughter scarcely ever left their room, and hence their
+influence upon young Ernst's education and training was practically
+nil. His uncle, however, after an abortive attempt to follow the law,
+had settled down to a quiet vegetative sort of existence, which he
+regulated strictly according to fixed rules and methodical procedure;
+and these he imposed more or less upon the household. Justizrath Otto
+(or Ottchen, as his mother continued to call him to her life's end),
+though acting as a dead weight upon his high-spirited, quick-witted
+nephew's intellectual development, by his efforts to mould him to his
+own course of life and his own unpliant habits of thought, nevertheless
+planted certain seeds in the boy's mind which proved of permanent
+service to him throughout all his subsequent career. To this precise
+and order-loving uncle he owed his first thorough grounding in the
+elements of music, and also his persevering industry and sense of
+method and precision. As uncle and nephew shared the same sitting-room
+and the same sleeping-chamber, and as the former would never suffer any
+departure from the established routine of things, the boy Ernst began
+not only to look forward to the one afternoon a week when Otto went out
+to make his calls, but also to study narrowly his uncle's habits, and
+to play upon his weaknesses and turn them to his own advantage, so that
+by the time he was twelve years old he was quite an adept at mystifying
+the staid old gentleman. His aunt, an unmarried lady, was cheerful,
+witty, and full of pleasant gaiety; she was the only one who understood
+and appreciated her clever nephew; indeed she was so fond of him, and
+humoured him to such an extent, that she is said to have spoiled him.
+It was to her he poured out all his childish troubles and all his
+boyish confidences and weaknesses. Her love he repaid with faithful
+affection, and he has memorialised it in a touching way in the
+character of "Tante Füsschen" in _Kater Murr_ (Pt. I.), where also
+other biographical details of this period may be read. Of his poor
+mother, feeble in body and in mind alike, Hoffmann only spoke
+unwillingly, but always with deep respect mingled with sadness.
+
+Two other persons must be mentioned as having exercised a lasting
+influence upon his early life. One of these was an old great-uncle,
+Justizrath Vöthöry, brother of both his grandmothers, and a gentleman
+of Hungarian origin. This excellent man was retired from all business,
+with the exception that he continued to act as justiciary for the
+estates of certain well-tried friends. He used to visit the various
+properties at stated seasons of the year, and was always a welcome
+guest; for this "hero of olden times in dressing-gown and slippers," as
+Wilibald Alexis called him, was the V---- who figures so genially
+in _Das Majorat_ ("The Entail"). The old gentleman once took his
+great-nephew with him on one of these trips, and to it we are indebted
+for this master-piece of Hoffmann. The other person who gave a bent to
+young Ernst's mind was Dr. Wannowski, the head of the German Reformed
+School in Königsberg, where the boy was sent in his sixth or seventh
+year. Wannowski, who possessed the faculty of awakening slumbering
+talent in his pupils, and attracting them to himself, enjoyed the
+friendship and intercourse of Kant, Hippel (the elder), Scheffner,
+Hamann, and others, and might perhaps lay claim to be called a Prussian
+Dr. Arnold, owing to the many illustrious pupils he turned out.
+
+During the first seven years of his school-days, young Hoffmann was in
+nowise distinguished above his school-fellows either for industry or
+for quickness of parts. But when he reached his thirteenth or
+fourteenth year, his taste for both music and painting was awakened.
+His liking for these two arts was so genuine and sincere, and
+consequently his progress in them so rapid, that he came to be looked
+upon as a child-wonder. He would sit down at a piano and play
+improvisations and other compositions of his own creation, to the
+astonishment of all who heard him, for his performances, though
+somewhat fantastic, were not wanting in talent and originality, and his
+diminutive stature made him appear some years younger than he really
+was. In drawing he early showed a decided inclination for caricature,
+and in this his quickness of perception and accuracy in reproduction
+proved of permanent service to him. Later he endeavoured to improve
+himself both in theory and in practice in higher styles also: in the
+former by diligent study of Winckelmann, and in the latter by copying
+the models of the art treasures of Herculaneum preserved in the Royal
+Library.
+
+In his eleventh year Hoffmann made the acquaintance of Theodor von
+Hippel, nephew of T. G. Hippel, author of _Die Lebensläufe in
+aufsteigender Linie_, a boy one month older than himself. The
+acquaintance ripened into a warm fast friendship when the two boys
+recognised each other again at the same school, and they continued
+faithful devoted friends until the day of Hoffmann's death. What tended
+principally to knit them together was the similarity and yet difference
+in their bringing up and family relations. Both grew up without the
+society of brothers or sisters or playfellows; but whilst Hoffmann was
+a son of the town, Hippel's early days had been spent in the country.
+In another respect, too, they presented a striking contrast in
+behaviour; Hoffmann's chief delight was to mystify and tease his uncle
+Otto, but Hippel was most scrupulous in paying to all the proper meed
+of respect which he conceived he owed them. Once when Hippel reproached
+his friend about his behaviour towards his uncle, young Hoffmann
+replied, "But think what relatives fate has blessed me with! If I only
+had a father and an uncle like yours such things would never come into
+my head." This saying is significant for the understanding of the early
+stages of Hoffmann's intellectual development.
+
+The bonds of inclination and natural liking were drawn still closer by
+an idea of uncle Otto's. It was arranged that young Hippel should spend
+the Wednesday afternoons (when the Justizrath went out to make his
+round of visits amongst his acquaintances), along with his friend in
+studying together, principally the classics. And Saturday afternoons
+were also to be devoted to the same duties whenever practicable. But,
+as might very well be expected, the classics soon gave way to other
+books, such as Rousseau's _Confessions_ and Wiegleb's _Natürliche
+Magie_;[4] and these in turn were forced to yield to such pastimes as
+music, drawing, mummeries, boyish games, masquerades, and even more
+pretentious adventures out in the garden, such as mimic chivalric
+contests, construction of underground passages, &c. The boys also
+discovered common ground in their desire to cultivate their minds by
+poetry and other reading. The last two years at school were most
+beneficial and productive in shaping Hoffmann's mind; he acquired a
+taste for classics and excited the attention of his teachers by his
+artistic talents, his graphic powers of representation being noticeable
+even at this early age. During this time also he cultivated the
+acquaintance of the painter Matuszewski, whom he introduces by name in
+his tale _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall").
+
+When sixteen or seventeen years old Hoffmann conceived his first boyish
+affection, which only deserves mention as giving occasion to a frequent
+utterance of his at this time, that illustrates one of the most
+striking sides of his character. It appears that the young lady who was
+the object of his fancied passion either refused to notice his homage
+or else laughed it to scorn, for he remarked to his friend with great
+warmth of feeling, "Since I can't interest her with a pleasing
+exterior, I wish I were a perfect image of ugliness, so that I might
+strike her attention, and so make her at least look at me."
+
+The beginning of Hoffmann's university career--he matriculated at
+Königsberg on 27th March, 1792--offers nothing of special interest. He
+decided to study jurisprudence. In making this decision he was
+doubtless influenced by the family connections and the traditional
+calling of the male members of the family. As already remarked, his
+father, his uncle, and his great-uncle had all followed the profession
+of law, and he had another uncle Dörffer in the same profession, who
+occupied a position of some influence at Glogau in Silesia. But it is
+also certain that he was determined to this decision--it cannot be
+called choice--from the desire to make himself independent of the
+family in Königsberg as soon as he could contrive to do so, in order
+that he might free himself from the shackles and galling unpleasantness
+of the untoward relations in life to which he was there subject. But he
+was devoted heart and soul to art--to music and painting. As the
+studies of the two friends, Hoffmann and Hippel, were different, they
+necessarily did not see so much of each other as previously; but once a
+week during the winter months they devoted a night to mutual
+outpourings of the things that were in them--the aspirations, hopes,
+dreams, and plans for the future, &c., such as imaginative youths are
+wont to cherish and indulge in. These meetings were strictly confined
+to their two selves; no third was admitted. Their rules were one bottle
+of wine for the whole evening, and the conversation to be carried on in
+rhymed verses; and Hoffmann we find looking back upon these hours with
+glad remembrance even in the full flush of his manhood and fame: even
+on his last sad birthday, a few months before his death, he dwells upon
+them with fond delight.
+
+Whilst, however, devoting himself enthusiastically to the pursuit of
+art, he did not neglect his more serious studies. He made good and
+steady progress in the knowledge of law; and he also gave lessons in
+music. It was whilst officiating in this latter capacity that his heart
+was stirred by its first serious passion--a passion which left an
+indelible impress upon all his future life. He fell in love with a
+charming girl, who had a fine taste and true sentiment in art matters,
+but who was separated from her admirer by an impassable barrier of
+rank; but although her social position was far above Hoffmann's, yet
+she returned warmly his pure and ardent affection. Hoffmann, however,
+never disguised from himself the hopelessness of his love; and the fact
+that it was so hopeless embittered all the rest of his time in
+Königsberg, until he left it in June, 1796, for a legal appointment at
+Great Glogau in Silesia.
+
+As these years seem to have been mainly instrumental in
+forming his character and shaping its outlines and giving depth and
+strength to its chief features, it is desirable to dwell for a moment
+upon the principal currents which at this time poured their influences
+upon him. By nature of a genial and gay temperament, gifted with an
+acute perception, which he had further trained in sharpness and
+accuracy, endowed with no small share of talent and with an ardent love
+for art, ambitious, vain in some respects, full of high spirits, and
+with a keen sense of humour, and not devoid of originality, he was
+daily chafed and galled in the depressing atmosphere of his home
+relations. He felt how illogical was the rigid methodicity, how
+unreasonable the arbitrary routine, how absurd the restrictions and
+restraints of his uncle's household regulations; he was eager to be
+quit of them, to turn his back upon them; he was anxious to find a
+congenial field for his powers-~a field where he could turn his
+accomplishments and genius to good account. The only way in which he
+could hope to do so at present, at least for some years to come, was by
+pursuing a legal career, and law he had no inclination for. He says, in
+a letter to Hippel, dated 25th Nov., 1795, "If it depended upon myself
+alone I should be a musical composer, and I have hopes that I could do
+something great in that line; as for the one I have now chosen, I shall
+be a bungler in it as long as I live." He gradually came to live upon a
+strained and barely tolerable footing with his uncle, since as he grew
+older his tricks and ironical behaviour towards little Otto assumed a
+more pronounced character, and stirred up in the old gentleman's mind
+feelings of suspicion against his unmanageable nephew. In these
+circumstances we may easily discern the germs of a dissatisfaction not
+only with his lot in life but also with himself.
+
+Next came the fact of his hopeless love which has just been mentioned.
+And another and no less potent cause which tended to deepen and
+intensify this spirit of inward dissatisfaction was the delay that
+occurred between his passing his entrance examination into the legal
+profession in July, 1795, and his appointment to a definite post of
+active duty in June, 1796. To be compelled to wear out his independent,
+ambitious heart in forced inactivity must have been galling in the
+extreme, especially when it is remembered how eagerly he was longing to
+shake himself free from the relations amidst which he had grown up, and
+his no less earnest desire to get beyond the reach of the passion, or
+at any rate the object of the passion, that was gnawing at his very
+heart-strings. To an energetic spirit, longing for a useful sphere of
+activity, hardly anything can be more fruitful as a source of
+unhappiness than enforced idleness. And this sentiment Hoffmann gives
+frequent utterance to in his letters at this period.
+
+During these same months he cultivated his mind by the perusal of the
+works of such writers as Jean Paul, Schiller, and Goethe, the intellectual
+giants upon whom the eyes of Germany were at that time fixed in wonder.
+But this course of reading, instead of counteracting, rather encouraged
+a native leaning towards poetic dreaming and sentimentality. In a letter
+to Hippel, dated 10th Jan., 1796, he even says, "I cannot possibly demand
+that she [the lady he loved] should love me to the same unmeasured extent
+of passionate devotion that has turned my head--and this torments me....
+I can never leave her; she might weep for me for twenty-four hours and
+then forget me--I should _never forget her_." There was yet another cause
+or series of causes which co-operated with those mentioned above to
+increase the distracted and agitated condition of his heart. It has been
+already stated more than once that he was a diligent student of music and
+painting. These formed his recreation from the severe and dry study of
+law-books; but to these two arts he now added the fascination of
+literary composition, and wrote two novels, which he entitled _Cornaro_
+and _Der Geheimnissvolle_. The former was rejected by a publisher, who
+had at first held out some hopes of being able to accept it, on the
+ground that its author was unknown. Besides this, the productions of
+his brush failed to sell. Hence fresh sources of disappointment and
+vexation.
+
+Through all this, however, even in his darkest moods and most desperate
+moments, he was upheld by the feelings and sentiments associated with
+his friendship for his unshaken friend Hippel. To him he poured out all
+his troubles in a series of letters,[5] which gave a most graphic
+account of his mental condition at this period. He led a very retired
+life, hardly seeing anybody; he calls himself an anchorite, and states
+he was living apart from all the world, seeking to find food for
+contemplation and reflection in his own self. He also fostered, perhaps
+unconscious to himself, high poetic aspirations, and also those
+extravagant dreams of friendship which were so fashionable in the days
+of "Posa" and "Werther" and Wieland; "his heart was never more
+susceptible to what is good," and "his bosom never swelled with nobler
+thoughts," he says in one of his letters. Then he goes on to describe
+the "flat, stale, and unprofitable" surroundings in the midst of which
+he was confined. "Round about me here it is icy cold, as in Nova
+Zembla, whilst I am burning and being consumed by the fiery breath
+within me," he says in another place. The violence of his inner
+conflict, of his heart-torture and unhappiness, finds vent in a wild
+burst in the letter before quoted of 10th Jan., 1796 (and also in
+others). He says:--
+
+
+"Many a time I think it's all over with me, and if it were not for my
+uncle's little musical evenings. I don't know what really would become
+of me.... Let me stay here and eat my heart out.... Nothing can be made
+of me, that you will see quite well.... I am ruined for everything; I
+have been cheated in everything, and in a most exasperating way." ...
+Again, "If I thought it possible that this frantic imp, my fancy, at
+which I laugh right sardonically in my calmer moments, could ever
+strain the fibres of my brain or could touch the feelers of my
+emotional power, I should wish to cry with Shakespeare's Falstaff, 'I
+would it were bedtime, and all well;'" ... and "I am accused by the
+Santa Hermandad of my own conscience." And in another letter he unbares
+the root of all his troubles in the exclamation, "Oh! that I had a
+mother like you."
+
+
+Tearing himself away from his lady-love with a violent wrench, Hoffmann
+left Königsberg in a sort of "dazed or intoxicated state," his heart
+bleeding with the anguish of parting. He arrived at Glogau on 15th
+June, and met with a very friendly reception from his uncle and his
+uncle's family, which consisted of his wife and a son and two
+daughters. But though they appear to have exerted themselves to make
+the unhappy youth comfortable, his heart and mind were too much
+occupied with the dear one he had left behind for him to derive full
+benefit from their kind and well-meant attentions. In the first letter
+he wrote to his friend from his new home he says, "As Hamlet advised
+his mother, I have thrown away the worser part of my heart to live the
+purer with the other half.... Am I happy, you ask? I was never more
+unhappy." In other letters, written some months later, he writes, "I am
+tired of railing against Destiny and myself.... There are moments in
+which I despair of all that is good, in which I feel it has been
+enjoined upon me to work against everything that makes a vaunt of
+specious happiness." But he took no manful and resolute steps to battle
+against his unhappy state; he continued to correspond with the lady of
+his affections, to gaze upon her portrait, to write to his friend about
+her, and to dwell upon the past, the hours he had spent in her society.
+His relatives, though treating him with all kindness, would seem to
+have endeavoured to reason him out of his passion, since after he had
+been some months in Glogau, he complains that those who had at first
+been all love and sympathy were now cold and reserved towards him; he
+was misunderstood; he was tormented with _ennui_, and looked with
+contempt (partly amused and partly bitter) upon the childish follies
+and fopperies, the trifling and dandling with serious feelings and
+affections, of the folks amongst whom he lived, who spent their time in
+"hunting after flies and _bonmots_." During these months, however, and
+during the course of the two years he spent in Silesia, he penetrated
+deeper into the secret constitution of his own nature than he ever did
+before or after: we find him confessing to his hot passionate
+disposition and his quickness to take offence, and making mention of
+the change that had taken place in him since the days of his early
+friendship with Hippel--he was become hypochondriacal, dissatisfied
+with himself, ready to kick against destiny, and prone to assume a
+defiant attitude towards her and to blame her and call her to account
+for her treatment of him; then again he was melancholy and sad and
+sentimental, using in his letters expressions built up after Jean
+Paul's style, and indulging in gushing protestations of unalterable
+friendship. But then this was the age of exaggerated friendships. His
+humour and joviality did not, however, altogether desert him; he made
+himself a welcome guest of an evening, and carried out amusing pranks
+with his merry cousins.
+
+In the spring of 1797 Hoffmann accompanied his uncle on a journey to
+Königsberg, where he again saw the young girl he loved, but only to
+open up again all the anguish of the wounds that had never yet fully
+healed. On his return to Glogau things continued much as they were
+previous to his visit to his native town.
+
+Of his two favourite arts, painting seems to have occupied him more
+than music just at this period. Probably this was due to the influence
+of the painter Molinari, whose acquaintance he made before he had been
+six months in Glogau; and besides this man, whom he styles a "child of
+misfortune" like himself, he also enjoyed the society of Holbein,
+dramatic poet and actor; of Julius von Voss, a well-known writer; and
+of the Countess Lichtenau, formerly favourite of Frederick William II.
+of Prussia, but at that time a sort of prisoner in the garrison at
+Glogau.[6] The serious study of law he also prosecuted most
+assiduously, and to such good purpose that in June, 1798, he was
+able to surmount successfully his second or "referendary" examination.
+But for this earnest and persevering labour there was a special
+incitement--a particular cause. However contradictory it may sound, he
+was already engaged in another love affair; this time with the lady who
+afterwards became his wife, Maria Thekla Michaelina Rorer, of Polish
+extraction. The beginning of his intimacy with her dates, strange to
+say, from the early part of the year 1797, just previous to his journey
+to Königsberg with his uncle. Soon after passing his "referendary"
+examination, he was moved to the Supreme Court at Berlin, as a
+consequence of the promotion of his uncle to be _geheimer
+Obertribunalsrath_ in the capital. But before proceeding to Berlin to
+take up his residence there, Hoffmann made a tour through the Silesian
+mountains, partly with an eccentric friend of his uncle's and partly
+alone, finishing up the trip by an inspection of the art treasures of
+Dresden, where he was specially struck with works by Correggio and
+Battoni (mentioned in _Der Sandmann_, &c.) and Raphael. One very
+remarkable incident which happened to him during this trip must not be
+passed over in silence. He was induced to play at faro at a certain
+place where he stopped, and though he was perfectly unskilled in the
+game, yet he had such an extraordinary run of good luck, that he rose
+from the table with what was for him a small fortune. Next morning
+the event made so deep and powerful an impression upon his excitable
+temperament--his mind was so awed by the magnitude of his
+winnings--that he vowed never to touch a card again so long as he lived;
+and this vow he faithfully kept. In the tale _Spielerglück_ ("Gambler's
+Luck") we find the incident recorded in the experiences of Baron
+Siegfried; and in the third volume of the _Serapionsbrüder_ (Part VI.)
+he relates some of the very amusing eccentricities of his travelling
+companion, which are too long to be given here.
+
+We next find Hoffmann in Berlin, where, whilst the impressions which he
+had brought back with him from his excursion were still fresh upon his
+mind, he began to revel in the enjoyment of the picture-galleries and
+other opportunities for cultivating his taste in art. Here he saw
+really how little his own skill in painting was developed; he threw
+away colours, and took up drawing again like a beginner. His position
+in a professional regard now took a more favourable turn. Freiherr
+von Schleinitz, the first president of the court to which Hoffmann
+was attached, was a friend of Hippel's; and both he and the genial
+good-hearted second president Von Kircheisen noticed and encouraged his
+talents. In consequence, he laboured at his duties and studies with
+such zeal that he succeeded in passing his third and last examination,
+the so-called _examen rigorosum_, and so qualifying for the position of
+judge in the highest courts of Prussia, in the summer of 1799. He was
+recommended for an appointment as councillor in a provincial supreme
+court; but before proceeding to the dignity of councillor it was
+obligatory upon him to serve a probationary year as _assessor_. He was
+accordingly sent down to the newly-acquired Polish provinces (South
+Prussia, as they were called), to the town of Posen, where work was
+plentiful and talented and energetic workers were in demand. Before
+leaving the capital he had the pleasure of seeing his friend Hippel,
+who spent two happy months with him, living the past over again,
+visiting Potsdam, Dessau, Leipsic, Dresden, &c., and discussing the
+journey to Italy, which through all his life Hoffmann continued to
+dream of as an ideal plan to be some time consummated, but which
+unfortunately never was consummated. Hippel accompanied his friend to
+Posen.
+
+The Polish provinces were fraught with great danger for any young man
+who was not possessed of exceptional firmness and sound moral
+principles. For a young lawyer, the work was severe and exacting, but
+the emoluments were large. Time, however, failed to allow of
+cultivating the higher sources of enjoyment; hence all hastened to make
+the most of it by throwing themselves into the lower. Drinking was a
+habit of the country; and the drink that was drunk was of the strongest
+kinds, the fiery wines of Hungary and strong liquors. There reigned
+also a deplorable laxity of morals; and the graceful Polish women were
+very seductive. That Hoffmann followed the example of his colleagues,
+and plunged into the giddy whirlpool of miscalled pleasure, will
+perhaps appear natural when we take into consideration the sources of
+discontent that had for some time been fermenting in his spirit. Having
+been submitted to the trammels of unreasonable constraint, it need not
+be wondered at that his passionate restless nature should be enticed by
+the temptations to which he was now so suddenly and unreservedly
+exposed, that he forgot all his higher strivings and cast his better
+purposes to the winds, and drank greedily of the pleasures of life
+which his newly-won freedom brought in so easy and seductive a form
+within his reach. He candidly states, "for some months a conflict of
+feelings, principles, &c., which are directly contradictory the one to
+the other, has been raging within me; I wished to stifle all
+recollection, and become what schoolmasters, preachers, uncles, and
+aunts call profligate." There was none in the circles which he
+frequented to encourage him in his desire to reach out after better
+things, to live himself into "the poetry of life," as Hitzig expresses
+it; and hence he fell into the mire of demoralisation, and his fall was
+the greater since he set about it with deliberate intent.
+
+He was at length so far carried away by the delirious whirl into which
+he had been caught as to engage in a piece of wanton folly that threw
+him back upon his career by some years, just as he was about to plant
+his foot securely upon the path leading to the summits of his
+profession. Beguiled by his striking talent for caricature, he designed
+and executed a series of sketches, satirising in an exquisitely witty
+and humorous style various situations and characters and well-known
+relations of Posen society. The inscriptions appended to the
+caricatures were not less skilfully done than were the caricatures
+themselves. No rank of society was spared, and hardly any person of
+consequence in the town. One of his friends, who afterwards became his
+brother-in-law, distributed the leaves at a masked ball in the disguise
+of an Italian hawker of pictures, cleverly contriving to place each
+individual sketch in the hands of the person to whom it would most
+likely be most welcome. Hence for several minutes universal glee at the
+excellent jest! But when they came to compare notes, _i.e._, the
+presents they had received, the merriment gave way to hot indignation.
+The author of the outrage was very speedily guessed at, since there was
+only one person in Posen with proved ability enough to wield the pencil
+so as to produce such striking likenesses--unfortunate Hoffmann! That
+very same night it is said that a man of high rank, General von
+Zastrow, deeply incensed at several of the pieces in which he himself
+played a ridiculous _rôle_, sent off an express courier to Berlin with
+a report of the whole affair. The consequence of the thoughtless trick
+was that Hoffmann's patent as councillor to the government at Posen,
+which lay all ready for signing, was exchanged for one appointing him
+to the town of Plock (on the R. Vistula). Thither he went early in
+1802, accompanied by his wife, whose maiden name was "Rorer, or rather
+Trzczynska, a Poless by birth, daughter of the former town-councillor
+T. of Posen, twenty-two years old, of medium stature and good figure,
+with dark-brown hair and dark blue eyes," as he himself describes her.
+He had taken the step of marriage in face of the earnest dissuasion of
+his uncle Otto, in the last months of his residence in Posen. But
+previous to this, late in the autumn of 1801, he had paid another visit
+to Königsberg, meeting on his return journey his friend Hippel; and
+together they saw Elbing and Dantzic. To this latter visit we owe the
+story of _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall"), published in 1817. Hippel, be
+it remarked, was disagreeably struck by the change in his friend:
+Hoffmann gave himself up to an unhealthy degree, to wild and
+extravagant gaiety, and disclosed a liking for what was low and lewd.
+
+In Plock Hoffmann spent two years. This was a quiet, stagnant place,
+where, according to his own account, he "was buried alive," and "walked
+in a morass covered with low thorny shrubs which lacerated his feet;"
+he "thought of Yorick and the imprisoned starling;" and he should have
+given way to despair had not the bitter experiences which he was made
+to drain to the lees been sweetened by the affection of his dear good
+wife, who gave him strength for the present and encouraged him to hope
+for the future. Owing to the external circumstances in the midst of
+which he was fixed, he again turned his attention seriously to music
+and painting, and also to authorship. He wrote short essays, composed
+masses, vespers, and sonatas, and translated Italian canzonets, &c.
+_Scherz, List, und Rache_, a _Singspiel_ of Goethe's, he had already
+set to music in Posen. During these two years he led a more strictly
+domestic life, and spent more of his time out of the hours of official
+duty in his own house, than he ever did afterwards. Here also, as
+almost everywhere throughout his life he was zealous and industrious in
+discharging the duties of his position. At length, just as he was
+beginning to settle down and feel contented with his lot in Plock, his
+friends in Berlin succeeded in securing his removal (1804) to a better
+and more congenial sphere of activity in Warsaw. After once more
+visiting Königsberg in February, 1804, and then spending several days
+with Hippel on his estate at Leistenau (province Marienwerder, East
+Prussia), he eventually proceeded to his new post in Poland in the
+spring of that same year.
+
+One illustrative and very characteristic anecdote of this period
+deserves mention. In a letter to Hippel, dated "Plock, 3rd October,
+1803," Hoffmann writes, "My uncle in Berlin will never do much more to
+recommend me, for he has become 'a grave man,' as Mercutio says in
+Shakespeare;[7] he died on the night of 24-25th September of
+inflammation of the lungs." But in his diary of October 1 he writes, in
+allusion to the same sad event, "My tears did not flow, nor did fear
+and grief draw from me any loud lamentations; but the image of the man
+whom I loved and honoured is constantly before my eyes; it never leaves
+me. The whole day through my mind has been in a tumult; my nerves are
+so excited that the least little noise makes me start." Thus he could
+jest in the midst of pain; and it is a type of the man's character.
+
+Warsaw, in notable contrast to other places in the Polish provinces,
+possessed many things calculated to excite and engage the attention of
+an active mind, of a mind so eager for knowledge and so keenly alive to
+all that was especially interesting and extraordinary as was
+Hoffmann's. The new scene of his labours cannot be better described
+than in the words of Hitzig and of Hoffmann himself. The former says
+the city had
+
+
+"Streets of magnificent breadth, consisting of palaces in the finest
+Italian style and of wooden huts which threaten every moment to tumble
+together about the ears of their indwellers; in these edifices Asiatic
+sumptuousness most closely mingled with Greenland filth; a populace
+incessantly on the stir, forming, as in a procession of maskers, the
+most startling contrasts--long-bearded Jews, and monks clad in the garb
+of every order, closely veiled nuns of the strictest rules and
+unapproachable reserve, and troops of young Polesses dressed in the
+gayest-coloured silk mantles conversing to each other across the
+spacious squares, venerable old Polish gentlemen with moustaches,
+caftan, _pass_ (girdle), sabre, and yellow or red boots, the coming
+generation in the most matchless of Parisian fashions, Turks and
+Greeks, Russians, Italians, and Frenchmen in a constantly varying
+crowd; besides this an almost inconceivably tolerant police, who
+never interfered to prevent any popular enjoyment, so that the
+streets and squares were always swarming with 'punch-and-judy' shows,
+dancing-bears, camels, and apes, whilst the occupants of the most
+elegant equipage equally with the common porter stopped to stare at
+them open-mouthed; further, a theatre conducted in the national
+language, a thoroughly good French troupe, an Italian opera, German
+comedians, who were at least ready to undertake almost anything,
+'routs' of a quite original but extremely attractive kind, and resorts
+of pilgrims in the immediate vicinity of the town--was there not
+something for an eye like Hoffmann's to see and for a hand like
+Hoffmann's to sketch?"[8]
+
+
+Thus far Hitzig. Hoffmann writes on May 14, 1804:--
+
+"Yesterday ... I resolved to enjoy myself; I threw away my deeds and
+sat down to the piano to compose a sonata, but soon found myself in the
+situation of Hogarth's _Musicien enragé_ (Wrathful Musician).
+Immediately underneath my window there arose certain differences
+between three women selling meal, two wheelbarrow-men, and one sailor;
+each of the parties pleaded its cause with a good deal of violent
+demonstration before the tribunal of the hunchback, who stands with a
+stall under the door-way below. Whilst this was going on the bells of
+the parish church, of the Bennonites, and of the Dominican church (all
+close to me) began to clang; in the churchyard of the last named (right
+opposite to me) the hopeful catechumens were hammering away on two old
+kettle-drums, with which all the dogs of the neighbourhood, spurred by
+the strong powers of instinct, joined with a chorus of barkings and
+howlings--at that moment too Wambach and his musical band of
+Janissaries trotted gaily past to the merry strains of their own
+music--meeting them out of [another] street came a herd of swine. A
+tremendous friction in the middle of the street--seven swine were
+ridden over! Terrific squealing!--Oh!--oh! a _tutti_ invented for the
+torture of the damned! Here I threw aside my pen and paper, pulled on
+my top-boots, and ran away out of the wild mad tumult through the
+Cracow suburb--through the 'new world'--down the hill. A sacred Grove
+received me in its shade; I was in Lazienki.[9] Ay, truly, the pleasant
+palace swims upon the mirror-like lake like a virgin swan. Zephyrs come
+wafted through the blossoming trees loaded with voluptuous delight. How
+pleasant to stroll through the thickly foliaged walks! That is the
+place for an amiable Epicurean to live in. What! why this man with
+the white nose galloping[10] along here through the dark-leaved trees
+must be the 'Commendatore' in _Don Juan_. Ah! John Sobieski! _Pink
+fecit--male fecit_. Oh! what a state of things! He is riding over
+writhing prostrate slaves, who are stretching up their withered arms
+to the rearing horse--an ugly sight! What! is it possible? Great
+Sobieski--as a Roman with _wonçi_[11] has girt a Polish sabre about his
+waist, and it is made--of wood--ridiculous!... You ask me, my dear
+friend, how I like Warsaw. A motley world! too noisy--too wild--too
+harum-scarum--everything topsy-turvey! Where can I find time to write,
+to sketch, to compose music? The king ought to give up Lasienki to me;
+_there_ one could live nicely, if you like!"[12]
+
+
+The first few months of his residence in this "new world," as it
+appeared to immigrants from the "old land" of Prussia, Hoffmann spent
+in familiarising himself with the novelty and strangeness of the place,
+in wondering at and admiring the motley scenes which daily met his
+view; and doubtless his acute perceptive faculties gleaned a valuable
+harvest of notes for use on future occasions, both for his pencil and
+his pen. About the end of June he formed the acquaintance of J. E.
+Hitzig, who came down to Warsaw with the rank of _assessor_ in the
+administrative college in which Hoffmann held that of councillor. The
+crust of formal courtesy and commonplaces was broken through by
+Hitzig's pithy answer, to a question asking his opinion about some
+newly-arrived colleague, that he was "a man in buckram." The borrowed
+words of Falstaff banished Hoffmann's reserve, and caused his sombre
+face to light up with joy and his tongue to pour out a brilliant gush
+of talk. This new-made friend, who had previously (1800, 1801) lived in
+Warsaw, where he began his career, introduced Hoffmann into a pleasant
+and intellectual set of men, amongst whom was Zacharias Werner, author
+of _Söhne des Thales_, _Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_,[13] &c. Hitzig had
+spent the interval from 1801 in Berlin, where he had kept fully abreast
+of the newest productions in literature and art, whilst Hoffmann had
+been living, partly a rude and riotous life, and partly a solitary and
+monkish one, at Posen and Plock. Hence the one had plenty to
+communicate and the other great eagerness to listen, especially as the
+little he had begun to hear roused anew his slumbering better feelings,
+and whetted with a keen edge his native desire for self-improvement
+through art and literature.
+
+In the following year, 1805, one of the Prussian administrative
+officials, an enthusiast in music, conceived the idea of establishing a
+club or society for the purpose of amusement and mutual instruction in
+his favourite art, and for the purpose also of training singers of both
+sexes. Hoffmann's interest was enlisted in the scheme; and things
+proceeded at an energetic rate, the first concert being successful
+beyond expectation. With this encouragement the society was induced to
+go to work on a larger and more pretentious scale. The Miniszeki
+Palace, injured by fire, was bought for the seat of the new academy;
+and then Hoffmann threw himself into the plans of the society with all
+his soul, working indefatigably in preparing architectural designs, and
+later in decorating the halls and corridors. During all the mild days
+of the spring of 1806 he was never to be met with at home. If not in
+the government office, he was invariably to be found perched up on a
+high scaffolding in the new musical Ressource, painter's jacket on and
+surrounded by a crowd of colour-pots, amongst which was sure to be a
+bottle of Hungarian or Italian wine; there he painted and thence he
+conversed with his friends below. If, on occasion, parties requiring
+the services of Councillor Hoffmann came to look for him at the new
+Ressource, whither they had been directed from his own house, they were
+greatly surprised to see him drop nimbly to the floor from before an
+elaborate wall-painting of ancient Egyptian gods, mixed up with
+caricature figures and animal-like fragments of modems (his friends
+with tails, wings, etc.), hastily wash his hands, trot along in front
+of them to his place of business, and in a brief space of time turn out
+some complicated legal instrument with which it would defy the sharpest
+critic to find anything amiss.
+
+So absorbed was he in this work, and in that of directing at the
+evening performances and composing music for them, that he hardly knew
+anything of the dark thunder-cloud of war that was gathering in the
+West until the news of the fateful battle of Jena came; but upon these
+music enthusiasts in Warsaw even this intelligence made no perceptible
+impression. Their concerts and practisings and meetings went on
+uninterruptedly just as before, until one fine day the advanced guard
+of the Russian army rode into the streets of the former Polish capital.
+Soon after the Russian general had taken up his quarters in Praga,
+close to Warsaw, there appeared on the other side of the town the
+pioneers of the great army of Napoleon. The Prussians and Russians
+withdrew from the town. Milhaud arrived with the main body of Murat's
+forces; in Napoleon's name the Prussian Government was dissolved, and
+its officials were superseded by native Poles. Hence Hoffmann was left
+without employment. He and his colleagues divided the contents of the
+treasury between them to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+French; this secured them from want for the present. Careless about the
+future, and revelling in the luxury of untrammelled freedom, Hoffmann
+was now perfectly happy. The excitement was like rich wine to his
+brilliant fancy; he never had enough of it. He spent all the livelong
+day in running about seeing and hearing the many remarkable things to
+be both seen and heard. And the little, restless, energetic man was
+like quicksilver; he was everywhere. He specially loved to frequent the
+theatres, where, before the curtain rose, conversations might be heard
+carried on in ten or a dozen living tongues at once. Pushing his way
+through the motley throng, he penetrated to every part of the house,
+busy gathering all sorts of rich observations, and storing up a most
+varied assortment of experiences; and nothing escaped his falcon eye or
+remained unnoticed by his keen perception. Many and exquisite were the
+humorous anecdotes he picked up, the gestures he copied, the tricks and
+eccentricities he caught, the extraordinary characters he understood
+and fathomed at a glance; and these experiences he afterwards retailed
+to his friends, to their unbounded delight.
+
+But amid all the tumult of the French occupation of the city, the
+evenings at the Musical Ressource still went on the same as ever.
+Hoffmann indeed, in order to escape the burdens of billeting as well as
+from motives of economy, took up his residence in one of the attics of
+the Ressource, where, though somewhat straitened for accommodation (for
+he had his wife, a niece aged about twelve, and a little baby daughter
+with him), he was as happy and contented as he well could be. He had
+the rich library of the Ressource at command, and his own piano stood
+in one of its rooms; and "that was all he wanted to make him forget the
+French and the future." Early in 1807, he took advantage of a
+favourable opportunity and sent his wife and the two children to her
+friends in Posen; Hitzig also, and his family, and most other friends,
+left Warsaw in March of that year: thus Hoffmann was left almost alone.
+Soon afterwards he was attacked by a grave nervous disorder, but
+successfully nursed through it by the one or two friends who still
+remained in the city. On recovering, he wished to go to Vienna, with
+the view of beginning an artistic career, and was only prevented from
+carrying out his design by want of money to defray the expenses of the
+journey. He was in great distress, and even began to despond, until
+finally in the summer he contrived to get to Posen, and thence to
+Berlin, where he arrived some time in July.
+
+In Berlin, however, his prospects did not improve. He failed to find
+employment for his talents: nobody could be got to purchase his
+sketches or sit to him for a portrait; an attempt to interest Iffland,
+the actor and dramatist, in him failed; and no publisher could be found
+for his musical productions. Everything he was willing to do came to
+nothing. Then came other misfortunes. His ready-money, consisting of
+six _Louis d'or_, was stolen from him; news reached him of the death of
+his dearly-loved daughter Cecily when two years old, and of the illness
+of his wife. He was on the point of despair, when it suddenly occurred
+to him to advertise for the post of musical director in a theatre. This
+had the desired effect of eventually securing him the post he wished,
+in the theatre at Bamberg which was conducted under the auspices of
+Count von Soden; but the engagement was not to commence until October,
+1808. The intervening months were months of hard struggle for Hoffmann;
+he says he was almost in the extremities of want, and should have
+lacked the bare necessaries of life had he not succeeded in disposing
+of some minor productions in music and painting for a couple of _Louis
+d'or_ received in advance. In the summer of 1808, he at last fetched
+his wife from Posen, and then repaired to Bamberg (1st September).
+
+To these years in Warsaw and Berlin belong three operas and other minor
+musical pieces (including music for Werner's tragedy _Das Kreuz an der
+Ostsee_), several productions of his pencil and brush, but no literary
+works. Here at the end of what may be termed the first act in E. T. W.
+Hoffmann's chequered life we may pause a moment And the pause we may
+turn to account by quoting a description of his personal appearance and
+some peculiarities of habit.
+
+
+"Hoffmann was very short of stature, of yellowish complexion; and he
+had dark, almost black hair, growing down low upon his forehead, gray
+eyes which had nothing remarkable about them when they were at rest,
+but which assumed an uncommonly humorous and cunning expression when he
+blinked them, as he often did. His nose was thin and of the Roman type,
+and his mouth tightly closed.
+
+"Notwithstanding his agility, his body seemed to be capable of
+endurance, for in contrast with his size his breast was high and his
+shoulders broad.
+
+"During the earlier part of his life his dress was sufficiently
+elegant, without falling into foppery. The only thing he set great and
+special store by was his whiskers, which he carefully cut so as to form
+a point against the corners of his mouth....
+
+"What particularly struck the eye in his exterior was his extraordinary
+vivacity of movement, which rose to the highest pitch when he began
+to narrate anything. His manners at receiving and parting from
+people--repeated quick short bendings of the neck without moving the
+head--had a good deal that appeared to partake of the nature of
+caricature, and might very readily have been taken for irony had not
+the impression made by his singular gestures on such occasions been
+softened by his cordial warmth of manner.
+
+"He spoke with incredible quickness and in a somewhat hoarse voice, so
+that he was always very difficult to understand, especially during the
+last years of his life, when he had lost some of his front teeth. When
+relating he always spoke in quite short sentences; but when the
+conversation turned upon art matters and he got enthusiastic--against
+which, however, he seemed to guard himself--he employed long and
+finely rounded periods. If he were reading any of his own compositions
+aloud--whether literary or official--he hurried over the unimportant
+parts at such a rate that his listeners had hard work to follow him;
+but those places which are called 'strong touches' in a picture he
+emphasised with almost comic pathos; he screwed up his mouth as he
+read, and looked round to see if his listeners caught the points, so
+that he often upset both his own and their equilibrium. Owing to this
+habit he was conscious that he did not read well, and was always
+uncommonly pleased if anybody else would relieve him of the task; this,
+however, was a ticklish thing to do, especially in the case of MSS.
+copy, for every word read falsely or every hesitating glance upon a
+word to make sure what it was went like a knife to his heart, and this
+effect he could not conceal. As a singer he was a fine powerful
+tenor."[14]
+
+
+To Bamberg Hoffmann went with high hopes of being able to realise the
+dreams of his life; but his fond expectations were doomed to the
+bitterest disappointment. His post he barely retained two months. The
+theatre circumstances were on an exact par with those described in
+_Wilhelm Meister_ (_videatur_ the name Melina, &c.). Hoffmann's style
+of directing gave offence to the Bamberg public on the very first
+evening; Count von Soden had placed the management of the theatre in
+the hands of a certain Cuno, whose affairs were so embarrassed that he
+never, or only seldom, paid his officials, and finally became insolvent
+in February, 1809. The disappointed director, embittered against the
+public by his failure to recommend himself to them, supported himself
+and his wife by composing the incidental music for the various pieces
+given at the theatre, at a small monthly salary (of which he received
+but little), and by giving music lessons in many of the best families
+of the town. But the war approaching that district of Germany caused
+many of these families to leave the place; and Hoffmann began to be in
+embarrassed circumstances. Then he wrote an extremely droll letter to
+Rochlitz, the editor of the _Musicalische Zeitung_ at Leipsic, was
+taken on as a contributor, and continued to work for this magazine all
+the time he was in Bamberg--producing mostly reviews and criticisms of
+musical works, and writing fugitive pieces of musical interest. He also
+composed several pieces of music of various descriptions independently
+of those which he wrote for the theatre. Nor was his brush idle, for he
+received several commissions for large family pictures. Thus things
+went on until the summer of 1809, when a brighter cloud dawned upon him
+for a time. One fine summer evening he made the acquaintance of Kunz, a
+bookseller, publisher, and wine-dealer, at the pleasure-resort of Bug
+(close to Bamberg) in a characteristic manner. Kunz, an honest, jovial,
+good-natured giant, not lacking humour and gifted with a remarkable
+talent for mimicry and imitation, became little Hoffmann's fast
+friend--nay, his only real friend--during the whole of the time the
+latter remained in Bamberg. They were almost inseparable, associated
+in all amusements and diversions: they spent many long winter evenings
+together in pouring out their hearts and experiences to each other in
+mutual confidences, and many long summer evenings at the "Rose," where
+according to German custom a throng of visitors gathered to spend the
+hours between closing business and going to bed. In July, 1810,
+Holbein, Hoffmann's Glogau friend, came to undertake the management of
+the Bamberg theatre. This, of course, could not fail to be of advantage
+to Hoffmann, who, though he did not resume his post of musical
+director, yet received a permanent engagement to act in a multitude of
+departments: he was musical composer, architect, scene-painter, part
+comptroller of the financial arrangements, and director of the
+repertoire, &c. Under Holbein's management the theatre rose to a
+flourishing level; classic operas and good plays[15] were introduced
+with success, to which the versatile talents of Hoffmann largely
+contributed. In the evenings the choice spirits of Bamberg, mostly of
+theatrical and artistic connection, used to assemble in the "Rose,"
+where Hoffmann was the soul of the party, his genius, wit, irony, and
+drollery being inexhaustible. Whilst sending out flashes of sarcastic
+wit or gleams of exquisite humour, he would clench a droll or clever
+description by quickly embodying his thoughts and words in impromptu
+sketches, which were handed round to the company. Music and singing,
+often by the actors and actresses, also added to the entertainment of
+the evening. Mine host of the "Rose" saw his company increased by some
+scores of visitors when it was known that the inimitable sharp-eyed
+little music-director was going to be present; and he used to send
+across (Hoffmann lived the other side of the street only) during the
+day to inquire if he intended being there in the evening. But on the
+whole, Hoffmann was more generally feared than loved, or even
+respected, by the main body of the townsfolk. His vanity was openly
+displayed; he must lead the conversation, and everybody else must fall
+in with his humour and his whim, or they might expect some marked
+rudeness from his bitter tongue; and the fellow had a confoundedly
+sharp tongue, and no less sharp a pen and pencil. The most wonderful
+things were said about him in the town, and to those not intimate with
+him or who did not know him personally, he was a man to be gazed at
+from a distance; it was hardly safe to seek his acquaintance, although
+his talk was said to be something extraordinary, and his gestures and
+grimaces irresistibly diverting, yet he could also launch stinging
+barbs and on occasion utter insulting sarcasms. In fact the outside
+public were wont to regard him as invested with a nimbus of wonder, or
+even as a sort of dæmonic being. Though these evenings were beyond all
+conception gay and festive, Hoffmann seldom drank to excess. Of course
+he drank a good deal: he had acquired the habit, as remarked, at Posen,
+but he was not a common drinker, who drinks for the drink's sake. It
+was the exhilaration it gave to his spirits and the fire it gave to his
+mind and brilliant parts that he found attractive in the habit.[16]
+Excursions were also made into the country, particularly to Bug; and
+here, as at Warsaw, the restless "quicksilver" man was everywhere.
+
+In March, 1811, he was fortunate to be introduced to Von Weber the
+musician, whose regard for his musical talents continued undiminished
+until his death; and in the same month Hoffmann paid a visit to Jean
+Paul at Bayreuth, and had from him a fairly cordial reception. Towards
+the end of the year came the intelligence that his uncle Otto Dörffer
+of Königsberg had died, leaving him heir to his property. But the sum
+Hoffmann received barely sufficed, if indeed it did suffice, to pay his
+debts. These had been accumulated first by Hoffmann's own want of
+prudence--when he had money in his purse he spent it merrily without a
+thought about the morrow--and secondly, by the frequent illness of his
+wife, the simple, homely, unassuming, good-natured creature with whom
+he always lived on happy terms in spite of his own unpardonable
+vagaries. Curiously enough, he used to labour under the odd delusion
+that she was gifted with keen critical taste and was an intellectual
+woman, though this was far from being the truth, according to the
+express evidence of his bosom-friend Kunz.
+
+Amongst Hoffmann's pupils was a young girl of sixteen, Julia M----;
+this was his favourite pupil. For her he came to conceive an
+overmastering passion; but whether it was more of the imagination or of
+the heart it would appear difficult to decide with absolute certainty.
+He did not know himself; "he preferred to remain a riddle to himself, a
+riddle which he always dreaded to have solved;" and he demanded from
+his friend Kunz that he should look upon him as a "sacred inexplicable
+hieroglyph." The girl, who was pretty and amiable, of good
+understanding, and of child-like deportment towards her music-master,
+never for a single moment dreamt of such a thing as his passion for
+her, and so of course she never consciously encouraged it in any way.
+She did not even show any signs of possessing a dreamy or poetic
+temperament, or seem to be inclined to sentimentality, so that
+Hoffmann's extraordinary infatuation can only be explained as a "fixed
+insanity." At any rate, it powerfully affected his mind, and left an
+indelible trace upon him almost down to his dying day. The day on which
+her betrothal to a stupid, weak-minded man, a man in all respects
+unworthy of her, was celebrated at the pleasure-resort of Pommersfelden
+(four hours from Bamberg), was one which shook Hoffmann's storm-tossed
+soul to its profoundest depths. He had hated himself for his weakness,
+and yet could not or would not manfully resolve to break through it.
+Now he was compelled to do so, and in a way that was galling to the
+utmost degree. Her marriage turned out an unhappy one; and eight years
+later, that is two years before his death, hearing she was in great
+trouble, he sent many kind messages to her through a mutual friend.
+These relations are detailed with striking truth and fidelity in the
+_Nachricht von den neusten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza_, published
+in the _Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier_ (1814-15). Perhaps, if we
+sufficiently compare the descriptions which he gives of various
+heroines in his tales (all of which were written after this time),[17]
+and bear in mind the common characteristic running through them all,
+namely, that he puts them before us more as individual pictures than as
+developments of character, giving us purely objective sketches of
+them after the manner of a painter--if we compare these descriptions
+with what we know of Hoffmann's mind and character, his restless,
+brilliant imagination, and the taint of sensuousness that helped to
+mar its purity, his keen eye for beauty in form and colour, his strong
+talent for seeing the things with which he came in contact through
+an unmistakable veil of either love or hatred, we may perhaps hazard
+the opinion, without risk of going far wrong, that it was his
+imagination--the imagination that made up such a large part of the
+man--that was principally concerned in this remarkable passion; if his
+heart was also touched, as it would undoubtedly appear to have been,
+the road to it must no less undoubtedly have been found through his
+imagination.
+
+Early in 1812 Hoffmann was invited to a banquet at the monastery of the
+Capuchins; and the visit made an extraordinary impression upon him. All
+during dinner he could not keep his eyes off a gray-haired old monk
+with a fine antique head, genuine Italian face, strong-marked features,
+and long snow-white beard. On being introduced to Father Cyrillus he
+asked him innumerable questions about the secrets of monastic life,
+especially about those things of which "we profane have only dim
+guesses, no clear conceptions." They got into a poetic and exalted
+frame of mind, and rose just as it was getting dusk to inspect the
+chapel and crypt, and other objects of interest. In the crypt Hoffmann
+was powerfully agitated: he reverently doffed his hat, his wine-heated
+face became terribly pale, and he visibly showed that he was held in
+the thraldom of supernatural awe. When Father Cyrillus went on to point
+out the spot where his own mortal remains should rest, and to indulge
+in certain pious exhortations to them (Hoffmann and Kunz) to shed a
+tear upon his grave if they should come there again in after years,
+Hoffmann lost control of himself; he stood like a marble pillar, his
+face and eyes set, his hair standing on end, unable to utter a
+word.[18] Then making a gesture upwards he hurried out of the crypt
+with hasty uncertain steps. The impressions made upon him by this
+visit, and the observations he gathered, he employed in the _Elixiere
+des Teufels_ and _Kater Murr_ (pt. II.), the meeting between
+_Kapellmeister_ Kreisler and Father Hilarius, as well as the
+description of the monastery and its situation in the latter, being
+invested with a fine poetic flavour.
+
+The scene in the crypt points to another side of Hoffmann's character,
+or rather personality, which hitherto has not been alluded to. In fact,
+it does not seem, as far as can be gathered from the biographical
+sources, that it began to be strongly developed until the Bamberg
+period. We have seen how that early in life he conceived a decided
+antipathy to the prosaic and the commonplace, and his career up to this
+point furnishes abundant evidence that he hated with a genuine hatred
+to keep in the ruts of custom and conventionality, as if bound to do so
+because such was prescribed by custom and conventionality. His
+sentiments he never concealed, and his actions harmonised, almost without
+exception, strictly with his sentiments; for one of his most striking and
+instructive characteristics was the remarkable fearlessness which he
+displayed no less in his actual conduct than in his habits of thought.
+Affectation was far from him; thorough genuineness was stamped upon all
+he did, showing unmistakably that it came direct from the man himself.
+In fact it might be said, with special significance, that his inner and
+his outer life--the in other cases invisible life of the soul and the
+visible life in action--were perfectly correlated, if not one and
+indivisibly the same. Being then thus honest with himself,[19] and
+detesting as he did all that was commonplace and wearying, fiat and stale
+and dull, it is no wonder that he should tend to fall into the opposite
+extreme, and should delight in the unusual, the singular, the
+extraordinary. Further, when we remember his fine imaginative powers,
+his inimitable humour, his vanity, his poetic cast of mind, his bitterness
+against the public for not appreciating his musical talents, and his
+consequent fits of fierce defiance and satiric gloom, there is still less
+cause for wonder when we find this propensity for seeking the uncommon
+and the marvellous deepening and developing in time into an unconquerable
+penchant for what was grotesque and eccentric, for what was fantastic,
+unnatural, ghostly, and horrible. He loved to occupy his fancy most with
+the extremes of human action, and to dive down into the most secret and
+unexplored recesses of human nature to bring back thence some wild
+startling trait that scarce any other imagination save his own would
+have discovered. If he ever studied human nature at all, it was along
+the border-lands of rationality; those misty shadowy states, such
+as insanity, monomania, and hypochondriacal somnambulism, where the
+soul hardly knows itself and loses touch of reality and almost of
+self-consciousness. These and the like mysterious states of being
+exercised a strange fascination upon his spirit. He was constantly
+pursued by the idea that some secret and dreadful calamity would happen
+to him, and his mind was often haunted by images of awful form and by
+"doubles" of himself and others. He even believed he saw visions with
+his own bodily eyes, and no expostulations of his friends could drive
+this belief out of his head. Not only when he was engaged in writing,
+but even in the midst of an ordinary conversation, at supper, or whilst
+drinking a social glass of wine or rum, he would suddenly exclaim, "See
+there--there--that ugly little pigmy--see what capers he cuts. Pray
+don't incommode yourself, my little man. You are at liberty to listen
+to us as much as you please. Will you not approach nearer? You are
+welcome." (Here, and occasionally, he would accompany his words with
+violent muscular contortions of the face.) "Pray what will you take?
+Oh! don't go, my good little fellow." All this, or similar disconnected
+phrases, he used to utter with his eyes fixed and riveted upon the
+place where he affirmed he saw the vision; and if his word was doubted
+or he was laughed at as a stupid foolish man, he would knit his brows
+and with great earnestness reiterate his assertions and appeal to his
+wife to support him, saying, "I often see them, don't I, Mischa"
+(Misza, Mischa, short form for the Polish name Michaelina)?
+
+This side of Hoffmann's individuality is not only one of the most
+characteristic of him, it is necessary to grasp it in order to
+understand his written works. These remarks will also serve to make
+more intelligible the sensation aroused in Hoffmann the evening he was
+at the Capuchin monastery. It is in the _Elixiere des Teufels_ that
+these noteworthy traits find in most respects their fullest expression.
+
+To return to the historical narrative. The story _Meister Martin_ and
+the unfinished _Der Feind_ owe their origin to a visit which Hoffmann
+paid to Erlangen and Nuremberg in March, 1812. In the same year he also
+devoted some attention to sport, and learned to use a sportsman's
+rifle; but his imagination was always swifter than his rifle-charge. A
+_sitting_ sparrow he did at length contrive to hit, but a flying one,
+or a hare, or even a deer, he never could succeed in knocking over,
+that is to say the real animals. Clods of earth and tufts of grass
+which his imagination conjured into game he could sometimes hit, but no
+living animal would ever be likely to approach near him, for his quick
+restless movements and mercurial gestures were a standing impediment to
+any game ever coming within shot of him unless actually driven close
+past his "stand," and then his excitement either made him fire too soon
+or else miss. Nevertheless, he enjoyed these sporting excursions, in
+his own eccentric fashion, immensely.[20]
+
+During the summer Hoffmann took up his residence for four weeks in the
+picturesque ruins of the castle of Altenburg, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Bamberg, where, whilst living a hermit's life in
+company with his spouse, he painted one of the towers with frescoes
+illustrative of incidents in the life of Count Adalbert von Babenberg,
+whose residence the castle had formerly been. But he also occupied
+himself with literary schemes; it was in this retreat that he wrote
+certain sketches designed to form parts of a work which long occupied
+his mind, but which never came to anything, namely, the _Lichte Stunden
+eines wahnsinnigen Musikers_ (Rational Intervals of a Crack-brained
+Musician). In this he purposed to develop his opinions on the theory of
+music and the principles of harmony. The fragments were afterwards
+revised and appeared as the _Kreisleriana_ in the _Fantasiestücke_.
+
+In the next month, July, his star of adversity was again to be in the
+ascendant. Holbein severed his connection with the theatre, and
+Hoffmann lost his fixed income. Things grew darker and darker for him,
+until he was almost reduced to actual want; at any rate he came to be
+in very embarrassed circumstances. Singular to say, however, under all
+this cloud of adversity he maintained a shining face and a light heart
+behind it. This was peculiar to him; Rochlitz says "he belonged to the
+large class of men who can bear ill fortune better than good fortune."
+During this time of distress, which was a repetition of his dark days
+in Berlin in 1807-8, he displayed a remarkable activity in his usual
+pursuits. His criticism of _Don Juan_, and exposition of the problem of
+Mozart's great opera, for which Hoffmann cherished a profound and
+almost extravagant admiration, owes its origin to this period.[21] An
+anecdote in relation to this will also illustrate his true passionate
+admiration of art. Kunz lost a child, for which he grieved sadly; two
+days afterwards Hoffmann advised him to go with him to see _Don Juan_
+at night, declaring it would assuage his grief and soothe and comfort
+his heart. Of course Kunz looked upon the idea as preposterous.
+Nevertheless Hoffmann would not be denied; he exerted all his arts of
+persuasion to induce his friend to go. At last Kunz did go; on the way
+to the theatre Hoffmann discoursed of the opera in such a sensible,
+acute, and touching way, and so poetically and with especial reference
+to his friend's loss, and afterwards in the theatre he expressed his
+sympathy in such kind and delicate lines, whilst tears of genuine
+feeling stood in his eyes, that his friend was obliged to admit, "This
+music of the spheres, which I had heard at least a dozen times before,
+exerted a greater power over me than all the dictates of reason or the
+consolations of friends."
+
+In February, 1813, the struggling ex-director received an altogether
+unexpected letter from Joseph Seconda, offering him the post of
+music-director to his opera company at Dresden; and on April 21,
+1813, Hoffmann's residence in Bamberg, which may be regarded as the
+turning-point in his life, came to an end. Four days later he arrived
+at his destination without encountering any very serious adventure on
+the road, although it swarmed most of the way with scouting Bashkirs,
+Cossacks, Prussian hussars, and Russian dragoons, and was thickly lined
+with heavy guns and munition-waggons,--massing for the battle of Lützen
+(May 2). On arriving at Dresden Hoffmann found quite unexpectedly his
+friend Hippel, and with him spent several right happy days. Then he was
+summoned by Seconda to join him at Leipsic, for Seconda seems to have
+spent his time between this town and Dresden. But the journey was
+postponed until May 20th, owing to the proximity of the contending
+forces and the consequent unsettled state of the country. In the
+intervals several sharp skirmishes between the Russians and French took
+place in and close around Dresden. As might be expected, Hoffmann could
+not check his irrepressible desire to be in the thick of the
+excitement; on May 9th he was standing close beside one of the town
+gates when a ball struck against a wall near him and in the rebound hit
+him on the shin; he quietly stooped down and picked up the flattened
+"coin," and preserved it as a memento, "being quite satisfied with that
+one memento, unselfishly not asking for any more," as he wrote. Even
+during these troubled restless days he worked at the _Fantasiestücke_.
+On the way to Leipsic happened a startling occurrence, which probably
+served as the prototype for the catastrophe at the end of _Das Majorat_
+(The Entail). The coach was upset and a newly married Countess was
+taken up dead; Hoffmann's own wife also received a severe wound on the
+head. Seconda's troupe only remained in Leipsic a few weeks longer;
+permission was given him to play in the Court theatre at Dresden; hence
+on 24th June we find Hoffmann on his way back to Dresden, and deriving
+in his characteristic fashion much amusement from a waggon heavily
+laden with theatrical appurtenances, living and non-living, something
+in the style of the carriage scene in _Die Fermate_.
+
+The return, however, was a return into the very hottest scene of the
+struggle between the Allies and Napoleon. On August 26th and 27th the
+fight raged furiously around the walls of Dresden; the quarter in which
+Hoffmann was living was shelled; the people in the house "bivouaced"
+under the stone stairs, trembling with fear and anxiety. Hoffmann,
+however, could not bear to hide away, so he slipped out by a back door
+and went to join one of his theatrical friends. Looking out of his
+window they watched the damage done by the shells, and saw one burst in
+the market-place below, crushing a soldier's head, tearing open the
+body of a passing citizen, and seriously wounding three other people
+not far away. Keller the actor, in his start of apprehension, let his
+glass fall out of his hand; "I," says Hoffmann, "drank mine empty and
+cried, 'What is life? Not able to bear a little bit of hot iron? Poor
+weak human nature! God give me calmness and courage in the midst of
+danger! We can get over it all better so.'" Then he returned to the
+anxious party under the steps, taking them wine and rum--the latter was
+Hoffmann's favourite drink. His presence brought the unfailing good
+spirits and humour which hardly ever deserted him, even under the
+darkest cloud of adversity. On the 29th he visited the battle-field and
+saw its cruel sights and its horrors. But other horrors were in store
+for the inhabitants of the city; for the next few weeks Dresden was
+besieged, and her citizens suffered from famine and pestilence and all
+the other usual terrible concomitants of a siege.
+
+Hoffmann's literary activity through all these weeks of turmoil was
+something astonishing. Whilst the thunders of cannon were making "the
+ground to tremble and the windows to shake," and the shells were
+bursting around him and the sharp crack and dull ping of bullets were
+incessantly striking upon his ear, this extraordinary man sat
+unconcerned amidst it all, absorbed in literary or musical composition,
+either writing his _Goldener Topf_ (or _Der Dichter und der Componist_
+or _Der Magnetiseur_) or working out his opera _Undine_, which was
+begun in Bamberg in 1812. Even when suffering from the dysentery which
+raged in the place, his intellectual activity went on without being
+impaired. In a letter to Kunz of date Sept 8th of this year he writes,
+"I am, as you will observe, unwearied in cultivating the fine arts, and
+if to-morrow or the day after I am not blown into the air by a Prussian
+or Russian or Austrian shell, you will find me fat and well-favoured
+from art enjoyments of every sort."
+
+It was through Kunz's intervention that the Introduction prefixed to
+the _Fantasiestücke_ was obtained from Jean Paul, and that against
+Hoffmann's own wish, for all introductions except those which stand as
+_prolegomena_ before a scientific work he hated--when a well-known
+writer prefixed an introduction before the work of an unknown as a sort
+of attestation, it seemed to him like "an incendiary letter which the
+young author takes into his hand in order to go and beg for applause
+with it." Another short passage from one of his letters to Kunz of this
+same summer may here be quoted as illustrating a trait in his
+character:--
+
+
+"So far about business; and now the earnest request that you will keep
+in mind and constantly before your eyes who and what I am, and let
+our business even be inspired with that spirit of cheerfulness and
+good-humour which always marked our intercourse with each other, and
+even in money matters prevented the dead, stiff, frosty mercantile
+style from coming to the surface. I am sure it was quite foreign to
+both of us, and could only excite in us such fear as we feel when set
+upon by an angry 'wauwau,' at which afterwards we can only laugh to
+each other."
+
+
+This unwillingness, nay almost repugnance to look at things from their
+serious side, was quite characteristic of him. "But these are _odiosa_"
+was a frequent phrase in his mouth.
+
+On 9th December Seconda and his opera company once more repaired to
+Leipsic, and Hoffmann of course along with them. There on New Year's
+Day he was struck down by a severe attack of inflammation in the chest,
+aggravated by gout, in consequence of a violent cold caught in
+the theatre; the case was so severe and grave that his life was at
+times in danger. "Podagrists are generally visited by an especial
+humour--brilliant fancies; this comforts me; I experience the truth of
+it, since often when I feel the sharpest pangs I write _con amore_," he
+states in a letter to Kunz (24th March). And during his illness one of
+his friends "found him in one of the meanest rooms in one of the
+meanest inns, sitting on a wretched bed, but ill protected against the
+cold, and with his feet drawn up by gout." A board was lying in front
+of him, and he appeared to be busy doing something upon it. "God
+bless me!" exclaimed his friend, "whatever are you doing?" "Making
+caricatures," replied Hoffmann laughing--"caricatures of the cursed
+Frenchman; I am inventing them, drawing them, and colouring them." He
+also wrote about this time the _Vision auf dem Schlachtfelde bei
+Dresden_ and other pieces, and finished his _Undine_; further, whilst
+in this distressing condition, he began the _Elixiere des Teufels_, the
+first volume of which was completed in less than a month. This work he
+intended to be an illustration, or illustrative exposition of his own
+notions, of "a man who even at his birth was an object of contention
+between the powers divine and demoniacal, and his tortuous wonderful
+life was intended to exhibit in a clear and distinct light those secret
+and mysterious combinations between the human spirit and all those
+Higher Principles which are concealed in all Nature, and only flash out
+now and again--and these flashes we call chance." That he succeeded in
+his purpose cannot be maintained. His own individuality was too strong
+for him: he failed to handle his subject from a sufficiently
+independent standpoint. He was not the artist creating a work that
+was quite outside himself; he was rather the silk-worm spinning his
+entangling threads round about himself. The book can scarcely be
+read without shuddering; the dark maze of humane motion and human
+weakness--a mingling of poetry, sentimentality, rollicking humour, wild
+remorse, stern gloom, blind delusion, dark insanity, over all which is
+thrown a veil steeped in the fantastic and the horrible--all this
+detracts from the artistic merits of the work, but invests it with a
+corresponding proportion of interest as a revealer of some of the
+deepest secrets and hidden phases of the human soul, if one only has
+the courage to wade through it. The dreamy mystifications and the wild
+insanity and mystic passion of Brother Medardus are not unrelieved by
+scenes and characters which bear the stamp of bright poetic beauty
+and rich comic humour (_e.g._, the character of the Abbess of the
+Cistercian convent, the _jäger_, the description of the monastery, the
+scenes with Mr. Ewson and Belcampo _alias_ Schönfeld).
+
+For some reason which cannot be quite made out for certain, either in
+consequence of his continued illness or because of a quarrel with
+Seconda, Hoffmann found himself once more adrift in the world without
+an anchor to hold fast by in February, 1814. In striking contrast with
+his treatment by the Bamberg public, his talents as director whilst
+with Seconda's company were fully and adequately appreciated, both by
+the artistes and the orchestra, as well as by the general public. This
+may have been due to two causes; first, the actors and actresses were
+not embarrassed by his directing from the pianoforte instead of with
+the violin as those in Bamberg were, and in the second place his
+criticisms and essays on musical subjects in Rochlitz's _Musicalische
+Zeitung_ had gained him a certain reputation as an authority in musical
+matters. After having refused the offer of a post as music-director in
+his native city of Königsberg in February (1814), he was agreeably
+surprised by Hippel's promise to secure his return into official life.
+Accordingly towards the end of September in that same year he set out
+for Berlin.
+
+Here ends what may be termed the second act of this very unsettled,
+eventful life. That this wandering aside from the career he first
+started upon--viz., that of law and public life to tread the thorny
+precarious path of art was fraught with greater consequences than can
+be estimated upon the unfortunate man's character, will be evident from
+what has been already stated. These dark years were those mainly
+instrumental in stifling the good germs that had once been in him, and
+yet more did they result in encouraging and bringing out prominently
+all his less praiseworthy qualities. As his works and his life are so
+intimately interwoven, and as his works were nearly all written
+subsequent to this disastrous period, it seemed desirable to dwell
+somewhat upon the events and circumstances of the earlier part of his
+life. With the view of showing that Hoffmann himself fully understood
+the nature and tendency of his existence in Bamberg, the following
+passages are quoted from a letter written to Dr. Speyer in that town in
+July, 1813:--
+
+
+"I felt in my own mind perfectly convinced that I must get out of
+Bamberg as soon as possible if I was not to be ruined altogether. Call
+vividly to mind what my life in Bamberg was from the first moment of my
+arrival, and you will allow that everything co-operated like an hostile
+demoniacal power to thrust me forcibly from the path I had chosen, or
+rather from art, to which I had devoted my entire existence, my very
+self with all my activities and energies. My position under Cuno, and
+even all those unbargained-for duties which were thrown upon me by
+Holbein, notwithstanding their many seductive attractions, but above
+all those scenes with----which I shall never forget and never overcome,
+the old man's miserable stupid platitudes, which yet in another respect
+had a pernicious influence, those wretched, terrible scenes with----and
+last of all with----, whom I always thought a parvenu ill-bred imp,--in
+a word, everything that went against all effort and doing and work in
+the higher life, in which a man raises himself on alert wing above the
+stinking morass of his miserable crust-begging life, engendered within
+me an inward dissension--an inward strife, which much sooner than any
+external commotion around me would have caused me to perish. Every
+harsh and undeserved indignity I had to suffer only increased my secret
+rancour, and whilst accustoming myself more and more to wine as a
+stimulant and so stirring up the fire to make it bum more merrily, I
+heeded not that this was the only way by which good could come out of
+the ruinous evil. In these few words, in this brief statement, I hope
+you will find the key to many things which may have appeared to you
+contradictory, if not enigmatical But _transeant cum ceteris._"[22]
+
+
+Again, it can scarcely be doubted that we have a description of his own
+state when he writes in the _Elixiere_ (Part II.), "I am what I appear
+to be, and do not appear as what I really am; to myself an unsolvable
+riddle, I am at variance with my own self."
+
+The change of residence to Berlin did little to improve Hoffmann's
+circumstances. During the first ten months he was, according to the
+conditions imposed, labouring to make himself acquainted with the
+changes that had taken place in legal procedure, and to fit himself for
+entering the service of the state again and resuming his interrupted
+career; but he received no compensation for his pains; he had to
+support himself as best he could by the fruits of his pen. On July 1,
+1815, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of the Minister
+of Justice, which post he exchanged on 1st May, 1816, for that of
+Councillor in the Supreme Court, being also restored to all his rights
+of seniority as though no break had ever taken place in his official
+career. The duties attaching to this office he continued to discharge
+with his accustomed diligence and skill until promoted in the autumn of
+1821 to be a member of the Senate of Higher Appeal in the same court.
+Notwithstanding his sad and disappointing experiences, and the
+tempestuous times of his "martyr years" at Bamberg, he was not yet
+disgusted with the life of an artist. His hopes were not yet alienated
+from the calling that hovered before his mind as an ideal for so many
+years. Whilst battling, with somewhat less of reckless high spirits and
+humour, against the embarrassments and pecuniary difficulties which he
+had to encounter during these ten months, he was also dreaming of an
+appointment as _Kapellmeister_ (orchestral director) or as musical
+composer to a theatre. He says upon this point in a letter to Hippel,
+of date March 12, 1815, "I cannot anyhow cease to interest myself in
+art; and had I not to care for a dearly beloved wife, and were it not
+my duty to try and procure her a comfortable life after what she has
+gone through with me, I would rather become a music schoolmaster again
+than let myself be stamped in the juristic fulling-mill."[23] After
+more than one disappointment in his efforts to secure permanent and
+remunerative employment, in which efforts he was assisted by his
+influential friend Hippel, he became a clerk, as already stated, in the
+department of the Minister of Justice.
+
+In his social relations Hoffmann was more fortunate. He now enjoyed the
+close companionship of Hitzig again, and through Hitzig was introduced
+into a select circle which counted amongst its members such men as
+Fouqué (author of _Undine_), Chamisso (of _Peter Schlemihl_ fame),
+Contessa, Koreff, Tieck, Bernhardi, Devrient, and others. The harassing
+tumultuous days he had passed through during the last eight years had
+now begun to make him gentler and more modest; his character was more
+tempered, and his behaviour more subdued. His good-nature too took such
+a prominent place in the qualities he displayed that Hitzig's children
+were quite delighted with their father's newly arrived friend; for them
+Hoffmann wrote the pleasant little fairy tale _Nussknacker und
+Mäusekönig_ (Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Before the end of
+1815 he had finished the second part of the _Elixiere des Teufels_, to
+which he himself attached no value, since its connection with the first
+part was broken; its author's ideas had got into another track;
+feelings and circumstances were changed. Still less than Schiller with
+_Don Carlos_. did Hoffmann succeed in making an artificial junction
+between the two parts of his work atone for its breach of artistic
+unity; he even said later of the first part, "I ought not to have had
+it printed." Besides this second part of the _Elixiere_, he also wrote
+the concluding pieces of the _Fantasiestücke_, namely, _Die Abenteuer
+der Sylvesternacht_, which owes its existence to Chamisso's _Peter
+Schlemihl_ and to Chamisso himself, who is portrayed in the work; and
+also _Die Correspondenz des Kapellmeisters Kreisler mit dem Baron
+Wallborn_, that is Hoffmann himself and Baron von Fouqué. With the
+latter Hoffmann spent a happy fortnight in 1815 at his seat of
+Nennhausen near Rathenow; Hitzig was also of the party. In August of
+the following year the opera _Undine_ was put upon the stage. Though
+Fouqué's libretto did not pass without some adverse criticism, all
+voices were unanimous in praise of the music. Von Weber the musician
+especially expressed himself warmly in admiration of it, affirming that
+it was "one of the most talented productions of recent times;" and he
+especially singled out for attention its truth, its smooth-flowing
+melodies, and its instrumentation; it was "in truth _one_ gush" of
+music. The opera was repeated more than a score of times, when
+unfortunately the theatre was burnt down, and Hoffmann, who lived
+immediately adjoining it, was almost burnt out of house and home at
+the same time.
+
+Through the success of this opera as well as through that of his
+_Fantasiestücke_, Hoffmann found himself celebrated. He was invited as
+the hero of the evening to the fashionable tea circles of Berlin, where
+ignorant or half-educated _dilettanti_ affected an interest in art
+matters, that was over-strained and wanting in sincerity when it was
+not ridiculous. For what was there the man could not do? He wrote books
+about which all Germany was talking, he could improvise on the
+pianoforte, compose operas, sketch caricatures, and streams of wit
+gushed from him so soon as he opened his mouth. The homage showered
+upon him at these gatherings flattered Hoffmann's vanity for a time,
+but he soon saw the motives for which he was asked to be present--to
+amuse the guests with his wit, to accompany the daughter or lady of the
+house on the piano, to discuss art matters in a becoming way now with
+an old grandmother, now with a grave professor, to tell diverting
+anecdotes, to tickle the lazy minds of those who listened with some
+spicy satire upon their enemies--in fact to be made a useful show of.
+Quickly fathoming these motives, Hoffmann proved himself readily equal
+to the occasion: as soon as he began to get bored, which very
+frequently was the case, he made the most hideous grimaces, and when he
+saw the company were preparing to draw something from him by way of
+criticism which they could carry further and perhaps repeat again as
+springing from their own acute judgment, he began to talk the most
+arrant nonsense he could think of, or to fire off some of his stinging
+sarcasms steeped in the bitterness of gall, till there were none but
+blank and embarrassed faces around him--everybody thinking the man was
+mad; but he went away delighted at the consternation he had been
+instrumental in causing. The givers of fashionable teas soon ceased to
+invite Hoffmann to their entertainments, but they had already
+sufficiently sown the seeds of fresh mischief in him.
+
+To have more money in his pockets than he just required for the
+immediate wants of the moment was always fatal to him, and no less so
+was the excitement attendant upon the giddy whirl of pleasure and
+social popularity, or what stood for such. These were rocks of danger
+upon which he always struck. The former led him to indulge in his
+reprehensible habit of drinking, and the latter soon made him upset all
+the systems of order and regulation. Day he turned into night and night
+into day. He shunned for the most part the society of Hitzig and his
+circle of friends, with their stimulating discussions that cultivated
+the mind whilst unfolding and developing the feelings, and frequented a
+low wine-shop and the common coarse company that was to be met with
+there. Hence during nearly all the rest of his life, that is, from 1816
+to 1821, he spent his mornings in the discharge of his official duties
+at the Supreme Court (two mornings a week, Monday and Thursday), or in
+writing; the afternoons he generally slept, or in summer took a walk;
+and the evenings and nights always found him in the wine-shop of his
+choice; and he never liked to leave it until morning came, nor did any
+other engagements prevent him from putting in an appearance at his
+habitual haunt, even though it were past midnight before he were free.
+As already remarked, however, it was not to sit and drink like a sot
+that he gave way to this degrading habit, but to get himself "exalted"
+as he called it, and then when he was duly "exalted" came the firework
+display of wit and glowing fancy, going on hour after hour without rest
+or interruption for the space of five or six hours at once. If his
+tongue was not the medium through which he discharged the creations of
+his teeming imagination, his eagle eye was spying out all that was
+ridiculous or strikingly extraordinary, or even what was possessed of a
+touch of pathos or deep feeling, or he employed his hand in sketching
+and drawing inimitable caricatures. He never sat idle and silent, and
+drank steadily and stolidly as so many confirmed drinkers do. Hitzig,
+who was deeply grieved at this downward course of his friend and at the
+estrangement it had brought about between them, contrived to draw him
+away from his demoralising companions of the wine-shop for at least one
+night a week. On that evening there was a small gathering at Hoffmann's
+house, moderation being strictly enjoined as one of the chief
+regulations of the meeting. This small circle, which consisted of
+Hoffmann, Hitzig, Contessa, and Koreff,[24] and an occasional friend or
+two whom one of them introduced, called itself "The Serapion Brethren,"
+this title being adopted from the fact that the first meeting was held
+on the night of the anniversary of that saint, according to Frau
+Hoffmann's Polish almanac. It is interesting to remark that amongst
+these occasional guests figures the great Danish poet Oehlenschläger in
+the year 1816. In a letter written to Hoffmann on March 26th, 1821,
+recommending a young fellow-countryman to him, Oehlenschläger says,
+"Dip him also a little in the magic sea of your humour, respected
+friend, and teach him how a man can be a philosopher and seer of the
+world under the ironical mantle of the mad-house, and what is more an
+amiable man as well;" and he subscribes himself, "A. Oehlenschläger,
+Serapion Brother."
+
+In 1817 was published the collection of tales called _Die Nachtstücke_,
+embracing _Der Sandmann_ (The Sand-man) and _Das Majorat_ (The Entail),
+which reproduce personages and experiences belonging to the years in
+Königsberg; _Die Jesuitenkirche_ and _Das steinerne Herz_, going back
+to his life in Glogau; _Das Gelübde_, built upon a story related by his
+wife as connected with her native town of Posen; _Das Sanctus_, which was
+suggested by an incident in Berlin soon after Hoffmann's arrival there;
+and _das öde Haus_, this last due to the way in which he was
+incessantly haunted by the appearance of a closed house in the _Unter
+den Linden_. These were mostly written in 1816 and 1817; and to them he
+added _Ignas Denner_, which possesses some merit, but is of too gloomy
+and darkly unpleasant a cast to be attractive to English readers; it
+was written during the first days in Dresden, just after his
+emancipation from the Bamberg thraldom. Whilst in it he gives free rein
+to sombre melancholy, and dips his pen in "midnight blackness," in
+_Berganza_, written about the same time, he has poured out the cynical
+bitterness and scathing scorn which was then undoubtedly gnawing at his
+heart. _Der Sandmann_, though embodying reminiscences of its author's
+youth, also contains material derived from an incident which took place
+during a visit of Hoffmann's to Fouqué's country-seat near Ratenow, and
+Nathanael was recognised by Fouqué as meant for himself. _Das Majorat_
+is, as already stated, a lasting memorial to his old great-uncle,
+Vöthöry; the moral backbone of the story--the evil destiny attaching to
+the successors of a man whose ambition aimed at founding a powerful
+family by an act of injustice to his youngest son--reminds the
+reader forcibly of the purpose that runs through Hawthorne's _House
+with the Seven Gables_. Of the in many respects admirable story _Das
+Gelübde_--it is to be regretted that it is marred by the dangerous
+nature of the subject;[25] it is else poetically treated and invested
+with a spirit of weird mysticism that would have made it rank higher
+than what it does. The others in the collection are of lesser merit.
+
+The next year 1818 saw no important work from Hoffmann's pen; but in
+1819 appeared _Die seltsame Leiden eines Theaterdirekters_, a book
+written in the form of a dialogue, which was due to the example of his
+favourite, Diderot's "Rameau's Nephew" (by Goethe), and which conveys a
+tolerably faithful account of Hoffmann's experiences in the capacity
+indicated whilst in the town on the Regnitz, and indeed is useful as
+illustrating the condition of the German stage generally at that
+period. This was followed by a kind of fairy tale, _Klein Zaches
+genannt Zinnober_; as this book was generally believed to be a local
+satire upon persons and circumstances well known, it entailed many
+severe strictures and much unpleasantness upon its writer. The truth
+about it seems to be this: the idea--that of a sort of ugly kobold of
+the Handy Andy type--was suggested by a sudden fancy during an attack
+of fever, and in a moment of semi-delirium. On recovering his health
+again, Hoffmann set to work in his impetuous and hasty way, and worked
+out the idea in probably less than a fortnight. Similarly his _Meister
+Floh_, one of the last and weakest caricatures he wrote, was likely to
+have entailed disagreeable consequences upon him, had not his last
+illness come before any authoritative steps could be taken. For he had
+made use of incidents which came to his knowledge in the official
+discharge of his duties, and which were of such a character that they
+ought to have been guarded as inviolable secrets; and he further
+employed certain phrases which he took from confidential papers that
+likewise came into his hands in consequence of his public position. In
+extenuation of his fault, or perhaps in explanation of it, be it
+remarked that his conduct does not appear to have been actuated by
+premeditated or deliberate malice, but to have sprung solely from his
+recklessness and want of prudence: the ridiculous appealed to his sense
+of humour so irresistibly that nothing was sacred against it, and so
+nothing was safe from it.
+
+In the summer of 1819 Hoffmann was ordered by his physician to visit
+the Silesian baths; and he derived excellent benefit from the
+prescription, coming home stronger and in a more healthful frame of
+mind than his friends had seen him for a long time. Soon after his
+return he was appointed on the commission selected to inquire into
+those secret societies and other suspicious political organisations
+which were particularly active about this time (_Burschenschaften_,
+_Landsmannschaften_ in their political aspect). Towards the end of the
+year he published the first two volumes of the _Serapionsbrüder_, the
+third volume following in 1820 and the fourth in 1821. These volumes
+contain all his tales that had appeared in various magazines and serial
+publications, together with others now first published, and are linked
+together by a running commentary, or rather they are set into it as
+into a framework; the Serapion Society are represented as meeting at
+stated intervals, when one or more of the members relate a tale. The
+discussions which precede and follow the tales are full of sage remarks
+about art and art-matters and other ripe practical wisdom, and contain
+perhaps more matured thought than anything else that proceeded from
+Hoffmann's pen. Of these numerous stories the best have been selected
+for translation in these two volumes, namely, _Der Artushof_ (Arthur's
+Hall), _Die Fermate_ (The Fermata), _Doge und Dogaresse_ (Doge and
+Dogess), _Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen_ (Master Martin
+the Cooper and his Journey men ), _Das Fräulein von Scudéri_
+(Mademoiselle de Scudéri), _Spieler Glück_ (Gambler's Luck), and
+_Signor Formica_. The remaining twelve tales call for no special
+mention, except perhaps _Nussknacker_, which has been already alluded
+to, _Das fremde Kind_, a curious mixture of reality and fairyland, and
+_Der Zusammenhang der Dinge_, which is not devoid of interest. Several
+of the things in this collection suggest comparison with Poe's writings
+for weirdness and bizarre imaginative power, though of course there are
+wide differences between the styles of the two writers.
+
+In March, 1820, came a letter of good wishes from Beethoven, whose
+music Hoffmann greatly admired; hence the letter was a source of much
+real pleasure to him. Spontini, the well-known writer of operas, came
+to Berlin in the summer of the same year and was received by Hoffmann
+with every mark of respect. It was indeed maintained that the composer
+of _Undine_ showed an unworthy servility in the way in which he
+publicly acknowledged Spontini's talent. Whether this is true would
+appear doubtful; servility was not one of the author's failings, though
+vanity was. By Spontini's ministering to his vanity Hoffmann may have
+been provoked to return him the compliment in his own coin, but it is
+hardly likely that he went so far as to flatter against his own
+conviction or against his better judgment. Of his longer and more
+ambitious works the one which he ranked highest in merit was
+_Lebensansichten des Katers Murr, nebst Biographie des Kapellmeisters
+Johannes Kreisler_, the first volume of which appeared in 1820 and the
+second in 1822. In respect of literary form and execution, as well as
+of artistic worth, this is undoubtedly Hoffmann's most finished
+production (_i.e._ of his longer works). It contains a good deal of
+genial, keen, and subtle satire, conveyed in the doings of Murr the
+tom-cat; and it is also a useful source for early biographical details,
+both of facts and of mental development and opinions, contained in the
+"waste-paper leaves" (treating of Kreisler), inserted at frequent
+intervals between those which carry on the life and adventures of Murr.
+The third volume, which was all ready and completed in the author's
+head, and only wanted writing down, never came to the birth. The first
+two volumes present to us a personification of Hoffmann's humoristic
+self, and the third was to culminate in Kreisler's insanity, a result
+brought about by the disappointments and baffling experiences he
+encountered in life--Hoffmann's own career, that is; and the whole was
+to conclude with the _Lichte Stunden eines wahnsinnigen Musikers_,--a
+work which had been occupying his mind ever since he was in Bamberg,
+and which had not yet been executed. In 1821 was published one of his
+weakest things, a fairy tale, _Prinzessin Brambilla_, which is greatly
+wanting in clearness of conception, though he himself ranked it highly.
+
+The excesses in which Hoffmann had for so long indulged brought at
+last, as may easily be conceived, their own inevitable retribution. The
+first herald of the approaching physical troubles was the death
+(November 30, 1821) of the sagacious cat who was the real hero of
+_Kater Murr_. Hoffmann was much cut up by the death of his favourite,
+which he described to Hitzig with truly touching pathos.[26] Soon after
+this he was suddenly stricken down by disease--_tabes dorsalis_; his
+body gradually died, beginning at the feet and moving up to the brain,
+a process which lasted several weeks. But from the autumn of 1821 to
+April, 1822, he was cheered by the daily visits of the beloved friend
+of his youth, Hippel, who had come up to Berlin for that space of time.
+Hoffmann celebrated his 46th birthday with this true friend, and with
+Hitzig and others less dear. Hoffmann and Hippel were dwelling fondly
+upon the days of their youth and reviving old recollections, when
+mention was made of death and dying. Hitzig remarked in substance that
+"life was not the highest of all goods;" this caused the suffering
+Hoffmann to reply with passionate emphasis, such as he did not give way
+to on any other occasion during the course of the evening, "No, no--let
+me live, live--let me only live, no matter in what condition." "There
+was something awful," says Hitzig, "in the way in which these words
+burst from his lips." And his wish was fulfilled in terrible wise; one
+limb after the other failed to perform its office; his feet and hands
+and certain parts of his inner organism became quite dead. On the day
+before he died he was virtually a corpse as far as his neck; and so he
+was full of hope that he should soon be well again, since he "felt no
+more pain then." Even in this truly pitiable and helpless condition his
+imagination continued to pour forth a stream of the most whimsical and
+humorous fancies, and his cheerfulness was even greater than in the
+days of sound health. Hippel's departure in April was a hard blow to
+him. About four weeks before his death he underwent the sharp operation
+of being burned on each side of the spine with red-hot irons. When
+Hitzig entered the room after the terrible operation was over, Hoffmann
+cried, "Can you smell the flavour of roast meat?" and he said that
+whilst the doctors were burning him, the thought entered his mind that
+the "Minister of Police was having him leaded lest he should slip out
+as contraband;"--he was shrivelled up to a mummy almost, so that, owing
+to his small size as well, a woman could carry him in her arms. Though
+his body was thus a perfect wreck, his mental powers were as brilliant
+and keen as ever; and when his hands proved useless to him, he engaged
+the services of an amanuensis and went on dictating until almost the
+very hour of his death. In fact, the last thing he spoke about was a
+direction for his writer to read to him the passages where he had
+broken off in _Der Feind_; then he turned his face to the wall; the
+fatal rattle was heard in his throat; and all Hoffmann's earthly
+troubles were over (June 25, 1822).
+
+It is very remarkable that the works dictated by this extraordinary man
+on his deathbed show an almost total departure from the style of most
+of his previous tales. He no longer records his own experiences,--the
+events and occurrences, the sentiments and thoughts, that were
+peculiarly his own,--but he writes from a purely objective standpoint,
+and _creates_. Of most of his other works it may be said that they are
+_he_; but of these it can only be said they are _his_ in the sense that
+they owed their origin to him. _Meister Johannes Wacht_, one of these,
+is translated in Vol. II. The scene is laid in Bamberg, and the
+characters of the story were also said to be faithful portraits of
+actual people in Bamberg; yet we look in vain to find anything like
+Hoffmann himself in it. _Des Vetters Eckfenster_, though hardly a tale,
+is yet one of the best things Hoffmann has written. Those who know
+Émile Souvestre's _Un Philosophe sous les Toits_ would find in this
+thing of Hoffmann's dying days something to their taste; it is a
+running commentary on personages seen in the market from the writer's
+own window, and each little scene brings before us a true and lifelike
+character in a few weighty and well-chosen words. _Die Genesung_, a
+mere sketch, arose out of the dying man's pathetic longing to see the
+green of the woods and the meadows. _Der Feind_, a fragment full of
+promise, is a tale of old Nuremberg of the days of Albrecht Dürer, who
+figures in it. Before being deprived of the use of his hands he had
+written several other short tales, amongst which may be mentioned _Die
+Doppeltgänger_, as being a favourite theme with Hoffmann, and _Der
+Elementargeist_, a weird, entrancing story. In _Die Räuber_ he gives us
+a weak version of Schiller's celebrated work.
+
+In Hoffmann we have an instance of a man who nearly all his life long
+failed to get himself placed amid the circumstances in the midst of
+which it was his one burning wish to be placed. He never found his
+right calling. He is a man ruined by circumstances (_zerfahren_). He
+was not wanting in warm natural feeling, as is proved by his close and
+faithful friendships with Hippel, Hitzig, and Kunz; and more than one
+instance of spontaneous kindness and of winning amiability are
+preserved by his biographer.[27] In youth his mind and heart were full
+of noble thoughts and aspirations, and he was sincerely desirous to
+educate himself up to better things. We see it in "May it never happen
+to me that my heart is not readily receptive of every communication
+from without, as well as for every feeling within, for the head must
+never injure the heart, nor must the heart ever run away with the head,
+that is my idea of culture," and "an excitable heart and a restless
+nature will never let us be quite happy, but will have a beneficial
+influence upon our education, upon our striving after greater
+perfection." His poetic temperament, and such like poetic tendencies,
+found no responsive sympathy amongst his relatives. Being thrust back
+upon himself and then having his feelings centred, when at length they
+did meet with sympathetic appreciation, in such a way as could only
+bring disappointment and unhappiness, he was early made a fit
+instrument for circumstances to play upon, and sorely was he buffeted
+by them through all the years from going to Posen right down until the
+day of his death. But this result must also be traced partly to the
+want of a parent's loving, watchful eye. In those years which are the
+most important for moulding a boy's character he was practically left
+to go his own way. True, his uncle Otto held him down to habits of
+industry and order; but he did nothing to encourage the boy's better
+and higher nature, or guide it sympathetically along the paths where it
+was striving to find its own way. Hoffmann had no high idea of the
+moral dignity of man, and at times even seemed to have but little
+conception of it. The relations upon which he lived with his uncle Otto
+and the history of his own father prevented this sense of moral worth
+from being planted in his mind. The germ which bore fruit in his love
+for extremes, for what was extraordinary and quite out of the common
+beaten track of life, was probably engendered in the following way. Not
+finding the sympathy he needed in his efforts after a better life, he
+turned in upon himself and began to despise the petty details of
+everyday existence; and several passages in his letters clearly go to
+show that his unhappiness and discontent were largely due to the fact
+of his overlooking the real enjoyment to be derived from the small
+occurrences and events of every day, which rightly viewed are capable
+of affording such a large fund of real contentment. In a letter to
+Hippel early in 1815, he himself states, "For my shattered life I have
+really only myself to blame; I ought to have shown more resolution and
+less levity in my earlier years. When a youth, when a boy, I ought to
+have devoted myself entirely to Art and never to have thought of anything
+else. But of course something also was due to perverse education." It
+must not be supposed, however, from the above that he was deficient in
+firmness or strength of will. The perseverance with which he worked
+through his early examinations, as well as the energy and zeal he brought
+to bear upon his official duties, contradict such supposition. Specific
+instances might also be quoted did space permit; it will be enough to
+recall his resolve never to gamble. It is stated that he avowed his
+intention to amend his ways if he recovered from his last fatal
+illness. The real key to his wayward character lies in the fact just
+alluded to, that he had no conception of the supreme importance of
+moral worth. This was the backbone wanting in his character; and for
+this reason we fail to detect any steady sterling course of action
+through all the vicissitudes of his life. If he had a ruling motive it
+was capricious humour; at any rate it swayed him more than anything
+else. On one day he would laugh at what had annoyed him on the day
+preceding, or be delighted to-day at what he had greeted yesterday with
+irony. Nobody knew better than himself how he was tyrannised over by
+his changeable moods. "My capricious humour (_Laune_) is the first
+weather-prophet I know, and if I had the good-will and were bored I
+could make an almanac," is one of his expressions; and another runs,
+"You know that my capricious humour is often _Maître de Flaisir_."
+Besides being thus the creature of caprice, he was also impulsive,
+impetuous, and wont to act with impassioned haste. These qualities were
+revealed in his restless vivacious eyes, in his movements and gestures,
+and even broke out in extraordinary grimaces, as already remarked. And
+just in the same fervid eager way he often seized upon an idea or a
+pleasing fancy, till it took complete possession of him; he could not
+rid himself of it. With this was combined his remarkable quickness of
+perception and comprehension; a single gesture or phrase was often
+sufficient to enable him to grasp a character. What he hated above all
+things was dulness--_ennui_; this never failed to provoke his keenest
+irony and bitterest sarcasms. In his last years he even became cynical
+and rugged and vulgar, in which we may of course trace the influence of
+his tavern associates. It is to his credit that he did not sink into
+Byronic misanthropy and bitter self-lacerating scorn, or even into
+Heine's irreverence and persiflage.
+
+An old German poet says, "Seht das Loos der Menschheit--Heute Freude,
+Morgen Leid;"[28] but with Hoffmann joy and pain were frequently more
+closely allied than this even: whilst the jest was on his lips the
+sting would be in his heart. In this, as well as in several other
+features of his stormy career, he did indeed resemble his countryman
+Heine. One of the necessities of his nature was human society--not
+simply society, however, but people who could appreciate him, who could
+fall in with his moods, and either follow intelligently when he led, or
+lend him a stimulating and helping hand to keep the ball of wit and
+jollity rolling. An illustration of this is found in the fact that he
+"did not love the society of women. If he could not mystify them, or
+draw them into the circle of his fantasies, or discover in them any
+decided talent for comicality, he preferred the society of men."
+Amongst women, however, after those of the class just named, he was
+most interested in young and pretty girls, being attracted by the charm
+of their fresh beauty, not by the charm of their mind. Learned women he
+hated.
+
+Hoffmann was, as already observed, the child of extremes. These were
+revealed not only in his life and action, but also in his writings; for
+his writings are the man. Indeed German critics have said that his
+works, particularly the _Fantasiestücke_, are "lyrics in prose." What
+they mean by this phrase is chiefly that the things he wrote exhibit
+subjective phrases of his nature, and are disconnected, or rather not
+connected, not balanced parts of a systematic whole. This is true so
+far as it is true that Hoffmann never did complete a long work, except
+the _Elixiere_, and this work, as there has been occasion to point out,
+consists of two disjointed parts. One of the things that strike us most
+in reading his books is the peculiar mixture of the real and the
+unreal, of matters appertaining to actual life and of fantasies born
+only of the imagination. Very often the imagination would be called by
+most people a diseased imagination; but it is not always so, sometimes
+it is the poet's imagination. Hence, from this blending or close
+alternation of reality with what is not of the earth--hence came his
+love for fairy tales, tales in which we meet with kobolds, imps,
+witches, little monsters of all kinds--the spirits and apparitions in
+fact which used to haunt his excited fancy in such a strange way.
+Several of these are poetic creatures, whom he handles in a light,
+graceful, and pleasing style (_Goldener Topf_, _Nussknacker_, _Das
+fremde Kind_, &c.); others, on the other hand, are drawn in horrible
+and unearthly colours and awaken the sentiments of awe and dread. What
+he loved especially to dwell upon was the "night side of natural
+science," the puzzling relations between the psychic and the physical
+principles both in man and in Nature. Hence such states as
+somnambulism, magnetism, dreams, dark forebodings of the terrible,
+inhuman passions, and such things as automata and vampyres, had for him
+an insuperable attraction. Insanity was a mystery that haunted his
+thoughts for years: it figures largely in _Die Elixiere_ and _Der
+Sandmann_; and in the third part of _Kater Murr_ it was his intention
+to represent Kreisler's battle with adverse circumstances as
+culminating in insanity. Handling these, and states and situations
+equally hideous, fantastic, and grotesque, with extraordinary clearness
+and precision both of thought and of language, considering the often
+misty nature of the subjects he treats of, and pouring upon the vivid
+pictures he conjures up the brightness of his wit and the exuberant
+gaiety and grace of his fancy, he succeeds in creating scenes,
+situations, and characters which seem verily instinct with real life.
+This end was attained principally by the true genius he displayed in
+perception, apprehension, and description. His graphic descriptive
+power is that which mainly procured him his wide-reaching fame during
+his own lifetime, not only in Germany but also in France, and is that
+which principally gives to his works whatever permanent value they may
+possess. With a painter's eye he grasps a character or a scene by a few
+of its more prominent and essential features, and with a painter's hand
+and eye he sketches them in a few telling strokes. The reader must not
+look to find in Hoffmann any clever or subtle analysis of the deeper
+motives that work towards the development of character; all that
+Hoffmann can give him will be talented _pictures_. He himself lays down
+his canon of literary spirit in the introduction to the first volume of
+the _Serapionsbrüder_--
+
+
+"Vain are an author's efforts to bring us to believe in what he does
+not believe in himself, in what he cannot believe in, since he has not
+made it his own by _seeing_ it (_erschauen_). What else are the
+characters of such an author, who, to borrow the old phrase, is no true
+seer, but deceitful marionettes, painfully glued together out of alien
+materials?... At least let each one of us [the Brethren] strive
+earnestly and truly to grasp the image that has arisen in his mind in
+all its features, its colours, its lights and its shades, and then when
+he feels himself really enkindled by them let him proceed to embody
+them in an external description."
+
+
+Hoffmann has mostly succeeded in acting up to his canon and has written
+in its spirit; and in so far true genius cannot be denied him. And
+he possessed in no less eminent a degree the true art of the born
+story-teller. The interest seldom if ever flags; and the curious
+anomalies of men and of men-creatures (_Mensch-Thiere_), whom he
+mingles amongst his winning heroines and his delightful satiric
+characters, oftener than not quite enthrall the mind or afford it true
+enjoyment as the case may be, and this they do in spite of the fact
+that, owing to their own nature, they frequently stand outside the
+ordinary sphere of human sympathies. Of course it may readily be
+conceived that the danger which he was liable to fall into was want of
+clearness in conception and sentiment, but he has avoided this rock for
+the most part with wonderful skill. One of his latest productions,
+_Prinzessin Brambilla_, is the one where this fault is most markedly
+conspicuous; nor is the _Elixiere_ free from it.
+
+German critics have not failed to notice the sweet grace and winning
+loveliness which hover about the characters of most of his heroines.
+They are nearly all presented in colours impregnated with real poetic
+beauty; see, for instance, Seraphina (_Das Majorat_), Annunciata
+(_Doge_), Madelon and Mdlle. de Scudéry (_Scudéri_), Rose (_Meister
+Martin_), Cecily (_Berganza_), and others.
+
+Carlyle, whose brief and for the most part truthful essay upon Hoffmann
+(in vol. ii. of his _German Romance_, 1829) appears to have been based
+largely upon others' opinions rather than upon first-hand acquaintance
+with his author, says that in him "there are the materials of a
+glorious poet, but no poet has been fashioned out of them." And when we
+seek for poetic elements in Hoffmann's works, we are not altogether
+disappointed. We have just stated that his heroines are creations of a
+poet's fancy; and in the scene between Father Hilarius and Kreisler in
+_Kater Murr_, and in the passages and characters already alluded to in
+_Die Elixiere_, in the sunny cheerful _Märchen_--_Der goldene Topf_
+(which Hoffmann calls his "poetic masterpiece"), in _Das Gelübde_,
+_Nussknacker_, &c., we enter the world of higher imagination. Again,
+whilst in _Doge und Dogaresse_ we are arrested by the poetic charm of
+the island life of the Lagune in the golden days of Venice's splendour,
+in _Meister Martin_ we are no less, perhaps still more impressed by the
+rich romantic beauty of life in the old mediæval town of Nuremberg. In
+_Die Scudéri_ we are made acquainted with the cold glittering court of
+Louis XIV. through the lovable character of Mdlle. de Scudéry; and
+whilst on the one hand following with deep interest the fate of Brusson
+and his love, on the other we are led to contrast the subtilty of the
+plot with the fine analytic power of Poe in The _Murders in the Rue
+Morgue_. When visiting with Hoffmann the weird castle of _Das Majorat_,
+we are made to hear the cold shrill blasts of the Baltic whistling past
+our ears, and to feel the storm and the sea-spray dashing in our faces.
+These four tales are unquestionably the best that Hoffmann has written;
+to them must be added _Meister Wachte_, on account of its excellent
+characterisation of the hero. In striking contrast with the majority of
+the things he has written, these five tales show him when he is most
+objective; in them he has wielded his powers with more wise restraint
+than in any of the others, and introduced less of his strange fantastic
+caricatures. Next after these tales must be named, though on a lower
+level, and simply because they best illustrate his peculiar genius, the
+two books of _Kater Murr_, the fairy tale _Der goldene Topf_, and _Des
+Vetters Eckfenster_, In the works here named we have the best fruits of
+Hoffmann's pen. And if instead of asking in the mistaken spirit of
+competition which is now so much in vogue. What is Hoffmann's position
+in literature? we ask rather, Has he written anything that deserves to
+be read? we shall have already had our answer. The works here singled
+out are worthy of being preserved and read; and of them _Das Majorat_
+and _Meister Martin_ are perhaps entitled to be called the best, though
+some German critics have mentioned _Meister Wacht_ along with the
+former as having a claim to the first rank.
+
+It is now time to take a glance at Hoffmann's satiric power. This was
+launched principally against two classes of society; the one is that of
+which his uncle Otto was a type, the man who is unreasonably obstinate
+in defence of the conventionalities of life, and no less so in their
+steady observance: the second class was that whose representatives
+aroused Hoffmann's ire so greatly at Bamberg and Berlin "tea-circles,"
+or "tea-sings"--those who coquetted with art in an unworthy or
+frivolous manner. Against this latter class his irony and satiric wrath
+were especially fierce, as may be read in _Berganza_, _Die Irrungen_,
+the _Kreisleriana_, _Kater Murr_, _Signor Formica_, &c. Perhaps the
+most amusing, for quiet humour, of the former class is _Die Brautwahl_.
+The force of his satiric power lay in the skilful use of sudden
+contrast. Hence it plays more frequently upon or near the surface, and
+lacks the depth and pathos of true humour; but it is idle to expect
+from a man what he hasn't got.
+
+In so far as this author had any serious philosophical belief, it would
+appear to have been that man was a slave of Chance, or Fate, or
+Destiny, or whatever it may be called. Sometimes he is the plaything of
+circumstances; sometimes a defenceless victim under "Fate's brazen
+hand," or of "that Eternal Power which rules over us." The real
+significance of life is summoned up in the statement that it is a
+struggle between contending powers of good and evil, against both of
+which man is equally helpless. He believed that whenever any good fell
+to a man's lot there was always some evil lurking in ambush behind it,
+or, to borrow his own expressive phrase, "the Devil must put his tail
+upon everything." His further views are here quoted from _Der
+Magnetiseur_:--
+
+
+"We are knitted with all things without us, with all Nature, in such
+close ties, both psychic and physical, that the severance from them
+would, if it were indeed possible, destroy our own existence. Our
+so-called intensive life is conditioned by the extensive; the former is
+only a reflex of the latter, in which the figures and images received,
+as if reflected in a concave mirror, often appear in changed relations
+that are wonderful and singularly strange, notwithstanding that these
+caricatures again And their real originals in life. I boldly maintain,
+that no man has ever thought or dreamt anything the elements of which
+were not to be found in Nature; nohow can he get out of her."
+
+
+Was this the cause or the result of the visions he used to see?
+
+From his conception of strife between good and evil as interpreting the
+significance of existence arose that dissonance which lies at the root
+of nearly all his most characteristic works--that sense of want, that
+failure to find final satisfaction which may be only too readily
+detected. For the conflict within himself he knew no real mediatory: he
+was baffled to discover a higher category in which to unite the
+conflicting principles. Religion he never willingly talked about; hence
+it could not give him the satisfaction he lacked. He thought he found
+it in Art, however; since for Art he battled with all the strength of
+his genius, and in the sacred mission of Art he believed with all his
+soul. He has many enthusiastic bursts on the subject, agreeing in some
+respects with the views laid down by Schiller in his _Aesthetische
+Erziehung des Menschen_:--
+
+
+"They alone are true artists who devote themselves with undivided love
+and enthusiasm to their goddess; to them alone is true Art revealed....
+There is no Art which is not sacred.... The sacred purpose of all Art
+is apprehension of Nature in that deepest sense of the word which
+enkindles in the soul an ardent striving after the higher life.... I do
+not ask about the artistes life; but his work must be pure, in the
+highest degree respectable, and if possible religious. It has no need,
+therefore, to have any so-called moral tendency; nay, it ought not to
+have such. The truly beautiful is itself moral, only in another
+form.... Art is eternally clear. The mists of ignorance are as inimical
+to her as the life-destroying carbonic acid gas of immorality. Art is
+the highest perfection of human power. Heart and Understanding are her
+common parents."
+
+
+Music was his favourite art. It first taught him to feel; and not only
+was it his unfailing solace in hours of trouble, but it brought him
+messages of deeper import: it disclosed to him glimpses of another
+world--it was the "language of heaven." Here again a passage from his
+own works expresses his opinions upon this point better than any other
+pen can express them:--
+
+
+"No art, I believe, affords such strong evidence of the spiritual in
+man as music, and there is no art that requires so exclusively means
+that are--purely intellectual and ætherial. The intuition of what is
+Highest and Holiest--of the Intelligent Power which enkindles the spark
+of life in all Nature--is audibly expressed in musical sound; hence
+music and song are the utterance of the fullest perfection of
+existence--praise of the Creator! Agreeably to its real essential
+nature, therefore, music is religious cultus; and its origin is to be
+sought for and found, simply and solely, in religion, in the
+Church."[29]
+
+
+Treating of Hoffmann's position with respect to music, Wilibald Alexis
+says, "We do not know any other man who has expressed in words such a
+real true enthusiasm for an art [as Hoffmann for music]; and
+specialists assure us that few have thoroughly grasped the nature of
+music so admirably."
+
+As far as a foreigner may presume to judge of Hoffmann's language and
+literary style, it would appear to be chiefly distinguished by strong
+grace, ease, naturalness, and nervous vigour. German critics
+acknowledge its charms, calling it a model of clearness and masterly
+skill and elegance. Perhaps its beauties are best seen, that is in a
+more chastened form, in _Kater Murr_. Repetitions, however, and
+exaggerations in description of sentiment tend, at times, to mar the
+reader's pleasure. Signs of haste, too, are not wanting, as Carlyle
+pointed out. This was chiefly due to the very large number of
+commissions he received from publishers and others, who keenly competed
+for the productions of his pen. At the date of his death he had as many
+commissions on hand as would, if he accepted them all, have kept him
+fully employed for several years.
+
+To those who love a good story, well told, the five specially mentioned
+may be recommended; and for those who desire to explore the dark
+by-paths (_Irrwege_) of the human spirit, to penetrate to some of its
+rarest comers, and to know all its ins and outs, as well as for those
+who aim at studying German literature, Hoffmann is a writer who ought
+to be read at greater length.
+
+                                                   THE TRANSLATOR.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE":
+
+[Footnote 1: The chief sources for this biographical notice have been
+_E. T. A. Hoffmann's Leben und Nachlass, von J. G. Hitzig, herausg. von
+Micheline Hoffmann, geb. Rorer_, 5 vols., Stuttgart, 1839;
+_Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben_, von Z. Funck [C. Kunz], Leipsic, 1836;
+and various minor essays and papers.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Later in life he adopted the name of "Amadeus" instead of
+"Wilhelm," out of admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great
+musician (see _Erinng._, pp. 77-80).]
+
+[Footnote 3: Another account (see H. Döring's article "Hoffmann," in
+Ersch und Gruber's _Allgem. Encyk._) states 21st Jan., 1778. The date
+in the text is the one, however, that is generally accepted, and now
+without question; it is the one confirmed by Hoffmann himself (cf.
+Letter 15 in _Leben_).]
+
+[Footnote 4: These two books, together with Schubert's _Symbolik des
+Traums_, were favourites with him throughout life. In his youth he was
+a most diligent student of the new literature of his native country;
+English he also read to a large extent, Shakespearian quotations being
+very frequent in his letters; and we find the names of Sterne, Swift,
+Smollett, &c. Later in life he hardly read anything unless it were
+exceptionally good, and then only when recommended to do so by his
+friends. Political papers he never read, and scarcely ever criticisms
+on his own works.]
+
+[Footnote 5: That is, after Hippel had completed his academic career,
+and left Königsberg.]
+
+[Footnote 6: That is, after the king's death in 1797. She afterwards
+married the Holbein here mentioned.]
+
+[Footnote 7: _Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 8: _Leben_, iii. pp. 231-233.]
+
+[Footnote 9: A suburb or park of Warsaw, beneath the tall beeches of
+which Hoffmann loved to lie dreaming, or sketch from Nature.]
+
+[Footnote 10: An equestrian statue of John Sobieski, the deliverer of
+Vienna from the Turks.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Polish for "moustaches."]
+
+[Footnote 12: _Leben_, iii. pp. 251-254.]
+
+[Footnote 13:  A very comic incident, of which Hoffmann himself was the
+hero, took place on the occasion of Werner's reading his new tragedy
+_Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_ to a select circle of friends. Unfortunately
+it cannot be compressed into sufficiently short space to be quoted
+here. Hoffmann relates it in _Die Serapionsbrüder_, vol. iv., after
+_Signor Formica_.]
+
+[Footnote 14: _Leben_, v. pp. 18-20; cf. also _Erinnerungen_ p. 1, &c.,
+where Kunz details the circumstances under which he was introduced to
+Hoffmann.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Several of Calderon's, mainly at Hoffmann's suggestion
+and by his assistance; the "Worship of the Cross" was particularly
+successful in the Catholic town of Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Kunz tells us how they used to go down into the cellar,
+sit astride of the cask, and drink, and _sich des heitern Lebens
+freuen_ with genial and sprightly sallies; and his picture has no faint
+smack of Auerbach's Keller (_Faust_). See _Leben_, v. p. 177, note.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Compare Nanni in_ Meister Wacht_, Clara in _Der
+Sandmann_, Rose in _Meister Martin_, Cecily in _Berganza_, &c.]
+
+[Footnote 18: See _Erinnerungen_, pp. 60 _sq._]
+
+[Footnote 19: See _Leben_, iv. p. 95, v. p. 27; _Erinnerungen_, pp.
+28-31.]
+
+[Footnote 20: These adventures are described in one of the most
+humorous chapters (iv.) of the _Erinnerungen_.]
+
+[Footnote 21: It is treated of in _Don Juan_ and in _Die Fremdenloge_,
+in the _Fantasiestücke_. A recent critic has declared that this essay
+will always have value in connection with the stage-representation of
+the problem of Don Juan (cf. _Die Gegenwart_, 24th May, 1884).]
+
+[Footnote 22: _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 58, 59.]
+
+[Footnote 23: _Leben_, vol. iv. p. 140.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Contessa and Koreff are strikingly portrayed in the
+_Serapionsbrüder_ (vol. ii.), the former as "Sylvester," the latter as
+"Vincenz."]
+
+[Footnote 25: The sexual relations are handled in a mystical, sensuous
+way; something of the same kind of treatment occurs again in _Das
+Elementargeist_.]
+
+[Footnote 26: _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 118-120.]
+
+[Footnote 27: _Leben_, iii. pp. 120-123; iv. p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 28: "Behold the lot of mankind--joy to-day, to-morrow grief,"
+Walther von Eschenbach's _Parzival_, ii. 103, ll. 23, 24.]
+
+[Footnote 29: _Serapionsbrüder_, vol. ii., Introduction to part iv.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31439-8.txt or 31439-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/3/31439/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from scans obtained from The
+Internet Archive.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.net/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/31439-8.zip b/old/31439-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fc1c41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/31439-8.zip
diff --git a/old/31439.txt b/old/31439.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f73390c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/31439.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12552 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: Weird Tales, Vol. II.
+
+Author: E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+Translator: J. T. Bealby
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #31439]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from scans obtained from The
+Internet Archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+1. This book is derived from the Web Archive,
+http://www.archive.org/details/weirdtales05bealgoog.
+
+2. The oe diphthong is represented by [oe].
+
+3. Footnote references to volume I of this work are incorporated in the
+note in order to provide easier reading.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              WEIRD TALES
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+                           E. T. W. HOFFMANN
+
+
+
+                   A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN
+
+
+
+                       WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR
+
+
+
+                         By J. T. BEALBY, B.A.
+         FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+
+
+
+                             IN TWO VOLUMES
+                                VOL. II.
+
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                        CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+                                  1885
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 TROW'S
+                   PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
+                                NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+                         CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
+
+
+                                                              PAGE
+THE DOGE AND DOGESS,
+
+MASTER MARTIN THE COOPER,
+
+MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERI,
+
+GAMBLER'S LUCK,
+
+MASTER JOHANNES WACHT,
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES,
+
+
+
+
+                          THE DOGE AND DOGESS[1]
+
+
+This was the title that distinguished in the art-catalogue of the works
+exhibited by the Berlin Academy of Arts in September, 1816, a picture
+which came from the brush of the skilful clever Associate of the
+Academy, C. Kolbe.[2] There was such a peculiar charm in the piece that
+it attracted all observers. A Doge, richly and magnificently dressed,
+and a Dogess at his side, as richly adorned with jewellery, are
+stepping out on to a balustered balcony; _he_ is an old man, with a
+grey beard and rusty red face, his features indicating a peculiar
+blending of expressions, now revealing strength, now weakness, again
+pride and arrogance, and again pure good-nature; _she_ is a young
+woman, with a far-away look of yearning sadness and dreamy aspiration
+not only in her eyes but also in her general bearing. Behind them is an
+elderly lady and a man holding an open sun-shade. At one end of the
+balcony is a young man blowing a conch-shaped horn, whilst in front of
+it a richly decorated gondola, bearing the Venetian flag and having two
+gondoliers, is rocking on the sea. In the background stretches the sea
+itself studded with hundreds and hundreds of sails, whilst the towers
+and palaces of magnificent Venice are seen rising out of its waves. To
+the left is Saint Mark's, to the right, more in the front, San Giorgio
+Maggiore. The following words were cut in the golden frame of the
+picture.
+
+            Ah! senza amare,
+            Andare sul mare
+            Col sposo del mare,
+            Non puo consolare.
+
+            To go on the sea
+            With the spouse of the sea,
+            When loveless I be,
+            Is no comfort to me.
+
+One day there arose before this picture a fruitless altercation as to
+whether the artist really intended it for anything more than a mere
+picture, that is, the temporary situation, sufficiently indicated by
+the verse, of a decrepit old man who with all his splendour and
+magnificence is unable to satisfy the desires of a heart filled with
+yearning aspirations, or whether he intended to represent an actual
+historical event. One after the other the visitors left the place,
+tired of the discussion, so that at length there were only two men
+left, both very good friends to the noble art of painting. "I can't
+understand," said one of them, "how people can spoil all their
+enjoyment by eternally hunting after some jejune interpretation or
+explanation. Independently of the fact that I have a pretty accurate
+notion of what the relations in life between this Doge and Dogess were,
+I am more particularly struck by the subdued richness and power that
+characterises the picture as a whole. Look at this flag with the winged
+lions, how they flutter in the breeze as if they swayed the world. O
+beautiful Venice!" He began to recite Turandot's[3] riddle of Lion of
+the Adriatic, "_Dimmi, qual sia quella terribil fera_," &c. He had
+hardly come to the end when a sonorous masculine voice broke in with
+Calaf's[4] solution, "_Tu quadrupede fera_," &c. Unobserved by the
+friends, a man of tall and noble appearance, his grey mantle thrown
+picturesquely across his shoulder, had taken up a position behind them,
+and was examining the picture with sparkling eyes. They got into
+conversation, and the stranger said almost in atone of solemnity, "It
+is indeed a singular mystery, how a picture often arises in the mind of
+an artist, the figures of which, previously indistinguishable,
+incorporate mist driving about in empty space, first seem to shape
+themselves into vitality in his mind, and there seem to find their
+home. Suddenly the picture connects itself with the past, or even with
+the future, representing something that has really happened or that
+will happen. Perhaps it was not known to Kolbe himself that the persons
+he was representing in this picture are none other than the Doge Marino
+Falieri[5] and his lady Annunciata."
+
+The stranger paused, but the two friends urgently entreated him to
+solve for them this riddle as he had solved that of the Lion of the
+Adriatic. Whereupon he replied, "If you have patience, my inquisitive
+sirs, I will at once explain the picture to you by telling you
+Falieri's history. But have you patience? I shall be very
+circumstantial, for I cannot speak otherwise of things which stand so
+life-like before my eyes that I seem to have seen them myself. And that
+may very well be the case, for all historians--amongst whom I happen to
+be one--are properly a kind of talking ghost of past ages."
+
+The friends accompanied the stranger into a retired room, when, without
+further preamble, he began as follows:--
+
+It is now a long time ago, and if I mistake not, it was in the month of
+August, 1354, that the valiant Genoese captain, Paganino Doria[6] by
+name, utterly routed the Venetians and took their town of Parenzo. And
+his well-manned galleys were now cruising backwards and forwards in the
+Lagune, close in front of Venice, like ravenous beasts of prey which,
+goaded by hunger, roam restlessly up and down spying out where they may
+most safely pounce upon their victims; and both people and seignory
+were panic-stricken with fear. All the male population, liable to
+military service, and everybody who could lift an arm, flew to their
+weapons or seized an oar. The harbour of Saint Nicholas was the
+gathering-place for the bands. Ships and trees were sunk, and chains
+riveted to chains, to lock the harbour-mouth against the enemy. Whilst
+there was heard the rattle of arms and the wild tumult of preparation,
+and whilst the ponderous masses thundered down into the foaming sea, on
+the Rialto the agents of the seignory were wiping the cold sweat from
+their pale brows, and with troubled countenances and hoarse voices
+offering almost fabulous percentage for ready money, for the straitened
+republic was in want of this necessary also. Moreover, it was
+determined by the inscrutable decree of Providence that just at this
+period of extreme distress and anxiety, the faithful shepherd should be
+taken away from his troubled flock. Completely borne down by the burden
+of the public calamity, the Doge Andrea Dandolo[7] died; the people
+called him the "dear good count" (_il caro contino_), because he was
+always cordial and kind, and never crossed Saint Mark's Square without
+speaking a word of comfort to those in need of good advice, or giving a
+few sequins[8] to those who were in want of money. And as every blow is
+wont to fall with double sharpness upon those who are discouraged by
+misfortune, when at other times they would hardly have felt it at all,
+so now, when the people heard the bells of Saint Mark's proclaim in
+solemn muffled tones the death of their Duke, they were utterly undone
+with sorrow and grief. Their support, their hope, was now gone, and
+they would have to bend their necks to the Genoese yoke, they cried, in
+despite of the fact that Dandolo's loss did not seem to have any very
+counteractive effect upon the progress that was being made with all
+necessary warlike preparations. The "dear good count" had loved to live
+in peace and quietness, preferring to follow the wondrous courses of
+the stars rather than the problematical complications of state policy;
+he understood how to arrange a procession on Easter Day better than how
+to lead an army.
+
+The object now was to elect a Doge who, endowed at one and the same
+time with the valour and genius of a war captain, and with skill in
+statecraft, should save Venice, now tottering on her foundations, from
+the threatening power of her bold and ever-bolder enemy. But when the
+senators assembled there was none but what had a gloomy face, hopeless
+looks, and head bent earthwards and resting on his supporting hand.
+Where were they to find a man who could seize the unguided helm and
+direct the bark of the state aright? At last the oldest of the
+councillors, called Marino Bodoeri, lifted up his voice and said, "You
+will not find him here around us, or amongst us; direct your eyes to
+Avignon, upon Marino Falieri, whom we sent to congratulate Pope
+Innocent[9] on his elevation to the Papal dignity; he can find better
+work to do now; he's the man for us; let us choose him Doge to stem
+this current of adversity. You will urge by way of objection that he is
+now almost eighty years old, that his hair and beard are white as
+silver, that his blithe appearance, fiery eye, and the deep red of his
+nose and cheeks are to be ascribed, as his traducers maintain, to good
+Cyprus wine rather than to energy of character; but heed not that.
+Remember what conspicuous bravery this Marino Falieri showed as admiral
+of the fleet in the Black Sea, and bear in mind the great services
+which prevailed with the Procurators of Saint Mark to invest this
+Falieri with the rich countship of Valdemarino." Thus highly did
+Bodoeri extol Falieri's virtues; and he had a ready answer for all
+objections, so that at length all voices were unanimous in electing
+Falieri. Several, however, still continued to allude to his hot,
+passionate temper, his ambition, and his self-will; but they were met
+with the reply: "And it is exactly because all these have gone from the
+old man, that we choose the _grey-beard_ Falieri and not the _youth_
+Falieri." And these censuring voices were completely silenced when the
+people, learning upon whom the choice had fallen, greeted it with the
+loudest and most extravagant demonstrations of delight. Do we not know
+that in such dangerous times, in times of such tension and unrest, any
+resolution that really is a resolution is accepted as an inspiration
+from Heaven? Thus it came to pass that the "dear good count" and all
+his gentleness and piety were forgotten, and every one cried, "By Saint
+Mark, this Marino ought long ago to have been our Doge, and then we
+should not have yon arrogant Doria before our very doors." And crippled
+soldiers painfully lifted up their wounded arms and cried, "That is
+Falieri who beat the Morbassan[10]--the valiant captain whose
+victorious banners waved in the Black Sea." Wherever a knot of people
+gathered, there was one amongst them telling of Falieri's heroic deeds;
+and, as though Doria were already defeated, the air rang with wild
+shouts of triumph. An additional reason for this was that Nicolo
+Pisani[11] who, Heaven knows why! instead of going to meet Doria with
+his fleet, had coolly sailed away to Sardinia,[12] was now returned.
+Doria withdrew from the Lagune; and what was really due to the approach
+of Pisani's fleet was ascribed to the formidable name of Marino
+Falieri. Then the people and the seignory were seized by a kind of
+frantic ecstasy that such an auspicious choice had been made; and as an
+uncommon way of testifying the same, it was determined to welcome the
+newly elected Doge as if he were a messenger from heaven bringing
+honour, victory, and abundance of riches. Twelve nobles, each
+accompanied by a numerous retinue in rich dresses, had been sent by the
+Seignory to Verona, where the ambassadors of the Republic were again to
+announce to Falieri, on his arrival, with all due ceremony, his
+elevation to the supreme office in the state. Then fifteen richly
+decorated vessels of state, equipped by the Podesta[13] of Chioggia,
+and under the command of his own son Taddeo Giustiniani, took the Doge
+and his attendant company on board at Chiozza; and now they moved on
+like the triumphal procession of a most mighty and victorious monarch
+to St. Clement's, where the Bucentaur[14] was awaiting the Doge.
+
+At this very moment, namely, when Marino Falieri was about to set foot
+on board the Bucentaur,--and that was on the evening of the 3d of
+October about sunset--a poor unfortunate man lay stretched at full
+length on the hard marble pavement in front of the Customhouse. A few
+rags of striped linen, of a colour now no longer recognisable, the
+remains of what apparently had once been a sailor's dress, such as was
+worn by the very poorest of the people--porters and assistant oarsmen,
+hung about his lean starved body. There was not a trace of a shirt to
+be seen, except the poor fellow's own skin, which peeped through his
+rags almost everywhere, and was so white and delicate that the very
+noblest need not have been shy or ashamed of it Accordingly, his
+leanness only served to display more fully the perfect proportions
+of his well-knit frame. A careful scrutiny of the unfortunate's
+light-chestnut hair, now hanging all tangled and dishevelled about his
+exquisitely beautiful forehead, his blue eyes dimmed with extreme
+misery, his Roman nose, his fine formed lips--he seemed to be not more
+than twenty years old at the most--inevitably suggested that he was of
+good birth, and had by some adverse turn of fortune been thrown amongst
+the meanest classes of the people.
+
+As remarked, the youth lay in front of the pillars of the Custom-house,
+his head resting on his right arm, and his eyes riveted in a vacant
+stare upon the sea, without movement or change of posture. An observer
+might well have fancied that he was devoid of life, or that death had
+fixed him there whilst turning him into an image of stone, had not a
+deep sigh escaped him from time to time, as if wrung from him by
+unutterable pain. And they were in fact occasioned by the pain of his
+left arm, which had apparently been seriously wounded, and was lying
+stretched out on the pavement, wrapped up in bloody rags.
+
+All labour had ceased; the hum of trade was no longer heard; all
+Venice, in thousands of boats and gondolas, was gone out to meet the
+much-lauded Falieri. Hence it was that the unhappy youth was sighing
+away his pain in utter helplessness. But just as his weary head fell
+back upon the pavement, and he seemed on the point of fainting, a
+hoarse and very querulous voice cried several times in succession,
+"Antonio, my dear Antonio." At length Antonio painfully raised
+himself partly up; and, turning his head towards the pillars of the
+Custom-house, whence the voice seemed to proceed, he replied very
+faintly, and in a scarce intelligible voice, "Who is calling me? Who
+has come to cast my dead body into the sea, for it will soon be all
+over with me." Then a little shrivelled wrinkled crone came up panting
+and coughing, hobbling along by the aid of her staff; she approached
+the wounded youth, and squatting down beside him, she burst out into a
+most repulsive chuckling and laughing. "You foolish child, you foolish
+child," whispered the old woman, "are you going to perish here--will
+you stay here to die, while a golden fortune is waiting for you? Look
+yonder, look yonder at yon blazing fire in the west; there are sequins
+for you! But you must eat, dear Antonio, eat and drink; for it's only
+hunger which has made you fall down here on this cold pavement. Your
+arm is now quite well again, yes, that it is." Antonio recognised in
+the old crone the singular beggar-woman who was generally to be seen on
+the steps of the Franciscan Church, chuckling to herself and laughing,
+and soliciting alms from the worshippers; he himself, urged by some
+inward inexplicable propensity, had often thrown her a hard-earned
+penny, which he had not had to spare. "Leave me, leave me in peace, you
+insane old woman," he said; "but you are right, it is hunger more than
+my wound which has made me weak and miserable; for three days I have
+not earned a farthing. I wanted to go over to the monastery[15] and see
+if I could get a spoonful or two of the soup that is made for invalids;
+but all my companions have gone; there is not one to have compassion
+upon me and take me in his _barca_;[16] and now I have fallen down
+here, and shall, I expect, never get up again." "Hi! hi! hi! hi!"
+chuckled the old woman; "why do you begin to despair so soon? Why lose
+heart so quickly? You are thirsty and hungry, but I can help you. Here
+are a few fine dried fish which I bought only to-day in the Mint; here
+is lemon-juice and a piece of nice white bread; eat, my son; and then
+we will look at the wounded arm." And the old woman proceeded to bring
+forth fish, bread, and lemon juice from the bag which hung like a hood
+down her back, and also projected right above her bent head. As soon as
+Antonio had moistened his parched and burning lips with the cool drink,
+he felt the pangs of hunger return with double fury, and he greedily
+devoured the bread and the fish.
+
+Meanwhile the old woman was busy unwrapping the rags from his wounded
+arm, and it was found that, though it was badly crushed, the wound was
+progressing favourably towards healing. The old woman took a salve out
+of a little box and warmed it with the breath of her mouth, and as she
+rubbed it on the wound she asked, "But who then has given you such a
+nasty blow, my poor boy?" Antonio was so refreshed and charged anew
+with vital energy that he had raised himself completely up; his eyes
+flashed, and he shook his doubled fist above his head, crying, "Oh!
+that rascal Nicolo; he tried to maim me, because he envies me every
+wretched penny that any generous hand bestows upon me. You know, old
+dame, that I barely managed to hold body and soul together by helping
+to carry bales of goods from ships and freight-boats to the _depot_
+of the Germans, the so-called Fontego[17]--of course you know the
+building"--Directly Antonio uttered the word Fontego, the old
+woman began to chuckle and laugh most abominably, and to mumble,
+"Fontego--Fontego--Fontego." "Have done with your insane laughing if I
+am to go on with my story," added Antonio angrily. At once the old
+woman grew quiet, and Antonio continued, "after a time I saved a little
+bit of money, and bought a new jerkin, so that I looked quite fine; and
+then I got enrolled amongst the gondoliers. As I was always in a blithe
+humour, worked hard, and knew a great many good songs, I soon earned a
+good deal more than the rest. This, however, awakened my comrades'
+envy. They blackened my character to my master, so that he turned me
+adrift; and everywhere where I went or where I stood they cried after
+me, 'German cur! Cursed heretic!' Three days ago, as I was helping to
+unload a boat near St. Sebastian, they fell upon me with sticks and
+stones. I defended myself stoutly, but that malicious Nicolo dealt me a
+blow with his oar, which grazed my head and severely injured my arm,
+and knocked me on the ground. Ay, you've given me a good meal, old
+woman, and I am sure I feel that your salve has done my arm a world of
+good. See, I can already move it easily--now I shall be able to row
+bravely again." Antonio had risen up from the ground, and was swinging
+his arm violently backwards and forwards, but the old woman again fell
+to chuckling and laughing loudly, whilst she hobbled round about him
+in the most extraordinary fashion--dancing with short tripping steps
+as it were--and she cried, "My son, my good boy, my good lad--row on
+bravely--he is coming--he is coming. The gold is shining red in the
+bright flames. Row on stoutly, row on; but only once more, only once
+more; and then never again."
+
+But Antonio was not paying the slightest heed to the old woman's words,
+for the most splendid of spectacles was unfolding itself before his
+eyes. The Bucentaur, with the Lion of the Adriatic on her fluttering
+standard, was coming along from St. Clement's to the measured stroke of
+the oars like a mighty winged golden swan. Surrounded by innumerable
+_barcas_ and gondolas, and with her head proudly and boldly raised, she
+appeared like a princess commanding a triumphing army, that had emerged
+from the depths of the sea, wearing bright and gaily decked helmets.
+The evening sun was sending down his fiery rays upon the sea and upon
+Venice, so that everything appeared to have been plunged into a bath of
+blazing fire; but whilst Antonio, completely forgetful of all his
+unhappiness, was standing gazing with wonder and delight, the gleams of
+the sun grew more bloody and more bloody. The wind whistled shrilly and
+harshly, and a hollow threatening echo came rolling in from the open
+sea outside. Down burst the storm in the midst of black clouds, and
+enshrouded all in thick darkness, whilst the waves rose higher and
+higher, pouring in from the thundering sea like foaming hissing
+monsters, threatening to engulf everything. The gondolas and _barcas_
+were driven in all directions like scattered feathers. The Bucentaur,
+unable to resist the storm owing to its flat bottom, was yawing from
+side to side. Instead of the jubilant notes of trumpets and cornets,
+there was heard through the storm the anxious cries of those in
+distress.
+
+Antonio gazed upon the scene like one stupefied, without sense and
+motion. But then there came a rattling of chains immediately in front
+of him; he looked down, and saw a little canoe, which was chained to
+the wall, and was being tossed up and down by the waves; and a thought
+entered his mind like a flash of lightning. He leaped into the canoe,
+unfastened it, seized the oar which he found in it, and pushed out
+boldly and confidently into the sea, directly towards the Bucentaur.
+The nearer he came to it the more distinctly could he hear shouts for
+help. "Here, here, come here--save the Doge, save the Doge." It is well
+known that little fisher-canoes are safer and better to manage in the
+Lagune when it is stormy than are larger boats; and accordingly these
+little craft were hastening from all sides to the rescue of Marino
+Falieri's invaluable person. But it is an invariable principle in life
+that the Eternal Power reserves every bold deed as a brilliant success
+to the one specially chosen for it, and hence all others have all their
+pains for nothing. And as on this occasion it was poor Antonio who was
+destined to achieve the rescue of the newly elected Doge, he alone
+succeeded in working his way on to the Bucentaur in his little
+insignificant fisher-canoe. Old Marino Falieri, familiar with such
+dangers, stepped firmly, without a moment's hesitation, from the
+sumptuous but treacherous Bucentaur into poor Antonio's little craft,
+which, gliding smoothly over the raging waves like a dolphin, brought
+him in a few minutes to St. Mark's Square. The old man, his clothing
+saturated with wet, and with large drops of sea-spray in his grey
+beard, was conducted into the church, where the nobles with blanched
+faces concluded the ceremonies connected with the Doge's public entry.
+But the people, as well as the seignory, confounded by this unfortunate
+_contretemps_, to which was also added the fact that the Doge, in the
+hurry and confusion, had been led between the two columns where common
+malefactors were generally executed, grew silent in the midst of their
+triumph, and thus the day that had begun in festive fashion ended in
+gloom and sadness.
+
+Nobody seemed to think about the Doge's rescuer; nor did Antonio
+himself think about it, for he was lying in the peristyle of the Ducal
+Palace, half dead with fatigue, and fainting with the pain caused by
+his wound, which had again burst open. He was therefore all the more
+surprised when just before midnight a Ducal halberdier took him by the
+shoulders, saying, "Come along, friend," and led him into the palace,
+where he pushed him into the Duke's chamber. The old man came to meet
+him with a kindly smile, and said, pointing to a couple of purses lying
+on the table, "You have borne yourself bravely, my son. Here; take
+these three thousand sequins, and if you want more ask for them; but
+have the goodness never to come into my presence again." As he said
+these last words the old man's eyes flashed with fire, and the tip of
+his nose grew a darker red Antonio could not fathom the old man's mind;
+he did not, however, trouble himself overmuch about it, but with some
+little difficulty took up the purses, which he believed he had honestly
+and rightly earned.
+
+Next morning old Falieri, conspicuous in the splendours of his newly
+acquired dignity, stood in one of the lofty bay windows of the palace,
+watching the bustling scene below, where the people were busy engaged
+in practising all kinds of weapons, when Bodoeri, who from the days
+when he was a youth had enjoyed the intimate and unchangeable
+friendship of the Doge, entered the apartment. As, however, the Doge
+was quite wrapped up in himself and his dignity, and did not appear to
+notice his entrance, Bodoeri clapped his hands together and cried with
+a loud laugh, "Come, Falieri, what are all these sublime thoughts that
+are being hatched and nourished in your mind since you first put the
+Doge's bent bonnet on?" Falieri, coming to himself like one awakening
+from a dream, stepped forward to meet his old friend with an air of
+forced amiability. He felt that he really owed his bonnet to Bodoeri,
+and the words of the latter seemed to be a reminder of the fact. But
+since every obligation weighed like a burden upon Falieri's proud
+ambitious spirit, and he could not dismiss the oldest member of the
+Council, and his tried friend to boot, as he had dismissed poor
+Antonio, he constrained himself to utter a few words of thanks, and
+immediately began to speak of the measures to be adopted to meet their
+enemy, who was now developing so great an activity in every direction.
+Bodoeri interrupted him and said, cunningly smiling, "That, and all
+else that the state demands of you, we will maturely weigh and consider
+an hour or two hence in a full meeting of the Great Council. I have not
+come to you thus early in order to invent a plan for defeating yon
+presumptuous Doria or bringing to reason Louis[18] the Hungarian, who
+is again setting his longing eyes upon our Dalmatian seaports. No,
+Marino, I was thinking solely about you, and about what you perhaps
+would not guess--your marriage." "How came you to think of such a thing
+as _that_?" replied the Doge, greatly annoyed; and rising to his feet,
+he turned his back upon Bodoeri and looked out of the window. "It's a
+long time to Ascension Day. By that time I hope the enemy will be
+routed, and that victory, honour, additional riches, and a wider
+extension of power will have been won for the sea-born lion of the
+Adriatic. The chaste bride shall find her bridegroom worthy of her."
+"Pshaw! pshaw!" interrupted Bodoeri, impatiently; "you are talking
+about that memorable ceremony on Ascension Day, when you will throw the
+gold ring from the Bucentaur into the waves under the impression that
+you are wedding the Adriatic Sea. But do you not know,--you, Marino,
+you, kinsman to the sea,--of any other bride than the cold, damp,
+treacherous element which you delude yourself into the belief that you
+rule, and which only yesterday revolted against you in such dangerous
+fashion? Marry, how can you fancy lying in the arms of such a bride of
+such a wild, wayward thing? Why when you only just skimmed her lips as
+you rode along in the Bucentaur she at once began to rage and storm.
+Would an entire Vesuvius of fiery passion suffice to warm the icy bosom
+of such a false bride as that? Continually faithless, she is wedded
+time after time, nor does she receive the ring as a treasured symbol of
+love, but she extorts it as a tribute from a slave? No, Marino, I was
+thinking of your marriage to the most beautiful child of the earth than
+can be found." "You are prating utter nonsense, utter nonsense, I tell
+you, old man," murmured Falieri without turning away from the window.
+"I, a grey-haired old man, eighty years of age, burdened with toil and
+trouble, who have never been married, and now hardly capable of
+loving"---- "Stop," cried Bodoeri, "don't slander yourself. Does not
+the Winter, however rough and cold he may be, at last stretch out his
+longing arms towards the beautiful goddess who comes to meet him borne
+by balmy western winds? And when he presses her to his benumbed bosom,
+when a gentle glow pervades his veins, where then is his ice and his
+snow? You say you are eighty years old; that is true; but do you
+measure old age then by years merely? Don't you carry your head as
+erect and walk with as firm a step as you did forty summers ago? Or do
+you perhaps feel that your strength is failing you, that you must carry
+a lighter sword, that you grow faint when you walk fast, or get short
+of breath when you ascend the steps of the Ducal Palace?" "No, by
+Heaven, no," broke in Falieri upon his friend, as he turned away from
+the window with an abrupt passionate movement and approached him, "no,
+I feel no traces of age upon me." "Well then," continued Bodoeri, "take
+deep draughts in your old age of all the delights of earth which are
+now destined for you. Elevate the woman whom I have chosen for you to
+be your Dogess; and then all the ladies of Venice will be constrained
+to admit that she stands first of all in beauty and in virtue, even as
+the Venetians recognise in you their captain in valour, intellect, and
+power."
+
+Bodoeri now began to sketch the picture of a beautiful woman, and in
+doing so he knew how to mix his colours so cleverly, and lay them on
+with so much vigour and effect, that old Falieri's eyes began to
+sparkle, and his face grew redder and redder, whilst he puckered up his
+mouth and smacked his lips as if he were draining sundry glasses of
+fiery Syracuse. "But who is this paragon of loveliness of whom you are
+speaking?" said he at last with a smirk. "I mean nobody else but my
+dear niece--it's she I mean," replied Bodoeri. "What! your niece?"
+interrupted Falieri. "Why, she was married to Bertuccio Nenolo when I
+was Podesta of Treviso." "Oh! you are thinking about my niece
+Francesca," continued Bodoeri, "but it is her sweet daughter whom I
+intend for you. You know how rude, rough Nenolo was enticed to the wars
+and drowned at sea. Francesca buried her pain and grief in a Roman
+nunnery, and so I had little Annunciata brought up in strict seclusion
+at my villa in Treviso"---- "What!" cried Falieri, again impatiently
+interrupting the old man, "you mean me to raise your niece's daughter
+to the dignity of Dogess? How long is it since Nenolo was married?
+Annunciata must be a child--at the most only ten years old. When I was
+Podesta in Treviso, Nenolo had not even thought of marrying, and
+that's"---- "Twenty-five years ago," interposed Bodoeri, laughing;
+"come, you are getting all at sea with your memory of the flight of
+time, it goes so rapidly with you. Annunciata is a maiden of nineteen,
+beautiful as the sun, modest, submissive, inexperienced in love, for
+she has hardly ever seen a man. She will cling to you with childlike
+affection and unassuming devotion." "I will see her, I will see her,"
+exclaimed the Doge, whose eyes again beheld the picture of the
+beautiful Annunciata which Bodoeri had sketched.
+
+His desire was gratified the self-same day; for immediately he got back
+to his own apartments from the meeting of the Great Council, the crafty
+Bodoeri, who no doubt had many reasons for wishing to see his niece
+Dogess at Falieri's side, brought the lovely Annunciata to him
+secretly. Now, when old Falieri saw the angelic maiden, he was quite
+taken aback by her wonderful beauty, and was scarcely able to stammer
+out a few unintelligible words as he sued for her hand. Annunciata, no
+doubt well instructed by Bodoeri beforehand, fell upon her knees before
+the princely old man, her cheeks flushing crimson. She grasped his hand
+and pressed it to her lips, softly whispering, "O sir, will you indeed
+honour me by raising me to a place at your side on your princely
+throne? Oh! then I will reverence you from the depths of my soul, and
+will continue your faithful handmaiden as long as I have breath." Old
+Falieri was beside himself with happiness and delight. As Annunciata
+took his hand he felt a convulsive throb in every limb; and then his
+head and all his body began to tremble and totter to such a degree that
+he had to sink hurriedly into his great arm-chair. It seemed as if he
+were about to refute Bodoeri's good opinion as to the strength and
+toughness of his eighty summers. Bodoeri, in fact, could not keep back
+the peculiar smile that darted across his lips; innocent, un*
+sophisticated Annunciata observed nothing; and happily no one else was
+present Finally it was resolved for some reason--either because old
+Falieri felt in what an uncomfortable position he would appear in the
+eyes of the people as the betrothed of a maiden of nineteen, or because
+it occurred to him as a sort of presentiment that the Venetians, who
+were so prone to mockery, ought not to be so directly challenged to
+indulge in it, or because he deemed it better to say nothing at all
+about the critical period of betrothal--at any rate, it was resolved,
+with Bodoeri's consent, that the marriage should be celebrated with the
+greatest secrecy, and that then some days later the Dogess should be
+introduced to the seignory and the people as if she had been some time
+married to Falieri, and had just arrived from Treviso, where she had
+been staying during Falieri's mission to Avignon.
+
+Let us now turn our eyes upon yon neatly dressed handsome youth who is
+going up and down the Rialto with his purse of sequins in his hand,
+conversing with Jews, Turks, Armenians, Greeks.[19] He turns away his
+face with a frown, walks on further, stands still, turns round, and
+ultimately has himself rowed by a gondolier to St. Mark's Square. There
+he walks up and down with uncertain hesitating steps, his arms folded
+and his eyes bent upon the ground; nor does he observe, or even have
+any idea, that all the whispering and low coughing from various windows
+and various richly draped balconies are love-signals which are meant
+for him. Who would have easily recognised in this youth the same
+Antonio who a few days before had lain on the marble pavement in front
+of the Custom-house, poor, ragged, and miserable? "My dear boy! My dear
+golden boy, Antonio, good day, good day!" Thus he was greeted by the
+old beggar-woman, who sat on the steps leading to St. Mark's Church,
+and whom he was going past without observing. Turning abruptly round,
+he recognised the old woman, and, dipping his hand into his purse, took
+out a handful of sequins with the intention of throwing them to her.
+"Oh! keep your gold in your purse," chuckled and laughed the old woman;
+"what should I do with your money? am I not rich enough? But if you
+want to do me a kindness, get me a new hood made, for this which I am
+now wearing is no longer any protection against wind and weather. Yes,
+please get me one, my dear boy, my dear golden boy,--but keep away from
+the Fontego,--keep away from the Fontego." Antonio stared into the old
+woman's pale yellow face, the deep wrinkles in which twitched
+convulsively in a strange awe-inspiring way. And when she clapped her
+lean bony hands together so that the joints cracked, and continued her
+disagreeable laugh, and went on repeating in a hoarse voice, "Keep away
+from the Fontego," Antonio cried, "Can you not have done with that mad
+insane nonsense, you old witch?"
+
+As Antonio uttered this word, the old woman, as if struck by a
+lightning-flash, came rolling down the high marble steps like a ball.
+Antonio leapt forward and grasped her by both hands, and so prevented
+her from falling heavily. "O my good lad, my good lad," said the old
+crone in a low, querulous voice, "what a hideous word that was which
+you uttered. Kill me rather than repeat that word to me again. Oh! you
+don't know how deeply you have cut me to the heart, me--who have such a
+true affection for you--no, you don't know"---- Abruptly breaking off,
+she wrapped up her head in the dark brown cloth flaps which covered her
+shoulders like a short mantle, and sighed and moaned as if suffering
+unspeakable pain. Antonio felt his heart strangely moved; lifting up
+the old woman, he carried her up into the vestibule of the church, and
+set her down upon one of the marble benches which were there. "You have
+been kind to me, old woman," he began, after he had liberated her head
+from the ugly cloth flaps, "you have been kind to me, since it is to
+you that I really owe all my prosperity; for if you had not stood by me
+in the hour of need, I should long ere this have been at the bottom of
+the sea, nor should I have rescued the old Doge, and received these
+good sequins. But even if you had not shown that kindness to me, I yet
+feel that I should have a special liking for you as long as I live, in
+spite of the fact that your insane behaviour--chuckling and laughing so
+horribly--strikes my heart with awe. To tell you the truth, old dame,
+even when I had hard work to get a living by carrying merchandise and
+rowing, I always felt as if I must work still harder that I might have
+a few pence to give you." "O son of my heart, my golden Tonino," cried
+the old woman, raising her shrivelled arms above her head, whilst her
+staff fell rattling on the marble floor and rolled away from her, "O
+Tonino mine, I know it; yes, I know it; you must cling to me with all
+your soul, you may do as you will, for--but hush! hush! hush!" The old
+woman stooped painfully down in order to reach her staff, but Antonio
+picked it up and handed it to her.
+
+Leaning her sharp chin on her staff, and riveting her eyes in a set
+stare upon the ground, she began to speak in a reserved but hollow
+voice, "Tell me, my child, have you no recollection at all of any
+former time, of what you did or where you were before you found
+yourself here, a poor wretch hardly able to keep body and soul
+together?" With a deep sigh, Antonio took his seat beside the old crone
+and then began, "Alas! mother, only too well do I know that I was born
+of parents living in the most prosperous circumstances; but who they
+were and how I came to leave them, of this I have not the slightest
+notion, nor could I have. I remember very well a tall handsome man, who
+often took me in his arms and smothered me with kisses and put sweets
+in my mouth. And I can also in the same way call to mind a pleasant and
+pretty lady, who used to dress and undress me and place me in a soft
+little bed every night, and who in fact was very kind to me in every
+way. They used to talk to me in a foreign, sonorous language, and I
+also stammered several words of the same tongue after them. Whilst I
+was an oarsman my jealous rivals used to say I must be of German
+origin, from the colour of my hair and eyes, and from my general build.
+And this I believe myself, for the language which that man spoke (he
+must have been my father) was German. But the most vivid recollection
+which I have of that time is that of one terrible night, when I was
+awakened out of deep sleep by a fearful scream of distress. People were
+running about the house; doors were being opened and banged to; I grew
+terribly frightened, and began to cry loudly. Then the lady who used to
+dress me and take care of me burst into the room, snatched me out of
+bed, stopped my mouth, enveloped me in shawls, and ran off with me.
+From that moment I can remember nothing more, until I found myself
+again in a splendid house, situated in a most charming district. Then
+there rises up the image of a man whom I called 'father,' a majestic
+man of noble but benevolent appearance. Like all the rest in the house,
+he spoke Italian.
+
+"For several weeks I had not seen my father, when one day several
+ugly-looking strangers came and kicked up a great deal of noise in the
+house, rummaging about and turning out everything. When they saw me
+they asked who I was, and what I was doing there? 'Don't you know I'm
+Antonio, and belong to the house?' I replied; but they laughed in my
+face and tore off all my fine clothes and turned me out of doors,
+threatening to have me whipped if I dared to show myself again. I ran
+away screaming and crying. I had not gone a hundred yards from the
+house when I met an old man, whom I recognised as being one of my
+foster-father's servants. 'Come along, Antonio,' he said, taking hold
+of my hand, 'come along, my poor boy, that house is now closed to us
+both for ever. We must both look out and see how we can earn a crust of
+bread.'
+
+"The old man brought me along with him here. He was not so poor as he
+seemed to be from his mean clothing. Directly we arrived I saw him rip
+up his jerkin and produce a bag of sequins; and he spent the whole day
+running about on the Rialto, now acting as broker, now dealing on his
+own account. I had always to be close at his heels; and whenever he had
+made a bargain he had a habit of begging a trifle for the _figliuolo_
+(little boy). Every one whom I looked boldly in the face was glad to
+pull out a few pence, which the old man pocketed with infinite
+satisfaction, affirming, as he stroked my cheeks, that he was saving it
+up to buy me a new jerkin. I was very comfortable with the old man,
+whom the people called Old Father Bluenose, though for what reason I
+don't know. But this life did not last long. You will remember that
+terrible time, old woman, when one day the earth began to tremble, and
+towers and palaces were shaken to their very foundations and began to
+reel and totter, and the bells to ring as if tolled by the arms of
+invisible giants. Hardly seven years have passed since that day.
+Fortunately I escaped along with my old man out of the house before it
+fell in with a crash behind us. There was no business doing; everybody
+on the Rialto seemed stunned, and everything lifeless. But this
+dreadful event was only the precursor of another approaching monster,
+which soon breathed out its poisonous breath over the town and the
+surrounding country. It was known that the pestilence, which had first
+made its way from the Levant into Sicily, was committing havoc in
+Tuscany.[20] As yet Venice had been spared. One day Old Father Bluenose
+was dealing with an Armenian on the Rialto; they were agreed over their
+bargain, and warmly shook hands. Father Bluenose had sold the Armenian
+certain good wares at a very low price, and now asked for the usual
+trifle for the _figliuolo_. The stranger, a big stalwart man with a
+thick curly beard (I can see him now), bent a kind look upon me, and
+then kissed me, pressing a few sequins into my hand, which I hastily
+pocketed. We took a gondola to St. Mark's. On the way the old man asked
+me for the sequins, but for some reason or other, I don't know what
+induced me to do it, I maintained that I must keep them myself, since
+the Armenian had wished me to do so. The old man got angry; but whilst
+he was quarrelling with me I noticed a disagreeable dirty yellow colour
+spreading over his face, and that he was mixing up all sorts of
+incoherent nonsense in his talk. When we reached the Square he reeled about
+like a drunken man, until he fell to the ground in front of the Ducal
+Palace--dead. With a loud wail I threw myself upon the corpse. The people
+came running round us, but as soon as the dreaded cry 'The pestilence!
+the pestilence!' was heard, they scattered and flew apart in terror. At the
+same moment I was seized by a dull numbing pain, and my senses left me.
+
+"When I awoke I found I was in a spacious room, lying on a plain
+mattress, and covered with a blanket. Round about me there were fully
+twenty or thirty other pale ghastly forms lying on similar mattresses.
+As I learned later, certain compassionate monks, who happened to be
+just coming out of St. Mark's, had, on finding signs of life in me, put
+me in a gondola and got me taken over to Giudecca into the monastery
+of San Giorgio Maggiore, where the Benedictines had established a
+hospital. How can I describe to you, old woman, this moment of
+re-awakening? The violence of the plague had completely robbed me of
+all recollections of the past. Just as if the spark of life had been
+suddenly dropped into a lifeless statue, I had but a momentary kind
+of existence, so to speak, linked on to nothing. You may imagine
+what trouble, what distress this life occasioned me in which my
+consciousness seemed to swim in empty space without an anchorage. All
+that the monks could tell me was that I had been found beside Father
+Bluenose, whose son I was generally accounted to be. Gradually and
+slowly I gathered my thoughts together, and tried to reflect upon my
+previous life, but what I have told you, old dame, is all that I can
+remember of it, and that consists only of certain individual
+disconnected pictures. Oh! this miserable being-alone-in-the-world! I
+can't be gay and happy, no matter what may happen!" "Tonino, my dear
+Tonino," said the old woman, "be contented with what the present moment
+gives you."
+
+"Say no more, old woman, say no more," interrupted Antonio; "there is
+still something else which embitters my life, following me about
+incessantly everywhere; I know it will be the utter ruin of me in the
+end. An unspeakable longing,--a consuming aspiration for something,--I
+can neither say nor even conceive what it is--has taken complete
+possession of my heart and mind since I awoke to renewed life in the
+hospital. Whilst I was still poor and wretched, and threw myself down
+at night on my hard couch, weary and worn out by the hard heavy labour
+of the day, a dream used to come to me, and, fanning my hot brow with
+balmy rustling breezes, shed about my heart all the inexpressible bliss
+of some single happy moment, in which the Eternal Power had been
+pleased to grant me in thought a glimpse of the delights of heaven, and
+the memory of which was treasured up in the recesses of my soul I now
+rest on soft cushions, and no labour consumes my strength: but if I
+awaken out of a dream, or if in my waking hours the recollection of
+that great moment returns to my mind, I feel that the lonely wretched
+existence I lead is just as much an oppressive burden now as it was
+then, and that it is vain for me to try and shake it off. All my
+thinking and all my inquiries are fruitless; I cannot fathom what this
+glorious thing is which formerly happened in my life. Its mysterious
+and alas! to me, unintelligible echo, as it were, fills me with such
+great happiness; but will not this happiness pass over into the most
+agonising pain, and torture me to death, when I am obliged to
+acknowledge that all my hope of ever finding that unknown Eden again,
+nay, that even the courage to search for it, is lost? Can there indeed
+remain traces of that which has vanished without leaving any sign
+behind it?" Antonio ceased speaking, and a deep and painful sigh
+escaped his breast.
+
+During his narrative the old crone had behaved like one who sympathised
+fully with his trouble, and felt all that he felt, and like a mirror
+reflected every movement and gesture which the pain wrung from him.
+"Tonino," she now began in a tearful voice, "my dear Tonino, do you
+mean to tell me that you let your courage sink because the remembrance
+of some glorious moment in your life has perished out of your mind? You
+foolish child! You foolish child! Listen to--hi! hi! hi!" The old woman
+began to chuckle and laugh in her usual disagreeable way, and to hop
+about on the marble floor. Some people came; she cowered down in her
+accustomed posture; they threw her alms. "Antonio--lead me away,
+Antonio--away to the sea," she croaked Almost involuntarily--he could
+not explain how it came about--he took her by the arm and led her
+slowly across St. Mark's Square. On the way the old woman muttered
+softly and solemnly, "Antonio, do you see these dark stains of blood
+here on the ground? Yes, blood--much blood--much blood everywhere! But,
+hi! hi! hi! Roses will spring up out of the blood--beautiful red roses
+for a wreath for you--for your sweetheart. O good Lord of all, what
+lovely angel of light is this, who is coming to meet you with such
+grace and such a bright starry smile? Her lily-white arms are stretched
+out to embrace you. O Antonio, you lucky, lucky lad! bear yourself
+bravely! bear yourself bravely! And at the sweet hour of sunset
+you may pluck myrtle-leaves--myrtle-leaves for the bride--for the
+maiden-widow--hi! hi! hi! Myrtle-leaves plucked at the hour of sunset,
+but these will not be blossoms until midnight! Do you hear the
+whisperings of the night-winds? the longing moaning swell of the sea?
+Row away bravely, my bold oarsman, row away bravely!" Antonio's heart
+was deeply thrilled with awe as he listened to the old crone's wonderful
+words, which she mumbled to herself in a very peculiar and extraordinary
+way, mingled with an incessant chuckling.
+
+They came to the pillar which bears the Lion of the Adriatic. The old
+woman was going on right past it, still muttering to herself; but
+Antonio, feeling very uncomfortable at the old crone's behaviour,
+and being, moreover, stared at in astonishment by the passers-by,
+stopped and said roughly, "Here--sit you down on these steps, old
+woman, and have done with your talk; it will drive me mad. It is a
+fact that you saw my sequins in the fiery images in the clouds; but,
+for that very reason, what do you mean by prating about angels of
+light--bride--maiden-widow--roses and myrtle-leaves? Do you want to
+make a fool of me, you fearful woman, till some insane attempt hurries
+me to destruction? You shall have a new hood--bread--sequins--all that
+you want, but leave me alone." And he was about to make off hastily;
+but the old woman caught him by the mantle, and cried in a shrill
+piercing voice, "Tonino, my Tonino, do take a good look at me for once,
+or else I must go to the very edge of the Square yonder and in despair
+throw myself over into the sea." In order to avoid attracting more eyes
+upon him than he was already doing, Antonio actually stood still.
+"Tonino," went on the old woman, "sit down here beside me; my heart is
+bursting, I must tell you--Oh! do sit down here beside me." Antonio sat
+down on the steps, but so as to turn his back upon her; and he took out
+his account-book, whose white pages bore witness to the zeal with which
+he did business on the Rialto.
+
+The old woman now whispered very low, "Tonino, when you look upon my
+shrivelled features, does there not dawn upon your mind the slightest,
+faintest recollection of having known me formerly a long, long time
+ago?" "I have already told you, old woman," replied Antonio in the same
+low tones, and without turning round, "I have already told you, that I
+feel drawn towards you in a way that I can't explain to myself, but I
+don't attribute it to your ugly shrivelled face. Nay, when I look at
+your strange black glittering eyes and sharp nose, at your blue lips
+and long chin, and bristly grey hair, and when I hear your abominable
+chuckling and laughing, and your confused talk, I rather turn away from
+you with disgust, and am even inclined to believe that you possess some
+execrable power for attracting me to you." "O God! God! God!" whined
+the old dame, a prey to unspeakable pain, "what fiendish spirit of
+darkness has put such fearful thoughts into your head? O Tonino, my
+darling Tonino, the woman who took such tender loving care of you when
+a child, and who saved your life from the most threatening danger on
+that awful night--it was I."
+
+In the first moments of startled surprise Antonio turned round as if
+shot; but then he fixed his eyes upon the old woman's hideous face and
+cried angrily, "So that is the way you think you are going to befool
+me, you abominable insane old crone! The few recollections which I have
+retained of my childhood are fresh and lively. That kind and pretty
+lady who tended me--Oh! I can see her plainly now! She had a full
+bright face with some colour in it--eyes gently smiling-beautiful
+dark-brown hair--dainty hands; she could hardly be thirty years old,
+and you--you, an old woman of ninety!" "O all ye saints of Heaven!"
+interrupted the old dame, sobbing, "all ye blessed ones, what shall I
+do to make my Tonino believe in me, his faithful Margaret?" "Margaret!"
+murmured Antonio, "Margaret! That name falls upon my ears like music
+heard a long long time ago, and for a long long time forgotten.
+But--no, it is impossible--impossible." Then the old dame went on more
+calmly, dropping her eyes, and scribbling as it were with her staff on
+the ground, "You are right; the tall handsome man who used to take you
+in his arms and kiss you and give you sweets was your father, Tonino;
+and the language in which we spoke to each other was the beautiful
+sonorous German. Your father was a rich and influential merchant in
+Augsburg. His young and lovely wife died in giving birth to you. Then,
+since he could not settle down in the place where his dearest lay
+buried, he came hither to Venice, and brought me, your nurse, with him
+to take care of you. That terrible night an awful fate overtook your
+father, and also threatened you. I succeeded in saving you. A noble
+Venetian adopted you; I, deprived of all means of support, had to
+remain in Venice.
+
+"My father, a barber-surgeon, of whom it was said that he practised
+forbidden science as well, had made me familiar from my earliest
+childhood with the mysterious virtues of Nature's remedies. By him I
+was taught to wander through the fields and woods, learning the
+properties of many healing herbs, of many insignificant mosses, the
+hours when they should be plucked and gathered, and how to mix the
+juices of the various simples. But to this knowledge there was added a
+very special gift, which Heaven has endowed me with for some
+inscrutable purpose. I often see future events as if in a dim and
+distant mirror; and almost without any conscious effort of will, I
+declare in expressions which are unintelligible to myself what I have
+seen; for some unknown Power compels me, and I cannot resist it. Now
+when I had to stay behind in Venice, deserted of all the world, I
+resolved to earn a livelihood by means of my tried skill. In a brief
+time I cured the most dangerous diseases. And furthermore, as my
+presence alone had a beneficial effect upon my patients, and the soft
+stroking of my hand often brought them past the crisis in a few
+minutes, my fame necessarily soon spread through the town, and money
+came pouring in in streams. This awakened the jealousy of the
+physicians, quacks who sold their pills and essences in St. Mark's
+Square, on the Rialto, and in the Mint, poisoning their patients
+instead of curing them. They spread abroad that I was in league with
+the devil himself; and they were believed by the superstitious folk. I
+was soon arrested and brought before the ecclesiastical tribunal. O my
+Tonino, what horrid tortures did they inflict upon me in order to force
+from me a confession of the most damnable of all alliances! I remained
+firm. My hair turned white; my body withered up to a mummy; my feet and
+hands were paralysed. But there was still the terrible rack left--the
+cunningest invention of the foul fiend,--and it extorted from me a
+confession at which I shudder even now. I was to be burnt alive; but
+when the earthquake shook the foundations of the palaces and of the
+great prison, the door of the underground dungeon in which I lay
+confined sprang open of itself, and I staggered up out of my grave as
+it were through rubbish and ruins.[21] O Tonino, you called me an old
+woman of ninety; I am hardly more than fifty. This lean, emaciated
+body, this hideously distorted face, this icicle-like hair, these lame
+feet--no, it was not the lapse of years, it was only unspeakable
+tortures which could in a few months change me thus from a strong woman
+into the monstrous creature I now am. And my hideous chuckling and
+laughing--this was forced from me by the last strain on the rack, at
+the memory of which my hair even now stands on an end, and I feel
+altogether as if I were locked in a red-hot coat of mail; and since
+that time I have been constantly subject to it; it attacks me without
+my being able to check it. So don't stand any longer in awe of me,
+Tonino, Oh! it was indeed your heart which told you that as a little
+boy you lay on my bosom." "Woman," said Antonio hoarsely, wrapped up in
+his own thoughts, "woman, I feel as if I must believe you. But who was
+my father? What was he called? What was the awful fate which overtook
+him on that terrible night? Who was it who adopted me? And--what was
+that occurrence in my life which now, like some potent magical spell
+from a strange and unknown world, exercises an irresistible sway over
+my soul, so that all my thoughts are dissipated into a dark night-like
+sea, so to speak? When you tell me all this, you mysterious woman, then
+I will believe you." "Tonino," replied the old crone, sighing, "for
+your own sake I must keep silent; but the time when I may speak will
+soon come. The Fontego--the Fontego--keep away from the Fontego."
+
+"Oh!" cried Antonio angrily, "you need not begin to speak your dark
+sentences again to enchant me by some devilish wile or other. My heart
+is rent, you must speak, or"---- "Stop," interrupted she, "no
+threats--am I not your faithful nurse, who tended you?"---- Without
+waiting to hear what the old woman had got further to say, he picked
+himself up and ran away swiftly. From a distance he shouted to her,
+"You shall nevertheless have a new hood, and as many sequins besides as
+you like."
+
+
+It was in truth a remarkable spectacle, to see the old Doge Marino
+Falieri and his youthful wife: he, strong enough and robust enough in
+very truth, but with a grey beard, and innumerable wrinkles in his
+rusty brown face, with some difficulty bearing his head erect, forming
+a pathetic figure as he strode along; she, a perfect picture of grace,
+with the pure gentleness of an angel in her divinely beautiful face, an
+irresistible charm in her longing glances, a queenly dignity enthroned
+upon her open lily-white brow, shadowed by her dark locks, a sweet
+smile upon her cheeks and lips, her pretty head bent with winsome
+submissiveness, her slender form moving with ease, scarce seeming to
+touch the earth--a beautiful lady in fact, a native of another and a
+higher world. Of course you have seen angelic forms like this,
+conceived and painted by the old masters. Such was Annunciata. How then
+could it be otherwise but that every one who saw her was astonished and
+enraptured with her beauty, and all the fiery youths of the Seignory
+were consumed with passion, measuring the old Doge with mocking looks,
+and swearing in their hearts that they would be the Mars to this
+Vulcan, let the consequences be what they might? Annunciata soon found
+herself surrounded with admirers, to whose flattering and seductive
+words she listened quietly and graciously, without thinking anything in
+particular about them. The conception which her pure angelic spirit had
+formed of her relation to her aged and princely husband was that she
+ought to honour him as her supreme lord, and cling to him with all the
+unquestioning fidelity of a submissive handmaiden. He treated her
+kindly, nay tenderly; he pressed her to his ice-cold heart and called
+her his darling; he heaped up all the jewels he could find upon her;
+what else could she wish for from him, what other rights could she have
+upon him? In this way, therefore, it was impossible for the thought of
+unfaithfulness to the old man ever in any way to find lodgment in her
+mind; all that lay beyond the narrow circle of these limited relations
+was to this good child an unknown region, whose forbidden borders were
+wrapped in dark mists, unseen and unsuspected by her. Hence all efforts
+to win her love were fruitless.
+
+But the flames of passion--of love for the beautiful Dogess--burned in
+none so violently and so uncontrolled as in Michele Steno.
+Notwithstanding his youth, he was invested with the important and
+influential post of Member of the Council of Forty. Relying upon this
+fact, as well as upon his personal beauty, he felt confident of
+success. Old Marino Falieri he did not fear in the least; and, indeed,
+the old man seemed to indulge less frequently in his violent outbreaks
+of furious passion, and to have laid aside his rugged untamable
+fierceness, since his marriage. There he sat beside his beautiful
+Annunciata, spruce and prim, in the richest, gayest apparel, smirking
+and smiling, challenging in the sweet glances of his grey eyes,--from
+which a treacherous tear stole from time to time,--those who were
+present to say if any one of them could boast of such a wife as his.
+Instead of speaking in the rough arrogant tone of voice in which he had
+formerly been in the habit of expressing himself, he whispered, scarce
+moving his lips, addressed every one in the most amiable manner, and
+granted the most absurd petitions. Who would have recognised in this
+weak amorous old man the same Falieri who had in a fit of passion
+buffeted the bishop[22] on Corpus Christi Day at Treviso, and who had
+defeated the valiant Morbassan. This growing weakness spurred on
+Michele Steno to attempt the most extravagant schemes. Annunciata did
+not understand why he was constantly pursuing her with his looks and
+words; she had no conception of his real purpose, but always preserved
+the same gentle, calm, and friendly bearing towards him. It was just
+this quiet unconscious behaviour, however, which drove him wild, which
+drove him to despair almost. He determined to effect his end by
+sinister means. He managed to involve Annunciata's most confidential
+maid in a love intrigue, and she at last permitted him to visit her at
+night. Thus he believed he had paved a way to Annunciata's unpolluted
+chamber; but the Eternal Power willed that this treacherous iniquity
+should recoil upon the head of its wicked author.
+
+One night it chanced that the Doge, who had just received the ill
+tidings of the battle which Nicolo Pisani had lost against Doria off
+Porto Longo,[23] was unable to sleep owing to care and anxiety, and was
+rambling through the passages of the Ducal Palace. Then he became aware
+of a shadow stealing apparently out of Annunciata's apartments and
+creeping towards the stairs. He at once rushed towards it; it was
+Michele Steno leaving his mistress. A terrible thought flashed across
+Falieri's mind; with the cry "Annunciata!" he threw himself upon Steno
+with his drawn dagger in his hand. But Steno, who was stronger and more
+agile than the old man, averted the thrust, and knocked him down with a
+violent blow of his fist; then, laughing loudly and shouting,
+"Annunciata! Annunciata!" he rushed downstairs. The old man picked
+himself up and stole towards Annunciata's apartments, his heart on fire
+with the torments of hell. All was quiet, as still as the grave. He
+knocked; a strange maid opened the door--not the one who was in the
+habit of sleeping near Annunciata's chamber. "What does my princely
+husband command at this late and unusual hour?" asked Annunciata in a
+calm and sweetly gentle tone, for she had meanwhile thrown on a light
+night-robe and was now come forward. Old Falieri stared at her
+speechless; then, raising both hands above his head, he cried, "No, it
+is not possible, it is not possible." "What is not possible, my
+princely sir?" asked Annunciata, startled at the deep solemn tones of
+the old man's voice. But Falieri, without answering her question,
+turned to the maid, "Why are _you_ sleeping here? why does not Luigia
+sleep here as usual?" "Oh!" replied the little one, "Luigia would make
+me exchange places with her to-night; she is sleeping in the ante-room
+close by the stairs." "Close by the stairs!" echoed Falieri, delighted;
+and he hurried away to the ante-room. At his loud knocking Luigia
+opened the door; and when she saw the Doge, her master's face inflamed
+with rage, and his flashing eyes, she threw herself upon her bare knees
+and confessed her shame, which was set beyond all doubt by a pair of
+elegant gentleman's gloves lying on the easy-chair, whilst the sweet
+scent about them betrayed their dandified owner. Hotly incensed at
+Steno's unheard-of impudence, the Doge wrote to him next morning,
+forbidding him, on pain of banishment from the town, to approach the
+Ducal Palace, or the presence of the Doge and Dogess.
+
+Michele Steno was wild with fury at the failure of his well-planned
+scheme, and at the disgrace of being thus banished from the presence of
+his idol. Now when he had to see from a distance how gently and kindly
+the Dogess spoke to other young men of the Seignory--that was indeed
+her natural manner--his envy and the violence of his passion filled his
+mind with evil thoughts. The Dogess had without doubt only scorned him
+because he had been anticipated by others with better luck; and he had
+the hardihood to utter his thoughts openly and publicly. Now whether it
+was that old Falieri had tidings of this shameless talk, or whether he
+came to look upon the occurrence of that memorable night as the warning
+finger of destiny, or whether now, in spite of all his calmness and
+equanimity, and his perfect confidence in the fidelity of his wife, he
+saw clearly the danger of the unnatural position in which he stood in
+respect to her--at any rate he became ill-tempered and morose. He was
+plagued and tortured by all the fiends of jealousy, and confined
+Annunciata to the inner apartments of the Ducal Palace, so that no man
+ever set eyes upon her. Bodoeri took his niece's part, and soundly
+rated old Falieri; but he would not hear of any change in his conduct.
+
+All this took place shortly before Holy Thursday. On the occasion of
+the popular sports which take place on this day in St. Mark's Square,
+it was customary for the Dogess to take her seat beside the Doge, under
+a canopy erected on the balcony which lies opposite to the Piazetti.
+Bodoeri reminded the Doge of this custom, and told him that it would be
+very absurd, and sure to draw down upon him the mocking laughter of
+both populace and Seignory, if, in the teeth of custom and usage, he
+let his perverse jealousy exclude Annunciata from this honour. "Do you
+think," replied old Falieri, whose pride was immediately aroused, "do
+you think I am such an idiotic old fool that I am afraid to show my
+most precious jewel for fear of thievish hands, and that I could not
+prevent her being stolen from me with my good sword? No, old man, you
+are mistaken; to-morrow Annunciata shall go with me in solemn
+procession across St. Mark's Square, that the people may see their
+Dogess, and on Holy Thursday she shall receive the nosegay from the
+bold sailor who comes sailing down out of the air to her." The Doge was
+thinking of a very ancient custom as he said these words. On Holy
+Thursday a bold fellow from amongst the people is drawn up from the sea
+to the summit of the tower of St. Mark's, in a machine that resembles a
+little ship and is suspended on ropes, then he shoots from the top of
+the tower with the speed of an arrow down to the Square where the Doge
+and Dogess are sitting, and presents a nosegay of flowers to the
+Dogess, or to the Doge if he is alone.
+
+The next day the Doge carried out his intention. Annunciata had to don
+her most magnificent robes; and surrounded by the Seignory and attended
+by pages and guards, she and Falieri crossed the Square when it was
+swarming with people. They pushed and squeezed themselves to death
+almost to see the beautiful Dogess; and he who succeeded in setting
+eyes upon her thought he had taken a peep into Paradise and had beheld
+the loveliest of the bright and beautiful angels. But according to
+Venetian habits, in the midst of the wildest outbreaks of their frantic
+admiration, here and there were heard all sorts of satiric phrases and
+rhymes--and coarse enough too--aimed at old Falieri and his young wife.
+Falieri, however, appeared not to notice them, but strode along as
+pathetically as possible at Annunciata's side, smirking and smiling all
+over his face, and free on this occasion from all jealousy, although he
+must have seen the glances full of burning passion which were directed
+upon his beautiful lady from all sides. Arrived before the principal
+entrance to the Palace, the guards had some difficulty in driving back
+the crowd, so that the Doge and Dogess might go in; but here and there
+were still standing isolated knots of better-dressed citizens, who
+could not very well be refused entrance into even the inner quadrangle
+of the Palace. Now it happened just at the moment that the Dogess
+entered the quadrangle, that a young man, who with a few others stood
+under the portico, fell down suddenly upon the hard marble floor, as if
+dead, with the loud scream, "O good God! good God!" The people ran
+together from every side and surrounded the dead man, so that the
+Dogess could not see him; yet, as the young man fell, she felt as if a
+red-hot knife were suddenly thrust into her heart; she grew pale; she
+reeled, and was only prevented from fainting by the smelling-bottles of
+the ladies who hastened to her assistance. Old Falieri, greatly alarmed
+and put out by the accident, wished the young man and his fit anywhere;
+and he carried his Annunciata, who hung her pretty head on her bosom
+and closed her eyes like a sick dove, himself up the steps into her own
+apartments in the interior of the Palace, although it was very hard
+work for him to do so.
+
+Meanwhile the people, who had increased to crowds in the inner
+quadrangle, had been spectators of a remarkable scene. They were about
+to lift up the young man, whom they took to be quite dead, and carry
+him away, when an ugly old beggar-woman, all in rags, came limping up
+with a loud wail of grief; and punching their sides and ribs with her
+sharp elbows she made a way for herself through the thick of the crowd.
+When she at length saw the senseless youth, she cried, "Let him be,
+fools; you stupid people, let him be; he is not dead." Then she
+squatted down beside him; and taking his head in her lap she gently
+rubbed and stroked his forehead, calling him by the sweetest of names.
+As the people noted the old woman's ugly apish face, and the repulsive
+play of its muscles, bending over the young fellow's fine handsome
+face, his soft features now stiff and pale as in death, when they saw
+her filthy rags fluttering about over the rich clothing the young man
+wore, and her lean brownish-yellow arms and long hands trembling upon
+his forehead and exposed breast--they could not in truth resist
+shuddering with awe. It looked as if it were the grinning form of death
+himself in whose arms the young man lay. Hence the crowd standing round
+slipped away quietly one after the other, till there were only a few
+left They, when the young man opened his eyes with a deep sigh, took
+him up and carried him, at the old woman's request, to the Grand Canal,
+where a gondola took them both on board, the old woman and the youth,
+and brought them to the house which she had indicated as his dwelling.
+Need it be said that the young man was Antonio, and that the old woman
+was the beggar of the steps of the Franciscan Church, who wanted to
+make herself out to be his nurse?
+
+When Antonio was quite recovered from his stupefaction and perceived
+the old woman at his bed-side, and knew that she had just been giving
+him some strengthening drops, he said brokenly in a hoarse voice,
+bending a long gloomy melancholy gaze upon her, "_You_ with me,
+Margaret--that is good; what more faithful nurse could I have found
+than you? Oh! forgive me, mother, that I, a doltish, senseless boy,
+doubted for an instant what you discovered to me. Yes, you are _the_
+Margaret who reared me, who cared for me and tended me; I knew it all
+the time, but some evil spirit bewildered my thoughts. I have seen her;
+it is she--it is she. Did I not tell you there was some mysterious
+magical power dwelling in me, which exercised an uncontrollable
+supremacy over me? It has emerged from its obscurity dazzling with
+light, to effect my destruction through nameless joy. I now know
+all--everything. Was not my foster-father Bertuccio Nenolo, and did he
+not bring me up at his country-seat near Treviso?" "Yes, yes," replied
+the old woman, "it was indeed Bertuccio Nenolo, the great sea-captain,
+whom the sea devoured as he was about to adorn his temples with the
+victor's wreath." "Don't interrupt me," continued Antonio; "listen
+patiently to what I have to say.
+
+"With Bertuccio Nenolo I lived in clover. I wore fine clothes; the
+table was always covered when I was hungry; and after I had said my
+three prayers properly I was allowed to run about the woods and fields
+just as I pleased. Close beside the villa there was a little wood of
+sweet pines, cool and dark, and filled with sweet scents and songs.
+There one evening, when the sun began to sink, I threw me down beneath
+a big tree, tired with running and jumping about, and stared up at the
+blue sky. Perhaps I was stupefied by the fragrant smell of the
+flowering herbs in the midst of which I lay; at any rate, my eyes
+closed involuntarily, and I sank into a state of dreamy reverie, from
+which I was awakened by a rustling, as if some one had struck a blow in
+the grass beside me. I started up into a sitting posture; an angelic
+child with heavenly eyes stood near me and looked down upon me, smiling
+most sweetly and bewitchingly. 'O good boy,' she said, in a low soft
+voice, 'how beautiful and calmly you sleep, and yet death, nasty death,
+was so near to you.' Close beside my breast I saw a small black snake
+with its head crushed; the little girl had killed the poisonous reptile
+with a switch from a nut-tree, and just as it was wriggling on to my
+destruction. Then a trembling of sweet awe fell upon me; I knew that
+angels often came down from heaven above to rescue men in person from
+the threatening attack of some evil enemy. I fell upon my knees and
+raised my folded hands. 'Oh! you are surely an angel of light, sent by
+God to save my life,' I cried. The pretty creature stretched out both
+arms towards me and said softly, whilst a deeper flush mantled upon her
+cheeks, 'No, good boy; I am not an angel, but a girl--a child like
+you.' Then my feeling of awe gave place to a nameless delight, which
+spread like a gentle warmth through all my limbs. I rose to my feet; we
+clasped each other in our arms, our lips met, and we were speechless,
+weeping, sobbing with sweet unutterable sadness.
+
+"Then a clear silvery voice cried through the wood, 'Annunciata!
+Annunciata!' 'I must go now, darling boy, mother is calling me,'
+whispered the little girl. My heart was rent with unspeakable pain.
+'Oh! I love you so much,' I sobbed, and the scalding tears fell from
+the little girl's eyes upon my cheeks. 'I am so--so fond of you, good
+boy,' she cried, pressing a last kiss upon my lips. 'Annunciata,' the
+voice cried again; and the little girl disappeared behind the bushes.
+Now that, Margaret, was the moment when the mighty spark of love fell
+upon my soul, and it will gather strength, and, enkindling flame after
+flame, will continue to burn there for ever. A few days afterwards I
+was turned out of the house.
+
+"Father Bluenose told me, since I did not cease talking about the
+lovely child who had appeared to me, and whose sweet voice I thought
+I heard in the rustling of the trees, in the gushing murmurs of
+the springs, and in the mysterious soughing of the sea--yes, then
+Father Bluenose told me that the girl could be none other than
+Nenolo's daughter Annunciata, who had come to the villa with her
+mother Francesca, but had left it again on the following day. O
+mother--Margaret--help me. Heaven! This Annunciata--is the Dogess."
+And Antonio buried his face in the pillows, weeping and sobbing with
+unspeakable emotion.
+
+"My dear Tonino," said the old woman, "rouse yourself and be a man;
+come, do resist bravely this foolish emotion. Come, come, how can you
+think of despairing when you are in love? For whom does the golden
+flower of hope blossom if not for the lover? You do not know in the
+evening what the morning may bring; what you have beheld in your dreams
+comes to meet you in living form. The castle that hovered in the air
+stands all at once on the earth, a substantial and splendid building.
+See here, Tonino, you are not paying the least heed to my words; but my
+little finger tells me, and so does somebody else as well, that the
+bright standard of love is gaily waving for you out at sea. Patience,
+Tonino--patience, my boy!" Thus the old woman sought to comfort poor
+Antonio; and her words did really sound like sweet music. He would not
+let her leave him again. The beggar-woman had disappeared from the
+steps of the Franciscan Church, and in her stead people saw Signor
+Antonio's housekeeper, dressed in becoming matronly style, limping
+about St. Mark's Square and buying the requisite provisions for his
+table.
+
+Holy Thursday was come. It was to be celebrated on this occasion in
+more magnificent fashion than it had ever been before. In the middle of
+the Piazzetta of St. Mark's a high staging was erected for a special
+kind of artistic fire--something perfectly new, which was to be
+exhibited by a Greek--a man experienced in such matters. In the evening
+old Falieri came out on the balcony along with his beautiful lady,
+reflecting his pride and happiness in the magnificence of his
+surroundings, and with radiant eyes challenging all who stood near to
+admire and wonder. As he was about to take his seat on the chair of
+state he perceived Michele Steno actually on the same balcony with him,
+and saw that he had chosen a position whence he could keep his eyes
+constantly fixed upon the Dogess, and must of necessity be observed by
+her. Completely overmastered by furious rage, and wild with jealousy,
+Falieri shouted in a loud and commanding tone that Steno was to be at
+once removed from the balcony. Michele Steno raised his hand against
+Falieri, but that same moment the guards appeared, and compelled him to
+quit his place, which he did, foaming with rage and grinding his teeth,
+and threatening revenge in the most horrible imprecations.
+
+Meanwhile Antonio, utterly beside himself at sight of his beloved
+Annunciata, had made his way out through the crowd, and was striding
+backwards and forwards in the darkness of the night alone along the
+edge of the sea, his heart rent by unutterable anguish. He debated
+within himself whether it would not be better to extinguish the
+consuming fire within him in the ice-cold waves than to be slowly
+tortured to death by hopeless pain. But little was wanting, and he had
+leapt into the sea; he was already standing on the last step that goes
+down to the water, when a voice called to him from a little boat, "Ay,
+a very good evening to you, Signor Antonio." By the reflection cast by
+the illuminations of the Square, he recognised that it was merry
+Pietro, one of his former comrades. He was standing in the boat, his
+new cap adorned with feathers and tinsel, and his new striped jacket
+gaily decorated with ribbons, whilst he held in his hand a large and
+beautiful nosegay of sweet-scented flowers. "Good evening, Pietro,"
+shouted Antonio back, "what grand folks are you going to row to-night
+that you are decked off so fine?" "Oh!" replied Pietro, dancing till
+his boat rocked; "see you, Signor Antonio, I am going to earn my three
+sequins to-day; for I'm going to make the journey up to St. Mark's
+Tower and then down again, to take this nosegay to the beautiful
+Dogess." "But isn't that a risky and break-neck adventure, Pietro, my
+friend?" asked Antonio. "Well," he replied, "there is some little
+chance of breaking one's neck, especially as we go to-day right through
+the middle of the artificial fire. The Greek says, to be sure, that he
+has arranged everything so that the fire will not hurt a hair of
+anybody's head, but"---- Pietro shrugged his shoulders.
+
+Antonio stepped down to Pietro in the boat, and now perceived that he
+stood close in front of the machine, which was fastened to a rope
+coming out of the sea. Other ropes, by means of which the machine was
+to be drawn up, were lost in the night. "Now listen, Pietro," began
+Antonio, after a silent pause, "see here, comrade, if you could earn
+ten sequins to-day without exposing your life to danger, would it not
+be more agreeable to you?" "Why, of course," and Pietro burst into a
+good hearty laugh. "Well then," continued Antonio, "take these ten
+sequins and change clothes with me, and let me take your place, I will
+go up instead of you. Do, my good friend and comrade, Pietro, let me go
+up." Pietro shook his head dubiously, and weighing the money in his
+hand, said, "You are very kind, Signor Antonio, to still call a poor
+devil like me your comrade, and you are generous as well. The money I
+should certainly like very much; but, on the other hand, to place this
+nosegay in our beautiful Dogess's hand myself, to hear her sweet
+voice--and after all that's really why I am ready to risk my life. Well,
+since it is you, Signor Antonio, I close with your offer." They both
+hastily changed their clothes; and hardly was Antonio dressed when
+Pietro cried, "Quick, into the machine; the signal is given." At the
+same moment the sea was lit up with the reflection of thousands of
+bright flashes, and all the air along the margin of the sea rang with
+loud reverberating thunders. Right through the midst of the hissing
+crackling flames of the artificial fire, Antonio rose up into the air
+with the speed of a hurricane, and shot down uninjured upon the
+balcony, hovering in front of the Dogess. She had risen to her feet and
+stepped forward; he felt her breath on his cheeks; he gave her the
+nosegay. But in the unspeakable delirious delight of the moment he was
+clasped as if in red-hot arms by the fiery pain of hopeless love.
+Senseless, insane with longing, rapture, anguish, he grasped her hand,
+and covered it with burning kisses, crying in the sharp tone of
+despairing misery, "O Annunciata!" Then the machine, like a blind
+instrument of fate, whisked him away from his beloved back to the sea,
+where he sank down stunned, quite exhausted, into Pietro's arms, who
+was waiting for him in the boat.
+
+Meanwhile the Doge's balcony was the scene of tumult and confusion. A
+small strip of paper had been found fastened to the Doge's seat,
+containing in the common Venetian dialect the words:
+
+            Il Dose Falier della bella muier,
+            I altri la gode e lui la mantien.
+
+(The Doge Falieri, the husband of the beautiful lady; others kiss her,
+and he--he keeps her.)
+
+Old Falieri burst into a violent fit of passion, and swore that the
+severest punishment should overtake the man who had been guilty of this
+audacious offence. As he cast his eyes about they fell upon Michele
+Steno standing beneath the balcony in the Square, in the full light of
+the torches; he at once commanded his guards to arrest him as the
+instigator of the outrage. This command of the Doge's provoked a
+universal cry of dissent; in giving way to his overmastering rage he
+was offering insult to both Seignory and populace, violating the rights
+of the former, and spoiling the latter's enjoyment of their holiday.
+The members of the Seignory left their places; but old Marino Bodoeri
+mixed among the people, actively representing the grave nature of the
+outrage that had been done to the head of the state, and seeking to
+direct the popular hatred upon Michele Steno. Nor had Falieri judged
+wrongly; for Michele Steno, on being expelled from the Duke's balcony,
+had really hurried off home, and there written the above-mentioned
+slanderous words; then when all eyes were fixed upon the artificial
+fire, he had fastened the strip of paper to the Doge's seat, and
+withdrawn from the gallery again unobserved. He maliciously hoped it
+would be a galling blow for them, for both the Doge and the Dogess, and
+that the wound would rankle deeply--so deeply as to touch a vital part.
+Willingly and openly he admitted the deed, and transferred all blame to
+the Doge, since he had been the first to give umbrage to _him_.
+
+The Seignory had been for some time dissatisfied with their chief, for
+instead of meeting the just expectations of the state, he gave proofs
+daily that the fiery warlike courage in his frozen and worn-out heart
+was merely like the artificial fire which bursts with a furious rush
+out of the rocket-apparatus, but immediately disappears in black
+lifeless flakes, and has accomplished nothing. Moreover, since his
+union with his young and beautiful wife (it had long before leaked out
+that he was married to her directly after attaining to the Dogate) old
+Falieri's jealousy no longer let him appear in the character of heroic
+captain, but rather of _vechio Pantalone_ (old fool); hence it was that
+the Seignory, nursing their swelling resentment, were more inclined to
+condone Michele Steno's fault, than to see justice done to their
+deeply-wounded chief. The matter was referred by the Council of Ten to
+the Forty, one of the leaders of which Michele had formerly been. The
+verdict was that Michele Steno had already suffered sufficiently, and a
+month's banishment was quite punishment enough for the offence. This
+sentence only served to feed anew and more fully old Falieri's
+bitterness against a Seignory which, instead of protecting their own
+head, had the impudence to punish insults that were offered to him as
+they would offences of merely the most insignificant description.
+
+As generally happens in the case of lovers, once a single ray of the
+happiness of love has fallen upon them, they are surrounded for days
+and weeks and months by a sort of golden veil, and dream dreams of
+Paradise; and so Antonio could not recover himself from the stupefying
+rapture of that happy moment; he could hardly breathe for delirious
+sadness. He had been well scolded by the old woman for running such a
+great risk; and she never ceased mumbling and grumbling about exposure
+to unnecessary danger.
+
+But one day she came hopping and dancing with her staff in the strange
+way she had when apparently affected by some foreign magical influence.
+Without heeding Antonio's words and questions, she began to chuckle
+and laugh, and kindling a small fire in the stove, she put a little
+pan on it, into which she poured several ingredients from many
+various-coloured phials, and made a salve, which she put into a little
+box; then she limped out of the house again, chuckling and laughing.
+She did not return until late at night, when she sat down in the
+easy-chair, panting and coughing for breath; and after she had in a
+measure recovered from her great exhaustion, she at length began,
+"Tonino, my boy Tonino, whom do you think I have come from? See--try if
+you can guess. Whom do I come from? where have I been?" Antonio looked
+at her, and a singular instinctive feeling took possession of him.
+"Well now," chuckled the old woman, "I have come from her--her herself,
+from the pretty dove, lovely Annunciata." "Don't drive me mad, old
+woman!" shouted Antonio. "What do you say?" continued she, "I am always
+thinking about you, my Tonino.
+
+"This morning, whilst I was haggling for some fine fruit under the
+peristyle of the Palace, I heard the people talking with bated breath
+of the accident that had befallen the beautiful Dogess. I inquired
+again and again of several people, and at last a big, uncultivated, red
+haired fellow, who stood leaning against a column, yawning and chawing
+lemons, said to me, 'Oh well, a young scorpion has been trying its
+little teeth on the little finger of her left hand, and there's been a
+drop or two of blood shed--that's all. My master, Signor Doctor
+Giovanni Basseggio, is now in the palace, and he has, no doubt, before
+this cut off her pretty hand, and the finger with it.' Just as the
+fellow was telling me this there arose a great noise on the broad
+steps, and a little man--such a tiny little man--came rolling down at
+our feet, screaming and lamenting, for the guards had kicked him down
+as if he had been a nine pin. The people gathered round him, laughing
+heartily; the little man struggled and fought with his legs in the air
+without being able to get up; but the red-haired fellow rushed forward,
+snatched up the little doctor, tucked him under his arm, and ran off
+with him as fast as his legs could carry him to the Canal, where he got
+into a gondola with him and rowed away--the little doctor screaming and
+yelling with all his might the whole time. I knew how it was; just as
+Signor Basseggio was getting his knife ready to cut off the pretty
+hand, the Doge had had him kicked down the steps. I also thought of
+something else--quick--quick as you can--go home make a salve--and then
+come back here to the Ducal Palace.
+
+"And I stood on the great stairs with my bright little phial in my
+hand. Old Falieri was just coming down; he darted a glance at me, and,
+his choler rising, said, 'What does this old woman want here?' Then I
+curtsied low--quite down to the ground--as well as I could, and told
+him that I had a nice remedy which would very soon cure the beautiful
+Dogess. When the old man heard that, he fixed a terrible keen look upon
+me, and stroked his grey beard into order; then he seized me by both
+shoulders and pushed me upstairs and on into the chamber, where I
+nearly fell all my length. O Tonino, there was the pretty child
+reclining on a couch, as pale as death, sighing and moaning with pain
+and softly lamenting, 'Oh! I am poisoned in every vein.' But I at once
+set to work and took off the simple doctor's silly plaster. O just
+Heaven! her dear little hand--all red as red--and swollen. Well, well,
+my salve cooled it--soothed it. 'That does it good; yes, that does it
+good,' softly whispered the sick darling. Then Marino cried quite
+delighted, 'You shall have a thousand sequins, old woman, if you save
+me the Dogess;' and therewith he left the room.
+
+"For three hours I sat there, holding her little hand in mine, stroking
+and attending to it. Then the darling woman woke up out of the gentle
+slumber into which she had fallen, and no longer felt any pain. After I
+had made a fresh poultice, she looked at me with eyes brimming with
+gladness. Then I said, 'O most noble lady, you once saved a boy's life
+when you killed the little snake that was about to attack him as he
+slept.' O Tonino, you should have seen the hot blood rush into her pale
+face, as if a ray of the setting sun had fallen upon it--and how her
+eyes flashed with the fire of joy. 'Oh! yes, old woman,' she said, 'oh!
+I was quite a child then--it was at my father's country villa. Oh! he
+was a dear pretty boy--I often think of him now. I don't think I have
+ever had a single happy experience since that time.' Then I began to
+talk about you, that you were in Venice, that your heart still beat
+with the love and rapture of that moment, that, in order to gaze _once_
+more in the heavenly eyes of the angel who saved you, you had faced the
+risk of the dangerous aerial voyage, that you it was who had given her
+the nosegay on Holy Thursday. 'O Tonino, Tonino,' she cried in an
+ecstasy of delight, 'I felt it, I felt it; when he pressed my hand to
+his lips, when he named my name, I could not conceive why it went so
+strangely to my heart; it was indeed pleasure, but pain as well. Bring
+him here, bring him to me--the pretty boy.'" As the old woman said this
+Antonio threw himself upon his knees and cried like one insane, "O good
+God! pray let no dire fate overtake me now--now at least until I have
+seen her, have pressed her to my heart." He wanted the old woman to
+take him to the Palace the very next day; but she flatly refused, since
+old Falieri was in the habit of paying visits to his sick wife nearly
+every hour that came.
+
+Several days went by; the old woman had completely cured the Dogess;
+but as yet it had been quite impossible to take Antonio to see her. The
+old woman soothed his impatience as well as she could, always repeating
+that she was constantly talking to beautiful Annunciata about the
+Antonio whose life she had saved, and who loved her so passionately.
+Tormented by all the pangs of desire and yearning love, Antonio spent
+his time in going about in his gondola and restlessly traversing the
+squares. But his footsteps involuntarily turned time after time in the
+direction of the Ducal Palace. One day he saw Pietro standing on the
+bridge close to the back part of the Palace, opposite the prisons,
+leaning on a gay-coloured oar, whilst a gondola, fastened to one of the
+pillars, was rocking on the Canal. Although small, it had a comfortable
+little deck, was adorned with tasteful carvings, and even decorated
+with the Venetian flag, so that it bore some resemblance to the
+Bucentaur. As soon as Pietro saw his former comrade he shouted out to
+him, "Hi! Signor Antonio, the best of good greetings to you; your
+sequins have brought me good luck." Antonio asked somewhat absently
+what sort of good luck he meant, and learned the important intelligence
+that nearly every evening Pietro had to take the Doge and Dogess in his
+gondola across to Giudecca, where the Doge had a nice house not far
+from San Giorgio Maggiore. Antonio stared at Pietro, and then burst out
+spasmodically, "Comrade, you may earn another ten sequins and more if
+you like. Let me take your place; I will row the Doge over." But Pietro
+informed him that he could not think of doing so, for the Doge knew him
+and would not trust himself with anybody else. At length when Antonio,
+his mind excited by all the tortures of love, began to give way to
+unbridled anger, and violently importune him, and to swear in an insane
+and ridiculous fashion that he would leap after the gondola and drag it
+down under the sea, Pietro replied laughing, "Why, Signor Antonio,
+Signor Antonio, why, I declare you have quite lost yourself in the
+Dogess's beautiful eyes." But he consented to allow Antonio to go with
+him as his assistant in rowing; he would excuse it to old Falieri on
+the ground of the weight of the boat, as well, as being himself a
+little weak and unwell, and old Falieri did always think the gondola
+went too slowly on this trip. Off Antonio ran, and he only just
+returned to the bridge in time, dressed in coarse oarsman's clothing,
+his face stained, and with a long moustache stuck above his lips, for
+the Doge came down from the Palace with the Dogess, both attired most
+splendidly and magnificently. "Who's that stranger fellow there?" began
+the Doge angrily to Pietro; and it required all Pietro's most solemn
+asseverations that he really required an assistant, before the old man
+could be induced to allow Antonio to help row the gondola.
+
+It often happens that in the midst of the wildest delirium of delight
+and rapture the soul, strengthened as it were by the power of the
+moment, is able to impose fetters upon itself, and to control the
+flames of passion which threaten to blaze out from the heart. In a
+similar way Antonio, albeit he was close beside the lovely Annunciata
+and the seam of her dress touched him, was able to hide his consuming
+passion by maintaining a firm and powerful hold upon his oar, and,
+whilst avoiding any greater risk, by only glancing at her momentarily
+now and then. Old Falieri was all smirks and smiles; he kissed and
+fondled beautiful Annunciata's little white hands, and threw his arm
+around her slender waist. In the middle of the channel, when St. Mark's
+Square and magnificent Venice with all her proud towers and palaces lay
+extended before them, old Falieri raised his head and said, gazing
+proudly about him, "Now, my darling, is it not a grand thing to ride on
+the sea with the lord--the husband of the sea? Yes, my darling, don't
+be jealous of my bride, who is submissively bearing us on her broad
+bosom. Listen to the gentle splashing of the wavelets; are they not
+words of love which she is whispering to the husband who rules her?
+Yes, yes, my darling, you indeed wear my ring on your finger, but she
+below guards in the depths of her bosom the ring of betrothal which I
+threw to her." "Oh! my princely Sir," began Annunciata, "oh! how can
+this cold treacherous water be your bride? it quite makes me shiver to
+think that you are married to this proud imperious element." Old
+Falieri laughed till his chin and beard tottered and shook. "Don't
+distress yourself, my pet," he said, "it's far better, of course, to
+rest in your soft warm arms than in the ice-cold lap of my bride below
+there; but it's a grand thing to ride on the sea with the lord of the
+sea!" Just as the Doge was saying these words, the faint strains of
+music at a distance came floating towards them. The notes of a soft
+male voice, gliding along the waves of the sea, came nearer and nearer;
+the words that were sung were--
+
+                  Ah! senza amare,
+                  Andare sul mare,
+                  Col sposo del' mare
+                  Non puo consolare.
+
+Other voices took up the strain, and the same words were repeated again
+and again in every-varying alternation, until the song died away like
+the soft breath of the wind as it were. Old Falieri appeared not to pay
+the slightest heed to the song; on the contrary, he was relating to the
+Dogess with much prolixity the meaning and history of the solemnity
+which takes place on Ascension Day when the Doge throws his ring from
+the Bucentaur and is married to the sea.
+
+He spoke of the victories of the republic, and how she had formerly
+conquered Istria and Dalmatia under the rule of Peter Urseolus the
+Second,[24] and how this ceremony had its origin in that conquest But
+if old Falieri heeded not the song, so now his tales were lost upon the
+Dogess. She sat with her mind completely wrapped up in the sweet sounds
+which came floating along the sea. When the song came to an end her
+eyes wore a strange far-off look, as if she were awakening from a
+profound dream and striving to see and interpret the images which
+sportively mocked her efforts to hold them fast. "_Senza amare, senza
+amare, non puo consolare_," she whispered softly, whilst the tears
+glistened like bright pearls in her heavenly eyes, and sighs escaped
+her breast as it heaved and sank with the violence of her emotions.
+Still smirking and smiling and talking away, the old man, with the
+Dogess at his side, stepped out upon the balcony of his house near
+San Giorgio Maggiore, without noticing that Annunciata stood at his
+side like one in a dream, speechless, her tearful eyes fixed upon some
+far-off land, whilst her heart was agitated by feelings of a singular
+and mysterious character. A young man in gondolier's costume blew a
+blast on a conch-shaped horn, till the sounds echoed far away over the
+sea. At this signal another gondola drew near. Meanwhile an attendant
+bearing a sunshade and a maid had approached the Doge and Dogess; and
+thus attended they went towards the palace. The second gondola came to
+shore, and from it stepped forth Marino Bodoeri and several other
+persons, amongst whom were merchants, artists, nay people out of the
+lowest classes of the populace even; and they followed the Doge.
+
+Antonio could hardly wait until the following evening, since he hoped
+then to have the desired message from his beloved Annunciata. At
+last--at last the old woman came limping in, dropped panting into the
+arm-chair, and clapped her thin bony hands together again and again,
+crying. "Tonino, O Tonino! what in the world has happened to our dear
+darling? When I went into her room, there she lay on the couch with her
+eyes half closed, her pretty head resting on her arm, neither
+slumbering nor awake, neither sick nor well. I approached her: 'Oh!
+noble lady,' said I, 'what misfortune has happened to you? Does your
+scarce-healed wound hurt you still?' But she looked at me, oh! with
+such eyes, Antonio--I have never seen anything like them. And directly
+I looked down into the humid moonlight that was in them, they withdrew
+behind the dark clouds of their silken lashes. Then sighing a sigh that
+came from the depths of her heart, she turned her lovely pale face to
+the wall and whispered softly--so softly, but oh! so sadly! that I was
+cut right to the heart, '_Amare--amare--ah! senza amare!_' I fetched a
+little chair and sat down beside her, and began to talk about you. She
+buried herself in the cushions; and her breathing, coming quicker and
+quicker and quicker, turned to sighing. I told her candidly that you
+had been in the gondola disguised, and that I would now at once without
+delay take you, who were dying of love and longing, to see her. Then
+she suddenly started up from the cushions, and whilst the scalding
+tears streamed down her cheeks, she exclaimed vehemently, 'For God's
+sake! By all the Holy Saints! no--no--I cannot see him, old woman. I
+conjure you, tell him he is never--never again to come near me--never.
+Tell him he is to leave Venice, to go away at once!' 'So then you will
+let my poor Antonio die?' I interposed. Then she sank back upon the
+cushions, apparently smarting from the most unutterable anguish, and
+her voice was almost choked with tears as she sobbed out, 'Shall not I
+also die the bitterest of deaths?' At this point old Falieri entered
+the room, and at a sign from him I had to withdraw." "She has rejected
+me--away--away into the sea!" cried Antonio, giving way to utter
+despair. The old woman chuckled and laughed in her usual way, and went
+on, "You simple child! you simple child! don't you see that lovely
+Annunciata loves you with all the intensity, with all the agonised love
+of which a woman's heart is capable? You simple boy! Late to-morrow
+evening slip into the Ducal Palace; you will find me in the second
+gallery on the right from the great staircase, and then we will see
+what's to be done."
+
+The following evening as Antonio, trembling with expectant happiness,
+stole up the great staircase, his conscience suddenly smote him, as
+though he were about to commit some great crime. He was so dazed, and
+he trembled and shook so, that he was scarcely able to climb the
+stairs. He had to stop and rest by leaning himself against a column
+immediately in front of the gallery that had been indicated to him. All
+at once he was plunged in the midst of a bright glare of torches, and
+before he could move from the place old Bodoeri stood in front of him,
+accompanied by some servants, who bore the torches. Bodoeri fixed his
+eyes upon the young man, and then said, "Ha! you are Antonio; you have
+been assigned this post, I know; come, follow me." Antonio, convinced
+that his proposed interview with the Dogess was betrayed, followed, not
+without trembling. But imagine his astonishment when, on entering a
+remote room, Bodoeri embraced him and spoke of the importance of the
+post that had been assigned to him, and which he would have to maintain
+with courage and firm resolution that very night. But his amazement
+increased to anxious fear and dismay when he learned that a conspiracy
+had been long ripening against the Seignory, and that at the head of it
+was the Doge himself. And this was the night in which, agreeably to the
+resolutions come to in Falieri's house on Giudecca, the Seignory was to
+fall and old Marino Falieri was to be proclaimed sovereign Duke of
+Venice.
+
+Antonio stared at Bodoeri without uttering a word; Bodoeri interpreted
+the young man's silence as a refusal to take part in the execution of
+the formidable conspiracy, and he cried incensed, "You cowardly fool!
+You shall not leave this palace again; you shall either take up arms on
+our side or die--but talk to this man first" A tall and noble figure
+stepped forward from the dark background of the apartment. As soon as
+Antonio saw the man's face, which he could not do until he came into
+the light of the torches, and recognised it, he threw himself upon his
+knees and cried, completely losing his presence of mind at seeing him
+whom he never dreamt of seeing again, "O good God! my father, Bertuccio
+Nenolo! my dear foster-parent." Nenolo raised the young man up, clasped
+him in his arms, and said in a gentle voice, "Aye, of a verity I am
+Bertuccio Nenolo, whom you perhaps thought lay buried at the bottom of
+the sea, but I have only quite recently escaped from my shameful
+captivity at the hands of the savage Morbassan. Yes, I am the Bertuccio
+Nanolo who adopted you. And I never for a moment dreamt that the stupid
+servants whom Bodoeri sent to take possession of the villa, which he
+had bought of me, would turn you out of the house. You infatuated
+youth! Do you hesitate to take up arms against a despotic caste whose
+cruelty robbed you of a father? Ay! go down to the quadrangle of the
+Fontego, and the stains which you will there see on the stone pavements
+are the stains of your father's blood. The Seignory when making over to
+the German merchants the _depot_ and exchange which you know under the
+name of the Fontego, forbade all those who had offices assigned to them
+to take the keys with them when they went away; they were to leave them
+with the official in charge of the Fontego. Your father acted contrary
+to this law, and had therefore incurred a heavy penalty. But now when
+the offices were opened on your father's return, there was found
+amongst his wares a chest of false Venetian coins. He vainly protested
+his innocence; it was only too evident that some malicious fiend,
+perhaps the official in charge himself, had smuggled in the chest in
+order to ruin your father. The inexorable judges, satisfied that the
+chest had been found in your father's offices, condemned him to death.
+He was executed in the quadrangle of the Fontego; nor would you now be
+living if faithful Margaret had not saved you. I, your father's truest
+friend, adopted you; and in order that you might not betray yourself
+to the Seignory, you were not told what was your father's name. But
+now--now, Anthony Dalbirger,--now is the time--now, to seize your arms
+and revenge upon the heads of the Seignory your father's shameful
+death."
+
+Antonio, fired by the spirit of vengeance, swore to be true to the
+conspirators and to act with invincible courage. It is well known that
+it was the affront put upon Bertuccio Nenolo by Dandulo when he was
+appointed to superintend the naval preparations, and on the occasion of
+a quarrel struck Nenolo in the face, that induced him to join with his
+ambitious son-in-law in his conspiracy against the Seignory. Both
+Nenolo and Bodoeri were desirous for old Falieri to assume the princely
+mantle in order that they might themselves rise along with him. The
+conspirators' plan was to spread abroad the news that the Genoese fleet
+lay before the Lagune. Then when night came the great bell in St.
+Mark's Tower was to be rung, and the town summoned to arms, under the
+false pretext of defence. This was to be the signal for the
+conspirators, whose numbers were considerable, and who were scattered
+throughout all Venice, to occupy St. Mark's Square, make themselves
+masters of the remaining principal squares of the town, murder the
+leading men of the Seignory, and proclaim the Doge sovereign Duke of
+Venice.
+
+But it was not the will of Heaven that this murderous scheme should
+succeed, nor that the fundamental constitution of the harassed state
+should be trampled in the dust by old Falieri--a man inflamed with
+pride and haughtiness. The meetings in Falieri's house on Giudecca had
+not escaped the watchfulness of the Ten; but they failed altogether to
+learn any reliable intelligence. But the conscience of one of the
+conspirators, a fur-merchant of Pisa, Bentian by name, pricked him; he
+resolved to save from destruction his friend and gossip, Nicolas
+Leoni, a member of the Council of Ten. When twilight came on, he went
+to him and besought him not to leave his house during the night, no
+matter what occurred. Leoni's suspicion was aroused; he detained the
+fur-merchant, and on pressing him closely learned the whole scheme. In
+conjunction with Giovanni Gradenigo and Marco Cornaro he called the
+Council of Ten together in St. Salvador's (church); and there, in less
+than three hours, measures were taken calculated to stifle all the
+efforts of the conspirators on the first sign of movement.
+
+Antonio's commission was to take a body of men and go to St. Mark's
+Tower, and see that the bell was tolled. Arrived there, he found the
+tower occupied by a large force of Arsenal troops, who, on his
+attempting to approach, charged upon him with their halberds. His own
+band, seized with a sudden panic, scattered like chaff; and he himself
+slipped away in the darkness of the night. But he heard the footsteps
+of a man following close at his heels; he felt him lay hands upon him,
+and he was just on the point of cutting his pursuer down when by means
+of a sudden flash of light he recognised Pietro. "Save yourself," cried
+he, "save yourself, Antonio,--here in my gondola. All is betrayed.
+Bodoeri--Nenolo--are in the power of the Seignory; the doors of the
+Ducal Palace are closed; the Doge is confined a prisoner in his own
+apartment--watched like a criminal by his own faithless guards. Come
+along--make haste--get away." Almost stupefied, Antonio suffered
+himself to be dragged into the gondola. Muffled voices--the clash of
+weapons--single cries for help--then with the deepest blackness of the
+night there followed a breathless awful silence. Next morning the
+populace, stricken with terror, beheld a fearful sight; it made every
+man's blood run cold in his veins. The Council of the Ten had that very
+same night passed sentence of death upon the leaders of the conspiracy
+who had been seized. They were strangled, and suspended from the
+balcony at the side of the Palace overlooking the Piazzetta, the one
+whence the Doge was in the habit of witnessing all ceremonies,--and
+where, alas! Antonio had hovered in the air before the lovely
+Annunciata, and where she had received from him the nosegay of flowers.
+Amongst the corpses were those of Marino Bodoeri and Bertuccio Nenolo.
+Two days later old Marino Falieri was sentenced to death by the Council
+of Ten, and executed on the so-called Giant Stairs of the Palace.
+
+Antonio wandered about unconsciously, like a man in a dream; no one
+laid hands upon him, for no one recognised him as having been of the
+number of the conspirators. On seeing old Falieri's grey head fall, he
+started up, as it were, out of his death-like trance. With a most
+unearthly scream--with the shout, "Annunciata!" he rushed storming in
+the Palace, and along the passages. Nobody stopped him; the guards, as
+if stupefied by the terrible thing that had just taken place, only
+stared after him. The old crone came to meet him, loudly lamenting and
+complaining; she seized his hand and--a few steps more, and along with
+her he entered Annunciata's room. There she lay, poor thing, on the
+couch, as if already dead. Antonio rushed towards her and covered her
+hands with burning kisses, calling her by the sweetest and tenderest
+names.
+
+Then she slowly opened her lovely heavenly eyes and saw Antonio; at
+first, however, it appeared as if it cost her an effort to call him to
+mind; but speedily she raised herself up, threw both her arms around
+his neck, and drew him to her bosom, showering down her hot tears upon
+him and kissing his cheeks--his lips. "Antonio--my Antonio--I love you,
+oh! more than I can tell you--yes, yes, there _is_ a heaven on earth.
+What are my father's and my uncle's and my husband's death in
+comparison with the blissful joy of your love? Oh! let us flee--flee
+from this scene of blood and murder." Thus spake Annunciata, her heart
+rent by the bitterest anguish, as well as by the most passionate love.
+Amid thousands of kisses and never-ending tears, the two lovers
+mutually swore eternal fidelity; and, forgetting the fearful events of
+the terrible day that was past, they turned their eyes from the earth
+and looked up into the heaven which the spirit of love had unfolded to
+their view. The old woman advised them to flee to Chiozza; thence
+Antonio intended to travel in an opposite direction by land towards his
+own native country.
+
+His friend, Pietro, procured him a small boat and had it brought to the
+bridge behind the Palace. When night came, Annunciata, enveloped in a
+thick shawl, crept stealthily down the steps with her lover, attended
+by old Margaret, who bore some valuable jewel caskets in her hood. They
+reached the bridge unobserved, and unobserved they embarked in their
+small craft. Antonio seized the oar, and away they went at a quick and
+vigorous rate. The bright moonlight danced along the waves in front of
+them like a gladsome messenger of love. They reached the open sea. Then
+began a peculiar whistling and howling of the wind far above their
+heads; black shadows came trooping up and hung themselves like a dark
+veil over the bright face of the moon. The dancing moonshine, the
+gladsome messenger of love, sank in the black depths of the sea amongst
+its muttering thunders. The storm came on and drove the black piled-up
+masses of clouds in front of it with wrathful violence. Up and down
+tossed the boat. "O help us! God, help us!" screamed the old woman.
+Antonio, no longer master of the oar, clasped his darling Annunciata in
+his arms, whilst she, aroused by his fiery kisses, strained him to her
+bosom in the intensity of her rapturous affection. "O my Antonio!"--"O
+my Annunciata!" they whispered, heedless of the storm which raged and
+blustered ever more furiously. Then the sea, the jealous widow of the
+beheaded Doge Falieri, stretched up her foaming waves as if they were
+giant arms, and seized upon the lovers, and dragged them, along with
+the old woman, down, down into her fathomless depths.
+
+
+As soon as the man in the mantle had thus concluded his narrative, he
+jumped up quickly and left the room with strong rapid strides. The
+friends followed him with their eyes, silently and very much
+astonished; then they went to take another look at the picture. The old
+Doge again looked down upon them with a smirk, in his ridiculous finery
+and foppish vanity; but when they carefully looked into the Dogess's
+face they perceived quite plainly that the shadow of some unknown
+pain--a pain of which she only had a foreboding--was throned upon her
+lily brow, and that dreamy aspirations of love gleamed from behind her
+dark lashes, and hovered around her sweet lips. The Hostile Power
+seemed to be threatening death and destruction from out the distant sea
+and the vaporous clouds which enshrouded St. Mark's. They now had a
+clear conception of the deeper significance of the charming picture;
+but so often as they looked upon it again, all the sympathetic sorrow
+which they had felt at the history of Antonio and Annunciata's love
+returned upon them and filled the deepest recesses of their souls with
+its pleasurable awe.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "THE DOGE AND DOGESS."
+
+[Footnote 1: Written for the _Taschenbuch der Liebe und Freundschaft
+gewidmet_, 1819; edited by S. Schuetze, Frankfort-on-Main.]
+
+[Footnote 2: C W. Kolbe, junr., historical and genre painter, was born
+in 1781 and died in 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The story _Turandot_ has a history. Its prototype is in
+the Persian poet Nizami (1141-1203). From Gozzi it was translated into
+German by Werthes; and it was from his translation that Schiller worked
+up his play in November and December, 1801. The proud Turandot,
+daughter of the Emperor of China, entertains such loathing of marriage
+that she rejects all suitors, until on her father's threatening to
+compel her to wed, she institutes a kind of version of the caskets in
+the _Merchant of Venice_. Any prince may woo for her, but in a peculiar
+way. He must solve three riddles in the full assembly of the court. If
+he succeeds, he wins the princess; if he does not succeed, he loses his
+own head. In Gozzi the three riddles are about the Year, the Sun, and
+(extremely inapposite to the circumstances) the Lion of the Adriatic.
+The two last Schiller replaced by riddles about the Eye and the
+Plough.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Calaf, Prince of Astrakhan, successfully solves the
+riddles and wins the Princess Turandot.]
+
+[Footnote 5: The story of this Doge's conspiracy has furnished
+materials for a tragedy to Byron (1821), Casimir Delavinge (1829), and
+Albert Lindner (1875). A translation of the story is given by Mr. F.
+Cohen (Sir F. Palgrave) from Sanuto's _Chronicle_, in the Appendix to
+the play in Byron's works.]
+
+[Footnote 6: Paganino Dona, one of the greatest of Genoese admirals,
+took and burnt Parenzo, a town on the west coast of Istria, on the 11th
+of August, 1354. At this period the rivalry between the two republics,
+Venice and Genoa, in their commercial relations with the East and in
+the Black Sea, was especially bitter, and they were almost constantly
+at war with each other.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Andrea Dandolo (1307-1354), Doge from 1343 to 1354. During
+his reign Venice actively extended her commercial conquests in the
+Black Sea and the countries around the Levant, engaged part of the time
+in active hostilities with the Genoese.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The sequin was a gold coin of Venice and Tuscany, worth
+about 9s. 3d. It is sometimes used as equivalent to ducat (Note, page
+63, Vol. i.)]
+
+[Footnote 9: Pope Innocent VI., Pope at Avignon, from 1352 to 1362.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Hoffmann states that he derived his materials for this
+story from Le Bret's "History of Venice,"--a book which, unfortunately,
+up to the time of going to press, the translator had not been able to
+obtain.]
+
+[Footnote 11:  Nicolo Pisani, a very active naval commander in the
+third war with Genoa (1350-1355), fought battles in the Bosphorus, off
+Sardinia, and at Porto Longo, near Modon (Greece).]
+
+[Footnote 12:  Sardinia was for many, many years an object of
+contention between Pisa, Genoa, and the Aragonese. At this time (1354)
+it belonged to the latter, but the Genoese were constantly endeavouring
+to stir up the people of the island to revolt against the Aragonese;
+hence we may see reason for Pisani's being in Sardinian waters.]
+
+[Footnote 13:  Equivalent to "Governor," Chioggia was an old town
+thirty miles south of Venice, at the southern extremity of the Lagune.
+Chiozza = Chioggia.]
+
+[Footnote 14: The state barge of Venice; the word means "little golden
+boat." Pope Alexander III. bestowed upon the Doge Sebastian Ziani, for
+his victory over Frederick Barbarossa near Parenzo on Ascension Day,
+1177, a ring in token of the suzerainty of Venice over the Adriatic.
+From this time dates the observance of the annual ceremony of the
+Doge's marrying the Adriatic from the Bucentaur.]
+
+[Footnote 15: San Giorgio Maggiore. Venice, as everybody knows, is not
+built upon the mainland but upon islands. The two largest, whose
+greatest length is from east to west, are divided by the Grand Canal,
+upon which axe situated most of the palaces and important public
+buildings. South of these two principal islands, and separated from
+them by the Giudecca Canal, are the islands of Giudecca and San Giorgio
+Maggiore close together, the latter on the east and opposite the south
+entrance to the Grand Canal, beyond which are the Piazetta and St.
+Mark's Square.]
+
+[Footnote 16: This is larger than the gondola, and also more modern; it
+is calculated to hold six persons, and even luggage.]
+
+[Footnote 17: The Fondaco de' Tedeschi, erected in 1506, on the Grand
+Canal. It was formerly decorated externally with paintings by Titian
+and his pupils. At first it served as _depot_ for the wares of German
+merchants (whence its name), but is now used as a custom-house.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Louis I. the Great of Hungary (1342-1382). The Dalmatian
+and Istrian sea-board formed a fruitful source of contention between
+the Venetians and Hungary, Louis proving a very formidable opponent to
+the Republic.]
+
+[Footnote 19: At this epoch Venice was the mart and mediatory between
+the West and the East, the commercial riches of the latter having been
+opened up to the feudal civilisation of Europe, chiefly through the
+Crusades. Hence the cosmopolitan character of the merchants on the
+Rialto.]
+
+[Footnote 20: In the year 1348, Venice was visited by an earthquake,
+and this was followed by the plague (the Black Death). In order to
+complete the roll of the republic's misfortunes in this gloomy year, it
+may be added that she also lost almost the whole of her Black Sea fleet
+to the Genoese.]
+
+[Footnote 21: It may perhaps be interesting to observe that a precisely
+similar occurrence forms the central feature in H. v. Kleist's
+"Erdbeben in Chili" (1810), perhaps one of the best of his short
+stories.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Narrated in the translation of the Chronicle of Sanuto by
+Sir Francis Palgrave in Byron's notes to "Marino Faliero."]
+
+[Footnote 23: On the island of Sapenzia, south-west of the Morea.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Pietro Urseolo I. was Doge from 991 to 1009; Dalmatia was
+subdued in 997.]
+
+
+
+
+                       _MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER,
+                         AND HIS JOURNEYMAN._[1]
+
+
+Well may your heart swell in presentient sadness, indulgent reader,
+when your footsteps wander through places where the splendid monuments
+of Old German Art speak, like eloquent tongues, of the magnificence,
+good steady industry, and sterling honesty of an illustrious age now
+long since passed away. Do you not feel as if you were entering a
+deserted house? The Holy Book in which the head of the household read
+is still lying open on the table, and the gay rich tapestry that the
+mistress of the house spun with her own hands is still hanging on the
+walls; whilst round about in the bright clean cupboards are ranged all
+kinds of valuable works of art, gifts received on festive occasions.
+You could almost believe a member of the household will soon enter and
+receive you with genuine hearty hospitality. But you will wait in vain
+for those whom the eternally revolving wheel of Time has whirled away;
+you may therefore surrender yourself to the sweet dream in which the
+old Masters rise up before you and speak honest and weighty words that
+sink deeply into your heart Then for the first time will you be able to
+grasp the profound significance of their works, for you will then not
+only live in, but you will also understand the age which could produce
+such masters and such works. But, alas! does it not happen that, as you
+stretch out your loving arms to clasp the beautiful image of your
+dream, it shyly flees away on the light morning clouds before the noisy
+bustle of the day, whilst you, your eyes filling with scalding tears,
+gaze after the bright vision as it gradually disappears? And so, rudely
+disturbed by the life that is pulsing about you, you are suddenly
+wakened out of your pleasant dream, retaining only the passionate
+longing that thrills your breast with its delicious awe.
+
+Such sentiments as these, indulgent reader, have always animated the
+breast of him who is about to pen these pages for you, whenever his
+path has led him through the world-renowned city of Nuremberg. Now
+lingering before that wonderful structure, the fountain[2]
+in the market-place, now contemplating St. Sebald's shrine,[3] and the
+ciborium[4] in St. Lawrence's Church, and Albert Duerer's[5] grand
+pictures in the castle and in the town-house, he used to give himself
+up entirely to the delicious reveries which transported him into the
+midst of all the glorious splendours of the old Imperial Town. He
+thought of the true-hearted words of Father Rosenblueth[6]--
+
+            O Nuremberg, thou glorious spot,
+            Thy honour's bolt was aimed aright,
+            Sticks in the mark whereat wisdom shot;
+            And truth in thee hath come to light.
+
+Many a picture of the life of the worthy citizens of that period, when
+art and manual industry went loyally and industriously hand in hand,
+rose up brightly before his mind's eye, impressing itself upon his soul
+in especially cheerful and pleasing colours. Graciously be pleased,
+therefore, that he put one of these pictures before you. Perhaps, as
+you gaze upon it, it may afford you gratification, perhaps it may draw
+from you a good-natured smile, perhaps you may even come to feel
+yourself at home in Master Martin's house, and may linger willingly
+amongst his casks and tubs. Well!--Then the writer of these pages will
+have effected what is the sincere and honest wish of his heart.
+
+
+        _How Master Martin was elected "Candle-master" and how
+                      he returned thanks therefor._
+
+On the 1st of May, 1580, in accordance with traditionary custom and
+usage, the honourable guild of coopers, or wine-cask makers, of the
+free Imperial Town of Nuremberg, held with all due ceremony a meeting
+of their craft. A short time previously one of the presidents, or
+"Candle-masters," as they were called, had been carried to his grave;
+it was therefore necessary to elect a successor. Choice fell upon
+Master Martin. And in truth there was scarcely another who could be
+measured against him in the building of strong and well-made casks;
+none understood so well as he the management of wine in the cellar;[7]
+hence he counted amongst his customers very many men of distinction,
+and lived in the most prosperous circumstances--nay, almost rolled in
+riches. Accordingly, after Martin had been elected, the worthy
+Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner, who, in his official character of
+syndic,[8] presided over the meeting, said, "You have done bravely
+well, friends, to choose Master Martin as your president, for the
+office could not be in better hands. He is held in high esteem by all
+who know him, not only on account of his great skill, but on account of
+his ripe experience in the art of keeping and managing the rich juice
+of the grape. His steady industry and upright life, in spite of all the
+wealth he has amassed, may serve as an example to you all. Welcome then
+a thousand times, goodman Master Martin, as our honoured president."
+
+With these words Paumgartner rose to his feet and took a few steps
+forward, with open arms, expecting that Martin would come to meet him.
+The latter immediately placed both his hands upon the arms of his chair
+and raised himself as expeditiously as his portly person would permit
+him to rise,--which was only slowly and heavily. Then just as slowly he
+strode into Paumgartner's hearty embrace, which, however, he scarcely
+returned. "Well," said Paumgartner, somewhat nettled at this, "well,
+Master Martin, are you not altogether well pleased that we have elected
+you to be our 'Candle-master'?" Master Martin, as was his wont, threw
+his head back into his neck, played with his fingers upon his capacious
+belly, and, opening his eyes wide and thrusting forward his under-lip
+with an air of superior astuteness, let his eyes sweep round the
+assembly. Then, turning to Paumgartner, he began, "Marry, my good and
+worthy sir, why should I not be altogether well pleased, seeing that I
+receive what is my due? Who refuses to take the reward of his honest
+labour? Who turns away from his threshold the defaulting debtor when at
+length he comes to pay his long standing debt? What! my good sirs," and
+Martin turned to the masters who sat around, "what! my good sirs, has
+it then occurred to you at last that I--I _must_ be president of our
+honourable guild? What do you look for in your president? That he be
+the most skilful in workmanship? Go look at my two-tun cask made
+without fire,[9] my brave masterpiece, and then come and tell me if
+there's one amongst you dare boast that, so far as concerns
+thoroughness and finish, he has ever turned out anything like it. Do
+you desire that your president possess money and goods? Come to my
+house and I will throw open chests and drawers, and you shall feast
+your eyes on the glitter of the sparkling gold and silver. Will you
+have a president who is respected by noble and base-born alike? Only
+ask our honoured gentlemen of the Council, ask the princes and noblemen
+around our good town of Nuremberg, ask his Lordship, the Bishop of
+Bamberg, ask what they all think of Master Martin? Oh! I--I don't think
+you'll hear much said against him." At the same time Master Martin
+struck his big fat belly with the greatest self-satisfaction, smiling
+with his eyes half-closed. Then, as all remained silent, nothing being
+heard except a dubious clearing of the throat here and there, he
+continued, "Ay! ay! I see. I ought, I know very well, to thank you all
+handsomely that in this election the good Lord above has at last seen
+fit to enlighten your minds. Well, when I receive the price of my
+labour, when my debtor repays me the borrowed money, I write at the
+bottom of the bill or of the receipt my 'Paid with thanks, Thomas[10]
+Martin, Master-cooper here.' Let me then thank you all from my heart,
+since in electing me to be your president and 'Candle-master' you have
+wiped out an old debt. As for the rest, I pledge you that I will
+discharge the duties of my office with all fidelity and uprightness. In
+the hour of need I will stand by the guild and by each of you to the
+very best of my abilities with word and deed. I will exert the utmost
+diligence to uphold the honour and fame of our celebrated handicraft,
+without bating one jot of its present credit. My honoured syndic, and
+all you, my good friends and masters, I invite to come and partake of
+good cheer with me on the coming Sunday. Then, with blithesome hearts
+and minds, let us deliberate over a glass of good Hochheimer[11] or
+Johannisberger,[12] or any other choice wine in my cellar that your
+palates may crave, what can be done for the furtherance of our common
+weal. Once again, I say you shall be all heartily welcome."
+
+The honest masters' countenances, which had perceptibly clouded on
+hearing Master Martin's proud words, now recovered their serenity,
+whilst the previous dead silence was followed by the cheerful buzz
+of conversation, in which a good deal was said about Master Martin's
+great deserts, and also about his choice cellar. All promised to be
+present on the Sunday, and offered their hands to the newly-elected
+"Candle-master," who took them and shook them warmly, also drawing a
+few of the masters a little towards him, as if desirous of embracing
+them. The company separated in blithe good-humour.
+
+
+         _What afterwards took place in Master Martin's house._
+
+Now it happened that Councillor Jacobus Paumgartner had to pass by
+Master Martin's in order to reach his own home; and as they both stood
+outside Master Martin's door, and Paumgartner was about to proceed on
+his way, his friend, doffing his low bonnet, and bowing respectfully
+and as low as he was able, said to him, "I should be very glad, my good
+and worthy sir, if you would not disdain to step in and spend an hour
+or so in my humble house. Be pleased to suffer me to derive both profit
+and entertainment from your wise conversation." "Ay, ay! Master Martin,
+my friend," replied Paumgartner smiling, "gladly enough will I stay a
+while with you; but why do you call your house a humble house? I know
+very well that there's none of the richest of our citizens who can
+excel you in jewels and valuable furniture. Did you not a short time
+ago complete a handsome building which makes your house one of the
+ornaments of our renowned Imperial Town?[13] In respect of its interior
+fittings I say nothing, for no patrician even need be ashamed of it."
+
+Old Paumgartner was right; for on opening the door, which was brightly
+polished and richly ornamented with brass-work, they stepped into a
+spacious entrance hall almost resembling a state-room; the floor was
+tastefully inlaid, fine pictures hung on the walls, and the cupboards
+and chairs were all artistically carved. And all who came in willingly
+obeyed the direction inscribed in verses, according to olden custom, on
+a tablet which hung near the door:--
+
+            Let him who will the stairs ascend
+            See that his shoes be rubbed well clean.
+            Or taken off were better, I ween;
+            He thus avoids what might offend.
+            A thoughtful man is well aware
+            How he indoors himself should bear.
+
+It had been a hot day, and now as the hour of twilight was approached
+it began to be close and stuffy in the rooms, so Master Martin led his
+eminent guest into the cool and spacious parlour-kitchen. For this was
+the name applied at that time to a place in the houses of the rich
+citizens which, although furnished as a kitchen, was never used as
+such--all kinds of valuable utensils and other necessaries of
+housekeeping being there set out on show. Hardly had they got inside
+the door when Master Martin shouted in a loud voice, "Rose, Rose!" Then
+the door was immediately opened, and Rose, Master Martin's only
+daughter, came in.
+
+I should like you, dear reader, to awaken at this moment a vivid
+recollection of our great Albrecht Duerer's masterpieces; I would
+wish that the glorious maidens whom we find in them, with all their
+noble grace, their sweet gentleness and piety, should recur to your
+mind, endowed with living form. Recall the noble and delicate figure,
+the beautifully arched, lily-white forehead, the carnation flitting
+like a breath of roses across the cheek, the full sweet cherry-red
+lips,--recall the eyes full of pious aspirations, half-veiled by their
+dark lashes, like moonlight seen through dusky foliage,--recall the
+silky hair, artfully gathered into graceful plaits,--recall the divine
+beauty of these maidens, and you will see lovely Rose. How else than in
+this way could the narrator sketch the dear, darling child? And yet
+permit me to remind you here of an admirable young artist into whose
+heart a quickening ray has fallen from these beautiful old times. I
+mean the German painter Cornelius,[14] in Rome. Just as Margaret looks
+in Cornelius's drawings to Goethe's mighty _Faust_ when she utters the
+words, "Bin weder Fraeulein noch schoen"[15] (I am neither a lady of
+rank, nor yet beautiful), so also may Rose have looked when in the
+shyness of her pure chaste heart she felt compelled to shun addresses
+that smacked somewhat too much of freedom.
+
+Rose bowed low with child-like respect before Paumgartner, and taking
+his hand, pressed it to her lips. The crimson colour rushed into the
+old gentleman's pale cheeks, as the sun when setting shoots up a dying
+flash, suddenly converting the dark foliage into gold, so the fire of a
+youth now left far behind gleamed once more in his eyes. "Ay! ay!" he
+cried in a blithesome voice, "marry, my good friend Master Martin, you
+are a rich and a prosperous man, but the best of all the blessings
+which the good Lord has given you is your lovely daughter Rose. If the
+hearts of old gentlemen like us who sit in the Town Council are so
+stirred that we cannot turn away our purblind eyes from the dear child,
+who can find fault with the young folks if they stop and stand like
+blocks of wood, or as if spell-bound, when they meet your daughter in
+the street, or see her at church, though we have a word of blame for
+our clerical gentry, because on the Allerwiese,[16] or wherever else a
+festival is held, they all crowd round your daughter, with their sighs,
+and loving glances, and honied words, to the vexation of all other
+girls? Well, well, Master Martin, you can choose you your son-in-law
+amongst any of our young patricians, or wherever else you may list."
+
+A dark frown settled on Master Martin's face; he bade his daughter
+fetch some good old wine; and after she had left the room, the hot
+blushes mantling thick and fast upon her cheeks, and her eyes bent upon
+the floor, he turned to old Paumgartner, "Of a verity, my good sir,
+Heaven has dowered my daughter with exceptional beauty, and herein too
+I have been made rich; but how can you speak of it in the girl's
+presence? And as for a patrician son-in-law, there'll never be anything
+of that sort." "Enough, Master Martin, say no more," replied
+Paumgartner, laughing. "Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth must
+speak. Don't you believe, then, that when I set eyes on Rose the
+sluggish blood begins to leap in my old heart also? And if I do
+honestly speak out what she herself must very well know, surely there's
+no very great mischief done."
+
+Rose brought the wine and two beautiful drinking-glasses. Then Martin
+pushed the heavy table, which was ornamented with some remarkable
+carving, into the middle of the kitchen. Scarcely, however, had the old
+gentlemen taken their places and Master Martin had filled the glasses
+when a trampling of horses was heard in front of the house. It seemed
+as if a horseman had pulled up, and as if his voice was heard in the
+entrance-passage below. Rose hastened down and soon came back with the
+intelligence that old Junker[17] Heinrich von Spangenberg was there and
+wished to speak to Master Martin. "Marry!" cried Martin, "now this is
+what I call a fine lucky evening, which brings me my best and oldest
+customer. New orders of course, I see I shall have to 'cask' out
+again"--Therewith he hastened down as fast as he was able to meet his
+welcome guest.
+
+
+         _How Master Martin extols his trade above all others._
+
+The Hochheimer sparkled in the beautiful cut drinking-glasses, and
+loosened the tongues and opened the hearts of the three old gentlemen.
+Old Spangenberg especially, who, though advanced in years, was yet
+brimming with freshness and vivacity, had many a jolly prank out of his
+merry youth to relate, so that Master Martin's belly wabbled famously,
+and again and again he had to brush the tears out of his eyes, caused
+by his loud and hearty laughing. Herr Paumgartner, too, forgot more
+than was customary with him the dignity of the Councillor, and enjoyed
+right well the noble liquor and the merry conversation. But when Rose
+again made her appearance with the neat housekeeper's basket under
+her arm, out of which she took a tablecloth as dazzling white as
+fresh-fallen snow,--when she tripped backwards and forwards busy with
+household matters, laying the cloth, and placing a plentiful supply of
+appetising dishes on the table,--when, with a winning smile she invited
+the gentlemen not to despise what had been hurriedly prepared, but to
+turn to and eat--during all this time their conversation and laughter
+ceased. Neither Paumgartner nor Spangenberg averted their sparkling
+eyes from the fascinating maiden, whilst Master Martin too, leaning
+back in his chair, and folding his hands, watched her busy movements
+with a gratified smile. Rose was withdrawing, but old Spangenberg was
+on his feet in a moment, quick as a youth; he took the girl by both
+shoulders and cried, again and again, as the bright tears trickled from
+his eyes, "Oh you good, you sweet little angel! What a dear darling
+girl you are!" then he kissed her twice--three times on the forehead,
+and returned to his seat, apparently in deep thought.
+
+Paumgartner proposed the toast of Rose's health. "Yes," began
+Spangenberg, after she had gone out of the room, "yes, Master Martin,
+Providence has given you a precious jewel in your daughter, whom you
+cannot well over-estimate. She will yet bring you to great honour. Who
+is there, let him be of what rank in life he may, who would not
+willingly be your son-in-law?" "There you are," interposed Paumgartner;
+"there you see, Master Martin, the noble Herr von Spangenberg is
+exactly of my opinion. I already see our dear Rose a patrician's bride
+with the rich jewellery of pearls[18] in her beautiful flaxen hair."
+"My dear sirs," began Martin, quite testily, "why do you, my dear sirs,
+keep harping upon this matter--a matter to which I have not as yet
+directed my thoughts? My Rose has only just reached her eighteenth
+year; it's not time for such a young thing to be looking out for a
+lover. How things may turn out afterwards--well, that I leave entirely
+to the will of the Lord; but this I do at any rate know, that none
+shall touch my daughter's hand, be he patrician or who he may, except
+the cooper who approves himself the cleverest and skilfullest master in
+his trade--presuming, of course, that my daughter will have him, for
+never will I constrain my dear child to do anything in the world, least
+of all to make a marriage that she does not like." Spangenberg and
+Paumgartner looked at each other, perfectly astonished at this
+extraordinary decision of the Master's.[19] At length, after some
+clearing of his throat, Spangenberg began, "So, then, your daughter is
+not to wed out of her own station?" "God forbid she should," rejoined
+Martin. "But," continued Spangenberg, "if now a skilled master of a
+higher trade, say a goldsmith, or even a brave young artist, were to
+sue for your Rose and succeeded in winning her favour more than all
+other young journeymen, what then?" "I should say," replied Master
+Martin, throwing his head back into his neck, "show me, my excellent
+young friend, the fine two-tun cask which you have made as your
+masterpiece; and if he could not do so, I should kindly open the door
+for him and very politely request him to try his luck elsewhere." "Ah!
+but," went on Spangenberg again, "if the young journeyman should reply,
+'A little structure of that kind I cannot show you, but come with me to
+the market-place and look at yon beautiful house which is sending up
+its slender gable into the free open air--that's my masterpiece.'" "Ah!
+my good sir, my good sir," broke in Master Martin impatiently, "why do
+you give yourself all this trouble to try and make me alter my
+conviction? Once and for all, my son-in-law must be of _my_ trade; for
+my trade I hold to be the finest trade there is in the world. Do you
+think we've nothing to do but to fix the staves into the trestles
+(hoops), so that the cask may hold together? Marry, it's a fine thing
+and an admirable thing that our handiwork requires a previous knowledge
+of the way in which that noble blessing of Heaven, good wine, must be
+kept and managed, that it may acquire strength and flavour so as to go
+through all our veins and warm our blood like the true spirit of life!
+And then as for the construction of the casks--if we are to turn out a
+successful piece of work, must we not first draw out our plans with
+compass and rule? We must be arithmeticians and geometricians of no
+mean attainments, how else can we adapt the proportion and size of the
+cask to the measure of its contents? Ay, sir, my heart laughs in my
+body when we've bravely laboured at the staves with jointer and adze
+and have gotten a brave cask in the vice; and then when my journeymen
+swing their mallets and down it comes on the drivers clipp! clapp!
+clipp! clapp!--that's merry music for you; and there stands your
+well-made cask. And of a verity I may look a little proudly about me
+when I take my marking-tool in my hand and mark the sign of my
+handiwork, that is known and honoured of all respectable wine-masters,
+on the bottom of the cask. You spoke of house-building, my good sir.
+Well, a beautiful house is in truth a glorious piece of work, but if I
+were a house-builder and went past a house I had built, and saw a dirty
+fellow or good-for-nothing rascal who had got possession of it looking
+down upon me from the bay-window, I should feel thoroughly ashamed,--I
+should feel, purely out of vexation and annoyance, as if I should like
+to pull down and destroy my own work. But nothing like that can happen
+with the structures I build. Within them there comes and lives once for
+all nothing but the purest spirit on earth--good wine. God prosper my
+handiwork!"
+
+"That's a fine eulogy," said Spangenberg, "and honestly and well meant.
+It does you honour to think so highly of your craft; but--do not get
+impatient if I keep harping upon the same string--now if a patrician
+really came and sued for your daughter? When a thing is brought right
+home to a man it often looks very different from what he thought it
+would." "Why, i' faith," cried Master Martin somewhat vehemently, "why,
+what else could I do but make a polite bow and say, 'My dear sir, if
+you were a brave cooper, but as it is'"---- "Stop a bit," broke in
+Spangenberg again; "but if now some fine day a handsome Junker on a
+gallant horse, with a brilliant retinue dressed in magnificent silks
+and satins, were to pull up before your door and ask you for Rose to
+wife?" "Marry, by my faith," cried Master Martin still more vehemently
+than before, "why, marry, I should run down as fast as I could and lock
+and bolt the door, and I should shout 'Ride on farther! Ride on
+farther! my worshipful Herr Junker; roses like mine don't blossom for
+you. My wine-cellar and my money-bags would, I dare say, suit you
+passing well--and you would take the girl in with the bargain; but ride
+on! ride on farther.'" Old Spangenberg rose to his feet, his face hot
+and red all over; then, leaning both hands on the table, he stood
+looking on the floor before him. "Well," he began after a pause, "and
+now the last question, Master Martin. If the Junker before your door
+were my own son, if I myself stopped at your door, would you shut
+it then, should you believe then that we were only come for your
+wine-cellar and your money-bags?" "Not at all, not at all, my good and
+honoured sir," replied Master Martin. "I would gladly throw open my
+door, and everything in my house should be at your and your son's
+service; but as for my Rose, I should say to you, 'If it had only
+pleased Providence to make your gallant son a brave cooper, there would
+be no more welcome son-in-law on earth than he; but now'---- But, my
+dear good sir, why do you tease and worry me with such curious
+questions? See you, our merry talk has come abruptly to an end, and
+look! our glasses are all standing full. Let's put all sons-in-law and
+Rose's marriage aside; here, I pledge you to the health of your son,
+who is, I hear, a handsome young knight." Master Martin seized his
+glass; Paumgartner followed his example, saying, "A truce to all
+captious conversation, and here's a health to your gallant son."
+Spangenberg touched glasses with them, and said with a forced smile,
+"Of course you know I was only speaking in jest; for nothing but wild
+head-strong passion could ever lead my son, who may choose him a wife
+from amongst the noblest families in the land, so far to disregard his
+rank and birth as to sue for your daughter. But methinks you might have
+answered me in a somewhat more friendly way." "Well, but, my good sir,"
+replied Master Martin, "even in jest I could only speak as I should act
+if the wonderful things you are pleased to imagine were really to
+happen. But you _must_ let me have my pride; for you cannot but allow
+that I am the skilfullest cooper far and near, that I understand the
+management of wine, that I observe strictly and truly the admirable
+wine-regulations of our departed Emperor Maximilian[20] (may he rest in
+peace!), that as beseems a pious man I abhor all godlessness, that I
+never burn more than one small half-ounce of pure sulphur[21] in one of
+my two-tun casks, which is necessary to preserve it--the which, my good
+and honoured sirs, you will have abundantly remarked from the flavour
+of my wine." Spangenberg resumed his seat, and tried to put on a
+cheerful countenance, whilst Paumgartner introduced other topics of
+conversation. But, as it so often happens, when once the strings of an
+instrument have got out of tune, they are always getting more or less
+warped, so that the player in vain tries to entice from them again the
+full-toned chords which they gave at first, thus it was with the three
+old gentlemen; no remark, no word, found a sympathetic response.
+Spangenberg called for his grooms, and left Master Martin's house quite
+in an ill-humour after he had entered it in gay good spirits.
+
+
+                   _The old Grandmother's Prophecy._
+
+Master Martin was rather ill at ease because his brave old customer had
+gone away out of humour in this way, and he said to Paumgartner, who
+had just emptied his last glass and rose to go too, "For the life of
+me, I can't understand what the old gentleman meant by his talk, and
+why he should have got testy about it at last." "My good friend Master
+Martin," began Paumgartner, "you are a good and honest man; and a man
+has verily a right to set store by the handiwork he loves and which
+brings him wealth and honour; but he ought not to show it in boastful
+pride, that's against all right Christian feeling. And in our
+guild-meeting to-day you did not act altogether right in putting
+yourself before all the other masters. It may true that you understand
+more about your craft than all the rest; but that you go and cast it in
+their teeth can only provoke ill-humour and black looks. And then you
+must go and do it again this evening! You could not surely be so
+infatuated as to look for anything else in Spangenberg's talk beyond a
+jesting attempt to see to what lengths you would go in your obstinate
+pride. No wonder the worthy gentleman felt greatly annoyed when you
+told him you should only see common covetousness in any Junker's wooing
+of your daughter. But all would have been well if, when Spangenberg
+began to speak of his son, you had interposed--if you had said, 'Marry,
+my good and honoured sir, if you yourself came along with your son to
+sue for my daughter--why, i' faith, that would be far too high an
+honour for me, and I should then have wavered in my firmest
+principles.' Now, if you had spoken to him like that, what else could
+old Spangenberg have done but forget his former resentment, and smile
+cheerfully and in good humour as he had done before?" "Ay, scold me,"
+said Master Martin, "scold me right well, I have well deserved it; but
+when the old gentleman would keep talking such stupid nonsense I felt
+as if I were choking, I could not make any other answer." "And then,"
+went on Paumgartner, "what a ridiculous resolve to give your daughter
+to nobody but a cooper! You will commit, you say, your daughter's
+destiny to Providence, and yet with human shortsightedness you
+anticipate the decree of the Almighty in that you obstinately determine
+beforehand that your son-in-law is to come from within a certain narrow
+circle. That will prove the ruin of you and your Rose, if you are not
+careful Have done, Master Martin, have done with such unchristian
+childish folly; leave the Almighty, who will put a right choice in your
+daughter's honest heart when the right time comes--leave Him to manage
+it all in his own way." "O my worthy friend," said Master Martin, quite
+crest-fallen, "I now see how wrong I was not to tell you everything at
+first. You think it is nothing but overrating my handiwork that has
+brought me to take this unchangeable resolve of wedding Rose to none
+but a master-cooper; but that is not so; there is another reason, a
+more wonderful and mysterious reason. I can't let you go until you have
+learned all; you shall not bear ill-will against me over-night. Sit
+down, I earnestly beg you, stay a few minutes longer. See here; there's
+still a bottle of that old wine left which the ill-tempered Junker has
+despised; come, let's enjoy it together." Paumgartner was astonished at
+Master Martin's earnest, confidential tone, which was in general
+perfectly foreign to his nature; it seemed as if there was something
+weighing heavy upon the man's heart that he wanted to get rid of.
+
+And when Paumgartner had taken his seat and drunk a glass of wine,
+Master Martin began as follows. "You know, my good and honoured friend,
+that soon after Rose was born I lost my beloved wife; Rose's birth was
+her death. At that time my old grandmother was still living, if you can
+call it living when one is blind, deaf as a post, scarce able to speak,
+lame in every limb, and lying in bed day after day and night after
+night Rose had been christened; and the nurse sat with the child in the
+room where my old grandmother lay. I was so cut up with grief, and when
+I looked upon my child, so sad and yet so glad--in fact I was so
+greatly shaken that I felt utterly unfitted for any kind of work, and
+stood quite still and wrapped up in my own thoughts beside my old
+grandmother's bed; and I counted her happy, since now all her earthly
+pain was over. And as I gazed upon her face a strange smile began to
+steal across it, her withered features seemed to be smoothed out, her
+pale cheeks became flushed with colour. She raised herself up in bed;
+she stretched out her paralysed arms, as if suddenly animated by some
+supernatural power,--for she had never been able to do so at other
+times. She called distinctly in a low pleasant voice, 'Rose, my darling
+Rose!' The nurse got up and brought her the child, which she rocked up
+and down in her arms. But then, my good sir, picture my utter
+astonishment, nay, my alarm, when the old lady struck up in a clear
+strong voice a song in the _Hohe froehliche Lobweis_[22] of Herr Hans
+Berchler, mine host of the Holy Ghost in Strasburg, which ran like
+this--
+
+            Maiden tender, with cheeks so red,
+            Rose, listen to the words I say;
+            Wouldst guard thyself from fear and ill?
+            Then put thy trust in God alway;
+            Let not thy tongue at aught make mock,
+            Nor foolish longings feed at heart.
+            A vessel fair to see he'll bring,
+            In which the spicy liquid foams,
+            And bright, bright angels gaily sing.
+            And then in reverent mood
+            Hearken to the truest love,
+            Oh! hearken to the sweet love-words.
+
+            The vessel fair with golden grace--
+            Lo! him who brings it in the house
+            Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace;
+            And an thy lover be but true,
+            Thou need'st nor wait thy father's kiss.
+            The vessel fair will always bring
+            All wealth and joy and peace and bliss;
+            So, virgin fair, with the bright, bright eyes,
+            Let aye thy little ear be ope
+            To all true words. And henceforth live,
+            And with God's richest blessing thrive.
+
+"And after she had sung this song through, she laid the child gently and
+carefully down upon the coverlet; and, placing her trembling withered
+hand upon her forehead, she muttered something to herself, to us,
+however, unintelligible; but the rapt countenance of the old lady
+showed in every feature that she was praying. Then her head sank back
+upon the pillows, and just as the nurse took up the child my old
+grandmother took a deep breath; she was dead." "That is a wonderful
+story," said Paumgartner when Master Martin ceased speaking; "but I
+don't exactly see what is the connection between your old grandmother's
+prophetic song and your obstinate resolve to give Rose to none but a
+master-cooper." "What!" replied Master Martin, "why, what can be
+plainer than that the old lady, especially inspired by the Lord at the
+last moments of her life, announced in a prophetic voice what must
+happen if Rose is to be happy? The lover who is to bring wealth and joy
+and peace and bliss into the house with his vessel fair, who is that
+but a lusty cooper who has made his vessel fair, his masterpiece with
+me? In what other vessel does the spicy liquid foam, if not in the
+wine-cask? And when the wine works, it bubbles and even murmurs and
+splashes; that's the lovely angels chasing each other backwards and
+forwards in the wine and singing their gay songs. Ay, ay, I tell you,
+my old grandmother meant none other lover than a master-cooper; and it
+shall be so, it shall be so." "But, my good Master Martin," said
+Paumgartner, "you are interpreting the words of your old grandmother
+just in your own way. Your interpretation is far from satisfactory to
+my mind; and I repeat that you ought to leave all simply to the
+ordering of Providence and your daughter's heart, in which I dare be
+bound the right choice lies hidden away somewhere." "And I repeat,"
+interrupted Martin impatiently, "that my son-in-law _shall_ be,--I am
+resolved,--_shall_ be none other than a skilful cooper." Paumgartner
+almost got angry at Master Martin's stubbornness; he controlled
+himself, however, and, rising from his seat, said, "It's getting late,
+Master Martin, let us now have done with our drinking and talking, for
+neither methinks will do us any more good."
+
+When they came out into the entrance-hall, there stood a young woman
+with five little boys, the eldest scarce eight years old apparently,
+and the youngest scarce six months. She was weeping and sobbing
+bitterly. Rose hastened to meet the two old gentlemen and said, "Oh
+father, father! Valentine is dead; there is his wife and the children."
+"What! Valentine dead?" cried Master Martin, greatly startled. "Oh!
+that accident! that accident! Just fancy," he continued, turning to
+Paumgartner, "just fancy, my good sir, Valentine was the cleverest
+journeyman I had on the premises; and he was industrious, and a good
+honest man as well. Some time ago he wounded himself dangerously with
+the adze in building a large cask; the wound got worse and worse; he
+was seized with a violent fever, and now he has had to die of it in the
+prime of life." Thereupon Master Martin approached the poor
+disconsolate woman, who, bathed in tears, was lamenting that she had
+nothing but misery and starvation staring her in the face. "What!" said
+Master Martin, "what do you think of me then? Your husband got his
+dangerous wound whilst working for me, and do you think I am going to
+let you perish of want? No, you all belong to my house from now
+onwards. To-morrow, or whenever you like, we'll bury your poor husband,
+and then do you and your boys go to my farm outside the Ladies
+Gate,[23] where my fine open workshop is, and where I work every day
+with my journeymen. You can install yourself as housekeeper there to
+look after things for me, and your fine boys I will educate as if they
+were my own sons. And, I tell you what, I'll take your old father as
+well into my house. He was a sturdy journeyman cooper once upon a time
+whilst he still had muscle in his arms. And now--if he can no longer
+wield the mallet, or the beetle or the beak iron, or work at the bench,
+he yet can do something with croze-adze, or can hollow out staves for
+me with the draw-knife. At any rate he shall come along with you and be
+taken into my house." If Master Martin had not caught hold of the
+woman, she would have fallen on the floor at his feet in a dead swoon,
+she was so affected by grief and emotion. The eldest of the boys clung
+to his doublet, whilst the two youngest, whom Rose had taken in her
+arms, stretched out their tiny hands towards him, as if they had
+understood it all. Old Paumgartner said, smiling and with bright tears
+standing in his eyes, "Master Martin, one can't bear you any ill-will;"
+and he betook himself to his own home.
+
+
+          _How the two young journeymen Frederick and Reinhold
+                   became acquainted with each other._
+
+Upon a beautiful, grassy, gently-sloping hill, shaded by lofty trees,
+lay a fine well-made young journeyman, whose name was Frederick. The
+sun had already set, and rosy tongues of light were stretching upwards
+from the furthest verge of the horizon. In the distance the famed
+imperial town of Nuremberg could be plainly seen, spreading across the
+valley and boldly lifting up her proud towers against the red glow of
+the evening, its golden rays gilding their pinnacles. The young
+journeyman was leaning his arm on his bundle, which lay beside him, and
+contained his necessaries whilst on the travel, and was gazing with
+looks full of longing down into the valley. Then he plucked some of the
+flowers which grew among the grass within reach of him and tossed them
+into the air towards the glorious sunset; afterwards he sat gazing
+sadly before him, and the burning tears gathered in his eyes. At length
+he raised his head, and spreading out his arms as if about to embrace
+some one dear to him, he sang in a clear and very pleasant voice the
+following song:--
+
+            My eyes now rest once more
+            On thee, O home, sweet home!
+            My true and honest heart
+            Has ne'er forgotten thee.
+            O rosy glow of evening come,
+            I fain would naught but roses see.
+            Ye sweetest buds and flowers of love,
+            Bend down and touch my heart
+            With winsome sweet caresses.
+            O swelling bosom, wilt thou burst?
+            Yet hold in pain and sweet joy fast.
+            O golden evening red!
+            O beauteous ray, be my sweet messenger,
+            And bear to her my sighs and tears--
+            My tears and sighs on faithfully to her.
+            And were I now to die,
+            And roses then did ask thee--say,
+            "His heart with love--it pined away."
+
+Having sung this song, Frederick took a little piece of wax out of his
+bundle, warmed it in his bosom, and began in a neat and artistic manner
+to model a beautiful rose with scores of delicate petals. Whilst busy
+with this work he hummed to himself some of the lines of the song he
+had just sung, and so deeply absorbed was he in his occupation that he
+did not observe the handsome youth who had been standing behind him for
+some time and attentively watching his work.
+
+"Marry, my friend," began now the youth, "by my troth, that is a dainty
+piece of work you are making there." Frederick looked round in alarm;
+but when he looked into the dark friendly eyes of the young stranger,
+he felt as if he had known him for a long time. Smiling, he replied,
+"Oh! my dear sir, how can you notice such trifling? it only serves me
+for pastime on my journey." "Well then," went on the stranger youth,
+"if you call that delicately formed flower, which is so faithful a
+reproduction of Nature, trifling, you must be a skilful practised
+modeller. You have afforded me a pleasant surprise in two ways. First,
+I was quite touched to the heart by the song you sang so admirably to
+Martin Haescher's _Zarte Buchstabenweis_; and now I cannot but admire
+your artistic skill in modelling. How much farther do you intend to
+travel to-day?" Frederick replied, "Yonder lies the goal of my journey
+before our eyes. I am going home, to the famed imperial town of
+Nuremberg. But as the sun has now been set some time, I shall pass the
+night in the village below there, and then by being up and away in the
+early morning I can be in Nuremberg at noon." "Marry," cried the youth,
+delighted, "how finely things will fit; we are both going the same way,
+for I want to go to Nuremberg. I will spend the night with you here in
+the village, and then we'll proceed on our way again to-morrow. And now
+let us talk a little." The youth, Reinhold by name, threw himself down
+beside Frederick on the grass, and continued, "If I mistake not, you
+are a skilful artist-caster, are you not? I infer it from your style of
+modelling; or perhaps you are a worker in gold and silver?" Frederick
+cast down his eyes sadly, and said dejectedly, "Marry, my dear sir, you
+are taking me for something far better and higher than I really am.
+Well, I will speak candidly; I have learned the trade of a cooper, and
+am now going to work for a well-known master in Nuremberg. You will no
+doubt look down upon me with contempt since, instead of being able to
+mould and cast splendid statues, and such like, all I can do is to hoop
+casks and tubs." Reinhold burst out laughing, and cried, "Now that I
+call droll. I shall look down upon you--eh? because you are a cooper;
+why man, that's what I am; I'm nothing but a cooper." Frederick opened
+his eyes wide in astonishment; he did not know what to make of it, for
+Reinhold's dress was in keeping with anything sooner than a journeyman
+cooper's on travel. His doublet of fine black cloth, trimmed with
+slashed velvet, his dainty ruff, his short broadsword, and baretta with
+a long drooping feather, seemed rather to point to a prosperous
+merchant; and yet again there was a strange something about the face
+and form of the youth which completely negatived the idea of a
+merchant. Reinhold, noticing Frederick's doubting glances, undid his
+travelling-bundle and produced his cooper's apron and knife-belt,
+saying, "Look here, my friend, look here. Have you any doubts now as to
+my being a comrade? I perceive you are astonished at my clothing, but I
+have just come from Strasburg, where the coopers go about the streets
+as fine as noblemen. Certainly I did once set my heart upon something
+else like you, but now to be a cooper is the topmost height of my
+ambition, and I have staked many a grand hope upon it. Is it not
+the same with you, comrade? But I could almost believe that a dark
+cloud-shadow had been hung unawares about the brightness of your youth,
+so that you are no longer able to look freely and gladly about you. The
+song which you were just singing was full of pain and of the yearning
+of love; but there were strains in it that seemed as if they proceeded
+from my own heart, and I somehow fancy I know all that is locked up
+within your breast. You may therefore all the more put confidence in
+me, for shall we not then be good comrades in Nuremberg?" Reinhold
+threw his arm around Frederick and looked kindly into his eyes.
+Whereupon Frederick said, "The more I look at you, honest friend, the
+stronger I feel drawn towards you; I clearly discern within my breast
+the wonderful voice which faithfully echoes the cry that you are a
+sympathetic spirit I must tell you all--not that a poor fellow like me
+has any important secrets to confide to you, but simply because there
+is room in the heart of the true friend for _his_ friend's pain, and
+during the first moments of our new acquaintance even I acknowledge you
+to be my truest friend.
+
+"I am now a cooper, and may boast that I understand my work; but all my
+thoughts have been directed to another and a nobler art since my very
+childhood. I wished to become a great master in casting statues and in
+silver-work, like Peter Fischer[24] or the Italian Benvenuto
+Cellini;[25] and so I worked with intense ardour along with Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer,[26] the well-known worker in silver in my native
+town yonder. For although he did not exactly cast statues himself, he
+was yet able to give me a good introduction to the art. And Herr Tobias
+Martin, the master-cooper, often came to Herr Holzschuer's with his
+daughter, pretty Rose. Without being consciously aware of it, I fell in
+love with her. I then left home and went to Augsburg in order to learn
+properly the art of casting, but this first caused my smouldering
+passion to burst out into flames. I saw and heard nothing but Rose;
+every exertion and all labour that did not tend to the winning of her
+grew hateful to me. And so I adopted the only course that would bring
+me to this goal. For Master Martin will only give his daughter to the
+cooper who shall make the very best masterpiece in his house, and who
+of course finds favour in his daughter's eyes as well. I deserted my
+own art to learn cooperage. I am now going to Nuremberg to work for
+Master Martin. But now that my home lies before me and Rose's image
+rises up before my eyes, I feel overcome with anxiety and nervousness,
+and my heart sinks within me. Now I see clearly how foolishly I have
+acted; for I don't even know whether Rose loves me or whether she ever
+will love me." Reinhold had listened to Frederick's story with
+increasing attention. He now rested his head on his arm, and, shading
+his eyes with his hand, asked in a hollow moody voice, "And has Rose
+never given you any signs of her love?" "Nay," replied Frederick, "nay,
+for when I left Nuremberg she was more a child than a maiden. No doubt
+she liked me; she smiled upon me most sweetly when I never wearied
+plucking flowers for her in Herr Holzschuer's garden and weaving them
+into wreaths, but----" "Oh! then all hope is not yet lost," cried
+Reinhold suddenly, and so vehemently and in such a disagreeably shrill
+voice that Frederick was almost terrified. At the same time he leapt to
+his feet, his sword rattling against his side, and as he stood upright
+at his full stature the deep shadows of the night fell upon his pale
+face and distorted his gentle features in a most unpleasant way, so
+that Frederick cried, perfectly alarmed, "What's happened to you all at
+once?" and stepping back, his foot knocked against Reinhold's bundle.
+There proceeded from it the jarring of some stringed instrument, and
+Reinhold cried angrily, "You ill-mannered fellow, don't break my lute
+all to pieces." The instrument was fastened to the bundle; Reinhold
+unbuckled it and ran his fingers wildly over the strings as if he would
+break them all. But his playing soon grew soft and melodious. "Come,
+brother," said he in the same gentle tone as before, "let us now go
+down into the village. I've got a good means here in my hands to banish
+the evil spirits who may cross our path, and who might in particular
+have any dealings with me." "Why, brother," replied Frederick, "what
+evil spirits will be likely to have anything to do with us on the way?
+But your playing is very, very nice; please go on with it."
+
+The golden stars were beginning to dot the dark azure sky. The night
+breezes in low murmurous whispers swept lightly over the fragrant
+meadows. The brooks babbled louder, and the trees rustled in the
+distant woods round about Then Frederick and Reinhold went down the
+slope playing and singing, and the sweet notes of their songs, so full
+of noble aspirations, swelled up clear and sharp in the air, as if they
+had been plumed arrows of light. Arrived at their quarters for the
+night, Reinhold quickly threw aside lute and bundle and strained
+Frederick to his heart; and Frederick felt on his cheeks the scalding
+tears which Reinhold shed.
+
+
+         _How the two young journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick,
+                 were taken into Master Martin's house._
+
+Next morning when Frederick awoke he missed his new-won friend, who had
+the night before thrown himself down upon the straw pallet at his side;
+and as his lute and his bundle were likewise missing, Frederick quite
+concluded that Reinhold, from reasons which were unknown to him, had
+left him and gone another road. But directly he stepped out of the
+house Reinhold came to meet him, his bundle on his back and his lute
+under his arm, and dressed altogether differently from what he had been
+the day before. He had taken the feather out of his baretta, and laid
+aside his sword, and had put on a plain burgher's doublet of an
+unpretentious colour, instead of the fine one with the velvet
+trimmings. "Now, brother," he cried, laughing merrily to his astonished
+friend, "you will acknowledge me for your true comrade and faithful
+work-mate now, eh? But let me tell you that for a youth in love you
+have slept most soundly. Look how high the sun is. Come, let us be
+going on our way." Frederick was silent and busied with his own
+thoughts; he scarcely answered Reinhold's questions and scarcely heeded
+his jests. Reinhold, however, was full of exuberant spirits; he ran
+from side to side, shouted, and waved his baretta in the air. But he
+too became more and more silent the nearer they approached the town. "I
+can't go any farther, I am so full of nervousness and anxiety and sweet
+sadness; let us rest a little while beneath these trees." Thus spake
+Frederick just before they reached the gate; and he threw himself down
+quite exhausted in the grass. Reinhold sat down beside him, and after a
+while began, "I daresay you thought me extremely strange yesterday
+evening, good brother mine. But as you told me about your love, and
+were so very dejected, then all kinds of foolish nonsense flooded my
+mind and made me quite confused, and would have made me mad in the end
+if your good singing and my lute had not driven away the evil spirits.
+But this morning when the first ray of sunlight awoke me, all my gaiety
+of heart returned, for all nasty feelings had already left me last
+evening. I ran out, and whilst wandering among the undergrowth a crowd
+of fine things came into my mind: how I had found you, and how all my
+heart felt drawn towards you. There also occurred to me a pretty little
+story which happened some time ago when I was in Italy; I will tell it
+to you, since it is a remarkable illustration of what true friendship
+can do.
+
+"It chanced that a noble prince, a warm patron and friend of the Fine
+Arts, offered a very large prize for a painting, the subject of which
+was definitely fixed, and which, though a splendid subject, was one
+difficult to treat. Two young painters, united by the closest bond of
+friendship and wont to work together, resolved to compete for the
+prize. They communicated their designs to each other and had long talks
+as to how they should overcome the difficulties connected with the
+subject. The elder, more experienced in drawing and in arrangement and
+grouping, had soon formed a conception of the picture and sketched it;
+then he went to the younger, whom he found so discouraged in the very
+designing that he would have given the scheme up, had not the elder
+constantly encouraged him, and imparted to him good advice. But when
+they began to paint, the younger, a master in colour, was able to give
+his friend many a hint, which he turned to the best account; and
+eventually it was found that the younger had never designed a better
+picture, nor the elder coloured one better. The pieces being finished,
+the two artists fell upon each other's neck; each was delighted,
+enraptured, with the other's work, and each adjudged the prize, which
+they both deserved, to his friend. But when, eventually, the prize was
+declared to have fallen to the younger, he cried, ashamed, 'Oh! how can
+I have gained the prize? What is my merit in comparison with that of my
+friend? I should never have produced anything at all good without his
+advice and valuable assistance.' Then said the elder, 'And did not you
+too stand by me with invaluable counsel? My picture is certainly not
+bad; but yours has carried off the prize as it deserved. To strive
+honestly and openly towards the same goal, that is the way of true
+friends; the wreath which the victor wins confers honour also upon the
+vanquished. I love you now all the more that you have so bravely
+striven, and in your victory I also reap fame and honour.' And the
+painter was right, was he not, Frederick? Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+still more and knit their hearts still closer, instead of setting them
+at variance. Ought there to be any room in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hate?" "Never, certainly not," replied Frederick. "We are
+now faithful loving brothers, and shall both in a short time construct
+our masterpiece in Nuremburg, a good two-tun cask, made without fire;
+but Heaven forbid that I should feel the least spark of envy if yours,
+dear brother Reinhold, turned out to be better than mine." "Ha! ha!
+ha!" laughed Reinhold heartily, "go on with you and your masterpiece;
+you'll soon manage that to the joy of all good coopers. And let me tell
+you that in all that concerns calculation of size and proportion, and
+drawing plans of sections of circles, you'll find I'm your man. And
+then in choosing your wood you may rely fully upon me. Staves of the
+holm oak felled in winter, without worm-holes, without either red or
+white streaks, and without blemish, that's what we must look for; you
+may trust my eyes. I will stand by you with all the help I can, in both
+deed and counsel; and my own masterpiece will be none the worse for
+it." "But in the name of all that's holy," broke in Frederick here,
+"why are we chattering about who is to make the best masterpiece? Are
+we to have any contest about the matter?--the best masterpiece--to gain
+Rose! What are we thinking about? The very thought makes me giddy."
+"Marry, brother," cried Reinhold, still laughing, "there was no thought
+at all of Rose. You are a dreamer. Come along, let us go on if we are
+to get into the town." Frederick leapt to his feet, and went on his
+way, his mind in a whirl of confusion.
+
+As they were washing and brushing off the dust of travel in the
+hostelry, Reinhold said to Frederick, "To tell you the truth, I for my
+part don't know for what master I shall work; I have no acquaintances
+here at all; and I thought you would perhaps take me along with you to
+Master Martin's, brother? Perhaps I may get taken on by him." "You
+remove a heavy load from my heart," replied Frederick, "for if you will
+only stay with me, it will be easier for me to conquer my anxiety and
+nervousness." And so the two young apprentices trudged sturdily on to
+the house of the famed cooper, Master Martin.
+
+It happened to be the very Sunday on which Master Martin gave his feast
+in honour of his election as "Candle-master;" and the two arrived just
+as they were partaking of the good cheer. So it was that as Reinhold
+and Frederick entered into Master Martin's house they heard the ringing
+of glasses and the confused buzz and rattle of a merry company at a
+feast. "Oh!" said Frederick quite cast down, "we have, it seems, come
+at an unseasonable time." "Nay, I think we have come exactly at the
+right time," replied Reinhold, "for Master Martin is sure to be in good
+humour after a good feast, and well disposed to grant our wishes." They
+caused their arrival to be announced to Master Martin, and soon he
+appeared in the entrance-passage, dressed in holiday garb and with no
+small amount of colour in his nose and on his cheeks. On catching sight
+of Frederick he cried, "Holla! Frederick, my good lad, have you come
+home again? That's fine! And so you have taken up the best of all
+trades--cooperage. Herr Holzschuer cuts confounded wry faces when your
+name is mentioned, and says a great artist is ruined in you, and that
+you could have cast little images and espaliers as fine as those in St.
+Sebald's or on Fugger's[27] house at Augsburg. But that's all nonsense;
+you have done quite right to step across the way here. Welcome, lad,
+welcome with all my heart." And therewith Herr Martin took him by the
+shoulders and drew him to his bosom, as was his wont, thoroughly well
+pleased. This kind reception by Master Martin infused new spirits into
+Frederick; all his nervousness left him, so that unhesitatingly and
+without constraint he was able not only to prefer his own request but
+also warmly to recommend Reinhold. "Well, to tell you the truth," said
+Master Martin, "you could not have come at a more fortunate time than
+just now, for work keeps increasing and I am bankrupt of workmen. You
+are both heartily welcome. Put your bundles down and come in; our meal
+is indeed almost finished, but you can come and take your seats at the
+table, and Rose shall look after you and get you something." And Master
+Martin and the two journeymen went into the room. There sat the honest
+masters, the worthy syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their head, all with
+hot red faces. Dessert was being served, and a better brand of wine was
+sparkling in the glasses. Every master was talking about something
+different from all his neighbours and in a loud voice, and yet they all
+thought they understood each other; and now and again some of them
+burst out in a hearty laugh without exactly knowing why. When, however.
+Master Martin came back, leading the two young men by the hand, and
+announced aloud that he brought two journeymen who had come to him well
+provided with testimonials just at the time he wanted them, then all
+grew silent, each master scrutinising the smart young fellows with a
+smile of comfortable satisfaction, whilst Frederick cast his eyes down
+and twisted his baretta about in his hands. Master Martin directed the
+youths to places at the very bottom of the table; but these were soon
+the very best of all, for Rose came and took her seat between the two,
+and served them attentively both with dainty dishes and with good rich
+wine. There was Rose, a most winsome picture of grace and loveliness,
+seated between the two handsome youths, all in midst of the bearded old
+men--it was a right pleasant sight to see; the mind instantly recalled
+a bright morning cloud rising solitary above the dim dark horizon, or
+beautiful spring flowers lifting up their bright heads from amidst the
+uniform colourless grass. Frederick was so very happy and so very
+delighted that his breath almost failed him for joy; and only now and
+again did he venture to steal a glance at her who filled his heart so
+fully. His eyes were fixedly bent upon his plate; how could he possibly
+dream of eating the least morsel? Reinhold, on the other hand, could
+not turn his sparkling, radiant eyes away from the lovely maiden. He
+began to talk about his long journeys in such a wonderful way that Rose
+had never heard anything like it. She seemed to see everything of which
+he spoke rise up vividly before her in manifold ever-changing forms.
+She was all eyes and ears; and when Reinhold, carried away by the fire
+of his own words, grasped her hand and pressed it to his heart, she
+didn't know where she was. "But bless me," broke off Reinhold all at
+once, "why, Frederick, you are quite silent and still. Have you lost
+your tongue? Come, let us drink to the weal of the lovely maiden who
+has so hospitably entertained us." With a trembling hand Frederick
+seized the huge drinking-glass that Reinhold had filled to the brim and
+now insisted on his draining to the last drop. "Now here's long life to
+our excellent master," cried Reinhold, again filling the glasses and
+again compelling Frederick to empty his. Then the fiery juices of the
+wine permeated his veins and stirred up his stagnant blood until it
+coursed as it were triumphantly through his every limb. "Oh! I feel so
+indescribably happy," he whispered, the burning blushes mounting into
+his cheeks. "Oh! I have never felt so happy in all my life before."
+Rose, who undoubtedly gave another interpretation to his words, smiled
+upon him with incomparable gentleness. Then, quit of all his
+embarrassing shyness, Frederick said, "Dear Rose, I suppose you no
+longer remember me, do you?" "But, dear Frederick," replied Rose,
+casting down her eyes, "how could I possibly forget you in so short a
+time? When you were at Herr Holzschuer's--true, I was only a mere child
+then, yet you did not disdain to play with me, and always had something
+nice and pretty to talk about. And that dear little basket made of fine
+silver wire that you gave me at Christmas-time, I've got it still, and
+I take care of it and keep it as a precious memento." Frederick was
+intoxicated with delight and tears glittered in his eyes. He tried to
+speak, but there only burst from his breast, like a deep sigh, the
+words, "O Rose--dear, dear Rose." "I have always really from my heart
+longed to see you again," went on Rose; "but that you would become a
+cooper, that I never for a moment dreamed. Oh! when I call to mind
+the beautiful things that you made whilst you were with Master
+Holzschuer--oh! it really is a pity that you have not stuck to your art."
+"O Rose," said Frederick, "it is only for your sake that I have become
+unfaithful to it." No sooner had he uttered these words than he
+could have sunk into the earth for shame and confusion. He had most
+thoughtlessly let the confession slip over his lips. Rose, as if divining
+all, turned her face away from him; whilst he in vain struggled for words.
+
+Then Herr Paumgartner struck the table a bang with his knife, and
+announced to the company that Herr Vollrad, a worthy _Meistersinger_,[28]
+would favour them with a song. Herr Vollrad at once rose to his feet,
+cleared his throat, and sang such an excellent song in the _Gueldne
+Tonweis_[29] of Herr Vogelgesang that everybody's heart leapt with joy,
+and even Frederick recovered himself from his awkward embarrassment again.
+After Herr Vollrad had sung several other excellent songs to several other
+excellent tunes, such as the _Suesser Ton_, the _Krummzinkenweis_, the
+_Gebluemte Paradiesweis_, the _Frisch Pomeranzenweis_, &c., he called
+upon any one else at the table who understood anything of the sweet and
+delectable art of the _Meistersinger_ also to honour them with a song. Then
+Reinhold rose to his feet and said that if he might be allowed to accompany
+himself on his lute in the Italian fashion he would give them a song,
+keeping, however, strictly to the German tune. As nobody had any objection
+he fetched his instrument, and, after a little tuneful prelude, began the
+following song:--
+
+            Where is the little fount
+            Where sparkles the spicy wine?
+            From forth its golden depths
+            Its golden sparkles mount
+            And dance 'fore the gladdened eye.
+            This beautiful little fount
+            Wherein the golden wine
+            Sparkles--who made it,
+            With thoughtful skill and fine,
+            With such high art and industry,
+            That praise deserve so well?
+            This little fount so gay,
+            Wrought with high art and fine,
+            Was fashioned by one
+            Who ne'er an artist was--
+            But a brave young cooper he,
+            His veins with rich wine glowing,
+            His heart with true love singing,
+            And ever lovingly--
+            For that's young cooper's way
+            In all the things he does.
+
+This song pleased them all down to the ground, but none more so
+than Master Martin, whose eyes sparkled with pleasure and delight.
+Without heeding Vollrad, who had almost too much to say about Hans
+Mueller's _Stumpfe Schossweis_, which the youth had caught excellently
+well,--Master Martin, without heeding him, rose from his seat, and,
+lifting his _passglas_[30] above his head, called aloud, "Come here,
+honest cooper and _Meistersinger_, come here and drain this glass with
+me, your Master Martin." Reinhold had to do as he was bidden. Returning
+to his place, he whispered into Frederick's ear, who was looking very
+pensive, "Now, you must sing--sing the song you sang last night." "Are
+you mad?" asked Frederick, quite angry. But Reinhold turned to the
+company and said in a loud voice, "My honoured gentlemen and masters,
+my dear brother Frederick here can sing far finer songs, and has a much
+pleasanter voice than I have, but his throat has got full of dust from
+his travels, and he will treat you to some of his songs another time,
+and then to the most admirable tunes." And they all began to shower
+down their praises upon Frederick, as if he had already sung. Indeed,
+in the end, more than one of the masters was of opinion that his voice
+was really more agreeable than journeyman Reinhold's, and Herr Vollrad
+also, after he had drunk another glass, was convinced that Frederick
+could use the beautiful German tunes far better than Reinhold, for the
+latter had too much of the Italian style about him. And Master Martin,
+throwing his head back into his neck, and giving his round belly a
+hearty slap, cried, "Those are _my_ journeymen, _my_ journeymen, I tell
+you--mine, master-cooper Tobias Martin's of Nuremberg." And all the
+other masters nodded their heads in assent, and, sipping the last drops
+out of the bottom of their tall glasses, said, "Yes, yes. Your brave,
+honest journeymen, Master Martin--that they are." At length it was time
+to retire to rest Master Martin led Reinhold and Frederick each into a
+bright cheerful room in his own house.
+
+
+       _How the third journeyman came into Master Martin's house
+                   and what followed in consequence._
+
+After the two journeymen had worked for some weeks in Master Martin's
+workshop, he perceived that in all that concerned measurement with rule
+and compass, and calculation, and estimation of measure and size by
+eyesight, Reinhold could hardly find his match, but it was a different
+thing when it came to hard work at the bench or with the adze or the
+mallet. Then Reinhold soon grew tired, and the work did not progress,
+no matter how great efforts he might make. On the other hand, Frederick
+planed and hammered away without growing particularly tired. But
+one thing they had in common with each other, and that was their
+well-mannered behaviour, marked, principally at Reinhold's instance, by
+much natural cheerfulness and good-natured enjoyment. Besides, even
+when hard at work, they did not spare their throats, especially when
+pretty Rose was present, but sang many an excellent song, their
+pleasant voices harmonising well together. And whenever Frederick,
+glancing shyly across at Rose, seemed to be falling into his melancholy
+mood, Reinhold at once struck up a satirical song that he composed,
+beginning, "The cask is not the cither, nor is the cither the cask," so
+that old Herr Martin often had to let the croze-adze which he had
+raised, sink again without striking and hold his big belly as it
+wabbled from his internal laughter. Above all, the two journeymen, and
+mainly Reinhold, had completely won their way into Martin's favour; and
+it was not difficult to observe that Rose found a good many pretexts
+for lingering oftener and longer in the workshop than she certainly
+otherwise would have done.
+
+
+One day Master Martin entered his open workshop outside the town-gate,
+where work was carried on all the summer through, with his brow
+weighted with thought Reinhold and Frederick were in the act of setting
+up a small cask. Then Master Martin planted himself before them with
+his arms crossed over his chest and said, "I can't tell you how pleased
+I am with you, my good journeymen, but I am just now in a great
+difficulty. They write me from the Rhine that this will be a more
+prosperous wine-year than there ever has been before. A learned man
+says that the comet which has been seen in the heavens will fructify
+the earth with its wonderful tail, so that the glowing heat which
+fabricates the precious metals down in the deepest mines will all
+stream upwards and evaporate into the thirsty vines, till they prosper
+and thrive and put forth multitudes of grapes, and the liquid fire with
+which they are filled will be poured out into the grapes. It will be
+almost three hundred years before such a favourable constellation
+occurs again. So now we shall all have our hands full of work. And then
+there's his Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg has written to me and
+ordered a large cask. That we can't get done; and I shall have to look
+about for another useful journeyman. Now I should not like to take the
+first fellow I meet off the street amongst us, and yet the matter is
+very urgent. If you know of a good journeyman anywhere whom you would
+be willing to work with, you have only to tell me, and I will get him
+here, even though it should cost me a good sum of money."
+
+Hardly had Master Martin finished speaking when a young man, tall and
+stalwart, shouted to him in a loud voice, "Hi! you there! is this
+Master Martin's workshop?" "Certainly," replied Master Martin, going
+towards the young man, "certainly it is; but you needn't shout so
+deuced loud and lumber in like that; that's not the way to find
+people." "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the young fellow, "marry, you are Master
+Martin himself, for--fat belly--stately double-chin--sparkling eyes,
+and red nose--yes, that's just how he was described to me. I bid you
+good hail, Master Martin." "Well, and what do you want from Master
+Martin?" he asked, indignantly. The young fellow replied, "I am a
+journeyman cooper, and merely wanted to ask if I could find work with
+you." Marvelling that just as he was thinking about looking out for a
+journeyman one should come to him like this, Master Martin drew back a
+few paces and eyed the young man from head to foot. He, however, met
+the scrutiny unabashed and with sparkling eyes. Noting his broad chest,
+stalwart build, and powerful arms, Master Martin thought within
+himself, it's just such a lusty fellow as this that I want, and he at
+once asked him for his trade testimonials.[31] "I haven't them with me
+just at this present moment," replied the young man, "but I will get
+them in a short time; and I give you now my word of honour that I will
+work well and honestly, and that must suffice you." Thereupon, without
+waiting for Master Martin's reply, the young journeyman stepped into
+the workshop. He threw down his baretta and bundle, took off his
+doublet, put on his apron, and said, "Come, Master Martin, tell me at
+once what I am to begin with." Master Martin, completely taken aback by
+the young stranger's resolute vigour and promptitude, had to think a
+little; then he said, "Come then, my fine fellow, and show me at once
+that you are a good cooper; take this croze-adze and finish the groove
+of that cask lying in the vice yonder." The stranger performed what he
+had been bidden with remarkable strength, quickness, and skill; and
+then he cried, laughing loudly, "Now, Master Martin, have you any
+doubts now as to my being a good cooper? But," he continued, going
+backwards and forwards through the shop, and examining the instruments
+and tools, and supply of wood, "but though you are well supplied with
+useful stores and--but what do you call this little thing of a mallet?
+I suppose it's for your children to play with; and this little adze
+here--why it must be for your apprentices when they first begin," and
+he swung round his head the huge heavy mallet which Reinhold could not
+lift and which Frederick had great difficulty in wielding; and then he
+did the same with the ponderous adze with which Master Martin himself
+worked. Then he rolled a couple of huge casks on one side as if they
+had been light balls, and seized one of the large thick beams which had
+not yet been worked at "Marry, master," he cried, "marry, this is good
+sound oak; I wager it will snap like glass." And thereupon he struck
+the stave against the grindstone so that it broke clean in half with a
+loud crack. "Pray be so kind," said Master Martin, "pray have the
+kindness, my good fellow, to kick that two-tun cask about or to pull
+down the whole shop. There, you can take that balk for a mallet, and
+that you may have an adze to your mind I will have Roland's sword,
+which is three yards long, fetched for you from the town-house." "Ay,
+do, that's just the thing," said the young man, his eyes flashing; but
+the next minute he cast them down upon the ground and said, lowering
+his voice, "I only thought, good master, that you wanted right strong
+journeymen for your heavy work, and now I have, I see, been too
+forward, too swaggering, in displaying my bodily strength. But do take
+me on to work, I will faithfully do whatever you shall require of me."
+Master Martin scanned the youth's features, and could not but admit
+that he had never seen more nobility and at the same time more
+downright honesty in any man's face. And yet, as he looked upon the
+young fellow, there stole into his mind a dim recollection of some man
+whom he had long esteemed and honoured, but he could not clearly call
+to mind who it was. For this reason he granted the young man's request
+on the spot, only enjoining upon him to produce at the earliest
+opportunity the needful credible trade attestations.
+
+Meanwhile Reinhold and Frederick had finished setting up their cask and
+were now busy driving on the first hoops. Whilst doing this they were
+always in the habit of striking up a song; and on this occasion they
+began a good song in Adam Puschmann's _Stieglitzweis_. Then Conrad
+(that was the name of the new journeyman) shouted across from the bench
+where Master Martin had placed him, "By my troth, what squalling do you
+call that? I could fancy I hear mice squeaking somewhere about the
+shop. An you mean to sing at all, sing so that it will cheer the heart
+and make the work go down well. That's how I sing a bit now and again."
+And he began to bellow out a noisy hunting ditty with its hollas! and
+hoy, boys! and he imitated the yelping of the hounds and the shrill
+shouts of the hunters in such a clear, keen, stentorian voice that
+the huge casks rang again and all the workshop echoed. Master Martin
+held his hands over his ears, and Dame Martha's (Valentine's widow)
+little boys, who were playing in the shop, crept timorously behind the
+piled-up staves. Just at this moment Rose came in, amazed, nay,
+frightened at the terrible noise; it could not be called singing
+anyhow. As soon as Conrad observed her, he at once stopped, and leaving
+his bench he approached her and greeted her with the most polished
+grace. Then he said in a gentle voice, whilst an ardent fire gleamed in
+his bright brown eyes, "Lovely lady, what a sweet rosy light shone into
+this humble workman's hut when you came in! Oh! had I but perceived you
+sooner, I had not outraged your tender ears with my wild hunting
+ditty." Then, turning to Master Martin and the other journeymen, he
+cried, "Oh! do stop your abominable knocking and rattling. As long as
+this gracious lady honours us with her presence, let mallets and
+drivers rest. Let us only listen to her sweet voice, and with bowed
+head hearken to what she may command us, her humble servants." Reinhold
+and Frederick looked at each other utterly amazed; but Master Martin
+burst out laughing and said, "Well, Conrad, it is now plain that you
+are the most ridiculous donkey who ever put on apron. First you come
+here and want to break everything to pieces like an uncultivated giant;
+then you bellow in such a way as to make our ears tingle; and, as a
+fitting climax to all your foolishness, you take my little daughter
+Rose for a lady of rank and act like a love-smitten Junker." Conrad
+replied, coolly, "Your lovely daughter I know very well, my worthy
+Master Martin; but I tell you that she is the most peerless lady who
+treads the earth, and if Heaven grant it she would honour the very
+noblest of Junkers by permitting him to be her Paladin in faithful
+knightly love." Master Martin held his sides, and it was only by giving
+vent to his laughter in hums and haws that he prevented himself from
+choking. As soon as he could at all speak, he stammered, "Good, very
+good, my most excellent youth; you may continue to regard my daughter
+as a lady of high rank, I shall not hinder you; but, irrespective of
+that, will you have the goodness to go back to your bench?"
+Conrad stood as if spell-bound, his eyes cast down upon the ground; and
+rubbing his forehead, he said in a low voice, "Ay, it is so," and did
+as he was bidden. Rose, as she always did in the shop, sat down upon a
+small cask, which Frederick placed for her, and which Reinhold
+carefully dusted. At Master Martin's express desire they again struck
+up the admirable song in which they had been so rudely interrupted by
+Conrad's bluster; but he went on with his work at the bench, quite
+still, and entirely wrapped up in his own thoughts.
+
+When the song came to an end Master Martin said, "Heaven has endowed
+you with a noble gift, my brave lads; you would not believe how highly
+I value the delectable art of song. Why, once I wanted to be a
+_Meistersinger_ myself, but I could not manage it, even though I tried
+all I knew how. All that I gained by my efforts was ridicule and
+mockery. In 'Voluntary Singing'[32] I either got into false
+'appendages,' or 'double notes,' or a wrong 'measure,' or an unsuitable
+'embellishment,' or started the wrong melody altogether. But you will
+succeed better, and it shall be said, what the master can't do, his
+journeymen can. Next Sunday after the sermon there will be a singing
+contest by the _Meistersinger_ at the usual time in St. Catherine's
+Church. But before the 'Principal Singing' there will be a 'Voluntary,'
+in which you may both of you win praise and honour in your beautiful
+art, for any stranger who can sing at all, may freely take part in
+this. And, he! Conrad, my journeyman Conrad," cried Master Martin
+across to the bench, "would not you also like to get into the
+singing-desk and treat our good folk to your fine hunting-chorus?"
+Without looking up, Conrad replied, "Mock not, good master, mock not;
+everything in its place. Whilst you are being edified by the
+_Meistersinger_, I shall enjoy myself in my own way on the Allerwiese."
+
+And what Master Martin anticipated came to pass. Reinhold got into the
+singing-desk and sang divers songs to divers tunes, with which all the
+_Meistersingers_ were well pleased; and although they were of opinion
+that the singer had not made any mistake, yet they had a slight
+objection to urge against him--a sort of something foreign about his
+style, but yet they could not say exactly in what it consisted. Soon
+afterwards Frederick took his seat in the singing-desk; and doffing his
+baretta, he stood some seconds looking silently before him; then after
+sending a glance at the audience which entered lovely Rose's bosom like
+a burning arrow, and caused her to fetch a deep sigh, he began such a
+splendid song in Heinrich Frauenlob's[33] _Zarter Ton_, that all the
+masters agreed with one accord there was none amongst them who could
+surpass the young journeyman.
+
+The singing-school came to an end towards evening, and Master Martin,
+in order to finish off the day's enjoyment in proper style, betook
+himself in high good-humour to the Allerwiese along with Rose. The two
+journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick, were permitted to accompany them;
+Rose was walking between them. Frederick, radiant with delight at the
+masters' praise, and intoxicated with happiness, ventured to breathe
+many a daring word in Rose's ear which she, however, casting down her
+eyes in maidenly coyness, pretended not to hear. Rather she turned to
+Reinhold, who, according to his wont, was running on with all sorts of
+merry nonsense; nor did he hesitate to place his arm in Rose's. Whilst
+even at a considerable distance from the Allerwiese they could hear
+noisy shouts and cries. Arrived at the place where the young men were
+amusing themselves in all kinds of games, partly chivalric, they heard
+the crowd shout time after time, "Won again! won again! He's the
+strongest again! Nobody can compete with him." Master Martin, on
+working his way through the crowd, perceived that it was nobody else
+but his journeyman Conrad who was reaping all this praise and exciting
+the people to all this applause. He had beaten everybody in racing and
+boxing and throwing the spear. As Martin came up, Conrad was shouting
+out and inquiring if there was anybody who would have a merry bout with
+him with blunt swords. This challenge several stout young patricians,
+well accustomed to this species of pastime, stepped forward and
+accepted. But it was not long before Conrad had again, without much
+trouble or exertion, overcome all his opponents; and the applause at
+his skill and strength seemed as if it would never end.
+
+The sun had set; the last glow of evening died away, and twilight began
+to creep on apace. Master Martin, with Rose and the two journeymen, had
+thrown themselves down beside a babbling spring of water. Reinhold was
+telling of the wonders of distant Italy, but Frederick, quiet and
+happy, had his eyes fixed on pretty Rose's face. Then Conrad drew near
+with slow hesitating steps, as if rather undecided in his own mind
+whether he should join them or not Master Martin called to him, "Come
+along, Conrad, come along, come along; you have borne yourself bravely
+on the meadow; that's what I like in my journeymen, and it's what
+becomes them. Don't be shy, lad; come and join us, you have my
+permission." Conrad cast a withering glance at his master, who however
+met it with a condescending nod; then the young journeyman said
+moodily, "I am not the least bit shy of you, and I have not asked your
+permission whether I may lie down here or not,--in fact, I have not
+come to _you_ at all. All my opponents I have stretched in the sand in
+the merry knightly sports, and all I now wanted was to ask this lovely
+lady whether she would not honour me with the beautiful flowers she
+wears in her bosom, as the prize of the chivalric contest." Therewith
+he dropped upon one knee in front of Rose, and looked her straight and
+honestly in the face with his clear brown eyes, and he begged, "O give
+me those beautiful flowers, sweet Rose, as the prize of victory; you
+cannot refuse me that." Rose at once took the flowers from her bosom
+and gave them to him, laughing and saying, "Ay, I know well that a
+brave knight like you deserves a token of honour from a lady; and so
+here, you may have my withered flowers." Conrad kissed the flowers that
+were given him, and then fastened them in his baretta; but Master
+Martin, rising to his feet, cried, "There's another of your silly
+tricks--come, let us be going home; it is getting dark." Herr Martin
+strode on first; Conrad with modest courtly grace took Rose's arm;
+whilst Reinhold and Frederick followed them considerably out of humour.
+People who met them, stopped and turned round to look after them,
+saying, "Marry, look now, look; that's the rich cooper Thomas Martin,
+with his pretty little daughter and his stout journeymen. A fine set of
+people I call them."
+
+
+     _Of Dame Martha's conversation with Rose about the three
+        journeymen, Conrad's quarrel with Master Martin._
+
+Generally it is the morning following a holiday when young girls are
+wont to enjoy all the pleasure of it, and taste it, and thoroughly
+digest it; and this after celebration they seem to like far better than
+the actual holiday itself. And so next morning pretty Rose sat alone in
+her room with her hands folded on her lap, and her head bent slightly
+forward in meditation--her spindle and embroidery meanwhile resting.
+Probably she was now listening to Reinhold's and Frederick's songs, and
+now watching Conrad cleverly gaining the victory over his competitors,
+and now she saw him coming to her for the prize of victory; and then
+she hummed a few lines of a pretty song, and then she whispered, "Do
+you want my flowers?" whereat a deeper crimson suffused her cheeks, and
+brighter glances made their way through her downcast eyelashes, and
+soft sighs stole forth from her inmost heart. Then Dame Martha came in,
+and Rose was delighted to be able to tell at full length all that had
+taken place in St. Catherine's Church and on the Allerwiese. When Rose
+had done speaking, Dame Martha said, smiling, "Oh! so now, dear Rose,
+you will soon have to make your choice between your three handsome
+lovers." "For God's sake," burst out Rose, quite frightened, and
+flushing hotly all over her face, "for mercy's sake, Dame Martha, what
+do you mean by that? I--three lovers!" "Don't take on so," went on Dame
+Martha, "don't take on in that way, dear Rose, as if you knew nothing,
+as if you could guess nothing. Why, where do you put your eyes, girl?
+you must be quite blind not to see that our journeymen. Reinhold,
+Frederick, and Conrad--yes, all three of them--are madly in love with
+you." "What a fancy, to be sure, Dame Martha," whispered Rose, holding
+her hands before her face. Then Dame Martha knelt down before her, and
+threw her arm about her, saying, "Come, my pretty, bashful child, take
+your hands away, and look me straight in the eyes, and then tell me you
+have not long ago perceived that you fill both the heart and the mind
+of each of our journeymen, deny that if you can. Nay, I tell you, you
+can't do it; and it would, i' faith, be a truly wonderful thing if a
+maiden's eyes did not see a thing of that sort. Why, when you go into
+the shop, their eyes are off their work and flying across to you in a
+minute, and they bustle and stir about with new life. And Reinhold and
+Frederick begin their best songs, and even wild Conrad grows quiet and
+gentle; each tries to invent some excuse to approach nearer to you, and
+when you honour one of them with a sweet look or a kindly word, how his
+eyes sparkle, and his face flushes! Come now, my pet, is it not nice to
+have such handsome fellows all making love to you? But whether you will
+choose one of the three or which it will be, that I cannot indeed say,
+for you are good and kind to them all alike, and yet--and yet--but I
+must not say more. Now an you come to me and said, 'O Dame Martha, give
+me your advice, to which of these young men, who are all wanting me,
+shall I give my hand and heart?' then I should of course answer, 'If
+your heart does not speak out loudly and distinctly. It's this or it's
+that, why, let them all three go.' I must say Reinhold pleases me right
+well, and so does Frederick, and so does Conrad; and then again on the
+other hand I have something to say against each of them. In fact, dear
+Rose, when I see them working away so bravely, I always think of my
+poor Valentine; and I must say that, if he could not perhaps produce
+any better work, there was yet quite a different kind of swing and
+style in all that he did do. You could see all his heart was in his
+work; but with these young fellows it always seems to me as if they
+only worked so, so--as if they had in their heads different things
+altogether from their work; nay, it almost strikes me as if it were a
+burden which they have voluntarily taken up, and were now bearing with
+sturdy courage. Of them all I can get on best with Frederick; he's such
+a faithful, affectionate fellow. He is the one who seems to belong to
+us most; I understand all that he says. And then his love for you is so
+still, and as shy as a good child's; he hardly dares to look at you,
+and blushes if you only say a single word to him; and that's what I
+like so much in the dear lad." A tear seemed to glisten in Rose's eye
+as Dame Martha said this. She stood up, and turning to the window,
+said, "I like Frederick very much, but you must not pass over Reinhold
+contemptuously." "I never dreamt of doing so," replied Dame Martha,
+"for Reinhold is by a long way the handsomest of all. And what eyes
+he has! And when he looks you through and through with his bright
+glances--no, it's more than you can endure. And yet there's something
+so strange and peculiar in his character, it quite makes me shiver at
+times, and makes me quite afraid of him. When Reinhold is working in
+the shop, I should think Herr Martin, when he tells him to do this or
+do that, must always feel as I should if anybody were to put a bright
+pan in my kitchen all glittering with gold and precious stones, and
+should bid me use it like any ordinary common pan--why, I should hardly
+dare to touch it at all. He tells his stories and talks and talks, and
+it all sounds like sweet music, and you are quite carried away by it,
+but when I sit down to think seriously about what he has been saying, I
+find I haven't understood a single word. And then when he now and again
+jests in the way we do, and I think now he's just like us, then all at
+once he looks so distinguished that I get really afraid of him. And yet
+I can't say that he puffs himself up in the way that many of our
+Junkers or patricians do; no, it's something else altogether different.
+In a word, it strikes me, by my troth, as if he held intercourse with
+higher spirits, as if he belonged, in fact, to another world. Conrad is
+a wild overbearing fellow, and yet there is something confoundedly
+distinguished about him as well; it doesn't agree with the cooper's
+apron somehow. And he always acts as if nobody but he had to give
+orders, and as if the others must obey him. In the short time that he
+has been here he has got so far that when he bellows at Master Martin
+in his loud ringing voice, his master generally does what he wishes.
+But at the same time he is so good-natured and so thoroughly honest
+that you can't bear ill-will against him; rather, I must say, that in
+spite of his wildness, I almost like him better than I do Reinhold, for
+even if he does speak fearfully grand, you can yet understand him very
+well. I wager he has once been a campaigner, he may say what he likes.
+That's why he knows so much about arms, and has even got something of
+knights' ways about him, which doesn't suit him at all badly. Now do
+tell me, Rose dear, without any ifs and ands, which of the three
+journeymen you like best?" "Don't ask me such searching questions, dear
+Dame Martha," answered Rose. "But of this I am quite sure, that
+Reinhold does not stir up in me the same feelings that he does in you.
+It's perfectly true, too, that he is altogether different from his
+equals; and when he talks I could fancy I enter into a beautiful garden
+full of bright and magnificent flowers and blossoms and fruits, such as
+are not to be found on earth, and I like to be amongst them. Since
+Reinhold has been here I see many things in a different light, and lots
+of things that were once dim and formless in my mind are now so bright
+and clear that I can easily distinguish them." Dame Martha rose to her
+feet, and shaking her finger at Rose as she went out of the room, said,
+"Ah! ah! Rose, so Reinhold is the favourite then? I didn't think it, I
+didn't even dream it." Rose made answer as she accompanied her as far
+as the door, "Pray, dear Dame Martha, think nothing, dream nothing, but
+leave all to the future. What _it_ brings is the will of God, and to
+that everybody must bow humbly and gratefully."
+
+Meanwhile it was becoming extremely lively in Master Martin's workshop.
+In order to execute all his orders he had engaged with ordinary
+labourers and taken in some apprentices, and they all hammered and
+knocked till the din could be heard far and wide. Reinhold had finished
+his calculations and measurements for the great cask that was to be
+built for the Bishop of Bamberg, whilst Frederick and Conrad had set it
+up so cleverly that Master Martin's heart laughed in his body, and he
+cried again and again, "Now that I call a grand piece of work; that'll
+be the best little cask I've ever made--except my masterpiece." Now the
+three apprentices stood driving the hoops on to the fitted staves, and
+the whole place rang again with the din of their mallets. Old Valentine
+was busy plying his draw-knife, and Dame Martha, her two youngest on
+her knee, sat just behind Conrad, whilst the other wideawake little
+rascals were shouting and making a noise, tumbling the hoops about, and
+chasing each other. In fact, there was so much hubbub and so much
+vigorous hard work going on that hardly anybody noticed old Herr
+Johannes Holzschuer as he stepped into the shop. Master Martin went to
+meet him, and politely inquired what he desired. "Why, in the first
+place," said Holzschuer, "I want to have a look at my dear Frederick
+again, who is working away so lustily yonder. And then, goodman Master
+Martin, I want a stout cask for my wine-cellar, which I will ask you to
+make for me. Why look you, that cask they are now setting up there is
+exactly the sort of thing I want; you can let me have that, you've only
+got to name the price." Reinhold, who had grown tired and had been
+resting a few minutes down in the shop, and was now preparing to ascend
+the scaffolding again, heard Holzschuer's words and said, turning his
+head towards the old gentleman, "Marry, my friend Herr Holzschuer, you
+need not set your heart upon this cask; we are making it for his
+Lordship the Bishop of Bamberg." Master Martin, his arms folded on his
+back, his left foot planted forward, his head thrown back in his neck,
+blinked at the cask and said proudly, "My dear master, you might have
+seen from the carefully selected wood and the great pains taken in the
+work that a masterpiece like that was meant for a prince's[34] cellar.
+My journeyman Reinhold has said the truth; don't set your heart on a
+piece of work like that. But when the vintage is over I will get you a
+plain strong little cask made, such as will be suitable for your
+cellar." Old Holzschuer, incensed at Master Martin's pride, replied
+that his gold pieces weighed just as much as the Bishop of Bamberg's,
+and that he hoped he could get good work elsewhere for ready money.
+Master Martin, although fuming with rage, controlled himself with
+difficulty; he would not by any means like to offend old Herr
+Holzschuer, who stood so high in the esteem both of the Council and of
+all the burghers. At this moment Conrad struck mightier blows than ever
+with his mallet, so that the whole shop rang and cracked; then Master
+Martin's internal rage boiled over, and he shouted vehemently, "Conrad,
+you blockhead, what do you mean by striking so blindly and heedlessly?
+do you mean to break my cask in pieces?" "Ho! ho!" replied Conrad,
+looking round defiantly at his master, "Ho! ho! my comical little
+master, and why should I not?" And therewith he dealt such a terrible
+blow at the cask that the strongest hoop sprang, rattling, and knocked
+Reinhold down from the narrow plank on the scaffolding; and it was
+further evident from the hollow echo that a stave had been broken as
+well. Completely mastered by his furious anger, Master Martin snatched
+out of Valentine's hand the bar he was shaving, and striding towards
+the cask, dealt Conrad a good sound stroke with it on the back,
+shouting, "You cursed dog!" As soon as Conrad felt the blow he wheeled
+sharply round, and after standing for a moment as if bereft of his
+senses, his eyes blazed up with fury, he ground his teeth, and
+screamed, "Struck! struck!" Then at one bound he was down from the
+scaffolding, had snatched up an adze that lay on the floor, and aimed a
+powerful stroke at his master; had not Frederick pulled Martin on one
+side the blow would have split his head; as it was, the adze only
+grazed his arm, from which, however, the blood at once began to spurt
+out. Martin, fat and helpless as he was, lost his equilibrium and fell
+over the bench, at which one of the apprentices was working, into the
+floor. They all threw themselves upon Conrad, who was frantic,
+flourishing his bloody adze in the air, and shouting and screaming in a
+terrible voice, "Let him go to hell! To hell with him!" Hurling them
+all off with the strength of a giant, he was preparing to deal a second
+blow at his poor master, who was gasping for breath and groaning on the
+floor,--a blow that would have completely done for him--when Rose, pale
+as a corpse with fright, appeared in the shop-door. As soon as Conrad
+observed her he stood as if turned to a pillar of stone, the adze
+suspended in the air. Then he threw the tool away from him, struck his
+hands together upon his chest, and cried in a voice that went to
+everybody's heart, "Oh, good God! good God! what have I done?" and away
+he rushed out of the shop. No one thought of following him.
+
+Now poor Master Martin was after some difficulty lifted up; it was
+found, however, that the adze had only penetrated into the thick fleshy
+part of the arm, and the wound could not therefore be called serious.
+Old Herr Holzschuer, whom Martin had involved with him in his fall, was
+pulled out from beneath the shavings, and Dame Martha's children, who
+ceased not to scream and cry over good Father Martin, were appeased as
+far as that could be done. As for Martin himself, he was quite dazed,
+and said if only that devil of a bad journeyman had not spoilt his fine
+cask he should not make much account of the wound.
+
+Sedan chairs were brought for the old gentlemen, for Holzschuer also
+had bruised himself rather in his fall. He hurled reproaches at a trade
+in which they employed such murderous tools, and conjured Frederick to
+come back to his beautiful art of casting and working in the precious
+metals, and the sooner the better.
+
+As soon as the dusk of evening began to creep up over the sky,
+Frederick, and along with him Reinhold, whom the hoop had struck rather
+sharply, and who felt as if every limb was benumbed, strode back into
+the town in very low spirits. Then they heard a soft sighing and
+groaning behind a hedge. They stood still, and a tall figure at once
+rose up; they immediately recognised Conrad, and began to withdraw
+timidly. But he addressed them in a tearful voice, saying, "You need
+not be so frightened at me, my good comrades; of course you take me for
+a devilish murderous brute, but I am not--indeed I am not so. I could
+not do otherwise; I _ought_ to have struck down the fat old master, and
+by rights I ought to go along with you and do it _now_, if I only
+could. But no, no; it's all over. Remember me to pretty Rose, whom I
+love so above all reason. Tell her I will bear her flowers on my heart
+all my life long, I will adorn myself with them when I--but she will
+perhaps hear of me again some day. Farewell! farewell! my good, brave
+comrades." And Conrad ran away across the field without once stopping.
+
+Reinhold said, "There is something peculiar about this young fellow; we
+can't weigh or measure this deed by any ordinary standard. Perhaps the
+future will unfold to us the secret that has lain heavy upon his
+breast."
+
+
+                _Reinhold leaves Master Martin's house._
+
+If formerly there had been merry days in Master Martin's workshop, so
+now they were proportionately dull. Reinhold, incapable of work,
+remained confined to his room; Martin, his wounded arm in a sling, was
+incessantly abusing the good-for-nothing stranger-apprentice, and
+railing at him for the mischief he had wrought Rose, and even Dame
+Martha and her children, avoided the scene of the rash savage deed, and
+so Frederick's blows fell dull and melancholy enough, like a
+woodcutter's in a lonely wood in winter time, for to Frederick it was
+now left to finish the big cask alone, and a hard task it was.
+
+And soon his mind and heart were possessed by a profound sadness, for
+he believed he had now clear proofs of what he had for a long time
+feared. He no longer had any doubt that Rose loved Reinhold. Not
+only had she formerly shown many a kindness to Reinhold alone, and
+to him alone given many a sweet word, but now--it was as plain as
+noonday--since Reinhold could no longer come to work. Rose too no
+longer thought of going out, but preferred to stay indoors, no doubt
+to wait upon and take good care of her lover. On Sundays, when all the
+rest set out gaily, and Master Martin, who had recovered to some extent
+of his wound, invited him to walk with him and Rose to the Allerwiese,
+he refused the invitation; but, burdened with trouble and the bitter
+pain of disappointed love, he hastened off alone to the village and the
+hill where he had first met with Reinhold. He threw himself down in the
+tall grass where the flowers grew, and as he thought how that the
+beautiful star of hope which had shone before him all along his
+homeward path had now suddenly set in the blackness of night after he
+had reached his goal, and as he thought how that this step which he had
+taken was like the vain efforts of a dreamer stretching out his
+yearning arms after an empty vision of air,--the tears fell from his
+eyes and dropped upon the flowers, which bent their little heads as if
+sorrowing for the young journeyman's great unhappiness. Without his
+being exactly conscious of it, the painful sighs which escaped his
+labouring breast assumed the form of words, of musical notes, and he
+ sang this song:--
+
+            My star of hope,
+            Where hast thou gone?
+            Alas! thy glory rises up--
+            Thy glory sweet, far from me now--
+            And pours its light on others down.
+            Ye rustling evening breezes, rouse you,
+            Blow on my breast,
+            Awake all joy that kills,
+            Awake all pain that brings to death,
+            So that my sore and bleeding heart,
+            Steeped to the core in bitter tears,
+            May break in yearning comfortless.
+            Why whisper ye, ye darksome trees?
+            So softly and like friends together?
+            And why, O golden skirts of sky.
+            Look ye so kindly down on me?
+            Show me my grave;
+            For that is now my haven of hope,
+            Where I shall calmly, softly sleep.
+
+And as it often happens that the very greatest trouble, if only it can
+find vent in tears and words, softens down into a gentle melancholy,
+mild and painless, and that often a faint glimmer of hope appears then
+in the soul, so it was with Frederick; when he had sung this song he
+felt wonderfully strengthened and comforted The evening breezes and the
+darksome trees that he had called upon in his song rustled and
+whispered words of consolation; and like the sweet dreams of distant
+glory or of distant happiness, golden streaks of light worked their way
+up across the dusky sky. Frederick rose to his feet, and went down the
+hill into the village. He almost fancied that Reinhold was walking
+beside him as he did on the day they first found each other; and all
+the words which Reinhold had spoken again recurred to his mind. And as
+his thoughts dwelt upon Reinhold's story about the contest between the
+two painters who were friends, then the scales fell from his eyes.
+There was no doubt about it; Reinhold must have seen Rose before and
+loved her. It was only his love for her which had brought him to
+Nuremberg to Master Martin's, and by the contest between the two
+painters he meant simply and solely their own--Reinhold's and
+Frederick's--rival wooing of beautiful Rose. The words that Reinhold
+had then spoken rang again in his ears,--"Honest contention for the
+same prize, without any malicious reserve, ought to unite true friends
+and knit their hearts still closer together, instead of setting them at
+variance. There should never be any place in noble minds for petty envy
+or malicious hatred." "Yes," exclaimed Frederick aloud, "yes, friend of
+my heart, I will appeal to you without any reserve, you yourself shall
+tell me if all hope for me is lost."
+
+It was approaching noon when Frederick tapped at Reinhold's door. As
+all remained still within, he pushed open the door, which was not
+locked as usual, and went in. But the moment he did so he stood rooted
+to the spot. Upon an easel, the glorious rays of the morning sun
+falling upon it, was a splendid picture, Rose in all the pride of her
+beauty and charms, and life size. The maul-stick lying on the table,
+and the wet colours of the palette, showed that some one had been at
+work on the picture quite recently. "O Rose, Rose!--By Heaven!" sighed
+Frederick. Reinhold, who had entered behind him unperceived, clapped
+him on the shoulder and asked, smiling, "Well, now, Frederick, what do
+you say to my picture!" Then Frederick pressed him to his heart and
+cried, "Oh you splendid fellow--you are indeed a noble artist. Yes,
+it's all clear to me now. You have won the prize--for which I--poor
+me!--had the hardihood to struggle. Oh! what am I in comparison with
+you? And what is my art against yours? And yet I too had some fine
+ideas in my head. Don't laugh at me, dear Reinhold; but, look you, I
+thought what a grand thing it would be to model Rose's lovely figure
+and cast it in the finest silver. But that's all childishness, whilst
+you--you--Oh! how sweetly she smiles upon you, and how delightfully you
+have brought out all her beauty. O Reinhold! Reinhold! you happy, happy
+fellow! Ay, and it has all come about as you said long ago. We have
+both striven for the prize and you have won it: you could not help but
+win it, and I shall still continue to be your friend with all my heart
+But I must leave this house--my home: I cannot bear it, I should die if
+I were to see Rose again. Please forgive me, my dear, dear, noble
+friend. To-day, this very moment, I will go--go away into the wide
+world, where my trouble, my unbearable misery, is sending me." And thus
+speaking, Frederick was hastening out of the apartment, but Reinhold
+held him fast, saying gently, "You shall not go; for things may turn
+out quite different from what you think. It is now time for me to tell
+you all that I have hitherto kept silence about. That I am not a cooper
+but a painter you are now well aware, and I hope a glance at this
+picture will convince you that I am not to be ranked amongst the
+inferior artists. Whilst still young I went to Italy, the land of art;
+there I had the good fortune to be accepted as a pupil by renowned
+masters, who fostered into living fire the spark which glowed within
+me. Thus it came to pass that I rapidly rose into fame, that my
+pictures became celebrated throughout all Italy, and the powerful Duke
+of Florence[35] summoned me to his court. At that time I would not hear
+a word about German art, and without having seen any of your pictures,
+I talked a good deal of nonsense about the coldness, the bad drawing,
+and the hardness of your Duerer and your Cranach.[36] But one day a
+picture-dealer brought a small picture of the Madonna by old Albrecht
+to the Duke's gallery, and it made a powerful and wonderful impression
+upon me, so that I turned away completely from the voluptuousness of
+Italian art, and from that very hour determined to go back to my native
+Germany and study there the masterpieces upon which my heart was now
+set I came to Nuremberg here, and when I beheld Rose I seemed to see
+the Madonna who had so wonderfully stirred my heart, walking in bodily
+form on earth. I had the same experiences as you, dear Frederick; the
+bright flames of love flashed up and consumed me, mind and heart and
+soul. I saw nothing, I thought of nothing, but Rose; all else had
+vanished from my mind; and even art itself only retained its hold
+upon me in so far as it enabled me to draw and paint Rose again and
+again--hundreds of times. I would have approached the maiden in the
+free Italian way; but all my attempts proved fruitless. There was no
+means of securing a footing of intimacy in Master Martin's house in any
+insidious way. At last I made up my mind to sue for Rose directly, when
+I learned that Master Martin had determined to give his daughter only
+to a good master-cooper. Straightway I formed the adventurous resolve
+to go and learn the trade of cooperage in Strasburg, and then to come
+and work in Master Martin's work-shop. I left all the rest to the
+ordering of Providence. You know in what way I carried out my resolve;
+but I must now also tell you what Master Martin said to me some days
+ago. He said I should make a skilful cooper and should be a right dear
+and worthy son-in-law, for he saw plainly that I was seeking to gain
+Rose's favour, and that she liked me right well." "Can it then indeed
+well be otherwise?" cried Frederick, painfully agitated "Yes, yes, Rose
+will be _yours_; how came I, unhappy wretch that I am, ever to hope for
+such happiness?" "You are forgetting, my brother," Reinhold went on to
+say; "you are forgetting that Rose herself has not confirmed this,
+which our cunning Master Martin no doubt is well aware of. True it is
+that Rose has always shown herself kind and charming towards me, but a
+loving heart betrays itself in other ways. Promise me, brother, to
+remain quiet for three days longer, and to go to your work in the shop
+as usual. I also could now go to work again, but since I have been busy
+with, and wrapt up in this picture, I feel an indescribable disgust at
+that coarse rough work out yonder. And, what is more, I can never lay
+hand upon mallet again, let come what will. On the third day I will
+frankly tell you how matters stand between me and Rose. If I should
+really be the lucky one to whom she has given her love, then you may go
+your way and make trial of the experience that time can cure the
+deepest wounds." Frederick promised to await his fate.
+
+On the third day Frederick's heart beat with fear and anxious
+expectation; he had in the meantime carefully avoided meeting Rose.
+Like one in a dream he crept about the workshop, and his awkwardness
+gave Master Martin, no doubt, just cause for his grumbling and
+scolding, which was not by any means customary with him. Moreover, the
+master seemed to have encountered something that completely spoilt all
+his good spirits. He talked a great deal about base tricks and
+ingratitude, without clearly expressing what he meant by it. When at
+length evening came, and Frederick was returning towards the town, he
+saw not far from the gate a horseman coming to meet him, whom he
+recognised to be Reinhold. As soon as the latter caught sight of
+Frederick he cried, "Ha! ha! I meet you just as I wanted." And leaping
+from his horse, he slung the rein over his arm, and grasped his
+friend's hand. "Let us walk along a space beside each other," he said.
+"Now I can tell you what luck I have had with my suit." Frederick
+observed that Reinhold wore the same clothes which he had worn when
+they first met each other, and that the horse bore a portmanteau.
+Reinhold looked pale and troubled. "Good luck to you, brother," he
+began somewhat wildly; "good luck to you. You can now go and hammer
+away lustily at your casks; I will yield the field to you. I have just
+said adieu to pretty Rose and worthy Master Martin." "What!" exclaimed
+Frederick, whilst an electric thrill, as it were, shot through all his
+limbs--"what! you are going away now that Master Martin is willing to
+take you for his son-in-law, and Rose loves you?" Reinhold replied,
+"That was only a delusion, brother, which your jealousy has led you
+into. It has now come out that Rose would have had me simply to show
+her dutifulness and obedience, but there's not a spark of love glowing
+in her ice-cold heart. Ha! ha! I should have made a fine cooper--that I
+should. Week-days scraping hoops and planing staves, Sundays walking
+beside my honest wife to St. Catherine's or St. Sebald's, and in the
+evening to the Allerwiese, year after year"---- "Nay, mock not," said
+Frederick, interrupting Reinhold's loud laughter, "mock not at the
+excellent burgher's simple, harmless life. If Rose does not really love
+you, it is not her fault; you are so passionate, so wild." "You are
+right," said Reinhold; "It is only the silly way I have of making as
+much noise as a spoilt child when I conceive I have been hurt. You can
+easily imagine that I spoke to Rose of my love and of her father's
+good-will. Then the tears started from her eyes, and her hand trembled
+in mine. Turning her face away, she whispered, 'I must submit to my
+father's will'--that was enough for me. My peculiar resentment, dear
+Frederick, will now let you see into the depths of my heart; I must
+tell you that my striving to win Rose was a deception, imposed upon me
+by my wandering mind. After I had finished Rose's picture my heart grew
+calm; and often, strange enough, I fancied that Rose was now the
+picture, and that the picture was become the real Rose. I detested my
+former coarse, rude handiwork; and when I came so intimately into
+contact with the incidents of common life, getting one's 'mastership'
+and getting married, I felt as if I were going to be confined in a
+dungeon and chained to the stocks. How indeed can the divine being whom
+I carry in my heart ever be my wife? No, she shall for ever stand forth
+glorious in youth, grace, and beauty, in the pictures--the
+masterpieces--which my restless spirit shall create. Oh! how I long for
+such things! How came I ever to turn away from my divine art? O thou
+glorious land, thou home of Art, soon again will I revel amidst thy
+cool and balmy airs." The friends had reached the place where the road
+which Reinhold intended to take turned to the left. "Here we will
+part," cried Reinhold, pressing Frederick to his heart in a long warm
+embrace; then he threw himself upon horseback and galloped away.
+Frederick stood watching him without uttering a word, and then,
+agitated by the most unaccountable feelings, he slowly wended his way
+homewards.
+
+
+            _How Frederick was driven out of the workshop by
+                             Master Martin._
+
+The next day Master Martin was working away at the great cask for the
+Bishop of Bamberg in moody silence, nor could Frederick, who now felt
+the full bitterness of parting from Reinhold, utter a word either,
+still less break out into song. At last Master Martin threw aside his
+mallet, and crossing his arms, said in a muffled voice, "Well,
+Reinhold's gone. He was a distinguished painter, and has only been
+making a fool of me with his pretence of being a cooper. Oh! that I had
+only had an inkling of it when he came into my house along with you and
+bore himself so smart and clever, wouldn't I just have shown him the
+door! Such an open honest face, and so much deceit and treachery in his
+mind! Well, he's gone, and now you will faithfully and honestly stick
+to me and my handiwork. Who knows whether you may not become something
+more to me still--when you have become a skilful master and Rose will
+have you--well, you understand me, and may try to win Rose's favour."
+Forthwith he took up his mallet and worked away lustily again.
+Frederick did not know how to account for it, but Master Martin's words
+rent his breast, and a strange feeling of anxiety arose in his mind,
+obscuring every glimmer of hope. After a long interval Rose made a
+first appearance again in the workshop, but was very reserved, and, as
+Frederick to his mortification could see, her eyes were red with
+weeping. She has been weeping for him, she does love him, thus he said
+within himself, and he was quite unable to raise his eyes to her whom
+he loved with such an unutterable love.
+
+The mighty cask was finished, and now Master Martin began to be blithe
+and in good humour again as he regarded this very successful piece of
+work. "Yes, my son," said he, clapping Frederick on the shoulder, "yes,
+my son, I will keep my word: if you succeed in winning Rose's favour
+and build a good sound masterpiece, you shall be my son-in-law. And
+then you can also join the noble guild of the _Meistersinger_, and so
+win you great honour."
+
+Master Martin's business now increased so very greatly that he had to
+engage two other journeymen, clever workmen, but rude fellows, quite
+demoralised by their long wanderings. Coarse jests now echoed in the
+workshop instead of the many pleasant talks of former days, and in
+place of Frederick and Reinhold's agreeable singing were now heard low
+and obscene ditties. Rose shunned the workshop, so that Frederick saw
+her but seldom, and only for a few moments at a time. And then when he
+looked at her with melancholy longing and sighed, "Oh! if I might talk
+to you again, dear Rose, if you were only as friendly again as at the
+time when Reinhold was still with us!" she cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and whispered "Have you something to tell me, dear
+Frederick?" And Frederick stood like a statue, unable to speak a word,
+and the golden opportunity was quickly past, like a flash of lightning
+that darts across the dark red glow of the evening, and is gone almost
+before it is observed.
+
+Master Martin now insisted that Frederick should begin his masterpiece.
+He had himself sought out the finest, purest oak wood, without the
+least vein or flaw, which had been over five years in his wood-store,
+and nobody was to help Frederick except old Valentine. Not only was
+Frederick put more and more out of taste with his work by the rough
+journeymen, but he felt a tightness in his throat as he thought that
+this masterpiece was to decide over his whole life long. The same
+peculiar feeling of anxiety which he had experienced when Master Martin
+was praising his faithful devotion to his handiwork now grew into a
+more and more distinct shape in a quite dreadful way. He now knew that
+he should fail miserably and disgracefully in his work; his mind, now
+once more completely taken up with his own art, was fundamentally
+averse to it. He could not forget Reinhold and Rose's picture. His own
+art now put on again her full glory in his eyes. Often as he was
+working, the crushing sense of the unmanliness of his conduct quite
+overpowered him, and, alleging that he was unwell, he ran off to St.
+Sebald's Church. There he spent hours in studying Peter Fischer's
+marvellous monument, and he would exclaim, as if ravished with delight,
+"Oh, good God! Is there anything on earth more glorious than to
+conceive and execute such a work?" And when he had to go back again to
+his staves and hoops, and remembered that in this way only was Rose to
+be won, he felt as if burning talons were rending his bleeding heart,
+and as if he must perish in the midst of his unspeakable agony.
+Reinhold often came to him in his dreams and brought him striking
+designs for artistic castings, into which Rose's form was worked in
+most ingenious ways, now as a flower, now as an angel, with little
+wings. But there was always something wanting; he discovered that it
+was Rose's heart which Reinhold had forgotten, and that he added to the
+design himself. Then he thought he saw all the flowers and leaves of
+the work move, singing and diffusing their sweet fragrances, and the
+precious metals showed him Rose's likeness in their glittering surface.
+Then he stretched out his arms longingly after his beloved, but the
+likeness vanished as if in dim mist, and Rose herself, pretty Rose,
+pressed him to her loving heart in an ecstasy of passionate love.
+
+His condition with respect to the unfortunate cooperage grew worse and
+worse, and more and more unbearable, and he went to his old master
+Johannes Holzschuer to seek comfort and assistance. He allowed
+Frederick to begin in his shop a piece of work which he, Frederick, had
+thought out and for which he had for some time been saving up his
+earnings, so that he could procure the necessary gold and silver. Thus
+it happened that Frederick was scarcely ever at work in Martin's shop,
+and his deathly pale face gave credence to his pretext that he was
+suffering from a consuming illness. Months went past, and his
+masterpiece, his great two-tun cask, was not advanced any further.
+Master Martin was urgent upon him that he should at least do as much as
+his strength would allow, and Frederick really saw himself compelled to
+go to the hated cutting block again and take the adze in hand. Whilst
+he was working, Master Martin drew near and examined the staves at
+which he was working; and he got quite red in the face and cried, "What
+do you call this? What work is this, Frederick? Has a journeyman been
+preparing these staves for his 'mastership,' or a stupid apprentice who
+only put his nose into the workshop three days ago? Pull yourself
+together, lad: what devil has entered into you that you are making a
+bungle of things like this? My good oak wood,--and this your
+masterpiece! Oh! you awkward, imprudent boy!" Overmastered by the
+torture and agony which raged within him, Frederick was unable to
+contain himself any longer; so, throwing the adze from him he said,
+"Master, it's all over; no, even though it cost me my life, though I
+perish in unutterable misery, I cannot work any longer--no, I cannot
+work any longer at this coarse trade. An irresistible power is drawing
+me back to my own glorious art. Your daughter Rose I love unspeakably,
+more than anybody else on earth can ever love her. It is only for her
+sake that I ever entered upon this hateful work. I have now lost her, I
+know, and shall soon die of grief for love of her; but I can't help it,
+I must go back to my own glorious art, to my excellent old master,
+Johannes Holzschuer, whom I so shamefully deserted." Master Martin's
+eyes blazed like flashing candles. Scarce able to speak for rage, he
+stammered, "What! you too! Deceit and treachery! Dupe _me_ like this!
+coarse trade--cooperage! Out of my eyes, you disgraceful fellow; begone
+with you!" And therewith he laid hold of poor Frederick by the
+shoulders and threw him out of the shop, which the rude journeymen and
+apprentices greeted with mocking laughter. But old Valentine folded his
+hands, and gazing thoughtfully before him, said, "I've noticed, that I
+have, the good fellow had something higher in his mind than our casks."
+Dame Martha shed many tears, and her boys cried and screamed for
+Frederick, who had often played kindly with them and brought them
+several lots of sweets.
+
+
+                             _Conclusion._
+
+However angry Master Martin might feel towards Reinhold and Frederick,
+he could not but admit to himself that along with them all joy and all
+pleasure had disappeared from the workshop. Every day he was annoyed
+and provoked by the new journeymen. He had to look after every little
+trifle, and it cost him no end of trouble and exertion to get even the
+smallest amount of work done to his mind. Quite tired out with the
+cares of the day, he often sighed, "O Reinhold! O Frederick! I wish you
+had not so shamefully deceived me, I wish you had been good coopers."
+Things at last got so bad that he often contemplated the idea of giving
+up business altogether.
+
+As he was sitting at home one evening in one of these gloomy moods,
+Herr Jacobus Paumgartner and along with him Master Johannes Holzschuer
+came in quite unexpectedly. He saw at once that they were going to talk
+about Frederick; and in fact Herr Paumgartner very soon turned the
+conversation upon him, and Master Holzschuer at once began to say all
+he could in praise of the young fellow. It was his opinion that
+Frederick with his industry and his gifts would certainly not only make
+an excellent goldsmith, but also a most admirable art-caster, and would
+tread in Peter Fischer's footsteps. And now Herr Paumgartner began to
+reproach Master Martin in no gentle terms for his unkind treatment of
+his poor journeyman Frederick, and they both urged him to give Rose
+to the young fellow to wife when he was become a skilful goldsmith
+and caster,--that is, of course, in case she looked with favour upon
+him,--for his affection for her tingled in every vein he had. Master
+Martin let them have their say out, then he doffed his cap and said,
+smiling, "That's right, my good sirs, I'm glad you stand up so bravely
+for the journeyman who so shamefully deceived me. That, however, I will
+forgive him; but don't ask that I should alter my fixed resolve for his
+sake; Rose can never be anything to him." At this moment Rose entered the
+room, pale and with eyes red with weeping, and she silently placed wine
+and glasses on the table. "Well then," began Herr Holzschuer, "I must
+let poor Frederick have his own way; he wants to leave home for ever.
+He has done a beautiful piece of work at my shop, which, if you, my
+good master, will allow, he will present to Rose as a keepsake; look at
+it." Whereupon Master Holzschuer produced a small artistically-chased
+silver cup, and handed it to Master Martin, who, a great lover of
+costly vessels and such like, took it and examined it on all sides with
+much satisfaction. And indeed a more splendid piece of silver work than
+this little cup could hardly be seen. Delicate chains of vine-leaves
+and roses were intertwined round about it, and pretty angels peeped up
+out of the roses and the bursting buds, whilst within, on the gilded
+bottom of the cup, were engraved angels lovingly caressing each other.
+And when the clear bright wine was poured into the cup, the little
+angels seemed to dance up and down as if playing prettily together. "It
+is indeed an elegant piece of work," said Master Martin, "and I will
+keep it if Frederick will take the double of what it is worth in good
+gold pieces." Thus speaking, he filled the cup and raised it to his
+lips. At this moment the door was softly opened, and Frederick stepped
+in, his countenance pale and stamped with the bitter, bitter pain of
+separating for ever from her he held dearest on earth. As soon as Rose
+saw him she uttered a loud piercing cry, "O my dearest Frederick!" and
+fell almost fainting on his breast. Master Martin set down the cup, and
+on seeing Rose in Frederick's arms opened his eyes wide as if he saw a
+ghost. Then he again took up the cup without speaking a word, and
+looked into it; but all at once he leapt from his seat and cried in a
+loud voice, "Rose, Rose, do you love Frederick?" "Oh!" whispered Rose,
+"I cannot any longer conceal it, I love him as I love my own life; my
+heart nearly broke when you sent him away." "Then embrace your
+betrothed, Frederick; yes, yes, your betrothed, Frederick," cried
+Master Martin. Paumgartner and Holzschuer looked at each other utterly
+bewildered with astonishment, but Master Martin, holding the cup in his
+hand, went on, "By the good God, has it not all come to pass as the old
+lady prophesied?--
+
+            'A vessel fair to see he'll bring,
+            In which the spicy liquid foams.
+            And bright, bright angels gaily sing.
+            ... The vessel fair with golden grace,
+            Lo! him who brings it in the house,
+            Thou wilt reward with sweet embrace.
+            And, an thy lover be but true,
+            Thou need'st not wait thy father's kiss.'
+
+"O Stupid fool I have been! Here is the vessel fair to see, the
+angels--the lover--Ay! ay! gentlemen; it's all right now, all right
+now; my son-in-law is found."
+
+Whoever has had his mind ever confused by a bad dream, so that he
+thought he was lying in the deep cold blackness of the grave, and
+suddenly he awakens in the midst of the bright spring-tide full of
+fragrance and sunshine and song, and she whom he holds dearest on earth
+has come to him and has cast her arms about him, and he can look up
+into the heaven of her lovely face,--whoever has at any time
+experienced this will understand Frederick's feelings, will comprehend
+his exceeding great happiness. Unable to speak a word, he held Rose
+tightly clasped in his arms as though he would never let her leave him,
+until she at length gently disengaged herself and led him to her
+father. Then he found his voice, "O my dear master, is it all really
+true? You will give me Rose to wife, and I may go back to my art?"
+"Yes, yes," said Master Martin, "you may in truth believe it; can I do
+any other since you have fulfilled my old grandmother's prophecy? You
+need not now of course go on with your masterpiece." Then Frederick,
+perfectly radiant with delight, smiled and said, "No, my dear master,
+if it be pleasing to you I will now gladly and in good spirits finish
+my big cask--my last piece of work in cooperage--and then I will go
+back to the melting-furnace." "Yes, my good brave son," replied Master
+Martin, his eyes sparkling with joy, "yes, finish your masterpiece, and
+then we'll have the wedding."
+
+Frederick kept his word faithfully, and finished the two-tun cask; and
+all the masters declared that it would be no easy task to do a finer
+piece of work, whereat Master Martin was delighted down to the ground,
+and was moreover of opinion that Providence could not have found for
+him a more excellent son-in-law.
+
+At length the wedding day was come, Frederick's masterpiece stood in
+the entrance hall filled with rich wine, and crowned with garlands. The
+masters of the trade, with the syndic Jacobus Paumgartner at their
+head, put in an appearance along with their housewives, followed by the
+master goldsmiths. All was ready for the procession to begin its march
+to St. Sebald's Church, where the pair were to be married, when a sound
+of trumpets was heard in the street, and a neighing and stamping of
+horses before Martin's house. Master Martin hastened to the bay-window.
+It was Herr Heinrich von Spangenberg, in gay holiday attire, who
+had pulled up in front of the house; a few paces behind him, on a
+high-spirited horse, sat a young and splendid knight, his glittering
+sword at his side, and high-coloured feathers in his baretta, which was
+also adorned with flashing jewels. Beside the knight, Herr Martin
+perceived a wondrously beautiful lady, likewise splendidly dressed,
+seated on a jennet the colour of fresh-fallen snow. Pages and
+attendants in brilliant coats formed a circle round about them. The
+trumpet ceased, and old Herr von Spangenberg shouted up to him, "Aha!
+aha! Master Martin, I have not come either for your wine cellar or for
+your gold pieces, but only because it is Rose's wedding day. Will you
+let me in, good master?" Master Martin remembered his own words very
+well, and was a little ashamed of himself; but he hurried down to
+receive the Junker. The old gentleman dismounted, and after greeting
+him, entered the house. Some of the pages sprang forward, and upon
+their arms the lady slipped down from her palfrey; the knight gave her
+his hand and followed the old gentleman. But when Master Martin looked
+at the young knight he recoiled three paces, struck his hands together,
+and cried, "Good God! Conrad!" "Yes, Master Martin," said the knight,
+smiling, "I am indeed your journeyman Conrad. Forgive me for the wound
+I inflicted on you. But you see, my good master, that I ought properly
+to have killed you; but things have now all turned out different."
+Greatly confused, Master Martin replied, that it was after all better
+that he had not been killed; of the little bit of a cut with the adze
+he had made no account. Now when Master Martin with his new guests
+entered the room where the bridal pair and the rest were assembled,
+they were all agreeably surprised at the beautiful lady, who was so
+exactly like the bride, even down to the minutest feature, that they
+might have been taken for twin-sisters. The knight approached the bride
+with courtly grace and said, "Grant, lovely Rose, that Conrad be
+present here on this auspicious day. You are not now angry with the
+wild thoughtless journeyman who was nigh bringing a great trouble upon
+you, are you?" But as the bridegroom and the bride and Master Martin
+were looking at each other in great wonder and embarrassment, old Herr
+von Spangenberg said, "Well, well, I see I must help you out of your
+dream. This is my son Conrad, and here is his good, true wife, named
+Rose, like the lovely bride. Call our conversation to mind, Master
+Martin. I had a very special reason for asking you whether you would
+refuse your Rose to my son. The young puppy was madly in love with her,
+and he induced me to lay aside all other considerations and make up my
+mind to come and woo her on his behalf. But when I told him in what an
+uncourteous way I had been dismissed, he in the most nonsensical way
+stole into your house in the guise of a cooper, intending to win her
+favour and then actually to run away with her. But--you cured him with
+that good sound blow across his back; my best thanks for it. And now he
+has found a lady of rank who most likely is, after all, _the_ Rose who
+was properly in his heart from the beginning."
+
+Meanwhile the lady had with graceful kindness greeted the bride, and
+hung a valuable pearl necklace round her neck as a wedding present.
+"See here, dear Rose," she then said, taking a very withered bunch of
+flowers out from amongst the fresh blooming ones which she wore at her
+bosom--"see here, dear Rose, these are the flowers that you once gave
+my Conrad as the prize of victory; he kept them faithfully until he saw
+me, then he was unfaithful to you and gave them to me; don't be angry
+with me for it." Rose, her cheeks crimson, cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion, saying, "Oh! noble lady, how can you say so? Could the
+Junker then ever really love a poor maiden like me? You alone were his
+love, and it was only because I am called Rose, and, as they say here,
+something like you, that he wooed me, all the while thinking it was
+you."
+
+A second time the procession was about to set out, when a young man
+entered the room, dressed in the Italian style, all in black slashed
+velvet, with an elegant lace collar and rich golden chains of honour
+hanging from his neck. "O Reinhold, my Reinhold!" cried Frederick,
+throwing himself upon the young man's breast. The bride and Master
+Martin also cried out excitedly, "Reinhold, our brave Reinhold is
+come!" "Did I not tell you," said Reinhold, returning Frederick's
+embrace with warmth,--"did I not tell you, my dear, dear friend, that
+things might turn out gloriously for you? Let me celebrate your wedding
+day with you; I have come a long way on purpose to do so; and as a
+lasting memento hang up in your house the picture which I have painted
+for you and brought with me." And then he called down to his two
+servants, who brought in a large picture in a magnificent gold frame.
+It represented Master Martin in his workshop along with his journeymen
+Reinhold, Frederick, and Conrad working at the great cask, and lovely
+Rose was just entering the shop. Everybody was astonished at the truth
+and magnificent colouring of the piece as a work of art. "Ay," said
+Frederick, smiling, "that is, I suppose, your masterpiece as cooper;
+mine is below yonder in the entrance-hall; but I shall soon make
+another." "I know all," replied Reinhold, "and rate you lucky. Only
+stick fast to your art; it can put up with more domesticity and
+such-like than mine."
+
+At the marriage feast Frederick sat between the two Roses, and opposite
+him Master Martin between Conrad and Reinhold. Then Herr Paumgartner
+filled Frederick's cup up to the brim with rich wine, and drank to the
+weal of Master Martin and his brave journeymen. The cup went round; and
+first it was drained by the noble Junker Heinrich von Spangenberg, and
+after him by all the worthy masters who sat at the table--to the weal
+of Master Martin and his brave journeymen.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER":
+
+[Footnote 1: Written for the Leipsic _Taschenbuch zum geselligen
+Vergnuegen_ for 1819.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The "Beautiful Fountain," as it is called, is about 64 ft.
+in height, and consists of three stone Gothic pyramids and many statues
+(electors and heroes and prophets). It was built by Schonhover in
+1355-61, and restored in 1820.]
+
+[Footnote 3: St. Sebald's shrine in St. Sebald's Church consists of a
+bronze sarcophagus and canopy of rich Gothic style. It stands about
+16-1/2 ft. high, and bears admirable statues of the Twelve Apostles,
+certain church-fathers and prophets, and other representations of a
+semi-mythological character, together with reliefs illustrative of
+episodes in the saint's life. It is regarded by many as one of the gems
+of German artistic work, and is the result of thirteen years' labour
+(1506-1519) by Peter Vischer and his sons.]
+
+[Footnote 4: This ciborium or receptacle for the host is the work of
+Adam Krafft, stands about 68 feet in height, and represents Christ's
+Passion. The style is florid Gothic, and the material stone.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Albrecht Duerer, born at Nuremberg in 1471, and died in
+1528, contemporary with Titian and Raphael, the most truly
+representative German painter as well as, perhaps, the greatest.]
+
+[Footnote 6:  Hans Rosenblueth, _Meistersinger_ and _Wappendichter_
+(Mastersinger and Herald-poet), called the _Schnepperer_ (babbler), was
+a native of Nuremberg. Between 1431 and 1460 is the period of his
+literary activity, when he wrote _Fastnachtspiele_ (developments of the
+comic elements in Mysteries), "Odes" on Wine, Farces, &c. He marks the
+transition from the poetry of chivalric life and manners to that of
+burgher life and manners.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Wine was frequently stored at this period on the cooper's
+premises in huge casks, and afterwards drawn off in smaller casks and
+bottled.]
+
+[Footnote 8: In many Mediaeval German towns the rulers (Burgomaster and
+Councillors) were mostly self-elected, power being in the hands of a
+few patrician families. A Councillor generally attended a full meeting
+of a guild as a sort of "patron" or "visitor." Compare the position
+which Sir Patrick Charteris occupied with respect to the good citizens
+of Perth. (See Sir Walter Scott's _Fair Maid of Perth_, chap. vii., _et
+passim_.)]
+
+[Footnote 9: The well-known Great Cask of Heidelberg, built for the
+Elector Palatine Ernest Theodore in 1751, is calculated to hold 49,000
+gallons, and is 32 feet long and 26 feet in diameter. This is not the
+only gigantic wine cask that has been made in Germany. Other monsters
+are now in the cellars at Tuebingen (made in 1546), Groningen (1678),
+Koenigstein (1725), &c.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Hoffmann calls him Tobias also lower down, and then
+Thomas again.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Hochheimer is the name of a Rhine wine that has been
+celebrated since the beginning of the ninth century, and is grown in
+the neighbourhood of Hochheim, a town in the district of Wiesbaden.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Johannisberger is also grown near Wiesbaden. The
+celebrated vineyard is said to cover only 39-1/2 acres.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Nuremberg is noted for its interesting old houses with
+high narrow gables turned next the street: amongst the most famous are
+those belonging to the families of Nassau, Tucher, Peller, Petersen
+(formerly Toppler), and those of Albrecht Duerer and of Hans Sachs, the
+cobbler-poet of the 16th century.]
+
+[Footnote 14:  Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867), founder of a great
+German school of historical painting. Going to Rome in 1811, he painted
+a set of seven scenes illustrative of Goethe's _Faust_, having
+previously finished a set at Frankfort (on Main). Amongst his many
+famous works are the Last Judgment in the Ludwig Church at Munich and
+frescoes in the Glyptothek there.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Gretchen's real words were "Bin weder Fraeulein weder
+schoen." See the scene which follows the "Hexenkueche" scene in the first
+part of _Faust_.]
+
+[Footnote 16:  A meadow or common on the outskirts of the town, which
+served as a general place of recreation and amusement. Nearly every
+German town has such; as the Theresa Meadow at Munich, the Canstatt
+Meadow near Stuttgart, the Communal Meadow on the right bank of the
+Main not far from Frankfort (see Goethe, _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, near
+the beginning), &c.]
+
+[Footnote 17: This word is generally used to designate an untitled
+country nobleman, a member of an old-established noble "county" family.
+In Prussia the name came to be applied to a political party. A most
+interesting description of the old Prussian Junker is given in Wilibald
+Alexis' (W. H. Haering's) charming novel _Die Hosen des Herrn v. Bredow_
+(1846-48), in Sir Walter Scott's style.]
+
+[Footnote 18: A string of pearls worn on the wedding-day was a
+prerogative of a patrician bride.]
+
+[Footnote 19: In the Middle Ages, in Nuremberg, and in most other
+industrial towns also, the artisans and others who formed _guilds_
+(each respective trade or calling having generally its guild) were
+divided into three grades, masters, journeymen, and apprentices.
+Admission from one of these grades into the one next above it was
+subject to various more or less restrictive conditions. A man could
+only become a "master" and regularly set up in business for himself
+after having gone through the various stages of training in conformity
+with the rules or prescriptions of his guild, after having constructed
+his masterpiece to the satisfaction of a specially appointed
+commission, and after fulfilling certain requirements as to age,
+citizenship, and in some cases possession of a certain amount of
+property. It was usual for journeymen to spend a certain time in
+travelling going from one centre of their trade to another.]
+
+[Footnote 20: From another passage (_Der Feind_, chap. i) it appears
+that the reference is to a series of regulations dealing with the wine
+industry, of date August 24, 1498, in the reign of Maximilian I.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Sulphur is burnt inside the cask (care being taken that
+it does not touch it) in order to keep it sweet and pure, as well as to
+impart both flavour and colour to the wine.]
+
+[Footnote 22: See note 2, p. 15. The German _Meistersinger_ always sang
+without any accompaniment of musical instruments.]
+
+[Footnote 23: This is one of the principal round towers, erected
+1558-1568, in the town walls; it is situated on the south-east.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Peter Vischer (_c._ 1455-1529), a native of Nuremberg,
+one of the most distinguished of German sculptors, was chiefly engaged
+in making monuments for deceased princes in various parts of Germany
+and central Europe. The shrine in St. Sebald's, mentioned above, is
+generally considered his masterpiece.]
+
+[Footnote 25: Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1569) of Florence, goldsmith and
+worker in metals. Mr. W. M. Rossetti rightly says that his biography,
+written by himself, forms one of the most "fascinating" of books. It
+has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, and by Goethe into
+German.]
+
+[Footnote 26:  Holzschuher was the name of an old and important family
+in Nuremberg. Fifty-four years before the date of the present story,
+that is in 1526, a member of the family was burgomaster of his native
+town, and was painted by Duerer.]
+
+[Footnote 27: The family of Fugger, which rose from the position of
+poor weavers to be the richest merchant princes in Augsburg, decorated
+their house with frescoes externally, like so many other old German
+families.]
+
+[Footnote 28: During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries
+there existed in many German towns (Nuremberg, Frankfort, Strasburg,
+Ulm, Mayence, &c.) associations or guild-like corporations of burghers,
+the object of which was the cultivation of song in the same systematic
+way that the mechanical arts were practised. They framed strict and
+well-defined codes of rules (_Tablatures_) by means of which they
+tested a singer's capabilities. As the chief aims which they set
+before themselves were the invention of new tunes or melodies, and
+also songs (words), it resulted that they fell into the inevitable
+vice of cold formalism, and banished the true spirit of poetry by
+their many arbitrary rules about rhyme, measure, and melody, and the
+dry business-like manner in which they worked. The guild or company
+generally consisted of five distinct grades, the ultimate one being
+that of master, entrance into which was only permitted to the man who
+had invented a new melody or tune, and had sung it in public without
+offending against any of the laws of the _Tablature_. The subjects,
+which, as the singers were honest burghers, could not be taken from
+topics in which chivalric life took any interest, were mostly
+restricted to fables, legendary lore, and consisted very largely of
+Biblical narratives and passages.]
+
+[Footnote 29: These words are the names of various "tunes," and
+signified in each case a particular metre, rhyme, melody, &c, so that
+each was a brief definition of a number of individual items, so to
+speak. These _Meistersinger_ technical terms (or slang?) are therefore
+not translatable, nor could they be made intelligible by paraphrase,
+even if the requisite information for each instance were at hand.]
+
+[Footnote 30: A glass divided by means of marks placed at intervals
+from top to bottom. It was usual for one who was invited to drink to
+drink out of the challenger's glass down to the mark next below the top
+of the liquid.]
+
+[Footnote 31: These would consist of the certificate of his admission
+into the ranks of the journeymen of the guild, of the certificates of
+proper dismissal signed by the various masters for whom he had worked
+whilst on travel, together with testimonials of good conduct from the
+same masters.]
+
+[Footnote 32: On these great singing days, generally on Sundays in the
+churches, and on special occasions in the town-house, the
+"performances" consisted of three parts. 1. First came a "Voluntary
+Solo-Singing," in which anybody, even a stranger, might participate, no
+contest being entered into, and no rewards given. 2. This was followed
+by a song by all the masters in chorus, 3. Then came the "Principal
+Singing," the chief "event" of the day--the actual singing contest.
+Four judges were appointed to examine those who successively presented
+themselves, being guided by the strict laws and regulations of the
+_Tablatures_. Those who violated these laws, that is, who made
+mistakes, had to leave the singing-desk; the successful ones were,
+however, crowned with wreaths, and had earned the right to act
+themselves as judges on future occasions.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob (died 1318), after
+having lived at various courts in both the north and the south of
+Germany, settled at Mayence and gathered together (1311) a school or
+society of burgher singers.]
+
+[Footnote 34: The word "prince" is expressed in German by two distinct
+words; one, like the English word, designates a member of a royal or
+reigning house; the other is used as a simple title, often official,
+ranking above duke. The Bishop of Bamberg was in this latter sense a
+prince of the empire.]
+
+[Footnote 35: At this time Francesco I. (of the illustrious house of
+Medici) was _Grand Duke of Tuscany_, his father Cosimo I. having
+exchanged the title of Duke of Florence for that of Grand Duke of
+Tuscany in 1569. Francesco did much for the encouragement of art and
+science. He founded the well-known Uffizi Gallery, and it was in his
+reign that the Accademia Della Crusca was instituted.]
+
+[Footnote 36: Lucas Cranach occupies along with his contemporary
+Albrecht Duerer the first place in the ranks of German painters. Born in
+Upper Franconia in 1472 (died 1553), he secured the favour of the
+Elector of Saxony, and manifested extraordinary activity in several
+branches of painting.]
+
+
+
+
+                       _MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERI.
+                   A TALE OF THE TIMES OF LOUIS XIV._
+
+
+The little house in which lived Madeleine de Scuderi,[1] well known for
+her pleasing verses, and the favour of Louis XIV. and the Marchioness
+de Maintenon, was situated in the Rue St. Honoree.
+
+One night almost at midnight--it would be about the autumn, of the year
+1680--there came such a loud and violent knocking at the door of her
+house that it made the whole entrance-passage ring again. Baptiste, who
+in the lady's small household discharged at one and the same time the
+offices of cook, footman, and porter, had with his mistress's
+permission gone into the country to attend his sister's wedding; and
+thus it happened that La Martiniere, Mademoiselle's lady-maid was
+alone, and the only person awake in the house. The knockings were
+repeated. She suddenly remembered that Baptiste had gone for his
+holiday, and that she and her mistress were left in the house without
+any further protection. All the outrages burglaries, thefts, and
+murders--which were then so common in Paris, crowded upon her mind; she
+was sure it was a band of cut-throats who were making all this
+disturbance outside; they must be well aware how lonely the house
+stood, and if let in would perpetrate some wicked deed against her
+mistress; and so she remained in her room, trembling and quaking with
+fear, and cursing Baptiste and his sister's wedding as well.
+
+Meanwhile the hammering at the door was being continued; and she
+fancied she heard a voice shouting at intervals, "Oh! do open the door!
+For God's sake, do open the door!" At last La Martiniere's anxiety rose
+to such a pitch that, taking up the lighted candle, she ran out into
+the passage. There she heard quite plainly the voice of the person
+knocking, "For God's sake! do open the door, please!" "Certainly,"
+thought she, "that surely is not the way a robber would knock. Who
+knows whether it is not some poor man being pursued and wants
+protection from Mademoiselle, who is always ready to do an act of
+kindness? But let us be cautious." Opening a window, she called out,
+asking who was down making such a loud noise at the house-door so late
+at night, awakening everybody up out of their sleep; and she
+endeavoured to give her naturally deep voice as manly a tone as she
+possibly could.
+
+By the glimmer of the moon, which now broke through the dark clouds,
+she could make out a tall figure, enveloped in a light-grey mantle,
+having his broad-brimmed hat pulled down right over his eyes. Then she
+shouted in a loud voice, so as to be heard by the man below, "Baptiste,
+Claude, Pierre, get up and go and see who this good-for-nothing
+vagabond is, who is trying to break into the house." But the voice from
+below made answer gently, and in a tone that had a plaintive ring in
+it, "Oh! La Martiniere, I know quite well that it is you, my good
+woman, however much you try to disguise your voice; I also know that
+Baptiste has gone into the country, and that you are alone in the house
+with your mistress. You may confidently undo the door for me; you need
+have no fear. For I must positively speak with your mistress, and this
+very minute." "Whatever are you thinking about?" replied La Martiniere.
+"You want to speak to Mademoiselle in the middle of the night? Don't
+you know that she has been gone to bed a long time, and that for no
+price would I wake her up out of her first sound sleep, which at her
+time of life she has so much need of?" The person standing below said,
+"But I know that your mistress has only just laid aside her new romance
+_Clelie_, at which she labours so unremittingly; and she is now writing
+certain verses which she intends to read to the Marchioness de
+Maintenon[2] to-morrow. I implore you, Madame Martiniere, have pity and
+open me the door. I tell you the matter involves the saving of an
+unfortunate man from ruin,--that the honour, freedom, nay, that the
+life of a man is dependent upon this moment, and I _must_ speak to
+Mademoiselle. Recollect how your mistress's anger would rest upon you
+for ever, if she learned that you had had the hard-heartedness to turn
+an unfortunate man away from her door when he came to supplicate her
+assistance." "But why do you come to appeal to my mistress's compassion
+at this unusual hour? Come again early in the morning," said La
+Martiniere. The person below replied, "Does Destiny, then, heed times
+and hours when it strikes, like the fatal flash, fraught with
+destruction? When there is but a single moment longer in which rescue
+is still possible, ought assistance to be delayed? Open me the door;
+you need have nothing to fear from a poor defenceless wretch, who is
+deserted of all the world, pursued and distressed by an awful fate,
+when he comes to beseech Mademoiselle to save him from threatening
+danger?" La Martiniere heard the man below moaning and sobbing with
+anguish as he said these words, and at the same time the voice was the
+voice of a young man, gentle, and gifted with the power of appealing
+straight to the heart She was greatly touched; without much further
+deliberation she fetched the keys.
+
+But hardly had she got the door opened when the figure enveloped in the
+mantle burst tumultuously in, and striding past Martiniere into the
+passage, cried wildly, "Lead me to your mistress!" In terror Martiniere
+lifted up the candle, and its light fell upon a young man's face,
+deathly pale and fearfully agitated. Martiniere almost dropped on the
+floor with fright, for the man now threw open his mantle and showed the
+bright hilt of a stiletto sticking out of the bosom of his doublet. His
+eyes flashed fire as he fixed them upon her, crying still more wildly
+than before, "Lead me to your mistress, I tell you." Martiniere now
+believed Mademoiselle was in the most imminent danger; and her
+affection for her beloved mistress, whom she honoured, moreover, as her
+good and faithful mother, burnt up stronger in her heart, enkindling a
+courage which she had not conceived herself capable of showing. Hastily
+pulling to the door of her chamber, which she had left standing open,
+she planted herself before it, and said in a strong firm voice, "I tell
+you what, your mad behaviour in the house here, corresponds but ill
+with your plaintive words outside; I see clearly that I let my pity be
+excited on a wrong occasion. You neither ought to, nor shall you, speak
+to my mistress now. If your intentions are not evil, you need not fear
+daylight; so come again to-morrow and state your business then. Now,
+begone with you out of the house." The man heaved a deep and painful
+sigh, and fixing Martiniere with a formidable look, grasped his
+stiletto. She silently commended her soul to Heaven, but manfully stood
+her ground, and boldly met the man's gaze, at the same time drawing
+herself closer to the door, for through it the man would have to go to
+get to her mistress's chamber. "Let me go to your mistress, I tell
+you!" cried the man again. "Do what you will," replied Martiniere, "I
+shall not stir from this place. Go on and finish your wicked deed; but
+remember that you also will die a shameful death at the Place Greve,
+like your atrocious partners in crime." "Ah! yes, you are right, La
+Martiniere," replied the man, "I do look like a villainous robber and
+cut-throat, and am armed like one, but my partners have not been
+executed,--no, not yet." Therewith, hurling looks of furious wrath at
+the poor woman, who was almost dead with terror, he drew his stiletto.
+"O God! O God!" she exclaimed, expecting her death-blow; but at
+this moment there was heard a rattle of arms in the street, and the
+hoof-strokes of horses. "The _Marechaussee_![3] the _Marechaussee_!
+Help! Help!" screamed Martiniere. "You abominable woman, you are
+determined to ruin me. All is lost now--it's all over. But here,
+here--take this. Give that to your mistress this very night--to-morrow
+if you like." Whispering these words, he snatched the light from La
+Martiniere, extinguished it, and then forced a casket into her hands.
+"By your hopes of salvation, I conjure you, give this casket to
+Mademoiselle," cried the man; and he rushed out of the house.
+
+Martiniere fell to the floor; at length she rose up with difficulty,
+and groped her way back in the darkness to her own room, where she sank
+down in an arm-chair completely exhausted, unable to utter a sound.
+Then she heard the keys rattle, which she had left in the lock of the
+street-door. The door was closed and locked, and she heard cautious,
+uncertain footsteps approaching her room. She sat riveted to the chair
+without power to move, expecting something terrible to happen. But her
+sensations may be imagined when the door opened, and by the light of
+the night-taper she recognised at the first glance that it was honest
+Baptiste, looking very pale and greatly troubled. "In the name of all
+the saints!" he began, "tell me, Dame Martiniere, what has happened?
+Oh! the anxiety and fear I have had! I don't know what it was, but
+something drove me away from the wedding last evening. I couldn't help
+myself; I had to come. On getting into our street, I thought. Dame
+Martiniere sleeps lightly, she'll be sure to hear me, thinks I, if I
+tap softly and gently at the door, and will come out and let me in.
+Then there comes a strong patrol on horseback as well as on foot, all
+armed to the teeth, and they stop me and won't let me go on. But
+luckily Desgrais the lieutenant of the _Marechaussee_, is amongst them,
+who knows me quite well; and when they put their lanterns under my
+nose, he says, 'Why, Baptiste, where are you coming from at this time
+o' night? You'd better stay quietly in the house and take care of it
+There's some deviltry at work, and we are hoping to make a good capture
+to-night.' You wouldn't believe how heavy these words fell on my heart.
+Dame Martiniere. And then when I put my foot on the threshold, there
+comes a man, all muffled up, rushing out of the house with a drawn
+dagger in his hand, and he runs over me--head over heels. The door was
+open, and the keys sticking in the lock. Oh! tell me what it all
+means." Martiniere, relieved of her terrible fear and anxiety, related
+all that had taken place.
+
+Then she and Baptiste went out into the passage, and there they found
+the candlestick lying on the floor where the stranger had thrown it as
+he ran away. "It is only too certain," said Baptiste, "that our
+Mademoiselle would have been robbed, ay, and even murdered, I make no
+doubt. The fellow knew, as you say, that you were alone with
+Mademoiselle,--why, he also knew that she was awake with her writings.
+I would bet anything it was one of those cursed rogues and thieves who
+force their way right into the houses, cunningly spying out everything
+that may be of use to them in carrying out their infernal plans. And as
+for that little casket, Dame Martiniere--I think we'd better throw it
+into the Seine where it's deepest. Who can answer for it that there's
+not some wicked monster got designs on our good lady's life, and that
+if she opens the box she won't fall down dead like old Marquis de
+Tournay did, when he opened a letter that came from somebody he didn't
+know?"
+
+After a long consultation the two faithful souls made up their minds to
+tell their mistress everything next morning, and also to place the
+mysterious casket in her hands, for of course it could be opened with
+proper precautions. After minutely weighing every circumstance
+connected with the suspicious stranger's appearance, they were both of
+the same opinion, namely, that there was some special mystery connected
+with the matter, which they durst not attempt to control single-handed;
+they must leave it to their good lady to unriddle.
+
+
+Baptiste's apprehensions were well founded. Just at that time Paris was
+the scene of the most abominable atrocities, and exactly at the same
+period the most diabolical invention of Satan was made, to offer the
+readiest means for committing these deeds.
+
+Glaser, a German apothecary, the best chemist of his age, had busied
+himself, as people of his profession were in the habit of doing, with
+alchemistical experiments. He had made it the object of his endeavour
+to discover the Philosopher's Stone. His coadjutor was an Italian of
+the name of Exili. But this man only practised alchemy as a blind. His
+real object was to learn all about the mixing and decoction and
+sublimating of poisonous compounds, by which Glaser on his part hoped
+to make his fortune; and at last he succeeded in fabricating that
+subtle poison[4] that is without smell and without taste, that kills
+either on the spot or gradually and slowly, without ever leaving the
+slightest trace in the human body, and that deceives all the skill and
+art of the physicians, since, not suspecting the presence of poison,
+they fail not to ascribe the death to natural causes. Circumspectly as
+Exili[5]  went to work, he nevertheless fell under the suspicion of
+being a seller of poison, and was thrown into the Bastille. Soon
+afterwards Captain Godin de Sainte Croix was confined in the same
+dungeon. This man had for a long time been living in relations with the
+Marchioness de Brinvillier,[6] which brought disgrace on all the
+family; so at last, as the Marquis continued indifferent to his wife's
+shameful conduct, her father, Dreux d'Aubray, _Civil Lieutenant_ of
+Paris, compelled the guilty pair to part by means of a warrant which
+was executed upon the Captain. Passionate, unprincipled, hypocritically
+feigning to be pious, and yet inclined from his youth up to all kinds
+of vice, jealous, revengeful even to madness, the Captain could not
+have met with any more welcome information than that contained in
+Exili's diabolical secret, since it would give him the power to
+annihilate all his enemies. He became an eager scholar of Exili, and
+soon came to be as clever as his master, so that, on being liberated
+from the Bastille, he was in a position to work on unaided.
+
+Before an abandoned woman, De Brinvillier became through Sainte Croix's
+instrumentality a monster. He contrived to induce her to poison
+successively her own father, with whom she was living, tending with
+heartless hypocrisy his declining days, and then her two brothers, and
+finally her sister,--her father out of revenge, and the others on
+account of the rich family inheritance. From the histories of several
+poisoners we have terrible examples how the commission of crimes of
+this class becomes at last an all-absorbing passion. Often, without any
+further purpose than the mere vile pleasure of the thing, just as
+chemists make experiments for their own enjoyment, have poisoners
+destroyed persons whose life or death must have been to them a matter
+of perfect indifference.
+
+The sudden decease of several poor people in the Hotel Dieu some time
+afterwards excited the suspicion that the bread had been poisoned which
+Brinvillier, in order to acquire a reputation for piety and
+benevolence, used to distribute there every week. At any rate, it is
+undoubtedly true that she was in the habit of serving the guests whom
+she invited to her house with poisoned pigeon pie. The Chevalier de
+Guet and several other persons fell victims to these hellish banquets.
+Sainte Croix, his confederate La Chaussee,[7] and Brinvillier were able
+for a long time to enshroud their horrid deeds behind an impenetrable
+veil. But of what avail is the infamous cunning of reprobate men when
+the Divine Power has decreed that punishment shall overtake the guilty
+here on earth?
+
+The poisons which Sainte Croix prepared were of so subtle a nature that
+if the powder (called by the Parisians _Pondre de Succession_, or
+Succession Powder) were prepared with the face exposed, a single
+inhalation of it might cause instantaneous death. Sainte Croix
+therefore, when engaged in its manufacture, always wore a mask made of
+fine glass. One day, just as he was pouring a prepared powder into a
+phial, his mask fell off, and, inhaling the fine particles of the
+poison, he fell down dead on the spot. As he had died without heirs,
+the officers of the law hastened to place his effects under seal.
+Amongst them they found a locked box, which contained the whole of the
+infernal arsenal of poisons that the abandoned wretch Sainte Croix had
+had at command; they also found Brinvillier's letters, which left no
+doubt as to her atrocious crimes. She fled to Liege, into a convent
+there. Desgrais, an officer of the _Marechaussee_, was sent after her.
+In the disguise of a monk he arrived at the convent where she had
+concealed herself, and contrived to engage the terrible woman in a love
+intrigue, and finally, under the pretext of a secret meeting, to entice
+her out to a lonely garden beyond the precincts of the town. Directly
+she arrived at the appointed place she was surrounded by Desgrais'
+satellites, whilst her monkish lover was suddenly converted into an
+officer of the _Marechaussee_, who compelled her to get into the
+carriage which stood ready near the garden; and, surrounded by the
+police troop, she was driven straight off to Paris. La Chaussee had
+been already beheaded somewhat earlier; Brinvillier suffered the same
+death, after which her body was burned and the ashes scattered to the
+winds.
+
+Now that the monster who had been able to direct his secret murderous
+weapons against both friend and foe alike unpunished was out of the
+world, the Parisians breathed freely once more. But it soon became
+known abroad that the villain Sainte Croix's abominable art had been
+handed down to certain successors. Like a malignant invisible spirit,
+murder insinuated itself into the most intimate circles, even the
+closest of those formed by relationship and love and friendship, and
+laid a quick sure grasp upon its unfortunate victims. He who was seen
+one day in the full vigour of health, tottered about the next a weak
+wasting invalid, and no skill of the physician could save him from
+death. Wealth, a lucrative office, a beautiful and perhaps too young a
+wife--any of these was sufficient to draw down upon the possessor this
+persecution unto death. The most sacred ties were severed by the
+cruellest mistrust. The husband trembled at his wife, the father at his
+son, the sister at the brother. The dishes remained untouched, and the
+wine at the dinner, which a friend put before his friends; and there
+where formerly jest and mirth had reigned supreme, savage glances were
+now spying about for the masked murderer. Fathers of families were
+observed buying provisions in remote districts with uneasy looks and
+movements, and preparing them themselves in the first dirty cook-shop
+they came to, since they feared diabolical treachery in their own
+homes. And yet even the greatest and most well-considered precautions
+were in many cases of no avail.
+
+In order to put a stop to this iniquitous state of things, which
+continued to gain ground and grow greater day by day, the king
+appointed a special court of justice for the exclusive purpose of
+inquiring into and punishing these secret crimes. This was the
+so-called _Chambre Ardente_, which held its sittings not far from the
+Bastille, its acting president being La Regnie.[8] For a considerable
+period all his efforts, however zealously they were prosecuted,
+remained fruitless; it was reserved for the crafty Desgrais to discover
+the most secret haunts of the criminals. In the Faubourg St. Germain
+there lived an old woman called Voisin, who made a regular business of
+fortune-telling and raising departed spirits; and with the help of her
+confederates Le Sage and Le Vigoureux, she managed to excite fear and
+astonishment in the minds of persons who could not be called exactly
+either weak or credulous. But she did more than this. A pupil of Exili,
+like La Croix, she, like him, concocted the same subtle poison that
+killed and left no trace behind it; and so she helped in this way
+profligate sons to get early possession of their inheritance, and
+depraved wives to another and younger husband. Desgrais wormed his way
+into her secret; she confessed all; the _Chambre Ardente_ condemned her
+to be burned alive, and the sentence was executed in the Place Greve.
+
+Amongst her effects was found a list of all the persons who had availed
+themselves of her assistance; and hence it was that not only did
+execution follow upon execution, but grave suspicion fell even upon
+persons of high position. Thus it was believed that Cardinal Bonzy had
+obtained from La Voisin the means of bringing to an untimely end all
+those persons to whom, as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was obliged to pay
+annuities. So also the Duchess de Bouillon, and the Countess de
+Soissons,[9] whose names were found on the list, were accused of having
+had dealings with the diabolical woman; and even Francois Henri de
+Montmorenci, Boudebelle, Duke of Luxemburg,[10] peer and marshal of the
+kingdom, was not spared. He too was prosecuted by the terrible _Chambre
+Ardente_. He voluntarily gave himself up to be imprisoned in the
+Bastille, where through Louvois'[11] and La Regnie's hatred he was
+confined in a cell only six feet long. Months passed before it was made
+out satisfactorily that the Duke's transgression did not deserve any
+blame: he had once had his horoscope cast by Le Sage.
+
+It is certain that the President La Regnie was betrayed by his blind
+zeal into acts of cruelty and arbitrary violence. The tribunal acquired
+the character of an Inquisition; the most trifling suspicion was
+sufficient to entail strict incarceration; and it was left to chance to
+establish the innocence of a person accused of a capital crime.
+Moreover, La Regnie was hideous in appearance, and of a malicious
+temperament, so that he soon drew down upon himself the hatred of those
+whose avenger or protector he was appointed to be. The Duchess de
+Bouillon, being asked by him during her trial if she had seen the
+devil, replied, "I fancy I can see him at this moment."[12]
+
+But whilst the blood of the guilty and the suspected alike was flowing
+in streams in the Place Greve, and after a time the secret poisonings
+became less and less frequent, a new kind of outrage came to light, and
+again filled the city with dismay. It seemed as if a band of miscreant
+robbers were in league together for the purpose of getting into their
+possession all the jewellery they could. No sooner was any valuable
+ornament purchased than, no matter how or where kept, it vanished in an
+inconceivable way. But what was still worse, any one who ventured to
+wear jewellery on his person at night was robbed, and often murdered
+even, either in the public street or in the dark passage of a house.
+Those who escaped with their lives declared that they had been knocked
+down by a blow on the head, which felled them like a lightning flash,
+and that on awaking from their stupor they had found that they had been
+robbed and were lying in quite a different place from that where they
+had received the blow. All who were murdered, some of whom were found
+nearly every morning lying either in the streets or in the houses, had
+all one and the same fatal wound,--a dagger-thrust in the heart,
+killing, according to the judgment of the surgeons, so instantaneously
+and so surely that the victim would drop down like a stone, unable to
+utter a sound. Who was there at the voluptuous court of Louis XIV. who
+was not entangled in some clandestine intrigue, and stole to his
+mistress at a late hour, often carrying a valuable present about him?
+The robbers, as if they were in league with spirits, knew almost
+exactly when anything of this sort was on foot. Often the unfortunate
+did not reach the house where he expected to meet with the reward of
+his passion; often he fell on the threshold, nay, at the very chamber
+door of his mistress, who was horrified at finding the bloody corpse.
+
+In vain did Argenson, the Minister of Police, order the arrest of every
+person from amongst the populace against whom there was the least
+suspicion; in vain did La Regnie rage and try to extort confessions; in
+vain did they strengthen their watch and their patrols;--they could not
+find a trace of the evil-doers. The only thing that did to a certain
+extent avail was to take the precaution of going armed to the teeth and
+have a torch carried before one; and yet instances were not wanting in
+which the servant was annoyed by stones thrown at him, whilst at the
+same moment his master was murdered and robbed. It was especially
+remarkable that, in spite of all inquiries in every place where traffic
+in jewellery was in any way possible, not the smallest specimen of the
+stolen ornaments ever came to light, and so in this way also no clue
+was found which might have been followed.
+
+Desgrais was furious that the miscreants should thus baffle all his
+cunning. The quarter of the town in which he happened to be stationed
+was spared; whilst in the others, where nobody apprehended any evil,
+these robberies and murders claimed their richest victims.
+
+Desgrais hit upon the ruse of making several Desgrais one after the
+other, so exactly alike in gait, posture, speech, figure, and face,
+that the myrmidons of the police themselves did not know which was the
+real Desgrais. Meanwhile, at the risk of his own life, he used to watch
+alone in the most secret haunts and lairs of crime, and follow at a
+distance first this man and then that, who at his own instance carried
+some valuable jewellery about his person. These men, however, were not
+attacked; and hence the robbers must be acquainted with this
+contrivance also. Desgrais absolutely despaired.
+
+One morning Desgrais came to President La Regnie pale and perturbed,
+quite distracted in fact. "What's the matter? What news? Have you got a
+clue?" cried the President "Oh! your excellency," began Desgrais,
+stammering with rage, "oh! your excellency--last night--not far from
+the Louvre--the Marquis de la Fare[13] was attacked in my presence."
+"By Heaven then!" shouted La Regnie, exultant with joy, "we have them."
+"But first listen to me," interrupted Desgrais with a bitter smile,
+"and hear how it all came about. Well then, I was standing near the
+Louvre on the watch for these devils who mock me, and my heart was on
+fire with fury. Then there came a figure close past me without noticing
+me, walking with unsteady steps and looking behind him. By the faint
+moonlight I saw that it was Marquis de la Fare. I was not surprised to
+see him; I knew where he was stealing to. But he had not gone more than
+ten or twelve paces past me when a man started up right out of the
+earth as it seemed and knocked him down, and stooped over him. In the
+sudden surprise and on the impulse of the moment, which would else have
+delivered the murderer into my hands, I was thoughtless enough to cry
+out; and I was just bursting out of my hiding-place with a rush,
+intending to throw myself upon him, when I got entangled in my mantle
+and fell down. I saw the man hurrying away on the wings of the wind; I
+made haste and picked myself up and ran after him; and as I ran I blew
+my horn; from the distance came the answering whistles of the man; the
+streets were all alive; there was a rattle of arms and a trampling of
+horses in all directions. 'Here! here! Desgrais! Desgrais!' I shouted
+till the streets echoed. By the bright moonlight I could always see the
+man in front of me, doubling here and there to deceive me. We came
+to the Rue Nicaise, and there his strength appeared to fail him:
+I redoubled my efforts; and he only led me by fifteen paces at the
+most"---- "You caught him up; you seized him; the patrol came up?"
+cried La Regnie, his eyes flashing, whilst he seized Desgrais by
+the arm as though he were the flying murderer. "Fifteen paces,"
+continued Desgrais in a hollow voice and with difficulty drawing his
+breath--"fifteen paces from me the man sprang aside into the shade and
+disappeared through the wall." "Disappeared?--through the wall? Are you
+mad?" cried La Regnie, taking a couple of steps backwards and striking
+his hands together.
+
+"From this moment onwards," continued Desgrais, rubbing his brow like a
+man tormented by hateful thoughts, "your excellency may call me a
+madman or an insane ghost-seer, but it was just as I have told you. I
+was standing staring at the wall like one petrified when several men of
+the patrol hurried up breathless, and along with them Marquis de la
+Fare, who had picked himself up, with his drawn sword in his hand. We
+lighted the torches, and sounded the wall backwards and forwards,--not
+an indication of a door or a window or an opening. It was a strong
+stone wall bounding a yard, and was joined on to a house in which live
+people against whom there has never risen the slightest suspicion.
+To-day I have again taken a careful survey of the whole place. It must
+be the Devil himself who is mystifying us."
+
+Desgrais' story became known in Paris. People's heads were full of the
+sorceries and incantations and compacts with Satan of Voisin,
+Vigoureuse, and the reprobate priest Le Sage; and as in the eternal
+nature of us men, the leaning to the marvellous and the wonderful so
+often outweighs all the authority of reason, so the public soon began
+to believe simply and solely that as Desgrais in his mortification had
+said, Satan himself really did protect the abominable wretches, who
+must have sold their souls to him. It will readily be believed that
+Desgrais' story received all sorts of ornamental additions. An account
+of the adventure, with a woodcut on the title-page representing a grim
+Satanic form before which the terrified Desgrais was sinking in the
+earth, was printed and largely sold at the street corners. This alone
+was enough to overawe the people, and even to rob the myrmidons of the
+police of their courage, who now wandered about the streets at night
+trembling and quaking, hung about with amulets and soaked in holy
+water.
+
+Argenson perceived that the exertions of the _Chambre Ardente_ were of
+no avail, and he appealed to the king to appoint a tribunal with still
+more extensive powers to deal with this new epidemic of crime, to hunt
+up the evil-doers, and to punish them. The king, convinced that he had
+already vested too much power in the _Chambre Ardente_ and shaken with
+horror at the numberless executions which the bloodthirsty La Regnie
+had decreed, flatly refused to entertain the proposed plan.
+
+Another means was chosen to stimulate the king's interest in the
+matter.
+
+Louis was in the habit of spending the afternoon in Madame de
+Maintenon's salons, and also despatching state business therewith his
+ministers until a late hour at night. Here a poem was presented to him
+in the name of the jeopardised lovers, complaining that, whenever
+gallantry bid them honour their mistress with a present, they had
+always to risk their lives on the fulfilment of the injunction. There
+was always both honour and pleasure to be won in shedding their blood
+for their lady in a knightly encounter; but it was quite another thing
+when they had to deal with a stealthy malignant assassin, against whom
+they could not arm themselves. Would Louis, the bright polar star of
+all love and gallantry, cause the resplendent beams of his glory to
+shine and dissipate this dark night, and so unveil the black mystery
+that was concealed within it? The god-like hero, who had broken his
+enemies to pieces, would now (they hoped) draw his sword glittering
+with victory, and, as Hercules did against the Lernean serpent, or
+Theseus the Minotaur, would fight against the threatening monster which
+was gnawing away all the raptures of love, and darkening all their joy
+and converting it into deep pain and grief inconsolable.
+
+Serious as the matter was, yet the poem did not lack clever and witty
+turns, especially in the description of the anxieties which the lovers
+had to endure as they stole by secret ways to their mistresses, and of
+how their apprehensions proved fatal to all the rapturous delights of
+love and to every dainty gallant adventure before it could even develop
+into blossom. If it be added that the poem was made to conclude with a
+magniloquent panegyric upon Louis XIV., the king could not fail to read
+it with visible signs of satisfaction. Having reached the end of it, he
+turned round abruptly to Madame de Maintenon, without lifting his eyes
+from the paper, and read the poem through again aloud; after which he
+asked her with a gracious smile what was her opinion with respect to
+the wishes of the jeopardised lovers.
+
+De Maintenon, faithful to the serious bent of her mind, and always
+preserving a certain colour of piety, replied that those who walked
+along secret and forbidden paths were not worthy of any special
+protection, but that the abominable criminals did call for special
+measures to be taken for their destruction. The king, dissatisfied with
+this wavering answer, folded up the paper, and was going back to the
+Secretary of State, who was working in the next room, when on casting a
+glance sideways his eye fell upon Mademoiselle de Scuderi, who was
+present in the salon and had taken her seat in a small easy-chair not
+far from De Maintenon. Her he now approached, whilst the pleasant smile
+which at first had played about his mouth and on his cheeks, but had
+then disappeared, now won the upper hand again. Standing immediately in
+front of Mademoiselle, and unfolding the poem once more, he said
+softly, "Our Marchioness will not countenance in any way the
+gallantries of our amorous gentlemen, and give us evasive answers of a
+kind that are almost quite forbidden. But you, Mademoiselle, what is
+your opinion of this poetic petition?" De Scuderi rose respectfully
+from her chair, whilst a passing blush flitted like the purple sunset
+rays in evening across the venerable lady's pale cheeks, and she said,
+bowing gently and casting down her eyes,
+
+           "Un amant qui craint les voleurs
+            N'est point digne d'amour."
+
+(A lover who is afraid of robbers is not worthy of love.)
+
+The king, greatly struck by the chivalric spirit breathed in these few
+words, which upset the whole of the poem with its yards and yards of
+tirades, cried with sparkling eyes, "By St. Denis, you are right.
+Mademoiselle! Cowardice shall not be protected by any blind measures
+which would affect the innocent along with the guilty; Argenson and La
+Regnie must do their best as they are."
+
+
+All these horrors of the day La Martiniere depicted next morning in
+startling colours when she related to her mistress the occurrence of
+the previous night; and she handed over to her the mysterious casket in
+fear and trembling. Both she and Baptiste, who stood in the corner as
+pale as death, twisting and doubling up his night-cap, and hardly able
+to speak in his fear and anxiety,--both begged Mademoiselle in the most
+piteous terms and in the names of all the saints, to use the utmost
+possible caution in opening the box. De Scuderi, weighing the locked
+mystery in her hand, and subjecting it to a careful scrutiny, said
+smiling, "You are both of you ghost-seers! That I am not rich, that
+there are not sufficient treasures here to be worth a murder, is known
+to all these abandoned assassins, who, you yourself tell me, spy out
+all that there is in a house, as well as it is to me and you. You think
+they have designs upon my life? Who could make capital out of the death
+of an old lady of seventy-three, who never did harm to anybody in the
+world except the miscreants and peace-breakers in the romances which
+she writes herself, who makes middling verses which can excite nobody's
+envy, who will have nothing to leave except the state dresses of an old
+maid who sometimes went to court, and a dozen or two well-bound books
+with gilt edges? And then you, Martiniere,--you may describe the
+stranger's appearance as frightful as you like, yet I cannot believe
+that his intentions were evil. So then----"
+
+La Martiniere recoiled some paces, and Baptiste, uttering a stifled
+"Oh!" almost sank upon his knees as Mademoiselle proceeded to press
+upon a projecting steel knob; then the lid flew back with a noisy jerk.
+
+But how astonished was she to see a pair of gold bracelets, richly set
+with jewels, and a necklace to match. She took them out of the case;
+and whilst she was praising the exquisite workmanship of the necklace,
+Martiniere was eyeing the valuable bracelets, and crying time after
+time, that the vain Lady Montespan herself had no such ornaments as
+these. "But what is it for? what does it all mean?" said De Scuderi.
+But at this same moment she observed a small slip of paper folded
+together, lying at the bottom of the casket. She hoped, and rightly, to
+find in it an explanation of the mystery. She had hardly finished
+reading the contents of the scrip when it fell from her trembling
+hands. She sent an appealing glance towards Heaven, and then fell back
+almost fainting into her chair. Terrified, Martiniere sprang to her
+assistance, and so also did Baptiste. "Oh! what an insult!" she
+exclaimed, her voice half-choked with tears, "Oh! what a burning shame!
+Must I then endure this in my old age? Have I then gone and acted with
+wrong and foolish levity like some young giddy thing? O God, are words
+let fall half in jest capable of being stamped with such an atrocious
+interpretation? And am I, who have been faithful to virtue, and of
+blameless piety from my earliest childhood until now,--am I to be
+accused of the crime of making such a diabolical compact?"
+
+Mademoiselle held her handkerchief to her eyes and wept and sobbed
+bitterly, so that Martiniere and Baptiste were both of them confused
+and rendered helpless by embarrassed constraint, not knowing what to do
+to help their mistress in her great trouble.
+
+Martiniere picked up the ominous strip of paper from the floor. Upon it
+was written--
+
+           "Un amant qui craint les voleurs
+            N'est point digne d'amour.
+
+"Your sagacious mind, honoured lady, has saved us from great
+persecution. We only exercise the right of the stronger over the weak
+and the cowardly in order to appropriate to ourselves treasures that
+would else be disgracefully squandered. Kindly accept these jewels as a
+token of our gratitude. They are the most brilliant that we have been
+enabled to meet with for a long time; and yet you, honoured lady, ought
+to be adorned with jewellery even still finer than this is. We trust
+you will not withdraw from us your friendship and kind remembrance.
+
+                                           "THE INVISIBLES."[14]
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed De Scuderi after she had to some extent
+recovered herself, "is it possible for men to carry their shameless
+insolence, their godless scorn, to such lengths?" The sun shone
+brightly through the dark-red silk window curtains and made the
+brilliants which lay on the table beside the open casket to sparkle in
+the reddish gleam. Chancing to cast her eyes upon them, De Scuderi hid
+her face with abhorrence, and bade Martiniere take the fearful
+jewellery away at once, that very moment, for the blood of the murdered
+victims was still adhering to it. Martiniere at once carefully locked
+the necklace and bracelets in the casket again, and thought that the
+wisest plan would be to hand it over to the Minister of Police, and to
+confide to him every thing connected with the appearance of the young
+man who had caused them so much uneasiness, and the way in which he had
+placed the casket in her hands.
+
+De Scuderi rose to her feet and slowly paced up and down the room in
+silence, as if she were only now reflecting what was to be done. She
+then bade Baptiste fetch a sedan chair, while Martiniere was to dress
+her, for she meant to go straight to the Marchioness de Maintenon.
+
+She had herself carried to the Marchioness's just at the hour when she
+knew she should find that lady alone in her salons. The casket with the
+jewellery De Scuderi also took with her.
+
+Of course the Marchioness was greatly astonished to see Mademoiselle,
+who was generally a pattern of dignity, amiability (notwithstanding her
+advanced age), and gracefulness, come in with tottering steps, pale,
+and excessively agitated. "By all the saints, what's happened to you?"
+she cried when she saw the poor troubled lady, who, almost distracted
+and hardly able to walk erect, hurried to reach the easy-chair which De
+Maintenon pushed towards her. At length, having recovered her power of
+speech somewhat, Mademoiselle related what a deep insult--she should
+never get over it--her thoughtless jest in answer to the petition of
+the jeopardised lovers had brought upon her. The Marchioness, after
+learning the whole of the story by fragments, arrived at the conclusion
+that De Scuderi took the strange occurrence far too much to heart, that
+the mockery of depraved wretches like these could never come home to a
+pious, noble mind like hers, and finally she requested to see the
+ornaments.
+
+De Scuderi gave her the open casket; and the Marchioness, on seeing the
+costly jewellery, could not help uttering a loud cry of admiration. She
+took out the necklace and the bracelets, and approached the window with
+them, where first she let the sun play upon the stones, and then she
+held them up close to her eyes in order to see better the exquisite
+workmanship of the gold, and to admire the marvellous skill with which
+every little link in the elaborate chain was finished. All at once the
+Marchioness turned round abruptly towards Mademoiselle and cried, "I
+tell you what, Mademoiselle, these bracelets and necklace must have
+been made by no less a person than Rene Cardillac."
+
+Rene Cardillac was at that time the most skilful goldsmith in Paris,
+and also one of the most ingenious as well as one of the most eccentric
+men of the age. Rather small than great, but broad-shouldered and with
+a strong and muscular frame, Cardillac, although considerably more than
+fifty, still possessed the strength and activity of youth. And his
+strength, which might be said to be something above the common, was
+further evidenced by his abundant curly reddish hair, and his thick-set
+features and the sultry gleam upon them. Had not Cardillac been known
+throughout all Paris, as one of the most honest and honourable of men,
+disinterested, frank, without any reserve, always ready to help, the
+very peculiar appearance of his eyes, which were small, deep-set,
+green, and glittering, might have drawn upon him the suspicion of
+lurking malice and viciousness.
+
+As already said, Cardillac was the greatest master in his trade, not
+only in Paris, but also perhaps of his age. Intimately acquainted with
+the properties of precious stones, he knew how to treat them and set
+them in such a manner that an ornament which had at first been looked
+upon as wanting in lustre, proceeded out of Cardillac's shop possessing
+a dazzling magnificence. Every commission he accepted with burning
+avidity, and fixed a price that seemed to bear no proportion whatever
+to the work to be done--so small was it. Then the work gave him no
+rest; both night and day he was heard hammering in his work-shop, and
+often when the thing was nearly finished he would suddenly conceive a
+dislike to the form; he had doubts as to the elegance of the setting of
+some or other of the jewels, of a little link--quite a sufficient
+reason for throwing all into the crucible, and beginning the entire
+work over again. Thus every individual piece of jewellery that he
+turned out was a perfect and matchless masterpiece, utterly astounding
+to the person who had given the commission.
+
+But it was now hardly possible to get any work that was once finished
+out of his hands. Under a thousand pretexts he put off the owner from
+week to week, and from month to month. It was all in vain to offer him
+double for the work; he would not take a single _Louis d'or_[15] more
+than the price bargained for. When at last he was obliged to yield to
+the insistence of his customer, he could not help betraying all the
+signs of the greatest annoyance, nay, of even fury seething in his
+heart. If the piece of work which he had to deliver up was something of
+more than ordinary importance, especially anything of great value,
+worth many thousands owing to the costliness of the jewels or the
+extreme delicacy of the gold-work, he was capable of running about like
+a madman, cursing himself, his labour, and all about him. But then if
+any person came up behind him and shouted, "Rene Cardillac, would you
+not like to make a beautiful necklace for my betrothed?--bracelets
+for my sweet-heart," or so forth, he would suddenly stop still, and
+looking at him with his little eyes, would ask, as he rubbed his
+hands, "Well, what have you got?" Thereupon the other would produce a
+small jewel-case, and say, "Oh! some jewels--see; they are nothing
+particular, only common things, but in your hands"---- Cardillac does
+not let him finish what he has to say, but snatching the case out of
+his hand takes out the stones (which are in reality of but little
+value) and holds them up to the light, crying enraptured, "Ho! ho!
+common things, are they? Not at all! Pretty stones--magnificent stones;
+only let me make them up for you. And if you're not squeamish to a
+handful or two of _Louis d'or_, I can add a few more little gems, which
+shall sparkle in your eyes like the great sun himself." The other says,
+"I will leave it all to you, Master Rene, and pay you what you like."
+
+Then, without making any difference whether his customer is a rich
+citizen only or an eminent nobleman of the court, Cardillac throws his
+arms impetuously round his neck and embraces him and kisses him, saying
+that now he is quite happy again, and the work will be finished in a
+week's time. Running off home with breathless speed and up into his
+workshop, he begins to hammer away, and at the week's end has produced
+a masterpiece of art But when the customer comes prepared to pay with
+joy the insignificant sum demanded, and expecting to take the finished
+ornament away with him, Cardillac gets testy, rude, obstinate, and hard
+to deal with. "But, Master Cardillac, recollect that my wedding is
+to-morrow."--"But what have I to do with your wedding? come again in a
+fortnight's time." "The ornament is finished; here is your money; and I
+must have it." "And I tell you that I've lots of things to alter in it,
+and I shan't let you have it to-day." "And I tell you that if you won't
+deliver up the ornament by fair means--of course I am willing to pay
+you double for it--you shall soon see me march up with Argenson's
+serviceable underlings."--"Well, then, may Satan torture you with
+scores of red-hot pincers, and hang three hundredweight on the necklace
+till it strangle your bride." And therewith, thrusting the jewellery
+into the bridegroom's breast pocket, Cardillac seizes him by the arm
+and turns him roughly out of the door, so that he goes stumbling all
+down the stairs. Then Cardillac puts his head out of the window and
+laughs like a demon on seeing the poor young man limp out of the house,
+holding his handkerchief to his bloody nose.
+
+But one thing there was about him that was quite inexplicable. Often,
+after he had enthusiastically taken a piece of work in hand, he would
+implore his customer by the Virgin and all the saints, with every sign
+of deep and violent agitation, and with moving protestations, nay,
+amidst tears and sobs, that he might be released from his engagement.
+Several persons who were most highly esteemed of the king and the
+people had vainly offered large sums of money to get the smallest piece
+of work from him. He threw himself at the king's feet and besought as a
+favour at his hands that he might not be asked to do any work for him.
+In the same way he refused every commission from De Maintenon; he even
+rejected with aversion and horror the proposal she made him to
+fabricate for her a little ring with emblematic ornaments, which was to
+be presented to Racine.
+
+Accordingly De Maintenon now said, "I would wager that if I sent for
+Cardillac to come here to tell me at least for whom he made these
+ornaments, he would refuse to come, since he would probably fear it was
+some commission; and he never will make anything for me on any account.
+And yet he has, it seems, dropped something of his inflexible obstinacy
+some time ago, for I hear that he now labours more industriously than
+ever, and delivers up his work at once, though still not without much
+inward vexation and turning away of his face." De Scuderi, who was
+greatly concerned that the ornaments should, if it could possibly be
+managed, come soon into the hands of the proper owner, thought they
+might send express word to Master Whimsicality that they did not want
+him to do any work, but only to pass his opinion upon some jewels. This
+commended itself to the Marchioness. Cardillac was sent for; and, as
+though he had been already on the way, after a brief interval he
+stepped into the room.
+
+On observing De Scuderi he appeared to be embarrassed; and, like one
+confounded by something so utterly unexpected that he forgets the
+claims of propriety such as the moment demands, he first made a low and
+reverential obeisance to this venerable lady, and then only did he turn
+to the Marchioness. She, pointing to the jewellery, which now lay
+glittering on the dark-green table-cloth, asked him hastily if it was
+of his workmanship. Hardly glancing at it, and keeping his eyes
+steadily fixed upon De Maintenon, Cardillac hurriedly packed the
+necklace and bracelets into the casket, which stood beside them, and
+pushed it violently away from him. Then he said, whilst a forbidding
+smile gleamed in his red face, "By my honour, noble lady, he would have
+but a poor acquaintance with Rene Cardillac's workmanship who should
+believe for a single moment that any other goldsmith in the world could
+set a piece of jewellery like that is done. Of course it's my
+handiwork." "Then tell me," continued the Marchioness, "for whom you
+made these ornaments." "For myself alone," replied Cardillac. "Ah! I
+dare say your ladyship finds that strange," he continued, since both
+she and De Scuderi had fixed their eyes upon him astounded, the former
+full of mistrust, the latter of anxious suspense as to what turn the
+matter would take next; "but it is so. Merely out of love for my
+beautiful handicraft I picked out all my best stones and gladly set to
+work upon them, exercising more industry and care over them than I had
+ever done over any stones before. A short time ago the ornaments
+disappeared in some inconceivable way out of my workshop." "Thank
+Heaven!" cried De Scuderi, whilst her eyes sparkled with joy, and she
+jumped up from her chair as quick and nimble as a young girl; then
+going up to Cardillac, she placed both her hands upon his shoulders,
+and said, "Here, Master Rene, take your property back again, which
+these rascally miscreants stole from you." And she related every detail
+of how she had acquired possession of the ornaments, to all of which
+Cardillac listened silently, with his eyes cast down upon the floor.
+Only now and again he uttered an indistinct "Hm!--So!--Ho! ho!" now
+throwing his hands behind his back, and now softly stroking his chin
+and cheeks.
+
+When De Scuderi came to the end of her story, Cardillac appeared to be
+struggling with some new and striking thought which had occurred to him
+during the course of it, and as though he were labouring with some
+rebellious resolve that refused to conform to his wishes. He rubbed his
+forehead, sighed, drew his hand across his eyes, as if to check tears
+which were gushing from them. At length he seized the casket which De
+Scuderi was holding out towards him, and slowly sinking upon one knee,
+said, "These jewels have been decreed to you, my noble and respected
+lady, by Destiny. Yes, now I know that it was you I thought about when
+I was labouring at them, and that it was for you I worked. Do not
+disdain to accept these ornaments, nor refuse to wear them; they are
+indeed the best things I have made for a very long time." "Why, why,
+Master Rene," replied De Scuderi, in a charming, jesting manner; "what
+are you thinking about? Would it become me at my years to trick myself
+out with such bright gems? And what makes you think of giving me such
+an over-rich present? Nay, nay, Master Rene. Now if I were beautiful
+like the Marchioness de Fontange,[16] and rich too, I assure you I
+should not let these ornaments pass out of my hands; but what do these
+withered arms want with vain show, and this covered neck with
+glittering ornaments?" Meanwhile Cardillac had risen to his feet again;
+and whilst persistently holding out the casket towards De Scuderi he
+said, like one distracted--and his looks were wild and uneasy,--"Have
+pity upon me, Mademoiselle, and take the ornaments. You don't know what
+great respect I cherish in my heart for your virtue and your high good
+qualities. Accept this little present as an effort on my behalf to show
+my deep respect and devotion." But as De Scuderi still continued to
+hesitate, De Maintenon took the casket out of Cardillac's hands,
+saying, "Upon my word, Mademoiselle, you are always talking about your
+great age. What have we, you and I, to do with years and their burdens?
+And aren't you acting just like a shy young thing, who would only too
+well like to take the sweet fruit that is offered to her if she could
+only do so without stirring either hand or finger? Don't refuse to
+accept from our good Master Rene as a free gift what scores of others
+could never get, in spite of all their gold and all their prayers and
+entreaties."
+
+Whilst speaking De Maintenon had forced the casket into Mademoiselle's
+hand; and now Cardillac again fell upon his knees and kissed De
+Scuderi's gown and hands, sighing and gasping, weeping and sobbing;
+then he jumped up and ran off like a madman, as fast as he could run,
+upsetting chairs and tables in his senseless haste, and making the
+glasses and porcelain tumble together with a ring and jingle and clash.
+
+De Scuderi cried out quite terrified, "Good Heavens! what's happened to
+the man?" But the Marchioness, who was now in an especially lively mood
+and in such a pert humour as was in general quite foreign to her, burst
+out into a silvery laugh, and said, "Now, I've got it, Mademoiselle.
+Master Rene has fallen desperately in love with you, and according to
+the established form and settled usage of all true gallantry, he is
+beginning to storm your heart with rich presents." She even pushed her
+raillery further, admonishing De Scuderi not to be too cruel towards
+her despairing lover, until Mademoiselle, letting her natural-born
+humour have play, was carried away by the bubbling stream of merry
+conceits and fancies. She thought that if that was really the state of
+the case, she should be at last conquered and would not be able to help
+affording to the world the unprecedented example of a goldsmith's
+bride, of untarnished nobility, of the age of three and seventy. De
+Maintenon offered her services to weave the wedding-wreath, and to
+instruct her in the duties of a good house-wife, since such a snippety
+bit of a girl could not of course know much about such things.
+
+But when at length De Scuderi rose to say adieu to the Marchioness, she
+again, notwithstanding all their laughing jests, grew very grave as she
+took the jewel-case in her hand, and said, "And yet, Marchioness, do
+you know, I can never wear these ornaments. Whatever be their history,
+they have at some time or other been in the hands of those diabolical
+wretches who commit robbery and murder with all the effrontery of Satan
+himself; nay, I believe they must be in an unholy league with him. I
+shudder with awe at the sight of the blood which appears to adhere to
+the glittering stones. And then, I must confess, I cannot help feeling
+that there is something strangely uneasy and awe-inspiring about
+Cardillac's behaviour. I cannot get rid of the dark presentiment that
+behind all this there is lurking some fearful and terrible secret; but
+when, on the other hand, I pass the whole matter with all its
+circumstantial adjuncts in clear review before my mind, I cannot even
+guess what the mystery consists in, nor yet how our brave honest Master
+Rene, the pattern of a good industrious citizen, can have anything to
+do with what is bad or deserving of condemnation; but of this I am
+quite sure, that I shall never dare to put the ornaments on."
+
+The Marchioness thought that this was carrying scruples too far. But
+when De Scuderi asked her on her conscience what she should really do
+in her (Scuderi's) place, De Maintenon replied earnestly and
+decisively, "Far sooner throw the ornaments into the Seine than ever
+wear them."
+
+The scene with Master Rene was described by De Scuderi in charming
+verses, which she read to the king on the following evening in De
+Maintenon's salon. And of course it may readily be conceived that,
+conquering her uncomfortable feelings and forebodings of evil, she drew
+at Master Rene's expense a diverting picture, in bright vivacious
+colours, of the goldsmith's bride of three and seventy who was of such
+ancient nobility. At any rate the king laughed heartily, and swore that
+Boileau Despreux had found his master; hence De Scuderi's poem was
+popularly adjudged to be the wittiest that ever was written.
+
+Several months had passed, when, as chance would have it, De Scuderi
+was driving over the Pont Neuf in the Duchess de Montansier's glass
+coach. The invention of this elegant class of vehicles was still so
+recent that a throng of the curious always gathered round it when one
+appeared in the streets. And so there was on the present occasion a
+gaping crowd round De Montansier's coach on the Pont Neuf, so great as
+almost to hinder the horses from getting on. All at once De Scuderi
+heard a continuous fire of abuse and cursing, and perceived a man
+making his way through the thick of the crowd by the help of his fists
+and by punching people in the ribs. And when he came nearer she saw
+that his piercing eyes were riveted upon her. His face was pale as
+death and distorted by pain; and he kept his eyes riveted upon her all
+the time he was energetically working his way onwards with his fists
+and elbows, until he reached the door. Pulling it open with impetuous
+violence, he threw a strip of paper into De Scuderi's lap, and again
+dealing out and receiving blows and punches, disappeared as he had
+come. Martiniere, who was accompanying her mistress, uttered a scream
+of terror when she saw the man appear at the coach door, and fell back
+upon the cushions in a swoon. De Scuderi vainly pulled the cord and
+called out to the driver; he, as if impelled by the foul Fiend, whipped
+up his horses, so that they foamed at the mouth and tossed their heads,
+and kicked and plunged, and finally thundered over the bridge at a
+sharp trot. De Scuderi emptied her smelling-bottle over the insensible
+woman, who at length opened her eyes. Trembling and shaking, she clung
+convulsively to her mistress, her face pale with anxiety and terror as
+she gasped out, "For the love of the Virgin, what did that terrible man
+want? Oh! yes, it was he! it was he!--the very same who brought you the
+casket that awful night." Mademoiselle pacified the poor woman,
+assuring her that not the least mischief had been done, and that the
+main thing to do just then was to see what the strip of paper
+contained. She unfolded it and found these words--
+
+"I am being plunged into the pit of destruction by an evil destiny
+which you may avert. I implore you, as the son does the mother whom he
+cannot leave, and with the warmest affection of a loving child, send
+the necklace and bracelets which you received from me to Master Rene
+Cardillac; any pretext will do, to get some improvement made--or to get
+something altered. Your welfare, your life, depend upon it. If you have
+not done so by the day after to-morrow I will force my way into your
+dwelling and kill myself before your eyes."
+
+
+"Well now, it is at any rate certain," said De Scuderi when she had
+read it, "that this mysterious man, even if he does really belong to
+the notorious band of thieves and robbers, yet has no evil designs
+against me. If he had succeeded in speaking to me that night, who knows
+whether I should not have learnt of some singular event or some
+mysterious complication of things, respecting which I now try in vain
+to form even the remotest guess. But let the matter now take what shape
+it may, I shall certainly do what this note urgently requests me to do,
+if for no other reason than to get rid of those ill-starred jewels,
+which I always fancy are a talisman of the foul Fiend himself. And I
+warrant Cardillac, true to his rooted habit, won't let it pass out of
+his hands again so easily."
+
+The very next day De Scuderi intended to go and take the jewellery to
+the goldsmith's. But somehow it seemed as if all the wits and
+intellects of entire Paris had conspired together to overwhelm
+Mademoiselle just on this particular morning with their verses and
+plays and anecdotes. No sooner had La Chapelle[17] finished reading a
+tragedy, and had slyly remarked with some degree of confident assurance
+that he should now certainly beat Racine, than the latter poet himself
+came in, and routed him with a pathetic speech of a certain king, until
+Boileau appeared to let off the rockets of his wit into this black sky
+of Tragedy--in order that he might not be talked to death on the
+subject of the colonnade[18] of the Louvre, for he had been penned up
+in it by Dr. Perrault, the architect.
+
+It was high noon; De Scuderi had to go to the Duchess de Montansier's;
+and so the visit to Master Rene Cardillac's was put off until the next
+day. Mademoiselle, however, was tormented by a most extraordinary
+feeling of uneasiness. The young man's figure was constantly before her
+eyes; and deep down in her memory there was stirring a dim recollection
+that she had seen his face and features somewhere before. Her sleep,
+which was of the lightest, was disturbed by troublesome dreams. She
+fancied she had acted frivolously and even criminally in having delayed
+to grasp the hand which the unhappy wretch, who was sinking into the
+abyss of ruin, was stretching up towards her; nay, she was even haunted
+by the thought that she had had it in her power to prevent a fatal
+event from taking place or an enormous crime from being committed. So,
+as soon as the morning was fully come, she had Martiniere finish her
+toilet, and drove to the goldsmith, taking the jewel-casket with her.
+
+The people were pouring into the Rue Nicaise, to the house where
+Cardillac lived, and were gathering about his door, shouting,
+screaming, and creating a wild tumult of noise; and they were with
+difficulty prevented by the _Marechaussee_, who had drawn a cordon
+round the house, from forcing their way in. Angry voices were crying in
+a wild confused hubbub, "Tear him to pieces! pound him to dust! the
+accursed murderer!" At length Desgrais appeared on the scene with a
+strong body of police, who formed a passage through the heart of the
+crowd. The house door flew open and a man stepped out loaded with
+chains; and he was dragged away amidst the most horrible imprecations
+of the furious mob.
+
+At the moment that De Scuderi, who was half swooning from fright and
+her apprehensions that something terrible had happened, was witness of
+this scene, a shrill piercing scream of distress rang upon her ears.
+"Go on, go on, right forward," she cried to her coachman, almost
+distracted. Scattering the dense mass of people by a quick clever turn
+of his horses, he pulled up immediately in front of Cardillac's door.
+There De Scuderi observed Desgrais, and at his feet a young girl, as
+beautiful as the day, with dishevelled hair, only half dressed, and her
+countenance stamped with desperate anxiety and wild with despair. She
+was clasping his knees and crying in a tone of the most terrible, the
+most heart-rending anguish, "Oh! he is innocent! he is innocent." In
+vain were Desgrais' efforts, as well as those of his men, to make her
+leave hold and to raise her up from the floor. At last a strong brutal
+fellow laid his coarse rough hands upon the poor girl and dragged her
+away from Desgrais by main force, but awkwardly stumbling let her drop,
+so that she rolled down the stone steps and lay in the street, without
+uttering a single sound more; she appeared to be dead.
+
+Mademoiselle could no longer contain herself. "For God's sake, what has
+happened? What's all this about?" she cried as she quickly opened the
+door of her coach and stepped out. The crowd respectfully made way for
+the estimable lady. She, on perceiving that two or three compassionate
+women had raised up the girl and set her on the steps, where they were
+rubbing her forehead with aromatic waters, approached Desgrais and
+repeated her question with vehemence. "A horrible thing has happened,"
+said Desgrais. "Rene Cardillac was found this morning murdered, stabbed
+to the heart with a dagger. His journeyman Olivier Brusson is the
+murderer. That was he who was just led away to prison." "And the girl?"
+exclaimed Mademoiselle---- "Is Madelon, Cardillac's daughter," broke in
+Desgrais. "Yon abandoned wretch is her lover. And she's screaming and
+crying, and protesting that Olivier is innocent, quite innocent. But
+the real truth is she is cognisant of the deed, and I must have her
+also taken to the _conciergerie_ (prison)."
+
+Saying which, Desgrais cast a glance of such spiteful malicious triumph
+upon the girl that De Scuderi trembled. Madelon was just beginning to
+breathe again, but she still lay with her eyes closed incapable of
+either sound or motion; and they did not know what to do, whether to
+take her into the house or to stay with her longer until she came round
+again. Mademoiselle's eyes filled with tears, and she was greatly
+agitated, as she looked upon the innocent angel; Desgrais and his
+myrmidons made her shudder. Downstairs came a heavy rumbling noise;
+they were bringing down Cardillac's corpse. Quickly making up her mind.
+De Scuderi said loudly, "I will take the girl with me; you may attend
+to everything else, Desgrais." A muttered wave of applause swept
+through the crowd. They lifted up the girl, whilst everybody crowded
+round and hundreds of arms were proffered to assist them; like one
+floating in the air the young girl was carried to the coach and placed
+within it,--blessings being showered from the lips of all upon the
+noble lady who had come to snatch innocence from the scaffold.
+
+The efforts of Seron, the most celebrated physician in Paris, to bring
+Madelon back to herself were at length crowned with success, for she
+had lain for hours in a dead swoon, utterly unconscious. What the
+physician began was completed by De Scuderi, who strove to excite
+the mild rays of hope in the girl's soul, till at length relief
+came to her in the form of a violent fit of tears and sobbing. She
+managed to relate all that had happened, although from time to time
+her heart-rending grief got the upper hand, and her voice was choked
+with convulsive sobs.
+
+About midnight she had been awakened by a light tap at her chamber
+door, and heard Olivier's voice imploring her to get up at once, as her
+father was dying. Though almost stunned with dismay, she started up and
+opened the door, and saw Olivier with a light in his hand, pale and
+dreadfully agitated, and dripping with perspiration. He led the way
+into her father's workshop, with an unsteady gait, and she followed
+him. There lay her father with fixed staring eyes, his throat rattling
+in the agonies of death. With a loud wail she threw herself upon him,
+and then first noticed his bloody shirt. Olivier softly drew her away
+and set to work to wash a wound in her father's left breast with a
+traumatic balsam, and to bind it up. During this operation her father's
+senses came back to him; his throat ceased to rattle; and he bent,
+first upon her and then upon Olivier, a glance full of feeling, took
+her hand, and placed it in Olivier's, fervently pressing them together.
+She and Olivier both fell upon their knees beside her father's bed; he
+raised himself up with a cry of agony, but at once sank back again, and
+in a deep sigh breathed his last. Then they both gave way to their
+grief and sorrow, and wept aloud.
+
+Olivier related how during a walk, on which he had been commanded by
+his master to attend him, the latter had been murdered in his presence,
+and how through the greatest exertions he had carried the heavy man
+home, whom he did not believe to have been fatally wounded.
+
+When morning dawned the people of the house, who had heard the
+lumbering noises, and the loud weeping and lamenting during the night,
+came up and found them still kneeling in helpless trouble by her
+father's corpse. An alarm was raised; the _Marechaussee_ made their way
+into the house, and dragged off Olivier to prison as the murderer of
+his master. Madelon added the most touching description of her beloved
+Olivier's goodness, and steady industry, and faithfulness. He had
+honoured his master highly, as though he had been his own father; and
+the latter had fully reciprocated this affection, and had chosen
+Brusson, in spite of his poverty, to be his son-in-law, since his skill
+was equal to his faithfulness and the nobleness of his character. All
+this the girl related with deep, true, heart-felt emotion; and she
+concluded by saying that if Olivier had thrust his dagger into her
+father's breast in her own presence she should take it for some
+illusion caused by Satan, rather than believe that Olivier could be
+capable of such a horrible wicked crime.
+
+De Scuderi, most deeply moved by Madelon's unutterable sufferings, and
+quite ready to regard poor Olivier as innocent, instituted inquiries,
+and she found that all Madelon had said about the intimate terms on
+which master and journeyman had lived was fully confirmed. The people
+in the same house, as well as the neighbours, unanimously agreed in
+commending Olivier as a pattern of goodness, morality, faithfulness,
+and industry; nobody knew anything evil about him, and yet when mention
+was made of his heinous deed, they all shrugged their shoulders and
+thought there was something passing comprehension in it.
+
+Olivier, on being arraigned before the _Chambre Ardente_ denied the
+deed imputed to him, as Mademoiselle learned, with the most steadfast
+firmness and with honest sincerity, maintaining that his master had
+been attacked in the street in his presence and stabbed, that then, as
+there were still signs of life in him, he had himself carried him home,
+where Cardillac had soon afterwards expired. And all this too
+harmonised with Madelon's account.
+
+Again and again and again De Scuderi had the minutest details of the
+terrible event repeated to her. She inquired minutely whether there had
+ever been a quarrel between master and journeyman, whether Olivier was
+perhaps not subject occasionally to those hasty fits of passion which
+often attack even the most good-natured of men like a blind madness,
+impelling the commission of deeds which appear to be done quite
+independent of voluntary action. But in proportion as Madelon spoke
+with increasing heartfelt warmth of the quiet domestic happiness in
+which the three had lived, united by the closest ties of affection,
+every shadow of suspicion against poor Olivier, now being tried for his
+life, vanished away. Scrupulously weighing every point and starting
+with the assumption that Olivier, in spite of all the things which
+spoke so loudly for his innocence, was nevertheless Cardillac's
+murderer, De Scuderi did not find any motive within the bounds of
+possibility for the hideous deed; for from every point of view it would
+necessarily destroy his happiness. He is poor but clever. He has
+succeeded in gaining the good-will of the most renowned master of his
+trade; he loves his master's daughter; his master looks upon his love
+with a favourable eye; happiness and prosperity seem likely to be his
+lot through life. But now suppose that, provoked in some way that God
+alone may know, Olivier had been so overmastered by anger as to make a
+murderous attempt upon his benefactor, his father, what diabolical
+hypocrisy he must have practised to have behaved after the deed in the
+way in which he really did behave. Firmly convinced of Olivier's
+innocence, Mademoiselle made up her mind to save the unhappy young man
+at no matter what cost.
+
+Before appealing, however, to the king's mercy, it seemed to her that
+the most advisable step to take would be to call upon La Regnie, and
+direct his attention to all the circumstances that could not fail to
+speak for Olivier's innocence, and so perhaps awaken in the President's
+mind a feeling of interest favourable to the accused, which might then
+communicate itself to the judges with beneficial results.
+
+La Regnie received De Scuderi with all the great respect to which the
+venerable lady, highly honoured as she was by the king himself, might
+justly lay claim. He listened quietly to all that she had to adduce
+with respect to the terrible crime, and Olivier's relations to the
+victim and his daughter, and his character. Nevertheless the only proof
+he gave that her words were not falling upon totally deaf ears was a
+slight and well-nigh mocking smile; and in the same way he heard her
+protestations and admonitions, which were frequently interrupted by
+tears, that the judge was not the enemy of the accused, but must also
+duly give heed to anything that spoke in his favour. When at length
+Mademoiselle paused, quite exhausted, and dried the tears from her
+eyes. La Regnie began, "It does honour to the excellence of your heart.
+Mademoiselle, that, being moved by the tears of a young lovesick girl,
+you believe everything she tells you, and none the less so that you are
+incapable of conceiving the thought of such an atrocious deed; but not
+so is it with the judge, who is wont to rend asunder the mask of brazen
+hypocrisy. Of course I need not tell you that it is not part of my
+office to unfold to every one who asks me the various stages of a
+criminal trial. Mademoiselle, I do my duty and trouble myself little
+about the judgment of the world. All miscreants shall tremble before
+the _Chambre Ardente_, which knows no other punishment except the
+scaffold and the stake. But since I do not wish you, respected lady, to
+conceive of me as a monster of hard-heartedness and cruelty, suffer me
+in a few words to put clearly before you the guilt of this young
+reprobate, who, thank Heaven, has been overtaken by the avenging arm of
+justice. Your sagacious mind will then bid you look with scorn upon
+your own good kindness, which does you so much honour, but which would
+never under any circumstances be fitting in me.
+
+"Well then! Rene Cardillac is found in the morning stabbed to the heart
+with a dagger. The only persons with him are his journeyman Olivier
+Brusson and his own daughter. In Olivier's room, amongst other things,
+is found a dagger covered with blood, still fresh, which dagger fits
+exactly into the wound. Olivier says, 'Cardillac was cut down at night
+before my eyes.' 'Somebody attempted to rob him?' 'I don't know.' 'You
+say you went with him, how then were you not able to keep off the
+murderer, or hold him fast, or cry out for help?' 'My master walked
+fifteen, nay, fully twenty paces in front of me, and I followed him.'
+'But why, in the name of wonder, at such a distance?' 'My master would
+have it so.' 'But tell us then what Master Cardillac was doing out in
+the streets at so late an hour?' 'That I cannot say.' 'But you have
+never before known him to leave the house after nine o'clock in the
+evening, have you?' Here Olivier falters; he is confused; he sighs; he
+bursts into tears; he protests by all that is holy that Cardillac
+really went out on the night in question, and then met with his death.
+But now your particular attention, please, Mademoiselle. It has been
+proved to absolute certainty that Cardillac never left the house that
+night, and so, of course, Olivier's assertion that he went out with him
+is an impudent lie. The house door is provided with a ponderous lock,
+which on locking and unlocking makes a loud grating echoing noise;
+moreover, the wings of the door squeak and creak horribly on their
+hinges, so that, as we have proved by repeated experiments, the noise
+is heard all the way up to the garrets. Now in the bottom story, and so
+of course close to the street door, lives old Master Claude Patru and
+his housekeeper, a person of nearly eighty years of age, but still
+lively and nimble. Now these two people heard Cardillac come downstairs
+punctually at nine o'clock that evening, according to his usual
+practice, and lock and bolt the door with considerable noise, and then
+go up again, where they further heard him read the evening prayers
+aloud, and then, to judge by the banging of doors, go to his own
+sleeping-chamber. Master Claude, like many old people, suffers from
+sleeplessness; and that night too he could not close an eye. And so,
+somewhere about half-past nine it seems, his old housekeeper went into
+the kitchen (to get into which she had to cross the passage) for a
+light, and then came and sat down at the table beside Master Claude
+with an old Chronicle, out of which she read; whilst the old man,
+following the train of his thoughts, first sat down in his easy-chair,
+and then stood up again, and paced softly and slowly up and down the
+room in order to bring on weariness and sleepiness. All remained quiet
+and still until after midnight. Then they heard quick steps above them
+and a heavy fall like some big weight being thrown on the floor, and
+then soon after a muffled groaning. A peculiar feeling of uneasiness
+and dreadful suspense took possession of them both. It was horror at
+the bloody deed which had just been committed, which passed out beside
+them. The bright morning came and revealed to the light what had been
+begun in the hours of darkness."
+
+"But," interrupted De Scuderi, "but by all the saints, tell me what
+motive for this diabolical deed you can find in any of the
+circumstances which I just now repeated to you at such length?" "Hm!"
+rejoined La Regnie, "Cardillac was not poor--he had some valuable
+stones in his possession." "But would not his daughter inherit
+everything?" continued De Scuderi. "You are forgetting that Olivier was
+to be Cardillac's son-in-law." "But perhaps he had to share or only do
+the murderous deed for others," said La Regnie. "Share? do a murderous
+deed for others?" asked De Scuderi, utterly astounded. "I must tell
+you, Mademoiselle," continued the President, "that Olivier's blood
+would long ago have been shed in the Place Greve, had not his crime
+been bound up with that deeply enshrouded mystery which has hitherto
+exercised such a threatening sway over all Paris. It is evident that
+Olivier belongs to that accursed band of miscreants who, laughing to
+scorn all the watchfulness, and efforts, and strict investigations of
+the courts, have been able to carry out their plans so safely and
+unpunished. Through him all shall--all must be cleared up. Cardillac's
+wound is precisely similar to those borne by all the persons who have
+been found murdered and robbed in the streets and houses. But the most
+decisive fact is that since the time Olivier Brusson has been under
+arrest all these murders and robberies have ceased The streets are now
+as safe by night as they are by day. These things are proof enough that
+Olivier probably was at the head of this band of assassins. As yet he
+will not confess it; but there are means of making him speak against
+his will." "And Madelon," exclaimed De Scuderi, "and Madelon, the
+faithful, innocent dove!" "Oh!" said La Regnie, with a venomous smile,
+"Oh! but who will answer to me for it that she also is not an
+accomplice in the plot? What does she care about her father's death?
+Her tears are only shed for this murderous rascal." "What do you say?"
+screamed De Scuderi; "it cannot possibly be. Her father--this girl!"
+"Oh!" went on La Regnie, "Oh, but pray recollect De Brinvillier. You
+will be so good as to pardon me if I perhaps soon find myself compelled
+to take your favourite from your protection, and have her cast into the
+Conciergerie."
+
+This terrible suspicion made Mademoiselle shudder. It seemed to her as
+if no faithfulness, no virtue, could stand fast before this fearful
+man; he seemed to espy murder and blood-guiltiness in the deepest and
+most secret thoughts. She rose to go. "Be human!" was all that she
+could stammer out in her distress, and she had difficulty in breathing.
+Just on the point of going down the stairs, to the top of which the
+President had accompanied her with ceremonious courtesy, she was
+suddenly struck by a strange thought, at which she herself was
+surprised. "And could I be allowed to see this unhappy Olivier
+Brusson?" she asked, turning round quickly to the President. He,
+however, looked at her somewhat suspiciously, but his face was soon
+contracted into the forbidding smile so characteristic of him. "Of
+course, honoured lady," said he, "relying upon your feelings and the
+little voice within you more than upon what has taken place before our
+very eyes, you will yourself prove Olivier's guilt or innocence, I
+perceive. If you are not afraid to see the dark abodes of crime, and if
+you think there will be nothing too revolting in looking upon pictures
+of depravity in all its stages, then the doors of the Conciergerie
+shall be opened to you in two hours from now. You shall have this
+Olivier, whose fate excites your interest so much, presented to you."
+
+To tell the truth, De Scuderi could by no means convince herself of the
+young man's guilt. Although everything spoke against him, and no judge
+in the world could have acted differently from what La Regnie did in
+face of such conclusive circumstantial evidence, yet all these base
+suspicions were completely outweighed by the picture of domestic
+happiness which Madelon had painted for her in such warm lifelike
+colours; and hence she would rather adopt the idea of some
+unaccountable mystery than believe in the truth of that at which her
+inmost heart revolted.
+
+She was thinking that she would get Olivier to repeat once more all the
+events of that ill-omened night and worm her way as much as possible
+into any secret there might be which remained sealed to the judges,
+since for their purposes it did not seem worth while to give themselves
+any further trouble about the matter.
+
+On arriving at the Conciergerie, De Scuderi was led into a large light
+apartment. She had not long to wait before she heard the rattle of
+chains. Olivier Brusson was brought in. But the moment he appeared in
+the doorway De Scuderi sank on the floor fainting. When she recovered,
+Olivier had disappeared. She demanded impetuously that she should be
+taken to her carriage; she would go--go at once, that very moment, from
+the apartments of wickedness and infamy. For oh! at the very first
+glance she had recognised in Olivier Brusson the young man who had
+thrown the note into the carriage on the Pont Neuf, and who had brought
+her the casket and the jewels. Now all doubts were at an end; La
+Regnie's horrible suspicion was fully confirmed. Olivier Brusson
+belonged to the atrocious band of assassins; undoubtedly he murdered
+his master. And Madelon? Never before had Mademoiselle been so bitterly
+deceived by the deepest promptings of her heart; and now, shaken to the
+very depths of her soul by the discovery of a power of evil on earth in
+the existence of which she had not hitherto believed, she began to
+despair of all truth. She allowed the hideous suspicion to enter her
+mind that Madelon was involved in the complot, and might have had a
+hand in the infamous deed of blood. As is frequently the case with the
+human mind, that, once it has laid hold upon an idea, it diligently
+seeks for colours, until it finds them, with which to deck out the
+picture in tints ever more vivid and ever more glaring; so also De
+Scuderi, on reflecting again upon all the circumstances of the deed, as
+well as upon the minutest features in Madelon's behaviour, found many
+things to strengthen her suspicion. And many points which hitherto she
+had regarded as a proof of innocence and purity now presented
+themselves as undeniable tokens of abominable wickedness and studied
+hypocrisy. Madelon's heartrending expressions of trouble, and her
+floods of piteous tears, might very well have been forced from her, not
+so much from fear of seeing her lover perish on the scaffold, as of
+falling herself by the hand of the executioner. To get rid at once of
+the serpent she was nourishing in her bosom, this was the determination
+with which Mademoiselle got out of her carriage.
+
+When she entered her room, Madelon threw herself at her feet. With her
+lovely eyes--none of God's angels had truer--directed heavenwards, and
+with her hands folded upon her heaving bosom, she wept and wailed,
+craving help and consolation. Controlling herself by a painful effort,
+De Scuderi, whilst endeavouring to impart as much earnestness and
+calmness as she possibly could to the tone in which she spoke, said,
+"Go--go--comfort yourself with the thought that righteous punishment
+will overtake yon murderer for his villainous deeds. May the Holy
+Virgin forbid that you yourself come to labour under the heavy burden
+of blood-guiltiness." "Oh! all hope is now lost!" cried Madelon, with a
+piercing shriek, as she reeled to the floor senseless. Leaving La
+Martiniere to attend to the girl, Mademoiselle withdrew into another
+room.
+
+De Scuderi's heart was torn and bleeding; she felt herself at variance
+with all mankind, and no longer wished to live in a world so full of
+diabolical deceit! She reproached Destiny which in bitter mockery had
+so many years suffered her to go on strengthening her belief in virtue,
+and truth, only to destroy now in her old age the beautiful images
+which had been her guiding-stars through life.
+
+She heard Martiniere lead away Madelon, who was sighing softly and
+lamenting. "Alas! and she--she too--these cruel men have infatuated
+her. Poor, miserable me! Poor, unhappy Olivier!" The tones of her voice
+cut De Scuderi to the heart; again there stirred in the depths of her
+soul a dim presentiment that there was some mystery connected with the
+case, and also the belief in Olivier's innocence returned. Her mind
+distracted by the most contradictory feelings, she cried, "What spirit
+of darkness is it which has entangled me in this terrible affair? I am
+certain it will be the death of me." At this juncture Baptiste came in,
+pale and terrified, with the announcement that Desgrais was at the
+door. Ever since the trial of the infamous La Voisin the appearance of
+Desgrais in any house was the sure precursor of some criminal charge;
+hence came Baptiste's terror, and therefore it was that Mademoiselle
+asked him with a gracious smile, "What's the matter with you, Baptiste?
+The name Scuderi has been found on La Voisin's list, has it not, eh?"
+"For God's sake," replied Baptiste, trembling in every limb, "how can
+you speak of such a thing? But Desgrais, that terrible man Desgrais,
+behaves so mysteriously, and is so urgent; he seems as if he couldn't
+wait a moment before seeing you." "Well, then, Baptiste," said De
+Scuderi, "then bring him up at once--the man who is so terrible to you;
+in me, at least, he will excite no anxiety."
+
+"The President La Regnie has sent me to you, Mademoiselle," said
+Desgrais on stepping into the room, "with a request which he would
+hardly dare hope you could grant, did he not know your virtue and your
+courage. But the last means of bringing to light a vile deed of blood
+lie in your hands; and you have already of your own accord taken an
+active part in the notorious trial which the _Chambre Ardente_, and in
+fact all of us, are watching with breathless interest. Olivier Brusson
+has been half a madman since he saw you. He was beginning to show signs
+of compliance and a readiness to make a confession, but he now swears
+again, by all the powers of Heaven, that he is perfectly innocent of
+the murder of Cardillac; and yet he says he is ready to die the death
+which he has deserved. You will please observe, Mademoiselle, that the
+last clause evidently has reference to other crimes which weigh upon
+his conscience. But vain are all our efforts to get him to utter a
+single word more; even the threat of torture has been of no avail. He
+begs and prays, and beseeches us to procure him an interview with you;
+for to _you_, to _you_ only, will he confess all. Pray deign,
+Mademoiselle, to hear Brusson's confession." "What!" exclaimed De
+Scuderi indignantly, "am I to be made an instrument of by a criminal
+court, am I to abuse this unhappy man's confidence to bring him to the
+scaffold? No, Desgrais. However vile a murderer Brusson may be, I would
+never, never deceive him in that villainous way. I don't want to know
+anything about his secrets; in any case they would be locked up within
+my own bosom as if they were a holy confession made to a priest"
+"Perhaps," rejoined Desgrais with a subtle smile, "perhaps,
+Mademoiselle, you would alter your mind after you had heard Brusson.
+Did you not yourself exhort the President to be human? And he is being
+so, in that he gives way to Brusson's foolish request, and thus resorts
+to the last means before putting him to the rack, for which he was well
+ripe some time ago." De Scuderi shuddered involuntarily. "And then,
+honoured lady," continued Desgrais, "it will not be demanded of you
+that you again enter those dark gloomy rooms which filled you with such
+horror and aversion. Olivier shall be brought to you here in your own
+house as a free man, but at night, when all excitement can be avoided.
+Then, without being even listened to, though of course he would be
+watched, he may without constraint make a clean confession to you. That
+you personally will have nothing to fear from the wretch--for that I
+will answer to you with my life. He mentions your name with the
+intensest veneration. He reiterates again and again that it is nothing
+but his dark destiny, which prevented him seeing you before, that has
+brought his life into jeopardy in this way. Moreover, you will be at
+liberty to divulge what you think well of the things which Brusson
+confesses to you. And what more could we indeed compel you to do?"
+
+De Scuderi bent her eyes upon the floor in reflection. She felt she
+must obey the Higher Power which was thus demanding of her that she
+should effect the disclosure of some terrible secret, and she felt,
+too, as though she could not draw back out of the tangled skein into
+which she had run without any conscious effort of will. Suddenly making
+up her mind, she replied with dignity, "God will give me firmness and
+self-command, Bring Brusson here; I will speak with him."
+
+Just as on the previous occasion when Brusson brought the casket, there
+came a knock at De Scuderi's house door at midnight. Baptiste,
+forewarned of this nocturnal visit, at once opened the door. De Scuderi
+felt an icy shiver run through her as she gathered from the light
+footsteps and hollow murmuring voices that the guards who had brought
+Brusson were taking up their stations about the passages of the house.
+
+At length the room door was softly opened. Desgrais came in, followed
+by Olivier Brusson, freed from his fetters, and dressed in his own neat
+clothing. The officer bowed respectfully and said, "Here is Brusson,
+honoured lady," and then left the room. Brusson fell upon his knees
+before Mademoiselle, and raised his folded hands in entreaty, whilst
+copious tears ran down his cheeks.
+
+De Scuderi turned pale and looked down upon him without being able to
+utter a word. Though his features were now gaunt and hollow from
+trouble and anguish and pain, yet an expression of the truest
+staunchest honesty shone upon his countenance. The longer Mademoiselle
+allowed her eyes to rest upon his face, the more forcibly was she
+reminded of some loved person, whom she could not in any way clearly
+call to mind. All her feelings of shivery uncomfortableness left her;
+she forgot that it was Cardillac's murderer who was kneeling before
+her; she spoke in the calm pleasing tone of goodwill that was
+characteristic of her, "Well, Brusson, what have you to tell me?" He,
+still kneeling, heaved a sigh of unspeakable sadness, that came from
+the bottom of his heart, "Oh! honoured, highly esteemed lady, can you
+have lost all traces of recollection of me?" Mademoiselle scanned his
+features more narrowly, and replied that she had certainly discovered
+in his face a resemblance to some one she had once loved, and that it
+was entirely owing to this resemblance that she had overcome her
+detestation of the murderer, and was listening to him calmly.
+
+Brusson was deeply hurt at these words; he rose hastily to his feet and
+took a step, backwards, fixing his eyes gloomily on the floor. "Then
+you have completely forgotten Anne Guiot?" he said moodily; "it is her
+son Olivier,--the boy whom you often tossed on your lap--who now stands
+before you." "Oh help me, good Heaven!" exclaimed Mademoiselle,
+covering her face with both hands and sinking back upon the cushions.
+And reason enough she had to be thus terribly affected. Anne Guiot, the
+daughter of an impoverished burgher, had lived in De Scuderi's house
+from a little girl, and had been brought up by Mademoiselle with all
+the care and faithfulness which a mother expends upon her own child.
+Now when she was grown up there came a modest good-looking young man,
+Claude Brusson by name, and he wooed the girl. And since he was a
+thoroughly clever watchmaker, who would be sure to find a very good
+living in Paris, and since Anne had also grown to be truly fond of him,
+De Scuderi had no scruples about giving her consent to her adopted
+daughter's marriage. The young people, having set up housekeeping, led
+a quiet life of domestic happiness; and the ties of affection were knit
+still closer by the birth of a marvellously pretty boy, the perfect
+image of his lovely mother.
+
+De Scuderi made a complete idol of little Olivier, carrying him off
+from his mother for hours and days together to caress him and to fondle
+him. Hence the boy grew quite accustomed to her, and would just as
+willingly be with her as with his mother. Three years passed away, when
+the trade-envy of Brusson's fellow-artificers made them concert
+together against him, so that his business decreased day by day, until
+at last he could hardly earn enough for a bare subsistence. Along with
+this he felt an ardent longing to see once more his beautiful native
+city of Geneva; accordingly the small family moved thither, in spite of
+De Scuderi's opposition and her promises of every possible means of
+support Anne wrote two or three times to her foster-mother, and then
+nothing more was heard from her; so that Mademoiselle had to take
+refuge in the conclusion that the happy life they were leading in
+Brusson's native town prevented their memories dwelling upon the days
+that were past and gone. It was now just twenty-three years since
+Brusson had left Paris along with his wife and child and had gone to
+Geneva.
+
+"Oh! horrible!" exclaimed De Scuderi when she had again recovered
+herself to some extent. "Oh! horrible! are you Olivier? my Anne's son?
+And now----" "Indeed, honoured lady," replied Olivier calmly and
+composedly, "indeed you never could, I suppose, have any the least idea
+that the boy whom you fondled with all a mother's tenderness, into
+whose mouth you never tired of putting sweets and candies as you tossed
+him on your lap, whom you called by the most caressing names, would,
+when grown up to be a young man, one day stand before you accused of an
+atrocious crime. I am not free from reproach; the _Chambre Ardente_ may
+justly bring a charge against me; but by my hopes of happiness after
+death, even though it be by the executioner's hand, I am innocent of
+this bloody deed; the unhappy Cardillac did not perish through me, nor
+through any guilty connivance on my part." So saying, Olivier began to
+shake and tremble. Mademoiselle silently pointed to a low chair which
+stood beside him, and he slowly sank down upon it.
+
+"I have had plenty of time to prepare myself for my interview with
+you," he began, "which I regard as the last favour to be granted me by
+Heaven in token of my reconciliation with it, and I have also had time
+enough to gain what calmness and composure are needful in order to
+relate to you the history of my fearful and unparalleled misfortunes. I
+entreat your pity, that you will listen calmly to me, however much you
+may be surprised--nay, even struck with horror, by the disclosure of a
+secret which I am sure you have never for a moment suspected. Oh! that
+my poor father had never left Paris! As far back as my recollections of
+Geneva go I remember how I felt the tears of my unhappy parents falling
+upon my cheeks; and how their complaints of misery, which I did not
+understand, provoked me also to tears. Later I experienced to the full
+and with keen consciousness in what a state of crushing want and of
+deep distress my parents lived. My father found all his hopes deceived.
+He died bowed to the earth with pain, and broken with trouble,
+immediately after he had succeeded in placing me as apprentice to a
+goldsmith. My mother talked much about you; she said she would pour out
+all her troubles to you; but then she fell a victim to that despondency
+which is born of misery. That, and also a feeling of false shame, which
+often preys upon a deeply wounded spirit, prevented her from taking any
+decisive step. Within a few months after my father's death my mother
+followed him to the grave." "Poor Anne! poor Anne!" exclaimed
+Mademoiselle, quite overcome by sorrow. "All praise and thanks to the
+Eternal Power of Heaven that she is gone to the better land; she will
+not see her darling son, branded with shame, fall by the hand of the
+executioner," cried Olivier aloud, casting his eyes upwards with a wild
+unnatural look of anguish.
+
+The police grew uneasy outside; footsteps passed to an fro. "Ho! ho!"
+said Olivier, smiling bitterly, "Desgrais is waking up his myrmidons,
+as though I could make my escape _here_. But to continue--I led a hard
+life with my master, albeit I soon got to be the best workman, and at
+last even surpassed my master himself. One day a stranger happened to
+come into our shop to buy some jewellery. And when he saw a beautiful
+necklace which I had made he clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly
+way and said, eyeing the ornament, 'Ha! i' faith, my young friend,
+that's an excellent piece of work. To tell you the truth, I don't know
+who there is who could beat you, unless it were Rene Cardillac, who,
+you know, is the first goldsmith in the world. You ought to go to him;
+he would gladly take you into his workshop; for nobody but you could
+help him in his artistic labours; and on the other hand he is the only
+man from whom you could learn anything.' The stranger's words sank into
+my heart and took deep root there. I hadn't another moment's ease in
+Geneva; I felt a violent impulse to be gone. At last I contrived to get
+free from my master. I came to Paris. Rene Cardillac received me coldly
+and churlishly. I persevered in my purpose; he must give me some work,
+however insignificant it might be. I got a small ring to finish. On my
+taking the work to him, he fixed his keen glittering eyes upon me as if
+he would read the very depths of my soul. Then he said, 'You are a good
+clever journeyman; you may come to me and help me in my shop. I will
+pay you well; you shall be satisfied with me.' Cardillac kept his word.
+I had been several weeks with him before I saw Madelon; she was at that
+time, if I mistake not, in the country, staying, with a female relative
+of Cardillac's; but at length she came. O Heaven! O God! what did I
+feel when I saw the sweet angel? Has any man ever loved as I do? And
+now--O Madelon!"
+
+Olivier was so distressed he could not go on. Holding both hands before
+his face, he sobbed violently, But at length, fighting down with an
+effort the sharp pain that shook him, he went on with his story.
+
+"Madelon looked upon me with friendly eyes. Her visits into the
+workshop grew more and more frequent. I was enraptured to perceive that
+she loved me. Notwithstanding the strict watch her father kept upon us
+many a stolen pressure of the hand served as a token of the mutual
+understanding arrived at between us; Cardillac did not appear to notice
+anything. I intended first to win his favour, and, if I could gain my
+mastership, then to woo for Madelon. One day, as I was about to begin
+work, Cardillac came to me, his face louring darkly with anger and
+scornful contempt 'I don't want your services any longer,' he began,
+'so out you go from my house this very hour; and never show yourself in
+my sight again. Why I can't do with you here any longer, I have no need
+to tell you. For you, you poor devil, the sweet fruit at which you are
+stretching out your hand hangs too high.' I attempted to speak, but he
+laid hold upon me with a powerful grasp and threw me out of doors, so
+that I fell to the floor and severely wounded my head and arm. I left
+the house hotly indignant and furious with the stinging pain; at last I
+found a good-natured acquaintance in the remotest corner of the
+Faubourg St. Martin, who received me into his garret. But I had neither
+ease nor rest. Every night I used to lurk about Cardillac's house
+deluding myself with the fancy that Madelon would hear my sighing and
+lamenting, and that she would perhaps find a way to speak to me out of
+the window unheard. All sorts of confused plans were revolving in my
+brain, which I hoped to persuade her to carry out.
+
+"Now joining Cardillac's house in the Rue Nicaise there is a high wall,
+with niches and old stone figures in them, now half crumbled away. One
+night I was standing close beside one of these stone images and looking
+up at those windows of the house which looked out upon the court
+enclosed by the wall. All at once I observed a light in Cardillac's
+workshop. It was midnight; Cardillac never used to be awake at that
+hour; he was always in the habit of going to rest on the stroke of
+nine. My heart beat in uncertain trepidation; I began to think
+something might have happened which would perhaps pave the way for me
+to go back into the house once more. But soon the light vanished again.
+I squeezed myself into the niche close to the stone figure; but I
+started back in dismay on feeling a pressure against me, as if the
+image had become instinct with life. By the dusky glimmer of the night
+I perceived that the stone was slowly revolving, and a dark form
+slipped out from behind it and went away down the street with light,
+soft footsteps. I rushed towards the stone figure; it stood as before,
+close to the wall. Almost without thinking, rather as if impelled by
+some inward prompter, I stealthily followed the figure. Just beside an
+image of the Virgin he turned round; the light of the street lamp
+standing exactly in front of the image fell full upon his face. It was
+Cardillac.
+
+"An unaccountable feeling of apprehension--an unearthly dread fell upon
+me. Like one subject to the power of magic, I had to go on--on--in the
+track of the spectre-like somnambulist. For that was what I took my
+master to be, notwithstanding that it was not the time of full moon,
+when this visitation is wont to attack the sleeper. Finally Cardillac
+disappeared into the deep shade on the side of the street. By a sort of
+low involuntary cough, which, however, I knew well, I gathered that he
+was standing in the entry to a house. 'What is the meaning of that?
+What is he going to do?' I asked myself, utterly astounded, pressing
+close against a house-wall. It was not long before a man came along
+with fluttering plumes and jingling spur, singing and gaily humming an
+air. Like a tiger leaping upon his prey, Cardillac burst out of his
+lurking-place and threw himself upon the man, who that very same
+instant fell to the ground, gasping in the agonies of death. I rushed
+up with a cry of horror; Cardillac was stooping over the man, who lay
+on the floor. 'Master Cardillac, what are you doing?' I shouted.
+'Cursed fool!' growled Cardillac, running past me with lightning-like
+speed and disappearing from sight.
+
+"Quite upset and hardly able to take a step, I approached the man who
+had been stabbed. I knelt down beside him. 'Perhaps,' thought I, 'he
+still may be saved;' but there was not the least sign of life. In my
+fearful agitation I had hardly noticed that the _Marechausee_ had
+surrounded me. 'What? already another assassinated by these demons!
+Hi! hi! Young man, what are you about here?--Are you one of the
+band?--Away with him!' Thus they cried one after another, and they
+laid hold of me. I was scarcely able to stammer out that I should never
+be capable of such an abominable deed, and that they might therefore
+let me go my way in peace. Then one of them turned his lamp upon my
+face and said laughing, 'Why, it's Olivier Brusson, the journeyman
+goldsmith, who works for our worthy honest Master Rene Cardillac. Ay, I
+should think so!--_he_ murder people in the street--he looks like it
+indeed! It's just like murderous assassins to stoop lamenting over
+their victim's corpse till somebody comes and takes them into custody.
+Well, how was it, youngster? Speak out boldly?' 'A man sprang out
+immediately in front of me,' I said, 'and threw himself upon this man
+and stabbed him, and then ran away as quick as lightning when I shouted
+out. I only wanted to see if the stabbed man might still be saved.'
+'No, my son,' cried one of those who had taken up the corpse; 'he's
+dead enough; the dagger has gone right through the heart as usual.'
+'The Devil!' said another; 'we have come too late again, as we did
+yesterday.' Thereupon they went their way, taking the corpse with them.
+
+"What my feelings were I cannot attempt to describe. I felt myself to
+make sure whether I were not being mocked by some hideous dream; I
+fancied I must soon wake up and wonder at the preposterous delusion.
+Cardillac, the father of my Madelon, an atrocious murderer! My strength
+failed me; I sank down upon the stone steps leading up to a house. The
+morning light began to glimmer and was stronger and stronger; an
+officer's hat decorated with feathers lay before me on the pavement. I
+saw again vividly Cardillac's bloody deed, which had been perpetrated
+on the spot where I sat. I ran off horrified.
+
+"I was sitting in my garret, my thoughts in a perfect whirl, nay, I was
+almost bereft of my senses, when the door opened, and Rene Cardillac
+came in. 'For God's sake, what do you want?' I exclaimed on seeing him.
+Without heeding my words, he approached close to me, smiling with
+calmness and an air of affability which only increased my inward
+abhorrence. Pulling up a rickety old stool and taking his seat upon it
+close beside me, for I was unable to rise from the heap of straw upon
+which I had thrown myself, he began, 'Well, Olivier, how are you
+getting on, my poor fellow? I did indeed do an abominably rash thing
+when I turned you out of the house; I miss you at every step and turn.
+I have got a piece of work on hand just now which I cannot finish
+without your help. How would it be if you came back to work in my shop?
+Have you nothing to say? Yes, I know I have insulted you. I will not
+attempt to conceal it from you that I was angry on account of your love
+making to my Madelon. But since then I have ripely reflected upon the
+matter, and decided that, considering your skill and industry and
+faithful honesty, I could not wish for any better son-in-law than you.
+So come along with me, and see if you can win Madelon to be your
+bride.'
+
+"Cardillac's words cut me to the very heart; I trembled with dread at
+his wickedness; I could not utter a word. 'Do you hesitate?' he
+continued in a sharp tone, piercing me through and through with his
+glittering eyes; 'do you hesitate? Perhaps you can't come along with me
+just to-day--perhaps you have some other business on hand! Perhaps you
+mean forsooth to pay a visit to Desgrais or get yourself admitted to an
+interview with D'Argenson or La Regnie. But you'd better take care,
+boy, that the claws which you entice out of their sheaths to other
+people's destruction don't seize upon you yourself and tear you to
+pieces!' Then my swelling indignation suddenly found vent 'Let those
+who are conscious of having committed atrocious crimes,' I cried,--'let
+them start at the names you just named. As for me, I have no reason to
+do so--I have nothing to do with them.' 'Properly speaking,' went on
+Cardillac, 'properly speaking, Olivier, it is an honour to you to work
+with me--with me, the most renowned master of the age, and highly
+esteemed everywhere for his faithfulness and honesty, so that all
+wicked calumnies would recoil upon the head of the backbiter. And as
+far as concerns Madelon, I must now confess that it is she alone to
+whom you owe this compliance on my part. She loves you with an
+intensity which I should not have credited the delicate child with.
+Directly you had gone she threw herself at my feet, clasped my knees,
+and confessed amid endless tears that she could not live without you.
+I thought she only fancied so, as so often happens with young and
+love-sick girls; they think they shall die at once the first time a
+milky-faced boy looks kindly upon them. But my Madelon did really
+become ill and begin to pine away; and when I tried to talk her out of
+her foolish silly notions, she only uttered your name scores of times.
+What on earth could I do if I didn't want her to die away in despair?
+Last evening I told her I would give my consent to her dearest wishes,
+and would come and fetch you to-day. And during the night she has
+blossomed up like a rose, and is now waiting for you with all the
+longing impatience of love.'
+
+"May God in heaven forgive me! I don't know myself how it came about,
+but I suddenly found myself in Cardillac's house; and Madelon cried
+aloud with joy, 'Olivier! my Olivier! my darling! my husband!' as she
+rushed towards me and threw both her arms round my neck, pressing me
+close to her bosom, till in a perfect delirium of passionate delight I
+swore by the Virgin and all the saints that I would never, never leave
+her."
+
+Olivier was so deeply agitated by the recollection of this fateful
+moment, that he was obliged to pause. De Scuderi, struck with horror at
+this foul iniquity in a man whom she had always looked upon as a model
+of virtue and honest integrity, cried, "Oh! it is horrible! So Rene
+Cardillac belongs to the murderous band which has so long made our good
+city a mere bandits' haunt?" "What do you say, Mademoiselle, to the
+_band_?" said Olivier. "There has never been such a band. It was
+Cardillac _alone_ who, active in wickedness, sought for his victims and
+found them throughout the entire city. And it was because he acted
+alone that he was enabled to carry on his operations with so much
+security, and from the same cause arose the insuperable difficulty of
+getting a clue to the murderer. But let me go on with my story; the
+sequel will explain to you the secrets of the most atrocious but at the
+same time of the most unfortunate of men.
+
+"The situation in which I now found myself fixed at my master's may be
+easily imagined. The step was taken; I could not go back. At times I
+felt as though I were Cardillac's accomplice in crime; the only thing
+that made me forget the inner anguish that tortured me was Madelon's
+love, and it was only in her presence that I succeeded in totally
+suppressing all external signs of the nameless trouble and anxiety I
+had in my heart. When I was working with the old man in the shop, I
+could never look him in the face; and I was hardly able to speak a
+word, owing to the awful dread with which I trembled whenever near the
+villain, who fulfilled all the duties of a faithful and tender father,
+and of a good citizen, whilst the night veiled his monstrous iniquity.
+Madelon, dutiful, pure, confiding as an angel, clung to him with
+idolatrous affection. The thought often struck like a dagger to my
+heart that, if justice should one day overtake the reprobate and unmask
+him, she, deceived by the diabolical arts of the foul Fiend, would
+assuredly die in the wildest agonies of despair. This alone would keep
+my lips locked, even though it brought upon me a criminal's death.
+Notwithstanding that I picked up a good deal of information from the
+talk of the _Marechaussee_ yet the motive for Cardillac's atrocities,
+as well as his manner of accomplishing them, still remained riddles to
+me; but I had not long to wait for the solution.
+
+"One day Cardillac was very grave and preoccupied over his work,
+instead of being in the merriest of humours, jesting and laughing as he
+usually did, and so provoking my abhorrence of him. All of a sudden he
+threw aside the ornament he was working at, so that the pearls and
+other stones rolled across the floor, and starting to his feet he
+exclaimed, 'Olivier, things can't go on in this way between us; the
+footing we are now on is getting unbearable. Chance has played into
+your hands the knowledge of a secret which has baffled the most
+inventive cunning of Desgrais and all his myrmidons. You have seen me
+at my midnight work, to which I am goaded by my evil destiny; no
+resistance is ever of any avail. And your evil destiny it was which led
+you to follow me, which wrapped you in an impenetrable veil and gave
+you the lightness of foot which, enabled you to walk as noiselessly as
+the smallest insect, so that I, who in the blackest night see as
+plainly as a tiger and hear the slightest noise, the humming of midges,
+far away along the streets, did not perceive you near me. Your evil
+star has brought you to me, my associate. As you are now circumstanced
+there can be no thought of treachery on your part, and so you may now
+know all.' 'Never, never will I be your associate, you hypocritical
+reprobate,' I endeavoured to cry out, but I felt a choking sensation in
+my throat, caused by the dread which came upon me as Cardillac spoke.
+Instead of speaking words, I only gasped out certain unintelligible
+sounds. Cardillac again sat down on his bench, drying the perspiration
+from his brow. He appeared to be fearfully agitated by his
+recollections of the past and to have difficulty in preserving his
+composure. But at length he began.
+
+"'Learned men say a good deal about the extraordinary impressions of
+which women are capable when _enceinte_, and of the singular influence
+which such a vivid involuntary external impression has upon the unborn
+child. I was told a surprising story about my mother. About eight
+months before I was born, my mother accompanied certain other women to
+see a splendid court spectacle in the Trianon.[19] There her eyes fell
+upon a cavalier wearing a Spanish costume, who wore a flashing jewelled
+chain round his neck, and she could not keep her eyes off it. Her whole
+being was concentrated into desire to possess the glittering stones,
+which she regarded as something of supernatural origin. Several years
+previously, before my mother was married, the same cavalier had paid
+his insidious addresses to her, but had been repulsed with indignant
+scorn. My mother knew him again; but now by the gleam of the brilliant
+diamonds he appeared to her to be a being of a higher race--the paragon
+of beauty. He noticed my mother's looks of ardent desire. He believed
+he should now be more successful than formerly. He found means to
+approach her, and, yet more, to draw her away from her acquaintances to
+a retired place. Then he clasped her passionately in his arms, whilst
+she laid hold of the handsome chain; but in that moment the cavalier
+reeled backwards, dragging my mother to the ground along with him.
+Whatever was the cause--whether he had a sudden stroke, or whether it
+was due to something else--enough, the man was dead. All my mother's
+efforts to release herself from the stiffened arms of the corpse proved
+futile. His glazed eyes, their faculty of vision now extinguished, were
+fixed upon her; and she lay on the ground with the dead man. At length
+her piercing screams for help reached the ears of some people passing
+at a distance; they hurried up and freed her from the arms of her
+ghastly lover. The horror prostrated her in a serious illness. Her
+life, and mine too, was despaired of; but she recovered, and her
+accouchement was more favourable than could have been expected. But the
+terror of that fearful moment had left its stamp upon _me_. The evil
+star of my destiny had got in the ascendant and shot down its sparks
+upon me, enkindling in me a most singular but at the same time a most
+pernicious passion. Even in the earliest days of my childhood there was
+nothing I thought so much of as I did of flashing diamonds and
+ornaments of gold. It was regarded as an ordinary childish inclination.
+But the contrary was soon made manifest, for when a boy I stole all the
+gold and jewellery I could anywhere lay my hands on. Like the most
+experienced goldsmith I could distinguish by instinct false jewellery
+from real. The latter alone proved an attraction to me; objects made of
+imitated gold as well as gold coins I heeded not in the least. My
+inborn propensity had, however, to give way to the excessively cruel
+thrashings which I received at my father's hand.
+
+"'I adopted the trade of a goldsmith, merely that I might be able to
+handle gold and precious stones. I worked with passionate enthusiasm
+and soon became the first master in the craft. But now began a period
+in which my innate propensity, so long repressed, burst forth with
+vehemence and grew most rapidly, imbibing nourishment from everything
+about it. So soon as I had completed a piece of jewellery, and had
+delivered it up to the customer, I fell into a state of unrest, of
+desperate disquiet, which robbed me of sleep and health and courage for
+my daily life. Day and night the person for whom I had done the work
+stood before my eyes like a spectre, adorned with my jewellery, whilst
+a voice whispered in my ears, "Yes, it's yours; yes it's yours. Go and
+take it. What does a dead man want diamonds for?" Then I began to
+practise thievish arts. As I had access to the houses of the great, I
+speedily turned every opportunity to good account: no lock could baffle
+my skill; and I soon had the object which I had made in my hands again.
+But after a time even that did not banish my unrest. That unearthly
+voice still continued to make itself heard in my ears, mocking me to
+scorn, and crying, "Ho! ho! a dead man is wearing your jewellery." By
+some inexplicable means, which I do not understand, I began to conceive
+an unspeakable hatred of those for whom I made my ornaments. Ay, deep
+down in my heart there began to stir a murderous feeling against them,
+at which I myself trembled with apprehension.
+
+"'About this time I bought this house. I had just struck a bargain with
+the owner; we were sitting in this room drinking a glass of wine
+together and enjoying ourselves over the settlement of our business.
+Night had come; I rose to go; then the vendor of the house said, "See
+here, Master Rene; before you go, I must make you acquainted with the
+secret of the place." Therewith he unlocked that press let into the
+wall there, pushed away the panels at the back, and stepped into a
+little room, where, stooping down, he lifted up a trap-door. We
+descended a flight of steep, narrow stairs, and came to a narrow
+postern, which he unlocked, and let us out into the court-yard. Then
+the old gentleman, the previous owner of the house, stepped up to the
+wall and pressed an iron knob, which projected only very triflingly
+from it; immediately a portion of the wall swung round, so that a man
+could easily slip through the opening, and in that way gain the street.
+I will show you the neat contrivance some day, Olivier; very likely it
+was constructed by the cunning monks of the monastery which formerly
+stood on this site, in order that they might steal in and out secretly.
+It is a piece of wood, plastered with mortar and white-washed on the
+outside only, and within it, on the side next the street, is fixed a
+statue, also of wood, but coloured to look exactly like stone, and the
+whole piece, together with the statue, moves upon concealed hinges.
+Dark thoughts swept into my mind when I saw this contrivance; it
+appeared to have been built with a predestined view to such deeds as
+yet remained unknown to myself.
+
+"'I had just completed a valuable ornament for a courtier, and knew
+that he intended it for an opera-dancer. The ominous torture assailed
+me again; the spectre dogged my footsteps; the whispering fiend was at
+my ear. I took possession of my new house. I tossed sleeplessly on my
+couch, bathed in perspiration, caused by the hideous torments I was
+enduring. In imagination I saw the man gliding along to the dancer's
+abode with my ornament. I leapt up full of fury; threw on my mantle,
+went down by the secret stairs, through the wall, and into the Rue
+Nicaise. He is coming along; I throw myself upon him; he screams out;
+but I have seized him fast from behind, and driven my dagger right into
+his heart; the ornament is mine. This done I experienced a calmness, a
+satisfaction in my soul, which I had never yet experienced. The spectre
+had vanished; the voice of the fiend was still. Now I knew what my evil
+Destiny wanted; I had either to yield to it or to perish. And now too
+you understand the secret of all my conduct, Olivier. But do not
+believe, because I must do that for which there is no help, that
+therefore I have entirely lost all sense of pity, of compassion, which
+is said to be one of the essential properties of human nature. You know
+how hard it is for me to part with a finished piece of work, and that
+there are many for whom I refuse to work at all, because I do not wish
+their death; and it has also happened that when I felt my spectre would
+have to be exorcised on the following day by blood, I have satisfied it
+with a stout blow of the fist the same day, which stretched on the
+ground the owner of my jewel, and delivered the jewel itself into my
+hand.'
+
+"Having told me all this Cardillac took me into his secret vault and
+granted me a sight of his jewel-cabinet; and the king himself has not
+one finer. A short label was attached to each article, stating
+accurately for whom it was made, when it was recovered, and whether by
+theft, or by robbery from the person accompanied with violence, or by
+murder. Then Cardillac said in a hollow and solemn voice, 'On your
+wedding-day, Olivier, you will have to lay your hand on the image of
+the crucified Christ and swear a solemn oath that after I am dead you
+will reduce all these riches to dust, through means which I shall then,
+before I die, disclose to you. I will not have any human creature,
+and certainly neither Madelon nor you, come into possession of this
+blood-bought treasure-store.' Entangled in this labyrinth of crime, and
+with my heart lacerated by love and abhorrence, by rapture and horror,
+I might be compared to the condemned mortal whom a lovely angel is
+beckoning upwards with a gentle smile, whilst on the other hand Satan
+is holding him fast in his burning talons, till the good angel's smiles
+of love, in which are reflected all the bliss of the highest heaven,
+become converted into the most poignant of his miseries. I thought of
+flight--ay, even of suicide--but Madelon! Blame me, reproach me,
+honoured lady, for my too great weakness in not fighting down by an
+effort of will a passion that was fettering me to crime; but am I not
+about to atone for my fault by a death of shame?
+
+"One day Cardillac came home in uncommonly good spirits. He caressed
+Madelon, greeted me with the most friendly good-will, and at dinner
+drank a bottle of better wine, of a brand that he only produced on high
+holidays and festivals, and he also sang and gave vent to his feelings
+in exuberant manifestations of joy. When Madelon had left us I rose to
+return to the workshop. 'Sit still, lad,' said Cardillac; 'we'll not
+work any more to-day. Let us drink another glass together to the health
+of the most estimable and most excellent lady in Paris.' After I had
+joined glasses with him and had drained mine to the bottom, he went on,
+'Tell me, Olivier, how do you like these verses,'
+
+           'Un amant qui craint les voleuis
+            N'est point digne d'amour.'
+
+"Then he went on to relate the episode between you and the king in De
+Maintenon's salons, adding that he had always honoured you as he never
+had any other human creature, and that you were gifted with such lofty
+virtue as to make his ill-omened star of Destiny grow pale, and that if
+you were to wear the handsomest ornament he ever made it would never
+provoke in him either an evil spectre or murderous thoughts. 'Listen
+now, Olivier,' he said, 'what I have made up my mind to do. A long time
+ago I received an order for a necklace and a pair of bracelets for
+Henrietta of England,[20] and the stones were given me for the purpose.
+The work turned out better than the best I had ever previously done;
+but my heart was torn at the thought of parting from the ornaments, for
+they had become my pet jewels. You are aware of the Princess's unhappy
+death by sinister means. The ornaments I retained, and will now send
+them to Mademoiselle de Scuderi in the name of the persecuted band of
+robbers as a token of my respect and gratitude. Not only will
+Mademoiselle receive an eloquent token of her triumph, but I shall also
+laugh Desgrais and his associates to scorn, as they deserve to be
+laughed at. You shall take her the ornaments.' As Cardillac mentioned
+your name, Mademoiselle, I seemed to see a dark veil thrown aside,
+revealing the fair, bright picture of my early happy childhood days in
+gay and cheerful colours. A wondrous source of comfort entered my soul,
+a ray of hope, before which all my dark spirits faded away. Possibly
+Cardillac noted the effect which his words had upon me and interpreted
+it in his own way, 'You appear to find pleasure in my plan,' he said.
+'And I may as well state to you that I have been commanded to do this
+by an inward monitor deep down in my heart, very different from that
+which demands its holocaust of blood like some ravenous beast of prey.
+I often experience very remarkable feelings; I am powerfully affected
+by an inward apprehension, by fear of something terrible, the horrors
+of which breathe upon me in the air from a far-distant world of the
+Supernatural. I then feel even as if the crimes I commit as the blind
+instrument of my ill-starred Destiny may be charged upon my immortal
+soul, which has no share in them. During one such mood I vowed to make
+a diamond crown for the Holy Virgin in St. Eustace's Church. But so
+often as I thought seriously about setting to work upon it, I was
+overwhelmed by this unaccountable apprehension, so that I gave up the
+project altogether. Now I feel as if I must humbly offer an
+acknowledgment at the altar of virtue and piety by sending to De
+Scuderi the handsomest ornaments I have ever worked.'
+
+"Cardillac, who was intimately acquainted with your habits and ways of
+life. Mademoiselle, gave me instructions respecting the manner and the
+hour--the how and the when--in which I was to deliver the ornaments,
+which he locked in an elegant case, into your hands. I was completely
+thrilled with delight, for Heaven itself now pointed out to me through
+the miscreant Cardillac, a way by which I might rescue myself from the
+hellish thraldom in which I, a sinner and outcast, was slowly
+perishing; these at least were my thoughts. In express opposition to
+Cardillac's will I resolved to force myself in to an interview with
+you. I intended to reveal myself as Anne Brusson's son, as your own
+adoptive child, and to throw myself at your feet and confess all--all.
+I knew that you would have been so touched by the overwhelming misery
+which would have threatened poor innocent Madelon by any disclosure
+that you would have respected the secret; whilst your keen, sagacious
+mind would, I felt assured, have devised some means by which
+Cardillac's infamous wickedness might have been prevented without any
+exposure. Pray do not ask me what shape these means would have taken; I
+do not know. But that you would save Madelon and me, of that I was most
+firmly convinced, as firmly as I believe in the comfort and help of the
+Holy Virgin. You know how my intention was frustrated that night,
+Mademoiselle. I still cherished the hope of being more successful
+another time. Soon after this Cardillac seemed suddenly to lose all his
+good-humour. He went about with a cloudy brow, fixed his eyes on
+vacancy in front of him, murmured unintelligible words, and
+gesticulated with his hands, as if warding off something hostile from
+him; his mind appeared to be tormented by evil thoughts. Thus he
+behaved during the course of one whole morning. Finally he sat down to
+his work-table; but he soon leapt up again peevishly and looked out of
+the window, saying moodily and earnestly, 'I wish after all that
+Henrietta of England had worn my ornaments.' These words struck terror
+to my heart. Now I knew that his warped mind was again enslaved by the
+abominable spectre of murder, and that the voice of the fiend was again
+ringing audibly in his ears. I saw your life was threatened by the
+villainous demon of murder. If Cardillac only had his ornaments in his
+hands again, you were saved.
+
+"Every moment the danger increased. Then I met you on the Pont Neuf,
+and forced my way to your carriage, and threw you that note, beseeching
+you to restore the ornaments which you had received to Cardillac's
+hands at once. You did not come. My distress deepened to despair when
+on the following day Cardillac talked about nothing else but the
+magnificent ornaments which he had seen before his eyes during the
+night. I could only interpret that as having reference to your
+jewellery, and I was certain that he was brooding over some fresh
+murderous onslaught which he had assuredly determined to put into
+execution during the coming night. I must save you, even if it cost
+Cardillac's own life. So soon as he had locked himself in his own room
+after evening prayers, according to his wont, I climbed out of a window
+into the court-yard, slipped through the opening in the wall, and took
+up my station at no great distance, hidden in the deep shade. I had not
+long to wait before Cardillac appeared and stole softly up the street,
+me following him. He bent his steps towards the Rue St. Honore; my
+heart trembled with apprehension. All of a sudden I lost sight of him.
+I made up my mind to take post at your house-door. Then there came an
+officer past me, without perceiving me, singing and gaily humming a
+tune to himself, as on the occasion when chance first made me a witness
+of Cardillac's bloody deeds. But that selfsame moment a dark figure
+leapt forward and fell upon the officer. It was Cardillac. This murder
+I would at any rate prevent. With a loud shout I reached the spot in
+two or three bounds, when, not the officer, but Cardillac, fell on the
+floor groaning. The officer let his dagger fall, and drawing his sword
+put himself in a posture for fighting, imagining that I was the
+murderer's accomplice; but when he saw that I was only concerned about
+the slain man, and did not trouble myself about him, he hurried away.
+Cardillac was still alive. After picking up and taking charge of the
+dagger which the officer had let fall, I loaded my master upon my
+shoulders and painfully hugged him home, carrying him up to the
+workshop by way of the concealed stairs. The rest you know.
+
+"You see, honoured lady, that my only crime consists in the fact that I
+did not betray Madelon's father to the officers of the law, and so put
+an end to his enormities. My hands are clean of any deed of blood. No
+torture shall extort from me a confession of Cardillac's crimes. I will
+not, in defiance of the Eternal Power, which veiled the father's
+hideous bloodguiltiness from the eyes of the virtuous daughter, be
+instrumental in unfolding all the misery of the past, which would now
+have a far more disastrous effect upon her, nor do I wish to aid
+worldly vengeance in rooting up the dead man from the earth which
+covers him, nor that the executioner should now brand the mouldering
+bones with dishonour. No; the beloved of my soul will weep for me as
+one who has fallen innocent, and time will soften her sorrow; but how
+irretrievable a shock would it be if she learnt of the fearful and
+diabolical deeds of her dearly-loved father."
+
+Olivier paused; but now a torrent of tears suddenly burst from his
+eyes, and he threw himself at De Scuderi's feet imploringly. "Oh! now
+you are convinced of my innocence--oh! surely you must be! have pity
+upon me; tell me how my Madelon bears it." Mademoiselle summoned La
+Martiniere, and in a few moments more Madelon's arms were round
+Olivier's neck. "Now all is well again since you are here. I knew it, I
+knew this most noble-minded lady would save you," cried Madelon again
+and again; and Olivier forgot his situation and all that was impending
+over him, he was free and happy. It was most touching to hear the two
+mutually pour out all their troubles, and relate all that they had
+suffered for one another's sake; then they embraced one another anew,
+and wept with joy to see each other again.
+
+If De Scuderi had not been already convinced of Olivier's innocence she
+would assuredly have been satisfied of it now as she sat watching the
+two, who forgot the world and their misery and their excessive
+sufferings in the happiness of their deep and genuine mutual affection.
+"No," she said to herself, "it is only a pure heart which is capable of
+such happy oblivion."
+
+The bright beams of morning broke in through the window. Desgrais
+knocked softly at the room door, and reminded those within that it was
+time to take Olivier Brusson away, since this could not be done later
+without exciting a commotion. The lovers were obliged to separate.
+
+The dim shapeless feelings which had taken possession of De Scuderi's
+mind on Olivier's first entry into the room, had now acquired form and
+content--and in a fearful way. She saw the son of her dear Anne
+innocently entangled in such a way that there hardly seemed any
+conceivable means of saving him from a shameful death. She honoured the
+young man's heroic purpose in choosing to die under an unjust burden of
+guilt rather than divulge a secret that would certainly kill his
+Madelon. In the whole region of possibility she could not find any
+means whatever to snatch the poor fellow out of the hands of the cruel
+tribunal. And yet she had a most clear conception that she ought not to
+hesitate at any sacrifice to avert this monstrous perversion of justice
+which was on the point of being committed. She racked her brain with a
+hundred different schemes and plans, some of which bordered upon the
+extravagant, but all these she rejected almost as soon as they
+suggested themselves. Meanwhile the rays of hope grew fainter and
+fainter, till at last she was on the verge of despair. But Madelon's
+unquestioning child-like confidence, the rapturous enthusiasm with
+which she spoke of her lover, who now, absolved of all guilt, would
+soon clasp her in his arms as his bride, infused De Scuderi with new
+hope and courage, exactly in proportion as she was the more touched by
+the girl's words.
+
+At length, for the sake of doing something. De Scuderi wrote a long
+letter to La Regnie, in which she informed him that Olivier Brusson had
+proved to her in the most convincing manner his perfect innocence of
+Cardillac's death, and that it was only his heroic resolve to carry
+with him into the grave a secret, the revelation of which would entail
+disaster upon virtue and innocence, that prevented him making a
+revelation to the court which would undoubtedly free him, not only from
+the fearful suspicion of having murdered Cardillac, but also of having
+belonged to a band of vile assassins. De Scuderi did all that burning
+zeal, that ripe and spirited eloquence could effect, to soften La
+Regnie's hard heart. In the course of a few hours La Regnie replied
+that he was heartily glad to learn that Olivier Brusson had justified
+himself so completely in the eyes of his noble and honoured
+protectress. As for Olivier's heroic resolve to carry with him into the
+grave a secret that had an important bearing upon the crime under
+investigation, he was sorry to say that the _Chambre Ardente_ could not
+respect such heroic courage, but would rather be compelled to adopt the
+strongest means to break it. At the end of three days he hoped to be in
+possession of this extraordinary secret, which it might be presumed
+would bring wonders to light.
+
+De Scuderi knew only too well what those means were by which the savage
+La Regnie intended to break Brusson's heroic constancy. She was now
+sure that the unfortunate was threatened with the rack. In her
+desperate anxiety it at length occurred to her that the advice of a
+doctor of the law would be useful, if only to effectuate a postponement
+of the torture. The most renowned advocate in Paris at that time was
+Pierre Amaud d'Andilly; and his sound knowledge and liberal mind were
+only to be compared to his virtue and his sterling honesty. To him,
+therefore, De Scuderi had recourse, and she told him all, so far as she
+could, without violating Brusson's secret She expected that D'Andilly
+would take up the cause of the innocent man with zeal, but she found
+her hopes most bitterly deceived. The lawyer listened calmly to all she
+had to say, and then replied in Boileau's words, smiling as he did so,
+"_Le vrai peut quelque fois n'etre pas vraisemblable_" (Sometimes truth
+wears an improbable garb). He showed De Scuderi that there were most
+noteworthy grounds for suspicion against Brusson, that La Regnie's
+proceedings could neither be called cruel nor yet hurried, rather they
+were perfectly within the law--nay, that he could not act otherwise
+without detriment to his duties as judge. He himself did not see his
+way to saving Brusson from torture, even by the cleverest defence.
+Nobody but Brusson himself could avert it, either by a candid
+confession or at least by a most detailed account of all the
+circumstances attending Cardillac's murder, and this might then perhaps
+furnish grounds for instituting fresh inquiries. "Then I will throw
+myself at the king's feet and pray for mercy," said De Scuderi,
+distracted, her voice half choked by tears. "For Heaven's sake, don't
+do it, Mademoiselle, don't do it. I would advise you to reserve this
+last resource, for if it once fail it is lost to you for ever. The king
+will never pardon a criminal of this class: he would draw down upon
+himself the bitterest reproaches of the people, who would believe their
+lives were always in danger. Possibly Brusson, either by disclosing his
+secret or by some other means, may find a way to allay the suspicions
+which are working against him. Then will be the time to appeal to the
+king for mercy, for he will not inquire what has been proved before the
+court, but be guided by his own inner conviction." De Scuderi had no
+help for it but to admit that D'Andilly with his great experience was
+in the right.
+
+Late one evening she was sitting in her own room in very great trouble,
+appealing to the Virgin and the Holy Saints, and thinking whatever
+should she do to save the unhappy Brusson, when La Martiniere came in
+to announce that Count de Miossens, colonel of the King's Guards, was
+urgently desiring to speak to Mademoiselle.
+
+"Pardon me, Mademoiselle," said Miossens, bowing with military grace,
+"pardon me for intruding upon you so late, at such an inconvenient
+hour. We soldiers cannot do as we like, and then a couple of words will
+suffice to excuse me. It is on Olivier Brusson's account that I have
+come." De Scuderi's attention was at once on the stretch as to what was
+to follow, and she said, "Olivier Brusson?--that most unhappy of
+mortals? What have you to do with him?" "Yes, I did indeed think,"
+continued Miossens smiling, "that your _protege's_ name would be
+sufficient to procure me a favourable hearing. All the public are
+convinced of Brusson's guilt. But you, I know, cling to another
+opinion, which is based, to be sure, upon the protestations of the
+accused, as it is said; with me, however, it is otherwise. Nobody can
+be more firmly convinced that Brusson is innocent of Cardillac's death
+than I am." "Oh! go on and tell me; go on, pray!" exclaimed De Scuderi,
+whilst her eyes sparkled with delight. Miossens continued, speaking
+with emphasis, "It was I--I who stabbed the old goldsmith not far from
+your house here in the Rue St. Honors." "By the Saints!--you--you?"
+exclaimed Mademoiselle. "And I swear to you, Mademoiselle," went on
+Miossens, "that I am proud of the deed. For let me tell you that
+Cardillac was the most abandoned and hypocritical of villains, that it
+was he who committed those dreadful murders and robberies by night, and
+so long escaped all traps laid for him. Somehow, I can't say how, a
+strong feeling of suspicion was aroused in my mind against the old
+reprobate when he brought me an ornament I had ordered and was so
+visibly disturbed on giving it to me; and then he inquired particularly
+for whom I wanted the ornament, and also questioned my valet in the
+most artful way as to when I was in the habit of visiting a certain
+lady. I had long before noticed that all the unfortunates who fell
+victims to this abominable epidemic of murder and robbery bore one and
+the same wound. I felt sure that the assassin had by practice grown
+perfect in inflicting it, and that it must prove instantaneously fatal,
+and upon this he relied implicitly. If it failed, then it would come to
+a fight on equal terms. This led me to adopt a measure of precaution
+which is so simple that I cannot comprehend why it did not occur to
+others, who might then have safeguarded themselves against any
+murderous assault that threatened them. I wore a light shirt of mail
+under my tunic. Cardillac attacked me from behind. He laid hold upon me
+with the strength of a giant, but the surely-aimed blow glanced aside
+from the iron. That same moment I wrested myself free from his grasp,
+and drove my dagger, which I held in readiness, into his heart." "And
+you maintained silence?" asked De Scuderi; "you did not notify to the
+tribunals what you had done?" "Permit me to remark," went on Miossens,
+"permit me to remark, Mademoiselle, that such an announcement, if it
+had not at once entailed disastrous results upon me, would at any rate
+have involved me in a most detestable trial. Would La Regnie, who
+ferrets out crime everywhere--would he have believed my unsupported
+word if I had accused honest Cardillac, the pattern of piety and
+virtue, of an attempted murder? What if the sword of justice had turned
+its point against me?" "That would not have been possible," said De
+Scuderi, "your birth--your rank"---- "Oh! remember Marshal de
+Luxembourg, whose whim for having his horoscope cast by Le Sage brought
+him under the suspicion of being a poisoner, and eventually into
+the Bastille. No! by St. Denis! I would not risk my freedom for an
+hour--not even the lappet of my ear--in the power of that madman La
+Regnie, who only too well would like to have his knife at the throats
+of all of us." "But do you know you are bringing innocent Brusson to
+the scaffold?" "Innocent?" rejoined Miossens, "innocent? Are you
+speaking of the villain Cardillac's accomplice, Mademoiselle? he who
+helped him in his evil deeds? who deserves to die a hundred deaths?
+No, indeed! He would meet a just end on the scaffold. I have only
+disclosed to you, honoured lady, the details of the occurrence on the
+presupposition that, without delivering me into the hands of the
+_Chambre Ardent_, you will yet find a way to turn my secret to account
+on behalf of your _protege_."
+
+De Scuderi was so enraptured at finding her conviction of Brusson's
+innocence confirmed in such a decisive manner that she did not scruple
+to tell the Count all, since he already knew of Cardillac's iniquity,
+and to exhort him to accompany her to see D'Andilly. To _him_ all
+should be revealed under the seal of secrecy, and he should advise them
+what was to be done.
+
+After De Scuderi had related all to D'Andilly down to the minutest
+particulars, he inquired once more about several of the most
+insignificant features. In particular he asked Count Miossens whether
+he was perfectly satisfied that it was Cardillac who had attacked him,
+and whether he would be able to identify Olivier Brusson as the man who
+had carried away the corpse. De Miossens made answer, "Not only did I
+very well recognise Cardillac by the bright light of the moon, but I
+have also seen in La Regnie's hands the dagger with which Cardillac was
+stabbed; it is mine, distinguished by the elegant workmanship of the
+hilt. As I only stood one yard from the young man, and his hat had
+fallen off, I distinctly saw his features, and should certainly
+recognise him again."
+
+After gazing thoughtfully before him for some minutes in silence,
+D'Andilly said, "Brusson cannot possibly be saved from the hands of
+justice in any ordinary and regular way. Out of consideration for
+Madelon he refuses to accuse Cardillac of being the thievish assassin.
+And he must continue to do so, for even if he succeeded in proving his
+statements by pointing out the secret exit and the accumulated store of
+stolen jewellery, he would still be liable to death as a partner in
+Cardillac's guilt. And the bearings of things would not be altered if
+Count Miossens were to state to the judges the real details of the
+meeting with Cardillac. The only thing we can aim at securing is a
+postponement of the torture. Let Count Miossens go to the
+_Conciergerie_, have Olivier Brusson brought forward, and recognise in
+him the man who carried away Cardillac's dead body. Then let him hurry
+off to La Regnie and say, 'I saw a man stabbed in the Rue St. Honore,
+and as I stood close beside the corpse another man sprang forward and
+stooped down over the dead body; but on finding signs of life in him he
+lifted him on his shoulders and carried him away. This man I recognise
+in Olivier Brusson.' This evidence would lead to another hearing of
+Brusson and to his confrontation with Miossens. At all events the
+torture would be delayed and further inquiries would be instituted.
+Then will come the proper time to appeal to the king. It may be left to
+your sagacity, Mademoiselle, to do this in the adroitest manner. As far
+as my opinion goes, I think it would be best to disclose to him the
+whole mystery. Brusson's confessions are borne out by this statement of
+Count Miossens; and they may, perhaps, be still further substantiated
+by secret investigations at Cardillac's own house. All this could not
+afford grounds for a verdict of acquittal by the court, but it might
+appeal to the king's feelings, that it is his prerogative to speak
+mercy where the judge can only condemn, and so elicit a favourable
+decision from His Majesty." Count Miossens followed implicitly
+D'Andilly's advice; and the result was what the latter had foreseen.
+
+But now the thing was to get at the king; and this was the most
+difficult part of all to accomplish, since he believed that Brusson
+alone was the formidable assassin who for so long a time had held all
+Paris enthralled by fear and anxiety, and accordingly he had conceived
+such an abhorrence of him that he burst into a violent fit of passion
+at the slightest allusion to the notorious trial. De Maintenon,
+faithful to her principle of never speaking to the king on any subject
+that was disagreeable, refused to take any steps in the affair; and so
+Brusson's fate rested entirely in De Scuderi's hands. After long
+deliberation she formed a resolution which she carried into execution
+as promptly as she had conceived it. Putting on a robe of heavy black,
+silk, and hanging Cardillac's valuable necklace round her neck, and
+clasping the bracelets on her arms, and throwing a black veil over her
+head, she presented herself in De Maintenon's salons at a time when she
+knew the king would be present there. This stately robe invested the
+venerable lady's noble figure with such majesty as could not fail to
+inspire respect, even in the mob of idle loungers who were wont to
+collect in anterooms, laughing and jesting in frivolous and irreverent
+fashion. They all shyly made way for her; and when she entered the
+salon the king himself in his astonishment rose and came to meet her.
+As his eyes fell upon the glitter of the costly diamonds in the
+necklace and bracelets, he cried, "'Pon my soul, that's Cardillac's
+jewellery!" Then, turning to De Maintenon, he added with an arch smile,
+"See, Marchioness, how our fair bride mourns for her bridegroom." "Oh!
+your Majesty," broke in De Scuderi, taking up the jest and carrying it
+on, "would it indeed beseem a deeply sorrowful bride to adorn herself
+in this splendid fashion? No, I have quite broken off with that
+goldsmith, and should never think about him more, were it not that the
+horrid recollection of him being carried past me after he had been
+murdered so often recurs to my mind." "What do you say?" asked the
+king. "What! you saw the poor devil?" De Scuderi now related in a few
+words how she chanced to be near Cardillac's house just as the murder
+was discovered--as yet she did not allude to Brusson's being mixed up
+in the matter. She sketched Madelon's excessive grief, told what a deep
+impression the angelic child made upon her, and described in what way
+she had rescued the poor girl out of Desgrais' hands, amid the
+approving shouts of the people. Then came the scenes with La Regnie,
+with Desgrais, with Brusson--the interest deepening and intensifying
+from moment to moment. The king was so carried away by the
+extraordinary graphic power and burning eloquence of Mademoiselle's
+narration that he did not perceive she was talking about the hateful
+trial of the abominable wretch Brusson; he was quite unable to utter a
+word; all he could do was to let off the excess of his emotion by an
+exclamation from time to time. Ere he knew where he was--he was so
+utterly confused by this unprecedented tale which he had heard that he
+was unable to order his thoughts--De Scuderi was prostrate at his feet,
+imploring pardon for Olivier Brusson. "What are you doing?" burst out
+the king, taking her by both hands and forcing her into a chair. "What
+do you mean, Mademoiselle? This is a strange way to surprise me. Oh!
+it's a terrible story. Who will guarantee me that Brusson's marvellous
+tale is true?" Whereupon De Scuderi replied, "Miossens' evidence--an
+examination of Cardillac's house--my heart-felt conviction--and oh!
+Madelon's virtuous heart, which recognised the like virtue in unhappy
+Brusson's." Just as the king was on the point of making some reply he
+was interrupted by a noise at the door, and turned round. Louvois, who
+during this time was working in the adjoining apartment, looked in with
+an expression of anxiety stamped upon his features. The king rose and
+left the room, following Louvois.
+
+The two ladies, both De Scuderi and De Maintenon, regarded this
+interruption as dangerous, for having been once surprised the king
+would be on his guard against falling a second time into the trap set
+for him. Nevertheless after a lapse of some minutes the king came back
+again; after traversing the room once or twice at a quick pace, he
+planted himself immediately in front of De Scuderi and, throwing his
+arms behind his back, said in almost an undertone, yet without looking
+at her, "I should very much like to see your Madelon." Mademoiselle
+replied, "Oh! my precious liege! what a great--great happiness your
+condescension will confer upon the poor unhappy child. Oh! the little
+girl only waits a sign from you to approach, to throw herself at your
+feet." Then she tripped towards the door as quickly as she was able in
+her heavy clothing, and called out on the outside of it that the king
+would admit Madelon Cardillac; and she came back into the room weeping
+and sobbing with overpowering delight and gladness.
+
+De Scuderi had foreseen that some such favour as this might be granted
+and so had brought Madelon along with her, and she was waiting with the
+Marchioness' lady-in-waiting with a short petition in her hands that
+had been drawn up by D'Andilly. After a few minutes she lay prostrate
+at the king's feet, unable to speak a word. The throbbing blood was
+driven quicker and faster through the poor girl's veins owing to
+anxiety, nervous confusion, shy reverence, love, and anguish. Her
+cheeks were died with a deep purple blush; her eyes shone with bright
+pearly tears, which from time to time fell through her silken eyelashes
+upon her beautiful lily-white bosom. The king appeared to be struck
+with the surprising beauty of the angelic creature. He softly raised
+her up, making a motion as if about to kiss the hand which he had
+grasped. But he let it go again and regarded the lovely girl with tears
+in his eyes, thus betraying how great was the emotion stirring within
+him. De Maintenon softly whispered to Mademoiselle, "Isn't she exactly
+like La Valliere,[21] the little thing? There's hardly a pin's
+difference between them. The king luxuriates in the most pleasing
+memories. Your cause is won."
+
+Notwithstanding the low tone in which De Maintenon spoke, the king
+appeared to have heard what she said. A fleeting blush passed across
+his face; his eye wandered past De Maintenon; he read the petition
+which Madelon had presented to him, and then said mildly and kindly, "I
+am quite ready to believe, my dear child, that you are convinced of
+your lover's innocence; but let us hear what the _Chambre Ardente_ has
+got to say to it." With a gentle wave of the hand he dismissed the
+young girl, who was weeping as if her heart would break.
+
+To her dismay De Scuderi observed that the recollection of La Valliere,
+however beneficial it had appeared to be at first, had occasioned the
+king to alter his mind as soon as De Maintenon mentioned her name.
+Perhaps the king felt he was being reminded in a too indelicate way of
+how he was about to sacrifice strict justice to beauty, or perhaps he
+was like the dreamer, when, on somebody's shouting to him, the lovely
+dream-images which he was about to clasp, quickly vanish away. Perhaps
+he no longer saw _his_ La Valliere before his eyes, but only thought of
+S[oe]ur Louise de la Misericorde (Louise the Sister of Mercy),--the
+name La Valliere had assumed on joining the Carmelite nuns--who worried
+him with her pious airs and repentance. What else could they now do but
+calmly wait for the king's decision?
+
+Meanwhile Count Miossens' deposition before the _Chambre Ardente_ had
+become publicly known; and as it frequently happens that the people
+rush so readily from one extreme to another, so on this occasion he
+whom they had at first cursed as a most abominable murderer and had
+threatened to tear to pieces, they now pitied, even before he ascended
+the scaffold, as the innocent victim of barbarous justice. Now his
+neighbours first began to call to mind his exemplary walk of life, his
+great love for Madelon, and the faithfulness and touching submissive
+affection which he had cherished for the old goldsmith. Considerable
+bodies of the populace began to appear in a threatening manner before
+La Regnie's palace and to cry out, "Give us Olivier Brusson; he is
+innocent;" and they even stoned the windows, so that La Regnie was
+obliged to seek shelter from the enraged mob with the _Marechaussee_.
+
+Several days passed, and Mademoiselle heard not the least intelligence
+about Olivier Brusson's trial. She was quite inconsolable and went off
+to Madame de Maintenon; but she assured her that the king maintained a
+strict silence about the matter, and it would not be advisable to
+remind him of it. Then when she went on to ask with a smile of singular
+import how little La Valliere was doing, De Scuderi was convinced that
+deep down in the heart of the proud lady there lurked some feeling of
+vexation at this business, which might entice the susceptible king into
+a region whose charm she could not understand. Mademoiselle need
+therefore hope for nothing from De Maintenon.
+
+At last, however, with D'Andilly's help, De Scuderi succeeded in
+finding out that the king had had a long and private interview with
+Count Miossens. Further, she learned that Bontems, the king's most
+confidential valet and general agent, had been to the Conciergerie and
+had an interview with Brusson, also that the same Bontems had one night
+gone with several men to Cardillac's house, and there spent a
+considerable time. Claude Patru, the man who inhabited the lower
+storey, maintained that they were knocking about overhead all night
+long, and he was sure that Olivier had been with them, for he
+distinctly heard his voice. This much was, therefore, at any rate
+certain, that the king himself was having the true history of the
+circumstances inquired into; but the long delay before he gave his
+decision was inexplicable. La Regnie would no doubt do all he possibly
+could to keep his grip upon the victim who was to be taken out of his
+clutches. And this annihilated every hope as soon as it began to bud.
+
+A month had nearly passed when De Maintenon sent word to Mademoiselle
+that the king wished to see her that evening in her salons.
+
+De Scuderi's heart beat high; she knew that Brusson's case would now be
+decided. She told poor Madelon so, who prayed fervently to the Virgin
+and the saints that they would awaken in the king's mind a conviction
+of Brusson's innocence.
+
+Yet it appeared as though the king had completely forgotten the matter,
+for in his usual way he dallied in graceful conversation with the two
+ladies, and never once made any allusion to poor Brusson. At last
+Bontems appeared, and approaching the king whispered certain words in
+his ear, but in so low a tone that neither De Maintenon nor De Scuderi
+could make anything out of them. Mademoiselle's heart quaked. Then the
+king rose to his feet and approached her, saying with brimming eyes, "I
+congratulate you, Mademoiselle. Your _protege_ Olivier Brusson, is
+free." The tears gushed from the old lady's eyes; unable to speak a
+word, she was about to throw herself at the king's feet. But he
+prevented her, saying, "Go, go, Mademoiselle. You ought to be my
+advocate in Parliament and plead my causes, for, by St. Denis, there's
+nobody on earth could withstand your eloquence; and yet," he continued,
+"and yet when Virtue herself has taken a man under her own protection,
+is he not safe from all base accusations, from the _Chambre Ardente_
+and all other tribunals in the world?" De Scuderi now found words and
+poured them out in a stream of glowing thanks. The king interrupted
+her, by informing her that she herself would find awaiting her in her
+own house still warmer thanks than he had a right to claim from her,
+for probably at that moment the happy Olivier was clasping his Madelon
+in his arms. "Bontems shall pay you a thousand _Louis d'or_," concluded
+the king. "Give them in my name to the little girl as a dowry. Let her
+marry her Brusson, who doesn't deserve such good fortune, and then let
+them both be gone out of Paris, for such is my will."
+
+La Martiniere came running forward to meet her mistress, and Baptiste
+behind her; the faces of both were radiant with joy; both cried
+delighted, "He is here! he is free! O the dear young people!" The happy
+couple threw themselves at Mademoiselle's feet. "Oh! I knew it! I knew
+it!" cried Madelon. "I knew that you, that nobody but you, would save
+my darling Olivier." "And O my mother," cried Olivier, "my belief in
+you never wavered." They both kissed the honoured lady's hands, and
+shed innumerable tears. Then they embraced each other again and again,
+affirming that the exquisite happiness of that moment outweighed all
+the unutterable sufferings of the days that were past; and they vowed
+never to part from each other till Death himself came to part them.
+
+A few days later they were united by the blessing of the priest. Even
+though it had not been the King's wish, Brusson would not have stayed
+in Paris, where everything would have reminded him of the fearful time
+of Cardillac's crimes, and where, moreover, some accident might reveal
+in pernicious wise his dark secret, now become known to several
+persons, and so his peace of mind might be ruined for ever. Almost
+immediately after the wedding he set out with his young wife for
+Geneva, Mademoiselle's blessings accompanying them on the way. Richly
+provided with means through Madelon's dowry, and endowed with uncommon
+skill at his trade, as well as with every virtue of a good citizen, he
+led there a happy life, free from care. He realised the hopes which had
+deceived his father and had brought him at last to his grave.
+
+A year after Brusson's departure there appeared a public proclamation,
+signed by Harloy de Chauvalon, Archbishop of Paris, and by the
+parliamentary advocate, Pierre Arnaud d'Andilly, which ran to the
+effect that a penitent sinner had, under the seal of confession, handed
+over to the Church a large and valuable store of jewels and gold
+ornaments which he had stolen. Everybody who up to the end of the year
+1680 had lost ornaments by theft, particularly by a murderous attack in
+the public street, was to apply to D'Andilly, and then, if his
+description of the ornament which had been stolen from him tallied
+exactly with any of the pieces awaiting identification, and if further
+there existed no doubt as to the legitimacy of his claim, he should
+receive his property again. Many of those whose names stood on
+Cardillac's list as having been, not murdered, but merely stunned by a
+blow, gradually came one after the other to the parliamentary advocate,
+and received, to their no little amazement, their stolen property back
+again. The rest fell to the coffers of the Church of St. Eustace.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERI":
+
+[Footnote 1: Madeleine de Scudery (1607-1701), a native of Normandy,
+went to Paris and became connected with the Hotel Rambouillet.
+Afterwards, on its being broken up by the troubles of the Fronde, she
+formed a literary circle of her own, their "Saturday gatherings"
+becoming celebrated. Mademoiselle de Scudery wrote some vapid and
+tedious novels, amongst which were the _Clelie_ (1656), an historical
+romance, to be mentioned presently in the text.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The well-known wife of Scarron, then the successor of
+Madame de Montespan in the favour of Louis XIV., and afterwards his
+wife.]
+
+[Footnote 3: A kind of mounted gensdarmes or police.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Supposed to have been arsenic.]
+
+[Footnote 5: These facts are all for the most part historically true.]
+
+[Footnote 6: Marie M. d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, a notorious
+poisoner, executed July 16, 1676. Madame de Sevigne's _Lettres_ contain
+interesting information on the events of this period. A special history
+of De Brinvillier's trial was also published in the same year, 1676.]
+
+[Footnote 7: An old servant of Sainte Croix's, whose real name was Jean
+Amelin.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Nicholas G. de la Reynie was born at Limoges in 1625; he
+acquired a sort of Judge Jeffreys' reputation by his cruelties and
+bloodthirstiness as president of the _Chambre Ardente_.]
+
+[Footnote 9: These two ladies, Marie and Olympe Mancini, were sisters,
+nieces of Mazarin. The latter was promoted to be head of the Queen's
+household, and thus provoked the hatred of Madame de Montespan (the
+King's mistress) and Louvois, through whose machinations she was
+accused before the _Chambre Ardente_.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Francois Henry de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg, was
+known until 1661 by the name of Bouteville. His name stands high on the
+roll of distinguished French Marshals.]
+
+[Footnote 11:  Francois Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois
+(1639-91), Louis XIV.'s minister at this time.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Her real answer was, "Je le vois en ce moment; il est
+fort laid et fort vilain; il est deguise en conseiller d'etat." (I see
+him at this moment; he is very ugly and very hideous; he is disguised
+as a state councillor.)]
+
+[Footnote 13: The Marquis de la Fare had liaisons, first with Madame de
+Rochefort, with Louvois for rival, and afterwards with Madame de la
+Sabliere.]
+
+[Footnote 14: This incident is not an invention of the author's. He
+states that he got it from Wagenseil's _Chronik von Nuernberg_ (1697),
+the said Wagenseilius having been to Paris and paid a visit to
+Mademoiselle de Scudery herself. The answer this lady gave the king is
+also historically true, according to Hoffmann, and it was spoken under
+circumstances almost exactly like those represented in the text.]
+
+[Footnote 15: The old _Louis d'Or_ of Louis XIV. = about L1, 0s. 3d.
+(Cf. A _Frederick d'or_ was a gold coin worth five thalers.--Note, p.
+281, vol. I.)]
+
+[Footnote 16: One of Louis XIV.'s former mistresses--Marie de
+Roussille, Duchess de Fontanges (1661-1681)--is described as being of
+great beauty, but deficient in intellectual grace and charm of manner,
+and as being arrogant and cold-hearted.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Jean de la Chapelle (1655-1723) attempted to fill the gap
+left in the dramatic world by Racine's retirement from play-writing,
+though,--it is said, with but indifferent success.]
+
+[Footnote 18: It was constructed after plans by this Claude Perrault in
+1666-1670.]
+
+[Footnote 19: The well-known pleasure castle erected by Louis XIV. at
+Versailles for De Maintenon.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Daughter of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria of France; she
+died 29th June, 1670, believing herself to have been poisoned; and this
+was currently accepted in France, though now rejected by historians as
+incorrect.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Francoise Louise, Duchess de La Valliere, a former
+mistress of Louis XIV. On being supplanted in the monarch's favour by
+Madame de Montespan, she entered the order of Carmelite nuns.]
+
+
+
+
+                            _GAMBLER'S LUCK._
+
+
+Pyrmont had a larger concourse of visitors than ever in the summer of
+18--. The number of rich and illustrious strangers increased from day
+to day, greatly exciting the zeal of speculators of all kinds. Hence it
+was also that the owners of the faro-bank took care to pile up their
+glittering gold in bigger heaps, in order that this, the bait of the
+noblest game, which they, like good skilled hunters, knew how to decoy,
+might preserve its efficacy.
+
+Who does not know how fascinating an excitement gambling is,
+particularly at watering-places, during the season, where every
+visitor, having laid aside his ordinary habits and course of life,
+deliberately gives himself up to leisure and ease and exhilarating
+enjoyment? then gambling becomes an irresistible attraction. People who
+at other times never touch a card are to be seen amongst the most eager
+players; and besides, it is the fashion, especially in higher circles,
+for every one to visit the bank in the evening and lose a little money
+at play.
+
+The only person who appeared not to heed this irresistible attraction,
+and this injunction of fashion, was a young German Baron, whom we will
+call Siegfried. When everybody else hurried off to the play-house, and
+he was deprived of all means and all prospect of the intellectual
+conversation he loved, he preferred either to give reins to the flights
+of his fancy in solitary walks or to stay in his own room and take up a
+book, or even indulge in poetic attempts, in writing, himself.
+
+As Siegfried was young, independent, rich, of noble appearance and
+pleasing disposition, it could not fail but that he was highly esteemed
+and loved, and that he had the most decisive good-fortune with the fair
+sex. And in everything that he took up or turned his attention to,
+there seemed to be a singularly lucky star presiding over his actions.
+Rumour spoke of many extraordinary love-intrigues which had been forced
+upon him, and out of which, however ruinous they would in all
+likelihood have been for many other young men, he escaped with
+incredible ease and success. But whenever the conversation turned upon
+him and his good fortune, the old gentlemen of his acquaintance were
+especially fond of relating a story about a watch, which had happened
+in the days of his early youth. For it chanced once that Siegfried,
+while still under his guardian's care, had quite unexpectedly found
+himself so straitened for money on a journey that he was absolutely
+obliged to sell his gold watch, which was set with brilliants, merely
+in order to get on his way. He had made up his mind that he would have
+to throw away his valuable watch for an old song; but as there happened
+to be in the hotel where he had put up at a young prince who was just
+in want of such an ornament, the Baron actually received for it more
+than it was really worth. More than a year passed and Siegfried had
+become his own master, when he read in the newspapers in another place
+that a watch was to be made the subject of a lottery. He took a ticket,
+which cost a mere trifle, and won--the same gold watch set with
+brilliants which he had sold. Not long afterwards he exchanged this
+watch for a valuable ring. He held office for a short time under the
+Prince of G----, and when he retired from his post the Prince presented
+to him as a mark of his good-will the very identical gold watch set
+with brilliants as before, together with a costly chain.
+
+From this story they passed to Siegfried's obstinacy in never on any
+account touching a card; why, with his strongly pronounced good-luck he
+had all the more inducement to play; and they were unanimous in coming
+to the conclusion that the Baron, notwithstanding all his other
+conspicuous good qualities, was a miserly fellow, far too careful and
+far too stingy to expose himself to the smallest possible loss. That
+the Baron's conduct was in every particular the direct contrary of that
+of an avaricious man had no weight with them; and as is so often the
+case, when the majority have set their hearts upon tagging a
+questioning 'but' on to the good name of a talented man, and are
+determined to find this 'but' at any cost, even though it should be in
+their own imagination, so in the present case the sneering allusion to
+Siegfried's aversion to play afforded them infinite satisfaction.
+
+Siegfried was not long in learning what was being said about him; and
+since, generous and liberal as he was, there was nothing he hated and
+detested more than miserliness, he made up his mind to put his
+traducers to shame by ransoming himself from this foul aspersion at the
+cost of a couple of hundred _Louis d'or_, or even more if need be,
+however much disgusted he might feel at gambling. He presented himself
+at the faro-bank with the deliberate intention of losing the large sum
+which he had put in his pocket; but in play also the good luck which
+stood by him in everything he undertook did not prove unfaithful. Every
+card he chose won. The cabalistic calculations of seasoned old players
+were shivered to atoms against the Baron's play. No matter whether he
+changed his cards or continued to stake on[1] the same one, it was all
+the same: he was always a winner. In the Baron they had the singular
+spectacle of a punter at variance with himself because the cards fell
+favourable for him; and notwithstanding that the explanation of his
+behaviour was pretty patent, yet people looked at each other
+significantly and gave utterance in no ambiguous terms to the opinion
+that the Baron, carried along by his penchant for the marvellous, might
+eventually become insane, for any player who could be dismayed at his
+run of luck must surely be insane.
+
+The very fact of having won a considerable sum of money made it
+obligatory upon the Baron to go on playing until he should have carried
+out his original purpose; for in all probability his large win would be
+followed by a still larger loss. But people's expectations were not in
+the remotest degree realised, for the Baron's striking good-luck
+continued to attend him.
+
+Without his being conscious of it, there began to be awakened in his
+mind a strong liking for faro, which with all its simplicity is the
+most ominous of games; and this liking continued to increase more and
+more. He was no longer dissatisfied with his good-luck; gambling
+fettered his attention and held him fast to the table for nights and
+nights, so that he was perforce compelled to give credence to the
+peculiar attraction of the game, of which his friends had formerly
+spoken and which he would by no means allow to be correct, for he was
+attracted to faro not by the thirst for gain, but simply and solely by
+the game itself.
+
+One night, just as the banker had finished a _taille_, the Baron
+happened to raise his eyes and observed that an elderly man had taken
+post directly opposite to him and had got his eyes fixed upon him in a
+set, sad, earnest gaze. And as long as play lasted, every time the
+Baron looked up, his eyes met the stranger's dark sad stare, until at
+last he could not help being struck with a very uncomfortable and
+oppressive feeling. And the stranger only left the apartment when play
+came to an end for the night. The following night he again stood
+opposite the Baron, staring at him with unaverted gaze, whilst his eyes
+had a dark mysterious spectral look. The Baron still kept his temper.
+But when on the third night the stranger appeared again and fixed his
+eyes, burning with a consuming fire, upon the Baron, the latter burst
+out, "Sir, I must beg you to choose some other place. You exercise a
+constraining influence upon my play."
+
+With a painful smile the stranger bowed and left the table, and the
+hall too, without uttering a word.
+
+But on the next night the stranger again stood opposite the Baron,
+piercing him through and through with his dark fiery glance. Then the
+Baron burst out still more angrily than on the preceding night, "If you
+think it a joke, sir, to stare at me, pray choose some other time and
+some other place to do so; and now have the"---- A wave of the hand
+towards the door took the place of the harsh words the Baron was about
+to utter. And as on the previous night, the stranger, after bowing
+slightly, left the hall with the same painful smile upon his lips.
+
+Siegfried was so excited and heated by play, by the wine which he had
+taken, and also by the scene with the stranger, that he could not
+sleep. Morning was already breaking, when the stranger's figure
+appeared before his eyes. He observed his striking, sharp-cut features,
+worn with suffering, and his sad deep-set eyes just as he had stared at
+him; and he noticed his distinguished bearing, which, in spite of his
+mean clothing, betrayed a man of high culture. And then the air of
+painful resignation with which the stranger submitted to the harsh
+words flung at him, and fought down his bitter feelings with an effort,
+and left the hall! "No," cried Siegfried, "I did him wrong--great
+wrong. Is it indeed at all like me to blaze up in this rude,
+ill-mannered way, like an uncultivated clown, and to offer insults to
+people without the least provocation?" The Baron at last arrived at the
+conviction that it must have been a most oppressive feeling of the
+sharp contrast between them which had made the man stare at him so;
+in the moment that he was perhaps contending with the bitterest poverty,
+he (the Baron) was piling up heaps and heaps of gold with all the
+superciliousness of the gambler. He resolved to find out the stranger
+that very morning and atone to him for his rudeness.
+
+And as chance would have it, the very first person whom the Baron saw
+strolling down the avenue was the stranger himself.
+
+The Baron addressed him, offered the most profuse apologies for his
+behaviour of the night before, and in conclusion begged the stranger's
+pardon in all due form. The stranger replied that he had nothing to
+pardon, since large allowances must be made for a player deeply intent
+over his game, and besides, he had only himself to blame for the harsh
+words he had provoked, since he had obstinately persisted in remaining
+in the place where he disturbed the Baron's play.
+
+The Baron went further; he said there were often seasons of momentary
+embarrassment in life which weighed with a most galling effect upon a
+man of refinement, and he plainly hinted to the stranger that he was
+willing to give the money he had won, or even more still, if by that
+means he could perhaps be of any assistance to him.
+
+"Sir," replied the stranger, "you think I am in want, but that is not
+indeed the case; for though poor rather than rich, I yet have enough to
+satisfy my simple wants. Moreover, you will yourself perceive that as a
+man of honour I could not possibly accept a large sum of money from you
+as indemnification for the insult you conceive you have offered me,
+even though I were not a gentleman of birth."
+
+"I think I understand you," replied the Baron starting; "I am ready to
+grant you the satisfaction you demand."
+
+"Good God!" continued the stranger--"Good God, how unequal a contest it
+would be between us two! I am certain that you think as I do about a
+duel, that it is not to be treated as a piece of childish folly; nor do
+you believe that a few drops of blood, which have perhaps fallen from a
+scratched finger, can ever wash tarnished honour bright again. There
+are many cases in which it is impossible for two particular individuals
+to continue to exist together on this earth, even though the one live
+in the Caucasus and the other on the Tiber; no separation is possible
+so long as the hated foe can be thought of as still alive. In this case
+a duel to decide which of the two is to give way to the other on this
+earth is a necessity. Between us now, as I have just said, a duel would
+be fought upon unequal terms, since nohow can my life be valued so
+highly as yours. If I run you through, I destroy a whole world of the
+finest hopes; and if I fall, then you have put an end to a miserable
+existence, that is harrowed by the bitterest and most agonising
+memories. But after all--and this is of course the main thing--I don't
+conceive myself to have been in the remotest degree insulted. You bade
+me go, and I went."
+
+These last words the stranger spoke in a tone which nevertheless
+betrayed the sting in his heart. This was enough for the Baron to again
+apologise, which he did by especially dwelling upon the fact that the
+stranger's glance had, he did not know why, gone straight to his heart,
+till at last he could endure it no longer.
+
+"I hope then," said the stranger, "that if my glance did really
+penetrate to your heart, it aroused you to a sense of the threatening
+danger on the brink of which you are hovering. With a light glad heart
+and youthful ingenuousness you are standing on the edge of the abyss of
+ruin; one single push and you will plunge headlong down without a hope
+of rescue. In a single word, you are on the point of becoming a
+confirmed and passionate gambler and ruining yourself."
+
+The Baron assured him that he was completely mistaken. He related the
+circumstances under which he had first gone to the faro-table, and
+assured him that he entirely lacked the gambler's characteristic
+disposition; all he wished was to lose two hundred _Louis d'or_ or so,
+and when he had succeeded in this he intended to cease punting. Up to
+that time, however, he had had the most conspicuous run of good-luck.
+
+"Oh! but," cried the stranger, "oh! but it is exactly this run of
+good-luck wherein lies the subtlest and most formidable temptation
+of the malignant enemy. It is this run of good-luck which attends
+your play, Baron,--the circumstances under which you have begun to
+play,--nay, your entire behaviour whilst actually engaged in play,
+which only too plainly betray how your interest in it deepens and
+increases on each occasion; all--all this reminds me only too forcibly
+of the awful fate of a certain unhappy man, who, in many respects like
+you, began to play under circumstances similar to those which you have
+described in your own case. And therefore it was that I could not
+keep my eyes off you, and that I was hardly able to restrain myself
+from saying in words what my glances were meant to tell you. 'Oh!
+see--see--see the demons stretching out their talons to drag you down
+into the pit of ruin.' Thus I should like to have called to you. I was
+desirous of making your acquaintance; and I have succeeded. Let me tell
+you the history of the unfortunate man whom I mentioned; you will then
+perhaps be convinced that it is no idle phantom of the brain when I see
+you in the most imminent danger, and warn you."
+
+The stranger and the Baron both sat down upon a seat which stood quite
+isolated, and then the stranger began as follows:--
+
+"The same brilliant qualities which distinguish you, Herr Baron, gained
+Chevalier Menars the esteem and admiration of men and made him a
+favourite amongst women. In riches alone Fortune had not been so
+gracious to him as she has been to you; he was almost in want; and it
+was only through exercising the strictest economy that he was enabled
+to appear in a state becoming his position as the scion of a
+distinguished family. Since even the smallest loss would be serious for
+him and upset the entire tenor of his course of life, he dare not
+indulge in play; besides, he had no inclination to do so, and it was
+therefore no act of self-sacrifice on his part to avoid the tables. It
+is to be added that he had the most remarkable success in everything
+which he took in hand, so that Chevalier Menars' good-luck became a
+by-word.
+
+"One night he suffered himself to be persuaded, contrary to his
+practice, to visit a play-house. The friends whom he had accompanied
+were soon deeply engaged in play.
+
+"Without taking any interest in what was going forward, the Chevalier,
+busied with thoughts of quite a different character, first strode up
+and down the apartment and then stood with his eyes fixed upon the
+gaming-table, where the gold continued to pour in upon the banker from
+all sides. All at once an old colonel observed the Chevalier, and cried
+out, 'The devil! Here we've got Chevalier Menars and his good-luck
+amongst us, and yet we can win nothing, since he has declared neither
+for the banker nor for the punters. But we can't have it so any longer;
+he shall at once punt for me.'
+
+"All the Baron's attempts to excuse himself on the ground of his lack
+of skill and total want of experience were of no avail; the Colonel was
+not to be denied; the Chevalier must take his place at the table.
+
+"The Chevalier had exactly the same run of fortune that you have, Herr
+Baron. The cards fell favourable for him, and he had soon won a
+considerable sum for the Colonel, whose joy at his grand thought of
+claiming the loan of Chevalier Menars' steadfast good-luck knew no
+bounds.
+
+"This good-luck, which quite astonished all the rest of those present,
+made not the slightest impression upon the Chevalier; nay, somehow, in
+a way inexplicable to himself, his aversion to play took deeper root,
+so that on the following morning when he awoke and felt the
+consequences of his exertion during the night, through which he had
+been awake, in a general relaxation both mental and physical, he took a
+most earnest resolve never again under any circumstances to visit a
+play-house.
+
+"And in this resolution he was still further strengthened by the old
+Colonel's conduct; he had the most decided ill-luck with every card he
+took up; and the blame for this run of bad-luck he, with the most
+extraordinary infatuation, put upon the Chevalier's shoulders. In an
+importunate manner he demanded that the Chevalier should either punt
+for him or at any rate stand at his side, so as by his presence to
+banish the perverse demon who always put into his hands cards which
+never turned up right. Of course it is well known that there is more
+absurd superstition to be found amongst gamblers than almost anywhere
+else. The only way in which the Chevalier could get rid of the Colonel
+was by declaring in a tone of great seriousness that he would rather
+fight him than play for him, for the Colonel was no great friend of
+duels. The Chevalier cursed his good-nature in having complied with the
+old fool's request at first.
+
+"Now nothing less was to be expected than that the story of the Baron's
+marvellously lucky play should pass from mouth to mouth, and also that
+all sorts of enigmatical mysterious circumstances should be invented
+and added on to it, representing the Chevalier as a man in league with
+supernatural powers. But the fact that the Chevalier in spite of his
+good-luck did not touch another card, could not fail to inspire the
+highest respect for his firmness of character, and so very much
+increase the esteem which he already enjoyed.
+
+"Somewhere about a year later the Chevalier was suddenly placed in a
+most painful and embarrassing position owing to the non-arrival of the
+small sum of money upon which he relied to defray his current expenses.
+He was obliged to disclose his circumstances to his most intimate
+friend, who without hesitation supplied him with what he needed, at the
+same time twitting him with being the most hopelessly eccentric fellow
+that ever was. 'Destiny,' said he 'gives us hints in what way and where
+we ought to seek our own benefit; and we have only our own indolence to
+blame if we do not heed, do not understand these hints. The Higher
+Power that rules over us has whispered quite plainly in your ears, If
+you want money and property go and play, else you will be poor and
+needy, and never independent, as long as you live.'
+
+"And now for the first time the thought of how wonderfully fortune had
+favoured him at the faro-bank took clear and distinct shape in his
+mind; and both in his dreams and when awake he heard the banker's
+monotonous _gagne_, _perd_,[2] and the rattle of the gold pieces. 'Yes,
+it is undoubtedly so,' he said to himself, 'a single night like that
+one before would free me from my difficulties, and help me over the
+painful embarrassment of being a burden to my friends; it is my duty to
+follow the beckoning finger of fate.' The friends who had advised him
+to try play, accompanied him to the play-house, and gave him twenty
+_Louis d'or_[3] more that he might begin unconcerned.
+
+"If the Chevalier's play had been splendid when he punted for the old
+Colonel, it was indeed doubly so now. Blindly and without choice he
+drew the cards he staked upon, but the invisible hand of that Higher
+Power which is intimately related to Chance, or rather actually is what
+we call Chance, seemed to be regulating his play. At the end of the
+evening he had won a thousand _Louis d'or_.
+
+"Next morning he awoke with a kind of dazed feeling. The gold pieces he
+had won lay scattered about beside him on the table. At the first
+moment he fancied he was dreaming; he rubbed his eyes; he grasped the
+table and pulled it nearer towards him. But when he began to reflect
+upon what had happened, when he buried his fingers amongst the gold
+pieces, when he counted them with gratified satisfaction, and even
+counted them through again, then delight in the base mammon shot for
+the first time like a pernicious poisonous breath through his every
+nerve and fibre, then it was all over with the purity of sentiment
+which he had so long preserved intact. He could hardly wait for night
+to come that he might go to the faro-table again. His good-luck
+continued constant, so that after a few weeks, during which he played
+nearly every night, he had won a considerable sum.
+
+"Now there are two sorts of players. Play simply as such affords to
+many an indescribable and mysterious pleasure, totally irrespective of
+gain. The strange complications of chance occur with the most
+surprising waywardness; the government of the Higher Power becomes
+conspicuously evident; and this it is which stirs up our spirit to move
+its wings and see if it cannot soar upwards into the mysterious
+kingdom, the fateful workshop of this Power, in order to surprise it at
+its labours.
+
+"I once knew a man who spent many days and nights alone in his room,
+keeping a bank and punting against himself; this man was, according to
+my way of thinking, a genuine player. Others have nothing but gain
+before their eyes, and look upon play as a means to getting rich
+speedily. This class the Chevalier joined, thus once more establishing
+the truth of the saying that the real deeper inclination for play must
+lie in the individual nature--must be born in it. And for this reason
+he soon found the sphere of activity to which the punter is confined
+too narrow. With the very large sum of money that he had won by
+gambling he established a bank of his own; and in this enterprise
+fortune favoured him to such an extent that within a short time his
+bank was the richest in all Paris. And agreeably to the nature of the
+case, the largest proportion of players flocked to him, the richest and
+luckiest banker.
+
+"The heartless, demoralising life of a gambler soon blotted out all
+those advantages, as well mental as physical, which had formerly
+secured to the Chevalier people's affection and esteem. He ceased to be
+a faithful friend, a cheerful, easy guest in society, a chivalrous and
+gallant admirer of the fair sex. Extinguished was all his taste for
+science and art, and gone all striving to advance along the road to
+sound knowledge. Upon his deathly pale countenance, and in his gloomy
+eyes, where a dim, restless fire gleamed, was to be read the full
+expression of the extremely baneful passion in whose toils he was
+entangled. It was not fondness for play, no, it was the most abominable
+avarice which had been enkindled in his soul by Satan himself. In a
+single word, he was the most finished specimen of a faro-banker that
+may be seen anywhere.
+
+"One night Fortune was less favourable to the Chevalier than usual,
+although he suffered no loss of any consequence. Then a little thin old
+man, meanly clad, and almost repulsive to look at, approached the
+table, drew a card with a trembling hand, and placed a gold piece upon
+it. Several of the players looked up at the old man at first greatly
+astonished, but after that they treated him with provoking contempt.
+Nevertheless his face never moved a muscle, far less did he utter a
+single word of complaint.
+
+"The old man lost; he lost one stake after another; but the higher his
+losses rose the more pleased the other players got. And at last, when
+the new-comer, who continued to double his stake every time, placed
+five hundred _Louis d'or_ at once upon a card and this the very next
+moment turned up on the losing side, one of the other players cried
+with a laugh, 'Good-luck, Signor Vertua, good-luck! Don't lose heart.
+Go on staking; you look to me as if you would finish with breaking the
+bank through your immense winnings.' The old man shot a basilisk-like
+look upon the mocker and hurried away, but only to return at the end of
+half an hour with his pockets full of gold. In the last _taille_ he
+was, however, obliged to cease playing, since he had again lost all the
+money he had brought back with him.
+
+"This scornful and contemptuous treatment of the old man had
+excessively annoyed the Chevalier, for in spite of all his abominable
+practices, he yet insisted on certain rules of good behaviour being
+observed at his table. And so on the conclusion of the game, when
+Signor Vertua had taken his departure, the Chevalier felt he had
+sufficient grounds to speak a serious word or two to the mocker, as
+well as to one or two other players whose contemptuous treatment of the
+old man had been most conspicuous, and whom the Chevalier had bidden
+stay behind for this purpose.
+
+"'Ah! but, Chevalier,' cried one of them, 'you don't know old Francesco
+Vertua, or else you would have no fault to find with us and our
+behaviour towards him; you would rather approve of it. For let me tell
+you that this Vertua, a Neapolitan by birth, who has been fifteen years
+in Paris, is the meanest, dirtiest, most pestilent miser and usurer who
+can be found anywhere. He is a stranger to every human feeling; if he
+saw his own brother writhing at his feet in the agonies of death, it
+would be an utter waste of pains to try to entice a single _Louis d'or_
+from him, even if it were to save his brother's life. He has a heavy
+burden of curses and imprecations to bear, which have been showered
+down upon him by a multitude of men, nay, by entire families, who have
+been plunged into the deepest distress through his diabolical
+speculations. He is hated like poison by all who know him; everybody
+wishes that vengeance may overtake him for all the evil that he has
+done, and that it may put an end to his career of iniquity. He has
+never played before, at least since he has been in Paris; and so from
+all this you need not wonder at our being so greatly astounded when the
+old skin-flint appeared at your table. And for the same reasons we
+were, of course, pleased at the old fellow's serious losses, for it
+would have been hard, very hard, if the old rascal had been favoured by
+Fortune. It is only too certain. Chevalier, that the old fool has been
+deluded by the riches of your bank. He came intending to pluck you and
+has lost his own feathers. But yet it completely puzzles me how Vertua
+could act thus in a way so opposite to the true character of a miser,
+and could bring himself to play so high. Ah! well--you'll see he will
+not come again; we are now quit of him.'
+
+"But this opinion proved to be far from correct, for on the very next
+night Vertua presented himself at the Chevalier's bank again, and
+staked and lost much more heavily than on the night preceding. But he
+preserved a calm demeanour through it all; he even smiled at times with
+a sort of bitter irony, as though foreseeing how soon things would be
+totally changed. But during each of the succeeding nights the old man's
+losses increased like a glacier at a greater and greater rate, till at
+last it was calculated that he had paid over thirty thousand _Louis
+d'or_ to the bank. Finally he entered the hall one evening, long after
+play had begun, with a deathly pale face and troubled looks, and took
+up his post at some distance from the table, his eyes riveted in a set
+stare upon the cards which the Chevalier successively drew. At last,
+just as the Chevalier had shuffled the cards, had had them cut and was
+about to begin the _taille_, the old man cried in such a harsh grating
+voice, 'Stop!' that everybody looked round well-nigh dismayed. Then,
+forcing his way to the table close up to the Chevalier, he said in his
+ear, speaking in a hoarse voice, 'Chevalier, my house in the Rue St.
+Honore, together with all the furniture and all the gold and silver and
+all the jewels I possess, are valued at eighty thousand francs, will
+you accept the stake?' 'Very good,' replied the Chevalier coldly,
+without looking round at the old man; and he began the _taille_.
+
+"'The queen,' said Vertua; and at the next draw the queen had lost. The
+old man reeled back from the table and leaned against the wall
+motionless and paralysed, like a rigid stone statue. Nobody troubled
+himself any further about him.
+
+"Play was over for the night; the players were dispersing; the
+Chevalier and his croupiers[4] were packing away in the strong box the
+gold he had won. Then old Vertua staggered like a ghost out of the
+corner towards the Chevalier and addressed him in a hoarse, hollow
+voice, 'Yet a word with you, Chevalier,--only a single word.'
+
+"'Well, what is it?' replied the Chevalier, withdrawing the key from
+the lock of the strong box and measuring the old man from head to foot
+with a look of contempt.
+
+"'I have lost all my property at your bank, Chevalier,' went on the old
+man; 'I have nothing, nothing left I don't know where I shall lay my
+head tomorrow, nor how I shall appease my hunger. You are my last
+resource, Chevalier; lend me the tenth part of the sum I have lost to
+you that I may begin my business over again, and so work my way up out
+of the distressed state I now am in.'
+
+"'Whatever are you thinking about,' rejoined the Chevalier, 'whatever
+are you thinking about, Signor Vertua? Don't you know that a
+faro-banker never dare lend of his winnings? That's against the old
+rule, and I am not going to violate it.'
+
+"'You are right,' went on Vertua again. 'You are right, Chevalier. My
+request was senseless--extravagant--the tenth part! No, lend me the
+twentieth part.' 'I tell you,' replied the Chevalier impatiently, 'that
+I won't lend a farthing of my winnings.'
+
+"'True, true,' said Vertua, his face growing paler and paler and his
+gaze becoming more and more set and staring, 'true, you ought not to
+lend anything--I never used to do. But give some alms to a beggar--give
+him a hundred _Louis d'or_ of the riches which blind Fortune has thrown
+in your hands to-day.'
+
+"'Of a verity you know how to torment people, Signor Vertua,' burst out
+the Chevalier angrily. 'I tell you you won't get so much as a hundred,
+nor fifty, nor twenty, no, not so much as a single _Louis d'or_ from
+me. I should be mad to make you even the smallest advance, so as to
+help you begin your shameful trade over again. Fate has stamped you in
+the dust like a poisonous reptile, and it would simply be villainy for
+me to aid you in recovering yourself. Go and perish as you deserve.'
+
+"Pressing both hands over his face, Vertua sank on the floor with a
+muffled groan. The Chevalier ordered his servant to take the strong-box
+down to his carriage, and then cried in a loud voice, 'When will you
+hand over to me your house and effects, Signor Vertua?'
+
+"Vertua hastily picked himself up from the ground and said in a firm
+voice, 'Now, at once--this moment, Chevalier; come with me.'
+
+"'Good,' replied the Chevalier, 'you may ride with me as far as your
+house, which you shall leave tomorrow for good.'
+
+"All the way neither of them spoke a single word, neither Vertua nor
+the Chevalier. Arrived in front of the house in the Rue St. Honore,
+Vertua pulled the bell; an old woman opened the door, and on perceiving
+it was Vertua cried, 'Oh! good heavens, Signor Vertua, is that you at
+last? Angela is half dead with anxiety on your account.'
+
+"'Silence,' replied Vertua. 'God grant she has not heard this unlucky
+bell! She is not to know that I have come.' And therewith he took the
+lighted candle out of the old woman's hand, for she appeared to be
+quite stunned, and lighted the Chevalier up to his own room.
+
+"'I am prepared for the worst,' said Vertua. 'You hate, you despise me,
+Chevalier. You have ruined me, to your own and other people's joy; but
+you do not know me. Let me tell you then that I was once a gambler like
+you, that capricious Fortune was as favourable to me as she is to you,
+that I travelled through half Europe, stopping everywhere where high
+play and the hope of large gains enticed me, that the piles of gold
+continually increased in my bank as they do in yours. I had a true and
+beautiful wife, whom I neglected, and she was miserable in the midst of
+all her magnificence and wealth. It happened once, when I had set up my
+bank in Genoa, that a young Roman lost all his rich patrimony at my
+bank. He besought me to lend him money, as I did you to-day, sufficient
+at least to enable him to travel back to Rome. I refused with a laugh
+of mocking scorn, and in the insane fury of despair he thrust the
+stiletto which he wore right into my breast. At great pains the
+surgeons succeeded in saving me; but it was a wearying painful time
+whilst I lay on the bed of sickness. Then my wife tended me, comforted
+me, and kept up my courage when I was ready to sink under my
+sufferings; and as I grew towards recovery a feeling began to glimmer
+within me which I had never experienced before, and it waxed ever
+stronger and stronger. A gambler becomes an alien to all human emotion,
+and hence I had not known what was the meaning of a wife's love and
+faithful attachment. The debt of what I owed my wife burned itself into
+my ungrateful heart, and also the sense of the villainous conduct to
+which I had sacrificed her. All those whose life's happiness, whose
+entire existence, I had ruined with heartless indifference were like
+tormenting spirits of vengeance, and I heard their hoarse hollow voices
+echoing from the grave, upbraiding me with all the guilt and
+criminality, the seed of which I had planted in their bosoms. It was
+only my wife who was able to drive away the unutterable distress and
+horror that then came upon me. I made a vow never to touch a card more.
+I lived in retirement; I rent asunder all the ties which held me fast
+to my former mode of life; I withstood the enticements of my croupiers,
+when they came and said they could not do without me and my good-luck.
+I bought a small country villa not far from Rome, and thither, as soon
+as I was recovered of my illness, I fled for refuge along with my wife.
+Oh! only one single year did I enjoy a calmness, a happiness, a
+peaceful content, such as I had never dreamt of! My wife bore me a
+daughter, and died a few weeks later. I was in despair; I railed at
+Heaven and again cursed myself and my reprobate life, for which Heaven
+was now exacting vengeance upon me by depriving me of my wife--she who
+had saved me from ruin, who was the only creature who afforded me hope
+and consolation. I was driven away from my country villa hither to
+Paris, like the criminal who fears the horrors of solitude. Angela grew
+up the lovely image of her mother; my heart was wholly wrapt up in her;
+for her sake I felt called upon not so much to obtain a large fortune
+for her as to increase what I had already got. It is the truth that I
+lent money at a high rate of interest; but it is a foul calumny to
+accuse me of deceitful usury. And who are these my accusers?
+Thoughtless, frivolous people who worry me to death until I lend them
+money, which they immediately go and squander like a thing of no worth,
+and then get in a rage if I demand inexorable punctuality in repayment
+of the money which does not indeed belong to me,--no, but to my
+daughter, for I merely look upon myself as her steward. It's not long
+since I saved a young man from disgrace and ruin by advancing him a
+considerable sum. As I knew he was terribly poor, I never mentioned a
+syllable about repayment until I knew he had got together a rich
+property. Then I applied to him for settlement of his debt Would you
+believe it, Chevalier? the dishonourable knave, who owed all he had to
+me, tried to deny the debt, and on being compelled by the court to pay
+me, reproached me with being a villainous miser? I could tell you more
+such like cases; and these things have made me hard and insensible to
+emotion when I have to deal with folly and baseness. Nay, more--I could
+tell you of the many bitter tears I have wiped away, and of the many
+prayers which have gone up to Heaven for me and my Angela, but you
+would only regard it as empty boasting, and pay not the slightest heed
+to it, for you are a gambler. I thought I had satisfied the resentment
+of Heaven; it was but a delusion, for Satan has been permitted to
+lead me astray in a more disastrous way than before. I heard of your
+good-luck. Chevalier. Every day I heard that this man and that had
+staked and staked at your bank until he became a beggar. Then the
+thought came into my mind that I was destined to try my gambler's luck,
+which had never hitherto deserted me, against yours, that the power was
+given me to put a stop to your practices; and this thought, which could
+only have been engendered by some extraordinary madness, left me no
+rest, no peace. Hence I came to your bank; and my terrible infatuation
+did not leave me until all my property--all my Angela's property--was
+yours. And now the end has come. I presume you will allow my daughter
+to take her clothing with her?'
+
+"'Your daughter's wardrobe does not concern me,' replied the Chevalier.
+'You may also take your beds and other necessary household utensils,
+and such like; for what could I do with all the old lumber? But see to
+it that nothing of value of the things which now belong to me get mixed
+up with it.'
+
+"Old Vertua stared at the Chevalier a second or two utterly speechless;
+then a flood of tears burst from his eyes, and he sank upon his knees
+in front of the Chevalier, perfectly upset with trouble and despair,
+and raised his hands crying, 'Chevalier, have you still a spark of
+human feeling left in your breast? Be merciful, merciful. It is not I,
+but my daughter, my Angela, my innocent angelic child, whom you are
+plunging into ruin. Oh! be merciful to _her_; lend _her_, _her_, my
+Angela, the twentieth part of the property you have deprived her of.
+Oh! I know you will listen to my entreaty! O Angela! my daughter!' And
+therewith the old man sobbed and lamented and moaned, calling upon his
+child by name in the most heart-rending tones.
+
+"'I am getting tired of this absurd theatrical scene,' said the
+Chevalier indifferently but impatiently; but at this moment the
+door flew open and in burst a girl in a white night-dress, her
+hair dishevelled, her face pale as death,--burst in and ran to
+old Vertua, raised him up, took him in her arms, and cried, 'O
+father! O father! I have heard all, I know all! Have you really lost
+everything--everything, really? Have you not your Angela? What need
+have we of money and property? Will not Angela sustain you and tend
+you? O father, don't humiliate yourself a moment longer before this
+despicable monster. It is not _we_, but _he_, who is poor and miserable
+in the midst of his contemptible riches; for see, he stands there
+deserted in his awful hopeless loneliness; there is not a heart in all
+the wide world to cling lovingly to his breast, to open out to him when
+he despairs of his own life, of himself. Come, father. Leave this house
+with me. Come, let us make haste and be gone, that this fearful man may
+not exult over your trouble.'
+
+"Vertua sank half fainting into an easy-chair. Angela knelt down before
+him, took his hands, kissed them, fondled them, enumerated with
+childish loquacity all the talents, all the accomplishments, which she
+was mistress of, and by the aid of which she would earn a comfortable
+living for her father; she besought him from the midst of burning tears
+to put aside all his trouble and distress, since her life would now
+first acquire true significance, when she had to sew, embroider, sing,
+and play her guitar, not for mere pleasure, but for her father's sake.
+
+"Who, however hardened a sinner, could have remained insensible at the
+sight of Angela, thus radiant in her divine beauty, comforting her old
+father with sweet soft words, whilst the purest affection, the most
+childlike goodness, beamed from her eyes, evidently coming from the
+very depths of her heart?
+
+"Quite otherwise was it with the Chevalier. A perfect Gehenna of
+torment and of the stinging of conscience was awakened within him.
+Angela appeared to him to be the avenging angel of God, before whose
+splendour the misty veil of his wicked infatuation melted away, so that
+he saw with horror the repulsive nakedness of his own miserable soul.
+Yet right through the midst of the flames of this infernal pit that was
+blazing in the Chevalier's heart passed a divine and pure ray, whose
+emanations of light were the sweetest rapture, the very bliss of
+heaven; but the shining of this ray only made his unutterable torments
+the more terrible to bear.
+
+"The Chevalier had never been in love. The moment in which he saw
+Angela was the moment in which he was to experience the most ardent
+passion, and also at the same time the crushing pain of utter
+hopelessness. For no man who had appeared before the pure angel-child,
+lovely Angela, in the way the Chevalier had done, could dream of hope.
+He attempted to speak, but his tongue seemed to be numbed by cramp. At
+last, controlling himself with an effort, he stammered with trembling
+voice, 'Signor Vertua, listen to me. I have not won anything from
+you--nothing at all. There is my strong box; it is yours,--nay, I
+must pay you yet more than there is there. I am your debtor. There,
+take it, take it!'
+
+"'O my daughter!' cried Vertua. But Angela rose to her feet, approached
+the Chevalier, and flashed a proud look upon him, saying earnestly and
+composedly, *'Chevalier, allow me to tell you that there is something
+higher than money and goods; there are sentiments to which you are a
+stranger, which, whilst sustaining our souls with the comfort of
+Heaven, bid us reject your gift, your favour, with contempt. Keep your
+mammon, which is burdened with the curse that pursues you, you
+heartless, depraved gambler.'
+
+"'Yes,' cried the Chevalier in a fearful voice, his eyes flashing
+wildly, for he was perfectly beside himself, 'yes, accursed,--accursed
+will I be--down into the depths of damnation may I be hurled if ever
+again this hand touches a card. And if you then send me from you,
+Angela, then it will be you who will bring irreparable ruin upon me.
+Oh! you don't know--you don't understand me. You can't help but call me
+insane; but you will feel it--you will know all, when you see me
+stretched at your feet with my brains scattered. Angela! It's now a
+question of life or death! Farewell!'
+
+"Therewith the Chevalier rushed off in a state of perfect despair.
+Vertua saw through him completely; he knew what change had come over
+him; he endeavoured to make his lovely Angela understand that certain
+circumstances might arise which would make it necessary to accept the
+Chevalier's present Angela trembled with dread lest she should
+understand her father. She did not conceive how it would ever be
+possible to meet the Chevalier on any other terms save those of
+contempt. Destiny, which often ripens into shape deep down in the human
+heart, without the mind being aware of it, permitted that to take place
+which had never been thought of, never been dreamed of.
+
+"The Chevalier was like a man suddenly wakened up out of a fearful
+dream; he saw himself standing on the brink of the abyss of ruin, and
+stretched out his arms in vain towards the bright shining figure which
+had appeared to him, not, however, to save him--no--but to remind him
+of his damnation.
+
+"To the astonishment of all Paris, Chevalier Menars' bank disappeared
+from the gambling-house; nobody ever saw him again; and hence the most
+diverse and extraordinary rumours were current, each of them more false
+than the rest. The Chevalier shunned all society; his love found
+expression in the deepest and most unconquerable despondency. It
+happened, however, that old Vertua and his daughter one day suddenly
+crossed his path in one of the dark and lonely alleys of the garden of
+Malmaison.[5]
+
+"Angela, who thought she could never look upon the Chevalier without
+contempt and abhorrence, felt strangely moved on seeing him so deathly
+pale, terribly shaken with trouble, hardly daring in his shy respect to
+raise his eyes. She knew quite well that ever since that ill-omened
+night he had altogether relinquished gambling and effected a complete
+revolution in his habits of life. She, she alone had brought all this
+about, she had saved the Chevalier from ruin--could anything be more
+flattering to her woman's vanity? Hence it was that, after Vertua had
+exchanged the usual complimentary remarks with the Chevalier, Angela
+asked in a tone of gentle and sympathetic pity, 'What is the matter
+with you, Chevalier Menars? You are looking very ill and full of
+trouble. I am sure you ought to consult a physician.'
+
+"It is easy to imagine how Angela's words fell like a comforting ray of
+hope upon the Chevalier's heart. From that moment he was not like the
+same man. He lifted up his head; he was able to speak in those tones,
+full of the real inward nature of the man, with which he had formerly
+won all hearts. Vertua exhorted him to come and take possession of the
+house he had won.
+
+"'Yes, Signor Vertua,' cried the Chevalier with animation, 'yes, that I
+will do. I will call upon you tomorrow; but let us carefully weigh and
+discuss all the conditions of the transfer, even though it should last
+some months.'
+
+"'Be it so then, Chevalier,' replied Vertua, smiling. 'I fancy that
+there will arise a good many things to be discussed, of which we at the
+present moment have no idea.' The Chevalier, being thus comforted at
+heart, could not fail to develop again all the charms of manner which
+had once been so peculiarly his own before he was led astray by his
+insane, pernicious passion for gambling. His visits at old Vertua's
+grew more and more frequent; Angela conceived a warmer and warmer
+liking for the man whose safeguarding angel she had been, until finally
+she thought she loved him with all her heart; and she promised him her
+hand, to the great joy of old Vertua, who at last felt that the
+settlement respecting the property he had lost to the Chevalier could
+now be concluded.
+
+"One day Angela, Chevalier Menars' happy betrothed, sat at her window
+wrapped up in varied thoughts of the delights and happiness of love,
+such as young girls when betrothed are wont to dwell upon. A regiment
+of _chasseurs_ passed by to the merry sound of the trumpet, bound for a
+campaign in Spain. As Angela was regarding with sympathetic interest
+the poor men who were doomed to death in the wicked war, a young man
+wheeled his horse quickly to one side and looked up at her, and she
+sank back in her chair fainting.
+
+"Oh! the _chasseur_ who was riding to meet a bloody death was none
+other than young Duvernet, their neighbour's son, with whom she had
+grown up, who had run in and out of the house nearly every day, and had
+only kept away since the Chevalier had begun to visit them.
+
+"In the young man's glance, which was charged with reproaches having
+all the bitterness of death in them, Angela became conscious for the
+first time, not only that he loved her unspeakably, but also how
+boundless was the love which she herself felt for him. Hitherto she had
+not been conscious of it; she had been infatuated, fascinated by the
+glitter which gathered ever more thickly about the Chevalier. She now
+understood, and for the first time, the youth's labouring sighs and
+quiet unpretending homage; and now too she also understood her own
+embarrassed heart for the first time, knew what had caused the
+fluttering sensation in her breast when Duvernet had come, and when she
+had heard his voice.
+
+"'It is too late! I have lost him!' was the voice that spoke in
+Angela's soul. She had courage enough to beat down the feelings of
+wretchedness which threatened to distract her heart; and for that
+reason--namely, that she possessed the courage--she succeeded.
+
+"Nevertheless it did not escape the Chevalier's acute perception that
+something had happened to powerfully affect Angela; but he possessed
+sufficient delicacy of feeling not to seek for a solution of the
+mystery, which it was evident she desired to conceal from him. He
+contented himself with depriving any dangerous rival of his power by
+expediting the marriage; and he made all arrangements for its
+celebration with such fine tact, and such a sympathetic appreciation of
+his fair bride's situation and sentiments, that she saw in them a new
+proof of the good and amiable qualities of her husband.
+
+"The Chevalier's behaviour towards Angela showed him attentive to her
+slightest wish, and exhibited that sincere esteem which springs from
+the purest affection; hence her memory of Duvernet soon vanished
+entirely from her mind. The first cloud that dimmed the bright heaven
+of her happiness was the illness and death of old Vertua.
+
+"Since the night when he had lost all his fortune at the Chevalier's
+bank he had never touched a card, but during the last moments of his
+life play seemed to have taken complete possession of his soul. Whilst
+the priest who had come to administer to him the consolation of the
+Church ere he died, was speaking to him of heavenly things, he lay with
+his eyes closed, murmuring between his teeth, '_perd_, _gagne_,' whilst
+his trembling half-dead hands went through the motions of dealing
+through a _taille_, of drawing the cards. Both Angela and the Chevalier
+bent over him and spoke to him in the tenderest manner, but it was of
+no use; he no longer seemed to know them, nor even to be aware of their
+presence. With a deep-drawn sigh '_gagne_,' he breathed his last.
+
+"In the midst of her distressing grief Angela could not get rid of an
+uncomfortable feeling of awe at the way in which the old man had died.
+She again saw in vivid shape the picture of that terrible night when
+she had first seen the Chevalier as a most hardened and reprobate
+gambler; and the fearful thought entered her mind that he might again,
+in scornful mockery of her, cast aside his mask of goodness and appear
+in his original fiendish character, and begin to pursue his old course
+of life once more.
+
+"And only too soon was Angela's dreaded foreboding to become reality.
+However great the awe which fell upon the Chevalier at old Francesco
+Vertua's death-scene, when the old man, despising the consolation of
+the Church, though in the last agonies of death, had not been able to
+turn his thoughts from his former sinful life--however great was the
+awe that then fell upon the Chevalier, yet his mind was thereby led,
+though how he could not explain, to dwell more keenly upon play than
+ever before, so that every night in his dreams he sat at the faro-bank
+and heaped up riches anew.
+
+"In proportion as Angela's behaviour became more constrained, in
+consequence of her recollection of the character in which she had first
+seen the Chevalier, and as it became more and more impossible for her
+to continue to meet him upon the old affectionate, confidential footing
+upon which they had hitherto lived, so exactly in the same degree
+distrust of Angela crept into the Chevalier's mind, since he ascribed
+her constraint to the secret which had once disturbed her peace of mind
+and which had not been revealed to him. From this distrust were born
+displeasure and unpleasantness, and these he expressed in various ways
+which hurt Angela's feelings. By a singular cross-action of spiritual
+influence Angela's recollections of the unhappy Duvemet began to recur
+to her mind with fresher force, and along with these the intolerable
+consciousness of her ruined love,--the loveliest blossom that had
+budded in her youthful heart. The strained relations between the pair
+continued to increase until things got to such a pitch that the
+Chevalier grew disgusted with his simple mode of life, thought it dull,
+and was smitten with a powerful longing to enjoy the life of the world
+again. His star of ill omen began to acquire the ascendancy. The change
+which had been inaugurated by displeasure and great unpleasantness was
+completed by an abandoned wretch who had formerly been croupier in the
+Chevalier's faro-bank. He succeeded by means of the most artful
+insinuations and conversations in making the Chevalier look upon his
+present walk of life as childish and ridiculous. The Chevalier could
+not understand at last how, for a woman's sake, he ever came to leave a
+world which appeared to him to contain all that made life of any worth.
+
+"It was not long ere Chevalier Menars' rich bank was flourishing more
+magnificently than ever. His good-luck had not left him; victim after
+victim came and fell; he amassed heaps of riches. But Angela's
+happiness--it was ruined--ruined in fearful fashion; it was to be
+compared to a short fair dream. The Chevalier treated her with
+indifference, nay even with contempt. Often, for weeks and months
+together, she never saw him once; the household arrangements were
+placed in the hands of a steward; the servants were being constantly
+changed to suit the Chevalier's whims; so that Angela, a stranger in
+her own house, knew not where to turn for comfort. Often during her
+sleepless nights the Chevalier's carriage stopped before the door, the
+heavy strong-box was carried upstairs, the Chevalier flung out a
+few harsh monosyllabic words of command, and then the doors of his
+distant room were sent to with a bang--all this she heard, and a
+flood of bitter tears started from her eyes. In a state of the most
+heart-rending anguish she called upon Duvernet time after time, and
+implored Providence to put an end to her miserable life of trouble and
+suffering.
+
+"One day a young man of good family, after losing all his fortune at
+the Chevalier s bank, sent a bullet through his brain in the gambling-
+house, and in the very same room even in which the bank was
+established, so that the players were sprinkled by the blood and
+scattered brains, and started up aghast. The Chevalier alone preserved
+his indifference; and, as all were preparing to leave the apartment, he
+asked whether it was in accordance with their rules and custom to leave
+the bank before the appointed hour on account of a fool who had had no
+conduct in his play.
+
+"The occurrence created a great sensation. The most experienced and
+hardened gamblers were indignant at the Chevalier's unexampled
+behaviour. The voice of the public was raised against him. The bank was
+closed by the police. He was, moreover, accused of false play; and his
+unprecedented good-luck tended to establish the truth of the charge. He
+was unable to clear himself. The fine he was compelled to pay deprived
+him of a considerable part of his riches. He found himself disgraced
+and looked upon with contempt; then he went back to the arms of the
+wife he had ill-used, and she willingly received him, the penitent,
+since the remembrance of how her own father had turned aside from the
+demoralising life of a gambler allowed a glimmer of hope to rise, that
+the Chevalier's conversion might this time, now that he was older,
+really have some stamina in it.
+
+"The Chevalier left Paris along with his wife, and went to Genoa,
+Angela's birthplace. Here he led a very retired life at first. But all
+endeavours to restore the footing of quiet domesticity with Angela,
+which his evil genius had destroyed, were in vain. It was not long
+before his deep-rooted discontent awoke anew and drove him out of the
+house in a state of uneasy, unsettled restlessness. His evil reputation
+had followed him from Paris to Genoa; he dare not venture to establish
+a bank, although he was being goaded to do so by a power he could
+hardly resist.
+
+"At that time the richest bank in Genoa was kept by a French colonel,
+who had been invalided owing to serious wounds. His heart burning with
+envy and fierce hatred, the Chevalier appeared at the Colonel's table,
+expecting that his usual good fortune would stand by him, and that he
+should soon ruin his rival. The Colonel greeted him in a merry humour,
+such as was in general not customary with him, and said that now the
+play would really be worth indulging in since they had got Chevalier
+Menars and his good-luck to join them, for now would come the struggle
+which alone made the game interesting.
+
+"And in fact during the first _taille_ the cards fell favourable to the
+Chevalier as they always had done. But when, relying upon his
+invincible luck, he at last cried '_Va banquet_,'[6] he lost a very
+considerable sum at one stroke.
+
+"The Colonel, at other times preserving the same even temperament
+whether winning or losing, now swept the money towards him with the
+most demonstrative signs of extreme delight. From this moment fortune
+turned away from the Chevalier utterly and completely. He played every
+night, and every night he lost, until his property had melted away to a
+few thousand ducats,[7] which he still had in securities.
+
+"The Chevalier had spent the whole day in running about to get his
+securities converted into ready money, and did not reach home until
+late in the evening. So soon as it was fully night, he was about to
+leave the house with his last gold pieces in his pocket, when Angela,
+who suspected pretty much how matters stood, stepped in his path and
+threw herself at his feet, whilst a flood of tears gushed from her
+eyes, beseeching him by the Virgin and all the saints to abandon his
+wicked purpose, and not to plunge her in want and misery.
+
+"He raised her up and strained her to his heart with painful passionate
+intensity, saying in a hoarse voice, 'Angela, my dear sweet Angela! It
+can't be helped now, indeed it must be so; I must go on with it, for I
+can't let it alone. But to-morrow--to-morrow all your troubles shall
+be over, for by the Eternal Destiny that rules over us I swear that
+to-day shall be the last time I will play. Quiet yourself, my dear good
+child--go and sleep--dream of happy days to come, of a better life that
+is in store for you; that will bring good-luck.' Herewith he kissed his
+wife and hurried off before she could stop him.
+
+"Two _tailles_, and the Chevalier had lost all--all. He stood beside
+the Colonel, staring upon the faro-table in moody senselessness.
+
+"'Are you not punting any more, Chevalier?' said the Colonel, shuffling
+the cards for a new _taille_, 'I have lost all,' replied the Chevalier,
+forcing himself with an effort to be calm.
+
+"'Have you really nothing left?' asked the Colonel at the next
+_taille_.
+
+"'I am a beggar,' cried the Chevalier, his voice trembling with rage
+and mortification; and he continued to stare fiercely upon the table
+without observing that the players were gaining more and more
+advantages over the banker.
+
+"The Colonel went on playing quietly. But whilst shuffling the cards
+for the following _taille_, he said in a low voice, without looking at
+the Chevalier, 'But you have a beautiful wife.'
+
+"'What do you mean by that?' burst out the Chevalier angrily. The
+Colonel drew his cards without making any answer.
+
+"'Ten thousand ducats or--Angela!' said the Colonel, half turning round
+whilst the cards were being cut.
+
+"'You are mad!' exclaimed the Chevalier, who now began to observe on
+coming more to himself that the Colonel continually lost and lost
+again.
+
+"'Twenty thousand ducats against Angela!' said the Colonel in a low
+voice, pausing for a moment in his shuffling of the cards.
+
+"The Chevalier did not reply. The Colonel went on playing, and almost
+all the cards fell to the players' side.
+
+"'Taken!' whispered the Chevalier in the Colonel's ear, as the new
+_taille_ began, and he pushed the queen on the table.
+
+"In the next draw the queen had lost. The Chevalier drew back from the
+table, grinding his teeth, and in despair stood leaning in a window,
+his face deathly pale.
+
+"Play was over. 'Well, and what's to be done now?' were the Colonel's
+mocking words as he stepped up to the Chevalier.
+
+"'Ah!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself, 'you have made me a
+beggar, but you must be insane to imagine that you could win my wife.
+Are we on the islands? is my wife a slave, exposed as a mere _thing_ to
+the brutal arbitrariness of a reprobate man, that he may trade with
+her, gamble with her? But it is true! You would have had to pay twenty
+thousand ducats if the queen had won, and so I have lost all right to
+raise a protest if my wife is willing to leave me to follow you. Come
+along with me, and despair when you see how my wife will repel you with
+detestation when you propose to her that she shall follow you as your
+shameless mistress.'
+
+"'You will be the one to despair,' replied the Colonel, with a mocking,
+scornful laugh; 'you will be the one to despair, Chevalier, when Angela
+turns with abhorrence from you--you, the abandoned sinner, who have
+made her life miserable--and flies into my arms in rapture and delight;
+you will be the one to despair when you learn that we have been united
+by the blessing of the Church, and that our dearest wishes are crowned
+with happiness. You call me insane. Ho! ho! All I wanted to win was the
+right to claim her, for of Angela herself I am sure. Ho! ho! Chevalier,
+let me inform you that your wife loves _me_--_me_, with unspeakable
+love: let me inform you that I am that Duvernet, the neighbour's son,
+who was brought up along with Angela, bound to her by ties of the most
+ardent affection--he whom you drove away by means of your diabolical
+devices. Ah! it was not until I had to go away to the wars that Angela
+became conscious to herself of what I was to her; I know all. It was
+too late. The Spirit of Evil suggested to me the idea that I might ruin
+you in play, and so I took to gambling--followed you to Genoa,--and now
+I have succeeded. Away now to your wife.'
+
+"The Chevalier was almost annihilated, like one upon whose head had
+fallen the most disastrous blows of fortune. Now he saw to the bottom
+of that mysterious secret, now he saw for the first time the full
+extent of the misfortune which he had brought upon poor Angela.
+'Angela, my wife, shall decide,' he said hoarsely, and followed the
+Colonel, who was hurrying off at full speed.
+
+"On reaching the house the Colonel laid his hand upon the latch of
+Angela's chamber; but the Chevalier pushed him back, saying, 'My wife
+is asleep. Do you want to rouse her up out of her sweet sleep?'
+
+"'Hm!' replied the Colonel. 'Has Angela ever enjoyed sweet sleep since
+you brought all this nameless misery upon her?' Again the Colonel
+attempted to enter the chamber; but the Chevalier threw himself at his
+feet and screamed, frantic with despair, 'Be merciful. Let me keep my
+wife; you have made me a beggar, but let me keep my wife.'
+
+"'That's how old Vertua lay at your feet, you miscreant dead to all
+feeling, and could not move your stony heart; may Heaven's vengeance
+overtake you for it.' Thus spoke the Colonel; and he again strode
+towards Angela's chamber.
+
+"The Chevalier sprang towards the door, tore it open, rushed to the bed
+in which his wife lay, and drew back the curtains, crying, 'Angela!
+Angela!' Bending over her, he grasped her hand; but all at once he
+shook and trembled in mortal anguish and cried in a thundering voice,
+'Look! look! you have won my wife's corpse.'
+
+"Perfectly horrified, the Colonel approached the bed; no sign of
+life!--Angela was dead--dead.
+
+"Then the Colonel doubled his fist and shook it heavenwards, and rushed
+out of the room uttering a fearful cry. Nothing more was ever heard of
+him."
+
+
+This was the end of the stranger's tale; and the Baron was so shaken
+that before he could say anything the stranger had hastily risen from
+the seat and gone away.
+
+A few days later the stranger was found in his room suffering from
+apoplexy of the nerves. He never opened his mouth up to the moment of
+his death, which ensued after the lapse of a few hours. His papers
+proved that, though he called himself Baudasson simply, he was no less
+a person than the unhappy Chevalier Menars himself.
+
+The Baron recognised it as a warning from Heaven, that Chevalier Menars
+had been led across his path to save him just as he was approaching the
+brink of the precipice; he vowed that he would withstand all the
+seductions of the gambler's deceptive luck.
+
+Up till now he has faithfully kept his word.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "GAMBLER'S LUCK":
+
+[Footnote 1: In faro the keeper of the bank plays against all the rest
+of the players (who are called _punters_). He has a full pack; they
+have but a single complete suit. The punters may stake what they please
+upon any card they please, except in so far as rules may have been made
+to the contrary by the banker. After the cards have been cut, the
+banker proceeds to take off the two top cards one after the other,
+placing the first at his right hand, and the second at his left, each
+with the face uppermost. Any punter who has staked a card which bears
+exactly the same number of "peeps" as the card turned up on the
+banker's right hand loses the stake to the latter; but if it bears the
+same number of "peeps" as the card on the banker's left, it is the
+banker who has to pay the punter a sum equal to the value of his stake.
+The twenty-six drawings which a full pack allows the banker to make are
+called a _taille_.
+
+This general sketch will help to make the text intelligible for the
+most part without going into minor technicalities of the game.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The words "win," "lose," with which the banker places the
+two cards on the table, the first to his right for himself, the second
+on his left for the punter.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The new _Louis d'or_ were worth somewhat less than the old
+coins of the time of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. (See note, p. 175.)]
+
+[Footnote 4: The banker's assistants, who shuffle cards for him, change
+cheques, notes, and make themselves generally useful.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Malmaison is a chateau and park situated about six miles
+W. of Paris. It once belonged to Richelieu; and there the Empress
+Josephine lived, and there she died on the 13th May, 1814.]
+
+[Footnote 6: "_Va bout_" or "_Va banque_" meant a challenge to the bank
+to the full amount of the highest limit of play, and if the punter won
+he virtually broke the bank.]
+
+[Footnote 7: The first silver ducat is believed to have been struck in
+1140 by Roger II., Norman king of Sicily; and ducats have been struck
+constantly since the twelfth century, especially at Venice (see _Merchant
+of Venice_). They have varied considerably both in weight and fineness, and
+consequently in value, at different times and places. Ducats have been
+struck in both gold and silver. The early Venetian silver ducat was worth
+about five shillings. The name is said, according to one account, to have
+been derived from the last word of the Latin legend found on the earliest
+Venetian gold coins:--_Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis, ducatus_
+(duchy); according to another account it is taken from "_il ducato_," the
+name generally applied to the duchy of Apulia. (Note, page 98, Vol. I.)]
+
+
+
+
+
+                       _MASTER JOHANNES WACHT._[1]
+
+
+At the time when people in the beautiful and pleasant town of Bamberg
+lived, according to the well-known saying, well, _i.e._, under the
+crook, namely in the end of the previous century, there was also one
+inhabitant, a man belonging to the burgher class, who might be called
+in every respect both singular and eminent His name was Johannes Wacht,
+and his trade was that of a carpenter.
+
+Nature, in weighing and definitely determining her children's
+destinies, pursues her own dark inscrutable path; and all that is
+claimed by convenience, and by the opinions and considerations which
+prevail in man's narrow existence, as determining factors in settling
+the true tendency of every man's self. Nature regards as nothing more
+than the pert play of deluded children imagining themselves to be wise.
+But short-sighted man often finds an insuperable irony in the
+contradiction between the conviction of his own mind and the mysterious
+ordering of this inscrutable Power, who first nourished and fed him at
+her maternal bosom and then deserted him; and this irony fills him with
+terror and awe, since it threatens to annihilate his own self.
+
+The mother of Life does not choose for her favourites either the
+palaces of the great or the state-apartments of princes. And so she
+made our Johannes, who, as the kindly reader will soon learn, might be
+called one of her most richly endowed favourites, first see the light
+of the world on a wretched heap of straw, in the workshop of an
+impoverished master turner in Augsburg. His mother died of want and
+from suffering soon after the child's birth, and his father followed
+her after the lapse of a few months.
+
+The town government had to take charge of the helpless boy; and when
+the Council's master carpenter, a well-to-do, respectable man, who
+found in the child's face, notwithstanding that it was pinched with
+hunger, certain traits which pleased him,--when he would not suffer the
+boy to be lodged in a public institution, but took him into his own
+house, in order to bring him up along with his own children, then there
+dawned upon Johannes his first genial ray of sunshine, heralding a
+happier lot in the future.
+
+In an incredibly short space of time the boy's frame developed, so that
+it was difficult to believe that the little insignificant creature in
+the cradle had really been the shapeless colourless chrysalis out of
+which this pretty, living, golden-locked boy had proceeded, like a
+beautiful butterfly. But--what seemed of more importance--along with
+this pleasing grace of physical form the boy soon displayed such
+eminent intellectual faculties as astonished both his foster-father and
+his teachers. Johannes grew up in a workshop which sent forth some of
+the best and highest work that mechanical skill was able to produce,
+since the master carpenter to the Council was constantly engaged upon
+the most important buildings. No wonder, therefore, that the child's
+mind, which caught up everything with such keen clear perception,
+should be excited thereby, and should feel all his heart drawn towards
+a trade the deeper significance of which, in so far as it was concerned
+with the material creation of great and bold ideas, he dimly felt deep
+down in his soul. The joy that this bent of the orphan's mind
+occasioned his foster-father may well be conceived; and hence he felt
+persuaded to teach the boy all practical matters himself with great
+care and attention, and furthermore, when he had grown into a youth, to
+have him instructed by the cleverest masters in all the higher branches
+of knowledge connected with the trade, both theoretical and practical,
+such as, for instance, drawing, architecture, mechanics, &c.
+
+Our Johannes was four and twenty years of age when the old master
+carpenter died; and even at that time his foster-son was a thoroughly
+experienced and skilful journeyman in all branches of his craft, whose
+equal could not be found far and near. At this period Johannes set out,
+along with his true and faithful comrade Engelbrecht, on the usual
+journeyman's[2] travels.
+
+Herewith you know, indulgent reader, all that it is needful to know
+about the youth of our worthy Wacht; and it only remains to tell you in
+a few words how it was that he came to settle in Bamberg and how he
+became master there.
+
+After being on the travel for a pretty long time he happened to arrive
+at Bamberg on his way home along with his comrade Engelbrecht; and
+there they found the Bishop's palace undergoing thorough repair, and
+particularly on that side of it where the walls rose up to a great
+height out of a very narrow alley or court. Here an entirely new roof
+was to be put up, of very great and very heavy beams; and they wanted a
+machine, which, whilst taking up the least possible room, would possess
+sufficient concentration of power to raise the heavy weights up to the
+required height. The Prince-bishop's builder, who knew how to calculate
+to a nicety how Trajan's Column in Rome had been made to stand, and
+also knew the hundred or more mistakes that had been made which he
+should never have laid himself open to the reproach of committing, had
+indeed constructed a machine--a sort of crane--which was very nice to
+look at, and was praised by everybody as a masterpiece of mechanical
+skill; but when the men tried to set the thing agoing, it turned out
+that the Herr builder had calculated upon downright Samsons and
+Herculeses. The wheels creaked and squeaked horribly; the huge beams
+which were hooked on to the crane did not budge an inch; the men
+declared, whilst shaking the sweat from their brows, that they would
+much sooner carry ships' mainmasts up steep stairs than strain
+themselves in this way, and waste all their best strength in vain over
+such a machine; and there matters remained.
+
+Standing at some distance, Wacht and Engelbrecht looked on at what they
+were doing, or rather, not doing; and it is possible that Wacht may
+have smiled just a little at the builder's want of knowledge.
+
+A grey-headed old foreman, recognising the strangers' handicraft from
+their clothing, stepped up to them without more ado, and asked Wacht if
+he understood how to manage the machine any better since he looked so
+cunning about it. "Ah, well!" replied Wacht, without being in the least
+disconcerted, "ah well; it's a doubtful point whether I know better,
+for every fool thinks he understands everything better than anybody
+else; but I can't help wondering that in this part of the country you
+don't seem to be acquainted with a certain simple contrivance, which
+would easily perform all that the Herr Builder yonder is vainly
+tormenting his men to accomplish."
+
+The young man's bold answer nettled the grey-haired old foreman not a
+little; he turned away muttering to himself; and very soon it was known
+to them all that a young stranger, a carpenter's journeyman, had
+laughed the builder together with his machine to scorn, and boasted
+that he was acquainted with a more serviceable contrivance. As is
+usually the case, nobody paid any heed to it; but the worthy builder as
+well as the honourable guild of carpenters in Bamberg were of opinion
+that the stranger had not, it was to be presumed, devoured up all the
+wisdom of the world, nor would he presume to dictate to and teach old
+and experienced masters. "Now do you see, Johannes," said Engelbrecht
+to his comrade, "now do you see how your rash boldness has again
+provoked against you the people whom we must meet as comrades of the
+craft?"
+
+"Who can, who may look on quietly," replied Johannes, whilst his eyes
+flashed, "when the poor labourers--I'm sure they're to be pitied--are
+tormented so and made to work beyond all reason, and that all to no
+purpose. And who knows whether my rash boldness may not, after all,
+have beneficial consequences?" And it really turned out to be so.
+
+One single individual, of such pre-eminent intellectual capacity that
+no gleam of knowledge, however fugitive it might be, ever escaped his
+keen penetration, attached a quite different importance to the youth's
+words from what the rest did, for the builder had reported them to him
+as the presumptuous saying of a young fledgling carpenter. This man was
+the Prince-bishop himself. He had the young man summoned to his
+presence, that he might inquire further into the import of his words,
+and was not a little astonished both at his appearance and at his
+general bearing and character. My kindly reader ought to know what this
+astonishment was due to, and now is the time to tell him something more
+about Johannes Wacht's exterior and Johannes Wacht's mind and thoughts.
+
+As far as his face and figure were concerned, he might justly be called
+a remarkably handsome young fellow, and yet his noble features and
+majestic stature did not attain to full perfection until after he had
+reached a riper manhood. AEsthetic canons of the cathedral credited
+Johannes with having the head of an old Roman; a younger member of the
+same fraternity, who even in the severest winter was in the habit of
+going about dressed in black silk, and who had read Schiller's
+_Fiesko_, maintained, on the contrary, that Johannes Wacht was
+Verrina[3] in the flesh.
+
+But the mysterious charm by means of which many highly-gifted men are
+enabled to win at once the confidence of those whom they approach does
+not consist in beauty and grace of external form alone. We in a certain
+sense feel their superiority; yet this feeling is by no means an
+oppressive feeling as might be imagined; but, whilst elevating the
+spirit, it also excites a certain kind of mental comfort that does us
+an incalculable amount of good. All the factors of the physical and
+intellectual organism are united into a whole by the most perfect
+harmony, so that the contact with the superior soul is like a pure
+strain of music; it suffers no discord. This harmony creates that
+inimitable deportment, that--one might almost say--comfort in
+the slightest movements, through which the consciousness of true
+human dignity is proclaimed. This deportment can be taught by no
+dancing-master, by no Prince's tutor; and well and rightly does it
+deserve its proper name of the distinguished deportment, since it is
+stamped as such by Nature herself. Here need only be added that Master
+Wacht, unflinchingly constant in generosity, truth, and faithfulness to
+his burgher standing, became as the years went on ever more a man of
+the people. He developed all the virtues, but at the same time all the
+unconquerable prejudices, which are generally wont to form the
+unfavourable sides of such men's characters. My kindly reader will soon
+learn of what these prejudices consisted.
+
+I have now perhaps sufficiently explained why it was that the young
+man's appearance made such an uncommon impression upon the respected
+Prince-bishop. For a long time he observed the stalwart young workman
+in silence, but with visible satisfaction; then he questioned him about
+his previous life. Johannes answered all his questions candidly and
+modestly, and finally explained to the Prince with convincing
+clearness, that the master-builder's machine, though perhaps fitted for
+other purposes, would in the present case never effect what it was
+intended to do.
+
+In reply to the Prince's inquiry whether he could indeed trust himself
+to specify a machine that would be more suitable for the purpose,
+namely, to raise the heavy weights, the young man replied that all he
+required to construct such a machine was a single day, and the help of
+his comrade Engelbrecht and a few skilful and willing labourers.
+
+It may be conceived with what malicious and mischievous inward joy, and
+with what impatience the master-builder, and all who were connected
+with him, looked forward to the morrow, when the forward stranger would
+be sent off home covered with shame and ridicule. But things turned out
+different from what these good-hearted people had expected, or indeed
+had wished.
+
+Three capsterns suitably situated and so arranged as to exert an effect
+one upon another, and each only manned by eight labourers, elevated the
+heavy beams up to the giddy level of the roof with so much ease that
+they appeared to dance in the air. From this moment the brave clever
+craftsman could date the foundation of his reputation in Bamberg. The
+Prince urged him seriously to stay in that town and secure his
+mastership; towards the attainment of this end he would lend him all
+the assistance he possibly could. Wacht, however, hesitated,
+notwithstanding that he was very well pleased with the pleasant and
+cheap town of Bamberg. The fact that several important buildings were
+just then in course of erection put a heavy weight into the scale for
+staying; but the final turn to the balance was given by a circumstance
+which is very often wont to decide matters in life; namely, Johannes
+Wacht found again quite unexpectedly in Bamberg the beautiful virtuous
+maiden whom he had seen several years previously in Erlangen, and into
+whose friendly blue eyes he had then peeped a little too much. In a few
+words, Johannes Wacht became master, married the virtuous maiden of
+Erlangen, and soon contrived through industry and skill to purchase a
+pretty house on the Kaulberg,[4] which had a large tract of garden
+ground stretching away back up the hill, and there he settled down for
+life.
+
+But upon whom does the friendly star of good fortune shine unchangeably
+with the same degree of splendour at all times? Providence had decreed
+that our honest Johannes should be submitted to a trial under which
+perhaps any other man, with less firmness of spirit, would have sunk.
+The first fruit of this very happy marriage was a son, an excellent
+youth, who appeared to be walking steadfastly in his father's
+footsteps. He was eighteen years of age when one night a large fire
+broke out not far from Wacht's house. Father and son hurried to the
+spot, agreeably to their calling, to help in extinguishing the flames.
+Along with other carpenters the son boldly clambered up to the roof in
+order to cut away its burning framework, as far as could be done. His
+father, who had remained below, as he always did, to direct the
+demolition of walls, &c., and to superintend the work of extinction,
+looked up and seeing the imminent danger shouted, "Johannes! men! come
+down! come down!" Too late--with a fearful crash the wall fell in; the
+son lay struck to death in the flames, which leapt up crackling louder
+as if in horrid triumph.
+
+But this terrible blow was not the only one which was to fall upon poor
+Johannes. An inconsiderate maid-servant burst with a frantic cry of
+distress into her mistress' room, who was only partly convalescent from
+a distracting nervous disorder, and was in great uneasiness and anxiety
+about the fire, the dark-red reflection of which was flickering on the
+walls of her chamber. "Your son, your Johannes, is killed; the wall has
+buried him and his comrades in the middle of the flames," screamed the
+girl. As though stung with sharp, sudden pain, her mistress raised
+herself up in the bed; but breathing out a deep sigh, she sank back
+upon the cushions again. She was struck with paralysis of the nerves;
+she was dead.
+
+"Now let us see," said the citizens, "how Master Wacht will bear his
+great trouble. He has often enough preached to us that a man ought not
+to succumb to the greatest misfortune, but ought to bear his head erect
+and strive with the strength which the Creator has planted in every
+man's breast to withstand the misery that threatens him, so long as the
+contrary is not evidently decreed in the Eternal counsels. Let us see
+now what sort of an example he will give us."
+
+They were not a little astonished when, although the master himself was
+not seen in the workshop, yet his journeymen's activity continued
+without interruption, so that work never stood still for a single
+moment, but went on just as if the master had not experienced any
+trouble.
+
+With steadfast courage and firm step, and with his face shining with
+all the consolation and all the hope that sprang from his belief--the
+true religion rooted deep down in his breast--he had followed the
+corpses of his wife and son; and on the noon of the same day after the
+funeral, which had taken place in the morning, he said to Engelbrecht,
+"Engelbrecht, it is now necessary for me to be alone with my grief,
+which is almost breaking my heart, in order that I may become
+acquainted with it and strengthen myself against it. You, brother, my
+honest, industrious foreman, will know what to do for a week; for that
+space I am going to shut myself up in my own chamber."
+
+And indeed for a whole week Master Wacht never left his room. The maid
+frequently brought down his food again untouched; and they often heard
+in the passage his low, sad cry, cutting them to the quick, "O my wife!
+O my Johannes!"
+
+Many of Wacht's acquaintances were of opinion that he ought not by any
+means to be left in this solitary state; by brooding constantly over
+his grief his mind might become unsettled Engelbrecht, however, met
+them with the reply, "Let him alone; you don't know my Johannes. Since
+Providence, in its inscrutable purposes, has sent him this hard trial,
+it has also given him strength to overcome it, and all earthly
+consolation would only outrage his feelings. I know in what manner he
+is working his way out of his deep grief." These last words Engelbrecht
+uttered with a well-nigh cunning look upon his face; but he would not
+give any further information as to what he meant. Wacht's acquaintances
+had to content themselves, and leave the unfortunate man in peace.
+
+A week was passed, and early the next morning, which was a bright
+summer morning, at five o'clock Master Wacht came out unexpectedly into
+the workyard amongst his journeymen, who were all hard at work. Their
+axes and saws stopped, whilst they greeted him with a half-sorrowful
+cry, "Master Wacht! Our good Master Wacht!"
+
+With a cheerful face, upon which the traces of the struggle against
+grief which he had gone through had deepened the expression of sterling
+good-nature and given it a most touching character, he stepped amongst
+his faithful workpeople and told them how the goodness of Heaven had
+sent down the spirit of mercy and consolation upon him, and that he was
+now filled with strength and courage to go on and discharge the duties
+of his calling. He betook himself to the building in the middle of the
+yard, which served for the storage of the tools at night, and for
+keeping the plans and memoranda of work, &c. Englebrecht, the
+journeymen, the apprentices, followed him in a string. On entering,
+Johannes stood rooted to the spot.
+
+His poor boy's axe, which was identified by certain distinctive marks,
+had been found with half-charred handle under the ruins of the house
+that had been burnt down. His companions had fastened it high up on the
+wall directly opposite the door, and, in a rather rude attempt at art,
+had painted round it a wreath of roses and cypress-branches; and
+underneath the wreath they had placed their beloved comrade's name,
+together with the year of his birth and the date of the ill-omened
+night when he had met such a violent death.
+
+"Poor Hans!"[5] exclaimed Master Wacht on perceiving this touching
+monument of the true faithful spirits, whilst a flood of tears gushed
+from his eyes. "Poor Hans! the last time you wielded that tool was for
+the welfare of your brothers; but now you are resting in your grave,
+and will never more stand by my side and use your earnest industry in
+helping to forward a good piece of work."
+
+Then Master Wacht went round the circle and gave each journeyman and
+each apprentice a good honest shake of the hand, saying, "Think of
+him." Then they all went back to their work, except Engelbrecht, whom
+Wacht bid stay with him.
+
+"See here, my old comrade," cried Wacht, "what extraordinary means the
+Eternal Power has chosen to help me to overcome my great trouble.
+During the days when I was almost heart-broken with grief for my wife
+and child, whom I have lost in such a terrible way, there came into my
+mind the idea of a highly artistic and complicated trussed girder,
+which I had been thinking about for a long time without ever being able
+to see my way to the thing clearly. Look here."
+
+Therewith Master Wacht unrolled the drawing at which he had worked
+during the past week, and Engelbrecht was greatly astonished at the
+boldness and originality of the invention no less than at its
+exceptional neatness in the finished state. The mechanical part of the
+contrivance was so skilfully and cleverly arranged that even
+Engelbrecht, with all his great experience, could not comprehend it at
+once; but the greater therefore was his glad admiration when Master
+Wacht explained to him the whole construction down to the minutest
+details, and he had convinced himself that the putting of the plan into
+execution could not fail to be successful.
+
+At this time Wacht's household consisted of only two daughters besides
+himself; but it was very soon to be increased.
+
+Albeit a clever and industrious workman, Master Engelbrecht had never
+been able to advance so far as that lowest grade of affluence which had
+been the reward of Wacht's very earliest undertakings. He had to
+contend with the worst enemy of life, against which no human power is
+of any avail; it not only threatened to destroy him, but really did
+destroy him--namely, consumption. He died, leaving a wife and two boys
+almost in want. His wife went back to her own home; and Master Wacht
+would willingly have taken both boys into his own house, but this could
+only be arranged in the case of the elder, who was called Sebastian. He
+was a strong intelligent lad, and having an inclination to follow his
+father's trade, promised to make a good clever carpenter. He had,
+however, a certain refractoriness of disposition, which at times seemed
+to border closely upon badness, as well as being somewhat rude in his
+manners, and even often wild and untamable; but these ill qualities
+Wacht hoped to conquer by wise training. The younger boy, Jonathan by
+name, was exactly the opposite of his elder brother; he was a very
+pretty little boy, but rather fragile, his blue eyes laughing with
+gentleness and kind-heartedness. This boy had been adopted during his
+father's lifetime by Herr Theophilus Eichheimer, a worthy doctor of
+law, as well as the first and oldest advocate in the place. Noticing
+the boy's remarkably good parts, as well as his most decided bent for
+knowledge, he had taken him to train him for a lawyer.
+
+And here one of those unconquerable prejudices of our Wacht came to
+light which have been already spoken of above, namely, he was perfectly
+convinced in his own mind that everything understood under the name of
+law was nothing else but so many phrases artificially hammered out
+and put together by lawyers, with the sole purpose of perplexing the
+true feeling of right which had been planted in every virtuous man's
+breast. Since he could not exactly shut his eyes to the necessity for
+law-courts, he discharged all his hatred upon the advocates, whom as a
+class he conceived to be, if not altogether miserable deceivers, yet at
+any rate such contemptible men that they practised usury in shameful
+fashion with all that was most holy and venerable in the world. It will
+be seen presently how Wacht, who in all other relations of life was an
+intelligent and clear-sighted man, resembled in this particular the
+coarsest-minded amongst the lowest of the people. The further prejudice
+that he would not admit there was any piety or virtue amongst the
+adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, and that he trusted no
+Catholic, might perhaps be pardoned him, since he had imbibed the
+principles of a well-nigh fanatical Protestantism in Augsburg. It may
+be conceived, therefore, how it cut Master Wacht to the heart to see
+the son of his most faithful friend entering upon a career that he so
+bitterly detested.
+
+The will of the deceased, however, was in his eyes sacred; and it was,
+moreover, at any rate certain that Jonathan with his weakly body could
+not be trained up to any handicraft that made any very large demand
+upon physical strength. Besides, when old Herr Theophilus Eichheimer
+talked to the master about the divine gift of knowledge, at the same
+time praising little Jonathan as a good intelligent boy, Wacht for the
+moment forgot the advocate, and law, and his own prejudice as well. He
+fastened all his hopes upon the belief that Jonathan, who bore his
+father's virtues in his heart, would give up his profession when he
+arrived at riper years, and was able to perceive all the disgrace that
+attached to it.
+
+Though Jonathan was a good, quiet boy, fond of studying in-doors,
+Sebastian was all the oftener and all the deeper engaged in all kinds
+of wild foolish pranks. But since in respect to his handiwork he
+followed in his father's footsteps, and no fault could ever be found
+with his industry or with the neatness of his work, Master Wacht
+ascribed his at times too outrageous tricks to the unrefined untamed
+fire of youth, and he forgave the young fellow, observing that he would
+be sure to sow his wild oats when on his travels.
+
+These travels Sebastian soon set out upon; and Master Wacht heard
+nothing more from him until Sebastian, on attaining his majority, wrote
+from Vienna, begging for his little patrimonial inheritance, which
+Master Wacht sent to him correct to the last farthing, receiving in
+return a receipt for it drawn up by one of the Vienna courts.
+
+Just the same sort of difference in character as distinguished the
+Engelbrechts was noticeable also between Wacht's two daughters, of whom
+the elder was called Rettel[6] and the younger Nanni.
+
+It may here be hastily remarked in passing, that, according to the
+taste generally prevalent in Bamberg, the Christian name Nanni is the
+prettiest and finest a girl can well have. And so, kindly reader, if
+you ever ask a pretty child in Bamberg, "What is your name, my little
+angel?" the little thing will be sure to cast down her eyes in shy
+confusion and tug at her black silk apron, and whisper in friendly
+fashion with a slight blush upon her cheeks, "'N! 'N! Nanni, y'r
+honour."
+
+Rettel, Wacht's elder daughter, was a fat little thing, with red rosy
+cheeks and right friendly black eyes, with which she looked boldly into
+the face of the sunshine of life, as it had dawned upon her, without
+blinking. In respect of her education and her character she had not
+risen a hair's breadth above the sphere of the handicraftsman. She
+gossiped with her female relatives and friends, and liked dressing
+herself, though in gay colours and without taste; but her own peculiar
+element, wherein she "lived and moved, and had her being," was the
+kitchen. Nobody's hare-ragout and geese giblets, not even those of the
+most experienced cook far and near, ever turned out so tasty as hers;
+in the preparation of sauces she was a perfect adept; vegetables, such
+as savoy and cauliflower, were dressed by Rettel's cunning hand in a
+way that could not be beaten, since she knew in a moment through a
+subtle unfailing instinct when there was too much or too little
+dripping; and her short cakes put in the shade the most successful
+productions of a similar kind at the most sumptuous of church
+feasts.[7]
+
+Father Wacht was very well satisfied with his daughter's cooking; and
+he once hazarded the opinion that the Prince-bishop could not have more
+delicious vermicelli noodles[8] on his table than those which Rettel
+made. This remark sank so deeply into the good girl's pleased heart,
+that she was preparing to send a huge dish of the said vermicelli
+noodles up to the Prince-bishop, and that too on a fast day.
+Fortunately Master Wacht got scent of the plan in time, and amidst
+hearty laughter prevented the bold idea from being put into execution.
+
+Not only was stout little Rettel a clever housekeeper, a perfect cook,
+and at the same time a pattern of good nature and childish affection
+and fidelity, but like a well-trained child she also loved her father
+very tenderly.
+
+Now characters of Wacht's class, in spite of their earnestness, often
+display a certain ironical waggishness which comes into play on easy
+provocation, and lends an agreeable charm to life, just as the deep
+brook greets with its silver curling waves the light breeze that skims
+its surface.
+
+It could not fail but that good Rettel's ways and doings frequently
+provoked this sly humour; and so the relations between Wacht and his
+daughter were invested with a curiously modified charm of colour. The
+indulgent reader will come across instances later on; for the present
+it may suffice to mention one such here, which certainly deserves
+to be called entertaining. In Master Wacht's house there was a quiet,
+good-looking young man, who held a post in the Prince's exchequer
+office and drew a very good income. In straightforward German fashion
+he sued the father for the hand of his elder daughter, and Master
+Wacht, if he would not do an injustice to the young man as well as to
+his Rettel, could not help but grant him permission to visit the house,
+that he might have opportunities to try and win the girl's affections.
+Rettel, informed of the man's purpose, received him with very friendly
+looks, in which might be read at times, "At our wedding, dear, I shall
+bake the cake myself."
+
+Master Wacht, however, was not altogether well pleased with his
+daughter's growing liking for the Herr Administrator of the Prince's
+revenues, since the Herr Administrator himself didn't seem to him to be
+all that he should be. In the first place, the man was as a matter of
+course a Roman Catholic, and in the second place Wacht thought he
+perceived in him on nearer acquaintance a certain sneaking
+dissimulation of manner, which pointed to a mind ill at ease. He would
+willingly have got the undesirable suitor out of the house again if he
+could have done so without hurting Rettel's feelings. Master Wacht
+observed him closely, and knew how to make shrewd and cunning use of
+his observations. He perceived that the Herr Administrator did not set
+much store by well-cooked dishes, but swallowed down everything in the
+same indiscriminate fashion, and that, moreover, in a disagreeably
+repulsive way. One Sunday, when the Herr Administrator was dining at
+Master Wacht's, as he usually did on that day, the latter began to heap
+up praises and commendations upon every dish which busy Rettel caused
+to be served up; and not only did he call upon the Herr Administrator
+to join him in his encomiums, but he also asked him pointedly what he
+thought of various ways of dressing dishes. The Herr Administrator
+replied somewhat dryly that he was a temperate and abstemious man,
+accustomed from his youth up to the greatest frugality. At noon, for
+dinner, he was satisfied with a spoonful or two of soup and a little
+piece of beef, but the latter must be cooked hard, since so cooked a
+smaller quantity sufficed to satisfy the hunger, and there was no need
+to overload the stomach with large pieces. For his evening meal he
+generally managed upon a saucer of good egg and butter beaten up
+together and a very small glass of liquor; moreover, the only other
+refreshment he allowed himself was a glass of extra beer at six o'clock
+in the evening, taken if possible in the good fresh air. It may be
+imagined what looks Rettelchen fixed upon the unfortunate
+administrator. And yet the worst was still to come. Bavarian puffy
+noodles were next served, and they were swollen up to such a big, big
+size that they seemed to be the masterpiece of the table. The frugal
+Herr Administrator took his knife and with the most cool-blooded
+indifference cut the noodle which was passed to him into many pieces.
+Rettel rushed out of the room with a loud cry of despair.
+
+I must inform the reader who does not know the secret of eating
+Bavarian puffy noodles that when eaten they must be cleverly pulled to
+pieces, since when cut they lose all taste and bring disgrace upon the
+professional pride of the cook who made them.
+
+From that moment Rettel looked upon the frugal Herr Administrator as
+the most abominable man under the face of the sun. Master Wacht did not
+contradict her in any way; and so the reckless iconoclast in the
+province of cookery lost his bride for ever.
+
+Though the chequered figure of little Rettel has cost almost too many
+words, yet a very few strokes will suffice to put clearly before my
+reader's eyes the face, figure, and character of pretty, graceful
+Nanni.
+
+It is only in South Germany, particularly in Franconia, and almost
+exclusively in the burgher classes, that you can meet with such elegant
+and delicate figures, such good and pleasing angelic little faces,
+where there is a sweet heavenly yearning in the blue eyes and a divine
+smile upon the rosy lips, as Nanni's; from them we at once see that the
+old painters had not far to seek the originals of their Madonnas. Of
+exactly the same type in figure, face, and character was the Erlangen
+maiden whom Master Wacht had married; and Nanni was a most faithful
+copy of her mother. With respect to her genuine tender womanliness and
+with respect to that beneficial culture which is nothing but true tact
+under all conditions of life, her mother was the exact counterpart of
+what Master Wacht was with respect to his distinguishing qualities as
+man. Perhaps the daughter was less serious and firm than her mother,
+but on the other hand she was the perfection of maidenly sweetness; and
+the only fault that could be found with her was that her womanly
+tenderness of feeling and a sensitiveness which, as a consequence of
+her weakened organisation, was easily provoked to a tearful and
+unhealthy degree, made her too delicate and fragile for the realities
+of life.
+
+Master Wacht could not look at the dear child without emotion, and he
+loved her in a way that is seldom found in the case of strong
+characters like his. It is possible that he may have always spoiled her
+a little; and it will soon be shown in what way her tenderness so often
+received that special material and encouragement which made it often
+degenerate into sickly sentimentality.
+
+Nanni loved to dress with extreme simplicity, but in the finest stuffs
+and according to cuts which rose above the limits of her station in
+life. Wacht, however, let her do as she liked, since when dressed
+according to her own taste the dear child looked so very pretty and
+engaging.
+
+I must now hasten to destroy an idea which perhaps might arise in
+the mind of any reader who should happen to have been in Bamberg
+several years ago, and so would call to mind the hideous and tasteless
+head-dress with which at that time even the prettiest maidens were wont
+to disfigure their faces--the flat hood fitting close to the head and
+not allowing the smallest little lock of hair to be seen, a black and
+not over-broad ribbon crossing close over the forehead, and meeting
+behind low down on the neck in an outrageously ugly bow. This ribbon
+afterwards continued to increase in width until it reached the
+preposterous breadth of nearly half an ell; hence it had to be
+specially ordered in the manufactory and strengthened inside with stiff
+card-board, so that it projected above the head like a steeple-hat;
+just above the hollow of the neck they wore a bow, which owing to its
+breadth stuck out far beyond the shoulders, and resembled the outspread
+wings of an eagle; and along the temples and about the ears tiny curls
+crept out from beneath the hood. And strange to say, many a fine
+Bamberg beauty looked quite charming in this head-covering.
+
+It formed a very picturesque sight to stand behind a funeral procession
+and watch it set itself in motion. It is the custom in Bamberg for the
+burghers to be invited to attend the funeral procession of a deceased
+person by the so-called "death-woman," who in a croaking voice and in
+the name of the deceased screams out her invitation in the street, in
+front of the house of the persons she is inviting; as, for instance,
+"Herr so-and-so, or Frau so-and-so, beg you to pay them the last
+honours." The good gossips and the young maidens, who in general seldom
+get out into the open air, fail not to put in an appearance in great
+numbers; and when the troop of women sets itself in motion and the wind
+catches the immense ends of the bows, it can be likened to nothing else
+but a huge flock of black ravens or eagles suddenly startled and just
+beginning their rustling flight.
+
+The indulgent reader is therefore requested not to picture pretty Nanni
+in any other head-dress except a neat little Erlangen hood.
+
+However objectionable it was to Master Wacht that Jonathan was to
+belong to a class which he hated, he did not by any means make the boy,
+or later the youth, feel the consequences of his displeasure. Rather he
+was always very pleased to see the good quiet Jonathan look in after
+his day's work was done, to spend the evening with his daughters and
+old Barbara. But then Jonathan also wrote the finest hand that could
+be seen anywhere; and it afforded Master Wacht no little joy, for
+he was uncommonly fond of good handwriting, when his Nanni, whose
+writing-master Jonathan had installed himself to be, began gradually
+after a time to write the same elegant hand as her master.
+
+In the evening Master Wacht himself was either busy in his own
+work-room, or, as was often the case, he visited a beer-house, where
+he met with his fellow-craftsmen and the gentlemen of the council, and
+in his way enlivened the company with his own rare wit. Meanwhile in
+the house at home Barbara busily kept her distaff on the whirl and
+whizz, whilst Rettel balanced the house-keeping accounts, or thought
+out the preparation of new and hitherto unheard-of dishes, or related
+again to the old woman, mingled with a good deal of loud laughter, what
+she had learned in confidence from her various gossips in the town.
+
+And the youth Jonathan? He sat at the table with Nanni; and she also
+wrote and drew, of course under his guidance. And yet to sit writing
+and drawing the whole evening through is a downright tiring piece of
+business; hence it was no unfrequent occurrence for Jonathan to draw
+some neatly-bound book out of his pocket and read it to pretty,
+sensitive Nanni in a low softly-whispering tone.
+
+Through old Eichheimer's influence Jonathan had won the patronage of
+the minor canon, who designated Master Wacht a real Verrina. The canon,
+Count von Koesel, a man of genius, lived and revelled in Goethe's and
+Schiller's works, which were just at that time beginning to rise like
+bright streaming meteors, overtopping all others, above the horizon of
+the literary sky. He thought, and rightly, that he discerned a similar
+tendency in his attorney's young clerk, and took a special delight not
+only in lending him the works in question, but in reading them in
+common with him, and so helping him to thoroughly digest them.
+
+But Jonathan won his way to the Count's heart in an especial way,
+because he expressed a very favourable opinion of the verses which the
+Count patched together out of high-sounding phrases in the sweat of his
+own brow, and because he was, to the Count's unspeakable satisfaction,
+edified and touched by them to the proper pitch. Nevertheless it is a
+fact that Jonathan's taste in aesthetic matters was really greatly
+improved by his intercourse with the intellectual, though somewhat
+euphuistic, Count.
+
+My kind reader now knows what class of books Jonathan used to take out
+of his pocket and read to pretty Nanni, and can form a just conception
+of the way in which this kind of writings would inevitably excite a
+girl mentally organised as Nanni was. "O star of the gloaming eve!"
+Would not Nanni's tears flow when her attractive writing-master began
+in this low and solemn fashion?
+
+It is a fact of common experience that young people who are in the
+habit of singing tender love-duets together very easily put themselves
+in the places of the fictitious characters of the song, and come to
+look upon the duets in question as giving both the melody and the text
+for the whole of life; so also the youth who reads a love romance to a
+maiden very readily becomes the hero of the story, whilst the girl
+dreams herself into the role of the heroine. In the case of such fitly
+adapted spirits as Jonathan and Nanni such incitement as this even was
+not required to provoke them to love each other. They were one heart
+and one soul; the maiden and the youth were, so to speak, but one
+brightly burning flame of love, pure and inextinguishable. Of his
+daughter's tender passion Father Wacht had not the slightest inkling;
+but he was soon to learn all.
+
+Through unwearied industry and genuine talent Jonathan succeeded in a
+brief space of time in completing his legal studies and qualifying for
+admission to the grade of advocate; and, as a matter of fact, his
+admission soon followed. He intended one Sunday to surprise Master
+Wacht with this glad news, which established him upon a secure footing
+for life. But imagine how he trembled with dismay when Wacht bent his
+eyes upon him, blazing with anger; he had never seen him look so
+passionately wrathful. "What!" cried Wacht, in a tone that made the
+walls ring again, "what! you miserable good-for-nothing fellow! Nature
+has neglected your body, but richly endowed you with splendid
+intellectual gifts, and these you are intending to abuse in a shameless
+way, like a bad crafty knave, and so putting your knife at your own
+mother's throat? You mean to say you are going to traffic in justice as
+in some cheap paltry ware in the public market, and weigh it out with
+false scales to the poor peasants and the oppressed burgher, who in
+vain utter their plaintive cries before the soft-cushioned seat of the
+inexorable judge, and going to get yourself paid with blood-stained
+pence which the poor man hands to you whilst bathed in tears? Will you
+fill your brains with lying laws of man's contriving, and practise
+knavish tricks and schemes, and make a lucrative business of it to
+fatten yourself upon? Is all your father's virtue, tell me, vanished
+from your heart? Your father--your name is Engelbrecht--no! when I hear
+you called so I will not believe that it is the name of my comrade, who
+was a pattern of virtue and honesty, but I must believe that it is
+Satan, who in the apish mockery of Hell is shouting the name across his
+grave, and so beguiling men to take the young lying lawyer's cub for
+the real son of that excellent carpenter Gottfried Engelbrecht. Begone!
+you are no longer my foster-son! You are a serpent whom I will pluck
+from my bosom, whom I will disown"----
+
+At this point Nanni rushed in and threw herself at Master Wacht's feet
+with a piercing heart-rending cry of distress. "Father!" she cried,
+completely overcome by her incontrollable anguish and unbridled
+despair, "father, if you disown him, you will disown me also--me, your
+own favourite daughter; he is mine, my Jonathan; I can never, never
+part with him in this world."
+
+The poor child fell down in a swoon and struck her head against the
+closet-door, so that the drops of blood trickled down her delicate
+white forehead. Barbara and Rettel ran in and carried the insensible
+girl to the sofa. Jonathan stood like a statue, as if thunderstruck,
+incapable of the slightest movement. It would be difficult to describe
+the inner emotions which revealed themselves on Wacht's countenance.
+His face, instead of being flushed with the redness of anger, was now
+pale as a corpse's; there only remained a dark fire gleaming in his
+fixed set eyes; the cold perspiration of death appeared to be standing
+on his forehead. After gazing unchangeably before him for some minutes
+without speaking, he relieved his labouring breast by saying in a
+significant tone, "So that was it!" then he strode slowly towards the
+door, where he again stood still, and turning half round towards the
+women, cried, "Dont' spare _eau de Cologne_, and this foolery will soon
+be over."
+
+Shortly afterwards the Master was seen to leave the house at a quick
+pace and bend his steps towards the hills. It may be conceived in what
+great trouble and distress the family was plunged. Rettel and Barbara
+could not for the life of them imagine what terrible thing had
+happened; but when the Master did not return to dinner, but stayed out
+till late at night--a thing he had never done before--they were greatly
+agitated with anxiety and fear. At length they heard him coming, heard
+him open the street-door, bang it violently to, ascend the stairs with
+strong firm footsteps, and lock himself in his own chamber.
+
+Poor Nanni soon recovered herself again and wept quietly to herself.
+But Jonathan did not stop short of wild outbreaks of inconsolable
+despair, and several times spoke of shooting himself. It is a fortunate
+thing that pistols are articles which do not necessarily belong to the
+furniture of sentimental young lawyers; or at least, if they are to be
+found amongst their effects, they generally have no lock or else won't
+go off.
+
+After he had run through certain streets like a madman, Jonathan's
+course led him instinctively to his noble patron, to whom he lamented
+all his unheard-of misery in outbreaks of the most violent passion. It
+need hardly be added, it is so self-evident a thing, that the young
+love-smitten advocate was, according to his own desperate assertions,
+the first and only individual in all the wide world whom such a
+terrible fate had befallen, wherefore he reproached destiny and all the
+powers of enmity as having conspired together against him.
+
+The canon listened to him calmly and with a certain share of interest;
+but nevertheless he did not appear to appreciate the full extent of the
+trouble which the young lawyer imagined he felt "My dear young friend,"
+said the canon, taking the advocate by the hand in a friendly way, and
+leading him to a seat, "my dear young friend, hitherto I have looked
+upon our carpenter Herr Johannes Wacht as a great man in his way, but I
+now perceive that he is also a very great fool. Great fools are like
+jibbing horses; it's hard to make them move; but once they have been
+got to move, they trot merrily along the way they are wanted to go. In
+spite of the old man's senseless anger you ought not by any means to
+give up your beautiful Nanni in consequence of the unpleasant scene of
+today. But before proceeding to talk further about your love-affair,
+which is indeed very charming and romantic, let us turn to and discuss
+a little breakfast. It was noon when you went to old Wacht, and I don't
+dine until four o'clock in Seehof."[9]
+
+A very appetising breakfast indeed was served up on the little table at
+which they both sat--the canon and the advocate--Bayonne hams,
+garnished round about with slices of Portuguese onions, a cold larded
+partridge of the red kind and a foreigner to boot, truffles cooked in
+red wine, a dish of Strasburg _pates de foie gras_, finally a plate of
+genuine Strachino[10] and another with butter, as yellow and shining as
+lilies of the valley.
+
+The indulgent reader who loves such dainty butter, and ever goes to
+Bamberg, will be pleased at getting there the finest and best, but will
+also at the same time be annoyed when he learns that the inhabitants,
+from mistaken notions of housekeeping, melt it down to a grease, which
+generally tastes rancid and spoils all the food.
+
+Besides, good dry champagne was sending up its pearly sparkles in a
+beautifully-cut crystal decanter. The canon had not unloosed the napkin
+from his neck, but had let it stay where it was when he had received
+the young lawyer; and, after the footman had quickly supplied a second
+cover, he proceeded to place the choicest morsels before the despairing
+lover and to pour out wine for him; and then he set to work heartily
+himself. Some one once had the hardihood to maintain that the stomach
+is equivalent to all the other physical and intellectual parts of man
+put together. That is a profane and abominable doctrine; but this much
+is certain, that the stomach is like a despotic tyrant or ironical
+mystifier, and often carries through its own will. And this was the
+case in the present instance. For instinctively, without being clearly
+conscious of what he was about, the young lawyer had in a few minutes
+devoured a huge piece of Bayonne ham, created terrible devastation
+amongst the Portuguese garniture, put out of sight half a partridge, no
+inconsiderable quantity of trufles, and also more Strasburg _pates_
+than was exactly becoming in a young advocate full of trouble.
+Moreover, they both relished the champagne so much that the footman
+soon had to fill up the crystal decanter a second time.
+
+The advocate felt a pleasant and beneficial degree of warmth penetrate
+his vitals, and all he experienced of his trouble was a singular sort
+of shiver, which exactly resembled electric shocks, causing pain but
+doing good. He proved himself susceptible to the consolations of his
+patron, who, after comfortably sipping up his last glass of wine and
+elegantly wiping his mouth, settled himself into position and began as
+follows:--
+
+"In the first place, my dear good friend, you must not be so foolish as
+to imagine that you are the only man on earth to whom a father has
+refused the hand of his daughter. But that's nothing to do with the
+present case. As I have already told you, the old fool's reason for
+hating you is so preposterously absurd that it cannot last long; and
+whether it appear to you at this moment nonsensical or not, I can
+hardly bear the thought of all ending in a tame commonplace wedding, so
+that the whole thing may be summed up in the few words,--Peter has
+wooed Grete,[11] and Peter and Grete are man and wife.
+
+"The situation is, however, so far new and grand in that it is merely
+hatred against a class to which the beloved foster-son belongs that can
+furnish the sole lever for setting a new and special tragic development
+in motion; but to the real matter at issue! You are a poet, my friend,
+and that alters everything. Your love, your trouble, ought to appear in
+your eyes as something magnificent, in the full splendours of the
+sacred art of poesy. You will hear the strains of the lyre struck by
+the muse who is nearest akin to you, and in the divine gush of
+inspiration you will receive the winged words in which to express your
+love and your unhappiness. As a poet you might be called at this moment
+the happiest man on the earth, since, your heart having been really
+wounded as deep as it can be wounded, your heart's blood is now gushing
+out. You require, therefore, no artificial incitement to allure you to
+a poetic mood; and mark my words, this period of trouble will enable
+you to produce something great and admirable.
+
+"I must draw your attention to the fact that in these first moments of
+your unhappiness there will be mingled with it a peculiar and very
+unpleasant feeling which cannot be woven into any poetry; but it is a
+feeling which soon vanishes away. Let me make you understand. For
+example, after the unfortunate lover has had a good sound drubbing from
+the enraged father, and has been kicked out of the house, and the
+outraged mamma has locked the young lady in her chamber, and repelled
+the attempted storming on the part of the desperate lover by the armed
+domestics of the house, and when plebeian fists have even entertained
+no shyness of the very finest cloth" (here the canon sighed somewhat),
+"then this fermented prose of miserable vulgarity must evaporate in
+order that the pure poetic unhappiness of love may settle as sediment
+You have been fearfully scolded, my dear young friend, this was the
+bitter prose that had to be surmounted; you have surmounted it, and so
+now give yourself up entirely to poetry. Here--here are Petrarch's
+_Sonnets_ and Ovid's _Elegies_; take them, read them, write yourself,
+and come and read to me what you have written. Perhaps in the meantime
+I also may experience a disappointment in love, of which I am not
+altogether deprived of hopes, since I shall in all likelihood fall in
+love with a stranger lady who has stopped at the 'White Lamb' in the
+Steinweg,[12] and whom Count Nesselstaedt maintains to be a paragon of
+beauty and grace, albeit he has only caught a fugitive glimpse of her
+at the window. Then, my friend, like the Dioscuri, we will travel the
+same bright path of poetry and disappointed love. Note, my good fellow,
+what a great advantage my station in life gives me, for every affection
+which I conceive, being a longing and hoping which can never be
+gratified, rises to tragic intensity. But now, my friend, out, out,
+away into the woods as you ought to."
+
+It would doubtless be very wearisome to my kind reader, if not
+unbearable, were I to describe here at length, in detail and with all
+sorts of over-choice and exquisite words and phrases, all that Jonathan
+and Nanni did in their trouble. Such things may be found in any
+indifferent romance; and it is often amusing enough to see into what
+postures the struggling author throws himself, merely in order to
+appear original. On the other hand, it seems to be of great importance
+to follow Master Wacht on his walks, or rather in his mental
+journeyings.
+
+It must appear very remarkable that a man of such strong self-reliant
+spirit as Master Wacht, who had borne with unshaken courage and
+unbending steadfastness the most terrible misfortunes that had befallen
+him, and that would have crushed many less stouthearted spirits, could
+be thus put beside himself with passion at an occurrence which any
+other father of a family would have regarded as an ordinary event and
+one easy to remedy, and would in fact have set about remedying it in
+some way or other, good or bad. Of course the indulgent reader is well
+aware that this behaviour of Wacht's must be traced to some good
+psychological reason. The thought that poor Nanni's love for innocent
+Jonathan was a misfortune which would exercise a pernicious influence
+upon the whole course of his subsequent life was only due to the
+perverse discord in Wacht's soul. But the very fact that this discord
+was able to go on making itself heard in the otherwise harmonical
+character of this thoroughly noble man, embraced the impossibility of
+smothering it or reducing it completely to silence.
+
+Wacht had made his acquaintance with the feminine character in one who
+possessed it in a simple but also at the same time grand and noble
+form. His own wife had enabled him to see into the depths of the real
+woman's nature, as in a bright mirror-like lake. He saw in her the true
+heroine who fought with weapons that were constantly unconquerable. His
+orphan wife had forfeited the inheritance of an immensely rich aunt,
+she had forfeited the love of all her relatives, and she had opposed
+with unshaken courage the persistent efforts of the Church, which
+embittered her life with many a hard trial, when, though herself
+trained up in the Catholic religion, she had married the Protestant
+Wacht, and shortly before had gone over to this faith in Augsburg,
+impelled thereto by the pure enthusiasm of conviction. All this now
+passed through Master Wacht's mind; and as he thought upon the
+sentiments he had felt when he led the maiden to the altar, the warm
+tears ran down his cheeks. Nanni was her mother over again; Wacht loved
+the child with an intensity of affection that was quite unparalleled,
+and this fact was of itself more than enough to make him reject as
+abominable, nay, as fiendishly cruel, any attempt to separate the
+lovers that appeared in the remotest degree to savour of violence.
+When, on the other hand, he reflected upon the whole course of
+Jonathan's previous life, he was obliged to admit that all the virtues
+of a good, industrious, and modest youth could not easily be so happily
+united in another as they were in Jonathan, albeit his handsome
+expressive face bore the impress of traits which were perhaps a little
+too soft, and almost effeminate, and his diminutive and weak but
+elegant bodily frame bespoke a tender intellectual spirit. When he
+reflected further that the two children had always been together, and
+how evident had been their mutual liking for each other, he was really
+puzzled to understand how it was that he had not expected beforehand
+what had now really happened, and so could have taken precautions in
+time. Now it was too late.
+
+He was urged on through the hills by a mood of mind which set his whole
+being in a turmoil of distraction; such a state as this he had hitherto
+never experienced, and he was inclined to take it for a seduction of
+Satan, since several thoughts arose in his mind which in the very next
+minute he could not help regarding as diabolical. He could not recover
+his self-composure, still less form any decisive plan of action. The
+sun was beginning to set when he reached the village of Buch;[13]
+turning into the hotel, he ordered something good to eat and a bottle
+of excellent beer from the rock.[14]
+
+"Ah! a very fine evening! Ah! what a remarkable occurrence to see our
+good Master Wacht here in beautiful Buch, on this glorious Sunday
+evening. To tell you the truth, I can hardly believe my eyes. Your
+respected family is, I presume, somewhere else in the country." Thus
+was Master Wacht addressed by some one with a shrill, squeaking voice.
+The man who thus interrupted his meditations was no less a personage
+than Herr Pickard Leberfink, a decorator and gilder by trade, and one
+of the drollest men in the world.
+
+Leberfink's exterior struck everybody's eye as something eccentric and
+extraordinary. He was of small size, thick and stumpy, with a body too
+long, and with short bowed legs; his face was not at all ugly, but
+good-natured, with round red little cheeks and small grey eyes that
+were by no means wanting in vivacity. Pursuant to an old obsolete
+French fashion, he was elaborately curled and powdered every day;
+but it was on Sundays that his costume was especially striking. For
+then he wore, to take one example, a striped silk coat of a lilac and
+canary-yellow colour with immense silver-plated buttons, a waistcoat
+embroidered in gay tints, satin hose of a brilliant green, white and
+light-blue silk stockings, delicately striped, and shining black
+polished shoes, upon which glittered large buckles set with precious
+stones. If to this we add that his gait was the elegant gait of a
+dancing master, that he had a certain cat-like suppleness of body, and
+that his little legs had a strange knack of knocking the heels together
+on fitting occasions,--for instance, when leaping across a gutter,--it
+could not fail but that the little decorator got himself singled out
+everywhere as an extraordinary creature. With other aspects of his
+character my kindly reader will make an acquaintance presently.
+
+Master Wacht was not altogether displeased at having his painful
+meditations interrupted in this way. Herr, or better Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink, decorator and gilder, was a great fop, but at the same
+time the most honest and faithful soul in the world; he was a very
+liberal-minded man, was generous to the poor, and always ready to serve
+his friends. He only practised his calling now and again, merely out of
+love for it, since he had no need of business. He was rich; his father
+had left him some landed property, having a magnificent rock-cellar,
+which was only separated from Master Wacht's premises by a large
+garden. Master Wacht was fond of the droll little Leberfink on account
+of his downright genuineness, and also because he was a member of the
+small Protestant community which was permitted to exercise the rites of
+its faith in Bamberg. With conspicuous alacrity and willingness
+Leberfink accepted Wacht's invitation to join him at his table, and
+drink another bottle of beer from the rock along with him. He began the
+conversation by saying that for a long time he had been wanting to call
+upon Master Wacht at his own house, since he had two things he wished
+to talk to him about, one of which was almost making his heart burst.
+Wacht made answer, he thought Leberfink knew him, and must be aware
+that anybody who had anything to say to him, no matter what it was,
+might speak out his thoughts frankly. Leberfink now imparted to the
+Master in confidence that the wine-dealer who owned the beautiful
+garden, with the massive pavilion, which lay between their two
+properties, had privately offered to sell it to him. He thought he
+recollected having heard Wacht once express a wish how very much he
+should like to own this garden; if now the opportunity was come to
+satisfy this wish, he (Leberfink) offered his services as negotiator,
+and expressed his willingness to settle everything for him.
+
+It was a fact that Master Wacht had for some time entertained a desire
+to enlarge his property by the addition of a good garden, and
+especially so since Nanni was always longing for the beautiful shrubs
+and trees which gave out such a luxurious abundance of sweet scents in
+this very garden. Moreover, it seemed to him now as if Fortune were
+graciously smiling upon him, and just at the time when poor Nanni had
+experienced such bitter trouble, an opportunity for affording her
+pleasure should present itself so unexpectedly. The Master at once
+settled all the needful particulars with the obliging decorator, who
+promised that on the following Sunday Wacht should be able to stroll
+through the garden as its owner. "Come now," cried Master Wacht, "come
+now, friend Leberfink, out with it--what is it that is making your
+heart burst?"
+
+Then Herr Pickard Leberfink fell to sighing in the most pitiable
+manner; and he pulled the most extraordinary faces, and ran on with
+such a string of gibberish that nobody could make either head or tail
+of it. Master Wacht, however, knew what to make of it, for he shook his
+head, saying, "Ah! that may be contrived;" and he smiled to himself at
+the wonderful sympathy of their related spirits.
+
+This meeting with Leberfink had certainly done Master Wacht good; he
+believed he had conceived a plan by virtue of which he should manage
+not only to stand against, but even to overcome, the severest and most
+terrible misfortune which, according to his infatuated way of thinking,
+had come upon him. The only thing that can declare the verdict of the
+tribunal within him is the course of action he adopted; and perhaps,
+kindly reader, this tribunal faltered for the first time. Here is the
+place to offer a brief remark, which, perhaps, would not very well lend
+itself for insertion later. As so frequently happens in such cases, old
+Barbara had interfered in the matter, and been very urgent in her
+accusations of the loving pair to Master Wacht, making it a special
+charge against them that they had always read worldly books together.
+The Master caused her to bring two or three of the books which Nanni
+had. One was a work of Goethe's; unfortunately it is not known which
+work it was. After turning over the leaves, he gave it back to Barbara,
+that she might restore it to the place whence she had secretly taken
+it. Not a single word about Nanni's reading ever escaped him; once
+only, when some seasonable occasion presented at dinner, did he say,
+"There is a remarkable mind rising up amongst us Germans; God grant him
+success! My days are over; such things are not for my age, nor yet for
+my calling; but you--Jonathan? I envy you many things that will come to
+light in the days to come." Jonathan understood Wacht's oracular words
+the more easily, since some days previously he had discovered by chance
+_Goetz von Berlichingen_[15] lying on the Master's work-table, half
+covered by other papers. Wacht's great mind, whilst acknowledging the
+uncommon genius of the new writer, had also perceived the impossibility
+of beginning a new flight himself.
+
+Next day poor Nanni hung her head like a sick dove. "What's the matter
+with my dear child?" asked Master Wacht in the tender sympathetic tone
+that was so peculiarly his own, and with which he knew how to stir
+everybody's heart, "what's the matter with my dear child? are you ill?
+I can't believe it. You don't get out into the fresh air sufficiently.
+See here now; I have a long time been wishing you would for once in a
+way bring me my tea out to the workshop. Do so to-day; we may expect a
+most beautiful evening. You will come, won't you, Nanni, my darling?
+You will butter me some rolls yourself--that will make them ever so
+good." Therewith Master Wacht took the dear girl in his arms and
+stroked her brown curls back from her forehead, and he kissed her and
+pressed her to his heart, and tenderly caressed her,--treating her, in
+fact, in the most affectionate way that he knew how; and he was well
+aware of the irresistible charm of his manner at such times. A flood of
+tears gushed from Nanni's eyes, and with some difficulty all she could
+get out was, "Father! father!" "Well, well!" said Wacht, and a strain
+of embarrassment might have been detected in his voice, "all may yet
+turn out well."
+
+A week passed; naturally enough Jonathan had not shown himself, and the
+Master had not mentioned him with a single syllable. On Sunday, when
+the soup was standing smoking on the table, and the family were about
+to take their seats for dinner. Master Wacht asked gaily, "And where is
+our Jonathan?" Rettel, with a view to sparing poor Nanni, replied in an
+undertone, "Father, don't you know then what's taken place? Wouldn't
+Jonathan of course be shy of showing himself here in your presence?"
+"Oh the monkey!" said Wacht, laughing; "let Christian run over at once
+and fetch him."
+
+It need hardly be said that the young advocate failed not to put in an
+appearance immediately, nor that during the first moments after his
+arrival a dark oppressive thunder-cloud, as it were, hovered over them
+all. At length, however, Master Wacht's unconstrained good spirits,
+seconded by Leberfink's droll sallies, succeeded in calling forth a
+tone of conversation which, if it could not be called exactly merry,
+yet managed to maintain the balance of concord pretty evenly. After
+dinner Master Wacht said, "Let us get a little fresh air and stroll out
+to my workyard." And they did so.
+
+Monsieur Pickard Leberfink deliberately kept close to Rettelchen's
+side, who was a pattern of friendliness towards him, since the polite
+decorator had exhausted himself in praising her dishes, and had
+confessed that never so long as he had lived, not even when dining with
+the ecclesiastics in Banz,[16] had he enjoyed a more delicious meal. As
+Master Wacht now hurried on at a quick pace right across the middle of
+the workyard, with a large bundle of keys in his hand, the young lawyer
+was unintentionally brought close to Nanni. But all that the lovers
+ventured upon were stolen sighs and low soft-breathed love-plaints.
+
+Master Wacht came to a halt in front of a fine newly-made door, which
+had been constructed in the wall parting his workyard from the
+merchant's garden. He unlocked the door and stepped in, inviting his
+family to follow him. They, none of them, knew exactly what to make of
+the old gentleman, except Herr Pickard Leberfink, who never laid aside
+his sly smile, or ceased his soft giggle. In the midst of the beautiful
+garden there was a very spacious pavilion; this too Master Wacht
+opened, and stepping in remained standing in its centre; from every one
+of its windows one obtained a different romantic view. "Yes," said
+Master Wacht in a voice that bore witness to a heart well pleased with
+itself, "here I am in my own property; this beautiful garden is mine. I
+was obliged to buy it, not so much to augment my own place or increase
+the value of my property, no! but because I knew that a certain darling
+little thing longed so for these shrubs and trees, and for these
+beautiful sweet-smelling flower-beds."
+
+Then Nanni threw herself upon the old gentleman's breast and cried, "O
+father! father! You will break my heart with your kindness, with your
+goodness; do have pity"---- "There, there, say no more," Master Wacht
+interrupted his suffering child, "be a good girl, and all may be
+brought right in some marvellous way. You can find a great deal of
+comfort in this little paradise"---- "Oh! yes, yes, yes," exclaimed
+Nanni in a burst of enthusiasm, "O ye trees, ye shrubs, ye flowers, ye
+distant hills, you beautiful fleeting evening clouds--my spirit lives
+wholly in you all; I shall come to myself again when your sweet voices
+comfort me." Therewith Nanni ran out of the open door of the pavilion
+into the garden like a startled young roe; and Jonathan, the lawyer,
+delayed not to follow her at his fastest speed, for no power would then
+have been able to keep him back. Monsieur Pickard Leberfink requested
+permission to show Rettelchen round the new property.
+
+Meanwhile old Wacht had beer and tobacco brought to a spot under the
+trees, close at the brow of the hill, whence he could look down into
+the valley; and there he sat in a right glad and comfortable humour,
+puffing the blue clouds of genuine Holland into the air. No doubt my
+kindly reader is wondering greatly at this frame of mind in Master
+Wacht, and is at a loss to explain to himself how a mood like this was
+at all possible to a temperament like Wacht's. He had arrived, not so
+much at any determined plan as at the conviction that the Eternal Power
+could not possibly let him live to experience such a very terrible
+misfortune as that of seeing his favourite child united to a lawyer;
+that is, to Satan himself. "Something will happen," he said to himself;
+"something must happen, by which either this unhappy affair will be
+broken off or Jonathan snatched from the pit of destruction. It would
+be rash temerity, nay, perhaps a ruinous piece of mischief, producing
+the exact contrary of what was wished, if with my feeble hand I were to
+attempt to control the fly-wheel of Destiny."
+
+It is hard to credit what miserable, nay, often what absurd reasons a
+man will hunt up in order to represent the approaching misfortune as
+avertable. So there were moments in which Wacht built his hopes upon
+the arrival of wild Sebastian, whom he pictured to himself as a
+stalwart young fellow in the full flush and pride of youth, just on the
+point of attaining to manhood, and that he would bring about a change
+of direction in the drifting of circumstances, and make things
+different from what they then were. The very common, and alas! often
+too true idea came into his head, that woman is too greatly impressed
+by strong and striking manliness not to be conquered by it at last.
+
+When the sun began to go down, Monsieur Pickard Leberfink invited the
+family to go into his garden, which adjoined their own, and take a
+little refreshment. Beside Wacht's new possession the noble decorator
+and gilder's garden formed a most ridiculous and extraordinary
+contrast. Whilst almost too small in size, so that the only thing it
+could perhaps boast in its favour was the good height at which it was
+situated, it was laid out in Dutch style, the trees and hedges clipped
+with the shears in the most scrupulous and pedantic fashion. The
+slender stems of the fruit-trees standing in the flower-beds looked
+very pretty in their coats of light blue and rose tints, and pale
+yellow, and other colours. Leberfink had varnished them, and so
+beautified Nature. Moreover they saw in the trees the apples of the
+Hesperides.[17]
+
+But yet several further surprises were in store. Leberfink bade the
+girls pluck themselves a nosegay each; but on gathering the flowers
+they perceived to their amazement that both stalks and leaves were
+gilded. It was also very remarkable that all the leaves which Rettel
+took into her hands were shaped like hearts.
+
+The refreshment upon which Leberfink regaled his guests consisted of
+the choicest confectionery, the finest sweetmeats, and old Rhine wine
+and Muscatel. Rettel was quite beside herself over the confectionery,
+observing with special emphasis that such sweetmeats, which were for
+the most part splendidly silvered and gilded, were not, she knew made
+in Bamberg. Then Monsieur Pickard Leberfink assured her privately, with
+a most amorous smirk, that he himself knew a little about baking cakes
+and sweets, and that he was the happy maker of all these delicious
+dainties. Rettel almost fell upon her knees before him in reverence and
+astonishment; and yet the greatest surprise, was still in store for
+her.
+
+In the deepening dusk Monsieur Pickard Leberfink very cleverly
+contrived to entice little Rettel into a small arbour. No sooner was he
+alone with her than he recklessly plumped himself down upon both knees
+in the wet grass, notwithstanding that he was wearing his brilliant
+green satin hose; and, amidst many strange and unintelligible sounds of
+distress--not very dissimilar to the midnight elegies of the tom-cat
+Hinz[18]--he presented her with an immense nosegay of flowers, in the
+middle of which was the finest full-blown rose that could be found
+anywhere. Rettel did what everybody does who has a nosegay given to
+him; she raised it to her nose; but in the selfsame moment she felt a
+sharp prick. In her alarm she was about to throw the nosegay away. But
+see what charming wonder had revealed itself in the meantime! A
+beautifully varnished little cupid had leapt up out of the heart of the
+rose and was holding out a burning heart with both hands towards
+Rettel. From his mouth depended a small strip of paper on which were
+written the words, "Voila le c[oe]ur de Monsieur Pickard Leberfink, que
+je vous offre" (Here I offer you the heart of Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink).
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Rettel, very much alarmed. "Good gracious!
+what are you doing, my good Herr Leberfink? Don't kneel down in front
+of me as if I were a princess. You will make marks on your beautiful
+satin--in the wet grass, and you will catch cold yourself; but elder
+tea and white sugar candy are good remedies."
+
+"No!" exclaimed the desperate lover--"No, O Margaret, Pickard
+Leberfink, who loves you with all his heart, will not rise from the wet
+grass until you promise to be his"---- "You want to marry me?" asked
+Rettel. "Well then, up you get at once. Speak to my father, darling
+Leberfink, and drink one or two cups of elder tea this evening."
+
+Why should the reader be longer wearied with Leberfink's and Rettel's
+folly? They were made for each other, and were betrothed, at which
+Father Wacht was right glad in his own teasing, humorous way.
+
+A certain degree of life was introduced into Wacht's house by Rettel's
+betrothal; and even the disconsolate lovers had more freedom, since
+they were less observed. But something of a quite special character was
+to happen to put an abrupt end to this quiet and comfortable condition
+in which they were all living. The young lawyer seemed particularly
+preoccupied, and his thoughts busy with some affair or another that
+absorbed all his energies; his visits at Wacht's house even began to be
+less frequent, and he often stayed away in the evening--a thing he had
+never been wont to do previously. "What can be the matter with our
+Jonathan? He is completely preoccupied; he's quite another fellow from
+what he used to be," said Master Wacht, although he knew very well what
+was the cause, or rather the event, which was exercising such a visible
+influence upon the young lawyer, at least to all outward appearance. To
+tell the truth, he looked upon this event as the dispensation of
+Providence through which he should perhaps escape the great misfortune
+by which he believed himself threatened, and which he felt would
+completely upset all the happiness of his life.
+
+Some few months previously a young and unknown lady had arrived in
+Bamberg, and under circumstances which could only be called singular
+and mysterious. She was staying at the "White Lamb." All the servants
+she had with her were an old grey-haired manservant and an old
+lady's-maid. Very various were the opinions current about her. Many
+maintained she was a distinguished and immensely rich Hungarian
+countess, who, owing to matrimonial dissensions, was compelled to take
+up her residence in solitary retirement in Bamberg for a time. Others,
+on the contrary, set her down as an ordinary forsaken Dido, and yet
+others as an itinerant singer, who would soon throw off her veil of
+nobility and announce herself as about to give a concert,--possibly she
+had no recommendations to the Prince-bishop. At any rate the majority
+were unanimous in making up their minds to regard the stranger, who,
+according to the statements of the few persons who had seen her, was of
+exceptional beauty, as an extremely ambiguous person.
+
+It had been noticed that the stranger lady's old man-servant had
+followed the young lawyer about a long time, until one day he caught
+him at the spring in the market-place, which is ornamented with an
+image of Neptune (whom the honest folk of Bamberg are generally in the
+habit of calling the Fork-man); and there the old man stood talking to
+Jonathan a long, long time. Spirits alive to all that goes forward, who
+can never meet anybody without asking eagerly, "Wherever has he been?
+Wherever is he going? Whatever is he doing?" and so on, had made out
+that the young advocate very often visited the beautiful unknown, in
+fact almost every day and at night-time, when he spent several hours
+with her. It was soon the talk of the town that the lawyer Jonathan
+Engelbrecht had got entangled in the dangerous toils of the young
+unknown adventuress.
+
+It would have been, both then and always, entirely contrary to Master
+Wacht's character to make use of this apparent erring conduct of the
+young advocate as a weapon against poor Nanni. He left it to Dame
+Barbara and her whole following of gossips to keep Nanni informed of
+all particulars; from them she would learn every item of intelligence,
+and that, he made no doubt, with a due amplification of all the
+details. The crisis of the whole affair was reached when one day the
+young lawyer suddenly set off on a journey along with the lady, nobody
+knew whither. "That's the way frivolity goes on; the forward young
+gentleman will lose his business," said the knowing ones. But this was
+not the case; for not a little to the astonishment of the public, old
+Eichheimer himself attended to his foster-son's business with the most
+painstaking care; he seemed to be initiated into the secret about the
+lady and to approve of all the steps taken by his foster-son.
+
+Master Wacht never spoke a word about the matter, and once when poor
+Nanni could no longer hide her trouble, but moaned in a low tone, her
+voice half-choked with tears, "Why has Jonathan left us?" Master Wacht
+replied in an off-handed way, "Ay, that's just what lawyers do. Who
+knows what sort of an intrigue Jonathan has got entangled in with the
+stranger, thinking it will bring him money, and be to his advantage?"
+Then, however, Herr Pickard Leberfink was wont to take Jonathan's side,
+and to assert that he for his part was convinced the stranger could be
+nothing less than a princess, who had had recourse to the already
+world-renowned young advocate in an extremely delicate law-suit And
+therewith he also unearthed so many stories about lawyers who, through
+especial sagacity and especial penetration and skill, had unravelled
+the most complicated difficulties, and brought to light the most
+closely hidden things, till Master Wacht begged him for goodness' sake
+to hold his tongue, since he was feeling quite ill and sick; Nanni, on
+the contrary, derived inward comfort from all Leberfink's remarkable
+stories, and she plucked up her hopes again. With her trouble, however,
+there was united a perceptible mixture of annoyance and anger, and
+particularly at the moments when it seemed to her utterly impossible
+that Jonathan could have been untrue to her. From this it might be
+inferred that Jonathan had not sought to exculpate himself, but had
+obstinately maintained silence about his adventure.
+
+After some months had elapsed the young lawyer came back to Bamberg in
+the highest good spirits; and Master Wacht, on seeing the bright glad
+light in Nanni's eyes when she looked at him, could not well do
+otherwise than conclude that Jonathan had fully justified his conduct
+to her. Doubtless it would not be disagreeable to the indulgent reader
+to have the history of what had taken place between the stranger lady
+and the young lawyer inserted here as an episodical _novella_.
+
+Count Z----, a Hungarian, owner of more than a million, married from
+pure affection a miserably poor girl, who drew down upon her head the
+hatred of his family, not only because her own family was enshrouded in
+complete obscurity, but also because the only valuable treasures she
+possessed were her divine virtue, beauty, and grace. The Count promised
+his wife that at his death he would settle all his property upon her by
+will.
+
+Once when he returned to Vienna into the arms of his wife, after having
+been summoned from Paris to St. Petersburg on diplomatic business, he
+related to her that he had been attacked by a severe illness in a
+little town, the name of which he had quite forgotten; there he had
+seized the opportunity whilst recovering from his illness to draw up a
+will in her favour and deposit it with the court. Some miles farther on
+the road he must have been seized with a new and doubly virulent attack
+of his grave nervous complaint, so that the name of the place where he
+had made his will and that of the court where he had deposited it had
+completely slipped his memory; moreover, he had lost the document of
+receipt from the court acknowledging the deposition of the testament.
+As so often happens in similar cases the Count postponed the making of
+a new will from day to day, until he was overtaken by death. Then his
+relatives did not neglect to lay claim to all the property he left
+behind him, so that the poor Countess saw her too rich inheritance
+melted down to the insignificant sum represented by certain valuable
+presents she had received from the Count, and which his relatives could
+not deprive her of. Many different notifications bearing upon the
+features of the case were found amongst the Count's papers; but since
+such statements, that a will was in existence, could not take the place
+of the will itself, they proved not to be of the slightest advantage to
+the Countess. She had consulted many learned lawyers about her
+unfortunate situation, and had finally come to Bamberg to have recourse
+to old Eichheimer; but he had directed her to young Engelbrecht, who,
+being less busy and equipped with excellent intellectual acuteness and
+great love for his profession, would perhaps be able to get a clue to
+the unfortunate will or furnish some other circumstantial proof of its
+actual existence.
+
+The young advocate set to work by requesting permission of the
+competent authorities to submit the Count's papers in the castle to
+another searching investigation. He himself went thither along with the
+Countess; and in the presence of the officials of the court he found in
+a cupboard of nut-wood, that had hitherto escaped observation, an old
+portfolio, in which, though they did not find the Count's document of
+receipt relating to the deposition of the will, they yet discovered a
+paper which could not fail to be of the utmost importance for the young
+advocate's purpose. For this paper contained an accurate description of
+all the circumstances, even the minutest details, under which the Count
+had made a will in favour of his wife and deposited it in the keeping
+of a court. The Count's diplomatic journey from Paris to Petersburg had
+brought him to Koenigsberg in Prussia. Here he chanced to come across
+some East Prussian noblemen, whom he had previously met with whilst on
+a visit to Italy. In spite of the express rate at which the Count was
+travelling, he nevertheless suffered himself to be persuaded to make a
+short excursion into East Prussia, particularly as the big hunts had
+begun, and the Count was a passionate sportsman. He named the towns
+Wehlau, Allenburg, Friedland, &c., as places where he had been. Then he
+set out to go straight forwards directly to the Russian frontier,
+without returning to Koenigsberg.
+
+In a little town, whose wretched appearance the Count could hardly find
+words to describe, he was suddenly prostrated by a nervous disorder,
+which for several days quite deprived him of consciousness. Fortunately
+there was a young and right clever doctor in the place, who opposed a
+stout resistance to the disease, so that the Count not only recovered
+consciousness but also his health, so far that after a few days he was
+in a position to continue his journey. But his heart was oppressed with
+the fear that a second attack on the road might kill him, and so plunge
+his wife in a condition of the most straitened poverty. Not a little to
+his astonishment he learned from the doctor that the place, in spite of
+its small size and wretched appearance, was the seat of a Prussian
+provincial court, and that he could there have his will registered with
+all due formality, as soon as he could succeed in establishing his
+identity. This, however, was a most formidable difficulty, for who knew
+the Count in this district? But wonderful are the doings of Accident!
+Just as the Count got out of his carriage in front of the inn of the
+little town, there stood in the doorway a grey-haired old invalid,
+almost eighty years old, who dwelt in a neighbouring village and earned
+a living by plaiting willow baskets, and who only seldom came into the
+town. In his youth he had served in the Austrian army, and for fifteen
+successive years had been groom to the Count's father. At the first
+glance he remembered his master's son; and he and his wife acted as
+fully legitimated vouchers of the Count's identity, and not to their
+detriment, as may well be conceived.
+
+The young advocate at once saw that all depended upon the locality and
+its exact correspondence with the Count's statements, if he wanted to
+glean further details and find a clue to the place where the Count had
+been ill and made his testament. He set off with the Countess for East
+Prussia. There by examination of the post-books he was desirous of
+making out, if possible, the route of travel pursued by the Count. But
+after a good deal of wasted effort, he only managed to discover that
+the Count had taken post-horses from Eylau to Allenburg. Beyond
+Allenburg every trace was lost; nevertheless he satisfied himself that
+the Count had certainly travelled through Prussian Lithuania, and of
+this he was still further convinced on finding registered at Tilsit
+that the Count had arrived there and departed thence by extra post.
+Beyond this point again all traces were lost. Accordingly it seemed to
+the young advocate that they must seek for the solution of the
+difficulty in the short stretch of country between Allenburg and
+Tilsit.
+
+Quite dispirited and full of anxious care he arrived one rainy evening
+at the small country town of Insterburg, accompanied by the Countess.
+On entering the wretched apartments in the inn, he became conscious
+that a strange kind of expectant feeling was taking possession of him.
+He felt so like being at home in them, as if he had even been there
+before, or as if the place had been most accurately described to him.
+The Countess withdrew to her apartments. The young advocate tossed
+restlessly on his bed. When the morning sun shone in brightly through
+the window, his eyes fell upon the paper in one corner of the room. He
+noticed that a large patch of the blue colour with which the room was
+but lightly washed had fallen off, showing the disagreeable glaring
+yellow that formed the ground colour, and upon it he observed that all
+kinds of hideous faces in the New Zealand style had been painted to
+serve as pleasing arabesques. Perfectly beside himself with joy and
+delight, the young lawyer sprang out of bed. He was in the room in
+which Count Z---- had made the all-important will. The description
+agreed too exactly; there could not be any doubt about the matter.
+
+But why now weary the reader with all the minor details of the things
+that now took place one after the other? Suffice it to say that
+Insterburg was then, as it still is, the seat of a Prussian superior
+tribunal, at that time called an Imperial Court. The young advocate at
+once waited upon the president with the Countess. By means of the
+papers which she had brought with her, and which were drawn up in due
+authenticated form, the Countess established her own identity in the
+most satisfactory manner; and the will was publicly declared to be
+perfectly genuine. Hence the Countess, who had left her own country in
+great distress and poverty, now returned in the full possession of all
+the rights of which a hostile destiny had attempted to deprive her.
+
+In Nanni's eyes the advocate appeared like a hero from heaven, who had
+victoriously protected deserted innocence against the wickedness of the
+world. Leberfink also poured out all his great admiration of the young
+lawyer's acuteness and energy in exaggerated encomiums. Master Wacht,
+too, praised Jonathan's industry, and this trait he emphasised; and yet
+the boy had really done nothing but what it was his duty to do; still
+he somehow fancied that things might have been managed in a much
+shorter way. "This event I regard," said Jonathan, "as a star of real
+good fortune, which has risen upon the path of my career almost before
+I have started upon it The case has created a great deal of sensation.
+All the Hungarian magnates are excited about it. My name has become
+known. And what is a long way the best of all, the Countess was so
+liberal as to honour me with ten thousand Brabant thalers."[19]
+
+During the course of the young advocate's narration, the muscles of
+Master Wacht's face began to move in a remarkable way, till at last his
+countenance wore an expression of the greatest indignation. "What!"
+he at length shouted in a lion-like voice, whilst his eyes flashed
+fire--"What! did I not tell you? You have made a sale of justice. The
+Countess, in order to get her lawful inheritance out of the hands of
+her rascally relations, has had to pay money, to sacrifice to Mammon.
+Faugh! faugh! be ashamed of yourself." All the sensible protestations
+of the young advocate, as well as of the rest of the persons who
+happened to be present, were not of the slightest avail. For a second
+it seemed as if their representations would gain a hearing, when it was
+stated that no one had ever given a present with more willing pleasure
+than the Countess had done on the sudden conclusion of her case, and
+that, as good Leberfink very well knew, the young advocate had only
+himself to blame that his honorarium had not turned out to be more in
+amount as well as more on a level with the magnitude of the lady's
+gain; nevertheless Master Wacht stuck to his own opinion, and they
+heard from him in his own obstinate fashion the familiar words, "So
+soon as you begin to talk about justice, you and everybody else in the
+world ought to hold your tongues about money. It is true," he went on
+more calmly after a pause, "there are several circumstances connected
+with this history which might very well excuse you, and yet at the same
+time lead you astray into base selfishness; but have the kindness to
+hold your tongue about the Countess, and the will, and the ten thousand
+thalers, if you please. I should indeed be fancying many a time that
+you didn't altogether belong to your place at my table there."
+
+"You are very hard--very unjust towards me, father," said the young
+advocate, his voice trembling with sadness. Nanni's tears flowed
+quietly; Leberfink, like an experienced man of the world, hastened to
+turn the conversation upon the new gildings in St. Gangolph's.[20]
+
+It may readily be conceived in what strained relations the members of
+Wacht's family now lived. Where was their unconstrained conversation,
+their bright good spirits, where their cheerfulness? A deadly vexation
+was slowly gnawing at Wacht's heart, and it stood plainly written upon
+his countenance.
+
+Meanwhile they received not the least scrap of intelligence from
+Sebastian Engelbrecht, and so the last feeble ray of hope that Master
+Wacht had seen glimmering appeared about to fade. Master Wacht's
+foreman, Andreas by name, was a plain, honest, faithful fellow, who
+clung to his master with an affection that could not be matched
+anywhere. "Master," said he one morning as they were measuring beams
+together--"Master, I can't bear it any longer; it breaks my heart to
+see you suffer so. Fraeulein Nanni--poor Herr Jonathan!" Quickly
+throwing away the measuring lines, Master Wacht stepped up to him and
+took him by the breast, saying, "Man, if you are able to tear out of
+this heart the convictions as to what is true and right which have been
+engraven upon it by the Eternal Power in letters of fire, then what you
+are thinking about may come to pass." Andreas, who was not the man to
+enter upon a dispute with his master upon these sort of terms,
+scratched himself behind his ear, and replied with an embarrassed
+smirk, "Then if a certain distinguished gentleman were to pay a morning
+visit to the workshop, I suppose it would produce no particular
+effect?" Master Wacht perceived in a moment that a storm was brewing
+against him, and that it was in all probability being directed by Count
+von Koesel.
+
+Just as the clock struck nine Nanni appeared in the workshop, followed
+by old Barbara with the breakfast. The Master was not well pleased to
+see his daughter, since it was out of rule; and he saw the programme of
+the concerted attack already peeping out. Nor was it long before the
+minor canon really made his appearance, as smart and prim and proper as
+a pet doll. Close at his heels followed Monsieur Pickard Leberfink,
+decorator and gilder, clad in all sorts of gay colours, so that he
+looked not unlike a spring-chafer. Wacht pretended to be highly
+delighted with the visit, the cause of which he at once insinuated to
+be that the minor canon very likely wanted to see his newest models.
+The truth is, Master Wacht felt very shy at the possibility of having
+to listen to the canon's long-winded sermons, which he would deliver
+himself of uselessly if he attempted to shake his (Wacht's) resolution
+with respect to Nanni and Jonathan. Accident came to his rescue; for
+just as the canon, the young lawyer, and the varnisher were standing
+together, and the first-named was beginning to approach the most
+intimate relations of life in the most elegantly turned phrases, fat
+Hans shouted out "Wood here!" and big Peter on the other side pushed
+the wood across to him so roughly that it caught the canon a violent
+blow on the shoulder and sent him reeling against Monsieur Pickard; he
+in his turn stumbled against the young advocate, and in a trice the
+whole three had disappeared. For just behind them was a huge piled-up
+heap of chips and saw-dust and so on. The unfortunates were buried
+under this heap, so that all that could be seen of them were four black
+legs and two buff-coloured ones; the latter were the gala stockings of
+Herr Pickard Leberfink, decorator and gilder. It couldn't possibly be
+helped; the journeymen and apprentices burst out into a ringing peal of
+laughter, notwithstanding that Master Wacht bade them be still and look
+grave.
+
+Of them all the canon cut the worst figure, since the saw-dust had got
+into the folds of his robe and even into the elegant curls which
+adorned his head. He fled as if upon the wings of the wind, covered
+with shame, and the young advocate hard after him. Monsieur Pickard
+Leberfink was the only one who preserved his good humour and took the
+thing in merry part, notwithstanding that it might be regarded as
+certain he would never be able to wear the buff-coloured stockings
+again, since the saw-dust had proved especially injurious to them and
+had quite destroyed the "clock." Thus the storm which was to have been
+adventured against Wacht was baffled by a ridiculous incident. But the
+Master did not dream what terrible thing was to happen to him before
+the day was over.
+
+Master Wacht had finished dinner and was just going downstairs in order
+to betake himself to his workyard, when he heard a loud, rough voice
+shouting in front of the house, "Hi, there! This is where that knavish
+old rascal, Carpenter Wacht, lives, isn't it?" A voice in the street
+made answer, "There is no knavish old rascal living here; this is the
+house of our respected fellow-citizen Herr Johannes Wacht, the
+carpenter." In the same moment the street-door was forced open with a
+violent bang, and a big strong fellow of wild appearance stood before
+the master. His black hair stuck up like bristles through his ragged
+soldier's cap, and in scores of places his tattered tunic was unable to
+conceal his loathsome skin, browned with filth and exposure to rough
+weather. The fellow wore soldier's shoes on his feet, and the blue
+weals on his ankles showed the traces of the chains he had been
+fettered with. "Ho, ho!" cried the fellow, "I bet you don't know me.
+You don't know Sebastian Engelbrecht, whom you've cheated out of his
+property--not you." With all the imposing dignity of his majestic form,
+Master Wacht took a step towards the man, mechanically advancing the
+cane he held in his hand. Then the wild fellow seemed to be almost
+thunderstruck; he recoiled a few paces, and then raised his doubled
+fists shouting, "Ho, ho! I know where my property is, and I'll go and
+help myself to it, in spite of you, you old sinner." And he ran off
+down the Kaulberg like an arrow from a bow, followed by the crowd.
+
+Master Wacht stood in the passage like a statue for several seconds.
+But when Nanni cried in alarm, "Good heavens! father, that was
+Sebastian," he went into the room, more reeling than walking, and sank
+down exhausted in an arm-chair; then, holding both hands before his
+face, he cried in a heart-rending voice, "By the eternal mercy of God,
+that is Sebastian Engelbrecht."
+
+There arose a tumult in the street, the crowd poured down the Kaulberg,
+and voices in the far distance could be heard shouting "Murder!
+murder!" A prey to the most terrible apprehensions, the Master, ran
+down to Jonathan's dwelling, situated immediately at the foot of the
+Kaulberg. A dense mass of people were pushing and crowding together in
+front of him; in their midst he perceived Sebastian struggling like a
+wild animal against the watch, who had just thrown him upon the ground,
+where they overpowered him and bound him hand and foot, and led him
+away. "O God! O God! Sebastian has slain his brother," lamented the
+people, who came crowding out of the house. Master Wacht forced his way
+through and found poor Jonathan in the hands of the doctors, who were
+exerting themselves to call him back to life. As he had received three
+powerful blows upon the head, dealt with all the strength of a strong
+man, the worst was to be feared.
+
+As generally happens under such circumstances, Nanni learnt immediately
+the whole history of the affair from her kind-hearted friends, and at
+once rushed off to her lover's dwelling, where she arrived just as the
+young lawyer, thanks to the lavish use of naphtha, opened his eyes
+again, and the doctors were talking about trepanning. What further took
+place may be conceived. Nanni was inconsolable; Rettel, notwithstanding
+her betrothal, was sunk in grief; and Monsieur Pickard Leberfink
+exclaimed, whilst tears of sorrow ran down his cheeks, "God be merciful
+to the man upon whose pate a carpenter's fist falls." The loss of young
+Herr Jonathan would be irreparable. At any rate the varnish on his
+coffin should be of unsurpassed brightness and blackness; and the
+silvering of the skulls and other nice ornaments should baffle all
+comparison.
+
+It appeared that Sebastian had escaped out of the hands of a troop of
+Bavarian soldiers, whilst they were conducting a band of vagabonds
+through the district of Bamberg, and he had found his way into the town
+in order to carry out a mad project which he had for a long time been
+brooding over in his mind. His career was not that of an abandoned,
+vicious criminal; it afforded rather an example of those supremely
+frivolous-minded men, who, despite the very admirable qualities with
+which Nature has endowed them, give way to every temptation to evil,
+and finally sinking to the lowest depths of vice, perish in shame and
+misery. In Saxony he had fallen into the hands of a petti-fogging
+lawyer, who had made him believe that Master Wacht, when sending him
+his patrimonial inheritance, had paid him very much short, and kept
+back the remainder for the benefit of his brother Jonathan, to whom he
+had promised to give his favourite daughter Nanni to wife. Very likely
+the old deceiver had concocted this story out of various utterances of
+Sebastian himself. The kindly reader already knows by what violent
+means Sebastian set to work to secure his own rights. Immediately after
+leaving Master Wacht he had burst into Jonathan's room, where the
+latter happened to be sitting at his study table, ordering some
+accounts and counting the piles of money which lay heaped up before
+him. His clerk sat in the other corner of the room. "Ah! you villain!"
+screamed Sebastian in a fury, "there you are sitting over your mammon.
+Are you counting what you have robbed me of? Give me here what yon old
+rascal has stolen from me and bestowed upon you. You poor, weak thing!
+You greedy clutching devil--you!" And when Sebastian strode close up to
+him, Jonathan instinctively stretched out both hands to ward him off,
+crying aloud, "Brother! for God's sake, brother!" But Sebastian replied
+by dealing him several stunning blows on the head with his double fist,
+so that Jonathan sank down fainting. Sebastian hastily seized upon some
+of the rolls of gold and was making off with them--in which naturally
+enough he did not succeed.
+
+Fortunately it turned out that none of Jonathan's wounds, which
+outwardly wore the appearance of large bumps, had occasioned any
+serious concussion of the brain, and hence none of them could be
+esteemed as likely to prove dangerous. After a lapse of two months,
+when Sebastian was taken away to the convict prison, where he was to
+atone for his attempt at murder by a heavy punishment, the young lawyer
+felt himself quite well again.
+
+This terrible occurrence exerted such a shattering effect upon Master
+Wacht that a consuming surly peevishness was the consequence of it.
+This time the stout strong oak was shaken from its topmost branch to
+its deepest root. Often when his mind was thought to be busy with quite
+different matters, he was heard to murmur in a low tone, "Sebastian--a
+fratricide! That's how you reward me?" and then he seemed to come to
+himself like one awakening out of a nasty dream. The only thing that
+kept him from breaking down was the hardest and most assiduous labour.
+But who can fathom the unsearchable depths in which the secret links of
+feeling are so strangely forged together as they were in Master Wacht's
+soul? His abhorrence of Sebastian and his wicked deed faded out of his
+mind, whilst the picture of his own life, ruined by Jonathan's love for
+Nanni, deepened in colour and vividness as the days went by. This frame
+of mind Master Wacht betrayed in many short exclamations--"So then your
+brother is condemned to hard labour and to work in chains!--That's
+where he has been brought by his attempted crime against you--It's a
+fine thing for a brother to be the cause of making his own brother a
+convict--shouldn't like to be in the first brother's place--but lawyers
+think differently; they want justice, that is, they want to play with a
+lay figure and dress it up and give it whatever name they please."
+
+Such like bitter, and even incomprehensible reproaches, the young
+advocate was obliged to hear from Master Wacht, and to hear them only
+too often. Any attempt at rebutting these charges would have been
+fruitless. Accordingly Jonathan made no reply; only often when his
+heart was almost distracted by the old man's fatal delusion, which was
+ruining all his happiness, he broke out in his exceeding great pain,
+"Father, father, you are unjust towards me, exasperatingly unjust."
+
+One day when the family were assembled at the decorator Leberfink's,
+and Jonathan also was present, Master Wacht began to tell how somebody
+had been saying that Sebastian Engelbrecht, although apprehended as a
+criminal, could yet make good by action at law his claim against Master
+Wacht, who had been his guardian. Then, smiling venomously and turning
+to Jonathan, he went on, "That would be a pretty case for a young
+advocate. I thought you might take up the suit; you might play a part
+in it yourself; perhaps I have cheated you as well?" This made the
+young lawyer start to his feet; his eyes flashed, his bosom heaved; he
+seemed all of a sudden to be quite a different man; stretching his hand
+towards Heaven he cried, "No, you shall no longer be my father; you
+must be insane to sacrifice without scruple the peace and happiness of
+the most loving of children to a ridiculous prejudice. You will never
+see me again; I will go and at once accept the offer which the American
+consul made to me to-day; I will go to America." "Yes," replied Wacht
+filled with rage and anger, "ay, away out of my eyes, brother of the
+fratricide, who've sold your soul to Satan." Casting upon Nanni, who
+was half fainting, a look full of hopeless love and anguish and
+despair, the young advocate hurriedly left the garden.
+
+It was remarked earlier in the course of this story when the young
+lawyer threatened to shoot himself _a la_ Werther,[21] what a good
+thing it was that the indispensable pistol was in very many cases not
+within reach. And here it will be just as useful to remark that the
+young advocate was not able, to his own good be it said, to embark
+there and then on the Regnitz and sail straight away to Philadelphia.
+Hence it was that his threat to leave Bamberg and his darling Nanni for
+ever remained still unfulfilled, even when at last, after two years
+more had elapsed, the wedding-day of Herr Leberfink, decorator and
+gilder, was come. Leberfink would have been inconsolable at this unjust
+postponement of his happiness, although the delay was almost a matter
+of necessity after the terrible events which had fallen blow after blow
+in Wacht's house, had it not afforded him an opportunity to decorate
+over again in deep red and appropriate gold the ornamental work in his
+parlour, which had before been gay with nice light-blue and silver, for
+he had picked up from Rettelchen that a red table, red chairs, and so
+on, would be more in accordance with her taste.
+
+When the happy decorator insisted upon seeing the young lawyer at his
+wedding. Master Wacht had not offered a moment's opposition; and the
+young lawyer--he was pleased to come. It may be imagined with what
+feelings the two young people saw each other again, for since that
+terrible moment when Jonathan had left the garden they had literally
+not set eyes upon each other. The assembly was large; but not a single
+person with whom they were on a friendly footing fathomed their pain.
+
+Just as they were on the point of setting out for church. Master Wacht
+received a thick letter; he had read no more than a few lines when he
+became violently agitated and rushed off out of the room, not a little
+to the consternation of the rest, who at once suspected some fresh
+misfortune. Shortly afterwards Master Wacht called the young advocate
+out. When they were alone together in the Master's own room, the
+latter, vainly endeavouring to conceal his excessive agitation, began,
+"I've got the most extraordinary news of your brother; here is a letter
+from the governor of the prison relating fully all the circumstances of
+what has taken place. As you cannot know them all, I must begin at the
+beginning and tell you everything right to the end so as to make
+credible to you what is incredible; but time presses." So saying,
+Master Wacht fixed a keen glance upon the advocate's face, so that he
+blushed and cast down his eyes in confusion. "Yes, yes," went on Master
+Wacht, raising his voice, "you don't know how great a remorse took
+possession of your brother a very few hours after he was put in prison;
+there is hardly anybody whose heart has been more torn by it. You don't
+know how his attempt at murder and theft has prostrated him. You don't
+know how that in mad despair he prayed Heaven day and night either to
+kill him or to save him that he might henceforth by the exercise of the
+strictest virtue wash himself pure from bloodguiltiness. You don't know
+how that on the occasion of building a large wing to the prison, in
+which the convicts were employed as labourers, your brother so
+distinguished himself as a clever and well-instructed carpenter that he
+soon filled the post of foreman of the workmen, without anybody's
+noticing how it came about so. You don't know how his quiet good
+behaviour, and his modesty, combined with the decision of his
+regenerate mind, made everybody his friend. All this you do not know,
+and so I am telling it you. But to go on. The Prince-bishop has
+pardoned your brother; he has become a master. But how could all this
+be done without a supply of money?" "I know," said the young advocate
+in a low voice, "I know that you, my good father, have sent money to
+the prison authorities every month, in order that they might keep my
+brother separate from the other prisoners and find him better
+accommodation and better food. Later on you sent him materials for his
+trade"---- Then Master Wacht stepped close up to the young advocate,
+took him by both arms, and said in a voice that vacillated in a way
+that cannot be described between delight, sadness, and pain, "But would
+that alone have helped Sebastian to honour again, to freedom, and his
+civil rights, and to property, however strongly his fundamental
+virtuous qualities had sprung up again? An unknown philanthropist, who
+must take an especially warm interest in Sebastian's fate, has
+deposited ten thousand 'large' thalers with the court, to"---- Master
+Wacht could not speak any further owing to his violent emotion; he drew
+the young advocate impetuously to his heart, crying, though he could
+only get out his words with difficulty, "Advocate, help me to penetrate
+to the deep import of law such as lives in your breast, and that I may
+stand before the Eternal Bar of justice as you will one day stand
+before it.--And yet," he continued after a pause of some seconds,
+releasing the young lawyer, "and yet, my dear Jonathan, if Sebastian
+now comes back as a good and industrious citizen and reminds me of my
+pledged word, and Nanni"---- "Then I will bear my trouble till it kills
+me," said the young advocate; "I will flee to America." "Stay here,"
+cried Master Wacht in an enthusiastic burst of joy and delight, "stay
+here, son of my heart! Sebastian is going to marry a girl whom he
+formerly deceived and deserted. Nanni is yours."
+
+Once more the Master threw his arms around Jonathan's neck, saying, "My
+lad, I feel like a schoolboy before you, and should like to beg your
+pardon for all the blame I have put upon you, and all the injustice I
+have done you. But let us say no more; other people are waiting for
+us." Therewith Master Wacht took hold of the young lawyer and pulled
+him along into the room where the wedding guests were assembled; there
+he placed himself and Jonathan in the midst of the company, and said,
+raising his voice and speaking in a solemn tone, "Before we proceed to
+celebrate the sacred rite I invite you all, my honest friends, ladies
+and gentlemen, and you too, my virtuous maidens and young men, six
+weeks hence to a similar festival in my house; for here I introduce to
+you Herr Jonathan Engelbrecht, the advocate, to whom I herewith
+solemnly betroth my youngest daughter, Nanni." The lovers sank into
+each other's arms. A breath of the profoundest astonishment passed
+over the whole assembly; but good old Andreas, holding his little
+three-cornered carpenter's cap before his breast, said softly, "A man's
+heart is a wonderful thing; but true, honest faith overcomes the base
+and even sinful resoluteness of a hardened spirit; and all things turn
+out at last for the best, just as the good God wishes them to do."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "MASTER JOHANNES WACHT":
+
+[Footnote 1: Included in a collection of stories entitled _Geschichten,
+Maerchen, und Sagen_, Von Fr. H. v. d. Hagen, E. T. A. Hoffmann, und H.
+Steffens; Breslau, 1823.]
+
+[Footnote 2: See Footnote 19 above, for "Master Martin, The Cooper."]
+
+[Footnote 3: The stern inexorable Republican patriot, who kills even
+his friend Fiesco when the latter refuses to throw aside the purple
+dignity he had assumed. See Schiller's _Fiesko_, act v., last scene
+(cf. I. 10-13; III. 1).]
+
+[Footnote 4: A long hilly street in Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Pet name for Johannes, the name of Wacht's son.]
+
+[Footnote 6: _Rettel_ and _Rettelchen_ (little Rettel) are pet names
+for Margaret.]
+
+[Footnote 7: The anniversary of the consecration of the church is made
+the occasion of a great and general festive holiday in many parts of
+Germany, particularly in the south.]
+
+[Footnote 8: "Noodles" are long strips of rolled-out paste, made up and
+cooked in various ways.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Seehof or Marquardsburg, situated to the north-east of
+Bamberg, was formerly a bishop's castle, and was rebuilt by Marquard
+Sebastian Schenk of Stauffenberg in 1688.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Stracchino, a kind of cheese made in North Italy,
+especially in Brescia, Milan, and Bergamo.]
+
+[Footnote 11: A pet name for Gretchen (Margaret), frequently used also
+as equivalent to "sweetheart," "lass," just as we might say, "Every
+Johnny has his Jeannie."]
+
+[Footnote 12: A long winding suburb of Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Or Bug, as it is generally spelled, a pleasure resort on
+the Regnitz, about half an hour distant from Bamberg. Hoffmann was in
+the habit of visiting it almost daily when he lived at Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 14: In the days before ice was preserved on such an extensive
+scale by the German brewers as it is at the present time, beer was kept
+in excavations in rock, wherever a suitable place could be found; this
+made it deliciously cool and fresh.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Goethe's well-known work.]
+
+[Footnote 16: A once rich and celebrated Benedictine abbey between
+Bamberg and Coburg, founded in the eleventh century, and frequently
+destroyed and sacked in war.]
+
+[Footnote 17: That is, they were golden, or gilded.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Hinze is Tieck's _Gestiefelter Kater_ (Puss in Boots).
+The reference is perhaps to act ii. scene 2, where Hinze goes out to
+catch rabbits, &c., and hears the nightingale singing, the humour of
+the scene lying in the quick alternation of the human poetic sentiments
+and the native instincts of the cat.]
+
+[Footnote 19: So named from the place where they were struck. See note,
+p. 281, Vol. I., viz.--Imperial thalers varied in value at different
+times, but estimating their value at three shillings, the sum here
+mentioned would be equivalent to about L22,500. A _Frederick d'or_ was
+a gold coin worth five thalers.]
+
+[Footnote 20: A church situated at the beginning of the Steinweg.]
+
+[Footnote 21: It need scarcely be said this refers to the excessively
+sentimental hero of Goethe's _Leiden des jungen Werthers_.]
+
+
+
+
+                         _BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE._[1]
+
+
+Like many others whose pens have been employed in authorship, the
+subject of this notice, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm[2] Hoffmann, led a very
+chequered life, the various facts and incidents of which throw a good
+deal of light upon his writings.
+
+Hoffmann was born at Koenigsberg in Prussia on the 24th January,
+1776.[3] His parents were very ill-assorted, and led such an unhappy
+life that they parted in young Ernst's third year. His father, who was
+in the legal profession, was a man of considerable talent and of acute
+intellect, but irregular and wild in his habits and given to
+reprehensible practices. His mother, on the contrary, the daughter of
+Consistorialrath Doerffer, had been trained up on the strictest moral
+principles, and to habits of orderliness and propriety; and to her
+regard for outward conformity to old-established forms and conventional
+routine was added a weak and ailing condition of body, which made her
+for the most part a confirmed invalid. When, in 1782, the elder
+Hoffmann was promoted to the dignity of judge and transferred to a
+criminal court at Insterburg (Prussia), Ernst was taken into the house
+of his maternal grandmother; and his father appears never to have
+troubled himself further either about him or his elder brother, who
+afterwards took to evil ways. The brothers in all probability never met
+again, though an unfinished letter, dated 10th July, 1817, found
+amongst Hoffmann's papers after his death, was evidently written to his
+brother in reply to one received from him requesting pecuniary
+assistance.
+
+In his grandmother's house young Hoffmann spent his boyhood and youth.
+The members of the household were four, the grandmother, her son, her
+two daughters, of whom one was the boy's invalid mother. The old lady,
+owing to her great age, was also virtually an invalid; so that both she
+and her daughter scarcely ever left their room, and hence their
+influence upon young Ernst's education and training was practically
+nil. His uncle, however, after an abortive attempt to follow the law,
+had settled down to a quiet vegetative sort of existence, which he
+regulated strictly according to fixed rules and methodical procedure;
+and these he imposed more or less upon the household. Justizrath Otto
+(or Ottchen, as his mother continued to call him to her life's end),
+though acting as a dead weight upon his high-spirited, quick-witted
+nephew's intellectual development, by his efforts to mould him to his
+own course of life and his own unpliant habits of thought, nevertheless
+planted certain seeds in the boy's mind which proved of permanent
+service to him throughout all his subsequent career. To this precise
+and order-loving uncle he owed his first thorough grounding in the
+elements of music, and also his persevering industry and sense of
+method and precision. As uncle and nephew shared the same sitting-room
+and the same sleeping-chamber, and as the former would never suffer any
+departure from the established routine of things, the boy Ernst began
+not only to look forward to the one afternoon a week when Otto went out
+to make his calls, but also to study narrowly his uncle's habits, and
+to play upon his weaknesses and turn them to his own advantage, so that
+by the time he was twelve years old he was quite an adept at mystifying
+the staid old gentleman. His aunt, an unmarried lady, was cheerful,
+witty, and full of pleasant gaiety; she was the only one who understood
+and appreciated her clever nephew; indeed she was so fond of him, and
+humoured him to such an extent, that she is said to have spoiled him.
+It was to her he poured out all his childish troubles and all his
+boyish confidences and weaknesses. Her love he repaid with faithful
+affection, and he has memorialised it in a touching way in the
+character of "Tante Fuesschen" in _Kater Murr_ (Pt. I.), where also
+other biographical details of this period may be read. Of his poor
+mother, feeble in body and in mind alike, Hoffmann only spoke
+unwillingly, but always with deep respect mingled with sadness.
+
+Two other persons must be mentioned as having exercised a lasting
+influence upon his early life. One of these was an old great-uncle,
+Justizrath Voethoery, brother of both his grandmothers, and a gentleman
+of Hungarian origin. This excellent man was retired from all business,
+with the exception that he continued to act as justiciary for the
+estates of certain well-tried friends. He used to visit the various
+properties at stated seasons of the year, and was always a welcome
+guest; for this "hero of olden times in dressing-gown and slippers," as
+Wilibald Alexis called him, was the V---- who figures so genially
+in _Das Majorat_ ("The Entail"). The old gentleman once took his
+great-nephew with him on one of these trips, and to it we are indebted
+for this master-piece of Hoffmann. The other person who gave a bent to
+young Ernst's mind was Dr. Wannowski, the head of the German Reformed
+School in Koenigsberg, where the boy was sent in his sixth or seventh
+year. Wannowski, who possessed the faculty of awakening slumbering
+talent in his pupils, and attracting them to himself, enjoyed the
+friendship and intercourse of Kant, Hippel (the elder), Scheffner,
+Hamann, and others, and might perhaps lay claim to be called a Prussian
+Dr. Arnold, owing to the many illustrious pupils he turned out.
+
+During the first seven years of his school-days, young Hoffmann was in
+nowise distinguished above his school-fellows either for industry or
+for quickness of parts. But when he reached his thirteenth or
+fourteenth year, his taste for both music and painting was awakened.
+His liking for these two arts was so genuine and sincere, and
+consequently his progress in them so rapid, that he came to be looked
+upon as a child-wonder. He would sit down at a piano and play
+improvisations and other compositions of his own creation, to the
+astonishment of all who heard him, for his performances, though
+somewhat fantastic, were not wanting in talent and originality, and his
+diminutive stature made him appear some years younger than he really
+was. In drawing he early showed a decided inclination for caricature,
+and in this his quickness of perception and accuracy in reproduction
+proved of permanent service to him. Later he endeavoured to improve
+himself both in theory and in practice in higher styles also: in the
+former by diligent study of Winckelmann, and in the latter by copying
+the models of the art treasures of Herculaneum preserved in the Royal
+Library.
+
+In his eleventh year Hoffmann made the acquaintance of Theodor von
+Hippel, nephew of T. G. Hippel, author of _Die Lebenslaeufe in
+aufsteigender Linie_, a boy one month older than himself. The
+acquaintance ripened into a warm fast friendship when the two boys
+recognised each other again at the same school, and they continued
+faithful devoted friends until the day of Hoffmann's death. What tended
+principally to knit them together was the similarity and yet difference
+in their bringing up and family relations. Both grew up without the
+society of brothers or sisters or playfellows; but whilst Hoffmann was
+a son of the town, Hippel's early days had been spent in the country.
+In another respect, too, they presented a striking contrast in
+behaviour; Hoffmann's chief delight was to mystify and tease his uncle
+Otto, but Hippel was most scrupulous in paying to all the proper meed
+of respect which he conceived he owed them. Once when Hippel reproached
+his friend about his behaviour towards his uncle, young Hoffmann
+replied, "But think what relatives fate has blessed me with! If I only
+had a father and an uncle like yours such things would never come into
+my head." This saying is significant for the understanding of the early
+stages of Hoffmann's intellectual development.
+
+The bonds of inclination and natural liking were drawn still closer by
+an idea of uncle Otto's. It was arranged that young Hippel should spend
+the Wednesday afternoons (when the Justizrath went out to make his
+round of visits amongst his acquaintances), along with his friend in
+studying together, principally the classics. And Saturday afternoons
+were also to be devoted to the same duties whenever practicable. But,
+as might very well be expected, the classics soon gave way to other
+books, such as Rousseau's _Confessions_ and Wiegleb's _Natuerliche
+Magie_;[4] and these in turn were forced to yield to such pastimes as
+music, drawing, mummeries, boyish games, masquerades, and even more
+pretentious adventures out in the garden, such as mimic chivalric
+contests, construction of underground passages, &c. The boys also
+discovered common ground in their desire to cultivate their minds by
+poetry and other reading. The last two years at school were most
+beneficial and productive in shaping Hoffmann's mind; he acquired a
+taste for classics and excited the attention of his teachers by his
+artistic talents, his graphic powers of representation being noticeable
+even at this early age. During this time also he cultivated the
+acquaintance of the painter Matuszewski, whom he introduces by name in
+his tale _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall").
+
+When sixteen or seventeen years old Hoffmann conceived his first boyish
+affection, which only deserves mention as giving occasion to a frequent
+utterance of his at this time, that illustrates one of the most
+striking sides of his character. It appears that the young lady who was
+the object of his fancied passion either refused to notice his homage
+or else laughed it to scorn, for he remarked to his friend with great
+warmth of feeling, "Since I can't interest her with a pleasing
+exterior, I wish I were a perfect image of ugliness, so that I might
+strike her attention, and so make her at least look at me."
+
+The beginning of Hoffmann's university career--he matriculated at
+Koenigsberg on 27th March, 1792--offers nothing of special interest. He
+decided to study jurisprudence. In making this decision he was
+doubtless influenced by the family connections and the traditional
+calling of the male members of the family. As already remarked, his
+father, his uncle, and his great-uncle had all followed the profession
+of law, and he had another uncle Doerffer in the same profession, who
+occupied a position of some influence at Glogau in Silesia. But it is
+also certain that he was determined to this decision--it cannot be
+called choice--from the desire to make himself independent of the
+family in Koenigsberg as soon as he could contrive to do so, in order
+that he might free himself from the shackles and galling unpleasantness
+of the untoward relations in life to which he was there subject. But he
+was devoted heart and soul to art--to music and painting. As the
+studies of the two friends, Hoffmann and Hippel, were different, they
+necessarily did not see so much of each other as previously; but once a
+week during the winter months they devoted a night to mutual
+outpourings of the things that were in them--the aspirations, hopes,
+dreams, and plans for the future, &c., such as imaginative youths are
+wont to cherish and indulge in. These meetings were strictly confined
+to their two selves; no third was admitted. Their rules were one bottle
+of wine for the whole evening, and the conversation to be carried on in
+rhymed verses; and Hoffmann we find looking back upon these hours with
+glad remembrance even in the full flush of his manhood and fame: even
+on his last sad birthday, a few months before his death, he dwells upon
+them with fond delight.
+
+Whilst, however, devoting himself enthusiastically to the pursuit of
+art, he did not neglect his more serious studies. He made good and
+steady progress in the knowledge of law; and he also gave lessons in
+music. It was whilst officiating in this latter capacity that his heart
+was stirred by its first serious passion--a passion which left an
+indelible impress upon all his future life. He fell in love with a
+charming girl, who had a fine taste and true sentiment in art matters,
+but who was separated from her admirer by an impassable barrier of
+rank; but although her social position was far above Hoffmann's, yet
+she returned warmly his pure and ardent affection. Hoffmann, however,
+never disguised from himself the hopelessness of his love; and the fact
+that it was so hopeless embittered all the rest of his time in
+Koenigsberg, until he left it in June, 1796, for a legal appointment at
+Great Glogau in Silesia.
+
+As these years seem to have been mainly instrumental in
+forming his character and shaping its outlines and giving depth and
+strength to its chief features, it is desirable to dwell for a moment
+upon the principal currents which at this time poured their influences
+upon him. By nature of a genial and gay temperament, gifted with an
+acute perception, which he had further trained in sharpness and
+accuracy, endowed with no small share of talent and with an ardent love
+for art, ambitious, vain in some respects, full of high spirits, and
+with a keen sense of humour, and not devoid of originality, he was
+daily chafed and galled in the depressing atmosphere of his home
+relations. He felt how illogical was the rigid methodicity, how
+unreasonable the arbitrary routine, how absurd the restrictions and
+restraints of his uncle's household regulations; he was eager to be
+quit of them, to turn his back upon them; he was anxious to find a
+congenial field for his powers-~a field where he could turn his
+accomplishments and genius to good account. The only way in which he
+could hope to do so at present, at least for some years to come, was by
+pursuing a legal career, and law he had no inclination for. He says, in
+a letter to Hippel, dated 25th Nov., 1795, "If it depended upon myself
+alone I should be a musical composer, and I have hopes that I could do
+something great in that line; as for the one I have now chosen, I shall
+be a bungler in it as long as I live." He gradually came to live upon a
+strained and barely tolerable footing with his uncle, since as he grew
+older his tricks and ironical behaviour towards little Otto assumed a
+more pronounced character, and stirred up in the old gentleman's mind
+feelings of suspicion against his unmanageable nephew. In these
+circumstances we may easily discern the germs of a dissatisfaction not
+only with his lot in life but also with himself.
+
+Next came the fact of his hopeless love which has just been mentioned.
+And another and no less potent cause which tended to deepen and
+intensify this spirit of inward dissatisfaction was the delay that
+occurred between his passing his entrance examination into the legal
+profession in July, 1795, and his appointment to a definite post of
+active duty in June, 1796. To be compelled to wear out his independent,
+ambitious heart in forced inactivity must have been galling in the
+extreme, especially when it is remembered how eagerly he was longing to
+shake himself free from the relations amidst which he had grown up, and
+his no less earnest desire to get beyond the reach of the passion, or
+at any rate the object of the passion, that was gnawing at his very
+heart-strings. To an energetic spirit, longing for a useful sphere of
+activity, hardly anything can be more fruitful as a source of
+unhappiness than enforced idleness. And this sentiment Hoffmann gives
+frequent utterance to in his letters at this period.
+
+During these same months he cultivated his mind by the perusal of the
+works of such writers as Jean Paul, Schiller, and Goethe, the intellectual
+giants upon whom the eyes of Germany were at that time fixed in wonder.
+But this course of reading, instead of counteracting, rather encouraged
+a native leaning towards poetic dreaming and sentimentality. In a letter
+to Hippel, dated 10th Jan., 1796, he even says, "I cannot possibly demand
+that she [the lady he loved] should love me to the same unmeasured extent
+of passionate devotion that has turned my head--and this torments me....
+I can never leave her; she might weep for me for twenty-four hours and
+then forget me--I should _never forget her_." There was yet another cause
+or series of causes which co-operated with those mentioned above to
+increase the distracted and agitated condition of his heart. It has been
+already stated more than once that he was a diligent student of music and
+painting. These formed his recreation from the severe and dry study of
+law-books; but to these two arts he now added the fascination of
+literary composition, and wrote two novels, which he entitled _Cornaro_
+and _Der Geheimnissvolle_. The former was rejected by a publisher, who
+had at first held out some hopes of being able to accept it, on the
+ground that its author was unknown. Besides this, the productions of
+his brush failed to sell. Hence fresh sources of disappointment and
+vexation.
+
+Through all this, however, even in his darkest moods and most desperate
+moments, he was upheld by the feelings and sentiments associated with
+his friendship for his unshaken friend Hippel. To him he poured out all
+his troubles in a series of letters,[5] which gave a most graphic
+account of his mental condition at this period. He led a very retired
+life, hardly seeing anybody; he calls himself an anchorite, and states
+he was living apart from all the world, seeking to find food for
+contemplation and reflection in his own self. He also fostered, perhaps
+unconscious to himself, high poetic aspirations, and also those
+extravagant dreams of friendship which were so fashionable in the days
+of "Posa" and "Werther" and Wieland; "his heart was never more
+susceptible to what is good," and "his bosom never swelled with nobler
+thoughts," he says in one of his letters. Then he goes on to describe
+the "flat, stale, and unprofitable" surroundings in the midst of which
+he was confined. "Round about me here it is icy cold, as in Nova
+Zembla, whilst I am burning and being consumed by the fiery breath
+within me," he says in another place. The violence of his inner
+conflict, of his heart-torture and unhappiness, finds vent in a wild
+burst in the letter before quoted of 10th Jan., 1796 (and also in
+others). He says:--
+
+
+"Many a time I think it's all over with me, and if it were not for my
+uncle's little musical evenings. I don't know what really would become
+of me.... Let me stay here and eat my heart out.... Nothing can be made
+of me, that you will see quite well.... I am ruined for everything; I
+have been cheated in everything, and in a most exasperating way." ...
+Again, "If I thought it possible that this frantic imp, my fancy, at
+which I laugh right sardonically in my calmer moments, could ever
+strain the fibres of my brain or could touch the feelers of my
+emotional power, I should wish to cry with Shakespeare's Falstaff, 'I
+would it were bedtime, and all well;'" ... and "I am accused by the
+Santa Hermandad of my own conscience." And in another letter he unbares
+the root of all his troubles in the exclamation, "Oh! that I had a
+mother like you."
+
+
+Tearing himself away from his lady-love with a violent wrench, Hoffmann
+left Koenigsberg in a sort of "dazed or intoxicated state," his heart
+bleeding with the anguish of parting. He arrived at Glogau on 15th
+June, and met with a very friendly reception from his uncle and his
+uncle's family, which consisted of his wife and a son and two
+daughters. But though they appear to have exerted themselves to make
+the unhappy youth comfortable, his heart and mind were too much
+occupied with the dear one he had left behind for him to derive full
+benefit from their kind and well-meant attentions. In the first letter
+he wrote to his friend from his new home he says, "As Hamlet advised
+his mother, I have thrown away the worser part of my heart to live the
+purer with the other half.... Am I happy, you ask? I was never more
+unhappy." In other letters, written some months later, he writes, "I am
+tired of railing against Destiny and myself.... There are moments in
+which I despair of all that is good, in which I feel it has been
+enjoined upon me to work against everything that makes a vaunt of
+specious happiness." But he took no manful and resolute steps to battle
+against his unhappy state; he continued to correspond with the lady of
+his affections, to gaze upon her portrait, to write to his friend about
+her, and to dwell upon the past, the hours he had spent in her society.
+His relatives, though treating him with all kindness, would seem to
+have endeavoured to reason him out of his passion, since after he had
+been some months in Glogau, he complains that those who had at first
+been all love and sympathy were now cold and reserved towards him; he
+was misunderstood; he was tormented with _ennui_, and looked with
+contempt (partly amused and partly bitter) upon the childish follies
+and fopperies, the trifling and dandling with serious feelings and
+affections, of the folks amongst whom he lived, who spent their time in
+"hunting after flies and _bonmots_." During these months, however, and
+during the course of the two years he spent in Silesia, he penetrated
+deeper into the secret constitution of his own nature than he ever did
+before or after: we find him confessing to his hot passionate
+disposition and his quickness to take offence, and making mention of
+the change that had taken place in him since the days of his early
+friendship with Hippel--he was become hypochondriacal, dissatisfied
+with himself, ready to kick against destiny, and prone to assume a
+defiant attitude towards her and to blame her and call her to account
+for her treatment of him; then again he was melancholy and sad and
+sentimental, using in his letters expressions built up after Jean
+Paul's style, and indulging in gushing protestations of unalterable
+friendship. But then this was the age of exaggerated friendships. His
+humour and joviality did not, however, altogether desert him; he made
+himself a welcome guest of an evening, and carried out amusing pranks
+with his merry cousins.
+
+In the spring of 1797 Hoffmann accompanied his uncle on a journey to
+Koenigsberg, where he again saw the young girl he loved, but only to
+open up again all the anguish of the wounds that had never yet fully
+healed. On his return to Glogau things continued much as they were
+previous to his visit to his native town.
+
+Of his two favourite arts, painting seems to have occupied him more
+than music just at this period. Probably this was due to the influence
+of the painter Molinari, whose acquaintance he made before he had been
+six months in Glogau; and besides this man, whom he styles a "child of
+misfortune" like himself, he also enjoyed the society of Holbein,
+dramatic poet and actor; of Julius von Voss, a well-known writer; and
+of the Countess Lichtenau, formerly favourite of Frederick William II.
+of Prussia, but at that time a sort of prisoner in the garrison at
+Glogau.[6] The serious study of law he also prosecuted most
+assiduously, and to such good purpose that in June, 1798, he was
+able to surmount successfully his second or "referendary" examination.
+But for this earnest and persevering labour there was a special
+incitement--a particular cause. However contradictory it may sound, he
+was already engaged in another love affair; this time with the lady who
+afterwards became his wife, Maria Thekla Michaelina Rorer, of Polish
+extraction. The beginning of his intimacy with her dates, strange to
+say, from the early part of the year 1797, just previous to his journey
+to Koenigsberg with his uncle. Soon after passing his "referendary"
+examination, he was moved to the Supreme Court at Berlin, as a
+consequence of the promotion of his uncle to be _geheimer
+Obertribunalsrath_ in the capital. But before proceeding to Berlin to
+take up his residence there, Hoffmann made a tour through the Silesian
+mountains, partly with an eccentric friend of his uncle's and partly
+alone, finishing up the trip by an inspection of the art treasures of
+Dresden, where he was specially struck with works by Correggio and
+Battoni (mentioned in _Der Sandmann_, &c.) and Raphael. One very
+remarkable incident which happened to him during this trip must not be
+passed over in silence. He was induced to play at faro at a certain
+place where he stopped, and though he was perfectly unskilled in the
+game, yet he had such an extraordinary run of good luck, that he rose
+from the table with what was for him a small fortune. Next morning
+the event made so deep and powerful an impression upon his excitable
+temperament--his mind was so awed by the magnitude of his
+winnings--that he vowed never to touch a card again so long as he lived;
+and this vow he faithfully kept. In the tale _Spielerglueck_ ("Gambler's
+Luck") we find the incident recorded in the experiences of Baron
+Siegfried; and in the third volume of the _Serapionsbrueder_ (Part VI.)
+he relates some of the very amusing eccentricities of his travelling
+companion, which are too long to be given here.
+
+We next find Hoffmann in Berlin, where, whilst the impressions which he
+had brought back with him from his excursion were still fresh upon his
+mind, he began to revel in the enjoyment of the picture-galleries and
+other opportunities for cultivating his taste in art. Here he saw
+really how little his own skill in painting was developed; he threw
+away colours, and took up drawing again like a beginner. His position
+in a professional regard now took a more favourable turn. Freiherr
+von Schleinitz, the first president of the court to which Hoffmann
+was attached, was a friend of Hippel's; and both he and the genial
+good-hearted second president Von Kircheisen noticed and encouraged his
+talents. In consequence, he laboured at his duties and studies with
+such zeal that he succeeded in passing his third and last examination,
+the so-called _examen rigorosum_, and so qualifying for the position of
+judge in the highest courts of Prussia, in the summer of 1799. He was
+recommended for an appointment as councillor in a provincial supreme
+court; but before proceeding to the dignity of councillor it was
+obligatory upon him to serve a probationary year as _assessor_. He was
+accordingly sent down to the newly-acquired Polish provinces (South
+Prussia, as they were called), to the town of Posen, where work was
+plentiful and talented and energetic workers were in demand. Before
+leaving the capital he had the pleasure of seeing his friend Hippel,
+who spent two happy months with him, living the past over again,
+visiting Potsdam, Dessau, Leipsic, Dresden, &c., and discussing the
+journey to Italy, which through all his life Hoffmann continued to
+dream of as an ideal plan to be some time consummated, but which
+unfortunately never was consummated. Hippel accompanied his friend to
+Posen.
+
+The Polish provinces were fraught with great danger for any young man
+who was not possessed of exceptional firmness and sound moral
+principles. For a young lawyer, the work was severe and exacting, but
+the emoluments were large. Time, however, failed to allow of
+cultivating the higher sources of enjoyment; hence all hastened to make
+the most of it by throwing themselves into the lower. Drinking was a
+habit of the country; and the drink that was drunk was of the strongest
+kinds, the fiery wines of Hungary and strong liquors. There reigned
+also a deplorable laxity of morals; and the graceful Polish women were
+very seductive. That Hoffmann followed the example of his colleagues,
+and plunged into the giddy whirlpool of miscalled pleasure, will
+perhaps appear natural when we take into consideration the sources of
+discontent that had for some time been fermenting in his spirit. Having
+been submitted to the trammels of unreasonable constraint, it need not
+be wondered at that his passionate restless nature should be enticed by
+the temptations to which he was now so suddenly and unreservedly
+exposed, that he forgot all his higher strivings and cast his better
+purposes to the winds, and drank greedily of the pleasures of life
+which his newly-won freedom brought in so easy and seductive a form
+within his reach. He candidly states, "for some months a conflict of
+feelings, principles, &c., which are directly contradictory the one to
+the other, has been raging within me; I wished to stifle all
+recollection, and become what schoolmasters, preachers, uncles, and
+aunts call profligate." There was none in the circles which he
+frequented to encourage him in his desire to reach out after better
+things, to live himself into "the poetry of life," as Hitzig expresses
+it; and hence he fell into the mire of demoralisation, and his fall was
+the greater since he set about it with deliberate intent.
+
+He was at length so far carried away by the delirious whirl into which
+he had been caught as to engage in a piece of wanton folly that threw
+him back upon his career by some years, just as he was about to plant
+his foot securely upon the path leading to the summits of his
+profession. Beguiled by his striking talent for caricature, he designed
+and executed a series of sketches, satirising in an exquisitely witty
+and humorous style various situations and characters and well-known
+relations of Posen society. The inscriptions appended to the
+caricatures were not less skilfully done than were the caricatures
+themselves. No rank of society was spared, and hardly any person of
+consequence in the town. One of his friends, who afterwards became his
+brother-in-law, distributed the leaves at a masked ball in the disguise
+of an Italian hawker of pictures, cleverly contriving to place each
+individual sketch in the hands of the person to whom it would most
+likely be most welcome. Hence for several minutes universal glee at the
+excellent jest! But when they came to compare notes, _i.e._, the
+presents they had received, the merriment gave way to hot indignation.
+The author of the outrage was very speedily guessed at, since there was
+only one person in Posen with proved ability enough to wield the pencil
+so as to produce such striking likenesses--unfortunate Hoffmann! That
+very same night it is said that a man of high rank, General von
+Zastrow, deeply incensed at several of the pieces in which he himself
+played a ridiculous _role_, sent off an express courier to Berlin with
+a report of the whole affair. The consequence of the thoughtless trick
+was that Hoffmann's patent as councillor to the government at Posen,
+which lay all ready for signing, was exchanged for one appointing him
+to the town of Plock (on the R. Vistula). Thither he went early in
+1802, accompanied by his wife, whose maiden name was "Rorer, or rather
+Trzczynska, a Poless by birth, daughter of the former town-councillor
+T. of Posen, twenty-two years old, of medium stature and good figure,
+with dark-brown hair and dark blue eyes," as he himself describes her.
+He had taken the step of marriage in face of the earnest dissuasion of
+his uncle Otto, in the last months of his residence in Posen. But
+previous to this, late in the autumn of 1801, he had paid another visit
+to Koenigsberg, meeting on his return journey his friend Hippel; and
+together they saw Elbing and Dantzic. To this latter visit we owe the
+story of _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall"), published in 1817. Hippel, be
+it remarked, was disagreeably struck by the change in his friend:
+Hoffmann gave himself up to an unhealthy degree, to wild and
+extravagant gaiety, and disclosed a liking for what was low and lewd.
+
+In Plock Hoffmann spent two years. This was a quiet, stagnant place,
+where, according to his own account, he "was buried alive," and "walked
+in a morass covered with low thorny shrubs which lacerated his feet;"
+he "thought of Yorick and the imprisoned starling;" and he should have
+given way to despair had not the bitter experiences which he was made
+to drain to the lees been sweetened by the affection of his dear good
+wife, who gave him strength for the present and encouraged him to hope
+for the future. Owing to the external circumstances in the midst of
+which he was fixed, he again turned his attention seriously to music
+and painting, and also to authorship. He wrote short essays, composed
+masses, vespers, and sonatas, and translated Italian canzonets, &c.
+_Scherz, List, und Rache_, a _Singspiel_ of Goethe's, he had already
+set to music in Posen. During these two years he led a more strictly
+domestic life, and spent more of his time out of the hours of official
+duty in his own house, than he ever did afterwards. Here also, as
+almost everywhere throughout his life he was zealous and industrious in
+discharging the duties of his position. At length, just as he was
+beginning to settle down and feel contented with his lot in Plock, his
+friends in Berlin succeeded in securing his removal (1804) to a better
+and more congenial sphere of activity in Warsaw. After once more
+visiting Koenigsberg in February, 1804, and then spending several days
+with Hippel on his estate at Leistenau (province Marienwerder, East
+Prussia), he eventually proceeded to his new post in Poland in the
+spring of that same year.
+
+One illustrative and very characteristic anecdote of this period
+deserves mention. In a letter to Hippel, dated "Plock, 3rd October,
+1803," Hoffmann writes, "My uncle in Berlin will never do much more to
+recommend me, for he has become 'a grave man,' as Mercutio says in
+Shakespeare;[7] he died on the night of 24-25th September of
+inflammation of the lungs." But in his diary of October 1 he writes, in
+allusion to the same sad event, "My tears did not flow, nor did fear
+and grief draw from me any loud lamentations; but the image of the man
+whom I loved and honoured is constantly before my eyes; it never leaves
+me. The whole day through my mind has been in a tumult; my nerves are
+so excited that the least little noise makes me start." Thus he could
+jest in the midst of pain; and it is a type of the man's character.
+
+Warsaw, in notable contrast to other places in the Polish provinces,
+possessed many things calculated to excite and engage the attention of
+an active mind, of a mind so eager for knowledge and so keenly alive to
+all that was especially interesting and extraordinary as was
+Hoffmann's. The new scene of his labours cannot be better described
+than in the words of Hitzig and of Hoffmann himself. The former says
+the city had
+
+
+"Streets of magnificent breadth, consisting of palaces in the finest
+Italian style and of wooden huts which threaten every moment to tumble
+together about the ears of their indwellers; in these edifices Asiatic
+sumptuousness most closely mingled with Greenland filth; a populace
+incessantly on the stir, forming, as in a procession of maskers, the
+most startling contrasts--long-bearded Jews, and monks clad in the garb
+of every order, closely veiled nuns of the strictest rules and
+unapproachable reserve, and troops of young Polesses dressed in the
+gayest-coloured silk mantles conversing to each other across the
+spacious squares, venerable old Polish gentlemen with moustaches,
+caftan, _pass_ (girdle), sabre, and yellow or red boots, the coming
+generation in the most matchless of Parisian fashions, Turks and
+Greeks, Russians, Italians, and Frenchmen in a constantly varying
+crowd; besides this an almost inconceivably tolerant police, who
+never interfered to prevent any popular enjoyment, so that the
+streets and squares were always swarming with 'punch-and-judy' shows,
+dancing-bears, camels, and apes, whilst the occupants of the most
+elegant equipage equally with the common porter stopped to stare at
+them open-mouthed; further, a theatre conducted in the national
+language, a thoroughly good French troupe, an Italian opera, German
+comedians, who were at least ready to undertake almost anything,
+'routs' of a quite original but extremely attractive kind, and resorts
+of pilgrims in the immediate vicinity of the town--was there not
+something for an eye like Hoffmann's to see and for a hand like
+Hoffmann's to sketch?"[8]
+
+
+Thus far Hitzig. Hoffmann writes on May 14, 1804:--
+
+"Yesterday ... I resolved to enjoy myself; I threw away my deeds and
+sat down to the piano to compose a sonata, but soon found myself in the
+situation of Hogarth's _Musicien enrage_ (Wrathful Musician).
+Immediately underneath my window there arose certain differences
+between three women selling meal, two wheelbarrow-men, and one sailor;
+each of the parties pleaded its cause with a good deal of violent
+demonstration before the tribunal of the hunchback, who stands with a
+stall under the door-way below. Whilst this was going on the bells of
+the parish church, of the Bennonites, and of the Dominican church (all
+close to me) began to clang; in the churchyard of the last named (right
+opposite to me) the hopeful catechumens were hammering away on two old
+kettle-drums, with which all the dogs of the neighbourhood, spurred by
+the strong powers of instinct, joined with a chorus of barkings and
+howlings--at that moment too Wambach and his musical band of
+Janissaries trotted gaily past to the merry strains of their own
+music--meeting them out of [another] street came a herd of swine. A
+tremendous friction in the middle of the street--seven swine were
+ridden over! Terrific squealing!--Oh!--oh! a _tutti_ invented for the
+torture of the damned! Here I threw aside my pen and paper, pulled on
+my top-boots, and ran away out of the wild mad tumult through the
+Cracow suburb--through the 'new world'--down the hill. A sacred Grove
+received me in its shade; I was in Lazienki.[9] Ay, truly, the pleasant
+palace swims upon the mirror-like lake like a virgin swan. Zephyrs come
+wafted through the blossoming trees loaded with voluptuous delight. How
+pleasant to stroll through the thickly foliaged walks! That is the
+place for an amiable Epicurean to live in. What! why this man with
+the white nose galloping[10] along here through the dark-leaved trees
+must be the 'Commendatore' in _Don Juan_. Ah! John Sobieski! _Pink
+fecit--male fecit_. Oh! what a state of things! He is riding over
+writhing prostrate slaves, who are stretching up their withered arms
+to the rearing horse--an ugly sight! What! is it possible? Great
+Sobieski--as a Roman with _wonci_[11] has girt a Polish sabre about his
+waist, and it is made--of wood--ridiculous!... You ask me, my dear
+friend, how I like Warsaw. A motley world! too noisy--too wild--too
+harum-scarum--everything topsy-turvey! Where can I find time to write,
+to sketch, to compose music? The king ought to give up Lasienki to me;
+_there_ one could live nicely, if you like!"[12]
+
+
+The first few months of his residence in this "new world," as it
+appeared to immigrants from the "old land" of Prussia, Hoffmann spent
+in familiarising himself with the novelty and strangeness of the place,
+in wondering at and admiring the motley scenes which daily met his
+view; and doubtless his acute perceptive faculties gleaned a valuable
+harvest of notes for use on future occasions, both for his pencil and
+his pen. About the end of June he formed the acquaintance of J. E.
+Hitzig, who came down to Warsaw with the rank of _assessor_ in the
+administrative college in which Hoffmann held that of councillor. The
+crust of formal courtesy and commonplaces was broken through by
+Hitzig's pithy answer, to a question asking his opinion about some
+newly-arrived colleague, that he was "a man in buckram." The borrowed
+words of Falstaff banished Hoffmann's reserve, and caused his sombre
+face to light up with joy and his tongue to pour out a brilliant gush
+of talk. This new-made friend, who had previously (1800, 1801) lived in
+Warsaw, where he began his career, introduced Hoffmann into a pleasant
+and intellectual set of men, amongst whom was Zacharias Werner, author
+of _Soehne des Thales_, _Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_,[13] &c. Hitzig had
+spent the interval from 1801 in Berlin, where he had kept fully abreast
+of the newest productions in literature and art, whilst Hoffmann had
+been living, partly a rude and riotous life, and partly a solitary and
+monkish one, at Posen and Plock. Hence the one had plenty to
+communicate and the other great eagerness to listen, especially as the
+little he had begun to hear roused anew his slumbering better feelings,
+and whetted with a keen edge his native desire for self-improvement
+through art and literature.
+
+In the following year, 1805, one of the Prussian administrative
+officials, an enthusiast in music, conceived the idea of establishing a
+club or society for the purpose of amusement and mutual instruction in
+his favourite art, and for the purpose also of training singers of both
+sexes. Hoffmann's interest was enlisted in the scheme; and things
+proceeded at an energetic rate, the first concert being successful
+beyond expectation. With this encouragement the society was induced to
+go to work on a larger and more pretentious scale. The Miniszeki
+Palace, injured by fire, was bought for the seat of the new academy;
+and then Hoffmann threw himself into the plans of the society with all
+his soul, working indefatigably in preparing architectural designs, and
+later in decorating the halls and corridors. During all the mild days
+of the spring of 1806 he was never to be met with at home. If not in
+the government office, he was invariably to be found perched up on a
+high scaffolding in the new musical Ressource, painter's jacket on and
+surrounded by a crowd of colour-pots, amongst which was sure to be a
+bottle of Hungarian or Italian wine; there he painted and thence he
+conversed with his friends below. If, on occasion, parties requiring
+the services of Councillor Hoffmann came to look for him at the new
+Ressource, whither they had been directed from his own house, they were
+greatly surprised to see him drop nimbly to the floor from before an
+elaborate wall-painting of ancient Egyptian gods, mixed up with
+caricature figures and animal-like fragments of modems (his friends
+with tails, wings, etc.), hastily wash his hands, trot along in front
+of them to his place of business, and in a brief space of time turn out
+some complicated legal instrument with which it would defy the sharpest
+critic to find anything amiss.
+
+So absorbed was he in this work, and in that of directing at the
+evening performances and composing music for them, that he hardly knew
+anything of the dark thunder-cloud of war that was gathering in the
+West until the news of the fateful battle of Jena came; but upon these
+music enthusiasts in Warsaw even this intelligence made no perceptible
+impression. Their concerts and practisings and meetings went on
+uninterruptedly just as before, until one fine day the advanced guard
+of the Russian army rode into the streets of the former Polish capital.
+Soon after the Russian general had taken up his quarters in Praga,
+close to Warsaw, there appeared on the other side of the town the
+pioneers of the great army of Napoleon. The Prussians and Russians
+withdrew from the town. Milhaud arrived with the main body of Murat's
+forces; in Napoleon's name the Prussian Government was dissolved, and
+its officials were superseded by native Poles. Hence Hoffmann was left
+without employment. He and his colleagues divided the contents of the
+treasury between them to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+French; this secured them from want for the present. Careless about the
+future, and revelling in the luxury of untrammelled freedom, Hoffmann
+was now perfectly happy. The excitement was like rich wine to his
+brilliant fancy; he never had enough of it. He spent all the livelong
+day in running about seeing and hearing the many remarkable things to
+be both seen and heard. And the little, restless, energetic man was
+like quicksilver; he was everywhere. He specially loved to frequent the
+theatres, where, before the curtain rose, conversations might be heard
+carried on in ten or a dozen living tongues at once. Pushing his way
+through the motley throng, he penetrated to every part of the house,
+busy gathering all sorts of rich observations, and storing up a most
+varied assortment of experiences; and nothing escaped his falcon eye or
+remained unnoticed by his keen perception. Many and exquisite were the
+humorous anecdotes he picked up, the gestures he copied, the tricks and
+eccentricities he caught, the extraordinary characters he understood
+and fathomed at a glance; and these experiences he afterwards retailed
+to his friends, to their unbounded delight.
+
+But amid all the tumult of the French occupation of the city, the
+evenings at the Musical Ressource still went on the same as ever.
+Hoffmann indeed, in order to escape the burdens of billeting as well as
+from motives of economy, took up his residence in one of the attics of
+the Ressource, where, though somewhat straitened for accommodation (for
+he had his wife, a niece aged about twelve, and a little baby daughter
+with him), he was as happy and contented as he well could be. He had
+the rich library of the Ressource at command, and his own piano stood
+in one of its rooms; and "that was all he wanted to make him forget the
+French and the future." Early in 1807, he took advantage of a
+favourable opportunity and sent his wife and the two children to her
+friends in Posen; Hitzig also, and his family, and most other friends,
+left Warsaw in March of that year: thus Hoffmann was left almost alone.
+Soon afterwards he was attacked by a grave nervous disorder, but
+successfully nursed through it by the one or two friends who still
+remained in the city. On recovering, he wished to go to Vienna, with
+the view of beginning an artistic career, and was only prevented from
+carrying out his design by want of money to defray the expenses of the
+journey. He was in great distress, and even began to despond, until
+finally in the summer he contrived to get to Posen, and thence to
+Berlin, where he arrived some time in July.
+
+In Berlin, however, his prospects did not improve. He failed to find
+employment for his talents: nobody could be got to purchase his
+sketches or sit to him for a portrait; an attempt to interest Iffland,
+the actor and dramatist, in him failed; and no publisher could be found
+for his musical productions. Everything he was willing to do came to
+nothing. Then came other misfortunes. His ready-money, consisting of
+six _Louis d'or_, was stolen from him; news reached him of the death of
+his dearly-loved daughter Cecily when two years old, and of the illness
+of his wife. He was on the point of despair, when it suddenly occurred
+to him to advertise for the post of musical director in a theatre. This
+had the desired effect of eventually securing him the post he wished,
+in the theatre at Bamberg which was conducted under the auspices of
+Count von Soden; but the engagement was not to commence until October,
+1808. The intervening months were months of hard struggle for Hoffmann;
+he says he was almost in the extremities of want, and should have
+lacked the bare necessaries of life had he not succeeded in disposing
+of some minor productions in music and painting for a couple of _Louis
+d'or_ received in advance. In the summer of 1808, he at last fetched
+his wife from Posen, and then repaired to Bamberg (1st September).
+
+To these years in Warsaw and Berlin belong three operas and other minor
+musical pieces (including music for Werner's tragedy _Das Kreuz an der
+Ostsee_), several productions of his pencil and brush, but no literary
+works. Here at the end of what may be termed the first act in E. T. W.
+Hoffmann's chequered life we may pause a moment And the pause we may
+turn to account by quoting a description of his personal appearance and
+some peculiarities of habit.
+
+
+"Hoffmann was very short of stature, of yellowish complexion; and he
+had dark, almost black hair, growing down low upon his forehead, gray
+eyes which had nothing remarkable about them when they were at rest,
+but which assumed an uncommonly humorous and cunning expression when he
+blinked them, as he often did. His nose was thin and of the Roman type,
+and his mouth tightly closed.
+
+"Notwithstanding his agility, his body seemed to be capable of
+endurance, for in contrast with his size his breast was high and his
+shoulders broad.
+
+"During the earlier part of his life his dress was sufficiently
+elegant, without falling into foppery. The only thing he set great and
+special store by was his whiskers, which he carefully cut so as to form
+a point against the corners of his mouth....
+
+"What particularly struck the eye in his exterior was his extraordinary
+vivacity of movement, which rose to the highest pitch when he began
+to narrate anything. His manners at receiving and parting from
+people--repeated quick short bendings of the neck without moving the
+head--had a good deal that appeared to partake of the nature of
+caricature, and might very readily have been taken for irony had not
+the impression made by his singular gestures on such occasions been
+softened by his cordial warmth of manner.
+
+"He spoke with incredible quickness and in a somewhat hoarse voice, so
+that he was always very difficult to understand, especially during the
+last years of his life, when he had lost some of his front teeth. When
+relating he always spoke in quite short sentences; but when the
+conversation turned upon art matters and he got enthusiastic--against
+which, however, he seemed to guard himself--he employed long and
+finely rounded periods. If he were reading any of his own compositions
+aloud--whether literary or official--he hurried over the unimportant
+parts at such a rate that his listeners had hard work to follow him;
+but those places which are called 'strong touches' in a picture he
+emphasised with almost comic pathos; he screwed up his mouth as he
+read, and looked round to see if his listeners caught the points, so
+that he often upset both his own and their equilibrium. Owing to this
+habit he was conscious that he did not read well, and was always
+uncommonly pleased if anybody else would relieve him of the task; this,
+however, was a ticklish thing to do, especially in the case of MSS.
+copy, for every word read falsely or every hesitating glance upon a
+word to make sure what it was went like a knife to his heart, and this
+effect he could not conceal. As a singer he was a fine powerful
+tenor."[14]
+
+
+To Bamberg Hoffmann went with high hopes of being able to realise the
+dreams of his life; but his fond expectations were doomed to the
+bitterest disappointment. His post he barely retained two months. The
+theatre circumstances were on an exact par with those described in
+_Wilhelm Meister_ (_videatur_ the name Melina, &c.). Hoffmann's style
+of directing gave offence to the Bamberg public on the very first
+evening; Count von Soden had placed the management of the theatre in
+the hands of a certain Cuno, whose affairs were so embarrassed that he
+never, or only seldom, paid his officials, and finally became insolvent
+in February, 1809. The disappointed director, embittered against the
+public by his failure to recommend himself to them, supported himself
+and his wife by composing the incidental music for the various pieces
+given at the theatre, at a small monthly salary (of which he received
+but little), and by giving music lessons in many of the best families
+of the town. But the war approaching that district of Germany caused
+many of these families to leave the place; and Hoffmann began to be in
+embarrassed circumstances. Then he wrote an extremely droll letter to
+Rochlitz, the editor of the _Musicalische Zeitung_ at Leipsic, was
+taken on as a contributor, and continued to work for this magazine all
+the time he was in Bamberg--producing mostly reviews and criticisms of
+musical works, and writing fugitive pieces of musical interest. He also
+composed several pieces of music of various descriptions independently
+of those which he wrote for the theatre. Nor was his brush idle, for he
+received several commissions for large family pictures. Thus things
+went on until the summer of 1809, when a brighter cloud dawned upon him
+for a time. One fine summer evening he made the acquaintance of Kunz, a
+bookseller, publisher, and wine-dealer, at the pleasure-resort of Bug
+(close to Bamberg) in a characteristic manner. Kunz, an honest, jovial,
+good-natured giant, not lacking humour and gifted with a remarkable
+talent for mimicry and imitation, became little Hoffmann's fast
+friend--nay, his only real friend--during the whole of the time the
+latter remained in Bamberg. They were almost inseparable, associated
+in all amusements and diversions: they spent many long winter evenings
+together in pouring out their hearts and experiences to each other in
+mutual confidences, and many long summer evenings at the "Rose," where
+according to German custom a throng of visitors gathered to spend the
+hours between closing business and going to bed. In July, 1810,
+Holbein, Hoffmann's Glogau friend, came to undertake the management of
+the Bamberg theatre. This, of course, could not fail to be of advantage
+to Hoffmann, who, though he did not resume his post of musical
+director, yet received a permanent engagement to act in a multitude of
+departments: he was musical composer, architect, scene-painter, part
+comptroller of the financial arrangements, and director of the
+repertoire, &c. Under Holbein's management the theatre rose to a
+flourishing level; classic operas and good plays[15] were introduced
+with success, to which the versatile talents of Hoffmann largely
+contributed. In the evenings the choice spirits of Bamberg, mostly of
+theatrical and artistic connection, used to assemble in the "Rose,"
+where Hoffmann was the soul of the party, his genius, wit, irony, and
+drollery being inexhaustible. Whilst sending out flashes of sarcastic
+wit or gleams of exquisite humour, he would clench a droll or clever
+description by quickly embodying his thoughts and words in impromptu
+sketches, which were handed round to the company. Music and singing,
+often by the actors and actresses, also added to the entertainment of
+the evening. Mine host of the "Rose" saw his company increased by some
+scores of visitors when it was known that the inimitable sharp-eyed
+little music-director was going to be present; and he used to send
+across (Hoffmann lived the other side of the street only) during the
+day to inquire if he intended being there in the evening. But on the
+whole, Hoffmann was more generally feared than loved, or even
+respected, by the main body of the townsfolk. His vanity was openly
+displayed; he must lead the conversation, and everybody else must fall
+in with his humour and his whim, or they might expect some marked
+rudeness from his bitter tongue; and the fellow had a confoundedly
+sharp tongue, and no less sharp a pen and pencil. The most wonderful
+things were said about him in the town, and to those not intimate with
+him or who did not know him personally, he was a man to be gazed at
+from a distance; it was hardly safe to seek his acquaintance, although
+his talk was said to be something extraordinary, and his gestures and
+grimaces irresistibly diverting, yet he could also launch stinging
+barbs and on occasion utter insulting sarcasms. In fact the outside
+public were wont to regard him as invested with a nimbus of wonder, or
+even as a sort of daemonic being. Though these evenings were beyond all
+conception gay and festive, Hoffmann seldom drank to excess. Of course
+he drank a good deal: he had acquired the habit, as remarked, at Posen,
+but he was not a common drinker, who drinks for the drink's sake. It
+was the exhilaration it gave to his spirits and the fire it gave to his
+mind and brilliant parts that he found attractive in the habit.[16]
+Excursions were also made into the country, particularly to Bug; and
+here, as at Warsaw, the restless "quicksilver" man was everywhere.
+
+In March, 1811, he was fortunate to be introduced to Von Weber the
+musician, whose regard for his musical talents continued undiminished
+until his death; and in the same month Hoffmann paid a visit to Jean
+Paul at Bayreuth, and had from him a fairly cordial reception. Towards
+the end of the year came the intelligence that his uncle Otto Doerffer
+of Koenigsberg had died, leaving him heir to his property. But the sum
+Hoffmann received barely sufficed, if indeed it did suffice, to pay his
+debts. These had been accumulated first by Hoffmann's own want of
+prudence--when he had money in his purse he spent it merrily without a
+thought about the morrow--and secondly, by the frequent illness of his
+wife, the simple, homely, unassuming, good-natured creature with whom
+he always lived on happy terms in spite of his own unpardonable
+vagaries. Curiously enough, he used to labour under the odd delusion
+that she was gifted with keen critical taste and was an intellectual
+woman, though this was far from being the truth, according to the
+express evidence of his bosom-friend Kunz.
+
+Amongst Hoffmann's pupils was a young girl of sixteen, Julia M----;
+this was his favourite pupil. For her he came to conceive an
+overmastering passion; but whether it was more of the imagination or of
+the heart it would appear difficult to decide with absolute certainty.
+He did not know himself; "he preferred to remain a riddle to himself, a
+riddle which he always dreaded to have solved;" and he demanded from
+his friend Kunz that he should look upon him as a "sacred inexplicable
+hieroglyph." The girl, who was pretty and amiable, of good
+understanding, and of child-like deportment towards her music-master,
+never for a single moment dreamt of such a thing as his passion for
+her, and so of course she never consciously encouraged it in any way.
+She did not even show any signs of possessing a dreamy or poetic
+temperament, or seem to be inclined to sentimentality, so that
+Hoffmann's extraordinary infatuation can only be explained as a "fixed
+insanity." At any rate, it powerfully affected his mind, and left an
+indelible trace upon him almost down to his dying day. The day on which
+her betrothal to a stupid, weak-minded man, a man in all respects
+unworthy of her, was celebrated at the pleasure-resort of Pommersfelden
+(four hours from Bamberg), was one which shook Hoffmann's storm-tossed
+soul to its profoundest depths. He had hated himself for his weakness,
+and yet could not or would not manfully resolve to break through it.
+Now he was compelled to do so, and in a way that was galling to the
+utmost degree. Her marriage turned out an unhappy one; and eight years
+later, that is two years before his death, hearing she was in great
+trouble, he sent many kind messages to her through a mutual friend.
+These relations are detailed with striking truth and fidelity in the
+_Nachricht von den neusten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza_, published
+in the _Fantasiestuecke in Callot's Manier_ (1814-15). Perhaps, if we
+sufficiently compare the descriptions which he gives of various
+heroines in his tales (all of which were written after this time),[17]
+and bear in mind the common characteristic running through them all,
+namely, that he puts them before us more as individual pictures than as
+developments of character, giving us purely objective sketches of
+them after the manner of a painter--if we compare these descriptions
+with what we know of Hoffmann's mind and character, his restless,
+brilliant imagination, and the taint of sensuousness that helped to
+mar its purity, his keen eye for beauty in form and colour, his strong
+talent for seeing the things with which he came in contact through
+an unmistakable veil of either love or hatred, we may perhaps hazard
+the opinion, without risk of going far wrong, that it was his
+imagination--the imagination that made up such a large part of the
+man--that was principally concerned in this remarkable passion; if his
+heart was also touched, as it would undoubtedly appear to have been,
+the road to it must no less undoubtedly have been found through his
+imagination.
+
+Early in 1812 Hoffmann was invited to a banquet at the monastery of the
+Capuchins; and the visit made an extraordinary impression upon him. All
+during dinner he could not keep his eyes off a gray-haired old monk
+with a fine antique head, genuine Italian face, strong-marked features,
+and long snow-white beard. On being introduced to Father Cyrillus he
+asked him innumerable questions about the secrets of monastic life,
+especially about those things of which "we profane have only dim
+guesses, no clear conceptions." They got into a poetic and exalted
+frame of mind, and rose just as it was getting dusk to inspect the
+chapel and crypt, and other objects of interest. In the crypt Hoffmann
+was powerfully agitated: he reverently doffed his hat, his wine-heated
+face became terribly pale, and he visibly showed that he was held in
+the thraldom of supernatural awe. When Father Cyrillus went on to point
+out the spot where his own mortal remains should rest, and to indulge
+in certain pious exhortations to them (Hoffmann and Kunz) to shed a
+tear upon his grave if they should come there again in after years,
+Hoffmann lost control of himself; he stood like a marble pillar, his
+face and eyes set, his hair standing on end, unable to utter a
+word.[18] Then making a gesture upwards he hurried out of the crypt
+with hasty uncertain steps. The impressions made upon him by this
+visit, and the observations he gathered, he employed in the _Elixiere
+des Teufels_ and _Kater Murr_ (pt. II.), the meeting between
+_Kapellmeister_ Kreisler and Father Hilarius, as well as the
+description of the monastery and its situation in the latter, being
+invested with a fine poetic flavour.
+
+The scene in the crypt points to another side of Hoffmann's character,
+or rather personality, which hitherto has not been alluded to. In fact,
+it does not seem, as far as can be gathered from the biographical
+sources, that it began to be strongly developed until the Bamberg
+period. We have seen how that early in life he conceived a decided
+antipathy to the prosaic and the commonplace, and his career up to this
+point furnishes abundant evidence that he hated with a genuine hatred
+to keep in the ruts of custom and conventionality, as if bound to do so
+because such was prescribed by custom and conventionality. His
+sentiments he never concealed, and his actions harmonised, almost without
+exception, strictly with his sentiments; for one of his most striking and
+instructive characteristics was the remarkable fearlessness which he
+displayed no less in his actual conduct than in his habits of thought.
+Affectation was far from him; thorough genuineness was stamped upon all
+he did, showing unmistakably that it came direct from the man himself.
+In fact it might be said, with special significance, that his inner and
+his outer life--the in other cases invisible life of the soul and the
+visible life in action--were perfectly correlated, if not one and
+indivisibly the same. Being then thus honest with himself,[19] and
+detesting as he did all that was commonplace and wearying, fiat and stale
+and dull, it is no wonder that he should tend to fall into the opposite
+extreme, and should delight in the unusual, the singular, the
+extraordinary. Further, when we remember his fine imaginative powers,
+his inimitable humour, his vanity, his poetic cast of mind, his bitterness
+against the public for not appreciating his musical talents, and his
+consequent fits of fierce defiance and satiric gloom, there is still less
+cause for wonder when we find this propensity for seeking the uncommon
+and the marvellous deepening and developing in time into an unconquerable
+penchant for what was grotesque and eccentric, for what was fantastic,
+unnatural, ghostly, and horrible. He loved to occupy his fancy most with
+the extremes of human action, and to dive down into the most secret and
+unexplored recesses of human nature to bring back thence some wild
+startling trait that scarce any other imagination save his own would
+have discovered. If he ever studied human nature at all, it was along
+the border-lands of rationality; those misty shadowy states, such
+as insanity, monomania, and hypochondriacal somnambulism, where the
+soul hardly knows itself and loses touch of reality and almost of
+self-consciousness. These and the like mysterious states of being
+exercised a strange fascination upon his spirit. He was constantly
+pursued by the idea that some secret and dreadful calamity would happen
+to him, and his mind was often haunted by images of awful form and by
+"doubles" of himself and others. He even believed he saw visions with
+his own bodily eyes, and no expostulations of his friends could drive
+this belief out of his head. Not only when he was engaged in writing,
+but even in the midst of an ordinary conversation, at supper, or whilst
+drinking a social glass of wine or rum, he would suddenly exclaim, "See
+there--there--that ugly little pigmy--see what capers he cuts. Pray
+don't incommode yourself, my little man. You are at liberty to listen
+to us as much as you please. Will you not approach nearer? You are
+welcome." (Here, and occasionally, he would accompany his words with
+violent muscular contortions of the face.) "Pray what will you take?
+Oh! don't go, my good little fellow." All this, or similar disconnected
+phrases, he used to utter with his eyes fixed and riveted upon the
+place where he affirmed he saw the vision; and if his word was doubted
+or he was laughed at as a stupid foolish man, he would knit his brows
+and with great earnestness reiterate his assertions and appeal to his
+wife to support him, saying, "I often see them, don't I, Mischa"
+(Misza, Mischa, short form for the Polish name Michaelina)?
+
+This side of Hoffmann's individuality is not only one of the most
+characteristic of him, it is necessary to grasp it in order to
+understand his written works. These remarks will also serve to make
+more intelligible the sensation aroused in Hoffmann the evening he was
+at the Capuchin monastery. It is in the _Elixiere des Teufels_ that
+these noteworthy traits find in most respects their fullest expression.
+
+To return to the historical narrative. The story _Meister Martin_ and
+the unfinished _Der Feind_ owe their origin to a visit which Hoffmann
+paid to Erlangen and Nuremberg in March, 1812. In the same year he also
+devoted some attention to sport, and learned to use a sportsman's
+rifle; but his imagination was always swifter than his rifle-charge. A
+_sitting_ sparrow he did at length contrive to hit, but a flying one,
+or a hare, or even a deer, he never could succeed in knocking over,
+that is to say the real animals. Clods of earth and tufts of grass
+which his imagination conjured into game he could sometimes hit, but no
+living animal would ever be likely to approach near him, for his quick
+restless movements and mercurial gestures were a standing impediment to
+any game ever coming within shot of him unless actually driven close
+past his "stand," and then his excitement either made him fire too soon
+or else miss. Nevertheless, he enjoyed these sporting excursions, in
+his own eccentric fashion, immensely.[20]
+
+During the summer Hoffmann took up his residence for four weeks in the
+picturesque ruins of the castle of Altenburg, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Bamberg, where, whilst living a hermit's life in
+company with his spouse, he painted one of the towers with frescoes
+illustrative of incidents in the life of Count Adalbert von Babenberg,
+whose residence the castle had formerly been. But he also occupied
+himself with literary schemes; it was in this retreat that he wrote
+certain sketches designed to form parts of a work which long occupied
+his mind, but which never came to anything, namely, the _Lichte Stunden
+eines wahnsinnigen Musikers_ (Rational Intervals of a Crack-brained
+Musician). In this he purposed to develop his opinions on the theory of
+music and the principles of harmony. The fragments were afterwards
+revised and appeared as the _Kreisleriana_ in the _Fantasiestuecke_.
+
+In the next month, July, his star of adversity was again to be in the
+ascendant. Holbein severed his connection with the theatre, and
+Hoffmann lost his fixed income. Things grew darker and darker for him,
+until he was almost reduced to actual want; at any rate he came to be
+in very embarrassed circumstances. Singular to say, however, under all
+this cloud of adversity he maintained a shining face and a light heart
+behind it. This was peculiar to him; Rochlitz says "he belonged to the
+large class of men who can bear ill fortune better than good fortune."
+During this time of distress, which was a repetition of his dark days
+in Berlin in 1807-8, he displayed a remarkable activity in his usual
+pursuits. His criticism of _Don Juan_, and exposition of the problem of
+Mozart's great opera, for which Hoffmann cherished a profound and
+almost extravagant admiration, owes its origin to this period.[21] An
+anecdote in relation to this will also illustrate his true passionate
+admiration of art. Kunz lost a child, for which he grieved sadly; two
+days afterwards Hoffmann advised him to go with him to see _Don Juan_
+at night, declaring it would assuage his grief and soothe and comfort
+his heart. Of course Kunz looked upon the idea as preposterous.
+Nevertheless Hoffmann would not be denied; he exerted all his arts of
+persuasion to induce his friend to go. At last Kunz did go; on the way
+to the theatre Hoffmann discoursed of the opera in such a sensible,
+acute, and touching way, and so poetically and with especial reference
+to his friend's loss, and afterwards in the theatre he expressed his
+sympathy in such kind and delicate lines, whilst tears of genuine
+feeling stood in his eyes, that his friend was obliged to admit, "This
+music of the spheres, which I had heard at least a dozen times before,
+exerted a greater power over me than all the dictates of reason or the
+consolations of friends."
+
+In February, 1813, the struggling ex-director received an altogether
+unexpected letter from Joseph Seconda, offering him the post of
+music-director to his opera company at Dresden; and on April 21,
+1813, Hoffmann's residence in Bamberg, which may be regarded as the
+turning-point in his life, came to an end. Four days later he arrived
+at his destination without encountering any very serious adventure on
+the road, although it swarmed most of the way with scouting Bashkirs,
+Cossacks, Prussian hussars, and Russian dragoons, and was thickly lined
+with heavy guns and munition-waggons,--massing for the battle of Luetzen
+(May 2). On arriving at Dresden Hoffmann found quite unexpectedly his
+friend Hippel, and with him spent several right happy days. Then he was
+summoned by Seconda to join him at Leipsic, for Seconda seems to have
+spent his time between this town and Dresden. But the journey was
+postponed until May 20th, owing to the proximity of the contending
+forces and the consequent unsettled state of the country. In the
+intervals several sharp skirmishes between the Russians and French took
+place in and close around Dresden. As might be expected, Hoffmann could
+not check his irrepressible desire to be in the thick of the
+excitement; on May 9th he was standing close beside one of the town
+gates when a ball struck against a wall near him and in the rebound hit
+him on the shin; he quietly stooped down and picked up the flattened
+"coin," and preserved it as a memento, "being quite satisfied with that
+one memento, unselfishly not asking for any more," as he wrote. Even
+during these troubled restless days he worked at the _Fantasiestuecke_.
+On the way to Leipsic happened a startling occurrence, which probably
+served as the prototype for the catastrophe at the end of _Das Majorat_
+(The Entail). The coach was upset and a newly married Countess was
+taken up dead; Hoffmann's own wife also received a severe wound on the
+head. Seconda's troupe only remained in Leipsic a few weeks longer;
+permission was given him to play in the Court theatre at Dresden; hence
+on 24th June we find Hoffmann on his way back to Dresden, and deriving
+in his characteristic fashion much amusement from a waggon heavily
+laden with theatrical appurtenances, living and non-living, something
+in the style of the carriage scene in _Die Fermate_.
+
+The return, however, was a return into the very hottest scene of the
+struggle between the Allies and Napoleon. On August 26th and 27th the
+fight raged furiously around the walls of Dresden; the quarter in which
+Hoffmann was living was shelled; the people in the house "bivouaced"
+under the stone stairs, trembling with fear and anxiety. Hoffmann,
+however, could not bear to hide away, so he slipped out by a back door
+and went to join one of his theatrical friends. Looking out of his
+window they watched the damage done by the shells, and saw one burst in
+the market-place below, crushing a soldier's head, tearing open the
+body of a passing citizen, and seriously wounding three other people
+not far away. Keller the actor, in his start of apprehension, let his
+glass fall out of his hand; "I," says Hoffmann, "drank mine empty and
+cried, 'What is life? Not able to bear a little bit of hot iron? Poor
+weak human nature! God give me calmness and courage in the midst of
+danger! We can get over it all better so.'" Then he returned to the
+anxious party under the steps, taking them wine and rum--the latter was
+Hoffmann's favourite drink. His presence brought the unfailing good
+spirits and humour which hardly ever deserted him, even under the
+darkest cloud of adversity. On the 29th he visited the battle-field and
+saw its cruel sights and its horrors. But other horrors were in store
+for the inhabitants of the city; for the next few weeks Dresden was
+besieged, and her citizens suffered from famine and pestilence and all
+the other usual terrible concomitants of a siege.
+
+Hoffmann's literary activity through all these weeks of turmoil was
+something astonishing. Whilst the thunders of cannon were making "the
+ground to tremble and the windows to shake," and the shells were
+bursting around him and the sharp crack and dull ping of bullets were
+incessantly striking upon his ear, this extraordinary man sat
+unconcerned amidst it all, absorbed in literary or musical composition,
+either writing his _Goldener Topf_ (or _Der Dichter und der Componist_
+or _Der Magnetiseur_) or working out his opera _Undine_, which was
+begun in Bamberg in 1812. Even when suffering from the dysentery which
+raged in the place, his intellectual activity went on without being
+impaired. In a letter to Kunz of date Sept 8th of this year he writes,
+"I am, as you will observe, unwearied in cultivating the fine arts, and
+if to-morrow or the day after I am not blown into the air by a Prussian
+or Russian or Austrian shell, you will find me fat and well-favoured
+from art enjoyments of every sort."
+
+It was through Kunz's intervention that the Introduction prefixed to
+the _Fantasiestuecke_ was obtained from Jean Paul, and that against
+Hoffmann's own wish, for all introductions except those which stand as
+_prolegomena_ before a scientific work he hated--when a well-known
+writer prefixed an introduction before the work of an unknown as a sort
+of attestation, it seemed to him like "an incendiary letter which the
+young author takes into his hand in order to go and beg for applause
+with it." Another short passage from one of his letters to Kunz of this
+same summer may here be quoted as illustrating a trait in his
+character:--
+
+
+"So far about business; and now the earnest request that you will keep
+in mind and constantly before your eyes who and what I am, and let
+our business even be inspired with that spirit of cheerfulness and
+good-humour which always marked our intercourse with each other, and
+even in money matters prevented the dead, stiff, frosty mercantile
+style from coming to the surface. I am sure it was quite foreign to
+both of us, and could only excite in us such fear as we feel when set
+upon by an angry 'wauwau,' at which afterwards we can only laugh to
+each other."
+
+
+This unwillingness, nay almost repugnance to look at things from their
+serious side, was quite characteristic of him. "But these are _odiosa_"
+was a frequent phrase in his mouth.
+
+On 9th December Seconda and his opera company once more repaired to
+Leipsic, and Hoffmann of course along with them. There on New Year's
+Day he was struck down by a severe attack of inflammation in the chest,
+aggravated by gout, in consequence of a violent cold caught in
+the theatre; the case was so severe and grave that his life was at
+times in danger. "Podagrists are generally visited by an especial
+humour--brilliant fancies; this comforts me; I experience the truth of
+it, since often when I feel the sharpest pangs I write _con amore_," he
+states in a letter to Kunz (24th March). And during his illness one of
+his friends "found him in one of the meanest rooms in one of the
+meanest inns, sitting on a wretched bed, but ill protected against the
+cold, and with his feet drawn up by gout." A board was lying in front
+of him, and he appeared to be busy doing something upon it. "God
+bless me!" exclaimed his friend, "whatever are you doing?" "Making
+caricatures," replied Hoffmann laughing--"caricatures of the cursed
+Frenchman; I am inventing them, drawing them, and colouring them." He
+also wrote about this time the _Vision auf dem Schlachtfelde bei
+Dresden_ and other pieces, and finished his _Undine_; further, whilst
+in this distressing condition, he began the _Elixiere des Teufels_, the
+first volume of which was completed in less than a month. This work he
+intended to be an illustration, or illustrative exposition of his own
+notions, of "a man who even at his birth was an object of contention
+between the powers divine and demoniacal, and his tortuous wonderful
+life was intended to exhibit in a clear and distinct light those secret
+and mysterious combinations between the human spirit and all those
+Higher Principles which are concealed in all Nature, and only flash out
+now and again--and these flashes we call chance." That he succeeded in
+his purpose cannot be maintained. His own individuality was too strong
+for him: he failed to handle his subject from a sufficiently
+independent standpoint. He was not the artist creating a work that
+was quite outside himself; he was rather the silk-worm spinning his
+entangling threads round about himself. The book can scarcely be
+read without shuddering; the dark maze of humane motion and human
+weakness--a mingling of poetry, sentimentality, rollicking humour, wild
+remorse, stern gloom, blind delusion, dark insanity, over all which is
+thrown a veil steeped in the fantastic and the horrible--all this
+detracts from the artistic merits of the work, but invests it with a
+corresponding proportion of interest as a revealer of some of the
+deepest secrets and hidden phases of the human soul, if one only has
+the courage to wade through it. The dreamy mystifications and the wild
+insanity and mystic passion of Brother Medardus are not unrelieved by
+scenes and characters which bear the stamp of bright poetic beauty
+and rich comic humour (_e.g._, the character of the Abbess of the
+Cistercian convent, the _jaeger_, the description of the monastery, the
+scenes with Mr. Ewson and Belcampo _alias_ Schoenfeld).
+
+For some reason which cannot be quite made out for certain, either in
+consequence of his continued illness or because of a quarrel with
+Seconda, Hoffmann found himself once more adrift in the world without
+an anchor to hold fast by in February, 1814. In striking contrast with
+his treatment by the Bamberg public, his talents as director whilst
+with Seconda's company were fully and adequately appreciated, both by
+the artistes and the orchestra, as well as by the general public. This
+may have been due to two causes; first, the actors and actresses were
+not embarrassed by his directing from the pianoforte instead of with
+the violin as those in Bamberg were, and in the second place his
+criticisms and essays on musical subjects in Rochlitz's _Musicalische
+Zeitung_ had gained him a certain reputation as an authority in musical
+matters. After having refused the offer of a post as music-director in
+his native city of Koenigsberg in February (1814), he was agreeably
+surprised by Hippel's promise to secure his return into official life.
+Accordingly towards the end of September in that same year he set out
+for Berlin.
+
+Here ends what may be termed the second act of this very unsettled,
+eventful life. That this wandering aside from the career he first
+started upon--viz., that of law and public life to tread the thorny
+precarious path of art was fraught with greater consequences than can
+be estimated upon the unfortunate man's character, will be evident from
+what has been already stated. These dark years were those mainly
+instrumental in stifling the good germs that had once been in him, and
+yet more did they result in encouraging and bringing out prominently
+all his less praiseworthy qualities. As his works and his life are so
+intimately interwoven, and as his works were nearly all written
+subsequent to this disastrous period, it seemed desirable to dwell
+somewhat upon the events and circumstances of the earlier part of his
+life. With the view of showing that Hoffmann himself fully understood
+the nature and tendency of his existence in Bamberg, the following
+passages are quoted from a letter written to Dr. Speyer in that town in
+July, 1813:--
+
+
+"I felt in my own mind perfectly convinced that I must get out of
+Bamberg as soon as possible if I was not to be ruined altogether. Call
+vividly to mind what my life in Bamberg was from the first moment of my
+arrival, and you will allow that everything co-operated like an hostile
+demoniacal power to thrust me forcibly from the path I had chosen, or
+rather from art, to which I had devoted my entire existence, my very
+self with all my activities and energies. My position under Cuno, and
+even all those unbargained-for duties which were thrown upon me by
+Holbein, notwithstanding their many seductive attractions, but above
+all those scenes with----which I shall never forget and never overcome,
+the old man's miserable stupid platitudes, which yet in another respect
+had a pernicious influence, those wretched, terrible scenes with----and
+last of all with----, whom I always thought a parvenu ill-bred imp,--in
+a word, everything that went against all effort and doing and work in
+the higher life, in which a man raises himself on alert wing above the
+stinking morass of his miserable crust-begging life, engendered within
+me an inward dissension--an inward strife, which much sooner than any
+external commotion around me would have caused me to perish. Every
+harsh and undeserved indignity I had to suffer only increased my secret
+rancour, and whilst accustoming myself more and more to wine as a
+stimulant and so stirring up the fire to make it bum more merrily, I
+heeded not that this was the only way by which good could come out of
+the ruinous evil. In these few words, in this brief statement, I hope
+you will find the key to many things which may have appeared to you
+contradictory, if not enigmatical But _transeant cum ceteris._"[22]
+
+
+Again, it can scarcely be doubted that we have a description of his own
+state when he writes in the _Elixiere_ (Part II.), "I am what I appear
+to be, and do not appear as what I really am; to myself an unsolvable
+riddle, I am at variance with my own self."
+
+The change of residence to Berlin did little to improve Hoffmann's
+circumstances. During the first ten months he was, according to the
+conditions imposed, labouring to make himself acquainted with the
+changes that had taken place in legal procedure, and to fit himself for
+entering the service of the state again and resuming his interrupted
+career; but he received no compensation for his pains; he had to
+support himself as best he could by the fruits of his pen. On July 1,
+1815, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of the Minister
+of Justice, which post he exchanged on 1st May, 1816, for that of
+Councillor in the Supreme Court, being also restored to all his rights
+of seniority as though no break had ever taken place in his official
+career. The duties attaching to this office he continued to discharge
+with his accustomed diligence and skill until promoted in the autumn of
+1821 to be a member of the Senate of Higher Appeal in the same court.
+Notwithstanding his sad and disappointing experiences, and the
+tempestuous times of his "martyr years" at Bamberg, he was not yet
+disgusted with the life of an artist. His hopes were not yet alienated
+from the calling that hovered before his mind as an ideal for so many
+years. Whilst battling, with somewhat less of reckless high spirits and
+humour, against the embarrassments and pecuniary difficulties which he
+had to encounter during these ten months, he was also dreaming of an
+appointment as _Kapellmeister_ (orchestral director) or as musical
+composer to a theatre. He says upon this point in a letter to Hippel,
+of date March 12, 1815, "I cannot anyhow cease to interest myself in
+art; and had I not to care for a dearly beloved wife, and were it not
+my duty to try and procure her a comfortable life after what she has
+gone through with me, I would rather become a music schoolmaster again
+than let myself be stamped in the juristic fulling-mill."[23] After
+more than one disappointment in his efforts to secure permanent and
+remunerative employment, in which efforts he was assisted by his
+influential friend Hippel, he became a clerk, as already stated, in the
+department of the Minister of Justice.
+
+In his social relations Hoffmann was more fortunate. He now enjoyed the
+close companionship of Hitzig again, and through Hitzig was introduced
+into a select circle which counted amongst its members such men as
+Fouque (author of _Undine_), Chamisso (of _Peter Schlemihl_ fame),
+Contessa, Koreff, Tieck, Bernhardi, Devrient, and others. The harassing
+tumultuous days he had passed through during the last eight years had
+now begun to make him gentler and more modest; his character was more
+tempered, and his behaviour more subdued. His good-nature too took such
+a prominent place in the qualities he displayed that Hitzig's children
+were quite delighted with their father's newly arrived friend; for them
+Hoffmann wrote the pleasant little fairy tale _Nussknacker und
+Maeusekoenig_ (Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Before the end of
+1815 he had finished the second part of the _Elixiere des Teufels_, to
+which he himself attached no value, since its connection with the first
+part was broken; its author's ideas had got into another track;
+feelings and circumstances were changed. Still less than Schiller with
+_Don Carlos_. did Hoffmann succeed in making an artificial junction
+between the two parts of his work atone for its breach of artistic
+unity; he even said later of the first part, "I ought not to have had
+it printed." Besides this second part of the _Elixiere_, he also wrote
+the concluding pieces of the _Fantasiestuecke_, namely, _Die Abenteuer
+der Sylvesternacht_, which owes its existence to Chamisso's _Peter
+Schlemihl_ and to Chamisso himself, who is portrayed in the work; and
+also _Die Correspondenz des Kapellmeisters Kreisler mit dem Baron
+Wallborn_, that is Hoffmann himself and Baron von Fouque. With the
+latter Hoffmann spent a happy fortnight in 1815 at his seat of
+Nennhausen near Rathenow; Hitzig was also of the party. In August of
+the following year the opera _Undine_ was put upon the stage. Though
+Fouque's libretto did not pass without some adverse criticism, all
+voices were unanimous in praise of the music. Von Weber the musician
+especially expressed himself warmly in admiration of it, affirming that
+it was "one of the most talented productions of recent times;" and he
+especially singled out for attention its truth, its smooth-flowing
+melodies, and its instrumentation; it was "in truth _one_ gush" of
+music. The opera was repeated more than a score of times, when
+unfortunately the theatre was burnt down, and Hoffmann, who lived
+immediately adjoining it, was almost burnt out of house and home at
+the same time.
+
+Through the success of this opera as well as through that of his
+_Fantasiestuecke_, Hoffmann found himself celebrated. He was invited as
+the hero of the evening to the fashionable tea circles of Berlin, where
+ignorant or half-educated _dilettanti_ affected an interest in art
+matters, that was over-strained and wanting in sincerity when it was
+not ridiculous. For what was there the man could not do? He wrote books
+about which all Germany was talking, he could improvise on the
+pianoforte, compose operas, sketch caricatures, and streams of wit
+gushed from him so soon as he opened his mouth. The homage showered
+upon him at these gatherings flattered Hoffmann's vanity for a time,
+but he soon saw the motives for which he was asked to be present--to
+amuse the guests with his wit, to accompany the daughter or lady of the
+house on the piano, to discuss art matters in a becoming way now with
+an old grandmother, now with a grave professor, to tell diverting
+anecdotes, to tickle the lazy minds of those who listened with some
+spicy satire upon their enemies--in fact to be made a useful show of.
+Quickly fathoming these motives, Hoffmann proved himself readily equal
+to the occasion: as soon as he began to get bored, which very
+frequently was the case, he made the most hideous grimaces, and when he
+saw the company were preparing to draw something from him by way of
+criticism which they could carry further and perhaps repeat again as
+springing from their own acute judgment, he began to talk the most
+arrant nonsense he could think of, or to fire off some of his stinging
+sarcasms steeped in the bitterness of gall, till there were none but
+blank and embarrassed faces around him--everybody thinking the man was
+mad; but he went away delighted at the consternation he had been
+instrumental in causing. The givers of fashionable teas soon ceased to
+invite Hoffmann to their entertainments, but they had already
+sufficiently sown the seeds of fresh mischief in him.
+
+To have more money in his pockets than he just required for the
+immediate wants of the moment was always fatal to him, and no less so
+was the excitement attendant upon the giddy whirl of pleasure and
+social popularity, or what stood for such. These were rocks of danger
+upon which he always struck. The former led him to indulge in his
+reprehensible habit of drinking, and the latter soon made him upset all
+the systems of order and regulation. Day he turned into night and night
+into day. He shunned for the most part the society of Hitzig and his
+circle of friends, with their stimulating discussions that cultivated
+the mind whilst unfolding and developing the feelings, and frequented a
+low wine-shop and the common coarse company that was to be met with
+there. Hence during nearly all the rest of his life, that is, from 1816
+to 1821, he spent his mornings in the discharge of his official duties
+at the Supreme Court (two mornings a week, Monday and Thursday), or in
+writing; the afternoons he generally slept, or in summer took a walk;
+and the evenings and nights always found him in the wine-shop of his
+choice; and he never liked to leave it until morning came, nor did any
+other engagements prevent him from putting in an appearance at his
+habitual haunt, even though it were past midnight before he were free.
+As already remarked, however, it was not to sit and drink like a sot
+that he gave way to this degrading habit, but to get himself "exalted"
+as he called it, and then when he was duly "exalted" came the firework
+display of wit and glowing fancy, going on hour after hour without rest
+or interruption for the space of five or six hours at once. If his
+tongue was not the medium through which he discharged the creations of
+his teeming imagination, his eagle eye was spying out all that was
+ridiculous or strikingly extraordinary, or even what was possessed of a
+touch of pathos or deep feeling, or he employed his hand in sketching
+and drawing inimitable caricatures. He never sat idle and silent, and
+drank steadily and stolidly as so many confirmed drinkers do. Hitzig,
+who was deeply grieved at this downward course of his friend and at the
+estrangement it had brought about between them, contrived to draw him
+away from his demoralising companions of the wine-shop for at least one
+night a week. On that evening there was a small gathering at Hoffmann's
+house, moderation being strictly enjoined as one of the chief
+regulations of the meeting. This small circle, which consisted of
+Hoffmann, Hitzig, Contessa, and Koreff,[24] and an occasional friend or
+two whom one of them introduced, called itself "The Serapion Brethren,"
+this title being adopted from the fact that the first meeting was held
+on the night of the anniversary of that saint, according to Frau
+Hoffmann's Polish almanac. It is interesting to remark that amongst
+these occasional guests figures the great Danish poet Oehlenschlaeger in
+the year 1816. In a letter written to Hoffmann on March 26th, 1821,
+recommending a young fellow-countryman to him, Oehlenschlaeger says,
+"Dip him also a little in the magic sea of your humour, respected
+friend, and teach him how a man can be a philosopher and seer of the
+world under the ironical mantle of the mad-house, and what is more an
+amiable man as well;" and he subscribes himself, "A. Oehlenschlaeger,
+Serapion Brother."
+
+In 1817 was published the collection of tales called _Die Nachtstuecke_,
+embracing _Der Sandmann_ (The Sand-man) and _Das Majorat_ (The Entail),
+which reproduce personages and experiences belonging to the years in
+Koenigsberg; _Die Jesuitenkirche_ and _Das steinerne Herz_, going back
+to his life in Glogau; _Das Geluebde_, built upon a story related by his
+wife as connected with her native town of Posen; _Das Sanctus_, which was
+suggested by an incident in Berlin soon after Hoffmann's arrival there;
+and _das oede Haus_, this last due to the way in which he was
+incessantly haunted by the appearance of a closed house in the _Unter
+den Linden_. These were mostly written in 1816 and 1817; and to them he
+added _Ignas Denner_, which possesses some merit, but is of too gloomy
+and darkly unpleasant a cast to be attractive to English readers; it
+was written during the first days in Dresden, just after his
+emancipation from the Bamberg thraldom. Whilst in it he gives free rein
+to sombre melancholy, and dips his pen in "midnight blackness," in
+_Berganza_, written about the same time, he has poured out the cynical
+bitterness and scathing scorn which was then undoubtedly gnawing at his
+heart. _Der Sandmann_, though embodying reminiscences of its author's
+youth, also contains material derived from an incident which took place
+during a visit of Hoffmann's to Fouque's country-seat near Ratenow, and
+Nathanael was recognised by Fouque as meant for himself. _Das Majorat_
+is, as already stated, a lasting memorial to his old great-uncle,
+Voethoery; the moral backbone of the story--the evil destiny attaching to
+the successors of a man whose ambition aimed at founding a powerful
+family by an act of injustice to his youngest son--reminds the
+reader forcibly of the purpose that runs through Hawthorne's _House
+with the Seven Gables_. Of the in many respects admirable story _Das
+Geluebde_--it is to be regretted that it is marred by the dangerous
+nature of the subject;[25] it is else poetically treated and invested
+with a spirit of weird mysticism that would have made it rank higher
+than what it does. The others in the collection are of lesser merit.
+
+The next year 1818 saw no important work from Hoffmann's pen; but in
+1819 appeared _Die seltsame Leiden eines Theaterdirekters_, a book
+written in the form of a dialogue, which was due to the example of his
+favourite, Diderot's "Rameau's Nephew" (by Goethe), and which conveys a
+tolerably faithful account of Hoffmann's experiences in the capacity
+indicated whilst in the town on the Regnitz, and indeed is useful as
+illustrating the condition of the German stage generally at that
+period. This was followed by a kind of fairy tale, _Klein Zaches
+genannt Zinnober_; as this book was generally believed to be a local
+satire upon persons and circumstances well known, it entailed many
+severe strictures and much unpleasantness upon its writer. The truth
+about it seems to be this: the idea--that of a sort of ugly kobold of
+the Handy Andy type--was suggested by a sudden fancy during an attack
+of fever, and in a moment of semi-delirium. On recovering his health
+again, Hoffmann set to work in his impetuous and hasty way, and worked
+out the idea in probably less than a fortnight. Similarly his _Meister
+Floh_, one of the last and weakest caricatures he wrote, was likely to
+have entailed disagreeable consequences upon him, had not his last
+illness come before any authoritative steps could be taken. For he had
+made use of incidents which came to his knowledge in the official
+discharge of his duties, and which were of such a character that they
+ought to have been guarded as inviolable secrets; and he further
+employed certain phrases which he took from confidential papers that
+likewise came into his hands in consequence of his public position. In
+extenuation of his fault, or perhaps in explanation of it, be it
+remarked that his conduct does not appear to have been actuated by
+premeditated or deliberate malice, but to have sprung solely from his
+recklessness and want of prudence: the ridiculous appealed to his sense
+of humour so irresistibly that nothing was sacred against it, and so
+nothing was safe from it.
+
+In the summer of 1819 Hoffmann was ordered by his physician to visit
+the Silesian baths; and he derived excellent benefit from the
+prescription, coming home stronger and in a more healthful frame of
+mind than his friends had seen him for a long time. Soon after his
+return he was appointed on the commission selected to inquire into
+those secret societies and other suspicious political organisations
+which were particularly active about this time (_Burschenschaften_,
+_Landsmannschaften_ in their political aspect). Towards the end of the
+year he published the first two volumes of the _Serapionsbrueder_, the
+third volume following in 1820 and the fourth in 1821. These volumes
+contain all his tales that had appeared in various magazines and serial
+publications, together with others now first published, and are linked
+together by a running commentary, or rather they are set into it as
+into a framework; the Serapion Society are represented as meeting at
+stated intervals, when one or more of the members relate a tale. The
+discussions which precede and follow the tales are full of sage remarks
+about art and art-matters and other ripe practical wisdom, and contain
+perhaps more matured thought than anything else that proceeded from
+Hoffmann's pen. Of these numerous stories the best have been selected
+for translation in these two volumes, namely, _Der Artushof_ (Arthur's
+Hall), _Die Fermate_ (The Fermata), _Doge und Dogaresse_ (Doge and
+Dogess), _Meister Martin der Kuefner und seine Gesellen_ (Master Martin
+the Cooper and his Journey men ), _Das Fraeulein von Scuderi_
+(Mademoiselle de Scuderi), _Spieler Glueck_ (Gambler's Luck), and
+_Signor Formica_. The remaining twelve tales call for no special
+mention, except perhaps _Nussknacker_, which has been already alluded
+to, _Das fremde Kind_, a curious mixture of reality and fairyland, and
+_Der Zusammenhang der Dinge_, which is not devoid of interest. Several
+of the things in this collection suggest comparison with Poe's writings
+for weirdness and bizarre imaginative power, though of course there are
+wide differences between the styles of the two writers.
+
+In March, 1820, came a letter of good wishes from Beethoven, whose
+music Hoffmann greatly admired; hence the letter was a source of much
+real pleasure to him. Spontini, the well-known writer of operas, came
+to Berlin in the summer of the same year and was received by Hoffmann
+with every mark of respect. It was indeed maintained that the composer
+of _Undine_ showed an unworthy servility in the way in which he
+publicly acknowledged Spontini's talent. Whether this is true would
+appear doubtful; servility was not one of the author's failings, though
+vanity was. By Spontini's ministering to his vanity Hoffmann may have
+been provoked to return him the compliment in his own coin, but it is
+hardly likely that he went so far as to flatter against his own
+conviction or against his better judgment. Of his longer and more
+ambitious works the one which he ranked highest in merit was
+_Lebensansichten des Katers Murr, nebst Biographie des Kapellmeisters
+Johannes Kreisler_, the first volume of which appeared in 1820 and the
+second in 1822. In respect of literary form and execution, as well as
+of artistic worth, this is undoubtedly Hoffmann's most finished
+production (_i.e._ of his longer works). It contains a good deal of
+genial, keen, and subtle satire, conveyed in the doings of Murr the
+tom-cat; and it is also a useful source for early biographical details,
+both of facts and of mental development and opinions, contained in the
+"waste-paper leaves" (treating of Kreisler), inserted at frequent
+intervals between those which carry on the life and adventures of Murr.
+The third volume, which was all ready and completed in the author's
+head, and only wanted writing down, never came to the birth. The first
+two volumes present to us a personification of Hoffmann's humoristic
+self, and the third was to culminate in Kreisler's insanity, a result
+brought about by the disappointments and baffling experiences he
+encountered in life--Hoffmann's own career, that is; and the whole was
+to conclude with the _Lichte Stunden eines wahnsinnigen Musikers_,--a
+work which had been occupying his mind ever since he was in Bamberg,
+and which had not yet been executed. In 1821 was published one of his
+weakest things, a fairy tale, _Prinzessin Brambilla_, which is greatly
+wanting in clearness of conception, though he himself ranked it highly.
+
+The excesses in which Hoffmann had for so long indulged brought at
+last, as may easily be conceived, their own inevitable retribution. The
+first herald of the approaching physical troubles was the death
+(November 30, 1821) of the sagacious cat who was the real hero of
+_Kater Murr_. Hoffmann was much cut up by the death of his favourite,
+which he described to Hitzig with truly touching pathos.[26] Soon after
+this he was suddenly stricken down by disease--_tabes dorsalis_; his
+body gradually died, beginning at the feet and moving up to the brain,
+a process which lasted several weeks. But from the autumn of 1821 to
+April, 1822, he was cheered by the daily visits of the beloved friend
+of his youth, Hippel, who had come up to Berlin for that space of time.
+Hoffmann celebrated his 46th birthday with this true friend, and with
+Hitzig and others less dear. Hoffmann and Hippel were dwelling fondly
+upon the days of their youth and reviving old recollections, when
+mention was made of death and dying. Hitzig remarked in substance that
+"life was not the highest of all goods;" this caused the suffering
+Hoffmann to reply with passionate emphasis, such as he did not give way
+to on any other occasion during the course of the evening, "No, no--let
+me live, live--let me only live, no matter in what condition." "There
+was something awful," says Hitzig, "in the way in which these words
+burst from his lips." And his wish was fulfilled in terrible wise; one
+limb after the other failed to perform its office; his feet and hands
+and certain parts of his inner organism became quite dead. On the day
+before he died he was virtually a corpse as far as his neck; and so he
+was full of hope that he should soon be well again, since he "felt no
+more pain then." Even in this truly pitiable and helpless condition his
+imagination continued to pour forth a stream of the most whimsical and
+humorous fancies, and his cheerfulness was even greater than in the
+days of sound health. Hippel's departure in April was a hard blow to
+him. About four weeks before his death he underwent the sharp operation
+of being burned on each side of the spine with red-hot irons. When
+Hitzig entered the room after the terrible operation was over, Hoffmann
+cried, "Can you smell the flavour of roast meat?" and he said that
+whilst the doctors were burning him, the thought entered his mind that
+the "Minister of Police was having him leaded lest he should slip out
+as contraband;"--he was shrivelled up to a mummy almost, so that, owing
+to his small size as well, a woman could carry him in her arms. Though
+his body was thus a perfect wreck, his mental powers were as brilliant
+and keen as ever; and when his hands proved useless to him, he engaged
+the services of an amanuensis and went on dictating until almost the
+very hour of his death. In fact, the last thing he spoke about was a
+direction for his writer to read to him the passages where he had
+broken off in _Der Feind_; then he turned his face to the wall; the
+fatal rattle was heard in his throat; and all Hoffmann's earthly
+troubles were over (June 25, 1822).
+
+It is very remarkable that the works dictated by this extraordinary man
+on his deathbed show an almost total departure from the style of most
+of his previous tales. He no longer records his own experiences,--the
+events and occurrences, the sentiments and thoughts, that were
+peculiarly his own,--but he writes from a purely objective standpoint,
+and _creates_. Of most of his other works it may be said that they are
+_he_; but of these it can only be said they are _his_ in the sense that
+they owed their origin to him. _Meister Johannes Wacht_, one of these,
+is translated in Vol. II. The scene is laid in Bamberg, and the
+characters of the story were also said to be faithful portraits of
+actual people in Bamberg; yet we look in vain to find anything like
+Hoffmann himself in it. _Des Vetters Eckfenster_, though hardly a tale,
+is yet one of the best things Hoffmann has written. Those who know
+Emile Souvestre's _Un Philosophe sous les Toits_ would find in this
+thing of Hoffmann's dying days something to their taste; it is a
+running commentary on personages seen in the market from the writer's
+own window, and each little scene brings before us a true and lifelike
+character in a few weighty and well-chosen words. _Die Genesung_, a
+mere sketch, arose out of the dying man's pathetic longing to see the
+green of the woods and the meadows. _Der Feind_, a fragment full of
+promise, is a tale of old Nuremberg of the days of Albrecht Duerer, who
+figures in it. Before being deprived of the use of his hands he had
+written several other short tales, amongst which may be mentioned _Die
+Doppeltgaenger_, as being a favourite theme with Hoffmann, and _Der
+Elementargeist_, a weird, entrancing story. In _Die Raeuber_ he gives us
+a weak version of Schiller's celebrated work.
+
+In Hoffmann we have an instance of a man who nearly all his life long
+failed to get himself placed amid the circumstances in the midst of
+which it was his one burning wish to be placed. He never found his
+right calling. He is a man ruined by circumstances (_zerfahren_). He
+was not wanting in warm natural feeling, as is proved by his close and
+faithful friendships with Hippel, Hitzig, and Kunz; and more than one
+instance of spontaneous kindness and of winning amiability are
+preserved by his biographer.[27] In youth his mind and heart were full
+of noble thoughts and aspirations, and he was sincerely desirous to
+educate himself up to better things. We see it in "May it never happen
+to me that my heart is not readily receptive of every communication
+from without, as well as for every feeling within, for the head must
+never injure the heart, nor must the heart ever run away with the head,
+that is my idea of culture," and "an excitable heart and a restless
+nature will never let us be quite happy, but will have a beneficial
+influence upon our education, upon our striving after greater
+perfection." His poetic temperament, and such like poetic tendencies,
+found no responsive sympathy amongst his relatives. Being thrust back
+upon himself and then having his feelings centred, when at length they
+did meet with sympathetic appreciation, in such a way as could only
+bring disappointment and unhappiness, he was early made a fit
+instrument for circumstances to play upon, and sorely was he buffeted
+by them through all the years from going to Posen right down until the
+day of his death. But this result must also be traced partly to the
+want of a parent's loving, watchful eye. In those years which are the
+most important for moulding a boy's character he was practically left
+to go his own way. True, his uncle Otto held him down to habits of
+industry and order; but he did nothing to encourage the boy's better
+and higher nature, or guide it sympathetically along the paths where it
+was striving to find its own way. Hoffmann had no high idea of the
+moral dignity of man, and at times even seemed to have but little
+conception of it. The relations upon which he lived with his uncle Otto
+and the history of his own father prevented this sense of moral worth
+from being planted in his mind. The germ which bore fruit in his love
+for extremes, for what was extraordinary and quite out of the common
+beaten track of life, was probably engendered in the following way. Not
+finding the sympathy he needed in his efforts after a better life, he
+turned in upon himself and began to despise the petty details of
+everyday existence; and several passages in his letters clearly go to
+show that his unhappiness and discontent were largely due to the fact
+of his overlooking the real enjoyment to be derived from the small
+occurrences and events of every day, which rightly viewed are capable
+of affording such a large fund of real contentment. In a letter to
+Hippel early in 1815, he himself states, "For my shattered life I have
+really only myself to blame; I ought to have shown more resolution and
+less levity in my earlier years. When a youth, when a boy, I ought to
+have devoted myself entirely to Art and never to have thought of anything
+else. But of course something also was due to perverse education." It
+must not be supposed, however, from the above that he was deficient in
+firmness or strength of will. The perseverance with which he worked
+through his early examinations, as well as the energy and zeal he brought
+to bear upon his official duties, contradict such supposition. Specific
+instances might also be quoted did space permit; it will be enough to
+recall his resolve never to gamble. It is stated that he avowed his
+intention to amend his ways if he recovered from his last fatal
+illness. The real key to his wayward character lies in the fact just
+alluded to, that he had no conception of the supreme importance of
+moral worth. This was the backbone wanting in his character; and for
+this reason we fail to detect any steady sterling course of action
+through all the vicissitudes of his life. If he had a ruling motive it
+was capricious humour; at any rate it swayed him more than anything
+else. On one day he would laugh at what had annoyed him on the day
+preceding, or be delighted to-day at what he had greeted yesterday with
+irony. Nobody knew better than himself how he was tyrannised over by
+his changeable moods. "My capricious humour (_Laune_) is the first
+weather-prophet I know, and if I had the good-will and were bored I
+could make an almanac," is one of his expressions; and another runs,
+"You know that my capricious humour is often _Maitre de Flaisir_."
+Besides being thus the creature of caprice, he was also impulsive,
+impetuous, and wont to act with impassioned haste. These qualities were
+revealed in his restless vivacious eyes, in his movements and gestures,
+and even broke out in extraordinary grimaces, as already remarked. And
+just in the same fervid eager way he often seized upon an idea or a
+pleasing fancy, till it took complete possession of him; he could not
+rid himself of it. With this was combined his remarkable quickness of
+perception and comprehension; a single gesture or phrase was often
+sufficient to enable him to grasp a character. What he hated above all
+things was dulness--_ennui_; this never failed to provoke his keenest
+irony and bitterest sarcasms. In his last years he even became cynical
+and rugged and vulgar, in which we may of course trace the influence of
+his tavern associates. It is to his credit that he did not sink into
+Byronic misanthropy and bitter self-lacerating scorn, or even into
+Heine's irreverence and persiflage.
+
+An old German poet says, "Seht das Loos der Menschheit--Heute Freude,
+Morgen Leid;"[28] but with Hoffmann joy and pain were frequently more
+closely allied than this even: whilst the jest was on his lips the
+sting would be in his heart. In this, as well as in several other
+features of his stormy career, he did indeed resemble his countryman
+Heine. One of the necessities of his nature was human society--not
+simply society, however, but people who could appreciate him, who could
+fall in with his moods, and either follow intelligently when he led, or
+lend him a stimulating and helping hand to keep the ball of wit and
+jollity rolling. An illustration of this is found in the fact that he
+"did not love the society of women. If he could not mystify them, or
+draw them into the circle of his fantasies, or discover in them any
+decided talent for comicality, he preferred the society of men."
+Amongst women, however, after those of the class just named, he was
+most interested in young and pretty girls, being attracted by the charm
+of their fresh beauty, not by the charm of their mind. Learned women he
+hated.
+
+Hoffmann was, as already observed, the child of extremes. These were
+revealed not only in his life and action, but also in his writings; for
+his writings are the man. Indeed German critics have said that his
+works, particularly the _Fantasiestuecke_, are "lyrics in prose." What
+they mean by this phrase is chiefly that the things he wrote exhibit
+subjective phrases of his nature, and are disconnected, or rather not
+connected, not balanced parts of a systematic whole. This is true so
+far as it is true that Hoffmann never did complete a long work, except
+the _Elixiere_, and this work, as there has been occasion to point out,
+consists of two disjointed parts. One of the things that strike us most
+in reading his books is the peculiar mixture of the real and the
+unreal, of matters appertaining to actual life and of fantasies born
+only of the imagination. Very often the imagination would be called by
+most people a diseased imagination; but it is not always so, sometimes
+it is the poet's imagination. Hence, from this blending or close
+alternation of reality with what is not of the earth--hence came his
+love for fairy tales, tales in which we meet with kobolds, imps,
+witches, little monsters of all kinds--the spirits and apparitions in
+fact which used to haunt his excited fancy in such a strange way.
+Several of these are poetic creatures, whom he handles in a light,
+graceful, and pleasing style (_Goldener Topf_, _Nussknacker_, _Das
+fremde Kind_, &c.); others, on the other hand, are drawn in horrible
+and unearthly colours and awaken the sentiments of awe and dread. What
+he loved especially to dwell upon was the "night side of natural
+science," the puzzling relations between the psychic and the physical
+principles both in man and in Nature. Hence such states as
+somnambulism, magnetism, dreams, dark forebodings of the terrible,
+inhuman passions, and such things as automata and vampyres, had for him
+an insuperable attraction. Insanity was a mystery that haunted his
+thoughts for years: it figures largely in _Die Elixiere_ and _Der
+Sandmann_; and in the third part of _Kater Murr_ it was his intention
+to represent Kreisler's battle with adverse circumstances as
+culminating in insanity. Handling these, and states and situations
+equally hideous, fantastic, and grotesque, with extraordinary clearness
+and precision both of thought and of language, considering the often
+misty nature of the subjects he treats of, and pouring upon the vivid
+pictures he conjures up the brightness of his wit and the exuberant
+gaiety and grace of his fancy, he succeeds in creating scenes,
+situations, and characters which seem verily instinct with real life.
+This end was attained principally by the true genius he displayed in
+perception, apprehension, and description. His graphic descriptive
+power is that which mainly procured him his wide-reaching fame during
+his own lifetime, not only in Germany but also in France, and is that
+which principally gives to his works whatever permanent value they may
+possess. With a painter's eye he grasps a character or a scene by a few
+of its more prominent and essential features, and with a painter's hand
+and eye he sketches them in a few telling strokes. The reader must not
+look to find in Hoffmann any clever or subtle analysis of the deeper
+motives that work towards the development of character; all that
+Hoffmann can give him will be talented _pictures_. He himself lays down
+his canon of literary spirit in the introduction to the first volume of
+the _Serapionsbrueder_--
+
+
+"Vain are an author's efforts to bring us to believe in what he does
+not believe in himself, in what he cannot believe in, since he has not
+made it his own by _seeing_ it (_erschauen_). What else are the
+characters of such an author, who, to borrow the old phrase, is no true
+seer, but deceitful marionettes, painfully glued together out of alien
+materials?... At least let each one of us [the Brethren] strive
+earnestly and truly to grasp the image that has arisen in his mind in
+all its features, its colours, its lights and its shades, and then when
+he feels himself really enkindled by them let him proceed to embody
+them in an external description."
+
+
+Hoffmann has mostly succeeded in acting up to his canon and has written
+in its spirit; and in so far true genius cannot be denied him. And
+he possessed in no less eminent a degree the true art of the born
+story-teller. The interest seldom if ever flags; and the curious
+anomalies of men and of men-creatures (_Mensch-Thiere_), whom he
+mingles amongst his winning heroines and his delightful satiric
+characters, oftener than not quite enthrall the mind or afford it true
+enjoyment as the case may be, and this they do in spite of the fact
+that, owing to their own nature, they frequently stand outside the
+ordinary sphere of human sympathies. Of course it may readily be
+conceived that the danger which he was liable to fall into was want of
+clearness in conception and sentiment, but he has avoided this rock for
+the most part with wonderful skill. One of his latest productions,
+_Prinzessin Brambilla_, is the one where this fault is most markedly
+conspicuous; nor is the _Elixiere_ free from it.
+
+German critics have not failed to notice the sweet grace and winning
+loveliness which hover about the characters of most of his heroines.
+They are nearly all presented in colours impregnated with real poetic
+beauty; see, for instance, Seraphina (_Das Majorat_), Annunciata
+(_Doge_), Madelon and Mdlle. de Scudery (_Scuderi_), Rose (_Meister
+Martin_), Cecily (_Berganza_), and others.
+
+Carlyle, whose brief and for the most part truthful essay upon Hoffmann
+(in vol. ii. of his _German Romance_, 1829) appears to have been based
+largely upon others' opinions rather than upon first-hand acquaintance
+with his author, says that in him "there are the materials of a
+glorious poet, but no poet has been fashioned out of them." And when we
+seek for poetic elements in Hoffmann's works, we are not altogether
+disappointed. We have just stated that his heroines are creations of a
+poet's fancy; and in the scene between Father Hilarius and Kreisler in
+_Kater Murr_, and in the passages and characters already alluded to in
+_Die Elixiere_, in the sunny cheerful _Maerchen_--_Der goldene Topf_
+(which Hoffmann calls his "poetic masterpiece"), in _Das Geluebde_,
+_Nussknacker_, &c., we enter the world of higher imagination. Again,
+whilst in _Doge und Dogaresse_ we are arrested by the poetic charm of
+the island life of the Lagune in the golden days of Venice's splendour,
+in _Meister Martin_ we are no less, perhaps still more impressed by the
+rich romantic beauty of life in the old mediaeval town of Nuremberg. In
+_Die Scuderi_ we are made acquainted with the cold glittering court of
+Louis XIV. through the lovable character of Mdlle. de Scudery; and
+whilst on the one hand following with deep interest the fate of Brusson
+and his love, on the other we are led to contrast the subtilty of the
+plot with the fine analytic power of Poe in The _Murders in the Rue
+Morgue_. When visiting with Hoffmann the weird castle of _Das Majorat_,
+we are made to hear the cold shrill blasts of the Baltic whistling past
+our ears, and to feel the storm and the sea-spray dashing in our faces.
+These four tales are unquestionably the best that Hoffmann has written;
+to them must be added _Meister Wachte_, on account of its excellent
+characterisation of the hero. In striking contrast with the majority of
+the things he has written, these five tales show him when he is most
+objective; in them he has wielded his powers with more wise restraint
+than in any of the others, and introduced less of his strange fantastic
+caricatures. Next after these tales must be named, though on a lower
+level, and simply because they best illustrate his peculiar genius, the
+two books of _Kater Murr_, the fairy tale _Der goldene Topf_, and _Des
+Vetters Eckfenster_, In the works here named we have the best fruits of
+Hoffmann's pen. And if instead of asking in the mistaken spirit of
+competition which is now so much in vogue. What is Hoffmann's position
+in literature? we ask rather, Has he written anything that deserves to
+be read? we shall have already had our answer. The works here singled
+out are worthy of being preserved and read; and of them _Das Majorat_
+and _Meister Martin_ are perhaps entitled to be called the best, though
+some German critics have mentioned _Meister Wacht_ along with the
+former as having a claim to the first rank.
+
+It is now time to take a glance at Hoffmann's satiric power. This was
+launched principally against two classes of society; the one is that of
+which his uncle Otto was a type, the man who is unreasonably obstinate
+in defence of the conventionalities of life, and no less so in their
+steady observance: the second class was that whose representatives
+aroused Hoffmann's ire so greatly at Bamberg and Berlin "tea-circles,"
+or "tea-sings"--those who coquetted with art in an unworthy or
+frivolous manner. Against this latter class his irony and satiric wrath
+were especially fierce, as may be read in _Berganza_, _Die Irrungen_,
+the _Kreisleriana_, _Kater Murr_, _Signor Formica_, &c. Perhaps the
+most amusing, for quiet humour, of the former class is _Die Brautwahl_.
+The force of his satiric power lay in the skilful use of sudden
+contrast. Hence it plays more frequently upon or near the surface, and
+lacks the depth and pathos of true humour; but it is idle to expect
+from a man what he hasn't got.
+
+In so far as this author had any serious philosophical belief, it would
+appear to have been that man was a slave of Chance, or Fate, or
+Destiny, or whatever it may be called. Sometimes he is the plaything of
+circumstances; sometimes a defenceless victim under "Fate's brazen
+hand," or of "that Eternal Power which rules over us." The real
+significance of life is summoned up in the statement that it is a
+struggle between contending powers of good and evil, against both of
+which man is equally helpless. He believed that whenever any good fell
+to a man's lot there was always some evil lurking in ambush behind it,
+or, to borrow his own expressive phrase, "the Devil must put his tail
+upon everything." His further views are here quoted from _Der
+Magnetiseur_:--
+
+
+"We are knitted with all things without us, with all Nature, in such
+close ties, both psychic and physical, that the severance from them
+would, if it were indeed possible, destroy our own existence. Our
+so-called intensive life is conditioned by the extensive; the former is
+only a reflex of the latter, in which the figures and images received,
+as if reflected in a concave mirror, often appear in changed relations
+that are wonderful and singularly strange, notwithstanding that these
+caricatures again And their real originals in life. I boldly maintain,
+that no man has ever thought or dreamt anything the elements of which
+were not to be found in Nature; nohow can he get out of her."
+
+
+Was this the cause or the result of the visions he used to see?
+
+From his conception of strife between good and evil as interpreting the
+significance of existence arose that dissonance which lies at the root
+of nearly all his most characteristic works--that sense of want, that
+failure to find final satisfaction which may be only too readily
+detected. For the conflict within himself he knew no real mediatory: he
+was baffled to discover a higher category in which to unite the
+conflicting principles. Religion he never willingly talked about; hence
+it could not give him the satisfaction he lacked. He thought he found
+it in Art, however; since for Art he battled with all the strength of
+his genius, and in the sacred mission of Art he believed with all his
+soul. He has many enthusiastic bursts on the subject, agreeing in some
+respects with the views laid down by Schiller in his _Aesthetische
+Erziehung des Menschen_:--
+
+
+"They alone are true artists who devote themselves with undivided love
+and enthusiasm to their goddess; to them alone is true Art revealed....
+There is no Art which is not sacred.... The sacred purpose of all Art
+is apprehension of Nature in that deepest sense of the word which
+enkindles in the soul an ardent striving after the higher life.... I do
+not ask about the artistes life; but his work must be pure, in the
+highest degree respectable, and if possible religious. It has no need,
+therefore, to have any so-called moral tendency; nay, it ought not to
+have such. The truly beautiful is itself moral, only in another
+form.... Art is eternally clear. The mists of ignorance are as inimical
+to her as the life-destroying carbonic acid gas of immorality. Art is
+the highest perfection of human power. Heart and Understanding are her
+common parents."
+
+
+Music was his favourite art. It first taught him to feel; and not only
+was it his unfailing solace in hours of trouble, but it brought him
+messages of deeper import: it disclosed to him glimpses of another
+world--it was the "language of heaven." Here again a passage from his
+own works expresses his opinions upon this point better than any other
+pen can express them:--
+
+
+"No art, I believe, affords such strong evidence of the spiritual in
+man as music, and there is no art that requires so exclusively means
+that are--purely intellectual and aetherial. The intuition of what is
+Highest and Holiest--of the Intelligent Power which enkindles the spark
+of life in all Nature--is audibly expressed in musical sound; hence
+music and song are the utterance of the fullest perfection of
+existence--praise of the Creator! Agreeably to its real essential
+nature, therefore, music is religious cultus; and its origin is to be
+sought for and found, simply and solely, in religion, in the
+Church."[29]
+
+
+Treating of Hoffmann's position with respect to music, Wilibald Alexis
+says, "We do not know any other man who has expressed in words such a
+real true enthusiasm for an art [as Hoffmann for music]; and
+specialists assure us that few have thoroughly grasped the nature of
+music so admirably."
+
+As far as a foreigner may presume to judge of Hoffmann's language and
+literary style, it would appear to be chiefly distinguished by strong
+grace, ease, naturalness, and nervous vigour. German critics
+acknowledge its charms, calling it a model of clearness and masterly
+skill and elegance. Perhaps its beauties are best seen, that is in a
+more chastened form, in _Kater Murr_. Repetitions, however, and
+exaggerations in description of sentiment tend, at times, to mar the
+reader's pleasure. Signs of haste, too, are not wanting, as Carlyle
+pointed out. This was chiefly due to the very large number of
+commissions he received from publishers and others, who keenly competed
+for the productions of his pen. At the date of his death he had as many
+commissions on hand as would, if he accepted them all, have kept him
+fully employed for several years.
+
+To those who love a good story, well told, the five specially mentioned
+may be recommended; and for those who desire to explore the dark
+by-paths (_Irrwege_) of the human spirit, to penetrate to some of its
+rarest comers, and to know all its ins and outs, as well as for those
+who aim at studying German literature, Hoffmann is a writer who ought
+to be read at greater length.
+
+                                                   THE TRANSLATOR.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES TO "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE":
+
+[Footnote 1: The chief sources for this biographical notice have been
+_E. T. A. Hoffmann's Leben und Nachlass, von J. G. Hitzig, herausg. von
+Micheline Hoffmann, geb. Rorer_, 5 vols., Stuttgart, 1839;
+_Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben_, von Z. Funck [C. Kunz], Leipsic, 1836;
+and various minor essays and papers.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Later in life he adopted the name of "Amadeus" instead of
+"Wilhelm," out of admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great
+musician (see _Erinng._, pp. 77-80).]
+
+[Footnote 3: Another account (see H. Doering's article "Hoffmann," in
+Ersch und Gruber's _Allgem. Encyk._) states 21st Jan., 1778. The date
+in the text is the one, however, that is generally accepted, and now
+without question; it is the one confirmed by Hoffmann himself (cf.
+Letter 15 in _Leben_).]
+
+[Footnote 4: These two books, together with Schubert's _Symbolik des
+Traums_, were favourites with him throughout life. In his youth he was
+a most diligent student of the new literature of his native country;
+English he also read to a large extent, Shakespearian quotations being
+very frequent in his letters; and we find the names of Sterne, Swift,
+Smollett, &c. Later in life he hardly read anything unless it were
+exceptionally good, and then only when recommended to do so by his
+friends. Political papers he never read, and scarcely ever criticisms
+on his own works.]
+
+[Footnote 5: That is, after Hippel had completed his academic career,
+and left Koenigsberg.]
+
+[Footnote 6: That is, after the king's death in 1797. She afterwards
+married the Holbein here mentioned.]
+
+[Footnote 7: _Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 8: _Leben_, iii. pp. 231-233.]
+
+[Footnote 9: A suburb or park of Warsaw, beneath the tall beeches of
+which Hoffmann loved to lie dreaming, or sketch from Nature.]
+
+[Footnote 10: An equestrian statue of John Sobieski, the deliverer of
+Vienna from the Turks.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Polish for "moustaches."]
+
+[Footnote 12: _Leben_, iii. pp. 251-254.]
+
+[Footnote 13:  A very comic incident, of which Hoffmann himself was the
+hero, took place on the occasion of Werner's reading his new tragedy
+_Das Kreuz an der Ostsee_ to a select circle of friends. Unfortunately
+it cannot be compressed into sufficiently short space to be quoted
+here. Hoffmann relates it in _Die Serapionsbrueder_, vol. iv., after
+_Signor Formica_.]
+
+[Footnote 14: _Leben_, v. pp. 18-20; cf. also _Erinnerungen_ p. 1, &c.,
+where Kunz details the circumstances under which he was introduced to
+Hoffmann.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Several of Calderon's, mainly at Hoffmann's suggestion
+and by his assistance; the "Worship of the Cross" was particularly
+successful in the Catholic town of Bamberg.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Kunz tells us how they used to go down into the cellar,
+sit astride of the cask, and drink, and _sich des heitern Lebens
+freuen_ with genial and sprightly sallies; and his picture has no faint
+smack of Auerbach's Keller (_Faust_). See _Leben_, v. p. 177, note.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Compare Nanni in_ Meister Wacht_, Clara in _Der
+Sandmann_, Rose in _Meister Martin_, Cecily in _Berganza_, &c.]
+
+[Footnote 18: See _Erinnerungen_, pp. 60 _sq._]
+
+[Footnote 19: See _Leben_, iv. p. 95, v. p. 27; _Erinnerungen_, pp.
+28-31.]
+
+[Footnote 20: These adventures are described in one of the most
+humorous chapters (iv.) of the _Erinnerungen_.]
+
+[Footnote 21: It is treated of in _Don Juan_ and in _Die Fremdenloge_,
+in the _Fantasiestuecke_. A recent critic has declared that this essay
+will always have value in connection with the stage-representation of
+the problem of Don Juan (cf. _Die Gegenwart_, 24th May, 1884).]
+
+[Footnote 22: _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 58, 59.]
+
+[Footnote 23: _Leben_, vol. iv. p. 140.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Contessa and Koreff are strikingly portrayed in the
+_Serapionsbrueder_ (vol. ii.), the former as "Sylvester," the latter as
+"Vincenz."]
+
+[Footnote 25: The sexual relations are handled in a mystical, sensuous
+way; something of the same kind of treatment occurs again in _Das
+Elementargeist_.]
+
+[Footnote 26: _Leben_, vol. iv. pp. 118-120.]
+
+[Footnote 27: _Leben_, iii. pp. 120-123; iv. p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 28: "Behold the lot of mankind--joy to-day, to-morrow grief,"
+Walther von Eschenbach's _Parzival_, ii. 103, ll. 23, 24.]
+
+[Footnote 29: _Serapionsbrueder_, vol. ii., Introduction to part iv.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Weird Tales, Vol. II., by E. T. A. Hoffmann
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEIRD TALES, VOL. II. ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31439.txt or 31439.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/3/31439/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from scans obtained from The
+Internet Archive.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.net/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/31439.zip b/old/31439.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50d6e44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/31439.zip