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diff --git a/32064.txt b/32064.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0cd84a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/32064.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2044 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wine-ghosts of Bremen, by Wilhelm Hauff + +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.org + + +Title: The Wine-ghosts of Bremen + +Author: Wilhelm Hauff + +Illustrator: Frank M. Gregory + +Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32064] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WINE-GHOSTS OF BREMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + +Transcriber's Note: +Source: Google Books +http://books.google.com/books?id=k6YoAAAAYAAJ + + + + + + THE WINE-GHOSTS OF BREMEN + + + + + + +_This edition of "The Wine-Ghosts of Bremen" was printed entirely from +type, distributed immediately after printing, and is limited to Five +Hundred Copies, of which this is No._ 485. + + Theo. L. DeVinne & Co. + + + +[Illustration: 'IT WAS THE DEVIL'] + + + + THE + WINE-GHOSTS OF BREMEN + + + BY + WILHELM HAUFF + + + ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK M. GREGORY + + + + + NEW-YORK AND LONDON + WHITE AND ALLEN + MDCCCLXXXIX + + + + + + + Copyright 1889, by + WHITE AND ALLEN. + + + + + + + THE + WINE-GHOSTS OF BREMEN + + TRANSLATED PROM THE GERMAN OF + W. HAUFF + + + BY + E. SADLER + AND + C. R. L. FLETCHER + LATE FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + PAGE. + + 1. 'IT WAS THE DEVIL' _Frontispiece._ + + 2. THE CELLAR OF BACCHUS 8 + + 3. THE GENTLEMEN OF THE RHINE 24 + + 4. 'TO THE DANCE! TO THE DANCE!' 60 + + + + + PREFACE. + + +When Mr. Carlyle endeavoured to introduce Jean Paul Richter to the +English public, it seems to us that he was more than usually +unsuccessful. The literary publics of the England and the Germany of +those days were very different, and perhaps the errors of taste, which +each professed to find in the other, were not in truth wholly upon the +side of John Bull. We feel, (with much deprecation of our own impudence +in challenging such a comparison,) in a somewhat similar position, and +dread in our more diffident moments a far colder reception and far +greater depth of oblivion for our present attempt to render into +English a good German story about STRONG DRINK. German humour is often +more rollicking than that of our own countrymen; it is also +occasionally more subtle. But it has always been a matter of some +wonder to us that Hauff's acknowledged masterpiece should be unknown to +English readers, and we have therefore made the following attempt; +praying the courteous reader only that he will not throw the story down +in disgust till he gets to the best part: of the location of which we +allow him to be the best judge. + +Wilhelm Hauff was born on the 29th November, 1802, at Stuttgart, where +his father held various high posts, with various high-sounding double +and treble official names, under the paternal government of the Elector +Frederick, the first of his name and house who attained 'serenity.' It +was this same ruler who three years later, after refusing a passage to +Napoleon's troops for some time with great show of patriotism, allowed +himself to be 'convinced,' as soon as the Emperor himself appeared and +offered him a considerable extension of territory and a Royal Crown; +and who confessed with some _naivete_ 'that since Frederick the Great +he had never met any one so good at talking a man over as Napoleon; +that the latter had in fact the same "tournure de l'esprit" as +Frederick.' But His Serene Highness was, in common with many of his +contemporaries, in the habit of allowing himself to be talked over by +any one with a good strong army at his back. 'C'etait leur nature de +complaire aux plus forts.' Therefore he now openly joined, in 1805, as +he had practically done in '95 and '99, the row of princely traitors to +the cause of Germany, and began to dance with his fellows on the +fast-closing grave of the Holy Roman Empire. It must however be +remembered that his country was one of the few German principalities +that still possessed an active 'Landstaende' or system of Estates: this +was indeed of the most rudimentary order, and consisted chiefly of +representatives of the nobles, craft gilds, and ecclesiastical +corporations; but it is worthy of note that, as in the Tyrol, there was +a Peasants' Estate in Wuerttemberg, and that these Estates did possess, +though they rarely made good, the right of voting or withholding +supplies from His Serenity. On the occasion referred to, when he +expressed some doubts as to whether his Estates would agree to the +proposed treaty, Napoleon, who had methods of his own for dealing with +refractory representatives, answered that 'he would settle all that.' +The Elector then got his crown from Napoleon; but in November, 1813, a +very similar scene was enacted at Stuttgart, (with Alexander in place +of Napoleon,) when the confederation of the Rhine was dissolved, and +Bavaria had already made her peace with the allies by the treaty of +Ried. Then the magnanimous King Frederick threw in his lot with the +winning side again, in return for that fatal guarantee of absolute +sovereignty and territorial indemnification for his losses, (for he was +obliged to disgorge some of the spoils of his neighbours,) which proved +such an obstacle in the way of the long-deferred restoration of +Germany. + +Growing up under influences like these, it is wonderful that young +Hauff and his brother Hermann (his senior by two years) should ever +have discovered that they were Germans at all; but they lost their +father in 1809 and do not afterwards appear to have had any political +connection with the government: and by 1815, when Wilhelm was only +thirteen, the worst was over and the people of Stuttgart were left face +to face with their amiable monarch; who surprised them and all the +world by granting them of his own grace and favour an absolutely free +constitution. This, however, on the principle of 'Timeo Danaos et dona +ferentes,' was too much for the Wuerttembergers, who profoundly +mistrusted him: but before the matter could be settled King Frederick +died, and King Wilhelm I, the husband of a Russian princess, and a +brave soldier and able diplomatist, who had stood up for the rights of +Germany in the deferred Elsass question, gave to his people, after much +preparation, a very respectably constitutional form of government +with two chambers, which included a representation both of clergy and +old-imperial nobility, backed up by a strong Executive. This was in +1822, and the remaining five years of W. Hauff's life were passed in a +happy country that had no history. It is usual of course to account for +the excessively fertile development of literary culture in Germany at +this time by the fact that the system of repression was so strong and +effective as to drive all the moderate minds away from politics; but +this will hardly hold good in Wuerttemberg. Yet the educated classes +there seem to have been completely indifferent to such politics as +there were. But there were very few. + +Those who want to discover the conditions under which Hauff's earlier +life passed should read (1) Goethe's Autobiography in Wahrheit and +Dichtung, and (2) Histoire d'un Conscrit; and, by mixing the two well +together, may arrive at some sort of idea what life was like in a small +German state, on which were grafted the new horrors of a military +despotism. It is not a pleasant picture, but if it bred a good many +souls as dead to patriotism as Goethe's and Heine's, it also bred not a +few Muellers and Uhlands and Arndts; and it bred Wilhelm Hauff. That +Hauff, in his later years at least (if a man can be said to have +later years who died at twenty-five), had caught much of the spirit +of the heroes of the War of Liberation, is best seen from the few +soul-stirring lyrics which he has left, especially the two odes which +he wrote in 1823-4 on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo; even +more perhaps it is seen in his admiration for W. Mueller, and in the +affecting story that when on his deathbed he heard the news of the +battle of Navarino, he cried, 'What news! I must go hence and tell it +to Mueller,' who preceded him to the grave by a few weeks. + +Hauff and his brother were voracious readers. Their maternal +grandfather, 'a learned jurist,' (one trembles to think what a learned +German jurist must have been like in the first decade of this century,) +had a good library, consisting chiefly of old Law and History books, +but including also a considerable number of romances; 'Smollett, +Fielding, and Goldsmith were there,' says his biographer, Gustav +Schwab, in the life which he prefixed to the 1837 (first collected) +edition of Hauff's works. Schwab relates, not without humour, how the +boys would play at fortress building and sieges with some of the more +ponderous of the volumes, and the delight which they took in battering +down a breastwork composed of the 'Acta Pacis Westphalicae,' perhaps at +the very time at which the Congress of Vienna was engaged upon the same +job. But in the way of reading, they battened chiefly upon the old +German historical romances, Hardleder's 'Ursache des Deutschen Krieges' +especially, and it was from works like these that Wilhelm caught that +old-imperial swing and flow of ideas which carries us so powerfully +through Lichtenstein and the 'Phantasien.' The plan of turning a boy +loose in a library is sometimes justified by results, although not +always in the way expected. But although Wilhelm got a certain amount +of classics drilled into him at the cloister school of Blaubeuern, +and afterwards studied 'Philology, Philosophy, and Theology,' from +1820-1824, at the University of Tuebingen, 'more,' says Schwab, 'to +please his mother than from any leaning of his own to those subjects,' +he never could write Greek or Latin verses like his brother, or pass +for anything but an essentially poor scholar. But several other people +who have afforded some pleasure to the world at large have been +essentially poor scholars. + +This deficiency did not affect him much; his mother, though apparently +not wealthy, had good interest, and procured for him, when he left the +University, the position of private tutor in the family of 'the at that +time War's-council's-President, later War's-minister von Huegel' at +Stuttgart, where he remained two years, with apparently abundant +leisure for exercising his talent for writing poetical romances and +fairy tales, of which during the last two years of his life he poured +forth an incessant stream. It is worth while noting that in one of +these--the first part of the 'Memoirs of Satan' (not the completed +edition of these memoirs as they now stand)--is a passage in which the +author falls foul of the great Autocrat of German Literature apropos of +some lines in Faust; which was a more daring thing for a young fellow +of four-and-twenty to do than it is possible for a man living in a free +country to imagine. The rash youth afterwards repented, and expunged +the obnoxious passage when he finished the memoirs of his black +Majesty. + +Perhaps it would have been as well if there had been no expunging, at +least we may dare to say so on this side of the water, where less and +less divinity hedges the person of the great man-god of letters every +day. Hauff, however, had a tender heart, and did not like to see what a +big hole he had made by casting a stone at the man-god; and with the +modesty of twenty-four he begged pardon. History does not say whether +the man-god took any notice of him. + +It is not, however, with the Memoirs of Satan, or with any but one of +Hauff's works that we are now concerned. The 'Man in the Moon' was a +scathing satire upon a school of story-book makers, popular at the +time, and headed by one H. von Clauren, whose works we have not +perused. 'Lichtenstein,' which has been dramatised, is not inferior to +an inferior Waverley novel. These and many more are well known to +English readers, but the 'Phantasien im Bremer Rathskeller' has never +been translated, no doubt because of its dreadfully Rabelaisian +morality in the matter of strong drink. What can you think of a man +who dedicates his book to the 'lovers of wine,' and takes for his motto +the passage from Othello which appears at the head of the story? We do +not intend to defend him; we ourselves are by no means the pair of +ultra-Pickwickian topers, that a cursory perusal of the motto and +dedication would lead the reader to believe: and we are quite aware +that there _are_ to be no more cakes and ale in this world; we are a +little sorry for it, that is all. As for Hauff we will let him speak +for himself; we have no reason whatever to believe that he had more +than a poetical and literary affection for the juice of the grape. + +Hauff had grown tired of being a private tutor in 1826, and spent the +profits of Lichtenstein in a journey to the North of Germany and to +Paris in the latter half of that year. It was upon that occasion that +he visited Bremen, although not upon the errand imagined in the text. +On his return to the South in 1827 he became Editor of the 'Morning +News for the Educated Classes,' to which his brother, who succeeded him +in the editorship, was already a contributor. This paper survived till +1865, when it expired a few months after the death of Hermann Hauff, +whom from all we know of him we imagine to have been a much more +business-like editor than Wilhelm. Contemporarily with this responsible +post Wilhelm took to himself a wife, one of his own cousins, who bore +him a daughter but a few days before his death. He died of fever on the +18th November, 1827. Prefixed to the edition of 1853 is a very pretty +little poem of L. Uhland's on the occasion, and also a funeral oration +by Mr. Court Chaplain Grueneisen, who was his cousin, both of which were +recited over his grave in true German fashion. If we could believe all +that this worthy priest said--and we have not a scrap of evidence to +the contrary--Wilhelm Hauff's life must indeed have been a bright and +happy one; 'Wonnezeit voll holder Traeume,' as he himself called the +season of youth. Apparently he made no enemies, and he made every one +whom he chose his friend; his tender affection for his mother seems to +have been the mainspring of his existence; to his bride he had been +long attached in a half playful spirit, that wanted only the shadow of +a difficulty to withdraw their love into those regions of romance in +which his mind delighted to dwell. It was about a month before his +death that he produced, as a reminiscence of his northern journey, the +following story, entitled-- + + 'THE WINE-GHOSTS OF BREMEN.' + + + + +NOTE (_written before the late incorporation of the Hanse towns with +the Empire_). + +It may seem a little superfluous here to attempt to describe the +Rathskeller at Bremen, for it is well known to many travellers. But +from the method by which travellers are usually conducted through the +vaults, in which Hauff spent his grandfather's _Schalttag_ in that +bygone October, little acquaintance with the object of his story is to +be derived. The Rathhaus at Bremen, then, is by far the most +conspicuous object in the town. It contains some of the most beautiful +of the German efforts, both in stone and wood carving, of the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries. Whether there is any connection between the +fact that the fifteenth century preferred stone, the sixteenth wood, +and the other fact that the former of these centuries was to the Hanse +towns the epoch of glory, the latter the epoch of decay, we must leave +for Mr. Ruskin to decide. Anyhow, the men who embellished that Rathhaus +inside were as little conscious of the decay of their city as those who +built it and decorated it outside. So far as Germany is concerned, even +in the best examples of Luebeck, Augsburg, or Nuremberg, the force of +Art could no further go. But descend the steps on the left of the +building, and you will find a very different state of things. The +cellar is built as a cellar should be, strictly with a view to the +practical--that is, to the comfort of its inhabitants, the mighty +spirits imprisoned in the mighty casks. For the comfort of those who +came to commune with those mighty spirits, a broad oak settle with +strong arms would and did suffice; and the steps were made strictly +with a view to be _easy of ascent_. Since Hauff's time, and partly in +consequence of his story, the internal arrangements appear to have been +much altered. Some of the cellar chambers have been painted in the true +modern German style, about which we should prefer not to say too much. +Some of the mural paintings profess to be representations of scenes in +the story. There is no longer a passage straight through from the +Apostle cellar to the boudoir of Frau Rosa herself, and of the other +vaults the cellar of Bacchus is alone unaltered. Bacchus, indeed, is +the hero of the place. No better description could possibly be given of +him than that which Hauff gives, and therefore we will not attempt to +amplify it. But the same Bacchus does not actually 'in the wood,' so to +speak, sit there. He was taken down ten years ago, and a new one put up +in his place--why, I failed to discover. His cask is, however, like all +the other casks except Frau Rosa (who has disappeared altogether), the +old one, a veritable Thirty Years War cask, beautifully carved with +fantastic figures in relief. In the Apostle cellar all the wine is +Hochheimer or Ruedesheimer, and the names are still graven on each cask, +and 'Herr Judas, 1729,' is said to contain the best wine. But from a +somewhat limited experience it is difficult cordially to endorse the +reported opinion of the late King Ludwig of Bavaria, that the finest +Rhine wines would keep for ever. Let the man who wishes to know what +wine _can be_, by all means go daily for a few weeks to the Rathskeller +in Bremen. Let him pay due homage to the worthies of old time there by +tasting them, one glass of each per diem; but let him not fail to wash +them down speedily with a bottle of twenty-year old Niersteiner or +Ruedesheimer. If you ask, thirsty reader, why these things are to be +found at their best in Bremen, we can only say that North Germany is a +right conservative country; and because the Burgomasters of Bremen +thought it their duty in the seventeenth century to lay down cask upon +cask of the best vintages, their successors think it is their duty +likewise; which is a very practical and righteous feeling. Bacchus, +however, and the two mighty casks which guard his right hand and his +left (like those trusty comrades who stand up in the halls of the +Colleges of our Universities on each side of the drinker, when the +loving cup is passed round, to prevent his being stabbed in the back), +are now empty. The right hand cask was broken open and drained by the +French soldiers in 1806, after the defeat of Prussia at Auerstaedt; a +loss which one can well imagine that the Town Council of Bremen bore +less philosophically than many another act of power of those merciless +freebooters. Bacchus himself, who dates from 1624, has been empty for +100 years. But what has become of the Rose herself? There are many old +casks in the cellar called after her, but none that I could identify +with the heroine of the story. She is still painted on the ceiling--a +sufficiently ugly specimen (of the variety known as 'La France,' she +appears to be)--very fat and round, with very dirty green foliage, and +round her the following inscription:-- + +'Cur Rosa Flos Veneris Bacchi depingitur antro, + Causa quod absque mero frigiat ipsa Venus.' + +Other bad hexameters follow in other parts of the vault known as the +Rose cellar; as for instance: + +'Haec Rosa Luminibus Veneres Nectarque Palato + Objicit, exhalans pocula grata cadis: +Vina vetusta tenet, grandaevi munera Bacchi; + Sint procul hinc juvenes; vos decet iste senes.' + +They are in fact the sort of verses that the traditional Eton boy, who +wrote verses for the whole of his Dame's house, could turn out at the +rate of a couplet a minute, adding a few false quantities and concords +by desire of the accomplice for whom they were written, 'because if you +don't, you know, my tutor will never believe they're my own +composition.' Finally, over the entrance door, on the other side of +which is a medallion of Hauff, erected in 1876, comes the following:-- + + 'Was Magen, Leib und Herz, Saft, Kraft, und Geist kann geben, + Betruebte troesten mag, halbtodte kann beleben, + Theilt diese Rose mit, sie hat von hundert Jahren + Den Preis ein edles Oel mit Sorgfalt zu bewahren.' + +More could be quoted, but this breathes the spirit of the eighteenth +century quite sufficiently for our purpose. + +As for Roland, he is still in the marketplace, a wonderful +fourteenth-century stone figure, nearly twenty feet high, not standing +on a pillar, but simply on a pedestal about two feet from the ground. +He would certainly find it remarkably difficult to sit down, even on a +cask, for he has iron spikes to his knees, which would make him +extremely uncomfortable if he bent them. He did not bow his head to me +as I went away as he did to Hauff, which I felt deeply. It is generally +believed that he only bows his head to those departing visitors who +have had enough Nierstein to appreciate the compliment. + + C. R. L. F. + + + + + + + THE WINE-GHOSTS + OF BREMEN. + +'Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well +used.'--_Othello_, ii. 3. + +'There's nothing to be done with the fellow,' I heard them say, as they +stumped down the stairs; 'nine o'clock and he is going to doze away his +evening like a dormouse. He wouldn't have been like that four years +ago.' They were not far wrong from their point of view, good fellows; +for this evening there was to be a most brilliant musical tea and +muffin fight with dancing and recitation, and these gentlemen had come +to invite me (who was a stranger to the High Life of Bremen) to go with +them. But I did not feel up to it. Some one, whom I had come to Bremen +on purpose to visit, was not to be there, and what's the use of going +anywhere where Some one isn't? Besides, I knew I should have to sing if +I went, and I didn't choose to sing if she wasn't to be there to hear +me. I should only spoil all their fun by looking sulky. I preferred to +let them curse me for a dull dog for a few minutes on the steps, rather +than let them bore themselves from nine to one in talking to my body +only, while my soul would be whole streets off wandering about in the +neighbourhood of the Frauenkirche. + +It wasn't sleepiness though. I am not a habitual dormouse, and don't +like being called one. No, I meant to be thoroughly awake that night, +and one of my friends--it was you, Hermann--said as much when he got +outside. 'He didn't look sleepy,' I heard him say, 'with those bright +eyes of his. But he looked like a man who had been drinking either too +much or too little, which probably means that he is going to make a +night of it with the bottle, and alone.' + +Prophetic soul! Did you know that my eyes were sparkling yet +proleptically with the thought of old Rhenish? You didn't know that I +had a permit from their High Mightinesses to greet my Lady Rose and the +Twelve Apostles. And you certainly didn't know that it was my +'Retreat.'[1] + +In my opinion the habit which I inherit from my grandfather of blazing, +so to speak, the tree of life here and there with a notch, and spending +a quiet day of meditation over each notch, is not a bad one. To keep +the ordinary festivals of the Church only is hardly sufficient; one +becomes commonplace, and one's thoughts are too apt to become +commonplace on such days. But let the soul that keeps an anniversary of +its own making keep it alone; look inwards for a few hours in the year +instead of always outwards; sit down at the long table d'hote of +memory, people it with the shadows of the past, and then set to and +make out the bill conscientiously. Such days as these my grandfather +always kept, and called his 'retreats.' He didn't prepare a banquet for +his friends, or pass the time in festivity at all; he simply sat down +and feasted his own soul and talked to her in that inner chamber which +she had occupied for five-and-seventy years. Even now I can trace, long +as it is since the dear old man was laid in the churchyard, the marked +passages in his Elzevir Horace which he always read on such days; and +as I read, I can see his large blue eyes wandering thoughtfully over +the yellow leaves of memory's book. He takes up his pen. Slowly and +hesitatingly he draws the black cross beneath the name of some dear +departed friend. 'The master is keeping his Retreat,' whispered the +servants to us, as we grandchildren were running gaily and noisily up +the stairs; and we repeated the words to each other, and imagined that +he was making himself Christmas presents, and wondered how he managed +to light up his own Christmas tree. And we were not far wrong. They +were the tapers of affection that he was kindling upon the tree of +Unforgetfulness, each taper the symbol of happy hours of a long life. +And when his hours of solitude were passed, and we were admitted in the +evening, he sat still and quiet in his chair as if he rejoiced like a +child in the Heaven-sent Christmas gifts of the past. + + +[Footnote 1: Schalttag, lit. 'intercalary day'--used of the 29th of +February in leap years--impossible to translate except by a +circumbendibus. Hence we have borrowed from ecclesiastical phraseology +a word which, to a certain extent, possesses the same meaning in +English. So far as we are aware Hauff is peculiar in using Schalttag in +this sense.] + + +And it was on his Retreat day that he was borne by loving hands to his +last resting-place. For the first time for many years, (for he had been +confined to his room,) it was 'out into the air,' but it was also 'into +his grave.' And again, 'I could not choose but weep they should lay him +in the mould.' I had often walked with him along the same road; but +when they turned off across the black bridge and laid him deep in +the earth, I knew that he was keeping his real Retreat. I was a little +boy, and I wondered as they threw a lot of stones and turf on him +whether he would ever come up again. He did not. But his image remained +in my memory, and when I grew up my favourite pieces in the long +picture-gallery of Reflection were his Retreats. + +And isn't to-day mine? The First of September? And am I to go and drink +weak tea and listen to bad music to-day? No! I have a better +prescription in my pocket, directed to the best apothecary in the +world--somewhat under the world in fact he dwells. Down therefore to +him, and _Fiat, sum., haust. ad lib._ + +It was striking ten o'clock when I descended the broad steps that lead +to the noble vault, which with all its contents is the ancient and +perpetual inheritance of their High Mightinesses the Corporation of +Bremen. There was every probability of my having my drink to myself, as +there was a fearful storm raging outside and no one about in the +streets. The cellarman stared at me as I presented a slip of paper, +signed and sealed by a town-councillor:-- + +'Admit the Bearer to Drink. Sep. 1st.' + +'So late and _To-night_?' says he. 'It is never late before twelve and +never too early after that for good wine,' says I. He looked at the +signature and seal, and not without hesitation led the way through the +vaults. What a noble sight was there! His lantern shone over long rows +of casks, and threw strange forms and shadows on the arches of the +cellar; and the pillars seemed to float in the background like busy +coopers plying their staves. My companion wanted to open for me one of +those smaller rooms where six or eight friends at the most can pack in +with comfortable space to let the bottle circulate: and a very proper +thing it is, when your companions are the right sort, to sit close +together; but when I am to be alone I love free space, where my +thoughts and my body can find room to expand. So I chose an old vaulted +hall, the largest we passed into, for my solitary banquet-room. 'You +expect company?' said the attendant. 'No.' Some have who do not +expect,' said he, with an uneasy glance at the shadow on the wall. +'What do you mean?' + +'Nothing. It's the first of September.... By-the-bye, there was Mr. +Councillor Pumpernickel here a while agone, and he bade me get out some +samples for you--samples of my Lady Rose and of the Twelve Apostle +casks'; and he began to take down some pretty little bottles with +long strips of paper on their necks. 'You don't mean to tell me I am +not to be allowed to drink out of the casks themselves.' 'Your honour +couldn't possibly be allowed that privilege except in the presence of a +town-councillor. Let me fill your honour's glass from this bottle.' +'Not a drop here then,' said I; 'if I mayn't drink from the cask head I +will drink at the cask side at least. Come, old fellow, pick up your +samples, and give me the light.' He still kept fidgeting about, and +shoving the bottles into and out of his pockets, which irritated me +much, as I was longing to be off to the Apostle cellar; and at length I +spoke quite sharply, 'Come now, march.' This gave him courage +apparently, and he answered with some firmness, 'It won't do, sir, +really it won't--not to-night.' Thinking he was merely angling to raise +his price, I pressed a substantial douceur into his hand, and took him +by the arm to lead him along. 'No, no, it wasn't that I meant,' said +he, trying to reject the proffered coin; 'but no one shall take me into +the Apostle cellar on the night of the first of September, not for love +or money!' + +[Illustration: THE CELLAR OF BACCHUS] + +'Stuff and nonsense! What do you mean?' 'I mean that it's an uncanny +thing to go in there on Frau Rosa's own birthday.' I laughed till the +vault rang. 'I've heard of a good many ghosts before now, but never +heard of a wine-ghost: fancy an old man like you believing such tales: +but I tell you, friend, I am serious. I have permission from their High +Mightinesses to drink in the cellar tonight, time and place at my own +discretion; and in their name I order you to lead me to the cellar of +Bacchus.' This finished him. Unwillingly, but without answering, he +took the taper and beckoned me to follow. We went first back through the +great vault, then through a number of smaller ones, till our path came +to an end in a narrow passage. Our steps echoed weirdly in the hollow way, +and our very breath as it struck on the walls sounded like distant +whisperings. At last we stood before a door, the keys rattled, with a +groan the hinge opened, and the light of the candles streamed into the +vault. Opposite me sat friend Bacchus on a mighty cask of wine: not +slender and delicate like a Grecian youth had the cunning old wood carvers +of Bremen made him; no, nor a drunken old sot with goggle eyes and hanging +tongue, as vulgar mythology now and then blasphemously represents him +(scandalous anthropomorphism I call it!). Because some of his priests, +grown grey in his service, have gone about like that; because their bodies +may have swelled full of good humour, and their noses been coloured by the +burning reflection of the dark red flood; because their eyes may have +become fixed through being constantly turned upwards in silent +rapture,--are we to ascribe to the god the qualities of his servants? +The men of Bremen thought differently. How cheerily and gaily the old +boy rides on his cask: the round blooming face, the little bright eyes +that looked down so wisely and yet so mockingly, the wide laughing +mouth that has been the grave of so many a cask, the whole body +overflowing with comfortable good living. It was his arms and legs, +however, that specially delighted me. I almost expected to see him snap +his chubby fingers, and hear his voice sing out a gay hurrah! Why, he +looked as if at any moment he might jump off his seat and trundle his +cask round the cellar, till the Rose and the Apostles joined in the +merry dance, and chased each other round whooping. 'Merciful powers,' +cried the cellarmaster, clinging tightly to me, 'I saw his eye roll and +his feet move!' 'Peace, you old fool!' said I, feeling however rather +queer, and looking anxiously at the wine god; 'it's only the dancing +reflection of your taper. Well, we'll go on to the Apostle cellar, the +samples will taste better there.' But as I followed the old man out of +Bacchus' private room, I looked round, and the figure certainly seemed +to nod his little head, and stretch out his legs, and give a shake as +if from an inward giggle. One ascends from Bacchus to a smaller vault, +the subterranean celestial firmament I called it, the seat of +blessedness, where dwell the twelve mighty casks, each called after an +apostle. What funeral vault of a royal race can compare with such a +catacomb as this? Pile coffin on coffin, trim the everlasting lamps +that burn before the ashes of the mighty dead, let black-on-white +marble speak in epigrammatic phrase the virtues of the departed: take +your garrulous cicerone with his crape-trimmed hat and cloak, listen to +his praises of Prince This, who fell at the battle of That, and of +Princess Tother on whose tomb the virgin myrtle is intertwined with the +half-opened rosebud; see and drink in all the associations of such a +place; but will it move you like this? Here sleeps, and has slept for a +century, the noblest race of all. Dark-brown their coffins, and all +unadorned--no tinsel, no lying epitaphs, simply their names inscribed +on each in large plain letters, as I could see when the old fellow +placed the taper on them. ANDREW, JOHN, JUDAS, PETER, and here on the +right PAUL, on the left JAMES, good James. Paul is Nierstein of 1718, +and James Ruedesheim, ye gods! Ruedesheim of 1726! + +Ask not of their virtues; no one has any right to ask: like dark-red +gold their blood sparkles in my glass; when it was first ripened on the +hills of St. John it was pale and blonde, but a century has coloured +it. What a bouquet! quite beyond the power of words to express. Take +all the scents from all the flowers and trees, and all the spices of +Araby and Ind, fill the cool cellar with ambergris, and let the amber +itself be dissolved into fumes--and the result will be but poor and +scentless compared to the liquid sunshine of Bingen and Laubenheim, of +Nierenstein and Johannisberg. 'Why do you shake your head?' said I to +my companion at last; 'you've no reason to be ashamed of these old +fellows here. Come, fill your glass and here's good luck to the whole +Twelve of them!' + +'Heaven forbid that I should do anything of the kind,' he replied; 'it's +an uncanny toast and an uncanny night for it. Taste them, sir, and +let's pass on, I shiver in their presence.' 'Good-night, then, +gentlemen--remember that I am everywhere and for ever at your service, +most noble Lords of the Rhine.' 'Surely,' said the old fellow, 'those +few drops haven't made you so drunk that you would raise the whole crew +of sprites already? If you talk like that again I shall be off, though +I should get the sack for it: I tell you that on this night the spirits +imprisoned in these casks rise and hold infernal carnival here in this +very spot, aye, and other spirits besides! I wouldn't be here after +twelve o'clock for worlds.' 'Well, I'll be quiet, you old driveller, if +you'll only take me on to my Lady Rose's apartment itself.' At last we +reached it, the little garden of the queen of flowers. There she lay in +all her majestic girth, the biggest cask I ever saw in my life, and +every glass worth a golden guinea. Frau Rosa was born in 1615. Ah, +where are the hands that planted her parent vine? where are the eyes +that watched the ripening clusters? where the sun-browned feet that +hurried to the festival when she was pressed in the sunny Rheingau, and +streamed a pale gold rivulet into the vat? Like the waves of the stream +that lapped the base of her cradle, they are gone no one knows whither. +And where are their High-Mightinesses of the Hansa, who ruled when the +Hansa was a League indeed, those worthy senators of Bremen who brought +the blushing maiden to this cool grot for the edification of their +grandchildren? Gone too--with two centuries over their heads, and we +can only pour wine on their tombs. + +Good luck to you, departed High-Mightinesses, and good luck to your +living representatives, who have so courteously extended such +hospitality to a Southerner! 'And goodnight to you, my Lady Rose,' +added the old servant more kindly. 'Come along, sir, we can get out +this way without going back, mind you don't stumble over the casks.' +'My good man, you don't imagine I'm going away, do you?' I replied. 'I +have only just begun my night. Bring me some of that special '22, two +or three bottles, into that big room behind there. I saw that wine +growing green and saw it pressed, and now I'm going to prove to my +palate that we can still grow something worth drinking.' The old boy +expostulated, entreated, threatened, swore nothing should induce him to +stay;--who wanted him to stay? Swore he daredn't leave me here;--did he +think I was going to carry off Frau Rosa in my arms? Finally he agreed +to let me remain if he might padlock me into the big room, and come at +six o'clock tomorrow to wake me and receive his reward. Then, with a +heavy heart, he put three bottles of the '22 on the table, wiped the +glass, poured me out a little, and wished me good-night, double-locking +and padlocking the door behind me, more apparently out of tender +anxiety for me than out of fear for his cellar. The clock struck +half-past eleven as I heard him say a prayer and hurry away. When he +shut the outer door of the vaults at the top of the stairs, there was +an echo like the thunder of cannons through the halls and passages. + +So now I was alone keeping Retreat with my soul down in the bosom of +the earth. Slumber above me and slumber around me, for the spirits of +the dead are asleep by my side. I wonder if they dream of their brief +childhood on the distant mountains, and the nightly lullabys sung to +them by old Father Rhine; or the kisses of their tender mother the sun +when they first opened their eyes in the bright spring air, of their +first leafy garments which reflected themselves in their old Father's +eyes. + +Ah! my soul, I too have rosy days of youth to look back upon, spent +upon the soft vine-clad hills and by the blue rivers of my native +Swabia; ah the days and the day dreams of glory! What games, what +picture-books, what mother-love, what gigantic Easter eggs, what armies +of tin and paper! And then, my soul, think of the first little trousers +and collars in which your mortal covering, so proud of its size, was +dressed; think how your father gave you rides on his knee, and your +grandfather lent you his long bamboo cane with a golden head to use as +a hobby horse. + +Another glass! And then look on a few years. Do you remember the sad +morning when you were taken to see all the mournful solemnities of +grandfather's funeral? Ah! what would you not have given to get him +back. Peace, 'tis but for awhile that he slumbers. And then the +delightful hours in the old library filled with folios that were +evidently bound in leather for no other purpose than that of forming +huts to protect you and your imaginary sheep and cattle from the +imaginary rain. How roughly you treated the Higher Literature of your +native land. Why, I remember throwing a quarto Lessing at my brother's +head, for which he beat me unmercifully with 'Sophy's Journey from +Memel to Saxony.' Rise too, ye walls of the old castle, with your +half-ruined passage, your cellar, your gate, your courtyard, all of +which served only as a playground for a squad of boys; soldiers and +robbers, nomads and caravans we were. I didn't much care whether I +represented Platoff or a Cossack trooper, Napoleon or Napoleon's +charger. Scattered all over the world, in every rank of life, and the +sport of every kind of fortune is now the little knot of boys who were +the companions of my childhood; and you and I, my dear soul, being +alone too erratic to turn soldier, chamberlain, artisan, or parson, +have become that remarkable thing called Doctor of Philosophy, having +had just sufficient brains between us to write a dissertation. Brains +enough to find our way into the Bremen cellars, however. + +Another glass! Sure there's an affinity between wine and the tongue. It +goes quite straight till it comes to the throat; here, however, is set +up a finger-post, directing 'To the Stomach' and 'To the Head.' The +latter is the path of the nobler particles of the grape-juice; the pure +spirits that inhabit it will ever soar, and sensible, peaceful people +they are for the most part, if there are not too many of them there +together; but you know the best philosophers will quarrel when half a +dozen of them of different intellectual complexions are closely packed +in a small room. + +How fair is that fourth period of life, (which we begin with the fourth +glass.) Fourteen years old, my soul; but the boyish games are left +behind, and you are steeped to the lips in reading--especially Goethe +and Schiller, over whom you pore without understanding much. You think, +however, you understand it all, and you have already kissed Elvira +behind the cupboard door, and broken Emma's heart. Perjured villain! +she may be another Charlotte, and she may possibly even have read some +of Clauren, and be deeply in love with thee (and him). Let the scene +change. I blow a greeting to that dear Alpine valley [Blaubeuern] where +I spent so many years at school; the cloister roof, the walks over the +brasses of dead abbots, the church with the wonderful high altar, the +images dipped in the bright gold of sunrise. Thanks be to the strong +Alpine air that I was ever full fledged and can fly as well as most +people. + +Another glass! Another period. That is a better glass than the last, I +think--there's an aroma about it that the other lacked. And what a +period that was! My college days! High, noble, savage, inharmonious, +rough, fair; all opposites and contrasts that ever existed, blended +then. No outsider can ever know the delights, and an outsider can +hardly choose but laugh at the follies. Mixed with all the dross we +bring up from thence there are generally some particles of fine gold. +The music of our life would be strange indeed to one who had not sung +and laughed with us. I know well what my granddad felt when he crossed +the name of some fellow-collegian in his Book of Memory. God bless them +all! + +Another glass, by the immortal gods, and another bottle this time! From +Friendship to Love. The most wonderful thing of this period (period +six, please observe, my soul) was that its grades fitted themselves +into and took their colour from my reading. Especially my affections +got coloured from Wilhelm Meister; that is to say, I hardly knew +whether it was Emmeline or the gentle Camilla, or even Ottilie. Didn't +all three peep out from behind jalousies in bewitching nightcaps to +hear the mournful squeaks which my numbed fingers elicited from the +guitar? And when all three proved but heartless coquettes, I swore I +would never marry till I was forty. Yet the little god slides from the +eyes of the loved one into the heart of the victim. For am I not a +victim? Is not she the coldest listener of all when I sing? did she +ever vouchsafe me a single glance of encouragement? As I am not a +general officer, I can't get mentioned in a despatch as having eight +bullets in my breast and 'lying in a precarious condition,' even if we +were not at peace. If I was only a drummer I could go and make a +disgusting noise under her window till she was obliged to look out to +tell me to go away, and I would then descend from fortissimo to piano +and adagio, for I suppose one could do adagio even upon a drum. But the +only fame she is likely to hear of me is that some one will tell her +to-morrow that I boozed in the Town Cellar from midnight to six a. m. + +Now is no one awake but the highest and the lowest in the town,--the +watchman on the top of the cathedral tower, and I deep down in the +bowels of the earth. If I were the watchman I would be singing to a +certainty, so I don't see why I should not wake the echoes down here. +_She_ won't hear either of us, so here goes. + + When at the lonely midnight hour + I pace my rounds upon the tower, + I muse upon my love afar, + Whose troth is fixed as morning star. + + When to the flag at honour's call + I flew, her kiss was worth it all; + She decked my hat with ribbands blue, + Then pressed me to her heart anew. + + And still her love's as warm as then, + It gives my hand the strength of ten; + It lends my heart a firmer beat, + To think in absence on my Sweet. + + E'en now within her room she kneels + And wings to Heaven her dear appeals, + All lonely by the pale lamp's ray, + For one she loves that's far away. + + But if my danger haunt thy breast, + Yet dry thy tears, and be at rest; + I stand in God's own armour clad, + He loves an honest soldier lad. + + The clocks ring out, the round is near. + My hour of rest will soon be here; + Sleep rock thy brain, and set it free + To dream, and only dream of me. + +Midnight! and is she dreaming of me? It always seems to me as if at +this mysterious hour the earth gave a little tremble, and the dead who +sleep in her bosom turned in their heavy slumber as if to mutter a +prayer of _Domine quousque_? That distant bell is borne to me very +differently from the 'twelve great shocks of shameless noon.' Hark! did +not a door shut in one of the further vaults? Strange, if I didn't +_know_ that I was perfectly alone here I should believe that I heard +footsteps. Yes, there are footsteps, and now they are at my door too. +Never mind, the door's well locked; no mortal can disturb me. _No +mortal_; yet the door flies open!... + +Two men stood there, making fantastic compliment of yielding the _pas_ +to each other. One was tall and haggard, with a long black wig, a dark +red coat made by some old French tailor, and covered with gold tassels +and gilt buttons. His immensely long thin legs were clad in tight +trousers of black velvet, with gold knee-buckles; he had stuck his +sword with its porcelain handle through his breeches pocket; when he +bowed he flourished a three-cornered hat, and the curls of his peruke +rustled down his shoulders like a waterfall. He had a pale face, sunken +eyes, and a fiery red nose. The little fellow to whom he wished to +yield precedence was quite different. His hair was plastered down with +white of egg and then twisted into two long rolls like pistol holsters +at the sides--and a plait about a yard long hung down his back. He wore +a little steel-grey coat faced with red, and, beneath that, great +riding boots, and a richly embroidered waistcoat which covered his +plump figure to the knee, and a huge sword was fastened to his side. +There was something good-tempered in his face, especially the eyes. He +too performed wondrous evolutions with a huge beaver hat. I recovered a +little from my terror while their courtesy proceeded to the verge of +absurdity: at last they settled it by opening the other half of the +door and marching in arm-in-arm. They hung their hats on the wall, +unfastened their swords, and sat down silently without noticing me: I +think I disliked their silence even more than anything else. Before +however I had mustered courage to break it, more steps were heard, and +four other gentlemen entered, dressed in somewhat similar fashion: one +of them for the chase apparently. 'Greeting, gentlemen of the Rhine! +it's long since we met,' said the pale-faced man with the red nose. +'Greeting, greeting, Mr. James, Mr. Matthew, greeting Mr. Judas. But +what's this? where are the glasses and the pipes, where's the tobacco? +Has that old fool not waked out of his sinful snoring yet? I suppose he +is still in Our Lady's churchyard; but stay, I'll ring him up'--and he +seized a great bell that stood on the table and rang it till the halls +re-echoed. The three new comers took their seats at the table, and sat +silent after the first greeting, especially one whom they called +Andrew, who sat between the huntsman and the red-nosed man; he was +evidently a person nice of his manners and appearance, his features +were still youthful, and a gentle smile played upon his lips. There +were varieties in the dress and expression of all, but not such as to +have particularly fastened themselves upon my remembrance. As it +usually is with old drinkers, conversation flagged for want of liquor; +until, in answer to the summons of the bell, a new figure appeared at +the door--a piteous-looking old man with trembling legs and grey hair, +with a sort of death's-head face. With much exertion he dragged forward +a great basket, and greeted the guests humbly. + +'Hurrah,' they cried, 'here's Balthasar, slip along old fellow, on with +your glasses and pipes; what a time you have been!' + +[Illustration: THE GENTLEMEN OF THE RHINE] + +The old man gave a rude yawn, and declared that he had almost overslept +the first of September: 'I sleep so sound, d'ye see, since they've new +paved the churchyard, that I'm getting to hear rather badly. But here's +only six of you yet, and where's my Lady Rose?' 'Just you put on the +bottles, old chap, and then you may go across and rattle your dry bones +against their casks, and tell them it's time to get up,' cried one of +them; but the words were hardly spoken when a great noise and laughter was +heard. 'Rosa, Rose, Lady Rose, hurrah, hurrah for Bacchus, hurrah for +Rosa!' The ghostly companions within shouted with delight to the same +effect, and clinked their glasses to the health of the Rose. Balthasar +threw his cap up to the ceiling in his joy. In they came: Bacchus, my old +friend who had bestrid the cask, had got down off it--not a rag of clothing +on him--yet in he came, leading his blushing Rose, an ancient matron of +stately mien and considerable stoutness of figure: splendidly dressed, too, +she was like a true old Rhineland lady. Time might have written a few +wrinkles on her brow and mouth, the fresh colour of youth might be a trifle +wanting on her cheeks, but two hundred years had but added dignity to her +contour. What though her eyebrows had grown grey, and there were--hush, yes +there were really--a few ugly grey hairs on her chin, her locks above were +nut-brown, with but very slight tinge of silver here and there. Her head +was covered with a black velvet cap, fitting close to her temples: her +jacket was of the finest cloth, and the red velvet bodice that peeped from +beneath it was laced with silver hooks and chains. Necklace, a string of +garnets and gold coins. Her skirt was of thickly pleated brown cloth, +and she wore a sort of toy white apron, with a huge leather pocket at +one side and a bunch of huge keys at the other. In short, she was the +very picture of a worthy matron of Mainz or Coblentz, of the years +immediately preceding the Thirty Years War. Six jolly companions +followed her, dressed in the same fashion as my friends who were +already seated, and all with their wigs somewhat awry. How politely +Bacchus led his lady-love to the table! how politely she bowed to the +company as she sat down! As for her fat little sweetheart, Balthasar +had to put a great pillow under him, or he would not have been able to +get his nose above the table. When all were seated I realised that they +were indeed the spirits of those mighty Rhinewines that I had tasted an +hour before; the twelve Apostle-casks, Bacchus and the old Rose. + +'Well, well, it's a long while since 1700, Mistress Rose,' said one of +them, 'but we seem to be all in pretty good condition, and I vow you +are as young and handsome as ever. Here's good luck and long life to +your sweetheart and yourself, my dear.' 'Rosa, Frau Rosa, the Rose, +long life and health to her!' shouted all, and Bacchus tossed off two +quarts at a gulp, which had the visible effect of making him look more +like an inflated bladder than ever. + +'Thank you, most honoured apostles and cousins,' said she, bowing +graciously; 'but when you refer to my sweetheart I don't know whom you +mean; you confuse a modest maiden.' The modest maiden sought refuge in +a mighty draught of wine. 'Sweetheart,' said Bacchus, looking tenderly +at her and pressing her hand, 'be not coy, sweetheart; you know well +whose heart has been yours any time these 200 vintages; and I don't +mind proving it to you by this chaste salute'--and he bent forward to +kiss her. 'If all these young people were not here,' she murmured--but +amid shouts of laughter from the young people she allowed him to take +his due by force and with interest. Then he tossed off a bowl or two +and began to sing in a rich mellow voice: + + There's not a palace in the land + So fair as this of Bremen, + Its spacious floors, its halls so grand + A king would feel no shame in: + And sure 'tis decked with everything + To take the fancy of a king; + But the thing that best would win it + Is the Lady fair within it. + + Her eyes like sparkling Rhenish shine, + Her cheeks are bright as roses, + Her heavy draperies rich and fine + Are decked with fragrant posies: + Of heart-of-oak her farthingale, + Her girdle of the birchwood pale, + And her bodice trim she faces + With iron clasps and laces. + + But ah, her bedroom too is barred + With locks and bolts of iron, + She slumbers soft nor dreams how hard + The threshold 'tis to lie on. + I knock in vain from twelve to four, + Arise, my love, and ope the door + That bars thy chamber cosy, + Come forth, my lovely Rosie! + + So pass I every midnight hour + Before her lonely dwelling, + Once, only once, and never more, + The fairy lass was willing. + And since I drew that honeyed kiss + My heart's been drunken all with bliss-- + Ah, just once more, my treasure, + Fill me a brimming measure! + +'That's enough of such indelicate allusions, now, Mr. Bacchus,' says +she; 'you know very well that their High Mightinesses keep me strictly +locked up, and don't allow me to admit anyone at all.' 'Not even me, +dear Rosie,' said he; 'ah, I think they would wink at it if you let me +in now and then for a taste at your lips.' 'You're a rogue,' she +answered, 'and little better than a Turk. I should like to know how +many sweethearts you want. I know of your goings on with those +frivolous French girls, Miss Champagne, (who has no more colour in her +face than a dried pea,) and Fraeulein von Bordeaux, the sickly minx. Ah, +you have not the true Rhinelander's heart, nor understand the +Rhinelander's love.' 'Pooh, my dear,' says he, 'I have visited these +ladies occasionally, and amused myself with their wit, but nothing +else; rest assured, my dearest, my heart is thine alone.' 'And then I +fancy,' she went on, 'that I have heard some stories from Spain. Of +poor Lady Xeres I will say nothing, (that's too well-known a story for +you to deny); but how about the Senorina Dentilla di Rosa, Senorina San +Lucar, and Senora Ximenes--a married lady too?' 'You carry your +jealousy too far,' said he, with some asperity. 'I don't see why one +should give up one's old connexions. As for the Senora Ximenes, I +merely visit her out of kindness to you as being your relation.' 'Our +relation?' muttered Rosa and the others, 'how's that?' 'Don't you +know,' he continued, 'that she is originally from the Rhine? The most +excellent hidalgo, Don Ximenes, took her from thence to his home in +Spain when she was a very tender maid, and there she settled, and +naturally took his family name. But she preserves with the Spanish +sweetness much of the true German character, especially in colour and +scent.' 'Long life to her, then,' cried they all, 'if she really is +Rosie's cousin.' Rosa did not seem quite satisfied with her +sweetheart's cunning mode of extricating himself from the scrape, so +she changed the subject by turning round to the others and rallying +them each in turn on the way in which the years had treated or spared +them. One looked pale, she said, another was but half awake, a third +had grown fat, almost too lazy to drink, a fourth was as ready for a +joke as ever, and so on--'but hallo, why there are thirteen of you. +Who's that in the strange clothing over there? who brought him in?' + +_Was I frightened or not?_ None of them looked pleased at my presence: +but I said, 'I present my compliments to this worthy assemblage; I am +really nothing but a man, who has taken a degree of Ph.D., and at +present my residence is at the Frankfurt hotel in this city.' + +'But, oh man who hast taken a degree, how camest thou here, man?' +'Apostle,' I answered--it was Peter whose eyes flashed fire on me as he +spoke--'I'll trouble you not to call me man till we're better +acquainted. And as for this society into which you say I have come, you +are quite in error; it came to me, not I to it, for I had been sitting +in this very room nearly an hour past' (I don't know whence I got the +courage to say this--probably from the 'Special '22'). 'But what were +you doing in the cellar at this time of night, sir?' said Bacchus +rather more gently; 'you ought to be asleep.' 'Your Honour,' says I, 'I +had excellent reasons for being here. I am a particular friend of the +noble drink that is stored here, and, by favour of the not less noble +Senate, I received permission to pay you all a visit--time and place +not specified.' + +'So you like to drink Rhine wine,' said Bacchus; 'that's a good liking +to have in these days, when most men have grown so cold towards the +golden spring,' 'Yes,' growled out the man in the red coat, 'no one +will drink us now except here and there a travelling doctor, like this +fellow, or a schoolmaster out for a holiday; and most of them water it +first.' 'I beg most respectfully to contradict you, Mr. Jude,' said I. +'I have already tried you all round, and had but recently sat down to a +few modest bottles of a more contemporaneous vintage, and that I have +paid for myself.' 'Don't get hot, doctor,' said my Lady Rose, 'he +didn't mean to hurt your feelings; he only reflected upon the low +manners and bad taste of the present day.' 'Bad taste, low manners, I +should think so,' said another. 'The generation that concocts a +detestable mixture of brandy and half a dozen kinds of syrups, and +calls it Chateau Margaux or Sillery, must indeed feel itself unworthy +of a noble drink. And then people wonder why they get red rings round +their mouths and a splitting headache the next day. Cochineal and +brandy, nothing else!' + +'What a life it was too when we were young, even as late as '26; yes, +even as late as '50. Every evening, were it bright sunshiny spring, or +deep wintry snow, the little rooms here were alive with joyous guests. +The Senators of Bremen sat with majestic wigs on their heads, their +weapons at their sides, and their glasses before them. That's what I +call honour and dignity. Here, here, not _upon_ the earth was their +council chamber; here the true hall of the senate; here was settled +over the cool wine the affairs of the nation and of most other nations +besides. If they didn't agree they never quarrelled, but just drank +each other's healths till they did; and if they ever failed it was +because they didn't go on drinking long enough--but this rarely +happened. Equal friends of the noble wine, how could they but be +friends of each other? And on the next day their word pledged overnight +was held sacred, and the resolves taken overnight were executed coolly +enough in the morning.' + +'Ah, the good old times,' said another Apostle, 'and it is still, you +know, a custom that every Councillor keeps a little wine-book or +drinking account, reckoned up and discharged at the end of the year. +When a man sat here every night of his life, he didn't care to be +always putting his hands in his pockets, so it was worked on the tally +system, and I hear there are still a few brave old fellows left who use +the same plan.' + +'Yes, yes, children,' said the old Rose, 'it was another world a couple +of centuries, or even one, or even half a century ago. They used to +bring their wives and daughters into the cellar with them, and the fair +Bremen maids, who were famed far and wide for bright eyes and rosy +cheeks and voluptuous lips, drank nothing but good Rhine wine. Now +forsooth, they must have tea and stuff like that, wretched foreign +stuff, which girls in my time would only take if they had a little +cough or sore throat, as a drug. And will you believe me, people +actually put sweet Spanish stuff into true Rhine wines because they say +we are sour.' + +The Apostles roared with laughter at this last idea, and I couldn't +help joining. As for Bacchus, he had to be patted on the back by +Balthasar to recover him. 'Yes, the g-g-g-good old times,' sputtered he +as he got breath again, 'every burgher drank his honest half gallon and +went home as sober as a judge: now a glass upsets them, they're so out +of practice.' + +'There was a fine story to that effect a couple of centuries ago,' said +my Lady, and smiled to herself at the recollection of it. 'Please tell +it us, Frau Rose. Yes! the story! the story!' they all began to cry. +She emptied her bowl to clear her voice, and began. + +'You must know that in 1620 or 30 there was a great rumpus in Germany +about a very small matter--the Form of Religion. Each side wanted its +own form shoved down the throat of the other, and instead of sitting +down to talk it over sensibly over a pipe of wine, they proceeded to +knock each other on the head. Albrecht von Wallenstein, the Kaiser's +field-marshal in particular, made sad havoc of the Protestant +countries, until the King of Sweden, called Gustavus Adolphus, took +pity on them, and crossed the Baltic with a large army, and went at it +hammer and tongs in defence of the Protestant religion. Well, they +fought a lot of battles, and chased each other about from the Rhine to +the Danube, and from the Danube to the Rhine with mighty little result. +At that time Bremen and the other Hanse towns were neutral, and did not +wish to quarrel with either party; but as Gustavus wanted a passage +through their territories, he determined to send an embassy to them. It +was well known, however, that everything like state business in Bremen +was transacted in this cellar, and that the Bremeners were good hands +at stowing away liquor: so the king was in some perplexity lest his +ambassadors should be drunk under the table, and then made to sign an +unfavourable treaty. Now, there was by chance in the Swedish camp a +captain of the Yellow Regiment who was a notable drinker. Two or three +quarts for breakfast were a trifle to him, and in the evening he would +half empty a four-gallon cask and sleep well after it. The chancellor +Oxenstiern brought this man to the king's notice. Captain Tosspot he +was called. The king was much pleased when he observed his nose, which +was of the right copper hue, and asked him how much he _could_ drink if +it was a case of life and death. "O king," he answered, + +"I am but a poor captain, and wine is very dear. I never tried +seriously. I can't afford to exceed my seven quarts a day; but if your +majesty would stand treat I would undertake to finish twelve at least. +But my squire who is called Balthasar the Bottomless, is a much harder +drinker than I am." Balthasar was called, a thin, ashy-pale little +fellow with lank straight hair, and the king sent them into a tent by +themselves, with some fine old casks of Hochheimer and Nierstein, and +told them to get drunk. They began at 11 a.m., and by 4 p.m. they had +finished eight gallons of Hochheimer and twelve of Nierstein. When the +king went to see them they were quite sober, but Captain Tosspot said +he thought he should soon have to loosen his sword-belt, and Balthasar +had undone three buttons of his collar. Then said the king, "What +better ambassadors can I find to talk the fair city of Bremen into its +senses?" So Tosspot was made ambassador and Balthasar the Bottomless +his secretary, and they were properly rigged out, and their +instructions were made out; and the first of these was that they were +to drink nothing but water on the way to Bremen, that the battle in the +cellar might be more glorious afterwards; another was that Tosspot was +to rub his nose with a white ointment, that no one might see what a +practised mouth he was. They arrived safely at Bremen, but both of them +naturally quite ill through drinking water: the Senators of Bremen +thought they would have an easy victory over two such milksops, and so +the burgomaster said he would look after the ambassador, and Dr. +Redpepper should settle the secretary. So in the evening they were +solemnly led into the cellar with a lot of senators who were invited to +assist in the negotiations. They sat down in this room and had a little +spiced meat and ham and red herrings; but when Mr. Ambassador Tosspot +wanted to begin the negotiation in an honourable manner, and Mr. +Secretary Balthasar took parchment and ink-horn from his pocket, "Not +so, noble gentlemen," said the burgomaster; "it is not the custom in +Bremen that we should settle weighty matters with a dry throat, we will +first drink to one another, as our ancestors in like cases have always +done." "I am but a poor drinker," said the captain, "but if it so +pleases your High-Mightiness I will take a drop." So they began to +drink and treat at the same time; and to encourage their guests, the +senators and the doctor and the burgomaster went a little further than +usual with the Ruedesheimer. At each new bottle the strangers excused +themselves, assuring the burgomaster that it was beginning to get into +their heads; which of course delighted him immensely: and at last said +the burgomaster, "now for bishnesh." But as the "bishnesh" went on, the +burgomaster went to sleep while he was defining the word neutrality, +and Doctor Redpepper lay already under the table: then the other +senators came and went on with the negotiations and the drinking; but +the captain, who kept five men running backwards and forwards filling +his glass for him, drank them all under the table. + +'All--but one. Mr. Senator Walther was a man of whom ugly tales would +infallibly have been told, if he had not been Mr. Senator. He was a man +who had raised himself from a humble position in his craft-guild to be +an alderman, and then to his present place. He was a very tall bony +man. He alone now held out with the two guests, and put away twice as +much as both of them. Moreover, he seemed as sensible as ever, whereas +Tosspot was beginning to feel as if a wheel were going round in his +head. But the curious thing was this, that when Walther drank a glass +Balthasar fancied that he saw a thin blue mist rise and exude from his +black hair. These two, however, drank bravely on till Tosspot dropped +peacefully to sleep with his head pillowed against the burgomaster's +arm. + +'Then said the Senator to the Secretary, "My dear fellow, you drink +wonderfully well, but I fancy you are more familiar with the bridle +than the pen." Balthasar attempted some bluster about his Majesty's +Embassy, but the other replied with a terrible laugh, "Ho, ho? and do +secretaries in your country always wear such clothes and carry such +pens?" Then the groom looked at his dress and saw with alarm that he +had on his ordinary stable coat and had a curry comb in his hand. Bluer +than ever looked the mist about Walther's head as he tossed off another +quart. "Heaven forbid, sir," said poor Balthasar, "that I should drink +with you any longer. I see you are a magician." + +"True," said the man, "but we needn't go into that, most honourable +horse-combing secretary; the point of the thing as far as you are +concerned is, that it is no use your trying to drink me under the +table, for I have a little tap screwed into my brain through which the +fumes of the wine can evaporate." It was indeed true, and he inclined +his head towards Balthasar to show him the process. The groom clapped +his hands with delight: "That's a most excellent device, sir; couldn't +you screw such a thing as that into my head? I will give you everything +I possess for such an article." "No, that can't be done," said the +other thoughtfully; "you are not learned either in magic or anything +else; but as I have taken a great liking to you I will serve you with +all my power. Listen: The post of cellarmaster is vacant here at +present. Leave, oh Bottomless one, the Swedish service, where there is +more water than wine, and come into the service of the most noble the +Council of this City. Even if we do lose a few dozen casks of wine per +annum, which you drink in secret, that won't matter, we have been long +looking out for a fit person for the place. I will make you +cellarmaster to-morrow if you like: whereas if you don't like, all the +town shall know to-morrow that the Swede has sent us a groom as a +secretary." This proposal tasted to Balthasar like a draught of good +wine, he cast a glance into the immeasurable realm of drink that was +already prospectively his, and accepted the offer at once. After this +there remained several little points to be settled; as for instance, +what was to be done with Balthasar's soul when he ceased to be +cellarmaster in the course of nature: all these were satisfactorily +determined, and Captain Tosspot went back to the Swedish camp without +his secretary, without his treaty, and with a bad headache. And when +the Imperialists afterwards came to Bremen and occupied it, the +burgomaster was right glad that he had not allied himself too closely +with Gustavus.' + +Thus the Rose, amid much laughter and thanks for her story; but one of +us asked, 'And what became of Balthasar the Bottomless, did he remain +in his new situation long?' Frau Rosa turned round laughing and pointed +to a corner of the room, and said, 'There he sits still as the bold +drinker sat 200 years ago!' There he sat sobbing between every draught +of Rhenish that he drank, poor shrunken pallid fellow: it was the very +same man who had come up so sleepily when the big bell was rung for him +a while before. All were anxious to hear the conditions which had been +wrung from him by Senator Walther respecting his soul. 'Oh sir,' he +replied, in a voice which sounded as if Eternal Death was accompanying +him on the bassoon, 'don't require me to tell you.' 'Out with it! what +did he want? Out with it!' cried all. 'My soul.' 'What for?' 'For +wine.' 'Speak plainly, old fellow, what did he do with your soul?' He +was silent for a long time, and at last said, 'Why should I tell this, +gentlemen? It is a dreadful thing, and you don't know what it is to +lose a soul as none of you ever had one.' 'All the more reason why you +shouldn't be afraid of hurting our feelings,' said another. 'But there +is a mortal here, I may not say it before him.' 'Go on,' said I, +trembling all over, 'I'm not easily shocked; after all, I suppose it +was only the Devil who came for you, and he does that every night on +the stage.' 'Well then,' said the old man, 'it was the man with the tap +who had begun by selling _his_ soul to the Devil, but on condition that +he should redeem it if he could find a substitute. He had tried many +but all had escaped him; so he made sure of me. I had grown up a wild +youth with no teaching, and the wars had left me no time for thinking +of my own soul, or Heaven, or Hell, and my only idea was to have a good +time during my life. And my idea of a good time was plenty to drink and +all day to drink it in. Walther perceived this, and says he, "To live +and swill in this Vinous Paradise for two or three decades that would +be a life, hey Balthasar? Wouldn't it?" "Ah!" said I, "I should think +it would, but how could I attain such felicity?" "Which would you think +most of, living here and drinking to your heart's content as long as +you _do_ live, or of the stories about what will happen afterwards?" I +swore a dreadful oath, "My bones will go where so many of my comrades' +bones are lying. When a man is dead he neither feels nor thinks. I have +seen that plainly enough in the case of many a poor fellow whose skull +has been smashed by a bullet; and therefore I will choose to live and +be merry." "Very well," said he. "Then you renounce and forswear the +hereafter, do you? then I can easily manage to make you cellarmaster +here; only write your name in this book, and swear a binding oath at +the same time." I swore again that the Devil or whoever else liked +might have all that remained of me after death. When I had said this I +was aware that we were no longer two, but a third sat by me and gave me +the book to sign.' 'Who was it?' cried all the company. 'It was the +Devil.' Weird words: even the spirits of the Vines looked gravely into +their glasses, and Bacchus and Frau Rosa were pale and silent, and we +heard only the old man's teeth chattering in his skull. 'Well! I +_could_ write,' he went on, 'and I wrote now just what was asked of me: +and from that time my life went on in riot and merriment, and there was +none so gay in Bremen as Balthasar the Bottomless. I drank up all that +was oldest and most precious in the cellar. I never went to church, but +when the bells rang I came down here and sat down by the best cask and +let the tap run into my goblet. As I became old a creepy feeling would +now and then come over me, but I drowned all thoughts of death in wine. +I had no wife to lament and no children to comfort me: and so on and so +on for long years till from very weakness I longed to rest in the +grave. Then one day I felt as if I were awake and yet couldn't get up, +my eyes wouldn't open, my fingers were stiff, my legs were like logs of +wood, and I heard the people come to my bed side, and they felt me all +over and said, "Old Balthasar is gone at last." This really frightened +me. Dead and not asleep? Dead and still thinking? Though my heart had +ceased to beat, something within me beat loudly enough.' 'Your soul, +poor fellow,' they whispered. Balthasar nodded and went on. 'Then they +measured my length and my breadth to make the six boards ready, and put +me in with a hard cushion of shavings under my head and nailed up the +coffin, and carried me out into our Lady's churchyard. I heard the bell +tolling in the Cathedral, though no eye wept for me; and my soul was +ever more frightened because I couldn't sleep. They had dug my grave. I +can still hear the whistle of the rope which they drew up as I lay down +below. Then they threw stones and earth on me, and it was silent all +around me. But my soul grew more and more terrified as it drew towards +evening. I knew a little prayer from old times, but my lips wouldn't +move. I heard ten--eleven--strike, and at last TWELVE,--when a fearful +blow resounded on my coffin'.... A blow that made the hall re-echo now +burst open the door of the room, and a great white figure appeared on +the threshold. By the wine and the horrors of the night, I had been so +ecstasised as to be taken out of myself. I did not scream or jump up, +but stared quietly at this new apparition of terror, and simply said, +'Well, I suppose this is the Devil.' + +Have you realised the fearful moment in Don Giovanni, when heavy steps +ring nearer and nearer, and Leporello comes back screaming and the +statue of the governor stalks in to supper, as he was bidden? So this +figure: gigantic, with measured echoing tread, a huge sword in hand, in +full armour, but unhelmeted, it stalked into the room. It was of stone, +yet the stony lips moved, and said, 'Greeting, dear vine-spirits from +my beloved river: greeting to you on your birthday, fair child of my +neighbour; greeting, My Lady Rose, may I take a seat in your assembly?' + +All looked in amazement at the figure. But Rosa clapped her hands with +joy, and cried, 'Why, it's Roland! the great stone Roland that has +stood in the square at Bremen for ever so many years! This will indeed +be a memorable night when you do us so much honour, sir. Put your +shield and sword away, and make yourself comfortable. Will you take a +seat by my side? Oh, how glad I am!' + +The wooden Bacchus, who had been growing fatter and fatter all this +time, cast discontented looks now at Roland and now at the Lady of his +heart, who had expressed her pleasure so loudly and unrestrainedly. He +murmured something about 'uninvited guests being a bore,' and stamped +his legs impatiently. But my Lady appeased him with sweet looks and +pressed his hand under the table. Room was made for Roland on her other +side, and the latter laid down his spear and shield in a comer, and sat +down rather awkwardly on a chair. But, alas! the chair was made for the +cushioned forms of the burghers of Bremen town, not for a stone giant, +and it at once cracked and fell in pieces under him, leaving him +sprawling. 'Vile race of weaklings,' he cried, as he rose, 'that puts +together such furniture as this, whereon in my time a tender lady could +not have sat in safety!' But Balthasar rolled a huge cask up to the +table, and persuaded the knight to try it; a couple of staves cracked, +but the cask held firm. It was the same with his wine. The glass that +Balthasar offered him he shivered to fragments as he grasped it. +'Well,' said the latter rather angrily, 'you might have taken off your +stone gauntlets.' A silver goblet of the tumbler-shape holding about a +quart escaped with a few unimportant dents, and the knight tossed off +its contents. + +'How do you like the liquor?' said Bacchus; 'it must be dry work up +there on your pillar. I suppose you haven't tasted wine for years?' + +'It is good, by my sword, very good. What growth is it?' + +'Red Ingelheimer, noble sir,' said Balthasar. + +The stony eyes of the knight took fire and sparkled as he heard this, a +soft smile beautified his stern features, and he looked with affection +into the goblet. + +'Ah, dear beloved Ingelheim! how sweet it sounds! the noble castle of +my knightly Kaiser. So, even in these days thy name is named! and the +vines still bloom which Karl first planted by _his_ Ingelheim! Do the +men who live now ever speak of Roland? or of his great master?' + +'That you must ask of the mortal here,' said Jude; 'he calls himself +Doctor and Master of Arts, and he must give you an account of his +race.' The giant turned his eyes inquiringly on me, and I said, 'Noble +Paladin, mankind has indeed grown bad and careless of all that is great +and lofty: its blind gaze is fixed upon the present, and looks neither +before nor after. Yet so wretched are we not yet become, as to have +wholly ceased to remember the glorious figures that once trod our +native land; they still cast their shadow through the ages till it +touches even us. Still are there hearts that fly for refuge to the +memories of the past, when the present has become too stale and mean +for reflection. Still are there pulses which beat higher at the naming +of mighty names, still men who wander with reverence through the ruins +where sat the first German Kaiser on his throne with his Paladins and +his bards around him. Karl and Oliver, Eginhard and the lovely Emma are +still familiar in men's mouths. And where Karl is renowned there too is +Roland unforgotten. Next to him thou stoodst in life, and next to him +thou wilt stand in song and saga and history till Memory itself shall +be no more. The final blast of thy warhorn still echoes in the hills of +Roncesvalles, and will echo and echo on till it fades into the blare of +the Latest Trumpet.' 'Not in vain, my Kaiser, not in vain have we +lived! There _is_ a posterity which does honour to our name,' cried the +knight. 'True,' cried Frau Rosa, 'these men would deserve to drink the +water of the Rhine instead of the vine blossom of its hills if they +could forget the name of the man who first planted us in the Rheingau. +My dear friends and apostles, up! a health to our glorious founder and +ancestor! to Kaiser Karl, to Kaiser Karl!' The glasses rang again; but +Bacchus said, 'Yes, it was a beautiful and a glorious time, and I +rejoice in it as I did a thousand years ago. Where now there is one +long wonderful garden from the shore of the stream to the tops of the +hills, where grape climbs after grape up and down the terraces, there +was nothing but wild dark forest before he came. Then he looked down +from the mountains from his castle at Ingelheim, and he saw how even in +March the sun greeted the hills so warmly as the snow slid down them +into the stream; saw how early the trees became leafy there, and how +tender and fresh the young grass looked as it burst upwards from the +earth in the spring. And then there awakened in him the thought of +planting vines where the wood grew. And a busy life began to move in +the Rheingau beside Ingelheim; the wood vanished, and the earth was +cleared to receive the vine. Then Karl sent men to Hungary and Spain, +to Italy and Burgundy, to Champagne and Lothringen, and had vines +brought from thence, and entrusted the cuttings to dear mother earth. +And my heart rejoiced that he should extend my kingdom beside the noble +stream of Germany, and when the first shoots blossomed there I came +with all my train, and we camped upon the hills, and we worked in the +earth, and we worked in the air, and we spread out delicate nets and +caught the dews of spring lest they should fall too heavily; and we +rose up and caught the rays of the sunshine, and poured them round the +little swelling clusters, and we dived down and brought up water from +the green Rhine for the roots, and water for the leaves. And when in +autumn the first tender child of the Rheingau lay in its cradle we kept +a great feast, and invited all the elements to celebrate it; and each +came with some costly gift for the child. Fire laid his hand upon its +eyes and said, "Thou shalt bear my sign upon thee for ever--there shall +be fire in thee, albeit of such purity and transparency, that thou +shalt impart noble courage beyond all other juice of the grape." And +Air came in her golden garment of gossamer, and laid her hand upon the +child's forehead and blessed him. "Be thy colour as bright and delicate +as the golden edge of morning light upon the hills, as the golden +tresses of the fair women of the Rheingau." And Water ran past him, all +rustling with silver, and bent towards the child, saying, "I will be +ever near thy roots, that thou mayst bloom and be green and cover the +banks of the Rhine." But when Earth came she kissed his mouth tenderly, +and blew with her sweet breath upon him. "The perfumes of all my most +delicate herbs, the honey of all my fairest flowers," she said, "have I +collected as an offering for thee. The most precious spikenard or +ambergris shall be coarse beside thy scent; and thy fairest daughter +shall be named after the Queen of Flowers--the ROSE!" Thus spake the +elements, and we rejoiced at their promised blessings, and we adorned +the child with vine leaves, and sent him to the Kaiser in his castle at +Ingelheim. And the Kaiser marvelled at the beauty of the child, and +from that day he esteemed the vines of the Rhine among the most +splendid of his treasures.' + +We sat silent for a while when Bacchus had finished, until her Ladyship +requested Andrew to favour us with an old melody, which he did with +great ease and grace, by singing a simple old song of the fourteenth or +fifteenth century. The words have escaped my memory, but the tune I +remember still. This set us all off, even Frau Rosa herself, who sang a +pretty little air of 1615 with a rather trembling voice, and Roland +also growled out in deep bass a Frankish war hymn, of which I could +distinguish little. I was obliged to bear my part, so I began bravely, + + The Rhine! the Rhine! the garden of the vine! + Heaven bless the noble Rhine! + Along his bank the clustered grapes entwine, + And patriot hearts inspire to guard the Rhine! + +When they heard the words they pressed nearer, and nodded to one +another, and stretched out their necks as if wishful not to lose a +word. I sang louder and louder for their encouragement. It was +inspiration enough to be heard by such a company. The old Rose kept +time with her head, and gently hummed the chorus, and the Apostles +gazed at me with surprise and joy in their eyes. When I had finished, +all were loud in praise of the poor Doctor of Philosophy. 'What a +song!' cried Bacchus himself, 'how my heart opens to it, dear Doctor, +was it composed in that head of yours that's crowned with academic +honours?' 'No, indeed, your honour, the composer has long been dead; he +was called Matthew Claudius.' 'He knew a good glass of wine when he +came across it, I'll go bail,' said another. 'I don't know, sir,' said +I, 'though I have no doubt of it; but another great mortal has said, + + Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used, + +and I think old Claudius had a similar idea, or he would never have +written such a beautiful song, which all men still sing as they sit +beneath the vine-covered arbours of the Rhine.' 'Well, Doctor,' said +Bacchus, 'if they still sing songs like that they can't be quite such a +miserable lot of fellows as you made out.' + +'Ah, sir,' said I, 'your poetical "high soul" won't sin by allowing +such a song to be poetry at all, just as your pietist finds the Lord's +Prayer too simple and straightforward for him.' 'There have been fools +in every age, sir,' said another, 'and every one is bound to clean the +pavement opposite his own door only; but as we are upon the subject of +the present times, tell us what has happened this year on the earth.' + +'If I thought it would interest the ladies and gentlemen----' 'Go on,' +cried Roland, 'and as far as I am concerned you may begin 500 years +back, for I see nothing from my pedestal but cigar-makers, vintners, +priests, and old women, and they don't make history, or didn't in my +days.' + +'First of all then, concerning German Literature ...' + +'Stop for Heaven's sake, man! Do you think we are going to listen to +trash like that?' cried Peter. 'Poetasters and public-house squabbles!' + +I was startled. If these people were not interested by our magnificent +literature, if Goethe had no charms for them, what was the use of +speaking to them at all? + +I tried again. 'It was only last autumn that the stage was----' Howls +of laughter drowned my voice. 'We want facts, man, history and facts +only; do you suppose we care who spins your comedies and who hisses +them?' + +'Ah, sir,' I replied, 'you're sadly out of fashion. So's History. We +have in fact only the Diet at Frankfurt. Among our neighbours it's true +there's occasionally something--for instance, the Jesuits are up again +in France, and it looks uncommonly as if the Jacobins were up in +Russia.' 'Stuff!' cried one, 'you mean vice versa.' 'No, I don't.' +'Well, that's odd.' 'And is there no war?' 'Just a little firespitting +going on in Greece against the Turks.' 'Ha!' cried the Paladin, +smashing a few planks of the table with his stone fist, 'that is good! +By my sword, that is good! I have been angry for centuries at the +tameness of Christendom while Greece is in chains. You live, sir, in a +fine time, and your race is nobler than I thought. I retract my +previous vituperation. So the knights of France and Germany, of Spain +and England have set out again as erst under Richard of the Lion-heart, +to fight the infidel? The fleets of Genoa cover the Mediterranean? the +Oriflamme is raised on high within sight of the towers of Stamboul, and +the banner of Austria floats over the foremost ranks. Ha! in such a +case I would fain bestride once more my steed; I would make Durendal, +my good sword, flash the lightnings of death indeed, and would rouse +with one blast of my horn every hero who sleeps within the bounds of +Europe!' + +'Noble knight,' I answered--and again I blushed for the age in which I +lived--'times are changed. You would probably be imprisoned as a +Jacobin demagogue under the present circumstances, for neither the +banner of Hapsburg nor the Oriflamme, neither the Leopard of England +nor the Lion of Spain are to the fore in the present conflict.' + +'Who then is fighting against the Crescent, if not these?' + +'Simply the Greeks themselves.' + +'The Greeks?' cried another, 'is it possible? and what are the other +powers about?' 'They have their ambassadors with the Porte.' 'Man, +man,' said Roland, stiffer than ever with amazement, 'what are you +saying? a Christian state fighting for its freedom and left to do it +alone? Holy Virgin, what a world is this!' and he crushed the silver +goblet as if it had been cardboard, so that the wine in it splashed up +to the ceiling; then rising from the table took his sword and targe, +and passed with clanking strides out of the chamber. + +'Why, what a hot-headed fellow he is!' said the Rose, shaking her +kerchief, which was splashed with his wine. 'Does the stony fool want +to go a-campaigning again in his old age? If he were to show himself +they would certainly make him a right-hand man in a company of Prussian +Grenadiers, for he's tall enough.' + +'Do not be hard on him, my Lady Rose,' said one of the company, 'for he +has the right stuff in him, and he showed it on many a stricken field. +If his Kaiser had wished it he would have fought a thousand Mussulmans +single-handed.' + +'Let him go,' said Bacchus; 'I'm glad he's gone; he bored me with his +strong heroics: a fellow ten feet high is out of place here. He showed +me no respect. We should never have been able to dance while he was +here; his legs would have broken if he had tried.' 'To the dance! to +the dance!' they all cried. The wine god beckoned to me. 'Do you +understand music, Doctor?' 'A little.' 'Keep good time?' 'Oh yes, I +keep good time.' 'Then take this little barrel and this cooper's stave, +and sit down besides the Bottomless one there; he is our cellarmaster +and cornet player, and you shall accompany him on the drum.' I did +as I was bid, but if my drumming was rather unusual, Balthasar's +cornet-playing was even more so. He held the iron spout of a large +empty cask to his mouth like a clarionet. Two more sat near me with +huge wine-funnels which they used as trumpets, waiting for the signal. +Then began a fearful rumbling and hooting, all out of tune, to which +Turkish music was nothing. Balthasar's instrument had but two notes, +the key note and an horribly high falsetto. As for the trumpeters the +sounds of grief and anguish which they drew from their funnels was like +nothing but the wailing of a Triton on a conch. + +Bacchus and his sweetheart paraded in the height of the fashion of 200 +years ago. Frau Rosa held her skirt wide out with both hands, so that +she looked more like a great wine cask than ever. She didn't move far +from her place, but tripped a few steps up and down and back again, and +kept bobbing with little curtsies. Her partner meanwhile spun round her +like a top, snapping his fingers and crying Halloo! + +[Illustration: 'TO THE DANCE! TO THE DANCE!'] + +When at last he seemed tired he beckoned to two of the others, and +whispered something to them, whereon they took off Mistress Rose's +apron, (which Bacchus had tied round his own neck when he began to +dance.) Then the others stood all round and grasped the edge of it. Ha! +thought I, now old Balthasar is going to be tossed in a blanket. I hope +he won't break his head against the low roof. Then to my horror two of +the biggest of them came forward and seized--me; Balthasar chuckled. +Struggling was vain; they laid me on the sheet shouting with laughter. +'Only not too high, my noble patrons, or I shall break my head; +remember it's not like your saintships' heads,' I cried. Up and down I +went, first three, four, then five feet high. Suddenly they began to +pull harder, and I flew up--up--and like a cloud the roof opened, and I +flew up beyond the roof of the Council Hall, beyond even the Cathedral +tower. 'Ah!' thought I, 'now it's all over with me, I shall infallibly +be spiked on the weather-cock in coming down, or at least break a few +arms or legs; and I know what Adelgunde thinks of a man with broken +limbs. Adieu! my love! my life! Then I began to descend as swiftly +through the air, through the Council Hall, through the vault, but I +lighted not upon the cloth, but just upon a chair which toppled over +backwards with me to the floor. + +Stunned by the awful fall I lay long, but at length a headache and the +coldness of the ground awoke me. Anxiously I examined my limbs, but +found nothing broken. Daylight was faintly streaming in through a +cellar grating; on the table a candle was flickering as it expired, and +round the table in front of each chair a long-shaped bottle with a +label on its neck. The company was gone! But whither and how? + +Thoughtfully I walked round the long table. The sample bottles stood +where each one had sat. Frau Rosa's at the head of the board. Surely it +couldn't have been a dream? No, one does not dream so vividly--besides, +my headache from that bump! But I had little time left for reflections. +I heard keys rattling at the door--it opened slowly, and my old friend +of the evening before came in wishing me good morning. 'It has just +struck six, sir,' said he, 'and I have come as you desired to let you +out. Well, how did you sleep?' 'As well as one can upon a chair--pretty +fairly, thank you.' 'Sir,' cried he, anxiously examining me, 'something +strange happened to you last night--you look disturbed and pale, and +your voice trembles.' 'Nonsense,' said I, 'what could have happened to +me? I am only sleepy.' 'I am not so blind as you think,' said he, 'and, +besides, the night watchman came to me early this morning and told me +that as he passed by the cellar between twelve and one last night he +heard all kinds of riot and revelry within there.' 'Pure imagination,' +said I, 'I'm given to talking loud, and even to singing, in my sleep +sometimes.' + +'Never again,' said he, 'do I leave a gentleman alone in the cellar at +night. The Lord knows what awful things he has not heard and seen. I +wish you a most respectful good morning, sir.' + + 'But the thing that best would win it + Is the Lady Fair within it.' + +Remembering these words of the joyous Bacchus as being particularly +applied to Bremen and to my own case, I hurried, after I had slept a +few hours, to bid good morning to the lovely Adelgunde. But she +received me with more than wonted coldness, and when I whispered some +affectionate words to her she fairly laughed aloud, and turning her +back said, 'Go, and have your sleep well out, sir, first.' A friend, +who was sitting at the piano in another corner of the room, followed me +as I turned away, and taking my hand said, 'Dear Brother, it is all +over with your love for her--put all thoughts of it out of your head.' +'I could see as much,' I answered; and then, _sotto voce_, 'The Devil +take every pretty pair of eyes and every rosy mouth in the world!' 'But +tell me,' says my friend, 'is it true that you stayed the whole night +drinking in the wine cellar?' 'Well, yes! but whose business is that?' +'Heaven knows how she heard it, for she has been crying all the +morning, and vows you are a mere vulgar sot, and she will have no more +to do with you.' 'Well,' said I, steeling myself, 'good then; that +proves she can never have loved me. Give her my kind regards; +farewell.' + +I ran home quickly and resolved to quit Bremen at once. As I left the +market-place that evening I gave old Roland's statue a friendly wave of +the hand, and to the horror of my postillion, he nodded a parting +greeting at me with his stone head. I threw a kiss to the old Council +Hall and its happy cellars, and curling up in the comer of my chaise +allowed the fancies of the night to pass once more before my eyes. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Wine-ghosts of Bremen, by Wilhelm Hauff + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WINE-GHOSTS OF BREMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 32064.txt or 32064.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/6/32064/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by Google Books + +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. 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