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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33892-8.txt b/33892-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b15878 --- /dev/null +++ b/33892-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10443 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Regina or the Sins of the Fathers, by Hermann Sudermann + +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: Regina or the Sins of the Fathers + +Author: Hermann Sudermann + +Translator: Beatrice Marshall + +Release Date: October 30, 2010 [EBook #33892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REGINA OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=PWUTAAAAYAAJ&dq + + + + + + + Regina + or + The Sins of the Fathers + + + + + + + REGINA + OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS + + + BY + HERMANN SUDERMANN + + + + + _TRANSLATED BY_ + _BEATRICE MARSHALL_ + + + + + LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD + NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMVII + + + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY + John Lane. + + * * * + + COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY + John Lane Company. + + + + + + + REGINA + OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS + + + + + CHAPTER I + + +Peace was signed, and the world, which for so long had been the great +Corsican's plaything, came to itself again. It came to itself, bruised +and mangled, bleeding from a thousand wounds, and studded with +battle-fields like a body with festering sores. Yet, in the rebound +from bondage to freedom, men did not realise that there was anything +very pitiable in their condition. The ground from which their wheat +sprang, they reflected, would bear all the richer fruit from being +soaked in blood, and if bullets and bayonets had thinned their ranks, +there was now more elbow-room for those who were left. + +The yawning vacuums in the seething human caldron gave a man space to +breathe in. One great chorus of rejoicing from the Rock of Gibraltar to +the North Cape ascended heavenwards. Bells in every steeple were set in +motion, and from every altar and from every humble hearth arose prayers +of thanksgiving. Mourners hid their diminished heads, for the burst of +victorious song drowned their lamentations, and the earth absorbed +their tears as indifferently as it had sucked in the blood of their +fallen. + +In glorious May weather the Peace of Paris was concluded. Lilies +bloomed once more out of lakes of blood, and from the obscurity of +lumber-rooms the blood-saturated banner of the _fleur de lys_ was +dragged forth into the light of day. The Bourbons crept from their +hiding-places, whither they had been driven by fear of Robespierre's +knife. They rubbed their eyes and forthwith began to reign. They had +forgotten nothing and learnt nothing, except a new catchword from +Talleyrand's _en tout cas_ vocabulary, _i.e_. Legitimacy. The rest of +the world was too busily engaged in wreathing laurels to crown the +conquerors, and filling up bumpers to drink their health in, to pay any +attention to this farce of Bourbon government. All eyes were turned in +a fever of expectancy towards the West, whence were to come the +conquering heroes, the laurel-crowned warriors who had been willing to +sacrifice their lives for the honour of wife and child, for justice, +and for the sacred soil of their fatherland. They had been under the +fire of the Corsican Demon, the oppressor whom they in their turn had +hunted and run to earth, till at last he lay in shackles at their feet. + +When the victors began the homeward march, the German oaks were +bursting into leaf, soon to be laughingly plundered of their young +green foliage. On they came in swarms, first, joyous and lighthearted, +the pride and flower of the Fatherland, the sons of the wealthy, who, +as Volunteer Jägers, with their own horses and their own arms, had gone +forth to the war of Liberation. Their progress through Germany was one +magnificent ovation. Wherever they came, their path was strewn with +roses, the most beautiful of maidens longed for the honour of winning +their love, and the most costly wines flowed like water. Behind them +followed a stream of Kossacks, riding over the German fields with a +loose rein. A year before, when they had galloped like a troop of +furies in the rear of the hunted remnant of the Grande Armée, the whole +country had greeted them as saviours of Germany. Public receptions had +been organised in their honour, hymns composed in their praise, and all +sorts of blue-eyed German sentiment was lavishly poured out on the +unwashed Tartar horde. To-day, too, they were conscientiously fêted, +but the gaze of all true-hearted Germans was directed with intensest +longing beyond them, looking for those who were still to come, of whom +they seemed but the heralding shadows. + +And at last these came, the men of the people, who had taken all their +capital, their bare lives, in their hand, and gone forth to offer it up +for the Fatherland. They advanced with a sound as of bursting trumpets, +half hidden by dense columns of dust. Not exalted and splendid +beings as they had often been painted in the imagination of the +"stay-at-homes," with a halo of diamonds flashing round their heads, +and a cloak flung proudly like a toga round their shoulders. No; they +were faded and haggard, tired as overdriven horses, covered with +vermin, filthy and in rags; their beards matted with sweat and dust. +This was the plight in which they came home. Some were so emaciated and +ghastly pale that they looked as if they could hardly drag one weary +foot after the other; others wore a greedy, brutalised expression, and +the reflection of the lurid glare of war seemed yet to linger in their +sunken, hollow eyes. They held their knotty fists still clenched in the +habitual cramp of murderous lust. Only here and there shone tears of +pure, inspired emotion; only here and there hands were folded on the +butt-end of muskets in reverent, grateful prayer. But all were welcome, +and none were too coarse and hardened by their work of blood and +revenge to find balm in the tears and kisses of their loved ones, and +to greet with hope the dawn of purer times. Of course it could not be +expected that passions which had been lashed into such abnormal and +furious activity, would all at once calm down and slumber again. The +hand that has wielded a sword needs time before it can accustom itself +to the plough and scythe, and not every man knows how to forget +immediately the wild licence of the camp in the hallowed atmosphere of +home. + +Every peace is followed by a period of delirium. It was thus in Germany +in anno '14. That year, from which to this generation nothing has +descended but the echo of a unison of pæans, swelling organ-strains, +and clash of bells, was in reality more remarkable for tyranny and +crime than any year before or since. More especially was this the case +in districts where before the war the overweening arrogance and cruelty +of the French occupier had been most heavily felt. Here the beast was +let loose in man. The senses of those who stayed at home had been so +inflamed by the scent of blood from distant battle-fields, and the +smoke of burning villages, that they conjured up before their mental +eyes scenes of horror and devastation at which they had not been +present. Many thirsted for vengeance on secret wrongs, on acts of +cowardice and treachery as yet unexpiated. After all, it seemed +as if the awakened fervour of patriotism, the flowing streams of +freshly-spilled blood, could not suffice even now to wipe out the +memory of the shame and humiliation of previous years. + +No one had any suspicion, then, that the Corsican vulture, set fast in +his island cage, was already beginning to sharpen his iron beak, +preparatory to gnawing through its bars, and that before his final +capture thousands of veins were yet to be opened and drained of their +blood. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + +One August day in this memorable year, a party of young men were +gathered together in the parlour of a large country house. + +The oak table round which they were seated presented a goodly array of +tankards, and short, bulky bottles containing _schnaps_. Their faces, +flushed with brandy and enthusiasm, were almost entirely concealed from +view by the dense clouds of smoke they puffed from their huge pipes. + +They were defenders of their country only lately returned home, and +were revelling in reminiscences of the war. There was that distinct +family likeness among them which equality in birth, breeding, and +education often stamps on men between whom there exists no tie of +blood-relationship. + +Warfare had coarsened their honest, healthy countenances, and left its +mark there in many a disfiguring scar and gash. Two or three still wore +their arms in slings, and evidently none of them had as yet made up +their minds to lay aside the black, frogged military coat to which +they had become so proudly accustomed. For the most part they were +well-to-do yeomen belonging to the village of Heide and its outlying +hamlets, and though their homes were scattered they were united in a +strong bond of neighbourly friendship. Some still lived on their +fathers' patrimony, others had come into their own estate. It had never +been their lot to experience the pinch of poverty, to till the soil and +follow the plough, and so they had remained unaffected by the great +changes Stein's new code a few years before had brought about in the +position of the peasantry. In the spring, when the King's appeal to his +subjects had resounded through the land, they could afford to leave +their crops and, like the sons of the nobility, hurry with their own +arms and their own horses to enlist in the ranks of the volunteer +Jägers. + +Only one member of the little group apparently belonged to another +station in life. He occupied the one easy-chair the house boasted, an +ungainly piece of upholstery, much the worse for wear. + +His face was pale, somewhat sallow in colouring. The features were +refined and delicately chiselled. The brown, melancholy eyes were +shaded by long black lashes, which when he looked down cast a heavy +fringe of shadow on his thin cheeks. Though he must certainly have been +the youngest of them all, having hardly completed his twenty-second +year, he looked like a man who had long ago ceased to take any pleasure +in the mere frivolities of life. + +On his smooth, square brow were lines that denoted energy and defiance, +and in the blue hollows round his eyes lay traces of a past sorrow. He +wore a grey overcoat that seemed too narrow across the shoulders, and +beneath it a woollen shirt finely tucked, and ornamented with a row of +mother-of-pearl buttons. The only military thing about him was the +forage-cap bearing the Landwehr badge, which he had pushed on to the +back of his head, to prevent the hard edge pressing on the scarcely +healed wound which made a lurid streak on his forehead, close to where +the dark hair clustered in heavy masses. + +He was the cynosure of all eyes. Every one waited anxiously for him to +take the lead in conversation. Next to him, on his right, sat a +muscular youth, not much older than himself, who regarded him with +unceasing and tender solicitude. To all appearances he was the host. +There was a patch of white plaster on one of his temples, but his +round, jovial face beamed radiantly nevertheless out of its frame of +unkempt fair hair that hung about his neck and throat in wildest +confusion. + +"I say, lieutenant, you are positively drinking nothing," he exclaimed, +pushing the bottle nearer him. "Because you aren't used to our beer, +and still less used to our schnaps, there's no reason why you should be +shy of swilling that red stuff of which we have plenty to spare.... We +aren't rich, as you know, but if you stopped here till Doomsday we +could supply you every day with a bottle like that. Couldn't we, lads?" + +The others assented, and pressed round him eagerly to clink their mugs +and liqueur-glasses against his cracked wine-glass. + +A ray of gratitude and pleasure illumined momentarily the sad, pale +face. + +"I knew," he said--"I knew that if I came here you'd make me feel at +home. Otherwise I should have gone on my way." + +"That would have been kind of you, I must say," cried the host---"what +did we enter into our covenant of blood for, and swear to be true till +death after our first battle, don't you remember? In the church at ... +where was it? I never can pronounce the name of the cursed hole!" + +"The hole was Dannigkow," answered the young stranger addressed as +"lieutenant." + +"Ah, yes, that's it!" the host went on. "And do you imagine we went +through that little ceremony with the sole purpose of letting you avoid +us in future? Was it for that we chose you for our commanding officer, +and blindly followed you into the thickest of the fight? No, Baumgart, +there's no cement like blood and powder. So the devil take it, man, you +must promise to stay with us a bit, now we've got you----" + +"Don't talk nonsense, old fellow, it is impossible," the lieutenant +replied, and blew thoughtfully on the purple mirror of his wine. But +his friend was not to be silenced. + +"You needn't be frightened," he continued, "that we shall plague you +with curious questions. From the first we got into the way of looking +on you as a sort of mystery. When we others used to lie by the bivouac +fire and talk of our homes and parents, our sweethearts and sisters, +your lips were resolutely sealed as they are now. And if one of us +plucked up courage to ask you where you came from, and what you had +been before the war, you always got up and walked away. We gave up +questioning you at last, and thought to ourselves, 'He has gone through +a furnace, may be, that has spoilt his life, and what concern is that +of ours?' You were a good comrade, all of us can testify to that, and +what is more, the most fearless, the bravest.... Ah, well, the fact is, +that you had only to tell one of us to cut off his right hand, and he'd +have done it without a murmur. Isn't it true, lads?" + +An exclamation of assent went round the table. + +"For mercy's sake, say no more," said the young lieutenant. "I don't +know which way to look because of all this undeserved praise." + +"Wait, I've more to say yet," the master of the house insisted on +continuing. "Once we were really almost angry with you. You know why +that was. During the armistice, shortly before we joined forces with +the Lithuanians under Platen and Bülow, you were in the guard-room one +evening, when you suddenly made a clean breast of it and announced that +you must go away. You said, 'Don't ask me the reason, lads. But believe +me, I can't help myself. The Landwehr wants officers. I know it is not +much of an honour to leave the Jägers, for the Landwehr; but I'm going +to do it, all the same.' Those were your very words, weren't they, +Baumgart?" + +The lieutenant nodded, and a bitter smile played round his lips. + +"Tears were in your eyes as you spoke, otherwise one or other of us +would have asked you if that was all the thanks we were to get for the +confidence we had placed in you, to be deserted just then ... just when +we longed to show those Platen fellows what baiting the French really +meant.... We let you go without raising an objection, but our hearts +bled.... Afterwards we heard nothing of you, no news in reply to all +our inquiries; but I can tell you this much, we never ceased to talk of +you every night for months. We racked our brains to think what had +taken you away; speculated on where you were gone, and the like, till +the men who joined later and had known you got sick of it, and implored +us to give up talking about you, and to consign you to the Landwehr +refuse-heap once for all. So you see how we pined for you; and now, +after two days, you actually propose to turn your back on us again! +It's a long journey from the Marne to the Weichsel, and a solitary one +to walk, and your wounds still smarting. Stay and take a good rest, and +relate at your leisure what your adventures with the greybeards really +were, and how you came to be taken prisoner ... it must have been a +strange accident that betrayed _you_ into captivity?" + +He glanced down with ingenuous pride at the iron cross which dangled +between the froggings of his coat. It had been bestowed on him in +reward for the intrepidity with which he had, unpardoned, hewn his way +out of a nest of French Hussars and regained his liberty. + +The lieutenant's breast was bare of ornament. At the end of the +campaign, when a shower of decorations had rained down on the +victorious warriors, he had not been present to receive his share. A +painful sensation of being passed in the race, almost akin to shame, +swept over him. He pushed his cap farther on to his brow, and drew +himself erect in his chair, as if its fusty cushions threatened to +suffocate him. + +"Thank you," he said, "for your kind intentions, but I must go to +Königsberg directly to report myself to the Commandant." + +"I'm afraid you'll have some difficulty in finding him there," put in a +curly-headed young man with twinkling dark eyes, who wore his right arm +in a black sling. + +"Don't you know that directly it came back the Landwehr was disbanded?" + +"Even the staff is broken up," remarked another. + +"Then I must try my luck with the Commissioner-General," replied +Lieutenant Baumgart. "I have more reason, perhaps, than any one else to +be extra careful that my discharge papers are in good order. At least, +I fancy so. I don't want the reproach to be fastened on me that I +sneaked out of the army secretly. So, please let me know as soon as you +can if there will be any conveyance going to-morrow to Königsberg?" + +A storm of indignation arose. They all left their seats, some seizing +his hand, some forming a cordon round him, as if to prevent his +departure by physical force. + +"Stay at least a little longer, lest the fête we are organising in your +honour should fall through," exhorted Karl Engelbert, the young host, +as soon as he could make his voice heard above the hubbub. + +Baumgart turned to him with a quick gesture of inquiry. + +"In _my_ honour?" he exclaimed. "Are you mad?" + +"There's no getting out of it now," was the answer. "It was all settled +the day you turned up here. I despatched Johann Radtke at once with a +list of all the Jägers in the country round who are at home. Then, you +know, we have representatives of six or seven regiments living about +here.... Especially did I impress on him that he was to go to +Schranden, where Merckel lives. Merckel," he added, "went over to the +Landwehr, too; for if he hadn't, he couldn't have made sure of his +lieutenancy. So there was more sense in his taking the step." + +Baumgart at the mention of his name winced, but quickly recovering +himself, gripped convulsively the arms of the battered easy-chair, and, +with head bowed, listened in silence to what his well-meaning friends +had to say about the gala-day arranged in his honour. He gave up +protesting further, because he saw open resistance was useless. But the +uneasy glances he cast about him seemed to indicate that he was +meditating immediate flight. + +His friends, however, did not observe his restlessness. After the +excitement of war which had stirred their blood out of its normal +channel, they found it irksome to subside into the ordinary routine of +private life, and hailed with delight any excuse for varying its +monotony with a few hours' roistering and dissipation. They were now +engaged in eagerly discussing the result of their messenger's mission, +whose return from Schranden, a few miles away, they had been expecting +hourly all the morning. + +"I wonder," said Peter Negenthin, the youth with the black sling, "how +the Schrandeners are getting on with that fine landlord of theirs?" + +Lieutenant Baumgart started and listened with all his ears. + +"They set his house on fire long ago," remarked another. "For five +years he's been roosting among the blackened ruins like an owl." + +"Why didn't he build his castle up again?" asked a third. + +"Why? Because the peasants and farmers down in the village would have +thrashed any one at the cart-wheel who dared to work for him. Once he +tried getting labourers over from his foreign estates, thinking that as +they couldn't understand German it would be all right; ... but there +was a free fight one day down at the inn, and heigh presto!--the Poles +were hounded back to where they came from. Since then he hasn't made +any more attempts to cultivate his land." + +"How does he live then? + +"Who cares how he lives! Let him starve." + +In the midst of laughter, mingled with growls of hate which this humane +remark had called forth from these doughty sons of the soil, the +anxiously awaited ambassador entered the room. He was a stoutly built +short man, whose straight fair hair, as yellow and bright as new +thatch, hung over his round face, which was the colour of a lobster +from exposure to the heat of the sun. Steaming with perspiration, and +breathless from his hurried ride, he seized the stone jug of monstrous +girth that stood in the middle of the table, before speaking a word, +and held it to his lips with both hands, where it remained so long that +it had at last to be torn away from his mouth by force, much to the +amusement of the company. After a fusilade of banter and jokes had been +discharged at him from all sides, he blurted forth his news. The idea +of the fête had, it seemed, been caught at with enthusiasm. Every one +in the neighbourhood was willing to lend his countenance to festivities +in honour of those who had done such splendid service in the cause of +German Unity. The only difference of opinion was as to where they were +to come off. The Schrandeners, with Lieutenant Merckel at their head, +declared that no spot on earth could be a more appropriate scene for +their celebration than their own village. + +"Then you see, lads," explained the messenger, "the Schrandeners have +private reasons for being particularly gay just now. They are dancing +in front of their houses, and scarcely know whether they are standing +on their head or their heels. I'll tell you why. Perhaps you know that +little chorale that they've for the last seven years been singing in +church? + + "_Our gracious Baron and Lord + Of Schrandeners' souls abhorr'd. + For the shame he's brought on our head, + O God, let the plague strike him dead._" + +"Well, in a fashion their prayer has been answered. The betrayer of +their country, who never tired of cursing and damning them up hill and +down dale, and heaped on them every foul epithet he could lay tongue +to, may now lie and rot in a ditch for all they care. They have sworn +not to bury him." + +Then arose excited shouts and eager questioning. + +"Is he dead, the dog? + +"Has the devil taken him to himself at last? Ha! ha! Bravo!" + +Suddenly, above the din of voices, a grinding crunching noise was +heard. Baumgart's arm had clasped the back of his chair with such +vehemence that the long-suffering worm-eaten wood had collapsed. He sat +rigid and motionless, staring at the speaker with wide, strained eyes, +unconscious of the injury he had inflicted on the ancestral piece of +furniture. Then garrulous Johann Radtke proceeded-- + +"Yes, happily enough, they were the cause of his death at last. They +have never ceased to harass and torment him, and it was while they were +trying to demolish the Cats' Bridge that he had a stroke of apoplexy +from rage, and fell down foaming at the mouth." + +"Lieutenant, have you ever heard of the Cats' Bridge?" + +Still he neither moved nor uttered a word; only set his teeth on his +under lip, till it bled. As if turned to stone, he sat gazing fixedly +up into the speaker's face. + +"It was by the Cats' Bridge that the French made the famous, or rather +I should say infamous, sortie which surprised the Prussians, and it was +the Baron who showed them the secret path which leads to it. You have +heard of the Schranden invasion, of course. It's recorded in every +calendar?" + +The lieutenant nodded mechanically like a doomed man, who, swooning, +resigns himself to inevitable fate. + +"The stroke took him before their very eyes," Radtke went on. "His +precious sweetheart, the village carpenter's daughter, the baggage who +lived with him, you know, threw herself on his body, for the Lord only +knows what liberties they might not have taken with it when their blood +was up." + +"And now they refuse to bury him, you say?" interrupted the +good-natured Karl Engelbert, shaking his head meditatively. "Is such a +scandalous outrage as that allowed to pass unpunished in a Christian +country?" + +Johann laughed scoffingly. + +"The Schrandeners are like a flock of sheep. If one declines to pollute +his hands with bearing such carrion to the grave, all the rest decline +also. And who can blame them?" + +"But," some one suggested, "suppose it came to the ear of the law?" + +"The law! Ha, ha! Old Merckel is their magistrate, and he says, as far +as he is concerned, they might have flayed----" + +He broke off abruptly, for with a smothered cry of pain, and a gesture +half threatening, half self-defensive, the young lieutenant had started +to his feet. He was whiter than the whitewashed wall behind him, and a +thin thread of crimson trickled from his blanched lips, over his chin. + +"Stop, for God's sake!" he stammered in a strange muffled almost +inaudible voice, and those who caught his words shrank away in horror. + +"He was my father!" + + + + + CHAPTER III + + +The moon had risen and flooded the tranquil heath with its soft bluish +radiance. Down in the marshes the alder-bushes were tipped with crowns +of light, and the white, slender trunks of the birches which flanked +the highway in interminable rows shone and shimmered, till the road +seemed to stretch away and lose itself between hedges of burnished +silver. Silence reigned everywhere. The last note of the birds' evening +chorale had long since died away. Peace, the peace of well-being, +peculiar to late summer, pervaded the wide-stretching level fields. +Even the grasshopper in the ditch, and a fieldmouse scurrying in alarm +through the tall blades of corn, hardly broke the stillness. + +A traveller with staff and knapsack came along the road, gazing +absently before him, evidently oblivious of the magic of the moon-lit +landscape. It was the young lieutenant, on his way home to bury the +father whose memory was held in such universal detestation. His host +had put his best equipage at his disposal, but his comrade had firmly +refused to accept the offer, and he had been obliged to content +himself with accompanying his guest part of the way on foot. At parting +he had solemnly affirmed that the compact of eternal friendship that +they had entered into as brothers-in-arms after their first baptism +of fire would hold good now and always, "the sins of the fathers" +notwithstanding. Whenever he was in need of help and sympathy in the +future, he might rely on the good-will of him and his neighbours. + +This was meant well, but brought no comfort to the young man's sore +heart. The allusion to "the sins of the fathers" stung him to the +quick. It sounded very much like an insult, yet an insult that he was +powerless to resent openly, as there was no shuffling off the incubus +of shame which, as his father's heir, now weighed on his innocent +shoulders. + +Thus fiercely brooding he walked on, and pictures of the past +involuntarily rose before his mental vision. He had never loved his +father--the harsh, tyrannical man who flogged the peasants, whose +laughter was more terrible than his oaths, to whom he, his only son, +had been not much more than the pet dog that one minute was allowed to +bite his heels when he was in a good humour, only to be hurled across +the room the next with a savage kick. As long as he could remember, +the small muscular figure, the sallow face with its high cheek-bones, +coal-black goat's beard, and little keen grey eyes, had been the terror +of his childhood. His mother he had never known. She had succumbed, a +few years after his birth, to a long and tedious illness. It was +rumoured at the time, in the village, that her lord's ungovernable +passions had been the death of her--that his love was as terrible as +his hate. + +Her picture had hung at the end of a long line of ghostly portraits in +the dimly-lighted picture-gallery with its vaulted roof, where one's +footsteps echoed uncannily between the stone walls, and where it was +possible to shiver with cold on the hottest summer day.... The picture +of a gentle, tired-looking woman with thin bloodless lips, and +half-closed lids that seemed to droop from sheer weariness and lack of +spirit. + +Many a time, unseen, the boy had stood by the hour before this picture, +and waited--waited for the heavy lids to lift, that one warm ray of +maternal love might at last be shed into his lonely young life. He +would fold his hands in prayer, and lift a tear-stained face in eager +anticipation, while his heart beat for fear; but the picture never came +to life. Tired and slumberous as ever, as if already half-closed in +their last long sleep, the heavily shadowed, star-like eyes continued +to look down on him with a strange, cold, metallic gleam, till he could +bear it no longer, and would rush from the spot half distracted with +disappointment. + +Not far from his mother's picture hung another still more +remarkable--the portrait of an exquisitely beautiful woman with +blue-black hair. The artist had represented her in the act of mounting +a horse. A red velvet cloak, embroidered with gold and bordered with +fur, hung over her left shoulder, and in her right hand, which was +covered with a long, wrinkled, gauntleted glove, she tenaciously +grasped her riding-whip. It was easy to imagine her bringing it down +with a will on the back of a _mauvais sujet_. The whole figure was +instinct with indomitable spirit and energy. Life glowed in the dark +eyes that flashed imperiously from the canvas, as if demanding the +homage of all who came within their radius. This was his grandmother in +her youth--the old lady whose shrill scolding tongue, and witch-like +appendages in the shape of gold-headed canes, liqueur-glasses, and +snuff-boxes, were indissolubly associated with the boy's earliest +memories. She had been the evil star of his house. Before her marriage, +one of the most admired beauties of the Polish Court in Saxony, she had +instilled into his father with the milk from her breast love for the +country of the Pole, so that he, a nobleman of German name and lineage, +living on German soil, grew up to hate the land of his birth, and to +set all his affections on the moribund chimera of Polish nationality. +Though he had married a German lady, he had not hesitated to give his +son a Polish name, which, to be doomed to bear at a time when the +spirit of hyper-sensitive patriotism was rampant in the land, seemed a +worse misfortune by far than being afflicted by some hereditary +disease. + +But what was the innocent name of Boleslav compared with the indelible +disgrace that his father, through his insane infatuation for the Poles, +had since brought on him and his race? + +And now he was dead, this father, and of the dead one should speak no +evil. Yet even as he repeated this truism to himself, the consciousness +of the stain with which he was branded, which no power on earth could +remove, overwhelmed him with acutest anguish. + +Passionately he threw up his arms towards the soft, blue, star-spangled +heavens, as if he fain would demand that the soul of his father should +be instantly brought to judgment, no matter in what remote planet it +might be hiding. + +Then came a reaction. His vehemence was succeeded by a gentler mood. He +flung himself on the damp, dewy grass by the roadside, and buried his +face in his hands. He felt he should like to cry. But his lids remained +dry and burning. The thought of his immediate future was almost more +than he could bear. He reflected that in a few hours he should find a +forsaken wilderness, a howling desolation, where once bathed in all the +rosy radiance of his boyish vision he had beheld a scene of sylvan +peace and beauty. + +For though he had been a lonely, motherless boy, it would have been +wicked and ungrateful to maintain that even _his_ childhood had not had +its share of sunshine, and boasted its hours of unalloyed delight. Had +he not been allowed to roam where he listed, through field and forest, +untrammelled by conventions about meals and bedtime, as free to do as +he pleased as any Robin Hood or gipsy in Arcadia? When the soft May +zephyrs breathed on the shaking grasses, and the yellow butterfly +danced from flower to flower, he had lain on his back between the tall +blades and meadow-sweet, looking up into the blue sky, his day-dreams +undisturbed. He might have stayed there from morning till night; so +long as he was not hungry he did stay, and it mattered to no one. + +If he took it into his head to wander off with the shepherd to the +distant moorlands, to partake of black bread from his wallet, and +quench his thirst at the babbling streams, who was there to prevent it? +He was his own master. Round the Castle, which commanded an extensive +view of the country, flowed the sparkling, merry river, in great +serpentine curves, between its wooded banks and green terraces. By the +river-side there was always something of interest going on. There the +grooms watered the horses, the tanner washed his skins, and the boys +winked from behind their fishing-rods at the servant-girls paddling +bare-legged in and out of the water. But greatest delight of all--when +the sun went down behind the alders, the stately wild deer would +venture cautiously out of the neighbouring thicket, climb down the +steep incline, through bush and briar, and thirstily lap up the +moisture with its parched tongue. Often it was necessary to lie in +ambush more than half-an-hour without moving so much as a hair to +witness this enchanting spectacle, otherwise it would have vanished +like a mirage. And what in the world could be more glorious than, when +the moon rose and cast a silver network on the ripples; when the alders +looked like white-veiled princesses, and the lively wenches sang over +their griddle snatches of plaintive song, to plunge into the depths of +the wood, and with a canopy of foliage overhead, and moonbeams dancing +round you, dream the night away, and wake to greet the dawn? He let his +hands fall from his face; and stared round him with vacant, wild eyes. +The fields lay white and still in the moonlight. + +Only the tree under which he rested cast dark, jagged bars of shadow +over the peaceful landscape. A pitiful sound like the scream of a child +in distress arose in the distance. It came from a young hare that had +lost itself in the furrows, and frightened and hungry was crying for +its mother, little suspecting that every yell was but a fresh signal to +its murderers. He was thrilled with compassion for the sufferings of +dumb creation, as he rose and pursued his way.... Reminiscences still +kept pace with his footsteps. + +Now it was his school-days that came vividly back to him--the time when +the old Pastor Götz had undertaken his education, and the white +parsonage among the nut-bushes became his second home. No more vagabond +roamings now, for the grey-bearded, fiery-tempered old parson was a +stern disciplinarian, and kept his pupils in good order. There were ten +or twelve of them--boys and girls together;--children of the well-to-do +farmer class. He had, of course, never associated with the children of +the peasantry, who were allowed to run wild and grow up like young +cattle. This was not to be wondered at, considering the village +schoolmaster, an ex-valet of his father's, superannuated through drink, +spent most of the time that should have been engaged in teaching the +young idea how to shoot, in the various taverns of the neighbourhood. + +Felix Merckel, son of the village innkeeper, was the one of his +comrades he remembered best--a strapping, unruly lad, who, at the age +of ten, wore top-boots and carried a gun, and whose tendency to bully +kept the whole school in subjection. Even Boleslav himself, though two +years younger, and of a retiring nature that had little in common with +the elder boy's somewhat bumptious temperament, was much influenced by +him. Yet his position as the squire's son was never lost sight of, and +Felix joined with his other schoolfellows in paying him a sort of sly +homage in deference to it. Felix was his mentor in all boyish +accomplishments. He taught him to swim, to row, to snare birds, to make +fireworks, to shoot rabbits, and even to plunder the poor peasants' +garden during church time on Sunday evenings. And though the fruit in +his own garden, which he was at liberty to pick whenever he liked, was +a thousand times sweeter and more luscious than the hard, sour stuff he +clambered after at the risk of breaking his neck, he could not +withstand the allurements of those secret raids. Afterwards he was +often seized with remorse on account of them, and was so heartily +ashamed of himself that he would pay back in the morning a hundredfold +what he had stolen over-night. Such acts of reparation, nevertheless, +were only received with scowls or smiles of malice, for the unfortunate +_canaille_ were compelled by benighted feudal laws to plough and delve +on his father's estates, and were sorely oppressed; therefore it was +only natural that the boy should reap to the full the harvest of bitter +hate sown by the father. + +Of his other companions, especially of the girls, he had nothing but +the haziest recollection. There was, of course, _one_ exception. Her +bright image had floated before him, through all the pain and heartache +that had gradually darkened his whole existence, pain which even the +fascinations of war could not alleviate. It was her image, that like a +lodestar had led him into the thickest of the fight, and had not faded +from him as he lay wounded, and, as he believed, dying. + +Intense longing for her had become identified with that vague yearning +after happiness which still sometimes possessed him, just as if his +chances of happiness had not, by his father's misdeeds, been +irretrievably ruined. + +How this love had sprung up in his breast and grown apace, becoming +stronger every day, till at last the whole world seemed filled with its +reflection, he hardly knew himself. + +As a child, the pastor's small daughter had always been distant in her +manner. The fresh, neat, fairylike little creature never could be +coaxed by any of them into jumping a ditch, even if the bottom was dry, +and was very particular at hide-and-seek not to allow her frocks to be +caught hold of lest "the gathers should go." Now and then, when they +were alone together, Helene would show off with pride the glories of +her doll's house, and point out that the tiny towels had hemmed edges +and a monogram. They would be getting quite confidential till, in an +outburst of boyish spirits, he was sure to do something rough or clumsy +which brought down on his head a gentle rebuke, and he was reminded of +the limitations of their friendship. Hurt and ashamed, he would +afterwards try to keep out of her way, but a smile of forgiveness never +failed to bring him to her feet, for there was a kind of sovereignty in +her little person that was not to be resisted. + +Felix resented her power. He called her affected and a mollycoddle, and +teased her as only he could tease. She, on her part, had an aggravating +trick of turning up her nose and appearing to look down on him, though +he was a good head taller, which goaded him into tormenting her the +more, and ended in her running to her father, and with streaming eyes +begging that Felix might be punished. + +At twelve years old, Boleslav left his birthplace. Some relations on +his mother's side, belonging to the old Prussian official nobility, +proposed to continue his education. His father had every reason to +congratulate himself at getting rid of him. The life he had led since +his wife died was scarcely of a character to bear the scrutiny of +innocent, questioning, childish eyes. The Baron was in the habit of +bringing back to the castle from his visits to the capital curious +company, chiefly women, and many a half-opened bud, indigenous to the +soil, had fallen an unwilling victim to his unbridled lust. Not that he +carried on his intrigues openly and unashamed. It was simply that in +his private life he refused to recognise the restraint of any moral +law, and, after all, what he did was only, for the most part, what his +fathers had done before him. Such amours were a part of the traditions +of his house, and were not likely to excite surprise or comment, unless +it were from the boy, who had occasionally been an involuntary witness +of assaults on virtue and heartrending appeals for mercy. + +There were many other transactions besides these going on at the castle +that were not meant for his eyes. When the great Napoleon's call to +arms roused that miserable cat's-paw of European ambitions, the +lacerated country of Poland, from its death-throes, mysterious +movements were set on foot in every quarter where the peculiar hiss of +Polish speech was heard, and even extended so far as the unadulterated +German regions of East Prussia. + +Foreigners with slim, supple figures, and sharply-cut features used to +arrive at Schranden Castle, driving through the village at express +speed in small carriages, and leave again in the middle of the night. +The post brought innumerable sealed packages bearing the Russian +post-mark; and for weeks together the Baron's study was locked against +all intruders. He himself became taciturn and pre-occupied, going about +like a man in a dream, actually permitting the stripes and weals on the +backs of his serfs to heal and fade away. + +It was at this time that Boleslav migrated to his relations in +Königsberg. Afterwards, years passed calmly away, years in which he +grew in stature and developed in mind under the watchful care of the +widow of a former chancellor, who stood in the place of a mother to +him. All the leading families in the town opened their houses to him, +and by degrees the old familiar scenes and faces of his home became +little more than shadowy memories. His father's rare and hurried visits +only demonstrated how estranged he had become from his son, and how +little love was lost between them. + +Then came that terrible winter in which the war-fury was let loose, +devastating the old Prussian provinces, and the victorious march of +Napoleonic cohorts resounded between the Weichsel and the Memel. Scores +of provincial fugitives sought refuge from the invaders within the +walls of Königsberg. Every house, from cellar to garret, was crammed +with human beings, and in the streets smouldered the bivouac-fires of +the soldiers who were camping out in the open air. + +In the midst of war's alarms, to the accompaniment of beating of drums +and bugle-blasts, it was vouchsafed to Boleslav to dream for the first +time "love's young dream." + +He had lately turned sixteen, and his upper lip was already shaded with +a pencilled line of down. He knew Horace's odes to Chloe and Lydia by +heart, and the passion which Schiller, who had recently died, had +cherished for his Laura was no longer a mystery to him. One January +evening on his way home from the gymnasium, as he crossed the castle +square where Russian and Prussian orderlies were galloping hither and +thither, he caught a glimpse of a pair of blue eyes which seemed turned +on him with an expression of friendly inquiry. He blushed, but when he +ventured to look round the eyes had vanished. The same thing happened +again the next evening. Not till it happened a third time could he +summon sufficient courage to watch more carefully and discover that the +eyes belonged to a fair young face, which could boast besides a +straight little nose, delicately curved lips, which naïvely smiled at +him. The face reminded him of an old altar-piece in the cathedral +representing the Virgin Mary standing in a garden of stiff white lilies +and short-stalked crimson roses. Of something else it reminded him too, +and it puzzled him to think what. He was racking his brains to +remember, when a rosy glow tinged the girl's fair cheeks, and the +charming lips opened. + +"Boleslav!" they lisped. "Is it you?" + +Now, of course, he knew. + +"Helene, Helene! You!" he exclaimed joyously. Had she not bashfully +evaded him, he would have embraced her then and there in the middle of +the crowded square, regardless of spectators in the shape of giggling +servant-maids and ribald soldiers. They withdrew into a more secluded +street, and she told him that on the advance of the enemy her father +had sent her for the sake of safety to board with an old aunt, who had +set up an institution for the daughters of poor clergymen. Here she was +very happy, and was making the most of her time, studying French and +music, for she hoped that in the future she might render her father +assistance with his school, for it was not likely she would ever marry. + +All this she related in a quiet, old-fashioned way, which excited his +respectful admiration, casting smiling side-long glances at him as she +talked. Of his father she could not tell him much; the last time she +had met him he had looked very fierce. It was some time since she had +had any news from home, because the French were quartered there; but +Felix Merckel was in Königsberg, and she saw him now and then. He was +apprenticed to a corn merchant, and thought himself quite the fine +gentleman. He wasn't likely to come to any good though, for he smoked +cigars and wore loud Turkish neckties. She ended by giving him leave to +call on her at her aunt's on Friday--Friday being the day for visitors +at the institution. + +Then she tripped lightly away, swaying her slender limbs from side +to side, and as he watched her, he felt as if the Virgin in the +altar-piece had graciously condescended to appear to him in the flesh, +and was now returning to her lilies and crimson roses. + +On Friday he pulled the bell of the institution and was admitted. He +did not find her, it is true, among lilies and roses, but there were +some plants of fuchsia and geranium in the room, whose faded, dusty +leaves made a pretty background to the girlish figure. The glow of the +winter sunset came through the diamond-pane windows, and spread a rosy +veil over her face. Perhaps, too, the pleasure of meeting an old friend +made her blush a little. The aunt, a toothless, antique spinster, with +patches and a powdered toupee, exhausted herself with curtseying and +compliments, and after regaling the distinguished visitor with +chocolate, in a bowl of superb old English china, vanished as +noiselessly as if the earth had swallowed her up. That was the first of +a succession of blissful, beatific Fridays. + +Troops went forth to battle and returned, but he did not even notice +them. The thunder of cannons at Eylau reverberated through the town, +but he was deaf, and heard nothing. It often seemed to him, as he +looked up at the sky, that he must be lying far down in the depths of +the blue sea, and that the world in which he had lived before was +somewhere a long way off on the other side of the azure empyrean. But +that he still in reality belonged to that world, he was forcibly +reminded one Sunday afternoon, when the door of his attic-chamber, +where he was dreaming over his books, was boisterously flung open, and +his heaven invaded. + +"Hurrah! my boy!" cried the intruder, with outstretched arms. "I've +been looking for you everywhere for a year past, and it's been as +difficult as searching for a needle in a bottle of hay. Even now I +mightn't have tracked you out if that pious little girl Helene had not +given me a hint of your whereabouts." + +It was the harum-scarum Felix, and the Turkish necktie of which the +beloved had spoken, flapped over either shoulder in aggressive fly-away +ends. + +Boleslav returned the greeting more heartily than a few weeks ago he +would have thought possible; since his meeting with Helene, the old +home and the old life had come back to him very distinctly, and his +heart felt drawn to this once inseparable friend of his boyhood. + +Felix did not stand on ceremony, but threw himself on the sofa, and as +he stretched his legs on the leather cushions looked round him in +amazed admiration. The room seemed to him the embodiment of luxury and +magnificence. + +"You are domiciled here like a prince in the 'Arabian Nights,'" he +exclaimed; "that's what comes of being born a _Junker_, I suppose. I +wish I was. Such as we have to rough it, and----" + +He paused in order to shoot through his front teeth a stream of +dark-brown saliva, a habit he had learnt from the sailors on the quays. +After this, he frequently visited Boleslav's sequestered retreat, +devoured the dainties his aunt sent up to him, borrowed money and +books, and initiated him in the mysteries of life at the water's edge. +In short, he conducted himself as do most "men of the world" between +fifteen and nineteen years of age, who are apt to gain an ascendency +over deeper and more thoughtful natures than their own. + +Boleslav sometimes thought of making him his confidant in his love +affair, but never, when it came to the point, could find the right +words in which to express himself. So his secret remained, as he +thought, buried in his heart of hearts. But one day Felix astounded him +by saying-- + +"Don't think I am blind! I have discovered some time ago that you are +head over heels in love with a certain little prude. She's pretty +enough, but a bit too good for me." + +The blood mounted swiftly and angrily to Boleslav's brow, and he +demanded with dignity that henceforth no disrespectful word be spoken +of the fair Helene in his presence. And Felix, though he made a +contemptuous grimace, was careful not to offend again by any jibing +allusion to his love. + +Later he announced his intention of enlisting in the English navy as a +midshipman, that he might be "revenged on the tyrant of his downtrodden +Fatherland," as he expressed it, and Boleslav looked up to him in +consequence with a profounder reverence than ever. + +Then a day came when this friend passed him in the street without +bestowing on him a shake of the hand, or even a nod. Only a scornful +shrug of the shoulders indicated that he had seen him at all. Utterly +disconcerted, he gazed after the rapidly disappearing figure that +seemed anxious to get out of his way as quickly as possible. + +What could be the meaning of this extraordinary behaviour? The same +evening, with tears pouring down his face, he wrote asking for an +explanation. Before there was time for an answer, a messenger brought +him a parcel of books and a note that ran as follows:-- + + +"_To His Hochgeboren Herrn_ + _Boleslav von Schranden_. + +"Having become apprised of events that have recently taken place in +Schranden, I consider that it would be beneath my dignity, and contrary +to all my patriotic principles, to continue our intercourse. The books +you have lent me are therefore returned. The money will follow in due +course as soon as I have earned the same. Meanwhile the messenger will +hand you five silver groschens.--In humble submission, your +Hochgeboren's obedient servant, + + "Felix Merckel." + + +Boleslav felt as if some one had struck him a blow from behind. He was +so bitterly humiliated that for a whole day he daren't look any human +being in the face. At last he resolved to tell Helene of his trouble, +in the hope that she might be able to give him tidings that would at +least end his fearful suspense. She had forbidden him to speak to her +in the street, because she considered such meetings out of doors +unnecessary and improper, as he was allowed to call at the institution. +Yet, in spite of her veto, he waylaid her and showed her Felix's +letter. As usual, she smiled sweetly and consolingly, but could throw +little light on the matter. The last time she had heard from her +father, the letter had been full of nothing but the unfortunate +engagement which had taken place in the wood near Schranden, when the +Prussian soldiers had been completely routed. That had been in all the +newspapers. There was only one means of learning the whole truth. +Helene could walk along by the river's bank, where the clerks from the +great warehouses lounged away their spare time, and make inquiries of +Felix. This she consented to do, though reluctantly; and he, in a fever +of anxiety, waited for her return on one of the bridges. + +"He does think too much of himself!" she said, as she came back slowly +from her errand, the colour deepening in her cheeks. "And so they all +do, these merchants' clerks. It's not likely that I should allow any of +them to make love to me!" + +She smiled, and hid her burning face in the blue silk reticule she +always carried. + +"But you needn't mind him, dear Boleslav. Since he has determined to go +as a midshipman, he has got love for the Fatherland on the brain." + +"How have I interfered with his love for the Fatherland?" asked +Boleslav. "Don't I abominate that bloodhound Bonaparte as much as he +does?" + +Helene was silent, and gathered the folds of her cloak closer about her +slender limbs, to keep out the bitter winter wind. Then she continued-- + +"You may rely on me. I will never bear a grudge against you for it." + +"For what? Good God, tell me at once!" + +And then at last the mystery was cleared up. + +"You mustn't take it too much to heart, dearest Boleslav. At home in +the village they all say that your father showed the French the path by +the Cats' Bridge in the middle of the night, so that they might +surprise the Prussians; and that gipsy-looking Regina, the carpenter's +daughter--you remember the little curly-headed thing who was at school +with you and me--she confessed it, because it was she who really led +the way. And now the people call your father the betrayer of his +country, and refuse to work for him any more, and have burnt down his +house." + +Ah! so that was it. Now he knew all. In that hour his life's budding +joys and hopes were withered like the blossoms of a tree struck by +lightning in May. How intolerable were these memories of darkest hours +of silent torture-hours in which he was oppressed with a sense of +crime, and when shame literally consumed him! + +It was some time before the news of the betrayal was openly spoken +about in Königsberg. Months passed before the first signs that it had +become known manifested themselves, and during these months his whole +character underwent a complete change. + +His glance became shifty and uneasy, his colour often forsook him. Shy +and awkward he withdrew himself more and more from society, and +frequented none of his old haunts. He would start and tremble at every +word unexpectedly addressed to him. Then came days when the masters +at the gymnasium began to look askance at him, and the pupils to shun +him--days in which his aunt kept her room to escape his morning +greeting, and the family sat in conclave behind closed doors, when the +servants began to set his orders at defiance, and from time to time +spat on the ground as they passed his door. + +So he watched it creeping on, nearer and nearer, the cold, clammy +monster, that, snake-like, was to bind his limbs and freeze the blood +in his veins. He watched its wriggling progress, heard the gloating +hiss of its approach, and defenceless, paralysed, he stared it stonily +in the face, lacking the courage to cry out, or even to moan. + +He had lost Helene too. Not through any fault of hers. She had still +allowed him to go on pulling the institution bell on Fridays as if +nothing had happened, and had been friendly as ever, and had even tried +to distract his thoughts from the painful subject on which they +incessantly brooded, with mild little jokes. But was it because he was +himself so altered that he could only see the rest of the world through +a distorting mist of shame, or had she really, since that day of the +revelation, adopted a tone of pitying compassion towards him? Anyhow, +he became more and more embarrassed in her presence, and dared not meet +her eye. + +One day, instead of Helene, the old schoolmistress received him alone. +She curtseyed and grinned as usual, and assured him, a hundred times at +least, that she was his humblest servant; but what she proceeded to +unfold seemed to Boleslav the last straw. Her dear nephew, the _Herr +Pastor_, she stuttered, thought it best that the intimacy between his +daughter and the young nobleman should terminate, and in order that +there should be no further temptation to continue it, had decided to +remove her instantly from the town of Königsberg. A note sealed with +blue sealing-wax contained Helene's farewell:-- + + +"Dear, Dear Boleslav,--My father commands me to give up my friendship +with you. I must obey him. Good-bye. I shall always be fond of +you----always. I swear it. Your + + "Helene." + + +Six hastily scribbled lines! Were these to be his food and drink +through a life of longing and renunciation? Yet had he any right to +expect more? Had she not promised to be true, and to hold to him though +everyone else had cast him off? From that time forward she became for +him transfigured and a saint. Her face became more than ever identified +in his imagination with that of the Madonna he had seen in the +Cathedral, and whenever he pictured her he beheld her adorned with an +aureole, and surrounded by lilies and roses. + +Had it not been for his extreme youth, energy and self-reliance might +possibly have helped him over the abyss of enervating grief; but a +habit of childlike respect, a latent instinct of veneration, put the +idea of asking his father to explain what had happened, much less of +calling him to account for it, out of the question. It was his +unexpected appearance on the scene that at last roused in him a spirit +of revolt. + +He was now seventeen, and would have been ready to pass into the +university, even if the authorities of the gymnasium had not repeatedly +hinted that his withdrawal would be in every way desirable. Even his +kindly aunt, who had carefully avoided referring to the rumour through +which she herself suffered keenly, had, as mercifully as she knew how, +spoken to him about the advisability of his going somewhere else to +finish his studies. + +Under other circumstances, his pride, his zeal for fair play and his +own honour, would have rebelled against this unjust dismissal. But now, +in his unspeakable bitterness, he cherished only one wish, and that was +to hide away somewhere with his disgrace, and be seen by no human eye. + +And in this mood he stood one day face to face with his father. + +The baron had come to town, to call in the aid of the law in dealing +with his rebellious peasants, but had found every door shut in his +face. His fury knew no bounds; he appeared to have lost all control +over himself, and his demeanour was one of desperate defiance. + +At the sight of the short, stubborn figure, the bull-neck and the grey, +fiery eyes rolling in their red sockets, Boleslav was seized with the +old boyish terror. He had to pull himself together with a tremendous +effort before he could bring the fatal question over his lips. + +"Father, is it true what people are saying, that----" + +Suspicion blazed up in the small grey eyes. + +"Eh?--what are people saying?" he interrupted. + +"That it was through you that the French found out the path by the +Cats' Bridge." + +"And what if it was through me, you Hottentot? What if I did avenge the +wrongs of the down-trampled Pole on this pack of cowardly Russian +thieves? These hulking, stupid, lazy serfs, who would only get their +deserts if the great Napoleon extirpated them altogether from off the +face of the earth. Don't gape at me like that, clown! What I did was +done as a sacred duty. Heavily chained, scourged human beings cried out +imploringly to me, 'Save us, save us!' I could not save them, it is +true; that work was reserved for a greater than I--but I could at least +_help_, help him, who like an avenging angel swept over Europe and laid +it waste--help to annihilate a handful of ruffians I saw providentially +delivered into my hand." + +As he held forth thus, his short figure seemed to grow. His eyes +flashed fire. The demon of fanaticism that so strongly resembles +inspiration, its angelic sister, enveloped him in its red-hot, glowing +mantle. + +Boleslav shrank away, trembling. He felt keenly, how completely every +tie between him and this man was now severed. + +"Let them whisper, and nudge each other as I pass," he continued, "and +make faces; what the devil do I care? They daren't do it so long as the +Corsican lion held them in his claws. And after all, who is to prove it +against me? If it hadn't been for that fool Regina, who let her father +hunt her down in the Bockshorn, every one would naturally have supposed +that General Latour, with his inventive brain, had found out the way +over the river and through the wood of his own accord. As it is, the +wretches are all at my throat.... The peasants are no longer to be +brought to heel with the knout. They've always been so fond of me, you +see. If what the papers say is true, and the king is willing to let the +mutiny continue, they'll lynch me, as sure as fate. You will have good +cause to congratulate yourself on your succession, my boy!" + +Those were the last words his father had ever spoken to him, for the +conversation which had taken place in his own study, was interrupted at +this point by the entrance of his aunt. + +The aristocratic old lady recoiled from the touch of the Baron's red +muscular hand as from that of some poisonous reptile. But mastering her +repugnance, she asked for a few minutes' private talk with him. + +What decision they came to over his future he was never to know, for +even before the short interview had elapsed, his former life already +lay behind him like a nightmare, and he stood in the street and +reflected through which of the city-gates he should wander out into the +wide world. Finally, the goal of his travels proved to be a small +property in a remote corner of Lithuania, where he found rest in hard +work, and an opportunity of fitting himself for the duties of a landed +proprietor. + +Years went by. For him they meant unremitting labour for his daily +bread--a struggle for existence full of hardships, which, however, +could be engaged in without shame, or any wounding of his _amour +propre_. For now he no longer bore the abhorred name of his fathers. If +at the same time he only could have cast off, like a soiled garment, +the host of bitter recollections with which it was associated, he would +have been happier. But consciousness of the infamy that clung to the +discarded name remained ever present. Love for his country, which +hitherto had only slumbered in his heart, now bounded into full life. +The passion of patriotism grew and grew, till it became a tormenting +demon which scourged him with scorpions, drove the blood from his face, +the sleep from his eyes, and heaped the guilt of Prussia's misfortunes +on his shoulders. + +Only once during this time did news of his home reach him. That was +when he read in a Königsberg news-sheet that Schranden Castle, which +had enjoyed such an unenviable notoriety in the winter of 1807, had +been burned down with all its outlying buildings. Then he had folded +his hands, and a sound had escaped his lips like a prayer of +thanksgiving. + +Expiation! expiation! must be the watchword of his soul. + +But as yet nothing could be expiated. Still the unhappy Fatherland lay +crushed beneath the heel of the dictator. Then came the downfall of the +Great Army on the snow-covered plains of Eastern Europe, and the rising +of Prussia quickly followed. + +Now the hour had come. His hour! He would die--give his life for the +Fatherland, and expiate his father's sin with his own blood. + +In the volunteer Jäger Baumgart, who rode into Königsberg on the 5th of +March 1813, no one recognised the youthful Baron von Schranden, who, +just five years before, had fled from the town unable to face the +dishonour brought upon his name; and there were many now hailing him +with shouts and cheers of welcome, who then would have driven him out +with stones and brickbats. + +He attached himself to a cluster of intrepid sons of the soil, from +whose mouths the dialect of his lost home fell familiarly and musically +on his ear. He became their friend and their leader, till suddenly a +well-known face cropped up in the camp, the sight of which immediately +drove Lieutenant Baumgart out of it. + +Felix Merckel, he knew too well, would not have hesitated to betray him +to his comrades, and to inform them who it was that led them to battle. + +What followed was like a ghastly confused phantasmagoria, in which +bloodshed, salvoes, and death-rattles played their part. Why had he not +died? How had he lived through it? These were the questions he asked +himself on first regaining consciousness and opening his eyes on the +world, after lying for months between life and death. For him, then, no +French sabre had been sharpened, no French bullet fired. + +The one complete atonement his conscience told him it was in his power +to make had been denied him. Was a heavier one awaiting him now, as he +drew near the dusky woodlands of his birthplace in the dim, grey dawn +of day? + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + +It was eight o'clock in the morning, and already the rays of the sun +had strengthened, as Boleslav left the wild tangle of the forest behind +him, and beheld his home stretched out at his feet. + +He had not set eyes on it for ten years. His first fierce impulse now +was to shake his fist at the village which lay there so hypocritically +idyllic in the calm of early morning, with its white toy cottages set +in bowers of green bushes, its curls of blue-grey smoke, and opalescent +slate church spire rising peacefully against the sky. + +Beyond were the magnificent groups of old trees with dark, almost black +foliage and yellowish trunks belonging to the Castle park, which sloped +away on the eastern side of the hill. But the Castle itself, that had +crowned the hill with its shining battlemented twin-towers, and had +queened the landscape far and wide--where was it? Had the earth opened +and swallowed the imposing structure whole? For a moment he was +startled and shocked at its total disappearance. Then he remembered. +How stupid it was to have forgotten! They had burnt it down, razed it +to the ground. + +Many and many a time he had thought of that deed of violence, which had +laid waste the inheritance of his fathers, with a sort of grim +satisfaction. But now, when he saw with his bodily eyes the scene of +the conflagration, he felt sullen resentment rise in his heart. + +"Incendiaries! Accursed incendiaries!" he cried, and once more shook +his fist at the homesteads of his enemies. _His_ enemies? Yes, in the +flash of a moment it seemed clearly demonstrated that his father's +enemies must be his enemies. Had he not inherited them, together with +these woods and fertile valleys, with yonder smoked, blackened heap of +ruins (he now noticed it for the first time) that reared itself like +the mighty hand of a giant calling down the wrath of Heaven--together +with that awful crime, which no one on earth hated more than he did, +from which no one had suffered as he had suffered.... And though, +instead of filial love, he had cherished nothing but a sensation of +paralysing fear towards his father, though for years he had +deliberately cut himself adrift from ties of kindred, and the +performance of duties that custom and civilisation impose on those who +are destined to hand down an ancient name and inherit vast estates--in +spite of it all, the fact remained that it was his father's blood +flowing in his veins, and he felt it at this moment coursing through +them tumultuously, and rising in hot anger at the wrong that had been +done his race. + +A wild gleam shone in his eyes as he fumbled with his left hand for the +leather case strung over his shoulder, from which obtruded the +burnished knobs of a pair of cavalry pistols. + +"Won't bury him!" he murmured through his clenched teeth, clasping the +pistols close. "Won't bury him, indeed! We shall see!" And with a +bitter, mirthless laugh, he walked resolutely down into the village. + +The one long straggling street lay before him, deserted and basking in +the brilliant sunshine. The cart-ruts in the rich clay soil shone as if +they had been glazed; bottle-glass and rags from old besoms filled the +interstices to prevent the accumulation of stones. On either side of +the road stood the thatched cottages of the peasants, shaded by limes +and chestnuts, some of whose leaves were even now beginning to look +autumnally sere and yellow. These peasants had formerly been under the +jurisdiction of the Castle, and only since the new rural laws came into +force had been relieved of their service and joined the freemen. + +Here and there he saw a new fence painted in glaring colours, as if the +owner wished to mark off his recently acquired possession from the rest +of the inhabited globe. In other respects the new _régime_ had left +everything much the same. Sunflowers and herbs bloomed in the front +gardens as they had always done; damp mattresses hung out of the +windows to air just as of old. Only the number of taverns had +increased. Boleslav counted three, whereas once the Black Eagle had +reigned supreme and met all the requirements of the place. + +Nearer the church were the white houses of the free artisans, burghers +as they were called, who paid to the Castle ground-rent, and therefore +enjoyed the privilege of cultivating their own vegetable plots as they +pleased. There were a couple of blacksmiths with the sign of a +horseshoe over the entrance of their forges, two or three cobblers, a +wheelwright, a basketmaker, and a---- + +He paused and let his eyes rest on a dilapidated tumble-down hovel, the +most wretched in the whole row. A dirty green shield hung over the +door, bearing the almost obliterated inscription-- + + + "HANS HACKELBERG, + CARPENTER AND PARISH UNDERTAKER." + + +A coffin, also painted green, supported by pillars, loomed down on the +neglected garden, and gave to those who couldn't read, the necessary +information. At the sight of it an incident long forgotten occurred to +Boleslav with extraordinary distinctness. He saw again a little untidy +girl with great, dark, tearful eyes and a tangled cloud of black, curly +hair flying about her face and shoulders in wild dishevelment. She had +clung to this garden gate with one hand, while with the other she held +the corner of her blue print pinafore convulsively pressed against her +bosom. A pack of village hobbledehoys were pelting her with sticks and +stones. He was not much taller than she was, but at his approach the +little crowd made way for him, shy and awestruck. For he was the "young +_Junker_," who had only to lift his finger, they thought, to bring down +blessings or curses on their heads. + +"What is going on here?" he had asked, whereupon the persecuted child +had humbly advanced, and opened her pinafore just wide enough for him +to get a glimpse inside. + +"Beasts! They wanted to take it away from me!" she had exclaimed, +lifting her wet eyes to his, blazing with indignation. + +A poor unfledged sparrow, which somehow or other had fallen out of the +nest, reposed in the pinafore. + +"Give it to me," he had demanded, for he loved young birds; and +obediently she had held out her pinafore for him to snatch it away. As +beseemed a lordling, he had not said thank you, or troubled himself +further about the giver. + +And that was _she_--the girl who, it was said, had shown the French the +path by the Cats' Bridge, and had lived with his father as his mistress +to the last. + +Why had he defended her then? Why had he prevented the pack hunting her +down? One blow on the forehead from a stone might then and there have +cut short her mischievous career! + +He walked on. Now and then a dull, dirty face peered at him curiously +through the small, dark window-panes, or a cur barked. But he passed +unmolested through the village. It was unlikely enough that any one +would recognise him. The parsonage came in view with its shady veranda, +trim flower-beds, and nut-trees. It looked as quiet and peaceful as on +that morning long ago, when, with a sigh of relief at escaping from +the pastor's stern rule, he had seen it for the last time from the +post-chaise, and Helene had waved him farewell with her little cambric +handkerchief. With lowering brow he now took a short cut that he might +avoid passing it. It seemed as if Helene must still be standing on the +lawn waving her handkerchief. But what if she had been there? It would +have been impossible for him to go to her. A path on his left led down +to the river, which divided the Castle domain from the villagers' +territory. As he turned into it he became aware of the frightful +ravages the fire had made. Instead of the long line of barns and +stables which had been ranged on this side of the river stood a row of +ruins, falling walls and scorched beams, grown over with celandine and +valerian. Beyond could be seen, through gaps in the walls, the +courtyard, now a weedy, grass-grown rubbish heap, and on the summit of +the hill, behind a lattice formed of the leafless branches of dead +elms, a black ruined mass of fantastically jagged brickwork--all that +remained of the once proud Castle. + +His arms fell heavily to his sides. A sound escaped him like a sob, a +sob for vengeance. + +He dragged his way laboriously along the banks of the river to the +drawbridge, which was the main mode of access to the island; for, since +his grandfather's time, the whole of the Castle grounds had been, by +means of an aqueduct, practically converted into an island. The +drawbridge, at least, was still _en evidence_. It looked like a remnant +of antiquity as it hung with its grey projecting timbers on its black, +clumsy buttresses, at the foot of which the ripples broke with a +gurgling sound. The rusty chains were tightened, and between _terra +firma_ and the floating edge of the bridge was a space of about three +feet, which could be jumped with ease. Some one had evidently tried to +draw it up, and failed in the effort. + +Boleslav sprang over and passed through the stone gateway, whose +nail-studded doors, half-burnt, were thrown back on their hinges. +Suddenly he heard a sharp clicking sound at his feet resembling the +snap of a bowstring. He stopped, and saw, to his horror, the iron +semicircle of a fox-trap half-buried in the rubbish, and carefully +covered with birch-broom. The long pointed teeth of the iron jaw had +closed on each other in a tenacious grip. By a miracle he had escaped +an accident which might have laid him up for many weeks. + +Feeling the ground with his stick, he pursued his way more cautiously +through the refuse and litter, amongst which he came across +occasionally a disused waggon or the rotten barrel of a brandy cask +held together by iron hoops. He went on, up the hill to the Castle. The +path was overgrown with brambles as tall as himself, and again he came +on traps, their wide open maws greedily eager to seize him by the leg. +The whole place seemed strewn with them--the only signs of civilisation +he had as yet encountered. + +The Castle lay before him, with yawning window-frames and sundered +walls, a complete ruin. Piles of fallen tiles and plaster, between +which rank grass and weeds had sprung up, formed a mound round its +foundations. The vestibule, with its drooping rafters, had become a +perfect bower of creepers and evergreens, whose luxuriant growth seemed +almost impenetrable. A white tablet hung among the leaves, on which, in +his father's handwriting, were the words, "_Caution to trespassers_." + +He shuddered at this, the first trace he had seen for six years of the +man to whom he owed his existence, and whom he had now come to bury. + +In a few moments he would be standing probably beside his corpse. + +But how was he to find it? What resting-place could his father have +found here while yet alive? + +No door or unbroken window, no signs of a human habitation, were +visible amidst all this fearful wreckage. He turned, and walked slowly +the length of the Castle façade, past the towers which flanked the +gabled roof; here over the blackened stonework the ivy had begun to +grow afresh, enshrouding it in a peaceful melancholy. From this point +his eye caught a vista of the park, with its giant timber and wealth of +undergrowth. And then he saw a few yards off, on the grass-plot where +once had stood the statue of the goddess Diana, of which nothing now +was left but the shattered fragments and pedestal, a woman.... A +slender, strongly-built woman, with long plaits of dark curling hair +hanging down her back. Her primitive costume consisted of a red +petticoat and a chemise. She was digging energetically with a heavy +spade in the dark rich soil, and was apparently too engrossed to notice +his approach. She set her naked foot at regular intervals, as if +beating time on the hard edge of the spade, and with the slightest +possible pressure drove it deep into the earth. As she dug she sang a +song on two notes, a high and a low, which welled out of her full +breast like the sound of a sweet-toned bell. The chemise, a coarse and +roughly made garment, had slipped off her shoulders, laying bare the +strong, magnificently moulded neck. When he addressed her, she drew +herself erect with a sudden movement of surprise and alarm, and stood +before him half naked. + +She turned on him a pair of lustrous, large dark eyes. "What do you +want here?" she asked, grasping the spade tighter, as if intending to +use it as a weapon of defence. Then lifting her other arm she calmly +raised the chemise over her shapely bosom. + +"What do you want?" she repeated. + +Still he did not answer. "So this is she," he was thinking, "the +traitress, the courtesan, who---- Should he point his pistol at her, +and drive her instantly from the island, so that the ground he trod on +might at least be clean?" + +Meanwhile his bearing seemed to have convinced her of the peacefulness +of his intentions. + +"This is no place for strangers," she went on. "Go away again at once. +You are lucky not to have been caught in a wolf's trap." + +She stood, drawn to her full height, and waved him off. Then gradually +she became confused under his searching glance, and regarded him +nervously out of the corners of her eyes. Tossing back the black tangle +of hair from her sunburnt cheeks, she began to fidget with her +inadequate garment, seeming conscious for the first time of her +half-nude condition. + +"Show me his corpse!" he asked imperatively. + +She started and stared at him for a moment with astonished, questioning +eyes, then threw herself weeping at his feet. + +"_Gnädiger Herr_!" she murmured, in a voice stifled with emotion. + +He felt her fingers seeking his hand, and pushed her violently from +him. + +"Show me his corpse!" he commanded again, "and then you may go." + +She rose slowly, kicked the spade away with her foot, and led the way +down to the park. As they neared some bushes she turned round and said +timidly, "There's a trap here." He stepped quickly to one side, +otherwise he would have walked straight into the snare. She held +back the brambles of the thicket through which they were making their +way, to prevent the thorns scratching his face. They came to a clearing +in the wood where stood a small one-storied cottage with a tall +chimney, surrounded by broken hot-house frames and lime heaps. It was +the gardener's house, in which as a boy he had often played with +flower-pots, seeds, and bulbs; the one solitary building the ravages of +the fire had left untouched, because the incendiary had been unable to +find his way to it. + +Again his guide warned him. "Take care! That is dangerous," she said, +pointing to a heap of earth like a mole-hill. "Whoever steps on it is a +dead man," she added half to herself. He knelt down, and with his hands +dug out the bomb that lay concealed in the soft earth, and hurled it +with all his might far away, so that it exploded with a loud report +against the trunk of a tree. She cast a shy, half-scandalised glance at +him over her shoulder, for to her what he had done was an act of +desecration. + +Then she opened the door, and he found himself in a dark passage. The +cottage had only two rooms. The one on the left of the front-door had +been the gardener's dwelling-room, the other his workshop. + +From the former, the door of which stood ajar, issued a powerful death +odour. + +He went in. A body veiled in white lay on a low bier in the middle of +the close, gloomy little room. + +"Leave me," he said, without looking round, and he threw back the +cloth. + +His father's rigid features, covered with bristles, stared up at him. +The eyes had sunk far back in his head; the brows were contracted. In +the hollows of his cheeks bushy black hair had sprouted, while the +beard had turned partially grey. The short, thick nose had shrunk, and +close to the firmly-shut lips that had not parted in death lay a deep +line, denoting intense suffering, and, at the same time, defiant scorn; +as Boleslav looked down on it, the line seemed to deepen still more, +and at last to quiver and play round the mouth that was still for ever. + +He dropped on his knees, and, with folded hands, prayed a paternoster. +His tears fell fast, and rained heavily on the waxen face of the dead +man. + +"Your guilt is my guilt," he whispered hoarsely. "If I don't defend +your memory, who else will? No one in all the world." + +Then he covered up the body again with the white cloth, for flies were +swarming round it. As he turned away, he observed the girl's dark head +pressed against the foot of the bier. Her symmetrical neck and +shoulders shone out in relief from the shadowy background. + +"What are you doing here?" he demanded roughly. She crouched down, +shivering, and raised her left shoulder, as if to ward off a threatened +blow. Her eyes flashed a warm ray through the masses of her curly hair. + +"No one has ever driven me away from him before," she murmured. + +"But _I_ drive you away," he answered with decision. + +She rose and quietly vanished. He tore open a window, for he felt half +suffocated, and then took a survey of the apartment. It was small and +wretched enough, and was filled up without any attempt at arrangement +with the most inappropriate and heterogeneous assortment of furniture, +most of it evidently rescued in haste from the fire; a gold-legged +table harmonised ill with rickety kitchen chairs; a peasant's canopied +bed stood near gorgeous consoles of inlaid marble, and a cracked +Venetian mirror hung beside a bullfinch's simple wicker cage. But +nothing looked more out of its element than the life-size portrait of +the beautiful Pole, his grandmother, and the original cause of all the +evil that had befallen him. Her haughty, arrogant eye still pierced the +distance triumphantly; the small gloved hand still grasped the flexible +riding-whip. "Kneel, slave," the full proud lips seemed to say. Only +the diamond pin which used to glitter in her bosom like a star was +gone, for just there the colour had warped, and the grey canvas beneath +was exposed to view. The once elegant and artistically carved frame +representing a garland of gilded roses and cupids had suffered too, +being chipped and cracked in various places, where patches of coarse +orange paint had been daubed on to repair the damage. + +"Probably he took every care to save that first," thought Boleslav, and +had not the presence of his father's corpse restrained him, he would +have pulled it down from the wall, and trampled it under foot. + +A case containing arms stood in a corner. The newest and most costly of +shooting weapons were ranged there, including every variety of pistol, +sword, and spear. Above it was unrolled a plan of the Castle island, +showing the spots where ingeniously contrived man-traps, mines, and +spring-guns awaited the trespasser--roughly calculated, there were over +a hundred of them. + +Boleslav shuddered. Surely this unhappy man had been punished enough +for his misdeeds in the life he had been compelled to lead during his +last few years on earth! Caged up like a hunted wild beast, his +murderous contrivances were a perpetual source of menace to himself, +for to have forgotten for a moment the position of one of his +death-traps must have instantly proved fatal. + +When Boleslav went out at the door he stumbled over Regina, who was +cowering on the threshold. She started to her feet with a low cry of +pain, like the whine of a trodden-on dog. He felt a momentary thrill of +compassion for her, but it vanished before he had spoken the kind words +that involuntarily rose to his lips. + +"What were you lying there for?" he inquired harshly. + +"It's my place," she answered, always regarding him with the same +humble, luminous glance. + +"Indeed? It's a dog's place as a rule." + +"It's mine too." + +"Your name is Regina Hackelberg?" + +"Yes, _gnäd'ger Junker_." + +"It was you who led the French over the Cats' Bridge?" + +"Yes, _gnäd'ger Junker_." + +"Why did you do it?" + +"Because I was told to do it." + +"Who told you?" + +She cast down her eyes. + +"Why don't you answer?" + +"Because I was forbidden to tell." + +"Who forbade you; my--_he_?" + +"Yes; the _gnäd'ger Herr_." + +"So that's what you call him, eh?" + +"Yes, _gnäd'ger Junker_." + +"Call me, if you please, _Herr_, and not _Junker_. I am not _Junker_." + +"Very well, _gnäd'ger Herr_." + +"_Herr_, I say--simply _Herr_. Do you understand?" + +"Yes, _gnäd'ger Herr_." + +"_Himmelkreuzdonnerwetter_! Didn't I say you were to call me _Herr_, +without any prefix?" + +She trembled nervously at his oath; but when it dawned on her what he +meant, a smile of pleasure illumined her face. + +"I see, _Herr_," she said, and nodded. + +"I shall expect you to tell me everything," he went on. "Do you hear?" + +"The _gnäd'ger Herr_ did not wish me to speak about it.... Not to any +one." + +"Did he say not to _any one_?" + +"Yes." + +He bit his lip. Why should he inquire further into the matter, when it +was all as clear as daylight? This creature had been used as a tool +because she was stupid, and bad enough to let herself be so used. + +"How old were you at the time the French came?" + +Again she cast down her eyes. "Fifteen, _Herr_." + +Once more he felt softened towards her, but almost immediately dark +suspicion stifled his pity. + +"You were paid for your work?" he asked between his clenched teeth. + +"Yes, _Herr_," she responded calmly. + +He was overwhelmed with disgust. + +"How much was it? Your bribe?" + +"I don't know, _Herr_." + +"What! You mean to say you did not stipulate for a certain sum +beforehand? + +"She seemed unable to comprehend. + +"My father took it all away from me," she answered. "He said it was the +wages of sin. It was a whole big handful of gold. I know that." + +He looked at her in amazement. + +The fine head, with its wealth of wild hair clustering on her neck, was +humbly bent. She appeared not to have the slightest perception of the +scorn she had aroused in him; or was she so used to it that she took +his contempt as a matter of course? + +"What were you doing at the Castle when the French were quartered +there?" + +A dark flush suffused her face, neck and bosom. He had struck some +chord of memory that awakened in her a spark of shame. + +"I was helping with the sewing," she stammered. + +"Why did you come to the Castle?" + +"My father told me I must. He said I was to go up and ask the +_gnäd'ger_ Herr if there was any sewing for me to do. I was to earn my +bread somehow, he said." + +"Oh, indeed!" There was a pause, then he continued: "Go and put on a +jacket, Regina." + +She passed her hand over her bosom and drew her linen garment tighter +round her chest, till the string cut into the swelling flesh. + +"Well, why don't you go?" + +"I haven't got a jacket." + +"What! Didn't he clothe you?" + +"They tore my jacket off my back yesterday." + +"Who?" + +A gleam of burning hate flashed from her eyes. + +"Who? Why, they--the people down there, of course," and she spat in the +direction of the village. + +A feeling of mingled surprise and satisfaction arose within him, for +here was a being who could share his hatred; some one whom fate was to +associate with him in the coming struggle with the villagers below. + +"So the people down there are your foes?" he said. + +She laughed jeeringly. + +"I should just think they were. They throw stones at me whenever they +get the chance--stones as big as this." She joined the hollows of her +hands together to show the size. + +"For how long have they thrown stones at you?" + +"It must be six years," she said after a moment's calculation. + +"And how often have they hit you?" + +"Oh, lots of times. Look here!" and she let the chemise slip down +again, to display a scar extending from her shoulder to the root of her +bosom, which marked the warm olive skin with a thin line of scarlet. + +"But now I always take the tub with me." + +"The tub?" + +"Yes; the wash-tub. I hold it over my head and neck when they come +after me." + +What a wretched existence was hers--worse than a dog's! + +"Why have you gone on staying here when they treat you thus?" he asked. +"There are other places in the world." + +She gazed at him in astonishment, as if she did not grasp his meaning. + +"But I belong here," she said. + +"You might at least have left the island, and betaken yourself +somewhere where your life would not always be in danger." + +She gave a short laugh. + +"Was I to leave _him_ to starve?" she asked; and then, growing suddenly +red, she added, correcting herself shyly, "I mean the _gnäd'ger Herr_." + +He nodded to reassure her, for she looked as if she expected to be +chastised on the spot for her slip of speech, poor miserable creature! + +"I don't go down there oftener than I can help. Generally I go over the +Cats' Bridge by night to Bockeldorf, three miles away. There, at +Bockeldorf, I could get flour and meat, and everything else that +_he_--the _gnädiger Herr_--wanted, if I paid double the price for it, +and be back by the morning. But sometimes it's impossible to get +there--in a snow-storm, for instance, or a flood. So when the weather +was very bad I was obliged to go down to the village, and had to pay +still more money there, and even then perhaps get nothing but blows. +So"--she laughed a wild, almost cunning laugh--"I just took what came +handy." + +"That means--you thieved?" + +She gaily nodded assent, as if the achievement was deserving of special +praise. + +She was so depraved, then, this strange, savage girl, that she was +quite incapable of distinguishing the difference between right and +wrong! + +"And what were you doing in the village yesterday?" he questioned anew. + +"Yesterday? Well, you see, _he_ must be buried. It's time, _Herr_, +quite time. And I thought to myself, however much I cry, that won't get +him under the earth." + +"So you cried, did you?" he asked contemptuously. + +"Yes," she replied. "Was it wrong?" + +"Well, never mind: go on." + +"And so I took the tub and went down to the pastor's. But the pastor +said I mustn't contaminate his house by coming near it, so on I went to +landlord Merckel, who is mayor as you know, _Herr_. And there the +soldiers saw me----" + +"What soldiers?" + +"The soldiers who have just come from the war." She paused again. + +"Go on!" he commanded. + +"And the soldiers cried out 'Down with her--strike her down!' and then +the chase began, and my father joined in and called out 'Down with +her!' too, but he was only drunk, as he nearly always is.... The stones +flew about, and the women and children caught hold of me and held me +fast, that they might strike me; but I had the tub and held it with +both hands high over their heads, hacking with it right and left like +this." She illustrated her story by holding up her rounded muscular +arms in the air, and bringing them down again like a pair of clubs. + +The tall, magnificent figure before him, reminded him of some antique +statue in bronze. Strange, that in spite of all the degradation and +vileness amidst which she had been reared, it should have blossomed +into such fulness of triumphant splendour. There was something classic, +too, in the mere unaffected freedom with which she exposed its charms. +But of course in reality she was nothing but a shameless hussy, long +since lost to all sense of decency. + +"Perhaps you have got a shawl, if not a jacket," he suggested, turning +his back. + +"Yes, I have a shawl, a woollen one." + +"Then put it on at once." + +She disappeared silently through the door before which they had been +standing, and after a few moments returned in a brilliant red tippet +which she had crossed over her breast and tied in a knot behind. Now +that she had awakened to the fact that her half-clothed condition +shocked him, she began to be ashamed of even her naked arms, which she +had no means of concealing. She kept them folded behind her back, and +crept into the darkest corner of the passage. + +"Did they refuse to bury the _gnädiger Herr_?" he demanded. + +"No-no-one said anything," she answered, "because I never asked." + +"Why not?" + +"Because I couldn't for the stones that were hurled at me. And then I +thought it was no good. Nobody would ever come and fetch him. I might +as well shovel him in myself, as best I could." + +"_You_ proposed to do it! Without help?" + +"If I could carry him from the Cats' Bridge into the house without +help, I ought to be able to bury him too." + +"Where--in the churchyard?" + +"The churchyard? Ha! ha! That would have been a pretty piece of +business. I should never have got him through the village and been +alive afterwards to tell the tale. It was in the garden, over by the +Castle. I was in the middle of digging the grave when the _Herr_ +arrived." + +Now he felt strongly inclined to praise her. Such canine fidelity, +unquestioning, unhesitating, touched him deeply. Did not the girl who +had faced death readily a thousand times for her master's sake, deserve +some sort of reward? Yes. He would repay her in coin; good hard cash +would doubtless be more acceptable than anything else, poor thing! And, +directly he had laid his father in his last resting-place, he would +dismiss her from his service. Till then she might stay where she was. + +But, at all costs, his father's bones must lie with those of his +ancestors. His first duty, his bounden duty as a son, was to procure +for him a decent burial, such as was granted to every Christian human +being. No matter what difficulties might stand in the way, he +determined to accomplish the sacred task, even if he were driven to +resort to extreme measures, and call in the aid of the law. He knew at +least one magistrate in Prussia, a relative of his mother's, who would +take his side, and enforce justice with an armed contingent if the +worst came to the worst. + +He was just in the act of walking off in the direction of the village, +when it occurred to him that it was impossible to take a hundred steps +on his own property without being snared into a hundred death-traps. +Without the woman he detested to guide him, he was as helpless as a +child. + +"Lead me to the drawbridge," he said; "and while I am gone clear away +all the traps." + +"Yes, _Herr_." + +But she remained motionless, as if rooted to the spot. + +"What are you waiting for?" + +"I beg the _Herr's_ pardon, but he has been travelling all night, and I +thought----" + +"What did you think?" + +"That the _Herr_ must be very tired, and hungry perhaps; and----" + +She was right He could hardly stand from sheer exhaustion. But the idea +of taking even a crust from her hands filled him with loathing. Rather +would he be fed by his enemies. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + +Meanwhile in the Black Eagle a group of Schrandeners, burghers and +burghers' sons, were enjoying their morning pint together. The +Schrandeners, who had always thought the ideal of a happy life was to +spend as much time as possible in the tavern, were now at liberty to +indulge their taste from morning to night. What work they did must have +been accomplished very early in the day, judging by the hour at which +they began their recreation. + +Young Merckel presided at their carousals. He had grown up into a fine, +broad-shouldered young fellow, with a cavalry moustache aggressively +curled up at the ends, which suited his cast of countenance, and a +manner, that even in bouts of clownish dissipation retained a certain +swaggering _bonhomie_. At the conclusion of the war, instead of getting +his discharge, he had come home on leave, to consider at his ease +whether or not it would be advisable to attach himself to a standing +army. His profession was not likely to interfere with his decision one +way or the other, as practically he had none. + +Till his twenty-fourth year he had been employed in "seeing life" in +different parts of the world at his father's expense, and had hailed +with joy the outbreak of war as a legitimate outlet for his energy, +which otherwise might have been turned into unworthy channels. + +Like Baumgart he had entered the army as a volunteer Jäger; like him +had passed into the militia and had been promoted to the rank of +lieutenant, but unlike him, he wore as a recognition of his bravery the +iron cross dangling on his proudly swelling breast. For the time being, +he had no intention of leaving his birthplace again, where he was +perfectly content to be regarded in the light of a hero and a lion. + +He drank, blustered, and helped to fan the flame of hate against the +traitor, hate which since the return of the victorious soldiers had +blazed up more fiercely than ever. At his instigation the Schrandeners +had gone forth to destroy the Cats' Bridge in order to cut the baron +off, on his island. That he would be struck dead before their very eyes +none in their boldest dreams had dared to hope, and without having +achieved their mission they had hurried back to the village to proclaim +the glad tidings. + +It was a foregone conclusion that the man who had betrayed his country +would be refused Christian burial. This would put the crown on their +work of vengeance. They gloried in reflecting on it. The mayor was on +their side; the parson appeared to shut his eyes to what was going on; +and there was no reason to be afraid of the interference of higher +authority. + +That a champion of the dead would arise at the eleventh hour was the +last thing any one expected. + +For the _Junker_--God alone knew what had become of the _Junker_--had +he not totally disappeared, probably to die of shame in a distant +land?... + +"There's some one coming, wearing a Landwehr cap," said Felix Merckel, +looking out through a crack in the blinds on to the market-place, which +lay glaring and dusty in the heat of the mid-day sun. + +The sounds of revelry subsided, in expectation of the advent of a +stranger. Felix Merckel stretched out his legs and began to toy +indifferently with his medal. + +The door swung back. The new-comer brought a momentary stream of +sunlight into the cool, darkened room. Without a word of greeting he +walked to the buffet, behind which a barmaid sat knitting a stocking, +and inquired if he could speak a few words with the mayor. The mayor +was not at home; he had just gone out into the fields, the barmaid told +him. + +Herr Merckel was fond of leaving the inn in charge of his son, for he +found the beer disappeared twice as fast from the barrels when he was +not present. Felix adopted a method of stimulating customers to drink, +which would not have been becoming in the host. He couched his +invitations in military slang and in figures of speech learnt in the +camp; to resist them would, the Schrandeners held, be casting a slight +on their lieutenant, so it followed that Felix was the means of adding +treasure to his father's exchequer. + +He was piqued at the stranger in the Landwehr cap not vouchsafing him a +salute, although he must have seen the officer's badge on his coat, and +determined to ignore him. + +"Can I wait here till the mayor comes back?" the stranger asked. + +"Of course. This is the tap-room," the barmaid replied. + +He took a seat in the farthest corner from the topers, with his back +turned to them, put down his knapsack, and bowed his head in his hands. + +Herr Felix regarded such conduct as a kind of challenge to himself. +Like the true son of his father, he was indignant at a stranger coming +in and ordering nothing to drink. + +"Ask the gentleman, Amalie, what he will take," he called out, bursting +with a sense of his own importance. Apparently the stranger didn't +hear, for he took no notice. The barmaid stood behind his chair and +stammered something about the excellent quality of Schrandener beer. + +"Thank you; I will drink nothing," he replied, without looking up. + +Herr Felix twisted with vigour the ends of his moustache. It was clear +that a rebuke must be administered to the stranger for his churlish +behaviour. He therefore rose to his feet, and swinging his tankard, +began in a somewhat blatant tone to address his boon-companions. + +"Dear comrades and fellow-burghers and every one present, Prussia's +glorious battles have been fought. Our beloved Fatherland has risen +from the dust in new and unsuspected splendour. Most of us have bled on +the field of glory, and felt the enemy's bullets pierce our breast. +Whoever is a true Prussian patriot will now drink with me his country's +health and honour!" + +With high-pitched hurrahs, the mugs with one accord were lifted to the +revellers' mouths, but before they could drink, an incisive "Halt!" +from the lieutenant stopped them. + +"I see there is some one here," he cried, "who seems inclined to shirk +this sacred duty;" and he rose and walked with clanking spurs across +the room to the stranger's table. + +"Sir," he asked aggressively, "do I understand you don't wish to drink +to Prussia's fame and glory?" + +"I wish to be left in peace," answered the stranger, not turning round. + +"What, sir? You who wear the honourable symbol of a defender of your +country in your cap, decline----" + +A sudden movement on the part of the stranger, who grasped his pistols, +made him break off. The next moment he saw firearms gleam in his hand, +saw him spring up, and stood aghast, staring into a pale, overcast face +that he knew well, but from which two such angry eyes had never blazed +at him before. + +He understood the situation at once; he stood face to face with a man +desperately resolved to go to any extremity if necessary. + +"Look at me, Felix Merckel," said the stranger, who was stranger no +longer, "and learn that I wish to have nothing to say to you. But +understand that if you or any of your friends come too near, they will +rue it. The first who approaches within an inch of me I will shoot down +like a dog." + +Felix Merckel quickly regained his composure. + +"Ah! the _Herr Baron_!" he exclaimed, with a profound bow. "Now I am +not surprised that Prussia's----" + +The click of the double trigger of the cavalry pistol made him stop +short again. + +"I warn you once more, Felix Merckel. I am an officer as well as +yourself." + +And the reiterated warning had its effect. + +"Certainly, it is not my concern," Felix said, and with another low +bow, went back to his place; this time the clatter of his spurs was +scarcely audible. + +The Schrandeners put their heads together and whispered, and then old +Merckel entered the room. His round, sleek, clean-shaven face beamed +with prosperity and self-satisfaction. As beseemed the village +patriarch, he passed by the common drinking-table with a dignified +gait. A heavy silver watch-chain hung on his greasy satin waistcoat, +suspended from a gold keeper in the form of a Moor's head, to which was +also attached an amber heart. + +"The _Herr_ wished to speak to me?" he asked, with a profound +obeisance, which, however, he seemed to repent, when his little grey +lynx eyes remarked that the stranger had no glass before him. To be +obsequious to a non-drinker was a waste of time. + +The Schrandeners kept their ears open. Felix had jumped up as if to +seize this favourable opportunity of going for his whilom friend with +his fists. + +"I say, father, it's the young _Herr Baron_," he exclaimed, with a +discordant laugh. + +Old Merckel withdrew a few steps. His benevolent smile died on his +lips; his fleshy fingers fumbled nervously with the Moor's-head keeper. + +"Can I speak to you alone?" + +"Oh! _Herr Baron_--of course, _Herr Baron_--is the _Herr Baron_ going +to stay?" + +He flung wide a side door, which opened into the little best parlour +reserved for gentry. A sofa, covered with slippery oil-cloth, and a few +velvet, bulky arm-chairs, were ready for the reception of distinguished +customers. Over a cabinet containing tobacco hung a placard with the +inscription, "Only wine drunk here." + +Before the host closed the door behind Boleslav, he made a reassuring +sign to his fellow-burghers as if to allay their anxiety. Then from +under his drooping lids he took a rapid survey of the newly-returned +young aristocrat's person, which seemed to fill him with satisfaction, +for again his smug, slimy smile played about his fat lips. + +"How the _Herr Junker_ has grown, to be sure!" he began. "Wonderful!" + +Boleslav fixed his eyes on him silently. + +"And the _Herr Junker_--pardon, I ought to say Herr Baron--has come +home to find the old Herr Baron no longer alive. A pity he was not in +time to close the eyes of the sainted dead----" + +He broke off, and caught violently at his amber heart, for Boleslav's +piercing, threatening gaze began to make him feel uneasy. What if this +was a desperado, who would think nothing of taking him by the throat? + +"At any rate I have come in time," Boleslav burst forth at last, "to +repair the shameful scandal that has been perpetrated here in refusing +my father the last honour due to his position." + +"Shameful scandal, my _Herr Baron_?" + +"I advise you, my worthy man, not to put on that air of saint-like +innocence. I can read you through and through. Something has come to my +ears concerning you, for which you deserve to be thrashed on the spot." + +"_Herr Baron_!" and he showed signs of taking flight through the door. + +"Stay where you are!" commanded Boleslav, barring the way. Thank God +that in confronting this scum he felt the old inherited instinct of +conscious power come back to him. "Is this the gratitude you show my +house, to whose favours you owe everything?" + +This was true enough. The present landlord of the Black Eagle had once +hung about the Castle in search of a situation, and had finally, as its +ubiquitous commissionaire, amassed a considerable fortune, although he +now chose to adopt an attitude of injured virtue, and rubbed his hands +self-righteously. + +"Dear _Herr Baron_," he said, a paternal kindliness suffusing his broad +countenance, "I willingly pardon the insults you have just heaped on +me, and will give you the best advice, as if nothing had happened. Now, +you will surely understand how friendly are my intentions." + +"I decline your friendship," thundered Boleslav. "As mayor of the +village of Schranden, you will answer my questions. Beyond that, I have +no dealings with you." + +"The Schrandeners, dear _Herr Baron_, are really terrible people. I +always have said so. I said so many times to my dear wife. You knew +her, _Herr Baron_. Why, of course, she often took the little _Junker_ +in her arms, little thinking that----" + +"Keep to the point, if you please," Boleslav interrupted. + +"'Marianne,' I used to say, 'these Schrandeners, when once they get an +idea into their heads, nothing will move them.' Once they took it into +their heads not to drink my brandy. Good, pure, beautiful Wacholder, +_Herr Baron_. In the same way they've now got it into their heads not +to bury the old noble lord, and--well, upon my word, no God and no +devil will force them to do it. It's no good _your_ trying either, +_Herr Baron_. I'll tell you why. The hearse belongs to the corporation, +and they won't let you have it. Horses, too, they wouldn't let out.... +As for bearers--dear God! Go round the village and see if you can find +one, and if you can, see if he is not well flogged for it quarter of an +hour afterwards. Oh! these Schrandeners! And then there is the _Herr +Pastor_--who really in the end has the most voice in the matter. Go to +the _Herr Pastor_, and hear what _he_ says. Putting ceremonials and +paternosters out of the question, you won't even get the coffin made." + +"We shall see," said Boleslav, gnashing his teeth. He felt his spirit +of resistance rise, the more clearly he saw the web that hatred and +malice were weaving around him. + +"You _shall_ see," exclaimed old Merckel in badly concealed triumph, +"if you wish it, _Herr Baron_." + +He opened the door of the tap-room, from whence proceeded a low hum of +many voices. Half the village seemed to have collected there during +Boleslav's interview with the mayor. + +"Hackelberg! come here!" he called, and then hurriedly banged the door +to again, for he saw hands laid on it that threatened to tear it off +its hinges. + +"If he has got over his debauch of yesterday, _Herr Baron_, he will +certainly come and himself give you his views on the subject." For a +moment the little lynx eyes sparkled with malignant joy. Then resuming +his benevolent patriarchal smile, he went on, twisting the amber heart. + +"You have repudiated my friendship, young man. You have insulted me, +and shown no respect for my grey hairs--I don't resent it. You wouldn't +have done it if you had known how I, at the risk of my life--for if the +Schrandeners had got wind of it they would have done me to death--how I +saved many a time the noble baron, of blessed memory, from starvation. +Ask the _Fräulein_. + +"What _Fräulein_?" + +"The pretty, faithful _Fräulein_ Regina--your deceased father's best +beloved. She is a pearl, _Herr Baron_; you ought to hold her in high +esteem, and take her away with you on your travels. Often in the +darkness of the night have I stuck a loaf and a sausage in her apron, +_Herr Baron_, and sometimes a pound of coffee, _Herr Baron_, while I +have made my own breakfast off rye-bread for fear of the embargo, _Herr +Baron_." + +"Weren't you paid for your trouble?" + +"Well; yes, yes. When one risks one's life one expects to be paid. +There is still a little bill due, however, _Herr Baron_, left standing +from last winter; if the _Herr Baron_ will have the goodness to----" + +"Write out your account, and the money shall be sent you." + +"There's no hurry, _Herr Baron_. I have confidence; can trust you, +_Herr Baron_. What I wish to say is, take the advice of an old and +experienced man, and go home now without more ado; dig a grave behind +the Castle, and lay the deceased _Herr_ in it--do it at night, mind, on +the quiet, quite on the quiet--_Fräulein_ Regina will assist you--then +make the turf perfectly smooth, so that no one will know where you've +laid him, and before the dawn of another day ride away again with +_Fräulein_ Regina on your saddle to where----" + +He paused suddenly, for Boleslav's hand was on the butt-end of his +pistols. Then the devilish mockery beneath this suave old hypocrite's +counsel was goading him into drastic measures. While he listened to it, +a new thought had flashed across his brain with vivid distinctness. The +funeral would after all only be the first step in the work that it was +incumbent on him to complete. Never would he slink away under cover of +night like a criminal, and abandon what remained of the inheritance of +his ancestors to utter ruin. No! he would stay and endure all things. +Set at defiance all these malicious hyenas, the worst of whom stood +before him, now grinning, with greedily gleaming eyes, only awaiting +his opportunity to pounce on the masterless unowned possessions. + +Endure! Endure! + +Renunciation for the sins of the fathers must ever be his lot. And did +not the foul act that had laid waste his property deserve retributive +justice? He would be a deserter and renegade, indeed, were he now to +turn his back on his native place, and on the beloved, who, though she +seemed lost to him eternally, might still be cherishing timid hopes of +meeting him once more. No! for the future his flag should wave over the +ruins of Schranden Castle, with the single word "Revenge" blazoned on +it in fiery characters. And who but a cowardly cur would leave his flag +in the lurch? + +He stepped nearer the mayor, and with a threatening glance that seemed +to penetrate him through and through, almost roared in his ear-- + +"Who set fire to the Castle?" + +Herr Merckel winced as if his conscience pricked him. Every Schrandener +did the same when any question arose as to who it was had perpetrated +the crime. Every Schrandener except one, and he was the criminal +himself. + +Herr Merckel was gathering up his strength for a glib answer when the +suppressed murmur in the tap-room gave place to a sound which had a +louder and more riotous note in it. + +The landlord made a movement in the direction of the door, to bolt it +on coming events, but before he could take the precaution it was +stormed and burst open. A troop of wild-looking creatures led the +assault, at the head of whom was a man of puny stature, in rags and +tatters, with straight, black hair hanging in oiled ringlets to his +shoulders, a grey, stubbly beard, and a pair of glassy, besotted eyes +that rolled under red, lashless lids. He beat the air with his fists +and cried-- + +"Where is the fellow--the brute? Let me catch the brute and I'll +strangle him!" + +Then he beheld Boleslav's tall, resolute form, and swallowed his words +with a gurgling hiss. Behind him was a phalanx of angry, heated, +inquisitive faces all turned on Boleslav as on a recently captured +beast of prey. + +"Every man's hand is against me!" he thought, and his blood rose. + +"Are you the carpenter Hackelberg?" he asked, holding the drunkard in +thrall with his searching glance. + +He was associated with one of the dark memories of his childhood. Once +his pitiable howls had frightened him out of his quiet, boyish +slumbers, and on looking from his window he had seen him being whipped +round the courtyard for poaching. Now he stood shaking his fists, +grunting and spluttering with rage. + +"You supply the village with coffins, I understand?" + +The carpenter shook his head, stared vacantly in front of him, and then +answered in a sepulchral voice-- + +"I am at work on only two coffins--one for myself, and one for my poor +erring daughter." + +The Schrandeners laughed in their sleeve. This formula was so familiar. +When any one died in the village the carpenter had to be fetched by +force, locked up with a bottle of brandy and the necessary boards, and +not let out till the coffin was finished. Taken all in all, this +Hackelberg was a dangerous fellow, and no one knew it better than the +Schrandeners, who never let him out of their sight for long. He was +watched and shadowed, and many an arm was ready to strike him down when +the right moment should offer itself. + +Nevertheless they courted his society in the tavern, made him drunk, +and humoured him. Sometimes they hung on his lips, at others, stopped +his mouth. Either they put him under lock and key, or allowed him to +bully them. It was as if they had endowed their own bad conscience with +flesh and blood, and allowed it to run wild amongst them in the shape +of this unkempt, half-crazed sot. + +"Who else makes coffins in the village besides you?" Boleslav asked +again. + +The Schrandeners burst into jeering laughter. They knew how difficult +he would find it to get any direct answer to his question. + +"My poor, wretched child," he growled, fastening his glassy eyes on +Herr Merckel's amber heart, which appeared to possess a fascination for +him. Then suddenly rousing himself once more from the half-stupor into +which he had collapsed, he threatened Boleslav with his fists, and +cried out excitedly-- + +"What do you want from me, _Herr_? A coffin? Is that what you want? +For whom do you want it? For the scamp, the dog, who betrayed his +country--who seduced my child? Do you think I'd make a coffin for +_him_? Look at me, _Herr_. Did you ever see such a spectacle?" He +wrenched open his shirt, and exposed to view his shaggy breast. "I'm a +beauty--mere offal, that dogs would turn up their noses at. And whose +fault is that, my dear young nobleman? Why, the _Herr Baron's_, your +deceased father's. He it was who reduced me to this, and made me an +unhappy, forsaken, childless old man, such as you see." He wiped his +eyes with the ragged sleeve of his corduroy jacket, while the +Schrandeners applauded, and backed him up in his maudlin oration. "My +child, my only child, was torn from my bosom. He robbed me of my +child----" + +"I believe you yourself sent her to the Castle," Boleslav interposed, +without, however, making the least impression. + +"He made my child a prostitute, but what's worse, young sir--what most +lacerates my father's heart--for though I'm a blackguard, I'm a +patriot; for in Prussia even blackguards love their country--if there +_are_ any blackguard Prussians ... but my child ... ah! do you know +what he did with my child?... forced her with the lash to go out in the +dark night and---- But since then do you think I'd own her? No ... she +is my child no longer. I've cursed her--cast her off! I said to her, +'You are my own flesh and blood no longer.' That's what I said, +and----" + +"But you took the wage of her sin all the same," Boleslav was on the +point of interrupting, but recollected in time that in saying so he +would be admitting his father's guilt to this pack of wolves. + +"'And you are free,' I said. 'You may go where you like, and whoever +you meet may kill you outright for all I care. Go to your _gnädigen +Herrn_,' I said, 'and ask him to protect you.' I said----" + +At this juncture the shouts of the other Schrandeners became so much +louder that they drowned the carpenter's speech. They closed round him, +and he was lost in the crowd; only his rasping laugh was still audible. + +"What did I prophesy, _Herr Baron_?" asked old Merckel, with his +unctuous smile. + +Boleslav leant against the end of the sofa, and regarded the crew of +Schrandeners pressing ever nearer with clenched teeth and unflinching +eye. + +"If one strikes me," he thought to himself, "the rest will tear me to +pieces." + +He felt how imperative it was to remain calm. + +"Come, you people," he said, making a passage through their ranks with +his hands, "let me pass." + +And whether it was his commanding air of cool determination, or the +cross which shone in his military cap, that awed the tumultuous throng, +not one of them attempted to impede his progress. He passed into the +thick of the mob, expecting every moment to be struck a fatal blow from +behind; but nothing of the sort happened--unchallenged he found himself +in the open air. Felix Merckel had kept in the background. + +The whole mob, now including women and children, surged after him down +the road. + +As he reached the parsonage garden, whose white walls blazed in the +rays of the mid-day sun, he was aware of an aching sensation at his +heart, that rose in a lump to his throat. His last hope rested in the +hands of the old pastor. Would he too spurn him from his threshold? But +at this moment that was not his only anxiety. How could he help feeling +anxious as to what _her_ reception of him would be, she in whose power +it was to exalt him from the mire of shame and misery into a world of +peace and purity. If she saw him in his present condition, dirty and +dishevelled, with this escort of hooting ruffians behind him, would she +not recoil in horror? + +And she did. + +A terrified hand threw back the glass door of the veranda. It was +she--it must be she! For a moment he saw the glimmer of a white, +slender figure; saw her raise an arm, as if to wave off the approach of +him and the mob: and then, before Boleslav could give one questioning, +imploring look at the beloved features, she vanished with a faint cry +of alarm. + +There was a mist before his eyes. Half stunned, he went up the steps of +the veranda, closed the door behind him, and awaited the next turn in +the course of events. + +The Schrandeners blockaded the veranda, and some flattened their noses +against the glass in order to see better what passed within. A pane +fell out; one of them had pushed his neighbour through it, whereupon +the revered voice of the old pastor was heard raised in remonstrance. +He appeared on the veranda flourishing a thick, notched walking-stick. +His white hair blew about his lofty temples. The nostrils of his +hawk-like nose dilated furiously as if they snorted battle. Beneath the +snow-white shaggy projecting brows his eyes glowed like fiery torches. +Such was the venerable Pastor Götz, who, in the March of the year 1813, +had gone from house to house, holding the big cross from the altar in +his hand, followed by a drummer, and had beaten up recruits for the +holy war. And had he not been left fainting by the roadside on the +march to Königsberg, in all probability he would have accompanied his +soldier-parishioners into the field of action. + +The Schrandeners stood in no little dread of his discipline, and no +sooner did they catch sight of his formidable stick than they retreated +quickly from the windows, and tried to regain the garden gate. + +"You hell-hounds, craven sheep!" he shouted from the glass door. "Come +to God's house on Sunday and I'll give you a dressing." + +Then turning on Boleslav, he measured him from head to foot with a +scowling glance. His eye rested on the military cap he held in his +hand. + +"You were in the campaign?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"If it were not for the cross I see on the brim of your cap, I should +ask was it for or against Prussia?" + +Boleslav, whose thoughts had followed the fleeting vision of light he +had seen on the veranda, at first did not understand him; then he met +the insinuation with signs of passionate resentment. But the old pastor +was not the man to be easily intimidated, and while they both glowered +at each other, he cried-- + +"Boleslav von Schranden, am I, or am I not, justified in cherishing +such a suspicion?" + +Then Boleslav's eyes fell before the condemnation in those of his +former master. He opened the door of his study, where between the +book-shelves hung pipe-racks and fire-arms, and said-- + +"Out of respect for the cap I will not refuse you entrance here. But +make what you have to say as brief as possible. In this house no +Schranden is a welcome guest." + +He put his stick in a corner, and drawing his flowered dressing-gown +close about his loins, paced up and down the room. + +Boleslav cast about for words. He felt like a criminal in the presence +of this man, whose speech was like molten brass. Of a truth it was no +easy matter, this taking the guilt of another on to one's own guiltless +shoulders. + +"_Herr Pastor_," he began, stammering, "can't you forget for a moment +that I bear the name of Schranden?" + +The old man laughed bitterly. "That's asking a little too much," he +murmured; "a little too much." + +"Regard me simply in the light of a son who wishes to bury his father, +and who is prevented from fulfilling that most sacred duty by the +wickedness and malice of the _canaille_." + +For answer the old parson contracted his shaggy brows without speaking. + +"I appeal to you as a priest of the Christian Church. Will you suffer +such a scandal in your parish?" + +"Such a thing cannot happen in my parish," the old man declared. +"Wherever it is my duty to lead souls to God, every one must be granted +a decent burial." + +"And yet they dare----" + +"Stop! Whose burial is in question!" + +"My father's." + +"The Freiherr Eberhard von Schranden?" + +"Yes." + +"That man has been dead for seven years." + +"_Herr Pastor_!" + +"For seven years he lived ostracised from the society of his +fellow-creatures. Seven years he practically rotted in the earth. +Therefore, don't trouble me about him further." + +"_Herr Pastor_, I was once your pupil. From your lips I first learnt +the name of God. I always thought you a brave, upright man. I retract +that opinion now; for what you have just been saying are lying, +cowardly quibbles." + +The old man drew himself up. His beard worked; his nostrils expanded. +With lurid eyes he came nearer to Boleslav. + +"My son," he said, "do I look like a man who would countenance a lie?" + +Boleslav maintained his defiant attitude. But, much as he struggled +against it, he felt the old, long-forgotten sentiment of respect for +the schoolmaster awaking in him once more. + +"My son," went on the old man, "a word from me, and the rabble that +waits for you on the other side of that hedge would lynch you, but, as +I said before, for the sake of the cap you wear, I will be merciful. If +you like, I can prove that what I said just now is no lie." + +He went to a cupboard, where stood a long line of ragged folios, +containing church and parish documents, took out a volume, and, opening +it, pointed to a page dated 1807. + +"Here, my son, read this." + +And Boleslav read-- + +"On March 5th, died Hans Eberhard von Schranden. _Ex memoria hominum +exstinguatur_." + +Beneath were three crosses. + +"That is a forgery!" exclaimed Boleslav. + +"Yes, my son," the old man answered solemnly, "that is a palpable, +shameless forgery; a stain on my office; and if you choose to report it +to the magistrates, I shall be suspended and end my days in prison. Do +exactly as you think fit. My fate lies in your hands." + +A shudder of mingled horror and reverence passed through Boleslav. He +had himself experienced too often the wild _élan_ and reckless delight +of making sacrifices for the love of his country, not to understand +what impulse had driven the old clergyman to this insane confession. + +"With those crosses," he continued, "I buried the man seven years +ago--the man who, in spite of his cruelty and ungovernable passions, +had till then been my friend. From that day, whoever dared to breathe +so much as his name in my house was sent out of it. Then came that +night of arson, when these walls were illumined by the reflection of +the burning Castle. I jumped out of my bed, and, throwing myself on my +knees, prayed God to forgive the incendiaries, for it began to burn at +all four corners at once, a sure proof that the fire was not an +accident. Now, I thought, not only the deed, but the scene of it, will +be erased from men's minds. I didn't concern myself in the least about +the spectre that was doomed to haunt the ruins of Castle Schranden. And +now you come, my son, and tell me that that spectre was no spectre, but +a living creature, who only a few days ago gave up the ghost, and now +awaits interment. Well, I forbid it Christian burial, on the strength +of this register. I never bury any one twice. Report me, and--and I +shall be tried for my offence. But you know I am prepared. Do as you +like. Bury the corpse with all the honours you consider due to it; have +a procession grander and more imposing than an emperor's, but kindly +leave me out of the show." + +He settled himself in his green-cushioned armchair, supported his face +with his wrinkled, muscular hands, and stared vacantly at the open +register. There was nothing to hope from this iron-willed man of God. +It would be madness to keep up any illusion on the subject, and that +other illusion, that the loved one might still be won on earth after +long waiting and renunciation, must be abandoned too. All the shy +dreams and hopes that he had yet dared to cherish in his embittered +heart now seemed finally wrecked. + +"So this is the divine grace, the forgiveness of sins, you preach!" he +cried, tears of wrath filling his eyes. + +The old man rose slowly and let his hand fall heavily on Boleslav's +shoulder. + +"Because of your cap, my son, I will reason with you, although the +sight of you is hateful to me. Listen! It is a year and a half now +since there came here from Russia a rabble of ragged French beggars, +starving and frost-bitten. The Schrandeners would have felled them to +the earth with their scythes and pitchforks, and perhaps would have had +right on their side, for they were mere carrion-serfs in the pay of +Napoleon. But I opened the church door to them that they might take +refuge in the shelter of God's altar. I kindled a fire for them on the +flagstones, and had a hot supper cooked for them and gave them straw to +lie on. I told the Schrandeners that, though they were enemies, they +were human beings like themselves, bearing the cross of human suffering +as the Saviour once bore it on His shoulders. I told them to go home +and pray that God might spare them as they had spared those miserable +Frenchmen. So you see I can be pitiful and show mercy.... To return to +the subject of the funeral. I have never refused any sinner his lawful +resting-place. If I could have my will, even suicides should not be +excluded from the churchyard. That those who have been unhappy in their +lifetime should be comfortable in death has always been my principle. +And if the body of a man who had murdered his mother was brought here +from the scaffold, I would go to his graveside in full canonicals and +pray the King of kings 'to forgive him, for he knew not what he did.' +Yes, I'll extend mercy to all, only not to your father. For he who sins +against his country outrages every law human and divine; he disgraces +the mother who bore him and the children he propagates. Such a one is a +social outcast. He is like the leper who brings death and corruption +with him wherever he goes, or a mad dog who spurts poison from his jaw +on every living thing that comes in his way. And do you realise the +extent of your father's guilt, the mischief it has worked? It is not so +much the lives of those two or three hundred Pomeranian youths whose +bones lie buried there on the common that are to be reckoned against +him. They would probably have met death somewhere, later. The grass +grows high on their graves; even their parents have long since become +reconciled to their loss. No, it is not on their account that I bear +the grudge. But----come here, my son----" + +He clutched Boleslav's hand and led him to the window. + +"Look out--what do you see on the other side of the garden hedge? A +gang of turbulent wild animals thirsting for the blood of their prey, +and yet too craven-hearted to spring on it, even when they have it +within their reach. And look at me, my son. I am here, appointed by God +as His minister to preach the gospel of love, and I preach hate. Words +sweet as honey should flow from my lips, and instead, scorpions spring +out of my mouth directly I open it, for I too am become a wild animal. +And this is what your father's crime has made us. There is no goodness +left in Schranden; the venom of your father's hate ferments in us, is +inoculated into our children and children's children. So will it ever +be till the Lord not only wipes the scene of infamy, but your accursed +name with it, from off the face of His blessed earth. Amen!" + +He stood with raised hands like some anathematising prophet of the Old +Testament, and foam rested in the corners of his mouth. + +Boleslav, half-dazed and horror-stricken, turned in silence to the +door. The old man did not call him back. As he crossed the hall he +started violently, for he was sure he heard the rustle of a woman's +dress behind a half-opened door. But not for the world would he meet +her now. Not in this dark hour, when he was completely overpowered by a +sense of having had the remnants of all that was good and noble in him +shattered and laid in the dust. + +"If _they_ are become wild beasts, I can become one too," he thought, +as he thrust his hand in the breast-pocket that held his pistols, and +walked towards the Schrandeners. The old pastor was right. Though they +danced, whooped, and jostled around him with the lust of murder +gleaming in their savage eyes, they dared not lay a finger on him. + + + * * * * * + + +When he reached the drawbridge, behind the palings of which a girl's +figure crouched, awaiting his return, he was full of a desperate +resolve. His father should be carried to his last resting-place by an +armed force. + +"Are you ready to earn another large sum of money?" he asked the girl, +who flushed and stood up quickly at his approach. + +She looked at him for a moment in reflective surprise, and then, as his +meaning dawned on her, she shook her head violently. + +"Why not?" he demanded. + +She began to tremble. "What's the good of money to me, _Herr_?" she +asked, in subdued, bitter tones. "They would only take it away from +me." + +"Who?" + +"People--those people. Please, oh please, give me no money." + +"Her mind is clearly unhinged," thought Boleslav. + +"Besides, there is money enough," she continued in a whisper, glancing +round her timidly, "in the cellar--great boxes full--where the wine is. +I used to take what I wanted from there--for him, I mean--the _gnäd'ger +Herr_. For myself I never want any, unless it's to buy a new jacket +with." + +"Will you earn a new jacket?" + +"There's no need to earn it, _Herr_. Next time I go to Bockeldorf--for +the _Herr_ must have food--I can get one." + +So, unreasoning as a beast of burden, she performed her duties, and +expected no return except her food! + +"Will you, then, without earning anything, go a long way for me this +very night?" + +"Oh, won't I, _Herr_, if you wish it?" + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + +The next day the village of Schranden received an unexpected visitation +that proved no small shock to its inhabitants. At about five o'clock in +the afternoon two coaches appeared in the village street each of which +contained half-a-dozen occupants, young fellows in Jäger uniforms, with +their muskets slung over their shoulders from wide leather belts. + +In the first coach there was also a female occupant, who, the moment +the horses' heads turned in the direction of the space opposite the +church, alighted with a wild leap, and scudded away towards the Castle. + +Every Schrandener recognised in her the deceased Baron's sweetheart, +but all were too much taken aback to think of following her. + +The coaches halted before the Black Eagle, the windows of which were +eagerly opened, and before the strangers had moved from their seats, an +enthusiastic welcome was extended to them. + +"The Heide boys--Hurrah!" shouted Felix Merckel, who had many a time +fought side by side with these comrades of the Sellinthin squadron, and +he stretched a foaming jug out of the window. + +His father threw open the door of the little room reserved for +"gentry," where only wine was drunk, in the hopes that at least some of +these wealthy yeomen would patronise it. But, without answering the +warm greetings, they proceeded in gloomy silence to unharness the +horses, and to take out of their vehicles all manner of tools, such as +hatchets, files, and spades. + +The Schrandeners were astounded. + +"Good gracious! have you lost your tongues?" Felix Merckel called from +the window. "And why haven't you brought your paragon, Lieutenant +Baumgart, with you?" + +Still no answer. + +The Schrandeners began to think these strangers must be playing off a +joke on them, and burst into extravagant laughter. + +Then Karl Engelbert, who evidently had the command of the expedition, +came under the window from which Felix's broad-shouldered form obtruded +itself, and, greeting him with a half-military salute, said-- + +"With your permission, Herr Lieutenant, we have come here not to take +part in any festivities or anything of that sort. We are a funeral +party." + +"But here in Schranden no one is going to be buried," cried Felix +Merckel, still laughing, but his face appreciably lengthened. + +"Indeed, Herr Lieutenant! Nevertheless, we have been invited to a +funeral." + +"Who has invited you?" + +"Our former officer, Lieutenant Baumgart." + +"Nonsense! There's no Lieutenant Baumgart here. I thought you were +going to bring him with you." + +"Pardon, Herr Lieutenant, he is here already." + +"Where is the fellow hiding, then?" + +"Probably you know him better under another name--Herr von Schranden." + +The stone jug in Felix's hand fell and crashed to pieces at Engelbert's +feet. The beer splashed his legs up to the knee. + +A tumult arose inside the inn. As if in preparation for battle, windows +were speedily closed, and Johann Radtke, driven by thirst to ascend the +steps to the main entrance, found the door banged in his face. + +"Hunted from the threshold like tramps!" grumbled the dark-haired Peter +Negenthin, and clenched his fist in his sling. + +"Do you wish to perjure yourself?" asked Engelbert in a low voice, +coming close to him. "If so, then go back. What is required of us we +must do. Whoever forgets the church at Dannigkow is a cur!" + +"And if we are dry we must wet our whistles with holy water, I +suppose," added Radtke with a sigh. + +Engelbert shouldered his musket and gave the orders to move on. The +procession filed off in the direction of the Castle, a handful of +natives, out of respect for the muskets, bringing up the rear. + +Boleslav stood on the bridge to receive his friends. + +He rushed towards them in delight, and could hardly articulate, for +emotion, the words of gratitude that rose to his lips. + +Engelbert held out his hand in silence. Boleslav was going to embrace +him, but he drew back. In his excitement Boleslav did not notice the +rebuff. + +"I knew you'd come," he stammered forth at last--"knew that I had +friends who would not leave me undefended to the tender mercies of this +pack of wolves." + +No one made any response. They stood drawn up in an unbroken line, +their eyes looking beyond rather than at him, in embarrassment. +Engelbert was the first to break the silence. + +"You have summoned us, and we have come--but our time is short; tell us +what you want us to do." + +For a moment Boleslav wondered at being addressed in this curt, +somewhat surly fashion, by the comrade who, of all others, had been his +favourite. But it was only for a moment. Why should he doubt them? Had +they not come? And then, incoherently enough, he related how his +father's disgrace had descended on him, and what he had resolved to do, +with their help. + +All the time a pair of shining eyes watched him from the other side of +a rubbish heap, and a woman's figure that sat cowering there trembled +like an aspen. + +"They are here--they are in the village!" she had called out to him in +timid excitement, as she had flown into the yard like a Mænad. At first +he had not recognised her in a light cotton skirt, a bed-jacket +buttoned over her panting bosom, and a handkerchief of many colours on +her head, tied under the chin, according to a fashion of the peasant +girls in the neighbourhood. + +"They gave me these things to put on," she had added apologetically, on +observing his puzzled looks. + +And then in pleasure at the news that his friends had arrived, he had +forgotten her, till, while waiting for them on the bridge, he had +caught sight of her hovering about the ruins. The head-dress had fallen +on her neck, and the wild black tresses escaped, and waved in confusion +about her sunburnt face. She seemed to be smiling absently to herself. + +He was ashamed to think his friends had seen this woman, and decided to +pay her off and dismiss her on the spot, so that they should not +encounter her again. + +"What are you doing here?" he demanded. + +She started. + +"Nothing, _Herr_," she replied, guiltily lowering her eyes. + +"Why did you smile?" + +"Ah, _Herr_," she murmured, "I was so glad." + +"Why?" + +"Because I had got safely back here again." + +What strange fascination had this spot of earth for the abandoned +creature who had suffered on it nothing but shame and degradation and +endless misery? He remembered to have heard of domestic cats who, when +the house to which they belong is deserted by its inhabitants, prefer +to starve beneath its mouldering roof than to take up their abode +elsewhere. And if this cat-like propensity were incurable in her--what +then? After all, perhaps it would be cruel at this moment to pass +sentence of banishment upon her. She might as well stay till to-morrow +morning, so long as she kept out of his way. + +"Go," he had commanded, "and don't come near me and my visitors again." + +And she had hung her head humbly, and vanished behind the rubbish heap, +and there she cowered now, in terror of being discovered. + +When Boleslav had finished his story, Engelbert exchanged significant +glances with his friends, then said-- + +"We have brought the requisite tools with us. If you can supply us with +the wood, we will knock you up a coffin in a very short time." + +"Naturally it won't be a very grand one," remarked Peter Negenthin with +a stony smile. + +Engelbert looked at him reprovingly. A subdued growl passed from +mouth to mouth through the little party, which Boleslav, in his most +light-hearted confidence in his friends' good will, did not hear. + +"Do you remember," he exclaimed, "that coffin we made for the young +Count Dohna in the dark? We took two hours over it, though we couldn't +see an inch before our noses." + +But his reminiscences met with no response. + +"One of you hold the horses," said Engelbert, "and the rest of us will +go and look for wood. All must be ready before nightfall." + +Boleslav bethought him of the wine in the cellar, which the fire had +spared, where also was the frugal larder, containing bread and salt +meat, but not enough with which to entertain his friends. + +"I have next to nothing to offer you to eat," he said, "but I wish you +would at least refresh yourselves with a bottle of wine before setting +to work." + +The friends were silent, and their faces clouded. + +"Never mind refreshment," said Engelbert, trying to assume a facetious +tone. "Wine makes a man lazy, and we haven't a minute to spare." + +He stooped to test some scorched rafters that lay about among the +stable ruins. + +"This will do," he said, "but we won't saw off the blackened part; that +will serve us instead of paint." + +And he walked on farther with Boleslav to look for more rafters. +Something white rose suddenly out of the earth in front of them, and +disappeared in a twinkling behind a neighbouring wall. + +Boleslav instinctively balled his fists, for he had recognised Regina. + +"I ought to apologise," he said, "for not being able to send you a +better messenger. I had no one else to send." + +Engelbert was about to speak, but seemed to think better of it. + +"You were obliged to supply her with clothes, I understand?" + +"Yes," answered Engelbert, his natural loquacity getting the upper +hand. "I found her lying on the doorstep with scarcely a rag to her +back. She was dead beat. I got up in the night to see what the dogs +were barking at." + +"What? Was it in the night?" + +"Two o'clock in the morning. Here is a sound rafter. We can use +that.... She ran the twenty miles in seven hours. I should never have +thought it possible; she lay like an otter that has been shot down--so +straight and fair--and gasped for breath. Your sheet of paper she clung +to with both hands. She tried to stand up, but fell backwards. Then I +fetched her brandy, rubbed her temples, and gave her----" + +One of his companions who were following behind, now came up, and gave +him such a look of astonishment and reproach that he broke off in the +middle of a sentence. + +For the next few hours an industrious sawing and hammering proceeded +from the Castle island, which sounds fell disagreeably on the ears of +the fierce and much perturbed Schrandeners on the opposite bank of the +river. It seemed to portend that their nicely-laid plans were at the +last moment to be frustrated. + +Old Hackelberg appeared in the street with his gun, which, as a rule, +lay buried in a dung-heap, because he was afraid that it might be taken +away from him, as had once happened when he amused himself by shooting +bats in the market-place, declaring that they followed him in swarms +wherever he went. With this famous gun he used in old days to go out +poaching every night, but since his once unerring hand had become weak +and tremulous from drink, he had been obliged to give up the trade. +Only when he had drunk even more than usual did the old sporting +instinct rise strongly within him, and he would rush to the shed, +unearth his gun, and bring down a swallow in full flight through the +air. + +Now he was on the war-path, and with the babbling rhetoric peculiar to +him, shouted-- + +"Schrandeners, duty calls! Arm yourselves against the traitors. I am an +unhappy father. Robbed of my child. I'll shoot him dead, the brute." + +"But he _is_ dead," some one interposed. + +"Is he? Well, it doesn't matter--the other must be shot--all must be +shot down." + +Meanwhile Felix Merckel was ramping about the parlour of the Black +Eagle like a bull of Bashan. He remembered enough about the Heide +youths to know that when once irritated or attacked they would go any +length. The inevitable result of offering them opposition would be such +bloodshed as the rioters outside had no conception of. And then--what +then? Would not he as ringleader be the first object on which the wrath +of the outraged law would expend itself? + +On the other hand, did the swindler who had dared under a false name to +obtain a lieutenancy and abuse the confidence of his comrades, +thereby incurring the contempt and abhorrence of every honourable +brother-in-arms--did he deserve to be allowed to score such a triumph? + +While his son was debating thus, Herr Merckel, senior, was also +troubled with anxiety from another cause. It struck him as a pity that +such a quantity of noble enthusiasm should be seething about aimlessly +in the open air, and determined to put an end to the nuisance. + +He stepped into the porch, and addressed the rabble in his suavest, +most paternal tones. + +"I, as your local functionary, cannot bear to see you, my children, +turning our public square into a bear-garden. Go under cover, and then +you may make as much noise as you please." + +Of course, "under cover" could only mean the parlour of the Black +Eagle; and, five minutes later, the consumption of inspiriting +stimulants left nothing to be desired. + +Felix had bowed his curly head between his hands, and stared gloomily +into his glass. + +Surely no Prussian patriot who had ever worn a sword ought silently to +look on at what was coming to pass this night? Rather die! Rather!---- + +He jumped up, and began to speak inspiringly to the crowd. + +His speech was not without effect. One after the other stole out and +returned with some sort of weapon, a flint-gun, a bent sabre, or a +scythe. + +"Calm, and patriotic, my children!" exclaimed old Merckel, grinning, +and counting the empty tankards with his argus eye. + +Night had come. The two flaring tallow candles in the bar illumined the +overcrowded, oppressively hot room, and were reflected in the polished +blades of the scythes. Then two or three boys, who had been stationed +as spies on the drawbridge, burst in, shouting at the top of their +voices-- + +"They're coming! They're coming!" + +There arose a howl of fury. Every one pressed to the door. Felix +Merckel hurried into his bedroom to take his sabre out of its scabbard, +but he did not come back. Probably the sight of the weapon he had so +often wielded in honourable warfare brought him to his senses. + +His father continued to exhort the rioters to calmness and caution, +especially those who had not yet paid for their drinks. + +"Forwards!" spluttered old Hackelberg, "avenge my poor child. Mow them +down!" + +Outside, in the market-place, the whole population of the village was +assembled. Even babies in swaddling-clothes had been snatched out of +their cradles, and their squalling mingled with the babel of many +tongues. The moon came out from behind some clouds, and shed a pale +twilight on the scene. The church tower rose dark and forbidding +against the sky, and the parsonage, too, remained silent and dark. The +old veteran had kept his word. He heard and saw nothing of what was +passing. A dark-red fiery glow appeared behind the cottages that lined +the road to the river. Above the low roofs rose columns of thick black +smoke. Like the reflection from a conflagration the purple vapour +encroached on the pale dusk of the summer night. + +With one accord the rabble took the path to the churchyard, which, a +few yards from the last straggling houses, lay close to the street. +There by the gate they would best be able to bar the way to the +invaders. Those who had been in the war fell into rank and stood ready +for action. As far as they were concerned, it would be a case of +soldiers pitted against soldiers. + +"Where is Merckel?" one of them exclaimed in astonishment, expecting to +hear the lieutenant's word of command. "Where is Merckel?" was echoed +in consternation from all sides. + +But the feeling that he must be coming, and had only gone to arm +himself, allayed any momentary suspicion of his having shirked the +business at the last. The lurid glow drew nearer and nearer. Soon the +eye could distinguish something black and square, framed as it were in +flames. + +"The coffin--the coffin!" the crowd exclaimed, and involuntarily +shuddered. Then, suddenly--who began it no one knew--it was as if it +had flashed across every brain at the same instant, in a booming chorus +the mob set up the weird chorale-- + + "_Our noble Baron and Lord + Of Schrandener's souls abhorred; + For the shame he has brought on our head, + O God, let the plague strike him dead_." + +And the coffin advanced. Already the light from the torches shone on +the faces of the singing mob, and women and children retreated +screaming. + +The crowd opened wide enough for the procession to pass on, and closed +again behind it. Six men carried the coffin on their shoulders and +swung flaming pine-branches in their disengaged hands, which scared the +throng and made it draw to one side. Six others followed with loaded +muskets. At their head Boleslav, with his pistols cocked in his hand, +his military cap on the back of his head, piercing his antagonists with +his burning gaze, cleared a road for his father's corpse. Deeper became +the rent in the human vortex, thinner the space that divided the +procession from the armed Schrandeners, who looked uneasily from side +to side, conscious that they were leaderless. + +When Boleslav stood face to face with them they were about to make a +forward dash, but a short military "Halt!" such as they had often heard +in the campaign, compelled them to take a step backwards instead, for +in spite of themselves, their limbs insisted on complying with the old +habit of obedience. Boleslav, who had intended the order for the +bearers, saw its effect on the armed line in front of him, and suddenly +a new idea occurred to him. + +"As you were!" he commanded again. No one moved a hair. His manner, his +voice mastered them. "Which of you have been soldiers? Which of you has +helped his king to make his country free?" + +An indistinct, half-resentful murmur went through the ranks, but there +was no answer. + +"The king sent you home," he continued, "because he is now at peace +with his enemies. Do you suppose that he would be pleased to hear you +had taken it upon yourselves to break the peace once more in his realm? +Bah! he wouldn't believe it of you! He might believe it of Poles, but +not of Prussians! So make room, my good people. Let us pass!" + +The line wavered and began to break in places. For one moment the +churchyard gate lay clear before Boleslav's eyes, but the next, fresh +figures had moved up from behind and filled the breach. + +Again the clamour arose, and mingling with it a loud, gurgling laugh of +derision. In another instant something round, black, and polished was +levelled at Boleslav's head, and behind it sparkled a pair of malignant +eyes. He had only a second in which to realise what was going to +happen, before a figure, supple as a panther's, shot past him and +plunged into the midst of the Schrandeners' troops, which again showed +signs of giving way. In the hiatus thus made, Boleslav saw two forms +wrestling on the ground, one that of a woman, the other a man's. The +woman overpowered her antagonist, and wrested from his hand the +gleaming bore of a gun. + +It was the carpenter Hackelberg and his daughter. She must, stealthily +and unobserved, have followed the funeral cortege, for since her +disappearance on the other side of the stable ruins Boleslav had seen +nothing of her. The crowd pushed forward, curious to find out who was +struggling on the ground, and Boleslav, promptly taking advantage of +the general confusion, passed the combatants and gained the churchyard +gate, the coffin following close at his heels. + +Behind was heard the report of the gun, which exploded in the +hand-to-hand struggle. + +"Guard the entrance!" he called to the six who followed the coffin, +while the bearers made their way between the mounds and tombstones to +the burial vault of the Barons von Schranden. + +Karl Engelbert stationed himself as sentinel beneath the gateway, and +saw, by aid of the last flicker of the torches as they moved away, how +the crowd closed round the wrestling father and daughter. + +Three piercing shrieks escaped the girl's lips. Evidently the mob +intended to wreak its thwarted fury on her. There seemed little doubt +that she would perish at its hands, unless some one came quickly to her +help. + +"Leave her alone!" cried Engelbert, striking out right and left with +his powerful fists. And then the figure, that had been so pitifully +mauled and in such dire extremity till he interfered, emerged from the +midst of her persecutors. She glided past him, dived into the dry ditch +that skirted the churchyard wall, and then disappeared like a shadow, +into the darkness. The Schrandeners began, with whoops and hoots, to +pursue her. + +"How about the burial?" cried one. + +"The devil take the burial!" exclaimed another, and cast a shy glance +at the men standing on guard by the churchyard gate--men who looked as +if they were not to be trifled with. Certainly it was better sport to +give chase to a defenceless creature than to risk one's skin in an +encounter with them. + +And the Schrandeners started off like bloodhounds. The carpenter +Hackelberg tried to do likewise, but staggered instead into the ditch, +where he lay full length and fell asleep. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + +The last of the stone slabs that covered the vault had crunched back in +its place with a resounding crash. Hans Eberhard von Schranden lay +with his ancestors. In the little chapel, the men who had acted as +grave-diggers bared their heads and said a short prayer. The torches +that had burnt down to their sockets smouldered on the smooth surface +of the flagstones, and cast a lurid glow as they flickered out over the +stern faces of the worshippers. + +Then without looking round at Boleslav they left the chapel. He stood +in a remote corner with his hands before his face, brooding fiercely on +the future that lay before him. The echoing footsteps roused him, and +silently he followed his friends, letting the iron gate of the chapel +that had been broken open when they came in, swing back in the lock. + +The moon had again pierced the clouds, and illumined with a weird +radiance the mounds and crosses that stood in regular rows, like +columns drawn up for battle. + +"Do you wish to bait me too?" Boleslav murmured as he contemplated the +graves for a moment with a bitter smile. At the gate he overtook his +friends. They joined the men on guard, who now had nothing to watch, +for, with the exception of a group of women and old men who stood +gossiping by the hedge, the street was empty. Hoots were heard +proceeding from the distant fields, where the mob apparently were still +in full pursuit. + +"God have mercy on her, if they catch her!" said Karl Engelbert with +folded hands. Then two of his comrades, one of whom was Peter +Negenthin, came up to him and whispered earnestly in his ear. + +Boleslav was too lost in thought to notice their strange and unnatural +behaviour towards himself, and was not even aware, as they walked +through the village, that he was always left to walk alone, though now +and then he stepped confidentially to the side of one or other of them. +He had accomplished the first chapter of his work. His father was laid +to rest as befitted his rank, and yet it seemed as if the real work was +only just beginning. He beheld all he had to do towering like a great +inaccessible mountain in front of him. The mouldering ruins must be +built up again; what was now a waste overgrown by weeds must be +restored to a waving sea of golden corn; he must strive to endow his +neglected property with new wealth, and his tarnished name with new +honour: and then he saw, as the goal of all this striving, the face of +the beloved beckoning him onwards. If he was too bowed down now with a +consciousness of shame and disgrace to look into her pure, maidenly +eyes, _then_ he would be able to go to her and say, "Now, all is +expiated. I am worthy to lay myself at your feet." Yes, he would +struggle tooth and nail--work day and night--to attain this end. + +At first it seemed almost madness to think of such a gigantic +undertaking.... But he had his friends to help him.... After all, it +would not be a single-handed struggle. Had not they to-day helped him +to achieve the impossible? Would not they, true to their sacred oath, +continue to stand by him in need with their advice and sympathy? And +perhaps their noble example would in time break down the barrier that +divided him from his fellow-creatures, and lead to his father's sin +being at last consigned to the limbo of forgotten history. + +Higher and higher rose his hopes as he meditated thus. They had left +the village street behind them, and now reached the drawbridge, where +the vehicles had been put up. The horses, each with its nose in a +bundle of hay, waited patiently by the fence to which they were +tethered. Immediately, without a moment's delay, the comrades set to +work to harness them. + +This frightened Boleslav out of his dream. + +"What!" he exclaimed. "Off already, before I have thanked you?" + +No one spoke. + +"Won't you take a glass of wine now the job is finished? And I wanted +to ask your advice about other matters." + +Peter Negenthin strode up, and looking him straight in the face, drew +his clenched fist from the sling. + +"We would rather die of thirst," he hissed through his set teeth, "than +take a drink of water from your hand." + +Boleslav staggered backwards as if he had been hit between the eyes. He +felt the earth reeling beneath his feet. + +Then Karl Engelbert stepped forth from his sullen little band. + +"It is much to be deplored, Baumgart--I call you so because you have +been Baumgart to us till this minute--it is much to be deplored that +you should thus be bluntly told of what our present feelings are +towards you. Why did not you hold your tongue, Negenthin?... But the +words have been spoken and cannot be recalled, so now you may as well +know all. You summoned us, and we came. Some of us, it is true, were of +opinion that we weren't obliged to obey your summons, considering you +had deceived us about your name; but others said, whether it was +Baumgart or no, we were bound by the oath taken in the church at +Dannigkow, after our first battle--and none of us were desirous of +breaking an oath. That is why we are here. You can imagine that we +didn't come willingly. We are honest fellows, and to tell the truth, +the work you gave us to do went against the grain. The long and short +of it is, that when we go home, and people spit in our faces, we must +put up with it, for they will have right on their side." + +"Why didn't you say all this before?" Boleslav stammered forth. "Why, +oh why have you let it come to my standing here before you--like +a--like a--Ha! ha! ha! _If you spit in my face, I must put up with +it!_" + +"You need not reproach yourself on our account," Engelbert replied. +"You have quite enough to bear without that. But now that we have +discharged our duty--without grumbling, you must admit--I can only ask +you, on behalf of myself and my comrades, to release us from our oath, +as we release you from yours. Of course we cannot compel you against +your wish, but all I can say is, that if you don't choose to do it, we +must leave home and kindred, and wander forth into the world, lest +people----" + +"Stop!" cried Boleslav, feeling as if more would kill him. "Your desire +is fulfilled. I now wish it as earnestly as you do. Of a truth I should +deserve my disgrace, were I ever to ask another favour of you.... I +will not even insult you by saying 'Many thanks' for the service you +have just rendered me. May God reward you, and may He forgive you for +having put me in my present position; rather would I have thrown the +corpse into the river and myself after it; let us say no more. Perhaps +you will allow me to assist in putting the horses in, as there is +nothing else I can do for you?" + +"I am sorry," Engelbert said, his voice quivering with emotion; "it +pains us deeply. We are as fond of you yourself as we have ever +been--but, you see----" + +"I see all, dear Engelbert; no excuses are necessary." + +"Well then, we wish you farewell." + +"Farewell!" + +The horses were put in. All were in readiness to start. Staring +vacantly before him, Boleslav leant against the wall. Engelbert turned +and took a last look at him from the box-seat. + +"And don't forget Regina!" he said. "That is to say, if she escapes +with her life. It is to her, not to us, you are indebted." + +"Very well," answered Boleslav, not taking in the meaning of what had +been said to him. + +"Adieu!" + +"Adieu, and _bon voyage_!" + +The drivers cracked their whips; in another moment the heavy wheels had +thundered over the loose flooring of the drawbridge. Like silver-girt +phantoms the coaches disappeared in the misty moonlight. + +He was alone--more alone than any outcast in God's wide world. What +should he do? + +He began wearily to drag his footsteps up the incline. The brambles +that tangled the ground wound round his ankles. A firefly made a zigzag +thread of flame in front of him. From the top of the hill the great, +weird, dark masses of the Castle ruins looked down on him, as if +threatening to fall on him and bury him beneath their debris. Through +the yawning window-casements the moon shone, giving them the appearance +of huge ghostly eyes. He roamed absently past the towers, a sudden +exhaustion weighing like lead upon his limbs. If only he could fall +asleep and never wake again. + +He tried to remember what it was his friend had called out to him from +the coach at parting. He racked and racked his brains, but his memory +failed him. + +The grass plot, where he had first found the half-wild girl, lay before +him brightly illumined by the moon. The spot where she had begun to dig +the grave stood out in uncanny blackness from the rest of the shining +turf. + +If only he had shovelled the corpse into it and gone on his way, +perhaps somewhere at the other end of the world some sort of happiness +might still have been in store for him. + +But now it was too late. Now all he could do was to endure--to complete +the work of defiance begun to-day under such gloomy circumstances. +Desolate and alone till the end. Never to feel again the clasp of a +friendly hand, never to look with trust and affection into any human +face, since the doughty comrades he had so firmly believed in had +recoiled from him shuddering. + +And had not the beloved shrunk from him too in horror? It seemed clear +now for the first time why she had avoided him and hidden herself. + +He was cut adrift from all the joys and sorrows that form a common bond +between the hearts of men--cut adrift from love, hope, compassion, from +everything but ignominy and hate. + +With his face buried in his hands, he staggered over the lawn in the +direction of the gardener's cottage, when his foot struck against +something round and soft that lay across the path. It was the figure of +a woman, lying with her head buried in the dry leaves and her limbs +outstretched. Regina--positively it was Regina! + +"What are you doing here? Get up." + +There was not a sound or a movement. Where had he seen her last? Ah! to +be sure; under the churchyard gateway, screening him from the gun that +was pointed at his brain. That ghastly moment came back to him with all +its terrors. For his sake she had flung herself on the murderer; for +his sake risked her life. And how had he rewarded her? He had pushed +carelessly past her; consigned her to the mercy of the murderous, +bloodthirsty crew who were greedy to take her life, without a shadow of +a thought of how he might save her troubling him for an instant. Even +if she were the most abandoned creature on the face of the earth, she +had not deserved such dastardly treatment at his hands. Certainly she +had not. + +"Regina, wake up." + +He bent over her and raised her, but her head fell back lifeless among +the bushes. There was blood on his fingers from touching her. Her hair +was damp and matted. + +Was she dead? No; it must not, could not be. Sacrificed for him; that +would mean adding original guilt to the sin he had inherited, and the +idea of owing so much to such a degraded creature, was in the last +degree humiliating. She must at least live till he had paid her. He +tore open her chemise with a rough, eager hand, and laid his ear on the +cool, rounded breast. + +God be praised! Her heart was still beating. And as he raised her once +more, she slowly opened her great eyes and looked round her vacantly. +As if shocked at being caught holding her thus, he let her head slip +out of his arms. + +She moaned slightly as she sank back, for the swaying briars hurt her. +Then regaining consciousness, she lifted herself on her elbow and gazed +at him in dumb inquiry. + +"Get up, Regina," he said. + +The sound of his voice made her tremble. She tried to struggle on to +her feet, but fell back helplessly. + +"Let me lie where I am," she begged, with a timid, imploring glance. + +"Stand up. I will help you." + +"Must I go?" she asked, evading the proffered support. Grief and +anxiety were depicted on her blood-stained, beautiful face. + +"You would rather stay with me?" + +"Ah, _Herr_, how can you ask?" + +"But you'll have a bad time of it if you do." + +"Oh, no, _Herr_. The _gnädiger Herr_ used to whip me every day. I am +quite accustomed to it." + +"But somewhere else they would treat you better." + +"Somewhere else?" New consternation showed itself on her features. + +"Good God! A woman like you, who is willing and hard-working, and has +such strong limbs, is sure----" + +She shook her head violently. "I shouldn't go far, _Herr_. If you hunt +me away, I shall only lie down in a ditch and starve to death." + +A softer look came into his eyes. No matter how bad, stupid, and +corrupt she might be, she was the only human being in the wide world +who clung to him. Why should he drive her from his threshold, when he +himself was despised, ostracised, and a social outcast? Were they not +both under the ban of the same misfortune? + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + +The next few days proved how little he was in a position to live on his +own estate without her services. He was far more dependent on her than +she on him. Helpless as a shipwrecked mariner on a desert island, he +stole about the ancestral grounds. Though the mines and wolfs'-traps no +longer dogged his steps, finding his way among the chaos of smoked and +tumbling walls made him giddy, and decay had altered everything so +much, that the landmarks of his childish memories afforded him no +assistance. Even the park, where once he had known every tree and bush, +through long years of neglect, had become such a wilderness that at +every step he nearly lost himself in it. + +When the first flush of his defiance and despair had subsided, the +question arose, "What was he to do next?" It was a problem that pressed +for solution, as the miserable rations of bread and meat in the cellars +were running out. + +His pride prevented his seeking advice from Regina; he had not spoken +to her again. Apparently she understood the wisdom of making herself +scarce. But when he returned of a morning from the river, where he went +for a bath, he found the red-flowered counterpane of the canopied bed +neatly arranged, the floor swept, and strewn with sand and fragrant fir +spikes, and saw awaiting him on the gold-legged table (the fourth leg +of which was propped up with a brick) a steaming brown coffee-pot, and +dainty slices of black bread lying beside it. + +His shyness at taking food from her hands had soon to be got over. At +first he had still hesitated a little to break bread that she had +brought him, but it looked so appetising, and bathing in the cold +autumn mornings sharpened his hunger, that at last his scruples had +gone to the wall. + +At midday, a soup made of bread, and slices of roast meat, stood ready +for him, not to mention a bottle of good wine; and in the evening, by +some clever stratagem, another meal of a different character was +contrived out of the same unpromising materials. Thus she knew how to +keep house with nothing but the scanty larder he had found in the +cellar at her disposal. + +He often saw her whisk past the window with pots and kettles, on her +way to wash them in the river. When she came back she would cautiously +peer with her lustrous eyes through the shrubs, to ascertain whether +the coast was clear. If he happened to be at the door, or looking out +of the window, she would immediately disappear in the wood. + +She made the gardener's former workshop her domain. One morning when he +had watched her go down to the river, he went in to look at it. He +found a low, sloping room, with a roof composed of old greenhouse +frames. The green, dusty, lead-bordered panes were much cracked, and in +places let in the winds and rains of heaven. The ground was neither +floored nor paved, but covered with a dark moist garden soil resembling +peat. Attached to the walls were rude wooden shelves, once used by the +gardener for his flower-pots. They now held all the house's scanty +stock of crockery. Pots, plates, and dishes were arranged on them in +perfect order, and had been polished till they shone. A blackened door +off its hinges, evidently rescued from the fire, supported by two +wooden boxes about two feet from the ground, was spread with straw and +a haircloth, of the kind that are thrown over the backs of horses to +protect them from cold. This was her bed--"Many a dog has a better," he +thought. The brick fireplace was in the opposite corner; a home-made +contrivance of beams was meant to guide the belching smoke from the +hearth into its proper channel, but only partially succeeded. + +In this smoky hole, with its cold damp floor, she was domiciled, and +desired nothing better. Here her heart was centred as in a dearly +cherished Paradise. Poor, wretched woman! and to be driven forth from +it meant to her death and perdition. + +And then one evening she disappeared. He had at last made up his mind +to speak to her about the provisions, and went to call her. No answer +came. The kitchen was empty. He sought her in the park, among the +ruins, on the bridge, all over the island, but there was no sign of +her. Her name rang clearly out through the night air as he called her, +and had she been anywhere about she must have heard it. He became +suspicious. Probably after the hard work of her lonely days, she took +it out at night in the arms of a swain. She was, of course, well versed +in the arts of vice, and would not scruple to yield herself to the +embraces of some rustic gallant. Many of her persecutors below may have +desired the body they stoned. How otherwise could her obstinate +adherence to her present miserable mode of living, after his father's +death, be explained, except by the existence of a new sin--a sin which, +perhaps, had long been carried on hand-in-hand with the old. He was +filled with loathing and disgust at the thought. + +"If she can't behave herself, I'll pack her off early to-morrow +morning;" and with this resolution he retired to rest. But he could not +sleep for thinking of what the future would be without her. To send her +away would involve going himself the same day. + +At about six o'clock he was awakened out of a doze by a stealthy +opening of the outer door. He got up and dressed himself quickly, +determined to call her to account without loss of time. He entered the +kitchen and found her on the hearth with inflated cheeks, blowing the +pine logs she had just set alight into a flame. + +She turned on him slowly, her eyes big with astonishment, and said, +"Good morning, _Herr_." + +He trembled in angry excitement. "Where have you been all night?" he +thundered. + +Her arms fell to her sides, and she shrank away terrified. + +"Tell me at once." + +"Ah, _Herr_," she stuttered, hanging her head, "I thought you wouldn't +notice I had gone, and that I should be back before the _Herr_ was +awake----" + +"So, if I don't _notice_, you amuse yourself by running about all +night?" + +She had retreated still farther from him. + +"But--but--I was obliged to go," she said, stammering painfully. "There +was scarcely anything at all left--and--and the _Herr_ has eaten +nothing but salt meat for so long." + +The scales fell from his eyes. + +"You went, then, to fetch food?" + +"Of course, _Herr_. I have brought veal and fresh eggs and butter--and +sausage and lots of things. It's all in the cellar." + +"Where did you get it?" + +"Oh, I told you, _Herr_--in Bockeldorf. I know a grocer there, who gets +ready a supply of what we want beforehand, and when I knock at nights +he lets me in at the back door. Not a living soul besides his wife +knows. And he's not very dear. Herr Merckel, down in the village, +charges a thaler a pound for meat, and swears at me into the bargain." + +"And you have walked six miles there and back to-night, and carried all +those heavy parcels?" + +Still frightened, she regarded him with surprise. + +"I think you know, _Herr_, that I can do it, for I told you so before." + +"But it's a physical impossibility. Don't lie to me, girl. From my +experience during the campaign, I know how much fatigue a _man_ can +stand." + +Now that she saw he was no longer angry she dared to draw herself to +her full height. She exhibited her powerful arms proudly, and exclaimed +with a pleased smile-- + +"I can stand more than any man, _Herr_, else I should be no good at +all." + +"For how long have you been going on these journeys, Regina?" + +"For five years, _Herr_. Every week. Sometimes oftener. In summer it's +child's play. But in autumn and winter, when the snow lies two feet +thick in the wood, or when the meadows are flooded, it's no joke. But +there's one thing to be thankful for, the nights are long then, and at +least no one can see you. And I'd a hundred times rather walk the six +miles than go to that beast--I beg pardon, I mean Herr Merckel--who +takes a thaler for a pound of meat. Isn't that abominable? And in the +village----" + +She paused suddenly, as if she feared being scolded for talking too +much. + +"What were you going to say, Regina?" he asked in a kindlier tone. + +"Oh, nothing, but I should like to beg the _Herr's_ pardon for having +gone without leave. But I thought he might perhaps like a change for +breakfast--a fresh egg----" + +"Never mind, Regina," he said, turning away; "you are a good girl." + +He went down to the river to bathe. When he came back he found his room +tidied as usual, only the coffee was not there. + +"She is so tired out that she's fallen asleep," he thought, and +resigned himself to wait. At least, she should not be reprimanded any +more to-day. + +But in consequence of his bath he was bitterly cold, and found he could +not forego the customary warm beverage much longer. So, in order not to +wake her he went on tiptoe into the kitchen to see to the fire himself. +But she was not asleep, though at the first glance it looked like it. +She sat on the edge of her couch, motionless, with her hands before her +face. Now and again a quiver passed through her frame, a symptom of the +sleep of exhaustion. Yet on regarding her closer, he saw that +glistening tear-drops were falling through her red, plump fingers, and +her breast was shaking with gurgling sobs. + +"What's the matter, Regina? Why are you crying?" + +She did not answer, but her sobs became louder. + +"Have I hurt your feelings, Regina? I shouldn't have scolded you if I +had known where you had been." + +She let her hands fall from her face, and looked at him with eyes +swollen from weeping. + +"Ah, _Herr_!" she said in a voice half choked by tears. "No +one--ever--called me that before; and--it's not--true." + +His mood changed and became harsh again. He was not conscious of having +used any abusive epithet. It was too ridiculous of this creature, who +was accustomed to being hounded about from pillar to post, to pretend +to be thin-skinned and fastidious. + +"What isn't true?" he demanded. + +"What you said." + +"What did I say? Good heavens!" + +"That I--I was a good----" She broke again into convulsive sobs that +stifled her voice. + +He shook his head, perplexed at her distress. He had never looked very +deeply into the most complex problems of the human soul, and did not +know that even dishonour has its code of honour. Laughing, he laid his +hand on her shoulder. + +"Don't cry any more, Regina; I meant no harm. And now get my breakfast +ready." + +"May--I--bring it in?" she asked, still sobbing. + +"Do you want me to come and fetch it?" + +"I only thought I mightn't--" She moved to the hearth and began blowing +the smouldering fire, using her tear-stained cheeks as bellows. + +After that she was no longer shy of entering his room when he was +there. Ever anxious to forestall his wishes, she seemed to read his +countenance without a question passing her lips. + +Boleslav had found, in the recesses of the cellar in which money and +wine were stored, great masses of papers stuffed into chests, where +chaos reigned supreme. They contained the whole of his father's +correspondence, deeds, and documents of every description. His first +search among them had brought to light nothing less important than his +aunt's last will and testament, in which her Excellency bequeathed to +Boleslav von Schranden, the only son of her favourite niece, the whole +of her fortune, "to compensate him for the wrong," so ran the clause, +"from which he would suffer to the end of his days." + +Boleslav's pleasure at first was not great; it was only when he +considered that here was a weapon put into his hand to use in the +coming struggle, that he began to appreciate the value of the gift. He +scarcely gave a thought to the giver, who had always been kindness +itself to him, so hardened had he become, so completely was his mind +engrossed by contemplation of the grim work that it was his duty to +carry on. + +If only he could have seen a way clear before him, which he could have +pursued instantly, without looking to the right or left, with the +impetuous zeal characteristic of his nature! But for months the +prospect must be one of paralysing hopeless inaction. The war which he +had determined to wage against the Schrandeners must be conducted on an +ambitious scale, if it were not to end in the pitiful failure that had +soured and impoverished the last years of his father's life. It would +need an army of workmen to inspire the serfs, who had so long run wild, +with new respect. And where were these to be engaged, when there was +not a soul in the neighbourhood who would not have disdained to enter +his service? But nearly everything is attainable with money, and +doubtless many a swaggering patriot, who now spat at the mention of his +name, could be brought, cringing and servile, to heel, by the bribe of +a triple wage. Only, for this his means were not sufficient. The cash +that at the first glance had seemed such vast wealth, proved, on nearer +calculation, to be wholly inadequate to float his scheme. It was 4500 +thalers, left from outstanding debts, that the old baron had hastily +saved from the conflagration, when the whole world must have appeared +to him to be melting into flame. For the sort of existence that, +following his father's example, he was now leading with Regina, such a +sum would last for years; but for the project he had in view, it was a +mere drop in the ocean. + +Before the discovery of the will he had with a heavy heart entertained +the idea of offering the fine old timber, which had been the pride of +his ancestors, for sale, and to dispose of it below its value if the +need arose. Now he had abandoned the plan as impracticable. Granted +that he could find a market for it as easily as he hoped, it must be +months before the actual cash came into his hands. Besides winter was +at hand, one of those severe East Prussian winters, when work in the +open air is out of the question. For this year at least neither +building nor ploughing was to be thought of. Why, then, make a +sacrifice which with a little patience might be avoided altogether? If +on the first of April he claimed his legacy, and was able with full +pockets to enlist workers in his service, by May the building would be +in full swing, and possibly the ground ready for the sowing of crops. + +But till then--till then--! How would he be able to support the barren +monotony of grey winter days spent in enforced and dreary idleness when +his hands were burning to be at work? How endure the thought that his +beloved was in the near neighbourhood and he unable to ask her the +fateful question on which his life and happiness hung? Would she wait? +Would she forgive? Would she steel her heart against the atmosphere of +hate and slander that surrounded her, and so keep her affection for him +unchanged? + +The Madonna in the cathedral came back to him. He wondered if she still +resembled it. If only for one moment he might have gazed into her face! +There was a white and red mist before his eyes; he saw lilies and +roses, and a radiant virgin figure bending over them with a smile, but +the features of the girl he had loved he could only dimly recall. + +Veiled from his sight, perhaps she was destined to be the invisible +guardian-angel who was to watch over his endeavours till his work was +completed, when she would set the crown to it by revealing herself. He +became gradually reconciled to the thought, and ceased to yearn for a +meeting; and one word or sign to assure him that his hopes in her +constancy were not ill-founded would have more than satisfied him. + +More and more he buried himself in the chaos of papers, which seemed to +increase instead of diminish, in spite of his arduous sifting. The +yellowed parchments stood in great piles against the wall of his +sitting-room, reaching higher than the head of his beautiful +grandmother, and yet in the vaults there still remained chests and +boxes full, untouched. The whole archives of the family seemed to have +been gathered together at a moment's notice, and hurled into a place of +safety without the slightest regard to method or arrangement. Out of +this confusion he wanted to find documents relating to the property, +which were important, not to say indispensable. Among others, were +missing those that concerned agreements with the emancipated peasants +relating to land boundaries. The _canaille_ below were certain to have +grabbed from the domain that had become ownerless, more than their +legal share. He saw how law-suits would have to be fought over almost +every inch of ground, and he must be able to back his claim with +irrefragable documentary proof. + +Nevertheless he felt an insuperable aversion to appealing to the +courts. The picture of his father, as he had seen him the last time +alive, stood out vividly in his memory; the ostracised baron, who had +been bold enough to seek the aid of the law, had then found every door +closed in his face. Truly Prussia at that time was not itself. The +walls of the State were tottering to their foundations, and the rats +were having it all their own way. But what guarantee was there that the +son of such a father would find the ear of justice less deaf to his +appeal? The law had shifts and resources in plenty by which an +unpopular person could be rendered powerless to benefit by its help, +and he did not doubt that he would fall a victim to such casuistry. His +deserted and forlorn position so distorted his view of things that law +and order took the form of wild beasts lying on the drawbridge in +ambush for their prey. Even his military duties had no interest for him +now. Lieutenant Baumgart was on the list of killed. Why trouble the +authorities with the work of his resurrection? They would not thank him +for it. + +A text from the Bible came into his mind: "His hand shall be against +every man, and every man's hand against him." The curse that +accompanied Hagar's son through life, he by dint of stubborn defiance +would turn into a blessing. + +Weeks went by, but he hardly observed the flight of time. He sat +immersed day after day in his papers, wandering forth of an evening to +stumble about the ruins, or to take a walk in the overgrown park. There +was only one place he carefully avoided. That was the path which led to +the Cats' Bridge. When he chanced to find himself nearing it, his heart +beat quicker, and he would hurry breathlessly by the shrubs that +concealed it from view. Yet he was tormented by a grim desire to stand +on the scene of the disaster, a desire which at length became almost +irrepressible. + +It was one evening towards the end of September when, for the first +time since his return home, the moon was full. He roamed restlessly in +the glades of the park, the dry leaves rustled at his feet, and the +autumn wind shook the branches of the trees. The moonbeams shimmered on +the grass like flocks of white sheep. Before him the shrubs rose in a +dark, jagged line of wall. An impulse of sinister curiosity suddenly +got the better of the superstitious repugnance that had hitherto held +him back, and he plunged through the thicket that, with a sort of +protecting air, hid the path. The descent to the river was steep, +almost perpendicular, and the mirror-like surface of the water was +entirely concealed by alder-bushes. A faint rippling and splashing +below fell mysteriously on his ear. From the top of the precipice a +railed plank shot boldly out into mid-air. A rude scaffolding, planted +firmly in the rock of the precipice, supported it with iron bars. On +the opposite bank the trunk of a giant oak formed the support. In the +middle there was a yawning gap of from ten to twelve feet. Like two +arms longingly outstretched but never meeting, the planks branched +forth on either side above the abysmal depths. + +If they had never reached each other the crime would never have come to +pass. But an easier job for a joiner could not be conceived. The plank +on this side had two loose boards, which, by means of a wedge, could +easily be pushed across; and the position of the hand-rail, by being +unhinged, could also be reversed. Everything seemed to have been +arranged expressly to facilitate the treacherous transaction. As a +memorial of eternal shame, the dark, crude structure loomed out through +the white mists of the brilliant night. + +Beneath, the splashing from the invisible river grew more pronounced. +It sounded as if its waters were still foaming with rage at the deed +that so long ago had been enacted near at hand, and which death itself +could not consign to oblivion. + +Like a man in a dream, he stepped on to the plank, and looked down on +the silver surface, which seemed to be emitting myriads of diamond +sparks. Then he beheld the figure of a woman, who stood up to her knees +in the water, with her skirts pinned round her waist. It was Regina, +doing her washing, and wringing out the articles among the sandbanks +and osiers. + +His brows contracted. That he should encounter her _here_ of all +places! But in common justice he was obliged to admit it was not her +fault. Whenever she could she avoided him, and he had no reason to +complain that he saw too much of her. + +He leant absently on the railing and watched her. She had no idea that +he was anywhere in the neighbourhood. She bent low over the water, the +muscles in her neck and arms strained by her exertions, and shook the +wet clothes with a will, sending up a spray of glistening drops. From +time to time she chanted the song on two notes, that he had heard her +hum while digging the grave, breaking off abruptly when the water +spurted into her nose and mouth. + +What a hard worker she was! He had imagined her long ago gone to bed, +and here she was instead, at this time of night, washing as if her life +depended on it! + +She started in alarm. His foot had disturbed some small pebbles, which +fell splashing into the water close to where she stood. Her first +thought was that some one was lying in wait for her among the shrubs, +and she moved suspiciously nearer the opposite bank. When at last it +occurred to her to look up at the Cats' Bridge, she gave a startled +cry. + +"Don't be frightened, Regina," he called down to her. "I am not going +to hurt you." + +Whereupon she returned calmly to her washing. + +"How do you get down there?" he asked. + +She wiped her face with her naked arm. "I'm a good climber," she said, +looking up at him for a moment with blinking eyes. + +"Doesn't the water freeze you? So late in the year, too!" + +She made some response that he did not understand. He was curious to +see how she would clamber up the steep declivity with her burden, so +remained where he was and continued to watch her. + +In a few minutes she packed up her washing and climbed on the bank. The +moonlight cast a flashing halo round the masses of her hair, which +to-day had been combed till it was almost smooth. She looked as if she +wore a coronet. With one shy glance to ascertain that he was still +standing there, she dived into the shrubs, and he saw her dart rapidly +from branch to branch with the agility of a wild-cat. At the top she +let down her skirts, and would have flown with her basket, had he not +called her back. + +"Why do you do your washing at night?" he inquired, making an effort to +look friendly disposed towards her. + +"Because in the daytime they give me no peace." + +"The villagers?" + +"Yes, _Herr_." + +"What do they do to you?" + +"What they always do--throw things at me." + +"Over the river?" + +"Yes, _Herr_." + +"The next time any one assaults you, come and fetch me." + +She did not answer. "Do you understand?" She folded her hands, and +looked at him beseechingly. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"Please, _Herr_, don't shoot at them," she stammered. "They like you to +do that. He--the _gnädiger Herr_, I mean--tried it once. Then they +began to shoot too, from the other side, and there was firing here and +firing there; the wonder was no one got shot. Don't you see, if they +get into the habit of carrying guns about with them always, they are +certain to hit me one day, for I'm obliged to go off the island +sometimes?" + +It was the longest and most sensible speech he had as yet heard from +her lips. He had not suspected the existence of so much thoughtful +wisdom behind that low brow, in its frame of wild hair. + +"You are right, Regina," he replied. "For your sake I must forbear from +provoking them." + +He saw in the moonlight a dark flush suffuse her face. + +"For my sake, _Herr_?" she said hesitatingly. "I don't quite understand +what you mean, _Herr_." + +"Oh, well, never mind," he answered evasively. "What I wanted to ask +you, Regina, was--are you satisfied in my service? can I do anything to +make you more comfortable?" + +She stared at him in dumb amazement. + +"You mustn't think, Regina," he went on, "that I am unfriendly. My mind +is occupied with many things, and I prefer to be quite alone with my +troubles. So if I don't speak to you often you will understand how it +is." + +Her eyes drooped. Her hands fumbled for the balustrade as if seeking a +support, then the next moment she turned, and leaving her basket in the +lurch, scampered off, as if driven by furies. + +"Strange creature!" he muttered, as he looked after her. "I must be +kinder to her. She deserves it." Then he leant over the balustrade +again, and gazing into the silver water fancied he saw growing there a +garden of lilies and crimson roses. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + +Lieutenant Merckel was far from being pleased at the course events had +taken on the day of the funeral. He called the Schrandeners poltroons +and old women, and declared they were unworthy ever to have worn the +king's uniform. + +When some one ventured to ask why he had not shown himself in it to the +procession, and had left the mob leaderless at a critical moment, he +replied that that was a different matter altogether: he was an officer, +and as such bound only to draw his sword in the service of the king. + +The Schrandeners, not accustomed to logical argument, accepted the +explanation, and promised to retrieve their reputation the next time +the opportunity offered itself. But this did not satisfy Felix Merckel. + +"Father," he said, late one evening when the old landlord was counting +the cash taken during the day, "I can't bear to think that scoundrelly +cur holds the rank of Royal Prussian officer as I do. I am ashamed to +have served with him. Our army doesn't want to be associated with +people like him. It drags the cockade through the gutter, not to speak +of the sword-knot. I know what I'll do; I'll call him out and shoot +him." + +He stretched his legs on the settle, twisting his cavalry moustache +with a bland smile. The old man let fall, in horrified dismay, a +handful of silver that he was counting, and the coins rolled away into +the cracks of the floor. + +"Felixchen," he said, "you really mustn't drink so much of that +Wacholder brandy. It's good enough for customers, but you, Felixchen, +shall have a bottle of light wine to-morrow, and perhaps some of them +will follow your example, and so it won't cost me anything." + +"Father, you are mistaken," Felix answered. "It's my outraged sense of +honour that gives me no peace. I am a German lad, father, and a brave +officer. I can't stand the stain on my calling any longer." + +"Felixchen," said the old man, "go to bed, my son, and you'll get over +it." + +"Father," replied his son, "I am sorry to have to say it, but you have +no conception of what honour is." + +"Felixchen," went on the old man, ignoring the taunt, "you haven't +enough occupation. If you would only look after the bottles--of course +the barmaid is there for the purpose--but it would do you good. It +would distract your thoughts. Or you might go out shooting sometimes." + +"Where?" + +"Lord bless my soul! there are the woods and forest of Schranden. +Whether the hares devour each other, or you annex your share of them, +is all the same." + +"That won't do for me, father. I am an officer, and don't wish to be +caught poaching." + +"Good gracious, Felixchen, how you talk! Do you forget that I am +magistrate here. I am not likely to sentence you to the gallows. +But do as you like, my boy. Of course you _might_ go oftener to the +parsonage. The old pastor enjoys a game of chess; there's nothing to be +gained by chess, I know, but some people seem to like it, and then +there's--Helene." + +"Ah, Helene!" said Felix, stroking his chin and looking flattered. + +The old man examined the artificial fly in the centre of his amber +heart. + +"I have a strong notion that she would be a good match if the pastor +consented, and she liked you." + +"Why shouldn't she like me?" asked Felix. + +"Well, there might be some one else who----" + +Felix smiled sceptically. + +"Or do you mean that she has already set her heart on you?" + +Felix shrugged his shoulders. + +"You see, Felixchen, that would be a great piece of good fortune for +us. People are constantly carping at the way in which they think I +acquired my bit of money--without the smallest ground of course. If +only the pastor gave you his daughter as wife, it would stop their +mouths once for all. A man like Pastor Götz has great weight and +influence. Well then, as I said, it's worth while your hanging about +there a little. Court her, and a fellow like you is sure----" + +"Dear father, spare me your advice, if you please," interrupted his +son. "Whether Helene becomes my wife or not, is my own affair. I have +not yet made up my mind. She has a pretty enough little phiz, but she +is too thin. She might be fattened up with advantage. Then there's +something old-maidish about her, something sharp and prudish that I +don't quite fancy. For instance, if you put your arm round her waist +she says, 'Ah, dear Herr Lieutenant, how you frightened me!' and +wriggles away. And if you squeeze her arm, by Jokus, she screams out +directly, 'Oh, dear Herr Lieutenant, don't do that, I've got such a +delicate skin.' Of course that's all airs and affectation, and perhaps +if a man caught hold of her firmly and didn't give in, she'd allow +herself to be kissed at last; but as I say, I have not made up my mind, +so don't build too much on it." + +The old landlord, who with deft hand was rolling up his sovereigns in +paper, looked proudly across at this magnificent son of his. Then he +became anxious again. + +"And you won't think any more about the duel, eh, Felixchen? That's all +nonsense.... You wouldn't go and risk your life so recklessly as that." + +Felix threw back his chest. "In affairs of honour, father, please don't +interfere, for you know nothing about them. Directly I can find a +respectable second----" + +"What is that, Felixchen?" + +"Why, the man who'll take the challenge." + +"Where--to Boleslav?" + +"Of course." + +"To the island?" + +"To the island." + +"But, Felixchen, what are you thinking about? No Christian dare set +foot on the island. It swarms with wolf-traps, bombs, and other deadly +instruments. Look at Hackelberg; he was caught in one, and limps to +this day--but never mention it. It mustn't come out that Hackelberg was +ever on the island. Do you see?... As I was saying, you wouldn't get +any one to go on such a dangerous errand--or to come in contact with +such a man as that. No, my boy, think no more about it There's nothing +to be gained by it." + +"But I _will_ challenge him all the same to meet me here," growled +Felix. + +The old man contemplated him with the greatest concern for a few +moments, then rose, filled a liqueur-glass with peppermint-schnaps, and +brought it over to him. + +"Drink it up, Felixchen," he said, "it'll soothe you." Felix obeyed. + +"Leave the matter in the hands of your good, honest old father. Trust +him to find in the night some other means of satisfying your so-called +sense of honour. Good-night, Felixchen." + +"The good, honest old father" had not promised more than he was able to +perform. + +The next morning, when he met his son at the breakfast table, he asked +in an accent of benevolent sympathy-- + +"Well, Felixchen, have you slept off all those silly notions?" + +Felix grew angry. "I told you, father, that on that subject you +were----" + +"Totally ignorant! Very good, my boy. But I want to be clear on one +point. Is it with the Baron von Schranden that you propose to fight a +duel, or with Lieutenant Baumgart?" + +Felix did not answer at once. A suspicion of what his father was darkly +hinting, dawned on him. + +"Don't deal in subterfuges, father," he said. "I am an upright, simple +soldier, and don't understand them." + +"But, Felix, you needn't be so headstrong. I mean well. As the Baron +von Schranden never was an officer, there is no reason why you should +concern yourself about him; and as Lieutenant Baumgart has proved a +swindler, and assumed a false name, he is equally beneath your notice." + +"That is true," said Felix, spreading honey on his bread and butter. +"As a matter of fact, I oughtn't to do him the honour of challenging +him." + +Then a new idea seemed to occur to Felix. "If only," he added fiercely, +"he could be stopped from entitling himself lieutenant. That's what +offends my sense of honour more than anything." + +His old father seemed prepared with an answer to this remark. + +"Why should he go on calling himself lieutenant?" he asked, grinning +and whistling under his breath. "Only because his superior officers are +kept in ignorance of the deception he has practised. If they had an +inkling of it, they'd be down on him fast enough." + +Felix understood. "You mean we ought----" he began. + +"Of course we ought." + +But Felix's hypersensitive sense of honour again felt itself outraged. +"Remember that I am an officer, father," he exclaimed indignantly. +"Your proposal is in the highest degree insulting." + +The host shrugged his shoulders. "Very well; if you don't wish it, +leave it alone," he said. + +Then the honourable young man saw a way of escape. + +"If only it could be done without a signature," he meditated aloud. + +"That difficulty is easily overcome," responded the old man. "I have a +scheme in my head. Let me draw it up. All you've got to do will be to +sign your name with the others at the foot. Then it will be only one of +many." + +On the afternoon of the same day, the parish crier, Hoffmann, invited +all the country's defenders in the village to assemble at the Black +Eagle. It was the merest matter of form, a tribute to the importance of +the business to be discussed, for they were certain to have turned up +there of their own accord sooner or later without an invitation. The +tables were soon full (Schranden had sent a contingent of thirty +warriors to the War of Liberty); and when Herr Merckel saw glasses +emptying to right and left of him, he stepped behind the bar, and +exchanging glances with his son, rubbed his hands with satisfaction, +and began the following harangue:-- + +"Dear fellow-burghers, I desire to speak a few words to you. You are +all brave soldiers, and have fought in many a bloody battle for your +Fatherland in its dire extremity. You must have often been thirsty in +those days, and have longed for even a few drops of dirty ditch-water. +It's only to your credit, then, that after the heat and burden of the +war, you turn into the Black Eagle occasionally, for a good draught of +pale ale. You have earned it honestly with the sweat of your brow. Your +health, soldiers!" + +He flourished the mug that he kept specially for occasions like the +present, and then raised it to his mouth, holding it there till he had +assured himself that no glass had been put down unemptied. Then making +a sign to the barmaid, he wiped his lips energetically, and continued-- + +"I, as your Mayor and magistrate, could not accompany you to the seat +of war, being obliged to remain and look after the wants of those who +stayed at home." A murmur of approval came from the audience. "But I am +a patriot like you; my warm heart beats true for the honour of the +Fatherland, just as your hearts do, brave soldiers! Fill up, Amalie, +you slow-coach! Herr Weichert is nearly expiring for thirst." Herr +Weichert protested, but in vain; his glass was snatched out of his +hand. "And my bosom swells with pride when I look at my son, a gallant, +upright soldier, whom the confidence of his comrades and the favour of +his king promoted to the rank of officer. I speak for you all, I know, +when I call three cheers for the joy of the village, the dutiful son, +the good comrade, the brave soldier, and honourable officer, Lieutenant +Merckel--Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +The Schrandeners joined enthusiastically in the cheering, and Herr +Merckel observed with satisfaction that several glasses had again +become empty. To give Amalie time to fill up, he made an effective +little pause, in which, in speechless emotion, he fell on his son's +breast: then he resumed the thread of his discourse. + +"All the more painful is it, therefore, to see that the disgrace you, +by your glorious deeds of arms, did your best to remove from our +beloved and highly favoured village, now rests on it again, through the +presence here of the son of the man who wrought it such dire mischief. +On the site of the fire he is now living with his father's mistress. +I'll not enter into details, but you know, my children, what that +implies." + +There was a significant laugh, which changed gradually into a sullen +muttering. + +"Yes, and what's more, this immoral outlaw belongs to our glorious +army. Under a false name he enlisted in its ranks, and raised himself +to the position of officer. By lying, and cheating, and devilish craft, +he succeeded in obtaining what you brave, honest fellows (with the +exception of my son, of course) could not attain to. Will you tolerate +this, you noble Schrandeners? Will you, I say, let a rascally cheat, +the son of a traitor, continue to look down on you as his inferiors? +Was it for this that his gracious Majesty made you free men? + +"The moment was a favourable one for drinking his gracious Majesty's +health, and Amalie, in obedience to a signal, began the filling-up +process anew. Herr Merckel already felt he had cause to congratulate +himself on the result of his stirring oration. + +"No, brave Schrandeners," he went on, "such a scandal must not be +tolerated! The army must be purged of this black spot; otherwise you +will be ashamed, instead of proud, of calling yourselves Prussian +soldiers." + +"Kill him! kill him!" cried several voices at once. + +"No, dear friends," he replied, with his unctuous smirk. "You mustn't +always be talking of killing. I, as your Mayor, cannot countenance +that," shaking a warning fat forefinger at them; "but I can give you +wiser counsel. The authorities, naturally, have no suspicion of who it +is has been masquerading as Lieutenant Baumgart; last spring no one had +time to inquire into birth certificates and such-like details. But now +there will be leisure to investigate the case of a Prussian officer +passing under an assumed name. And the case presses for attention. Do +you remember the story Johann Radtke related in this very room, the day +he came over from Heide, when none of us had the slightest idea of what +a savage kind of animal his celebrated hero, Lieutenant Baumgart, +really was? + +"He was interrupted by a laugh of pent-up hate and fury. It proceeded +from his son Felix. + +"He is said to have tramped home from France entirely alone, like a +wandering journeyman. He had been wounded and taken prisoner, and all +the rest of it. But mark my words, that signifies more than you think. +It means that he didn't get his discharge--that he sneaked out of the +service like a thief in the night, in the same straightforward manner +as he entered it. And do you know what that is in good plain Prussian? +_Deserting_! It means he is a deserter." + +A cry of jubilation arose, which Herr Merckel greeted with profound +approval, for, according to his ripe experience, shouting rendered the +throat dry. He let the applause therefore exhaust itself, and then went +on. + +"It is our sacred duty, as genuine patriots and intrepid soldiers, to +open the eyes of his Highness the Commander-General to this young man's +true character. We owe it to our King, our Fatherland, above all, to +ourselves. We'll get him cashiered out of our brave army, degraded and +ruined. What is done to him afterwards, whether he is shot or cast into +prison, is a matter of indifference to us. We are not responsible for +him." + +At the mere suggestion of such a vengeance the Schrandeners were beside +themselves, and almost howled with rage. + +Herr Merckel drew a sheet of paper from his breast-pocket. + +"I have drawn up a little statement, in which I have respectfully +lodged a complaint to a Deputy-General of high standing and noble +birth. If you'll allow me, dear friends----" + +He was in the act of unfolding the sheet when a still happier thought +occurred to him. + +"I could lay the document before you at once and ask you to sign it, +but then it would be my composition, and not yours," he went on, +beaming; "and I want every word well weighed and considered, and +altered if needful. I therefore propose that a committee of five +comrades be elected from amongst you, who shall withdraw with me and my +son into the best parlour, where we can hold a quiet consultation over +the wording of the address, while the rest of you remain here." + +Then he gave the names of those he considered worthiest of filling this +delicate office. They were five young men whom he knew to be lavish +spendthrifts, and whom he expected to acquit themselves honourably in +more senses than one. Half in envy, half in malice, his choice was +agreed to. + +The elected looked rather glum; then they knew what they had been let +in for, but at the same time they were too flattered by the invitation +to decline it. + +Herr Merckel, with the air of solemnity he always considered due to any +occasion on which the best parlour was brought into requisition, flung +open the door, over which was inscribed the alluring caution, fraught +with so much significance--"_Only Wine drunk here_." + +With a somewhat nervous air the chosen committee entered the sanctum of +gentility, awkwardly twirling their caps in their hands. The last to go +in was the son of the house. At the door, Herr Merckel turned and +called out in a loud impressive voice-- + +"Amalie, bring two bottles of Muscat for me and the Herr Lieutenant!" + +Muscat was a wine made at home, from rum, sugar, cinnamon, currant +juice, and a judicious quantity of water, and was sold to the +Schrandeners for a thaler the bottle. Herr Merckel ordered two bottles, +to demonstrate to his customers that he did not expect any of them to +go shares in a bottle. + +There was now a profound silence in the taproom. Its occupants gazed +with serious excited faces at the closed door and then at each other. + +Neither did any sound proceed from the reception room, where a dumb +pitched battle was going on between the host and his guests. It was +doubtful at one time who would come off victor. But a few minutes after +the barmaid had hurried up from the cellar with the two freshly filled +bottles, Herr Merckel tore open the door again, and shouted +triumphantly-- + +"Amalie, five bottles more of Muscat!" + +Tongues were loosened. The tension was over. As was generally the case, +the customers had been mastered by the landlord. And soon the dull +monotonous sound of reading aloud reached the ears of the listeners in +the tap-room. + + + * * * * * + + +Herr Merckel, senior, when he retired to rest, felt that his day had +not been wasted. + +His son had abandoned his dangerous project; the fate of the last of +the Schrandens had been sealed; and in the cash-box, beyond the usual +takings, was a surplus of eight thalers and twenty-five silver +groschens. + +"Thus I have killed three birds with one stone!" he mused, with a +self-satisfied grin, and, folding his hands, fell into a gentle +slumber. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + +Winter had come. It had been preceded by a season of decay, +inexpressibly cheerless and trying to the spirits. Boleslav, who had +grown up in closest communion with Nature and her moods, could never +have believed it possible that autumn's symbolic melancholy would +affect him so profoundly and send such deathlike shivers through his +limbs. The mere calculation of time dismayed and oppressed him. + +His evenings began to be dismally long. Solitude swooped over his head +like a vulture in ever-narrowing circles, till he began to fancy he +felt the chill flap of its wings across his face. + +It was strange that he who all his life had been much alone from +choice, should now, when almost every human being was his deadly foe, +crave for the society of his fellow-creatures. + +He buried himself deeper and deeper in the mass of papers and +manuscripts, a dreary enough occupation, without much object unless it +were to help the hours to drag a little less slowly. He tried to +convince himself that the portion of the past he unearthed from these +dust-heaps might be of service to him in the future. But in reality he +had found what was absolutely necessary to his purpose without much +trouble, and the rest might as well have perished in the flames. + +Regina remained tongue-tied, and performed her household duties swiftly +and noiselessly. She moved about his room without lifting her eyes to +his face, and if he addressed a word to her, shrank away with a +startled look. But her answers to his questions, though given in a +hesitating and embarrassed manner, were always clear, comprehensive, +and to the point. Sometimes days together went by without their +exchanging a syllable. Yet it was on these days he observed her in +secret all the more closely, watching her as she laid the table, +following her with his eyes as she crossed the little plot of garden +and disappeared into the bushes. He caught himself constantly wondering +what was passing in her mind. What did she think about all day long? +Was it possible that her whole existence revolved round him and his +personal comforts, a man who was nothing to her, who had not even +rewarded her labours so far, with a brass farthing? + +He felt ashamed when he thought of the innumerable self-sacrifices he +accepted from her with such haughty indifference, and determined to be +more friendly and conversational towards her in the future, so that she +might feel the unpleasantness of her position less acutely. But a +certain unaccountable shyness on his side seemed to hinder his putting +these good intentions into practice. He no longer hated her. His +aversion had yielded to something like regard at sight of so much +unselfish loyalty and untiring industry; and the result was that he +felt more than ever a constraint in conversing with her. Something came +between them, a kind of mysterious veil that enveloped her and rendered +her unapproachable as a stranger. It seemed almost as if the spirit of +his father hovered about her, preventing by its ghostly presence any +intercourse between them. Sometimes he wondered if it were her shame +that invested her with that strange fascination that vice is said to +exercise on inexperienced youth. Or was it the magnitude of her +misfortunes that gave her an unconscious power and charm? + +Often when she brought in his supper, or turned back the counterpane +from his bed, he would look up from his work and endeavour to open a +conversation. But his tongue would cleave to the roof of his mouth, he +could never think of anything to talk to her about that was not beneath +his dignity. So, after all, only curt and harsh commands crossed his +lips. + +He had remarked for a long time how much more careful she had become +about her personal appearance, which had wonderfully improved. She no +longer went about ragged, unkempt, and _décolletée_, but wore her +jacket buttoned up modestly to her throat, with the ends neatly tucked +under her waistband. A woollen scarf was knotted round her neck by way +of giving a finish to her costume, and her skirt carefully brushed and +mended. Her hair did not hang about her as formerly, in untidy plaits +and a hundred rough, loose curls, but was combed and neatly dressed. Of +a morning the top of her head sometimes presented a smooth, polished +surface, the effects of the shower-bath, by means of which she brought +her unruly mane into subjection. + +The weather grew bitterly cold, but she still shivered in her cotton +gown, only throwing on the red cross-over when she went into the open +air. + +One evening as she was preparing for her regular weekly expedition for +the purchase of provisions, and had come to him for orders, he said-- + +"Why have you brought no winter clothes back with you yet, Regina?" + +She looked on the ground and replied-- + +"I should like to--only--" + +"Only?" + +"I wasn't sure whether I might." + +"Of course you may. You mustn't freeze." + +"There's a----" she began eagerly, then stopped and blushed. + +"Well?" + +"There's a jacket at the shop--a blue cloth one trimmed with beautiful +fur. The shopman says----" + +He smiled. "Thank God," he thought "she is beginning to be human at +last. A love of finery has awakened in her." + +"What does the shopman say?" he asked. + +"That it would fit me exactly. And I need something warm and +comfortable for the long walks. But it's a real lady's jacket, and----" + +"All the more reason why you should have it," he interrupted, laughing. +"Don't come back without the jacket, now mind. Good-night, and a +pleasant journey." + +With a joyous exclamation she stooped to kiss his hand, but he evaded +the caress. + +When her footsteps had died away in the darkness, he took the lamp and +went into the greenhouse, which was her private apartment. + +The fire still smouldered on the hearth, but the room was icily cold +and comfortless. A stray flake or two whirled through the holes in the +roof, for outside a gentle dusting of snow had begun to fall. + +"Why doesn't she doctor the laths?" he thought, and resolved that the +next morning he would come and lay boards over the weak places. He +climbed on one of the boxes and tested with a tap the glass roofing. +Then he understood why Regina preferred to sleep half in the open air. +The leaden framework of the panes had become rotten and brittle. At his +mere touch the whole decrepit roof rattled and trembled in all its +joints. Any attempt to mend it would bring it down altogether. + +"It's a positive sin to allow her to be housed like this," he said to +himself. + +He went back to his room and drew from under his sheets as many of his +feather mattresses as he could do without, and carried them, with one +of his pillows, to her wretched resting-place. He carefully made up a +bed, and then threw her horse-cloth over it, so that not a scrap of the +bedding was visible. + +"That will make her open her eyes," he thought, "when, worn out, she +comes to throw herself on her pallet." And well satisfied with his +evening's work, he returned to his papers. + +The next morning, when he awoke, his walls shone with the dazzling +reflection of the snow. In the night the world had arrayed itself in +the garb of winter. + +He dressed, and called Regina. There was no answer. She had not come +back. + +He waited two hours, and then went to prepare his own breakfast. Three +snow-heaps had collected underneath the holes in the glass roof, and a +fourth was accumulating on the hearth. A greenish twilight filled the +room. He took the shovel and broom, and half mechanically swept the +white mounds out at the door; then he fetched a sheet of strong +cardboard that had served as a cover to the stacks of documents, cut it +into strips, which he cautiously pushed through the holes so that they +roofed in the bad places from the snow. + +"That's the best I can do," he said, as he shivered about the room, +which he had now made nearly as dark as night. Then, sighing heavily, +he went to the hearth, and lit the fire. + +The day crept on, and still Regina did not return. In all probability +the snowstorm would detain her at Bockeldorf till the next morning. He +felt moped to distraction as he sat over his work. Now and then, to +vary the dull monotony, he took a walk to the Cats' Bridge, over which +she was bound to come. After he had bolted his cold dinner he did +nothing but watch the clock, whose hands seemed hardly to move. + +He missed Regina at every turn; for though she kept out of his way when +at home, he knew he had only to whistle to bring her instantly to his +elbow. + +He put his papers aside, and to change the current of his thoughts +began to draw. On the back of a coachbuilder's bill of fifty years ago +he painted a long garden border of stiff rows of stately lilies and red +roses. First he made a line of lilies, then one of roses, then lilies +again, and so on until the whole resembled some gorgeous carpet. Then +he threw himself on the creaking sofa, and dreamed of the Madonna who +presided over that wall of flowers, and shed the blessed light of her +countenance on all who had the courage to penetrate it. + +Already it was dusk. There was a sound of footsteps on the +cobble-stones before the door. He sprang to his feet and hurried out. + +Regina came timidly over the threshold. She was laden with bundles and +parcels, and covered from head to foot with snow; even the little curls +on her forehead were powdered white. Her face glowed, but there was an +expression of fear in her brilliant eyes as she lifted them to his. + +"I ran, _Herr_, as fast as I could," she panted, laying her right hand +on her heart. "The shopman wouldn't let me start till daylight, because +he thought--the jacket might----" + +She broke off, looking guilty. + +He smiled kindly. He was much too glad to know that she was back again +to scold her. + +"Go and cook me something hot as quickly as you can," he said. "You'll +be glad of your supper too." + +She gazed at him in mute amazement. + +"Why don't you go?" + +"I will--but, oh!" And then as if ashamed of what she was on the point +of saying, she rushed past him into the kitchen. + +"She almost claimed her flogging," he murmured, laughing, as he looked +after her. + +He was sitting at his desk where he generally worked, when she brought +in the evening meal. The lamp with its green shade cast a subdued +uncertain light over the apartment. He liked to watch her as she moved +swiftly to and fro, in and out of the shadows. To-day her appearance +almost frightened him. She looked resplendently, proudly beautiful. Not +a trace of her former degradation was apparent. The once forlorn and +half-tamed girl might have been taken for a duchess, so graceful and +distinguished were all her movements; so pure and full of charm the +contour of her young erect figure. Was it the neat woollen dress, or +the new jacket with its silver-grey fur--_kazabeika_, as they called it +in Poland--that was responsible for the transformation? As she laid the +table she smiled to herself a happy shame-faced little smile, and every +now and then flashed a rapid stealthy glance across at him. It was +evident she wanted to be admired, but dared not attract his attention. + +When she came within the circle of light made by the lamp, in order to +place it on the supper table, he turned his eyes quickly away to make +her think he had noticed nothing. But all the same he could not resist +letting fall a remark. + +"How conceited we are of our new clothes!" he said banteringly. + +A vivid blush spread over her face and neck. + +"They are much too good for me," she whispered, still smiling, still +glancing at him in half-ashamed coquetry. But she was not yet daughter +of Eve enough to take a sidelong peep at herself in the glass. + +On going to turn down his bed for the night, she was astonished to see +how it had diminished in size, but gulped back an exclamation of +surprise, lest he should be annoyed. Then wishing him good-night she +left the room. + +With a grin of inward satisfaction he thought of the great surprise +that was in store for her, and soon became engrossed in his manuscripts +again. + +About an hour had elapsed, when he was startled by a rustling sound at +the back of his chair. He turned round and found her standing beside +him. Her face was very white, her lips trembling, her breath coming +quick through dilated nostrils. The fur collarette was unfastened at +the throat, and showed the coarse chemise underneath, the folds of +which rose and fell with her billowing breast. In the excitement of the +moment she had forgotten to arrange her clothing. + +"How handsome she is!" he thought, filled with involuntary admiration +of her strange beauty, and then he tried not to look at her. + +"Now then, what's the matter?" he asked in his gentlest tones. + +She made an effort to speak, but some moments passed before a sound +escaped her lips. + +"Oh, _Herr_!" she stammered forth at last, "was it you--did you do +that with the beds?" + +"Yes, of course. Who else should do it?" + +"But--why--_why_?" and she lifted her swimming eyes in alarm and +consternation. + +Apparently his kindness frightened her. It was necessary to adopt a +firmer tone in order to become master of his own emotions. + +"Stupid girl," he said loftily, "do you think I wish you to die out +there of cold?" + +For a moment she stood like a statue, silent and motionless, and big +sparkling drops rolled down her cheeks. And then suddenly she threw +herself at his feet, clung to both his hands, and covered them with +kisses and tears. + +At first he was too unnerved and thrilled at the sight of her agitation +to speak. He had never imagined that she would be so deeply moved. Then +he collected himself, and withdrawing his hands commanded her to rise. + +"Don't make a scene, Regina," he said. "Go to bed. I'm sure you must be +tired out." + +She would have wiped her eyes with her sleeve, as was her habit, only +she remembered the new soft fur trimming in time, and so let her tears +run on. + +"Ah, _Herr_!" she sobbed. "I hardly know what's come over me. But were +you really serious? I don't deserve all your kindness. First the +beautiful jacket, and then when I expected a whipping for being gone +the whole day--for you to ... Oh----" + +"Say no more. I won't listen to another word," he insisted. "You must +have some sort of bed. Where used you to sleep before?" + +She started and cast down her eyes. + +"Before?" she murmured. + +"Yes, in my father's time." + +"Ah, then, I used to lie on the door-mat or----" she paused. + +"Or where?" + +She still remained silent, and trembled. + +"Where?" he asked again. + +Her eyes moved shyly in the direction of the canopied bed. + +"You know; ah, you know, _Herr_," she murmured. And then overwhelmed +with shame she covered her face with her hands. + +Yes, he knew. How could he forget it for a moment. + +"Begone!" he cried, his voice shaking with anger and disgust, and he +motioned her to the door. + +Without a word she crept out, her head still bowed in her hands. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + +Boleslav was almost happy. He had hit on a new and brilliant idea, and +the hopes of carrying it out brightened for a time the deadening +monotony of his existence. He believed he could clear his father's +memory. + +How it had first occurred to him he hardly knew. He had found certain +letters from Polish noblemen addressed to his father, which seemed to +suggest that the deceased had felt himself bound by a hastily-made +promise which at the time he had not meant seriously, and that a chain +of tragic circumstances had compelled him against his will to be a +party to the treachery. If this did not exonerate him from all guilt, +it at least put the slandered man in a new light--the light of a +martyr. + +If by minute study of the documents he could trace the affair to its +source, and make public a true history of the disaster, in which he +would demonstrate that Eberhard von Schranden, far from having played +the devilish rôle that rumour attributed to him, had only been a victim +of circumstances, surely there would at least arise some who would hold +out their hand in remorse to the sufferer's heir. The more he absorbed +himself in this task of vindication the more he began to feel united +with the dead man, and accustomed to the idea of sacrificing his own +innocent reputation for his sake. + +His brain was so much occupied with these schemes that he slept little +at night, and in the daytime tore about the park like one possessed. +The less hope he cherished in his secret heart that his plan would +succeed, the more did he long for some human soul into whose ear he +could pour his doubts and fears. But there was no one to speak to but +the taciturn woman, who glided past him with eyes guiltily cast down. + +One evening, when his solitude almost maddened him, he said to her-- + +"Regina, aren't you frozen in your kitchen?" + +"I never let the fire out, _Herr_." + +"But what do you do in the evening, when it's dark?" + +"I sit by the fire and sew, till my fingers get quite stiff." + +"Then you have a light?" + +"I burn fir-cones." + +He was silent; he gnawed his under-lip, and hesitated as to what he +should say next. Then he took courage. + +"Regina, if you like you may bring your sewing into the sitting-room, +after supper," he said. + +She grew pale, and stammered out, "Yes, _Herr_." + +He thought her wanting in gratitude. + +"Of course, if you'd rather not--" he said, shrugging his shoulders. + +"Oh, _Herr_--I should like to come." + +"Very well, then, come; but you must make yourself look respectable. +Why have you given up wearing your new clothes?" Since that evening she +had taken to shivering about in the cotton jacket again. + +"I thought it would hurt them." + +"Hurt them! How?" + +"I mean," she said incoherently, "that when you are angry with me,-- +such as I, am not fit----" + +"Nonsense!" he interrupted quickly, feeling that if she went on he +would be angry with her again. + +After supper she appeared in some trepidation at the door. Snowy linen +shimmered in her hand. She remained standing till he had impatiently +invited her to sit down. + +"You want people to stand on ceremony with you, as if you were some +fine lady," he said. + +She laughed in confusion. + +"I am only nervous, _Herr_, because I am not quite sure--how to +behave." And she turned to her work. + +No more passed between them that evening, and it was more than a week +before they broke into conversation again. + +He sat brooding over his yellow papers, and she let her needle fly +through the crackling calico. When the clock struck eleven, she +gathered up her sewing, and whispering "Good-night," slipped out on +tiptoe without waiting for an answer. + +"What are you working at so industriously?" he asked her one evening, +after he had watched her intently for some minutes. + +She looked up and pushed a curl off her forehead with damp fingers. + +"I am making shirts for you, _Herr_," was the answer. + +"So you undertake that too?" + +"Who else should do it, _Herr_?" + +A short silence; then he questioned her further. + +"Who taught you all you know, Regina? Your mother?" + +She shook her head. "My mother died very young, _Herr_. I can hardly +remember her. People say my father beat her to death." + +He thought of the thin pale face and tired eyelids in the +picture-gallery, of which the last trace had perished in the great +fire. + +"Can you remember what your mother was like?" he demanded again. + +"She had long black hair, and eyes like mine, at least, so I have heard +people say; and I can remember her hair, for she often wrapped me in it +when I was undressed. I used to sit in it as if it were a cloak, and +laugh; and when father--" She stopped in sudden alarm. "But you won't +care to hear more, _Herr_?" + +"Go on, tell me the rest," he exclaimed. + +"And when father came home and wanted to beat me, because he was drunk, +you know, she stood in front of me, and told me to get under her dress; +and inside her dress it was like being in a cave, quite dark and still, +and father's swearing sounded a long, long way off. And then she died. +It was on a Sunday--yes, it was on a Sunday. For I was standing by the +hedge and wondering whether she'd have a beautiful coffin--a green one, +like the coffin on the trestle in the garden--when you, _Herr_, went by +on your way to church. At that time you were little, like me, and you +had on a blue coat with silver buttons, and a little sword at your +side; and you stopped and asked me why I was crying, and I couldn't +answer, I was so frightened, and then you gave me an apple." + +He had not the smallest recollection of the incident, but he remembered +how he had taken the young sparrow away from her, and related the +story. She had not forgotten it. Her eyes became illumined, as if lost +in contemplation of some blissful sight. + +"I wonder, now, that you gave it up so meekly," he said. + +"How could I have done otherwise?" she answered. + +"You might easily have refused," he said. + +She bent over her work. "I was only so glad for you to have it," she +said, in a low soft voice. "It's not often that a poor little village +girl gets the chance of giving anything to a rich young nobleman." + +He bit his lips. Truly he had taken more from her since than his pride +and manliness should have permitted. + +"And besides," she went on, "even if I hadn't wanted to give it to you, +it was yours by right. You were the _Junker_." + +How perfectly natural the argument sounded from her lips. + +"Regina, tell me honestly," he said, "if you haven't entirely forgotten +the days when you ran wild in the village." + +"Oh no, _Herr_; indeed I haven't," she replied, with an almost roguish +smile. "For instance, I remember a great many things about the +_gnädiger Junker_." + +He withdrew far back into the shadow of the lamp-shade. "What splendid +stuff she has in her!" he thought, and devoured her with his eyes. And +then he made her relate all her reminiscences of him at that time. He +did not appear in a very amiable light. Once he had pushed her into +a duck-pond; another time sent her floating down the river in a +flour-vat, till her cries of terror had brought people to the bank with +life-saving apparatus; when she had on a new white frock, given her by +the Castle housekeeper, he had painted her hands and face with white +chalk, and told her to stand motionless like one of the statues in the +Park. She had submitted meekly till the chalk got into her mouth and +eyes and made them smart, and then she had burst out crying and run +away. + +She recalled all this with beaming eyes, as if his pranks had been a +source of infinite happiness to her. Although when reminded of such and +such an escapade he recollected it perfectly, he could not remember +that it was Regina who had been the victim of his caprice. A sensation +of shame rose within him. Instead of the dreamy, generous young +cavalier he had been in the habit of picturing himself, he saw a cruel +little village tyrant, who exercised his power over his small +contemporaries with a relentlessness that was almost vicious. + +"And did I make no amends for my wicked deeds?" he inquired, hoping to +hear he had at least been capable of doing good sometimes. + +"Oh, you used to give us things," she answered. "'Divide that,' you +used to say, and scatter on the ground either apples and nuts, or +broken tin soldiers, or a handful of counters. But, of course, the +strongest and biggest got everything. Felix Merckel was the best at a +scramble; the girls only had the leavings." + +"And did you ever get anything from me, Regina?" he asked. + +She flushed scarlet, and bowed lower over her work. "Yes, _Herr_, +once!" she said softly. + +"What was it?" + +She was silent, and dared not lift her eyes. + +"Good heavens! why do you look so ashamed about it?" + +"Because--I ... have it still." + +"Oh, not really!" He smiled. A feeling of pleasure shot through him. + +Without answering, she felt in the pocket of her dress, and laid before +him on the table a little straw box plaited out of coloured blades. It +was hardly bigger than a baby's fist. + +He held it in his hand, and examined it all over attentively. Something +rattled inside. + +"May I open it?" + +"You needn't ask, _Herr_!" + +It was a ring of glass beads--blue, white, and yellow, such as a little +girl, following the first instincts of vanity, threads for herself. He +took it out, and tried to force it on his little finger, but it was far +too narrow, and he couldn't get it over his nail. + +"Did I give you the ring too?" he asked. + +"No, _Herr_, it belonged to my dear mother. It cut into her flesh once, +and that's why I used to wear it day and night till the thread broke. +Then she had been dead a long time, and as it was the only keepsake I +had of her, I threaded the beads again, and have never parted with the +ring, and I always have it on me." + +"In my little box?" + +She nodded, and her head drooped. "Why shouldn't I, _Herr_?" she said +in a whisper, "it brings me luck." + +He looked at her with a compassionate smile. "Luck? Brings _you_ luck?" + +"I'll tell you how, _Herr_," she exclaimed triumphantly. "Every bead +you count----" + +But at that moment he leant back in his chair, and the ring slipped +through his fingers on to the floor. + +Regina started up and hurried round the table to pick it up, but could +not find it. + +"The earth seems to have swallowed it up," she said in alarm, and she +dropped on to all fours close by Boleslav's side. + +He saw the nape of her beautiful neck with its fringe of crisp, dark +curls, gleaming near his knee. His heart began to beat, a cold shiver +thrilled through his limbs. He stared down on her with a fixed smile. + +"Here it is!" she exclaimed, and raised herself into a kneeling +position to hand him the treasured bauble. + +He lifted his hand. He felt as if some occult power had lifted it for +him, and that it weighed hundreds of pounds. Then with a timid, +caressing touch he laid it on her cheek. + +She drew back trembling. A great light swam in her eyes, that rested on +him in dreamy inquiry. His arm sank heavily to his side. + +"Thank you," he murmured hoarsely. + +She went back to her place, and there was a profound stillness. It +seemed to him that he had committed a crime, and that every moment of +silence between them made it worse. He must force himself to speak. + +"What was I asking you? Ah! to be sure. Who taught you to sew?" + +She had unthreaded her needle, and was trying hard to pull the cotton +through the eye again. But the small glittering shaft oscillated +between her unsteady fingers like a reed shaken by the wind. + +"I learnt at the parsonage, _Herr_," she replied. "Helene had a +class----" She paused, embarrassed, for at the sound of the beloved +name, which he heard for the first time from her lips--such lips--he +winced as if from the lash of a whip. She took his excitement for +anger, and added apologetically, "I mean the Pastor's daughter." + +"Never mind," he said, controlling himself with difficulty. "Go to bed +now." + +That night Boleslav fought a severe battle with himself. He felt as if +his ideal of exalted purity had been polluted since his eyes had rested +with favour on this abandoned woman. And he himself was polluted too by +that involuntary caress. + +It was absolutely necessary to regain his peace of mind and purity. He +must come to some distinct understanding with Helene without delay, in +order that he might be strengthened in his struggle against his +treacherous senses and benumbing doubt. + +So urgent did it seem that his resolutions should at once be put into +force, that he rose in the middle of the night, and by the glimmer of +his night-light wrote to Helene assuring her of his undying love and +eternal devotion, and imploring her to make some sign to show that she +stood by him in trouble as she had once done in happiness, so that he +might know for certain it was worth while his continuing to wage for +her sake the fight against such enormous odds. With every line he +wrote, his anxiety lessened, and when he lay down in his bed again, he +felt that, through bracing his energies for the task, he had relieved +himself of a load of care that had long heavily oppressed him. + +"Can you undertake, Regina," he asked the next evening, "to deliver +this letter unseen to the _Fräulein_ at the parsonage?" + +She regarded him for a second with wide eyes, then looking down, she +murmured, "Yes, _Herr_." + +"But supposing they attack you down in the village?" + +"Pah! What do I care for _them_?" she exclaimed, shrugging her +shoulders contemptuously, as she always did when the villagers were in +question. + +Soon afterwards he saw her glide by the window like a shadow and +disappear in the gloaming. + +Hours passed. She did not return. He began to reproach himself for +having engaged her in his amatory mission when her life was at stake. + +At last, towards midnight, he heard the front door latch click. + +She appeared on the threshold with chattering teeth, blue with cold, +the letter still grasped in her cramped fingers. + +He made her sit down by the stove, and gave her Spanish wine to +drink--and gradually she found her voice. + +"I have been lying all this time in the snow under the parsonage +hedge," she said, "but there was no possibility of getting at her. Just +now she put the light out in her bedroom, so I came home. But don't be +vexed, _Herr_. Perhaps I shall have better luck to-morrow." + +He wouldn't hear of her repeating the adventure, but when she came to +him the following evening equipped for her walk, he did not forbid her +to go. + +This time she came back with glowing cheeks, panting for breath. Two +peasants on their way home from the Black Eagle had seen her and given +chase. + +"But to-morrow, _Herr_, to-morrow, I shall succeed." + +She was right. More breathless than the evening before, but radiant +with delight, she came into the room, and stood at the door, stretching +out two empty hands in triumph. + +"Thank God," he thought, "that I shan't have to send her a fourth time +on a fool's errand." + +In joyous excitement she told him all about it. Sultan, the big dog in +the kennel, knew her; and as a hostage she had taken him a bone, then +he had permitted her to stand at the back door and look through the +keyhole. She had seen Helene standing at the great store-cupboard. "I +knew that Helene,--I mean the pastor's Fräulein,--went to the +store-cupboard every night to put out coffee and oatmeal for the +morning," she explained, "and sure enough I just timed her right, for +there was her candle flickering in my face, and she standing within +three steps of me----" + +He gave a deep sigh. Happy creature! She had _seen_ her! + +I opened the back door very softly, and called, 'Helene, Fräulein +Helene!' And when she caught sight of me, she screamed and let the +candle fall. 'Helene,' I said, 'I am not going to hurt you. Here is a +letter from Junker Boleslav.' + +"She trembled so, she could hardly take the letter out of my hand. And +then she shrieked in horror, 'Go! Go _at once_!' And almost before I +could tell her about the letter-box on the drawbridge, she had slammed +the door and bolted it in my face. Ah, dear God!" she added with a +melancholy little smile. "I am used to being treated in that way, but +she might have been kinder because I brought a message from _you_!" + +He leant his head on his hands. Helene's conduct gave him food for +meditation. Of course her reception of her fallen playmate was in every +way excusable. No wonder that her chaste and maidenly soul revolted at +the sight of this unfortunate girl! + +Every day Regina now ran down to the drawbridge to peep into the +letter-box that was fastened to a pillar there, to see if there was an +answer from Helene. But the letter-box remained empty; and Boleslav's +brighter mood soon clouded again. He became more bitter and defiant +than ever, and a prey to tormenting reflections. In his pride he would +not allow that he had been spurned by the woman he loved; yet it was +hardly any longer a matter for doubt that she wished in no way to be +associated with him in his dishonour. He saw his great plans for the +future fall in ruins in this abandonment of hope of winning the love of +his youth. + +Many days went by before he roused himself from this fresh +depression--it was not till the feverish unrest of waiting had subsided +that he slowly recovered his calmness and fortitude. + +Then he threw himself with renewed energy into the search for proofs of +his father's innocence. The evidence was contradictory and confused. +Letters in which his father was referred to as the staunchest of +Prussian patriots were counterbalanced by others in which he was +addressed as the pioneer of Polish liberty. That might possibly have +been a mere figure of flattering speech, designed to win over the +vacillating nobleman, but to make it public would be once more putting +the deceased's reputation in the pillory. + +During these disheartening investigations of the truth, his only +refreshment was the evening hours in which Regina's presence gave him +something else to think about. So soon as she came and sat down +opposite him he felt a curious satisfaction mingled with uneasiness. +Sometimes, before she made her appearance, and he with bowed head +listened to the sounds that came from her kitchen, he would be suddenly +seized with anxiety, and feel as if he must jump up and call out, "Stay +where you are! Don't come!" And yet, when she walked into the room he +breathed more freely. "It is loneliness that attracts me to her," he +often told himself. "She has a human face and a human voice." + +As she sat over her work silently putting in stitch after stitch, he +would pretend to be napping, and with closed eyes listen to the rise +and fall of her breath. It was a full, slow, muffled sound, which fell +on his ear like suppressed music. It resembled the ebbing and flowing +of an ocean of restrained life and energy. After she had been sitting +for a long time in a stooping attitude she would suddenly straighten +herself, and stretch her arms with closed fingers over the sides of the +chair, till the curve of her bosom stood out in powerful grandeur, and +threatened to burst its bonds. It was as if from time to time she was +obliged to become conscious of the fulness of life that pulsated and +throbbed within her. + +Then she resumed her old attitude and quietly sewed on. + +It lasted all too short a time. These hours spent in her society had +unconsciously become dear to him, and almost indispensable. The lamp +seemed to give a brighter light since its rays fell on that pile of +shining white linen; the hand of the clock accelerated its pace now he +was not always looking at it to hurry it onwards. The wind that used to +howl and whistle so dismally in the branches of the trees now murmured +soft lullabies, and even the laths in the rotten roof cracked less +ominously. He dreaded the evenings when at dusk she started on her +journey to Bockeldorf, and more than once had meditated accompanying +her. + +But in their relations, that had become so friendly, there was one +blot, and the knowledge of it pierced him at times like a poisonous +arrow. Often, after he had been watching her in silence, he was +tormented with a desire to penetrate into the secrets of her past, and +to cross-examine her on the subject of her intercourse with the dead. +For long he kept back the questions that burned on the tip of his +tongue, feeling that little good could come of asking them; but at last +he felt driven to speak. + +"She is the only living witness of the catastrophe," he thought; +"what's more, the only accomplice. She alone can give authentic +information." + +And one evening he broke the silence which had been so enjoyable to +both, with a brusque demand that she should tell him all she knew. + +She changed colour, and dropped her hands in her lap. + +"You'll only be angry with me again, _Herr_," she stammered. + +"Do as I bid you." + +She still hesitated. "It's ... so long ago," she whispered piteously, +"and I don't know how to tell things." + +"But you can at least answer questions." + +Then she resigned herself to fate. + +"Who was it that first suggested to you the midnight sortie?" + +"The _gnädiger Herr_." + +He clenched his teeth. "When and how?" + +"The _gnädiger Herr_ ordered me to wait at table. The great candelabra, +that was hardly ever lit as a rule, was burning, and shone on the gold +uniforms of the French officers, and it was all so dazzling I felt +quite giddy when I carried the soup into the hall. They all laughed and +pointed at me, and spoke in French, which I didn't understand." + +"How many were there?" + +"Five, and one with grey hair, who was the General, and had the most +gold on his coat; and when I brought him the soup he caught hold of me +round the waist, and I put the plate down on his finger and pinched it. +Then they all laughed again, and the _gnädiger Herr_ said, 'Don't be so +clumsy, Regina.' I felt so ashamed and vexed at his saying that that I +said, quite loud, I didn't see why I should wait if I was only to be +scolded for it. Then they laughed louder than ever, and the General +began to speak German, like little children speak it. 'You are a +plucky, pretty little girl,' he said; and the _gnädiger Herr_ told him +I was a girl who might prove useful to him and them all--or something +of the kind. And when I brought in the liqueur at the end of dinner, he +drew me down to him and whispered in my ear. I was to go to him in the +night." + +He started up. "And you went?" + +She cast down her eyes. + +"Ah, _Herr_," she said imploringly, "why do you ask me? I wish you +wouldn't. I had often done it before, and I saw no harm in it then." + +He felt his blood boiling. + +"How old were you at that time?" + +"Fifteen." + +"And so corrupt--so----" His voice died away in wrath. + +She cast an unspeakably sad and reproachful glance at him. + +"I knew you'd be angry," she said, "but I can't make myself out better +than I am." + +"Continue your story," he cried. + +"And when I went to him at midnight he was still up, striding round the +table, and he asked me if I should like to earn a great sum of money. +'Of course, _gnädiger Herr_,' I said, 'I should like it very much,' for +then I was very poor. Whereupon he asked me if I was afraid of the +dark. I laughed, and said he ought to know best; and after a few more +questions it came out what he wanted me to do. Could I be trusted to +show the French the way over the Cats' Bridge and through the wood in +an hour? I began to cry, for the French had behaved dreadfully since +they had been quartered in the Castle, running after and insulting all +the servant-girls, and I was afraid they might insult me too." + +"Oh, you were afraid of that, were you?" he interposed with a +contemptuous smile. + +"Yes; and I told the _gnädiger Herr_ nothing would induce me to do it. +But then he became terribly angry, and thumped me on the shoulders till +I sank on my knees, and he cried out that I was an ungrateful hussy, +and that he would have me sent back to the village in disgrace, and +would tell the Herr Pastor what sort of a wench I was, and he would +make me confess and do penance; and then he took me by the throat, and +when he had almost throttled me, and I could scarcely draw a breath, +then, _then_ ..." + +"Say no more," interrupted Boleslav; and seizing the letters that were +to establish his father's innocence, he tore them to pieces. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + +The next morning he took one of the guns out of the case, and wandered +into the snowy forest. He tramped about the whole day without meeting a +single human creature. The deer and hares were left in peace, for he +stared beyond them into vacancy. At dusk he turned his footsteps +homewards, dispirited and worn out. + +He saw Regina standing like a statue on the Cats' Bridge looking out +for him. At first she looked as if she intended to run and meet him, +but she changed her mind, and took the path to the house, smiling and +murmuring to herself as she went. + +But when she brought in his meal she was as silent as usual. He sat +without looking at her till a sound like a short convulsive sob roused +him from his reverie. + +"What's the matter with you?" he asked. + +Without answering, she ran out of the room. + +He made a movement as if he were about to follow her; then set his +teeth and sat down again. A dull resentment devoured him. He could not +forgive her for depriving him of the illusion on which for weeks he had +been building so many vague hopes. + +Now there was nothing for it but to drink the cup of degradation to the +dregs, no matter how bitter the bottom might taste. + +In a little while Regina appeared again, in her outdoor things. + +"You wish to go out to-night, then?" he asked harshly. + +She kept her head half averted, so that he should not see she had red +eyes. + +"To-morrow is Christmas, _Herr_--the holy feast day; and the grocer +says that on Christmas night he would rather not be disturbed." + +Christmas! holy feast! How strange and like a fairy tale that sounded. +Then there was still rejoicing and festivity going on in the world! +People still joined hands and frolicked round glittering fir-tree! + +"You wish to get your Christmas presents, I suppose, Regina?" he +inquired, smiling bitterly. + +"Oh no, _Herr_," she replied. "That has never been the custom here. +Besides, now I should take no pleasure in such things." + +"Why not?" + +She hesitated, and then said in some embarrassment, "Let me go, +_Herr_." + +"I have a great deal to ask you yet, Regina." + +"Please, not now, else----" + +"Very well, go." + +"Good-night, _Herr_." + +"Good-night." Then he called her back. "Tell me first, what did that +sob mean just now." + +A ray of half-ashamed happiness shone in the eyes that were swollen +from weeping. + +"Can't you guess, _Herr_?" + +He shook his head. + +"I had been so anxious about you. I thought perhaps you weren't coming +back, and then when you did----" She turned and fled through the door. +Her footsteps died away in the night.... + +The following morning Boleslav was awakened by a great rushing and +roaring that had for some time mingled with his dreams. A terrific +storm was raging. The topmost branches of the poplars lashed each other +in fury. Huge white clouds were swept along the ground, but the air was +clear. Another fall of snow seemed improbable. To-day he could not rest +in the desolate, cold little house, and went out to wrestle with the +elements. + +"She will have a bad time of it," he thought, as the north wind hurled +in his face a shower of fine icicles that pricked like needles and +almost took his breath away. In the wood it was more sheltered. There +the tempest crashed and crunched in the tops of the trees, seeming to +vent all its fury on them. He walked on, not knowing where he was +going, and then found himself on the road to Bockeldorf. + +"It looks as if I were running after her," he murmured, chiding +himself; and he struck into the pathless thicket. + +He thought how remarkable it was that this degraded being should creep +so much into his thoughts. Of course it was because he had been thrown +with her day after day, and depended upon her entirely for human +society. Yet he was alarmed, for he realised now, perhaps more than he +had ever done before, how he felt himself every day more drawn towards +her, and how much there was in her that began to appear comprehensible, +excusable, and even noble, that once had only seemed to testify to her +innate coarseness, and repelled him from her in disgust. + +But without a doubt contact with her was doing him no good. She was +drawing him down into the slough of her own worthless existence. + +Something must be done. Above all, it was necessary to stand in less +familiar relations with her, to repress her, and lower her again to her +old position of humble and despised servant-girl. The festival of +Christmas was a good opportunity of paying her off with a loan, the +handsomeness of which would discharge his obligations to her for all +time. With a stroke of the pen he would provide for her future, and +thereby purchase the right to regard her as what she actually was--his +humble dependant and menial. She should give him her company to-day for +the last time. She had not yet finished her evidence, and as he had +once broken the ice he might as well know everything. Of those two +awful nights of guilt and shame, in which she had been a witness of +bloodshed and arson, he would hear the worst. + +"And then when she has confessed all," he said to himself, "she shall +keep to her green-house, which is her proper place, even if she has to +burn all the timber in the park to prevent herself from freezing." + +It was not seemly that in this solitude he should associate so much +with her, and he made up his mind to put an end to the intimacy once +for all. + +A hare crossed his path and turned his thoughts into another channel. +He aimed and hit it. The little animal rotated three times, and then +lay motionless on its nose. + +"She will be pleased," he thought, as he slung his booty over his +shoulder. Ah! there he was thinking of her again already. + +The sky meanwhile had clouded. A sharp shower of prickly white flakes +cut through the trees; a wild hiss now mingled with the roar of the +wind that made him shiver involuntarily in every limb. By aid of his +compass he found the way home. When he entered the open fields the +snow-storm was in full swing. He could scarcely stand against it. The +air was dark with the falling masses of snow. There was not a trace +visible of the shrubs in the park only three hundred feet away. + +"It's to be hoped she's got home," he thought, as he struggled on. + +Freshly fallen snow lay thick on the Cats' Bridge; there were no +footprints in it, but they might easily have been obliterated. + +With a sinking heart, he ran to the house and called her by name, but +got no answer. The hearth was unswept, the fire out, the beds unmade as +he had left them. + +She had been overtaken by the storm, that she feared more than she +feared the Schrandeners. A torturing uneasiness took possession of him. +He rushed from one room to the other, lit the fire and extinguished it +again, tried to eat, and then threw down his knife and fork +impatiently. It struck him as ludicrous that he should be so anxious. +Had she not for six winters gone backwards and forwards in wind and +rain and snow, and never yet met with an accident? Why should anything +happen to her to-day? To kill time he sat down to his desk, and with +numb fingers made out a cheque. The sum amounted to three figures. +Regina ought to be satisfied. + +Darkness set in. The hand of the clock pointed to three, and yet it was +already like night. He could contain himself indoors no longer. He +would at least go as far as the Cats' Bridge and see if there was any +sign of her. To prevent the wind pitching him over, he was obliged to +hold on with all his might to the balustrade. The rickety woodwork +shook in all its joints. On the ice beneath him danced a maze of spiral +patterns; lily-stems grew upwards and sank again in heaps of white +dust, which in their turn were whirled away to make room for other +fantastic forms. The Madonna's garden rose for a moment and then +vanished; for a figure drew nearer and nearer out of the twilight, +casting its shadow before it. + +"Regina, thank God!" + +He was on the point of rushing to meet her, when he was overcome with a +sensation of shame that paralysed his limbs and drove the blood to his +heart. + +On this very spot where he now waited for her, she had yesterday waited +for him; looking out into the dusk because she had not been able to +rest for anxiety about him, just as to-day he could not rest for +anxiety about her. + +For a moment he felt a strong inclination to dive behind the bushes, so +that she should not see him; but the next he was ashamed of being +ashamed, and stepped forward to meet her on the Cats' Bridge. + +"You have had a bad time of it, Regina," he called out; and tried to +relieve her of the sack she carried on her back. + +But she quickly dodged him, holding out her elbows in protest. She was +muffled to the eyes in shawls, and could not speak. They walked to the +door in silence. On the threshold she turned and tore the wraps from +her face. + +"I have a favour to ask, _Herr_," she said breathlessly. + +"Well, what is it?" + +"Would you mind staying out another half-hour, or going into the +kitchen, so that I can warm the room and tidy up a little?" + +"But you must rest first." + +"Not now, _Herr_, if you don't mind." + +And she went in, letting her burdens fall to the floor in the darkness. + +"She may bustle about in there for a few minutes if she likes," he +thought; and turned to look for a temporary shelter among the ruins. + +Warm air ascended from the cellars. He struck a light, and went down +the slippery steps. He felt curiously light-hearted almost, as if +Christmas had brought him joy. + +The rows of wine-bottles with their red and green labels peeped at him +festively from their places. + +"She shall not forget it's Christmas," he said, smiling; and drew from +the farthest niche where the treasure of treasures was stored, two or +three bottles covered with dust and cobwebs. In these reposed a nectar +which had not seen the light since an eighteenth-century sun had shone +on it. + +His latest resolution occurred to him. Of course, he had not meant to +put it into force till to-morrow--not on Christmas evening, when people +consort together, who at other times are not congenial to each other. +On Christmas evening no one ought to be lonely and sorrowful. + +Obedient to Regina's wishes, he patrolled the ruins for half-an-hour +beneath a roof of sparkling icicles. Then he put the bottles under his +arm, and staggered out into the stormy night. + +As he approached his dwelling, he saw with amazement that the shutters +were closed, a thing that had never happened before. His first thought +was that the storm had penetrated the chinks, but on nearer view be +learnt they were still weatherproof. Not till he stood in the vestibule +did he find a happy solution to the problem. Regina met him beaming, +and half-ashamed, and threw the parlour door wide open. Astounded at +what he saw, he remained rooted to the spot. He was greeted by a +festive shimmer of candles and a fragrant odour of firs. In the centre +of the dining-table, covered with its pure white cloth, stood a +Christmas tree, adorned with wax tapers and gilded apples. The whole +apartment was brilliantly illuminated. + +Never in his life before had a Christmas tree been lit for _him_. Only +from the thresholds of strangers had he sometimes looked on with dim +eyes at strangers' happiness. And where was Regina? She had retreated +behind him, and stood in the remotest corner of the vestibule, watching +him with shy yet proud delight. + +He took hold of her hand and led her into the room. + +"Who put it into your head, child?" he asked. + +"The grocer's wife was trimming her Christmas tree when I got there at +three o'clock, and I thought it so pretty I said to myself, _he_ shall +have his tree too, and shall know that there is at least one person to +think of him. I asked her to show me how to gild apples, and gilded a +supply while I was there, and bought the lights and got a sack to put +the tree in, so that you shouldn't see it." + +"And who gave you the tree?" + +"I cut it down myself at the edge of the forest not far from here." + +"In the middle of this storm?" + +She laughed contemptuously. "A little wind wouldn't hinder me, _Herr_," +And then with a sudden outburst of joyous ecstasy, she exclaimed, "Oh, +just look, _Herr_, how beautifully it burns! How pious it looks. Hasn't +it really a sort of pious face, as if an angel had brought it?" + +He assented, laughing, and expressed his thanks in a few words of +forced condescension, for he was afraid of being too gracious. + +But she was more than satisfied. "Why should you thank me, _Herr_?" she +asked reproachfully. "It's all bought with your money. I have none. I'm +only a poor girl. Else, ah, else--" She threw up her hands and clasped +them above her head. + +The cheque came into his mind. "This is to show you," he said, handing +it to her, "that I have thought of your Christmas too." + +She looked at him in bewilderment. "Am I to read it?" she asked, +respectfully taking the piece of paper between two of her fingers. +After studying it carefully, she still looked perplexed. + +"Don't you understand what it is?" he asked. + +"Oh yes--I understand ... But to begin with, you can't be in earnest. +And even if you are, ... what good is it to me?" + +"It will provide for your future." + +"My future is provided for.... I have all I want. Good food, ... and I +am dressed like a lady. What can I possibly want besides?" + +"But we may not go on living always together like this." + +She gave a cry of dismay. "Are you thinking of packing me off, _Herr_?" +she asked with tightly clasped hands. + +"Not now. But suppose I were to die." + +She shook her head meditatively. "I should die too," she said. + +"Or I might have to go to the war again?" + +"Then I should go with you as a vivandière." + +Her persistence annoyed him. "Do as you like," he said, "only take what +I give you." + +A bright idea seemed to occur to her. + +"All right, _Herr_," she exclaimed, "I'll take it, only next Christmas +I shall buy you something with it, that will be worth having." And +happy at the thought, she scampered away. + +The Christmas-tree had burnt out. It stood now dark and neglected in +the corner by the stove, only occasionally casting a glimmer from its +golden fruit on the table where master and servant sat opposite each +other. + +Regina had been accorded permission to take her supper with him this +evening, and had been too overcome to swallow a mouthful. She was +almost stunned with this great and unexpected pleasure. + +Now the dishes were cleared away, and only bottles and glasses stood +between them. She drank, thoughtlessly, of the old fire-kindling wine +in long immoderate draughts. Her face began to glow. The pupils of her +brilliant eyes seemed to melt beneath their drooping lids. She rocked +to and fro on her chair. A wild abandon had relaxed her in every limb. + +"Are you tired, Regina?" + +She shook her head impatiently. For once her constraint in his presence +had disappeared. There was something even approaching audacity in the +brilliancy of her glance as she turned it on him from time to time. She +was intoxicated with happiness. He too felt the wine flame up in him; +and his eyes were riveted on her figure, which swayed before him with +the graceful motions of a Mænad. + +All the time the tempest raged outside. It whistled in the chimney and +hurled a rattling fusilade against the window shutters. There was a +grinding and crunching among the rafters of the roof, which sounded as +if the mouldy wood were collapsing. + +"I am afraid something will be blown down," he said as he listened. + +"Maybe," she answered with a dreamy smile, huddling herself together. +And then she began to babble in a fragmentary but quite unrestrained +fashion. "Perhaps it isn't good for me, _Herr_," she said, "that you +are so kind to me. All my life I have never got anything but blows and +abuse--first from my father, then from him, not to mention other +people. But if you spoil me, _Herr_, I shall get proud--and pride is a +great vice, I have heard the Pastor say--I shall begin to think I'm a +princess who needn't earn her bread." + +She burst into a peal of wild laughter, and let her arms fall to her +sides. Then in a low tone, as if conversing with herself, she went on-- + +"Sometimes I do wonder if I am only a servant. I often feel really as +if I were some enchanted princess, and you, _Herr_, the knight who is +to deliver me. Will you be the knight?" + +She blinked at him over her wine-glass. He nodded in friendly +acquiescence. Let her revel in her strange fancies. It was Christmas. + +"There have been cases," she continued, "in which princesses have been +turned into quite common sluts. They have had stones thrown at them, +and been spat at, and men have called after them, 'Strike her down, the +dirty slut!' And all the time they were princesses in disguise." + +"Do you believe in fairy tales, then?" he asked, wondering. + +She laughed to herself. "Not exactly, _Herr_. But when one passes so +many hours alone, and has to take long solitary walks as I have, one +must think. And when the rain beats down, and the wind blows.... Hark +at it now, what a to-do it's making.... Think of me tramping along in +this--and I have often been out when it's as bad, but I've never lost +my way. And sometimes, when I come into the wood, I have asked myself, +'Which would you rather be? A queen sitting on a golden throne, or the +Catholics' Holy Virgin, who had our dear Lord and Saviour for her +little boy; or would you rather be the devil's grandmother, and bury +all the Schrandeners in a manure-heap; or a noble lady and----" She +paused. + +"And?" he queried. + +She drew herself up, and laughed in embarrassment. + +"I can't tell you that--it is too silly. But I had only to choose which +I'd be. And as I march along through the night shadows, I often imagine +I am one or other, till all of a sudden I find myself in Bockeldorf, +just as if I'd flown there--often I think I am flying. Ah! things do +happen in real life, after all, very much the same as in the fairy +tales. Don't you think so, _Herr_?" + +He contemplated her with curiosity and wonder, as if he had never seen +her before. And truly it was the first time he had looked into her +secret soul. Now, when her tongue was loosened by wine, much was +revealed in her that before he had either not observed or not +understood. + +"Blissful creature!" he murmured. + +"Am I?" she replied, boldly planting her elbows on the table, and +regarding him with an expression of joyous inquiry. "You mean, because +I'm sitting here with you drinking wine and being treated as if I were +human? Oh! it's exactly like being in heaven.... Do you think I shall +ever go to heaven?... I don't. I am far too wicked!... And I think, +too, I should be afraid to go there. It must be much livelier in +hell.... I should be more at home there. The Herr Pastor often said I +was like a little devil, and I never fretted about it. Why should I? It +seemed quite natural that I should be the little devil and Helene the +angel. An excellent arrangement.... Didn't Helene, _Herr_, look just +like an angel in the flesh? So pink and white and delicate, with her +blue eyes and folded hands. And she always wore ... a pretty ribbon ... +round her neck ... and smelt always of ... rose-scented soap...." + +A cold shiver passed through him. He felt it was degrading both to +himself and the beloved to allow this half-tipsy girl to speak of her +as if she were an equal. + +"Stop!" he demanded hoarsely. + +She only answered him with a dreamy smile. Wine and fatigue suddenly +overpowered her. She lay stretched out, her head thrown back on the arm +of the chair, and fought against sleep, like a Bacchante exhausted +after a whirl of dissipation. + +A great anger, that rose and fell within him like the sound of the +storm outside, mastered him. + +"This is what wine does," he thought, and yet drank more. + +He wanted to wake her, to send her out, but he could not tear his eyes +away from her face, and by degrees he became gentler again. + +"She meant no harm," he thought, as he moved nearer to where she lay. +"This is the last time she will sit here with me; to-morrow a new leaf +will be turned. After to-morrow she shall find in me nothing but the +master." + +Then he remembered all he had wanted to ask her. + +"Well, never mind," he said to himself, "it can't be helped. Why spoil +her Christmas? Some other time will do." + +The hurricane without seemed to have increased in fury. It roared +through the keyholes, and battered the shutters. How brutally cruel it +was to drive her out to sleep in a greenhouse on a night like this! But +what was the use of being compassionate when it had to be done? + +"Regina!" he shouted, and tapped her on the shoulder. At that moment +there was a terrific thundering crash, that made the walls tremble as +from a shock of earthquake. Regina screamed loud in her sleep and tried +to grasp his hand, then sank back again into her old position. He went +out to see what was the cause of the noise. Nothing had fallen in the +vestibule, but on opening the door of the greenhouse snow drifted in +his face just as if he had walked into the open air. All round was inky +darkness. He went back to fetch his lantern. It shed its light on a +scene of ruin that exceeded his worst expectations. Regina's little +kingdom, from which she had ruled and regulated the ménage so +unostentatiously, had seemingly been dispersed to the four winds of +heaven. The roof was blown off, and had torn up part of the wall with +it. Between the hearth and the door was a barricade of snow as tall as +himself, riddled with bricks, beams, and splinters of glass. + +What was to be done now? Where was Regina to sleep? Should he too let +her lie like a dog on his threshold? No! rather would he turn out into +the ruins himself, and seek a couch down in the cellar. It was +imperative to act at once, and there was only one thing to be done. He +drew Regina's bedding out of the snow, shook it thoroughly till not a +flake remained hanging to it, and then dragged it into his room. +Beneath the shadow of the Christmas-tree in the corner by the stove he +made up a bed on the boards. + +Regina slept peacefully, her face illumined by the light from the oil +lamp. He came close to her, shook and called her by name; but nothing +could wake her. At last he lifted her up, to carry her to the bed. + +She gave a deep sigh, encircled his neck with her arms, and let her +head sink on his shoulder. + +His heart beat faster. The fair body in the first bloom of its superb +young womanhood, gave him a sensation of fear and uneasiness as it +unconsciously rested on him. He half carried, half trailed her across +the room. Her warm breath fanned his face, her hair swept his throat. + +As he let her sink on her mattress she raised her arms, with a gesture +of longing, in the air, and pulled down the little fir-tree. He drew it +from under her, and then placed it as a screen and sentinel between +himself and her. "To-morrow I'll rig up a partition," he thought. Then +he undressed and went to bed. + +The night-light burnt out, but there was no thought of sleep for him. +The tempest still raged, and spent its fury on the locks and bolts. +Boleslav heeded it not. While he listened to the sleeping woman's +breath, his own fell on the night, in heavily-drawn, anxious gasps. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + +"_To His Lordship, Baron Boleslav_ + _von Schranden, of Castle Schranden_. + +"_Your Hochwohlgeboren is requested to appear in person on January 3rd, +anni futuri, at two o'clock in the afternoon, at Herr Merckel's +official residence, and to bring the requisite papers relating to your +Hochwohlgeboren's attachment, or non-attachment, to the Prussian +Landwehr._ + + "(Signed) Royal Landrath V. Krotkeim, + _Representative of Military Affairs + for the District_." + +Boleslav found this communication in the drawbridge letter-box on New +Year's morning. The threatening nature of its contents did not at once +strike him; he was only staggered at the authorities taking the trouble +to investigate his case. He had resolved, on again adopting his +father's name, to let the waters of oblivion close over Lieutenant +Baumgart. He had discharged his duty to his country unconditionally; +bolder and more self-sacrificing than thousands of others, he had gone +to face death. Now that there was peace, and he had taken a great +burden of inherited guilt on his shoulders, he had wished to avoid +being involved in any way with official red-tapism. + +Only gradually did he realise the new dangers that were gathering on +his horizon. Pride in his past as a soldier, afforded him the one prop +and stay in his present ruined life, and he felt that slipping from +under his feet. He stood defenceless in face of imminent peril. It +would need only a little _malice prepense_ to make him out a deserter +from the flag, and the fact of his having borne a false name would go +far to establish his guilt. + +The son of Baron von Schranden had no reason to hope that justice would +be tempered with mercy in his case. He would also have no reason to +complain of harsh measures, if he were put under arrest on the spot, +and brought before a court-martial of the standing branch of his +regiment. + +For a moment he entertained thoughts of flight, but afterwards thrust +the idea from him in scorn. He had too often valued his life cheaply, +to now think seriously of stealing into Poland to end his wretched +career in safety. + +But what would become of Regina? + +At the thought of her, his heart smote him. She had no suspicion of the +new troubles with which he was encompassed. Since Christmas night he +had not addressed a single word to her that was not absolutely +necessary, and even then his voice had been imperious and severe. The +thought of her now seemed interwoven with a presentiment of coming +calamity, which oppressed him like a nightmare. + +At night he tossed about restlessly among his pillows. She never +stirred in her corner. Apparently she fell asleep the moment she lay +down. But her soft, quick, regular breathing was sometimes broken by a +sigh. Perhaps, after all, she was not sleeping, but watching, +listening, as he listened.... + +And then the day dawned on which Boleslav's fate was to be decided. +Towards morning he had fallen into an uneasy sleep, and was first +awakened by the smoke that poured into the room from the vestibule, +where he had erected a temporary fireplace, which would have to do as a +makeshift till milder weather made the repairing of the glass root +practicable. It was a clear, frosty morning. The sunshine jewelled the +hoar-frost on the twigs, and dark purple shadows crept along the +dazzling sheets of snow. + +He spent the morning in arranging his papers. All that was compromising +to his father's memory should be destroyed, for were he put under +arrest, as seemed likely, strangers' hands would meddle in this vortex. +He held the sorted letters in his hand ready to burn in the stove, when +he thought better of it. If he really were serious in his intentions of +bearing his father's guilt, he ought to conceal or destroy nothing in +order to lighten the burden. It was not worth while purchasing truth +with falsehood. Rather die in disgrace, than live in honour founded on +lies and deceit. + +When Regina brought him his midday meal he vacillated an instant, as to +whether he should tell her all or nothing. But he shrank from a +touching scene, and decided on the latter course. A letter would serve +the same purpose. So he wrote: "If I am not back at dusk, probably you +will have difficulty in seeing me again. Inquire at the Landrath's +office in Wartenstein. There they will tell you what has become of me. +I advise you to leave Schranden at once. The draft I gave you will +supply your wants. What else remains shall all be yours later. +Good-bye, and accept my thanks." + +He left the note in a conspicuous place, so that, when she cleared +away, she would find it. He was in a hard and embittered mood, and in +no humour for a sentimental farewell. + +But as he passed Regina in the vestibule where she was occupied with +the fire, he felt a strong impulse to press her hand. For her sake, as +much as for his own, he went out without giving her a word or a look. A +group of staring louts, who appeared to be waiting for him, were +loafing near the drawbridge. When they saw him coming, they ran off +helter-skelter with loud exclamations, to the inn. + +"My heralds," he said, and laughed. + +Long before the stated hour the parlour of the Black Eagle could not +hold all the customers that poured in, anxious to secure a foremost +place for the proceedings. There was an overflow that extended as far +as the churchyard square. Every one was eager to witness with his own +eyes the final degradation of the last of the Barons of Schranden. + +Three months had passed since the petition had been sent to the +judicial authorities of the province, and even the most zealous +patriots had begun to despair of its producing any results. Then at +last had come the delightful intimation from the office of the +Landrath, that a day had been appointed to wind up the case of the +Crown _v_. Schranden, _alias_ Baumgart, and the presence of the +petitioners was urgently requested at the inquiry. + +The Schrandeners had armed themselves in a way worthy of the occasion. +For three days they had been busy polishing up their accoutrements. +Those among the disbanded Landwehr-men who still possessed their +_Litewka_ had donned it, and pikes and sabres were seen in the crowd. +Possibly they might be called upon to help in an instantaneous +administration of justice. + +The Landrath's sleigh had entered the village at one o'clock, and, as +was customary, put up at the parsonage stable, where Herr Merckel and +his son stood ready to welcome the high functionary. There was no +gendarme on the box, which greatly mystified the Schrandeners. But +perhaps the services of one were not required when they could be +depended on to despatch the criminal at the first signal. + +Shortly before two, the Landrath, accompanied by the old pastor, left +the parsonage and entered the inn by a side door, where Herr Merckel, +senior, again was to the fore to receive him, while Felix slouched in +the background, piqued at not being treated with what he considered +sufficient respect by the civilian. + +The Landrath von Krotkeim was a tall, extremely slender man, whose +hoary leonine head rose with great effect from his contracted, sloping +shoulders. There was something awe-inspiring in its pose. He wore, in +defiance of the fashion of the period, long whiskers, which flowed +behind his ears, mingling with his thick iron-grey mane. + +His part in the formation of defences for the Fatherland had been an +important and distinguished one. Two years before he had sat as a +deputy for the knighthood in the famous _Land-tag_ to which Germany +owed the foundation of the Landwehr. He had hailed old York with +cheers, and helped to draw up the address to the King. Afterwards he +had hastened back to his native place to set the organisation on foot, +and had achieved results which made his district the brilliant model +that excited the admiring emulation of the whole country. Then arose +those marauders attendant on success, vanity and egoism. What at first +had been a labour of noble disinterestedness, gradually degenerated +into a peg for self-advertisement and a means of memorialising his own +fame. For the rest, and long before the treachery of the Cats' Bridge +incident had been generally made known to the world, Herr von Krotkeim +had by repute been a bitter enemy of the house of Schranden. To hope +any favour at his hands would therefore be over-sanguine indeed. But +Boleslav had abandoned hope of any kind as he entered the square in +front of the church. He advanced composed, and almost indifferent, +towards the crowd that formed a cordon round the inn. He had, on his +way, cast one shy glance at the parsonage, where in a window he fancied +he had seen a fair face which withdrew into shadow directly he smiled +up at it. He was received by a murmur of malignant tongues, but the +cordon let him through, understanding enough to know that, without him, +the game they were anticipating with such keen relish could not be +played. + +At the entrance to the best parlour, he stood face to face with the +great man with the lion's mane, on either side of whom sat the old +pastor and Herr Merckel. Felix lounged in the window-sill, trying to +assume an air of nonchalance. He now considered his former playmate too +inferior an object on which even to bestow his hate. But the old +landlord greeted Boleslav with a benign smile. Had he come there with +the purpose of treating every one present to a bottle of the celebrated +Muscat wine, the smile could not have been more smugly servile. + +Lightning-flashes irradiated from beneath the prominent brows of the +old pastor, and the Landrath sat coolly contemplating his fingers, +which were white and bony as a skeleton's. Boleslav felt his bosom +swell proudly. "His hand against every man; every man's hand against +him." It was the old story! + +A voice from the crowd hiccoughed out some unflattering remark. The +Schrandeners received it with laughter. + +"It's the poor father, the unhappy father," old Merckel whispered to +the Landrath, with a melancholy elevation of his eyebrows. + +"As you have summoned me here," exclaimed Boleslav, "I demand your +protection from the insults of the mob!" + +The Landrath drooped his eyelids and bowed. + +"Silence, dear people!" he commanded, stroking his clean-shaven chin, +and then he added, "I shall have any person who makes a disturbance +ejected." + +He consulted a green portfolio that lay spread before him on the table. +Behind him a little man in grey was energetically trying goose quills. +Probably he was the reporter. + +The examination began. With frigid politeness the Landrath put the +usual questions. + +"Where have you resided hitherto?" + +Boleslav enumerated several places. + +"Your word is of course to be trusted, _Herr Baron_, but have you +proofs?" + +"No." + +"Up to what date does your answer hold good?" + +"Till the spring of the year '13." + +"After that?" + +"I entered the army." + +"Have you proofs to support that statement?" + +"No." + +"I regret to say that the name von Schranden is not to be found in the +army list." + +"I enlisted under another." + +"Under the name of Baumgart?" + +"Yes." + +"For what reason?" + +There was silence. Boleslav bit his lips. + +"Ha, ha!" came triumphantly from the window. The exclamation put +Boleslav on his mettle. + +"To have borne my real name would have involved me in difficulties." + +"Why?" + +"Because, through a rumour which I was powerless to contradict, there +was a blot on that name." + +"What rumour?" + +It was clear this man intended to humiliate him to the dust before +passing on him the inevitable sentence. + +"You know it," he murmured faintly between his closed teeth. + +The Landrath bowed. "Nevertheless I must ask for information on the +subject." + +"I decline to give it." + +The mob sent up a shout of scornful laughter. + +"Do for him at once! put him in chains!" roared the same hiccoughing +voice that had made use of an abusive epithet earlier in the +proceedings. + +The Landrath gracefully waved his long white hands. + +"A note has been made of that refusal?" he asked without turning round. + +A small quavering pipe behind him, which greatly amused the +Schrandeners, answered in the affirmative. + +Then he continued with imperturbable politeness. + +"May I ask you, then, to tell me to which company you were attached?" + +Boleslav did so, and also gave the names of his Heide comrades. + +The Landrath turned over the leaves of his portfolio with an air of +ennui. The concerns of the volunteer Jägers evidently had no interest +for him. + +"You were elected officer?" + +"Yes." + +"I do not doubt your word, _Herr Baron_, but have you proofs to back +_this_ statement?" + +"No." + +"A note must be made of that negative. And then you entered the +Landwehr?" + +"Yes." + +"Your reason?" + +Boleslav indicated, with a motion of his head, the companion of his +boyhood. + +"Because I did not wish to meet that man." + +Felix gave a scoffing laugh, and exclaimed, "Else the swindle +would----" A sign from the Landrath silenced him. + +"Your Landwehr regiment, if you please?" + +Boleslav cited the commandant's name. + +The Landrath bowed low over the portfolio till his shock of hair almost +concealed his faded shrunken face. + +"So far that coincides with my information," he said, and then read: +"There was a Lieutenant Baumgart, who at the time of the armistice +entered the regiment. Besides him there were four other officers of +this name in the army. The one in question, however, met his death +between the 1st and 3rd of March on the Marne." + +"How did you learn that, _Herr Landrath_?" + +"It is in the Gazette, _Herr Baron_. He is said to have been sent on a +special mission, and shot by grenadiers in General Marmont's corps." + +Boleslav felt his blood mount swiftly to his brow. The proudest and +most arduous moments of his life rose vividly before him. "That is a +mistake," he cried; "Lieutenant Baumgart fell into the hands of the +enemy severely wounded, but escaped with his life." + +"And it is your desire to be identified with that fallen emissary?" + +"I believe I have clearly shown that it is my desire." + +"Very well, that being so, you will of course be able to relate the +incidents of the special mission." + +"Certainly." + +"Please proceed." + +"The volunteers had been charged to get a message delivered to General +von Kleist. Some days before a skirmish had taken place on the +banks of a river, Therouanne by name, through which the General and his +corps were cut off from communication with the main army. A reunion +was not to be effected owing to Marmont's and Mortier's troops, to +which Napoleon himself was said to be marching, stopping the way. +Field-Marshal Blücher suddenly resolved to retreat, in order, I +believe, to pick up reinforcements, and therefore it was, under the +circumstances, urgent to let General von Kleist know at once, in case +he should find himself entirely isolated. It was necessary for the +messenger to evade the enemy's outposts at night-time. Among those who +volunteered to go on the mission, choice fell on me. Major von Schaek +led me to the Field-Marshal, who entrusted me with a letter----" + +"One moment, please," interrupted the Landrath, searching diligently +among his papers; then he added casually, "And the letter of course +contained the necessary command." + +"No." + +"What, then?" + +"The letter was designed to deceive the enemy in case I should be shot +from my horse on the way. The Field-Marshal desired me to give his +command by word of mouth. I had to learn it by heart." + +"How did it run?" + +"As follows: 'If on the morrow the enemy attacks us on the right flank, +General von Kleist is not to join in the engagement, but to seize the +opportunity of gaining the command of the Marne from the south, so that +he may bring himself in touch with me. _En route_ several bridges are +to be destroyed.'" + +The Landrath nodded. "And then--Lieutenant?" + +"I succeeded in delivering the message." + +"You managed to evade the enemy and reach your goal?" + +"I hope you have found proofs of it, _Herr Landrath_, in the history of +the war----" + +"Hum! When were you wounded?" + +"On the way back." + +"Why did you not remain where you were?" + +"Because I had undertaken to bring the Field-Marshal an answer." + +"You might have spared yourself this second act of daring." + +"I might have spared myself the first also." + +"You wanted to achieve fame?" + +"I wanted among other things to escape the privilege of this +cross-examination." + +The Landrath straightened himself and threw back his mane. "Permit me +to draw your attention to the fact that you stand before the +representative of your king, Herr Baron von Schranden." + +"Barefaced impudence!" muttered the voice at the window. + +"I stand before my undoer," replied Boleslav, looking steadily into the +Landrath's eyes. + +He fixed them on his papers again, with a suppressed smile. "I have now +come to the last stage of my investigation," he continued. "It cannot +be denied that your statements bear a strong resemblance to the facts, +and that your claim to be one and the same person as the Lieutenant +Baumgart who served in the Silesian Landwehr under Major von Wolzogen +has gained in probability. Only this admission has to be weighed in the +scale against the impossibility of an honourable officer, as the said +Baumgart seems to have been, turning his back on the army in which he +had won honours and wounds, and deserting its standard. He must have +known a company of soldiers could not be dispersed like a flock of +sparrows. And to think that the Landwehr"--his chest swelled and he +tossed his mane,--"the glorious Landwehr, that has always stood in the +first rank for courage, love of order, and discipline, should have thus +been hoodwinked! Freiherr von Schranden, I fervently hope that +Lieutenant Baumgart was not guilty of this transgression, and am +therefore bound to wish that he met his death." + +Boleslav felt the crisis was approaching. He glanced round him and saw +everywhere eyes flaming with hate and thirst for vengeance. Felix +Merckel had laid his hand on the handle of his sabre, as if in another +moment he would raise it. From the throngs behind him came a clash and +din of arms. Malignant satisfaction beamed on the face of the old host +of the Black Eagle. Only the pastor sat with his dishevelled head bowed +in his hands, staring despondently on the floor. + +"It is not my fault, _Herr Landrath_, that the dead man has been +brought to life. He did his duty, I think. Why should he not have been +allowed to rest in peace?" + +The Landrath shrugged his shoulders. + +"A public indictment cannot be ignored." + +"An indictment!" cried Boleslav, his anger blazing up, and his eye met +young Merckel's. + +There he read, in unmistakable characters, the story of the shameless +plot against him. He smiled in disgust. + +"I see that I am answerable to a military tribunal," he said. "I was +prepared for it. I beg you now to arrest me." + +The mob pushed forward as if anxious to take him at his word without +delay. Boleslav, who all this time had been standing on the threshold +of the inner parlour, was hurled forward against the table, within a +hair's-breadth of the Landrath, while the fists of his enemies touched +his neck from behind. + +"Patience, my dear friends," said the Landrath in an amicable tone. +"The first who lays hands on him will himself be put in chains. One +more question, _Herr Baron_. If you were taken prisoner, as you +maintain, how was it that later, when the disbanding followed, you were +not registered and discharged in the regular order?" + +"The French, in their hurried flight, left me lying on the field, as I +was badly wounded. I was picked up by some peasants, in whose house I +lay for months at death's door. When I was able to leave my rescuers, +peace had been concluded, and there were no allies in the +neighbourhood." + +"Your word of honour is of course sacred, _Herr Baron_, but perhaps you +can substantiate this with proof?" + +"Only with my scars, _Herr Landrath_." + +"Ah!... Make a note of that----" He pushed back his leonine locks from +his brow, and seemed to be bracing himself for an impressive summing +up-- + +"My friends! Indomitable defenders of your country, and inhabitants of +Schranden! The founding of the Landwehr was the rising of a new sun, +which has never ceased to cast new lustre on the fame of Prussia. Let +us congratulate ourselves that we have been born in a time when such +great things have been demanded of us, and that we have proved +ourselves worthy of, and equal to the demand. Especially in this +district, and foremost in this district the parish of Schranden. If we +look round us, we see a very different spectacle in other quarters. Not +everywhere did the King's appeal meet with such a warm and spontaneous +echo. + +"Oh, my friends, our hearts bleed when we hear of how, in the districts +of Konitz and Stargard, for example, to escape serving, men took refuge +in the woods, and lay full-length amongst the wheat till they had to be +baited like bulls. Thousands took flight across the frontier, and thus +shirked the conscription altogether. And often what had been +beautifully drilled companies overnight, by the morning were +transformed into a shapeless mass of panic-stricken deserters. But not +in the district that I have had the pleasure of mobilising. + +"In less than two weeks, friends and comrades, the Landwehr of the +Wartenstein district was ready drilled and armed from top to toe. The +levies were double in strength what the government had required of us, +and eighty per cent, consisted of volunteers. From the parish of +Schranden came only volunteers." + +The crowd set up loud hurrahs, and the pastor nodded and smiled in grim +satisfaction. He knew whose work that had been. + +"I must admit," continued the Landrath, with a chilling sidelong glance +at Boleslav, "that the parish of Schranden has one hideous stain on its +reputation"--(several loud imprecations were audible)--"a stain which +in spite of all its deeds of bravery will never be dissociated from it" +(renewed curses); "but if it is the King's pleasure to overlook it, and +only to see the brighter side, his graciousness is due to those who, in +defending his realm, have rendered him such able services, whose leader +I am happy and proud to call myself. The King's favour--('Why does he +harp thus on the King's favour,' thought Boleslav, 'when he might wind +up the case and be done with it')--has been abundantly lavished on us, +and we are almost overpowered with his blessings. Yet let all who reap +the fruits of the harvest remember they owe it to the men of the +Landwehr, and not least to their organiser, who sowed for them the +seeds of undying fame." + +Again he began to turn over the leaves of his portfolio, then he went +on: "Take your caps off, intrepid inhabitants of Schranden. Attention, +my brave men! Gentlemen, if you please, rise! Whoever keeps his cap on +at the back there will be ejected. I am commissioned to read over to +you an order of the Cabinet of supreme import. It is as follows: +'Should it prove true that the Freiherr von Schranden of Schloss +Schranden and Lieutenant Baumgart of the 15th Regiment of the +Silesian Landwehr, be one and the same person, and that, as was +naturally supposed of so fearless an officer, he had no real intentions +of deserting, I appoint him to a captaincy in my Landwehr, and entrust +him with the command of the company in his division. I also bestow on +him, in recognition of his extraordinary valour and distinguished +service, the iron cross of the first class. The Landrath for the +district shall invest him with these honours in the presence of his +accusers.--Friedrich Wilhelm Rex.'" + +The proclamation was received in profound silence. The patriotic +Schrandeners stood glowering at each other in consternation. Felix +Merckel had sunk back on the window-seat. His fingers clutched +convulsively at the cross that shone between the black froggings on his +coat. Boleslav felt a buzzing sensation in his head. He was obliged to +cling to the door for support, for he feared he might swoon. Not joy, +only infinite bitterness, welled up within him. He bit his lips hard to +keep back his tears. + +The Landrath drew a small black case from the depths of his coat +pocket, and presented it to Boleslav with an exaggeratedly obsequious +bow. The cover sprang back. The black smoothly polished scrap of iron, +on its background of blue velvet, seemed surrounded by a halo of +shimmering light. Boleslav grasped it with one hand in growing +excitement, while he offered his other to the Landrath. The latter +retreated a step or two, closely regarding his long, white, skinny +hands, as if the act of handing over the case had done them some +injury. Then he deliberately hid them behind his back. + +"_Herr Landrath_, I offered you my hand," cried Boleslav threateningly, +flushing darkly at this new insult. + +"According to his Majesty's wishes I have discharged my duty. My +instructions did not include a shake of the hand." + +At this moment a cross, like the one Boleslav had just received, flew +through the air and alighted at his feet Felix Merckel had torn it from +his breast. Swelling with righteous indignation, he swaggered up to the +official, whom he now felt sure he had no reason to be afraid of, and +cried-- + +"There it may lie. I don't want it now. Any decent soldier would be +ashamed to wear it when such as _he_ is decorated with it." + +A cry of mingled pain and fury escaped Boleslav's lips, and with raised +fists he turned fiercely on his enemy. + +Felix Merckel unsheathed his sabre, as if with the intention of hewing +down the unarmed man. But the old landlord threw his corpulent form +between them. The Landrath confined himself to waving his hands +soothingly; and the pastor vigilantly kept watch on his Schrandeners. +He knew his flock, and read murder in their glance. + +"Back there! keep back!" he shouted to the tumultuous throng in a voice +of brass. With outstretched arms he sprang into the doorway, where +already a line of pikes appeared, ready to fell the victim from behind. + +Boleslav looked round and saw with a shudder how near he stood to +death. + +The pastor, clinging to the roof of the doorway, endeavoured to stem +the murderous tide. Would that frail and venerable frame be able to +repulse this onslaught of unmuzzled wolves? Would it not be swept away +on the crest of this bloodthirsty wave? A weak shield to rely on, +indeed! Yet his was the only authority not swamped by the tumult. The +Landrath's protesting hands waved impotently above the seething heads, +like limp towels; the gentle flutelike tones in which he declared the +ringleaders of the disturbance should be turned out and bludgeoned were +totally ignored. His parasite, the little portfolio bearer, had taken +the precaution to creep under the table. + +A voice within Boleslav cried, "What! You will let this old man protect +you? Cannot you protect yourself?" And a wild resolve consumed him. +This seemed a moment given him to balance his account with fate--a +moment of all others in which cowardice was to be avoided. He caught +hold of the old pastor in a grip of iron and drew him aside. + +"This is my place, reverend sir," he said, and planted himself in the +doorway. + +He stretched out his arms above him, as the old man had done, and +offered his breast as a target for the pointed weapons. His eye +penetrated unflinchingly into the heart of the struggling and ramping +mob before him. He felt the foam from their mouths bespatter him, and +their hot, foul breath fan his face. + +"Here I stand!" he cried. "I have left my pistols at home; so you can +make short work of me. Any of you who have the courage." + +But no one had the courage, for his back was not turned to them now. +Sabres were lowered, pikes dropped. + +"I see--you don't wish to assassinate me after all," he said, holding +them with his eyes. "You are going to behave yourselves like men, and +not like wild beasts. Very well, then, I will speak to you as to +reasonable men. Move backwards and keep quiet." + +The crowd wavered; the next moment he had the threshold to himself. + +"And now--speak! Tell me what you want with me?" + +There was no answer, no sound in the room except the laboured +breathing of excited lungs. + +"You hate me. You would like to take my life. Tell me why? Here in the +presence of a representative of the King whom we all serve and fear, in +the presence of a representative of the God in whom I believe and you +too--tell me what I have done? I submit myself to their judgment. Now +is your opportunity of charging me." + +But the silence continued. Only one spluttering voice arose for a +moment and died away in a gurgle, as if it were being stifled by force. + +"You are dumb. You cannot say what my offence has been,--and you, +gentlemen! Won't you come to the assistance of these poor, speechless +people? There on the ground lies a cross, the mark of honour our nation +cherishes more highly than any other, which some one threw away, +because through my possessing one like it, he considered it +contaminated. Some one else declined to shake hands with me just now, a +common act of courtesy which no man of honour refuses another unless he +be a blackguard. It does not matter, _Herr Landrath_, if in this +instance judges and accusers unite in a common cause. Accuse me of what +you like, condemn me! I am prepared." + +Another long pause. The Landrath twisted his whiskers in embarrassment. + +"And you, _Herr Pastor_--it is hardly fitting that I should call the +instructor of my youth to account--but some months ago you showed me +the door in your own house. Could you not be spokesman now for your +parishioners?" + +The old man's jaws worked, his lips moved, but no sound issued from +them. He appeared to have exhausted his strength, but the wild, fiery +glance he darted from beneath his bushy brows boded no good to +Boleslav. + +With a laugh he went on. "Then I must be my own accuser." He felt +intoxicated with his own courage. "Your hand against every man, and +every man's hand against you," cried jubilantly within him. "You think +you ought to visit the sins of the fathers on me; empty the vials of +your wrath on my head because you cannot reach the dead. Very well. I +am his heir. I take his guilt upon me, and do not refuse to do penance, +when right and justice demand it of me. But why were no steps taken +against the dead man himself? Why was he not tried? Why not dragged to +the scaffold when he deserved it? _Herr Landrath_, I ask you, as the +embodiment of the law, why did the State remain silent and suffer these +gallant men who smarted under wrong to take revenge into their own +hands? And such a revenge! So childish, so cruel, that one would have +thought it could only have occurred to the primitive brain of +bloodthirsty savages. Revenge for a deed which at this hour I neither +admit nor deny, because it lies shrouded in mystery. Which of you can +say how it happened, or whether it happened at all? And in spite of +this uncertainty, you have damned and defamed him and his race, +deprived them of honour and justice. Is that fair play? Now I ask you +to put us on our trial, me, and the dead man, and----" He paused, +shocked at the thought that he had nearly let fall Regina's name. + +The pastor's eagle eye flashed ominously. Then collecting himself, he +continued: "Inquire, speak out unravel the mystery, clear up the +matter, and then judge and pass sentence. But at the same time sit in +judgment and pass sentence on that other crime, the crime that has +wrecked my property, and leaves me only uninhabitable ruins to live in, +a crime that cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance. On the subject of +other outrages and indignities I will be silent--threats of murder to +me and mine; the blocking of the churchyard entrance to my father's +funeral cortège--all that shall pass. But the fire, _that_ I swear +shall be avenged! If till to-day justice has been blind to my wrongs, +its eyes shall be wrenched open. I will not rest day or night till I +have dragged the skulking authors of that cowardly, atrocious deed into +the light of day, and may God have mercy on those who attempt to screen +or defend them." + +Again the mob showed signs of uneasiness. Its foremost ranks pressed +back on the others, as if to fly from the vengeance of the wrathful man +who had addressed them in words of such burning indignation. Again from +the neighbourhood of the window came hoarse, stuttering laughter that +was choked off as before. + +The occupants of the best parlour made an effort to appear as if they +had not been listening to Boleslav. The Landrath, who was really +painfully affected, busied himself with more zeal than ever in looking +through his papers. Old Merckel had picked up the discarded cross, and +was trying to persuade his son, who resisted sulkily, to wear it again. +The little man in grey had come out from under the table, and was +employing himself in carefully rubbing dust off his knees. Only the old +pastor was on the alert. He had propped his stick against the table; +the thin white hair that floated round his bald skull quivered. He +stood looking, with his vulture profile, and small eyes flashing +beneath his sharply projecting brows, like a bird of prey waiting to +pounce on its booty. + +Had Boleslav caught sight of him at that moment, he might have +hesitated to make a fresh challenge. But he wanted to score all along +the line and complete his victory. + +"In order that there may be a clear understanding between us," he +cried, "that all may see who has right on his side and who wrong, I +ask, which of you has a charge to prefer against me? To whom have I +done an injury? How have I sinned?" + +Then the voice of the old pastor was raised behind him. "Is Hackelberg, +the carpenter, here?" + +Boleslav winced. That voice so close to his ear sounded intimidating +and uncanny, and prophetic of coming evil. There was a scuffling and +swaying in the crowd. The ragged figure of the village drunkard, by +means of shoves and kicks, was propelled forward into the front row. He +struggled and beat the air with his hands, and when forced on to the +threshold of the inner parlour, tried to duck beneath the legs of the +men on either side of him. + +"There is nothing to be afraid of, Hackelberg," said the pastor. "I +will see that you are not hurt." + +Reassured, he drew himself up, and scanned the gentlemen he had been +brought before with a suspicious, glassy eye. + +"What creature is this?" inquired the Landrath, scandalised. "Why is he +not put under restraint?" + +"Because his condition is owing more to his misfortune than his fault," +the pastor answered. + +Herr Merckel thought it his duty to whisper an explanation to his +superior. + +"He is the poor father so much to be pitied," he said, with a mock +pathetic air, "whose sad story I related to your _Hochwohlgeboren_." + +At the same time he watched uneasily some Schrandeners, who seemed to +be waiting for a signal to take the drunkard into custody. + +"Have you nothing to say, Hackelberg?" asked the pastor. + +"What should I have to say, Herr Pastor?" he lisped, beginning to +cringe again, and drawing the lappets of his tattered coat over his +naked breast. + +"Have you no accusation to make?" + +"Let me go," he growled. "I haven't----" + +"Not even against _him_?" and he pointed to Boleslav. + +A glimmer of intelligence came into the dull, glazed eyes. He +understood his cue. Old Merckel nodded at him encouragingly, and he +began to play his favourite rôle. Floods of tears that the besotted +inebriate can always command so easily, poured over his cheeks. He +rubbed his wet face with his black hands, till it resembled some +hideous mask. + +"Poor fellow! poor outraged father!" crooned Herr Merckel, senior, +wiping his own eyes. + +"What is the meaning of this absurd farce?" asked Boleslav, with a +scornful laugh. But his face had become visibly paler. + +"Here we don't enact farces, but sit in judgment," answered the pastor. + +Boleslav shrugged his shoulders. "I am pleased to hear it," he said, +and there was a tremor in his voice. + +The Schrandeners craned their necks to get a better view of the +edifying scene, of which they now expected to be spectators. In the +momentary calm that ensued, distant whoops and yells were heard from +the crowds who filled the square, having stormed the inn in vain, and +with the noise there seemed to mingle a woman's voice crying for +succour. + +What if it were Regina? But it was not possible that it could be she; +and the idea vanished as quickly as it had flashed into his brain. + +"My child, my poor wretched child!" howled the carpenter, who now found +himself in more familiar waters. + +"What have they done to your child, man?" asked the Landrath, who was +not going to tolerate the conduct of affairs being taken out of his +hands. + +"My child was seduced--he ruined her--my fatherly heart is ... +lacerated ... I am a poor beg--gar ... Only one coffin----" + +"I fancy I have heard you harp on this string before," the Landrath +interrupted him sharply, "at the time when I examined your daughter +about the Cats' Bridge disaster. If you haven't learnt anything a +little newer than that in five years, you'd better hold your tongue. It +seems," he said, turning with a smile to the pastor, "as if this +ruffian were bent on playing the part of Virginius." + +The little man in grey laughed shrilly at this facetious sally on the +part of his chief, and then was overcome with confusion at his own +timerity. But the old pastor was less disposed to appreciate the +Landrath's urbane humour. + +"I will speak for you, Hackelberg," he said. "My words must be taken +seriously. I will speak for you and for all of us in the name of our +Heavenly Father, whose commandments were not made to be flouted and set +at nought by aristocrats. Freiherr von Schranden, just now you +challenged me to speak. Will you listen to what I am going to say?" + +He assented impatiently. For the second time he fancied he heard that +cry of distress rise above the hubbub outside. + +"You have entered into the inheritance of your father?" + +"Can there be any doubt in the matter?" + +"God knows! None." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I mean you have only too quickly appropriated that which was his +unlawful possession." + +"_Herr Pastor_----" But he could not go on. He felt a choking sensation +in his throat, and a stony horror creep over him. + +"Where is your spirit?" he asked himself; "your boasted defiance?" + +"You found a woman, _Herr Baron_, on your estate who had been your +father's mistress. You found her degraded, defiled, dragged through the +mire of wickedness and vice. Year-long slavery had robbed her of the +respect of every living creature. She was treated as a mere animal by +animals. This wretched woman belonged to my parish and to me. I reared +her in the way she should go. It was my hand that sprinkled the +baptismal water on her brow; my hand that held the chalice to her lips +at the Holy Sacrament; and I promised and vowed before God, and in +presence of my flock, to watch over this young soul; doubly orphaned, +because he who generated her was not responsible for his actions." + +"Ah, my poor orphaned child!" maundered the carpenter. "Only two, only +one other coffin ..." + +"I am answerable for her to God and the parish. I could not command +your father to give her up, for, as I told you, I had handed him over +to a heavenly tribunal; but _you_, who have courted this inquiry, I +command to give her up, and, what is more, in the present hour of +reckoning I exhort you to render account of what you have done for her +soul." + +A red mist floated before Boleslav's eyes, and in this mist the figure +of the venerable priest seemed to grow till it became almost god-like. +He could only stammer forth-- + +"What should I ...?" And the old man took up the thread of his speech +again-- + +"To-day you have been honoured before all men by our King; but, +Boleslav von Schranden, look to it that God holds you in equal esteem. +What should you have done, you ask? This impure, abandoned creature +ought to have been more awful, more sacred to you than any other +earthly being. What have you done to atone for the guilt your father +heaped on her? Have you freed her from the bondage into which she had +sunk, loosed her from the chain of her sin? Have you pointed her soul +upwards to God, the All-gracious and All-forgiving? Or have you dragged +her down deeper and deeper into the hell that your own flesh and blood +created for her? Above all, in what fashion have you been living with +her? It is said that, amidst the devastation of your island, there is +only one room habitable. Have you never lost sight of the fact that by +all laws, human and divine, your father's property in this instance was +for you forbidden? Have you taught her to repent and pray, or have you +filled her poor undisciplined senses with fresh poison? And have you +preserved your own blood intact from sinful desires and lust? Or have +you let your passions, like greedy beasts waiting whom they may devour, +keep watch on her, ready to spring in an hour of weakness, thus adding +fresh shame----?" + +"Cease!" cried Boleslav. "This is too much!" + +Truly scorpions proceeded out of the mouth of this mild Christian +priest, who knew how to reveal and lash secret sins of the imagination, +which till this hour Boleslav never suspected had existed in his. + +But now he saw it all. Everything was clear. Now he knew what it was +had sent his blood tearing impetuously through his veins in the long +night vigils, and had made him hold his breath, and listen to hear +whether that other breath did not come faster or slower, showing that +she, too, was sleepless and on guard. It was sinful desire for her +body--the body that had been dishonoured and abused, yet in spite of +all remained so triumphantly beautiful. + +Thank God! ah, thank God! that the sin was still confined to his inner +consciousness. There was yet time to lock it behind bolts and bars to +prevent its stealing forth over the fatal threshold. So far he could +claim the right to be his own judge, to stand before the private +judgment-seat of his own conscience. + +He looked round him, and his face was distraught and ghastly pale. He +saw triumph flame up again in the eyes that watched him. + +"What right have you to impute this crime to me?" he said to the +pastor. + +"I did not impute it--I merely asked you," the old man interposed +quickly. "You have become too pale, _Herr Baron_, for us not to observe +your discomfiture." + +"Condemned out of his own mouth, unhappy man," murmured Herr Merckel, +senior, with a sigh. + +The Schrandeners, in the renewed hope of being allowed to spring at his +throat, set up a fearful howl, and pressed forward once more. + +Then above all the din there was distinctly heard from the yard a +shriek of anguish that caused Boleslav's marrow to freeze in his bones. +There could be no mistake now. That _was_ Regina! + +"Regina!" he cried, and rushed to the window that opened on the yard. +There the mad chase was in full cry. A crew of furious dishevelled +women were dashing over hedges, ditches, waggons, barrels, and frozen +dunghills, followed by boys armed with clubs. The air was thick with +flying stones. + +"Help! help!" shrieked Regina's voice. But she herself was not visible. + +But as he wrenched open the back door she flew like a wounded bird into +the dark corridor, followed closely by her would-be assassins whooping +and panting. + +He pulled her with a powerful movement of his arm into the room, and +shut the door on the furies in pursuit. + +She sank on the floor at his feet and pressed her face against the hem +of his coat. + +Her hands relaxed their cramped grasp on two splintered pieces of +wood--all that was left of her tub, the shield with which she had been +in the habit of warding off assaults. Her hair was loose, her dress +torn, the pretty fur-trimming that she had been so proud of, hanging +about her in tatters. + +"A charming pair of lovers," said Herr Merckel, rubbing his hands in +keen enjoyment of the scene, while the Schrandeners displayed a strong +disposition to continue the work begun outside by their womankind. The +very sight of Regina was sufficient to excite to an uncontrollable +degree their predilection for "throwing something." With a yell of +delight they looked round them in search of missiles,--and already two +earthenware mugs had been hurled into the gentry's parlour, one of +which struck the carpenter on the shoulder. This instinct for smiting +was now stronger in them than the thirst for a life. + +The Landrath wrung his bony hands in despair. All his courtesy and +distinction of manner was lost on this pack of devils. + +"_Herr Landrath_," said Boleslav, pointing to the woman cowering almost +insensible at his feet, "I beg you to make a note of this pandemonium. +If you do not feel inclined to interfere, I take the liberty to warn +you that you may have to appear in your own august person as a witness +in a court of law against these gallant people." + +Certainly the Landrath seemed hardly aware of the pitiable figure he +was cutting. His splendid mane now hung in shaggy disorder about his +face, which had assumed a peevish expression. + +"Merckel," he rasped, "you are mayor. I'll have you superseded, unless +you can maintain order. Order! do you hear, good people. Order! This is +breaking the public peace. You deserve imprisonment--in fact you +_shall_ be sent to prison. Taken with arms in your hand, means three +years, not a day less than three years, good people. Tomorrow I shall +send gendarmes, three gendarmes." + +It must have been his good angel that put this threat into his head, +for no other could have had the same effect in bringing the rebels to +their senses. Since the war no gendarmes had been stationed in +Schranden, which was a piece of good fortune not to be scouted at, for +its inhabitants feared gendarmes more than they feared the king. + +Herr Merckel, who began to tremble for his office, was now assiduous in +his efforts to restore peace. His son leant back with folded arms in +the corner of the window-seat, affecting to be highly amused at the +proceedings. + +But the old pastor's gaze never wavered from the pair, and seemed to be +searching the innermost recesses of their hearts. + +"Stand up, Regina," said Boleslav to the kneeling girl. "They shall not +hurt you. I will defend you." + +But she remained huddled at his feet, still quaking with fear. + +"It's not true, _Herr_, that they are going to take you away?" she +sobbed. "If it is, I will starve myself and freeze to death." + +"No, it's not true; but get up, Regina." + +"Master; ah, my dear, dear master!" and she pressed her forehead +against his knee. + +"Boleslav von Schranden, do you deny it now?" + +"Deny what?" he asked. "That this poor unhappy girl whom you have +denounced and ostracised regards me as her rescuer and saviour, because +I am the first who for years has spoken a kind word to her? Or would +you have me deny that this same unhappy girl has endeared herself to +me, because she is the only human being on God's earth who has clung to +me in my hour of need, when every one else has forsaken me? I should be +an ungrateful ruffian if I did not value her after all she has done for +me. I never asked her to share my solitude among the ruins. It is not +so comfortable or lively up there, and all my goodness to her has +consisted in my allowing her to sacrifice herself for me. I have not +been able to supply her with pleasures. There has been no unlawful +intimacy between us. If she prefers to be my body-slave to being stoned +and harried to death, that is no concern of any one's in the world, +least of all of you Schrandeners, and of that despicable drunkard who +prostituted his own flesh and blood." + +Gently prompted by old Merckel, the carpenter recommenced playing the +rôle of injured father. + +"Oh my daughter! my poor, misguided daughter!" he groaned. + +"Do your duty," urged the landlord; "reclaim her." + +"Come, my child; come back to your brokenhearted, deserted father. He +has taken to drink through grief ... driven to it. He will only make +two more coffins; one for himself and one for----" + +He stretched out his dirty hand to her, which, shuddering, she +violently repulsed. + +"Do not distress yourself further," said Boleslav. "She belongs to me +as I belong to her." + +"Nevertheless, I demand her from you this day, Boleslav von Schranden," +said the old pastor, placing his hand on Regina's head. She cowered, +but let it lie there. + +"That you may be able to stone her better?" + +"I promise you that no harm shall come to her. I will confide her to +the care of one of my spiritual brethren, who will see to her wants for +this side of the grave and the other. If you oppose her redemption, you +will only be knitting the chain of your sin the closer." + +Boleslav was silent. A thousand thoughts rushed through his brain. This +old man's word was to be relied on; he was no cheat. And what lawful +claim had he to this woman lying helpless at his feet? How could he +make it worth her while to perpetually risk her life for him? + +Then the Landrath, who had partially recovered from his panic, put in +his word. "Is the young person of age?" he asked. + +The pastor calculated a moment, and replied in the affirmative. + +"The _vis paterna_ therefore cannot be enforced against her wishes, +otherwise she might be sent to a penitentiary, where----" + +The rest of his speech was cut short by a burst of ironical laughter +from Boleslav. + +"She may decide for herself. Does that satisfy you, _Herr Baron_?" + +"I shall not influence her one way or the other," he muttered, and he +felt the form at his feet vibrate. He bent over her. "Regina, do you +hear what the pastor promises to do for you? You know your future is +monetarily provided for. Will you leave the rest, and go with him." + +Then she lifted her glowing face streaming with tears to his, and +sobbed out, "Please, _Herr_, don't make fun of me." + +"You wish to stay with me?" + +"Ah, _Herr_, you know I wish it. Why do you ask?" + +"Stand up then, and we will go." + +The pastor barred their way. He had become ashy pale, and his vulture +gaze pierced Boleslav through and through. He laid his hand solemnly on +his shoulder as he had done the day he had demonstrated to him his +father's guilt. + +"My son," he said, "you too I received into holy baptism, and taught +you to lisp God's name, and opened your eyes to the marvels of His +creation. You were to me as my own child, and more, because you were +the son of my terrestrial lord and master. I have to answer for you too +before the throne of God. You have not been able to clear yourself of +the suspicion that rests upon you, and if I read your soul aright-- +don't cast down your eyes--I think I am not mistaken. Therefore, I +again command you to give up this woman. I command and exhort you to do +so in the name of your father, the name of the parish, the name of our +Master in heaven who is the Father of all orphans and irresponsible +children who sin unconsciously. Give her up--and you shall be acquitted +as blameless, and go your way in peace." + +Regina had raised herself, and now clung to his arm, trembling from +head to foot. + +"Come!" Boleslav said. "It is to be hoped they will let us pass," and +he made a motion as if he were going to push by the old man. But he +planted himself again in their way, and holding his arms aloft, said-- + +"Then you are worthy of your father. And as I once cursed him, I curse +you to-day, you and this woman together. You shall be like Cain, whom +the Lord banished from His sight.... You shall be a fugitive and an +outcast on the earth, and your home shall lie in ruins for evermore. +There you shall abide with this woman.... Now go! Make room for them +there! and who lifts a hand against either of them or lays a finger on +them shall be cursed, as they are cursed." + +Boleslav uttered a sound that broke discordantly on the solemn +silence-- + +"Come!" he said, and took Regina's hand in his; "let the old man curse, +it seems to be his trade;" but he felt a cold shiver run through him. + +He saw a lane open which reached to the door, in the densely-packed +tap-room. Hand in hand he and Regina walked down it. + +No one laughed, no one sneered, no one stirred. A superstitious awe +seemed to have struck the onlookers dumb. The breath of the winter +evening met their faces with an icy tooth. Had some one spread the news +of what had happened within, among the crowd that waited outside, or +had they divined it by instinct? Here too was profound silence; here +too a path was made for them, which they followed, bending their +footsteps riverwards with bowed heads. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + +The glow in the evening sky faded. A violet vapour hung about the bare +tracery of the tree-tops, and showers of sparkling crystals rained from +the branches. + +Boleslav ground the snow under his heel. His breath curled in front of +him in slender columns. The keen frosty air was balm to his fevered +face. He had sent Regina on before, and was trying to regain calmness +and presence of mind in solitary wandering, for his brain boiled like a +witch's caldron. + +The curse stood out intangibly in his ruminations; it was like the +bogey that little children people the darkness with. He saw it +everywhere; it haunted him. How well his father's old enemy had availed +himself of the opportunity of doing what probably he had long connived +at, putting the son under the same ban as the father. + +But it was a terrible reflection to think he might have deserved that +curse. As it was, he had not merited it; a thousand times no! What the +veteran priest in his dark suspicion had alluded to as an accomplished +brutal fact, had really only swept his soul with phantom wings. Now +that his conscience was awakened to the danger of the situation, the +danger itself was over. After all, he ought to be indebted to the +pastor for showing him the yawning precipice that lay at his unwary +feet. + +"Think no more of it," he said to himself; "I am the master, she the +servant, and I should be an accursed----" + +He stopped. Was he not already accursed? Then he laughed at his foolish +fears. It was childish to mind. Bah! he was too susceptible. At all +events, this day should be the beginning of a new epoch in his +relations with the outer world. The possession of the iron cross was a +proof that he was not dishonoured or outside the pale of law and +justice. With it he might, if he had the courage, outwit the knavish +tricks of his personal enemies, and appeal to the assistance of the +Courts. If the judge of the district had chosen to condone the fire by +ignoring it, he might in his turn light a fire that would send forth +such a blaze that the very holes where the incendiaries skulked would +be illuminated. But it would involve dragging his father's dealings +also into the fierce light of day. Could he dare to disturb the peace +of the dead, like a body-snatcher, and blazon forth the shame of his +house in the face of all the world? + +His mouth became distorted with the defiance that inwardly consumed +him. He felt for the moment as if deliberate self-destruction were a +mere joke. Why should he hold back; stop at anything? Was he not under +a curse? A bitter laugh rose in his throat. He could not forget that +curse! + +Then he went into the house. Regina was laying the table for supper. +She had mended her jacket, and smoothed out her hair with water. Her +face was as calm as if nothing in the least out of the way had +happened; only a scratch on her throat, testified to the hours of peril +she had lately lived through. + +With affected severity he asked, "What induced you, Regina, to be so +silly as to come near the inn?" + +She measured him with a shy glance. "I beg your pardon, _Herr_," she +said, with a graceful bend of her neck. "I found your letter, and I saw +everything swimming green and yellow before my eyes, it made me feel so +queer. I hardly knew what I was about. I thought perhaps I could help +to set you free." + +"Stupid child!" he said, and laughed; but a feeling rose within him +that had to be forcibly repressed. + +"Bring the wine," he ordered, as he sat down to the table. + +"Which kind, _Herr_?" + +"The best. It is high festival and holiday to-day!" + +She looked at him in surprise, and went. + +"Fetch a glass for yourself," he said, as she uncorked the grey +cobwebby bottle. + +"Oh, please, _Herr_, I'd rather not. It's too strong." + +"Nonsense! you will get used to it." + +"Perhaps, _Herr_." + +He poured out the wine. The dark-gold fluid foamed sparkling into the +slender-stemmed emerald rummers, which, perishable as they were, had +been saved from the ruins. + +"Clink!" he said. + +The glasses as they came in contact produced music like muffled bells. + +"The curse of a priest has to-day coupled me with her," he thought, and +his eyes sought hers and probed their depths. "How extraordinary! how +monstrous!" This woman was to be part of his existence, the old man had +said. This woman--why, oh, why this one? + +"A curse is a sanction," he meditated further. "Something that never +happened, and never would have happened, through him has been +substantiated and vouched for before Heaven as if it were an +established fact." + +And again his thoughts began to encroach stealthily on that forbidden +ground, in whose insurmountable barriers the preacher's words +themselves had quarried access. "You are master," he repeated the +formula over and over to himself, "she the servant;" and then he added, +"What is more, she is your slave, and so let it be." + +One course of action seemed clear enough at the moment, and that was +that progress must be made immediately with his work of retaliation. He +bade Regina remove the dishes and bring another bottle of wine. Then he +fetched his writing materials and motioned her to sit down in the place +she had occupied on Christmas evening. With shy delight she obeyed, for +since that night she had spent her evenings till bed-time alone in the +vestibule. + +"I'm going to ask you, Regina," he began, "to answer very briefly, and +to the point, several questions!" + +She started, then whispered, "Yes, _Herr_." + +"Drink, and that will make you more talkative." + +She struggled to do as he desired, but to-day the effect the wine had +upon her was to make her more nervous and reserved, instead of less so. + +"To go back to the night in which you led the French across the Cats' +Bridge. Was there any one on the premises who knew of the expedition?" + +"No, _Herr_." + +"How did it get wind in the village then?" + +She cast down her eyes. "I believe through me, _Herr_," she stammered. + +"To whom did you confide the information?" + +"To my father." + +"How, and when?" + +"He used to come to the Castle secretly from time to time to get money +from me, and if I hadn't any to give him he pinched and beat me." + +"Why did you not call out for help?" + +"Because it was at night, _Herr_; and if he had been found there they +would have flogged him." + +"Go on." + +"And so he came soon after ... after the expedition, I mean ... and +asked me to do all sorts of things. I was to get money from the +_gnädiger Herr_ ... or to turn out his pockets when no one was looking; +and to be left in peace, I fetched the bag the French General had given +me. And when he saw the moonlight shine on the coin that was in it, he +was half mad----" + +She paused abruptly. + +"Well?" + +"Must I say it, _Herr_?" + +"Of course you must." + +"But he _is_ my father, _Herr_." + +"You are to do as I command you." + +She drew a deep sigh and went on. "And he caught hold of me by the +throat with one hand, and beat me with the other, and hissed in my ear: +'Unless you confess how you came by all that money, I'll squeeze the +life out of you----' And when I could hardly breathe, I----" + +He laughed harshly to himself. _His_ father and _her_ father--both had +resorted to the same chivalrous measures. + +Regina thought the laugh was at her expense. + +"Ah, _Herr_," she went on with an imploring upward glance, "I +was so dreadfully stupid then. Even a fortnight later, when they +cross-examined me, they could have strangled me before they would have +got anything out of me. But then--I suppose it was because he was my +father----" + +"Oh yes, I understand. You told tales out of school to your father. +Well, what else?" + +"The very same night my conscience pricked me, and in the morning when +I took the _gnädiger Herr_ his coffee--he would always have me take +it--I told him all." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He turned as white as chalk, but said nothing at first. He took down a +gun from the wall and pointed it at me; I folded my hands and closed my +eyes, and then I heard him utter an oath, and then he put the gun over +his shoulder and rushed out. I thought to myself, he's gone to put an +end to father! And I watched him run towards the drawbridge with his +two bloodhounds, and then I, as quick as lightning, hurried through the +park, across the Cats' Bridge to the village, to let father know his +life was in danger. Had he been at home I couldn't have saved him. But +he was in the Black Eagle, and had blabbed everything the night before, +and was now blind drunk. The _gnädiger Herr_ won't fetch him out of the +Black Eagle, I thought--and besides it was too late, for Herr Merckel +and every one knew, and they all made a great hullabaloo when they saw +me, and caught hold of me, and tried to force me to speak; but I bit my +tongue till it bled, and kept silent. Then they let me go, and I ran to +meet the _gnädiger Herr_, and threw myself at his feet, saying, 'Spare +his life, for it will do no good to take it. All the world knows now.' +... He gave me a kick that made me faint, but he left father alone. And +then a fortnight after a gendarme came for me, and took me to the Black +Eagle. There, in the wine-room, were assembled five or six gentlemen; +the _Herr Landrath_, who was there to-day, among them. And they shut +the door behind me, and began to cross-question me. I felt as if I +could do nothing but cry, and then I grew calmer, and pretended that +father had dreamt it all in one of his drunken fits. But they showed me +the bag he had taken from me--and so--_Herr_ ... I was obliged to say +... that the money ... was the ... reward ... that I----" She broke +off, and hid her face that was suffused with a dark crimson flush of +shame, in her hands. + +"Proceed with your story," he commanded, grinding his teeth. + +"They didn't believe me, _Herr_, but they saw it was no good trying to +get the truth out of me, and asked me no more questions. And then they +held a consultation in low voices (but I have good ears, and understood +all they were saying), as to whether they should lock me up till I +found my tongue, and arrest the _gnädiger Herr_, and so on, and then +they came to the conclusion that to blaze it abroad would cause too +great a scandal in the district, and be a dishonour to the whole of +Prussia, and as there was no direct proof, the affair might be left in +the dark. I have forgotten the exact words, but it was something like +that." + +"And then they let you go?" + +"Yes. Herr Merckel said I was to take myself off, or my presence might +breed a pestilence in the house." + +A silence ensued: then hastily gulping down three more glasses of the +old wine, he said-- + +"Now, then, for the night of the fire!" + +She jumped up from her chair and stared at him, her eyes starting with +horror. + +"What! I'm to tell you about the fire?" + +"All you can recollect." + +"All! ... Not all, _Herr_?" + +"All." + +"_Herr_ ... I can't." The words rattled in her throat like a +death-agony. + +"You mean you refuse?" He too had risen, and stood looking at her with +dilated eyes. + +She folded her hands on her breast. "I have always been obedient, +_Herr_, to your every wish. I have never been unwilling or grumbled. +I'll go on doing all you order me to do. If you say, 'Go out and be +stoned to death,' I'll go. But just this one thing, I beseech you from +the bottom of my heart, don't ask me?" + +He regarded her in wrathful amazement. So accustomed had he become to +her unconditional obedience, that this explosion in her of a spark of +resistance was incomprehensible to him. Was his power over her, that he +had imagined unlimited, thus suddenly to end? Surely this woman had of +her own accord made herself his body-slave? She had sold herself body +and soul to his house, and therefore it was unpardonable presumption in +her to assert unexpectedly that she had a will of her own. + +The blood mounted hotly to his head, and his eyes flashed. "You +shall!--I say you _shall_!" + +She retreated and shrank against the wall. From the dark background her +eyes shone out at him like a persecuted wild-cat's. "I won't," she +muttered. + +All the inherited brutality of the feudal master awoke in him. The +wine, too, was doing its work. He sprang on her, and caught her by the +breast. + +The buttons of her jacket burst beneath his violent attack, and her +bare bosom gleamed forth. He transfixed her with the intensity of his +gaze. + +"Shall I throttle her, or shall I kiss her?" he asked himself, and +fumbled for her throat. + +Then in her deadly terror she made a counter-attack. Her hands were +fastened in his shoulders like iron rivets. It needed a gathering up of +all his strength to withstand their muscular pressure. + +A noiseless struggle began. It lasted a minute, and yet seemed to be no +nearer its end. Embittered and desperate at first as a wrestle for life +and death, it became eventually a sort of game. The combatants +apparently had lost sight of what it was they were struggling for. His +eyes, bloodshot and wild, sought hers. Her bosom, wet with +perspiration, pressed hard against his. Their breathing mingled. +Tightly locked in each other's arms they staggered and swayed to and +fro. He pressed her in the back of her knee, but she did not yield, and +with renewed vigour tried to draw him down to her. For one second in +their delirious grappling they gazed dreamily into each other's eyes. +Then she vibrated from head to foot, and in the midst of the conflict +laid her cheek caressingly on the arm that was raised against her. He +saw the action, he saw how her eyes hung on his face with melting +solicitude--saw the beautiful dishevelled head droop like a broken +flower. + +"If you are cursed, why should it be for nothing?" And as the thought +flashed through him, he bent over her with a sigh, and kissed her on +the mouth. + +She groaned aloud, clung heavily to him, and buried her teeth, till +they met, in his lips. Then, overcome, with suddenly collapsed limbs, +she slipped from his arms on to the floor, and lay with the back of her +head flat on the bare boards. + +He stared down at her half-stunned. She would have looked as if she +were dead, had it not been for the heaving bosom, that seemed to fight +for air. Blood trickled from his lip, and unconsciously he wiped it +away with his tongue. + +"What next?" he asked himself. + +The longer he gazed at the prostrate form the intenser became his +anxiety, till it almost amounted to insanity; anxiety for what must +come. + +"Away! out of the house! Away before she moves!" an inward voice +commanded. He tore down his coat from the wall, crushed a fur cap over +his brow, and flew out into the bitter cold night, as if chased by the +devil. + +But he could not escape--could not run away from _her_; wherever he +went she was beside him. A tornado raged in his breast, and lashed the +blood to froth in his veins. + +He was fleeing from his young manhood's senses, and they were in hot +pursuit. + +He dashed through the woods at full speed. The frosty air did not cool +him, nor the darkness restore his serenity. + +Was there no salvation? None? + +He thought of the parsonage. A jeering laugh rose to his lips. Helene +had shrunk from him when he had approached her with clean hands and a +pure heart. What would she do to-day if he came into her presence +bearing a curse and an insupportable burden of guilt upon him? + +And yet that one spot of earth was sacred to memories of all that had +been purest, most peaceful and happy in his blighted life. Ought such a +refuge of light to be denied to him, even if a thousand curses had +descended upon his head from the outer darkness? + +Almost against his will his footsteps took the road to the village. It +was reposing peacefully. Only from the windows of the Black Eagle a +ruddy glow was cast on the white expanse of snow. The clock in the +church tower struck one. He must have been tramping about for five +hours, and it seemed like five minutes. Faint moonbeams shone on the +sleigh-ruts, which looked like long white ribbons unrolled on the +ground, and the mass of icicles hanging from the church roof spread a +delicate silver filigree on the dark, time-stained walls. + +He passed the church and came to the parsonage garden. There was a +light in one of the gable windows. His heart seemed to bound into his +throat. He swung himself over the hedge, and strode through the deep +snow to the summer-house, which stood at a distance of twenty paces +from the gable. In its shadow he took up his position. + +A white curtain was drawn across the illuminated casement. On the +surface of the chintz a delicate tracery of leaves and stalks was +reflected from flower-pots inside. There was her virgin paradise; there +she ruled as modestly and sweetly as the Madonna in her rose-garden. + +And again the picture in the cathedral rose before his mental eyes, as +it always did when he tried to realise the presence of the beloved. Oh! +for one second in which to feast his bodily eye on that dear, forgotten +face, so that what time and guilt had deadened in him might revive and +live anew! + +For a moment the outline of a girl's figure darkened the illuminated +window-pane. A corner of the curtain was lifted. + +Instinctively he stretched out his arms. The curtain dropped quickly, +and a moment afterwards the light within was extinguished. + +He waited, hardly daring to draw a breath, for a sign from the darkened +spot. But none came. All was motionless and still. + +"It is madness to think of it!" he said to himself. "Probably she +didn't recognise you. She only saw a man's figure that gave her a +fright. Make haste! For the whole house will be roused and turned out +to hunt the supposed thief." + +So he retraced his steps. In turning into the street he was conscious +that his blood was flowing more calmly, and his pulses not throbbing so +fiercely. Being in her neighbourhood even for a few minutes had soothed +him. + +"Where now?" Anywhere in the world, but not home. At the bare thought +of that outstretched figure on the floor, his veins began to pulsate +again with violence. Oh, she was a fiend, and he hated her! + +He took a side path, not knowing where it led. It was divided from the +Castle island by stables and carters' huts, and ended in an open field. +On the opposite side, he saw the indigo belt of woods that encircled +the flat white plains. The woods drew him towards them again like a +magnet. There he would hide, in their majestic depths where the peace +of winter reigned and slept its mysterious dreamless slumber. + +He trod the pathless field covered with hills and dales of snow which +swept away before him like the billows of a boundless ocean of liquid +light. His feet crunched through the frozen crust till he sank to his +knees, and then it needed all his powers to step forwards once more. +But with strenuous effort he ploughed his way, still taking flight from +his own thoughts. There was something almost comforting in this +objectless striving. His lungs fought for breath; moisture poured from +every pore of his body as he plunged and stumbled on. Here and there +the crust was strong enough to bear him, and then he felt as if he had +been endowed with wings and floated over the ground, till another crash +laid him low, grovelling on his hands and knees. + +Now the wall of woods rose higher and darker before him; ... he was +only a hundred steps from his goal, when his eye was arrested by +something in the shape of a hillock extending a distance of about fifty +or sixty feet in the direction of the wood. Coming nearer, he saw it +was too regular in form for a hillock, and its corners too sharply +defined. A few feet off there was a second mound of the same +description, and to the left again, a third. They must be gravel heaps, +he thought, that had been dug up in the autumn and left to be removed +till after the thaw set in. Why should the peasants not get gravel from +his property when there was no one to prevent them? + +But what did those crosses mean, that stood out so solemnly and eerily +in the night, at the foot of each mound? At first he had not noticed +them against the dark background of the woods. They were three in +number. Roughly hewn out of fir trunks, they were so firmly planted in +the earth, that they did not move a hair's-breadth when he shook them. +They bore no inscription, and if they had, he would not have been able +to read it. Inscrutable as memorials of forgotten misfortune, they +stood ranged there in the dim moonlight like rugged sentinels. + +And then the mystery was solved. He saw what they were. With a loud cry +he dropped his face in his hands. He had stumbled on the graves of the +men who had fallen on that accursed night in the year '7. Here lay the +bones of his father's victims. What evil chance had led him here +to-night? Or was it chance? Had not a thousand invisible arms beckoned +him cajolingly and irresistibly along this maniacal route, and let him +fight his way through snow and ice, till he was ready to faint from +exhaustion? It seemed as though fate had kept in reserve the most +excruciating lash of her scourge till this hour of his bitterest +humiliation; so that he should no longer be in doubt as to there being +any salvation in store for him, and to demonstrate once for all that he +was doomed to sink for ever under the weight of shame and despair. + +"But it is well that I came," he said, conversing with himself; "where +better can I convince myself that the old pastor's curse was not +unjust--and that what was not a sin, has become one?" + +His eyes wandered over the row of flattened graves, and now there +seemed no end to them.... How many were buried there? If they had been +closely packed, a hundred or more might rest in each grave--or perhaps +even double that number. And they had all been brave soldiers who had +left their homes gaily, in light-hearted devotion to fight for King and +Fatherland.... Through foulest treachery they had been butchered here +in cold blood, under cover of night. + +He clung to one of the crosses, and held his face so tightly against +the rough wood that splints dug into his flesh. + +"Arraign him before the whole world!" something cried within him--"him +and _her_--and then go with her to perdition." + +He gazed at the distant prospect, and sought the outline of the ruins +against the horizon. But nothing was visible except the tall trees that +crowned the park, which were only dimly discernible. A little behind to +the right of them lay the Cats' Bridge. + +He could fancy her emerging from those trees with the troop of +remorselessly cruel Frenchmen following her, bent on their work of +blood. How terrible must the regular echo of their marching feet have +sounded in her ears. Deeper and deeper into the wood they must have +gone, till they reached that ravine which ran parallel with the +thicket, almost in a half-circle. She had never told him the road she +had taken, but he saw exactly how it had all happened. Everything was +as plain as if he had been there himself and seen it with his own eyes. + +He stretched out his arm, and with a trembling finger traced the path +against the horizon. + +And afterwards when they let her go, and she had made her way home +alone, with the wages of her sin in her pocket--how the cracking +of bullets, the beating of drums, the clouds of gunpowder, the +death-shrieks of the massacred, must have followed her, galloping at +her heels like an army of furies! + +How she had gone on living with those awful sounds ringing in her head, +those ghastly pictures floating before her eyes, he could not +understand. If he had been in her place he would have sought instant +deliverance in the first halter or pond that came handy. + +But not she! Visions were no terror to her. Her conscience, instead of +tormenting itself, was apparently scarcely conscious of its guilt. She +had only the feelings of an animal or a demon. He shuddered. And it was +to her, _her_, that he had been on the brink of succumbing! + +Then in his sore distress he flung himself across the grave, face +downwards in the snow, folded his hands and stammered forth an +incoherent prayer, while tears gushed from his eyes. + +The intense cold of his exposed position stung his face, and drove him +to stand up again. He patrolled the row of graves, unable to evolve a +single rational thought. He felt as if he were caught in a brazen net, +that was drawing its meshes tighter and tighter around him. + +"God in Heaven," he cried aloud, "visit not the sins of the fathers on +me! Let the dead sleep.... _I_ have not murdered them. Let something +happen, a miracle, a sign, that I may be shown that Thou wilt not have +me perish in this anguish of despair." He cast his eye round him as if +looking for help. + +But coldly and unsympathetically the moonlit, lead-coloured sky looked +down on him. There was no sign, no miracle. + +He laughed. "You are becoming imbecile," he murmured inwardly. + +An unspeakable exhaustion overwhelmed him. He reeled, and his feet gave +way beneath him. The next moment he was sitting in the cavity which the +weight of his prostrate figure had made in the snow. He drew up the +collar of his coat, and nearly frozen, brooded on, half sleeping, half +waking. + +When he rose with cramped limbs, happy to have escaped falling asleep +and being frozen to death, one thin purple streak had appeared in the +eastern sky. An ague, hot and cold at the same time, like the beginning +of fever, shook his frame. + +Now there was nothing for it, but to go home. But where was he to find +the strength necessary to obliterate for ever from his mind what had +happened in the night that was over at last? His tongue instinctively +felt for his lip.... The wound left by the impress of her kiss burned +there still. + +And there had been no sign from Heaven, no miracle. One course only +remained that might save him from the worst, and that was death. + +Death! The thought came to him like a ray of light in the darkness, yet +his brain was too weary, his soul too dispirited for him to grasp it, +and it died out as quickly as it had come. + +In his own footprints he walked back to the village. No one was +stirring out of doors, but here and there a chimney smoked, and a cock +from his perch crowed a greeting to the new-born day. + +As he took the path down to the river, he thought he saw the fleeting +shadow of a woman's figure hurrying from the drawbridge. Perhaps it was +Regina, who after long waiting and watching had now come to meet him. + +But no! Regina was not so slim and dainty. Who in all the village could +want to come to the drawbridge at this unearthly hour? His heart beat +fast. He had been seen. A soft, squealing sound fell on the air, and +the next instant the figure had vanished down a bypath. He did not +think of following her. It might possibly be a dairymaid who had been +taking a morning dip, and was shy of meeting him; but on coming to the +drawbridge he saw footmarks on the freshly fallen hoarfrost, and these +came to an end at the pillar to which the letter-box was fixed. + +Who could be his nocturnal correspondent? It was ridiculous, yet a +flood of hope suffused his soul. + +He snatched the little key, that he always carried about with him, from +his pocket. The box opened--a letter fell out. + +He broke the seal with shaking fingers. Helene's signature! Had God +heard his petition? Had He after all sent him fresh strength for the +struggle, and deliverance? + +The dawn gave him sufficient light to read by, but the lines danced +before his eyes. Only here and there he drank in a broken sentence or a +single word--"Wait patiently." "The hour when I summon you to come to +me." "Longing." "Childhood's days." "Happy." + +And one thing that was not written there at all he could read +distinctly. The sign that he had prayed for by the grave of the +warriors had fallen from Heaven. The miracle had happened! + +Renewed confidence in himself possessed him. He was not forsaken; he +need not yet despair of his better self. This pure, bright angel, the +good genius of his youth, was still faithful, still believed in him. +Her trust should not be abused. Rather die than, through despising +himself, bring her to feeling shame at her faith in him. + +He turned his face towards the purple morning glow, and, raising his +hand solemnly, uttered the following words:-- + +"God, who art a great and just Judge, and visitest the sins of the +fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, I hereby +swear to take my life with my own hand rather than let the curse of Thy +priest gain ascendency over me. Amen." + +Then he walked towards the house as if freed from an intolerable +burden. + +"Now the devil is exorcised!" he said as he entered the vestibule, +heaving a deep sigh of relief; nevertheless, the hand that lifted the +latch still trembled feverishly. + +He surveyed the room with one quick shy glance. + +In the rosy light of dawn he saw her crouching, dressed on her bed, her +hands clasped over her knees. Her jacket was open; her hair hung about +her face in tangled masses. Her dress was exactly as it had been when +he left her the evening before. + +She raised her head slowly, and gazed at him as if in a dream with soft +melting eyes. + +He shrank before that gaze. + +"Haven't you been to bed?" he asked in as harsh a tone as he could +command. + +She continued to look at him with the same blissfully rigid expression, +and said nothing. + +"Didn't you hear?" he asked again imperiously. + +She did not start as she used to do when he spoke thus; but a scarcely +perceptible vibration passed through her frame, as if the sound of his +voice filled her with ecstasy. She smiled a little. + +"Hear what?" she asked. + +"My question as to why you hadn't been to bed." + +"I waited up for you, _Herr_." + +"I did not order you to wait for me." + +"Nor did you forbid me, _Herr_." + +He clung to the back of a chair. + +"Why are you afraid of her?" he asked himself. "You have just sworn +that danger exists no longer." + +Then to get rid of her he told her to go and prepare him something hot +for breakfast. + +She rose deliberately, stretching her stiff limbs. A dreamy languor +seemed to pervade her whole being. Since last night she was completely +transformed. + +Directly he had shut the door after her, he tore the letter from his +pocket, and read it to reassure himself of is happiness. It ran:-- + + +"Dear Friend Of My Youth,--I hear from papa that you have been highly +honoured by our wise and noble King--that he has made you captain of +your division, and given you the Iron Cross. I congratulate you +heartily, and am rejoiced at your good fortune. What else passed papa +wouldn't tell me, but he was very excited about it, and in a great rage +when he mentioned you. Ah! if only you could have managed to win his +affection and the goodwill of the parishioners! Then I shouldn't have +to be so careful, and could see and speak to you often.... Dear +Boleslav, I implore you never to think of coming into the garden again. + +"You know papa--what he is; and if he found out--ah! I believe he would +kill me! Wait patiently, my dear friend! The Bible says, you know, +patience shall be rewarded. So have patience till the hour when I shall +summon you to come to me; then I will tell you all the news. How full +of longing I am to see you! Oh, those lovely days of childhood! What +has become of them? How happy I was then!--Your + + "Helene. + +"_Postscript_.--Never come to the garden again. I will appoint another +place of meeting. Not in the garden." + + +Strange, that what a few minutes before had filled him with delight +now seemed flat and colourless, and disappointed him. Doubtless the +half-wild creature was to blame, whose close proximity confused his +judgment. A kind of delirium of bliss seemed to have taken possession +of her. And how she had smiled! how strangely she had stared into +space! + +She came back into the room, and moved about it like a somnambulist. + +"Regina!" + +She half closed her lids, and said, "Yes, _Herr_," + +"What's the matter with you?" + +She smilingly shook her head. "Nothing, _Herr_," she answered, and +again that look came into her eyes; they seemed to swim in dreamful +contemplation of some infinite felicity. + +He felt his throat contract. Clearly there was still reason to be +afraid of himself. + +Then he resolved to speak and listen to her no more, but to live in his +work. He immersed himself in his papers again, sorted and laid aside +important documents, filed, registered, and made copies of them. It +seemed to him that he must get everything in order in anticipation of +some pending catastrophe. + +So the day went by, and the evening. Regina crouched in the darkest and +remotest corner she could find and remained motionless. He dared not +cast even a glance in her direction. The blood hammered in his temples, +yellow circles danced before his eyes, every nerve in his body was on +edge from over-fatigue. + +On the stroke of ten she rose, murmured goodnight, and disappeared +behind her curtain. He neither answered nor looked up. + +At eleven he put out the lights and went to bed too. + +"Why does your heart beat like this?" he thought. "Remember your oath." +But the superstitious, indefinable dread of coming disaster haunted him +like a ghost in the darkness. + +He got up again, and stole with bare feet across the room to the case +of weapons, that was dimly illumined by the newly-risen moon. He caught +up one of his pistols, which he always kept loaded to be forearmed +against unforeseen events. It had been his faithful friend and +protector in many a bloody fray. To-day it should protect him from +himself. With its trigger cocked, he laid it on the small table by his +bedside. + +"It's doubtful whether you sleep a wink now," he said, as he nestled +his head on the pillows. Yet scarcely three seconds later he lost +consciousness, and slumber lapped his tired limbs. + + + * * * * * + + +A curious dream recalled him from profoundest sleep into a half-dozing +wakefulness. He fancied he saw two bright eyes like a panther's +glittering at him out of the darkness. They were only a few inches from +his face, and seemed to be fixed on it with fiery earnestness, as if +with the intention of bringing him under the spell of their +enchantment. + +His breath came slower, almost stopped, then he felt another breath +well over him in full soft waves. + +It was no dream after all, for his eyes were wide open. The moon cast a +patch of light on the counterpane of his bed, and still those other +lights glowed on, devouring him with their fire. The outline of a face +was visible. A woman's white figure bent over him. + +A thrill of mingled pleasure and alarm ran through his body. + +"Regina," he murmured. + +Then she sank on her knees by the bed and covered his hands with kisses +and tears. In the enervation that had crept over him he would have +stroked the black tresses which streamed across the pillow, only he +lacked the strength to extricate his hands from hers. + +Then--"Your oath, think of your oath!" a voice cried within him. + +In dismay, he started up. Not yet fully awake, he reeled forwards, and +tearing his hands out of her grasp, fumbled for the pistol. + +"You, or her." + +There was a report. Regina, with a cry of pain, fell with her forehead +against the edge of the bed, and at the same moment a great rumbling +and crackling was heard from the opposite wall. The portrait of his +beautiful grandmother had crashed to the ground. + +He stared wildly round him, only just arriving at complete +consciousness. + +"Are you wounded?" he asked, laying his hand gently on the dark head. + +"I--don't--know, _Herr_," and then she glided across the floor to her +mattress. + +He dressed himself and kindled a light. It now all appeared a confused +nightmare. + +Ah! but if she died, if he had killed her? + +When he drew aside the curtain, he beheld her cowering and shivering in +her corner, holding up the counterpane in her teeth. It was smeared +with blood. + +"For God's sake--show me. Where were you hit?" he cried. + +She let the counterpane drop as far as her breast, and silently offered +her naked shoulder for his inspection. Blood was streaming from it. + +But the first glance satisfied him, the connoisseur in wounds, that it +was a mere surface shot. It would heal of itself in a few days. + +"Thank God! Thank God!" + +She stared up at him absently with wide eyes. + +"It is nothing," he stammered. "A scratch--nothing more." + +She appeared not to hear what he said. + +"Pull yourself together like a man. Not a word, not a look, must betray +your real feelings." + +With this self-exhortation he withdrew, and wearily put down the light +on the table. + +What now? Where should he go? To stay meant ruin and damnation. + +This very hour he must go away. Away! Somewhere, _any_where, so long as +a barrier of his fellow-creatures separated him from her for evermore. +And in breathless haste he began to gather together papers that proved +his father's guilt, as if they were the most precious possessions in +the world. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + +More than three months had passed away since Boleslav von Schranden had +turned his back on the inheritance of his fathers. + +In the meantime spring had come. Moss, starred with anemones, grew +amongst the short-bladed grass; the ditches were full of a luxuriant +growth of bindweed and nettles; and at every breeze the boughs rained a +shower of crumbling catkins. The plough left a trail of smooth, black +furrows on the bosom of the awakening earth, and seed-cloths were +already being put out to air. + +It was the first spring for many and many a long year that had begun in +peace, and of which there were hopes of its ending in peace. + +Europe's evil genius was vanquished. Like Prometheus he lay chained to +his barren sea-girt rock; and so the sword was hung up to rust, and the +ploughshare and harrow resumed their sway. + +What had taken place on the shores of the Mediterranean in the month of +March, the inhabitants of quiet country towns and out-of-the-way +moorland villages had as yet no suspicion. Not a breath had reached +them of that interrupted quadrille at Prince Metternich's ball, of the +fury and consternation of sovereigns and potentates; they knew nothing +of foam-bespattered proscriptions issued against the escaped rebel, of +re-arming and rumours of war. + +The lark's carolling in the sky seemed a jocund invitation to resume +labour in the fields, the womb of the earth opened with yearning for +the crops from which it had fasted so long. + +One day towards the end of April, a curious regiment was seen on the +king's highroad approaching the county town of Wartenstein, which +excited the wondering interest of all whom they passed by the way. + +It was not easy to decide at once whether they were soldiers or +workmen. Most of them were armed, but side by side with the gun on +their shoulders was a spade, and from the red bundles slung across +their backs peeped whetstones and scythe-blades. Ten or twelve of them +were mounted, but behind came as baggage a stream of rough waggons, +composed of about twenty axle wheels, loaded with bursting sacks of +corn and implements of every description. Altogether the regiment +numbered about a hundred and fifty, marching in half military fashion +in double file. It consisted of muscular youths, for the most part fair +and of ruddy complexions, with thickset figures. Their faces were broad +and bony, not German, and still less Polish, in type. They spoke a +language unknown in the neighbourhood, and sang songs of which no one +knew the tune. Notwithstanding, their leader was German, and so was the +discipline which had trained their limbs and given to their movements a +certain dignity of bearing. + +At the head of the procession rode one to whom they looked up with awe +and affection, and whose brief and not unfriendly words of command they +obeyed with almost childlike zeal. It was Boleslav, who came with this +little army to reconquer his own territory. + +He had recruited it far away in the Lithuanian East, on the remotest +border of the province, whither neither good nor evil reports of the +name of Schranden had ever penetrated. During his five years' previous +intercourse with this people, he had become intimately acquainted with +their habits and customs, and took care to choose his pioneers from +those who had been in the war, and become accustomed to the rigours of +a soldier's life, but who were still unfamiliar enough with the German +tongue to have their minds poisoned by the Schrandeners' gossip. + +Now he had every hope that the fate of his father, who had failed to +find either serf or labourer to bind himself to work for him, would not +be his. And should the Schrandeners offer fight to these workpeople, as +they had done to the Polish serfs whom his father had been obliged to +call to his assistance, so much the worse for the Schrandeners; they +would only be sent home with bleeding noses. + +In proud self-reliance he looked coming events in the face. He would +willingly have returned home earlier, only, to prosecute his enterprise +on the scale it demanded, he was forced to wait till the time in which +he could claim his aunt's legacy, and so have the necessary means at +his disposal. + +He had lived through hard times since that January night, when, to +flee the coercion of his hot young blood, he had dashed out into the +snow-clad, moon-illumined landscape, followed by the cries of the +unhappy woman who could not understand what ailed him. + +It was long before the furnace within him abated, and her beseeching, +frightened eyes became dimmer in his memory. In Königsberg, where he +had gone direct from home, he had meditated obtaining, through boldly +seeking a trial, that justice long denied to his house. But though the +cross on his breast compelled the doors that had been shut on his +father to open to him, the polite shrug of the shoulders with which the +judges promised to see what could be done, and then coolly referred him +to one Court of Appeal after another, taught him that the passionate +self-surrender he had dreamed of would be here ill-timed and out of +place. + +So he again packed up his father's correspondence, which of his own +free will he had desired to make public in order to clear up every +shadow of mystery, and felt he must keep it till a more favourable +opportunity offered itself. Besides, he had destroyed too much that +might have had a vindicating effect, and to court the risk of his own +condemnation might after all be acting unfairly to his father's memory. + +Contact with the outer world cooled and damped in a singular way his +ardour; and the feverish tension of his emotions gradually relaxed, +giving place to a more normal state of mind. He was confronted with +reasoning instead of anathemas, courteous words instead of threats--and +this worked a soothing and beneficial influence on his nature. He +projected plans, and prepared himself with composure and deliberation +for what the future might have in store for him. + +At the same time the magic fascination the wild girl had exercised on +him was becoming dimmer in his recollection. Every new face, every new +thought, alienated him further from her. Gradually he ceased to +reproach himself for having acted with merciless cruelty towards her, +and the mastery she had acquired over his senses was now +incomprehensible to him. Nevertheless, often when he sat alone at dusk +in his private room at the hostelry, he saw those eyes again flashing +soft fire, and felt her presence thrill through his veins. Then it +seemed as if the scar, that furrowed horizontally his under lip, began +to burn like an inflammatory record of that kiss, the only one that the +lips of a woman had ever imprinted on his, for his shy and reserved +manner had all his life repelled, and kept women at a distance. At such +times his whole existence seemed compressed into that one moment's +ecstasy. But of course this was only a freak, illusive reverie played +his senses, which lamplight and work soon dispelled. + +He had written to her once or twice in order to set her mind at rest on +the subject of his sudden departure, or rather flight--had asked for an +answer, and promised a speedy return. + +Once he had had news of her--a letter written in bold characters and +correctly expressed. After all these years of bondage, the lessons she +had learnt in the old pastor's school still evidently stood her in good +stead. + +In prospect of his near approach to his home, he drew the sheet from +his pocket, and read sitting in the saddle the lines, which, in spite +of himself, he almost knew by heart. + + +"My dear Master,--Don't be anxious on my account. No one will do +anything to me. They do not know down in the village that you are gone +away, and they are frightened of the wolf-traps, for no one has told +them that we cleared them away. Every night I see to the pistols and +guns in case they should come; but they won't come. As for the wound, I +have quite forgotten it. The grocer at Bockeldorf gave me some English +sticking-plaster, and when it peeled off, it was entirely healed. The +thaw and floods are now over, thank God. For several days I was obliged +to go with very little food, because the water was too high on the +meadows for me to wade through, and I would rather have died than go +down to Herr Merckel. Ah! dear master, I am so glad that you are coming +home soon; for I seem to have nothing to live for, when I have not you +to wait upon. I climb up on the Cats' Bridge very often and wait for +you there, so that when you come you shall not find it drawn up. Please +don't come in the night, nor on Thursday before seven, because then I +shall be going to Bockeldorf. The snow is all gone now, and the grass +is beginning to get quite green. Yesterday I heard the swallows +twittering in the nest they have built in the eaves; but I haven't seen +them yet. Now and then I suffer from stitch in my side, and giddiness, +and I have not much appetite. I believe it comes from being so much +alone, which I cannot bear. But I don't know why I should tell you all +this. Perhaps it is because you were always so kind to me. I can't help +always remembering your great kindness to me.--Your _Hochgeboren's_ +humble servant, + + "Regina Hackelberg." + + +This letter had filled him with pleasure and satisfaction, for it +showed on the one hand that she had very reasonably bowed to the +inevitable, and that there was no cause for his anxiety; and on the +other, that she still faithfully clung and belonged to him heart and +soul. And glad as he might be to feel his blood purged of the +unwholesome excitement with which she had inspired it, he could not +help being pleased at this proof of her remaining ever his true and +willing servant. + +His belief in Helene's sacred influence on his destiny had, he +imagined, received a new impetus, since her note had saved him in an +hour of imminent danger. He wore it gratefully as a talisman on his +heart, even if he did not read it so often, and with such delight, as +he read Regina's. + +Soon after his arrival in the capital, an intense yearning had drawn +him to the Cathedral, where he had sought out the old altar-piece, +which contained her living image. He experienced a bitter +disappointment. The Madonna amidst her lilies and roses appeared +absolutely ridiculous. She looked to him now as if she had been baked +out of _Marzepan_, and the flowers, with their stiff stalks and +drooping heads, appeared as unnatural and insipid as their doll +custodian. + +And this was what he had carried about with him for years, as the +_facsimile_ of his beloved! Certainly it was high time she appeared in +her own person before his bodily eyes, otherwise he would be in danger +of loving a mere phantom. + +And now, in this the hour of home-coming, it was not she at all with +whom he looked forward to a joyous meeting; his senses saw only the +picture of a girl waiting and watching for him, whose fresh and +unbounded loveliness was no myth. + +It was early morning and the sun was shining. He had made his last +halt, the night before, at a hamlet not far from Wartenstein, as he +proposed to pass rapidly through the town, to avoid being gaped at, and +exciting idle curiosity. Once there he was within three miles and a +quarter of home, and hoped to enter his native village at the hour for +vespers, for his stalwart followers were used to rapid marching. As he +rode up to the moss-grown ramparts, eight sounded from the belfries of +Wartenstein, and he counted on being able to quit the town quite early, +and so escape awkward questions. + +Thus, he was little prepared for the surprises awaiting him within its +gates. The sentinel, instead of stopping him and demanding his +passport, shouted up to a window in the gateway tower-- + +"Ring the bells! ring the bells! The first detachment is here!" + +Then he saluted with his pike, while a merry peal clashed from the +watch-towers of Wartenstein to announce Boleslav's arrival. + +"What can be the meaning of it?" he asked himself, shaking his head; +and his astonishment increased, when on riding through the streets he +found them thronged with crowds of men, women, and children, who waved +their caps and handkerchiefs, and welcomed him with resounding cheers. + +His Lithuanians, who had been accustomed on their triumphal marches to +being received everywhere with open arms, took the present ovation as a +matter of course, and responded to the hurrahs with lusty lungs. + +But to Boleslav it was plain that there was some misunderstanding, +which in the next few minutes would be explained. + +As he entered the market-place, which, like the streets, was filled +with an enthusiastic crowd, the Landrath, at the head of an impressive +procession, consisting of the Burgomaster, Corporation, and other +magnates of the town, advanced to meet him. He laid his delicate, bony +hand on his breast, and cleared his throat with a rasp, preparatory to +speaking. + +When he recognised Boleslav, who had quickly sprung from his horse, he +drew back in embarrassment. Nevertheless he began-- + +"I congratulate you, Freiherr von Schranden, on your being the first +who has hastened here with your troops----" + +"Not so fast, _Herr Landrath_," Boleslav interrupted. "There is an +error somewhere. These people are workmen, whom I have recruited in +Lithuania for domestic use. I am on my way with them to Schranden." + +An amused smirk passed through the ranks of the town magnates. They +enjoyed seeing the Landrath make a fool of himself, even if they +themselves were made to look foolish in the process. + +"And you really haven't heard yet?" he stammered out, concealing his +annoyance. + +"I have come straight from the remotest corner of Prussia, _Herr +Landrath_." + +"You haven't heard that Napoleon has escaped from Elba, and that the +King has again appealed to his gallant Prussian subjects to arm?" + +Boleslav felt a rush of mingled horror and joy flood his heart. + +So once more the world's history had absorbed the solution of his +career in its own, and he would be saved further self-doubt and +suspense with regard to it. His vast schemes, the work to which he was +to consecrate his life, lay shattered at his feet scarcely begun, and +now ended perhaps for ever. But away with all regrets and fears. Did +not the Fatherland, _his_ Fatherland, call him? + +"Thank you, _Herr Landrath_," he said, while he endeavoured to still +his wildly beating heart. "I feel honoured at your thinking so well of +me and my contingent of Schrandeners. We will prove ourselves worthy of +your high opinion, and in four-and-twenty hours be in readiness." + +The Landrath held out his hand. He retreated a step or two, and was in +the act of repaying the Landrath in his own coin for the insult he had +not long ago subjected him to. + +Then he reflected. The Fatherland calls you, and what is your petty +hate or love weighed in the balance? And he seized the bony hand, which +its owner, offended, had already withdrawn, and shook it heartily. + +Then he learnt further particulars. The evening before the King's +proclamation, dated April 7, had reached Wartenstein. All night the +administration had been hard at work getting the decrees ready for +local heads of departments, and arranging to send out special mounted +messengers to distribute them. + +"Will one be sent to Schranden?" asked Boleslav. + +"Certainly," was the answer. + +"Then may I add a military order?" + +"Yes, if you wish." + +He tore a sheet of paper from his pocket-book and hastily scribbled the +following lines:-- + + +"At five o'clock in the afternoon all troops liable to service are to +muster in the churchyard square, bringing with them accoutrements and +canteens. The hour for marching will then be stated. + + "Von Schranden, _Landwehr Captain_. + +"To the local administrator." + + +"And what will become of Regina?" was a question that rose warningly +within him. + +But he would not listen to it. He was almost delirious. The fever for +action possessed him. + +He called his workpeople together, explained to them that he no longer +needed their services, and bade each to return as quickly as possible +to his native place, from there to join his respective company. He paid +them off, and took leave of them with a shake of the hand and a +blessing. + +The stalwart youths, who had lost their hearts to him, kissed the hem +of his coat, and went their way with tears in their eyes. Then he found +a place of safety for the waggons, whose freight alone represented no +small capital, made arrangements for the sale of the seed and +provender, and left the horses at the disposal of a dealer. + +Only the one on whose back he rode did he keep for his own use. + +It was half-past two before he had transacted his business, and was +free to start on his homeward road. + +He had seen hanging up for sale in a tailor's shop an undress +state-uniform, which, as the officers of the Landwehr were forbidden +any gorgeous display of ornament, and it happened to fit him exactly, +he purchased promptly, first having the braided collar replaced by a +plain scarlet strip. + +Thus respectably fitted out, he was ready to confront his Schrandeners, +whom he now saw delivered into his hand in a rather different manner +from the one he had anticipated. + + + * * * * * + + +While Boleslav was riding home, Lieutenant Merckel was pacing up and +down the back parlour of the Black Eagle in furious excitement. + +"I won't, no, I won't submit to being under the command of that +scoundrel," he roared at his father, who, to soothe him, had the best +wine in his cellar (the best was sour enough) set on the table, and +never wearied of refilling the raving youth's glass. + +"Felixchen," he supplicated, "be sensible. If the King has ordered it +so, and the authorities demand----" + +"But what if my honour demands the contrary, father?" cried his son, +angrily twirling the ends of his moustache. "I am an officer, father; I +have some sense of honour, and my sense of honour bids me die by +putting a bullet through my body with my own hand, rather than follow +and serve under that son of a traitor." + +"But if the King----" repeated the old man in desperation. + +"The King! what does he know about it? He has been taken in, deceived, +kept in the dark. But I, _I_ will open his eyes. I will say to him, +'Here, your Majesty, are thirty brave soldiers, and an honourable, +upright officer, who would rather----'" + +"Drink, Felixchen," entreated the old man, and wiped the sweat of +anxiety from his brow; "this wine cost me, to begin with, a thaler the +bottle. Nowhere else in the world could you get anything to compare +with it." + +"The devil take your swipes!" exclaimed the dutiful son, smashing the +bottle with his sabre-hilt. "I don't intend to sacrifice my honour for +any Judas reward. My honour is not to be bribed into silence. My honour +dictates that I should tear the hound's heart out of his breast. And +I'll do it. The Fatherland must be rid of such a scandalous reproach +once for all. This plague-spot in the Prussian staff of officers must +and shall be branded out. I'll see that it is. So sure as I am a brave +soldier I will do it, even if I die for honour's sake.... Good-bye for +the present, father; I must go now and bid my little sweetheart +farewell." And rounding his lips for a defiant whistle, the +half-inebriated young man swaggered out, his sabre-blade clanking the +ground at every step. + +Boleslav, as he entered the village shortly after four, found the +street full of women and old people, who ran from under the horse's +hoofs, maintaining a glum silence, and then followed like evil spirits +in his wake. He felt for the pistols in his side pockets, and loosened +the scabbard of his sabre; then he fully expected a skirmish of some +sort. "Even if they have no other officer with a soldier's coat on, +they may be planning to attack me from the front this time," he +reflected, and his breast expanded proudly at the thought. + +The crowd was denser in the churchyard square, and he was obliged to +rein in his horse to give it time to get out of his way. Here and there +a smothered laugh or a half-whispered imprecation fell on his ear. +Otherwise total silence was the order of the day. Close to the church, +some twenty paces from its flight of stone steps, he saw the troops +drawn up in double line, about fifteen or sixteen squadrons in +strength. + +Lieutenant Merckel was parading up and down, giving first one and then +another--as it seemed--a word of encouragement. His face was aflame, +his gait uncertain; once or twice his cavalry sabre got entangled with +his legs and nearly tripped him up. + +Boleslav cast one rapid, searching glance at the parsonage. Its windows +were closely curtained, and in the garden too there was no sign of +life. + +He drew a deep breath, and rode into the heart of the crowd, which +closed behind him. + +Once again he stood single-handed, face to face with the Schrandener +wolves, but this time he was master. + +The sense of iron calm and perfect coolness, which he had always +experienced at moments of life and death issues, did not forsake him +now. + +"I am waiting for your salute, _Herr Lieutenant_" he cried in a +threatening tone. + +He was answered by a drunken, jeering laugh. + +So they intended to mutiny! His suspicions had not been ill founded. + +He tore his sabre from the scabbard. "Halt!" he commanded. + +There was a murmur of dissent. Two or three stepped out of the ranks, +and Lieutenant Merckel, with an abusive epithet, drew his sabre and +rushed at Boleslav. + +This was a moment in which hesitation would have been fatal. A flash of +steel, a whiz, and Lieutenant Merckel sank howling on the sandy earth. + +The ranks broke their line, made as if they would spring on him: but +surprise and terror petrified them. + +"Halt!" The command came forth for the second time in a voice of +thunder; and no one dared move an eyelash. + +Boleslav drew a pistol from the saddle-pocket, and, holding it with the +trigger cocked in his left hand, he let the reins slip into his armed +right. + +"Men of the Landwehr!" he shouted in a voice that reverberated through +the square, "you know that during the last six hours you are bound in +obedience by a war-decree, and that the slightest attempt at +insubordination will cost you your lives. What has taken place up to +this moment I will overlook, but whoever does not instantly comply with +my commands without grumbling will find that I shall not scruple to +send a bullet through his brain on the spot." + +Felix Merckel, who was bleeding copiously from a wound in his head, +regained consciousness, and tried to raise himself. But the blood that +streamed over his face blinded him. + +"Take away his sabre and bind him!" were Boleslav's instructions. + +The men exchanged glances; they had nothing to bind him with. + +Again to hesitate would be to lose the day; so with a quick resolve he +sprang off his horse, tore the bridle from its bit, and handed the +thongs to the flügelman on his left. + +"Set to work, and two others help." + +Reluctantly, and with evil sidelong glances, they obeyed. The prostrate +man hit out with hands and feet, and endeavoured to wipe the blood out +of his eyes with his sleeve, but his struggles were in vain; the reins +bound his wrists, and the foam-spattered curb served as a gag. + +Meanwhile the spirited black charger had broken away, and was rearing +among the terrified rabble. + +Boleslav saw, as he looked behind him, that the church door stood open +for a farewell service, and that the key was in the lock. + +"Put him in the church," he commanded; and at the same moment the old +landlord of the inn appeared on the scene, whimpering and wringing his +hands. + +"Felixchen!" he yelled, "what are they doing to you? Don't give in; cry +for help. Help him, dear people. I order you to help him. I am your +mayor. I insist--I command you." + +"It is my place to issue commands here," exclaimed Boleslav loftily. + +Then the old man changed his tactics, and, by cringing, tried to soften +the disciplinarian's heart. + +"_Herr Captain_, have compassion on a wretched father. I have known you +since you were a little boy, who sat on my knee, and I always, always +was fond of you. Isn't it true, you people? Wouldn't any of us have +willingly given our lives for the _Junker_?" + +Had his corpulency permitted, he would have thrown himself at +Boleslav's feet. On seeing his son hustled away, he ran after him in +despair, and made a futile attempt to hold him back by the coattails. +But the door was promptly closed on him. + +"Give me the key!" shouted Boleslav. + +The old man hurled himself on the steps, and pounded the oak panels of +the door with his fists. + +The key was delivered up by the flügelman and his companions. + +"Your name?" + +"Michael Grossjohann!" the Schrandener answered curtly. + +"And yours," turning to the two others. "Franz Malky." + +"Emil Rosner." + +He entered the names in his pocket-book. + +"You three will keep watch on the prisoner through the night, and are +answerable for him with your heads." + +Old Merckel, finding the church door did not yield to his furious +onslaughts, came to his senses, and squinting askance at Boleslav, +sneaked off in the direction of the parsonage. The latter thought he +knew what he wanted there. + +"Three more of you," he continued, "will kindly guard the vestry door, +the key of which I have not got in my possession, and take care that no +one goes in and out except the barber, who is to bandage the prisoner's +wound." + +Three voices quivering with suppressed anger assured him his orders +should be obeyed. + +"Now then, to business!" he exclaimed. "According to the lists the +village of Schranden is capable of supplying troops to the number----." +And the mobilisation began. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + +Two hours later Boleslav quitted the gaping crowd, who glowered at him +with a sort of stony superstitious awe, as if he were a magician, and +as he crossed the open common he felt as if he had just left a cage of +wild beasts, the duty of taming which, had fallen to his share. The +danger seemed safely over for the present. "Having mastered them +to-day, they won't dare to mutiny to-morrow," he thought, and revelled +in the joyous sensation of having won a victory. + +Now he had only to take leave of Regina, and his troubles would be at +an end. The world was all before him once more; an unknown future +seemed to be enticing him onwards with bugle-peals and battle-cries. + +"Regina! now for Regina!" welled up in him with such jubilation, from +the depths of his soul, that he was frightened at himself. He took a +round by the wood before approaching the Cats' Bridge, to brace and +harden his nerves for this last and most arduous encounter. + +The sun pierced the topmost boughs of the trees. Over the tender young +green of the meadows floated a shadowy haze, and an odour of fermenting +slime rose from the damp ditches. Only the fir-wood looked as dark and +mysterious as in winter, with scarcely a light-green spike peeping +anywhere from its black, bare branches. + +He threw himself on the mossy ground and watched the sunbeams glint +through the purple haze that hung over the surrounding thicket. + +Once again he reviewed the daring enterprise of the last few hours, and +the thickly curtained windows of the parsonage recurred to his memory. +How careful she had been to keep herself out of his sight and reach, +and how well she had succeeded! Surely she must know what had brought +him into the village--must know that to-morrow he would quit it, +perhaps never to return. + +Had she no longing to see him just once before his departure, and to +wish him God speed? The hour she had told him to wait patiently for, +was it not time it came to-day? What availed the letter he wore close +to his heart, if the hand that penned it was refused to him? Her image +was now quite effaced from his heart; it could no longer lead him to +battle, unless the impression was renewed. + +"If she loves me, she will send for me. If she doesn't send for me, she +must be lost to me for ever." + +Having arrived at this conclusion he left the wood and bent his +footsteps in the direction of the river. The park, in its new spring +dress of lightest green, smiled him a welcome. A shimmering crown of +silver rested on the tall poplars, and the dark masses of ivy glistened +on their slender trunks. + +How beautiful was this home, that had been a source of such infinite +pain and sorrow! How his whole being yearned for that impoverished +dwelling where he had lodged like a criminal! Was this longing owing to +the woman who had voluntarily shared his loneliness and wretchedness, +and who had tried to make her own misery the foundation of a new +happiness for him? + +But he had no reason to fear what was to come. He felt that since the +Fatherland had summoned him, he was safe from all weak and vicious +instincts. Even long before this he believed he had completely freed +himself from her influence. Their relations now were merely those of +master and servant. + +One more night, and the priest's curse would be remembered only as an +old man's idle babble. Yet what would become of her? She must look +after herself. He had provided for her future. No one could say he was +bound to do more. And to-day he would renew his bounty twofold or +threefold, so that she would stand in the position of a wealthy widow. +When thousands of women and children would perish of hunger in +broken-hearted distress, without any one heeding their fate, why should +he concern himself so much about deserting this one strange girl and +leaving her in solitude? + +He steeled and hardened his heart, for it had begun to beat faster.... + +And as he mounted the steep ascent to the Cats' Bridge, he caught sight +of the familiar figure among the bushes above, illumined by the setting +sun. + +"Regina," he called. But she did not move. + +"Come and meet me, Regina!" + +Then with elevated shoulders she slowly glided nearer, the fingers of +her left hand outspread, and pressed against her breast. + +He looked at her, and was horrified. "My God!" he exclaimed, "how +changed you are!" + +Her appearance was wild and distraught in the extreme. Her clothes were +torn, her hair, which under the frequent use of the comb had begun to +fall into such splendid glossy waves, once more hung over her forehead +and cheeks in a shaggy, unkempt mass. Her eyes shone with feverish, +almost uncanny lustre from dark-blue cavities, and she dared not raise +them to his. + +"She is pining away," something cried in him. "She will die, because of +you." He took hold of her hand and it lay limply in his palm. + +"Regina, do speak. Aren't you glad that I've come back?" + +She ducked her head, as she had been in the habit of doing when she +instinctively expected blows instead of kind words. + +He stroked her rough, dry hair. "Poor thing!" he said. "You must have +had a dreadfully dull time of it, with not a human soul to speak +to----" + +She shrank from his touch and was still silent. + +"Why did you not write and tell me that you found it so terribly +lonely?" + +She shook her head, and then said timidly, "It wasn't the loneliness." + +"What was it then?" + +She looked at him nervously and said nothing. + +"Well, what was it?" + +"I ... I thought ... you weren't coming back." + +"But, you foolish girl, didn't I write and say I was?" + +"Yes, you wrote and said, 'I am coming perhaps in about ten days,' and +I went to the Cats' Bridge, and there I waited day and night-day and +night--but you didn't come. And then three weeks afterwards you wrote +again, 'I shall come home perhaps in about ten days.' And you never +came, and then I thought you were only putting me off with promises ... +so as not to break it to me suddenly that you weren't coming back at +all. And I thought you repented being good to me, because I didn't +deserve it, and because I----" She broke off and buried her face for a +moment in her hands. + +"But your letter was so sensible." + +"Yes, _Herr_," she faltered. "Would it have done for _me_ to write +differently?" + +He bit his lip, and stared before him into the lacework of the young +green foliage. Did she suspect what would befall her in a few hours? + +"But now all is right again, isn't it?" he asked unsteadily. + +With a cry she sank on the ground, and clinging to his knees exclaimed, +"Yes, oh yes, _Herr_. When you are here everything is right, everything +is different. If you were to go away again, _Herr_, what should I do?" + +No, she suspected nothing. The heaviest, most crushing blow of all was +in store for her. He felt as if there were a thunderbolt concealed in +his sleeve, which the next time he stirred would descend and shatter +her to fragments. But he had still time to dispose of as he pleased. A +few hours to devote to this poor creature, in which to revive and make +her happy again before signing her death-warrant, and in which she +would unconsciously gather up strength for the ordeal. + +"Stand up, Regina," he said gently. "Let us enjoy ourselves, and not +think of the future." + +Then they walked side by side through the dusky garden, the neatly kept +paths of which were strewn with white gravel, and skirted, like +glittering rivulets, the smooth turf. The shrubs exhaled an +indescribable fragrance, the breath of spring mingled with the scent of +dying things, and in the tree-tops that waved above their heads, they +heard the subdued whispering twitter of home-coming birds. + +"How beautifully everything has come out here since I went away!" he +exclaimed. + +"Yes, _Herr_," she answered. "It has never been so beautiful as it is +now." + +"It has become so all at once?" he asked, smiling. He looked at her +sideways and noticed the hollows in her cheeks. But an exquisite colour +was already tinging them. + +She has begun to live again, he thought to himself, and it seemed as if +the next few hours were to be the last vouchsafed to him too of a +vanishing happiness. + +"In spite of everything, you have worked hard," he said, striving to +retain his tone of condescending patronage, and he pointed to the neat +borders in which auriculas and primroses were planted. + +She gave a proud little laugh. "I thought to myself you should find +everything in order if you _did_ come back, _Herr_." + +"But you have neglected yourself, Regina. How is that?" + +She turned her face away, blushing hotly. + +"Shall I tell the truth, _Herr_?" she stammered. + +"Of course," he said. + +"I thought ... I ... was ... going to die ... and so ... it wouldn't +matter." + +He was silent. It was as if she poured forth an ocean of infinite love +with every word, and that its waves rolled over him. + +The lawn on the farther side of the Castle, sloping gently down to the +park, now opened before his gaze. There stood the weather-beaten socket +of the Goddess Diana's pedestal. Regina had collected the pieces and +put them together again, but the torso had been beyond her strength to +lift, and it lay in the grass, while the head, with its blank white +eyes, looked down on it. A few steps farther on, a dark four-cornered +patch stood out in relief from the emerald turf. That was the spot +where he had first seen her busily employed in digging a grave for her +seducer, whom every one else refused to bury. + +"I left it as it was--in memory of me," she said apologetically, +pointing to the turned-up clods that, now overgrown with grass, had +joined and formed a bank. + +Then they walked on towards the undergrowth that surrounded the cottage +like a thick hedge. + +"And I have mended the glass roof too," she said. + +"Ah! indeed!" + +Their eyes met for a moment, and then they both quickly looked in front +of them again. There was an aspect of peaceful welcome about the little +house. Its window panes had caught a ray of the departing sunlight, +while all else lay buried in deepest shadow. + +A sense of contentment at being at home, and of gladness that this was +his home, overcame him, and for a moment allayed his gnawing +restlessness. + +"Go," he said, "and cook me something for supper; I am hungry and +exhausted after a long ride." + +He remembered his horse for the first time, and wondered where it had +galloped to. Then the next instant he forgot it again. + +"And make yourself neat," he continued. "I should like you to look your +best when you come to table." + +"Yes, _Herr_--I'll try." + +They separated in the vestibule. He went into the sitting-room, and she +to her kitchen. He threw himself with a deep sigh on the sofa, that +creaked beneath his weight. Everything seemed the same as on the night +he had left it, except that the curtain had been taken away from the +corner by the stove, and the couch removed; the portrait of his +grandmother, too, had disappeared. The shot which grazed Regina's neck +had proved its final destruction, and reduced it to ribbons. + +One of the windows was open. The strange perfume of fermenting earth, +which to-day he could not get out of his nostrils, flooded the +apartment. But here it might possibly come from a lime heap, which had +been shovelled up at the gable end of the house. + +From minute to minute his unrest increased. Why shorten for him and her +the all too scanty time? He could tolerate solitude no longer, and got +up with the intention of going into the kitchen, but when on the +threshold he saw her cowering on the hearth with naked shoulders, +mending her jacket by the firelight,--he retreated, shocked. But in a +few seconds she came herself to open the door to him, fully dressed. + +"Is there anything I can do for you, _Herr_?" she asked respectfully. + +"Show me where you have repaired the roof," he replied, not being able +to think of anything else to say. He praised her work, without looking +at it. Then he took up a position on the hearth and stared at the +tongues of flame in the grate. By this time it was nearly dark, and the +firelight flickered on the rush walls. + +"I'll help you to cook," he said. + +"Ah, _Herr_! You are laughing at me," she answered. But her face +lighted up with pleasure. + +"What am I to have for supper?" + +"There isn't much in the house, _Herr_. Eggs and fried ham--a fresh +salad--and that's all." + +"I shall thank God if I----" he stopped abruptly. + +He had nearly betrayed the secret of which as yet she had no suspicion, +and she should not, must not, suspect anything. Till the dawn of +to-morrow her felicity should last. + +"Very well, make haste," he laughed, while his throat contracted in +anxious suspense, "else I shall expire of hunger." + +"The water must boil first, _Herr_." + +"All right, we'll wait, then." He squatted on one of the wooden boxes. +"And, Regina," he went on, "come here; do you know I am not satisfied +with your appearance even now? Your hair----" + +"I've not had time to comb it yet, _Herr_." + +"Comb it now at once, then." + +She flashed at him a look of shy entreaty. + +"While you are here, _Herr_?" she asked hesitatingly. + +"Why not? Have you become prudish all in a minute?" + +"It wasn't that----" + +"Then don't stand on ceremony." + +She went into the far corner of the apartment, where her bed stood, and +with a quick movement loosened the floating wealth of tresses till they +hung below her hips. In the middle of her combing, aware that his eyes +were fixed on her in admiration, she suddenly spread out her arms, as +if overcome with shame and joy, and threw herself on her knees by the +bed, burying her face in the pillows. + +He waited silently till she got up. When her hair was done she went to +the hearth and busied herself among the pots and kettles, without +looking at him. + +"Tell me, Regina, what have you been doing with yourself all this +time?" + +She shook her head. "Bockeldorf was the same as ever; besides the +grocer and his wife, I never saw a single soul. During the floods I +didn't go once down to the village. As I told you in my letter, I had +to starve for a time, but I didn't mind. And then, during the last few +weeks, some letters have come, from Wartenstein, and Königsberg +too--and to-day one--from----" + +"Ah, never mind! I'll look at them later, when you've brought some +light." + +What concern had he with the outer world to-day, when he had burnt the +bridges that connected him with his past, and nothing remained of all +he had suffered and lived through? + +Then when the supper table was spread, and the lamp shone at him from +Regina's hand, he crossed over with her to the sitting-room. + +"You have not laid a place for yourself," he remarked. + +"May I, _Herr_?" + +"Of course you may." + +"And, _Herr_, what wine?" + +He drew a long breath--"None!" + +And so once more they sat opposite each other in the soft lamp-light, +as they had so often done on winter evenings, when the snow was driven +against the window panes, and gales shook the roof and rattled in the +beams. Now grey moths flapped gently to and fro, bringing with them +into the room whiffs of the balmy outer air, and the rising moon, which +was full for the first time since Easter, shimmered through the young +foliage. + +He pushed his plate away. Not a morsel could he eat. The precaution of +leaving the wine in the cellar had done no good, for the excitement he +had wished to shun was, notwithstanding, creeping over him. He took a +stolen glance at Regina, and trembled. Her eyes rested on him in such a +transport of happiness, that she seemed oblivious of everything in +heaven and earth, except the fact that he was sitting near her. Every +trace of sorrow and distress had vanished from her face as if by magic. +Its curves had taken a new roundness, a new freshness bloomed in her +cheeks. But what struck him as most lovely in her, was the languorous, +yielding tenderness of her whole being, as if she had loosened herself +from the trammels of earth and floated in space. + +"Regina," he whispered. His heart seemed throbbing violently in his +throat. A voice of warning rose within him, saying, "Take care. Be on +your guard--this is the last time she will lead you into temptation." + +"The last time!" came a melancholy echo. + +"Yes; she will die--perish of heart-sickness and unsatisfied longing." + +The scar on his under-lip began to burn. + +"Take her in your arms and then kill her; that will save her all +further misery," was the next thought that rushed through his brain. +"But it would be literal madness to do such a thing," he added to +himself, shuddering. + +And again their eyes met and sank in each other's depths. Their souls +knew of no resistance, even though their bodies still sought +despairingly for weapons of defence. + +"Save yourself!" cried that warning voice again. "Think of the curse! +Keep yourself pure and unspotted for the Fatherland!" + +He tried to think of words to speak that would break the spell of +blissful enchantment; but none would occur to him. Then he rose and +walked to the open window to bathe his hot brow in the cool night air. +"Speak--act--end this silence," he exhorted himself. He thought of the +letters she had spoken of. + +"Give me the letters," he said. His voice sounded harsh. + +She fetched a packet of white covers, which she laid by his plate. He +opened the first he came to, and stared vacantly at the unfolded sheet. +Would it not be better to allude now to the unavoidable? Why spare her +allusion to a parting which was inevitable? But he put the idea from +him in horror. "Till midnight she shall be happy. Take her in your +arms, and then----" + +"His Hochwohlgeboren the Freiherr Boleslav von Schranden is hereby +informed that his appeal for an inquiry into the causes and events +which eventually led to the destruction by fire of Castle Schranden, on +the 6th of March 1809, is receiving attention, and that a day has been +appointed for----" + +With a discordant laugh he tossed the communication to one side, and +fumbled for the next letter. His eye fell on Helene's handwriting. A +feeling almost of aversion shot through him. What did she want now? Why +disturb him at this the eleventh hour? + + +"My Dearest Boleslav,--I can't let you go to the war again without once +seeing and speaking to you. I beg and implore you to meet me this +evening at nine o'clock, near the churchyard side-gate, where I will +wait for you.--Your Helene." + + +"Why not before," he murmured, "when there was plenty of time to +spare?" Then suddenly it flashed across him that again in an hour of +danger his guardian angel had put forth her rescuing hand to him, and +that it would be criminal folly on his part to disregard the sign, and +not respond to the summons. + +"You must--you must," he said to himself, "or you won't be worth the +cannon-ball that at this moment is being cast for you in France." + +Was it not a special dispensation of divine grace that the daughter +should intervene at such a perilous crisis as this to transform the +father's curse into a blessing? He looked at the clock. It wanted only +a few minutes to the hour mentioned. He dragged himself on to his feet. + +"I must go down to the village," he said. "There is some one who wants +to see me." And though he avoided meeting her eyes, her pathetic, +beseeching glance penetrated to his innermost soul. + +"I shall soon be back," he stammered. + +She folded her hands, and placed herself silently before him. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +She could hardly articulate her words. + +"_Herr_! I am so frightened--I feel as if something dreadful was going +to happen!" + +"Since when have you been given to presentiments?" he said, trying to +joke. + +"I don't know-but I feel so strange, _Herr_! ... something in my +throat--as if ... Oh! I know it's stupid of me, but I pray you--not to +go--not to-night----" + +He pushed her gently to one side. The hand that she stretched out to +hold him back fell helplessly. + +"Please-please don't go! ... _Herr_!" + +He set his teeth and went--went to his guardian angel. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + +The Schrandeners, as many as could leave their homes and property, were +meanwhile gathered together at the Black Eagle, engaged in a farewell +orgie. + +Old Merckel served them himself. He stood behind the bar, refilling +unceasingly the empty glasses, with the melancholy smile, which to-day +there was every reason to believe was not put on. + +"Drink, dear friends," he exhorted; "don't let the unhappy event in my +family prevent you! What does it matter even if he is shot? He will die +a noble death for his honour and his Fatherland!" + +He wiped the sweat from his shiny forehead, while his little eyes +wandered in uneasy anticipation from one face to the other. + +"Go and take a glass, Amalie," he said, turning to the barmaid, "over +to those on guard. I won't bear them malice for helping to bring him to +his ruin!" + +The Schrandeners, deeply touched at the expression of so much +high-minded sentiment, gazed into their tankards in moody anger. They +would have been ashamed of rushing to the inn and displaying such +avidity for a carousal in the face of their landlord's private +misfortune, had they not felt they could not better show their sympathy +than by taking advantage of the old man's generous impulses. So they +poured beer and schnaps down their throats in positive streams, and +emulated each other as to who could drink the fastest. + +The barmaid, as fat and cunning as her master, slipped out with a tray +containing a dozen foaming tankards, after she had received a few +whispered instructions from him, accompanied by a knowing nod and wink. + +"And if you should see old Hackelberg about," he called after her, "ask +him in--ask him in. He has suffered too at the hands of the scoundrel. +He ought not to be missing on this sad occasion." + +"Brave soldiers," he continued, wiping his eyes, "drink! drink! You +must try to forget that this day your honour has been forfeited. Yes, +indeed, your case is lamentable--even more lamentable than that of my +poor son, to whom it will at least be granted to meet death for +honour's sake. But you! faugh, for shame! What will be your feelings +to-morrow morning, when you have to march away under the leadership of +that son of a traitor, the villain whom our revered _Herr Pastor_ has +cursed? It'll be 'Braun, clean my boots!' and 'Bickler, hold my +stirrup!' and that sort of thing." + +The two men mentioned thus by name started up with an oath. + +"And all you others, however much he may oppress and bully you, you +must submit because he is your commander; and if you dare to mutiny, +you'll only be shot down like vermin for your pains. Such, my poor dear +friends, is your pitiable lot! Therefore I say drink, and bid farewell +to your military honour. To-morrow the very dogs will hesitate to take +a crust of bread from your hands!" + +A half-stifled murmur ran through the room, more ominous than a howl of +rage. + +Then the carpenter Hackelberg, who had been loafing about in the +neighbourhood of the inn, reeled into the common parlour, half-drunk as +usual. + +He was received in silence. But old Merckel advanced solemnly to meet +him, seized him by the hand, and led him to a seat of honour. + +"You, too, are an unhappy father," he said to him in a voice quivering +with emotion. "Your heart, like mine, has been broken by the ruin of +your child. You, as well as myself and us all, has the tyrant up +yonder, on his conscience. So sit down, you miserable man, and take a +drop of something with us!" + +The drunkard, who was used to being fisticuffed and held up to +derision, even by those who bore him no ill-will, scarcely knew what to +make of this highly flattering reception. He glanced suspiciously round +him with his fishy eyes, and appeared to be considering earnestly +whether he should begin to brag or to weep. Meanwhile he drank all he +could lay hands on. + +"Look at this deplorable victim of baronial lust," Herr Merckel +continued. "A man who is deprived of the possibility of revenge must +lose his self-respect as he has, and degenerate into a sloven. Day and +night he broods inwardly on the wrong that has been done him. But even +the trodden-on worm turns at last, and who can blame us if we wish with +all our hearts that the miscreant should not live to see another day?" + +"Strike him dead!" spluttered the carpenter, suddenly waxing furious, +but there was only a faint echo in response, for to the men who were +now soldiers under orders for active service the glibly made suggestion +seemed no longer a trifle. + +Herr Merckel assumed an air of holy horror. "For shame, dear people! we +must not listen to such treason. I, being your mayor, cannot +countenance it. To strike him down in broad daylight would be an +unwarrantable act of violence, and I wonder you dare entertain such an +idea for a moment. But who can stem the torrent of righteous wrath that +vents itself in imprecations and anathemas? And so it is my most +earnest desire that our arch-enemy and tyrant may die in his bed +to-night, or disappear and never be seen again, or that his body may be +found to-morrow morning in the river Maraune. Then it would at least be +clearly proved that there is still a God above to judge and condemn +sinners. Amen." + +"Amen," growled his listeners, and folded their horny hands. + +"But, alas! it won't come to pass. We shall live to see the miscreant +fatten and prosper, and grow grey in this vale of tears. To-morrow he +will ride up triumphantly and drag out my Felix like a lamb to the +slaughter. And others who have demurred by a word or look will be +sacrificed too. Indeed I shall be very much surprised if any of you +escape with your lives. It is his intention, I firmly believe, to +extirpate every Schrandener from off the face of the earth. Like a herd +of cattle that has been purchased for the shambles, he'll drive you +forth tomorrow morning, leaving your widows and orphans behind to weep +and bewail your fate." + +An ejaculation of fury arose, so loud and violent that even the inciter +of it recoiled in alarm. + +"Quietly, dear people, quietly! No law-breaking. Although, truly, there +is no informer amongst us, we would sooner bite our tongues out than +betray each other. Hackelberg knows that. Thereby hangs a tale, eh, old +friend? But who knows that our _Herr Captain_ may not himself be +hanging about outside, spying through the windows." + +Five or six heads turned, and were pressed against the panes. + +"You think he wouldn't presume to spy on us? Oh, I can assure you he is +not the one to stop short at any low trick. I know what you'd like to +say, and I can't blame you for it--that if you catch him sneaking +around at night-time, woe betide him!" + +"We'll strike him dead! Strike him dead!" fumed the topers. + +"Don't be for ever screaming that, children; it offends my ears. So +much can be achieved quietly. Thus, bang! Some one has fired. Bang +again--another report. Simply a poacher in the forest. It swarms with +deer, eh, Hackelberg?" He laughed, and clicked his tongue. + +"You mustn't sit dozing there, my man. One would think you had no more +blood in your veins than a jelly-fish. Have you forgotten how the late +Baron had you flogged till your skin hung in ribbons. _Potztausend_! +How you danced and bellowed! It was a charming spectacle." + +Hackelberg writhed and grunted over his glass. + +"At that time you were a sportsman, a terror to your master, and your +bullet never missed its mark. Drink away, man! It's difficult to +believe now that you were ever a good shot." + +"I am, still," lisped the carpenter. + +"Ha, ha!--pardon my laughing, old fellow. To begin with, you don't even +know what you've done with your gun." + +"But--I do." + +"And besides, your hand has become too slack, and your honour has +evaporated, and your courage with it." + +The carpenter laughed. An evil light gleamed in the corners of his +eyes. + +"What? You would maintain that you have a spark of honour left in your +composition when you submit without a murmur to your daughter being +brought to shame? And what's more, you can bear to see her and her +seducer at large. Didn't she, your own flesh and blood, scorn you and +slap away your proffered hand? Ungrateful, disrespectful wench that she +is!" + +The carpenter staggered to his feet. + +"No one follow me," he roared, and shook his fist + +"Where are you going?" + +"That's no business of any one's." + +The Schrandeners, even in their wrath, could not resist making fun of +the drunkard, but Merckel signed to them to let him go in peace. + +"He is going to scratch up his gun from the dungheap," he explained. +"Still, what good will it do?" he added with a sigh, while his eyes +wandered uneasily to the door. "He'll take care not to deliver himself +into our hands at night. Tomorrow, at dawn of day, he'll come, when +none of you can defend yourselves, and hand you over to your +executioners, along with my son Felix, and none of you will see +Schranden again. So drink your last, children--take leave of old Father +Merckel---- Ah! there comes Amalie," he said, interrupting himself, and +the lackadaisical expression of his face changed to one of cheerful +expectancy. + +The door was thrown open, and Amalie burst in greatly excited. She +whispered something hurriedly in his ear. + +He beamed, and folded his fat hands as if in prayer. + +"Children," he cried, "there is yet a judge in Heaven. The Baron is in +the village." + +The Schrandeners rose from their seats yelling with delight. + +"Where is he? Who has seen him?" + +"Tell them, Amalie!" he urged the barmaid, and sank back exhausted, +like a person who is satisfied that his day's work is done. + +And Amalie told them. She had waited till the men on guard had finished +their beer, and had taken a little stroll in the moonlight to get a +breath of fresh air. Then she had seen a man coming across the fields +from the Cats' Bridge. He was going in the direction of the churchyard, +and wore an officer's coat with scarlet collar and gold buttons. + +"Was he armed?" inquired a cautious son of Schranden. + +Yes; she had seen his sabre flash in the moonlight. + +This information afforded food for reflection. + +"He has gone to inspect the guard," suggested some one, scratching his +head. + +Herr Merckel laughed ironically. + +"Since how long has it been customary to review sentinels in the +churchyard?" he exclaimed. "I tell you what he has gone there for. He +wishes to pay his dear, chaste _Herr Papa_ a visit--to swear on his +grave that he will avenge him, so soon as you are delivered into his +hands as soldiers. Congratulate yourselves on the expedition." + +At this juncture an ally cropped up on whom he had ceased to count. The +old carpenter rushed in at the door, flourishing in his right hand an +old fowling-piece, on which hung straw and manure. He seemed in a +perfect transport of fury, beating his breast and capering about like +one possessed. + +"Who said I had no sense of honour," he screamed; "and that I allowed +my child to be ruined? Where's the hussy who has brought shame and +disgrace on my grey hairs? I won't make her a coffin. No; I'll shoot +her down--I'll shoot them both." + +"Come along to the churchyard," cried a voice among the villagers, who +felt their courage rising. + +The old landlord winced. "No, not to the churchyard," he exhorted them. +"In the first place, the ground is sacred; and in the second, you might +miss him there. If you really wish to settle matters quietly with him +once for all--I'm not supposed to know what you have against him, and +don't wish to know--well, my advice to you is to go to the Cats' +Bridge. Just there, you know, the bank is wooded--not thickly, +certainly, but thick enough for you to hide behind." + +"But suppose he returned by way of the village and the drawbridge?" put +in the cautious trooper again. + +Herr Merckel knew better. "Not he!" he laughed. "The Cats' Bridge is +handier." + +"Let's be off, then, to the Cats' Bridge," yelled the carpenter, +bumping the butt-end of his gun against the chairs and tables. There +was a general stampede. Herr Merckel crammed bottles of schnaps into as +many pockets as he could catch hold of, as his customers hurried out. + +"Take it, friends," he cried, "and welcome! Defend your honour--defend +your honour!" + +Then, when the last had gone, he mopped his perspiring brow, and +folding his hands, exclaimed with an uneasy sigh-- + +"Ah, Amalie, if only they don't offer him violence!" + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + +On reaching the highroad Boleslav saw the figure of a girl come out +from the shadow of the churchyard yews, and advance to meet him with +hesitating footsteps. + +The moment to which he had looked forward with tender yearning for +eight years had come at last, yet his heart beat no quicker. "You ought +to be pleased; congratulate yourself," he said inwardly. "She loves +you! She saved you ... has freed you from Regina." And something echoed +sadly within him, "From Regina!" + +The contour of the too slender figure was sharply defined against the +moonlit background. The shoulders looked angular, and her hips fell in +straight, ungraceful lines from the high-waisted bodice. + +He jumped over the ditch, and held out both his hands to her. With a +prudish simper she placed hers behind her back. + +"Don't be so impetuous," she lisped. + +He was amazed. The action chilled him, and almost excited his contempt; +but he was ashamed of the emotion, and tried to suppress it. + +"You have kept me waiting a long time, Regina." + +The face she turned on him was illuminated by the moon, and he saw +plainly how insignificant and meagre it had become. She tossed her head +scornfully. + +"My name is _Helene_," she said. "I am sorry you have forgotten it;" +and pouting, she turned her back. + +He winced. "Pardon," he stammered; "it was a slip of the tongue." + +This was certainly an unfortunate beginning. She made another grimace, +but seemed disposed to accept his apology. + +"Don't let us stay here," she begged. "I'm afraid." + +"What of?" + +"Of the churchyard ... if you _will_ know." + +Again he had to struggle against a feeling of contempt. In all she said +and did he found himself involuntarily comparing her with Regina, and +the comparison was immeasurably to her disadvantage. + +"You know how timid I am," she said, as they retraced their steps. "It +was rash of me to have chosen this place for an appointment; indeed it +was exceedingly rash to come at all--and if it weren't----" + +Instead of finishing her sentence she cast at him an affected sidelong +glance. Then, as he offered to help her over the ditch she gave a +little scream and said, "No, no!" + +His half-defined sensation of disappointment now gave place to blank +astonishment. She gazed round her nervously. + +"We can't stay here either," she whispered, "If I were caught here +alone with a gentleman, I believe I should die of shame." + +"Where do you wish to go, then?" + +"You must decide." + +"Very well. Come into the wood." + +She clasped her hands together with an agitated old-maidish gesture. + +"What are you thinking of?" she exclaimed. "At night ... with a +gentleman!" + +He rubbed his eyes. Was it really possible, what he heard and saw? +Could this be Helene, the guardian angel to whom he had looked up, as +to a being belonging to another world? + +But perhaps it was he who was to blame. Perhaps the language of +innocence and virtue was no longer intelligible to him because of the +fair savage who had perverted his tastes, and filled his imagination +with impure pictures. + +"Then let us walk quietly along the highroad," he said. + +"But if some one comes?" + +"We can see that no one _is_ coming." + +"Yet some one might ..." + +He was at a loss for an answer. A silence ensued, and then he said, +"Won't you take my arm?" + +"Oh, I don't know whether I ought," replied the love of his youth. + +And again they walked on in silence. It almost seemed as if they had +nothing at all to say to each other. + +"Regina is waiting!" a voice cried within him. + +"How silent you are!" Helene lisped, playfully pinching his elbow with +two of the finger-tips that lay on his arm. "You wicked man! Haven't +you a little bit of liking left for me?" + +He felt he had no right to say "No." She had been true to him, had +trusted his word for eight long years; he dared not prove himself +unworthy now of her faith in him. When he had reassured her with a +stammered "Of course, of course," she sighed, a deep-drawn, languishing +sigh. + +"I hear such dreadful things about you," she said, "that I don't know +what to believe. Tell me it's not true." + +"What?" he asked wearily. + +"Ah, a girl can't discuss such matters. Immoral things, I mean. In old +days you were a good, noble fellow, and I can't believe it's true that +you've altered so completely." + +She drew a little closer to him. In doing so, she dropped her blue silk +reticule. As he stooped--with her--to pick it up, the peak of his cap +brushed her face. + +"Oh, take care!" she simpered, drawing back hastily. + +"A thousand pardons!" he answered, in a tone of rigid politeness, and +bit his lips. + +"Well, you don't answer my question," she continued. "Perhaps it is +true, then, what people say! I should be sorry to think that poor +unhappy me had been so deceived in you. But papa always thought you +would come to a bad end." She said this with such a ludicrous little +air of superiority, that he could not help smiling. + +She seemed to discern that she was appearing absurd in his eyes, and +went on in a deeply injured tone, "Ah, it's all very well to laugh at a +poor girl, whose intentions towards you are so kind, and who would give +anything to prevent your ruin." + +"Please, do not trouble yourself on my account," he replied. + +"Now you are making yourself out worse than you are," she interposed. +"I know you have a noble nature at bottom. And if fate parts us for +ever, I shall always, always keep a warm place for you in my heart. Oh, +what bitter tears have I shed for you many a time! And I've prayed +every night to God to keep the dear friend of my youth from sin, and +from wicked revengeful thoughts, and to give him a good conscience." + +"I am afraid the behaviour of the Schrandeners is not exactly +calculated to cure a man of revengeful thoughts," he replied. + +She turned up her sharp little nose. "The Schrandeners are an uncouth +lot," she remarked. "And one can't have much to do with them. I would +much rather stay altogether with my aunt in Wartenstein. There at least +one associates with respectable, well-mannered townspeople, who lift +their hats to a lady when they meet her in the street. Not a single +Schrandener, with the exception of Herr Merckel, and Felix of course, +dreams of doing such a thing. Felix," she added with a sigh, "has the +manners of a gentleman and an officer." Then as if something had +suddenly recalled the events of the afternoon to her mind, she +screamed, wrung her hands and said, "Oh, Boleslav, Boleslav!" + +"What is it, Helene?" + +"Boleslav, how could you be so wicked! Poor, poor Felix! I did not see +it myself, for I was in the back-garden drawing radishes, but they told +me afterwards how you slashed at his head with your drawn sabre, till +it poured with blood." She shuddered and shook with suppressed sobs. +Then she wrenched her hand out of his arm and skipped to the opposite +side of the road. "Go! I won't have anything more to do with you," she +cried. "You acted in a harsh and cruel manner----" + +"But you don't understand, dear Helene," he protested. + +"And he was your schoolfellow and playmate, and used to play +hide-and-seek with us both in the garden. He often climbed over the +hedge for you to get your ball when you had tossed it too far, and he +used to give you guinea-pigs. Have you forgotten everything? You ought +to remember the dear old times." + +"Because of the guinea pigs, eh?" + +"Oh,--and to think that you have shut him up in the cold dark church! +Papa is of opinion that you have no business to do it; he says he will +report your conduct to the _kommando_, and that probably you will get +the worst of it." + +She resembled her father so little, he thought, that his words of +thunder when repeated by her lips sounded the most insipid chatter. And +it was on this cackling little hen that he had let the great question +of to be, or not to be, hang! + +She had now come back to his side, and with a mincing gesture pushed +her hand again through his arm. + +"They say that you intend carrying him off to-morrow a prisoner, to be +tried by a court-martial, and that he will be shot dead for certain. +But it must be a lie. It is, isn't it? You couldn't do such a thing; I +wouldn't believe it of you. You are not so bad as all that." + +He suppressed an exclamation of impatience. + +"Say you won't?" she besought, wiping her eyes. "If _I_ ask you, dear +Boleslav, to let him go free, you will grant me the favour--I know you +will." + +She spoke calmly, as if the request she made were merely a casual one. +But there was secret anxiety in the eyes that glanced at his +suspiciously. + +"Dear, dear Boleslav!" she continued more urgently, her arm trembling +violently, "if you care for me the very least little bit, don't let us +part before you have promised me this. I will cherish your memory +always in my heart, if Fate is cruel enough to separate us for ever, +and will at least never cease to pray for you and bless you." + +"I am sorry, Helene," he said, moved to speaking more warmly by her now +evident distress, "if I must seem hard and inexorable to you. But it is +all of no good. Your wish cannot possibly be fulfilled." + +She had not in the least expected this answer, and regarded him for a +second with a cold, angry expression. Then suddenly she burst out +weeping, and sank against the trunk of a tree for support, with her +thin hands before her face. + +At the same moment the report of a gun was heard in the distance, the +echo of which slowly rolled through the woodlands. + +Helene gave a frightened cry, and, throwing up her hands, sobbed out-- + +"Now they have shot him for certain, because you, inhuman monster, have +commanded it! Oh dear! have you _no_ mercy?" + +Listening in the direction from which the gunshot had come, he did his +best to soothe her. + +That the shot had anything to do with Felix Merckel was, of course, out +of the question. + +It had undoubtedly been fired in the wood, on the farther side of the +Castle, probably by a poacher on the track of a wild red deer. + +But she sobbed more violently than ever-- + +"It's all very well ... but you ... you ... intend dragging him out to +his death--you know you do." + +Her increasing agitation began to bewilder Boleslav. He assured her he +would do everything in his power to ameliorate Felix's sentence. He +himself would testify to his being hopelessly intoxicated at the time. +His old rancour against himself, his wounded vanity, all should be +cited in extenuation of his offence, and might influence his judges to +mildness. + +But she was not satisfied, and at last dropped on her knees in the clay +soil, and cried aloud-- + +"Be merciful! be noble! Save him!" + +"For God's sake, stand up!" + +"No, I shall not. In the dust I'll kneel to you and implore your +mercy." + +"But don't you see that I shall be imputing to myself a murderous +design if I represent him as innocent?" + +"Never mind," she sobbed. "If you really love me, you won't object to +making this little sacrifice for my sake." + +Then it began to dawn on him that it was not for the pleasure of seeing +him she had summoned him to her side, but, in accordance with a +preconceived plan, to make use of his love for her on behalf of +another. And of such stuff as this the woman was made, of whom for long +years he had considered himself unworthy! This was the radiant angel +who had represented his ideal of purity and goodness, whose name he had +held too sacred to mention in the same breath as Regina's! + +And Regina, the dishonoured, the outcast! What worlds she seemed now +above this sly virtue! + +A wild laugh burst from him. "Why did you not tell me at once that you +were in love with some one else?" + +She started. "That is a slander!" she cried. "I am an honest, innocent +girl!" + +"Well, I presume you are betrothed?" + +She began to cry again, though even in her grief she did not forget to +carefully brush the mud from her skirts. + +"Oh, Boleslav," she wailed, "it's all your fault. Why did you keep me +waiting for you so long? And why have you given people so much cause to +gossip about you? And then you know, there was papa! His consent could +never have been won! What was I, poor girl, to do?" + +"Please, say no more. It really doesn't matter!" he broke in cheerily. + +"You aren't angry with me, then?" + +"Oh no! not in the least!" + +In silence he accompanied Helene back to the village, took a friendly +farewell of her, and promised to do all he could to save her _fiancé_. + +She thanked him, made a formal little curtsey, and they parted. + +And so ended the great love of his life. + +As he watched the shadow of her meagre little figure disappear behind +the houses, his whole soul cried out for Regina in uncontrollable +boundless jubilation. Now the road was free--free for sinful, exultant +love. + +But what was sin, when virtue had collapsed so deplorably? How could +there be any evil, when what was good appeared so absurd and +contemptible? + +"Take her in your arms--crush her to your breast--even to-morrow shall +not cheat you of her.... She shall follow you to the camp, from battle +to battle--let her wear men's clothes like that Leonore Prohaska, the +heroine whom all Germany admires and honours!" + +"Regina! Regina!" he carolled anew, stretching out his arms exultingly, +in anticipation. He bounded over the moonlit meadows, and higher and +darker every minute rose the wooded bank of the river before him. + +She would be standing on the Cats' Bridge looking out for him, as she +had always done. + +"Regina!" he shouted over the river. But no answer came. Deep silence +all around. There was only a faint rustle among the young leaves of the +willows that sounded like slumberous breathing through half-closed +lips; and a gentle splashing came up from the invisible river. Its +waters were low, and broke on the sharp pebbles. He climbed the steep +steps. + +"Regina!" he called again. Still silence. Then he saw that in the +centre of the plank, the rickety hand-rail had given way: rotten +splinters hung on either side. Horror-stricken, he looked down at the +river. + +On its silver surface floated a woman's corpse. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + +When the Schrandeners left the Black Eagle they dispersed to their +homes, with the intention of arming themselves to the best of their +ability. + +Half of them did not turn up again. The others--about twenty in +number--careered in detachments behind the limping carpenter, round the +Castle island in the direction of the Cats' Bridge. Once united under +the shelter of the bushes, they believed they would be unseen and +unfollowed. They sneaked in silence through the damp grass; only the +old drunkard insisted on keeping up an incessant chatter and mumbling. +He conversed excitedly with his gun as if it had been a human +being--shook and exhorted it not to fail him. From time to time he held +the butt-end to his cheek in an aiming position, and when his range of +vision became confused by the sight of his own dancing fingers, or +imaginary bats and fireflies, he would take a long pull at his bottle +to clear it. + +On reaching the Cats' Bridge, which darkly spanned the river, its +rivets glittering in the moonlight, the Schrandeners divided, some +going to one side of it and the rest keeping to the other. As +noiselessly as their half-drunken condition would permit, they slid +down the decline in order to screen themselves behind the alders. Those +who had firearms, led by the old carpenter, stationed themselves on the +edge of the sand-bank, so that they might bring their victim down from +the plank bridge, should he by any chance escape the meditated attack +from below of pikes, scythes, and flails. + +For the space of five minutes there was scarcely a sound audible, +beyond the crackling and swishing among the twigs caused by some one +stretching out a hand for his bottle of schnaps. Death-like stillness +reigned too on the island. + +Then the carpenter, whose eyes were momentarily sharpened by brandy, +and who was on the alert like a tiger crouching for a spring, discerned +a figure emerge and walk slowly and softly on to the Cats' Bridge. It +must have been cowering in the boscage above, on the opposite bank, for +several minutes. + +As the figure came out of the shadow into the full light of the moon, +he recognised his daughter. Clearly she had discovered the assassins, +and was now on her way to warn the Freiherr of his peril. + +"Go back, you vermin!" he cried, all a sportsman's fury at being +deprived of his certain prey taking possession of him and clouding his +erratic brain. + +She ducked her head, but glided forwards, holding on to the hand-rail. + +"Back, or I'll aim!" + +With one frantic leap she tried to propel herself forwards, but a shot +was fired at the same instant, and she sank noiselessly against the +rotten balustrade. It snapped in two, and a dark, lifeless mass fell +from the heights of the Cats' Bridge into the river. The water rose and +fell in sparkling cascades. In the shallow bottom the stones rolled and +ground against each other. + +Then slowly the whirling, swaying body rose to the surface of the +ripples, till the face gazed upwards and was brilliantly illumined by +the moon. + +A profound stillness reigned on the bank. + +Motionless, and with bated breath, every one stared down on the dead, +upturned face, with its wide-open eyes, which seemed full of warning +and rebuke. A corner of her skirt had caught on a gnarled stump of a +tree, which projected into the river; thus she was anchored, and +prevented from drifting down with the stream. + +Softly and cautiously, as if playing with it, the current moved the +body to and fro, and no one, however much he might wish to avoid it, +could help seeing the head as it reposed on the water. + +The silence lasted a full ten minutes, and then one of the +Schrandeners, who had helped to incarnate the evil conscience of the +village, shyly with bent head slunk away, making the bushes crackle and +rustle as he went. A second followed; a third, a fourth, ... until at +last the scene of the catastrophe was deserted. + +The carpenter, who had been contemplating his daughter's dead face, +grumbling, and talking to himself the while, found himself alone. + +Suddenly he roared out hoarsely, "Fire! fire! fire!" and hurled his gun +at the corpse. It went splashing to the bottom of the river, and he +staggered after the others as fast as his legs would carry him. + +Nothing stirred now near the Cats' Bridge. Boleslav was safe! + + + * * * * * + + +Some time elapsed before he was able to take in what he saw. He stared +in stupefaction, first at the floating corpse, then at the broken +balustrade. + +"You should have had it repaired long ago," he thought, and toyed +dazedly with the fragments. + +Then, as if waking from a dream, he went back to the bank, and climbed +down the ravine, where he found broken branches lying about, and +freshly-made footmarks. A vague suspicion of what had happened dawned +on him, and then quickly died out; the hope that there might yet be +time to restore her to life absorbing his mind, to the exclusion of +every other emotion. + +He crawled cautiously along the tree-stump as near the body as he could +get, and drew it ashore with the hilt of his sabre.... Now she lay on +the shining sand, and a hundred little rivulets ran from every part of +her. He took his sabre-blade and cut her wet jacket off her, and became +aware of the blood that had dyed her chemise crimson. As he ripped this +away, too, he found the fount from which the stream flowed in a wound +beneath her left breast. + +Now he knew what that gunshot had meant. And when the first wild +impulse for vengeance, which seemed to scream in his ear, "Go and burn +their houses to the ground, and hew them down till you yourself are +hewn down!" had subsided and consumed its own rage, he flung himself on +the corpse, and broke into passionate weeping. He lay thus for a long +time, then slowly rose, and, bearing her on his shoulders, carried her +through the footprints of her murderers up the steep incline over the +Cats' Bridge to the island. She was no light burden, and three times he +sank on to his knees, gasping under her weight. + +Near the shrubbery that surrounded the cottage he was obliged to put +her down, for he feared he should swoon from his exertions. She lay on +the same spot where he had found her, motionless and bleeding, after +his father's funeral. + +Now as then the moonbeams played on the still pale face; only now she +would not revive, could never be recalled to life. + +"They have succeeded at last!" he cried, breaking into a loud, bitter +laugh. + +A sharp spasm of pain shot through the back of his head; he felt as if +he must go raving mad if those fixed, glazed eyes continued to look up +at him much longer. + +But his anxiety to get the corpse interred before he went away brought +him to his senses. The Schrandeners were capable of laying the murdered +girl beneath the earth somewhere in the heart of the forest; thereby +removing all evidence of their crime, and crippling the hands of +justice. + +The one person he felt could be relied on to do what was right in the +matter was the old pastor. Much as he might have denounced and +slandered her hitherto, he, at all events, would not be a party to this +last foul outrage. Boleslav therefore resolved to rouse him from his +bed, and to bring him to the spot, so that later when he himself was, +God knew where, a witness might not be wanting. + +The belfry clock struck eleven as he reached the village street. The +sentinels were parading noiselessly up and down in front of the church +door, otherwise the whole world was apparently wrapped in profound +slumber. + +But from one of the cottages he passed, loud blows, oaths, and scolding +cries fell upon his ear. He looked over the hedge, and saw the green +coffin which was the carpenter Hackelberg's trade-mark, looming +uncannily from its stand. + +The drunkard's imbecile formula occurred to him. "His wish is likely to +be fulfilled," he thought; "he has now the chance of making a coffin +for his daughter;" and in a bitterly ironical mood he determined to +communicate to the old man, if he were still in possession of his +faculties, his child's terrible end, and to demand the fulfilment of +his promise. + +He entered the gloomy passage. From a room on the right proceeded the +gurgling cries of the thick, drunken voice which excited his +involuntary disgust. Mingled with it was a spasmodic hissing and +whizzing that he could not explain, till he had lifted the latch and +witnessed a spectacle so horrible and revolting that, rich as the day +had been for him in horrors, he recoiled before it faint and +shuddering. + +The old carpenter, his clothes half torn off, bleeding from the throat +and arms, the moonlight bringing into prominence the hideous filthiness +of the room, plunged about as if seized with an attack of St. Vitus's +dance. Every limb quivered violently, and he foamed at the mouth. His +eyes rolled in a maniacal frenzy, and the muscles of his face twitched +convulsively. A huge plane hung from his right hand, the handle of +which, formed in the shape of a ring, had grazed his knuckles, and +which he vainly endeavoured to steady with his palsied fingers. +Whenever he came to a wooden surface, whether on the table, the walls, +or the planks that covered the floor, he tried to plane it, and this +caused the hissing sound which always ended abruptly with a rasping +jerk. + +"It'll soon be ready now!" he cried. "One more blow" ... ssh ... "and +the shaping's done." ... ssh ... ssh ... "Damn the bats . .. why can't +they leave a man alone?" ... ssh ... ssh ... "Forwards ... Listen! +Fire! fire! The Castle's on fire! Fire! fire! Keep out of the way, you +baggage--if you tell any one you've seen me--with the tinder and the +bundle of flax" ... ssh ... ssh ... "I won't finish your coffin." ... +ss ... ssh ... "Get out of my sight, you snake." He lunged against +Boleslav, who, with a presentiment of what ghastly disclosures were to +be made to him, had planted himself in his way. The drunkard appeared +to be labouring under the delusion that Boleslav was his daughter. +"Go back-off the Cats' Bridge--the Baron shall get his deserts +today--back--or----" He laid the plane against his cheek, and took aim; +then, as if confronted by another vision, he yelled once more at the +top of his voice, trembling with fright, "Fire! fire!" and made an +attempt to creep under the table, planing the tattered tails of his +coat as he went. "Fire! fire! Get away--I didn't do it! My daughter is +a liar.... The flames are spreading. Fire! fire! Look at the flames!" + +With the flames he seemed to reach the zenith of his delirium, and then +gradually descended again to the bats, which he made a feint of +chivying out of his way with his arms and legs, and then resumed +planing the legs of the table. + +"Nearly ready, dear sir." ... ssh ... ssh ... "Just a couple more +boards." ... ss ... ssh ... "My daughter's debauched ... There can be +no mistake," ... ss ... ssh ... "finely polished." ... ss ... "Now +there she lies, and will howl no more." ... ssh ... "What, not gone yet? +Your father'll drive you out." ... ss ... ssh ... "The Baron will get a +shot lodged in his ribs to-day." ... ssh ... "We want extra hands. +Hurrah, men!--Hurrah, Merckel!" ... ss ... "Come off the plank--down +from the bridge, you beast. Have you any more French behind you? If you +don't go at once----" + +Here he made for Boleslav. He looked in the moonlight, with his +tottering legs, his palsied head, and his flapping arms, like some +ghastly phantasmal monster, whose limbs were pieced together by a +hundred movable joints. Just as he was reaching his goal, the flames +began to pursue him once more, and to escape from them he crept, with a +piercing shriek this time, beneath a stack of wood, where, with dense +swarms of bats, the fearful cycle of his delusions recommenced. + +Boleslav, shaken to the foundations of his being by the awful truth the +old man had revealed in his delirious ravings, felt he could no longer +bear to gaze on such a hideous scene. + +He fled from the house as if the imaginary flames which so terrified +the maniac were pursuing him too, and he did not pause till he had left +the village behind him, and found himself encompassed by the shadows of +the ruins. + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + +The church clock had struck the midnight hour, by the time Boleslav got +back to the spot where he had left Regina's soulless body. + +A protecting darkness now veiled the white face, for the moon had +passed behind a bank of clouds, yet even from the darkness the great +lustreless eyes gazed appealingly up at him, as if asking a question to +which there was no answer here or hereafter. + +He threw himself on his knees beside her, and, saying good-bye to the +two stars, whose light had gone out, he tenderly closed their lids. She +now looked as if she were asleep, and he breathed more freely. He felt +something almost approaching a painful satisfaction as he watched by +her. "You belong to me, only to me," he said. "No one else shall have +any part or lot in you, in death as in life." + +What he had resolved to do, in a spirit of defiance, as he left the +murderer's house, in his present calmer mood still seemed the most +commendable course to take. Past events appeared to him now like a +brazen chain of guilt, to which for years one link after the other had +been added. And into this chain had been forged, till it was made a +component part of it, an unlawful love. For the sake of this love which +was sinful as hell and pure as heaven, that which only the silence +of the night had witnessed should in the silence of the night be +buried--buried with this corpse. + +What retribution could be rendered by the poor tribunal of man, in a +case in which fate had so clearly interfered and pronounced sentence? +Would it not be profaning the dead body to drag it into the glare of +publicity, and so expose it to the snivelling curiosity of the vulgar +herd? + +Should he permit the priest who had cursed her in her lifetime to +consign her to the grave with a perfunctory blessing? And would not +this involve her being laid in a coffin manufactured by her father's +blood-guilty hands, followed by his accomplices as mourners, hooting +and throwing stones? + +Ah no; it should not be! She should be the prey, now she was dead, of +no Schrandener wolves. He alone, for whom she had lived, for whom she +had gone to meet her death, must prepare her last resting-place. He +would hide her in the lap of mother earth, and smooth the turf so +carefully above her that no body-snatcher would ever discover and +profane the holy spot. He lifted the corpse in his arms and carried it +to the grass-plot. The moon had risen high in the heavens and shrouded +the landscape in a veil of silver. From the dewy glistening grass rose +the fragments of the old Diana statue in dazzling whiteness. Here he +bore her and let her sink on the turf, her neck supported by the +cracked pedestal, so that with her face turned towards the moon, she +looked as if she had fallen asleep in a sitting position. Then he +sought a burial-place. His eye fell on the black, four-cornered patch +which Regina had intended for his father's grave. How vividly she came +back to him, as she had looked then, in the full splendour of her +sunburnt strength and beauty, driving the heavy spade into the ground +with her naked foot, as if it had been a ramrod. If he had not then +interrupted her in her work, he would to-day have been spared his. + +The service of love she had wished to render his father it was now his +duty to do for her. What could be simpler than to go on digging deeper +the grave that she had begun that day, little dreaming it would be her +own? + +He fetched a spade from the kitchen, where the fire she had kindled was +still smouldering, and began with all his strength to throw up the sod. +From time to time he paused and glanced at her. She seemed well content +to sit there in the bright moonlight, and quietly contemplate his +labours. Now and then, when the shadow of a cloud flickered on her +face, he half fancied she moved, and was going to rise to her feet. + +Then that tormenting scepticism that all experience in the presence of +their beloved dead overwhelmed him. He called her name and rushed to +her side. Her hand rested on Diana's head, which lay close to her in +the grass. He dared not touch her, and stole back to his work, his face +buried in his hands. + +The grave began to grow deep, and he feared that soon he might not be +able to climb on to the edge again. He went to get the flower-stand out +of the green-house, on the shelves of which she had ranged the plates +and dishes in such beautiful order. + +"No one shall eat off them again!" he said, and dashed the earthenware +crockery on the floor, where it broke to atoms. He placed the stand +against the inside of the grave, to serve as a ladder, and then +continued throwing out the soil as before. + +By the time the clock in the village had boomed out the second hour of +the morning, his melancholy task was finished. He had no coffin for +her, but to prevent her lying on the black moist earth, he fetched from +his bed, which she had always taken pains to keep so daintily clean and +tidy, a quilt, and two feather pillows, and lined the grave with them. + +And now the time for parting had come. He raised her in his arms, and +bore her to the edge of the pit; then sitting down on the mound of turf +to take breath, he lifted her head on to his knees. Never before had he +been able to look at her so leisurely, for he had never dared trust +himself to let his eyes rest on her for long. Now he studied lovingly +every feature of the dead face, caressed the stiff cheeks, and wrung +the water from her heavy curls. A cold shiver passed through his frame. +He had held the wet body, with its dripping skirts, so long in his +arms, that his own clothes were damp from the contact. + +"Farewell!" he murmured, and kissed her on the forehead. He was going +to kiss her on the lips, but drew back quickly. + +"You disdained them in life," he said to himself, "so in death they may +not belong to you." + +And then he edged the corpse nearer the grave, and jumped down on to +the top step of the stand. Slowly and cautiously he lifted her in, +stretched her on the quilt, and cushioned her head on the soft pillows. + +Once more he wanted to kiss her, but was afraid to leave the stand that +bridged her feet; so he contented himself with stroking her hands, +which he could reach from where he sat; then he clambered out of the +grave, drawing the stand after him with the top of the spade-handle. +But afterwards he found he had forgotten to draw a corner of the quilt +over her face, to prevent the soil from falling on it. "Flowers," he +thought, "will do as well;" and he went in search of them. Under the +trees in the park grew great masses of anemones and bluebells, and +there were violets and primroses, that she herself had cultivated, in +the garden. + +He gathered all he could see in the uncertain light. The anemones and +primroses had closed their calyxes in sleep, but the violets looked up +at him with their confiding blue eyes, as if inviting him to pluck +them. + +With his hands full he returned to the grave, and, as he looked down +into it, stood spell-bound at what he saw. It was indeed a picture of +almost magic loveliness. The moon had passed its height, and, shining +at the foot of the grave, illuminated it on the east side, so that the +head, reposing in its deep resting-place, was thrown out clearly in +relief, while the blood-stained body was hidden in darkest shadow. + +The still, white face seemed to smile up at him, as if lapped in +blissful dreams. + +He threw the flowers aside, and, crouching down in the loose earth he +had thrown up, stared and stared down on her, holding a solemn and +silent wake. + +Thoughts chased each other through his brain in a confused whirl, until +gradually he came to a calmer and more rational frame of mind. + +He reflected on how she had gone through life despised and guilt-laden, +and yet unrepentant, appearing to be satisfied with her past rather +than regretting it. + +Once, in an hour of dire perplexity, he had asked himself whether it +was the dull indifference of the brute or the wiles of a devil that +made her will so strong and her conscience so lax, and he had not known +what to answer. + +To-day, when it was too late, her true nature was revealed to him. + +No, she had not been a brute or a devil, but simply a grand and +complete human being. One of those perfect, fully developed individuals +such as Nature created before a herding social system, with its +paralysing ordinances, bungled her handiwork, when every youthful +creature was allowed to bloom unhindered into the fulness of its power, +and to remain, in good and in evil, part and parcel of the natural +life. + +And as he pondered thus, it seemed to him that the mists which obscure +the source of human existence from human knowledge had dispersed a +little, and that he had been granted a deeper glimpse than most men +into the fathomless gulf of the Unknown. What is generally called good +and bad drifted about anchorless on the cloudy surface, but below lay +dreaming in majestic strength, the Natural. + +"And those whom Nature favours," he said aloud to himself, "she lets +take root in her mysterious depths, so that they spring boldly into the +light, with vision undimmed and conscience untrammelled by the +befogging illusions of morality and worldly wisdom." + +Such a highly favoured, completely-endowed human creature was this +abused and abandoned woman. + +"And I for whom she lived and died, have I deserved such a sacrifice?" +he meditated further. "Was I worthy of the trust and confidence she so +unhesitatingly placed in me? + +"With ruthless severity he sat in judgment on himself, and he came out +of the ordeal anything but unscathed. + +"Of course I belong to the other type," he thought, "to the people who +are torn all their life long between right and wrong, and who lose +their way in the fog. We regard the tribute Nature demands of us as +impurity and vice, and yet the restraint of moral laws often appears to +us hollow and far-fetched. Thus we vacillate perpetually between +defiance and fear of them. We crave for the good opinion of the world, +in which we don't believe, and tremble in face of its condemnation, +which we despise and contemn in our hearts. Once I thought it would be +an indelible disgrace to bury my father in this unconsecrated ground; +now I should be glad if I had done so. Once I tried to forget my +bitterness in the ambition of restoring my ancestral inheritance to its +pristine glory; now I am delighted at the thought of shaking its dust +from my feet. Then I held the Schrandeners to be mere barbarous +savages; but to-day I awake to the fact that my own race has made them +what they are.... _Then_ I thought this woman too degraded to take +bread from her hand; to-day I am weeping by her grave. All my heart was +centred on the extinguished flame of youth's first foolish fancy; I +insisted on making the arbitress of my destiny a simpering, prudish +minx, for whom I really had long ceased to care ... and I repulsed in +horror the most splendid and satisfying of natural loves. But truly +this natural love represented deadly sin, and tempted me to contaminate +my blood. + +"Yet when the worst came to the worst, and the life that flowed in my +veins had burst from the control of all laws, human and divine, could I +not have made atonement by paying the penalty of death?" + +And then the question occurred to him, whether the body he talked so +lightly of surrendering at his own caprice belonged exclusively to him? +What if it were the Fatherland's inviolable possession? Certainly, +then, he was not privileged to desecrate it. + +"It is well that in an hour of chaos like this, when good and evil, +right and wrong, honour and dishonour, seem to be swaying about in +hopeless confusion, and when the old God of our childhood with His +Heaven seems to have vanished away ... it is well for swooning men to +have one prop left to lean on, one firm rock to cling to, on which even +to be shipwrecked were a delightful relief. Such a prop, such a stay, +have I in my country." + +Thus spake the son of his country's betrayer, and fervently folded his +hands. + +The moon had shifted its radiance away from the grave, and the dead +face it had illumined now lay in shadow. It was scarcely possible to +distinguish it from the surrounding earth. + +"The time has come," he said, and looked round him. + +In the east glimmered the first rosy streak of dawn. A bluish haze +suffused the landscape, and above him in the branches began the dreamy +twitter of awakening birds. He was in the act of throwing the flowers +into the grave, when suddenly he changed his mind, and with a frown +cast them aside. + +"What need of such fastidious effeminacy?" he asked himself rebukingly. +"Dust has no reason to fear meeting dust." + +Then he seized the spade, and shutting his eyes, began with zest to +shovel the dark earth over the beloved body. A quarter of an hour later +the grave was full. He laid the turf carefully in its original place, +and took care to remove the remnants of superfluous soil and scattered +flowers, so that when the sun rose no one could have found the place +where Regina slept for ever. + +As he searched for a stone to commemorate the sacred spot, his eyes +fell on the head of the ruined statue, which smiled at him in stony +vacancy. He lifted it, and planted it in the turf. + +"Diana, the chaste," he murmured, "shall serve her as a tombstone. The +sister by whom she will keep eternal watch is not unworthy of her." + +And again he flung himself on the grass and became lost in meditation. +On the stroke of six he rose, and made preparations to depart. + +"They will be fools indeed," he muttered to himself, "if they don't +make an end of me to-day." + +He filled his pistols with new cartridges, and sharpened his sabre, for +he was determined his life should be dearly purchased. + +But when he crossed the drawbridge to the village, he was greeted by +familiar and friendly faces. They belonged to Heide's sons, who were +making their way to the Schranden depôt. They pressed round him and +offered him their hands. + +"We are come," said Karl Engelbert, "to put ourselves under your +command, for we wish to make amends for our conduct to you in the +past." + +"I thank you with my whole heart," he replied. "All is forgiven and +forgotten." + +Then he walked up to Schranden's gallant troopers, who, pale and with +chattering teeth, cowered near the church door, like criminals awaiting +execution. + +His comrades pointed out to each other in dismay the blood-stains on +his clothes, but not one dared ask him to explain how they came there. + +"Bring out the prisoner, and get a waggon for him," he ordered. Felix +Merckel was led out, but Boleslav did not deign to give him a glance. + +When farewells had been said, and all was in readiness for the march, +the old pastor made his way through the crowd. His face was haggard and +his hands shook. + +He hastened to Boleslav's side and whispered in his ear: "I hear that +Regina met her death last night.... I am willing to give her Christian +burial." + +"Many thanks, your reverence," answered Boleslav, "but I have already +buried her with Pagan rites," and he turned away. + +A Schrandener, who, to ingratiate himself, had probably spent part of +the night in capturing Boleslav's horse, now came forward holding it, +with a servile grin. + +He swung into the saddle, and his sabre flew out of the scabbard. His +voice rang out clear and threatening above the heads of the crowd as he +gave the word of command. + +"Right, left. Quick march!" + +They left the village behind them; the woods loomed nearer. + +He did not look back. + + + * * * * * + + +Of the career of Boleslav von Schranden afterwards, very little is +known. It was considered advisable by the military authorities to +gazette him again into his old regiment, owing to the mutiny that had +taken place under his command. + +While the East Prussian Landwehr remained behind in the ancient +provinces, he obtained the much-coveted permission to go direct to the +seat of war. + +It is supposed that he fell at Ligny. + + + + + THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Regina or the Sins of the Fathers, by +Hermann Sudermann + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REGINA OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS *** + +***** This file should be named 33892-8.txt or 33892-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/9/33892/ + +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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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: Regina or the Sins of the Fathers + +Author: Hermann Sudermann + +Translator: Beatrice Marshall + +Release Date: October 30, 2010 [EBook #33892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REGINA OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://books.google.com/books?id=PWUTAAAAYAAJ&dq</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>Regina</h2> +<h4>or</h4> +<h3>The Sins of the Fathers</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>REGINA</h1> +<h3>OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS</h3> +<br> +<br> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>HERMANN SUDERMANN</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><i>TRANSLATED BY</i><br> +<i>BEATRICE MARSHALL</i></h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD<br> +NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMVII</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc">COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY<br> +John Lane</span>.</h4> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<h4><span class="sc">COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY<br> +John Lane Company</span>.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>REGINA</h1> +<h2>OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Peace was signed, and the world, which for so long had been the great +Corsican's plaything, came to itself again. It came to itself, bruised +and mangled, bleeding from a thousand wounds, and studded with +battle-fields like a body with festering sores. Yet, in the rebound +from bondage to freedom, men did not realise that there was anything +very pitiable in their condition. The ground from which their wheat +sprang, they reflected, would bear all the richer fruit from being +soaked in blood, and if bullets and bayonets had thinned their ranks, +there was now more elbow-room for those who were left.</p> + +<p class="normal">The yawning vacuums in the seething human caldron gave a man space to +breathe in. One great chorus of rejoicing from the Rock of Gibraltar to +the North Cape ascended heavenwards. Bells in every steeple were set in +motion, and from every altar and from every humble hearth arose prayers +of thanksgiving. Mourners hid their diminished heads, for the burst of +victorious song drowned their lamentations, and the earth absorbed +their tears as indifferently as it had sucked in the blood of their +fallen.</p> + +<p class="normal">In glorious May weather the Peace of Paris was concluded. Lilies +bloomed once more out of lakes of blood, and from the obscurity of +lumber-rooms the blood-saturated banner of the <i>fleur de lys</i> was +dragged forth into the light of day. The Bourbons crept from their +hiding-places, whither they had been driven by fear of Robespierre's +knife. They rubbed their eyes and forthwith began to reign. They had +forgotten nothing and learnt nothing, except a new catchword from +Talleyrand's <i>en tout cas</i> vocabulary, <i>i.e</i>. Legitimacy. The rest of +the world was too busily engaged in wreathing laurels to crown the +conquerors, and filling up bumpers to drink their health in, to pay any +attention to this farce of Bourbon government. All eyes were turned in +a fever of expectancy towards the West, whence were to come the +conquering heroes, the laurel-crowned warriors who had been willing to +sacrifice their lives for the honour of wife and child, for justice, +and for the sacred soil of their fatherland. They had been under the +fire of the Corsican Demon, the oppressor whom they in their turn had +hunted and run to earth, till at last he lay in shackles at their feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the victors began the homeward march, the German oaks were +bursting into leaf, soon to be laughingly plundered of their young +green foliage. On they came in swarms, first, joyous and lighthearted, +the pride and flower of the Fatherland, the sons of the wealthy, who, +as Volunteer Jägers, with their own horses and their own arms, had gone +forth to the war of Liberation. Their progress through Germany was one +magnificent ovation. Wherever they came, their path was strewn with +roses, the most beautiful of maidens longed for the honour of winning +their love, and the most costly wines flowed like water. Behind them +followed a stream of Kossacks, riding over the German fields with a +loose rein. A year before, when they had galloped like a troop of +furies in the rear of the hunted remnant of the Grande Armée, the whole +country had greeted them as saviours of Germany. Public receptions had +been organised in their honour, hymns composed in their praise, and all +sorts of blue-eyed German sentiment was lavishly poured out on the +unwashed Tartar horde. To-day, too, they were conscientiously fêted, +but the gaze of all true-hearted Germans was directed with intensest +longing beyond them, looking for those who were still to come, of whom +they seemed but the heralding shadows.</p> + +<p class="normal">And at last these came, the men of the people, who had taken all their +capital, their bare lives, in their hand, and gone forth to offer it up +for the Fatherland. They advanced with a sound as of bursting trumpets, +half hidden by dense columns of dust. Not exalted and splendid +beings as they had often been painted in the imagination of the +"stay-at-homes," with a halo of diamonds flashing round their heads, +and a cloak flung proudly like a toga round their shoulders. No; they +were faded and haggard, tired as overdriven horses, covered with +vermin, filthy and in rags; their beards matted with sweat and dust. +This was the plight in which they came home. Some were so emaciated and +ghastly pale that they looked as if they could hardly drag one weary +foot after the other; others wore a greedy, brutalised expression, and +the reflection of the lurid glare of war seemed yet to linger in their +sunken, hollow eyes. They held their knotty fists still clenched in the +habitual cramp of murderous lust. Only here and there shone tears of +pure, inspired emotion; only here and there hands were folded on the +butt-end of muskets in reverent, grateful prayer. But all were welcome, +and none were too coarse and hardened by their work of blood and +revenge to find balm in the tears and kisses of their loved ones, and +to greet with hope the dawn of purer times. Of course it could not be +expected that passions which had been lashed into such abnormal and +furious activity, would all at once calm down and slumber again. The +hand that has wielded a sword needs time before it can accustom itself +to the plough and scythe, and not every man knows how to forget +immediately the wild licence of the camp in the hallowed atmosphere of +home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Every peace is followed by a period of delirium. It was thus in Germany +in anno '14. That year, from which to this generation nothing has +descended but the echo of a unison of pæans, swelling organ-strains, +and clash of bells, was in reality more remarkable for tyranny and +crime than any year before or since. More especially was this the case +in districts where before the war the overweening arrogance and cruelty +of the French occupier had been most heavily felt. Here the beast was +let loose in man. The senses of those who stayed at home had been so +inflamed by the scent of blood from distant battle-fields, and the +smoke of burning villages, that they conjured up before their mental +eyes scenes of horror and devastation at which they had not been +present. Many thirsted for vengeance on secret wrongs, on acts of +cowardice and treachery as yet unexpiated. After all, it seemed +as if the awakened fervour of patriotism, the flowing streams of +freshly-spilled blood, could not suffice even now to wipe out the +memory of the shame and humiliation of previous years.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one had any suspicion, then, that the Corsican vulture, set fast in +his island cage, was already beginning to sharpen his iron beak, +preparatory to gnawing through its bars, and that before his final +capture thousands of veins were yet to be opened and drained of their +blood.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">One August day in this memorable year, a party of young men were +gathered together in the parlour of a large country house.</p> + +<p class="normal">The oak table round which they were seated presented a goodly array of +tankards, and short, bulky bottles containing <i>schnaps</i>. Their faces, +flushed with brandy and enthusiasm, were almost entirely concealed from +view by the dense clouds of smoke they puffed from their huge pipes.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were defenders of their country only lately returned home, and +were revelling in reminiscences of the war. There was that distinct +family likeness among them which equality in birth, breeding, and +education often stamps on men between whom there exists no tie of +blood-relationship.</p> + +<p class="normal">Warfare had coarsened their honest, healthy countenances, and left its +mark there in many a disfiguring scar and gash. Two or three still wore +their arms in slings, and evidently none of them had as yet made up +their minds to lay aside the black, frogged military coat to which +they had become so proudly accustomed. For the most part they were +well-to-do yeomen belonging to the village of Heide and its outlying +hamlets, and though their homes were scattered they were united in a +strong bond of neighbourly friendship. Some still lived on their +fathers' patrimony, others had come into their own estate. It had never +been their lot to experience the pinch of poverty, to till the soil and +follow the plough, and so they had remained unaffected by the great +changes Stein's new code a few years before had brought about in the +position of the peasantry. In the spring, when the King's appeal to his +subjects had resounded through the land, they could afford to leave +their crops and, like the sons of the nobility, hurry with their own +arms and their own horses to enlist in the ranks of the volunteer +Jägers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only one member of the little group apparently belonged to another +station in life. He occupied the one easy-chair the house boasted, an +ungainly piece of upholstery, much the worse for wear.</p> + +<p class="normal">His face was pale, somewhat sallow in colouring. The features were +refined and delicately chiselled. The brown, melancholy eyes were +shaded by long black lashes, which when he looked down cast a heavy +fringe of shadow on his thin cheeks. Though he must certainly have been +the youngest of them all, having hardly completed his twenty-second +year, he looked like a man who had long ago ceased to take any pleasure +in the mere frivolities of life.</p> + +<p class="normal">On his smooth, square brow were lines that denoted energy and defiance, +and in the blue hollows round his eyes lay traces of a past sorrow. He +wore a grey overcoat that seemed too narrow across the shoulders, and +beneath it a woollen shirt finely tucked, and ornamented with a row of +mother-of-pearl buttons. The only military thing about him was the +forage-cap bearing the Landwehr badge, which he had pushed on to the +back of his head, to prevent the hard edge pressing on the scarcely +healed wound which made a lurid streak on his forehead, close to where +the dark hair clustered in heavy masses.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was the cynosure of all eyes. Every one waited anxiously for him to +take the lead in conversation. Next to him, on his right, sat a +muscular youth, not much older than himself, who regarded him with +unceasing and tender solicitude. To all appearances he was the host. +There was a patch of white plaster on one of his temples, but his +round, jovial face beamed radiantly nevertheless out of its frame of +unkempt fair hair that hung about his neck and throat in wildest +confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I say, lieutenant, you are positively drinking nothing," he exclaimed, +pushing the bottle nearer him. "Because you aren't used to our beer, +and still less used to our schnaps, there's no reason why you should be +shy of swilling that red stuff of which we have plenty to spare.... We +aren't rich, as you know, but if you stopped here till Doomsday we +could supply you every day with a bottle like that. Couldn't we, lads?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The others assented, and pressed round him eagerly to clink their mugs +and liqueur-glasses against his cracked wine-glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">A ray of gratitude and pleasure illumined momentarily the sad, pale +face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew," he said--"I knew that if I came here you'd make me feel at +home. Otherwise I should have gone on my way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That would have been kind of you, I must say," cried the host---"what +did we enter into our covenant of blood for, and swear to be true till +death after our first battle, don't you remember? In the church at ... +where was it? I never can pronounce the name of the cursed hole!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The hole was Dannigkow," answered the young stranger addressed as +"lieutenant."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, yes, that's it!" the host went on. "And do you imagine we went +through that little ceremony with the sole purpose of letting you avoid +us in future? Was it for that we chose you for our commanding officer, +and blindly followed you into the thickest of the fight? No, Baumgart, +there's no cement like blood and powder. So the devil take it, man, you +must promise to stay with us a bit, now we've got you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't talk nonsense, old fellow, it is impossible," the lieutenant +replied, and blew thoughtfully on the purple mirror of his wine. But +his friend was not to be silenced.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't be frightened," he continued, "that we shall plague you +with curious questions. From the first we got into the way of looking +on you as a sort of mystery. When we others used to lie by the bivouac +fire and talk of our homes and parents, our sweethearts and sisters, +your lips were resolutely sealed as they are now. And if one of us +plucked up courage to ask you where you came from, and what you had +been before the war, you always got up and walked away. We gave up +questioning you at last, and thought to ourselves, 'He has gone through +a furnace, may be, that has spoilt his life, and what concern is that +of ours?' You were a good comrade, all of us can testify to that, and +what is more, the most fearless, the bravest.... Ah, well, the fact is, +that you had only to tell one of us to cut off his right hand, and he'd +have done it without a murmur. Isn't it true, lads?"</p> + +<p class="normal">An exclamation of assent went round the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For mercy's sake, say no more," said the young lieutenant. "I don't +know which way to look because of all this undeserved praise."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait, I've more to say yet," the master of the house insisted on +continuing. "Once we were really almost angry with you. You know why +that was. During the armistice, shortly before we joined forces with +the Lithuanians under Platen and Bülow, you were in the guard-room one +evening, when you suddenly made a clean breast of it and announced that +you must go away. You said, 'Don't ask me the reason, lads. But believe +me, I can't help myself. The Landwehr wants officers. I know it is not +much of an honour to leave the Jägers, for the Landwehr; but I'm going +to do it, all the same.' Those were your very words, weren't they, +Baumgart?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lieutenant nodded, and a bitter smile played round his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tears were in your eyes as you spoke, otherwise one or other of us +would have asked you if that was all the thanks we were to get for the +confidence we had placed in you, to be deserted just then ... just when +we longed to show those Platen fellows what baiting the French really +meant.... We let you go without raising an objection, but our hearts +bled.... Afterwards we heard nothing of you, no news in reply to all +our inquiries; but I can tell you this much, we never ceased to talk of +you every night for months. We racked our brains to think what had +taken you away; speculated on where you were gone, and the like, till +the men who joined later and had known you got sick of it, and implored +us to give up talking about you, and to consign you to the Landwehr +refuse-heap once for all. So you see how we pined for you; and now, +after two days, you actually propose to turn your back on us again! +It's a long journey from the Marne to the Weichsel, and a solitary one +to walk, and your wounds still smarting. Stay and take a good rest, and +relate at your leisure what your adventures with the greybeards really +were, and how you came to be taken prisoner ... it must have been a +strange accident that betrayed <i>you</i> into captivity?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He glanced down with ingenuous pride at the iron cross which dangled +between the froggings of his coat. It had been bestowed on him in +reward for the intrepidity with which he had, unpardoned, hewn his way +out of a nest of French Hussars and regained his liberty.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lieutenant's breast was bare of ornament. At the end of the +campaign, when a shower of decorations had rained down on the +victorious warriors, he had not been present to receive his share. A +painful sensation of being passed in the race, almost akin to shame, +swept over him. He pushed his cap farther on to his brow, and drew +himself erect in his chair, as if its fusty cushions threatened to +suffocate him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," he said, "for your kind intentions, but I must go to +Königsberg directly to report myself to the Commandant."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm afraid you'll have some difficulty in finding him there," put in a +curly-headed young man with twinkling dark eyes, who wore his right arm +in a black sling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you know that directly it came back the Landwehr was disbanded?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Even the staff is broken up," remarked another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I must try my luck with the Commissioner-General," replied +Lieutenant Baumgart. "I have more reason, perhaps, than any one else to +be extra careful that my discharge papers are in good order. At least, +I fancy so. I don't want the reproach to be fastened on me that I +sneaked out of the army secretly. So, please let me know as soon as you +can if there will be any conveyance going to-morrow to Königsberg?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A storm of indignation arose. They all left their seats, some seizing +his hand, some forming a cordon round him, as if to prevent his +departure by physical force.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stay at least a little longer, lest the fête we are organising in your +honour should fall through," exhorted Karl Engelbert, the young host, +as soon as he could make his voice heard above the hubbub.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baumgart turned to him with a quick gesture of inquiry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In <i>my</i> honour?" he exclaimed. "Are you mad?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no getting out of it now," was the answer. "It was all settled +the day you turned up here. I despatched Johann Radtke at once with a +list of all the Jägers in the country round who are at home. Then, you +know, we have representatives of six or seven regiments living about +here.... Especially did I impress on him that he was to go to +Schranden, where Merckel lives. Merckel," he added, "went over to the +Landwehr, too; for if he hadn't, he couldn't have made sure of his +lieutenancy. So there was more sense in his taking the step."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baumgart at the mention of his name winced, but quickly recovering +himself, gripped convulsively the arms of the battered easy-chair, and, +with head bowed, listened in silence to what his well-meaning friends +had to say about the gala-day arranged in his honour. He gave up +protesting further, because he saw open resistance was useless. But the +uneasy glances he cast about him seemed to indicate that he was +meditating immediate flight.</p> + +<p class="normal">His friends, however, did not observe his restlessness. After the +excitement of war which had stirred their blood out of its normal +channel, they found it irksome to subside into the ordinary routine of +private life, and hailed with delight any excuse for varying its +monotony with a few hours' roistering and dissipation. They were now +engaged in eagerly discussing the result of their messenger's mission, +whose return from Schranden, a few miles away, they had been expecting +hourly all the morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder," said Peter Negenthin, the youth with the black sling, "how +the Schrandeners are getting on with that fine landlord of theirs?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lieutenant Baumgart started and listened with all his ears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They set his house on fire long ago," remarked another. "For five +years he's been roosting among the blackened ruins like an owl."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why didn't he build his castle up again?" asked a third.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? Because the peasants and farmers down in the village would have +thrashed any one at the cart-wheel who dared to work for him. Once he +tried getting labourers over from his foreign estates, thinking that as +they couldn't understand German it would be all right; ... but there +was a free fight one day down at the inn, and heigh presto!--the Poles +were hounded back to where they came from. Since then he hasn't made +any more attempts to cultivate his land."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How does he live then?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who cares how he lives! Let him starve."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of laughter, mingled with growls of hate which this humane +remark had called forth from these doughty sons of the soil, the +anxiously awaited ambassador entered the room. He was a stoutly built +short man, whose straight fair hair, as yellow and bright as new +thatch, hung over his round face, which was the colour of a lobster +from exposure to the heat of the sun. Steaming with perspiration, and +breathless from his hurried ride, he seized the stone jug of monstrous +girth that stood in the middle of the table, before speaking a word, +and held it to his lips with both hands, where it remained so long that +it had at last to be torn away from his mouth by force, much to the +amusement of the company. After a fusilade of banter and jokes had been +discharged at him from all sides, he blurted forth his news. The idea +of the fête had, it seemed, been caught at with enthusiasm. Every one +in the neighbourhood was willing to lend his countenance to festivities +in honour of those who had done such splendid service in the cause of +German Unity. The only difference of opinion was as to where they were +to come off. The Schrandeners, with Lieutenant Merckel at their head, +declared that no spot on earth could be a more appropriate scene for +their celebration than their own village.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you see, lads," explained the messenger, "the Schrandeners have +private reasons for being particularly gay just now. They are dancing +in front of their houses, and scarcely know whether they are standing +on their head or their heels. I'll tell you why. Perhaps you know that +little chorale that they've for the last seven years been singing in +church?</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t4" style="text-indent:-4px">"<i>Our gracious Baron and Lord<br> +Of Schrandeners' souls abhorr'd.<br> +For the shame he's brought on our head,<br> +O God, let the plague strike him dead.</i>"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">"Well, in a fashion their prayer has been answered. The betrayer of +their country, who never tired of cursing and damning them up hill and +down dale, and heaped on them every foul epithet he could lay tongue +to, may now lie and rot in a ditch for all they care. They have sworn +not to bury him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then arose excited shouts and eager questioning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is he dead, the dog?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has the devil taken him to himself at last? Ha! ha! Bravo!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, above the din of voices, a grinding crunching noise was +heard. Baumgart's arm had clasped the back of his chair with such +vehemence that the long-suffering worm-eaten wood had collapsed. He sat +rigid and motionless, staring at the speaker with wide, strained eyes, +unconscious of the injury he had inflicted on the ancestral piece of +furniture. Then garrulous Johann Radtke proceeded--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, happily enough, they were the cause of his death at last. They +have never ceased to harass and torment him, and it was while they were +trying to demolish the Cats' Bridge that he had a stroke of apoplexy +from rage, and fell down foaming at the mouth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lieutenant, have you ever heard of the Cats' Bridge?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Still he neither moved nor uttered a word; only set his teeth on his +under lip, till it bled. As if turned to stone, he sat gazing fixedly +up into the speaker's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was by the Cats' Bridge that the French made the famous, or rather +I should say infamous, sortie which surprised the Prussians, and it was +the Baron who showed them the secret path which leads to it. You have +heard of the Schranden invasion, of course. It's recorded in every +calendar?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lieutenant nodded mechanically like a doomed man, who, swooning, +resigns himself to inevitable fate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The stroke took him before their very eyes," Radtke went on. "His +precious sweetheart, the village carpenter's daughter, the baggage who +lived with him, you know, threw herself on his body, for the Lord only +knows what liberties they might not have taken with it when their blood +was up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now they refuse to bury him, you say?" interrupted the +good-natured Karl Engelbert, shaking his head meditatively. "Is such a +scandalous outrage as that allowed to pass unpunished in a Christian +country?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Johann laughed scoffingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Schrandeners are like a flock of sheep. If one declines to pollute +his hands with bearing such carrion to the grave, all the rest decline +also. And who can blame them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But," some one suggested, "suppose it came to the ear of the law?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The law! Ha, ha! Old Merckel is their magistrate, and he says, as far +as he is concerned, they might have flayed----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He broke off abruptly, for with a smothered cry of pain, and a gesture +half threatening, half self-defensive, the young lieutenant had started +to his feet. He was whiter than the whitewashed wall behind him, and a +thin thread of crimson trickled from his blanched lips, over his chin.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop, for God's sake!" he stammered in a strange muffled almost +inaudible voice, and those who caught his words shrank away in horror.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was my father!"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The moon had risen and flooded the tranquil heath with its soft bluish +radiance. Down in the marshes the alder-bushes were tipped with crowns +of light, and the white, slender trunks of the birches which flanked +the highway in interminable rows shone and shimmered, till the road +seemed to stretch away and lose itself between hedges of burnished +silver. Silence reigned everywhere. The last note of the birds' evening +chorale had long since died away. Peace, the peace of well-being, +peculiar to late summer, pervaded the wide-stretching level fields. +Even the grasshopper in the ditch, and a fieldmouse scurrying in alarm +through the tall blades of corn, hardly broke the stillness.</p> + +<p class="normal">A traveller with staff and knapsack came along the road, gazing +absently before him, evidently oblivious of the magic of the moon-lit +landscape. It was the young lieutenant, on his way home to bury the +father whose memory was held in such universal detestation. His host +had put his best equipage at his disposal, but his comrade had firmly +refused to accept the offer, and he had been obliged to content +himself with accompanying his guest part of the way on foot. At parting +he had solemnly affirmed that the compact of eternal friendship that +they had entered into as brothers-in-arms after their first baptism +of fire would hold good now and always, "the sins of the fathers" +notwithstanding. Whenever he was in need of help and sympathy in the +future, he might rely on the good-will of him and his neighbours.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was meant well, but brought no comfort to the young man's sore +heart. The allusion to "the sins of the fathers" stung him to the +quick. It sounded very much like an insult, yet an insult that he was +powerless to resent openly, as there was no shuffling off the incubus +of shame which, as his father's heir, now weighed on his innocent +shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus fiercely brooding he walked on, and pictures of the past +involuntarily rose before his mental vision. He had never loved his +father--the harsh, tyrannical man who flogged the peasants, whose +laughter was more terrible than his oaths, to whom he, his only son, +had been not much more than the pet dog that one minute was allowed to +bite his heels when he was in a good humour, only to be hurled across +the room the next with a savage kick. As long as he could remember, +the small muscular figure, the sallow face with its high cheek-bones, +coal-black goat's beard, and little keen grey eyes, had been the terror +of his childhood. His mother he had never known. She had succumbed, a +few years after his birth, to a long and tedious illness. It was +rumoured at the time, in the village, that her lord's ungovernable +passions had been the death of her--that his love was as terrible as +his hate.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her picture had hung at the end of a long line of ghostly portraits in +the dimly-lighted picture-gallery with its vaulted roof, where one's +footsteps echoed uncannily between the stone walls, and where it was +possible to shiver with cold on the hottest summer day.... The picture +of a gentle, tired-looking woman with thin bloodless lips, and +half-closed lids that seemed to droop from sheer weariness and lack of +spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many a time, unseen, the boy had stood by the hour before this picture, +and waited--waited for the heavy lids to lift, that one warm ray of +maternal love might at last be shed into his lonely young life. He +would fold his hands in prayer, and lift a tear-stained face in eager +anticipation, while his heart beat for fear; but the picture never came +to life. Tired and slumberous as ever, as if already half-closed in +their last long sleep, the heavily shadowed, star-like eyes continued +to look down on him with a strange, cold, metallic gleam, till he could +bear it no longer, and would rush from the spot half distracted with +disappointment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not far from his mother's picture hung another still more +remarkable--the portrait of an exquisitely beautiful woman with +blue-black hair. The artist had represented her in the act of mounting +a horse. A red velvet cloak, embroidered with gold and bordered with +fur, hung over her left shoulder, and in her right hand, which was +covered with a long, wrinkled, gauntleted glove, she tenaciously +grasped her riding-whip. It was easy to imagine her bringing it down +with a will on the back of a <i>mauvais sujet</i>. The whole figure was +instinct with indomitable spirit and energy. Life glowed in the dark +eyes that flashed imperiously from the canvas, as if demanding the +homage of all who came within their radius. This was his grandmother in +her youth--the old lady whose shrill scolding tongue, and witch-like +appendages in the shape of gold-headed canes, liqueur-glasses, and +snuff-boxes, were indissolubly associated with the boy's earliest +memories. She had been the evil star of his house. Before her marriage, +one of the most admired beauties of the Polish Court in Saxony, she had +instilled into his father with the milk from her breast love for the +country of the Pole, so that he, a nobleman of German name and lineage, +living on German soil, grew up to hate the land of his birth, and to +set all his affections on the moribund chimera of Polish nationality. +Though he had married a German lady, he had not hesitated to give his +son a Polish name, which, to be doomed to bear at a time when the +spirit of hyper-sensitive patriotism was rampant in the land, seemed a +worse misfortune by far than being afflicted by some hereditary +disease.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what was the innocent name of Boleslav compared with the indelible +disgrace that his father, through his insane infatuation for the Poles, +had since brought on him and his race?</p> + +<p class="normal">And now he was dead, this father, and of the dead one should speak no +evil. Yet even as he repeated this truism to himself, the consciousness +of the stain with which he was branded, which no power on earth could +remove, overwhelmed him with acutest anguish.</p> + +<p class="normal">Passionately he threw up his arms towards the soft, blue, star-spangled +heavens, as if he fain would demand that the soul of his father should +be instantly brought to judgment, no matter in what remote planet it +might be hiding.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then came a reaction. His vehemence was succeeded by a gentler mood. He +flung himself on the damp, dewy grass by the roadside, and buried his +face in his hands. He felt he should like to cry. But his lids remained +dry and burning. The thought of his immediate future was almost more +than he could bear. He reflected that in a few hours he should find a +forsaken wilderness, a howling desolation, where once bathed in all the +rosy radiance of his boyish vision he had beheld a scene of sylvan +peace and beauty.</p> + +<p class="normal">For though he had been a lonely, motherless boy, it would have been +wicked and ungrateful to maintain that even <i>his</i> childhood had not had +its share of sunshine, and boasted its hours of unalloyed delight. Had +he not been allowed to roam where he listed, through field and forest, +untrammelled by conventions about meals and bedtime, as free to do as +he pleased as any Robin Hood or gipsy in Arcadia? When the soft May +zephyrs breathed on the shaking grasses, and the yellow butterfly +danced from flower to flower, he had lain on his back between the tall +blades and meadow-sweet, looking up into the blue sky, his day-dreams +undisturbed. He might have stayed there from morning till night; so +long as he was not hungry he did stay, and it mattered to no one.</p> + +<p class="normal">If he took it into his head to wander off with the shepherd to the +distant moorlands, to partake of black bread from his wallet, and +quench his thirst at the babbling streams, who was there to prevent it? +He was his own master. Round the Castle, which commanded an extensive +view of the country, flowed the sparkling, merry river, in great +serpentine curves, between its wooded banks and green terraces. By the +river-side there was always something of interest going on. There the +grooms watered the horses, the tanner washed his skins, and the boys +winked from behind their fishing-rods at the servant-girls paddling +bare-legged in and out of the water. But greatest delight of all--when +the sun went down behind the alders, the stately wild deer would +venture cautiously out of the neighbouring thicket, climb down the +steep incline, through bush and briar, and thirstily lap up the +moisture with its parched tongue. Often it was necessary to lie in +ambush more than half-an-hour without moving so much as a hair to +witness this enchanting spectacle, otherwise it would have vanished +like a mirage. And what in the world could be more glorious than, when +the moon rose and cast a silver network on the ripples; when the alders +looked like white-veiled princesses, and the lively wenches sang over +their griddle snatches of plaintive song, to plunge into the depths of +the wood, and with a canopy of foliage overhead, and moonbeams dancing +round you, dream the night away, and wake to greet the dawn? He let his +hands fall from his face; and stared round him with vacant, wild eyes. +The fields lay white and still in the moonlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only the tree under which he rested cast dark, jagged bars of shadow +over the peaceful landscape. A pitiful sound like the scream of a child +in distress arose in the distance. It came from a young hare that had +lost itself in the furrows, and frightened and hungry was crying for +its mother, little suspecting that every yell was but a fresh signal to +its murderers. He was thrilled with compassion for the sufferings of +dumb creation, as he rose and pursued his way.... Reminiscences still +kept pace with his footsteps.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now it was his school-days that came vividly back to him--the time when +the old Pastor Götz had undertaken his education, and the white +parsonage among the nut-bushes became his second home. No more vagabond +roamings now, for the grey-bearded, fiery-tempered old parson was a +stern disciplinarian, and kept his pupils in good order. There were ten +or twelve of them--boys and girls together;--children of the well-to-do +farmer class. He had, of course, never associated with the children of +the peasantry, who were allowed to run wild and grow up like young +cattle. This was not to be wondered at, considering the village +schoolmaster, an ex-valet of his father's, superannuated through drink, +spent most of the time that should have been engaged in teaching the +young idea how to shoot, in the various taverns of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix Merckel, son of the village innkeeper, was the one of his +comrades he remembered best--a strapping, unruly lad, who, at the age +of ten, wore top-boots and carried a gun, and whose tendency to bully +kept the whole school in subjection. Even Boleslav himself, though two +years younger, and of a retiring nature that had little in common with +the elder boy's somewhat bumptious temperament, was much influenced by +him. Yet his position as the squire's son was never lost sight of, and +Felix joined with his other schoolfellows in paying him a sort of sly +homage in deference to it. Felix was his mentor in all boyish +accomplishments. He taught him to swim, to row, to snare birds, to make +fireworks, to shoot rabbits, and even to plunder the poor peasants' +garden during church time on Sunday evenings. And though the fruit in +his own garden, which he was at liberty to pick whenever he liked, was +a thousand times sweeter and more luscious than the hard, sour stuff he +clambered after at the risk of breaking his neck, he could not +withstand the allurements of those secret raids. Afterwards he was +often seized with remorse on account of them, and was so heartily +ashamed of himself that he would pay back in the morning a hundredfold +what he had stolen over-night. Such acts of reparation, nevertheless, +were only received with scowls or smiles of malice, for the unfortunate +<i>canaille</i> were compelled by benighted feudal laws to plough and delve +on his father's estates, and were sorely oppressed; therefore it was +only natural that the boy should reap to the full the harvest of bitter +hate sown by the father.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of his other companions, especially of the girls, he had nothing but +the haziest recollection. There was, of course, <i>one</i> exception. Her +bright image had floated before him, through all the pain and heartache +that had gradually darkened his whole existence, pain which even the +fascinations of war could not alleviate. It was her image, that like a +lodestar had led him into the thickest of the fight, and had not faded +from him as he lay wounded, and, as he believed, dying.</p> + +<p class="normal">Intense longing for her had become identified with that vague yearning +after happiness which still sometimes possessed him, just as if his +chances of happiness had not, by his father's misdeeds, been +irretrievably ruined.</p> + +<p class="normal">How this love had sprung up in his breast and grown apace, becoming +stronger every day, till at last the whole world seemed filled with its +reflection, he hardly knew himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">As a child, the pastor's small daughter had always been distant in her +manner. The fresh, neat, fairylike little creature never could be +coaxed by any of them into jumping a ditch, even if the bottom was dry, +and was very particular at hide-and-seek not to allow her frocks to be +caught hold of lest "the gathers should go." Now and then, when they +were alone together, Helene would show off with pride the glories of +her doll's house, and point out that the tiny towels had hemmed edges +and a monogram. They would be getting quite confidential till, in an +outburst of boyish spirits, he was sure to do something rough or clumsy +which brought down on his head a gentle rebuke, and he was reminded of +the limitations of their friendship. Hurt and ashamed, he would +afterwards try to keep out of her way, but a smile of forgiveness never +failed to bring him to her feet, for there was a kind of sovereignty in +her little person that was not to be resisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix resented her power. He called her affected and a mollycoddle, and +teased her as only he could tease. She, on her part, had an aggravating +trick of turning up her nose and appearing to look down on him, though +he was a good head taller, which goaded him into tormenting her the +more, and ended in her running to her father, and with streaming eyes +begging that Felix might be punished.</p> + +<p class="normal">At twelve years old, Boleslav left his birthplace. Some relations on +his mother's side, belonging to the old Prussian official nobility, +proposed to continue his education. His father had every reason to +congratulate himself at getting rid of him. The life he had led since +his wife died was scarcely of a character to bear the scrutiny of +innocent, questioning, childish eyes. The Baron was in the habit of +bringing back to the castle from his visits to the capital curious +company, chiefly women, and many a half-opened bud, indigenous to the +soil, had fallen an unwilling victim to his unbridled lust. Not that he +carried on his intrigues openly and unashamed. It was simply that in +his private life he refused to recognise the restraint of any moral +law, and, after all, what he did was only, for the most part, what his +fathers had done before him. Such amours were a part of the traditions +of his house, and were not likely to excite surprise or comment, unless +it were from the boy, who had occasionally been an involuntary witness +of assaults on virtue and heartrending appeals for mercy.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were many other transactions besides these going on at the castle +that were not meant for his eyes. When the great Napoleon's call to +arms roused that miserable cat's-paw of European ambitions, the +lacerated country of Poland, from its death-throes, mysterious +movements were set on foot in every quarter where the peculiar hiss of +Polish speech was heard, and even extended so far as the unadulterated +German regions of East Prussia.</p> + +<p class="normal">Foreigners with slim, supple figures, and sharply-cut features used to +arrive at Schranden Castle, driving through the village at express +speed in small carriages, and leave again in the middle of the night. +The post brought innumerable sealed packages bearing the Russian +post-mark; and for weeks together the Baron's study was locked against +all intruders. He himself became taciturn and pre-occupied, going about +like a man in a dream, actually permitting the stripes and weals on the +backs of his serfs to heal and fade away.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was at this time that Boleslav migrated to his relations in +Königsberg. Afterwards, years passed calmly away, years in which he +grew in stature and developed in mind under the watchful care of the +widow of a former chancellor, who stood in the place of a mother to +him. All the leading families in the town opened their houses to him, +and by degrees the old familiar scenes and faces of his home became +little more than shadowy memories. His father's rare and hurried visits +only demonstrated how estranged he had become from his son, and how +little love was lost between them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then came that terrible winter in which the war-fury was let loose, +devastating the old Prussian provinces, and the victorious march of +Napoleonic cohorts resounded between the Weichsel and the Memel. Scores +of provincial fugitives sought refuge from the invaders within the +walls of Königsberg. Every house, from cellar to garret, was crammed +with human beings, and in the streets smouldered the bivouac-fires of +the soldiers who were camping out in the open air.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of war's alarms, to the accompaniment of beating of drums +and bugle-blasts, it was vouchsafed to Boleslav to dream for the first +time "love's young dream."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had lately turned sixteen, and his upper lip was already shaded with +a pencilled line of down. He knew Horace's odes to Chloe and Lydia by +heart, and the passion which Schiller, who had recently died, had +cherished for his Laura was no longer a mystery to him. One January +evening on his way home from the gymnasium, as he crossed the castle +square where Russian and Prussian orderlies were galloping hither and +thither, he caught a glimpse of a pair of blue eyes which seemed turned +on him with an expression of friendly inquiry. He blushed, but when he +ventured to look round the eyes had vanished. The same thing happened +again the next evening. Not till it happened a third time could he +summon sufficient courage to watch more carefully and discover that the +eyes belonged to a fair young face, which could boast besides a +straight little nose, delicately curved lips, which naïvely smiled at +him. The face reminded him of an old altar-piece in the cathedral +representing the Virgin Mary standing in a garden of stiff white lilies +and short-stalked crimson roses. Of something else it reminded him too, +and it puzzled him to think what. He was racking his brains to +remember, when a rosy glow tinged the girl's fair cheeks, and the +charming lips opened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Boleslav!" they lisped. "Is it you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, of course, he knew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Helene, Helene! You!" he exclaimed joyously. Had she not bashfully +evaded him, he would have embraced her then and there in the middle of +the crowded square, regardless of spectators in the shape of giggling +servant-maids and ribald soldiers. They withdrew into a more secluded +street, and she told him that on the advance of the enemy her father +had sent her for the sake of safety to board with an old aunt, who had +set up an institution for the daughters of poor clergymen. Here she was +very happy, and was making the most of her time, studying French and +music, for she hoped that in the future she might render her father +assistance with his school, for it was not likely she would ever marry.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this she related in a quiet, old-fashioned way, which excited his +respectful admiration, casting smiling side-long glances at him as she +talked. Of his father she could not tell him much; the last time she +had met him he had looked very fierce. It was some time since she had +had any news from home, because the French were quartered there; but +Felix Merckel was in Königsberg, and she saw him now and then. He was +apprenticed to a corn merchant, and thought himself quite the fine +gentleman. He wasn't likely to come to any good though, for he smoked +cigars and wore loud Turkish neckties. She ended by giving him leave to +call on her at her aunt's on Friday--Friday being the day for visitors +at the institution.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she tripped lightly away, swaying her slender limbs from side +to side, and as he watched her, he felt as if the Virgin in the +altar-piece had graciously condescended to appear to him in the flesh, +and was now returning to her lilies and crimson roses.</p> + +<p class="normal">On Friday he pulled the bell of the institution and was admitted. He +did not find her, it is true, among lilies and roses, but there were +some plants of fuchsia and geranium in the room, whose faded, dusty +leaves made a pretty background to the girlish figure. The glow of the +winter sunset came through the diamond-pane windows, and spread a rosy +veil over her face. Perhaps, too, the pleasure of meeting an old friend +made her blush a little. The aunt, a toothless, antique spinster, with +patches and a powdered toupee, exhausted herself with curtseying and +compliments, and after regaling the distinguished visitor with +chocolate, in a bowl of superb old English china, vanished as +noiselessly as if the earth had swallowed her up. That was the first of +a succession of blissful, beatific Fridays.</p> + +<p class="normal">Troops went forth to battle and returned, but he did not even notice +them. The thunder of cannons at Eylau reverberated through the town, +but he was deaf, and heard nothing. It often seemed to him, as he +looked up at the sky, that he must be lying far down in the depths of +the blue sea, and that the world in which he had lived before was +somewhere a long way off on the other side of the azure empyrean. But +that he still in reality belonged to that world, he was forcibly +reminded one Sunday afternoon, when the door of his attic-chamber, +where he was dreaming over his books, was boisterously flung open, and +his heaven invaded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hurrah! my boy!" cried the intruder, with outstretched arms. "I've +been looking for you everywhere for a year past, and it's been as +difficult as searching for a needle in a bottle of hay. Even now I +mightn't have tracked you out if that pious little girl Helene had not +given me a hint of your whereabouts."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the harum-scarum Felix, and the Turkish necktie of which the +beloved had spoken, flapped over either shoulder in aggressive fly-away +ends.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav returned the greeting more heartily than a few weeks ago he +would have thought possible; since his meeting with Helene, the old +home and the old life had come back to him very distinctly, and his +heart felt drawn to this once inseparable friend of his boyhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix did not stand on ceremony, but threw himself on the sofa, and as +he stretched his legs on the leather cushions looked round him in +amazed admiration. The room seemed to him the embodiment of luxury and +magnificence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are domiciled here like a prince in the 'Arabian Nights,'" he +exclaimed; "that's what comes of being born a <i>Junker</i>, I suppose. I +wish I was. Such as we have to rough it, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused in order to shoot through his front teeth a stream of +dark-brown saliva, a habit he had learnt from the sailors on the quays. +After this, he frequently visited Boleslav's sequestered retreat, +devoured the dainties his aunt sent up to him, borrowed money and +books, and initiated him in the mysteries of life at the water's edge. +In short, he conducted himself as do most "men of the world" between +fifteen and nineteen years of age, who are apt to gain an ascendency +over deeper and more thoughtful natures than their own.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav sometimes thought of making him his confidant in his love +affair, but never, when it came to the point, could find the right +words in which to express himself. So his secret remained, as he +thought, buried in his heart of hearts. But one day Felix astounded him +by saying--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't think I am blind! I have discovered some time ago that you are +head over heels in love with a certain little prude. She's pretty +enough, but a bit too good for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The blood mounted swiftly and angrily to Boleslav's brow, and he +demanded with dignity that henceforth no disrespectful word be spoken +of the fair Helene in his presence. And Felix, though he made a +contemptuous grimace, was careful not to offend again by any jibing +allusion to his love.</p> + +<p class="normal">Later he announced his intention of enlisting in the English navy as a +midshipman, that he might be "revenged on the tyrant of his downtrodden +Fatherland," as he expressed it, and Boleslav looked up to him in +consequence with a profounder reverence than ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a day came when this friend passed him in the street without +bestowing on him a shake of the hand, or even a nod. Only a scornful +shrug of the shoulders indicated that he had seen him at all. Utterly +disconcerted, he gazed after the rapidly disappearing figure that +seemed anxious to get out of his way as quickly as possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">What could be the meaning of this extraordinary behaviour? The same +evening, with tears pouring down his face, he wrote asking for an +explanation. Before there was time for an answer, a messenger brought +him a parcel of books and a note that ran as follows:--</p> +<br> +<p style="margin-left:.75in; text-indent:-.5in">"<i>To His Hochgeboren Herrn</i><br> +<i>Boleslav von Schranden</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Having become apprised of events that have recently taken place in +Schranden, I consider that it would be beneath my dignity, and contrary +to all my patriotic principles, to continue our intercourse. The books +you have lent me are therefore returned. The money will follow in due +course as soon as I have earned the same. Meanwhile the messenger will +hand you five silver groschens.--In humble submission, your +Hochgeboren's obedient servant,</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Felix Merckel</span>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav felt as if some one had struck him a blow from behind. He was +so bitterly humiliated that for a whole day he daren't look any human +being in the face. At last he resolved to tell Helene of his trouble, +in the hope that she might be able to give him tidings that would at +least end his fearful suspense. She had forbidden him to speak to her +in the street, because she considered such meetings out of doors +unnecessary and improper, as he was allowed to call at the institution. +Yet, in spite of her veto, he waylaid her and showed her Felix's +letter. As usual, she smiled sweetly and consolingly, but could throw +little light on the matter. The last time she had heard from her +father, the letter had been full of nothing but the unfortunate +engagement which had taken place in the wood near Schranden, when the +Prussian soldiers had been completely routed. That had been in all the +newspapers. There was only one means of learning the whole truth. +Helene could walk along by the river's bank, where the clerks from the +great warehouses lounged away their spare time, and make inquiries of +Felix. This she consented to do, though reluctantly; and he, in a fever +of anxiety, waited for her return on one of the bridges.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He does think too much of himself!" she said, as she came back slowly +from her errand, the colour deepening in her cheeks. "And so they all +do, these merchants' clerks. It's not likely that I should allow any of +them to make love to me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She smiled, and hid her burning face in the blue silk reticule she +always carried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you needn't mind him, dear Boleslav. Since he has determined to go +as a midshipman, he has got love for the Fatherland on the brain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How have I interfered with his love for the Fatherland?" asked +Boleslav. "Don't I abominate that bloodhound Bonaparte as much as he +does?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Helene was silent, and gathered the folds of her cloak closer about her +slender limbs, to keep out the bitter winter wind. Then she continued--</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may rely on me. I will never bear a grudge against you for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For what? Good God, tell me at once!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And then at last the mystery was cleared up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mustn't take it too much to heart, dearest Boleslav. At home in +the village they all say that your father showed the French the path by +the Cats' Bridge in the middle of the night, so that they might +surprise the Prussians; and that gipsy-looking Regina, the carpenter's +daughter--you remember the little curly-headed thing who was at school +with you and me--she confessed it, because it was she who really led +the way. And now the people call your father the betrayer of his +country, and refuse to work for him any more, and have burnt down his +house."</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! so that was it. Now he knew all. In that hour his life's budding +joys and hopes were withered like the blossoms of a tree struck by +lightning in May. How intolerable were these memories of darkest hours +of silent torture-hours in which he was oppressed with a sense of +crime, and when shame literally consumed him!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was some time before the news of the betrayal was openly spoken +about in Königsberg. Months passed before the first signs that it had +become known manifested themselves, and during these months his whole +character underwent a complete change.</p> + +<p class="normal">His glance became shifty and uneasy, his colour often forsook him. Shy +and awkward he withdrew himself more and more from society, and +frequented none of his old haunts. He would start and tremble at every +word unexpectedly addressed to him. Then came days when the masters +at the gymnasium began to look askance at him, and the pupils to shun +him--days in which his aunt kept her room to escape his morning +greeting, and the family sat in conclave behind closed doors, when the +servants began to set his orders at defiance, and from time to time +spat on the ground as they passed his door.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he watched it creeping on, nearer and nearer, the cold, clammy +monster, that, snake-like, was to bind his limbs and freeze the blood +in his veins. He watched its wriggling progress, heard the gloating +hiss of its approach, and defenceless, paralysed, he stared it stonily +in the face, lacking the courage to cry out, or even to moan.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had lost Helene too. Not through any fault of hers. She had still +allowed him to go on pulling the institution bell on Fridays as if +nothing had happened, and had been friendly as ever, and had even tried +to distract his thoughts from the painful subject on which they +incessantly brooded, with mild little jokes. But was it because he was +himself so altered that he could only see the rest of the world through +a distorting mist of shame, or had she really, since that day of the +revelation, adopted a tone of pitying compassion towards him? Anyhow, +he became more and more embarrassed in her presence, and dared not meet +her eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">One day, instead of Helene, the old schoolmistress received him alone. +She curtseyed and grinned as usual, and assured him, a hundred times at +least, that she was his humblest servant; but what she proceeded to +unfold seemed to Boleslav the last straw. Her dear nephew, the <i>Herr +Pastor</i>, she stuttered, thought it best that the intimacy between his +daughter and the young nobleman should terminate, and in order that +there should be no further temptation to continue it, had decided to +remove her instantly from the town of Königsberg. A note sealed with +blue sealing-wax contained Helene's farewell:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<span class="sc">Dear, Dear Boleslav</span>,--My father commands me to give up my friendship +with you. I must obey him. Good-bye. I shall always be fond of +you----always. I swear it. Your</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Helene</span>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Six hastily scribbled lines! Were these to be his food and drink +through a life of longing and renunciation? Yet had he any right to +expect more? Had she not promised to be true, and to hold to him though +everyone else had cast him off? From that time forward she became for +him transfigured and a saint. Her face became more than ever identified +in his imagination with that of the Madonna he had seen in the +Cathedral, and whenever he pictured her he beheld her adorned with an +aureole, and surrounded by lilies and roses.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had it not been for his extreme youth, energy and self-reliance might +possibly have helped him over the abyss of enervating grief; but a +habit of childlike respect, a latent instinct of veneration, put the +idea of asking his father to explain what had happened, much less of +calling him to account for it, out of the question. It was his +unexpected appearance on the scene that at last roused in him a spirit +of revolt.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was now seventeen, and would have been ready to pass into the +university, even if the authorities of the gymnasium had not repeatedly +hinted that his withdrawal would be in every way desirable. Even his +kindly aunt, who had carefully avoided referring to the rumour through +which she herself suffered keenly, had, as mercifully as she knew how, +spoken to him about the advisability of his going somewhere else to +finish his studies.</p> + +<p class="normal">Under other circumstances, his pride, his zeal for fair play and his +own honour, would have rebelled against this unjust dismissal. But now, +in his unspeakable bitterness, he cherished only one wish, and that was +to hide away somewhere with his disgrace, and be seen by no human eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">And in this mood he stood one day face to face with his father.</p> + +<p class="normal">The baron had come to town, to call in the aid of the law in dealing +with his rebellious peasants, but had found every door shut in his +face. His fury knew no bounds; he appeared to have lost all control +over himself, and his demeanour was one of desperate defiance.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the sight of the short, stubborn figure, the bull-neck and the grey, +fiery eyes rolling in their red sockets, Boleslav was seized with the +old boyish terror. He had to pull himself together with a tremendous +effort before he could bring the fatal question over his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father, is it true what people are saying, that----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Suspicion blazed up in the small grey eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh?--what are people saying?" he interrupted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That it was through you that the French found out the path by the +Cats' Bridge."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what if it was through me, you Hottentot? What if I did avenge the +wrongs of the down-trampled Pole on this pack of cowardly Russian +thieves? These hulking, stupid, lazy serfs, who would only get their +deserts if the great Napoleon extirpated them altogether from off the +face of the earth. Don't gape at me like that, clown! What I did was +done as a sacred duty. Heavily chained, scourged human beings cried out +imploringly to me, 'Save us, save us!' I could not save them, it is +true; that work was reserved for a greater than I--but I could at least +<i>help</i>, help him, who like an avenging angel swept over Europe and laid +it waste--help to annihilate a handful of ruffians I saw providentially +delivered into my hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">As he held forth thus, his short figure seemed to grow. His eyes +flashed fire. The demon of fanaticism that so strongly resembles +inspiration, its angelic sister, enveloped him in its red-hot, glowing +mantle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav shrank away, trembling. He felt keenly, how completely every +tie between him and this man was now severed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let them whisper, and nudge each other as I pass," he continued, "and +make faces; what the devil do I care? They daren't do it so long as the +Corsican lion held them in his claws. And after all, who is to prove it +against me? If it hadn't been for that fool Regina, who let her father +hunt her down in the Bockshorn, every one would naturally have supposed +that General Latour, with his inventive brain, had found out the way +over the river and through the wood of his own accord. As it is, the +wretches are all at my throat.... The peasants are no longer to be +brought to heel with the knout. They've always been so fond of me, you +see. If what the papers say is true, and the king is willing to let the +mutiny continue, they'll lynch me, as sure as fate. You will have good +cause to congratulate yourself on your succession, my boy!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Those were the last words his father had ever spoken to him, for the +conversation which had taken place in his own study, was interrupted at +this point by the entrance of his aunt.</p> + +<p class="normal">The aristocratic old lady recoiled from the touch of the Baron's red +muscular hand as from that of some poisonous reptile. But mastering her +repugnance, she asked for a few minutes' private talk with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">What decision they came to over his future he was never to know, for +even before the short interview had elapsed, his former life already +lay behind him like a nightmare, and he stood in the street and +reflected through which of the city-gates he should wander out into the +wide world. Finally, the goal of his travels proved to be a small +property in a remote corner of Lithuania, where he found rest in hard +work, and an opportunity of fitting himself for the duties of a landed +proprietor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Years went by. For him they meant unremitting labour for his daily +bread--a struggle for existence full of hardships, which, however, +could be engaged in without shame, or any wounding of his <i>amour +propre</i>. For now he no longer bore the abhorred name of his fathers. If +at the same time he only could have cast off, like a soiled garment, +the host of bitter recollections with which it was associated, he would +have been happier. But consciousness of the infamy that clung to the +discarded name remained ever present. Love for his country, which +hitherto had only slumbered in his heart, now bounded into full life. +The passion of patriotism grew and grew, till it became a tormenting +demon which scourged him with scorpions, drove the blood from his face, +the sleep from his eyes, and heaped the guilt of Prussia's misfortunes +on his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only once during this time did news of his home reach him. That was +when he read in a Königsberg news-sheet that Schranden Castle, which +had enjoyed such an unenviable notoriety in the winter of 1807, had +been burned down with all its outlying buildings. Then he had folded +his hands, and a sound had escaped his lips like a prayer of +thanksgiving.</p> + +<p class="normal">Expiation! expiation! must be the watchword of his soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as yet nothing could be expiated. Still the unhappy Fatherland lay +crushed beneath the heel of the dictator. Then came the downfall of the +Great Army on the snow-covered plains of Eastern Europe, and the rising +of Prussia quickly followed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now the hour had come. His hour! He would die--give his life for the +Fatherland, and expiate his father's sin with his own blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the volunteer Jäger Baumgart, who rode into Königsberg on the 5th of +March 1813, no one recognised the youthful Baron von Schranden, who, +just five years before, had fled from the town unable to face the +dishonour brought upon his name; and there were many now hailing him +with shouts and cheers of welcome, who then would have driven him out +with stones and brickbats.</p> + +<p class="normal">He attached himself to a cluster of intrepid sons of the soil, from +whose mouths the dialect of his lost home fell familiarly and musically +on his ear. He became their friend and their leader, till suddenly a +well-known face cropped up in the camp, the sight of which immediately +drove Lieutenant Baumgart out of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix Merckel, he knew too well, would not have hesitated to betray him +to his comrades, and to inform them who it was that led them to battle.</p> + +<p class="normal">What followed was like a ghastly confused phantasmagoria, in which +bloodshed, salvoes, and death-rattles played their part. Why had he not +died? How had he lived through it? These were the questions he asked +himself on first regaining consciousness and opening his eyes on the +world, after lying for months between life and death. For him, then, no +French sabre had been sharpened, no French bullet fired.</p> + +<p class="normal">The one complete atonement his conscience told him it was in his power +to make had been denied him. Was a heavier one awaiting him now, as he +drew near the dusky woodlands of his birthplace in the dim, grey dawn +of day?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">It was eight o'clock in the morning, and already the rays of the sun +had strengthened, as Boleslav left the wild tangle of the forest behind +him, and beheld his home stretched out at his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had not set eyes on it for ten years. His first fierce impulse now +was to shake his fist at the village which lay there so hypocritically +idyllic in the calm of early morning, with its white toy cottages set +in bowers of green bushes, its curls of blue-grey smoke, and opalescent +slate church spire rising peacefully against the sky.</p> + +<p class="normal">Beyond were the magnificent groups of old trees with dark, almost black +foliage and yellowish trunks belonging to the Castle park, which sloped +away on the eastern side of the hill. But the Castle itself, that had +crowned the hill with its shining battlemented twin-towers, and had +queened the landscape far and wide--where was it? Had the earth opened +and swallowed the imposing structure whole? For a moment he was +startled and shocked at its total disappearance. Then he remembered. +How stupid it was to have forgotten! They had burnt it down, razed it +to the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many and many a time he had thought of that deed of violence, which had +laid waste the inheritance of his fathers, with a sort of grim +satisfaction. But now, when he saw with his bodily eyes the scene of +the conflagration, he felt sullen resentment rise in his heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Incendiaries! Accursed incendiaries!" he cried, and once more shook +his fist at the homesteads of his enemies. <i>His</i> enemies? Yes, in the +flash of a moment it seemed clearly demonstrated that his father's +enemies must be his enemies. Had he not inherited them, together with +these woods and fertile valleys, with yonder smoked, blackened heap of +ruins (he now noticed it for the first time) that reared itself like +the mighty hand of a giant calling down the wrath of Heaven--together +with that awful crime, which no one on earth hated more than he did, +from which no one had suffered as he had suffered.... And though, +instead of filial love, he had cherished nothing but a sensation of +paralysing fear towards his father, though for years he had +deliberately cut himself adrift from ties of kindred, and the +performance of duties that custom and civilisation impose on those who +are destined to hand down an ancient name and inherit vast estates--in +spite of it all, the fact remained that it was his father's blood +flowing in his veins, and he felt it at this moment coursing through +them tumultuously, and rising in hot anger at the wrong that had been +done his race.</p> + +<p class="normal">A wild gleam shone in his eyes as he fumbled with his left hand for the +leather case strung over his shoulder, from which obtruded the +burnished knobs of a pair of cavalry pistols.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Won't bury him!" he murmured through his clenched teeth, clasping the +pistols close. "Won't bury him, indeed! We shall see!" And with a +bitter, mirthless laugh, he walked resolutely down into the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">The one long straggling street lay before him, deserted and basking in +the brilliant sunshine. The cart-ruts in the rich clay soil shone as if +they had been glazed; bottle-glass and rags from old besoms filled the +interstices to prevent the accumulation of stones. On either side of +the road stood the thatched cottages of the peasants, shaded by limes +and chestnuts, some of whose leaves were even now beginning to look +autumnally sere and yellow. These peasants had formerly been under the +jurisdiction of the Castle, and only since the new rural laws came into +force had been relieved of their service and joined the freemen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here and there he saw a new fence painted in glaring colours, as if the +owner wished to mark off his recently acquired possession from the rest +of the inhabited globe. In other respects the new <i>régime</i> had left +everything much the same. Sunflowers and herbs bloomed in the front +gardens as they had always done; damp mattresses hung out of the +windows to air just as of old. Only the number of taverns had +increased. Boleslav counted three, whereas once the Black Eagle had +reigned supreme and met all the requirements of the place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nearer the church were the white houses of the free artisans, burghers +as they were called, who paid to the Castle ground-rent, and therefore +enjoyed the privilege of cultivating their own vegetable plots as they +pleased. There were a couple of blacksmiths with the sign of a +horseshoe over the entrance of their forges, two or three cobblers, a +wheelwright, a basketmaker, and a----</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused and let his eyes rest on a dilapidated tumble-down hovel, the +most wretched in the whole row. A dirty green shield hung over the +door, bearing the almost obliterated inscription--</p> +<br> + +<p class="center">"HANS HACKELBERG,</p> +<p class="center"><span class="sc">CARPENTER AND PARISH UNDERTAKER</span>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">A coffin, also painted green, supported by pillars, loomed down on the +neglected garden, and gave to those who couldn't read, the necessary +information. At the sight of it an incident long forgotten occurred to +Boleslav with extraordinary distinctness. He saw again a little untidy +girl with great, dark, tearful eyes and a tangled cloud of black, curly +hair flying about her face and shoulders in wild dishevelment. She had +clung to this garden gate with one hand, while with the other she held +the corner of her blue print pinafore convulsively pressed against her +bosom. A pack of village hobbledehoys were pelting her with sticks and +stones. He was not much taller than she was, but at his approach the +little crowd made way for him, shy and awestruck. For he was the "young +<i>Junker</i>," who had only to lift his finger, they thought, to bring down +blessings or curses on their heads.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is going on here?" he had asked, whereupon the persecuted child +had humbly advanced, and opened her pinafore just wide enough for him +to get a glimpse inside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Beasts! They wanted to take it away from me!" she had exclaimed, +lifting her wet eyes to his, blazing with indignation.</p> + +<p class="normal">A poor unfledged sparrow, which somehow or other had fallen out of the +nest, reposed in the pinafore.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give it to me," he had demanded, for he loved young birds; and +obediently she had held out her pinafore for him to snatch it away. As +beseemed a lordling, he had not said thank you, or troubled himself +further about the giver.</p> + +<p class="normal">And that was <i>she</i>--the girl who, it was said, had shown the French the +path by the Cats' Bridge, and had lived with his father as his mistress +to the last.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why had he defended her then? Why had he prevented the pack hunting her +down? One blow on the forehead from a stone might then and there have +cut short her mischievous career!</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked on. Now and then a dull, dirty face peered at him curiously +through the small, dark window-panes, or a cur barked. But he passed +unmolested through the village. It was unlikely enough that any one +would recognise him. The parsonage came in view with its shady veranda, +trim flower-beds, and nut-trees. It looked as quiet and peaceful as on +that morning long ago, when, with a sigh of relief at escaping from +the pastor's stern rule, he had seen it for the last time from the +post-chaise, and Helene had waved him farewell with her little cambric +handkerchief. With lowering brow he now took a short cut that he might +avoid passing it. It seemed as if Helene must still be standing on the +lawn waving her handkerchief. But what if she had been there? It would +have been impossible for him to go to her. A path on his left led down +to the river, which divided the Castle domain from the villagers' +territory. As he turned into it he became aware of the frightful +ravages the fire had made. Instead of the long line of barns and +stables which had been ranged on this side of the river stood a row of +ruins, falling walls and scorched beams, grown over with celandine and +valerian. Beyond could be seen, through gaps in the walls, the +courtyard, now a weedy, grass-grown rubbish heap, and on the summit of +the hill, behind a lattice formed of the leafless branches of dead +elms, a black ruined mass of fantastically jagged brickwork--all that +remained of the once proud Castle.</p> + +<p class="normal">His arms fell heavily to his sides. A sound escaped him like a sob, a +sob for vengeance.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dragged his way laboriously along the banks of the river to the +drawbridge, which was the main mode of access to the island; for, since +his grandfather's time, the whole of the Castle grounds had been, by +means of an aqueduct, practically converted into an island. The +drawbridge, at least, was still <i>en evidence</i>. It looked like a remnant +of antiquity as it hung with its grey projecting timbers on its black, +clumsy buttresses, at the foot of which the ripples broke with a +gurgling sound. The rusty chains were tightened, and between <i>terra +firma</i> and the floating edge of the bridge was a space of about three +feet, which could be jumped with ease. Some one had evidently tried to +draw it up, and failed in the effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav sprang over and passed through the stone gateway, whose +nail-studded doors, half-burnt, were thrown back on their hinges. +Suddenly he heard a sharp clicking sound at his feet resembling the +snap of a bowstring. He stopped, and saw, to his horror, the iron +semicircle of a fox-trap half-buried in the rubbish, and carefully +covered with birch-broom. The long pointed teeth of the iron jaw had +closed on each other in a tenacious grip. By a miracle he had escaped +an accident which might have laid him up for many weeks.</p> + +<p class="normal">Feeling the ground with his stick, he pursued his way more cautiously +through the refuse and litter, amongst which he came across +occasionally a disused waggon or the rotten barrel of a brandy cask +held together by iron hoops. He went on, up the hill to the Castle. The +path was overgrown with brambles as tall as himself, and again he came +on traps, their wide open maws greedily eager to seize him by the leg. +The whole place seemed strewn with them--the only signs of civilisation +he had as yet encountered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Castle lay before him, with yawning window-frames and sundered +walls, a complete ruin. Piles of fallen tiles and plaster, between +which rank grass and weeds had sprung up, formed a mound round its +foundations. The vestibule, with its drooping rafters, had become a +perfect bower of creepers and evergreens, whose luxuriant growth seemed +almost impenetrable. A white tablet hung among the leaves, on which, in +his father's handwriting, were the words, "<i>Caution to trespassers</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shuddered at this, the first trace he had seen for six years of the +man to whom he owed his existence, and whom he had now come to bury.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a few moments he would be standing probably beside his corpse.</p> + +<p class="normal">But how was he to find it? What resting-place could his father have +found here while yet alive?</p> + +<p class="normal">No door or unbroken window, no signs of a human habitation, were +visible amidst all this fearful wreckage. He turned, and walked slowly +the length of the Castle façade, past the towers which flanked the +gabled roof; here over the blackened stonework the ivy had begun to +grow afresh, enshrouding it in a peaceful melancholy. From this point +his eye caught a vista of the park, with its giant timber and wealth of +undergrowth. And then he saw a few yards off, on the grass-plot where +once had stood the statue of the goddess Diana, of which nothing now +was left but the shattered fragments and pedestal, a woman.... A +slender, strongly-built woman, with long plaits of dark curling hair +hanging down her back. Her primitive costume consisted of a red +petticoat and a chemise. She was digging energetically with a heavy +spade in the dark rich soil, and was apparently too engrossed to notice +his approach. She set her naked foot at regular intervals, as if +beating time on the hard edge of the spade, and with the slightest +possible pressure drove it deep into the earth. As she dug she sang a +song on two notes, a high and a low, which welled out of her full +breast like the sound of a sweet-toned bell. The chemise, a coarse and +roughly made garment, had slipped off her shoulders, laying bare the +strong, magnificently moulded neck. When he addressed her, she drew +herself erect with a sudden movement of surprise and alarm, and stood +before him half naked.</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned on him a pair of lustrous, large dark eyes. "What do you +want here?" she asked, grasping the spade tighter, as if intending to +use it as a weapon of defence. Then lifting her other arm she calmly +raised the chemise over her shapely bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you want?" she repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still he did not answer. "So this is she," he was thinking, "the +traitress, the courtesan, who---- Should he point his pistol at her, +and drive her instantly from the island, so that the ground he trod on +might at least be clean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile his bearing seemed to have convinced her of the peacefulness +of his intentions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is no place for strangers," she went on. "Go away again at once. +You are lucky not to have been caught in a wolf's trap."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood, drawn to her full height, and waved him off. Then gradually +she became confused under his searching glance, and regarded him +nervously out of the corners of her eyes. Tossing back the black tangle +of hair from her sunburnt cheeks, she began to fidget with her +inadequate garment, seeming conscious for the first time of her +half-nude condition.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Show me his corpse!" he asked imperatively.</p> + +<p class="normal">She started and stared at him for a moment with astonished, questioning +eyes, then threw herself weeping at his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Gnädiger Herr</i>!" she murmured, in a voice stifled with emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt her fingers seeking his hand, and pushed her violently from +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Show me his corpse!" he commanded again, "and then you may go."</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose slowly, kicked the spade away with her foot, and led the way +down to the park. As they neared some bushes she turned round and said +timidly, "There's a trap here." He stepped quickly to one side, +otherwise he would have walked straight into the snare. She held +back the brambles of the thicket through which they were making their +way, to prevent the thorns scratching his face. They came to a clearing +in the wood where stood a small one-storied cottage with a tall +chimney, surrounded by broken hot-house frames and lime heaps. It was +the gardener's house, in which as a boy he had often played with +flower-pots, seeds, and bulbs; the one solitary building the ravages of +the fire had left untouched, because the incendiary had been unable to +find his way to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Again his guide warned him. "Take care! That is dangerous," she said, +pointing to a heap of earth like a mole-hill. "Whoever steps on it is a +dead man," she added half to herself. He knelt down, and with his hands +dug out the bomb that lay concealed in the soft earth, and hurled it +with all his might far away, so that it exploded with a loud report +against the trunk of a tree. She cast a shy, half-scandalised glance at +him over her shoulder, for to her what he had done was an act of +desecration.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she opened the door, and he found himself in a dark passage. The +cottage had only two rooms. The one on the left of the front-door had +been the gardener's dwelling-room, the other his workshop.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the former, the door of which stood ajar, issued a powerful death +odour.</p> + +<p class="normal">He went in. A body veiled in white lay on a low bier in the middle of +the close, gloomy little room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave me," he said, without looking round, and he threw back the +cloth.</p> + +<p class="normal">His father's rigid features, covered with bristles, stared up at him. +The eyes had sunk far back in his head; the brows were contracted. In +the hollows of his cheeks bushy black hair had sprouted, while the +beard had turned partially grey. The short, thick nose had shrunk, and +close to the firmly-shut lips that had not parted in death lay a deep +line, denoting intense suffering, and, at the same time, defiant scorn; +as Boleslav looked down on it, the line seemed to deepen still more, +and at last to quiver and play round the mouth that was still for ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dropped on his knees, and, with folded hands, prayed a paternoster. +His tears fell fast, and rained heavily on the waxen face of the dead +man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your guilt is my guilt," he whispered hoarsely. "If I don't defend +your memory, who else will? No one in all the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he covered up the body again with the white cloth, for flies were +swarming round it. As he turned away, he observed the girl's dark head +pressed against the foot of the bier. Her symmetrical neck and +shoulders shone out in relief from the shadowy background.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing here?" he demanded roughly. She crouched down, +shivering, and raised her left shoulder, as if to ward off a threatened +blow. Her eyes flashed a warm ray through the masses of her curly hair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one has ever driven me away from him before," she murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But <i>I</i> drive you away," he answered with decision.</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose and quietly vanished. He tore open a window, for he felt half +suffocated, and then took a survey of the apartment. It was small and +wretched enough, and was filled up without any attempt at arrangement +with the most inappropriate and heterogeneous assortment of furniture, +most of it evidently rescued in haste from the fire; a gold-legged +table harmonised ill with rickety kitchen chairs; a peasant's canopied +bed stood near gorgeous consoles of inlaid marble, and a cracked +Venetian mirror hung beside a bullfinch's simple wicker cage. But +nothing looked more out of its element than the life-size portrait of +the beautiful Pole, his grandmother, and the original cause of all the +evil that had befallen him. Her haughty, arrogant eye still pierced the +distance triumphantly; the small gloved hand still grasped the flexible +riding-whip. "Kneel, slave," the full proud lips seemed to say. Only +the diamond pin which used to glitter in her bosom like a star was +gone, for just there the colour had warped, and the grey canvas beneath +was exposed to view. The once elegant and artistically carved frame +representing a garland of gilded roses and cupids had suffered too, +being chipped and cracked in various places, where patches of coarse +orange paint had been daubed on to repair the damage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Probably he took every care to save that first," thought Boleslav, and +had not the presence of his father's corpse restrained him, he would +have pulled it down from the wall, and trampled it under foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">A case containing arms stood in a corner. The newest and most costly of +shooting weapons were ranged there, including every variety of pistol, +sword, and spear. Above it was unrolled a plan of the Castle island, +showing the spots where ingeniously contrived man-traps, mines, and +spring-guns awaited the trespasser--roughly calculated, there were over +a hundred of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav shuddered. Surely this unhappy man had been punished enough +for his misdeeds in the life he had been compelled to lead during his +last few years on earth! Caged up like a hunted wild beast, his +murderous contrivances were a perpetual source of menace to himself, +for to have forgotten for a moment the position of one of his +death-traps must have instantly proved fatal.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Boleslav went out at the door he stumbled over Regina, who was +cowering on the threshold. She started to her feet with a low cry of +pain, like the whine of a trodden-on dog. He felt a momentary thrill of +compassion for her, but it vanished before he had spoken the kind words +that involuntarily rose to his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What were you lying there for?" he inquired harshly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's my place," she answered, always regarding him with the same +humble, luminous glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed? It's a dog's place as a rule."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's mine too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your name is Regina Hackelberg?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>gnäd'ger Junker</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was you who led the French over the Cats' Bridge?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>gnäd'ger Junker</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you do it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I was told to do it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who told you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She cast down her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why don't you answer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I was forbidden to tell."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who forbade you; my--<i>he</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; the <i>gnäd'ger Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So that's what you call him, eh?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>gnäd'ger Junker</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Call me, if you please, <i>Herr</i>, and not <i>Junker</i>. I am not <i>Junker</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, <i>gnäd'ger Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr</i>, I say--simply <i>Herr</i>. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>gnäd'ger Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Himmelkreuzdonnerwetter</i>! Didn't I say you were to call me <i>Herr</i>, +without any prefix?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She trembled nervously at his oath; but when it dawned on her what he +meant, a smile of pleasure illumined her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see, <i>Herr</i>," she said, and nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall expect you to tell me everything," he went on. "Do you hear?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>gnäd'ger Herr</i> did not wish me to speak about it.... Not to any +one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did he say not to <i>any one</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">He bit his lip. Why should he inquire further into the matter, when it +was all as clear as daylight? This creature had been used as a tool +because she was stupid, and bad enough to let herself be so used.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How old were you at the time the French came?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Again she cast down her eyes. "Fifteen, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Once more he felt softened towards her, but almost immediately dark +suspicion stifled his pity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were paid for your work?" he asked between his clenched teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>," she responded calmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was overwhelmed with disgust.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How much was it? Your bribe?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What! You mean to say you did not stipulate for a certain sum +beforehand?</p> + +<p class="normal">"She seemed unable to comprehend.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father took it all away from me," she answered. "He said it was the +wages of sin. It was a whole big handful of gold. I know that."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her in amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fine head, with its wealth of wild hair clustering on her neck, was +humbly bent. She appeared not to have the slightest perception of the +scorn she had aroused in him; or was she so used to it that she took +his contempt as a matter of course?</p> + +<p class="normal">"What were you doing at the Castle when the French were quartered +there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A dark flush suffused her face, neck and bosom. He had struck some +chord of memory that awakened in her a spark of shame.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was helping with the sewing," she stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you come to the Castle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father told me I must. He said I was to go up and ask the +<i>gnäd'ger</i> Herr if there was any sewing for me to do. I was to earn my +bread somehow, he said."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, indeed!" There was a pause, then he continued: "Go and put on a +jacket, Regina."</p> + +<p class="normal">She passed her hand over her bosom and drew her linen garment tighter +round her chest, till the string cut into the swelling flesh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, why don't you go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't got a jacket."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What! Didn't he clothe you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They tore my jacket off my back yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A gleam of burning hate flashed from her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who? Why, they--the people down there, of course," and she spat in the +direction of the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">A feeling of mingled surprise and satisfaction arose within him, for +here was a being who could share his hatred; some one whom fate was to +associate with him in the coming struggle with the villagers below.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So the people down there are your foes?" he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed jeeringly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should just think they were. They throw stones at me whenever they +get the chance--stones as big as this." She joined the hollows of her +hands together to show the size.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For how long have they thrown stones at you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It must be six years," she said after a moment's calculation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how often have they hit you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, lots of times. Look here!" and she let the chemise slip down +again, to display a scar extending from her shoulder to the root of her +bosom, which marked the warm olive skin with a thin line of scarlet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But now I always take the tub with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The tub?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; the wash-tub. I hold it over my head and neck when they come +after me."</p> + +<p class="normal">What a wretched existence was hers--worse than a dog's!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why have you gone on staying here when they treat you thus?" he asked. +"There are other places in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gazed at him in astonishment, as if she did not grasp his meaning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I belong here," she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You might at least have left the island, and betaken yourself +somewhere where your life would not always be in danger."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave a short laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was I to leave <i>him</i> to starve?" she asked; and then, growing suddenly +red, she added, correcting herself shyly, "I mean the <i>gnäd'ger Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded to reassure her, for she looked as if she expected to be +chastised on the spot for her slip of speech, poor miserable creature!</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't go down there oftener than I can help. Generally I go over the +Cats' Bridge by night to Bockeldorf, three miles away. There, at +Bockeldorf, I could get flour and meat, and everything else that +<i>he</i>--the <i>gnädiger Herr</i>--wanted, if I paid double the price for it, +and be back by the morning. But sometimes it's impossible to get +there--in a snow-storm, for instance, or a flood. So when the weather +was very bad I was obliged to go down to the village, and had to pay +still more money there, and even then perhaps get nothing but blows. +So"--she laughed a wild, almost cunning laugh--"I just took what came +handy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That means--you thieved?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She gaily nodded assent, as if the achievement was deserving of special +praise.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was so depraved, then, this strange, savage girl, that she was +quite incapable of distinguishing the difference between right and +wrong!</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what were you doing in the village yesterday?" he questioned anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yesterday? Well, you see, <i>he</i> must be buried. It's time, <i>Herr</i>, +quite time. And I thought to myself, however much I cry, that won't get +him under the earth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you cried, did you?" he asked contemptuously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," she replied. "Was it wrong?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, never mind: go on."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so I took the tub and went down to the pastor's. But the pastor +said I mustn't contaminate his house by coming near it, so on I went to +landlord Merckel, who is mayor as you know, <i>Herr</i>. And there the +soldiers saw me----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What soldiers?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The soldiers who have just come from the war." She paused again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on!" he commanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the soldiers cried out 'Down with her--strike her down!' and then +the chase began, and my father joined in and called out 'Down with +her!' too, but he was only drunk, as he nearly always is.... The stones +flew about, and the women and children caught hold of me and held me +fast, that they might strike me; but I had the tub and held it with +both hands high over their heads, hacking with it right and left like +this." She illustrated her story by holding up her rounded muscular +arms in the air, and bringing them down again like a pair of clubs.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tall, magnificent figure before him, reminded him of some antique +statue in bronze. Strange, that in spite of all the degradation and +vileness amidst which she had been reared, it should have blossomed +into such fulness of triumphant splendour. There was something classic, +too, in the mere unaffected freedom with which she exposed its charms. +But of course in reality she was nothing but a shameless hussy, long +since lost to all sense of decency.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you have got a shawl, if not a jacket," he suggested, turning +his back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I have a shawl, a woollen one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then put it on at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">She disappeared silently through the door before which they had been +standing, and after a few moments returned in a brilliant red tippet +which she had crossed over her breast and tied in a knot behind. Now +that she had awakened to the fact that her half-clothed condition +shocked him, she began to be ashamed of even her naked arms, which she +had no means of concealing. She kept them folded behind her back, and +crept into the darkest corner of the passage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did they refuse to bury the <i>gnädiger Herr</i>?" he demanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No-no-one said anything," she answered, "because I never asked."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I couldn't for the stones that were hurled at me. And then I +thought it was no good. Nobody would ever come and fetch him. I might +as well shovel him in myself, as best I could."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>You</i> proposed to do it! Without help?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I could carry him from the Cats' Bridge into the house without +help, I ought to be able to bury him too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where--in the churchyard?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The churchyard? Ha! ha! That would have been a pretty piece of +business. I should never have got him through the village and been +alive afterwards to tell the tale. It was in the garden, over by the +Castle. I was in the middle of digging the grave when the <i>Herr</i> +arrived."</p> + +<p class="normal">Now he felt strongly inclined to praise her. Such canine fidelity, +unquestioning, unhesitating, touched him deeply. Did not the girl who +had faced death readily a thousand times for her master's sake, deserve +some sort of reward? Yes. He would repay her in coin; good hard cash +would doubtless be more acceptable than anything else, poor thing! And, +directly he had laid his father in his last resting-place, he would +dismiss her from his service. Till then she might stay where she was.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, at all costs, his father's bones must lie with those of his +ancestors. His first duty, his bounden duty as a son, was to procure +for him a decent burial, such as was granted to every Christian human +being. No matter what difficulties might stand in the way, he +determined to accomplish the sacred task, even if he were driven to +resort to extreme measures, and call in the aid of the law. He knew at +least one magistrate in Prussia, a relative of his mother's, who would +take his side, and enforce justice with an armed contingent if the +worst came to the worst.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was just in the act of walking off in the direction of the village, +when it occurred to him that it was impossible to take a hundred steps +on his own property without being snared into a hundred death-traps. +Without the woman he detested to guide him, he was as helpless as a +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lead me to the drawbridge," he said; "and while I am gone clear away +all the traps."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">But she remained motionless, as if rooted to the spot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you waiting for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg the <i>Herr's</i> pardon, but he has been travelling all night, and I +thought----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did you think?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That the <i>Herr</i> must be very tired, and hungry perhaps; and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She was right He could hardly stand from sheer exhaustion. But the idea +of taking even a crust from her hands filled him with loathing. Rather +would he be fed by his enemies.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Meanwhile in the Black Eagle a group of Schrandeners, burghers and +burghers' sons, were enjoying their morning pint together. The +Schrandeners, who had always thought the ideal of a happy life was to +spend as much time as possible in the tavern, were now at liberty to +indulge their taste from morning to night. What work they did must have +been accomplished very early in the day, judging by the hour at which +they began their recreation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Young Merckel presided at their carousals. He had grown up into a fine, +broad-shouldered young fellow, with a cavalry moustache aggressively +curled up at the ends, which suited his cast of countenance, and a +manner, that even in bouts of clownish dissipation retained a certain +swaggering <i>bonhomie</i>. At the conclusion of the war, instead of getting +his discharge, he had come home on leave, to consider at his ease +whether or not it would be advisable to attach himself to a standing +army. His profession was not likely to interfere with his decision one +way or the other, as practically he had none.</p> + +<p class="normal">Till his twenty-fourth year he had been employed in "seeing life" in +different parts of the world at his father's expense, and had hailed +with joy the outbreak of war as a legitimate outlet for his energy, +which otherwise might have been turned into unworthy channels.</p> + +<p class="normal">Like Baumgart he had entered the army as a volunteer Jäger; like him +had passed into the militia and had been promoted to the rank of +lieutenant, but unlike him, he wore as a recognition of his bravery the +iron cross dangling on his proudly swelling breast. For the time being, +he had no intention of leaving his birthplace again, where he was +perfectly content to be regarded in the light of a hero and a lion.</p> + +<p class="normal">He drank, blustered, and helped to fan the flame of hate against the +traitor, hate which since the return of the victorious soldiers had +blazed up more fiercely than ever. At his instigation the Schrandeners +had gone forth to destroy the Cats' Bridge in order to cut the baron +off, on his island. That he would be struck dead before their very eyes +none in their boldest dreams had dared to hope, and without having +achieved their mission they had hurried back to the village to proclaim +the glad tidings.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a foregone conclusion that the man who had betrayed his country +would be refused Christian burial. This would put the crown on their +work of vengeance. They gloried in reflecting on it. The mayor was on +their side; the parson appeared to shut his eyes to what was going on; +and there was no reason to be afraid of the interference of higher +authority.</p> + +<p class="normal">That a champion of the dead would arise at the eleventh hour was the +last thing any one expected.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the <i>Junker</i>--God alone knew what had become of the <i>Junker</i>--had +he not totally disappeared, probably to die of shame in a distant +land?...</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's some one coming, wearing a Landwehr cap," said Felix Merckel, +looking out through a crack in the blinds on to the market-place, which +lay glaring and dusty in the heat of the mid-day sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sounds of revelry subsided, in expectation of the advent of a +stranger. Felix Merckel stretched out his legs and began to toy +indifferently with his medal.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door swung back. The new-comer brought a momentary stream of +sunlight into the cool, darkened room. Without a word of greeting he +walked to the buffet, behind which a barmaid sat knitting a stocking, +and inquired if he could speak a few words with the mayor. The mayor +was not at home; he had just gone out into the fields, the barmaid told +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel was fond of leaving the inn in charge of his son, for he +found the beer disappeared twice as fast from the barrels when he was +not present. Felix adopted a method of stimulating customers to drink, +which would not have been becoming in the host. He couched his +invitations in military slang and in figures of speech learnt in the +camp; to resist them would, the Schrandeners held, be casting a slight +on their lieutenant, so it followed that Felix was the means of adding +treasure to his father's exchequer.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was piqued at the stranger in the Landwehr cap not vouchsafing him a +salute, although he must have seen the officer's badge on his coat, and +determined to ignore him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can I wait here till the mayor comes back?" the stranger asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course. This is the tap-room," the barmaid replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">He took a seat in the farthest corner from the topers, with his back +turned to them, put down his knapsack, and bowed his head in his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Felix regarded such conduct as a kind of challenge to himself. +Like the true son of his father, he was indignant at a stranger coming +in and ordering nothing to drink.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ask the gentleman, Amalie, what he will take," he called out, bursting +with a sense of his own importance. Apparently the stranger didn't +hear, for he took no notice. The barmaid stood behind his chair and +stammered something about the excellent quality of Schrandener beer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you; I will drink nothing," he replied, without looking up.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Felix twisted with vigour the ends of his moustache. It was clear +that a rebuke must be administered to the stranger for his churlish +behaviour. He therefore rose to his feet, and swinging his tankard, +began in a somewhat blatant tone to address his boon-companions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear comrades and fellow-burghers and every one present, Prussia's +glorious battles have been fought. Our beloved Fatherland has risen +from the dust in new and unsuspected splendour. Most of us have bled on +the field of glory, and felt the enemy's bullets pierce our breast. +Whoever is a true Prussian patriot will now drink with me his country's +health and honour!"</p> + +<p class="normal">With high-pitched hurrahs, the mugs with one accord were lifted to the +revellers' mouths, but before they could drink, an incisive "Halt!" +from the lieutenant stopped them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see there is some one here," he cried, "who seems inclined to shirk +this sacred duty;" and he rose and walked with clanking spurs across +the room to the stranger's table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sir," he asked aggressively, "do I understand you don't wish to drink +to Prussia's fame and glory?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish to be left in peace," answered the stranger, not turning round.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What, sir? You who wear the honourable symbol of a defender of your +country in your cap, decline----"</p> + +<p class="normal">A sudden movement on the part of the stranger, who grasped his pistols, +made him break off. The next moment he saw firearms gleam in his hand, +saw him spring up, and stood aghast, staring into a pale, overcast face +that he knew well, but from which two such angry eyes had never blazed +at him before.</p> + +<p class="normal">He understood the situation at once; he stood face to face with a man +desperately resolved to go to any extremity if necessary.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look at me, Felix Merckel," said the stranger, who was stranger no +longer, "and learn that I wish to have nothing to say to you. But +understand that if you or any of your friends come too near, they will +rue it. The first who approaches within an inch of me I will shoot down +like a dog."</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix Merckel quickly regained his composure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! the <i>Herr Baron</i>!" he exclaimed, with a profound bow. "Now I am +not surprised that Prussia's----"</p> + +<p class="normal">The click of the double trigger of the cavalry pistol made him stop +short again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I warn you once more, Felix Merckel. I am an officer as well as +yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">And the reiterated warning had its effect.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, it is not my concern," Felix said, and with another low +bow, went back to his place; this time the clatter of his spurs was +scarcely audible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners put their heads together and whispered, and then old +Merckel entered the room. His round, sleek, clean-shaven face beamed +with prosperity and self-satisfaction. As beseemed the village +patriarch, he passed by the common drinking-table with a dignified +gait. A heavy silver watch-chain hung on his greasy satin waistcoat, +suspended from a gold keeper in the form of a Moor's head, to which was +also attached an amber heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>Herr</i> wished to speak to me?" he asked, with a profound +obeisance, which, however, he seemed to repent, when his little grey +lynx eyes remarked that the stranger had no glass before him. To be +obsequious to a non-drinker was a waste of time.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners kept their ears open. Felix had jumped up as if to +seize this favourable opportunity of going for his whilom friend with +his fists.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I say, father, it's the young <i>Herr Baron</i>," he exclaimed, with a +discordant laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Merckel withdrew a few steps. His benevolent smile died on his +lips; his fleshy fingers fumbled nervously with the Moor's-head keeper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can I speak to you alone?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! <i>Herr Baron</i>--of course, <i>Herr Baron</i>--is the <i>Herr Baron</i> +going +to stay?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He flung wide a side door, which opened into the little best parlour +reserved for gentry. A sofa, covered with slippery oil-cloth, and a few +velvet, bulky arm-chairs, were ready for the reception of distinguished +customers. Over a cabinet containing tobacco hung a placard with the +inscription, "Only wine drunk here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Before the host closed the door behind Boleslav, he made a reassuring +sign to his fellow-burghers as if to allay their anxiety. Then from +under his drooping lids he took a rapid survey of the newly-returned +young aristocrat's person, which seemed to fill him with satisfaction, +for again his smug, slimy smile played about his fat lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How the <i>Herr Junker</i> has grown, to be sure!" he began. "Wonderful!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav fixed his eyes on him silently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the <i>Herr Junker</i>--pardon, I ought to say Herr Baron--has come +home to find the old Herr Baron no longer alive. A pity he was not in +time to close the eyes of the sainted dead----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He broke off, and caught violently at his amber heart, for Boleslav's +piercing, threatening gaze began to make him feel uneasy. What if this +was a desperado, who would think nothing of taking him by the throat?</p> + +<p class="normal">"At any rate I have come in time," Boleslav burst forth at last, "to +repair the shameful scandal that has been perpetrated here in refusing +my father the last honour due to his position."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shameful scandal, my <i>Herr Baron</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I advise you, my worthy man, not to put on that air of saint-like +innocence. I can read you through and through. Something has come to my +ears concerning you, for which you deserve to be thrashed on the spot."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Baron</i>!" and he showed signs of taking flight through the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stay where you are!" commanded Boleslav, barring the way. Thank God +that in confronting this scum he felt the old inherited instinct of +conscious power come back to him. "Is this the gratitude you show my +house, to whose favours you owe everything?"</p> + +<p class="normal">This was true enough. The present landlord of the Black Eagle had once +hung about the Castle in search of a situation, and had finally, as its +ubiquitous commissionaire, amassed a considerable fortune, although he +now chose to adopt an attitude of injured virtue, and rubbed his hands +self-righteously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear <i>Herr Baron</i>," he said, a paternal kindliness suffusing his broad +countenance, "I willingly pardon the insults you have just heaped on +me, and will give you the best advice, as if nothing had happened. Now, +you will surely understand how friendly are my intentions."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I decline your friendship," thundered Boleslav. "As mayor of the +village of Schranden, you will answer my questions. Beyond that, I have +no dealings with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Schrandeners, dear <i>Herr Baron</i>, are really terrible people. I +always have said so. I said so many times to my dear wife. You knew +her, <i>Herr Baron</i>. Why, of course, she often took the little <i>Junker</i> +in her arms, little thinking that----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep to the point, if you please," Boleslav interrupted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Marianne,' I used to say, 'these Schrandeners, when once they get an +idea into their heads, nothing will move them.' Once they took it into +their heads not to drink my brandy. Good, pure, beautiful Wacholder, +<i>Herr Baron</i>. In the same way they've now got it into their heads not +to bury the old noble lord, and--well, upon my word, no God and no +devil will force them to do it. It's no good <i>your</i> trying either, +<i>Herr Baron</i>. I'll tell you why. The hearse belongs to the corporation, +and they won't let you have it. Horses, too, they wouldn't let out.... +As for bearers--dear God! Go round the village and see if you can find +one, and if you can, see if he is not well flogged for it quarter of an +hour afterwards. Oh! these Schrandeners! And then there is the <i>Herr +Pastor</i>--who really in the end has the most voice in the matter. Go to +the <i>Herr Pastor</i>, and hear what <i>he</i> says. Putting ceremonials and +paternosters out of the question, you won't even get the coffin made."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We shall see," said Boleslav, gnashing his teeth. He felt his spirit +of resistance rise, the more clearly he saw the web that hatred and +malice were weaving around him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You <i>shall</i> see," exclaimed old Merckel in badly concealed triumph, +"if you wish it, <i>Herr Baron</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He opened the door of the tap-room, from whence proceeded a low hum of +many voices. Half the village seemed to have collected there during +Boleslav's interview with the mayor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hackelberg! come here!" he called, and then hurriedly banged the door +to again, for he saw hands laid on it that threatened to tear it off +its hinges.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he has got over his debauch of yesterday, <i>Herr Baron</i>, he will +certainly come and himself give you his views on the subject." For a +moment the little lynx eyes sparkled with malignant joy. Then resuming +his benevolent patriarchal smile, he went on, twisting the amber heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have repudiated my friendship, young man. You have insulted me, +and shown no respect for my grey hairs--I don't resent it. You wouldn't +have done it if you had known how I, at the risk of my life--for if the +Schrandeners had got wind of it they would have done me to death--how I +saved many a time the noble baron, of blessed memory, from starvation. +Ask the <i>Fräulein</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What <i>Fräulein</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The pretty, faithful <i>Fräulein</i> Regina--your deceased father's best +beloved. She is a pearl, <i>Herr Baron</i>; you ought to hold her in high +esteem, and take her away with you on your travels. Often in the +darkness of the night have I stuck a loaf and a sausage in her apron, +<i>Herr Baron</i>, and sometimes a pound of coffee, <i>Herr Baron</i>, while I +have made my own breakfast off rye-bread for fear of the embargo, <i>Herr +Baron</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Weren't you paid for your trouble?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well; yes, yes. When one risks one's life one expects to be paid. +There is still a little bill due, however, <i>Herr Baron</i>, left standing +from last winter; if the <i>Herr Baron</i> will have the goodness to----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Write out your account, and the money shall be sent you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no hurry, <i>Herr Baron</i>. I have confidence; can trust you, +<i>Herr Baron</i>. What I wish to say is, take the advice of an old and +experienced man, and go home now without more ado; dig a grave behind +the Castle, and lay the deceased <i>Herr</i> in it--do it at night, mind, on +the quiet, quite on the quiet--<i>Fräulein</i> Regina will assist you--then +make the turf perfectly smooth, so that no one will know where you've +laid him, and before the dawn of another day ride away again with +<i>Fräulein</i> Regina on your saddle to where----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused suddenly, for Boleslav's hand was on the butt-end of his +pistols. Then the devilish mockery beneath this suave old hypocrite's +counsel was goading him into drastic measures. While he listened to it, +a new thought had flashed across his brain with vivid distinctness. The +funeral would after all only be the first step in the work that it was +incumbent on him to complete. Never would he slink away under cover of +night like a criminal, and abandon what remained of the inheritance of +his ancestors to utter ruin. No! he would stay and endure all things. +Set at defiance all these malicious hyenas, the worst of whom stood +before him, now grinning, with greedily gleaming eyes, only awaiting +his opportunity to pounce on the masterless unowned possessions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Endure! Endure!</p> + +<p class="normal">Renunciation for the sins of the fathers must ever be his lot. And did +not the foul act that had laid waste his property deserve retributive +justice? He would be a deserter and renegade, indeed, were he now to +turn his back on his native place, and on the beloved, who, though she +seemed lost to him eternally, might still be cherishing timid hopes of +meeting him once more. No! for the future his flag should wave over the +ruins of Schranden Castle, with the single word "Revenge" blazoned on +it in fiery characters. And who but a cowardly cur would leave his flag +in the lurch?</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped nearer the mayor, and with a threatening glance that seemed +to penetrate him through and through, almost roared in his ear--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who set fire to the Castle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel winced as if his conscience pricked him. Every Schrandener +did the same when any question arose as to who it was had perpetrated +the crime. Every Schrandener except one, and he was the criminal +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel was gathering up his strength for a glib answer when the +suppressed murmur in the tap-room gave place to a sound which had a +louder and more riotous note in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The landlord made a movement in the direction of the door, to bolt it +on coming events, but before he could take the precaution it was +stormed and burst open. A troop of wild-looking creatures led the +assault, at the head of whom was a man of puny stature, in rags and +tatters, with straight, black hair hanging in oiled ringlets to his +shoulders, a grey, stubbly beard, and a pair of glassy, besotted eyes +that rolled under red, lashless lids. He beat the air with his fists +and cried--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is the fellow--the brute? Let me catch the brute and I'll +strangle him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he beheld Boleslav's tall, resolute form, and swallowed his words +with a gurgling hiss. Behind him was a phalanx of angry, heated, +inquisitive faces all turned on Boleslav as on a recently captured +beast of prey.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Every man's hand is against me!" he thought, and his blood rose.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you the carpenter Hackelberg?" he asked, holding the drunkard in +thrall with his searching glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was associated with one of the dark memories of his childhood. Once +his pitiable howls had frightened him out of his quiet, boyish +slumbers, and on looking from his window he had seen him being whipped +round the courtyard for poaching. Now he stood shaking his fists, +grunting and spluttering with rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You supply the village with coffins, I understand?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The carpenter shook his head, stared vacantly in front of him, and then +answered in a sepulchral voice--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am at work on only two coffins--one for myself, and one for my poor +erring daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners laughed in their sleeve. This formula was so familiar. +When any one died in the village the carpenter had to be fetched by +force, locked up with a bottle of brandy and the necessary boards, and +not let out till the coffin was finished. Taken all in all, this +Hackelberg was a dangerous fellow, and no one knew it better than the +Schrandeners, who never let him out of their sight for long. He was +watched and shadowed, and many an arm was ready to strike him down when +the right moment should offer itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless they courted his society in the tavern, made him drunk, +and humoured him. Sometimes they hung on his lips, at others, stopped +his mouth. Either they put him under lock and key, or allowed him to +bully them. It was as if they had endowed their own bad conscience with +flesh and blood, and allowed it to run wild amongst them in the shape +of this unkempt, half-crazed sot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who else makes coffins in the village besides you?" Boleslav asked +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners burst into jeering laughter. They knew how difficult +he would find it to get any direct answer to his question.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My poor, wretched child," he growled, fastening his glassy eyes on +Herr Merckel's amber heart, which appeared to possess a fascination for +him. Then suddenly rousing himself once more from the half-stupor into +which he had collapsed, he threatened Boleslav with his fists, and +cried out excitedly--</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you want from me, <i>Herr</i>? A coffin? Is that what you want? +For whom do you want it? For the scamp, the dog, who betrayed his +country--who seduced my child? Do you think I'd make a coffin for +<i>him</i>? Look at me, <i>Herr</i>. Did you ever see such a spectacle?" He +wrenched open his shirt, and exposed to view his shaggy breast. "I'm a +beauty--mere offal, that dogs would turn up their noses at. And whose +fault is that, my dear young nobleman? Why, the <i>Herr Baron's</i>, your +deceased father's. He it was who reduced me to this, and made me an +unhappy, forsaken, childless old man, such as you see." He wiped his +eyes with the ragged sleeve of his corduroy jacket, while the +Schrandeners applauded, and backed him up in his maudlin oration. "My +child, my only child, was torn from my bosom. He robbed me of my +child----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe you yourself sent her to the Castle," Boleslav interposed, +without, however, making the least impression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He made my child a prostitute, but what's worse, young sir--what most +lacerates my father's heart--for though I'm a blackguard, I'm a +patriot; for in Prussia even blackguards love their country--if there +<i>are</i> any blackguard Prussians ... but my child ... ah! do you know +what he did with my child?... forced her with the lash to go out in the +dark night and---- But since then do you think I'd own her? No ... she +is my child no longer. I've cursed her--cast her off! I said to her, +'You are my own flesh and blood no longer.' That's what I said, +and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you took the wage of her sin all the same," Boleslav was on the +point of interrupting, but recollected in time that in saying so he +would be admitting his father's guilt to this pack of wolves.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'And you are free,' I said. 'You may go where you like, and whoever +you meet may kill you outright for all I care. Go to your <i>gnädigen +Herrn</i>,' I said, 'and ask him to protect you.' I said----"</p> + +<p class="normal">At this juncture the shouts of the other Schrandeners became so much +louder that they drowned the carpenter's speech. They closed round him, +and he was lost in the crowd; only his rasping laugh was still audible.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did I prophesy, <i>Herr Baron</i>?" asked old Merckel, with his +unctuous smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav leant against the end of the sofa, and regarded the crew of +Schrandeners pressing ever nearer with clenched teeth and unflinching +eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If one strikes me," he thought to himself, "the rest will tear me to +pieces."</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt how imperative it was to remain calm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, you people," he said, making a passage through their ranks with +his hands, "let me pass."</p> + +<p class="normal">And whether it was his commanding air of cool determination, or the +cross which shone in his military cap, that awed the tumultuous throng, +not one of them attempted to impede his progress. He passed into the +thick of the mob, expecting every moment to be struck a fatal blow from +behind; but nothing of the sort happened--unchallenged he found himself +in the open air. Felix Merckel had kept in the background.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole mob, now including women and children, surged after him down +the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he reached the parsonage garden, whose white walls blazed in the +rays of the mid-day sun, he was aware of an aching sensation at his +heart, that rose in a lump to his throat. His last hope rested in the +hands of the old pastor. Would he too spurn him from his threshold? But +at this moment that was not his only anxiety. How could he help feeling +anxious as to what <i>her</i> reception of him would be, she in whose power +it was to exalt him from the mire of shame and misery into a world of +peace and purity. If she saw him in his present condition, dirty and +dishevelled, with this escort of hooting ruffians behind him, would she +not recoil in horror?</p> + +<p class="normal">And she did.</p> + +<p class="normal">A terrified hand threw back the glass door of the veranda. It was +she--it must be she! For a moment he saw the glimmer of a white, +slender figure; saw her raise an arm, as if to wave off the approach of +him and the mob: and then, before Boleslav could give one questioning, +imploring look at the beloved features, she vanished with a faint cry +of alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a mist before his eyes. Half stunned, he went up the steps of +the veranda, closed the door behind him, and awaited the next turn in +the course of events.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners blockaded the veranda, and some flattened their noses +against the glass in order to see better what passed within. A pane +fell out; one of them had pushed his neighbour through it, whereupon +the revered voice of the old pastor was heard raised in remonstrance. +He appeared on the veranda flourishing a thick, notched walking-stick. +His white hair blew about his lofty temples. The nostrils of his +hawk-like nose dilated furiously as if they snorted battle. Beneath the +snow-white shaggy projecting brows his eyes glowed like fiery torches. +Such was the venerable Pastor Götz, who, in the March of the year 1813, +had gone from house to house, holding the big cross from the altar in +his hand, followed by a drummer, and had beaten up recruits for the +holy war. And had he not been left fainting by the roadside on the +march to Königsberg, in all probability he would have accompanied his +soldier-parishioners into the field of action.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners stood in no little dread of his discipline, and no +sooner did they catch sight of his formidable stick than they retreated +quickly from the windows, and tried to regain the garden gate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You hell-hounds, craven sheep!" he shouted from the glass door. "Come +to God's house on Sunday and I'll give you a dressing."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then turning on Boleslav, he measured him from head to foot with a +scowling glance. His eye rested on the military cap he held in his +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were in the campaign?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If it were not for the cross I see on the brim of your cap, I should +ask was it for or against Prussia?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav, whose thoughts had followed the fleeting vision of light he +had seen on the veranda, at first did not understand him; then he met +the insinuation with signs of passionate resentment. But the old pastor +was not the man to be easily intimidated, and while they both glowered +at each other, he cried--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Boleslav von Schranden, am I, or am I not, justified in cherishing +such a suspicion?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Boleslav's eyes fell before the condemnation in those of his +former master. He opened the door of his study, where between the +book-shelves hung pipe-racks and fire-arms, and said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Out of respect for the cap I will not refuse you entrance here. But +make what you have to say as brief as possible. In this house no +Schranden is a welcome guest."</p> + +<p class="normal">He put his stick in a corner, and drawing his flowered dressing-gown +close about his loins, paced up and down the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav cast about for words. He felt like a criminal in the presence +of this man, whose speech was like molten brass. Of a truth it was no +easy matter, this taking the guilt of another on to one's own guiltless +shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Pastor</i>," he began, stammering, "can't you forget for a moment +that I bear the name of Schranden?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man laughed bitterly. "That's asking a little too much," he +murmured; "a little too much."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regard me simply in the light of a son who wishes to bury his father, +and who is prevented from fulfilling that most sacred duty by the +wickedness and malice of the <i>canaille</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">For answer the old parson contracted his shaggy brows without speaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I appeal to you as a priest of the Christian Church. Will you suffer +such a scandal in your parish?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Such a thing cannot happen in my parish," the old man declared. +"Wherever it is my duty to lead souls to God, every one must be granted +a decent burial."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And yet they dare----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop! Whose burial is in question!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Freiherr Eberhard von Schranden?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That man has been dead for seven years."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Pastor</i>!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For seven years he lived ostracised from the society of his +fellow-creatures. Seven years he practically rotted in the earth. +Therefore, don't trouble me about him further."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Pastor</i>, I was once your pupil. From your lips I first learnt +the name of God. I always thought you a brave, upright man. I retract +that opinion now; for what you have just been saying are lying, +cowardly quibbles."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man drew himself up. His beard worked; his nostrils expanded. +With lurid eyes he came nearer to Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My son," he said, "do I look like a man who would countenance a lie?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav maintained his defiant attitude. But, much as he struggled +against it, he felt the old, long-forgotten sentiment of respect for +the schoolmaster awaking in him once more.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My son," went on the old man, "a word from me, and the rabble that +waits for you on the other side of that hedge would lynch you, but, as +I said before, for the sake of the cap you wear, I will be merciful. If +you like, I can prove that what I said just now is no lie."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went to a cupboard, where stood a long line of ragged folios, +containing church and parish documents, took out a volume, and, opening +it, pointed to a page dated 1807.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here, my son, read this."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Boleslav read--</p> + +<p class="normal">"On March 5th, died Hans Eberhard von Schranden. <i>Ex memoria hominum +exstinguatur</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Beneath were three crosses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is a forgery!" exclaimed Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my son," the old man answered solemnly, "that is a palpable, +shameless forgery; a stain on my office; and if you choose to report it +to the magistrates, I shall be suspended and end my days in prison. Do +exactly as you think fit. My fate lies in your hands."</p> + +<p class="normal">A shudder of mingled horror and reverence passed through Boleslav. He +had himself experienced too often the wild <i>élan</i> and reckless delight +of making sacrifices for the love of his country, not to understand +what impulse had driven the old clergyman to this insane confession.</p> + +<p class="normal">"With those crosses," he continued, "I buried the man seven years +ago--the man who, in spite of his cruelty and ungovernable passions, +had till then been my friend. From that day, whoever dared to breathe +so much as his name in my house was sent out of it. Then came that +night of arson, when these walls were illumined by the reflection of +the burning Castle. I jumped out of my bed, and, throwing myself on my +knees, prayed God to forgive the incendiaries, for it began to burn at +all four corners at once, a sure proof that the fire was not an +accident. Now, I thought, not only the deed, but the scene of it, will +be erased from men's minds. I didn't concern myself in the least about +the spectre that was doomed to haunt the ruins of Castle Schranden. And +now you come, my son, and tell me that that spectre was no spectre, but +a living creature, who only a few days ago gave up the ghost, and now +awaits interment. Well, I forbid it Christian burial, on the strength +of this register. I never bury any one twice. Report me, and--and I +shall be tried for my offence. But you know I am prepared. Do as you +like. Bury the corpse with all the honours you consider due to it; have +a procession grander and more imposing than an emperor's, but kindly +leave me out of the show."</p> + +<p class="normal">He settled himself in his green-cushioned armchair, supported his face +with his wrinkled, muscular hands, and stared vacantly at the open +register. There was nothing to hope from this iron-willed man of God. +It would be madness to keep up any illusion on the subject, and that +other illusion, that the loved one might still be won on earth after +long waiting and renunciation, must be abandoned too. All the shy +dreams and hopes that he had yet dared to cherish in his embittered +heart now seemed finally wrecked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So this is the divine grace, the forgiveness of sins, you preach!" he +cried, tears of wrath filling his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man rose slowly and let his hand fall heavily on Boleslav's +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because of your cap, my son, I will reason with you, although the +sight of you is hateful to me. Listen! It is a year and a half now +since there came here from Russia a rabble of ragged French beggars, +starving and frost-bitten. The Schrandeners would have felled them to +the earth with their scythes and pitchforks, and perhaps would have had +right on their side, for they were mere carrion-serfs in the pay of +Napoleon. But I opened the church door to them that they might take +refuge in the shelter of God's altar. I kindled a fire for them on the +flagstones, and had a hot supper cooked for them and gave them straw to +lie on. I told the Schrandeners that, though they were enemies, they +were human beings like themselves, bearing the cross of human suffering +as the Saviour once bore it on His shoulders. I told them to go home +and pray that God might spare them as they had spared those miserable +Frenchmen. So you see I can be pitiful and show mercy.... To return to +the subject of the funeral. I have never refused any sinner his lawful +resting-place. If I could have my will, even suicides should not be +excluded from the churchyard. That those who have been unhappy in their +lifetime should be comfortable in death has always been my principle. +And if the body of a man who had murdered his mother was brought here +from the scaffold, I would go to his graveside in full canonicals and +pray the King of kings 'to forgive him, for he knew not what he did.' +Yes, I'll extend mercy to all, only not to your father. For he who sins +against his country outrages every law human and divine; he disgraces +the mother who bore him and the children he propagates. Such a one is a +social outcast. He is like the leper who brings death and corruption +with him wherever he goes, or a mad dog who spurts poison from his jaw +on every living thing that comes in his way. And do you realise the +extent of your father's guilt, the mischief it has worked? It is not so +much the lives of those two or three hundred Pomeranian youths whose +bones lie buried there on the common that are to be reckoned against +him. They would probably have met death somewhere, later. The grass +grows high on their graves; even their parents have long since become +reconciled to their loss. No, it is not on their account that I bear +the grudge. But----come here, my son----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He clutched Boleslav's hand and led him to the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look out--what do you see on the other side of the garden hedge? A +gang of turbulent wild animals thirsting for the blood of their prey, +and yet too craven-hearted to spring on it, even when they have it +within their reach. And look at me, my son. I am here, appointed by God +as His minister to preach the gospel of love, and I preach hate. Words +sweet as honey should flow from my lips, and instead, scorpions spring +out of my mouth directly I open it, for I too am become a wild animal. +And this is what your father's crime has made us. There is no goodness +left in Schranden; the venom of your father's hate ferments in us, is +inoculated into our children and children's children. So will it ever +be till the Lord not only wipes the scene of infamy, but your accursed +name with it, from off the face of His blessed earth. Amen!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood with raised hands like some anathematising prophet of the Old +Testament, and foam rested in the corners of his mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav, half-dazed and horror-stricken, turned in silence to the +door. The old man did not call him back. As he crossed the hall he +started violently, for he was sure he heard the rustle of a woman's +dress behind a half-opened door. But not for the world would he meet +her now. Not in this dark hour, when he was completely overpowered by a +sense of having had the remnants of all that was good and noble in him +shattered and laid in the dust.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If <i>they</i> are become wild beasts, I can become one too," he thought, +as he thrust his hand in the breast-pocket that held his pistols, and +walked towards the Schrandeners. The old pastor was right. Though they +danced, whooped, and jostled around him with the lust of murder +gleaming in their savage eyes, they dared not lay a finger on him.</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">When he reached the drawbridge, behind the palings of which a +girl's +figure crouched, awaiting his return, he was full of a desperate +resolve. His father should be carried to his last resting-place by an +armed force.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you ready to earn another large sum of money?" he asked the girl, +who flushed and stood up quickly at his approach.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him for a moment in reflective surprise, and then, as his +meaning dawned on her, she shook her head violently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not?" he demanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">She began to tremble. "What's the good of money to me, <i>Herr</i>?" she +asked, in subdued, bitter tones. "They would only take it away from +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"People--those people. Please, oh please, give me no money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her mind is clearly unhinged," thought Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Besides, there is money enough," she continued in a whisper, glancing +round her timidly, "in the cellar--great boxes full--where the wine is. +I used to take what I wanted from there--for him, I mean--the <i>gnäd'ger +Herr</i>. For myself I never want any, unless it's to buy a new jacket +with."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you earn a new jacket?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need to earn it, <i>Herr</i>. Next time I go to Bockeldorf--for +the <i>Herr</i> must have food--I can get one."</p> + +<p class="normal">So, unreasoning as a beast of burden, she performed her duties, and +expected no return except her food!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you, then, without earning anything, go a long way for me this +very night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, won't I, <i>Herr</i>, if you wish it?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The next day the village of Schranden received an unexpected visitation +that proved no small shock to its inhabitants. At about five o'clock in +the afternoon two coaches appeared in the village street each of which +contained half-a-dozen occupants, young fellows in Jäger uniforms, with +their muskets slung over their shoulders from wide leather belts.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the first coach there was also a female occupant, who, the moment +the horses' heads turned in the direction of the space opposite the +church, alighted with a wild leap, and scudded away towards the Castle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Every Schrandener recognised in her the deceased Baron's sweetheart, +but all were too much taken aback to think of following her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The coaches halted before the Black Eagle, the windows of which were +eagerly opened, and before the strangers had moved from their seats, an +enthusiastic welcome was extended to them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Heide boys--Hurrah!" shouted Felix Merckel, who had many a time +fought side by side with these comrades of the Sellinthin squadron, and +he stretched a foaming jug out of the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">His father threw open the door of the little room reserved for +"gentry," where only wine was drunk, in the hopes that at least some of +these wealthy yeomen would patronise it. But, without answering the +warm greetings, they proceeded in gloomy silence to unharness the +horses, and to take out of their vehicles all manner of tools, such as +hatchets, files, and spades.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners were astounded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good gracious! have you lost your tongues?" Felix Merckel called from +the window. "And why haven't you brought your paragon, Lieutenant +Baumgart, with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Still no answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners began to think these strangers must be playing off a +joke on them, and burst into extravagant laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Karl Engelbert, who evidently had the command of the expedition, +came under the window from which Felix's broad-shouldered form obtruded +itself, and, greeting him with a half-military salute, said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"With your permission, Herr Lieutenant, we have come here not to take +part in any festivities or anything of that sort. We are a funeral +party."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But here in Schranden no one is going to be buried," cried Felix +Merckel, still laughing, but his face appreciably lengthened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed, Herr Lieutenant! Nevertheless, we have been invited to a +funeral."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who has invited you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Our former officer, Lieutenant Baumgart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense! There's no Lieutenant Baumgart here. I thought you were +going to bring him with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon, Herr Lieutenant, he is here already."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is the fellow hiding, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Probably you know him better under another name--Herr von Schranden."</p> + +<p class="normal">The stone jug in Felix's hand fell and crashed to pieces at Engelbert's +feet. The beer splashed his legs up to the knee.</p> + +<p class="normal">A tumult arose inside the inn. As if in preparation for battle, windows +were speedily closed, and Johann Radtke, driven by thirst to ascend the +steps to the main entrance, found the door banged in his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hunted from the threshold like tramps!" grumbled the dark-haired Peter +Negenthin, and clenched his fist in his sling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you wish to perjure yourself?" asked Engelbert in a low voice, +coming close to him. "If so, then go back. What is required of us we +must do. Whoever forgets the church at Dannigkow is a cur!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if we are dry we must wet our whistles with holy water, I +suppose," added Radtke with a sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">Engelbert shouldered his musket and gave the orders to move on. The +procession filed off in the direction of the Castle, a handful of +natives, out of respect for the muskets, bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav stood on the bridge to receive his friends.</p> + +<p class="normal">He rushed towards them in delight, and could hardly articulate, for +emotion, the words of gratitude that rose to his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">Engelbert held out his hand in silence. Boleslav was going to embrace +him, but he drew back. In his excitement Boleslav did not notice the +rebuff.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew you'd come," he stammered forth at last--"knew that I had +friends who would not leave me undefended to the tender mercies of this +pack of wolves."</p> + +<p class="normal">No one made any response. They stood drawn up in an unbroken line, +their eyes looking beyond rather than at him, in embarrassment. +Engelbert was the first to break the silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have summoned us, and we have come--but our time is short; tell us +what you want us to do."</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment Boleslav wondered at being addressed in this curt, +somewhat surly fashion, by the comrade who, of all others, had been his +favourite. But it was only for a moment. Why should he doubt them? Had +they not come? And then, incoherently enough, he related how his +father's disgrace had descended on him, and what he had resolved to do, +with their help.</p> + +<p class="normal">All the time a pair of shining eyes watched him from the other side of +a rubbish heap, and a woman's figure that sat cowering there trembled +like an aspen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are here--they are in the village!" she had called out to him in +timid excitement, as she had flown into the yard like a Mænad. At first +he had not recognised her in a light cotton skirt, a bed-jacket +buttoned over her panting bosom, and a handkerchief of many colours on +her head, tied under the chin, according to a fashion of the peasant +girls in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They gave me these things to put on," she had added apologetically, on +observing his puzzled looks.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then in pleasure at the news that his friends had arrived, he had +forgotten her, till, while waiting for them on the bridge, he had +caught sight of her hovering about the ruins. The head-dress had fallen +on her neck, and the wild black tresses escaped, and waved in confusion +about her sunburnt face. She seemed to be smiling absently to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was ashamed to think his friends had seen this woman, and decided to +pay her off and dismiss her on the spot, so that they should not +encounter her again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing here?" he demanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">She started.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, <i>Herr</i>," she replied, guiltily lowering her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you smile?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>," she murmured, "I was so glad."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I had got safely back here again."</p> + +<p class="normal">What strange fascination had this spot of earth for the abandoned +creature who had suffered on it nothing but shame and degradation and +endless misery? He remembered to have heard of domestic cats who, when +the house to which they belong is deserted by its inhabitants, prefer +to starve beneath its mouldering roof than to take up their abode +elsewhere. And if this cat-like propensity were incurable in her--what +then? After all, perhaps it would be cruel at this moment to pass +sentence of banishment upon her. She might as well stay till to-morrow +morning, so long as she kept out of his way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go," he had commanded, "and don't come near me and my visitors again."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she had hung her head humbly, and vanished behind the rubbish heap, +and there she cowered now, in terror of being discovered.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Boleslav had finished his story, Engelbert exchanged significant +glances with his friends, then said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"We have brought the requisite tools with us. If you can supply us with +the wood, we will knock you up a coffin in a very short time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Naturally it won't be a very grand one," remarked Peter Negenthin with +a stony smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">Engelbert looked at him reprovingly. A subdued growl passed from +mouth to mouth through the little party, which Boleslav, in his most +light-hearted confidence in his friends' good will, did not hear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you remember," he exclaimed, "that coffin we made for the young +Count Dohna in the dark? We took two hours over it, though we couldn't +see an inch before our noses."</p> + +<p class="normal">But his reminiscences met with no response.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One of you hold the horses," said Engelbert, "and the rest of us will +go and look for wood. All must be ready before nightfall."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav bethought him of the wine in the cellar, which the fire had +spared, where also was the frugal larder, containing bread and salt +meat, but not enough with which to entertain his friends.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have next to nothing to offer you to eat," he said, "but I wish you +would at least refresh yourselves with a bottle of wine before setting +to work."</p> + +<p class="normal">The friends were silent, and their faces clouded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind refreshment," said Engelbert, trying to assume a facetious +tone. "Wine makes a man lazy, and we haven't a minute to spare."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stooped to test some scorched rafters that lay about among the +stable ruins.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This will do," he said, "but we won't saw off the blackened part; that +will serve us instead of paint."</p> + +<p class="normal">And he walked on farther with Boleslav to look for more rafters. +Something white rose suddenly out of the earth in front of them, and +disappeared in a twinkling behind a neighbouring wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav instinctively balled his fists, for he had recognised Regina.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I ought to apologise," he said, "for not being able to send you a +better messenger. I had no one else to send."</p> + +<p class="normal">Engelbert was about to speak, but seemed to think better of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were obliged to supply her with clothes, I understand?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," answered Engelbert, his natural loquacity getting the upper +hand. "I found her lying on the doorstep with scarcely a rag to her +back. She was dead beat. I got up in the night to see what the dogs +were barking at."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What? Was it in the night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Two o'clock in the morning. Here is a sound rafter. We can use +that.... She ran the twenty miles in seven hours. I should never have +thought it possible; she lay like an otter that has been shot down--so +straight and fair--and gasped for breath. Your sheet of paper she clung +to with both hands. She tried to stand up, but fell backwards. Then I +fetched her brandy, rubbed her temples, and gave her----"</p> + +<p class="normal">One of his companions who were following behind, now came up, and gave +him such a look of astonishment and reproach that he broke off in the +middle of a sentence.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the next few hours an industrious sawing and hammering proceeded +from the Castle island, which sounds fell disagreeably on the ears of +the fierce and much perturbed Schrandeners on the opposite bank of the +river. It seemed to portend that their nicely-laid plans were at the +last moment to be frustrated.</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Hackelberg appeared in the street with his gun, which, as a rule, +lay buried in a dung-heap, because he was afraid that it might be taken +away from him, as had once happened when he amused himself by shooting +bats in the market-place, declaring that they followed him in swarms +wherever he went. With this famous gun he used in old days to go out +poaching every night, but since his once unerring hand had become weak +and tremulous from drink, he had been obliged to give up the trade. +Only when he had drunk even more than usual did the old sporting +instinct rise strongly within him, and he would rush to the shed, +unearth his gun, and bring down a swallow in full flight through the +air.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now he was on the war-path, and with the babbling rhetoric peculiar to +him, shouted--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Schrandeners, duty calls! Arm yourselves against the traitors. I am an +unhappy father. Robbed of my child. I'll shoot him dead, the brute."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he <i>is</i> dead," some one interposed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is he? Well, it doesn't matter--the other must be shot--all must be +shot down."</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Felix Merckel was ramping about the parlour of the Black +Eagle like a bull of Bashan. He remembered enough about the Heide +youths to know that when once irritated or attacked they would go any +length. The inevitable result of offering them opposition would be such +bloodshed as the rioters outside had no conception of. And then--what +then? Would not he as ringleader be the first object on which the wrath +of the outraged law would expend itself?</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, did the swindler who had dared under a false name to +obtain a lieutenancy and abuse the confidence of his comrades, +thereby incurring the contempt and abhorrence of every honourable +brother-in-arms--did he deserve to be allowed to score such a triumph?</p> + +<p class="normal">While his son was debating thus, Herr Merckel, senior, was also +troubled with anxiety from another cause. It struck him as a pity that +such a quantity of noble enthusiasm should be seething about aimlessly +in the open air, and determined to put an end to the nuisance.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped into the porch, and addressed the rabble in his suavest, +most paternal tones.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I, as your local functionary, cannot bear to see you, my children, +turning our public square into a bear-garden. Go under cover, and then +you may make as much noise as you please."</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course, "under cover" could only mean the parlour of the Black +Eagle; and, five minutes later, the consumption of inspiriting +stimulants left nothing to be desired.</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix had bowed his curly head between his hands, and stared gloomily +into his glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">Surely no Prussian patriot who had ever worn a sword ought silently to +look on at what was coming to pass this night? Rather die! Rather!----</p> + +<p class="normal">He jumped up, and began to speak inspiringly to the crowd.</p> + +<p class="normal">His speech was not without effect. One after the other stole out and +returned with some sort of weapon, a flint-gun, a bent sabre, or a +scythe.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Calm, and patriotic, my children!" exclaimed old Merckel, grinning, +and counting the empty tankards with his argus eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night had come. The two flaring tallow candles in the bar illumined the +overcrowded, oppressively hot room, and were reflected in the polished +blades of the scythes. Then two or three boys, who had been stationed +as spies on the drawbridge, burst in, shouting at the top of their +voices--</p> + +<p class="normal">"They're coming! They're coming!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There arose a howl of fury. Every one pressed to the door. Felix +Merckel hurried into his bedroom to take his sabre out of its scabbard, +but he did not come back. Probably the sight of the weapon he had so +often wielded in honourable warfare brought him to his senses.</p> + +<p class="normal">His father continued to exhort the rioters to calmness and caution, +especially those who had not yet paid for their drinks.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forwards!" spluttered old Hackelberg, "avenge my poor child. Mow them +down!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Outside, in the market-place, the whole population of the village was +assembled. Even babies in swaddling-clothes had been snatched out of +their cradles, and their squalling mingled with the babel of many +tongues. The moon came out from behind some clouds, and shed a pale +twilight on the scene. The church tower rose dark and forbidding +against the sky, and the parsonage, too, remained silent and dark. The +old veteran had kept his word. He heard and saw nothing of what was +passing. A dark-red fiery glow appeared behind the cottages that lined +the road to the river. Above the low roofs rose columns of thick black +smoke. Like the reflection from a conflagration the purple vapour +encroached on the pale dusk of the summer night.</p> + +<p class="normal">With one accord the rabble took the path to the churchyard, which, a +few yards from the last straggling houses, lay close to the street. +There by the gate they would best be able to bar the way to the +invaders. Those who had been in the war fell into rank and stood ready +for action. As far as they were concerned, it would be a case of +soldiers pitted against soldiers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is Merckel?" one of them exclaimed in astonishment, expecting to +hear the lieutenant's word of command. "Where is Merckel?" was echoed +in consternation from all sides.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the feeling that he must be coming, and had only gone to arm +himself, allayed any momentary suspicion of his having shirked the +business at the last. The lurid glow drew nearer and nearer. Soon the +eye could distinguish something black and square, framed as it were in +flames.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The coffin--the coffin!" the crowd exclaimed, and involuntarily +shuddered. Then, suddenly--who began it no one knew--it was as if it +had flashed across every brain at the same instant, in a booming chorus +the mob set up the weird chorale--</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t4" style="text-indent:-4px">"<i>Our noble Baron and Lord<br> +Of Schrandener's souls abhorred;<br> +For the shame he has brought on our head,<br> +O God, let the plague strike him dead</i>."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">And the coffin advanced. Already the light from the torches shone on +the faces of the singing mob, and women and children retreated +screaming.</p> + +<p class="normal">The crowd opened wide enough for the procession to pass on, and closed +again behind it. Six men carried the coffin on their shoulders and +swung flaming pine-branches in their disengaged hands, which scared the +throng and made it draw to one side. Six others followed with loaded +muskets. At their head Boleslav, with his pistols cocked in his hand, +his military cap on the back of his head, piercing his antagonists with +his burning gaze, cleared a road for his father's corpse. Deeper became +the rent in the human vortex, thinner the space that divided the +procession from the armed Schrandeners, who looked uneasily from side +to side, conscious that they were leaderless.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Boleslav stood face to face with them they were about to make a +forward dash, but a short military "Halt!" such as they had often heard +in the campaign, compelled them to take a step backwards instead, for +in spite of themselves, their limbs insisted on complying with the old +habit of obedience. Boleslav, who had intended the order for the +bearers, saw its effect on the armed line in front of him, and suddenly +a new idea occurred to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you were!" he commanded again. No one moved a hair. His manner, his +voice mastered them. "Which of you have been soldiers? Which of you has +helped his king to make his country free?"</p> + +<p class="normal">An indistinct, half-resentful murmur went through the ranks, but there +was no answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king sent you home," he continued, "because he is now at peace +with his enemies. Do you suppose that he would be pleased to hear you +had taken it upon yourselves to break the peace once more in his realm? +Bah! he wouldn't believe it of you! He might believe it of Poles, but +not of Prussians! So make room, my good people. Let us pass!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The line wavered and began to break in places. For one moment the +churchyard gate lay clear before Boleslav's eyes, but the next, fresh +figures had moved up from behind and filled the breach.</p> + +<p class="normal">Again the clamour arose, and mingling with it a loud, gurgling laugh of +derision. In another instant something round, black, and polished was +levelled at Boleslav's head, and behind it sparkled a pair of malignant +eyes. He had only a second in which to realise what was going to +happen, before a figure, supple as a panther's, shot past him and +plunged into the midst of the Schrandeners' troops, which again showed +signs of giving way. In the hiatus thus made, Boleslav saw two forms +wrestling on the ground, one that of a woman, the other a man's. The +woman overpowered her antagonist, and wrested from his hand the +gleaming bore of a gun.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the carpenter Hackelberg and his daughter. She must, stealthily +and unobserved, have followed the funeral cortege, for since her +disappearance on the other side of the stable ruins Boleslav had seen +nothing of her. The crowd pushed forward, curious to find out who was +struggling on the ground, and Boleslav, promptly taking advantage of +the general confusion, passed the combatants and gained the churchyard +gate, the coffin following close at his heels.</p> + +<p class="normal">Behind was heard the report of the gun, which exploded in the +hand-to-hand struggle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Guard the entrance!" he called to the six who followed the coffin, +while the bearers made their way between the mounds and tombstones to +the burial vault of the Barons von Schranden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Karl Engelbert stationed himself as sentinel beneath the gateway, and +saw, by aid of the last flicker of the torches as they moved away, how +the crowd closed round the wrestling father and daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three piercing shrieks escaped the girl's lips. Evidently the mob +intended to wreak its thwarted fury on her. There seemed little doubt +that she would perish at its hands, unless some one came quickly to her +help.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave her alone!" cried Engelbert, striking out right and left with +his powerful fists. And then the figure, that had been so pitifully +mauled and in such dire extremity till he interfered, emerged from the +midst of her persecutors. She glided past him, dived into the dry ditch +that skirted the churchyard wall, and then disappeared like a shadow, +into the darkness. The Schrandeners began, with whoops and hoots, to +pursue her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How about the burial?" cried one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The devil take the burial!" exclaimed another, and cast a shy glance +at the men standing on guard by the churchyard gate--men who looked as +if they were not to be trifled with. Certainly it was better sport to +give chase to a defenceless creature than to risk one's skin in an +encounter with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the Schrandeners started off like bloodhounds. The carpenter +Hackelberg tried to do likewise, but staggered instead into the ditch, +where he lay full length and fell asleep.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The last of the stone slabs that covered the vault had crunched back in +its place with a resounding crash. Hans Eberhard von Schranden lay +with his ancestors. In the little chapel, the men who had acted as +grave-diggers bared their heads and said a short prayer. The torches +that had burnt down to their sockets smouldered on the smooth surface +of the flagstones, and cast a lurid glow as they flickered out over the +stern faces of the worshippers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then without looking round at Boleslav they left the chapel. He stood +in a remote corner with his hands before his face, brooding fiercely on +the future that lay before him. The echoing footsteps roused him, and +silently he followed his friends, letting the iron gate of the chapel +that had been broken open when they came in, swing back in the lock.</p> + +<p class="normal">The moon had again pierced the clouds, and illumined with a weird +radiance the mounds and crosses that stood in regular rows, like +columns drawn up for battle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you wish to bait me too?" Boleslav murmured as he contemplated the +graves for a moment with a bitter smile. At the gate he overtook his +friends. They joined the men on guard, who now had nothing to watch, +for, with the exception of a group of women and old men who stood +gossiping by the hedge, the street was empty. Hoots were heard +proceeding from the distant fields, where the mob apparently were still +in full pursuit.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God have mercy on her, if they catch her!" said Karl Engelbert with +folded hands. Then two of his comrades, one of whom was Peter +Negenthin, came up to him and whispered earnestly in his ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav was too lost in thought to notice their strange and unnatural +behaviour towards himself, and was not even aware, as they walked +through the village, that he was always left to walk alone, though now +and then he stepped confidentially to the side of one or other of them. +He had accomplished the first chapter of his work. His father was laid +to rest as befitted his rank, and yet it seemed as if the real work was +only just beginning. He beheld all he had to do towering like a great +inaccessible mountain in front of him. The mouldering ruins must be +built up again; what was now a waste overgrown by weeds must be +restored to a waving sea of golden corn; he must strive to endow his +neglected property with new wealth, and his tarnished name with new +honour: and then he saw, as the goal of all this striving, the face of +the beloved beckoning him onwards. If he was too bowed down now with a +consciousness of shame and disgrace to look into her pure, maidenly +eyes, <i>then</i> he would be able to go to her and say, "Now, all is +expiated. I am worthy to lay myself at your feet." Yes, he would +struggle tooth and nail--work day and night--to attain this end.</p> + +<p class="normal">At first it seemed almost madness to think of such a gigantic +undertaking.... But he had his friends to help him.... After all, it +would not be a single-handed struggle. Had not they to-day helped him +to achieve the impossible? Would not they, true to their sacred oath, +continue to stand by him in need with their advice and sympathy? And +perhaps their noble example would in time break down the barrier that +divided him from his fellow-creatures, and lead to his father's sin +being at last consigned to the limbo of forgotten history.</p> + +<p class="normal">Higher and higher rose his hopes as he meditated thus. They had left +the village street behind them, and now reached the drawbridge, where +the vehicles had been put up. The horses, each with its nose in a +bundle of hay, waited patiently by the fence to which they were +tethered. Immediately, without a moment's delay, the comrades set to +work to harness them.</p> + +<p class="normal">This frightened Boleslav out of his dream.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What!" he exclaimed. "Off already, before I have thanked you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">No one spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Won't you take a glass of wine now the job is finished? And I wanted +to ask your advice about other matters."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter Negenthin strode up, and looking him straight in the face, drew +his clenched fist from the sling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We would rather die of thirst," he hissed through his set teeth, "than +take a drink of water from your hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav staggered backwards as if he had been hit between the eyes. He +felt the earth reeling beneath his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Karl Engelbert stepped forth from his sullen little band.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is much to be deplored, Baumgart--I call you so because you have +been Baumgart to us till this minute--it is much to be deplored that +you should thus be bluntly told of what our present feelings are +towards you. Why did not you hold your tongue, Negenthin?... But the +words have been spoken and cannot be recalled, so now you may as well +know all. You summoned us, and we came. Some of us, it is true, were of +opinion that we weren't obliged to obey your summons, considering you +had deceived us about your name; but others said, whether it was +Baumgart or no, we were bound by the oath taken in the church at +Dannigkow, after our first battle--and none of us were desirous of +breaking an oath. That is why we are here. You can imagine that we +didn't come willingly. We are honest fellows, and to tell the truth, +the work you gave us to do went against the grain. The long and short +of it is, that when we go home, and people spit in our faces, we must +put up with it, for they will have right on their side."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why didn't you say all this before?" Boleslav stammered forth. "Why, +oh why have you let it come to my standing here before you--like +a--like a--Ha! ha! ha! <i>If you spit in my face, I must put up with +it!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You need not reproach yourself on our account," Engelbert replied. +"You have quite enough to bear without that. But now that we have +discharged our duty--without grumbling, you must admit--I can only ask +you, on behalf of myself and my comrades, to release us from our oath, +as we release you from yours. Of course we cannot compel you against +your wish, but all I can say is, that if you don't choose to do it, we +must leave home and kindred, and wander forth into the world, lest +people----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop!" cried Boleslav, feeling as if more would kill him. "Your desire +is fulfilled. I now wish it as earnestly as you do. Of a truth I should +deserve my disgrace, were I ever to ask another favour of you.... I +will not even insult you by saying 'Many thanks' for the service you +have just rendered me. May God reward you, and may He forgive you for +having put me in my present position; rather would I have thrown the +corpse into the river and myself after it; let us say no more. Perhaps +you will allow me to assist in putting the horses in, as there is +nothing else I can do for you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry," Engelbert said, his voice quivering with emotion; "it +pains us deeply. We are as fond of you yourself as we have ever +been--but, you see----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see all, dear Engelbert; no excuses are necessary."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, we wish you farewell."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Farewell!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The horses were put in. All were in readiness to start. Staring +vacantly before him, Boleslav leant against the wall. Engelbert turned +and took a last look at him from the box-seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And don't forget Regina!" he said. "That is to say, if she escapes +with her life. It is to her, not to us, you are indebted."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," answered Boleslav, not taking in the meaning of what had +been said to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Adieu!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Adieu, and <i>bon voyage</i>!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The drivers cracked their whips; in another moment the heavy wheels had +thundered over the loose flooring of the drawbridge. Like silver-girt +phantoms the coaches disappeared in the misty moonlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was alone--more alone than any outcast in God's wide world. What +should he do?</p> + +<p class="normal">He began wearily to drag his footsteps up the incline. The brambles +that tangled the ground wound round his ankles. A firefly made a zigzag +thread of flame in front of him. From the top of the hill the great, +weird, dark masses of the Castle ruins looked down on him, as if +threatening to fall on him and bury him beneath their debris. Through +the yawning window-casements the moon shone, giving them the appearance +of huge ghostly eyes. He roamed absently past the towers, a sudden +exhaustion weighing like lead upon his limbs. If only he could fall +asleep and never wake again.</p> + +<p class="normal">He tried to remember what it was his friend had called out to him from +the coach at parting. He racked and racked his brains, but his memory +failed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grass plot, where he had first found the half-wild girl, lay before +him brightly illumined by the moon. The spot where she had begun to dig +the grave stood out in uncanny blackness from the rest of the shining +turf.</p> + +<p class="normal">If only he had shovelled the corpse into it and gone on his way, +perhaps somewhere at the other end of the world some sort of happiness +might still have been in store for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But now it was too late. Now all he could do was to endure--to complete +the work of defiance begun to-day under such gloomy circumstances. +Desolate and alone till the end. Never to feel again the clasp of a +friendly hand, never to look with trust and affection into any human +face, since the doughty comrades he had so firmly believed in had +recoiled from him shuddering.</p> + +<p class="normal">And had not the beloved shrunk from him too in horror? It seemed clear +now for the first time why she had avoided him and hidden herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was cut adrift from all the joys and sorrows that form a common bond +between the hearts of men--cut adrift from love, hope, compassion, from +everything but ignominy and hate.</p> + +<p class="normal">With his face buried in his hands, he staggered over the lawn in the +direction of the gardener's cottage, when his foot struck against +something round and soft that lay across the path. It was the figure of +a woman, lying with her head buried in the dry leaves and her limbs +outstretched. Regina--positively it was Regina!</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing here? Get up."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was not a sound or a movement. Where had he seen her last? Ah! to +be sure; under the churchyard gateway, screening him from the gun that +was pointed at his brain. That ghastly moment came back to him with all +its terrors. For his sake she had flung herself on the murderer; for +his sake risked her life. And how had he rewarded her? He had pushed +carelessly past her; consigned her to the mercy of the murderous, +bloodthirsty crew who were greedy to take her life, without a shadow of +a thought of how he might save her troubling him for an instant. Even +if she were the most abandoned creature on the face of the earth, she +had not deserved such dastardly treatment at his hands. Certainly she +had not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina, wake up."</p> + +<p class="normal">He bent over her and raised her, but her head fell back lifeless among +the bushes. There was blood on his fingers from touching her. Her hair +was damp and matted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was she dead? No; it must not, could not be. Sacrificed for him; that +would mean adding original guilt to the sin he had inherited, and the +idea of owing so much to such a degraded creature, was in the last +degree humiliating. She must at least live till he had paid her. He +tore open her chemise with a rough, eager hand, and laid his ear on the +cool, rounded breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">God be praised! Her heart was still beating. And as he raised her once +more, she slowly opened her great eyes and looked round her vacantly. +As if shocked at being caught holding her thus, he let her head slip +out of his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">She moaned slightly as she sank back, for the swaying briars hurt her. +Then regaining consciousness, she lifted herself on her elbow and gazed +at him in dumb inquiry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Get up, Regina," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sound of his voice made her tremble. She tried to struggle on to +her feet, but fell back helplessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me lie where I am," she begged, with a timid, imploring glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand up. I will help you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Must I go?" she asked, evading the proffered support. Grief and +anxiety were depicted on her blood-stained, beautiful face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You would rather stay with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>, how can you ask?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you'll have a bad time of it if you do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, no, <i>Herr</i>. The <i>gnädiger Herr</i> used to whip me every day. I am +quite accustomed to it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But somewhere else they would treat you better."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Somewhere else?" New consternation showed itself on her features.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good God! A woman like you, who is willing and hard-working, and has +such strong limbs, is sure----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head violently. "I shouldn't go far, <i>Herr</i>. If you hunt +me away, I shall only lie down in a ditch and starve to death."</p> + +<p class="normal">A softer look came into his eyes. No matter how bad, stupid, and +corrupt she might be, she was the only human being in the wide world +who clung to him. Why should he drive her from his threshold, when he +himself was despised, ostracised, and a social outcast? Were they not +both under the ban of the same misfortune?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The next few days proved how little he was in a position to live on his +own estate without her services. He was far more dependent on her than +she on him. Helpless as a shipwrecked mariner on a desert island, he +stole about the ancestral grounds. Though the mines and wolfs'-traps no +longer dogged his steps, finding his way among the chaos of smoked and +tumbling walls made him giddy, and decay had altered everything so +much, that the landmarks of his childish memories afforded him no +assistance. Even the park, where once he had known every tree and bush, +through long years of neglect, had become such a wilderness that at +every step he nearly lost himself in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the first flush of his defiance and despair had subsided, the +question arose, "What was he to do next?" It was a problem that pressed +for solution, as the miserable rations of bread and meat in the cellars +were running out.</p> + +<p class="normal">His pride prevented his seeking advice from Regina; he had not spoken +to her again. Apparently she understood the wisdom of making herself +scarce. But when he returned of a morning from the river, where he went +for a bath, he found the red-flowered counterpane of the canopied bed +neatly arranged, the floor swept, and strewn with sand and fragrant fir +spikes, and saw awaiting him on the gold-legged table (the fourth leg +of which was propped up with a brick) a steaming brown coffee-pot, and +dainty slices of black bread lying beside it.</p> + +<p class="normal">His shyness at taking food from her hands had soon to be got over. At +first he had still hesitated a little to break bread that she had +brought him, but it looked so appetising, and bathing in the cold +autumn mornings sharpened his hunger, that at last his scruples had +gone to the wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">At midday, a soup made of bread, and slices of roast meat, stood ready +for him, not to mention a bottle of good wine; and in the evening, by +some clever stratagem, another meal of a different character was +contrived out of the same unpromising materials. Thus she knew how to +keep house with nothing but the scanty larder he had found in the +cellar at her disposal.</p> + +<p class="normal">He often saw her whisk past the window with pots and kettles, on her +way to wash them in the river. When she came back she would cautiously +peer with her lustrous eyes through the shrubs, to ascertain whether +the coast was clear. If he happened to be at the door, or looking out +of the window, she would immediately disappear in the wood.</p> + +<p class="normal">She made the gardener's former workshop her domain. One morning when he +had watched her go down to the river, he went in to look at it. He +found a low, sloping room, with a roof composed of old greenhouse +frames. The green, dusty, lead-bordered panes were much cracked, and in +places let in the winds and rains of heaven. The ground was neither +floored nor paved, but covered with a dark moist garden soil resembling +peat. Attached to the walls were rude wooden shelves, once used by the +gardener for his flower-pots. They now held all the house's scanty +stock of crockery. Pots, plates, and dishes were arranged on them in +perfect order, and had been polished till they shone. A blackened door +off its hinges, evidently rescued from the fire, supported by two +wooden boxes about two feet from the ground, was spread with straw and +a haircloth, of the kind that are thrown over the backs of horses to +protect them from cold. This was her bed--"Many a dog has a better," he +thought. The brick fireplace was in the opposite corner; a home-made +contrivance of beams was meant to guide the belching smoke from the +hearth into its proper channel, but only partially succeeded.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this smoky hole, with its cold damp floor, she was domiciled, and +desired nothing better. Here her heart was centred as in a dearly +cherished Paradise. Poor, wretched woman! and to be driven forth from +it meant to her death and perdition.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then one evening she disappeared. He had at last made up his mind +to speak to her about the provisions, and went to call her. No answer +came. The kitchen was empty. He sought her in the park, among the +ruins, on the bridge, all over the island, but there was no sign of +her. Her name rang clearly out through the night air as he called her, +and had she been anywhere about she must have heard it. He became +suspicious. Probably after the hard work of her lonely days, she took +it out at night in the arms of a swain. She was, of course, well versed +in the arts of vice, and would not scruple to yield herself to the +embraces of some rustic gallant. Many of her persecutors below may have +desired the body they stoned. How otherwise could her obstinate +adherence to her present miserable mode of living, after his father's +death, be explained, except by the existence of a new sin--a sin which, +perhaps, had long been carried on hand-in-hand with the old. He was +filled with loathing and disgust at the thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she can't behave herself, I'll pack her off early to-morrow +morning;" and with this resolution he retired to rest. But he could not +sleep for thinking of what the future would be without her. To send her +away would involve going himself the same day.</p> + +<p class="normal">At about six o'clock he was awakened out of a doze by a stealthy +opening of the outer door. He got up and dressed himself quickly, +determined to call her to account without loss of time. He entered the +kitchen and found her on the hearth with inflated cheeks, blowing the +pine logs she had just set alight into a flame.</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned on him slowly, her eyes big with astonishment, and said, +"Good morning, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He trembled in angry excitement. "Where have you been all night?" he +thundered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her arms fell to her sides, and she shrank away terrified.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>," she stuttered, hanging her head, "I thought you wouldn't +notice I had gone, and that I should be back before the <i>Herr</i> was +awake----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"So, if I don't <i>notice</i>, you amuse yourself by running about all +night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She had retreated still farther from him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But--but--I was obliged to go," she said, stammering painfully. "There +was scarcely anything at all left--and--and the <i>Herr</i> has eaten +nothing but salt meat for so long."</p> + +<p class="normal">The scales fell from his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You went, then, to fetch food?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course, <i>Herr</i>. I have brought veal and fresh eggs and butter--and +sausage and lots of things. It's all in the cellar."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where did you get it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, I told you, <i>Herr</i>--in Bockeldorf. I know a grocer there, who gets +ready a supply of what we want beforehand, and when I knock at nights +he lets me in at the back door. Not a living soul besides his wife +knows. And he's not very dear. Herr Merckel, down in the village, +charges a thaler a pound for meat, and swears at me into the bargain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you have walked six miles there and back to-night, and carried all +those heavy parcels?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Still frightened, she regarded him with surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think you know, <i>Herr</i>, that I can do it, for I told you so before."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it's a physical impossibility. Don't lie to me, girl. From my +experience during the campaign, I know how much fatigue a <i>man</i> can +stand."</p> + +<p class="normal">Now that she saw he was no longer angry she dared to draw herself to +her full height. She exhibited her powerful arms proudly, and exclaimed +with a pleased smile--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can stand more than any man, <i>Herr</i>, else I should be no good at +all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For how long have you been going on these journeys, Regina?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For five years, <i>Herr</i>. Every week. Sometimes oftener. In summer it's +child's play. But in autumn and winter, when the snow lies two feet +thick in the wood, or when the meadows are flooded, it's no joke. But +there's one thing to be thankful for, the nights are long then, and at +least no one can see you. And I'd a hundred times rather walk the six +miles than go to that beast--I beg pardon, I mean Herr Merckel--who +takes a thaler for a pound of meat. Isn't that abominable? And in the +village----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She paused suddenly, as if she feared being scolded for talking too +much.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What were you going to say, Regina?" he asked in a kindlier tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, nothing, but I should like to beg the <i>Herr's</i> pardon for having +gone without leave. But I thought he might perhaps like a change for +breakfast--a fresh egg----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind, Regina," he said, turning away; "you are a good girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went down to the river to bathe. When he came back he found his room +tidied as usual, only the coffee was not there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is so tired out that she's fallen asleep," he thought, and +resigned himself to wait. At least, she should not be reprimanded any +more to-day.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in consequence of his bath he was bitterly cold, and found he could +not forego the customary warm beverage much longer. So, in order not to +wake her he went on tiptoe into the kitchen to see to the fire himself. +But she was not asleep, though at the first glance it looked like it. +She sat on the edge of her couch, motionless, with her hands before her +face. Now and again a quiver passed through her frame, a symptom of the +sleep of exhaustion. Yet on regarding her closer, he saw that +glistening tear-drops were falling through her red, plump fingers, and +her breast was shaking with gurgling sobs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter, Regina? Why are you crying?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not answer, but her sobs became louder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have I hurt your feelings, Regina? I shouldn't have scolded you if I +had known where you had been."</p> + +<p class="normal">She let her hands fall from her face, and looked at him with eyes +swollen from weeping.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>!" she said in a voice half choked by tears. "No +one--ever--called me that before; and--it's not--true."</p> + +<p class="normal">His mood changed and became harsh again. He was not conscious of having +used any abusive epithet. It was too ridiculous of this creature, who +was accustomed to being hounded about from pillar to post, to pretend +to be thin-skinned and fastidious.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What isn't true?" he demanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What you said."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did I say? Good heavens!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That I--I was a good----" She broke again into convulsive sobs that +stifled her voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head, perplexed at her distress. He had never looked very +deeply into the most complex problems of the human soul, and did not +know that even dishonour has its code of honour. Laughing, he laid his +hand on her shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't cry any more, Regina; I meant no harm. And now get my breakfast +ready."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May--I--bring it in?" she asked, still sobbing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you want me to come and fetch it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I only thought I mightn't--" She moved to the hearth and began blowing +the smouldering fire, using her tear-stained cheeks as bellows.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that she was no longer shy of entering his room when he was +there. Ever anxious to forestall his wishes, she seemed to read his +countenance without a question passing her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav had found, in the recesses of the cellar in which money and +wine were stored, great masses of papers stuffed into chests, where +chaos reigned supreme. They contained the whole of his father's +correspondence, deeds, and documents of every description. His first +search among them had brought to light nothing less important than his +aunt's last will and testament, in which her Excellency bequeathed to +Boleslav von Schranden, the only son of her favourite niece, the whole +of her fortune, "to compensate him for the wrong," so ran the clause, +"from which he would suffer to the end of his days."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav's pleasure at first was not great; it was only when he +considered that here was a weapon put into his hand to use in the +coming struggle, that he began to appreciate the value of the gift. He +scarcely gave a thought to the giver, who had always been kindness +itself to him, so hardened had he become, so completely was his mind +engrossed by contemplation of the grim work that it was his duty to +carry on.</p> + +<p class="normal">If only he could have seen a way clear before him, which he could have +pursued instantly, without looking to the right or left, with the +impetuous zeal characteristic of his nature! But for months the +prospect must be one of paralysing hopeless inaction. The war which he +had determined to wage against the Schrandeners must be conducted on an +ambitious scale, if it were not to end in the pitiful failure that had +soured and impoverished the last years of his father's life. It would +need an army of workmen to inspire the serfs, who had so long run wild, +with new respect. And where were these to be engaged, when there was +not a soul in the neighbourhood who would not have disdained to enter +his service? But nearly everything is attainable with money, and +doubtless many a swaggering patriot, who now spat at the mention of his +name, could be brought, cringing and servile, to heel, by the bribe of +a triple wage. Only, for this his means were not sufficient. The cash +that at the first glance had seemed such vast wealth, proved, on nearer +calculation, to be wholly inadequate to float his scheme. It was 4500 +thalers, left from outstanding debts, that the old baron had hastily +saved from the conflagration, when the whole world must have appeared +to him to be melting into flame. For the sort of existence that, +following his father's example, he was now leading with Regina, such a +sum would last for years; but for the project he had in view, it was a +mere drop in the ocean.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before the discovery of the will he had with a heavy heart entertained +the idea of offering the fine old timber, which had been the pride of +his ancestors, for sale, and to dispose of it below its value if the +need arose. Now he had abandoned the plan as impracticable. Granted +that he could find a market for it as easily as he hoped, it must be +months before the actual cash came into his hands. Besides winter was +at hand, one of those severe East Prussian winters, when work in the +open air is out of the question. For this year at least neither +building nor ploughing was to be thought of. Why, then, make a +sacrifice which with a little patience might be avoided altogether? If +on the first of April he claimed his legacy, and was able with full +pockets to enlist workers in his service, by May the building would be +in full swing, and possibly the ground ready for the sowing of crops.</p> + +<p class="normal">But till then--till then--! How would he be able to support the barren +monotony of grey winter days spent in enforced and dreary idleness when +his hands were burning to be at work? How endure the thought that his +beloved was in the near neighbourhood and he unable to ask her the +fateful question on which his life and happiness hung? Would she wait? +Would she forgive? Would she steel her heart against the atmosphere of +hate and slander that surrounded her, and so keep her affection for him +unchanged?</p> + +<p class="normal">The Madonna in the cathedral came back to him. He wondered if she still +resembled it. If only for one moment he might have gazed into her face! +There was a white and red mist before his eyes; he saw lilies and +roses, and a radiant virgin figure bending over them with a smile, but +the features of the girl he had loved he could only dimly recall.</p> + +<p class="normal">Veiled from his sight, perhaps she was destined to be the invisible +guardian-angel who was to watch over his endeavours till his work was +completed, when she would set the crown to it by revealing herself. He +became gradually reconciled to the thought, and ceased to yearn for a +meeting; and one word or sign to assure him that his hopes in her +constancy were not ill-founded would have more than satisfied him.</p> + +<p class="normal">More and more he buried himself in the chaos of papers, which seemed to +increase instead of diminish, in spite of his arduous sifting. The +yellowed parchments stood in great piles against the wall of his +sitting-room, reaching higher than the head of his beautiful +grandmother, and yet in the vaults there still remained chests and +boxes full, untouched. The whole archives of the family seemed to have +been gathered together at a moment's notice, and hurled into a place of +safety without the slightest regard to method or arrangement. Out of +this confusion he wanted to find documents relating to the property, +which were important, not to say indispensable. Among others, were +missing those that concerned agreements with the emancipated peasants +relating to land boundaries. The <i>canaille</i> below were certain to have +grabbed from the domain that had become ownerless, more than their +legal share. He saw how law-suits would have to be fought over almost +every inch of ground, and he must be able to back his claim with +irrefragable documentary proof.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless he felt an insuperable aversion to appealing to the +courts. The picture of his father, as he had seen him the last time +alive, stood out vividly in his memory; the ostracised baron, who had +been bold enough to seek the aid of the law, had then found every door +closed in his face. Truly Prussia at that time was not itself. The +walls of the State were tottering to their foundations, and the rats +were having it all their own way. But what guarantee was there that the +son of such a father would find the ear of justice less deaf to his +appeal? The law had shifts and resources in plenty by which an +unpopular person could be rendered powerless to benefit by its help, +and he did not doubt that he would fall a victim to such casuistry. His +deserted and forlorn position so distorted his view of things that law +and order took the form of wild beasts lying on the drawbridge in +ambush for their prey. Even his military duties had no interest for him +now. Lieutenant Baumgart was on the list of killed. Why trouble the +authorities with the work of his resurrection? They would not thank him +for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">A text from the Bible came into his mind: "His hand shall be against +every man, and every man's hand against him." The curse that +accompanied Hagar's son through life, he by dint of stubborn defiance +would turn into a blessing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Weeks went by, but he hardly observed the flight of time. He sat +immersed day after day in his papers, wandering forth of an evening to +stumble about the ruins, or to take a walk in the overgrown park. There +was only one place he carefully avoided. That was the path which led to +the Cats' Bridge. When he chanced to find himself nearing it, his heart +beat quicker, and he would hurry breathlessly by the shrubs that +concealed it from view. Yet he was tormented by a grim desire to stand +on the scene of the disaster, a desire which at length became almost +irrepressible.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was one evening towards the end of September when, for the first +time since his return home, the moon was full. He roamed restlessly in +the glades of the park, the dry leaves rustled at his feet, and the +autumn wind shook the branches of the trees. The moonbeams shimmered on +the grass like flocks of white sheep. Before him the shrubs rose in a +dark, jagged line of wall. An impulse of sinister curiosity suddenly +got the better of the superstitious repugnance that had hitherto held +him back, and he plunged through the thicket that, with a sort of +protecting air, hid the path. The descent to the river was steep, +almost perpendicular, and the mirror-like surface of the water was +entirely concealed by alder-bushes. A faint rippling and splashing +below fell mysteriously on his ear. From the top of the precipice a +railed plank shot boldly out into mid-air. A rude scaffolding, planted +firmly in the rock of the precipice, supported it with iron bars. On +the opposite bank the trunk of a giant oak formed the support. In the +middle there was a yawning gap of from ten to twelve feet. Like two +arms longingly outstretched but never meeting, the planks branched +forth on either side above the abysmal depths.</p> + +<p class="normal">If they had never reached each other the crime would never have come to +pass. But an easier job for a joiner could not be conceived. The plank +on this side had two loose boards, which, by means of a wedge, could +easily be pushed across; and the position of the hand-rail, by being +unhinged, could also be reversed. Everything seemed to have been +arranged expressly to facilitate the treacherous transaction. As a +memorial of eternal shame, the dark, crude structure loomed out through +the white mists of the brilliant night.</p> + +<p class="normal">Beneath, the splashing from the invisible river grew more pronounced. +It sounded as if its waters were still foaming with rage at the deed +that so long ago had been enacted near at hand, and which death itself +could not consign to oblivion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Like a man in a dream, he stepped on to the plank, and looked down on +the silver surface, which seemed to be emitting myriads of diamond +sparks. Then he beheld the figure of a woman, who stood up to her knees +in the water, with her skirts pinned round her waist. It was Regina, +doing her washing, and wringing out the articles among the sandbanks +and osiers.</p> + +<p class="normal">His brows contracted. That he should encounter her <i>here</i> of all +places! But in common justice he was obliged to admit it was not her +fault. Whenever she could she avoided him, and he had no reason to +complain that he saw too much of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He leant absently on the railing and watched her. She had no idea that +he was anywhere in the neighbourhood. She bent low over the water, the +muscles in her neck and arms strained by her exertions, and shook the +wet clothes with a will, sending up a spray of glistening drops. From +time to time she chanted the song on two notes, that he had heard her +hum while digging the grave, breaking off abruptly when the water +spurted into her nose and mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">What a hard worker she was! He had imagined her long ago gone to bed, +and here she was instead, at this time of night, washing as if her life +depended on it!</p> + +<p class="normal">She started in alarm. His foot had disturbed some small pebbles, which +fell splashing into the water close to where she stood. Her first +thought was that some one was lying in wait for her among the shrubs, +and she moved suspiciously nearer the opposite bank. When at last it +occurred to her to look up at the Cats' Bridge, she gave a startled +cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be frightened, Regina," he called down to her. "I am not going +to hurt you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Whereupon she returned calmly to her washing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you get down there?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">She wiped her face with her naked arm. "I'm a good climber," she said, +looking up at him for a moment with blinking eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Doesn't the water freeze you? So late in the year, too!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She made some response that he did not understand. He was curious to +see how she would clamber up the steep declivity with her burden, so +remained where he was and continued to watch her.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a few minutes she packed up her washing and climbed on the bank. The +moonlight cast a flashing halo round the masses of her hair, which +to-day had been combed till it was almost smooth. She looked as if she +wore a coronet. With one shy glance to ascertain that he was still +standing there, she dived into the shrubs, and he saw her dart rapidly +from branch to branch with the agility of a wild-cat. At the top she +let down her skirts, and would have flown with her basket, had he not +called her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you do your washing at night?" he inquired, making an effort to +look friendly disposed towards her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because in the daytime they give me no peace."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The villagers?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do they do to you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What they always do--throw things at me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Over the river?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The next time any one assaults you, come and fetch me."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not answer. "Do you understand?" She folded her hands, and +looked at him beseechingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please, <i>Herr</i>, don't shoot at them," she stammered. "They like you to +do that. He--the <i>gnädiger Herr</i>, I mean--tried it once. Then they +began to shoot too, from the other side, and there was firing here and +firing there; the wonder was no one got shot. Don't you see, if they +get into the habit of carrying guns about with them always, they are +certain to hit me one day, for I'm obliged to go off the island +sometimes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the longest and most sensible speech he had as yet heard from +her lips. He had not suspected the existence of so much thoughtful +wisdom behind that low brow, in its frame of wild hair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are right, Regina," he replied. "For your sake I must forbear from +provoking them."</p> + +<p class="normal">He saw in the moonlight a dark flush suffuse her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For my sake, <i>Herr</i>?" she said hesitatingly. "I don't quite understand +what you mean, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, well, never mind," he answered evasively. "What I wanted to ask +you, Regina, was--are you satisfied in my service? can I do anything to +make you more comfortable?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She stared at him in dumb amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mustn't think, Regina," he went on, "that I am unfriendly. My mind +is occupied with many things, and I prefer to be quite alone with my +troubles. So if I don't speak to you often you will understand how it +is."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes drooped. Her hands fumbled for the balustrade as if seeking a +support, then the next moment she turned, and leaving her basket in the +lurch, scampered off, as if driven by furies.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Strange creature!" he muttered, as he looked after her. "I must be +kinder to her. She deserves it." Then he leant over the balustrade +again, and gazing into the silver water fancied he saw growing there a +garden of lilies and crimson roses.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Lieutenant Merckel was far from being pleased at the course events had +taken on the day of the funeral. He called the Schrandeners poltroons +and old women, and declared they were unworthy ever to have worn the +king's uniform.</p> + +<p class="normal">When some one ventured to ask why he had not shown himself in it to the +procession, and had left the mob leaderless at a critical moment, he +replied that that was a different matter altogether: he was an officer, +and as such bound only to draw his sword in the service of the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners, not accustomed to logical argument, accepted the +explanation, and promised to retrieve their reputation the next time +the opportunity offered itself. But this did not satisfy Felix Merckel.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father," he said, late one evening when the old landlord was counting +the cash taken during the day, "I can't bear to think that scoundrelly +cur holds the rank of Royal Prussian officer as I do. I am ashamed to +have served with him. Our army doesn't want to be associated with +people like him. It drags the cockade through the gutter, not to speak +of the sword-knot. I know what I'll do; I'll call him out and shoot +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stretched his legs on the settle, twisting his cavalry moustache +with a bland smile. The old man let fall, in horrified dismay, a +handful of silver that he was counting, and the coins rolled away into +the cracks of the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Felixchen," he said, "you really mustn't drink so much of that +Wacholder brandy. It's good enough for customers, but you, Felixchen, +shall have a bottle of light wine to-morrow, and perhaps some of them +will follow your example, and so it won't cost me anything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father, you are mistaken," Felix answered. "It's my outraged sense of +honour that gives me no peace. I am a German lad, father, and a brave +officer. I can't stand the stain on my calling any longer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Felixchen," said the old man, "go to bed, my son, and you'll get over +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father," replied his son, "I am sorry to have to say it, but you have +no conception of what honour is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Felixchen," went on the old man, ignoring the taunt, "you haven't +enough occupation. If you would only look after the bottles--of course +the barmaid is there for the purpose--but it would do you good. It +would distract your thoughts. Or you might go out shooting sometimes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lord bless my soul! there are the woods and forest of Schranden. +Whether the hares devour each other, or you annex your share of them, +is all the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That won't do for me, father. I am an officer, and don't wish to be +caught poaching."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good gracious, Felixchen, how you talk! Do you forget that I am +magistrate here. I am not likely to sentence you to the gallows. +But do as you like, my boy. Of course you <i>might</i> go oftener to the +parsonage. The old pastor enjoys a game of chess; there's nothing to be +gained by chess, I know, but some people seem to like it, and then +there's--Helene."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Helene!" said Felix, stroking his chin and looking flattered.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man examined the artificial fly in the centre of his amber +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a strong notion that she would be a good match if the pastor +consented, and she liked you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why shouldn't she like me?" asked Felix.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, there might be some one else who----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix smiled sceptically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Or do you mean that she has already set her heart on you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see, Felixchen, that would be a great piece of good fortune for +us. People are constantly carping at the way in which they think I +acquired my bit of money--without the smallest ground of course. If +only the pastor gave you his daughter as wife, it would stop their +mouths once for all. A man like Pastor Götz has great weight and +influence. Well then, as I said, it's worth while your hanging about +there a little. Court her, and a fellow like you is sure----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear father, spare me your advice, if you please," interrupted his +son. "Whether Helene becomes my wife or not, is my own affair. I have +not yet made up my mind. She has a pretty enough little phiz, but she +is too thin. She might be fattened up with advantage. Then there's +something old-maidish about her, something sharp and prudish that I +don't quite fancy. For instance, if you put your arm round her waist +she says, 'Ah, dear Herr Lieutenant, how you frightened me!' and +wriggles away. And if you squeeze her arm, by Jokus, she screams out +directly, 'Oh, dear Herr Lieutenant, don't do that, I've got such a +delicate skin.' Of course that's all airs and affectation, and perhaps +if a man caught hold of her firmly and didn't give in, she'd allow +herself to be kissed at last; but as I say, I have not made up my mind, +so don't build too much on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old landlord, who with deft hand was rolling up his sovereigns in +paper, looked proudly across at this magnificent son of his. Then he +became anxious again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you won't think any more about the duel, eh, Felixchen? That's all +nonsense.... You wouldn't go and risk your life so recklessly as that."</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix threw back his chest. "In affairs of honour, father, please don't +interfere, for you know nothing about them. Directly I can find a +respectable second----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is that, Felixchen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, the man who'll take the challenge."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where--to Boleslav?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the island?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the island."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, Felixchen, what are you thinking about? No Christian dare set +foot on the island. It swarms with wolf-traps, bombs, and other deadly +instruments. Look at Hackelberg; he was caught in one, and limps to +this day--but never mention it. It mustn't come out that Hackelberg was +ever on the island. Do you see?... As I was saying, you wouldn't get +any one to go on such a dangerous errand--or to come in contact with +such a man as that. No, my boy, think no more about it There's nothing +to be gained by it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I <i>will</i> challenge him all the same to meet me here," growled +Felix.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man contemplated him with the greatest concern for a few +moments, then rose, filled a liqueur-glass with peppermint-schnaps, and +brought it over to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drink it up, Felixchen," he said, "it'll soothe you." Felix obeyed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave the matter in the hands of your good, honest old father. Trust +him to find in the night some other means of satisfying your so-called +sense of honour. Good-night, Felixchen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The good, honest old father" had not promised more than he was able to +perform.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next morning, when he met his son at the breakfast table, he asked +in an accent of benevolent sympathy--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, Felixchen, have you slept off all those silly notions?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix grew angry. "I told you, father, that on that subject you +were----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Totally ignorant! Very good, my boy. But I want to be clear on one +point. Is it with the Baron von Schranden that you propose to fight a +duel, or with Lieutenant Baumgart?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix did not answer at once. A suspicion of what his father was darkly +hinting, dawned on him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't deal in subterfuges, father," he said. "I am an upright, simple +soldier, and don't understand them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, Felix, you needn't be so headstrong. I mean well. As the Baron +von Schranden never was an officer, there is no reason why you should +concern yourself about him; and as Lieutenant Baumgart has proved a +swindler, and assumed a false name, he is equally beneath your notice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is true," said Felix, spreading honey on his bread and butter. +"As a matter of fact, I oughtn't to do him the honour of challenging +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a new idea seemed to occur to Felix. "If only," he added fiercely, +"he could be stopped from entitling himself lieutenant. That's what +offends my sense of honour more than anything."</p> + +<p class="normal">His old father seemed prepared with an answer to this remark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should he go on calling himself lieutenant?" he asked, grinning +and whistling under his breath. "Only because his superior officers are +kept in ignorance of the deception he has practised. If they had an +inkling of it, they'd be down on him fast enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix understood. "You mean we ought----" he began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course we ought."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Felix's hypersensitive sense of honour again felt itself outraged. +"Remember that I am an officer, father," he exclaimed indignantly. +"Your proposal is in the highest degree insulting."</p> + +<p class="normal">The host shrugged his shoulders. "Very well; if you don't wish it, +leave it alone," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the honourable young man saw a way of escape.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If only it could be done without a signature," he meditated aloud.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That difficulty is easily overcome," responded the old man. "I have a +scheme in my head. Let me draw it up. All you've got to do will be to +sign your name with the others at the foot. Then it will be only one of +many."</p> + +<p class="normal">On the afternoon of the same day, the parish crier, Hoffmann, invited +all the country's defenders in the village to assemble at the Black +Eagle. It was the merest matter of form, a tribute to the importance of +the business to be discussed, for they were certain to have turned up +there of their own accord sooner or later without an invitation. The +tables were soon full (Schranden had sent a contingent of thirty +warriors to the War of Liberty); and when Herr Merckel saw glasses +emptying to right and left of him, he stepped behind the bar, and +exchanging glances with his son, rubbed his hands with satisfaction, +and began the following harangue:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear fellow-burghers, I desire to speak a few words to you. You are +all brave soldiers, and have fought in many a bloody battle for your +Fatherland in its dire extremity. You must have often been thirsty in +those days, and have longed for even a few drops of dirty ditch-water. +It's only to your credit, then, that after the heat and burden of the +war, you turn into the Black Eagle occasionally, for a good draught of +pale ale. You have earned it honestly with the sweat of your brow. Your +health, soldiers!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He flourished the mug that he kept specially for occasions like the +present, and then raised it to his mouth, holding it there till he had +assured himself that no glass had been put down unemptied. Then making +a sign to the barmaid, he wiped his lips energetically, and continued--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I, as your Mayor and magistrate, could not accompany you to the seat +of war, being obliged to remain and look after the wants of those who +stayed at home." A murmur of approval came from the audience. "But I am +a patriot like you; my warm heart beats true for the honour of the +Fatherland, just as your hearts do, brave soldiers! Fill up, Amalie, +you slow-coach! Herr Weichert is nearly expiring for thirst." Herr +Weichert protested, but in vain; his glass was snatched out of his +hand. "And my bosom swells with pride when I look at my son, a gallant, +upright soldier, whom the confidence of his comrades and the favour of +his king promoted to the rank of officer. I speak for you all, I know, +when I call three cheers for the joy of the village, the dutiful son, +the good comrade, the brave soldier, and honourable officer, Lieutenant +Merckel--Hip, hip, hurrah!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners joined enthusiastically in the cheering, and Herr +Merckel observed with satisfaction that several glasses had again +become empty. To give Amalie time to fill up, he made an effective +little pause, in which, in speechless emotion, he fell on his son's +breast: then he resumed the thread of his discourse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"All the more painful is it, therefore, to see that the disgrace you, +by your glorious deeds of arms, did your best to remove from our +beloved and highly favoured village, now rests on it again, through the +presence here of the son of the man who wrought it such dire mischief. +On the site of the fire he is now living with his father's mistress. +I'll not enter into details, but you know, my children, what that +implies."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a significant laugh, which changed gradually into a sullen +muttering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and what's more, this immoral outlaw belongs to our glorious +army. Under a false name he enlisted in its ranks, and raised himself +to the position of officer. By lying, and cheating, and devilish craft, +he succeeded in obtaining what you brave, honest fellows (with the +exception of my son, of course) could not attain to. Will you tolerate +this, you noble Schrandeners? Will you, I say, let a rascally cheat, +the son of a traitor, continue to look down on you as his inferiors? +Was it for this that his gracious Majesty made you free men?</p> + +<p class="normal">"The moment was a favourable one for drinking his gracious Majesty's +health, and Amalie, in obedience to a signal, began the filling-up +process anew. Herr Merckel already felt he had cause to congratulate +himself on the result of his stirring oration.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, brave Schrandeners," he went on, "such a scandal must not be +tolerated! The army must be purged of this black spot; otherwise you +will be ashamed, instead of proud, of calling yourselves Prussian +soldiers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kill him! kill him!" cried several voices at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, dear friends," he replied, with his unctuous smirk. "You mustn't +always be talking of killing. I, as your Mayor, cannot countenance +that," shaking a warning fat forefinger at them; "but I can give you +wiser counsel. The authorities, naturally, have no suspicion of who it +is has been masquerading as Lieutenant Baumgart; last spring no one had +time to inquire into birth certificates and such-like details. But now +there will be leisure to investigate the case of a Prussian officer +passing under an assumed name. And the case presses for attention. Do +you remember the story Johann Radtke related in this very room, the day +he came over from Heide, when none of us had the slightest idea of what +a savage kind of animal his celebrated hero, Lieutenant Baumgart, +really was?</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was interrupted by a laugh of pent-up hate and fury. It proceeded +from his son Felix.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is said to have tramped home from France entirely alone, like a +wandering journeyman. He had been wounded and taken prisoner, and all +the rest of it. But mark my words, that signifies more than you think. +It means that he didn't get his discharge--that he sneaked out of the +service like a thief in the night, in the same straightforward manner +as he entered it. And do you know what that is in good plain Prussian? +<i>Deserting</i>! It means he is a deserter."</p> + +<p class="normal">A cry of jubilation arose, which Herr Merckel greeted with profound +approval, for, according to his ripe experience, shouting rendered the +throat dry. He let the applause therefore exhaust itself, and then went +on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is our sacred duty, as genuine patriots and intrepid soldiers, to +open the eyes of his Highness the Commander-General to this young man's +true character. We owe it to our King, our Fatherland, above all, to +ourselves. We'll get him cashiered out of our brave army, degraded and +ruined. What is done to him afterwards, whether he is shot or cast into +prison, is a matter of indifference to us. We are not responsible for +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">At the mere suggestion of such a vengeance the Schrandeners were beside +themselves, and almost howled with rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel drew a sheet of paper from his breast-pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have drawn up a little statement, in which I have respectfully +lodged a complaint to a Deputy-General of high standing and noble +birth. If you'll allow me, dear friends----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was in the act of unfolding the sheet when a still happier thought +occurred to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could lay the document before you at once and ask you to sign it, +but then it would be my composition, and not yours," he went on, +beaming; "and I want every word well weighed and considered, and +altered if needful. I therefore propose that a committee of five +comrades be elected from amongst you, who shall withdraw with me and my +son into the best parlour, where we can hold a quiet consultation over +the wording of the address, while the rest of you remain here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he gave the names of those he considered worthiest of filling this +delicate office. They were five young men whom he knew to be lavish +spendthrifts, and whom he expected to acquit themselves honourably in +more senses than one. Half in envy, half in malice, his choice was +agreed to.</p> + +<p class="normal">The elected looked rather glum; then they knew what they had been let +in for, but at the same time they were too flattered by the invitation +to decline it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel, with the air of solemnity he always considered due to any +occasion on which the best parlour was brought into requisition, flung +open the door, over which was inscribed the alluring caution, fraught +with so much significance--"<i>Only Wine drunk here</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">With a somewhat nervous air the chosen committee entered the sanctum of +gentility, awkwardly twirling their caps in their hands. The last to go +in was the son of the house. At the door, Herr Merckel turned and +called out in a loud impressive voice--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Amalie, bring two bottles of Muscat for me and the Herr Lieutenant!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Muscat was a wine made at home, from rum, sugar, cinnamon, currant +juice, and a judicious quantity of water, and was sold to the +Schrandeners for a thaler the bottle. Herr Merckel ordered two bottles, +to demonstrate to his customers that he did not expect any of them to +go shares in a bottle.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was now a profound silence in the taproom. Its occupants gazed +with serious excited faces at the closed door and then at each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither did any sound proceed from the reception room, where a dumb +pitched battle was going on between the host and his guests. It was +doubtful at one time who would come off victor. But a few minutes after +the barmaid had hurried up from the cellar with the two freshly filled +bottles, Herr Merckel tore open the door again, and shouted +triumphantly--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Amalie, five bottles more of Muscat!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Tongues were loosened. The tension was over. As was generally the case, +the customers had been mastered by the landlord. And soon the dull +monotonous sound of reading aloud reached the ears of the listeners in +the tap-room.</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel, senior, when he retired to rest, felt that his +day had +not been wasted.</p> + +<p class="normal">His son had abandoned his dangerous project; the fate of the last of +the Schrandens had been sealed; and in the cash-box, beyond the usual +takings, was a surplus of eight thalers and twenty-five silver +groschens.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thus I have killed three birds with one stone!" he mused, with a +self-satisfied grin, and, folding his hands, fell into a gentle +slumber.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Winter had come. It had been preceded by a season of decay, +inexpressibly cheerless and trying to the spirits. Boleslav, who had +grown up in closest communion with Nature and her moods, could never +have believed it possible that autumn's symbolic melancholy would +affect him so profoundly and send such deathlike shivers through his +limbs. The mere calculation of time dismayed and oppressed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">His evenings began to be dismally long. Solitude swooped over his head +like a vulture in ever-narrowing circles, till he began to fancy he +felt the chill flap of its wings across his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was strange that he who all his life had been much alone from +choice, should now, when almost every human being was his deadly foe, +crave for the society of his fellow-creatures.</p> + +<p class="normal">He buried himself deeper and deeper in the mass of papers and +manuscripts, a dreary enough occupation, without much object unless it +were to help the hours to drag a little less slowly. He tried to +convince himself that the portion of the past he unearthed from these +dust-heaps might be of service to him in the future. But in reality he +had found what was absolutely necessary to his purpose without much +trouble, and the rest might as well have perished in the flames.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina remained tongue-tied, and performed her household duties swiftly +and noiselessly. She moved about his room without lifting her eyes to +his face, and if he addressed a word to her, shrank away with a +startled look. But her answers to his questions, though given in a +hesitating and embarrassed manner, were always clear, comprehensive, +and to the point. Sometimes days together went by without their +exchanging a syllable. Yet it was on these days he observed her in +secret all the more closely, watching her as she laid the table, +following her with his eyes as she crossed the little plot of garden +and disappeared into the bushes. He caught himself constantly wondering +what was passing in her mind. What did she think about all day long? +Was it possible that her whole existence revolved round him and his +personal comforts, a man who was nothing to her, who had not even +rewarded her labours so far, with a brass farthing?</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt ashamed when he thought of the innumerable self-sacrifices he +accepted from her with such haughty indifference, and determined to be +more friendly and conversational towards her in the future, so that she +might feel the unpleasantness of her position less acutely. But a +certain unaccountable shyness on his side seemed to hinder his putting +these good intentions into practice. He no longer hated her. His +aversion had yielded to something like regard at sight of so much +unselfish loyalty and untiring industry; and the result was that he +felt more than ever a constraint in conversing with her. Something came +between them, a kind of mysterious veil that enveloped her and rendered +her unapproachable as a stranger. It seemed almost as if the spirit of +his father hovered about her, preventing by its ghostly presence any +intercourse between them. Sometimes he wondered if it were her shame +that invested her with that strange fascination that vice is said to +exercise on inexperienced youth. Or was it the magnitude of her +misfortunes that gave her an unconscious power and charm?</p> + +<p class="normal">Often when she brought in his supper, or turned back the counterpane +from his bed, he would look up from his work and endeavour to open a +conversation. But his tongue would cleave to the roof of his mouth, he +could never think of anything to talk to her about that was not beneath +his dignity. So, after all, only curt and harsh commands crossed his +lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had remarked for a long time how much more careful she had become +about her personal appearance, which had wonderfully improved. She no +longer went about ragged, unkempt, and <i>décolletée</i>, but wore her +jacket buttoned up modestly to her throat, with the ends neatly tucked +under her waistband. A woollen scarf was knotted round her neck by way +of giving a finish to her costume, and her skirt carefully brushed and +mended. Her hair did not hang about her as formerly, in untidy plaits +and a hundred rough, loose curls, but was combed and neatly dressed. Of +a morning the top of her head sometimes presented a smooth, polished +surface, the effects of the shower-bath, by means of which she brought +her unruly mane into subjection.</p> + +<p class="normal">The weather grew bitterly cold, but she still shivered in her cotton +gown, only throwing on the red cross-over when she went into the open +air.</p> + +<p class="normal">One evening as she was preparing for her regular weekly expedition for +the purchase of provisions, and had come to him for orders, he said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why have you brought no winter clothes back with you yet, Regina?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked on the ground and replied--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should like to--only--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wasn't sure whether I might."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course you may. You mustn't freeze."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's a----" she began eagerly, then stopped and blushed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's a jacket at the shop--a blue cloth one trimmed with beautiful +fur. The shopman says----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He smiled. "Thank God," he thought "she is beginning to be human at +last. A love of finery has awakened in her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does the shopman say?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That it would fit me exactly. And I need something warm and +comfortable for the long walks. But it's a real lady's jacket, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"All the more reason why you should have it," he interrupted, laughing. +"Don't come back without the jacket, now mind. Good-night, and a +pleasant journey."</p> + +<p class="normal">With a joyous exclamation she stooped to kiss his hand, but he evaded +the caress.</p> + +<p class="normal">When her footsteps had died away in the darkness, he took the lamp and +went into the greenhouse, which was her private apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fire still smouldered on the hearth, but the room was icily cold +and comfortless. A stray flake or two whirled through the holes in the +roof, for outside a gentle dusting of snow had begun to fall.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why doesn't she doctor the laths?" he thought, and resolved that the +next morning he would come and lay boards over the weak places. He +climbed on one of the boxes and tested with a tap the glass roofing. +Then he understood why Regina preferred to sleep half in the open air. +The leaden framework of the panes had become rotten and brittle. At his +mere touch the whole decrepit roof rattled and trembled in all its +joints. Any attempt to mend it would bring it down altogether.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's a positive sin to allow her to be housed like this," he said to +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">He went back to his room and drew from under his sheets as many of his +feather mattresses as he could do without, and carried them, with one +of his pillows, to her wretched resting-place. He carefully made up a +bed, and then threw her horse-cloth over it, so that not a scrap of the +bedding was visible.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That will make her open her eyes," he thought, "when, worn out, she +comes to throw herself on her pallet." And well satisfied with his +evening's work, he returned to his papers.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next morning, when he awoke, his walls shone with the dazzling +reflection of the snow. In the night the world had arrayed itself in +the garb of winter.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dressed, and called Regina. There was no answer. She had not come +back.</p> + +<p class="normal">He waited two hours, and then went to prepare his own breakfast. Three +snow-heaps had collected underneath the holes in the glass roof, and a +fourth was accumulating on the hearth. A greenish twilight filled the +room. He took the shovel and broom, and half mechanically swept the +white mounds out at the door; then he fetched a sheet of strong +cardboard that had served as a cover to the stacks of documents, cut it +into strips, which he cautiously pushed through the holes so that they +roofed in the bad places from the snow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the best I can do," he said, as he shivered about the room, +which he had now made nearly as dark as night. Then, sighing heavily, +he went to the hearth, and lit the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">The day crept on, and still Regina did not return. In all probability +the snowstorm would detain her at Bockeldorf till the next morning. He +felt moped to distraction as he sat over his work. Now and then, to +vary the dull monotony, he took a walk to the Cats' Bridge, over which +she was bound to come. After he had bolted his cold dinner he did +nothing but watch the clock, whose hands seemed hardly to move.</p> + +<p class="normal">He missed Regina at every turn; for though she kept out of his way when +at home, he knew he had only to whistle to bring her instantly to his +elbow.</p> + +<p class="normal">He put his papers aside, and to change the current of his thoughts +began to draw. On the back of a coachbuilder's bill of fifty years ago +he painted a long garden border of stiff rows of stately lilies and red +roses. First he made a line of lilies, then one of roses, then lilies +again, and so on until the whole resembled some gorgeous carpet. Then +he threw himself on the creaking sofa, and dreamed of the Madonna who +presided over that wall of flowers, and shed the blessed light of her +countenance on all who had the courage to penetrate it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Already it was dusk. There was a sound of footsteps on the +cobble-stones before the door. He sprang to his feet and hurried out.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina came timidly over the threshold. She was laden with bundles and +parcels, and covered from head to foot with snow; even the little curls +on her forehead were powdered white. Her face glowed, but there was an +expression of fear in her brilliant eyes as she lifted them to his.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I ran, <i>Herr</i>, as fast as I could," she panted, laying her right hand +on her heart. "The shopman wouldn't let me start till daylight, because +he thought--the jacket might----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She broke off, looking guilty.</p> + +<p class="normal">He smiled kindly. He was much too glad to know that she was back again +to scold her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go and cook me something hot as quickly as you can," he said. "You'll +be glad of your supper too."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gazed at him in mute amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why don't you go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will--but, oh!" And then as if ashamed of what she was on the point +of saying, she rushed past him into the kitchen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She almost claimed her flogging," he murmured, laughing, as he looked +after her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was sitting at his desk where he generally worked, when she brought +in the evening meal. The lamp with its green shade cast a subdued +uncertain light over the apartment. He liked to watch her as she moved +swiftly to and fro, in and out of the shadows. To-day her appearance +almost frightened him. She looked resplendently, proudly beautiful. Not +a trace of her former degradation was apparent. The once forlorn and +half-tamed girl might have been taken for a duchess, so graceful and +distinguished were all her movements; so pure and full of charm the +contour of her young erect figure. Was it the neat woollen dress, or +the new jacket with its silver-grey fur--<i>kazabeika</i>, as they called it +in Poland--that was responsible for the transformation? As she laid the +table she smiled to herself a happy shame-faced little smile, and every +now and then flashed a rapid stealthy glance across at him. It was +evident she wanted to be admired, but dared not attract his attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she came within the circle of light made by the lamp, in order to +place it on the supper table, he turned his eyes quickly away to make +her think he had noticed nothing. But all the same he could not resist +letting fall a remark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How conceited we are of our new clothes!" he said banteringly.</p> + +<p class="normal">A vivid blush spread over her face and neck.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are much too good for me," she whispered, still smiling, still +glancing at him in half-ashamed coquetry. But she was not yet daughter +of Eve enough to take a sidelong peep at herself in the glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">On going to turn down his bed for the night, she was astonished to see +how it had diminished in size, but gulped back an exclamation of +surprise, lest he should be annoyed. Then wishing him good-night she +left the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a grin of inward satisfaction he thought of the great surprise +that was in store for her, and soon became engrossed in his manuscripts +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">About an hour had elapsed, when he was startled by a rustling sound at +the back of his chair. He turned round and found her standing beside +him. Her face was very white, her lips trembling, her breath coming +quick through dilated nostrils. The fur collarette was unfastened at +the throat, and showed the coarse chemise underneath, the folds of +which rose and fell with her billowing breast. In the excitement of the +moment she had forgotten to arrange her clothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How handsome she is!" he thought, filled with involuntary admiration +of her strange beauty, and then he tried not to look at her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now then, what's the matter?" he asked in his gentlest tones.</p> + +<p class="normal">She made an effort to speak, but some moments passed before a sound +escaped her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, <i>Herr</i>!" she stammered forth at last, "was it you--did you do +that with the beds?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, of course. Who else should do it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But--why--<i>why</i>?" and she lifted her swimming eyes in alarm and +consternation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Apparently his kindness frightened her. It was necessary to adopt a +firmer tone in order to become master of his own emotions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stupid girl," he said loftily, "do you think I wish you to die out +there of cold?"</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment she stood like a statue, silent and motionless, and big +sparkling drops rolled down her cheeks. And then suddenly she threw +herself at his feet, clung to both his hands, and covered them with +kisses and tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">At first he was too unnerved and thrilled at the sight of her agitation +to speak. He had never imagined that she would be so deeply moved. Then +he collected himself, and withdrawing his hands commanded her to rise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't make a scene, Regina," he said. "Go to bed. I'm sure you must be +tired out."</p> + +<p class="normal">She would have wiped her eyes with her sleeve, as was her habit, only +she remembered the new soft fur trimming in time, and so let her tears +run on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>!" she sobbed. "I hardly know what's come over me. But were +you really serious? I don't deserve all your kindness. First the +beautiful jacket, and then when I expected a whipping for being gone +the whole day--for you to ... Oh----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Say no more. I won't listen to another word," he insisted. "You must +have some sort of bed. Where used you to sleep before?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She started and cast down her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Before?" she murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, in my father's time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, then, I used to lie on the door-mat or----" she paused.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Or where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She still remained silent, and trembled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where?" he asked again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes moved shyly in the direction of the canopied bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know; ah, you know, <i>Herr</i>," she murmured. And then overwhelmed +with shame she covered her face with her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, he knew. How could he forget it for a moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Begone!" he cried, his voice shaking with anger and disgust, and he +motioned her to the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without a word she crept out, her head still bowed in her hands.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Boleslav was almost happy. He had hit on a new and brilliant idea, and +the hopes of carrying it out brightened for a time the deadening +monotony of his existence. He believed he could clear his father's +memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">How it had first occurred to him he hardly knew. He had found certain +letters from Polish noblemen addressed to his father, which seemed to +suggest that the deceased had felt himself bound by a hastily-made +promise which at the time he had not meant seriously, and that a chain +of tragic circumstances had compelled him against his will to be a +party to the treachery. If this did not exonerate him from all guilt, +it at least put the slandered man in a new light--the light of a +martyr.</p> + +<p class="normal">If by minute study of the documents he could trace the affair to its +source, and make public a true history of the disaster, in which he +would demonstrate that Eberhard von Schranden, far from having played +the devilish rôle that rumour attributed to him, had only been a victim +of circumstances, surely there would at least arise some who would hold +out their hand in remorse to the sufferer's heir. The more he absorbed +himself in this task of vindication the more he began to feel united +with the dead man, and accustomed to the idea of sacrificing his own +innocent reputation for his sake.</p> + +<p class="normal">His brain was so much occupied with these schemes that he slept little +at night, and in the daytime tore about the park like one possessed. +The less hope he cherished in his secret heart that his plan would +succeed, the more did he long for some human soul into whose ear he +could pour his doubts and fears. But there was no one to speak to but +the taciturn woman, who glided past him with eyes guiltily cast down.</p> + +<p class="normal">One evening, when his solitude almost maddened him, he said to her--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina, aren't you frozen in your kitchen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never let the fire out, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But what do you do in the evening, when it's dark?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I sit by the fire and sew, till my fingers get quite stiff."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you have a light?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I burn fir-cones."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was silent; he gnawed his under-lip, and hesitated as to what he +should say next. Then he took courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina, if you like you may bring your sewing into the sitting-room, +after supper," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She grew pale, and stammered out, "Yes, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He thought her wanting in gratitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course, if you'd rather not--" he said, shrugging his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, <i>Herr</i>--I should like to come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, then, come; but you must make yourself look respectable. +Why have you given up wearing your new clothes?" Since that evening she +had taken to shivering about in the cotton jacket again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought it would hurt them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hurt them! How?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean," she said incoherently, "that when you are angry with me,-- +such as I, am not fit----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense!" he interrupted quickly, feeling that if she went on he +would be angry with her again.</p> + +<p class="normal">After supper she appeared in some trepidation at the door. Snowy linen +shimmered in her hand. She remained standing till he had impatiently +invited her to sit down.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You want people to stand on ceremony with you, as if you were some +fine lady," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed in confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am only nervous, <i>Herr</i>, because I am not quite sure--how to +behave." And she turned to her work.</p> + +<p class="normal">No more passed between them that evening, and it was more than a week +before they broke into conversation again.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sat brooding over his yellow papers, and she let her needle fly +through the crackling calico. When the clock struck eleven, she +gathered up her sewing, and whispering "Good-night," slipped out on +tiptoe without waiting for an answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you working at so industriously?" he asked her one evening, +after he had watched her intently for some minutes.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked up and pushed a curl off her forehead with damp fingers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am making shirts for you, <i>Herr</i>," was the answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you undertake that too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who else should do it, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A short silence; then he questioned her further.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who taught you all you know, Regina? Your mother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head. "My mother died very young, <i>Herr</i>. I can hardly +remember her. People say my father beat her to death."</p> + +<p class="normal">He thought of the thin pale face and tired eyelids in the +picture-gallery, of which the last trace had perished in the great +fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can you remember what your mother was like?" he demanded again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She had long black hair, and eyes like mine, at least, so I have heard +people say; and I can remember her hair, for she often wrapped me in it +when I was undressed. I used to sit in it as if it were a cloak, and +laugh; and when father--" She stopped in sudden alarm. "But you won't +care to hear more, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on, tell me the rest," he exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when father came home and wanted to beat me, because he was drunk, +you know, she stood in front of me, and told me to get under her dress; +and inside her dress it was like being in a cave, quite dark and still, +and father's swearing sounded a long, long way off. And then she died. +It was on a Sunday--yes, it was on a Sunday. For I was standing by the +hedge and wondering whether she'd have a beautiful coffin--a green one, +like the coffin on the trestle in the garden--when you, <i>Herr</i>, went by +on your way to church. At that time you were little, like me, and you +had on a blue coat with silver buttons, and a little sword at your +side; and you stopped and asked me why I was crying, and I couldn't +answer, I was so frightened, and then you gave me an apple."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had not the smallest recollection of the incident, but he remembered +how he had taken the young sparrow away from her, and related the +story. She had not forgotten it. Her eyes became illumined, as if lost +in contemplation of some blissful sight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder, now, that you gave it up so meekly," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How could I have done otherwise?" she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You might easily have refused," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She bent over her work. "I was only so glad for you to have it," she +said, in a low soft voice. "It's not often that a poor little village +girl gets the chance of giving anything to a rich young nobleman."</p> + +<p class="normal">He bit his lips. Truly he had taken more from her since than his pride +and manliness should have permitted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And besides," she went on, "even if I hadn't wanted to give it to you, +it was yours by right. You were the <i>Junker</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">How perfectly natural the argument sounded from her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina, tell me honestly," he said, "if you haven't entirely forgotten +the days when you ran wild in the village."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no, <i>Herr</i>; indeed I haven't," she replied, with an almost roguish +smile. "For instance, I remember a great many things about the +<i>gnädiger Junker</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He withdrew far back into the shadow of the lamp-shade. "What splendid +stuff she has in her!" he thought, and devoured her with his eyes. And +then he made her relate all her reminiscences of him at that time. He +did not appear in a very amiable light. Once he had pushed her into +a duck-pond; another time sent her floating down the river in a +flour-vat, till her cries of terror had brought people to the bank with +life-saving apparatus; when she had on a new white frock, given her by +the Castle housekeeper, he had painted her hands and face with white +chalk, and told her to stand motionless like one of the statues in the +Park. She had submitted meekly till the chalk got into her mouth and +eyes and made them smart, and then she had burst out crying and run +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">She recalled all this with beaming eyes, as if his pranks had been a +source of infinite happiness to her. Although when reminded of such and +such an escapade he recollected it perfectly, he could not remember +that it was Regina who had been the victim of his caprice. A sensation +of shame rose within him. Instead of the dreamy, generous young +cavalier he had been in the habit of picturing himself, he saw a cruel +little village tyrant, who exercised his power over his small +contemporaries with a relentlessness that was almost vicious.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And did I make no amends for my wicked deeds?" he inquired, hoping to +hear he had at least been capable of doing good sometimes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you used to give us things," she answered. "'Divide that,' you +used to say, and scatter on the ground either apples and nuts, or +broken tin soldiers, or a handful of counters. But, of course, the +strongest and biggest got everything. Felix Merckel was the best at a +scramble; the girls only had the leavings."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And did you ever get anything from me, Regina?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">She flushed scarlet, and bowed lower over her work. "Yes, <i>Herr</i>, +once!" she said softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She was silent, and dared not lift her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good heavens! why do you look so ashamed about it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because--I ... have it still."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, not really!" He smiled. A feeling of pleasure shot through him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without answering, she felt in the pocket of her dress, and laid before +him on the table a little straw box plaited out of coloured blades. It +was hardly bigger than a baby's fist.</p> + +<p class="normal">He held it in his hand, and examined it all over attentively. Something +rattled inside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I open it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't ask, <i>Herr</i>!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a ring of glass beads--blue, white, and yellow, such as a little +girl, following the first instincts of vanity, threads for herself. He +took it out, and tried to force it on his little finger, but it was far +too narrow, and he couldn't get it over his nail.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did I give you the ring too?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, <i>Herr</i>, it belonged to my dear mother. It cut into her flesh once, +and that's why I used to wear it day and night till the thread broke. +Then she had been dead a long time, and as it was the only keepsake I +had of her, I threaded the beads again, and have never parted with the +ring, and I always have it on me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"In my little box?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded, and her head drooped. "Why shouldn't I, <i>Herr</i>?" she said +in a whisper, "it brings me luck."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her with a compassionate smile. "Luck? Brings <i>you</i> luck?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll tell you how, <i>Herr</i>," she exclaimed triumphantly. "Every bead +you count----"</p> + +<p class="normal">But at that moment he leant back in his chair, and the ring slipped +through his fingers on to the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina started up and hurried round the table to pick it up, but could +not find it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The earth seems to have swallowed it up," she said in alarm, and she +dropped on to all fours close by Boleslav's side.</p> + +<p class="normal">He saw the nape of her beautiful neck with its fringe of crisp, dark +curls, gleaming near his knee. His heart began to beat, a cold shiver +thrilled through his limbs. He stared down on her with a fixed smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here it is!" she exclaimed, and raised herself into a kneeling +position to hand him the treasured bauble.</p> + +<p class="normal">He lifted his hand. He felt as if some occult power had lifted it for +him, and that it weighed hundreds of pounds. Then with a timid, +caressing touch he laid it on her cheek.</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew back trembling. A great light swam in her eyes, that rested on +him in dreamy inquiry. His arm sank heavily to his side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," he murmured hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">She went back to her place, and there was a profound stillness. It +seemed to him that he had committed a crime, and that every moment of +silence between them made it worse. He must force himself to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was I asking you? Ah! to be sure. Who taught you to sew?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She had unthreaded her needle, and was trying hard to pull the cotton +through the eye again. But the small glittering shaft oscillated +between her unsteady fingers like a reed shaken by the wind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I learnt at the parsonage, <i>Herr</i>," she replied. "Helene had a +class----" She paused, embarrassed, for at the sound of the beloved +name, which he heard for the first time from her lips--such lips--he +winced as if from the lash of a whip. She took his excitement for +anger, and added apologetically, "I mean the Pastor's daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind," he said, controlling himself with difficulty. "Go to bed +now."</p> + +<p class="normal">That night Boleslav fought a severe battle with himself. He felt as if +his ideal of exalted purity had been polluted since his eyes had rested +with favour on this abandoned woman. And he himself was polluted too by +that involuntary caress.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was absolutely necessary to regain his peace of mind and purity. He +must come to some distinct understanding with Helene without delay, in +order that he might be strengthened in his struggle against his +treacherous senses and benumbing doubt.</p> + +<p class="normal">So urgent did it seem that his resolutions should at once be put into +force, that he rose in the middle of the night, and by the glimmer of +his night-light wrote to Helene assuring her of his undying love and +eternal devotion, and imploring her to make some sign to show that she +stood by him in trouble as she had once done in happiness, so that he +might know for certain it was worth while his continuing to wage for +her sake the fight against such enormous odds. With every line he +wrote, his anxiety lessened, and when he lay down in his bed again, he +felt that, through bracing his energies for the task, he had relieved +himself of a load of care that had long heavily oppressed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can you undertake, Regina," he asked the next evening, "to deliver +this letter unseen to the <i>Fräulein</i> at the parsonage?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She regarded him for a second with wide eyes, then looking down, she +murmured, "Yes, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But supposing they attack you down in the village?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pah! What do I care for <i>them</i>?" she exclaimed, shrugging her +shoulders contemptuously, as she always did when the villagers were in +question.</p> + +<p class="normal">Soon afterwards he saw her glide by the window like a shadow and +disappear in the gloaming.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hours passed. She did not return. He began to reproach himself for +having engaged her in his amatory mission when her life was at stake.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last, towards midnight, he heard the front door latch click.</p> + +<p class="normal">She appeared on the threshold with chattering teeth, blue with cold, +the letter still grasped in her cramped fingers.</p> + +<p class="normal">He made her sit down by the stove, and gave her Spanish wine to +drink--and gradually she found her voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have been lying all this time in the snow under the parsonage +hedge," she said, "but there was no possibility of getting at her. Just +now she put the light out in her bedroom, so I came home. But don't be +vexed, <i>Herr</i>. Perhaps I shall have better luck to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">He wouldn't hear of her repeating the adventure, but when she came to +him the following evening equipped for her walk, he did not forbid her +to go.</p> + +<p class="normal">This time she came back with glowing cheeks, panting for breath. Two +peasants on their way home from the Black Eagle had seen her and given +chase.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But to-morrow, <i>Herr</i>, to-morrow, I shall succeed."</p> + +<p class="normal">She was right. More breathless than the evening before, but radiant +with delight, she came into the room, and stood at the door, stretching +out two empty hands in triumph.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God," he thought, "that I shan't have to send her a fourth time +on a fool's errand."</p> + +<p class="normal">In joyous excitement she told him all about it. Sultan, the big dog in +the kennel, knew her; and as a hostage she had taken him a bone, then +he had permitted her to stand at the back door and look through the +keyhole. She had seen Helene standing at the great store-cupboard. "I +knew that Helene,--I mean the pastor's Fräulein,--went to the +store-cupboard every night to put out coffee and oatmeal for the +morning," she explained, "and sure enough I just timed her right, for +there was her candle flickering in my face, and she standing within +three steps of me----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave a deep sigh. Happy creature! She had <i>seen</i> her!</p> + +<p class="normal">I opened the back door very softly, and called, 'Helene, Fräulein +Helene!' And when she caught sight of me, she screamed and let the +candle fall. 'Helene,' I said, 'I am not going to hurt you. Here is a +letter from Junker Boleslav.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She trembled so, she could hardly take the letter out of my hand. And +then she shrieked in horror, 'Go! Go <i>at once</i>!' And almost before I +could tell her about the letter-box on the drawbridge, she had slammed +the door and bolted it in my face. Ah, dear God!" she added with a +melancholy little smile. "I am used to being treated in that way, but +she might have been kinder because I brought a message from <i>you</i>!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He leant his head on his hands. Helene's conduct gave him food for +meditation. Of course her reception of her fallen playmate was in every +way excusable. No wonder that her chaste and maidenly soul revolted at +the sight of this unfortunate girl!</p> + +<p class="normal">Every day Regina now ran down to the drawbridge to peep into the +letter-box that was fastened to a pillar there, to see if there was an +answer from Helene. But the letter-box remained empty; and Boleslav's +brighter mood soon clouded again. He became more bitter and defiant +than ever, and a prey to tormenting reflections. In his pride he would +not allow that he had been spurned by the woman he loved; yet it was +hardly any longer a matter for doubt that she wished in no way to be +associated with him in his dishonour. He saw his great plans for the +future fall in ruins in this abandonment of hope of winning the love of +his youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many days went by before he roused himself from this fresh +depression--it was not till the feverish unrest of waiting had subsided +that he slowly recovered his calmness and fortitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he threw himself with renewed energy into the search for proofs of +his father's innocence. The evidence was contradictory and confused. +Letters in which his father was referred to as the staunchest of +Prussian patriots were counterbalanced by others in which he was +addressed as the pioneer of Polish liberty. That might possibly have +been a mere figure of flattering speech, designed to win over the +vacillating nobleman, but to make it public would be once more putting +the deceased's reputation in the pillory.</p> + +<p class="normal">During these disheartening investigations of the truth, his only +refreshment was the evening hours in which Regina's presence gave him +something else to think about. So soon as she came and sat down +opposite him he felt a curious satisfaction mingled with uneasiness. +Sometimes, before she made her appearance, and he with bowed head +listened to the sounds that came from her kitchen, he would be suddenly +seized with anxiety, and feel as if he must jump up and call out, "Stay +where you are! Don't come!" And yet, when she walked into the room he +breathed more freely. "It is loneliness that attracts me to her," he +often told himself. "She has a human face and a human voice."</p> + +<p class="normal">As she sat over her work silently putting in stitch after stitch, he +would pretend to be napping, and with closed eyes listen to the rise +and fall of her breath. It was a full, slow, muffled sound, which fell +on his ear like suppressed music. It resembled the ebbing and flowing +of an ocean of restrained life and energy. After she had been sitting +for a long time in a stooping attitude she would suddenly straighten +herself, and stretch her arms with closed fingers over the sides of the +chair, till the curve of her bosom stood out in powerful grandeur, and +threatened to burst its bonds. It was as if from time to time she was +obliged to become conscious of the fulness of life that pulsated and +throbbed within her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she resumed her old attitude and quietly sewed on.</p> + +<p class="normal">It lasted all too short a time. These hours spent in her society had +unconsciously become dear to him, and almost indispensable. The lamp +seemed to give a brighter light since its rays fell on that pile of +shining white linen; the hand of the clock accelerated its pace now he +was not always looking at it to hurry it onwards. The wind that used to +howl and whistle so dismally in the branches of the trees now murmured +soft lullabies, and even the laths in the rotten roof cracked less +ominously. He dreaded the evenings when at dusk she started on her +journey to Bockeldorf, and more than once had meditated accompanying +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in their relations, that had become so friendly, there was one +blot, and the knowledge of it pierced him at times like a poisonous +arrow. Often, after he had been watching her in silence, he was +tormented with a desire to penetrate into the secrets of her past, and +to cross-examine her on the subject of her intercourse with the dead. +For long he kept back the questions that burned on the tip of his +tongue, feeling that little good could come of asking them; but at last +he felt driven to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is the only living witness of the catastrophe," he thought; +"what's more, the only accomplice. She alone can give authentic +information."</p> + +<p class="normal">And one evening he broke the silence which had been so enjoyable to +both, with a brusque demand that she should tell him all she knew.</p> + +<p class="normal">She changed colour, and dropped her hands in her lap.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll only be angry with me again, <i>Herr</i>," she stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do as I bid you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She still hesitated. "It's ... so long ago," she whispered piteously, +"and I don't know how to tell things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you can at least answer questions."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she resigned herself to fate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who was it that first suggested to you the midnight sortie?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>gnädiger Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He clenched his teeth. "When and how?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>gnädiger Herr</i> ordered me to wait at table. The great candelabra, +that was hardly ever lit as a rule, was burning, and shone on the gold +uniforms of the French officers, and it was all so dazzling I felt +quite giddy when I carried the soup into the hall. They all laughed and +pointed at me, and spoke in French, which I didn't understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How many were there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Five, and one with grey hair, who was the General, and had the most +gold on his coat; and when I brought him the soup he caught hold of me +round the waist, and I put the plate down on his finger and pinched it. +Then they all laughed again, and the <i>gnädiger Herr</i> said, 'Don't be so +clumsy, Regina.' I felt so ashamed and vexed at his saying that that I +said, quite loud, I didn't see why I should wait if I was only to be +scolded for it. Then they laughed louder than ever, and the General +began to speak German, like little children speak it. 'You are a +plucky, pretty little girl,' he said; and the <i>gnädiger Herr</i> told him +I was a girl who might prove useful to him and them all--or something +of the kind. And when I brought in the liqueur at the end of dinner, he +drew me down to him and whispered in my ear. I was to go to him in the +night."</p> + +<p class="normal">He started up. "And you went?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She cast down her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>," she said imploringly, "why do you ask me? I wish you +wouldn't. I had often done it before, and I saw no harm in it then."</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt his blood boiling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How old were you at that time?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fifteen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so corrupt--so----" His voice died away in wrath.</p> + +<p class="normal">She cast an unspeakably sad and reproachful glance at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew you'd be angry," she said, "but I can't make myself out better +than I am."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Continue your story," he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when I went to him at midnight he was still up, striding round the +table, and he asked me if I should like to earn a great sum of money. +'Of course, <i>gnädiger Herr</i>,' I said, 'I should like it very much,' for +then I was very poor. Whereupon he asked me if I was afraid of the +dark. I laughed, and said he ought to know best; and after a few more +questions it came out what he wanted me to do. Could I be trusted to +show the French the way over the Cats' Bridge and through the wood in +an hour? I began to cry, for the French had behaved dreadfully since +they had been quartered in the Castle, running after and insulting all +the servant-girls, and I was afraid they might insult me too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you were afraid of that, were you?" he interposed with a +contemptuous smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; and I told the <i>gnädiger Herr</i> nothing would induce me to do it. +But then he became terribly angry, and thumped me on the shoulders till +I sank on my knees, and he cried out that I was an ungrateful hussy, +and that he would have me sent back to the village in disgrace, and +would tell the Herr Pastor what sort of a wench I was, and he would +make me confess and do penance; and then he took me by the throat, and +when he had almost throttled me, and I could scarcely draw a breath, +then, <i>then</i> ..."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Say no more," interrupted Boleslav; and seizing the letters that were +to establish his father's innocence, he tore them to pieces.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The next morning he took one of the guns out of the case, and wandered +into the snowy forest. He tramped about the whole day without meeting a +single human creature. The deer and hares were left in peace, for he +stared beyond them into vacancy. At dusk he turned his footsteps +homewards, dispirited and worn out.</p> + +<p class="normal">He saw Regina standing like a statue on the Cats' Bridge looking out +for him. At first she looked as if she intended to run and meet him, +but she changed her mind, and took the path to the house, smiling and +murmuring to herself as she went.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when she brought in his meal she was as silent as usual. He sat +without looking at her till a sound like a short convulsive sob roused +him from his reverie.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter with you?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without answering, she ran out of the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">He made a movement as if he were about to follow her; then set his +teeth and sat down again. A dull resentment devoured him. He could not +forgive her for depriving him of the illusion on which for weeks he had +been building so many vague hopes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now there was nothing for it but to drink the cup of degradation to the +dregs, no matter how bitter the bottom might taste.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a little while Regina appeared again, in her outdoor things.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You wish to go out to-night, then?" he asked harshly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She kept her head half averted, so that he should not see she had red +eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-morrow is Christmas, <i>Herr</i>--the holy feast day; and the grocer +says that on Christmas night he would rather not be disturbed."</p> + +<p class="normal">Christmas! holy feast! How strange and like a fairy tale that sounded. +Then there was still rejoicing and festivity going on in the world! +People still joined hands and frolicked round glittering fir-tree!</p> + +<p class="normal">"You wish to get your Christmas presents, I suppose, Regina?" he +inquired, smiling bitterly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no, <i>Herr</i>," she replied. "That has never been the custom here. +Besides, now I should take no pleasure in such things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She hesitated, and then said in some embarrassment, "Let me go, +<i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a great deal to ask you yet, Regina."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please, not now, else----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, go."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night." Then he called her back. "Tell me first, what did that +sob mean just now."</p> + +<p class="normal">A ray of half-ashamed happiness shone in the eyes that were swollen +from weeping.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can't you guess, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had been so anxious about you. I thought perhaps you weren't coming +back, and then when you did----" She turned and fled through the door. +Her footsteps died away in the night....</p> + +<p class="normal">The following morning Boleslav was awakened by a great rushing and +roaring that had for some time mingled with his dreams. A terrific +storm was raging. The topmost branches of the poplars lashed each other +in fury. Huge white clouds were swept along the ground, but the air was +clear. Another fall of snow seemed improbable. To-day he could not rest +in the desolate, cold little house, and went out to wrestle with the +elements.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She will have a bad time of it," he thought, as the north wind hurled +in his face a shower of fine icicles that pricked like needles and +almost took his breath away. In the wood it was more sheltered. There +the tempest crashed and crunched in the tops of the trees, seeming to +vent all its fury on them. He walked on, not knowing where he was +going, and then found himself on the road to Bockeldorf.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It looks as if I were running after her," he murmured, chiding +himself; and he struck into the pathless thicket.</p> + +<p class="normal">He thought how remarkable it was that this degraded being should creep +so much into his thoughts. Of course it was because he had been thrown +with her day after day, and depended upon her entirely for human +society. Yet he was alarmed, for he realised now, perhaps more than he +had ever done before, how he felt himself every day more drawn towards +her, and how much there was in her that began to appear comprehensible, +excusable, and even noble, that once had only seemed to testify to her +innate coarseness, and repelled him from her in disgust.</p> + +<p class="normal">But without a doubt contact with her was doing him no good. She was +drawing him down into the slough of her own worthless existence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Something must be done. Above all, it was necessary to stand in less +familiar relations with her, to repress her, and lower her again to her +old position of humble and despised servant-girl. The festival of +Christmas was a good opportunity of paying her off with a loan, the +handsomeness of which would discharge his obligations to her for all +time. With a stroke of the pen he would provide for her future, and +thereby purchase the right to regard her as what she actually was--his +humble dependant and menial. She should give him her company to-day for +the last time. She had not yet finished her evidence, and as he had +once broken the ice he might as well know everything. Of those two +awful nights of guilt and shame, in which she had been a witness of +bloodshed and arson, he would hear the worst.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then when she has confessed all," he said to himself, "she shall +keep to her green-house, which is her proper place, even if she has to +burn all the timber in the park to prevent herself from freezing."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not seemly that in this solitude he should associate so much +with her, and he made up his mind to put an end to the intimacy once +for all.</p> + +<p class="normal">A hare crossed his path and turned his thoughts into another channel. +He aimed and hit it. The little animal rotated three times, and then +lay motionless on its nose.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She will be pleased," he thought, as he slung his booty over his +shoulder. Ah! there he was thinking of her again already.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sky meanwhile had clouded. A sharp shower of prickly white flakes +cut through the trees; a wild hiss now mingled with the roar of the +wind that made him shiver involuntarily in every limb. By aid of his +compass he found the way home. When he entered the open fields the +snow-storm was in full swing. He could scarcely stand against it. The +air was dark with the falling masses of snow. There was not a trace +visible of the shrubs in the park only three hundred feet away.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's to be hoped she's got home," he thought, as he struggled on.</p> + +<p class="normal">Freshly fallen snow lay thick on the Cats' Bridge; there were no +footprints in it, but they might easily have been obliterated.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a sinking heart, he ran to the house and called her by name, but +got no answer. The hearth was unswept, the fire out, the beds unmade as +he had left them.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had been overtaken by the storm, that she feared more than she +feared the Schrandeners. A torturing uneasiness took possession of him. +He rushed from one room to the other, lit the fire and extinguished it +again, tried to eat, and then threw down his knife and fork +impatiently. It struck him as ludicrous that he should be so anxious. +Had she not for six winters gone backwards and forwards in wind and +rain and snow, and never yet met with an accident? Why should anything +happen to her to-day? To kill time he sat down to his desk, and with +numb fingers made out a cheque. The sum amounted to three figures. +Regina ought to be satisfied.</p> + +<p class="normal">Darkness set in. The hand of the clock pointed to three, and yet it was +already like night. He could contain himself indoors no longer. He +would at least go as far as the Cats' Bridge and see if there was any +sign of her. To prevent the wind pitching him over, he was obliged to +hold on with all his might to the balustrade. The rickety woodwork +shook in all its joints. On the ice beneath him danced a maze of spiral +patterns; lily-stems grew upwards and sank again in heaps of white +dust, which in their turn were whirled away to make room for other +fantastic forms. The Madonna's garden rose for a moment and then +vanished; for a figure drew nearer and nearer out of the twilight, +casting its shadow before it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina, thank God!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was on the point of rushing to meet her, when he was overcome with a +sensation of shame that paralysed his limbs and drove the blood to his +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">On this very spot where he now waited for her, she had yesterday waited +for him; looking out into the dusk because she had not been able to +rest for anxiety about him, just as to-day he could not rest for +anxiety about her.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment he felt a strong inclination to dive behind the bushes, so +that she should not see him; but the next he was ashamed of being +ashamed, and stepped forward to meet her on the Cats' Bridge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have had a bad time of it, Regina," he called out; and tried to +relieve her of the sack she carried on her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she quickly dodged him, holding out her elbows in protest. She was +muffled to the eyes in shawls, and could not speak. They walked to the +door in silence. On the threshold she turned and tore the wraps from +her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a favour to ask, <i>Herr</i>," she said breathlessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, what is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you mind staying out another half-hour, or going into the +kitchen, so that I can warm the room and tidy up a little?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you must rest first."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not now, <i>Herr</i>, if you don't mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she went in, letting her burdens fall to the floor in the darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She may bustle about in there for a few minutes if she likes," he +thought; and turned to look for a temporary shelter among the ruins.</p> + +<p class="normal">Warm air ascended from the cellars. He struck a light, and went down +the slippery steps. He felt curiously light-hearted almost, as if +Christmas had brought him joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rows of wine-bottles with their red and green labels peeped at him +festively from their places.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She shall not forget it's Christmas," he said, smiling; and drew from +the farthest niche where the treasure of treasures was stored, two or +three bottles covered with dust and cobwebs. In these reposed a nectar +which had not seen the light since an eighteenth-century sun had shone +on it.</p> + +<p class="normal">His latest resolution occurred to him. Of course, he had not meant to +put it into force till to-morrow--not on Christmas evening, when people +consort together, who at other times are not congenial to each other. +On Christmas evening no one ought to be lonely and sorrowful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Obedient to Regina's wishes, he patrolled the ruins for half-an-hour +beneath a roof of sparkling icicles. Then he put the bottles under his +arm, and staggered out into the stormy night.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he approached his dwelling, he saw with amazement that the shutters +were closed, a thing that had never happened before. His first thought +was that the storm had penetrated the chinks, but on nearer view be +learnt they were still weatherproof. Not till he stood in the vestibule +did he find a happy solution to the problem. Regina met him beaming, +and half-ashamed, and threw the parlour door wide open. Astounded at +what he saw, he remained rooted to the spot. He was greeted by a +festive shimmer of candles and a fragrant odour of firs. In the centre +of the dining-table, covered with its pure white cloth, stood a +Christmas tree, adorned with wax tapers and gilded apples. The whole +apartment was brilliantly illuminated.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never in his life before had a Christmas tree been lit for <i>him</i>. Only +from the thresholds of strangers had he sometimes looked on with dim +eyes at strangers' happiness. And where was Regina? She had retreated +behind him, and stood in the remotest corner of the vestibule, watching +him with shy yet proud delight.</p> + +<p class="normal">He took hold of her hand and led her into the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who put it into your head, child?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The grocer's wife was trimming her Christmas tree when I got there at +three o'clock, and I thought it so pretty I said to myself, <i>he</i> shall +have his tree too, and shall know that there is at least one person to +think of him. I asked her to show me how to gild apples, and gilded a +supply while I was there, and bought the lights and got a sack to put +the tree in, so that you shouldn't see it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And who gave you the tree?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cut it down myself at the edge of the forest not far from here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the middle of this storm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed contemptuously. "A little wind wouldn't hinder me, <i>Herr</i>," +And then with a sudden outburst of joyous ecstasy, she exclaimed, "Oh, +just look, <i>Herr</i>, how beautifully it burns! How pious it looks. Hasn't +it really a sort of pious face, as if an angel had brought it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He assented, laughing, and expressed his thanks in a few words of +forced condescension, for he was afraid of being too gracious.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she was more than satisfied. "Why should you thank me, <i>Herr</i>?" she +asked reproachfully. "It's all bought with your money. I have none. I'm +only a poor girl. Else, ah, else--" She threw up her hands and clasped +them above her head.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cheque came into his mind. "This is to show you," he said, handing +it to her, "that I have thought of your Christmas too."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him in bewilderment. "Am I to read it?" she asked, +respectfully taking the piece of paper between two of her fingers. +After studying it carefully, she still looked perplexed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you understand what it is?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes--I understand ... But to begin with, you can't be in earnest. +And even if you are, ... what good is it to me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will provide for your future."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My future is provided for.... I have all I want. Good food, ... and I +am dressed like a lady. What can I possibly want besides?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we may not go on living always together like this."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave a cry of dismay. "Are you thinking of packing me off, <i>Herr</i>?" +she asked with tightly clasped hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not now. But suppose I were to die."</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head meditatively. "I should die too," she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Or I might have to go to the war again?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I should go with you as a vivandière."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her persistence annoyed him. "Do as you like," he said, "only take what +I give you."</p> + +<p class="normal">A bright idea seemed to occur to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right, <i>Herr</i>," she exclaimed, "I'll take it, only next Christmas +I shall buy you something with it, that will be worth having." And +happy at the thought, she scampered away.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Christmas-tree had burnt out. It stood now dark and neglected in +the corner by the stove, only occasionally casting a glimmer from its +golden fruit on the table where master and servant sat opposite each +other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina had been accorded permission to take her supper with him this +evening, and had been too overcome to swallow a mouthful. She was +almost stunned with this great and unexpected pleasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now the dishes were cleared away, and only bottles and glasses stood +between them. She drank, thoughtlessly, of the old fire-kindling wine +in long immoderate draughts. Her face began to glow. The pupils of her +brilliant eyes seemed to melt beneath their drooping lids. She rocked +to and fro on her chair. A wild abandon had relaxed her in every limb.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you tired, Regina?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head impatiently. For once her constraint in his presence +had disappeared. There was something even approaching audacity in the +brilliancy of her glance as she turned it on him from time to time. She +was intoxicated with happiness. He too felt the wine flame up in him; +and his eyes were riveted on her figure, which swayed before him with +the graceful motions of a Mænad.</p> + +<p class="normal">All the time the tempest raged outside. It whistled in the chimney and +hurled a rattling fusilade against the window shutters. There was a +grinding and crunching among the rafters of the roof, which sounded as +if the mouldy wood were collapsing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid something will be blown down," he said as he listened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maybe," she answered with a dreamy smile, huddling herself together. +And then she began to babble in a fragmentary but quite unrestrained +fashion. "Perhaps it isn't good for me, <i>Herr</i>," she said, "that you +are so kind to me. All my life I have never got anything but blows and +abuse--first from my father, then from him, not to mention other +people. But if you spoil me, <i>Herr</i>, I shall get proud--and pride is a +great vice, I have heard the Pastor say--I shall begin to think I'm a +princess who needn't earn her bread."</p> + +<p class="normal">She burst into a peal of wild laughter, and let her arms fall to her +sides. Then in a low tone, as if conversing with herself, she went on--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sometimes I do wonder if I am only a servant. I often feel really as +if I were some enchanted princess, and you, <i>Herr</i>, the knight who is +to deliver me. Will you be the knight?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She blinked at him over her wine-glass. He nodded in friendly +acquiescence. Let her revel in her strange fancies. It was Christmas.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There have been cases," she continued, "in which princesses have been +turned into quite common sluts. They have had stones thrown at them, +and been spat at, and men have called after them, 'Strike her down, the +dirty slut!' And all the time they were princesses in disguise."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you believe in fairy tales, then?" he asked, wondering.</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed to herself. "Not exactly, <i>Herr</i>. But when one passes so +many hours alone, and has to take long solitary walks as I have, one +must think. And when the rain beats down, and the wind blows.... Hark +at it now, what a to-do it's making.... Think of me tramping along in +this--and I have often been out when it's as bad, but I've never lost +my way. And sometimes, when I come into the wood, I have asked myself, +'Which would you rather be? A queen sitting on a golden throne, or the +Catholics' Holy Virgin, who had our dear Lord and Saviour for her +little boy; or would you rather be the devil's grandmother, and bury +all the Schrandeners in a manure-heap; or a noble lady and----" She +paused.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And?" he queried.</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew herself up, and laughed in embarrassment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't tell you that--it is too silly. But I had only to choose which +I'd be. And as I march along through the night shadows, I often imagine +I am one or other, till all of a sudden I find myself in Bockeldorf, +just as if I'd flown there--often I think I am flying. Ah! things do +happen in real life, after all, very much the same as in the fairy +tales. Don't you think so, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He contemplated her with curiosity and wonder, as if he had never seen +her before. And truly it was the first time he had looked into her +secret soul. Now, when her tongue was loosened by wine, much was +revealed in her that before he had either not observed or not +understood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blissful creature!" he murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Am I?" she replied, boldly planting her elbows on the table, and +regarding him with an expression of joyous inquiry. "You mean, because +I'm sitting here with you drinking wine and being treated as if I were +human? Oh! it's exactly like being in heaven.... Do you think I shall +ever go to heaven?... I don't. I am far too wicked!... And I think, +too, I should be afraid to go there. It must be much livelier in +hell.... I should be more at home there. The Herr Pastor often said I +was like a little devil, and I never fretted about it. Why should I? It +seemed quite natural that I should be the little devil and Helene the +angel. An excellent arrangement.... Didn't Helene, <i>Herr</i>, look just +like an angel in the flesh? So pink and white and delicate, with her +blue eyes and folded hands. And she always wore ... a pretty ribbon ... +round her neck ... and smelt always of ... rose-scented soap...."</p> + +<p class="normal">A cold shiver passed through him. He felt it was degrading both to +himself and the beloved to allow this half-tipsy girl to speak of her +as if she were an equal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop!" he demanded hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">She only answered him with a dreamy smile. Wine and fatigue suddenly +overpowered her. She lay stretched out, her head thrown back on the arm +of the chair, and fought against sleep, like a Bacchante exhausted +after a whirl of dissipation.</p> + +<p class="normal">A great anger, that rose and fell within him like the sound of the +storm outside, mastered him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is what wine does," he thought, and yet drank more.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wanted to wake her, to send her out, but he could not tear his eyes +away from her face, and by degrees he became gentler again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She meant no harm," he thought, as he moved nearer to where she lay. +"This is the last time she will sit here with me; to-morrow a new leaf +will be turned. After to-morrow she shall find in me nothing but the +master."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he remembered all he had wanted to ask her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, never mind," he said to himself, "it can't be helped. Why spoil +her Christmas? Some other time will do."</p> + +<p class="normal">The hurricane without seemed to have increased in fury. It roared +through the keyholes, and battered the shutters. How brutally cruel it +was to drive her out to sleep in a greenhouse on a night like this! But +what was the use of being compassionate when it had to be done?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina!" he shouted, and tapped her on the shoulder. At that moment +there was a terrific thundering crash, that made the walls tremble as +from a shock of earthquake. Regina screamed loud in her sleep and tried +to grasp his hand, then sank back again into her old position. He went +out to see what was the cause of the noise. Nothing had fallen in the +vestibule, but on opening the door of the greenhouse snow drifted in +his face just as if he had walked into the open air. All round was inky +darkness. He went back to fetch his lantern. It shed its light on a +scene of ruin that exceeded his worst expectations. Regina's little +kingdom, from which she had ruled and regulated the ménage so +unostentatiously, had seemingly been dispersed to the four winds of +heaven. The roof was blown off, and had torn up part of the wall with +it. Between the hearth and the door was a barricade of snow as tall as +himself, riddled with bricks, beams, and splinters of glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was to be done now? Where was Regina to sleep? Should he too let +her lie like a dog on his threshold? No! rather would he turn out into +the ruins himself, and seek a couch down in the cellar. It was +imperative to act at once, and there was only one thing to be done. He +drew Regina's bedding out of the snow, shook it thoroughly till not a +flake remained hanging to it, and then dragged it into his room. +Beneath the shadow of the Christmas-tree in the corner by the stove he +made up a bed on the boards.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina slept peacefully, her face illumined by the light from the oil +lamp. He came close to her, shook and called her by name; but nothing +could wake her. At last he lifted her up, to carry her to the bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave a deep sigh, encircled his neck with her arms, and let her +head sink on his shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">His heart beat faster. The fair body in the first bloom of its superb +young womanhood, gave him a sensation of fear and uneasiness as it +unconsciously rested on him. He half carried, half trailed her across +the room. Her warm breath fanned his face, her hair swept his throat.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he let her sink on her mattress she raised her arms, with a gesture +of longing, in the air, and pulled down the little fir-tree. He drew it +from under her, and then placed it as a screen and sentinel between +himself and her. "To-morrow I'll rig up a partition," he thought. Then +he undressed and went to bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The night-light burnt out, but there was no thought of sleep for him. +The tempest still raged, and spent its fury on the locks and bolts. +Boleslav heeded it not. While he listened to the sleeping woman's +breath, his own fell on the night, in heavily-drawn, anxious gasps.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">"<i>To His Lordship, Baron Boleslav</i> +<i>von Schranden, of Castle Schranden</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Your Hochwohlgeboren is requested to appear in person on January 3rd, +anni futuri, at two o'clock in the afternoon, at Herr Merckel's +official residence, and to bring the requisite papers relating to your +Hochwohlgeboren's attachment, or non-attachment, to the Prussian +Landwehr.</i></p> + +<p class="right">"(Signed) <span class="sc">Royal Landrath V. Krotkeim</span>,</p> +<p class="center" style="margin-left:60%; font-size:90%"><i>Representative of Military Affairs<br> +for the District</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav found this communication in the drawbridge letter-box on New +Year's morning. The threatening nature of its contents did not at once +strike him; he was only staggered at the authorities taking the trouble +to investigate his case. He had resolved, on again adopting his +father's name, to let the waters of oblivion close over Lieutenant +Baumgart. He had discharged his duty to his country unconditionally; +bolder and more self-sacrificing than thousands of others, he had gone +to face death. Now that there was peace, and he had taken a great +burden of inherited guilt on his shoulders, he had wished to avoid +being involved in any way with official red-tapism.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only gradually did he realise the new dangers that were gathering on +his horizon. Pride in his past as a soldier, afforded him the one prop +and stay in his present ruined life, and he felt that slipping from +under his feet. He stood defenceless in face of imminent peril. It +would need only a little <i>malice prepense</i> to make him out a deserter +from the flag, and the fact of his having borne a false name would go +far to establish his guilt.</p> + +<p class="normal">The son of Baron von Schranden had no reason to hope that justice would +be tempered with mercy in his case. He would also have no reason to +complain of harsh measures, if he were put under arrest on the spot, +and brought before a court-martial of the standing branch of his +regiment.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment he entertained thoughts of flight, but afterwards thrust +the idea from him in scorn. He had too often valued his life cheaply, +to now think seriously of stealing into Poland to end his wretched +career in safety.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what would become of Regina?</p> + +<p class="normal">At the thought of her, his heart smote him. She had no suspicion of the +new troubles with which he was encompassed. Since Christmas night he +had not addressed a single word to her that was not absolutely +necessary, and even then his voice had been imperious and severe. The +thought of her now seemed interwoven with a presentiment of coming +calamity, which oppressed him like a nightmare.</p> + +<p class="normal">At night he tossed about restlessly among his pillows. She never +stirred in her corner. Apparently she fell asleep the moment she lay +down. But her soft, quick, regular breathing was sometimes broken by a +sigh. Perhaps, after all, she was not sleeping, but watching, +listening, as he listened....</p> + +<p class="normal">And then the day dawned on which Boleslav's fate was to be decided. +Towards morning he had fallen into an uneasy sleep, and was first +awakened by the smoke that poured into the room from the vestibule, +where he had erected a temporary fireplace, which would have to do as a +makeshift till milder weather made the repairing of the glass root +practicable. It was a clear, frosty morning. The sunshine jewelled the +hoar-frost on the twigs, and dark purple shadows crept along the +dazzling sheets of snow.</p> + +<p class="normal">He spent the morning in arranging his papers. All that was compromising +to his father's memory should be destroyed, for were he put under +arrest, as seemed likely, strangers' hands would meddle in this vortex. +He held the sorted letters in his hand ready to burn in the stove, when +he thought better of it. If he really were serious in his intentions of +bearing his father's guilt, he ought to conceal or destroy nothing in +order to lighten the burden. It was not worth while purchasing truth +with falsehood. Rather die in disgrace, than live in honour founded on +lies and deceit.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Regina brought him his midday meal he vacillated an instant, as to +whether he should tell her all or nothing. But he shrank from a +touching scene, and decided on the latter course. A letter would serve +the same purpose. So he wrote: "If I am not back at dusk, probably you +will have difficulty in seeing me again. Inquire at the Landrath's +office in Wartenstein. There they will tell you what has become of me. +I advise you to leave Schranden at once. The draft I gave you will +supply your wants. What else remains shall all be yours later. +Good-bye, and accept my thanks."</p> + +<p class="normal">He left the note in a conspicuous place, so that, when she cleared +away, she would find it. He was in a hard and embittered mood, and in +no humour for a sentimental farewell.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as he passed Regina in the vestibule where she was occupied with +the fire, he felt a strong impulse to press her hand. For her sake, as +much as for his own, he went out without giving her a word or a look. A +group of staring louts, who appeared to be waiting for him, were +loafing near the drawbridge. When they saw him coming, they ran off +helter-skelter with loud exclamations, to the inn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My heralds," he said, and laughed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Long before the stated hour the parlour of the Black Eagle could not +hold all the customers that poured in, anxious to secure a foremost +place for the proceedings. There was an overflow that extended as far +as the churchyard square. Every one was eager to witness with his own +eyes the final degradation of the last of the Barons of Schranden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three months had passed since the petition had been sent to the +judicial authorities of the province, and even the most zealous +patriots had begun to despair of its producing any results. Then at +last had come the delightful intimation from the office of the +Landrath, that a day had been appointed to wind up the case of the +Crown <i>v</i>. Schranden, <i>alias</i> Baumgart, and the presence of the +petitioners was urgently requested at the inquiry.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners had armed themselves in a way worthy of the occasion. +For three days they had been busy polishing up their accoutrements. +Those among the disbanded Landwehr-men who still possessed their +<i>Litewka</i> had donned it, and pikes and sabres were seen in the crowd. +Possibly they might be called upon to help in an instantaneous +administration of justice.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath's sleigh had entered the village at one o'clock, and, as +was customary, put up at the parsonage stable, where Herr Merckel and +his son stood ready to welcome the high functionary. There was no +gendarme on the box, which greatly mystified the Schrandeners. But +perhaps the services of one were not required when they could be +depended on to despatch the criminal at the first signal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Shortly before two, the Landrath, accompanied by the old pastor, left +the parsonage and entered the inn by a side door, where Herr Merckel, +senior, again was to the fore to receive him, while Felix slouched in +the background, piqued at not being treated with what he considered +sufficient respect by the civilian.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath von Krotkeim was a tall, extremely slender man, whose +hoary leonine head rose with great effect from his contracted, sloping +shoulders. There was something awe-inspiring in its pose. He wore, in +defiance of the fashion of the period, long whiskers, which flowed +behind his ears, mingling with his thick iron-grey mane.</p> + +<p class="normal">His part in the formation of defences for the Fatherland had been an +important and distinguished one. Two years before he had sat as a +deputy for the knighthood in the famous <i>Land-tag</i> to which Germany +owed the foundation of the Landwehr. He had hailed old York with +cheers, and helped to draw up the address to the King. Afterwards he +had hastened back to his native place to set the organisation on foot, +and had achieved results which made his district the brilliant model +that excited the admiring emulation of the whole country. Then arose +those marauders attendant on success, vanity and egoism. What at first +had been a labour of noble disinterestedness, gradually degenerated +into a peg for self-advertisement and a means of memorialising his own +fame. For the rest, and long before the treachery of the Cats' Bridge +incident had been generally made known to the world, Herr von Krotkeim +had by repute been a bitter enemy of the house of Schranden. To hope +any favour at his hands would therefore be over-sanguine indeed. But +Boleslav had abandoned hope of any kind as he entered the square in +front of the church. He advanced composed, and almost indifferent, +towards the crowd that formed a cordon round the inn. He had, on his +way, cast one shy glance at the parsonage, where in a window he fancied +he had seen a fair face which withdrew into shadow directly he smiled +up at it. He was received by a murmur of malignant tongues, but the +cordon let him through, understanding enough to know that, without him, +the game they were anticipating with such keen relish could not be +played.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the entrance to the best parlour, he stood face to face with the +great man with the lion's mane, on either side of whom sat the old +pastor and Herr Merckel. Felix lounged in the window-sill, trying to +assume an air of nonchalance. He now considered his former playmate too +inferior an object on which even to bestow his hate. But the old +landlord greeted Boleslav with a benign smile. Had he come there with +the purpose of treating every one present to a bottle of the celebrated +Muscat wine, the smile could not have been more smugly servile.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lightning-flashes irradiated from beneath the prominent brows of the +old pastor, and the Landrath sat coolly contemplating his fingers, +which were white and bony as a skeleton's. Boleslav felt his bosom +swell proudly. "His hand against every man; every man's hand against +him." It was the old story!</p> + +<p class="normal">A voice from the crowd hiccoughed out some unflattering remark. The +Schrandeners received it with laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's the poor father, the unhappy father," old Merckel whispered to +the Landrath, with a melancholy elevation of his eyebrows.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you have summoned me here," exclaimed Boleslav, "I demand your +protection from the insults of the mob!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath drooped his eyelids and bowed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Silence, dear people!" he commanded, stroking his clean-shaven chin, +and then he added, "I shall have any person who makes a disturbance +ejected."</p> + +<p class="normal">He consulted a green portfolio that lay spread before him on the table. +Behind him a little man in grey was energetically trying goose quills. +Probably he was the reporter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The examination began. With frigid politeness the Landrath put the +usual questions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where have you resided hitherto?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav enumerated several places.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your word is of course to be trusted, <i>Herr Baron</i>, but have you +proofs?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Up to what date does your answer hold good?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Till the spring of the year '13."</p> + +<p class="normal">"After that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I entered the army."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you proofs to support that statement?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I regret to say that the name von Schranden is not to be found in the +army list."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I enlisted under another."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Under the name of Baumgart?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For what reason?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was silence. Boleslav bit his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ha, ha!" came triumphantly from the window. The exclamation put +Boleslav on his mettle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To have borne my real name would have involved me in difficulties."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because, through a rumour which I was powerless to contradict, there +was a blot on that name."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What rumour?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was clear this man intended to humiliate him to the dust before +passing on him the inevitable sentence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know it," he murmured faintly between his closed teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath bowed. "Nevertheless I must ask for information on the +subject."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I decline to give it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mob sent up a shout of scornful laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do for him at once! put him in chains!" roared the same hiccoughing +voice that had made use of an abusive epithet earlier in the +proceedings.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath gracefully waved his long white hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A note has been made of that refusal?" he asked without turning round.</p> + +<p class="normal">A small quavering pipe behind him, which greatly amused the +Schrandeners, answered in the affirmative.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he continued with imperturbable politeness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I ask you, then, to tell me to which company you were attached?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav did so, and also gave the names of his Heide comrades.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath turned over the leaves of his portfolio with an air of +ennui. The concerns of the volunteer Jägers evidently had no interest +for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were elected officer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not doubt your word, <i>Herr Baron</i>, but have you proofs to back +<i>this</i> statement?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A note must be made of that negative. And then you entered the +Landwehr?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your reason?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav indicated, with a motion of his head, the companion of his +boyhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I did not wish to meet that man."</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix gave a scoffing laugh, and exclaimed, "Else the swindle +would----" A sign from the Landrath silenced him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Landwehr regiment, if you please?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav cited the commandant's name.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath bowed low over the portfolio till his shock of hair almost +concealed his faded shrunken face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So far that coincides with my information," he said, and then read: +"There was a Lieutenant Baumgart, who at the time of the armistice +entered the regiment. Besides him there were four other officers of +this name in the army. The one in question, however, met his death +between the 1st and 3rd of March on the Marne."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How did you learn that, <i>Herr Landrath</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is in the Gazette, <i>Herr Baron</i>. He is said to have been sent on a +special mission, and shot by grenadiers in General Marmont's corps."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav felt his blood mount swiftly to his brow. The proudest and +most arduous moments of his life rose vividly before him. "That is a +mistake," he cried; "Lieutenant Baumgart fell into the hands of the +enemy severely wounded, but escaped with his life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it is your desire to be identified with that fallen emissary?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe I have clearly shown that it is my desire."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, that being so, you will of course be able to relate the +incidents of the special mission."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please proceed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The volunteers had been charged to get a message delivered to General +von Kleist. Some days before a skirmish had taken place on the +banks of a river, Therouanne by name, through which the General and his +corps were cut off from communication with the main army. A reunion +was not to be effected owing to Marmont's and Mortier's troops, to +which Napoleon himself was said to be marching, stopping the way. +Field-Marshal Blücher suddenly resolved to retreat, in order, I +believe, to pick up reinforcements, and therefore it was, under the +circumstances, urgent to let General von Kleist know at once, in case +he should find himself entirely isolated. It was necessary for the +messenger to evade the enemy's outposts at night-time. Among those who +volunteered to go on the mission, choice fell on me. Major von Schaek +led me to the Field-Marshal, who entrusted me with a letter----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"One moment, please," interrupted the Landrath, searching diligently +among his papers; then he added casually, "And the letter of course +contained the necessary command."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The letter was designed to deceive the enemy in case I should be shot +from my horse on the way. The Field-Marshal desired me to give his +command by word of mouth. I had to learn it by heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How did it run?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As follows: 'If on the morrow the enemy attacks us on the right flank, +General von Kleist is not to join in the engagement, but to seize the +opportunity of gaining the command of the Marne from the south, so that +he may bring himself in touch with me. <i>En route</i> several bridges are +to be destroyed.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath nodded. "And then--Lieutenant?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I succeeded in delivering the message."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You managed to evade the enemy and reach your goal?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hope you have found proofs of it, <i>Herr Landrath</i>, in the history of +the war----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hum! When were you wounded?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the way back."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you not remain where you were?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I had undertaken to bring the Field-Marshal an answer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You might have spared yourself this second act of daring."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I might have spared myself the first also."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You wanted to achieve fame?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wanted among other things to escape the privilege of this +cross-examination."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath straightened himself and threw back his mane. "Permit me +to draw your attention to the fact that you stand before the +representative of your king, Herr Baron von Schranden."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Barefaced impudence!" muttered the voice at the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I stand before my undoer," replied Boleslav, looking steadily into the +Landrath's eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">He fixed them on his papers again, with a suppressed smile. "I have now +come to the last stage of my investigation," he continued. "It cannot +be denied that your statements bear a strong resemblance to the facts, +and that your claim to be one and the same person as the Lieutenant +Baumgart who served in the Silesian Landwehr under Major von Wolzogen +has gained in probability. Only this admission has to be weighed in the +scale against the impossibility of an honourable officer, as the said +Baumgart seems to have been, turning his back on the army in which he +had won honours and wounds, and deserting its standard. He must have +known a company of soldiers could not be dispersed like a flock of +sparrows. And to think that the Landwehr"--his chest swelled and he +tossed his mane,--"the glorious Landwehr, that has always stood in the +first rank for courage, love of order, and discipline, should have thus +been hoodwinked! Freiherr von Schranden, I fervently hope that +Lieutenant Baumgart was not guilty of this transgression, and am +therefore bound to wish that he met his death."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav felt the crisis was approaching. He glanced round him and saw +everywhere eyes flaming with hate and thirst for vengeance. Felix +Merckel had laid his hand on the handle of his sabre, as if in another +moment he would raise it. From the throngs behind him came a clash and +din of arms. Malignant satisfaction beamed on the face of the old host +of the Black Eagle. Only the pastor sat with his dishevelled head bowed +in his hands, staring despondently on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not my fault, <i>Herr Landrath</i>, that the dead man has been +brought to life. He did his duty, I think. Why should he not have been +allowed to rest in peace?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A public indictment cannot be ignored."</p> + +<p class="normal">"An indictment!" cried Boleslav, his anger blazing up, and his eye met +young Merckel's.</p> + +<p class="normal">There he read, in unmistakable characters, the story of the shameless +plot against him. He smiled in disgust.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see that I am answerable to a military tribunal," he said. "I was +prepared for it. I beg you now to arrest me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mob pushed forward as if anxious to take him at his word without +delay. Boleslav, who all this time had been standing on the threshold +of the inner parlour, was hurled forward against the table, within a +hair's-breadth of the Landrath, while the fists of his enemies touched +his neck from behind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Patience, my dear friends," said the Landrath in an amicable tone. +"The first who lays hands on him will himself be put in chains. One +more question, <i>Herr Baron</i>. If you were taken prisoner, as you +maintain, how was it that later, when the disbanding followed, you were +not registered and discharged in the regular order?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The French, in their hurried flight, left me lying on the field, as I +was badly wounded. I was picked up by some peasants, in whose house I +lay for months at death's door. When I was able to leave my rescuers, +peace had been concluded, and there were no allies in the +neighbourhood."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your word of honour is of course sacred, <i>Herr Baron</i>, but perhaps you +can substantiate this with proof?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only with my scars, <i>Herr Landrath</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!... Make a note of that----" He pushed back his leonine locks from +his brow, and seemed to be bracing himself for an impressive summing +up--</p> + +<p class="normal">"My friends! Indomitable defenders of your country, and inhabitants of +Schranden! The founding of the Landwehr was the rising of a new sun, +which has never ceased to cast new lustre on the fame of Prussia. Let +us congratulate ourselves that we have been born in a time when such +great things have been demanded of us, and that we have proved +ourselves worthy of, and equal to the demand. Especially in this +district, and foremost in this district the parish of Schranden. If we +look round us, we see a very different spectacle in other quarters. Not +everywhere did the King's appeal meet with such a warm and spontaneous +echo.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, my friends, our hearts bleed when we hear of how, in the districts +of Konitz and Stargard, for example, to escape serving, men took refuge +in the woods, and lay full-length amongst the wheat till they had to be +baited like bulls. Thousands took flight across the frontier, and thus +shirked the conscription altogether. And often what had been +beautifully drilled companies overnight, by the morning were +transformed into a shapeless mass of panic-stricken deserters. But not +in the district that I have had the pleasure of mobilising.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In less than two weeks, friends and comrades, the Landwehr of the +Wartenstein district was ready drilled and armed from top to toe. The +levies were double in strength what the government had required of us, +and eighty per cent, consisted of volunteers. From the parish of +Schranden came only volunteers."</p> + +<p class="normal">The crowd set up loud hurrahs, and the pastor nodded and smiled in grim +satisfaction. He knew whose work that had been.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must admit," continued the Landrath, with a chilling sidelong glance +at Boleslav, "that the parish of Schranden has one hideous stain on its +reputation"--(several loud imprecations were audible)--"a stain which +in spite of all its deeds of bravery will never be dissociated from it" +(renewed curses); "but if it is the King's pleasure to overlook it, and +only to see the brighter side, his graciousness is due to those who, in +defending his realm, have rendered him such able services, whose leader +I am happy and proud to call myself. The King's favour--('Why does he +harp thus on the King's favour,' thought Boleslav, 'when he might wind +up the case and be done with it')--has been abundantly lavished on us, +and we are almost overpowered with his blessings. Yet let all who reap +the fruits of the harvest remember they owe it to the men of the +Landwehr, and not least to their organiser, who sowed for them the +seeds of undying fame."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again he began to turn over the leaves of his portfolio, then he went +on: "Take your caps off, intrepid inhabitants of Schranden. Attention, +my brave men! Gentlemen, if you please, rise! Whoever keeps his cap on +at the back there will be ejected. I am commissioned to read over to +you an order of the Cabinet of supreme import. It is as follows: +'Should it prove true that the Freiherr von Schranden of Schloss +Schranden and Lieutenant Baumgart of the 15th Regiment of the +Silesian Landwehr, be one and the same person, and that, as was +naturally supposed of so fearless an officer, he had no real intentions +of deserting, I appoint him to a captaincy in my Landwehr, and entrust +him with the command of the company in his division. I also bestow on +him, in recognition of his extraordinary valour and distinguished +service, the iron cross of the first class. The Landrath for the +district shall invest him with these honours in the presence of his +accusers.--Friedrich Wilhelm Rex.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">The proclamation was received in profound silence. The patriotic +Schrandeners stood glowering at each other in consternation. Felix +Merckel had sunk back on the window-seat. His fingers clutched +convulsively at the cross that shone between the black froggings on his +coat. Boleslav felt a buzzing sensation in his head. He was obliged to +cling to the door for support, for he feared he might swoon. Not joy, +only infinite bitterness, welled up within him. He bit his lips hard to +keep back his tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath drew a small black case from the depths of his coat +pocket, and presented it to Boleslav with an exaggeratedly obsequious +bow. The cover sprang back. The black smoothly polished scrap of iron, +on its background of blue velvet, seemed surrounded by a halo of +shimmering light. Boleslav grasped it with one hand in growing +excitement, while he offered his other to the Landrath. The latter +retreated a step or two, closely regarding his long, white, skinny +hands, as if the act of handing over the case had done them some +injury. Then he deliberately hid them behind his back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Landrath</i>, I offered you my hand," cried Boleslav threateningly, +flushing darkly at this new insult.</p> + +<p class="normal">"According to his Majesty's wishes I have discharged my duty. My +instructions did not include a shake of the hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment a cross, like the one Boleslav had just received, flew +through the air and alighted at his feet Felix Merckel had torn it from +his breast. Swelling with righteous indignation, he swaggered up to the +official, whom he now felt sure he had no reason to be afraid of, and +cried--</p> + +<p class="normal">"There it may lie. I don't want it now. Any decent soldier would be +ashamed to wear it when such as <i>he</i> is decorated with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">A cry of mingled pain and fury escaped Boleslav's lips, and with raised +fists he turned fiercely on his enemy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix Merckel unsheathed his sabre, as if with the intention of hewing +down the unarmed man. But the old landlord threw his corpulent form +between them. The Landrath confined himself to waving his hands +soothingly; and the pastor vigilantly kept watch on his Schrandeners. +He knew his flock, and read murder in their glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Back there! keep back!" he shouted to the tumultuous throng in a voice +of brass. With outstretched arms he sprang into the doorway, where +already a line of pikes appeared, ready to fell the victim from behind.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav looked round and saw with a shudder how near he stood to +death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor, clinging to the roof of the doorway, endeavoured to stem +the murderous tide. Would that frail and venerable frame be able to +repulse this onslaught of unmuzzled wolves? Would it not be swept away +on the crest of this bloodthirsty wave? A weak shield to rely on, +indeed! Yet his was the only authority not swamped by the tumult. The +Landrath's protesting hands waved impotently above the seething heads, +like limp towels; the gentle flutelike tones in which he declared the +ringleaders of the disturbance should be turned out and bludgeoned were +totally ignored. His parasite, the little portfolio bearer, had taken +the precaution to creep under the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">A voice within Boleslav cried, "What! You will let this old man protect +you? Cannot you protect yourself?" And a wild resolve consumed him. +This seemed a moment given him to balance his account with fate--a +moment of all others in which cowardice was to be avoided. He caught +hold of the old pastor in a grip of iron and drew him aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is my place, reverend sir," he said, and planted himself in the +doorway.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stretched out his arms above him, as the old man had done, and +offered his breast as a target for the pointed weapons. His eye +penetrated unflinchingly into the heart of the struggling and ramping +mob before him. He felt the foam from their mouths bespatter him, and +their hot, foul breath fan his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here I stand!" he cried. "I have left my pistols at home; so you can +make short work of me. Any of you who have the courage."</p> + +<p class="normal">But no one had the courage, for his back was not turned to them now. +Sabres were lowered, pikes dropped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see--you don't wish to assassinate me after all," he said, holding +them with his eyes. "You are going to behave yourselves like men, and +not like wild beasts. Very well, then, I will speak to you as to +reasonable men. Move backwards and keep quiet."</p> + +<p class="normal">The crowd wavered; the next moment he had the threshold to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now--speak! Tell me what you want with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no answer, no sound in the room except the laboured +breathing of excited lungs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You hate me. You would like to take my life. Tell me why? Here in the +presence of a representative of the King whom we all serve and fear, in +the presence of a representative of the God in whom I believe and you +too--tell me what I have done? I submit myself to their judgment. Now +is your opportunity of charging me."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the silence continued. Only one spluttering voice arose for a +moment and died away in a gurgle, as if it were being stifled by force.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are dumb. You cannot say what my offence has been,--and you, +gentlemen! Won't you come to the assistance of these poor, speechless +people? There on the ground lies a cross, the mark of honour our nation +cherishes more highly than any other, which some one threw away, +because through my possessing one like it, he considered it +contaminated. Some one else declined to shake hands with me just now, a +common act of courtesy which no man of honour refuses another unless he +be a blackguard. It does not matter, <i>Herr Landrath</i>, if in this +instance judges and accusers unite in a common cause. Accuse me of what +you like, condemn me! I am prepared."</p> + +<p class="normal">Another long pause. The Landrath twisted his whiskers in embarrassment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you, <i>Herr Pastor</i>--it is hardly fitting that I should call the +instructor of my youth to account--but some months ago you showed me +the door in your own house. Could you not be spokesman now for your +parishioners?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man's jaws worked, his lips moved, but no sound issued from +them. He appeared to have exhausted his strength, but the wild, fiery +glance he darted from beneath his bushy brows boded no good to +Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a laugh he went on. "Then I must be my own accuser." He felt +intoxicated with his own courage. "Your hand against every man, and +every man's hand against you," cried jubilantly within him. "You think +you ought to visit the sins of the fathers on me; empty the vials of +your wrath on my head because you cannot reach the dead. Very well. I +am his heir. I take his guilt upon me, and do not refuse to do penance, +when right and justice demand it of me. But why were no steps taken +against the dead man himself? Why was he not tried? Why not dragged to +the scaffold when he deserved it? <i>Herr Landrath</i>, I ask you, as the +embodiment of the law, why did the State remain silent and suffer these +gallant men who smarted under wrong to take revenge into their own +hands? And such a revenge! So childish, so cruel, that one would have +thought it could only have occurred to the primitive brain of +bloodthirsty savages. Revenge for a deed which at this hour I neither +admit nor deny, because it lies shrouded in mystery. Which of you can +say how it happened, or whether it happened at all? And in spite of +this uncertainty, you have damned and defamed him and his race, +deprived them of honour and justice. Is that fair play? Now I ask you +to put us on our trial, me, and the dead man, and----" He paused, +shocked at the thought that he had nearly let fall Regina's name.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor's eagle eye flashed ominously. Then collecting himself, he +continued: "Inquire, speak out unravel the mystery, clear up the +matter, and then judge and pass sentence. But at the same time sit in +judgment and pass sentence on that other crime, the crime that has +wrecked my property, and leaves me only uninhabitable ruins to live in, +a crime that cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance. On the subject of +other outrages and indignities I will be silent--threats of murder to +me and mine; the blocking of the churchyard entrance to my father's +funeral cortège--all that shall pass. But the fire, <i>that</i> I swear +shall be avenged! If till to-day justice has been blind to my wrongs, +its eyes shall be wrenched open. I will not rest day or night till I +have dragged the skulking authors of that cowardly, atrocious deed into +the light of day, and may God have mercy on those who attempt to screen +or defend them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again the mob showed signs of uneasiness. Its foremost ranks pressed +back on the others, as if to fly from the vengeance of the wrathful man +who had addressed them in words of such burning indignation. Again from +the neighbourhood of the window came hoarse, stuttering laughter that +was choked off as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">The occupants of the best parlour made an effort to appear as if they +had not been listening to Boleslav. The Landrath, who was really +painfully affected, busied himself with more zeal than ever in looking +through his papers. Old Merckel had picked up the discarded cross, and +was trying to persuade his son, who resisted sulkily, to wear it again. +The little man in grey had come out from under the table, and was +employing himself in carefully rubbing dust off his knees. Only the old +pastor was on the alert. He had propped his stick against the table; +the thin white hair that floated round his bald skull quivered. He +stood looking, with his vulture profile, and small eyes flashing +beneath his sharply projecting brows, like a bird of prey waiting to +pounce on its booty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had Boleslav caught sight of him at that moment, he might have +hesitated to make a fresh challenge. But he wanted to score all along +the line and complete his victory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In order that there may be a clear understanding between us," he +cried, "that all may see who has right on his side and who wrong, I +ask, which of you has a charge to prefer against me? To whom have I +done an injury? How have I sinned?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the voice of the old pastor was raised behind him. "Is Hackelberg, +the carpenter, here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav winced. That voice so close to his ear sounded intimidating +and uncanny, and prophetic of coming evil. There was a scuffling and +swaying in the crowd. The ragged figure of the village drunkard, by +means of shoves and kicks, was propelled forward into the front row. He +struggled and beat the air with his hands, and when forced on to the +threshold of the inner parlour, tried to duck beneath the legs of the +men on either side of him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is nothing to be afraid of, Hackelberg," said the pastor. "I +will see that you are not hurt."</p> + +<p class="normal">Reassured, he drew himself up, and scanned the gentlemen he had been +brought before with a suspicious, glassy eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What creature is this?" inquired the Landrath, scandalised. "Why is he +not put under restraint?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because his condition is owing more to his misfortune than his fault," +the pastor answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel thought it his duty to whisper an explanation to his +superior.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is the poor father so much to be pitied," he said, with a mock +pathetic air, "whose sad story I related to your <i>Hochwohlgeboren</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">At the same time he watched uneasily some Schrandeners, who seemed to +be waiting for a signal to take the drunkard into custody.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you nothing to say, Hackelberg?" asked the pastor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What should I have to say, Herr Pastor?" he lisped, beginning to +cringe again, and drawing the lappets of his tattered coat over his +naked breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you no accusation to make?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me go," he growled. "I haven't----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not even against <i>him</i>?" and he pointed to Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">A glimmer of intelligence came into the dull, glazed eyes. He +understood his cue. Old Merckel nodded at him encouragingly, and he +began to play his favourite rôle. Floods of tears that the besotted +inebriate can always command so easily, poured over his cheeks. He +rubbed his wet face with his black hands, till it resembled some +hideous mask.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Poor fellow! poor outraged father!" crooned Herr Merckel, senior, +wiping his own eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is the meaning of this absurd farce?" asked Boleslav, with a +scornful laugh. But his face had become visibly paler.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here we don't enact farces, but sit in judgment," answered the pastor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav shrugged his shoulders. "I am pleased to hear it," he said, +and there was a tremor in his voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners craned their necks to get a better view of the +edifying scene, of which they now expected to be spectators. In the +momentary calm that ensued, distant whoops and yells were heard from +the crowds who filled the square, having stormed the inn in vain, and +with the noise there seemed to mingle a woman's voice crying for +succour.</p> + +<p class="normal">What if it were Regina? But it was not possible that it could be she; +and the idea vanished as quickly as it had flashed into his brain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child, my poor wretched child!" howled the carpenter, who now found +himself in more familiar waters.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What have they done to your child, man?" asked the Landrath, who was +not going to tolerate the conduct of affairs being taken out of his +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child was seduced--he ruined her--my fatherly heart is ... +lacerated ... I am a poor beg--gar ... Only one coffin----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I fancy I have heard you harp on this string before," the Landrath +interrupted him sharply, "at the time when I examined your daughter +about the Cats' Bridge disaster. If you haven't learnt anything a +little newer than that in five years, you'd better hold your tongue. It +seems," he said, turning with a smile to the pastor, "as if this +ruffian were bent on playing the part of Virginius."</p> + +<p class="normal">The little man in grey laughed shrilly at this facetious sally on the +part of his chief, and then was overcome with confusion at his own +timerity. But the old pastor was less disposed to appreciate the +Landrath's urbane humour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will speak for you, Hackelberg," he said. "My words must be taken +seriously. I will speak for you and for all of us in the name of our +Heavenly Father, whose commandments were not made to be flouted and set +at nought by aristocrats. Freiherr von Schranden, just now you +challenged me to speak. Will you listen to what I am going to say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He assented impatiently. For the second time he fancied he heard that +cry of distress rise above the hubbub outside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have entered into the inheritance of your father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can there be any doubt in the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God knows! None."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean you have only too quickly appropriated that which was his +unlawful possession."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Pastor</i>----" But he could not go on. He felt a choking sensation +in his throat, and a stony horror creep over him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is your spirit?" he asked himself; "your boasted defiance?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You found a woman, <i>Herr Baron</i>, on your estate who had been your +father's mistress. You found her degraded, defiled, dragged through the +mire of wickedness and vice. Year-long slavery had robbed her of the +respect of every living creature. She was treated as a mere animal by +animals. This wretched woman belonged to my parish and to me. I reared +her in the way she should go. It was my hand that sprinkled the +baptismal water on her brow; my hand that held the chalice to her lips +at the Holy Sacrament; and I promised and vowed before God, and in +presence of my flock, to watch over this young soul; doubly orphaned, +because he who generated her was not responsible for his actions."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, my poor orphaned child!" maundered the carpenter. "Only two, only +one other coffin ..."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am answerable for her to God and the parish. I could not command +your father to give her up, for, as I told you, I had handed him over +to a heavenly tribunal; but <i>you</i>, who have courted this inquiry, I +command to give her up, and, what is more, in the present hour of +reckoning I exhort you to render account of what you have done for her +soul."</p> + +<p class="normal">A red mist floated before Boleslav's eyes, and in this mist the figure +of the venerable priest seemed to grow till it became almost god-like. +He could only stammer forth--</p> + +<p class="normal">"What should I ...?" And the old man took up the thread of his speech +again--</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-day you have been honoured before all men by our King; but, +Boleslav von Schranden, look to it that God holds you in equal esteem. +What should you have done, you ask? This impure, abandoned creature +ought to have been more awful, more sacred to you than any other +earthly being. What have you done to atone for the guilt your father +heaped on her? Have you freed her from the bondage into which she had +sunk, loosed her from the chain of her sin? Have you pointed her soul +upwards to God, the All-gracious and All-forgiving? Or have you dragged +her down deeper and deeper into the hell that your own flesh and blood +created for her? Above all, in what fashion have you been living with +her? It is said that, amidst the devastation of your island, there is +only one room habitable. Have you never lost sight of the fact that by +all laws, human and divine, your father's property in this instance was +for you forbidden? Have you taught her to repent and pray, or have you +filled her poor undisciplined senses with fresh poison? And have you +preserved your own blood intact from sinful desires and lust? Or have +you let your passions, like greedy beasts waiting whom they may devour, +keep watch on her, ready to spring in an hour of weakness, thus adding +fresh shame----?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cease!" cried Boleslav. "This is too much!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly scorpions proceeded out of the mouth of this mild Christian +priest, who knew how to reveal and lash secret sins of the imagination, +which till this hour Boleslav never suspected had existed in his.</p> + +<p class="normal">But now he saw it all. Everything was clear. Now he knew what it was +had sent his blood tearing impetuously through his veins in the long +night vigils, and had made him hold his breath, and listen to hear +whether that other breath did not come faster or slower, showing that +she, too, was sleepless and on guard. It was sinful desire for her +body--the body that had been dishonoured and abused, yet in spite of +all remained so triumphantly beautiful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thank God! ah, thank God! that the sin was still confined to his inner +consciousness. There was yet time to lock it behind bolts and bars to +prevent its stealing forth over the fatal threshold. So far he could +claim the right to be his own judge, to stand before the private +judgment-seat of his own conscience.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked round him, and his face was distraught and ghastly pale. He +saw triumph flame up again in the eyes that watched him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What right have you to impute this crime to me?" he said to the +pastor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not impute it--I merely asked you," the old man interposed +quickly. "You have become too pale, <i>Herr Baron</i>, for us not to observe +your discomfiture."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Condemned out of his own mouth, unhappy man," murmured Herr Merckel, +senior, with a sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners, in the renewed hope of being allowed to spring at his +throat, set up a fearful howl, and pressed forward once more.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then above all the din there was distinctly heard from the yard a +shriek of anguish that caused Boleslav's marrow to freeze in his bones. +There could be no mistake now. That <i>was</i> Regina!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina!" he cried, and rushed to the window that opened on the yard. +There the mad chase was in full cry. A crew of furious dishevelled +women were dashing over hedges, ditches, waggons, barrels, and frozen +dunghills, followed by boys armed with clubs. The air was thick with +flying stones.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Help! help!" shrieked Regina's voice. But she herself was not visible.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as he wrenched open the back door she flew like a wounded bird into +the dark corridor, followed closely by her would-be assassins whooping +and panting.</p> + +<p class="normal">He pulled her with a powerful movement of his arm into the room, and +shut the door on the furies in pursuit.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sank on the floor at his feet and pressed her face against the hem +of his coat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her hands relaxed their cramped grasp on two splintered pieces of +wood--all that was left of her tub, the shield with which she had been +in the habit of warding off assaults. Her hair was loose, her dress +torn, the pretty fur-trimming that she had been so proud of, hanging +about her in tatters.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A charming pair of lovers," said Herr Merckel, rubbing his hands in +keen enjoyment of the scene, while the Schrandeners displayed a strong +disposition to continue the work begun outside by their womankind. The +very sight of Regina was sufficient to excite to an uncontrollable +degree their predilection for "throwing something." With a yell of +delight they looked round them in search of missiles,--and already two +earthenware mugs had been hurled into the gentry's parlour, one of +which struck the carpenter on the shoulder. This instinct for smiting +was now stronger in them than the thirst for a life.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath wrung his bony hands in despair. All his courtesy and +distinction of manner was lost on this pack of devils.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Landrath</i>," said Boleslav, pointing to the woman cowering almost +insensible at his feet, "I beg you to make a note of this pandemonium. +If you do not feel inclined to interfere, I take the liberty to warn +you that you may have to appear in your own august person as a witness +in a court of law against these gallant people."</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly the Landrath seemed hardly aware of the pitiable figure he +was cutting. His splendid mane now hung in shaggy disorder about his +face, which had assumed a peevish expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Merckel," he rasped, "you are mayor. I'll have you superseded, unless +you can maintain order. Order! do you hear, good people. Order! This is +breaking the public peace. You deserve imprisonment--in fact you +<i>shall</i> be sent to prison. Taken with arms in your hand, means three +years, not a day less than three years, good people. Tomorrow I shall +send gendarmes, three gendarmes."</p> + +<p class="normal">It must have been his good angel that put this threat into his head, +for no other could have had the same effect in bringing the rebels to +their senses. Since the war no gendarmes had been stationed in +Schranden, which was a piece of good fortune not to be scouted at, for +its inhabitants feared gendarmes more than they feared the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel, who began to tremble for his office, was now assiduous in +his efforts to restore peace. His son leant back with folded arms in +the corner of the window-seat, affecting to be highly amused at the +proceedings.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the old pastor's gaze never wavered from the pair, and seemed to be +searching the innermost recesses of their hearts.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand up, Regina," said Boleslav to the kneeling girl. "They shall not +hurt you. I will defend you."</p> + +<p class="normal">But she remained huddled at his feet, still quaking with fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's not true, <i>Herr</i>, that they are going to take you away?" she +sobbed. "If it is, I will starve myself and freeze to death."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, it's not true; but get up, Regina."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Master; ah, my dear, dear master!" and she pressed her forehead +against his knee.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Boleslav von Schranden, do you deny it now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Deny what?" he asked. "That this poor unhappy girl whom you have +denounced and ostracised regards me as her rescuer and saviour, because +I am the first who for years has spoken a kind word to her? Or would +you have me deny that this same unhappy girl has endeared herself to +me, because she is the only human being on God's earth who has clung to +me in my hour of need, when every one else has forsaken me? I should be +an ungrateful ruffian if I did not value her after all she has done for +me. I never asked her to share my solitude among the ruins. It is not +so comfortable or lively up there, and all my goodness to her has +consisted in my allowing her to sacrifice herself for me. I have not +been able to supply her with pleasures. There has been no unlawful +intimacy between us. If she prefers to be my body-slave to being stoned +and harried to death, that is no concern of any one's in the world, +least of all of you Schrandeners, and of that despicable drunkard who +prostituted his own flesh and blood."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gently prompted by old Merckel, the carpenter recommenced playing the +rôle of injured father.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh my daughter! my poor, misguided daughter!" he groaned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do your duty," urged the landlord; "reclaim her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, my child; come back to your brokenhearted, deserted father. He +has taken to drink through grief ... driven to it. He will only make +two more coffins; one for himself and one for----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stretched out his dirty hand to her, which, shuddering, she +violently repulsed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do not distress yourself further," said Boleslav. "She belongs to me +as I belong to her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nevertheless, I demand her from you this day, Boleslav von Schranden," +said the old pastor, placing his hand on Regina's head. She cowered, +but let it lie there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That you may be able to stone her better?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I promise you that no harm shall come to her. I will confide her to +the care of one of my spiritual brethren, who will see to her wants for +this side of the grave and the other. If you oppose her redemption, you +will only be knitting the chain of your sin the closer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav was silent. A thousand thoughts rushed through his brain. This +old man's word was to be relied on; he was no cheat. And what lawful +claim had he to this woman lying helpless at his feet? How could he +make it worth her while to perpetually risk her life for him?</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the Landrath, who had partially recovered from his panic, put in +his word. "Is the young person of age?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor calculated a moment, and replied in the affirmative.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>vis paterna</i> therefore cannot be enforced against her wishes, +otherwise she might be sent to a penitentiary, where----"</p> + +<p class="normal">The rest of his speech was cut short by a burst of ironical laughter +from Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She may decide for herself. Does that satisfy you, <i>Herr Baron</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall not influence her one way or the other," he muttered, and he +felt the form at his feet vibrate. He bent over her. "Regina, do you +hear what the pastor promises to do for you? You know your future is +monetarily provided for. Will you leave the rest, and go with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she lifted her glowing face streaming with tears to his, and +sobbed out, "Please, <i>Herr</i>, don't make fun of me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You wish to stay with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>, you know I wish it. Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand up then, and we will go."</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor barred their way. He had become ashy pale, and his vulture +gaze pierced Boleslav through and through. He laid his hand solemnly on +his shoulder as he had done the day he had demonstrated to him his +father's guilt.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My son," he said, "you too I received into holy baptism, and taught +you to lisp God's name, and opened your eyes to the marvels of His +creation. You were to me as my own child, and more, because you were +the son of my terrestrial lord and master. I have to answer for you too +before the throne of God. You have not been able to clear yourself of +the suspicion that rests upon you, and if I read your soul aright-- +don't cast down your eyes--I think I am not mistaken. Therefore, I +again command you to give up this woman. I command and exhort you to do +so in the name of your father, the name of the parish, the name of our +Master in heaven who is the Father of all orphans and irresponsible +children who sin unconsciously. Give her up--and you shall be acquitted +as blameless, and go your way in peace."</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina had raised herself, and now clung to his arm, trembling from +head to foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come!" Boleslav said. "It is to be hoped they will let us pass," and +he made a motion as if he were going to push by the old man. But he +planted himself again in their way, and holding his arms aloft, said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you are worthy of your father. And as I once cursed him, I curse +you to-day, you and this woman together. You shall be like Cain, whom +the Lord banished from His sight.... You shall be a fugitive and an +outcast on the earth, and your home shall lie in ruins for evermore. +There you shall abide with this woman.... Now go! Make room for them +there! and who lifts a hand against either of them or lays a finger on +them shall be cursed, as they are cursed."</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav uttered a sound that broke discordantly on the solemn +silence--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come!" he said, and took Regina's hand in his; "let the old man curse, +it seems to be his trade;" but he felt a cold shiver run through him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He saw a lane open which reached to the door, in the densely-packed +tap-room. Hand in hand he and Regina walked down it.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one laughed, no one sneered, no one stirred. A superstitious awe +seemed to have struck the onlookers dumb. The breath of the winter +evening met their faces with an icy tooth. Had some one spread the news +of what had happened within, among the crowd that waited outside, or +had they divined it by instinct? Here too was profound silence; here +too a path was made for them, which they followed, bending their +footsteps riverwards with bowed heads.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The glow in the evening sky faded. A violet vapour hung about the bare +tracery of the tree-tops, and showers of sparkling crystals rained from +the branches.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav ground the snow under his heel. His breath curled in front of +him in slender columns. The keen frosty air was balm to his fevered +face. He had sent Regina on before, and was trying to regain calmness +and presence of mind in solitary wandering, for his brain boiled like a +witch's caldron.</p> + +<p class="normal">The curse stood out intangibly in his ruminations; it was like the +bogey that little children people the darkness with. He saw it +everywhere; it haunted him. How well his father's old enemy had availed +himself of the opportunity of doing what probably he had long connived +at, putting the son under the same ban as the father.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it was a terrible reflection to think he might have deserved that +curse. As it was, he had not merited it; a thousand times no! What the +veteran priest in his dark suspicion had alluded to as an accomplished +brutal fact, had really only swept his soul with phantom wings. Now +that his conscience was awakened to the danger of the situation, the +danger itself was over. After all, he ought to be indebted to the +pastor for showing him the yawning precipice that lay at his unwary +feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Think no more of it," he said to himself; "I am the master, she the +servant, and I should be an accursed----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stopped. Was he not already accursed? Then he laughed at his foolish +fears. It was childish to mind. Bah! he was too susceptible. At all +events, this day should be the beginning of a new epoch in his +relations with the outer world. The possession of the iron cross was a +proof that he was not dishonoured or outside the pale of law and +justice. With it he might, if he had the courage, outwit the knavish +tricks of his personal enemies, and appeal to the assistance of the +Courts. If the judge of the district had chosen to condone the fire by +ignoring it, he might in his turn light a fire that would send forth +such a blaze that the very holes where the incendiaries skulked would +be illuminated. But it would involve dragging his father's dealings +also into the fierce light of day. Could he dare to disturb the peace +of the dead, like a body-snatcher, and blazon forth the shame of his +house in the face of all the world?</p> + +<p class="normal">His mouth became distorted with the defiance that inwardly consumed +him. He felt for the moment as if deliberate self-destruction were a +mere joke. Why should he hold back; stop at anything? Was he not under +a curse? A bitter laugh rose in his throat. He could not forget that +curse!</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he went into the house. Regina was laying the table for supper. +She had mended her jacket, and smoothed out her hair with water. Her +face was as calm as if nothing in the least out of the way had +happened; only a scratch on her throat, testified to the hours of peril +she had lately lived through.</p> + +<p class="normal">With affected severity he asked, "What induced you, Regina, to be so +silly as to come near the inn?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She measured him with a shy glance. "I beg your pardon, <i>Herr</i>," she +said, with a graceful bend of her neck. "I found your letter, and I saw +everything swimming green and yellow before my eyes, it made me feel so +queer. I hardly knew what I was about. I thought perhaps I could help +to set you free."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stupid child!" he said, and laughed; but a feeling rose within him +that had to be forcibly repressed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bring the wine," he ordered, as he sat down to the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which kind, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The best. It is high festival and holiday to-day!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him in surprise, and went.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fetch a glass for yourself," he said, as she uncorked the grey +cobwebby bottle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, please, <i>Herr</i>, I'd rather not. It's too strong."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense! you will get used to it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He poured out the wine. The dark-gold fluid foamed sparkling into the +slender-stemmed emerald rummers, which, perishable as they were, had +been saved from the ruins.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Clink!" he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The glasses as they came in contact produced music like muffled bells.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The curse of a priest has to-day coupled me with her," he thought, and +his eyes sought hers and probed their depths. "How extraordinary! how +monstrous!" This woman was to be part of his existence, the old man had +said. This woman--why, oh, why this one?</p> + +<p class="normal">"A curse is a sanction," he meditated further. "Something that never +happened, and never would have happened, through him has been +substantiated and vouched for before Heaven as if it were an +established fact."</p> + +<p class="normal">And again his thoughts began to encroach stealthily on that forbidden +ground, in whose insurmountable barriers the preacher's words +themselves had quarried access. "You are master," he repeated the +formula over and over to himself, "she the servant;" and then he added, +"What is more, she is your slave, and so let it be."</p> + +<p class="normal">One course of action seemed clear enough at the moment, and that was +that progress must be made immediately with his work of retaliation. He +bade Regina remove the dishes and bring another bottle of wine. Then he +fetched his writing materials and motioned her to sit down in the place +she had occupied on Christmas evening. With shy delight she obeyed, for +since that night she had spent her evenings till bed-time alone in the +vestibule.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm going to ask you, Regina," he began, "to answer very briefly, and +to the point, several questions!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She started, then whispered, "Yes, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drink, and that will make you more talkative."</p> + +<p class="normal">She struggled to do as he desired, but to-day the effect the wine had +upon her was to make her more nervous and reserved, instead of less so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To go back to the night in which you led the French across the Cats' +Bridge. Was there any one on the premises who knew of the expedition?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How did it get wind in the village then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She cast down her eyes. "I believe through me, <i>Herr</i>," she stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To whom did you confide the information?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To my father."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How, and when?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He used to come to the Castle secretly from time to time to get money +from me, and if I hadn't any to give him he pinched and beat me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you not call out for help?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because it was at night, <i>Herr</i>; and if he had been found there they +would have flogged him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so he came soon after ... after the expedition, I mean ... and +asked me to do all sorts of things. I was to get money from the +<i>gnädiger Herr</i> ... or to turn out his pockets when no one was looking; +and to be left in peace, I fetched the bag the French General had given +me. And when he saw the moonlight shine on the coin that was in it, he +was half mad----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She paused abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Must I say it, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course you must."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he <i>is</i> my father, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are to do as I command you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew a deep sigh and went on. "And he caught hold of me by the +throat with one hand, and beat me with the other, and hissed in my ear: +'Unless you confess how you came by all that money, I'll squeeze the +life out of you----' And when I could hardly breathe, I----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed harshly to himself. <i>His</i> father and <i>her</i> father--both had +resorted to the same chivalrous measures.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regina thought the laugh was at her expense.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>," she went on with an imploring upward glance, "I +was so dreadfully stupid then. Even a fortnight later, when they +cross-examined me, they could have strangled me before they would have +got anything out of me. But then--I suppose it was because he was my +father----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes, I understand. You told tales out of school to your father. +Well, what else?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The very same night my conscience pricked me, and in the morning when +I took the <i>gnädiger Herr</i> his coffee--he would always have me take +it--I told him all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what did he say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He turned as white as chalk, but said nothing at first. He took down a +gun from the wall and pointed it at me; I folded my hands and closed my +eyes, and then I heard him utter an oath, and then he put the gun over +his shoulder and rushed out. I thought to myself, he's gone to put an +end to father! And I watched him run towards the drawbridge with his +two bloodhounds, and then I, as quick as lightning, hurried through the +park, across the Cats' Bridge to the village, to let father know his +life was in danger. Had he been at home I couldn't have saved him. But +he was in the Black Eagle, and had blabbed everything the night before, +and was now blind drunk. The <i>gnädiger Herr</i> won't fetch him out of the +Black Eagle, I thought--and besides it was too late, for Herr Merckel +and every one knew, and they all made a great hullabaloo when they saw +me, and caught hold of me, and tried to force me to speak; but I bit my +tongue till it bled, and kept silent. Then they let me go, and I ran to +meet the <i>gnädiger Herr</i>, and threw myself at his feet, saying, 'Spare +his life, for it will do no good to take it. All the world knows now.' +... He gave me a kick that made me faint, but he left father alone. And +then a fortnight after a gendarme came for me, and took me to the Black +Eagle. There, in the wine-room, were assembled five or six gentlemen; +the <i>Herr Landrath</i>, who was there to-day, among them. And they shut +the door behind me, and began to cross-question me. I felt as if I +could do nothing but cry, and then I grew calmer, and pretended that +father had dreamt it all in one of his drunken fits. But they showed me +the bag he had taken from me--and so--<i>Herr</i> ... I was obliged to say +... that the money ... was the ... reward ... that I----" She broke +off, and hid her face that was suffused with a dark crimson flush of +shame, in her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Proceed with your story," he commanded, grinding his teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They didn't believe me, <i>Herr</i>, but they saw it was no good trying to +get the truth out of me, and asked me no more questions. And then they +held a consultation in low voices (but I have good ears, and understood +all they were saying), as to whether they should lock me up till I +found my tongue, and arrest the <i>gnädiger Herr</i>, and so on, and then +they came to the conclusion that to blaze it abroad would cause too +great a scandal in the district, and be a dishonour to the whole of +Prussia, and as there was no direct proof, the affair might be left in +the dark. I have forgotten the exact words, but it was something like +that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then they let you go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. Herr Merckel said I was to take myself off, or my presence might +breed a pestilence in the house."</p> + +<p class="normal">A silence ensued: then hastily gulping down three more glasses of the +old wine, he said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, then, for the night of the fire!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She jumped up from her chair and stared at him, her eyes starting with +horror.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What! I'm to tell you about the fire?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"All you can recollect."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All! ... Not all, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"All."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr</i> ... I can't." The words rattled in her throat like a +death-agony.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean you refuse?" He too had risen, and stood looking at her with +dilated eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">She folded her hands on her breast. "I have always been obedient, +<i>Herr</i>, to your every wish. I have never been unwilling or grumbled. +I'll go on doing all you order me to do. If you say, 'Go out and be +stoned to death,' I'll go. But just this one thing, I beseech you from +the bottom of my heart, don't ask me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He regarded her in wrathful amazement. So accustomed had he become to +her unconditional obedience, that this explosion in her of a spark of +resistance was incomprehensible to him. Was his power over her, that he +had imagined unlimited, thus suddenly to end? Surely this woman had of +her own accord made herself his body-slave? She had sold herself body +and soul to his house, and therefore it was unpardonable presumption in +her to assert unexpectedly that she had a will of her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blood mounted hotly to his head, and his eyes flashed. "You +shall!--I say you <i>shall</i>!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She retreated and shrank against the wall. From the dark background her +eyes shone out at him like a persecuted wild-cat's. "I won't," she +muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">All the inherited brutality of the feudal master awoke in him. The +wine, too, was doing its work. He sprang on her, and caught her by the +breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">The buttons of her jacket burst beneath his violent attack, and her +bare bosom gleamed forth. He transfixed her with the intensity of his +gaze.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I throttle her, or shall I kiss her?" he asked himself, and +fumbled for her throat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then in her deadly terror she made a counter-attack. Her hands were +fastened in his shoulders like iron rivets. It needed a gathering up of +all his strength to withstand their muscular pressure.</p> + +<p class="normal">A noiseless struggle began. It lasted a minute, and yet seemed to be no +nearer its end. Embittered and desperate at first as a wrestle for life +and death, it became eventually a sort of game. The combatants +apparently had lost sight of what it was they were struggling for. His +eyes, bloodshot and wild, sought hers. Her bosom, wet with +perspiration, pressed hard against his. Their breathing mingled. +Tightly locked in each other's arms they staggered and swayed to and +fro. He pressed her in the back of her knee, but she did not yield, and +with renewed vigour tried to draw him down to her. For one second in +their delirious grappling they gazed dreamily into each other's eyes. +Then she vibrated from head to foot, and in the midst of the conflict +laid her cheek caressingly on the arm that was raised against her. He +saw the action, he saw how her eyes hung on his face with melting +solicitude--saw the beautiful dishevelled head droop like a broken +flower.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you are cursed, why should it be for nothing?" And as the thought +flashed through him, he bent over her with a sigh, and kissed her on +the mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">She groaned aloud, clung heavily to him, and buried her teeth, till +they met, in his lips. Then, overcome, with suddenly collapsed limbs, +she slipped from his arms on to the floor, and lay with the back of her +head flat on the bare boards.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stared down at her half-stunned. She would have looked as if she +were dead, had it not been for the heaving bosom, that seemed to fight +for air. Blood trickled from his lip, and unconsciously he wiped it +away with his tongue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What next?" he asked himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The longer he gazed at the prostrate form the intenser became his +anxiety, till it almost amounted to insanity; anxiety for what must +come.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Away! out of the house! Away before she moves!" an inward voice +commanded. He tore down his coat from the wall, crushed a fur cap over +his brow, and flew out into the bitter cold night, as if chased by the +devil.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he could not escape--could not run away from <i>her</i>; wherever he +went she was beside him. A tornado raged in his breast, and lashed the +blood to froth in his veins.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was fleeing from his young manhood's senses, and they were in hot +pursuit.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dashed through the woods at full speed. The frosty air did not cool +him, nor the darkness restore his serenity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was there no salvation? None?</p> + +<p class="normal">He thought of the parsonage. A jeering laugh rose to his lips. Helene +had shrunk from him when he had approached her with clean hands and a +pure heart. What would she do to-day if he came into her presence +bearing a curse and an insupportable burden of guilt upon him?</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet that one spot of earth was sacred to memories of all that had +been purest, most peaceful and happy in his blighted life. Ought such a +refuge of light to be denied to him, even if a thousand curses had +descended upon his head from the outer darkness?</p> + +<p class="normal">Almost against his will his footsteps took the road to the village. It +was reposing peacefully. Only from the windows of the Black Eagle a +ruddy glow was cast on the white expanse of snow. The clock in the +church tower struck one. He must have been tramping about for five +hours, and it seemed like five minutes. Faint moonbeams shone on the +sleigh-ruts, which looked like long white ribbons unrolled on the +ground, and the mass of icicles hanging from the church roof spread a +delicate silver filigree on the dark, time-stained walls.</p> + +<p class="normal">He passed the church and came to the parsonage garden. There was a +light in one of the gable windows. His heart seemed to bound into his +throat. He swung himself over the hedge, and strode through the deep +snow to the summer-house, which stood at a distance of twenty paces +from the gable. In its shadow he took up his position.</p> + +<p class="normal">A white curtain was drawn across the illuminated casement. On the +surface of the chintz a delicate tracery of leaves and stalks was +reflected from flower-pots inside. There was her virgin paradise; there +she ruled as modestly and sweetly as the Madonna in her rose-garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">And again the picture in the cathedral rose before his mental eyes, as +it always did when he tried to realise the presence of the beloved. Oh! +for one second in which to feast his bodily eye on that dear, forgotten +face, so that what time and guilt had deadened in him might revive and +live anew!</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the outline of a girl's figure darkened the illuminated +window-pane. A corner of the curtain was lifted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Instinctively he stretched out his arms. The curtain dropped quickly, +and a moment afterwards the light within was extinguished.</p> + +<p class="normal">He waited, hardly daring to draw a breath, for a sign from the darkened +spot. But none came. All was motionless and still.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is madness to think of it!" he said to himself. "Probably she +didn't recognise you. She only saw a man's figure that gave her a +fright. Make haste! For the whole house will be roused and turned out +to hunt the supposed thief."</p> + +<p class="normal">So he retraced his steps. In turning into the street he was conscious +that his blood was flowing more calmly, and his pulses not throbbing so +fiercely. Being in her neighbourhood even for a few minutes had soothed +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where now?" Anywhere in the world, but not home. At the bare thought +of that outstretched figure on the floor, his veins began to pulsate +again with violence. Oh, she was a fiend, and he hated her!</p> + +<p class="normal">He took a side path, not knowing where it led. It was divided from the +Castle island by stables and carters' huts, and ended in an open field. +On the opposite side, he saw the indigo belt of woods that encircled +the flat white plains. The woods drew him towards them again like a +magnet. There he would hide, in their majestic depths where the peace +of winter reigned and slept its mysterious dreamless slumber.</p> + +<p class="normal">He trod the pathless field covered with hills and dales of snow which +swept away before him like the billows of a boundless ocean of liquid +light. His feet crunched through the frozen crust till he sank to his +knees, and then it needed all his powers to step forwards once more. +But with strenuous effort he ploughed his way, still taking flight from +his own thoughts. There was something almost comforting in this +objectless striving. His lungs fought for breath; moisture poured from +every pore of his body as he plunged and stumbled on. Here and there +the crust was strong enough to bear him, and then he felt as if he had +been endowed with wings and floated over the ground, till another crash +laid him low, grovelling on his hands and knees.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now the wall of woods rose higher and darker before him; ... he was +only a hundred steps from his goal, when his eye was arrested by +something in the shape of a hillock extending a distance of about fifty +or sixty feet in the direction of the wood. Coming nearer, he saw it +was too regular in form for a hillock, and its corners too sharply +defined. A few feet off there was a second mound of the same +description, and to the left again, a third. They must be gravel heaps, +he thought, that had been dug up in the autumn and left to be removed +till after the thaw set in. Why should the peasants not get gravel from +his property when there was no one to prevent them?</p> + +<p class="normal">But what did those crosses mean, that stood out so solemnly and eerily +in the night, at the foot of each mound? At first he had not noticed +them against the dark background of the woods. They were three in +number. Roughly hewn out of fir trunks, they were so firmly planted in +the earth, that they did not move a hair's-breadth when he shook them. +They bore no inscription, and if they had, he would not have been able +to read it. Inscrutable as memorials of forgotten misfortune, they +stood ranged there in the dim moonlight like rugged sentinels.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then the mystery was solved. He saw what they were. With a loud cry +he dropped his face in his hands. He had stumbled on the graves of the +men who had fallen on that accursed night in the year '7. Here lay the +bones of his father's victims. What evil chance had led him here +to-night? Or was it chance? Had not a thousand invisible arms beckoned +him cajolingly and irresistibly along this maniacal route, and let him +fight his way through snow and ice, till he was ready to faint from +exhaustion? It seemed as though fate had kept in reserve the most +excruciating lash of her scourge till this hour of his bitterest +humiliation; so that he should no longer be in doubt as to there being +any salvation in store for him, and to demonstrate once for all that he +was doomed to sink for ever under the weight of shame and despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it is well that I came," he said, conversing with himself; "where +better can I convince myself that the old pastor's curse was not +unjust--and that what was not a sin, has become one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">His eyes wandered over the row of flattened graves, and now there +seemed no end to them.... How many were buried there? If they had been +closely packed, a hundred or more might rest in each grave--or perhaps +even double that number. And they had all been brave soldiers who had +left their homes gaily, in light-hearted devotion to fight for King and +Fatherland.... Through foulest treachery they had been butchered here +in cold blood, under cover of night.</p> + +<p class="normal">He clung to one of the crosses, and held his face so tightly against +the rough wood that splints dug into his flesh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Arraign him before the whole world!" something cried within him--"him +and <i>her</i>--and then go with her to perdition."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gazed at the distant prospect, and sought the outline of the ruins +against the horizon. But nothing was visible except the tall trees that +crowned the park, which were only dimly discernible. A little behind to +the right of them lay the Cats' Bridge.</p> + +<p class="normal">He could fancy her emerging from those trees with the troop of +remorselessly cruel Frenchmen following her, bent on their work of +blood. How terrible must the regular echo of their marching feet have +sounded in her ears. Deeper and deeper into the wood they must have +gone, till they reached that ravine which ran parallel with the +thicket, almost in a half-circle. She had never told him the road she +had taken, but he saw exactly how it had all happened. Everything was +as plain as if he had been there himself and seen it with his own eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stretched out his arm, and with a trembling finger traced the path +against the horizon.</p> + +<p class="normal">And afterwards when they let her go, and she had made her way home +alone, with the wages of her sin in her pocket--how the cracking +of bullets, the beating of drums, the clouds of gunpowder, the +death-shrieks of the massacred, must have followed her, galloping at +her heels like an army of furies!</p> + +<p class="normal">How she had gone on living with those awful sounds ringing in her head, +those ghastly pictures floating before her eyes, he could not +understand. If he had been in her place he would have sought instant +deliverance in the first halter or pond that came handy.</p> + +<p class="normal">But not she! Visions were no terror to her. Her conscience, instead of +tormenting itself, was apparently scarcely conscious of its guilt. She +had only the feelings of an animal or a demon. He shuddered. And it was +to her, <i>her</i>, that he had been on the brink of succumbing!</p> + +<p class="normal">Then in his sore distress he flung himself across the grave, face +downwards in the snow, folded his hands and stammered forth an +incoherent prayer, while tears gushed from his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intense cold of his exposed position stung his face, and drove him +to stand up again. He patrolled the row of graves, unable to evolve a +single rational thought. He felt as if he were caught in a brazen net, +that was drawing its meshes tighter and tighter around him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God in Heaven," he cried aloud, "visit not the sins of the fathers on +me! Let the dead sleep.... <i>I</i> have not murdered them. Let something +happen, a miracle, a sign, that I may be shown that Thou wilt not have +me perish in this anguish of despair." He cast his eye round him as if +looking for help.</p> + +<p class="normal">But coldly and unsympathetically the moonlit, lead-coloured sky looked +down on him. There was no sign, no miracle.</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed. "You are becoming imbecile," he murmured inwardly.</p> + +<p class="normal">An unspeakable exhaustion overwhelmed him. He reeled, and his feet gave +way beneath him. The next moment he was sitting in the cavity which the +weight of his prostrate figure had made in the snow. He drew up the +collar of his coat, and nearly frozen, brooded on, half sleeping, half +waking.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he rose with cramped limbs, happy to have escaped falling asleep +and being frozen to death, one thin purple streak had appeared in the +eastern sky. An ague, hot and cold at the same time, like the beginning +of fever, shook his frame.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now there was nothing for it, but to go home. But where was he to find +the strength necessary to obliterate for ever from his mind what had +happened in the night that was over at last? His tongue instinctively +felt for his lip.... The wound left by the impress of her kiss burned +there still.</p> + +<p class="normal">And there had been no sign from Heaven, no miracle. One course only +remained that might save him from the worst, and that was death.</p> + +<p class="normal">Death! The thought came to him like a ray of light in the darkness, yet +his brain was too weary, his soul too dispirited for him to grasp it, +and it died out as quickly as it had come.</p> + +<p class="normal">In his own footprints he walked back to the village. No one was +stirring out of doors, but here and there a chimney smoked, and a cock +from his perch crowed a greeting to the new-born day.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he took the path down to the river, he thought he saw the fleeting +shadow of a woman's figure hurrying from the drawbridge. Perhaps it was +Regina, who after long waiting and watching had now come to meet him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But no! Regina was not so slim and dainty. Who in all the village could +want to come to the drawbridge at this unearthly hour? His heart beat +fast. He had been seen. A soft, squealing sound fell on the air, and +the next instant the figure had vanished down a bypath. He did not +think of following her. It might possibly be a dairymaid who had been +taking a morning dip, and was shy of meeting him; but on coming to the +drawbridge he saw footmarks on the freshly fallen hoarfrost, and these +came to an end at the pillar to which the letter-box was fixed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who could be his nocturnal correspondent? It was ridiculous, yet a +flood of hope suffused his soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">He snatched the little key, that he always carried about with him, from +his pocket. The box opened--a letter fell out.</p> + +<p class="normal">He broke the seal with shaking fingers. Helene's signature! Had God +heard his petition? Had He after all sent him fresh strength for the +struggle, and deliverance?</p> + +<p class="normal">The dawn gave him sufficient light to read by, but the lines danced +before his eyes. Only here and there he drank in a broken sentence or a +single word--"Wait patiently." "The hour when I summon you to come to +me." "Longing." "Childhood's days." "Happy."</p> + +<p class="normal">And one thing that was not written there at all he could read +distinctly. The sign that he had prayed for by the grave of the +warriors had fallen from Heaven. The miracle had happened!</p> + +<p class="normal">Renewed confidence in himself possessed him. He was not forsaken; he +need not yet despair of his better self. This pure, bright angel, the +good genius of his youth, was still faithful, still believed in him. +Her trust should not be abused. Rather die than, through despising +himself, bring her to feeling shame at her faith in him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned his face towards the purple morning glow, and, raising his +hand solemnly, uttered the following words:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"God, who art a great and just Judge, and visitest the sins of the +fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, I hereby +swear to take my life with my own hand rather than let the curse of Thy +priest gain ascendency over me. Amen."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he walked towards the house as if freed from an intolerable +burden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now the devil is exorcised!" he said as he entered the vestibule, +heaving a deep sigh of relief; nevertheless, the hand that lifted the +latch still trembled feverishly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He surveyed the room with one quick shy glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the rosy light of dawn he saw her crouching, dressed on her bed, her +hands clasped over her knees. Her jacket was open; her hair hung about +her face in tangled masses. Her dress was exactly as it had been when +he left her the evening before.</p> + +<p class="normal">She raised her head slowly, and gazed at him as if in a dream with soft +melting eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrank before that gaze.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Haven't you been to bed?" he asked in as harsh a tone as he could +command.</p> + +<p class="normal">She continued to look at him with the same blissfully rigid expression, +and said nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Didn't you hear?" he asked again imperiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not start as she used to do when he spoke thus; but a scarcely +perceptible vibration passed through her frame, as if the sound of his +voice filled her with ecstasy. She smiled a little.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hear what?" she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My question as to why you hadn't been to bed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I waited up for you, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not order you to wait for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor did you forbid me, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">He clung to the back of a chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why are you afraid of her?" he asked himself. "You have just sworn +that danger exists no longer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then to get rid of her he told her to go and prepare him something hot +for breakfast.</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose deliberately, stretching her stiff limbs. A dreamy languor +seemed to pervade her whole being. Since last night she was completely +transformed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Directly he had shut the door after her, he tore the letter from his +pocket, and read it to reassure himself of is happiness. It ran:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<span class="sc">Dear Friend Of My Youth</span>,--I hear from papa that you have been highly +honoured by our wise and noble King--that he has made you captain of +your division, and given you the Iron Cross. I congratulate you +heartily, and am rejoiced at your good fortune. What else passed papa +wouldn't tell me, but he was very excited about it, and in a great rage +when he mentioned you. Ah! if only you could have managed to win his +affection and the goodwill of the parishioners! Then I shouldn't have +to be so careful, and could see and speak to you often.... Dear +Boleslav, I implore you never to think of coming into the garden again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know papa--what he is; and if he found out--ah! I believe he would +kill me! Wait patiently, my dear friend! The Bible says, you know, +patience shall be rewarded. So have patience till the hour when I shall +summon you to come to me; then I will tell you all the news. How full +of longing I am to see you! Oh, those lovely days of childhood! What +has become of them? How happy I was then!--Your</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Helene</span>.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"<i>Postscript</i>.--Never come to the garden again. I will appoint another +place of meeting. Not in the garden."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Strange, that what a few minutes before had filled him with delight +now seemed flat and colourless, and disappointed him. Doubtless the +half-wild creature was to blame, whose close proximity confused his +judgment. A kind of delirium of bliss seemed to have taken possession +of her. And how she had smiled! how strangely she had stared into +space!</p> + +<p class="normal">She came back into the room, and moved about it like a somnambulist.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She half closed her lids, and said, "Yes, <i>Herr</i>,"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She smilingly shook her head. "Nothing, <i>Herr</i>," she answered, and +again that look came into her eyes; they seemed to swim in dreamful +contemplation of some infinite felicity.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt his throat contract. Clearly there was still reason to be +afraid of himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he resolved to speak and listen to her no more, but to live in his +work. He immersed himself in his papers again, sorted and laid aside +important documents, filed, registered, and made copies of them. It +seemed to him that he must get everything in order in anticipation of +some pending catastrophe.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the day went by, and the evening. Regina crouched in the darkest and +remotest corner she could find and remained motionless. He dared not +cast even a glance in her direction. The blood hammered in his temples, +yellow circles danced before his eyes, every nerve in his body was on +edge from over-fatigue.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the stroke of ten she rose, murmured goodnight, and disappeared +behind her curtain. He neither answered nor looked up.</p> + +<p class="normal">At eleven he put out the lights and went to bed too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why does your heart beat like this?" he thought. "Remember your oath." +But the superstitious, indefinable dread of coming disaster haunted him +like a ghost in the darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">He got up again, and stole with bare feet across the room to the case +of weapons, that was dimly illumined by the newly-risen moon. He caught +up one of his pistols, which he always kept loaded to be forearmed +against unforeseen events. It had been his faithful friend and +protector in many a bloody fray. To-day it should protect him from +himself. With its trigger cocked, he laid it on the small table by his +bedside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's doubtful whether you sleep a wink now," he said, as he nestled +his head on the pillows. Yet scarcely three seconds later he lost +consciousness, and slumber lapped his tired limbs.</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">A curious dream recalled him from profoundest sleep into a +half-dozing +wakefulness. He fancied he saw two bright eyes like a panther's +glittering at him out of the darkness. They were only a few inches from +his face, and seemed to be fixed on it with fiery earnestness, as if +with the intention of bringing him under the spell of their +enchantment.</p> + +<p class="normal">His breath came slower, almost stopped, then he felt another breath +well over him in full soft waves.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was no dream after all, for his eyes were wide open. The moon cast a +patch of light on the counterpane of his bed, and still those other +lights glowed on, devouring him with their fire. The outline of a face +was visible. A woman's white figure bent over him.</p> + +<p class="normal">A thrill of mingled pleasure and alarm ran through his body.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina," he murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she sank on her knees by the bed and covered his hands with kisses +and tears. In the enervation that had crept over him he would have +stroked the black tresses which streamed across the pillow, only he +lacked the strength to extricate his hands from hers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then--"Your oath, think of your oath!" a voice cried within him.</p> + +<p class="normal">In dismay, he started up. Not yet fully awake, he reeled forwards, and +tearing his hands out of her grasp, fumbled for the pistol.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You, or her."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a report. Regina, with a cry of pain, fell with her forehead +against the edge of the bed, and at the same moment a great rumbling +and crackling was heard from the opposite wall. The portrait of his +beautiful grandmother had crashed to the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stared wildly round him, only just arriving at complete +consciousness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you wounded?" he asked, laying his hand gently on the dark head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--don't--know, <i>Herr</i>," and then she glided across the floor to her +mattress.</p> + +<p class="normal">He dressed himself and kindled a light. It now all appeared a confused +nightmare.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! but if she died, if he had killed her?</p> + +<p class="normal">When he drew aside the curtain, he beheld her cowering and shivering in +her corner, holding up the counterpane in her teeth. It was smeared +with blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For God's sake--show me. Where were you hit?" he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">She let the counterpane drop as far as her breast, and silently offered +her naked shoulder for his inspection. Blood was streaming from it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the first glance satisfied him, the connoisseur in wounds, that it +was a mere surface shot. It would heal of itself in a few days.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God! Thank God!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She stared up at him absently with wide eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is nothing," he stammered. "A scratch--nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">She appeared not to hear what he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pull yourself together like a man. Not a word, not a look, must betray +your real feelings."</p> + +<p class="normal">With this self-exhortation he withdrew, and wearily put down the light +on the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">What now? Where should he go? To stay meant ruin and damnation.</p> + +<p class="normal">This very hour he must go away. Away! Somewhere, <i>any</i>where, so long as +a barrier of his fellow-creatures separated him from her for evermore. +And in breathless haste he began to gather together papers that proved +his father's guilt, as if they were the most precious possessions in +the world.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">More than three months had passed away since Boleslav von Schranden had +turned his back on the inheritance of his fathers.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the meantime spring had come. Moss, starred with anemones, grew +amongst the short-bladed grass; the ditches were full of a luxuriant +growth of bindweed and nettles; and at every breeze the boughs rained a +shower of crumbling catkins. The plough left a trail of smooth, black +furrows on the bosom of the awakening earth, and seed-cloths were +already being put out to air.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the first spring for many and many a long year that had begun in +peace, and of which there were hopes of its ending in peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Europe's evil genius was vanquished. Like Prometheus he lay chained to +his barren sea-girt rock; and so the sword was hung up to rust, and the +ploughshare and harrow resumed their sway.</p> + +<p class="normal">What had taken place on the shores of the Mediterranean in the month of +March, the inhabitants of quiet country towns and out-of-the-way +moorland villages had as yet no suspicion. Not a breath had reached +them of that interrupted quadrille at Prince Metternich's ball, of the +fury and consternation of sovereigns and potentates; they knew nothing +of foam-bespattered proscriptions issued against the escaped rebel, of +re-arming and rumours of war.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lark's carolling in the sky seemed a jocund invitation to resume +labour in the fields, the womb of the earth opened with yearning for +the crops from which it had fasted so long.</p> + +<p class="normal">One day towards the end of April, a curious regiment was seen on the +king's highroad approaching the county town of Wartenstein, which +excited the wondering interest of all whom they passed by the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not easy to decide at once whether they were soldiers or +workmen. Most of them were armed, but side by side with the gun on +their shoulders was a spade, and from the red bundles slung across +their backs peeped whetstones and scythe-blades. Ten or twelve of them +were mounted, but behind came as baggage a stream of rough waggons, +composed of about twenty axle wheels, loaded with bursting sacks of +corn and implements of every description. Altogether the regiment +numbered about a hundred and fifty, marching in half military fashion +in double file. It consisted of muscular youths, for the most part fair +and of ruddy complexions, with thickset figures. Their faces were broad +and bony, not German, and still less Polish, in type. They spoke a +language unknown in the neighbourhood, and sang songs of which no one +knew the tune. Notwithstanding, their leader was German, and so was the +discipline which had trained their limbs and given to their movements a +certain dignity of bearing.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the head of the procession rode one to whom they looked up with awe +and affection, and whose brief and not unfriendly words of command they +obeyed with almost childlike zeal. It was Boleslav, who came with this +little army to reconquer his own territory.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had recruited it far away in the Lithuanian East, on the remotest +border of the province, whither neither good nor evil reports of the +name of Schranden had ever penetrated. During his five years' previous +intercourse with this people, he had become intimately acquainted with +their habits and customs, and took care to choose his pioneers from +those who had been in the war, and become accustomed to the rigours of +a soldier's life, but who were still unfamiliar enough with the German +tongue to have their minds poisoned by the Schrandeners' gossip.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now he had every hope that the fate of his father, who had failed to +find either serf or labourer to bind himself to work for him, would not +be his. And should the Schrandeners offer fight to these workpeople, as +they had done to the Polish serfs whom his father had been obliged to +call to his assistance, so much the worse for the Schrandeners; they +would only be sent home with bleeding noses.</p> + +<p class="normal">In proud self-reliance he looked coming events in the face. He would +willingly have returned home earlier, only, to prosecute his enterprise +on the scale it demanded, he was forced to wait till the time in which +he could claim his aunt's legacy, and so have the necessary means at +his disposal.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had lived through hard times since that January night, when, to +flee the coercion of his hot young blood, he had dashed out into the +snow-clad, moon-illumined landscape, followed by the cries of the +unhappy woman who could not understand what ailed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was long before the furnace within him abated, and her beseeching, +frightened eyes became dimmer in his memory. In Königsberg, where he +had gone direct from home, he had meditated obtaining, through boldly +seeking a trial, that justice long denied to his house. But though the +cross on his breast compelled the doors that had been shut on his +father to open to him, the polite shrug of the shoulders with which the +judges promised to see what could be done, and then coolly referred him +to one Court of Appeal after another, taught him that the passionate +self-surrender he had dreamed of would be here ill-timed and out of +place.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he again packed up his father's correspondence, which of his own +free will he had desired to make public in order to clear up every +shadow of mystery, and felt he must keep it till a more favourable +opportunity offered itself. Besides, he had destroyed too much that +might have had a vindicating effect, and to court the risk of his own +condemnation might after all be acting unfairly to his father's memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">Contact with the outer world cooled and damped in a singular way his +ardour; and the feverish tension of his emotions gradually relaxed, +giving place to a more normal state of mind. He was confronted with +reasoning instead of anathemas, courteous words instead of threats--and +this worked a soothing and beneficial influence on his nature. He +projected plans, and prepared himself with composure and deliberation +for what the future might have in store for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the same time the magic fascination the wild girl had exercised on +him was becoming dimmer in his recollection. Every new face, every new +thought, alienated him further from her. Gradually he ceased to +reproach himself for having acted with merciless cruelty towards her, +and the mastery she had acquired over his senses was now +incomprehensible to him. Nevertheless, often when he sat alone at dusk +in his private room at the hostelry, he saw those eyes again flashing +soft fire, and felt her presence thrill through his veins. Then it +seemed as if the scar, that furrowed horizontally his under lip, began +to burn like an inflammatory record of that kiss, the only one that the +lips of a woman had ever imprinted on his, for his shy and reserved +manner had all his life repelled, and kept women at a distance. At such +times his whole existence seemed compressed into that one moment's +ecstasy. But of course this was only a freak, illusive reverie played +his senses, which lamplight and work soon dispelled.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had written to her once or twice in order to set her mind at rest on +the subject of his sudden departure, or rather flight--had asked for an +answer, and promised a speedy return.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once he had had news of her--a letter written in bold characters and +correctly expressed. After all these years of bondage, the lessons she +had learnt in the old pastor's school still evidently stood her in good +stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">In prospect of his near approach to his home, he drew the sheet from +his pocket, and read sitting in the saddle the lines, which, in spite +of himself, he almost knew by heart.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<span class="sc">My dear Master</span>,--Don't be anxious on my account. No one will do +anything to me. They do not know down in the village that you are gone +away, and they are frightened of the wolf-traps, for no one has told +them that we cleared them away. Every night I see to the pistols and +guns in case they should come; but they won't come. As for the wound, I +have quite forgotten it. The grocer at Bockeldorf gave me some English +sticking-plaster, and when it peeled off, it was entirely healed. The +thaw and floods are now over, thank God. For several days I was obliged +to go with very little food, because the water was too high on the +meadows for me to wade through, and I would rather have died than go +down to Herr Merckel. Ah! dear master, I am so glad that you are coming +home soon; for I seem to have nothing to live for, when I have not you +to wait upon. I climb up on the Cats' Bridge very often and wait for +you there, so that when you come you shall not find it drawn up. Please +don't come in the night, nor on Thursday before seven, because then I +shall be going to Bockeldorf. The snow is all gone now, and the grass +is beginning to get quite green. Yesterday I heard the swallows +twittering in the nest they have built in the eaves; but I haven't seen +them yet. Now and then I suffer from stitch in my side, and giddiness, +and I have not much appetite. I believe it comes from being so much +alone, which I cannot bear. But I don't know why I should tell you all +this. Perhaps it is because you were always so kind to me. I can't help +always remembering your great kindness to me.--Your <i>Hochgeboren's</i> +humble servant,</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Regina Hackelberg</span>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">This letter had filled him with pleasure and satisfaction, for it +showed on the one hand that she had very reasonably bowed to the +inevitable, and that there was no cause for his anxiety; and on the +other, that she still faithfully clung and belonged to him heart and +soul. And glad as he might be to feel his blood purged of the +unwholesome excitement with which she had inspired it, he could not +help being pleased at this proof of her remaining ever his true and +willing servant.</p> + +<p class="normal">His belief in Helene's sacred influence on his destiny had, he +imagined, received a new impetus, since her note had saved him in an +hour of imminent danger. He wore it gratefully as a talisman on his +heart, even if he did not read it so often, and with such delight, as +he read Regina's.</p> + +<p class="normal">Soon after his arrival in the capital, an intense yearning had drawn +him to the Cathedral, where he had sought out the old altar-piece, +which contained her living image. He experienced a bitter +disappointment. The Madonna amidst her lilies and roses appeared +absolutely ridiculous. She looked to him now as if she had been baked +out of <i>Marzepan</i>, and the flowers, with their stiff stalks and +drooping heads, appeared as unnatural and insipid as their doll +custodian.</p> + +<p class="normal">And this was what he had carried about with him for years, as the +<i>facsimile</i> of his beloved! Certainly it was high time she appeared in +her own person before his bodily eyes, otherwise he would be in danger +of loving a mere phantom.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now, in this the hour of home-coming, it was not she at all with +whom he looked forward to a joyous meeting; his senses saw only the +picture of a girl waiting and watching for him, whose fresh and +unbounded loveliness was no myth.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was early morning and the sun was shining. He had made his last +halt, the night before, at a hamlet not far from Wartenstein, as he +proposed to pass rapidly through the town, to avoid being gaped at, and +exciting idle curiosity. Once there he was within three miles and a +quarter of home, and hoped to enter his native village at the hour for +vespers, for his stalwart followers were used to rapid marching. As he +rode up to the moss-grown ramparts, eight sounded from the belfries of +Wartenstein, and he counted on being able to quit the town quite early, +and so escape awkward questions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, he was little prepared for the surprises awaiting him within its +gates. The sentinel, instead of stopping him and demanding his +passport, shouted up to a window in the gateway tower--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ring the bells! ring the bells! The first detachment is here!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he saluted with his pike, while a merry peal clashed from the +watch-towers of Wartenstein to announce Boleslav's arrival.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What can be the meaning of it?" he asked himself, shaking his head; +and his astonishment increased, when on riding through the streets he +found them thronged with crowds of men, women, and children, who waved +their caps and handkerchiefs, and welcomed him with resounding cheers.</p> + +<p class="normal">His Lithuanians, who had been accustomed on their triumphal marches to +being received everywhere with open arms, took the present ovation as a +matter of course, and responded to the hurrahs with lusty lungs.</p> + +<p class="normal">But to Boleslav it was plain that there was some misunderstanding, +which in the next few minutes would be explained.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he entered the market-place, which, like the streets, was filled +with an enthusiastic crowd, the Landrath, at the head of an impressive +procession, consisting of the Burgomaster, Corporation, and other +magnates of the town, advanced to meet him. He laid his delicate, bony +hand on his breast, and cleared his throat with a rasp, preparatory to +speaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he recognised Boleslav, who had quickly sprung from his horse, he +drew back in embarrassment. Nevertheless he began--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I congratulate you, Freiherr von Schranden, on your being the first +who has hastened here with your troops----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not so fast, <i>Herr Landrath</i>," Boleslav interrupted. "There is an +error somewhere. These people are workmen, whom I have recruited in +Lithuania for domestic use. I am on my way with them to Schranden."</p> + +<p class="normal">An amused smirk passed through the ranks of the town magnates. They +enjoyed seeing the Landrath make a fool of himself, even if they +themselves were made to look foolish in the process.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you really haven't heard yet?" he stammered out, concealing his +annoyance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have come straight from the remotest corner of Prussia, <i>Herr +Landrath</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You haven't heard that Napoleon has escaped from Elba, and that the +King has again appealed to his gallant Prussian subjects to arm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav felt a rush of mingled horror and joy flood his heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">So once more the world's history had absorbed the solution of his +career in its own, and he would be saved further self-doubt and +suspense with regard to it. His vast schemes, the work to which he was +to consecrate his life, lay shattered at his feet scarcely begun, and +now ended perhaps for ever. But away with all regrets and fears. Did +not the Fatherland, <i>his</i> Fatherland, call him?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you, <i>Herr Landrath</i>," he said, while he endeavoured to still +his wildly beating heart. "I feel honoured at your thinking so well of +me and my contingent of Schrandeners. We will prove ourselves worthy of +your high opinion, and in four-and-twenty hours be in readiness."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Landrath held out his hand. He retreated a step or two, and was in +the act of repaying the Landrath in his own coin for the insult he had +not long ago subjected him to.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he reflected. The Fatherland calls you, and what is your petty +hate or love weighed in the balance? And he seized the bony hand, which +its owner, offended, had already withdrawn, and shook it heartily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he learnt further particulars. The evening before the King's +proclamation, dated April 7, had reached Wartenstein. All night the +administration had been hard at work getting the decrees ready for +local heads of departments, and arranging to send out special mounted +messengers to distribute them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will one be sent to Schranden?" asked Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly," was the answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then may I add a military order?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, if you wish."</p> + +<p class="normal">He tore a sheet of paper from his pocket-book and hastily scribbled the +following lines:--</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"At five o'clock in the afternoon all troops liable to service are to +muster in the churchyard square, bringing with them accoutrements and +canteens. The hour for marching will then be stated.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Von Schranden</span>, <i>Landwehr Captain</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the local administrator."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"And what will become of Regina?" was a question that rose warningly +within him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he would not listen to it. He was almost delirious. The fever for +action possessed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He called his workpeople together, explained to them that he no longer +needed their services, and bade each to return as quickly as possible +to his native place, from there to join his respective company. He paid +them off, and took leave of them with a shake of the hand and a +blessing.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stalwart youths, who had lost their hearts to him, kissed the hem +of his coat, and went their way with tears in their eyes. Then he found +a place of safety for the waggons, whose freight alone represented no +small capital, made arrangements for the sale of the seed and +provender, and left the horses at the disposal of a dealer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only the one on whose back he rode did he keep for his own use.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was half-past two before he had transacted his business, and was +free to start on his homeward road.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had seen hanging up for sale in a tailor's shop an undress +state-uniform, which, as the officers of the Landwehr were forbidden +any gorgeous display of ornament, and it happened to fit him exactly, +he purchased promptly, first having the braided collar replaced by a +plain scarlet strip.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus respectably fitted out, he was ready to confront his Schrandeners, +whom he now saw delivered into his hand in a rather different manner +from the one he had anticipated.</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">While Boleslav was riding home, Lieutenant Merckel was pacing +up and +down the back parlour of the Black Eagle in furious excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't, no, I won't submit to being under the command of that +scoundrel," he roared at his father, who, to soothe him, had the best +wine in his cellar (the best was sour enough) set on the table, and +never wearied of refilling the raving youth's glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Felixchen," he supplicated, "be sensible. If the King has ordered it +so, and the authorities demand----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But what if my honour demands the contrary, father?" cried his son, +angrily twirling the ends of his moustache. "I am an officer, father; I +have some sense of honour, and my sense of honour bids me die by +putting a bullet through my body with my own hand, rather than follow +and serve under that son of a traitor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if the King----" repeated the old man in desperation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The King! what does he know about it? He has been taken in, deceived, +kept in the dark. But I, <i>I</i> will open his eyes. I will say to him, +'Here, your Majesty, are thirty brave soldiers, and an honourable, +upright officer, who would rather----'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drink, Felixchen," entreated the old man, and wiped the sweat of +anxiety from his brow; "this wine cost me, to begin with, a thaler the +bottle. Nowhere else in the world could you get anything to compare +with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The devil take your swipes!" exclaimed the dutiful son, smashing the +bottle with his sabre-hilt. "I don't intend to sacrifice my honour for +any Judas reward. My honour is not to be bribed into silence. My honour +dictates that I should tear the hound's heart out of his breast. And +I'll do it. The Fatherland must be rid of such a scandalous reproach +once for all. This plague-spot in the Prussian staff of officers must +and shall be branded out. I'll see that it is. So sure as I am a brave +soldier I will do it, even if I die for honour's sake.... Good-bye for +the present, father; I must go now and bid my little sweetheart +farewell." And rounding his lips for a defiant whistle, the +half-inebriated young man swaggered out, his sabre-blade clanking the +ground at every step.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav, as he entered the village shortly after four, found the +street full of women and old people, who ran from under the horse's +hoofs, maintaining a glum silence, and then followed like evil spirits +in his wake. He felt for the pistols in his side pockets, and loosened +the scabbard of his sabre; then he fully expected a skirmish of some +sort. "Even if they have no other officer with a soldier's coat on, +they may be planning to attack me from the front this time," he +reflected, and his breast expanded proudly at the thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">The crowd was denser in the churchyard square, and he was obliged to +rein in his horse to give it time to get out of his way. Here and there +a smothered laugh or a half-whispered imprecation fell on his ear. +Otherwise total silence was the order of the day. Close to the church, +some twenty paces from its flight of stone steps, he saw the troops +drawn up in double line, about fifteen or sixteen squadrons in +strength.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lieutenant Merckel was parading up and down, giving first one and then +another--as it seemed--a word of encouragement. His face was aflame, +his gait uncertain; once or twice his cavalry sabre got entangled with +his legs and nearly tripped him up.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav cast one rapid, searching glance at the parsonage. Its windows +were closely curtained, and in the garden too there was no sign of +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">He drew a deep breath, and rode into the heart of the crowd, which +closed behind him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once again he stood single-handed, face to face with the Schrandener +wolves, but this time he was master.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sense of iron calm and perfect coolness, which he had always +experienced at moments of life and death issues, did not forsake him +now.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am waiting for your salute, <i>Herr Lieutenant</i>" he cried in a +threatening tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was answered by a drunken, jeering laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">So they intended to mutiny! His suspicions had not been ill founded.</p> + +<p class="normal">He tore his sabre from the scabbard. "Halt!" he commanded.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a murmur of dissent. Two or three stepped out of the ranks, +and Lieutenant Merckel, with an abusive epithet, drew his sabre and +rushed at Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was a moment in which hesitation would have been fatal. A flash of +steel, a whiz, and Lieutenant Merckel sank howling on the sandy earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ranks broke their line, made as if they would spring on him: but +surprise and terror petrified them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Halt!" The command came forth for the second time in a voice of +thunder; and no one dared move an eyelash.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav drew a pistol from the saddle-pocket, and, holding it with the +trigger cocked in his left hand, he let the reins slip into his armed +right.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Men of the Landwehr!" he shouted in a voice that reverberated through +the square, "you know that during the last six hours you are bound in +obedience by a war-decree, and that the slightest attempt at +insubordination will cost you your lives. What has taken place up to +this moment I will overlook, but whoever does not instantly comply with +my commands without grumbling will find that I shall not scruple to +send a bullet through his brain on the spot."</p> + +<p class="normal">Felix Merckel, who was bleeding copiously from a wound in his head, +regained consciousness, and tried to raise himself. But the blood that +streamed over his face blinded him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take away his sabre and bind him!" were Boleslav's instructions.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men exchanged glances; they had nothing to bind him with.</p> + +<p class="normal">Again to hesitate would be to lose the day; so with a quick resolve he +sprang off his horse, tore the bridle from its bit, and handed the +thongs to the flügelman on his left.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Set to work, and two others help."</p> + +<p class="normal">Reluctantly, and with evil sidelong glances, they obeyed. The prostrate +man hit out with hands and feet, and endeavoured to wipe the blood out +of his eyes with his sleeve, but his struggles were in vain; the reins +bound his wrists, and the foam-spattered curb served as a gag.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the spirited black charger had broken away, and was rearing +among the terrified rabble.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav saw, as he looked behind him, that the church door stood open +for a farewell service, and that the key was in the lock.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Put him in the church," he commanded; and at the same moment the old +landlord of the inn appeared on the scene, whimpering and wringing his +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Felixchen!" he yelled, "what are they doing to you? Don't give in; cry +for help. Help him, dear people. I order you to help him. I am your +mayor. I insist--I command you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is my place to issue commands here," exclaimed Boleslav loftily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the old man changed his tactics, and, by cringing, tried to soften +the disciplinarian's heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr Captain</i>, have compassion on a wretched father. I have known you +since you were a little boy, who sat on my knee, and I always, always +was fond of you. Isn't it true, you people? Wouldn't any of us have +willingly given our lives for the <i>Junker</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Had his corpulency permitted, he would have thrown himself at +Boleslav's feet. On seeing his son hustled away, he ran after him in +despair, and made a futile attempt to hold him back by the coattails. +But the door was promptly closed on him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me the key!" shouted Boleslav.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man hurled himself on the steps, and pounded the oak panels of +the door with his fists.</p> + +<p class="normal">The key was delivered up by the flügelman and his companions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Michael Grossjohann!" the Schrandener answered curtly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And yours," turning to the two others. "Franz Malky."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Emil Rosner."</p> + +<p class="normal">He entered the names in his pocket-book.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You three will keep watch on the prisoner through the night, and are +answerable for him with your heads."</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Merckel, finding the church door did not yield to his furious +onslaughts, came to his senses, and squinting askance at Boleslav, +sneaked off in the direction of the parsonage. The latter thought he +knew what he wanted there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Three more of you," he continued, "will kindly guard the vestry door, +the key of which I have not got in my possession, and take care that no +one goes in and out except the barber, who is to bandage the prisoner's +wound."</p> + +<p class="normal">Three voices quivering with suppressed anger assured him his orders +should be obeyed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now then, to business!" he exclaimed. "According to the lists the +village of Schranden is capable of supplying troops to the number----." +And the mobilisation began.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Two hours later Boleslav quitted the gaping crowd, who glowered at him +with a sort of stony superstitious awe, as if he were a magician, and +as he crossed the open common he felt as if he had just left a cage of +wild beasts, the duty of taming which, had fallen to his share. The +danger seemed safely over for the present. "Having mastered them +to-day, they won't dare to mutiny to-morrow," he thought, and revelled +in the joyous sensation of having won a victory.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now he had only to take leave of Regina, and his troubles would be at +an end. The world was all before him once more; an unknown future +seemed to be enticing him onwards with bugle-peals and battle-cries.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina! now for Regina!" welled up in him with such jubilation, from +the depths of his soul, that he was frightened at himself. He took a +round by the wood before approaching the Cats' Bridge, to brace and +harden his nerves for this last and most arduous encounter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun pierced the topmost boughs of the trees. Over the tender young +green of the meadows floated a shadowy haze, and an odour of fermenting +slime rose from the damp ditches. Only the fir-wood looked as dark and +mysterious as in winter, with scarcely a light-green spike peeping +anywhere from its black, bare branches.</p> + +<p class="normal">He threw himself on the mossy ground and watched the sunbeams glint +through the purple haze that hung over the surrounding thicket.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once again he reviewed the daring enterprise of the last few hours, and +the thickly curtained windows of the parsonage recurred to his memory. +How careful she had been to keep herself out of his sight and reach, +and how well she had succeeded! Surely she must know what had brought +him into the village--must know that to-morrow he would quit it, +perhaps never to return.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had she no longing to see him just once before his departure, and to +wish him God speed? The hour she had told him to wait patiently for, +was it not time it came to-day? What availed the letter he wore close +to his heart, if the hand that penned it was refused to him? Her image +was now quite effaced from his heart; it could no longer lead him to +battle, unless the impression was renewed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she loves me, she will send for me. If she doesn't send for me, she +must be lost to me for ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Having arrived at this conclusion he left the wood and bent his +footsteps in the direction of the river. The park, in its new spring +dress of lightest green, smiled him a welcome. A shimmering crown of +silver rested on the tall poplars, and the dark masses of ivy glistened +on their slender trunks.</p> + +<p class="normal">How beautiful was this home, that had been a source of such infinite +pain and sorrow! How his whole being yearned for that impoverished +dwelling where he had lodged like a criminal! Was this longing owing to +the woman who had voluntarily shared his loneliness and wretchedness, +and who had tried to make her own misery the foundation of a new +happiness for him?</p> + +<p class="normal">But he had no reason to fear what was to come. He felt that since the +Fatherland had summoned him, he was safe from all weak and vicious +instincts. Even long before this he believed he had completely freed +himself from her influence. Their relations now were merely those of +master and servant.</p> + +<p class="normal">One more night, and the priest's curse would be remembered only as an +old man's idle babble. Yet what would become of her? She must look +after herself. He had provided for her future. No one could say he was +bound to do more. And to-day he would renew his bounty twofold or +threefold, so that she would stand in the position of a wealthy widow. +When thousands of women and children would perish of hunger in +broken-hearted distress, without any one heeding their fate, why should +he concern himself so much about deserting this one strange girl and +leaving her in solitude?</p> + +<p class="normal">He steeled and hardened his heart, for it had begun to beat faster....</p> + +<p class="normal">And as he mounted the steep ascent to the Cats' Bridge, he caught sight +of the familiar figure among the bushes above, illumined by the setting +sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina," he called. But she did not move.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come and meet me, Regina!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then with elevated shoulders she slowly glided nearer, the fingers of +her left hand outspread, and pressed against her breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her, and was horrified. "My God!" he exclaimed, "how +changed you are!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her appearance was wild and distraught in the extreme. Her clothes were +torn, her hair, which under the frequent use of the comb had begun to +fall into such splendid glossy waves, once more hung over her forehead +and cheeks in a shaggy, unkempt mass. Her eyes shone with feverish, +almost uncanny lustre from dark-blue cavities, and she dared not raise +them to his.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is pining away," something cried in him. "She will die, because of +you." He took hold of her hand and it lay limply in his palm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina, do speak. Aren't you glad that I've come back?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She ducked her head, as she had been in the habit of doing when she +instinctively expected blows instead of kind words.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stroked her rough, dry hair. "Poor thing!" he said. "You must have +had a dreadfully dull time of it, with not a human soul to speak +to----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shrank from his touch and was still silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you not write and tell me that you found it so terribly +lonely?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head, and then said timidly, "It wasn't the loneliness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was it then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him nervously and said nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, what was it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I ... I thought ... you weren't coming back."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, you foolish girl, didn't I write and say I was?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, you wrote and said, 'I am coming perhaps in about ten days,' and +I went to the Cats' Bridge, and there I waited day and night-day and +night--but you didn't come. And then three weeks afterwards you wrote +again, 'I shall come home perhaps in about ten days.' And you never +came, and then I thought you were only putting me off with promises ... +so as not to break it to me suddenly that you weren't coming back at +all. And I thought you repented being good to me, because I didn't +deserve it, and because I----" She broke off and buried her face for a +moment in her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But your letter was so sensible."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>," she faltered. "Would it have done for <i>me</i> to write +differently?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He bit his lip, and stared before him into the lacework of the young +green foliage. Did she suspect what would befall her in a few hours?</p> + +<p class="normal">"But now all is right again, isn't it?" he asked unsteadily.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a cry she sank on the ground, and clinging to his knees exclaimed, +"Yes, oh yes, <i>Herr</i>. When you are here everything is right, everything +is different. If you were to go away again, <i>Herr</i>, what should I do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">No, she suspected nothing. The heaviest, most crushing blow of all was +in store for her. He felt as if there were a thunderbolt concealed in +his sleeve, which the next time he stirred would descend and shatter +her to fragments. But he had still time to dispose of as he pleased. A +few hours to devote to this poor creature, in which to revive and make +her happy again before signing her death-warrant, and in which she +would unconsciously gather up strength for the ordeal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand up, Regina," he said gently. "Let us enjoy ourselves, and not +think of the future."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then they walked side by side through the dusky garden, the neatly kept +paths of which were strewn with white gravel, and skirted, like +glittering rivulets, the smooth turf. The shrubs exhaled an +indescribable fragrance, the breath of spring mingled with the scent of +dying things, and in the tree-tops that waved above their heads, they +heard the subdued whispering twitter of home-coming birds.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How beautifully everything has come out here since I went away!" he +exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>," she answered. "It has never been so beautiful as it is +now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has become so all at once?" he asked, smiling. He looked at her +sideways and noticed the hollows in her cheeks. But an exquisite colour +was already tinging them.</p> + +<p class="normal">She has begun to live again, he thought to himself, and it seemed as if +the next few hours were to be the last vouchsafed to him too of a +vanishing happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In spite of everything, you have worked hard," he said, striving to +retain his tone of condescending patronage, and he pointed to the neat +borders in which auriculas and primroses were planted.</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave a proud little laugh. "I thought to myself you should find +everything in order if you <i>did</i> come back, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you have neglected yourself, Regina. How is that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned her face away, blushing hotly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I tell the truth, <i>Herr</i>?" she stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought ... I ... was ... going to die ... and so ... it wouldn't +matter."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was silent. It was as if she poured forth an ocean of infinite love +with every word, and that its waves rolled over him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lawn on the farther side of the Castle, sloping gently down to the +park, now opened before his gaze. There stood the weather-beaten socket +of the Goddess Diana's pedestal. Regina had collected the pieces and +put them together again, but the torso had been beyond her strength to +lift, and it lay in the grass, while the head, with its blank white +eyes, looked down on it. A few steps farther on, a dark four-cornered +patch stood out in relief from the emerald turf. That was the spot +where he had first seen her busily employed in digging a grave for her +seducer, whom every one else refused to bury.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I left it as it was--in memory of me," she said apologetically, +pointing to the turned-up clods that, now overgrown with grass, had +joined and formed a bank.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then they walked on towards the undergrowth that surrounded the cottage +like a thick hedge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I have mended the glass roof too," she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Their eyes met for a moment, and then they both quickly looked in front +of them again. There was an aspect of peaceful welcome about the little +house. Its window panes had caught a ray of the departing sunlight, +while all else lay buried in deepest shadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">A sense of contentment at being at home, and of gladness that this was +his home, overcame him, and for a moment allayed his gnawing +restlessness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go," he said, "and cook me something for supper; I am hungry and +exhausted after a long ride."</p> + +<p class="normal">He remembered his horse for the first time, and wondered where it had +galloped to. Then the next instant he forgot it again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And make yourself neat," he continued. "I should like you to look your +best when you come to table."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, <i>Herr</i>--I'll try."</p> + +<p class="normal">They separated in the vestibule. He went into the sitting-room, and she +to her kitchen. He threw himself with a deep sigh on the sofa, that +creaked beneath his weight. Everything seemed the same as on the night +he had left it, except that the curtain had been taken away from the +corner by the stove, and the couch removed; the portrait of his +grandmother, too, had disappeared. The shot which grazed Regina's neck +had proved its final destruction, and reduced it to ribbons.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the windows was open. The strange perfume of fermenting earth, +which to-day he could not get out of his nostrils, flooded the +apartment. But here it might possibly come from a lime heap, which had +been shovelled up at the gable end of the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">From minute to minute his unrest increased. Why shorten for him and her +the all too scanty time? He could tolerate solitude no longer, and got +up with the intention of going into the kitchen, but when on the +threshold he saw her cowering on the hearth with naked shoulders, +mending her jacket by the firelight,--he retreated, shocked. But in a +few seconds she came herself to open the door to him, fully dressed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is there anything I can do for you, <i>Herr</i>?" she asked respectfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Show me where you have repaired the roof," he replied, not being able +to think of anything else to say. He praised her work, without looking +at it. Then he took up a position on the hearth and stared at the +tongues of flame in the grate. By this time it was nearly dark, and the +firelight flickered on the rush walls.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll help you to cook," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, <i>Herr</i>! You are laughing at me," she answered. But her face +lighted up with pleasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What am I to have for supper?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There isn't much in the house, <i>Herr</i>. Eggs and fried ham--a fresh +salad--and that's all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall thank God if I----" he stopped abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had nearly betrayed the secret of which as yet she had no suspicion, +and she should not, must not, suspect anything. Till the dawn of +to-morrow her felicity should last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, make haste," he laughed, while his throat contracted in +anxious suspense, "else I shall expire of hunger."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The water must boil first, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right, we'll wait, then." He squatted on one of the wooden boxes. +"And, Regina," he went on, "come here; do you know I am not satisfied +with your appearance even now? Your hair----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've not had time to comb it yet, <i>Herr</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Comb it now at once, then."</p> + +<p class="normal">She flashed at him a look of shy entreaty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"While you are here, <i>Herr</i>?" she asked hesitatingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not? Have you become prudish all in a minute?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It wasn't that----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then don't stand on ceremony."</p> + +<p class="normal">She went into the far corner of the apartment, where her bed stood, and +with a quick movement loosened the floating wealth of tresses till they +hung below her hips. In the middle of her combing, aware that his eyes +were fixed on her in admiration, she suddenly spread out her arms, as +if overcome with shame and joy, and threw herself on her knees by the +bed, burying her face in the pillows.</p> + +<p class="normal">He waited silently till she got up. When her hair was done she went to +the hearth and busied herself among the pots and kettles, without +looking at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me, Regina, what have you been doing with yourself all this +time?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head. "Bockeldorf was the same as ever; besides the +grocer and his wife, I never saw a single soul. During the floods I +didn't go once down to the village. As I told you in my letter, I had +to starve for a time, but I didn't mind. And then, during the last few +weeks, some letters have come, from Wartenstein, and Königsberg +too--and to-day one--from----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, never mind! I'll look at them later, when you've brought some +light."</p> + +<p class="normal">What concern had he with the outer world to-day, when he had burnt the +bridges that connected him with his past, and nothing remained of all +he had suffered and lived through?</p> + +<p class="normal">Then when the supper table was spread, and the lamp shone at him from +Regina's hand, he crossed over with her to the sitting-room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have not laid a place for yourself," he remarked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I, <i>Herr</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course you may."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, <i>Herr</i>, what wine?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He drew a long breath--"None!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And so once more they sat opposite each other in the soft lamp-light, +as they had so often done on winter evenings, when the snow was driven +against the window panes, and gales shook the roof and rattled in the +beams. Now grey moths flapped gently to and fro, bringing with them +into the room whiffs of the balmy outer air, and the rising moon, which +was full for the first time since Easter, shimmered through the young +foliage.</p> + +<p class="normal">He pushed his plate away. Not a morsel could he eat. The precaution of +leaving the wine in the cellar had done no good, for the excitement he +had wished to shun was, notwithstanding, creeping over him. He took a +stolen glance at Regina, and trembled. Her eyes rested on him in such a +transport of happiness, that she seemed oblivious of everything in +heaven and earth, except the fact that he was sitting near her. Every +trace of sorrow and distress had vanished from her face as if by magic. +Its curves had taken a new roundness, a new freshness bloomed in her +cheeks. But what struck him as most lovely in her, was the languorous, +yielding tenderness of her whole being, as if she had loosened herself +from the trammels of earth and floated in space.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina," he whispered. His heart seemed throbbing violently in his +throat. A voice of warning rose within him, saying, "Take care. Be on +your guard--this is the last time she will lead you into temptation."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The last time!" came a melancholy echo.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; she will die--perish of heart-sickness and unsatisfied longing."</p> + +<p class="normal">The scar on his under-lip began to burn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take her in your arms and then kill her; that will save her all +further misery," was the next thought that rushed through his brain. +"But it would be literal madness to do such a thing," he added to +himself, shuddering.</p> + +<p class="normal">And again their eyes met and sank in each other's depths. Their souls +knew of no resistance, even though their bodies still sought +despairingly for weapons of defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Save yourself!" cried that warning voice again. "Think of the curse! +Keep yourself pure and unspotted for the Fatherland!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He tried to think of words to speak that would break the spell of +blissful enchantment; but none would occur to him. Then he rose and +walked to the open window to bathe his hot brow in the cool night air. +"Speak--act--end this silence," he exhorted himself. He thought of the +letters she had spoken of.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me the letters," he said. His voice sounded harsh.</p> + +<p class="normal">She fetched a packet of white covers, which she laid by his plate. He +opened the first he came to, and stared vacantly at the unfolded sheet. +Would it not be better to allude now to the unavoidable? Why spare her +allusion to a parting which was inevitable? But he put the idea from +him in horror. "Till midnight she shall be happy. Take her in your +arms, and then----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"His Hochwohlgeboren the Freiherr Boleslav von Schranden is hereby +informed that his appeal for an inquiry into the causes and events +which eventually led to the destruction by fire of Castle Schranden, on +the 6th of March 1809, is receiving attention, and that a day has been +appointed for----"</p> + +<p class="normal">With a discordant laugh he tossed the communication to one side, and +fumbled for the next letter. His eye fell on Helene's handwriting. A +feeling almost of aversion shot through him. What did she want now? Why +disturb him at this the eleventh hour?</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<span class="sc">My Dearest Boleslav</span>,--I can't let you go to the war again without once +seeing and speaking to you. I beg and implore you to meet me this +evening at nine o'clock, near the churchyard side-gate, where I will +wait for you.--Your <span style="letter-spacing:5px"> </span><span class="sc">Helene</span>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Why not before," he murmured, "when there was plenty of time to +spare?" Then suddenly it flashed across him that again in an hour of +danger his guardian angel had put forth her rescuing hand to him, and +that it would be criminal folly on his part to disregard the sign, and +not respond to the summons.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must--you must," he said to himself, "or you won't be worth the +cannon-ball that at this moment is being cast for you in France."</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it not a special dispensation of divine grace that the daughter +should intervene at such a perilous crisis as this to transform the +father's curse into a blessing? He looked at the clock. It wanted only +a few minutes to the hour mentioned. He dragged himself on to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must go down to the village," he said. "There is some one who wants +to see me." And though he avoided meeting her eyes, her pathetic, +beseeching glance penetrated to his innermost soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall soon be back," he stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She folded her hands, and placed herself silently before him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">She could hardly articulate her words.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Herr</i>! I am so frightened--I feel as if something dreadful was going +to happen!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since when have you been given to presentiments?" he said, trying to +joke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know-but I feel so strange, <i>Herr</i>! ... something in my +throat--as if ... Oh! I know it's stupid of me, but I pray you--not to +go--not to-night----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He pushed her gently to one side. The hand that she stretched out to +hold him back fell helplessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please-please don't go! ... <i>Herr</i>!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He set his teeth and went--went to his guardian angel.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The Schrandeners, as many as could leave their homes and property, were +meanwhile gathered together at the Black Eagle, engaged in a farewell +orgie.</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Merckel served them himself. He stood behind the bar, refilling +unceasingly the empty glasses, with the melancholy smile, which to-day +there was every reason to believe was not put on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drink, dear friends," he exhorted; "don't let the unhappy event in my +family prevent you! What does it matter even if he is shot? He will die +a noble death for his honour and his Fatherland!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He wiped the sweat from his shiny forehead, while his little eyes +wandered in uneasy anticipation from one face to the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go and take a glass, Amalie," he said, turning to the barmaid, "over +to those on guard. I won't bear them malice for helping to bring him to +his ruin!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners, deeply touched at the expression of so much +high-minded sentiment, gazed into their tankards in moody anger. They +would have been ashamed of rushing to the inn and displaying such +avidity for a carousal in the face of their landlord's private +misfortune, had they not felt they could not better show their sympathy +than by taking advantage of the old man's generous impulses. So they +poured beer and schnaps down their throats in positive streams, and +emulated each other as to who could drink the fastest.</p> + +<p class="normal">The barmaid, as fat and cunning as her master, slipped out with a tray +containing a dozen foaming tankards, after she had received a few +whispered instructions from him, accompanied by a knowing nod and wink.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if you should see old Hackelberg about," he called after her, "ask +him in--ask him in. He has suffered too at the hands of the scoundrel. +He ought not to be missing on this sad occasion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Brave soldiers," he continued, wiping his eyes, "drink! drink! You +must try to forget that this day your honour has been forfeited. Yes, +indeed, your case is lamentable--even more lamentable than that of my +poor son, to whom it will at least be granted to meet death for +honour's sake. But you! faugh, for shame! What will be your feelings +to-morrow morning, when you have to march away under the leadership of +that son of a traitor, the villain whom our revered <i>Herr Pastor</i> has +cursed? It'll be 'Braun, clean my boots!' and 'Bickler, hold my +stirrup!' and that sort of thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">The two men mentioned thus by name started up with an oath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And all you others, however much he may oppress and bully you, you +must submit because he is your commander; and if you dare to mutiny, +you'll only be shot down like vermin for your pains. Such, my poor dear +friends, is your pitiable lot! Therefore I say drink, and bid farewell +to your military honour. To-morrow the very dogs will hesitate to take +a crust of bread from your hands!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A half-stifled murmur ran through the room, more ominous than a howl of +rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the carpenter Hackelberg, who had been loafing about in the +neighbourhood of the inn, reeled into the common parlour, half-drunk as +usual.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was received in silence. But old Merckel advanced solemnly to meet +him, seized him by the hand, and led him to a seat of honour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You, too, are an unhappy father," he said to him in a voice quivering +with emotion. "Your heart, like mine, has been broken by the ruin of +your child. You, as well as myself and us all, has the tyrant up +yonder, on his conscience. So sit down, you miserable man, and take a +drop of something with us!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The drunkard, who was used to being fisticuffed and held up to +derision, even by those who bore him no ill-will, scarcely knew what to +make of this highly flattering reception. He glanced suspiciously round +him with his fishy eyes, and appeared to be considering earnestly +whether he should begin to brag or to weep. Meanwhile he drank all he +could lay hands on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look at this deplorable victim of baronial lust," Herr Merckel +continued. "A man who is deprived of the possibility of revenge must +lose his self-respect as he has, and degenerate into a sloven. Day and +night he broods inwardly on the wrong that has been done him. But even +the trodden-on worm turns at last, and who can blame us if we wish with +all our hearts that the miscreant should not live to see another day?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Strike him dead!" spluttered the carpenter, suddenly waxing furious, +but there was only a faint echo in response, for to the men who were +now soldiers under orders for active service the glibly made suggestion +seemed no longer a trifle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel assumed an air of holy horror. "For shame, dear people! we +must not listen to such treason. I, being your mayor, cannot +countenance it. To strike him down in broad daylight would be an +unwarrantable act of violence, and I wonder you dare entertain such an +idea for a moment. But who can stem the torrent of righteous wrath that +vents itself in imprecations and anathemas? And so it is my most +earnest desire that our arch-enemy and tyrant may die in his bed +to-night, or disappear and never be seen again, or that his body may be +found to-morrow morning in the river Maraune. Then it would at least be +clearly proved that there is still a God above to judge and condemn +sinners. Amen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Amen," growled his listeners, and folded their horny hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, alas! it won't come to pass. We shall live to see the miscreant +fatten and prosper, and grow grey in this vale of tears. To-morrow he +will ride up triumphantly and drag out my Felix like a lamb to the +slaughter. And others who have demurred by a word or look will be +sacrificed too. Indeed I shall be very much surprised if any of you +escape with your lives. It is his intention, I firmly believe, to +extirpate every Schrandener from off the face of the earth. Like a herd +of cattle that has been purchased for the shambles, he'll drive you +forth tomorrow morning, leaving your widows and orphans behind to weep +and bewail your fate."</p> + +<p class="normal">An ejaculation of fury arose, so loud and violent that even the inciter +of it recoiled in alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quietly, dear people, quietly! No law-breaking. Although, truly, there +is no informer amongst us, we would sooner bite our tongues out than +betray each other. Hackelberg knows that. Thereby hangs a tale, eh, old +friend? But who knows that our <i>Herr Captain</i> may not himself be +hanging about outside, spying through the windows."</p> + +<p class="normal">Five or six heads turned, and were pressed against the panes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You think he wouldn't presume to spy on us? Oh, I can assure you he is +not the one to stop short at any low trick. I know what you'd like to +say, and I can't blame you for it--that if you catch him sneaking +around at night-time, woe betide him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We'll strike him dead! Strike him dead!" fumed the topers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be for ever screaming that, children; it offends my ears. So +much can be achieved quietly. Thus, bang! Some one has fired. Bang +again--another report. Simply a poacher in the forest. It swarms with +deer, eh, Hackelberg?" He laughed, and clicked his tongue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mustn't sit dozing there, my man. One would think you had no more +blood in your veins than a jelly-fish. Have you forgotten how the late +Baron had you flogged till your skin hung in ribbons. <i>Potztausend</i>! +How you danced and bellowed! It was a charming spectacle."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hackelberg writhed and grunted over his glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At that time you were a sportsman, a terror to your master, and your +bullet never missed its mark. Drink away, man! It's difficult to +believe now that you were ever a good shot."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am, still," lisped the carpenter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ha, ha!--pardon my laughing, old fellow. To begin with, you don't even +know what you've done with your gun."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But--I do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And besides, your hand has become too slack, and your honour has +evaporated, and your courage with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The carpenter laughed. An evil light gleamed in the corners of his +eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What? You would maintain that you have a spark of honour left in your +composition when you submit without a murmur to your daughter being +brought to shame? And what's more, you can bear to see her and her +seducer at large. Didn't she, your own flesh and blood, scorn you and +slap away your proffered hand? Ungrateful, disrespectful wench that she +is!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The carpenter staggered to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one follow me," he roared, and shook his fist</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where are you going?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's no business of any one's."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners, even in their wrath, could not resist making fun of +the drunkard, but Merckel signed to them to let him go in peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is going to scratch up his gun from the dungheap," he explained. +"Still, what good will it do?" he added with a sigh, while his eyes +wandered uneasily to the door. "He'll take care not to deliver himself +into our hands at night. Tomorrow, at dawn of day, he'll come, when +none of you can defend yourselves, and hand you over to your +executioners, along with my son Felix, and none of you will see +Schranden again. So drink your last, children--take leave of old Father +Merckel---- Ah! there comes Amalie," he said, interrupting himself, and +the lackadaisical expression of his face changed to one of cheerful +expectancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door was thrown open, and Amalie burst in greatly excited. She +whispered something hurriedly in his ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">He beamed, and folded his fat hands as if in prayer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Children," he cried, "there is yet a judge in Heaven. The Baron is in +the village."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Schrandeners rose from their seats yelling with delight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he? Who has seen him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell them, Amalie!" he urged the barmaid, and sank back exhausted, +like a person who is satisfied that his day's work is done.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Amalie told them. She had waited till the men on guard had finished +their beer, and had taken a little stroll in the moonlight to get a +breath of fresh air. Then she had seen a man coming across the fields +from the Cats' Bridge. He was going in the direction of the churchyard, +and wore an officer's coat with scarlet collar and gold buttons.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was he armed?" inquired a cautious son of Schranden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes; she had seen his sabre flash in the moonlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">This information afforded food for reflection.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has gone to inspect the guard," suggested some one, scratching his +head.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel laughed ironically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since how long has it been customary to review sentinels in the +churchyard?" he exclaimed. "I tell you what he has gone there for. He +wishes to pay his dear, chaste <i>Herr Papa</i> a visit--to swear on his +grave that he will avenge him, so soon as you are delivered into his +hands as soldiers. Congratulate yourselves on the expedition."</p> + +<p class="normal">At this juncture an ally cropped up on whom he had ceased to count. The +old carpenter rushed in at the door, flourishing in his right hand an +old fowling-piece, on which hung straw and manure. He seemed in a +perfect transport of fury, beating his breast and capering about like +one possessed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who said I had no sense of honour," he screamed; "and that I allowed +my child to be ruined? Where's the hussy who has brought shame and +disgrace on my grey hairs? I won't make her a coffin. No; I'll shoot +her down--I'll shoot them both."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come along to the churchyard," cried a voice among the villagers, who +felt their courage rising.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old landlord winced. "No, not to the churchyard," he exhorted them. +"In the first place, the ground is sacred; and in the second, you might +miss him there. If you really wish to settle matters quietly with him +once for all--I'm not supposed to know what you have against him, and +don't wish to know--well, my advice to you is to go to the Cats' +Bridge. Just there, you know, the bank is wooded--not thickly, +certainly, but thick enough for you to hide behind."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But suppose he returned by way of the village and the drawbridge?" put +in the cautious trooper again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herr Merckel knew better. "Not he!" he laughed. "The Cats' Bridge is +handier."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let's be off, then, to the Cats' Bridge," yelled the carpenter, +bumping the butt-end of his gun against the chairs and tables. There +was a general stampede. Herr Merckel crammed bottles of schnaps into as +many pockets as he could catch hold of, as his customers hurried out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take it, friends," he cried, "and welcome! Defend your honour--defend +your honour!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, when the last had gone, he mopped his perspiring brow, and +folding his hands, exclaimed with an uneasy sigh--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Amalie, if only they don't offer him violence!"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">On reaching the highroad Boleslav saw the figure of a girl come out +from the shadow of the churchyard yews, and advance to meet him with +hesitating footsteps.</p> + +<p class="normal">The moment to which he had looked forward with tender yearning for +eight years had come at last, yet his heart beat no quicker. "You ought +to be pleased; congratulate yourself," he said inwardly. "She loves +you! She saved you ... has freed you from Regina." And something echoed +sadly within him, "From Regina!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The contour of the too slender figure was sharply defined against the +moonlit background. The shoulders looked angular, and her hips fell in +straight, ungraceful lines from the high-waisted bodice.</p> + +<p class="normal">He jumped over the ditch, and held out both his hands to her. With a +prudish simper she placed hers behind her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be so impetuous," she lisped.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was amazed. The action chilled him, and almost excited his contempt; +but he was ashamed of the emotion, and tried to suppress it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have kept me waiting a long time, Regina."</p> + +<p class="normal">The face she turned on him was illuminated by the moon, and he saw +plainly how insignificant and meagre it had become. She tossed her head +scornfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My name is <i>Helene</i>," she said. "I am sorry you have forgotten it;" +and pouting, she turned her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">He winced. "Pardon," he stammered; "it was a slip of the tongue."</p> + +<p class="normal">This was certainly an unfortunate beginning. She made another grimace, +but seemed disposed to accept his apology.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let us stay here," she begged. "I'm afraid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What of?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of the churchyard ... if you <i>will</i> know."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again he had to struggle against a feeling of contempt. In all she said +and did he found himself involuntarily comparing her with Regina, and +the comparison was immeasurably to her disadvantage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know how timid I am," she said, as they retraced their steps. "It +was rash of me to have chosen this place for an appointment; indeed it +was exceedingly rash to come at all--and if it weren't----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Instead of finishing her sentence she cast at him an affected sidelong +glance. Then, as he offered to help her over the ditch she gave a +little scream and said, "No, no!"</p> + +<p class="normal">His half-defined sensation of disappointment now gave place to blank +astonishment. She gazed round her nervously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can't stay here either," she whispered, "If I were caught here +alone with a gentleman, I believe I should die of shame."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where do you wish to go, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must decide."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. Come into the wood."</p> + +<p class="normal">She clasped her hands together with an agitated old-maidish gesture.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you thinking of?" she exclaimed. "At night ... with a +gentleman!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He rubbed his eyes. Was it really possible, what he heard and saw? +Could this be Helene, the guardian angel to whom he had looked up, as +to a being belonging to another world?</p> + +<p class="normal">But perhaps it was he who was to blame. Perhaps the language of +innocence and virtue was no longer intelligible to him because of the +fair savage who had perverted his tastes, and filled his imagination +with impure pictures.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then let us walk quietly along the highroad," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if some one comes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can see that no one <i>is</i> coming."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet some one might ..."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was at a loss for an answer. A silence ensued, and then he said, +"Won't you take my arm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, I don't know whether I ought," replied the love of his youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">And again they walked on in silence. It almost seemed as if they had +nothing at all to say to each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina is waiting!" a voice cried within him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How silent you are!" Helene lisped, playfully pinching his elbow with +two of the finger-tips that lay on his arm. "You wicked man! Haven't +you a little bit of liking left for me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt he had no right to say "No." She had been true to him, had +trusted his word for eight long years; he dared not prove himself +unworthy now of her faith in him. When he had reassured her with a +stammered "Of course, of course," she sighed, a deep-drawn, languishing +sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hear such dreadful things about you," she said, "that I don't know +what to believe. Tell me it's not true."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?" he asked wearily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, a girl can't discuss such matters. Immoral things, I mean. In old +days you were a good, noble fellow, and I can't believe it's true that +you've altered so completely."</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew a little closer to him. In doing so, she dropped her blue silk +reticule. As he stooped--with her--to pick it up, the peak of his cap +brushed her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, take care!" she simpered, drawing back hastily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A thousand pardons!" he answered, in a tone of rigid politeness, and +bit his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, you don't answer my question," she continued. "Perhaps it is +true, then, what people say! I should be sorry to think that poor +unhappy me had been so deceived in you. But papa always thought you +would come to a bad end." She said this with such a ludicrous little +air of superiority, that he could not help smiling.</p> + +<p class="normal">She seemed to discern that she was appearing absurd in his eyes, and +went on in a deeply injured tone, "Ah, it's all very well to laugh at a +poor girl, whose intentions towards you are so kind, and who would give +anything to prevent your ruin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please, do not trouble yourself on my account," he replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now you are making yourself out worse than you are," she interposed. +"I know you have a noble nature at bottom. And if fate parts us for +ever, I shall always, always keep a warm place for you in my heart. Oh, +what bitter tears have I shed for you many a time! And I've prayed +every night to God to keep the dear friend of my youth from sin, and +from wicked revengeful thoughts, and to give him a good conscience."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid the behaviour of the Schrandeners is not exactly +calculated to cure a man of revengeful thoughts," he replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned up her sharp little nose. "The Schrandeners are an uncouth +lot," she remarked. "And one can't have much to do with them. I would +much rather stay altogether with my aunt in Wartenstein. There at least +one associates with respectable, well-mannered townspeople, who lift +their hats to a lady when they meet her in the street. Not a single +Schrandener, with the exception of Herr Merckel, and Felix of course, +dreams of doing such a thing. Felix," she added with a sigh, "has the +manners of a gentleman and an officer." Then as if something had +suddenly recalled the events of the afternoon to her mind, she +screamed, wrung her hands and said, "Oh, Boleslav, Boleslav!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it, Helene?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Boleslav, how could you be so wicked! Poor, poor Felix! I did not see +it myself, for I was in the back-garden drawing radishes, but they told +me afterwards how you slashed at his head with your drawn sabre, till +it poured with blood." She shuddered and shook with suppressed sobs. +Then she wrenched her hand out of his arm and skipped to the opposite +side of the road. "Go! I won't have anything more to do with you," she +cried. "You acted in a harsh and cruel manner----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you don't understand, dear Helene," he protested.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And he was your schoolfellow and playmate, and used to play +hide-and-seek with us both in the garden. He often climbed over the +hedge for you to get your ball when you had tossed it too far, and he +used to give you guinea-pigs. Have you forgotten everything? You ought +to remember the dear old times."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because of the guinea pigs, eh?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh,--and to think that you have shut him up in the cold dark church! +Papa is of opinion that you have no business to do it; he says he will +report your conduct to the <i>kommando</i>, and that probably you will get +the worst of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">She resembled her father so little, he thought, that his words of +thunder when repeated by her lips sounded the most insipid chatter. And +it was on this cackling little hen that he had let the great question +of to be, or not to be, hang!</p> + +<p class="normal">She had now come back to his side, and with a mincing gesture pushed +her hand again through his arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They say that you intend carrying him off to-morrow a prisoner, to be +tried by a court-martial, and that he will be shot dead for certain. +But it must be a lie. It is, isn't it? You couldn't do such a thing; I +wouldn't believe it of you. You are not so bad as all that."</p> + +<p class="normal">He suppressed an exclamation of impatience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Say you won't?" she besought, wiping her eyes. "If <i>I</i> ask you, dear +Boleslav, to let him go free, you will grant me the favour--I know you +will."</p> + +<p class="normal">She spoke calmly, as if the request she made were merely a casual one. +But there was secret anxiety in the eyes that glanced at his +suspiciously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear, dear Boleslav!" she continued more urgently, her arm trembling +violently, "if you care for me the very least little bit, don't let us +part before you have promised me this. I will cherish your memory +always in my heart, if Fate is cruel enough to separate us for ever, +and will at least never cease to pray for you and bless you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry, Helene," he said, moved to speaking more warmly by her now +evident distress, "if I must seem hard and inexorable to you. But it is +all of no good. Your wish cannot possibly be fulfilled."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had not in the least expected this answer, and regarded him for a +second with a cold, angry expression. Then suddenly she burst out +weeping, and sank against the trunk of a tree for support, with her +thin hands before her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the same moment the report of a gun was heard in the distance, the +echo of which slowly rolled through the woodlands.</p> + +<p class="normal">Helene gave a frightened cry, and, throwing up her hands, sobbed out--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now they have shot him for certain, because you, inhuman monster, have +commanded it! Oh dear! have you <i>no</i> mercy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Listening in the direction from which the gunshot had come, he did his +best to soothe her.</p> + +<p class="normal">That the shot had anything to do with Felix Merckel was, of course, out +of the question.</p> + +<p class="normal">It had undoubtedly been fired in the wood, on the farther side of the +Castle, probably by a poacher on the track of a wild red deer.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she sobbed more violently than ever--</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's all very well ... but you ... you ... intend dragging him out to +his death--you know you do."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her increasing agitation began to bewilder Boleslav. He assured her he +would do everything in his power to ameliorate Felix's sentence. He +himself would testify to his being hopelessly intoxicated at the time. +His old rancour against himself, his wounded vanity, all should be +cited in extenuation of his offence, and might influence his judges to +mildness.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she was not satisfied, and at last dropped on her knees in the clay +soil, and cried aloud--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be merciful! be noble! Save him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For God's sake, stand up!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I shall not. In the dust I'll kneel to you and implore your +mercy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But don't you see that I shall be imputing to myself a murderous +design if I represent him as innocent?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind," she sobbed. "If you really love me, you won't object to +making this little sacrifice for my sake."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then it began to dawn on him that it was not for the pleasure of seeing +him she had summoned him to her side, but, in accordance with a +preconceived plan, to make use of his love for her on behalf of +another. And of such stuff as this the woman was made, of whom for long +years he had considered himself unworthy! This was the radiant angel +who had represented his ideal of purity and goodness, whose name he had +held too sacred to mention in the same breath as Regina's!</p> + +<p class="normal">And Regina, the dishonoured, the outcast! What worlds she seemed now +above this sly virtue!</p> + +<p class="normal">A wild laugh burst from him. "Why did you not tell me at once that you +were in love with some one else?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She started. "That is a slander!" she cried. "I am an honest, innocent +girl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I presume you are betrothed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She began to cry again, though even in her grief she did not forget to +carefully brush the mud from her skirts.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Boleslav," she wailed, "it's all your fault. Why did you keep me +waiting for you so long? And why have you given people so much cause to +gossip about you? And then you know, there was papa! His consent could +never have been won! What was I, poor girl, to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please, say no more. It really doesn't matter!" he broke in cheerily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You aren't angry with me, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no! not in the least!"</p> + +<p class="normal">In silence he accompanied Helene back to the village, took a friendly +farewell of her, and promised to do all he could to save her <i>fiancé</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She thanked him, made a formal little curtsey, and they parted.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so ended the great love of his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he watched the shadow of her meagre little figure disappear behind +the houses, his whole soul cried out for Regina in uncontrollable +boundless jubilation. Now the road was free--free for sinful, exultant +love.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what was sin, when virtue had collapsed so deplorably? How could +there be any evil, when what was good appeared so absurd and +contemptible?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take her in your arms--crush her to your breast--even to-morrow shall +not cheat you of her.... She shall follow you to the camp, from battle +to battle--let her wear men's clothes like that Leonore Prohaska, the +heroine whom all Germany admires and honours!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina! Regina!" he carolled anew, stretching out his arms exultingly, +in anticipation. He bounded over the moonlit meadows, and higher and +darker every minute rose the wooded bank of the river before him.</p> + +<p class="normal">She would be standing on the Cats' Bridge looking out for him, as she +had always done.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina!" he shouted over the river. But no answer came. Deep silence +all around. There was only a faint rustle among the young leaves of the +willows that sounded like slumberous breathing through half-closed +lips; and a gentle splashing came up from the invisible river. Its +waters were low, and broke on the sharp pebbles. He climbed the steep +steps.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Regina!" he called again. Still silence. Then he saw that in the +centre of the plank, the rickety hand-rail had given way: rotten +splinters hung on either side. Horror-stricken, he looked down at the +river.</p> + +<p class="normal">On its silver surface floated a woman's corpse.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">When the Schrandeners left the Black Eagle they dispersed to their +homes, with the intention of arming themselves to the best of their +ability.</p> + +<p class="normal">Half of them did not turn up again. The others--about twenty in +number--careered in detachments behind the limping carpenter, round the +Castle island in the direction of the Cats' Bridge. Once united under +the shelter of the bushes, they believed they would be unseen and +unfollowed. They sneaked in silence through the damp grass; only the +old drunkard insisted on keeping up an incessant chatter and mumbling. +He conversed excitedly with his gun as if it had been a human +being--shook and exhorted it not to fail him. From time to time he held +the butt-end to his cheek in an aiming position, and when his range of +vision became confused by the sight of his own dancing fingers, or +imaginary bats and fireflies, he would take a long pull at his bottle +to clear it.</p> + +<p class="normal">On reaching the Cats' Bridge, which darkly spanned the river, its +rivets glittering in the moonlight, the Schrandeners divided, some +going to one side of it and the rest keeping to the other. As +noiselessly as their half-drunken condition would permit, they slid +down the decline in order to screen themselves behind the alders. Those +who had firearms, led by the old carpenter, stationed themselves on the +edge of the sand-bank, so that they might bring their victim down from +the plank bridge, should he by any chance escape the meditated attack +from below of pikes, scythes, and flails.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the space of five minutes there was scarcely a sound audible, +beyond the crackling and swishing among the twigs caused by some one +stretching out a hand for his bottle of schnaps. Death-like stillness +reigned too on the island.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the carpenter, whose eyes were momentarily sharpened by brandy, +and who was on the alert like a tiger crouching for a spring, discerned +a figure emerge and walk slowly and softly on to the Cats' Bridge. It +must have been cowering in the boscage above, on the opposite bank, for +several minutes.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the figure came out of the shadow into the full light of the moon, +he recognised his daughter. Clearly she had discovered the assassins, +and was now on her way to warn the Freiherr of his peril.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go back, you vermin!" he cried, all a sportsman's fury at being +deprived of his certain prey taking possession of him and clouding his +erratic brain.</p> + +<p class="normal">She ducked her head, but glided forwards, holding on to the hand-rail.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Back, or I'll aim!"</p> + +<p class="normal">With one frantic leap she tried to propel herself forwards, but a shot +was fired at the same instant, and she sank noiselessly against the +rotten balustrade. It snapped in two, and a dark, lifeless mass fell +from the heights of the Cats' Bridge into the river. The water rose and +fell in sparkling cascades. In the shallow bottom the stones rolled and +ground against each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then slowly the whirling, swaying body rose to the surface of the +ripples, till the face gazed upwards and was brilliantly illumined by +the moon.</p> + +<p class="normal">A profound stillness reigned on the bank.</p> + +<p class="normal">Motionless, and with bated breath, every one stared down on the dead, +upturned face, with its wide-open eyes, which seemed full of warning +and rebuke. A corner of her skirt had caught on a gnarled stump of a +tree, which projected into the river; thus she was anchored, and +prevented from drifting down with the stream.</p> + +<p class="normal">Softly and cautiously, as if playing with it, the current moved the +body to and fro, and no one, however much he might wish to avoid it, +could help seeing the head as it reposed on the water.</p> + +<p class="normal">The silence lasted a full ten minutes, and then one of the +Schrandeners, who had helped to incarnate the evil conscience of the +village, shyly with bent head slunk away, making the bushes crackle and +rustle as he went. A second followed; a third, a fourth, ... until at +last the scene of the catastrophe was deserted.</p> + +<p class="normal">The carpenter, who had been contemplating his daughter's dead face, +grumbling, and talking to himself the while, found himself alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly he roared out hoarsely, "Fire! fire! fire!" and hurled his gun +at the corpse. It went splashing to the bottom of the river, and he +staggered after the others as fast as his legs would carry him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing stirred now near the Cats' Bridge. Boleslav was safe!</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">Some time elapsed before he was able to take in what he saw. +He stared +in stupefaction, first at the floating corpse, then at the broken +balustrade.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You should have had it repaired long ago," he thought, and toyed +dazedly with the fragments.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, as if waking from a dream, he went back to the bank, and climbed +down the ravine, where he found broken branches lying about, and +freshly-made footmarks. A vague suspicion of what had happened dawned +on him, and then quickly died out; the hope that there might yet be +time to restore her to life absorbing his mind, to the exclusion of +every other emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">He crawled cautiously along the tree-stump as near the body as he could +get, and drew it ashore with the hilt of his sabre.... Now she lay on +the shining sand, and a hundred little rivulets ran from every part of +her. He took his sabre-blade and cut her wet jacket off her, and became +aware of the blood that had dyed her chemise crimson. As he ripped this +away, too, he found the fount from which the stream flowed in a wound +beneath her left breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now he knew what that gunshot had meant. And when the first wild +impulse for vengeance, which seemed to scream in his ear, "Go and burn +their houses to the ground, and hew them down till you yourself are +hewn down!" had subsided and consumed its own rage, he flung himself on +the corpse, and broke into passionate weeping. He lay thus for a long +time, then slowly rose, and, bearing her on his shoulders, carried her +through the footprints of her murderers up the steep incline over the +Cats' Bridge to the island. She was no light burden, and three times he +sank on to his knees, gasping under her weight.</p> + +<p class="normal">Near the shrubbery that surrounded the cottage he was obliged to put +her down, for he feared he should swoon from his exertions. She lay on +the same spot where he had found her, motionless and bleeding, after +his father's funeral.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now as then the moonbeams played on the still pale face; only now she +would not revive, could never be recalled to life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They have succeeded at last!" he cried, breaking into a loud, bitter +laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">A sharp spasm of pain shot through the back of his head; he felt as if +he must go raving mad if those fixed, glazed eyes continued to look up +at him much longer.</p> + +<p class="normal">But his anxiety to get the corpse interred before he went away brought +him to his senses. The Schrandeners were capable of laying the murdered +girl beneath the earth somewhere in the heart of the forest; thereby +removing all evidence of their crime, and crippling the hands of +justice.</p> + +<p class="normal">The one person he felt could be relied on to do what was right in the +matter was the old pastor. Much as he might have denounced and +slandered her hitherto, he, at all events, would not be a party to this +last foul outrage. Boleslav therefore resolved to rouse him from his +bed, and to bring him to the spot, so that later when he himself was, +God knew where, a witness might not be wanting.</p> + +<p class="normal">The belfry clock struck eleven as he reached the village street. The +sentinels were parading noiselessly up and down in front of the church +door, otherwise the whole world was apparently wrapped in profound +slumber.</p> + +<p class="normal">But from one of the cottages he passed, loud blows, oaths, and scolding +cries fell upon his ear. He looked over the hedge, and saw the green +coffin which was the carpenter Hackelberg's trade-mark, looming +uncannily from its stand.</p> + +<p class="normal">The drunkard's imbecile formula occurred to him. "His wish is likely to +be fulfilled," he thought; "he has now the chance of making a coffin +for his daughter;" and in a bitterly ironical mood he determined to +communicate to the old man, if he were still in possession of his +faculties, his child's terrible end, and to demand the fulfilment of +his promise.</p> + +<p class="normal">He entered the gloomy passage. From a room on the right proceeded the +gurgling cries of the thick, drunken voice which excited his +involuntary disgust. Mingled with it was a spasmodic hissing and +whizzing that he could not explain, till he had lifted the latch and +witnessed a spectacle so horrible and revolting that, rich as the day +had been for him in horrors, he recoiled before it faint and +shuddering.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old carpenter, his clothes half torn off, bleeding from the throat +and arms, the moonlight bringing into prominence the hideous filthiness +of the room, plunged about as if seized with an attack of St. Vitus's +dance. Every limb quivered violently, and he foamed at the mouth. His +eyes rolled in a maniacal frenzy, and the muscles of his face twitched +convulsively. A huge plane hung from his right hand, the handle of +which, formed in the shape of a ring, had grazed his knuckles, and +which he vainly endeavoured to steady with his palsied fingers. +Whenever he came to a wooden surface, whether on the table, the walls, +or the planks that covered the floor, he tried to plane it, and this +caused the hissing sound which always ended abruptly with a rasping +jerk.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It'll soon be ready now!" he cried. "One more blow" ... ssh ... "and +the shaping's done." ... ssh ... ssh ... "Damn the bats . .. why can't +they leave a man alone?" ... ssh ... ssh ... "Forwards ... Listen! +Fire! fire! The Castle's on fire! Fire! fire! Keep out of the way, you +baggage--if you tell any one you've seen me--with the tinder and the +bundle of flax" ... ssh ... ssh ... "I won't finish your coffin." ... +ss ... ssh ... "Get out of my sight, you snake." He lunged against +Boleslav, who, with a presentiment of what ghastly disclosures were to +be made to him, had planted himself in his way. The drunkard appeared +to be labouring under the delusion that Boleslav was his daughter. +"Go back-off the Cats' Bridge--the Baron shall get his deserts +today--back--or----" He laid the plane against his cheek, and took aim; +then, as if confronted by another vision, he yelled once more at the +top of his voice, trembling with fright, "Fire! fire!" and made an +attempt to creep under the table, planing the tattered tails of his +coat as he went. "Fire! fire! Get away--I didn't do it! My daughter is +a liar.... The flames are spreading. Fire! fire! Look at the flames!"</p> + +<p class="normal">With the flames he seemed to reach the zenith of his delirium, and then +gradually descended again to the bats, which he made a feint of +chivying out of his way with his arms and legs, and then resumed +planing the legs of the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nearly ready, dear sir." ... ssh ... ssh ... "Just a couple more +boards." ... ss ... ssh ... "My daughter's debauched ... There can be +no mistake," ... ss ... ssh ... "finely polished." ... ss ... "Now +there she lies, and will howl no more." ... ssh ... "What, not gone yet? +Your father'll drive you out." ... ss ... ssh ... "The Baron will get a +shot lodged in his ribs to-day." ... ssh ... "We want extra hands. +Hurrah, men!--Hurrah, Merckel!" ... ss ... "Come off the plank--down +from the bridge, you beast. Have you any more French behind you? If you +don't go at once----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Here he made for Boleslav. He looked in the moonlight, with his +tottering legs, his palsied head, and his flapping arms, like some +ghastly phantasmal monster, whose limbs were pieced together by a +hundred movable joints. Just as he was reaching his goal, the flames +began to pursue him once more, and to escape from them he crept, with a +piercing shriek this time, beneath a stack of wood, where, with dense +swarms of bats, the fearful cycle of his delusions recommenced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Boleslav, shaken to the foundations of his being by the awful truth the +old man had revealed in his delirious ravings, felt he could no longer +bear to gaze on such a hideous scene.</p> + +<p class="normal">He fled from the house as if the imaginary flames which so terrified +the maniac were pursuing him too, and he did not pause till he had left +the village behind him, and found himself encompassed by the shadows of +the ruins.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The church clock had struck the midnight hour, by the time Boleslav got +back to the spot where he had left Regina's soulless body.</p> + +<p class="normal">A protecting darkness now veiled the white face, for the moon had +passed behind a bank of clouds, yet even from the darkness the great +lustreless eyes gazed appealingly up at him, as if asking a question to +which there was no answer here or hereafter.</p> + +<p class="normal">He threw himself on his knees beside her, and, saying good-bye to the +two stars, whose light had gone out, he tenderly closed their lids. She +now looked as if she were asleep, and he breathed more freely. He felt +something almost approaching a painful satisfaction as he watched by +her. "You belong to me, only to me," he said. "No one else shall have +any part or lot in you, in death as in life."</p> + +<p class="normal">What he had resolved to do, in a spirit of defiance, as he left the +murderer's house, in his present calmer mood still seemed the most +commendable course to take. Past events appeared to him now like a +brazen chain of guilt, to which for years one link after the other had +been added. And into this chain had been forged, till it was made a +component part of it, an unlawful love. For the sake of this love which +was sinful as hell and pure as heaven, that which only the silence +of the night had witnessed should in the silence of the night be +buried--buried with this corpse.</p> + +<p class="normal">What retribution could be rendered by the poor tribunal of man, in a +case in which fate had so clearly interfered and pronounced sentence? +Would it not be profaning the dead body to drag it into the glare of +publicity, and so expose it to the snivelling curiosity of the vulgar +herd?</p> + +<p class="normal">Should he permit the priest who had cursed her in her lifetime to +consign her to the grave with a perfunctory blessing? And would not +this involve her being laid in a coffin manufactured by her father's +blood-guilty hands, followed by his accomplices as mourners, hooting +and throwing stones?</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah no; it should not be! She should be the prey, now she was dead, of +no Schrandener wolves. He alone, for whom she had lived, for whom she +had gone to meet her death, must prepare her last resting-place. He +would hide her in the lap of mother earth, and smooth the turf so +carefully above her that no body-snatcher would ever discover and +profane the holy spot. He lifted the corpse in his arms and carried it +to the grass-plot. The moon had risen high in the heavens and shrouded +the landscape in a veil of silver. From the dewy glistening grass rose +the fragments of the old Diana statue in dazzling whiteness. Here he +bore her and let her sink on the turf, her neck supported by the +cracked pedestal, so that with her face turned towards the moon, she +looked as if she had fallen asleep in a sitting position. Then he +sought a burial-place. His eye fell on the black, four-cornered patch +which Regina had intended for his father's grave. How vividly she came +back to him, as she had looked then, in the full splendour of her +sunburnt strength and beauty, driving the heavy spade into the ground +with her naked foot, as if it had been a ramrod. If he had not then +interrupted her in her work, he would to-day have been spared his.</p> + +<p class="normal">The service of love she had wished to render his father it was now his +duty to do for her. What could be simpler than to go on digging deeper +the grave that she had begun that day, little dreaming it would be her +own?</p> + +<p class="normal">He fetched a spade from the kitchen, where the fire she had kindled was +still smouldering, and began with all his strength to throw up the sod. +From time to time he paused and glanced at her. She seemed well content +to sit there in the bright moonlight, and quietly contemplate his +labours. Now and then, when the shadow of a cloud flickered on her +face, he half fancied she moved, and was going to rise to her feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then that tormenting scepticism that all experience in the presence of +their beloved dead overwhelmed him. He called her name and rushed to +her side. Her hand rested on Diana's head, which lay close to her in +the grass. He dared not touch her, and stole back to his work, his face +buried in his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grave began to grow deep, and he feared that soon he might not be +able to climb on to the edge again. He went to get the flower-stand out +of the green-house, on the shelves of which she had ranged the plates +and dishes in such beautiful order.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one shall eat off them again!" he said, and dashed the earthenware +crockery on the floor, where it broke to atoms. He placed the stand +against the inside of the grave, to serve as a ladder, and then +continued throwing out the soil as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">By the time the clock in the village had boomed out the second hour of +the morning, his melancholy task was finished. He had no coffin for +her, but to prevent her lying on the black moist earth, he fetched from +his bed, which she had always taken pains to keep so daintily clean and +tidy, a quilt, and two feather pillows, and lined the grave with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now the time for parting had come. He raised her in his arms, and +bore her to the edge of the pit; then sitting down on the mound of turf +to take breath, he lifted her head on to his knees. Never before had he +been able to look at her so leisurely, for he had never dared trust +himself to let his eyes rest on her for long. Now he studied lovingly +every feature of the dead face, caressed the stiff cheeks, and wrung +the water from her heavy curls. A cold shiver passed through his frame. +He had held the wet body, with its dripping skirts, so long in his +arms, that his own clothes were damp from the contact.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Farewell!" he murmured, and kissed her on the forehead. He was going +to kiss her on the lips, but drew back quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You disdained them in life," he said to himself, "so in death they may +not belong to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">And then he edged the corpse nearer the grave, and jumped down on to +the top step of the stand. Slowly and cautiously he lifted her in, +stretched her on the quilt, and cushioned her head on the soft pillows.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once more he wanted to kiss her, but was afraid to leave the stand that +bridged her feet; so he contented himself with stroking her hands, +which he could reach from where he sat; then he clambered out of the +grave, drawing the stand after him with the top of the spade-handle. +But afterwards he found he had forgotten to draw a corner of the quilt +over her face, to prevent the soil from falling on it. "Flowers," he +thought, "will do as well;" and he went in search of them. Under the +trees in the park grew great masses of anemones and bluebells, and +there were violets and primroses, that she herself had cultivated, in +the garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">He gathered all he could see in the uncertain light. The anemones and +primroses had closed their calyxes in sleep, but the violets looked up +at him with their confiding blue eyes, as if inviting him to pluck +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">With his hands full he returned to the grave, and, as he looked down +into it, stood spell-bound at what he saw. It was indeed a picture of +almost magic loveliness. The moon had passed its height, and, shining +at the foot of the grave, illuminated it on the east side, so that the +head, reposing in its deep resting-place, was thrown out clearly in +relief, while the blood-stained body was hidden in darkest shadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">The still, white face seemed to smile up at him, as if lapped in +blissful dreams.</p> + +<p class="normal">He threw the flowers aside, and, crouching down in the loose earth he +had thrown up, stared and stared down on her, holding a solemn and +silent wake.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thoughts chased each other through his brain in a confused whirl, until +gradually he came to a calmer and more rational frame of mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">He reflected on how she had gone through life despised and guilt-laden, +and yet unrepentant, appearing to be satisfied with her past rather +than regretting it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once, in an hour of dire perplexity, he had asked himself whether it +was the dull indifference of the brute or the wiles of a devil that +made her will so strong and her conscience so lax, and he had not known +what to answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">To-day, when it was too late, her true nature was revealed to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">No, she had not been a brute or a devil, but simply a grand and +complete human being. One of those perfect, fully developed individuals +such as Nature created before a herding social system, with its +paralysing ordinances, bungled her handiwork, when every youthful +creature was allowed to bloom unhindered into the fulness of its power, +and to remain, in good and in evil, part and parcel of the natural +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">And as he pondered thus, it seemed to him that the mists which obscure +the source of human existence from human knowledge had dispersed a +little, and that he had been granted a deeper glimpse than most men +into the fathomless gulf of the Unknown. What is generally called good +and bad drifted about anchorless on the cloudy surface, but below lay +dreaming in majestic strength, the Natural.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And those whom Nature favours," he said aloud to himself, "she lets +take root in her mysterious depths, so that they spring boldly into the +light, with vision undimmed and conscience untrammelled by the +befogging illusions of morality and worldly wisdom."</p> + +<p class="normal">Such a highly favoured, completely-endowed human creature was this +abused and abandoned woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I for whom she lived and died, have I deserved such a sacrifice?" +he meditated further. "Was I worthy of the trust and confidence she so +unhesitatingly placed in me?</p> + +<p class="normal">"With ruthless severity he sat in judgment on himself, and he came out +of the ordeal anything but unscathed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I belong to the other type," he thought, "to the people who +are torn all their life long between right and wrong, and who lose +their way in the fog. We regard the tribute Nature demands of us as +impurity and vice, and yet the restraint of moral laws often appears to +us hollow and far-fetched. Thus we vacillate perpetually between +defiance and fear of them. We crave for the good opinion of the world, +in which we don't believe, and tremble in face of its condemnation, +which we despise and contemn in our hearts. Once I thought it would be +an indelible disgrace to bury my father in this unconsecrated ground; +now I should be glad if I had done so. Once I tried to forget my +bitterness in the ambition of restoring my ancestral inheritance to its +pristine glory; now I am delighted at the thought of shaking its dust +from my feet. Then I held the Schrandeners to be mere barbarous +savages; but to-day I awake to the fact that my own race has made them +what they are.... <i>Then</i> I thought this woman too degraded to take +bread from her hand; to-day I am weeping by her grave. All my heart was +centred on the extinguished flame of youth's first foolish fancy; I +insisted on making the arbitress of my destiny a simpering, prudish +minx, for whom I really had long ceased to care ... and I repulsed in +horror the most splendid and satisfying of natural loves. But truly +this natural love represented deadly sin, and tempted me to contaminate +my blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet when the worst came to the worst, and the life that flowed in my +veins had burst from the control of all laws, human and divine, could I +not have made atonement by paying the penalty of death?"</p> + +<p class="normal">And then the question occurred to him, whether the body he talked so +lightly of surrendering at his own caprice belonged exclusively to him? +What if it were the Fatherland's inviolable possession? Certainly, +then, he was not privileged to desecrate it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is well that in an hour of chaos like this, when good and evil, +right and wrong, honour and dishonour, seem to be swaying about in +hopeless confusion, and when the old God of our childhood with His +Heaven seems to have vanished away ... it is well for swooning men to +have one prop left to lean on, one firm rock to cling to, on which even +to be shipwrecked were a delightful relief. Such a prop, such a stay, +have I in my country."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus spake the son of his country's betrayer, and fervently folded his +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">The moon had shifted its radiance away from the grave, and the dead +face it had illumined now lay in shadow. It was scarcely possible to +distinguish it from the surrounding earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The time has come," he said, and looked round him.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the east glimmered the first rosy streak of dawn. A bluish haze +suffused the landscape, and above him in the branches began the dreamy +twitter of awakening birds. He was in the act of throwing the flowers +into the grave, when suddenly he changed his mind, and with a frown +cast them aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What need of such fastidious effeminacy?" he asked himself rebukingly. +"Dust has no reason to fear meeting dust."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he seized the spade, and shutting his eyes, began with zest to +shovel the dark earth over the beloved body. A quarter of an hour later +the grave was full. He laid the turf carefully in its original place, +and took care to remove the remnants of superfluous soil and scattered +flowers, so that when the sun rose no one could have found the place +where Regina slept for ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he searched for a stone to commemorate the sacred spot, his eyes +fell on the head of the ruined statue, which smiled at him in stony +vacancy. He lifted it, and planted it in the turf.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Diana, the chaste," he murmured, "shall serve her as a tombstone. The +sister by whom she will keep eternal watch is not unworthy of her."</p> + +<p class="normal">And again he flung himself on the grass and became lost in meditation. +On the stroke of six he rose, and made preparations to depart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They will be fools indeed," he muttered to himself, "if they don't +make an end of me to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">He filled his pistols with new cartridges, and sharpened his sabre, for +he was determined his life should be dearly purchased.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when he crossed the drawbridge to the village, he was greeted by +familiar and friendly faces. They belonged to Heide's sons, who were +making their way to the Schranden depôt. They pressed round him and +offered him their hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are come," said Karl Engelbert, "to put ourselves under your +command, for we wish to make amends for our conduct to you in the +past."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you with my whole heart," he replied. "All is forgiven and +forgotten."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he walked up to Schranden's gallant troopers, who, pale and with +chattering teeth, cowered near the church door, like criminals awaiting +execution.</p> + +<p class="normal">His comrades pointed out to each other in dismay the blood-stains on +his clothes, but not one dared ask him to explain how they came there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bring out the prisoner, and get a waggon for him," he ordered. Felix +Merckel was led out, but Boleslav did not deign to give him a glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">When farewells had been said, and all was in readiness for the march, +the old pastor made his way through the crowd. His face was haggard and +his hands shook.</p> + +<p class="normal">He hastened to Boleslav's side and whispered in his ear: "I hear that +Regina met her death last night.... I am willing to give her Christian +burial."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many thanks, your reverence," answered Boleslav, "but I have already +buried her with Pagan rites," and he turned away.</p> + +<p class="normal">A Schrandener, who, to ingratiate himself, had probably spent part of +the night in capturing Boleslav's horse, now came forward holding it, +with a servile grin.</p> + +<p class="normal">He swung into the saddle, and his sabre flew out of the scabbard. His +voice rang out clear and threatening above the heads of the crowd as he +gave the word of command.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Right, left. Quick march!"</p> + +<p class="normal">They left the village behind them; the woods loomed nearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not look back.</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">Of the career of Boleslav von Schranden afterwards, very +little is +known. It was considered advisable by the military authorities to +gazette him again into his old regiment, owing to the mutiny that had +taken place under his command.</p> + +<p class="normal">While the East Prussian Landwehr remained behind in the ancient +provinces, he obtained the much-coveted permission to go direct to the +seat of war.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is supposed that he fell at Ligny.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Regina or the Sins of the Fathers, by +Hermann Sudermann + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REGINA OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS *** + +***** This file should be named 33892-h.htm or 33892-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/9/33892/ + +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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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: Regina or the Sins of the Fathers + +Author: Hermann Sudermann + +Translator: Beatrice Marshall + +Release Date: October 30, 2010 [EBook #33892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REGINA OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=PWUTAAAAYAAJ&dq + + + + + + + Regina + or + The Sins of the Fathers + + + + + + + REGINA + OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS + + + BY + HERMANN SUDERMANN + + + + + _TRANSLATED BY_ + _BEATRICE MARSHALL_ + + + + + LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD + NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMVII + + + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY + John Lane. + + * * * + + COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY + John Lane Company. + + + + + + + REGINA + OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS + + + + + CHAPTER I + + +Peace was signed, and the world, which for so long had been the great +Corsican's plaything, came to itself again. It came to itself, bruised +and mangled, bleeding from a thousand wounds, and studded with +battle-fields like a body with festering sores. Yet, in the rebound +from bondage to freedom, men did not realise that there was anything +very pitiable in their condition. The ground from which their wheat +sprang, they reflected, would bear all the richer fruit from being +soaked in blood, and if bullets and bayonets had thinned their ranks, +there was now more elbow-room for those who were left. + +The yawning vacuums in the seething human caldron gave a man space to +breathe in. One great chorus of rejoicing from the Rock of Gibraltar to +the North Cape ascended heavenwards. Bells in every steeple were set in +motion, and from every altar and from every humble hearth arose prayers +of thanksgiving. Mourners hid their diminished heads, for the burst of +victorious song drowned their lamentations, and the earth absorbed +their tears as indifferently as it had sucked in the blood of their +fallen. + +In glorious May weather the Peace of Paris was concluded. Lilies +bloomed once more out of lakes of blood, and from the obscurity of +lumber-rooms the blood-saturated banner of the _fleur de lys_ was +dragged forth into the light of day. The Bourbons crept from their +hiding-places, whither they had been driven by fear of Robespierre's +knife. They rubbed their eyes and forthwith began to reign. They had +forgotten nothing and learnt nothing, except a new catchword from +Talleyrand's _en tout cas_ vocabulary, _i.e_. Legitimacy. The rest of +the world was too busily engaged in wreathing laurels to crown the +conquerors, and filling up bumpers to drink their health in, to pay any +attention to this farce of Bourbon government. All eyes were turned in +a fever of expectancy towards the West, whence were to come the +conquering heroes, the laurel-crowned warriors who had been willing to +sacrifice their lives for the honour of wife and child, for justice, +and for the sacred soil of their fatherland. They had been under the +fire of the Corsican Demon, the oppressor whom they in their turn had +hunted and run to earth, till at last he lay in shackles at their feet. + +When the victors began the homeward march, the German oaks were +bursting into leaf, soon to be laughingly plundered of their young +green foliage. On they came in swarms, first, joyous and lighthearted, +the pride and flower of the Fatherland, the sons of the wealthy, who, +as Volunteer Jaegers, with their own horses and their own arms, had gone +forth to the war of Liberation. Their progress through Germany was one +magnificent ovation. Wherever they came, their path was strewn with +roses, the most beautiful of maidens longed for the honour of winning +their love, and the most costly wines flowed like water. Behind them +followed a stream of Kossacks, riding over the German fields with a +loose rein. A year before, when they had galloped like a troop of +furies in the rear of the hunted remnant of the Grande Armee, the whole +country had greeted them as saviours of Germany. Public receptions had +been organised in their honour, hymns composed in their praise, and all +sorts of blue-eyed German sentiment was lavishly poured out on the +unwashed Tartar horde. To-day, too, they were conscientiously feted, +but the gaze of all true-hearted Germans was directed with intensest +longing beyond them, looking for those who were still to come, of whom +they seemed but the heralding shadows. + +And at last these came, the men of the people, who had taken all their +capital, their bare lives, in their hand, and gone forth to offer it up +for the Fatherland. They advanced with a sound as of bursting trumpets, +half hidden by dense columns of dust. Not exalted and splendid +beings as they had often been painted in the imagination of the +"stay-at-homes," with a halo of diamonds flashing round their heads, +and a cloak flung proudly like a toga round their shoulders. No; they +were faded and haggard, tired as overdriven horses, covered with +vermin, filthy and in rags; their beards matted with sweat and dust. +This was the plight in which they came home. Some were so emaciated and +ghastly pale that they looked as if they could hardly drag one weary +foot after the other; others wore a greedy, brutalised expression, and +the reflection of the lurid glare of war seemed yet to linger in their +sunken, hollow eyes. They held their knotty fists still clenched in the +habitual cramp of murderous lust. Only here and there shone tears of +pure, inspired emotion; only here and there hands were folded on the +butt-end of muskets in reverent, grateful prayer. But all were welcome, +and none were too coarse and hardened by their work of blood and +revenge to find balm in the tears and kisses of their loved ones, and +to greet with hope the dawn of purer times. Of course it could not be +expected that passions which had been lashed into such abnormal and +furious activity, would all at once calm down and slumber again. The +hand that has wielded a sword needs time before it can accustom itself +to the plough and scythe, and not every man knows how to forget +immediately the wild licence of the camp in the hallowed atmosphere of +home. + +Every peace is followed by a period of delirium. It was thus in Germany +in anno '14. That year, from which to this generation nothing has +descended but the echo of a unison of paeans, swelling organ-strains, +and clash of bells, was in reality more remarkable for tyranny and +crime than any year before or since. More especially was this the case +in districts where before the war the overweening arrogance and cruelty +of the French occupier had been most heavily felt. Here the beast was +let loose in man. The senses of those who stayed at home had been so +inflamed by the scent of blood from distant battle-fields, and the +smoke of burning villages, that they conjured up before their mental +eyes scenes of horror and devastation at which they had not been +present. Many thirsted for vengeance on secret wrongs, on acts of +cowardice and treachery as yet unexpiated. After all, it seemed +as if the awakened fervour of patriotism, the flowing streams of +freshly-spilled blood, could not suffice even now to wipe out the +memory of the shame and humiliation of previous years. + +No one had any suspicion, then, that the Corsican vulture, set fast in +his island cage, was already beginning to sharpen his iron beak, +preparatory to gnawing through its bars, and that before his final +capture thousands of veins were yet to be opened and drained of their +blood. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + +One August day in this memorable year, a party of young men were +gathered together in the parlour of a large country house. + +The oak table round which they were seated presented a goodly array of +tankards, and short, bulky bottles containing _schnaps_. Their faces, +flushed with brandy and enthusiasm, were almost entirely concealed from +view by the dense clouds of smoke they puffed from their huge pipes. + +They were defenders of their country only lately returned home, and +were revelling in reminiscences of the war. There was that distinct +family likeness among them which equality in birth, breeding, and +education often stamps on men between whom there exists no tie of +blood-relationship. + +Warfare had coarsened their honest, healthy countenances, and left its +mark there in many a disfiguring scar and gash. Two or three still wore +their arms in slings, and evidently none of them had as yet made up +their minds to lay aside the black, frogged military coat to which +they had become so proudly accustomed. For the most part they were +well-to-do yeomen belonging to the village of Heide and its outlying +hamlets, and though their homes were scattered they were united in a +strong bond of neighbourly friendship. Some still lived on their +fathers' patrimony, others had come into their own estate. It had never +been their lot to experience the pinch of poverty, to till the soil and +follow the plough, and so they had remained unaffected by the great +changes Stein's new code a few years before had brought about in the +position of the peasantry. In the spring, when the King's appeal to his +subjects had resounded through the land, they could afford to leave +their crops and, like the sons of the nobility, hurry with their own +arms and their own horses to enlist in the ranks of the volunteer +Jaegers. + +Only one member of the little group apparently belonged to another +station in life. He occupied the one easy-chair the house boasted, an +ungainly piece of upholstery, much the worse for wear. + +His face was pale, somewhat sallow in colouring. The features were +refined and delicately chiselled. The brown, melancholy eyes were +shaded by long black lashes, which when he looked down cast a heavy +fringe of shadow on his thin cheeks. Though he must certainly have been +the youngest of them all, having hardly completed his twenty-second +year, he looked like a man who had long ago ceased to take any pleasure +in the mere frivolities of life. + +On his smooth, square brow were lines that denoted energy and defiance, +and in the blue hollows round his eyes lay traces of a past sorrow. He +wore a grey overcoat that seemed too narrow across the shoulders, and +beneath it a woollen shirt finely tucked, and ornamented with a row of +mother-of-pearl buttons. The only military thing about him was the +forage-cap bearing the Landwehr badge, which he had pushed on to the +back of his head, to prevent the hard edge pressing on the scarcely +healed wound which made a lurid streak on his forehead, close to where +the dark hair clustered in heavy masses. + +He was the cynosure of all eyes. Every one waited anxiously for him to +take the lead in conversation. Next to him, on his right, sat a +muscular youth, not much older than himself, who regarded him with +unceasing and tender solicitude. To all appearances he was the host. +There was a patch of white plaster on one of his temples, but his +round, jovial face beamed radiantly nevertheless out of its frame of +unkempt fair hair that hung about his neck and throat in wildest +confusion. + +"I say, lieutenant, you are positively drinking nothing," he exclaimed, +pushing the bottle nearer him. "Because you aren't used to our beer, +and still less used to our schnaps, there's no reason why you should be +shy of swilling that red stuff of which we have plenty to spare.... We +aren't rich, as you know, but if you stopped here till Doomsday we +could supply you every day with a bottle like that. Couldn't we, lads?" + +The others assented, and pressed round him eagerly to clink their mugs +and liqueur-glasses against his cracked wine-glass. + +A ray of gratitude and pleasure illumined momentarily the sad, pale +face. + +"I knew," he said--"I knew that if I came here you'd make me feel at +home. Otherwise I should have gone on my way." + +"That would have been kind of you, I must say," cried the host---"what +did we enter into our covenant of blood for, and swear to be true till +death after our first battle, don't you remember? In the church at ... +where was it? I never can pronounce the name of the cursed hole!" + +"The hole was Dannigkow," answered the young stranger addressed as +"lieutenant." + +"Ah, yes, that's it!" the host went on. "And do you imagine we went +through that little ceremony with the sole purpose of letting you avoid +us in future? Was it for that we chose you for our commanding officer, +and blindly followed you into the thickest of the fight? No, Baumgart, +there's no cement like blood and powder. So the devil take it, man, you +must promise to stay with us a bit, now we've got you----" + +"Don't talk nonsense, old fellow, it is impossible," the lieutenant +replied, and blew thoughtfully on the purple mirror of his wine. But +his friend was not to be silenced. + +"You needn't be frightened," he continued, "that we shall plague you +with curious questions. From the first we got into the way of looking +on you as a sort of mystery. When we others used to lie by the bivouac +fire and talk of our homes and parents, our sweethearts and sisters, +your lips were resolutely sealed as they are now. And if one of us +plucked up courage to ask you where you came from, and what you had +been before the war, you always got up and walked away. We gave up +questioning you at last, and thought to ourselves, 'He has gone through +a furnace, may be, that has spoilt his life, and what concern is that +of ours?' You were a good comrade, all of us can testify to that, and +what is more, the most fearless, the bravest.... Ah, well, the fact is, +that you had only to tell one of us to cut off his right hand, and he'd +have done it without a murmur. Isn't it true, lads?" + +An exclamation of assent went round the table. + +"For mercy's sake, say no more," said the young lieutenant. "I don't +know which way to look because of all this undeserved praise." + +"Wait, I've more to say yet," the master of the house insisted on +continuing. "Once we were really almost angry with you. You know why +that was. During the armistice, shortly before we joined forces with +the Lithuanians under Platen and Buelow, you were in the guard-room one +evening, when you suddenly made a clean breast of it and announced that +you must go away. You said, 'Don't ask me the reason, lads. But believe +me, I can't help myself. The Landwehr wants officers. I know it is not +much of an honour to leave the Jaegers, for the Landwehr; but I'm going +to do it, all the same.' Those were your very words, weren't they, +Baumgart?" + +The lieutenant nodded, and a bitter smile played round his lips. + +"Tears were in your eyes as you spoke, otherwise one or other of us +would have asked you if that was all the thanks we were to get for the +confidence we had placed in you, to be deserted just then ... just when +we longed to show those Platen fellows what baiting the French really +meant.... We let you go without raising an objection, but our hearts +bled.... Afterwards we heard nothing of you, no news in reply to all +our inquiries; but I can tell you this much, we never ceased to talk of +you every night for months. We racked our brains to think what had +taken you away; speculated on where you were gone, and the like, till +the men who joined later and had known you got sick of it, and implored +us to give up talking about you, and to consign you to the Landwehr +refuse-heap once for all. So you see how we pined for you; and now, +after two days, you actually propose to turn your back on us again! +It's a long journey from the Marne to the Weichsel, and a solitary one +to walk, and your wounds still smarting. Stay and take a good rest, and +relate at your leisure what your adventures with the greybeards really +were, and how you came to be taken prisoner ... it must have been a +strange accident that betrayed _you_ into captivity?" + +He glanced down with ingenuous pride at the iron cross which dangled +between the froggings of his coat. It had been bestowed on him in +reward for the intrepidity with which he had, unpardoned, hewn his way +out of a nest of French Hussars and regained his liberty. + +The lieutenant's breast was bare of ornament. At the end of the +campaign, when a shower of decorations had rained down on the +victorious warriors, he had not been present to receive his share. A +painful sensation of being passed in the race, almost akin to shame, +swept over him. He pushed his cap farther on to his brow, and drew +himself erect in his chair, as if its fusty cushions threatened to +suffocate him. + +"Thank you," he said, "for your kind intentions, but I must go to +Koenigsberg directly to report myself to the Commandant." + +"I'm afraid you'll have some difficulty in finding him there," put in a +curly-headed young man with twinkling dark eyes, who wore his right arm +in a black sling. + +"Don't you know that directly it came back the Landwehr was disbanded?" + +"Even the staff is broken up," remarked another. + +"Then I must try my luck with the Commissioner-General," replied +Lieutenant Baumgart. "I have more reason, perhaps, than any one else to +be extra careful that my discharge papers are in good order. At least, +I fancy so. I don't want the reproach to be fastened on me that I +sneaked out of the army secretly. So, please let me know as soon as you +can if there will be any conveyance going to-morrow to Koenigsberg?" + +A storm of indignation arose. They all left their seats, some seizing +his hand, some forming a cordon round him, as if to prevent his +departure by physical force. + +"Stay at least a little longer, lest the fete we are organising in your +honour should fall through," exhorted Karl Engelbert, the young host, +as soon as he could make his voice heard above the hubbub. + +Baumgart turned to him with a quick gesture of inquiry. + +"In _my_ honour?" he exclaimed. "Are you mad?" + +"There's no getting out of it now," was the answer. "It was all settled +the day you turned up here. I despatched Johann Radtke at once with a +list of all the Jaegers in the country round who are at home. Then, you +know, we have representatives of six or seven regiments living about +here.... Especially did I impress on him that he was to go to +Schranden, where Merckel lives. Merckel," he added, "went over to the +Landwehr, too; for if he hadn't, he couldn't have made sure of his +lieutenancy. So there was more sense in his taking the step." + +Baumgart at the mention of his name winced, but quickly recovering +himself, gripped convulsively the arms of the battered easy-chair, and, +with head bowed, listened in silence to what his well-meaning friends +had to say about the gala-day arranged in his honour. He gave up +protesting further, because he saw open resistance was useless. But the +uneasy glances he cast about him seemed to indicate that he was +meditating immediate flight. + +His friends, however, did not observe his restlessness. After the +excitement of war which had stirred their blood out of its normal +channel, they found it irksome to subside into the ordinary routine of +private life, and hailed with delight any excuse for varying its +monotony with a few hours' roistering and dissipation. They were now +engaged in eagerly discussing the result of their messenger's mission, +whose return from Schranden, a few miles away, they had been expecting +hourly all the morning. + +"I wonder," said Peter Negenthin, the youth with the black sling, "how +the Schrandeners are getting on with that fine landlord of theirs?" + +Lieutenant Baumgart started and listened with all his ears. + +"They set his house on fire long ago," remarked another. "For five +years he's been roosting among the blackened ruins like an owl." + +"Why didn't he build his castle up again?" asked a third. + +"Why? Because the peasants and farmers down in the village would have +thrashed any one at the cart-wheel who dared to work for him. Once he +tried getting labourers over from his foreign estates, thinking that as +they couldn't understand German it would be all right; ... but there +was a free fight one day down at the inn, and heigh presto!--the Poles +were hounded back to where they came from. Since then he hasn't made +any more attempts to cultivate his land." + +"How does he live then? + +"Who cares how he lives! Let him starve." + +In the midst of laughter, mingled with growls of hate which this humane +remark had called forth from these doughty sons of the soil, the +anxiously awaited ambassador entered the room. He was a stoutly built +short man, whose straight fair hair, as yellow and bright as new +thatch, hung over his round face, which was the colour of a lobster +from exposure to the heat of the sun. Steaming with perspiration, and +breathless from his hurried ride, he seized the stone jug of monstrous +girth that stood in the middle of the table, before speaking a word, +and held it to his lips with both hands, where it remained so long that +it had at last to be torn away from his mouth by force, much to the +amusement of the company. After a fusilade of banter and jokes had been +discharged at him from all sides, he blurted forth his news. The idea +of the fete had, it seemed, been caught at with enthusiasm. Every one +in the neighbourhood was willing to lend his countenance to festivities +in honour of those who had done such splendid service in the cause of +German Unity. The only difference of opinion was as to where they were +to come off. The Schrandeners, with Lieutenant Merckel at their head, +declared that no spot on earth could be a more appropriate scene for +their celebration than their own village. + +"Then you see, lads," explained the messenger, "the Schrandeners have +private reasons for being particularly gay just now. They are dancing +in front of their houses, and scarcely know whether they are standing +on their head or their heels. I'll tell you why. Perhaps you know that +little chorale that they've for the last seven years been singing in +church? + + "_Our gracious Baron and Lord + Of Schrandeners' souls abhorr'd. + For the shame he's brought on our head, + O God, let the plague strike him dead._" + +"Well, in a fashion their prayer has been answered. The betrayer of +their country, who never tired of cursing and damning them up hill and +down dale, and heaped on them every foul epithet he could lay tongue +to, may now lie and rot in a ditch for all they care. They have sworn +not to bury him." + +Then arose excited shouts and eager questioning. + +"Is he dead, the dog? + +"Has the devil taken him to himself at last? Ha! ha! Bravo!" + +Suddenly, above the din of voices, a grinding crunching noise was +heard. Baumgart's arm had clasped the back of his chair with such +vehemence that the long-suffering worm-eaten wood had collapsed. He sat +rigid and motionless, staring at the speaker with wide, strained eyes, +unconscious of the injury he had inflicted on the ancestral piece of +furniture. Then garrulous Johann Radtke proceeded-- + +"Yes, happily enough, they were the cause of his death at last. They +have never ceased to harass and torment him, and it was while they were +trying to demolish the Cats' Bridge that he had a stroke of apoplexy +from rage, and fell down foaming at the mouth." + +"Lieutenant, have you ever heard of the Cats' Bridge?" + +Still he neither moved nor uttered a word; only set his teeth on his +under lip, till it bled. As if turned to stone, he sat gazing fixedly +up into the speaker's face. + +"It was by the Cats' Bridge that the French made the famous, or rather +I should say infamous, sortie which surprised the Prussians, and it was +the Baron who showed them the secret path which leads to it. You have +heard of the Schranden invasion, of course. It's recorded in every +calendar?" + +The lieutenant nodded mechanically like a doomed man, who, swooning, +resigns himself to inevitable fate. + +"The stroke took him before their very eyes," Radtke went on. "His +precious sweetheart, the village carpenter's daughter, the baggage who +lived with him, you know, threw herself on his body, for the Lord only +knows what liberties they might not have taken with it when their blood +was up." + +"And now they refuse to bury him, you say?" interrupted the +good-natured Karl Engelbert, shaking his head meditatively. "Is such a +scandalous outrage as that allowed to pass unpunished in a Christian +country?" + +Johann laughed scoffingly. + +"The Schrandeners are like a flock of sheep. If one declines to pollute +his hands with bearing such carrion to the grave, all the rest decline +also. And who can blame them?" + +"But," some one suggested, "suppose it came to the ear of the law?" + +"The law! Ha, ha! Old Merckel is their magistrate, and he says, as far +as he is concerned, they might have flayed----" + +He broke off abruptly, for with a smothered cry of pain, and a gesture +half threatening, half self-defensive, the young lieutenant had started +to his feet. He was whiter than the whitewashed wall behind him, and a +thin thread of crimson trickled from his blanched lips, over his chin. + +"Stop, for God's sake!" he stammered in a strange muffled almost +inaudible voice, and those who caught his words shrank away in horror. + +"He was my father!" + + + + + CHAPTER III + + +The moon had risen and flooded the tranquil heath with its soft bluish +radiance. Down in the marshes the alder-bushes were tipped with crowns +of light, and the white, slender trunks of the birches which flanked +the highway in interminable rows shone and shimmered, till the road +seemed to stretch away and lose itself between hedges of burnished +silver. Silence reigned everywhere. The last note of the birds' evening +chorale had long since died away. Peace, the peace of well-being, +peculiar to late summer, pervaded the wide-stretching level fields. +Even the grasshopper in the ditch, and a fieldmouse scurrying in alarm +through the tall blades of corn, hardly broke the stillness. + +A traveller with staff and knapsack came along the road, gazing +absently before him, evidently oblivious of the magic of the moon-lit +landscape. It was the young lieutenant, on his way home to bury the +father whose memory was held in such universal detestation. His host +had put his best equipage at his disposal, but his comrade had firmly +refused to accept the offer, and he had been obliged to content +himself with accompanying his guest part of the way on foot. At parting +he had solemnly affirmed that the compact of eternal friendship that +they had entered into as brothers-in-arms after their first baptism +of fire would hold good now and always, "the sins of the fathers" +notwithstanding. Whenever he was in need of help and sympathy in the +future, he might rely on the good-will of him and his neighbours. + +This was meant well, but brought no comfort to the young man's sore +heart. The allusion to "the sins of the fathers" stung him to the +quick. It sounded very much like an insult, yet an insult that he was +powerless to resent openly, as there was no shuffling off the incubus +of shame which, as his father's heir, now weighed on his innocent +shoulders. + +Thus fiercely brooding he walked on, and pictures of the past +involuntarily rose before his mental vision. He had never loved his +father--the harsh, tyrannical man who flogged the peasants, whose +laughter was more terrible than his oaths, to whom he, his only son, +had been not much more than the pet dog that one minute was allowed to +bite his heels when he was in a good humour, only to be hurled across +the room the next with a savage kick. As long as he could remember, +the small muscular figure, the sallow face with its high cheek-bones, +coal-black goat's beard, and little keen grey eyes, had been the terror +of his childhood. His mother he had never known. She had succumbed, a +few years after his birth, to a long and tedious illness. It was +rumoured at the time, in the village, that her lord's ungovernable +passions had been the death of her--that his love was as terrible as +his hate. + +Her picture had hung at the end of a long line of ghostly portraits in +the dimly-lighted picture-gallery with its vaulted roof, where one's +footsteps echoed uncannily between the stone walls, and where it was +possible to shiver with cold on the hottest summer day.... The picture +of a gentle, tired-looking woman with thin bloodless lips, and +half-closed lids that seemed to droop from sheer weariness and lack of +spirit. + +Many a time, unseen, the boy had stood by the hour before this picture, +and waited--waited for the heavy lids to lift, that one warm ray of +maternal love might at last be shed into his lonely young life. He +would fold his hands in prayer, and lift a tear-stained face in eager +anticipation, while his heart beat for fear; but the picture never came +to life. Tired and slumberous as ever, as if already half-closed in +their last long sleep, the heavily shadowed, star-like eyes continued +to look down on him with a strange, cold, metallic gleam, till he could +bear it no longer, and would rush from the spot half distracted with +disappointment. + +Not far from his mother's picture hung another still more +remarkable--the portrait of an exquisitely beautiful woman with +blue-black hair. The artist had represented her in the act of mounting +a horse. A red velvet cloak, embroidered with gold and bordered with +fur, hung over her left shoulder, and in her right hand, which was +covered with a long, wrinkled, gauntleted glove, she tenaciously +grasped her riding-whip. It was easy to imagine her bringing it down +with a will on the back of a _mauvais sujet_. The whole figure was +instinct with indomitable spirit and energy. Life glowed in the dark +eyes that flashed imperiously from the canvas, as if demanding the +homage of all who came within their radius. This was his grandmother in +her youth--the old lady whose shrill scolding tongue, and witch-like +appendages in the shape of gold-headed canes, liqueur-glasses, and +snuff-boxes, were indissolubly associated with the boy's earliest +memories. She had been the evil star of his house. Before her marriage, +one of the most admired beauties of the Polish Court in Saxony, she had +instilled into his father with the milk from her breast love for the +country of the Pole, so that he, a nobleman of German name and lineage, +living on German soil, grew up to hate the land of his birth, and to +set all his affections on the moribund chimera of Polish nationality. +Though he had married a German lady, he had not hesitated to give his +son a Polish name, which, to be doomed to bear at a time when the +spirit of hyper-sensitive patriotism was rampant in the land, seemed a +worse misfortune by far than being afflicted by some hereditary +disease. + +But what was the innocent name of Boleslav compared with the indelible +disgrace that his father, through his insane infatuation for the Poles, +had since brought on him and his race? + +And now he was dead, this father, and of the dead one should speak no +evil. Yet even as he repeated this truism to himself, the consciousness +of the stain with which he was branded, which no power on earth could +remove, overwhelmed him with acutest anguish. + +Passionately he threw up his arms towards the soft, blue, star-spangled +heavens, as if he fain would demand that the soul of his father should +be instantly brought to judgment, no matter in what remote planet it +might be hiding. + +Then came a reaction. His vehemence was succeeded by a gentler mood. He +flung himself on the damp, dewy grass by the roadside, and buried his +face in his hands. He felt he should like to cry. But his lids remained +dry and burning. The thought of his immediate future was almost more +than he could bear. He reflected that in a few hours he should find a +forsaken wilderness, a howling desolation, where once bathed in all the +rosy radiance of his boyish vision he had beheld a scene of sylvan +peace and beauty. + +For though he had been a lonely, motherless boy, it would have been +wicked and ungrateful to maintain that even _his_ childhood had not had +its share of sunshine, and boasted its hours of unalloyed delight. Had +he not been allowed to roam where he listed, through field and forest, +untrammelled by conventions about meals and bedtime, as free to do as +he pleased as any Robin Hood or gipsy in Arcadia? When the soft May +zephyrs breathed on the shaking grasses, and the yellow butterfly +danced from flower to flower, he had lain on his back between the tall +blades and meadow-sweet, looking up into the blue sky, his day-dreams +undisturbed. He might have stayed there from morning till night; so +long as he was not hungry he did stay, and it mattered to no one. + +If he took it into his head to wander off with the shepherd to the +distant moorlands, to partake of black bread from his wallet, and +quench his thirst at the babbling streams, who was there to prevent it? +He was his own master. Round the Castle, which commanded an extensive +view of the country, flowed the sparkling, merry river, in great +serpentine curves, between its wooded banks and green terraces. By the +river-side there was always something of interest going on. There the +grooms watered the horses, the tanner washed his skins, and the boys +winked from behind their fishing-rods at the servant-girls paddling +bare-legged in and out of the water. But greatest delight of all--when +the sun went down behind the alders, the stately wild deer would +venture cautiously out of the neighbouring thicket, climb down the +steep incline, through bush and briar, and thirstily lap up the +moisture with its parched tongue. Often it was necessary to lie in +ambush more than half-an-hour without moving so much as a hair to +witness this enchanting spectacle, otherwise it would have vanished +like a mirage. And what in the world could be more glorious than, when +the moon rose and cast a silver network on the ripples; when the alders +looked like white-veiled princesses, and the lively wenches sang over +their griddle snatches of plaintive song, to plunge into the depths of +the wood, and with a canopy of foliage overhead, and moonbeams dancing +round you, dream the night away, and wake to greet the dawn? He let his +hands fall from his face; and stared round him with vacant, wild eyes. +The fields lay white and still in the moonlight. + +Only the tree under which he rested cast dark, jagged bars of shadow +over the peaceful landscape. A pitiful sound like the scream of a child +in distress arose in the distance. It came from a young hare that had +lost itself in the furrows, and frightened and hungry was crying for +its mother, little suspecting that every yell was but a fresh signal to +its murderers. He was thrilled with compassion for the sufferings of +dumb creation, as he rose and pursued his way.... Reminiscences still +kept pace with his footsteps. + +Now it was his school-days that came vividly back to him--the time when +the old Pastor Goetz had undertaken his education, and the white +parsonage among the nut-bushes became his second home. No more vagabond +roamings now, for the grey-bearded, fiery-tempered old parson was a +stern disciplinarian, and kept his pupils in good order. There were ten +or twelve of them--boys and girls together;--children of the well-to-do +farmer class. He had, of course, never associated with the children of +the peasantry, who were allowed to run wild and grow up like young +cattle. This was not to be wondered at, considering the village +schoolmaster, an ex-valet of his father's, superannuated through drink, +spent most of the time that should have been engaged in teaching the +young idea how to shoot, in the various taverns of the neighbourhood. + +Felix Merckel, son of the village innkeeper, was the one of his +comrades he remembered best--a strapping, unruly lad, who, at the age +of ten, wore top-boots and carried a gun, and whose tendency to bully +kept the whole school in subjection. Even Boleslav himself, though two +years younger, and of a retiring nature that had little in common with +the elder boy's somewhat bumptious temperament, was much influenced by +him. Yet his position as the squire's son was never lost sight of, and +Felix joined with his other schoolfellows in paying him a sort of sly +homage in deference to it. Felix was his mentor in all boyish +accomplishments. He taught him to swim, to row, to snare birds, to make +fireworks, to shoot rabbits, and even to plunder the poor peasants' +garden during church time on Sunday evenings. And though the fruit in +his own garden, which he was at liberty to pick whenever he liked, was +a thousand times sweeter and more luscious than the hard, sour stuff he +clambered after at the risk of breaking his neck, he could not +withstand the allurements of those secret raids. Afterwards he was +often seized with remorse on account of them, and was so heartily +ashamed of himself that he would pay back in the morning a hundredfold +what he had stolen over-night. Such acts of reparation, nevertheless, +were only received with scowls or smiles of malice, for the unfortunate +_canaille_ were compelled by benighted feudal laws to plough and delve +on his father's estates, and were sorely oppressed; therefore it was +only natural that the boy should reap to the full the harvest of bitter +hate sown by the father. + +Of his other companions, especially of the girls, he had nothing but +the haziest recollection. There was, of course, _one_ exception. Her +bright image had floated before him, through all the pain and heartache +that had gradually darkened his whole existence, pain which even the +fascinations of war could not alleviate. It was her image, that like a +lodestar had led him into the thickest of the fight, and had not faded +from him as he lay wounded, and, as he believed, dying. + +Intense longing for her had become identified with that vague yearning +after happiness which still sometimes possessed him, just as if his +chances of happiness had not, by his father's misdeeds, been +irretrievably ruined. + +How this love had sprung up in his breast and grown apace, becoming +stronger every day, till at last the whole world seemed filled with its +reflection, he hardly knew himself. + +As a child, the pastor's small daughter had always been distant in her +manner. The fresh, neat, fairylike little creature never could be +coaxed by any of them into jumping a ditch, even if the bottom was dry, +and was very particular at hide-and-seek not to allow her frocks to be +caught hold of lest "the gathers should go." Now and then, when they +were alone together, Helene would show off with pride the glories of +her doll's house, and point out that the tiny towels had hemmed edges +and a monogram. They would be getting quite confidential till, in an +outburst of boyish spirits, he was sure to do something rough or clumsy +which brought down on his head a gentle rebuke, and he was reminded of +the limitations of their friendship. Hurt and ashamed, he would +afterwards try to keep out of her way, but a smile of forgiveness never +failed to bring him to her feet, for there was a kind of sovereignty in +her little person that was not to be resisted. + +Felix resented her power. He called her affected and a mollycoddle, and +teased her as only he could tease. She, on her part, had an aggravating +trick of turning up her nose and appearing to look down on him, though +he was a good head taller, which goaded him into tormenting her the +more, and ended in her running to her father, and with streaming eyes +begging that Felix might be punished. + +At twelve years old, Boleslav left his birthplace. Some relations on +his mother's side, belonging to the old Prussian official nobility, +proposed to continue his education. His father had every reason to +congratulate himself at getting rid of him. The life he had led since +his wife died was scarcely of a character to bear the scrutiny of +innocent, questioning, childish eyes. The Baron was in the habit of +bringing back to the castle from his visits to the capital curious +company, chiefly women, and many a half-opened bud, indigenous to the +soil, had fallen an unwilling victim to his unbridled lust. Not that he +carried on his intrigues openly and unashamed. It was simply that in +his private life he refused to recognise the restraint of any moral +law, and, after all, what he did was only, for the most part, what his +fathers had done before him. Such amours were a part of the traditions +of his house, and were not likely to excite surprise or comment, unless +it were from the boy, who had occasionally been an involuntary witness +of assaults on virtue and heartrending appeals for mercy. + +There were many other transactions besides these going on at the castle +that were not meant for his eyes. When the great Napoleon's call to +arms roused that miserable cat's-paw of European ambitions, the +lacerated country of Poland, from its death-throes, mysterious +movements were set on foot in every quarter where the peculiar hiss of +Polish speech was heard, and even extended so far as the unadulterated +German regions of East Prussia. + +Foreigners with slim, supple figures, and sharply-cut features used to +arrive at Schranden Castle, driving through the village at express +speed in small carriages, and leave again in the middle of the night. +The post brought innumerable sealed packages bearing the Russian +post-mark; and for weeks together the Baron's study was locked against +all intruders. He himself became taciturn and pre-occupied, going about +like a man in a dream, actually permitting the stripes and weals on the +backs of his serfs to heal and fade away. + +It was at this time that Boleslav migrated to his relations in +Koenigsberg. Afterwards, years passed calmly away, years in which he +grew in stature and developed in mind under the watchful care of the +widow of a former chancellor, who stood in the place of a mother to +him. All the leading families in the town opened their houses to him, +and by degrees the old familiar scenes and faces of his home became +little more than shadowy memories. His father's rare and hurried visits +only demonstrated how estranged he had become from his son, and how +little love was lost between them. + +Then came that terrible winter in which the war-fury was let loose, +devastating the old Prussian provinces, and the victorious march of +Napoleonic cohorts resounded between the Weichsel and the Memel. Scores +of provincial fugitives sought refuge from the invaders within the +walls of Koenigsberg. Every house, from cellar to garret, was crammed +with human beings, and in the streets smouldered the bivouac-fires of +the soldiers who were camping out in the open air. + +In the midst of war's alarms, to the accompaniment of beating of drums +and bugle-blasts, it was vouchsafed to Boleslav to dream for the first +time "love's young dream." + +He had lately turned sixteen, and his upper lip was already shaded with +a pencilled line of down. He knew Horace's odes to Chloe and Lydia by +heart, and the passion which Schiller, who had recently died, had +cherished for his Laura was no longer a mystery to him. One January +evening on his way home from the gymnasium, as he crossed the castle +square where Russian and Prussian orderlies were galloping hither and +thither, he caught a glimpse of a pair of blue eyes which seemed turned +on him with an expression of friendly inquiry. He blushed, but when he +ventured to look round the eyes had vanished. The same thing happened +again the next evening. Not till it happened a third time could he +summon sufficient courage to watch more carefully and discover that the +eyes belonged to a fair young face, which could boast besides a +straight little nose, delicately curved lips, which naively smiled at +him. The face reminded him of an old altar-piece in the cathedral +representing the Virgin Mary standing in a garden of stiff white lilies +and short-stalked crimson roses. Of something else it reminded him too, +and it puzzled him to think what. He was racking his brains to +remember, when a rosy glow tinged the girl's fair cheeks, and the +charming lips opened. + +"Boleslav!" they lisped. "Is it you?" + +Now, of course, he knew. + +"Helene, Helene! You!" he exclaimed joyously. Had she not bashfully +evaded him, he would have embraced her then and there in the middle of +the crowded square, regardless of spectators in the shape of giggling +servant-maids and ribald soldiers. They withdrew into a more secluded +street, and she told him that on the advance of the enemy her father +had sent her for the sake of safety to board with an old aunt, who had +set up an institution for the daughters of poor clergymen. Here she was +very happy, and was making the most of her time, studying French and +music, for she hoped that in the future she might render her father +assistance with his school, for it was not likely she would ever marry. + +All this she related in a quiet, old-fashioned way, which excited his +respectful admiration, casting smiling side-long glances at him as she +talked. Of his father she could not tell him much; the last time she +had met him he had looked very fierce. It was some time since she had +had any news from home, because the French were quartered there; but +Felix Merckel was in Koenigsberg, and she saw him now and then. He was +apprenticed to a corn merchant, and thought himself quite the fine +gentleman. He wasn't likely to come to any good though, for he smoked +cigars and wore loud Turkish neckties. She ended by giving him leave to +call on her at her aunt's on Friday--Friday being the day for visitors +at the institution. + +Then she tripped lightly away, swaying her slender limbs from side +to side, and as he watched her, he felt as if the Virgin in the +altar-piece had graciously condescended to appear to him in the flesh, +and was now returning to her lilies and crimson roses. + +On Friday he pulled the bell of the institution and was admitted. He +did not find her, it is true, among lilies and roses, but there were +some plants of fuchsia and geranium in the room, whose faded, dusty +leaves made a pretty background to the girlish figure. The glow of the +winter sunset came through the diamond-pane windows, and spread a rosy +veil over her face. Perhaps, too, the pleasure of meeting an old friend +made her blush a little. The aunt, a toothless, antique spinster, with +patches and a powdered toupee, exhausted herself with curtseying and +compliments, and after regaling the distinguished visitor with +chocolate, in a bowl of superb old English china, vanished as +noiselessly as if the earth had swallowed her up. That was the first of +a succession of blissful, beatific Fridays. + +Troops went forth to battle and returned, but he did not even notice +them. The thunder of cannons at Eylau reverberated through the town, +but he was deaf, and heard nothing. It often seemed to him, as he +looked up at the sky, that he must be lying far down in the depths of +the blue sea, and that the world in which he had lived before was +somewhere a long way off on the other side of the azure empyrean. But +that he still in reality belonged to that world, he was forcibly +reminded one Sunday afternoon, when the door of his attic-chamber, +where he was dreaming over his books, was boisterously flung open, and +his heaven invaded. + +"Hurrah! my boy!" cried the intruder, with outstretched arms. "I've +been looking for you everywhere for a year past, and it's been as +difficult as searching for a needle in a bottle of hay. Even now I +mightn't have tracked you out if that pious little girl Helene had not +given me a hint of your whereabouts." + +It was the harum-scarum Felix, and the Turkish necktie of which the +beloved had spoken, flapped over either shoulder in aggressive fly-away +ends. + +Boleslav returned the greeting more heartily than a few weeks ago he +would have thought possible; since his meeting with Helene, the old +home and the old life had come back to him very distinctly, and his +heart felt drawn to this once inseparable friend of his boyhood. + +Felix did not stand on ceremony, but threw himself on the sofa, and as +he stretched his legs on the leather cushions looked round him in +amazed admiration. The room seemed to him the embodiment of luxury and +magnificence. + +"You are domiciled here like a prince in the 'Arabian Nights,'" he +exclaimed; "that's what comes of being born a _Junker_, I suppose. I +wish I was. Such as we have to rough it, and----" + +He paused in order to shoot through his front teeth a stream of +dark-brown saliva, a habit he had learnt from the sailors on the quays. +After this, he frequently visited Boleslav's sequestered retreat, +devoured the dainties his aunt sent up to him, borrowed money and +books, and initiated him in the mysteries of life at the water's edge. +In short, he conducted himself as do most "men of the world" between +fifteen and nineteen years of age, who are apt to gain an ascendency +over deeper and more thoughtful natures than their own. + +Boleslav sometimes thought of making him his confidant in his love +affair, but never, when it came to the point, could find the right +words in which to express himself. So his secret remained, as he +thought, buried in his heart of hearts. But one day Felix astounded him +by saying-- + +"Don't think I am blind! I have discovered some time ago that you are +head over heels in love with a certain little prude. She's pretty +enough, but a bit too good for me." + +The blood mounted swiftly and angrily to Boleslav's brow, and he +demanded with dignity that henceforth no disrespectful word be spoken +of the fair Helene in his presence. And Felix, though he made a +contemptuous grimace, was careful not to offend again by any jibing +allusion to his love. + +Later he announced his intention of enlisting in the English navy as a +midshipman, that he might be "revenged on the tyrant of his downtrodden +Fatherland," as he expressed it, and Boleslav looked up to him in +consequence with a profounder reverence than ever. + +Then a day came when this friend passed him in the street without +bestowing on him a shake of the hand, or even a nod. Only a scornful +shrug of the shoulders indicated that he had seen him at all. Utterly +disconcerted, he gazed after the rapidly disappearing figure that +seemed anxious to get out of his way as quickly as possible. + +What could be the meaning of this extraordinary behaviour? The same +evening, with tears pouring down his face, he wrote asking for an +explanation. Before there was time for an answer, a messenger brought +him a parcel of books and a note that ran as follows:-- + + +"_To His Hochgeboren Herrn_ + _Boleslav von Schranden_. + +"Having become apprised of events that have recently taken place in +Schranden, I consider that it would be beneath my dignity, and contrary +to all my patriotic principles, to continue our intercourse. The books +you have lent me are therefore returned. The money will follow in due +course as soon as I have earned the same. Meanwhile the messenger will +hand you five silver groschens.--In humble submission, your +Hochgeboren's obedient servant, + + "Felix Merckel." + + +Boleslav felt as if some one had struck him a blow from behind. He was +so bitterly humiliated that for a whole day he daren't look any human +being in the face. At last he resolved to tell Helene of his trouble, +in the hope that she might be able to give him tidings that would at +least end his fearful suspense. She had forbidden him to speak to her +in the street, because she considered such meetings out of doors +unnecessary and improper, as he was allowed to call at the institution. +Yet, in spite of her veto, he waylaid her and showed her Felix's +letter. As usual, she smiled sweetly and consolingly, but could throw +little light on the matter. The last time she had heard from her +father, the letter had been full of nothing but the unfortunate +engagement which had taken place in the wood near Schranden, when the +Prussian soldiers had been completely routed. That had been in all the +newspapers. There was only one means of learning the whole truth. +Helene could walk along by the river's bank, where the clerks from the +great warehouses lounged away their spare time, and make inquiries of +Felix. This she consented to do, though reluctantly; and he, in a fever +of anxiety, waited for her return on one of the bridges. + +"He does think too much of himself!" she said, as she came back slowly +from her errand, the colour deepening in her cheeks. "And so they all +do, these merchants' clerks. It's not likely that I should allow any of +them to make love to me!" + +She smiled, and hid her burning face in the blue silk reticule she +always carried. + +"But you needn't mind him, dear Boleslav. Since he has determined to go +as a midshipman, he has got love for the Fatherland on the brain." + +"How have I interfered with his love for the Fatherland?" asked +Boleslav. "Don't I abominate that bloodhound Bonaparte as much as he +does?" + +Helene was silent, and gathered the folds of her cloak closer about her +slender limbs, to keep out the bitter winter wind. Then she continued-- + +"You may rely on me. I will never bear a grudge against you for it." + +"For what? Good God, tell me at once!" + +And then at last the mystery was cleared up. + +"You mustn't take it too much to heart, dearest Boleslav. At home in +the village they all say that your father showed the French the path by +the Cats' Bridge in the middle of the night, so that they might +surprise the Prussians; and that gipsy-looking Regina, the carpenter's +daughter--you remember the little curly-headed thing who was at school +with you and me--she confessed it, because it was she who really led +the way. And now the people call your father the betrayer of his +country, and refuse to work for him any more, and have burnt down his +house." + +Ah! so that was it. Now he knew all. In that hour his life's budding +joys and hopes were withered like the blossoms of a tree struck by +lightning in May. How intolerable were these memories of darkest hours +of silent torture-hours in which he was oppressed with a sense of +crime, and when shame literally consumed him! + +It was some time before the news of the betrayal was openly spoken +about in Koenigsberg. Months passed before the first signs that it had +become known manifested themselves, and during these months his whole +character underwent a complete change. + +His glance became shifty and uneasy, his colour often forsook him. Shy +and awkward he withdrew himself more and more from society, and +frequented none of his old haunts. He would start and tremble at every +word unexpectedly addressed to him. Then came days when the masters +at the gymnasium began to look askance at him, and the pupils to shun +him--days in which his aunt kept her room to escape his morning +greeting, and the family sat in conclave behind closed doors, when the +servants began to set his orders at defiance, and from time to time +spat on the ground as they passed his door. + +So he watched it creeping on, nearer and nearer, the cold, clammy +monster, that, snake-like, was to bind his limbs and freeze the blood +in his veins. He watched its wriggling progress, heard the gloating +hiss of its approach, and defenceless, paralysed, he stared it stonily +in the face, lacking the courage to cry out, or even to moan. + +He had lost Helene too. Not through any fault of hers. She had still +allowed him to go on pulling the institution bell on Fridays as if +nothing had happened, and had been friendly as ever, and had even tried +to distract his thoughts from the painful subject on which they +incessantly brooded, with mild little jokes. But was it because he was +himself so altered that he could only see the rest of the world through +a distorting mist of shame, or had she really, since that day of the +revelation, adopted a tone of pitying compassion towards him? Anyhow, +he became more and more embarrassed in her presence, and dared not meet +her eye. + +One day, instead of Helene, the old schoolmistress received him alone. +She curtseyed and grinned as usual, and assured him, a hundred times at +least, that she was his humblest servant; but what she proceeded to +unfold seemed to Boleslav the last straw. Her dear nephew, the _Herr +Pastor_, she stuttered, thought it best that the intimacy between his +daughter and the young nobleman should terminate, and in order that +there should be no further temptation to continue it, had decided to +remove her instantly from the town of Koenigsberg. A note sealed with +blue sealing-wax contained Helene's farewell:-- + + +"Dear, Dear Boleslav,--My father commands me to give up my friendship +with you. I must obey him. Good-bye. I shall always be fond of +you----always. I swear it. Your + + "Helene." + + +Six hastily scribbled lines! Were these to be his food and drink +through a life of longing and renunciation? Yet had he any right to +expect more? Had she not promised to be true, and to hold to him though +everyone else had cast him off? From that time forward she became for +him transfigured and a saint. Her face became more than ever identified +in his imagination with that of the Madonna he had seen in the +Cathedral, and whenever he pictured her he beheld her adorned with an +aureole, and surrounded by lilies and roses. + +Had it not been for his extreme youth, energy and self-reliance might +possibly have helped him over the abyss of enervating grief; but a +habit of childlike respect, a latent instinct of veneration, put the +idea of asking his father to explain what had happened, much less of +calling him to account for it, out of the question. It was his +unexpected appearance on the scene that at last roused in him a spirit +of revolt. + +He was now seventeen, and would have been ready to pass into the +university, even if the authorities of the gymnasium had not repeatedly +hinted that his withdrawal would be in every way desirable. Even his +kindly aunt, who had carefully avoided referring to the rumour through +which she herself suffered keenly, had, as mercifully as she knew how, +spoken to him about the advisability of his going somewhere else to +finish his studies. + +Under other circumstances, his pride, his zeal for fair play and his +own honour, would have rebelled against this unjust dismissal. But now, +in his unspeakable bitterness, he cherished only one wish, and that was +to hide away somewhere with his disgrace, and be seen by no human eye. + +And in this mood he stood one day face to face with his father. + +The baron had come to town, to call in the aid of the law in dealing +with his rebellious peasants, but had found every door shut in his +face. His fury knew no bounds; he appeared to have lost all control +over himself, and his demeanour was one of desperate defiance. + +At the sight of the short, stubborn figure, the bull-neck and the grey, +fiery eyes rolling in their red sockets, Boleslav was seized with the +old boyish terror. He had to pull himself together with a tremendous +effort before he could bring the fatal question over his lips. + +"Father, is it true what people are saying, that----" + +Suspicion blazed up in the small grey eyes. + +"Eh?--what are people saying?" he interrupted. + +"That it was through you that the French found out the path by the +Cats' Bridge." + +"And what if it was through me, you Hottentot? What if I did avenge the +wrongs of the down-trampled Pole on this pack of cowardly Russian +thieves? These hulking, stupid, lazy serfs, who would only get their +deserts if the great Napoleon extirpated them altogether from off the +face of the earth. Don't gape at me like that, clown! What I did was +done as a sacred duty. Heavily chained, scourged human beings cried out +imploringly to me, 'Save us, save us!' I could not save them, it is +true; that work was reserved for a greater than I--but I could at least +_help_, help him, who like an avenging angel swept over Europe and laid +it waste--help to annihilate a handful of ruffians I saw providentially +delivered into my hand." + +As he held forth thus, his short figure seemed to grow. His eyes +flashed fire. The demon of fanaticism that so strongly resembles +inspiration, its angelic sister, enveloped him in its red-hot, glowing +mantle. + +Boleslav shrank away, trembling. He felt keenly, how completely every +tie between him and this man was now severed. + +"Let them whisper, and nudge each other as I pass," he continued, "and +make faces; what the devil do I care? They daren't do it so long as the +Corsican lion held them in his claws. And after all, who is to prove it +against me? If it hadn't been for that fool Regina, who let her father +hunt her down in the Bockshorn, every one would naturally have supposed +that General Latour, with his inventive brain, had found out the way +over the river and through the wood of his own accord. As it is, the +wretches are all at my throat.... The peasants are no longer to be +brought to heel with the knout. They've always been so fond of me, you +see. If what the papers say is true, and the king is willing to let the +mutiny continue, they'll lynch me, as sure as fate. You will have good +cause to congratulate yourself on your succession, my boy!" + +Those were the last words his father had ever spoken to him, for the +conversation which had taken place in his own study, was interrupted at +this point by the entrance of his aunt. + +The aristocratic old lady recoiled from the touch of the Baron's red +muscular hand as from that of some poisonous reptile. But mastering her +repugnance, she asked for a few minutes' private talk with him. + +What decision they came to over his future he was never to know, for +even before the short interview had elapsed, his former life already +lay behind him like a nightmare, and he stood in the street and +reflected through which of the city-gates he should wander out into the +wide world. Finally, the goal of his travels proved to be a small +property in a remote corner of Lithuania, where he found rest in hard +work, and an opportunity of fitting himself for the duties of a landed +proprietor. + +Years went by. For him they meant unremitting labour for his daily +bread--a struggle for existence full of hardships, which, however, +could be engaged in without shame, or any wounding of his _amour +propre_. For now he no longer bore the abhorred name of his fathers. If +at the same time he only could have cast off, like a soiled garment, +the host of bitter recollections with which it was associated, he would +have been happier. But consciousness of the infamy that clung to the +discarded name remained ever present. Love for his country, which +hitherto had only slumbered in his heart, now bounded into full life. +The passion of patriotism grew and grew, till it became a tormenting +demon which scourged him with scorpions, drove the blood from his face, +the sleep from his eyes, and heaped the guilt of Prussia's misfortunes +on his shoulders. + +Only once during this time did news of his home reach him. That was +when he read in a Koenigsberg news-sheet that Schranden Castle, which +had enjoyed such an unenviable notoriety in the winter of 1807, had +been burned down with all its outlying buildings. Then he had folded +his hands, and a sound had escaped his lips like a prayer of +thanksgiving. + +Expiation! expiation! must be the watchword of his soul. + +But as yet nothing could be expiated. Still the unhappy Fatherland lay +crushed beneath the heel of the dictator. Then came the downfall of the +Great Army on the snow-covered plains of Eastern Europe, and the rising +of Prussia quickly followed. + +Now the hour had come. His hour! He would die--give his life for the +Fatherland, and expiate his father's sin with his own blood. + +In the volunteer Jaeger Baumgart, who rode into Koenigsberg on the 5th of +March 1813, no one recognised the youthful Baron von Schranden, who, +just five years before, had fled from the town unable to face the +dishonour brought upon his name; and there were many now hailing him +with shouts and cheers of welcome, who then would have driven him out +with stones and brickbats. + +He attached himself to a cluster of intrepid sons of the soil, from +whose mouths the dialect of his lost home fell familiarly and musically +on his ear. He became their friend and their leader, till suddenly a +well-known face cropped up in the camp, the sight of which immediately +drove Lieutenant Baumgart out of it. + +Felix Merckel, he knew too well, would not have hesitated to betray him +to his comrades, and to inform them who it was that led them to battle. + +What followed was like a ghastly confused phantasmagoria, in which +bloodshed, salvoes, and death-rattles played their part. Why had he not +died? How had he lived through it? These were the questions he asked +himself on first regaining consciousness and opening his eyes on the +world, after lying for months between life and death. For him, then, no +French sabre had been sharpened, no French bullet fired. + +The one complete atonement his conscience told him it was in his power +to make had been denied him. Was a heavier one awaiting him now, as he +drew near the dusky woodlands of his birthplace in the dim, grey dawn +of day? + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + +It was eight o'clock in the morning, and already the rays of the sun +had strengthened, as Boleslav left the wild tangle of the forest behind +him, and beheld his home stretched out at his feet. + +He had not set eyes on it for ten years. His first fierce impulse now +was to shake his fist at the village which lay there so hypocritically +idyllic in the calm of early morning, with its white toy cottages set +in bowers of green bushes, its curls of blue-grey smoke, and opalescent +slate church spire rising peacefully against the sky. + +Beyond were the magnificent groups of old trees with dark, almost black +foliage and yellowish trunks belonging to the Castle park, which sloped +away on the eastern side of the hill. But the Castle itself, that had +crowned the hill with its shining battlemented twin-towers, and had +queened the landscape far and wide--where was it? Had the earth opened +and swallowed the imposing structure whole? For a moment he was +startled and shocked at its total disappearance. Then he remembered. +How stupid it was to have forgotten! They had burnt it down, razed it +to the ground. + +Many and many a time he had thought of that deed of violence, which had +laid waste the inheritance of his fathers, with a sort of grim +satisfaction. But now, when he saw with his bodily eyes the scene of +the conflagration, he felt sullen resentment rise in his heart. + +"Incendiaries! Accursed incendiaries!" he cried, and once more shook +his fist at the homesteads of his enemies. _His_ enemies? Yes, in the +flash of a moment it seemed clearly demonstrated that his father's +enemies must be his enemies. Had he not inherited them, together with +these woods and fertile valleys, with yonder smoked, blackened heap of +ruins (he now noticed it for the first time) that reared itself like +the mighty hand of a giant calling down the wrath of Heaven--together +with that awful crime, which no one on earth hated more than he did, +from which no one had suffered as he had suffered.... And though, +instead of filial love, he had cherished nothing but a sensation of +paralysing fear towards his father, though for years he had +deliberately cut himself adrift from ties of kindred, and the +performance of duties that custom and civilisation impose on those who +are destined to hand down an ancient name and inherit vast estates--in +spite of it all, the fact remained that it was his father's blood +flowing in his veins, and he felt it at this moment coursing through +them tumultuously, and rising in hot anger at the wrong that had been +done his race. + +A wild gleam shone in his eyes as he fumbled with his left hand for the +leather case strung over his shoulder, from which obtruded the +burnished knobs of a pair of cavalry pistols. + +"Won't bury him!" he murmured through his clenched teeth, clasping the +pistols close. "Won't bury him, indeed! We shall see!" And with a +bitter, mirthless laugh, he walked resolutely down into the village. + +The one long straggling street lay before him, deserted and basking in +the brilliant sunshine. The cart-ruts in the rich clay soil shone as if +they had been glazed; bottle-glass and rags from old besoms filled the +interstices to prevent the accumulation of stones. On either side of +the road stood the thatched cottages of the peasants, shaded by limes +and chestnuts, some of whose leaves were even now beginning to look +autumnally sere and yellow. These peasants had formerly been under the +jurisdiction of the Castle, and only since the new rural laws came into +force had been relieved of their service and joined the freemen. + +Here and there he saw a new fence painted in glaring colours, as if the +owner wished to mark off his recently acquired possession from the rest +of the inhabited globe. In other respects the new _regime_ had left +everything much the same. Sunflowers and herbs bloomed in the front +gardens as they had always done; damp mattresses hung out of the +windows to air just as of old. Only the number of taverns had +increased. Boleslav counted three, whereas once the Black Eagle had +reigned supreme and met all the requirements of the place. + +Nearer the church were the white houses of the free artisans, burghers +as they were called, who paid to the Castle ground-rent, and therefore +enjoyed the privilege of cultivating their own vegetable plots as they +pleased. There were a couple of blacksmiths with the sign of a +horseshoe over the entrance of their forges, two or three cobblers, a +wheelwright, a basketmaker, and a---- + +He paused and let his eyes rest on a dilapidated tumble-down hovel, the +most wretched in the whole row. A dirty green shield hung over the +door, bearing the almost obliterated inscription-- + + + "HANS HACKELBERG, + CARPENTER AND PARISH UNDERTAKER." + + +A coffin, also painted green, supported by pillars, loomed down on the +neglected garden, and gave to those who couldn't read, the necessary +information. At the sight of it an incident long forgotten occurred to +Boleslav with extraordinary distinctness. He saw again a little untidy +girl with great, dark, tearful eyes and a tangled cloud of black, curly +hair flying about her face and shoulders in wild dishevelment. She had +clung to this garden gate with one hand, while with the other she held +the corner of her blue print pinafore convulsively pressed against her +bosom. A pack of village hobbledehoys were pelting her with sticks and +stones. He was not much taller than she was, but at his approach the +little crowd made way for him, shy and awestruck. For he was the "young +_Junker_," who had only to lift his finger, they thought, to bring down +blessings or curses on their heads. + +"What is going on here?" he had asked, whereupon the persecuted child +had humbly advanced, and opened her pinafore just wide enough for him +to get a glimpse inside. + +"Beasts! They wanted to take it away from me!" she had exclaimed, +lifting her wet eyes to his, blazing with indignation. + +A poor unfledged sparrow, which somehow or other had fallen out of the +nest, reposed in the pinafore. + +"Give it to me," he had demanded, for he loved young birds; and +obediently she had held out her pinafore for him to snatch it away. As +beseemed a lordling, he had not said thank you, or troubled himself +further about the giver. + +And that was _she_--the girl who, it was said, had shown the French the +path by the Cats' Bridge, and had lived with his father as his mistress +to the last. + +Why had he defended her then? Why had he prevented the pack hunting her +down? One blow on the forehead from a stone might then and there have +cut short her mischievous career! + +He walked on. Now and then a dull, dirty face peered at him curiously +through the small, dark window-panes, or a cur barked. But he passed +unmolested through the village. It was unlikely enough that any one +would recognise him. The parsonage came in view with its shady veranda, +trim flower-beds, and nut-trees. It looked as quiet and peaceful as on +that morning long ago, when, with a sigh of relief at escaping from +the pastor's stern rule, he had seen it for the last time from the +post-chaise, and Helene had waved him farewell with her little cambric +handkerchief. With lowering brow he now took a short cut that he might +avoid passing it. It seemed as if Helene must still be standing on the +lawn waving her handkerchief. But what if she had been there? It would +have been impossible for him to go to her. A path on his left led down +to the river, which divided the Castle domain from the villagers' +territory. As he turned into it he became aware of the frightful +ravages the fire had made. Instead of the long line of barns and +stables which had been ranged on this side of the river stood a row of +ruins, falling walls and scorched beams, grown over with celandine and +valerian. Beyond could be seen, through gaps in the walls, the +courtyard, now a weedy, grass-grown rubbish heap, and on the summit of +the hill, behind a lattice formed of the leafless branches of dead +elms, a black ruined mass of fantastically jagged brickwork--all that +remained of the once proud Castle. + +His arms fell heavily to his sides. A sound escaped him like a sob, a +sob for vengeance. + +He dragged his way laboriously along the banks of the river to the +drawbridge, which was the main mode of access to the island; for, since +his grandfather's time, the whole of the Castle grounds had been, by +means of an aqueduct, practically converted into an island. The +drawbridge, at least, was still _en evidence_. It looked like a remnant +of antiquity as it hung with its grey projecting timbers on its black, +clumsy buttresses, at the foot of which the ripples broke with a +gurgling sound. The rusty chains were tightened, and between _terra +firma_ and the floating edge of the bridge was a space of about three +feet, which could be jumped with ease. Some one had evidently tried to +draw it up, and failed in the effort. + +Boleslav sprang over and passed through the stone gateway, whose +nail-studded doors, half-burnt, were thrown back on their hinges. +Suddenly he heard a sharp clicking sound at his feet resembling the +snap of a bowstring. He stopped, and saw, to his horror, the iron +semicircle of a fox-trap half-buried in the rubbish, and carefully +covered with birch-broom. The long pointed teeth of the iron jaw had +closed on each other in a tenacious grip. By a miracle he had escaped +an accident which might have laid him up for many weeks. + +Feeling the ground with his stick, he pursued his way more cautiously +through the refuse and litter, amongst which he came across +occasionally a disused waggon or the rotten barrel of a brandy cask +held together by iron hoops. He went on, up the hill to the Castle. The +path was overgrown with brambles as tall as himself, and again he came +on traps, their wide open maws greedily eager to seize him by the leg. +The whole place seemed strewn with them--the only signs of civilisation +he had as yet encountered. + +The Castle lay before him, with yawning window-frames and sundered +walls, a complete ruin. Piles of fallen tiles and plaster, between +which rank grass and weeds had sprung up, formed a mound round its +foundations. The vestibule, with its drooping rafters, had become a +perfect bower of creepers and evergreens, whose luxuriant growth seemed +almost impenetrable. A white tablet hung among the leaves, on which, in +his father's handwriting, were the words, "_Caution to trespassers_." + +He shuddered at this, the first trace he had seen for six years of the +man to whom he owed his existence, and whom he had now come to bury. + +In a few moments he would be standing probably beside his corpse. + +But how was he to find it? What resting-place could his father have +found here while yet alive? + +No door or unbroken window, no signs of a human habitation, were +visible amidst all this fearful wreckage. He turned, and walked slowly +the length of the Castle facade, past the towers which flanked the +gabled roof; here over the blackened stonework the ivy had begun to +grow afresh, enshrouding it in a peaceful melancholy. From this point +his eye caught a vista of the park, with its giant timber and wealth of +undergrowth. And then he saw a few yards off, on the grass-plot where +once had stood the statue of the goddess Diana, of which nothing now +was left but the shattered fragments and pedestal, a woman.... A +slender, strongly-built woman, with long plaits of dark curling hair +hanging down her back. Her primitive costume consisted of a red +petticoat and a chemise. She was digging energetically with a heavy +spade in the dark rich soil, and was apparently too engrossed to notice +his approach. She set her naked foot at regular intervals, as if +beating time on the hard edge of the spade, and with the slightest +possible pressure drove it deep into the earth. As she dug she sang a +song on two notes, a high and a low, which welled out of her full +breast like the sound of a sweet-toned bell. The chemise, a coarse and +roughly made garment, had slipped off her shoulders, laying bare the +strong, magnificently moulded neck. When he addressed her, she drew +herself erect with a sudden movement of surprise and alarm, and stood +before him half naked. + +She turned on him a pair of lustrous, large dark eyes. "What do you +want here?" she asked, grasping the spade tighter, as if intending to +use it as a weapon of defence. Then lifting her other arm she calmly +raised the chemise over her shapely bosom. + +"What do you want?" she repeated. + +Still he did not answer. "So this is she," he was thinking, "the +traitress, the courtesan, who---- Should he point his pistol at her, +and drive her instantly from the island, so that the ground he trod on +might at least be clean?" + +Meanwhile his bearing seemed to have convinced her of the peacefulness +of his intentions. + +"This is no place for strangers," she went on. "Go away again at once. +You are lucky not to have been caught in a wolf's trap." + +She stood, drawn to her full height, and waved him off. Then gradually +she became confused under his searching glance, and regarded him +nervously out of the corners of her eyes. Tossing back the black tangle +of hair from her sunburnt cheeks, she began to fidget with her +inadequate garment, seeming conscious for the first time of her +half-nude condition. + +"Show me his corpse!" he asked imperatively. + +She started and stared at him for a moment with astonished, questioning +eyes, then threw herself weeping at his feet. + +"_Gnaediger Herr_!" she murmured, in a voice stifled with emotion. + +He felt her fingers seeking his hand, and pushed her violently from +him. + +"Show me his corpse!" he commanded again, "and then you may go." + +She rose slowly, kicked the spade away with her foot, and led the way +down to the park. As they neared some bushes she turned round and said +timidly, "There's a trap here." He stepped quickly to one side, +otherwise he would have walked straight into the snare. She held +back the brambles of the thicket through which they were making their +way, to prevent the thorns scratching his face. They came to a clearing +in the wood where stood a small one-storied cottage with a tall +chimney, surrounded by broken hot-house frames and lime heaps. It was +the gardener's house, in which as a boy he had often played with +flower-pots, seeds, and bulbs; the one solitary building the ravages of +the fire had left untouched, because the incendiary had been unable to +find his way to it. + +Again his guide warned him. "Take care! That is dangerous," she said, +pointing to a heap of earth like a mole-hill. "Whoever steps on it is a +dead man," she added half to herself. He knelt down, and with his hands +dug out the bomb that lay concealed in the soft earth, and hurled it +with all his might far away, so that it exploded with a loud report +against the trunk of a tree. She cast a shy, half-scandalised glance at +him over her shoulder, for to her what he had done was an act of +desecration. + +Then she opened the door, and he found himself in a dark passage. The +cottage had only two rooms. The one on the left of the front-door had +been the gardener's dwelling-room, the other his workshop. + +From the former, the door of which stood ajar, issued a powerful death +odour. + +He went in. A body veiled in white lay on a low bier in the middle of +the close, gloomy little room. + +"Leave me," he said, without looking round, and he threw back the +cloth. + +His father's rigid features, covered with bristles, stared up at him. +The eyes had sunk far back in his head; the brows were contracted. In +the hollows of his cheeks bushy black hair had sprouted, while the +beard had turned partially grey. The short, thick nose had shrunk, and +close to the firmly-shut lips that had not parted in death lay a deep +line, denoting intense suffering, and, at the same time, defiant scorn; +as Boleslav looked down on it, the line seemed to deepen still more, +and at last to quiver and play round the mouth that was still for ever. + +He dropped on his knees, and, with folded hands, prayed a paternoster. +His tears fell fast, and rained heavily on the waxen face of the dead +man. + +"Your guilt is my guilt," he whispered hoarsely. "If I don't defend +your memory, who else will? No one in all the world." + +Then he covered up the body again with the white cloth, for flies were +swarming round it. As he turned away, he observed the girl's dark head +pressed against the foot of the bier. Her symmetrical neck and +shoulders shone out in relief from the shadowy background. + +"What are you doing here?" he demanded roughly. She crouched down, +shivering, and raised her left shoulder, as if to ward off a threatened +blow. Her eyes flashed a warm ray through the masses of her curly hair. + +"No one has ever driven me away from him before," she murmured. + +"But _I_ drive you away," he answered with decision. + +She rose and quietly vanished. He tore open a window, for he felt half +suffocated, and then took a survey of the apartment. It was small and +wretched enough, and was filled up without any attempt at arrangement +with the most inappropriate and heterogeneous assortment of furniture, +most of it evidently rescued in haste from the fire; a gold-legged +table harmonised ill with rickety kitchen chairs; a peasant's canopied +bed stood near gorgeous consoles of inlaid marble, and a cracked +Venetian mirror hung beside a bullfinch's simple wicker cage. But +nothing looked more out of its element than the life-size portrait of +the beautiful Pole, his grandmother, and the original cause of all the +evil that had befallen him. Her haughty, arrogant eye still pierced the +distance triumphantly; the small gloved hand still grasped the flexible +riding-whip. "Kneel, slave," the full proud lips seemed to say. Only +the diamond pin which used to glitter in her bosom like a star was +gone, for just there the colour had warped, and the grey canvas beneath +was exposed to view. The once elegant and artistically carved frame +representing a garland of gilded roses and cupids had suffered too, +being chipped and cracked in various places, where patches of coarse +orange paint had been daubed on to repair the damage. + +"Probably he took every care to save that first," thought Boleslav, and +had not the presence of his father's corpse restrained him, he would +have pulled it down from the wall, and trampled it under foot. + +A case containing arms stood in a corner. The newest and most costly of +shooting weapons were ranged there, including every variety of pistol, +sword, and spear. Above it was unrolled a plan of the Castle island, +showing the spots where ingeniously contrived man-traps, mines, and +spring-guns awaited the trespasser--roughly calculated, there were over +a hundred of them. + +Boleslav shuddered. Surely this unhappy man had been punished enough +for his misdeeds in the life he had been compelled to lead during his +last few years on earth! Caged up like a hunted wild beast, his +murderous contrivances were a perpetual source of menace to himself, +for to have forgotten for a moment the position of one of his +death-traps must have instantly proved fatal. + +When Boleslav went out at the door he stumbled over Regina, who was +cowering on the threshold. She started to her feet with a low cry of +pain, like the whine of a trodden-on dog. He felt a momentary thrill of +compassion for her, but it vanished before he had spoken the kind words +that involuntarily rose to his lips. + +"What were you lying there for?" he inquired harshly. + +"It's my place," she answered, always regarding him with the same +humble, luminous glance. + +"Indeed? It's a dog's place as a rule." + +"It's mine too." + +"Your name is Regina Hackelberg?" + +"Yes, _gnaed'ger Junker_." + +"It was you who led the French over the Cats' Bridge?" + +"Yes, _gnaed'ger Junker_." + +"Why did you do it?" + +"Because I was told to do it." + +"Who told you?" + +She cast down her eyes. + +"Why don't you answer?" + +"Because I was forbidden to tell." + +"Who forbade you; my--_he_?" + +"Yes; the _gnaed'ger Herr_." + +"So that's what you call him, eh?" + +"Yes, _gnaed'ger Junker_." + +"Call me, if you please, _Herr_, and not _Junker_. I am not _Junker_." + +"Very well, _gnaed'ger Herr_." + +"_Herr_, I say--simply _Herr_. Do you understand?" + +"Yes, _gnaed'ger Herr_." + +"_Himmelkreuzdonnerwetter_! Didn't I say you were to call me _Herr_, +without any prefix?" + +She trembled nervously at his oath; but when it dawned on her what he +meant, a smile of pleasure illumined her face. + +"I see, _Herr_," she said, and nodded. + +"I shall expect you to tell me everything," he went on. "Do you hear?" + +"The _gnaed'ger Herr_ did not wish me to speak about it.... Not to any +one." + +"Did he say not to _any one_?" + +"Yes." + +He bit his lip. Why should he inquire further into the matter, when it +was all as clear as daylight? This creature had been used as a tool +because she was stupid, and bad enough to let herself be so used. + +"How old were you at the time the French came?" + +Again she cast down her eyes. "Fifteen, _Herr_." + +Once more he felt softened towards her, but almost immediately dark +suspicion stifled his pity. + +"You were paid for your work?" he asked between his clenched teeth. + +"Yes, _Herr_," she responded calmly. + +He was overwhelmed with disgust. + +"How much was it? Your bribe?" + +"I don't know, _Herr_." + +"What! You mean to say you did not stipulate for a certain sum +beforehand? + +"She seemed unable to comprehend. + +"My father took it all away from me," she answered. "He said it was the +wages of sin. It was a whole big handful of gold. I know that." + +He looked at her in amazement. + +The fine head, with its wealth of wild hair clustering on her neck, was +humbly bent. She appeared not to have the slightest perception of the +scorn she had aroused in him; or was she so used to it that she took +his contempt as a matter of course? + +"What were you doing at the Castle when the French were quartered +there?" + +A dark flush suffused her face, neck and bosom. He had struck some +chord of memory that awakened in her a spark of shame. + +"I was helping with the sewing," she stammered. + +"Why did you come to the Castle?" + +"My father told me I must. He said I was to go up and ask the +_gnaed'ger_ Herr if there was any sewing for me to do. I was to earn my +bread somehow, he said." + +"Oh, indeed!" There was a pause, then he continued: "Go and put on a +jacket, Regina." + +She passed her hand over her bosom and drew her linen garment tighter +round her chest, till the string cut into the swelling flesh. + +"Well, why don't you go?" + +"I haven't got a jacket." + +"What! Didn't he clothe you?" + +"They tore my jacket off my back yesterday." + +"Who?" + +A gleam of burning hate flashed from her eyes. + +"Who? Why, they--the people down there, of course," and she spat in the +direction of the village. + +A feeling of mingled surprise and satisfaction arose within him, for +here was a being who could share his hatred; some one whom fate was to +associate with him in the coming struggle with the villagers below. + +"So the people down there are your foes?" he said. + +She laughed jeeringly. + +"I should just think they were. They throw stones at me whenever they +get the chance--stones as big as this." She joined the hollows of her +hands together to show the size. + +"For how long have they thrown stones at you?" + +"It must be six years," she said after a moment's calculation. + +"And how often have they hit you?" + +"Oh, lots of times. Look here!" and she let the chemise slip down +again, to display a scar extending from her shoulder to the root of her +bosom, which marked the warm olive skin with a thin line of scarlet. + +"But now I always take the tub with me." + +"The tub?" + +"Yes; the wash-tub. I hold it over my head and neck when they come +after me." + +What a wretched existence was hers--worse than a dog's! + +"Why have you gone on staying here when they treat you thus?" he asked. +"There are other places in the world." + +She gazed at him in astonishment, as if she did not grasp his meaning. + +"But I belong here," she said. + +"You might at least have left the island, and betaken yourself +somewhere where your life would not always be in danger." + +She gave a short laugh. + +"Was I to leave _him_ to starve?" she asked; and then, growing suddenly +red, she added, correcting herself shyly, "I mean the _gnaed'ger Herr_." + +He nodded to reassure her, for she looked as if she expected to be +chastised on the spot for her slip of speech, poor miserable creature! + +"I don't go down there oftener than I can help. Generally I go over the +Cats' Bridge by night to Bockeldorf, three miles away. There, at +Bockeldorf, I could get flour and meat, and everything else that +_he_--the _gnaediger Herr_--wanted, if I paid double the price for it, +and be back by the morning. But sometimes it's impossible to get +there--in a snow-storm, for instance, or a flood. So when the weather +was very bad I was obliged to go down to the village, and had to pay +still more money there, and even then perhaps get nothing but blows. +So"--she laughed a wild, almost cunning laugh--"I just took what came +handy." + +"That means--you thieved?" + +She gaily nodded assent, as if the achievement was deserving of special +praise. + +She was so depraved, then, this strange, savage girl, that she was +quite incapable of distinguishing the difference between right and +wrong! + +"And what were you doing in the village yesterday?" he questioned anew. + +"Yesterday? Well, you see, _he_ must be buried. It's time, _Herr_, +quite time. And I thought to myself, however much I cry, that won't get +him under the earth." + +"So you cried, did you?" he asked contemptuously. + +"Yes," she replied. "Was it wrong?" + +"Well, never mind: go on." + +"And so I took the tub and went down to the pastor's. But the pastor +said I mustn't contaminate his house by coming near it, so on I went to +landlord Merckel, who is mayor as you know, _Herr_. And there the +soldiers saw me----" + +"What soldiers?" + +"The soldiers who have just come from the war." She paused again. + +"Go on!" he commanded. + +"And the soldiers cried out 'Down with her--strike her down!' and then +the chase began, and my father joined in and called out 'Down with +her!' too, but he was only drunk, as he nearly always is.... The stones +flew about, and the women and children caught hold of me and held me +fast, that they might strike me; but I had the tub and held it with +both hands high over their heads, hacking with it right and left like +this." She illustrated her story by holding up her rounded muscular +arms in the air, and bringing them down again like a pair of clubs. + +The tall, magnificent figure before him, reminded him of some antique +statue in bronze. Strange, that in spite of all the degradation and +vileness amidst which she had been reared, it should have blossomed +into such fulness of triumphant splendour. There was something classic, +too, in the mere unaffected freedom with which she exposed its charms. +But of course in reality she was nothing but a shameless hussy, long +since lost to all sense of decency. + +"Perhaps you have got a shawl, if not a jacket," he suggested, turning +his back. + +"Yes, I have a shawl, a woollen one." + +"Then put it on at once." + +She disappeared silently through the door before which they had been +standing, and after a few moments returned in a brilliant red tippet +which she had crossed over her breast and tied in a knot behind. Now +that she had awakened to the fact that her half-clothed condition +shocked him, she began to be ashamed of even her naked arms, which she +had no means of concealing. She kept them folded behind her back, and +crept into the darkest corner of the passage. + +"Did they refuse to bury the _gnaediger Herr_?" he demanded. + +"No-no-one said anything," she answered, "because I never asked." + +"Why not?" + +"Because I couldn't for the stones that were hurled at me. And then I +thought it was no good. Nobody would ever come and fetch him. I might +as well shovel him in myself, as best I could." + +"_You_ proposed to do it! Without help?" + +"If I could carry him from the Cats' Bridge into the house without +help, I ought to be able to bury him too." + +"Where--in the churchyard?" + +"The churchyard? Ha! ha! That would have been a pretty piece of +business. I should never have got him through the village and been +alive afterwards to tell the tale. It was in the garden, over by the +Castle. I was in the middle of digging the grave when the _Herr_ +arrived." + +Now he felt strongly inclined to praise her. Such canine fidelity, +unquestioning, unhesitating, touched him deeply. Did not the girl who +had faced death readily a thousand times for her master's sake, deserve +some sort of reward? Yes. He would repay her in coin; good hard cash +would doubtless be more acceptable than anything else, poor thing! And, +directly he had laid his father in his last resting-place, he would +dismiss her from his service. Till then she might stay where she was. + +But, at all costs, his father's bones must lie with those of his +ancestors. His first duty, his bounden duty as a son, was to procure +for him a decent burial, such as was granted to every Christian human +being. No matter what difficulties might stand in the way, he +determined to accomplish the sacred task, even if he were driven to +resort to extreme measures, and call in the aid of the law. He knew at +least one magistrate in Prussia, a relative of his mother's, who would +take his side, and enforce justice with an armed contingent if the +worst came to the worst. + +He was just in the act of walking off in the direction of the village, +when it occurred to him that it was impossible to take a hundred steps +on his own property without being snared into a hundred death-traps. +Without the woman he detested to guide him, he was as helpless as a +child. + +"Lead me to the drawbridge," he said; "and while I am gone clear away +all the traps." + +"Yes, _Herr_." + +But she remained motionless, as if rooted to the spot. + +"What are you waiting for?" + +"I beg the _Herr's_ pardon, but he has been travelling all night, and I +thought----" + +"What did you think?" + +"That the _Herr_ must be very tired, and hungry perhaps; and----" + +She was right He could hardly stand from sheer exhaustion. But the idea +of taking even a crust from her hands filled him with loathing. Rather +would he be fed by his enemies. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + +Meanwhile in the Black Eagle a group of Schrandeners, burghers and +burghers' sons, were enjoying their morning pint together. The +Schrandeners, who had always thought the ideal of a happy life was to +spend as much time as possible in the tavern, were now at liberty to +indulge their taste from morning to night. What work they did must have +been accomplished very early in the day, judging by the hour at which +they began their recreation. + +Young Merckel presided at their carousals. He had grown up into a fine, +broad-shouldered young fellow, with a cavalry moustache aggressively +curled up at the ends, which suited his cast of countenance, and a +manner, that even in bouts of clownish dissipation retained a certain +swaggering _bonhomie_. At the conclusion of the war, instead of getting +his discharge, he had come home on leave, to consider at his ease +whether or not it would be advisable to attach himself to a standing +army. His profession was not likely to interfere with his decision one +way or the other, as practically he had none. + +Till his twenty-fourth year he had been employed in "seeing life" in +different parts of the world at his father's expense, and had hailed +with joy the outbreak of war as a legitimate outlet for his energy, +which otherwise might have been turned into unworthy channels. + +Like Baumgart he had entered the army as a volunteer Jaeger; like him +had passed into the militia and had been promoted to the rank of +lieutenant, but unlike him, he wore as a recognition of his bravery the +iron cross dangling on his proudly swelling breast. For the time being, +he had no intention of leaving his birthplace again, where he was +perfectly content to be regarded in the light of a hero and a lion. + +He drank, blustered, and helped to fan the flame of hate against the +traitor, hate which since the return of the victorious soldiers had +blazed up more fiercely than ever. At his instigation the Schrandeners +had gone forth to destroy the Cats' Bridge in order to cut the baron +off, on his island. That he would be struck dead before their very eyes +none in their boldest dreams had dared to hope, and without having +achieved their mission they had hurried back to the village to proclaim +the glad tidings. + +It was a foregone conclusion that the man who had betrayed his country +would be refused Christian burial. This would put the crown on their +work of vengeance. They gloried in reflecting on it. The mayor was on +their side; the parson appeared to shut his eyes to what was going on; +and there was no reason to be afraid of the interference of higher +authority. + +That a champion of the dead would arise at the eleventh hour was the +last thing any one expected. + +For the _Junker_--God alone knew what had become of the _Junker_--had +he not totally disappeared, probably to die of shame in a distant +land?... + +"There's some one coming, wearing a Landwehr cap," said Felix Merckel, +looking out through a crack in the blinds on to the market-place, which +lay glaring and dusty in the heat of the mid-day sun. + +The sounds of revelry subsided, in expectation of the advent of a +stranger. Felix Merckel stretched out his legs and began to toy +indifferently with his medal. + +The door swung back. The new-comer brought a momentary stream of +sunlight into the cool, darkened room. Without a word of greeting he +walked to the buffet, behind which a barmaid sat knitting a stocking, +and inquired if he could speak a few words with the mayor. The mayor +was not at home; he had just gone out into the fields, the barmaid told +him. + +Herr Merckel was fond of leaving the inn in charge of his son, for he +found the beer disappeared twice as fast from the barrels when he was +not present. Felix adopted a method of stimulating customers to drink, +which would not have been becoming in the host. He couched his +invitations in military slang and in figures of speech learnt in the +camp; to resist them would, the Schrandeners held, be casting a slight +on their lieutenant, so it followed that Felix was the means of adding +treasure to his father's exchequer. + +He was piqued at the stranger in the Landwehr cap not vouchsafing him a +salute, although he must have seen the officer's badge on his coat, and +determined to ignore him. + +"Can I wait here till the mayor comes back?" the stranger asked. + +"Of course. This is the tap-room," the barmaid replied. + +He took a seat in the farthest corner from the topers, with his back +turned to them, put down his knapsack, and bowed his head in his hands. + +Herr Felix regarded such conduct as a kind of challenge to himself. +Like the true son of his father, he was indignant at a stranger coming +in and ordering nothing to drink. + +"Ask the gentleman, Amalie, what he will take," he called out, bursting +with a sense of his own importance. Apparently the stranger didn't +hear, for he took no notice. The barmaid stood behind his chair and +stammered something about the excellent quality of Schrandener beer. + +"Thank you; I will drink nothing," he replied, without looking up. + +Herr Felix twisted with vigour the ends of his moustache. It was clear +that a rebuke must be administered to the stranger for his churlish +behaviour. He therefore rose to his feet, and swinging his tankard, +began in a somewhat blatant tone to address his boon-companions. + +"Dear comrades and fellow-burghers and every one present, Prussia's +glorious battles have been fought. Our beloved Fatherland has risen +from the dust in new and unsuspected splendour. Most of us have bled on +the field of glory, and felt the enemy's bullets pierce our breast. +Whoever is a true Prussian patriot will now drink with me his country's +health and honour!" + +With high-pitched hurrahs, the mugs with one accord were lifted to the +revellers' mouths, but before they could drink, an incisive "Halt!" +from the lieutenant stopped them. + +"I see there is some one here," he cried, "who seems inclined to shirk +this sacred duty;" and he rose and walked with clanking spurs across +the room to the stranger's table. + +"Sir," he asked aggressively, "do I understand you don't wish to drink +to Prussia's fame and glory?" + +"I wish to be left in peace," answered the stranger, not turning round. + +"What, sir? You who wear the honourable symbol of a defender of your +country in your cap, decline----" + +A sudden movement on the part of the stranger, who grasped his pistols, +made him break off. The next moment he saw firearms gleam in his hand, +saw him spring up, and stood aghast, staring into a pale, overcast face +that he knew well, but from which two such angry eyes had never blazed +at him before. + +He understood the situation at once; he stood face to face with a man +desperately resolved to go to any extremity if necessary. + +"Look at me, Felix Merckel," said the stranger, who was stranger no +longer, "and learn that I wish to have nothing to say to you. But +understand that if you or any of your friends come too near, they will +rue it. The first who approaches within an inch of me I will shoot down +like a dog." + +Felix Merckel quickly regained his composure. + +"Ah! the _Herr Baron_!" he exclaimed, with a profound bow. "Now I am +not surprised that Prussia's----" + +The click of the double trigger of the cavalry pistol made him stop +short again. + +"I warn you once more, Felix Merckel. I am an officer as well as +yourself." + +And the reiterated warning had its effect. + +"Certainly, it is not my concern," Felix said, and with another low +bow, went back to his place; this time the clatter of his spurs was +scarcely audible. + +The Schrandeners put their heads together and whispered, and then old +Merckel entered the room. His round, sleek, clean-shaven face beamed +with prosperity and self-satisfaction. As beseemed the village +patriarch, he passed by the common drinking-table with a dignified +gait. A heavy silver watch-chain hung on his greasy satin waistcoat, +suspended from a gold keeper in the form of a Moor's head, to which was +also attached an amber heart. + +"The _Herr_ wished to speak to me?" he asked, with a profound +obeisance, which, however, he seemed to repent, when his little grey +lynx eyes remarked that the stranger had no glass before him. To be +obsequious to a non-drinker was a waste of time. + +The Schrandeners kept their ears open. Felix had jumped up as if to +seize this favourable opportunity of going for his whilom friend with +his fists. + +"I say, father, it's the young _Herr Baron_," he exclaimed, with a +discordant laugh. + +Old Merckel withdrew a few steps. His benevolent smile died on his +lips; his fleshy fingers fumbled nervously with the Moor's-head keeper. + +"Can I speak to you alone?" + +"Oh! _Herr Baron_--of course, _Herr Baron_--is the _Herr Baron_ going +to stay?" + +He flung wide a side door, which opened into the little best parlour +reserved for gentry. A sofa, covered with slippery oil-cloth, and a few +velvet, bulky arm-chairs, were ready for the reception of distinguished +customers. Over a cabinet containing tobacco hung a placard with the +inscription, "Only wine drunk here." + +Before the host closed the door behind Boleslav, he made a reassuring +sign to his fellow-burghers as if to allay their anxiety. Then from +under his drooping lids he took a rapid survey of the newly-returned +young aristocrat's person, which seemed to fill him with satisfaction, +for again his smug, slimy smile played about his fat lips. + +"How the _Herr Junker_ has grown, to be sure!" he began. "Wonderful!" + +Boleslav fixed his eyes on him silently. + +"And the _Herr Junker_--pardon, I ought to say Herr Baron--has come +home to find the old Herr Baron no longer alive. A pity he was not in +time to close the eyes of the sainted dead----" + +He broke off, and caught violently at his amber heart, for Boleslav's +piercing, threatening gaze began to make him feel uneasy. What if this +was a desperado, who would think nothing of taking him by the throat? + +"At any rate I have come in time," Boleslav burst forth at last, "to +repair the shameful scandal that has been perpetrated here in refusing +my father the last honour due to his position." + +"Shameful scandal, my _Herr Baron_?" + +"I advise you, my worthy man, not to put on that air of saint-like +innocence. I can read you through and through. Something has come to my +ears concerning you, for which you deserve to be thrashed on the spot." + +"_Herr Baron_!" and he showed signs of taking flight through the door. + +"Stay where you are!" commanded Boleslav, barring the way. Thank God +that in confronting this scum he felt the old inherited instinct of +conscious power come back to him. "Is this the gratitude you show my +house, to whose favours you owe everything?" + +This was true enough. The present landlord of the Black Eagle had once +hung about the Castle in search of a situation, and had finally, as its +ubiquitous commissionaire, amassed a considerable fortune, although he +now chose to adopt an attitude of injured virtue, and rubbed his hands +self-righteously. + +"Dear _Herr Baron_," he said, a paternal kindliness suffusing his broad +countenance, "I willingly pardon the insults you have just heaped on +me, and will give you the best advice, as if nothing had happened. Now, +you will surely understand how friendly are my intentions." + +"I decline your friendship," thundered Boleslav. "As mayor of the +village of Schranden, you will answer my questions. Beyond that, I have +no dealings with you." + +"The Schrandeners, dear _Herr Baron_, are really terrible people. I +always have said so. I said so many times to my dear wife. You knew +her, _Herr Baron_. Why, of course, she often took the little _Junker_ +in her arms, little thinking that----" + +"Keep to the point, if you please," Boleslav interrupted. + +"'Marianne,' I used to say, 'these Schrandeners, when once they get an +idea into their heads, nothing will move them.' Once they took it into +their heads not to drink my brandy. Good, pure, beautiful Wacholder, +_Herr Baron_. In the same way they've now got it into their heads not +to bury the old noble lord, and--well, upon my word, no God and no +devil will force them to do it. It's no good _your_ trying either, +_Herr Baron_. I'll tell you why. The hearse belongs to the corporation, +and they won't let you have it. Horses, too, they wouldn't let out.... +As for bearers--dear God! Go round the village and see if you can find +one, and if you can, see if he is not well flogged for it quarter of an +hour afterwards. Oh! these Schrandeners! And then there is the _Herr +Pastor_--who really in the end has the most voice in the matter. Go to +the _Herr Pastor_, and hear what _he_ says. Putting ceremonials and +paternosters out of the question, you won't even get the coffin made." + +"We shall see," said Boleslav, gnashing his teeth. He felt his spirit +of resistance rise, the more clearly he saw the web that hatred and +malice were weaving around him. + +"You _shall_ see," exclaimed old Merckel in badly concealed triumph, +"if you wish it, _Herr Baron_." + +He opened the door of the tap-room, from whence proceeded a low hum of +many voices. Half the village seemed to have collected there during +Boleslav's interview with the mayor. + +"Hackelberg! come here!" he called, and then hurriedly banged the door +to again, for he saw hands laid on it that threatened to tear it off +its hinges. + +"If he has got over his debauch of yesterday, _Herr Baron_, he will +certainly come and himself give you his views on the subject." For a +moment the little lynx eyes sparkled with malignant joy. Then resuming +his benevolent patriarchal smile, he went on, twisting the amber heart. + +"You have repudiated my friendship, young man. You have insulted me, +and shown no respect for my grey hairs--I don't resent it. You wouldn't +have done it if you had known how I, at the risk of my life--for if the +Schrandeners had got wind of it they would have done me to death--how I +saved many a time the noble baron, of blessed memory, from starvation. +Ask the _Fraeulein_. + +"What _Fraeulein_?" + +"The pretty, faithful _Fraeulein_ Regina--your deceased father's best +beloved. She is a pearl, _Herr Baron_; you ought to hold her in high +esteem, and take her away with you on your travels. Often in the +darkness of the night have I stuck a loaf and a sausage in her apron, +_Herr Baron_, and sometimes a pound of coffee, _Herr Baron_, while I +have made my own breakfast off rye-bread for fear of the embargo, _Herr +Baron_." + +"Weren't you paid for your trouble?" + +"Well; yes, yes. When one risks one's life one expects to be paid. +There is still a little bill due, however, _Herr Baron_, left standing +from last winter; if the _Herr Baron_ will have the goodness to----" + +"Write out your account, and the money shall be sent you." + +"There's no hurry, _Herr Baron_. I have confidence; can trust you, +_Herr Baron_. What I wish to say is, take the advice of an old and +experienced man, and go home now without more ado; dig a grave behind +the Castle, and lay the deceased _Herr_ in it--do it at night, mind, on +the quiet, quite on the quiet--_Fraeulein_ Regina will assist you--then +make the turf perfectly smooth, so that no one will know where you've +laid him, and before the dawn of another day ride away again with +_Fraeulein_ Regina on your saddle to where----" + +He paused suddenly, for Boleslav's hand was on the butt-end of his +pistols. Then the devilish mockery beneath this suave old hypocrite's +counsel was goading him into drastic measures. While he listened to it, +a new thought had flashed across his brain with vivid distinctness. The +funeral would after all only be the first step in the work that it was +incumbent on him to complete. Never would he slink away under cover of +night like a criminal, and abandon what remained of the inheritance of +his ancestors to utter ruin. No! he would stay and endure all things. +Set at defiance all these malicious hyenas, the worst of whom stood +before him, now grinning, with greedily gleaming eyes, only awaiting +his opportunity to pounce on the masterless unowned possessions. + +Endure! Endure! + +Renunciation for the sins of the fathers must ever be his lot. And did +not the foul act that had laid waste his property deserve retributive +justice? He would be a deserter and renegade, indeed, were he now to +turn his back on his native place, and on the beloved, who, though she +seemed lost to him eternally, might still be cherishing timid hopes of +meeting him once more. No! for the future his flag should wave over the +ruins of Schranden Castle, with the single word "Revenge" blazoned on +it in fiery characters. And who but a cowardly cur would leave his flag +in the lurch? + +He stepped nearer the mayor, and with a threatening glance that seemed +to penetrate him through and through, almost roared in his ear-- + +"Who set fire to the Castle?" + +Herr Merckel winced as if his conscience pricked him. Every Schrandener +did the same when any question arose as to who it was had perpetrated +the crime. Every Schrandener except one, and he was the criminal +himself. + +Herr Merckel was gathering up his strength for a glib answer when the +suppressed murmur in the tap-room gave place to a sound which had a +louder and more riotous note in it. + +The landlord made a movement in the direction of the door, to bolt it +on coming events, but before he could take the precaution it was +stormed and burst open. A troop of wild-looking creatures led the +assault, at the head of whom was a man of puny stature, in rags and +tatters, with straight, black hair hanging in oiled ringlets to his +shoulders, a grey, stubbly beard, and a pair of glassy, besotted eyes +that rolled under red, lashless lids. He beat the air with his fists +and cried-- + +"Where is the fellow--the brute? Let me catch the brute and I'll +strangle him!" + +Then he beheld Boleslav's tall, resolute form, and swallowed his words +with a gurgling hiss. Behind him was a phalanx of angry, heated, +inquisitive faces all turned on Boleslav as on a recently captured +beast of prey. + +"Every man's hand is against me!" he thought, and his blood rose. + +"Are you the carpenter Hackelberg?" he asked, holding the drunkard in +thrall with his searching glance. + +He was associated with one of the dark memories of his childhood. Once +his pitiable howls had frightened him out of his quiet, boyish +slumbers, and on looking from his window he had seen him being whipped +round the courtyard for poaching. Now he stood shaking his fists, +grunting and spluttering with rage. + +"You supply the village with coffins, I understand?" + +The carpenter shook his head, stared vacantly in front of him, and then +answered in a sepulchral voice-- + +"I am at work on only two coffins--one for myself, and one for my poor +erring daughter." + +The Schrandeners laughed in their sleeve. This formula was so familiar. +When any one died in the village the carpenter had to be fetched by +force, locked up with a bottle of brandy and the necessary boards, and +not let out till the coffin was finished. Taken all in all, this +Hackelberg was a dangerous fellow, and no one knew it better than the +Schrandeners, who never let him out of their sight for long. He was +watched and shadowed, and many an arm was ready to strike him down when +the right moment should offer itself. + +Nevertheless they courted his society in the tavern, made him drunk, +and humoured him. Sometimes they hung on his lips, at others, stopped +his mouth. Either they put him under lock and key, or allowed him to +bully them. It was as if they had endowed their own bad conscience with +flesh and blood, and allowed it to run wild amongst them in the shape +of this unkempt, half-crazed sot. + +"Who else makes coffins in the village besides you?" Boleslav asked +again. + +The Schrandeners burst into jeering laughter. They knew how difficult +he would find it to get any direct answer to his question. + +"My poor, wretched child," he growled, fastening his glassy eyes on +Herr Merckel's amber heart, which appeared to possess a fascination for +him. Then suddenly rousing himself once more from the half-stupor into +which he had collapsed, he threatened Boleslav with his fists, and +cried out excitedly-- + +"What do you want from me, _Herr_? A coffin? Is that what you want? +For whom do you want it? For the scamp, the dog, who betrayed his +country--who seduced my child? Do you think I'd make a coffin for +_him_? Look at me, _Herr_. Did you ever see such a spectacle?" He +wrenched open his shirt, and exposed to view his shaggy breast. "I'm a +beauty--mere offal, that dogs would turn up their noses at. And whose +fault is that, my dear young nobleman? Why, the _Herr Baron's_, your +deceased father's. He it was who reduced me to this, and made me an +unhappy, forsaken, childless old man, such as you see." He wiped his +eyes with the ragged sleeve of his corduroy jacket, while the +Schrandeners applauded, and backed him up in his maudlin oration. "My +child, my only child, was torn from my bosom. He robbed me of my +child----" + +"I believe you yourself sent her to the Castle," Boleslav interposed, +without, however, making the least impression. + +"He made my child a prostitute, but what's worse, young sir--what most +lacerates my father's heart--for though I'm a blackguard, I'm a +patriot; for in Prussia even blackguards love their country--if there +_are_ any blackguard Prussians ... but my child ... ah! do you know +what he did with my child?... forced her with the lash to go out in the +dark night and---- But since then do you think I'd own her? No ... she +is my child no longer. I've cursed her--cast her off! I said to her, +'You are my own flesh and blood no longer.' That's what I said, +and----" + +"But you took the wage of her sin all the same," Boleslav was on the +point of interrupting, but recollected in time that in saying so he +would be admitting his father's guilt to this pack of wolves. + +"'And you are free,' I said. 'You may go where you like, and whoever +you meet may kill you outright for all I care. Go to your _gnaedigen +Herrn_,' I said, 'and ask him to protect you.' I said----" + +At this juncture the shouts of the other Schrandeners became so much +louder that they drowned the carpenter's speech. They closed round him, +and he was lost in the crowd; only his rasping laugh was still audible. + +"What did I prophesy, _Herr Baron_?" asked old Merckel, with his +unctuous smile. + +Boleslav leant against the end of the sofa, and regarded the crew of +Schrandeners pressing ever nearer with clenched teeth and unflinching +eye. + +"If one strikes me," he thought to himself, "the rest will tear me to +pieces." + +He felt how imperative it was to remain calm. + +"Come, you people," he said, making a passage through their ranks with +his hands, "let me pass." + +And whether it was his commanding air of cool determination, or the +cross which shone in his military cap, that awed the tumultuous throng, +not one of them attempted to impede his progress. He passed into the +thick of the mob, expecting every moment to be struck a fatal blow from +behind; but nothing of the sort happened--unchallenged he found himself +in the open air. Felix Merckel had kept in the background. + +The whole mob, now including women and children, surged after him down +the road. + +As he reached the parsonage garden, whose white walls blazed in the +rays of the mid-day sun, he was aware of an aching sensation at his +heart, that rose in a lump to his throat. His last hope rested in the +hands of the old pastor. Would he too spurn him from his threshold? But +at this moment that was not his only anxiety. How could he help feeling +anxious as to what _her_ reception of him would be, she in whose power +it was to exalt him from the mire of shame and misery into a world of +peace and purity. If she saw him in his present condition, dirty and +dishevelled, with this escort of hooting ruffians behind him, would she +not recoil in horror? + +And she did. + +A terrified hand threw back the glass door of the veranda. It was +she--it must be she! For a moment he saw the glimmer of a white, +slender figure; saw her raise an arm, as if to wave off the approach of +him and the mob: and then, before Boleslav could give one questioning, +imploring look at the beloved features, she vanished with a faint cry +of alarm. + +There was a mist before his eyes. Half stunned, he went up the steps of +the veranda, closed the door behind him, and awaited the next turn in +the course of events. + +The Schrandeners blockaded the veranda, and some flattened their noses +against the glass in order to see better what passed within. A pane +fell out; one of them had pushed his neighbour through it, whereupon +the revered voice of the old pastor was heard raised in remonstrance. +He appeared on the veranda flourishing a thick, notched walking-stick. +His white hair blew about his lofty temples. The nostrils of his +hawk-like nose dilated furiously as if they snorted battle. Beneath the +snow-white shaggy projecting brows his eyes glowed like fiery torches. +Such was the venerable Pastor Goetz, who, in the March of the year 1813, +had gone from house to house, holding the big cross from the altar in +his hand, followed by a drummer, and had beaten up recruits for the +holy war. And had he not been left fainting by the roadside on the +march to Koenigsberg, in all probability he would have accompanied his +soldier-parishioners into the field of action. + +The Schrandeners stood in no little dread of his discipline, and no +sooner did they catch sight of his formidable stick than they retreated +quickly from the windows, and tried to regain the garden gate. + +"You hell-hounds, craven sheep!" he shouted from the glass door. "Come +to God's house on Sunday and I'll give you a dressing." + +Then turning on Boleslav, he measured him from head to foot with a +scowling glance. His eye rested on the military cap he held in his +hand. + +"You were in the campaign?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"If it were not for the cross I see on the brim of your cap, I should +ask was it for or against Prussia?" + +Boleslav, whose thoughts had followed the fleeting vision of light he +had seen on the veranda, at first did not understand him; then he met +the insinuation with signs of passionate resentment. But the old pastor +was not the man to be easily intimidated, and while they both glowered +at each other, he cried-- + +"Boleslav von Schranden, am I, or am I not, justified in cherishing +such a suspicion?" + +Then Boleslav's eyes fell before the condemnation in those of his +former master. He opened the door of his study, where between the +book-shelves hung pipe-racks and fire-arms, and said-- + +"Out of respect for the cap I will not refuse you entrance here. But +make what you have to say as brief as possible. In this house no +Schranden is a welcome guest." + +He put his stick in a corner, and drawing his flowered dressing-gown +close about his loins, paced up and down the room. + +Boleslav cast about for words. He felt like a criminal in the presence +of this man, whose speech was like molten brass. Of a truth it was no +easy matter, this taking the guilt of another on to one's own guiltless +shoulders. + +"_Herr Pastor_," he began, stammering, "can't you forget for a moment +that I bear the name of Schranden?" + +The old man laughed bitterly. "That's asking a little too much," he +murmured; "a little too much." + +"Regard me simply in the light of a son who wishes to bury his father, +and who is prevented from fulfilling that most sacred duty by the +wickedness and malice of the _canaille_." + +For answer the old parson contracted his shaggy brows without speaking. + +"I appeal to you as a priest of the Christian Church. Will you suffer +such a scandal in your parish?" + +"Such a thing cannot happen in my parish," the old man declared. +"Wherever it is my duty to lead souls to God, every one must be granted +a decent burial." + +"And yet they dare----" + +"Stop! Whose burial is in question!" + +"My father's." + +"The Freiherr Eberhard von Schranden?" + +"Yes." + +"That man has been dead for seven years." + +"_Herr Pastor_!" + +"For seven years he lived ostracised from the society of his +fellow-creatures. Seven years he practically rotted in the earth. +Therefore, don't trouble me about him further." + +"_Herr Pastor_, I was once your pupil. From your lips I first learnt +the name of God. I always thought you a brave, upright man. I retract +that opinion now; for what you have just been saying are lying, +cowardly quibbles." + +The old man drew himself up. His beard worked; his nostrils expanded. +With lurid eyes he came nearer to Boleslav. + +"My son," he said, "do I look like a man who would countenance a lie?" + +Boleslav maintained his defiant attitude. But, much as he struggled +against it, he felt the old, long-forgotten sentiment of respect for +the schoolmaster awaking in him once more. + +"My son," went on the old man, "a word from me, and the rabble that +waits for you on the other side of that hedge would lynch you, but, as +I said before, for the sake of the cap you wear, I will be merciful. If +you like, I can prove that what I said just now is no lie." + +He went to a cupboard, where stood a long line of ragged folios, +containing church and parish documents, took out a volume, and, opening +it, pointed to a page dated 1807. + +"Here, my son, read this." + +And Boleslav read-- + +"On March 5th, died Hans Eberhard von Schranden. _Ex memoria hominum +exstinguatur_." + +Beneath were three crosses. + +"That is a forgery!" exclaimed Boleslav. + +"Yes, my son," the old man answered solemnly, "that is a palpable, +shameless forgery; a stain on my office; and if you choose to report it +to the magistrates, I shall be suspended and end my days in prison. Do +exactly as you think fit. My fate lies in your hands." + +A shudder of mingled horror and reverence passed through Boleslav. He +had himself experienced too often the wild _elan_ and reckless delight +of making sacrifices for the love of his country, not to understand +what impulse had driven the old clergyman to this insane confession. + +"With those crosses," he continued, "I buried the man seven years +ago--the man who, in spite of his cruelty and ungovernable passions, +had till then been my friend. From that day, whoever dared to breathe +so much as his name in my house was sent out of it. Then came that +night of arson, when these walls were illumined by the reflection of +the burning Castle. I jumped out of my bed, and, throwing myself on my +knees, prayed God to forgive the incendiaries, for it began to burn at +all four corners at once, a sure proof that the fire was not an +accident. Now, I thought, not only the deed, but the scene of it, will +be erased from men's minds. I didn't concern myself in the least about +the spectre that was doomed to haunt the ruins of Castle Schranden. And +now you come, my son, and tell me that that spectre was no spectre, but +a living creature, who only a few days ago gave up the ghost, and now +awaits interment. Well, I forbid it Christian burial, on the strength +of this register. I never bury any one twice. Report me, and--and I +shall be tried for my offence. But you know I am prepared. Do as you +like. Bury the corpse with all the honours you consider due to it; have +a procession grander and more imposing than an emperor's, but kindly +leave me out of the show." + +He settled himself in his green-cushioned armchair, supported his face +with his wrinkled, muscular hands, and stared vacantly at the open +register. There was nothing to hope from this iron-willed man of God. +It would be madness to keep up any illusion on the subject, and that +other illusion, that the loved one might still be won on earth after +long waiting and renunciation, must be abandoned too. All the shy +dreams and hopes that he had yet dared to cherish in his embittered +heart now seemed finally wrecked. + +"So this is the divine grace, the forgiveness of sins, you preach!" he +cried, tears of wrath filling his eyes. + +The old man rose slowly and let his hand fall heavily on Boleslav's +shoulder. + +"Because of your cap, my son, I will reason with you, although the +sight of you is hateful to me. Listen! It is a year and a half now +since there came here from Russia a rabble of ragged French beggars, +starving and frost-bitten. The Schrandeners would have felled them to +the earth with their scythes and pitchforks, and perhaps would have had +right on their side, for they were mere carrion-serfs in the pay of +Napoleon. But I opened the church door to them that they might take +refuge in the shelter of God's altar. I kindled a fire for them on the +flagstones, and had a hot supper cooked for them and gave them straw to +lie on. I told the Schrandeners that, though they were enemies, they +were human beings like themselves, bearing the cross of human suffering +as the Saviour once bore it on His shoulders. I told them to go home +and pray that God might spare them as they had spared those miserable +Frenchmen. So you see I can be pitiful and show mercy.... To return to +the subject of the funeral. I have never refused any sinner his lawful +resting-place. If I could have my will, even suicides should not be +excluded from the churchyard. That those who have been unhappy in their +lifetime should be comfortable in death has always been my principle. +And if the body of a man who had murdered his mother was brought here +from the scaffold, I would go to his graveside in full canonicals and +pray the King of kings 'to forgive him, for he knew not what he did.' +Yes, I'll extend mercy to all, only not to your father. For he who sins +against his country outrages every law human and divine; he disgraces +the mother who bore him and the children he propagates. Such a one is a +social outcast. He is like the leper who brings death and corruption +with him wherever he goes, or a mad dog who spurts poison from his jaw +on every living thing that comes in his way. And do you realise the +extent of your father's guilt, the mischief it has worked? It is not so +much the lives of those two or three hundred Pomeranian youths whose +bones lie buried there on the common that are to be reckoned against +him. They would probably have met death somewhere, later. The grass +grows high on their graves; even their parents have long since become +reconciled to their loss. No, it is not on their account that I bear +the grudge. But----come here, my son----" + +He clutched Boleslav's hand and led him to the window. + +"Look out--what do you see on the other side of the garden hedge? A +gang of turbulent wild animals thirsting for the blood of their prey, +and yet too craven-hearted to spring on it, even when they have it +within their reach. And look at me, my son. I am here, appointed by God +as His minister to preach the gospel of love, and I preach hate. Words +sweet as honey should flow from my lips, and instead, scorpions spring +out of my mouth directly I open it, for I too am become a wild animal. +And this is what your father's crime has made us. There is no goodness +left in Schranden; the venom of your father's hate ferments in us, is +inoculated into our children and children's children. So will it ever +be till the Lord not only wipes the scene of infamy, but your accursed +name with it, from off the face of His blessed earth. Amen!" + +He stood with raised hands like some anathematising prophet of the Old +Testament, and foam rested in the corners of his mouth. + +Boleslav, half-dazed and horror-stricken, turned in silence to the +door. The old man did not call him back. As he crossed the hall he +started violently, for he was sure he heard the rustle of a woman's +dress behind a half-opened door. But not for the world would he meet +her now. Not in this dark hour, when he was completely overpowered by a +sense of having had the remnants of all that was good and noble in him +shattered and laid in the dust. + +"If _they_ are become wild beasts, I can become one too," he thought, +as he thrust his hand in the breast-pocket that held his pistols, and +walked towards the Schrandeners. The old pastor was right. Though they +danced, whooped, and jostled around him with the lust of murder +gleaming in their savage eyes, they dared not lay a finger on him. + + + * * * * * + + +When he reached the drawbridge, behind the palings of which a girl's +figure crouched, awaiting his return, he was full of a desperate +resolve. His father should be carried to his last resting-place by an +armed force. + +"Are you ready to earn another large sum of money?" he asked the girl, +who flushed and stood up quickly at his approach. + +She looked at him for a moment in reflective surprise, and then, as his +meaning dawned on her, she shook her head violently. + +"Why not?" he demanded. + +She began to tremble. "What's the good of money to me, _Herr_?" she +asked, in subdued, bitter tones. "They would only take it away from +me." + +"Who?" + +"People--those people. Please, oh please, give me no money." + +"Her mind is clearly unhinged," thought Boleslav. + +"Besides, there is money enough," she continued in a whisper, glancing +round her timidly, "in the cellar--great boxes full--where the wine is. +I used to take what I wanted from there--for him, I mean--the _gnaed'ger +Herr_. For myself I never want any, unless it's to buy a new jacket +with." + +"Will you earn a new jacket?" + +"There's no need to earn it, _Herr_. Next time I go to Bockeldorf--for +the _Herr_ must have food--I can get one." + +So, unreasoning as a beast of burden, she performed her duties, and +expected no return except her food! + +"Will you, then, without earning anything, go a long way for me this +very night?" + +"Oh, won't I, _Herr_, if you wish it?" + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + +The next day the village of Schranden received an unexpected visitation +that proved no small shock to its inhabitants. At about five o'clock in +the afternoon two coaches appeared in the village street each of which +contained half-a-dozen occupants, young fellows in Jaeger uniforms, with +their muskets slung over their shoulders from wide leather belts. + +In the first coach there was also a female occupant, who, the moment +the horses' heads turned in the direction of the space opposite the +church, alighted with a wild leap, and scudded away towards the Castle. + +Every Schrandener recognised in her the deceased Baron's sweetheart, +but all were too much taken aback to think of following her. + +The coaches halted before the Black Eagle, the windows of which were +eagerly opened, and before the strangers had moved from their seats, an +enthusiastic welcome was extended to them. + +"The Heide boys--Hurrah!" shouted Felix Merckel, who had many a time +fought side by side with these comrades of the Sellinthin squadron, and +he stretched a foaming jug out of the window. + +His father threw open the door of the little room reserved for +"gentry," where only wine was drunk, in the hopes that at least some of +these wealthy yeomen would patronise it. But, without answering the +warm greetings, they proceeded in gloomy silence to unharness the +horses, and to take out of their vehicles all manner of tools, such as +hatchets, files, and spades. + +The Schrandeners were astounded. + +"Good gracious! have you lost your tongues?" Felix Merckel called from +the window. "And why haven't you brought your paragon, Lieutenant +Baumgart, with you?" + +Still no answer. + +The Schrandeners began to think these strangers must be playing off a +joke on them, and burst into extravagant laughter. + +Then Karl Engelbert, who evidently had the command of the expedition, +came under the window from which Felix's broad-shouldered form obtruded +itself, and, greeting him with a half-military salute, said-- + +"With your permission, Herr Lieutenant, we have come here not to take +part in any festivities or anything of that sort. We are a funeral +party." + +"But here in Schranden no one is going to be buried," cried Felix +Merckel, still laughing, but his face appreciably lengthened. + +"Indeed, Herr Lieutenant! Nevertheless, we have been invited to a +funeral." + +"Who has invited you?" + +"Our former officer, Lieutenant Baumgart." + +"Nonsense! There's no Lieutenant Baumgart here. I thought you were +going to bring him with you." + +"Pardon, Herr Lieutenant, he is here already." + +"Where is the fellow hiding, then?" + +"Probably you know him better under another name--Herr von Schranden." + +The stone jug in Felix's hand fell and crashed to pieces at Engelbert's +feet. The beer splashed his legs up to the knee. + +A tumult arose inside the inn. As if in preparation for battle, windows +were speedily closed, and Johann Radtke, driven by thirst to ascend the +steps to the main entrance, found the door banged in his face. + +"Hunted from the threshold like tramps!" grumbled the dark-haired Peter +Negenthin, and clenched his fist in his sling. + +"Do you wish to perjure yourself?" asked Engelbert in a low voice, +coming close to him. "If so, then go back. What is required of us we +must do. Whoever forgets the church at Dannigkow is a cur!" + +"And if we are dry we must wet our whistles with holy water, I +suppose," added Radtke with a sigh. + +Engelbert shouldered his musket and gave the orders to move on. The +procession filed off in the direction of the Castle, a handful of +natives, out of respect for the muskets, bringing up the rear. + +Boleslav stood on the bridge to receive his friends. + +He rushed towards them in delight, and could hardly articulate, for +emotion, the words of gratitude that rose to his lips. + +Engelbert held out his hand in silence. Boleslav was going to embrace +him, but he drew back. In his excitement Boleslav did not notice the +rebuff. + +"I knew you'd come," he stammered forth at last--"knew that I had +friends who would not leave me undefended to the tender mercies of this +pack of wolves." + +No one made any response. They stood drawn up in an unbroken line, +their eyes looking beyond rather than at him, in embarrassment. +Engelbert was the first to break the silence. + +"You have summoned us, and we have come--but our time is short; tell us +what you want us to do." + +For a moment Boleslav wondered at being addressed in this curt, +somewhat surly fashion, by the comrade who, of all others, had been his +favourite. But it was only for a moment. Why should he doubt them? Had +they not come? And then, incoherently enough, he related how his +father's disgrace had descended on him, and what he had resolved to do, +with their help. + +All the time a pair of shining eyes watched him from the other side of +a rubbish heap, and a woman's figure that sat cowering there trembled +like an aspen. + +"They are here--they are in the village!" she had called out to him in +timid excitement, as she had flown into the yard like a Maenad. At first +he had not recognised her in a light cotton skirt, a bed-jacket +buttoned over her panting bosom, and a handkerchief of many colours on +her head, tied under the chin, according to a fashion of the peasant +girls in the neighbourhood. + +"They gave me these things to put on," she had added apologetically, on +observing his puzzled looks. + +And then in pleasure at the news that his friends had arrived, he had +forgotten her, till, while waiting for them on the bridge, he had +caught sight of her hovering about the ruins. The head-dress had fallen +on her neck, and the wild black tresses escaped, and waved in confusion +about her sunburnt face. She seemed to be smiling absently to herself. + +He was ashamed to think his friends had seen this woman, and decided to +pay her off and dismiss her on the spot, so that they should not +encounter her again. + +"What are you doing here?" he demanded. + +She started. + +"Nothing, _Herr_," she replied, guiltily lowering her eyes. + +"Why did you smile?" + +"Ah, _Herr_," she murmured, "I was so glad." + +"Why?" + +"Because I had got safely back here again." + +What strange fascination had this spot of earth for the abandoned +creature who had suffered on it nothing but shame and degradation and +endless misery? He remembered to have heard of domestic cats who, when +the house to which they belong is deserted by its inhabitants, prefer +to starve beneath its mouldering roof than to take up their abode +elsewhere. And if this cat-like propensity were incurable in her--what +then? After all, perhaps it would be cruel at this moment to pass +sentence of banishment upon her. She might as well stay till to-morrow +morning, so long as she kept out of his way. + +"Go," he had commanded, "and don't come near me and my visitors again." + +And she had hung her head humbly, and vanished behind the rubbish heap, +and there she cowered now, in terror of being discovered. + +When Boleslav had finished his story, Engelbert exchanged significant +glances with his friends, then said-- + +"We have brought the requisite tools with us. If you can supply us with +the wood, we will knock you up a coffin in a very short time." + +"Naturally it won't be a very grand one," remarked Peter Negenthin with +a stony smile. + +Engelbert looked at him reprovingly. A subdued growl passed from +mouth to mouth through the little party, which Boleslav, in his most +light-hearted confidence in his friends' good will, did not hear. + +"Do you remember," he exclaimed, "that coffin we made for the young +Count Dohna in the dark? We took two hours over it, though we couldn't +see an inch before our noses." + +But his reminiscences met with no response. + +"One of you hold the horses," said Engelbert, "and the rest of us will +go and look for wood. All must be ready before nightfall." + +Boleslav bethought him of the wine in the cellar, which the fire had +spared, where also was the frugal larder, containing bread and salt +meat, but not enough with which to entertain his friends. + +"I have next to nothing to offer you to eat," he said, "but I wish you +would at least refresh yourselves with a bottle of wine before setting +to work." + +The friends were silent, and their faces clouded. + +"Never mind refreshment," said Engelbert, trying to assume a facetious +tone. "Wine makes a man lazy, and we haven't a minute to spare." + +He stooped to test some scorched rafters that lay about among the +stable ruins. + +"This will do," he said, "but we won't saw off the blackened part; that +will serve us instead of paint." + +And he walked on farther with Boleslav to look for more rafters. +Something white rose suddenly out of the earth in front of them, and +disappeared in a twinkling behind a neighbouring wall. + +Boleslav instinctively balled his fists, for he had recognised Regina. + +"I ought to apologise," he said, "for not being able to send you a +better messenger. I had no one else to send." + +Engelbert was about to speak, but seemed to think better of it. + +"You were obliged to supply her with clothes, I understand?" + +"Yes," answered Engelbert, his natural loquacity getting the upper +hand. "I found her lying on the doorstep with scarcely a rag to her +back. She was dead beat. I got up in the night to see what the dogs +were barking at." + +"What? Was it in the night?" + +"Two o'clock in the morning. Here is a sound rafter. We can use +that.... She ran the twenty miles in seven hours. I should never have +thought it possible; she lay like an otter that has been shot down--so +straight and fair--and gasped for breath. Your sheet of paper she clung +to with both hands. She tried to stand up, but fell backwards. Then I +fetched her brandy, rubbed her temples, and gave her----" + +One of his companions who were following behind, now came up, and gave +him such a look of astonishment and reproach that he broke off in the +middle of a sentence. + +For the next few hours an industrious sawing and hammering proceeded +from the Castle island, which sounds fell disagreeably on the ears of +the fierce and much perturbed Schrandeners on the opposite bank of the +river. It seemed to portend that their nicely-laid plans were at the +last moment to be frustrated. + +Old Hackelberg appeared in the street with his gun, which, as a rule, +lay buried in a dung-heap, because he was afraid that it might be taken +away from him, as had once happened when he amused himself by shooting +bats in the market-place, declaring that they followed him in swarms +wherever he went. With this famous gun he used in old days to go out +poaching every night, but since his once unerring hand had become weak +and tremulous from drink, he had been obliged to give up the trade. +Only when he had drunk even more than usual did the old sporting +instinct rise strongly within him, and he would rush to the shed, +unearth his gun, and bring down a swallow in full flight through the +air. + +Now he was on the war-path, and with the babbling rhetoric peculiar to +him, shouted-- + +"Schrandeners, duty calls! Arm yourselves against the traitors. I am an +unhappy father. Robbed of my child. I'll shoot him dead, the brute." + +"But he _is_ dead," some one interposed. + +"Is he? Well, it doesn't matter--the other must be shot--all must be +shot down." + +Meanwhile Felix Merckel was ramping about the parlour of the Black +Eagle like a bull of Bashan. He remembered enough about the Heide +youths to know that when once irritated or attacked they would go any +length. The inevitable result of offering them opposition would be such +bloodshed as the rioters outside had no conception of. And then--what +then? Would not he as ringleader be the first object on which the wrath +of the outraged law would expend itself? + +On the other hand, did the swindler who had dared under a false name to +obtain a lieutenancy and abuse the confidence of his comrades, +thereby incurring the contempt and abhorrence of every honourable +brother-in-arms--did he deserve to be allowed to score such a triumph? + +While his son was debating thus, Herr Merckel, senior, was also +troubled with anxiety from another cause. It struck him as a pity that +such a quantity of noble enthusiasm should be seething about aimlessly +in the open air, and determined to put an end to the nuisance. + +He stepped into the porch, and addressed the rabble in his suavest, +most paternal tones. + +"I, as your local functionary, cannot bear to see you, my children, +turning our public square into a bear-garden. Go under cover, and then +you may make as much noise as you please." + +Of course, "under cover" could only mean the parlour of the Black +Eagle; and, five minutes later, the consumption of inspiriting +stimulants left nothing to be desired. + +Felix had bowed his curly head between his hands, and stared gloomily +into his glass. + +Surely no Prussian patriot who had ever worn a sword ought silently to +look on at what was coming to pass this night? Rather die! Rather!---- + +He jumped up, and began to speak inspiringly to the crowd. + +His speech was not without effect. One after the other stole out and +returned with some sort of weapon, a flint-gun, a bent sabre, or a +scythe. + +"Calm, and patriotic, my children!" exclaimed old Merckel, grinning, +and counting the empty tankards with his argus eye. + +Night had come. The two flaring tallow candles in the bar illumined the +overcrowded, oppressively hot room, and were reflected in the polished +blades of the scythes. Then two or three boys, who had been stationed +as spies on the drawbridge, burst in, shouting at the top of their +voices-- + +"They're coming! They're coming!" + +There arose a howl of fury. Every one pressed to the door. Felix +Merckel hurried into his bedroom to take his sabre out of its scabbard, +but he did not come back. Probably the sight of the weapon he had so +often wielded in honourable warfare brought him to his senses. + +His father continued to exhort the rioters to calmness and caution, +especially those who had not yet paid for their drinks. + +"Forwards!" spluttered old Hackelberg, "avenge my poor child. Mow them +down!" + +Outside, in the market-place, the whole population of the village was +assembled. Even babies in swaddling-clothes had been snatched out of +their cradles, and their squalling mingled with the babel of many +tongues. The moon came out from behind some clouds, and shed a pale +twilight on the scene. The church tower rose dark and forbidding +against the sky, and the parsonage, too, remained silent and dark. The +old veteran had kept his word. He heard and saw nothing of what was +passing. A dark-red fiery glow appeared behind the cottages that lined +the road to the river. Above the low roofs rose columns of thick black +smoke. Like the reflection from a conflagration the purple vapour +encroached on the pale dusk of the summer night. + +With one accord the rabble took the path to the churchyard, which, a +few yards from the last straggling houses, lay close to the street. +There by the gate they would best be able to bar the way to the +invaders. Those who had been in the war fell into rank and stood ready +for action. As far as they were concerned, it would be a case of +soldiers pitted against soldiers. + +"Where is Merckel?" one of them exclaimed in astonishment, expecting to +hear the lieutenant's word of command. "Where is Merckel?" was echoed +in consternation from all sides. + +But the feeling that he must be coming, and had only gone to arm +himself, allayed any momentary suspicion of his having shirked the +business at the last. The lurid glow drew nearer and nearer. Soon the +eye could distinguish something black and square, framed as it were in +flames. + +"The coffin--the coffin!" the crowd exclaimed, and involuntarily +shuddered. Then, suddenly--who began it no one knew--it was as if it +had flashed across every brain at the same instant, in a booming chorus +the mob set up the weird chorale-- + + "_Our noble Baron and Lord + Of Schrandener's souls abhorred; + For the shame he has brought on our head, + O God, let the plague strike him dead_." + +And the coffin advanced. Already the light from the torches shone on +the faces of the singing mob, and women and children retreated +screaming. + +The crowd opened wide enough for the procession to pass on, and closed +again behind it. Six men carried the coffin on their shoulders and +swung flaming pine-branches in their disengaged hands, which scared the +throng and made it draw to one side. Six others followed with loaded +muskets. At their head Boleslav, with his pistols cocked in his hand, +his military cap on the back of his head, piercing his antagonists with +his burning gaze, cleared a road for his father's corpse. Deeper became +the rent in the human vortex, thinner the space that divided the +procession from the armed Schrandeners, who looked uneasily from side +to side, conscious that they were leaderless. + +When Boleslav stood face to face with them they were about to make a +forward dash, but a short military "Halt!" such as they had often heard +in the campaign, compelled them to take a step backwards instead, for +in spite of themselves, their limbs insisted on complying with the old +habit of obedience. Boleslav, who had intended the order for the +bearers, saw its effect on the armed line in front of him, and suddenly +a new idea occurred to him. + +"As you were!" he commanded again. No one moved a hair. His manner, his +voice mastered them. "Which of you have been soldiers? Which of you has +helped his king to make his country free?" + +An indistinct, half-resentful murmur went through the ranks, but there +was no answer. + +"The king sent you home," he continued, "because he is now at peace +with his enemies. Do you suppose that he would be pleased to hear you +had taken it upon yourselves to break the peace once more in his realm? +Bah! he wouldn't believe it of you! He might believe it of Poles, but +not of Prussians! So make room, my good people. Let us pass!" + +The line wavered and began to break in places. For one moment the +churchyard gate lay clear before Boleslav's eyes, but the next, fresh +figures had moved up from behind and filled the breach. + +Again the clamour arose, and mingling with it a loud, gurgling laugh of +derision. In another instant something round, black, and polished was +levelled at Boleslav's head, and behind it sparkled a pair of malignant +eyes. He had only a second in which to realise what was going to +happen, before a figure, supple as a panther's, shot past him and +plunged into the midst of the Schrandeners' troops, which again showed +signs of giving way. In the hiatus thus made, Boleslav saw two forms +wrestling on the ground, one that of a woman, the other a man's. The +woman overpowered her antagonist, and wrested from his hand the +gleaming bore of a gun. + +It was the carpenter Hackelberg and his daughter. She must, stealthily +and unobserved, have followed the funeral cortege, for since her +disappearance on the other side of the stable ruins Boleslav had seen +nothing of her. The crowd pushed forward, curious to find out who was +struggling on the ground, and Boleslav, promptly taking advantage of +the general confusion, passed the combatants and gained the churchyard +gate, the coffin following close at his heels. + +Behind was heard the report of the gun, which exploded in the +hand-to-hand struggle. + +"Guard the entrance!" he called to the six who followed the coffin, +while the bearers made their way between the mounds and tombstones to +the burial vault of the Barons von Schranden. + +Karl Engelbert stationed himself as sentinel beneath the gateway, and +saw, by aid of the last flicker of the torches as they moved away, how +the crowd closed round the wrestling father and daughter. + +Three piercing shrieks escaped the girl's lips. Evidently the mob +intended to wreak its thwarted fury on her. There seemed little doubt +that she would perish at its hands, unless some one came quickly to her +help. + +"Leave her alone!" cried Engelbert, striking out right and left with +his powerful fists. And then the figure, that had been so pitifully +mauled and in such dire extremity till he interfered, emerged from the +midst of her persecutors. She glided past him, dived into the dry ditch +that skirted the churchyard wall, and then disappeared like a shadow, +into the darkness. The Schrandeners began, with whoops and hoots, to +pursue her. + +"How about the burial?" cried one. + +"The devil take the burial!" exclaimed another, and cast a shy glance +at the men standing on guard by the churchyard gate--men who looked as +if they were not to be trifled with. Certainly it was better sport to +give chase to a defenceless creature than to risk one's skin in an +encounter with them. + +And the Schrandeners started off like bloodhounds. The carpenter +Hackelberg tried to do likewise, but staggered instead into the ditch, +where he lay full length and fell asleep. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + +The last of the stone slabs that covered the vault had crunched back in +its place with a resounding crash. Hans Eberhard von Schranden lay +with his ancestors. In the little chapel, the men who had acted as +grave-diggers bared their heads and said a short prayer. The torches +that had burnt down to their sockets smouldered on the smooth surface +of the flagstones, and cast a lurid glow as they flickered out over the +stern faces of the worshippers. + +Then without looking round at Boleslav they left the chapel. He stood +in a remote corner with his hands before his face, brooding fiercely on +the future that lay before him. The echoing footsteps roused him, and +silently he followed his friends, letting the iron gate of the chapel +that had been broken open when they came in, swing back in the lock. + +The moon had again pierced the clouds, and illumined with a weird +radiance the mounds and crosses that stood in regular rows, like +columns drawn up for battle. + +"Do you wish to bait me too?" Boleslav murmured as he contemplated the +graves for a moment with a bitter smile. At the gate he overtook his +friends. They joined the men on guard, who now had nothing to watch, +for, with the exception of a group of women and old men who stood +gossiping by the hedge, the street was empty. Hoots were heard +proceeding from the distant fields, where the mob apparently were still +in full pursuit. + +"God have mercy on her, if they catch her!" said Karl Engelbert with +folded hands. Then two of his comrades, one of whom was Peter +Negenthin, came up to him and whispered earnestly in his ear. + +Boleslav was too lost in thought to notice their strange and unnatural +behaviour towards himself, and was not even aware, as they walked +through the village, that he was always left to walk alone, though now +and then he stepped confidentially to the side of one or other of them. +He had accomplished the first chapter of his work. His father was laid +to rest as befitted his rank, and yet it seemed as if the real work was +only just beginning. He beheld all he had to do towering like a great +inaccessible mountain in front of him. The mouldering ruins must be +built up again; what was now a waste overgrown by weeds must be +restored to a waving sea of golden corn; he must strive to endow his +neglected property with new wealth, and his tarnished name with new +honour: and then he saw, as the goal of all this striving, the face of +the beloved beckoning him onwards. If he was too bowed down now with a +consciousness of shame and disgrace to look into her pure, maidenly +eyes, _then_ he would be able to go to her and say, "Now, all is +expiated. I am worthy to lay myself at your feet." Yes, he would +struggle tooth and nail--work day and night--to attain this end. + +At first it seemed almost madness to think of such a gigantic +undertaking.... But he had his friends to help him.... After all, it +would not be a single-handed struggle. Had not they to-day helped him +to achieve the impossible? Would not they, true to their sacred oath, +continue to stand by him in need with their advice and sympathy? And +perhaps their noble example would in time break down the barrier that +divided him from his fellow-creatures, and lead to his father's sin +being at last consigned to the limbo of forgotten history. + +Higher and higher rose his hopes as he meditated thus. They had left +the village street behind them, and now reached the drawbridge, where +the vehicles had been put up. The horses, each with its nose in a +bundle of hay, waited patiently by the fence to which they were +tethered. Immediately, without a moment's delay, the comrades set to +work to harness them. + +This frightened Boleslav out of his dream. + +"What!" he exclaimed. "Off already, before I have thanked you?" + +No one spoke. + +"Won't you take a glass of wine now the job is finished? And I wanted +to ask your advice about other matters." + +Peter Negenthin strode up, and looking him straight in the face, drew +his clenched fist from the sling. + +"We would rather die of thirst," he hissed through his set teeth, "than +take a drink of water from your hand." + +Boleslav staggered backwards as if he had been hit between the eyes. He +felt the earth reeling beneath his feet. + +Then Karl Engelbert stepped forth from his sullen little band. + +"It is much to be deplored, Baumgart--I call you so because you have +been Baumgart to us till this minute--it is much to be deplored that +you should thus be bluntly told of what our present feelings are +towards you. Why did not you hold your tongue, Negenthin?... But the +words have been spoken and cannot be recalled, so now you may as well +know all. You summoned us, and we came. Some of us, it is true, were of +opinion that we weren't obliged to obey your summons, considering you +had deceived us about your name; but others said, whether it was +Baumgart or no, we were bound by the oath taken in the church at +Dannigkow, after our first battle--and none of us were desirous of +breaking an oath. That is why we are here. You can imagine that we +didn't come willingly. We are honest fellows, and to tell the truth, +the work you gave us to do went against the grain. The long and short +of it is, that when we go home, and people spit in our faces, we must +put up with it, for they will have right on their side." + +"Why didn't you say all this before?" Boleslav stammered forth. "Why, +oh why have you let it come to my standing here before you--like +a--like a--Ha! ha! ha! _If you spit in my face, I must put up with +it!_" + +"You need not reproach yourself on our account," Engelbert replied. +"You have quite enough to bear without that. But now that we have +discharged our duty--without grumbling, you must admit--I can only ask +you, on behalf of myself and my comrades, to release us from our oath, +as we release you from yours. Of course we cannot compel you against +your wish, but all I can say is, that if you don't choose to do it, we +must leave home and kindred, and wander forth into the world, lest +people----" + +"Stop!" cried Boleslav, feeling as if more would kill him. "Your desire +is fulfilled. I now wish it as earnestly as you do. Of a truth I should +deserve my disgrace, were I ever to ask another favour of you.... I +will not even insult you by saying 'Many thanks' for the service you +have just rendered me. May God reward you, and may He forgive you for +having put me in my present position; rather would I have thrown the +corpse into the river and myself after it; let us say no more. Perhaps +you will allow me to assist in putting the horses in, as there is +nothing else I can do for you?" + +"I am sorry," Engelbert said, his voice quivering with emotion; "it +pains us deeply. We are as fond of you yourself as we have ever +been--but, you see----" + +"I see all, dear Engelbert; no excuses are necessary." + +"Well then, we wish you farewell." + +"Farewell!" + +The horses were put in. All were in readiness to start. Staring +vacantly before him, Boleslav leant against the wall. Engelbert turned +and took a last look at him from the box-seat. + +"And don't forget Regina!" he said. "That is to say, if she escapes +with her life. It is to her, not to us, you are indebted." + +"Very well," answered Boleslav, not taking in the meaning of what had +been said to him. + +"Adieu!" + +"Adieu, and _bon voyage_!" + +The drivers cracked their whips; in another moment the heavy wheels had +thundered over the loose flooring of the drawbridge. Like silver-girt +phantoms the coaches disappeared in the misty moonlight. + +He was alone--more alone than any outcast in God's wide world. What +should he do? + +He began wearily to drag his footsteps up the incline. The brambles +that tangled the ground wound round his ankles. A firefly made a zigzag +thread of flame in front of him. From the top of the hill the great, +weird, dark masses of the Castle ruins looked down on him, as if +threatening to fall on him and bury him beneath their debris. Through +the yawning window-casements the moon shone, giving them the appearance +of huge ghostly eyes. He roamed absently past the towers, a sudden +exhaustion weighing like lead upon his limbs. If only he could fall +asleep and never wake again. + +He tried to remember what it was his friend had called out to him from +the coach at parting. He racked and racked his brains, but his memory +failed him. + +The grass plot, where he had first found the half-wild girl, lay before +him brightly illumined by the moon. The spot where she had begun to dig +the grave stood out in uncanny blackness from the rest of the shining +turf. + +If only he had shovelled the corpse into it and gone on his way, +perhaps somewhere at the other end of the world some sort of happiness +might still have been in store for him. + +But now it was too late. Now all he could do was to endure--to complete +the work of defiance begun to-day under such gloomy circumstances. +Desolate and alone till the end. Never to feel again the clasp of a +friendly hand, never to look with trust and affection into any human +face, since the doughty comrades he had so firmly believed in had +recoiled from him shuddering. + +And had not the beloved shrunk from him too in horror? It seemed clear +now for the first time why she had avoided him and hidden herself. + +He was cut adrift from all the joys and sorrows that form a common bond +between the hearts of men--cut adrift from love, hope, compassion, from +everything but ignominy and hate. + +With his face buried in his hands, he staggered over the lawn in the +direction of the gardener's cottage, when his foot struck against +something round and soft that lay across the path. It was the figure of +a woman, lying with her head buried in the dry leaves and her limbs +outstretched. Regina--positively it was Regina! + +"What are you doing here? Get up." + +There was not a sound or a movement. Where had he seen her last? Ah! to +be sure; under the churchyard gateway, screening him from the gun that +was pointed at his brain. That ghastly moment came back to him with all +its terrors. For his sake she had flung herself on the murderer; for +his sake risked her life. And how had he rewarded her? He had pushed +carelessly past her; consigned her to the mercy of the murderous, +bloodthirsty crew who were greedy to take her life, without a shadow of +a thought of how he might save her troubling him for an instant. Even +if she were the most abandoned creature on the face of the earth, she +had not deserved such dastardly treatment at his hands. Certainly she +had not. + +"Regina, wake up." + +He bent over her and raised her, but her head fell back lifeless among +the bushes. There was blood on his fingers from touching her. Her hair +was damp and matted. + +Was she dead? No; it must not, could not be. Sacrificed for him; that +would mean adding original guilt to the sin he had inherited, and the +idea of owing so much to such a degraded creature, was in the last +degree humiliating. She must at least live till he had paid her. He +tore open her chemise with a rough, eager hand, and laid his ear on the +cool, rounded breast. + +God be praised! Her heart was still beating. And as he raised her once +more, she slowly opened her great eyes and looked round her vacantly. +As if shocked at being caught holding her thus, he let her head slip +out of his arms. + +She moaned slightly as she sank back, for the swaying briars hurt her. +Then regaining consciousness, she lifted herself on her elbow and gazed +at him in dumb inquiry. + +"Get up, Regina," he said. + +The sound of his voice made her tremble. She tried to struggle on to +her feet, but fell back helplessly. + +"Let me lie where I am," she begged, with a timid, imploring glance. + +"Stand up. I will help you." + +"Must I go?" she asked, evading the proffered support. Grief and +anxiety were depicted on her blood-stained, beautiful face. + +"You would rather stay with me?" + +"Ah, _Herr_, how can you ask?" + +"But you'll have a bad time of it if you do." + +"Oh, no, _Herr_. The _gnaediger Herr_ used to whip me every day. I am +quite accustomed to it." + +"But somewhere else they would treat you better." + +"Somewhere else?" New consternation showed itself on her features. + +"Good God! A woman like you, who is willing and hard-working, and has +such strong limbs, is sure----" + +She shook her head violently. "I shouldn't go far, _Herr_. If you hunt +me away, I shall only lie down in a ditch and starve to death." + +A softer look came into his eyes. No matter how bad, stupid, and +corrupt she might be, she was the only human being in the wide world +who clung to him. Why should he drive her from his threshold, when he +himself was despised, ostracised, and a social outcast? Were they not +both under the ban of the same misfortune? + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + +The next few days proved how little he was in a position to live on his +own estate without her services. He was far more dependent on her than +she on him. Helpless as a shipwrecked mariner on a desert island, he +stole about the ancestral grounds. Though the mines and wolfs'-traps no +longer dogged his steps, finding his way among the chaos of smoked and +tumbling walls made him giddy, and decay had altered everything so +much, that the landmarks of his childish memories afforded him no +assistance. Even the park, where once he had known every tree and bush, +through long years of neglect, had become such a wilderness that at +every step he nearly lost himself in it. + +When the first flush of his defiance and despair had subsided, the +question arose, "What was he to do next?" It was a problem that pressed +for solution, as the miserable rations of bread and meat in the cellars +were running out. + +His pride prevented his seeking advice from Regina; he had not spoken +to her again. Apparently she understood the wisdom of making herself +scarce. But when he returned of a morning from the river, where he went +for a bath, he found the red-flowered counterpane of the canopied bed +neatly arranged, the floor swept, and strewn with sand and fragrant fir +spikes, and saw awaiting him on the gold-legged table (the fourth leg +of which was propped up with a brick) a steaming brown coffee-pot, and +dainty slices of black bread lying beside it. + +His shyness at taking food from her hands had soon to be got over. At +first he had still hesitated a little to break bread that she had +brought him, but it looked so appetising, and bathing in the cold +autumn mornings sharpened his hunger, that at last his scruples had +gone to the wall. + +At midday, a soup made of bread, and slices of roast meat, stood ready +for him, not to mention a bottle of good wine; and in the evening, by +some clever stratagem, another meal of a different character was +contrived out of the same unpromising materials. Thus she knew how to +keep house with nothing but the scanty larder he had found in the +cellar at her disposal. + +He often saw her whisk past the window with pots and kettles, on her +way to wash them in the river. When she came back she would cautiously +peer with her lustrous eyes through the shrubs, to ascertain whether +the coast was clear. If he happened to be at the door, or looking out +of the window, she would immediately disappear in the wood. + +She made the gardener's former workshop her domain. One morning when he +had watched her go down to the river, he went in to look at it. He +found a low, sloping room, with a roof composed of old greenhouse +frames. The green, dusty, lead-bordered panes were much cracked, and in +places let in the winds and rains of heaven. The ground was neither +floored nor paved, but covered with a dark moist garden soil resembling +peat. Attached to the walls were rude wooden shelves, once used by the +gardener for his flower-pots. They now held all the house's scanty +stock of crockery. Pots, plates, and dishes were arranged on them in +perfect order, and had been polished till they shone. A blackened door +off its hinges, evidently rescued from the fire, supported by two +wooden boxes about two feet from the ground, was spread with straw and +a haircloth, of the kind that are thrown over the backs of horses to +protect them from cold. This was her bed--"Many a dog has a better," he +thought. The brick fireplace was in the opposite corner; a home-made +contrivance of beams was meant to guide the belching smoke from the +hearth into its proper channel, but only partially succeeded. + +In this smoky hole, with its cold damp floor, she was domiciled, and +desired nothing better. Here her heart was centred as in a dearly +cherished Paradise. Poor, wretched woman! and to be driven forth from +it meant to her death and perdition. + +And then one evening she disappeared. He had at last made up his mind +to speak to her about the provisions, and went to call her. No answer +came. The kitchen was empty. He sought her in the park, among the +ruins, on the bridge, all over the island, but there was no sign of +her. Her name rang clearly out through the night air as he called her, +and had she been anywhere about she must have heard it. He became +suspicious. Probably after the hard work of her lonely days, she took +it out at night in the arms of a swain. She was, of course, well versed +in the arts of vice, and would not scruple to yield herself to the +embraces of some rustic gallant. Many of her persecutors below may have +desired the body they stoned. How otherwise could her obstinate +adherence to her present miserable mode of living, after his father's +death, be explained, except by the existence of a new sin--a sin which, +perhaps, had long been carried on hand-in-hand with the old. He was +filled with loathing and disgust at the thought. + +"If she can't behave herself, I'll pack her off early to-morrow +morning;" and with this resolution he retired to rest. But he could not +sleep for thinking of what the future would be without her. To send her +away would involve going himself the same day. + +At about six o'clock he was awakened out of a doze by a stealthy +opening of the outer door. He got up and dressed himself quickly, +determined to call her to account without loss of time. He entered the +kitchen and found her on the hearth with inflated cheeks, blowing the +pine logs she had just set alight into a flame. + +She turned on him slowly, her eyes big with astonishment, and said, +"Good morning, _Herr_." + +He trembled in angry excitement. "Where have you been all night?" he +thundered. + +Her arms fell to her sides, and she shrank away terrified. + +"Tell me at once." + +"Ah, _Herr_," she stuttered, hanging her head, "I thought you wouldn't +notice I had gone, and that I should be back before the _Herr_ was +awake----" + +"So, if I don't _notice_, you amuse yourself by running about all +night?" + +She had retreated still farther from him. + +"But--but--I was obliged to go," she said, stammering painfully. "There +was scarcely anything at all left--and--and the _Herr_ has eaten +nothing but salt meat for so long." + +The scales fell from his eyes. + +"You went, then, to fetch food?" + +"Of course, _Herr_. I have brought veal and fresh eggs and butter--and +sausage and lots of things. It's all in the cellar." + +"Where did you get it?" + +"Oh, I told you, _Herr_--in Bockeldorf. I know a grocer there, who gets +ready a supply of what we want beforehand, and when I knock at nights +he lets me in at the back door. Not a living soul besides his wife +knows. And he's not very dear. Herr Merckel, down in the village, +charges a thaler a pound for meat, and swears at me into the bargain." + +"And you have walked six miles there and back to-night, and carried all +those heavy parcels?" + +Still frightened, she regarded him with surprise. + +"I think you know, _Herr_, that I can do it, for I told you so before." + +"But it's a physical impossibility. Don't lie to me, girl. From my +experience during the campaign, I know how much fatigue a _man_ can +stand." + +Now that she saw he was no longer angry she dared to draw herself to +her full height. She exhibited her powerful arms proudly, and exclaimed +with a pleased smile-- + +"I can stand more than any man, _Herr_, else I should be no good at +all." + +"For how long have you been going on these journeys, Regina?" + +"For five years, _Herr_. Every week. Sometimes oftener. In summer it's +child's play. But in autumn and winter, when the snow lies two feet +thick in the wood, or when the meadows are flooded, it's no joke. But +there's one thing to be thankful for, the nights are long then, and at +least no one can see you. And I'd a hundred times rather walk the six +miles than go to that beast--I beg pardon, I mean Herr Merckel--who +takes a thaler for a pound of meat. Isn't that abominable? And in the +village----" + +She paused suddenly, as if she feared being scolded for talking too +much. + +"What were you going to say, Regina?" he asked in a kindlier tone. + +"Oh, nothing, but I should like to beg the _Herr's_ pardon for having +gone without leave. But I thought he might perhaps like a change for +breakfast--a fresh egg----" + +"Never mind, Regina," he said, turning away; "you are a good girl." + +He went down to the river to bathe. When he came back he found his room +tidied as usual, only the coffee was not there. + +"She is so tired out that she's fallen asleep," he thought, and +resigned himself to wait. At least, she should not be reprimanded any +more to-day. + +But in consequence of his bath he was bitterly cold, and found he could +not forego the customary warm beverage much longer. So, in order not to +wake her he went on tiptoe into the kitchen to see to the fire himself. +But she was not asleep, though at the first glance it looked like it. +She sat on the edge of her couch, motionless, with her hands before her +face. Now and again a quiver passed through her frame, a symptom of the +sleep of exhaustion. Yet on regarding her closer, he saw that +glistening tear-drops were falling through her red, plump fingers, and +her breast was shaking with gurgling sobs. + +"What's the matter, Regina? Why are you crying?" + +She did not answer, but her sobs became louder. + +"Have I hurt your feelings, Regina? I shouldn't have scolded you if I +had known where you had been." + +She let her hands fall from her face, and looked at him with eyes +swollen from weeping. + +"Ah, _Herr_!" she said in a voice half choked by tears. "No +one--ever--called me that before; and--it's not--true." + +His mood changed and became harsh again. He was not conscious of having +used any abusive epithet. It was too ridiculous of this creature, who +was accustomed to being hounded about from pillar to post, to pretend +to be thin-skinned and fastidious. + +"What isn't true?" he demanded. + +"What you said." + +"What did I say? Good heavens!" + +"That I--I was a good----" She broke again into convulsive sobs that +stifled her voice. + +He shook his head, perplexed at her distress. He had never looked very +deeply into the most complex problems of the human soul, and did not +know that even dishonour has its code of honour. Laughing, he laid his +hand on her shoulder. + +"Don't cry any more, Regina; I meant no harm. And now get my breakfast +ready." + +"May--I--bring it in?" she asked, still sobbing. + +"Do you want me to come and fetch it?" + +"I only thought I mightn't--" She moved to the hearth and began blowing +the smouldering fire, using her tear-stained cheeks as bellows. + +After that she was no longer shy of entering his room when he was +there. Ever anxious to forestall his wishes, she seemed to read his +countenance without a question passing her lips. + +Boleslav had found, in the recesses of the cellar in which money and +wine were stored, great masses of papers stuffed into chests, where +chaos reigned supreme. They contained the whole of his father's +correspondence, deeds, and documents of every description. His first +search among them had brought to light nothing less important than his +aunt's last will and testament, in which her Excellency bequeathed to +Boleslav von Schranden, the only son of her favourite niece, the whole +of her fortune, "to compensate him for the wrong," so ran the clause, +"from which he would suffer to the end of his days." + +Boleslav's pleasure at first was not great; it was only when he +considered that here was a weapon put into his hand to use in the +coming struggle, that he began to appreciate the value of the gift. He +scarcely gave a thought to the giver, who had always been kindness +itself to him, so hardened had he become, so completely was his mind +engrossed by contemplation of the grim work that it was his duty to +carry on. + +If only he could have seen a way clear before him, which he could have +pursued instantly, without looking to the right or left, with the +impetuous zeal characteristic of his nature! But for months the +prospect must be one of paralysing hopeless inaction. The war which he +had determined to wage against the Schrandeners must be conducted on an +ambitious scale, if it were not to end in the pitiful failure that had +soured and impoverished the last years of his father's life. It would +need an army of workmen to inspire the serfs, who had so long run wild, +with new respect. And where were these to be engaged, when there was +not a soul in the neighbourhood who would not have disdained to enter +his service? But nearly everything is attainable with money, and +doubtless many a swaggering patriot, who now spat at the mention of his +name, could be brought, cringing and servile, to heel, by the bribe of +a triple wage. Only, for this his means were not sufficient. The cash +that at the first glance had seemed such vast wealth, proved, on nearer +calculation, to be wholly inadequate to float his scheme. It was 4500 +thalers, left from outstanding debts, that the old baron had hastily +saved from the conflagration, when the whole world must have appeared +to him to be melting into flame. For the sort of existence that, +following his father's example, he was now leading with Regina, such a +sum would last for years; but for the project he had in view, it was a +mere drop in the ocean. + +Before the discovery of the will he had with a heavy heart entertained +the idea of offering the fine old timber, which had been the pride of +his ancestors, for sale, and to dispose of it below its value if the +need arose. Now he had abandoned the plan as impracticable. Granted +that he could find a market for it as easily as he hoped, it must be +months before the actual cash came into his hands. Besides winter was +at hand, one of those severe East Prussian winters, when work in the +open air is out of the question. For this year at least neither +building nor ploughing was to be thought of. Why, then, make a +sacrifice which with a little patience might be avoided altogether? If +on the first of April he claimed his legacy, and was able with full +pockets to enlist workers in his service, by May the building would be +in full swing, and possibly the ground ready for the sowing of crops. + +But till then--till then--! How would he be able to support the barren +monotony of grey winter days spent in enforced and dreary idleness when +his hands were burning to be at work? How endure the thought that his +beloved was in the near neighbourhood and he unable to ask her the +fateful question on which his life and happiness hung? Would she wait? +Would she forgive? Would she steel her heart against the atmosphere of +hate and slander that surrounded her, and so keep her affection for him +unchanged? + +The Madonna in the cathedral came back to him. He wondered if she still +resembled it. If only for one moment he might have gazed into her face! +There was a white and red mist before his eyes; he saw lilies and +roses, and a radiant virgin figure bending over them with a smile, but +the features of the girl he had loved he could only dimly recall. + +Veiled from his sight, perhaps she was destined to be the invisible +guardian-angel who was to watch over his endeavours till his work was +completed, when she would set the crown to it by revealing herself. He +became gradually reconciled to the thought, and ceased to yearn for a +meeting; and one word or sign to assure him that his hopes in her +constancy were not ill-founded would have more than satisfied him. + +More and more he buried himself in the chaos of papers, which seemed to +increase instead of diminish, in spite of his arduous sifting. The +yellowed parchments stood in great piles against the wall of his +sitting-room, reaching higher than the head of his beautiful +grandmother, and yet in the vaults there still remained chests and +boxes full, untouched. The whole archives of the family seemed to have +been gathered together at a moment's notice, and hurled into a place of +safety without the slightest regard to method or arrangement. Out of +this confusion he wanted to find documents relating to the property, +which were important, not to say indispensable. Among others, were +missing those that concerned agreements with the emancipated peasants +relating to land boundaries. The _canaille_ below were certain to have +grabbed from the domain that had become ownerless, more than their +legal share. He saw how law-suits would have to be fought over almost +every inch of ground, and he must be able to back his claim with +irrefragable documentary proof. + +Nevertheless he felt an insuperable aversion to appealing to the +courts. The picture of his father, as he had seen him the last time +alive, stood out vividly in his memory; the ostracised baron, who had +been bold enough to seek the aid of the law, had then found every door +closed in his face. Truly Prussia at that time was not itself. The +walls of the State were tottering to their foundations, and the rats +were having it all their own way. But what guarantee was there that the +son of such a father would find the ear of justice less deaf to his +appeal? The law had shifts and resources in plenty by which an +unpopular person could be rendered powerless to benefit by its help, +and he did not doubt that he would fall a victim to such casuistry. His +deserted and forlorn position so distorted his view of things that law +and order took the form of wild beasts lying on the drawbridge in +ambush for their prey. Even his military duties had no interest for him +now. Lieutenant Baumgart was on the list of killed. Why trouble the +authorities with the work of his resurrection? They would not thank him +for it. + +A text from the Bible came into his mind: "His hand shall be against +every man, and every man's hand against him." The curse that +accompanied Hagar's son through life, he by dint of stubborn defiance +would turn into a blessing. + +Weeks went by, but he hardly observed the flight of time. He sat +immersed day after day in his papers, wandering forth of an evening to +stumble about the ruins, or to take a walk in the overgrown park. There +was only one place he carefully avoided. That was the path which led to +the Cats' Bridge. When he chanced to find himself nearing it, his heart +beat quicker, and he would hurry breathlessly by the shrubs that +concealed it from view. Yet he was tormented by a grim desire to stand +on the scene of the disaster, a desire which at length became almost +irrepressible. + +It was one evening towards the end of September when, for the first +time since his return home, the moon was full. He roamed restlessly in +the glades of the park, the dry leaves rustled at his feet, and the +autumn wind shook the branches of the trees. The moonbeams shimmered on +the grass like flocks of white sheep. Before him the shrubs rose in a +dark, jagged line of wall. An impulse of sinister curiosity suddenly +got the better of the superstitious repugnance that had hitherto held +him back, and he plunged through the thicket that, with a sort of +protecting air, hid the path. The descent to the river was steep, +almost perpendicular, and the mirror-like surface of the water was +entirely concealed by alder-bushes. A faint rippling and splashing +below fell mysteriously on his ear. From the top of the precipice a +railed plank shot boldly out into mid-air. A rude scaffolding, planted +firmly in the rock of the precipice, supported it with iron bars. On +the opposite bank the trunk of a giant oak formed the support. In the +middle there was a yawning gap of from ten to twelve feet. Like two +arms longingly outstretched but never meeting, the planks branched +forth on either side above the abysmal depths. + +If they had never reached each other the crime would never have come to +pass. But an easier job for a joiner could not be conceived. The plank +on this side had two loose boards, which, by means of a wedge, could +easily be pushed across; and the position of the hand-rail, by being +unhinged, could also be reversed. Everything seemed to have been +arranged expressly to facilitate the treacherous transaction. As a +memorial of eternal shame, the dark, crude structure loomed out through +the white mists of the brilliant night. + +Beneath, the splashing from the invisible river grew more pronounced. +It sounded as if its waters were still foaming with rage at the deed +that so long ago had been enacted near at hand, and which death itself +could not consign to oblivion. + +Like a man in a dream, he stepped on to the plank, and looked down on +the silver surface, which seemed to be emitting myriads of diamond +sparks. Then he beheld the figure of a woman, who stood up to her knees +in the water, with her skirts pinned round her waist. It was Regina, +doing her washing, and wringing out the articles among the sandbanks +and osiers. + +His brows contracted. That he should encounter her _here_ of all +places! But in common justice he was obliged to admit it was not her +fault. Whenever she could she avoided him, and he had no reason to +complain that he saw too much of her. + +He leant absently on the railing and watched her. She had no idea that +he was anywhere in the neighbourhood. She bent low over the water, the +muscles in her neck and arms strained by her exertions, and shook the +wet clothes with a will, sending up a spray of glistening drops. From +time to time she chanted the song on two notes, that he had heard her +hum while digging the grave, breaking off abruptly when the water +spurted into her nose and mouth. + +What a hard worker she was! He had imagined her long ago gone to bed, +and here she was instead, at this time of night, washing as if her life +depended on it! + +She started in alarm. His foot had disturbed some small pebbles, which +fell splashing into the water close to where she stood. Her first +thought was that some one was lying in wait for her among the shrubs, +and she moved suspiciously nearer the opposite bank. When at last it +occurred to her to look up at the Cats' Bridge, she gave a startled +cry. + +"Don't be frightened, Regina," he called down to her. "I am not going +to hurt you." + +Whereupon she returned calmly to her washing. + +"How do you get down there?" he asked. + +She wiped her face with her naked arm. "I'm a good climber," she said, +looking up at him for a moment with blinking eyes. + +"Doesn't the water freeze you? So late in the year, too!" + +She made some response that he did not understand. He was curious to +see how she would clamber up the steep declivity with her burden, so +remained where he was and continued to watch her. + +In a few minutes she packed up her washing and climbed on the bank. The +moonlight cast a flashing halo round the masses of her hair, which +to-day had been combed till it was almost smooth. She looked as if she +wore a coronet. With one shy glance to ascertain that he was still +standing there, she dived into the shrubs, and he saw her dart rapidly +from branch to branch with the agility of a wild-cat. At the top she +let down her skirts, and would have flown with her basket, had he not +called her back. + +"Why do you do your washing at night?" he inquired, making an effort to +look friendly disposed towards her. + +"Because in the daytime they give me no peace." + +"The villagers?" + +"Yes, _Herr_." + +"What do they do to you?" + +"What they always do--throw things at me." + +"Over the river?" + +"Yes, _Herr_." + +"The next time any one assaults you, come and fetch me." + +She did not answer. "Do you understand?" She folded her hands, and +looked at him beseechingly. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"Please, _Herr_, don't shoot at them," she stammered. "They like you to +do that. He--the _gnaediger Herr_, I mean--tried it once. Then they +began to shoot too, from the other side, and there was firing here and +firing there; the wonder was no one got shot. Don't you see, if they +get into the habit of carrying guns about with them always, they are +certain to hit me one day, for I'm obliged to go off the island +sometimes?" + +It was the longest and most sensible speech he had as yet heard from +her lips. He had not suspected the existence of so much thoughtful +wisdom behind that low brow, in its frame of wild hair. + +"You are right, Regina," he replied. "For your sake I must forbear from +provoking them." + +He saw in the moonlight a dark flush suffuse her face. + +"For my sake, _Herr_?" she said hesitatingly. "I don't quite understand +what you mean, _Herr_." + +"Oh, well, never mind," he answered evasively. "What I wanted to ask +you, Regina, was--are you satisfied in my service? can I do anything to +make you more comfortable?" + +She stared at him in dumb amazement. + +"You mustn't think, Regina," he went on, "that I am unfriendly. My mind +is occupied with many things, and I prefer to be quite alone with my +troubles. So if I don't speak to you often you will understand how it +is." + +Her eyes drooped. Her hands fumbled for the balustrade as if seeking a +support, then the next moment she turned, and leaving her basket in the +lurch, scampered off, as if driven by furies. + +"Strange creature!" he muttered, as he looked after her. "I must be +kinder to her. She deserves it." Then he leant over the balustrade +again, and gazing into the silver water fancied he saw growing there a +garden of lilies and crimson roses. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + +Lieutenant Merckel was far from being pleased at the course events had +taken on the day of the funeral. He called the Schrandeners poltroons +and old women, and declared they were unworthy ever to have worn the +king's uniform. + +When some one ventured to ask why he had not shown himself in it to the +procession, and had left the mob leaderless at a critical moment, he +replied that that was a different matter altogether: he was an officer, +and as such bound only to draw his sword in the service of the king. + +The Schrandeners, not accustomed to logical argument, accepted the +explanation, and promised to retrieve their reputation the next time +the opportunity offered itself. But this did not satisfy Felix Merckel. + +"Father," he said, late one evening when the old landlord was counting +the cash taken during the day, "I can't bear to think that scoundrelly +cur holds the rank of Royal Prussian officer as I do. I am ashamed to +have served with him. Our army doesn't want to be associated with +people like him. It drags the cockade through the gutter, not to speak +of the sword-knot. I know what I'll do; I'll call him out and shoot +him." + +He stretched his legs on the settle, twisting his cavalry moustache +with a bland smile. The old man let fall, in horrified dismay, a +handful of silver that he was counting, and the coins rolled away into +the cracks of the floor. + +"Felixchen," he said, "you really mustn't drink so much of that +Wacholder brandy. It's good enough for customers, but you, Felixchen, +shall have a bottle of light wine to-morrow, and perhaps some of them +will follow your example, and so it won't cost me anything." + +"Father, you are mistaken," Felix answered. "It's my outraged sense of +honour that gives me no peace. I am a German lad, father, and a brave +officer. I can't stand the stain on my calling any longer." + +"Felixchen," said the old man, "go to bed, my son, and you'll get over +it." + +"Father," replied his son, "I am sorry to have to say it, but you have +no conception of what honour is." + +"Felixchen," went on the old man, ignoring the taunt, "you haven't +enough occupation. If you would only look after the bottles--of course +the barmaid is there for the purpose--but it would do you good. It +would distract your thoughts. Or you might go out shooting sometimes." + +"Where?" + +"Lord bless my soul! there are the woods and forest of Schranden. +Whether the hares devour each other, or you annex your share of them, +is all the same." + +"That won't do for me, father. I am an officer, and don't wish to be +caught poaching." + +"Good gracious, Felixchen, how you talk! Do you forget that I am +magistrate here. I am not likely to sentence you to the gallows. +But do as you like, my boy. Of course you _might_ go oftener to the +parsonage. The old pastor enjoys a game of chess; there's nothing to be +gained by chess, I know, but some people seem to like it, and then +there's--Helene." + +"Ah, Helene!" said Felix, stroking his chin and looking flattered. + +The old man examined the artificial fly in the centre of his amber +heart. + +"I have a strong notion that she would be a good match if the pastor +consented, and she liked you." + +"Why shouldn't she like me?" asked Felix. + +"Well, there might be some one else who----" + +Felix smiled sceptically. + +"Or do you mean that she has already set her heart on you?" + +Felix shrugged his shoulders. + +"You see, Felixchen, that would be a great piece of good fortune for +us. People are constantly carping at the way in which they think I +acquired my bit of money--without the smallest ground of course. If +only the pastor gave you his daughter as wife, it would stop their +mouths once for all. A man like Pastor Goetz has great weight and +influence. Well then, as I said, it's worth while your hanging about +there a little. Court her, and a fellow like you is sure----" + +"Dear father, spare me your advice, if you please," interrupted his +son. "Whether Helene becomes my wife or not, is my own affair. I have +not yet made up my mind. She has a pretty enough little phiz, but she +is too thin. She might be fattened up with advantage. Then there's +something old-maidish about her, something sharp and prudish that I +don't quite fancy. For instance, if you put your arm round her waist +she says, 'Ah, dear Herr Lieutenant, how you frightened me!' and +wriggles away. And if you squeeze her arm, by Jokus, she screams out +directly, 'Oh, dear Herr Lieutenant, don't do that, I've got such a +delicate skin.' Of course that's all airs and affectation, and perhaps +if a man caught hold of her firmly and didn't give in, she'd allow +herself to be kissed at last; but as I say, I have not made up my mind, +so don't build too much on it." + +The old landlord, who with deft hand was rolling up his sovereigns in +paper, looked proudly across at this magnificent son of his. Then he +became anxious again. + +"And you won't think any more about the duel, eh, Felixchen? That's all +nonsense.... You wouldn't go and risk your life so recklessly as that." + +Felix threw back his chest. "In affairs of honour, father, please don't +interfere, for you know nothing about them. Directly I can find a +respectable second----" + +"What is that, Felixchen?" + +"Why, the man who'll take the challenge." + +"Where--to Boleslav?" + +"Of course." + +"To the island?" + +"To the island." + +"But, Felixchen, what are you thinking about? No Christian dare set +foot on the island. It swarms with wolf-traps, bombs, and other deadly +instruments. Look at Hackelberg; he was caught in one, and limps to +this day--but never mention it. It mustn't come out that Hackelberg was +ever on the island. Do you see?... As I was saying, you wouldn't get +any one to go on such a dangerous errand--or to come in contact with +such a man as that. No, my boy, think no more about it There's nothing +to be gained by it." + +"But I _will_ challenge him all the same to meet me here," growled +Felix. + +The old man contemplated him with the greatest concern for a few +moments, then rose, filled a liqueur-glass with peppermint-schnaps, and +brought it over to him. + +"Drink it up, Felixchen," he said, "it'll soothe you." Felix obeyed. + +"Leave the matter in the hands of your good, honest old father. Trust +him to find in the night some other means of satisfying your so-called +sense of honour. Good-night, Felixchen." + +"The good, honest old father" had not promised more than he was able to +perform. + +The next morning, when he met his son at the breakfast table, he asked +in an accent of benevolent sympathy-- + +"Well, Felixchen, have you slept off all those silly notions?" + +Felix grew angry. "I told you, father, that on that subject you +were----" + +"Totally ignorant! Very good, my boy. But I want to be clear on one +point. Is it with the Baron von Schranden that you propose to fight a +duel, or with Lieutenant Baumgart?" + +Felix did not answer at once. A suspicion of what his father was darkly +hinting, dawned on him. + +"Don't deal in subterfuges, father," he said. "I am an upright, simple +soldier, and don't understand them." + +"But, Felix, you needn't be so headstrong. I mean well. As the Baron +von Schranden never was an officer, there is no reason why you should +concern yourself about him; and as Lieutenant Baumgart has proved a +swindler, and assumed a false name, he is equally beneath your notice." + +"That is true," said Felix, spreading honey on his bread and butter. +"As a matter of fact, I oughtn't to do him the honour of challenging +him." + +Then a new idea seemed to occur to Felix. "If only," he added fiercely, +"he could be stopped from entitling himself lieutenant. That's what +offends my sense of honour more than anything." + +His old father seemed prepared with an answer to this remark. + +"Why should he go on calling himself lieutenant?" he asked, grinning +and whistling under his breath. "Only because his superior officers are +kept in ignorance of the deception he has practised. If they had an +inkling of it, they'd be down on him fast enough." + +Felix understood. "You mean we ought----" he began. + +"Of course we ought." + +But Felix's hypersensitive sense of honour again felt itself outraged. +"Remember that I am an officer, father," he exclaimed indignantly. +"Your proposal is in the highest degree insulting." + +The host shrugged his shoulders. "Very well; if you don't wish it, +leave it alone," he said. + +Then the honourable young man saw a way of escape. + +"If only it could be done without a signature," he meditated aloud. + +"That difficulty is easily overcome," responded the old man. "I have a +scheme in my head. Let me draw it up. All you've got to do will be to +sign your name with the others at the foot. Then it will be only one of +many." + +On the afternoon of the same day, the parish crier, Hoffmann, invited +all the country's defenders in the village to assemble at the Black +Eagle. It was the merest matter of form, a tribute to the importance of +the business to be discussed, for they were certain to have turned up +there of their own accord sooner or later without an invitation. The +tables were soon full (Schranden had sent a contingent of thirty +warriors to the War of Liberty); and when Herr Merckel saw glasses +emptying to right and left of him, he stepped behind the bar, and +exchanging glances with his son, rubbed his hands with satisfaction, +and began the following harangue:-- + +"Dear fellow-burghers, I desire to speak a few words to you. You are +all brave soldiers, and have fought in many a bloody battle for your +Fatherland in its dire extremity. You must have often been thirsty in +those days, and have longed for even a few drops of dirty ditch-water. +It's only to your credit, then, that after the heat and burden of the +war, you turn into the Black Eagle occasionally, for a good draught of +pale ale. You have earned it honestly with the sweat of your brow. Your +health, soldiers!" + +He flourished the mug that he kept specially for occasions like the +present, and then raised it to his mouth, holding it there till he had +assured himself that no glass had been put down unemptied. Then making +a sign to the barmaid, he wiped his lips energetically, and continued-- + +"I, as your Mayor and magistrate, could not accompany you to the seat +of war, being obliged to remain and look after the wants of those who +stayed at home." A murmur of approval came from the audience. "But I am +a patriot like you; my warm heart beats true for the honour of the +Fatherland, just as your hearts do, brave soldiers! Fill up, Amalie, +you slow-coach! Herr Weichert is nearly expiring for thirst." Herr +Weichert protested, but in vain; his glass was snatched out of his +hand. "And my bosom swells with pride when I look at my son, a gallant, +upright soldier, whom the confidence of his comrades and the favour of +his king promoted to the rank of officer. I speak for you all, I know, +when I call three cheers for the joy of the village, the dutiful son, +the good comrade, the brave soldier, and honourable officer, Lieutenant +Merckel--Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +The Schrandeners joined enthusiastically in the cheering, and Herr +Merckel observed with satisfaction that several glasses had again +become empty. To give Amalie time to fill up, he made an effective +little pause, in which, in speechless emotion, he fell on his son's +breast: then he resumed the thread of his discourse. + +"All the more painful is it, therefore, to see that the disgrace you, +by your glorious deeds of arms, did your best to remove from our +beloved and highly favoured village, now rests on it again, through the +presence here of the son of the man who wrought it such dire mischief. +On the site of the fire he is now living with his father's mistress. +I'll not enter into details, but you know, my children, what that +implies." + +There was a significant laugh, which changed gradually into a sullen +muttering. + +"Yes, and what's more, this immoral outlaw belongs to our glorious +army. Under a false name he enlisted in its ranks, and raised himself +to the position of officer. By lying, and cheating, and devilish craft, +he succeeded in obtaining what you brave, honest fellows (with the +exception of my son, of course) could not attain to. Will you tolerate +this, you noble Schrandeners? Will you, I say, let a rascally cheat, +the son of a traitor, continue to look down on you as his inferiors? +Was it for this that his gracious Majesty made you free men? + +"The moment was a favourable one for drinking his gracious Majesty's +health, and Amalie, in obedience to a signal, began the filling-up +process anew. Herr Merckel already felt he had cause to congratulate +himself on the result of his stirring oration. + +"No, brave Schrandeners," he went on, "such a scandal must not be +tolerated! The army must be purged of this black spot; otherwise you +will be ashamed, instead of proud, of calling yourselves Prussian +soldiers." + +"Kill him! kill him!" cried several voices at once. + +"No, dear friends," he replied, with his unctuous smirk. "You mustn't +always be talking of killing. I, as your Mayor, cannot countenance +that," shaking a warning fat forefinger at them; "but I can give you +wiser counsel. The authorities, naturally, have no suspicion of who it +is has been masquerading as Lieutenant Baumgart; last spring no one had +time to inquire into birth certificates and such-like details. But now +there will be leisure to investigate the case of a Prussian officer +passing under an assumed name. And the case presses for attention. Do +you remember the story Johann Radtke related in this very room, the day +he came over from Heide, when none of us had the slightest idea of what +a savage kind of animal his celebrated hero, Lieutenant Baumgart, +really was? + +"He was interrupted by a laugh of pent-up hate and fury. It proceeded +from his son Felix. + +"He is said to have tramped home from France entirely alone, like a +wandering journeyman. He had been wounded and taken prisoner, and all +the rest of it. But mark my words, that signifies more than you think. +It means that he didn't get his discharge--that he sneaked out of the +service like a thief in the night, in the same straightforward manner +as he entered it. And do you know what that is in good plain Prussian? +_Deserting_! It means he is a deserter." + +A cry of jubilation arose, which Herr Merckel greeted with profound +approval, for, according to his ripe experience, shouting rendered the +throat dry. He let the applause therefore exhaust itself, and then went +on. + +"It is our sacred duty, as genuine patriots and intrepid soldiers, to +open the eyes of his Highness the Commander-General to this young man's +true character. We owe it to our King, our Fatherland, above all, to +ourselves. We'll get him cashiered out of our brave army, degraded and +ruined. What is done to him afterwards, whether he is shot or cast into +prison, is a matter of indifference to us. We are not responsible for +him." + +At the mere suggestion of such a vengeance the Schrandeners were beside +themselves, and almost howled with rage. + +Herr Merckel drew a sheet of paper from his breast-pocket. + +"I have drawn up a little statement, in which I have respectfully +lodged a complaint to a Deputy-General of high standing and noble +birth. If you'll allow me, dear friends----" + +He was in the act of unfolding the sheet when a still happier thought +occurred to him. + +"I could lay the document before you at once and ask you to sign it, +but then it would be my composition, and not yours," he went on, +beaming; "and I want every word well weighed and considered, and +altered if needful. I therefore propose that a committee of five +comrades be elected from amongst you, who shall withdraw with me and my +son into the best parlour, where we can hold a quiet consultation over +the wording of the address, while the rest of you remain here." + +Then he gave the names of those he considered worthiest of filling this +delicate office. They were five young men whom he knew to be lavish +spendthrifts, and whom he expected to acquit themselves honourably in +more senses than one. Half in envy, half in malice, his choice was +agreed to. + +The elected looked rather glum; then they knew what they had been let +in for, but at the same time they were too flattered by the invitation +to decline it. + +Herr Merckel, with the air of solemnity he always considered due to any +occasion on which the best parlour was brought into requisition, flung +open the door, over which was inscribed the alluring caution, fraught +with so much significance--"_Only Wine drunk here_." + +With a somewhat nervous air the chosen committee entered the sanctum of +gentility, awkwardly twirling their caps in their hands. The last to go +in was the son of the house. At the door, Herr Merckel turned and +called out in a loud impressive voice-- + +"Amalie, bring two bottles of Muscat for me and the Herr Lieutenant!" + +Muscat was a wine made at home, from rum, sugar, cinnamon, currant +juice, and a judicious quantity of water, and was sold to the +Schrandeners for a thaler the bottle. Herr Merckel ordered two bottles, +to demonstrate to his customers that he did not expect any of them to +go shares in a bottle. + +There was now a profound silence in the taproom. Its occupants gazed +with serious excited faces at the closed door and then at each other. + +Neither did any sound proceed from the reception room, where a dumb +pitched battle was going on between the host and his guests. It was +doubtful at one time who would come off victor. But a few minutes after +the barmaid had hurried up from the cellar with the two freshly filled +bottles, Herr Merckel tore open the door again, and shouted +triumphantly-- + +"Amalie, five bottles more of Muscat!" + +Tongues were loosened. The tension was over. As was generally the case, +the customers had been mastered by the landlord. And soon the dull +monotonous sound of reading aloud reached the ears of the listeners in +the tap-room. + + + * * * * * + + +Herr Merckel, senior, when he retired to rest, felt that his day had +not been wasted. + +His son had abandoned his dangerous project; the fate of the last of +the Schrandens had been sealed; and in the cash-box, beyond the usual +takings, was a surplus of eight thalers and twenty-five silver +groschens. + +"Thus I have killed three birds with one stone!" he mused, with a +self-satisfied grin, and, folding his hands, fell into a gentle +slumber. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + +Winter had come. It had been preceded by a season of decay, +inexpressibly cheerless and trying to the spirits. Boleslav, who had +grown up in closest communion with Nature and her moods, could never +have believed it possible that autumn's symbolic melancholy would +affect him so profoundly and send such deathlike shivers through his +limbs. The mere calculation of time dismayed and oppressed him. + +His evenings began to be dismally long. Solitude swooped over his head +like a vulture in ever-narrowing circles, till he began to fancy he +felt the chill flap of its wings across his face. + +It was strange that he who all his life had been much alone from +choice, should now, when almost every human being was his deadly foe, +crave for the society of his fellow-creatures. + +He buried himself deeper and deeper in the mass of papers and +manuscripts, a dreary enough occupation, without much object unless it +were to help the hours to drag a little less slowly. He tried to +convince himself that the portion of the past he unearthed from these +dust-heaps might be of service to him in the future. But in reality he +had found what was absolutely necessary to his purpose without much +trouble, and the rest might as well have perished in the flames. + +Regina remained tongue-tied, and performed her household duties swiftly +and noiselessly. She moved about his room without lifting her eyes to +his face, and if he addressed a word to her, shrank away with a +startled look. But her answers to his questions, though given in a +hesitating and embarrassed manner, were always clear, comprehensive, +and to the point. Sometimes days together went by without their +exchanging a syllable. Yet it was on these days he observed her in +secret all the more closely, watching her as she laid the table, +following her with his eyes as she crossed the little plot of garden +and disappeared into the bushes. He caught himself constantly wondering +what was passing in her mind. What did she think about all day long? +Was it possible that her whole existence revolved round him and his +personal comforts, a man who was nothing to her, who had not even +rewarded her labours so far, with a brass farthing? + +He felt ashamed when he thought of the innumerable self-sacrifices he +accepted from her with such haughty indifference, and determined to be +more friendly and conversational towards her in the future, so that she +might feel the unpleasantness of her position less acutely. But a +certain unaccountable shyness on his side seemed to hinder his putting +these good intentions into practice. He no longer hated her. His +aversion had yielded to something like regard at sight of so much +unselfish loyalty and untiring industry; and the result was that he +felt more than ever a constraint in conversing with her. Something came +between them, a kind of mysterious veil that enveloped her and rendered +her unapproachable as a stranger. It seemed almost as if the spirit of +his father hovered about her, preventing by its ghostly presence any +intercourse between them. Sometimes he wondered if it were her shame +that invested her with that strange fascination that vice is said to +exercise on inexperienced youth. Or was it the magnitude of her +misfortunes that gave her an unconscious power and charm? + +Often when she brought in his supper, or turned back the counterpane +from his bed, he would look up from his work and endeavour to open a +conversation. But his tongue would cleave to the roof of his mouth, he +could never think of anything to talk to her about that was not beneath +his dignity. So, after all, only curt and harsh commands crossed his +lips. + +He had remarked for a long time how much more careful she had become +about her personal appearance, which had wonderfully improved. She no +longer went about ragged, unkempt, and _decolletee_, but wore her +jacket buttoned up modestly to her throat, with the ends neatly tucked +under her waistband. A woollen scarf was knotted round her neck by way +of giving a finish to her costume, and her skirt carefully brushed and +mended. Her hair did not hang about her as formerly, in untidy plaits +and a hundred rough, loose curls, but was combed and neatly dressed. Of +a morning the top of her head sometimes presented a smooth, polished +surface, the effects of the shower-bath, by means of which she brought +her unruly mane into subjection. + +The weather grew bitterly cold, but she still shivered in her cotton +gown, only throwing on the red cross-over when she went into the open +air. + +One evening as she was preparing for her regular weekly expedition for +the purchase of provisions, and had come to him for orders, he said-- + +"Why have you brought no winter clothes back with you yet, Regina?" + +She looked on the ground and replied-- + +"I should like to--only--" + +"Only?" + +"I wasn't sure whether I might." + +"Of course you may. You mustn't freeze." + +"There's a----" she began eagerly, then stopped and blushed. + +"Well?" + +"There's a jacket at the shop--a blue cloth one trimmed with beautiful +fur. The shopman says----" + +He smiled. "Thank God," he thought "she is beginning to be human at +last. A love of finery has awakened in her." + +"What does the shopman say?" he asked. + +"That it would fit me exactly. And I need something warm and +comfortable for the long walks. But it's a real lady's jacket, and----" + +"All the more reason why you should have it," he interrupted, laughing. +"Don't come back without the jacket, now mind. Good-night, and a +pleasant journey." + +With a joyous exclamation she stooped to kiss his hand, but he evaded +the caress. + +When her footsteps had died away in the darkness, he took the lamp and +went into the greenhouse, which was her private apartment. + +The fire still smouldered on the hearth, but the room was icily cold +and comfortless. A stray flake or two whirled through the holes in the +roof, for outside a gentle dusting of snow had begun to fall. + +"Why doesn't she doctor the laths?" he thought, and resolved that the +next morning he would come and lay boards over the weak places. He +climbed on one of the boxes and tested with a tap the glass roofing. +Then he understood why Regina preferred to sleep half in the open air. +The leaden framework of the panes had become rotten and brittle. At his +mere touch the whole decrepit roof rattled and trembled in all its +joints. Any attempt to mend it would bring it down altogether. + +"It's a positive sin to allow her to be housed like this," he said to +himself. + +He went back to his room and drew from under his sheets as many of his +feather mattresses as he could do without, and carried them, with one +of his pillows, to her wretched resting-place. He carefully made up a +bed, and then threw her horse-cloth over it, so that not a scrap of the +bedding was visible. + +"That will make her open her eyes," he thought, "when, worn out, she +comes to throw herself on her pallet." And well satisfied with his +evening's work, he returned to his papers. + +The next morning, when he awoke, his walls shone with the dazzling +reflection of the snow. In the night the world had arrayed itself in +the garb of winter. + +He dressed, and called Regina. There was no answer. She had not come +back. + +He waited two hours, and then went to prepare his own breakfast. Three +snow-heaps had collected underneath the holes in the glass roof, and a +fourth was accumulating on the hearth. A greenish twilight filled the +room. He took the shovel and broom, and half mechanically swept the +white mounds out at the door; then he fetched a sheet of strong +cardboard that had served as a cover to the stacks of documents, cut it +into strips, which he cautiously pushed through the holes so that they +roofed in the bad places from the snow. + +"That's the best I can do," he said, as he shivered about the room, +which he had now made nearly as dark as night. Then, sighing heavily, +he went to the hearth, and lit the fire. + +The day crept on, and still Regina did not return. In all probability +the snowstorm would detain her at Bockeldorf till the next morning. He +felt moped to distraction as he sat over his work. Now and then, to +vary the dull monotony, he took a walk to the Cats' Bridge, over which +she was bound to come. After he had bolted his cold dinner he did +nothing but watch the clock, whose hands seemed hardly to move. + +He missed Regina at every turn; for though she kept out of his way when +at home, he knew he had only to whistle to bring her instantly to his +elbow. + +He put his papers aside, and to change the current of his thoughts +began to draw. On the back of a coachbuilder's bill of fifty years ago +he painted a long garden border of stiff rows of stately lilies and red +roses. First he made a line of lilies, then one of roses, then lilies +again, and so on until the whole resembled some gorgeous carpet. Then +he threw himself on the creaking sofa, and dreamed of the Madonna who +presided over that wall of flowers, and shed the blessed light of her +countenance on all who had the courage to penetrate it. + +Already it was dusk. There was a sound of footsteps on the +cobble-stones before the door. He sprang to his feet and hurried out. + +Regina came timidly over the threshold. She was laden with bundles and +parcels, and covered from head to foot with snow; even the little curls +on her forehead were powdered white. Her face glowed, but there was an +expression of fear in her brilliant eyes as she lifted them to his. + +"I ran, _Herr_, as fast as I could," she panted, laying her right hand +on her heart. "The shopman wouldn't let me start till daylight, because +he thought--the jacket might----" + +She broke off, looking guilty. + +He smiled kindly. He was much too glad to know that she was back again +to scold her. + +"Go and cook me something hot as quickly as you can," he said. "You'll +be glad of your supper too." + +She gazed at him in mute amazement. + +"Why don't you go?" + +"I will--but, oh!" And then as if ashamed of what she was on the point +of saying, she rushed past him into the kitchen. + +"She almost claimed her flogging," he murmured, laughing, as he looked +after her. + +He was sitting at his desk where he generally worked, when she brought +in the evening meal. The lamp with its green shade cast a subdued +uncertain light over the apartment. He liked to watch her as she moved +swiftly to and fro, in and out of the shadows. To-day her appearance +almost frightened him. She looked resplendently, proudly beautiful. Not +a trace of her former degradation was apparent. The once forlorn and +half-tamed girl might have been taken for a duchess, so graceful and +distinguished were all her movements; so pure and full of charm the +contour of her young erect figure. Was it the neat woollen dress, or +the new jacket with its silver-grey fur--_kazabeika_, as they called it +in Poland--that was responsible for the transformation? As she laid the +table she smiled to herself a happy shame-faced little smile, and every +now and then flashed a rapid stealthy glance across at him. It was +evident she wanted to be admired, but dared not attract his attention. + +When she came within the circle of light made by the lamp, in order to +place it on the supper table, he turned his eyes quickly away to make +her think he had noticed nothing. But all the same he could not resist +letting fall a remark. + +"How conceited we are of our new clothes!" he said banteringly. + +A vivid blush spread over her face and neck. + +"They are much too good for me," she whispered, still smiling, still +glancing at him in half-ashamed coquetry. But she was not yet daughter +of Eve enough to take a sidelong peep at herself in the glass. + +On going to turn down his bed for the night, she was astonished to see +how it had diminished in size, but gulped back an exclamation of +surprise, lest he should be annoyed. Then wishing him good-night she +left the room. + +With a grin of inward satisfaction he thought of the great surprise +that was in store for her, and soon became engrossed in his manuscripts +again. + +About an hour had elapsed, when he was startled by a rustling sound at +the back of his chair. He turned round and found her standing beside +him. Her face was very white, her lips trembling, her breath coming +quick through dilated nostrils. The fur collarette was unfastened at +the throat, and showed the coarse chemise underneath, the folds of +which rose and fell with her billowing breast. In the excitement of the +moment she had forgotten to arrange her clothing. + +"How handsome she is!" he thought, filled with involuntary admiration +of her strange beauty, and then he tried not to look at her. + +"Now then, what's the matter?" he asked in his gentlest tones. + +She made an effort to speak, but some moments passed before a sound +escaped her lips. + +"Oh, _Herr_!" she stammered forth at last, "was it you--did you do +that with the beds?" + +"Yes, of course. Who else should do it?" + +"But--why--_why_?" and she lifted her swimming eyes in alarm and +consternation. + +Apparently his kindness frightened her. It was necessary to adopt a +firmer tone in order to become master of his own emotions. + +"Stupid girl," he said loftily, "do you think I wish you to die out +there of cold?" + +For a moment she stood like a statue, silent and motionless, and big +sparkling drops rolled down her cheeks. And then suddenly she threw +herself at his feet, clung to both his hands, and covered them with +kisses and tears. + +At first he was too unnerved and thrilled at the sight of her agitation +to speak. He had never imagined that she would be so deeply moved. Then +he collected himself, and withdrawing his hands commanded her to rise. + +"Don't make a scene, Regina," he said. "Go to bed. I'm sure you must be +tired out." + +She would have wiped her eyes with her sleeve, as was her habit, only +she remembered the new soft fur trimming in time, and so let her tears +run on. + +"Ah, _Herr_!" she sobbed. "I hardly know what's come over me. But were +you really serious? I don't deserve all your kindness. First the +beautiful jacket, and then when I expected a whipping for being gone +the whole day--for you to ... Oh----" + +"Say no more. I won't listen to another word," he insisted. "You must +have some sort of bed. Where used you to sleep before?" + +She started and cast down her eyes. + +"Before?" she murmured. + +"Yes, in my father's time." + +"Ah, then, I used to lie on the door-mat or----" she paused. + +"Or where?" + +She still remained silent, and trembled. + +"Where?" he asked again. + +Her eyes moved shyly in the direction of the canopied bed. + +"You know; ah, you know, _Herr_," she murmured. And then overwhelmed +with shame she covered her face with her hands. + +Yes, he knew. How could he forget it for a moment. + +"Begone!" he cried, his voice shaking with anger and disgust, and he +motioned her to the door. + +Without a word she crept out, her head still bowed in her hands. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + +Boleslav was almost happy. He had hit on a new and brilliant idea, and +the hopes of carrying it out brightened for a time the deadening +monotony of his existence. He believed he could clear his father's +memory. + +How it had first occurred to him he hardly knew. He had found certain +letters from Polish noblemen addressed to his father, which seemed to +suggest that the deceased had felt himself bound by a hastily-made +promise which at the time he had not meant seriously, and that a chain +of tragic circumstances had compelled him against his will to be a +party to the treachery. If this did not exonerate him from all guilt, +it at least put the slandered man in a new light--the light of a +martyr. + +If by minute study of the documents he could trace the affair to its +source, and make public a true history of the disaster, in which he +would demonstrate that Eberhard von Schranden, far from having played +the devilish role that rumour attributed to him, had only been a victim +of circumstances, surely there would at least arise some who would hold +out their hand in remorse to the sufferer's heir. The more he absorbed +himself in this task of vindication the more he began to feel united +with the dead man, and accustomed to the idea of sacrificing his own +innocent reputation for his sake. + +His brain was so much occupied with these schemes that he slept little +at night, and in the daytime tore about the park like one possessed. +The less hope he cherished in his secret heart that his plan would +succeed, the more did he long for some human soul into whose ear he +could pour his doubts and fears. But there was no one to speak to but +the taciturn woman, who glided past him with eyes guiltily cast down. + +One evening, when his solitude almost maddened him, he said to her-- + +"Regina, aren't you frozen in your kitchen?" + +"I never let the fire out, _Herr_." + +"But what do you do in the evening, when it's dark?" + +"I sit by the fire and sew, till my fingers get quite stiff." + +"Then you have a light?" + +"I burn fir-cones." + +He was silent; he gnawed his under-lip, and hesitated as to what he +should say next. Then he took courage. + +"Regina, if you like you may bring your sewing into the sitting-room, +after supper," he said. + +She grew pale, and stammered out, "Yes, _Herr_." + +He thought her wanting in gratitude. + +"Of course, if you'd rather not--" he said, shrugging his shoulders. + +"Oh, _Herr_--I should like to come." + +"Very well, then, come; but you must make yourself look respectable. +Why have you given up wearing your new clothes?" Since that evening she +had taken to shivering about in the cotton jacket again. + +"I thought it would hurt them." + +"Hurt them! How?" + +"I mean," she said incoherently, "that when you are angry with me,-- +such as I, am not fit----" + +"Nonsense!" he interrupted quickly, feeling that if she went on he +would be angry with her again. + +After supper she appeared in some trepidation at the door. Snowy linen +shimmered in her hand. She remained standing till he had impatiently +invited her to sit down. + +"You want people to stand on ceremony with you, as if you were some +fine lady," he said. + +She laughed in confusion. + +"I am only nervous, _Herr_, because I am not quite sure--how to +behave." And she turned to her work. + +No more passed between them that evening, and it was more than a week +before they broke into conversation again. + +He sat brooding over his yellow papers, and she let her needle fly +through the crackling calico. When the clock struck eleven, she +gathered up her sewing, and whispering "Good-night," slipped out on +tiptoe without waiting for an answer. + +"What are you working at so industriously?" he asked her one evening, +after he had watched her intently for some minutes. + +She looked up and pushed a curl off her forehead with damp fingers. + +"I am making shirts for you, _Herr_," was the answer. + +"So you undertake that too?" + +"Who else should do it, _Herr_?" + +A short silence; then he questioned her further. + +"Who taught you all you know, Regina? Your mother?" + +She shook her head. "My mother died very young, _Herr_. I can hardly +remember her. People say my father beat her to death." + +He thought of the thin pale face and tired eyelids in the +picture-gallery, of which the last trace had perished in the great +fire. + +"Can you remember what your mother was like?" he demanded again. + +"She had long black hair, and eyes like mine, at least, so I have heard +people say; and I can remember her hair, for she often wrapped me in it +when I was undressed. I used to sit in it as if it were a cloak, and +laugh; and when father--" She stopped in sudden alarm. "But you won't +care to hear more, _Herr_?" + +"Go on, tell me the rest," he exclaimed. + +"And when father came home and wanted to beat me, because he was drunk, +you know, she stood in front of me, and told me to get under her dress; +and inside her dress it was like being in a cave, quite dark and still, +and father's swearing sounded a long, long way off. And then she died. +It was on a Sunday--yes, it was on a Sunday. For I was standing by the +hedge and wondering whether she'd have a beautiful coffin--a green one, +like the coffin on the trestle in the garden--when you, _Herr_, went by +on your way to church. At that time you were little, like me, and you +had on a blue coat with silver buttons, and a little sword at your +side; and you stopped and asked me why I was crying, and I couldn't +answer, I was so frightened, and then you gave me an apple." + +He had not the smallest recollection of the incident, but he remembered +how he had taken the young sparrow away from her, and related the +story. She had not forgotten it. Her eyes became illumined, as if lost +in contemplation of some blissful sight. + +"I wonder, now, that you gave it up so meekly," he said. + +"How could I have done otherwise?" she answered. + +"You might easily have refused," he said. + +She bent over her work. "I was only so glad for you to have it," she +said, in a low soft voice. "It's not often that a poor little village +girl gets the chance of giving anything to a rich young nobleman." + +He bit his lips. Truly he had taken more from her since than his pride +and manliness should have permitted. + +"And besides," she went on, "even if I hadn't wanted to give it to you, +it was yours by right. You were the _Junker_." + +How perfectly natural the argument sounded from her lips. + +"Regina, tell me honestly," he said, "if you haven't entirely forgotten +the days when you ran wild in the village." + +"Oh no, _Herr_; indeed I haven't," she replied, with an almost roguish +smile. "For instance, I remember a great many things about the +_gnaediger Junker_." + +He withdrew far back into the shadow of the lamp-shade. "What splendid +stuff she has in her!" he thought, and devoured her with his eyes. And +then he made her relate all her reminiscences of him at that time. He +did not appear in a very amiable light. Once he had pushed her into +a duck-pond; another time sent her floating down the river in a +flour-vat, till her cries of terror had brought people to the bank with +life-saving apparatus; when she had on a new white frock, given her by +the Castle housekeeper, he had painted her hands and face with white +chalk, and told her to stand motionless like one of the statues in the +Park. She had submitted meekly till the chalk got into her mouth and +eyes and made them smart, and then she had burst out crying and run +away. + +She recalled all this with beaming eyes, as if his pranks had been a +source of infinite happiness to her. Although when reminded of such and +such an escapade he recollected it perfectly, he could not remember +that it was Regina who had been the victim of his caprice. A sensation +of shame rose within him. Instead of the dreamy, generous young +cavalier he had been in the habit of picturing himself, he saw a cruel +little village tyrant, who exercised his power over his small +contemporaries with a relentlessness that was almost vicious. + +"And did I make no amends for my wicked deeds?" he inquired, hoping to +hear he had at least been capable of doing good sometimes. + +"Oh, you used to give us things," she answered. "'Divide that,' you +used to say, and scatter on the ground either apples and nuts, or +broken tin soldiers, or a handful of counters. But, of course, the +strongest and biggest got everything. Felix Merckel was the best at a +scramble; the girls only had the leavings." + +"And did you ever get anything from me, Regina?" he asked. + +She flushed scarlet, and bowed lower over her work. "Yes, _Herr_, +once!" she said softly. + +"What was it?" + +She was silent, and dared not lift her eyes. + +"Good heavens! why do you look so ashamed about it?" + +"Because--I ... have it still." + +"Oh, not really!" He smiled. A feeling of pleasure shot through him. + +Without answering, she felt in the pocket of her dress, and laid before +him on the table a little straw box plaited out of coloured blades. It +was hardly bigger than a baby's fist. + +He held it in his hand, and examined it all over attentively. Something +rattled inside. + +"May I open it?" + +"You needn't ask, _Herr_!" + +It was a ring of glass beads--blue, white, and yellow, such as a little +girl, following the first instincts of vanity, threads for herself. He +took it out, and tried to force it on his little finger, but it was far +too narrow, and he couldn't get it over his nail. + +"Did I give you the ring too?" he asked. + +"No, _Herr_, it belonged to my dear mother. It cut into her flesh once, +and that's why I used to wear it day and night till the thread broke. +Then she had been dead a long time, and as it was the only keepsake I +had of her, I threaded the beads again, and have never parted with the +ring, and I always have it on me." + +"In my little box?" + +She nodded, and her head drooped. "Why shouldn't I, _Herr_?" she said +in a whisper, "it brings me luck." + +He looked at her with a compassionate smile. "Luck? Brings _you_ luck?" + +"I'll tell you how, _Herr_," she exclaimed triumphantly. "Every bead +you count----" + +But at that moment he leant back in his chair, and the ring slipped +through his fingers on to the floor. + +Regina started up and hurried round the table to pick it up, but could +not find it. + +"The earth seems to have swallowed it up," she said in alarm, and she +dropped on to all fours close by Boleslav's side. + +He saw the nape of her beautiful neck with its fringe of crisp, dark +curls, gleaming near his knee. His heart began to beat, a cold shiver +thrilled through his limbs. He stared down on her with a fixed smile. + +"Here it is!" she exclaimed, and raised herself into a kneeling +position to hand him the treasured bauble. + +He lifted his hand. He felt as if some occult power had lifted it for +him, and that it weighed hundreds of pounds. Then with a timid, +caressing touch he laid it on her cheek. + +She drew back trembling. A great light swam in her eyes, that rested on +him in dreamy inquiry. His arm sank heavily to his side. + +"Thank you," he murmured hoarsely. + +She went back to her place, and there was a profound stillness. It +seemed to him that he had committed a crime, and that every moment of +silence between them made it worse. He must force himself to speak. + +"What was I asking you? Ah! to be sure. Who taught you to sew?" + +She had unthreaded her needle, and was trying hard to pull the cotton +through the eye again. But the small glittering shaft oscillated +between her unsteady fingers like a reed shaken by the wind. + +"I learnt at the parsonage, _Herr_," she replied. "Helene had a +class----" She paused, embarrassed, for at the sound of the beloved +name, which he heard for the first time from her lips--such lips--he +winced as if from the lash of a whip. She took his excitement for +anger, and added apologetically, "I mean the Pastor's daughter." + +"Never mind," he said, controlling himself with difficulty. "Go to bed +now." + +That night Boleslav fought a severe battle with himself. He felt as if +his ideal of exalted purity had been polluted since his eyes had rested +with favour on this abandoned woman. And he himself was polluted too by +that involuntary caress. + +It was absolutely necessary to regain his peace of mind and purity. He +must come to some distinct understanding with Helene without delay, in +order that he might be strengthened in his struggle against his +treacherous senses and benumbing doubt. + +So urgent did it seem that his resolutions should at once be put into +force, that he rose in the middle of the night, and by the glimmer of +his night-light wrote to Helene assuring her of his undying love and +eternal devotion, and imploring her to make some sign to show that she +stood by him in trouble as she had once done in happiness, so that he +might know for certain it was worth while his continuing to wage for +her sake the fight against such enormous odds. With every line he +wrote, his anxiety lessened, and when he lay down in his bed again, he +felt that, through bracing his energies for the task, he had relieved +himself of a load of care that had long heavily oppressed him. + +"Can you undertake, Regina," he asked the next evening, "to deliver +this letter unseen to the _Fraeulein_ at the parsonage?" + +She regarded him for a second with wide eyes, then looking down, she +murmured, "Yes, _Herr_." + +"But supposing they attack you down in the village?" + +"Pah! What do I care for _them_?" she exclaimed, shrugging her +shoulders contemptuously, as she always did when the villagers were in +question. + +Soon afterwards he saw her glide by the window like a shadow and +disappear in the gloaming. + +Hours passed. She did not return. He began to reproach himself for +having engaged her in his amatory mission when her life was at stake. + +At last, towards midnight, he heard the front door latch click. + +She appeared on the threshold with chattering teeth, blue with cold, +the letter still grasped in her cramped fingers. + +He made her sit down by the stove, and gave her Spanish wine to +drink--and gradually she found her voice. + +"I have been lying all this time in the snow under the parsonage +hedge," she said, "but there was no possibility of getting at her. Just +now she put the light out in her bedroom, so I came home. But don't be +vexed, _Herr_. Perhaps I shall have better luck to-morrow." + +He wouldn't hear of her repeating the adventure, but when she came to +him the following evening equipped for her walk, he did not forbid her +to go. + +This time she came back with glowing cheeks, panting for breath. Two +peasants on their way home from the Black Eagle had seen her and given +chase. + +"But to-morrow, _Herr_, to-morrow, I shall succeed." + +She was right. More breathless than the evening before, but radiant +with delight, she came into the room, and stood at the door, stretching +out two empty hands in triumph. + +"Thank God," he thought, "that I shan't have to send her a fourth time +on a fool's errand." + +In joyous excitement she told him all about it. Sultan, the big dog in +the kennel, knew her; and as a hostage she had taken him a bone, then +he had permitted her to stand at the back door and look through the +keyhole. She had seen Helene standing at the great store-cupboard. "I +knew that Helene,--I mean the pastor's Fraeulein,--went to the +store-cupboard every night to put out coffee and oatmeal for the +morning," she explained, "and sure enough I just timed her right, for +there was her candle flickering in my face, and she standing within +three steps of me----" + +He gave a deep sigh. Happy creature! She had _seen_ her! + +I opened the back door very softly, and called, 'Helene, Fraeulein +Helene!' And when she caught sight of me, she screamed and let the +candle fall. 'Helene,' I said, 'I am not going to hurt you. Here is a +letter from Junker Boleslav.' + +"She trembled so, she could hardly take the letter out of my hand. And +then she shrieked in horror, 'Go! Go _at once_!' And almost before I +could tell her about the letter-box on the drawbridge, she had slammed +the door and bolted it in my face. Ah, dear God!" she added with a +melancholy little smile. "I am used to being treated in that way, but +she might have been kinder because I brought a message from _you_!" + +He leant his head on his hands. Helene's conduct gave him food for +meditation. Of course her reception of her fallen playmate was in every +way excusable. No wonder that her chaste and maidenly soul revolted at +the sight of this unfortunate girl! + +Every day Regina now ran down to the drawbridge to peep into the +letter-box that was fastened to a pillar there, to see if there was an +answer from Helene. But the letter-box remained empty; and Boleslav's +brighter mood soon clouded again. He became more bitter and defiant +than ever, and a prey to tormenting reflections. In his pride he would +not allow that he had been spurned by the woman he loved; yet it was +hardly any longer a matter for doubt that she wished in no way to be +associated with him in his dishonour. He saw his great plans for the +future fall in ruins in this abandonment of hope of winning the love of +his youth. + +Many days went by before he roused himself from this fresh +depression--it was not till the feverish unrest of waiting had subsided +that he slowly recovered his calmness and fortitude. + +Then he threw himself with renewed energy into the search for proofs of +his father's innocence. The evidence was contradictory and confused. +Letters in which his father was referred to as the staunchest of +Prussian patriots were counterbalanced by others in which he was +addressed as the pioneer of Polish liberty. That might possibly have +been a mere figure of flattering speech, designed to win over the +vacillating nobleman, but to make it public would be once more putting +the deceased's reputation in the pillory. + +During these disheartening investigations of the truth, his only +refreshment was the evening hours in which Regina's presence gave him +something else to think about. So soon as she came and sat down +opposite him he felt a curious satisfaction mingled with uneasiness. +Sometimes, before she made her appearance, and he with bowed head +listened to the sounds that came from her kitchen, he would be suddenly +seized with anxiety, and feel as if he must jump up and call out, "Stay +where you are! Don't come!" And yet, when she walked into the room he +breathed more freely. "It is loneliness that attracts me to her," he +often told himself. "She has a human face and a human voice." + +As she sat over her work silently putting in stitch after stitch, he +would pretend to be napping, and with closed eyes listen to the rise +and fall of her breath. It was a full, slow, muffled sound, which fell +on his ear like suppressed music. It resembled the ebbing and flowing +of an ocean of restrained life and energy. After she had been sitting +for a long time in a stooping attitude she would suddenly straighten +herself, and stretch her arms with closed fingers over the sides of the +chair, till the curve of her bosom stood out in powerful grandeur, and +threatened to burst its bonds. It was as if from time to time she was +obliged to become conscious of the fulness of life that pulsated and +throbbed within her. + +Then she resumed her old attitude and quietly sewed on. + +It lasted all too short a time. These hours spent in her society had +unconsciously become dear to him, and almost indispensable. The lamp +seemed to give a brighter light since its rays fell on that pile of +shining white linen; the hand of the clock accelerated its pace now he +was not always looking at it to hurry it onwards. The wind that used to +howl and whistle so dismally in the branches of the trees now murmured +soft lullabies, and even the laths in the rotten roof cracked less +ominously. He dreaded the evenings when at dusk she started on her +journey to Bockeldorf, and more than once had meditated accompanying +her. + +But in their relations, that had become so friendly, there was one +blot, and the knowledge of it pierced him at times like a poisonous +arrow. Often, after he had been watching her in silence, he was +tormented with a desire to penetrate into the secrets of her past, and +to cross-examine her on the subject of her intercourse with the dead. +For long he kept back the questions that burned on the tip of his +tongue, feeling that little good could come of asking them; but at last +he felt driven to speak. + +"She is the only living witness of the catastrophe," he thought; +"what's more, the only accomplice. She alone can give authentic +information." + +And one evening he broke the silence which had been so enjoyable to +both, with a brusque demand that she should tell him all she knew. + +She changed colour, and dropped her hands in her lap. + +"You'll only be angry with me again, _Herr_," she stammered. + +"Do as I bid you." + +She still hesitated. "It's ... so long ago," she whispered piteously, +"and I don't know how to tell things." + +"But you can at least answer questions." + +Then she resigned herself to fate. + +"Who was it that first suggested to you the midnight sortie?" + +"The _gnaediger Herr_." + +He clenched his teeth. "When and how?" + +"The _gnaediger Herr_ ordered me to wait at table. The great candelabra, +that was hardly ever lit as a rule, was burning, and shone on the gold +uniforms of the French officers, and it was all so dazzling I felt +quite giddy when I carried the soup into the hall. They all laughed and +pointed at me, and spoke in French, which I didn't understand." + +"How many were there?" + +"Five, and one with grey hair, who was the General, and had the most +gold on his coat; and when I brought him the soup he caught hold of me +round the waist, and I put the plate down on his finger and pinched it. +Then they all laughed again, and the _gnaediger Herr_ said, 'Don't be so +clumsy, Regina.' I felt so ashamed and vexed at his saying that that I +said, quite loud, I didn't see why I should wait if I was only to be +scolded for it. Then they laughed louder than ever, and the General +began to speak German, like little children speak it. 'You are a +plucky, pretty little girl,' he said; and the _gnaediger Herr_ told him +I was a girl who might prove useful to him and them all--or something +of the kind. And when I brought in the liqueur at the end of dinner, he +drew me down to him and whispered in my ear. I was to go to him in the +night." + +He started up. "And you went?" + +She cast down her eyes. + +"Ah, _Herr_," she said imploringly, "why do you ask me? I wish you +wouldn't. I had often done it before, and I saw no harm in it then." + +He felt his blood boiling. + +"How old were you at that time?" + +"Fifteen." + +"And so corrupt--so----" His voice died away in wrath. + +She cast an unspeakably sad and reproachful glance at him. + +"I knew you'd be angry," she said, "but I can't make myself out better +than I am." + +"Continue your story," he cried. + +"And when I went to him at midnight he was still up, striding round the +table, and he asked me if I should like to earn a great sum of money. +'Of course, _gnaediger Herr_,' I said, 'I should like it very much,' for +then I was very poor. Whereupon he asked me if I was afraid of the +dark. I laughed, and said he ought to know best; and after a few more +questions it came out what he wanted me to do. Could I be trusted to +show the French the way over the Cats' Bridge and through the wood in +an hour? I began to cry, for the French had behaved dreadfully since +they had been quartered in the Castle, running after and insulting all +the servant-girls, and I was afraid they might insult me too." + +"Oh, you were afraid of that, were you?" he interposed with a +contemptuous smile. + +"Yes; and I told the _gnaediger Herr_ nothing would induce me to do it. +But then he became terribly angry, and thumped me on the shoulders till +I sank on my knees, and he cried out that I was an ungrateful hussy, +and that he would have me sent back to the village in disgrace, and +would tell the Herr Pastor what sort of a wench I was, and he would +make me confess and do penance; and then he took me by the throat, and +when he had almost throttled me, and I could scarcely draw a breath, +then, _then_ ..." + +"Say no more," interrupted Boleslav; and seizing the letters that were +to establish his father's innocence, he tore them to pieces. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + +The next morning he took one of the guns out of the case, and wandered +into the snowy forest. He tramped about the whole day without meeting a +single human creature. The deer and hares were left in peace, for he +stared beyond them into vacancy. At dusk he turned his footsteps +homewards, dispirited and worn out. + +He saw Regina standing like a statue on the Cats' Bridge looking out +for him. At first she looked as if she intended to run and meet him, +but she changed her mind, and took the path to the house, smiling and +murmuring to herself as she went. + +But when she brought in his meal she was as silent as usual. He sat +without looking at her till a sound like a short convulsive sob roused +him from his reverie. + +"What's the matter with you?" he asked. + +Without answering, she ran out of the room. + +He made a movement as if he were about to follow her; then set his +teeth and sat down again. A dull resentment devoured him. He could not +forgive her for depriving him of the illusion on which for weeks he had +been building so many vague hopes. + +Now there was nothing for it but to drink the cup of degradation to the +dregs, no matter how bitter the bottom might taste. + +In a little while Regina appeared again, in her outdoor things. + +"You wish to go out to-night, then?" he asked harshly. + +She kept her head half averted, so that he should not see she had red +eyes. + +"To-morrow is Christmas, _Herr_--the holy feast day; and the grocer +says that on Christmas night he would rather not be disturbed." + +Christmas! holy feast! How strange and like a fairy tale that sounded. +Then there was still rejoicing and festivity going on in the world! +People still joined hands and frolicked round glittering fir-tree! + +"You wish to get your Christmas presents, I suppose, Regina?" he +inquired, smiling bitterly. + +"Oh no, _Herr_," she replied. "That has never been the custom here. +Besides, now I should take no pleasure in such things." + +"Why not?" + +She hesitated, and then said in some embarrassment, "Let me go, +_Herr_." + +"I have a great deal to ask you yet, Regina." + +"Please, not now, else----" + +"Very well, go." + +"Good-night, _Herr_." + +"Good-night." Then he called her back. "Tell me first, what did that +sob mean just now." + +A ray of half-ashamed happiness shone in the eyes that were swollen +from weeping. + +"Can't you guess, _Herr_?" + +He shook his head. + +"I had been so anxious about you. I thought perhaps you weren't coming +back, and then when you did----" She turned and fled through the door. +Her footsteps died away in the night.... + +The following morning Boleslav was awakened by a great rushing and +roaring that had for some time mingled with his dreams. A terrific +storm was raging. The topmost branches of the poplars lashed each other +in fury. Huge white clouds were swept along the ground, but the air was +clear. Another fall of snow seemed improbable. To-day he could not rest +in the desolate, cold little house, and went out to wrestle with the +elements. + +"She will have a bad time of it," he thought, as the north wind hurled +in his face a shower of fine icicles that pricked like needles and +almost took his breath away. In the wood it was more sheltered. There +the tempest crashed and crunched in the tops of the trees, seeming to +vent all its fury on them. He walked on, not knowing where he was +going, and then found himself on the road to Bockeldorf. + +"It looks as if I were running after her," he murmured, chiding +himself; and he struck into the pathless thicket. + +He thought how remarkable it was that this degraded being should creep +so much into his thoughts. Of course it was because he had been thrown +with her day after day, and depended upon her entirely for human +society. Yet he was alarmed, for he realised now, perhaps more than he +had ever done before, how he felt himself every day more drawn towards +her, and how much there was in her that began to appear comprehensible, +excusable, and even noble, that once had only seemed to testify to her +innate coarseness, and repelled him from her in disgust. + +But without a doubt contact with her was doing him no good. She was +drawing him down into the slough of her own worthless existence. + +Something must be done. Above all, it was necessary to stand in less +familiar relations with her, to repress her, and lower her again to her +old position of humble and despised servant-girl. The festival of +Christmas was a good opportunity of paying her off with a loan, the +handsomeness of which would discharge his obligations to her for all +time. With a stroke of the pen he would provide for her future, and +thereby purchase the right to regard her as what she actually was--his +humble dependant and menial. She should give him her company to-day for +the last time. She had not yet finished her evidence, and as he had +once broken the ice he might as well know everything. Of those two +awful nights of guilt and shame, in which she had been a witness of +bloodshed and arson, he would hear the worst. + +"And then when she has confessed all," he said to himself, "she shall +keep to her green-house, which is her proper place, even if she has to +burn all the timber in the park to prevent herself from freezing." + +It was not seemly that in this solitude he should associate so much +with her, and he made up his mind to put an end to the intimacy once +for all. + +A hare crossed his path and turned his thoughts into another channel. +He aimed and hit it. The little animal rotated three times, and then +lay motionless on its nose. + +"She will be pleased," he thought, as he slung his booty over his +shoulder. Ah! there he was thinking of her again already. + +The sky meanwhile had clouded. A sharp shower of prickly white flakes +cut through the trees; a wild hiss now mingled with the roar of the +wind that made him shiver involuntarily in every limb. By aid of his +compass he found the way home. When he entered the open fields the +snow-storm was in full swing. He could scarcely stand against it. The +air was dark with the falling masses of snow. There was not a trace +visible of the shrubs in the park only three hundred feet away. + +"It's to be hoped she's got home," he thought, as he struggled on. + +Freshly fallen snow lay thick on the Cats' Bridge; there were no +footprints in it, but they might easily have been obliterated. + +With a sinking heart, he ran to the house and called her by name, but +got no answer. The hearth was unswept, the fire out, the beds unmade as +he had left them. + +She had been overtaken by the storm, that she feared more than she +feared the Schrandeners. A torturing uneasiness took possession of him. +He rushed from one room to the other, lit the fire and extinguished it +again, tried to eat, and then threw down his knife and fork +impatiently. It struck him as ludicrous that he should be so anxious. +Had she not for six winters gone backwards and forwards in wind and +rain and snow, and never yet met with an accident? Why should anything +happen to her to-day? To kill time he sat down to his desk, and with +numb fingers made out a cheque. The sum amounted to three figures. +Regina ought to be satisfied. + +Darkness set in. The hand of the clock pointed to three, and yet it was +already like night. He could contain himself indoors no longer. He +would at least go as far as the Cats' Bridge and see if there was any +sign of her. To prevent the wind pitching him over, he was obliged to +hold on with all his might to the balustrade. The rickety woodwork +shook in all its joints. On the ice beneath him danced a maze of spiral +patterns; lily-stems grew upwards and sank again in heaps of white +dust, which in their turn were whirled away to make room for other +fantastic forms. The Madonna's garden rose for a moment and then +vanished; for a figure drew nearer and nearer out of the twilight, +casting its shadow before it. + +"Regina, thank God!" + +He was on the point of rushing to meet her, when he was overcome with a +sensation of shame that paralysed his limbs and drove the blood to his +heart. + +On this very spot where he now waited for her, she had yesterday waited +for him; looking out into the dusk because she had not been able to +rest for anxiety about him, just as to-day he could not rest for +anxiety about her. + +For a moment he felt a strong inclination to dive behind the bushes, so +that she should not see him; but the next he was ashamed of being +ashamed, and stepped forward to meet her on the Cats' Bridge. + +"You have had a bad time of it, Regina," he called out; and tried to +relieve her of the sack she carried on her back. + +But she quickly dodged him, holding out her elbows in protest. She was +muffled to the eyes in shawls, and could not speak. They walked to the +door in silence. On the threshold she turned and tore the wraps from +her face. + +"I have a favour to ask, _Herr_," she said breathlessly. + +"Well, what is it?" + +"Would you mind staying out another half-hour, or going into the +kitchen, so that I can warm the room and tidy up a little?" + +"But you must rest first." + +"Not now, _Herr_, if you don't mind." + +And she went in, letting her burdens fall to the floor in the darkness. + +"She may bustle about in there for a few minutes if she likes," he +thought; and turned to look for a temporary shelter among the ruins. + +Warm air ascended from the cellars. He struck a light, and went down +the slippery steps. He felt curiously light-hearted almost, as if +Christmas had brought him joy. + +The rows of wine-bottles with their red and green labels peeped at him +festively from their places. + +"She shall not forget it's Christmas," he said, smiling; and drew from +the farthest niche where the treasure of treasures was stored, two or +three bottles covered with dust and cobwebs. In these reposed a nectar +which had not seen the light since an eighteenth-century sun had shone +on it. + +His latest resolution occurred to him. Of course, he had not meant to +put it into force till to-morrow--not on Christmas evening, when people +consort together, who at other times are not congenial to each other. +On Christmas evening no one ought to be lonely and sorrowful. + +Obedient to Regina's wishes, he patrolled the ruins for half-an-hour +beneath a roof of sparkling icicles. Then he put the bottles under his +arm, and staggered out into the stormy night. + +As he approached his dwelling, he saw with amazement that the shutters +were closed, a thing that had never happened before. His first thought +was that the storm had penetrated the chinks, but on nearer view be +learnt they were still weatherproof. Not till he stood in the vestibule +did he find a happy solution to the problem. Regina met him beaming, +and half-ashamed, and threw the parlour door wide open. Astounded at +what he saw, he remained rooted to the spot. He was greeted by a +festive shimmer of candles and a fragrant odour of firs. In the centre +of the dining-table, covered with its pure white cloth, stood a +Christmas tree, adorned with wax tapers and gilded apples. The whole +apartment was brilliantly illuminated. + +Never in his life before had a Christmas tree been lit for _him_. Only +from the thresholds of strangers had he sometimes looked on with dim +eyes at strangers' happiness. And where was Regina? She had retreated +behind him, and stood in the remotest corner of the vestibule, watching +him with shy yet proud delight. + +He took hold of her hand and led her into the room. + +"Who put it into your head, child?" he asked. + +"The grocer's wife was trimming her Christmas tree when I got there at +three o'clock, and I thought it so pretty I said to myself, _he_ shall +have his tree too, and shall know that there is at least one person to +think of him. I asked her to show me how to gild apples, and gilded a +supply while I was there, and bought the lights and got a sack to put +the tree in, so that you shouldn't see it." + +"And who gave you the tree?" + +"I cut it down myself at the edge of the forest not far from here." + +"In the middle of this storm?" + +She laughed contemptuously. "A little wind wouldn't hinder me, _Herr_," +And then with a sudden outburst of joyous ecstasy, she exclaimed, "Oh, +just look, _Herr_, how beautifully it burns! How pious it looks. Hasn't +it really a sort of pious face, as if an angel had brought it?" + +He assented, laughing, and expressed his thanks in a few words of +forced condescension, for he was afraid of being too gracious. + +But she was more than satisfied. "Why should you thank me, _Herr_?" she +asked reproachfully. "It's all bought with your money. I have none. I'm +only a poor girl. Else, ah, else--" She threw up her hands and clasped +them above her head. + +The cheque came into his mind. "This is to show you," he said, handing +it to her, "that I have thought of your Christmas too." + +She looked at him in bewilderment. "Am I to read it?" she asked, +respectfully taking the piece of paper between two of her fingers. +After studying it carefully, she still looked perplexed. + +"Don't you understand what it is?" he asked. + +"Oh yes--I understand ... But to begin with, you can't be in earnest. +And even if you are, ... what good is it to me?" + +"It will provide for your future." + +"My future is provided for.... I have all I want. Good food, ... and I +am dressed like a lady. What can I possibly want besides?" + +"But we may not go on living always together like this." + +She gave a cry of dismay. "Are you thinking of packing me off, _Herr_?" +she asked with tightly clasped hands. + +"Not now. But suppose I were to die." + +She shook her head meditatively. "I should die too," she said. + +"Or I might have to go to the war again?" + +"Then I should go with you as a vivandiere." + +Her persistence annoyed him. "Do as you like," he said, "only take what +I give you." + +A bright idea seemed to occur to her. + +"All right, _Herr_," she exclaimed, "I'll take it, only next Christmas +I shall buy you something with it, that will be worth having." And +happy at the thought, she scampered away. + +The Christmas-tree had burnt out. It stood now dark and neglected in +the corner by the stove, only occasionally casting a glimmer from its +golden fruit on the table where master and servant sat opposite each +other. + +Regina had been accorded permission to take her supper with him this +evening, and had been too overcome to swallow a mouthful. She was +almost stunned with this great and unexpected pleasure. + +Now the dishes were cleared away, and only bottles and glasses stood +between them. She drank, thoughtlessly, of the old fire-kindling wine +in long immoderate draughts. Her face began to glow. The pupils of her +brilliant eyes seemed to melt beneath their drooping lids. She rocked +to and fro on her chair. A wild abandon had relaxed her in every limb. + +"Are you tired, Regina?" + +She shook her head impatiently. For once her constraint in his presence +had disappeared. There was something even approaching audacity in the +brilliancy of her glance as she turned it on him from time to time. She +was intoxicated with happiness. He too felt the wine flame up in him; +and his eyes were riveted on her figure, which swayed before him with +the graceful motions of a Maenad. + +All the time the tempest raged outside. It whistled in the chimney and +hurled a rattling fusilade against the window shutters. There was a +grinding and crunching among the rafters of the roof, which sounded as +if the mouldy wood were collapsing. + +"I am afraid something will be blown down," he said as he listened. + +"Maybe," she answered with a dreamy smile, huddling herself together. +And then she began to babble in a fragmentary but quite unrestrained +fashion. "Perhaps it isn't good for me, _Herr_," she said, "that you +are so kind to me. All my life I have never got anything but blows and +abuse--first from my father, then from him, not to mention other +people. But if you spoil me, _Herr_, I shall get proud--and pride is a +great vice, I have heard the Pastor say--I shall begin to think I'm a +princess who needn't earn her bread." + +She burst into a peal of wild laughter, and let her arms fall to her +sides. Then in a low tone, as if conversing with herself, she went on-- + +"Sometimes I do wonder if I am only a servant. I often feel really as +if I were some enchanted princess, and you, _Herr_, the knight who is +to deliver me. Will you be the knight?" + +She blinked at him over her wine-glass. He nodded in friendly +acquiescence. Let her revel in her strange fancies. It was Christmas. + +"There have been cases," she continued, "in which princesses have been +turned into quite common sluts. They have had stones thrown at them, +and been spat at, and men have called after them, 'Strike her down, the +dirty slut!' And all the time they were princesses in disguise." + +"Do you believe in fairy tales, then?" he asked, wondering. + +She laughed to herself. "Not exactly, _Herr_. But when one passes so +many hours alone, and has to take long solitary walks as I have, one +must think. And when the rain beats down, and the wind blows.... Hark +at it now, what a to-do it's making.... Think of me tramping along in +this--and I have often been out when it's as bad, but I've never lost +my way. And sometimes, when I come into the wood, I have asked myself, +'Which would you rather be? A queen sitting on a golden throne, or the +Catholics' Holy Virgin, who had our dear Lord and Saviour for her +little boy; or would you rather be the devil's grandmother, and bury +all the Schrandeners in a manure-heap; or a noble lady and----" She +paused. + +"And?" he queried. + +She drew herself up, and laughed in embarrassment. + +"I can't tell you that--it is too silly. But I had only to choose which +I'd be. And as I march along through the night shadows, I often imagine +I am one or other, till all of a sudden I find myself in Bockeldorf, +just as if I'd flown there--often I think I am flying. Ah! things do +happen in real life, after all, very much the same as in the fairy +tales. Don't you think so, _Herr_?" + +He contemplated her with curiosity and wonder, as if he had never seen +her before. And truly it was the first time he had looked into her +secret soul. Now, when her tongue was loosened by wine, much was +revealed in her that before he had either not observed or not +understood. + +"Blissful creature!" he murmured. + +"Am I?" she replied, boldly planting her elbows on the table, and +regarding him with an expression of joyous inquiry. "You mean, because +I'm sitting here with you drinking wine and being treated as if I were +human? Oh! it's exactly like being in heaven.... Do you think I shall +ever go to heaven?... I don't. I am far too wicked!... And I think, +too, I should be afraid to go there. It must be much livelier in +hell.... I should be more at home there. The Herr Pastor often said I +was like a little devil, and I never fretted about it. Why should I? It +seemed quite natural that I should be the little devil and Helene the +angel. An excellent arrangement.... Didn't Helene, _Herr_, look just +like an angel in the flesh? So pink and white and delicate, with her +blue eyes and folded hands. And she always wore ... a pretty ribbon ... +round her neck ... and smelt always of ... rose-scented soap...." + +A cold shiver passed through him. He felt it was degrading both to +himself and the beloved to allow this half-tipsy girl to speak of her +as if she were an equal. + +"Stop!" he demanded hoarsely. + +She only answered him with a dreamy smile. Wine and fatigue suddenly +overpowered her. She lay stretched out, her head thrown back on the arm +of the chair, and fought against sleep, like a Bacchante exhausted +after a whirl of dissipation. + +A great anger, that rose and fell within him like the sound of the +storm outside, mastered him. + +"This is what wine does," he thought, and yet drank more. + +He wanted to wake her, to send her out, but he could not tear his eyes +away from her face, and by degrees he became gentler again. + +"She meant no harm," he thought, as he moved nearer to where she lay. +"This is the last time she will sit here with me; to-morrow a new leaf +will be turned. After to-morrow she shall find in me nothing but the +master." + +Then he remembered all he had wanted to ask her. + +"Well, never mind," he said to himself, "it can't be helped. Why spoil +her Christmas? Some other time will do." + +The hurricane without seemed to have increased in fury. It roared +through the keyholes, and battered the shutters. How brutally cruel it +was to drive her out to sleep in a greenhouse on a night like this! But +what was the use of being compassionate when it had to be done? + +"Regina!" he shouted, and tapped her on the shoulder. At that moment +there was a terrific thundering crash, that made the walls tremble as +from a shock of earthquake. Regina screamed loud in her sleep and tried +to grasp his hand, then sank back again into her old position. He went +out to see what was the cause of the noise. Nothing had fallen in the +vestibule, but on opening the door of the greenhouse snow drifted in +his face just as if he had walked into the open air. All round was inky +darkness. He went back to fetch his lantern. It shed its light on a +scene of ruin that exceeded his worst expectations. Regina's little +kingdom, from which she had ruled and regulated the menage so +unostentatiously, had seemingly been dispersed to the four winds of +heaven. The roof was blown off, and had torn up part of the wall with +it. Between the hearth and the door was a barricade of snow as tall as +himself, riddled with bricks, beams, and splinters of glass. + +What was to be done now? Where was Regina to sleep? Should he too let +her lie like a dog on his threshold? No! rather would he turn out into +the ruins himself, and seek a couch down in the cellar. It was +imperative to act at once, and there was only one thing to be done. He +drew Regina's bedding out of the snow, shook it thoroughly till not a +flake remained hanging to it, and then dragged it into his room. +Beneath the shadow of the Christmas-tree in the corner by the stove he +made up a bed on the boards. + +Regina slept peacefully, her face illumined by the light from the oil +lamp. He came close to her, shook and called her by name; but nothing +could wake her. At last he lifted her up, to carry her to the bed. + +She gave a deep sigh, encircled his neck with her arms, and let her +head sink on his shoulder. + +His heart beat faster. The fair body in the first bloom of its superb +young womanhood, gave him a sensation of fear and uneasiness as it +unconsciously rested on him. He half carried, half trailed her across +the room. Her warm breath fanned his face, her hair swept his throat. + +As he let her sink on her mattress she raised her arms, with a gesture +of longing, in the air, and pulled down the little fir-tree. He drew it +from under her, and then placed it as a screen and sentinel between +himself and her. "To-morrow I'll rig up a partition," he thought. Then +he undressed and went to bed. + +The night-light burnt out, but there was no thought of sleep for him. +The tempest still raged, and spent its fury on the locks and bolts. +Boleslav heeded it not. While he listened to the sleeping woman's +breath, his own fell on the night, in heavily-drawn, anxious gasps. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + +"_To His Lordship, Baron Boleslav_ + _von Schranden, of Castle Schranden_. + +"_Your Hochwohlgeboren is requested to appear in person on January 3rd, +anni futuri, at two o'clock in the afternoon, at Herr Merckel's +official residence, and to bring the requisite papers relating to your +Hochwohlgeboren's attachment, or non-attachment, to the Prussian +Landwehr._ + + "(Signed) Royal Landrath V. Krotkeim, + _Representative of Military Affairs + for the District_." + +Boleslav found this communication in the drawbridge letter-box on New +Year's morning. The threatening nature of its contents did not at once +strike him; he was only staggered at the authorities taking the trouble +to investigate his case. He had resolved, on again adopting his +father's name, to let the waters of oblivion close over Lieutenant +Baumgart. He had discharged his duty to his country unconditionally; +bolder and more self-sacrificing than thousands of others, he had gone +to face death. Now that there was peace, and he had taken a great +burden of inherited guilt on his shoulders, he had wished to avoid +being involved in any way with official red-tapism. + +Only gradually did he realise the new dangers that were gathering on +his horizon. Pride in his past as a soldier, afforded him the one prop +and stay in his present ruined life, and he felt that slipping from +under his feet. He stood defenceless in face of imminent peril. It +would need only a little _malice prepense_ to make him out a deserter +from the flag, and the fact of his having borne a false name would go +far to establish his guilt. + +The son of Baron von Schranden had no reason to hope that justice would +be tempered with mercy in his case. He would also have no reason to +complain of harsh measures, if he were put under arrest on the spot, +and brought before a court-martial of the standing branch of his +regiment. + +For a moment he entertained thoughts of flight, but afterwards thrust +the idea from him in scorn. He had too often valued his life cheaply, +to now think seriously of stealing into Poland to end his wretched +career in safety. + +But what would become of Regina? + +At the thought of her, his heart smote him. She had no suspicion of the +new troubles with which he was encompassed. Since Christmas night he +had not addressed a single word to her that was not absolutely +necessary, and even then his voice had been imperious and severe. The +thought of her now seemed interwoven with a presentiment of coming +calamity, which oppressed him like a nightmare. + +At night he tossed about restlessly among his pillows. She never +stirred in her corner. Apparently she fell asleep the moment she lay +down. But her soft, quick, regular breathing was sometimes broken by a +sigh. Perhaps, after all, she was not sleeping, but watching, +listening, as he listened.... + +And then the day dawned on which Boleslav's fate was to be decided. +Towards morning he had fallen into an uneasy sleep, and was first +awakened by the smoke that poured into the room from the vestibule, +where he had erected a temporary fireplace, which would have to do as a +makeshift till milder weather made the repairing of the glass root +practicable. It was a clear, frosty morning. The sunshine jewelled the +hoar-frost on the twigs, and dark purple shadows crept along the +dazzling sheets of snow. + +He spent the morning in arranging his papers. All that was compromising +to his father's memory should be destroyed, for were he put under +arrest, as seemed likely, strangers' hands would meddle in this vortex. +He held the sorted letters in his hand ready to burn in the stove, when +he thought better of it. If he really were serious in his intentions of +bearing his father's guilt, he ought to conceal or destroy nothing in +order to lighten the burden. It was not worth while purchasing truth +with falsehood. Rather die in disgrace, than live in honour founded on +lies and deceit. + +When Regina brought him his midday meal he vacillated an instant, as to +whether he should tell her all or nothing. But he shrank from a +touching scene, and decided on the latter course. A letter would serve +the same purpose. So he wrote: "If I am not back at dusk, probably you +will have difficulty in seeing me again. Inquire at the Landrath's +office in Wartenstein. There they will tell you what has become of me. +I advise you to leave Schranden at once. The draft I gave you will +supply your wants. What else remains shall all be yours later. +Good-bye, and accept my thanks." + +He left the note in a conspicuous place, so that, when she cleared +away, she would find it. He was in a hard and embittered mood, and in +no humour for a sentimental farewell. + +But as he passed Regina in the vestibule where she was occupied with +the fire, he felt a strong impulse to press her hand. For her sake, as +much as for his own, he went out without giving her a word or a look. A +group of staring louts, who appeared to be waiting for him, were +loafing near the drawbridge. When they saw him coming, they ran off +helter-skelter with loud exclamations, to the inn. + +"My heralds," he said, and laughed. + +Long before the stated hour the parlour of the Black Eagle could not +hold all the customers that poured in, anxious to secure a foremost +place for the proceedings. There was an overflow that extended as far +as the churchyard square. Every one was eager to witness with his own +eyes the final degradation of the last of the Barons of Schranden. + +Three months had passed since the petition had been sent to the +judicial authorities of the province, and even the most zealous +patriots had begun to despair of its producing any results. Then at +last had come the delightful intimation from the office of the +Landrath, that a day had been appointed to wind up the case of the +Crown _v_. Schranden, _alias_ Baumgart, and the presence of the +petitioners was urgently requested at the inquiry. + +The Schrandeners had armed themselves in a way worthy of the occasion. +For three days they had been busy polishing up their accoutrements. +Those among the disbanded Landwehr-men who still possessed their +_Litewka_ had donned it, and pikes and sabres were seen in the crowd. +Possibly they might be called upon to help in an instantaneous +administration of justice. + +The Landrath's sleigh had entered the village at one o'clock, and, as +was customary, put up at the parsonage stable, where Herr Merckel and +his son stood ready to welcome the high functionary. There was no +gendarme on the box, which greatly mystified the Schrandeners. But +perhaps the services of one were not required when they could be +depended on to despatch the criminal at the first signal. + +Shortly before two, the Landrath, accompanied by the old pastor, left +the parsonage and entered the inn by a side door, where Herr Merckel, +senior, again was to the fore to receive him, while Felix slouched in +the background, piqued at not being treated with what he considered +sufficient respect by the civilian. + +The Landrath von Krotkeim was a tall, extremely slender man, whose +hoary leonine head rose with great effect from his contracted, sloping +shoulders. There was something awe-inspiring in its pose. He wore, in +defiance of the fashion of the period, long whiskers, which flowed +behind his ears, mingling with his thick iron-grey mane. + +His part in the formation of defences for the Fatherland had been an +important and distinguished one. Two years before he had sat as a +deputy for the knighthood in the famous _Land-tag_ to which Germany +owed the foundation of the Landwehr. He had hailed old York with +cheers, and helped to draw up the address to the King. Afterwards he +had hastened back to his native place to set the organisation on foot, +and had achieved results which made his district the brilliant model +that excited the admiring emulation of the whole country. Then arose +those marauders attendant on success, vanity and egoism. What at first +had been a labour of noble disinterestedness, gradually degenerated +into a peg for self-advertisement and a means of memorialising his own +fame. For the rest, and long before the treachery of the Cats' Bridge +incident had been generally made known to the world, Herr von Krotkeim +had by repute been a bitter enemy of the house of Schranden. To hope +any favour at his hands would therefore be over-sanguine indeed. But +Boleslav had abandoned hope of any kind as he entered the square in +front of the church. He advanced composed, and almost indifferent, +towards the crowd that formed a cordon round the inn. He had, on his +way, cast one shy glance at the parsonage, where in a window he fancied +he had seen a fair face which withdrew into shadow directly he smiled +up at it. He was received by a murmur of malignant tongues, but the +cordon let him through, understanding enough to know that, without him, +the game they were anticipating with such keen relish could not be +played. + +At the entrance to the best parlour, he stood face to face with the +great man with the lion's mane, on either side of whom sat the old +pastor and Herr Merckel. Felix lounged in the window-sill, trying to +assume an air of nonchalance. He now considered his former playmate too +inferior an object on which even to bestow his hate. But the old +landlord greeted Boleslav with a benign smile. Had he come there with +the purpose of treating every one present to a bottle of the celebrated +Muscat wine, the smile could not have been more smugly servile. + +Lightning-flashes irradiated from beneath the prominent brows of the +old pastor, and the Landrath sat coolly contemplating his fingers, +which were white and bony as a skeleton's. Boleslav felt his bosom +swell proudly. "His hand against every man; every man's hand against +him." It was the old story! + +A voice from the crowd hiccoughed out some unflattering remark. The +Schrandeners received it with laughter. + +"It's the poor father, the unhappy father," old Merckel whispered to +the Landrath, with a melancholy elevation of his eyebrows. + +"As you have summoned me here," exclaimed Boleslav, "I demand your +protection from the insults of the mob!" + +The Landrath drooped his eyelids and bowed. + +"Silence, dear people!" he commanded, stroking his clean-shaven chin, +and then he added, "I shall have any person who makes a disturbance +ejected." + +He consulted a green portfolio that lay spread before him on the table. +Behind him a little man in grey was energetically trying goose quills. +Probably he was the reporter. + +The examination began. With frigid politeness the Landrath put the +usual questions. + +"Where have you resided hitherto?" + +Boleslav enumerated several places. + +"Your word is of course to be trusted, _Herr Baron_, but have you +proofs?" + +"No." + +"Up to what date does your answer hold good?" + +"Till the spring of the year '13." + +"After that?" + +"I entered the army." + +"Have you proofs to support that statement?" + +"No." + +"I regret to say that the name von Schranden is not to be found in the +army list." + +"I enlisted under another." + +"Under the name of Baumgart?" + +"Yes." + +"For what reason?" + +There was silence. Boleslav bit his lips. + +"Ha, ha!" came triumphantly from the window. The exclamation put +Boleslav on his mettle. + +"To have borne my real name would have involved me in difficulties." + +"Why?" + +"Because, through a rumour which I was powerless to contradict, there +was a blot on that name." + +"What rumour?" + +It was clear this man intended to humiliate him to the dust before +passing on him the inevitable sentence. + +"You know it," he murmured faintly between his closed teeth. + +The Landrath bowed. "Nevertheless I must ask for information on the +subject." + +"I decline to give it." + +The mob sent up a shout of scornful laughter. + +"Do for him at once! put him in chains!" roared the same hiccoughing +voice that had made use of an abusive epithet earlier in the +proceedings. + +The Landrath gracefully waved his long white hands. + +"A note has been made of that refusal?" he asked without turning round. + +A small quavering pipe behind him, which greatly amused the +Schrandeners, answered in the affirmative. + +Then he continued with imperturbable politeness. + +"May I ask you, then, to tell me to which company you were attached?" + +Boleslav did so, and also gave the names of his Heide comrades. + +The Landrath turned over the leaves of his portfolio with an air of +ennui. The concerns of the volunteer Jaegers evidently had no interest +for him. + +"You were elected officer?" + +"Yes." + +"I do not doubt your word, _Herr Baron_, but have you proofs to back +_this_ statement?" + +"No." + +"A note must be made of that negative. And then you entered the +Landwehr?" + +"Yes." + +"Your reason?" + +Boleslav indicated, with a motion of his head, the companion of his +boyhood. + +"Because I did not wish to meet that man." + +Felix gave a scoffing laugh, and exclaimed, "Else the swindle +would----" A sign from the Landrath silenced him. + +"Your Landwehr regiment, if you please?" + +Boleslav cited the commandant's name. + +The Landrath bowed low over the portfolio till his shock of hair almost +concealed his faded shrunken face. + +"So far that coincides with my information," he said, and then read: +"There was a Lieutenant Baumgart, who at the time of the armistice +entered the regiment. Besides him there were four other officers of +this name in the army. The one in question, however, met his death +between the 1st and 3rd of March on the Marne." + +"How did you learn that, _Herr Landrath_?" + +"It is in the Gazette, _Herr Baron_. He is said to have been sent on a +special mission, and shot by grenadiers in General Marmont's corps." + +Boleslav felt his blood mount swiftly to his brow. The proudest and +most arduous moments of his life rose vividly before him. "That is a +mistake," he cried; "Lieutenant Baumgart fell into the hands of the +enemy severely wounded, but escaped with his life." + +"And it is your desire to be identified with that fallen emissary?" + +"I believe I have clearly shown that it is my desire." + +"Very well, that being so, you will of course be able to relate the +incidents of the special mission." + +"Certainly." + +"Please proceed." + +"The volunteers had been charged to get a message delivered to General +von Kleist. Some days before a skirmish had taken place on the +banks of a river, Therouanne by name, through which the General and his +corps were cut off from communication with the main army. A reunion +was not to be effected owing to Marmont's and Mortier's troops, to +which Napoleon himself was said to be marching, stopping the way. +Field-Marshal Bluecher suddenly resolved to retreat, in order, I +believe, to pick up reinforcements, and therefore it was, under the +circumstances, urgent to let General von Kleist know at once, in case +he should find himself entirely isolated. It was necessary for the +messenger to evade the enemy's outposts at night-time. Among those who +volunteered to go on the mission, choice fell on me. Major von Schaek +led me to the Field-Marshal, who entrusted me with a letter----" + +"One moment, please," interrupted the Landrath, searching diligently +among his papers; then he added casually, "And the letter of course +contained the necessary command." + +"No." + +"What, then?" + +"The letter was designed to deceive the enemy in case I should be shot +from my horse on the way. The Field-Marshal desired me to give his +command by word of mouth. I had to learn it by heart." + +"How did it run?" + +"As follows: 'If on the morrow the enemy attacks us on the right flank, +General von Kleist is not to join in the engagement, but to seize the +opportunity of gaining the command of the Marne from the south, so that +he may bring himself in touch with me. _En route_ several bridges are +to be destroyed.'" + +The Landrath nodded. "And then--Lieutenant?" + +"I succeeded in delivering the message." + +"You managed to evade the enemy and reach your goal?" + +"I hope you have found proofs of it, _Herr Landrath_, in the history of +the war----" + +"Hum! When were you wounded?" + +"On the way back." + +"Why did you not remain where you were?" + +"Because I had undertaken to bring the Field-Marshal an answer." + +"You might have spared yourself this second act of daring." + +"I might have spared myself the first also." + +"You wanted to achieve fame?" + +"I wanted among other things to escape the privilege of this +cross-examination." + +The Landrath straightened himself and threw back his mane. "Permit me +to draw your attention to the fact that you stand before the +representative of your king, Herr Baron von Schranden." + +"Barefaced impudence!" muttered the voice at the window. + +"I stand before my undoer," replied Boleslav, looking steadily into the +Landrath's eyes. + +He fixed them on his papers again, with a suppressed smile. "I have now +come to the last stage of my investigation," he continued. "It cannot +be denied that your statements bear a strong resemblance to the facts, +and that your claim to be one and the same person as the Lieutenant +Baumgart who served in the Silesian Landwehr under Major von Wolzogen +has gained in probability. Only this admission has to be weighed in the +scale against the impossibility of an honourable officer, as the said +Baumgart seems to have been, turning his back on the army in which he +had won honours and wounds, and deserting its standard. He must have +known a company of soldiers could not be dispersed like a flock of +sparrows. And to think that the Landwehr"--his chest swelled and he +tossed his mane,--"the glorious Landwehr, that has always stood in the +first rank for courage, love of order, and discipline, should have thus +been hoodwinked! Freiherr von Schranden, I fervently hope that +Lieutenant Baumgart was not guilty of this transgression, and am +therefore bound to wish that he met his death." + +Boleslav felt the crisis was approaching. He glanced round him and saw +everywhere eyes flaming with hate and thirst for vengeance. Felix +Merckel had laid his hand on the handle of his sabre, as if in another +moment he would raise it. From the throngs behind him came a clash and +din of arms. Malignant satisfaction beamed on the face of the old host +of the Black Eagle. Only the pastor sat with his dishevelled head bowed +in his hands, staring despondently on the floor. + +"It is not my fault, _Herr Landrath_, that the dead man has been +brought to life. He did his duty, I think. Why should he not have been +allowed to rest in peace?" + +The Landrath shrugged his shoulders. + +"A public indictment cannot be ignored." + +"An indictment!" cried Boleslav, his anger blazing up, and his eye met +young Merckel's. + +There he read, in unmistakable characters, the story of the shameless +plot against him. He smiled in disgust. + +"I see that I am answerable to a military tribunal," he said. "I was +prepared for it. I beg you now to arrest me." + +The mob pushed forward as if anxious to take him at his word without +delay. Boleslav, who all this time had been standing on the threshold +of the inner parlour, was hurled forward against the table, within a +hair's-breadth of the Landrath, while the fists of his enemies touched +his neck from behind. + +"Patience, my dear friends," said the Landrath in an amicable tone. +"The first who lays hands on him will himself be put in chains. One +more question, _Herr Baron_. If you were taken prisoner, as you +maintain, how was it that later, when the disbanding followed, you were +not registered and discharged in the regular order?" + +"The French, in their hurried flight, left me lying on the field, as I +was badly wounded. I was picked up by some peasants, in whose house I +lay for months at death's door. When I was able to leave my rescuers, +peace had been concluded, and there were no allies in the +neighbourhood." + +"Your word of honour is of course sacred, _Herr Baron_, but perhaps you +can substantiate this with proof?" + +"Only with my scars, _Herr Landrath_." + +"Ah!... Make a note of that----" He pushed back his leonine locks from +his brow, and seemed to be bracing himself for an impressive summing +up-- + +"My friends! Indomitable defenders of your country, and inhabitants of +Schranden! The founding of the Landwehr was the rising of a new sun, +which has never ceased to cast new lustre on the fame of Prussia. Let +us congratulate ourselves that we have been born in a time when such +great things have been demanded of us, and that we have proved +ourselves worthy of, and equal to the demand. Especially in this +district, and foremost in this district the parish of Schranden. If we +look round us, we see a very different spectacle in other quarters. Not +everywhere did the King's appeal meet with such a warm and spontaneous +echo. + +"Oh, my friends, our hearts bleed when we hear of how, in the districts +of Konitz and Stargard, for example, to escape serving, men took refuge +in the woods, and lay full-length amongst the wheat till they had to be +baited like bulls. Thousands took flight across the frontier, and thus +shirked the conscription altogether. And often what had been +beautifully drilled companies overnight, by the morning were +transformed into a shapeless mass of panic-stricken deserters. But not +in the district that I have had the pleasure of mobilising. + +"In less than two weeks, friends and comrades, the Landwehr of the +Wartenstein district was ready drilled and armed from top to toe. The +levies were double in strength what the government had required of us, +and eighty per cent, consisted of volunteers. From the parish of +Schranden came only volunteers." + +The crowd set up loud hurrahs, and the pastor nodded and smiled in grim +satisfaction. He knew whose work that had been. + +"I must admit," continued the Landrath, with a chilling sidelong glance +at Boleslav, "that the parish of Schranden has one hideous stain on its +reputation"--(several loud imprecations were audible)--"a stain which +in spite of all its deeds of bravery will never be dissociated from it" +(renewed curses); "but if it is the King's pleasure to overlook it, and +only to see the brighter side, his graciousness is due to those who, in +defending his realm, have rendered him such able services, whose leader +I am happy and proud to call myself. The King's favour--('Why does he +harp thus on the King's favour,' thought Boleslav, 'when he might wind +up the case and be done with it')--has been abundantly lavished on us, +and we are almost overpowered with his blessings. Yet let all who reap +the fruits of the harvest remember they owe it to the men of the +Landwehr, and not least to their organiser, who sowed for them the +seeds of undying fame." + +Again he began to turn over the leaves of his portfolio, then he went +on: "Take your caps off, intrepid inhabitants of Schranden. Attention, +my brave men! Gentlemen, if you please, rise! Whoever keeps his cap on +at the back there will be ejected. I am commissioned to read over to +you an order of the Cabinet of supreme import. It is as follows: +'Should it prove true that the Freiherr von Schranden of Schloss +Schranden and Lieutenant Baumgart of the 15th Regiment of the +Silesian Landwehr, be one and the same person, and that, as was +naturally supposed of so fearless an officer, he had no real intentions +of deserting, I appoint him to a captaincy in my Landwehr, and entrust +him with the command of the company in his division. I also bestow on +him, in recognition of his extraordinary valour and distinguished +service, the iron cross of the first class. The Landrath for the +district shall invest him with these honours in the presence of his +accusers.--Friedrich Wilhelm Rex.'" + +The proclamation was received in profound silence. The patriotic +Schrandeners stood glowering at each other in consternation. Felix +Merckel had sunk back on the window-seat. His fingers clutched +convulsively at the cross that shone between the black froggings on his +coat. Boleslav felt a buzzing sensation in his head. He was obliged to +cling to the door for support, for he feared he might swoon. Not joy, +only infinite bitterness, welled up within him. He bit his lips hard to +keep back his tears. + +The Landrath drew a small black case from the depths of his coat +pocket, and presented it to Boleslav with an exaggeratedly obsequious +bow. The cover sprang back. The black smoothly polished scrap of iron, +on its background of blue velvet, seemed surrounded by a halo of +shimmering light. Boleslav grasped it with one hand in growing +excitement, while he offered his other to the Landrath. The latter +retreated a step or two, closely regarding his long, white, skinny +hands, as if the act of handing over the case had done them some +injury. Then he deliberately hid them behind his back. + +"_Herr Landrath_, I offered you my hand," cried Boleslav threateningly, +flushing darkly at this new insult. + +"According to his Majesty's wishes I have discharged my duty. My +instructions did not include a shake of the hand." + +At this moment a cross, like the one Boleslav had just received, flew +through the air and alighted at his feet Felix Merckel had torn it from +his breast. Swelling with righteous indignation, he swaggered up to the +official, whom he now felt sure he had no reason to be afraid of, and +cried-- + +"There it may lie. I don't want it now. Any decent soldier would be +ashamed to wear it when such as _he_ is decorated with it." + +A cry of mingled pain and fury escaped Boleslav's lips, and with raised +fists he turned fiercely on his enemy. + +Felix Merckel unsheathed his sabre, as if with the intention of hewing +down the unarmed man. But the old landlord threw his corpulent form +between them. The Landrath confined himself to waving his hands +soothingly; and the pastor vigilantly kept watch on his Schrandeners. +He knew his flock, and read murder in their glance. + +"Back there! keep back!" he shouted to the tumultuous throng in a voice +of brass. With outstretched arms he sprang into the doorway, where +already a line of pikes appeared, ready to fell the victim from behind. + +Boleslav looked round and saw with a shudder how near he stood to +death. + +The pastor, clinging to the roof of the doorway, endeavoured to stem +the murderous tide. Would that frail and venerable frame be able to +repulse this onslaught of unmuzzled wolves? Would it not be swept away +on the crest of this bloodthirsty wave? A weak shield to rely on, +indeed! Yet his was the only authority not swamped by the tumult. The +Landrath's protesting hands waved impotently above the seething heads, +like limp towels; the gentle flutelike tones in which he declared the +ringleaders of the disturbance should be turned out and bludgeoned were +totally ignored. His parasite, the little portfolio bearer, had taken +the precaution to creep under the table. + +A voice within Boleslav cried, "What! You will let this old man protect +you? Cannot you protect yourself?" And a wild resolve consumed him. +This seemed a moment given him to balance his account with fate--a +moment of all others in which cowardice was to be avoided. He caught +hold of the old pastor in a grip of iron and drew him aside. + +"This is my place, reverend sir," he said, and planted himself in the +doorway. + +He stretched out his arms above him, as the old man had done, and +offered his breast as a target for the pointed weapons. His eye +penetrated unflinchingly into the heart of the struggling and ramping +mob before him. He felt the foam from their mouths bespatter him, and +their hot, foul breath fan his face. + +"Here I stand!" he cried. "I have left my pistols at home; so you can +make short work of me. Any of you who have the courage." + +But no one had the courage, for his back was not turned to them now. +Sabres were lowered, pikes dropped. + +"I see--you don't wish to assassinate me after all," he said, holding +them with his eyes. "You are going to behave yourselves like men, and +not like wild beasts. Very well, then, I will speak to you as to +reasonable men. Move backwards and keep quiet." + +The crowd wavered; the next moment he had the threshold to himself. + +"And now--speak! Tell me what you want with me?" + +There was no answer, no sound in the room except the laboured +breathing of excited lungs. + +"You hate me. You would like to take my life. Tell me why? Here in the +presence of a representative of the King whom we all serve and fear, in +the presence of a representative of the God in whom I believe and you +too--tell me what I have done? I submit myself to their judgment. Now +is your opportunity of charging me." + +But the silence continued. Only one spluttering voice arose for a +moment and died away in a gurgle, as if it were being stifled by force. + +"You are dumb. You cannot say what my offence has been,--and you, +gentlemen! Won't you come to the assistance of these poor, speechless +people? There on the ground lies a cross, the mark of honour our nation +cherishes more highly than any other, which some one threw away, +because through my possessing one like it, he considered it +contaminated. Some one else declined to shake hands with me just now, a +common act of courtesy which no man of honour refuses another unless he +be a blackguard. It does not matter, _Herr Landrath_, if in this +instance judges and accusers unite in a common cause. Accuse me of what +you like, condemn me! I am prepared." + +Another long pause. The Landrath twisted his whiskers in embarrassment. + +"And you, _Herr Pastor_--it is hardly fitting that I should call the +instructor of my youth to account--but some months ago you showed me +the door in your own house. Could you not be spokesman now for your +parishioners?" + +The old man's jaws worked, his lips moved, but no sound issued from +them. He appeared to have exhausted his strength, but the wild, fiery +glance he darted from beneath his bushy brows boded no good to +Boleslav. + +With a laugh he went on. "Then I must be my own accuser." He felt +intoxicated with his own courage. "Your hand against every man, and +every man's hand against you," cried jubilantly within him. "You think +you ought to visit the sins of the fathers on me; empty the vials of +your wrath on my head because you cannot reach the dead. Very well. I +am his heir. I take his guilt upon me, and do not refuse to do penance, +when right and justice demand it of me. But why were no steps taken +against the dead man himself? Why was he not tried? Why not dragged to +the scaffold when he deserved it? _Herr Landrath_, I ask you, as the +embodiment of the law, why did the State remain silent and suffer these +gallant men who smarted under wrong to take revenge into their own +hands? And such a revenge! So childish, so cruel, that one would have +thought it could only have occurred to the primitive brain of +bloodthirsty savages. Revenge for a deed which at this hour I neither +admit nor deny, because it lies shrouded in mystery. Which of you can +say how it happened, or whether it happened at all? And in spite of +this uncertainty, you have damned and defamed him and his race, +deprived them of honour and justice. Is that fair play? Now I ask you +to put us on our trial, me, and the dead man, and----" He paused, +shocked at the thought that he had nearly let fall Regina's name. + +The pastor's eagle eye flashed ominously. Then collecting himself, he +continued: "Inquire, speak out unravel the mystery, clear up the +matter, and then judge and pass sentence. But at the same time sit in +judgment and pass sentence on that other crime, the crime that has +wrecked my property, and leaves me only uninhabitable ruins to live in, +a crime that cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance. On the subject of +other outrages and indignities I will be silent--threats of murder to +me and mine; the blocking of the churchyard entrance to my father's +funeral cortege--all that shall pass. But the fire, _that_ I swear +shall be avenged! If till to-day justice has been blind to my wrongs, +its eyes shall be wrenched open. I will not rest day or night till I +have dragged the skulking authors of that cowardly, atrocious deed into +the light of day, and may God have mercy on those who attempt to screen +or defend them." + +Again the mob showed signs of uneasiness. Its foremost ranks pressed +back on the others, as if to fly from the vengeance of the wrathful man +who had addressed them in words of such burning indignation. Again from +the neighbourhood of the window came hoarse, stuttering laughter that +was choked off as before. + +The occupants of the best parlour made an effort to appear as if they +had not been listening to Boleslav. The Landrath, who was really +painfully affected, busied himself with more zeal than ever in looking +through his papers. Old Merckel had picked up the discarded cross, and +was trying to persuade his son, who resisted sulkily, to wear it again. +The little man in grey had come out from under the table, and was +employing himself in carefully rubbing dust off his knees. Only the old +pastor was on the alert. He had propped his stick against the table; +the thin white hair that floated round his bald skull quivered. He +stood looking, with his vulture profile, and small eyes flashing +beneath his sharply projecting brows, like a bird of prey waiting to +pounce on its booty. + +Had Boleslav caught sight of him at that moment, he might have +hesitated to make a fresh challenge. But he wanted to score all along +the line and complete his victory. + +"In order that there may be a clear understanding between us," he +cried, "that all may see who has right on his side and who wrong, I +ask, which of you has a charge to prefer against me? To whom have I +done an injury? How have I sinned?" + +Then the voice of the old pastor was raised behind him. "Is Hackelberg, +the carpenter, here?" + +Boleslav winced. That voice so close to his ear sounded intimidating +and uncanny, and prophetic of coming evil. There was a scuffling and +swaying in the crowd. The ragged figure of the village drunkard, by +means of shoves and kicks, was propelled forward into the front row. He +struggled and beat the air with his hands, and when forced on to the +threshold of the inner parlour, tried to duck beneath the legs of the +men on either side of him. + +"There is nothing to be afraid of, Hackelberg," said the pastor. "I +will see that you are not hurt." + +Reassured, he drew himself up, and scanned the gentlemen he had been +brought before with a suspicious, glassy eye. + +"What creature is this?" inquired the Landrath, scandalised. "Why is he +not put under restraint?" + +"Because his condition is owing more to his misfortune than his fault," +the pastor answered. + +Herr Merckel thought it his duty to whisper an explanation to his +superior. + +"He is the poor father so much to be pitied," he said, with a mock +pathetic air, "whose sad story I related to your _Hochwohlgeboren_." + +At the same time he watched uneasily some Schrandeners, who seemed to +be waiting for a signal to take the drunkard into custody. + +"Have you nothing to say, Hackelberg?" asked the pastor. + +"What should I have to say, Herr Pastor?" he lisped, beginning to +cringe again, and drawing the lappets of his tattered coat over his +naked breast. + +"Have you no accusation to make?" + +"Let me go," he growled. "I haven't----" + +"Not even against _him_?" and he pointed to Boleslav. + +A glimmer of intelligence came into the dull, glazed eyes. He +understood his cue. Old Merckel nodded at him encouragingly, and he +began to play his favourite role. Floods of tears that the besotted +inebriate can always command so easily, poured over his cheeks. He +rubbed his wet face with his black hands, till it resembled some +hideous mask. + +"Poor fellow! poor outraged father!" crooned Herr Merckel, senior, +wiping his own eyes. + +"What is the meaning of this absurd farce?" asked Boleslav, with a +scornful laugh. But his face had become visibly paler. + +"Here we don't enact farces, but sit in judgment," answered the pastor. + +Boleslav shrugged his shoulders. "I am pleased to hear it," he said, +and there was a tremor in his voice. + +The Schrandeners craned their necks to get a better view of the +edifying scene, of which they now expected to be spectators. In the +momentary calm that ensued, distant whoops and yells were heard from +the crowds who filled the square, having stormed the inn in vain, and +with the noise there seemed to mingle a woman's voice crying for +succour. + +What if it were Regina? But it was not possible that it could be she; +and the idea vanished as quickly as it had flashed into his brain. + +"My child, my poor wretched child!" howled the carpenter, who now found +himself in more familiar waters. + +"What have they done to your child, man?" asked the Landrath, who was +not going to tolerate the conduct of affairs being taken out of his +hands. + +"My child was seduced--he ruined her--my fatherly heart is ... +lacerated ... I am a poor beg--gar ... Only one coffin----" + +"I fancy I have heard you harp on this string before," the Landrath +interrupted him sharply, "at the time when I examined your daughter +about the Cats' Bridge disaster. If you haven't learnt anything a +little newer than that in five years, you'd better hold your tongue. It +seems," he said, turning with a smile to the pastor, "as if this +ruffian were bent on playing the part of Virginius." + +The little man in grey laughed shrilly at this facetious sally on the +part of his chief, and then was overcome with confusion at his own +timerity. But the old pastor was less disposed to appreciate the +Landrath's urbane humour. + +"I will speak for you, Hackelberg," he said. "My words must be taken +seriously. I will speak for you and for all of us in the name of our +Heavenly Father, whose commandments were not made to be flouted and set +at nought by aristocrats. Freiherr von Schranden, just now you +challenged me to speak. Will you listen to what I am going to say?" + +He assented impatiently. For the second time he fancied he heard that +cry of distress rise above the hubbub outside. + +"You have entered into the inheritance of your father?" + +"Can there be any doubt in the matter?" + +"God knows! None." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I mean you have only too quickly appropriated that which was his +unlawful possession." + +"_Herr Pastor_----" But he could not go on. He felt a choking sensation +in his throat, and a stony horror creep over him. + +"Where is your spirit?" he asked himself; "your boasted defiance?" + +"You found a woman, _Herr Baron_, on your estate who had been your +father's mistress. You found her degraded, defiled, dragged through the +mire of wickedness and vice. Year-long slavery had robbed her of the +respect of every living creature. She was treated as a mere animal by +animals. This wretched woman belonged to my parish and to me. I reared +her in the way she should go. It was my hand that sprinkled the +baptismal water on her brow; my hand that held the chalice to her lips +at the Holy Sacrament; and I promised and vowed before God, and in +presence of my flock, to watch over this young soul; doubly orphaned, +because he who generated her was not responsible for his actions." + +"Ah, my poor orphaned child!" maundered the carpenter. "Only two, only +one other coffin ..." + +"I am answerable for her to God and the parish. I could not command +your father to give her up, for, as I told you, I had handed him over +to a heavenly tribunal; but _you_, who have courted this inquiry, I +command to give her up, and, what is more, in the present hour of +reckoning I exhort you to render account of what you have done for her +soul." + +A red mist floated before Boleslav's eyes, and in this mist the figure +of the venerable priest seemed to grow till it became almost god-like. +He could only stammer forth-- + +"What should I ...?" And the old man took up the thread of his speech +again-- + +"To-day you have been honoured before all men by our King; but, +Boleslav von Schranden, look to it that God holds you in equal esteem. +What should you have done, you ask? This impure, abandoned creature +ought to have been more awful, more sacred to you than any other +earthly being. What have you done to atone for the guilt your father +heaped on her? Have you freed her from the bondage into which she had +sunk, loosed her from the chain of her sin? Have you pointed her soul +upwards to God, the All-gracious and All-forgiving? Or have you dragged +her down deeper and deeper into the hell that your own flesh and blood +created for her? Above all, in what fashion have you been living with +her? It is said that, amidst the devastation of your island, there is +only one room habitable. Have you never lost sight of the fact that by +all laws, human and divine, your father's property in this instance was +for you forbidden? Have you taught her to repent and pray, or have you +filled her poor undisciplined senses with fresh poison? And have you +preserved your own blood intact from sinful desires and lust? Or have +you let your passions, like greedy beasts waiting whom they may devour, +keep watch on her, ready to spring in an hour of weakness, thus adding +fresh shame----?" + +"Cease!" cried Boleslav. "This is too much!" + +Truly scorpions proceeded out of the mouth of this mild Christian +priest, who knew how to reveal and lash secret sins of the imagination, +which till this hour Boleslav never suspected had existed in his. + +But now he saw it all. Everything was clear. Now he knew what it was +had sent his blood tearing impetuously through his veins in the long +night vigils, and had made him hold his breath, and listen to hear +whether that other breath did not come faster or slower, showing that +she, too, was sleepless and on guard. It was sinful desire for her +body--the body that had been dishonoured and abused, yet in spite of +all remained so triumphantly beautiful. + +Thank God! ah, thank God! that the sin was still confined to his inner +consciousness. There was yet time to lock it behind bolts and bars to +prevent its stealing forth over the fatal threshold. So far he could +claim the right to be his own judge, to stand before the private +judgment-seat of his own conscience. + +He looked round him, and his face was distraught and ghastly pale. He +saw triumph flame up again in the eyes that watched him. + +"What right have you to impute this crime to me?" he said to the +pastor. + +"I did not impute it--I merely asked you," the old man interposed +quickly. "You have become too pale, _Herr Baron_, for us not to observe +your discomfiture." + +"Condemned out of his own mouth, unhappy man," murmured Herr Merckel, +senior, with a sigh. + +The Schrandeners, in the renewed hope of being allowed to spring at his +throat, set up a fearful howl, and pressed forward once more. + +Then above all the din there was distinctly heard from the yard a +shriek of anguish that caused Boleslav's marrow to freeze in his bones. +There could be no mistake now. That _was_ Regina! + +"Regina!" he cried, and rushed to the window that opened on the yard. +There the mad chase was in full cry. A crew of furious dishevelled +women were dashing over hedges, ditches, waggons, barrels, and frozen +dunghills, followed by boys armed with clubs. The air was thick with +flying stones. + +"Help! help!" shrieked Regina's voice. But she herself was not visible. + +But as he wrenched open the back door she flew like a wounded bird into +the dark corridor, followed closely by her would-be assassins whooping +and panting. + +He pulled her with a powerful movement of his arm into the room, and +shut the door on the furies in pursuit. + +She sank on the floor at his feet and pressed her face against the hem +of his coat. + +Her hands relaxed their cramped grasp on two splintered pieces of +wood--all that was left of her tub, the shield with which she had been +in the habit of warding off assaults. Her hair was loose, her dress +torn, the pretty fur-trimming that she had been so proud of, hanging +about her in tatters. + +"A charming pair of lovers," said Herr Merckel, rubbing his hands in +keen enjoyment of the scene, while the Schrandeners displayed a strong +disposition to continue the work begun outside by their womankind. The +very sight of Regina was sufficient to excite to an uncontrollable +degree their predilection for "throwing something." With a yell of +delight they looked round them in search of missiles,--and already two +earthenware mugs had been hurled into the gentry's parlour, one of +which struck the carpenter on the shoulder. This instinct for smiting +was now stronger in them than the thirst for a life. + +The Landrath wrung his bony hands in despair. All his courtesy and +distinction of manner was lost on this pack of devils. + +"_Herr Landrath_," said Boleslav, pointing to the woman cowering almost +insensible at his feet, "I beg you to make a note of this pandemonium. +If you do not feel inclined to interfere, I take the liberty to warn +you that you may have to appear in your own august person as a witness +in a court of law against these gallant people." + +Certainly the Landrath seemed hardly aware of the pitiable figure he +was cutting. His splendid mane now hung in shaggy disorder about his +face, which had assumed a peevish expression. + +"Merckel," he rasped, "you are mayor. I'll have you superseded, unless +you can maintain order. Order! do you hear, good people. Order! This is +breaking the public peace. You deserve imprisonment--in fact you +_shall_ be sent to prison. Taken with arms in your hand, means three +years, not a day less than three years, good people. Tomorrow I shall +send gendarmes, three gendarmes." + +It must have been his good angel that put this threat into his head, +for no other could have had the same effect in bringing the rebels to +their senses. Since the war no gendarmes had been stationed in +Schranden, which was a piece of good fortune not to be scouted at, for +its inhabitants feared gendarmes more than they feared the king. + +Herr Merckel, who began to tremble for his office, was now assiduous in +his efforts to restore peace. His son leant back with folded arms in +the corner of the window-seat, affecting to be highly amused at the +proceedings. + +But the old pastor's gaze never wavered from the pair, and seemed to be +searching the innermost recesses of their hearts. + +"Stand up, Regina," said Boleslav to the kneeling girl. "They shall not +hurt you. I will defend you." + +But she remained huddled at his feet, still quaking with fear. + +"It's not true, _Herr_, that they are going to take you away?" she +sobbed. "If it is, I will starve myself and freeze to death." + +"No, it's not true; but get up, Regina." + +"Master; ah, my dear, dear master!" and she pressed her forehead +against his knee. + +"Boleslav von Schranden, do you deny it now?" + +"Deny what?" he asked. "That this poor unhappy girl whom you have +denounced and ostracised regards me as her rescuer and saviour, because +I am the first who for years has spoken a kind word to her? Or would +you have me deny that this same unhappy girl has endeared herself to +me, because she is the only human being on God's earth who has clung to +me in my hour of need, when every one else has forsaken me? I should be +an ungrateful ruffian if I did not value her after all she has done for +me. I never asked her to share my solitude among the ruins. It is not +so comfortable or lively up there, and all my goodness to her has +consisted in my allowing her to sacrifice herself for me. I have not +been able to supply her with pleasures. There has been no unlawful +intimacy between us. If she prefers to be my body-slave to being stoned +and harried to death, that is no concern of any one's in the world, +least of all of you Schrandeners, and of that despicable drunkard who +prostituted his own flesh and blood." + +Gently prompted by old Merckel, the carpenter recommenced playing the +role of injured father. + +"Oh my daughter! my poor, misguided daughter!" he groaned. + +"Do your duty," urged the landlord; "reclaim her." + +"Come, my child; come back to your brokenhearted, deserted father. He +has taken to drink through grief ... driven to it. He will only make +two more coffins; one for himself and one for----" + +He stretched out his dirty hand to her, which, shuddering, she +violently repulsed. + +"Do not distress yourself further," said Boleslav. "She belongs to me +as I belong to her." + +"Nevertheless, I demand her from you this day, Boleslav von Schranden," +said the old pastor, placing his hand on Regina's head. She cowered, +but let it lie there. + +"That you may be able to stone her better?" + +"I promise you that no harm shall come to her. I will confide her to +the care of one of my spiritual brethren, who will see to her wants for +this side of the grave and the other. If you oppose her redemption, you +will only be knitting the chain of your sin the closer." + +Boleslav was silent. A thousand thoughts rushed through his brain. This +old man's word was to be relied on; he was no cheat. And what lawful +claim had he to this woman lying helpless at his feet? How could he +make it worth her while to perpetually risk her life for him? + +Then the Landrath, who had partially recovered from his panic, put in +his word. "Is the young person of age?" he asked. + +The pastor calculated a moment, and replied in the affirmative. + +"The _vis paterna_ therefore cannot be enforced against her wishes, +otherwise she might be sent to a penitentiary, where----" + +The rest of his speech was cut short by a burst of ironical laughter +from Boleslav. + +"She may decide for herself. Does that satisfy you, _Herr Baron_?" + +"I shall not influence her one way or the other," he muttered, and he +felt the form at his feet vibrate. He bent over her. "Regina, do you +hear what the pastor promises to do for you? You know your future is +monetarily provided for. Will you leave the rest, and go with him." + +Then she lifted her glowing face streaming with tears to his, and +sobbed out, "Please, _Herr_, don't make fun of me." + +"You wish to stay with me?" + +"Ah, _Herr_, you know I wish it. Why do you ask?" + +"Stand up then, and we will go." + +The pastor barred their way. He had become ashy pale, and his vulture +gaze pierced Boleslav through and through. He laid his hand solemnly on +his shoulder as he had done the day he had demonstrated to him his +father's guilt. + +"My son," he said, "you too I received into holy baptism, and taught +you to lisp God's name, and opened your eyes to the marvels of His +creation. You were to me as my own child, and more, because you were +the son of my terrestrial lord and master. I have to answer for you too +before the throne of God. You have not been able to clear yourself of +the suspicion that rests upon you, and if I read your soul aright-- +don't cast down your eyes--I think I am not mistaken. Therefore, I +again command you to give up this woman. I command and exhort you to do +so in the name of your father, the name of the parish, the name of our +Master in heaven who is the Father of all orphans and irresponsible +children who sin unconsciously. Give her up--and you shall be acquitted +as blameless, and go your way in peace." + +Regina had raised herself, and now clung to his arm, trembling from +head to foot. + +"Come!" Boleslav said. "It is to be hoped they will let us pass," and +he made a motion as if he were going to push by the old man. But he +planted himself again in their way, and holding his arms aloft, said-- + +"Then you are worthy of your father. And as I once cursed him, I curse +you to-day, you and this woman together. You shall be like Cain, whom +the Lord banished from His sight.... You shall be a fugitive and an +outcast on the earth, and your home shall lie in ruins for evermore. +There you shall abide with this woman.... Now go! Make room for them +there! and who lifts a hand against either of them or lays a finger on +them shall be cursed, as they are cursed." + +Boleslav uttered a sound that broke discordantly on the solemn +silence-- + +"Come!" he said, and took Regina's hand in his; "let the old man curse, +it seems to be his trade;" but he felt a cold shiver run through him. + +He saw a lane open which reached to the door, in the densely-packed +tap-room. Hand in hand he and Regina walked down it. + +No one laughed, no one sneered, no one stirred. A superstitious awe +seemed to have struck the onlookers dumb. The breath of the winter +evening met their faces with an icy tooth. Had some one spread the news +of what had happened within, among the crowd that waited outside, or +had they divined it by instinct? Here too was profound silence; here +too a path was made for them, which they followed, bending their +footsteps riverwards with bowed heads. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + +The glow in the evening sky faded. A violet vapour hung about the bare +tracery of the tree-tops, and showers of sparkling crystals rained from +the branches. + +Boleslav ground the snow under his heel. His breath curled in front of +him in slender columns. The keen frosty air was balm to his fevered +face. He had sent Regina on before, and was trying to regain calmness +and presence of mind in solitary wandering, for his brain boiled like a +witch's caldron. + +The curse stood out intangibly in his ruminations; it was like the +bogey that little children people the darkness with. He saw it +everywhere; it haunted him. How well his father's old enemy had availed +himself of the opportunity of doing what probably he had long connived +at, putting the son under the same ban as the father. + +But it was a terrible reflection to think he might have deserved that +curse. As it was, he had not merited it; a thousand times no! What the +veteran priest in his dark suspicion had alluded to as an accomplished +brutal fact, had really only swept his soul with phantom wings. Now +that his conscience was awakened to the danger of the situation, the +danger itself was over. After all, he ought to be indebted to the +pastor for showing him the yawning precipice that lay at his unwary +feet. + +"Think no more of it," he said to himself; "I am the master, she the +servant, and I should be an accursed----" + +He stopped. Was he not already accursed? Then he laughed at his foolish +fears. It was childish to mind. Bah! he was too susceptible. At all +events, this day should be the beginning of a new epoch in his +relations with the outer world. The possession of the iron cross was a +proof that he was not dishonoured or outside the pale of law and +justice. With it he might, if he had the courage, outwit the knavish +tricks of his personal enemies, and appeal to the assistance of the +Courts. If the judge of the district had chosen to condone the fire by +ignoring it, he might in his turn light a fire that would send forth +such a blaze that the very holes where the incendiaries skulked would +be illuminated. But it would involve dragging his father's dealings +also into the fierce light of day. Could he dare to disturb the peace +of the dead, like a body-snatcher, and blazon forth the shame of his +house in the face of all the world? + +His mouth became distorted with the defiance that inwardly consumed +him. He felt for the moment as if deliberate self-destruction were a +mere joke. Why should he hold back; stop at anything? Was he not under +a curse? A bitter laugh rose in his throat. He could not forget that +curse! + +Then he went into the house. Regina was laying the table for supper. +She had mended her jacket, and smoothed out her hair with water. Her +face was as calm as if nothing in the least out of the way had +happened; only a scratch on her throat, testified to the hours of peril +she had lately lived through. + +With affected severity he asked, "What induced you, Regina, to be so +silly as to come near the inn?" + +She measured him with a shy glance. "I beg your pardon, _Herr_," she +said, with a graceful bend of her neck. "I found your letter, and I saw +everything swimming green and yellow before my eyes, it made me feel so +queer. I hardly knew what I was about. I thought perhaps I could help +to set you free." + +"Stupid child!" he said, and laughed; but a feeling rose within him +that had to be forcibly repressed. + +"Bring the wine," he ordered, as he sat down to the table. + +"Which kind, _Herr_?" + +"The best. It is high festival and holiday to-day!" + +She looked at him in surprise, and went. + +"Fetch a glass for yourself," he said, as she uncorked the grey +cobwebby bottle. + +"Oh, please, _Herr_, I'd rather not. It's too strong." + +"Nonsense! you will get used to it." + +"Perhaps, _Herr_." + +He poured out the wine. The dark-gold fluid foamed sparkling into the +slender-stemmed emerald rummers, which, perishable as they were, had +been saved from the ruins. + +"Clink!" he said. + +The glasses as they came in contact produced music like muffled bells. + +"The curse of a priest has to-day coupled me with her," he thought, and +his eyes sought hers and probed their depths. "How extraordinary! how +monstrous!" This woman was to be part of his existence, the old man had +said. This woman--why, oh, why this one? + +"A curse is a sanction," he meditated further. "Something that never +happened, and never would have happened, through him has been +substantiated and vouched for before Heaven as if it were an +established fact." + +And again his thoughts began to encroach stealthily on that forbidden +ground, in whose insurmountable barriers the preacher's words +themselves had quarried access. "You are master," he repeated the +formula over and over to himself, "she the servant;" and then he added, +"What is more, she is your slave, and so let it be." + +One course of action seemed clear enough at the moment, and that was +that progress must be made immediately with his work of retaliation. He +bade Regina remove the dishes and bring another bottle of wine. Then he +fetched his writing materials and motioned her to sit down in the place +she had occupied on Christmas evening. With shy delight she obeyed, for +since that night she had spent her evenings till bed-time alone in the +vestibule. + +"I'm going to ask you, Regina," he began, "to answer very briefly, and +to the point, several questions!" + +She started, then whispered, "Yes, _Herr_." + +"Drink, and that will make you more talkative." + +She struggled to do as he desired, but to-day the effect the wine had +upon her was to make her more nervous and reserved, instead of less so. + +"To go back to the night in which you led the French across the Cats' +Bridge. Was there any one on the premises who knew of the expedition?" + +"No, _Herr_." + +"How did it get wind in the village then?" + +She cast down her eyes. "I believe through me, _Herr_," she stammered. + +"To whom did you confide the information?" + +"To my father." + +"How, and when?" + +"He used to come to the Castle secretly from time to time to get money +from me, and if I hadn't any to give him he pinched and beat me." + +"Why did you not call out for help?" + +"Because it was at night, _Herr_; and if he had been found there they +would have flogged him." + +"Go on." + +"And so he came soon after ... after the expedition, I mean ... and +asked me to do all sorts of things. I was to get money from the +_gnaediger Herr_ ... or to turn out his pockets when no one was looking; +and to be left in peace, I fetched the bag the French General had given +me. And when he saw the moonlight shine on the coin that was in it, he +was half mad----" + +She paused abruptly. + +"Well?" + +"Must I say it, _Herr_?" + +"Of course you must." + +"But he _is_ my father, _Herr_." + +"You are to do as I command you." + +She drew a deep sigh and went on. "And he caught hold of me by the +throat with one hand, and beat me with the other, and hissed in my ear: +'Unless you confess how you came by all that money, I'll squeeze the +life out of you----' And when I could hardly breathe, I----" + +He laughed harshly to himself. _His_ father and _her_ father--both had +resorted to the same chivalrous measures. + +Regina thought the laugh was at her expense. + +"Ah, _Herr_," she went on with an imploring upward glance, "I +was so dreadfully stupid then. Even a fortnight later, when they +cross-examined me, they could have strangled me before they would have +got anything out of me. But then--I suppose it was because he was my +father----" + +"Oh yes, I understand. You told tales out of school to your father. +Well, what else?" + +"The very same night my conscience pricked me, and in the morning when +I took the _gnaediger Herr_ his coffee--he would always have me take +it--I told him all." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He turned as white as chalk, but said nothing at first. He took down a +gun from the wall and pointed it at me; I folded my hands and closed my +eyes, and then I heard him utter an oath, and then he put the gun over +his shoulder and rushed out. I thought to myself, he's gone to put an +end to father! And I watched him run towards the drawbridge with his +two bloodhounds, and then I, as quick as lightning, hurried through the +park, across the Cats' Bridge to the village, to let father know his +life was in danger. Had he been at home I couldn't have saved him. But +he was in the Black Eagle, and had blabbed everything the night before, +and was now blind drunk. The _gnaediger Herr_ won't fetch him out of the +Black Eagle, I thought--and besides it was too late, for Herr Merckel +and every one knew, and they all made a great hullabaloo when they saw +me, and caught hold of me, and tried to force me to speak; but I bit my +tongue till it bled, and kept silent. Then they let me go, and I ran to +meet the _gnaediger Herr_, and threw myself at his feet, saying, 'Spare +his life, for it will do no good to take it. All the world knows now.' +... He gave me a kick that made me faint, but he left father alone. And +then a fortnight after a gendarme came for me, and took me to the Black +Eagle. There, in the wine-room, were assembled five or six gentlemen; +the _Herr Landrath_, who was there to-day, among them. And they shut +the door behind me, and began to cross-question me. I felt as if I +could do nothing but cry, and then I grew calmer, and pretended that +father had dreamt it all in one of his drunken fits. But they showed me +the bag he had taken from me--and so--_Herr_ ... I was obliged to say +... that the money ... was the ... reward ... that I----" She broke +off, and hid her face that was suffused with a dark crimson flush of +shame, in her hands. + +"Proceed with your story," he commanded, grinding his teeth. + +"They didn't believe me, _Herr_, but they saw it was no good trying to +get the truth out of me, and asked me no more questions. And then they +held a consultation in low voices (but I have good ears, and understood +all they were saying), as to whether they should lock me up till I +found my tongue, and arrest the _gnaediger Herr_, and so on, and then +they came to the conclusion that to blaze it abroad would cause too +great a scandal in the district, and be a dishonour to the whole of +Prussia, and as there was no direct proof, the affair might be left in +the dark. I have forgotten the exact words, but it was something like +that." + +"And then they let you go?" + +"Yes. Herr Merckel said I was to take myself off, or my presence might +breed a pestilence in the house." + +A silence ensued: then hastily gulping down three more glasses of the +old wine, he said-- + +"Now, then, for the night of the fire!" + +She jumped up from her chair and stared at him, her eyes starting with +horror. + +"What! I'm to tell you about the fire?" + +"All you can recollect." + +"All! ... Not all, _Herr_?" + +"All." + +"_Herr_ ... I can't." The words rattled in her throat like a +death-agony. + +"You mean you refuse?" He too had risen, and stood looking at her with +dilated eyes. + +She folded her hands on her breast. "I have always been obedient, +_Herr_, to your every wish. I have never been unwilling or grumbled. +I'll go on doing all you order me to do. If you say, 'Go out and be +stoned to death,' I'll go. But just this one thing, I beseech you from +the bottom of my heart, don't ask me?" + +He regarded her in wrathful amazement. So accustomed had he become to +her unconditional obedience, that this explosion in her of a spark of +resistance was incomprehensible to him. Was his power over her, that he +had imagined unlimited, thus suddenly to end? Surely this woman had of +her own accord made herself his body-slave? She had sold herself body +and soul to his house, and therefore it was unpardonable presumption in +her to assert unexpectedly that she had a will of her own. + +The blood mounted hotly to his head, and his eyes flashed. "You +shall!--I say you _shall_!" + +She retreated and shrank against the wall. From the dark background her +eyes shone out at him like a persecuted wild-cat's. "I won't," she +muttered. + +All the inherited brutality of the feudal master awoke in him. The +wine, too, was doing its work. He sprang on her, and caught her by the +breast. + +The buttons of her jacket burst beneath his violent attack, and her +bare bosom gleamed forth. He transfixed her with the intensity of his +gaze. + +"Shall I throttle her, or shall I kiss her?" he asked himself, and +fumbled for her throat. + +Then in her deadly terror she made a counter-attack. Her hands were +fastened in his shoulders like iron rivets. It needed a gathering up of +all his strength to withstand their muscular pressure. + +A noiseless struggle began. It lasted a minute, and yet seemed to be no +nearer its end. Embittered and desperate at first as a wrestle for life +and death, it became eventually a sort of game. The combatants +apparently had lost sight of what it was they were struggling for. His +eyes, bloodshot and wild, sought hers. Her bosom, wet with +perspiration, pressed hard against his. Their breathing mingled. +Tightly locked in each other's arms they staggered and swayed to and +fro. He pressed her in the back of her knee, but she did not yield, and +with renewed vigour tried to draw him down to her. For one second in +their delirious grappling they gazed dreamily into each other's eyes. +Then she vibrated from head to foot, and in the midst of the conflict +laid her cheek caressingly on the arm that was raised against her. He +saw the action, he saw how her eyes hung on his face with melting +solicitude--saw the beautiful dishevelled head droop like a broken +flower. + +"If you are cursed, why should it be for nothing?" And as the thought +flashed through him, he bent over her with a sigh, and kissed her on +the mouth. + +She groaned aloud, clung heavily to him, and buried her teeth, till +they met, in his lips. Then, overcome, with suddenly collapsed limbs, +she slipped from his arms on to the floor, and lay with the back of her +head flat on the bare boards. + +He stared down at her half-stunned. She would have looked as if she +were dead, had it not been for the heaving bosom, that seemed to fight +for air. Blood trickled from his lip, and unconsciously he wiped it +away with his tongue. + +"What next?" he asked himself. + +The longer he gazed at the prostrate form the intenser became his +anxiety, till it almost amounted to insanity; anxiety for what must +come. + +"Away! out of the house! Away before she moves!" an inward voice +commanded. He tore down his coat from the wall, crushed a fur cap over +his brow, and flew out into the bitter cold night, as if chased by the +devil. + +But he could not escape--could not run away from _her_; wherever he +went she was beside him. A tornado raged in his breast, and lashed the +blood to froth in his veins. + +He was fleeing from his young manhood's senses, and they were in hot +pursuit. + +He dashed through the woods at full speed. The frosty air did not cool +him, nor the darkness restore his serenity. + +Was there no salvation? None? + +He thought of the parsonage. A jeering laugh rose to his lips. Helene +had shrunk from him when he had approached her with clean hands and a +pure heart. What would she do to-day if he came into her presence +bearing a curse and an insupportable burden of guilt upon him? + +And yet that one spot of earth was sacred to memories of all that had +been purest, most peaceful and happy in his blighted life. Ought such a +refuge of light to be denied to him, even if a thousand curses had +descended upon his head from the outer darkness? + +Almost against his will his footsteps took the road to the village. It +was reposing peacefully. Only from the windows of the Black Eagle a +ruddy glow was cast on the white expanse of snow. The clock in the +church tower struck one. He must have been tramping about for five +hours, and it seemed like five minutes. Faint moonbeams shone on the +sleigh-ruts, which looked like long white ribbons unrolled on the +ground, and the mass of icicles hanging from the church roof spread a +delicate silver filigree on the dark, time-stained walls. + +He passed the church and came to the parsonage garden. There was a +light in one of the gable windows. His heart seemed to bound into his +throat. He swung himself over the hedge, and strode through the deep +snow to the summer-house, which stood at a distance of twenty paces +from the gable. In its shadow he took up his position. + +A white curtain was drawn across the illuminated casement. On the +surface of the chintz a delicate tracery of leaves and stalks was +reflected from flower-pots inside. There was her virgin paradise; there +she ruled as modestly and sweetly as the Madonna in her rose-garden. + +And again the picture in the cathedral rose before his mental eyes, as +it always did when he tried to realise the presence of the beloved. Oh! +for one second in which to feast his bodily eye on that dear, forgotten +face, so that what time and guilt had deadened in him might revive and +live anew! + +For a moment the outline of a girl's figure darkened the illuminated +window-pane. A corner of the curtain was lifted. + +Instinctively he stretched out his arms. The curtain dropped quickly, +and a moment afterwards the light within was extinguished. + +He waited, hardly daring to draw a breath, for a sign from the darkened +spot. But none came. All was motionless and still. + +"It is madness to think of it!" he said to himself. "Probably she +didn't recognise you. She only saw a man's figure that gave her a +fright. Make haste! For the whole house will be roused and turned out +to hunt the supposed thief." + +So he retraced his steps. In turning into the street he was conscious +that his blood was flowing more calmly, and his pulses not throbbing so +fiercely. Being in her neighbourhood even for a few minutes had soothed +him. + +"Where now?" Anywhere in the world, but not home. At the bare thought +of that outstretched figure on the floor, his veins began to pulsate +again with violence. Oh, she was a fiend, and he hated her! + +He took a side path, not knowing where it led. It was divided from the +Castle island by stables and carters' huts, and ended in an open field. +On the opposite side, he saw the indigo belt of woods that encircled +the flat white plains. The woods drew him towards them again like a +magnet. There he would hide, in their majestic depths where the peace +of winter reigned and slept its mysterious dreamless slumber. + +He trod the pathless field covered with hills and dales of snow which +swept away before him like the billows of a boundless ocean of liquid +light. His feet crunched through the frozen crust till he sank to his +knees, and then it needed all his powers to step forwards once more. +But with strenuous effort he ploughed his way, still taking flight from +his own thoughts. There was something almost comforting in this +objectless striving. His lungs fought for breath; moisture poured from +every pore of his body as he plunged and stumbled on. Here and there +the crust was strong enough to bear him, and then he felt as if he had +been endowed with wings and floated over the ground, till another crash +laid him low, grovelling on his hands and knees. + +Now the wall of woods rose higher and darker before him; ... he was +only a hundred steps from his goal, when his eye was arrested by +something in the shape of a hillock extending a distance of about fifty +or sixty feet in the direction of the wood. Coming nearer, he saw it +was too regular in form for a hillock, and its corners too sharply +defined. A few feet off there was a second mound of the same +description, and to the left again, a third. They must be gravel heaps, +he thought, that had been dug up in the autumn and left to be removed +till after the thaw set in. Why should the peasants not get gravel from +his property when there was no one to prevent them? + +But what did those crosses mean, that stood out so solemnly and eerily +in the night, at the foot of each mound? At first he had not noticed +them against the dark background of the woods. They were three in +number. Roughly hewn out of fir trunks, they were so firmly planted in +the earth, that they did not move a hair's-breadth when he shook them. +They bore no inscription, and if they had, he would not have been able +to read it. Inscrutable as memorials of forgotten misfortune, they +stood ranged there in the dim moonlight like rugged sentinels. + +And then the mystery was solved. He saw what they were. With a loud cry +he dropped his face in his hands. He had stumbled on the graves of the +men who had fallen on that accursed night in the year '7. Here lay the +bones of his father's victims. What evil chance had led him here +to-night? Or was it chance? Had not a thousand invisible arms beckoned +him cajolingly and irresistibly along this maniacal route, and let him +fight his way through snow and ice, till he was ready to faint from +exhaustion? It seemed as though fate had kept in reserve the most +excruciating lash of her scourge till this hour of his bitterest +humiliation; so that he should no longer be in doubt as to there being +any salvation in store for him, and to demonstrate once for all that he +was doomed to sink for ever under the weight of shame and despair. + +"But it is well that I came," he said, conversing with himself; "where +better can I convince myself that the old pastor's curse was not +unjust--and that what was not a sin, has become one?" + +His eyes wandered over the row of flattened graves, and now there +seemed no end to them.... How many were buried there? If they had been +closely packed, a hundred or more might rest in each grave--or perhaps +even double that number. And they had all been brave soldiers who had +left their homes gaily, in light-hearted devotion to fight for King and +Fatherland.... Through foulest treachery they had been butchered here +in cold blood, under cover of night. + +He clung to one of the crosses, and held his face so tightly against +the rough wood that splints dug into his flesh. + +"Arraign him before the whole world!" something cried within him--"him +and _her_--and then go with her to perdition." + +He gazed at the distant prospect, and sought the outline of the ruins +against the horizon. But nothing was visible except the tall trees that +crowned the park, which were only dimly discernible. A little behind to +the right of them lay the Cats' Bridge. + +He could fancy her emerging from those trees with the troop of +remorselessly cruel Frenchmen following her, bent on their work of +blood. How terrible must the regular echo of their marching feet have +sounded in her ears. Deeper and deeper into the wood they must have +gone, till they reached that ravine which ran parallel with the +thicket, almost in a half-circle. She had never told him the road she +had taken, but he saw exactly how it had all happened. Everything was +as plain as if he had been there himself and seen it with his own eyes. + +He stretched out his arm, and with a trembling finger traced the path +against the horizon. + +And afterwards when they let her go, and she had made her way home +alone, with the wages of her sin in her pocket--how the cracking +of bullets, the beating of drums, the clouds of gunpowder, the +death-shrieks of the massacred, must have followed her, galloping at +her heels like an army of furies! + +How she had gone on living with those awful sounds ringing in her head, +those ghastly pictures floating before her eyes, he could not +understand. If he had been in her place he would have sought instant +deliverance in the first halter or pond that came handy. + +But not she! Visions were no terror to her. Her conscience, instead of +tormenting itself, was apparently scarcely conscious of its guilt. She +had only the feelings of an animal or a demon. He shuddered. And it was +to her, _her_, that he had been on the brink of succumbing! + +Then in his sore distress he flung himself across the grave, face +downwards in the snow, folded his hands and stammered forth an +incoherent prayer, while tears gushed from his eyes. + +The intense cold of his exposed position stung his face, and drove him +to stand up again. He patrolled the row of graves, unable to evolve a +single rational thought. He felt as if he were caught in a brazen net, +that was drawing its meshes tighter and tighter around him. + +"God in Heaven," he cried aloud, "visit not the sins of the fathers on +me! Let the dead sleep.... _I_ have not murdered them. Let something +happen, a miracle, a sign, that I may be shown that Thou wilt not have +me perish in this anguish of despair." He cast his eye round him as if +looking for help. + +But coldly and unsympathetically the moonlit, lead-coloured sky looked +down on him. There was no sign, no miracle. + +He laughed. "You are becoming imbecile," he murmured inwardly. + +An unspeakable exhaustion overwhelmed him. He reeled, and his feet gave +way beneath him. The next moment he was sitting in the cavity which the +weight of his prostrate figure had made in the snow. He drew up the +collar of his coat, and nearly frozen, brooded on, half sleeping, half +waking. + +When he rose with cramped limbs, happy to have escaped falling asleep +and being frozen to death, one thin purple streak had appeared in the +eastern sky. An ague, hot and cold at the same time, like the beginning +of fever, shook his frame. + +Now there was nothing for it, but to go home. But where was he to find +the strength necessary to obliterate for ever from his mind what had +happened in the night that was over at last? His tongue instinctively +felt for his lip.... The wound left by the impress of her kiss burned +there still. + +And there had been no sign from Heaven, no miracle. One course only +remained that might save him from the worst, and that was death. + +Death! The thought came to him like a ray of light in the darkness, yet +his brain was too weary, his soul too dispirited for him to grasp it, +and it died out as quickly as it had come. + +In his own footprints he walked back to the village. No one was +stirring out of doors, but here and there a chimney smoked, and a cock +from his perch crowed a greeting to the new-born day. + +As he took the path down to the river, he thought he saw the fleeting +shadow of a woman's figure hurrying from the drawbridge. Perhaps it was +Regina, who after long waiting and watching had now come to meet him. + +But no! Regina was not so slim and dainty. Who in all the village could +want to come to the drawbridge at this unearthly hour? His heart beat +fast. He had been seen. A soft, squealing sound fell on the air, and +the next instant the figure had vanished down a bypath. He did not +think of following her. It might possibly be a dairymaid who had been +taking a morning dip, and was shy of meeting him; but on coming to the +drawbridge he saw footmarks on the freshly fallen hoarfrost, and these +came to an end at the pillar to which the letter-box was fixed. + +Who could be his nocturnal correspondent? It was ridiculous, yet a +flood of hope suffused his soul. + +He snatched the little key, that he always carried about with him, from +his pocket. The box opened--a letter fell out. + +He broke the seal with shaking fingers. Helene's signature! Had God +heard his petition? Had He after all sent him fresh strength for the +struggle, and deliverance? + +The dawn gave him sufficient light to read by, but the lines danced +before his eyes. Only here and there he drank in a broken sentence or a +single word--"Wait patiently." "The hour when I summon you to come to +me." "Longing." "Childhood's days." "Happy." + +And one thing that was not written there at all he could read +distinctly. The sign that he had prayed for by the grave of the +warriors had fallen from Heaven. The miracle had happened! + +Renewed confidence in himself possessed him. He was not forsaken; he +need not yet despair of his better self. This pure, bright angel, the +good genius of his youth, was still faithful, still believed in him. +Her trust should not be abused. Rather die than, through despising +himself, bring her to feeling shame at her faith in him. + +He turned his face towards the purple morning glow, and, raising his +hand solemnly, uttered the following words:-- + +"God, who art a great and just Judge, and visitest the sins of the +fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, I hereby +swear to take my life with my own hand rather than let the curse of Thy +priest gain ascendency over me. Amen." + +Then he walked towards the house as if freed from an intolerable +burden. + +"Now the devil is exorcised!" he said as he entered the vestibule, +heaving a deep sigh of relief; nevertheless, the hand that lifted the +latch still trembled feverishly. + +He surveyed the room with one quick shy glance. + +In the rosy light of dawn he saw her crouching, dressed on her bed, her +hands clasped over her knees. Her jacket was open; her hair hung about +her face in tangled masses. Her dress was exactly as it had been when +he left her the evening before. + +She raised her head slowly, and gazed at him as if in a dream with soft +melting eyes. + +He shrank before that gaze. + +"Haven't you been to bed?" he asked in as harsh a tone as he could +command. + +She continued to look at him with the same blissfully rigid expression, +and said nothing. + +"Didn't you hear?" he asked again imperiously. + +She did not start as she used to do when he spoke thus; but a scarcely +perceptible vibration passed through her frame, as if the sound of his +voice filled her with ecstasy. She smiled a little. + +"Hear what?" she asked. + +"My question as to why you hadn't been to bed." + +"I waited up for you, _Herr_." + +"I did not order you to wait for me." + +"Nor did you forbid me, _Herr_." + +He clung to the back of a chair. + +"Why are you afraid of her?" he asked himself. "You have just sworn +that danger exists no longer." + +Then to get rid of her he told her to go and prepare him something hot +for breakfast. + +She rose deliberately, stretching her stiff limbs. A dreamy languor +seemed to pervade her whole being. Since last night she was completely +transformed. + +Directly he had shut the door after her, he tore the letter from his +pocket, and read it to reassure himself of is happiness. It ran:-- + + +"Dear Friend Of My Youth,--I hear from papa that you have been highly +honoured by our wise and noble King--that he has made you captain of +your division, and given you the Iron Cross. I congratulate you +heartily, and am rejoiced at your good fortune. What else passed papa +wouldn't tell me, but he was very excited about it, and in a great rage +when he mentioned you. Ah! if only you could have managed to win his +affection and the goodwill of the parishioners! Then I shouldn't have +to be so careful, and could see and speak to you often.... Dear +Boleslav, I implore you never to think of coming into the garden again. + +"You know papa--what he is; and if he found out--ah! I believe he would +kill me! Wait patiently, my dear friend! The Bible says, you know, +patience shall be rewarded. So have patience till the hour when I shall +summon you to come to me; then I will tell you all the news. How full +of longing I am to see you! Oh, those lovely days of childhood! What +has become of them? How happy I was then!--Your + + "Helene. + +"_Postscript_.--Never come to the garden again. I will appoint another +place of meeting. Not in the garden." + + +Strange, that what a few minutes before had filled him with delight +now seemed flat and colourless, and disappointed him. Doubtless the +half-wild creature was to blame, whose close proximity confused his +judgment. A kind of delirium of bliss seemed to have taken possession +of her. And how she had smiled! how strangely she had stared into +space! + +She came back into the room, and moved about it like a somnambulist. + +"Regina!" + +She half closed her lids, and said, "Yes, _Herr_," + +"What's the matter with you?" + +She smilingly shook her head. "Nothing, _Herr_," she answered, and +again that look came into her eyes; they seemed to swim in dreamful +contemplation of some infinite felicity. + +He felt his throat contract. Clearly there was still reason to be +afraid of himself. + +Then he resolved to speak and listen to her no more, but to live in his +work. He immersed himself in his papers again, sorted and laid aside +important documents, filed, registered, and made copies of them. It +seemed to him that he must get everything in order in anticipation of +some pending catastrophe. + +So the day went by, and the evening. Regina crouched in the darkest and +remotest corner she could find and remained motionless. He dared not +cast even a glance in her direction. The blood hammered in his temples, +yellow circles danced before his eyes, every nerve in his body was on +edge from over-fatigue. + +On the stroke of ten she rose, murmured goodnight, and disappeared +behind her curtain. He neither answered nor looked up. + +At eleven he put out the lights and went to bed too. + +"Why does your heart beat like this?" he thought. "Remember your oath." +But the superstitious, indefinable dread of coming disaster haunted him +like a ghost in the darkness. + +He got up again, and stole with bare feet across the room to the case +of weapons, that was dimly illumined by the newly-risen moon. He caught +up one of his pistols, which he always kept loaded to be forearmed +against unforeseen events. It had been his faithful friend and +protector in many a bloody fray. To-day it should protect him from +himself. With its trigger cocked, he laid it on the small table by his +bedside. + +"It's doubtful whether you sleep a wink now," he said, as he nestled +his head on the pillows. Yet scarcely three seconds later he lost +consciousness, and slumber lapped his tired limbs. + + + * * * * * + + +A curious dream recalled him from profoundest sleep into a half-dozing +wakefulness. He fancied he saw two bright eyes like a panther's +glittering at him out of the darkness. They were only a few inches from +his face, and seemed to be fixed on it with fiery earnestness, as if +with the intention of bringing him under the spell of their +enchantment. + +His breath came slower, almost stopped, then he felt another breath +well over him in full soft waves. + +It was no dream after all, for his eyes were wide open. The moon cast a +patch of light on the counterpane of his bed, and still those other +lights glowed on, devouring him with their fire. The outline of a face +was visible. A woman's white figure bent over him. + +A thrill of mingled pleasure and alarm ran through his body. + +"Regina," he murmured. + +Then she sank on her knees by the bed and covered his hands with kisses +and tears. In the enervation that had crept over him he would have +stroked the black tresses which streamed across the pillow, only he +lacked the strength to extricate his hands from hers. + +Then--"Your oath, think of your oath!" a voice cried within him. + +In dismay, he started up. Not yet fully awake, he reeled forwards, and +tearing his hands out of her grasp, fumbled for the pistol. + +"You, or her." + +There was a report. Regina, with a cry of pain, fell with her forehead +against the edge of the bed, and at the same moment a great rumbling +and crackling was heard from the opposite wall. The portrait of his +beautiful grandmother had crashed to the ground. + +He stared wildly round him, only just arriving at complete +consciousness. + +"Are you wounded?" he asked, laying his hand gently on the dark head. + +"I--don't--know, _Herr_," and then she glided across the floor to her +mattress. + +He dressed himself and kindled a light. It now all appeared a confused +nightmare. + +Ah! but if she died, if he had killed her? + +When he drew aside the curtain, he beheld her cowering and shivering in +her corner, holding up the counterpane in her teeth. It was smeared +with blood. + +"For God's sake--show me. Where were you hit?" he cried. + +She let the counterpane drop as far as her breast, and silently offered +her naked shoulder for his inspection. Blood was streaming from it. + +But the first glance satisfied him, the connoisseur in wounds, that it +was a mere surface shot. It would heal of itself in a few days. + +"Thank God! Thank God!" + +She stared up at him absently with wide eyes. + +"It is nothing," he stammered. "A scratch--nothing more." + +She appeared not to hear what he said. + +"Pull yourself together like a man. Not a word, not a look, must betray +your real feelings." + +With this self-exhortation he withdrew, and wearily put down the light +on the table. + +What now? Where should he go? To stay meant ruin and damnation. + +This very hour he must go away. Away! Somewhere, _any_where, so long as +a barrier of his fellow-creatures separated him from her for evermore. +And in breathless haste he began to gather together papers that proved +his father's guilt, as if they were the most precious possessions in +the world. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + +More than three months had passed away since Boleslav von Schranden had +turned his back on the inheritance of his fathers. + +In the meantime spring had come. Moss, starred with anemones, grew +amongst the short-bladed grass; the ditches were full of a luxuriant +growth of bindweed and nettles; and at every breeze the boughs rained a +shower of crumbling catkins. The plough left a trail of smooth, black +furrows on the bosom of the awakening earth, and seed-cloths were +already being put out to air. + +It was the first spring for many and many a long year that had begun in +peace, and of which there were hopes of its ending in peace. + +Europe's evil genius was vanquished. Like Prometheus he lay chained to +his barren sea-girt rock; and so the sword was hung up to rust, and the +ploughshare and harrow resumed their sway. + +What had taken place on the shores of the Mediterranean in the month of +March, the inhabitants of quiet country towns and out-of-the-way +moorland villages had as yet no suspicion. Not a breath had reached +them of that interrupted quadrille at Prince Metternich's ball, of the +fury and consternation of sovereigns and potentates; they knew nothing +of foam-bespattered proscriptions issued against the escaped rebel, of +re-arming and rumours of war. + +The lark's carolling in the sky seemed a jocund invitation to resume +labour in the fields, the womb of the earth opened with yearning for +the crops from which it had fasted so long. + +One day towards the end of April, a curious regiment was seen on the +king's highroad approaching the county town of Wartenstein, which +excited the wondering interest of all whom they passed by the way. + +It was not easy to decide at once whether they were soldiers or +workmen. Most of them were armed, but side by side with the gun on +their shoulders was a spade, and from the red bundles slung across +their backs peeped whetstones and scythe-blades. Ten or twelve of them +were mounted, but behind came as baggage a stream of rough waggons, +composed of about twenty axle wheels, loaded with bursting sacks of +corn and implements of every description. Altogether the regiment +numbered about a hundred and fifty, marching in half military fashion +in double file. It consisted of muscular youths, for the most part fair +and of ruddy complexions, with thickset figures. Their faces were broad +and bony, not German, and still less Polish, in type. They spoke a +language unknown in the neighbourhood, and sang songs of which no one +knew the tune. Notwithstanding, their leader was German, and so was the +discipline which had trained their limbs and given to their movements a +certain dignity of bearing. + +At the head of the procession rode one to whom they looked up with awe +and affection, and whose brief and not unfriendly words of command they +obeyed with almost childlike zeal. It was Boleslav, who came with this +little army to reconquer his own territory. + +He had recruited it far away in the Lithuanian East, on the remotest +border of the province, whither neither good nor evil reports of the +name of Schranden had ever penetrated. During his five years' previous +intercourse with this people, he had become intimately acquainted with +their habits and customs, and took care to choose his pioneers from +those who had been in the war, and become accustomed to the rigours of +a soldier's life, but who were still unfamiliar enough with the German +tongue to have their minds poisoned by the Schrandeners' gossip. + +Now he had every hope that the fate of his father, who had failed to +find either serf or labourer to bind himself to work for him, would not +be his. And should the Schrandeners offer fight to these workpeople, as +they had done to the Polish serfs whom his father had been obliged to +call to his assistance, so much the worse for the Schrandeners; they +would only be sent home with bleeding noses. + +In proud self-reliance he looked coming events in the face. He would +willingly have returned home earlier, only, to prosecute his enterprise +on the scale it demanded, he was forced to wait till the time in which +he could claim his aunt's legacy, and so have the necessary means at +his disposal. + +He had lived through hard times since that January night, when, to +flee the coercion of his hot young blood, he had dashed out into the +snow-clad, moon-illumined landscape, followed by the cries of the +unhappy woman who could not understand what ailed him. + +It was long before the furnace within him abated, and her beseeching, +frightened eyes became dimmer in his memory. In Koenigsberg, where he +had gone direct from home, he had meditated obtaining, through boldly +seeking a trial, that justice long denied to his house. But though the +cross on his breast compelled the doors that had been shut on his +father to open to him, the polite shrug of the shoulders with which the +judges promised to see what could be done, and then coolly referred him +to one Court of Appeal after another, taught him that the passionate +self-surrender he had dreamed of would be here ill-timed and out of +place. + +So he again packed up his father's correspondence, which of his own +free will he had desired to make public in order to clear up every +shadow of mystery, and felt he must keep it till a more favourable +opportunity offered itself. Besides, he had destroyed too much that +might have had a vindicating effect, and to court the risk of his own +condemnation might after all be acting unfairly to his father's memory. + +Contact with the outer world cooled and damped in a singular way his +ardour; and the feverish tension of his emotions gradually relaxed, +giving place to a more normal state of mind. He was confronted with +reasoning instead of anathemas, courteous words instead of threats--and +this worked a soothing and beneficial influence on his nature. He +projected plans, and prepared himself with composure and deliberation +for what the future might have in store for him. + +At the same time the magic fascination the wild girl had exercised on +him was becoming dimmer in his recollection. Every new face, every new +thought, alienated him further from her. Gradually he ceased to +reproach himself for having acted with merciless cruelty towards her, +and the mastery she had acquired over his senses was now +incomprehensible to him. Nevertheless, often when he sat alone at dusk +in his private room at the hostelry, he saw those eyes again flashing +soft fire, and felt her presence thrill through his veins. Then it +seemed as if the scar, that furrowed horizontally his under lip, began +to burn like an inflammatory record of that kiss, the only one that the +lips of a woman had ever imprinted on his, for his shy and reserved +manner had all his life repelled, and kept women at a distance. At such +times his whole existence seemed compressed into that one moment's +ecstasy. But of course this was only a freak, illusive reverie played +his senses, which lamplight and work soon dispelled. + +He had written to her once or twice in order to set her mind at rest on +the subject of his sudden departure, or rather flight--had asked for an +answer, and promised a speedy return. + +Once he had had news of her--a letter written in bold characters and +correctly expressed. After all these years of bondage, the lessons she +had learnt in the old pastor's school still evidently stood her in good +stead. + +In prospect of his near approach to his home, he drew the sheet from +his pocket, and read sitting in the saddle the lines, which, in spite +of himself, he almost knew by heart. + + +"My dear Master,--Don't be anxious on my account. No one will do +anything to me. They do not know down in the village that you are gone +away, and they are frightened of the wolf-traps, for no one has told +them that we cleared them away. Every night I see to the pistols and +guns in case they should come; but they won't come. As for the wound, I +have quite forgotten it. The grocer at Bockeldorf gave me some English +sticking-plaster, and when it peeled off, it was entirely healed. The +thaw and floods are now over, thank God. For several days I was obliged +to go with very little food, because the water was too high on the +meadows for me to wade through, and I would rather have died than go +down to Herr Merckel. Ah! dear master, I am so glad that you are coming +home soon; for I seem to have nothing to live for, when I have not you +to wait upon. I climb up on the Cats' Bridge very often and wait for +you there, so that when you come you shall not find it drawn up. Please +don't come in the night, nor on Thursday before seven, because then I +shall be going to Bockeldorf. The snow is all gone now, and the grass +is beginning to get quite green. Yesterday I heard the swallows +twittering in the nest they have built in the eaves; but I haven't seen +them yet. Now and then I suffer from stitch in my side, and giddiness, +and I have not much appetite. I believe it comes from being so much +alone, which I cannot bear. But I don't know why I should tell you all +this. Perhaps it is because you were always so kind to me. I can't help +always remembering your great kindness to me.--Your _Hochgeboren's_ +humble servant, + + "Regina Hackelberg." + + +This letter had filled him with pleasure and satisfaction, for it +showed on the one hand that she had very reasonably bowed to the +inevitable, and that there was no cause for his anxiety; and on the +other, that she still faithfully clung and belonged to him heart and +soul. And glad as he might be to feel his blood purged of the +unwholesome excitement with which she had inspired it, he could not +help being pleased at this proof of her remaining ever his true and +willing servant. + +His belief in Helene's sacred influence on his destiny had, he +imagined, received a new impetus, since her note had saved him in an +hour of imminent danger. He wore it gratefully as a talisman on his +heart, even if he did not read it so often, and with such delight, as +he read Regina's. + +Soon after his arrival in the capital, an intense yearning had drawn +him to the Cathedral, where he had sought out the old altar-piece, +which contained her living image. He experienced a bitter +disappointment. The Madonna amidst her lilies and roses appeared +absolutely ridiculous. She looked to him now as if she had been baked +out of _Marzepan_, and the flowers, with their stiff stalks and +drooping heads, appeared as unnatural and insipid as their doll +custodian. + +And this was what he had carried about with him for years, as the +_facsimile_ of his beloved! Certainly it was high time she appeared in +her own person before his bodily eyes, otherwise he would be in danger +of loving a mere phantom. + +And now, in this the hour of home-coming, it was not she at all with +whom he looked forward to a joyous meeting; his senses saw only the +picture of a girl waiting and watching for him, whose fresh and +unbounded loveliness was no myth. + +It was early morning and the sun was shining. He had made his last +halt, the night before, at a hamlet not far from Wartenstein, as he +proposed to pass rapidly through the town, to avoid being gaped at, and +exciting idle curiosity. Once there he was within three miles and a +quarter of home, and hoped to enter his native village at the hour for +vespers, for his stalwart followers were used to rapid marching. As he +rode up to the moss-grown ramparts, eight sounded from the belfries of +Wartenstein, and he counted on being able to quit the town quite early, +and so escape awkward questions. + +Thus, he was little prepared for the surprises awaiting him within its +gates. The sentinel, instead of stopping him and demanding his +passport, shouted up to a window in the gateway tower-- + +"Ring the bells! ring the bells! The first detachment is here!" + +Then he saluted with his pike, while a merry peal clashed from the +watch-towers of Wartenstein to announce Boleslav's arrival. + +"What can be the meaning of it?" he asked himself, shaking his head; +and his astonishment increased, when on riding through the streets he +found them thronged with crowds of men, women, and children, who waved +their caps and handkerchiefs, and welcomed him with resounding cheers. + +His Lithuanians, who had been accustomed on their triumphal marches to +being received everywhere with open arms, took the present ovation as a +matter of course, and responded to the hurrahs with lusty lungs. + +But to Boleslav it was plain that there was some misunderstanding, +which in the next few minutes would be explained. + +As he entered the market-place, which, like the streets, was filled +with an enthusiastic crowd, the Landrath, at the head of an impressive +procession, consisting of the Burgomaster, Corporation, and other +magnates of the town, advanced to meet him. He laid his delicate, bony +hand on his breast, and cleared his throat with a rasp, preparatory to +speaking. + +When he recognised Boleslav, who had quickly sprung from his horse, he +drew back in embarrassment. Nevertheless he began-- + +"I congratulate you, Freiherr von Schranden, on your being the first +who has hastened here with your troops----" + +"Not so fast, _Herr Landrath_," Boleslav interrupted. "There is an +error somewhere. These people are workmen, whom I have recruited in +Lithuania for domestic use. I am on my way with them to Schranden." + +An amused smirk passed through the ranks of the town magnates. They +enjoyed seeing the Landrath make a fool of himself, even if they +themselves were made to look foolish in the process. + +"And you really haven't heard yet?" he stammered out, concealing his +annoyance. + +"I have come straight from the remotest corner of Prussia, _Herr +Landrath_." + +"You haven't heard that Napoleon has escaped from Elba, and that the +King has again appealed to his gallant Prussian subjects to arm?" + +Boleslav felt a rush of mingled horror and joy flood his heart. + +So once more the world's history had absorbed the solution of his +career in its own, and he would be saved further self-doubt and +suspense with regard to it. His vast schemes, the work to which he was +to consecrate his life, lay shattered at his feet scarcely begun, and +now ended perhaps for ever. But away with all regrets and fears. Did +not the Fatherland, _his_ Fatherland, call him? + +"Thank you, _Herr Landrath_," he said, while he endeavoured to still +his wildly beating heart. "I feel honoured at your thinking so well of +me and my contingent of Schrandeners. We will prove ourselves worthy of +your high opinion, and in four-and-twenty hours be in readiness." + +The Landrath held out his hand. He retreated a step or two, and was in +the act of repaying the Landrath in his own coin for the insult he had +not long ago subjected him to. + +Then he reflected. The Fatherland calls you, and what is your petty +hate or love weighed in the balance? And he seized the bony hand, which +its owner, offended, had already withdrawn, and shook it heartily. + +Then he learnt further particulars. The evening before the King's +proclamation, dated April 7, had reached Wartenstein. All night the +administration had been hard at work getting the decrees ready for +local heads of departments, and arranging to send out special mounted +messengers to distribute them. + +"Will one be sent to Schranden?" asked Boleslav. + +"Certainly," was the answer. + +"Then may I add a military order?" + +"Yes, if you wish." + +He tore a sheet of paper from his pocket-book and hastily scribbled the +following lines:-- + + +"At five o'clock in the afternoon all troops liable to service are to +muster in the churchyard square, bringing with them accoutrements and +canteens. The hour for marching will then be stated. + + "Von Schranden, _Landwehr Captain_. + +"To the local administrator." + + +"And what will become of Regina?" was a question that rose warningly +within him. + +But he would not listen to it. He was almost delirious. The fever for +action possessed him. + +He called his workpeople together, explained to them that he no longer +needed their services, and bade each to return as quickly as possible +to his native place, from there to join his respective company. He paid +them off, and took leave of them with a shake of the hand and a +blessing. + +The stalwart youths, who had lost their hearts to him, kissed the hem +of his coat, and went their way with tears in their eyes. Then he found +a place of safety for the waggons, whose freight alone represented no +small capital, made arrangements for the sale of the seed and +provender, and left the horses at the disposal of a dealer. + +Only the one on whose back he rode did he keep for his own use. + +It was half-past two before he had transacted his business, and was +free to start on his homeward road. + +He had seen hanging up for sale in a tailor's shop an undress +state-uniform, which, as the officers of the Landwehr were forbidden +any gorgeous display of ornament, and it happened to fit him exactly, +he purchased promptly, first having the braided collar replaced by a +plain scarlet strip. + +Thus respectably fitted out, he was ready to confront his Schrandeners, +whom he now saw delivered into his hand in a rather different manner +from the one he had anticipated. + + + * * * * * + + +While Boleslav was riding home, Lieutenant Merckel was pacing up and +down the back parlour of the Black Eagle in furious excitement. + +"I won't, no, I won't submit to being under the command of that +scoundrel," he roared at his father, who, to soothe him, had the best +wine in his cellar (the best was sour enough) set on the table, and +never wearied of refilling the raving youth's glass. + +"Felixchen," he supplicated, "be sensible. If the King has ordered it +so, and the authorities demand----" + +"But what if my honour demands the contrary, father?" cried his son, +angrily twirling the ends of his moustache. "I am an officer, father; I +have some sense of honour, and my sense of honour bids me die by +putting a bullet through my body with my own hand, rather than follow +and serve under that son of a traitor." + +"But if the King----" repeated the old man in desperation. + +"The King! what does he know about it? He has been taken in, deceived, +kept in the dark. But I, _I_ will open his eyes. I will say to him, +'Here, your Majesty, are thirty brave soldiers, and an honourable, +upright officer, who would rather----'" + +"Drink, Felixchen," entreated the old man, and wiped the sweat of +anxiety from his brow; "this wine cost me, to begin with, a thaler the +bottle. Nowhere else in the world could you get anything to compare +with it." + +"The devil take your swipes!" exclaimed the dutiful son, smashing the +bottle with his sabre-hilt. "I don't intend to sacrifice my honour for +any Judas reward. My honour is not to be bribed into silence. My honour +dictates that I should tear the hound's heart out of his breast. And +I'll do it. The Fatherland must be rid of such a scandalous reproach +once for all. This plague-spot in the Prussian staff of officers must +and shall be branded out. I'll see that it is. So sure as I am a brave +soldier I will do it, even if I die for honour's sake.... Good-bye for +the present, father; I must go now and bid my little sweetheart +farewell." And rounding his lips for a defiant whistle, the +half-inebriated young man swaggered out, his sabre-blade clanking the +ground at every step. + +Boleslav, as he entered the village shortly after four, found the +street full of women and old people, who ran from under the horse's +hoofs, maintaining a glum silence, and then followed like evil spirits +in his wake. He felt for the pistols in his side pockets, and loosened +the scabbard of his sabre; then he fully expected a skirmish of some +sort. "Even if they have no other officer with a soldier's coat on, +they may be planning to attack me from the front this time," he +reflected, and his breast expanded proudly at the thought. + +The crowd was denser in the churchyard square, and he was obliged to +rein in his horse to give it time to get out of his way. Here and there +a smothered laugh or a half-whispered imprecation fell on his ear. +Otherwise total silence was the order of the day. Close to the church, +some twenty paces from its flight of stone steps, he saw the troops +drawn up in double line, about fifteen or sixteen squadrons in +strength. + +Lieutenant Merckel was parading up and down, giving first one and then +another--as it seemed--a word of encouragement. His face was aflame, +his gait uncertain; once or twice his cavalry sabre got entangled with +his legs and nearly tripped him up. + +Boleslav cast one rapid, searching glance at the parsonage. Its windows +were closely curtained, and in the garden too there was no sign of +life. + +He drew a deep breath, and rode into the heart of the crowd, which +closed behind him. + +Once again he stood single-handed, face to face with the Schrandener +wolves, but this time he was master. + +The sense of iron calm and perfect coolness, which he had always +experienced at moments of life and death issues, did not forsake him +now. + +"I am waiting for your salute, _Herr Lieutenant_" he cried in a +threatening tone. + +He was answered by a drunken, jeering laugh. + +So they intended to mutiny! His suspicions had not been ill founded. + +He tore his sabre from the scabbard. "Halt!" he commanded. + +There was a murmur of dissent. Two or three stepped out of the ranks, +and Lieutenant Merckel, with an abusive epithet, drew his sabre and +rushed at Boleslav. + +This was a moment in which hesitation would have been fatal. A flash of +steel, a whiz, and Lieutenant Merckel sank howling on the sandy earth. + +The ranks broke their line, made as if they would spring on him: but +surprise and terror petrified them. + +"Halt!" The command came forth for the second time in a voice of +thunder; and no one dared move an eyelash. + +Boleslav drew a pistol from the saddle-pocket, and, holding it with the +trigger cocked in his left hand, he let the reins slip into his armed +right. + +"Men of the Landwehr!" he shouted in a voice that reverberated through +the square, "you know that during the last six hours you are bound in +obedience by a war-decree, and that the slightest attempt at +insubordination will cost you your lives. What has taken place up to +this moment I will overlook, but whoever does not instantly comply with +my commands without grumbling will find that I shall not scruple to +send a bullet through his brain on the spot." + +Felix Merckel, who was bleeding copiously from a wound in his head, +regained consciousness, and tried to raise himself. But the blood that +streamed over his face blinded him. + +"Take away his sabre and bind him!" were Boleslav's instructions. + +The men exchanged glances; they had nothing to bind him with. + +Again to hesitate would be to lose the day; so with a quick resolve he +sprang off his horse, tore the bridle from its bit, and handed the +thongs to the fluegelman on his left. + +"Set to work, and two others help." + +Reluctantly, and with evil sidelong glances, they obeyed. The prostrate +man hit out with hands and feet, and endeavoured to wipe the blood out +of his eyes with his sleeve, but his struggles were in vain; the reins +bound his wrists, and the foam-spattered curb served as a gag. + +Meanwhile the spirited black charger had broken away, and was rearing +among the terrified rabble. + +Boleslav saw, as he looked behind him, that the church door stood open +for a farewell service, and that the key was in the lock. + +"Put him in the church," he commanded; and at the same moment the old +landlord of the inn appeared on the scene, whimpering and wringing his +hands. + +"Felixchen!" he yelled, "what are they doing to you? Don't give in; cry +for help. Help him, dear people. I order you to help him. I am your +mayor. I insist--I command you." + +"It is my place to issue commands here," exclaimed Boleslav loftily. + +Then the old man changed his tactics, and, by cringing, tried to soften +the disciplinarian's heart. + +"_Herr Captain_, have compassion on a wretched father. I have known you +since you were a little boy, who sat on my knee, and I always, always +was fond of you. Isn't it true, you people? Wouldn't any of us have +willingly given our lives for the _Junker_?" + +Had his corpulency permitted, he would have thrown himself at +Boleslav's feet. On seeing his son hustled away, he ran after him in +despair, and made a futile attempt to hold him back by the coattails. +But the door was promptly closed on him. + +"Give me the key!" shouted Boleslav. + +The old man hurled himself on the steps, and pounded the oak panels of +the door with his fists. + +The key was delivered up by the fluegelman and his companions. + +"Your name?" + +"Michael Grossjohann!" the Schrandener answered curtly. + +"And yours," turning to the two others. "Franz Malky." + +"Emil Rosner." + +He entered the names in his pocket-book. + +"You three will keep watch on the prisoner through the night, and are +answerable for him with your heads." + +Old Merckel, finding the church door did not yield to his furious +onslaughts, came to his senses, and squinting askance at Boleslav, +sneaked off in the direction of the parsonage. The latter thought he +knew what he wanted there. + +"Three more of you," he continued, "will kindly guard the vestry door, +the key of which I have not got in my possession, and take care that no +one goes in and out except the barber, who is to bandage the prisoner's +wound." + +Three voices quivering with suppressed anger assured him his orders +should be obeyed. + +"Now then, to business!" he exclaimed. "According to the lists the +village of Schranden is capable of supplying troops to the number----." +And the mobilisation began. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + +Two hours later Boleslav quitted the gaping crowd, who glowered at him +with a sort of stony superstitious awe, as if he were a magician, and +as he crossed the open common he felt as if he had just left a cage of +wild beasts, the duty of taming which, had fallen to his share. The +danger seemed safely over for the present. "Having mastered them +to-day, they won't dare to mutiny to-morrow," he thought, and revelled +in the joyous sensation of having won a victory. + +Now he had only to take leave of Regina, and his troubles would be at +an end. The world was all before him once more; an unknown future +seemed to be enticing him onwards with bugle-peals and battle-cries. + +"Regina! now for Regina!" welled up in him with such jubilation, from +the depths of his soul, that he was frightened at himself. He took a +round by the wood before approaching the Cats' Bridge, to brace and +harden his nerves for this last and most arduous encounter. + +The sun pierced the topmost boughs of the trees. Over the tender young +green of the meadows floated a shadowy haze, and an odour of fermenting +slime rose from the damp ditches. Only the fir-wood looked as dark and +mysterious as in winter, with scarcely a light-green spike peeping +anywhere from its black, bare branches. + +He threw himself on the mossy ground and watched the sunbeams glint +through the purple haze that hung over the surrounding thicket. + +Once again he reviewed the daring enterprise of the last few hours, and +the thickly curtained windows of the parsonage recurred to his memory. +How careful she had been to keep herself out of his sight and reach, +and how well she had succeeded! Surely she must know what had brought +him into the village--must know that to-morrow he would quit it, +perhaps never to return. + +Had she no longing to see him just once before his departure, and to +wish him God speed? The hour she had told him to wait patiently for, +was it not time it came to-day? What availed the letter he wore close +to his heart, if the hand that penned it was refused to him? Her image +was now quite effaced from his heart; it could no longer lead him to +battle, unless the impression was renewed. + +"If she loves me, she will send for me. If she doesn't send for me, she +must be lost to me for ever." + +Having arrived at this conclusion he left the wood and bent his +footsteps in the direction of the river. The park, in its new spring +dress of lightest green, smiled him a welcome. A shimmering crown of +silver rested on the tall poplars, and the dark masses of ivy glistened +on their slender trunks. + +How beautiful was this home, that had been a source of such infinite +pain and sorrow! How his whole being yearned for that impoverished +dwelling where he had lodged like a criminal! Was this longing owing to +the woman who had voluntarily shared his loneliness and wretchedness, +and who had tried to make her own misery the foundation of a new +happiness for him? + +But he had no reason to fear what was to come. He felt that since the +Fatherland had summoned him, he was safe from all weak and vicious +instincts. Even long before this he believed he had completely freed +himself from her influence. Their relations now were merely those of +master and servant. + +One more night, and the priest's curse would be remembered only as an +old man's idle babble. Yet what would become of her? She must look +after herself. He had provided for her future. No one could say he was +bound to do more. And to-day he would renew his bounty twofold or +threefold, so that she would stand in the position of a wealthy widow. +When thousands of women and children would perish of hunger in +broken-hearted distress, without any one heeding their fate, why should +he concern himself so much about deserting this one strange girl and +leaving her in solitude? + +He steeled and hardened his heart, for it had begun to beat faster.... + +And as he mounted the steep ascent to the Cats' Bridge, he caught sight +of the familiar figure among the bushes above, illumined by the setting +sun. + +"Regina," he called. But she did not move. + +"Come and meet me, Regina!" + +Then with elevated shoulders she slowly glided nearer, the fingers of +her left hand outspread, and pressed against her breast. + +He looked at her, and was horrified. "My God!" he exclaimed, "how +changed you are!" + +Her appearance was wild and distraught in the extreme. Her clothes were +torn, her hair, which under the frequent use of the comb had begun to +fall into such splendid glossy waves, once more hung over her forehead +and cheeks in a shaggy, unkempt mass. Her eyes shone with feverish, +almost uncanny lustre from dark-blue cavities, and she dared not raise +them to his. + +"She is pining away," something cried in him. "She will die, because of +you." He took hold of her hand and it lay limply in his palm. + +"Regina, do speak. Aren't you glad that I've come back?" + +She ducked her head, as she had been in the habit of doing when she +instinctively expected blows instead of kind words. + +He stroked her rough, dry hair. "Poor thing!" he said. "You must have +had a dreadfully dull time of it, with not a human soul to speak +to----" + +She shrank from his touch and was still silent. + +"Why did you not write and tell me that you found it so terribly +lonely?" + +She shook her head, and then said timidly, "It wasn't the loneliness." + +"What was it then?" + +She looked at him nervously and said nothing. + +"Well, what was it?" + +"I ... I thought ... you weren't coming back." + +"But, you foolish girl, didn't I write and say I was?" + +"Yes, you wrote and said, 'I am coming perhaps in about ten days,' and +I went to the Cats' Bridge, and there I waited day and night-day and +night--but you didn't come. And then three weeks afterwards you wrote +again, 'I shall come home perhaps in about ten days.' And you never +came, and then I thought you were only putting me off with promises ... +so as not to break it to me suddenly that you weren't coming back at +all. And I thought you repented being good to me, because I didn't +deserve it, and because I----" She broke off and buried her face for a +moment in her hands. + +"But your letter was so sensible." + +"Yes, _Herr_," she faltered. "Would it have done for _me_ to write +differently?" + +He bit his lip, and stared before him into the lacework of the young +green foliage. Did she suspect what would befall her in a few hours? + +"But now all is right again, isn't it?" he asked unsteadily. + +With a cry she sank on the ground, and clinging to his knees exclaimed, +"Yes, oh yes, _Herr_. When you are here everything is right, everything +is different. If you were to go away again, _Herr_, what should I do?" + +No, she suspected nothing. The heaviest, most crushing blow of all was +in store for her. He felt as if there were a thunderbolt concealed in +his sleeve, which the next time he stirred would descend and shatter +her to fragments. But he had still time to dispose of as he pleased. A +few hours to devote to this poor creature, in which to revive and make +her happy again before signing her death-warrant, and in which she +would unconsciously gather up strength for the ordeal. + +"Stand up, Regina," he said gently. "Let us enjoy ourselves, and not +think of the future." + +Then they walked side by side through the dusky garden, the neatly kept +paths of which were strewn with white gravel, and skirted, like +glittering rivulets, the smooth turf. The shrubs exhaled an +indescribable fragrance, the breath of spring mingled with the scent of +dying things, and in the tree-tops that waved above their heads, they +heard the subdued whispering twitter of home-coming birds. + +"How beautifully everything has come out here since I went away!" he +exclaimed. + +"Yes, _Herr_," she answered. "It has never been so beautiful as it is +now." + +"It has become so all at once?" he asked, smiling. He looked at her +sideways and noticed the hollows in her cheeks. But an exquisite colour +was already tinging them. + +She has begun to live again, he thought to himself, and it seemed as if +the next few hours were to be the last vouchsafed to him too of a +vanishing happiness. + +"In spite of everything, you have worked hard," he said, striving to +retain his tone of condescending patronage, and he pointed to the neat +borders in which auriculas and primroses were planted. + +She gave a proud little laugh. "I thought to myself you should find +everything in order if you _did_ come back, _Herr_." + +"But you have neglected yourself, Regina. How is that?" + +She turned her face away, blushing hotly. + +"Shall I tell the truth, _Herr_?" she stammered. + +"Of course," he said. + +"I thought ... I ... was ... going to die ... and so ... it wouldn't +matter." + +He was silent. It was as if she poured forth an ocean of infinite love +with every word, and that its waves rolled over him. + +The lawn on the farther side of the Castle, sloping gently down to the +park, now opened before his gaze. There stood the weather-beaten socket +of the Goddess Diana's pedestal. Regina had collected the pieces and +put them together again, but the torso had been beyond her strength to +lift, and it lay in the grass, while the head, with its blank white +eyes, looked down on it. A few steps farther on, a dark four-cornered +patch stood out in relief from the emerald turf. That was the spot +where he had first seen her busily employed in digging a grave for her +seducer, whom every one else refused to bury. + +"I left it as it was--in memory of me," she said apologetically, +pointing to the turned-up clods that, now overgrown with grass, had +joined and formed a bank. + +Then they walked on towards the undergrowth that surrounded the cottage +like a thick hedge. + +"And I have mended the glass roof too," she said. + +"Ah! indeed!" + +Their eyes met for a moment, and then they both quickly looked in front +of them again. There was an aspect of peaceful welcome about the little +house. Its window panes had caught a ray of the departing sunlight, +while all else lay buried in deepest shadow. + +A sense of contentment at being at home, and of gladness that this was +his home, overcame him, and for a moment allayed his gnawing +restlessness. + +"Go," he said, "and cook me something for supper; I am hungry and +exhausted after a long ride." + +He remembered his horse for the first time, and wondered where it had +galloped to. Then the next instant he forgot it again. + +"And make yourself neat," he continued. "I should like you to look your +best when you come to table." + +"Yes, _Herr_--I'll try." + +They separated in the vestibule. He went into the sitting-room, and she +to her kitchen. He threw himself with a deep sigh on the sofa, that +creaked beneath his weight. Everything seemed the same as on the night +he had left it, except that the curtain had been taken away from the +corner by the stove, and the couch removed; the portrait of his +grandmother, too, had disappeared. The shot which grazed Regina's neck +had proved its final destruction, and reduced it to ribbons. + +One of the windows was open. The strange perfume of fermenting earth, +which to-day he could not get out of his nostrils, flooded the +apartment. But here it might possibly come from a lime heap, which had +been shovelled up at the gable end of the house. + +From minute to minute his unrest increased. Why shorten for him and her +the all too scanty time? He could tolerate solitude no longer, and got +up with the intention of going into the kitchen, but when on the +threshold he saw her cowering on the hearth with naked shoulders, +mending her jacket by the firelight,--he retreated, shocked. But in a +few seconds she came herself to open the door to him, fully dressed. + +"Is there anything I can do for you, _Herr_?" she asked respectfully. + +"Show me where you have repaired the roof," he replied, not being able +to think of anything else to say. He praised her work, without looking +at it. Then he took up a position on the hearth and stared at the +tongues of flame in the grate. By this time it was nearly dark, and the +firelight flickered on the rush walls. + +"I'll help you to cook," he said. + +"Ah, _Herr_! You are laughing at me," she answered. But her face +lighted up with pleasure. + +"What am I to have for supper?" + +"There isn't much in the house, _Herr_. Eggs and fried ham--a fresh +salad--and that's all." + +"I shall thank God if I----" he stopped abruptly. + +He had nearly betrayed the secret of which as yet she had no suspicion, +and she should not, must not, suspect anything. Till the dawn of +to-morrow her felicity should last. + +"Very well, make haste," he laughed, while his throat contracted in +anxious suspense, "else I shall expire of hunger." + +"The water must boil first, _Herr_." + +"All right, we'll wait, then." He squatted on one of the wooden boxes. +"And, Regina," he went on, "come here; do you know I am not satisfied +with your appearance even now? Your hair----" + +"I've not had time to comb it yet, _Herr_." + +"Comb it now at once, then." + +She flashed at him a look of shy entreaty. + +"While you are here, _Herr_?" she asked hesitatingly. + +"Why not? Have you become prudish all in a minute?" + +"It wasn't that----" + +"Then don't stand on ceremony." + +She went into the far corner of the apartment, where her bed stood, and +with a quick movement loosened the floating wealth of tresses till they +hung below her hips. In the middle of her combing, aware that his eyes +were fixed on her in admiration, she suddenly spread out her arms, as +if overcome with shame and joy, and threw herself on her knees by the +bed, burying her face in the pillows. + +He waited silently till she got up. When her hair was done she went to +the hearth and busied herself among the pots and kettles, without +looking at him. + +"Tell me, Regina, what have you been doing with yourself all this +time?" + +She shook her head. "Bockeldorf was the same as ever; besides the +grocer and his wife, I never saw a single soul. During the floods I +didn't go once down to the village. As I told you in my letter, I had +to starve for a time, but I didn't mind. And then, during the last few +weeks, some letters have come, from Wartenstein, and Koenigsberg +too--and to-day one--from----" + +"Ah, never mind! I'll look at them later, when you've brought some +light." + +What concern had he with the outer world to-day, when he had burnt the +bridges that connected him with his past, and nothing remained of all +he had suffered and lived through? + +Then when the supper table was spread, and the lamp shone at him from +Regina's hand, he crossed over with her to the sitting-room. + +"You have not laid a place for yourself," he remarked. + +"May I, _Herr_?" + +"Of course you may." + +"And, _Herr_, what wine?" + +He drew a long breath--"None!" + +And so once more they sat opposite each other in the soft lamp-light, +as they had so often done on winter evenings, when the snow was driven +against the window panes, and gales shook the roof and rattled in the +beams. Now grey moths flapped gently to and fro, bringing with them +into the room whiffs of the balmy outer air, and the rising moon, which +was full for the first time since Easter, shimmered through the young +foliage. + +He pushed his plate away. Not a morsel could he eat. The precaution of +leaving the wine in the cellar had done no good, for the excitement he +had wished to shun was, notwithstanding, creeping over him. He took a +stolen glance at Regina, and trembled. Her eyes rested on him in such a +transport of happiness, that she seemed oblivious of everything in +heaven and earth, except the fact that he was sitting near her. Every +trace of sorrow and distress had vanished from her face as if by magic. +Its curves had taken a new roundness, a new freshness bloomed in her +cheeks. But what struck him as most lovely in her, was the languorous, +yielding tenderness of her whole being, as if she had loosened herself +from the trammels of earth and floated in space. + +"Regina," he whispered. His heart seemed throbbing violently in his +throat. A voice of warning rose within him, saying, "Take care. Be on +your guard--this is the last time she will lead you into temptation." + +"The last time!" came a melancholy echo. + +"Yes; she will die--perish of heart-sickness and unsatisfied longing." + +The scar on his under-lip began to burn. + +"Take her in your arms and then kill her; that will save her all +further misery," was the next thought that rushed through his brain. +"But it would be literal madness to do such a thing," he added to +himself, shuddering. + +And again their eyes met and sank in each other's depths. Their souls +knew of no resistance, even though their bodies still sought +despairingly for weapons of defence. + +"Save yourself!" cried that warning voice again. "Think of the curse! +Keep yourself pure and unspotted for the Fatherland!" + +He tried to think of words to speak that would break the spell of +blissful enchantment; but none would occur to him. Then he rose and +walked to the open window to bathe his hot brow in the cool night air. +"Speak--act--end this silence," he exhorted himself. He thought of the +letters she had spoken of. + +"Give me the letters," he said. His voice sounded harsh. + +She fetched a packet of white covers, which she laid by his plate. He +opened the first he came to, and stared vacantly at the unfolded sheet. +Would it not be better to allude now to the unavoidable? Why spare her +allusion to a parting which was inevitable? But he put the idea from +him in horror. "Till midnight she shall be happy. Take her in your +arms, and then----" + +"His Hochwohlgeboren the Freiherr Boleslav von Schranden is hereby +informed that his appeal for an inquiry into the causes and events +which eventually led to the destruction by fire of Castle Schranden, on +the 6th of March 1809, is receiving attention, and that a day has been +appointed for----" + +With a discordant laugh he tossed the communication to one side, and +fumbled for the next letter. His eye fell on Helene's handwriting. A +feeling almost of aversion shot through him. What did she want now? Why +disturb him at this the eleventh hour? + + +"My Dearest Boleslav,--I can't let you go to the war again without once +seeing and speaking to you. I beg and implore you to meet me this +evening at nine o'clock, near the churchyard side-gate, where I will +wait for you.--Your Helene." + + +"Why not before," he murmured, "when there was plenty of time to +spare?" Then suddenly it flashed across him that again in an hour of +danger his guardian angel had put forth her rescuing hand to him, and +that it would be criminal folly on his part to disregard the sign, and +not respond to the summons. + +"You must--you must," he said to himself, "or you won't be worth the +cannon-ball that at this moment is being cast for you in France." + +Was it not a special dispensation of divine grace that the daughter +should intervene at such a perilous crisis as this to transform the +father's curse into a blessing? He looked at the clock. It wanted only +a few minutes to the hour mentioned. He dragged himself on to his feet. + +"I must go down to the village," he said. "There is some one who wants +to see me." And though he avoided meeting her eyes, her pathetic, +beseeching glance penetrated to his innermost soul. + +"I shall soon be back," he stammered. + +She folded her hands, and placed herself silently before him. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +She could hardly articulate her words. + +"_Herr_! I am so frightened--I feel as if something dreadful was going +to happen!" + +"Since when have you been given to presentiments?" he said, trying to +joke. + +"I don't know-but I feel so strange, _Herr_! ... something in my +throat--as if ... Oh! I know it's stupid of me, but I pray you--not to +go--not to-night----" + +He pushed her gently to one side. The hand that she stretched out to +hold him back fell helplessly. + +"Please-please don't go! ... _Herr_!" + +He set his teeth and went--went to his guardian angel. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + +The Schrandeners, as many as could leave their homes and property, were +meanwhile gathered together at the Black Eagle, engaged in a farewell +orgie. + +Old Merckel served them himself. He stood behind the bar, refilling +unceasingly the empty glasses, with the melancholy smile, which to-day +there was every reason to believe was not put on. + +"Drink, dear friends," he exhorted; "don't let the unhappy event in my +family prevent you! What does it matter even if he is shot? He will die +a noble death for his honour and his Fatherland!" + +He wiped the sweat from his shiny forehead, while his little eyes +wandered in uneasy anticipation from one face to the other. + +"Go and take a glass, Amalie," he said, turning to the barmaid, "over +to those on guard. I won't bear them malice for helping to bring him to +his ruin!" + +The Schrandeners, deeply touched at the expression of so much +high-minded sentiment, gazed into their tankards in moody anger. They +would have been ashamed of rushing to the inn and displaying such +avidity for a carousal in the face of their landlord's private +misfortune, had they not felt they could not better show their sympathy +than by taking advantage of the old man's generous impulses. So they +poured beer and schnaps down their throats in positive streams, and +emulated each other as to who could drink the fastest. + +The barmaid, as fat and cunning as her master, slipped out with a tray +containing a dozen foaming tankards, after she had received a few +whispered instructions from him, accompanied by a knowing nod and wink. + +"And if you should see old Hackelberg about," he called after her, "ask +him in--ask him in. He has suffered too at the hands of the scoundrel. +He ought not to be missing on this sad occasion." + +"Brave soldiers," he continued, wiping his eyes, "drink! drink! You +must try to forget that this day your honour has been forfeited. Yes, +indeed, your case is lamentable--even more lamentable than that of my +poor son, to whom it will at least be granted to meet death for +honour's sake. But you! faugh, for shame! What will be your feelings +to-morrow morning, when you have to march away under the leadership of +that son of a traitor, the villain whom our revered _Herr Pastor_ has +cursed? It'll be 'Braun, clean my boots!' and 'Bickler, hold my +stirrup!' and that sort of thing." + +The two men mentioned thus by name started up with an oath. + +"And all you others, however much he may oppress and bully you, you +must submit because he is your commander; and if you dare to mutiny, +you'll only be shot down like vermin for your pains. Such, my poor dear +friends, is your pitiable lot! Therefore I say drink, and bid farewell +to your military honour. To-morrow the very dogs will hesitate to take +a crust of bread from your hands!" + +A half-stifled murmur ran through the room, more ominous than a howl of +rage. + +Then the carpenter Hackelberg, who had been loafing about in the +neighbourhood of the inn, reeled into the common parlour, half-drunk as +usual. + +He was received in silence. But old Merckel advanced solemnly to meet +him, seized him by the hand, and led him to a seat of honour. + +"You, too, are an unhappy father," he said to him in a voice quivering +with emotion. "Your heart, like mine, has been broken by the ruin of +your child. You, as well as myself and us all, has the tyrant up +yonder, on his conscience. So sit down, you miserable man, and take a +drop of something with us!" + +The drunkard, who was used to being fisticuffed and held up to +derision, even by those who bore him no ill-will, scarcely knew what to +make of this highly flattering reception. He glanced suspiciously round +him with his fishy eyes, and appeared to be considering earnestly +whether he should begin to brag or to weep. Meanwhile he drank all he +could lay hands on. + +"Look at this deplorable victim of baronial lust," Herr Merckel +continued. "A man who is deprived of the possibility of revenge must +lose his self-respect as he has, and degenerate into a sloven. Day and +night he broods inwardly on the wrong that has been done him. But even +the trodden-on worm turns at last, and who can blame us if we wish with +all our hearts that the miscreant should not live to see another day?" + +"Strike him dead!" spluttered the carpenter, suddenly waxing furious, +but there was only a faint echo in response, for to the men who were +now soldiers under orders for active service the glibly made suggestion +seemed no longer a trifle. + +Herr Merckel assumed an air of holy horror. "For shame, dear people! we +must not listen to such treason. I, being your mayor, cannot +countenance it. To strike him down in broad daylight would be an +unwarrantable act of violence, and I wonder you dare entertain such an +idea for a moment. But who can stem the torrent of righteous wrath that +vents itself in imprecations and anathemas? And so it is my most +earnest desire that our arch-enemy and tyrant may die in his bed +to-night, or disappear and never be seen again, or that his body may be +found to-morrow morning in the river Maraune. Then it would at least be +clearly proved that there is still a God above to judge and condemn +sinners. Amen." + +"Amen," growled his listeners, and folded their horny hands. + +"But, alas! it won't come to pass. We shall live to see the miscreant +fatten and prosper, and grow grey in this vale of tears. To-morrow he +will ride up triumphantly and drag out my Felix like a lamb to the +slaughter. And others who have demurred by a word or look will be +sacrificed too. Indeed I shall be very much surprised if any of you +escape with your lives. It is his intention, I firmly believe, to +extirpate every Schrandener from off the face of the earth. Like a herd +of cattle that has been purchased for the shambles, he'll drive you +forth tomorrow morning, leaving your widows and orphans behind to weep +and bewail your fate." + +An ejaculation of fury arose, so loud and violent that even the inciter +of it recoiled in alarm. + +"Quietly, dear people, quietly! No law-breaking. Although, truly, there +is no informer amongst us, we would sooner bite our tongues out than +betray each other. Hackelberg knows that. Thereby hangs a tale, eh, old +friend? But who knows that our _Herr Captain_ may not himself be +hanging about outside, spying through the windows." + +Five or six heads turned, and were pressed against the panes. + +"You think he wouldn't presume to spy on us? Oh, I can assure you he is +not the one to stop short at any low trick. I know what you'd like to +say, and I can't blame you for it--that if you catch him sneaking +around at night-time, woe betide him!" + +"We'll strike him dead! Strike him dead!" fumed the topers. + +"Don't be for ever screaming that, children; it offends my ears. So +much can be achieved quietly. Thus, bang! Some one has fired. Bang +again--another report. Simply a poacher in the forest. It swarms with +deer, eh, Hackelberg?" He laughed, and clicked his tongue. + +"You mustn't sit dozing there, my man. One would think you had no more +blood in your veins than a jelly-fish. Have you forgotten how the late +Baron had you flogged till your skin hung in ribbons. _Potztausend_! +How you danced and bellowed! It was a charming spectacle." + +Hackelberg writhed and grunted over his glass. + +"At that time you were a sportsman, a terror to your master, and your +bullet never missed its mark. Drink away, man! It's difficult to +believe now that you were ever a good shot." + +"I am, still," lisped the carpenter. + +"Ha, ha!--pardon my laughing, old fellow. To begin with, you don't even +know what you've done with your gun." + +"But--I do." + +"And besides, your hand has become too slack, and your honour has +evaporated, and your courage with it." + +The carpenter laughed. An evil light gleamed in the corners of his +eyes. + +"What? You would maintain that you have a spark of honour left in your +composition when you submit without a murmur to your daughter being +brought to shame? And what's more, you can bear to see her and her +seducer at large. Didn't she, your own flesh and blood, scorn you and +slap away your proffered hand? Ungrateful, disrespectful wench that she +is!" + +The carpenter staggered to his feet. + +"No one follow me," he roared, and shook his fist + +"Where are you going?" + +"That's no business of any one's." + +The Schrandeners, even in their wrath, could not resist making fun of +the drunkard, but Merckel signed to them to let him go in peace. + +"He is going to scratch up his gun from the dungheap," he explained. +"Still, what good will it do?" he added with a sigh, while his eyes +wandered uneasily to the door. "He'll take care not to deliver himself +into our hands at night. Tomorrow, at dawn of day, he'll come, when +none of you can defend yourselves, and hand you over to your +executioners, along with my son Felix, and none of you will see +Schranden again. So drink your last, children--take leave of old Father +Merckel---- Ah! there comes Amalie," he said, interrupting himself, and +the lackadaisical expression of his face changed to one of cheerful +expectancy. + +The door was thrown open, and Amalie burst in greatly excited. She +whispered something hurriedly in his ear. + +He beamed, and folded his fat hands as if in prayer. + +"Children," he cried, "there is yet a judge in Heaven. The Baron is in +the village." + +The Schrandeners rose from their seats yelling with delight. + +"Where is he? Who has seen him?" + +"Tell them, Amalie!" he urged the barmaid, and sank back exhausted, +like a person who is satisfied that his day's work is done. + +And Amalie told them. She had waited till the men on guard had finished +their beer, and had taken a little stroll in the moonlight to get a +breath of fresh air. Then she had seen a man coming across the fields +from the Cats' Bridge. He was going in the direction of the churchyard, +and wore an officer's coat with scarlet collar and gold buttons. + +"Was he armed?" inquired a cautious son of Schranden. + +Yes; she had seen his sabre flash in the moonlight. + +This information afforded food for reflection. + +"He has gone to inspect the guard," suggested some one, scratching his +head. + +Herr Merckel laughed ironically. + +"Since how long has it been customary to review sentinels in the +churchyard?" he exclaimed. "I tell you what he has gone there for. He +wishes to pay his dear, chaste _Herr Papa_ a visit--to swear on his +grave that he will avenge him, so soon as you are delivered into his +hands as soldiers. Congratulate yourselves on the expedition." + +At this juncture an ally cropped up on whom he had ceased to count. The +old carpenter rushed in at the door, flourishing in his right hand an +old fowling-piece, on which hung straw and manure. He seemed in a +perfect transport of fury, beating his breast and capering about like +one possessed. + +"Who said I had no sense of honour," he screamed; "and that I allowed +my child to be ruined? Where's the hussy who has brought shame and +disgrace on my grey hairs? I won't make her a coffin. No; I'll shoot +her down--I'll shoot them both." + +"Come along to the churchyard," cried a voice among the villagers, who +felt their courage rising. + +The old landlord winced. "No, not to the churchyard," he exhorted them. +"In the first place, the ground is sacred; and in the second, you might +miss him there. If you really wish to settle matters quietly with him +once for all--I'm not supposed to know what you have against him, and +don't wish to know--well, my advice to you is to go to the Cats' +Bridge. Just there, you know, the bank is wooded--not thickly, +certainly, but thick enough for you to hide behind." + +"But suppose he returned by way of the village and the drawbridge?" put +in the cautious trooper again. + +Herr Merckel knew better. "Not he!" he laughed. "The Cats' Bridge is +handier." + +"Let's be off, then, to the Cats' Bridge," yelled the carpenter, +bumping the butt-end of his gun against the chairs and tables. There +was a general stampede. Herr Merckel crammed bottles of schnaps into as +many pockets as he could catch hold of, as his customers hurried out. + +"Take it, friends," he cried, "and welcome! Defend your honour--defend +your honour!" + +Then, when the last had gone, he mopped his perspiring brow, and +folding his hands, exclaimed with an uneasy sigh-- + +"Ah, Amalie, if only they don't offer him violence!" + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + +On reaching the highroad Boleslav saw the figure of a girl come out +from the shadow of the churchyard yews, and advance to meet him with +hesitating footsteps. + +The moment to which he had looked forward with tender yearning for +eight years had come at last, yet his heart beat no quicker. "You ought +to be pleased; congratulate yourself," he said inwardly. "She loves +you! She saved you ... has freed you from Regina." And something echoed +sadly within him, "From Regina!" + +The contour of the too slender figure was sharply defined against the +moonlit background. The shoulders looked angular, and her hips fell in +straight, ungraceful lines from the high-waisted bodice. + +He jumped over the ditch, and held out both his hands to her. With a +prudish simper she placed hers behind her back. + +"Don't be so impetuous," she lisped. + +He was amazed. The action chilled him, and almost excited his contempt; +but he was ashamed of the emotion, and tried to suppress it. + +"You have kept me waiting a long time, Regina." + +The face she turned on him was illuminated by the moon, and he saw +plainly how insignificant and meagre it had become. She tossed her head +scornfully. + +"My name is _Helene_," she said. "I am sorry you have forgotten it;" +and pouting, she turned her back. + +He winced. "Pardon," he stammered; "it was a slip of the tongue." + +This was certainly an unfortunate beginning. She made another grimace, +but seemed disposed to accept his apology. + +"Don't let us stay here," she begged. "I'm afraid." + +"What of?" + +"Of the churchyard ... if you _will_ know." + +Again he had to struggle against a feeling of contempt. In all she said +and did he found himself involuntarily comparing her with Regina, and +the comparison was immeasurably to her disadvantage. + +"You know how timid I am," she said, as they retraced their steps. "It +was rash of me to have chosen this place for an appointment; indeed it +was exceedingly rash to come at all--and if it weren't----" + +Instead of finishing her sentence she cast at him an affected sidelong +glance. Then, as he offered to help her over the ditch she gave a +little scream and said, "No, no!" + +His half-defined sensation of disappointment now gave place to blank +astonishment. She gazed round her nervously. + +"We can't stay here either," she whispered, "If I were caught here +alone with a gentleman, I believe I should die of shame." + +"Where do you wish to go, then?" + +"You must decide." + +"Very well. Come into the wood." + +She clasped her hands together with an agitated old-maidish gesture. + +"What are you thinking of?" she exclaimed. "At night ... with a +gentleman!" + +He rubbed his eyes. Was it really possible, what he heard and saw? +Could this be Helene, the guardian angel to whom he had looked up, as +to a being belonging to another world? + +But perhaps it was he who was to blame. Perhaps the language of +innocence and virtue was no longer intelligible to him because of the +fair savage who had perverted his tastes, and filled his imagination +with impure pictures. + +"Then let us walk quietly along the highroad," he said. + +"But if some one comes?" + +"We can see that no one _is_ coming." + +"Yet some one might ..." + +He was at a loss for an answer. A silence ensued, and then he said, +"Won't you take my arm?" + +"Oh, I don't know whether I ought," replied the love of his youth. + +And again they walked on in silence. It almost seemed as if they had +nothing at all to say to each other. + +"Regina is waiting!" a voice cried within him. + +"How silent you are!" Helene lisped, playfully pinching his elbow with +two of the finger-tips that lay on his arm. "You wicked man! Haven't +you a little bit of liking left for me?" + +He felt he had no right to say "No." She had been true to him, had +trusted his word for eight long years; he dared not prove himself +unworthy now of her faith in him. When he had reassured her with a +stammered "Of course, of course," she sighed, a deep-drawn, languishing +sigh. + +"I hear such dreadful things about you," she said, "that I don't know +what to believe. Tell me it's not true." + +"What?" he asked wearily. + +"Ah, a girl can't discuss such matters. Immoral things, I mean. In old +days you were a good, noble fellow, and I can't believe it's true that +you've altered so completely." + +She drew a little closer to him. In doing so, she dropped her blue silk +reticule. As he stooped--with her--to pick it up, the peak of his cap +brushed her face. + +"Oh, take care!" she simpered, drawing back hastily. + +"A thousand pardons!" he answered, in a tone of rigid politeness, and +bit his lips. + +"Well, you don't answer my question," she continued. "Perhaps it is +true, then, what people say! I should be sorry to think that poor +unhappy me had been so deceived in you. But papa always thought you +would come to a bad end." She said this with such a ludicrous little +air of superiority, that he could not help smiling. + +She seemed to discern that she was appearing absurd in his eyes, and +went on in a deeply injured tone, "Ah, it's all very well to laugh at a +poor girl, whose intentions towards you are so kind, and who would give +anything to prevent your ruin." + +"Please, do not trouble yourself on my account," he replied. + +"Now you are making yourself out worse than you are," she interposed. +"I know you have a noble nature at bottom. And if fate parts us for +ever, I shall always, always keep a warm place for you in my heart. Oh, +what bitter tears have I shed for you many a time! And I've prayed +every night to God to keep the dear friend of my youth from sin, and +from wicked revengeful thoughts, and to give him a good conscience." + +"I am afraid the behaviour of the Schrandeners is not exactly +calculated to cure a man of revengeful thoughts," he replied. + +She turned up her sharp little nose. "The Schrandeners are an uncouth +lot," she remarked. "And one can't have much to do with them. I would +much rather stay altogether with my aunt in Wartenstein. There at least +one associates with respectable, well-mannered townspeople, who lift +their hats to a lady when they meet her in the street. Not a single +Schrandener, with the exception of Herr Merckel, and Felix of course, +dreams of doing such a thing. Felix," she added with a sigh, "has the +manners of a gentleman and an officer." Then as if something had +suddenly recalled the events of the afternoon to her mind, she +screamed, wrung her hands and said, "Oh, Boleslav, Boleslav!" + +"What is it, Helene?" + +"Boleslav, how could you be so wicked! Poor, poor Felix! I did not see +it myself, for I was in the back-garden drawing radishes, but they told +me afterwards how you slashed at his head with your drawn sabre, till +it poured with blood." She shuddered and shook with suppressed sobs. +Then she wrenched her hand out of his arm and skipped to the opposite +side of the road. "Go! I won't have anything more to do with you," she +cried. "You acted in a harsh and cruel manner----" + +"But you don't understand, dear Helene," he protested. + +"And he was your schoolfellow and playmate, and used to play +hide-and-seek with us both in the garden. He often climbed over the +hedge for you to get your ball when you had tossed it too far, and he +used to give you guinea-pigs. Have you forgotten everything? You ought +to remember the dear old times." + +"Because of the guinea pigs, eh?" + +"Oh,--and to think that you have shut him up in the cold dark church! +Papa is of opinion that you have no business to do it; he says he will +report your conduct to the _kommando_, and that probably you will get +the worst of it." + +She resembled her father so little, he thought, that his words of +thunder when repeated by her lips sounded the most insipid chatter. And +it was on this cackling little hen that he had let the great question +of to be, or not to be, hang! + +She had now come back to his side, and with a mincing gesture pushed +her hand again through his arm. + +"They say that you intend carrying him off to-morrow a prisoner, to be +tried by a court-martial, and that he will be shot dead for certain. +But it must be a lie. It is, isn't it? You couldn't do such a thing; I +wouldn't believe it of you. You are not so bad as all that." + +He suppressed an exclamation of impatience. + +"Say you won't?" she besought, wiping her eyes. "If _I_ ask you, dear +Boleslav, to let him go free, you will grant me the favour--I know you +will." + +She spoke calmly, as if the request she made were merely a casual one. +But there was secret anxiety in the eyes that glanced at his +suspiciously. + +"Dear, dear Boleslav!" she continued more urgently, her arm trembling +violently, "if you care for me the very least little bit, don't let us +part before you have promised me this. I will cherish your memory +always in my heart, if Fate is cruel enough to separate us for ever, +and will at least never cease to pray for you and bless you." + +"I am sorry, Helene," he said, moved to speaking more warmly by her now +evident distress, "if I must seem hard and inexorable to you. But it is +all of no good. Your wish cannot possibly be fulfilled." + +She had not in the least expected this answer, and regarded him for a +second with a cold, angry expression. Then suddenly she burst out +weeping, and sank against the trunk of a tree for support, with her +thin hands before her face. + +At the same moment the report of a gun was heard in the distance, the +echo of which slowly rolled through the woodlands. + +Helene gave a frightened cry, and, throwing up her hands, sobbed out-- + +"Now they have shot him for certain, because you, inhuman monster, have +commanded it! Oh dear! have you _no_ mercy?" + +Listening in the direction from which the gunshot had come, he did his +best to soothe her. + +That the shot had anything to do with Felix Merckel was, of course, out +of the question. + +It had undoubtedly been fired in the wood, on the farther side of the +Castle, probably by a poacher on the track of a wild red deer. + +But she sobbed more violently than ever-- + +"It's all very well ... but you ... you ... intend dragging him out to +his death--you know you do." + +Her increasing agitation began to bewilder Boleslav. He assured her he +would do everything in his power to ameliorate Felix's sentence. He +himself would testify to his being hopelessly intoxicated at the time. +His old rancour against himself, his wounded vanity, all should be +cited in extenuation of his offence, and might influence his judges to +mildness. + +But she was not satisfied, and at last dropped on her knees in the clay +soil, and cried aloud-- + +"Be merciful! be noble! Save him!" + +"For God's sake, stand up!" + +"No, I shall not. In the dust I'll kneel to you and implore your +mercy." + +"But don't you see that I shall be imputing to myself a murderous +design if I represent him as innocent?" + +"Never mind," she sobbed. "If you really love me, you won't object to +making this little sacrifice for my sake." + +Then it began to dawn on him that it was not for the pleasure of seeing +him she had summoned him to her side, but, in accordance with a +preconceived plan, to make use of his love for her on behalf of +another. And of such stuff as this the woman was made, of whom for long +years he had considered himself unworthy! This was the radiant angel +who had represented his ideal of purity and goodness, whose name he had +held too sacred to mention in the same breath as Regina's! + +And Regina, the dishonoured, the outcast! What worlds she seemed now +above this sly virtue! + +A wild laugh burst from him. "Why did you not tell me at once that you +were in love with some one else?" + +She started. "That is a slander!" she cried. "I am an honest, innocent +girl!" + +"Well, I presume you are betrothed?" + +She began to cry again, though even in her grief she did not forget to +carefully brush the mud from her skirts. + +"Oh, Boleslav," she wailed, "it's all your fault. Why did you keep me +waiting for you so long? And why have you given people so much cause to +gossip about you? And then you know, there was papa! His consent could +never have been won! What was I, poor girl, to do?" + +"Please, say no more. It really doesn't matter!" he broke in cheerily. + +"You aren't angry with me, then?" + +"Oh no! not in the least!" + +In silence he accompanied Helene back to the village, took a friendly +farewell of her, and promised to do all he could to save her _fiance_. + +She thanked him, made a formal little curtsey, and they parted. + +And so ended the great love of his life. + +As he watched the shadow of her meagre little figure disappear behind +the houses, his whole soul cried out for Regina in uncontrollable +boundless jubilation. Now the road was free--free for sinful, exultant +love. + +But what was sin, when virtue had collapsed so deplorably? How could +there be any evil, when what was good appeared so absurd and +contemptible? + +"Take her in your arms--crush her to your breast--even to-morrow shall +not cheat you of her.... She shall follow you to the camp, from battle +to battle--let her wear men's clothes like that Leonore Prohaska, the +heroine whom all Germany admires and honours!" + +"Regina! Regina!" he carolled anew, stretching out his arms exultingly, +in anticipation. He bounded over the moonlit meadows, and higher and +darker every minute rose the wooded bank of the river before him. + +She would be standing on the Cats' Bridge looking out for him, as she +had always done. + +"Regina!" he shouted over the river. But no answer came. Deep silence +all around. There was only a faint rustle among the young leaves of the +willows that sounded like slumberous breathing through half-closed +lips; and a gentle splashing came up from the invisible river. Its +waters were low, and broke on the sharp pebbles. He climbed the steep +steps. + +"Regina!" he called again. Still silence. Then he saw that in the +centre of the plank, the rickety hand-rail had given way: rotten +splinters hung on either side. Horror-stricken, he looked down at the +river. + +On its silver surface floated a woman's corpse. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + +When the Schrandeners left the Black Eagle they dispersed to their +homes, with the intention of arming themselves to the best of their +ability. + +Half of them did not turn up again. The others--about twenty in +number--careered in detachments behind the limping carpenter, round the +Castle island in the direction of the Cats' Bridge. Once united under +the shelter of the bushes, they believed they would be unseen and +unfollowed. They sneaked in silence through the damp grass; only the +old drunkard insisted on keeping up an incessant chatter and mumbling. +He conversed excitedly with his gun as if it had been a human +being--shook and exhorted it not to fail him. From time to time he held +the butt-end to his cheek in an aiming position, and when his range of +vision became confused by the sight of his own dancing fingers, or +imaginary bats and fireflies, he would take a long pull at his bottle +to clear it. + +On reaching the Cats' Bridge, which darkly spanned the river, its +rivets glittering in the moonlight, the Schrandeners divided, some +going to one side of it and the rest keeping to the other. As +noiselessly as their half-drunken condition would permit, they slid +down the decline in order to screen themselves behind the alders. Those +who had firearms, led by the old carpenter, stationed themselves on the +edge of the sand-bank, so that they might bring their victim down from +the plank bridge, should he by any chance escape the meditated attack +from below of pikes, scythes, and flails. + +For the space of five minutes there was scarcely a sound audible, +beyond the crackling and swishing among the twigs caused by some one +stretching out a hand for his bottle of schnaps. Death-like stillness +reigned too on the island. + +Then the carpenter, whose eyes were momentarily sharpened by brandy, +and who was on the alert like a tiger crouching for a spring, discerned +a figure emerge and walk slowly and softly on to the Cats' Bridge. It +must have been cowering in the boscage above, on the opposite bank, for +several minutes. + +As the figure came out of the shadow into the full light of the moon, +he recognised his daughter. Clearly she had discovered the assassins, +and was now on her way to warn the Freiherr of his peril. + +"Go back, you vermin!" he cried, all a sportsman's fury at being +deprived of his certain prey taking possession of him and clouding his +erratic brain. + +She ducked her head, but glided forwards, holding on to the hand-rail. + +"Back, or I'll aim!" + +With one frantic leap she tried to propel herself forwards, but a shot +was fired at the same instant, and she sank noiselessly against the +rotten balustrade. It snapped in two, and a dark, lifeless mass fell +from the heights of the Cats' Bridge into the river. The water rose and +fell in sparkling cascades. In the shallow bottom the stones rolled and +ground against each other. + +Then slowly the whirling, swaying body rose to the surface of the +ripples, till the face gazed upwards and was brilliantly illumined by +the moon. + +A profound stillness reigned on the bank. + +Motionless, and with bated breath, every one stared down on the dead, +upturned face, with its wide-open eyes, which seemed full of warning +and rebuke. A corner of her skirt had caught on a gnarled stump of a +tree, which projected into the river; thus she was anchored, and +prevented from drifting down with the stream. + +Softly and cautiously, as if playing with it, the current moved the +body to and fro, and no one, however much he might wish to avoid it, +could help seeing the head as it reposed on the water. + +The silence lasted a full ten minutes, and then one of the +Schrandeners, who had helped to incarnate the evil conscience of the +village, shyly with bent head slunk away, making the bushes crackle and +rustle as he went. A second followed; a third, a fourth, ... until at +last the scene of the catastrophe was deserted. + +The carpenter, who had been contemplating his daughter's dead face, +grumbling, and talking to himself the while, found himself alone. + +Suddenly he roared out hoarsely, "Fire! fire! fire!" and hurled his gun +at the corpse. It went splashing to the bottom of the river, and he +staggered after the others as fast as his legs would carry him. + +Nothing stirred now near the Cats' Bridge. Boleslav was safe! + + + * * * * * + + +Some time elapsed before he was able to take in what he saw. He stared +in stupefaction, first at the floating corpse, then at the broken +balustrade. + +"You should have had it repaired long ago," he thought, and toyed +dazedly with the fragments. + +Then, as if waking from a dream, he went back to the bank, and climbed +down the ravine, where he found broken branches lying about, and +freshly-made footmarks. A vague suspicion of what had happened dawned +on him, and then quickly died out; the hope that there might yet be +time to restore her to life absorbing his mind, to the exclusion of +every other emotion. + +He crawled cautiously along the tree-stump as near the body as he could +get, and drew it ashore with the hilt of his sabre.... Now she lay on +the shining sand, and a hundred little rivulets ran from every part of +her. He took his sabre-blade and cut her wet jacket off her, and became +aware of the blood that had dyed her chemise crimson. As he ripped this +away, too, he found the fount from which the stream flowed in a wound +beneath her left breast. + +Now he knew what that gunshot had meant. And when the first wild +impulse for vengeance, which seemed to scream in his ear, "Go and burn +their houses to the ground, and hew them down till you yourself are +hewn down!" had subsided and consumed its own rage, he flung himself on +the corpse, and broke into passionate weeping. He lay thus for a long +time, then slowly rose, and, bearing her on his shoulders, carried her +through the footprints of her murderers up the steep incline over the +Cats' Bridge to the island. She was no light burden, and three times he +sank on to his knees, gasping under her weight. + +Near the shrubbery that surrounded the cottage he was obliged to put +her down, for he feared he should swoon from his exertions. She lay on +the same spot where he had found her, motionless and bleeding, after +his father's funeral. + +Now as then the moonbeams played on the still pale face; only now she +would not revive, could never be recalled to life. + +"They have succeeded at last!" he cried, breaking into a loud, bitter +laugh. + +A sharp spasm of pain shot through the back of his head; he felt as if +he must go raving mad if those fixed, glazed eyes continued to look up +at him much longer. + +But his anxiety to get the corpse interred before he went away brought +him to his senses. The Schrandeners were capable of laying the murdered +girl beneath the earth somewhere in the heart of the forest; thereby +removing all evidence of their crime, and crippling the hands of +justice. + +The one person he felt could be relied on to do what was right in the +matter was the old pastor. Much as he might have denounced and +slandered her hitherto, he, at all events, would not be a party to this +last foul outrage. Boleslav therefore resolved to rouse him from his +bed, and to bring him to the spot, so that later when he himself was, +God knew where, a witness might not be wanting. + +The belfry clock struck eleven as he reached the village street. The +sentinels were parading noiselessly up and down in front of the church +door, otherwise the whole world was apparently wrapped in profound +slumber. + +But from one of the cottages he passed, loud blows, oaths, and scolding +cries fell upon his ear. He looked over the hedge, and saw the green +coffin which was the carpenter Hackelberg's trade-mark, looming +uncannily from its stand. + +The drunkard's imbecile formula occurred to him. "His wish is likely to +be fulfilled," he thought; "he has now the chance of making a coffin +for his daughter;" and in a bitterly ironical mood he determined to +communicate to the old man, if he were still in possession of his +faculties, his child's terrible end, and to demand the fulfilment of +his promise. + +He entered the gloomy passage. From a room on the right proceeded the +gurgling cries of the thick, drunken voice which excited his +involuntary disgust. Mingled with it was a spasmodic hissing and +whizzing that he could not explain, till he had lifted the latch and +witnessed a spectacle so horrible and revolting that, rich as the day +had been for him in horrors, he recoiled before it faint and +shuddering. + +The old carpenter, his clothes half torn off, bleeding from the throat +and arms, the moonlight bringing into prominence the hideous filthiness +of the room, plunged about as if seized with an attack of St. Vitus's +dance. Every limb quivered violently, and he foamed at the mouth. His +eyes rolled in a maniacal frenzy, and the muscles of his face twitched +convulsively. A huge plane hung from his right hand, the handle of +which, formed in the shape of a ring, had grazed his knuckles, and +which he vainly endeavoured to steady with his palsied fingers. +Whenever he came to a wooden surface, whether on the table, the walls, +or the planks that covered the floor, he tried to plane it, and this +caused the hissing sound which always ended abruptly with a rasping +jerk. + +"It'll soon be ready now!" he cried. "One more blow" ... ssh ... "and +the shaping's done." ... ssh ... ssh ... "Damn the bats . .. why can't +they leave a man alone?" ... ssh ... ssh ... "Forwards ... Listen! +Fire! fire! The Castle's on fire! Fire! fire! Keep out of the way, you +baggage--if you tell any one you've seen me--with the tinder and the +bundle of flax" ... ssh ... ssh ... "I won't finish your coffin." ... +ss ... ssh ... "Get out of my sight, you snake." He lunged against +Boleslav, who, with a presentiment of what ghastly disclosures were to +be made to him, had planted himself in his way. The drunkard appeared +to be labouring under the delusion that Boleslav was his daughter. +"Go back-off the Cats' Bridge--the Baron shall get his deserts +today--back--or----" He laid the plane against his cheek, and took aim; +then, as if confronted by another vision, he yelled once more at the +top of his voice, trembling with fright, "Fire! fire!" and made an +attempt to creep under the table, planing the tattered tails of his +coat as he went. "Fire! fire! Get away--I didn't do it! My daughter is +a liar.... The flames are spreading. Fire! fire! Look at the flames!" + +With the flames he seemed to reach the zenith of his delirium, and then +gradually descended again to the bats, which he made a feint of +chivying out of his way with his arms and legs, and then resumed +planing the legs of the table. + +"Nearly ready, dear sir." ... ssh ... ssh ... "Just a couple more +boards." ... ss ... ssh ... "My daughter's debauched ... There can be +no mistake," ... ss ... ssh ... "finely polished." ... ss ... "Now +there she lies, and will howl no more." ... ssh ... "What, not gone yet? +Your father'll drive you out." ... ss ... ssh ... "The Baron will get a +shot lodged in his ribs to-day." ... ssh ... "We want extra hands. +Hurrah, men!--Hurrah, Merckel!" ... ss ... "Come off the plank--down +from the bridge, you beast. Have you any more French behind you? If you +don't go at once----" + +Here he made for Boleslav. He looked in the moonlight, with his +tottering legs, his palsied head, and his flapping arms, like some +ghastly phantasmal monster, whose limbs were pieced together by a +hundred movable joints. Just as he was reaching his goal, the flames +began to pursue him once more, and to escape from them he crept, with a +piercing shriek this time, beneath a stack of wood, where, with dense +swarms of bats, the fearful cycle of his delusions recommenced. + +Boleslav, shaken to the foundations of his being by the awful truth the +old man had revealed in his delirious ravings, felt he could no longer +bear to gaze on such a hideous scene. + +He fled from the house as if the imaginary flames which so terrified +the maniac were pursuing him too, and he did not pause till he had left +the village behind him, and found himself encompassed by the shadows of +the ruins. + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + +The church clock had struck the midnight hour, by the time Boleslav got +back to the spot where he had left Regina's soulless body. + +A protecting darkness now veiled the white face, for the moon had +passed behind a bank of clouds, yet even from the darkness the great +lustreless eyes gazed appealingly up at him, as if asking a question to +which there was no answer here or hereafter. + +He threw himself on his knees beside her, and, saying good-bye to the +two stars, whose light had gone out, he tenderly closed their lids. She +now looked as if she were asleep, and he breathed more freely. He felt +something almost approaching a painful satisfaction as he watched by +her. "You belong to me, only to me," he said. "No one else shall have +any part or lot in you, in death as in life." + +What he had resolved to do, in a spirit of defiance, as he left the +murderer's house, in his present calmer mood still seemed the most +commendable course to take. Past events appeared to him now like a +brazen chain of guilt, to which for years one link after the other had +been added. And into this chain had been forged, till it was made a +component part of it, an unlawful love. For the sake of this love which +was sinful as hell and pure as heaven, that which only the silence +of the night had witnessed should in the silence of the night be +buried--buried with this corpse. + +What retribution could be rendered by the poor tribunal of man, in a +case in which fate had so clearly interfered and pronounced sentence? +Would it not be profaning the dead body to drag it into the glare of +publicity, and so expose it to the snivelling curiosity of the vulgar +herd? + +Should he permit the priest who had cursed her in her lifetime to +consign her to the grave with a perfunctory blessing? And would not +this involve her being laid in a coffin manufactured by her father's +blood-guilty hands, followed by his accomplices as mourners, hooting +and throwing stones? + +Ah no; it should not be! She should be the prey, now she was dead, of +no Schrandener wolves. He alone, for whom she had lived, for whom she +had gone to meet her death, must prepare her last resting-place. He +would hide her in the lap of mother earth, and smooth the turf so +carefully above her that no body-snatcher would ever discover and +profane the holy spot. He lifted the corpse in his arms and carried it +to the grass-plot. The moon had risen high in the heavens and shrouded +the landscape in a veil of silver. From the dewy glistening grass rose +the fragments of the old Diana statue in dazzling whiteness. Here he +bore her and let her sink on the turf, her neck supported by the +cracked pedestal, so that with her face turned towards the moon, she +looked as if she had fallen asleep in a sitting position. Then he +sought a burial-place. His eye fell on the black, four-cornered patch +which Regina had intended for his father's grave. How vividly she came +back to him, as she had looked then, in the full splendour of her +sunburnt strength and beauty, driving the heavy spade into the ground +with her naked foot, as if it had been a ramrod. If he had not then +interrupted her in her work, he would to-day have been spared his. + +The service of love she had wished to render his father it was now his +duty to do for her. What could be simpler than to go on digging deeper +the grave that she had begun that day, little dreaming it would be her +own? + +He fetched a spade from the kitchen, where the fire she had kindled was +still smouldering, and began with all his strength to throw up the sod. +From time to time he paused and glanced at her. She seemed well content +to sit there in the bright moonlight, and quietly contemplate his +labours. Now and then, when the shadow of a cloud flickered on her +face, he half fancied she moved, and was going to rise to her feet. + +Then that tormenting scepticism that all experience in the presence of +their beloved dead overwhelmed him. He called her name and rushed to +her side. Her hand rested on Diana's head, which lay close to her in +the grass. He dared not touch her, and stole back to his work, his face +buried in his hands. + +The grave began to grow deep, and he feared that soon he might not be +able to climb on to the edge again. He went to get the flower-stand out +of the green-house, on the shelves of which she had ranged the plates +and dishes in such beautiful order. + +"No one shall eat off them again!" he said, and dashed the earthenware +crockery on the floor, where it broke to atoms. He placed the stand +against the inside of the grave, to serve as a ladder, and then +continued throwing out the soil as before. + +By the time the clock in the village had boomed out the second hour of +the morning, his melancholy task was finished. He had no coffin for +her, but to prevent her lying on the black moist earth, he fetched from +his bed, which she had always taken pains to keep so daintily clean and +tidy, a quilt, and two feather pillows, and lined the grave with them. + +And now the time for parting had come. He raised her in his arms, and +bore her to the edge of the pit; then sitting down on the mound of turf +to take breath, he lifted her head on to his knees. Never before had he +been able to look at her so leisurely, for he had never dared trust +himself to let his eyes rest on her for long. Now he studied lovingly +every feature of the dead face, caressed the stiff cheeks, and wrung +the water from her heavy curls. A cold shiver passed through his frame. +He had held the wet body, with its dripping skirts, so long in his +arms, that his own clothes were damp from the contact. + +"Farewell!" he murmured, and kissed her on the forehead. He was going +to kiss her on the lips, but drew back quickly. + +"You disdained them in life," he said to himself, "so in death they may +not belong to you." + +And then he edged the corpse nearer the grave, and jumped down on to +the top step of the stand. Slowly and cautiously he lifted her in, +stretched her on the quilt, and cushioned her head on the soft pillows. + +Once more he wanted to kiss her, but was afraid to leave the stand that +bridged her feet; so he contented himself with stroking her hands, +which he could reach from where he sat; then he clambered out of the +grave, drawing the stand after him with the top of the spade-handle. +But afterwards he found he had forgotten to draw a corner of the quilt +over her face, to prevent the soil from falling on it. "Flowers," he +thought, "will do as well;" and he went in search of them. Under the +trees in the park grew great masses of anemones and bluebells, and +there were violets and primroses, that she herself had cultivated, in +the garden. + +He gathered all he could see in the uncertain light. The anemones and +primroses had closed their calyxes in sleep, but the violets looked up +at him with their confiding blue eyes, as if inviting him to pluck +them. + +With his hands full he returned to the grave, and, as he looked down +into it, stood spell-bound at what he saw. It was indeed a picture of +almost magic loveliness. The moon had passed its height, and, shining +at the foot of the grave, illuminated it on the east side, so that the +head, reposing in its deep resting-place, was thrown out clearly in +relief, while the blood-stained body was hidden in darkest shadow. + +The still, white face seemed to smile up at him, as if lapped in +blissful dreams. + +He threw the flowers aside, and, crouching down in the loose earth he +had thrown up, stared and stared down on her, holding a solemn and +silent wake. + +Thoughts chased each other through his brain in a confused whirl, until +gradually he came to a calmer and more rational frame of mind. + +He reflected on how she had gone through life despised and guilt-laden, +and yet unrepentant, appearing to be satisfied with her past rather +than regretting it. + +Once, in an hour of dire perplexity, he had asked himself whether it +was the dull indifference of the brute or the wiles of a devil that +made her will so strong and her conscience so lax, and he had not known +what to answer. + +To-day, when it was too late, her true nature was revealed to him. + +No, she had not been a brute or a devil, but simply a grand and +complete human being. One of those perfect, fully developed individuals +such as Nature created before a herding social system, with its +paralysing ordinances, bungled her handiwork, when every youthful +creature was allowed to bloom unhindered into the fulness of its power, +and to remain, in good and in evil, part and parcel of the natural +life. + +And as he pondered thus, it seemed to him that the mists which obscure +the source of human existence from human knowledge had dispersed a +little, and that he had been granted a deeper glimpse than most men +into the fathomless gulf of the Unknown. What is generally called good +and bad drifted about anchorless on the cloudy surface, but below lay +dreaming in majestic strength, the Natural. + +"And those whom Nature favours," he said aloud to himself, "she lets +take root in her mysterious depths, so that they spring boldly into the +light, with vision undimmed and conscience untrammelled by the +befogging illusions of morality and worldly wisdom." + +Such a highly favoured, completely-endowed human creature was this +abused and abandoned woman. + +"And I for whom she lived and died, have I deserved such a sacrifice?" +he meditated further. "Was I worthy of the trust and confidence she so +unhesitatingly placed in me? + +"With ruthless severity he sat in judgment on himself, and he came out +of the ordeal anything but unscathed. + +"Of course I belong to the other type," he thought, "to the people who +are torn all their life long between right and wrong, and who lose +their way in the fog. We regard the tribute Nature demands of us as +impurity and vice, and yet the restraint of moral laws often appears to +us hollow and far-fetched. Thus we vacillate perpetually between +defiance and fear of them. We crave for the good opinion of the world, +in which we don't believe, and tremble in face of its condemnation, +which we despise and contemn in our hearts. Once I thought it would be +an indelible disgrace to bury my father in this unconsecrated ground; +now I should be glad if I had done so. Once I tried to forget my +bitterness in the ambition of restoring my ancestral inheritance to its +pristine glory; now I am delighted at the thought of shaking its dust +from my feet. Then I held the Schrandeners to be mere barbarous +savages; but to-day I awake to the fact that my own race has made them +what they are.... _Then_ I thought this woman too degraded to take +bread from her hand; to-day I am weeping by her grave. All my heart was +centred on the extinguished flame of youth's first foolish fancy; I +insisted on making the arbitress of my destiny a simpering, prudish +minx, for whom I really had long ceased to care ... and I repulsed in +horror the most splendid and satisfying of natural loves. But truly +this natural love represented deadly sin, and tempted me to contaminate +my blood. + +"Yet when the worst came to the worst, and the life that flowed in my +veins had burst from the control of all laws, human and divine, could I +not have made atonement by paying the penalty of death?" + +And then the question occurred to him, whether the body he talked so +lightly of surrendering at his own caprice belonged exclusively to him? +What if it were the Fatherland's inviolable possession? Certainly, +then, he was not privileged to desecrate it. + +"It is well that in an hour of chaos like this, when good and evil, +right and wrong, honour and dishonour, seem to be swaying about in +hopeless confusion, and when the old God of our childhood with His +Heaven seems to have vanished away ... it is well for swooning men to +have one prop left to lean on, one firm rock to cling to, on which even +to be shipwrecked were a delightful relief. Such a prop, such a stay, +have I in my country." + +Thus spake the son of his country's betrayer, and fervently folded his +hands. + +The moon had shifted its radiance away from the grave, and the dead +face it had illumined now lay in shadow. It was scarcely possible to +distinguish it from the surrounding earth. + +"The time has come," he said, and looked round him. + +In the east glimmered the first rosy streak of dawn. A bluish haze +suffused the landscape, and above him in the branches began the dreamy +twitter of awakening birds. He was in the act of throwing the flowers +into the grave, when suddenly he changed his mind, and with a frown +cast them aside. + +"What need of such fastidious effeminacy?" he asked himself rebukingly. +"Dust has no reason to fear meeting dust." + +Then he seized the spade, and shutting his eyes, began with zest to +shovel the dark earth over the beloved body. A quarter of an hour later +the grave was full. He laid the turf carefully in its original place, +and took care to remove the remnants of superfluous soil and scattered +flowers, so that when the sun rose no one could have found the place +where Regina slept for ever. + +As he searched for a stone to commemorate the sacred spot, his eyes +fell on the head of the ruined statue, which smiled at him in stony +vacancy. He lifted it, and planted it in the turf. + +"Diana, the chaste," he murmured, "shall serve her as a tombstone. The +sister by whom she will keep eternal watch is not unworthy of her." + +And again he flung himself on the grass and became lost in meditation. +On the stroke of six he rose, and made preparations to depart. + +"They will be fools indeed," he muttered to himself, "if they don't +make an end of me to-day." + +He filled his pistols with new cartridges, and sharpened his sabre, for +he was determined his life should be dearly purchased. + +But when he crossed the drawbridge to the village, he was greeted by +familiar and friendly faces. They belonged to Heide's sons, who were +making their way to the Schranden depot. They pressed round him and +offered him their hands. + +"We are come," said Karl Engelbert, "to put ourselves under your +command, for we wish to make amends for our conduct to you in the +past." + +"I thank you with my whole heart," he replied. "All is forgiven and +forgotten." + +Then he walked up to Schranden's gallant troopers, who, pale and with +chattering teeth, cowered near the church door, like criminals awaiting +execution. + +His comrades pointed out to each other in dismay the blood-stains on +his clothes, but not one dared ask him to explain how they came there. + +"Bring out the prisoner, and get a waggon for him," he ordered. Felix +Merckel was led out, but Boleslav did not deign to give him a glance. + +When farewells had been said, and all was in readiness for the march, +the old pastor made his way through the crowd. His face was haggard and +his hands shook. + +He hastened to Boleslav's side and whispered in his ear: "I hear that +Regina met her death last night.... I am willing to give her Christian +burial." + +"Many thanks, your reverence," answered Boleslav, "but I have already +buried her with Pagan rites," and he turned away. + +A Schrandener, who, to ingratiate himself, had probably spent part of +the night in capturing Boleslav's horse, now came forward holding it, +with a servile grin. + +He swung into the saddle, and his sabre flew out of the scabbard. His +voice rang out clear and threatening above the heads of the crowd as he +gave the word of command. + +"Right, left. Quick march!" + +They left the village behind them; the woods loomed nearer. + +He did not look back. + + + * * * * * + + +Of the career of Boleslav von Schranden afterwards, very little is +known. It was considered advisable by the military authorities to +gazette him again into his old regiment, owing to the mutiny that had +taken place under his command. + +While the East Prussian Landwehr remained behind in the ancient +provinces, he obtained the much-coveted permission to go direct to the +seat of war. + +It is supposed that he fell at Ligny. + + + + + THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Regina or the Sins of the Fathers, by +Hermann Sudermann + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REGINA OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS *** + +***** This file should be named 33892.txt or 33892.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/9/33892/ + +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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